816--God's own Word must not be taken

God's own Word must not be taken

816

	1.	God's own Word must not be taken
		Just as knowledge but as life,
		Not alone God's thought conveying,
		But Himself to us as life;
		Not alone God's mind revealing,
		But His Christ as life within,
		Not alone the teaching giving,
		But experience of Him.
	2.	It is only knowledge to us
		If we in the letter read,
		But when reading in the spirit
		It is truly life indeed.
		All the knowledge in the letter
		Only brings us into death,
		But the Word in spirit taken
		Gives to us the quickening breath.
	3.	It we miss the Lord in Scripture,
		It is just as knowledge vain;
		But when Christ we touch within it,
		Then His life we may obtain.
		When we read, the Lord not touching,
		'Tis but mental stimulus;
		But when Christ we touch by reading,
		It becometh life to us.
	4.	All the knowledge of the Scriptures
		Into life must be transformed,
		All the mental understanding
		In the spirit must be formed;
		All the Scriptural understanding
		Must become the life received,
		All the knowledge of the letters
		In the spirit be conceived.
	5.	Just to touch the Word for knowledge
		Is to take the very way
		By which Eve was lured by Satan
		And by knowledge led astray;
		But as life to take the Scripture
		Is the tree of life to eat;
		Thus the Word we must be taking
		In the spirit as our meat.