06.12. It Is A Profound Book

12. IT IS A PROFOUND BOOK

It is a profound book, so profound that the learned have studied it for years without exhausting it, and yet so simple that the little child can enjoy it and the poor and uneducated can find rest and comfort in its pages. My father was a southern soldier in the Civil War. He was young when the war broke out and was deprived of an education, only attending one term of school in his life. I never saw him try to read a book or a magazine, but how often in the summer afternoons have I seen him take the old large print Bible, and picking up the old round post chair with the hickory bark bottom, he would make his way out under the shade of the big oak tree and following the lines with his finger like a little boy in his first reader, he would slowly spell out the words of the Book of God until he found help and comfort for his old heart. Never a day passed in our home but what my mother turned to this book for help, for strength and for guidance, and never a letter came to me when I was a godless boy away from home but what contained kind and helpful counsel gathered from the pages of the Word of God.

"There’s a dear and precious book,
Though it’s worn and faded now,
That recalls the happy days of long ago,
When I sat at mother’s knee
With her hand upon my brow,
And I heard her voice in gentle tones and low.
Blessed Book, precious Book
On thy dear old tear stained leaves I love to look.
Thou art sweeter day by day,
As I walk the narrow way,
That leads at last to that bright home above."