The brilliant Yale professor, William Lyon Phelps, once said, “If I had to make the choice, I’d rather my son have a knowledge of the Bible without a college education, than a college education without a knowledge of the Bible.” During World War II an American soldier was given a New Testament as he prepared to travel overseas. The youthful soldier accepted the gift with the remark, “Thanks, I may be short of cigarette papers over there.” After a few weeks had passed he sent home a check to help in the printing and distribution of Bibles. What happened to change his attitude about the Bible? What had he discovered in the New Testament that was so fascinating?
     The Bible Touches Man. Today, man needs more than fascination; he needs salvation! People read and study the Bible because it does for them and to them what no other literature can. The Word of God is the undergirding of all of life. It reaches the part of man that no surgeon’s scalpel can ever touch. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” The Bible reaches to the soul and heart, the very essence of man.
     The Bible Tells Us Of God. The fact the Bible exists shows that God yearns for man and the fact of man’s interest in the Bible shows he yearns for God. The Bible is a “Jesus-book.” It tells us with faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, we can live more richly than we have ever lived before (John 10:10; 20:30-31). All sparkling history, sweet poetry and sublime prophecy of the Bible provides a magnificent road leading up to the unfolding of the life of Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom. Those who recognize this truth and live accordingly will find life sweeter and more purposeful.
     The Bible Treats Man’s Ills. The Bible, as God has given it, is perfectly suited to man, as God has made him. The Bible is not to be relegated to the category of religious relics. Man doesn’t live by relics; he lives by “instruction of righteousness.” Jesus said that man lives “by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). The Holy Bible is a living book; as up to date as tomorrow’s newspaper.
     The threads of suffering and tragedy are woven through the fabric of human experiences. In a world of trials and tribulations and problems and perplexities the never-failing scriptures speak to the human heart and say, “Peace, be still.” To the troubled, the Lord says, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). To the fearful the Book says, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us who can be against us?...Nay in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:31, 37). To all, the Book says, “God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).
     Part of the tremendous appeal of the Bible is that it has made known to multiplied millions the satisfying answers to the difficult questions with which man has to grapple. This does not mean the Bible supplies all the answers to all the difficult questions but it does shed sufficient light on our darkened way. Clarence Macartney has explained it this way:
 “If you have ever walked at night with a lantern in your hand you know how a lantern is carried—not high up at one’s waist or shoulder, but down toward one’s feet, near the path. The lantern does not light up the whole territory around you, so it is with the Bible.”
     “The light of the Bible does not illuminate every subject or answer every question of man’s mind. But on the great theme, on the important matter, how to live, and how to meet temptation and sin, and how to gain Eternal Life, it does give us sufficient light. The Bible like a lantern gives you light of the next step, the light of the next, and then for the next, until traveling days are over.”
     If a man cherishes the privilege of a happy journey through life, he will give heed to the Word of God. Woodrow Wilson was entirely correct when he said, “A man has deprived himself of the best there is in the world who has deprived himself of this, a knowledge of the Bible.”—Taken from the book, Gospel Truths Briefly Told, by Bill Dillon, 704 Arkansas Avenue, Mountain Home, AR 72653