HOW READEST THOU? by H. P. H.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 6, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 31.

“HOW READEST THOU?”

By H. P. H.

BY H. P. H.

This question was asked the lawyer who inquired of Christ the way of life. He was versed in the law; it was the business of his life to study it; but to know the law was not all that was necessary for eternal life. The Master did not ask, “Do you diligently read the law?” but, “How readest thou?” All depends on the how.

It is one thing to read the Bible, and quite another to read it rightly. How shall we read it aright?

First, read it just as it says. But few do this. Most people read between the lines; they read their own opinions, or what they have heard others say the text means. For illustration, five persons, members of as many denominations, will read the same text, and each get a different meaning from it. Why is this? Does the text have five contradictory meanings?—Impossible! It has but one meaning, the truth; but the readers have different opinions, and in reading, they simply read these opinions instead of what the text says. When we read the Bible, in order to get the truth, we must lay aside our own notions, or what we have heard others say, or what we have read in creeds or commentaries, and take the naked word just as God spake it through the prophets. The Lord has spoken in simple language, that all can understand; take each word just as it stands; weigh it; meditate upon it; and the Spirit of the Lord which is in the word, will instruct you.

Second, read the word as spoken to you. The Bible is a personal book. God saves us as individuals, and hence he speaks to us as such. But it is so common for people in reading what Paul wrote to read only his personal experience. It is true that he experienced what he wrote; but every Christian should experience the same. When, for example, we read in Gal. 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me,” it is quite natural in our own mind to read Paul into the text. But mark the words; the text does not contain Paul, but “I,” hence if you read the text as it is, it means you; and if you read it in truth, the language of the text will be your experience.

Every promise should be read in the same way. Make it real, just as real as the God stood before you and spoke the word. Then you will find blessing and refreshing whenever you read the sacred, living word.

One reason why so many gain little from reading the Bible is because they read it as a common book. But there is just as much difference between it and common books as there is difference between God and man. If we read it as a common book, we get no more blessing than from a common book; but if we read it as God’s living, self-fulfilling word, we shall live by it. “How readest thou?”