Tuesday March 12, 2024
Jeremiah 15:16
Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy
and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name,
O LORD, God of hosts.
A young man who had never read his Bible was led to conversion by the gift of a bookmark, presented to him by a relative. The gift was made upon the condition that it should be put into his Bible, but should never stop two days in one place. He meant to shift it and not to read the book, but his eye glanced on a text; after a while he became interested, by-and-by he was converted, and then the bookmark was moved with growing pleasure. Some professors cannot say that they shift their bookmark every day. Probably of all the books printed, the most widely circulated and the least read volume is the word of God. Books about the Bible are read, I fear, more than the Book itself. Would we see all these parties and sects if people studiously followed the teaching of inspiration? The Word is one; whence these many creeds? We cry, ‘the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants’; but it is not true of half the Protestants. Some overlay the Bible with the Prayer-book and kill its living meaning; others read through the spectacles of a religious leader and follow man’s gloss rather than God’s text. Few indeed come to the pure fount of gospel undefiled. A second-hand religion suits most, for it spares them the trouble of thinking, which to many is a labor too severe; while to be taught of man is so much easier than to wait upon the Holy Spirit for instruction. Remember the words of Psalm 119 and make them your own. ‘I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.’ ‘How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!’ ‘Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart.’ ‘Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.’ ‘My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly. I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways are before thee.’
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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