This Gold Mine

    In books I converse with men; in the Bible I converse with God.   The more I read, the more I long to read.  The Scripture is always new, always instructing, always delightful.

    The value of the Bible is inestimable. It is not only a perfect map of the spiritual world; but the believer surveying its riches and beauties and pleasures, has a good warrant to say, "All these are mine, for God Himself is mine!"

    God has spared me to read through His Word once more. Oh, what a treasure—what unsearchable riches there are in this golden mine! I have never dug deeper, nor found more precious jewels than upon this last perusal. Indeed, upon every reading of the Bible it grows more precious to me, as  it has become the conveyance of the unsearchable riches of Christ to me.

    This I chiefly seek for, that I may get a growing experience of the wisdom of God and of the power of God in His Word—and may thereby enjoy the blessings of His love promised in it. 

    It is our duty to read and meditate on the Word, but we should always do it with the fixed dependence of our hearts upon His divine teaching; without which the Word itself will profit us nothing. May the Spirit keep us in the use of means, but entirely dependent upon Him in the use of them. The Word of God can be made useful to us, only by the enlightening of the Spirit of God.

    It is by continual dependence on the teaching of the Spirit, in and by the Word, and by mixing faith with it—that we come to find its value and to taste its pleasures. For it then opens a new world to us, a spiritual and eternal world.

    Thanks be to Him . . .
      who revealed His Word to me,
      who opened my eyes to see wondrous things out of His law, 
      who often made me look up and say, "Oh, how sweet are Your words to my taste; yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!"

    God has made His Word very precious to me. My love for it has grown much in taste and value: in taste, it is sweeter than honey; in value, it is more precious than gold, yes, than much fine gold! As I dig deeper, the mine becomes richer, and the treasures of grace are greatly enhanced by their being the pledges of glory. 

    The great end and design of the Scripture, is to conform us to itself. When the Word is understood and believed and lived upon—He then makes it the means of conforming the whole man to it. The believer is cast into the mold of it; he takes the impression—every feature. It is so assimilating that every tint is to be seen upon him. He lives the Word—it is to be read in his looks, visible in his walk, manifest in his tempers. See him, study him—he is the living picture of a Bible-Christian!