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From The Australian Free Presbyterian: December, 1943
There is reason for deep concern because of the attitude of many to the Word of God. Throughout our land, the Bible is largely a forgotten, or neglected book. It is not given its rightful place in the lives of the multitude, so we need not be surprised that there is a great lack of Biblical knowledge.
God, in His Word, reveals the wise and loving provision made for the salvation of men, and His will concerning them. The Bible, therefore, is not merely a book to be praised and admired, its precepts are to be obeyed. It directs men how they are to live, and reveals the provision necessary for the end of life and the great eternity.
The Word of God is the most important of all books; it is the book of books. The stranger to the Lord's saving grace needs it, and the child of God cannot do without it. Believer or unbeliever cannot afford to neglect the unchanging Word. There is no other source from which men and women may learn of the essentials for their spiritual well being. The stranger to the Lord Jesus Christ must not neglect the Word of God. How is the sinner to learn of the sinfulness of the natural heart, the need of forgiveness, the offers of the Gospel, and the work of the Spirit, but by the Word of God? 'To you is the word of this salvation sent." The Lord will not save men on their terms, but He is most willing to save on His own terms, and in His own appointed way. The important thing is what does God command, and not what is demanded by men. If the unbeliever knew what treasures were to be found in the Word of God, he would search the scriptures with a keen eye and an earnest heart.
The Bible is no less essential to the believer. The apostle Paul informs us 'All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." The believer has a warfare to wage, and the Word of God is necessary, whether that warfare be defensive, or offensive. He needs instruction and strength in order that he might fight the good fight, and must partake of the spiritual food provided in the Everlasting Word.
It is essential for every child of God to learn George Muller's secret, 'Now,' he said,'I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warmed, reproved, instructed: and that thus, by means of the Word of God, whilst meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.
'I began, therefore, to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord's blessing upon His precious Word, was to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching as it were every verse to get a blessing out of it, not for the sake of the public ministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching upon what I had meditated upon, but for obtaining food for my own soul.
'The result I have found to be invariably this, that after a few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to supplication, so that, though I did not as it were, give myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer."
May we be able to say with the Psalmist, 'Remember, Lord, thy gracious Word thou to thy servant spake, which, for a ground of my sure hope, thou causedst me to take."
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