The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1933. THE BIBLE

Southland Times, Issue 22008, 6 May 1933, Page 4

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1933. THE BIBLE

In 1611 while Shakespeare was still alive the Bible was translated out of the original tongues. That translation we know as the Authorized Version. Since 1611 we have had other translations, but without doubt the Authorized is the greatest of all, for into it the translators put more than idiom and grammar. They made it a thing of beauty for they caught the spirit of the Greek and Hebrew originals and fashioned out of these an English version which gives forth the very life and soul of the original writers. The Authorized Version has re-created the thought, character, ideas and atmosphere of the original. Books, it has been said, are of two kinds, living and dead. The Bible is a book of endless life. Rites and opinions change with the changing years. Like the dead leaves of the oak tree which are pushed off by the advent of the new, human institutions grow old, but the Bible is perennially young. There is no touch of rust or moth— All that is old divinely new, All new divinely old and both Divinely true.

De Quincy divides books into those of knowledge and those of power. The Bible is primus primorum in both classes. Charles Dana, one of the greatest of American journalists, when lecturing to students said that no man could be an outstanding journalist without a knowledge of the Scriptures; Napoleon held the Bible to be a political work of the first order; Lord Cromer during his term of administration in Egypt said he could not live and work without its inspiration. Is it not well then that our community

life should be saturated with the words and thoughts of this immortal book? One hardly realizes how deeply the figures and language of the Bible have interwoven themselves into the web and woof of our daily speech. The writer once saw an analysis of Shakespeare’s works showing what toll he had laid upon the Bible. The result was astonishing. This is not the place for indicating the spiritual power and consolation that have come to men of all ranks from the use of Scripture. One example will suffice. About a week before the death of Sir Walter Scott he said to Lockhart, his son-in-law and biographer, “Read to me the Book.” “What book?” said Lockhart. The dying Scott said, “Need you ask? There is but one book-” Note the intellectual force of the Bible. It is not one book. It is a unique library of .66 books written in three languages by 30 different writers. Its very name is plural (Biblia not Biblion). Over, many centuries its range extends, coming to us out of various stages of social culture from the crude barbarism of an age similar to that of an African tribe of to-day to the culture of the Greek and Roman world of the time of Christ. How varied the writers. We have humble herdsmen, a mighty monarch, a subtle minded Jew trained in rabbinical lore and simple-hearted fishermen of Galilee. It is a library of history, law, fiction, poetry, romance, orations, sermons, prophecies and visions. A prominent educationalist has well said that it is the most important single educative force in the modern world. It enlarges the outlook, it widens the horizon of man. It helps us to see life through other eyes than oui' own. The horizon is world-wide. This is the core of education. From the purely educational point of view the Bible has performed a greater good than the combined literature of the Greeks and the Romans. Have we lost our sense of wonder? Is it familiarity with this great work that is making our people neglect it? The wonderful unity combined with its manifold variety has impressed thinking folk. James Anthony Froude, who was far from orthodox, said: “The Bible, thoroughly known, is a literature in itself—the rarest and richest in all departments 'of thought and imagination.” On May 20, 1881, a telegram of 80,000 words was sent from New York to Chicago to two leading daily papers, each of which printed in the morning issue the four gospels and the Book of Acts. Next day the rest of the New Testament, sent by the mail, was issued. One paper employed 92 compositors and 5 correctors. The message sent was the Revised Version of the New TestamentTwo million copies were sold in Oxford and Cambridge before the edition was off the press. That is only one part of the tale. Nothing like this ever occurred in the history of publishing. Yet that is the Book of which the caustic Voltaire, now seldom read, prophesied that it would soon be dead. His house in Paris is now a depot of a Bible Society. It is most fitting that there should-be a united effort once a year to emphasize the power and value of the Bible. The first Sunday in May is observed throughout the British Empire as Bible Sunday. This can be a splendid opportunity for the pulpit to exalt the Book without a knowledge of which much of the preaching is meaningless. And there is a latent fear that our people are relegating the Bible to oblivion. Ask any Sunday School teacher and you will hear a tale of woeful ignorance. A talkative woman discussing literature confessed that some passages of the Bible did appeal to her. On being asked her favourite, she said, “The reference to God’s tempering the wind to the shorn lamb.” Let us think for a while of the wonderful work done by the societies which send forth the Scriptures. The entire Bible is now printed in over 100 languages. Of course there are some languages and dialects which do not justify, as yet, the complete translation. New alphabets had to be made. Sounds had to be carefully caught and classified. Then there was the need for grammars and dictionaries. In many dialects and mixed languages only portions are printedBut it is safe to say that the Bible or a portion of it is translated into over 850 languages, and this represents a billion readers. Such a society is international and inter-denominational. It is the servant of all the churches, but there is there the danger that its needs will be overlooked and that only the crumbs from the rich man’s table will come its way. In these days of financial stress such a society is apt to fare badly, but it is hoped that the clergy and laity alike will have such a sense of the importance of this great work that generous support will be forthcoming. Of course, if the value of the Bible is lost among our people, then there ■will be a listless interest in efforts to disseminate the Scriptures. The neglect of the Bible may result from the way in which it is treated. Some can still remember the bad old days when it was rammed in, crammed in by hook or by crook, generally by rod. There came a revolt. But may it not be that the reading of it in church is poor-or scrappy, or may it not be that preaching from catchy snippets has resulted in looking upon the Bible as a scrap book from which the preacher gets a text as a point of departure for an address. How would it do some-,

times to cut out the sermon and have splendid parts of the Scriptures read effectively? The Hon. James Bryce said in an address at the London University: “It is with great regret one sees in these days that the knowledge of the Bible seems declining in all classes. Looking at it from the educational side the loss is incalculable to the life of the country.” Bible Sunday can do a great work if it revives an interest in this great Book which has left an indelible mark on our nation’s law and literature, which has contributed to the spread of our language and to the inspiration of philanthropy, for as Lecky says in his “History Of European Morals,” it has covered the globe with countless institutions of mercy absolutely unknown to the pagan world. The monuments to the Bible are world-wide; every department of human life bears the marks of its premanent influence. The secular press of our land joins in every effort to promote the highest type of life, intellectual and moral, and though it is no part of its work to promote creeds it must express the earnest hope that Bible Sunday will achieve all the good that it is capable of accomplishing.