The Reality of Courage

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(Horatius Bonar, "Follow the Lamb" 1861)
"They are more desirable than gold--yes, than much fine gold!Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.Moreover, by them Your servant is warned. In keeping them there is great reward!" Psalm 19:10-11 

The Christian has discovered one book truer and more precious than all the rest together. Let the Bible be to us the book of books--the one book in all the world whose every verse is wisdom. In studying it, be sure to take it for what it really is--the revelation of the thoughts of God, given us in the words of God. Knowing that we have divine thoughts embodied in divine words--we sit down to the study of the heavenly volume, assured that we shall find the perfection of wisdom in all of its teachings. 

Let us read and re-read the Scriptures--meditating on them day and night. 
They never grow old, they never lose their sap, they never run dry. 

Though it is right and profitable to read other books, if they are true and good--yet beware of reading too many. Do not let man's book thrust God's book into a corner! Do not let commentaries smother the text--nor let the good, shut out the best. 
          Especially beware of light reading! Shun novels--they are the literary curse of the age! If you are a parent--keep novels out of the way of your children. Neither read them yourself, nor set an example of novel-reading to others. Do not let novels lie on your table, or be seen in your hand. The reading of the light novels of the day, has done deep injury to many:
  vitiating their taste,
  enervating their minds,
  unfitting them for life's plain work,
  eating out their love for the Bible,
  teaching them a false morality, and  
  creating in the soul an unreal standard of truth, and beauty, and love. 
Do not be too fond of the newspaper. Extract matter for thought and prayer out of all that you read. 
Let your reading be always select--and whatever you read, begin with seeking God's blessing on it. 
But see that your relish for the Bible is above every other enjoyment. The moment you begin to feel greater relish for any other book--lay it down until you have sought deliverance from such a snare, and obtained from the Holy Spirit a more intense relish, and a keener appetite for the Word of God!

"Your words were found, and I ate them. And Your Word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart!" Jeremiah 15:16

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Addition, Dr. Morris,

          We live with the reality everyday of our lives, that there is nothing new facing us that others have not encountered before us. 90% of the Christian life is just a matter of courage. 90% of the fake news and pretentions of those around us is just deceit. We live in a world of "meism" (if it doesn't effect me, I'm not interested).

          I was in the church house my whole life, and never heard a preacher, not once, speak about the 70 miles that Mary walked; pregnant...before the birth of our precious lord... to be with her cousin Elizabeth. I never heard a theologian talk about the 700 mile journey that the Jewish slaves from Chosun, along with most of the Egyptian army, at Pharaohs orders...walked in a funeral procession to carry the body of Jacob to be buried next to his wife in the promised land. Heads of nations, even his brother Esau, met and watched that great procession as it went toward Hebron. Can we even imagine how such history as this is never discussed? Where did Mary or these people sleep? Where did they find food during these long journeys? The bible is silent about many things that human beings must endure during their lives...pain was same then as it is now, so was hunger/elimination/climatic changes.

          We know that Paul, Aquila and Priscilla, were tent makers. What other buildings or shelter did these people have? I so remember how happy my own father was to have power tools...after he had built so many building with hand tools. I doubt that they even had adequate hand tools then, even though we know that Jesus and his earthly father were carpenters. What facilities did these early saints posses to farm their land, and produce food? Mana stopped when they crossed the Jordan. I often ask today's "know-it-all" young adults, "how were the great mounds built upon which train tracks are laid?" In my lifetime, I still remember the first tractor belonging to my grandparents...those spiked wheels. It was a long time before there were tires made just for tractors. I still remember oxen dragging great logs out of the woodlands...straining at their yokes, men beating them with big sticks. The difference in winning and losing between the Russians and Germans at the battle of Leningrad (where this writer has visited), was the size of horses pulling great cannons through the snow. We so easily forget not only what human beings in our history have endured, but what work-animals have gone through as well.

            This writer plowed mules as a farm-boy. I still remember their sweat, the fact that they could survive on the bare necessities of dry hay and corn. How many of you have ever thought about animal life during a time of drought...wells drying up (it takes many gallons of water for a cow or a member of the equine species to survive just one day). But often in times of drought, cow/horses/etc. do go without water. Camels can go without water for many days, because they drink so much when they get the chance and are able to store it. I wish I would hear one preacher mention the muscles of Rebecca, who became Isaacs wife; she drew water from a well for all those camels when Abraham's servant, Eliezer , selected her for this place in history (as the wife of the son of the first Jew).

            My mind goes into an epileptic seizure when my employees or tenants fuss about a little heat. They did not see my mother cook over a wood burning stove, with no A.C. or fan. They never had their mother walk into the bedroom and feel of their feet in a cold house, to make sure they were warm under the cover...so many quilts layered on top of you, you could barely turn over. It never occurs to these spoiled "remnants of  humanity" that nothing is worse for you than to sleep under an electric blanket; or, for that matter, needing electricity in general...radio's, clocks, phone...all near you while sleeping. And to think that some young people literally sleep with a telephone under their pillow. There are ambitious people who would burn down a city in order to rule the ashes. There are manufacturers of drugs and instruments who do not mind killing you in order to make a profit...and do.