Reading the Bible by J.C. Ryle. Next to praying, there is nothing so important in the Christian life as reading the Bible. God has mercifully given us a book which is able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. By reading the Bible, we will learn what to believe, what to be, and what to do, how to live a fulfilled life, and how to die in peace. Happy is that man who has a Bible. Happier still is the man who reads it. Happiest of all is he who not only reads it, but obeys it and allows it to control his life. Nevertheless, it is a sorrowful fact that man has a sad ability to abuse God's gifts. His speech, his imagination, his intellect, his strength, his time, his influence, his money, Instead of being used as instruments for glorifying his maker, they are, for the most part, wasted or employed for his own selfish ends. And just as man naturally misuses his other mercies from God, so he also misuses the written word of God. One sweeping charge may be brought against the church as a whole, and that charge is neglect and abuse of the Bible. To prove this charge, we have no need to look elsewhere. The proof lies at our own doors. I have no doubt that there are more Bibles in our country at this moment than there ever were since the world began. There is more Bible buying and Bible selling, more Bible printing and Bible distributing. We see Bibles in every bookstore, Bibles of every size, price, and style, large Bibles and small Bibles, Bibles for the rich and Bibles for the poor. There are Bibles in almost every house in the land. But all the while I fear we are in danger of forgetting that to have the Bible is one thing and to read it is quite another. This neglected book is a subject about which I address you today. Surely it is no small thing what you are doing with the Bible. Give me your attention while I supply you with a few plain reasons why everyone who cares for his soul ought to value the Bible highly, to study it regularly, and to make himself thoroughly acquainted with its contents. In the first place, there is no book in existence written in such a manner as the Bible. The Bible is God-breathed. In this respect, it is utterly unlike all other writings. God taught the writers of it what to say. God put thoughts and ideas into their minds. God guided their pens in writing down those thoughts and ideas. When you read it, you're not reading the self-taught compositions of poor, imperfect men like yourself, but the words of the eternal God. When you hear it, you're not listening to the erring opinions of short-lived mortals, but to the unchanging mind of the King of Kings. The men who were employed to write the Bible did not speak themselves. They spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. All other books in the world, however good and useful in their own way, are more or less defective. Only the Bible is absolutely perfect. From beginning to end, it is the Word of God. I boldly say that the book itself is the best witness of its own inspiration.
It is the greatest standing miracle in the world. He that dares to say the Bible is not inspired must give an explanation why he believes this if he can. Let him explain the unusual nature and character of the book in a way that will satisfy any man of common sense. The burden of proof lies with him. Some Bible critics have asserted that the Bible is not inspired. They say this because the writers of the Bible each have a different style. They say Isaiah does not write like Jeremiah and Paul does not write like John. This is perfectly true. And yet the works of these men are not any less equally inspired. The light of the planets we see in heaven is extremely various. Mars and Saturn and Jupiter each have an individual color. And yet we know that the light of the sun, which each planet reflects, is in each case one of the same. In the same way, the books of the Old and New Testaments are all inspired truth. And yet the aspect of that truth varies according to the mind through which the Holy Spirit makes it flow. The handwriting and style of the writers differ enough to prove that each had a distinct individual being. But the divine guide who dictates and directs the whole is always one. All are inspired. Every chapter and verse and word is from God. Oh, that men and women who are troubled with doubts and thoughts about inspiration would calmly examine the Bible for themselves. Oh, that they would take the advice which was the first step to Augustine's conversion. Pick it up. Pick it up and read it. How many difficulties and objections would instantly vanish like the mist before the rising sun. How many would soon confess, the finger of God is here. God is in this book and I did not know it. In the second place, there is no knowledge absolutely needful to man's salvation except the knowledge of the things which are to be found in the Bible. We live in days when the words of Daniel are fulfilled before our very eyes. He said, many will go here and there to increase knowledge. New books are continually coming out. More is being taught, more is being learned, more is being read than ever since the world began. But this I say, we must never forget that all education a man's mind can receive will not save his soul from hell unless he knows the truths of the Bible. A man may have immense learning and yet never be saved. He may be master of half the languages spoken around the globe. He may have read books till he is like a walking encyclopedia. And yet, if he dies ignorant of Bible truths, he dies a destitute man. Chemistry never silenced a guilty conscience. Mathematics never healed a broken heart. No earthly philosophy ever supplied hope in death. He that has the largest share of them will find in time that without Bible knowledge, he has no lasting possession. Death will make an end of all of his attainments. And after death, they will do him no good at all. A man may be a very ignorant man and yet be saved. He may know nothing of geography beyond the bounds of his own city or country and be utterly unable to say which is nearest to England, Paris or New York. He may know nothing of arithmetic and not see any difference between a million and a thousand. He may know nothing of science and its discoveries and have no idea whether Julius Caesar won his victories with gunpowder or the apostles had a printing press. And yet, if that very man has heard Bible truth with his ears and believed it with his heart, he knows enough to save his soul. He will be found in the end with Lazarus in heaven while his highly educated fellow creature, who has died unconverted, is lost forever. A man may have the mightiest of minds and a memory stored with all that his strong mind can grasp. And yet, if he does not know the things of the Bible, his soul is damned forever. Woe, woe to the man who dies in ignorance of the Bible. In the third place, no book in existence contains such important matter as the Bible. Time would fail me if I were to enter fully into all the great things which are found in the Bible, and only in the Bible. It would be easy to fill a volume with a list of the exceptional truths it reveals, and yet the half of its riches would be left untold. How glorious and soul-satisfying is the description it gives us of God's plan of salvation and the way by which our sins can be forgiven. the coming into the world of Jesus Christ, the God-man, to save sinners, the redemption he has accomplished for man by his suffering in our place, the just for the unjust, the complete payment he has made for our sins by his own blood, the justification of every sinner who simply believes on Jesus, the readiness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to receive, pardon, and to save to the uttermost, How unspeakably grand and comforting are all these truths. We would know nothing of them without the Bible. How comforting is the account it gives us of the great mediator of the New Testament, the man Christ Jesus. Four times over, his picture is graciously drawn before our eyes. Four separate witnesses tell us of his miracles and his ministry, his sayings and his actions, his life and his death. his power and his love, his kindness and his patience, his ways, his words, his works, his thoughts, his heart. Blessed be God, there is one thing in the Bible which the most prejudiced reader can hardly fail to understand, and that is the character of Jesus Christ. How encouraging are the examples the Bible gives us of good people. It tells us of many who were like passions with ourselves, men and women who had cares, burdens, families, temptations, afflictions, diseases, like ourselves, and yet through faith and patience inherited what had been promised and got safely home to heaven. The Bible keeps back nothing in the history of these people, their mistakes, their weaknesses, their conflicts, their experience, Their prayers, their praises, their useful lives, their happy deaths, all are fully recorded. And it tells us that God and Savior of these men and women is still the same today as yesterday, and still desires to be gracious to all who call upon him. How instructive are the examples the Bible gives us of bad people. It tells us of men and women who had light and knowledge and opportunities like ourselves, and yet hardened their hearts. They loved the world. They clung to their sins. They would have it their own way. They despised reproof and ruined their own souls forever. And it warns us that the God who punished Pharaoh and Saul and Ahab and Jezebel and Judas is a God who never changes. and that there is a real hell. How precious are the promises which the Bible contains for the use of those who love God. There is hardly any possible emergency or condition for which it does not have a word of hope and encouragement. And it tells men that God loves to be reminded of these promises. Oh, how blessed are the hopes which the Bible holds out to the believer in Christ Jesus. peace in the hour of death, and happiness on the other side of the grave, a glorious body in the morning of resurrection, a full and triumphant acquittal in the day of judgment, an everlasting reward in the kingdom of Christ, a joyful meeting with the Lord's people in the day of gathering together. These, these are the future prospects of every true Christian. They are all written in the book, in the book which is all true. How striking is the light which the Bible throws on the character of man. It teaches us what men may be expected to be and to do in every position and occupation in life. It gives us the deepest insight into the secret springs and motives of human actions and the ordinary course of events under the control of human agents. It is the true judge of the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. How deep is the wisdom contained in the book of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes? I can correctly understand an old Christian saying, give me a candle and a Bible and shut me up in a dark dungeon, and I will tell you everything that the whole world is doing. All these are things which men could find nowhere except in the Bible. We probably do not have the least idea how little we would know about these things if we did not have the Bible. We hardly know the value of the air we breathe and the sun which shines on us because we have never known what it is to be without them. We do not value the truths on which I have been dwelling upon because we do not realize the darkness of men to whom these truths have not been revealed. Surely no tongue can fully tell the value of the treasures this one volume contains. In the fourth place, no book in existence has produced such wonderful effects on mankind at large as the Bible. This is the book whose doctrines turned the whole world upside down in the days of the apostles. Many centuries have now passed away since God sent forth a few Jews from the remote corner of the earth to do a work which, according to man's judgment, must have seemed impossible. He sent them out at a time when the whole world was full of superstition, cruelty, lust, and sin. He sent them out to proclaim that the established religions of the earth were false and useless and must be forsaken. He sent them out to persuade men to give up old habits and customs and to live different lives. He sent them out to do battle with the most perverted idolatry, with the vilest and most disgusting immorality, with a bigoted priesthood, with sneering philosophers, with an ignorant population, with bloody-minded emperors, with the whole influence of Rome. Never was there an enterprise for all appearances more unrealistic and less likely to succeed. And how did he arm them for this battle? He gave them no worldly weapons. He gave them no worldly power to compel agreement and no worldly riches to bribe belief. He simply put the Holy Spirit into their hearts and the scriptures into their hands. He simply commanded them to expound and explain. to require compliance and to preach the doctrines of the Bible. The preacher of Christianity in the first century was not a man with a sword and an army to frighten people. No, he was nothing more than one holy man with one holy book. And how did these men of one book prosper? In a few generations, they entirely changed the face of society by the doctrines of the Bible. They emptied the temples of the heathen gods. They starved out idolatry and left it high and dry like a stranded ship. They brought into the world a higher condition of morality between man and man. They raised the character and position of women. They altered the standard of purity and decency. They put an end to man's cruel and bloody customs. There was no stopping the change. Persecution and opposition were useless. One victory after another was won. One bad thing after another melted away. Whether men liked it or not, they were slowly affected by the movement of the new religion and drawn within the whirlpool of its power. The earth shook and their rotten shelters fell to the ground. The flood rose and they found themselves obliged to rise with it. The tree of Christianity swelled and grew, and the chains they had thrown around it to stop its growth snapped like string. And all this was done by the doctrines of the Bible. This is the book which turned Europe upside down in the days of the glorious Protestant Reformation. No one can read the history of Christianity as it was 500 years ago and not see that darkness covered the whole professing Church of Christ. So great was the change which had come over Christianity that if an apostle had risen from the dead, he would not have recognized it and would have thought that heathenism had revived again. The doctrines of the gospel lay buried under a dense mass of human traditions. Penance and indulgences, relic worship and image worship and saint worship and worship of the Virgin Mary formed the sum and substance of most people's religion. The Church was made an idol. The priests and ministers of the Church usurped the place of Christ. And by what means was all this miserable darkness cleared away? By simply declaring the truths of the Bible. It was not merely the preaching of Luther and his friends which established Protestantism in Germany. The great weapon which overthrew the Roman Catholic Church's power in that country was Luther's translation of the Bible into the German tongue. It was not merely the writings of English reformers which threw down Roman Catholicism in England. The seeds of the work carried forward was first sown by Wycliffe's translation of the Bible many years before. It was not merely the disagreement of Henry VIII and the Pope of Rome which loosened the Pope's hold on English minds. It was the royal permission to have the Bible translated and set up in churches so that everyone who wanted could read it. Yes, it was the reading and circulation of the scripture which mainly established the cause of Protestantism in England, in Germany, and Switzerland. Without it, the people would probably have returned to their former bondage when the first Reformers died. But by the reading of the Bible, the public mind became gradually leavened with the principles of true religion. Men's eyes became thoroughly open. Their spiritual understandings became thoroughly enlarged. The abominations of Roman Catholicism became distinctly visible. The excellence of the pure gospel became a rooted idea in their hearts. It was then in vain for popes to thunder forward excommunications. It was useless for kings and queens to attempt to stop the course of Protestantism by fire and sword. It was all too late. The people knew too much. They had seen the light. They had heard the joyful sound. They had tasted the truth. The sun had risen on their minds. The scales had fallen from their eyes. The Bible had done its appointed work within them, and that work was not to be overthrown. The people would not return to Egypt. The clock could not be pushed back again. The mental and moral revolution had been affected, and mainly affected by God's word. In the fifth place, my friends, no book in existence can do so much for everyone who reads it with an open heart as the Bible. The Bible does not profess to teach the wisdom of this world. It was not written to explain geology or astronomy. It will neither instruct you in mathematics nor in natural philosophy. It will not make you a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer. But there is another world to be thought of besides that world in which man now lives. There are other ends for which man was created besides making money and working. There are other interests which he is meant to attend to besides those of his body. And those interests are the interests of his soul. It is the interest of the immortal soul which the Bible is especially able to promote. If you want to know law, you may study Blackstone. If you would know astronomy or geology, you may study Herschel or Lyell. But if you would know how to have your soul saved, you must study the written word of God. The Bible is able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. It can show you the way which leads to heaven. It can teach you everything you need to know, point out everything you need to believe, and explain everything you need to do. It can show you what you are, a sinner. It can show you who God is, perfectly holy. It can show you the great giver of pardon, peace, and grace, Jesus Christ. I've read of an Englishman who visited Scotland in the days of Blair, Rutherford, and Dixon, three famous preachers, and heard all three in succession. He said that the first showed him the majesty of God, the second showed him the beauty of Christ, and the third showed him everything in his heart. It is the glory and beauty of the Bible that it is always teaching these three things, more or less, from the first chapter of it to the last. The Bible, applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit, is the instrument by which souls are first converted to Christ. That mighty change is generally begun by some text or doctrine of the Word, brought home to a man's conscience. In this way, the Bible has worked moral miracles by the thousands. It has made drunkards become sober, immoral people become pure, thieves become honest, and violent-tempered people become meek. It has wholly altered the course of men's lives. It has caused their old things to pass away and made all their ways new. It has taught worldly people to seek first the kingdom of God. It has taught lovers of pleasure to become lovers of God. It has made men think of heaven instead of always thinking of the earth and live by faith instead of living by sight. Those are the truly great miracles which are constantly being worked by the Word. The Bible applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit is the chief means by which men are built up and strengthened in the faith after their conversion. It is able to make them pure, to sanctify them, to train them in righteousness, and to thoroughly equip them for every good work. The Spirit ordinarily does these things by the written Word, sometimes by the Word read, and sometimes by the word preached, but seldom, if ever, without the word. The Bible can show a believer how to walk in this world so as to please God. It can teach him how to glorify Christ and all the relationships of life. It can make him a good leader, employee, subordinate, husband, father, or son. It can enable him to bear misfortunes and loss without murmuring and say, it is well. It can enable him to look down into the grave and say, I will fear no evil. It can enable him to think about judgment and eternity and not feel afraid. It can enable him to bear persecution without flinching and to give up liberty and life rather than deny Christ's truth. Is he weary in soul? It can awaken him. Is he mourning? It can comfort him. Is he sinning? It can restore him. Is he weak? It can make him strong. Is he in the company of the unbeliever? It can keep him from evil. Is he alone? It can talk with him. All this the Bible can do for all believers, from the least as well as the greatest, for the richest as well as the poorest. It has done it for millions already and is doing it for millions every day. The man who has the Bible and the Holy Spirit in his heart has everything which is absolutely necessary to make him spiritually wise. He needs no priest to break the bread of life for him. He needs no ancient traditions, no writings of the fathers, no voice of the church to guide him into all truth. He has the well of truth open before him, and what more can he want? Yes, though he is shut up alone in a prison or imprisoned on a desert island, though he never sees a church or a minister again, if he only has the Bible, he has got the infallible guide and needs no other. If he only has the will to read the Bible properly, it will certainly teach him the road that leads to heaven. It is here alone that infallibility resides. It is not in the church. It is not in the councils. It is not in the ministers. It is only in the written word. I know well that many say they have found no saving power in the Bible. They tell us they have tried to read it and have learned nothing from it. They can see in it nothing but burdensome and abstract things. They ask us what we mean by talking of its power. I answer that the Bible no doubt contains some difficult things. or else it would not be the book of God. It contains things hard to comprehend, but only hard because we do not have the understanding of mind to comprehend them. It contains things above our reasoning powers, but nothing that might not be explained if the eyes of our understanding were not feeble and dim. But is not an acknowledgement of our own ignorance the very cornerstone and foundation of all knowledge? Must not many things be taken for granted in the beginning of every science before we can proceed one step towards acquaintance with it? Do we not require our children to learn many things of which they cannot see the meaning at first? And should we not expect to find deep things when we begin studying the word of God, and yet to believe that if we persevere in reading it, the meaning of many of them will one day be made clear? We must read with humility. We must take much on trust. We must believe that what we don't know now, we will know later. Some part in this world and all in the world to come. But I asked that man, I asked that man who has given up reading the Bible because it contains hard things, whether he did not find many things in it that were easy and plain. I put it to his conscience, whether he did not see great landmarks and principles in it all the way through. I asked him whether the things needful to salvation did not stand out boldly before his eyes like lighthouses. What should we say to the man who gives up reading the Bible because it contains hard things, when his own state and the path to heaven and the way to serve God are all written down clearly and unmistakably as with a beam of light from a lighthouse? Surely we ought to tell that man that his objections are no better than lazy excuses and do not deserve to be heard. I know that many will raise the objection that thousands read the Bible and are not one bit the better for their reading. And they ask us, when this is the case, what becomes of the Bible's boasted power? I answer that the reason why so many read the Bible without any benefit is plain and simple. They do not read it in the right way. There is generally a right way and a wrong way of doing everything in the world. And just as it is with other things, so it is in the matter of reading the Bible. It does not do any good to merely run our eyes over the print. Any more than receiving baptism or the Lord's Supper would do us any good by the mere virtue of our receiving them. Reading the Bible will not ordinarily do any good unless it is read with humility and earnest prayer. When men read it without benefit, the fault is not in the book, but in themselves. I tell the man who doubts the power of the Bible, because many read it and are no better for the reading, that the abuse of a thing is no argument against the use of it. I tell him boldly that no man or woman ever missed the way to heaven when they read the Bible in a childlike persevering spirit, like the Ethiopian eunuch and the Bereans in the book of Acts. Yes, many will be exposed to shame in the day of judgment, but there will not be one soul who will be able to say that he went thirsting to the Bible and found in it no living water. He searched for truth in the scriptures and searching did not find it. The words which are spoken of wisdom in the Proverbs are strictly true of the Bible. If you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as silver and search for it as hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. In the sixth place, the Bible is the only standard by which all questions of doctrine or of duty can be tested. The Lord God knows the weakness of our poor fallen understandings. He knows that even after conversion, our perceptions of right and wrong are extremely vague. He knows how cleverly Satan can overlay error with an appearance of truth and can dress up wrong with plausible arguments till it looks like right. Knowing all this, He has mercifully provided us with an unerring standard of truth and error. right and wrong, and has taken care to make that standard a written book to scriptures. No one can look around the world and not see the wisdom of such provision. No one can live long and not find out that he is constantly in need of a counselor and an advisor, of a rule of faith and practice on which he can depend. Unless he lives like an animal, without a soul and conscience, he will find himself constantly assailed by difficult and puzzling questions. He will often ask himself, what must I believe and what must I do? The world is full of difficulties about points of doctrine. Does a man read or travel much? He will soon find the most opposite opinions prevailing among those who are called Christians. He will discover that different persons give the most different answers to the important question, what must I do to be saved? The Roman Catholic, the Protestant, and the Mormon, each will assert that he alone has the truth. Each will declare to him that safety is only to be found in his denomination. Each says, come with us. All this is puzzling. What will a man do? Does he settle down quietly in some church here at home? He will soon find that even in our land, the most conflicting views are held. He will soon discover that there are serious differences among Christians as to the comparative importance of the various aspects of the faith. One man thinks of nothing but church government, another of nothing but sacraments, services, and forums, and the third of nothing but preaching the gospel. Does he ask ministers for a solution? He will perhaps find one minister teaching one doctrine and another a doctrine quite different from the first. All this is puzzling.

What will a man do? There is only one answer to this question. A man must make the Bible alone his rule. He must receive nothing and believe nothing which is not according to the word. He must test all religious teaching by one simple test. Does it agree with the Bible?

What does the Scripture say? Oh, I pray to God that the eyes of the Christians of this country were more open on this subject. I pray to God that they would learn to weigh sermons and books, opinions and ministers on the scales of the Bible, and to value everything according to its conformity to the Word. I pray to God that they would see that it really does not matter who says something. The question is, is what they said scriptural? If it is, it ought to be received and believed. If it is not, it ought to be refused and cast aside.

I fear the consequences of that submissive acceptance of everything which the preacher says. I fear that they will be led astray, like the blinded Syrians, and awake someday to find themselves in the power of Rome.

that men would only remember exactly why the Bible was given to them. I tell Christians that it is nonsense to say, as some do, that it is arrogant to judge a minister's teaching by the Word. When one doctrine is proclaimed in one church and another in another, people must read and judge for themselves. Both doctrines cannot be right, and both ought to be tried by the Word.

I charge them, above all things, never to suppose that any true minister of the gospel will dislike his people, measure in all he teaches by the Bible. On the contrary, the more they read the Bible and prove everything he says by the Bible, the better he will be pleased.

A false minister may say, you have no right to use your private judgment. Leave the Bible to us who are ordained. A true minister will say, search the scriptures, and if I do not teach you what is scriptural, then do not believe me. A false minister may cry out, listen to the church and listen to me. A true minister will say, listen to the word of God.

A man must make the Bible his rule of conduct. He must make its leading principles the compass by which he steers his course through life. By the letter or spirit of the Bible, he must test every difficult point in question. To the law and to the testimony, what does the scripture say?

I charge you today to act solemnly on the maxim I have just laid down, and to adhere to it rigidly all the days of your lives. You will never repent of it. Make it a leading principle never to act contrary to the word. Do not care for the charge of being overly strict and a person of needless precision. Remember you serve a strict and holy God.

Do not listen to the common objection that the rule you have laid down is impossible and cannot be observed in such a world as this. Let those who make such an objection speak out plainly and tell us for what purpose the Bible was given to man. Let them remember that by the Bible we will all be judged at the last day. and let them learn to judge themselves by it here, lest they be judged and condemned by it on Judgment Day.

In the seventh place, the Bible is the book which all true servants of God have always lived by and loved. Every living thing which God creates requires food. The life that God imparts needs sustaining and nourishing. It is true with animal and vegetable life. It is true with birds, beasts, fishes, reptiles, insects, and plants. It is equally true with spiritual life. When the Holy Spirit raises a man from the death of sin and makes him a new creature in Christ Jesus, the new principle in that man's heart requires food, and the only food which will sustain him is the Word of God.

There was never a truly converted man or woman from one end of the world to the other who did not love the revealed will of God. Just as a newborn baby naturally desires the milk provided for its nourishment, so does the soul, born again, desire the sincere milk of the word. This is a common mark of all the children of God. They delight in the law of the Lord. Show me a person who despises Bible reading or thinks little of Bible preaching, and I hold it to be a certain fact that he is not yet born again. Oh, he may be zealous about forms and ceremonies. He may be diligent in attending church and taking the Lord's Supper. But if these things are more precious to him than the Bible, then I cannot believe that he is a converted man.

Tell me what the Bible is to a man, and I will genuinely tell you what he is. This is the pulse to take, this is the barometer to look at, if we would know the state of the heart. I have no concept of the Holy Spirit dwelling in a man and not giving clear evidence of his presence. And I believe it to be clear evidence of the Spirit's presence when the word is really precious to a man's soul.

Love of the word is one of the characteristics we see in Job. Little as we know of this patriarch in his age, This at least stands out clearly. Job said, I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. Love of the word is a shining feature in the character of David. Note how it appears all through that wonderful part of scripture, the 119th Psalm. He might well have said, oh, how I love your law. Love of the word is a striking point in the character of Paul. What were he and his companions but men mighty in the scriptures? What were his sermons but expositions and applications of the word? Love of the word appears preeminently in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He read it publicly. He quoted it continually. He expounded it frequently. He advised the Jews to search it. He used it as his weapon to resist the devil. He said repeatedly, the scripture must be fulfilled. Almost the last thing he did was to open the minds of the disciples so that they could understand the scriptures.

I am afraid that man cannot be a true servant of Christ who has not something of his Master's mind and feelings towards the Bible. Love of the Word has been a prominent feature in the history of all the saints of whom we know anything since the days of the apostles. This is the lamp which Augustine followed. This is the well which was reopened by Wycliffe and Luther after it had been long stopped up. This is the sword with which Latimer and Jewel and Knox won their victories. This is the manor which fed Baxter and Owen and the noble host of Puritans and made them strong in battle. This is the armory from which Whitefield and Wesley drew their powerful weapons. This is the mine from which McShane brought forth rich gold. Differing as these holy men did in some matters, on one point they were all agreed, they all delighted in the word.

Love of the word is one of the first things that appears in the converted heathen. In hot climates and in cold, among savage people and among civilized, in New Zealand, in Africa, in India, it is always the same. They enjoy hearing it read. They long to be able to read it themselves, They wonder why Christians did not send it to them before.

Oh, how striking is the picture of the South African chieftain when first brought under the power of the gospel. He was often seen under the shadow of a great rock nearly the whole day, eagerly perusing the pages of the Bible. How touching is the expression of a poor converted African man when speaking of the Bible. He said, it is never old and never cold.

Love of the Bible is one of the great points of agreement among all converted men and women. People from many evangelical denominations all unite in honoring the Bible as soon as they become real Christians. This is the fountain around which all the various portions of Christ's flock meet together, and from which no sheep ever goes away thirsty.

Oh, that believers would learn to cleave more closely to the written word. It is a blessed thought that, in the end, there will be a multitude of people in heaven. As few as the Lord's people are at any one given time or place, yet gathered together in the end, there will be a great multitude that no one can count. They will be of one heart and mind. They will all have passed through the same experience. They all will have repented, believed, lived holy, prayerful, and humble lives. They all will have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

But one thing besides all this that they will all have in common is that they all will love the text and doctrines of the Bible. The Bible will have been their food and delight in the days of their pilgrimage on earth. And the Bible will be a common subject of joyful meditation and retrospect when they are gathered together in heaven.

In the last place, The Bible is the only book which can comfort a man in the last hours of his life. Death is an event which is coming to each one of us. There is no avoiding it. It is the river which each of us must cross. I who preach and you who listen have to die one day. It is good to remember this. We would all rather not think about the subject. Each man thinks every other man is going to die, but not himself. I want everyone to do his duty in life, but I also want everyone to think of death. I want everyone to know how to live, but I also want everyone to know how to die.

Death is a solemn event to everyone. It is the winding up of all earthly plans and expectations. It is a separation from all we have loved and lived with. It is often accompanied by great bodily pain and distress. It brings us to the grave. the maggot and decay. It opens the door to judgment and eternity, to heaven or to hell. It is an event after which there is no change or opportunity for repentance. As the tree falls, there it must lie. No conversion in the coffin. No new birth after we have ceased to breathe and death is waiting for all of us. It may be close at hand. The time of our departure is quite uncertain. But sooner or later, we must all lie down, we must all lie down alone and die. All these are serious considerations. It is good for every thoughtful and sensible man to consider calmly how he is going to meet death. Be strong like a man and look the subject in the face.

Listen to me while I tell you a few things about the end to which we are coming to. The good things of the world cannot comfort a man when he draws near death. All the gold of California and Australia will not provide light for the dark valley of death. Money can buy the best medical advice and care for a man's body, but money cannot buy peace for his conscience, heart, and soul.

Relatives, lovers, friends, and coworkers cannot comfort a man when he draws near death. They may minister affectionately to his bodily wants. They may tenderly watch by his bedside and anticipate his every wish. They may smooth down his dying pillow and support his sinking frame in their arms, but they cannot minister to a diseased mind. They cannot stop the achings of a troubled heart. They cannot hide an uneasy conscience from the eye of God.

The pleasures of the world cannot comfort a man when he draws near death. the brilliant ballroom, the midnight frolic, the party at the races, the card table, the box at the opera, the voices of singing men and singing women, all these are finally distasteful things. To hear of hunting trips no longer gives him pleasure. To be invited to feast and gala events gives him no ease. He cannot hide from himself that these are hollow, empty, powerless things. They are a noise to the ear of his conscious. They are out of harmony with his condition. They cannot soothe one ache in his heart when the last enemy is coming in like a flood. They cannot make him calm in the prospects of meeting a holy God.

Books and newspapers cannot comfort a man when he draws near death. The most brilliant writings of Dickens will be gloomed to his ear. The daily news and the newest novel will lie unopened and unheeded. Their time will be past. Their calling will be gone. Whatever they may be in health, they are useless in the hour of death.

There is but one fountain of comfort for a man drawing near to his end, and that is the Bible. Chapters out of the Bible, verses out of the Bible, statements of truth taken out of the Bible, books containing matter drawn from the Bible, these are man's only chance of comfort when he comes to die.

I do not say that the Bible will do any good, as a matter of course, to a dying man if he has not valued it before. I know unhappily too much of deathbeds to say that. I do not say whether it is probable that he who has been unbelieving and neglectful of the Bible in life will at once believe and get comfort from it in death. But I do say positively that no dying man will ever get real comfort except from the contents of the Word of God. All comfort from any other source is a house built upon the sand.

I lay this down as a rule of universal application. I make no exception in favor of any class on earth. Kings and poor men, educated and uneducated, all are equal in this matter. There is not one bit of real consolation for any dying man, unless he gets it from the Bible. Chapters, passages, texts, promises, and doctrines of scriptures, heard, received, believed, and rested on, these are the only comforters I dare promise to anyone when he leaves this world.

I tell everyone who hears this sermon that although men may seem to get on comfortably without the Bible while they live, they can be sure that without the Bible they cannot comfortably die. I might easily confirm all that I have just said by examples and illustrations. I might show you the deathbeds of men who have despised the Bible. I might tell you how Voltaire and Paine, the famous atheist, died in misery, bitterness, rage, fear, and despair. I might show you the happy deathbeds of those who have loved the Bible and believed it, and the blessed effect the sight of their deathbeds had on others.

Cecil, a minister, says, I will never forget standing by the bedside of my dying mother. Are you afraid to die, I asked. No, she replied. But why does the uncertainty of another state give you no concern, she replied. Because God has said, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. I might easily multiply illustrations of this kind.

But I think it better to conclude this part of my subject by giving the result of my own observations as a minister. I have seen many dying persons in my time. I have seen great varieties of character and behavior among them. I have seen some die with a bad temper, silent and comfortless. I have seen others die ignorant, unconcerned, and apparently without much fear. I have seen some die so exhausted because of a long illness that they were quite willing to depart, and yet they did not seem to be in a fit state to go before God. I have seen others die with professions of hope and trust in God, without leaving any real evidence that they belonged to Christ. I have seen a few dying in the full assurance of hope, given glorious testimony to Christ's faithfulness.

But one thing I have never seen. I never saw anyone enjoy what I would call real, solid, calm, reasonable peace on his deathbed, who did not draw his peace from the Bible. And I boldly say that the man who thinks he can go to his deathbed without having the Bible for his comforter, his companion, and his friend is one of the greatest fools in the world. There are no comforts for the soul but Bible comforts, and he who does not have a hold of these does not have a hold of anything at all.

The only comforter for a deathbed is the book about which I have been addressing you this morning. Surely it is no small matter whether you read that book or not. Surely a dying man in a dying world should seriously consider whether he has got anything to comfort him when it is his turn to die. I charge you, I entreat you for the last time to give an honest answer to my question, what are you doing with the Bible? Do you read it? How do you read it?

I have now given the reasons why I press on every one of you the duty and importance of reading the Bible. I have shown that no book is written in such a manner as the Bible, that knowledge of the Bible is absolutely necessary to salvation. that no book contains such matter, that no book has done so much for the world generally, that no book can do so much for everyone who reads it, that this book is the only rule of faith and practice, that it is and always has been the food of all true servants of God, and that it is the only book which can comfort men when they die.

All these are ancient things. I have only gathered together old truths and tried to mold them into a new shape. Let me finish everything by addressing a few plain words to the conscience of every group of listeners.

Number one, you may be a person who can read, but you have never read the Bible at all. Are you one of them? If you are, I have something to say to you. I cannot comfort you in your present state of mind. It would be mockery and deceit to do so. I cannot speak to you about peace in heaven while you treat the Bible as you do. You are in danger of losing your soul. You are in danger because your neglected Bible is plain evidence that you do not love God. The health of a man's body may generally be known by his appetite. The health of a man's soul may be known by his treatment of the Bible. Now it is evident that you are living with a serious disease. Will you not repent?

I know I cannot reach your heart. I cannot make you see and feel these things. I can only enter my solemn protest against your present treatment of the Bible and lay that protest before your conscience. I do so with all my soul. Oh, my friend, beware lest you repent too late. Beware lest you put off reading the Bible till you send for the doctor in your last illness and then find the Bible a sealed book to your anxious soul. Beware lest you go on saying all of your life, men got along very well without all this Bible reading, and find in time, to your own loss, that men without the Bible do very poorly and end up in hell. Beware lest the day comes when you will feel, had I but honored the Bible as much as I have honored the newspaper, I would not have been left without comfort in my last hours.

Oh, you who neglect your Bible, I give you a plain warning. Judgment is outside your door, ready to come in and destroy you. The Lord have mercy on your soul.

Number two, you may be a person who is willing to begin reading the Bible, but wants advice on how to begin. Are you that person? Listen to me and I will give you a few short hints. For one thing, begin reading your Bible this very day. The way to do a thing is to do it, and the way to read your Bible is to actually pick it up and read it. It is not meaning, or wishing, or resolving, or intending, or thinking about it, which will not advance you one step. You must positively read. There is no royal road in this matter, any more than in the matter of prayer. If you cannot read yourself, you must persuade someone else to read it to you. But one way or another, through eyes or ears, the words of Scripture must actually pass before your mind.

For another thing, read the Bible with an earnest desire to understand it. Do not think for a moment that the objective is to turn over a certain quantity of pages and that it matters nothing whether you understand it or not. Some ignorant people seem to fancy that all is well if they have read so many chapters every day, though they may not have an idea what they are all about, and only know that they have pushed forward their bookmark so many pages. This is turning Bible reading into a mere form. It is almost as bad as the Roman Catholic habit of buying indulgences by saying an almost incredible number of Hail Marys and Our Fathers. Settle it in your mind as a general principle. that a Bible not understood is a Bible that does no good. Often say to yourself as you read, what is this all about? Dig for the meaning like a man digging for gold.

For another thing, read the Bible with childlike faith and humility. Open your heart as you open your book and say, speak Lord, for your servant is listening. Resolve to believe everything you find there, however much it may run counter to your own prejudices. Resolve to heartily receive every statement of truth, whether you like it or not.

Beware of that terrible habit of mine into which some readers of the Bible fall. They receive some doctrines because they like them. They reject others because they are condemning to themselves or to some lover or relation or friend. At this rate, the Bible is useless. Are we to be judges of what ought to be in the word? Do we know better than God? Settle it in your mind that you will receive everything and believe everything, and that what you cannot understand, you will take on trust.

Remember, when you pray, you're speaking to God and God hears you. But remember, when you read, God is speaking to you, and you are not to talk back, but to listen.

For another thing, read the Bible in a spirit of obedience and self-application. Sit down to study it with a daily determination that you will live by its rules, rest on its statements, and act on its commands. Consider as you travel through every chapter, how does this affect my view and course of conduct? What does this teach me? It is improper to read the Bible from mere curiosity. and for speculative purposes in order to fill your head and your mind with opinions while you do not allow the book to influence your heart and life.

For another thing, read the Bible every day. Make it a part of your everyday's business to read and meditate on some portion of God's word. Private means of grace are just as needful every day for the souls as food and clothing are for our bodies. Yesterday's meal will not feed the worker today, and today's meal will not feed the worker tomorrow. Do as the Israelites did in the wilderness. Gather your manna fresh every morning. Choose your own periods and hours. Do not hurry your reading. Give your Bible the best and not the worst part of your time. But whatever plan you pursue, let it be a rule of your life to visit the throne of grace and the Bible every day.

For another thing, read all the Bible and read it in an orderly way. I fear there are many parts of the word which some people never read at all. This is a very arrogant habit. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching. Some people's Bible reading is a system of perpetual dipping and picking. They do not seem to have any idea of regularly going through the whole book. This is also a great mistake. No doubt in times of sickness and affliction, it is allowable to search out seasonable portions. I believe it is by far the best plan to begin the Old and New Testaments at the same time, to read each straight through the end, and then begin again. This is a matter in which everyone must be persuaded in his own mind. I can only say it has been my own plan for nearly 40 years, and I've never had a reason to alter it.

For another thing, read the Bible fairly and honestly. Determined to take everything in its plain, obvious meaning and regard all forced interpretations with great suspicion. As a general rule, whatever a verse of the Bible seems to mean, it does mean. Cecil's rule is a very valuable one, and I quote, the right way of interpreting scripture is to take it as we find it, without any attempt to force it into any particular system.

" That godly man Hooker said, I believe it is an infallible rule in the exposition of Scripture that when the literal meaning will stand, the furthest from the literal is commonly the worst.

In the last place, read the Bible with Christ continually in view. The primary object of all Scripture is to testify about Jesus. Old Testament ceremonies are shadows of Christ. Old Testament judges and deliverers are types of Christ. Old Testament history shows the world's need of Christ. Old Testament prophecies are full of Christ's sufferings. Old Testament prophecies are full of Christ's glory yet to come. The first coming and the second. The Lord's humiliation. The Lord's kingdom. The Lord's cross and crown. All these shine forth everywhere in the Bible.

Remember this advice if you want to properly read the Bible. I might easily add to these hints, if time permitted. Few and short as they are, you will find them worth your attention. Act upon them. And I firmly believe you will never be allowed to miss the way to heaven. Act upon them, and you will find light continually increasing in your mind.

Poor Christian woman once said to an unbeliever, I am no scholar. I cannot argue like you. But I know that honey is honey because it leaves a sweet taste in my mouth. And I know the Bible to be God's book because of the taste it leaves in my heart.

You may be someone who loves and believes the Bible and yet reads it only a little. I fear there are many such people in this world today. It is a day of hustle and hurry. It is a day of talking and committee meetings and public work. These things are all very well in their own way. but I fear that they sometimes clip and cut short the private reading of the Bible.

Does your conscience tell you that you are one of the persons I speak of? Listen to me and I will say a few things which deserve your serious attention. You are the man that is likely to get very little comfort from the Bible in the time of need. Trials come at various times. Affliction is a searching wind which strips the leaves off the trees and exposes the bird's nest. Now I fear that your supply of Bible comforts may one day run very low. I fear lest you should find yourself in time without scriptural resources and come to the harbor weak, worn, and thin.

You are the man that is likely never to be established in the truth. I will not be surprised to hear that you are troubled with doubts and questions about assurance, grace, faith, perseverance, and the like. The devil is an old and cunning enemy. He can easily quote scripture when he pleases. Now you are not sufficiently ready with your weapons to be able to fight a good fight with him. Your armor does not fit well. Your sword sits loosely in your hand.

You are the man that is likely to make mistakes in life. I will not wonder if I am told that you have erred about your own marriage, erred about your children's education of spiritual things, erred about the conduct of your household, erred about the company you keep. The world you steer through is full of rocks and reefs and sandbars. You are not sufficiently familiar either with the searchlights or your own charts.

You are the man that is likely to be carried away by some deceptive false teacher for a time. It will not surprise me if those clever, eloquent men who can make their lie appear to be the truth will lead you into many foolish notions. You are out of balance. No wonder you are tossed to and fro like a cork in the waves.

All these are uncomfortable things. I want every one of you to escape them all. Take the advice I offer you this day. Do not merely read your Bible a little, but read it a lot. Let the word of Christ dwell within you richly. Do not be a mere babe in spiritual knowledge. Seek to become well instructed in the kingdom of heaven. and to be continually adding new things to old.

A religion of feeling is an uncertain thing. It is like the tide, sometimes high and sometimes low. It is like the moon, sometimes bright and sometimes dim. A religion of deep Bible knowledge is a firm and lasting possession. It enables a man not merely to say, I feel hope in Christ, but rather, I know whom I have believed.

You may be someone who reads the Bible a lot and yet believes that you are no better because of the reading. This is a crafty temptation of the devil. At one stage, he says, do not read the Bible at all. At another, he says, your reading does you no good. Give it up.

Are you that man? I feel for you from the bottom of my soul. Let me try to help you. Do not think that you are getting nothing good from the Bible merely because you do not see that good day by day. The great effects are often silent, quiet, and hard to detect at the time they are being produced. Think of the influence of the moon upon the earth, of the air upon the human lungs. Remember how silently the dew falls and how imperceptibly the grass grows.

There may be far more going on in your soul than you think by your Bible reading. The word may be gradually producing deep impressions on your heart of which you are not presently aware. Often when the memory is retaining no facts, the character of a man is receiving some everlasting impressions.

Is sin becoming every year more hateful to you? Is Christ becoming every year more precious? Is holiness becoming every year more lovely and desirable in your eyes? If these things are so, take courage. The Bible is doing you good, though you may not be able to trace it out day by day. The Bible may be restraining you from some sin or delusion into which you would otherwise run. It may be daily keeping you back and hedging you in and preventing many a false step. Yes, you might soon find this out to your hurt if you were to cease reading the Word.

The very familiarity of blessings sometimes makes us insensible to their value. Resist the devil. Settle it in your mind as an established rule that whether you feel like it or not, you are inhaling spiritual health by reading the Bible and unknowingly becoming stronger.

You may be a person who really loves the Bible, lives the Bible, and reads it regularly. Are you one of these people? Give me your attention and I will mention a few things which will do your heart good to remember.

Let us resolve to read the Bible more and more every year that we live. Let us try to get it rooted into our memories and engraved into our hearts. Let us be thoroughly knowledgeable of it by the time we take the voyage of death. Who knows, but we may have a very stormy passage. Sight and hearing may fail us, and we may be in deep waters. Oh, to have the word hidden in our hearts in such an hour as that.

Let us resolve to be more watchful over our Bible reading every year that we live. Let us be jealously careful about the time we give to it and the quality of the time spent. Let us beware of omitting our daily reading without sufficient cause. Let us not be yawning and dozing over our book while we read it. Let us read like a businessman studying the financial article in the newspaper, or like a wife reading a husband's letter from a distant land.

Let us be careful that we never exalt any minister or sermon or book or tract or friend above the word. Cursed be that book or tract or human counsel which creeps in between us and the Bible and hides the Bible from our eyes. Once more I say, let us be very watchful. The moment we open the Bible, the devil sits down by our side. Oh, to read with a hungry spirit and a simple desire for edification.

Let us resolve to honor the Bible more in our families. Let us read it every morning and evening to our children and spouses and not be ashamed to let men see that we do this. Let us not be discouraged by seeing no good arise from it. The Bible reading in a family has kept many a person from the jail and the prison and from the eternal fires of hell.

Let us resolve to meditate more on the Bible. It is good to take with us two or three texts when we go into the world and turn them over and over in our minds whenever we have a little leisure. It keeps out many vain thoughts. It preserves our soul from stagnating and breeding corrupt things. It sanctifies and quickens our memories and prevents them from becoming like those ponds where the frogs live but the fish die.

Let us resolve to talk more to believers about the Bible when we meet them. Sorry to say, the conversation of Christians when they do meet is often sadly unprofitable. How many frivolous and trifling and unloving things are said. Let us bring out the Bible more, and it will help to drive the devil away and keep our hearts in tune. Oh, that we may all strive to walk together in this evil world, that Jesus may often draw near and go with us as he went with the two disciples journeying to Emmaus. Last of all, let us resolve to live by the Bible more and more every year we live. Let us frequently take account of all of our opinions and practices, of our habits and tempers, of our behavior in public and in private, in the world and in our own homes. Let us measure everything by the Bible and resolve that by God's help to conform to it. Oh, that we may learn increasingly to keep our way pure. by living according to the word. I commend all these things to the serious and prayerful attention of everyone who hears these words. I want the ministers of my beloved country to be Bible-reading ministers, the congregations to be Bible-reading congregations, and the nation to be a Bible-reading nation. To bring about this desirable end, I cast in my resources into God's treasury. O the Lord grant that it may prove not to have been in vain. Amen.