Our Day | Page 4

for us.
The Bread of Life
The word of God is the daily food for the soul. "It is written, Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God." Matt. 4:4.
Who has not, in hurried times, missed a meal, working on through the
day, never thinking of the prolonged fast? But after a time there came a

sense of weakening force, a lack of physical power. What was the
trouble? At once the reason was evident--one had not taken food, and
the system was calling for a renewal of its forces. Just so the spiritual
life must needs be fed by the word of God.
[Illustration: CHRIST'S WEAPON OF DEFENSE--THE WORD OF
GOD
"Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Matt. 4:10.]
Do we at times feel a sense of weakening of the spiritual power, a
letting down of the vital forces of the soul? Ah, in the hurry of life we
have neglected to feed upon the living bread. We can no more sustain
spiritual vigor and health without feeding daily upon God's Holy Word
than we can maintain physical power without eating our daily bread.
Eat of the life-giving word. The taste for it grows with the partaking.
There is life in "every word." The psalmist found the Lord's testimonies
"sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb," or, as the marginal
reading has it, than "the dropping of honeycombs." Ps. 19:10. We get
the picture of the honeycomb inverted, the cell caps broken open, the
sweetness dripping down. Just so every word of the Lord is a cell full
of sweetness and life for the soul that feasts upon the Holy Scriptures.
The Source of All Doctrine
The Bible is the complete and perfect rule of faith and doctrine. Here
every doctrine of salvation is found. Inspiration has declared it in the
words of the apostle Paul to Timothy:
"From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good
works." 2 Tim. 3:15-17.

The divine command is, "Study." For every generation there has been a
message borne by this living word, making call to reformation of life,
or giving warning and comfort. "The Bible is not a collection of truths
formulated in propositions," said Dr. Samuel Harris, of Yale, "but
God's majestic march through history, redeeming men from sin."
In every age God has been ruling and overruling, witnessing by His
Spirit through the living word. The experiences recorded of past ages
have their special lesson for the present time:
"Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might
have hope." Rom. 15:4.
"Let vs therfore all with feruent desyre," as the Old English of 1549
spelled the exhortation of Erasmus, "thyrste after these spirituall
sprynges.... Let vs kisse these swete wordes of Christ with a pure
affeccion. Let vs be newe transformed into them, for soche are oure
maners as oure studies be."
The Book for All Mankind
It speaks in every tongue to the human heart. Its power to transform has
been shown through all the centuries in every clime and among every
race. One of the Gospels was put into the Chiluba tongue of Central
Africa. After a time a Garenganze chief came to Dan Crawford, the
missionary, changed from the spirit of a fierce, wicked barbarian to that
of a teachable child. Explaining his conversion, the chief said: "I was
startled to find that Christ could speak Chiluba. I heard him speak to
me out of the printed page, and what he said was, 'Follow me!'"
Of the Bible's universal speech to all mankind, Dr. Henry van Dyke has
said:
"Born in the East, and clothed in Oriental form and imagery, the Bible
walks the ways of all the world with familiar feet, and enters land after
land to find its own everywhere. It has learned to speak in hundreds of
languages to the heart of man. It comes into the palace to tell the

monarch that he is the servant of the Most High, and into the cottage to
assure the peasant that he is the son of God. Children listen to its stories
with wonder and delight, and wise men ponder them as parables of life.
It has a word of peace for the time of peril, a word of comfort for the
day of calamity, a word of light