THE STOREHOUSE OF SCRIPTURE
By Uriah Smith
“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Rom. 15: 4. Here are three things—patience, comfort, and hope, esteemed most valuable possessions, condensed into this text. So prominently does it bring to view these graces of the Spirit, that it is said that old Dr. Hugh Latimer, in his latter days, used to preach from it continually; and it furnished a wide scope for all his applications. The apostle here declares that the Old Testament Scriptures are designed to teach the New. Things written aforetime were written for us. The Old Testament is not worn out. The Holy Ghost here sets His seal upon it, and forever enters a protest against undervaluing that sacred volume. Its authority has not yet ceased. The apostles learned from it. It teaches with certainty. Its power still remains; for it develops the graces of the Spirit in those who receive it. That we through the patience of the Scriptures might have hope. What is the patience of the Scriptures?—It is that patience which the Scriptures inculcate. Many of the varieties of which the Scriptures speak will readily occur to any mind,—patience, under the providences and appointments of God, according to His divine will, though it may not seem suitable to us at the time,—patience, under human persecutions, and the devices and opposition of Satan, however brought to bear upon us,—patience, under the burdens that we may be called to bear for the brethren: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Gal. 6: 2),—patience, in waiting for the divine promises to be fulfilled: “Though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” Hab. 2: 3. “Here is the patience of the saints.” Examples in abundance are given to show what is meant by these admonitions and exhortations. “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were patient sojourners in a strange land, waiting for the fulfilment of the promises made to the fathers. They looked for a city, but “all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Heb. 11: 13. We have another example of the patience of the Scriptures, in Joseph, who forgave the unkindness of his brethren, and bore patiently the false charges of his master. In David also is another example, who, in many trials, and under many wrongs and reproaches, patiently refrained from touching the Lord’s anointed, and spared his life when seemingly placed most providentially in his hands, and under his power. He waited for the Lord to take his persecutor out of the way, in His own time, and establish him in the kingdom, and crown him ruler, according to His promise. But look at the great example of all, the Saviour’s own exhibition of patience under the greatest wrongs and provocations man ever had to endure. “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood,” says the apostle, comparing his brethren with Christ, “striving against sin.” Heb. 12: 4. We are to consider the results of their influence. They call us to the holiness, which involves the test of trial. They reveal the design of God in our tribulation, thus sustaining the soul in steadfast resolves. They declare to us promises for the future, which enable us patiently to endure present griefs. When Paul says that whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, we may legitimately inquire, What kind of learning? and the apostle himself gives the answer: “That we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” This means more than merely imparting information. It shows that the Scriptures are a manual of moral, or spiritual, learning. The instruction of the Scriptures is addressed to the heart and the will, rather than to the intellect. The object is that we may have hope. Hope is the nerve, the backbone, of the true life, of all serious effort to battle with evil and to live for God. H. P. Liddon, in the Penny Pulpit, says: “For the majority of men, especially as the years pass, life is made up of the disheartenings. The sunshine of the early years is gone. The evening is shrouded already with clouds and disappointments. Failure, sorrow, the sense of a burden of past sin, the presentiment of approaching death,—these things weigh down the spirits of multitudes. Something is needed which shall lift men out of this circle of desponding thoughts, something which shall enlarge our horizon, which shall enable us to find in the future that which the present has ceased to yield. And here the Bible helps us, as no other book can. It stands as the warrant and the stimulant of hope. It speaks with divine authority. It opens out a future which no human authority could attest. There are human books which do what they can in this direction. But they can only promise something better than what we have at present on this side the grave. The Bible is pre-eminently the book of hope. In it God draws the veil which hangs between man and his awful future, and bids him take heart, and arise, and live. Those who will may find in the Holy Scriptures patience, consolation, and hope; not in its literary and historical features, but in the great truths which it reveals about God, about our incarnate Lord, about man. In the great examples it holds forth of patience and of victory, in the great promises it repeats, in the future which it unfolds to the eye of faith, is this treasure to be found.” Of the place which the ancient people of God occupied in the Old Testament, H. Alford says: “The history of the ancient people of God is very full of needful instruction for us. The seed of Abraham were selected as the vehicle of God’s will, and ultimately of the blessing of redemption to the world. They were also selected for the great lesson to be read in all ages, that the revelation of a moral law of precepts and ordinances could never save mankind. And this fact is abundantly commented upon in the New Testament.” Of the importance of Old Testament prophecy, he says: “One very great and important region of assurance of our faith will be void, without a competent knowledge of the prophetical books of the Old Testament.” Of the direct devotional advantages of the Old Testament Scriptures, he adds: “The direct devotional use of the ancient Scriptures is no mean element in the nurture of the Christian spirit. They are full of the breathings of the souls of holy men of God; full also of the words of life spoken by Him to the soul searching the Old Testament Scriptures; for they are they which testify of Christ. To find Him in them is the true and legitimate end of their study; to be able to interpret them as He interpreted them, is the best result of all Biblical learning.” In Berry’s Interlinear Greek New Testament, Rom. 15: 4 reads as follows: “For as many things as were written before, were written before for our instruction, that we through endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures might have hope.” As an instance of the patience, comfort, and hope which come from the Gospels, the following words, from the venerable Dr. Payson, are to the point: “Christians might avoid much trouble if they would believe that God is able to make them happy without anything else. God has been depriving me of one blessing after another; but as every one was removed, He has come in and filled up its place; and now when I am a cripple, not able to move, I am happier than ever I was in my life before, or ever expected to be. If I had believed this twenty years ago, I might have been spared much anxiety.” How many expressions the Bible uses to set forth the Christian’s hope, while the things that were written aforetime were written that we might possess this hope in all its extent and in all its manifold bearings.11It is the “hope of salvation.” 1 Thess. 5: 8. It is “the blessed hope,” the hope of the appearing of the Son of God. Titus 2: 13. It is the “hope” of the “resurrection of the dead” (Acts 23: 6); “the hope of glory.” Col. 1: 27. The hope set before us in the gospel is therefore called “a good hope,” and a “lively hope.” We enjoy present blessings, and therefore hope. We rejoice because our future is filled with hope,—the “hope of the glory of God.” “Joy, then, comes from hope; hope from the God of love,—hope sure and steadfast, and that maketh not ashamed,—everlasting hope. Glory is ours in prospect,—the glory of the new heavens and the new earth,—the glory of the resurrection,—the glory of the kingdom,—the glory of Christ himself; and it is all yours, simply as those who have known and believed this free love of God. Hence the apostle’s prayer: ‘The God of [the] hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.’”—Bonar.