Reading
"Bring
the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come––and
the books, especially the parchments."
- 2Timothy 4:13
He is inspired, and yet he
wants books! He has been preaching at least for thirty years,
and yet he wants books! He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants
books! He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet he
wants books! He had been caught up into the third heaven, and
had heard things which it was unlawful for a men to utter, yet
he wants books! He had written the major part of the New
Testament, and yet he wants books!
- C. H. Spurgeon
~ ~ ~ ~
"As the apostle says to
Timothy, so also he says to every-one, 'Give yourself to
reading.' ... He who will not use the thoughts of other men's
brains proves that he has no brains of his own... You need to
read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but
study as much as possible sound theological works, especially
the Puritanic writers, and expositions of the Bible... the best
way for you to spend your leisure is to be either reading or
praying." - C. H. Spurgeon
~ ~ ~ ~
Dennis Prager is an
unbelieving Jewish radio talk show host. In a recent interview
with a Christian magazine (The Door) he said,
"One thing I have noticed about evangelicals is that they do not
read. They do not read the Bible, they do not read the great
Christian thinkers. I do not understand that. As a Jew, that's
confusing to me. The commandment of study is so deep in Judaism
that we immerse ourselves in study. God gave us a brain, aren't
we supposed to use it in His service? When I walk into an
evangelical home and see a total of 30 books, most of them
best-sellers, I do not understand. I have bookcases of Christian
books, and I am a Jew. Why do I have more Christian books than
98 percent of the Christians in America? That is so bizarre to
me." - Dennis Prager
~ ~ ~ ~
Get books into your
houses, when you have not the spring near you, then get some
water into your cisterns; so when you have not that wholesome
preaching that you desire, good books are cisterns that hold the
water of life in them to refresh you; so, when you find a
chillness upon your souls, and that your former heat begins to
abate, ply yourselves with warm clothes, get those good books
that may acquaint you with such truths as may warm and affect
your hearts. - Thomas Watson (1633-1686)
~ ~ ~ ~
"This is a reading age;
and as books are cheap, largely read, and easily procurable, the
press has come to embrace a wider circle and to possess a
greater influence on the public mind than any other medium of
communication. The Christian press has spread itself in all
directions, and exercises an influence scarcely inferior to that
of the pulpit. Works, therefore, written by gracious men,
whether living or dead, may be viewed as exercising a ministry
of their own, running, as it were, parallel to that of the
pulpit, and in harmony with it; but possessing the advantage of
penetrating into places, and speaking on occasions where the
voice of the living preacher cannot come, as well as of being
accessible at all times, lying silently and unobtrusively on the
table or the bookshelf, ready to be taken up or laid down at
pleasure; and, if we have well chosen them, our trustiest
friends and wisest counselors, who will always tell us the truth
without fear and without flattery."
- J. C. Philpot, "New Years' Address" 1868
