III. A consciously higher appreciation of Gods Word
III. A consciously higher appreciation of Gods Word
The Bible is an infallible book to the soul that is full of faith. It is then received as a divine revelation, as the very Word of God. It becomes a volume all instinct with holy inspiration. The plenary inspiration of the Holy Scripture passes from being a merely doctrinal conception into a spiritual apprehension. He who has come into a fullness of faith drops all questioning and quibbling as to the complete inspiration and divine authority of the Scriptures; their very enigmas, difficulties, and obscurities are accepted as significant; and what is incomprehensible in them is believed even more fully than what is clearly understood. The fullness of faith not only accepts the Bible an inspired book, but it also renders it an illuminated book. It reads it by a new light, and sees in it new meaning. The soul, full of faith, sings:
Holy Bible, Book divine,
Precious treasure, thou art mine!
The Bible, hitherto uninteresting, becomes a supreme delight.
Once in my ministry a lady came to me who was a very creditable worker in my Church, and a converted woman, and she said to me: I dont love to read the Bible. I havent a relish for it. I find that I prefer to read the magazines and the best authors and current papers. There must be something wrong. I know I ought to love the Bible. I said: There is something wrong. You need that baptism of the Holy Spirit that will unseal the book, and illuminate its pages so that your soul will exclaim, How I love Thy law! About two months after she came to me and said: O, the Bible is a changed book to me now! O, it is a new book, such a precious book! I only wish I had more hours in which to linger over its pages! I asked her what had transformed it so wonderfully to her? She replied: I went with it open before me on my knees one day, and I said: Give me, Lord, a heart to love and delight in thy Word, and there came to me such a view of its truth, and such a sense of its divine origin, that my heart was filled with a completeness of faith in it, and ever since it has been a glorious enjoyment to me.
The fullness of faith comprises such an immediate confidence in God, such an apprehension of Christ, and such a full reception of the Bible as the Word of God, as gives to Christian experience an effectiveness, enjoyment, and completeness that saving faith alone does not compass. Have we this baptism of faith? The triumphant experience of Stephen is not beyond the reach of every believer. He was a man full of faith. We, too, may be full of faith.
Lord give us such a faith as this,
And then, whate'er may come,
Well taste, e'en here, the hallowed bliss
Of an eternal home.