Helps: The Bible
Another indispensable help in Christian life is the Bible. In prayer, we talk to God; in the Bible, God speaks to us. The first disciples heard the words of divine truth as they dropped directly from the lips of the great Teacher. They could bring their questions right to him, and he, would answer them. They could ask him wha* he wanted them to do, and he would tell them. When they were in sorrow, the words of comfori fell, warm and tender, from the very lips of the Son of God into their sad hearts. One of his friends sat at his feet and listened reverently and lovingly to his instructions; another leaned his head on the Lord’s bosom and whispered his confidential questions and received answers; an inquirer came by night to him and had a long talk with him about the way to be saved. Those were wonderful days when God himself was on this earth in human form, speaking in the actual tones of human speech the words of life and answering men’s questions with his own lips. But that day is past. We cannot any more hear the divine voice as men heard it then. Yet God still speaks. We can still bring our questions, and he will answer them. We can still sit at the Teacher’s feet and hear his words. We can still rest our heads on his bosom in our sorrow and listen to his assurances of love. We can still ask him how to be saved, and get a plain, clear answer. God now speaks to men in his written word.
The question is how to get help from the Bible. We know the help is there. Others find it, and we see their faces glow or the tears glisten in their eyes as they read its pages. But somehow it does not open to us as it does to others. We cannot say, “Oh how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” We try to make ourselves love the Bible and to find its words sweeter than honey and more precious than gold; but, to be perfectly honest, we do not love it, nor do we find in it either the honey or the gold. Yet we know the sweetness and the richness are there if we could only find them. How may we read the book so that it will open to us and show us its wondrous treasures of light, of love, of comfort and of help?
For one thing, we must rid ourselves of all superstitious notions about the Bible. It is not a talisman. Merely having a Bible in one’s possession or on one’s person will neither drive away evil nor bring good. Soldiers entering battle sometimes throw away their cards and put their Bibles into their pockets: they imagine that then they will be safer in danger; but a Bible in a soldier’s pocket is in itself no more protection than a pack of cards. Nor, if he has it in his pocket only, will it be of any more use to him if he is killed in battle. The mere owning of a Bible or having one in the house does no one any good. It will be just as well to wear a crucifix or to nail a horseshoe over the door. Let us get clear of all our superstitious impressions respecting the holy word.
We must remember, also, that the mere reading of a certain portion of the Bible every day will not make us wise unto salvation, nor purify our hearts, nor give us comfort in sorrow, nor put a staff into our hand to help us along life’s rough, steep paths. The Bible does not yield its blessing to such reading. The mere pronouncing of the words without even knowing what they mean or stopping to think or inquire is no better than for the Roman Catholic devotee to count her beads Then, further, it is not enough to understand the words, or even to memorize them. There are many people who have great numbers of Bible texts at their tongues’ end who never get any real help from them, nor make any practical use whatever of them. There are those who know the promises and can quote them to others, who are not able to apply one suitable promise to their own personal needs, and who get no benefit for their own lives from the texts they remember. Hiding the Bible in the memory is not all that is necessary to make its treasures of help availing.*
It may aid us here to inquire just what the
*The statements in this and the preceding paragraphs may to some seem too bald, but it is to be remembered that the words are written for young Christians, and not primarily for the unawakened. No doubt mere thoughtless memorizing of the sacred words of divine truth may at last bring to the latter class great blessing. The whole intention of these paragraphs is to emphasize in the strongest way possible the importance of understanding the word and allowing it to work its due efTect in the heart and life.
office of the Bible is with reference to our personal life. There are many books that it is necessary merely to read: they have no office or errand to us beyond the pleasure or instruction which their pages may impart as we go over them Ordinary truths require no more than to be grasped or mentally accepted. They have no necessary bearing upon our personal living. No outcome of character is expected from them, save as all knowledge tends to broaden and enlarge the mind. We listen to a lecture on astronomy, and we hear many interesting things about the sun, the planets or the stars. We believe what we hear, and we may remember the facts; but it is not expected that the knowledge of these scientific truths will make any change in our conduct or character to-morrow. If we are in trouble, these truths will not comfort us. We cannot pillow our heads upon them in sorrow. If we are perplexed about duty, we shall not get any light from our treasure of astronomical facts: the stars are too far away and too cold. The same is true of all similar knowledge; our whole duty with regard to it is to receive it and to lay it up among our mental treasures.
But there is more than this to be done with the truths of the Bible. They are moral truths, and they are meant to affect our character and conduct. They are the words of God, and as such they are meant to be obeyed. They reveal to us invisible things — things no natural human eye can ever see — and we are to believe in these unseen things as eternal realities and to live with reference to them. Every truth in the Bible has some practical bearing upon life in some of its phases. The Bible is therefore a book for life, not merely for knoweldge.
An illustration or two will make this plain. The first word that comes to the inquirer is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. ‘^ It is not enough to know — even to understand — this word. It calls for an act — the committing of the sinful and ruined soul, utterly and for ever, for salvation, for life, for glory, into the hands of the only Redeemer and Saviour. — “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” It is easy to memorize these words, but that is not all we are expected to do with them. They have their proper outcome only when they draw out our heart’s holiest affectiojis and fasten them upon God in loyal, consecrating devotion. — ‘This is my commandment, that ye love one another.” The sentiment, men say, is admirable. It is extolled by many on whose hearts and lives it makes no impression whatever. No doubt the “sentiment” is very beautiful, but its true office is intensely practical — to kindle in all Christian hearts a wide, deep, generous, unselfish affection which shall bind and hold together all believers in a common and holy brotherhood.
It is very plain that to make proper use of such words as these we must not only know and understand them and admire them as ethical teachings, but must also submit our lives to them, to be influenced, moulded, colored and directed by their requirements — that is, we are to receive them as God’s words of command to us and obey them accordingly. We are using the precepts and counsels of Scripture aright only when we are implicitly, unquestioningly and loyally walking in the way they mark out for our feet. The true outcome of the Bible as a book of commands is a holy personal life and a Christlike personal character. And the way to get help from the book is to come to it as to Christ himself, asking what he would have us to do, and then, as we read, submitting our life to every word’s requirement. Thus the Bible will become to us a personal guide — the voice of Christ, ever saying,” This is the way -/’ the hand of Christ, ever leading our feet in right and safe paths.
There is another class of Bible words — the promises. These do not so much call for active obedience as for implicit belief and restful trust. They contain positive assurances of divine help and blessing in certain circumstances. They tell us of things which we cannot see. Thus they call for the exercise of faith, and it is therefore harder to make them available than in the case of commands and precepts. Many who are faithful in performing every explicitly required duty fail to get such help from God’s promises in the hours of darkness and trial as these promises are intended to give. It is not because they are ignorant of these divine pledges. They know them well; they can repeat and commend them to others in their need; they even speak of them publicly, in address or conversation, with exultation. But when in their own lives there come to them the experiences for which these divine promises were given, they derive from them no support or help. They find no everlasting arm to lean upon, no strong hand to hold them up, no lamp shining in the darkness, no strength reinforcing their weakness.
It is as if a ship should go to sea with a cargo of anchors in her hold, but when a storm arose should not have an anchor of her own ready for use. There are Christians whose memories are stored with Bible promises who yet, when trial comes, have not one blessed word which gives them any real help or comfort. They have tons of ancliors, but none at hand to grip the rock and hold the vessel in the storm; piles of alpenstocks laid away, but not one in their hands to use in climbing dangerous paths; great clusters of lamps hanging from the ceiling of memory, but not one lighted to throw its beams on their darkness; life-preservers in abundance to look at while the ship moves on over quiet seas, but not one to be found and buckled on when the vessel strikes the rock and goes down in sight of shore.
How can Bible promises be made available in the times of need? How can we get from them that help which they are intended to give us in living? We must recognize and accept them as the sure and faithful words of God — -words that will be fulfilled to the letter in the experience of every child of God who rests upon them. They must be hidden in the heart and kept always ready for instant use. Then, when the need comes for which these promises make provision, they must be laid hold upon, personally appropriated and trusted in as God’s fresh and explicit words of assurance to his loved ones.
It is, in fact, only in the experiences of real need that the value of the divine promises can be realized. One may greatly admire a lifeboat as he looks at it hanging in its place above the ship’s deck on a fair morning, but its true worth he does not know until the ship is going down and the lifeboat is his only hope of rescue. It is so with Bible promises. We do not know their worth until we enter upon the experiences in which we are helpless without them. We may admire them when all is fair and calm about us, but it is only when the shock of the tempest is on us and our earthly trusts are shattered that we can realize the value of the trusts which have God’s arm underneath them. It is only when our path leads down into some dark gorge of trial where no earthly sunbeams fall that we learn the worth of the lamps of heavenly promise.
Thus the Bible is a book for life, and only when we submit our lives to it can we get its help. The hungry heart will always find the bread. The sincere and simple-hearted seeker after truth will always find the truth. The submissive spirit will receive guidance. The believing soul will find the arm of the Eternal under every word of promise.
As to the manner of reading the Bible, but few suggestions may here be given. The heart is the great matter: if the heart be right, God’s Spirit will guide, and will not only open the beauties and the treasures of the Scripture and reveal its sweetness, but will also open the reader’s eyes to behold the wondrous things that the sacred book contains. The Bible should certainly be read every day: our souls as well as our bodies need daily bread. It should be read, too, in connection with secret prayer: the two exercises mutually help each other. Devotion without the word to feed upon is inadequate for our souls’ needs, and without prayer the Bible does not open to us nor yield the blassing we seek. We should always keep the Bible lying open on the closet-table.
With regard to the method, the Bible may be read in course, or read by books, or read by topics, or read to meet the needs of the day, or read fragmentarily without order or plan. Some persons read the Bible through every year. Too many read without system or method of any kind, beginning wherever the book opens; and as a result they read certain portions many times over, but leave whole sections unread and unexplored. Every intelligent Christian should seek to become familiar with all parts of the Bible, and therefore it is well to read it through regularly in order. Besides this, however, it is well to read also by topics, searching all the volume through with concordance and text-book, to know what the Holy Spirit teaches on all sides and all phases of a particular subject. It is profitable, too, to read single books, if possible, at one sitting. This is especially helpful to the understanding of the Epistles. As experience ripens and the book becomes more familiar it is pleasant and helpful to turn each day to passages that meet the peculiar needs of the day. Young Christians will usually find it profitable to begin with the story of Christ in the Gospels, studying the life and words of the Master until their hearts are filled with thoughts and memories of Him whose life is their pattern and whose words are to guide their steps.
The present system of international Sabbath-school lessons affords an excellent opportunity for thorough and consecutive Bible study. In seven years the student is carried through the whole book. Of course many parts of it are not taken up in the lessons; but if the portions thus omitted between the Sabbath sections are carefully read each week, the entire Bible will be gone over in the seven years. The daily “home readings” indicated in connection with the lessons form in themselves an excellent Bible-reading course covering every day in the year. For most young people there is perhaps no better system of Scripture study than that which follows the order of the Sabbath-school course — the lessons, the home readings, the connecting portions and the references. If this is closely and conscientiously followed, day after day and year after year, it will in the end yield a full, intelligent and systematic knowledge of the word that makes wise unto salvation.
Bat, In Avliatever order the Bible is read, let it surely be read. There are now so many commentaries and other writings upon the Scriptures that we are in danger of reading a great deal about the Bible, while the book itself is neglected. It is important that we search the Scriptures themselves. Then each one should search for himself. It is not enough to take the golden findings that another has dug out: we must dig for ourselves. Above all, we must pray for light while we read, that we may discover the precious things that God has stored away in his word; and we must pray for submission, that we may be able to yield our lives to every influence of the truth; and we must pray for faith, that we may be able to realize the invisible things of God which the holy word reveals, and get their support and their blessing for our souls.
viii.