The Duty to Search the Scriptures …
In the early 1750’s a group of itinerant preachers travelled many thousands of miles on horseback throughout America preaching the Gospel to those in the furtherst reaches of the country. They were known as The Circuit Riders, often carrying no money, preaching for free, having only saddlebags containing a Bible and a change of clothes. These preachers changed the course of American history causing two Great Awakenings and revivals which led to the American Revolution. Often opposed by the clerical doctrines and personalities of all established churches that came to colonial America from England and Europe, their effect upon the American colonists was overshelming, and some such as George Whitefield drew crowds documented to be on multiple occasions between 8,000 and 30,000 people. Preaching in open fields and not churches, what distinguised them was most was many were uneducated, by standards of that time; they preached to common peopl, many who were slaves; and many preaching against slavery … but, they studied the scriptures … searched the scriptures … and searched and meditated upon them deeply.
Whitefield preached of a 40 year period in excess of 18,000 sermons. One of them was entitled “The Duty to Search the Scriputres” which can be read in its entirety at the link provided. BibleStudyNH facilitates study of the Scriptures on a local basis; and, at the heart of that mission is Whitefield’s timeless exhortation to apply diligence to that study … as opposed to doing so in a casual or cursory manner:
Do this, and you will, with a holy violence, draw down God's Holy Spirit into your hearts; you will experience his gracious influence, and feel him enlightening, quickening, and inflaming your souls by the word of God; you will then not only read, but mark, learn, and inwardly digest what you read: and the word of God will be meat indeed, and drink indeed unto your souls; you then will be as Apollos was, powerful in the scriptures; be scribes ready instructed to the kingdom of God, and bring out of the good treasures of your heart, things both from the Old and New Testament, to entertain all you converse with. One
Direction more, which shall be the last, Seventhly, Read the scripture constantly, or, to use our Savior's expression in the text, “search the scriptures;” dig in them as for hid treasure; for here is a manifest allusion to those who dig in mines; and our Savior would thereby teach us, that we must take as much pains in constantly reading his word, if we would grow wise thereby, as those who dig for gold and silver. The scriptures contain the deep things of God, and therefore, can never be sufficiently searched into by a careless, superficial, cursory way of reading them, but by an industrious, close, and humble application.
The Psalmist makes it the characteristic of a good man, that he “meditates on God's law day and night.” And “this book of the law, (says God to Joshua) shall not go out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night;” for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and thou shalt have good success. Search, therefore, the scriptures, not only devoutly but daily, for in them are the words of eternal life; wait constantly at wisdom's gate, and she will then, and not till then, display and lay open to you her heavenly treasures. You that are rich, are without excuse if you do not; and you that are poor, ought to take heed and improve that little time you have: for by the scriptures you are to be acquitted, and by the scriptures you are to be condemned at the last day.
But perhaps you have no taste for this despised book; perhaps plays, romances, and books of polite entertainment, suit your taste better: if this be your case, give me leave to tell you, your taste is vitiated, and unless corrected by the Spirit and word of God, you shall never enter into his heavenly kingdom: for unless you delight in God here, how will you be made meet to dwell with him hereafter. Is it a sin then, you will say, to read useless impertinent books; I answer, Yes. And that for the same reason, as it is a sin to indulge useless conversation, because both immediately tend to grieve and quench that Spirit, by which alone we can be sealed to the day of redemption. You may reply, How shall we know this? Why, put in practice the precept in the text; search the scripture in the manner that has been recommended, and then you will be convinced of the danger, sinfulness, and unsatisfacteriness of reading any others than the book of God, or such as are wrote in the same spirit. You will then say, when I was a child, and ignorant of the excellency of the word of God, I read what the world calls harmless books, as other children in knowledge, though old in years, have done, and still do; but now I have tasted the good word of life, and am come to a more perfect knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, I put away these childish, trifling things, and am determined to read no other books but what lead me to a knowledge of myself and of Christ Jesus.
Search, therefore, the scriptures, my dear brethren; taste and see how good the word of God is, and then you will never leave that heavenly manna, that angel's food, to feed on dry husks, that light bread, those trifling, sinful compositions, in which men of false taste delight themselves: no, you will then disdain such poor entertainment, and blush that yourselves once were fond of it. The word of God will then be sweeter to you than honey, and the honey-comb, and dearer than gold and silver; your souls by reading it, will be filled as it were, with marrow and fatness, and your hearts insensibly molded into the spirit of its blessed Author. In short, you will be guided by God's wisdom here, and conducted by the light of his divine word into glory hereafter.
George Whitefield Sermon – The Duty of Searching the Scriptures
Many more of Whitefield’s Sermons and a detailed discussoin of references and writings of The Circuit Riders can be found at out website at the link provided
