TALK FORTY-EIGHT. GETTING THE KERNEL

One afternoon a mother with her children about her knees sat cracking
nuts. The older children picked out the kernels for themselves, but the
mother stopped now and then to pick out some for the smaller children, who
watched with eager eyes and ate the kernels with keen relish. Presently a
nut fell to the floor. The smallest child picked it up; and as his mother
went on cracking others, he held it up to her and in his baby language
asked to have it cracked. He knew that there was something good inside of
it. The shell was dry and hard. He might bite on it all he pleased, but
the delicious kernel he could not get until the shell was broken.

The Scriptures are just like that nut. If we wish to enjoy their richness
and sweetness, we must, so to speak, get them cracked, and thus obtain the
kernel, the inner hidden meaning, which will enrich the soul. But many are
content to know so little of what is really contained in the Word!

How full of meaning, how rich, how wonderful, is a single expression! One
single phrase may contain enough, if you get the "kernel" of it, to make
your soul bubble over with joy all day. A single word may give you
strength to fight victoriously through a sore conflict. The trouble is,
people do not take the time to get an understanding. They are too ready to
think that they can not understand. Learn to take a sentence, a clause, or
a word, and meditate on it. The more you think of it, the longer you
consider it, the richer and fuller it will become. To illustrate my
meaning I will take a text familiar to all and try to show you what I mean
by getting the kernel out. "The Lord is my shepherd." I have often heard
people quote this text when I knew it meant little to them. But suppose we
study it a little and place emphasis on each part in turn. Every word has
its "kernel" of meaning, every word is full of richness and
soul-satisfaction, if we can but get it out.

"_The_ Lord"--not just any Lord, for there are "lords many." It signifies
one definite, particular Lord; not one of a number of equal lords, but one
standing out separate and distinct from all others--the one above all
others. This is the Lord who is "my shepherd." When rightly considered,
this one little common word as here used contains a world of meaning. We
could profitably study it for hours. There is a whole sermon in it.

"The _Lord_ is my shepherd." It is not a man nor even an ange