Neglect of Biblical Studies.
Is not the dwarfish character of much of the piety that exists, traceable to the neglect to read them; we trust that this, though too common, is not generally chargeable but neglect of their study. Do not too many Christians regard this as something that belongs exclusively to ministers, professors, and at most to Sunday-School teachers? For themselves, they read the plainer parts of the Bible for devotional purposes. They would feel wanting in their duty, if they did not. But to dig below the surface, to pass beyond the first impression of simple passages, to study the scope of whole books, the connections of their several parts, and all those incidental features of the sacred writings, by which its great significance is apprehended—such studies they contentedly leave to scholars and critics. It is for the learned, for clergymen and students, they conceive, that commentaries and books of antiquities, illustrations of Scriptures and of times and lands of the Bible, are primarily written. Common Bible readers need not trouble themselves with such accessory investigations. A greater mistake could not be made. The word of God does not speak with its full power, except to those who strive to understand, that they may follow it. Mere study, with no practical, obedient purpose, is not enough, of itself, to impart true knowledge. But it is necessary to any large attainment in divine things. The better the Bible is understood the more thoroughly it is studied in all its relations the stronger will be our faith in it, the more manifest its divine authority, its wisdom, and its beauty. There is no study more profitable, and none more interesting when rightly pursued. Those who neglect it do not know what they lose. The words of eternal life are made more sweetly familiar to us, when we can transport ourselves to the lands where they were originally uttered, when we can bring before us a vivid picture of the scenes the garb, the accompaniments of those events whose simple history has thrilled so many ages and nations. Then we seem to hear the prophets, as those heard them to whom they were immediately sent, only not with their unbelief. For with those who walked to Emmaus, we can hear Jesus "beginning at Moses," expounding "in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." We can perceive the face of the land after all changes, the records of human history through all ages, appearing as witnesses for the truth of God. However unsanctified curiosity may deal with it, this accumulating evidence is strengthening to the Christian's faith, stimulating to all his desires after increased conformity to the gospel, and to his hopes founded on those "better promises," which are his richest portion.—Ex.