…that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?
1 Cor 4: 7-8
Nay, even the soul, however intelligent, however diligent in its search, cannot by any pains find out the path of wisdom. Often indeed it essays to do so: but how absolutely untrustworthy its conclusions are we may see in the difficulty of discovering even two men of the highest order of intellect with an identity of opinion. Reason is but an uncertain and deceitful instrument at the best, and the blinding pride of man makes matters still worse. For when one has set his heart upon an idea — which is, perhaps, nothing but the creation of his own fancy, as unsubstantial as the castle of a dream — his powers are thenceforth used for the single purpose of making the picture of his imagination stand out as vividly and as like reality as possible. And thus we may easily see that intellect is not merely fallible, but the most dangerous of all gifts, unless it be guided by the Spirit of God.
G. H. Pember
