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The Pathway of Safety; or, Counsel to the Awakened By the Right Rev. Ashton Oxenden, D.D. CHAPTER VI: HELPS BY THE WAY RELIGIOUS BOOKS – RELIGIOUS INTERCOURSE – MEDITATION – COMMUNION WITH GOD – SELF-EXAMINATION A. RELIGIOUS BOOKS The Bible is not the only book the Christian has to help him on his way. It is the Great Book—the Book of books—the only book that can be called The Book of God—the only book which speaks with full authority, and against which there is no appeal. Still, there are other books, which may help you on your way heavenward. And never was there a time, when so many of these helps were placed within our reach. There are books suited to every stage of the believer’s experience. This very book which you are now reading is, I hope, one of them. I have tried to suit it to your case, my dear reader. May there be, here and there, a remark in it likely to assist you in your great spiritual enterprise. As the Bible is like God’s own voice speaking to us, so good books are like pious friends conversing with us. They contain many hints. And point out to us many dangers, and give us many encouragements. Be thankful then, when any really good book comes into your possession, or is lent to you for a time. Read it carefully and thoughtfully, and perhaps you may gain from it some profitable knowledge. If you have leisure, allot some portion of time in each day to this kind of reading. Do not allow yourself to get into the habit of taking up any book which may chance to fall in your way. Such study will do you no good; it will only waste your time. But read something that is really likely to strengthen your mind, warm your heart, and give you clearer and sounder views of God’s truth. It will be well to ask your minister, or some wise and godly friend, to counsel you as to what books you should read. But in taking up any religious book, remember it is only man’s work. There may be a great deal of good in it, and yet some wrong things in it. The writer may earnestly desire to lead you right, and yet he may possibly be mistaken on some points himself. Try then and cull out what is good from the book you are reading. In the Bible all is pure gold; but in other books, even the best of them, there is a mixture of dross with the precious metal. For instance, a book is lent to you, which contains some very useful advice, and you read it with much benefit to your soul. But perhaps you come to a passage which contains a different view of some particular doctrine from that which you have learnt from the word of God, or from your minister. Now, are you to embrace at once this new view, merely because you find it in a printed book? Certainly not. You would be wrong in allowing your mind to be so easily warped. Or, again, perhaps a book may fall into your hands, written by some one who is not a member of your own Church. There may be much true piety in it, and much that is likely to raise your heart upwards. But as you read on, you are suddenly startled by some strong expressions against your Church. The rest of the book may have seemed so true and so sound that you may be half disposed to be led away by the arguments that are used. But bear this in mind—they are merely the words of a man, and there you will find dross mixed with the gold. The writer may be a good man, and yet liable to be mistaken on some points; for even those among us, who have the clearest sight, ‘only see through a glass dimly’—they only ‘know in part.’ (1 Cor. 13.12) Weigh well, then, what you read. And take care, lest a few well-written sentences throw you off your balance, and move you away from the safe ground on which you are standing. Above all, let no book, however excellent, take the place of the Book of books. Man’s words must not be valued like God’s word. What are common stones in comparison to rubies? ‘What is the chaff to the wheat?’ A religious book may very likely put many things before us in a plainer way than the Bible does. But it is a dangerous sign when a person allows these to become his chief study, while God’s word is laid aside. It was said of Henry Martin: ‘So deep was his veneration for the word of God, that when a suspicion arose in his mind, that any other book he might be studying was about to gain an undue influence over his affections, he instantly laid it aside; nor would he resume it, till he felt and realized the paramount excellence of God’s Word. He could not rest satisfied till all those lesser lights, that were beginning to dazzle him, had disappeared before the brightness and glory of the Scriptures. And now, I am going to mention another staff of a similar kind, from which you may derive some help; but you must not lean upon it too constantly. I mean **************************************************** The Pathway of Safety; or, Counsel to the Awakened, Ashton Oxenden **************************************************** PREVIOUS CHAPTER -- NEXT CHAPTER ©God’sGWG
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