LIFE AND THE TEACHING OF THE BIBLE

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22081, 1 May 1937, Page 17

LIFE AND THE TEACHING OF THE BIBLE

The Bible View of Life. By Si C. Carpenter, D.D. Eyre, and Spottiswoode. 269 pp. (7s 6d net.) Readers acquainted , with the writings of Dr. Carpenter, Dean of Exeter, will expect much from this book, and they will not be disappointed. Four chapters of the book constitute the Scott Holland Memorial Lectures delivered at Bristol University and at the Church of St. Andrew, Plymouth. The introduction contains a delightful memoir of Scott Holland. This alone would make the book worth having. The rest of the volume is given up to the exposition of what may be called the Biblical philosophy of life, in which the Dean has many wise and thoughtful things to say. He admits that for many of us the Scriptures have not been inwardly digested. We have found them a hard diet. But once we can reach through the husk of Oriental thought and imagery, we find a book that deals not with the strange, but with the familiar problems of every day life. Here we find the littleness and dignity of man, the course of God's true love for him, the idea of the City of God, and "the burning Heart of Christ. In the Bible, there is no final solution of our economic and political problems, but there is a way of approaching them which does not lose its application with the growing complexity of the world's life. But there are no promises either about seemingly intractable problems or about seemingly impenetrable souls. A«ll in the end is entrusted to God Who has given man a lever called faith which releases the operation of divine love. And it is one of the fundamental positions of the New Testament that love never f aileth.