“The” Ology
Improvement Era, vol. 7, no. 4, February 1904, pp. 250 to 253
"THE"
OLOGY.
BY
ELDER
HENRY
W.
NAISBITT.
All
the
educational
institutions
of
the
land
are
now
in
full
swing,
professors
of
every
degree
are
endeavoring
to
impart
an
understanding
of
their
specialties
to
open-mouthed
students
who
look,
with
a
feeling
akin
to
worship,
upon
the
grand
endowments
of
pedagogues
who
possess
special
facility
for
communicating
the
mysteries
of
their
professional
status.
All
the
ologies
are
spread
invitingly
before
the
multiplied
students,
who
probably
will
never
rise
even
to
mediocrity,
after
nights
of
study
or
years
of
application:
fragmentary
methods
and
results
are
the
rule,
and
a
full,
robust,
intelligent
comprehension
of
individual
ologies
is
the
only
evidence
of
superficial
comprehen-
sion, and
inability
to
grasp
the
unified
whole.
Is
it
not
true
that
a
man
may
be
versed
in
all
the
ologies
of
the
schools,
and
yet
be
a
dunce
in
regard
to
the
ology
which
is
the
base,
as
it
is
the
apex,
of
the
great
pyramid
of
knowledge,
under-
standing and
wisdom?
Is
it
not
possible
for
a
man
to
know
little
of
these
ologies,
and
yet
have
profound
ideas
in
regard
to
the
ology
which
holds
and
is
the
key
to
all
the
rest?
Was
it
not
—
is
it
not
—
still
true
that
"to
know
Go
.
■'
and
Jesus
Christ
whom
he
hath
sent
is
eternal
life?"
Has
it
not
been
received
as
an
axiom
that
"the
fear
or
knowledge
of
the
Lord
is
the
beginning
of
wisdom
?''
And
yet
all
the
institutions
created
of
man
in
our
proud
Republic
ignore,
taboo,
thrust
aside,
this
fundamental
base
of
all
the
rest.
From
entomology
to
zoology,
a
student
revels
in
facts
and
living
verities;
or
from
conchology
to
geology,
he
may
study
extinct
life:
he
may
even
regard
man
as
the
most
wondrous
field
of
re-
"THBP' OLOGY. 251 search and reflection; may know physiology, psychology, biology, and kindred offshoots of scientific lore,without being at all impressed with conceptions of "the Great First Cause !" One of our famous poets said, "the proper study of mankind is man;" could he not have better said, "the proper study of mankind is God?" for "the greater always includes the less," and, therefore, to know the former is to establish and comprehend the latter. The etymologist may smile at our division of a famous word; he may glibly quote it as being the science of theology; but is it not possible that the creators of the word did better than they knew? Is it impossible to believe that inspiration gave supremacy to the ology to mark its distinctive value as being superior to and embracing all the rest? Was it accident or design? Was it in- spiratioi; or did human appreciation alone call this the ology, and thus relegate to the rear many ologies which are now deemed superior and vastly more essential to human progress and true scientific development? Has not the great world made a sad — a fatal — mistake in their prospectuses and curricula? And is not the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints far in advance when they declare Theology to be paramount 'and divinely essen- tial to all true educational progress? Are not our universities, our academies, our colleges, our high schools of this class, superior, and far beyond, all others, even if less perfect in popular ologies? Are these not a living, ever-present, and potent protest against subordination of the divine to the traditions and whims of so-called educators, who know nothing of man's origin, and less of the pur- poses of his creation, and the limitless possibilities of his nature, under revelation which gives understanding of a rounded whole ? It may be urged that in the study of ordinary, secondary ologies, men have been "led from nature up to nature's God." This maybe true in some instances; but a smattering of science, even a profound understanding of some of its segments, has more often led to narrowness, and to skepticism and unbelief, than a knowl- edge of either God or man. Among the many and most interesting of men with whom my duties in connection with the Bureau of Information threw me in contact was that of John H. Hume, who, at the conclusion of our interview, kindly handed me his card, without affix or prefix; yet he
252
IMPROVEMENT
ERA.
was
doubtless
a
savant
of
the
first
water,
and
familiar
with
leading
scientific
men
and
thinkers
in
all
Europe,
from
and
on
to
the
fur-
ther north.
In
his
travels
all
over
the
world,
he
has
studied;
the
mysteries
of
Egypt
and
the
Nile
were
his;
India
had
opened
to
him
its
secrets
of
faith
and
discovery;
Africa
was
an
open
book;
Turkish
intelligence,
and
the
faith
of
Islam,
had
won
his
admir-
ation; he
had
seen
the
good
and
the
marvelous
everywhere;
he
had
studied
nature
surely
in
every
mood
—
seas,
and
mountain,
and
lake
;
the
vegetable,
mineral,
and
animal
kingdoms
seemed
to
have
been
his
specialty.
By
the
microscope,
he
had
counted
the
cor-
puscles of
his
own
blood;
and,
from
the
grand
telescope
in
Paris,
he
had
gazed
into
and
measured
with
greater
accuracy
than
is
common
on
earth,
the
volcano's
immense
craters
and
its
astound-
ing peak;
the
dead
satellite,
and
the
living
earth,
were
equally
familiar
to
his
thought.
He
has
become
a
modest,
walking
ency-
clopedia; but,
after
all,
he
had
to
admit
that
he
knew
nothing
of
life,
though
it
was
all
around
him;
and
knew
nothing
of
death,
though
he
had
seen
it
in
distant
worlds,
and
in
the
human
race;
space,
he
knew,
was
full
of
immense
fragments
of
extinct
orbs,
and
the
impact
of
these
giant
bodies
have
produced
phenomena
which
men
had
vainly
at
first
supposed
to
be
a
new
star
or
a
burn-
ing world;
but,
he
said
of
life
or
man
he
knew
nothing.
He
could
not
explain,
or
create.
He
could
only
use
that
profusion
of
material
with
which
this
little
earth
of
ours
is
so
profusely
supplied.
The
giant
trees
of
California
were
so
well
understood
that
he
could
trace,
he
could
determine,
their
life
for
two
thousand
years
before
the
day
of
Adam,
if
common
chronology
is
correct;
but
he
could
not
explain
that
mysterious
power
which
forced
the
sap
of
those
giant
trees
four
hundred
feet
to
their
leafy
and
glorified
summits.
"After
all,"
said
he,
"1
know
nothing."
Yet
we
were
standing
in
the
very
shadow
of
the
Temple
of
God,
where
the
very
air
is
pregnant
with
revelation,
and
not
far
from
the
University
of
the
Church,
where
The
ology
is
a
leading
feature,
that
which
opens
all
avenues
to
surging
thought;
which
circumscribes
all
that
the
most
ardent,
or
most
ignorant,
may
desire,
—
Theology,
or
the
Science
of
Eternal
Life.
Is
it
not
evident
that
theology
is
the
only
key
to
all
others;
that
it
alone
can
place
in
proper
combination
all
the
^otherwise
• ''THE" OLOGY. 253 heterogeneous ologies which men of limited vision have deemed great essentials, without sense of their absolute unity, only when in their true order they mutually sustain and support each other? Valueless, almost, when alone, or unduly individualized, but emi- nently one, when seen from the peaks of divine order, or under the sunlight of divine inspiration and revelation, to which all the sons and daughters of Zion are so freely invited, and yet to which they only measurably respond. Tradition, usage, mistaken estimate of values, have given the transitory, the temporary, the segregated, pre-eminence over the true, the permanent, the eternal human wisdom, based on momentary necessity and limited vision, and have lost sight of God, and of his way and will; but the substitute will perish, and theology will redeem the race, and swing back this fallen earth into the Presence, when men shall realize the unity of truth, the unity of righteous thought in Theology, when God and Christ will be all in all. What then shall we say, — that loving research shall cease, that the lower ologies shall be abandoned? Not at all. Only as- sign to each one its relative importance. We may be only on the very threshold of Theology, while others may seem more advanced and more immediately progressive. The ocean consists of drops, the seashore of grains of sand, matter of hiolecules or atoms, the human race of valueless members, but each possesses a special mis- sion, an appropriate sphere. Our friend could say, "I know nothing — nothing of myself, nothing of life. I cannot create a leaf, a flower, a blade of grass — I indeed know nothing!" "But," said the listener, "you were once a child, you are now seventy-eight years of age. You have had vast experience, have traveled and seen; the earth is familiar to you, and the worlds around are an- alyzed and measured in the brief life you have accumulated. Now, if it is true that 'to know God and Jesus Christ is eternal or un- ending life,' to what may you not aspire in that period? If knowl- edge is power, how much of that may you exercise? What shall be its limit or its end?" The calm philosopher went off silently to his quiet room, and the writer to find responsive listeners to the mysteries of God, by way of the alphabet of the Gospel. "Sowing the seed by all wa- ters, not knowing which shall prosper, this or that!"