The Alaska citizen., 1915-04-05
, . . ; /. ; q ,3 e e ? ;
THE BIBLE IN THE LIFE.

Let the word or ChEIst dwell m you richly. Col 3:16.
 This text is tie secret of happi- ness. helpfulness. comfort and peace. and ,o him who studies the Bible Il Is an open secret. We cah shut the Bible out of the heart if We will. Il can find no possibility ol entrance unless We let it enter. \ Bible bound in the best grade of seal-skiu. silk-sewed. Divinity cur cult. red under gold edges, amounts to little lying on the table with an occasional dusting. To make the Bible useful it must be received into the heart and life.
 II is easy to obtain advice as to the best method to study the Bible. As a matter of fact, few people ever study Il. Some read many books about the Bible, but do not read the book itself General Lew Wallace was preparing 10 write an infidel book against the Bible, but when he began to read the Bible he wrote Ben Hur" instead.
 Many. in truth, know a few beauti- ful and good verses, but do not know much of the Bible itself, taken as whole Some study only the love side To them God is love. life Is beautiful, sin is a mistake pc culiar 10 few, heaven a certainty for everybody. Some see only those passages that speak of wiekedness, 1etribution. war famine, immortality. Again some find it only a book of tine words the best of grammar and rhetoric, filled with apt phrases and telling stories. Each one finds what le is looking for, for this word of God is history literature, love, pro phesy law, penalty, reward, d guide to life. and fully pointing out the hard way for the transgressor. Some see only the flowers. Others only the fruit crushed. Rather see buds and fruit ripened for the harvest; garden spots waving with fragrant flowers; mountains rocky, high and majestic; cities and towns teeming with millions happy or suffering, epochs of war or eras of peace, each alone make not our world, but all are combined to produce history for our needing If we read any other book. as most people read the Bible, We would know little of literature. of history, of the foundations from whence has come al the good for both individual and nation. The Bible should be studied thoroughly for il is profitable for instruction, for corr ection, for comfort, for help, for warning.
 If the word of Christ finds a place in your heart to dwell richly what will be the expression in your life? X great and grand thing it will do is to transform the character The word of God is lamp. Whereso- ever it's rays penetrate it reveals flaws. spots, blemishes, wrong things in fact, all things that are black as black. and Ill things that are white as white. Light reveals. IL shows up pride, selfistness, jeal- ousy. lack of love and sympathy, doubts, revelings, inconsistencies. He who stops to think is thankful for the nervous system of the body that warns of coming disease, and the presence Of disorders causing pain; he is thankful for the conscience that tells of moral disturbances and approaching dire uph eavals in this important realm: and like Ruskin he counts himself happy when he discovers a new fault in his life or character-not happy because the fault is there, but because he has discovered it, that Ee may rid him self of it,
 Where the word of Christ dwells it cleanses-cleanse by becoming a well of water yelling up into eter- nal life. It is not enough not to do sinful things. The words of Jesus are spirit and life. They are like seeds, seeds gathered from the gar den of heaven and brought to earth. When these seeds are plant ed in the human heart, warmed and watered and cultivated meet for their planting, things of heaven grow there.
 In Derbyshire, England, there are said to be some flowers that are not found in the English flora. The story is that in the far-away days of the crusaders. knight from Derbyshire went with others to the rescue of the Holy Sepulcher. When he came back after years filled with brave deeds. this crusader brought home with him seeds of oriental flowers which he planted on his es- tates They grew there, and now centuries afterwards, they are still growing. The growing would have been the same had the seeds been obnoxious weeds, except they would have been more prolific.
 Ever since sin has come into the