The Soul’s Proper Food

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. 1 PETER 2:2

Torrey spent his working life teaching people to read the Bible. He ran a Bible institute for nearly twenty years and led another, wrote How to Study the Bible for Greatest Profit and What the Bible Teaches, and gave a long chapter to Bible study in How to Succeed in the Christian Life. His conviction was simple: “The soul’s proper food is found in one book, the Bible.” A Christian who neglects it will fail. A Christian who studies it rightly will grow.

Feeding yourself

Torrey began with an analogy. Physical health depends on what we eat and how much. So does spiritual health. A good minister will feed his people on the Word, but he feeds them once or twice a week, and we need to eat every day. More than that, we must learn to feed ourselves. Torrey thought this was also the believer’s best protection. In a day when false teaching abounds, he wrote, the only Christian who is safe from error is the one who studies the Bible for himself. Paul, leaving the Ephesian elders to face grievous wolves, commended them to God and to the word of His grace.

And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. ACTS 20:32

Daily, and at the best hour

His first rule was daily study. The Bereans searched the Scriptures daily, and Torrey said that after more than a quarter of a century as a Christian he still would not dare let a single day pass without listening to God’s voice in His Book.

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. ACTS 17:11

He quoted Moody with approval: in prayer we talk to God, in Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking. And he gave a practical minimum. No one ought to give less than fifteen minutes a day, he said, and he set the figure deliberately low so that no young Christian would be discouraged. Many busy people he knew gave an hour, some two.

Systematically and thoroughly

Torrey disliked random reading. He suggested that a young Christian begin with John’s Gospel, reading it through five times, then Luke five times, then Acts, 1 Thessalonians, 1 John, Romans and Ephesians in the same way. After that the reader could go through the Bible chapter by chapter, asking of each: what is its principal subject? what truth does it most emphasise? what is its best lesson and its best verse? who are its people? and what does it teach about Jesus Christ?

For the most important chapters he offered a longer method, ending with two questions worth keeping for life. What truth already known has come to me with new power? And what definite thing have I resolved to do as a result of this chapter?

Thoughtfully

Torrey told of a busy man hurrying for a train who asked him to say in a word how to study the Bible. His reply was one word: “Thoughtfully.”

He meant it. The Bible has no magic power, he wrote; it does good only by the truth it contains. “It is better to read one verse attentively than to read a dozen chapters thoughtlessly.” When a verse takes hold of you, stop and ponder it. Mark what impresses you. Memorise the passages that move you most, and learn where they are found.

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. PSALM 119:11

He urged comparing Scripture with Scripture. “The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself,” he wrote, and he recommended a book of cross-references to help. A difficult passage, he believed, is always explained somewhere else.

Believingly

His most important rule was to study the Bible as what it is: the Word of God.

For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. 1 THESSALONIANS 2:13

People sometimes say we should study the Bible like any other book. Torrey granted that the ordinary rules of grammar and language apply, but he insisted that the Bible is unique and must be studied as no other book is. That means an eagerness to find out exactly what it says, a readiness to accept what it teaches even when it seems strange to us, and a practical obedience to it. A child who dismisses his wise father’s statements because they seem unreasonable, Torrey said, is not a philosopher but a fool; and the greatest human mind is an infant beside God.

With the Teacher

Finally, Torrey insisted that the Bible must be studied prayerfully, looking to its Author to explain it. In The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit he gave a whole chapter to the Spirit as Teacher.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. JOHN 14:26

He told of a man of thirty-two, long in business, who came to him in tears because he could not memorise Scripture and thought he must give up his training for Christian work. Torrey told him to learn one passage at a time and trust the Spirit to bring it to mind when needed. The man went on to work in a hard field, where opponents gathered round him in the street, and he found that the Scriptures he needed came to him.

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. PSALM 119:18

A word of balance

Torrey’s methods have helped a great many people, and they can be taken up as they stand. Two cautions are worth adding. The first is that methods are servants. His numbered questions are excellent, but the goal is not to fill in a form. It is to hear God. The second is that his confidence that every difficulty is explained elsewhere in Scripture, while it expresses a sound instinct — Scripture does interpret Scripture — can be pressed too far. Some things in the Bible remain hard, and it is no failure of faith to say so. That is the subject of the next chapter.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Decide on a set time each day for Bible study, preferably early, and never less than fifteen minutes. Keep it for a month.

2. If you are young in faith, begin with John’s Gospel and read it through several times.

3. Take one chapter this week and ask Torrey’s questions of it, ending with: what definite thing will I do as a result?

4. Memorise one verse that moves you this week, together with its reference.

5. Before you open the Bible each day, ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes and teach you.

A PRAYER

Lord, You have given me Your Word as the food of my soul, and I have often gone hungry by my own neglect.

Give me an appetite for it, as a newborn child desires milk. Teach me to read it daily, thoughtfully, and as Your own voice.

Holy Spirit, You are the Author of the Book. Open my eyes, bring its words to my remembrance, and make me a doer and not a hearer only.

Let me hide Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You. Amen.