mphasis of doubling back on one's
tracks here. For some of the things that should be said have already been
said with a different setting. First there must be the _time_ element.
One must get at least a half hour daily when the mind is fresh. A tired
mind does not readily _absorb_. This should be persisted in until there is
a habitual spending of at least that much time daily over the Book, with a
spirit at leisure from all else, so it can take in. Then the time should
be given to _the Book itself_. If other books are consulted and read as
they will be let that be _after_ the reading of this Book. Let God talk to
you direct, rather than through somebody else. Give Him first chance at
your ears. This Book in the central place of your table, the others
grouped about it. First time given to it.

A third suggestion brings out the circle of this work. _Read prayerfully._
We learn how to pray by reading prayerfully. This Book does not reveal its
sweets and strength to the keen mind merely, but to the Spirit enlightened
mind. All the mental keenness possible, _with the bright light of the
Spirit's illumination_--that is the open sesame. I have sometimes sought
the meaning of some passage from a keen scholar who could explain the
orientalisms, the fine philological distinctions, the most accurate
translations, and all of that, who yet did not seem to know the simple
spiritual meaning of the words being discussed. And I have asked the same
question of some old saint of God, who did not know Hebrew from a hen's
tracks, but who seemed to sense at once the deep spiritual truth taught.
The more knowledge, the keener the mind, the better _if_ illumined by the
Spirit that inspired these writings.

There is a fourth word to put in here. We must read _thoughtfully_.
Thoughtfulness is in danger of being a lost art. Newspapers are so
numerous, and literature so abundant, that we are becoming a bright, but a
_not thoughtful_ people. Often the stream is very wide but has no depth.
Fight shallowness. Insist on reading thoughtfully. A very suggestive word
in the Bible for this is "_meditate_." Run through and pick out this word
with its variations. The word underneath that English word means to
mutter, as though a man were repeating something over and over again, as
he turned it over in his mind. We have another word, with the same
meaning, not much used now--ruminate. We call the cow a ruminant because
she chews the cud. She will spend hours