God’s own Word must not be taken

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.

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.

If 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 in us.

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.

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.