that Israel also were blinded, a veil being over their heart, which veil will

be done away in Christ when Israel shall turn to the Lord (2 Cor. 3:14 -16).

In blessed contrast, those who are led by the spirit of liberty, have

'unveiled faces' (2 Cor. 3:17,18), and those, whether Jew or Gentile to whom

the gospel is veiled, are blinded  by the god of this world.  Illumination

comes, not from human wisdom, but from the face of Jesus Christ.  At the

close of chapter 4, Paul makes a pronouncement of the greatest importance to

us all, and one of great significance to those who had acquaintance with the

teaching of philosophy concerning the world of sense and the world of ideas:

'While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things

which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal

(transient, Moffatt); but the things which are not seen are eternal' (2

Cor. 4:18).

It is of the utmost importance that we do not look upon 2 Corinthians,

chapter 5, as the introduction of a new theme.  Resurrection is the key to

the problems of Job, of Ecclesiastes, of 1 and 2 Corinthians and of all men,

and while we are here in this tabernacle, 'we walk by faith and not by

sight'.  It was to the Greeks and Corinthians that the apostle said, when he

was caught away to Paradise, that he heard 'unspeakable words, which it is

not lawful for a man to utter'.  Some things, especially those which relate

to the day of glory, are so sacred that, like some of the shameful things

that pertained to the pagan mysteries, 'it was not lawful for a man to

utter'; in the apostle's case because of their holiness, in the pagan

initiates' case, because of their depravity.  In the Epistle to the

Colossians is found the apostle's own use of the word 'philosophy', he not

only declares that it is 'not after Christ', he not only taught that, 'In Him

are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge', but again warns against

that desire to 'intrude into those things which he hath not seen' (Col.

2:18).  It is this Epistle also that stresses the fact that there is an

'invisible' creation as well as a 'visible' one (Col. 1:16), and uses the

word phaneroo, 'appear' or 'be made manifest' as a definition of the hope of

the believer and of the day when we shall know as we are known (Col. 3:1 -4).

We will not pursue this matter further.

The conclusion to which we have arrived is that Christ is the Wisdom of

God, that He is the answer to all life's riddles, even as He resolves all the

problems raised by Scripture statements or by Scripture omissions.  What

philosophers 'felt after' (Acts 17:27), said John, we have 'handled' (1 John

1:1, same word).  Human tradition and wisdom are necessarily limited, and for

the time being the believer is shut up to the Person and Work of Christ.  But

who of us that have caught a glimpse of the glory of God in the face of Jesus

Christ would speak of limitations?  Rather would we rejoice in the fulness

that transcends our highest range of thought.  Sufficient evidence has been

brought forward to convince the unprejudiced reader that the Scriptures,

though inspired and perfect, were not given to tell us much that pertains to

the 'beginning' or to the 'end' of God's purposes.  We, therefore, refrain

from speculating on the problem of evil, and what kind of world it was that

was overthrown in Genesis 1:2.  We also refrain from dogmatizing concerning

the ultimate fate of the angels that fell, or of those cast into the lake of

fire.  'Sufficient unto the day', is the Scripture written for our learning.

We search the Scriptures and teach what we find there, but where God's Word

is silent it is of the highest wisdom for the believer to be silent too.  If

only the same zeal were manifest in attempting to understand what has been

written and revealed for our learning, that has been expended in a vain

attempt to lift the veil that God Himself has drawn, what richer lives, what