THE CHRISTIAN TREASURY. 433 וי リ HOW TO READ THE BIBLE WITH PROFIT. THE grand question I am to speak to is this: How we may read the Scriptures with most spiritual profit. It is a momentous question, and of daily use. For the resolution of this question, I shall lay down several rules and directions about reading of Scripture. 1. If you would profit by reading, remove those things which will hinder your profiting. There are three obstructions that must be removed, if you would profit by Scripture. (1.) Remove the love of every sin.-Let a physician prescribe never so good receipts, if the patient takes poison, it will hinder the virtue and operation of the physic. The Scripture prescribes excellent receipts; but sin lived in poisons all. The body cannot thrive in a fever; nor can the soul under the feverish heat of lust. Plato calls the love of sin "a great devil." As the rose is destroyed by the canker which breeds in it, so are the souls of men by those sins they live in. (2.) Take heed of the thorns which will choke the word read. These thorns our Saviour expounds to be "the cares of this world." (Matt. xiii. 22.) By "cares" is meant covetousness. A covetous man is a pluralist. He hath such diversity of secular employments that he can scarce find time to read; or if he doth, what solecisms doth he commit in reading! While his eye is upon the Bible, his heart is upon the world. It is not the writings of the apostles he is so much taken with, as the writings in his account-book. Is this man likely to profit? You may as soon extract oils and sirups out of a flint, as he any real benefit out of Scripture. (3.) Take heed of jesting with Scripture.--This is playing with fire. Some cannot be merry unless they make bold with God. When they are sad, they bring forth the Scripture as their harp to drive away the evil spirit; as that! drunkard who, having drunk off his cups, called to his fellows, "Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out." In the fear of God beware of this. King Edward IV. would not endure to have his crown jested with, but *The author was one of the Puritans, and the work from which we take this paper is at once valuable and rare. ED. C. T. No. 37.* caused him to be executed who said he would make his son heir to the crown, meaning the sign of the crown: much less will God endure to have his word jested with. Eusebius relates of one who took a piece of Scripture to jest with, that God struck him with frenzy. The Lord may justly give over such persons "to a reprobate mind." (Rom. i. 28.) 2. If you would profit, prepare your hearts to the reading of the Word.-The heart is an instrument that needs putting in tune. "Prepare your hearts unto the Lord." (1 Sam. vii. 3.) The Heathens (as Plutarch notes) thought it indecent to be too hasty or rash in the service of their supposed deities. This preparation to reading consists in two things: (1.) In summoning our thoughts together to attend that solemn work we are going about. The thoughts are stragglers; therefore rally them together. (2.) In purging out those unclean affections which do indispose us to reading. The serpent, before he drinks, casts up his poison. In this we should be "wise as serpents;" before we come to these "waters of life," we should cast away the poison of impure affections. Many come rashly to the reading of the Word; and no wonder, if they come without preparation, that they go away without profit. 3. Read the Scripture with reverence.Think every line you read God is speaking to you. The ark, wherein the law was put, was overlaid with pure gold, and was carried on bars, that the Levites might not touch it. (Exod. xxv. 10-15.) Why was this, but to breed in the people reverence to the law? When Ehud told Eglon he had a message to him from God, he arose from his throne. (Judg. iii. 20.) The Word written is a message to us from Jehovah; with what veneration should we receive it! 4. Read the books of Scripture in order.— Though occurrences may sometimes divert our method, yet for a constant course it is best to observe an order in reading. Order is an help to memory: we do not begin to read a friend's letter in the middle. 5. Get a right understanding of Scripture.— "Give me understanding, that I may learn ty commandments." (Ps. cxix. 73.) Though to us. Christian's ballast, which keeps him from being overturned with vanity. 7. Labour to remember what you read.Satan would steal the word out of our mind (Matt. xiii. 4, 19); not that he intends to make use of it himself, but lest we should make use of it. The memory should be like the chest in the ark, where the law was put. "I have re there are some knots in Scripture, which are not easily untied, yet things essential to salvation the Holy Ghost hath plainly pointed out The knowledge of the sense of Scripture is the first step to profiting. In the law Aaron was first to light the lamps, and then to burn the incense: the lamp of the understanding must be first lighted, before the affections can be inflamed. Get what knowledge you | membered thy judgments of old." (Ps. cxix. can by comparing Scriptures, by conferring with others, by using the best annotators. Without knowledge the Scripture is a sealed book; every line is too high for us; and if the word shoot above our head, it can never hit our heart. 6. Read the Word with seriousness.-"If one go over the Scripture cursorily," saith Erasmus, "there is little good to be got by it; but if he be serious in reading of it, it is the 'savour of life."" And well may we be serious, if we consider the importance of those truths which are bound up in this sacred volume. "It is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life." (Deut. xxxii. 47.) If a letter were to be broken open and read, wherein a man's whole estate were concerned, how serious would he be in reading of it! In the Scripture-our salvation is concerned; it treats of the love of Christ -a serious-subject. (Tit. iii. 4.) Christ hath loved mankind more than the angels that fell. (Heb. ii. 16.) The loadstone, despising the gold and pearl, draws the iron to it: thus Christ passed by the angels, who were of a more noble extract, and drew mankind to him. Christ loved us more than his own life; nay, though we had a hand in his death, yet that he should not leave us out of his will, this is a love "which passeth knowledge." (Eph. iii. 19.) Who can read this without seriousness? The Scripture speaks of the mystery of faith, the eternal recompenses, the paucity of them that shall be saved: "Few chosen." (Matt. xx. 16.) One saith, the names of all the good emperors of Rome might be engraven in a little ring. There are but a few names in the book of life. The Scripture speaks of “striving” for heaven as in an agony (Luke xiii. 24); it cautions us of falling short of the "promised rest" (Heb. iv. 1); it describes the horror of the infernal torments, "the worm and the fire." (Mark ix. 44.) Who can read this, and not be serious? Some have light feathery spirits; they run over the most weighty truths in haste; like Israel, who ate the passover in haste; and they are not benefited by the word. Read with a solemn, composed spirit. Seriousness is the 52.) Jerome writes of that religious lady, Paula, that she had got most of the Scriptures by heart. We are bid to have the "word dwell in" us. (Col. iii. 16.) The word is a jewel that adorns the hidden man; and shall we not remember it? "Can a maid forget her ornaments?" (Jer. ii. 32.) If the word stays not in the memory, it cannot profit. Some can better remember a piece of news than a line of Scripture; their memories are like those ponds where the frogs live, but the fish die. 8. Meditate upon what you read.-"I will meditate in thy precepts." (Ps. cxix. 15.) The Hebrew word "to meditate," signifies "to be intense in the mind." In meditation | there must be a fixing of the thoughts upon the object: the Virgin Mary "pondered" those things, &c. (Luke ii. 19.) Meditation is the concoction of Scripture: reading brings a truth into our head, meditation brings it into our heart: reading and meditation must appear together. Meditation without reading is erroneous; reading without meditation is barren The bee sucks the flower, then works it in the hive, and so turns it to honey: by reading we suck the flower of the Word, by meditation we work it in the hive of our mind, and so it turns to profit. Meditation is the bellows of the affections: "While I was musing the fire burned." (Ps. xxxix. 3.) The reason we come away so cold from reading the Word is, because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation. 9. Come to the reading of Scripture with humble hearts.-Acknowledge how unworthy you are that God should reveal himself in his Word to you. God's secrets are with the humble: pride is an enemy to profiting. It is observed that the ground on which the peacock sits is barren: that heart where pride sits is barren. An arrogant person disdains the counsel of the Word, and hates the reproofs: is he likely to profit? "God giveth grace unto the humble.” (James iv. 6.) The most eminent saints have been but of low stature in their own eyes; like the sun in the zenith, they showed least when HOW TO READ THE BIBLE WITH PROFIT. (Ps. "I am a David in they were at the highest. David had more understanding than all his teachers." cxix. 99.) But how humble was he! worm, and no man." (Ps. xxii. 6.) the Arabic tongue signifies a "worm." 10. Highly prize the Scriptures.-"The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver." (Ps. cxix. 72.) Can he make a proficiency in any art, who doth slight and depreciate it? Prize this book of God above all other books. St. Gregory calls the Bible "the heart and soul of God." The rabbins say, that there is a mountain of sense hangs upon every apex and tittle of Scripture. "The law of the Lord is perfect." (Ps. xix. 7.) The Scripture is the library of the Holy Ghost; it is a pandect of divine knowledge-an exact model and platform of religion. The Scripture contains in it "the things which we are to believe," and "the things which we are to practise." It is "able to make us wise unto salvation." (2 Tim. iii. 15.) "The Scripture is the standard of truth," the judge of controversies; it is the pole-star to direct us to heaven. (Isa. viii. 20.) "Thy commandment is a lamp." (Prov. vi. 23.) The Scripture is the compass by which the rudder of our will is to be steered; it is the field in which Christ, the Pearl of great price, is hid; it is a rock of diamonds; it is a sacred "eye-salve;" it mends their eyes that look upon it; it is a spiritual optic-glass in which the glory of God is resplendent; it is the panacea or "universal medicine" for the soul. The leaves of Scripture are like the "leaves of the tree of life, for the healing of the nations." (Rev. xxii. 2.) The Scripture is both the breeder and feeder of grace. How is the convert born, but by "the word of truth?" (James i. 18.) How doth he grow, but by "the sincere milk of the word?" (1 Pet. ii. 2.) The word written is the book out of which our evidences for heaven are fetched; it is the sea-mark which shows us the rocks of sin to avoid; it is the antidote against error and apostasy-the two-edged sword which wounds the old serpent. It is our bulwark to withstand the force of lust; like the Capitol of Rome, which was a place of strength and amImunition. The Scripture is the "tower of | David," whereon the shields of our faith hang. (Cant. iv. 4.) "Take away the Word, and you deprive us of the sun," said Luther. The Word written is above an angelic embassy, or voice from heaven. "This voice which came from heaven we heard. We have also a more sure word." (2 Pet. i. 18, 19.) O prize the 435 Word written; prizing is the way to profiting. If Cæsar so valued his Commentaries, that for preserving them he lost his purple robe, how should we estimate the sacred oracles of God? "I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." (Job xxiii. 12.) King Edward VI., on the day of his coronation, had presented before him three swords, signifying that he was monarch of three kingdoms. The king said, there was one sword wanting. Being asked what that was, he answered, "The Holy Bible, which is the sword of the Spirit,' and is to be preferred before these ensigns of royalty." Robert, king of Sicily, did so prize God's Word, that, speaking to his friend Petrarcha, he said, "I protest, the Scriptures are dearer to me than my kingdom; and if I must be deprived of one of them, I had rather lose my diadem than the Scriptures." 11. Get an ardent love to the Word.-Prizing relates to the judgment, love to the affections. "Consider how I love thy precepts." (Ps. cxix. 159; Rom. vii. 22.) He is likely to grow rich who delights in his trade; he who is a " a lover of learning will be a scholar." St. Austin tells us, before his conversion he took no pleasure in the Scriptures, but afterwards they were his "chaste delights." David tasted the word "sweeter than the honey which drops from the comb." (Ps. xix. 10.) Thomas a Kempis used to say, he found no content but "in a corner, with the book of God in his hand." Did Alphonsus, king of Sicily, recover of a fit of sickness with that great pleasure he took in reading of Quintus Curtius? What infinite pleasure should we take in reading the book of life! There is enough in the Word to breed holy complacency and delight; it is a specimen and demonstration of God's love to us. The Spirit is God's lovetoken, the Word his love-letter. How doth one delight to read over his friend's letter! The Word written is a divine treasury, or storehouse; in it are scattered truths as pearls, to adorn "the hidden man of the heart." The Word written is the true manna, which hath all sorts of sweet taste in it; it is a sovereign elixir it "gives wine to them of an heavy heart." I have read of an ancient rabbi, who in a great concourse of people made proclamation of a sovereign cordial he had to sell; many resorting to him, and asking him to show it, he opened the Bible, and directed them to several places of comfort in it. Holy David drank of this cordial. "This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me." (Ps. cxix. 50.) St. Chrysostom compares the Scripture to a garden; every line in it is a fragrant flower, which we should wear, not in our bosom, but our heart. Delight in the Word causeth profit : and we must not only love the comforts of the Word, but the reproofs. Myrrh is bitter to the palate, but good for the stomach. To be continued. SCRIPTURES RECONCILED. "Let another praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a So near is the resemblance of good and evil, with The apostle, in defending himself, was aware how near he approached to the language of a fool; that is, a man desirous of vain-glory, and how liable what he had written was to be attributed to that motive. It is on this account that he obviates the charge which he knew his adversaries would allege. "Yes," says he, "I speak as a fool .... but ye have compelled me." This was owning that, as to his words, they might indeed be considered as vain-glorying, if the occasion were overlooked; but if that were justly considered, it would be found that they ought rather to be ashamed than he, for having reduced him to the disagreeable necessity of speaking in his own behalf. "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." -MATT. v. 16. "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your Father, who is in heaven."-MATT. vi. 1. This is another of those cases in which the difference lies in the motive. It is right to do that which men may see, and must see; but not for the sake of being seen by them. There are indeed some duties, and such are prayer and the relief of the needy, in which a truly modest mind will avoid being seen; but in the general deportment of life no man can be hid, nor ought he to desire it. Only let his end be pure, namely, "to glorify his Father who is in heaven," and all will be right. Elias; and it was proper for him to say he was not. in order to correct the gross notions of the Jews on that subject. Had he answered in the affirmative, and had they believed him, he would have confirmed them in a gross falsehood. Yet John the Baptist was that Elias of whom the Prophet Malachi spoke (chap. iv. 5); that is, as Luke expresses it, he came "in the spirit and power of Elias" (chap. i. 17); and so was, as it were, another Elias. "He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up no When the kingdom of Christ is said to have " end," it may mean that it shall never be overturned or succeeded by any rival power, as all the kingdoms of this world have been, or shall be. Such is the interpretation given of the phrase in Dan. vii. 14: "His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." But this need not be alleged in order to account for the phraseology, which will be found to be literally true. The end of which Paul speaks does not mean the end of Christ's kingdom, but of the world, and the things thereof. "The delivering up of the kingdom to the Father" will not put an end to it. but eternally establish it in a new and more glorious form. Christ shall not cease to reign, though the mode of his administration be different. As a divine person, he will always be one with the Father; and though his mediatorial kingdom shall cease, yet the effects of it will remain for ever. There will never be a period in duration in which the Redeemer of sinners will be thrown into the shade, or become of less account than he now is, or in which honour, and glory, and blessing will cease to be ascribed to him, by the whole creation. "Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see."LUKE X. 23. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."-JOHN XX. 29. The former of these passages pronounces a blessing upon those who saw the fulfilment of what others have believed; the latter upon those who should believe the Gospel upon the ground of their testimony, without having witnessed the facts with their own eyes. There is no contradiction in these blessings; for there is a wide difference between requiring sight as the ground of faith, which Thomas did, and obtaining it as a completion of faith, which those who saw the coming and kingdom of the Messiah did. one was a species of unbelief, the other was faith terminating in vision. The "If I bear witness of myself, iny witness is not true."— JOHN V. 31. "Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true.”— JOHN viii. 14. Our Lord in one of these passages expresses what was to be admitted as truth in the account of men; in the other what his testimony was in itself. Admitting their laws or rules of evidence, his testimony would not have been credible; and therefore, in the verses following, he appeals to that of John the Baptist, and the works which he had wrought in his Father's name, which amounted to a testimony from the Father. But though he in a manner gave up his own testimony, yielding himself to be tried even by John the Baptist was not literally the person of their forms of evidence, yet would he not so far con "This is Elias, who was to come."-MATT. xi. 14. SCRIPTURES RECONCILED. cede as to dishonour his character. He was, in fact, whatever they might judge of him, the Amen, the faithful and the true witness; and as such he taught many things, prefacing what he delivered with that peculiar and expressive phrase," Verily, verily, I say unto you!" "Who through faith obtained promises."-HEB. xi. 33. "And these all received not the promise."-HEB. xi. 39. The promises which were obtained by faith refer to those which were fulfilled during the Old Testament dispensation. It was promised to Abraham that he should have a son; to Israel, that they should possess the land of Canaan for an inheritance; to David, that they should return from Babylonish captivity, &c.; and by faith each of them in due time obtained the promise. But there was one promise which was of greater importance than all the rest, namely, the coming of the Messiah. In the faith of this the fathers lived and died, but they saw not its accomplishment; to see this was reserved for another generation. Hence the words of our Saviour to his disciples: "Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them." It is thus that God has wisely balanced the advantages of different ages. The fathers obtained much, but not all. In respect of the blessings of Messiah's kingdom, they sowed, and we reap; they laboured, and we enter into their labours. Thus it is ordered that "they without us should not be made perfect." The fulfilments of our times must come in to answer the faith and complete the hopes of those who have gone before us. "Jesus saith unto Mary, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father."-JOHN XX, 17. "Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing."JOHN XX. 27. It is manifest, from these and other passages, that the reason why Mary was forbidden to touch her risen Saviour was not because the thing itself was impossible. Indeed, if it had been so, the prohibition had been unnecessary, for we need not be forbidden to do that which cannot be done. There might, however, be an impropriety in her using the same freedom with him in his immortal state as she had been wont to do in his mortal state. It might be proper to touch him at his own invitation, and so to answer an important end (see Luke xxiv. 39), and yet improper to do so without it. By comparing the passage with Matt. xxviii. 9, 10, it appears that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary who was with her did touch him; for they are said to have "held him by the feet, and worshipped him." There is reason to think, therefore, that the words, "Touch me not," in John, were used merely to induce her to desist from what she was doing; and that on account of his having more important employment for herGo, tell my brethren!" This agrees with the reason given in John: "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father," &c. This was as much as if he had said, You need not be so unwilling to let Igo my feet, as though you should see me no more; am not yet ascended, nor shall I ascend at present. Yet do not imagine that I am raised to a mere mortal life, or am going to set up a temporal kingdom in this world. . . No.... "I ascend unto my 66 437 Father and your Father; and unto my God and your "The Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the even as others."-EPH. ii. 3. The term "nature" in these two passages is of very different signification. In the former it stands opposed to the written law of God, or the light of revelation; in the latter it is opposed to custom, education, or anything merely accidental. In the one case it is expressive of their want of external means; in the other of the inward disposition of their minds. The phrase "by nature," in the former, refers to the. rule of action; but in the latter to the cause of it. All arguments, therefore, against the total depravity of human nature, or in favour of a natural disposition to virtue, drawn from the former of these passages, are entirely unfounded. Give me all that is necessary to make me, in the greatest practical degree, happy and useful. I feel so remote from thee, thou Grand Centre, and so torpid! It is as if those qualities were extinct in my soul which could make it susceptible of thy Divine attraction. But, oh! thine energy can reach me even here. Attract me, thou Great Being, within the sphere of thy glorious light; attract me within the view of thy throne; attract me into the full emanation of thy mercies; attract me within the sphere of thy sacred Spirit's most potent influences. I thank thee for the promise and the prospect of an endless life; I hope to enjoy it amid the eternal splendour of thy presence, O Jehovah! I thank thee for this introductory stage, so remarkably separated by that thick-shaded frontier of death, which I see yonder, from the amplitude of existence. But oh! how shall I occupy the space of this stage, so as absolutely to achieve its capital purpose-so as to take possession of what, in Heaven's judgment, is its utmost value? O do thou seize my existence at its present point, and henceforward guide and model it thyself! Images of excellence, of happiness, or real greatness, often appear to me, and look at me with an aspect inexpressibly ardent and emphatic. Monitors! why do you accuse me? Whither would you lead me? Yes, I will follow them, and try what is that scene to which they invite. Oh, my Father! give me thy strength; inspire, conduct, and crown one of the unworthiest of all thy sons. |
