A Sabbath Day Meditation: Of Making Right Use of the Scripture

Though a man had a precious jewel and a rich, yet if he wist not the value
thereof, nor wherefore it served, he were neither the better nor richer of a
straw. Even so, though we read the scripture, and babble of it never so
much, yet if we know not the use of it, and wherefore it was given, and
what is therein to be sought, it profiteth us nothing at all. It is not enough,
therefore, to read and talk of it only, but we must also desire God, day and
night instantly, to open our eyes, and to make us understand and feel
wherefore the scripture was given, that we, may apply the medicine of the
scripture, every man to his own sores; unless that we intend to be idle
disputers, and brawlers about vain words, ever gnawing upon the bitter
bark without, and never attaining unto the sweet pith within, and
persecuting one another in defending of lewd imaginations and fantasies of
our own invention.

-- William Tyndale, Prologue to the Five Books of Moses.