The importance and value of proper Bible study; how properly to study and interpret the Bible

Front matter

Class J2-Sil^ Book

Copyright N^.

COPXRIGHT DEPOSrr.

Introduction

There is a great and constantly growing interest in the study of the English Bible in these days. But very much of the so-called study of the English Bible is unintelligent and not fitted to produce the most satisfactory results. The author of this book already has a book entitled ^^How to Study the Bible for Greatest Profit,'' but that book is intended for those who have much time to put into thorough Bible study.

The present book is intended, first of all, to impress men with the Importance and Value of Bible Study; secondly, to show busy men and women how to get the most out of their Bible Study ; thirdly, to set forth the fundamental principles of correct Biblical Interpretation.

The book really consists of four sermons delivered to the members of my own church and congregation in Los Angeles. There were not a few children in the congregation, but they were all interested, long as the sermons were, and seemed to grasp the main points of the sermons. So I am confident the book will be helpful even to those who have but little education. Some in the congregation who are themselves in educational work, both secular and religious, have expressed their vi INTEODUCTION

appreciation of the help received from the sermons.

If one desires to go into the subject more thoroughly it is suggested that he secure the author's book already mentioned, ^^How to Study the Bible for Greatest Profit." This book will probably be followed soon by one upon the most fruitful methods of thorough Bible Study.

E. A. TOEEEY.

Contents

CHAPTKB PAGE

I The Importance and Value of Bible Study . 11 II How Properly to Study the Bible .... 28

III How TO Interpret the Bible so as to Find Its

Chapter I The Impoetance And Value Of Bible Study

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." — Psalm 1:1-3.

Our subject this morning is '^Tlie Importance and Value of Bible Study, ^' You will find the text in Psalm l;l-3 — ^'Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly y nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall he like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

There has, perhaps, never been an age that set such great store by study as that in which we now live. The unfortunate thing about it is that so much of the study in our day, both by children and adults, is devoted to books and subjects in which there is little or no profit.! A large portion of every year in our schools and colleges is practically wasted. Time is squandered upon the purely speculative, the uncertain, the unprofitable, the unessential, the unproductive, the irrelevant and the transitory. Many practical business men think that the sooner the boy or girl who is just out of school or college forgets half of what they imagine they have learned, the better. The most profitable of all study is wisely ordered Bible study. Its value is incalculable. It is beyond all comparison more profitable than any other study. It is the one superlatively profitable study.

Possibly some of you may be disposed to question that statement ; so I will give you two reasons why Bible study is the one superlatively profitable study, why Bible study towers far above all other studies in importance and value.

7. Because of What the Bible Is

First of all, Bible study towers far above all other studies in importance and value because of what the Bible itself is,

1. In the first place, the Bible is the peerless masterpiece of clear, pure, chaste, forceful, beautiful, exalted English. Nothing can match it in purity, smoothness, clearness, force, and sublimity of expression. That admits of no question. AU intelligent, well-read and candid infidels acknowledge that. Prof. Phelps, at the head of the English Department at Yale, contended some years ago that candidates for admission to American Universities should have their qualification for admission, as far as their knowledge of English was concerned, tested by one book alone, the Bible. And Harvard University has announced in the past few weeks that hereafter every student before graduation must pass an examination in the English Bible. Because of Harvard's well-known theological position and also from the fact that they seem to emphasize the Eevised Version, it is evident that they have in view principally the fact that the Bible is the great English master-piece. Last Tuesday I received from G. P. Putnam's Sons of New York and London, a book for examination — a dictionary of 6,000 choice and effective phrases. In this book (just published), time and again, page after page, every phrase was taken from the Bible, without variation or addition. Here and there were scattered phrases taken from Shakespeare, but on subject after subject whole pages of telling phrases were consecutively taken from the Bible. Why? Because this book of phrases was prepared by a master hand at English diction and he knew where to find the most illuminating and most telling phrases. Every man and woman should saturate themselves with the very words of the Bible if for no other reason than to clarify, tone up and invigorate their English diction. When Henry Stanley, the great newspaper writer, made his second tour of exploration into the heart of Africa, he took only one book with him, the Bible. In its study he beguiled and improved many lonely hours, and when he emerged, after having been shut up with one book for so many years, it was noticed that Henry Stanley had acquired by absorption an entirely new English style, a far more forceful style, Bible English. It is said that a newspaper report of a paragraph from one of Mr. Moody's sermons was handed to Max Miiller, the great philologist, and he was asked what he thought of it. He asked, *^Who wrote thatT' And the reply was made, **D. L. Moody." ^^I do not wonder then at his power,'' Max Miiller exclaimed. ^^That is one of the finest pieces of clear, strong, pure Anglo- Saxon I have ever read." But where had Mr. Moody learned this vigorous English! From the only book he thoroughly knew and daily devoured, the Bible.

2. In the second place, the Bible is the book that presents to us the most profound, the most coherent J the most consistent , the most comprehensive, the most complete, the most perfectly balanced, the most certain, the loftiest and the most enduring system of philosophy ever discovered, I say ^^ discovered" instead of ^'devised" advisedly; for man could never have devised the philosophy found in this book; man simply discovered the philosophy which God had revealed in the Book. Time and again through the centuries men grown wise in their own conceit, and having only a ludicrously fragmentary knowledge of the Book upon which they ventured to sit in judgment, have assayed to ridicule the Bible's philosophy regarding God and man and redemption and duty and eternity. But always in the ultimate outcome the philosophy of the would-be critics has dissolved and disappeared, but the philosophy of the Bible has withstood unscathed the storms of centuries. Philosophies, empires, schools of thought have passed away, but the words of this Book have not passed away. (Matt. 24;35.) The philosophy of this Book has proven imperishable, and as good for 1921 A. D. as for 95 A. D. In view of this undeniable fact is it not evident that this is the most important and invaluable of all books to study? Do not waste your time studying the soap bubbles of man's iridescent speculation that may be beautiful but soon burst and leave nothing but a nasty, dank, greasy feeling behind, but study the Eternal Kock of this Book that is rich with real gold.

3. In the third place, the Bible is the book that offers to us the purest, loftiest, most complete and absolutely dependable syst&in of ethics ever known. Systems of moral philosophy have appeared throughout the centuries and chiliads, from Zeno to Herbert Spencer, only to disappear, but all really honest seekers after thorough-going and complete righteousness, bow to the imperishable durability of the ethics of the Bible. And even those who clamor hysterically for us to give up the Virgin Birth of our Lord, the resurrection of His very body from the dead and all the miracles, the Deity of our Lord, His atoning, substitutionary death, and others of the most distinctive of the doctrinal teachings of the Book, nevertheless themselves cry **Let us keep the ethics of the Bible. They are not only unsurpassed but absolutely unequaled." The most important thing to know is, how to live; not how to live physically, but how to live morally. If that is so then the most important book for all of us to know is the book that tells us that as no other book tells us.

4. In the fourth place, the Bible is the one and only book that has never been outgrown or superseded. I had occasion last summer, in breaking up our home in Montrose, Pa., to go over some of the books I studied, yes, dug into with many hard hours of intellectual toil, at preparatory school and at Yale. There was not one of them of any present value to my children or grandchildren. They had all been outgrown or superseded ; other books have taken their place. But this Book has not been superseded. No University professor on earth can suggest some other book to take the place of this Book. Some venture to say **We need a new Bible," but where is itf Why do not they bring it out? When an especially callow and, therefore daring member of this crew does attempt a new Bible it is only **a shorter Bible*'; that is, the old Bible with parts left out that made him uneasy in his sin, or his self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. No! No! no! Any one who has a modicum of real, healthy common sense knows that you cannot outgrow or supersede the Bible. And we can safely leave those who want to get out ^^a new Bible '* to sit and twiddle their thumbs along with the other lunatics who are working on a *' perpetual motion" machine. This all being true, and eighteen centuries of unvarying history of human thought demonstrate that it is true, can there possibly be any other study so important and so permanently profitable as the study of this, the one and only Imperishable Booh?

5. Once more, the Bible is the Word of God, That needs no demonstration. Some of the things I have already said this morning prove it, if yon will only think them through. And I have proven it again and again from this platform. Other books tell us what men suppose; the Bible tells us what God knows. Other books tell us what other men, almost as foolish as ourselves, speculate; this Book tells us what an infinitely wise God, Who made us and all things, and consequently knows all things, has inerrantly revealed. If you had two books on the subject, one by the one master thinker on that subject, the other by a third-rate tutor in a fourth-rate college, which would you study most? And will you study most the Book of God, the Book of the infinitely "wise, omniscient God, or the book of some little 6x9 human brain — ^that is larger than any hmnan brain as compared with the infinite capacity of the mind of the great Jehovah, the Eternal I AM.

II. Because of What the Bible Does

Bible study towers above all other studies in importance and value not only because of what the Bible itself is, but also because of what the Bible does.

On this I cannot dwell as I would like. The full exposition of this line of thought would afford more than enough material for a whole sermon by itself. Let me select a few of the more vital points.

1. First of all, the Bible properly studied makes men wise unto salvation. The great master apostle, Paul, writing to a zealous young bishop, his convert and most trusted coadjutator, says in 2 Tim. 3 :13-15 : **But evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. ' ' This is tremendous endorsement of the superlative importance of Bible study, and every word of it is true. This Book does make men wise with the wisdom that is golden, the wisdom that brings eternal salvation. No other book in all literature does it with the certainty and celerity and completeness with which this Book does it. No one can study this Book aright, no matter how ignorant he may otherwise be, without becoming possessed of that priceless wisdom that means eternal life. Eternal life is found in knowing God and His Son, Jesus Christ (John 17:3). And no other book has the power to make us acquainted with God and with His Son, Jesus Christ, that this Book has. ' I have known great philosophers and great men of science and great literary luminaries, who did not know God, just because they had not studied and, therefore, did not know their Bibles. They knew rocks and flowers and the entrails of frogs, and the planets and the comets and the stars, and men's books, but they did not know the one Book and, therefore, they did not know the God who made the rocks and the flowers and the stars; and, therefore, they were lost, eternally lost, for all their knowledge of other things. On the other hand, I have known uncultured people, almost illiterate people, washerwomen and such like, for example, who had studied and, therefore, did know the Bible, and, therefore, they knew more of the wisdom that really counts, the wisdom that spells salvation, in five minutes, than these learned professors knew in their whole lifetime. Oh, study the Book that brings eternal life, make it in your own experience '*the implanted word, which is able to save your souls'' (James 1:21 E. V.).

2. In the second place, the Bible so makes known Jesus Christ as to lead any one who studies it OtS he ought, to believe vn Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God and so to obtain eternal life m His name. That is what John himself says in John 20:31 E. V. His words are: ** These are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in His name." Is there anything else in all the world so valuable as eternal life? Is there any other study for one moment comparable in importance and value to the study that brings us eternal life? In former years I had hay fever severely. Every September for three weeks or more I could not lie down to sleep, or even stay in the house at night. I would go off by myself every night where I would not disturb any one else, and all the night through would almost rupture blood vessels by spasms of coughing. I saw advertised a book on hay fever, so I bought it and studied it with great care, and obtained great relief. Was not that profitable study? But what is getting deliverance from some such wretched complaint as hay fever, to getting eternal life, and the proper study of this Book brings eternal life. No man can study even one book in the Bible, the Gospel of John, in the way he ought to study it, without believing before he gets through **that

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by ** believing,'' obtaining ** eternal life in His name." I have proven that time and time again upon all classes of men, from bartenders to a College Dean in one prominent British University and a very distinguished professor in another.

3. In the third place, the Bible imparts God's own nature to the men, women and children who study it as they should, and thus completely transforms their inmost and their outward life. Peter puts it this way: * through these (i. e., through the exceeding great and precious promises of the Book), ye may become partakers of the divine nature'' (2 Pet. 1:4, R. V.). Is not that great, to become a partaker of God's own nature? Well, it is through the proper study of this Book, by the truth of this Book carried home to our hearts by the Holy Spirit as we study it, that we become partakers of God's own nature. Centuries of experience prove the truth of this wonderful assertion of Peter. Countless men and women of the most depraved nature have obtained an entirely new nature, God 's own nature implanted in them, by the proper study of this Book. I have been told that if you study Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy's *' Science and Health" sedulously enough it will cure you of appendicitis. Well, study this Book as you ought and it will cure you of Devilitis. I have found it so in my own experience. If any man ever had the devils, I had them. Neither

Mrs. Eddy nor Christian Science cured me, but this Book did. Try it for yourself.

4. In the fourth place, this Book when properly studied, makes the one who studies it ^'grow like the palm tree" in all the graces and glories of Christian character, ** Desire the sincere milk of the Word/' says Peter, **that ye may grow thereby.'' (1 Pet. 2:2.) Various neighbors of mine in South Pasadena have built homes since I located there and have set out various kinds of palm trees. It is simply amazing how they have grown. Ah, but that is nothing to the way men, women and children grow spiritually and morally when they feed as they ought on ''the Bread of Heaven'' and '*the milk" of Eden and **the finest of the wheat" in the Garden of God and **the honey out of the (Eternal) Eock," found in this Book. Oh, sometimes I almost grow weary when people come sighing about me from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the border of Canada and beyond, blubbering over their poor progress in the Christian life, and wondering why they do not make more headway. And when I ask, *^Do you meditate in God's Word day and night? Do you really dig into the Bible every day ? " * * Oh, no, not every day, ' ' they reply, **I am very busy. I am a very hard working man," or *^I am a very active business man with many other men under me," or ^ 'I am a very busy mother, and I cannot find time to get down to solid Bible study every day." **Do yon read the newspaper every day?*^ **Y-e-s, morning and evening. ' ' And no time to get alone each day and listen to God? Thou fool!

5. In the fifth place, the Bible properly studied, makes the heart pure and keeps the life white. * ^ Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?'* the Psalmist asks, and then replies, *'By taking heed thereto according to thy word.'' (Ps. 119:9.) There is a power in this Book, when it is properly studied, to make and keep the life clean that no other book possesses. And there is also in this Book, when properly studied, a power that no other book possesses, to make and keep the heart pure. The Psalmist says again two verses farther down, in Psalm 119:11, *'Thy word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.'' Oh, how many stained lives I have seen bleached white by the power of the sunrays of this Book. How many hearts I have known that were **full of all uncleanness" to be made pure and clean by filling them with the truth found in this Book.

6. In the sixth place, the Bible, properly studied, brings peace, wonderful peace, to the troubled heart. The Psalmist says in Ps. 85:8, E. v., "I will hear what God Jehovah will speak; for He will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints." The one who learns to sit and listen to God as He speaks to him in this Book will hear Him speaking words that will fill the heart with peace, no matter how storms may rage without and no matter how war howls and bellows. Listening to God's Word, David sang in the midst of the wildest conflicts, ** Jehovah is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evil-doers came npon me to eat up my flesh, even mine adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell. Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, even then will I be confident/' (Ps. 27:1-3, E. V.) And our Lord Jesus, in the most awful night the disciples ever passed through, just before the wild storm-clouds broke, said to them, in speaking of the peace-giving power of His words, ^ * But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful/' (John 14 :26, 27, E. V.) Oh, here is the practical secret of perfect peace, listening to the Saviour's words as found in this Book.

He is always saying to the wind-driven heart, as He said to the wind-tossed sea of old, ** Peace, be still." And if we listen, there is always **a great calm." (Matt. 8:23-26.) 7. In the seventh place, the Bible, properly studied, brings joy as well as peace, Jeremiah discovered that many, many centuries ago. In the midst of crushing sorrow, in the midst of the disintegration and shame and agony of the nation he passionately loved and for which he would gladly have died, in the midst of conditions as dark and foreboding as ever confronted any man on earth, he sang, * ' Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of my hearf ( Jer. 15 :16, R. V.) Is there any joy purer than that which comes from properly directed study? But there is no other study that brings joy for a moment comparable to the joy that comes from proper Bible study. Many forms of study bring great joy to a healthy mind. The joys that come from earnest study of various kinds, philosophical, scientific, historical, literary and linguistic have been among my chief joys for many years, nearly my whole life through, from early boyhood. But there has come into my heart a joy from Bible study, through digging into the gold mines of this wonderful and inexhaustible Book, with which the joys that have come from all other forms of study are not worthy to be compared for one moment. There are no other joys like this. ''Blessed'' indeed *4s the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is i/n the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; his leaf also shall not wither ; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

I might go on and on, telling the great things that the right Mnd of Bible study will do. There is no end to the subject; so we may as well stop here.

Is it not as clear as day that the study of a Book that is what this Book most assuredly is, and a Book that does what this Book most assuredly does, is infinitely the most important and valuable study in the world? The luster of all other study grows dim compared with this. Will you then begin to study the Bible as you ought? Begin to-day. Please note that I have been careful to say over and over again ^ ^ the Bible properly studied, ' * that is, the Bible studied in the way and by the methods in and by which it should be studied ; the Bible studied in a way appropriate to the unique and divine character of the Book. There is Bible study, or at least what is called *^ Bible study," that is not so profitable as this. Indeed, there is what is called '* Bible study" that is not profitable at all, and even ** Bible study" so-called that is positively injurious. I would rather have a son or daughter of mine study almost anything else than have them study the Bible as they dream they study it at the Chicago University, or in the American Institute of Sacred Literature, and in many other places in these days.

I will speak next Sunday morning on **How Properly to Study the Bible," how to study it for light and not for darkness, how to study it for life and not for death, how to study it for blessing and not for cursing, how to study it so it will lift us up to heaven and not sink us down to hell.

CHAPTER II HOW PROPEBIiY TO STUDY THE BIBLE

* * These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so/' — ^Acts 17:11.

My subject this morning is, Bow Properly to Study the Bible, I have eleven texts in which God Himself tells us very plainly and very fully how to study His Book.

Acts 17:11: '^ These were more noble than those m Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." Isa. 8:20, R. V. : '^jTo the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them," Ps. 1:1-3: ^^ Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the umrgodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruAt in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.** Ps. 119:11, E. v.: ''Thy word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin agavnst thee."

1 Thess. 2:13: ''For this cause also thank we God mthout ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worheth also in you that believe/' John 7 :17, R. V. : '*// any man unlleth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from myself.' ' James 1:22: ''But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves/' 1 Cor. 2:14: "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Ps. 119:18, R. v.: "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Matt. 11:25: '^At that time Jesus answered anU said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." Luke 24:27, R. V. : "And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the thi/ngs concerning himself."

We saw last Sunday morning something of the importance and value of properly conducted Bible study. We saw that properly conducted Bible study was the one superlatively important study for young and old. We saw that Bible study towered above all other studies in importance and value. But we also saw that not all Bible study

30 VALUE OF PEOPEB BIBLE STUDY