I love to read. It hasn't always been that way. In my adolescent years I preferred to climb trees and run through fields than ever read a book. Somewhere along the way, I contracted a taste for it.

John Wesley, the famous Methodist preacher, often encouraged his students to read. "Steadily spend all morning in this employ," he wrote, "or at least five hours in the twenty-four." Wesley knew that the man has not been born who can continue to put out as a preacher who does not take in as a student.

Are we a reading brotherhood? Some say no. There are great values in persistent and wide reading.

One who reads will never be lonely. Between the covers of good books, the reader will meet people he has only heard about, and he will encounter thoughts that will forever keep his mind employed.

One who reads will never be bored. One who finds pleasure in a good book has a pleasure that is open to him at any time and place.

One who reads will never be ignorant. He will be in constant touch with minds greater than his own. A preacher without a library is like a carpenter without tools. The preacher who ceases to read will also cease to preach in any real sense of the term, especially when it comes to reading the Book of books. We may study it for a lifetime, but we will never exhaust our knowledge of it.