Ponder this: Brooks on the responsibility of readers

Pondering this at the beginning of the semester when we have much to read:

  He that hath a good book in his hand, but not a lesson of it in his heart or life, is like that ass that carrieth burdens and feeds upon thistles…Profession without practice will but make a man twice told a child of darkness….He that makes not conscience of praying over what he reads, will find little sweetness or profit in his reading. 

Thomas Brooks, Works, vol. 1, p. 291-2