MR GLADSTONE ON THE BIBLE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 2847, 16 June 1896, Page 4

MR GLADSTONE ON THE BIBLE.

THE WHITE-WASHING OF JAEL.

INTRODUCTION OF GREAT BEAUTY.

From Our Special Correspondent . London, April Tho first part of tho great AngloAmerican Bible History, in \Vhich writers from both sides of the Atlantis are collaborating, is out, its interesting feature being an introduction by Mr Gladstone. This was -written in 1894, and will remind most readers of tho G. O. M.’s book, “ The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture/' of which a revised edition was published in 1862. Mr Gladstone’s article is an eloquent an,d striking popular appeal for the Bible. If sketches its history, traces to its influence the great achieveiiionts of Christian civilization, and shows ho\V it has held the allegiance of Christendom for fifteen hundred years. The vast expansion or Bible knowledge during the now fastclosing century has made spread of the Bible 41 a kind of challenge to the powers of the world at large/' “This challenge was first delivered principally from Great Britain, and only by a portion of the Christian body, although that body is now more united than formerly, with respect to its form J which was the circulation of tho Sacred Volume without note or comment. They wore Protestants, they were Englishspeaking Protestants, they were Englishspeaking Protestants chiefly of the nonconforming type, or in varying degrees of sympathy with it, who conceived the idea of an association marked, even in its day of small things, by its aspiring and comprehensive alms/' Turning to the contents of tho sacred books, Mr Gladstone finds in them all tho material of orthodox Christian creeds and teaching. He tui*na to ocher Eadtetn writings to show the superiority of the Hebrew books, and discusses at great length tho cosmogony of Genesis. Ho calls tho first chapter of Genesis “ the great chapter," expounding it, however, in a sense tho Very opposite of that in which Dean Parrar takes it. Mr Gladstone contends that the Christian Church has neVer tied itself to the opinion that the six days of Creation were periods of twenty-four hours, and prefers a construction of tho phrase which is agreeable to the analogy of Nature, which “points to the prolongation of Complex and diversified processes over Considerable periods of time." Perhaps the novel part of Mr Gladstone’s argument is his treatment of tho case of the murder of Sisera byJael. He says : “ What were the alternatives set before her by the act of Sisera ? Ho demanded shelter; he required of her that she should deny his presence in her house, and should against those Who Were first entitled to her sympathies the

instrument of falsehood which she turned against him. Surely all the reason of the case not oh the side of this demand; What were the alternatives before her if she complied with it? The victorious IsraelitiCs Were in hot pursuit; and Barak’s path lasr by her house. As a lone woman she was in no condition to refuse him entry to her house altogether. Had she denied the presence of Sisera, as he required, and had her house been searched, her life must obviously have fallen a sacrifice to the vengeance of the victors; nay, rathetfto their just resent* men t. Had they waived the search, and had Sisera in consequence made good his way to Haznr, with what purpose would ho have gone there 1 Certainly* and from his point of view Justly, he must have gone there still to tight his people’s battle ; that is to say, again to carry fire and sword, at the earliest practicable moment, through tho homes of Israel. Had she no duty to her own flesh and blood ? none co the people in whose land sho dwelt, and with whom by her husband’s descent she stood in bond of sacred alliance ? She knew, too. that Sisera and his friends were laid under the curse, as inhabitants of Canaan, which God had laid upon that people for their wickedness ; so except by disobedience tc God the Israelites were under a general command feo withhold from them clemency in war. I do not prosecute this branch of the subject, which sometimes is so handled as to involve the assumption that no amount of wickedness could warrant the extinction of the nation involved in it* Now, I submit that wllat has beeti said shows that there were very grave difficulties in this case from whatever point of view it may be regarded. X baye cited a statement of it wholly adverse to Jael. Let me put the case in her favour. There was war a war of extermination. When she was compelled to take a side, she rightly took the side of those with whom she had special ties. She slew a roan, but it was a man who, more than any other, was the life and soul of the war against those whom she had made het own people. She slew him in her own house } but it was not she who brought him there. She sacrificed his life for her folk. He had desired her to expose her own life for him. She slew him with deceit and falsehood. But these are of the essence of stratagem in war, and could the Israelites, or those denizens who took their part, be expected to refrain from them ?"

Mr Gladutone sums up the argument in a passage of great eloquence and beauty, and concludes —

. “ ‘ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.’ As they have lived and wrought, so they will live and work. From the teacher’s chair and from the pastor’s pulpit; in the humblest hymn that ever mounted to the ear of God from beneath a cottage roof, and in the rich, melodious choir of the noblest cathedral, ‘ their sound is gone out into all lands and their words into the ends of the world.’ Nor here alone but in a thousand silent and unsuspected forms will they unweariedly prosecute their holy office. Who doubts that, times without number, particular portions of Scripture find their way to the human soul as if embassies from on high, each with its own commission of comfort, of guidance, or of warning 1 What crisis, what trouble, what perplexity of life has tailed or can fail to draw from this inexhaustible treasure-house its proper supply ? What profession, what position is not daily and hourly enriched by these words which repetition never weakens, which carry with them now, as in the days of their first utterance, the freshness of youth and immortality ? When the solitary student opens all his heart to drink them in, they will reward his toil. And in forms yet more hidden and withdrawn, in the retirement of the chamber, in the stillness of the night season, upon

the bed of sickness, and in the face o! death, the Bible will be there* its several ;Vorda how often Ringed with their several and Special messages, to hoal and to Soothe; to uplift and Uphold, to invigorate and stir. NaJ% more, perhaps than this ; amid the crowds of the cotirt: or tho forum, or tho street; or the market place, when every thought of every soul seems to bo set upon, the excitements of ambition’., or jpf .pusmess', .dr.ot pleasure* there; too’, arch there, tho still small volbb of the Holy Bible will bo heard, and the soul, aided by some blessed word, may find wings like a dove, may fleo away and bo at rest.