How to Study the Bible

with

Seven Rules by Which to Study and Understand the Bible.

By I. M. HALDEMAN, D.D. (1884–1933); Pastor First Baptist Church, N. Y.

The Word of God.

The Bible contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers.

Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christians charter.

Here paradise is restored, heaven opened, and hell disclosed. The Lord Jesus Christ is its grand Object, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. Let it fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure.

It is given you in life, will be opened in the judgment, and remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, will reward the highest labor, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents. - Author Unknown

The Golden Rule of Bible Interpretation.

When the PLAIN SENSE of Scripture makes COMMON SENSE, SEEK NO OTHER SENSE. Therefore, take EVERY WORD at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning, UNLESS the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages, and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate CLEARLY otherwise. God, in revealing His Word, neither intends nor permits the reader to be confused. He wants His children to understand. - Author Unknown

How to Study the Bible.

"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
2 Timothy 2:15

In order to an intelligent and satisfactory study of the Bible there are at least eight principles which must be applied to it.

First, we must recognize that the Bible is written to, or about distinct classes.

Second, we must inquire of each Scripture, whether book, section, or passage, to whom it is written, and righteously give to each the portion belonging to it.

Third, we must know Dispensational Truth.

Fourth, we must put truth in its proper dispensational relation.

Fifth, we must know the distinction between things which appear similar, but are different.

Sixth, we must know the meaning and purport of each book of the Bible.

Seventh, we must know how to divide each book into its component parts.

Eighth, we must recognize that each book finds its place by the law of growth and by moral and spiritual logic; so that it is impossible to take any book out of its place without deranging the whole order of revelation.

Two other observations may be made, namely: that the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old and therefore many of its books must be, and are, commentaries on the Old; and further, that each book has its own key hung up by the door.

DISTINCT CLASSES.

We must recognize that the Bible is written to, or about distinct classes.

According to the general view everything from Genesis to Revelation is written to, or about the church and Christians.

No greater mistake could be made. The truth is, the church and Christians occupy a very restrained area of the Bible.

If all that is said directly about the church and Christians was printed by itself it would make a very small book.

Not even all of the New Testament is directly written to, or about the church.

In his Epistle to the Corinthians the Apostle speaks of Jew, Gentile, and the Church of God. 1Corinthians 10:32

The Bible is written to, or about one or other of these classes. Sometimes in the same book there are things which belong to all three, or have application to them either as object or subject. Sometimes there are books which belong to one class and rigidly exclude the others either as subject or object. By this is not meant that all Scripture is not profitable for doctrine, reproof, or correction, for we are definitely told that all things which happened to the Children of Israel happened unto them that they might be as types full of instruction to us upon whom the ends of the ages have come, and that the whole Bible from end to end is intended for the profit and furnishing of the man of God unto all good works; it is meant to say, however, that in every Scripture one or other of these classes has priority of claim and that the truth must first be considered in the light of its original relation before its profit can be more extendedly applied. My friend may receive a letter intended exclusively for him; and yet when he hands it to me to read I may discover something quite necessary for me to know, some lessons and truths well enough for me to apply; but even then I would never dream of claiming that the letter was first written to, or about me.

Each class therefore, Jew, Gentile, and Church of God, is the primary subject or object of some particular form or accent of truth; and we must recognize this classification in any endeavor we may make towards the study of Holy Scripture.

TO WHOM IS IT WRITTEN?

We must inquire of each Scripture to whom it is written and give to each class the portion of truth belonging to it.

We have no right to take truth from one class and give it to another: to do so is as much an act of robbery as it would be to go into a man's house, steal his coat, and wear it forth as ours. And yet this robbery has been carried on in the most extensive way by preachers and teachers of the Word.

In no case has this been more marked than in relation to the promises of Israel. Whole sections, chapters, and passages have been taken bodily from the Jew and transferred without compunction to the church and Christians.

It is a common thing to take the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah which speaks of the time when the Jew shall be the head and no longer the tail of nations; when Jerusalem shall be exalted as the capital of the whole earth and the wealth of the Gentiles like a rising tide shall pour into it; it is common to take all this and apply it to the church and Christians.

Again and again it is read in Missionary meetings and preached from as the assurance given by God Himself that the world will be converted by the Gospel and the church exalted to reign in glory over all nations. Mount Zion is made to mean the church. Jews mean Christians, and the Gentiles coming in with their riches the vast multitude of converts yielding to the truth of the Word, the conviction of the Spirit, and the power of missionary zeal.

And for all this not a single ground or warrant. The Jew is never called a Christian any more than he is known as a Gentile, nor has Mount Zion any more reason to be called the church than Bunker Hill to stand for Westminster Abbey. Out of this robbery a whole system of modern theology lives and thrives, finding its only sustenance in the plunder it has obtained by taking from the Jew the promises which God has so solemnly given to him, and to him alone.

When you receive a letter, the first thing to do is to look at its superscription, find out to whom it is addressed, and respect that address by giving it to the owner.

Such a procedure would save from the disastrous results of misplacing truth; and that this misplacement is disastrous is in evidence.

I heard an earnest sermon from the text, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." The preacher with the profoundest conviction that he was doing the will of God echoed the thunders of Sinai and belched its lightnings over the heads of his hearers, insisting that in order to salvation each soul must toil and labor with strong crying and tears to win the Divine favor, and then tremble at the last, lest with all its efforts it should fail to win the salvation it had so laboriously sought. If the preacher had inquired as to whom this exhortation was written he would have been delivered from the misplacement of truth and the darkening of counsel with words without knowledge. The text in question occurs in an epistle. It is written to those who are saved, to those whose names are in the Book of Life. It is written to the church at Philippi and is an exhortation to those who by the grace of God already possess salvation to work it out. It is not an exhortation to work to salvation but from it. It is an exhortation to take this salvation and work it out in our daily lives in such fashion that God may be glorified in us; trembling, that is to say filled with a sense of carefulness lest in any manner we should obscure the glory of our salvation, but at the same time fully assured in our endeavor to live the Christian life by the fact that in all our working, "it is God that worketh in us to will and do of His own good pleasure."(Php2:12-13)

Take up the Epistle to the Corinthians.

There are many things said in that portion of Scripture which commentators endeavor to explain by local conditions, such as the order of the ordinances, prayer, and the public attitude of women in the churches. A glance at the superscription will demonstrate that the book is anything but local. The superscription reads: "to all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." So far from being local therefore the application is as much to Galatia, Rome, or Ephesus. It is as much for the Twentieth Century as the First, as much for New York as for Corinth.

In the Epistle of James there are some marked things about the calling together of the elders and the anointing with oil. This epistle is written to the TWELVE TRIBES scattered abroad. A. reading of its contents in the light of its superscription might change certain expositions not altogether excuseless for the vagaries of "faith healing."

The Book of the Revelation is not infrequently characterized as dark, difficult to understand and wholly impracticable. And yet the title of the book ought to contradict all such judgment, seeing that it is actually called the Apokalupsis, which signifies the unveiling, the revealing; while the superscription testifies as to its most practical character not only by the constantly reiterated exhortation, "He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches," but by the superscription itself; for that superscription is "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him, to show unto His servants."

His servants are His workmen, working in His Word; and as He through an Apostle exhorts them to so divide that Word that they may not be ashamed before Him but be approved at His coming, it may be said without fear of controversy that He could not send a specially inspired, impracticable, and incomprehensible message to these servants.

The superscription then manifests that the book is for practical purposes and that he who takes k up with the inquiry on his lips, "To whom is this written," will find in the clearness of the answer the justification of the Apostle's exhortation to rightly divide the Word of Truth.

"Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth." 2Timothy 2:15

DISPENSATIONAL TRUTH.

No matter what may be the equipment of the Christian, no matter what intellectual, moral, or spiritual endowment he may have, unless he understands dispensational truth he will never fully lay hold of Bible doctrine; while many of the wondrous testimonies of the Word will be unto him but as the tangled threads in an endless labyrinth.

The warrant for the word "Dispensation" is to be found in Ephesians 3:2 and Colossians 1:25.

The Greek word for dispensation is oikonoinia, from which we get our English word economy, system, administration.

Such a word carries with it necessarily the idea of time, a period, an epoch, or age.

From the Bible point of view a dispensation is a definite period or epoch in which God makes manifest some characteristic dealing with man; dealing in one age or epoch distinctly from that of another and with different individuals or classes; revealing in each of these distinct dealings and administrations various and separate principles, various objectives and purposes.

To confound these dispensations, to take the principle of action revealed in one and apply it indiscriminately to another, to ignore the classes of persons and the peculiar aim of each dispensation is to produce confusion, contradiction, and lay the foundation for that disharmony which reigns all too manifestly to-day among Christian expositors.

There are eight dispensations, each having a stated point of departure, and an equally defined place of ending.

The Edenic Dispensation

Beginning at Genesis 1:26, with the creation of man, and ending at Genesis 3:24, with the expulsion of man.

In this dispensation man is seen as innocent, but untried.

He is at once tested for headship and as the expression of God's governmental authority in the earth. God tests him in His word and declared will. The actual test is whether man will abide by, and rest in what God has said, or lean to his own understanding. Whether he will take the Word of God or the dictates of reason as the standard and rule of his life.

The instrument of the test is necessarily the tree of knowledge; the agent in the test is that Old Serpent which is called Satan and the Devil.

Satan puts the test in the form of a temptation. The temptation is made by raising a question as to what God has said.

He does not at first openly deny God's Word, he acts in a very much more modern and hypercritical way; he simply suggests a doubt as to its authenticity: "Hath God said?"

That is to say, is this so, is it really after all the Word of God? Then he criticises the unreasonableness of the statement, makes light of its threatenings, swiftly passes on to its open denial and repudiation, and finally declares that man ought to act independently, and for himself.

Man yields to the Devil's subtlety and believes his lie rather than God's truth. He puts sight in the place of faith, exalts his own will instead of the will of God, and by this gets that from which God would have delivered him, the knowledge of sin.

The Edenic dispensation then is man tested and found self-willed rather than God-willed.

The Antediluvian Dispensation

Begins at Genesis 4:1, with the birth of Cain, and ends at Genesis 8:3, with the subsidence of the flood.

Man is here without law and under the reign of conscience, conscience coming in not as an original endowment from God, but as an evidence of sin, and as its Nemesis.

There is no restraint put upon the flesh. The flesh is allowed of God to work itself out. It does work itself out till it becomes a stench in the nostrils of God.

God's testimony in the Edenic dispensation is the tree as seen in Genesis 2:16-17. In the Antediluvian dispensation the testimony is the Ark, as indicated in Hebrews 11:7.

The Antediluvian dispensation gives us man turned over to his own will.

In this dispensation we have a declaration concerning the operation of the Spirit which illustrates the distinctive attitude of God in different dispensations and emphasizes the necessity of knowing dispensational application for truth. In Genesis 6:3, it is written: "And the Lord said, my Spirit shall not always strive with man."

The text is applied again and again in our times to awaken, to alarm, and to exhort the sluggish sinner to lay hold on the grace of God. And he is assured that if he does not so lay hold the Spirit of God will take his "sad flight" and leave him forever.

Such teaching is in itself absolutely pernicious, opposed to the whole trend of this dispensation, contradictory to the Grace of God; and he who so teaches makes manifest that he is fumbling with instead of expounding the Word of God. An examination of the passage in question will show that it belongs exclusively to the Antediluvian dispensation and can belong nowhere else. According to Genesis third this striving took place in the days of Noah. It was to last One Hundred and Twenty years. It was to last till the flood came.

It was to last during the testimony of warning that God should give the antediluvians, and did so last till the Antediluvian dispensation itself ended. The doctrine here taught in general is that the striving of the Spirit is limited, not individually, but dispensationally, and that this particular striving concerns the Antediluvian dispensation alone, that it can in no way support the theory- that the Spirit plays fast and loose with the sinner in this hour of grace. Own this doctrine of the striving of the Spirit as belonging to the age of Noah, keep it there that it may not uselessly invade and spoil the truth of the Spirit in this age, and in doing that the order of dispensational distinction will be maintained.

The Patriarchal Dispensation

Begins at Genesis 8:18, with the going forth of Noah out of the Ark, and ends at Genesis 50:26, with the death of Joseph.

God is now seen dealing with selected families and ruling for righteousness in the headship thereof, that is to say through the father, the father being the depository of revelation, and standing for the family in responsibility to God. The characteristic principle is election. God looks upon the world of idolators and alone of His good pleasure selects Abraham to be the beginning of the Family of Faith in the earth. (Joshua 24:2-3.)

This dispensation presents us with four forms of spiritual life as illustrated in the four Patriarchs.

1. In Abraham you have Faith.

2. In Isaac, the fruit of faith which is Sonship.

3. In Jacob, the fruit of sonship which is Service.

4. In Joseph the fruit of service, that is to say Glory and Rule.

The Mosaic Dispensation

Begins at Exodus 14:22, with the going forth of the Children of Israel out of Egypt, and ends at Matthew 11:13, with the coming of John the Baptist.

As in a previous dispensation God called out and separated unto Himself one family, even as in the dispensation previous to that He had called into view one man, so now He calls out and separates unto Himself one nation. He calls it out to be the memorial of His grace, the witness of His unity, and the inheritor of His unconditional covenant.

The nation despises Grace and puts itself under Law, and henceforth the Law becomes the basis of relationship between Israel and God. The Sabbath is for the first time given as a commandment, and thus both the Law and the Sabbath belong exclusively and dispensationally to Israel.

To take the Law and the Sabbath out of the Mosaic dispensation and enforce them in this age and dispensation of the church and Spirit is as excuseless a bit of confounding as it would be to teach in our public schools that the period of discovery in American history corresponded in all principles and applications with the period of colonization. It would be just as sensible to place the battle of Bunker Hill and the landing of Columbus in the same year as to put Mount Sinai in the same dispensation with Calvary.

The Messianic Dispensation

Begins at John 1:28-31 with the Baptism of Jesus, and ends at John 19:30, with the Cross. God manifests Himself in the flesh. He comes down in His Son and fulfills the covenant promise made to Israel. (Matthew 15:24; Romans 15:8; Galatians 4:4-5.)

As a messenger of the covenant Christ comes only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, characteristically refuses to listen to the Gentile woman when she appeals to Him on Jewish ground, and bids His disciples not to go into the way of, nor to preach the good news of the Messiah to any of the Gentiles.

The Holy Ghost Dispensation

Begins secretly, at John 20:22, with the breathing on of the Holy Ghost, and thus the coming of the Comforter. It begins publicly, at Acts 2:1-4, with the coming of the Holy Ghost to Israel as the Power promised to them through the prophet Joel. It ends secretly, at 1Thessalonians 5:2, with the Rapture, or sudden, secret Translation of the church into the air to meet the Parousia of Christ, and ends publicly, at Revelation 19:11-20; 20:1-2, with the appearing of Christ and the binding of Satan.

God at once begins dealing with man in grace on the basis of the cross as a sacrifice for sin, and invites to faith in a Risen and Ascended Man.

Having concluded the whole world under sin and set aside the Jew nationally, He no longer deals with nations as such, but with individuals, and through the Gospel and the Spirit is calling them out of all nations to form a peculiar body, the church, the spiritual temple, the habitation and dwelling place of God on earth.

The object of this dispensation. is not the conversion of the world but the calling-out of it those who from before its foundation were ordained to eternal life and glory. To that end the Gospel is to be a proclamation made in all the world, and to every creature.

The dispensation of the Holy Ghost stands over against the Messianic in this that while in the Messianic he is seen walking on the earth in the flesh, in this dispensation He is no longer seen, and yet through the Spirit just as really walks it as though He were flesh clothed before our very eyes. He is on the throne as to body, the Man in the Glory, but by the proxy of the Spirit is in the church, and individually in every person who has been made a partaker of His life.

The question of sin having been settled at the cross according to the demands of Divine righteousness, of which the resurrection of Christ is the infallible witness, it is no longer the Sin question but the Son question which is at issue between God and man. "What think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?" That is the supreme question on the answer of which turns all of heaven or hell.

In this dispensation it is not a question of what you are, but what Christ is. And the Grace of God is so absolute, the power of the Holy Ghost is so imminent that it is written: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Romans 10:9.

Under no other dispensation can or will such conditions of salvation prevail.

The Dispensation of the Times of Restitution

Begins with the Appearing of Christ and the Binding of Satan, and ends according to 1Corinthians 15:24, when Christ as the Second Man, the Last Adam, shall deliver up the world restored and regenerated to the Father.

This dispensation has two parts:

1. The Thousand Years, or the Millennium.

2. After the Thousand Years.

The Thousand Years begin with the binding of Satan, at Revelation 20:1-2 and end at Revelation 20:7, with the loosing of Satan.

The Thousand Years is exclusively the Day of Christ, while the whole period of the Times of Restitution inclusive of the Thousand Years is the Day of the Lord, the Last Day.

In the Thousand Years Jerusalem is the Capital of the world, Christ is the King of Israel and the King of nations, and personally and visibly seated in Jerusalem rules through united Israel as the ordained head of the nations over the whole earth.

It is a time not of grace, but righteousness. The Lord rules with a rod of iron and dashes in pieces as a potter's vessel. The people learn righteousness not by the Gospel, but by judgments.

It is the display and administration of a pure government in the hands of a righteous Man. It is the kingdom come upon earth. It is the kingdom whose source of power is heaven, and not earth.

After the Thousand Years, is undefined as to length.

In it Satan is loosed, tests the flesh finally, brings out its failure under any and all circumstances, and himself meets the eternal doom. The fourth and last Judgment, the judgment of the White Throne is set up, there is a great conflagration, the second resurrection, a new Genesis, and then the restored and regenerated earth is handed back to God with more of gain than Adam ever lost, while Christ takes His place as the Father of the Everlasting Age, as that God who is to be All and in All.

The whole period inclusive of the Millennium is a period of "putting down all rule and authority" under the feet of God and God's Man.

The Eternal State, or Dispensation

Begins at Revelation 21:1, and ends, NEVER. Christ is God in All, and is characteristically manifested as "The Father of the Everlasting Age." (Isaiah 9:6.)

Righteousness has at last found a home. In the Millennium righteousness "reigned," but in the Eternal state, under the New Heavens and the New Earth it "dwells." Paradise is no longer a garden spot of earth but the whole shining globe, and the Paradise Lost has been forgotten in. the Paradise Regained. Sin and sorrow, sickness and death are forever banished, and God is with men to wipe away the memory of every tear.

God has got His own world again, and no longer merely in the might of that creation over which the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy, but in the value of the redeeming blood of His dear Son. Henceforth, He is the unfoldment of the Eternal Father, as the Church is the eternal disclosure of the Son. Israel is the Memorial Nation in eternity, bearing witness of God's covenant faithfulness in time. The nations of them that are saved are transformed into the men with whom God lives, and over all is written that unspeakable decree "that of the Increase of this government of the Father by the Son there shall be NO END."

A perfect world, the witness of God's perfect love and grace, in which the face of Christ with all its measureless glories shall still be the face of Him whom we know as Jesus of Nazareth; a world amid whose splendors the Church shall always be exalted as above things in heaven or things in earth; a world where Christians shall be the trophies of infinite love, the objects of God's eternal kindness through riches of grace in Christ Jesus our Lord; and where with Him we shall shine as the supreme sons of God, the rulers of the universe, the God-men, the aristocrats, the best ones of eternity; where finally, our lives in the full rhythm of God's accomplished purpose concerning us shall constantly utter in every deed, or word, or thought, in every essence of our being, ascriptions of praise and glory to Him who redeemed us by His precious blood and made us to be that New Humanity which is the eternal enthronement of God, the synonym, the symbol of life and joy, of peace and power, absolute, and forever.

One characteristic is common to each time dispensation; each ends in the failure of man under responsibility.

In Eden he fails under responsibility to the Word.

In the Antediluvian dispensation he fails under responsibility to Conscience.

In the Patriarchal, under responsibility to Fatherhood. In the Mosaic, under responsibility to Law.

In the Messianic, under responsibility to Incarnation. In the Holy Ghost, to the Gospel.

In the Millennial, to the King of Righteousness.

At the close of each of these dispensations God gives man up to his own way.

In the Edenic, He gave him up to the knowledge of Sin.

In the Antediluvian, He gave him up to the Imaginations of Evil.

In the Patriarchal, He gave him up to the Food of Egypt.

In the Mosaic, He gave him up to Formalism. In the Messianic, to Judicial Blindness.

In the Holy Ghost, to the Love of the World.

In the Millennial, to the Going after Satan..

At the close of each dispensation God takes off the restraint of evil and allows it to head itself up in some particular form for Judgment.

In the Edenic, it heads itself up in a Fallen Woman. In the Antediluvian, in Sinful Angels.["sons of God" Ge6:2]

In the Patriarchal, in the king who knew not God.

In the Mosaic, in the Hypocrisy of Scribes and Pharisees.

In the Messianic, in Judas.

In the Holy Ghost, in Antichrist.

In the Millennial, in Satan.

Each dispensation ends with a great World Crisis.

In the Edenic, the great world crisis is the Expulsion of Man.

In the Antediluvian, it is the Flood.

In the Patriarchal, it is the Bondage of the Chosen People.

In the Mosaic, it is the Beheading of John the Baptist. In the Messianic, the Cross of Christ.

In the Holy Ghost, the Rapture of the Church. In the Millennial, the Binding of Satan.

After the Thousand Years there is the Judgment on Satan, the Great Conflagration, the Second Resurrection, and the Second Death, a Climax of Crises.

It must be evident as already intimated and illustrated that these dispensations include a wide variety of characteristic dealings and principles, and that it is absolutely necessary not only to know the outlines of these dealings and principles, but to be able to classify Truth in its several relations to them. Indeed, the classification of Dispensational Truth affords a distinct subject in itself.

It is sufficient to say that careful examination and prayerful consideration will show whole bodies of truth which belong exclusively to one dispensation and not to another; and that failure to put them in their proper dispensational relation means as great a disaster to that body or bodies of truth as the disarticulation of its members would be to the human body.

CLASSIFICATION OF DISPENSATIONAL TRUTH.

It is not only necessary to know the Dispensations, but eminently important to keep truth in its proper dispensational relation. To put the truth applicable to one dispensation into another is to risk confusion, and not only theological, but spiritual death.

Take, for example, the imprecatory psalms, as indicated in Psalms 58:10; 137:8-9.

These Scriptures are full of imprecation and breathe the spirit not of forgiveness but vengeance on the enemy.

This spirit seems such a contradiction to the age in which we live, such a contradiction to the attitude of love, grace and forgiveness occupied by the church that many efforts have been made by good Christians to reconcile them with the teachings of Christianity others finding the attempt useless have been led to expurgate them altogether from their Bibles.

NOW it is indisputably true that the spirit of imprecation and vengeance is absolutely contradictory to the present spirit and mission of the church, but it is not contradictory to God's mind nor to His intended dealings. There is a period coming when the Lord will be King over all the earth, when He will rule not in grace, but with a rod of iron, when He will no longer be full of long-suffering and forbearance, but will dash in pieces as a potter's vessel. A time is coming when the people of the earth shall learn righteousness, not by the preaching of the Gospel but by sudden judgments on the guilty. Isaiah 26:9. Revelation 2:25-29.

At that period the idea will be righteousness and not grace.

Instead of listening to appeals for mercy He will bend His ear to catch the invocations to judgment. It will not be the principle of vengeance but of vindication, not cruelty of feeling but justification of law; a dealing just as much in place then as it would be out of place now.

Apply the imprecatory psalms to this age and there is complete contradiction, put them where they belong in the Millennial era, and there is order, the order of the distinct dealings which God Himself reveals.

In Isaiah 60:1-12, we have a passage that is again and again applied to the church, being used to set forth the triumph of the Gospel, and the recompense of missionary zeal. But an examination of the statement in Galatians 3:27-28, will show that the passage cannot be related to the church, and does not belong to this dispensation.

Galatians tells us that in Christ there is neither "Jew nor Gentile." That is to say in the church all national distinctions disappear. But in the quotation from Isaiah the distinction of Jew and Gentile is particularly emphasized. The prophet is therefore not speaking of the church but of Israel in the last days after the church has been translated; he is speaking of that time in the Millennial Dispensation when the Jew shall be the head of the nations and when the Gentiles shall bring in their wealth to support him.

If you turn to Zechariah 14:3-20, you will find that National Thanksgiving does not belong to this age but to the Day of Christ. In that day the nation that does not send its representatives to Jerusalem to pray before the Lord and return thanks for blessings will be smitten in field and harvests.

Dispensational classification gives point and place of application to the prayer of the Holy Spirit.

In the very nature of the case if the Holy Spirit is in the church, if He is here as the executive of the Godhead and the all-potent administrator of the church, the seal of the individual Christian, then we are not warranted, but rather forbidden to pray for the coming or outpouring of the Spirit.

And yet we have a Scripture in Luke 11:13, which definitely, and by no less an utterance than that of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself authorizes a prayer for the Holy Spirit:

"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"

Is there a contradiction here?

If dispensational classification is not observed there will be.

Turn to John 7:37-39. "But this spake He of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified."

Jesus was not yet glorified, that is to say He was not yet crucified and raised from the dead. He had not yet ascended into heaven as the Risen Man, of which immense event the descent of the Holy Ghost was to be the indisputable evidence. The dispensation which gives us the Holy Ghost as an abiding guest in the hearts of believers had not yet come. The moment in which the Lord spoke was yet that of the Messianic dispensation, it was therefore perfectly justifiable to offer the prayer then, just as it would be thoroughly unjustifiable and contradictory now.

The one settling thing, the one thing that puts an end to all controversy is in the authoritative phrase: "The Holy Ghost was not yet given."

Dispensational classification explains the place of what is commonly known as "The Lord's Prayer."

That prayer belongs in the closing hours of this dispensation when the church is gone and when the elect Remnant among the Jews suffering under the persecution of the "Wilful" king call on God to deliver them from the horror of his rule, deliver them from the Great Tribulation and the power of this "Evil One," give them the daily bread which Antichrist makes it impossible for them to touch without sin, and bring in the long-promised kingdom of the Messiah. The prayer belongs essentially in that part of the present dispensation because grace will be gone and law and righteousness will be in vogue.

In Matthew 25:31-44, there is a picture of the coming of Christ, and the gathering before Him to judgment of all nations.

This judgment has been expounded as the last judgment and the scene set forth as the resurrection of the dead.

Not only is there no thought of resurrection in the passage, but strict examination, will show that the Christian does not appear in it at all.

Nations are there, and they are judged, not according to the relation they have held to the Gospel but rather according to the manner in which they have treated the "Brethren of Christ." The brethren of Christ in this case as cognate scriptures demonstrate are the Jews, the elect remnant who escape out of the hands of the Antichrist. As these nations, principally the nations of Europe have treated the Jew, so will they be dealt with and judged in that hour of hours, "before the Son of Man."

The place of this judgment is in order at the commencement of the Millennial dispensation, and at least seven years after the Judgment Seat of Christ before which the church stands after her resurrection and rapture.

Dispensational order is remarkably set before us in Acts 15:14-18.

"God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name.... After this I Will Return, and will build again the tabernacle of David...."

This is the order as dispensationally indicated by the Spirit:

God is now in this dispensation of the Holy Ghost "taking out" a people for His name. It is therefore the dispensation of the Taking Out, the Calling Out, the Called Out Ones, the Church. It is not the time of pell-mell conversion to Christ, but the calling out from among all peoples kindreds and tongues, here and there, an individual to faith and life in Christ.

"After this," after the calling out of the church, He will return and build up the house of David. That is to say. He will set up and establish the Jewish economy in the earth.

The church for this dispensation.

The Jew for the next.

That is the Divine Order.

The distinctive value of dispensational truth may be seen by contrasting the dispensation of the Holy Ghost with the Mosaic dispensation.

In the Mosaic dispensation, God dealt nationally.

In the Holy Ghost dispensation, He deals individually.

In the Mosaic dispensation, He dealt with one nation.

In the Holy Ghost dispensation, He deals among all nations.

In the Mosaic dispensation, He brought in the Jew, and shut out the Gentiles.

In the Holy Ghost dispensation, He brings in the Gentiles, and shuts out the Jew.

In the Mosaic dispensation, God dealt according to man's work.

In the Holy Ghost dispensation, He deals according to Christ's work.

In. the Mosaic dispensation, God dealt on the basis of Law.

In the Holy Ghost dispensation, He deals on the basis of Grace.

In the Mosaic dispensation, God said: "Do, and live." In the Holy Ghost dispensation, He says: "Live, and do."

In the Mosaic dispensation, the Law brought a work for man to do.

In the Holy Ghost dispensation, the Gospel brings a Word for man to believe.

In the Mosaic dispensation, all is summed up in a word of two letters. "Do."

In the Holy Ghost dispensation, all is summed up in a word of four letters, "Done."

The attempt to put Christians and Gentiles under the law of Moses in this dispensation gave this country the witchcraft of Salem, and such modern misnomers as Christian Sabbath, and American Sabbath.

Law is right in its place and for a people on earth in the flesh, and it is to be remembered that the law is always for the sinful man in the flesh, but it is out of place and all wrong for a Christian, one who is in Christ and no longer seen of God as in the flesh, but risen, ascended and seated with Christ in heavenly places.

The Priesthood of Christ illustrates dispensational truth and makes manifest that the Christian is not under the Mosaic Law, or dispensation.

In Hebrews 8:4, it is written: "If He (Jesus) were on earth He should not be a priest."

In Hebrews 7:12-14, the reason is given: "Our Lord sprang out of Juda: of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood."

Priesthood on earth belongs to the tribe of Levi, and is for those who are under the Law.

The Priesthood of Christ belongs in heaven, and is for those only who are joined to Him as the man risen from the dead, ascended and seated in the glory.

The Christian. who goes under the law, goes under the Levitical priesthood; as Christ is a priest only for those who are judicially dead, risen and ascended in Him to heavenly places, then the Christian who goes under the law shuts himself out from the priesthood of Christ.

Thus a knowledge of the dispensational place of Christ's Priesthood would settle all controversy as to the Christian's relation to the law.

But more than this, it would settle all controversy about sacerdotalism and make a separate priesthood in. the church impossible. And this is self-evident. According to Holy Scripture, Christ never was a priest on earth. He could not, He would not be a priest if He were on earth to-day. By what law has anyone who wears the name of Christ the right or authority to claim priesthood apart from, or in any other sense than that in which all are spiritual priests.

Accept dispensational distinction and prelacy in the church is at an end.

Dispensational classification can alone save Truth from contradicting itself.

Take for example, Romans 11:26, and Romans 11:28, read them in the light of the proposition that there is no such thing as dispensational truth or that both verses belong to the same period, and you have a contradiction that all the ingenuity or piety of men cannot excuse, or minimize, for Romans 11:26, declares that "All Israel shall be saved," while Romans 11:28, asserts with equal force that "As concerning the Gospel, they are enemies."

But put verse 28 in this dispensation and all the facts of history and experience will demonstrate its truth. Put verse 26 in the Millennial age, the age that will follow this, and you will see that the nation of Israel is saved, as the Apostle Paul was saved, by the personal Appearing of Jesus Christ in glory.

Thus dispensationally classified the two verses harmonize instead of clashing.

Take Isaiah 2:1-4, "In the last days nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

Read II Timothy 3:1, "In the last days perilous times shall come."

Apply these "last days" to the same dispensation and there is a contradiction that cannot be explained away.

Read carefully the passage in Isaiah with the context and you will see that the last days of blessing are introduced by judgments which other scriptures show take place at the coming of Christ. And thus the last days of blessing in the Old Testament actually follow the Coming of Christ.

Read the statement in the Epistle to Timothy and you will find that the last days of peril and suffering, of war and apostasy, precede the Coming of the Lord.

Put the coming of the Lord between these two classes of last days and they fall naturally into their proper dispensations. This dispensation will end with perilous times in Church and State, a general apostasy and smashup, at the climax of which the Lord will come and smite the earth for its sin and failure under responsibility to grace. Then when the Lord is come the new dispensation of the Millennium will open in blessing and peace. Thus the passage in Timothy refers to the closing hours of this age.

Dispensationally classified and related, harmony flashes forth from that which otherwise is the centre of discord.

Attention to dispensational order will prevent the excuseless blunder about the church going through the Tribulation.

There are those who teach this to the dishonor of grace and the confusion of the Christian mind.

The Spirit seems to have taken particular care that this blunder should not occur. In Scripture the Tribulation is specially qualified as in relation to God's earthly people the Jews, and not to the church. In Jeremiah 30:7, the Tribulation is definitely called "The Day of Jacob's Trouble." Read also Isaiah 66:8. In Matthew 24:16, we are told by our Lord that the scene of the Tribulation will be "In Judea:" verse 20, speaks about flight on "The Sabbath Day;" and all the nomenclature is of a people under the Mosaic law. But Romans 6:4, positively declares that the church is not under the law. This last statement then being so, and those who are to pass through the Tribulation being under the law, under the Sabbath covenant, and unequivocally declared to be Jacob, or the people of Israel, it follows that the church is never referred to in any matter involving the Tribulation.

There are other and direct declarations such as Revelation 10, and the picture of the church in heaven during the whole course of the Tribulation as given in the book of Revelation from the fourth chapter to the nineteenth which settles the question; but the moment the Bible student recognizes that the Law and the Sabbath are not for the church and that the whole earth and not Judea is her arena when in the world, he will see the utter impossibility and absurdity of that doctrine which makes the Christian to go through the Tribulation as a sort of earthly purgatory anticipative to heavenly glory. He will see as in the case of Lot in Sodom that tribulation and judgment will not fall till the church has been clean "taken out" of the world.

The same classification will save from the equally absurd mistake of making the 144,000 of Revelation 14th stand for the church, and on that chapter building certain impossible and confusing doctrines.

The opening verse of the chapter shows this select and numbered company on Mount Zion. To the student of Scripture that word Zion ought to end all controversy. Zion is never the church even by the wildest allowance of imagination or "accommodation," invariably signifies the place itself, and stands only for Jewish thought and dealing. Of course a proper investigation and division of the book of Revelation makes it quite impossible to fall into the error of calling those who are declared in the seventh chapter to be the people of Israel, the church. But independently of all this, dispensational knowledge would save from such a mixture of things in heaven and in earth.

Passage after passage might be further cited to show that classification of truth according to dispensational distinction results in the light of a full dawn upon the divine pages, and touches every chord of revelation into perfect harmony.

Enough, however, has been said to show that knowledge of dispensational truth and ability to relate each truth to its own dispensation is absolutely necessary for him who would lay hold of the treasures of the Word, or reveal them to others.

DISTINCTION BETWEEN THINGS WHICH APPEAR SIMILAR.

We must know and maintain the distinction between things which though apparently similar are quite distinct. This principle is simply an emphasis of what has been said largely under the head of classification of Dispensational Truth, the classification, however, sometimes falling inside of similar dispensations.

As an example of passages which are quite different although commonly confounded, examine, Luke 21:24, and Romans 11:25. The first reads: "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

The second reads: "Blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in."

"The times of the Gentiles" signify the rule of the Gentile nations. That rule began as owned of God in Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. At that hour Cod set the Jew aside because of evil and sin against Him and brought in the Gentile governmentally. 'i pat rule as owned of God continued on down through the Roman Empire; it continues to-day trampling Jerusalem and the Jew under foot, making the once Holy city the capital of the False prophet, and denying Him who is the King and whose that city is; this rule will continue until the Gentile nations of the old Roman earth under Antichrist shall once more be gathered about Jerusalem; then Christ and His church previously caught up will come to the Mount of Olives to overthrow him, put an end to his confederacy, write finale upon Gentile Times, and bring in "The Times of the Jew."

"Behold the day of the Lord cometh...... for I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle...... then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations......and His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives......And the Lord shall be King over all the earth......Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited......in those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all languages of the nations (the ten nations of Antichrist, of the Roman[Arab -ed.] Earth) even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that GOD IS WITH YOU." Zechariah 14:1-11; Zechariah 8:23.

This is the time of the Jew, he is the head and no longer the Tail of the nations. "And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail." Deuteronomy 13.

The Times of the Gentiles historically then is the whole period from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar till the Lord shall come again in the clouds of Heaven and set up the Jewish State.

The "Fulness of the Gentile signifies the fulness or filling up of God's purposes in this age to take out from among the Gentiles a people for His name, as it is written: "God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name."

And to this agree the words of the prophet; as it is written: "After this (after the people from among the Gentiles are taken out), I will return, and build again the tabernacle (the house, the throne, and kingdom), of David." Acts 15:14-16.

Our Lord's name is the Christ, those who are taken out now from among the Gentiles unto His name are Christ-ians: this taking out from among the Gentiles began the day Peter preached at the house of Cornelius and the Holy Ghost fell on. all those who heard the Word; that taking out is being accomplished by the Holy Spirit and the Gospel as it is preached on the lips of men, and it will go on till the last one who shall constitute the "taking out" is called, then that body of called-out persons will be full, filled to its requisite number; for it must be self-evident that "a taking out from among the Gentiles" is not a taking of ail the Gentiles, it is a taking of some Gentiles from among others, and this is election: necessarily in an election there is a definiteness both as to number and time limit; this time limit must be marked by some well-defined point: it is so marked by the Translation of the church, by the resurrection of the dead and the transfiguration of the living into the Lord's presence in the air; an event which will precede the Appearing of Christ and His church to the Mount of Olives, at least, seven years.

Thus the Times of the Gentiles begin centuries before the birth of Christ and will end only at His Appearing to set up the kingdom of Israel; while the Fulness of the Gentiles begins only after the resurrection of the Lord and may end any moment by the sudden secret translation or rapture of the church into the air to meet Him, when like "the thief in the night" unknown to the world He shall come quietly to snatch away the church as His jewel, His "Pearl of great price." Matthew 13:45-46.

Thus the one truth involves the secret Coming of Christ and the Rapture of the church, the other the public Appearing of Christ and the beginning of that era when the nation of Israel shall be saved unto the glory of coming and millennial days.

The word Gospel is so familiar, its general definition as "good news" so well understood, that its application is supposed to be uniform. When therefore we read of the Gospel of the Kingdom, the Gospel of God, the Gospel of Grace, the Glorious Gospel, and the Everlasting Gospel, it is taken for granted that they all refer to one and the same thing. The similarity is impressed upon the average mind by the word Gospel. But however the word Gospel may make for similarity it is a mistake to imagine that the word covers one subject. On. the contrary the several designations of the Gospel are of themselves the indications of marked distinctions which the Spirit impresses on us to observe.

The Gospel of the Kingdom is the good news of the Kingdom to be set up in Israel with Jerusalem as the Capital, when the Lord Jesus shall come the second time as Messiah, as Son of David. It is therefore in the nature of the case a Gospel that cannot be preached until after this particular age or dispensation is passed, not till after the Rapture or Translation of the Church.

The Gospel of God is the good news that God is a Father loving men in spite of their sins and seeking sons who shall worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

The Gospel of Grace is the good news that Christ died for our sins, and rose again for our justification; this is peculiarly the Gospel that is to be preached in this age.

The Glorious Gospel would be better translated, "The Gospel of the Glory of the blessed (happy) God." Read I Timothy 1:11; II Corinthians 4:4.

It is the good news that Jesus Christ the crucified and risen man is now exalted to be the happy God. It is the good news of a God-man exalted to Heaven for believing men and their salvation.

The Everlasting Gospel is the good news of that era of time which is called the Age of Ages, the Millennial era; the good news that the King of Righteousness has come and is seated in Jerusalem as the King of nations, as the Prince of the Kings of the earth.

In recognizing these varied Gospels we get vistas of truth heretofore unopened and behold the keys with which many statements of Scripture otherwise dark are unlocked to our comprehension.

As a simple but striking example of things which seem similar but are absolutely distinct, take Matthew 25:34; Ephesians 4. The former reads, "The kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." The latter reads, "hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world."

The subject is election in both cases. In Matthew you have from the foundation of the world, in Ephesians you have before the foundation of the world. The difference is in the prepositions before and from: this distinction is rarely if ever seen; and yet the value of the distinction is immense.

From the foundation of the world is a term characterizing the kingdom as relating to earth and time, while before the foundation of the world takes us wholly above the earth and time and projects us into heaven and eternity, both past and future.

A striking illustration of the necessity of maintaining the distinction between things apparently similar may be found in a single passage. In Ephesians 15, it is written: "Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named."

Ordinarily this is applied to the same subject, the subject in both members of the verse supposed to be the Church of Christ as the Family of Faith.

The family in heaven is taken to be all those who of the church of Christ have died on through the ages, all who die now and depart to be with Christ in Heaven; the family on earth are supposed, correspondingly, to be those who live in the church on earth today; the one is thus the church in heaven, the other the church on earth.

However true it is that those who are in heaven form with those who are really saved on earth the one great spiritual family, it is not true that they are ever known as the family in heaven and the family in earth. The key to the first half of the verse is found in the literal reading, "in the heavens." Now this epistle is the epistle peculiarly of the heavens or the heavenlies. If you take your pencil and mark the word you will find that it is indeed the characteristic of the book, and is intended to set forth the fact that in God's mind the church has already gone home with the ascended Christ, and is seen of God as seated with Him, and in Him, in Heavenly Places, as it is written, "Hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:6.

The family in heaven then. means the church, the whole church, living or dead, in heaven or on earth. In other words, the church is the Heavenly Family.

There is another family, a family that is as much a family of God as the church of Christ, but a family that has to do wholly with the earth. While all the promises to the church are made concerning heavenly things, all the promises made to the other family have to do with the earth, and the earth alone. That family is the .nation of Israel, and this is the family of whom we speak as "The Family in Earth." In God's final purpose Israel is to reign on the earth, but the church seated in the Heavenlies with Christ above all principalities and powers is to rule even over all Israel. The object of the Apostle's statement then is to set Jesus Christ as the centre of things in heaven and in earth, both to the church, and also to the Jew.

Fail to recognize the distinction between these two families, allow yourself to be deceived with the idea that both families refer to the same thing and you will miss some of the most wonderful and comforting truths of the Word of God.

Admit the distinction and there will be opened to you whole sweeps of distinct truths which at the last from heaven and from earth gather at His feet to own Him as their objective and glory.

In Ephesians 1:6, it is written: "He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."

In II Corinthians 5:9, you read: "We labor that we may be accepted of Him."

In the one case it is stated that we have been accepted, and in. the other we are shown as under obligation to labor and toil in order to be accepted. Is there a contradiction here?

If the things have reference to the same truth there is a contradiction. But do they in spite of their similarity in form apply to distinct things? I answer they do. In Ephesians we are seen as to our standing before God in Christ, and as the rendering might be, "graced in Him."

In Corinthians we are seen as to our state, our daily walk.

Our standing is invariable. It is in Christ and God sees us as perfect as He is. Our state is variable. We do not always live as those who have been accepted as sons of God in the Risen Christ. Because this is so we are exhorted to bring our state up to our standing and seek to live in accord with it, not that we may be accepted as sons of God but that we may live acceptably before Him. A proper rendering of the passage in Corinthians will substantiate this interpretation and will at the same time remove the appearance of similarity.

Instead of accepted read "acceptable." We are to labor then not in order to be accepted as sons of God but to be acceptable sons of God. In other words because we are the sons of God accepted in the Beloved, we are to live acceptably, pleasingly before Him.

In the nature of the case, the knowledge of dispensational truth and the principles of strict classification will enable us more and more to distinguish between things which differ.

THE MEANING AND PURPORT OF THE DIFFERENT BOOKS OF THE BIBLE.

We must know the meaning and purport of each book of the Bible.

The Bible is made up of separate books, sixty-six in number.

These books are divided into two great parts, the Old and New Testaments, or more correctly, "The Scriptures of Israel," and "The Scriptures of the Church."

The Old Testament, is divided into three great parts: Law, Prophets and Psalms.

This was the division current among the Jews in our Lord's time. He sets His seal to this division: "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Inc." Luke 24:44.

The Law is known as the Pentateuch, the latter word signifies the fivefold book, and comes from the Greek, pente, five, and teuchos, book.

The five books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

The Prophets Twenty-nine books.

This division includes the prophetic and historic books, from Joshua to Malachi.

The Psalms Five books.

Job, Book of Psalms proper, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

Thirty-nine books in all in the Scriptures of Israel. The New Testament is divided into three great parts. Gospels, Acts and Epistles.

Gospels Four in number. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Three of these Gospels are called the "Synoptics," namely: Matthew, Mark and Luke.

These are called Synoptic from the Greek sun, together, and opsis, view, things viewed together or a general and uniform view. That is to say, these Gospels seem at first glance to give the same general and sequential view of the history of our Lord, while the Gospel according to John stands out in many and marked contrasts.

The Synoptics may be called the Earthly Gospels. The Fourth, or John's Gospel, the Heavenly Gospel.

The Book of Acts consists of two parts.

In the first part we have the Apostolate of Peter. In the second, that of Paul.

In the first we have the Kingdom presented again to the Jews; and in the second the Gospel given to the Jew first, and then the Gentile, with the gradual unfolding of God's purpose to call out the church from among the Gentiles.

Epistles to the churches:-Sixteen in number.

Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, First and Second Thessalonians.

These nine epistles are written by Saint Paul.

Seven epistles are written by John: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea.

Paul writes four individual, or personal, epistles:

First and Second Timothy, Titus and Philemon,

He writes one epistle to his nation: The Epistle to the Hebrews; he writes fourteen in all.

John writes two personal epistles: To the Elect Lady and her children, to the well-beloved Gains.

There are four epistles to the Hebrews:

The Apostle Peter writes two: First and Second Peter. James writes one: The Epistle of James. Paul writes one: The Epistle to the Hebrews, so distinctively called.

There are two general Epistles:

John writes one: The First Epistle of John. Jude writes the other: The Epistle of Jude.

The Epistles of John form the Family Epistles. They consist of letters to little children, fathers, young men, a mother and her children, a beloved brother in the Lord.

The New Testament is composed of twenty-seven, books.

In both these testaments we have a marvellous library, a library whose topics range from the creation of the world to the re-creation of a human soul.

The manner in which these books have been written and this library produced is declared by the Apostles Peter and Paul:

"God spake by the prophets." Hebrews 1:1.

"Holy men of God spake as they were moved (carried along) by the Holy Ghost." II Peter 1:21.

"The Spirit of Christ which was in them (thy prophets) testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory (glories) that should follow." I Peter 1:11

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." II Timothy 3:16.

Note who some of the authors of these books were, that is to say, those whom God by His Spirit used as His amanuenses:

Kings, such as David and Solomon; Prime Ministers, such as Mordecai and Daniel; Kings' Cup Bearers, such as Nehemiah.

Prophets, scholars, poets, soldiers, physicians, taxgatherers, cattle-drivers, shepherds, tent-makers, and illiterate, at least uneducated, fishermen.

These are of all sorts; but mainly the weak and those who were not mighty in the world were chosen of God to form His Bible.

And we are told that God makes such choice in order ^-That no flesh should glory in His presence." I Corinthians 1 29.

The period of time in writing the book was about sixteen hundred years. Think of it ! A book taking sixteen centuries to write. What a story its composition would tell of the lands in which written, the circumstances under which written, and the varied emotions in the hearts of those who were privileged to give it forth as the mind and will of God to men.

The Old Testament is written in two languages, the Hebrew and Syriac; the Septuagint, or Greek translation by the Seventy of Alexandria is quoted by our Lord and His Apostles.

The New Testament is wholly Greek.

The supreme object of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is to set forth the Son of God in His varied relations as Creator, Man, Redeemer, Priest, King and God-man.

The Bible is Christo-centric; without that centre all is chaos; with that the book is order, the expression of infinite intelligence, filled with light, with life and love, and intelligible to the quickened minds of the sons of men.

It is evident that each of these books contributes its part towards the general whole; that each has its special lineament to paint in the common portrait of the King; that each book stands for some definite form of the great revelation, and that necessarily each book has some special characteristic, some particular purport. This meaning and purport may sometimes be told in a word or a phrase. The knowledge of the meaning, the comprehension of the purport will flash light into the mind concerning the truths each book seeks to present.

Let us consider then more particularly the characteristic meaning and purport of the books of the Bible:

Genesis. Book of beginnings. Seed-plot of the Bible. The germs, the roots of every doctrine afterwards unfolded in the Bible.

The whole doctrine of man, his creation, fall, ruin, re-creation and glory, may be found in the first chapter.[sic -ed.]

Exodus. Going out, or book of Redemption. Redemption by blood and Redemption by power.

Leviticus. Sacrifice, Priesthood and Worship. This has been called the Priest's Guide Book.

Numbers. Wilderness Experience. You have here the suggestions, typically, of the church in the world, and Christian experience. Like Israel the church is passing on from the sands of time to the Promised Land and to the golden floors of the Temple of God. On the way there are foes to fight, lessons to learn, and experiences to enjoy in the manifested grace and forbearance of God.

Deuteronomy. Preparation for the land. To be read in connection with the Epistle to the Colossians.

Joshua. Conflict with the enemy in the land. To be read with Ephesians, the book of the "Heavenlies." The key, Ephesians 6:10-17.

Judges. Eye-sight instead of faith-sight. Key, Judges 21:25.

Ruth. Gentile bride for Jewish Lord. Boaz. Kinsman, Redeemer, Advocate.

Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, six books. They set before us the Story of the Kingdom.

I Samuel. King after man's choice, and the King after God's choice. The king after man's choice, splendid in stature, glorious in beauty, wilful in way. The King after God's choice, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, despised and rejected of men.

II Samuel. The man of sorrows and acquainted with grief exalted to be king over all Israel.

I Kings. The King of Glory.

II Kings. The Great Apostasy.

I Chronicles. God dealing in Grace with the Ark as the centre.

II Chronicles. God manifesting Glory with the Temple as the centre.

Ezra. Building the Temple.

Nehemiah. Building the City.

Esther. Secret Providence to a Godless people. Job. Self-righteousness.

Psalms. Christ's Sufferings and Glories.

Proverbs. Rules of Heaven for men on earth. Ecclesiastes. "Under the sun."

Song of Solomon. The marriage joy of Bride and Bridegroom: The joy of Christ and the Church in the marriage hour of glory when at last she shall come up out of the wilderness leaning on His arm to enter into the place prepared, where His banner over her shall be love.

Isaiah. The anticipated Gospel, and Israel in "The latter days." Key chapter, Fifty-third.

Jeremiah. "The day of Jacob's Trouble." Lamentations. Jerusalem under foot of the Gentiles. Ezekiel. Visions of God and Latter Day Glory. Daniel. Hand book of Gentile politics.

Hosea. The wandering nation.

Joel. Day of the Lord.

Amos. Desolation and Restoration.

Obadiah. Judgment on Gentiles.

Jonah. Substitution and Resurrection.

Micah. Bethlehem and the Babe.

Nahum. Gentile Confederacy.

Habakkuk. Messianic Glory.

Zephaniah. Israel the Head, and no longer the Tail. Zechariah. The Appearing in Glory on the Mount of Olives.

Malachi. The Sun of Righteousness, and the smiting of the earth.

Matthew. The King of the Jews.

Mark. The Servant. No Genealogy, no record of birth. Key words of the book, "Immediately," "Straight-way. These words express the servant character of our Lord, as set before us by Mark.

Luke. The Man among men.

John. God the Word who became man and dwelt among us that we might behold the glory of the Divine Fatherhood in the Divine Sonship.

Acts. History of the Holy Spirit acting in the church. Romans. Justification by Faith.

I Corinthians. Gospel Order.

II Corinthians. Discipline and Benevolence.

Ephesians. The Heavenlies.

Philippians. The mind of Christ.

Colossians. The Deity of Christ.

I Thessalonians. Waiting for the Son of God from Heaven. (Secret.)

II Thessalonians. Appearing of the Son of God from Heaven. (Public.)

Titus. "The Blessed Hope."

Philemon. "Put that on my account."

Hebrews. Shadows and Substance. The Book of Contrasts.

James. Justification by works. In Romans man is justified by faith in "God's sight." In James man is justified by works in "Man's sight."

I Peter. Pilgrims and Strangers.

II Peter. The Great Fire, and the Wonderful Reconstruction.

I John. Reading the Title clear, or Written Assurance. Key text. I John 5:13.

II John. Abiding in the Doctrine, or Christ coming again in the Flesh.

III John. Walking in the Truth.

Jude. The Great Apostasy, and Vengeance Coming.

Revelation. Consummation or the New Genesis taking the place of the Old.

The purport of the book, the purpose for which it was written, forms the point of view from which we must interpret its contents, get the grasp of its intents.

For example, in the Gospel according to Matthew we have no record of the ascension of Christ. Recognize that this book is written to set forth the Lord Jesus

Christ as the Messiah, the King of Israel, and you have the explanation of the omission: as king of Israel His place is not in Heaven but on earth, at Jerusalem the city of "The Great King."

There is no account of the Ascension in the Gospel of John.

Recognize the Lord's own utterance in John 3:13, that "No man hath ascended up to Heaven, but he that came down from Heaven, even the Son of Man which is in Heaven," and the omission becomes characteristic.

It is just as characteristic that the record of the Ascension should be given in Mark and Luke.

In Mark He is seen ascending as that servant who did the Father's will, and whom the Father would exalt as the witness that "the way to exaltation is in the dust."

He is seen ascending in Luke because as risen from the dead He must take a new, immortal Humanity to heaven, and sit there as "The Man in the Glory," the witness that as man He has met for men in His death perfectly all the demands of God's righteousness against the chief of sinners; He must sit there as the Second Man, the Last Adam, the Head of a new race, the prophecy of what all shall be who believe in Him; the shining glorious proclamation of that hour when the world shall be put not under angels, but redeemed, regenerated, and deathless man.

In Matthew the genealogy of Christ is connected with Abraham and David because as the King of Jews it is necessary that He shall get the Land through Abraham, and the Throne through David.

In Mark there is no genealogy because He is there represented as the Servant, and the servant has no need of ancestry.

In Luke His genealogy is carried back to Adam that He may be presented as the Son of Man and the seed of the woman.

In John we have no genealogy because the purport of that book is to set the Christ before us as the unbegun, eternally begotten Son of God, He who is from everlasting to everlasting.

For a right understanding of the book we read we are under obligation to put ourselves at its point of view and see the truth it presents in the light which that attitude and angle of vision may give.

DIVIDING THE BOOKS INTO THEIR COMPONENT PARTS.

We must know how to divide a Book into its component parts.

A book may be divided into characteristic and constituent parts: for example the Book of Job: Characteristically, the Book of Job may be divided into five parts:

1. The abode and power of Satan.

2. The manifested folly of human wisdom in its endeavor to explain the providence of God.

3. Thirty chapters of self-righteousness.

4. The need of a Days-man.

5. The vileness of human perfection..

Constituently, the book may also be divided into five parts:

1. God's permitted trial of Job by Satan.

2. The efforts of Job's friends to account for his trial.

3. The address of Elihu.

4. The Lord Himself answering Job.

5. Job coming to a knowledge of his own vileness in the presence of God's Holiness.

On the same principle it is possible to analyze chapters as well as sections. Take as an illustration the Gospel according to Matthew.

This is the Gospel of the King of the Jews: each chapter sets forth some special action of the King: 1. Generation of the King. 2. Birth of the King. 3. Baptism of the King. 4. Temptation. of the King. 5-7. Legislation of the King. 8-9. Manifested power of the King. 10. The King sending out ambassadors. 11. The King reporting Himself through His works to John. 12. The King giving His credentials to His enemies. 13. The King unveiling the mysteries of the Kingdom: or, presenting the Kingdom in a mystery. 14. The King acting in compassion. 15. The King acting in grace to Gentiles. 16. The King painting the portrait of His Bride. 17. The King giving a vision of His second Advent. 18. The King pointing out Regeneration as the door into the Kingdom. 19. The King and the Millenium, or the age of the Regeneration. 20. The King seeking laborers. 21. The King presenting Himself to His brethren in the flesh. 22. The King foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem. 23. The King setting aside the Jew as a nation till He comes again. 24. The Great Tribulation., "The day of Jacob's Trouble," before The King comes again. 25. The King coming first as a Bridegroom, and then as a Judge. 26. The King betrayed. 27. The King crucified. 28. The King raised from the dead and made not only the king over all Israel, but the authority over all things in Heaven.

Not only is it possible to take each chapter in some characteristic way, but to take the chapter and find in it an analysis of contents suggestive. Take as an example the Fifth chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians:

1. The location of the Christian between death and resurrection. v, 1.

2. The Christian's perfect body. v, 2.

3. The objective purpose of salvation. v, 4, 5.

4. The Judgment Seat of Christ. v, 10.

5. The true inspiration to service. v, 14.

6. The New Creation. v, 17.

7. The message to the world. v, 20.

8. The supreme argument. v, 21.

In turning a book into its component parts we may inquire when it was written, by whom it was written, to whom it was written, the circumstances under which it was written, why it was written; these questions will bring the book into its several parts before the student and set its sections, whether of chapter or verse, into clear vision.

EACH BOOK IN ITS ORDAINED PLACE.

There has been as much the manifestation of God's hand in the sequences of the books as in any other part of its creation; necessarily therefore each book is in its ordained place and cannot be taken out of it without the dislocation of the organism.

To illustrate, the Book of Ruth comes in between the Book of Judges on the one side, and the Book of Samuel on the other.

Ruth gives us the Gentile bride of the Jewish Lord and is therefore the type of the Church of Christ. Now the Church of Christ can only come into view after the failure in Israel; only when the marriage in Heaven takes place, or to be precise, when the church is called out, completed, and translated to meet the Lord at His Second Coming can the kingdom of Israel be set up. This is just what the position of the Book of Ruth shows conclusively. judges gives us failure in Israel, "every man doing that which was right in his own eyes." Samuel gives us the setting-up of the kingdom.

Here then you have the Gentile bride placed in the canon of scripture between the failure of Israel and the coming of the kingdom.

In the Book of Ezra you have the building of the Temple, and in Nehemiah the restoration of the city; it is of little matter what the chronology may be, the moral sequence demands that the dwelling place of God shall be looked at before the dwelling place of man; and examination will show that this sequence is independent of man's ordering.

To see how necessary the Book of Acts is to the place accorded it, it is only required in reading to close the book at the Gospel of John and open it again at the Epistle to the Romans. In John you close with Jesus on the shores of Galilee, but in Romans you find Him gone from the earth and the Church in His place, but no account of the origin or constitution of that church. Without the Book of Acts you cannot assist at the birth of the Church and the inauguration of the dispensation of the Holy Ghost.

The Book of the Revelation finds it place by inherent law.

It is a matter of little import when it was written, there is but one place which it can logically occupy, that is at the consummation of the Bible. I recall seeing some years ago a house in process of building; before the walls were half way up the carpenters began constructing the roof, and at a certain stage when the walls were complete, caused that roof to be swung up into its place. No matter when the roof was constructed there was but one place for it, and that on top, as the consummation of the building. No matter at what hour the Revelation was inspired of God there is but one place it can occupy, and that is at the close of the canon, resting in its place as the roof in the palace of Truth.

EACH BOOK IN PLACE BY LAW OF GROWTH.

Each book finds its place therefore by the law of organic growth, each book is a necessity to, and produces the other, just as each preceding part of a tree is a necessity and inspiration to that which follows.

If Genesis is necessary to bring Israel into Egypt, Exodus is necessary to take them out. If the order of the New Testament is Gospels, Acts, and Epistles, it is because in the Gospels we get Christ in the flesh, in Acts Christ in the Spirit, and in the Epistles Christ in doctrine; and these are necessary the one to the other as parts of an organic whole.

If each book is thus related to the other it is evident that we may find books acting as divine commentaries, the one upon the other.

Colossians throws light spiritually on Deuteronomy, in that both books are the preparation for the inheritance. Ephesians is a commentary on Joshua, in that both books show conflict in the endeavor to enter into the purchased possession.

Corinthians is a flash light on Judges, the Christians at Corinth being largely in the same attitude as that which characterized Israel in the former book, "every one doing that which seemed right in his own eyes." Hebrews is a key to Leviticus, and the Book of Revelation to the prophecy of Daniel.

From all this it follows that each book being characteristic in itself, each book must hang the key up beside its own door.

The key of the Revelation may be found in the nineteenth verse of the first chapter. "The things which thou hast seen, the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter" (meta tauta, after these things) Past, Present, and Future, this is the inspired division of the book. The past things are in the first chapter, the now things are in the second and third chapters, the future things, or things which are after the now things, are from the fourth chapter on.

The key of the Book of Ecclesiastes is in the phrase "under the sun." It is the book that looks at the world from that standpoint and sees only vanity and vexation of spirit in the best that can be done there; it stands in contrast to the book of Ephesians where the believer exalted with Christ to the throne of God above the sun sees things from God's point of view, and rejoices in Him as the Author and End of his salvation.

In one of the Cantons of Switzerland whenever the inmates are away the key is placed under the cross at the door. Those who wish to enter the house know where the key is, and always look for it under the figure of the outstretched Christ. The final key that fits every book of the Bible is to be found under the Cross, under the figure of the outstretched Christ.

Take this key which comes from the cross, apply it to any book, open the door and enter in; stand for awhile in listening attitude, and the symphonies of eternal truth shall be heard sounding in Heavenly measures to your soul; stand patiently, and your eyes shall be anointed with eye-salve to behold the face of Him who is Himself, the Face and Likeness of God.

WHAT TO STUDY.

Many persons lose time and wander aimlessly through the Bible because they do not know just what to study. A few suggestions in this respect may be helpful.

We ought to study Topics. Such topics as Grace, Law, Faith, Hope, Kingdom, Covenants, Sabbath, Second Coming, Inspiration, Angels, Spirits, First and Second Resurrections.

We ought to study the Types. Types of Persons, Places, Events.

Great Characters. Such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Saul, Elijah and Elisha of the Old Testament. Paul, Peter, James, John, and scores of others in the New Testament.

Great Chapters. Genesis 22, Leviticus xvi, Numbers xxi, Deuteronomy viii, Isaiah 53, Matthew 13, Luke 15, John 3, Revelation 2 and 3.

We ought to study Key Words. Words and phrases, like Heavenlies, Much-more, Better, Straightway, Overcomes, the Eight Togethers of the New Testament, and the Seven Rests.

The Names of. God. God, Creator absolute; Lord-God, Creator in Covenant relation; Jehovah (Yahveh), He who will be, the Coming One; Almighty God, the God of Providence; the Most-High God, the God of Nations.

The Names of Persons. Jacob, the Supplanter; Israel, Prince with God; Saul, Destroyer; Paul, the Worker; Simon, man in the flesh; Simon Peter, man in the flesh called by the grace of God into relation with the Son, made a part of the living Rock, and himself a living stone.

Developments of Doctrine. For example: The Incarnation, seen in Eve's thought about Cain, typified in the supernatural causation of Isaac's birth, fulfilled in Christ, and now expanded in Christians.

In this way we may study, Sacrifice, Atonement, Repentance, Conversion, Regeneration, Justification, Sanctification.

Allusive Utterances. A striking example of this is to be found in Philippians 2:6. "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." That is to say, thought not to snatch at equality with God.

The allusion is evidently to some one who did; one who had the hardihood to think about robbing God of the glory of His supremacy. The very statement of the passage leads to such an inferential conclusion.

It leads to the inquiry as to what Scripture may say about the matter; and Scripture answers that there was such a person.

That being was Satan. Isaiah 14:12-14; Ezekiel 28.

Another example: II Peter 3:3-4. In this passage the Apostle warns against a class of scoffers who should arise in the church in the last days, and in the endeavor to justify their worldly lusts would mock and scoff at the thought of the Second Coming. The principle of allusive utterance thus indicates that, in the last days, there will be a special testimony in the church to the imminency of the Lord's Coming.

Under this head of what to study may be included, also, the Plan of Study.

PLAN OF STUDY.

It is necessary to have some definite plan or method to accomplish any real results.

1) Compare Scripture with Scripture.

It is written, that in His light we shall see light.

Illustration (Revelation 19:15, Ephesians 6:17). The sword out of His mouth in Revelation is explained by the Ephesians to be the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and thus the sword out of the mouth is simply the declaration that by the word of His mouth the Lord will arraign the nations at His Coming, and hale them to judgment.

Matthew 25:1, is explained by II Corinthians 11:2, The virgins of Matthew equalling the assembly of Christ. presented as a virgin in Corinthians.

2) Study slowly.

You cannot "cram" the Bible. You must eat what you get. Jeremiah 15:16.

3) Read carefully.

Get all the light, examine every word, subject every part to microscopic investigation; a preposition or an article makes a difference. Dig into the original if you can; get helps if you cannot.

4) Patiently.

If you do not understand to-day, you may to-morrow. The advance in truth is in exact proportion to the use of truth.

5) Reverently.

You are reading God's Word. His breath and presence are in it.

6) Prayerfully.

Pray for illumination, for opening "the heart to attend unto the things spoken." (Acts 16:14.)

Only when a Risen Saviour opened the understanding of the Disciples could they understand the Scriptures. "Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." Luke 24:45. How significant that the last act of the Son of God before He ascended was to open the understanding of His disciples in relation to the Scriptures; and how intensely significant that these Scriptures should be none other than the Scriptures of Israel, as it is written: "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself." Luke 24:27. And these Scriptures according to verse 44, are Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, or, the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi.

7) Read, and study constantly.

Make it a daily practice to read and always to study something, no matter how little.

IMPLEMENTS OF STUDY.

1) The Bagster Bible.

Always with a broad margin for marking. When you mark be as systematic as you can. For example: Black lines for Gospel, Historic, or Spiritual, statement. Blue lines for Second Coming, and kindred truths, such as the Kingdom, etc. Red lines for Blood, Sacrifice, the Cross, and Atonement. Green, or violet ink for Holy Spirit.

If you would make a distinction between the Coming of Christ for His Church, and the Appearing of Christ with His Church, use a star for the former, and a circle with rays like a sun for the latter; for in the former He comes as "The Morning Star" (Revelation 22:16), and in the latter as the Sun of Righteousness. "Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings." Malachi 4:2.

The Bible intelligently marked is a splendid instrument in the hands of a devoted student.

2. A Cruden's Concordance.

3. A Topical Text Book.

4. A copy of the Revised Version for examining readings and phrase constructions.

Making use of these implements, following these methods, and applying these principles, you will find:

1) A splendid style.

At one moment fresh with Eden blooms, anon hot with Sinai's flames: heaving with prophetic warnings, or jubilant with Messiah's strains: rapt in the glory of Isaiah's vision, or silvery with Bethlehem's natal song: sobbing with Gethsemane's woes, or triumphant with the Resurrection theme: tender with the Gospel call, and pitiful above the contrite heart; sulphurous with. curses at the sight of sin, or melting into universal song as the door in Heaven opens, and He is seen, the Living Lord, the Coming King.

Apart from this, the literary value of the English translation is above price; great orators, some of them foreigners, have found in it a classic. Kossuth, the great Hungarian, declared that his pure English came from reading the English Bible.

2) Supernatural wisdom.

It tells the story of Light, Sun, Moon, and Stars, of deep Sea, and melted Rock, before Astronomy, or Geology had come to the birth; and waits patiently till Science shall stop its hypotheses, revealing even now to him who loyally reads it that the only opposition ever made from Science was not from Science itself, but from "Science falsely so called." I Timothy 6:20.

3) A Royal Dignity.

Not a silly line in it: filled with the genius of reserve.

4) Denunciation of Sin.

5) The continual cry of "Holy, Holy."

6) Unity of Design.

The first Genesis unfolds in the new, the new Heavens and the new earth answer the old Heavens and the old earth, whilst Christ and His Church point back to the First Man and his bride, and the river under the throne becomes the reality of the river of Eden.

7) Christ in every line.

Here is the key that unlocks every mystery.

8) Your character.

By transgression and nature, a sinner under the judgment of God; by grace a sinner forgiven, justified, accepted as righteous before God and through regeneration, His deathless child.

9) Your Future.

A life of peace and power in the Paradise of God.

BENEFITS OF STUDY.

1. Faith will be strengthened. "So then Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Romans 10:17.

2. Joy will be increased. "I rejoice at thy Word as one that findeth great spoil." Psalm 119:162.

3. Spiritual life nourished. "Desire the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby." I Peter 2:2.

4. The Christian thoroughly furnished unto all good works. "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." II Timothy 3:16-17.

He who studies the Book as thus indicated will find himself able to flash into the darkness and ignorance of infidelic minds the light of the prismatic revelation of the truth of God, meet the difficulties of earnest seekers in the Word, and get for himself an abiding consciousness of its unity.

He will see it rooting there in Genesis, and fruiting here in Revelation.

He will see that the Old Creation begins with the Heavens, conies down to the earth, goes on with man's body and ends with his soul; and that the New Creation begins with man's soul, goes on to a perfect body, a perfect earth, and ends with the new heavens, a fourfold and complete triumph of Regeneration; regenerated soul, regenerated body, regenerated earth, and regenerated Heavens.

He will see that Christ is the centre of Heaven and Earth and Hell; that the whole universe is Christo-centric, and that the centre of the Christo-centric revelation is the immortality of the body as the enthronement and manifestation of God; that from all eternity the thought of God has been to set up a deathless incorruptible man as the image and likeness of Himself, and through him forever make Himself known governmentally and morally to the universe. He who thus studies will see with ever-increasing awe and adoration that God came down to be Man, that man might go up to be God forevermore.

He will get visions of God as by the banks of the river of Chebar; he will see above all the Glory One like unto the Son of Man: and from the throne high and lifted up where the Seraphs sing, he will hear the voices saying, "Behold your God;" and other voices saying, "You shall be like unto Him, for you shall see Him as He is."

Seven Rules by which to Study and Understand
The Bible

Proverbs 2:1-5

1. The Bible Must Be Accepted as the Word of God.

"My Son, if thou wilt receive my words." (Verse 1.)

Do not try to prove it first and then accept it.

Accept it first and allow it to prove itself.

There is no better way to test the truth or falsity of a thing than to give yourself up to it.

This was the attitude of the Thessalonian Christians; as it is written:

"When ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word of God." (1 Thessalonians 2:13.)

Take the attitude of unbelief or doubt when a friend seeks to impart a matter to you, the friend will refuse to impart it.

Take the attitude of doubt in face of the message this book seeks to give to you, it will not speak to you.

No matter how much you read or study; no matter how much intelligence, education or culture you may have, it will be no more to you than so much cold paper and dry ink.

Our Lord went into a certain part of the country, but could not do many mighty works there.

And this is the startling reason given why He seemed to fail.

"He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." (Matthew 13:58.)

The Living and the written Word are one.

The same principle of action governs each-the Bible will not disclose its wonders nor reveal its powers to unbelief nor, even, to doubt.

2. Study of the Bible Requires Obedience to the Bible.

"Hide my commandments with thee." (Verse 1.)

"Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass; For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

But whoso looketh (stoopeth down and looketh into, examines carefully) into the perfect law of liberty (what a description of the Word of God is that) and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." (James 1:22-25.)

He who does not obey the Word, who does not translate it into the practice of his daily life, is like the person who eats but whose system does not assimilate the food, builds up no tissue and gives him no strength; so is it with him who is disobedient to the Word, it does not become a part of him, builds up no spiritual tissue, gives no spiritual strength; he is of those who are "ever learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth."

3. Study of the Bible Demands the Attitude of Listening.

"Incline thine ear unto wisdom." (Verse 2.)

The word "incline" is "listening," "hearkening."

In New Testament language it means to take heed; as it is written:

"Take heed therefore how ye hear." (Luke 18:8.)

That is be careful of the way, the manner, in which you hear.

Give full, complete attention; listen for the slightest accent or emphasis.

If you were in the presence, of a king and listening to him you would be alert to hear each syllable and how he pronounced it.

How much more when it is the living, very God who is speaking to you from the pages of this book.

The Lord God is a great Grammarian. He is a marvellous Constructor of sentences. He puts enormous value upon a preposition and conjunction; His uses of tenses are again and again an apocalypse in themselves.

Take up a verse, study it, and study it again.

Read it over several times before you attempt to study and search out the meaning; let the cadence, the rhythm and the peculiarity of the arrangement, fix your attention.

There are foolish Christians who when they hear a text, because they have heard it before, imagine they know all about it. These are surface hearers and readers; they are indifferent listeners and skimmers of the Word of God.

A word sometimes holds in itself a multiplicity of meaning and shades of meaning.

An Indian is skilled in woodcraft, because he cultivates his eye and his ear; that which is unobservable to the average passerby is an open trail to him, and sounds in the forest that are confused to many ears, to his, have their distinctive force and call.

It is worth while to become skilled in the craft of Bible study; keep the eyes open; keep the ears open; be tuned up to the note and power of expectancy.

Do this and you will attain by practice and the special grace of God to that most blessed of all attainments:

Spiritual discernment.

Without it the Bible will be only a partial book to you.

Incline thine ear. Listen. Hearken.

4. The Whole Heart Must Be Given up to the successful study of the Bible.

"Apply thine heart to understanding." (Verse 5.)

The man who would get anywhere in the world must put his heart into whatever he seeks to do. The half hearted man is defeated before he starts.

This is particularly necessary in study, in any study.

The man who would become a good mathematician, a scientist, a linguist, be the subject, the objective what it may, must put his heart into it, have a purpose; a sincere desire to attain, to know.

Application-that is the word.

And in no study, in no range of effort is application of the whole heart and being so necessary as in the study of the Word of God.

The Spirit of God is very sensitive, He is the essence of sensitiveness; the slightest bit of indifferentism on the part of the student, his unwillingness to persist, is met by a shutting out of the responsive action of the Word.

The Word of God lies below the surface. There are statements in which there seem to be no disclosures—all seems impenetrable, a mystery; there are paradoxical statements, statements that at times seem flatly to contradict other statements; nor are these things accidental. The very construction is a test, a test of sincerity, of heart. If the heart is in the study and faith insists, suddenly there will come a flash of light, solution to the problem, answers to the questions.

If you would study and understand this amazing book, the Bible, the Word of God, you must apply your heart.

5. The Bible can be successfully studied only with prayer.

"If thou criest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding." (Verse 5.)

The Psalmist prays that he may behold wondrous things in the Word of God.

He says:

"Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." (Psalm 119:18.)

By "law" he means the word and testimony of God.

The Apostle Pail prays the spiritual eyes of the Ephesians may be opened to the truth.

He says:

"The eyes of your understanding being enlightened." (Ephesians 1:18.)

On that Sunday night after His resurrection our Lord met His disciples in the upper room and opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures; as it is written:

"Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures." (Luke 24:45.)

The Lord opened the understanding of Lydia, the seller of Tyrian purple;

"Whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken by Paul." (Acts 16:14.)

And why pray? It is all plain enough.

To be sure, the writing is there; but that writing, those words, are as much a revelation today as when first given. Only through the power of the Spirit can you read and understand. The living God alone can take the veil off the mind, alone reveal the book till it becomes a revelation. The prayerless man cannot read the Bible intelligently. He cannot divide it: Read, study, know the Bible without prayer! The thing is impossible.

There is bottom logic in that statement. The man who wants to know, who feels his inability, will cry out to God for light. The indifferent, surface reader will go on and pray not and - find not. It is true you can breathe a silent prayer and ask the Lord to enlighten your mind; you can so press your desire before God that it will be as a prayer; but it is our privilege to lift up the voice, to "cry" for it.

And why not? Today man can hear man almost whisper round the world. If we raise our voice in prayer shall not He who made the ear hear? There is a blessing in audible prayer. It shuts out the thoughts that come from the disintegration of mind and the suggestion of wandering spirits.

There is immensity of realism in it.

Talking out loud to God just as though He were in the room and you were beholding Him in open face!

We are told the Lord in Heaven listens for the voice of prayer and testimony; as it is written:

"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened (listened) and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name." (Malachi 4:16.)

He who would study the Bible with joy and find it a continual revelation of the mind and will of God must learn to bend his knees in prayer and cry unto the God who gave it to open mind and heart and understanding.

6. The Bible must be studied with the same inspiration, the same effort and energy with which men seek after Silver.

"Thou seekest her (understanding) as silver." (Verse 4.)

Silver in its final term stands for money.

Money is the purchasing medium of power, leisure, self culture as well as self gratification; it is the lever by which men lift themselves into position, into the place of authority, the uplook and envy of others.

Next to God money has the closest approach to omnipotence.

This is the declaration of Scripture; as it is written:

"Money answereth all things." (Ecclesiastes 10:19.)

Look over a great city, everywhere business, merchandise, centers of exchange, factories, the coming and going of trains, the incoming and outgoing of ships, wharves filled, streets crowded and the multitude hurrying, rushing, toiling with ceaseless and seemingly tireless energy.

It all means money.

It is the one thing they are seeking. They are seeking it whether it be much or little.

It is an immense magnet that bids men quit their restless bed of a few hours snatched out of the night, up with the grey dawn, using hand, feet, heart, brain, all they have—for money.

Not .because of what it is in itself, but because of what it brings.

In the attainment of it men see compensation for all their labor and toil.

The Word of God is compared to silver.

"The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." (Psalm 12:6.)

It is all silver signifies of intrinsic value; it is all that silver is when tried out in the fire and freed from dross, it is the pure Word of God and not of man.

If silver in the last analysis is money, the Bible in its last analysis is truth.

The truth about God and man, the truth about the other side of death, the truth about salvation and the things God has prepared for those who love Him.

If money brings. its compensation for a time and yet, as riches, may take wings to itself and flee away, the Bible brings compensation in blessings no money on earth can buy and blessings that do not take wings nor fade away.

But if you would have the Bible to be to you as the value of silver and more than the purchasing power of money, then you must put into your study all the effort of purpose and all the energy of determination to know and understand it.

If you cannot do that; if you cannot make every other book secondary to it; if you cannot exalt it into the place of supremacy in your life, purposing in your heart that you will go according to the demand of its precepts; if you are not willing to spend time upon it and pour out prayer for the understanding of it; if you cannot say with the Psalmist: "Thy word have I hid in my heart" (Psalm 119:11); if with the Prophet you cannot say: "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart" (Jeremiah 15:16), then you are not seeking the wisdom, the truth of the Bible, as men are seeking for silver, and the Bible is not of as much value to you as money is to men.

And yet, we are told to buy the truth and sell it not; pay any price for it, the truth which this Bible essentially is, and sell it not—do not give it up for anything that earth may offer you.

If you would know the Bible and all it means for time and eternity then you must seek it as men seek for silver, with all the purpose and energy and essential determination they display.

7. If you would study and understand the Bible you must search it as men search for Hid Treasures.

"If thou searchest as for hid treasures." (Verse 4.)

This proposition is a parallelism of the other and yet has a distinctive thought.

The thought is that treasure does not lie on the surface.

This is true not only of such treasure as gold and silver, but precious stones, the jewels of earth.

To get those treasures men must search for them.

They must be willing to dig for them, go down into the depths for them; the deeper they go the richer the find.

It has already been suggested that the truths of God do not all lie on the surface of the Bible.

There are truths there that lie open on the page so plain, so distinct that he who runs may read no matter how swiftly he run.

There are truths there, promises and pictures of things glorious that the simplest mind may behold with delight; but there are truths, very jewels, to which diamonds are common stones, so far under the surface that the passerby, he who reads upon the surface alone, will never see, never know.

Our Lord Jesus Christ reveals this in His admonition to the Jews.

To them He said: "Search the Scriptures." (John 5:39.)- He did not say "read."

He said, "search;" and that means, "examine," go down into the depths. Compare Scripture with Scripture; take up a thought in the New Testament, go back and find its origin in the Old Testament, take up the types and follow them out to the antitypes.

Study the relation of this world to the purpose of God and its contrast to other worlds.

Cast your gaze upon the nightly sky and you will learn with the Psalmist that the heavens declare the glory of God; they declare His glory as the Creator; they were set in space that they might reveal, not only His omnipotence, but His genius and wisdom; but this world was created for a greater purpose than that. Study the Word and see revealed therein how this world was fashioned and made, that it might be the arena for the revelation of the heart of God, for the cross, where the beating of His heart of love might be seen.

Follow up and study this purpose.

See how on the background of human failure God is now, in spite of it, creating a new and perfect race of men in the image of, His Son, creating them now in soul function and relationship, and by and by to consummate them in the glory of immortality and kingly power - and here - upon this very earth.

Study His sovereign grace as well as power, and go through this book on the trail of the amazing fact that God makes the wrath of man to praise Him and where it will not, restrains it. See how out of death He brings life, and how out of the slime and sin of shame, and men filled with it, He lifts these men into sons of God full of purity, holiness and truth.

There are wondrous things in the depths of this book that have not been seen; they are waiting the hour when some one wholly given up to God and His will shall study, when study shall mean the searching out of all God would have the heart of man to know.

Here are seven rules.

Follow these rules and there will be two results:

1. "Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD." (Verse 5.)

That is, you will find yourself filled with reverence, with wonder and adoration.

Step by step as you follow the Spirit while He seeks to guide you into all truth you will feel a profound awe stealing over you.

You will have a revelation of the being of God, the wisdom and the genius of God; with the Apostle you will find yourself saying that this is, indeed, not the word of man, but in very truth the Word of God.

As you read, search, meditate, you will get such sudden glimpses of the unity of the book, the unity of inspiration, the certitude that the very breath of God is on the page you read, that you will find yourself ready with the seraphim to lift up the thrice holy song:

"Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory." (Isaiah 6:3.)

Yea, and amen. If you study this book we call the Bible, and study it as it should be studied, you will feel when you take it up you are handling that which in itself is as sacred as the body of Him who is the living Word, as sacred and awesome as it was that resurrection night when He bade His disciples to handle Him and see for themselves it was He.

You will feel when you open it as though you were opening the doors of the temple of God and entering into the sanctuary of His presence.

Yes, study this book as it should be studied and you will never touch it like you touch anything else on earth.

But there will be a second result of this study.

2. "Thou Shalt Find the Knowledge of God." (Verse 5.)

Not merely knowledge from God, not merely knowledge imparted from God, but knowing God.

This is the knowledge of which our Lord Jesus Christ speaks.

He was speaking of eternal life.

He was defining *eternal life : He was making eternal life mean to know God. And therefore He says:

"This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." (John 17:5.)

By knowing God He means to be conscious of God.

To be conscious of Himself as the transmitter of God; as the very fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Consciousness of God in the soul.

It comes through Jesus, Christ, to those who offer Him by faith as a sacrifice for

sin and claim Him by faith as a personal substitute.

All that is true—absolutely true.

But apart from this Bible there is no revelation of Jesus Christ.

Here you must come to find Christ, listen to Christ and know Christ.

Here you must come through Him to know and be conscious of God in your soul.

Where there is no Bible there is no knowledge and no consciousness of God in the soul.

This Bible then is a nexus with God. Study it as it should be studied and you will have in your soul the consciousness of the eternal God as revealed in His Son -

"OUR GREAT GOD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST."

And this is -

Finding the knowledge of God.