Charles Spurgeon on How to Read the Bibleናሙና

I have sorrowfully observed some persons who are very orthodox and who can repeat their creed very glibly, and yet the principal use that they make of their orthodoxy is to sit and watch the preacher with the view of framing a charge against him. He has uttered a single sentence that is judged to be half a hair’s breadth below the standard: “That man is not sound. He said some good things, but he is rotten at the core, I am certain. He used an expression that was not eighteen ounces to the pound.” Sixteen ounces to the pound are not enough for these dear brethren of whom I speak; they must have something more and over and above the shekel of the sanctuary. Their knowledge is used as a microscope to magnify trifling differences.

I hesitate not to say that I have come across persons who “Could a hair divide, Betwixt the west and north-west side,” in matters of divinity but who know nothing about the things of God in their real meaning. They have never drunk them into their souls but only sucked them up into their mouths to spit them out on others. The doctrine of election is one thing, but to know that God has predestined you, and to have the fruit of it in the good works to which you are ordained, is quite another thing. To talk about the love of Christ, to talk about the heaven that is provided for His people, and such things—all this is very well. But this may be done without any personal acquaintance with them. Therefore, beloved, never be satisfied with a sound creed, but desire to have it graven on the tablets of your heart. The doctrines of grace are good, but the grace of the doctrines is better still. See that you have it, and be not content with the idea that you are instructed until you so understand the doctrine that you have felt its spiritual power.

Oh, when you have got hold of a creed, or of an ordinance, or anything that is outward in the letter, pray the Lord to make you feel that there is something greater than the printed book and something better than the mere shell of the creed. There is one person greater than them all, and to Him we should cry that He may be ever with us. O living Christ, make this a living Word to me. Your Word is life, but not without the Holy Spirit. I may know this Book of yours from beginning to end, and repeat it all from Genesis to Revelation, and yet it may be a dead book, and I may be a dead soul. But, Lord, be present here. Then will I look up from the Book to the Lord; from the precept to Him who fulfilled it; from the law to Him who honored it; from the threatening to Him who has borne it for me, and from the promise to Him in whom it is “Yes and amen.”