The best way to spend your leisure time!

(Charles Spurgeon, "Paul, His Cloak and His Books"

"Give yourself unto reading!" 1 Timothy 4:13

The man who never reads, will never be read
He who never quotes, will never be quoted.
He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains, proves that he has no brains of his own.

You need to read! Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritan writers.

We are quite persuaded that the very best way for you to be spending your leisure time, is to be either reading or praying.

You may get much instruction from books which afterwards you may use as a true weapon in your Lord and Master's service.

Paul cries, "Bring the books!" Join in the cry. Learn from his example.
    He was inspired, and yet he wants books!
    He had been preaching for thirty years, and yet he wants books!
    He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books!
    He had a wider experience than most men do, and yet he wants books!
    He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things that it was not lawful for a man to utter, and yet he wants books!
    He had written a major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books!

Master those books you have. Read them thoroughly. Bathe in them until they saturate you. Read and reread them-digest them. Let them go into your very self. Peruse a good book several times and make notes and analyses of it. A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books he has merely skimmed. Little learning and much pride comes from hasty reading. Some men are disabled from thinking by their putting meditation away for the sake of much reading. In reading let your motto be "much, not many."

An ounce of heart knowledge is worth more than a ton of head learning!

By all means read the Puritans, they are worth more than all the modern stuff put together!

Visit many good books, but live in the Bible! All human books grow stale after a time-but with the Word of God the desire to study it increases, while the more you know of it the less you think you know. The Book grows upon you! As you dive into its depths you have a fuller perception of the infinity which remains to be explored. You are still sighing to enjoy more of that which it is your bliss to taste.