Yes the Bible! the blessed book! the Book of books! There is inspiration in the name. With all my heart I can adopt the language of John Wesley: "Let me be the man of one book, and that book the Bible."
For several years I have been collecting a library of what I supposed good and useful books, which I have perused to the neglect of my Bible; but since I embraced present truth, they are a useless pile of lumber to me; I have lost my taste for them; and I cannot express myself better on the point, than in the beautiful lines of Bernard:
"Men's books with heaps of chaff are stored;
God's Book doth golden grains afford,
Then leave the chaff and spend thy pains,
In gathering up the golden grains."
O that men would love it more. Is it neglected by the mass of professed christians? It is; and its plainest truths are scoffed at. Is this an evidence that we are in the last days? Hear what the apostle Peter says, [chap. ii, 3, 4,] "Knowing this first that in the last days scoffers will come, walking after their own lusts, saying, Where is the promise of his coming?" Verse 5. The Apostle calls them willingly ignorant.
What saith the Saviour: "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me." And what is the testimony? That he came into the world to suffer and die according to the Scriptures, and that he is ascended up on high, and that to those who look for him he will appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Turn with me to Paul's letter to Timothy, [chap. iv, 8,] "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come." What says the Psalmist? "I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." Hear the Saviour in his memorable sermon on the mount. "Seek first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you." Matt. vi, 33.
So much for this life. Is it profitable? I think it is.
Let us refer to this blessed book again about the life to come, of which Paul speaks. Hear the Saviour in John xiv, 3. "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself." When? At death? Let us consult the text-book again. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. iv, 7, 8. Again, "When the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." 1 Pet. v, 4.
My prayer is, Sanctify me through thy truth; thy word is truth. Praise the Lord for his precious promises! I feel like heeding Paul's exhortation to the Hebrews: "Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompense of reward." Heb. x, 35.
In conclusion, my dear brethren and sisters, let us search the Bible more diligently, and treasure up its divine precepts in good and honest hearts, and practice them in our lives. Then we shall be able to give to every man that asks us a reason of the hope that is within us, and our pathway will become brighter and brighter unto the perfect day, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire, &c,—wherefore beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent—that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless. 2 Pet. iii, 12–14.