XXXI.

Searching the Scriptures.

"Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life : and they are they which testify of Me."-JOHN v. 39.

T is a question well-suited to take its place in your self-examination this Lent,-"How do matters stand between me and my Bible? What is my Bible to me? Is God's Word a greater reality to me? Am I more conversant with every part of it? Is its power to my soul increased, or is it lessened? Is my Bible less or more to me than it was years ago, when I was a child?"

Remember what Bible it was of which Christ was speaking, and what is the Bible of which we are going to speak now. Then, it was the five books of Moses, or, as the Jews called them, "the Law," the historical books, which, with the sixteen prophetical books, made up together what they named "the Prophets," and the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon,— which bore the title of "the Hagiographa."

Of these Old Testament Scriptures collectively, Christ said, "They contain eternal life." The whole argument turns upon this. "You Jews hope that your Scriptures have in them eternal life; but what have they beyond? They testify of Me; then I am eternal life;"-that is the argument.

From which at once two inferences follow. If you

admit the New Testament, you must accept the Old. For Christ, in the New, endorses, if I may so say, the Old; and stamps it with the undeniable seal of divinity,—that it has in it "eternal life." And further, in the whole of the New Testament, it is the same truth, and the same life, because the same Jesus.

What a far better Bible is ours! What a key in the New, to unlock the Old! What an explanation, what a manifestation, of higher truth! What revelations of the Father in the Living Word! What disclosures of the heart of Jesus! What a scheme of covenant! What a redemption of the whole world! What elevated morality! What love! What holy comforting! What exemplars ! What fellowships! What gleams of glory!

And together, these Two Witnesses, what do they not adduce?-these Two Covenants, what do they not sustain ? Is not it a beautiful thing to have Christ so developed?— first shadowed out in ten thousand figures, then presented to us in His living presence and power,-then embodied into His Church,-then wrought out in us to peace, and holiness, and heaven. If David could find all he found,— if he could write his 19th and his 119th Psalms, on his little Bible,-all probably not more than five or six Books,-what might not our larger Scriptures be to us? What an humbling measure of our spirituality of mind, in these later days,—that while to him the Pentateuch was all that source of delight, the use of our whole Bible is such a little joy!

Never forget what the Bible really is. God, in His love, desired to make Himself known to His creatures. He could scarcely be the God He is, and not do that. It is one of the greatest evidences of inspiration, the moral

certainty that every man has, that a heavenly Father would never leave Himself without a revelation to His children. How did He do it? He gave His Son to be "the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person." But how could we know the Son? Only by the Holy Ghost. How does the Holy Ghost show Him to us? By inditing a book;-—"Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me."

Now think you, brethren, that if Christ were only in the midst of us this morning, He would not see a great necessity to urge on us the very same duty which He laid so earnestly on those Jews? Let me speak honestly. Do you know your Bible? I will speak of it as a mere book, as a history. Do you know your Bible? It lies upon your table,—it is a very familiar thing to you,-more or less, you have had to do with it all your life,—do you know it?

Forgive me,-could you name all the books of the Bible in their order, and give their authors? Could you give an account of the history of the Jews? For instance, could you tell the names of the judges and the kings of Israel and Judah? Could you tell the occasion of their national conquests, and defeats, and captivities? Could you give the drift of each of the books of the Bible? Do you know much of your Bible by heart? Have you ever read the Bible all through? How often? Do you know the subjects and the characters of particular Psalms? Could you give the life and ministry of our Lord chronologically? Are you acquainted with the descriptive facts of the four gospels? Can you trace the history of the early Church in the Acts, and give the life

and travels of St. Paul? Could you give the arguments of the epistle to the Romans, or the characteristics of the other epistles? Have you a clear view of the scheme of divine truth laid up in your mind? Do you know your Bible?

These are simple questions. Ought not you to know your Bible? Ought we not to have attained to that scholarship, that we could answer any questions about the contents of that book? What have we if we have all

other lore, and want this? Is not it the highest? What! a Christian, and not to be able to pass an examination in the facts and the truths of the charter of your faith?

And yet, I fear,—nay, I think,—nay, I positively know, —that it is but very few in this church who would not be afraid of the questions in the very rudiments of Bible history and Bible teaching.

Why is this? You have not really taken pains; you have never made a great effort to acquire Bible knowledge; you have not set yourself to it as a positive work and an exact duty. You have trusted to your early education in it, which was very meagre. You have trusted to church services, and to sermons, and to hearing the lessons read, and to family prayers, and to reading chapters superficially by yourself.

All that will not do. That leaves nothing but a confused, general idea; no real knowledge is ever gained by such easy processes. "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me."

Forgive me, brethren, but this is not a matter of little importance. I cannot see how any man who believes the Bible to be a revelation from heaven to his soul, can justify

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to himself, and be going on, day after day, with such a very wretched, meagre knowledge of that book. I cannot see how he can think that God will bless him,-how he can think that he is honoring God,-unless he earnestly labours to take the whole of that book intelligently and accurately into his mind, Shall a soldier not know the articles of war? Shall a scholar not know his grammar? Shall a Christian be content with his present knowledge of that book, the Bible?

Still, after all, these things are only the alphabet. must go further.

You

There are two things which the Bible is especially intended to make known to us. First, ourselves. With this end, St. James says it is to be a mirror. You never will really know yourself till you see yourself in the mirror. It is the spectrum in which we see the anatomy of the heart, which else lies too deep and dark for vision. Be always looking into your Bible to find yourself, your real self, your whole self. Let it be your prayer when you open your Bible, "Lord, show me myself; not as a man sees; not as I see myself; but as Thou seest me; Lord, show me myself."

The other thing which the Bible is to declare is self's antidote-Christ. I do not say that Christ is in every verse or in every chapter. But this I say,-It all leads up to Christ as its far scope. For instance, the history of the Jews bears on to the foundation of the Church, and the Church bears on to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Second Advent. So the historical books of the first Testament testify of Jesus. Therefore, there is no part of the Bible in which there is not an underlying thought of the Lord Jesus Christ.