Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-10

which do rot once contain the name of God.
But that does not bar them out Of the Bible.
Everything is religious which makes men
better. All books which make US see the
cruelty, the deformity, the sinfulness Of sin,
so that we hate it, or which make us aspire
after purity, honesty. bravery, wisdom,
righteousness, which make US love God
more or our neighbor more-a1l books which
help US are religious.
Certain books deserve this good name
religious" better than others, because they
are helpful not only to our thinking, but to
our living. They are spiritually helpful.
They minister to that which is best within
us, the soul. Read these books.
First, the Bible. The word means "the
book" 1t is the book. Do not try to read
the whole Bible. Not everything in the
Bible is helpful and good to read. The
Bible is record of the spiritual growth OF
the race, out of ideas of God and of duty,
which were of necessity, crude and un-
worthy and imperfect, into the clearer
knowledge of God, and the clearer
LIGHT OF TRUTH,
and the truer ideal of right conduct. It is
not necessary that you should study all the
mistakes which men made, nor dwell upon
the experiences of pain through which the
revelation of the Father in heaven, which
we are blessed with, has been won for US.
Study that blessed revelation. Read
chiefly the gospels for the words
and deeds by which Christ mani
tested God among men. Read the
Epistles, especially their latter chapters, for
the formulation of a Christian duty. Read
many of those old Psalms, which are so divine
ly and eternally true, that they can never
grow old-fashioned, never become obsolete.
Read the Bible, as much of it as you can,
but these parts first, and most.
And then, next to the Bible, whatever
helps you spiritually, that will depend very
much upon yourself 1t will depend upon
YOUR taste, upon your education, upon your
temperament. 1t is not possible for any,
one, except the most familiar friend, to
select infallibly book of devotional read
ing for anybody else. IF you do not get
help from the book which helps your
friend, it is probably because you and
your friend are different. You. must
find this out for yonrself For one
the helpful book will be "The Imitation of
Christi for another, ''The Christian Year, :"
for another the poems of Faber or Miss
Havergal, for another the sermons of Rob-
ertson or Newman, for another the lay
preaching of Carlyle. The most helpful
book of selected daily readings which 1
know of is "Daily Strength for Daily
Needs" A good many people would like
that The books are legion. Everybody
ought to have at least one. Everybody who
has q soul, ought to have some book beside
him which deals with what concerns the
soul.
TWO GLASSES OF BOOKS.
De Quincy divided books into two classes
books which give knowledge, and books
which give power, to some books you go for
facts; to others, for inspiration. Those of
which L have inst spoken are religious books
of power. Their purpose is to uplift, to
help. We have need also of books
of religious knowledge. Such are
histories of the Christian church and ex-
plantations and defenses of the faith. A
Christians library ought, first of all, to be a
Christian library. There ought to be some
commentary upon Holy Scripture, some
volume of church history, some treatise
upon the essential traits of Christian doc
trine, some book of sanity biography, in
every Christian family.
I put religious reading first, not only for
its personal helpfulness, not only because it
is the most inspiring and elevating reading
you can do-lf you choose the best religious
books-but because it is emphatically the
reading for these times. Thequestions which
are stirring mems minds to-day are either
directly religious or touch religion very