The Evening Star Saturday, APRIL 30, 1932. THE UNPARALLELED BOOK.

Evening Star, Issue 21090, 30 April 1932, Page 12

The Evening Star Saturday, APRIL 30, 1932. THE UNPARALLELED BOOK.

The first Sunday in May is observed throughout the British Empire as Bible Sunday. Ministers in innumerable churches deal then with the nature and the abiding wortli of the great text book of the Christian faith. They urge their people to cultivate a closer acquaintance with its contents and to render a fuller obedience to its precepts. They appeal, too, for generous gifts towards the cost of translating it into all the tongues spoken by the human family and of circulating it among all peoples. Much can bo said in favour of this universal Bible Sunday. It calls public attention tq ihe J3ools .which outrival? all others

I in the position it holds in our opulent literature, in the influence it has exercised and still exercises in our national history, and in its importance not only as a religious classic, but as the supremo example of the excellence of our mother tongue. The Book is too often regarded as the battleground on which rival theologians wage their logomachies, or the arsenal from which preachers draw the weapons of their holy warfare, or the favourite volume to which devout souls turn for the culture of the inner life. But these are erroneous views of the volume. It is in every sense the people’s Book. Its numerous authors, writing over an extensive period of time and adopting a great variety of styles of composition, have produced a book which is absolutely unique in the world’s literature. Professor R. G. Moulton, in his * Literary Study of the Bible,’ has shown how fascinating is the study of the Book as containing many forms of literary beauty and charm. Professor Quiller-Couch, in his ‘ Art of Reading,’ devotes three lectures to the reading of the Bible, which he says has influenced our literature far more deeply than all the writings of Shakespeare. He speaks of the Authorised Version as one of the greatest literary achievements in our language. Cardinal Newman regarded its sentences as among the most sublime and beautiful ever written. All competent critics praise it. For three centuries it has held a position of supremacy among all the books that crowd our libraries, and has so powerfully moulded our English speech that out of the 6,000 words it contains only some 250 are not now in use. It is still “ the well of English undefiled.” It sets the standard of literary excellence. Samuel Taylor Coleridge truly said that intense study of the Bible would keep any writer from being vulgar in point of style, and John Ruskin declared that the passages of Scripture which his mother instilled into his youthful mind formed the best part of his literary inheritance. Nor have any later versions displaced • the version of 1611 in public favour. The Revised Version of 1884 may excel the Authorised Version in some respects, but readers miss the rhythm and cadence of the earlier translation. It still remains “ the most majestic thing in our English literature,” and, as one has well said, “it could least be spared of all the books that have challenged the intellect, subdued the heart, and inspired the will of mankind to high thought and noble doing.” As the most famous and most influential book we know, “ it is not surprising that its circulation exceeds by far that of any other book.” In his great history of the British and Foreign Bible Society, William Canton stated that during its first century the society had, at a cost of £13,937,000, distributed 180,000,000 copies of the Scriptures in languages spoken by seventenths of the population of the planet. Last year close on 12,000,000 were cir- . culated in 900 languages. These figures do not include the copies issued by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and by other publishers. The Book is still the best seller, and its circulation is ever increasing.

It is to be feared, however, that, like many another classic, the Bible is more praised nowadays than read and studied. It does not find the place in the home which it formerly held. It is excluded from our primary schools. Even in the churches it is not expounded as it used to be. Modern criticism has depreciated the authority it possessed in earlier ages. The secularism of our times undervalues its relation to invisible and intangible realities. Yet surely any neglect of a volume which has played so important a part in the development of our national literature and national character is to be deplored. A journalist, writing in the ‘ North Mail ’ in May last, said: “ The Bible is not known as it was. Now that is a disaster not only or so much because the Bible is supposed to help us to be good, but because it is the best of all books ... the most perfect thing in the language. . . * To know the Bible thoroughly is to have had a complete classical education. , . . If people

no longer read their Bibles as they used to it means that thousands of people of all ranks and conditions of life who used to get in the Bible a classical education continuing all through life are no longer getting it, and that, I think, is a national misfortune.” For loftiness of thought, for sublimity and beauty of expression, for lucidity of language, for matchless grace of style, the Bible stands alone, peerless and unparalleled, and any observance, such as Bible Sunday, which calls attention to its superexcellent qualities and leads people to read it with renewed interest is to be commended. A secular paper, regarding the unrivalled Book from a purely literary viewpoint, and considering its marvellous influence in our nation’s history, may express the hope that Bible Sunday may achieve its worthy purpose.