The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-10-13
For the Central Presbyterian.
Bible Reading.

Bible Reading.
1t is a good thing in Bible reading to
get into the same spirit and faith and
feelings which baptized the soul of the
writers. Religious thoughts should be
uttered as if felt. They must be felt to
be so uttered How often do we think
OF this when we take up the Scriptures E?
When thus attempted reading becomes a
very serious business, and when done for
hearers thing involving much RESPONSE
bility.
We make lamentable mistake when
we read the 51st Psalm, or the sermon of
Paul in chains before Agrippa, as we read
the Declaration of Independence. We
make sad mistake when we read the
Bible in popular dramatic manner,
which, 1t is true, will attract attention
because 1t arouses sentiment and gratifies
intellectual taste. There is a taste high
er than the Intellectual, and that belongs
to this very arena
1t is mistake, too, to read the Bible
IN merely natural manner, for fear of
lncdrring the sneering charge of can't
lie who fears that cannot read, because
In habltually restraining too much his
emotions, he cannot open wide his heart
to feel the full force of the precious truths
he is uttering.
VI course no man can read as he ought
unless he feels as he ought what he reads.
And therefore, when one reads, first of all
let him remember to suffer every word,
IN all It's precious meaning, to come into
his heart. Immediately the words will
take possession of him and fill him with
the emotions corresponding to them.
Now, then, as reader he will be effec
tive, and living witness to the truth and
power OF the words read just in proper
ton as he acts out this living self. He
helps to intensity the effect of the words
read
Paul not only entreated his hearers in
to the way of life, che wept them into
it" as has been so well said recently
The Holy Ghost has not chosen mans
tongue alone as the natural channel
through which, in preaching, He seeks to
save men; He has chosen His entire in
dividuality with all its influential pow
ers. AS in preaching, so in reading. I
have been helped as much by chapter
well and powerfully read as by SER
mon.
OF. course one must not dare 90 beyond
and In tone or manner, however exalted
or heavenly, or however earthly, senti-
mental and dramatic, exhibit What he
does not feel. That is cant. That should
be agreed upon on all hands. But what
l ask is, whether many a good man has
not been habitually restrained from read
ing as if he had relish for it, and as if
the words read had singular power over
him, from fear lest the slight exhibition
OF the power of the word of God over his
heart might be distasteful to his hear
ers?
1t is true there are many who prefer
the manner in religion to be as little diff
terent as possible from the manner Of cul-
tivated and fashionable society. But if
we expect to help society, we must stick
to our own manner. Society is natural.
Are we spiritual? We may forget. Our
code of proprieties may be modified and
not purely agreeable to the spirit of the
gospel. Our hearers are only poor people
after all, like ourselves. We must not
be cramped Sin season, out of season."
We must not consider much what peo-
pie will think: that is, we must not think
we have got to read Just like we usually
hear others read. Let individuality have
fair play. We must address ourselves to
it somewhat as dying man to prayer, or
as one quenching thirst completely pos
sessed for the time by the draught.
To put it in another form, we ought to
read as it were wholly for our own bene-
fit and forgetful, to some extent, that we
are listened to by others.
Then, whether in the family circle or
more publicly still, one shall be borne in
to the very bosom of the writer. The
writer becomes mirrored in the reader
he lives and breathes again. And those
who, standing around, happen to hear,
will understand the writer and be affect
ed, as he wished, by perceiving how he
felt. The soul can be brought into view
and the soul can be habitually hidden.
In all religious exercises or utterances IL
must stand forth before mere mind, en-
veloping it and Swaying it by its diviner
power.
A man Of some imaginative power, sus-
ceptible quickly to all the finer impress
sions, to whom eternal things stand in
clear and certain view, and withal pos
sessed Of profound and varied religious
xperience-such man, with almost any