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Meditating on God’s Word, April 16
O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
Psalm 119:97
.
Men need not the dim light of tradition and custom to make the Scriptures
comprehensible. It is just as sensible to suppose that the sun, shining in
the heavens at noonday, needs the glimmerings of the torchlights of earth
to increase its glory. In the Bible every duty is made plain, every lesson is
comprehensible. The gift of Christ and the illumination of the Holy Spirit
reveal to us the Father. The Word is able to make men and women and youth
wise unto salvation.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doc-
trine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the
man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (
2
Timothy 3:16, 17
). No other book is so potent to elevate the thoughts, to give
vigor to the faculties, as the broad, ennobling truths of the Bible. If God’s
Word were studied as it should be, men would have a breadth of mind, a
nobility of character, and a stability of purpose that is rarely seen in these
times.
Little benefit is to be derived from a hasty reading of the Scriptures.
One may read the whole Bible through, and yet fail to see its beauty or to
comprehend its depth of meaning. One passage studied until its significance
is clear to the mind, and its relation to the plan of salvation evident, is of
more value than the perusal of many chapters with no definite purpose in view
and no positive instruction gained. Keep your Bible with you. As you have
opportunity, read it; fix the texts in your memory. Even while you are walking
in the street, you may read a passage and meditate upon it, thus fixing it on
the mind.
Never should the Bible be studied without prayer. Before opening its
pages, we should ask for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, and it will be
given. When Nathanael came to Jesus, the Saviour exclaimed, “Behold an
Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile” (
John 1:47
). Nathanael said, “Whence
knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip
called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee” (
verse 48
). And
Jesus will see us also in the secret place of prayer, if we will seek Him for
light, that we may know what is truth. Angels from the world of light will
be with those who in humility of heart seek for divine guidance.—
Atlantic
Union Gleaner June 9, 1909, par. 8
.
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