THE BIBLE / b C onsider the B ible ! It is the richest written heritage of humanity. Orig inally spoken and written in Hebrew and Aramaic, preserved afresh in the Greek and Latin tongues, this Book speaks to us in our mother tongue. Lord Macaulay said of our English Bible, “It is a Book which, if every thing else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.” The source of this Book resides in God, whose mind fashions, and whose eye beholds all things and us. Out of the secret core of the Divine Spirit this inspired volume marched forth across the continents. Moving down the cen turies, and adding wisdom and majesty as it moved, it has illumined all lesser wisdoms with a divine “Sun that one and all of them enkindled.” Little should .we wonder, as we understand the source of the Scriptures, that multi tudes have exclaimed, and still declare, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” Three hundred years ago, George Herbert called it “the book of books, the storehouse and magazine of life andr comfort.” Over three centuries ago Sir Francis Bacon, one of the supreme minds of all time, was not ashamed to advise his fellows to “study the Scrip tures.” “Search the Scriptures,” like wise, said John Seldon in the same age, for this counsel has “undone the world.” Abraham Lincoln praised this vol ume in these words, “It seems to me that nothing short of infinite wisdom could by any possibility have devised and given to man this excellent and perfect moral code. It is suited to men in all conditions of life, and includes all the duties they owe to their crea tor, to themselves, and to their fellow- man.” William Lyon Phelps, long ago, asserted concerning it, “everyone who has a thorough knowledge of the Bible may truly be called educated; and no other learning or culture, no matter how extensive or elegant, can, among
Dr. Lloyd, T . Anderson Europeans and Americans, form a proper substitute.” Under the inspiration of the Bible a torrent of masterpieces in all the arts has rushed down the Christian cen turies to bless and beautify the intellec tual and emotional life of the race. Thus we are uplifted by the “Magnifi cat,” the “Stabat Mater,” the “Te Deum Laudamus,” thrilled by the ma jesties of the “Messiah” and “Elijah,” awed by the glory which speaks from the technical proficiency of Fra Angeli co, the Madonnas of 'Raphael, the mar bles of Michalangelo. A thousand can vasses and walls bear witness to the power of this Word which has imparted increasing light to men through crowd ed millennia. Because of the urge of this Book, students dig upon ancient sites to justi fy its history and resurrect the past of which it speaksj scientists seek, look, listen and labor with unending pa tience to discover the intricacies of truth in the created universe. While- some have delved beneath the ground other men have built above it, because this Book’s heroes and precepts have stirred their hearts. Therefore we possess- the marvelous domes of Sancta Sophia, Florence, St. Paul’s, London; the golden walls and polychromes of St. Mark’s, Venice; the forests of statues which embellish the pinnacles of the Daomo at Milan. These, and unnum bered other architectural gems, both massive and small, stand forth as monuments to the impact of this Book upon creative minds. Under the influence of the Bible thè free mind and the spirit of charity have gone out unto the ends of the earth. Witness t h e universities, colleges^ schools, ancient and modem, that have arisen to enlighten humanity upon every continent. Witness the hospitals and social charities it has evoked. From Bologna to Oxford, Harvard, and on through the long list of their scholastic successors, the light kindled by this (continued on next page) 27
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