IN the great English classic "In Memoriam," the poet says.—
Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be:
They are but broken lights of Thee,
And Thou, O Lord, art more than they.
These lines recall the words of St. Paul in his epistles to the Galatians and the Colossians, in both of which he refers in rather disparaging terms to outward forms as "the weak and beggarly elements" (of the world) or "the rudiments of the world." Another translation of this passage (Colossians ii: 8, 20) gives it as "the first lessons of childhood," which is in entire agreement with the quotation from Galatians (iv: 3), where we read: "We, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world." All through Paul's letters we find him striving to lift thought above material forms and ceremonies to the pure spirituality inculcated by Christ Jesus, who both knew and did the Father's will, and who declared that the true worshipers must worship Him "in spirit and in truth." To this Jesus added, "For the Father seeketh such to worship him."
