Read the Bible confidently:
There are those in our day who attack the Bible: who read it to mark supposed defects in the Word – to discover fancied flaws. Well, we say to them, Go on, sir. The more you rub the brighter it will shine, and the letters upon its dial plate will come out the clearer for your exertions. I have a quaint old book of Quarles, well known for its odd woodcuts – and one of them represents a child with a small pair of bellows trying to blow out the sun. With all respect for your presumed wisdom, that picture reminds me of you in your equally foolish attempt to extinguish the Bible. You and your bellows will come to perdition, but the Word of God, like Him who gave it, shall abide for ever. If I saw a man on the seashore digging a little hole, and he were to declare that the object of his exercise was to drain the ocean dry, I should examine the string of his jacket to see if they were made to lace tight, for I should expect that workman to be mad. We fear not the assaults of men upon our Bible. It is a rock, and their waves may beat upon it, but it shall abide, and they, like the bubbles of the spray, shall dash against it to be destroyed.
Read the Bible Without Partiality.
There are many in the Church who can read without really seeing many parts of Scripture, because these passages do not fit into their creed. There is such a thing as colour blindness, we are told, and we can certainly trace a doctrinal blindness in many good men. Some are never able to see election in the Bible, or some other doctrine revealed with equal clearness. There is a very large class of persons thus afflicted, and especially when the ordinance of Baptism is in question. Many have confessed to me that they had never looked the question at all, and you would marvel to know how many Christians are blind on that point, and only find it out after a long time. Nelson put up the glass to his blind eye to look at the signal flag telling him to cease firing. So, it makes a very great difference which eye is used when you read God’s Word, for I fear we have most of us a film over one eye, in connection with one or more points of doctrine and precept.
Read the Bible Reverently.
There are some positions which best display the finish and beauties of a painting. The artists are always particular as to the light and place in which their pictures are to hang when exhibited to the public. The Bible is also seen to best advantage from one standpoint, and that is from beneath – when the reader humbly looks up to it – as to the sun shedding light down upon him in his ignorance and darkness. You remember the old story of the gate, with the low-hung knocker, and the inscription – “knock and it shall be opened unto you.” So it is with the Bible; it yields not a view of its inner meaning but to the humble in heart.
Read the Bible with Grateful Hearts.
We may believe the truth that we read and yet, at the same time, we do not lay hold of the blessings revealed, and live upon them, as we ought. There is a great distinction between a Lawyer reading the Title Deeds of an Estate – to see if they are genuine and secure – and the heir himself reading the same deeds, to learn how much he is worth, and what wealth he has for the future to enjoy. I would have you thus to read the Bible; as if you felt it to be a letter from your Heavenly Father to your soul. It speaks to you. Lay hold of its promises; take heed to its warnings; follow out its directions; make it a lamp to your feet and a light unto your path; make it the man at your right hand at all times.
Read the Bible as Under the Holy Spirit of God.
You must read the Bible under the teaching of God’s Spirit. I mention this last because I want it to abide in your memory. Unless the Holy Ghost shine upon the sacred page you will never read to profit. Human reason can comprehend what has sprung from the mind of man; but God’s thoughts can only be comprehended aright by those who are taught by the Spirit. The well is too deep for man to draw water from, unaided by God; he needs to have help from on high. We need the lamp of the Spirit to shed His beams upon the written Word. We must offer the same prayer as an inspired man himself had to offer: - “Lord, open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Thus perusing God’s Word humbly and studiously, you shall be blessed, and your soul shall be satisfied with the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock.