That charge of Paul's to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20 was held by Richard Baxter to be one of the most essential exhortations for initial and continued study for those concerned in the work of the pastoral office in the churches of Christ. “It better deserveth a twelve month's study,” he says, “than most things that young students do lay out their time in.” and to those already engaged in the work, he goes on - “O brethren, write it on your study doors, or set it as your copy in capital letters before your eyes. Could we but well learn two or three lines of it, what preachers should we be! Write all this upon your hearts, and it will do yourselves and the Church more good than twenty year's study of those lower things, which, though they get you greater applause in the world, yet separated from these, will make you but sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.”