What a gift to the church of God is the inspired word of truth!
Next to the gift of his dear Son and the grace of the Blessed Spirit, may we
rank the gift of those "Holy Scriptures which are able to make" the regenerate
soul "wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 3:15)
But though
it is so unspeakably precious to have in our own language at our side, in our
hands, and sometimes in our hearts, the inspired word of Him who made heaven and
earth, of Him in whom we live, and move, and have our being, of Him who by his
Spirit and grace enables us to look up to himself as the God of all our mercies,
of all our hopes, and all our comforts, yet from the very commonness of the
gift, we are apt much to undervalue it.
As light, air, water, or even food,
clothing, shelter those indispensable requisites to the support of natural
life are little prized because of daily, hourly use; so the Scriptures, which
contain in them the food of the soul, are less valued than they should be,
because they are a book familiar to us from childhood. Much in the Holy
Scriptures which would strike our minds with astonishment, were it for the first
time read, has become so familiar, from constant repetition, as almost to fall
listlessly on the ear.
The creation of the world and of our first parents; the
fall in paradise; the flood, with the preservation in the Ark; the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah: the history of Abraham; the diversified scenes of
Israel's sufferings and victories; or, to come to the New Testament, the simple,
touching narrative of the life, sufferings, and death of Jesus, in the
gospels were these beautiful descriptions less familiar from constant
repetition, how they would arrest our attention, how they would charm our ears,
and seem pregnant with interest in every line! True it is that, then, as now, we
should as much need the Blessed Spirit to apply them to our hearts, but we
should not read them or hear them read as listlessly as we now too often do.
[J. C. Philpot]
✞✞✞
Psalm 119:105-16 ... Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.
John 5:39 ... Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
2 Peter 1 :20-21 ... Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
2 Timothy 2:15 ... Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.❤
