Daily Bible Reading by Woodrow Wilson

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 20, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 20.

Daily Bible Reading

By Woodrow Wilson

I AM sorry for the men who do not read the Bible every day. I wonder why they deprive themselves of the strength and of the pleasure. It is one of the most singular books in the world; for every time you open it, some old text that you have read a score of times suddenly beams with a new meaning. Evidently the mood and the thought of the day, bred by the circumstances that you can not analyze, has suddenly thrown its light upon the page and upon that passage, and there springs out upon the page to you something that you never saw lie upon it before. There is no other book that I know of of which this is true; there is no other book that yields its meaning so personally, that seems to fit itself so intimately to the very spirit that is seeking its guidance. And so when we teach our children, we do not teach them, I hope, dogmatically. We must not try to make them read the Scripture as we read it, but merely try to bring them into such contact with the Scripture that it will yield its meaning to their hearts and to their minds. Make it their companion, make it their familiar text-book, and the rest will take care of itself.

Who shall dare to guide another human spirit in the same path that he himself has trodden? Shall we not merely take those whom we teach to the road and say: “Here is the way of life. Walk ye on it; don’t follow us; don’t look to us as examples of the consequences of our teaching. Walk ye on it, and it will lead you to the City of Light.”—Woodrow Wilson.