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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
reading you are unfitting yourself for the duties of a wife and mother,
and, in fact, are disqualifying yourself to do good anywhere.
The Bible is not studied as it should be; therefore you do not
become wise in the Scriptures and are not thoroughly furnished unto all
good works. Light reading fascinates the mind and makes the reading
of God’s word uninteresting. You seek to make others believe that you
are conversant with the Scriptures; but this cannot be, for your mind is
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filled with rubbish. The Bible requires thought and prayerful research.
It is not enough to skim over the surface. While some passages are
too plain to be misunderstood, others are more intricate, demanding
careful and patient study. Like the precious metal concealed in the
hills and mountains, its gems of truth are to be searched out and stored
in the mind for future use. Oh, that all would exercise their minds as
constantly in searching for celestial gold as for the gold that perishes!
When you search the Scriptures with an earnest desire to learn the
truth, God will breathe His Spirit into your heart and impress your
mind with the light of His word. The Bible is its own interpreter, one
passage explaining another. By comparing scriptures referring to the
same subjects, you will see beauty and harmony of which you have
never dreamed. There is no other book whose perusal strengthens
and enlarges, elevates and ennobles the mind, as does the perusal of
this Book of books. Its study imparts new vigor to the mind, which
is thus brought in contact with subjects requiring earnest thought,
and is drawn out in prayer to God for power to comprehend the truths
revealed. If the mind is left to deal with commonplace subjects, instead
of deep and difficult problems, it will become narrowed down to the
standard of the matter which it contemplates and will finally lose its
power of expansion.
That which is the most to be deplored in regard to your course is
that your errors and mistakes are being reproduced in your children.
I is becoming absorbed in reading; her mental powers are receiving
injury, permanent injury, from following your example. She will have
no taste or aptitude for study. In early life the mind is impressible. Let
the good seed then be sown upon good soil, and it will bear fruit unto
eternal life.
The habits formed in youth, although they may in after-life be
somewhat modified, are seldom essentially changed. Your entire life
has been molded by the legacy of character transmitted to you at birth.