"I NEVER MEMORIZE SCRIPTURE"

One very unearthly time of morning in September 1968, I was rudely awakened by the unfamiliar sounds of banging the likes of me had never heard.

Chapel, Library, Sutcliffe Hall

  I had just moved into a mid-century administration/dorm building (known as Sutcliffe Hall) of what formerly had been the Oregon Blind Trades School to begin my first year at Bible School (Multnomah University)  Many days dawned cold, wet and dreary.
 

Back side of Sutcliffe Hall

The old steam hammer season had officially begun, and I was not looking forward to waking up at all hours to the non comforting sound of wheezing, banging loud pipes knocking and kicking themselves around as if something, somewhere was screwed up.

Sutcliffe Hall (Administration on 1st floor, dorms on 2nd)

I thought it a bit amusing that the school began in a former mortuary years earlier.
The redeeming factor of the steam radiators, however, it kept us warm and we could use them for drying wet or damp clothes.

I enjoyed walking up the wide, inclined ramp with recessed dormer like alcoves where the windows were, large enough to curl up in and read or study that went up to the second floor where our rooms were.

The Chapel at Night

  Some rooms were small, jail cell size, while others were large and I am inclined to think that the smaller ones were for those of us on a leaner budget.

The resounding sounds of "Man On The Floor"  would scatter a few gals back into their rooms but on the whole we enjoyed the camaraderie of the same gender.
My official address for 4 years was: 8435 NE Glisan St, Portland, OR 97220.  I like to tell people that I crammed 3 yrs. into 4 as most of those years, I was working either full or part time to meet expenses.
I was surrounded by a "bastion of fundamentalism with the Bible as its throbbing heart" where there was a narrow range of Saturday nite fun and activities of which I had little time for.
  The dorm was dreary to stay in for long and I always managed to find imaginative things to do.
Sometimes imaginative things found me.

Multnomah's public relations slogans, "If its Bible you want!  Then you want Multnomah" "Multnomah deals in life change, Don't settle for less." 

It was Bible I craved and I dealt with more changes than I bargained for.
HISS, POP, BANG!  The sound of the steam heater continued to intrude in my thoughts yet spurred me on.
Another wet and dreary day, I trudged up the street to a lecture.  Chapel and lectures by Dr. Mitchell were held in this massive cement block rectangle of a building known as Central Bible Church.  It was dubbed "Fort Mitchell".
"It was lovely in its elegant simplicity."
 If walls could speak, it would speak of the many days I sat in one of those pews listening to Dr. Mitchell or an endless parade of chapel speakers.
  Those unforgettable strains of him teaching us his songs with his beautiful brogue,
 "Cheer up ye saints of God,
There's nothing to worry about;
Nothing to make you feel afraid,
Nothing to make you doubt;
Remember Jesus saves you;
So why not trust him and shout,
You'll be sorry you worried at all, tomorrow morning."

What impressed me further was his command and recall of scriptures otherwise know as memorization.  Rote memory has always been painful for me.
Someone once asked Dr. Mitchell what method he used for memorizing Scripture.

"Ah,” he said, “I’ve never tried to memorize Scripture. I just pray

over them and read them over and over and over again until they become

part of me and then I know the Scriptures.”
Dr. Mitchell also recounted how he asked Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, a preacher he admired and met how he went about studying the Bible.

"If I tell you," Morgan replied, "the chances are you would not do it."
After further prompting by Dr. Mitchell, Campbell disclosed, "I read a book through 40 to 50 times before I even start to study it." "It was obvious that he saturated his mind with the Word of God." Dr. Mitchell rarely gave exams to my knowledge while I was in his classes, Spiritual Life and the book of Romans, but his assignments included reading a portion of Scripture many times over.
My pastor, John MacArthur on "When preparing sermons, I always read through the pertinent book repeatedly until the whole book fills my mind in a kind of visual perception." 
What good advice to follow. 
In the wake of a failed relationship, I had fallen in love with the book of Romans, particularly the fifth chapter.Encounter with Romans click here