Devotional Reading

 

One of my treasured volumes is Christian Perfection, by Francois de Salignac de La Mothe Fenelon, better known as simply Fenelon. This is a collection of letters and short essays, translated by Mildred Whitney Stillman from the 1858 French edition and edited by Charles F. Whiston (who compared it to the 1823 French edition), first published in 1947. Perhaps if I had not been so lazy, or had a little more confidence, and a bit more trust in God, after seminary I would have sought a Ph.D. with Fenelon as my focus; then again if I had been super good at baseball I may have played for my hometown team, the Washington Senators.

 

Revisiting Christian Perfection allows me to enjoy Whiston’s introduction and his prefaces to parts I (letters) and II (essays). In the introduction Whiston encourages the reader to exercise devotional reading with Fenelon, explaining what he means by “devotional reading.” Whiston’s explanation is valuable in that it can help us see one of the ways we ought to be reading the Bible, along with its underlying principles – the principles, which Whiston illustrates, are critical. Below is Whiston’s explanation of devotional reading, I will interact with Whiston in following posts.

 

“What is meant by devotional reading?  It is unlike every other type of reading which we do.  Our natural practice of reading newspapers, magazines and novels will be of little help to us in this book.  Devotional reading requires a very different mood or temper.  In study our minds are critical, analytical, argumentative.  In such reading our own minds take the initiative, and are active and energetic.  In reading newspapers and magazines we normally skim over them hurriedly.  But in devotional reading our whole being (not only our intellects) must be quieted; and made open, receptive, expectant; and above all else, humble. It is not so much the work of the intellect as the attentive receptiveness of the whole man.  Any spirit set upon ferreting out the hidden mysteries of God will result in total failure.  Humility will accomplish what cleverness and pride cannot accomplish.

 

“Certain analogies will throw revealing and helpful light upon this mood, which is so necessary in devotional reading.  First, there is the analogy of coming to know and appreciate great works of art.  No passing and hurried glance at a great painting, as we stroll down the corridors of an art gallery, will ever suffice to reveal to us the richness and secret message of any painting.  It is necessary that we sit down in quietude, and limit our attention to a single painting, and sit humbly before it and let it act upon us.  It is the painting, which is the active agent, and not we.  The painting is subject: we are object. We must let the painting act upon us and in us. Furthermore, no single visit will be sufficient.  Many, repeated visits to the same painting are required even to begin to receive its revelations.  We must wait patiently and humbly until the painting reveals in its own time and way its richness to us.

 

“So it is with the devotional reading of this book.  We shall need to read and reread it over many years; to sit quietly in its presence, and reading, to let it reveal its truths to us.

 

“Another helpful analogy is that of the farmer and his seed.  The farmer places his seed in the ground.  He then knows that great and mysterious powers and energies must act upon it.  Rain, sun, air, soil—all these work together to bring about the slow processes of germination and growth.  Long before any visible action occurs above ground, there is the sinking downward into the soil of the tap-root, upon which the later growth and harvest will depend. All of this prior, underground work is hidden from the sight of man, going on in the darkness.  Only after this hidden work is accomplished does there then appear above ground the green shoot.  Only after weeks and perhaps months will the harvest come.

 

“Devotional reading is farming, the sowing of word—seeds in the ground of the mind and spirit, with no expectation that the harvest is to be reaped at once.  The word-seeds must have time to germinate, sink tap-roots deep into the mind and heart.  The harvest of the word-seeds sown to-day may not come until years later.  The harvest will come when least we expect it, and always with the note of being a revelation given to us from God, and not the work of our own minds.”

 

CHARLES F. WHISTON, September, 1946