The one, precious, all-absorbing theme. Octavia Swinslow, The Precious Things of God.

the Word of God must ever be transcendentally precious to the believer. The Bible is, from its commencement to its close, a record of the Lord Jesus. Around Him, the divine and glorious Word centers all its wondrous types, prophecies, and facts gather. His promise and foreshadowing, His holy incarnation, nativity and baptism, His obedience and passion, His death, burial, and resurrection, His ascension to heaven, His second coming to judge the world, are the grand and touching, the sublime and tender, the priceless and precious truths interwoven with the whole texture of the Bible, to which the two witnesses of Revelation, the Old and the New Testaments, bear their harmonious and solemn testimony.

Beloved, let this be the one and chief object of your study of the Bible, the knowledge of Jesus. The Bible is not a history, a book of science, or a poem. It is a record of Christ. Study it to know more of Him, His nature, His love, His work. With a magnanimous paw, count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus your Lord. Then, will God's Word become increasingly precious to your soul and its truths unfold. In every page, you will trace the history of Jesus, see the glory of Jesus, admire the work of Jesus, learn the love of Jesus, and hear the voice of Jesus. The whole volume will be redolent of his name, and luminous with his beauty.

Oh, what is the Bible to us apart from its revelation of a Saviour? Is there not great danger of studying it, merely intellectually and scientifically, of revelling among its literary beauties and its grandeur, blind to its true value? and without any desire to know that precious Saviour who died for sinners, that divine Redeemer who purchased the ransom of His church with His own blood, that Friend who loves us, that Brother who sympathizes with us, that enthroned High Priest who intercedes for us within the veil.

Do we study the word of Christ spiritually and honestly? as those whose souls hunger and thirst for this, the bread and water of life? Do we search it diligently and earnestly as for hidden treasure, treasure beyond all price? Can we say with David, O how I love your law, it is my meditation all the day? Do we read it with a childlike mind, receive it with a believing heart, bow to its teaching with reverence of soul, and receive its decisions in all questions of faith and practice, as decisive and ultimate?

In a word, do we search the Scriptures humbly, prayerfully, depending upon the guidance of the Spirit, to find Jesus in them? of these scriptures, He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Substance, the Sweetness, the Glory, the One, Precious, all-absorbing Theme.

Yes, Lord, Your Word is precious to our souls, because it reveals to us Your glory and tells us of Your love.