The Bible - General William Booth

My dear Comrades,

I desire to offer you some council about the Bible. You will all know that the Bible is a very imortant Book, and I have no doubt you set great store by it; indeed, I am pleased to learn that, of late, more thought is being given to its pages than ever throughout the Army. But still, I am afraid that the precious Book does not receive the attention that it demands.

Why the Bible is of Great Value

Let me try to say a word or two that will be likely to better impress upon you its great value.

The Bible is a very wonderful Book. Its very name signifies this, for the word Bible simply means The Book, so that when we say the Bible, we mean that it is The Book, the Book which, above every other, people should know, treasure, and obey. If to a wise person, the choice were offered of the Bible on one hand, or all the books in the world, on the other, they would choose the Bible.

It is so valuable because:

1. In the first place, God is the author. He caused it to be written under His special direction. The Holy Ghost put the thoughts which it records into the hearts of holy men. They wrote them down; that is the reason we speak of it as the Word of God.

2. The Bible is an important Book, because it tells us of God. We might have expected that our Heavenly Father would not leave us in ignorance about Himself. If there is a God whom we ought to serve, we might be quite sure that He would want to tell us of His power and love, and to declare what His feelings are towards us. And that is just what He has done in the Bible. It is a precious Book because it is the revelation of God.

3. The Bible is a valuable Book, because from it we learn all that we need to know about the birth and life, the suffering and death, the resurrection and ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Except for one of two passing remarks in one other very ancient book, we should all be ignorance of the career of our Lord but for the Bible. Then we have the wonderful story of His earthly journeyings, His marvelous miracles, His wonderful addresses, His glorious death and resurrection, and oh, what a fascinating story it is!

4. The Bible tell us all we know with certainty about the future state. We should be in utter ignorance of what happens after death if it were not for the Bible. It is the Bible that tell us of the resurrection of the dead, the great White Throne, the Heaven of delight, and the Hell of misery. But for the Bible we should be in complete darkness concerning these important things.

5. It is the Bible that tells us of the merits of the precious Blood of our dear Savior, the possibilities of the forgiveness of sins, the purification of our hearts, the protection of God, and the triumph of the dying hour. Of these blessed possibilities humanity world know nothing without the Bible.

6. The Bible has a mighty influence for good on the world in the years that are past. It has won the hearts and enlightened the lives of millions. It has rescued multitudes from the horrible pit, led their feet to the Rock of Ages, filled their mouths with singing, kept them from falling into Hell, and guided them safely to the golden gates of the Celestial City.

7. The Bible has been more bitterly attacked and mroe cruelly slandered than any other book in existence. Again and again people have exerted every powet to effect its destruction. But it has survived all opposition, and today is more widely circulated, and is probably more generally read, than ever before. Not all the powers of earth and hell combined have been able to destroy the blessed Bible.

8. Bad men hate the Bible, denounce it, call it hard names, question its truths, and wish it were out of existence. Good people love it, read it, make it the guide of their lives, spread it abroad, and thank God for its precious pages.

9. The truths written down and explained in the Bible have done wonders for Salvationists. What would you have been without them? But for the free salvation set forth in the Bible, many of you would have been in the grave, and your souls cast into outer darkness, while others would have been on their way there. Oh, the precious Book! What a priceless blessing it has been to The Salvation Army!
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What Ought You Do for the Bible?

 
Now, my comrades, I want to ask the question, What ought you do for the Bible? Ought you to neglect it - pass it over for the newspaper, the story book, or other rubbish? By no means. That is how the godless world around you deals with the precious treasure. What, then, ought you to do? I will tell you:

1. The very least you can do with the Bible is to read it. If I, your General, sent you a letter, you could not do less than read it over, try to understand it, and strive to do what I requested in it. The Bible is a letter from your Heavenly Father; you cannot do less with His letter than you would do with one from the General.

2. Read it alone.

• Read a few verses at a time
• Read them on your knees
• Read them as you walk the streets
• Read them while you take your midday meal
• Read them when you rise in the morning
• Read them when you retire at night
• Read them in your spare moments

3. Read it to your families. Impress its precious truths on your children, if you are parents. Explain them to the ignorant - make them understand.

4. See to it that you experience in your own hearts the blessings the Bible offers you. Remember, it will be little better than a curse to you if you only know the Word, and do not possess and live in the spirit of it. If you only believe it with your head, and do not enjoy the things that it describes, and accept the mercy, wash in the fountain, receive the Holy Ghost, and live and die in the light and joy of its good tidings, it will only add to your condemnation and guilt.

5. Fulfill the duties it commands. It is the doers of the Word who are blessed. Make it the guide of your life: at home, abroad, in your corps, in sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow, everywhere and all the time.

6. Publish the salvation of the Bible wherever you go - in the street - in the barracks - in your home - at your work - everywhere tell the glad tidings.

Oh, my comrades, do not let the Bible rise up in judgment against you, as it surely will if you either neglect it, or if, reading and knowing about the salvation and victory of which it tells, you do not enjoy the salvation and experience that victory.

William Booth. 'The Bible.' Religion for Every Day. London: Salvationist Publishing and Supplies, 1922.

How to Use the Bible - General William Booth

The Bible is one of God's greatest gifts to man. It contains not only the announcement of the sacrifice of His dear Son, but a revelation of His will concerning the manner of life He wants men to live. The Bible has already worked saving wonders of great magnitude, and is closely associated with almost every important advance for the betterment of mankind which the human race has experienced. The extent of the world's indebtedness to that sacred Book for the privilege it enjoys will never be known, neither in this life nor the next. What marvelous works of healing alike to body, mind and soul we Salvationists have witnessed through its wonderful words! Still, we expect to see the Holy Spirit accomplish far greater miracles by means of the blessed book.

To effect these wonders can we not do something more than we are doing to secure for the Bible a wider circulation?

There ought not to be a house in the wide, wide world without a Bible; not a man, woman or child ignorant of its promises, or uninstructed in the values of its counsels and commands. 

If I entertained the notions of some millionaires with respect to the Bible, and had the money at my disposal, I would place a copy of the Scriptures in every home in the world, with explanations that would bring its important truths within the comprehension of every occupant.

We want the Bible to be more carefully read.

I know that, with many, the Sacred Book is regularly read in a formal manner; but I want to see it more carefully and thoughtfully studied, and I want to make sure that all who read it understand its true meaning.

I am afraid that many of those Christians who profess to rest their every hope for earth and Heaven upon the Bible, and who make the loudest boast of its importantce, only very imperfectly act out the practical principles it contains, and that only when such obedience is agreeable to their feelings.

We want the Bible not only to be read and committed to memory, and repeated at all manner of times, and in all kinds of places, but to be really understood.

For example, what strange mistakes are made with respect to its teaching. Only think of the error so commonly made in imagining that the favor of God can be enjoyed without obedience to His commands.

There are plenty of arguments designed to lessen the importance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, or to explain away its merit altogether, although the spirit of that sacrifice and the blessing it brings are the glory of the Bible. There is plenty of interpretation of the Bible which vainly attempts to explain away the punishment of the wicked, so clearly announced in its pages. Take away those things, and the Bible becomes not only ordinary, but an uninteresting book, to be neither feared nor cared for.

We want the Bible to be studied with a view to practical godliness.

You must read the Book, my comrades, in order to learn how better to obey its commands and realize the blessings it offers. It is only in this way that you can discover the height and length, and depth, and breadth of the religion of purity and peace, and divine communion, which are described and revealed in its pages.

I want my people to read the Bible with an eye on their obligation to follow Jesus Christ in that life of self-denying service He led to seek and save the souls of men. I want such a Bible-reading as will make Salvationists who shall be truly Christ men and Christ women; that is to say, imitators of their Lord.

I want all who read the Bible to realize that the deliverance of men from the guilt, the power, and the indwelling of sin, and their being brought back to God, are the great objects for which the book was written. That deliverance is the great purpose of the Word today.

Our Charter of Salvation

It is for us, then, as Salvationists, to give more heed to our "Charter of Salvation." We must see to it:

1. That not a single home with which we have to do is without a copy of God's Word.
2. That we read the Book of books more regularly, and urge others to do the same.
3. That we study the spirit as well as the words of the Holy Book, and that with a view to our realization of the blessings it offers, and the discharge of the duties it enjoys.

William Booth. "How to Use the Bible" in John Waldron (Ed.) The Salvationist and the Scriptures. NY: The Salvation Army, 1988.

What the Bible Shows - General William Booth

General William Booth
Founder of The Salvation Army

The Bible has been carefully preserved by Jews and Christians; some men have thought its preservation as great a miracle as its inspiration.

What is claimed for the Bible? Not that every word is inspired. Some words have crept into the text which manifetly do not belong to it. Not that it is without mystery. None of the books on which God has evidently written is without mystery. Not that every passage is easily understood. It requires careful study, like all other great books. Not that exactly in its present form it is entirely free from errors. The lives of many people are made a constant agony because someone or other keeps announcing the discovery of some supposed error. These discoveries of mistakes are in turn constantly being proven mistaken.

That there should be some mistakes in the Bible was to be expected. Remember that the Bible consists of a collection of books written in different languages by many pens, and at different stages of the world's history. This has necessitated constant copying. Try to copy a book and see whether, on close examination, you have done so without some mistake.

There have been many mishaps in preservation 'unto this day.' The Bible, having been originally written in several languages and being constantly translated into difference languages, there have undoubtedly been mistakes made in translation. In modern times there have been different editions by different printers, hence printers' errors. In some cases, the observations of commentators have crept into th text. People endeavor to explain the Bible today, as they always have done so! And often the comment, I am afraid, has come to be regarded as the text.

But too much can be made of such mistakes, or omissions, or of the insertion of a matter foreign to the original. Mistakes in names and words do not destroy the sense of the main teaching. Misquotations do not interfere with the meaning. Treating parables as facts, and facts as parables, and the like, does not alter the general trend of the meaning of what is written. Is the story of the prodigal son a mind picture or an actual incident? The value of its teaching is not affected either way. Seeming contradictions in the Bible may be explained away by better knowledge, by customs of the age in which the book was written, or by some incidents that occured at the time of which, at present, we have no knowledge.

The Salvation Army claims for the Bible that it contains a revelation of the feelings of God toward us and of His wishes as to our conduct and our fellow men. It gives us everything in the way of a written revelation that is necessary to salvation, holy living and our welfare.

William Booth. "What the Bible Shows" in John Waldron (Ed.) The Salvationist and the Scriptures. NY: The Salvation Army, 1988.