NOT KNOWING THE SCRIPTURES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11654, 8 June 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

NOT KNOWING THE SCRIPTURES.

Tho people , who tclf" vim that Lhev believe in "tho Bible, iiiiu the' Bible only," often imagine that all- sorts of secular sa.vjngs arc Biblical. They, arc firmly persuaded thai "lu the midslt of life w-e are ia death," and' "God 1 tempers the wind to the shorn lamb" are quotations from canonical Scripture. A pathetic . which was otace- very popular, described tile insupportability oi bereavement: "Had we i\e'er h-ea'td t'hat Scripturo

wo I'd: ( 'Not lost, but gone before — " and! those who applauded the music did not a«k for reference. Charles- Dickens, in "Domhey and Son" invented "The first Kpistfc of St. Paul to the all uncommon to .hear such a remark as "Gud's lioly Word tells ns that silence is golden;" The following dialogue comes from real life: He: "How old is itl J Well, I can only say that the memory of man runneth not to tho contrary." She: "I do dislike hearing the Bib.Lo jocosely." . A pious old g;irdeiier of our acquawitance, who w.as quite certain that tlio Bible was the best of books, used to assume conversely that every wholesome and religious saying must come out of the Bible; and so his coiw>rsation was brightened b.y cheerful' remarks like this: "You know, sir, as tlio Scripture says, 'lt's never too late to mend.' " , T . , Net many months ago. according ,o the reports' of her "speedi at. suftrago meeting. Mrs Despm-d quoted "from tlu> good old Book, which we ail! profess to love, bnt which, 1 am afraid, we <lOlll all read or understand," the memorable sentence "They ;ilso serve wlio stand and wait. Journalists are by no menus guiltless in their references to the Bible. Some yea,is ago a writer in the Daily Telegraph penetrated the following:— ."these' representatives of Parisian' life were thrust into the background, and were fain, like Nicodenius before ln.i conversion, to climb up a tree in order to catch a. glimpse of the. modern Messiah in his Muscovite uniform. rlu> St. Stephen's Review, airtor quoting the apostle's disparaging comment on the Cretans, added that "St. Paul knew his fellow-countrymen." lii The Hub, a cycling paper, 'we were told that "like the Epliesians of old, tho Viennese dearly love a novelty." Even The Times, in 1836, declared that if the Government of the day camo to grief, they would "fall, like the walls of .Jericho, 'before the noise of empty pitchers." So eminent and successful a journalist as Mr T. P. O'Connor, when lie was being interviewed on "Books which hav© influenced me," made the following frank confession: "I read the Gospels and love them. The Old Testament I have not read; I could never get beyond Genesis."

Politicians not infrequently betray that, their knowledge of the sacred books of their religion is by no means beyond reproach. Even so .distinguished a statesman and sclioiar as Mr Gladstone is said to have once referred to "Daniel in the fiery furnace." Of course, in his-caso the error was due to nothing more than a momentary confusion, for no statesman of recent times was less ignorant or indiil'erent. in regard to Holy Scripture.

Lord Johil Russell on one occasion alluded to Pharoah and his host being overwhelmed in the Jordan; and the late Mr Laboueherc spoke of ".the king of Israel" who asked, "Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great ■thing-?" Speaking in the House of Lords a quarter of a century ago in a debate oil the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill, the lato Lord Bramwell referred to Jacob a* marrying Leah and Ro'uekah at one and the same time. There were, cries of •'Rachel!" His Lordship readily accepted the correction. "Very well," lie assented, "Rachel and Rebekah." Mr John Bright was at home- with tho Bible. Indeed, his simple and austere eloquence drew no small part of its' inspiration from the noble English ov our Authorised Version. In one famous speech which he delivered in tho House of Commons in the debates on the Reform Bill of 1867, Mr Bright compared Mr Robert Lowe a.nd Mr Horsman, \vlu> had seeerlod from the Liberal party, to the. occupants of the Cave of Adullam. It is'alleged that few members of tho House of Commons understood the allusion, and that one of thorn advised an inquiring neighbor to go home and read his Arabian Nights. The late Dr Samuel Cox, in an article which be wrote on '"Biblical M:squotations," pointed out that in making this allusion to tho Cave of Adullam, Mr Bright ran the risk of provoking a. 'crushing retort—such a risk as he would probably not have ventured on if he had been speaking anywhere but-in the House of Commons. ; "If either Mr Horsman or Mr Lowe had known his Bible well enough to remind the House that, after all, the true Israel was gathered in the Cave of Adullam, that it- sheltered David, the darling and hope of Israel, that the broken and discontented men who came to him there rose to be the chief statesmen and soldiers of the immediately succeeding reign, and that'they were driven into discontent and distress by the political wrongs inflicted on them' by an intolerable tyranny—the laugh might have been turned' the other way, and the 'Cave' would not have, become-a synonym for political-mutiny and disaffection."