THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S roads, but there is too little of it to be worth extracting. Alas! how like to many books and sermons. Not so the Scriptures; they are full of much fine gold; their very dust is precious.” Use of the Bible Sir Edward Arnold said he had read the Bible through three times before he was twelve years of age. As a lit erary man he owed his success to the Bible and the book of Common Prayer. For in the Bible is found the grandest school of style, to say nothing of its moral and spiritual truths. “John Ruskin says that many people read the Bible in the same way that hedgehogs were once supposed to eat grapes. They rolled themselves over the grapes, so it used to be thought, and what fruit stuck to their spines they carried off and ate. So your hedge- hoggy Bible preacher rolls himself over his Bible and declares that whatever sticks to his own spine is Scripture, and that nothing else is. Read in this way, the Bible can be made to fit any form of doctrine and any fashion of life. Such readers, if they knew, are only so many Ingersolls, modern church infidels.” Dean Farrar tells us that his moth er’s habit was every morning immedi ately after breakfast to withdraw for an tour to her own room and spend the hour reading the Bible, other devotional books and in meditation and prayer. From that hour as from a great foun tain she drew strength and sweetness which enabled her to remain unruffled by the worries and pettishness of nar row neighbors. H says he never saw her temper disturbed nor heard her speak one word of anger or calumny or idle gossip. Her life was strong, pure, rich and full of blessing and healing, and he says it was all due to her daily morning hour with God. “An old saint said, when his end was near, “I have studied all my life only three books,—the Bible, my own heart, and the beauties of nature.”
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(6) The miracles it records. {7) Its fulfilled prophecy. (8) The harmony between its words and works and revealed science. (9) The harmony between it and sec ular history. (10) Its unity. (11) The effect of its teaching upon the world in effecting a change of character. (12) Its adaptation to human n e e d - all classes and conditions of peo ple. (13) The miracle of literature; so few errors in transcribing. (14) It has stood the test of ages. The Bible Needs No Defense When Bishop Watson published his “Apology for the Bible” King George remarked that “He did not know it wanted any apology.” It is the King’s best copy, the LESSON magistrate’s best ILLUSTRATIONS rule, the house- W. H. Pike wife’s best guide, the servant’s best directory, and the young man’s best companion. Dr. A. J. Gordon used to say, “You would not put up a sign on a cage which read, ‘This is a lion.’ Just open the door of the cage and everyone believes it Is a lion. The Bible is not given to us to defend, but to be proclaimed.” The Bible More Precious Than Gold “In the Dresden gallery of royal gems there is a silver egg; touch a spring and it opens, disclosing a golden chick en; touch the chicken and it opens, disclosing a crown studden with gems; touch the crown and it opens, disclosing a magnificent diamond ring. So it is with the Bible; as we study it, we touch successive springs, disclosing exhaust less treasures. G. D. Boardman. “There is gold in the rocks which fringe the Pass of the Splugen, gold even in the stones which mend the
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