(from "The Preciousness of God's Word" by Octavius Winslow)

Christian, guard against the light, frivolous,
frothy literature of the day. It will lessen your
conviction of what is true; it will depreciate the
value of what is divine; it will impair your taste
for what is spiritual; and it will bring poverty,
barrenness, and death into your soul.

God speaks to you from every paragraph and
sentence of this Holy Book. It is His voice that
we hear, His signature that we behold, His ineffable
glory, which, the more it is viewed in this bright
mirror, may the more powerfully command our
wonder and praise.

Oh that power might come down upon us from the
Spirit of truth and grace, and beams from the Sun
of righteousness break in upon our minds as we
contemplate the intrinsic glories of the Bible! Let
the truth and weight of these revelations sink
deep into your ears.

Christian, you should have a thousand fold deeper
interest in the Bible than in any other, or all other
books. This Book offers to you that which most you
need, that which is infinitely more to you than all
other things; glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life.

We cannot but look upon the prevailing indifference
with which the Word of God is regarded, as one of
the evils over which we are loudly called to mourn.

You send the Bible to the ignorant and destitute,
you carry it to every cottage and waft it to every
country, and thanks to God that you do so. But to
what extent is it studied in your churches, read in
your families, taught to your children?

There is no surer evidence of living without God, than
 living without intimate communion with the Bible.