Meat as Intellectual Depth

'"Christ," says Calvin, "is milk for babes, and strong meat for men."  Every doctrine which can be taught to theologians  is taught to young children.  We teach a child that God is a Spirit, everywhere present and knowing all things; and he understands it.  We tell him that Christ is God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever.  This to the child is milk, but it contains food for angels. The truth expressed in these propositions may be expanded indefinitely, and furnish nourishment for the highest intellects to eternity.  The difference between milk and strong meat, according to this view, is simply the difference between the more or less perfect development of the things taught.'

-- Charles Hodge on 1 Cor. 3:2, quoted in John Murray, Collected Writings, Vol 1.

On Being Set In Your Ways

"The claims of truth are paramount.  That is why Westminster Theological Seminary was founded.  As members of the Faculty we should not be here if it were not for the claims of truth upon us. 

But the battle of the faith is oftentimes focused in the inward travail of soul which the claims of truth demand.  There are so many temptations to allow the claims of truth to become secondary.

Mental laziness is one of these temptations.  We have become accustomed to a certain pattern of thought and conduct.  It may be surrounded by the halo of sanctity derived from an established family, social or ecclesiastical tradition, and we are not willing to bring this pattern or conviction to the test of those criteria which the truth demands.  Or perhaps after persuasion to the contrary by the evidence of the truth, we are not willing to let truth have its way, just because it means a breach with the convenient and the conventional. 

The temptation may come in the opposite way.  Convenience or opportunity may dictate the renunciation of former conviction, and the renouncing is dictated by convenience rather than by the claims of truth.  We must beware of that temptation also."

-- John Murray, a fragment found among his papers. (Collected Writings, Vol. 1)