"Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read" (Isaiah 34:16).

It is very difficult for anyone to attempt to prescribe for another the proper method of studying Scripture. The infinite depths of Holy Scripture, like the exhaustless resources that are in God and the moral glories of the Person of Christ, are only unfolded to faith and need. This makes it so very simple. It is not cleverness or intellectual power we need, but the simplicity of a little child. The One who composed the Holy Scriptures must open our understanding to receive their precious teaching. And He will do so, if only we will wait on Him in real earnestness of heart.

We must never lose sight of the weighty fact that it is as we act on what we know that our knowledge shall increase. It will never do to sit down like a bookworm to read the Bible. We may fill our intellect with biblical knowledge, we may have the doctrines of the Bible and the letter of Scripture at our fingertips without one particle of spiritual understanding or power. We must go to Scripture as a thirsty man goes to a well; as a hungry man goes to a meal. We must go to it because we cannot do without it. We go, not merely to study, but to feed. The instincts of the divine nature lead us to the Word of God as the newborn babe desires the milk by which he is to grow. It is by feeding on the Word that the new man grows.

Hence we may see how very real and practical is this question of how to study Scripture. It is intimately connected with our entire moral and spiritual condition, our daily walk, our actual habits and ways. God has given us His Word to form our character, to govern our conduct and shape our course. Therefore, if the Word has not a formative influence and a governing power over us, it is the height of folly to think of storing up a quantity of Scriptural knowledge in the intellect. It can only puff us up and deceive us.

It is a most dangerous thing to traffic in unfelt truth. It brings on a heartless indifference, levity of spirit, insensibility of conscience, which is appalling to people of serious piety. There is nothing that tends to throw us completely into the hands of the enemy as a quantity of head knowledge of truth without a tender conscience, a true heart, an upright mind. The mere profession of truth which does not act on the conscience and come out in the life, is one of the special dangers of the day in which our lot is cast. Better by far only to know a little in reality and power, than profess a quantity of truth that lies powerless in the region of the understanding, exerting no formative influence upon the life.

As to the question of making use of human writings to help us in the study of the Scriptures, some caution is needed. The entire question of what we read (and watch and listen to) is a most serious one because the material on which we feed affects our spiritual condition. We observe with deep concern a growing distaste for solid spiritual food. Often volumes of most weighty and precious truth stand neglected on the bookshelves of young Christians and adults alike. How can a soul prosper and grow in the divine life when there is no real love for the Bible or for writings which unfold its precious contents for our souls?

However, if we are really dependent upon God, He will feed us with food suitable for us. Thus we receive it from Himself and hold it in communion with Himself. It is fresh, living, powerful, formative and shines in the life as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Precious growth! Would there were more of it!

—C.H. Mackintosh (adapted)

A Christian who has heaven before him and a Saviour in glory as the object of his affections will walk well upon the earth. He who has only the earthly path for his rule will fail in the intelligence and motives needed to walk in it: he will become a prey to worldliness, and his Christian walk in the world will be more or less on a level with the world in which he walks. —J.N. Darby