YOUR STUDY AND YOUR AIM
YOUR STUDY AND YOUR AIM
As to the sufficiency of the Bible to fit you for passing through the world; do you want to pass through it as a man of God or as a man in nature? You must know that it is sufficient to teach you all that is necessary for the man of God, or God’s revelation would be insufficient to carry out His own purpose. This I know you would not venture to affirm.
Do you know all the worldly wisdom in the Proverbs? Do you know any one who does? The man who was master of the Bible would be a master man! I think you should make the Bible your head book - the summum bonum - the sea of learning; to you all the rivers run into the sea, and while you made the sea your grand study you would necessarily trace and understand the rivers which run into it.
It makes all the difference whether you are occupied with the sea or with a river or rivers, no matter how great or how many! Are you studying from the Bible or only what you may connect with the Bible? Is the Bible your centre - as an estate conferred on you? The more you learn from every source the nature and [p. 445] value of the estate, the more you are apprehending the value of what is your own property. If you work from the Bible, like a bee from the hive you will work back to it.
It is a great thing for the young to have a settled aim - you ought to be able to state distinctly to yourself before the Lord what your aim is, and once assured of His sanction as to the aim incumbent on you, all your works and ways would take the character and colour of it. Do you want to be Christ’s servant or your own? Do you seek to distinguish Him or yourself? You must settle your aim first, then you will easily settle the rest. Nature may hinder you, but if you find that nature or Satan keep you from fixing your aim, then through grace you will be more than ever resolved to fix it. Your aim once fixed, you will always have a pole-star. I do not say that you may not often be diverted from it, but this I say, that every advance in the line of it will be grateful to your conscience; and every departure or apostasy will entail sorrow and correction to drive you back again. The Lord lead you to determine before Him the true aim that He would have you set before you.
I believe the reading of Scripture comforts, strengthens, enlightens and guides the soul.