Practical Religion — Bible-Reading Part 2
(_b_) But the world is not only full of difficulties about points of doctrine; it is equally full of difficulties about points of _practice_.
Every professing Christian, who wishes to act conscientiously, must know that it is so.
The most puzzling questions are continually arising.
He is tried on every side by doubts as to the line of duty, and can often hardly see what is the right thing to do.
He is tried by questions connected with the management of his _worldly calling_, if he is in business or in trade.
He sometimes sees things going on of a very doubtful character,--things that can hardly be called fair, straightforward, truthful, and doing as you would be done by.
But then everybody in the trade does these things.
They have always been done in the most respectable houses.
There would be no carrying on a profitable business if they were not done.
They are not things distinctly named and prohibited by God.
All this is very puzzling.
What is a man to do?
He is tried by questions about _worldly amusements_.
Races, and balls, and operas, and theatres, and card parties, are all very doubtful methods of spending time.
But then he sees numbers of great people taking part in them.
Are all these people wrong?
Can there really be such mighty harm in these things?
All this is very puzzling.
What is a man to do?
He is tried by questions about the _education of his children_.
He wishes to train them up morally and religiously, and to remember their souls.
But he is told by many sensible people, that young persons will be young,--that it does not do to check and restrain them too much, and that he ought to attend pantomimes and children's parties, and give children's balls himself.
He is informed that this nobleman, or that lady of rank, always does so, and yet they are reckoned religious people.
Surely it cannot be wrong.
All this is very puzzling.
What is he to do?
There is only one answer to all these questions.
A man must make the Bible his rule of conduct.
He must make its leading principles the compass by which he steers his course through life.
By the letter or spirit of the Bible he must test every difficult point and question.
"_To the law and to the testimony!
What saith the Scripture?
_" He ought to care nothing for what other people may think right.
He ought not to set his watch by the clock of his neighbour, but by the sun-dial of the Word.
I charge my readers solemnly to act on the maxim I have just laid down, and to adhere to it rigidly all the days of their lives.
You will never repent of it.
Make it a leading principle never to act contrary to the Word.
Care not for the charge of over-strictness, and needless precision.
Remember you serve a strict and holy God.
Listen not to the common objection, that the rule you have laid down is impossible, and cannot be observed in such a world as this.
Let those who make such an objection speak out plainly, and tell us for what purpose the Bible was given to man.
Let them remember that by the Bible we shall all be judged at the last day, and let them learn to judge themselves by it here, lest they be judged and condemned by it hereafter.
This mighty rule of faith and practice is the book about which I am addressing the readers of this paper this day.
Surely it is no light matter _what you are doing with the Bible_.
Surely when danger is abroad on the right hand and on the left, you should consider what you are doing with the safe-guard which God has provided.
I charge you, I beseech you, to give an honest answer to my question.
What art thou doing with the Bible?
--Dost thou read it?
HOW READEST THOU?
VII.
In the seventh place, _the Bible is the book which all true servants of God have always lived on and loved_.
Every living thing which God creates requires food.
The life that God imparts needs sustaining and nourishing.
It is so with animal and vegetable life,--with birds, beasts, fishes, reptiles, insects, and plants.
It is equally so with spiritual life.
When the Holy Ghost raises a man from the death of sin and makes him a new creature in Christ Jesus, the new principle in that man's heart requires food, and the only food which will sustain it is the Word of God.
There never was a man or woman truly converted, from one end of the world to the other, who did not love the revealed will of God.
Just as a child born into the world desires naturally the milk provided for its nourishment, so does a soul "born again" desire the sincere milk of the Word.
This is a common mark of all the children of God--they "delight in the law of the Lord."
(Psalm, i. 2. ) Show me a person who despises Bible reading, or thinks little of Bible preaching, and I hold it to be a certain fact that he is not yet "born again."
He may be zealous about forms and ceremonies.
He may be diligent in attending sacraments and daily services.
But if these things are more precious to him than the Bible, I cannot think he is a converted man.
Tell me what the Bible is to a man, and I will generally tell you what he is.
This is the pulse to try,--this is the barometer to look at,--if we would know the state of the heart.
I have no notion of the Spirit dwelling in a man and not giving clear evidence of His presence.
And I believe it to be a signal evidence of the Spirit's presence when the Word is really precious to a man's soul.
Love to the Word is one of the characteristics we see in Job.
Little as we know of this Patriarch and his age, this at least stands out clearly.
He says, "I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food."
(Job xxiii.
12. ) Love to the Word is a shining feature in the character of David.
Mark how it appears all through that wonderful part of Scripture, the cxixth Psalm.
He might well say, "Oh, how I love thy law!"
(Psalm cxix.
97. ) Love to the Word is a striking point in the character of St. Paul.
What were he and his companions but men "mighty in the Scriptures?"
What were his sermons but expositions and applications of the Word?
Love to the Word appears pre-eminently in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
He read it publicly.
He quoted it continually.
He expounded it frequently.
He advised the Jews to "search" it.
He used it as His weapon to resist the devil.
He said repeatedly, "The Scripture must be fulfilled."
--Almost the last thing He did was to "open the understanding of His disciples, that they might understand the Scriptures."
(Luke xxiv.
45. ) I am afraid that man can be no true servant of Christ, who has not something of his Master's mind and feeling towards the Bible.
Love to the Word has been a prominent feature in the history of all the saints, of whom we know anything, since the days of the Apostles.
This is the lamp which Athanasius and Chrysostom and Augustine followed.
This is the compass which kept the Vallenses and Albigenses from making shipwreck of the faith.
This is the well which was re-opened by Wycliffe and Luther, after it had been long stopped up.
This is the sword with which Latimer, and Jewell, and Knox won their victories.
This is the manna which fed Baxter and Owen, and the noble host of the Puritans, and made them strong to battle.
This is the armoury from which Whitefield and Wesley drew their powerful weapons.
This is the mine from which Bickersteth and M'Cheyne brought forth rich gold.
Differing as these holy men did in some matters, on one point they were all agreed,--they all delighted in the Word.
Love to the Word is one of the first things that appears in the converted heathen, at the various Missionary stations throughout the world.
In hot climates and in cold,--among savage people and among civilized,--in New Zealand, in the South Sea Islands, in Africa, in Hindostan,--it is always the same.
They enjoy hearing it read.
They long to be able to read it themselves.
They wonder why Christians did not send it to them before.
How striking is the picture which Moffat draws of Africaner, the fierce South African chieftain, when first brought under the power of the Gospel!
"Often have I seen him," he says, "under the shadow of a great rock nearly the live-long day, eagerly perusing the pages of the Bible."
--How touching is the expression of a poor converted Negro, speaking of the Bible!
He said, "It is never old and never cold."
--How affecting was the language of another old negro, when some would have dissuaded him from learning to read, because of his great age.
"No!"
he said, "I will never give it up till I die.
It is worth all the labour to be able to read that one verse, 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.'
" Love to the Bible is one of the grand points of agreement among all converted men and women in our own land.
Episcopalians and Presbyterians, Baptists and Independents, Methodists and Plymouth Brethren,--all unite in honouring the Bible, as soon as they are real Christians.
This is the manna which all the tribes of our Israel feed upon, and find satisfying food.
This is the fountain round which all the various portions of Christ's flock meet together, and from which no sheep goes thirsty away.
Oh, that believers in this country would learn to cleave more closely to the written Word!
Oh, that they would see that the more the Bible, and the Bible only, is the substance of men's religion, the more they agree!
It is probable there never was an uninspired book more universally admired than Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.
It is a book which all denominations of Christians delight to honour.
It has won praise from all parties.
Now what a striking fact it is, that the author was pre-eminently a man of one book!
He had read hardly anything but the Bible.
It is a blessed thought that there will be "much people" in heaven at last.
Few as the Lord's people undoubtedly are at any one given time or place, yet all gathered together at last, they will be "a multitude that no man can number."
(Rev. vii.
9; xix.
1. ) They will be of one heart and mind.
They will have passed through like experience.
They will all have repented, believed, lived holy, prayerful, and humble.
They will all have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
But one thing beside all this they will have in common: they will all love the texts and doctrines of the Bible.
The Bible will have been their food and delight in the days of their pilgrimage on earth.
And the Bible will be a common subject of joyful meditation and retrospect, when they are gathered together in heaven.
This Book, which all true Christians live upon and love, is the subject about which I am addressing the readers of this paper this day.
Surely it is no light matter _what you are doing with the Bible_.
Surely it is matter for serious inquiry, whether you know anything of this love to the Word, and have this mark of walking "in the footsteps of the flock."
(Cant.
i.
8. ) I charge you, I entreat you to give me an honest answer.
What art thou doing with the Bible?
--Dost thou read it?
--HOW READEST
THOU?
VIII.
In the last place, _the Bible is the only book which can comfort a man in the last hours of his life_.
Death is an event which in all probability is before us all.
There is no avoiding it.
It is the river which each of us must cross.
I who write, and you who read, have each one day to die.
It is good to remember this.
We are all sadly apt to put away the subject from us.
"Each man thinks each man mortal but himself."
I want every one to do his duty in life, but I also want every one to think of death.
I want every one to know how to live, but I also want every one to know how to die.
Death is a solemn event to all.
It is the winding up of all earthly plans and expectations.
It is a separation from all we have loved and lived with.
It is often accompanied by much bodily pain and distress.
It brings us to the grave, the worm, and corruption.
It opens the door to judgment and eternity,--to heaven or to hell.
It is an event after which there is no change, or space for repentance.
Other mistakes may be corrected or retrieved, but not a mistake on our death-beds.
As the tree falls, there it must lie.
No conversion in the coffin!
No new birth after we have ceased to breathe!
And death is before us all.
It may be close at hand.
The time of our departure is quite uncertain.
But sooner or later we must each lie down alone and die.
All these are serious considerations.
Death is a solemn event even to the believer in Christ.
For him no doubt the "sting of death" is taken away.
(1 Cor.
xv.
55. ) Death has become one of his privileges, for he is Christ's. Living or dying, he is the Lord's. If he lives, Christ lives in him; and if he dies, he goes to live with Christ.
To him "to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
(Phil.
i.
21. ) Death frees him from many trials,--from a weak body, a corrupt heart, a tempting devil, and an ensnaring or persecuting world.
Death admits him to the enjoyment of many blessings.
He rests from his labours:--the hope of a joyful resurrection is changed into a certainty:--he has the company of holy redeemed spirits:--he is "with Christ."
All this is true,--and yet, even to a believer, death is a solemn thing.
Flesh and blood naturally shrink from it.
To part from all we love, is a wrench and trial to the feelings.
The world we go to is a world unknown, even though it is our home.
Friendly and harmless as death is to a believer, it is not an event to be treated lightly.
It always must be a very solemn thing.
It becomes every thoughtful and sensible man to consider calmly how he is going to meet death.
Gird up your loins, like a man, and look the subject in the face.
Listen to me, while I tell you a few things about the end to which we are coming.
The good things of the world cannot comfort a man when he draws near death.
All the gold of California and Australia will not provide light for the dark valley.
Money can buy the best medical advice and attendance for a man's body; but money cannot buy peace for his conscience, heart, and soul.
Relatives, loved friends, and servants, cannot comfort a man when he draws near death.
They may minister affectionately to his bodily wants.
They may watch by his bed-side tenderly, and anticipate his every wish.
They may smooth down his dying pillow, and support his sinking frame in their arms.
But they cannot "minister to a mind diseased."
They cannot stop the achings of a troubled heart.
They cannot screen an uneasy conscience from the eye of God.
The pleasures of the world cannot comfort a man when he draws near death.
The brilliant ball-room,--the merry dance,--the midnight revel,--the party to Epsom races,--the card table,--the box at the opera,--the voices of singing men and singing women,--all these are at length distasteful things.
To hear of hunting and shooting engagements gives him no pleasure.
To be invited to feasts, and regattas, and fancy-fairs, gives him no ease.
He cannot hide from himself that these are hollow, empty, powerless things.
They jar upon the ear of his conscience.
They are out of harmony with his condition.
They cannot stop one gap in his heart, when the last enemy is coming in like a flood.
They cannot make him calm in the prospect of meeting a holy God.
Books and newspapers cannot comfort a man when he draws near death.
The most brilliant writings of Macaulay or Dickens will pall on his ear.
The most able article in the Times will fail to interest him.
The Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews will give him no pleasure.
Punch and the Illustrated News, and the last new novel, will lie unopened and unheeded.
Their time will be past.
Their vocation will be gone.
Whatever they may be in health, they are useless in the hour of death.
There is but one fountain of comfort for a man drawing near to his end, and that is the Bible.
Chapters out of the Bible,--texts out of the Bible,--statements of truth taken out of the Bible,--books containing matter drawn from the Bible,--these are a man's only chance of comfort when he comes to die.
I do not at all say that the Bible will do good, as a matter of course, to a dying man, if he has not valued it before.
I
know, unhappily, too much of death-beds to say that.
I do not say whether it is probable that he who has been unbelieving and neglectful of the Bible in life, will at once believe and get comfort from it in death.
But I do say positively, that no dying man will ever get real comfort, except from the contents of the Word of God.
All comfort from any other source is a house built upon sand.
I lay this down as a rule of universal application.
I make no exception in favour of any class on earth.
Kings and poor men, learned and unlearned,--all are on a level in this matter.
There is not a jot of real consolation for any dying man, unless he gets it from the Bible.
Chapters, passages, texts, promises, and doctrines of Scripture,--heard, received, believed, and rested on,--these are the only comforters I dare promise to any one, when he leaves the world.
Taking the sacrament will do a man no more good than the Popish extreme unction, so long as the Word is not received and believed.
Priestly absolution will no more ease the conscience than the incantations of a heathen magician, if the poor dying sinner does not receive and believe Bible truth.
I tell every one who reads this paper, that although men may seem to get on comfortably without the Bible while they live, they may be sure that without the Bible they cannot comfortably die.
It was a true confession of the learned Selden,--"There is no book upon which we can rest in a dying moment but the Bible."
I might easily confirm all I have just said, by examples and illustrations.
I might show you the death-beds of men who have affected to despise the Bible.
I might tell you how Voltaire and Paine, the famous infidels, died in misery, bitterness, rage, fear, and despair.
I
might show you the happy death-beds of those who have loved the Bible and believed it, and the blessed effect the sight of their death-beds had on others.
Cecil,--a minister whose praise ought to be in all churches,--says, "I shall never forget standing by the bed-side of my dying mother.
'Are you afraid to die?'
I asked.
--'No!'
she replied.
--'But why does the uncertainty of another state give you no concern?'
--'Because God has said, Fear not; when thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.'
" (Isa.
xliii.
2. ) I might easily multiply illustrations of this kind.
But I think it better to conclude this part of my subject by giving the result of my own observations as a minister.
I have seen not a few dying persons in my time.
I have seen great varieties of manner and deportment among them.
I have seen some die sullen, silent, and comfortless.
I have seen others die ignorant, unconcerned, and apparently without much fear.
I have seen some die so wearied out with long illness that they were quite willing to depart, and yet they did not seem to me at all in a fit state to go before God.
I have seen others die with professions of hope and trust in God, without leaving satisfactory evidences that they were on the rock.
I
have seen others die who, I believe, were "in Christ," and safe, and yet they never seemed to enjoy much sensible comfort.
I have seen some few dying in the full assurance of hope, and like Bunyan's "Standfast," giving glorious testimony to Christ's faithfulness, even in the river.
But one thing I have never seen.
I never saw any one enjoy what I should call real, solid, calm, reasonable peace on his death-bed, who did not draw his peace from the Bible.
And this I am bold to say, that the man who thinks to go to his death-bed without having the Bible for his comforter, his companion, and his friend, is one of the greatest madmen in the world.
There are no comforts for the soul but Bible comforts, and he who has not got hold of these, has got hold of nothing at all, unless it be a broken reed.
The only comforter for a death-bed is the book about which I address the readers of this paper this day.
Surely it is no light matter whether you read that book or not.
Surely a dying man, in a dying world, should seriously consider whether he has got anything to comfort him when his turn comes to die.
I charge you, I entreat you, for the last time, to give an honest answer to my question.
What art thou doing with the Bible?
--Dost thou read it?
--HOW READEST THOU?
I have now given the reasons why I press on every reader the duty and importance of reading the Bible.
I have shown that no book is written in such a manner as the Bible,--that knowledge of the Bible is absolutely necessary to salvation,--that no book contains such matter,--that no book has done so much for the world generally,--that no book can do so much for every one who reads it aright,--that this book is the only rule of faith and practice,--that it is, and always has been, the food of all true servants of God,--and that it is the only book which can comfort men when they die.
All these are ancient things.
I do not pretend to tell anything new.
I have only gathered together old truths, and tried to mould them into a new shape.
Let me finish all by addressing a few plain words to the conscience of every class of readers.
(1) This paper may fall into the hands of some who _can read, but never do read the Bible at all_.
Are you one of them?
If you are, I have something to say to you.
I cannot comfort you in your present state of mind.
It would be mockery and deceit to do so.
I cannot speak to you of peace and heaven, while you treat the Bible as you do.
You are in danger of losing your soul.
You are in danger, because _your neglected Bible is a plain evidence that you do not love God_.
The health of a man's body may generally be known by his appetite.
The health of a man's soul may be known by his treatment of the Bible.
Now you are manifestly labouring under a sore disease.
Will you not repent?
I know I cannot reach your heart.
I cannot make you see and feel these things.
I can only enter my solemn protest against your present treatment of the Bible, and lay that protest before your conscience.
I
do so with all my soul.
Oh, beware lest you repent too late!
Beware lest you put off reading the Bible till you send for the doctor in your last illness, and then find the Bible a sealed book, and dark, as the cloud between the hosts of Israel and Egypt, to your anxious soul!
Beware lest you go on saying all your life, "Men do very well without all this Bible-reading," and find at length, to your cost, that men do very ill, and end in hell!
Beware lest the day come when you will feel, "Had I but honoured the Bible as much as I have honoured the newspaper, I should not have been left without comfort in my last hours!"
Bible-neglecting reader, I give you a plain warning.
The plague-cross is at present on your door.
The Lord have mercy upon your soul!
(2) This paper may fall into the hands of some one who is _willing to begin reading the Bible, but wants advice_ on the subject.
