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There is a great deal of listless, careless reading. Coleridge divided readers into four classes. The first class he compares to an hour glass, their reading being as the sand; it runs in and runs out, and leaves not a vestige behind. A second class resembles a sponge, which imbibes everything, and returns it in nearly the same state. A third class is like a jelly bag, which allows all that is pure to pass away, and retains only the refuse and the dregs. The fourth class, like the slave of Golconda, east aside all that is worthless, preserving only the pure gems. Or perhaps we might compare this fourth class to the gold pan, used for retaining the pure metal, while the refuse is washed out. The only profitable reading of God's Word is a searching reading. The word translated "search" is emphatic and intense, and literally means to "look carefully," as a wild animal searches the sands to find the footsteps of a stray cub. The Bible is full of hidden treasures, to be sought as the merchant man sought goodly pearls. They are not revealed to indifferent and superficial readers.

(A. T. Pierson, D. D.)

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KJV: And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.

WEB: The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Beroea. When they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.