ENJOYING THE WISDOM BOOKS MARGARET MONRO

(Longmans)

A helpful directive can be found in a quotation from

Pope St. Gregory the Great. Scripture, said that great
biblical scholar, is like a river whose current is so
shallow in certain parts that a lamb may cross it,
and deep enough in others for an elephant to swim
there. This suggests looking round for the best books
through which to gain courage by a little preliminary
paddling, yet including deeper reaches in which to
practice real swimming out of ones depth and for
that very reason borne up by the weight of the
water.

The Wisdom Books offer this combination in a

remarkable way. True, their apparent shallows are not
always as shallow as they look. Still, they do give much
space to straightforward moral teaching of a kind we may
feel more as a reminder than as an introduction to the
subject. In such passages, any novelty comes through the
presentation. The Wise Men took much trouble to be
pithy, picturesque, even amusing. They cultivated the
power to capture, indeed to captivate, attention.

Yet all around these pleasant paddling-pools are

deeper reaches on Gods work in creation, on the Divine
Wisdom governing the world, on the life after death, and
the problem of our suffering on earth. Whole books may
be given over to these deeper themes; but there is some
awareness of them in all.

Both the paddling-pools and the deeper reaches

initiate us into one of the most remarkable characteristics

of the Old Testament, that it is the record of a growth. We

all know that the New Testament is an advance on the
Old. But it may come as a surprise to find how much
advance there is within the Old Testament itself. One
meets incomplete statements of truths, yet the
movement
is
always
forward
towards
greater
completeness. Even though we have to turn to the New
Testament for arrival at the goal, it is profoundly moving
as well as instructive to follow the earlier advances step
by step. Hence, among other things, the importance of
reading as far as possible in historical order.

Further, the advance are not up in the air,

conclusions reached by armchair thinkers. They are
closely related to actual human experiences,
sometimes of a shattering kind. We never move
outside the world of real human beings, faced by
real challenges, baffled by real problems, and
thereby kept in close touch with the real as they
grope towards solutions. The whole process brings
home how much God cares for human beings, since
we find Him thus meeting them in the real
circumstances of our life on earth.

It was not at all an easy education to undergo. God had

indeed taught His people by giving them the Law and by
sending them prophets when they needed fresh light on
their path. But He was not content with any sort of
passive, parrot-like reaction. He put them through
experiences that forced them to think, to wrestle
with reality in a new way, to suffer bewilderment
and perplexity, to cry out in protest, to be tempted
to despair. And in all this He seldom gave them a
direct answer. He did not relieve them of the
necessity for using mind, will and conscience to
the utmost stretch. Generally speaking, God does

not do for us what He has equipped us to do for

ourselves.

Not, of course, that He simply abandoned His people

to their own devices; yet His help was given in secret,
untraceable ways. It took the form of upholding His
seekers, guiding their minds by hidden means, unseen
Himself yet sustaining the terrific effort of heart and mind
which He was demanding of them.