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Let us note in this verse the high honour which our Lord puts on the Old Testament Scriptures. He distinctly endorses the Jewish Canon of in^^pired writings. Those modern wrirers who kbour to depreciate them, and bring them Into disrepute, show very lit lie of Christ's mujd. Much infidelity begins with an ignorant contempt of the Old Testament. Stier remarks, — *' Israel, possessing still the Old Testament, will enter into the kingdom, when the despisers of Scripture in the final unbelief of Christendom will be judged and condemned,"
Let us note further what a plain duty it is to read the Scrip- tures. Men have no right to expect spiritual hght if they ne- glect the great treasury of all light. If even of the Old Testa- ment our Lord said, "Search," " it testifies of me," how much more is it a duty to search the whole Bible I An idle neglect of the Bible is one secret of the ignorant formal Christianity which is so widely prevalent in these latter days. God's blessing on a dihgent study of the Scripture is strikingly illustrated in the case of the Bereans. (Acts xvii. 11.)