From Our Banner: September, 1955.

"Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." - Psalm 119: 18.

David read the Scriptures. He studied them closely and meditated upon them continually. That is his reason for the petition here voiced. It is clear that he read to some purpose. But have we ever asked ourselves the question, "How readest thou?" It may be worth noting in passing that the idea inherent in that little word, "read," supplies the answer itself to that query. "Recognition" is the root from which it arises - "to know again." Now, do we so read as to know that truth again? Have we the abiding possession of the truth so acquired? That is a characteristic quality of effectual, scriptural knowledge - "It doth with me stay." (Ps. 119: 98). But some there are, who, to remember what they read, must leave a book-mark in their Bibles. But reading like that leaves little mark on their souls. Others covet the achievement of many annual journeys from Genesis to Revelation. But Jehu's furious driving is too fast for those to copy, who must read the revelation as they run (Hab. 2: 2).

One way or another, Satan ever contrives to prevent the profitable searching of the Scripture. When there were few, if any Bibles, or when few could read if they had them, how he hated the prophets and apostles, the messengers of redeeming grace! With what zealous energy he hunted them and thrust them, like Jeremiah, into dungeons, and like Paul and Silas, into prisons, to prevent the proclamation of the truth. When the printing press put the possible possession of the "sure word of prophecy" within the reach of millions of all nations and languages, what did he then devise? He tried to lock it up in the inner prison of Popish captivity. The ordinary people must not read it - they could not understand it, if they did! But with blessed Reformation liberty, it is now in any hand that wants it.

Has, now, Satan's ingenuity ceased? Has he no snares set today? Yes, indeed, he has. Not least of these is his use of the very press that multiplies the Scriptures in a thousand tongues. He is providing multitudes of "helps" for earnest, reading Christians. But, alas! the spiritual gardener reads so many guides for growing that he never gets round to start the sowing. Few of these volumes draw even scant attention to the directions, "Search the Scriptures"; "Let the Word of God dwell in you richly"; go to the Word and "hear what God the Lord will speak." Where is the spirit of Martin Luther among our present-day instructors? He said he would burn the books he had written rather than have them divert people from reading the Scriptures. What he condemned now prevails. Amidst the surrounding worldly darkness, spiritual discernment and scriptural enlightenment are dim rays emanating from the hill-top city of the Church. More than ever do we need to cry, "Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." O Lord, let scriptural light and spiritual sight ever illumine the soul of every living member of the body of Christ. In the quest of these two must the Church engage in every age and at every stage.

Revelation

The divine revelation we have. It is complete and final. The illumination of the Spirit we constantly need. That is incomplete, and must be progressive, deepening and expanding. We need both the light and the sight. The light may be there, but without sight we are darkness (Matt. 6: 23). Even had we sight, if there be no light we are in darkness. Oh that we all knew the importance of what was so clear to David when he sang: "The entrance of Thy words gives light," and "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Why is so little made by men, of what so much is made by God? Surely it is an evidence of the power of the god of this world in blinding the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, Who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Cor. 4: 4). Why, this gospel is the Very meat and drink by which we grow. (1 Pet. 2: 2). This Word is the Holy Spirit's instrument of sanctifying truth and transforming power. (2 Cor. 3: 18). Let the hunger of the quickened soul turn always to the satisfying provision of the Word, for that is its divinely appointed purpose. Do you long for converting and restoring grace? Then "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Do you covet heavenly, saving wisdom? Then, "the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." Do you desire to rejoice in the truth? Then "the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart." Are we commanded to walk always in the light? "The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." So we may trace every grace to its well-spring in the Word.

To this never-failing, ever-effective instrument we are instructed, commanded and encouraged to go by the God of the Word Himself. Hear Moses' call to join that company of favoured pilgrims in their homeward journey to their divinely promised land (Num. 10: 29). Read along with the eunuch as he meditates in his chariot in Isaiah 53. Hear Augustine, in his search for the light, describe how he was directed to the truth. "I heard," said he, "from a neighbouring house, a voice, as of a boy or girl, I know not, chanting and oft repeating, 'Tolle, lege; tolle, lege.' (Take up and read; take up and read).... Eagerly then I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting, for there I had laid the volume of the Apostle, when I arose thence. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: 'Not in chambering and wantonness; not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh.' No further would I read; nor need I: for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away." (Augustine's Confessions.)

Search the Word through every chapter. Search its chapters through every verse. But, above all, search its verses through every word, for "The words of God are words most pure." (Ps. 12: 6). Searchers are not given to hasty glances here or there. They look into every nook, till they find every fragment they seek (Luke 15: 8-9). Such seeking sometimes produces most unexpected discoveries, and almost always more than looked for. Dr. Buchanan tells of a Jewish rabbi in India, who had translated the New Testament into Syriac to refute the Christians of St. Thomas who lived in his neighbourhood. But that study of every word, which is necessary to translation, was the means of converting the rabbi himself into a stalwart supporter of the very faith he was labouring to subvert.

Let no satanic seduction allure, then, from the diligent use of that Word. For the measure to which we "give attendance to reading, to exhortation and to doctrine," will be the measure of our growth in Scriptural godliness." (1 Tim. 4: 13-16). The hen with her chickens should teach us our way with the Word. She teaches them where to scratch and how to scratch, always urging them to scratch for themselves. "Feed the flock of God?" is the command, it is true. (1 Pet. 5: 2) But stall-feeding is not the only feeding. That is the specialty of Popish priests. Their sheep are limited to the Romish ration. True pastors, like David's Shepherd, lead their flocks into the green pastures - the infinite fullness of divine revelation. Wise ministers not only expound the Word to their people, but commend their people to the Word, and recommend the Word to them (Acts 20: 32). So much for the first thought - the instrumental necessity and sufficiency of divine revelation.

Illumination

We have already remarked that, though we have light, if we have not sight, everything is dark. So David prays: "Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold." He who has given the external revelation must also give the internal illumination. Perhaps in all Scripture we could not find this more clearly described or strikingly illustrated than in 2 Cor. 4: 6. "God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts," etc. That light comes with the infusion of spiritual life. Regenerated, we are illuminated. But with what kind of light? It is the light of knowledge. That is why the darkened minds and understandings must be opened. Being the knowledge of a particular subject, and that a spiritual one - the glory of God - clearly the enlightenment must be that of the Spirit of God, for "the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2: 11). Follow the thought another step. The light of this knowledge of the glory of God is seen, in particular, in the face of Jesus Christ. Now where must we look to behold His face? He Himself gives the answer: "Beginning at Moses and the Prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." (Luke 24: 27). His Spirit is expressly given to take of those same wondrous things, and show them unto us. This is saving knowledge. "This is life eternal, that we might know Him, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent." (John 17: 3).

Thus we are brought directly to the study of the Word, dependent upon the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, to enable us savingly to understand the truth. We are brought never to the Spirit without the Word., and never to the Word without the Spirit. 'The Spirit without the Word would be living, but not life-like. The Word without the Spirit would be life-like but not living," as Dr. Hugh Martin wrote. In His people, such living likeness to Christ, magnifies God's grace and reflects His glory (1 Cor. 15: 10). Many have admired the faith of George Muller, but few enquire whence it arose. This is how he describes the beginning of so marked an experience: "I fell into the snare into which so many young believers fall, the reading of religious books in preference to the Scriptures. Now the scriptural way of reasoning would have been: God Himself has condescended to become an author, and I am ignorant of that precious book which His Holy Spirit has caused to be written; therefore I ought to read again this Book of books most earnestly, most prayerfully, and with much meditation. Instead of acting thus, and being led by my ignorance of the Word to study it more, my difficulty of understanding it made me careless of reading it, and then, like many believers, I practically preferred, for the first four years of my Christian life, the works of uninspired men to the oracles of the Living God. The consequence was that I remained a babe, both in knowledge and grace. In knowledge, I say, for all true knowledge must be derived by the Spirit from the Word. This lack of knowledge most sadly kept me back from walking steadily in the ways of the Lord.

When it pleased the Lord to bring me really to the Scriptures, my life and walk become very different." Of this study of the Word, relying on the Spirit, he says: "The result was that the first evening that I shut myself into my room to give myself to prayer and meditation over the Scriptures, I learned more in a few hours than I had done during a period of several months previously. But the particular difference was that I received real strength in my soul in doing so."

That is just one more evidence of what the Scripture everywhere affirms, "The entrance of Thy Word gives light." May we be enabled to say with quaint Sir Richard Baker, whom Spurgeon called "knight of the flowing pen": "The Lord's my light and my enlightening, too." Ever search the Word with that dependent, prayerful attitude of the "Sweet Psalmist of Israel" in your hearts: "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law."