Search the Scriptures by Sel.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 20, 1863

"Search the Scriptures."

By Sel.

Not a search for amusement, nor to find fault; not to bolster up previously conceived notions, or to find encouragement that the will of God is as we would have it; but that we may find Christ as the giver of eternal life; and that by the Spirit he may be set forth visibly as the great Fact, as the top-stone of the Scriptural structure; as the body and spirit, the cause and object, of Divine Revelation. He that searching the Scriptures fails to become acquainted with Christ as his Friend and Saviour, has spent his labor "for that which satisfieth not."

The man that, with the rich veins of precious metal of a gold mine before his eyes, and waiting to his hand, should be content to fill his coffers with bits of flint, or should spend his time in criticising the mode in which his neighbors worked out the rich deposit, would be less foolish than he who, with the Scriptures in his hand, full of a Saviour for himself, is content to skim over the surface, that he may find questions to propound, that other men, more ignorant, may be puzzled to answer.

God, who caused all holy Scripture to be written for our learning, has reserved to himself its true interpretation and application. To understand, we must be able, spiritually, to discern divine truth. Shall we say there are no worlds of light beyond our ken, because our eyes fail to discern the heavenly bodies? Shall we say the religion of the Bible is not complete and consistent from its commencement in creation to its perfection in a glorified, ascended Jesus—that Christ is not hidden in all its revelations, because our unsanctified spirits cannot or will not comprehend the fact? Let but the seeker after divine wisdom submit his own mind to the teachings of the Spirit of the God of the Bible, and he will not permit him to wrong his own soul through a want of power to understand the truth. Be willing to cast aside the rushlight of obstinate reason, and receive the proffered light of the Spirit, and then we shall see clearly, and be satisfied.

A few years since, Catherwood, the painter, exhibited his Panorama of Jerusalem. The place of exhibition was in a building expressly arranged for the purpose. The writer of this, on a certain day when there was little else to amuse his leisure, sauntered carelessly into the place of exhibition, with a companion who desired to kill time. Not knowing much of the merits of the painting, the first impression on entering was that the panorama was a failure and an imposition, and they did not hesitate to let their opinion be known. The dead buck-color of the canvas had no life in it, to their eyes, and they mutually despised the work of the talented artist. Do not many Scripture readers the same? But as they walked about the platform that represented the roof of a house in Jerusalem, from which the spectator could look upon the roofs of other houses, and also down to the streets below, their eyes became accustomed to the light the artist had regulated. Presently one said to the other, "Look at that figure at the lower edge of the canvas—it is cut out of wood and stuck on, to make us believe it is painted." "Certainly," said his companion, "and it is well executed—but no; it is painted. How lifelike it is!"

The former speaker was presently convinced that he had been led to believe that a painted figure was sculpture, much to his own surprise.

As he turned to another view he saw, and it actually startled him, a large, fine-looking Turk just stepping out upon the roof of an adjoining house, and over his arm were thrown a piece of velvet, another of satin, and a rich variegated silk. As he looked, the beholder thought he could see the shades of color in the evening sunlight. The Turkish merchant seemed about to speak to him.

"Look!" said he to his friend, "how lifelike! strange that we saw it not before."

Another view showed them a judge seated, the executioner standing before him, and the criminal lying, bound, on his face, with the soles of his feet turned up, and they could almost hear the whistle of the cords through the air as the culprit underwent the punishment of the bastinado. They could see every nerve strained in the poor wretch's legs and arms, and felt their own blood creep as they saw the ridges swell on the bottoms of his feet. It was only a painting, but how life-like!

Again they turned, and far away they saw the beautiful mosque which the Mussulmans had builded upon some sacred site. And coming from beyond it was a single officer coming toward them, as if to ask why they intruded. It seemed as if they could look around the beautiful pillars that supported the porch. And there, too, was the beautiful gate through which, their tradition said the Jewish Messiah should enter the city when he came to sit upon the throne of David, walled up to prevent his entrance. They did not see, or were willfully ignorant of the fact, that he whom they thus aimed to keep out of his own, had long before meekly, but triumphantly, entered the city, perhaps through that very gate, and had been joyfully hailed as "He that cometh in the name of the Lord."

Thus hours were passed within those walls, and one beauty after another came out upon the canvas as they looked and pondered. What at first was but a canvas painted buck-color and unattractive, became full of life and interest; and they retired at last well pleased and instructed by their afternoon's examination at Catherwood's Panorama.

So it is in the study of the Scripture. If we come to its study in the pride of worldly wisdom, and with only the light of our reason, we shall not perceive nor appreciate the salvation therein revealed. There will be nothing attractive in its pages more than in another book. The simple but positive teachings of Christ will be but foolishness and impracticable theories, not affecting the heart, and too utopian to form the rule of daily life. Alas! to how many the Bible is as a "light shining in darkness, which the darkness comprehendseth not." If we take up the Bible as the veritable Word of God, with a dutiful willingness to be taught, the Great Author will not fail to show us one beauty after another, to our great delight, and we shall find it to be full of him who said, "Search the Scriptures, they are they which testify of me."