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Mental and Spiritual Culture
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commonplace matters becomes dwarfed and enfeebled. If never
tasked to comprehend grand and far-reaching truths, it loses the
power of growth. As a safeguard against this degeneracy and a
stimulus to development, nothing can equal the study of God’s
Word. As a means of intellectual training, the Bible is more effective
than any other book or all other books combined. No other study can
impart such mental power as does the effort to grasp the stupendous
truths of revelation. The mind thus brought into contact with the
thoughts of the Infinite will expand and strengthen.
And even greater is the power of the Bible in the development
of the spiritual nature. Human beings were created for fellowship
with God, and only in such fellowship can they find real life and
development. Men and women who with sincere and teachable
spirits study God’s Word, seeking to comprehend its truths, will be
brought in touch with its Author. Except by their own choice, there
is no limit to the possibilities of their development.
In its wide range of style and subjects the Bible has something
to interest every mind and appeal to every heart. In its pages are
found history, biography, and principles of government for the state
and for regulating the home—principles that human wisdom has
never equaled. It contains the most profound philosophy and the
sweetest, most sublime poetry. Immeasurably superior in value to
the productions of any human author are the Bible writings even
when thus considered; but of infinitely wider scope, of infinitely
greater value, are they when viewed in their relation to the grand
central thought. Viewed in the light of this thought, every topic has
a new significance. In the most simply stated truths are involved
principles that are as high as heaven and that compass eternity.
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Theme of Redemption
The central theme of the Bible, the theme about which every
other clusters, is the redemption plan, the restoration in the human
soul of the image of God. From the first intimation of hope in the
sentence pronounced in Eden to that last glorious promise of the
Revelation—“They shall see His face; and His name shall be on
their foreheads” (
Revelation 22:4
)—the burden of every book and
every passage of the Bible is the unfolding of this wondrous theme—