July, 1937
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
245
The secret of effective reading and study of the Bible lies in the simple principle of reading it in logical units. The challenge cannot be too often made to Christians really to read the Word of God by books or, in the case of the longer books, in logical units of a number of chapters at a time. If one’s Bible reading has begun to lose interest, the remedy is to make a covenant with God daily to read over at a single sit ting one of the shorter books, such as I John or 2 Peter, each day for a week. Such consecutive reading in logical units will, if prayerfully followed, open up the real meaning of the Word in a marvelous way. After all, no sensible person would begin to read a great novel near the end, then, after sampling a few pages, skip to the beginning, only to go to the middle and then to the end again. Why then should such an illogical method be followed in reading the greatest of all books? T esting the C laims F airly The second suggestion for rediscovering the Bible in a living way is to approach it fairly and to make a scientific test of its claims. Now it is perfectly true that many modern men tell us that it is impossible any longer to believe the Bible. “In this twentieth century,” they say, “the Bible is hopelessly unscientific and impossibly be hind the times. It may be fine literature, but for historical accuracy and philosophi cal truth it must be relegated to the junk pile of outworn ideas and ancient categories of thought.” But an intelligent Christian does not need to be greatly troubled by such statements. He knows that it is quite pos sible to be up-to-date and still to believe the Bible. Of course, it is not a textbook of science; it was not, as the aphorism attributed to Galileo states, given to tell us how the heavens go, but to tell us how to go to heaven. On the other hand, how ever, when it speaks on any matter, even a matter of scientific fact and historical truth, though its form of expression may be poetic, it nevertheless speaks with com plete correctness. No open-eyed observer of modern archeology and Biblical scholarship can fail to admit that the last ten years have witnessed scores of discoveries that have simply overthrown the very founda tion of destructive higher criticism of God’s Word. It is of highest importance to approach the Bible with an open mind and the scien tific attitude. One of the best illustrations of this truth comes from the life of George J. Romanes, the famous British zoologist and contemporary of Charles Darwin. Ro manes was led through his scientific studies to a loss of faith in Christianity. But he regained his faith through being confronted with that great statement of the Lord Jesus recorded in John 7:17: “If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from myself” (R. V.). Now Romanes was a true scientist, and he therefore ap preciated the scientific method of experi ment. He realized that our Lord’s state ment was a challenge to apply that method in the spiritual realm. He took John 7:17
at its face value, subordinated his own will to God’s will, and rediscovered his faith and his God. But there are those who make capital of difficulties and apparent discrepancies in the Bible. A delightful story of a shrewd worldly agnostic and a Christian minister contains a helpful lesson along this line. The agnostic and the minister happened to be seated at the same table in a dining car. They were eating the fish course at din ner—shad, a fish of delicious taste but notorious for the overdevelopment of its bony structure. Eyeing his companion, the agnostic remarked, “I judge you are a clergyman, Sir.” “Quite right,” replied the minister. “I am in my Master’s service.” “Well, you look it,” said the agnostic. “Find a good many things in the old Book you don’t understand, don’t you?” “Yes,” answered the minister, “there are a number of things in the Bible I don’t understand.” “Well, what do you do then?” quizzed the agnostic. HAVE FAITH IN G O D By IONE LOWMAN Have faith in God! We've heard it said a thousand times. Yes, oft to doubting, troubled souls This message we've repeated. And in our own distress
great question of the ages, “What think you of Christ?”
C oming in the L ight of the S pirit And this brings us to the third sugges tion for rediscovering the Bible. That sug gestion is really a requirement, the great est single requirement for understanding God’s Word. It is a requirement without which all manner of education, the most burning zeal, and most indefatigable in terest, are of no permanent value. The Bible is certainly rediscovered when one comes to it in the light of the Spirit of Christ. Coleridge put this truth in a won derful sentence: “The Bible without the Spirit is a sundial by moonlight.” Now a sundial may be a very beautiful and roman tic sight in a moonlight garden, particularly when a pair of lovers use it for their ren dezvous. But it can never fulfill its pri mary function of telling time by even the brightest moonlight. So it is with the Bible. One may read it in the moonlight of liter ary appreciation and yet entirely miss its central purpose. One may place it under the searchlight of historical criticism and fail to grasp the heart of its message. It has one great purpose, and that purpose is to re veal the fact that “God was in Christ, re conciling the world unto himself.” Paul gives clear utterance to this essential re quirement for rediscovering the Bible in 1 Corinthians 2:14: “The natural [unre generate] man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for . . . they are spirit ually discerned.” In other words, the pri mary qualification for the true and vital apprehension of God’s Word is the illum ination of the Holy Spirit. Only in the light of the Sun of Righteousness can the Bible be understood. Now the New Testament is crystal clear as to just how this qualification is obtained. There is, for instance, that familiar but inexhaustible interview of our Lord re corded in John 3. Christ was speaking to the man who was perhaps the most highly educated of His early followers, Nicode- mus, a member of the Judean intelligentsia. And He told Nicodemus that the only way to see the kingdom of God is by being born again. Similarly the only way really to understand the Bible and its message is through finding the Person who is its Theme. Through Him alone can the Book really be understood. As Robert Murray McCheyne, that saintly Scotch preacher, said, “When you are reading your book in the dark and you come to a difficult part, you take it to a window to get more light. So take your Bibles to Christ.” Are you doing that? Are you reading your Bible daily in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ and under the guidance of His Spirit? “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” applies’ just as much to the treasures of that written Word which is Truth as it does to the life after death. Are you trying to do the impossible in reading God’s sundial by moonlight, or are you coming to the Book in the light of Him who declared, “I am the light of the world” ?
Have then forgotten That He is faithful, And His Word is sure. O soul of minel Abjure the tempter. Say unto him and to thyself,
That "it is Written." "The God we serve Is able to deliver," And from this trial He will yet deliver us. So will we wait, and trust, and serve By faith in God!
Quietly the clergyman replied, “Why, I simply do just as we do when eating this delicious fish. You see, if I come to a bone, I quietly lay it aside, and go on enjoying the fish, and let some fool insist on chok ing himself with the bones.” So it is with difficulties in the Bible. Of course God’s Book contains things hard for man to understand. But there is a common- sense way of meeting , those difficulties. After all, it is not so much the questions we have about the Bible that are most im portant, as it is the questions that the Bible asks us. To any one who reads it with an open mind and a humble spirit, the Bible has some very searching things to say. It asks probing questions about one’s life, one’s relation with his neighbor, with his family, and with his God. It holds before his eyes the divine standard, and it convicts him of sin. Above all, it puts to the individual with an insistency that cannot be denied the
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