How to Live a Holy Life

C. E. Orr




DEVOTIONAL READING.


A person may almost be known by the books he reads. If he habitually reads
bad books, we can pretty safely conclude that he is a bad man; on the
other hand, if he habitually reads religious books, we can reasonably
presume that he is a religious man. Why is this? It is because the nature
of a person's books is usually the nature of his thoughts; and as a man
thinks, so he is.

Consequently, our reading devotional literature is a great aid to our
being devotional. Too few, I fear, realize how important to our spiritual
advancement is the cultivation of a taste for devotional reading. As a
rule, those who have a taste for spiritual books and gratify that taste
prosper in the Lord, while those who have no relish for such books labor
at a great disadvantage. Some one has said that "he who begins a devout
life without a taste for spiritual reading may consider the ordinary
difficulties multiplied in his case by ten." The most spiritual men of all
ages have had a strong love for reading spiritual books. If, however, my
reader happens not to have such a taste or such a love, he should not be
discouraged, for it can be created and increased through perseverance in
reading devotional literature. Just as a person who does not relish a
certain food may learn to like it if he will persist in eating it, so a