Scriptures: Prayerful Study of the Bible
The Bible is not now, as was the case before the Reformation
in the sixteenth century, locked up in the dead languages, and
withheld from the people by an arrogant but insolent priesthood:
it is translated into the language of the people, offered for a
mere nominal price, is widely circulated, and is to be met with,
not only on the shelves of the learned and in the drawing-rooms
of the rich, but also in the humble dwellings of our agricultural
labourers and the artisans of our crowded towns and cities. What
friend of the Bible but must rejoice at this? It is, however, one
thing to have the Bible in our possession, and another devoutly
to read and study it. It is, indeed, a subject for devout
gratitude and praise that it is so accessible, but that it is in
so many instances forgotten and neglected ought to lead to close
searchings of heart, and occasion deep humiliation and shame.
Remember, it is not having the Bible in our houses, on our
shelves, or on our tables, that can do us good, but reading,
studying, and believing it!
In pressing upon your consideration the importance of the study
of the Bible, we feel it incumbent upon us at the outset to
caution you against that kind of reading which would give you a
disrelish for the Word of God. Let it not for a moment be
supposed that we would have you confine your reading exclusively
to the Bible and to works strictly religious and theological: for
other works, doubtless, will come in your way, which you can
consult both with safety and advantage; but yet, whilst this is
the case, as you value your immortal soul, it becomes you to
avoid all writings, be they newspapers, periodicals, or works of
fiction, that would in any way, or to any degree, lower your
regard for the Bible, or unfit you for the devout study of it.
Ah, it is but a poor, and sorry exchange, to cast away the Bible
for the last novel! If indeed you can find time greedily to
devour novels, and thus neglect your Bible, you may rest assured
that they are working your moral and spiritual ruin. If such
works are recommended by the ease and elegance of their diction
and the bewitching and enchanting imagery they present, the
danger is all the more imminent, and it becomes the watchmen on
the walls of Zion to sound the alarm, and guard the young and
unwary against them; for
hundreds upon hundreds, yea, thousands upon thousands, have been
ruined by them. Oh! let parents and the guardians of our youth,
instil into their young and tender minds a love for the Bible,
that they may become like Timothy, of whom it was said, “And
that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in
Christ Jesus.” Bunyan, when he wrote the
“Pilgrim’s Progress,” had no other works with him
in his prison than the Bible and “Fox’s Book of
Martyrs.” Whilst then you have liberty to walk abroad into
the wide field of literature, and taste whatever is pure and
wholesome, it yet becomes you to be careful that you do not
neglect that greatest, best, and holiest of all books, the Bible!
The prayerful study of the Bible is necessary in order rightly to
understand the meaning of it. “Open thou mine eyes,”
was the prayer of the Psalmist, “that I may behold wondrous
things out of thy law.” No one can become mighty in the
Scriptures without prayer; human learning and critical acumen are
almost sure to lead their possessor astray, unless sanctified by
prayer; but with it they are of immense advantage in searching
after truth. If we would know the meaning of God’s Word, we
must, by close communion with him in prayer, seek the
illumination of his Holy Spirit, for it is his province to lead
us into all truth, and without his guidance we are sure to go
astray; but enlightened and taught from above, the Bible will not
prove a dry or an uninteresting study, but fresh beauties will
ever be discovered in it, and the intellect will be strengthened
and invigorated, and the heart and the life renewed and
sanctified thereby.
Again, the prayerful study of the Bible will make us enlightened
Christians, and render us proof against the assaults of error.
Christianity can only be learnt from the Scriptures; and it is a
reproach and an indelible stigma upon any one bearing its sacred
name to be ignorant of the only depository of Divine truth.
“Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal
life, and they are they which testify of me.” We should not
be satisfied with reading other works, even though they are
religious books, and neglect it, for no other can ever supply its
place. And he who devoutly and habitually studies the Bible will
take nothing upon trust, and will not be carried away by the
glitter of great names, but will bring the opinions of the
Fathers and learned divines to the test of Scripture, and this
will furnish him with an effective antidote against the cavils of
infidelity and all the errors of the times, for he will thus be
able easily to discern the precious from the vile and the true
from the false — both in doctrine and in practice. Ah! who
are the parties who are most in danger of being carried away by
the fooleries of popery and Puseyism, or the various other forms
of error which infest the land? Are they our Sunday-school
teachers and scholars, and our Bible readers? Oh, no! they are
rather those who receive their creed at second-hand, who are
willing that others should think for them in matters of religion,
and whose faith stands not in the power of God, as did that of
the Corinthians of old, but in the wisdom of men! These are the
parties who everywhere most easily fall a prey to superstition
and error: but the study, the prayerful study of the Bible will
always be found to present
a strong barrier against the encroachments of error. “That
we, henceforth, be no more children, tossed to and fro, and
carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men,
and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to
deceive.”
Further, the prayerful study of the Bible leads to activity and
devotedness in the cause of Christ. It is a sickly kind of
meditation which does not lead to effort, and which would lead
and individual to shut himself up in cloisters lest he should be
contaminated by coming in contact with the world. The way to
manifest our religion is not by an ignoble retirement from the
discharge of the active duties of life, but by living above the
world, and by earnest and believing efforts to reclaim it from
error and sin. The Scriptures everywhere exhort to diligence in
the service of Christ. And not only do they exhort us to this,
but they also point us to the example of the blessed Redeemer,
who, when on earth, went about doing good. His was an intensely
busy life; his days were spent in travelling from village to
village, and from town to town, preaching the gospel of the
kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and diseases amongst
the people. And the apostles had also imbibed the spirit of their
Divine Lord and Master. Theirs is the zeal, devotedness, and
disinterestedness we are to emulate, and what so likely to
stimulate thereto as the prayerful study of the Bible? It is
impossible, utterly impossible for us thus to study it and remain
indifferent to Christian effort.
The prayerful study of the Bible is sure to lead to increased
Christian liberality. That we have arrived at anything like
perfection in this important department of Christian service is
held only by a very few. True there are not wanting among us
instances of Christians giving cheerfully and munificently of
their worldly substance to the Lord: but the scanty rule of
giving hitherto followed by the great majority of the professed
disciples of the Saviour, convinces us that they have not as yet
deeply pondered that saying of their Lord —
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
It is well to have the eloquent orator on the platform to plead
the cause of our missionary and bible
societies, but we must not expect too much from this, — and
there is need that Christians learn to depend less on the
excitement of a public meeting to move them to liberality, and
that they give more from principle; and were they habitually to
study their Bibles, this would be the case. The rule of giving
would no longer be what they had been in the habit of doing in
former years, or what others are doing, but as the Lord had
prospered them.
And to grow in grace it is necessary that we grow in the
knowledge of the Saviour; and the greater and more enlarged our
acquaintance with Divine truth, the stronger is the incentive
which we have to live a holy and blameless life, and to abound in
every good word and work. Oh, then, let us give ourselves more to
the study of the Bible; and let us study it with a view to derive
from it those lessons of heavenly wisdom and grace which it is
designed and so well adapted to afford. The Bible is too much
neglected, and that not only by the world, but also by the
Church; for the pressure of business, along with other causes,
have led to a criminal disregard of the Scriptures. A Psalm or
two, or a few verses out of one of the Gospels or the Epistles in
the course of the day, or it may be of the week, and those
hurriedly gone through, is all which in numerous cases is
attempted to be done, and the study of the Scriptures is regarded
as belonging exclusively to ministers and to candidates for the
sacred office! But the truth is, that the prayerful study of them
is incumbent upon all Christians, be they ministers,
office-bearers, or more private members. Many have said,
“we have no time to study the Bible;” to such we say,
then you ought to have time; you have no right to engage in such
a multiplicity of worldly business as to deprive you of a little
leisure for the reading of God’s Holy Word; and take care,
lest whilst you are joining house to house, and adding field to
field, and adorning and enlarging your premises, and pushing and
extending your business, — take care lest God send leanness
into your soul for your neglect of his word. No time! why you can
find time occasionally for the evening party; you can find time
to avail yourself of steamboat and railway excursions; you can
find time to read the papers and, perhaps, also Dickens’ and
Bulwer's works, — and can’t you then find time for
reading the Bible? Oh! did you but love it more, then we are sure
you would find time to read it! And, after all, daily reading and
prayer need not in the least touch upon the lawful duties of your
calling. “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit:
serving the Lord.” Robert Hall, speaking of the esteem in
which the Scriptures are held, says, “The votaries of all
other religions regard their supposed sacred books with a
devotion which consecrates their errors, and makes their very
absurdities venerable in their eyes. They glory in that which is
their shame: we are ashamed of that which is our glory.
Indifference and inattention to the truths and
mysteries of revelation, have led by an easy transition, to a
dislike and neglect of the book which contains them; so that in a
Christian country nothing is thought so vulgar as a serious
appeal to the Scriptures; and the candidate for fashionable
distinction would rather betray a familiar acquaintance with the
most impure writers than with the words of Christ and his
apostles.” Christians! let not your Bibles be despised,
neglected, or forgotten, for a blessing is pronounced on him that
delights in the law of the Lord, and meditates therein day and
night. One reason why heavenly realities affect us so little is,
that the mind is not allowed to dwell sufficiently long upon
them, and is too much occupied with the consideration of other
and inferior objects. Let us then rise in our thoughts and
contemplations above this sublunary and transitory scene; let us
soar heavenwards, where unsullied purity and endless pleasures
dwell; then the earth would grow daily less and less in our
esteem, and it would be a mystery to us that it had been allowed
to occupy our thoughts and enchant our hearts so long.
“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the
things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are
temporal, but the things which are not seen are
eternal.”
By R. Morris, Baptist Minister, Hunmanby,
Yorkshire (1858)