II. SUBJECT OF THE PRESENT YEAR BOOK.
So much for the "valedictory" part of this Introduction; and now as to the subject of the present Year Book. We have here the consideration of a theme in some respects the loftiest and mightest that the mind of man can be led to contemplate: God Immanent in the world; and God in union with men through the medium of the Holy Ghost. Confessedly the subject is one around which much of mystery gathers; and there are not wanting those who, on that account, are in favor of leaving it so, without attempting an exposition of the nature or offices of the Spirit Immanent in the world, and the Spirit Witness to the soul of man. I think no one can be more conscious of human limitations to understand divine things than I am. And I doubt if any one can have greater appreciation of the need of being careful to keep within the limits of what God has revealed upon these subjects; for it is only what he has revealed that can rightly instruct men in the things of God. Moreover in no department is the frank and honest confession "I don't know," more imperative than in Theology; and when it is given as an actual confession of having reached the limits of our knowledge, it is worthy of all praise. But if it becomes tainted with the spirit of "I don't care," then I have no respect for it.