November 1

"How readest thou?" Luke 10:26.

It is well to be able to read. Thousands are not, and so cannot thus agreeably fill up their leisure moments, nor improve their minds by the written communications of others. But whatever a thing be in itself, the use we are to make of it is to determine whether it be to us good or evil, a blessing or a curse.

Some will lament for ever that they were taught to read. They never improved so great a talent. Yea, they perverted and abused it. They read books which undermined their principles, defiled their imaginations, and demoralized their lives. But others are thankful for such an attainment. It has afforded them not only gratification and profit, but spiritual improvement and consolation. One, in reading, has been converted from the error of his ways; another has been guided in his experimental and practical doubts and difficulties; a third has been revived while walking in the midst of trouble.

And if this has been the case while reading other books, how much more while reading the Scriptures of truth. This volume you are bound, above all other books, to read. It is your duty; it is your privilege. But how readest thou? How ought you to read it?

First, you ought to read it as the dictates of inspiration. You do not perhaps deny or question this, but you ought actually and frequently to impress the mind with it, that when you open these pages you may say, "I will hear what God the Lord will speak." "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth." The apostle admonishes the Hebrews not to turn away from him that speaketh from heaven. He does not say, who spoke, but who speaketh. The address is to be considered as immediate. It is so to us as well as to those who originally heard it. Had it been just written, it could have had no more authority, and have been no more deserving of attention, than now. How much depends upon this advice. For as we receive the word, so shall we be affected by it. If we regard it as false, it will produce no result; if as human, it will influence as human; but if divine, it will operate divinely. Hence says the apostle to the Thessalonians, "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is it truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe."

Secondly, let him that readeth understand. The emmch, returning from Jerusalem in his chariot, was reading, and reading even the prophecies of Isaiah; but Philip said to him, "Understandest thou what thou readest?" To know the meaning of the Scriptures, it is a good thing to read on till we come to the end of a paragraph or subject, regardless of the divisions in chapters and verses. These breaks are useful, and they are generally made in their proper places, but not always; in consequence of which, the sense is injured or darkened by the writer's closing before he has finished, or commencing something in the middle of the argument.

Neither should we lay too much stress on a particular word or phrase, but be guided by the natural current of the passage, and endeavor always to apprehend what is the present design of the sacred writer. Here good common-sense will often do more than the learned affectations of expositors, who frequently elude the solution of a difficult text, and throw doubts into a clear one. While we ought to avail ourselves of every assistance from the labors of others, and above all, to exercise our own minds, we must be humble in our inquiries, and feel and acknowledge our need of divine guidance to lead us into all truth. "Open thou mine eyes, that I may see wondrous things out of thy law." So prayed David, and so must we. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." Thus the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err; and without this, the scholar and the genius will for ever go astray. The great impediment to divine knowledge is the state of the heart; and as soon as we are made deeply sensible of our need of what the gospel is designed to afford, and willing to be saved in the Lord's own way, and to walk so as to please him, every thing opens easily and delightfully; and the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. But this can only be obtained from "the Spirit of truth."

Thirdly, we should read with a view to self-application. Instead of thinking of others—which is too frequently the case—we should think of ourselves, inquiring how it bears upon our own character and condition, and how, as Lord Bacon says, it comes home to our own businesses and bosoms. If I read a threatening, "O my soul, do I stand exposed to this danger?" If I read a promise, "May I claim this blessing?" If I read a reproof or a commendation, "Am I censured by the one, or encouraged by the other?" "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

Mons. 1

Fourthly, we should read with a determination to reduce what we read to experience and practice. The design of all the instruction contained in the Scripture is to bear upon the conscience and the life. The doctrine is not only according to grace, but according to godliness. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. This is the way to increase with all the increase of God. To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly. If a man do his will, he shall know of his doctrine. We may apply to reading what the apostle James has said of hearing: "But be ye doers of the word, and not readers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a reader of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful reader, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."