Your ShelfYour Projects

Importance of Studying the Scriptures

13%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 22, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 8.

Read the full edition

Importance of Studying the Scriptures

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

S. N. HASKELL
THE Bible is truthfully said to be the Book of books. There is nothing more calculated to strengthen the intellect than the study of the Scriptures. But how will the study of the Scriptures strengthen the intellect? It can not be done by hastily reading the Scriptures. One may read the whole Bible through, and yet fail to see its beauty or comprehend its deep, hidden meaning. Yet every person should read the Bible through, not once or twice, but do it continually. Then he will involuntarily begin to compare scripture with scripture. Strength comes by taxing the mind not only to retain, but to compare spiritual things with spiritual; as the blacksmith's arm is strengthened by constant use.
The apostle Peter's words are, “Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” He again instructs us as to how we may grow. It is by “laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” There is no growing by the Spirit without the word. For Christ's words “are spirit, and they are life.” We are begotten by the word of truth. If we are not doers of the word, but hearers only, then we deceive our own selves. We are like the man who beholds his natural face in the glass; for “he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgeteth what manner of man he was.” We are to be sanctified through the truth; the word of God is truth.
No other book is so potent to elevate the thoughts, to give vigor to the faculties, as the broad, ennobling truths of the Bible. If God's Word were studied as it should be, men would have a breadth of mind, a nobility of character, and a stability of purpose that is seldom seen in our day. The Bible has in it all the power and intelligence of God. But we can not derive this from the Word of God without taxing the mind, without meditating upon its contents as we read it. My friend, if you would become acquainted with the Saviour, study the Scriptures. Keep your Bible with you. As you have opportunity, read it; fix the texts in your memory.
The secret of the apostle Paul's strength was his personal application of the Scriptures to himself. When the prophet Ananias came to him, he quoted Isa. 49: 6: “I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” In believing that the Spirit of God inspired these words and applying them to himself lay Paul's strength. He lived until he saw the fulfilment of Col. 1:23.
It is when we take the Scriptures and personally apply them to our own heart, meditate upon them, and act in harmony with them, that they unconsciously impart to us strength of intellect. It is then we will go forward in the strength of God; for it is God that is in the word, and circumstances bow in submission to the will of the soul. One day without food brings physical weakness. One day without taking some scripture to meditate upon brings barrenness of soul. We can not live spiritually, we can not grow in grace, without meditating upon the word until it becomes the magnet of the soul. It should be the first thought in the morning, the last thought at night. In our waking moments, some rich promise, or some Bible thought, will, like a magnet in the midst of steel shavings, draw us from evil.
“My first thought shall be of Jesus, To greet the rising day; My last thought shall be of Jesus, When twilight fades away.” Loma Linda, Cal.