LAWTON CHURCH OF GOD, LAWTON OKLAHOMA

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CHAPTER 2

BOOKS

CHILDREN learn to read by being in the presence of books. A little library growing larger every year is an honorable part of a young man’s history.

It is our duty to have books. A library is not a luxury, but one of the necessaries of life.

The influence of books upon man is remarkable: you may judge a man more truly by the books and papers he reads than by the company he keeps; for his associates are often, in a manner, imposed upon him, whereas his reading is a matter of choice.

A good book is the most appropriate gift that friendship can make. It never changes; it never grows unfashionable or old. It is soured by no neglect, is jealous of no rival; but always its clean, clear pages are ready to amuse, interest, and instruct. The voice that speaks the thought may change or grow still forever; the heart that prompted the kindly and cheering words may grow cold and forgetful; but the page that mirrors them is changeless, faithful, immortal. The book that records the incarnation of divine love is God’s best gift to man, and the books which are filled with kindly thought and generous sympathy are the beat gifts of friend to friend.

Every family ought to be well supplied with a choice selection of books for reading. “A reading people will soon become a thinking people, and a thinking people must soon become a great people.”

Dear reader, make up your mind to read only good books. Life is short and books are many. Instead of having your mind a garret crowded with rubbish, make it a parlor with rich furniture, beautifully arranged, in which you would not be ashamed to have the whole world enter.

To the weak, and to the strong in their times of weakness, books are inspiring friends and teachers. Against the feebleness of individual efforts they proclaim the victory of faith and patience, and out of the uncertainty and discouragement of one day’s work they prophesy the fuller and richer life that grows strong and deep through conflict, sets itself more and more in harmony with the noblest aims, and is at last crowned with honor and power.