The Bible

by N/A | Category: N/a | Feb 1951

For many centuries during the dark ages there was no such thing as an English Bible. There were a few copies of the Bible in Greek and a translation in Latin, but very few could rend these languages and fewer still could afford a copy of their own. How greatly blessed you are, then, to have a copy of the Scriptures in your own mother tongue. Get to know something of the history of the English Bible and this will cause you to value it more. Read of Bede, of Wycliffe, of Tyndale, and many another of that noble band who toiled and suffered so that we might have an accurate translation of the God-breathed Scriptures in our own language. What a priceless treasure is our English Bible!

One of the saddest features of this century has been the marked drift of the English-speaking peoples from the Bible. In the days of Tyndale the first copies of the English Bible were publicly burned in their thousands, but during the past fifty years or so the attack has been far more subtle. In the schools the young are still taught to appreciate the literary value of the Bible, but at the same time its authority is often discredited. Perhaps you are perplexed about the attitude of some men of science to the Bible; or perhaps you wonder at some who, taking the name of Christian ministers, pay lip service to the Bible on the one hand and on the other use every opportunity to discredit its authority. Such men undoubtedly bear a heavy share of responsibility for the apathy of Britain's masses to the Bible; but their attitude need not surprise nor disturb you unduly, for Christ Himself clearly stated that human intellect and knowledge in themselves are not the key to the hidden treasures of God's Word. Here are His own words:

"I thank Thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes; yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in Thy sight" (Matthew 11. 25, 26).

I am sure there is no need for me to impress upon you the necessity for reading your Bible, but I do want to remind you of its importance. Have you got slack about it recently? One of the objects of our great adversary. the Devil, is to keep young Christians -and older ones, too - from reading their Bibles. So you will have to make plans to see that he does not hinder you from reading God's Word regularly. See to it that it becomes a daily habit-so much depends on it. Read carefully and reverently. Some find that reading aloud is a help to concentration. Read not only to learn, but to obey. I pass on to you this month a simple prescription for spiritual health which I heard from a devoted servant of the Lord over twenty years ago: "Read the Word of God; believe the Word of God; obey the Word of God." Let this be your rule of life and your progress will be manifest to all.

N/A | Feb 1951
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