By The Editor January, 1916

I ASKED God for my message from Himself for January, 1916. He gave it to me from His Holy Word—yes, straight from heaven it came, a strength and glory to my soul.
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee” (Psa. 119:11).
One has said, “The Word of God was the only rule of life to our Lord Jesus Christ,” and it should be the only rule of life for us. “He was one with the Father. He shared from all eternity His counsels. He knew in all things the mind and will of God. So surely the Son could have no occasion for the written law.... But it became Him, in taking upon Him the nature of man, to fulfill all righteousness, not after the secret counsels of His omniscience, but according to the rule laid down for us.” So constantly we hear from the Saviour’s lips, “It is written.” He had hidden the Word in His heart.
When speaking of the coming failure of His disciples and their forsaking Him, He says: “For it is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.” When He drives the money-changers from the temple, He says: “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer.” When tempted by the devil in the wilderness, He answers him, through all his assaults, with the word of God, “It is written.” And when, after His resurrection, He meets the two on the road to Emmaus, He does not tell them anything apart from the Word of God. It says: “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself.” And in His last interview with His disciples, when He stood on the threshold of the Father’s house, He does not tell them the secrets of the grave through which He had passed, or the glories He was going to see, but what He did was “to open their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures.”
O blessed Lord, may we follow in Thy footsteps as to this throughout this year. Open Thou our understanding; give us the power of the Holy Spirit to understand the Scriptures. Thou halt told us to “search the Scriptures,” and that they testify of Thee. Oh! may we hide Thy Word in our hearts―that the washing of water by the Word may purify our hearts by faith―that no moral death may come to us, but the plenitude of power from Thyself who wast and art the “Word made flesh”―the “Word of life.” Thus by the action of the Holy Spirit within us may we be made to live and move in the power of Thy risen, endless life.
And so I thanked God for giving me the keynote for the song of my life this year; for writing on the book of my life the golden words, “Search the Scriptures,” “They testify of Me,” and I trust as the months of the year pass on, if I am here, that I may be able to say, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.”
And God has taught me also that I must not rest until thousands have read and believed His Word. It is the only safeguard for the soul of man. The Word is a light to scatter the darkness of superstition and false doctrine―a lamp to shine upon the pathway of the Christian. I can see all things by the light of Scripture, but all is dark without it. We must test everything by the Word of God. We must see to it that as far as it lies in our power, and we are more responsible than we think we are, every soldier and sailor shall have a copy of the Word of God, or a portion of it.
We must work together for this, you and I, dear reader, this year. You must send me the Scriptures, or the means to get them, and then I will seek to spread your gift far and wide for the good of our fellow-men and the glory of our God.