READING God’s word is a happy employment to those who know what it is to have been reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
A child of God reads to know His Heavenly Father’s will. He searches the Scriptures to get his mind well stored with God’s thoughts, and ponders them in His presence, that his heart may be melted and molded to His holy will. He is assured that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable.... that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:16, 1716All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Timothy 3:16‑17).) This he proves, and knows that he is practically sanctified by the truth.
In the study of Scripture, by the Spirit’s teaching, he finds so much to comfort, encourage, instruct, and to beget increasing confidence in God, that the more he reads the more he wants to read. As the Scriptures testify of Christ, the more the Christian knows of Him the more his heart is attracted to Him. Having known Christ by faith as a Saviour, he now discovers that Christ is the central object of God’s heart, the center of His ways and operations, and thus He becomes the attractive object of our hearts. Well, too, he knows that as Christ is enough to satisfy the infinite desires of God, so the Lord Jesus will now and forever be more than enough to fill these tiny hearts of ours. No wonder then that God’s dear children should find pleasure in reading the word of God; the only wonder is that it is not more loved, valued, and prayed over by us, because it is full of our Father’s thoughts, and, to the subject heart, gives a true acquaintance with His mind and will.
This delight in the Scriptures the men of this world do not understand. Why? Because they believe not. They think themselves competent to form their own thoughts of God; hence the terrible and fatal mistake they make—the ignorance and willfulness they manifest. The thought of many is that the Bible is a good Sunday-book, and suitable for old and dying people to read or listen to, now and then; but what it really contains they know not; they do not for a moment consider that it is God’s revelation of His own counsels, ways, grace and truth, in and through His beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
The above thoughts were suggested on reading the following extract, lately sent us by a kind friend:—
“It was late in the evening; the children were all in bed, except the two eldest, who had gone with their father to a working-man’s lecture; so Mrs.— hang supper all ready for them, had sat down to have a quiet time with her Bible, when in came Sam—, one of her neighbors; and seeing what she was about he laughed at her for her pains, as he expressed it.
“‘It’s no pains to me,’ she said, ‘but the greatest pleasure I have. Why, what should I do without it?’
“ ‘Well, as to that, some of it’s well enough; but there’s no denying that it’s too big by half.’
“‘I should like to know what part you would have left out.’
“ ‘Oh, ever so many; for instance: I like well enough to know that God is merciful, and that He is willing to forgive us; for I suppose when it comes to dying the best have something that they’d want forgiven; but as to all it says about God’s justice, truth, and power, they’re nothing to me. I’d have out every word about them.’
“‘If they’re nothing to you, I can tell you that they’re everything to me. What use would God’s mercy be to us without His justice, His power, and His truth?’
“Sam looked at her quite surprised; so she went on: ‘If you owed a thousand pounds and could not pay it, and your creditor was going to put you in prison, and I pitied you ever so much; would my pity keep you out of prison if I hadn’t the money to pay your debt?’
“Why, of course not!’
“‘Then if God only pitied us how could He save us?’
“ ‘I don’t know; I never thought of that before. I always thought we had only to say we were sorry for our sins, and that God would say, I forgive you, and that there was an end of it.’
“ ‘And where would God’s truth be? Does He not say: The soul that sinneth it shall die; and as He cannot lie, there’s only one way by which a sinner can be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ paid the debt the sinner owed—died instead of the sinner, bore every bit of the punishment the sinner deserved—so that God is not only merciful, but faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And His truth crowns all—He is a God of truth—so that when He says He will forgive us we may trust Him, and venture our souls on His word.’