Acts 8:28 Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. Do not buy, do not borrow, do not touch bad books. One book may decide thy destiny. The assassin of Lord William Russell said he committed that crime as the result of reading the romance, then popular, entitled "Jack Sheppard." George Law was made a millionaire by reading a biography in childhood. Benjamin Franklin became the good man and philosopher that he was by reading in early life Cotton Mather's "Essays to do Good." John Angell James, as consecrated a man as ever lived in England, stood in his pulpit and said: "Twenty-five years ago a lad loaned me a bad book for a quarter of an hour. I have never recovered from it. The spectres of that book have haunted me to this day. I shall not, to my dying day, get over the reading of that book for fifteen minutes." A clergyman, travelling towards the West, many years ago, had in his trunk Doddridge's "Rise and Progress." In the hotel he saw a woman copying from a book. He found that she had borrowed Doddridge's "Rise and Progress" from a neighbour, and was copying some portions out of it, so he made her a present of his copy of the "Rise and Progress." Thirty-one years after, he was passing along that way and he inquired for that woman. He was pointed to a beautiful home. He went there. He asked her if she remembered him. She said, "No." Then, he says, "Do you not remember thirty years ago a man gave you a copy of Doddridge's 'Rise and Progress'?" She said, "Yes; I read it, and it was the means of my conversion. I passed it round, and all the neighbours read it, and there came a revival, and we called a minister and we built a church. The church of Wyoming is the result of that one book which you gave me." The reading of Homer's "Iliad" made Alexander a warrior, and the reading of the "Life of Alexander" made Caesar and Charles XII. men of blood. It is well known that Rochester was, for many years of his life, an avowed infidel, and that a large portion of his time was spent in ridiculing the Bible. One of his biographers has described him as "a great wit, a great sinner, and a great penitent." Even this man was converted by the Holy Spirit in the use of His Word. Reading the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, he was convinced of the truth and inspiration of the Scriptures, the Deity of the Messiah, and the value of His atonement as a rock on which sinners may build their hopes of salvation. On that atonement he rested, and died in the humble expectation of pardoning mercy and heavenly happiness. Parallel Verses KJV: Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.WEB: He was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. |
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