from the presses in more than a thou sand different tongues; rather it is the choicest treasury of literature human ity has known. The Book over which Luther toiled is the genius of the speech of the cultured German. The King James version imparts the simplicity and rhythm from which all. polished English speech takes time. Many a savage tribe never possessed a written language until missionaries enshrined their spoken forms within the divine Word. Statesmen and orators quote it. Lin coln used it to nail political ideas firm ly in the flexible minds of his country men. A quotation from the book of Proverbs: “Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar with a pestle, yet will his folly not depart from him,” turned the ears and eyes of the nation upon one of our elder statesmen only a few decades ago. What a luminous volume it is! It begins with a vision of God; it ends with a vision of God. It begins with light that is bom of Light. It ends in a blaze of celestial radiance. It begins with a God who glorifies, woos and sustains man; it ends on the same high theme. It begins with a watered gar den. It ends amid the sound of many waters nourishing the roots of the tree of life. From cover to cover it abounds in Life — God’s life and man’s — abundant life, in multitudinous hues, surpassing the brilliant hues of a Pales tinian sunrise when the light which rules the day rushes up out of the eastern desert. What a Book it is! Libraries have been written to unfold its exact inner meanings. Ancient libraries, m a n y dusty shelves and rubbish heaps have been searched — with more diligence than men ever used to capture hidden treasure — that-a new version of this supreme Light should again illumine the world. In a hundred excavations the spades still delve, in the hope that an original parchment may be brought forth. A common soldier found the keystone to the obelisks. The Bible provides us with a deeper philosophy than Plato’s; with search
The Bible (cehtinued) volume has gone forth. Generations of children began their earliest studies of their written mother-speech with the repetition of the names of the heroes and of the precepts recorded in this character-moulding Word. St. Luke, St, John, St. Mark, St. Matthew, St. Paul A little bird am I Shut in from the fields of air; And in my cage I sit and sing • To Him who placed me there: Well pleased a prisoner to be. Because, my God, it pleases thee. Nought have I else to do; I sing the whole day long; And He whom most I love to please, Doth listen to my song; He saught and bound my wandering wing. But still He bends to hear me sing. Thou hast an ear to hear; A heart to love and bless; And, though my notes were e'er so rude, Thou wouldst not hear the less; Because Thou knowest, as they fall. That love, sweet love, inspires them all. M y cage confines me round; Abroad I cannot fly; But though my wing is closely bound, M y heart's at liberty. M y prison walls.cannot control The flight, the freedom of the soul. Oh! It is good to soar These bolts and bars above, To Him whose purpose I adore, Whose providence I love. And in thy mighty will to find The joy, the freedom of the mind. — Madame Guyon — how many hospitals bear the names of their spiritual leaders to whose zeal all eleemosynary institutions owe vast debts. Truly, like the voice of Jehovah, the lines of this Light have circuited our planet. The Bible is not simply the world’s best seller among books, as it rolls FREEDOM IN CHRIST
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