I want to tell you how I was blessed a few years ago, upon hearing a
discourse upon the thirtieth chapter of Proverbs. The speaker said the
children of God were like four things. The first thing was: "The ants
are a people not strong," and he went on to compare the children of God
to ants. He said the people of God were like, ants. They pay no
attention to the things of the present, but go on steadily preparing for
the future. The next thing he compared them to was the conies. "The
conies are but a feeble folk." It is a very weak little thing. "Well,"
said I, "I wouldn't like to be as a coney." But he went on to say that
it built upon a rock. The children of God were very weak, but they laid
their foundation upon a rock. "Well," said I, "I will be like a coney
and build my hopes upon a rock." Like the Irishman who said he trembled
himself, but the rock upon which his house was built never did. The next
thing the speaker compared them to was a locust. I didn't think much of
locusts; and I thought I wouldn't care about being like one. But he went
on to read, "They have no king, yet they go forth all of them by bands."
There were the Congregationalist, the Presbyterian, the Methodist bands
going forth without a king, but by and by our King will come back again,
and these bands will fly to Him. "Well, I will be like a locust; my King
is away," I thought. The next comparison was a spider. I didn't like
this at all, but he said if we went into a gilded palace filled with
luxury, we might see a spider holding on to something, oblivious to all
the luxury below. It was laying hold of the things above. "Well," said
I, "I would like to be a spider." I heard this a good many years ago,
and I just put the speaker's name to it, and it makes a sermon. But take
your Bibles and mark them. Don't think of wearing them out. It is a rare
thing to find a man wearing his Bible out now-a-days--and Bibles are
cheap, too. You are living in a land where they are plenty. Study them
and mark them, and don't be afraid of wearing them.
Moody Visits Prang's Chromo Establishment.
When I went to Boston, I went into Mr. Prang's chromo establishment. I
wanted to know how the work was done. He took me to a stone several feet
square, where he took the first impression, but when he took the paper
off the stone I could see no sign of a man's face there. "Wait a
little," he said. He took me to another stone, but when the paper was
lifted I couldn't see any impression yet. He took me up, up to eight,
nine, ten stones, and then I could see just the faintest outlines of a
man's face. He went on till he got up to about the twentieth stone, and
I could see the impression of a face, but he said it was not very
correct yet. Well, he went on till he got up, I think, to the
twenty-eighth stone, and a perfect face appeared, and it looked as if
all it had to do was to speak and it would be human. If you read a
chapter of the Bible and don't see anything in it, read it a second
time, and if you cannot see anything in it read it a third time. Dig
deep. Read it again and again, and even if you have to read it
twenty-eight times do so, and you will see the Man Christ Jesus, for He
is in every page of the Word.
Get the Key to Job.
An Englishman asked me some time ago, "Do you know much about Job?"
"Well, I know a little," I replied. "If you've got the key of Job,
you've got the key to the whole Bible." "What?" I replied, "I thought it
was a poetical book." "Well," said he, "I will just divide Job into
seven heads. The first is the perfect man--untried; and that is Adam and
Eve before they fell. The second head is tried by adversity--Adam after
the fall. The third is the wisdom of the world--the three friends who
came to try to help Job out of his difficulties. They had no power to
help him at all." He could stand his scolding wife, but he could not
stand them. The fourth head takes the form of the Mediator, and in the
fifth head God speaks at last. He heard him before by the ear, but he
hears Him now by the soul, and he fell down flat upon his face. A good
many men in Chicago are like Job. They think they are mighty good men,
but the moment they hear the voice of God they know they are sinners,
they are in the dust. There isn't much talk about their goodness then.
Here he was with his face down. Job learned his lesson. That was the
sixth head, and in these heads were the burdens of Adam's sin. The
seventh head was when God showed him His face. Well, I learned the key
to the Bible. I cannot tell how this helped me. I told it to another
man, and he asked me if I ever thought how he got his property back and
his sheep back. He gave Job double what he had and gave him ten children
besides, so that he should have ten in heaven besides his ten on earth.
[Illustration: Jesus Blessing Children; GUSTAVE DORE. Mark, x, 13-16]
One Book at a time.
I have found it a good plan to take up one book at a time. It is a good
deal better to study one book at a time than to run through the Bible.
If we study one book and get its key, it will, perhaps, open up others.
Take up the book of Genesis, and you will find eight beginnings; or, in
other words, you pick up the key of several books. The gospel was
written that man might believe on Jesus Christ, and every chapter speaks
of Him. Now, take the book of Genesis; it says it is the book of
beginnings. That is the key; then the book of Exodus--it is the book of
redemption; that is the key word of the whole. Take up the book of
Leviticus, and we find that it is the book of sacrifices. And so on
through all the different books; you will find each one with a key.
Another thing: We must study it unbiased. A great many people believe
certain things. They believe in certain creeds and doctrines, and they
run through the book to get Scripture in accordance with them. If a man
is a Calvinistic man he wants to find something in accordance with his
doctrine. But if we go to seek truth the Spirit of God will come. Don't
seek it in the blue light of Presbyterianism, in the red light of
Methodism; or in the light of Episcopalianism, but study it in the light
of Calvary.
Note what Jesus Says.
Some people say to me, "Moody, you don't believe in the flood. All the
scientific men tell us it is absurd." Let them tell us. Jesus tells us
of it, and I would rather take the word of Jesus than that of any other
one. I haven't got much respect for those men who dig down for stones
with shovels, in order to take away the word of God. Men don't believe
in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, but we have it sealed in the New
Testament. "As, it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah." They don't
believe in Lot's wife, but He says, "Remember Lot's wife." So there is
not a thing that men to-day cavil at but the Son of God indorses. They
don't believe, in the swallowing of Jonah. They say it is impossible
that a whale could swallow Jonah--its throat is too small. They forget
that the whale was prepared for Jonah; as the colored woman said, "Why,
God could prepare a man to swallow a whale, let alone a whale to swallow
a man."
One Word.
I remember I took up the word "love," and turned to the Scriptures and
studied it, and got so that I felt I loved everybody, I got full of it.
When I went on the street, I felt as if I loved everybody I saw. It ran
out of my fingers. Suppose you take up the subject of love and study it
up. You will get so full of it that all you have got to do is to open
your lips and a flood of the love of God flows upon the meeting. If you
go into a court you will find a lawyer pleading a case. He gets
everything bearing upon one point, heaped up so as to carry his argument
with all the force he can, in order to convince the jury. Now it seems
to me a man should do the same in talking to an audience; just think
that he has a jury before him, and he wants to convict a sinner. If it
is love, get all you can upon the subject and talk love, love.
The "I Ams," "I Wills," Etc.
A favorite way to study the Bible with me, is first to take up one
expression, and run through the different places where they are found.
Take the "I ams" of John; "I am the bread of life;" "I am the water of
life;" "I am the way, the truth, and the life;" "I am the resurrection;"
"I am all, and in all." God gives to His children a blank; and on it
they can write whatever they most want and He will fill the bill. And
then the promises. A Scotchman found out thirty one thousand distinct
promises in the Word of God. There is not a despondent soul but God has
a promise just to suit him.