Three Reasons for Reading the Bible.
A ROMISH priest, who found one of his flock getting very familiar with the Bible, and fearing the result, tried to persuade him to turn his attention more to the “fathers.” “And who are the fathers?” he inquired. “Those good men, said the priest,” who lived near the times of the apostles, and who are said to have best understood what the apostles meant.” “Well,” said the man, “as they lived after the apostles, I shall prefer attending to the apostles themselves; I think the GRANDFATHERS are better guides than the fathers!” and so he continued reading, and found the entrance of God’s word gave him light and life. Another priest, wishing to induce a man to give up his Bible-reading, argued thus: “Suppose, now, you were going to Dublin, and came to that spot where four cross-roads meet, and you did not know the way, and one person told you to go to the right and a great number told you to go to the left, to whom would you listen? In other words, would you mind what Luther, a single heretic, says, or what the pope, and cardinals, and all the doctors of the Catholic Church teach you?” “Well,” replied the man, “if I had a road-book I should not mind what any of them said. Now [producing his Bible] I have here a road-book to Heaven, and God helping me, I mean to follow it in spite of all that popes and cardinals may say.” “What warrant have you to read the Bible?” said another priest to a poor Irish lad. “The best of all warrants,” shrewdly replied the boy, “namely, a search-warrant; see, here it is, John 5: 36, ‘Search the Scriptures;’ for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me?”