Comprehension of the Bible a Process of Growth
By Benjamin G. Wilkinson
One day while in a depot in Spain, waiting for a train, a friend of mine, a Spaniard, said to me, “Do you see those mountains over there with snow on them? Snow is always there in summer as well as in winter. Well, a few years ago, before the people of this place learned the process of making artificial ice, they used to ascend those mountains each summer, with much toil and difficulty, to gather up that snow. And so much was that snow in demand, that each summer the mountains were completely swept clean, and no snow could anywhere be seen.” Thus it is with the Bible. The world leaves to one side the source of blessing which is close at hand, and at great expense to soul and body, they seek some distant and costly substitute. It took a little effort to draw from the seemingly contradictory elements the boon of artificial ice. So it takes a little effort and some acquaintance with the Bible to draw from it its inexhaustible treasures, but the results repay the efforts. There is no book like the Bible to develop the mind. Take an elastic band. If you stretch it but a little, then it covers only a little distance; but if you stretch it hard, then it measures a good long portion. The books of a worldly nature deal only with local and transient questions; the mind is not greatly stretched in its effort to understand these; but to understand the great, eternal themes of the Bible a greater effort of the mind is demanded. The soul is aroused, and faith is quickened. The intellect is awakened to sense the realities of the invisible world; and stirred by the need of the preparation necessary to meet the standard of the living God, great efforts are put forth for individual improvement and for the salvation of the human race. The Bible reveals to us the invisible world. At first reading, there are many passages which we do not understand. But upon reading further, we find other passages which make intelligible the preceding one which we did not understand; or perhaps upon the second or even the third or fourth reading, we understand fully that which before was to us dark and meaningless. It is like a traveler whose train skirts the shore of a mighty ocean. For a moment he sees the billows rolling up against the shore, and the next moment his train has entered a tunnel. Here all is dark, and he passes, as it were, shut in to himself alone. But later the train issues from the tunnel; once more the sun shines in splendor, and the waves dash against the precipices. These experiences are repeated many times until it dawns upon the traveler that those waters so often interrupted to his view, form only one great and mighty body of water. Visible at times, and at times invisible, though always existing, it is like the great invisible world by which we are surrounded. The Bible is God's educator by which we learn of that world to whose judgment tribunal we are all passing. As it takes time to deepen our knowledge of the Word of God, so does it demand carefulness in reading. To read carelessly is to gain a false idea of God's great eternal truths. It is to put ourselves in wrong paths, from which it will cost great trouble to return. Some time ago I sent a card to a friend of mine, saying that I would arrive late at night on a certain day. But he, in reading the card, did not notice particularly the day, and he received the idea that I was to arrive the day before. In consequence he was at the train which was due late in the evening, and not finding me at the depot, he decided to go to the express which passed usually at one o'clock in the morning. But of course I was not on that train either. So my friend decided I must come on the train which passed a few hours later. Thus he lost his whole night's sleep only to discover the next day that he had not noticed particularly what the card said. Unhappily, there are many who have wrecked their faith by carelessly reading God's Word. And there are many others who are weak in spiritual life because of a lack of proper reading of the Bible. As surely as faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, so surely will careful and continued reading of the Bible deepen faith and spiritual life.