Reading Someone Else's Mail

"I may have a letter put into my hands, which I assume is written to me. I read on, and find much that is intensely interesting, and exceedingly profitable for me. But I find also references to matters which do not concern me. Things are said about my position which do not quite describe it. There may be a reference to a debt which I do not owe, or to an order which I do not remember having given. Persons and events are mentioned: but, not knowing exactly to whom or to what they refer, there is much that puzzles and perplexes me. But all the difficulty is removed when I discover, and understand, that though the letter is put into my hand on purpose FOR me to read and learn, it was not actually addressed TO me. Then it is all clear. I quite see how I may profit by much of the instruction that is contained in the letter; and I am no longer troubled by that which seemed so different from another letter which the same writer had previously addressed directly to me, and which was all ABOUT me. Now this is exactly the case with the Epistle to the Hebrews. It is written "FOR our learning," but it is not addressed TO us." - Ethelbert William Bullinger. THE CHURCH EPISTLES: Romans to Thessalonians (Kindle Locations 2455-2462). Kindle Edition.