Knowledge, which is the result of the action of those perceptive and comparing powers, which we commonly express by the single term, the JUDGMENT, has a closer connection with a correct and thorough inward experience, than is sometimes supposed. True knowledge is the food of the purified mind; that upon which it lives and gains strength. “He, that hath the truth,” says the Savior, “heareth my voice.” False knowledge, if we may call it such, or rather falsehood, under the semblance of knowledge, may be described, on the contrary, as the soul’s poison. Looking at the subject in this point of view, it is not easy to appreciate too highly any thing, which gives precision and steadiness to those powers of the mind, in which knowledge has its source.
In saying that knowledge has a close connection with correct religious experience, it is hardly necessary to add, that we do not mean mere scientific knowledge, nor any of the various forms of worldly knowledge, whatever they may be, which have exclusive reference to worldly objects. We mean such knowledge, including, of course, some knowledge of the divine character and of the principles of the divine administration, as will enable us to form a ready and just appreciation of the will of God, moment by moment. In other words, we mean a knowledge, (which like all other knowledge depends instrumentally upon the perceptive and judging faculties,) of what is precisely right in feeling and action, on every occasion in which we are expected, in the course of God’s providences, either to exercise feeling or to put forth action. If such knowledge is important, as every Christian will cheerfully testify that it is, we repeat again, that it is not easy to appreciate too highly any thing upon which the precision and steadiness of the judgment depends.
— From The Life of Faith, Part 2, Chapter 10.
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