As regards prediction, let them look around them. Two great fulfilments of Old Testament prediction are going forward at this moment. One is, the vast work of missions, whose whole aim is to make known "to the ends of the earth" the Name of Messiah, Son of David, Son of Abraham, Son of God. The other is, the dispersion and yet permanence of the Jewish race, and (may I not add, in view of the facts of the last few years?) the beginnings of a re-population of Palestine by the Jews. Credible statistics assure us that they are now returning to their old land at the rate of many thousands in a year. True, no "miracle" brings them back. But no thoughtful student has ever said that the miracle of prediction demands miracle in the circumstances of the fulfilment.
I have gone beyond my intended length in these observations.[8] The present urgency of the subject, which encounters us everywhere, is my apology. But now, all the more gladly for the delay, I hasten to a few simple words of suggestion on that practical duty of Secret Bible Reading which is, after all, the best and surest antidote and preservative against scepticism about the Bible, if it is carried on at once thoroughly, intelligently, and as before the Lord. Vain without it, worse than vain, will be the most diligent and successful study of the apologetics of the Bible. For the Bible was given to be, not a battle-field, but a field of wheat, and pasturage, and flowers, and a gold-field also all the while.
[8] (I) have elsewhere called attention to the following among works helpful at present in the controversy about Scripture: Lord Hatherley's _Continuity of Scripture_, Dr Waller's _Authoritative Inspiration_, Dr Cave's _Inspiration of the Old Testament_. Let me add four able popular tractates: Cave's _Battle of the Standpoints_ (Queen's Printers), Eckersley's _Historical Value of the Old Testament_ (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge), G. Carlyle's _Moses and the Prophets_ and Seaver's _Authority of Christ_ (Elliot Stock). Dr Liddon's memorable sermon, _The Worth of the Old Testament_, is full of helpful suggestions. See too Professor Leathes' _Witness of the Old Testament to Christ_, Sir J.W. Dawson's _Modern Science in Bible Lands_, and Bishop Harold Browne's _Messiah Foretold_. I specially call attention to Canon R. Girdlestone's recent book, the work of a master, _The Foundations of the Bible_, most temperate, judicial, solid, and establishing; and to this must be added now (1892) Bishop Ellicott's excellent Charge, published by the S.P.C.K. under the title _Christus Comprobator_.
How then shall I read my Bible so as at once spiritually and mentally to know it, or rather, to be always getting to know it? The answer must be--"at sundry times and in divers manners." I must make time to read often, however brief each time may be. And I must use methods of study, more than one, in parallel lines.
As a sort of ground-work to all other methods I venture first to say, be always reading the Bible _through_, however slowly, or rapidly. For certain purposes, for instance in order to grasp the scope of a book, as perhaps an Epistle, or the Revelation, or St John's Gospel, or the latter half of Isaiah, or the Book of Genesis,[9] rapid reading may be quite reverently done. In any case, get as soon as you may, and as often as is practicable and practical, over _the whole surface_. Lord Hatherley, amidst the heavy occupations of a barrister's and judge's life, used to read the whole Book through carefully every year, and this for more than thirty years. I cannot say that I do the same. But I aim to read the Bible over carefully within every few years.
[9] To touch on a very small point I write here "the Book of Genesis," not "the Book Genesis." English literature, if I do not mistake, is as unfamiliar with the latter phrase as it is with "the city London."