Chapter 4—Bible Study and Prayer Essential
All who would be efficient workers must give much time to prayer. The
communication between God and the soul must be kept open, that the
workers may recognize the voice of their Captain. The Bible should
be diligently studied. The truth of God, like gold, is not always lying
right on the surface; it is to be obtained only by earnest thought and
study. This study will not only store the mind with most valuable
knowledge, but will strengthen and expand the mental powers, and
will give a true estimate of eternal things. Let the divine precepts be
brought into the daily life; let the life be fashioned after God’s great
standard of righteousness, and the whole character will be
strengthened and ennobled.—
Gospel Workers, 76
Study the Word
The Great Lesson Book—The Word is the great lesson book
for the students in our schools. The Bible teaches the whole will of
God concerning the sons and daughters of Adam. The Bible is the
rule of life, teaching us of the character we must form for the future,
immortal life. Our faith, our practice, may make us living epistles,
known and read of all men. 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 torchlight of earth to increase its glory. The fables
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or the utterances of priests or of ministers are not needed to save the
student from error. Consult the divine Oracle, and you have light. In
the Bible every duty is made plain, every lesson is comprehensible,
able to fit men with a preparation for eternal life.
The gift of Christ and the illumination of the Holy Spirit reveal to
us the Father and the Son. The Word is exactly adapted to make men
and women and youth wise unto salvation. In the Word is the science
of salvation plainly revealed. “All scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
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