The Book of the Holy Rosary: General Introduction, § 2. The Benefit of Acquiring the Knowledge of God from the Sacred Scriptures
The Sacred Scriptures are the divine gift of a merciful God, desiring the welfare and the salvation of men, both in this present life and in the life to come; and they are given for the use of the Christian people. Who will deny this? The very nature of the gift will imply both the custody and the interpreting power of such a living body as the Church, to pledge its own authority for their authenticity, and to control and regulate their use, so as to secure them from the danger of misapplication to deception and other perverse ends. But subject to this necessary and indispensable control, the Sacred Scriptures are undeniably the good gift of God for the uses and needs of the Christian people; and that it has been the uniform tradition of the Catholic Church so to deal with them, none but a virulent fanatic can attempt to deny. There have been exceptional times and circumstances, such as the age of Luther’s schism, when it was ‸found necessary to impose for a time an unusual restraint upon their use and circulation. But allowing for such abnormal occurrences, the traditional mind of the Catholic Church with regard to the Scriptures is expressed in the example of St Jerome, a doctor of the Universal Church, recommending the mother of a young Roman lady to take care that her daughter was well read in the Scriptures, and advising her to begin with the Book of Ecclesiastes, and so to proceed to the Books of the Prophets.
In the letter written by command of the Macchabees and the Jewish people to the Senate of Sparta, the whole Hebrew nation make a noble confession of their attachment to their Sacred Scriptures. They desire, indeed, to renew their ancient friendship with the Spartan people; but this not from any sense of need, inasmuch, say they, “as we have our holy books for our consolation” (1 Macch. xii. 9). Again, when our Lord makes His reply to the Sadducees, who thought to propose an unanswerable difficulty to Him, and when He says, “You err, being ignorant of the Scriptures and the power of God” (Matt. xxii. 29), His words have this effect for all times, that wherever there is found ignorance of the Scriptures, there will be found ignorance of the power of God, and error. Again, nothing tends more, according to St Paul, to firmness of faith and perseverance than a knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures. “Do thou continue firm in those things which thou hast learned and which have been intrusted to thee, knowing from whom thou hast learned them, and because from infancy thou hast known the Sacred Scriptures, which are able to instruct thee unto salvation” (2 Tim. iii. 15). Nothing, also, is more confirmatory of faith in the apostolic preaching and doctrines of the Church than this knowledge. “The Jews of Berea,” says St Luke, “were more noble than those of Thessalonica, for they received the Word with great eagerness, searching the Scriptures daily for the confirmation of their faith” (Acts xvii. 11). And when our Lord replied to the reiterated cavillings of the Jews in the Temple, He said to them, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and it is they that bear testimony of Me” (John v. 39).
It may be easily understood that the revelation which it has pleased God to make of Himself to the world, could not possibly have possessed the requisite permanent resting-place in the world without being embodied in a written record; and such a written record must, from the nature of human life, be vouched for by a living keeper and guardian, who is able to satisfy all reasonable inquiry. Here, however, we are dealing with the actual volume of these inspired writings as the “fait accompli” of the love and mercy of God, the good gift of God actually in our hands; and we justly conclude from the fact of the good gift, that there is a holy and good use to be made of it by all, that is, by each one in his own degree. This good gift of the holy and good God, who causes His sun to shine upon all alike, so far as it is used with thankfulness to the honour of the merciful Giver, can but bring a blessing with it. He who gave the gift will be sure to bless every humble and religious effort that is made to turn it to the good account for which He Himself intended it.