On Reading Better

These are truths you didn’t learn in English class.  From Thomas Brooks, “The Unsearchable Riches of Christ,” via GraceGems.

You must meditate and dwell upon what you read; otherwise your pains and mine will be lost. The more any man is in the contemplation of truth, the more deep and firm impression is made upon his heart by truth. Heavenly meditation brings out the sweetness that is in divine truths. Not those who get most–but those who keep most, are richest. So not those who hear most, or read most–but those who meditate most, are most edified and enriched.

You must also practice and live out what you read. To read much and practice nothing–is to hunt much and catch nothing. Ah! what cause have most to sigh, that they have heard so much, and read so much–and yet done so little!

You must also pray over what you read. Many read much, and pray little, and therefore get little by all they read. Galen writes of a fish called Uranoscopos, that has but one eye, which looks continually up to heaven. When a Christian has one eye upon his book–the other should be looking up to heaven for a blessing upon what he reads!