| Things to Live For |
Chapter 6 |
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For one thing, we do not find the best things there are in the Bible, and may press our quest ever farther. The finest gold lies deep, and has to be digged for. It is hidden in the rocks, and has to be quarried out. We can never get the best the Bible has to give us, until we learn to search through its chapters as the miner searches with the pick and hammer, with shovel and lamp, in the dark mines, for the precious treasure that is concealed there. Another condition of finding the richest things in the Scriptures is that we take them into our life as fast as we discover them. The words of God are meant to be eaten and assimilated as food. They are meant to be accepted for obedience, for guidance, for trust, for comfort. It is only when we thus receive them that they open, and yield to us their treasures of blessing.
One of the secrets of a strong Christian life is daily feeding upon the word of God. The Bible contains God’s bread for God’s children. Bible fed Christians are godlike men and women. It is great thinking that produces great character, and he who makes the Bible his daily meditation learns to think over God’s thoughts.
We are not getting the best we might get from our praying. It was the Master who said, “Enter into thy closet,” and “shut thy door,” and “pray to thy Father which is in secret.” It is in the closet that we get our life renewals. There we may open our heart to God. We never can speak the things of our innermost life in public prayer. Secret prayer is the communing of the individual soul with God. Here it is that godly men and women get their shining faces, the light that breaks through their tears, the strength that makes them victorious in temptation, the power that fits them for Christian work and Christ like serving. The closet of prayer is the holy of holies of each Christian life. The blessing we may receive there is simply immeasurable. One writes:–
“All empty handed came I in; full handed forth I go;
Go thou beside me, Lord of grace, and keep me ever so.
Thanks are poor things for such wide good; but all my life is thine;
Thou hast turned my stones to bread, my water into wine.”
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