I was visiting an aged Christian in a hospital. In one of the beds sat a little old woman with a bright, pleasant face. She repeated many verses of Scripture to me, and appeared to enjoy them thoroughly.
“God has blessed you with a good memory.” I remarked.
“Yes, ma’am, He has, but then I try to remember. I often think of what a lady said to me years ago. She said, ‘When you read, think of a cow. What does a cow do? It eats all it wants, then it goes, and lies down, and it chews the cud.’” And then the lady said, “Now you should be like the cow. Don’t forget when you read, don’t shut up the Bible and forget all about it, but be like the cow and chew the cud.”
“That was good advice,” I said.
“Yes, ma’am,” she answered “it was good advice, and I have chewed the cud many a time after reading, and now when I lie awake of a night, as I often do, I say over my verses out of my Bible and my hymns, and they are a great comfort to me.”
May we not all take a lesson from these simple words? Are we not all far too apt to read and forget, to close our Bible, and forget to “chew the cud?”