It must be remembered that the Bible, prior to these translations, was a sealed book. One seal was the tyrannical policy of the Church of Rome, that forbade the people to read it for themselves. Chained to the altar of some cathedral or to the wall of some library, like that which Luther discovered in the University at Erfurt, it was securely clasped and locked. The only persons who had anything to do with it were the monks, who in their dark and obscure cells would spend their days mechanically copying the sacred parchments. It was in this respect, indeed, a sealed book. Another seal were the languages in which it was written, so that, even if the people had possessed a copy, they would for that reason have been unable to read it; Hebrew, Greek, and Latin were things they could not understand and read. And to this might be added another seal, _viz._, that the Church of Rome had well seen to it that the majority of the people could not read at all. Ignorance among the masses was profound.
Now, thank God, no such seals exist. There is no prohibition of Bible reading in this land. There are to-day more Bibles than ever; it is the very best seller of all books, and no one dares forbid us to read God's Word as freely as we please. We also have the Scriptures in our own tongue, and never has there been a time in the world's history when people were as universally able to read. And yet, glorious as this all is, is it not true that the Bible is a book that is shut and sealed? Which is that seal? That seal, my dear hearers, is one of the people's own making, one that they themselves place upon it,--it is a lack of genuine study of it. They do not go and search the Scriptures that they may learn the wonderful things it has to teach them. If, then, I shall succeed in a measure to break that seal, and to stimulate you to Bible study, I shall consider that God has blessed the humble effort of His servant.
We shall regard this morning: _I. Why you should read your Bibles._ _II. How you should read them._
Why you should read them. Because God says so. "Search the Scriptures," is His plain and authoritative command. We are well enough acquainted with the arguments of Rome that would tell us it is a great mistake to let every layman read the Bible. See what confusion it has caused. Whence came all these hundred and one different sects, these endless conflicting opinions, this skepticism among you Protestants? Is it not because you permit every one, without distinction and discrimination, to read the Bible? To which we answer: By no means. That is not the fault of the Bible. That some have wrested the Scripture to their own harm, misused it, does not do away with its proper use. God has beautifully made this world, and it is full of His blessing; that some, in selfishness and sinfulness, abuse it, is not His fault nor that of His gifts. He has given man His only-begotten Son for their salvation; the fact that hundred thousands do not accept and believe in Him is not God's fault, nor His Son's, nor His Gospel's, nor His Church's fault. Just as destitute of all sound reason it is to place the abuses which some have made with the Bible to the Bible itself.