Pleasure & Profit in Bible Study Part 3

I know there is a cla.s.s of people who say that kind of preaching won't do in this country. "People want something oratorical." Well, there is no doubt but that there are some who want to hear oratorical sermons, but they forget them inside of twenty-four hours.

It a good thing for a minister to have the reputation of feeding his people. A man once made an artificial bee, which was so like a real bee that he challenged another man to tell the difference. It made just such a buzzing as the live bee, and looked the same. The other said, "You put an artificial bee and a real bee down there, and I will tell you the difference pretty quickly." He then put a drop of honey on the ground and the live bee went for the honey. It is just so with us. There are a lot of people who profess to be Christians, but they are artificial, and they don't know when you give them honey. The real bees go for honey every time. People can get along without your theories and opinions, "Thus saith the Lord"--that is what we want.

CHAPTER VII.

Reading and Studying--At Family Prayers--A Word in Season--Helpful Questions.

MERELY reading the Bible is not what G.o.d wants. Again and again I am exhorted to "search."

"These were more n.o.ble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and _searched_ the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so."

"So they read in the book in the law of G.o.d distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading."

We must study it thoroughly, and hunt it through, as it were, for some great truth. If a friend were to see me searching about a building, and were to come up and say, "Moody, what are you looking for? have you lost something?" and I answered, "No, I haven't lost anything; I'm not looking for anything particular," I fancy he would just let me go on by myself, and think me very foolish. But if I were to say, "Yes, I have lost a dollar," why, then, I might expect him to help me to find it.

Read the Bible, my friends, as if you were seeking for something of value. It is a good deal better to take a single chapter, and spend a month on it, than to read the Bible at random for a month.

I used at one time to read so many chapters a day, and if I did not get through my usual quant.i.ty I thought I was getting cold and backsliding.

But, mind you, if a man had asked me two hours afterward what I had read, I could not tell him; I had forgotten it nearly all. When I was a boy I used, among other things, to hoe corn on a farm; and I used to hoe it so badly, in order to get over so much ground, that at night I had to put down a stick in the ground, so as to know next morning where I had left off. That was somewhat in the same fas.h.i.+on as running through so many chapters every day. A man will say, "Wife, did I read that chapter?" "Well," says she, "I don't remember." And neither of them can recollect. And perhaps he reads the same chapter over and over again; and they call that "studying the Bible." I do not think there is a book in the world we neglect so much as the Bible.

FAMILY WORs.h.i.+P.

Now, when you read the Bible at family wors.h.i.+p or for private devotions, look for suitable pa.s.sages. What would you think of a minister who went into the pulpit on Sunday and opened the Bible at hazard and commenced to read? Yet this is what most men do at family prayers. They might as well go into a drug store and swallow the first medicine their eye happens to see. Children would take more interest in family prayers if the father would take time to search for some pa.s.sage to suit the special need. For instance, if any member of the family is about to travel, read Psalm 121. In time of trouble, read Psalm 91. When the terrible accident happened to the "Spree" as we were crossing the Atlantic in November, 1892, and when none on board s.h.i.+p expected to live to see the light of another sun, we held a prayer-meeting, at which I read a portion of Psalm 107:

"They that go down to the sea in s.h.i.+ps, that do business in great waters;

These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.

For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.

They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.

They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.

Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.

He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.

Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men!"

A lady came to me afterwards and said I made it up to suit the occasion.

HELPFUL QUESTIONS.

I have seen questions that will help one to get good out of every verse and pa.s.sage of Scripture, They may be used in family wors.h.i.+p, or in studying the Sabbath School lesson, or for prayer meeting, or in private reading. It would be a good thing if questions like these were pasted in the front of every Bible:

1. What persons have I read about, and what have I learned about them?

2. What places have I read about, and what have I read about them? If the place is not mentioned, can I find out where it is? Do I know its position on the map?

3. Does the pa.s.sage refer to any particular time in the history of the children of Israel, or of some leading character?

4. Can I tell from memory what I have just been reading?

5. Are there any parallel pa.s.sages or texts that throw light on this pa.s.sage?

6. Have I read anything about G.o.d the Father? or about Jesus Christ? or about the Holy Spirit?

7. What have I read about myself? about man's sinful nature? about the spiritual new nature?

8. Is there any duty for me to observe? any example to follow? any promise to lay hold of? any exhortation for my guidance? any prayer that may echo?

9. How is this Scripture profitable for doctrine? for reproof? for correction? for instruction in righteousness?

10. Does it contain the gospel in type or in evidence?

11. What is the key verse of the chapter or pa.s.sage? Can I repeat it from memory?

CHAPTER VIII.

How to Study the Bible--Feeding one's self--The Best Law--Three Books Every Christian Should Possess--The Bible in the Sabbath School.

SOMEONE has said that there are four things necessary in studying the Bible: Admit, submit, commit and transmit. First, admit its truth; second, submit to its teachings; third, commit it to memory; and fourth, transmit it. If the Christian life is a good thing for you, pa.s.s it on to some one else.

Now I want to tell you how I study the Bible. Every man cannot fight in Saul's armor; and perhaps you cannot follow my methods. Still I may be able to throw out some suggestions that will help you. Spurgeon used to prepare his sermon for Sunday morning on Sat.u.r.day night. If I tried that, I would fail.

FEED YOURSELF.

The quicker you learn to feed yourself the better. I pity down deep in my heart any men or women who have been attending some church or chapel for, say five, ten, or twenty years, and yet have not learned to feed themselves.

You know it is always regarded a great event in the family when a child can feed itself. It is propped up at table, and at first perhaps it uses the spoon upside down, but by and by it uses it all right, and mother, or perhaps sister, claps her hands and says, "Just see, baby's feeding himself!" Well, what we need as Christians is to be able to feed ourselves. How many there are who sit helpless and listless, with open mouths, hungry for spiritual things, and the minister has to try to feed them, while the Bible is a feast prepared, into which they never venture.

There are many who have been Christians for twenty years who have still to be fed with an ecclesiastical spoon. If they happen to have a minister who feeds them, they get on pretty well; but if they have not, they are not fed at all. This is the test as to your being a true child of G.o.d--whether you love and feed upon the Word of G.o.d. If you go out to your garden and throw down some sawdust, the birds will not take any notice; but if you throw down some crumbs, you will find they will soon sweep down and pick them up. So the true child of G.o.d can tell the difference, so to speak, between sawdust and bread. Many so-called Christians are living on the world's sawdust, instead of being nourished by the Bread that cometh down from heaven. Nothing can satisfy the longings of the soul but the Word of the living G.o.d.

THE LAW OF PERSEVERANCE.

The best law for Bible study is the law of perseverance. The Psalmist says, "I have _stuck_ unto thy testimonies." Application to the Word will tend to its growth within and its multiplication without. Some people are like express-trains, they skims along so quickly that they see nothing.

I met a lawyer in Chicago who told me he had spent two years in studying up one subject; he was trying to smash a will. He made it his business to read everything on wills he could get. Then he went into court and he talked two days about that will; he was full of it; he could not talk about anything else but wills. That is the way with the Bible--study it and study it, one subject at a time, until you become filled with it.

Read the Bible itself--do not spend all your time on commentaries and helps. If a man spent all his time reading up the chemical const.i.tuents of bread and milk, he would soon starve.