HOW TO READ THE BIBLE by Pres. Herald

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 22, 1857

HOW TO READ THE BIBLE.

By Pres. Herald

It is a sad fact that in this land of Bibles there is so little attention given to that blessed book. How few professors of religion in all our borders have read the Bible through! alas! how few peruse its pages regularly once a day! Now at the beginning of a new year, when many of God's people are forming new resolutions for a better life, should not one of these resolves be, with God's help to read the Bible daily, and with greater care than formerly? Hoping that there are some of this class of readers of this paper, who desire to make that Bible reading interesting and profitable, we will make some suggestions to that end:

1st. Make all necessary preparation to do the work in earnest, and to the purpose. Try to make the circumstances as pleasant as possible. Get a Bible of convenient size, and of good paper and large print, and use it only, as even a local memory is of advantage. Besides the benefit of good type to the eyes in reading by artificial light, it may be thought a mere fancy, but eminent men have imagined that matter printed in large letters was more easily remembered than that set in eye-destroying type.

2d. Have a set time for this reading, and fix it as early as possible in the day. Do not say that you cannot find time. Your business in this matter is not to find a time not otherwise appropriated. Make one, if you cannot get it in any other way. Make other things, if need be, give place to this which is so vastly important. Never allow the world to cheat your soul out of its daily food, and to rob God out of his own time. Give not the refuse, the offal, as a sacrifice to God. By no means fix this time after business has wearied you, and unfitted you for reading to advantage. A precious promise, a rule of duty, or a warning, may prove to be of inestimable value all the day long; if it find a place in your thoughts before you go the employments of the day, whereas if you delay till night to attend to this blessed work, your mind so long absorbed with worldly things will be unfitted for religious meditation, and sleep will cause all such thoughts to pass quickly from the mind.

3d. Begin every reading with a prayer for a teachable spirit, and that God would open the eyes of your understanding to behold the wondrous things in his law. And then try as far as possible, yourself to answer your prayer by reading slowly, and a part of every reading aloud. It is not so easy to skim over it if read audibly. The very effort of pronunciation holds the attention in check, and fixes the thoughts more deeply in the mind. Read each sentence until you feel that you have properly attended to it. And it will do no harm to utter some brief appropriate petition at the end of each passage. It is at any rate worth the trial.

4th. When you come to a verse whose force or beauty strikes you, stop, and learn it by heart. Repeat it often to yourself and reflect upon it during the day. If it should pass from your mind, the very effort to recall it will be a valuable mental

exercise, helping to strengthen the memory, and train the mind to fixedness of thought. And at night how delightful to lie down to rest, letting your soul, as it were, repose upon God's precious truth that has been your comfort in the hours of labor.

5th. Endeavor to complete a subject or a paragraph each time. Abandon the chapter reading system, save in the book of the Psalms. A small amount carefully read and digested is of more value than much, hurriedly glanced over. The chapters are often not the proper divisions of the sacred text.

6th. Read according to system. Do not pick up the Bible, and read a few verses here or there, wherever it happens to open. All chance work in matters of religion is of the Devil's choosing. Following such a plan, one would read less and less, and soon end in reading none at all.

7th. Try to secure an hour for God when you will be alone as much as possible, when the world will interrupt least. Strive to reap all possible benefit from family worship, but never make that an excuse to neglect this private communion with God. Let no day pass without its time.

8th. In addition to every Sabbath's own readings, you should carefully review the parts read during the past week. Let not this rule be broken.

Possibly you may object to this plan, as too particular, too severe. But do you expect to make any great gains in Bible knowledge unattended by some pains? Can you overcome your former bad habits of neglect of God's word without a struggle? Rest assured that you will not cease to do evil and learn to do well without a great, a constant, a noble effort. Would it not pay you a thousand fold for all your trouble thus to read God's word? Will you try it for twelve months if God spares your life?—Pres. Herald.