MINISTERS SHOULD STUDY THE BIBLE.
By John Nevins Andrews
The duty of examining the Scriptures with prayerful diligence, is one of very great importance. It is not indeed to crowd out other duties, as visiting from house to house, secret prayer, self-examination, the over-sight of the flock, and in short, no duty of the minister's life. But it is to have its proper share of time, and then it will be a most invaluable assistant to every part of the work. No one can teach others who does not constantly learn himself. We must not be merely repeating that which all our hearers understand already. We must grow in the knowledge of divine truth, and then we can lead them forward also. "Every scribe," says our Lord, "which is instructed unto the kingdom of Heaven, is like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old." Matt. xiii, 52. A man, like Timothy, favored with intimate personal instruction from Paul, might be supposed to need no such exertion. Yet Paul exhorts him in the most earnest manner not to neglect this important work. Thus he says, 1 Tim. iv, 13-16; "Till I come, give attendance to reading; to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." 2 Tim. ii, 15. "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Here is the case of a man who possessed gifts almost apostolic, who might well excuse himself from earnest laborious study, because of the great gifts of the Spirit with which he was endowed, who is nevertheless solemnly admonished to give himself wholly to this business. Surely if this was enjoined upon Timothy, the necessity for it, in our cases, is still more urgent and imperative.