Hints to the Bible Student

Near the Franconia Mountains in America there died a very aged man in August 1852. Shrewd, vigorous, and sturdy, he lived without God in the world, fourscore and four years, — a grasping, passionate, and domineering man, a thorough-going worldling. But the sudden death of an old acquaintance startled him. He felt that it was time for himself to get ready, and by an exertion, almost incredible, he learned to read the Testament. “Yes, it was hard work,” as he said to a friend. “At my time of life to begin with the letters and learn to read, was hard work. Sometimes I could not make out the sense. But I would cry to the Almighty to help me, and then I would try again, and He would help me to find it out. So that, now, I have read the Testament through eight times, and here I am in the Epistles of Peter, the ninth time; and oh!” he added, with streaming eyes, “it is glory and praise in my heart.” He was a sagacious and energetic old man, and, as he said himself, “I wanted a religion that should be good and strong, and that would keep by me, and help me when I came to die. So I cried to the Almighty, and He gave me a heart for the blessed Testament. I found out how to read it, and then I read in it that Jesus Christ made the world, and the rivers, and the mountains. And then I began to pray to Him, that He would give me a new heart; and He gave it to me. And I read, that when He lived on earth, He healed the sick and the blind, and was good to the poor; and then I knew that He would be kind to me; and He forgave me, and gave me a new heart.” It was quite true. The change on his harsh and rugged nature was very wonderful; and as he said to the great American Statesman, who was his brother-in-law, “I have had done for me, Daniel, what neither you nor all the great men in the world could do for me; I have got a new heart.” And, returning to his home, Mr Webster said, “Wonderful things happen in this world, and one of them is, that John Colby has become a Christian.”*

When the reader is prompted by such a powerful motive, the Bible is sure to be abundantly interesting, and it is hardly needful to

* See a recent tract of the American Tract Society, give rules for its profitable perusal. But, if we do not mistake, most well-disposed persons wish that they carried to the Book a warmer enthusiasm, and sat down to it with a keener relish. They know its divine authority. They feel how solemn is its claim on their attention. They would not be happy to let days or weeks pass without a portion read. And yet they regret that their Bible-reading is so mechanical; that it is so often a tedium and a task-work; and altogether they feel guilty and uncomfortable at their treatment of the Word of God.

We may assume that it is not for want of intrinsic interest or importance, that the Bible proves dull or distasteful to any reader. And for the sake of those who would like to enjoy it more, we would offer a few plain suggestions.

1. The very copy of the Bible which you use, is a matter of some moment. A man of letters will read our English epic in the smallest size and sorriest type, rather than not read it at all; but if he possess the Bard of Paradise in a worthy garb, — if his edition be a learned luxury, — a delight for the eyes to look upon, he will be ready to return to it, and by casual peeps as well as stated perusals, he will be apt to grow mighty in Milton. So with the Jews, ancient and modern. Their transcripts of the Law are prodigies of penmanship, and apart from all other value, would be worth collecting as caligraphic wonders. In like manner, as one means of enhancing the value of the Book, would it not be well to get an attractive copy? an edition so fair and bright, that its very beauty would coax you to return, and, instead of straining your eyes over blurred and blotted columns, the clear and expressive type, like the recitation of an articulate speaker, would “give the sense, and cause you 1 to understand the reading?”*

2. But in order to understand the meaning, you must take advantage of every help. There is a Geography of the Bible, — an Archaeology of the Bible, — a Natural History of the Bible; and it is ignorance of these which makes many portions so insipid. For example, the Acts of the Apostles read without a map, even if they convey some lessons to the heart, must remain a chaos in the memory. But if, instead of its starting points and stations all merging in one another, — if instead of fancying Corinth and Colosse, both towns of Greece, and Antioch and Athens, adjacent villages, — if the route of the apostle resolve into geographical distinctness, it will not only be intensely interesting to follow him from place to place, and mark the successive stations where the gospel was planted; but it will materially enliven your perusal of the Epistles, when you think of the localities where the Roman, Corinthian, Philippian, and Thessa-

* Nehemiah viii. 8.

Ionian converts dwelt — the first fruits of European heathendom; or when you call up the circumstances connected with the Galatian, Ephesian, and Colossian churches, — half Hebrew, half Hellenist. In like manner, some knowledge of Assyrian and Medo-Persian history is essential to a full command of the Old Testament prophecies; and not only are Amos and Obadiah new books when read among the forsaken rock-eyries of Petra, but Jonah, Nahum, and Habakkuk, and many portions of the larger prophets are full of enigmas, the solutions of which have only lately been dug from under the earth-mounds of Mesopotamia. Even the knowledge of an Eastern custom is instant light on the corresponding fact or saying. When you see a Syrian flock following the shepherd, and answering to his call, you remember, “My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me; “and when you see the herdsman bringing home to the village at the close of day, the oxen and asses, with which he was intrusted, and once he is within the gate leaving them to themselves, for he knows that they will find their own way through the streets, and all seek their respective stables, — you understand Isaiah’s words, “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” Were the climate, the seasons, and the husbandry of the Holy Land, carefully noted by some competent observer, they would throw fresh light on many a Scripture; and even the little which is known of its Natural History, has dispelled many a difficulty. In the siege of Samaria, we are told that, “an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver,” * and many have wondered why this last should be sold at all: but when we know that it is the bulbous root of. the Star of Bethlehem t which got this name, and which was often used for food, the wonder ceases. People used to think the coneys of Solomon the same as our rabbits, which are indeed “a feeble folk,” but which do not “make their houses in the rock.” Now that the coney h ascertained to be the Daman or Hyrax, % — a shy defenceless creature, which lurks among the cliffs of the mountains, and darts into its den at the least approach of danger, the words of Agur acquire their full significance. When Solomon says,” Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which, having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest there can be little doubt that he ascribes a hoarding forethought to the ant. But as no European species is known to lay up stores, it has been usual to understand the passage as an accommo-

* 2 Kings vi. 2. 5. t Ornithogahun umbellaium*

% Hyrax Sy 7- incus.

dation to a popular impression. It may be so; but in Asia there is at least one store-gathering species. “In June 1829,” says Colonel Sykes, “in my morning walk, I observed more than a score of little heaps of grass seeds (Panicum) in several places, on uncultivated land near the parade ground [at Poonah ;] each heap contained about a handful. On examination, I found they were raised by a species of ant, [Atta providens,] hundreds of which were employed in bringing up the seeds to the surface, from a store below: the grain had probably got wet at the setting in of the monsoon, and the ants had taken advantage of the first sunny day, to bring it up to dry-The store must have been laid up from the time of the ripening of the grass seeds in January and February.” *

3. This leads us to mention another Biblehelp, which we think you will find very valuable. Would it not be good for every one to keep for himself, a little store-house of Bible-illustration? Every book that elucidates Scripture is useful; but to each person the most serviceable of all commentaries would be one of his own compiling. Were any one to get an interleaved Bible, or still better, perhaps, a blank-paper book; and whenever, in reading a theological treatise, or a work of Eastern travel, or in listening to a sermon, he found a dark saying expounded, or a

* Entomological Transactions, vol. i., p. 103.

trite saying happily applied, he treasured it up; his casket would soon fill with pearls of great price. Even although, as is usually the fate ot such experiments, — even although the record were imperfectly kept up, its value would be unspeakable. Every text thus illustrated becomes in its turn an illustration; not only an enlightened surface, but a luminous source, — a torch to a hundred parallels, — a candle to all the context. And although you never made more than a few dozen entries in such a book, they would shed more meaning over the Bible than days of careless and cursory perusal; and when you had nearly forgotten all other books and sermons, the biographical incidents, the theological elucidations, the illustrative maxims and memorabilia, which you had thus garnered up, would survive, as interesting and instructive as ever.

4. The Bible, as we have already had occasion to mention, is, in one aspect, a book, and in another aspect, a library. It has both unity and variety. It is all alike the Word of God, and yet it is really made up of six-and-sixty volumes. The bouquet is composed of many flowers, but all of them gathered in the conservatory of Heaven. The bundle contains many spices, — aloes, myrrh, and cassia, as well as mint, and cummin, — proverbs as well as gospels, chronicles as well as psalms, — some of them more exquisite, and some of them more homely, but all of them from God; and all of them, in their collectiveness, profitable for doctrine or reproof, for correction or instruction, and combining to furnish for every good work the man of God. And where there is such diversity, there will be corresponding affinities; and without any disparagement to the rest, every reader will find a prevailing attraction to some given portion. The poet is the inheritor of nature. He enjoys it all, and he despises none of it; but there is some form or presentation in which he specially delights. Crabbe loved the low sandy flats of the Suffolk coast, and Wordsworth the hills of Cumberland. Davy forgot philosophy and became a little child among granite peaks, which spoke of his native Penzance; and Scott declared that he should die if he did not’ once-a-year inhale the heathen Each had his turn, and for every taste the Creator had provided a counterpart. And so the believer inherits the Bible. The record of his Father’s love is all his own. But though it is the same God who gives it all, and though it is the same Saviour whom it all reveals, there are diversities of tastes; and to meet these tastes, there are diversities of adaptations. Leighton basks in the warm evening sunshine of Peter, and Luther grows electric with the yearning affection and evangelistic ardour of Paul With the Sermon on the Mount and the hortatory epistles for their topic, the English Reformers sought to foster in their hearers a practical piety; whilst, coeval with the Ridleys and Latimers, the Donns and the Hammonds of England, the North gave birth to men like Knox, and Melville, and Bruce, — men who took their cue from the old Hebrew prophets, and their text from the Kings or the Judges, — a lionbearding, image-breaking race, full of their own sublime purpose, which, out of a race of swordsmen and robbers, sought to make a covenanted nation, — and in carrying that purpose as fearless of man as they were faithful to their God, And so, it is not only possible, but we might almost say desirable, that each Bible-book had its own student, — one who found in it a special pleasure, and who round it as a nucleus aggregated materials from the rest. But it is still more needful alongside of any partial study like this, to secure a comprehensive knowledge of the Scriptures complete. No single book can make a Bible, just as no one truth can make a full revelation. It is, therefore, by comparing scripture with scripture, — by reading Hebrews in the light of Leviticus, — by supplementing Matthew’s parables with John’s conversations, — by comparing the justifying righteousness of Romans with the justifying faith of Galatians, and both together with the faith-justifying works of James, that our creed will attain symmetry and system, and like an arch, which is not all pier or all key-stone, but which consists of many courses fitly framed together, our faith — self-consistent and self-sustaining — will not readily break down. The gospel, — the great faithful saying, is the key-stone; but on that grand central truth, — the Cross of Christ, God Manifest, Love Incarnate, the Mediator at once human and Divine — on that great key-stone, from where Genesis opens to where the Apocalypse closes, every

successive instalment has a purchase and puts forth a strengthening pressure. And if it add to your intelligence to know the special purport of every Bible-book; if it be creditable and scholar-like to be able to tell, off-hand, how Second Samuel relates the reign of David, and how Second John is an apostolic counsel to a Christian Lady; you will only attain a thorough Bible mastery, you will then only be mighty in the Scriptures, when you know their respective contributions to the cardinal Revelation, and can point out that testimony concerning Jesus, which is the essence of them all.*

* Every book of the Bible has its own “bu den.” It makes its specific addition to the aggregate Revelation. The reader could address himself to no more profitable inquiry than to ascertain the principal subjects and prevailing purport of each book, — in some cases, of each chapter or section; and it would be a material aid to his understanding and memory if he could condense the result into a brief “running title.” In the

5. Those who are acquainted with Greek or Hebrew, will naturally take the opportunity of reading the Scriptures in their original languages. In that case, they will find no doctrine nor important fact with which our authorised version has not already brought them acquainted; but they may find many expressions, which, in the original, acquire new force or felicity. But a chief advantage of reading the Greek, or the Hebrew, is, that it keeps the mind alert, and necessitates a closer marking of words and phrases, than when running over the well-known verses of our English Bible. For the same reason you will often find it of service to read a foreign translation. In Luther’s or De Wette’s German Bible, in the French of Martini or De Sacy, in the Italian of Diodati, or the Dutch of the States-General or of Van der Palm, the occasional discrepancies and the curious idioms will keep your attention awake; and, like a gem

German Psalters, quaint and suggestive names are given to some of the psalms. For instance, the 101st is “David’s Regentenspiegel” “David’s Mirror for Magistrates;” the 119th, “Der Christen goldenes A B C,” &c, “The Christian’s Golden Alphabet.” Thomas Brooke calls the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, “that little Book of Martyrs;” and “Sacred Idylls,” is the name which Dr Goode has given to his version of Solomon’s Song. The reader will have no difficulty in finding out “King David’s Pastoral,” and Messiah’s “Epinikion, or Carmen triumphale;” but every one may not have noticed that the New Testament contains two Epistles to the Ephesians and two to the Hebrews.

in a fresh setting, like a picture in a new frame, you will be at once surprised and delighted by the novel aspect of familiar ideas. Or, as an edifying recreation, why might not a few friends compare, stanza by stanza, the Psalms, as they have been rendered by Watts, and Merrick, and Keble, and by the Scotch and English versionists; or, as they have been done into Latin measure by Johnstone and Buchanan? Or, why might they not go over, verse by verse, a chapter of a Gospel, or of an Epistle, as given by Wiclif and Tyndale, and our other early translators,* noting, as they proceed, any seeming diversities or any peculiar and emphatic expressions?

6. In family worship it is usually best to read some book or the entire Bible right through, chapter by chapter; but in his private study, every reader must adopt the plan which suits his turn of mind and his circumstances. A man of leisure may allot a large portion for his daily perusal; and in his progress from book to book, he may avail himself of the commentator or critic who has done the most to expound it. And a man of little leisure, like the Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, may be glad to snatch for his morning meal, a promise or a proverb, — the

* For this, every facility is afforded in Bagster’s “English Hexap’a,’’ — a work containing the English New Testament of Wiclif, Tyndale, and Cranmer, and the Genevan, Anglo-Rhemish, and Authorised Versions.

verse of a Psalm, or a sentence from a Gospel. But even the busiest man will find occasional opportunities for more extensive reading; and on some quiet evening, or in the seclusion of the Sabbath, you could not do better than sit down to the Bible, as you would to a theological treatise or a volume of Christian biography, with your mind made up to a deliberate and straight- forward perusal. With this view you may select the history of Joseph or Samson, of David or Solomon; the Journeys of the Israelites; the Missionary Excursions of St Paul: or you may resolve to master a century of Hebrew History, connecting with the recorded events the contemporary prophecies: or you may determine to read right through a Gospel Narrative, or the whole writings of some apostle, James, John, or Peter. And just as you find the charms of continuity and completeness enhance all the other attractions of an ordinary book, — so, in perfect harmony with devout and reverential feelings, will the course of the narrative, the development of the leading idea, the progress of the argument, enlist your interest and quicken your perceptive powers. Indeed, there are many of the inspired writings with which it is hardly fair to deal otherwise. To take the analogus case, — when you have only a minute to spare, you may run your eye over a Hymn of Cowper,or a “Thought” of Pascal, and at once glean something mcmor-J 62 Hints to the Bible Student.

able; but you would hardly think it justice to a Sermon of Horsley, or a Biography of Walton, or a Drama of Racine, to read it at the rate of two pages a-day; yet this is the treatment usually given to the kindred compositions contained in the Sacred Volume. No doubt, to keep pace with readers who “run,” it has “words upon wheels;” and a Psalm, or a single apostolic exhortation, may supply to the man most hard-pressed and hurried, material for the day’s meditation; and we cannot be sufficiently thankful for such terse and portable sayings. But connected prophecies and lengthened narratives lose much of their impressiveness when split into isolated sections; and, to say nothing of the every-day error which quotes the reasonings of Bildad and Zophar, as if they were no less authoritative than the Divine Arbiter’s own deliverance — dissevered from that final deliverance, a drama, like Job, loses half its significance and all its unity. Read in this fragmentary fashion, the Epistle to the Hebrews has failed to disclose to many a Protestant the true theory )f Christian Sacerdotalism, and the Epistle to die Romans is obscure on the method of justification. And, forbearing reference to the most sacred of all Biographies, were the reader trying the experiment on himself, he might possibly find that the journeys of Paul the apostle have not left on his mind an impression so lucid as the career of Whitefleld or Eliot, and that his outline of Hebrew History is a sad contrast to his knowledge of his own country’s annals. And yet, he has read the sacred records ten times as often as any uninspired historian. But — which sufficiently accounts for the difference — the modern author was eagerly resumed night after night, till the perusal was ended: 4 Samuel and Luke were meted out in daily tasks, and never read except in small disjointed fragments.

7. Like other books, the charm of the Bible will very much depend on the frame of mind in which it is studied. To an earnest reader, it will always be interesting; to a docile reader, it will always be new and surprising. If you intend to visit the lands where gold is gathered, you will peruse with avidity the publications which describe them, and which tell you what equipments to provide. Or if you are fond of some science, you will spend half the night devouring a treatise which expounds its principles, and you will feel richly rewarded in your fresh information or your new intellectual mastery. So was it with John Colby. As sgon as he learned to desire a better country, “God gave him a heart for the blessed Testament and nearly all the waking hours of his remaining three years were devoted to its study. If we, too, want “a religion good and strong, that will keep by us and help us when we come to die;” if conformity to God’s will be the science on which we are most intent; we shall need no inducement more powerful to draw us back to these Scriptures ever and anon. To an honest heart they never lack the zest of novelty; nor so long as the mind is wakeful will there ever be an end of their wonders. When the Jews returned from Babylon, and were somewhat settled in their ancient city, the occasion was signalised by a great Scripture-reading. Assembling early, and commencing with prayer, the Governor and the Ministers occupying a platform in the midst, whilst a vast congregation thronged the square, one voice relieved another, till the sobs and bitter cries of the audience interrupted the speakers. The tale of God’s mercies; the recital of His good commandments, and the whole history of their nation’s provocations and perversity, had broken the heart of the people; and though the rulers succeeded in stilling their lamentations, no time was lost in carrying out one practical conclusion. “They found writtten in the law, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month. So the people went forth and brought olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of shady trees, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the House of God, and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua, unto that day, had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.” The perusal of the law had pointed out a neglected duty; the heart of the people was soft; it was the very season when the feast should be kept; no time was lost: but as the people prepared themselves hastily to keep the commandment, so Jehovah blessed with His immediate smile, — “a great gladness,” — the nation’s new obedience. An enchanted scene it was in that clear autumn weather: every street arched over with its verdant trellis, and every flat roof a fragrant bower; Jerusalem suddenly converted into a forest, and its new temple a mount waving with shrubbery and blazing with flowers: whilst, sweeter than the breath of the myrtle, rose the incense of praise and the swell of a sanctified patriotism. It was a week of waking blessedness, — as if a segment of the heavenly Sabbath had dropped into the days of earth, and people wondered at their happiness. Yet, after all, they were only carrying out a command which had for ages existed in the Word of God; with the existence of which some of them were doubtless acquainted long ago; but which, had it not been for the propitious mood of that moment, might have remained a dead letter till Jerusalem was a second time destroyed. And even so, there may be both doctrines and duties still latent in Scripture, whose discovery only awaits our more docile perusal. And, like

the Jews at the revival of the Feast of Tabernacles, when we comply with the neglected command, or credit the faithful saying, we shall experience “a great gladness,” — the joy which has already rewarded more teachable scholars, and which, with more candour, would sooner have greeted ourselves.

Finally, prayer is a sure means of rendering the Word read both pleasant and profitable. There is a certain congeniality of mind essential to the enjoyment and right understanding of any book. A man of scientific exactitude will soon weary of a work of fancy, and a poet will soon lay aside a work of tame technicalities. And, looking to their external style, there are few minds so universal as to appreciate equally every sacred composition, historical, poetical argumentative, didactic; and there has been much wresting of Scripture from forgetting this obvious distinction. Frigid critics have applied their micrometers to the imagery of Isaiah, and have subjected to logical severity the metaphors of Job; just as some over-heated fancies have seen no end of mysteries in the books of Esther and Ezra. Happy is it for a Bible-book when it finds a like-minded interpreter, — when a poet, like Home, expatiates on the Psalms, and when a logician, like Haldane, expounds the Romans. But, apart from this outward form, — this human style, — historical, didactic, logical, poetic, — there is in it an inner, all-pervading style, — so to speak, God’s own style, — a style of thought which is neither Hebrew nor Hellenistic — nay, nor even Human, — but aloof from all, and above them all, — a Heavenly style, — a tone of sanctity and benevolence and majesty, which makes this book as superhuman as it is all-adapted and allblessing. To appreciate this, — to enter into this, the Divine mode of thinking and feeling, — it does not need that we become poets, reasoners, and sages; — it does need, however, that we become worshippers. No man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man that is in him; even so, no one knoweth the things of God, save the Spirit of God: and to give us sympathy with God’s own mind, to enable us to credit such love as is the love of God, and to give us relish for such holiness as is the very essence of the Godhead, as well as to make us cheerfully bow to the authority of the Great Speaker, we need to be taught by the Holy Spirit. That Spirit is promised to prayer. God will give His Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. And if, like John Colby, we cry to the Almighty, He will give us a heart for the blessed Testament. If, like Ezra and his audience, our reading of the Law is prefaced by prayer, it will be followed by repentance and reform. If, like David, we exclaim, “Open Thou mine eyes,” we shall see wonders in God’s Word. If, with Paul, we bow the knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, He will strengthen us by His Spirit in the inner man, and Christ believed will dwell in our hearts, and we shall be enabled, through the faith of love, to apprehend somewhat of that love of Christ which passeth knowledge.