Where is a good place to start reading the Bible?

Once a person comes to the Lord we tell him to read the Bible. If he asks, 'Where should I start?' a good answer is the Gospel of John. What single Gospel is used more to reach out to the lost? The Gospel of John. It is often given instead of a gospel tract. If there is anything that will lead a person to the Lord it is reading this Gospel.

First of all in importance, and no doubt in I the practice of the majority of God's people, we place the daily, regular reading of the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, repeatedly and throughout life. Often, men of much knowledge of different portions of Scripture, quite familiar perhaps with the original tongues, show the greatest ignorance of the simple historical facts narrated throughout the Bible, together with an evident unfamiliarity with the whole manner of Scripture. No words of ours can express too strongly the absolute importance of having the mind and heart thoroughly saturated with the knowledge of the letter of Scripture from beginning to end. Nothing really in the way of Bible knowledge can take the place of this. It is the broad foundation upon which the superstructure of subsequent detail must rest; and if this foundation is not broad and deep, the superstructure, no matter how high and intricate, will lack in stability.

Ruskin, the great master of English, and in many ways a remarkable man, declared that the most valuable part of his education was in the letter of the Bible, he having been compelled from early childhood to read a number of chapters regularly every day, and when he had completed the book, to start afresh. Always bearing in mind what we said at the beginning, that a spiritual knowledge of the Scriptures is absolutely indispensable; and speaking now simply of what is before us, the methods of Bible study, we desire to reiterate with emphasis the necessity and importance of this daily reading.

Let us be very simple and explicit. In every Christian home there should be the reading of the word of God and prayer at least once a day. No matter how strenuous the life and busy, let nothing rob the family of this simple and most precious privilege. Let some hour be selected morning or evening, when the family can be gathered for a few minutes and a chapter be read carefully and attentively, either by one or in turn. The time consumed in this way is well spent and will in itself help to keep fresh in our mind, from early childhood, the great outstanding facts and truths of the precious word of God. It is probably better to begin with the Gospels and to go through the New Testament, then to take up the Old. Any one can make certain selections which would be perhaps more suited to the younger members of the family, and certain portions could be left for more private reading; but in the main it may be said that we should put honor upon God's precious Word by reading it throughout. Few indeed are the portions which will not yield edification when read in this way. Indeed, the less attractive portions will often be found to offer suggestions for profitable conversation, and serve to awaken and confirm the interest in the entire book.

In addition to the family reading, we speak next of the private reading by each one, of at least a single chapter every day. Here, too, it is well to follow the order suggested above and begin with the New Testament, and having finished that, to go to the Old. If but one chapter a day can be read, the entire Scriptures will have been gone over in the course of three years; and, similarly, two or three chapters a day will complete the entire book in a much shorter time. An attentive reading of an ordinary chapter will consume not more than ten minutes. Surely, the busiest life can find or take ten minutes for such a work as this.

Regularity and system are most important here. One can carefully study the duties and responsibilities of the day and devote a certain time, as far as possible, to this reading. We are creatures of habit, and when once it is a settled fact that our daily chapter or two is to be read, little difficulty will be found in carrying out the plan. Here, as in most of our spiritual conflicts, the victory is won in the heart, when the purpose is fully established before God of going on with His word. It is probably better, wherever possible, to be reading in two places, one in the Old and the other in the New Testament. Thus, in the morning, Matthew might be begun, and in the evening Genesis; and when each Testament is completed, turn back again with renewed zest to the first chapter.

In a life where there is a measure of leisure, there should not be the slightest difficulty in reading through the entire Scriptures at least once a year. Half an hour a day will easily accomplish this; and where one of the chapters is read in the family, it would leave but two others to be read alone.

OUR attention was directed, in our last, to the distinctions which exist between the two departments of divine revelation. We found them to be, in some respects, wider and more important than would be gathered from Mr. W.'s opening lecture; besides differing in character from those on which he there so much insists, and, indeed, from any recognized by him in any part of his volume. We must not suppose however, that the change from the old order of things to the new, was immediate; or, that as soon as we open the New Testament, Christianity, in its distinctive and full-grown character, will burst upon our attention. Some of its grand elements are there from the very beginning; but they present themselves along with much that pertains to the former economy; much that has since passed away. The fact is, that the four gospels (and, in a certain modified sense, even the Acts of the Apostles) describe a transitional state of things, as distinct in some of its features from the Christianity which it introduced, as, in others, from the Judaism which it succeeded and gradually set aside. While, therefore, we doubt not for a moment, that it is in the New Testament God's present testimony is found that by which he immediately addresses our souls, whether as sinners or as saints; and while it is therefore most important that the Old Testament should be read in the light cast back upon it by the New; it is equally indisputable, that many things in the New Testament can only be understood through previous acquaintance with the Old. To know ourselves as ruined and undone, and to know Christ crucified and risen as our only Saviour, is to have everlasting life: and this knowledge God can, by his Spirit, communicate by means of any portion either of the Old Testament or the New. But if, knowing that the great question of eternity has been settled for us, by the sovereign grace which has blotted out our sins, and accepted us in the Beloved, we are desirous of full acquaintance with our Father's mind and will, as revealed in his word, we may not neglect either the Old Testament or the New. They are mutually illustrative of each other's contents, and neither can be neglected without serious loss. God may now usually begin his work in individual souls by means of truth revealed in the New Testament; but it is with Genesis that he begins the book of inspiration; and if we are, through his aid and teaching, to understand it as a whole, it is there our researches must commence. Should we reverse this order, and begin with the New Testament, we should continually meet with words, statements, and allusions which the Old Testament alone could explain.

Let it be supposed that some one to whom both volumes are unknown, should open the New Testament and begin to read, "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."

To begin with, it should be read daily and read consecutively from Genesis to Revelation. Some find it profitable to read two chapters in the Old Testament in the morning and one in the New at night. By treating the Psalms as belonging to the New Testament, the whole Bible would be read in about a year.

The first thing would surely be to have the New Testament, yet it is difficult without being master of the language, a word makes such a difference sometimes; but, if you can do it, certainly I would try bit by bit the most important parts that could bring them on, as Romans, Ephesians, Luke and John; then Hebrews and 1 John. Hymns are more important than we often suppose, because the affections get engaged religiously with what is incorrect; so that if you could, I would translate the ones we have; if not possible, I would correct the others, which at any rate would hinder a part of their associations of heart with false doctrine. Such very often are the expression of, and stop the heart at, an inferior state of soul. …

We come, however, to speak more particularly now of that intellectual furnishing, and the beginning of the education of the child. It is sad that too often the minds of children are filled with trifling fairy tales, and other foolish things, instead of that which is simple, and useful, and instructive. Of course the little one must first learn to read, and its lessons may be from carefully selected portions of Scripture. The Gospel of John furnishes a most excellent reading-book for beginners.

First and foremost, the Word of God. Read your Bible, and read it well. Make it far and away the foremost book in your library. Other books you will find helpful, especially such as continually refer you back to the Bible, but never allow them to supplant in your reading the Word of God itself.

We live in days of much infidelity, one of its greatest strongholds is ignorance of the Scriptures (see Matt. 22:29). Let us, therefore, arm ourselves with a close and prayerful acquaintance with the Book. It is related of a certain well-educated gentleman of infidel views that being advised by his doctor of the slow but certain approach of death owing to an incurable disease, he became very desirous of seriously investigating for himself the claims of the Bible to be a revelation from God. Meeting a Christian acquaintance he asked advice as to what book or books he had better read to enable him to form his judgment of the Bible's merits. The laconic answer was "The Bible." In astonishment he repeated his question, but received the same answer with the advice to begin at the very beginning and read straight on. He did so and had not completed the five books of Moses before he became convinced that its origin was divine. He was ultimately converted to God.

In the main, I do not doubt that the great principles, the thread of the ways of God (in this part of His ways) are found in these pages, and that, as a whole, it was given by Him. It is very possible that in some details my own mind has wrought, and that thus I may have overstepped the measure of what was given me; in this case there will certainly be error, or at least obscurity, even when all I have said is understood. On the other hand, those who have not yet taken the trouble to sound the scriptures ought not to be astonished if they find some things still difficult and obscure for them in these pages. They ought not to be discouraged, like a child who should plunge into the middle of a book which he ought to begin, and which he might judge too difficult; but they should set about the work, beginning with the beginning. They will find, let them be assured, many proofs of their ignorance, and very humiliating proofs; but they will also find the Lord with them, and a joy and a satisfaction of which they have not even the idea, not in the things only, but in the fact of being taught of Him; a joy and satisfaction which sanctify and attach to Him who deigns thus to be busied about our instruction, to endure with patience our ignorance, and to instruct us Himself in the truth. And how sweet is this converse with Him, in which He gently leads us on in the knowledge of His ways and unveils for us in His word all the goodness and wisdom of His counsels! Is it not evident that such converse, pursued in such a spirit, must sanctify the soul?

We shall naturally begin with the Gospels, which give us the history of the Lord's life, and present Him to our hearts, whether by His actions or by His discourses, in the various characters which make Him precious in every way to the souls of the redeemed, according to the measure of intelligence bestowed on them, and according to their need—characters which, though He be seen here in humiliation (compare 1 Cor. 2:8), together form the plenitude of His personal glory, so far as we are capable of apprehending it here below in these our earthen vessels.

The Gospels are, in that case, of course, the Genesis. They are the new "beginning," which the apostle John in his first epistle refers to constantly as that. In Christ, "that Eternal Life which was with the Father" shines here, without fleck or stain, ― "the Light of men." Head of new creation, He is the "Father of eternity" ― of that which, as approved of God, abides. The Gospels are the foundation upon which the whole superstructure of Christian truth is reared, and they have always opened the canon of the New Testament. No other place would be possible to them at all.