The particular temptation of the seminary student

Sound advice from Archibald Alexander:

Guard solicitously against inward decays of grace. Be alarmed when your private devotions become formal and uninteresting. Neglect not the devout perusal of your Bibles. You need this exhortation even more than if your daily office did not lead you to daily familiarity with them.

The labourer, who has only a few moments at noon or in the evening to look into his Bible is not so likely to read it carelessly as the theological student, who does nothing else than turn over its leaves and examine its contents.

Never consider piety as in a prosperous state in your soul unless your exercises be accompanied with a penitent sense of your own sins and a humble sense of your unworthiness.

Quoted in Garretson, Princeton and Preaching, p. 40-41