George Muller - Ch. 3

"After a true relish for the Scriptures had been created, he could not understand how he could ever have treated God's Book with such neglect. It seemed obvious that God having condescended to become an Author, inspiring holy men to write the Scriptures, He would in them impart the most vital truths; His message would cover all matters which concern man's welfare, and therefore, under the double impulses of duty and delight, we should instinctively and habitually turn to the Bible. Moreover, as he read and studied this Book of God, he felt himself admitted to more and more intimate acquaintance with the Author. During the last twenty years of his life he read it carefully through, four or five times annually, with a growing sense of his own rapid increase in the knowledge of God thereby" (49).

*I think of my recent spiritual deadness and much, if not all, can be attributed to being disconnected with the Author of the most incredible of stories - the story of life and the story of our lives!

"Such motives for Bible study it is strange that any true believer should overlook. Ruskin, in writing Of the King's Treasuries refers to the universal ambition for 'advancement in life,' which means 'getting into good society.' How many obstacles one finds in securing an introduction to the great and good of this world, and even then in getting access to them, in securing an audience with the kings and queens of human soceity! Yet there is open to us a society of people of the very first rank who will meet us and converse with us so long as we like, whatever our ignorance, poverty, or low estate--namely, the society of authors; and the key that unlocks their private audience-chamber is their books.

"So writes Ruskin, and all this is beautifully true; but how few, even among believers, appreciate the privilege of access to the great Author of the universe through His word! Poor and rich, high and low, ignorant and learned, young and old, all alike are welcomed to the audience-chamber of the King of kings. The most intimate knowledge of God is possible on one condition--that we search His Holy Scriptures, prayerfully and habitually, and translate what we there find, into obedience. Of him who thus meditates on God's law day and night, who looks and continues looking into this perfect law of liberty, the promise is unique, and found in both Testaments: 'Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper' ; 'that man shall be blessed in his deed' (Ps. 1.3; Joshua 1.8; James 1.25)

"So soon as George Muller found this well-spring of delight and sucess, he drank habitually at this fountain of living waters. In later life he lamented that, owing to his early neglect of this source of divine wisdom and strength, he remained so long in spiritual infancy, with its ignorance and impotence" (50).

*What most people know and what is most often said about Muller is focused on his prayer life. His prayer life, though, was absolutely connected with his discipline of reading the word of God, out of both duty and delight! Duty and delight often go together in the Kingdom :)! I love the idea proprosed by Ruskin that reading gives us an audience with the author, and how incredible that we have an audience with the Author! Love it!