To study the Bible one might use a few helps to advantage. Use a reference Bible. It is almost indispensable to proper study. A concordance is necessary to turn to any verse with celerity. A Bible dictionary is a valuable aid to explain many things in history, antiquity, customs and manners. A good commentary is often a valuable requisite. It helps in the study, though it must not be depended upon as a lame man depends upon his crutches.
HOW TO STUDY.
What is worth doing is certainly worth doing well. No fitful study has ever mastered any branch of science or art. If constant application of fundamental principles is necessary to achieve the highest results in scientific investigation, if the ability to make accurate lines and curves is essential to the success of the truest artist, if practice in five-finger exercises is a daily necessity to the pianist, the boy who desires to be thoroughly acquainted with the Bible must diligently search it.
Study carefully words and verses. Frequently one word is a nugget of pure gold. Study ideas. As there are veins of silver and gold in the rocks, so there are veins of truth running through the Bible. Study history. No book deals with nations as far back and shows their rise and fall as the Bible. Study geography. There are rivers and mountains associated with great events. Every land seems to have changed except the one where the Bible was written. Egypt, Greece and Rome have little now in common with the days of antiquity. Babylon and Nineveh are not. But Palestine still remains about the same as a literal explanation of the Bible.
Study the books. Learn the number and the names of their authors. “Doctor,” said a convalescent, “I’m no judge of books—don’t often read one; but I’m reading one now that seems to me a very fine book. I haven’t noticed yet who wrote it, and I don’t know how you’d pronounce its title, but it’s something like I-van-hoe.” “My friend,” said the physician, “I’d give large gold to be in your place long enough to be reading that book for the first time and not knowing who wrote it.” In the Old Testament there are 39 books. In the New Testament 27. The first five are laws and political economy, the next twelve history, the rest poetry and prophecy. The first four of the New Testament are biography and gospel; Acts is history; the Epistles theology and philosophy, and Revelation is a drama written by John on the Isle of Patmos.
Study a whole book asking such questions, “Who wrote it? Where was it written? In what age? What lessons does it teach?” By seeking an answer to these questions one cannot fail to gain valuable information in biography, geography, and manners. Study the teachings of the New Testament. Its numerous commands will prompt action, its invitations inspire confidence, its promises impart comfort and its doctrines establish one in faith. In a word, study the Scriptures methodically.
WHY STUDY THE BIBLE?
The question why study the Bible is of as great importance as how. It is historically worth studying. Without it history is incomplete. It is the only book that spans four thousand years, revealing the origin of the universe and man. It is personally worth studying. “In its pages every conceivable condition of human experience is reflected as in a mirror. It puts music into the speech of the tuneless one, and rounds the periods of the unlettered into an eloquence which no orator can rival. It has martial odes to brace the warrior’s courage and gainful proverbs to teach the merchant wisdom. It can translate the doubt of the perplexed, articulate the cry of the contrite, and fill the tongue of the joyous with carols of thankful gladness.” Because of its blaze of eloquence and light of truth Burke read it, while Daniel Webster turned to it for its rhetoric and poetry.
It is this book, my boy, which is needed as a guide in the practical duties of life, and which makes us “Wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim. 3:15). In fact, it is the only book which presents Christ. In the Old Testament He is seen in prophecy and symbol, in the New in history. In the Old, He is brought to our hearts in glorious promises; in the New, He comes to us as a living person. He is “all and in all” (Col. 3:3), insuring peace in this life, comforting in death and extending happiness beyond the grave.