READING by D. F. Ewen

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, January 8, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 2

READING

By D. F. Ewen

BY D. F. EWEN.

“Understandest thou what thou readest?” Acts 8: 30.

“So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” Nehemiah 8: 8.

READING has hardly occupied the place it ought to have had in our systems of education, and for this reason many of our older brethren are sadly deficient in this art. With the better facilities now afforded by our College, we trust the future reader will be more emphatic and clear. The art of reading well is comparatively unknown. We ought to have a universally recognized standard of pronunciation. Nervousness is one cause which impedes good reading, and another is ignorance of the subject. The latter of these causes applies especially to the reading of the Holy Scriptures. A well-read chapter is indeed a sermon in itself.

The simplest explanation of the phenomenon that good reading is the exception rather than the rule is, that people do not seem to think it worth their while to aim at excellence in this respect. It is very essential that the Scriptures be read in an earnest and impressive manner; our public reading of them must be improved. The art of reading should be cultivated at home (read carefully what Eld. White says on this subject in a recent number of the REVIEW), and endeavors should be made to get rid of a gabbling and sing-song style. Not so our blessed Lord read. Luke 4: 16-20. The Revelator says: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein; for the time is at hand.” Rev. 1: 3.

Let us pay more attention to reading.