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A
Lot of Books!
“Of making books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the
flesh” (Eccl. 12:12).
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When Tara and I visited Washington, DC this Summer, one of the
historic institutions we toured was the Library of Congress. The Thomas
Jefferson building is the most famous of its three structures, an
architectural beauty to behold both inside and out.
A little history about the Library: It was founded in 1800 with
just a few hundred books. During the next ten years its core collection
had grown to over 3,000 volumes, but these were destroyed when British
troops burned the Capitol building (where the Library was originally
housed) on August 24, 1814. A few months later, in order to start a new
set of collected works, Congress approved the
purchase of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library of 6,487 books for a
price of $23,950.
The Library’s collection has grown astronomically since its
humble beginnings. It is now the largest library in the world, housing
more than 138 million items on approximately 650 miles of bookshelves.
The Library adds approximately 10,000 items to its collection daily,
about one half of them being in languages other than English -- some 470
languages.
 As
you might imagine, the Library houses many rare books and manuscripts.
The oldest written material on hand is a cuneiform tablet dating from
2040 B.C. Papers of each of our nation’s presidents can be found in the
Library. And, one of only three perfect copies on vellum of the
Gutenberg Bible (printed in 1454) can be viewed behind a large glass
case in one of the building’s
(Jefferson Building, Library of Congress)
lobbies.
The Library’s largest book is a 5-by-7 foot book featuring color images
of Bhutan. Its smallest book is “Old King Cole,” being 1/25” x 1/25”
(about the size of the period at the end of this sentence). The pages
can only be turned with the aid of a needle.
The Library has in its collection more than 124,000 telephone
books and microfilmed city directories from 650 U.S. cities. It houses
the world’s largest collection of comic books, over 100,000 issues. And
on and on and on we could go describing (in merely general terms) the
enormous volume of materials in the library. As one little boy put it,
“That’s a lot of stuff!”
As we were led on our tour through the main reading room of the
Library and were told a few facts about the scope of its collection, I
couldn’t help but think of our opening quotation. Solomon truly had it
right: mankind loves to make books.
But what else did Solomon say as he closed his epic work on
“life”? Let’s notice…
“The Preacher sought to find acceptable words;
and what was written was upright -- words of truth.
The words of the wise are like goads,
and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails,
given by one Shepherd.
And further, my son, be admonished by these.
Of making many books there is no end,
and much study is wearisome to the flesh” (Ecclesiastes 12:10-12).
Beloved, Solomon urges us to search diligently for “acceptable
words… words of truth.” To put it simply, we’ll find these within
the book we each have within our homes, the Bible. It is of God’s word
which we believe Solomon to be referring when he speaks of the words
“given by one Shepherd.” They are “like goads,” i.e., they
prod a person in the direction he ought to go. They are “like
well-driven nails” -- they stay firmly attached in one’s mind. It is
by these “words” that Solomon says, “my son, be admonished.”
He then contrasts these with the never-ending task by men of “making
many books.” The “much study” of these, he says, is “wearisome,”
comparatively unprofitable.
While none of us have a library at home with even 1/100th of 1%
of the collection of the Library of Congress, several do have quite the
compilation. Admittedly, this writer himself does, having a small store of commentaries,
dictionaries, encyclopedias, and biographies. Books are alright. There
is nothing wrong in reading and owning them. But Solomon counsels us to
seek after the “acceptable words” of God. This is where our
priority must lie. As Solomon went on to say, the keeping of these “words”
“is the whole duty of man” (verse 13).
The Bible is the Book of books. The value of all the books in the
Library of Congress -- in the world, for that matter -- cannot be
compared to the priceless value of God’s book (Psalm 19:10). Let’s get
our heads in it daily.
--Mike Noble
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