God uses that spirit five times:
¹once in Elijah;
²in Elisha;
³in John the Baptist;
⁴in call out the Church (via the 7th church age messenger, William Marrion Branham ;
⁵and in call out the remnant of the Jews.
Five times, "g-r-a-c-e" , "J-e-s-u-s",
"f-a-i-t-h", and five is the number of grace. See? All right
3. CHAPTER 1
Following Hard after God
My soul has followed hard after thee; thy right hand has upheld me. (Psalm 63:8)
Christian theology teaches the doctrine of prevenient grace, which briefly stated means this: that before a man can seek God, God must first have sought the man.
Before a sinful man can think a right thought of God, there must have been a work of enlightenment done within him; it may be imperfect, but it is a true work nonetheless, and is the secret cause of all desiring and seeking and praying which may follow. We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. No one can come to me, said our Lord, unless the Father who has sent me draws him, and it is by this very prevenient drawing that God takes from us every vestige of credit for the act of coming. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: Thy right hand has upheld me.
In this divine "upholding" and human "following" there is no contradiction. All is of God, for as von Hügel teaches, God is always previous. In practice, however (that is, where God's previous working meets man's present response), man must pursue God. On our part, there must be positive reciprocation if this secret drawing of God is to eventuate in identifiable experience of the Divine. In the warm language of personal feeling, this is stated in the forty-second Psalm: As the hart pants after the water brooks, so does my soul pant after thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God? This is Deep calling unto deep, and the longing heart will understand it.
The doctrine of justification by faith a biblical truth, and a blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be "received" without creating any special love for Him in the spirit of the receiver. The man is "saved," but he is not hungry or thirsty after God. In fact, he is specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be content with little.
The modern scientist has lost God amid the wonders His world; we Christians are in real danger of losing God amid the wonders of His Word.
We have almost forgotten that God is the Spirit and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can, for we are spirit (So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; Genesis 1:27a). It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental interchange that the full possibilities of both can be explored.
All social interchange between human beings is a response of personality to personality, grading upward from the most casual brush between man and man to the fullest, most intimate communion of which the human spirit is capable. Religion, so far as it is genuine, is in essence the response of created personalities to the creating personality, God. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. In the deep of His mighty nature God thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires, and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us, He stays by the familiar pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills, and our emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the spirit of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.
This interchange between God and our spirit is known to us in conscious personal awareness. It is personal; that is, it does not come through the body of believers, as such, but is known to the individual, and to the body through the individuals which compose it. And it is conscious; that is, it does not stay below the threshold of consciousness and work there unknown to the soul (as, for instance, infant baptism is thought by some to do), but comes within the field of awareness where the man can "know" it as he knows any other fact of experience.
You and I are in little degree (except for our sins) what God is in large degree. Being made in His image, we have within us the capacity to know Him. In our sins we lack only the power. The moment the Spirit has quickened us to life in regeneration, our whole being senses its kinship to God and leaps up in joyous recognition. That is the heavenly birth without which we cannot see the kingdom of God. It is, however, not an end but an inception, for now begins the glorious pursuit, the heart's happy exploration of the infinite riches of the Godhead. That is where we begin, I say; but where we stop, no man has yet discovered, for there is neither limit nor end in the awful and mysterious depths of the True God.
Shoreless Ocean, who can sound Thee?
Thine own eternity is round Thee, Majesty divine!
To have found God and still to pursue Him is a paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religious person, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux stated this holy paradox in a musical four- line poem that will be instantly understood by every worshipping soul:
We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread,
And long to feast upon Thee still:
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.
Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God. They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him, the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking. Moses used the fact that he knew God as an argument for knowing Him better. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight; and from there he rose to make the daring request: I beseech thee, show me thy glory. God was frankly pleased by this display of ardor, and the next day called Moses into the mount, and there in solemn procession made all His glory pass before him.
David's life was a torrent of spiritual desire, and his psalms ring with the cry of the seeker and the glad shout of the finder. Paul confessed the mainspring of his life to be his burning desire after Christ. That I may know Him was the goal of his heart, and to this he sacrificed everything. And doubtless I even count all things as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.
The hymns are sweet with the longing after God, the God whom, while the singer seeks, he knows he has already found. "His track I see and I'll pursue," sang our fathers only a short generation ago, but that song is heard no more in the great congregation. How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of "accepting" Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible), and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our spirit. We have been snared in the coils of a false logic which insists that if we have found Him, we need no more seek Him. This is set before us as the last word in orthodoxy, and it is taken for granted that no Bible-taught Christian ever believed otherwise; thus, the whole testimony of the worshipping, seeking, singing church on that subject is crisply set aside. The experiential heart-theology of a grand army of fragrant saints is rejected in favor of a smug interpretation of Scripture, which would certainly have sounded strange to a Saint Augustine, a Samuel Rutherford, or a David Brainerd.
In the midst of this great chill there are some, I rejoice to acknowledge, who will not be content with shallow logic. They will admit the force of the argument, and then turn away with tears to hunt some lonely place and pray, "O God, show me thy glory." They want to.... pursue and following hard after God. They want the Giver of the gifts.
3. 第 1 章
紧紧跟随上帝
我的心紧紧跟随祢，祢的右手扶持我。（诗篇 63:8）
基督教神学教导先行恩典的教义，简而言之，这意味着：在一个人寻求上帝之前，上帝必须先寻找这个人。
在一个有罪的人能够正确思考上帝之前，他内心必须有启蒙的工作；它可能不完美，但它仍然是一项真正的工作，也是所有渴望、寻求和祈祷的秘密原因。我们追求上帝，因为，也只是因为，他首先在我们内心植入了一种冲动，激励我们去追求。我们的主说，若不是差我来的父吸引人，就没有人能到我这里来，正是通过这种先行的吸引，上帝从我们身上拿走了我们来这里的一切功劳。 追求上帝的冲动源自上帝，但这种冲动的结果是我们紧紧跟随他；在我们追求他的整个过程中，我们已经在他的手中：你的右手扶持着我。
在这种神圣的“扶持”和人类的“跟随”中，没有矛盾。一切都来自上帝，因为正如冯·休格尔所教导的那样，上帝总是先于我们。然而，在实践中（即上帝先前的工作与人类当前的反应相遇的地方），人类必须追求上帝。就我们而言，如果上帝的这种秘密吸引要最终导致可识别的神圣体验，就必须有积极的回报。在个人感情的热情语言中，第四十二篇诗篇是这样说的：上帝啊，我的心切慕祢，如鹿切慕溪水。我的心渴想上帝，就是永生上帝；我何时得朝见上帝呢？这是深渊对深渊的呼唤，渴望的心会明白的。
因信称义的教义是圣经真理，是摆脱无用律法主义和徒劳无益的自我努力的幸福解脱，但在我们的时代，它却落入了邪恶的圈子，被许多人解读为实际上阻止人们认识上帝。整个宗教皈依过程变得机械而毫无生气。现在，信仰可以毫无障碍地在道德生活中发挥作用，也不会让亚当的自我感到尴尬。基督可以被“接受”，但接受者的精神中不会产生对祂的任何特殊爱。人被“拯救”，但他并不渴望或渴求上帝。事实上，他被特别教导要知足，并被鼓励满足于小事。
现代科学家在上帝创造的奇迹中失去了上帝；我们基督徒在上帝创造的奇迹中也面临着失去上帝的真正危险。
我们几乎忘记了上帝是灵，因此，我们可以像任何人一样被培养，因为我们是灵（上帝就照着自己的形象造人，乃是照着他的形象造人；创世记 1:27a）。人天生就能够了解其他人格，但一次相遇无法完全了解一个人的个性。只有经过长期充满爱意的心灵交流，才能探索出两者的全部可能性。
人与人之间所有的社会交流都是人格对人格的回应，从人与人之间最随意的接触逐渐上升到人类精神所能进行的最充分、最亲密的交流。宗教，就其真实性而言，本质上是被创造的人格对创造者上帝的回应。认识你独一的真神，并且认识你所差来的耶稣基督，这就是永生。在他强大本性的深处，上帝像其他人一样思考、意愿、享受、感受、爱、渴望和受苦。 在向我们展示自己时，他保持着我们熟悉的个性模式。他通过我们的思想、意志和情感与我们交流。上帝与被救赎之人的灵魂之间持续而毫无顾忌的爱与思想交流是新约宗教的核心。
我们在有意识的个人意识中知道上帝与我们灵魂之间的这种交流。它是个人的；也就是说，它不是通过信徒团体本身而来的，而是为个人所知，并通过组成它的个体为身体所知。它是有意识的；也就是说，它不会停留在意识的门槛以下，在那里不为灵魂所知（例如，有些人认为婴儿洗礼就是这样），而是进入意识领域，人类可以“知道”它，就像他知道任何其他经验事实一样。
你我（除了我们的罪）在很小程度上与上帝在很大程度上相似。我们是按照他的形象造的，我们内在有认识他的能力。在我们的罪中，我们只缺少力量。当圣灵使我们重生时，我们的整个生命都感受到了它与上帝的亲缘关系，并欣喜地认识到这一点。那是天上的诞生，没有它我们就看不到上帝的国度。然而，这不是终点，而是起点，因为现在开始了光荣的追求，心灵对神性无限财富的快乐探索。我说，那是我们开始的地方；但我们在哪里停下来，还没有人发现，因为在真神的可怕而神秘的深处，没有极限也没有终点。
无边无际的海洋，谁能测度你？
神圣的威严，你的永恒围绕着你！
找到上帝后仍继续追寻祂，这是爱的悖论，很容易满足的宗教人士对此嗤之以鼻，但火热心灵的孩子们却从幸福的经历中感受到了这一点。克莱尔沃的圣伯纳德在一首四行乐诗中阐述了这个神圣的悖论，每一个崇拜的灵魂都会立刻理解：
我们品尝你，你这活面包，
并渴望继续以你为食：
我们饮你，源泉
我们的灵魂渴望得到你的满足。
走近过去的圣人和圣女，你很快就会感受到他们对上帝的渴望之热。他们为他哀悼，他们祈祷、挣扎、日夜寻找他，无论何时何地，当他们找到他时，这种发现比长期的寻找更加甜蜜。摩西用他认识上帝这一事实作为更了解上帝的论据。 现在我恳求你，如果我在你眼前蒙恩，求你指示我你的道路，使我可以认识你，好在你眼前蒙恩；从那里他站起来，提出了大胆的请求：我恳求你，向我显示你的荣耀。上帝对这种热情的表现感到高兴，第二天他召唤摩西上山，在那里，他所有的荣耀在庄严的游行中从他面前经过。
大卫的生活是精神渴望的洪流，他的诗篇伴随着寻求者的呼喊和找到者的欢呼声。保罗承认他生活的动力是他对基督的强烈渴望。认识他是他内心的目标，为此，他牺牲了一切。毫无疑问，我甚至将万事当作有损的，因我以认识我主基督耶稣为至宝。我为他已经丢弃万事，看作粪土，为要得着基督。
这些赞美诗充满了对上帝的渴望，歌手在寻找上帝时，知道自己已经找到了上帝。“我看见他的踪迹，我将追随他”，就在短短的一代人之前，我们的父辈唱道，但这首歌在大型集会中再也听不到了。在这黑暗的日子里，我们的老师替我们寻找，这是多么悲惨啊。一切都围绕着“接受”基督的最初行为（顺便说一句，这个词在圣经中没有出现），此后我们不必再渴望上帝对我们的灵魂有任何进一步的启示。我们陷入了一种错误的逻辑的圈套中，这种逻辑坚持认为，如果我们找到了他，我们就不需要再寻找他了。这被摆在我们面前，作为正统教义的最后话语，理所当然地认为，没有一个受过圣经教导的基督徒会相信其他的；因此，整个敬拜、寻求、歌唱的教会对这个问题的证词都被彻底抛在一边。 一支庞大的芬芳圣徒队伍的经验性心灵神学被拒绝，取而代之的是自鸣得意的圣经解释，这对圣奥古斯丁、塞缪尔·卢瑟福或大卫·布雷纳德来说肯定听起来很奇怪。
在这种巨大的寒意中，我很高兴地承认，有些人不会满足于肤浅的逻辑。他们会承认论据的力量，然后流着泪转身去寻找一个孤独的地方，祈祷“哦，上帝，请让我看到你的荣耀。”他们想要……追随上帝。他们想要礼物的赐予者。
3. Dì 1 zhāng
jǐn jǐn gēnsuí shàngdì
wǒ de xīn jǐn jǐn gēnsuí mí, mí de yòushǒu fúchí wǒ.(Shīpiān 63:8)
Jīdūjiào shénxué jiàodǎo xiānxíng ēndiǎn de jiàoyì, jiǎn ér yán zhī, zhè yìwèizhe: Zài yīgèrén xúnqiú shàngdì zhīqián, shàngdì bìxū xiān xúnzhǎo zhège rén.
Zài yīgè yǒuzuì de rén nénggòu zhèngquè sīkǎo shàngdì zhīqián, tā nèixīn bìxū yǒu qǐméng de gōngzuò; tā kěnéng bù wánměi, dàn tā réngrán shì yī xiàng zhēnzhèng de gōngzuò, yěshì suǒyǒu kěwàng, xúnqiú hé qídǎo de mìmì yuányīn. Wǒmen zhuīqiú shàngdì, yīnwèi, yě zhǐshì yīnwèi, tā shǒuxiān zài wǒmen nèixīn zhí rùle yī zhǒng chōngdòng, jīlì wǒmen qù zhuīqiú. Wǒmen de zhǔ shuō, ruò bùshì chà wǒ lái de fù xīyǐn rén, jiù méiyǒu rén néng dào wǒ zhèlǐ lái, zhèng shì tōngguò zhè zhǒng xiānxíng de xīyǐn, shàngdì cóng wǒmen shēnshang ná zǒule wǒmen lái zhèlǐ de yīqiè gōngláo. Zhuīqiú shàngdì de chōngdòng yuán zì shàngdì, dàn zhè zhǒng chōngdòng de jiéguǒ shì wǒmen jǐn jǐn gēnsuí tā; zài wǒmen zhuīqiú tā de zhěnggè guòchéng zhōng, wǒmen yǐjīng zài tā de shǒuzhōng: Nǐ de yòushǒu fúchízhe wǒ.
Zài zhè zhǒng shénshèng de “fúchí” hé rénlèi de “gēnsuí” zhōng, méiyǒu máodùn. Yīqiè dōu láizì shàngdì, yīnwèi zhèngrú féng·xiū gé ěr suǒ jiàodǎo dì nàyàng, shàngdì zǒng shì xiān yú wǒmen. Rán'ér, zài shíjiàn zhōng (jí shàngdì xiānqián de gōngzuò yǔ rénlèi dāngqián de fǎnyìng xiāngyù dì dìfāng), rénlèi bìxū zhuīqiú shàngdì. Jiù wǒmen ér yán, rúguǒ shàngdì de zhè zhǒng mìmì xīyǐn yào zuìzhōng dǎozhì kě shìbié de shénshèng tǐyàn, jiù bìxū yǒu jījí de huíbào. Zài gèrén gǎnqíng de rèqíng yǔyán zhōng, dì sìshí'èr piān shīpiān shì zhèyàng shuō de: Shàngdì a, wǒ de xīnqiè mù mí, rú lù qiè mù xīshuǐ. Wǒ de xīn kěxiǎng shàngdì, jiùshì yǒngshēng shàngdì; wǒ hé shí dé cháojiàn shàngdì ne? Zhè shì shēnyuān duì shēnyuān de hūhuàn, kěwàng de xīn huì míngbái de.
Yīn xìn chēng yì de jiàoyì shì shèngjīng zhēnlǐ, shì bǎituō wúyòng lǜ fǎ zhǔyì hé túláo wúyì de zìwǒ nǔlì de xìngfú jiětuō, dàn zài wǒmen de shídài, tā què luò rùle xié'è de quānzi, bèi xǔduō rén jiědú wèi shíjì shang zǔzhǐ rénmen rènshí shàngdì. Zhěnggè zōngjiào guīyī guòchéng biàn dé jīxiè ér háo wú shēngqì. Xiànzài, xìnyǎng kěyǐ háo wú zhàng'ài de zài dàodé shēnghuó zhōng fāhuī zuòyòng, yě bù huì ràng yàdāng de zìwǒ gǎndào gāngà. Jīdū kěyǐ bèi “jiēshòu”, dàn jiēshòu zhě de jīngshén zhōng bù huì chǎnshēng duì tā de rènhé tèshū ài. Rén bèi “zhěngjiù”, dàn tā bìng bù kěwàng huò kěqiú shàngdì. Shìshí shàng, tā bèi tèbié jiàodǎo yào zhīzú, bìng bèi gǔlì mǎnzú yú xiǎoshì.
Xiàndài kēxuéjiā zài shàngdì chuàngzào de qíjī zhōng shīqùle shàngdì; wǒmen jīdū tú zài shàngdì chuàngzào de qíjī zhōng yě miànlínzhe shīqù shàngdì de zhēnzhèng wéixiǎn.
Wǒmen jīhū wàngjìle shàngdì shì líng, yīncǐ, wǒmen kěyǐxiàng rènhé rén yīyàng bèi péiyǎng, yīnwèi wǒmen shì líng (shàngdì jiù zhàozhe zìjǐ de xíngxiàng zào rén, nǎi shì zhàozhe tā de xíngxiàng zào rén; chuàng shì jì 1:27A). Rén tiānshēng jiù nénggòu liǎojiě qítā réngé, dàn yīcì xiāngyù wúfǎ wánquán liǎo jiè yīgèrén de gèxìng. Zhǐyǒu jīngguò chángqí chōngmǎn ài yì de xīnlíng jiāoliú, cáinéng tànsuǒ chū liǎng zhě de quánbù kěnéng xìng.
Rén yǔ rén zhī jiān suǒyǒu de shèhuì jiāoliú dōu shì réngé duì réngé de huíyīng, cóng rén yǔ rén zhī jiān zuì suíyì de jiēchù zhújiàn shàngshēng dào rénlèi jīngshén suǒ néng jìnxíng de zuì chōngfèn, zuì qīnmì de jiāoliú. Zōngjiào, jiù qí zhēnshí xìng ér yán, běnzhí shàng shì bèi chuàngzào de réngé duì chuàngzào zhě shàngdì de huíyīng. Rènshí nǐ dú yī de zhēnshén, bìngqiě rènshí nǐ suǒ chà lái de yēsū jīdū, zhè jiùshì yǒngshēng. Zài tā qiángdà běnxìng de shēn chù, shàngdì xiàng qítā rén yīyàng sīkǎo, yìyuàn, xiǎngshòu, gǎnshòu, ài, kěwàng hé shòukǔ. Zài xiàng wǒmen zhǎnshì zìjǐ shí, tā bǎochízhe wǒmen shúxī de gèxìng móshì. Tā tōngguò wǒmen de sīxiǎng, yìzhì hé qínggǎn yǔ wǒmen jiāoliú. Shàngdì yǔ bèi jiùshú zhī rén de línghún zhī jiān chíxù ér háo wú gùjì de ài yǔ sīxiǎng jiāoliú shì xīn yuē zōngjiào de héxīn.
Wǒmen zài yǒuyìshí de gèrén yìshí zhōng zhīdào shàngdì yǔ wǒmen línghún zhī jiān de zhè zhǒng jiāoliú. Tā shì gè rén de; yě jiùshì shuō, tā bùshì tōngguò xìntú tuántǐ běnshēn ér lái de, ér shì wèi gè rén suǒ zhī, bìng tōngguò zǔchéng tā de gètǐ wèi shēntǐ suǒ zhī. Tā shì yǒuyìshí de; yě jiùshì shuō, tā bù huì tíngliú zài yìshí de ménkǎn yǐ xià, zài nàlǐ bù wéi línghún suǒ zhī (lìrú, yǒuxiē rén rènwéi yīng'ér xǐlǐ jiùshì zhèyàng), ér shì jìnrù yìshí lǐngyù, rénlèi kěyǐ “zhīdào” tā, jiù xiàng tā zhīdào rènhé qítā jīngyàn shìshí yīyàng.
Nǐ wǒ (chúle wǒmen de zuì) zài hěn xiǎo chéngdù shàng yǔ shàngdì zài hěn dà chéngdù shàng xiàng shì. Wǒmen shì ànzhào tā de xíngxiàng zào de, wǒmen nèizài yǒu rènshí tā de nénglì. Zài wǒmen de zuì zhōng, wǒmen zhǐ quēshǎo lìliàng. Dāng shènglíng shǐ wǒmen chóngshēng shí, wǒmen de zhěnggè shēngmìng dōu gǎnshòu dàole tā yǔ shàngdì de qīnyuán guānxì, bìng xīnxǐ dì rènshí dào zhè yīdiǎn. Nà shì tiānshàng de dànshēng, méiyǒu tā wǒmen jiù kàn bù dào shàngdì de guódù. Rán'ér, zhè bùshì zhōngdiǎn, ér shì qǐdiǎn, yīnwèi xiànzài kāishǐle guāngróng de zhuīqiú, xīnlíng duì shén xìng wúxiàn cáifù de kuàilè tànsuǒ. Wǒ shuō, nà shì wǒmen kāishǐ dì dìfāng; dàn wǒmen zài nǎlǐ tíng xiàlái, hái méiyǒu rén fà xiàn, yīnwèi zài zhēnshén de kěpà ér shénmì de shēn chù, méiyǒu jíxiàn yě méiyǒu zhōngdiǎn.
Wúbiān wújì dì hǎiyáng, shéi néng cèduó nǐ?
Shénshèng de wēiyán, nǐ de yǒnghéng wéiràozhe nǐ!
Zhǎodào shàngdì hòu réng jìxù zhuīxún tā, zhè shì ài de bèi lùn, hěn róngyì mǎnzú de zōngjiào rénshì duì cǐ chīzhīyǐbí, dàn huǒrè xīnlíng de háizimen què cóng xìngfú de jīnglì zhōng gǎnshòu dàole zhè yīdiǎn. Kèlái'ěr wò de shèng bó nà dé zài yī shǒu sì háng lè shī zhōng chǎnshùle zhège shénshèng de bèi lùn, měi yīgè chóngbài de línghún dūhuì lìkè lǐjiě:
Wǒmen pǐncháng nǐ, nǐ zhè huó miànbāo,
bìng kěwàng jìxù yǐ nǐ wèi shí:
Wǒmen yǐn nǐ, yuánquán
wǒmen de línghún kěwàng dédào nǐ de mǎnzú.
Zǒu jìn guòqù de shèngrén hé shèng nǚ, nǐ hěn kuài jiù huì gǎnshòu dào tāmen duì shàngdì de kěwàng zhī rè. Tāmen wèi tā āidào, tāmen qídǎo, zhēngzhá, rìyè xúnzhǎo tā, wúlùn hé shí hé de, dāng tāmen zhǎodào tā shí, zhè zhǒng fāxiàn bǐ chángqí de xúnzhǎo gèngjiā tiánmì. Móxī yòng tā rènshí shàngdì zhè yī shìshí zuòwéi gèng liǎojiě shàngdì dì lùnjù. Xiànzài wǒ kěnqiú nǐ, rúguǒ wǒ zài nǐ yǎnqián méng ēn, qiú nǐ zhǐshì wǒ nǐ de dàolù, shǐ wǒ kěyǐ rènshí nǐ, hǎo zài nǐ yǎnqián méng ēn; cóng nàlǐ tā zhàn qǐlái, tíchūle dàdǎn de qǐngqiú: Wǒ kěnqiú nǐ, xiàng wǒ xiǎnshì nǐ de róngyào. Shàngdì duì zhè zhǒng rèqíng de biǎoxiàn gǎndào gāoxìng, dì èr tiān tā zhàohuàn móxī shàngshān, zài nàlǐ, tā suǒyǒu de róngyào zài zhuāngyán de yóuxíng zhōng cóng tā miànqián jīngguò.
Dà wèi de shēnghuó shì jīngshén kěwàng de hóngliú, tā de shīpiān bànsuízhe xúnqiú zhě de hūhǎn hé zhǎodào zhě de huānhū shēng. Bǎoluó chéngrèn tā shēnghuó de dònglì shì tā duì jīdū de qiángliè kěwàng. Rènshí tā shì tā nèixīn de mùbiāo, wèi cǐ, tā xīshēngle yīqiè. Háo wú yíwèn, wǒ shènzhì jiāng wànshì dàng zuò yǒu sǔn de, yīn wǒ yǐ rènshí wǒ zhǔ jīdū yēsū wéi zhìbǎo. Wǒ wèi tā yǐjīng diūqì wànshì, kàn zuò fèntǔ, wèi yào dé zhe jīdū.
Zhèxiē zànměishī chōngmǎnle duì shàngdì de kěwàng, gēshǒu zài xúnzhǎo shàngdì shí, zhīdào zìjǐ yǐjīng zhǎodàole shàngdì.“Wǒ kànjiàn tā de zōngjī, wǒ jiāng zhuīsuí tā”, jiù zài duǎn duǎn de yīdài rén zhīqián, wǒmen de fùbèi chàngdào, dàn zhè shǒu gē zài dàxíng jíhuì zhōng zài yě tīng bù dàole. Zài zhè hēi'àn de rìzi lǐ, wǒmen de lǎoshī tì wǒmen xúnzhǎo, zhè shì duōme bēicǎn a. Yīqiè dōu wéiràozhe “jiēshòu” jīdū de zuìchū xíngwéi (shùnbiàn shuō yījù, zhège cí zài shèngjīng zhōng méiyǒu chūxiàn), cǐhòu wǒmen bùbì zài kěwàng shàngdì duì wǒmen de línghún yǒu rènhé jìnyībù de qǐshì. Wǒmen xiànrùle yī zhǒng cuòwù de luójí de quāntào zhōng, zhè zhǒng luójí jiānchí rènwéi, rúguǒ wǒmen zhǎodàole tā, wǒmen jiù bù xūyào zài xúnzhǎo tāle. Zhè bèi bǎi zài wǒmen miànqián, zuòwéi zhèngtǒng jiàoyì de zuìhòu huàyǔ, lǐsuǒdāngrán dì rènwéi, méiyǒu yīgè shòuguò shèngjīng jiàodǎo de jīdū tú huì xiāngxìn qítā de; yīncǐ, zhěnggè jìng bài, xúnqiú, gēchàng de jiàohuì duì zhège wèntí de zhèngcí dōu bèi chèdǐ pāo zài yībiān. Yī zhī pángdà de fēnfāng shèng tú duìwǔ de jīngyàn xìng xīnlíng shénxué bèi jùjué, qǔ'érdàizhī dì shì zìmíngdéyì de shèngjīng jiěshì, zhè duì shèng àogǔsīdīng, sāi móu ěr·lú sè fú huò dà wèi·bùléi nà dé lái shuō kěndìng tīng qǐlái hěn qíguài.
Zài zhè zhǒng jùdà de hányì zhōng, wǒ hěn gāoxìng de chéngrèn, yǒuxiē rén bù huì mǎnzú yú fūqiǎn de luójí. Tāmen huì chéngrèn lùnjù de lìliàng, ránhòu liúzhe lèi zhuǎnshēn qù xúnzhǎo yīgè gūdú dì dìfāng, qídǎo “ó, shàngdì, qǐng ràng wǒ kàn dào nǐ de róngyào.” Tāmen xiǎng yào……zhuīsuí shàngdì. Tāmen xiǎng yào lǐwù de cìyǔ zhě.
2. THE PURSUIT OF GOD:
Preface
In this hour of all-but-universal darkness, one cheering gleam appears: Within the fold of conservative Christianity, there are to be found increasing numbers of people whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself. They are eager for spiritual realities and will not be put off with words, nor will they be content with correct "interpretations" of truth. They are thirsty for God, and they will not be satisfied until they have drunk deep at the fountain of living water.
This is the only real harbinger of revival that I have been able to detect anywhere on the religious horizon. It may be the cloud the size of a man's hand for which a few saints here and there have been looking. It can result in a resurrection of life for many souls and a recapture of that radiant wonder which should accompany faith in Christ, that wonder which has all but fled the church in our day.
It is a solemn thing, and no small scandal in the kingdom of heaven, to see God's children starving while actually seated at the Father's table.
But this hunger must be recognized by our religious leaders. Current evangelicalism has (to change the figure) laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and rearrange the pieces with never a care that there is not a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Mount Carmel. But God be thanked that there are a few who care. They are those who, while they love the altar and delight in the sacrifice, are yet unable to reconcile themselves to the continued absence of fire. They desire God above all. They are thirsty to taste for themselves the "piercing sweetness" of the love of Christ about whom all the holy prophets did write and the psalmists did sing.
There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly the principles of the doctrines of Christ, but too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals of the faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives. They minister constantly to believers who feel within their breasts a longing, which their teaching simply does not satisfy.
I trust I speak in love, but the lack in our pulpits is real. Milton's terrible sentence applies to our day as accurately as it did to his: "The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed." It is a solemn thing, and no small scandal in the kingdom, to see God's children starving while actually seated at the Father's table. The truth of Wesley's words is established before our eyes: "Orthodoxy, or right opinion, is, at best, a very slender part of religion. Though right tempers cannot subsist without right opinions, yet right opinions may subsist without the right tempers. There may be a right opinion of God without either love or one right temper toward Him. Satan is a proof of this."
Thanks to our splendid Bible societies and to other effective agencies for the dissemination of the Word, there are today many millions of people who hold "right opinions," probably more than ever before in the history of the church. Yet I wonder if there was ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb. To great sections of the church, the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the "program." This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for worship among us.
Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the church of the living God. Without it, no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such a way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatsoever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself; and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience, they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their being, their spirit.
This book is a modest attempt to aid God's hungry children to find Him. Nothing here is new except in the sense that it is a discovery that my own heart has made of spiritual realities most delightful and wonderful to me. Others before me have gone much farther into these holy mysteries than I have done, but if my fire is not large, it is yet real, and there may be those who can light their candle at its flame.
by A. W. Tozer
Chicago, Ill.
June 16, 1948
2. 追求上帝：
序言
在这个几乎普遍黑暗的时刻，出现了一丝令人振奋的光芒：在保守的基督教徒中，越来越多的人开始在宗教生活中寻求上帝。他们渴望精神上的现实，不会因言语而退缩，也不会满足于对真理的正确“解释”。他们渴望上帝，除非他们深深地饮下生命之泉，否则他们不会满足。
这是我在宗教界所能发现的唯一真正的复兴预兆。它可能是一些圣徒一直在寻找的、手掌大小的云。它可以使许多灵魂复活，重新获得信仰基督所伴随的光芒四射的奇迹，这种奇迹在我们这个时代几乎已经从教堂中消失了。
看到上帝的孩子们坐在天父的餐桌旁却挨饿，这是一件严肃的事，也是天国里不小的丑闻。
但我们的宗教领袖必须认识到这种饥饿。当前的福音派（换个说法）已经布置了祭坛，把祭品分成几部分，但现在似乎满足于数石头和重新排列碎片，从不关心高耸的卡梅尔山顶上有没有火的迹象。但感谢上帝，有少数人关心。他们是那些虽然热爱祭坛并喜欢祭品，但无法接受持续没有火的人。他们渴望上帝高于一切。他们渴望亲自品尝基督之爱的“刺骨甜蜜”，所有圣先知都写过关于基督的事，诗篇作者也歌颂过基督。
如今，圣经教师中不乏正确地阐述基督教义原则的教师，但其中太多教师似乎满足于年复一年地教授信仰的基本原则，奇怪的是，他们没有意识到他们的传道工作中没有明显的存在，他们的个人生活中也没有任何不寻常之处。他们不断地向信徒传道，信徒们内心有一种渴望，但他们的教导根本无法满足这种渴望。我相信我是在用爱说话，但我们的讲台上确实缺乏爱。弥尔顿那句可怕的话适用于我们这个时代，就像适用于他那个时代一样：“饥饿的羊抬头仰望，却得不到食物。”看到上帝的孩子们坐在天父的餐桌旁挨饿，这是一件严肃的事情，也是王国里不小的丑闻。 卫斯理的话的真理在我们眼前确立：“正统，或正确的观点，充其量只是宗教的一个非常微小的部分。虽然没有正确的观点，正确的性情就无法存在，但正确的观点可以存在而没有正确的性情。对上帝可能有正确的看法，但没有对他的爱或正确的性情。撒旦就是一个证明。”
多亏了我们出色的圣经协会和其他有效的传播圣经的机构，今天有数百万人持有“正确的观点”，可能比教会历史上任何时候都多。然而，我想知道真正的精神崇拜是否曾经处于低潮。对于教会的大部分人来说，崇拜的艺术已经完全消失了，取而代之的是那个奇怪而陌生的东西，叫做“节目”。这个词被从舞台上借用，并以可悲的智慧应用于现在在我们中间被视为崇拜的公共服务类型。
在活着的上帝的教会中，健全的圣经阐释是必不可少的。 没有它，任何教会都不能成为严格意义上的新约教会。但是，讲解的方式可能会让听众得不到任何真正的精神滋养。因为滋养灵魂的不仅仅是言语，还有上帝本身；除非听众在亲身经历中找到上帝，否则他们不会因为听到真理而变得更好。圣经本身不是目的，而是一种让人们对上帝有亲密和令人满意的认识的手段，这样他们就可以进入他，他们可以在他的面前感到高兴，可以在他们存在的核心和中心，他们的精神中品尝和了解上帝自己的内在甜蜜。
这本书是一种谦虚的尝试，旨在帮助上帝饥饿的孩子们找到他。这里没有什么新的，除了这是我自己的心对对我来说最愉快和最奇妙的精神现实的发现。 在我之前，其他人比我更深入地探究这些神圣的奥秘，但如果我的火焰不够大，它仍然是真实的，也许有人可以用它的火焰点燃他们的蜡烛。
作者：A. W. Tozer
伊利诺伊州芝加哥
1948 年 6 月 16 日
2. Zhuīqiú shàngdì:
Xùyán
zài zhège jīhū pǔbiàn hēi'àn de shíkè, chūxiànle yīsī lìng rén zhènfèn de guāngmáng: Zài bǎoshǒu de jīdū jiàotú zhōng, yuè lái yuè duō de rén kāishǐ zài zōngjiào shēnghuó zhōng xúnqiú shàngdì. Tāmen kěwàng jīngshén shàng de xiànshí, bù huì yīn yányǔ ér tuìsuō, yě bù huì mǎnzú yú duì zhēnlǐ de zhèngquè “jiěshì”. Tāmen kěwàng shàngdì, chúfēi tāmen shēn shēn de yǐn xià shēngmìng zhī quán, fǒuzé tāmen bù huì mǎnzú.
Zhè shì wǒ zài zōngjiào jiè suǒ néng fāxiàn de wéiyī zhēnzhèng de fùxīng yùzhào. Tā kěnéng shì yīxiē shèng tú yīzhí zài xúnzhǎo de, shǒuzhǎng dàxiǎo de yún. Tā kěyǐ shǐ xǔduō línghún fùhuó, chóngxīn huòdé xìnyǎng jīdū suǒ bànsuí de guāngmáng sì shè de qíjī, zhè zhǒng qíjī zài wǒmen zhège shídài jīhū yǐjīng cóng jiàotáng zhōng xiāoshīle.
Kàn dào shàngdì de háizimen zuò zài tiān fù de cānzhuō páng què āi è, zhè shì yī jiàn yánsù de shì, yěshì tiānguó lǐ bù xiǎo de chǒuwén.
Dàn wǒmen de zōngjiào lǐngxiù bìxū rènshí dào zhè zhǒng jī'è. Dāngqián de fúyīn pài (huàngè shuōfǎ) yǐjīng bùzhìle jìtán, bǎ jì pǐn fēnchéng jǐ bùfèn, dàn xiànzài sìhū mǎnzú yú shù shítou hé chóngxīn páiliè suìpiàn, cóng bù guānxīn gāosǒng de kǎ méi ěr shāndǐng shàng yǒu méiyǒu huǒ de jīxiàng. Dàn gǎnxiè shàngdì, yǒu shǎoshù rén guānxīn. Tāmen shì nàxiē suīrán rè'ài jìtán bìng xǐhuān jì pǐn, dàn wúfǎ jiēshòu chíxù méiyǒuhuǒ de rén. Tāmen kěwàng shàngdì gāo yú yīqiè. Tāmen kěwàng qīnzì pǐncháng jīdū zhī ài de “cìgǔ tiánmì”, suǒyǒu shèng xiānzhī dōu xiěguò guānyú jīdū de shì, shīpiān zuòzhě yě gēsòngguò jīdū.
Rújīn, shèngjīng jiàoshī zhōng bùfá zhèngquè de chǎnshù jīdū jiàoyì yuánzé de jiàoshī, dàn qízhōng tài duō jiàoshī sìhū mǎnzú yú nián fù yī nián de jiàoshòu xìnyǎng de jīběn yuánzé, qíguài de shì, tāmen méiyǒu yìshí dào tāmen de chuándào gōngzuò zhōng méiyǒu míngxiǎn de cúnzài, tāmen de gèrén shēnghuó zhōng yě méiyǒu rènhé bù xúncháng zhī chù. Tāmen bùduàn dì xiàng xìntú zhuàn dào, xìntúmen nèixīn yǒuyī zhǒng kěwàng, dàn tāmen de jiàodǎo gēnběn wúfǎ mǎnzú zhè zhǒng kěwàng. Wǒ xiāngxìn wǒ shì zài yòng ài shuōhuà, dàn wǒmen de jiǎngtái shàng quèshí quēfá ài. Mí ěr dùn nà jù kěpà dehuà shìyòng yú wǒmen zhège shídài, jiù xiàng shìyòng yú tā nàgè shídài yīyàng:“Jī'è de yáng táitóu yǎngwàng, què dé bù dào shíwù.” Kàn dào shàngdì de háizimen zuò zài tiān fù de cānzhuō páng āi è, zhè shì yī jiàn yánsù de shìqíng, yěshì wángguó lǐ bù xiǎo de chǒuwén. Wèisīlǐ dehuà de zhēnlǐ zài wǒmen yǎnqián quèlì:“Zhèngtǒng, huò zhèngquè de guāndiǎn, chōngqíliàng zhǐshì zōngjiào de yīgè fēicháng wéixiǎo de bùfèn. Suīrán méiyǒu zhèngquè de guāndiǎn, zhèngquè dì xìngqíng jiù wúfǎ cúnzài, dàn zhèngquè de guāndiǎn kěyǐ cúnzài ér méiyǒu zhèngquè dì xìngqíng. Duì shàngdì kěnéng yǒu zhèngquè de kànfǎ, dàn méiyǒu duì tā de ài huò zhèngquè dì xìngqíng. Sādàn jiùshì yīgè zhèngmíng.”
Duōkuīle wǒmen chūsè de shèngjīng xiéhuì hé qítā yǒuxiào de chuánbò shèngjīng de jīgòu, jīntiān yǒu shù bǎi wàn rén chí yǒu “zhèngquè de guāndiǎn”, kěnéng bǐ jiàohuì lìshǐ shàng rènhé shíhòu dōu duō. Rán'ér, wǒ xiǎng zhīdào zhēnzhèng de jīngshén chóngbài shìfǒu céngjīng chǔyú dīcháo. Duìyú jiàohuì de dà bùfèn rén lái shuō, chóngbài de yìshù yǐjīng wánquán xiāoshīle, qǔ'érdàizhī dì shì nàgè qíguài ér mòshēng de dōngxī, jiàozuò “jiémù”. Zhège cí bèi cóng wǔtái shàng jièyòng, bìng yǐ kěbēi de zhìhuì yìngyòng yú xiànzài zài wǒmen zhōngjiān bèi shì wéi chóngbài de gōnggòng fúwù lèixíng.
Zài huózhe de shàngdì de jiàohuì zhōng, jiànquán de shèngjīng chǎnshì shì bì bùkě shǎo de. Méiyǒu tā, rènhé jiàohuì dōu bùnéng chéngwéi yángé yìyì shàng de xīn yuē jiàohuì. Dànshì, jiǎngjiě de fāngshì kěnéng huì ràng tīngzhòng dé bù dào rènhé zhēnzhèng de jīngshén zīyǎng. Yīnwèi zīyǎng línghún de bùjǐn jǐn shì yányǔ, hái yǒu shàngdì běnshēn; chúfēi tīngzhòng zài qīnshēn jīnglì zhōng zhǎodào shàngdì, fǒuzé tāmen bù huì yīnwèi tīng dào zhēnlǐ ér biàn dé gèng hǎo. Shèngjīng běnshēn bùshì mùdì, ér shì yī zhǒng ràng rénmen duì shàngdì yǒu qīnmì hé lìng rén mǎnyì de rènshí de shǒuduàn, zhèyàng tāmen jiù kěyǐ jìnrù tā, tāmen kěyǐ zài tā de miànqián gǎndào gāoxìng, kěyǐ zài tāmen cúnzài de héxīn hé zhōngxīn, tāmen de jīngshén zhōng pǐncháng hé liǎojiě shàngdì zìjǐ de nèizài tiánmì.
Zhè běn shū shì yī zhǒng qiānxū de chángshì, zhǐ zài bāngzhù shàngdì jī'è de háizimen zhǎodào tā. Zhèlǐ méiyǒu shé me xīn de, chúle zhè shì wǒ zìjǐ de xīn duì duì wǒ lái shuō zuì yúkuài hé zuì qímiào de jīngshén xiànshí de fǎ xiàn. Zài wǒ zhīqián, qítā rén bǐ wǒ gēng shēnrù dì tànjiù zhèxiē shénshèng de àomì, dàn rúguǒ wǒ de huǒyàn bùgòu dà, tā réngrán shì zhēnshí de, yěxǔ yǒurén kěyǐ yòng tā de huǒyàn diǎnrán tāmen de làzhú.
Zuòzhě:A. W. Tozer
yīlìnuòyī zhōu zhījiāgē
1948 nián 6 yuè 16 rì
THE PURSUIT OF GOD:
Contents
Introduction ..... VII
Preface......IX
Ch. 1: Following Hard after God
Ch. 2: The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing
Ch. 3: Removing the Veil
Ch. 4: Apprehending God.
Ch. 5: The Universal Presence.
Ch. 6: The Speaking Voice.
Ch. 7: The Gaze of the Soul.
Ch. 8: Restoring the Creator-Creature Relation.
Ch. 9: Meekness and Rest.
Ch. 10: The Sacrament of Living.
About the Author
Introduction
Here is a masterly study of the inner life by a heart thirsting after God, eager to grasp at least the outskirts of His ways, the abyss of His love for sinners, and the height of His unapproachable majesty – and it was written by a busy pastor in Chicago!
Who could imagine David writing the twenty-third Psalm on South Halsted Street, or a medieval mystic finding inspiration in a small study on the second floor of a frame house on that vast, flat checkerboard of endless streets.
Where cross the crowded ways of life
Where sound the cries of race and clan,
In haunts of wretchedness and need,
On shadowed threshold dark with fears,
And paths where hide the lures of greed...
But even as Dr. Frank Mason North of New York says in his immortal poem, so Mr. Tozer says in this book:
Above the noise of selfish strife
We hear Thy voice, O Son of Man.
My acquaintance with the author is limited to brief visits and loving fellowship in his church. There I dis- covered a self-made scholar, an omnivorous reader with a remarkable library of theological and devotional books, and one who seemed to burn the midnight oil in pursuit of God. His book is the result of long meditation and much prayer. It is not a collection of sermons. It does not deal with the pulpit and the pew but with the soul thirsty for God. The chapters could be summarized in Moses' prayer, Show me thy glory, or Paul's exclamation, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! It is theology not of the head but of the heart.
There is deep insight, sobriety of style, and a uni- versality of outlook that is refreshing. The author has few quotations but he knows the saints and mystics of the centuries - Saint Augustine, Nicholas of Cusa, Thomas à Kempis, Friedrich von Hügel, Charles Finney, John Wesley, and many more. The ten chapters are heart searching and the prayers at the close of each are for the closet, not the pulpit. I felt the nearness of God while reading them.
Here is a book for every pastor, missionary, and devout Christian. It deals with the deep things of God and the riches of His grace. Above all, it has the keynote of sincerity and humility.
Samuel M. Zwemer
New York City
追求神：
目录
简介...... VII
序言......IX
第 1 章：追随神
第 2 章：一无所有的幸福
第 3 章：揭开面纱
第 4 章：领悟神。
第 5 章：宇宙存在。
第 6 章：说话的声音。
第 7 章：灵魂的凝视。
第 8 章：恢复造物主与受造物的关系。
第 9 章：温柔与安息。
第 10 章：生活的圣礼。
关于作者
简介
这是一篇对内心生活的精妙研究，作者是一颗渴望上帝的人，他渴望至少了解上帝之道的外围、他对罪人的深爱以及他不可接近的威严——而且它是由芝加哥一位忙碌的牧师写的！
谁能想象大卫在南哈尔斯特德街写下第二十三篇诗篇，或者一位中世纪神秘主义者在那条广阔而平坦的无尽街道上一栋木屋二楼的小书房里找到灵感。
拥挤的人生路上，
种族和宗族的呐喊声，
在悲惨和贫困的困扰中，
在充满恐惧的阴暗门槛上，
在隐藏贪婪诱惑的小路上……
但正如纽约的弗兰克·梅森·诺斯博士在他不朽的诗篇中所说，托泽先生在这本书中也说：
在自私纷争的喧嚣之上，
我们听到了你的声音，哦，人子。
我与作者的相识仅限于短暂的拜访和在教堂的友情交流。在那里，我发现了一位自学成才的学者，一位博览群书的读者，拥有一座令人惊叹的神学和灵修书籍库，以及一位似乎为了追寻上帝而熬夜不眠的人。他的书是长期冥想和多次祈祷的结果。它不是布道集。它不涉及讲坛和教堂长凳，而是关于渴望上帝的灵魂。这些章节可以总结为摩西的祷告“求祢显明祢的荣耀”或保罗的感叹“深哉！上帝的智慧和知识多么丰富！”这不是头脑的神学，而是心灵的神学。
这本书有深刻的洞察力、严肃的风格和令人耳目一新的普遍观点。 作者引用的引文很少，但他了解几个世纪以来的圣人和神秘主义者——圣奥古斯丁、库萨的尼古拉斯、托马斯·阿·肯皮斯、弗里德里希·冯·休格尔、查尔斯·芬尼、约翰·卫斯理等等。这十章都是发人深省的，每章结尾的祷告都是为密室而不是讲台而写的。阅读这些祷告时，我感到上帝就在我身边。
这是一本适合每一位牧师、传教士和虔诚基督徒的书。它涉及上帝的深奥之处和他丰富的恩典。最重要的是，它以真诚和谦卑为基调。
塞缪尔·M·兹维默
纽约市
Zhuīqiú shén:
Mùlù
jiǎnjiè...... VII
xùyán......IX
Dì 1 zhāng: Zhuīsuí shén
Dì 2 zhāng: Yīwúsuǒyǒu de xìngfú
Dì 3 zhāng: Jiē kāi miànshā
Dì 4 zhāng: Lǐngwù shén.
Dì 5 zhāng: Yǔzhòu cúnzài.
Dì 6 zhāng: Shuōhuà de shēngyīn.
Dì 7 zhāng: Línghún de níngshì.
Dì 8 zhāng: Huīfù zàowùzhǔ yǔ shòu zàowù de guānxì.
Dì 9 zhāng: Wēnróu yǔ ānxí.
Dì 10 zhāng: Shēnghuó de shèng lǐ.
Guānyú zuòzhě
Jiǎnjiè
zhè shì yī piān duì nèixīn shēnghuó de jīngmiào yánjiū, zuòzhě shì yī kē kěwàng shàngdì de rén, tā kěwàng zhìshǎo liǎojiě shàngdì zhī dào de wàiwéi, tā duì zuìrén de shēn ài yǐjí tā bùkě jiējìn de wēiyán——érqiě tā shì yóu zhījiāgē yī wèi mánglù de mùshī xiě de!
Shéi néng xiǎngxiàng dà wèi zài nán hā ěr sī tè dé jiē xiě xià dì èrshísān piān shīpiān, huòzhě yī wèi zhōngshìjì shénmì zhǔyì zhě zài nà tiáo guǎngkuò ér píngtǎn de wújìn jiēdào shàng yī dòng mùwū èr lóu de xiǎo shūfáng lǐ zhǎodào línggǎn.
Yǒngjǐ de rénshēng lùshàng,
zhǒngzú hé zōngzú de nàhǎn shēng,
zài bēicǎn hé pínkùn de kùnrǎo zhōng,
zài chōngmǎn kǒngjù de yīn'àn ménkǎn shàng,
zài yǐncáng tānlán yòuhuò de xiǎo lùshàng……
dàn zhèngrú niǔyuē de fúlánkè·méisēn·nuò sī bóshì zài tā bùxiǔ de shīpiān zhōng suǒ shuō, tuō zé xiānshēng zài zhè běn shū zhōng yě shuō:
Zài zìsī fēnzhēng de xuānxiāo zhī shàng,
wǒmen tīng dàole nǐ de shēngyīn, ó, rén zǐ.
Wǒ yǔ zuòzhě de xiāngshí jǐn xiànyú duǎnzàn de bàifǎng hé zài jiàotáng de yǒuqíng jiāoliú. Zài nàlǐ, wǒ fāxiànle yī wèi zìxué chéngcái de xuézhě, yī wèi bólǎn qún shū de dúzhě, yǒngyǒu yīzuò lìng rén jīngtàn de shénxué hé líng xiū shūjí kù, yǐjí yī wèi sìhū wèile zhuīxún shàngdì ér áoyè bùmián de rén. Tā de shū shì chángqí míngxiǎng hé duō cì qídǎo de jiéguǒ. Tā bùshì bùdào jí. Tā bù shèjí jiǎngtán hé jiàotáng cháng dèng, ér shì guānyú kěwàng shàngdì de línghún. Zhèxiē zhāngjié kěyǐ zǒngjié wéi móxī de dǎogào “qiú mí xiǎnmíng mí de róngyào” huò bǎoluó de gǎntàn “shēn zāi! Shàngdì de zhìhuì hé zhīshì duōme fēngfù!” Zhè bùshì tóunǎo de shénxué, ér shì xīnlíng de shénxué.
Zhè běn shū yǒu shēnkè de dòngchá lì, yánsù de fēnggé hé lìng rén ěrmùyīxīn de pǔbiàn guāndiǎn. Zuòzhě yǐnyòng de yǐnwén hěn shǎo, dàn tā liǎojiě jǐ gè shìjì yǐlái de shèngrén hé shénmì zhǔyì zhě——shèng àogǔsīdīng, kù sà de nígǔlāsī, tuōmǎsī·ā·kěn pí sī, fú lǐ délǐ xī·féng·xiū gé ěr, chá'ěrsī·fēn ní, yuēhàn·wèisīlǐ děng děng. Zhè shí zhāng dōu shì fārénshēnxǐng de, měi zhāng jiéwěi de dǎogào dōu shì wèi mìshì ér bùshì jiǎngtái ér xiě de. Yuèdú zhèxiē dǎogào shí, wǒ gǎndào shàngdì jiù zài wǒ shēnbiān.
Zhè shì yī běn shìhé měi yī wèi mùshī, chuánjiào shì hé qiánchéng jīdū tú de shū. Tā shèjí shàngdì de shēn'ào zhī chù hé tā fēngfù de ēndiǎn. Zuì zhòngyào de shì, tā yǐ zhēnchéng hé qiānbēi wèi jīdiào.
Sāi móu ěr·M·zī wéi mò
niǔyuē shì
THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY
Table of Contents
Preface
1: Why We Must Think Rightly About God.
2: God Incomprehensible.
3: A Divine Attribute: Something True About God.
4: The Holy God.
5: The Self-existence of God.
6: The Self-sufficiency of God.
7: The Eternity of God.
8: God's Infinitude.
9: The Immutability of God
10: The Divine Omniscience
11: The Wisdom of God.
12: The Omnipotence of God.
13: The Divine Transcendence.
14: God's Omnipresence.
15: The Faithfulness of God.
16: The Goodness of God.
17: The Justice of God.
18: The Mercy of God
19: The Grace of God.
20: The Love of God.
21: The Holiness of God
22: The Sovereignty of God.
23: The Open Secret.
圣 洁 的 知 识
Shèng-jié de zhī-shì
目 录 mù-lù
前 言 qián-yán
1：为什么我们必须正确地思考上帝。
1: Wèishéme wǒmen bìxū zhèngquè de sīkǎo shàngdì.
2：上 帝 不 可 理 解。
2: Shàng-dì bù-kě lǐ-jiě.
3：神圣属性：关于上帝的一些真实的东西。3: Shénshèng shǔxìng: Guānyú shàngdì de yīxiē zhēnshí de dōngxī.
4：神 圣 的 上 帝。
4: Shén-shèng de shàng-dì
5：上 帝 的 自 我 存 在。
5: Shàng-dì de zì-wǒ cún-zài.
6：上 帝 的 自 给 自 足。
6: Shàng-dì de zì jǐ zì-zú.
7：上 帝 的 永 恒。
7: Shàng-dì de yǒng-héng
8：上 帝 的 无 限 性。
8: Shàng-dì de wú-xiàn xìng.
9：上 帝 的 不 变 性
9: Shàng-dì de bù biàn-xìng
10：上 帝 的 全 知
10: Shàng-dì de quán-zhī
11：上 帝 的 智 慧。
11: Shàng-dì de zhì-huì.
12：上 帝 的 全 能。
12: Shàng-dì de quán-néng.
13：上 帝 的 超 越 性。
13: Shàng-dì de chāo-yuè xìng
14：上 帝 的 无 所 不 在。
14: Shàng-dì de wú-suǒ-bù-zài
15：上 帝 的 忠 诚。
15: Shàng-dì de zhōng-chéng.
16：上 帝 的 善 良。
16: Shàng-dì de shàn liáng.
17：上 帝 的 正 义。
17: Shàng-dì de zhèng-yì.
18：神 的 怜 悯
18: Shén de lián-mǐn
19：神 的 恩 典。
19: Shén de ēn-diǎn.
20：神 的 爱。
20: Shén de ài.
21：神 的 圣 洁
21: Shén de shèng-jié.
22：神 的 主 权。
22: Shén de zhǔ-quán.
23：公 开 的 秘 密。
23: Gōng-kāi de mì-mì.
Preface
¹True religion confronts earth with heaven and brings eternity to bear upon time. The messenger of Christ, though he speaks from God, must also, as the Quakers used to say, "speak to the condition" of his hearers; otherwise he will speak a language known only to himself. His message must be not only timeless but timely. He must speak to his own generation.
²The message of this book does not grow out of these times but it is appropriate to them. It is called forth by a condition which has existed in the Church for some years and is steadily growing worse. I refer to the loss of the concept of majesty from the popular religious mind. The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping men. This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.
³The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking.
⁴With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words, "Be still, and know that I am God," mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshipper in this middle period of the twentieth first century.
⁵This loss of the concept of majesty has come just when the forces of religion are making dramatic gains, and the churches are more prosperous than at any time within the past several hundred years. But the alarming thing is that our gains are mostly external and our losses wholly internal; and since it is the quality of our religion that is affected by internal conditions, it may be that our supposed gains are but losses spread over a wider field.
⁶The only way to recoup our spiritual losses is to go back to the cause of them and make such corrections as the truth warrants.
⁷The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them. It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right, while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is.
⁸As my humble contribution to a better understanding of the Majesty in the heavens, I offer this reverent study of the attributes of God. Were Christians today reading such works as those of Augustine or Anselm a book like this would have no reason for being. But such illuminated masters are known to modern Christians only by name. Publishers dutifully reprint their books, and in due time, these appear on the shelves of our studies. But the whole trouble lies right there: they remain on the shelves. The current religious mood makes the reading of them virtually impossible even for educated Christians.
⁹Apparently, not many Christians will wade through hundreds of pages of heavy religious matter requiring sustained concentration. Such books remind too many persons of the secular classics they were forced to read while they were in school, and they turned away from them with a feeling of discouragement.
¹⁰For that reason, an effort such as this may not be without some beneficial effect. Since this book is neither esoteric nor technical, and since it is written in the language of worship with no pretension to elegant literary style, perhaps some persons may be drawn to read it. While I believe that nothing will be found here contrary to sound Christian theology, I yet write not for professional theologians but for plain persons whose hearts stir them up to seek after God Himself.
¹¹It is my hope that this small book may contribute somewhat to the promotion of personal heart religion among us; and should a few persons by reading it be encouraged to begin the practice of reverent meditation on the being of God, that will more than repay the labor required to produce it.
A. W. Tozer, Aiden Wilson Tozer (1897—1963)
序言
¹真正的宗教将天国与人间对立起来，将永恒带到时间中。基督的使者虽然代表上帝说话，但正如贵格会教徒常说的那样，也必须“针对听众的状况说话”；否则，他讲的就只有他自己知道。他的信息不仅要永恒，而且要及时。他必须向他自己的一代人讲话。
²这本书的信息并非源于这些时代，但它适合这个时代。它是由教会中存在了几年并且正在逐渐恶化的一种状况引起的。我指的是大众宗教思想中威严概念的丧失。教会放弃了曾经崇高的上帝概念，取而代之的是低劣、卑鄙的概念，完全不值得思考，不值得崇拜。她不是故意这样做的，而是一点一点地、不知不觉地这样做的；而她的无知只会使她的处境更加悲惨。
³ 基督徒几乎普遍对上帝抱有轻视的态度，这是我们周围百般小恶的根源。我们宗教思想中的这一基本错误导致了基督徒生活的全新哲学。
⁴随着我们失去威严感，我们对神圣存在的宗教敬畏和意识也进一步丧失。我们失去了敬拜精神，失去了向内退缩以崇拜的沉默与上帝相遇的能力。现代基督教根本没有培养出能够欣赏或体验精神生活的基督徒。“你们要安静，要知道我是上帝”这句话对二十一世纪中期自信、忙碌的崇拜者来说几乎没有任何意义。
⁵这种威严概念的丧失恰逢宗教力量取得巨大进步之时，教会比过去几百年的任何时候都更加繁荣。但令人担忧的是，我们的收获大多是外在的，而我们的损失则完全是内在的； 而且，由于我们的宗教品质受到内部条件的影响，我们所谓的收获可能只是更广泛的损失。
⁶弥补我们精神损失的唯一方法是回到导致损失的原因，并根据事实做出必要的纠正。
⁷对神圣知识的衰退给我们带来了麻烦。重新发现上帝的威严将大大有助于治愈它们。如果我们对上帝的观念是错误的或不充分的，我们就不可能保持我们的道德实践健全和内心态度正确。如果我们想把精神力量带回我们的生活，我们必须开始更接近上帝本来的样子来思考他。
⁸作为我对更好地理解天堂威严的微薄贡献，我提供了这项对上帝属性的虔诚研究。如果今天的基督徒阅读奥古斯丁或安瑟伦这样的作品，这样的书就没有存在的理由了。但现代基督徒只知道这些开明的大师的名字。 出版商尽职尽责地重印他们的书，这些书在适当的时候出现在我们书房的书架上。但问题就在这里：它们仍然在书架上。当前的宗教情绪使得即使是受过教育的基督徒也几乎不可能阅读它们。
⁹显然，没有多少基督徒会费力地阅读数百页需要持续集中注意力的沉重宗教内容。这样的书让太多人想起了他们在学校时被迫阅读的世俗经典，他们带着沮丧的情绪拒绝了这些经典。
¹⁰因此，这样的努力可能并非没有一些有益的效果。由于这本书既不深奥也不技术性，而且是用崇拜的语言写成的，没有优雅的文学风格，也许有些人会被吸引去阅读它。虽然我相信这里不会有任何与健全的基督教神学相悖的东西，但我并不是为专业神学家写的，而是为那些内心被激励去寻求上帝本身的普通人写的。
¹¹我希望这本小书能对我们个人心灵宗教的推广有所贡献；如果一些人通过阅读它而受到鼓励，开始虔诚地冥想上帝的存在，那么这将远远超过创作它所需的劳动。
A·W·托泽，艾登·威尔逊·托泽（1897—1963）
Xùyán
¹zhēnzhèng de zōngjiào jiāng tiānguó yǔ rénjiān duìlì qǐlái, jiāng yǒnghéng dài dào shíjiān zhōng. Jīdū de shǐzhě suīrán dàibiǎo shàngdì shuōhuà, dàn zhèngrú guì gé huì jiàotú cháng shuō dì nàyàng, yě bìxū “zhēnduì tīngzhòng de zhuàngkuàng shuōhuà”; fǒuzé, tā jiǎng de jiù zhǐyǒu tā zìjǐ zhīdào. Tā de xìnxī bùjǐn yào yǒnghéng, érqiě yào jíshí. Tā bìxū xiàng tā zìjǐ de yīdài rén jiǎnghuà.
²Zhè běn shū de xìnxī bìngfēi yuán yú zhèxiē shídài, dàn tā shìhé zhège shídài. Tā shì yóu jiàohuì zhōng cúnzàile jǐ nián bìngqiě zhèngzài zhújiàn èhuà de yī zhǒng zhuàngkuàng yǐnqǐ de. Wǒ zhǐ de shì dàzhòng zōngjiào sīxiǎng zhōng wēiyán gàiniàn de sàngshī. Jiàohuì fàngqìle céngjīng chónggāo de shàngdì gàiniàn, qǔ'érdàizhī dì shì dīliè, bēibǐ de gàiniàn, wánquán bù zhídé sīkǎo, bù zhídé chóngbài. Tā bùshì gùyì zhèyàng zuò de, ér shì yī diǎn yī diǎn de, bùzhī bù jué de zhèyàng zuò de; ér tā de wúzhī zhǐ huì shǐ tā de chǔjìng gèngjiā bēicǎn.
³Jīdū tú jīhū pǔbiàn duì shàngdì bào yǒu qīngshì de tàidù, zhè shì wǒmen zhōuwéi bǎibān xiǎo è de gēnyuán. Wǒmen zōngjiào sīxiǎng zhōng de zhè yī jīběn cuòwù dǎozhìle jīdū tú shēnghuó de quánxīn zhéxué.
⁴Suízhe wǒmen shīqù wēiyán gǎn, wǒmen duì shénshèng cúnzài de zōngjiào jìngwèi hé yìshí yě jìnyībù sàngshī. Wǒmen shīqùle jìng bài jīngshén, shīqùle xiàng nèi tuìsuō yǐ chóngbài de chénmò yǔ shàngdì xiāngyù de nénglì. Xiàndài jīdūjiào gēnběn méiyǒu péiyǎng chū nénggòu xīnshǎng huò tǐyàn jīngshén shēnghuó de jīdū tú.“Nǐmen yào ānjìng, yào zhīdào wǒ shì shàngdì” zhè jù huà duì èrshíyī shìjì zhōngqí zìxìn, mánglù de chóngbài zhě lái shuō jīhū méiyǒu rènhé yìyì.
⁵Zhè zhǒng wēiyán gàiniàn de sàngshī qià féng zōngjiào lìliàng qǔdé jùdà jìnbù zhī shí, jiàohuì bǐ guòqù jǐ bǎi nián de rènhé shíhòu dōu gèngjiā fánróng. Dàn lìng rén dānyōu de shì, wǒmen de shōuhuò dàduō shì wài zài de, ér wǒmen de sǔnshī zé wánquán shì nèizài de; érqiě, yóuyú wǒmen de zōngjiào pǐnzhí shòudào nèibù tiáojiàn de yǐngxiǎng, wǒmen suǒwèi de shōuhuò kěnéng zhǐshì gèng guǎngfàn de sǔnshī.
⁶Míbǔ wǒmen jīngshén sǔnshī de wéiyī fāngfǎ shì huí dào dǎozhì sǔnshī de yuányīn, bìng gēnjù shìshí zuò chū bìyào de jiūzhèng.
⁷Duì shénshèng zhīshì de shuāituì gěi wǒmen dài láile máfan. Chóngxīn fāxiàn shàngdì de wēiyán jiāng dàdà yǒu zhù yú zhìyù tāmen. Rúguǒ wǒmen duì shàngdì de guānniàn shì cuòwù de huò bù chōngfèn de, wǒmen jiù bù kěnéng bǎochí wǒmen de dàodé shíjiàn jiànquán hé nèixīn tàidù zhèngquè. Rúguǒ wǒmen xiǎng bǎ jīngshén lìliàng dài huí wǒmen de shēnghuó, wǒmen bìxū kāishǐ gèng jiējìn shàngdì běnlái de yàngzi lái sīkǎo tā.
⁸Zuòwéi wǒ duì gèng hǎo dì lǐjiě tiāntáng wēiyán de wéi báo gòngxiàn, wǒ tígōngle zhè xiàng duì shàngdì shǔxìng de qiánchéng yánjiū. Rúguǒ jīntiān de jīdū tú yuèdú àogǔsīdīng huò ān sè lún zhèyàng de zuòpǐn, zhèyàng de shū jiù méiyǒu cúnzài de lǐyóule. Dàn xiàndài jīdū tú zhǐ zhīdào zhèxiē kāimíng de dàshī de míngzì. Chūbǎn shāng jìnzhí jìnzé dì chóngyìn tāmen de shū, zhèxiē shū zài shìdàng de shíhòu chūxiàn zài wǒmen shūfáng de shūjià shàng. Dàn wèntí jiù zài zhèlǐ: Tāmen réngrán zài shūjià shàng. Dāngqián de zōngjiào qíngxù shǐdé jíshǐ shì shòuguò jiàoyù de jīdū tú yě jīhū bù kěnéng yuèdú tāmen.
⁹ Xiǎnrán, méiyǒu duōshǎo jīdū tú huì fèilì de yuèdú shù bǎi yè xūyào chíxù jízhōng zhùyì lì de chénzhòng zōngjiào nèiróng. Zhèyàng de shū ràng tài duō rén xiǎngqǐle tāmen zài xuéxiào shí bèi pò yuèdú de shìsú jīngdiǎn, tāmen dàizhe jǔsàng de qíngxù jùjuéle zhèxiē jīngdiǎn.
¹⁰ Yīncǐ, zhèyàng de nǔlì kěnéng bìngfēi méiyǒu yīxiē yǒuyì de xiàoguǒ. Yóuyú zhè běn shū jì bù shēn'ào yě bù jìshùxìng, érqiě shì yòng chóngbài de yǔyán xiěchéng de, méiyǒu yōuyǎ de wénxué fēnggé, yěxǔ yǒuxiē rén huì bèi xīyǐn qù yuèdú tā. Suīrán wǒ xiāngxìn zhèlǐ bù huì yǒu rènhé yǔ jiànquán de jīdūjiào shénxué xiāngbèi de dōngxī, dàn wǒ bìng bùshì wèi zhuānyè shénxué jiā xiě de, ér shì wèi nàxiē nèixīn bèi jīlì qù xúnqiú shàngdì běnshēn de pǔtōng rén xiě de.
¹¹ Wǒ xīwàng zhè běn xiǎo shū néng duì wǒmen gèrén xīnlíng zōngjiào de tuīguǎng yǒu suǒ gòngxiàn; rúguǒ yīxiē rén tōngguò yuèdú tā ér shòudào gǔlì, kāishǐ qiánchéng de míngxiǎng shàngdì de cúnzài, nàme zhè jiāng yuǎn yuǎn chāoguò chuàngzuò tā suǒ xū de láodòng.
A·W·tuō zé, ài dēng·wēi'ěrxùn·tuō zé (1897—1963)
THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY
1
Why We Must Think Rightly About God
O, Lord God Almighty, not the God of the philosophers and the wise but the God of the prophets and apostles; and better than all, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, may I express Thee unblamed?
They that know Thee not may call upon Thee as other than Thou art, and so worship not Thee but a creature of their own fancy; therefore enlighten our minds that we may know Thee as Thou art, so that we may perfectly love Thee and worthily praise Thee.
In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
[O, Lord God Almighty, not the God of the philosophers and the wise but the God of the prophets and apostles; and better than all, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, may I express You unblamed?
They that know You not may call upon You as other than You are, and so worship not You but a creature of their own fancy; therefore enlighten our minds that we may know You as You are, so that we may perfectly love You and worthily praise You.
In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.]
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
The history of mankind will probably show that no people have ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.
For this reason, the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God.
Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, "What comes into your mind when you think about God?" we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man. Were we able to know exactly what our most influential religious leaders think of God today, we might be able with some precision to foretell where the Church will stand tomorrow.
Without doubt, the mightiest thought the mind can entertain is the thought of God, and the weightiest word in any language is its word for God. Thought and speech are God's gifts to creatures made in His image; these are intimately associated with Him and impossible apart from Him. It is highly significant that the first word was the Word (Logos in Greek): "And the Word (Logos) was with God, and the Word (Logos) was God." We may speak because God spoke. In Him, words and ideas are indivisible.
That our idea of God corresponds as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us. Compared with our actual thoughts about Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence. Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.
The right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb, the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.
It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity.
All the problems of heaven and earth, though they were to confront us together and at once, would be nothing compared with the overwhelming problem of God: That He is; what He is like; and what we as moral beings must do about Him.
The man who comes to a right belief about God is relieved of ten thousand temporal problems, for he sees at once that these have to do with matters which at the most cannot concern him for very long; but even if the multiple burdens of time may be lifted from him, the one mighty single burden of eternity begins to press down upon him with a weight more crushing than all the woes of the world piled one upon another. That mighty burden is his obligation to God. It includes an instant and lifelong duty to love God with every power of mind and soul, to obey Him perfectly, and to worship Him acceptably. And when the man's laboring conscience tells him that he has done none of these things but has from childhood been guilty of foul revolt against the Majesty in the heavens, the inner pressure of self-accusation may become too heavy to bear.
The gospel can lift this destroying burden from the mind, give beauty for ashes, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. But unless the weight of the burden is felt, the gospel can mean nothing to the man; and until he sees a vision of God high and lifted up, there will be no woe and no burden. Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them.
Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is in itself a monstrous sin and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness. Always this God will conform to the image of the one who created it and will be base or pure, cruel or kind, according to the moral state of the mind from which it emerges.
A god begotten in the shadows of a fallen heart will quite naturally be no true likeness of the true God. "Thou thoughtest," said the Lord to the wicked man in the psalm, "that I was altogether such as one as thyself." Surely this must be a serious affront to the Most High God before whom cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabbath."
Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place.
"When they knew God," wrote Paul, "they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
Then followed the worship of idols fashioned after the likeness of men and birds and beasts and creeping things. But this series of degrading acts began in the mind. Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.
Perverted notions about God soon rot the spirituality in which they appear. The long career of Israel demonstrates this clearly enough, and the history of the Church confirms it. So necessary to the Church is a lofty concept of God that when that concept in any measure declines, the Church with her worship and her moral standards declines along with it. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.
Before the Christian Church goes into eclipse anywhere there must first be a corrupting of her simple basic theology. She simply gets a wrong answer to the question, "What is God like?" and goes on from there. Though she may continue to cling to a sound nominal creed, her practical working creed has become false. The masses of her adherents come to believe that God is different from what He actually is; and that is heresy of the most insidious and deadly kind.
The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy of Him - and of her. In all her prayers and labours, this should have first place. We do the greatest service to the next generation of Christians by passing on to them undimmed and undiminished that noble concept of God, which we received from our Hebrew and Christian fathers of Faith of God of generations past. This will prove of greater value to them than anything that art or science can devise.
O, God of Bethel, by whose hand
Thy people still are fed;
Who through this weary pilgrimage
Hast all our fathers led!
Our vows, our prayers we now present
Before Thy throne of grace:
God of our fathers! be the God
Of their succeeding race.
圣洁的知识
1
为什么我们必须正确地思考上帝
哦，全能的上帝，不是哲学家和智者的上帝，而是先知和使徒的上帝；比所有人都好，我们主耶稣基督的上帝和父亲，我可以毫无责备地表达你吗？
那些不认识你的人可能会把你当作不是你的人来称呼，因此崇拜的不是你，而是他们自己想象出来的生物；因此，请启发我们的思想，让我们认识你，这样我们就可以完全爱你，值得赞美你。
奉主耶稣基督的名。阿门。
[哦，全能的上帝，不是哲学家和智者的上帝，而是先知和使徒的上帝；比所有人都好，我们主耶稣基督的上帝和父亲，我可以毫无责备地表达你吗？
那些不认识你的人可能会以非你的方式呼唤你，因此崇拜的不是你，而是他们自己想象出来的生物；因此，请启发我们的思想，让我们认识你的本来面目，以便我们能够完全地爱你，并值得赞美你。
奉主耶稣基督的名。阿门。]
当我们想到上帝时，我们脑海中浮现的是我们最重要的东西。
人类的历史可能会表明，没有任何人能够超越其宗教信仰，而人类的精神历史将明确证明，没有任何宗教能够超越其对上帝的观念。崇拜是纯洁的还是卑鄙的，取决于崇拜者对上帝的崇高或低俗想法。
因此，教会面临的最严肃的问题始终是上帝本身，关于任何人的最重要事实不是他在特定时间会说什么或做什么，而是他内心深处认为上帝是什么样的。我们倾向于按照灵魂的秘密法则朝着我们对上帝的心理形象前进。 这不仅适用于个别基督徒，也适用于组成教会的基督徒团体。教会最能说明问题的地方始终是她对上帝的看法，正如她最重要的信息是她对上帝所说或未说的话一样，因为她的沉默往往比她的言语更有说服力。她永远无法逃避她对上帝的见证的自我披露。
如果我们能够从任何人那里得到对“当你想到上帝时，你会想到什么？”这个问题的完整答案，我们就可以肯定地预测这个人的精神未来。如果我们能够确切地知道我们今天最有影响力的宗教领袖对上帝的看法，我们就可以准确地预测教会明天的立场。
毫无疑问，心灵所能容纳的最强大的思想是对上帝的思想，任何语言中最有分量的词是它对上帝的称呼。思想和言语是上帝赐予按照他的形象创造的生物的礼物；它们与他密切相关，离开他就不可能存在。 第一个词是道（希腊语为 Logos），这一点非常重要：“道（Logos）与神同在，道（Logos）就是神。”我们可以说话，因为神说话了。在神里面，话语和思想是不可分割的。
我们对神的观念尽可能接近神的真实存在，这对我们来说非常重要。与我们对神的实际想法相比，我们的信条陈述无关紧要。我们对神的真实观念可能被埋没在传统宗教观念的垃圾之下，可能需要经过聪明而有力的搜索，才能最终挖掘出来，揭露它的真面目。只有经过痛苦的自我探索，我们才有可能发现我们对神的真实信仰。
正确的神观不仅是系统神学的基础，也是基督徒实际生活的基础。崇拜就像是圣殿的地基；如果地基不充分或不垂直，整个结构迟早会倒塌。 我认为，几乎所有教义上的错误或基督教伦理应用上的失败，最终都归因于对上帝的不完美和卑鄙的思想。
我认为，二十世纪中叶流行的基督教上帝观念是如此颓废，以至于完全有损于至高无上的上帝的尊严，实际上对自称信徒的人来说，这相当于一场道德灾难。
天上地下的所有问题，即使同时摆在我们面前，也比不上上帝这个压倒性的问题：他是谁；他是什么样的；我们作为道德存在必须对他做些什么。
正确信仰上帝的人会摆脱上万个世俗问题，因为他立刻明白这些问题最多不会困扰他很长时间；但即使时间的多重负担可以从他身上卸下，永恒的巨大负担也会开始压在他身上，其重量比世界上所有苦难堆积在一起更重。那巨大的负担就是他对上帝的义务。它包括一种即时和终生的责任，即用心智和灵魂的一切力量爱上帝，完全服从他，并以可接受的方式崇拜他。当这个人劳累的良心告诉他，他没有做过这些事情，只是从小就犯了对天国威严的卑鄙反抗，内心的自责压力可能会变得难以承受。
福音可以解除心灵中这种毁灭性的负担，让灰烬变美丽，让沉重的精神穿上赞美的外衣。 但是，除非感受到负担的重担，否则福音对人而言毫无意义；除非他看到上帝高高在上的景象，否则他不会有苦难和负担。对上帝的低下看法会毁掉所有持有这种看法的人的福音。
在人心容易犯的罪中，几乎没有什么比偶像崇拜更让上帝憎恨，因为偶像崇拜本质上是对上帝品格的诽谤。偶像崇拜的心认为上帝不是上帝，而上帝本身就是一种可怕的罪恶，用一个按照自己的形象造出来的神来代替真正的上帝。这个上帝总是会符合创造它的人的形象，他会卑鄙还是纯洁，残忍还是善良，这取决于他从中产生的思想的道德状态。
在堕落心灵的阴影中诞生的神自然不会是真正的上帝。“你想，”主在诗篇中对恶人说，“我恰好和你一样。” 这肯定是对至高神的严重冒犯，基路伯和撒拉弗在神面前不断呼喊：“圣哉！圣哉！圣哉！安息日的主神。”
我们要小心，不要骄傲地接受错误的观念，认为偶像崇拜只是跪在可见的崇拜对象面前，文明人因此不受偶像崇拜的影响。偶像崇拜的本质是对神产生不配的想法。它始于思想，可能存在于没有公开崇拜行为的地方。
保罗写道：“他们虽然知道神，却不当作神荣耀他，也不感谢他；他们的思念变为虚妄，无知的心就昏暗了。”
接着，他们开始崇拜偶像，这些偶像是按照人、鸟、兽、爬行动物的形象塑造的。但这一系列堕落的行为始于思想。 对上帝的错误观念不仅是偶像崇拜的污秽之水的源泉，而且它们本身就是偶像崇拜。偶像崇拜者只是想象上帝的事情，并把它们当作是真的。
对上帝的扭曲观念很快就会腐蚀它们所体现的精神。以色列的漫长历程清楚地证明了这一点，教会的历史也证实了这一点。对上帝的崇高观念对教会是如此必要，以至于当这种观念在任何程度上衰落时，教会及其崇拜和道德标准都会随之衰落。任何教会的第一步都是在它放弃对上帝的崇高评价时走下坡路的。
在任何地方，基督教教会在衰落之前，必须首先腐化其简单的基本神学。她只是对“上帝是什么样的？”这个问题给出了错误的答案，然后从那里继续下去。尽管她可能继续坚持一个健全的名义信条，但她的实际工作信条已经变得错误。她的广大信徒开始相信上帝与他实际上的样子不同； 这是最阴险、最致命的异端邪说。
当今基督教会肩负的最重大义务是净化和提升她对上帝的观念，直到它再次配得上上帝和她自己。在她所有的祈祷和劳动中，这应该放在首位。我们为下一代基督徒提供了最大的服务，就是把我们从过去几代希伯来和基督教信仰上帝的先辈那里得到的高尚的上帝观念毫无保留地传给他们。这将证明对他们来说比艺术或科学所能设计的任何东西都更有价值。
哦，伯特利的上帝，你的人民仍然靠你的手得到喂养；
你带领我们所有的祖先走过这段疲惫的朝圣之旅！
现在，我们将我们的誓言、我们的祈祷呈现在你的恩典宝座前：
我们祖先的上帝！愿你成为他们后代的上帝。
Shèngjié de zhīshì
1
wèishéme wǒmen bìxū zhèngquè de sīkǎo shàngdì
ó, quánnéng de shàngdì, bùshì zhéxué jiā hé zhìzhě de shàngdì, ér shì xiānzhī hé shǐtú de shàngdì; bǐ suǒyǒu rén dōu hǎo, wǒmen zhǔ yēsū jīdū de shàngdì hé fùqīn, wǒ kěyǐ háo wú zébèi dì biǎodá nǐ ma?
Nàxiē bù rènshí nǐ de rén kěnéng huì bǎ nǐ dàng zuò bùshì nǐ de rén lái chēnghu, yīncǐ chóngbài de bùshì nǐ, ér shì tāmen zìjǐ xiǎngxiàng chūlái de shēngwù; yīncǐ, qǐng qǐfā wǒmen de sīxiǎng, ràng wǒmen rènshí nǐ, zhèyàng wǒmen jiù kěyǐ wánquán ài nǐ, zhídé zànměi nǐ.
Fèng zhǔ yēsū jīdū de míng. Āmén.
[Ó, quánnéng de shàngdì, bùshì zhéxué jiā hé zhìzhě de shàngdì, ér shì xiānzhī hé shǐtú de shàngdì; bǐ suǒyǒu rén dōu hǎo, wǒmen zhǔ yēsū jīdū de shàngdì hé fùqīn, wǒ kěyǐ háo wú zébèi dì biǎodá nǐ ma?
Nàxiē bù rènshí nǐ de rén kěnéng huì yǐ fēi nǐ de fāngshì hūhuàn nǐ, yīncǐ chóngbài de bùshì nǐ, ér shì tāmen zìjǐ xiǎngxiàng chūlái de shēngwù; yīncǐ, qǐng qǐfā wǒmen de sīxiǎng, ràng wǒmen rènshí nǐ de běnlái miànmù, yǐbiàn wǒmen nénggòu wánquán de ài nǐ, bìng zhídé zànměi nǐ.
Fèng zhǔ yēsū jīdū de míng. Āmén.]
Dāng wǒmen xiǎngdào shàngdì shí, wǒmen nǎohǎi zhōng fúxiàn de shì wǒmen zuì zhòngyào de dōngxī.
Rénlèi de lìshǐ kěnéng huì biǎomíng, méiyǒu rènhé rén nénggòu chāoyuè qí zōngjiào xìnyǎng, ér rénlèi de jīngshén lìshǐ jiāng míngquè zhèngmíng, méiyǒu rènhé zōngjiào nénggòu chāoyuè qí duì shàngdì de guānniàn. Chóngbài shì chúnjié de háishì bēibǐ de, qǔjué yú chóngbài zhě duì shàngdì de chónggāo huò dīsú xiǎngfǎ.
Yīncǐ, jiàohuì miànlín de zuì yánsù de wèntí shǐzhōng shì shàngdì běnshēn, guānyú rènhé rén de zuì zhòngyào shìshí bùshì tā zài tèdìng shíjiān huì shuō shénme huò zuò shénme, ér shì tā nèixīn shēn chù rènwéi shàngdì shì shénme yàng de. Wǒmen qīngxiàng yú ànzhào línghún de mìmì fǎzé cháozhe wǒmen duì shàngdì de xīnlǐ xíngxiàng qiánjìn. Zhè bùjǐn shìyòng yú gèbié jīdū tú, yěshìyòng yú zǔchéng jiàohuì de jīdū tú tuántǐ. Jiàohuì zuì néng shuōmíng wèntí dì dìfāng shǐzhōng shì tā duì shàngdì de kànfǎ, zhèngrú tā zuì zhòngyào de xìnxī shì tā duì shàngdì suǒ shuō huò wèi shuō dehuà yīyàng, yīnwèi tā de chénmò wǎngwǎng bǐ tā de yányǔ gèng yǒu shuōfú lì. Tā yǒngyuǎn wúfǎ táobì tā duì shàngdì de jiànzhèng de zìwǒ pīlù.
Rúguǒ wǒmen nénggòu cóng rènhé rén nàlǐ dédào duì “dāng nǐ xiǎngdào shàngdì shí, nǐ huì xiǎngdào shénme?” Zhège wèntí de wánzhěng dá'àn, wǒmen jiù kěyǐ kěndìng dì yùcè zhège rén de jīngshén wèilái. Rúguǒ wǒmen nénggòu quèqiè dì zhīdào wǒmen jīntiān zuì yǒu yǐngxiǎng lì de zōngjiào lǐngxiù duì shàngdì de kànfǎ, wǒmen jiù kěyǐ zhǔnquè de yùcè jiàohuì míngtiān de lìchǎng.
Háo wú yíwèn, xīnlíng suǒ néng róngnà de zuì qiáng dà de sīxiǎng shì duì shàngdì de sīxiǎng, rènhé yǔyán zhōng zuì yǒu fènliàng de cí shì tā duì shàngdì de chēnghu. Sīxiǎng hé yányǔ shì shàngdì cìyǔ ànzhào tā de xíngxiàng chuàngzào de shēngwù de lǐwù; tāmen yǔ tā mìqiè xiāngguān, líkāi tā jiù bùkěnéng cúnzài. Dì yī gè cí shì dào (xīlà yǔ wèi Logos), zhè yīdiǎn fēicháng zhòngyào:“Dào (Logos) yǔ shén tóng zài, dào (Logos) jiùshì shén.” Wǒmen kěyǐ shuōhuà, yīnwèi shén shuōhuàle. Zài shén lǐmiàn, huàyǔ hé sīxiǎng shì bù kě fēngē de.
Wǒmen duì shén de guānniàn jǐn kěnéng jiējìn shén de zhēnshí cúnzài, zhè duì wǒmen lái shuō fēicháng zhòngyào. Yǔ wǒmen duì shén de shíjì xiǎngfǎ xiāng bǐ, wǒmen de xìntiáo chénshù wúguān jǐnyào. Wǒmen duì shén de zhēnshí guānniàn kěnéng bèi máimò zài chuántǒng zōngjiào guānniàn de lèsè zhī xià, kěnéng xūyào jīngguò cōngmíng ér yǒulì de sōusuǒ, cáinéng zuìzhōng wājué chūlái, jiēlù tā de zhēnmiànmù. Zhǐyǒu jīngguò tòngkǔ de zìwǒ tànsuǒ, wǒmen cái yǒu kěnéng fāxiàn wǒmen duì shén de zhēnshí xìnyǎng.
Zhèngquè de shén guān bùjǐn shì xìtǒng shénxué de jīchǔ, yě shì jīdū tú shíjì shēnghuó de jīchǔ. Chóngbài jiù xiàng shì shèng diàn dì dìjī; rúguǒ dìjī bù chōngfèn huò bù chuízhí, zhěnggè jiégòu chízǎo huì dǎotā. Wǒ rènwéi, jīhū suǒyǒu jiàoyì shàng de cuòwù huò jīdūjiào lúnlǐ yìngyòng shàng de shībài, zuìzhōng dōu guī yīn yú duì shàngdì de bù wánměi hé bēibǐ de sīxiǎng.
Wǒ rènwéi, èrshí shìjì zhōngyè liúxíng de jīdūjiào shàngdì guānniàn shì rúcǐ tuífèi, yǐ zhìyú wánquán yǒu sǔn yú zhìgāowúshàng de shàngdì de zūnyán, shíjì shang duì zìchēng xìntú de rén lái shuō, zhè xiāngdāng yú yī chǎng dàodé zāinàn.
Tiānshàngdìxià de suǒyǒu wèntí, jíshǐ tóngshí bǎi zài wǒmen miànqián, yě bǐ bù shàng shàng dì zhège yādǎo xìng de wèntí: Tā shì shéi; tā shì shénme yàng de; wǒmen zuòwéi dàodé cúnzài bìxū duì tā zuò xiē shénme.
Zhèngquè xìnyǎng shàngdì de rén huì bǎituō shàng wàn gè shìsú wèntí, yīnwèi tā lìkè míngbái zhèxiē wèntí zuìduō bù huì kùnrǎo tā hěn cháng shíjiān; dàn jíshǐ shíjiān de duōchóng fùdān kěyǐ cóng tā shēnshang xiè xià, yǒnghéng de jùdà fùdān yě huì kāishǐ yā zài tā shēnshang, qí zhòngliàng bǐ shìjiè shàng suǒyǒu kǔnàn duījī zài yīqǐ gēng zhòng. Nà jùdà de fùdān jiùshì tā duì shàngdì de yìwù. Tā bāokuò yī zhǒng jíshí hé zhōngshēng de zérèn, jí yòng xīnzhì hé línghún de yīqiè lìliàng ài shàngdì, wánquán fúcóng tā, bìng yǐ kě jiēshòu de fāngshì chóngbài tā. Dāng zhège rén láolèi de liángxīn gàosù tā, tā méiyǒu zuòguò zhèxiē shìqíng, zhǐshì cóngxiǎo jiù fànle duì tiānguó wēiyán de bēibǐ fǎnkàng, nèixīn de zì zé yālì kěnéng huì biàn dé nányǐ chéngshòu.
Fúyīn kěyǐ jiěchú xīnlíng zhōng zhè zhǒng huǐmiè xìng de fùdān, ràng huījìn biàn měilì, ràng chénzhòng de jīngshén chuān shàng zànměi de wàiyī. Dànshì, chúfēi gǎnshòu dào fùdān de zhòngdàn, fǒuzé fúyīn duì rén ér yán háo wú yìyì; chúfēi tā kàn dào shàngdì gāogāozàishàng de jǐngxiàng, fǒuzé tā bù huì yǒu kǔnàn hé fùdān. Duì shàngdì de dīxià kànfǎ huì huǐ diào suǒyǒu chí yǒu zhè zhǒng kànfǎ de rén de fúyīn.
Zài rénxīn róngyì fàn de zuì zhōng, jīhū méiyǒu shé me bǐ ǒuxiàng chóngbài gèng ràng shàngdì zēnghèn, yīnwèi ǒuxiàng chóngbài běnzhí shàng shì duì shàngdì pǐngé de fěibàng. Ǒuxiàng chóngbài de xīn rènwéi shàngdì bùshì shàngdì, ér shàngdì běnshēn jiùshì yī zhǒng kěpà de zuì'è, yòng yīgè ànzhào zìjǐ de xíngxiàng zào chūlái de shén lái dàitì zhēnzhèng de shàngdì. Zhège shàngdì zǒng shì huì fúhé chuàngzào tā de rén de xíngxiàng, tā huì bēibǐ háishì chúnjié, cánrěn háishì shànliáng, zhè qǔjué yú tā cóngzhōng chǎnshēng de sīxiǎng de dàodé zhuàngtài.
Zài duòluò xīnlíng de yīnyǐng zhōng dànshēng de shén zìrán bù huì shì zhēnzhèng de shàngdì.“Nǐ xiǎng,” zhǔ zài shīpiān zhōng duì èrén shuō,“wǒ qiàhǎo hé nǐ yīyàng.” Zhè kěndìng shì duì zhìgāo shén de yánzhòng màofàn, jī lù bó hé sālā fú zài shén miànqián bùduàn hūhǎn:“Shèng zāi! Shèng zāi! Shèng zāi! Ānxírì de zhǔshén.”
Wǒmen yào xiǎoxīn, bùyào jiāo'ào de jiēshòu cuòwù de guānniàn, rènwéi ǒuxiàng chóngbài zhǐshì guì zài kějiàn de chóngbài duìxiàng miànqián, wénmíng rén yīncǐ bù shòu ǒuxiàng chóngbài de yǐngxiǎng. Ǒuxiàng chóngbài de běnzhí shì duì shén chǎnshēng bùpèi de xiǎngfǎ. Tā shǐ yú sāi xiǎng, kěnéng cúnzài yú méiyǒu gōngkāi chóngbài xíngwéi dì dìfāng.
Bǎoluó xiě dào:“Tāmen suīrán zhīdào shén, què bù dàng zuò shén róngyào tā, yě bù gǎnxiè tā; tāmen de sīniàn biàn wèi xūwàng, wúzhī de xīn jiù hūn'ànle.”
Jiēzhe, tāmen kāishǐ chóngbài ǒuxiàng, zhèxiē ǒuxiàng shì ànzhào rén, niǎo, shòu, páxíng dòngwù de xíngxiàng sùzào de. Dàn zhè yī xìliè duòluò de xíngwéi shǐ yú sāi xiǎng. Duì shàngdì de cuòwù guānniàn bùjǐn shì ǒuxiàng chóngbài de wūhuì zhī shuǐ de yuánquán, érqiě tāmen běnshēn jiùshì ǒuxiàng chóngbài. Ǒuxiàng chóngbài zhě zhǐshì xiǎngxiàng shàngdì de shìqíng, bìng bǎ tāmen dàng zuò shì zhēn de.
Duì shàngdì de niǔqū guānniàn hěn kuài jiù huì fǔshí tāmen suǒ tǐxiàn de jīngshén. Yǐsèliè de màncháng lìchéng qīngchǔ dì zhèngmíngliǎo zhè yīdiǎn, jiàohuì de lìshǐ yě zhèngshíle zhè yīdiǎn. Duì shàngdì de chónggāo guānniàn duì jiàohuì shì rúcǐ bìyào, yǐ zhìyú dāng zhè zhǒng guānniàn zài rènhé chéngdù shàng shuāiluò shí, jiàohuì jí qí chóngbài hé dàodé biāozhǔn dūhuì suí zhī shuāiluò. Rènhé jiàohuì de dì yī bù dōu shì zài tā fàngqì duì shàngdì de chónggāo píngjià shí zǒu xiàpōlù de.
Zài rènhé dìfāng, jīdūjiào jiàohuì zài shuāiluò zhīqián, bìxū shǒuxiān fǔhuà qí jiǎndān de jīběn shénxué. Tā zhǐshì duì “shàngdì shì shénme yàng de?” Zhège wèntí gěi chūle cuòwù de dá'àn, ránhòu cóng nàlǐ jìxù xiàqù. Jǐnguǎn tā kěnéng jìxù jiānchí yīgè jiànquán de míngyì xìntiáo, dàn tā de shíjì gōngzuò xìntiáo yǐjīng biàn dé cuòwù. Tā de guǎngdà xìntú kāishǐ xiāngxìn shàngdì yǔ tā shíjì shang de yàngzi bùtóng; zhè shì zuì yīnxiǎn, zuì zhìmìng de yìduān xiéshuō.
Dāngjīn jīdū jiàohuì jiānfù de zuì zhòngdà yìwù shì jìnghuà hé tíshēng tā duì shàngdì de guānniàn, zhídào tā zàicì pèi dé shàng shàngdì hé tā zìjǐ. Zài tā suǒyǒu de qídǎo hé láodòng zhōng, zhè yīnggāi fàng zài shǒuwèi. Wǒmen wèi xià yīdài jīdū tú tígōngle zuìdà de fúwù, jiùshì bǎ wǒmen cóng guòqù jǐ dài xī bó lái hé jīdūjiào xìnyǎng shàngdì de xiānbèi nàlǐ dédào de gāoshàng de shàngdì guānniàn háo wú bǎoliú dì chuán gěi tāmen. Zhè jiāng zhèngmíng duì tāmen lái shuō bǐ yìshù huò kēxué suǒ néng shèjì de rènhé dōngxī dū gèng yǒu jiàzhí.
Ó, bó tè lì de shàngdì, nǐ de rénmín réngrán kào nǐ de shǒu dédào wèiyǎng;
nǐ dàilǐng wǒmen suǒyǒu de zǔxiān zǒuguò zhè duàn píbèi de cháoshèng zhī lǚ!
Xiànzài, wǒmen jiāng wǒmen de shìyán, wǒmen de qídǎo chéngxiàn zài nǐ de ēndiǎn bǎozuò qián:
Wǒmen zǔxiān de shàngdì! Yuàn nǐ chéngwéi tāmen hòudài de shàngdì.
