HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE.
By H. A. St. John
Come directly to the Word, without a human mediator. Ask and receive the Holy Spirit to guide into all truth. Never forsake the Word for second-hand matter from the highest human origin. He who gets his knowledge of the Word of God by the study of commentaries, systems of theology, and such like works, however much good there may be in them, is like the man who gets his knowledge of a romantic country by traveling straight through it in a railroad car. How little he sees and knows of that country, as compared with the man who travels as a pedestrian, over hill and valley, through cities, towns, hamlets, and the beautiful meadows by the riverside, calling on the people in their quiet homes, visiting every pleasant nook and shady fountain, breathing the morning freshness, delighting in the sunsets and twilight, and drinking in at every step all the blessed influence of all the changes of nature. In like manner let the student of the Bible travel over the diversified fields of the inspired revelation of God, drinking from the deep well-springs of the Old and New Testaments. At every step, as the progressive revelation opens before him, he will breathe new life from God, and his pathway will shine more and more unto the perfect day.