- When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments (2 Tim. 4:13).
Here are three quotes from three gifted preachers (and great men of God) all related to the preacher and his reading of books other than the Bible. They cover the purpose, result of, and motivation, for reading good books.
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1. Why Read? To stimulate our thought
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in this quote, is encouraging preachers to read, and to read in the right way. I snipped it up a bit so that the application is a little more broad.
What then is its [i.e. reading’s] main purpose and function?…it is because it is the best general stimulus. What the preacher always needs is a stimulus.
In a sense one should not go to books for ideas; the business of books is to make one think. We are not gramophone records, we are to think originally…So the function of reading is to stimulate us in general, to stimulate us to think, to think for ourselves. Take all you read and masticate [i.e. chew] it thoroughly…let it emerge as part of yourself, with your stamp upon it (Preaching and Preachers, p. 181).
2. What will thoughtful reading do for you? Add breadth, insight, dignity and precision to all your work
To that I add this, from James Stewart:
Nor will you, if you are wise, neglect literature of a more general kind. You will find that history and biography, science and literary criticism, drama, fiction, poetry – all have some gift to bring for the preparation of your message. Not that you are to direct your reading with a deliberate eye to the garnering of sermon material! That makes for homiletical professionalism. But to have companied with Shakespeare and Plutarch, Tolstoy and Dickens, Robert Bridges, Chesterton, Eddington, T.S. Eliot, is to find all your horizons stretched and widened. Such intercourse will impart new qualities of breadth, insight, dignity and precision to all your work (Heralds of God, pp. 107-108).
3. Motivation for reading – the Example of the Apostle
And add to that a word from C.H. Spurgeon (from a sermon on 2 Tim. 4:13, find the entire sermon HERE):
We will LOOK AT [the Apostle Paul’s] BOOKS. We do not know what the books were about, and we can only form some guess as to what the parchments were. Paul had a few books which were left, perhaps wrapped up in the cloak, and Timothy was to be careful to bring them. Even an apostle must read…A man who comes up into the pulpit, professes to take his text on the spot, and talks any quantity of nonsense, is the idol of many. If he will speak without premeditation, or pretend to do so, and never produce what they call a dish of dead men’s brains—oh! that is the preacher. How rebuked are they by the apostle! He is inspired, and yet he wants books! He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books! He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books! He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books! He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a men to utter, yet he wants books! He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books! The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, “Give thyself unto reading.” 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. Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers, and expositions of the Bible. We are quite persuaded that the very best way for you to be spending your leisure, is to be either reading or praying…
…Paul herein is a picture of industry. He is in prison; he cannot preach: what will he do? As he cannot preach, he will read. As we read of the fishermen of old and their boats. The fishermen were gone out of them. What were they doing? Mending their nets. So if providence has laid you upon a sick bed, and you cannot teach your class—if you cannot be working for God in public, mend your nets by reading. If one occupation is taken from you, take another, and let the books of the apostle read you a lesson of industry.
4. But don’t let your reading cause you to neglect the reading of Scripture. Scripture must be your first priority:
Spurgeon, continued:
He says, “Especially the parchments.” I think the books were Latin and Greek works, but that the parchments were Oriental; and possibly they were the parchments of Holy Scripture; or as likely, they were his own parchments, on which were written the originals of his letters which stand in our Bible as the Epistles to the Ephesians, the Philippians, the Colossians, and so on. Now, it must be “Especially the parchments” with all our reading; let it be especially the Bible.
BTW, Spurgeon got me to thinking about your previous post on the man from the dead. If the Apostle Paul was prevented from speaking of what he saw and heard, what makes it OK for this man from the dead to do so? Hhm?
I think that’s a very valid point.
Exactly. A dear friend who teaches preaching in seminary routinely asks his students if they like to read – few truly like words and books. He explains that until they like books and words and reading they will not preach well. When reading the Puritans, I marvel at their ease of allusion to classical literature. They preached well because they liked words and books and stories — especially the Bible which is stuffed with poems and stories and songs and letters and essays.
Do you have the preaching and preachers books at hand? If so; can you do a post on the different readings martynn Lloyd Jones mentioned in the lecture about preachers daily life or routine.
He talks about reading something to warm the heart then prayer then Bible reading then so on…..etc I know he said that’s all people are different in this matter and its not a matter of rules and regulation concerning what to do and not do at certain times but would it be possible if you can briefly note that lecture on a post?
If not; thanks anyway… I ll just listen to the audio version
In Preaching and Preachers pp. 169-172, he encourages us to read devotional material, books with an element of worship in them, in order to warm ourselves for prayer. If you are struggling to pray, he says, use such material to wake you up, warm you. He does not recommend any particular books. He also recommends reading biographies of the great preachers – he particularly like to read about Wesley and Whitefield. He then encourages us to make it a rule that we will pray at every impulse. If you feel the need to pray, then drop everything in order to do it. Lastly, he encourages us to read the Bible systematically, from cover to cover at a minimum of once a year.
From my standpoint, I encourage rapid Bible reading. Read from cover to cover like you would any other book. And I encourage meditation as the means of moving from reading to prayer. I have several posts on meditation on the blog.
Lloyd-Jones himself liked to read the sermons and books of the Puritans, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, and others.
This was helpful!
I wrote a new post for you. At the bottom of the post I put two links on meditation. I think the first link is very relevant to your question if you haven’t already read it.