to the work.  This is what God commands.  After Moses had given the law of God to the children of Israel, he said unto them, “Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day.”  This is a very strong expression.  To set our hearts to any work, is to go about it in earnest, with all the energies of our souls.  Again; when we make great search for anything we very much desire and highly prize, and find it, we are very apt to keep it.  Hence David says, “Thy word have I hid in my heart.”  But mark the reason of his conduct.  Why did he hide God’s word in his heart?  He explains his motive:  “That I might not sin against thee.”  His object, in hiding God’s word in his heart, was to know how to regulate his conduct so as not to sin against him.  You must feel a personal interest in the truth.  You must study it as the directory of your life.  When you open this blessed book, let this always be the sincere inquiry of your heart:  “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Come to it with this childlike spirit of obedience, and you will not fail to learn the will of God.  But when you have learned your duty in God’s word, do it without delay.  Here are two very important points of Christian character, quite too much overlooked. (1.) An earnest desire to know present duty. (2.) A steadfast and settled determination to do it as soon as it is known.  Here lies the grand secret of high spiritual attainments.  A person who acts from these principles may make greater progress in a single day than a tardy, procrastinating spirit in a long life.  The pressure of obligation rests upon the present moment.  Remember, when you have ascertained present duty, the delay of a single moment is sin.  With these remarks, I submit a few practical directions for the profitable reading and study of the Holy Scriptures.

1. Read the Bible in your closet, or under circumstances which will secure you from interruption, either by the conversation of others, or the attractions of other objects. Do not attempt to fill up little broken intervals of time with the reading of God’s word.  Leave these seasons for lighter reading.  Remember, the reading of the Scriptures is nothing less than conversing with God.  When any one pays so little attention to your conversation as not to understand what you say, you consider it a great breach of politeness.  God speaks to you whenever you read his holy word.  His all-seeing eye rests upon your heart; and he knows whether you are engaged in solemn trifling.  If you read his word so carelessly as not to understand its meaning and drink in its spirit, you treat him as you would disdain to be treated by an earthly friend.  O the forbearance of God, who suffers such indignity from those who call themselves his children!  Never approach the word of God but with feelings of reverence and godly fear.