The Bible vs. books

“But read the Bible and, strange to say, the more you read it, the more satisfied you will be with it. When you begin to read the Bible, perhaps you need 50 other books in order that you may become a thorough Bible student, but your library will gradually diminish until, at last, the more you understand the Bible, the fewer books you will need, and you will come to say, ‘If I might have all my days over again, this should be the only book that I would study. And I would concentrate all my powers upon the understanding of this one volume.’

You can get to the bottom of all other books—you dive into them and, at first, they seem to be very deep—but every time you plunge, they appear to get shallower and shallower until, at last, you can see the bottom at a glance. But in God’s Word, every time you dive, the depths grow deeper!”

(Charles Spurgeon, Sermon #2724, of Volume 57 Collected Works—THE DEW OF CHRIST’S YOUTH)