River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1909-07-15

lQLO the Gr60h,
known as the "Septuagint," made
nearly three hundred years before
Christ. But it takes our second Scrip
ture to complete this definition of the
Bible-"Every Scripture is God
breathed. A noted scholar has taken
the pains to collate the texts in the
New Testament where this Greek
idiom occurs, and he declares that the
King James version, and not the re-
vised, is the correct translation, and
several eminent scholars on the COM
mittee of revision agreed with him.
'All Scripture is God-breathed" is evil
IDENTIFY what the Holy Spirit meant to
write. Of course, the writer's were in
spired "Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit e.
Pet. 1:2D. "The Holy Ghost spake by
the mouth of David" (Acts 1:16). "The
word of the Lord came expressly unto
Ezekiel" (Ezek., 1:3).
The Bible unsearched is a mine un-
worked, the difference between the
Klondike years ago and the Klondike
enriching it's Industrious owners to-
quires diligent and persistent search
ing. Every man with the Bible in hand
is rich whether he knows it or not.
Let him search and find treas ures.
The Christian with spiritual dis
cernment can afford to search the
Scriptures" with the Holy Spirit alone
as his guide. Commentaries are good,
but not good as substitutes for indie
pendent search. When Alexander the
Great stood before Diogenes as he sat
by his tub, the general asked the phil
osopher what he could do for him.
The rather grim reply was: Simply
get out of my light" And any search
er has right to say: Get out of my
light" to every one whose shadow
comes between him and the truth.
Any method of searching is good,
though some may be better than 9th
ers. The 'grasshopper method" by
which we take word or subject and
jump from one place to another, col
lating the texts which have the word
or subject in them, is hot to be de-
spised.
Luther said that he studied the
Bible as he gathered apples. First,
he shook the whole tree, that the
ripest might fall. Then he climbed
the tree and shook each limb, and
when he had shaken each limb he
shook each branch, and after each
branch each twig, and then he looked
under each leaf. Let us search the
Bible as a whole; shake the whole
tree; read it as rapidly as you would
any other book; then shake every
limb, studying book after book. Then
shake every branch; give attention to
the chapters, when they do not break
the sense. Then shake every twig by
careful study of the paragraphs and
sentences, and you will be rewarded,
If you look under every leaf by search
ing for the meaning of words.
Search the Scriptures for assurance
Of salvation. I'm them We think We
have eternal life." My arch of saliva
tion rests upon two pillars. The first
pillar is what Christ did for me, and
that is always the same length. Time
was when the second pillar was as
surance of salvation through my feel.
ings. If I felt well and happy, that
pillar was of the right length, and
seemed solid enough, but when dys-
pepsia gave me depressed feelings,
the pillar seemed shorter and threat
ened the arch. One day, however, l
read /. John, 5:13: These things have
/ written unto you that believe on
the name of the Son of God, that We
may know that We have eternal life"
And / saw that I was expected to
trust the Scripture and not my feef-
ings for assurance. From that day
the pillar of assurance has been all
the time of the same length, for Gods
word never changes.
Few things are more interesting and
more profitable than tracing the Mas
sanic idea through the Bible. It be-
gins with the curse upon the serpent
in Genesis, and closes with ''the
Lamb as it had been slain in the midst
of the throne" in the Revelation. In
Christian character the image of
Christ is marred by imperfections, if
not by sins, but in the Scriptures the
portrait is perfect. The devout student
of the Scriptures sees in the Bible
trees of faithfulness, streams of truth.
landscapes of loneliness in deed and
character, but they are all so arranged
In their relation to Christ as to bring
out the features of his character. While
we thus see him as he is, we become
more and more like him, until by and
by we shall see his face unveiled and
be completely transformed into his
likeness. Search the Scriptures"
with a view 70 seeing Jesus.