The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1933. THE BIBLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1933. THE BIBLE

’Y’O-MORROW will be Bible Sunday, when the claims of the British and Foreign Bible Society will, be advanced in all of the Protestant churches. The Bible is a remarkable book. It stands alone in the fact that its sales increase each year. It has been translated into almost every language and tongue that exists in the world. It commands Ihe zealous attention of scholars, who are yet busy on the textual translations from the original Greek. Even now there is an effort being made by the Oxford University Press to have another translation made of the New Testament. The study o.f the Greek language has been greatly advanced in recent years and the Oxford University authorities feel that this advance in scholarship should be collated for the wider use of men and women engaged in the study of the Bible for their own enlightenment and the enlightenment of their fellows. Men go out into the wild places of the East to dig in the ground in the hope that their labours will result in the uncovering of some material thing which shall shed more light on this wonderful book. When a stone is unearthed providing but a few meagre facts which assist the student to understand more thoroughly some small passage in the Bible, the excavators consider that their time has been well spent. In the dark places of the world, where civilisation has not yet made itself felt, mon inspired by the message of the Book, go out. to spread a benign light to those who actually do sit in darkness. The darkness of paganism is a very real darkness. It is a destroyer of life; life cannot exist without light. The Bible is essentially the great light-shedding book of the world. There are many books which are prized possessions. The majority of them, however, excluding the Greek classics of pre-Christian times, find their direct inspiration from the. Bible itself. John Bunyon’s “Pilgrim’s Progress, ’ and Milton “Paradise Lost,’’ the works of Shakespeare, all have open evidence of Biblical inspiration. Musicians, in search of the theme of their masterpiece, turn to the Bible. Handel s ‘Creation” stands out as a splendid example of the value of the inspiration of the Great Book, while even the modern Strauss, who because he was of the earth earthly, must take the daughter of the fiend Herod as the major character of his masterpiece “Electra,” but could go nowhere else than to the Bible for the theme of his magnum opus. In humbler realms of accomplishment the Bible has been the Great Inspirer. It has sustained men in their dark hours of disappointment, the invalid in pain, and the widow in her anguish. It has tempered coarseness and dissipated evil manners. Its language still holds men by its directness, its simplicity and its purity, and its strength. It is truly Ihe Book- of Books. It is well to honour the Book, not only for what it is, but also for what it has done.