Use of the Bible | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 6, 1868

Use of the Bible.

A LITTLE boy had often amused himself by looking over the pictures of a large Bible, and his mother one day asked him, “John, do you know the use of the Bible?” He said, “No, mother.” “Then, John, be sure and ask your father,” was the advice she gave him. Soon afterward, John ran up to him and said, “I should like to know, father, what is the use of the Bible?” His father said, “I will tell you another time, John.”

A few days after, the father took his son to a house where was a woman very ill in bed, and began to talk to her; she said that she had suffered a great deal of pain, but hoped that she was resigned to the will of God. “Do you think,” said the father, “that God does right to permit you to feel so much pain?” “Oh! yes,” answered the woman; “for God is my heavenly Father, who loves me; and I am sure that he would not permit me to suffer as I do, if it were not for my good.” He then said, “How is it that you find your sufferings do you good?” She replied, “My sufferings are good for my soul; they make me more humble, more patient; they make me feel the value of the Saviour more, and pray more, and I am sure all this is good for me.”

John had been very attentive to this conversation, and the tears stood in his eyes while the afflicted woman was talking. His father looked at him, and then said to the woman, “My good woman, can you tell me what is the use of the Bible?” John was extremely eager to hear her answer. The woman, with a stronger voice than before, said, “Oh! sir, the Bible has been my comfort in affliction.” “There, John,” said his father, “Now you know one use of the Bible; it can give us comfort when we most need it.—Anecdotes for the Family.