the whole matter'.

`Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole (duty) of man. For God shall bring every work

into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil' (Eccles. 12:13,14).

All the searching, reasoning and speculating led him no further into truth, but rather entangled him in confusion.

Believers today, under an entirely different dispensation, and with the added advantage of a complete Bible, are

equally frail and human, and the moment we leave what is written for deductions based upon our own limited and

prejudiced observations, we too must inevitably make shipwreck. Solomon failed, even though he retained the

wisdom which was given him by God. Are we wiser than Solomon when we venture beyond the written Word? We

are so conscious of our limited knowledge in view of these tremendous themes, that we dare not assume finality in

any one particular doctrine. Our only hope is to keep absolutely loyal to what God has said, and to remember that

the moment we go beyond and supplement God's revelation by our deductions and theories, the moment we criticize

His right to hide as well as to reveal, that moment we embark on a voyage chartless and rudderless, saved from

shipwreck only by a miracle of grace.

Yet one more consideration. In Daniel 10:21 and 11:2 there is a statement which is worthy of careful study.

`And I will shew thee that which is noted in the Scripture of truth'.

`And now will I shew thee the truth'.

The angel proceeds to give a most marvellously detailed account, first of the events which were about to take

place within a comparatively short time of this announcement, and then of the yet future events of the time of the

end, or as he says in Daniel 10:14, `Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the

latter days'. The point to which we would direct the reader's attention is that what the angel came to tell Daniel was

already `noted (writing, 5:24,25; sign, 6:8,9) in the Scripture of truth'. What Scripture? The events foretold in

Daniel 11 are not found written in any of the Scriptures which had been given up to the time of Daniel. If this be so,

the expression suggests the idea that there may be Scriptures of truth to which the angels have access, and that the

Scriptures which we possess contain selections, given by God at different intervals, from that heavenly scroll which

contains possibly ever so much more than we can as yet grasp. The angels do not know everything. Principalities

and powers are learning now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God.

We certainly do not possess a complete account of all God's purposes. Daniel 11 shews us that He knew fully,

and had recorded in the Scriptures to which the angel had access the doings of the kings of Persia and of Greece.

We are sure that His knowledge was not limited in the least, and that He knew the complete course of the history of

Greece and Persia, although the Scriptures we have received do not treat of their histories beyond the scope of the

particular purpose for which they have been written. Our Bible centres around Israel and Jerusalem. Whenever a

nation came into touch with Israel, they came within the scope of revelation. Is it not certain that the One who wrote

the history of Israel from start to finish could write the history of England or France equally as well? Certainly, and

for aught we know the Scriptures of truth from which the angel took the small portion given in Daniel 11 recorded

the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, and the complete histories of all the nations of the earth.

At once we see how limited the Scriptures really are, and that by divine appointment. There are lines of truth

which enter the sacred record in Genesis which commenced a long way back before the record of Genesis begins.

When we read that Satan abode not in the truth, we have a statement which we believe, but we are all only too

conscious that the revelation is also exceedingly limited. We do not know anything of Satan's sin or circumstances;

if it had been necessary and right for us to have known, the Lord could have given us a most graphic and detailed

account. Ezekiel 28:17 suggests that by pride he fell. The lesson is clear, but details which would minister to our

curiosity are withheld. When the risen Lord spoke His wondrous words to the disciples, as recorded in Luke 24, we

read that He began at Moses and the prophets (verse 27). He could have begun much earlier. He could have told of

the time when Satan fell, and even have given definite instructions regarding the many problems upon which the

minds of men have speculated for all time. He could have settled in a few words the problem of the introduction,

permission and purpose of evil. We are not told that He did any such thing, but `beginning at Moses and all the

prophets, He expounded (or interpreted) unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself'.

From our reading of the Word we have come to see that eternity is nowhere its theme. The Bible is entirely

taken up with the purpose of the ages. Even then we have to see that the Bible largely passes over much that we

would like to know within the limits even of the ages, and focuses our attention first upon the chosen people of