Pleasure & Profit In Bible Study - free ebook by Dwight Lyman Moody

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Pleasure & Profit In Bible Study

Dwight Lyman Moody

56 chapters

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56 chapters

PREFACE.

PREFACE.

It is always a pleasure to me to speak on the subject of this volume. I think I would rather preach about the Word of God than anything else except the Love of God; because I believe it is the best thing in this world. We cannot overestimate the importance of a thorough familiarity with the Bible. I try to lose no opportunity of urging people by every means in my power to the constant study of this wonderful Book. If through the pages that follow, I can reach still others and rouse them to read

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WORD AND WORK.

WORD AND WORK.

Word and Work make healthy Christians. If it be all Word and no work, people will suffer from what I may call religious gout. On the other hand if it be all work and no Word, it will not be long before they will fall into all kinds of sin and error; so that they will do more harm than good. But if we first study the Word and then go to work, we shall be healthy, useful Christians. I never saw a fruit-bearing Christian who was not a student of the Bible. If a man neglects his Bible, he may pray a

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YOUNG CONVERTS.

YOUNG CONVERTS.

If young converts want to be used of God, they must feed on His Word. Their experience may be very good and very profitable at the outset, and they may help others by telling it; but if they keep on doing nothing else but telling their experience, it will soon become stale and unprofitable, and people will weary of hearing the same thing over and over again. But when they have told how they have been converted, the next thing is to feed on the Word. We are not fountains ourselves; but the Word o

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SOMETHING NEW.

SOMETHING NEW.

People are constantly saying: We want something new; some new doctrine, some new idea. Depend upon it, my friends, if you get tired of the Word of God, and it becomes wearisome to you, you are out of communion with Him. When I was in Baltimore last, my window looked out on an Episcopal Church. The stained-glass windows were dull and uninviting by day, but when the lights shone through at night, how beautiful they were! So when the Holy Spirit touches the eyes of your understanding and you see Ch

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EVERY CASE MET.

EVERY CASE MET.

Bear in mind there is no situation in life for which you cannot find some word of consolation in Scripture. If you are in affliction, if you are in adversity and trial, there is a promise for you. In joy and sorrow, in health and in sickness, in poverty and in riches, in every condition of life, God has a promise stored up in His Word for you. In one way or another every case is met, and the truth is commended to every man’s conscience. It is said that Richard Baxter, author of “The Saints’ Ever

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“GREAT PEACE.”

“GREAT PEACE.”

In Psalm 119:165, we find these words: “Great peace have they which love Thy law; and nothing shall offend them.” The study of God’s Word will secure peace. Take those Christians who are rooted and grounded in the Word of God, and you will find they have great peace; but those who don’t study their Bible, and don’t know their Bible, are easily offended when some little trouble comes, or some little persecution, and their peace is all disturbed; just a little breath of opposition and their peace

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THE GUIDEBOOK TO THE CHRISTIAN’S HOME.

THE GUIDEBOOK TO THE CHRISTIAN’S HOME.

If a man is traveling and does not know where he is going to, or how he is going to get there, you know he has a good deal of trouble, and does not enjoy the trip as much as if he has a guidebook at hand. It is not safe traveling, and he does not know how to make through connections. Now, the Bible is a guidebook in the journey of life, and the only one that points the way to Heaven. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” Let us take heed then not to refuse the light and the

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PROVING.

PROVING.

Now the request comes: “I wish you would prove to me that the Bible is true.” The Book will prove itself if you will let it; there is living power in it. “For this cause also we thank God without ceasing, because when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” It does not need defence so much as it needs studying. It can defend itself. It is not a sickly chil

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CONVICTED—LOST—SAVED.

CONVICTED—LOST—SAVED.

A man once sat down to read it an hour each evening with his wife. In a few evenings he stopped in the midst of his reading and said: “Wife, if this Book is true, we are wrong.” He read on, and before long, stopped again and said: “Wife, if this Book is true, we are lost.” Riveted to the Book and deeply anxious, he still read on, and soon exclaimed: “Wife, if this Book is true, we may be saved.” It was not many days before they were both converted. This is the one great end of the Book, to tell

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CAN’T UNDERSTAND.

CAN’T UNDERSTAND.

You ask what you are going to do when you come to a thing you cannot understand. I thank God there is a height in that Book I do not know anything about, a depth I have never been able to fathom, and it makes the Book all the more fascinating. If I could take that Book up and read it as I can any other book and understand it at one reading, I should have lost faith in it years ago. It is one of the strongest proofs that that Book must have come from God, that the acutest men who have dug for fif

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CAVILLERS.

CAVILLERS.

Did you ever notice that the things that men cavil most about are the very things to which Christ has set His seal? Men say, “You don’t believe in the story of Noah and the flood, do you?” Well, if I give it up, I must give up the Gospel, I must give up the teachings of Jesus Christ. Christ believed in the story of Noah, and connected that with His return to earth. “As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Men say, “You don’t believe in the story of Lot and Sodom

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JONAH AND THE WHALE.

JONAH AND THE WHALE.

Men say, “Well, you don’t believe in the story of Jonah and the whale, do you?” I want to tell you I do believe it. A few years ago there was a man whom some one thought a little unsound, and they didn’t want him to speak on the Northfield platform. I said, “I will soon find out whether or not he is sound.” I asked him, “Do you believe the whale swallowed Jonah?” “Yes,” he said, “I do.” I said “All right, then I want you to come and speak.” He came and gave a lecture on Jonah. In Matthew they tw

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CLIPPING THE BIBLE.

CLIPPING THE BIBLE.

There is another class. It is quite fashionable for people to say, “Yes, I believe the Bible, but not the supernatural. I believe everything that corresponds with this reason of mine.” They go on reading the Bible with a pen-knife, cutting out this and that. Now, if I have a right to cut out a certain portion of the Bible, I don’t know why one of my friends has not a right to cut out another, and another friend to cut out another part, and so on. You would have a queer kind of Bible if everybody

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THE SUPERNATURAL IN THE BIBLE.

THE SUPERNATURAL IN THE BIBLE.

It is a most absurd statement for a man to say he will have nothing to do with the supernatural, will not believe the supernatural. If you are going to throw off the supernatural, you might as well burn your Bibles at once. You take the supernatural out of that Book and you have taken Jesus Christ out of it, you have taken out the best part of the Book. There is no part of the Bible that does not teach supernatural things. In Genesis it says that Abraham fell on his face and God talked with him.

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INSPIRATION.

INSPIRATION.

When Paul wrote to Timothy that all Scripture was given by inspiration of God and was profitable, he meant what he said. “Well,” some say, “do you believe all Scripture is given by inspiration?” Yes, every word of it; but I don’t believe all the actions and incidents it tells of were inspired. For instance, when the devil told a lie he was not inspired to tell a lie, and when a wicked man like Ahab said anything, he was not inspired; but some one was inspired to write it, and so all was given by

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CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER III.

The Old and the New Testaments . I WANT to show how absurd it is for anyone to say he believes the New Testament and not the Old. It is a very interesting fact that of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, it is recorded that our Lord made quotations from no less than twenty-two. Very possibly He may have quoted from all of them; for we have only fragments reported of what He said and did. You know the Apostle John tells us that the world could scarcely contain the books that could be writ

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PRINTING THE REVISED VERSION.

PRINTING THE REVISED VERSION.

Suppose some one had said that when we had a revised version of the New Testament, it was going to have such a large circulation—men reading it wherever the English language is spoken—the statement would hardly have been believed. The new version came out in New York on a Friday—on the same day that it was published in London. Chicago did not want to be behind New York. At that time the quickest train between the two cities could not accomplished the journey in less than about twenty-six hours.

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CIRCULATION OF THE BIBLE.

CIRCULATION OF THE BIBLE.

The Bible was about the first book ever printed, and to-day New Testaments are printed in three hundred and fifty-three different languages, and are going to the very corners of the earth. Wherever the Bible has not been translated, the people have no literature. It will not be long before the words of Jesus Christ will penetrate the darkest parts of the earth, and the darkest islands of the sea. When Christ said, “The Scriptures can not be broken,” He meant every word He said. Devil and man and

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BABYLON.

BABYLON.

First regarding Babylon—“And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And th

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NINEVEH.

NINEVEH.

Now take Nineveh. “And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing-stock. And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste; who will bemoan her? Whence shall I seek comforters for thee?” Now, how are you going to cover the city up? “I will cast upon her abominable filth.” How are you going to cast abominable filth upon the city? And yet for 2,500 years Nineveh was buried and an abominab

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TYRE.

TYRE.

Then look at Tyre: “Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Oh Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus and break down her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God, and it shall become a spoil to the nations.” Coffin, who

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JERUSALEM.

JERUSALEM.

Now take the prophecy in regard to Jerusalem: “And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it saying, If thou hadst known, even thou at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace: But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side.” Didn’t Titus do that? Didn’t the Roman Emperor do that very thing? “And shall lay thee even with the gr

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EGYPT.

EGYPT.

Now take the prophecies regarding Egypt: “It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations; for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.” Now, mark you! Egypt was in its glory when this was prophesied. It was a great and mighty empire, but for centuries it has been the basest of all nations. They have not got a native prince or king to reign over them. The man that is reigning over them now is not an Egyptian, but he is

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THE JEWS.

THE JEWS.

Then, again, the prophecy of Balaam with regard to the Jews has been already greatly fulfilled. “Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel?” The Jews were not to be reckoned amongst the nations. There is something in this people’s looks and habits that God continues to perpetuate, just, as I believe, to make them witnesses in every land of the truth of the Bible. The race has remaine

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OTHER PROPHECIES.

OTHER PROPHECIES.

We see how it was prophesied that Eli should suffer. He was God’s own high priest, and the only thing against him was that he did not obey God’s word faithfully and diligently. He was like a good many nowadays. He was one of these good-natured old men who don’t want to make people uncomfortable by saying unpleasant things, so he let his two boys go on in neglect, and did not restrain them. He was just like some ministers. Oh! let every minister tell the truth, though he preach himself out of his

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A REMINISCENCE OF DR. ANDREW BONAR.

A REMINISCENCE OF DR. ANDREW BONAR.

I was in London in ’84 and a barrister had come down from Edinburgh. He said he went through to Glasgow a few weeks before to spend Sunday, and he was fortunate enough to hear Andrew Bonar. He said he happened to be there the Sunday Dr. Bonar got to that part of the Epistle of Galatians where it says that Paul went up to Jerusalem to see Peter. “Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.” He let his imagination roam. He said one day he could imag

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ORATORICAL PREACHING.

ORATORICAL PREACHING.

I know there is a class of people who say that kind of preaching won’t do in this country. “People want something oratorical.” Well, there is no doubt but that there are some who want to hear oratorical sermons, but they forget them inside of twenty-four hours. It a good thing for a minister to have the reputation of feeding his people. A man once made an artificial bee, which was so like a real bee that he challenged another man to tell the difference. It made just such a buzzing as the live be

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FAMILY WORSHIP.

FAMILY WORSHIP.

Now, when you read the Bible at family worship or for private devotions, look for suitable passages. What would you think of a minister who went into the pulpit on Sunday and opened the Bible at hazard and commenced to read? Yet this is what most men do at family prayers. They might as well go into a drug store and swallow the first medicine their eye happens to see. Children would take more interest in family prayers if the father would take time to search for some passage to suit the special n

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HELPFUL QUESTIONS.

HELPFUL QUESTIONS.

I have seen questions that will help one to get good out of every verse and passage of Scripture, They may be used in family worship, or in studying the Sabbath School lesson, or for prayer meeting, or in private reading. It would be a good thing if questions like these were pasted in the front of every Bible: 1. What persons have I read about, and what have I learned about them? 2. What places have I read about, and what have I read about them? If the place is not mentioned, can I find out wher

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FEED YOURSELF.

FEED YOURSELF.

The quicker you learn to feed yourself the better. I pity down deep in my heart any men or women who have been attending some church or chapel for, say five, ten, or twenty years, and yet have not learned to feed themselves. You know it is always regarded a great event in the family when a child can feed itself. It is propped up at table, and at first perhaps it uses the spoon upside down, but by and by it uses it all right, and mother, or perhaps sister, claps her hands and says, “Just see, bab

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THE LAW OF PERSEVERANCE.

THE LAW OF PERSEVERANCE.

The best law for Bible study is the law of perseverance. The Psalmist says, “I have stuck unto thy testimonies.” Application to the Word will tend to its growth within and its multiplication without. Some people are like express-trains, they skims along so quickly that they see nothing. I met a lawyer in Chicago who told me he had spent two years in studying up one subject; he was trying to smash a will. He made it his business to read everything on wills he could get. Then he went into court an

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THREE BOOKS REQUIRED.

THREE BOOKS REQUIRED.

There are three books which I think every Christian ought to possess. The first, of course, is the Bible. I believe in getting a good Bible, with a good plain print. I have not much love for those little Bibles which you have to hold right under your nose in order to read the print; and if the church happens to be a little dark, you cannot see the print, but it becomes a mere jumble of words. Yes, but some one will say you cannot carry a big Bible in your pocket. Very well, then, carry it under

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SUNDAY SCHOOL QUARTERLIES AND THE BIBLE.

SUNDAY SCHOOL QUARTERLIES AND THE BIBLE.

I think Sunday school teachers are making a woeful mistake if they don’t take the whole Bible into their Sunday school classes. I don’t care how young children are, let them understand it is one book, that there are not two books—the Old Testament and the New are all one. Don’t let them think that the Old Testament doesn’t come to us with the same authority as the New. It is a great thing for a boy or girl to know how to handle the Bible. What is an army good for if they don’t know how to handle

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THE BOOK OF JOB.

THE BOOK OF JOB.

An Englishman once remarked to me: “Mr Moody, did you ever notice this, that the book of Job is the key to the whole Bible? If you understand Job you will understand the entire Bible!” “No,” I said, “I don’t comprehend that. Job the key to the whole Bible! How do make that out?” He said: “I divide Job into seven heads. The first head is: A perfect man untried . That is what God said about Job; that is Adam in Eden. He was perfect when God put him there. The second head is: Tried by adversity . J

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MATTHEW.

MATTHEW.

Men sometimes tell me when I go into a town: “You want to be sure and get such a man on your committee, for he has nothing to do and he will have plenty of time.” I say: “No, thank you, I do not want any man that has nothing to do.” Christ found Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom. The Lord took some one He found at work, and he went right on working. We do not know much about what he did, except that he wrote this Gospel. But, what a book! Where Matthew came from we do not know, and where

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MARK.

MARK.

The four Gospels are independent of each other, no one was copied from the other. Each is the complement of the rest, and we get four views of Christ, like the four sides of a house. Matthew writes for Jews. Mark writes for Romans. Luke writes for Gentile converts. You don’t find any long sermons in Mark. The Romans were quick and active, and he had to condense things in order to catch them. You’ll find the words “Forthwith,” “Straightway,” “Immediately,” occur forty-one times in this gospel. Ev

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LUKE.

LUKE.

We now come to Luke’s gospel. You notice his name does not occur in this book or in Acts. (You will find it used three times, viz.; in Colossians, Timothy and Philemon). He keeps himself in the background. I meet numbers of Christian workers who are ruined by getting their names up. We do not know whether Luke was a Jew or a Gentile. The first we see of him is in Acts 16:10 “And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had ca

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JOHN.

JOHN.

John was supposed to be the youngest disciple, and was supposed to be the first of all that Christ had to follow Him. He is called the bosom companion of Christ. Someone was complaining of Christ’s being partial. I have no doubt that Christ did love John more than the others, but it was because John loved him most. I think John got into the inner circle, and we can get in too if we will. Christ keeps the door open and we can just go right in. You notice nearly all his book is new. All of the eig

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ACTS.

ACTS.

A good lesson to study is how all through the book of Acts defeat was turned to victory. When the early Christians were persecuted, they went every where preaching the Word. That was a victory, and so on all through. Luke’s gospel was taken up with Christ in the body, Acts with Christ in the church. In Luke we read of what Christ did in His humiliation, and in Acts what He did in His exaltation. With most men, their work stops at their death, but with Christ it had only begun. “Greater works tha

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THE MICROSCOPIC METHOD.

THE MICROSCOPIC METHOD.

Let me show what I mean by the microscopic method by taking the first verse of Psalm 52: “Why boastest thou thyself in iniquity, O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth continually.” This verse naturally falls into two divisions, on the one side being—man, on the other—God. Man—mischief; God—goodness. Is any particular man addressed? Yes: Doeg the Edomite, as the preface to the psalm suggests. You can therefore find the historic reference of this verse and Psalm in 1 Samuel 22:9. Now take a c

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THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BY CHAPTERS.

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BY CHAPTERS.

Chapter 1. The call of the first five disciples. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon that John stood and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” Two of John’s disciples then followed Jesus, and one of them, Andrew, went out and brought his brother Simon. Then Jesus found Philip, as he was starting for Galilee, and Philip found Nathaniel, the skeptical man. When he got sight of Christ his skeptical ideas were all gone. Commit to memory verses 11 and 12: “He came unto his own and his own received

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BIBLE CHARACTERS.

BIBLE CHARACTERS.

Another good way is to study Bible characters—take them right from the cradle to the grave. You find that skeptics often take one particular part of a man’s life—say, of the life of Jacob or of David—and judge the whole by that. They say these men were queer saints; and yet God did not punish them. If you go right through these men’s lives you will find that God did punish them, according to the sins they committed. A lady once said to me that she had trouble in reading the Bible, that she seeme

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PROPER NAMES.

PROPER NAMES.

Another interesting study is the meaning of proper names. I need hardly remark that every name in the Bible, especially Hebrew names, has a meaning of its own. Notice the difference between Abram (a high father), and Abraham (father of a multitude), and you have a key to his life. Another example is Jacob (supplanter), and Israel (Prince of God). The names of Job’s three daughters were Jemima (a dove), Kezia (cassia), and Keren-happuch (horn of paint). These names signify beauty; so that Job’s l

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CONVERSION.

CONVERSION.

People talk about Conversion —what is conversion? The best way to find out is from the Bible. A good many don’t believe in sudden conversions. You can die in a moment. Can’t you receive life in a moment? When Mr. Sankey and myself were in one place in Europe a man preached a sermon against the pernicious doctrines that we were going to preach, one of which was sudden conversion. He said conversion was a matter of time and growth. Do you know what I do when any man preaches against the doctrines

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KEY WORDS.

KEY WORDS.

A friend gave me some key words recently. He said Peter wrote about Hope: “When the Chief Shepherd shall appear.” The keynote of Paul’s writings seemed to be Faith , and that of John’s, Love . “Faith, hope and charity,” these were the characteristics of the three men, the key-notes to the whole of their teachings. James wrote of Good Works , and Jude of Apostasy . In the general epistles of Paul some one suggested the phrase “ in Christ .” In the book of Romans we find justification by faith in

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BIBLE MARKING: ITS NECESSITY.

BIBLE MARKING: ITS NECESSITY.

An old writer said that some books are to be tasted, some to be swallowed, and some to be chewed and digested. The Bible is one that you can never exhaust. It is like a bottomless well: you can always find fresh truths gushing forth from its pages. Hence the great fascination of constant and earnest Bible study. Hence also the necessity of marking your Bible. Unless you have an uncommon memory, you cannot retain the good things you hear. If you trust to your ear alone, they will escape you in a

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ITS ADVANTAGES.

ITS ADVANTAGES.

Bible marking should be made the servant of the memory. If properly done, it sharpens the memory; rather than blunts it, because it gives prominence to certain things that catch the eye, which by constant reading you get to learn of by heart. It helps you to locate texts. It saves you the trouble of writing out notes of your addresses. Once in the margin, always ready. I have carried one Bible with me a great many years. It is worth a good deal to me, and I will tell you why; because I have so m

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HOW TO MARK AND WHAT TO MARK.

HOW TO MARK AND WHAT TO MARK.

There are many methods of marking. Some use six or eight colored inks or pencils. Black is used to mark texts that refer to sin; red, all references to the cross; blue, all references to heaven; and so on. Others invent symbols. When there is any reference to the cross, they put “+” in the margin. Some write “G”, meaning the Gospel. There is danger of overdoing this and making your marks more prominent than the scripture itself. If the system is complicated it becomes a burden, and you are likel

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TAKING NOTES.

TAKING NOTES.

When a preacher gives out a text, mark it; as he goes on preaching, put a few words in the margin, key-words that shall bring back the whole sermon again. By that plan of making a few marginal notes, I can remember sermons I heard years and years ago. Every man ought to take down some of the preacher’s words and ideas, and go into some lane or by-way, and preach them again to others. We ought to have four ears—two for ourselves and two for other people. Then, if you are in a new town, and have n

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ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES.

ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES.

Turn to Exodus 6:6-7-8. In these verses we find seven “I wills.” I will bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians. I will rid you out of their bondage. I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm. I will take you to me for a people. I will be to you a God. I will bring you in into the land [of Canaan]. I will give it to you for a heritage. Again: Isaiah 41:10. “Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I wi

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SUGGESTIONS.

SUGGESTIONS.

Do not buy a Bible that you are unwilling to mark and use. An interleaved Bible gives more room for notes. Be precise and concise: for example, Neh. 13, 18: “A warning from history.” Never mark anything because you saw it in some one else’s Bible. If it does not come home to you, if you not understand it, do not put it down. Never pass a nugget by without trying to grasp it. Then mark it down. Personal Work—Three Kinds of Church Services—Church Members—Individual Experience—One Inquirer at a Tim

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THREE KINDS OF CHURCH SERVICES.

THREE KINDS OF CHURCH SERVICES.

There ought to be three kinds of services in all churches: one for worship—to offer praise, and to wait on the Lord in prayer; another for teaching; and at these services there needn’t be a word to the unconverted, (although some men never close any meeting without presenting the Gospel), but let them be for the church people; and a third for preaching the Gospel. Sunday morning is the best time for teaching, but Sunday night is the best night in the whole week, of the regular church services, t

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LAYING DOWN RULES.

LAYING DOWN RULES.

I admit one can’t lay down positive rules in dealing with individuals about their religious condition. Tin soldiers are exactly alike, but not so men. Matthew and Paul were a good way apart. The people we deal with may be widely different. What would be medicine for one might be rank poison for another. In the 15th of Luke, the elder son and the younger son were exactly opposite. What would have been good counsel for one might have been ruin to the other. God never made two persons to look alike

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YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE.

YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE.

It is a great mistake, in dealing with inquirers, to tell your conversion experience. Experience may have its place, but I don’t think it has its place when we are dealing with inquirers; for the first thing the man you are talking to will do will be to look for your experience. He doesn’t want your experience. He wants one of his own. Suppose Bartimeus had gone to Jerusalem to the man that was born blind, and said: “Now, just tell us how the Lord cured you.” The Jerusalem man might have said: “

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ONE INQUIRER AT A TIME.

ONE INQUIRER AT A TIME.

Then it is very important to deal with one at a time. A doctor doesn’t give cod-liver oil for all complaints. “No,” he says, “I must seek what each one wants.” He looks at the tongue, and inquires into the symptoms. One may have ague, another typhoid fever, and another may have consumption. What a man wants is to be able to read his Bible, and to read human nature, too. Those do best who do not run from one person in an inquiry-meeting to another, offering words of encouragement everywhere. They

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SUMMARY OF SUGGESTIONS.

SUMMARY OF SUGGESTIONS.

1. Have for constant use a portable reference Bible, a Cruden’s Concordance, and a Topical Text Book. 2. Always carry a Bible or Testament in your pocket and do not be ashamed of people seeing you read it on trains, etc. 3. Do not be afraid of marking it, or of making marginal notes. Mark texts that contain promises, exhortations, warnings to sinners and to Christians, gospel invitations to the unconverted, and so on. 4. Set apart at least fifteen minutes a day for study and meditation. This lit

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