We are commanded, when we pray, not to use vain repetitions, as the heathen do; and we should do well to carry out the injunction in all the affairs of Christian life. If we did, we should be faithful and true witnesses, and not mere retailers of what others have said.
In a review of a new Introduction to the New Testament, it is said that the author "loyally follows Harnack, and in matters of pure scholarship he could hardly do better. But his real master is Ritschl."
The involuntary question is, "What is the use?" If one man has given testimony in court, such a thing would not be tolerated, as that another, having listened intently, and taken notes, should proceed to tell the same story. Yet this is what is being done continually in the most important case in the world. How can men be content to be mere copyists?
We do not mean that there should not be unity and agreement among Christians, or that people should seek to be different from others. Far from it. But unity is not slavish copying of one another. God has given to every man a mind, and if the mind be submitted to God, He will lead all into all truth, and there will be unity but not identity. "I am against the prophets, says the Lord, that steal my words everyone from his neighbor." (Jeremiah 23:30)
How much more, then, will He be against those who steal from their neighbors words that are not His? "One is your Master, even Christ," (Matthew 23:8) "In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Colossians 2:3)
He who gives us an infinite variety of color in sky and flowers, with always the same light, can give us His one truth in endless variety of forms, through all the different souls who absorb and reflect the light of life.--Present Truth, March 21, 1901.