There are two distinct requirements. A book may help us to understand, but the endeavour to find God in the Bible depends on ourselves: our Lord has described it in the words He that hath ears to hear let him hear.
In order to understand the Bible when we hear it read, we should study it at home. Some elementary aids to the study of it may be useful here; for further help we shall want books specially prepared for that {48} purpose, such as the Cambridge Companion to the Bible and The Cambridge Bible for Schools, &c.
1. The Old Testament and the New Testament agree together: they have the same principles of morality, worship and doctrine. God's guidance of the writers is seen in this—the Old Testament, written at different times in the centuries before our Lord was Born, was such that the Gospel of the Revelation in Jesus was able to fit into it. As S. Augustine says,
"Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet,
Vetus Testamentum in Novo patet."
See also Article VII.
2. The failure of man to live well is shown in the Old Testament. Though he had favourable conditions and a holy law of life, a pure system of worship, and the discipline of warning and correction, the Israelite failed. Hence the Old Testament continually teaches (a) that God governs, (b) that man needs a Saviour.
3. The Old Testament consists of 3 parts (a) the Law and History, (b) the Psalms and Proverbs, (c) the Prophets.
(a) The Law and History part includes the books from Genesis to Esther, and relates the progress of the people of God from its separation as a family and its growth to be an important nation, to the downfall of its independence, and its partial recovery. The writers were a succession of prophets, who continually point to the hand of God in the events which they record.
(b) The Psalms and Proverbs part includes the books from Job to the Song of Solomon, and contains {49} many Hymns of prayer and praise; also discussions of deep problems of human nature and our relation to God (Job and Ecclesiastes); together with other things which stir us to a life of goodness and worship.
(c) The Prophets are not arranged in order of time at which they lived. The four Books which come first are called the Four Greater Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel: and are followed by the Twelve Lesser Prophets. To find the place in the Lesser Prophets it is sufficient to remember Hosea, Joel, Amos as the three which are placed first; and Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi as the three prophets after the Captivity, and therefore placed last. Isaiah should be read with parts of Kings and Chronicles, and Haggai and Zechariah with the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah; and others in like manner according to their period.