THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D.C. July 28, 1917

The Bible is the Word of Life. I beg that you will read it and find this out for yourselves—read, not little snatches here and there, but long passages that will really be the road to the heart of it. You will find it not only full of real men and women, but also of the things you have wondered about and been troubled about all your life, as men have been always; and the more you read the more it will become plain to you what things are worthwhile and what are not, what things make men happy—loyalty, right dealing, speaking the truth, readiness to give everything for what they think their duty, and, most of all, the wish that they may have the approval of the Christ, who gave everything for them; and the things that are guaranteed to make men unhappy—selfishness, cowardice, greed, and everything that is low and mean. When you have read the Bible you will know that it is the Word of God, because you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own happiness, and your own duty.

—Woodrow Wilson

In a speech on the occasion of the Tercentenary Celebration of King James Version of the Bible at Denver, Colorado some years ago, President Woodrow Wilson said: "This book (the Bible) reveals men unto themselves—not as creatures under bondage, not as men under human authority, not as those bidden to take counsel and command of any human source. It reveals every man to himself as a distinct moral agent, responsible not to men, not even to those men whom he has put over him in authority, but responsible through his conscience to his Lord and Maker."

Again he continued: "There are kings upon the pages of Scripture, but do you think of any king in Scripture as anything else than a mere man? There was the great King David, of a line blessed because from it would spring our Lord and Saviour, a man marked in the history of mankind as the chosen instrument of God to do justice, and exalt righteousness in the people.

"But what does this Bible do for David? Does it utter eulogies upon him? Does it conceal his faults and magnify his virtues? Does it set him up as a great statesman would be set up in a modern biography? No; the book in which his annals are written strips the mask from David, strips every shred of counterfeit and concealment from him, and shows him as indeed an instrument of God, but a sinful man; and the verdict of the Bible is that David, like other men, was one day to stand naked before the judgment seat of God and be judged, not as a king, but as a man. Isn't this the book of the people? Is there any man in this Holy Scripture who is exempted from the common standard and judgment? How these pages teem with the masses of mankind! Are these the annals of the great? These are the annals of the people—of the common run of men.

"And how many souls of men march across its pages: how infinite is the variety of human circumstances and of human dealings, of human heroism and love. Is this a picture of extraordinary beings? This is a picture of the common life of mankind. It is a mirror held up for men's hearts, and it is in this mirror that we marvel to see ourselves portrayed."

How true the President's words: "It is a mirror held up for man's heart, and it is in this mirror that we marvel to see ourselves portrayed."

For instance, the third chapter of Romans is no flattering description of man, but every honest reader must acknowledge the portrait is TRUE TO LIFE, and one is forced to accept the conclusion of Scripture: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23).

But THE BOOK was given to bring before us a GLORIOUS PERSON. From Genesis to Malachi, from Matthew to Revelation, the Person of Christ is its blessed theme—in type and prophecy in the Old Testament, in history and doctrine in the New, all is redolent with His glorious Person. He is heaven's answer to earth's degradation and sin; God's remedy for man's guilt and ruin; the only Saviour who, in infinite love, laid aside His glory and came to this sin-cursed earth to settle once and for all the question of good and evil, to make full atonement for sin, to satisfy every foe, to lead captivity captive, and, taking His seat on high, to become the object of saving faith.

Reader, let this revelation from God be to you what it was to David (see Psalm 119:105): "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Wander no longer in the labyrinth of reason and doubt, but come into the blessed sunlight of the infallible Word, accept its truths, and make the Saviour of whom it speaks your on heart's trust.

Here alone will your weary soul find rest, and your life given you by God be lived to His glory.

—J.W.H.N.