Perhaps the best known of the early church fathers was Augustine. Dean Trench wrote of his "unquenched and unquenchable thirst for the Word," and John Baillie commented that "He who appreciates aright the lesson of that life, will go, with a deeper relish and on `bended knee' to the Word which was his daily all." His prayerful longing was to confess to the lord the entire Bible.

Let me confess unto Thee whatsoever I shall find in Thy books, and hear the voice of praise, and drink in Thee, and meditate on the wonderful things out of Thy law; even from the beginning, wherein Thou madest the heaven and the earth, unto the everlasting reigning of Thy holy city with Thee.