Some nineteenth century Scotsmen : being personal recollections / by William Knight.

  • William Angus Knight
Date:
1903 [1902]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some nineteenth century Scotsmen : being personal recollections / by William Knight. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    97/472 page 89
    His recorded experience gives us the picture of a strong man suddenly arrested—struck down in his mid¬ career of linguistic study and speculative daring—by the realities of the unseen world ; and may be often quoted as a proof of the genuineness of such a pro¬ cess, whatever be our theory of its method or rationale. Had he been able to write of his own experience, as Augustine did, he would doubtless have supplied some missing links, and filled up the lacunae which we so much deplore. When Malan’s saying, ‘ See, you have the Word of God in your mouth,’ flashed through him, as he said, like a shock of electricity, it is important to note what that “ great thought” was; the seed, he tells us, of all he attained to in o]d age. It was this, “ God meant man to know his mind.” The central feature in his experience was the conviction that God was addressing him, with a Living Voice, and the im¬ mediacy of a direct appeal. His previous state was really one of indifference, owing to his pre-occupation with linguistic studies and philosophical speculations. His idea of the relation of God to the Universe, and to human souls, was that of a vast Superintendent; not that of a divine Parent or a ceaselessly appealing Oracle. But, as the clouds parted above him, he discerned the light of the Omnipresent, and heard the voice of a Revealer. A vacancy suddenly occurring in the Hebrew Chair of the University of Glasgow, he became a candidate for the post. His mode of application is probably
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