Reading in the Home by Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 25, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 34, No. 13.

Reading in the Home

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

ONE day in conversation with a skilful physician, he asked me: "Do you know what I would do if I were taken down with burning fever?"

"What would you do, doctor?" I asked.

"I would drink all the pure cold water I could get. I would just keep a stream of it running down my throat. You know," he continued, "that in a fever, nature is doing her best to get rid of the impurities of the system. She is trying to burn them up. I would help her by flushing the system with pure water."

I have thought of the words of the wise doctor many times. The world is full of impurity in the form of bad newspapers, silly magazines, and worse books. And instead of improving the matter, time only adds fresh horrors to the list.

What can we do? It would take the most devoted diligence of a score of Anthony Comstocks in every city and in every village in the world to purify and to purge this ill-fated land. And even then much that is essentially evil would remain. We must flush the reeking gutter with a stream of pure literature. We must create in the children—even from their cradles—such a taste for the good that they will naturally turn away from the evil with loathing. "No fountain can yield both salt water and fresh." If a vessel is filled to the brim with pure, sweet honey, how can you fill the same vessel with vinegar? If the mind is filled with that which is good and instructive, there will be no desire for folly. But we must begin early. If pure tastes are not formed then, it is a most difficult matter to correct evil tendencies later. I suppose there are people in the world who habitually season their food with asafetida. But this grotesque and unnatural taste must be acquired in childhood.

I used to count among my acquaintances an old gentleman who was a great reader. But the character of his reading could be told by a five-minutes' conversation with him. His books had brought him no wisdom. They had merely served to amuse him. Had he only stored his mind with the beautiful precepts of "Him who spake as never man spake," or with history or useful biography, the study of years would have brought him wisdom instead of folly. His conversation would have revealed the culture of his mind which a naturally good memory would have increased. But a study of the Book of books had no charm for him. He loved better to read some exciting and improbable tale than to learn the wonderful precepts of the humble Nazarine; and he died as he had lived—without hope.

"But what shall we read?" you question. "There is so much that is evil, how can we choose the good and make no mistake?"

I will tell you what another old gentleman, a good friend of mine, once said on this subject in my hearing:

"When I was a child," he declared, "I was taught by my mother to be so careful as to the kind of books I allowed myself to read, that when I looked into a book, unless I saw the sacred name of Christ on its every page, I quickly decided that this was no book which I needed to read, and it was accordingly discarded."

It was as if he had determined, with the mighty and learned orator of Mars Hill, "not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."

Well, what has been the result of a lifetime of solid, sensible reading?—the conversation of my aged friend—he has reached the good old age of fourscore and five years, is genial, intelligent, and instructive. His eyes are bright and beaming with a kindly light; and he constantly bears the testimony of that grand old hero, who, tho under dire affliction, declared loyally, "I know that my Redeemer liveth."

Let us then regard the knowledge of the Most High as all important. The word of God should be first always. It is not that this should constitute our entire library, O, no; but by its unerring rule let everything else be judged. Whatever in books elevates and refines; whatever in papers or magazines instructs; whatever makes us the better or the wiser; whatever appeals to our humanity; whatever tends to rid us of selfishness; whatever will add to our fund of useful information—finally, "whatsoever things are pure, . . . whatsoever things are of good report," read such things as these.

It is a most excellent plan to form a habit of reading slowly. Don't skim. Whatever is worth reading at all, is worth reading thoroly; and if you can not make the thought your own with one reading, read it twice—it will pay you.

Abraham Lincoln, when a boy, had few books. But those few were good books, and he read them many times over. One good book well read is worth a score of half read volumes.

Another excellent plan is to repeat to a friend the things you have read. Tell the story in your own language, but keep to the facts. You will find this an excellent exercise for the memory.

If you have not time to read much, and you must cut down your list, remember that you can afford to slight any other book better than to neglect the Bible. That is our Guide Book. It contains the most beautiful poetry, the most interesting history, the most profound logic, the most sublime description, the most thrilling tragedy, the most tender and sweet, realistic love stories, and the most important and instructive biography. Its songs are sweeter and its prayers more sublime than those of any other book in the world. It is the Book of books, both for the old and for the young. It tells us how to live simply and contentedly, and how to die happily, and, thank God, it points us to a country where death comes not, and where the cry of the mourner is never heard.