The Blessings Through Reading

The Pastor's Letter (September 1976)

Dear Friends,

There always seems to be a tendency within us to “seek the living among the dead,” and to “garnish the sepulchres of the prophets”. It's not necessarily a bad exercise, of course, and the condemnation of our Lord against those in his day who practised it was that they stopped short with embracing the “bones” of those who had gone before, and failed to lay hold of the spirit that lived and moved within those men of the past. The famous lines on George Whitefield's chair at Rodborough make the point well:-

It is one thing to be acquainted with the “life” of George Whitefield, to know his sermons and embrace his theology: but it takes something more basic than that to make us “Whitefield-ian” and to enable us to “sit down” on his chair with a clear conscience. And in all our excursions into, and around, the sepulchres of the men and women of the past, let us never be content with simply reading, and even memorising, the words on the tombstones, but let us pray that we are able to come away with some stirrings of the same spirit that stirred them to such lives in their own Christian day.

Now, it was, surely, something of an awareness of this tendency that prompted dear old Thomas Brooks to write the kind of words that he wrote in the preface of his great little book, The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod. Brooks obviously foresaw the danger of people reading his work, and his works, and failing to use what they read aright. We can either “use” or “abuse” those whom the Lord has given to the church in past generations, and the charge of “bookish” Christianity is one that is all too applicable in some quarters. Let us, then, take the exhortations of one of those good men of a bye-gone day, and read him (and others like him) in the way that he would urge us to do so. For all our considerations, then, a few lines from the preface to the Mute Christian.

“1. Read, and look up for a blessing.

Paul may plant and Apollos may water; but all will be to no purpose except the Lord give the increase. God must do the deed when all is done, or else what is done will do you not good. If you would have this work successful and effectual, you must look off from man, and look up to God, who alone can make it a blessing to you … Without a blessing from heaven, without the precious breathings and influences of the Spirit, what here is done will do you no good; it will not turn to your account in the day of Christ. Therefore cast an eye heavenwards. It is Seneca's observation that the husbandmen of Egypt never look up to heaven for rain in the day of drought, but look to the overflowing of the banks of the Nile as the only cause of their plenty. Ah! How many are there in these days who, when they go to read a book, never look up, never look after the rain of God's blessing, but only look to the river Nile! They only look to the wit, the learning, the arts, the parts, the eloquence, etc. of the author. They never look so high as heaven, and hence, it comes to pass that though they read much, yet they profit little.

“2. He that would read to profit, must read and meditate.

Meditation is the food of your souls; it is the very stomach whereby spiritual truths are digested. A man shall as soon live without his heart as he shall be able to get good by what he reads without meditation. Prayer (saith Augustine) without meditation is dry and formal; and reading without meditation is useless and unprofitable....

“3. Read, and try what thou readest.

Take nothing upon trust but all upon trial as those noble Bereans did. You will try, and tell, and weigh gold, even though it be handed you by your fathers. So should you do with all those heavenly truths that are handed to you by your spiritual fathers ….

“4. Read and do.

Read and practice what you read, or else all your reading will do you no good. He that hath a good book in his hand, but not a lesson of it in his heart or life, is like the ass that carries rich burdens, and feeds upon the thistles …. To speak well is to sound like a cymbal; but to do well is to act like an angel …. There is no fear in knowing too much, though there is much to be feared in practising too little …. Theory is the guide of practice and practice is the life of theory …. Ah! How many of us take up sad complaints against many readers these days! They read our works, and yet in their lives they deny our works; they praise our works and yet in their conversations, they reproach our works; preachers cry up our labours in their discourses, and yet they cry them down in their practices. Yet I hope better things of you, into whose hands the treatise shall fall. The Samaritan woman did not fill her pitcher with water that she might talk of it, but that she might use it ….

“5. Read and apply.

Reading is but the drawing of the bow; application is the hitting of the mark. The choicest truths will only profit you in so far as they are applied to you. You had as well not read as not apply what you do read. The plaster will not heal if it be not applied … the true reason why so many read so much and profit so little, is because they do not bring home what they read to their own souls.

“6. Lastly, Read and pray.

No man makes such good earnings out of his reading as he that prays over what he reads. As John by weeping got the sealed book open, so certainly men would gain much more than they do by reading good men's works, if they would but pray more over what they read. Ah, Christians! Pray before your read and pray after your read, that all may be blessed and sanctified to you. When you have done reading, usually close up thus:

May we take the exhortations to our own hearts and minds.