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your knees and pray. Say “Lord, what does th is passage m ean?” Then get up and study it some more. If it still baffles you, get down and pray about it some more and plead th e promise. Open your Bible to Jam es 1:5, p u t your finger on th is passage, and say “Lord, I plead th is p articu lar promise. I con fess my lack of wisdom. O, Thou Spirit of L ight and T ru th , illum ine me.” Then get up and go to work, and while you work and while you pray, ligh t will filter in, and though t w ill come from God. Have you ever wondered where though t comes from? Is th e origin of though t as g reat a mystery as th e origin of light? Who can explain it? We say ligh t comes from God. Doesn’t though t come from God? You hold your m ind up ag ain st a problem , keep it th ere. F rom th e no rth and from the south and from th e east and from the w est though ts come rig h t down flock ing to th e window? Whence come they if no t from God? L u th e r’s motto was, “To have prayed well is to have studied well.” I once had a teacher, and he was a good teacher of theology. He told th e class no t to waste th e ir tim e praying. “Open your books and go to work. All tim e spent in p ray er is wasted tim e.” Not so. All th e time you spend in prayer is an immense advantage, no t a hindrance, not a hand i cap, b u t an indispensable help to the understanding of God’s Word. Here are seven conditions under which Bible study may be pursued: Regeneration, baptism of th e Holy Spirit, ravenous appetite, unflagging industry, implicit obedience, reveren t hum ility, ceaseless prayer. To be ever seeking th e praises of men is to be consum ing an opiate which will benumb th e highest powers and make th e soul insensible to th e reproach of God.
grace of hum ility goes out, and some people are even proud of th e ir hum ility, which is not rig h t eith er in th e sight of God or man. B u t O, if we are willing to learn, lig h t is for learning, and th ere is no privilege g reater th a n going to school. Christ is th e Teacher, and we g radu ate from th e H igh School of heaven and sit th ro u g h o u t eternity. Heaven is one everlasting Bible School. This is only a k indergarten . I t goes on and on th rough all th e ceaseless ages of eternity. Gifted godly men can teach you much, b u t by and by on the heaven side bank of th e river of death, you’ll sit down w ith P au l and Abraham and Noah and Enoch, and they’ll give you Bible teaching, and th a t is worth looking forw ard to. T h at is a post g raduate course th a t aw aits us on the o th er side. H um ility is necessary because it tends to self-depreciation. There is no dogmatism or bigotry so h ard and b itte r as th a t of ignorance. Lord Bacon sai^, “A little learning tend eth to self-conceit, b u t much le arn ing tendeth to hum ility.” The men who know best th in k they know the least, and th e men who know th e least th in k they know it all. Socrates was declared to be th e wis est man in Greece. He was asked, “W hat do you know ?” “I don’t know anything.” “T h at is very strange. The o rato r declared you to be th e wisest man in all th e world.” They went back to dispute th e o rator. “ Socrates declares he knows nothing.” The wise o rato r replied, “How did he know th a t he knew th a t? ” Ceaseless P ra y er Seventh and last: Ceaseless prayer. (Je r. 3 3 :3 ). “ Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and hidden things which thou knowest no t.” Suppose you ponder long on a passage of Scripture, and th e meaning is vague. W hat shall you do? Consult commentaries? Yes, b u t get down on
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