"THE ONE BOOK."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1089, 30 March 1911, Page 4

"THE ONE BOOK."

Tuc cablegram referring to the gathering held at Sydney in commemoration of the Tercentenary of the Authorised Version of the Bible states that stirring addresses were given on J-hc Bible as the basis of faith, its influence on home and national life and in the mission field. We do not quarrel with such sentiments which arc,- of course, quite appropriate to the occasion, but the Tercentenary rather reminds us that the Bible has not to-day the commanding place in the life of our race that it had tlivtc hundred years ago. The English people arc not now, as they were from the reign of Elizabeth to the days of Cromwell, the people of one hook. The late J. It. Green, in one of the most eloquent passages of his Short History of the English People, describes the period when the Bible "was as yet the one English book which was familiar to every Englishman; it was read at' churches, and read at home, and everywhere its words, as they fell on ears which custom had not deadened, kindled a startling enthusiasm." Those were not the days of cheap publications and compulsory schooling. Apart from the stage (which Green forgets to mention in this connection) tie Bible contained almost all that was practically accessible to ordinary Englishmen of history, romance, or poetry. Its dissemination leavened the popular mind with a new literature :

Legend and annul, war-song and psalm, State-roll and biography, the niighl.v voices of prophets, the parables of cvaii-. gelists, stories of mission journeys, it perils by sea and among the heathen, philosophic arguments, apocalyptic vis. ions, all were flung broadcast over minds unoccupied, for the. most part, by any rival ' learning. . . . The whole moral effect which is produced nowadays by the religious newspaper, the tract, the essay, the lecture, the missionary report, the sermon, was then produced by the Bible alone; and its effect in this way, however dispassionately wo examine it, was simply amazing. One dominant influence told on human action-, and all the activities that had been called into life by tho age that was passing away were seized, concentrated, and steadied to a definite aim by the spirit of religion. Tho whole temper of the nation felt the change.,' A new conception of life and of man superseded the old. A new moral and religious impulse spread through ei'ery class. There is no denying that that impulse has since lost much of its force. Materialistic thought, cheap printing, and public education are among tbx' mingled causes of a change which, within the memory of those who have scarcely reached middle ago, has been increasingly rapid. The position was soberly stated by the writer of a recent article in the Morning Post: A generation ago the Bible was far more studied and known than it is to-day, great reverence was attached to all that it contained, and its influence over, tho ycung at home and in school was immense. From whatever standpoint we may regard tho Bible there is not the least doubt (hat as a moral agent it is the most impressive book, in the world for all so-called Christian nations, partly because of the sacred tradition that clings to it, partly and chiefly because of the magnificent style and extraordinary humanity of much.. of tho Old Testament and of (lie simple- ethics of'tho New, all of which make direct, clear appeal to young people The tendency to-day is to put tho Bible in the background, and tho ignorance of that masterpiece of literature aifong the young people is deplorable— not only, be it said, in tho elementary schools, but in schools attended by children of tho upper classes. And wo have put nothing in its place.The description is probably just as true of New Zealand as of, England. _ ' Serious people everywhere, even if their,'opinions do not permit them to adopt the exact terms used by Bishop Welldon, in his Tercentenary sermon at St., Paul's, must unite with the spirit of his desire that the English-speaking peoples may bo "true to the Bible," and must consider how the influences which it is so powerful to convey, may be made more strongly operative in our national and social life.