Moravians were reading Martin Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans and John Wesley found his heart strangely warmed God granting a spiritual awakening in his soul. His brother Charles Wesley found peace with God after God granted an understanding of justification by faith alone through reading...wait for it...Luther's commentary on Galatians. ( Bunyan described it as "before all the books that ever I have seen, as most fit for a wounded conscience.")

Every good biblicist can be thankful that God has gifted teachers and pastors as His instruments to reach lost sinners and edify the saints, don't let us despise the reading of sound books for they might well explain the gospel far better than we sermonaudio commentators!

According to Leonard Ravenhill: 'The lamp that lit the path that led to the kingdom for Whitefield was a book. At Oxford, Charles Wesley had seen Whitefield and passed on to him (the Puritan) Henry Scougal's The Life of God in the Soul of Man .

'I never knew what true religion was till God sent me this excellent treatise.'
—George Whitefield