When Sir Walter Scott lay in his last illness, he asked Lockhart one day
to read to him. "From what book shall I read?" said Lockhart. "There is
but one book," was Scott's answer. Those who have sought the "power to
become the sons of God" will understand this hyperbole of the most healthy
human mind in modern English literature. Tested by experience there is
indeed, in the wide range of the literature of power, no book to be
mentioned with the Bible for feeding the life of God in man. Our fathers
found this true, and their children cannot correct their judgment. The
substitute for the Bible, as an ethical and spiritual instructor, is not
out.
I speak to those who are in earnest in the building of a man. You need
this book, my brothers. Luther's higher life dated from his discovery of
the Bible. Have you discovered the Bible? Within the body of human
"letters" have you found out the divine soul of the Bible? Through the
chorus of human voices have you heard the voice of the Eternal Power? If
not, life holds one more rich "find" for you--a treasure hidden in the
field over which you have so lightly strayed.
Buy a Bible, my brothers! The current coin of the land, in the shops of
our best booksellers, may have failed to buy for you a real Bible. No
noble book is ever to be made your own in this easy fashion. Ruskin tells
us that the great picture will not give itself to us unless we give
ourselves to it. The Bible must have its price. The best comes dearest. If
you will not pay you cannot buy. Pay for the real Bible your costliest
offering of mind and heart. Spend upon it, day by day, your careful,
reverent study, until beneath your love the Book warms into life; and,
having proven well your loyalty, this teacher of the soul opens its soul
to you and whispers--Henceforth I call you not servant but friend. Wait in
these courts until the Eternal Wisdom, who walks within this temple, turns
her face upon you, "mystic, wonderful;" and the common places grow
refulgent with a new and heavenly beauty, and you humbly say--This is none
other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
* * * * *
How shall we thus rightly read the Bible, for ethical and spiritual
upbuilding? Let me offer some plain and practical suggestions to this end.
(1.) _Read it daily._
Your soul needs its daily bread. Do not starve your soul. Do not try to
fatten it on chaff. Get the best soul-food, the long tried manna that
forms upon these pages day by day, for him who will be at pains to gather
it. He must be busy, indeed, who cannot find time to keep himself alive.
(2.) _Read it in the choicest moments of the day._
The best picture should have the best setting. Our fathers' symbol of the
opening of a new day was the opening of the Bible. Their symbol of the
closing of another day's duties was the closing of the Bible. Can we
improve upon their ritual? John Quincy Adams noted in his journal his
custom of reading in the Bible each morning, of which he well observed:
It seems to me the most suitable manner of beginning the day.
Pitch the day aright with this tuning-fork, and hush the babel-voices of
the world to its tones of peace at night.
(3.) _Read the Bible whenever you need some special influence of strength
or cheer, amid the temptations and trials of the day._
It holds the unfailing corrective for the manifold disorders of our busy
lives. To think its thoughts and breathe its desires, even for a few
moments, is to have the horizon of the senses open, the heavy atmosphere
of earth clear, the illusions of the world evanish, the fever of business
cool and calm, the tempting appetites and passions slink down shamed into
their kennels. It is to have the dark look of life lighten, the sting of
disappointment lose its venom, the weariness of sickness forget itself,
and the sorrow of the stricken heart sob itself asleep within the
everlasting arms of One who, like a mother, comforteth his children, and
who with his own hand wipes away the tears from our eyes.
A few days after one of the battles before Richmond a Southern soldier was
found unburied. His right hand still clasped a Bible, and his stiff
fingers pressed upon the words of the Twenty-third Psalm:
I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.
(4.) _In the choice of these daily readings, follow the guidance of the
soul's sure instinct._
You need no critical knowledge to teach you what parts of the Bible are
the most highly inspired. The spiritual sense will appraise these books
aright. As the beasts are led instinctively to the herbs that hold healing
for their ailments so you shall find the tonic and the balm that you
need. You will naturally pasture for the most part in the Prophets, the
Psalms, the Gospels, the great Epistles of Paul, the First Epistle of
John, and kindred writings. You may, dip into these books as the bees dip
into the flowers, now burying themselves in the luscious honey-suckle and
now lingering on the rich rose, if so be that you only suck sweetness into
your soul.
(5.) _Wheresoever you read, read in the spirit._
"I was in the spirit on the Lord's day," wrote the seer. If he had been in
the understanding merely, he would not have had many visions. The Spirit
must interpret the Spirit's words. The Bible requires, as Bushnell wrote:
Divine inbreathings and exaltations in us, that we may asscend into
their meanings.[63]
In his last sickness Archbishop Usher was observed one day, sitting in his
wheel-chair, with a Bible in his lap, and moving his position as the sun
stole round to the westward, so as to let the light fall on the sacred
page. That is a symbol of the right use of the Bible.
I picked up lately the choice Bible which I selected for myself as a boy,
and on the fly-leaf, in my boyish hand, I read the words:
Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.
I still find that the best commentator, for the ethical and spiritual use
of the Bible, is one Master Praying Always.
As the bard with the Muse, so the critic in the presence of Wisdom, must
forget his skill; "must be, with good intent, no more his, but hers:"
Must throw away his pen and paint,
Kneel with worshipers.
Then, perchance, a sunny ray,
From the heaven of fire,
His lost tools may overpay,
And better his desire.
Thus buying Bibles for yourselves, my friends, see that your children buy
themselves the Bible in the same good coin.
(a.) _Read with them the tales of its noble men._
Do not hesitate to read with them these stories of the ancients, because
there may be the commingling of legend with history, of myth with fact.
You do not hesitate to read them the story of William Tell, although there
are woven into it the elements of a very old and wide-spread sun-myth.
These mythic elements have been woven around some real historic hero, and
the spirit of his heroism breathes through every fold of the drapery. How
charmingly Kingsley tells the tales of the Grecian heroes! Through his
crystalline language we seem to inhale the crisp, clear air of the
morning of Greece, in which the simple souls of child-men thus shaped
their dreams of duty around their older dreams of nature. Conscience
fashioned these primitive fancies upon its form, and pulses through them
its quickening life; the touch of which makes our children buoyant with
aspiration, so that they mount on high, like Perseus of the winged feet.
Thus read the matchless stories of the Hebrews, mindless of legend or of
myth. The Spirit of Holiness breathing through these tales will inspire
the souls of the children, without restraint from the questions that the
reason may raise. Tell them no lies if they ask you questions. Read these
ancient stories _as_ stories, of good and noble men; stories written down
long ago, and told from father to son through longer ages before they were
thus written out. Leave the children to detect the legendary elements. I
find them quick enough at that work without parental help. The bright
child feels the unreal in the tales that he most loves; but he loves them
none the less, perhaps all the more, because of the spell upon his
imagination that he would not break; while through them, upon his open
soul, streams in the holy power of these sacred stories. Do you concern
yourselves with impressing the moral of these God-breathed tales.
Read with your children the stories of the dear Master, and make His life
grow real to them, till He shall draw them after Him, in the steps of His
most holy life.
(b.) _Form in the children the habit of daily reading in the Bible._
Say to each of them, in your own way, that which Sir Matthew Hale wrote to
his child:
Every morning read seriously and reverently a portion of the Holy
Scriptures. It is a book full of light and wisdom, and will make you
wise to eternal life.
(c.) _Cultivate in them a genuine interest in the Bible._
The aids to an intelligent interest in the Bible-books are now so
plentiful, and the human charm of them is so great, that it ought to be an
easy thing for a parent to awaken a real fondness for these immortal
writings. The best safeguard against bad taste in literature or life is
the formation of a good taste. These are books, to learn to love which is
the making of a man. Our children may not grow into the genius, but they
will grow into somewhat of the goodness of the illustrious and saintly
John Henry Newman, if, in after years, they can write the first lines of
their autobiographies in the words which open the biographical part of the
_Apologia Pro Vita Sua_:
I was brought up from a child to take great delight in reading the
Bible.
(d.) _Train the children to commit to memory the choicest passages of the
Bible._
John Ruskin doubtless, at the time, rebelled against the strict rule of
his good aunt, which kept him busy on the Sundays memorizing the
Scriptures; but he is thankful now, as he has owned, for the discipline
which stored his mind with their creative words. What a treasury of holy
thoughts and influences does he carry within him who has written on his
mind such passages as the nineteenth, twenty-third, ninety-first, one
hundred and third, and one hundred and thirty-ninth Psalms; the third and
eighth chapters of Proverbs; the fortieth chapter of Isaiah; the sermon on
the mount, the parable of the prodigal son, and the thirteenth chapter of
first Corinthians. Happy he who, like the palm tree in the desert, can
strike his roots below the arid surface of the world into fresh and living
waters, and thus keep life green amid the droughts of earth. The parable
of the temptation of Christ should teach us how to arm our children
against the wiles of the Evil One, whom they must surely meet: "And he
said, It is written." In the stress and strain of conflict, when the air
is dimmed with the dust of the contending forces and the vision grows
confused, it is a saving sound to hear the ringing call of Duty, from the
hills where One watcheth over the battlefield. When sore pressed by the
foe, it may prove our victory to fall back against the strong stone wall
of an external authority, that can hold our lines unbroken. It is no
wonder that the tempting sailors could do nothing with the cabin-boy who
was "chock full of the Bible."
(e.) _Teach your children, as you teach yourselves, to hearken through
these voices of the human writers to the voice of God._
Bother then with no theories of inspiration. Never deny nor conceal the
true human voices of these men who spake of old, but never fail to affirm
the true Divine breath in these men who spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost. And, since this is the power of the Bible, emphasize the
Divine speaking; make every God-breathed word sound to the children's
souls as the very voice of God; until, in simple faith and reverent
docility, they shall each answer--Speak, Lord: Thy servant heareth!
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
And a light unto my path.
Such is the holy office of the Bible: such be its blessed service to our
souls, and to the souls of our dear children! May we walk in its light
through life; that in the valley of the shadow of death that light may
still fall upon us.
It is not many months since I was called to the house where, in a ripe
and honored age, lay a warden of this church, stricken suddenly by death.
On the table in his room, as he had left it open after reading in it that
morning, I saw a Bible.
I can ask for my funeral no better symbol of the aim and effort of my poor
erring life, if so be it shame me not too much, than that which told the
story of an humble servant of the Lord. Upon his coffin, with the
book-mark between the pages where he last had read, was--his Bible!
* * * * *
Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our
learning; grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and
inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of Thy Holy Word, we
may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which
Thou has given us in our Saviour, Jesus Christ. _Amen._
The End.