Daily Bible Reading

Christians, do you read the Bible in your families every day? Do you read it in your closet every day? And do you read it not to quiet your conscience as a work of penance; but do you read it as a pleasure  anxiously to be sought after? If you do, I need not tell you what utility, pleasure, and happiness is in the blessed employment.

But if you do not, you may rest assured there is something greatly wrong, which, if it is not abandoned, subdued, or vanquished soon, will cause you sorrows, if not agonies, when you will be less able to conflict with them than at present. Resolve this moment, I pray you, that you will begin today to read the Bible. to enjoy God and Christ and the hope of immortality. “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about thy neck, write them upon the table of thine heart; so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man”.

Then will you say with Solomon, “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding: for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared with her. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her Ieft hand riches and honor: her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” “Begin today: ’tis madness to defer.”

The religious world — I mean the great majority of all professors — are Bible neglecters. Their ignorance. prejudice, and error show it. I beseech you, daily, habitually, constantly, prayerfully read the Bible in its proper connections, and you will grow in grace as you grow in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord. The Lord will bless you, as he has said, in this deed. Read James 1:22-25, and may you prove it true!

Alexander Campbell

January 1839