The Moral Impulse Imparted to Individuals and Communities by the Study of the Bible
Psalm 56:4
In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do to me.


My object is not merely to demonstrate the inspiration of the Bible, but to win you to the study of it. It may possibly be alleged by many persons, especially of the more busy classes of society, that they have no time for the attention to the Bible which is recommended.

1. The plea is dangerous as well as monstrous and criminal. If a son or a friend were to aver that he had become too busy, that he was too much engaged, for days and weeks and months together, to read an epistle from a distant land, dictated by parental love or by friendship, to what conclusion should we come as to the nature of the pretence or the character of the mind that could dictate it? Could we, even in this ordinary ease, admit for an instant the validity of the excuse, or suppose that any business of life could be so urgent?

2. The plea is untrue. A few verses, snatched from the hurry of life (if life must indeed be so hurried) may suffice. In a few minutes you may read enough to furnish materials for reflection and inquiry. You may walk or work — and think. And we claim such study for the Bible because —

I. THE INFLUENCE WHICH IT EXERTS IS DISTINCTLY MORAL. It deals with man as a moral being, responsible for his actions, and to be influenced by motives.

II. AND THIS IMPULSE WHICH IT COMMUNICATES IS HOLY. Notwithstanding passages in it which infidels have urged have an unholy tendency, the overwhelming effect of the book is towards holiness. Not so other sacred books — the Koran, and the like.

III. AND THIS IMPULSE IS MIGHTY.

IV. PROGRESSIVE.

V. BUT SIMPLY INSTRUMENTAL. The truth contained in the sacred volume exerts an influence analogous, both in its force and its secrecy, to that of some of the most wonder-working agencies of nature. It resembles the unseen presence of magnetism or electricity, which move as by a touch the elements and masses around us — disposing them to order or clothing them with beauty; or it is like the vegetative power, that in the darkness and concealment of the earth and the clods of the valley impels the seed to shoot and rise and spread fertility upon the smiling surface. In the secret recesses of the soul, and in the dark and hidden depths of a heart, no human eye can penetrate and no human philosophy unravel — it subdues and sanctifies, works repentance and humiliation, and the settled purposes of a renewed mind, till on the surface appears the penitential tear, the bended knee, the contrite sigh, the believing and imploring reception of Christ, the moral and spiritual renewal of character, the outward, fearless, and heaven-sealing profession of a true religion; and every right-minded observer attests the truth of the Divine declaration, "Behold I make all things new."

(F. A. Cox, D. D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.

WEB: In God, I praise his word. In God, I put my trust. I will not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?




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