Evening, February 21
Go To Morning Reading
“Understandest thou what thou readest?”
Acts 8:30
We should be abler teachers of others, and less liable to be carried
about by every wind of doctrine, if we sought to have a more intelligent
understanding of the Word of God. As the Holy Ghost, the Author of
the Scriptures is he who alone can enlighten us rightly to understand
them, we should constantly ask his teaching, and his guidance into
all truth. When the prophet Daniel would interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, what did he do? He set himself to earnest prayer that God
would open up the vision. The apostle John, in his vision at Patmos,
saw a book sealed with seven seals which none was found worthy to
open, or so much as to look upon. The book was afterwards opened by
the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who had prevailed to open it; but
it is written first—“I wept much.” The tears of John, which were his liquid prayers, were, so far as
he was concerned, the sacred keys by which the folded book was opened.
Therefore, if, for your own and others’ profiting, you desire to be “filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,” remember that prayer is your best means of study: like Daniel, you
shall understand the dream, and the interpretation thereof, when you
have sought unto God; and like John you shall see the seven seals
of precious truth unloosed, after you have wept much. Stones are not
broken, except by an earnest use of the hammer; and the stone-breaker
must go down on his knees. Use the hammer of diligence, and let the
knee of prayer be exercised, and there is not a stony doctrine in
revelation which is useful for you to understand, which will not fly
into shivers under the exercise of prayer and faith. You may force
your way through anything with the leverage of prayer. Thoughts and
reasonings are like the steel wedges which give a hold upon truth;
but prayer is the lever, the prise which forces open the iron chest
of sacred mystery, that we may get the treasure hidden within.