It holds the unfailing corrective for the manifold disorders of our busy lives.  To think its thoughts and breathe its desires, even for a few moments, is to have the horizon of the senses open, the heavy atmosphere of earth clear, the illusions of the world evanish, the fever of business cool and calm, the tempting appetites and passions slink down shamed into their kennels.  It is to have the dark look of life lighten, the sting of disappointment lose its venom, the weariness of sickness forget itself, and the sorrow of the stricken heart sob itself asleep within the everlasting arms of One who, like a mother, comforteth his children, and who with his own hand wipes away the tears from our eyes.

A few days after one of the battles before Richmond a Southern soldier was found unburied.  His right hand still clasped a Bible, and his stiff fingers pressed upon the words of the Twenty-third Psalm: 

    I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me;
    Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.

(4.) In the choice of these daily readings, follow the guidance of the soul’s sure instinct.

You need no critical knowledge to teach you what parts of the Bible are the most highly inspired.  The spiritual sense will appraise these books aright.  As the beasts are led instinctively to the herbs that hold healing for their ailments so you shall find the tonic and the balm that you need.  You will naturally pasture for the most part in the Prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels, the great Epistles of Paul, the First Epistle of John, and kindred writings.  You may, dip into these books as the bees dip into the flowers, now burying themselves in the luscious honey-suckle and now lingering on the rich rose, if so be that you only suck sweetness into your soul.

(5.) Wheresoever you read, read in the spirit.

“I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day,” wrote the seer.  If he had been in the understanding merely, he would not have had many visions.  The Spirit must interpret the Spirit’s words.  The Bible requires, as Bushnell wrote: 

   Divine inbreathings and exaltations in us, that we may asscend into
   their meanings.[63]

In his last sickness Archbishop Usher was observed one day, sitting in his wheel-chair, with a Bible in his lap, and moving his position as the sun stole round to the westward, so as to let the light fall on the sacred page.  That is a symbol of the right use of the Bible.

I picked up lately the choice Bible which I selected for myself as a boy, and on the fly-leaf, in my boyish hand, I read the words: 

   Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.

I still find that the best commentator, for the ethical and spiritual use of the Bible, is one Master Praying Always.

As the bard with the Muse, so the critic in the presence of Wisdom, must forget his skill; “must be, with good intent, no more his, but hers:”