Incessant Bible Study

Thomas Murphy, Pastoral Theology: The Pastor in the Various Duties of His Office, pp. 110-115:

INCESSANT STUDY OF THE BIBLE.

This is a duty which must be placed amidst the very first of all the duties that devolve upon the pastor. We must come back to it again and again and again as we treat of his all-important calling. In that holy office he must study many things, but this most yea, more than all other things put together. We would endeavor to impress this point as strongly as possible. The minister must study the Bible for his own heart-culture ; he must study it for all his official duties ; he must study it until he grows to love the study ; he must study it until he gets his mind saturated with it ; he must study it to keep up freshness and variety in his preaching ; he must study it every day ; he must study it until his dying day.

The pastor may depend upon it that a thorough knowledge of the oracles of God would prove to be the right arm of his strength. It would give vigor to his faith. It would impart robustness to his Christian character. It would clothe his preaching with irresistible power. It would furnish him with the best preparation in his attendance upon the sick, the inquiring, the young, in ecclesiastical affairs and in every other branch of his work. What skill is to the mechanic, what eloquence is to the orator, what taste is to the artist, what wisdom is to the statesman, that, and still more necessary, is a profound knowledge of the Scriptures to the minister. All experience proves this to be so. From the very nature of the case this must make him strong ; without it, he cannot but be weak as an ambassador of God. The testimony of all devoted and successful pastors establishes this truth beyond a question.

A few sentences from the pen of that great and good man, Dr. James W. Alexander, will serve as specimens of what is reiterated thousands of times by those who have had the ripest experience : "Constant perusal and re-perusal of Scripture is the great preparation for preaching. You get good even when you know it not. This is one of the most observable differences between old and young theologians. Give attendance to reading." In another connection he says : "The liveliest preachers are those who are most familiar with the Bible without note or comment, and we frequently find them among men who have had no education better than that of the common school. It was this which gave such animation to the vivid books and discourses of the Puritans. As there is no poetry so rich and bold as that of the Bible, so he who daily makes this his study will, even on human principles, be awakened and acquire a striking manner of conveying his thoughts. The sacred books are full of fact, example and illustration, which, with copiousness and variety, will cluster around the truths which the man of God derives from the same source. One preacher gives us naked heads of theology ; they are true, scriptural and important, but they are uninteresting, especially when reiterated for the thousandth time in the same naked manner. Another gives us the same truths, but each of them brings in its train the retinue of scriptural example, history, a figure by way of illustration, and a variety hence arises which is perpetually becoming richer as the preacher goes more deeply into the mine of Scripture. There are some great preachers who, like Whitefield, do not appear to bestow great labor on the preparation of particular discourses, but it may be observed that these are always persons whose life is a study of the word. Each sermon is an outflowing from a fountain which is constantly full. The Bible is, after all, the one book of the preacher. He who is most familiar with it will become most like it, and this in respect to every one of its wonderful qualities, arid will bring forth from his treasury things new and old."

The minister who has laid hold, as a living fact, of this one thought of the pre-eminent importance of being deeply imbued both with the letter and the spirit of the word of God is already mighty for his work.

Look at the Bible. The pastor has to do with it at every point of his work. He must come to it in every thing he undertakes. He is nothing without it. It is all in all to him in his office. It is more to him than any than all other books that were ever penned. The Bible contains his credentials as an ambassador of Jesus Christ. It is the message which he is appointed to reiterate with all fervor to his fellow-men. It is the treasury from which he can ever draw the riches of divine truth. It is the Urim and Thummim to which he has constant access, and from which he can learn the mind of Jehovah with all clearness. It is the audience-chamber where he will be received into the presence of the Lord and hear words of more than earthly wisdom. It is the armory from which he can be clothed with the panoply of salvation. It is the sword of the Spirit before which no enemy can possibly stand. It is his book of instructions wherein the great duties of his office are clearly defined. The chief rules of his sacred art are here. There is nothing which it is essential for him to know but is revealed here either in express terms or in inferences which are easily studied out. It is a mine of sacred wealth for the clergyman, the abundance of which he can never exhaust. The deeper he goes, the richer and more unbounded will its treasures appear. Well was it said by Dr. W. E. Schenck : "That volume alone contains the warrant for the sacred office he bears. In it alone is found the record of his great commission as an ambassador of God. It alone authoritatively exhibits and defines the official duties he must perform. It alone tells him of the glorious rewards he may expect if he be found faithful. Nay, more, it contains the subject-matter for all his preaching and his other professional labors." It is a shame for a preacher not to be a master in the knowledge of the Book of books, which is everything to him.

It is well that we should strive to impress this great duty and privilege of the minister by the authority of eminent workers in the sacred office. Their experience and testimony should be deeply studied. " The study of the Bible is the special duty of every individual who would understand the truth of God and be prepared to make it known to others. Burnet, speaking of ministers in his own times, says, The capital error in men's preparing themselves for that function is that they study books more than themselves, and that they read divinity more in other books than in the Scriptures. This, it is to be feared, is as true now as it was then; and if so it must be attended, inevitably, with very injurious consequences both to the ministry and the Church. For as the Bible is the source of divine knowledge, so it is of spiritual strength, and every holy affection and purpose.

"Melanchthon recommended, as the first requisite in the study of theology, 'a familiarity with the text of the sacred Scriptures, and in order to this that they should be read daily, both morning and evening. The daily devotion of Luther to the sacred text is well known, and it was this that made him strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.'

"Dr. Campbell, in his treatise on systematic theology, says, Devoutly study the Scriptures themselves if you would understand their doctrines in singleness of heart. The only assistance which I would recommend are those writings in which there can be no tendency to warp your judgment. It is the serious and frequent reading of the divine oracles, accompanied with fervent prayer; it is the diligent study of the languages in which they were written ; it is the knowledge of those histories and antiquities to which they allude.

"President Edwards, as the result of his own experience, said, I find that it would be very much to my advantage to be thoroughly acquainted with the Scriptures. When I am reading doctrinal books or books of controversy, I can proceed with abundantly more confidence and can see upon what foundation I stand.

It has been truthfully said : "When scholars furnish themselves with stores of other writers, besides the Scriptures, and being little conversant in the Scriptures draw the Scriptures to the authors whom they most af-feet, and not their authors to the Scriptures, their divinity proves but humanity, and their ministry speaks to the brain, but not to the conscience, of the hearer. But he that digs all the treasures of his knowledge and the ground of all religion out of the Scriptures, and makes use of other authors, not for ostentation of himself, nor for the ground of his faith, nor for the principal ornament of his ministry, but for the better searching out of the deep wisdom of the Scriptures, such an one believes what he teaches, not by a human credulity from his author, but by a divine faith from the word. And because he believes therefore he speaks, and speaking from faith in his own heart, he speaks much more powerfully to the begetting and strengthening of faith in the hearer."