I speak to those who are in earnest in the building of a man.  You need this book, my brothers.  Luther’s higher life dated from his discovery of the Bible.  Have you discovered the Bible?  Within the body of human “letters” have you found out the divine soul of the Bible?  Through the chorus of human voices have you heard the voice of the Eternal Power?  If not, life holds one more rich “find” for you—­a treasure hidden in the field over which you have so lightly strayed.

Buy a Bible, my brothers!  The current coin of the land, in the shops of our best booksellers, may have failed to buy for you a real Bible.  No noble book is ever to be made your own in this easy fashion.  Ruskin tells us that the great picture will not give itself to us unless we give ourselves to it.  The Bible must have its price.  The best comes dearest.  If you will not pay you cannot buy.  Pay for the real Bible your costliest offering of mind and heart.  Spend upon it, day by day, your careful, reverent study, until beneath your love the Book warms into life; and, having proven well your loyalty, this teacher of the soul opens its soul to you and whispers—­Henceforth I call you not servant but friend.  Wait in these courts until the Eternal Wisdom, who walks within this temple, turns her face upon you, “mystic, wonderful;” and the common places grow refulgent with a new and heavenly beauty, and you humbly say—­This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

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How shall we thus rightly read the Bible, for ethical and spiritual upbuilding?  Let me offer some plain and practical suggestions to this end.

(1.) Read it daily.

Your soul needs its daily bread.  Do not starve your soul.  Do not try to fatten it on chaff.  Get the best soul-food, the long tried manna that forms upon these pages day by day, for him who will be at pains to gather it.  He must be busy, indeed, who cannot find time to keep himself alive.

(2.) Read it in the choicest moments of the day.

The best picture should have the best setting.  Our fathers’ symbol of the opening of a new day was the opening of the Bible.  Their symbol of the closing of another day’s duties was the closing of the Bible.  Can we improve upon their ritual?  John Quincy Adams noted in his journal his custom of reading in the Bible each morning, of which he well observed: 

   It seems to me the most suitable manner of beginning the day.

Pitch the day aright with this tuning-fork, and hush the babel-voices of the world to its tones of peace at night.

(3.) Read the Bible whenever you need some special influence of strength or cheer, amid the temptations and trials of the day.