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God has mercifully given us a book which is “able to make us wise UNTO SALVATION THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS” (2 Tim.3:15). By reading that book we may learn what to believe, what to be, and what to do; how to live with comfort, and how to die in peace.
We must never forget that all the education a man's head can receive, will not save his soul from hell, unless he knows the truths of the Bible.
A man may have prodigious learning, and yet never be saved. He may be master of half the languages spoken round the globe. He may be acquainted with the highest and deepest things in heaven and earth. He may have read books till he is like walking encyclopedia. He may be familiar with the stars of heaven,—the birds of the air,—the beasts of the earth, and the fishes of the sea. He may be able, like Solomon, to “speak of trees, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows on the wall, of beasts also, and fowls, and creeping things, and fishes.”(1 King.4:33) He may be able to discourse of all the secrets of fire, air, earth, and water. And yet, if he dies ignorant of Bible Truths, he dies a miserable man!
Death will make an end of all his attainments (and earthly achievements), and after death they will do him no good at all.
A man may be a very ignorant man, and yet be saved. He may be unable to read a story, or write a letter. He may know nothing of geography beyond the bounce of his own parish, and be utterly unable to say which is nearest to England, Paris or New York. He may know nothing big arithmetic, and not see any difference between a million and a thousand. He may know nothing of history, not even if his land, and be quite ignorant wether his country owes most to Semiramis, Boadicea, or Queen Elizabeth. He may know nothing of the affairs of his own times, and be incapable of telling you whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or the Commander-in-Chief, or the Archbishop of Canterbury is managing the national finances. He may know nothing of science, and its discoveries,—and whether Julius Caesar won his victories with gunpowder, or the apostles had a printing press, or the sun goes round the earth, may be matters about which he has not an idea. And yet if that man has heard Bible Truth with his ears, and believed it with his heart, he knows enough to save his soul. He will be found at last with Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, while his scientific fellow-creature who has died unconverted, is lost forever.
(John Charles Ryle (1816-1900)__Practical Religion)
