John 5:39

The Book Of Books

Search the Scriptures. John 5:39 (AV).

Every boy and girl has a Bible, and some of you here have quite a little library of other books. In these days of abundance of books for young people I often think of a little boy I used to know a very long time ago. His library was contained in a small box that had come from the grocer; it had once been filled with “Hudson's Extract of Soap.” His mother had papered it and made it look nice. Every little reward given to him in the form of any kind of book was stored away in that box. Little Henry and his Bearer Boosey; Old Herbert on his Way Home; Robinson Crusoe he knew these nearly by heart. He had paid a great deal for Robinson Crusoe. An operation had been performed on one of his eyes, and without chloroform. “If you behave yourself like a man, and don't cry out,” said his father, “you'll get a Robinson Crusoe.” Charlie behaved himself. And let me tell you about Old Herbert. On it was the inscription: “Presented to Charles Fraser, at the annual examination of this School, for correctly repeating the 17th chapter of John. March 1855.” What a long time ago! and Charlie was just five years old then. You don't have memory lessons like that nowadays.

Your library may be much fuller than Charlie's; it has certainly cost you less. But I don't suppose many of you keep your Bible in your library. Perhaps you hardly think of it as a book at all; and yet it is printed just like the others.

As a matter of fact, the Bible is a whole library in itself. It was written not by one man, but by many. There are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament, and twenty-seven in the New sixty-six books in all. Some are very short, others long. They were written by men who lived at different periods in the world's history. Some of those men were shepherds, others were kings, priests, farmers, tentmakers, fishermen. All were good men.

We do not value the Bible and its treasures as we ought. There have been people who, day after day, have walked over fields where gold was buried. They had heard of the gold, yet they did not bother to look for it. They were foolish, just as we are about the Bible.

If we are to discover the treasures in the Bible, we must dig, and continue digging, just as men dig a field in the hope of finding copper, silver, or gold. It is he who perseveres who finds the treasure. We have learned many a Bible verse, and that is a very good thing; but it will do us no good unless we think over it and try to find its meaning. It will then have a special message for ourselves. Believe me, it is worth while digging for these Bible treasures.

Let me tell you of a little Japanese boy who manfully did his best to dig. He had gone to a mission school, and a Japanese friend gave him the present of a beautifully-bound Bible. Yoshio that was the little boy's name thought he had never seen such a beautiful book in his life, and he loved it dearly. Here is what he said about it in his own quaint words.

“From the next day I used to pray to God first, ‘ Pray, let me understand Thy Holy Book.' And I read it every morning and night. First I started the New Testaments, but many references were on the edges of each page. They all were quoted to the Old Testament. I thought it was better to read from the very beginning of Genesis. So I did” (Yoshio Markino, When I was a Child, 83).

It is a pity we are not all as much in earnest as that Japanese boy. It is a pity we don't read our Bibles as thoroughly and eagerly.

Boys and girls, what about beginning today and reading a chapter or even a few verses every day? Do you know that is what King George does? When he was just a young middy, some forty years ago, he promised his mother, Queen Alexandra, that he would read a chapter of the Bible each day. And he has kept that promise faithfully. How do I know? Because some little time ago the secretary of a Bible Society was anxious to learn if this were really the case. He wrote to the King's secretary about it, and the King's secretary courteously replied: “It is quite true that the King promised Queen Alexandra, as long ago as 1881, that he would read a chapter of the Bible daily, and that he has ever since adhered to his promise.” That is one of the finest stories I know about our King.

There is just one finer story I should like to tell you. It is about an old lady who loved her Bible so much that she knew it from cover to cover. Although she knew it almost all by heart, she still loved to look up and read her favorite texts. But, alas! as she grew older she became blind, and she could no longer see to read. But she was not daunted, not she! Her Bible was a large family one and she stuck a pin in each of her pet texts. Then when friends came to see her she would open her Bible and, feeling for a pin, would say, “Read that one.” Later she got so clever at knowing where the pins were that she could tell each verse by its pin. After her death the pins were counted. They numbered one hundred and sixty-eight. One hundred and sixty-eight favorite texts! How many have you?