HOW TO READ THE BIBLE. That which characterizes above all else the inspiration and divinity of the Scriptures is the spirit in which they are written and the spiritual wealth they convey to those who faithfully and conscientiously read them. Our attitude, therefore, toward the Scriptures should be in harmony with the purposes for which they were written. They are intended to enlarge man's spiritual endowments and to reveal and intensify the bond of relationship between him and his God. The Bible, as all other books of Holy Writ, to be appreciated must be studied by those spiritually inclined and who are in quest of spiritual truths.--_Juvenile Instructor,_ Vol. 47, p. 204, April, 1912. PERSECUTION FOLLOWS REVELATION. I do not believe there ever was a people who were guided by revelation, or acknowledged of the Lord as his people, who were not hated and persecuted by the wicked and the corrupt, and perhaps no people were ever more persecuted than this people would be if it were in the power of the enemy today to persecute us as it was in the power of Nero and the Romans to persecute the Saints in their day. There never was a time when it was more fixed and determined in the heart of the wicked to fight against and destroy the kingdom from the earth than now, and their failure will be due only to the impossibility of the task they have undertaken. And this is an evidence to everyone that God's priesthood is here, that many of the Saints are magnifying their calling and honoring the priesthood and also the Lord, both with their lives and with their substance, which are his.--_Deseret Weekly News,_ Vol. 24, p. 708, 1875. {58} CHAPTER IV FREE AGENCY