A TOURIST, with an open guidebook in his hand, was passing through a famous art gallery in Florence, Italy. Turning from one of the paintings to the custodian, he asked: “Are these your masterpieces? I certainly do not see much in them myself.”
“Sir,” he replied, “these paintings are not on trial; it is the visitors who are on trial!”
One fears there are many who regard the Bible in much the same way in which this ignorant tourist viewed the celebrated paintings at Florence. They have eyes, but they do not discern the beauties that lie sparkling like gems upon the sacred pages. They have ears but they do not hear the voice that calls to them in tones of sweetness in the gospel story. They have hearts but they remain strangely unmoved by the wonders of redeeming love told forth in God’s holy Book.
How do you stand with regard to these matters?
The Bible speaks of SIN. Do you say that you don’t see that it is such a terrible thing? Or do you realize something of its awfulness, its hatefulness in the sight of God?
The Bible speaks of JUDGMENT. Do you shrug your shoulders in unbelief? Or do you accept what the Word of God declares as to its absolute necessity, if God is to maintain His holiness and to show His abhorrence of sin?
The Bible speaks of YOUR NEED AND DANGER. Do you treat its warning words with indifference? Or have you acknowledged your need, the danger to which your sins have exposed you, the impossibility of freeing yourself from the position you are in, the certainty of being overtaken by death, with judgment following hard upon it?
The Bible speaks of A SAVIOUR. Do you pass Him by with cold neglect? Do you slight His loving call? Or have you discovered your need of Him, and fled to Him for refuge? Can you speak of Him as your own personal Saviour?
The Bible speaks of CHRIST’S PRECIOUS BLOOD. Do you treat the sacrifice of Christ with scornful disdain? Do you refuse to admit that it is only by the blood of Christ you can be made fit for heaven? Or have you found in that precious blood, a passport to heaven, a righteous foundation for the pardon which is offered to you in the name of Jesus?
How great the folly of those who do not see much in the Bible, or in the story of salvation that it tells!
How great the wisdom of those who take to heart the lessons that the Bible teaches, and who believe the glad tidings that it proclaims!
ML-07/21/1963