The Purpose of the Bible
By G. H. Ferris, D.D.
THE Bible was given me by God to shed light on the purity and vileness of my soul; to brace my will in the hour of temptation; to elevate my thoughts amid the strife for bread; to lift my drowsy eyes to the sunlit summits of faith and prayer; and to send a thrill of divine aspiration through a life that is ever becoming stupefied amid the murky damps of life's low levels. If I seek for a spirit of uncompromising and ringing righteousness, that shall keep me from making a truce with wrong, I find it on the pages of Jeremiah. If I look for a valuation of life that puts first things first, I follow Paul over mountains and seas, and hear him say, "Neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy." If I look for a pattern of a life truly divine, and wish to see what God would do if He were a man like me, I walk with Christ around the Sea of Galilee. Indeed, it is in the light of His character, that I interpret the whole Book.—G. H. Ferris, D.D.