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THE K I N G ’S BUS I NES S
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SIXTY" YEARS W ith the Bible—and a Critic! We received some time ago a letter from a man who said that he had formed his views of the Bible after carefully reading William Newton Clarke s book “ Sixty Years with the Bible” . From the title one would judge that the writer had prepared for the Bible student some real food for the soul. Sixty years as a Bible student, and a man ought to leave the world something worth while. But it depends upon whether one has spent the sixty years in trying to find discrepancies in ,the Bible and in endeav oring to fit its teacings to preconceived notions, or-—sixty years as a seeker for truth in the school of the Holy Spirit. Dr. Clarke became a liberalist of the liberalists. The friend who wrote us, by Dr. Clarke’s help, has made up his mind what he wants to believe, and opens^ his Bible to such portions as Dr. Clarke says are fairly reliable when spiritualized. Our friend tells us he now has the only belief that is satisfying to a really intellectual man, which is a gentle way of informing us that all who do not take Dr. Clarké’s position are either putty-heads or Rip Van Winkles. But is it a fact that there is a shortage of scholarship on the side of the Bible? We might give the rest of this magazine to a list of recognized scholars who stand on the side of orthodoxy, and there are many of them who have spent sixty years with the Bible, and the more minutely they have studied it, the more confirmed they have been in the belief that it is a divinely inspired revelation. The dean of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles has not missed a day in forty-one years in which he has not read the Bible both in the original languages and the English. He is a graduate of several of the biggest colleges in America and Europe. He has written scores of books on Biblical subjects, which books are printed in twenty-six, languages and read by many intellectual students the world around. There is scarcely a big college in which he has not lectured on Biblical subjects, and he numbers many college professors among those who have through his teaching acknowledged Jesus Christ as Son of God and personal Saviour. As a scholar and Bible student, he has a world, reputation that William Newton Clarke with his sixty years did not have. . But Tegarding Dr. Clarke’s book, our attention has been called to an article in a Chicago University publication. The party who sends us this periodical is a former student of that seminary and says that the paper has been sent to him gratis for fifteen years. “ It has grown more infidelic,” he says, “ until they are now outspoken against the Bible and their profes sors surpass Tom Paine and Bob Ingersoll in their powers for sowing evil.” Under a head “ Religious Reading for the Home” this periodical advises all to carefully read “ Sixty Years with the Bible” by William Newton Clarke. “This hook” (says th e m agazine). “ brings¿¿into th e foreground th e necessity for intellectual insight in dealing ;w ith ¿the ¿Bible* : ;While th e average read er is no t so fam iliar w ith th e intricacies^df th è process;of .intellectual criticism of the Bible, it is an incredible relief to him to know th a t scholars who have such knowl edge have long since abandoned so un ten ab le a theory as th e verbal inspiration of th e Scriptures. The Bible was originally a hum an book and has passed through many processes which rend er it frequently inaccurate. Dr. C larke’s book h a s an im po rtan t message to th e C h ristian of today. I t shows th a t we should have a sense of freedom tow ard doctrine, even to th e point of differing from th e doctrine held by th e New Testam ent w riters. (In th is they agree perfectly w ith Russellism.
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