When a visiting Church
leader reminded the Saints in Thatcher, Arizona, that
they should read and study the scriptures,
young Spencer Kimball took the challenge to heart. Having never read the
Bible from cover to cover, he walked home, climbed up
to the attic where he slept, lit an old, coal oil lamp,
and commenced reading.
One year later,
he closed the book having read every chapter
of that glorious text. I found that there were certain
parts that were hard for me, for a 14-year-old
boy, to understand. There were some
pages that were not especially interesting to me. But when I'd read the 66
books, the 1,189 chapters, and the 1519 pages, I had
a glowing satisfaction that I had made a goal and
that I had achieved it. I'm not telling you
this story to boast. I'm merely using
this example to say that if I could do
it by coal oil light, you can do it by
an electric light. I've always been glad
that I had the Bible. I read it from cover to cover.