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.