There are mysteries of grace and love in every page of the Bible:
it is a thriving soul that finds the Book of God growing more
and more precious.
A careless reader of the Scriptures never made a close walker
with God.
Spread the Bible before the Lord; ask Him to teach you what _your_
ignorance and what _His_ wisdom.
Meditation on the Word of God is the chief means of our growth
in grace: without this even prayer itself will be little better
than an empty form. Meditation nourishes faith, and faith and
prayer are the keys which unlock the hidden treasures of the
word.
We have great need to be prepared for trials of faith and patience
in so great a business as reading the Scriptures with understanding
heart. It is only by faith and patience, and prayerful meditation
of the Word, that we are delivered from imaginations of the flesh
-- from sacrificing to our own net, and burning incense to our
own drag.
The laying open the heart of God is the great design of the Scriptures:
happy the reader who falls in with that design!
The Bible is always a new book to those well acquainted with
it.
We shall never become established in grace until we credit the
Word of God as the selfproving voice of Him who speaks it.
Satan has ten thousand devices for drawing us away from the Scriptures.
This done, we are in his net; and, though our gracious God put
us not to shame by any outward and gross transgression, we shall
become barren and unfruitful.
No believer can flourish in the ways of Christ, unless it be
his custom to deal with God by the Word in the closet.
The children of God in the furnace without a good store of Scripture
in their hearts are always impatient, struggling in self-will
for deliverance, and thereby they do but add fuel to the fire.
If we read the Word of God chiefly to get comfort, we shall have
but little, and that of doubtful kind. Let us put away this selfishness,
and use the Word of God as the sword of the Spirit against the
flesh in us; so will the Scriptures unfold themselves more and
more, and endear Christ to us. That sword, well handled against
the flesh in ourselves, will serve us in good stead against Satan.
The Book of God is a store of manna for God's pilgrim children;
and we ought to see to it that the soul get not sick and loathe
the manna. The great cause of our neglecting the Scriptures is
not want of time, but want of heart, some idol taking the place
of Christ. Satan has been marvellously wise to entice away God's
people from the Scriptures. A child of God who neglects the Scriptures
cannot make it his business to please the Lord of glory: cannot
make Him Lord of the conscience; ruler of the heart; the joy,
portion, and treasure of the soul.
The threatenings of God's Word are designed to discourage men
from their wickedness, and to drive them out of all refuges of
lies to the Saviour. For the utterly self-condemned sinner there
is nothing but encouragement in the whole compass of the Bible.
If it be asked, What is the proof that we digest our spiritual
food? — that our knowledge of God's truth turns to growth in
grace? the answer is, Does it lead us into communion with God,
and submission to His will? Among the marks of true communion
with God, two of the plainest are a spirit of thanksgiving and
a spirit of confession.