The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1918-08-03

except us we fedu
it and reread it and reread it. 1t re-
quires a heart determination to do
that, for our threefold enemy will
rise up and say mo" when we at
tempt to read the Book.
The world will say "You are too
sbusy" or you will think "There are
too many important things requiring
; my time to use it reading the Bible"
Many look to the preacher to give
them their spiritual food. The Lord
does give his people pastors but the
pastors study can never take the
place of ones own individual study.
The world will do what it can to op-
pose the reading of the Book. The
world has a subtle ability to fill our
lives so full of seemingly important
things, will bring so many crowding
opportunities for the use of I'LL time
that we need a heart determination to
make time for Bible reading.
The flesh will also oppose it. We
become so tired physically. 1t is a
remarkable thing that one can sit
down with an interesting book and be-
come so absorbed in it as to read far
into the night and not feel sleepy.
But how quickly the flesh wants to
sleep and how the head mods when we
would read the Bible for an hour or
two in the evening.
The devil also will hinder if he
can. He will suggest the difficulty of
understanding what we read, will say
the Bible is a closed book to our
minds and do all he can to bring dis
couragement. But if we are to come
to an understanding of the truth and
keep u souls strong and healthy, we
must read and reread the Book itself.
Not books about the Bible, nor eX-
positions by man, but the Bible itself.
In the second place, we must have
a heart determination to allow the
Book to mean what it says. We must
permit 1t to define its own terms. We
must make it explain itself. 1t will
answer questions concerning the words
and terms it uses. We go to the Bible
unconsciously %prejudiced. We think
we know the truth and naturally sup
pose what the Bible says ought to
agree with our thought. If it does
not agree we are in danger of fore
ing into it our own ideas rather than
let it mean what it says. We come to
it too often for confirmation instead
of information. l do not mean that
one shall determine to accept all it
says at once, nor to believe all it says
OF nnnn hI1f raonn thn% wa chaJJ 81
low it to mean what it says and to
define it's own terms whether that
agrees with us or not. And soon we
will find that we agree with it. In
this way much confusion will be avoid
ed. In the third place, there must be
a heart determination to allow it to
speak to oneself. If I am to study the
Bible profitably / must allow it to
speak to me and not try to dodge. We
are all more or less adept as spiritual
dodgers. The incident, recorded in
the fourth chapter of st. John is a
very human picture. Our Lord en-
cages the woman in conversation. She
is hesitant about it because it is a
strange thing for a Jew to speak to
a Samaritan, but she enters into the
conversation Gradually our Lord goes
a little deeper into her history until
finally he puts his finger on the sore
spot. She tries to escape the issue by
attempting to sidetrack him. The mo-
ment he gets his finger on the sore
spot, she says "Our fathers worshiped
in this mountain and We say that in
Jerusalem is the place for worship"
That sounds religious and interesting,
but it is a mere subterfuge to avoid
the issue. We will do that in our
minds to dodge what the Book says to
eSs personally.
is difficult to allow the Book to
speak to our own hearts but Bible
study is ~valueless and indeed danger
u unless it is allowed to bear fruit
in u lives. 1t cannot be studied
merely as literature. This then is the
needed preparation for profitable Bible
study-a heart determination to read
the Book-to allow it to mean what
| it says and to permit it to speak to
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