THESE were the words which awoke the soul-sleep of the youthful Augustine, who became such a wonderful servant of God. He was sitting under a plane tree in his garden in Milan, the epistle to the Romans before him, when a voice seemed to say in commanding tones, “Take it up and read it.”
He obeyed, unrolled the sacred volume, and his eyes lit upon the words―
“Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in
rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering
and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not
provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts there
Augustine’s life had been one of gross sin and evil. These words struck home. Thenceforth he studied the Holy Scriptures. The light of saving truth reached his soul. He was guided by the Spirit of truth to the knowledge of Him who said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” In short, Augustine was converted, and his life testified to the change.
“TAKE IT UP AND READ IT”
is still the Divine prescription for every earnest seeker after truth, especially in these days when the study of God’s Word is so neglected.
This is indeed a reading age. The wisest of men, Solomon, said over three thousand years ago, “Of making of books there is no end.” Could he visit the British Museum, with its stores of literature of every kind, would he not have seen the danger, as well as the advantage, in the abundance of really good and even so-called religious books, as likely to divert men’s minds from the reverent, prayerful, persevering examination of the Book of books?
If the thoughts of men are allowed to supersede the great truths, revealed by God in His Word, the thinkers are drawn into serious error. The Bible is the fountain head of wisdom. Let God’s Word be its own interpreter.
So it proved to be with a Roman Catholic family in a remote district of Ireland. The Bible, in English, was introduced for the first time. Parents and children began to read it together. After a while the husband said to his wife, “Well, my dear, if this book be right we must be wrong.”
Later on, as they continued their study, one day he exclaimed, “If this book speaks true, we are lost.” Then after a longer period, as the light of God’s Word shone into his soul, he said, “If all this be true, we may be saved.”
In the end both husband and wife were found by the Scripture-reader rejoicing in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus and of God’s salvation through faith in Him.
Different in character, and yet effected by the Holy Spirit through the same means, was the spiritual experience of the late Earl Cairns, an eminent statesman and Lord Chancellor in the last century, who became a bright, consistent Christian. He attributed his firm hold of gospel truth to his habit of daily study of the Bible and earnest prayer for the Holy Ghost’s guidance.
Very striking was the Scotsman’s remark, “It is no small mercy to have our Father’s will recorded in our mother tongue.”
“It is more than probable,” wrote the late learned Bishop Ellicott, “that the simplest reader, who takes his Bible on his knees and reads, with prayer that he may understand it, will attain a truer and more inward knowledge of the Scriptures than will ever be vouchsafed to him who, with all the appliances of philology and criticism, reads the original, but forgets to mark its holy character, and to pray that he may not only read, but also learn and understand.”
Adolphe Monod, a gifted preacher in the French Reformed Church, proved this truth in a remarkable way. At first he had to struggle with many doubts and difficulties in his study of the Scriptures. Hewes always an earnest and most intelligent student. He has described the way in which he at last discovered the truth.
He wrote, “I called to mind the promise of the Holy Spirit, and, learning at last that of which the positive declaration of the gospel had hitherto failed to convince me, I believed God’s promise for the first time in my life. Renouncing all merit, all strength, all resources of my own, and confessing that I had no claim to His mercy, but that of my own misery, I asked of Him His Spirit to change my spirit.”
This heartfelt cry for light was wonderfully answered. He who of old touched the blind man’s eyes so that he saw clearly, opened his mind and heart to the simple truths of the gospel.
Blessed as all this is, it has its intensely solemn side. Be warned, my friend. This is no light matter. The Lord says, “He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words hath one that judgeth him: THE WORD that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:4848He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. (John 12:48)). The good news of reconciliation, which might have sealed your acceptance in the crucified, risen, and ascended Saviour, will prove, if rejected, a swift witness to the justice of the final sentence of the Judge at the great white throne. You will have no excuse to offer then.
Still the voice from above sounds urgent and importunate—
“TAKE IT UP AND READ IT.”
It says plainly―
W. B.