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YALE
DIVINITY SCHOOL
LIBRARY

Gift of
Professor Greorge Dahl

DAAin O. MEARS

THE DEATHLESS BOOK

BY
DAVID O MEARS DD

" To the Bible men will return; and why ? Because they
cannot do without it." — Matthew Arnold.
** This book .... has been the accepted guide of the
moral intelligence of Europe for some fifteen hundred years."
— John Ruskin.
"Take away the Bible, and our warfare with oppression,
and infidelity, and intemperance, and impurity and crime,
is at an end; our weapons are wrested away — our founda
tion is removed — we have no authority to speak, and no
courage to act." — William Lloyd Garrison.

A MEMORIAL EDITION

THE PILGRIM PRESS
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO
1916

Copyright, 1888,
BY
D. LoTHROp Company.

THE PILGRIM PRESS
BOSTON

TO MT WIFE
MARY GRINNELL MEARS
THE LOVING MAKER OF MT HOME
AND TIEELESS HELPMEET IN ALL LABORS FOE
THE MASTER
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED

PREFATORY.

The history of the Bible is involved in that of Civ
ilization. It is impossible to treat the one independent
of the other. These lectures are an essay to bring
within an easy compass to thoughtful minds, the mar
velous power of the Book as literature, in giving shape
to human deeds and morals.
Much has been written upon the evidences of Chris
tianity, but this volume is concerned with the evidences
of the Book. The disposition to divide the Book into
two parts, and to throw one side or ignore the older
portion, has never been forgotten. Judging from the
testimonies of our most competent authorities, it will
be seen that no portion of its records is obsolete ; nor
can any portion be cast aside as fit only for the anti
quarian. The Old Testament is still a living book, inseparable
from the lives of men and nations. Back of all the
teachings of Christ, we must not forget Moses; David
demands our remembrance as does Paul ; the Law is
still a power, as is the Gospel.

vi PREFATORY.
Christianity is a subtle something more than mere
words; but the Book is something we handle. It pro
fesses the ability to do certain things ; does it do them ?
If it fails, it belies its assertions and is unworthy of
confidence. It remains to be seen that the book of
Genesis is no more obsolete than the Gospels ; and that
Deuteronomy is as worthy of attention as the constitu
tions of modern nations.
Whatever the so-called Higher Criticism has proved
or failed to prove, has formed no part of our purpose
to affirm or deny. Whatever the age of the Book, it
lives; and its life is a powerful witness of its real
worthiness. The close relations of the Book and Civilization are
manifest in two particulars : the elevating principles of
the volume are demanded in arresting the decay of
morals; and only as its principles are discovered and
adopted, does culture advance upon higher grounds.
These pages are to show that the whole Book — alike
its oldest and its latest portions — is a present inspira
tion. The witnesses to such a truth shall be cited.
When statesmen, historians, philosophers, and even
skeptics speak, the most skeptical must listen, and
ponder. Until the closing lecture, which contains certain
deductions from the facts and statements of the pre
ceding pages, we have treated the Book mainly as a
literary production. It has been handled as a Book

PREFATORY. vil
among books. Viewed in such a light, it needs no
apology. We have purposely quoted many authorities
that are beyond all danger of being classed as bibli-
olatrists. Matthew Arnold is less biased in reference
to the Book and its dogmas than Canon Farrar ; Theo
dore Parker than President Edwards; Goethe than
Luthardt ; Thomas Jefferson than President Dwight.
While each lecture is designed to be measurably
complete in itself, it is also true that each lecture forms
only a portion of the main argument of the volume.
From the vast range of testimonies, we have referred
to experts in the line of the subject-matter treated, in
order to present evidence more full and convincing.
The Book compels, as it has always compelled, the
homage of the world's greatest minds.
We must not be held to assume that this essay does
any more than to open up the themes that will repay
the most extended research. The Book that has made
the history of civilized nations what they have become,
will not find its full history written, even in the largest
libraries the world possesses. This one volume upon
the Deathless Book represents truths and facts that
are scattered over thousands upon thousands of pages
in literature. A multitude of witnesses are back of
these lectures sustaining every point that has been
made. Through courtesy to the publishers' expressed wishes,
the pages are not burdened with references to the exact

viii PREFATORY.
places in which every quoted reference can be immedi
ately verified. Moreover, in this introduction it would
be invidious to single out a few of the many hundreds
of works that have been carefully examined, in order
to give a fair estimate of the world's judgment upon
the World's Book.
Our obligations are specially due for privileges
gi'anted in the Astor, Lenox and Bible Society Libra
ries of New York; the Athenaeum, the Public, the
Theological Libraries of Boston ; the Antiquarian and
Free Public Libraries of Worcester.
These lectures are designed as a personal help to
parents, pastors and teachers, while at the same time
they shall impress upon the young the marvelous
power of the one Book whose reading they can not
afford to neglect. A conscious purpose has been
reflected upon these pages, to allow the Book of books
to hold the place it has held for these thousands of
years in making history.
The key to the main line of the argument will be
found in the first half of the sixth lecture, in which the
possible and historic relations of the Hebrews and their
Book are viewed in the light of other nations.
A somewhat full table of contents has been prepared,
in which the course of thought in the lectures can the
more quickly be apprehended.
Whatever this volume shall be to others, its prepara^
tion has been a personal inspiration. Aside from the

PREFATORY. ix
fascination of the varied themes, there has been the
added strength arising from the testimonies of believers
and skeptics also, as to the morality, sublimity, and
matchless power of the one Book that may call the
world, in all ages, its owner ; since the world's opposi
tions, criticisms, and false statements of truths have
not robbed it of even its shortest verse. More than
this, it is the World's Book because of what it has
done ; and because it still keeps on doing that for
which it has been sent — deathless like the Mind whose
thoughts it records.
These lectures, written under all the pressure of an
active city pastorate, may yet, even under such disad
vantages, have gained some suggestions from what the
multitudes are thinking ; suggestions that might not
have entered the solitude of the scholar undisturbed by
the intense activities of the average life. The direct
form of address in which these lectures were given to
the audiences gathered to hear them, is preserved for
their readers in this book.
What Haydn wrote as the preface to all the works
of his art, is adopted as the motto of this volume upon
" The Deathless Book": "In Nomine Domini."— In
the name of God. Whatever the imperfections of this
book, these words are true of the motive that sends it
forth from my study into every home that shall give
it a place.
Worcester, Mass., Feb. 1, 1888,

CONTENTS.

THE WORLD'S BOOK.
Mobtaijty of books. Value of books how determined.
Average life of books. Emerson's " Great voices of
Time." Books great like battles. Growth of knowl
edge and death of books. "Law of survival of
the fittest." Copyright of 1772 in House of Lords.
Testimony of Charles Knight. Old school books
rare. Nearest approach to immortality in the poets.
Emerson's " Old and famed books " . . . 1-7
Standard Literature of the past. Professor Phelps
quoted. Seven hundred thousand volumes in Impe
rial Library of Paris out of 'print. Five thousand
" Select Works" in all literature. " Book Hunter"
quoted ; also Hallam. Living book, what? Loss of
books ; the Classics. Library of Eameses i. lost.
Alexandrian Library destroyed. Writings of Moses,
David, Solomon, etc. still Intact .... 7-11
Genesis, oldest extant literature. Suggests "Golden
Age." Antiquity of Book compared with Vedas,
Classics, etc. Professor Phelps on " Age of lyric
Hebrew poetry." Max Mtiller; history of man is
history of religion. Power of Psalms over the Clas
sics. Brief characterizations of the Book by Taine,
Ruskin, Carlyle, Renan, Whitney, Mill, Burke,
Theodore Parker  11-18
xi

xii CONTENTS.
Judaism, Christianity and Islainism rest upon a book.
De Quincey and Max Muller quoted. Preservation
of Bible a marvel. Read in two hundred and fifty
languages. Gov. Bullock quoted . . . 19-20
Book has survived three great dangers : (1) Negligence
of friends. Antlochus iv, the Madman. Diocle
tian's edict. Text more pure than that of Shake
speare. "Book Hunter" quoted. (2) False doc
trines. Assumptions of Slavery and Intemperance.
Wish of Erasmus and prediction of Tyndale. (3) ¦
Enmity of foes. Voltaire's boast. Gibbon's fail
ure. Hume's prophecy. Chesterfield's parlor. Coun
cil of Constance and Wickliflfe. Attempted destruc
tion the occasion of its preservation . . . 21-24
Antiquity of MSS. of New Testament compared with
the Classics. First book printed with cut metal
types. Hallam's statement. Most profitable for
publishers  25-26
SiK William Jones on its character. Verified in his
tory, philosophy and religion. Compared with old
est "remains "of nations. History of Jews only
oasis in Asiatic history ; Max Miiller quoted. Book
has survived the funerals of nations. The World's
Book  26-28

II,
THE BOOK OP CIVILIZATION.
Death of nations. Destruction from within. National
degeneration from national vices. Grandeur of an
cient peoples did not save them. Degeneration
of races, universal tendency. From savage state
to civilized ; or the opposite, which? Most degraded
nations have become civilized; e.g. the English.
Savages have never civilized themselves. General
belief in a lost " Golden Age." . . . 29-33

CONTENTS. xili
Asiatic culture and renown, lost. Baldwin's Prehistoric
Nations quoted. Max Muller ; remnants of beauty
in most degraded jargons. Lost splendors of Nine
veh, Troy, Peru. Professor Bowen's testimony.
Civilization, resultant from contact with outside
higher ideal. Merivale; Religion and Civilization.
Character partly dependent upon environment.
Buckle, Mill, Froude, in evidence . . . 83-39
BrBUCAL doctrine of Man. National standard marked
by its religion. Bible and England's greatness.
Matthew Arnold's testimony. M. Taine; England
and its Book. Professor Huxley; The Book and
English History  39-43
Two books : Nature and the Bible. Socrates and Plu
tarch. Zend Avesta, Buddhism, empty. Clarke's
" Ten Great Religions " quoted. Fundamental doc
trines of the Bible. Most human book. Firty-flrst
Psalm, power over the race. Destructive criticism
powerless. Universal Book. Goethe upon Nature.
Book meets degeneration by principles of regenera
tion  43-51
I. Test of Bible's power in the individual. Doctrines
adapted to all conditions. No argument against, that
all do not accept it. Cannibals become saints. No
permanent good without it. John Locke, on Script
ures. Paul, Bunyan, Newton. Bible and right
eousness; Matthew Arnold quoted. Ibid; Men
cannot do without the Bible. Franklin to Thomas
Paine. Doctor Johnson upon David Hume . 51-56
II. Added power Bible gives man. Great deeds from
great motives. Abraham and Christ ; man's field the
world. Bible teaches Duty. Biblical conception of
"immortality" essential to real power. Professor
Bowen; Bible and history. Carlyle and Voltaire.
Draper upon Book in human progress. Max Mtiller ;
Book a weapon. Pilgrims and Puritans, armed
agents of the Bible. Cromwell's hosts and the
Book  56-61

xiv CONTENTS. IIL
THE RADICAL BOOK.
Bible, revolutionary. Truths recorded outside the
Bible. Confucius, Socrates, Cicero, Plato. Bible
only sacred book of symmetrical truths. Confuci
anism vs. Christianity  62-63
Relation of the Book to human actions in three partic
ulars : First ; Relation of individual to the Race.
Two fundamental doctrines of Christ. Paul's doct
rine of human brotherhood ; bigotry slavery, social
distinctions ignored. Democracy and teachings of
Jesus  64-65
Secondly : Obligations of service. Where Greece and
Rome failed. Humanity, humility, and love un
known in Greece and Rome .... 65-66
Thirdly : Heroism in duty. The ideal measures the
heroism. Carlyle ; as to heroes. Martyrs because
of truth, not error. Heathenism has no martyrs.
Lecky upon Christianity and heroism. . . 66-68
Effect of Book on human well-being. 1. The Book
and sacredness of life. Character known by value
it sets upon life. War and principle. Capital punish
ment. Ancient customs. The Inquisition . 68-71
Lite sacred. Bible alone teaches the right of every
man to his own life. Universal ancient belief in
ownership of child's life by the father. Sacrifice of
Isaac, how related to such a belief. Jewish people
alone with their Book  71-73
Book against all other writings, ancient or classic ; as
to; (a) Infanticide. Customsof other nations. King
David's lament possible in no other nation. Cruel
laws of Lycurgus ; Plutarch quoted. Teachings of
Aristotle, Plato, Seneca, Cicero. Revolution in
Christ's call to the children. Principle one of slow
growth. Lecky ; the secret of such a revolution 73-77
Qb) 6LADiAT0iii.lL Shows. Morals and amusements.

CONTENTS. XV
Roman apologists for bloody shows. Pastimes of
Nero, Claudius, Caligula. Victories of Trajan and
Titus. The last arena and the monk Telema-
chus  77-79
II. The Book in its mission to the weak and infirm.
Sympathy, chief revelation of real greatness. No
sympathy in ethics of Aristotle and Plato. Pagan
liberality self-seeking ; Chistian charity self-denying.
Christ came to "a world without love." Early
Christian care of the sick and poor; the Agapse.
Ambrose upon the charity of the Church. Chari
table institutions absolutely unknown in Greece and
Rome. Hospitals established by Church for sick,
insane and blind. Theodore Parker ; what Bible has
done for mankind. Pillars of Civilization. . 80-85
GiRARD and the Bible. Jefiferson's estimate of morality
as taught by Jesus. Goethe upon the Gospels and
the person of Jesus. Lecky upon the " three short
years of Jesus." Mill; Gospels anticipating even
the latest philosophy. Fichte ; Gospels contain pro-
foundest and loftiest wisdom, etc. Opinions of
Webster, Seward, Newton, Scott, Bowen; philos
ophy of despair  86-89
Macaulay's description of power of Athens upon the
world. The Book against Grecian history. The
power of Rome. The supremacy of Christ , 89-91
IV.
THE BOOK OP LIBEKTT.
Two master ideas in beneficent history ; God and Lib
erty. Influence of Book on Slavery ; Elevation of
woman ; Dignity of labor. Liberty ; Man's normal
state  91
Book and Slavery. Slavery in Egypt, Greece, Rome.
Slavery, the central fact of ancient c i vilization. Plu
tarch; cruelties of slavery. Hebrew servitude.

xvi CONTENTS.
World's best men sometimes imprisoned. Liberty
from within. Liberty, central fact of Christianity.
Jews and Liberty. Jews prove the spirit of Freedom
in the Old Testament. Christianity surpasses Judaism
by giving freedom to others. The slave a brother.
Lecky ; Church reorganized society . . . 92-98
Book and Woman's Elevation. Degradation of woman
outside Christianity. Woman in classic age. He
brew womanhood. Chivalry possible only in a
Christian Society. Woman and freedom; Abigail
Adams and Declaration of Independence; Mrs.
Stowe and slavery; Harriet Newell and Missions;
Ramona. Caleb Gushing; upon Christianity and
Woman. John Adams; Manners of women and
morals of nation  99-103
Book and Dignity of Labor. Labor degraded in Greece
and Rome. Christ chose laboring men for disciples.
Paul a workingman.  103-104
Three steps in all progress; The "Idea" and public
opinion. Idea must precede legal enactment. Ex
amples ; Sumpter ; Emancipation ; Resistance to tyr
anny  104-105
Gospel doctrines and methods against tyranny. All des
potism self-imposed. Usurpations of priesthood.
Bible protests against kingship. Republicanism,
the going back to Biblical principles. English law
and the King. Chataubriand ; election of rulers by
the ruled. Jethro and New England Town Meeting.
All laws of civilized nations, outgrowth of the Ten
Commandments  105-108
American Congress of 1777, and importation of Bibles.
Tocqueville; "none but religious people can bear
liberty." Great Jurists and Bible Society. John
Adams to Thomas Jefiferson. Everett on Bible
and spelling book. Opinions of Webster and
Winthrop  . . 108-110
Tocqueville; American Society and Religion. Book
of every American settlement ; Revolutionary Book.

CONTENTS. xvli
Hume; Puritanism and England's liberty. John
Wise and democracy. Mayhew to James Otis ; Fed
eration of States from Communion of Churches.
Church gave Jefiferson his idea of National govern
ment. The " Body of Liberties " built on the Bible.
Bibles in army under flag of truce in 1864. Garri
son ; Bible foundation of all freedom. Franklin in
Congress of 1787 upon prayer. . . . 110-114
Papacy and Protestantism in their use of the Book.
History of Book is history of freedom. Magna
Charta ; then Wickliflfe's translation. Great inven
tions spreading the truth  114-116
Luther's version and Germany. Scotland and the Book.
John Knox. John Calvin and Geneva; legislation
based upon that of Moses. Buckle upon Calviuism.
Secret of Calvinism. Bancroft quoted; Calvinism
and American Liberty. Webster; Bible and na
tional progress. Professor Bowen; Civilization
without Christianity, "big with the elements of its
own destruction"  116-120

V.
THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
Society outward proof of what men desire. Creation
of new wants, and increase of activities. In 1883,
no railroad in China. Ox-yoke belongs to Christian
civilization. Civilization a relative term. Chris
tianity constantly creating new wants. Christianity
seeks to elevate civilization .... 121-125
Does civilization civilize? Two attempted methods;
by Colonies and Commerce. No instance of colonies
except for selfish purposes. British Government
and Chippewa Indians. Commerce never philan
thropic. Civilization has " Indian Rings"; Chris
tianity its " Indian missions." President Seelye;

xviii CONTENTS.
no moral improvement from mere commerce. The
religious spirit followed by the commercial spirit.
Bible creates self-respect as basis of true worthi
ness. Biblical conception of Man shown in its
teachings and in Redemption. Growth of Man's
ideal proven in corresponding surroundings. Gos
pel in house paint, gardens, art, commerce . 125-130
The Book and Commerce in personal refinement.
"New Robe," "Wedding Garment," "White Rai
ment," etc. emblematic. Serfdom and wearing of
hats. Religion impels men " to appear decent."
Samoan Islands. Earth reflects character of its
owners. Thistles and sin. "Journal of the So
ciety of Arts" on Zulu converts. Gospel truth
awakens mind. Testimony of Rev. Henry Marden.
Christianity and Manufactures. Hawaiian Islands ;
exports and imports compared with cost of their
Christianization. Cost of missions and financial re
sults. Missions an appendix to New Testament.
Bible i^eede(J to supplant " sacred books" of heath
enism. President Angell's testimony. Reflexive
influence of the Bible  130-137
Biblical conception of Immortality in its relations to
Inventions and Labor. Immortality and Man's self-
conscious supremacy. Labor honorable. Machin
ery relieves drudgery. Using the silent forces of
nature, a duty. Historically, the great inventions
belong to Christian civilization. Two hundred and
fifty thousand inventions in use in this Nation.
Best inventions closest to nature . . . 137-140
Bible and industrial arts. Bible the great book of
nature. Progress revealed in a match, a sewing
machine, a loom. Labor-saving power in our Re
public. Historic relation of the Church to labor.
Monks as leaders in civilization ; inventions for the
cathedrals  141-144
Field for Religion as well as Cdmmerce is the world.
Self -sacrifice in religion ; self-interest in commerce.
Self-interest as motive power does not reform. 145-146

CONTENTS. xtx
(a) Religion gives knowledge of geography. Proven
in China, Africa and Eastern Nations. Testimonies
of Professors Silliman and, Peabody; Carl Ritter,
Agassiz  146-148
(b)RELiGiON formulates languages which Commerce
uses. Missionary, the pioneer of the merchant.
Testimony of Sir Rivers Thompson. Eliot, Carey,
Morrison, Livingstone, Coan, imperishable names.
R. N. Cust, Esq., upon missionaries as highest type
of human excellence. Godliness "profitable for
the life that now is "  148-151

VL
THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
"The Constitution" in Choate's Greek Testament.
Winthrop ; all legislation beginning at Sinai. The
Book that gives liberty contains principles to keep
it. The connections between Moses' laws and mod
ern codes. Laws of Moses in advance of their
times. Designed for all nations but not to be ver
bally copied  152-155
Modern civilization concerned with three great peoples :
Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Mosaic code alone has
reached us entire. Power of Moses. Three steps
between Mosaic and English laws . . . 155-156
I. Influence of Hebrew upon Grecian thought. He
brews not isolated people. Palestine; gateway
of three continents. Connected with other peoples
politically and commercially. Books of Moses
translated into Greek more than two centuries
B. c. Aristotle acquainted with teachings of
Moses. Clement of Alexandria upon obligations
of Plato to Moses. Fragments of Aristobulus quoted
by Eusebius asserts the same. Philo upon Greek
philosophers and Moses. Mention of Moses by
classic writers. Professor Haven on germs of the

XX CONTENTS.
Platonic philosophy in the Septuagint. Anaxagoras
(5th century b. c.) and the Old Testament . 156-161
Authorities : Grotius (a. d. 17th century) attributes
Grecian and Roman laws to Moses. Sir Matthew
Hale ; Resemblance of Grecian laws of ' ' Descent "
to those of Moses. Schlegel in his "History of Lit
erature" upon the Mosaic laws as well-head of
truth . .  161-163
II. Influence of Grecian laws upon the Roman.
Cicero says the "Twelve Tables" were borrowed
from the Grecian laws. Gibbon ; Laws of Solon in
corporated into the ' ' Twelve Tables." Ibid ; Resem
blance of Tenth Table to laws of Moses and
Solon  163-164
III. Relation of Roman code to our Common law.
Roman law a marvel of power. Christianity and
the Roman Law. Three codifications : Gregorian,
Hermogenian, Theodosian. Justinian's "Digest"
in A. d. 533. Hunter in introduction to Roman Law
discerns Mosaic principles. Christian influence
recognized in code of Justinian. Professor Pea-
body's proof of influence of Christian ethics upon
Roman Law  164-168
Laws of Moses and modern progress. Burke ; Alfred's
laws are the Decalogue transcribed. Michaelis
quoted. Blackstone upon necessity for a revealed
law. Kent upon Christianity in law. Dean Milman
upon influence of the Hebrew Lawgiver. Jurists
quoted as to the influence of Christianity upon the
Common Law. Sir Matthew Hale, Blackstone,
Campbell, Legare, Webster. President Anderson
on same subject before the American Social Science
Association  169-172
Laws of Sinai contain right ethics. All crimes covered
by Moses' statutes. Severe penalties necessary for
their times. The great principles in the Mosaic
code; unity of God and unity of his people.
Laws against idolatry. Distinctive general princi
ples  172-176

CONTENTS. xxi
First : human rights ; righteousness. Second : Freedom
from bondage. No liberty without law. How dif
fering from that of Greece. Third : Political equal
ity. No privileged class. Vast landed estates
impossible. Agrarian law. Michaelis (Commen
taries) on their democracy. Fourth : Government
rests on consent of the people. People ratified the
law. Fifth : Choice of rulers by the people. Ex
amples. Sixth : Limitations put upon rulers for the
people's protection  176-178
Precautions for justice. Peaceful pursuits. System
of education. Coroner's inquest. Courts of jus
tice  178-180
The Government (a) Eveiy city had its own government.
(b) Each tribe had its own representative assembly ;
likewise its own judge, (c) National assembly for
representatives of all the tribes . . . 180-181
Jefferson's theory of democracy based upon that of
Moses. Nullification in tribe of Benjamin ; and the
consequent rebellion. Restoration to the Union 181-182
Early Connecticut governed by laws of Moses. Doctor
Peabody upon humanity of ancient fugitive slave-
law compared with those more recent. Poor-laws
superior to all since. Moses first great Puritan;
law-giver of the world ; wiser than Solon ; predeces
sor of Blackstone  182-184
VII.
THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
Hostility of Koran to learning shown in destruction of
Alexandrian Library by Omar. Deathless Book fos
ters learning. Under its influence books are multi
plied. Power of truth. Growth of public opinion ;
examples  185-189
Thought begets thought. Remarkable influence of
quaint book, " The Bruised Reed." Thoughts colo-

xxU CONTENTS.
nize. Royalty and literature. Books that have
made men. Bible, book of greatest thoughts. Rel
ative weakness of classic and Pagan literature.
Winthrop ; " single verses" superior to all else ever
written. Principal Shairp quoted. Everett : Bible
preserving the languages of Greece and Rome.
Coleridge on study of the Bible. Professor Marsh
on Tyndale's New Testament. The Book saved the
classics in the Reformation. Peabody; Bible and
purest English. Scriptures, source of the Baco
nian philosophy. Sir Isaac Newton ; Scriptures the
sublimest philosophy. Skepticism baffled by the
first chapter of Genesis. Great Bible thoughts.
Luthardt; " Bible, a universe of mind " . 189-200
Infidelity has never founded a college. Sound learn
ing essential to religion. Christianity and schools.
Burke ; progress of religion marked by that of let
ters. Learning and morals. Hobbes; Voltaire;
Hume ; Thomas Paine  200-203
Why the ' ' Dark Ages " ? Ecclesiastical period. Church
prohibited Bible to the people. Edict of Council of
Toulouse. Revival of learning contemporary with
Reformation. Devout scholars in "Dark Ages."
Hierarchy bent the Book to its will. Galileo.
Scholarship cramped. Scholasticism and Aristotle.
' ' The Will " declared superior to intellect. Hallam's
conclusion  204-209
Lord Bacon. Descartes and Modern Philosophy.
Macaulay quoted. Schwegler on progress of
thought. Bible text book of Reformation. Wick
liflfe and Erasmus. " Religion and Culture " . 209-213
First : Free schools and Biblical spirit. Democracy of
education. Culture works upward. . . 214-215
Second : The Christian Pulpits. Clergymen as found
ers of states and schools. Yearly sermonic lit
erature. Whitefield's power. John Owen and his
famous pupils. Indebtedness of literature and
statesmanship to the clergy .... 215-218

[CONTENTS. xxiii
VIII.
THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
Prescott's dying wish. Germany's homage to Neander.
Carlyle; deeds vestures of thoughts. Infidelity
borrows its themes from the Book. Laws of Lit
erature  219-223
First : the beginnings of modern literature are biblical.
Founders: Csedmon,monk of Whitby; Bede, monk
of Jarrow; Alcuin, monk of York. King Alfred,
parent of English prose. Chaucer's themes, sacred.
Wickliflfe's Bible, comer-stone of English thought
and life. Elizabethan age; Spenser, Shakespeare,
Milton. Addison and Steele called " Sermonists."
Great writers and immortality because of the truth.
Burke, on infidel writings unread. Lecky, upon
Freethinkers and despotism .... 223-227
Second: " Survival of the fittest " in literature. Books
nearest Bible, most valuable. Pilgrim's Progress
and imitation of Christ ; their remarkable influence.
Two tests; (1) Mustmeet all moods and conditions.
Bible faithful to human life. (2) Superiority over
present events and times. Sermon on the Mount.
Humboldt on the book of Job. Theodore Parker on
excellence of Hebrew hymns. Peabody on most
finished models in literature .... 227-233
Shakespeare and the Bible. Biblical characters drama
tized. Biographical and Doctrinal references.
"Most religious poet in the language" Walter
Scott and the Bible. Bible story and Scottish his
tory. References. Indebtedness of Poetry to the
Bible. Milton, Dante, Tasso. Literary models.
Webster and XXXIXth Psahn. Briggs; Penta
teuch, fountain of history. Longinus upon the
apostle Paul. Erasmus; Specimens of biblical
eloquence. Matchless letters of Paul . . 242-244

xxiv CONTENTS.
Testimony of scholars ; Dana, Herschel. Humboldt and
CIVth Psalm. Franklin and prayer of Habakkuk.
Dr. Johnson and Goethe upon the story of Ruth.
Bowen, Webster, Carlyle, on book of Job. Cole
ridge on Proverbs, the " Statesman's Manual."
Wordsworth, Guthrie, Everett, Professor Stuart,
Dean Stanley, upon the same. Fisher Ames and
Deuteronomy. Herder and Song of Solomon.
Peabody on Ecclesiastes. Jefferson and Gladstone
upon the Psalms  244-248
Oldesi- lyric poetry, the Song of Lamech. First
patriotic ode, the Song of Moses. Angelo, Byron,
Byrant, and others indebted to Scriptures. Ruskin's
style from the Bible. His confession as to CXIXth
Psalm. Literature's best guide . . . 243-251
IX.
THE BOOK AND ART.
Architecture a language. Paganism marked by hori
zontal lines ; Christianity by vertical. The Pointed
Arch. DiflTering faiths marked by diflferences of
art. Sermons in stones. Art expresses what man
originates. Grecian and Christian art contrasted.
Art must be true to Nature. Biblical symbolisms.
Bible true to Art. Ruskin ; paganism against nature.
Religion and .Vrt related .... 252-256
I. Architeotuke. Church architecture purer than the
domestic. Temples of all nations contain purer art
than palaces. Tabernacle, sacred architecture.
Temple of Solomon  256-258
First three Christian centuries, age of martyrdom, not
of Art. Christian architecture dates from a. d. 312.
Thirteenth century produced highest art. Symbolism
of Cathedrals. Bible and Gothic art. Ruskin; "St.
Mark's, the Book Temple." Christian and Moham
medan art. Renaissance, a product of Christian
intellect. The Guilds. Books of stone. . 258-262

CONTENTS. XXV
II. Painting. Art seeks its ideal. Painting for the
illiterate. Studios of mediaeval painters places of
worship. Giotto the founder of modern art in
painting. Dante and Giotto of same purpose.
Monks as artists. Biblical themes. Francesca.
Michael Angelo reverent like Pascal. Savonarola on
painters and painting. Madonna in art. Decline in
religion followed by debasement in art. Ruskin;
Raphael and the decline in art . . . 263-266
III. Music. No music in nature. Music an art. Bible,
the great inspirer of poetry and song. One third of
Old Testament is poetry. The Book almost a
Psalter. David, hymnist of the centuries. Historic
connections of the Psalms. Sublime Songs of New
Testament  266-270
The great Masters interpreting Bible themes by nature.
Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Haydn, Handel, Bach.
Book interpreted by suflTerings of composers. 270-274
The organ, a trophy of the Christian faith. No music
among the Greeks. Ambrose, originator of Modem
Music. Gregory the Great. Oratorio originated
in Rome. Reformation and Music. Opera. Sym
phony. Power of Music. Napoleon's army. Songs
of Moses, David, Solomom. Luther's forty-sixth
Psalm. Songs in Modern Church History . 274-280
Testimonies to the Psalter. Augustine on the hymns of
the Church. Songs of the dying. Music a universal
language. No permanent sectarian hymns. Hymn
of Bernard, Monk of Cluny. Thanksgiving in
Heaven and on earth  280-283
X.
THE BOOK OP GOD.
Silent forces, the gi-eatest. Summary of what the
Book has done. Truth of Bible proven in the law
of " Cause and Efifect." Authorship of Deathless
Book, judged as literature. Bolingbroke on Chris-

xxvi CONTENTS.
tianity. Matthew Arnold quoted. Lord Herbert
attempting to disprove a revelation . . 284-288
I. Clai.ms of the Book. Scriptural assertions. Ques
tion, Have men proven its claims false? . 288-290
FmsT : as to history. Book of life, not of law merely.
Biblical records proven tme. "The Lonely People
and their Lonely Book." Book unimpeached by
History. Secondly : as to Philosophy. Human theol
ogies inferior. Thirdly : as to Science. DeQuincey's
opinion. Order of Genesis followed in British
Museum and French Academy of Science. Herschel
and Dana quoted. Fourthly : as to Morals. James
Russell Lowell upon achievements of Christianity.
Impossibility of what is fraudulent accomplishing
for all time only what is good . . . 290-298
II. The claims of the Book of God are emphasized in
the Method and Conduct of the Writers. The Writ
ers. Their style. Hebrews not literary. Unity of
the whole Book. Character of writers seen in their
readiness to die for what they wrote. Book of
God unlike all other books .... 298-302
III. The claims of the Book of God are manifest in
the History of Christ. Christ and the Scriptures.
The Resurrection. Fulfillment of prophecy.
IV. The Book of God must deal with eternal things.
Unlike all other books in respect of these. Mode
and Degree of Inspiration not debated. Its trust
worthiness as to truths concerning eternity inferred
from its truths as to this life. The Princess Eliza
beth. Death of the venerable Bede after translating
the Gospel of St. John. The publisher, Thomas Nel
son, and his last chapter. Testimony of Wilber-
force. Sir Humphry Davy and " Scriptural Faith.''
John Jay and " The Book." Dying testimony of
Webster. Conclusion  303-316

THE DEATHLESS BOOK

I.

THE WORLD S BOOK.

Books, like men, are mortal. Great libraries
resemble cities : alcoves of the latest volumes are
thronged, like crowded streets, while those of
generations gone are silent as the sepulchres of
their writers' dust; visits to the one almost as
rare as to the other. The old catalogues are mon
umental inscriptions of departed glory. We speak
of the rule, not of the exceptions.
It is probable that not more than one per cent
of all literature is called worthy of being reprinted
five years after its issue. The average edition of
books issued in Great Britain is seven hundred
and fifty copies.
But what are these among the libraries, public
and private, demanding all that is valuable .¦• Dur
ing the discussion of the English statute of copy-

2 THE WORLD'S BOOK.
right it was stated that not more than one book in
every eight reaches the second edition. In a cer
tain sense it is the demand that marks the value
of a book, although such a demand may come
late, as in the works of Milton and of Shakes
peare. More than one critic has deemed some
now immortal gem of thought well-nigh worthless ;
as blind to its real value as was the original
owner of the since fam<n-.s Comstock lode, who sold
the mountain of gold for a pony and some whiskey.
The statement of that prince among publishers,
Charles Knight, will stand undisputed. "Nearly
all that is glorious and enduring in our literature,"
he says in " Shadows of the Old Booksellers," " has
been built upon the demands of the people."
By two tests, — the insufficiency of the numbers
of volumes to meet even the ordinary demands of
libraries, and the lack of a popular demand, —
the general value or worthlessness of books must
be determined, leaving a few exceptional cases.
A careful estimate has resulted in the following
well-authenticated statement : " out of every thou
sand volumes published, six hundred and fifty do
not see the end of their first year, one hundred
and fifty do not see the end of the third, and only
fifty survive seven years' publicity." This esti-

THE WORLD'S BOOK. 3
mate covers, of course, all publications, including
the most superficial.
There may be somewhat of a grim satisfaction
in the assurance that not all books demand our
study. Mr. Emerson, assuming one's ability, under
most favorable circumstances, to read for sixty
years, every day, from dawn till dark, in the Im
perial Library at Paris, convinced himself that the
reader would die in the first alcoves. It was
neither egotism nor travesty when, in comparison
with the rich Cambridge Library, the Concord
sage could say of his own : " I seldom go there
without renewing the conviction that the best of it
all is already within the four walls of my study at
home. . . . The crowds and centuries of books
are only commentary and elucidation, echoes and
weakeners of these few great voices of Time."
The biographies of books, if written, would doubt
less sustain the assertion of the quiet scholar.
There was a shadow of truth in De Quincey's
extravagant statement that every year buries its
own literature. Lest there may seem an under
valuation of what authors have written, we recall
the words of the essayist, Whipple, that " one may
be a maker of books, without being a maker of
thought."

4 THE WORLD'S BOOK.
That even the books of highest aims are sup
plemented by others is no logic against their power.
" A book," says Disraeli, " may be as great a thing
as a battle," but none the less must there come a
history after the battle, and that history must be
written., To a certain extent, however, as the
echoes of the battle shall roll over the pages, the
earlier records will be laid upon the shelf.
The later scientific treatises are sure to supplant
those of an earlier day. The progress of discovery
gives prominence to the latest thought in all ave
nues of scientific research. Without the earlier
treatises the later would have no existence ; but the
forms of the first are neglected while their con
tents make others rich. There is no disrespect to
Newton's memory when his great discoveries are
adopted by the whole modern world, and are so
well known that his "Principia" serves only as a
work for occasional reference. The value of the
book is not always to be measured by its life. No
man contributed more to the intellectualism of the
day than did John Calvin, yet this does not require
the yearly reproduction of his " Institutes." The
book, like the seed of spring time, may die because
it can do no more. The form of the seed may be
utterly forgotten in the great harvest.

THE WORLD'S BOOK. 5
To the incompleteness of all works of science,
must be added also the meagreness of history.
Alexander, vain in exploit, had wisdom to see that
in the distant future a single page would cover all
that the world might care to read concerning him.
Present events seem larger than they will a gen
eration hence. No generation can write its own
true history ; its volumes will be valuable for ref
erence, but for little besides. The standard works
come late, and these are covered by the law of the
" survival of the fittest."
For illustration of such a statement we have
only to refer to the act of Parliament protecting
the ten great universities and colleges of England,
Scotland and Ireland against the decision of the
House of Lords in 1772, as to copyright. It must
be remembered that some of these institutions were
publishers, holding for their own profits whatever
gains should accrue to the trade. These univer
sities and colleges applied for and obtained an act
" giving them a perpetual copyright of all books
belonging to them, or which might afterwards be
bequeathed to or acquired by them." Among the
valuable works of the English-speaking tongue
those of these chief literary centres could scarcely
have been called inferior ; but the results of all

e THE WORLD'S BOOK.
their care seem hardly a compensation for their
pains. "The only work in existence older than
the present century, claimed by any of the above
institutions, to which any value can be attached,
is Clarendon's History of the Rebellion with his
life and continuation."
In a postscript to the last of liis " Shilling Vol
umes " the publisher, Charles Knight, wrote : " I
have endeavored to produce a series of books which
comprehends something like the range of literature
which all well-educated persons desire to have at
their command." Of this series of works upon
important subjects and at a very low price, not
twenty volumes out of the one hundred and eighty-
six reached a circulation of ten thousand copies.
The works on divinity have been largely con
troversial during the past three centuries, and are
scarcely known, much less read. We may recall
the fact that millions of school books have been
placed in the hands of the young ; and yet single
copies out of all the millions of a generation ago
are hard to find. " Collectors," declares Mr. Bur
ton, " know well the extreme rarity and value of
ancient school books."
A nearer approach to immortality is attained by
the poets; yet many of these are seldom read.

THE WORLD'S BOOK. 7
Our librarians can count the rise and fall of au
thors by observing " the hydra of ephemeral ad
miration." " There is too much of truth in the his
tory of English as well as German literature," says
Mr. Ireland in the "Book Lover's Euchiridion,"
" in the statement that nine tenths of our current
literature has no other end but to inveigle a thaler
or two out of the public pocket." Did Emerson
rightly picture the multitudes of young adven
turers with pen in hand? "They produce their
performance to the wise ear of Time, who sits and
weighs and ten years hence out of a million of
pages prints one. Again it is judged, it is win
nowed by all the winds of opinion, and what ter
rific selection has not passed on it before it can
be reprinted after twenty years — and reprinted
after a century! — it is as if Minos and Rhada-
manthus had indorsed the writing. 'Tis therefore
an economy of time to read old and famed books."
While holding in mind the Deathless Book we
must not be deceived into thinking that what
ever is written must hve. The scholars and writ
ers among men have done their best, but the im
mense majority of their " remains " are lost.
It has been estimated that more than three
thousand years would be required in reading

8 THE WORLD'S BOOK.
through the " Standard Literature " of the past.
The application of this estimate has been thus
given : " If Homer had begun the labor at twenty
years of age," says Professor Phelps, " and read till
this time, he would still have had two hundred and
fifty years of it before him. If Plato had been set
to the task by the immortal gods of Greece, he
would not by tliis time have got beyond the discov
ery of America. Dante and Racine and Goethe
and Shakespeare would still be unknown to him ;
and Wordsworth and Bryant and Longfellow he
would never have heard of." The uncounted
majorities of books must be forgotten for lack of
time in the reading, but the oldest Book of all was
never so much read as now.
There are more than a million volumes in the
Imperial Library of Paris, gathered in since the
fourteenth century, yet of this immense catalogue
seven hundred thousand are out of print.
What is true of the catalogued volumes is more
than true of the great numbers that have found no
such resting place, and have, as a consequence,
passed out of existence forever.
" Among the popular notions passing current
as duly certified axioms," says Mr. Burton, " just
because they have never been questioned and ex-

THE WORLD'S BOOK. 9
amined, one is that since the age of printing, no
book once put to press has ever died. The notion
is quite inconsistent with fact. When we count
by hundreds of thousands the books that are in
the Paris Library, and not to be had for the Brit
ish Museum, we know the number of books which
a chance refuge has protected from the general
destruction, and can readily see, in shadowy bulk,
though we cannot estimate in numbers, the great
mass, which, having found no refuge, have disap
peared out of separate existence, and been mingled
up with the other elements of the earth's crust."
If to these volumes, more than a million in all,
are added all the volumes that crowd the alcoves
of other libraries, there seems almost a travesty in
the assertion of an expert, that out of the whole
published literature the collector may perhaps
gather together some five thousand volumes or so
of select works. In his " Book Hunter " Mr. Bur
ton asserts that, " If miscellaneous in his taste he
may get on pretty comfortably to ten thousand or
fifteen thousand and then his troubles will arise."
In his History of the Middle Ages Mr. Hallam
thus voices a saddening truth : " Our public libra
ries are cemeteries of departed reputation, and the
dust accumulating upon their untouched volumes

10 THE WORLD'S BOOK.
speaks as forcibly as the grass that waves over the
ruins of Babylon."
It is not necessary for the volume's form and
shape to be destroyed upon which men have writ
ten, before its value is gone. We term that a living
volume that calls to itself, by its own vitality, the
enthusiasm or the attention of men. The life may
be longer or shorter, but in so far it lives. If its
pages shall awaken neither attention nor opposi
tion the book is dead. The varying moods of men
mark the degree of its life.
We are to speak of the Deathless Book, classing
it with the volumes of the centuries to mark its
power. Scholars have never ceased to mourn the
loss of seventy per cent of Livy's Histories ; of
the eighty per cent of Tacitus and of Euripides ;
and of the yet larger proportion of .^schylus and
Sophocles; while against such a loss stands the
preservation of the books of the New Testament,
as early recorded in the canon. Yet farther back
than the literature of the Golden Age is seen the
triumph of the Book of books.
A fascination gathers about the libraries of
Egypt ; the inscription, " Dispensary of the Soul,"
over the library of Rameses I. ; the sacred books of
Thoth, forty-two in number, increased by works

THE WORLD'S BOOK. 11
of exposition and comment until more than thirty-
six thousand were found at the time of the Greek
invasion; but even their language is held under
debate, while the Hebrew records survive unhurt.
In vain we wonder what treasures were con
tained in the famous Alexandrian Library acci
dentally destroyed by Caesar's torch; their glory
went out with the flames. Mere fragments of all
the literary wealth of Greece and Rome have made
their way down the centuries, while the writings
of Solomon, and David, and Moses, prophets and
scribes, have held their steady place.
The book of Genesis antedates aU other litera
tures of the world. It contains the only authentic
history of the race before the Deluge. This single
book covers a period of more than two thousand
years of time. The beginnings of human history
are thrown upon a background in which the uni
verse was fashioned into being ; its worlds created
by the word of God ; its suns flung out in space
whose darkness had never been disturbed. Whole
firmaments were given shape ; the skies were
winged by multitudes, whose smallest sparrow
the great God has never forgotten; rolling seas
became water-worlds filled with creatures of life ;
while grass and herbs and trees of earth became thq

12 THE WORLD'S BOOK.
support and hiding places of beasts and creeping
things. Crown earth with its Paradise whose
sands were golden, whose dew was nectar, whose
air was loaded with perfumes, whose trees were of
knowledge and of life, but even Paradise, like the
universe, was incomplete and imperfect until there
walked its fields and valleys God's earthly image
— Man.
Call the narration what you will — allegory,
fiction or fact, — the story has been retold, though
with varying power, in the literature of Egypt
and PhcEnicia, China and Judea ; it has been the
" Golden Age " of Avhich the classic poets have
spoken: the dream of a Tasso and a Milton; the
theme of oratorio, undimmed by the centuries,
while its colors of gorgeous imagery have been
struck upon the canvas from the painter's brush.
The records of the oldest book, whose first chapter
is in perfect harmony with the latest scientific
research, have ruled the traditions of the ages :
the oldest book most full of life.
What is true of its earliest chapters is more
than confirmed as a whole. The origin of the
Egyptian race — that people of early culture and
learning — is found in the only historic document
extant, bearing upon the problem, the tenth chap-

THE WORLD'S BOOK. 13
ter of Genesis ; while it is of people mentioned in
that same chapter, that Homer sings as the wisest
and remotest of men.
" Moses," says Goguet, " is the only faithful guide
in the history of the first peopling of countries.
The tenth and eleventh chapters of Genesis diffuse
more light on that subject than all the writings of
profane historians, which, on this head, are nothing
but a heap of confusion, conjectures and contradic
tions." We shall observe at other times the yet
closer relation of the ancient records to modern
life and thought, — the Deathless Book a power
unspent through the centuries.
The oldest books of their respective nations are
all called " sacred," yet the Pentateuch was hoary
with the centuries before the rest were written.
The books of Moses, apart from Genesis, are held
to have preceded in time the earliest of the Vedas
by at least two or three centuries.
The Hebrew Moses, that king among men, as
cended the lonely Nebo to die, a thousand years
before Confucius saw the light. A lingering glory
gilds the name of Zoroaster, that teacher of a nation
whose Magi after their long journey, centuries
later, knelt before the lowly child whose day Abra
ham had seen with gladness; and yet Abraham

14 THE WORLD'S BOOK.
had antedated the Persian sage eight hundred
years. Buddhism seems almost of modern times
when we recall the slow flight of the fifteen cent
uries between Abraham and its founder. The laws
of Moses, whose precepts we shall at another time
trace through the laws of nations, were given
seven hundred years before those of Lycurgus to
the Spartans, and nearly a thousand years before
Solon gave his laws to Athens. It has been said
that history was born on that night when Moses
led Israel out from Egypt ; but Moses the historian
of that weary exodus lived eleven hundred years
before Herodotus " the father of history " laid the
world under obligations to his researches.
The sublimity of truth is sometimes emphasized
by the antiquity of its expression. The boasted
pens even of classic days seem sometimes almost
palsied before the ever-living works of the days
preceding them. To catch in richest diction the
comparison, we borrow another's words. "The
lyric poetry of the Hebrews," says Professor Phelps,
" was in its golden age nearly a thousand years
before the birth of Horace. Deborah sang a model
of a triumphal song full five hundred years before
Sappho was born. The author of Ecclesiastes dis
cussed the problem of evil five hundred years before

THE WORLD'S BOOK. 15
Socrates in the dialogues of Plato. The Epithala-
mium of the Canticles is nearly a thousand years
older than Ovid's ' Art of Love.' The Book of
Esther was a venerable fragment of biography,
more strange than fiction, at least twelve hundred
years old at the dawn of the romantic literature
of Europe. The Proverbs of Solomon are by eight
hundred years more ancient than the Treatises of
Seneca." " The Bible," says Luthardt, " is the most mag
nificent literary work existing in the world."
In one respect, however, between the classics
and the books of the Bible there can be no com
parison. The fascination in the one is found in
their style, while of all books the Bible is pre-em
inent in thought as well as style. The pen that
does not chronicle the inmost voices of the soul is
powerless. Max Miiller thus declares the same
great truth : " To my mind the great epochs in the
world's history are marked not by the foundation
or the destruction of empires, by the migration of
races, or by French revolutions. . . . The real
history of man is the history of religion. . . .
This is the foundation that underlies all profane
history ; it is the light, the soul and life of history ;
without it all history would indeed be profane."

16 THE WORLD'S BOOK.
That maj"- fascinate which can not build up.
Words and speculations of men may stir the im
agination, but nothing has power that does not stir
the soul to its lowest depths. We can almost feel
the sweep of Cicero's toga in his masterly orations.
The splendor of Caesar's power is blazoned upon
the dignified annals of Tacitus. We seem to
breathe the air of Mantua's marshes, and to hear
the lowing of cattle, and the bleating of sheep, in
Virgil's magic verse. The satirical invectives of
Juvenal against Rome's tyranny and crimes, come
from a higher sphere than Olympus. In the logi
cal steps of Thucydides, sounds the tramp of
Athenian hosts ; and the glitter of their armor
shines in the words of his yet unrivaled pen. The
shadow of the avenging Nemesis can never be
translated from the pages of Herodotus. Weight/
ier than pillars of bronze against the impending
downfall of Athens are the simple and majestic
words of the Philippics and the Oration on the
Crown. And yet as an incentive to heroic actions
all of these combined can never equal a Psalm like
the forty-sixth, for example, in sublimity and power.
That accomplished French critic, M. Taine, in his
History of Literature revealed his observations in
political history as well, when he declared, " The

THE WORLD'S BOOK. 17
powerful Hebraic verses knock like the strokes of
a battering ram at the door of every soul."
The Deathless Book is more than mere literature.
In an old English statute of 1516, the Bible was
itself called " the library." It was hardly a fanci
ful theory of Carlyle that St. Paul's Cathedral was
built out of the divine Hebrew Book. St. Mark's
of Venice, well named by Ruskin the " Book of
Common Prayer," a vast illuminated missal, is the
Gospel Apocalypse crying out in stone. That
marvelous book that has guided the brush of the
painter and steadied the chisel of the sculptor, has
wrought yet more deeply upon the minds of men.
M. Renan knew something of its power when he de
clared the Gospels the democratic book. Professor
Whitney made no mistake in his well-considered
words, that since Luther's translation, this one
book is " the vehicle of literature and instruction
everywhere." On this volume rest the foundations
of the great Universities of Paris, Oxford and
Cambridge. The first public library of Modern
Europe in Glasgow owed its origin to the same
source. To its matchless themes Stuart Mill at
tributed the power of the Scotch intellect. The
greatest minds have been its deepest students.
The rules of highest living, Burke declared, were

18 THE WORLD'S BOOK.
in the Gospels of Christ. The sunsliine and shad
ows of Shakespeare as to moral life are borrowed
from its pages. It was the treasury of Coleridge ;
it gave Dante the theme by which he mastered
Italy ; it inspired Tasso ; Wordsworth and Tenny
son owned its power. It has been the book of the
cottage and the palace ; the solace of the poor and
the rich ; — forming the characters that have shaped
history. Its foes and friends reassert what Theo
dore Parker so well said : " Some thousand famous
writers come up in this century to be forgotten in
the next. But the silver cord of the Bible is not
loosed, nor its golden bowl broken as time chroni
cles his tens of centuries passed by. . . . Some
of the greatest of human institutions seem built on
the Bible ; such things will not stand on heaps of
chaff, but on mountains of rock."
It is not our present province to seek the source
of such a power. An examination into its own
relations with men will carry conviction that above
the written pages, or working through them, there
is One whose question is already answered : " What
is the chaff to the wheat? ... Is not my
word like as a fire ? saith the Lord ; and like a
hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ? "
Among all the religions of the world there are

THE WORLD'S BOOK. 19
only three that rest upon a book : Judaism, Chris
tianity and Islamism. "No other religion," says
DeQuincey, " can be said to rest upon a book ; or to
need a book ; or even to admit of a book." Well
has the same authority continued against the as
sumption of human institutes ; " These are books
which build upon the religion, not books upon
which the religion is built."
This same fact has been emphasized by that
master among literary minds, Max Miiller. Trac
ing the dependence of the race upon Abraham he
adds : " If from our earliest childhood we have
looked upon Abraham, the Friend of God, with
love and veneration, his venerable figure will as
sume still more majestic proportions when we see
in him the life spring of that faith which was to
unite all the nations of the earth, and the author of
that blessing which was to come on the Gentiles
through Jesus Christ. And if we are asked how
this one Abraham passed, through the denial of all
other gods, to the knowledge of the one God, we
are content to answer that it was hy a special di
vine revelation, granted to that one man, and
handed down by him to Jews, Christians, and
Mohammedans, to all who believe in the God of
Abraham. We want to know more of that man

20 THE WORLD'S BOOK.
than we do : but even with the little we know of
him, he stands before us as a figure, second only to
One in the whole history of the world."
The preservation of the Bible is a marvel in his
tory. The broader its assumptions of power, the
more deep-seated are the obstacles it must meet.
Declarations of its divine authorship will of neces
sity subject its every page to criticisms, critically
cold. Opposers of its doctrines have contested
them at everj' point. Time is an expert in sifting
out the false from the true. The Bible has lived
in spite of men. It has well-tested the law of " the
survival of the fittest " — a living book read in two
hundred and fifty languages and dialects of men,
with an ever-increasing demand. It has travelled
down the highways of Time, more than four thou
sand years from its earliest books. It has belted
the planet in its tracks. " Survey the course over
which it has struggled on its solemn errand," said
Gov. BuUock in an address before the Massachu
setts Bible Society, " travelling ages ago from the
East to the West, from the Hebrew to the Greek,
from the Greek into the language of the Latin
race, from the Latin through all the confusion of
tongues in the dark and middle period, until it
emerged into the accessible and intelligible light of

THE WORLD'S BOOK. 21
modem literature, in which we hold it, and treasure
it, and circulate it this day."
This Deathless Book has survived three great
dangers : the negligence of its friends ; the false
systems built upon it ; the warfare of those who
have hated it. Either one of these three was a
severe test of its vitality, but the three together
have proved of no more weight and harm than a
snow-flake falling upon a ledge of granite.
At times it has seemed as though its destruction
was well-nigh assured. Even the manuscript copy
from Moses' own hands, lost during the reign of
wicked kings, needed the careful search of Hilkiah
the high priest before it was found. It was Ju-
dah's last king who first attempted the destruction
of any portion of the written word, cutting the
prophecy with his penknife and then casting it
into the fire. The re-writing of this prophecy, thus
burned, has saved it to us. One hundred years be
fore Christ Antiochus IV. — known in all history
as the Madman — in order to wreak Jus vengeance
upon the Jews, gathered all the Scriptures he could
find, and burned them. Three hundred and three
years after Christ Diocletian ordered by imperial
edict that all copies of the Scriptures be cast into the
flames. Against such negligence and hatred, the

22 THE WORLD'S BOOK.
Word has been most sacredly guarded. The text of
Shakespeare which has existed less than three cent
uries, is far more uncertain and corrupt than that
of the whole New Testament. A careful scholar
in remarking upon the singular purity of the sacred
text has given as the reason, the faithful care with
which it has been kept. " The reason why such
detections are not common in common books," says
Mr. Burton, " is the rather humiliating one, that
they are not worth making."
There has been scarcely a crime against the race
that has not in its defence been charged against
this book. The recent assumptions of participators
of the slave trade are to the point, a method now
repeated in the warfare of intemperance against
purity and self-control, as if intemperance is di
rectly sanctioned in the Scriptures. The slave
ships have changed their cargoes, and the Book re
mains unmutilated. Its truths have been distorted
into false doctrines, but all to no purpose. No
text of all its pure manuscripts has been elimi
nated ; it is a whole book for all time. What if
shepherds and fishermen and ploughmen and tent-
makers did write by the side of scribes and kings !
Even unlearned men, as God's agents, have turned
the world upside down. Divine truth makes fisher

THE WORLD'S BOOK. 23
men mighty. The wish of Erasmus has become
real ; since if they will " travellers and weavers
peruse the Scriptures at their work." The day
predicted by Tyndale has long since dawned, when
the boy at the plough knows more than even the
learned men of the great translator's day.
It was the boast of Voltaire that while it re
quired twelve men to write Christianity up, he
would prove that one man could write it down;
and set himself to the task ; but even the printing-
press, on which at Ferney he published his virulent
attacks, was afterwards employed at Geneva for
printing the Bible ; — and the eternal book still
fives, while the great cyclopaedist's works have
never reached a complete English edition. The
house in which Gibbon wrote the closing portion
of the " Decline and Fall," attemping to under
mine Christianity, was after his death transformed
into a hotel, over one of whose rooms was the
sign, " This is a Depot of the Bible ; " while the
income of a large portion of the estate was em
ployed in circulating the very Gospels Gibbon had
hated. It was the prophecy of Hume that by the
beginning of the nineteenth century philosophy
would triumph ; and " superstition," by which he
meant Christianity, would fade away. Hume died

24 THE WORLD'S BOOK.
the month after the Declaration of Independence ;
and the more than a century of revolutions and
changes has left his philosophy a by-word to think
ing men among whom Christianity is bearing fruit.
The parlor of Lord Chesterfield, where the mem
bers of his infidel club were accustomed to meet,
became afterwards a room for prayer and praise.
In Florence where the Madiai were imprisoned for
reading the Word, the first translation of the Bible
into Italian was completed and sent out in 1864.
The boast of Diocletian, of having utterly de
stroyed Christianity, has been often repeated, and
often as made has been put to the blush of shame.
The living book has withstood the fires of Smith-
field and Oxford ; kings have sounded its death
knell in vain. It is almost a travesty on history
that the Bible House of London is built upon the
very spot where stood the famous Black Friars'
Church and Monastery, whose Synod more than
five centuries ago condemned the circulation of
the Scriptures translated by Wickliffe. By a
strange history the destruction of the book has
been the occasion of enlarging its circulation. The
factors of this growth have usually been the same;
" the first English Bible was bought up and burnt;
those who bought the Bibles contributed capital

THE WORLD'S BOOK. 25
for making new Bibles ; and those who burnt the
Bibles advertised them." God uses the very wrath
of man for his own glory and power.
Compare for one moment the parchments of the
New Testament with those of the classics in re
spect to antiquity. Some twelve hundred manu
scripts of the whole or portions of the Greek Tes
tament are in existence ; and of these " fifty at
least are more than a thousand years old ; and
some are known to be at least fifteen hundred
years old."
Over against these lists place the fact that there
is not a manuscript of the classics in existence a
thousand years old. Of the manuscripts of Herod
otus and Plato, the two most important of such
writers, there are less than thirty in existence.
Tischendorf declares that "Providence has or
dered it so that the New Testament can appeal to
a far larger number of all kinds of original sources
than the whole of the rest of ancient Greek litera
ture." Add to these statements the fact also that
the first book printed with cut metal types was a
Bible. Well has Mr. Hallam said in his " Literary
History of Europe : " It is a very striking circum
stance that the high-minded inventors of this great
art (printing) tried at the very outset so bold a

26 THE WORLD'S BOOK.
flight as the printing an entire Bible, and executed
it with astonishing success. It was Minerva leap
ing on earth in her divine strength and radiant
armour, ready at the moment of her nativity to
subdue and destroy her enemies." After all these
centuries of the press sending forth copies of the
Word that none can number, it yet remains true
that the book most profitable for the publishers is
the Bible, because the dcnv.ind never ceases. The
book cannot die.
The testimony of Sir William Jones, who was
familiar with the greater part of the best books in
twenty-eight languages, is borne out in all history :
"This volume, independent of its divine origin,
contains more sublimity, purer morality, more im
portant history and finer strains of eloquence than
can be collected from all other books in whatever
language they may have been written."
History, science, philosophy and religion all
unite in giving it a name — The Deathless
Book.
The shining suns of all the universe have never
dimmed its light. Geologists have never found
the strata or the fossil that will invert, or contro
vert, the statements of the first page of this oldest
book. Archaeologists have been compelled to admit

THE WORLD'S BOOK. 27
the truths of its history. " If we dig up Nineveh,"
says one, " we only dig up testimony to God's
word." The old Egyptian tombs and temples are
verifying its records. Babylon and Tyre and Sidon
are commentaries upon its trustworthiness. The
nations it has touched all render it tribute. It
met the superstitions of Persia. It confronted the
philosophies of Greece ; and has its own epistle to
the Romans. From Eden to Patmos was its path,
and aU that path bears evidence, even in ruins, of
its life and power.
The Egyptians had their pyramids ; but there is
nothing in them except the silence of unrevealed
mysteries. Sphinxes gaze out upon the desert
wastes with eyes that blink not in the storms of
sand; beasts and reptiles crawl among the ruins
of cities long since dead ; the site of the " daugh
ter of Sidon " is mostly swept by the sea, — her
glory has departed. The soliloquy of the great
German scholar Max Miiller, in his " Chips from a
German Workshop," will do for the whole : " What
do the tablets of Karnak, the palaces of Nineveh
and the cylinders of Babylon tell us about the
thoughts of men ? All is dead and barren ; no
where a sigh, nowhere a jest, nowhere a glimpse
of humanity. There has been but one oasis in that

28 THE WORLD'S BOOK.
vast desert of ancient Asiatic history, the history
of the Jews."
Great nations have come into being; shone in
splendor, and then died. The brightest minds of
Greece and Rome have left us works that are clas
sics indeed, yet powerless in giving life. Over the
funerals of nations, keeping watch above the de
clining greatness of the highest uninspired thought,
there has stood and still stands the Deathless
Book. Such is its character ; but since it is
adapted for aU peoples, and has proven its power
in all ages, the past makes known what shall be its
future — the heritage of the race; the World's
Book.

IL

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
The death of nations is a startling fact. The
paths of history are choked with the ruins of great
peoples. Nation after nation has risen, flourished,
and then died.
Between ancient Egypt and the Egypt of to-day
there is no tangible connection. The Greece that
the world knows, is dead ; its language is dead.
Italy has her Tiber ; her Appenines still keep their
silent watch ; her coasts provide harbors for the
world's fleets, but the mighty empire has fallen.
Her Augustan age is of the past. Rome's seven
hills could not save the people from their own de
struction. Carthage long ago met the doom of
destruction decreed against it by vengeful Rome,
fading forever from the sight of men. Persians
and Medes have left scarce a vestige of their splen
dor and power. Babylon, that once queen of the
nations, has become an utter ruin, according to
29

30 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
the prophecy ; never inhabited, never rebuilt. No
Arab has planted his tent where the proud city sat ;
herdsman and shepherd have never driven thither
their herds and flocks. Its palaces and gardens
and plains have been " swept with the besom of
destruction." Scorpions crawl where men slept;
dragons dwell in her palaces ; the silence is broken
only by the cries of beasts and birds of the night
— all is perfect desolation. What is true of one
people or nation is true of all. The grave of
Assyria is as deep as that of Egj'pt. The light of
Athens is put out, and the marks of Roman power
are covered by rubbish.
What meaning is there in all these deaths of
nations ? It was not the form of the government
that crushed out their lives ; nor was the true rea
son in the invasions of hostile hosts. Nations have
become suicides. Destruction comes from within.
No nation has ever been destroyed for being too
good; on the contrary, what is universally ac
knowledged of Rome obtains as to all the rest —
they died " because of their own vices."
Turn to the history of Greece and read in tersest
language the story : " The later Greeks degenerated
from their great forefathers ; " " the rapid growth
of Greek culture and Greek political ideas was

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 31
naturally followed by rapid decay." ....
In sculpture " the elements of decadence were
already traceable." The same fact was asserted
of the drama and of politics, — these last " contain
ing in themselves no element of permanence." In
their system of slavery, " we find an element of rot
tenness which was sure in the end to produce de
cay." What was true of Greece will in no respect
be denied of all the ancient nations ; they destroyed
themselves. Compare the Spain and Portugal of
to-day with their once brilliant position — without
a peer among the nations ; their condition is ex
pressed by one word, " degeneration ; " not con
quest by outside oppressors. There is a universal
philosophy in the words of Scripture, " O, Ephraim,
thou hast destroyed thyself."
Ancient history needs no interpreter to explain
the tendency among all races to degeneration and
even death. The " learning of Egypt " was in
its day unsurpassed ; the " greatness of Babylon "
has become a proverb ; the " merchants of Tyre "
were at the head of the world's commerce ; the
" wisdom of Greece " has been repeated two thou
sand years in the thoughts of men ; Rome stands as a
synonym of " power ; " yet every one of these has
passed through degeneracy and decay into death.

32 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
No man can adequately compute the forces of
civilization who does not take such a fact into the
account. Is this tendency to "degeneration of
races " now outgrown ? Was it a fault of their
times, or is it the law of human nature ? Is this
tendency in us or in our surroundings ? Our pur
pose is not to enter any domain of science when,
with all ancient liistory (excepting that of the
Jews) for a background, we accept one of two
alternatives as the rule ; either man's natural ten
dency is upward, or it must be downward. If
you please, the predominating tendency must be
from the savage state to the civilized or the re
verse. That the most degraded tribes have become
highly civilized is proven, among other examples,
by the remarkable history of the English people.
The reverse truth is indicated in the liistory of the
Mexicans and in that of the mountain whites of
¦ our own nation. Intuitively all men seek the rea
sons for such changes ; are they inherent in human
nature, or are they the effects of some outside
cause ?
History furnishes no example in which savages
have civilized themselves ; as witness the North
American Indians. Indians have been civilized,

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 33
but not without external assistance and instruc
tion. Barbarians have never, unaided, risen from
their barbarism. Africa, left to its own darkness,
has remained in deep degradation. No island of
the ocean, upon the approach of the first foreigner,
has ever been found in a civilized state. No ex
ceptions, so far as we are aware, break the law that
tribes of savages have never civilized themselves.
Add to such a fact the danger of deterioration
and degeneracy of nations that are left to them
selves. Is there no truth in the almost universal
beliefs of nations and tribes as to a golden age
now lost ? What was true in ancient nations ob
tains in more modern times. The mound-builders
of America were vastly superior to the race that
succeeded them. Whence has come the degrada
tion of Africa, after peoples that once in their high
est civilization ruled the world ? It is impossible
to forget the once regal power of Asia in foster
ing the highest human progress. In Asia as in
Egypt were taken the first steps in human civiliza
tion and learning. It is to Asia we trace all those
great religions that have controlled the centuries
— the Vedantic, the Buddhist, the Hebrew, the
Christian, and the ^Mohammedan ; and it is also the
cradle in which were rocked the present progres-

34 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
sive races of Europe. The advantages were all on
its soil. Religion, learning and culture were reg
nant. It gave wisdom to Greece ; was the home
of philosophy, and took the first steps in the sci
ence of observation.
" The earliest Greek writers (in Ionia) were
all," according to Mr. Baldwin in his " Prehistoric
Races," " natives of Asia Minor or representatives
of its culture. Homer was born and educated
there ; Hesiod's parentage and literary training
were both Ionian ; Archilochus, ' the first Greek
who composed Iambic verses according to fixed
rules,' was born on that coast in the eighth century
before Christ, and had a fame, 'second only to that
of Homer.' There appeared the fii-st development
of what has been called the 'Greek Philosophy,'
and Herodotus tells us that Thales, ' the father of
Greek Philosophy,' was ' of Phoenician extraction ; '
he was born at Miletus in the seventh century be
fore Christ. Pythagoras was a native of Samos,
one of the most important Ionian cities. All the
early historians who wrote in Greek, were born
and educated in Asia Minor; Herodotus was a
native of Helicarnassus ; Hecataeus was a native of
Miletus ; Tyrtaeus, born at Miletus nearly seven
hundred years before the Christian Era, was one of

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 35
those who carried Ionian culture to Athens ; and in
the same century appeared, on the Asiatic side of
the ^gean, Terpander, Alcman, Alcaeus, Sappho,
and other brilliant Grecian lyrists. In Asia Minor
rose the most elegant and beautiful order of Greek
architecture — the Ionic."
We are not now inquiring into the causes of the
changes in Asia's greatness even while recognizing
the fact. The splendor of the great continent is
dimmed ; her civilization is lost ; her power is
broken. Her mournful story is thus summed up ;
"her history presents an unceasing repetition of
barbaric invasions instigated by the love of plun
der, which swept, wave after wave, over the most
fertile and populous provinces where civilization
and wealth had begun to appear, and left ruin and
demoralization in their departing track."
It is the statement of Max Miiller that "the
most degraded jargons contain the ruins of former
greatness and beauty," proving the possible degen
eracy of language. Prescott declares the architect
ure of a people the surest test of their civilization.
Judged by such a standard even Nineveh is open
to the light. Layard has recorded that " in Assy
ria, as in Egypt, the arts do not appear to have
advanced after the construction of the earliest edi-

36 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
fices with which we are acquainted, but rather to
have declined." On the same ground Dr. Schlie-
mann asserts "that of the five towns unearthed on
the site of Troy the two undermost were by far
the most advanced in civilization."
One of the most melancholy and at the same
time fascinating histories is that of the civilization
of Peru, four hundred years previous to the con
quest of the Spaniards.
The multiplication of such recitals is not needed
to declare a tendency to deterioration in nations
when left to themselves. What is true of the in
dividual is true of the race ; the neglect of self-
control means depravity. Civilization is but the
result of purity of life. Sin is sure to cause degen
eration in man or men. Neglect of righteous laws
ends in ruin. The nation or the kingdom that
will not serve God " shall utterly perish."
Professor Bowen in liis characterization of this
truth says, "In support of the opposite doctrine,
that savagely has arisen through degradation from
a former happier state, we cite the undeniable fact,
that Eastern Europe, and Western and Central Asia
are strown with the wrecks of empires and civili
zations that have perished ; and that most of the
barbarous races which now exist afford evidence

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 37
through traditions, of the possession of ingenious
tools and implements which they are evidently
incompetent to invent, or through other manifest
external indications, that their progenitors were
vastly wiser and more cultivated than they."
Against such facts there stands out another and
a brighter ; national civilization has always resulted
from contact with a liigher ideal from without.
It was a contact with the missionaries from the
South that began the reformation of character in
the fierce and bloody races of men that swept
Europe from their Northern homes. It was this
subtle power of a new life that transformed the
ferocious Normans into " the foremost race of
Christendom." The darkness began to scatter
upon the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Chris
tianity. But what was true in English history is
always the law. "History," says Mr. Merivale,
" has no example to offer us of any successful at
tempt, however slight, to introduce civilization
amongst savage tribes in colonies, or in their vi
cinity except through the agency of religious mis
sionaries." " Civilization " is not a Scripture word,
but it is a Bible product. The tendency is clear ;
all progress has resulted from contact with some
nobler natures. Just as Rome was the pupil of

38 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
Greece, and Greece of Egjrpt, even so all progress
has been inspired from without.
These three facts, then, may be emphasized:
no savage nation has civilized itself; nations left
to themselves have degenerated; all progress of
nations has resulted from an outside inspiration.
Historically and philosophically these statements
are true premises leaving the conclusion that as
man has not the power to educate himself — for if
he possesses such power it is presumed he will
exercise it — he must receive a higher instruction.
It is with the race as with children ; they need
education or the development of which they are
capable, but still more they need an instructor.
We are not created with innate knowledge, but
with the power to know when the truth is revealed
to us. Says Mr. Froude, " We allow ourselves to
think of Shakespeare, or of Raphael, or of Phidias
as having accomplished their work by the power of
their individual genius ; but greatness like theirs
is never more than the highest degree of perfec
tion which prevails widely around it, and forms
the environment in which it grows. No such single
mind in contact with the facts of nature could have
created a Pallas, a Madonna, or a Lear."
It is but a step further in this direction to ask :

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 39
what is the environment in which God has placed
the race of men? Since among the nations there
has always been a dependence upon some highest
teacher, does that highest teacher need a higher
instruction than man can himself give?
When Mr. Buckle asserts that the civilization of
Europe is largely caused and governed by its cli
mate, he asserts that the elevation of society — civ
ilization — is not possible in man except from the
working of some outside force. Stuart Mill has
thus spoken, " The contest between the morality
which appeals to an external standard, and that
which grounds itself on internal conviction, is the
contest of progressive morality against stationary ;
of reason and argument against the deification of
mere opinion and habit." Thus do the widest pos
sible varying schools of thought substantially agree
that while man has within him the power to per
ceive truth, the truth must be externally given for
him to perceive it.
What is man ? It is the Scriptural and the ra
tional philosophy that he is possessed of two dis
tinct natures ; the lower or animal, and the higher
or spiritual. Thus Paul speaks of dragging about
" the body of this death." So also he recognizes
the law of evil present in him when he would do

40 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
good; "I see another law in my members war
ring against the law of my mind, and bringing me
into captivity to the law of sin which is in my
members." It is possible for the spiritual to be
come degraded by the supremacy of the fleshly
passions ; but it is our duty to keep the body in
subjection to the spiritual.
Over against this doctrine of the degeneration
of men, however, stands the Scriptural truth of the
necessity of regeneration, involving as it does a
superhuman help.
In the line of this liigher nature we recognize
the functions of reason, conscience and will. Man
is essentially a spiritual being abiding for a few
short years in the fleshly body as a temporary
dwelling. All unreasonable deeds, deeds against
conscience, and wiUful, are degrading and destruc
tive. It is the moral and spiritual life, therefore,
that claims the chiefest attention.
All history is proof of the fact, that a neglect of
this spiritual law, or an opposition to it, degrades
a race as it does the individual; while at the
same time obedience to the higher law elevates the
race as it does the individual. The drunkard's
spiritual nature is degraded with his body; but
from the very moment when he chooses virtue his

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 41
body is involved in the reformation. It is by this
law that the religious standard of nations marks
what shall be their relative place in the social life.
No idolatrous nation is in a civilized state ; they
that make idols are like unto them — degraded.
In a certain respect every man is like his con
ception of God. Paganism is a unit in its theories
and in its fruits. Mohammedanism casts its blight
upon aU who receive it. Belief in a cruel God
produces a cruel people.
The races of men are divided into barbarous,
enlightened, haK-civilized, and civilized ; and each
of these states is paralleled by its so-called religion.
We shall assume the undisputed acceptance of the
statement, that in some way civilization and the
Bible recognize each other. The manner of that
relation remains to be considered. "In nothing,
indeed, is the course of European history so re
markable," says Mr. White in his " Eighteen Chris
tian Centuries," "as in the immense differences
which intervals of a few years introduce. In the
old monarchies of Asia, time and the world seem
almost to stand still. The Indian, the Arab, the
Chinese of a thousand years ago, wore the same
clothes, thought the same thoughts, and led the
same life as his successor of to-day.

42 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
It is within the memory of living men when an
African embassy, bearing costly presents to Brit
ain's queen, was welcomed with royal honors. In
response to the question they brought from then-
prince as to the secret of England's greatness, Vic
toria procured a richly-bound copy of the Bible and
sent it back with this message : " Tell the prince that
this Book is the secret of England's greatness."
Men and nations need what such a book gives.
We are not demanding even an assent to the vol
ume as from God, in recognizing what Pascal so
long ago discovered : " the vast difference between
a book which one makes and throws among a peo
ple, and a book which of itself makes a people."
The great English literary critic, Matthew Arnold,
will surely not be accused of a too favorable bias
in his unsought testimony : " Yet assuredly of con
duct, which is more than three fourths of human
life, the Bible, whatever people may thus think and
say, is the great inspirer."
M. Taine, the world-renowed French essayist,
could not see England without its Book. In all
the literary wealth of the empire " upon which the
sun never sets," he caught sight of an old folio, —
the translation of Tyndale with all its venerable
precepts, — and thus wrote : " Hence have sprung

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 43
much of the English language, and half of the
English manners ; to this day the country is bibli
cal ; it was these big books which had transformed
Shakespeare's England."
We are surely appealing to no extravagant ad
mirer of the book in repeating the statement of
Professor Huxley : " for three centuries, this book
has been woven into the life of all that is best
and noblest in English history ; it has become the
national epic of Britain, and is as familiar to noble
and simple, from John O'Groat's House to Land's
End, as Dante and Tasso once were to the Italians."
Beyond all cavil or doubt, this Deathless Book
is the book of the truest civilization.
We leave for other occasions a consideration
of its marvelous influence upon the chief factors
of society — laws, customs and motives — in order
to learn the secret of such a power. We are
not to be understood as limiting all truth to the
Bible. The two books, nature and revelation, are
from the same mind, and will not conflict. Socra
tes was firmly of the conviction that God was his
teacher ; a conviction the world still cherishes as
undisputed. The devout and scholarly editors of
Plutarch deny any knowledge, on his part, of
Christianity or the doctrines of the Jewish Script-

44 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
ures ; while his " Delay of the Deity in Punishing
the Wicked " is a profound classic in natural the
ology. We are not compelled to accept or deny
the possibility of other books containing truths
that will stand the test of time ; and yet the best ,
that can be said of all so-called " sacred books "
is that their religions are ethnic, while that of the
Bible is catholic.
Prophets and apostles doubtless uttered some
truths that had been partially apprehended before,
yet this is no reason for any dispute as to the ques
tion of inspiration. It is the direct teaching of
Christianity that all men may know somewhat
of God and truth even without the " Law." No
divine right of appealing to human consciousness
was surrendered when " holy men of old spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Luthardt, in
his " Saving Truths of Christianity," quotes Irenaeus
as to whole Christian congregations in the second
century without the Bible, but who bore its truths
in their hearts.
Men may appeal to the Zend Avesta, yet its
pages hold no grip upon the living. We may ap
peal to Buddhism, but there is in its highest doc
trines a weary void ; there is no life in it. It has
been the fashion to quote Confucius ; but there is

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 45
no glow of piety in his sententious sayings. His
writings deal only with the seen and temporal ;
and with all their power they cannot elevate the
great dormant people. " Each of these great ethnic
religions is full on one side, but empty on the
other." The Koran can be judged by its fruits ;
enough of borrowed Scripture to keep alive, while
its humanness debases every soul that falls under
its sweep.
In his " Ten Great Religions " Dr. Clarke has
thus tersely expressed these facts : " The religions
of Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, have come to an
end, having shared the fate of the national civiliza
tion of which each was a part. The religions of
China, Islam, Buddha, and Judea have all been
arrested and remain unchanged and seemingly
unchangeable. Like great vessels anchored in a
stream, the current of time flows past them, and
each year they are further behind the spirit of the
age, and less in harmony with its demands. Chris
tianity alone of all religions, seems to possess the
power of keeping abreast with the advancing civili
zation of the world. . . . The Gospel of Jesus
continues the soul of all human culture."
If it is possible to epitomize the fundamental
doctrines of the Book upon which the civilized

46 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
nations rest, we make the attempt : God is one ;
a Spirit whose attributes are infinite ; the Creator
of all things. Man is made in the divine likeness,
hence his power to commune with God. By a law
eternal, right doing leads to blessedness, and evil
doing drags its own curse. In character as Crea
tor, Ruler, Lawgiver and Redeemer, God is love.
By the title " Our Father " not only is the dignity
of man declared, but also the great human brother
hood, — all nations of one blood ; these double re
lations therefore involve the sum of all the com
mandments : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy strength, and with all thy mind ; and thy
neighbor as thyself." All the Law and the proph
ets are summed up in such a statement ; the world's
hope depends upon such sublime truths.
While the Bible is the most sacred book, it is
also the most human ; it puts no gloss upon human
nature. It has in it the one only faultless char
acter ; all others are imperfect. Almost every name
has in it something to be shunned. There is but
one character worthy of being implicitly patterned ;
One alone has had the right to say, Follow me I
It is a record of human struggles against infirmi
ties ; it deals with the principles upon which char-

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 47
acters are builded, and holds up those principles as
the guide of conscience. It is the only book that
at the same time dignifies and rebukes man.
There is not a sin in all the centuries it does
not condemn ; not a crime it does not anticipate ;
not a virtue it omits to mention. Not a new
vice, nor a new virtue has arisen since its last
pen was laid down. The forms of evil and of
good may have slightly varied with the centuries,
but the substance of all has been written. The
Book is not weighted with the customs of any
age, although the habits and fashions of men shine
on all its pages. Its characters are human, not
Jewish. There is not a disposition possible that it does
not match. Its Judas is as yet unapproached,
and not a child in all Christendom has borne his
hated name ; its Peter is the personation of deep
est faults overcome and forgiven ; its Paul is the
miracle of what grace can do, — the chiefest among
sinners become the greatest saint. The Josephs
and Samuels and Daniels in human history are too
rare. Craftiness in all succeeding generations has
hidden under Jacob's name. It is the emphatic
mark of human weakness that the great leader in
the exodus could not always master himself. The

48 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
fitful king, with madness gleaming like his javelin,
little imagined that he must pass down through
history as the Biblical Macbeth. David's sin wrung
from him the " sinner's guide," the fifty-first Psalm,
the comfort of all times.
It is impossible to comprehend the power of
this one Psalm upon the race. Kings, scholars
and cottagers have read it with the same spirit
ual profit. It was the death-song of the French
Protestants in the times that for cruelty have
had few equals. It was sung by George Wishart
when taken prisoner, before his martyrdom at St.
Andrew's. Its opening verse was the dying cry
of the Scottish martyr, Thomas Forret, whose
grave was green a quarter of a century before
Scotland became free from ecclesiastical tyranny.
Its cry for mercy was repeated by Lady Jane Grey
upon the fateful day of her own and her husband's
death. Its burning words broke from the lips of
John Huss at the place of his execution near Con
stance. John Rogers repeated its confessions and
triumphant paeans on his way to the fires of
Smithfield. These words of the Hebrew Psalmist
were spoken by Sir Thomas More — " most famous
through Europe for eloquence and wisdom " • — as
he laid his head upon the block. Its seventeenth

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 49
verse, written by the monk Augustine upon the
wall of his sick chamber, did not make its spirit
any the less real to the great German Reformer.
Its words were read to Arnold of Rugby when
dying, as they had been the comfort of his life.
The seventh verse of this same Psalm marks
the tablet of copper amid the eternal snows on the
highest grave northwards on the earth's surface,
near Cape Beechy on the Arctic Sea : " Wash me,
and I shall be whiter than snow."
What is true of this single Psalm has its coun
terpart in many others. Mr. Ruskin finds the sum
of personal and social wisdom in the first half
of the Psalter. Volumes have been written upon
the Psalms in History and Biography. So, like
wise, the whole Book, like the Psalms, has woven
itself into humanity in all its affairs. Because the
Book is so human, humanity has claimed it for its
own. The biography of its chapters is most truly
read in what men have done.
The destructive criticisms, applied for centuries,
have wrought no harm. The pyramids are crum
bling away little by little, but the Book is more
lasting than granite. The obelisk of Egypt, graven
by men upon whom Moses looked, may be weaken
ing under the tempests and frosts of its resting place

50 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
in Central Park, but the Book survives all changes ;
its mission is as powerful among the ice fields of
the North as beneath the tropical sun. It turns
the barren wastes into gardens of culture; its
truths are corner stones of our great institutions of
learning ; it is the book of the school, the church
and the home. Its penmen were not careless. It
concerns itself with the life that now is, and with
that which is to come. The world knows nothing
of the future life except what the Book reveals.
It penetrates the mysteries no returning traveller
has described. It is the only Book that makes
the death chamber bright, the only hope of the
sorrowing. It is the orange-tree among the groves
of Cypress; an oasis of verdure in a desert of
despair. It is a universal Book, touching life on all sides.
It cannot die until human nature is swept from
the planet, because it is truer to the hopes and
fears and struggles of men than all other books
besides. There is life on its pages ; a heart in its words.
A miserere of hopelessness is breathed in the ac
cusation of Goethe against nature : " She tosses
her creatures out of nothingness, and tells them
not whence they come or whither they go. . . .

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 51
She wraps man in darkness and makes him forever
long for the light ; " but for every such cry of de
spair the Book has its answer. No other volume
so meets the demands of the soul, proving its
truths concerning the future by the demonstra
tion of its truths in time.
It is the Book for the dying as well as for the
living. Its leaves are leaves from the Tree of
Life; its visible fruits are the blessings of civili
zation; its best fruitage is eternal. It meets the
degeneration of men by its principles of regenera
tion. What man has lost it helps him recover
— to recover himself, to save himself. It is the
regenerating Book for degenerated men and races ;
not that its mere statements can regenerate, yet to
willing souls it becomes the power and wisdom of
God. It is the instrument, but not the agent;
the hammer by which the rock is riven under the
blows of an almighty arm.
Two important thoughts may reveal the methods
of the Bible in the accomplishment of its purpose.
Its truths are no mere abstractions, but are fitted
to become humanly vitalized. The object is to
make of every man who accepts its truths, a living
Bible. Observe, first; The test of the Bible's power is

52 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
in the individual. The whole book is written
almost as if it were for one man, — for every man.
If there were a person in the whole world whose
wants it could not reach it would be a failure
among the races of men. If there were a degra
dation so deep in a single soul as to be beyond its
power, that exception would prove its weakness.
If there were a savage heart its truths could not
help, that savage heart, powerless in accepting its
truths, would be a decisive test against its asser
tions. Such an exception, however, has never been
found. We are not referring to an unwillingness
to receive, but to an inability. The soul that can
tread underfoot its own best interests, and despise
all laws of morality, can reject this Book. To
shade one's self against the sun does not stop the
sun's shining. To reject a truth, or to oppose,
does not weaken truth, but such a course does
harm the one who assumes the risk.
It is no argument against the Bible that some
will not accept it. While a demonstration was
being made before a learned body, proving the
impossibility of crossing the ocean by the power
of steam, a steamship was actually ploughing the
hitherto unbeaten path.

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 63
The lowest tribe yet found has not held a man
too degraded to make the exception. Cannibals
have become saints. The fruits of its faith have
been alike among all races. Martyrs for the truth
have been counted by hundreds among peoples
whose thii-st was for blood.
No permanent good has ever been wrought among
any people without this Book. Henry Martyn
fainted in his journey of a thousand miles, under
taken to lay his translation at the feet of the Shah.
If the statement of that eminent thinker, John
Locke, is true, we cannot doubt the results : " the
Scriptures have God for their author ; eternity for
their object; and truth without any mixture of
error for their subject matter."
The conversion of the apostle Paul is a miracle
of history; but repeated in countless instances
since his day. The power that could transform a
John Bunyan, or John Newton, is as mighty as
that which swings the stars in their courses with
out jar or collision. Human nature says, " my
will ; " the Book teaches us to say " thy will, not
mine." Human nature loves self; the Book has
wrought a revolution when it has taught a love
for our neighbor as strong as for self. The great
est reformation is of the individual ; and on such

54 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
reforms society rests. Had the object of Napo
leon's will been turned from himself to the good
of others, we should have a different map of Eu
rope. Men are not reformed in the mass, but one
by one; and in the Great Day the account shall
likewise be rendered, one by one. The moral law
is a personal matter ; the whole force of such a
law is struck upon the one soul.
Placing side by side the Bible as the cause and
righteousness as its effect, we shall hardly be ac
cused of ill-judgment ; if so, we are part of a num
erous class. In reply to the question. Why the
Bible should be studied more than other books,
Matthew Arnold replies : " Because God is re
vealed in Israel and the Bible, and not in other
teachers and books."
After a comparison of the Book with the writ
ings of Benjamin Franklin, Herbert Spencer and
the like, the same critical essayist adds : " The
Bible has such power for teaching righteousness,
that even to those who come to it with all sorts of
false notions about the God of the Bible, it yet
teaches righteousness, and fills them with the love
of it ; how much more those who come to it with
a true notion about the God of the Bible ! "
" To the Bible," he sa3-s in another place, " men

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 55
will return; and why? Because they cannot do
without it. Because happiness is our being's end
and aim, and happiness belongs to righteousness,
and righteousness is revealed in the Bible. For
this simple reason men will return to the Bible,
just as a man who tried to give up food, thinking
it was a vain thing and he could do without it,
would return to food ; or a man who tried to give
up sleep, thinking it was a vain thing and he could
do without it, would return to sleep."
We need make no apology in seeking from this
same authority a knowledge of the spirit of Jesus
in his meekness and moderation. " Even in these
records, it is and can be presented but imperfectly ;
but only by reading and re-reading the Bible can
we get at it at all."
In a communication to Thomas Paine, after the
completion of his " Age of Reason," Benjamin
Franklin — himself a disbeliever in revelation while
believing in God — wrote : " If men are so bad
with religion, what would they be without it ?
And may you not yourself be indebted originally
to your religious education for the virtues upon
which you so justly pride yourself? Therefore
my advice to you is, to burn this piece before it is
seen by any other person ; for among us it is not

56 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
necessary, as among the Hottentots, for a youth,
to be raised to the company of men, to prove his
manhood by beating his own mother."
There is somewhat of a travesty on infidelity in
the rough but pungent words of Dr. Johnson con
cerning David Hume who left a pile of infidel
manuscripts with directions that they should be
published after his death : " He loaded a blimder-
buss, directed it against Christianity and sneaked
into the grave leaving another to fire it off."
Dr. Johnson also states that Hume " owned to a
clergyman in the bishopric of Durham that he had
never read the New Testament with attention."
In subsequent studies we shall hope to make
clear the influence of those marvelous conceptions
of justice and of human rights that have entered
into the consciousness of the race from the Hebrew
and Christian Scriptures. From their earliest to
latest page the written word is one strong appeal
to the consciences of men.
Second : The Bible gives to man an added power.
In all history the deed is measured by the motive.
A low motive produces poor results. The world's
great benefactors have been men of intense and
far-reaching purpose. The more broad and unsel
fish the resolution, the greater the man. Large

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 57
convictions are necessary to produce large deeds.
The element of " duty " enters into such a motive.
Duty to whom ? The man who sees no object out
side himself is not a man, as God uses the name.
The extent of any one's interest in humanity is
the limit of his manhood. One can live wholly
for his family, and at the same time be a curse to
his town. It is possible for one to be the pride of
his Commonwealth, to spare no efforts in making
the State his sovereign, and yet at the same time be
a traitor to the Nation that has given his Common
wealth its place and power. The difference between
Webster and Calhoun lay far deeper than in any
brilliancy of speech. It is what man believes that
makes him ; he is known by the object of his
choice and labors.
In the direct line of this thought notice the drift
of the Bible. The covenant with Abraham in
cluded, not the Jews only, but all the nations of
the earth. In all the work of Jesus, there was not
a line drawn between men that he respected. He
passed over the boundaries of national distinction ;
no amount of enmity was able to fence out his
sympathy ; he taught men that our neighbor may
be a stranger afar oft'. In those crowning words
of the sacred lips, in the hour of his parting, " the

58 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
world," in all its islands and continents, was de
clared as the field of the disciples' labors; and
" every creature " in the world, the object of their
sympathy. No man can be in truth a Christian
without the missionary spirit that swathes the planet
with his sympathy. No man can be great without
a large conception of the duties he owes to his
kind. It is the Bible that has given this broad
conception of duty ; and that obligation is empha
sized by One who makes each service a duty done
unto Him ; " inasmuch as ye have done it unto one
of the least of these, ye have done it unto me."
Another element enters into a great motive,
namely, "time." If life were only for to-day, there
would be little hope for to-morrow. If there were
no tree of life but the cypress, no post-mortem
mansion but the grave, hope would be smothered.
The assurance that our service shall never cease,
spurs us on to better deeds. The larger share of
the blessings we enjoy are the gifts of those now
gone. In the hope of an immortal service they
ceased not their unselfish labors until God called
them. Cut off the hope of another life, and despair
would creep into homes of poverty and suffering.
Nothing but the conviction of immortality can make
the existence here bearable.

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION. 59
When Christ brought " immortality " to light
and broadened the meaning of " duty," bringing
both under the range of " actual service to God,"
the grandest of aU motives was given. The man
who knows he shall live forever, knows that for
whatsoever he does God will demand an account ;
knows that duty covers the planet and is measured
by eternity ; this man has an added power derived
from the Book that thus teaches him. What won
der is it that in the deeds of men as well as in
motives the whole firmament has been changed
since the birth of Christianity ! The power of
civilized thought is dependent upon the Gospel
of Christ.
Professor Bowen of Harvard thus speaks : " I say
then that these books (ta Biblia) contain a body of
history, poetry and philosophy, the study of which
has done more than any single cause to modify the
course and happiness of thinking men on the earth,
and to color and direct the whole course of modern
civilization. It is not too much to say that the
books of the Old and New Testaments have ex
erted more influence, whether for weal or woe, on
the course of human affairs among civilized nations,
than all other books put together. Their imprint
is on most of the literature, the philosophy, the

60 THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION.
legislation and the history of the last seventeen
hundred years."
Carlyle says of the French Revolution : " The
period of the Reformation was a Judgment day
for Europe, when all the nations were presented
with an open Bible, and all the emancipation of
heart and intellect which an open Bible involves.
England, North Germany, and other powers ac
cepted the boon, and they have been steadily grow
ing in national greatness and moral influence ever
since. France rejected it; and in its place has had
the gospel of Voltaire with all the anarchy, misery
and bloodshed of those ceaseless revolutions of
which that gospel is the parent." Says Dr. Draper
as to Reformation, etc., in his " Intellectual Develop
ment " of Europe : " From this burning ordeal one
book alone came out unscathed. It was the Bible.
It spontaneously vindicated for itself what Wick
liffe in the former times and Luther more lately
had claimed for it. And not only did it hold its
ground, but it truly became incalculably more
powerful than ever it had been before."
In all efforts for the world's reformation the man
with the Book has taken the lead. Just as Naz
areth's reputation rests upon its great prophet, so
cities and nations in later days have become famous

THE BOOK OF CIVILIZATION^. 61
from some powerful life. All Europe owned the
sway of Geneva, but the only sceptre in Geneva
was the Book in Calidn's hands. Max Miiller
calls our attention to " the bleak study of a poor
Augustine monk " and bids us " see that monk
step out of his study with no weapon in his hand
but the Bible — with no armies and no treasures —
and yet defying with his clear and manly voice
both Pope and Emperor, both clergy and nobility ; "
and intuitively we accept his verdict ; " there is no
grander sight in history." Eloquent lips have
drawn the likeness of the Pilgrims and Puritans as
¦ " armed agents of the Bible."
It is all true. Cromwell led his hosts to battle
at Marston Moor, Naseby and Dunbar, carrying a
Bible in every knapsack, and chanting, as did the
Lord's anointed, the sixty-eighth Psalm. No oath
in all that camp ; nothing but praises. The Bibles
were in their knapsacks, but the truth was in their
hearts, — they themselves became living Bibles,
known and read of men. Pilate gave his judgment,
but the truth stiU lives. Tyrants have issued
decrees; and prelates, anathemas; all in vain!
The Book remains unscorched by flames; uncut
by scimitar; unstained by all the blood of its
defenders ; a deathless power in human progress.

III.

THE RADICAL BOOK.

The principles of the Bible have revolutionized
and are revolutionizing the world.
We need not now question the possibility of
some of its truths being recorded elsewhere ; nor
shall we inquire into the origin of such truths.
Undoubtedly there are eternal verities that even
heathenism cannot blight. There are teachings in
nature sacred like their author. Confucius ignored
all claims to inspiration, yet came near discover
ing the Golden Rule. It is impossible to clearly
define the power of Socrates over Grecian specula
tion through the philosophy which Cicero claimed
was "brought down from the heavens to the
earth ; " there was much of truth in it. Coleridge
was surely not dreaming when he called Plato " a
plank from the wreck of Paradise cast upon the
shores of idolatrous Greece."
We do not deny the reception of truths outside
62

THE RADICAL BOOK. 63
the Bible. The author of Revelation is the God
of nature. Days and nights have voices ; and the
language of the firmament is of Him who made
them, and who calls each star by name. We raise
no question or comparison with the Zend Avesta
whose hold on the race is limited to a few scanty
communities chiefly in Western India; and of
whose twenty-one parts only one is left entire. A
writer of great scientific acumen draws the picture
of China moralizing with Confucius upon "the
perfect man," and of India " dreaming monotonous
and fantastic dreams and longing for absorption in
the eternal Brahm; neither of them suspecting
that without them, among what they would have
called Western barbarians if they had known of
their existence, the world's history was going on as
a mighty stream of which they did not even hear
the distant roar."
We are not then to question the existence of
truths outside the Bible ; but this we do observe,
the Bible is the only book containing the principles
symmetrical with each other that are consistent
with human progress. Between Confucianism in
a stagnant nation, and Christianity in the highest
civilization, there is no analogy, even as there can
be none between the two books that symbolize

64 THE RADICAL BOOK.
their thinking. We shall look upon the Bible as
representing what is best in morals and truths;
for convenience' sake identifying it with Christian
ity, although the two are not the same.
The relation of the Bible to human motives and
actions is recognized in three special particulars, as
unlike the teachings of all other books.
First : The relation of the. individual to the race.
The teachings of Jesus are all centered in the two
fundamental doctrines; the Fatherhood of God,
and the consequent brotherhood of man. Geograph
ical boundaries cannot separate races and men from
mutual responsibilities. No lines, of ecclesiasti-
cism or of caste, can remove even the remotest of
the race from our duties to them as neighbors. It
was a bold statement when Paul confronted the
habits and opinions of the ages with the declaration
" there is neither Jew nor Greek," i. e., nations are
not perfect without each other ; " there is neither
bond nor free," — a marvelous statement when we
remember that the multitudes, even while he spoke,
were held as slaves by the few ; " there is neither
male nor female " — a tribute to woman's power in
the realm of truth, although she was then despised.
The Christian doctrine of the human brotherhood
has turned the world upside down. The then

THE RADICAL BOOK. 65
startling teachings that the slave had as true a man
hood as his master ; and that the Emperor, known
and worshiped as the Pontifex Maximus, was sub
ject to the same laws of morality as his meanest
subject, — have prevailed. The sacred command
of the Nazarene, " call no man master," has become
the corner stone of our great republic in its declar
ation, " all men are created equal." Yet in all this,
Christ only made more clear what was long before
involved in the earliest records touching the uni
versal brotherhood. The " covenant " with Abra
ham included a blessing upon " all the families of
the earth," a truth sadly perverted by Jewish preju
dice in their substitution of hatred for love. The
prophecies are likewise concerned with the bless
ings to come upon the Gentiles as truly as upon
the children of Abraham.
Secondly : The obligation of service in behalf of
aU. In one respect, the responsibUities of the uni
versal brotherhood include the fulfilling of duties,
yet we notice the direct command and example of
Christ. All human progress depends upon this
principle. Grecian philosophy, with all its learn
ing, and Roman power with all its might, failed to
discover the secret that love in practical life is the
foundation of all human good. The purest Greek

66 THE RADICAL BOOK.
thought had in it no adequate conception of human
ity ; the word meant a species of refined culture,
while all that in its present use denotes love to
men is the direct result of Christian truth. Greece
and Rome knew no such virtue as " humility,"
until the Apostles of Christ converted their word
of contempt into the term of the beautiful. So,
likewise, there was not in all the literature of
Greece a word to express " brotherly love," until
Christianity coined its own. " To him (Jesus
Christ) alone is due the Christian significance of
such words as charity, humility and humanity."
In Christian thought and action these new prin
ciples have ever since been regnant. The old rule,
"my rights and others' duties," has been con
troverted by the teachings of Christianity; "my
duties and others' rights." The teaching of the
Book means self for the world's sake, and never
the world for the sake of self. " He that is greatest
among you shall be your servant."
Thirdly : Heroism in duty. Every man is meas
ured by his belief, or rather the object of his trust
incites his actions. Devotion to the State made
the heroes at Thermopylae. Heroism is not a
product of nerve and muscle, but of that ideal
that in its largeness dwarfs the mere fleshly nature.

THE RADICAL BOOK. 67
The loftier the ideal, the more resolute the deed.
Let man know that truth is grander than life, and
he will die for the truth. Let him know the sub-
Umity of immortality, and in his complaisance he
will fear no bodily harm, since men can not kill
the soul. Let him recognize the superior claims
of the divine will, and he will regard death as the
gate of fife, rather than betray duty. Carlyle thus
speaks of the world's heroes : " the thoughts they
had were the parents of the actions they did; their
feehngs were parents of their thoughts ; it was the
unseen and spiritual in them that determined the
outward and the actual — their religion, as I say,
was the great fact about them."
Martyrs belong to the truth, not to error. Man
never dies for what he does not esteem greater
than self, and for what he does not love. Hire
lings are poor guardians of the flocks. The faith
is proven in the heroism. The purer the religion,
other things being equal, the more martyrs. In
proportion as faith assents to the doctrines and
truths of the Bible as pre-eminent, it follows that
heroism will reach its highest examples. Heathen
ism makes few if any mart3TS, since martyrdom is
voluntary. Death under Juggernaut is not martyr
dom, but expiation to obtain something not reached ;

68 THE RADICAL BOOK.
while death for the truth is the manner of witness
ing for what is attained.
Lecky thus speaks of Christianity : " One great
cause of its success was that it produced more
heroic actions and formed more upright men than
any other creed ; but that it should do so was
precisely what might have been expected."
Granting such a heroism in sacrifice for the truth
as related to the well-being of men, we are pre
pared to consider some of the effects wrought by
the truths of the Bible against the teachings of the
world's sages. Our limits will confine us to the
more purely subjective and charitable phases of
such a power, leaving for other occasions its work
over the national life and literature.
I. The Book and the Sacredness of Life. It
is probable that character may be known by the
estimate it places upon life. Where human life
seems of little value, it is certain there must be
some serious defect in him who forms the esti
mate; the lesser respect reveals the lesser man
hood. A Nero, torturing and murdering his sub
jects by thousands, is a monstrosity. The time is
coming when all history will tarnish and despise
the crown of every king or captain who has sought
personal distinction or power at the cost of any

THE RADICAL BOOK. 69
life of citizen or soldier. Peace is a nobler national
issue than war. Wars may be " holy " where to
sustain a vital principle is of greater importance
than to live. We are not dealing with exceptions
in so great a theme touching the terrible right to
take life in self-defence. The right of the State
to take the criminal's life is yet under debate ; and
not the least of arguments in its favor is the fear
of undue executive clemency unless the criminal
is once and forever put beyond human reach ; and
yet just so far as such a suggestion has weight, it
tells against the State rather than against the
criminal ; thus bringing us again to the statement
that character is revealed in what it does with the
life of others.
We are to pass back into centuries and among
peoples where murders ran riot. We are to look
upon Greece with all her wit ; and Rome with all
her power; mirroring their own brutishness in
revolting customs and inhuman teachings. We
might not sail beyond Britain to see a human life
taken because of having stolen a sheep ; but those
were yet darker days when the blood of the inno
cent and the helpless was accounted by brilliant
names as of no higher value than that of a beast.
It is a lurid picture, the building of fires on whose

70 THE RADICAL BOOK.
leaping flames, as chariots, the souls of God's best
beloved have burst from their bodies of anguish;
a terrible act when the Church has assumed the
right to use swords and scimitars upon whom it
did not like ; yet, if possible, darker even than
such as these were times in which fathers and
mothers in Israel tossed into the burning arms and
against the red-hot breast of Moloch the children
of their firesides, as if such a holocaust were what
Jehovah could wish.
Hell itself has been almost outdone in human
hatred. The peaceful curfew has been made the
tocsin for despair ; the tolling of bells has become
the signal for human slaughter. Strange that the
moans of nature were not enough for death ! Pass
ing strange that the fife, which at its best is only
a flying shuttle, should be broken among its earliest
threads !
The sacredest thing of earth is the most mys
terious. Science with all its acumen has given
no solution of that mystery. Whence came this
that brings a flush to the baby's face, that takes
away with itself that flush as it goes .? What is
that power making the human arm strong as if its
nerves were steel, but whose going leaves it nerve
less as the ashes men cast into the street? What

THE RADICAL BOOK. 71
is that subtle something that fills the home with
the maiden's song and her joyous laughter ; but in
whose vanishing leaves not even an echo of a song
from the silent lips, and no flush of recognition to flit
across the white and yet beautiful features ? Most
sacred of all material things, if so it can be called,
is life ; and yet least known and most abused.
It has builded cities and palaces of splendor that
stand in their ruins, monuments of a desolation that
no human cry now breaks. It has planned and fin
ished temples, whose once marble floors, crumbling
under the storms of thousands of years, are left as
weird as the moonbeams that play where men once
prayed. It has capped its pyramids, and has fash
ioned its sphinxes with "the human face divine ; "
yet pyramids and sphinxes are lone and desolate
like the untrodden desert in the darkest night.
It is to the Bible alone we owe our primal con
ceptions of the sacredness of every man's life to
himself. It required centuries upon centuries to
teach the world that the individual is the master
of his own life, except to take it ; in this respect
murder and suicide are twins. The whole ancient
world assumed that every life was in the power of
some other, an appendage or slave of the monarch
or father or master.

72 THE RADICAL BOOK.
Thus consider the child's relation to the father ;
as property, the son's life was held at the father's
will. This apparently was in the early ages the
universal law. There are decided traces of this
belief in Abraham's history. This is not the place
nor is it the time to analyze the full meaning of
the command of God given Abraham to sacrifice
his son. That Abraham made the sacrifice we shall
assume ; but the sacrifice was not made as he im
agined it must be. The father of the faithful was
greatly mistaken ; he accounted that God would
raise Isaac from the dead ; but there was to be no
death in that sacrifice. Abraham thought so, and
in this respect his trust in God was sublime. He
had not as yet learned the lesson that to sacrifice
did not mean to slay; and so he took the knife
and the rope, the fire and the wood. Under the
assumption of his right to slay his son he went
alone with Isaac upon the mountain. The veil
has never been withdrawn for our knowledge of
the terrible hour for that mistaken father and his
obedient son. Did Isaac assist his father in build
ing the altar ? The altar was built and the wood
was placed in order upon it ; and Isaac was bound
and laid upon the wood. Abraham was doing no
uncommon act in times like those, when he took

THE RADICAL BOOK. 73
the knife for a deed he imagined God had required.
He was learning a lesson for himself and for the
world. He was on the verge of the heathenish act
when there came the voice, " Lay not thine hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him."
Say what we will of the other lessons of that trial
of his faith, this one fact is inferential, Abraham
learned his mistake in supposing that he had a
right to his son's life.
Alone stood the nation calling Abraham "father,"
above other nations in its respect for the sanctity of
life under the command " Thou shalt not kUl."
Except in judicial punishments this command was
supreme. Repeatedly the people were warned
against any act that should jeopardize hfe. Their
own sinfulness did not release them from the law.
Modem respect for the sanctity of human life dates
back chiefly to this one Book alone as its source.
Waiving all other methods of murder, we com
pare the teachings of the Bible with those of the
foremost nations in two respects ; infanticide and
gladiatorial shows. Between these two extremes
all other methods find a place.
Infanticide : Against the Hebrew conception of
the sacredness of life, we can make no appeal to
Egypt that offered human sacrifices at least cent-

74 THE RADICAL BOOK.
uries after Abraham ; and whose " Bride of the
Nile " became the annual offering of the most beau
tiful maiden as a national sacrifice. No more can
we compare with such a people Assyria or Persia,
in whose religious rites the dying cries and moans
of children, passing through the fire, revealed the
hideous cruelty of their age.
History points to Carthage, a colony of the nation
that gave the alphabet to the Greeks and made its
language felt among the Hebrews ; yet among the
Carthaginians parents were " more cruel than wild
beasts, inhumanly giving up their children, and
annually depopulating their cities by destroying
the most beautiful of their youth, in obedience to
the bloody dictates of their oracles and false gods."
If we turn to the remotest East we find the same
story. Confucius was frightened at the cheapness
of human life as shown in the frequent murders
in all ranks. It was a dreary picture he drew ;
"the world had fallen into decay, and right prin
ciples had disappeared. Perverse discourses and
oppressive deeds were waxen rife." If possible,
the morals of India have been even worse.
Relatively alone against the world until Christ's
coming stood the Hebrew nation with its Book.
It was the preparation for a yet brighter day.

THE RADICAL BOOK. 75
The matchless lament of King David over his
child's death, was probable among no other people.
The prophetic vision of the bright day to come
found its climax in the words, " a little child shall
lead them ; " and in the watching of the nation for
the child of the promise, every other child was
safe. We turn, however, from the old to the new;
from the prophecies to the " glad tidings."
In a certain respect the issue is clearly defined.
Greece had passed her inheritance over to Rome ;
and Rome was mistress of the world when Chi-ist
came. Over against the literature of Greece and
Rome, classed as humanities, we still keep the Old
Testament, to which is added the New. It is some
what remarkable that the " glad tidings " should
be immediately succeeded by the murder of all the
little children of Betlilehem.
The laws of Lycurgus, given to Sparta the ninth
century B. c, ordered the destruction of all weakly
children in a chasm under the lonely Taygetus.
Plutarch writing eight hundred years later, certi
fied to the carrying out of such a law, as he had
seen several youths whipped to death at the foot
of the altar of Diana. It was the teaching of
Aristotle that none who were mained or imperfect,
should be left to grow up. Plato in his Repub-

76 THE RADICAL BOOK.
lie advised the abandonment of such children as
seemed inferior, to some mysterious, unknown place
to die. The custom universal in Greece made the
law of heartless cruelty.
In such laws as these the Romans were apt
scholars. The Empire that could endure a Herod
or a Nero would exercise little mercy. Between
a Seneca, called a Moralist, boasting of the drown
ing of disabled children, and Paul his contem
porary, there is all the distance between darkness
and light.
Cicero admitted such a deed as right. This
power of inflicting death was carried out. The
father could no more be punished for killing his
son or daughter than for inflicting the lightest
punishment. In such a state of morals, a revolution lay hidden
in the words of Christ : " Suffer the little children
to come unto me, and forbid them not ; for of such
is the kingdom of God." We need not trace the
steps of such a revolution. From the nature of the
case the change must have been of slow growth. It
takes time for the largest trees to grow, but in
their silent expansion their roots can undermine the
heaviest walls. It required time for the roots of
Christianity to tear down what Pagan immorality

THE RADICAL BOOK. 77
had built up. For nearly five centuries the silent
revolution was making its way before the Roman
Empire was Christianized. It was a century and
a quarter after Christ, before human sacrifices in
the Empire became obsolete. It was nearly two
centuries before a Roman lawyer dared advocate
the teachings of the fathers in the church ; but at
length the wise teachings of Christian Councils
prevailed. The secret of such a revolution has been rightly
asserted to rest in " the Christian doctrine of the
inestimable value of each immortal soul; , . .
the distinguishing and transcendent characteristic
of every society into which the spirit of Christian
ity has passed."
The Gladiatorial Shows: If the character of a
people is seen in the value placed upon life, their
morals are likewise seen in their amusements. It
is the surest key unlocking the hearts of men. If
idleness is marked by dissipating plays, then cru
elty of heart is evidenced by delight in specta
cles of agony and death. The character of Spain
is epitomized in her bull fights; it cannot be
otherwise. Words fail in description of games in which liv
ing men were the desperate actors. Cicero com-

78 THE RADICAL BOOK,
mended these games as the best antidote against
the fear of death. They were approved by Pliny
the younger ; while Marcus Aurehus simply com
plained of their monotony rather than cruelty.
From Britain to Syria each town, with rarest ex
ceptions, had its annual games, over which death
held high carnival. At triumphs, feast-days and
funerals, it was the same.
Side by side criminals and Christians were chained
and fed for the conflict. The conversions to Chris
tianity meant more actors for the arena. Women
and children were dragged upon the scene as food
for the famished lions. Roman men and matrons
scarce gave heed to the piteous cry for mercy. If
a gladiator showed timidity he was inhumanly tor
tured. Every land was scoured to provide wild beasts
to contend with each other or with men. At the
inauguration of the Colosseum, five thousand
wild, and four thousand tame beasts were killed.
And in recognition of Trajan's Dacian victories
the arena was strewn with eleven thousand dead
beasts. Such was the pastime of a Nero, Claudius and
Caligula, gloating over the scenes of horror in which
men fought, instigated by cruel commands. Ten

THE RADICAL BOOK. 79
thousand men fought to their death under com
mand of Trajan ; Titus, characterized by his people
" the Clement," ordered a show lasting one hundred
days. From the earliest days of Christianity, no Chris
tian faltered in his protest against the custom ; re
buking it as sin and murder. At dreary intervals
the growth of a purer morality was seen in the
edicts of emperors. Gladiators were refused bap
tism ; and every Christian who attended the games
was excommunicated. The last of such spectacles
was in Rome A. d. 404 under Honorius. A devout
monk from the East resolved that the end must
come. At the call for the conflict he too rushed
upon the arena to part the combatants. Rage and
fury seized the spectators who stoned him to death ;
but the blood of the monk Telemachus sealed the
last game of death between man and man. Men
were afterwards compelled to fight with wild beasts,
but the scenes of cruelty were at last ended — a
trophy of the Christian faith. We adduce no prej
udiced witness in Mr. Lecky, whose words con
cerning so terrible an evil are unanimously certified
in aU history; "Christianity alone was powerful
enough to tear this evil plant from the Roman
soil."

80 THE RADICAL BOOK.
II. The Book, and its Mission among the Weak
and Infirm.
That character alone is great that has sympathy
with the helpless. Just as divine greatness shines
in gentleness, so is it with human actions. The
heart that knows no compassion is weak. In this
domain of compassion the Book stands compara
tively alone. The Ethics of Aristotle and the Ideal
Republic of Plato knew nothing of it. There was
liberality in Greece and Rome, but it lacked the
principle of love ; it was largely the work of the
state. The multitudes helped were become politi
cal allies in return. Pagan liberality was self-
seeking, while Christian charity was self-denying.
Paganism was concerned in making citizens,
while Christianity gained its power from the con
ception of each soul as immortal, and as being the
representative of Christ. The necessity of coining
a word for " love " proves its absence until Christ
came ; it was " a world without love." We are
compelled to observe the pre-eminent achievements
of the churches in their charities.
The Old Testament and the New had the same
purpose in this respect ; with this difference, what
was legally done became afterwards a voluntary
act. Paganism brought gifts to the gods and laid

THE RADICAL BOOK. 81
them upon the altar ; Christians likewise brought
gifts to the altar, but they were for the poor.
Tertullian counted every needy one an altar, when
he said: " Our compassion gives more in the streets
than yours does in the temples." The early fathers,
Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria
insist upon these gifts as thankofferings to be given
to the needy.
With the inception of Christianity every Chris
tian home was opened to the poor and the sick.
There were no hospitals ; since every house was
for charity. There was no orphanage ; since every
disciple was ready to adopt the friendless. There
were of the poor alone in Antioch, some ten thou
sand dependent upon the charities of the churches.
In the earlier church life, rich and poor met at the
agapae or love feasts, where the poor were fed.
Every blessing covered by the Saviour's words
they sought ; the hungry were fed ; strangers,
passing through the cities and towns, were given
resting places and refreshments ; the ready, willing
hands gave garments to the destitute; they gave
their own couches to the sick ; and at great ex
pense ministered to those in prison and paid large
ransoms to release the captives. When taunted
by the Arians as to this waste, Ambrose replied :

82 THE RADICAL BOOK.
" It is far more useful to preserve souls for the
Lord than to keep gold. . . . The church does
not possess gold to hoard, but to distribute it, and
to help with it in distress." Upon a single occasion
the church ransomed twelve thousand prisoners at
an immense sacrifice of about fifty thousand dollars.
By special decree in A. D. 400, prison visitation was
required of the bishops.
Out from such a Christian home life and atmos
phere, in later days special organizations of charity
for the helpless have been formed. The many
sidedness of their charities is revealed in Justi
nian's legislation ; houses for strangers ; for the
sick ; for widows ; for orphans ; for the aged.
The first public hospital upon which the sun ever
shone was founded in the fourth century by the
charity of a Christian woman. It was an out
growth of the Christian faith, although late in
appearing, when the first hospital for the insane
was founded in the fifteenth century, — founded
because of pity for the maniacs whom the hooting
crowds followed through the streets of Valencia.
Christianity is the religion that took earliest pity
upon the blind in the founding of hospitals, shed
ding its light upon their midnight darkness. Seek
out the helpless, and you have discovered the field

THE RADICAL BOOK. 83
for Christian labor. There is not a weary one in
reach of men whom Christ does not befriend. The
sign of Christ's authority was evidenced in the mes
sage He sent back to John ; " the blind receive their
sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the
poor have the gospel preached to them." Meas
ured by human power, it is only as the Church
shall do a similar work that it can be said to
resemble its Masterj
" The silent revolution which Christianity wrought
in social morahty," says a recent writer in the Brit-
tanica, " cannot be measured by legislation. It is
to be traced in a purer literature, a higher moral
life, a better public spirit, and, above all, in the
establishment of buildings for the reception of
strangers, almshouses for the poor, hospitals and
orphan-houses for the sick and the forsaken, and
houses of refuge for the support of helpless old
men and women. All these were due to the
church." True discipleship is known by its humanity and
its loving service, a service given to those who
cannot repay. The command of Christ included
" the poor, the mained, the halt and the blind."
From our obligations to such helpless ones there

84 THE RADICAL BOOK.
is no release. There is something sublime in the
help given the weak and the suffering, by the
strong. The divine answer comes not often on
the wings of the wind ; but the cry to God is
heard and felt in the sympathy of the human
heart. Not yet have we reached the limit of power
wrought by the precepts unfolded in the Book of
books ; we are to witness its conflicts on sterner
paths. We are to mark its progress by the clash
ing of armies, and hear its amen to truth in the
roar of cannon. We have dwelt upon the silent
sources of power, the right to life and the rights
of the helpless as revealed in the work of Chris
tian charity. We take the question and its answer
by Theodore Parker for our own. " How much
has the Bible done for mankind? No abuse has
deprived us of its blessings. You trace its path
across the world from the day of Pentecost to
this day. As a river springs up in the heart of a
sandy continent having its father in the skies and
its birthplace in distant unknown mountains ; as
the stream rolls on, enlarging itself, making in
that arid waste a belt of verdure wherever it turns
its way; creating palm groves and fertile plains
where the smoke of the cottages curls up at even-

THE RADICAL BOOK. 85
tide, and marble cities send the gleam of their
splendor far into the sky ; such has been the course
of the Bible on the earth. ... It has made a
deeper mark on the world than the rich and beauti
ful literature of all the heathen."
The pillars of civihzation rest upon these two
corner stones ; the sacredness of life and the uplift
ing power of love, — these are the two fundamen
tal truths that co-exist beneath all the pages of the
Book of books. Upon these are builded whatever
there is of progress in empires. The life that is
sacred shall have its sacred rights. Without these
there can be no liberty and no progress. Every
vexing question of modern times is measured by its
nearness to, or distance from, these great truths ;
questions of war and peace ; freedom and slavery ;
capital and labor; theology and bigotry.
By a logical inference, as the fruit reveals the
nature of the tree, so the living power of these two
principles will be seen in the daily life of Christian
nations. The principle of the sacredness of life
will be proven in a national progress surpassing
other peoples, which is a recognized fact. Between
Asia and Europe there can be no comparison.
The same is true of the happiness that is a natural
resultant of an inculcated benevolence.

86 THE RADICAL BOOK.
Men who deny the religion will recognize its
power. "France must have religion," said an
early minister to Louis Philippe ; " the only true
foundation of a nation is morality, and the founda
tion of morality is religion; and this again rests
upon the Bible." In the most solemn moment of
the Ufe of Girard, disciple of Voltaire, he penned
for his "will" that no ecclesiastic, missionary or
minister of any sect, should ever hold any connec
tion with the college that should bear his name ;
nor should they trespass within its premises as
visitors; but as if there could be morality apart
from religion, he willed that the purest principles
of morality should be taught. True to their trust
the guardians of such an institution were com
pelled to adopt the Bible that he scorned as the
best book of morals.
The skepticism of Thomas Jefferson did not
deter him from copying into a manuscript vol
ume of forty-six pages, for his own private use, all
the ethical precepts of Jesus of Nazareth. These
are his words : " Of all the systems of morality,
ancient and modern, which have come under my
observation, none appear to me so pure as that of
Jesus." Again having spoken of cutting away all
other portions of the Scriptures save those contain-

THE RADICAL BOOK. 87
ing the words of Jesus, he continues : " There will
be found remaining the most sublime and benevo
lent code of morals which has ever been offered to
man." Akin to such an estimate is that of Franklin con
cerning Jesus of Nazareth : " I think his system of
morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the
best the world ever saw, or is hkely to see."
Pantheism claims its Goethe ; and yet bowing
before Jesus as "a manifestation of the highest
principle of morality," the great German master
thus spoke concerning the Gospels: "there is in
them the reflection of a greatness which emanated
from the person of Jesus, and which was of as
divine a kind as was ever seen upon earth." We
are quoting no ephemeral language in this greatest
literary character of the nineteenth century, in his
clear conviction : " let mental culture go on advanc
ing, let the natural sciences go on gaining in depth
and breadth, and the human mind expand as it
may, it will never go beyond the elevation and
moral culture of Christianity as it glistens and
shines forth in the gospel."
Mr. Lecky in his reference to Jesus has said that
" the simple record of three short years of active
life has done more to regenerate and to soften man-

88 THE RADICAL BOOK.
kind than all the disquisitions of philosophers, and
all the exhortations of moralists. . . . The power
of the love of Christ has been displayed alike in
the most heroic pages of Christian martyrdom, in
the most pathetic pages of Christian resignation,
in the tenderest pages of Christian charity."
" It is impossible," says Stuart MUl, in his Dis
sertations, " to find in the ideals of any philosophy,
even the latest, a single point which is not antici
pated and ennobled in Christianity."
It was because of no deep leaning to revelation
that Fichte wrote : " the ancient and venerable rec
ord," (in which we find the Hebrew teachings,)
" taken altogether, contains the prof oundest and
the loftiest wisdgm, and presents those results to
which all philosophy must at last return."
The multiplication of witnesses does not add to
the truth. The Book as a power in morals has
challenged its opposers. It was the great ex
pounder of our Constitution who said in his Plym
outh oration : " Whatever makes men good Chris
tians makes them good citizens ; " an opinion echoed
by Gov. Seward when he declared : " the exist
ing government of this country could never have
had an existence but for the Bible."
We need not pass back to Sir Isaac Newton to

THE RADICAL BOOK. 89
learn that the Scriptures of God are the sublimest
and profoundest philosophy ; nor need we stand
by the death bed of Sir Walter Scott, the " wizard
of the North," to learn that among all books there
is but one, even as among men there has been but
One whose being was divine. "Know it well,"
says Harvard's philosopher, "the only choice for
us in this piping nineteenth century, lies between
this old philosophy of the Hebrew, and the phil
osophy of despair, the pessimism of Hartmann and
Schopenhauer," The dethronement of Olympian Jupiter has left
no dreary void ; the rent veil of Isis has brought
no disaster ; the old myths have faded away while
Truth has found her place. The unreal has given
way to the real. The instability of civilization
without the Bible is recognized on all sides.
You recall the matchless description of Macau-
lay upon the gift of Athens to man ; a descrip
tion illustrative at the same time of the tendency
to degeneration among nations and the power of
the intellect that survives. " Her freedom and
her power have for more than twenty centuries
been annihilated ; her people have degenerated into
timid slaves ; her language into a barbarous jar
gon ; her temples have been given up to the sue-

90 THE RADICAL BOOK.
cessive depredations of Romans, Turks and Scotch
men ; but her intellectual empire is imperishable.
And, when those who have rivalled her greatness
shall have shared her fate ; when civilization and
knowledge shall have fixed their abode in distant
continents ; when the sceptre shall have passed
away from England ; when perhaps travellers from
distant regions shall in vain labor to decipher on
some mouldering pedestal the name of our proud
est chief ; shall hear savage hymns chanted to some
misshapen idol over the ruined dome of our proud
est temple ; and shall see a single naked fisherman
wash his nets in the river of the ten thousand
masts, — her influence and her glory will still sur
vive, — fresh in eternal youth, exempt from muta
bility and decay, immortal as the intellectual prin
ciple from which they derived their origin, and over
which they exercise their control."
We tear down no history to exalt the Book
that was venerable before Grecian history began.
Against the world, but for Palestine, Greece would
stand alone. Her writers could point to the Vale
of Tempe, but not Gethsemane ; the boasted mount
ain was Olympus, and not Calvary; her oracles
dubious and uncertain were no unfading, undying
Word; from her philosophers the apostle to the

THE RADICAL BOOK. 91
Gentiles has gained the crown. She had her Soc
rates whose wisdom has faded before that of the
Nazarene ; she had brains, but no heart. Rome,
too, had her place and her hour. She Hkewise was
weighed and found wanting. Her highways,
diverging from the golden milestone, were lost in
distant lands. Her eagles were the world's terror.
Like Babylon of old, she sat a queen.
The Star of Bethlehem shone on her fields. Her
Herod was John the Baptist's assassin. The san
dalled feet of the Christ trod her acres. The
transfiguration glinted her domain. The Christ
stood before her Pilate for his sentence. Roman
law sanctioned his death. Roman soldiers gam
bled for his seamless coat. Rome was silent when
Jewish hatred plaited the crown of thorns, and put
a worthless reed into the sacred hand for a sceptre.
Brutal laughter greeted each act in that solemn
farce ; but in his hand there is a sceptre ; on his
forehead there is a crown, and before Him the
world bends its knee. Paganism and Judaism
were merry when they clothed Him in scarlet, but
the robe they threw over Him became their own
winding sheet.

IV.
THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
The two master ideas in all beneficent move
ments have been God and Liberty ; such was the
teaching of Everett, that peer among scholars,
orators and statesmen. We do not repeat the in
fluence resultant upon our conception of the divine
character ; nor can we imagine a history in which
battalions of warriors or multitudes of scholars
have availed in keeping off from human events
God's disposing hand. God is not dead; nor
does He need human defenders.
It would not withdraw from the power of these
two ideas, should we refer to the history of human
progress as the work of God himself elevating man
step by step into liberty ; but lest an assumption of
the relations between the divine and the human be
called begging the question, we turn again to the Book
and its teachings in three particulars ; upon slavery,
the elevation of woman, and the dignity of labor.
92

THE BOOK OF LIBERTY. 93
I. Slavery. Liberty means more than the right
to live ; it means absolute freedom from any out
side and unjust restraint. Liberty is man's normal
state, and yet few have kept it. The history of
mankind has largely been that of servitude.
The lives of all ancient Egypt were in the keep
ing of her Pharaohs ; the pyramids are monuments
of the imperial despotism. Ancient Greece exalted
slavery in her laws and by her philosophers. Some
of the brightest authors of Greece were slaves ;
and the same was true of Rome. Terence, Epic-
tetus, Publius Syrus and other classic writers were
slaves. Some of the most eminent of her sculptors,
physicians and architects were of the same class.
It is a travesty on humanity when in the camp of
Lucullus, at Pontus, men were sold for the value
in our money of sixty-two cents each. The Gallic
wars alone of Julius Caesar added almost half a
million slaves to the empire. The magnitude of
every conquest was marked by the number of cap
tives in the conqueror's train. Rome in the hight
of her power owned slaves from every known na
tion. The old civilization up to the time of Chris
tianity rested upon slavery as a central fact.
There were more slaves than freemen in Greece.
Gibbon in his monumental history counts the popu-

94 THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
lation of the Roman empire at one hundred and
twenty millions, of whom one half or sixty millions
were slaves.
The hopelessness of such a state of society beg
gars description. It was the fruit of despair. The
slave market was like the cattle market. Slaves
were not counted as persons, only as property.
They were branded with searing irons on their
breasts. Plutarch records of the Roman Flaminius
that he put a slave to death in order to show a
guest what are the agonies of death, because the
guest had never seen a man die. For breaking a
vase another was hacked into pieces and his body
thrown to the fishes. Slaves were crucified by
hundreds, that their brutal masters might gloat
upon their sufferings and tortures. One island in
the Tiber was set apart for aged and worn-out
slaves, where without care they should die.
These same ideas obtained to some extent among
the Hebrews. Debtors unable to fulfill their prom
ises passed into servitude, even as did thieves to
make restitution ; but at the end of seven years'
servitude every one was t6 become free ; while
every fiftieth year was a jubilee year of general
emancipation of native slaves. The teachings of
Moses are more of liberty than of slavery. With

THE BOOK OF LIBERTY. 95
a higher ideal than in all other nations, there was
yet a general truth in the words of the Jews to
ChrLst : " We were never in bondage to any man."
True, their very political history had begun in
Egyptian slavery ; once and again they had fallen
captive to some conquering nation, yet these were
the temporary conditions rather than the perma
nent state.
We shall note the influence of Christian doctrines
upon the nations leading up to liberty; yet we
pause to parallel the Jewish Scriptures with the
Hebrew life. Freedom is that absence of all out
side imposed restraint either upon mind or body.
Paul's imprisonments did not fetter his soul. Eng
land cast Hampden into a dungeon ; yet that dun
geon's stifled air could not repress or overcome
his obedience to conscience alone. The despot's
shackles may chafe the freest man's wrists. In
darker centuries, some of the world's best men
have been imprisoned or fettered or exiled. In this
sense, we regard liberty as that state in which the
spirit of man is undaunted by all outside imperial
ism. We are not to ask whether the Bible has insured
its adherents against imprisonments or death ; but
rather, what qualities does the Book inspire and

96 THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
develop in spite of these ? The outside condition
is far inferior to the inner spirit. Right and phys
ical might are not identical terms. Liberty springs
from within and fights its way up. Our fathers
had the spirit of liberty as truly when they signed
the Declaration of Independence as when that in
dependence, eight years later, was won. The con
flict and long weary struggles were the tests of
their character.
We have observed that the old civihzation, up
to the time of Christ, was based upon servitude ;
we are to note that from the beginnings of Chris
tianity the central fact has been liberty and free
dom. In all the centuries before Christ the secret
of the servitude lay in the lack of the spirit of
liberty. We make an exception, however, in the
case of the Jews.
Among the dominant nations this strange people
held and still hold a unique place. No people or
race has ever suffered more of the world's hatred.
They have been the captives of Babylon and of
Rome. For eighteen centuries, they have been a
scattered people without king or senate. Oppres;
sive laws, backed by the enginery of governments,
have galled their proud spirit. The curse of the
world seems sometimes to follow them, as if in

THE BOOK OF LIBERTY. 97
answer to their imprecation against the world's
Saviour. Taxes unjust and repeated have been im
posed. They have been banished from nations as if
worse than lepers. Unjust laws against their mar
riages attest the intolerance of those who should
have been wiser. Yet despite all their inflicted
wrongs, the world itself cannot weaken their spirit
of liberty. On two correlative truths their courage
is builded ; Jehovah their helper, and they his
chosen people. They cannot be crushed. London
elected Baron Lionel de Rothschild five times before
England allowed him to vote; to-day the great
nations of Europe dare not make a move on the field
of the Continent unless the Rothschilds approve.
This strange people lay no claim to a behef in
the Christian doctrines. Their Book is the Old
Testament. A scientific writer has asserted that
as a race they are of longer life than all others,
and are relatively free from epidemics " because of
their dietary laws and ceremonial ablutions." But
if externals are thus important, much more readily
can we observe the source of their liberty, in the
Scriptures, and catch in their songs of victory their
own inspiration. We risk the assertion, the Jews
are the challenge to the world that their Scriptures
are the Book of Liberty.

98 THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
Christianity, however, while containing all these
incentives to liberty means far more. It is not
enough to be free; Christianity gives freedom to
others. Instead of being called a chattel, Chris
tianity made the slave a brother. The atonement
of Christ they counted as including the slave, and
they could not maltreat him. The early Church,
as shown by the Apostolic Constitutions, treated
masters and slaves as equals. The Church became
the intercessor between the slave and his master.
Any slave escaping from a cruel service in the
fifth century could find a safe refuge in the Church.
The legislation of Justinian was given in the in
terests of the bondman.
Referring to the wonderful change and its cause,
Mr. Lecky says : " The spirit of Christianity moved
over this chaotic society, and not merely alleviated
the evils that convulsed it, but also reorganized
it on a new basis. It did this in three ways; it
abohshed slavery, it created charity, it inculcated
self-sacrifice." This same writer is authority when he continues :
" Other influences could produce the manumission
of many slaves, but Christianity alone could effect
the profound change of character that rendered
possible the abolition of slavery."

THE BOOK OF LIBERTY. 99
II. Elevation of Women. For lack of time we
refer but briefly to the influence of the Bible doc
trines upon woman's position. It is impossible to
appreciate her degradation previous to Christianity,
and even since, where the reUgion of Christ has
no foothold. Strange that the loveliest of the race
by nature should ever be treated as a beast of bur
den. In China, India and Japan, women to-day are
hod-carriers. The severest burdens in Eastern lands
are borne by women, staggering under their loads.
They work on railroads. They plough and plant
the fields, despised except as slaves of men.
In a sacred Hindoo book it is decreed: "A
woman has no other god on earth than her hus
band. . . . Though he be aged, infirm, dissipated,
a drunkard or a debauchee, she must stiU regard
him as her god."
The degradation of Mohammedan women is
doubtless due to the silence of the Koran concern
ing her sex. In the old Roman code the husband
had actual power over the wife, and no law could
touch him if he put her to death ; the law grant
ing her no more rights than it did a slave.
In Greece her position was just as servile; a
truth recognized in the fact that there is scarce
a mention of a noble woman in all her illustrious

100 THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
annals. Among all the distinguished Roman
names there is not one of an authoress.
Pre-eminent among the ancients in their respect
for womanhood were the Hebrews. No other
nation approached them in this respect. The wife
and mother was exalted in the family life. Miriam
held an honored place beside that of her brother,
the great Lawgiver. Deborah sat in judgment
upon civic affairs. The world lingers yet over
the beautiful idyl that crowns the name of Ruth.
All that was best in history once rested upon
the trembling prayer of Esther. Contrast with the
judgment of Pericles, that woman's glory consisted
in not being mentioned, the Hebrew histories ante
dating his brilliant age by more than a thousand
years. Compared with the account of creation,
double the space of Scripture is given to the be
trothal of Rebekah. What a sublime pathos in the
story of Rachel's life ! what mother's heart does not
respond to Hannah's song ! In social position and
honor, the Hebrew Book gives woman a higher place
than, after these more than three thousand years,
she is to-day allowed in any nation not Christian.
" To Moses," says Dr. Lord, in his " Beacon Lights
of History," " more than to any man in the world's
history, do we owe the elevation of woman."

THE BOOK OF LIBERTY. 101
Crown the old records with the Gospels ! The
sisters of Bethany have given their names to the
race. They who ministered to Christ knew not
how great were the coming blessings upon all who
should own his name. Women whom the last
lingering twilight could not drive from his tomb,
and whose burdens of spices were laid down before
the morning light had goldened the temple's roof,
have become the recipients of his richest gifts. It
is a story of pathos and of power, the history of
woman's elevation; her escape from a thraldom
worse than death. Just as the greater liberty of
woman was enjoyed by the nation with the Hebrew
Book, so in a larger degree the glory of woman
hood has shone brightest in the light of the Gos
pels. Chivalry is possible only among a Christian
people. Islamism grants no sovereignty to woman.
No queen ever ruled in Greece or Rome. This is
a title pertaining to the Christian faith, among all
cultivated peoples ; but even where no crown glis
tens upon her forehead, she yet rules.
Seven months before our national Declaration of
Independence was formulated, its main doctrine
was penned to her husband by Abigail Adams.
When another gifted woman opened to the perusal
of the nation and the world the story of a lowly

102 THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
cabin, slavery was doomed. The first to protest
against slavery in England was a woman. Mod
ern missions gathered their deeper inspiration over
the sacrifice and death of Harriet Newell. For
two and a half centuries, no voice had been able
to waken the nation to its inhuman treatment of
the Indians until " Ramona " was laid by a
woman's heart upon the nation's conscience. God
crowns woman for a share in his own work.
The great jurist, Caleb Cushing, was right when
he wrote : " The Christian religion levels upward ;
elevating all men to the same high standard of
sanctity, faith and spiritual promise on earth as in
heaven. Just so it is that wherever Christianity
is taught, it inevitably dignifies and exalts the
female character." It is not eVen necessary to
expound the relations of cause and effect, when
the truth is clear as the sunlight ; woman's charac
ter and power in society are elevated in proportion
to the acceptance given the Bible. It was the
cautious remark of John Adams that " the manners
of women were the most infallible barometer to
ascertain the degree of morality in a nation."
If, as we cannot doubt, this remark of the accom
plished scholar and statesmen is true, then from
the superior excellence of women in Christian

THE BOOK OF LIBERTY. 103
lands, we can point to the unequalled morality of
the Book that produces it. " It is quite accurate
to say," says a writer in " The Forum," " that the
most precious of the ethical elements of European
and American life are mainly derived from and
are closely bound up with this religion, which as
the fittest seems marked out for survival in the
struggle for existence among the world's faiths."
HI. The Dignity of Labor. Add for one mo
ment to the emancipating power of such a book
its insistance upon the employment of men. From
the purpose in creation, that man should dress
and keep the ground, we may read the dignity of
labor. The first culture was agricultui'e. The
result of slavery tended to bring labor into con
tempt. Plato would punish a shopkeeper as a
criminal. Aristotle taught that in a perfect state
no citizen should be a mechanic. Augustus,
under whose reign Christ was born, condemned a
senator to death because he had debased himself
by assisting in some workmanship. Against such
Grecian and Roman contempt, every Jew was
compelled to learn a trade. In such a society
the Son of Mary was a carpenter ; and against a
Roman haughtiness, he chose for his disciples the
workingmen of Galilee. No less honor is given

104 THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
the great apostle who earned liis living at his hon
est trade. To such a society, if they had stopped
to heed it, Paul's words must have been a surprise
and rebuke : " if any man will not work, neither
shall he eat."
From such considerations thus briefiy epitomized
we observe the historic relations of the Book and
Liberty. The secret of such a power in its work
ings must be noticed. Liberty in its outward
expression is the final result of causes far back.
There are three distinctive steps in all real prog
ress : the inspiration of the idea, the conviction
resultant upon such an idea, and the expression of
that conviction.
No battle for liberty can be really fought until
the conviction based upon the idea has become
fixed. All law, as an expression, is nullified when
there is no public conviction of its necessity. The
moral must precede the civil or legal act. Legal
enactments made before their time are an injury.
Constantine made the Roman Empire Christian by
name, before it was imbued with the spirit of the
Clirist ; and under his brilliant reign pagan cor
ruption crept in where there was not a fixed Chris
tian faith to oppose.
All history is proof of the same law. Liberty

THE BOOK OF LIBERTY. 105
grows out of the hearts of men, but in their con
servatism it is a slow growth. Ideas require years
in coining to the surface. The attack upon Sumter
was the result of the resolutions introduced in Con
gress in 1798 — sixty-three years before the actual
commencement of the RebeUion. Between the ordi
nance of 1787 and the Proclamation of Emancipa
tion, two generations of men passed away. The
imprisonment of the first man who dared advocate
resistance to taxation without representation as
tjrranny, was in 1687. From that date until the
question had assumed a national conviction and ex
pression upon the bloody fields of Concord and Lex
ington, eighty-nine years had passed. These are
but examples of the universal law.
The question has often been asked concerning
Christ and his Apostles, Why did not they forbid
slavery ? They took the better and only true way.
They began with the inspiration of the two pro
found principles ; the fatherhood of God, and the
brotherhood of all men. No man is master, was
Christ's doctrine. In Christ Jesus, so the great
Apostle declared, there is neither Jew nor Gentile,
male nor female, bond nor free. Christians upheld
governments, suffering wrongfully rather than resist
" the powers that be." The kingdom of heaven

106 THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
was to be like leaven, working through the long
dark night. The Golden Rule could be trusted
against the despotism of cruel Rome. Paul's treat
ment of the slave Onesimus as a brother beloved ;
his commands that masters should be just and
merciful to those in bondage — these were the
beginnings of the truth working as leaven among
men. Judging by the slow growth of modern
ideas, the marvel is that the power of the Gospel
of Liberty was felt so soon. The law of love con
quers and has conquered from the first. " The
truth shall make you free."
The earhest converts from paganism attribute
the power of Christianity over pagans to three
chief reasons :
(1.) " The sublimity and simplicity of the Chris
tian doctrines of God, sin, and salvation ; (2.) The
noble purity of the Christian life, more especially
of the life of a Christian woman ; and (3.) The
grandeur of the doctrine of creation contained in
the Old Testament Scriptures."
Add to this brief reference of the power of truth
in giving liberty, another and important truth ;
namely, all despotism has become self-imposed.
The protest against human servitude is everywhere
in the Scriptures.

THE BOOK OF LIBERTY. 107
No power was conferred upon the priest over
the souls of men. Until the exodus the churchly
order of the priesthood was unknown except as
the patriarch led in certain rites. The priesthood
and the ritual added Httle to purity of worship.
Melchizedek was superior even to Abraham, and
the " order of Melchizedek " was greater than that
of Aaron. If we come to the apostles we observe
that the sign of their office was service, and not
arbitrary power. Against such a service, the his
tory of the Church sees the priesthood assume a
power in ruling kings and peoples. Priests have
made themselves crowns and sceptres, but for this
the Book is not responsible. So there have been
kings among men; yet against these the Bible
holds its protest. In their choice of a king, the
Jews rejected God. It is a notable fact that
the very despotisms which it has required Christi
anity to break down were self-chosen in spite of
bibhcal protests.
Republicanism — we use the word in its broader
meaning — is but the return to biblical princi
ples. The philosophy of Locke, that government
involves " the consent of the governed," is as old
as Moses. English law assumes that ultimately
the king has become the universal successor of the

108 THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
people. Chateaubriand pronounces the election of
the rulers by the ruled, one " among the three or
four discoveries that have created another uni
verse." The New England town-meeting, that
consummation of democracy, was built upon the
principles laid down by Jethro to Moses ; and Mr.
Everett says, "The discovery of the system of
representative government is the greatest political
event that has ever occuiTcd."
All laws of civilized peoples are based upon the
principles of the ten commandments given at
Sinai, designed to build up a nation that should be
worthy of its heritage, and fitted to rule itself.
De Quincey, with his rare insight, has told us that,
"stealthiei- than the growth of a forest, are the
footsteps of Christianity amongst the political work
ings of man ; " and yet for fifteen hundred years
before the " Light of the Nations " came, the old
Hebrew Book had been a recognized power.
In confirmation of these statements we may well
inquire concerning the beliefs of our fathers. Will
you call it superstition when, in the darkness of
the Revolution, the American Congress imported
twenty thousand Bibles to distribute among the
colonies ? In the " Journal of Congress," that
records the vote (September 11, 1777), their rea-

THE BOOK OF LIBERTY. 109
sons for such action are given : " The use of the
Bible is so universal, and its importance so great,
that your committee refer the above to the con
sideration of Congress." What was this act but
that which M. de Tocqueville approved when he
affirmed, "religion is the companion of hberty in
aU its battles " ; and, "none but a religious people
can bear liberty " ? Some of our most honored
names on the Bench — John Jay, Theoplulus Par
sons and Frelinghuysen — were identified with the
Bible societies in their great work. We listen to
the words of John Adams to Thomas Jefferson in
his reference to the religions of men: "I have
examined all, as well as my narrow sphere, my
straitened means, and my busy Ufe would allow
me, and the result is, that the Bible is the best
book in the world. It contains more of my little
philosophy than all the libraries I have seen."
To two books, the Bible and the spelling-book, in
the Pilgrims' hands, representing divine and human
learning, Edward Everett attributes our civilization.
In his Bunker Hill Oration, Mr. Webster asserts
the same fact: "The Bible came with them. And
it is not to be doubted that to the free and universal
reading of the Bible is to be ascribed in that age,
that men were indebted for right views of Civil

110 THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
Liberty." Referring to the Commonwealth, Mr.
Winthrop affirms : " Christianity is as clearly now
its corner-stone as if the initial letter of every
page of our statute book, like that of some monk
ish manuscript, were illuminated with the figure
of the Cross."
We are not discussing what the Commonwealth
or what the Nation would be without the Bible ;
the fact must not be forgotten, in the words of
M. de Tocqueville, that " religion gave birth to
Anglo-American society." It was this Book that
came with the Huguenots of Carolina ; it was the
charter of the Friends in Pennsylvania ; it was
woven into the character of the Dutch settlers of
Manhattan ; it was in the hands of the Churchmen
of Virginia, the Methodists of Georgia, the Puri
tans of Massachusetts. Not yet had any of these
fathomed its deepest meaning ; all had attributed
to it some of their own errors; some may have
silenced its voice where it seemed to conflict with
their deeds, while still many were waiting for new
light to gleam forth from its pages. Light has all
the while been breaking forth. It has proven
itself the most revolutionary book the world has
ever seen. A clearer light than glimmered in the
belfry of Boston's Old North Church ushered in

THE BOOK OF LIBERTY. HI
upon our nation its heavy conflict. Above the
brightness of the morning sun, Samuel Adams saw
its diviner shining on Lexington's field of blood.
Compared with its agency in making a Bunker
Hill possible, the lurid conflict of that day was
only as a glow-worm's light before that of the sun.
In every day of storm and almost despair it has
been the same ; a rainbow of purest glory spanning
the clouds that but just before were fierce and
threatening. We do not forget, when speaking of our own
national life, the statement of Hume ; that Eng
land owes her own hberty to the Puritans. Our
democratic government, as against the kingly, is
largely due to that peer among the New England
clergy, John Wise of old Ipswich, who was prophet
enough to preach, in 1687, " Democracy is Christ's
government in Church and State."
In a letter to James Otis June 8, 1776 (a few
days before the writer's death). Dr. Mayhew said :
" You have heard of the communion of churches ;
while I was thinking of this in my bed, the great
use and importance of a communion of colonies
appeared to me in a strong Ught." It is well
known that Jefferson confessed himself indebted
to the business meetings of a Christian church for

112 THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
his best ideas upon the form of national govern
ment ; while some of his " most glittering sentences
in the immortal Declaration" are borrowed from
the essay of John Wise upon the vindication of
New England Churches. Add to these influences
of the churches upon government another, and if
possible a greater, the National Constitution.
The "Body of Liberties," a marvel of learning
and liberality, was formulated in 1641, by Nathaniel
Ward, pastor of the Ipswich church. Whence
came tliis bulwark of our law is thus stated by
Bancroft : " He was competent to combine the hu
mane principles of the common law, with the princi
ples of natural right and equality, as deduced from
the Bible."
It has been held as a striking significance in the
history of the Bible and in our own country, that
the version of King James the First was finished in
1611, having been begun four years earlier; the
very time when the Cavaliers settled in James
town, and when the Pilgrims were finding refuge
in Leyden, on their way to our Plymouth. It was
surelj' the spirit of the fathers in the children
when, in our late Rebellion, the necessity of the
Bible in the conflict it had produced was not for
gotten. The spirit of the old Congress of 1777

THE BOOK OF LIBERTY. 113
seemed to breathe in the distribution of seven
hundred thousand copies of the sacred Book in
our army and navy, in a single year. The flag
of truce carried its best message when, in 1864,
almost two hundred and eighteen thousand vol
umes of the Book were forwarded into the seceded
States. In the light of truths that our nation has seen
verified, this Deathless Book stands alone. Amer
ica's great Uberator, Garrison, spoke his unshaken
faith in the Book, while scorning the deeds of many
who professed to love it, when he said, "The
Bible Society is doing more to break the fetters of
oppression and scatter the mists of delusion than
all the patriotic associations and military orders of
the world." It was to him the power to impeach
crime, to mould public opinion, and to relieve the
downtrodden. Again he speaks : " Take away the
Bible, and our warfare with oppression, and infi
delity, and intemperance, and impurity and crime,
is at an end: our weapons are wrested away — our
foundation is removed — we have no authority to
speak, and no courage to act."
But not alone the Book ! To those whose rec
ognition of the Book is by a sneer, we need but re
call an incident in the hfe of FrankUn. The scene

114 THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
was in Philadelphia, in the memorable convention
of 1787, for forming the Constitution of the United
States. More than four weeks had passed with
but little progress when the philosopher, venerable
with his eighty-one years, arose and introduced a
motion for daily prayers. "In the beginning of
the contest with Britain," he said, " when we were
sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this
room for the divine protection. Our prayers, sir,
were heard; and they were graciously answered.
. . . I have lived, sir, a long time; and the
longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of
this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men.
And, if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground with
out his notice, is it probable that an empire can
rise without his aid ? " The motion was overruled,
yet, coming from such as he, bears aU the more
weight. The multitudes of Christendom have made their
final appeal, in all questions, either to the Church
or to the Bible. The doctrine of infallibility is the
natural outgrowth of an appeal to the first ; while
the submission of the Bible to a people, practically
means the right of private judgment. The differ
ence between the Papal and Protestant churches
involves just this point; the papacy decides for

THE BOOK OF LIBERTY. 115
the individual, while Protestantism with the Book
makes an appeal to every man's conscience. This
appeal to the conscience involves both freedom of
inquiry and of thought, and the inevitable result,
freedom of action. We are not to be understood
as saying that the Church ever abandoned the
Book; but it did claim the right to interpret
the Book for the people. However truthfully it
might do this, though never making a mistake,
it would weaken intellectual and pohtical liberty,
by taking from every man's conscience this inaUena-
ble right ; for such a reason the people freest to the
use of the Bible are the freest people. The history
of the Book is the history of freedom.
The Magna Charta, wrung from King John by
the Army of God at Runnymede, was the first
great step back toward the freedom men had
forsaken, and to which only the truths of the
Golden Rule could lead them. More was needed.
Wickliffe's translation of the Book was the first
recognized step to liberty after the charter of
Runnymede. Great events were contemporary. The mariner's
compass marked out highways on oceans. The in
vention of gunpowder, that great evangel of liberty
next to the New Testament, put a power into the

116 THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
peasant's keeping that no lordly castle could resist.
The art of printing had made possible the diffusion
of knowledge, outdoing in a single generation
more than the world had ever done in all its thou
sands of years. It was the time when Columbus
gave to his sovereigns a new hemisphere. Without
the printing-press, the Bible must have remained
a sealed book ; and without the New World there
would have been no refuge for the Pilgrims of
conscience. It has been estimated that three hundred and
sixty million copies of the Bible have been issued
in Luther's version alone. Great Frederick tested
what that Book had done for Germany, when
the peasant of Potsdam, whose windmill made the
emperor nervous, replied to the threat of his sov
ereign to remove the mill by force, "There is a
Supreme Court in Berlin " ; and the mill has since
been sacredly kept, proof of the sovereignty of the
peasant and of the king.
Turn to the land of Wallace and of Bruce, and
in the picture of " The Cotter's Saturday Night "
we perceive the inspiration that has made Scot
land what it is; the Book that has elevated the
poor, and laid the foundation of that national char
acter of dominant intellectual power. We risk the

THE BOOK OF LIBERTY. 117
assertion time gives now no opportunity to prove,
that in Scotland's critical hour its future rested
upon the one man whose eagle eye took into its
range the hosts in the conflict, and who wheeled
his nation into line. He has proven his right to
the title, " The light of Scotland, the comfort of the
Church, the mirror of godhness " ; but his light was
borrowed from the Book in his hands ; its strength
gave the comfort he could impart, while the godli
ness he mirrored was like that of the old Hebrew
prophet. An army of ten thousand tramping
Highlanders or Lowlanders gave no such fear to
his queen as the thought of his prayers. Queen
Mary held the sceptre, and he held the Book ; the
sceptre has been broken. Neither stone nor shaft
marks John Knox's unknown grave. Some say a
highway runs over it ; but Scotland is his grave,
its freedom is his monument; his lasting legacy is
the Deathless Book.
Back of nations and other leaders, the history of
liberty finds its home in the city whose shadows
were reflected in the Genevan lake. One man
made Geneva what it became, and the source of
his unsurpassed power was the Book of the centu
ries. His legislation was based upon that of Moses.
Every ruler and dignitary was interested to know

118 THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
what were the opinions of John Calvin. His cor
respondents were spreading the principles he taught
in England, France, Scotland, Poland, Italy and
Germany. No trace of the natural beauty of scen
ery found a place in his works ; he was intent upon
majestic moral themes. He was " the Aristotle of
the Reformation," contending in long years against
suffering and weakness, always working, lest the
Lord at his coming should find him idle. Wliile
the works of thirty printing-presses were scattered
as seed over Europe, this man was directing the agen
cies of the French Reformation from his sick bed.
Mr. Buckle asserts that Calvinism is always
democratic ; that it is the doctrine for the poor,
and creates independence of thinking. The influ
ence of Galvanism so-called, is briefly traceable to
that fearless resistance of all civil rulers over the
Church, resulting, as another step, in resistance to
all tyranny of whatever name. Add to this the
democratic character of its ecclesiastical organiza
tions in which special power was conferred upon
the laity; a power soon to be exercised in civil
relations. But more distinctive than all these,
and of greater binding force, was that great doc
trine — held in common with those master minds
in the centuries, Augustine, Pascal and Jonathan

THE BOOK OF LIBERTY. 119
Edwards — the sovereignty of God. Before such
a theme eartiily thrones have sunk into obscurity,
and despots have lost their crowns.
Victims escaping from their persecutions, emerg
ing from the passes of the Jura in view of the city,
were said to kneel and offer their thanksgivings
for such a refuge as Geneva afforded. The char
acter of him who gave it a name has been thus
epitomized by the historian Bancroft. " Calvin
was not only the founder of a sect, but foremost
among the most efficient of modern republican
legislators. More truly benevolent to the human
race than Solon, more self-denying than Lycurgus,
the genius of Calvin infused enduring elements
into the institutions of Geneva, and made it for
the modern world, the impregnable fortress of popu
lar hberty, the fertile seed plot of democracy. . . .
We boast of our common schools. Calvin was
the founder of popular education, the inventor
of the system of free schools. . . . He that
will not honor the memory and respect the influ
ence of Calvin knows but httle of the origin of
American liberty."
In times remote from the great period of con
flict, we are apt to underestimate the agents and
agencies that have won for us a freedom so pro-

120 THE BOOK OF LIBERTY.
found. Sir Robert Cotton rescued the original
manuscript of Magna Charta from the hands of a
tailor who was about to cut it up for patterns. So
greatly do the present moment's necessities often
over-balance loyalty to the past.
We can no more deny the functions of the Book
in the history of liberty than we can put out the
sun's rays. The history of true patriotism ought to
emulate its source ; like our own Samuel Adaifls pen
ning his last production in favor of Christian truth.
In proportion as any people have given up their
adherence to the Book, so have they retrograded.
It was no less a statesman than Daniel Webster
who said : " If we abide by the principles taught
in the Bible, our country wiU go on prospering
and to prosper ; but if we and our posterity neglect
its instruction and authority, no man can tell how
sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, and bury
all our glory in profound obscurity."
We are citing no prejudiced partisan in the
authority of Professor Bowen : " The time seems
to have arrived for a more practical and immediate
verification than the world has ever witnessed of
the great truth, that the civihzation which is not
based upon Christianity is big with the elements of
its own destruction."

the BOOK AND COMMERCE.
Human activities are commensurate with con
scious wants. In proportion to the growth of
the ideal will be the efforts put forth to reach
that ideal. All growth is outward from the heart ;
no one will strive for what he does not appreciate.
Man makes his surroundings ; and those surround
ings will correspond with what he chooses. Soci
ety is but the external proof of what men are
wishing to become.
The more wants one has, the harder his strivings
to satisfy them. The savage rests content where
one of higher ideal is restless with discontent.
Savages have no natural longings for civilized life
because they are not fitted for such an environ
ment. An arrow flint is superior in their choice to
our highest work of art. They seek the objects that
are on their own level. The sole difference between
nations as between individuals, is in their choices.
121

122 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
The child chooses a rattle ; a few years later a
sled ; in after years a book ; and each larger choice
marks the mind's expansion. New desires come
with growth. We must create the wants in the
soul before supplying what those wants alone can
appreciate. Between the rattle and a bank note,
the child chooses the toy; he knows no better.
Between the sled and a library, the boy takes the
sled; he is not wise. Tolween a gold mine and
character, many a man chooses the gold ; — foolish
choice ! Men become what they personally msh ;
and seek what they vsdsh to get. There are savage
tribes in our own country, surrounded by white
settlements, who still deck themselves with blank
ets and paint, while other tribes are civilized ; the
reason for the difference is not in any surround
ings. A few of the many graduates of Hampton
have returned to their tribes and to savage cus
toms, enough to show that education is not suffi
cient. A heathen African youth spent several
years in touring the globe, visiting most of our
chief commercial cities. He saw the merchant ships
swinging at the Liverpool wharves ; he walked the
crowded thoroughfares of London; he caught a
view of Parisian pride ; he was surprised at our
New York and San Francisco. Civilization showed

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 123
him its fruits ; his dream was over, but in less than
a fortnight after his journey was finished, he cast
away every garment of civilized hfe — the lessons
of the years ignored. Man rises to the level, or
sinks to the level, where his conscious wants put
him. It requires more than civihzation to civihze.
A sewing machine put into a wigwam would be
treated as rubbish, because unappreciated. A mis
sionary after laboring ten years in South Africa,
writes that there was " no desire for a shirt or a
plough until there were conversions to Christ."
A few years since, men of enterprise constructed
and equipped twelve mUes of railroad in China;
this road the Chinese bought, and tore up the rails,
and even as late as 1883, in all that great dormant
empire there was not a mile of railroad, simply
because it was not wanted.
Within the past year, however, the Chinese gov
ernment has voted a railroad from the Gulf to
Tung-cho, near Pekin, and has other roads under
discussion. -What has made the change? The
earhest missionaries to Zululand saw thousands of
oxen lazily feeding on the hills, while the women
were bearing the burdens of agriculture. No mar
ket for ox yokes there until a great moral change
should first be wrought. "The ox yoke," says the

124 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
Ely volume upon Missions and Science, " belongs
to Christian civilization."
As a fact of history, the implements of civihza
tion belong only to Christian countries ; it there
fore becomes an important question to consider.
How is civilization extended ?
Civilization is a relative term. There is a
Chinese civilization as well as one distinctively
Mohammedan. In like manner we speak of the civ
ihzation of ancient Greece and Rome. The term
belongs to the state, while it gathers its complexion
largely from the dominating religion of the state.
To Christianize, on the other hand, signifies
something positive. It denotes bringing all whom
it reaches up to the standard of Christ's teachings.
In all nations, discipleship has the same meaning ;
the renewing of character after the same perfect
pattern. Civilization may remain stagnant, like that of
China ; while Christianity, in its pure purpose, is
never satisfied with any attainments reached ; Chris
tian civilization is always growing. Civihzation
marks a limit gained ; Christianity is creating new
wants, and becomes, in each new want it creates, a
step to something higher. There are different ideal
civilizations, yet only one ideal Christianity.

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 125
The separation of the two terms will explain
some of the excrescences of every so-called Chris
tian community. How can a Christian civilization
license an evil ? The Christianity does not license
it ; the civihzation does. How is it that rum and
missionaries have been sent out on the same ship ?
Christianity sent the missionaries, and an imper
fect civihzation sent the rum. It is a lamentable
truth, that the greatest obstacles the Christian mis
sionaries meet in their work, are made by the sail
ors on our ships. Christianity is doing its best to
elevate the civilization that calls itself Christian;
it is the spiritual at work upon the material, yet
the civilization is far behind its motive power.
The question is now legitimately reached. Does
civihzation civihze, or, is Christianity a necessity ?
There are but two recognized ways in which civ
ihzation can make itself felt outside its limits ; by
its colonies and its commerce. The late Dr. Joseph
P. Thompson, in an admirable article upon Chris
tian Missions, has conclusively treated this subject.
Both of these methods have their origin in selfish
interests, and not in any desire to benefit others.
Colonies of Phoenicia and of Greece were sent out
for the purpose of strengthening the parent nation,
and not for the civilization of barbarians. Compa-

126 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
nies of criminals have been expatriated, but only
for the sake of the State. The history of the world
has been challenged for an instance where " a civ
ilized State has ever sent forth a colony to diffuse
the blessings of civilization and to elevate man
kind." The nearest approach to such a colony was
doubtless the Emigrant Aid Society in the Kansay
struggle ; and that for the national good by which
that pivotal territory was kept on the side of free
dom ; but the moving forces of such a colonization
were in the churches and not in the State. If, how
ever, any such colonies should have been sent forth
it remained true that " civilization is not attractive
to the savage; he hates the very conditions in
which the civilized man finds his joy." This
attempt to civilize by civilization was made among
the Chippewas of Canada by the British Govern
ment, in building houses and adding the conven
iences of civilized life, but all in vain as stated in
the result given the House of Commons : " We
have come to the conplusion, from a deliberate
view of the past, that we erred, sorrowfully erred,
in the plan which was originally adopted in mak
ing civilization the first object ; for we cannot
count on a single individual that we have brought
to the full adoption of Christianity."

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 127
So, likewise, commerce is never philanthropic.
It drains colonies to enrich the kingdom, or en
courages them for what may be gained from the
outlying peoples. It is historic that the colonies
of Phoenicia and Greece passed beyond the steppes
of Tartary for deer-skins and betel-nuts ; beyond
the Caucasus for slaves; north of the Black Sea
for furs; they braved the miasmas of the Indies
for pearls and ivory; pushed into the unknown
Ophir for gold, and sailed beyond the pillars of
Hercules for tin. Commerce always guards its
own selfish interests, and gives little attention to
the well-being of men. It sells opium to China ;
it hides behind war fleets to enter Japan ; it seeks
for gain, and sometimes at the cost of national
happiness ; it exacts from the pilgrims " conditions
fit for thieves and bond-slaves ; " it compromises
morals to carry on traffic, just as when the nation's
conscience was morphized for the sake of the cotton
slavery would produce. Civihzation has its "Indian
Rings ; " Christianity its " Indian Missions."
President Seelye in his admirable lectures based
on an extended observation of Christian Missions,
^ays : " The actual results of commerce have never
appeared in the moral improvement of men ; while
in unnumbered instances they have worked dete-

128 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
rioration and decay. . . . Instead of being favor
able to missionary success, the actual infiuence of
commerce is one of the strongest hinderances to
Christian Missions."
Christianity allies commerce to itself, makes
traffic safe, but all commerce is not Christian. The
world is seldom or never made better by selfish
agencies. Civilization, by its colonies and its
commerce, may extend its benefits, but without
rehgion it is selfish to the core. Commerce with
all its power has left no trophies in the regenera
tion of nations. Civilization is the outside of the
cup or platter; real cleanliness must be from
within. Christianity creates the wants that com
merce supphes.
It would be an interesting study to notice how
every great religious movement — the Crusades
equally with the Reformation or the Pilgrim spirit
— has been followed by the commercial spirit ; it
cannot be otherwise.
In turning our attention to the value of the
Bible to the race, especially in the hne of its com
mercial progress, we observe the highest civilization
is that known as the Christian. All civilization's
shaped by its religious consciousness, and never
rises above this ideal ; all civilization is the result

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 129
of the predominant choices of individuals, shaping
society ; consequently civilization is the external
result of what man, as a generic being, becomes.
All true worthiness of being and of action is
based upon self-respect ; and in all the range of ht-
erature there is no other such exaltation of Man as
that the Bible gives. Creation points to its Creator
who makes man " in his own image." Only " a
little lower than the angels " stands this wondrous
being " crowned with glory and honor." Into this
creature's hands God gave the earth itself. Man
seems seated upon God's throne ; his dominion
almost supreme. Of earth, sky and sea, it is the
same. Bird, beast and fish are his, and every
herb and tree. Nothing is too good for him ; not
Heaven itself.
This is not the language of optimism. No man
has yet attained, but he can attain. He may not
be crowned by men ; but every man can be kingly.
Nothing short of the character of God will do for
this son of God. Perfection reached is not the
only mark of greatness, but that man is great who
struggles to become perfect. Man's power is in
his possibihties ; and under right conditions all
things are possible. Redemption as a doctrine
emphasizes human worth. Calvary attests God's

130 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
estimate of man. The ability for the path of
truth becomes malignity when in the path of sin ;
yet the most malignant can again become God-hke
in character. There is no prodigal the Father
does not love, no wanderer beyond God's reach.
Sin fetters, but its chain can be broken. In what>
ever condition, of error or of truth, Man is God's
image, holding the planet as his own dominion, to
make it what he pleases.
Just in proportion as this truth is recognized
will manhood assert itself, chaining the lightnings
for chariots, binding rivers for horses, and making
the earth repeat our very whispers. He must, he
will, have dominion; the planet shall be his slave.
With such a consciousness of his own natural
powers, he will make his outside surroundings
correspond. Doctor Kirk saw a genuine gospel
when in a hitherto neglected neighborhood around
his church, men began to paint their houses. The
Gospel is even in house paint and gardens and
clothing and art and commerce. The Bible creates
a commerce in the wants it stimulates.
I. The relation of the Bible and Commerce in
Personal Refinement. History accentuates the
biblical teachings of man's dual nature. The
change of motive in "the inner man" is seen in

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 131
a corresponding change in external customs. The
returned Prodigal has "a new robe." The attend
ant upon Christ is clothed with a " wedding gar
ment." The spiritual lesson seems drawn from
common customs. " White raiment " is given the
redeemed. " Fine linen," in the Apocalypse, typi
fies " the righteousness of the saints." Far be it
from us to materiahze in matters sacred, save as
we repeat the analogy. The prophet Zechariah
voices what every missionary has witnessed in the
regeneration of those once savages : " Behold I
have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and
I will clothe thee with change of raiment."
This natural principle is seen in so common a
custom as the wearing of hats and caps. Until
the twelfth century of the Middle Ages, it was the
general custom to go bareheaded. Except in war,
kings and princes alone covered the head. In
their growing wealth and importance the burghers
extended the custom, their hats tokening their
growing self -consciousness. The abohtion of serf
dom resulted in the adoption of the same custom
by the slaves.
Modem days witness the same principle in the
habits of the ex-slaves of the South. Beneath
their extravagance of dress lies the developed, but

132 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
as yet uneducated, spirit of freedom that they can
not repress. It is recorded of the Samoan Islands,
ten in number, that since their conversion to Chris
tianity the natives expend from two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars to five hundred thousand
dollars each year, "simply that they may appear
decent in the house of God on the Lord's Day."
Volumes might be filled with illustrations of this
same great law, in all the progress of civilization ;
and commerce reaps the advantages that rehgion
creates. In like manner, this same law is seen in the sur
roundings of the newly Christianized. The Bible
begins with the story of a garden, and ends with
a description of a second Paradise of surpassing
beauty. The wilderness blossoming as a rose
under the prophet's vision symbohzed a greater
spiritual truth. The thorn shall give place to the
fir-tree, "and instead of the brier shall come up
the myrtle-tree." It is the Scriptural doctrine, that
the ground itself will as surely reflect the character
of its people, as does the slothful man's garden
resemble him. Man's earliest mission, under the
divine command, was " to dress the ground and to
keep it." Surely if this were not a part of religion,
it is of nature. Thistles and sin flourish together.

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 133
Christ is called the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of
the Valley. The blessings of the Gospel are largely-
prefigured by Isaiah in a renovated land, whose
wilderness and desert should become a place fitted
for the redeemed to dwell in.
The hteral fulfillment of prophecy must surprise
the most unconcerned. The " Journal of the Soci
ety of the Arts " describes the Christian converts
among the Zulus to the number of seventy fami
lies, hving in houses like Europeans with furniture
and gardens, surrounding their church and school,
while three hundred thousand within the borders
of Natal, for half a century in conflict with English
civihzation, live "without a bed to lie on, a chair to
sit on, table or domestic implement of any kind."
The Rev. Henry Marden of Central Turkey writes :
"No contact with Western civihzation has ever
roused the Oriental from his apathy, but when his
heart is warmed into life by Gospel truth, his
mind awakes, and he wants a clock, a book, a glass
window, and a flour-mill. Almost every steamer
that leaves New York for the Levant brings sewing
machines, watches, carpenters' tools, cabinet organs,
or other appliances of Christian civilization, in re
sponse to native orders that would never have been
sent but for the open Bible."

134 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
A missionary in Eastern Turkey sent a list of
the machines that by his order had been filled for
Turkey : " One hundred and two fanning mills,
fifty-three flax mills, two hand spinning machines,
one hand loom, two hand threshing machines, two
circular sawing machines, two knitting machines,
one grain mill, one cotton gin, one plough." With
in the eleven years of the Livingstonia Mission of
the Scottish Free Church on Lake Nyassa in Central
Africa, Great Britain has sent thither "more than
half a million yards of cottons, twenty-five tons of
beads, seven tons of soap," besides many other
articles of value. From a careful inquiry it is
found that the bookstores in two cities of Japan,
fifty-five in number, have half their trade in Eng
lish books. For every dollar England expends in
Christian Missions, she receives in return ten dol
lars in trade with the people thus Christianized.
In a single year, five hundred American ploughs
were sold to the natives of Natal alone. A busi
ness house in Boston filled a single order for goods
for South Africa, to the value of twelve hundred
dollars. Take the Hawaiian Islands for an example.
Beyond all question, their civilization is owing to
the Bible in the hands of Christian missionaries.

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 135
The exports of those islands in 1881 amounted to
more than six and a half million dollars, while the
imports exceeded four and a half millions, mostly
with our Repubhc. Allowing fifteen per cent for
the profits on such an amount of traffic, there
would result a commercial gain of more than one
miUion six hundred thousand dollars. The entire
cost to the American churches of Christianizing
the Islands has been one milhon two hundred
thousand dollars. The profits of commerce with
those islands in a single year, therefore, amount to
the entire cost of the mission since its beginning,
besides four hundred and fifty thousand dollars
surplus. Does it pay to send the Bible on its mission?
The entire foreign work carried on by all the
denominations in the United States in 1870, was
one million six hundred and thirty-four thousand
dollars. Granting that the figures remain the
.same, then the actual profits from the commerce
with the Hawaiian Islands alone in a single year
will more than sustain the entire burden of Chris
tianizing and civihzing the world as it now is
carried on by American Christians. Well has it
been said that to enumerate what Missions have
done would be but to add an appendix to the New

136 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
Testament. God never allows our gifts to Him to
be a tax; He is the best paymaster the world
knows. His Book will pay its own way, and bless
those who send and carry it, a hundred-fold.
President Angell explains the reluctance of the
Chinese to adopt the railroad system as follows;
they believe that all needful wisdom is contained
in their nine sacred books, written three thousand
years ago. The invention of the railroad tran
scends their books, and consequently interferes with
their beliefs. It is the Bible alone that can sup
plant these ; and just so far as this gains its sway,
it is Christ going ahead of steam engines, sewing
machines and the like.
The influence of the Bible over barbarism is felt
even in the cotton mills of Lowell and Lawrence.
The redemption of the benighted African means
more work for the plough-makers of Worcester.
The sense of the value of time to an immortal
soul is tokened by the clocks that are ticking in
heathendom. Somewhere in sleeping Turkey some
soul has wakened to-day to a joy unknown before,
and to-morrow somebody here will tune the organ
that joyous soul shall buy to express its gladness.
But for the Bible's power in nations once dormant
there were fewer workmen in these foundries and

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 137
shops, and our thrift would be discounted. These
busy centres are but supplying the wants that the
knowledge of God in the soul has created.
II. The Bibhcal conception of Immortality in its
relation to Inventions and Labor. In this thought
we are not reasoning upon the necessity of religion
in order to create an inventive genius. Many rich
practical discoveries have happened by accident.
We are pointed to the probability that the princi
ples of the compass were known to the ancient
Grecians, and that printing was discovered in
China centuries before Gutenberg's name became
famous. It would be an interesting study to fol
low out the history of the mechanical arts, in' the
early centuries, yet this is not necessary.
China also had its compass, but where are its
fleets? It had its press for printing, yet how
inferior !
We use the term " immortahty " to express man's
superiority over what is material and perishable.
His hfe means something more than feats of
strength or numbers of years. In the early ages
the few were masters and the multitudes were
slaves or drudges. In the abolition of slavery the
burdens must be shifted. In China men are doing
such work as animals perform for us. In Africa

138 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
women are the burden carriers. Just in propor
tion as the Bible elevates these who are degraded,
it is necessary to compensate for the loss of so much
native force. The Christianization of woman takes
her from the plough, and makes her the loving centre
of the home. Chinamen are glad to perform ser
vices both menial and degrading ; they have done
nothing better at home ; but in proportion as a
Christian character enlarges the horizon of their
vision, so will they rise to higher things.
Christianity, like Judaism, has made labor honor
able. Nothing that will uplift mankind can be
called either menial or degrading. The most grimy
work may be the most noble, often is ; but this we
do say : it is man's highest duty to make the most
of himself for the sake of his kind, as well as for
his own good. It is not wise for him to do what
the ox can do better. It is not right for woman
to be made only a drudge. The less man's time is
concentrated upon mere physical toil, the greater
his intellectual and spiritual possibilities. The
great labor organizations recognize this truth.
Once, a day's work was fourteen hours, then
twelve, then ten, and now the demand is for less
than ten ; chiefly for the intellectual and moral
well-being of the workman.

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 139
The hundred thousand men building the pyra
mids would to-day find their toilsome work largely
done by machines — the men left for nobler work.
Even the cattle and the horses are gaining a rest
while men are making the electric forces become
motors in their place. It is for man's highest good
that the great silent forces of nature shall carry
his burdens. The less he has of useless toil, the
more he has for what is useful. It is not alto
gether a fancy when we discover in the great
inventions of the age the rolling off of the heaviest
burdens from man in order that he may do still
better work. The higher man rises above the
needless drudgery of labor, the greater is the con
sciousness of his own dignity.
As a matter of history, the great inventions belong
to the Christian civihzations. In this country alone
there are more than two hundred and fifty thou
sand inventions in full force ; every invention,
like a book, being a mental product. We assume,
what will be considered upon another occasion, the
undoubted agency of the Bible in quickening the
human intellect in the search after a sound learn
ing. Does the same truth apply to the intellect in
its material fruits ? This question is not identical
with the other. Must every inventor, then, be a

140 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
Christian man? Society often induces what its
least worthy individual produces. The mental
powers even of criminals are quickened by contact
with their surroundings. Character has httle to
do in providing for the wants Christianity in its
civihzation has created. The prevailing character
of any nation or community is made by its con
stituency, whose wants are proportioned to their
own conscious dignity.
More than intellectual power is needed ; the
Greeks and Romans had this, yet their achieve
ments were relatively childish.
The great inventions and discoveries lie close to
nature. Suspension bridges are patterned after
a spider's web; and our submarine tunnels are
copied after the tiny ship-worm's model. Stothard
mixed his colors by a butterfly's wing. Architect
ural laws include what beavers and birds have
done. The superstitions of the Grecians would
alone prevent their knowledge of the arts and sci
ences. The same is true of the dormant nations
of modern times. There is scarcely an avenue of
modem science that does not find its hold upon
the Bible. The botanical knowledge of Solomon
is marvellous. Christ drew his parables and doc
trines from truths symbolized in nature.

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 141
Architecture finds a suggestive model in the
Temple of Solomon. We are scarcely out from
the story of Eden before we read of " Jubal, the
father of all such as handle the harp and organ";
and of " Tubal-cain an instructor of every artificer
in brass and iron." It was of Bezaleel, God spoke
to Moses : " I have filled him with the spirit of
God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in
knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship
to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in
silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set
them, and in carving of timber — to work in all
manner of workmanship." Malachi draws his
vivid picture of the " refiner's fire " and " fuUer's
sope." The Book is all along making its appeals
to earth and skies. It is the great Book of nature,
and of art in nature. It stimulates the mental
powers and at the same time prompts 'to the study
of nature ; the two great secrets of all successful
inventions. The knowledge of God incites to a knowledge
of his laws. Between the rubbing together of two
sticks of wood to generate fire, and a common luci-
fer match, there hes the immense stretch between
the savage and civilized hfe. From the first
needle — a fish-bone perforated at one end — to

142 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
the modern sewing-machine, there is almost the
difference between Paganism and Christianity.
From the discovery of Galvini to the present day,
the history of electricity seems a progress out of
darkness itself into a light that almost rivals the
shining of the sun. Between the humming spin
ning-wheel of the Grecian Helen, wife of Menelaus,
and the whirrings of a thousand flying spindles,
time itself seems out-distanced. The electric cur
rents, the newest discovered for man's use, almost
annihilate time and outrun space. It is impossible
fairly to estimate the influence of inventions upon
civilization. In direct ratio as man rises above toil for its
own sake, so does he accomplish his more legiti
mate work. In reality, labor-saving machinery is
labor-making. Whatever saves man the necessity
of drudgery increases his power. The steam power
of the world is estimated to equal that of eight
hundred milhon men, representing a population of
workingmen larger than the globe contains. The
steam and water power in the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts alone, is equal to that of one mil
hon nine hundred thousand men; or what would
employ the hand power of a population of seven
milhon.

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 143
In our boot and shoe industries, the work of
eighty out of every one hundred men is done by
machinery. In the manufacture of carpets, one
man can now turn out as much work as twenty
could have done thirty years ago. In the manu
facture of cotton goods, one person can now do
what formerly took the time and strength of six.
In the flour manufacture, there has been a dis
placement of seventy-five in every hundred men.
The cotton gin now does the work that once
required one thousand men. In the manufactur
ing districts of Great Britain three quarters of a
milhon spinners produce by machinery what it
would require thirty milhon hand spinners to
produce. Facts like these speak volumes. In the progress
of Christianity opening up new continents, the
Christian nations are taxed to supply the wants
thus newly created. Our own commercial centres
are a witness to the fact ; the great industries and
manufactories that supply the markets of the world
are largely under the control of acknowledged
Christian men. There is something nobler than
what gold can buy ; it is this Christian conscious
ness of power asserting itself in the grand uplifting
of the race.

144 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
For centuries previous to the Reformation, the
monks of the Papal Church were the leaders in
agriculture. These monks were also the great
teachers of handicraft. Lock-making was the
parent of much of our machinery, but this was
invented primarily for the use of cathedrals. The
sand-glass as a timepiece was invented by a monk
of Chartres. The first idea of a clock has been
ascribed to the Archdov^n of Verona, in the ninth
century. They who best appreciate eternity will
be most careful of the value of time even in its
passing moments.
The goldsmith and the silversmith were the
skilled artisans giving their service largely to the
Church. Greene, in his " History of the English
People," speaks of the coming of Augustine, thus :
" The civilization, art, letters, which had fled before
the sword of the English Conquerors, returned with
the Christian faith." The connection between
Christianity and industrial art is close enough to
count a Doctor of Divinity as the inventor of the
loom. Bible lands have produced the arts of
industry, and in every new field of the conquest
of Christianity, these arts follow.
We have thus far considered two chief thoughts ;
namely, Christianity creates wants as illustrated in

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 145
all the peoples that receive it, thus demanding com
merce ; and this same super-sensual power incites
to the supremacy of the immortal over the material,
thus supplying the wants it creates. Another
truth is identical in the demands of the Bible and
of commerce; namely:
III. The Field for ReUgion as well as Commerce
is the World. The one is a labor in self-«acrifice,
and the other in self-interest. Self-sacrifice is bold ;
self-interest is timid. Self-sacrifice never counts
life dear, while self-interest is afraid of malaria and
pirates. Self-sacrifice makes martyrs ; self-interest
has none. There are thousands of islands in the
Pacific where our merchantmen dared not land
until the missionaries had been there. Commerce
has never been safe until it has taken advantage
of our Careys and Judsons and Moffats and Liv
ingstones as its pioneers.
Commerce wishes a contact with all nations ;
the Bible compels such a contact. The gist of
the Bibhcal teaching is in Christ's command to go
" into all the world," and " disciple aU nations."
Christianity leaves no people out of its reach ;
Commerce selects its favorites. The reason for the
difference it is clear to see. The Bible makes
the peoples of farthest remove our neighbors, and

146 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
lays at our door the responsibility of reaching them
with the command to love them. Christianity, as
the missionar}' rehgion, says : we must go into aU
the world to save men ; while Commerce says : we
will go wherever it is safe, provided it will be pro
fitable for us. Self-interest, as a motive power,
has never yet regenerated others. By the law of
self-interest. Commerce is a follower in the paths
rehgion has made ; and is not a leader of rehgion.
These positions are certified in the general knowl
edge open to aU.
First : whence is our geographical knowledge of
the nations? Commerce demands such a knowl
edge, but does it give it .' The pioneers in this
science are the missionaries and not merchants.
There is no question touching the people's welfare
these patient men do not answer. The as yet
unrivalled history of China is the work of a mis
sionary. When the Chinese Government waked
up to a sense of its position among the nations, its
chosen translator of Wheaton's International Law
was a missionary. Our information concerning
the Dark Continent is owing to the efforts of
these consecrated missionaries. The most accurate
maps of Turkey and Japan have been prepared by
such men of faith. Our Government has sent out

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 147
exploring expeditions at great expense, but the
results have proven insignificant beside those of
Christian missionaries. " It would be impossible,"
says Prof. Silliman, in his "Journal of Science,"
" for the historian of the islands of the Pacific to
ignore the important contributions of missionaries
to the departments of science."
It is a fact worthy of mention, that the oldest
monthly mag^azine of any kind on the American
continent, is the "Missionary Herald." Rev. Dr.
Peabody in the "North American Review" writes
upon the supposition, that if this same magazine
"were solely a journal for the dissemination of
knowledge and the advancement of learning, it
would easily hold the first place among the period
icals of the age." Carl Ritter, that "prince of
geographers," says of this same " Missionary. Her
ald " : in it "the reader must look to find the most
valuable and instructive documents which have
been sent home by the agents of any society, and
where a rich store of scientific, historical and anti
quarian details may be seen." History will bear
out the statement of the " Princeton Review "
when it says, " Our missionaries have rendered
more real service to geography than aU the geo
graphical societies of the world." Prof. Agassiz

148 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
gave a merited compliment to the missionaries of
the Gospel when he said " We must look to them
not a little for aid in our future efforts for the
advancement of science."
Secondly : The languages of these nations. How
else can we so easily reach the heart as through
the dialect of the people ? At the same time, how
dependent is Commerce upon this same knowledge !
the one to do good, the other to get gain. In this
respect religion prepares and makes easier the path
of Commerce. The Christian missionary catches
the jargons of a people, and by his laborious efforts
unifies that strange dialect into a spoken language.
The Pentecostal " miracle of tongues " is the sign
of modern missions. There is scarcely a nation
but must say of the Christian pioneers, Avith the
Bible, "How hear we, every man in our own
tongue, wherein we were born ? " As a class, the
greatest linguists of the world are Christian mission
aries. During the first fifty years of the history
of the American Board, its missionaries alone gave
twenty different nationalities and tribes a written
language. Facts like these that fiU volumes demon
strate the leadership of Christian truth above traffic.
Christianity creates the great factors of com
merce and pioneers the way. The Bible attests its

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 149
power in the changes it makes in habits of hfe as
well as of thought. Commerce shadows the paths
it has made. The words of a Grecian statesman
to our missionaries at Athens are historic : " Ye
are rearing a monument that shall outlast yon
Parthenon." Let India with its commercial forces and its
Gospel missionaries testify. Eighty-six years ago
the directors of the East India Company placed
on record their judgment : " The sending of Chris
tian missionaries into our Eastern possessions is
the maddest, most expensive, most unwarrant
able project that was ever proposed by a lunatic
enthusiast." Against such an unwarranted attack Sir Rivers
Thompson, Ueutenant-governor of Bengal, has re
cently said : " In my judgment. Christian mis
sionaries have done more real and lasting good
to the people of India than all other agencies
combined." Call up the name of Eliot modestly declining
for himself the title " Evangelist to the Indians,"
now bearing the yet higher title of "Apostle";
recount the heroism of Carey venturing into India
as into an unhghted mine, only asking that Scot
land let not go the miner's rope ; follow the history

150 THE BOOK AND COMMERCE.
of the poor mission scholar of Northumberland
until by his translation of the Scriptures, and his
voluminous additions to the Chinese Uterature, aU
China has become the debtor to Robert Morrison ;
picture the story of Livingstone wearing away his
hfe for the helpless and forsaken, until while kneel
ing in prayer God called him home; bring to
mind a Titus Coan, whose memory is immortal as
the tens of thousands whom he reclaimed from
cannibalism to civilization ; names that are only
peers with a larger host whose deeds are imperish
able ; — and the measured, well-weighed words of
R. N. Cust, Esq., Honorary Secretary to the Royal
Asiatic Society, are verified : " The missionary
appears to me to be the highest type of human
excellence in the nineteenth century, and hLs
profession to be the noblest. He has the enter
prise of the merchant, without the narrow desire
of gain ; the dauntlessness of the soldier, without
the necessity of shedding blood; the zeal of the
geographical explorer, but for a higher motive than
science." Upon men such as these, the extension of the
world's postal systems depends ; railroads are built
where they have walked, and the printing press
is their right hand . Whenever they speak. Science,

THE BOOK AND COMMERCE. 151
the world over, pauses to listen, attesting the truth
that the eighteen Christian centuries have con
firmed: " Godliness is profitable for all things, having
promise of the Ufe which now is, and of that
which is to come."

VI.

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
It was the bantering remark of a friend as he
looked upon the Greek department of the rich
library of Rufus Choate, " Seven editions of the
Testament, and not a copy of the Constitution ! "
" Ah, my friend," Choate replied, " you forget that
the constitution of my country is in them all."
Truth found its level in the graceful words of
Robert C. Winthrop: "What can legislation do
but confess that all its laborious statutes are Uttle
more than the detailed application to existing soci
ety of the laws first promulgated at Sinai, and of
the two grea,t commandments into which those
laws were condensed by Him who died for us on
Calvary ? "
Liberty cannot exist without law. The forces
that produce freedom must keep it. The Book
that has won for us the sanctity of life, and has
proven itseK the foundation of civihzation, must
152

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 153
of necessity promulgate correct principles of gov
ernment. We say "principles" since the modes,
in which those principles are cast, may differ. Be
tween the fundamental laws of Britain and our
own nation, there is no antagonism ; but the out
ward forms are widely different. The apphcation
of all law is to a certain extent shaped by the exi
gencies and circumstances of the people.
In this connection it is important to notice that
the Bible is not a book of rules, but is a book of
principles. Infidehty has a half-asserted right to
sift the laws of Moses to discover the ideas upon
which they are based ; and if it shall be seen that
the basic principles of those laws are antagonistic
to the principles of Christ or of man's noblest wel
fare, the benefit of the doubt against inspiration
must be yielded them. Human welfare has never
sprung directly from wrong principles. Right
principles lead to right living. The value of the
Mosaic law will be seen in its fruits.
As has been already shown, the pre-eminent spirit
of liberty, above all other peoples, is to be observed
in the nation with the Hebrew Book. We are now
to trace the influence of their laws down to the
modern civiUzed governments. It is a pertinent
question to consider. What are our relations to

154 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
the code promulgated at Sinai ? The nation wais
aroused by the thunderings and Ughtnings ; but the
world has been stirred by the law there revealed.
The light on Moses' face passed away, but with
him came the first grand impulse of civilization.
Time and eternity are concerned with the great
event, the inauguration of a nation differing from
any the world had yet seen.
All laws spring from one of two sources ; either
from without as a means of education, or from
within as the standard fixed by customs, the result
of a slow growth. The laws of Moses were ahead
of their time ; superior to the nation that received
them. They did not grow out of the nation's ex
perience, but were given professedly as an educa
tor and a guide. Moses asserted their superiority
above those of all other nations. He also bears
testimony to the influence of these precepts among
the nations, thus proving that they were not de
signed exclusively for the Hebrews. The same
purpose is seen in the prayer of Solomon ; that God
would " maintain the cause of his people Israel at all
times, that all the people of the earth may know
that Jehovah is God, and that there is none else."
An important suggestion is needed just at this
point ; every true national code is the adaptation

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. loo
of right principles in accordance with the condition
of the people. No other nation has been situated
as was Israel, hence the Mosaic law was not de
signed to be verbaUy copied by aU peoples coming
after them. While this is true, it is also certain
that if the law of Closes was divinely given, the
eternal principles of truth and righteousness must
be in it. It wiU be our privilege to discover such
principles, and observe their relation to modem
affairs. Modem civilization is directly concerned with
the work of three great peoples ; the Hebrew, the
Greek and the Latin. Strange to say, aU of these
were represented by Pilate's order in the inscrip
tions over the cross ; and in each of the three was
written the unconscious prophecy of Christ's king
ship over the nations.
We are not to assume that the laws and histories
of Moses have been passed down to us through
the Greeks, and later by the Romans. They have
exerted an influence upon these, and yet have
stood in one sense alone. They are the only code
that has come down to us entire of all the cent
uries prior to Greece. If we would trace the influ
ence of aU other peoples of antiquity upon the
laws of nations we could not; their laws have

156 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
perished. The Mosaic laws remain as they were
written. A careful writer has thus voiced the
power of Moses : " No other one's work ever hved
after him as his has done. The institutions and
the laws of Cyrus the elder, Solon, Lycurgus,
Numa, Pythagoras, and a host of others, where are
they ? As fleeting contributions to the world's his
tory, as drops of fresh and pure rain falling upon
the bosom of the great ocean, they have been swal
lowed up in it and lost without having in the
shghtest perceptible degree lessened its bitterness."
Three steps are necessary in discovering what
relation the Mosaic code of laws bears to the laws
of the present time, namely ; the influence, if any,
of the Hebrew laws upon those of the Greeks ; the
influence of the Grecian, or those of the Hebrews
and Grecians, upon the Roman code ; and finaUy
the influence of the Roman, or of the Hebrew,
the Grecian, and the Roman combined, upon our
English laws.
First, the influence of the Hebrew upon the Gre
cian thought and laws. It is an interesting study
to observe the influence of the books of Moses
upon the classic age of Greece and Rome. While
these books were written in the wilderness, they
were not kept there. The Jews were not an isolated

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 157
people. The waves upon their coast had swept
the ..Egean. The air they breathed had touched
the rich gardens of Babylon and was fragrant with
the perfumes of Arabia. The south winds gathered
their clouds from Egypt's river. In one respect,
Palestine was the gateway between aU the points
of the compass through which pilgrims and mer
chants of all nations passed. The promised land
was the best. God was the land-agent for his
people, and He put them at the centre of the
nations. He chose for them the situation that was
almost at the junction of three great continents.
He placed his chosen people where they must be
known among the nations of the earth, and they
were known.
The rulers of the nations heard of them.
Sheba's queen came, with royal retinue, from afar
to see if what she had heard was true. The marts
of commerce sent to this people their traffic. The
kings of Babylon knew concerning the "living
God " of Israel. Darius the Mede made Daniel
the Jew his prime minister ; the Persian monarch
Artaxerxes gave the affairs of his realm largely
into the care of the Jew Nehemiah. Even this is
not surprising when we recall the fact that some
half a century earlier, the Jewish Esther had

158 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
become the queen of the Persian monarch, probably
Xerxes the Great, whose realm extended "from
India even unto Ethiopia."
Isolated instances like these only emphasize the
knowledge the world must have had of this pecu
liar people. It would be an insult to the human
understanding to suppose that the wisest men even
of Greece would pass by, with indifference, the
literature and the laws of so prominent a race.
More than two centuries before Christ Hebrew
thought was wedded to the language of Greece,
when the Seventy, under command of Ptolemy
Philadelphus, translated the books of Moses into
the languagfe of Plato and Aristotle. The import-
since of this work, called the " Hellenistic," cannot
be overestimated. It made Alexandria a new cen
tre for Judaism in the new language ; it became a
disintegrating force among pagan vagaries. It was
the avenue in which the world's best culture was
to be re-shaped. Yet even to HeUenism is not to
be traced the earliest Grecian knowledge of the
Hebrew records.
The historian Prideaux, upon the testimony
gained from Clearchus, records that Aristotle was
acquainted with the doctrines of Moses. Dean
Stanley bases the Rabinical traditions upon such

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 159
a statement, and he also makes the "Wisdom
of Solomon" the first expression of the contact
of Jewish rehgion with the Gentile philosophy of
Greece. The identity of Moses and Musaeus of
the Greeks, teacher of Orpheus, is accepted by
some as historical.
An early Church father of the second century,
Clement of Alexandria, himself profoundly versed
in the Platonic philosophy, declares the obUgations
of Plato to the Mosaic Law in these words : " But
as for laws, whatever are true, as also for the opin
ion of God, these things were conveyed to thee
from the Hebrews." Aristobulus, who lived in the
second century before Christ, affirmed that " It is
manifest that Plato has followed our law, and
studied dihgently all its particulars. For before
Demetrius Phalereus a translation had been made,
by others, of the history of the Hebrews going
forth out of Egypt, and of all that happened to
them, and of the conquest of the land, and of the
exposition of the whole law. Hence it is mani
fest that the aforesaid philosopher borrowed many
things ; for he was very learned, as was Pythago
ras, who also transferred many of our doctrines
into his system."
Express reference is made to Moses in connec-

IGO THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
tion with the laws that bear his name, by Heca
taeus, Manetho, Lysimachus, Strabo and Diodorus
Siculus ; as well as by Tacitus, Juvenal and Lon
ginus. It was the undoubted conclusion of Philo,
the Jewish Platonist, that the doctrines of the
Greek philosophers had been even better taught
by Moses. He also traced the facts and principles
of the Pentateuch in many of the Greek writings.
Professor Haven in his " History of Ancient and
Modern Philosophy " says : " Chief among these
religious systems of the East in practical influence
on the Grecian mind was the Jewish theology as
presented in the Hebrew Scriptures, and which, as
blended with the lofty idealism of Plato, formed
the philosophy known as the Jewish Hellenic. . .
. Germs of this philosophy may be seen, though
hardly the philosophy itself, in the Septuagint trans
lation of the Hebrew Scriptures ; as also in the Sec
ond Book of Maccabees and the Book of Wisdom."
It would be an interesting study to trace the
classic fictions based upon fragments of Bibhcal
truths, but time forbids.
Apart from the Old Testament, no single philos
opher had any conception of the character of God
as Creator until Anaxagoras. This philosopher
came to Athens in the middle of the fifth century

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. IGl
before Christ, and taught that God as Creator
organized or fashioned the world out of matter that
had existed from eternity. From the advanced
spiritual conception concerning God, it has been
questioned whether this knowledge did not spring
from contact with the Hebrew slaves that had been
sold by the Phoenicians into Greece.
In view of the facts above stated — the geo
graphical position ; the conviction that the under
lying principles of their law were eternal; the
prevailing testimony as to the influence of such
knowledge upon outside peoples — we may well
turn to the testimonies of experts in their judg
ment touching the influence of the Hebrew upon
the Grecian law.
Grotius, that prodigy of learning in the seven
teenth century, founder of the system of Interna
tional Law, says : " The most ancient Attic laws,
whence in after times the Roman were derived,
owe their origin to Moses' laws."
The same great authority in his treatise on War
and Peace expresses again his opinion : " Who may
not beUeve, that, seeing the law of Moses had such
an express image of the divine will, the nations
did well in taking their laws thence ? Which that
the Grecians did, especially the Attics, is credible.

162 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
Whence the Attic laws and the Roman twelve
tables, which sprang thence, bear so much simili
tude with the Hebrew laws."
Sir Matthew Hale, in his history of English
Common Law, declares : " Among the Grecians,
the laws of descent resemble those of the Jews."
The same great authority thus speaks concern
ing the antiquity of Moses' writings : " Many mil
lions of books that have been written since Moses'
time have been lost. Much more those books
which were written antecedent to Moses' time ;
and the truth is, that the preservation of the
books of Moses entire unto this day, when so many
of a far later date are lost, is to be attributed to
the special providence of Almighty God."
Schlegel, in his " History of Literature," thus
voices his careful conviction : " The Mosaic writ
ings possess this advantage over all other Oriental
works ; they alone present to our view the weU-
head of truth in its original purity and clearness."
This same authority furthermore says : " This
account of Moses is so confirmed to us by all the
monuments and testimonies of antiquity to which
we have access, is so extended and strengthened
by every inquiry which we pursue, that it is weU
entitled to be viewed as the foundation of all

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 163
historical truth. The two component parts of
our revelation, the Mosaic and the Christian, form
in different ways the two central points of the his
tory of the human race. Christianity gave to the
whole civiUzed world of the Romans a new creed,
new manners and new laws. . . . The Mosaic
remains on the other hand can alone enable us to
occupy the right position from which aU other wis
dom of the Eastern nations should be surveyed."
Secondly: the influence of the Grecian laws
upon the Roman. To discuss this point at length
or with any special minuteness, seems hardly nec
essary, especially when we recall the similarity of
the two Uteratures in their general themes. Gre
cian thought is easily discerned in the most fin
ished writers of the Roman period. If as regards
mythology, philosophy and fiction, there can be no
dispute as to this statement, then surely there will
be no doubt as to the influence of the legislation
of the Grecian Repubhc upon that of the great
empire that succeeded it in power.
Cicero declares that the " Twelve Tables " were
borrowed from the legislation of Greece. Gibbon,
in his monumental history, quotes the statements
of Livy and Dionysius, that the deputies of Rome
visited Athens in the administration of Pericles;

164 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
and that the laws of Solon were incorporated into
the Twelve Tables. Notwithstanding the histori
an's doubts upon this point, he yet acknowledges
a casual resemblance in principle, while he refers
to proofs that some of the principles of the tenth
table agree with Moses and Solon.
Thirdly : from the relations of the Hebrew and
Grecian codes, and their reputed influence upon
the Roman laws, we naturally turn to the Roman
code in its relation to the common law of the
present time. One of the grandest monuments of
the power of the human intellect was given in the
Roman Law. Its gi-owth, with all its imperfections,
has been hke that of an oak that knows no decay.
It was worthy the careful research of Gibbon in
his justly celebrated forty-fourth chapter. Its in
consistencies only serve to magnify the inherent
strength that has held it up in view of the centuries.
In the habits and thoughts of men truth and error
have always clashed, the power of the one being
always tested in its elimination of the other. To
illustrate: the behef in witchcraft crept into the
code through the Pagan superstition of the Lom
bards, but it was not eradicated from the law until
the eighteenth century ; the law at length purify
ing itself from excrescences.

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 105
In considering the sources of the Roman code,
we are not to forget that other influences than
Hebrew and Grecian were at work in its forma
tion. The Star of Betlilehem shone upon the
Roman fields. The world's Christ paid tribute to
Caesar. The Roman Governor affixed his seal
to the tomb of Him who had been crucified. In
the Epistle to the Romans, Paul says : " I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the
power of God unto salvation."
Is it possible that this uplifting agency would
have left no impressions upon the life and cus
toms of the Empire ? In this respect, history has
no uncertain evidence to give. Roman law carries
with itself statutes coined from this new power
that was turning the world upside down. We
briefly note the reasons for such a change, as
shown in the growth of the famous Code.
For centuries the Twelve Tables were compeUed
to bear the weight of new statutes enacted by sen
ates and kings until three thousand brass plates
containing these decrees were deposited in the
capitol. Kings, calling themselves amenable to
no superior tribunal, enacted decrees for the em
pire. This incoherent mass of materials early
demanded and received codification under three

166 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
distinct names ; the Gregorian, the Hermogenian,
and the Theodosian. This last, the Theodosian,
covered the laws of the Christian emperors from
Constantine to Theodosius. Besides these three
codes were other laws, all of which were examined
and codified or discarded by Justinian in his cele
brated Digest, finished in A. D. 533.
Says William A. Hunter, jM. A., in " Introduc
tion to Roman Law " : " There are not wanting
indications of the infiuence of rehgious conceptions
on Roman Law " ; meaning by religious concep
tions the Mosaic Law of which he had just been
speaking. Professor Peabody in his " Harvard Lectures "
upon Moral Philosophy, bases his behef as to the
influence of Christian ethics upon the Roman law
in the following particulars : HistoricaUy, (1.) the
seat of the Roman Empire was transferred to Con
stantinople ; (2.) not one of the law-reforming
emperors was of Roman birth or lineage : (3.) ref
ormation of the law took place in the precise direc
tion of Christian thought ; (4.) the law-reforming
emperors were Constantine and Justinian, each of
whom was under a dominating ecclesiastical influ
ence. The same critical authoritj' marks the objec
tion urged against so large a Christian influence

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 167
upon Roman law, as shown in the appeal to the
legal writings of such stoics as Gains, Paulus,
Papinian and Ulpian. Against such objections,
two suggestions have great weight; first, these
very men had inbibed ethical notions from Chris
tian sources ; and, secondly, these men were only
commentators, and without any authority.
Against a skepticism that in vain mutters its
unbeUef, this same scholar utters his calm conclu
sion : " There can be no reasonable doubt that the
Roman law derived from Christianity the very
traits in which consists its pre-eminence, its perpe
tuity, its adaptation in principle and spirit to our
time and to aU time."
Upon the principle that law and custom wiU
substantiaUy agree, so in this celebrated Digest of
Justinian we find historic proof of the morals of
the later pagan and earher Christian empire. The
influence of Christianity is proven in the fact of
its precepts in many respects becoming recognized
in such a code. It would be an interesting study to
note the Chiistian laws against slavery and lust in
their irrepressible conflict with pagan immoralities,
under the name of justice, but this is not the place.
In proportion as Christianity gained its power over
nations, so did the laws become more and more

168 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
Christian. In direct ratio as, under the influence
of religion, human life was recognized as more
sacred, so was the law made more merciful. The
struggle has been long and weary. The contest
ants under the name of the Nazarene have too
often borrowed the instruments of torture once
wielded by pagan hands. The persecuted have
become persecutors, and the terrible fact has been
stamped upon the laws of nations. Boasting fol
lowers of the gentle Christ have employed their
talents in inventing instruments that should add
agony to death. The Dark Ages were ruled by
men. The chained Gospels were seldom opened
even by the priests at the altar. Like priest, like
people ; and as were the people, so were the laws.
A so-called Christianity without the open Bible
was cramped. Men need the open Book; and this
fact is proven in the truer sense of righteousness
that depends upon the Bible. A religion without
this Book retrogrades toward decay.
Concerning the dependence of the English law
upon the Roman, there can be no possible ques
tion. Justinian is no foreign name in our courts.
With the principles of equity thus drawn from the
Roman code, there was yet an added source of
strength in a direct appeal to the laws of Moses.

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 169
We therefore turn from the more indirect influ
ence of the Book upon other laws and peoples to
its relation with more modern times. What have
the laws of Moses to do with modern progress?
Burke speaks history when he says : " In the col
lection of laws attributed to Alfred, we have the
Decalogue transcribed, with no small part of the
Levitical law." The same acute thinker speaks of
the Roman laws as having expired in Britain when
the Anglo-Saxons came as conquerors revolutioniz
ing the entire government. " By universal consent
of all writers," says Burke, "the Anglo-Saxon laws
owe more to the care and sagacity of Alfred than
of any of the ancient kings." King Alfred prefaced
his laws by copious quotations from Exodus, Chap
ters XXI-XXIII. The great jurists affirm that
every civiUzed nation, in ancient and in modern
times, has borrowed from Moses whatever is most
essential to equity in the dealings of man with man,
or nation with nation. Michaehs, professor of law
in the University of Gottingen, says : " A man who
would consider laws philosophically, who would
survey them with the eye of a jNIontesquieu, would
never overlook the laws of Moses."
Blackstone in his commentaries boldly singles out
the Book of Truth in connection with his statement,

170 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
that all the doctrine of law appeals to reason;
" But we are not from thence to conclude that the
knowledge of these truths was attainable by reason
in its present corrupted state, since we find until
they were revealed they were hid from the wisdom
of the ages." " Upon these two foundations, the
law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all
human laws." Kent in his commentaries makes
the ideas of right and justice among the govern
ments of Europe largely depend upon the influence
of Christianity. In this respect Christianity has
fulfilled the law of Moses. The precepts of the
great Lawgiver have, by general consent, been
accepted by the Christian nations in all their his
tory. The vital principles given at Sinai appear
alike in the code of Theodosius, the laws of Char
lemagne and of Alfred, wending their way from
the wilderness around Sinai to the very smallest
New England town; making the words of Dean
Milman literally true : " The Hebrew Lawgiver
has exercised a more extensive and permanent
infiuence over the destinies of mankind than any
other individual in the annals of the world."
Our great jurists are substantially unanimous
on these points. Sir Alatthew Hale decided that
"Christianity i.s parcel of tl:e common law."

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 171
Blackstone quotes this decision substituting "part"
for " parcel." Lord CampbeU in his " Lives of the
Chief Justices " asserts the same doctrine. Legare,
in his " Origin and Influence of Roman Legisla
tion," says : " From Constantine 's accession, Chris
tianity became the jus gentium of Europe, or the
basis of its jus gentium according to the definitions
of the civflians themselves."
Mr. Webster, in his famous plea in the " Girard
will case," declared: "The Christian rehgion, in its
general principles, must ever be regarded among us
as the foundation of civil society." And again,
in his speech on the revolution in Greece, he
advances this same law : " In the production and
preservation of this sense of justice, this predomi
nating principle, the Christian rehgion, has acted
a main part. Christianity and ci^-ilization have
labored together ; it seems, indeed, to be a law of
our human condition that they can live and flour
ish only together."
In his elaborate paper before the American Social
Science Association, President Anderson thus con
cludes : " As every civil code, in its formation and
growth, adopts the moral code of the people for
which it furnishes rules of government, so the
common law of England and the United States has

172 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
absorbed and is stiU absorbing into itself the moral
principles of Christianity. Hence the Christian
system is the moral source of an undetermined
but very large part of our common as well as of
our statute law. In this sense, Christianity has
contributed enormously to the common law, and
also to the code of Justinian, and the legal systems
of all Christendom."
In the common mention of Christianity, we are
too apt to fix the bounds in the New Testament,
forgetting the Old. The principles of the Bible
and of Christianity are the same, although the ful
fillment of the Old makes more clear what had been
mysterious or partially hidden. The influence of
Christian ethics upon law and government is con
ceded ; yet, in order to a somewhat clearer under
standing of the living power of the Bible, we may
well place its older laws side by side with the
principles upon which nations rest in this latest
century of all. Were the laws of Sinai imperfect
attempts at a system, or do their ethics remain
substantially unamended by any new conceptions of
justice ? If the Levitical laws hold good in ethics
there can be no doubt as to any later enactments.
We therefore turn to the practical inspection of
the laws of Moses as meeting the needs of the

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 173
present time. How much are we indebted to the
principles underlying his precepts ? Need we be
ashamed of him as our guide ?
There is scarce a crime with which our courts
have to deal that is not covered by his compact
statutes. Let us notice the spirit breathing through
them aU ! All hatred and revenge were expressly
forbidden under the command " Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself." It enjoined kindness to
enemies, in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount.
Restitution for all wrongs, innocently or intention-
aUy done, was to be made. Strangers were to be
treated with respect, while the poor, the widow
and the fatherless were to be protected in their
rights. Even animals were to be shielded from
thoughtless and cruel deeds. No hired servants
should be oppressed. All deahngs in barter must
be perfect and just. Beneficence shines in the
command, " Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto
thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy
land." No poverty of the poor nor mightiness of
the rich should sway the judgment from equity.
United with the command to fear God was the
respect they should pay to the aged. No lines
of vengeance shone in the code of Moses. No
principle of righteousness was obscured in that

174 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GO VERNMENT.
Hebrew Digest. There were state penalties whose
severity was measured by the exigencies of the
times. All laws are necessary because of the im
perfections of society ; and that law alone is of
use and value that is the best men can bear. That
strange people, inured to a most degrading slav
ery, could not be controUed except by the strong
est appeals to their fear. Evils like polygamy,
slavery and the death penalty, were only permitted
on account of their hardness of heart and igno
rance. These evils had always been in the world,
and in the uprooting of them, time and divine
patience with the sins were great factors. To so
degraded a race no appeal could equal in power
the law that measured the suffering by the sin.
If we judge by the customs of aU other nations,
nothing less than " eye for eye, Ufe for life, tooth
for tooth, wound for wound, burning for burning,"
would avail. Not yet has the statute of " life for
life " been expunged from our own laws. The code
of Solon ordained the same as did the Roman laws
of the Twelve Tables. The law meant the penalty
under which the innocent should be protected
against the deeds of the lawless and the criminal.
With a minuteness that is marvellous, these laws
were framed to exalt purity of life and conduct.

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 175
The people were commanded to report to the priest
inasmuch as his functions were those of our boards
of health. Swine's flesh is eaten in tliis cooler
cUmate, but as a cause of that loathsome disease,
the leprosy, it was there forbidden. Idolatry had
its customs ; its priests rounded the corners of
their hair and beard ; wore garments of wool and
linen mixed; built their groves of worship on
high places — and the like ; hence the commands
scattered through the law to do none of these
things. The law forbade the very fashions of
idolatry. Two great truths run through the Mosaic code ;
the unity of God, and the unity of the people.
Against the first was the curse of idolatry. In all
history no idolatrous nation has ever been free ;
the supposition is an impossibiUty. The laws of
Moses meant freedom, in that all men were chil
dren of one God. Upon this principle the com
mands relative to the Canaanites are to be inter
preted. The land was defiled, and must vomit out
its inhabitants. In giving this land to Israel, God
expressly declares that if they shall become idola-
tors, the land shall spew them out also. There is
not a nation but would enforce a like martial law
to preserve its own life.

176 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
We shaU tread the path of a reverent scholar
ship in an analysis of the fundamental principles
of the Mosaic law contrasting them with the results
of modern theories. Compared with the exhaust
ive works of Wines upon " The Laws of the An
cient Hebrews," and the commentaries of that
renowned scholar, Michaelis, this brief restatement
of only a few principles in the Mosaic code are aU
too inadequate. These scholars have made the
world their debtors. In epitomizing the Mosaic
principles, we observe —
First: The profound principle following the
unity of God, is the unity of the people in their
separate capacity. The Decalogue has been called
the first great declaration of human rights. That
superb statement of morals knows no exception.
There is but one aristocracy ; that of character —
righteousness. Second : The code meant Civil Freedom. Con
tinually the people were reminded of the bondage
from which they had been deUvered. True liberty
marks the highest good of the individual in con
formity with the best good of the whole. There
is no hberty without law. Athens professed to be
free, but the standard of her freedom was the vary
ing and uncertain moods of her fickle populace.

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 177
We shall not repeat the fact of Jewish freedom,
already noted; it is only necessary to observe that
the law of Moses makes such a freedom the chief
object. Third : Political Equality. In his commentaries
Michaelis declares, of Israel's democracy, "We
must begin, not from above, but with the lowest
description of persons that had a share in the gov
ernment." There was no privileged class of family
or tribe. The ownership allowed by modern theo
ries was denied the chosen people. Every man had
a right to his share of the soil which he must
cultivate. Vast landed estates were impossible.
Every fiftieth year, the year of Jubilee, aU posses
sions were restored to the original owners or their
heirs. The price of Isuch estates was dependent
upon the distance from, or nearness to, that jubilee
year. No tribe was accorded any superior advan
tages. When the present politics of both hemi
spheres are disturbed by the " land question " as
seen in its menace to the rights of individuals, the
" agrarian law " of Moses would be a profitable
study. Fourth : All Laws rested upon the Consent of
the People. It is expressly stated that the people
ratified the law of Sinai, in the memorable words ;

178 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
" All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." The
Hebrew constitution was adopted in a convention
of chosen representatives of all the people just as
truly as nations adopt their own laws in modern
times. It was a government of the people, because
ratified by them; a "solemn compact" between
Jehovah as sovereign and the people as subjects.
Fifth : This same Consent of the People is shown
in the Choice of their Rulers. In accordance with
the advice of Jethro, a principle subsequently ex
pressed in the law, the people elected their rulers,
whom Moses as God's representative commissioned.
When Canaan was to be divided among the tribes,
Joshua commanded, " Give out from among you
three men for each tribe, and I wiU send them."
These were men selected by the several tribes
themselves. In the book of Judges this same custom is shown
in the election of Jephthah as judge ; " the people
made him head and captain over them."
Sixth : This Government of the People was
shown in the Limitations put upon their Rulers.
This was done in the case of Saul by the venerable
Samuel ; and of David in later times.
From briefest mention of these great truths
the essential democracy of the chosen people is

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 179
recognized. To the people was granted a power
of which no usurper, not even their king, could rob
them. The vineyard of Naboth was as moraUy
safe against the royal determination to possess it,
as is the best deeded estate in New England. The
most careful preparation was made to prevent any
delays in the demands for justice against wrong
doing. The system of their judges was adequate
to settle all grievances ; " rulers of thousands,
rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of
tens: and let them judge the people at aU sea
sons ; and it shaU be that every great matter they
shaU bring unto thee, but every smaU matter
they shaU judge."
Agriculture was to be their chief pursuit as con
ducive to prosperity and peace. War was not
their business. In view of ignorance being a curse,
a most careful system of education was adopted
for the sake of the young. From the statute
requiring obedience to God, to the precept of
seemingly smaUest import, the highest welfare of
the individual was the great object. The minute
ness of oversight in this great law is shown where
the owner of a house was held guilty of homicide
in case of any accidental death if he neglected to
put a balustrade upon the roof. Our modern

180 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
coroner's inquest has its origin in the law of Deu
teronomy, as recorded in the opening portion of
the twenty-first chapter. Examples can be multi
plied concerning so remarkable a code, designed
as it was for the uplifting of the race ; but we pass
them by in order to observe these same principles
as shown in their system of government.
Voltaire called the Mosaic constitution a " detest
able poUty " ; yet what was it ? Justice was its
corner stone ; justice between man and man. Great
causes found their way up from lower tribunals to
the supreme court, and its decision was to be
accepted as final upon penalty of death. Rulers
and ruled were to abide the principles of equity in
the fear of God.
Every city had its local government elected by
the people themselves ; " Judges and officers shalt
thou make thee in all thy gates which the Lord
thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes ; and
they shaU judge the people with just judgment."
In what respect, as a principle, does this differ from
a city government of to-day ?
Then again, each tribe had its particular repre
sentative assembly. In all things touching its own
autonomy, each tribe was as independent as any
Commonwealth of modern times. Upon all ques-

THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 181
tions Umited to the welfare of its citizens, its own
representatives passed their decision. Every tribe
had its own ruler or judge ; and was consequently
a little Commonwealth. In addition to all such
tribal legislation there were questions of larger
importance that demanded and caUed into being a
national assembly.
Thus the three governments, municipal, tribal
and national, were all established under the Mosaic
code; corresponding to the several functions of
our own governments in this Repubhc. While
Jefferson is said to have found the principles of
our Constitution in the workings of a Christian
church, it must yet be more truly said that the
government he shaped took upon itself the form
that had been tested in the experiment made three
thousand years before.
Perhaps the paraUel between ancient and mod
em history can nowhere be more plainly seen than
in the civU war that resulted from the nuUification
of the tribe of Benjamin as narrated in the nine
teenth and twentieth chapters of the book of
Judges. It was the rebeUion of a tribe that pro
fessed its own sovereignty, twice defeating the
national army before the nullifying tribe could be
brought back into the national union. We can

182 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
almost read the history of our great rebelUon in
the methods there taken.
Hardly yet have the advocates of despotism,
mere echoes of Voltaire's spirit, ceased to speak of
the " detestable polity " of our republican nation,
but the polity in its underlying principles is divine.
The Old Testament has by no means lost its
force. It may be, and often is, asserted that the
Mosaic records are out of date ; but they can never
die. They have been often misinterpreted and mis
judged. The fathers of Connecticut trod in the
path of safety when they voted to govern them
selves by the laws of Moses until they could frame
those that should be better suited to their circum
stances. Compare our recent fugitive slave laws
with those of Moses and the advantage is against
the modern law makers. Says Dr. Peabody : " The
fugitive-slave law of the Hebrews, as compared
with that which cost our country its miUions of
precious lives, throws the Congress of the United
States back into barbarism." The tenderness and
beauty of the Hebrew " poor laws " transcend
those of any other nation in ancient or modern
times. A great threatening evil of modern times,
the monopolizing of the land by the few, was
rendered impossible under the statutes of Moses.

TEE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 183
It is as we might expect ; the foresight of God
must be seen in the very framework of such a con
stitution. They who look no further than Moses,
denying any divine part in such laws, cannot in
such a code deny the greatness of the mind that
could produce them. It was the beginning of aU
known written laws ; Sinai the golden milestone
of the world's civiUzation. The presence of Moses
has made Sinai famous ; Pisgah has become immor
tal because on its heights the great leader gave his
farewell to the people, whose fields in the Promised
Land he could not tread. The whole Moham
medan and Christian world linger together in the
vaUey where God buried him ; but his majesty of
character is undimmed.
AU nations have felt and still feel his power.
The principles he codified are immortal. He was
the first great Puritan — God's nobleman ; he was
a master in learning; the world's first historian;
the model Uberator of the oppressed ; the peerless
leader; but above all these functions he holds
his sublime place in the history of nations —
the Hebrew law-giver recognized as the law-giver
of the world. It has come to pass in the opinions of
the profoundest jurists, that Moses is the prede
cessor of Blackstone; the wiser than Solon; the

184 THE BOOK AND CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
prophet whose majesty best fitted him to represent
the One who, though greater than he, fulfilled
what Moses had taught. It was Michaelis who
said, " Anything that a Grecian could call ancient,
is extremely modern compared to the books of
Moses ; " but these oldest books are fresh for mod
ern days; a guide to the wisest; an authority in
the discussion of aU problems of practical life.

vn.
THE BOOK AND LEAENING.
In A. D. 642, Alexandria — the seat of the
world's most famous Ubrary — surrendered to
the Saracens. Its conqueror had compelled the
allegiance of Syria with its proud city Damascus ;
at the bloody battle of Termuk he had defeated
the Greeks ; and only five years before he had
hung the crescent over Jerusalem. To such a con
queror, more than to Mohammed himself, has been
accorded the advance of Islamism.
In the library, venerable with the nine centuries
of its history, were the Uterary works of all
nations, even of earUest dates. Many treasures of
Egypt, Phoenicia, Persia, Palestine, Greece and
Rome were in its silent alcoves. Its power lay
not in spear or shield. Its silent names raised no
cry against the invading hosts. The entreaty for
its safety was made by the populace in their fran
tic despair. Tradition says that the caliph's chief
185

186 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
captain joined his appeal to that of the conquered
city. Thirty-six thousand cities or castles had sur
rendered at the caliph's command ; and at his nod
four thousand temples and churches had been
razed to the ground or destroyed by fire. It was in
such hands, relentless and fierce, that the literary
wealth of the centuries had fallen ; and its history
was sealed in Omar's terse reply : " If these Gre
cian books agree with t'l? Koran, they are useless,
if not they should be destroyed;" and in that
holocaust of ruin was blazed upon all time to come
the enmity of the Koran to learning.
We do not in such a statement forget the appeals
made to Arabic learning, especially as shown in
the universities of Bagdad, Damascus, Cordova and
SeviUe. While to some extent conservators of
learning, they had been introduced to such learn
ing by Christian teachers. The Arabians were
largely indebted to the Greeks, whose works were
originally placed in their hands by Syrian and
Nestorian Christians. Even the natural and phys
ical sciences owe but little to any original researches
of Arabians.
Against such a history place that of the Death
less Book. "Literature will take care of itself,"
said Pitt to Southey ; " Yes," was Southey's reply,

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 187
" and take care of you too if you do not see to it."
What is this subtle power ? " Beware when the
great God lets loose a thinker on the planet," says
a brUliant essayist ; " then aU things are at risk."
What is the risk ?
We have traced the path of the Book in the
fundamental questions underlying civilization, as
revealed in morals, liberty and laws. Since all
progress depends in a large degree upon the in-
teUectual, we are brought face to face with the
question as to the relation of the Bible and learn
ing. The Book, whose teachings are minutely
translated and spoken in more than two hundred
languages and dialects of men, must either multiply
or diminish the numbers of other books.
Two facts confront us at the outset. The Book
of civilization is the Bible; and all other books
multiply in proportion to the degree of the civiliza
tion. It cannot be said that the Bible begins the
work that is left for other books to finish, since in
relation to all others, the Bible holds its supreme
place. The law of supply and demand reveals its
power. It is the Book of the home, the church
and the school.
All progress dates from a few stages or con
ditions. The fundamental and vital force of all is

188 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
thought. It may not as yet be our thought ; but
it is in somebody's mind. That thought is as
mighty as truth ; and yet we may not apprehend
it. It is a seed truth needing a fertile soil for its
quickening ; that soil the human inteUect or soul.
So long as it remains apart from me, I cannot use
it, or rather it cannot use me. The moment I ap
prehend it, it becomes my opinion. PubUc opinion
is the condition in which that truth or thought has
seized the pubUc mind. (There is a false opinion
as well as true, but no false opinion causes prog
ress. We are speaking of the truth.) By the
unerring law of our being, our opinion wiU always
find its expression. As a man thinketh in his
heart, so is he, and so he does. Truth is no longer
an abstract entity ; it has fibred itself into our very
nature. Nothing can repress it. It is stronger
than death, mightier than kingdoms. It learns to
fear nothing. It may tremble for a moment in
Gahleo's confession, but it cannot, it will not die.
"There is nothing covered that shall not be re
vealed; neither hid that shall not be known."
What is spoken in secret is proclaimed upon the
house-tops. Revolutions are assured when a new
conception of the truth gets possession of one man.
They put a halter about Garrison's body in 1885,

THE BOOK AND LEARNING 189
but the gi'eat emancipator had become an army
twenty-six years later. Opinion works with speed.
The gtms of Sumter proclaimed that somebody
had been thinking. The presence of a Washing
ton was demanded by the preceding warfare of
thought. The tramp of a great army was the
marching of John Brown's soul. The roar of
cannon is the echo of somebody's whisper. The
caustic letters of Junius, whose real name no one
knows, shook England to its throne. Thought
makes pubUc opinion; later on public opinion puts
into shape, in law or action, what that thought
originated. Such is the universal law.
Thought begets thought. It would be a fascin-
-ating study to foUow its almost apostolic succes
sion. In one of his celebrated lectures, Mr.
Puncheon has traced the genealogy of thought
from a single book; reveaUng the influence of
thoughts upon men, thoughts that give shape to
the thinking of such men. The unadorned facts
are for the world to read. A quaint book, " The
Bruised Reed," falling under the observation of
Richard Baxter, led to his conversion and subse
quent remarkable career. Among his other works,
Baxter gave the world that book of yet living
power, "The Call to the Unconverted." This

190 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
book of Baxter became the effectual caU to Philip
Doddridge, leading him into his broader knowledge
and faith. Doddridge wrote a book entitled, " The
Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," which
book, falhng into the hands of WiUiam Wilber-
force, gave the world the Christian statesman who
wrote the treatise called "Practical Christianity."
To this book of Wilberforce a clergyman on the
Isle of Wight owed the inspiration producing that
volume of rare usefulness, "The Dairyman's
Daughter." To that same book was due also the
transformation in the character of Scotland's great
modern preacher, Thomas Chalmers. WeU has it
been said that thoughts colonize. When the old
Puritan divine, Richard Sibbes, sent to the press
his little venture, " The Bruised Reed," little did he
dream what its power should become over men.
Royalty in the person of Francis the First of
France received with unbending dignity the salu
tations of statesmen ; but upon the approach of a
man of letters, the king always advanced three
steps from his throne to meet him: royalty
crowned greeting a royalty that makes or removes
crowns. Franklin always attributed his useful
ness to Cotton Mather's "Essays to do Good."
To the Contemplations of Sir Matthew Hale was

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 191
largely due the mental and moral balance of
Washington. Newton's " Principia " was the vol
ume that became the source of power in WiUiam
Pitt. It was Dickens who said of Gray, the author
of the " Elegy," " No poet ever came walking
down to posterity with so smaU a book under his
arm ; " yet who can measure the power of that
book, to have written which, said General Wolfe
during his memorable siege, was an honor greater
than to be the conqueror of Quebec. A c^Jiempo-
rary of Pope described him as " a large hat with a
man under it " ; but what had his diminutive stat
ure to do with his "Essay on Man," that has
shaped many a noble career and given the impulse
to a mind hke Webster's ? It was the accidental,
or providential, gUmpse of a volume of Buff on
that fixed the destiny of Cuvier. The journals of
Pliny became, after fourteen centuries, the inspira
tion to the purpose that has given Columbus an
immortal name. No extended list of examples can
make more clear the value of thought upon the
Uves of men.
The value of every book is proportioned to the
greatness of its thoughts. The sublimity of this
truth seems to shine in the words of Kepler as he
gave to the world the work containing the third of

192 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
his celebrated laws ; " It may well wait a century
for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years
for an observer." Every great truth wiU, of neces
sity, make a great impression. The Bible, among
other books, stands alone in the greatness of its
teachings. Its histories are freighted with the
truths of a sublime philosophy. The best ideas in
the classics are only as chaff to the Bible's pure
wheat of truth. Far be it from us to undervalue
the sway of Athenian Uterature ; and yet beauty of
diction may not reveal truth. Pagan literature is
largely concerned with gods and goddesses more
fickle than the writers themselves, more sensual,
more brutal. The Sermon on the Mount alone
infinitely surpasses in sublimity, beauty and hope,
all the pagan and classic productions ever written
The philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, notwith
standing their alternate sway over men, are to be
judged from their standpoint as to the cheapness
of human life. Their philosophies were weighed
in the words of Juvenal: "The human race is
cursed by the darkness which hangs over the fut
ure." Much has been said of the Bibles of nations,
yet no classic has been given such a title. Sir
Walter Raleigh has pointed out passages in Homer
whose thoughts have been borrowed from the

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 193
Hebrew Scriptures ; but with all his borrowed
themes, the comparative fewness of ideas in the
great poet is undoubted. Bishop Lowth has traced
with his critical pen the references in VirgU, espe
cially in the Fourth Eclogue, to Isaiah, proving
his knowledge of the great prophet ; yet this is
not enough to affix the title of "sacred" to the
Mantuan poet.
When we ponder the Bibhcal truths concerning
the character of God, the dignity and yet the de
basement of man, the importance of time in the
world's redemption, all of which truths are empha
sized in the as yet unappreciated word " eternity,"
we may weU repeat the reverent conclusion of a
profound student of history, Mr. Winthrop :
"There are single books of the Bible — there are
single chapters of the Bible — nay, there are single
verses of the Bible, which are worth all that was
ever written or uttered, before or since, by human
pens or human hps." An infidel, proud in his
conceit, points to a copy of Shakespeare as his
Bible, forgetting if he has ever read so far, the
nervous truth as uttered by Principal Shairp :
" The shine, the shadow, the color of the moral
world, Shakespeare looked upon, were all caused
or cast by the Christian's Sun of Righteousness."

194 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
In observing the relations of the Bible and learn
ing two reflexive truths seem to run parallel ; viz.,
the relation of learning to the Book, and of the
Book to learning. The power of the Book is, in a
certain sense, perpetuated in the forces that it sets
in motion. To iUustrate : no one can fail to rec
ognize the agency of the Greek language in the
transmission of the teachings of the volume, and
yet the Book does not owe its preservation to the
language that is even now caUed " dead." At
the risk of pedantry we quote the judgment of Mr.
Everett bearing upon this point : " It was not the
knowledge of the Latin and Greek which kept
the Bible from perishing, while they were tempo
rary vehicles of its circulation; it was the study of
the Scriptures and the labors of Christian men
which mainly contributed to prevent those lan
guages from dying out."
Coleridge in his Table-Talk says of the conserv
ing value of our version : " Intense study of the
Bible will keep anj'- writer from being vulgar in
style " ; the Bible doing for the English language
what it has done for the Greek.
Professor George P. Marsh says of Tyndale's
translation of the New Testament : " It has exerted
a more marked influence upon English philology

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 195
than any other native work between the ages of
Chaucer and Shakespeare."
History wUl parallel this statement as to the
indebtedness of the classics to rehgion in the time
of the Reformation. Homer and Demosthenes
made beautiful a language that though "dead"
should stUl live, because of the volume whose
theme was the God unknown in Athens.
In an address of Dr. A. P. Peabody before the
American Institution of Instruction in 1870 this
same truth is shown in the effects of the Bible
upon our own language. " This leads me to speak
of a most important service that has been rendered
by our English Bible. It is the chief reason why
we can understand it now. It has been an anchor
to the language, which, since it was published, has
sustained less change than it previously sustained
every fifty years. It arrested at the happiest stage
the Normanizing or Latinizing process that had
been going on for centuries before, and preserved
for us the rugged force of those Anglo-Saxon
words which were fast vanishing from popular use.
Our Bible is stiU the key to the best English dic«
tion ; and by conversance with it our children are
made famiUar with their own language, in a purer
form than any other which can be placed before

196 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
them. There can be no doubt that better English
is spoken by the people at large in New England
than anywhere else in the world ; and there can
be equally little doubt that this is due to the fact
that until now, the Bible has helped form the dic
tion of almost every child that has been educated
at a New England school."
So likewise the Bible has been the chief source
of learning, while at the same time the more rever
ent the learning the better is the Book understood.
Lord Bacon owned the source of his philosophy to
be in the Scriptures, in his memorable words : " Thy
creatures have been my books ; but thy Scriptures
much more." It is plainly seen that in the uplift
given the world by his philosophy, the Book that
inspired it would gain a yet deeper hold upon
the people. Thus, in one way, the Book is at once
its own servant and master. Whatever it creates
adds to its power. England opened its Westmin
ster Abbey for the grave of Sir Isaac Newton, prov
ing his right to the title " the greatest of natural
philosophers " ; and to this day his fame is in the
ascendency ; but in all his works there are indicar
tions of a height he could not reach, a power he
could not match, a light he could not equal. In
his own words we read the source of this influence :

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 197
" I count the Scriptures of God to be the most sub-
Ume philosophy." Just in proportion to the sway
of the Newtonian phUosophy, so was the reflexive
power of these same Scriptures increased.
The secret of the intellectual power of the Bible
Ues in the sublimity of its themes. Great truths
compel great thoughts. Platitudes awaken no
enthusiasm. Ideas, that once produced revolu
tions, are now commonplace, because they have
ceased to startle, being no longer in advance of
the times. Whenever the human inteUect has
mastered the truth, the book that contains that
truth ceases to live as a book, although its vitality
and truths are everywhere recognized. Harvey's
treatise on the circvdation of the blood is seldom if
ever read, although to that one book is due a
thorough revolution in the science of medicine.
The same is true of multitudes of other volumes,
and this is aU to their honor. The death of books
is a glory when the truths once clasped between
the covers have been resurrected into the lives
of the race.
Yet above aU such examples stands the one vol
ume whose truths can never be burned out. All
along the centuries " new Ughts " have been break
ing forth ; or rather, new and better conceptions of

198 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
its teachings. The fullness of meaning in a " Thus
saith the Lord " has never yet been reached by the
human intellect. From the nature of man it never
can be fully comprehended. Human comments
upon the Book have grown old-fashioned in the
generations of their writers, but the whole volume
remains just as it was written at the first. In all
the four thousand years since any fragment was
given the world, the entire race have not been able
to exhaust even one of its truths, and leave that
truth one side. It was Jean Paul who said : " The
first leaf of the Mosaic record has more weight
than all the folios of men of science and philoso
phy." Against that leaf sceptics have been casting
their objections for centuries in vain. They are
not yet through referring to the mistakes of Moses ;
but Moses still Uves. It is perfectly safe to risk
the Bible upon its very first chapter. It has under
gone the incisive scrutiny of the most scientific
thinkers of all time. Men have assailed it in wrath,
and when their assaults were over, their wrath has
proven anew the invincibility of the truth. It
is not thus "men of straw" are opposed; the greater
the truths the more are the men who confirm or
assail them.
To what infinite depths the opening words lead

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 199
US ! " In the beginning " — no ponderous world was
as yet ablaze in its morning glory, nor yet was
there even one of the sons of God to shout for joy.
" In the beginning, God " — what mortal mind has
measured Him ! What word on human Ups is
worthy as his name I " In the beginning, God cre
ated " — how like a march of eternities is the
thought of the handiwork of the Omnipotent fin
gers ! A breathless suspense lingers in the revela
tion of the Eternal, flinging upon the firmament
world" after world, sun after sun, until to all the
heavens He added this Uttle earth. '¦ He spake, and
it was done ; He commanded, and it stood fast."
Whether men believe them or not, the thoughts are
big with suggestions that cannot be dropped.
So take the question of eternity ; and there is
not a mortal but has his apprehension of its possi-
bUities to himself, and so begins to speculate and
reason to make it more real; or by shading his
eyes to drive the thought away, until hke his own
prototype, having cast away aU hope, he leaps
" into the dark." Hamlet is the world sohloquiz-
ing upon the undiscovered country.
Profoundest philosophy has ever been pondering
the doctrine of sin. The freedom of the wiU, as a
theme of Scriptural truth, in its relations to the

200 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
divine sovereignty has done more to develop the
intellectual powers than all the thoughts of the
heathen world. Redemption, as a theme, has caUed
out the subtlest intellectual acumen of the ages.
Archaeology and phUology, geography, history
and poetry, science and phUosophy have all been
probed to approve or to condemn this one Book.
Aside from all its moral teachings and viewed
merely from the human standard the Bible, as
expressed by Luthardt, "is the most magnificent
literary work existing in the whole world. . . .
It contains within itself a whole world of thoughts ;
it is a universe of mind."
The profoundest Uterature has been caUed out
by the Bible.
Is this influence of the Bible upon sound learn
ing disputed? Then shall we apply a sure test.
The desire for knowledge wiU make itself known
in the founding of schools and colleges. There
are, in our Republic alone, four hundred and one
chartered universities and coUeges authorized by
law to confer degrees. How many of these has
infidehty founded? Not one. Several of these are
State universities ; others may have departed far
from the faith of the founders ; but in every one of
all these seats of learning, the Bible and religion

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 201
have a place. What is tme in this land obtains on
the Continent. The Old World in its one hundred
universities offers no soUtary exception to the same
law. Unchristian scholars may seek these advan
tages of learning, yet they owe their thanks to God
fearing men for what they enjoy. In varying
shades of thought, these venerable as weU as newer
seats of learning aU rest upon the one only chief
Book that invites the keenest criticism in reverence
of spirit. Every great institution of learning on
the globe is a monument of the power of human
faith as revealed in the teachings of the Book of
books. Be it observed further, sound learning is essential
to rehgion and demanded by it. The Bible incites
to the reading of aU other books. It welcomes
every new advance in scientific research, philosoph
ical inquiry and history as a part of its own mis
sion. It is for just this purpose it has founded
coUeges and universities in addition to schools of
lower grades. Puritanism, clinging to the Book,
saw to it that learning was not buried in the graves
of the forefathers, by establishing at the very out
set grammar schools ; " the masters thereof being
able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted
for the university."

202 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
Infidelity goes to Christian schools for an educa
tion, and then attacks the faith that has founded
and endowed such privileges as they have so freely
used. Burke, with his keen insight, thus wrote :
" The scheme of Christianity is such that it almost
necessitates an attention to many kinds of learning.
For the Scripture is by no means an irrelative sys
tem of moral and divine truths ; but it stands con
nected with so many histories, and with the laws,
opinions and manners of so many various sorts of
people, and in such different times, that it is alto
gether impossible to arrive to any tolerable knowl
edge of it without having recourse to much exterior
inquiry. For which reason the progress of this
religion has always been marked by that of letters."
Contrast with this elevation of the race the
experience and confession of those who have
sneered at these great truths. Their writings
are comparatively unread. Learning is not all.
Hobbes who prided himself upon the name Phil
osopher of Malmesbury, after all his life of ninety
years could say no more than this : " I am about to
take a leap in the dark." It was the favorite
expression of Voltaire, the great encyclopaedist,
whenever the name of the Redeemer was men
tioned, " Crush the wretch ! " He spent his life

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 203
trying to make his malediction true, but aU in
vain. Infidel flatterers he cursed to their faces.
At one moment raving against God and man, this
great skeptic would in another moment turn away
in piteousness of accents and plead, " O Christ !
O, Lord Jesus ! " The agony of his mental
torture made even his physician shrink from his
visits, while his nurse declared that "for aU the
wealth of Europe, she would never see another
infidel die." Hume made no secret of his infi
dehty, by tongue or pen. He too had finished his
work, and sat at the card-table when death was
approaching. Manliness itself seemed gone as the
dying philosopher jested over the great change
that was coming, as if eternity was but a fable ;
and yet at other times his frame, trembling with
fear, would shake the very bed beneath him in his
awful despair.
All are aware of the attempts made to blot out
the remorse that blackened the death chamber of
Thomas Paine. A mournful travesty on intel
lectual power without a moral support, lingers in
such experiences. A sound learning demands for
its stability a harmony with the Book of books.
Apart from and beyond these considerations,
history has a voice in this question. Professor

204 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
Ladd in his Doctrine of Sacred Scripture divides
the history of the Bible into three great periods :
The first period covers the era of its construction
— from Moses to the latest writings of the New
Testament ; the second naturaUy reaches from the
completion of the Book until the Reformation;
the third begins with the time of Luther and the
rapid dissemination of the volume by the agency
of the printing press, and continues untU the pres
ent time. This is at once a natural and clear
division in its history.
We have previously referred to the influence of
the earher books upon the race, but a new force
was given in the addition of the Gospels and
Epistles of the New Testament. The Book as a
whole cannot therefore be judged untU its full
completion and acceptance by the Christian church.
The legitimate question therefore seeks an answer
as to the influence of the Book upon learning
during aU these eighteen Christian centuries,
Why should there have been any " dark ages " if
such a power lies in the Book ?
Notwithstanding aU the errors of the Church,
it must be confessed that it always made some
use of the Book. But, in what respect? The
period extending from the early Fathers until the

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 205
Reformation is rightly caUed the " ecclesiastical."
The Church was aiming for supremacy and power.
It claimed the right even of crowning and dethron
ing kings. The kingdom of Christ was graduaUy
becoming a great material, rather than spiritual,
power. To accomplish its end, the Church made use of
the Inquisition to terrify and destroy all who
opposed its rule, and for a while it succeeded.
The most saintly often fell under its ban. Corrupt
men seized its offices, and the streets sometimes
were crimsoned with the best blood of the earth.
Nothing was allowed to stand in its path. The
pen that wrote a word against its tyranny was
broken ; the writer was excommunicated or put
to death, and the book prohibited and destroyed ;
a method of procedure calling forth the indig
nation of Milton against the presumption that
" St. Peter had bequeathed to them the keys of the
press as well as of Paradise." And yet this was
not aU ; the Church stiU professing to be guided
by the Book burned every copy it could find in the
hands of the people. Houses were searched by
officers, lest even a page of its contents should
be concealed. More than from infidelity, has the
Book suffered in the hands of those who have

206 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
called themselves by the Holy Name. What does
it mean ?
The answer is very clear. To a church seeking
a supremacy and claiming its rulers as infalUble, so
far as the Book should have a power, that power
must be used for the Church. Until the Reforma
tion which was an attack on the Church as then
organized, the Bible was the book of the Church.
Its popes and cardinals and priests could read it,
if they chose, but it could not be trusted with the
people, except as the Church should interpret it
to them.
The CouncU of Toulouse in 1229 enacted the
following decree : " We also forbid the laity to pos
sess any of the books of the Old or New Testament,
except, perhaps, the Psalter or Breviary for the
Divine Offices, or the Hours of the Blessed Virgin
which some, out of devotion, wish to have; but
having any of these books translated into the
vulgar tongue, we strictly forbid."
If the priests were ignorant even of the alphabet,
it was not of vital concern ; their superiors com
manded their course.
The Reformation, on the other hand, placed the
Book in the hands of the people. Instead of being
the book, so far as used, of the Church, it became

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 207
the book of aU mankind. Previous to the Reforma
tion the Church was the final authority in aU ques
tions of conscience and hberty ; but ever since, in
aU Protestant lands, the Bible is the standard ; and
until this present time all Christendom is divided
into these two general companies ; the one guided
by the Priesthood, the other, by the Book.
As a matter of history, the Revival of Learning
and the great Protestant Reformation were cotem-
porary; how related, we shaU hereafter consider.
What then was the attitude of the Church previ
ous to the Revival of Learning, since it must be
acknowledged that the Church had the dominating
control in the Dark Ages ? All through the Dark
Ages there were devout scholars. To those rela
tively few faithful men is due the gratitude of
devout hearts in aU times. The brilUancy of the
light is not due to the candlestick ; even the pesti
lence cannot keep away the Sisters of Mercy ; the
ignorance of a continent will not darken the inqui
ries of Becket or Abelard. The venerable Bede,
Anselm, the scholastic theologian, Bernard, the her
mit monk of Cluny ; Aquinas, the AngeUc Doctor —
what names are these representing a piety and
scholarship shining aU the more brightly because
of the density of the darkness around them !

208 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
The exceptions, however, do not constitute the
Church. A selfish hierarchy bent the Book to its
own will. There was no objection to any man's
learning, until that learning should oppose some
dogma or rule of the Church. Up to such a
limit a Galileo could be free, but not beyond it.
Free scholarship was cramped, and the age sunk
back into barbarism. The promulgation of a new
thought was the signal tint a new martyr was dis
covered. Just in proportion to the arrogance of
the papacy, so was learning imperiled.
It was the age of scholasticism. The teachings
of the early Christian Fathers were shaped by those
of Aristotle, until neither they nor the disciples of
the great philosopher could recognize what had
been taught. Scholasticism was the highest learn
ing ; and its originators and teachers were in the
Church. It was poor philosophy ; but such as it
was it belonged to the Church. It was a dreamy
intellectualism of little practical worth. It was a
dark day for truth when " the will " was declared
superior to intellect. The logical result was seen
in the will of the Church, some of whose specula
tions reached the problem ; how many angels could
dance upon a needle's point. The more men spec
ulated, the more dim the day ; but a brighter

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 209
dawn was coming, and in the light of such a
day, we turn to observe the intimate relations
between the Book and the Revival of Learning.
In spite of all that scholasticism did not do, it
did create a desire for knowledge. It employed
the very powers whose action it denied ; viz : the
reason. The spirit of inquiry was awakened to
new objects of thought. Scholasticism turned
away from the world to dream, hence the promi
nent thoughts of the ecclesiastics were away from
this Ufe ; given to another world rather than to
this. It is a lamentable result of intellectual waste
when we accept the statement of HaUam : " After
three or four hundred years, the scholastics had
not untied a single knot, nor added one unequivo
cal truth to the domain of phUosophy."
Against this so-caUed learning that died from
its own uselessness we turn to a philosophy of a
different kind. A new sun could hardly cause a
greater change on the planet than that which
originated with the new method of Lord Bacon.
He made all nature his teacher. Nothing concern
ing the affairs of men escaped his profound obser
vation. The world paid him tribute. With his
advent the atmosphere of mysticism was changed.
He brought men to a knowledge of themselves and

210 • THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
of the world in which they live. The method of
thought he initiated has ruled in the three cent
uries reaching to the present. He scanned the
broad domain of all knowledge ; weighed the past
and cast the worthless aside ; and then with the
pen of a master laid his philosophy down for
the future to read and to finish.
It is impossible to trace the steps of modern
philosophy from the days of Descartes its founder.
That has been a mighty river of speculative
philosophy, hiding under the names of Leibnitz,
Malebranche, Pascal, Newton, Gahleo ; a profound
undercurrent in the Scotch and German phUoso-
phies, and gaining its hold upon New England in
the person of its greatest exponent, Jonathan
Edwards. Who were these leaders in intellectual power?
Bacon avows his paramount obligations to the
Scriptures above all else. Descartes began his
speculations *on the side of a doubt in order to
reach after beUef, leading directly up to the truth
of the knowledge of God gained from the suc
cessive reasonings from consciousness. The phil
osophy of Leibnitz, " the most comprehensive
genius since Aristotle," was wrought upon a Chris
tian basis. Over against the theories of Hume that

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 211
have since lived in Comte, MiU and Spencer, we
are compeUed to recognize the living power of
Christian truth.
Philosophy often gathers its incentives from
contact with outside facts or ideas. In his essay
upon Lord Bacon, Macaulay says : " It is chiefly
to the great reformation of religion that we owe
the great reformation of philosophy." Guizot
in his " History of CivUization " emphasizes this
same thought. Schwegler, in his History of Phil
osophy asserts : " In their origin, both kinds of
Protestantism, that of religion and that of thought,
are one and the same, and in their progress they
have also gone hand in hand together. For rehg
ion, reduced to its simple elements, wiU be found
to have its source, like phUosophy, in the self-
knowledge of the reason."
The Reformation, above all other events, owes
its chief power to the Bible alone. This was
always the great text book. It was the source of
Wickliffe's power, that greatest of all the reform
ers, before the Reformation. Erasmus, well named
the " king of the schools," untU then the greatest
scholar since the fall of the Roman Empire, wrought
more by his Greek Testament than by all his other
writings. "It contributed more to the liberation

212 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
of the human mind from the thraldom of the
clergy, than all the uproar and rage of Luther's
many pamphlets."
Without mentioning the names of the great think
ers and actors in the two centuries preceding, and
also in the Reformation struggle, we observe a few
facts, viz : these great movements were directed by
scholars prominent in the universities ; the large
majority of the men of learning were with them ;
and the centre of all their thoughts and writings
was the Bible, confirming the statement, that the
Bible incites to the study of all other books. It is
not wrapped up in itself; its truths are in harmony
with all true knowledge and learning.
We repeat at this point, in briefest manner, the
pivotal facts on which our thoughts have rested.
The Book of civilization is the Bible; Bibles are
multiplied in proportion to the purity of the civili
zation; its great thoughts become pubhc opinion
and find expression ; the Book incites to the learn
ing that confirms its power; the secret of the
Book lies in the sublimity of its themes ; the oppo
sitions it has met prove it the greatest hterary
work in existence ; it has given the world aU the
institutions of learning ; and in turn, sound learn
ing is essential for a better understanding of what

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 213
it teaches. History confirms the foregoing truths
in the relation of the Reformation to the Revival
of Learning. The greatest thinkers have rehed
upon its teachings, proving the truth as quoted
from a French historian: "wherever the Bible is
not made the foundation stone of education, of
society, and of every form of hfe, there is no
literature for chUdren or for the people."
This Book contains no more in quantity than
the three hundredth part of what is covered by the
classics and ancient hteratures, and yet has held to
itself the thoughts of the great thinking world more
than all else together.
Principal Shairp, in his " Culture and ReUgion,"

"ReUgion must embrace culture; first, because
it is itself the culture of the highest capacity
of our being; and, secondly, because, if not par
tial and bUnd, it must acknowledge aU the other
capacities of man's nature as gifts which God
has given."
Aside from these more general considerations
We observe the two practical and vital forces that
in their proper functions are a conserving power of
learning among mankind. We refer to free schools
and the Christian pulpits.

214 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
First : Free Schools. Whatever, in all the range
of Biblical truth, is given for one is given for all.
The Bible includes among its readers " the wayfar
ing man " though he be void of understanding.
The Book carries the old Hebrew system, every
where; the necessity of instructing strangers as
well as children. Its precepts were to be the theme
of conversation, morning and night ; and even the
door-posts were to be inscribed with the law.
The Book recognized the virtue in kingliness,
and prophesied that every man should be a king and
a priest before God. There are no distinctively
privileged classes. It is upon this very democracy
of the truth that the common schools have their
basis. Not schools for the Church alone, but for
the unchurched as weU ; not for the rich, but also
for the poor. If learning is profitable for the few,
it is also profitable for the many. Ignorance may
be tempted to neglect the privilege, and so the
State makes education compulsory. We owe these
opportunities directly to the biblical spirit of the
value of learning; and is there not a mocking
travesty in the demand that the Bible be excluded
from the very schools its spirit has created?
The consistency of this principle of universal
education is seen in the fact that literary culture

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 215
owes something to its environment. It was a con
versation of plain men in the tavern at Shrews
bury, in 1774, that turned John Adams from a
royahst to become a patriot. He is always the
wisest politician who forecasts what the multi
tudes are thinking. All great reforms rest with
the so-called common people. Wherever there is a
galaxy of brUUant scholars, there, we may be sure, is
a reasonable intelligence in their community. Our
coUeges and universities would die were it not
for our lower schools. As a rule, literary culture
works upward. Just as in the golden coming age,
so is it divinely intended that " aU shall know,"
— a time when to no one person shall knowledge
be granted ; " aU shaU know from the least to the
greatest." Secondly : The Christian Pulpits. We are not
to speak of the influence of the clergy in the for
mation of States.
The oracle of Massachusetts in his day was
Boston's divine, John Cotton ; the founder of
Rhode Island was Roger Williams, and the founder
of Connecticut was Thomas Hooker. Our great
Western Reserve owes its freedom to the Rev.
Manasseh Cutler who took out the charter for its
domain.

216 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
The whole Northern Pacific coast, west of the
Rocky Mountains, was saved to our Republic by
the Christian Missionary, Doctor Marcus Whitman,
the coadjutor of Rev. Henry A. Spaulding. This
is not the place to repeat what liberty owes to the
preachers of the Gospel; yet such patriots have
rendered a service to learning equally worthy of
notice. The best universities of the Old World,
and nearly all of the New World, have been
founded by the clergy.
There are poor sermons as well as those that are
good ; and yet taken as a whole the hterature of
our pulpits, in our Republic alone, would in a
single year amount to a quarter of a million vol
umes of two hundred and fifty octavo pages each.
Not always is the value of such productions to be
judged by a merely literary standard. John Wes
ley's sermons are tame reading in these modern
days, yet of all his forty thousand sermons no one
was void of power. The discourses of Whitefield
were better in their hearing 'than in their reading,
but his power was felt over aU the English-speak
ing world, evoking the admiration of such men as
Garrick, Hume, Chesterfield and Franklin, as well
as of hundreds of thousands who bore the Christian
name.

THE BOOK AND LEARNING. 217
If these are caUed exceptions, we must remem
ber that John Owen, instructor of thousands, — •
"among whom was John Locke, William Penn,
Dr. South, Dr. Whitby, Sir Christopher Wren, and
Launcelot Addison father of the celebrated essay
ist," — owed his conversion to an obscure preacher
whose name he never learned.
The truth, reaching the soul and rousing its
dormant energies, takes care of itself. Adam
Smith owed the source of his political ethics to
F^nelon. The devout John Newton lives in the
works of Cowper, that "forerunner of EngUsh
poetry " ; in Scott the renowned commentator ; in
WUberforce, statesman and phUanthropist, and
in thousands of others whose widening influence
emphasizes the value of a single life in the service
of God. Mr. Buckle attributes to ChiUingworth's
" ReUgion of the Protestants " the honor of having
shaped the thought of the seventeenth century.
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton's career, as an eman
cipator and philanthropist, dates back to the
preaching of a single sermon in Wheeler Street
Chapel of Spitalfields. It was to Dr. Samuel
Davies, that prince in the American pulpit,
Patrick Henry owed the impressions of the elo
quence of which he became so great a master. To

218 THE BOOK AND LEARNING.
the plain pastor of Boscowen, New Hampshire,
Daniel Webster owed much of the success of his
life, as was shown in his almost filial affection in
the mention of Dr. Wood's name. Lord Chatham,
on whose words all Britain was entranced, made
the ponderous sermons of Isaac Barrow his life
long study.
In the homage literature pays to the Bible,
we shall discover the reasons why the most learned
among the world's nobility have recognized in the
teachings of the Book of books, the vital truths
which the truest scholarship and the profoundest
learning cannot afford to lose. The disciples were
plain and unlettered men, but it was their contact
with the Master that made them great. Even
Pilate's name gathers its sad history because he
was compelled to pass judgment against, or acquit,
the Christ. The ages will not, can not, erase the
declaration of Christ : " the word that I have
spoken, the same shall judge him in that day."
We are concerned with it in time, and shaU meet
its truths in eternity.

VIII.
THE BOOK IN LITERATUEE.
It was the request of the historian Prescott that
after his death they should leave his body, clothed
with the garments of the grave, alone among his
books — so sacred were the sUent associations of
his Ubrary; and his dying wish was carried out
to the letter.
When Neander died they placed the volumes of
his patient toU upon his bier; and thousands of
scholars and citizens, led by their king, foUowed
the worn-out body to its last resting-place.
There is something sacred in the volumes whose
very silence is become a hving language. The
works of such men cannot die. When Jeffreys in
his review of Wordsworth's " Excursions " said
" This wiU never do," the poet's answer was sent
back : " It must do ; I know very weU that my
work wUl be unpopular, but it will be immortal."
In nearest approach to an earthly immortality
219

220 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
are the works of the intellect given for future
generations to ponder. Napoleon counted forty
centuries on the silent pyramids ; but immor
tality of inteUect in its conception of Truth is
infinitely higher and more enduring than laj'^ers
of granite.
All thought will find expressions for itself. It
lays its claims upon the cedars of Lebanon, and
they are bent to its pleasure. It digs for the pre
cious metals, and mints them for its use. It belts
the continents and makes pathways of the seas.
Carlyle puts this truth thus: "AU that man
does and brings to pass is the vesture of a thought.
This London city with all its houses, palaces,
steam-engines, cathedrals, and huge immeasurable
traffic and tumult, what is it but a thought, but
milhons of thoughts made into one ; — a huge
immeasurable spirit of a thought, embodied in
brick, in iron, smoke, dust, palaces, parhaments,
hackney coaches, Katharine docks and the rest of
it? Not a brick was made but some man had to
think of the making of that brick."
Some one has aptly described the locomotive as
" thought dressed up in iron." If so, the bound
ing steamship is the creature of somebody's brain.
Machines count — one, two, three, four — and

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 221
begin and count again. Steel works more accu
rately than fingers. A broken thread stops the
shuttle in its weaving, as if cold iron shrinks from
making a flaw in the textUe. The earth itself is
God's thought, and the stars of the sky are the
lamps where He works.
It was the metaphor of Lord Bacon that books
are "ships of thought." There is nothing more
natural than such a transmission of ideas — ¦
thoughts struggUng into freedom. Literature is
the living mind of many who are gone. Books in
Prescott's Ubrary and on Neander's coffin were
aUve. Between the tomb and the library is the
difference between the mortal and the immortal.
In a previous chapter we viewed the Book as a
power in the development of mind and learning.
We stood at the source and fountain of knowl
edge. We were in the spring-time anticipating
somewhat of the harvest we are now to behold.
We were computing from the Book itself what
countless libraries it would create and enrich;
now, with the world's Uterature at our feet we
read backward — travel backward — and aU the
way along, the flowers and the fruits that seize
the eye quickest and charm the most, are grown
from the seed-truths of the Book of books. There

222 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
is not a shelf in any alcove in any library in all
the civilized world that does not contain some
reference to the world's oldest Book. Reverent
science yields it its place; history is full of its
power ; philosophy seeks to establish or to invali
date its claims ; poetry gains its richest treasures
from thoughts inspired men wrote down. Byron's
pictures were often borrowed from its pages.
Voltaire is always holding up to view the Book he
was determined to write down. Hume and Gib
bon could insinuate their infidelity only by point
ing to its truths as if they were fables. Infidelity
to-day borrows its themes from the Book it affects
to despise ; and on those borrowed themes keeps
up its play of cheap wit. Infidelity's staple
themes are : " The mistakes of Moses ; " " Is there a
God ? " and the like. They borrow the plumage,
advertise their presence — and the play is done.
The history of literature suggests its own lessons.
There is the chaff as well as the wheat ; the wilted
verbiage as well as the fruit. Not all that is writ
ten lives, but there are immortal books. Literature,
like the ocean, can be trusted to clear itself of what
is useless and noxious. Time is always on the
side of true worth. Immortality has no alcove for
shams, except for their consignment to oblivion.

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 223
From the vast range of modern literature we
shall make no mistake in dwelhng chiefly upon that
of our own mother tongue. Into this field the most
brUliant writers like Taine have come in search of
the laws governing the highest literary progress.
Notice, first: The beginnings of modern Lit
erature are Biblical. The three great names —
founders of English hterature and learning — are
Csedmon the monk of Whitby, the first English
poet ; Bede the monk of Jarrow, the first English
historian, and Alcuin the monk of York, the great
defender of the Christian faith. Caedmon's best
work was wrought in his " Paraphrase of the Bible,"
in which the Oriental imagery of the Bible was
buUded into the EngUsh language. The vener
able Bede Burke called "the Father of English
Learning." To him English science looks back as
its originator ; and to him EngUsh national educa
tion owes its inception. The source of this man's
light that shone over all Europe from the seventh
to the tenth century, was Christian culture alone.
To Alcuin, caUed to become the intimate adviser
of Charlemagne, France owes its great university
and hails him as the founder of its polite literature.
EngUsh prose recognizes its parentage in the
devout and saintly King Alfred whose virtues have

224 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
given him the reputation of being the most perfect
character in history. Chaucer, the best skUled of
the earher English poets, and whose grave was the
first made in Westminster's Poets' Corner, not
withstanding his worldly Ufe, gained his power,
aside from his art, from themes of sacred import.
The vital force creating the revival of learning
created with that learning a new literature. No
language is safe until the people speak it. As a
standard of language the one book of the people is
all-important. The Reformation gave that Book,
which became the anchor of Britain, not in phil
osophy only, but also in style. WickUffe's Bible,
whose dialect was preserved by Tyndale in his
version, is the corner-stone of all English thought
and Ufe.
English Uterature, with fewest exceptions, can
hold up to the light its purest names as those who
have felt most of Biblical truth. The three great
writers in the Elizabethan Age — Spencer, Shakes
peare and MUton — owed their power to their rever
ent study of the Book of books. " In truth," says
Schlegel, " these three greatest poets of England
contain within themselves everything that is reaUy
great and remarkable in regard to her older litera
ture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries."

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 225
We are not calUng to mind the great theological
and philosophical works under such names as
" the Judicious Hooker " and Jeremy Taylor, that
"Shakespeare of divines." Addison and Steele
gained for themselves the title of " Sermonists,"
so powerfuUy did they bring to bear upon litera
ture the moraUty of the Bible. AU England
stopped to listen as this new style of thought in
HoUand House was given. There was more to be
heard than the songs of Troubadours ; something
nobler than human deeds to be recounted. Moon,
stars and planets were revealed as teachers of truth :
"What though, in solemn silence, all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball?
What though no real voice, nor sound,
Amid their radiant orbs be found?
In reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice ;
Forever singing as they shine,
' The hand that made us is divine.' "
De Foe gave the world his classic of Crusoe " to
justify and honor the ways of Providence." Young
penned his "Night Thoughts" by the shining
of a candle whose lamp was a, human skull, but
the immortal truths he uttered were eternal as the

226 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
stars. The profound object of Dr. Johnson was to
exalt revealed religion and change society by in
spiring in men a deeper faith in God. Goldsmith,
wiser when he held his pen than when he laid it
down, owes his influence to the virtues he extoUed
as found in the Book of books. Somehow Cole
ridge and Wordsworth, Cowper and Scott shine
all the more because of the immortal thoughts that
possessed them — thoughts inspired men had sug
gested for the ages to read. The epitaph Keats
wrote for his own grave is in one respect true of
aU : " Here lies one whose name was writ in water ; "
but the immortality of the truth gives immortahty
to those who apprehend it.
The permanency of literature is substantiaUy in
proportion as it touches the Bible. Burke, almost
a century ago, remarked : " Who born within the
last forty years has read one word of Collins, and
Toland, and Tindal, and Chubb, and Morgan,
and that whole race who called themselves free
thinkers ? Who now reads Bolingbroke ? Who
ever read him through ? " Godless speculations
are freighted with their own destruction. Mr.
Lecky has drawn the line against the freethinkers
in the parallelism, of despotism with the doctrines
which they advocated. A literature thus suicidal

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 227
to freedom wiU never live at the expense of liberty-
loving men.
Secondly: AU Uterature proves the law, "the
survival of the fittest." AU else than tmth is
transient. Our newspapers die on the day of their
issue, unless there is in them something more than
a record of passing events. Garrison's Liberator
had an object for hving, and wiU not be forgotten.
Time destroys aU time-servers — a righteous retribu
tion ! The book that is proven false in statement
is not quoted again. The world can never reverse
such a law ; and we may as weU caU it God's
decree. Without fear of refutation we repeat the
law ; the relative value of aU Uterature is propor
tioned to its nearness to the Bible in spirit and in
teaching. There is a law underlying the fact that
the two books next to the Bible in modern demand
are the " PUgrim's Progress," and the " Imitation
of Christ," volumes f uU of Biblical truth and power.
It is absolutely impossible to overestimate so simple
a book as Bunyan gave us. HLs Christian is the
world's hero. His was the one book Dr. Johnson
often read through ; it was the inspiration, next to
the Bible, of Hawthorne ; the unfaUing source of
iUustrations for Choate, from his earhest years ;
the marvel to Macaulay and a world of lesser men.

228 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
As the greatest mark of its power, we note the
edition issued by the Romish Church, adapted, after
a few eliminations, to the creed of the Papacy. It
is not genius that gives immortality ; else why is
it that all of MU ton's works are not equally sought?
The world will never let Dante and Milton die, they
can not ; the truths they gave us have enthroned
the seers' names.
There are two tests that reveal the secret of
literary permanence, both of which are eminently
true of the Bible.
First : no literature has permanency except as it
meets the needs of all men. The weakness of the
books of other religions lies in their exclusiveness.
The book that drops a nation outside of its teach
ings is in so far worthless. The same must be
true of the individual also. If there were a way
faring man whose needs the Scriptures could not
meet, that lack would mark an imperfection incon
sistent with its purpose. Just in proportion as the
Bible surpasses all other books in this respect, is its
hold upon the race the stronger.
StUl further ; the value of all literature depends
upon the moods of the human heart that it can
cover. The literature that shall be permanent
must be adapted to aU conditions and shades of

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 229
experience. To iUustrate, every phase of national
experience has had its own special written opinions.
There is a war Uterature for each successive con-
flict. The era of forming the National Constitution
had its own state papers. The anti-slavery writings
are aU finished. The debates upon the complex
problems of reconstruction are ended with the con
ditions that call for them. No one of these at aU
represents our national life ; the national history
embraces aU; and each becomes permanent only as
its relations to the rest are recognized.
So, take the great problems of religious progress.
Every transition epoch has had its own literature.
Now one great doctrine is uppermost, and to-morrow
some other will arise. Church history cannot be
learned from any one of these epochs ; it must take
in the whole. Nothing more clearly shows the dis
tinction between theology and biblical truth than the
manner in which the ponderous volumes of theolog
ical discussions are shelved, while the Bible is more
and more sought after. The deathlessness of the
Book is proven in the strain it can bear from false
comments and opinions, while its divinity is manifest
in the human speculations it so quickly pushes into
the background of oblivion : the transient dies and
attests in its death the permanence of divine truth.

230 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
There is not a possible condition of the human
soul that is not met by the Bible. It is the people's
Book. Byron has spoken of man as a pendulum
swinging between a smile and a tear; but what
ever the arc of his movements, the truths of the
Book include him. More than this, the Book meets
the aspirations of immortality with the certitude
of a life beyond this. It is not possible to wrest
such a volume from the hands of the race. No
other book can take its place. Its permanence is
assured in its fidelity to human life. It covers
every possible experience in any man's life, and is
written for all mankind.
Secondly : the permanence of literature is seen
in its superiority over time. Every living book
is a prophecy. Great truths are always ahead of
their day. Roger Bacon the "Doctor Mirabilis"
of the thirteenth century predicted, six centuries
before their fulfillment, the coming time when ships
would swim the ocean without sails, carriages would
be run without horses, and the sky would become
the pathway for travellers. The more extended
the anticipations of history, the longer they live.
So long as there is a reform not yet accomplished,
the works that are prophetic of success will live.
The moment any work is thoroughl}' understood.

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 231
that moment its chief mission is over. We may
apprehend what we do not comprehend. Truth is
often above human comprehension. The depths
of morality are never fathomed. The Sermon on
the Mount has the sweep of the eternities in its
sublime teachings. The Leyden pastor was right
in his knowledge of hidden truths yet to shine
forth from the PUgrim's Book. What he could
not see, somebody would discover. After aU these
centuries, the Bible is as fresh as if, upon its every
page, the microscope of hostile criticism had not
been used. It was Humboldt who said that the
answers of modern science are not more satisfactory
than the book Job has given.
We are citing no prejudiced witness in its favor
when recalling the words of Theodore Parker :
" The exceUence of the Hebrew devotional hymns
has never been surpassed. Heathenism, Christian
ity, with all their science, arts, literature, bright
and many-colored, have Uttle that approach these.
They are the despair of imitators ; stiU the uttered
prayer of the Christian world. Tell us of Greece,
whose air was redolent of song ; its language such
as Jove might speak ; its sages, heroes, poets, honored
in every clime — they have no psalm of prayer and
praise like these Hebrews, the devoutest of men.

232 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
who saw God always before them, ready to take
them up when father and mother let them fall."
Scholarship breathes in the fervent words of
Dr. Peabody of Harvard: " Leaving their religious
worth out of the account, in a purely literary point
of view, I should feel myself bereaved of the choicest
productions of human genius, of my highest inspira
tion and my most finished models, were you to
blot out my knowledge of the Psalms of David,
the Parables of our Saviour, St. Paul's description
of Charity, his sublime chapter on the Resurrection,
the glorious visions of the Apocalypse, and many
portions of sacred writ which transcend all other lit>
erature equally in the glow and fervor of their God-
breathed thoughts, and in the sweetness, majesty
and grandeur of their diction."
Beyond question the greatest name in all Utera
ture is Shakespeare ; it is therefore eminently fitting
that we measure the influence of the Bible upon
literature by its power over the great dramatist.
Shakespeare has made the Bible the background
of his morals, style and illustration. More of the
Bible is reflected in his writings than in any other
work. His thorough knowledge of its characters and
books is manifest on almost every page. Like some

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 233
personation of malignity " cursed Cain " makes even
Hamlet shudder ; and in King Richard II. makes
Bolingbroke more hideous. The blood of Abel,
earliest of martyrs, is made to cry for justice, " even
from the tongueless caverns of the earth," over
Gloster's murder. What cunning in Shylock, hid
ing under the treachery of Jacob's life to justify
his over-reaching bargain! The treachery in Sis-
era's death finds its plot re-opened in the Tempest.
The great bard seems a necromancer in summon
ing back to earth " the majesty of buried Denmark "
as if Endor's witch were again employing her arts.
Starr King caUed Saul the biblical Macbeth ; would
it not be truer to behold in more kings than one
the beauty, the passion, the wickedness and the
sadness of Israel's first ruler? The character of
the prophetess Deborah is chosen as the ideal of the
Maid of Orleans. Jezebel creeps into notice again
as if the Pythagorean doctrine of transmigration
were true. Hamlet refers to the story of Jephthah.
A mock irony leaves Falstaff to quote Goliath as
if he were carrying " a weaver's beam."
Time forbids the repetition of the names trans
ferred from the Bible to the pages of this great
dramatist. He seems almost to have walked in
Eden with the wretched pair. Noah as a " sailor "

234 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
upon the Flood is not passed by. The fog of Egypt ;
the lean kine of Pharaoh ; the soldiers of Pharaoh — •
all find their places by the skillful pen. Abraham,
Job, Samson, Solomon, David, Ahithophel, Daniel
and others hke them are historic names in Shakes
peare's annals of human life and deeds.
The murder of the Innocents is woven into the
summons to surrender, spoken before the gates of
Harfleur. " The field of Golgotha and dead men's skulls,"
give solemn cadence in King Richard II. The
betrayal by Judas who —
"  kissed his master ;
And cried ' All hail ! ' when as he meant all harm,"
is recited by the lips of the wicked Gloster. PUate
washing his hands from a guilt that waters could
not cleanse, adds pathos to tragedy. The parables
of the Rich Man and Lazarus and that of the Prod
igal Son are repeatedly mentioned. No irreverence
breathes in the reference to a rebellion against
regal power in the words of the king ; words bor
rowed from One whose throne was the cross, —
" O graceless men ! they know not what they do."

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 235
Of Old Testament and New, Gospels and Epis
tles, it is the same ; England's Shakespeare, more
than any other, is buUt upon the Deathless Book.
What is true of historic characters is more than
verifled in references to the great Scriptural doc
trines. Volumes have been written on this sub
ject, which is not as yet exhausted. It were almost
as easy to single out references in the one book as
in the other. Hamlet's " special providence in the
faU of a sparrow " needs no reminder of its source.
Psalmist and Evangelist are recaUed as if in bene
diction, — "He that doth the ravens feed.
Yea, providently caters for the sparrow,
Be comfort to my age."
David's kindness towards Saul is Gaunt's choice
in Richard II, —
" Let Heaven revenge ; for I may never lift
An angry arm against his minister."
Queen Katharine voices truth in her words, —
" Heaven is above all yet; there sits a Judge
That no king can cormpt."
Portia in the "Merchant of Venice" voices
Scripture itself in her description of the divine

236 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
mercy that "droppeth, as the gentle rain from
heaven upon the place beneath," only to be an
swered by Shylock, that son of the crucifying priest
hood, — " My deeds upon my head."
The touching lament of Horatio, at Hamlet's
death, points to the source of his consolation, —
" Flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."
The chorus of the morning stars is echoed in
Lorenzo's words to Jessica, —
"There's not the smallest orb which thou behold' st
But in his motion like an angel sings
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims."
No one can doubt the psalm Queen Margaret
had read when she called Richard III —
"A foul defacer of God's handiwork."
Was it theology that Clarence urged upon him
who came into the Tower armed for murder ? —
" I charge you, as you hope to have redemption
By Christ's dear blood, shed for our grievous sins.
That you depart, and lay no hands on me."
More than history is blazoned in the descrip
tion of —

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 237
" Those holy fields.
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet,
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed
For our advantage on the bitter cross."
Apostolic doctrine breathes in Salisbury's words
in Henry VI, —
"Now by the death of Him that died for all."
The source of treachery is laid open in the
words of WiUiam to King Henry, —
" All ofiences, my liege, come from the heart."
The sacred warnings against sin, and the sting
ing woes that follow, are not weakened in the
words of King Richard III : —
"My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale."
And every tale condemns me for a villain."
That repentance is no meaningless word even
King Lear taught, —
" Woe, that too late repents."
Vanity of prayer in form without the spirit was
hidden in the confession of Claudius, —

238 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
" My words fiy up, my thoughts remain below ;
Words without thoughts never to Heaven go."
Richard II in the dimgeon of Pomfret Castle
recaUs at once the invitation and how hard it is
to obey, in setting "the Word itself against the
Word, —
" As thus ; Come, little ones ; and then again —
It is as hard to come, as for a camel
To thread the postern of a needle's eye."
Hamlet finds his text in Job when he speaks of —
"The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveller returns."
Lady Constance in King John thus addresses
the Pope's legate, —
"Father Cardinal, I have heard you say
That we shall see and know our friends in heaven :
If that be true, I shall see my boy again."
Terrors of the Judgment creep in upon the
soul, as the great Apostle had written to the
Romans : —
"In the corrupted currents of this world,
Oflence's gilded hand may shove by justice ;
But 'tis not so above.

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 239
There is no shuffling ; there the action lies
In his true nature ; and we ourselves compeUed,
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults.
To give in evidence."
Prospero, in the Tempest, refers to the image so
vivid in the Epistle of Peter, —
" Like the baseless fabric of this vision.
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself.
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve.
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded.
Leave not a rack behind."
From earUest to latest book of Scripture the
truths have been seized upon and woven into the
immortal dramas. Of this life and the next there
is no weariness. The truth is not destroyed.
The vision of the Seer of Patmos weighs upon the
Duke of Norfolk in King Richard II, —
" No, Bolingbroke : if ever I were traitor.
My name be blotted from the Book of Life,
Audi from heaven banished, as from hence ! "
AU these are but the few reminders of Shakes
peare's work. It is this borrowing from the Book
of books that has fastened his deeper hold upon
the \uman race ; and the Book in turn has given

240 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
him an added power. The life and power of all
literature are proportioned to their agreement
with what is taught in the oldest Book.
Prof. Brewer in " English Studies or Essays "
says of Shakespeare : " I do not fear to say that I
believe him to be the most religious poet in the
language ; as much or more than Milton himself,
except in one particular."
What is so true of Shakespeare is verified in
" the Homer of modern citizen life," as Taine has
called Sir Walter Scott. He gained his marvelous
power in no mean degree from the Book whose
chapters gave him solace in his dying hour. Among
all his twenty thousand volumes this book was
without a peer.
The Wizard of the North clothed the scenes of
Scottish history with the coloring of Bible story.
He recounts the story of Eden to make his land-
* scapes beautiful. He flings the rainbow over the
hills; "such a rainbow was never seen in France
or Flanders since that of Noah's Ark." Sinai finds
its place among the mountains of the North. The
wilderness of Israel's wanderings casts its shadows
over the forests that are pictured by liis pen.
Nimrod the mighty hunter finds " worthy suc
cessors " in " Rob Roj'^ " and " The Monastery."

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 241
The patriarchs live again in "The Heart of Mid
lothian," " Kenilworth," " The Monastery " and other
volumes hke them. Joseph's many-colored coat is
in " The Pirate." Moses' rod becomes Ivanhoe's
lance. The " Waters of Marah " spring up in
" The Heart of Midlothian." Scenes in the book of
Judges are constantly reappearing in " Old Mor
tality." Samson's riddle, his sufferings and death,
are frequent themes. The melancholy of Saul is
paraUeled in the despondency of AUan MacAulay
in " The Legend of Montrose." Henry Morton
in " Old MortaUty " has his " Cave of AduUam."
Solomon's glory is reflected as if his were a favorite
name. The Psalms of David are, by their frequent
quotations, reminders of what Sir Walter always
kept by his side. Jewels from the prophets are
made to gleam on many a page. From the earUest
Gospel to the latest vision of the Seer of Patmos,
Britain's author of " chiefest pride and glory since
Milton," has left no page unturned for the living
precepts and events that have crowded from his pen.
Dickson says of " Waverley " : This volume is
very valuable in discovering " Sir Walter Scott's
use of the Sacred Scriptures."
Poetry and hymnology are especiaUy indebted
to the Bible.

242 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
The grand themes of Milton are drawn from this
one fountain. Dante found in the same source the
themes that became under his touch " Copies in
water of a grand original." Tasso's " Jerusalem "
was sung in broken ballads by the gondoUers of
Venice as if in prophetic vision they saw its worth
— the great epic of Europe. The conclusions of a
scholarly critic in " Bible Lore " are rightly drawn:
" the Bible has suppUed the principal poets with
their most attractive themes." MUton had earned
his right to .speak when he said : " There are no
songs comparable to the songs of Zion, no orations
equal to those of the prophets, and no poUtics like
those the Scriptures teach."
A book thus powerful in literature must in itself
contain models of what it produces. Daniel Web
ster read it through once a year for its thoughts
and its imagery. Was he mistaken as to its power ?
As an example of Mr. Webster's love for Script-
tiral imagery, compare his marveUous use of a
portion of the one hundred and thirty-ninth
psalm (sixth to twelfth verses) in his justly cele
brated plea in the case of the murder of Captain
Joseph White : " A sense of duty pursues us ever.
It is omnipresent like the Deity. If we take to
ourselves the wings of the morning and dwell in

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 243
the uttermost parts of the sea, duty performed or
duty violated, is still with us, for our happiness
or our misery. If we say surely the darkness shall
cover us, in the darkness as in the light our obliga
tions are yet with us. We cannot escape their
power, nor fiy from their presence. They are with
us in this life, will be with us at its close ; and in
that scene of inconceivable solemnity, which Ues
yet farther onward, we shaU still find ourselves sur
rounded by the consciousness of duty, to pain us
wherever it has been violated, and to console us so
far as God may have given us grace to perform it."
Professor Briggs thus speaks : " The histories
contained in the Pentateuch are the fountain of
aU subsequent history. The grand hymn in Exo
dus [xv], the prayer in the ninetieth Psalm, the
prophetic didactic poem in Deuteronomy [xxxU]
are the great boughs of lyric poetry upon which
the Psalter subsequently burst forth in aU its
glory ; and the prophetic discourses in Deuteron
omy are the sources, as they give the key to aU
subsequent prophecy." Are such men mistaken?
It may yet be recognized that "the finest piece of
composition in the Greek language " is the story
of Paul's shipwreck. The heathen rhetorician Lon
ginus counted the apostle Paul among the greatest

244 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
orators the world had known. Erasmus places the
Sermon on the Mount, the Parables of our Lord,
the prologue of St. John, Paul's thirteenth chapter
of second Corinthians and his " triumphant paean
at the close of the eighth chapter of Romans,"
above the eloquence of Cicero in masterly power.
The world of letters owes its fashion in epis
tolary writing to the matchless letters of the
apostle Paul.
That would be a fascinating volume which
should record the testimonies of the world's master
minds to the marvellous strength and beauty of
the oldest and the greatest Book. Science has a
right to be heard when Prof. Dana speaks : " There
is so much that the most recent readings of sci
ence have for the first time explained that the idea
of man as the author becomes utterly incompre
hensible. By proving the record true, science pro
nounces it divine, for who could have correctly
narrated the secrets of eternity but God himself ? "
Sir John Herschel speaks with no less conviction :
" AU human discoveries seem to be made only for
the purpose of confirming more and more strongly
the truths contained in the Scriptures."
Skepticism has a right to demand that God's
book shall prove its superiority even in the diction

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 245
and style of inspired men. Judged by such a test
the Book is supreme. There is scarce a page that
does not bear impress upon some great inteUect,
that in turn owns its power. Humboldt gave a
splendid tribute to "the matchless fideUty and
grandeur of the Hebrew lyrics," delighting espe
ciaUy in the one hundred and fourth Psalm as a
picture of the entire cosmos.
During the stay of Franklin in Paris he was an
admitted favorite in the circles of the most gifted
Uterary men. One by one, each had read some
exquisite selection, when their guest. Dr. Franklin,
said he would read from an old book in his posses
sion. The selection was acknowledged by all as
surpassingly beautiful, exciting their profoundest
admiration although they were ignorant of the
volume from whence it was taken ; it was the
prayer of Habakkuk.
It was at a simUar gathering in London that
Dr. Johnson in a club of skeptics read, to their
unbounded deUght, what they imagined was but
just written, the most beautiful pastoral he had
ever met. To their chagrin, he reminded them
that this touching pastoral was found in the very
book they had affected to despise ; it was the story
of Ruth. It was no less a critic than Goethe who

246 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
said that in the whole range of epic or idyllic
poetry there is nothing so lovely as the little book
of Ruth.
The book of Job bears the proud title of "the
Shakespeare of the Bible." Prof. Bowen calls it
" the grandest philosophical poem in the literature
of the world." Webster termed it as much above
Homer, as Homer is higher than mere rhyme. It
was of tliis same book Carlyle said : " I call that,
apart from all theories about it, one of the grandest
things ever written with pen. . . . Such hving
likenesses were never since drawn. Sublime sorrow,
sublime reconciUation ; oldest choral melody as of
the heart of mankind — so soft and great ; as the
summer midnight, as the world with its seas and
stars. There is nothing written, I think in the
Bible or out of it, of equal literary merit."
The story is current of the under-graduate of
Yale suggesting to his president that the Proverbs
could not have required a Solomon to write them,
they were so very simple. The judicious president
made this very quiet reply : " Make a few your
self ! " They were never made.
Coleridge, that keen judge of the worthy against
the worthless, has called the Book of Proverbs "the
best statesman's manual ever written." Words-

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 247
worth pronounces the same book the world's moral
and spiritual manual for aU time. To the study
of this book. Dr. Guthrie ascribes the greatness of
early Scotchmen : " It fulfills in a unique and pre
eminent degree the requirements of effective ora-
toiy, not only every chapter, but every verse, aud
almost every clause of every verse, expressing
something which both ' strikes and sticks.' " That
prince of orators, Edward Everett, studied this book
to improve his English speech. Weigh against
such a book aU else that is caUed wise, and the
testimony of Professor M. Stuart given years ago
is stUl unimpeached: "AU the heathen moralists
and proverbialists joined together cannot furnish
us with one such book as that of the Proverbs."
" It is the phUosophy of practical life," says Dean
Stanley ; " it is the sign to us that the Bible does
not despise common sense and discretion."
Fisher Ames, whose influence upon our English
hterature is imperishable, attributed the charm and
strength of his superb diction more to the Bible
than to any other source, ancient or modern, and
chiefly to his study of the book of Deuteronomy.
" The Song of Solomon," says Herder, means
"songs of love, the oldest and most beautiful of
the Orient."

248 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
Dr. Peabody, preacher and professor, says of
Ecclesiastes, " This is the most instructive, im
pressive, touching autobiography ever written."
Dean Stanley has given David his title, " the
Homer of Jewish song. " Between his judgment
and that of Jefferson there is no break. Said the
latter, notwithstanding his adhesion to French
infidehty, " I have no hesitation in giving the
Psalmist the palm over aU the hymnists of every
language and of every time." The testimony of
Mr. Gladstone gathers weight from his great learn
ing when he says : —
"AU the wonders of Greek civilization heaped
together are less wonderful than is the simple book
of Psalms — the history of the human soul in relar
tion to its Maker."
It were easy to multiply names, since over the
human intellect this one Book has held its sceptre.
The oldest specimen of lyric poetry is the song of
Lamech in Genesis. The first patriotic ode is that
grand Te Deum of Israel, the song of Moses, whose
harmonies are joined with the eternal chorus of the
redeemed. The funeral services, for more than
three thousand years, have been inspired by the
prayer of Moses. The prophecy of Isaiah, rnspir-
ing an Angelo by its grandeur and beauty, was

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 249
rendered more potent by Christ's references to it.
Lord Byron's poem on Darkness was founded on
a passage in Jeremiah. The Thanatopsis of Bry
ant was suggested by the book of Job. Professor
Bowen finds nothing in all Greek, Latin or English
poetry that matches the sublimity and grandeur,
the majestic sweep of this description of the provi
dence of God as manifested in the eighteenth
Psalm: "It is Hebraistic to the core; Gentile
poetry has nothing like it."
We hear the rumbhng thunder, and are dazed
by the Ughtnings in that description of a thunder
storm — the twenty-ninth Psalm. We may almost
hear the neighings of the horse in Job's unsur
passed description of him pawing in the vaUey,
swaUowing the ground with fierceness at the sound
of the trumpet. Wordsworth's " Ode on Immor
tahty " owes its inception to the fifteenth chapter
of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. Spenser
caught from the sixth chapter of Ephesians the
character of the Red Cross Knight in his " Faerie
Queene." No elegy has ever approached the
" Lamentations " of Jeremiah ; " every letter is
written with a tear, every word is the sob of a
broken heart."
Probably the finest living master of our Ian-

250 THE BOOK IN LITERATURE.
guage is John Ruskin. His earliest works were
almost faultless in style. His schooUng as a boy
was largely from the Bible — drudgery, he caUed it ;
his mother, his teacher. She began her instruction
" with the first verse of Genesis, and went straight
through to the last verse of the Apocalypse — hard
names, numbers, Levitical law, and all ; and began
again at Genesis next day. If a name was hard,
the better the exerei';e in pronunciation ; if a
chapter was tiresome, the better lesson in patience ;
if loathsome, the better the lesson in faith that
there was some use in its being so outspoken."
In addition to this daily study, there were twenty-
six selections he was reqiiired to learn by heart.
Among these selections were the fifteenth and
twentieth of Exodus ; eight of the Psalms, includ
ing the ninetieth, the one hundred and nineteenth
and the one hundred and thirty-ninth; and the
Sermon on the Mount. To such a careful drill
Mr. Ruskin owes the first cultivation of his
ear in the harmony of sound. The value of such
instruction from such a Book is seen in his con
fession :
" It is strange that of all the pieces of the Bible
which my mother thus taught me, that which cost
me most to learn, and which was, to my child's

THE BOOK IN LITERATURE. 251
mind, chiefly repulsive — the one hundred and
nineteenth Psalm — has now become of aU the
most precious to me, in its overflowing and glori
ous passion of love for the law of God."
Men who read God's thoughts think better for
themselves. The Book that has done most to
create Uterature is Uterature's best guide.

IX.

THE BOOK AND ART.
It has been weU remarked of architecture, " It
teUs us as much of Greece as Homer did ; and of
the Middle Ages more than has been expressed in
literature." The same may be said of aU art. Man, as a
race, fashions his dwelling like his reUgion, and
paints what he appreciates the most highly. It is
no less a critic than Ruskin who declares, " Every
great national architecture has been the result and
exponent of a great national religion." Profound
thought and pure color are most intimately re
lated. Paganism is marked by horizontal lines ; while
the structures of faith are made of the vertical.
The nature of the faith is symbohzed by the use
or neglect of the arch in the construction of the
house for worship. Even the cornices reflect
somewhat of heathenism or of Christianity. The
252

THE BOOK AND ART. 253
"pointed arch" owes its extensive use to the
Christian rehgion.
Somehow, the variety of rehgious faiths is
marked by a corresponding and paraUel variety
of art. A competent critic, remarking upon the
reUgion and art of Islamism as destined to Uve
and die together, further says : " The art of the
Mohammedan is as exclusive, as intolerant, and
as infertUe as his reUgion."
Historically, a most interesting theme for study
Ues in a comparison of the distinctive art of each
nation or race springing from its rehgious ideas.
We assume, however, the fact so generaUy accepted,
that aU art is a language expressing the wisdom
or ignorance, the faith or the superstitions of those
who employ it. The shape of the stone reveals
man's thought, and has a voice. The very fashion
of the timber gives it a speech as it cries from the
waU. There are sermons in stones as well as in
pulpits. There is sometimes a divine radiance
reflected from the canvas as truly as from the sun
set sky.
True art, hke hterature, must harmonize with
nature and the truth. Nature gives us what we
find, whUe art is what man originates. Art thus
relates to the works of man as contrasted with the

254 THE BOOK AND ART.
works of nature. The real meaning of all art has
been defined as " the expression of reverence for
nature, and the crown of nature, the life of man
upon the earth."
This is a correct meaning, if in that life may be
seen its aspirations reflected in what it originates.
Art may depict what it conceives to be the face of
the Christ ; but the nimbus marks a limit it can
not reach — the type of a glory the brush fails to
catch. Between Greek art and the Christian, there is
an infinite distance. The spiritual perception is
absent from the Greek ; it patterns the human
form, but the soul is wanting. Christian art does
more ; its Madonna is more than a human face ;
its martyrs seem more than men, as the light of
Heaven smites away the marks of their agony ;
yet even when Christian art has done its best, the
words of its greatest critic are true : " More, I
think, has always been done for God by few words
than many pictures, and more by few acts than
many words."
For two reasons we should expect a purer art to
spring from the influence of the Bible ; both from
nature and the ideal. There is no book so true
to nature and human life, so artless, as the Bible.

THE BOOK AND ART. 255
The marvelous teachings of Christ find their texts
in nature. God's care is seen in the bird on the
wing ; the lily of the valley is stamped with the
divine glory ; in the angry floods is the picture of
retribution ; the wind is the symbol of the divine
methods in regeneration ; the pearl is salvation ;
the barren fig-tree personifies false professors;
the wheat and the tares foretoken the judgment,
as do the bad fish and the good ; in a mustard
seed, and in the yeast, are seen analogies to the
kingdom of God. Christ's disciples are salt to
save, and Ughts to shine ; he teaches, in parables,
of the sower and of fishermen; he calls himself
" the bread of life " ; " the water of life " ; " the
good shepherd " ; earth, sky and sea are texts
pointing to eternal truths.
Thus the Bible in its trueness to nature as
reflecting the supernatural, leads directly to the
basis of all true art. Mr. Ruskin illustrates the
antagonism of Pagan and Christian art in his com
parison drawn from the Renaissance when he says :
" As Christianity had brought this love of nature
into Paganism, the return of Paganism in the
shape of classical learning at once destroyed this
love of nature."
But not in nature only ; the Bible and Art alike

250 THE BOOK AND AST.
depend upon their high ideal; the one creates
what the other executes. The coldest criticism is
compelled to own that " with our Christian faith
there arose forms of beauty utterly unknown to
the Pagan, which culminated in the glories of
Lincoln and Canterbury." In contrast with " the
outwardness of the Greek and Roman religions,"
Christianity favored painting as better expressing
the hidden emotions of the soul. All art is en
nobled in its reach after God and immortality.
What, then, is the testimony of history? Is it
true that the rise and progress of reUgion, in the
souls of men, can be traced in art? The answer
shaU be briefly sought in the three great themes ;
Architecture, Painting and Music.
I. Architectxire. The intimate relation between
religion and architecture is seen in the pre-eminence
of church art above the domestic. It is to the
temples and churches in all times we must look
primarily for the highest artistic expressions,
rather than in palaces and dwellings. The great
ness of Egypt lingers like a dream in the silent
ruins of Karnak. The grandeur of ancient Chal-
dea is even now reflected in the immense ruins of
what were once its temples. Grecian art was
given its freest and richest expression in that

THE BOOK AND ART. 257
masterpiece of architecture, the Parthenon, monu
ment ahke of Grecian myths and Pericles' skill.
Amid all the luxuries of Roman art stands its
Pantheon, the most perfect of all existing classic
buUdings, reminding now of what it once was, the
temple of all the gods. The pride of Jerusalem
was its " House," whose splendors at this late day
are recounted, although its ancient foundations
have been covered by the rubbish of the centuries.
In aU countries and among aU peoples, even to
the most degraded pagans, this same law has
obtained. Does history, therefore, sustain the inference of
the pre-eminent value to architecture of the Death
less Book ?
It is remarkable that among the divine precepts
given by Moses, the architecture of the Tabernacle
held so important a place. The Temple of Solo
mon was identical in its arrangements with the
Tabernacle, only that the dimensions were exactly
doubled. The whole Mohammedan world regard
that Temple as the foundation of all architectural
knowledge. It was the ambition of Ju.itinian to
surpass it in his buildings, while churches through
out the Middle Ages were largely based upon its
form. Reber refers to the fundamental analogy

258 THE BOOK AND ART.
between the atrium of the Christian church and
the outer court of Solomon's Temple. Solomon
borrowed the style of many of its adomings from
the ideas prevalent in his day, but the main archi
tecture was that given by Moses. Leaving all
questions as to the relation of the Temple to
either Ancient or Mediaeval art, we turn to the
influence of the Christian religion upon modern
times in respect of architecture.
Leave out from the computation the first three
centuries of conflict and death. The worship of
the saintly was held where jealousy could not
enter; in the tombs of the dead. They needed
no minsters to mark the place of their prayers;
their God was not in the Roman Calendar, and to
worship Him was a crime. The Roman emperors
were mostly incarnations of tyranny and of cruel
ties uncounted. The concern of beUevers was not
with temples of stone, but with their bodies as
temples of the Holy Ghost. Theirs was the age
of martyrdom, not of art ; the age of destruction,
not of progress ; of blood, not of outward peace.
For three hundred cruel years, in persecutions
borne for righteousness' sake, touching life and
possessions, they builded no cathedrals, and wor
shiped almost by stealth. They were bearing

THE BOOK AND ART. 259
witness to the power of the gospels that should, in
later generations, become "whole Bibles carved
in stone."
Christian architecture dates from A. D. 312, in
the reign of Constantine. In the battle of Saxa
Rubra, this famous emperor put an end to perse
cutions, and, as a consequence, gave freedom to art
as well as literature. Not in vain were the words
of the prophet read as symbolic of their faith :
" Behold, I wiU lay thy stones with fair colors, and
thy foundations with sapphires ; and I will make
thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles,
and aU thy borders of pleasant stones." The best
of aU they had, belonged to God. The old
temples were remodeUed to conform to the new
faith. Every Pagan temple that was not destroyed
was consecrated by the sign of the cross ; churches
were constructed in the plan of a cross. Roman
art was borrowed for a use more sacred than any
to which it had as yet been put ; but in art as in
religion, old things were passing away, aU things
were becoming new.
It remained, however, for the thirteenth century
to produce all that is greatest and purest in Christian
art. Choirs chanted in cathedrals whose majesty,
beauty, and grandeur seemed to be "frozen music."

200 THE BOOK AND ART.
That of which Grecian art knew nothing was
made to speak in stone. Artisans built the crypt
for the dead, and vaulted its roof for the skies.
Every spire marked the aspiring reach of the soul.
Egyptian temple was heavy with meditations for
the dead ; Christian truth fashioned its cathedrals
and churches into buildings of hope. The arches
were shaped in lines, bori'Owed' from the leaves of
Paradise. It was a thing of nature and yet of faith.
Firm as a mountain it stood in its granite and
marble, quarried from their eternal beds ; and on
its loftiest arch nestled the veined foliage, as if
creeping upward for truth, like violets under
the Alpine cliff, the frozen pinnacle like moun
tain crag reaching even higher than where life
throbs and flutters, hope-Uke. What silence in
its vaulted arches ! What sacredness in the light
struggling through " windows colored with the
purple of Christ's blood " ! Gothic art in all its
fretwork and buttressed tower, its darkened niches
and crowning pinnacles, is a living reminder of
the functions of the Bible in art. The Jews were
not artists, but in their history art has found its
themes. The choicest models of the world's archi
tecture bear the names of the apostles of the divine
Nazarene.

THE BOOK AND ART. 261
The matchless description of St. Mark's by
Ruskin compels the assent of the reason to its truth
in the title he gives it, " The Book Temple." Its
"walls necessarily became the poor man's Bible,
and a picture was more easUy read upon the walls
than a chapter." We borrow a language whose
beauty approximates its truth : " Into the brain of
builder and architect streamed . . . the same sur
passing and stimulating effluence from the august
rehgion : and rock rose as in modulated psalm,
fortress and palace being humbled and dwarfed
by the temple for worship, when the sohd quarry
broke forth before genius into Gloria and Te Deum.
Certainly, by consent of aU, there has been thus
far no art in the world Uke the Christian art."
Perhaps the strongest testimony to Christian art is
seen in its influence upon the Mohammedan world.
The Mosque of Tooloon at Cairo is said to have
been designed by a Christian architect. Reber, in
his discussion of Mohammedan Art, refers to their
architecture " as so foreign to Arabic conceptions
that they must be ascribed to Christian painters or
renegades." We do not consider the meaning of the Renais
sance, that owed its origin to the revival of Grecian
ideas in the time of the Reformation. This, too,

262 THE BOOK AND ART.
with all its barrenness and imperfections, was a
product of the awakened Christian intellect. Each
to its own use ; the Gothic and the Grecian : but
it is Christianity that keeps them as its helpers in
worship at the altar and in the pulpit, in the proc
lamation of eternal truths.
In the carrying on of such a work the agencies
of the guUds must not be forgotten. These were
bands of men filled with devout religious enthu
siasm. Such associations were formed for " pres
ent advantage and temporal gains, but more for
celestial and eternal benefits." As a requisite to
such membership the moral conduct and honor
must be stainless. No more honest work was
ever done tlian by these guilds. They were the
favorites of the clergy, who entrusted to them the
most delicate plans*. Whether their handiwork
should ever be seen of men or not, they wrought
in the fear of God. They chiselled and carved
and toiled for " the love of God." In foundation
and spire, in mulUons and gossamer of rock, in
spanning and coloring, it was always the same —
they were shaping God's Book into a Book of
stone. Bjr their devotion architecture became
— what history asserts — the servant of the
Church.

THE BOOK AND ART. 263
II. Painting. ' There is a remark of Ruskin that
holds true in more respects than one : " Of that
which is more than creature, no creature ever con
ceived." It requires an artist to criticise art. A
Raphael or a Titian is necessary to reveal to us
what a Raphael or a Titian has painted ; and yet
there are certain observations and inferences that
any thoughtful mind can make. Man never will
ingly stops short of a portraiture of his ideal. The
loftier his sentiment the greater his ambition to
reveal it. Literature has been taxed to portray
man's conceptions of the supernatural; if instead
of a writer, it is a Christian painter who would
express his emotions, the canvas will reveal the
fact. Da Vinci could never satisfactorUy to him
self paint the face of the Christ, yet he made
repeated attempts.
We are not demanding perfection in such al>
tempts. An imperfect representation of some great
theme is better than no effort to declare it. Great
truths were taught the UUterate who could catch a
meaning from the canvas. Gregory the Great thus
encouraged painting in order that men " should be
able to read on the walls what thoT' do not read in
books." This was the direct object of many of the
guilds in the fourteenth century. Art was to these

264 THE BOOK AND ART.
men the expression of religion. This cultured age
may pass its judgment upon many a masterpiece
as a travesty on the truth, but the motive was
religious. The studios of the mediaeval painters
were places for worship.
By common consent, Giotto is acknowledged to
have laid the foundation for aU that is greatest in
modern painting ; but his art was entirely subservi
ent to the religious thought of his age. What
Dante was in literature Giotto was in his art ; the
two men as eminent for their piety as for their
personal friendship. In the early dawn of painting,
monasteries were become studios and the industri
ous monks artists. Superstitions crept over the
brush that gained its themes from the Book of
the Church. If in such an age retribution was
painted as physical agonies and tortures, yet the
greater theme was that upon which they wrought
— the Day of Judgment. Better, it may be, an
extravagant portraiture of the hideousness of ret
ribution, than a forgetfulness of the sting that is
sharper than a serpent's tooth.
It is said of the renowned Francesca, " he
never took up pencil without having recourse to
prayer. Whenever he painted a crucifixion the
tears streamed down his cheeks, and in the counte-

THE BOOK AND ART. 265
nances and attitudes of his figures it is easy to
perceive the goodness of his soul and his great love
for the Christian religion." No less devout in his
choice of themes was Michael Angelo ; as reverent
in art as was Pascal in letters. There was acumen
in the withering words of Savonarola to the men
of his day : " Every painter paints himself ; that is
to say, he realizes his conceptions. . . . Carnal
and debauched men have the inteUect obscured."
Michael Angelo found no themes worthy of his
genius outside the Book of the great prophets,
whose spirit he seemed to catch.
The Madonna in art has probably done more for
the elevation of the race in the ennobling of woman,
and in declaring the doctrine of our union with God,
than many a treatise from the pen. Suffering and
joy meet on her face, as if it were angelic. Weak
ness and strength are equally visible as she bends
over the holy child. The "religion of comfort"
has never lacked for themes in its own Book.
There is an impure art as well as a pure. In
the closeness of God to nature we are not sure
but the painter who is faithful to nature, in its
purity of landscape, has done a sacred work. Art
has been debased ; so has literature : but all such
debasement marks the decline of religion. Ruskin

266 THE BOOK AND ART.
traces the decline of art to the act of Raphael
when, on the walls of the same chamber in the
Vatican, he elevated the creations of fancy to the
same rank as the object of faith. On the one wall
he painted the fabled Apollo presiding over the
kingdom of Poetry, and on the other wall of the
same chamber, Christ ruling over the kingdom of
God. "The doom of the arts of Europe went
forth from that chamber." Christ and Apollo are
not equal. There is a religious art, and a non-relig
ious ; but all that is greatest in painting as in ht
erature, is directly dependent upon that ennobling
of the human imagination that was quickened by
the teachings of the Deathless Book. The great
art critic tkus sums up his estimate of the relation
between Chi-istianity and art: "Whether or not
Christianity be the purer for lacking the service
of art, is disputable, and I do not mean now to
begin the dispute ; but that art is the impurer for
not being in the service of Christianity, is indis
putable, and that is the main point I have now to
do with."
III. Music. Of all the arts, music is the nearest
universal ; it is open alike to palace and cottage ; it
is the solace of the sorrowing, and the expression of
joy in homes of gladness, and yet music is an art.

THE BOOK AND Alii'. 267
The phUosophy of praise accepts for its basis
human gratitude ; beyond this we cannot go. Na
ture furnishes the copy for the painter ; but there
is no music in nature. The winds of night sigh in
their varied monotony; the nightingale sings its
own glad song ; the eagle screams from his eyrie ;
the lark warbles his "sightless song" over the
meadows; the thunder rolls its tremulous tones
along the sky, and surge after surge shi'ieks at
the base of the granite cliff', but no one, nor all of
these, is music. Nature gives us sound, but not
harmony. " Music is the creation of man " ; and
this creation is the means by which he expresses
his gratitude to God. There is neither harp nor
viohn nor trumpet nor flute nor organ in nature,
but all these are man's invention for a noble use.
Poetry and music antedate the race, in the sing
ing of the morning stars and the chorals of the sons
of God. The Bible has been the great inspirer of
aU that is noblest and purest in song. Songs are
the upUfting of the heart toward the Infinite. In
fidehty has no songs to sing; what it hears are
borrowed from the Christian Church.
More than one third of the Old Testament is
poetry. At intervals, on its pages, there are out
bursts of thanksgiving far surpassing in subhmity

268 THE BOOK AND ART.
and beauty all that Homer and Virgil ever sung.
The matchless solo in the sublimest musical com
position of all the centuries is built upon the hope
of Job in a living Redeemer. What nobler
ode of hberty than the Song of Moses 1 What
national anthem of victory has ever equalled that
of Deborah? Spices of gardens and fragrance
from the leaves of the trees of Paradise seem
almost to breathe in the Song of songs. No
human genius has gained so high an eminence
as Isaiah. Songs of Miriam and Hannah find
each their appropriate place. The whole tribe of
Levi was chosen as the perpetual choir of Israel.
Those were exceptional years when the harps
were left unstrung upon the willows.
The Book contains the Psalter, yet seems almost
a Psalter in itself. The Psalms of David are the
outpourings of his heart in the events of his life.
Not alone did the matchless singer charm the fitful
Saul ; he is the hymnist of aU the centuries.
There has been no sorrow so deep but could find
its consolation in the plaintiveness of his verse.
No human joys can outreach the eighteenth Psalm,
the triumphant epitome of the Psalmist's life. The
eighth Psalm probably found its source in the
strength given him against the boasting champion

THE BOOK AND ART. 269
of the PhUistines. The emissaries of Saul watch
ing David's house, little thought they were to
occasion what is now our fifty-ninth Psalm. Out
from AduUam's cave was sent forth the fifty-
seventh. Crime and shame wrung out from his
soul the world's penitential cry, the fifty-first
Psalm. That beautiful pastoral, the twenty-third,
is the reflection of his shepherd days. We see the
king, a fugitive before Absalom, in the third and
seventh inclusive. The treachery of Ahithophel
is mirrored in the sixty-second. We need attempt
no further enlargement of such a history ; a com
petent authority has ended a like study as fol
lows : " It is from the events of his own career
that the greater part of the Psalms have sprung ;
he is their author, and on his harp they are first
sung; to him too is due the design of the estab
lishment of regular choirs for their future sacred
performance ; his are all the arrangements by
which that design is carried out ; and even the
improvement of the musical instruments needed
for the performance is traced up to him."
New Testament history in its beginning, has
the Gloria in Excelsis. The Magnificat of Mary
is cherished as the peerless song of woman, since
no other son shall equal her "holy child." The

270 THE BOOK AND ABT.
Nunc Bimittis of Simeon is repeated in every age,
as the utterance of the satisfied soul. At the Last
Supper, Christ and the eleven sang a hymn.
" Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs " were the
tokens of a joyful church. Prisoners in dungeons
listened wliile Paul and Silas gave this joyous
expression of their faith aud hope. From the
earliest song, that of Lamech, to the latest in
the Apocalypse, the Bible has been in part a book
of songs. The very grandeur of its topics has
compelled thanksgiving.
No themes equal what its pages unfold. The
great composers seldom go elsewhere for what
they mean shall be their masterpieces. With the
Book in their hands, and with nature as God's
interpreter, these great truths have been unfolded.
The man who can put upon canvas the best copy
of a storm in its fury, a mountain in its sublimity,
a sunset in its splendor, is the best painter. He
who can imitate best the moanings and waUings of
the wind, the shrieks of the tempest ; who can sweep
from the key-board rattling hail ; who can make
you hear the tramp of an army over the snow, halt
ing and marching at the bugle's blast ; who can
make the birds sing in the branches, though no bird
is there ; who can picture Chaos in its atoms, only

THE BOOK AND ART. 271
to mould them into a beautiful creation ; who can
best guess at the music once sung over Bethlehem,
and fling as it were from Heaven, Heaven's music
upon the hearing of men — he only is a great
artist, whom the world will not let die.
It was the habit of Mendelssohn to pass whole
weeks among the mountains of the north, under
the cold, clear skies ; and it was in such a school,
with God for a teacher, he learned how to depict
the sweeping storm upon Carmel ; and then with
almost matchless power to hide the desponding
prophet under the solitary tree, listening to a voice
with which nothing earthly could interfere; and
finaUy, to clothe, as with fire, the wheelless whirl
wind, the ascending chariot of the sky, bearing
aloft Elijah from the gaze of men.
They teU us of Beethoven, how in the darkest
storms he loved to stand with uncovered head, over
whom the tempests breathed an inspiration which
we now read in the works of his genius. Unlike
Elijah, to Beethoven God was in the tempests and
the lightnings of the sky — his divine teacher !
When some one complimented this storm-loving
artist upon his work, he replied, " What is all this
compared to the grandest of aU masters of har
mony above, above ! "

272 THE BOOK AND ART.
" Nothing can be more sublime," said Beethoven,
" than to draw nearer to the Godhead than other
men, and to diffuse here on earth those God-like
rays among mortals." " True happiness," said this
master in dying, " is nothing but the consciousness
that in your life-work you have responded to the
demands of the Eternal One." Listen, ye who
have been touched by his symphonies, as the dying
man speaks: "I clo'ie vr.j eyes with the blessed
consciousness that 1 have left one shining track
upon the earth."
Remember that Haydn never wrote except as
he prefaced the sentence, " In Nomine Domini," —
In the Name of God ; or, that other, " Soli Deo
Gloria," — glory to God alone. Of his " Creation "
he writes, " I feU on my knees daUy, and prayed
earnestly to God that he would grant me strength
to carry out the work and to praise him worthily."
You recall the performance of this oratorio in
Vienna, A. D. 1808. In the wonderful passage,
" And there was light," the vast audience burst
into tumultuous applause, ascribing praise to him.
" No, no, not from me," said the old man ; " from
thence, from Heaven above, comes all." And then
with tearful eyes, with hands outstretched to bless
the orchestra, he was borne from the scene — his

THE BOOK AND ART. 273
farewell to world. Of his work upon the Messiah,
Handel said, " I did think I did see all Heaven
before me and the Great God himself."
The piety of the peerless Sebastian Bach needs
no demonstration. The same fact is as true of
music as of all else ; its power is gained by sym
pathy with nature, with men and with God. There
is something sublime in the sorrows of such great
artists driving them to the consolations of the
truths they should teach by their songs.
Think of Sebastian Bach composing in his bhnd-
ness " When my last hour is close at hand," and
we catch the key unlocking such undying arias as
his " For love my Saviour suffered," and " Jesus,
thou who knowest death," and " In tears of grief."
We can never tire of Handel's "Dead march
in Saul," for it shall never die. So long as the
story of the holy birth shall be read, shall Handel's
Pastoral Symphony be rehearsed. Link his name
with his " Messiah," his " Israel in Egypt," " Sam
son " and " Judas Maccabaeus," the perfection of
oratorios, in whose exquisite finish he stands alone,
then turn to the great master grown blind ! See
him, an old man, at the organ in the oratorio of
Samson ! They tell us when " Beard, the singer,
came to the pathetic air of the sightless hero,

274 THE BOOK AND AST.
' Total Eclipse,' the grand old master at the organ
Avas seen to grow pale and tremble, until moved
to tears at the sight, the vast audience caUed the
blind Samson of oratorio away from the organ that
looking upon his sightless eyes, heavenward bent,
they could teU him of their love."
Men like these have made the orchestra and the
organ the hving reminders of their own sad lives ;
and as if to call the sufferers of human kind to
their side, their richest works have woven into
undying music the name of the world's Great
Sufferer. Match if you can the Passion music of
Bach, or the "Messiah " of Handel! The thoughts
wrung out of suffering and depicting suffering are
nearest immortal when the sufferer has found the
consolation of which religion speaks.
History acknowledges this indebtedness of the
world to Christianity in this great art. The organ
is a trophy of the Christian faith.
The legends of Greece depict the power of
Orpheus charming Hades ; they teU us of Arion
sweeping the boisterous waves into sUence with
his flute and charming the sporting fishes who
carried him on their backs to Taenarus, the place
of safety ; they tell us of Amphion fortifying
Thebes, whose harp gave every ponderous stone

THE BOOK AND ART. 275
a Ufe, making it assume its place without the help
of men, in the massive wall ; yet, after all, our
great authorities declare that the Grecians knew
not so much of music as did the child Mozart
when three years of age. Theirs was a kind of
sing-song chant.
Modern music dates back to that rare man
Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, in the fourth century.
The rendering of chants in an orderly and systema
tic style, is due to him. The hymns of Luther
in the great Reformation were largely based upon
those of Milan. But if Ambrose was thus a fore
runner, it remained for Gregory in the seventh
century ^o regulate the music of Christendom. His
Gregorian chant, whose sublime grandeur the cent
uries cannot obscure, is still sung. It is a fact of
interest that when this celebrated chant was intro
duced into the British churches, the opposition
to it resulted in bloodshed and the loss of many
lives. The practice of combining several distinct notes
in a single strain, which is the basis of modern
harmonies, first appeared in the services of the
Church. The oratorio was originated in Rome
A. D. 1540. Twenty years later under the labors
of Palestrina, a chaplain of the Vatican, the whole

276 THE BOOK AND ART.
system of church music was reformed. In addition
to such facts, it is noticeable that with the begin
ning of the Reformation and the decadence of the
Papal Church the sceptre of music passed from
Rome into free Germany. Thus is it evident that
to the Church of Clnist is largely due the power
of music.
In his History of Rationalism, Lecky declares
that the opera " was introduced at the desire of
Cardinal Mazarin ; and it is remarkable that Penin,
who wrote the first French operas, was a priest of
Rome ; that Cambert who assisted him in com
posing the music was a church organist, and that
nearly all the first actors had been choristers in the
cathedrals." Let those laugh at the Church who will ; but
from the highest learning to the highest art, both
of painting and music, both as to artists and
themes, the world has been compelled to sit at her
feet. Music, such as Plato excluded from his
ideal republic, and which long centuries after
wards John Milton defended, is the chUd of the
Christian Church.
In the parable of the Prodigal Son after the
depiction of his return, the elder brother is de
scribed as he came in from the field and heard the

THE BOOK AND ART. 277
music and the dancing. That Greek word, trans
lated music, is our word symphony ; and to many
a weary prodigal since, the symphony of Heaven
has been the sign of his rest.
Music deals largely with the emotions ; and
only unemotional natures fail to appreciate it.
You have heard it said that the extent of Dr.
Johnson's knowledge rested in the fact of his
knowing a drum from a trumpet, and a bagpipe
from a guitar ; and that of aU noises he considered
music the least disagreeable : but Johnson seems a
minority of one.
What has been observed as true in the songs of
the Bible as outgrowths of new experiences, has
been exempUfied all through church history.
In Napoleon's celebrated crossing of the Alps, it
required the strength of a hundred men to move
each gun. Fainting and weary, even the voice of
their commander seemed to have lost its charm,
until at the head of each regiment the band struck
up the music of France; and the passage was
made. Even so the aggressive movements of the
Church can be marked by its music and its hymns.
The song of Moses was the natural result of the
nearly emancipated nation. The victories of Judah
were marked by the songs of David. The songs

278 THE BOOK AND ART.
of Solomon were " a thousand and five." At once,
by declaring and inspiring progress, the onward
march of the Christian church has been kept up.
The command of the Apostle has been carried out
as he wrote " teaching and admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
with grace in your hearts unto the Lord." Tholock
has well said, " Piety, Jewish or Christian, if gen
uine and not formal, has derived more nourish
ment from the Psalms than from any other source."
The enemies of the Reformation complained, " Lu
ther has done us more harm by his songs than by
his sermons ; " and so astute a philosopher as Col
eridge has given his judgment that Luther did as
much for the Reformation by his hymns as by his
translation of the Bible. His famous forty-sixth
Psalm has been called the national hymn of Pro
testant Germany. The polemics of Toplady are
covered with dust, while all Christendom sings his
hymns. The great Wesleyan movement is as much
owing to the seven thousand songs of Charles as
to the impassioned preaching of John, his more
noted brother. Back of the great Moravian move
ment was Zinzendorf writing his two thousand
hymns, — the battle songs of the Church. The
hymns of Doddridge have been compared to " spir-

THE BOOK AND AST. 279
itual amber fetched up and floated off from ser
mons long since lost in the depths of by-gone
time." The hymns of Isaac Watts served in break
ing up the formalism of his day. We speak of
Cowper as a hymnist, but Macaulay declares him
" the forerunner of the great restoration of English
hterature." Thus more and more is the Church learning to
sing. Choral music is giving way to the songs for
the people. Sankey's name in the religious world
ranks side by side with that of Moody. LoweU
Mason may never have preached a sermon, but
many a name of theologian shall be forgotten
before his. The worship of the sanctuary means
prayer and praise; the one sacred as the other.
Men at their daily toil, children at their play,
women in their homes are singing sweeter songs
than the enemies of Christ can write, and every
song shall bear its fruit.
Music of necessity is an art, and as an art it
serves a holy purpose ; but when we listen to music
as an art, and when the artist labors to make this
holy means for worship the exhibition of his voice,
the very worship becomes heathenish.
" Poetry and music," says d'Aubigne', " came
down from heaven and wiU be found there again."

280 THE BOOK AND ART.
It is certainly impossible to separate the music of
Luther's Judgment Hymn from the words ; as if
by instinct the choicest poetry finds its own melody.
The function of music therefore involves its senti
ment. Mendelssohn's songs without words are
masterpieces of the power of musical thought ;
and yet the nobler music of oratorio demands the
written words.
The words of Deborah were set to music. The
instrumentalists and singers of the Temple raised
skyward the words of their king. Calvin epito
mized the Psalms of David as "an anatomy of the
soul ; " Milton found them " over all the kinds of
lyric poesy to be incomparable ; " Jerome, for the
education of his granddaughter, said, " Let her learn
the Psalms"! "The Psalter," says Herder, "is
the hymn-book for all times." Says the celebrated
Lamartine, " David is the psalmist of eternity.
Read Greek or Latin poetry after a psalm and see
how pale it looks."
Augustine in his " Confessions," voiced the senti
ment of every Christian heart : " The hymns and
songs of the Church moved my soul intensely ; thy
truth was distilled by them into my heart; the
flame of piety was kindled, and my tears flowed
for joy." Aletta, the mother of Bernard, mur-

THE BOOK AND ART. 281
mured the words of the htany with her dying
breath ; and that, her death-song, became the turn
ing point in her noble son's Ufe. " ChUdren," said
the dying mother of the Wesleys, " as soon as I
am released sing a song of praise to God ; " and
over her lifeless body these two servants of Christ
sang their own song of victory. Fragments of
favorite hymns were the last utterances of Sir
Walter Scott. Cobden, that great English Com
moner, departed when the words of Wesley's hymn
had but just passed his lips, —
" What though my flesh and heart decay !
Thee shall I love in endless day."
" Rock of Ages, cleft for me," was the death-song
of the beloved Prince Albert.
Full many a pilgrim has been solaced by those
words of Anne Steele, —
" When I survey life's varied scene : "
or by those weU-known verses of Charlotte Elliott, —
" My God, my Father, while I stray
Far from my home on life's rough way,
O teach me from my heart to say
Thy will be done ; "
or by those devout words of Mrs. Phoebe Brown,
occasioned by a neighbor's jest, —

282 THE BOOK AND ART.
" I love to steal awhile away.
From every cumb'ring care," —
Bunyan in his Pilgrim makes the piety of " Much-
Afraid," the daughter of Mr. Despondency, con
spicuous to all who heard her go through the river
singing. Music is a universal language. No sect can
keep to itself its own hymns. Augustus Toplady
wrote Calvinistic hj^mns, and the Wesleyans sang
them. Congregations who would not allow the
Wesleys in their pulpits could not refrain from
singing the Arminian hymns. AU Christendom
sings the hymn of Bernard, the monk of Cluny,
" Jerusalem the Golden," each verse breathing
the spirit of the Christ : —
" I know not, oh, I know not
What joys of home are there.
What bright unfolding glory,
What bliss beyond compare.
" O sacred peaceful harp notes,
O never ending hymn,
O hallowed sweet refreshment
And peace of Seraphim.
" Jerusalem triumphant.
On that safe happy shore
I hope, I long, I sing thee.
And love thee more and more."

THE BOOK AND ART. 283
The golden words have burst beyond the skies
of his sequestered valley ; and happy he in every
age who can make them his own.
" I have the inward earnest.
The hope to cheer and bless.
Shall I ever gain the land itself?
Tell me, O tell me yes !
" Rejoice, O dust and ashes.
The Lord shall be thine own !
And thou art his forever !
His now and his alone ! "
No time can keep from the future its treasures.
We sing the words and Usten to the music of the
long-ago. They are good enough for the hving,
and are often sung by the dying. Who knows but
in a memory which cannot die, some snatches of
these hymns and songs shaU be trilled in the upper
Jerusalem ? Who knows, if some of these strains
of the great Christian masters have been inspired,
but we shaU find their counterpart by and by?
At least, we may rejoice with thanksgiving, know
ing that the one great name in Heaven is the
one great name on earth ; and let all the earth in
melody and song worship Him !

THE BOOK OF GOD.
The largest forces back of human affairs are
silent. The civilization of to-day is the outgrowth
of mighty influences in the past. There is phU
osophy in the answer of the humorist and sage as
to the time when the training of the child should
begin : " A hundred years before the child is
born." CiviUzation is no product of a day.
Out of the cumulative forces giving shape to
civiUzation, we have been tracing the influence of
the world's oldest volume, the best-read book of this
latest century. Nothing has perished out of all
its pages. The Book is its own Uving monu
ment. As a literary power, we have marked its influ
ence upon the national histories of more than three
thousand years. It is no slight testimony to its
regnancy, that its themes are vital to the inteUect-
uaUsm of the present day. Its standard of morals,
284

THE BOOK OF GOD. 285
winning the homage of those who dispute the pos-
sibiUty of supematuraUsm, is in the ascendant.
This vitaUzing Book has survived the virulent
attacks of time and flaw-seeking critics. It has
become the transforming power in nations that
were hastening to decay. By its agency the most
degraded peoples have become civiUzed. No per
manent good has been wrought where the Book has
been forgotten. Its teachings as to immortality
have incited to the largest and sublimest deeds in
time. The truest conceptions of life have sprung
from its pages. It portrays the life of a pauper
precious as that of an archangel. It has given the
philosophy of hope in place of despair ; the loftiest
heroism finds strength from its truths. It has
called out a generosity deep as the human heart in
its paths of light.
The Book has become the corner-stone of liberty.
To self-freedom it has taught the rights of others,
proclaiming the kingship of every man. White-
winged Commerce hovers near the ocean islands so
soon as their barbarians begin to read the pages of
the Book. Personal refinement and purity exist
only where this volume has paved the way. Na
tional constitutions have been elaborated from its
principles. The Mosaic Code is a marvel of states-

286 THE BOOK OF GOD.
manship such as nations cannot despise with
impunity. The world's greatest jurists acknowl
edge its transcendent worth.
The institutions of learning are built upon the
truths it has revealed. It preserves the languages
of men, instead of being preserved by them.
Skepticism has blunted and broken its weapons of
assault against the Book's first chapter. The
sources of modern philosophy are Christian; the
master minds of the centuries have pondered its
themes ; the great reformers have been its stu
dents. As literature, it is the world's copy-book.
The highest art speaks its language. The ever
lasting granite has been fashioned into " book-
temples " with voices that are almost divine. The
hopes and aspirations it teaches have been shaped
into " frozen music " from quarries of the purest
marble. It is pre-eminently the most practical of aU
books. What, then, of the volume? Whence came
its truths ? Is this Deathless Book a product of
the unaided human brain ? How happens it that
the truest scholarship is reverent over its pages ?
The one great law, overshadowing all others, is
that of "cause and effect." This law obtains as
surely in the commonest affairs of men as in the

THE BOOK OF GOD. 287
sweep and swinging of worlds ; unerring as that
of gravitation.
Every grand life is the result of a grand motive.
Every heroic deed is proof conclusive of a noble
purpose. So, in like manner, what is written
reveals the writer. Every book declares the mind
and purpose of its author. Literature measures
the mental grasp of those who produce it. Ephem
eral works are proofs positive of superficial writers.
Judging solely from what it has done, the
Deathless Book must have had an authorship of
a mental grasp surpassing all other literatures.
Deism, denying aU possibUity of the superhuman,
granted more in the confession of Bolingbroke
than was intended, when he said : " If Christianity
were a merely human discovery, it would certainly
be the loveUest and most beneficent with which
mankind has ever been deceived to its own real
benefit." If its claims are not substantiated, it
must be confessed, the Christian civilization has
been shaped by a stupendous fraud. How so
great a fraud could accomphsh the greatest good,
must tax a credulity greater than the faith which
sees in the marvelous Book a superhuman Inspirer.
Matthew Arnold, in his "God and the Bible,"
declares : " Christianity is the greatest and happiest

288 THE BOOK OF GOD.
stroke ever yet made for human perfection." Is
such a perfection the product of a Book whose
claims are not true ? The question demands an
answer. Lord Herbert of Cherbury, the English
Deist, wrote an essay to disprove the idea of any
special revelation, and thought he heard a divine
approval of what he had written above what man
could give, in the rustling of the wind ; an instinct
ive appeal to the fact he was attempting to deny.
Deism believes in the existence of God ; at the
same time forgetting " that we might as well try
to run without feet, as to know the Divine without
a revelation from on high." Notice : —
I. The Claims of the Book. It claims to be
from God ; professing to be divine in origin, while
human in form. The language is human ; the
thought is divine. Says the Apostle : " Every
Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for
teaching." The Apostle Peter referred to the Old
Testament when he said : " No prophecy ever
came by the will of man; but men spake from
God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." The
writer to the Hebrews asserts that it was God who
spoke unto the fathers by the prophets. Under
such a claim, both the Old Testament and the New
have been written. The words of David could

THE BOOK OF GOD. 289
well be appUed to them all: "The Spirit of the
Lord spake by me, and his word was in my
tongue." In like manner did Moses declare the
personal command of God : " Now therefore go,
and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what
thou shalt say." Repeated expressions occur like
these : " The word that came to Jeremiah from the
Lord " ; " The word of the Lord came expressly
to Ezekiel" ; " The beginning of the word of the
Lord by Hosea " ; " The word of the Lord that
came unto Micah," and hundreds of Uke meaning.
From such assumptions we are compeUed to con
clude the Book claims to be the Book of God.
It claims to give that which is beyond the power
of man to originate.
Such an assumption must be either false or true.
If false, then the writers were self-deceived or dis
honest. Whichever of these deductions might be
true, the great fact would remain, — the Book
would not be what it claims, or, in other words, it
is unreliable.
In order to declare it false as to its statements,
we must inquire whether men have proved it un
reliable. We need not repeat the unwearying
assaults of the centuries, in all their varied methods,
whUe reaching their conclusions. We take the

290 THE BOOK OF GOD.
Book as it bears upon the themes with which men
claim acquaintance.
First: As to History. Apart from the central
theme of the Book, Redemption, we may note
that four fifths of the volume is history and biog
raphy. The Scriptures are not a book of law, but
of life. They deal with men and nations. Histori
cal errors would soon be discovered. Writings like
the Psalms reflect the inner life of their author.
The Prophecies never disconnect the future from
the events of the Prophets' times. The Epistles,
with all their instructions, supplement the history
of the Apostolic Churches.
We have had experts in history by thousands, yet
what is the result of their criticisms? What page
has been eliminated? What narrative proven
false ? Not one of either. In the generation that
has brought to view the mummy of the Pharaoh
who oppressed Israel, there is given no stronger
evidence than what the world has before known.
Layard has done for the Biblical records what
Dr. Schliemann has done for Ancient Troy. The
standard classic authorities are unimpeachable wit
nesses of portions of the Scriptures. Pyramids,
obelisks and tombs reveal the certainty of a history
that shall outlast even granite. Sacred truth is

THE BOOK OF GOD. 291
manifest in the ruins and desolation of cities long
since dead.
A few years since, there appeared in one of our
leading rehgious weeklies an editorial written by
a distinguished expert in the line of archaeology.
The article epitomizes its far-reaching scope con
cerning its history and its power, in the suggestive
title, " The Lonely People and their Lonely Book."
The simple statements carry in them almost the
rhythm of poetry, they are so mighty in truth. We
quote a single paragraph : " Do we ever fairly con
sider the loneliness of that lonely people's Book ?
Think how it stands out alone. What feUow,
what companion had it ? What have we had that
was coeval with those Hebrew Scriptures ? What
was there by which they could be confirmed ? . . .
Egypt had nothing, only a few lines of one histo
rian rescued by the Christian historian, Eusebius.
Babylon and Nineveh had saved nothing, not a line
except similar fragments of one historian preserved
by Josephus, or Eusebius. Persia? Persia only
began to be as the Jewish history was ending.
Greece ? Rome ? There was no Greece nor Rome
when the splendid Jewish prophets were proclaim
ing the one Jehovah. ... No longer a lonely
record, the Old Testament is supported by the

292 THE BOOK OF GOD.
exhumed records of the kings of Egypt and Baby
lon and Nineveh and Moab. We are now shown
in the Boulaq Museum the very body of the
Egyptian king who oppressed Israel. We know
the names of the father and the grandfather of
Arioch, king of Elassar, who fought in the con
federacy against the king of Sodom. At a hun
dred points confirmatory evidence has been dug
out of Assyrian ruins. In the day when the lonely
Book was attacked by unbelief, there appeared out
of the very ground, hosts of defenders. God's
providence supports his Book." As a history the
Book is unimpeached.
Secondly : As to Philosophy. Every generation
has had its philosophy, either true or false. The
greatest minds have not been idle in suggesting
new theories for debate. Just as the battle of
Bunker HiU was fought upon a mistaken field, so
it has been on the fields of intellectual combats.
Many a philosophy has been a mirage, with a re
semblance to the real and yet without substance.
The theories of Hume and Gibbon are lifeless and
without worth. When we remember what has
been the power of the Book in learning and litera
ture, we need only quote again the well-formed
conclusion of Stuart ^lill : " It is impossible to find

THE BOOK OF GOD. 293
in the ideals of any philosophy, even the latest, a
single point which is not anticipated and ennobled
in Christianity." Such evidence is only in the
line of the testimonies of men like Newton and
Lord Bacon, — statements as yet unref uted, — the
phUosophy, Uke the Book itself, unharmed.
Thirdly : As to Science. That the Church has
at times been opposed to a scientific scholarship,
no one will deny. False interpretations are not
biblical. The Book, therefore, is its own witness
of what it teaches. It is within the memory of
this generation that many theories, deemed once
of great importance, have been destroyed. Many
a false scientific premise once held by honest men
has been shivered. False interpretations of well-
meaning men, and unfounded theories of scientific
men, form no part of the Bible.
Men have been slow in learning that the Bible
does not even pretend to teach science ; and yet
science has never successfuUy contradicted its state
ments. What was said of astronomy by Cardinal Baro-
nius is true of aU the other natural sciences : " The
intention of Holy Scripture is to teach us how
to go to heaven, and not how the heavens go ! "
The Scriptures are neither the originator nor the

294 THE BOOK OF GOD.
guardian of any theory of the solar system. De
Quincey, after reasoning in his " Note Book " upon
the behttling effect upon men if the Scriptures had
revealed to the indolent what for their own good
they should discover for themselves, weU says :
" With disdain, therefore, must every thoughtful
person regard the notion that God could wiUfuUy
interfere with his own plans by accrediting ambas
sadors to reveal astronomy, or any other science
which he has commanded men, by qualifj-ing men
to reveal for themselves."
Take for a moment the geological conflict over
the first chapter of Genesis. Through aU the
theories of a special creation, as well as of evolu
tion, each verse has kept its immovable place.
The scientific works of a few years ago are of
little value in the present discussions, inasmuch as
scientific men are coming back to the original
statement in the world's oldest Book. It is an
important fact to note that the order in which
the specimens of the natural sciences are placed
in the British Museum and the French Academy
of Science, is that given in the first chapter of
Genesis. Where did the writer of Genesis get his
information ? After all these thousands of years,
our most learned men are discovering what he

THE BOOK OF GOD. 295
knew four thousand or more years ago. Whence
such knowledge ?
It was Sir John Herschel who said : " AU
human discoveries seem to be made only for the
purpose of confirming more and more strongly the
truth contained in the sacred Scriptures." Mr.
Gladstone avers that the Bibhcal order of state
ment as to the creation " may be taken as a demon
strated conclusion and established fact." There is
the testimony of an expert in the words of Pro
fessor Dana: "The grand old Book of God stUl
stands, and this old earth, the more its leaves are
turned over and pondered, the more it wiU sustain
and iUustrate the sacred Word." The accom
plished students of Nature and of the Book are
reading the consistent truths made known by the
same great Creative mind. God wUl never con
tradict Himself.
Fourthly : As to Morals. We mention this clas
sification only to refer to the unrivalled testimony
of those who, whUe denying a revelation, have yet
acknowledged that the highest morality the world
knows is in this Book. We have appealed to no
prejudiced witnesses upon this theme.
In line with the opinions of the many whose
words have added weight to these pages, are the

296 THE BOOK OF GOD.
sentiments of our ex-Minister to the Court of St.
James, — poet and statesman, — James Russell
LoweU. Slighting remarks had been spoken con
cerning the Christian faith, when, among other
tilings, he said : " The worst kind of religion is no
religion at all, and these men Uving in ease and
luxury, indulging themselves in the amusement of
going without religion, may be thankful that they
live in lands where the Gospel they neglect has
tamed the beastliness and ferocity of the men who,
but for Christianity, might long ago have eaten
their carcasses like the South Sea Islanders, or cut
off their heads and tanned their hides like the mon
sters of the French Revolution. When the micro
scopic search of skepticism, which had hunted
the heavens and sounded the seas to disprove the
existence of a Creator, has turned its attention to
human society and has found a place on this planet
ten miles square where a decent man can live in
comfort and security, supporting and educating
his children unspoiled and unpoUuted; a place
where age is reverenced, infancy respected, man
hood respected, womanhood honored, and human
life held in due regard — when skeptics can find
such a place ten miles square on this globe, where
the Gospel of Christ has not gone and cleared the

THE BOOK OF GOD. 297
way and laid the foundation and made decency
and security possible, it will then be in order for
the skeptical Uterati to move thither and there
ventilate their views. But so long as these men
are dependent upon the religion which they dis
card for every privUege they enjoy, they may well
hesitate a Uttle before they seek to rob the Chiis
tian of his hope, and humanity of its faith, in that
Saviour who alone has given to man that hope of
life eternal which makes life tolerable and society
possible, and robs death of its terrors and the
grave of its gloom."
Since in these four particulars, by history, by
philosophy, by scientific accuracy, by attacks upon
its moraUty, men have not been able to impeach
the Book, how can they in any respect weaken its
claims ? They are not able to prove a single
important statement false touching the most prac
tical matters of daUy life. The old French prov
erb gives them its wisdom for their pains : " The
more they amuse themselves in smiting me, the
more hammers they use up in doing it."
Because of these two general reasons, the claims
of the Book of God must remain undisputed;
namely, the impossibility of any false statements
accomplishing through these thousands of years

298 THE BOOK OF GOD.
only what is for man's highest good ; and the
utter inabiUty of its bitterest opponents to destroy
or to prove it false in any particular.
Furthermore, since in this Book alone the prin
ciples and laws for the uplifting of the race
are found, how is it that men shall dispute the
records? Even Deism asserts its belief in a God
who rules in the affairs of men; then how is it
that the record of those facts is the occasion for
any possible surprise ? It is the most natural of
all inferences, that He who rules in human affairs
shall in some way reveal his wiU to men.
II. The Claims of the Book of God are empha
sized in the Methods and Conduct of the Writers.
The Book is composed of sixty-six different pro
ductions of forty or more writers. These writings
cover a period of more than fifteen hundred
years. Their writers had but little of natural in
terest in common. They were kings, statesmen,
scribes, shepherds, farmers, fishermen, and the Uke.
Scarcely any two were contemporary. These
writers spoke in three different languages, repre
senting three distinct civilizations. No one of
them thought he was writing the Book. Each
had his own definite object in view, and so ex
pressed himself.

THE BOOK OF GOD. 299
Their style was peculiarly their own. They
had not been trained in any distinctive school.
They chose the form of poetry or common narra
tive, as seemed to them best. They were historians
giving the records of truth in plainest style. They
were teachers expressing truth in the loftiest Ijrric
and dramatic forms. The vision of all was upon
the future, rather than upon the present.
The writers of the New Testament, excepting
Paul, were unlearned men, as their times called
learning. With the exception of Moses and pos
sibly Solomon, the same must be said of the writers
of the Old Testament. The Jews were anything but
a literary people. Almost their entire literature is
in the Bible. What few works they have left are
puerUe, when compared with these several portions
of the Book that compel the admiration of the
world. The question wUl come up for an answer.
How could such men produce such a Book ?
The perplexity deepens when we observe the
unity of all that is written. Here are certain Ut
eratures between whose earhest and latest writers
nearly two thousand years had intervened ; yet in
aU the sixty-six productions there is no cliCshing of
statements. One central theme pervades them all.
Some one has said : " The Old Testament leads

300 THE BOOK OF GOD.
from God to Christ, and the New Testament from
Christ to God " ; but history, poetry, prophecy aU
agree in their main statements. Such a fact is not
true of any other work, nor can it be. It would
be impossible to gather any such volume from the
most careful sifting of the classics. It is possi-
ible to make quotations upon similar themes, but
the Bible is not a Book of " famiUar quotations."
From the opening promise in Genesis through the
last verse of the Revelation, the theme is redemp
tion. With an epitome of the old history, the New
Testament opens upon the same plane : " The
book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of
David, the son of Abraham." In the same manner
Luke begins his gospel with the (supposed) son of
Joseph, whose genealogy ends only with the fust
Adam, " which was the son of God." The New
Testament has on its pages some six hundred quo
tations or direct references to the Hebrew Book.
In so far as we accept the authority of Christ must
we see how the entire Book is a Uving volume, a
unit in its purpose and in its results. It is no
mosaic of cold literary siftings, but from beginning
to end is as much of a unit as if one hand alone
had written it.

THE BOOK OF GOD. 301
Yet again ; these men were writing much that
was not kindly received by their own contempora
ries. The prophets were not, as a rule, favorites
with the prominent officials of the corrupt Jewish
Church. The degenerate people, calUng them
selves the " chosen of God," kiUed many of these
faithful men " of whom the world was not worthy."
The roU-call of the dead in that remarkable chap
ter of the book of Hebrews is proof conclusive that
the Old Testament was no product of authors
seeking their own pleasure.
In a word, the character of all those by whose
pens the Book has been given, is best seen in the
heroism for the truth of which they wrote. Every
writer of the New Testament was a Jew ; and
because of their discipleship they knew there was
nothing but sufferings and death before them.
Men are not ready to die for what they do not
believe. The New Testament writers were honest
men, braving the hatred of kindred and of the cruel
hierarchy who had murdered their Master by the
terrible agonies of the crucifixion. With a single
exception, these later writers all died for their
faith. They were strictly honest in all they wrote,
judged by every criticism ; proving themselves
worthy of the prophets of the earlier centuries.

302 THE BOOK OF GOD.
Without exception, these men knew no object
for their labors but the Kingdom of God. A more
perfect self-denial was never witnessed than was
manifest in their Uves. They counted aU earthly
things as loss for the Master they served. They
were not their own ; they were stewards of God.
With such a perfect absence of aU selfishness, other
things being equal, their characters declare the
sincerity both of their teachings and their claims.
No other " sacred " book has more than one
author ; and the production of another such book
is impossible. Upon the Une of such an argument
the student cannot exhaust the full analysis of so
keen a work as that of Henry Rogers upon the
theme that is in itself conclusive, " The Superhu
man Origin of the Bible Inferred from Itself."
The Book of God must, of necessity, be unhke
all other books ; and in this the Book is true to its
name. It contains what wUl meet the wants and
conditions of all classes of men. It fixes the atten
tion of the profoundest philosophers, while its
vivid pictures of Ufe fascinate the restless minds
of Uttle children. It was a beautiful saying of
Coleridge : " The fairest flower in cottage casement
is not half so fair as the Bible gleaming through
the lower panes of the window."

THE BOOK OF GOD. 303
III. The Claims of the Book of God are man
ifest in the History of Christ. We ask no privi
lege in the assertion that the chiefest person in all
history is Jesus of Nazareth. Infidehty cannot
date its movements except from the birth of this
greatest among men. There is not in all the civU-
ized world a birth or marriage or death ; not a title
deed or business transaction; not a pubUcation,
even the vUest ; not a battle or coronation ; not
even a debate for the viUfying of history lest
reUgion should be honored : not one or any of
these save as its time is given, — " In the year
of our Lord."
The greatest event in this greatest life, and,
therefore, the greatest event of aU history, is the
Resurrection. Upon such a coming fact Jesus
based the proof of the certainty of his mission ;
and upon it he rested the truth of his words. In
a civiUzation that has made Easter its most joyous
day, we accept the testimony of Him who spake
as never man spake.
Upon such a testimony we accept the Book as
from God. The sacred lips by repeated appeals to
Scriptural incident and promise taught his disciples,
as weU as confronted his enemies, with the cer
tainty covered by the words: "The Scripture

304 THE BOOK OF GOD.
cannot be broken." AU through his ministry he
reminded them how in his own life the Scripture
was being fulfilled. He pointed out to the disci
ples on their way to Emmaus how even his suffer
ings and death had been foretold. There was a
power in his appealing words : " It is written " ;
or, " It is written again."
Over against His life as a testimony to the
Scriptural truth, plaice a'lother proof of the pro
phetic and superhuman wisdom, in the declarations
of events that should come after century had been
added to century in the far-off times.
The dying Jacob declared that Shiloh was to
come in the line of Judah, before the sceptre of
Judah should be broken. All this became true
as to Christ's lineage, and soon after his death the
government was broken, the people dispersed. At
the rebuilcUng of the temple, the prophet Haggai
declared that Messiah should come to that very
place ; a prophecy hterally fulfiUed five hundred
years later, and just before the sacred buUding was
burned, never to be rebuilt. Seven long and
weary centuries before the shining of the Star over
Bethlehem, the prophet Micah put upon record
that, in that same inferior city, the Ruler of Israel
should be born, " whose goings forth have been

THE BOOK OF GOD. 305
from of old, from everlasting." More than seven
centuries earher than Christ's deeds of merciful
power, the prophet Isaiah foretold the nature of
his work, in giving sight to the blind, strength to
the lame, hearing to the deaf, life to the dead.
Again and again in the gospels the fulfillment of
the ancient prophecies is expressly and clearly
declared. The fifty-second chapter of Isaiah is a
standing witness to the certainty of the fulfillment
of Scriptural prophecy. Cruelties of the Roman
soldiers at the cross were heralded in Messianic
vision of the Psalmist centuries before even the
foundations of the mighty Roman empire were
laid : " They part my garments among them, and
cast lots upon my vesture." The sponge of vine
gar, thrust upon his lips by those who mocked the
very sufferings they had caused, recalled the words
of David, a thousand years in coming true : " They
gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst
they gave me vinegar to drink." Echoes of the
driven nails were foretold in a vision none but God
could have given : " They pierced my hands and
my feet." His resurrection was an event of which
the prophet a thousand years earlier had spoken :
" Thou wilt not suffer thine Holy One to see
corruption."

306 THE BOOK OF GOD.
The prophecies as to the person and life of
Christ, have been paralleled by the fulfillment
of other predictions made as to nations. Babylon,
Nineveh, Tyre and Sidon are dead witnesses of a
living truth such as no power of skepticism can
break. The Book seals its own nature and origin
in the fulfillment of history touching its prophe
sied events. There is no evading the declaration
of Peter : " Knowing this first, that no prophecy of
Scripture is of private interpretation ; for no proph
ecy ever came by the wiU of man ; but men spake
from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost."
Prophecy is the divine foreshadowing of what the
hands of God shaU bring to a certain fulfiUment.
IV. The Book of God must deal with things
that are eternal like their Author. The divineness
of the Book is evidenced in the manner of its deal
ing with the fact of the immortal life. An at
tempted argument to convince of immortality is
human ; the writers of the Book all assume the
fact, beyond the possibiUty of a doubt. Mere
human books have speculations to satisfy a pruri
ent curiosity ; there is nothing of the kind in the
Book of God. It is human to imagine what is in
Heaven ; men, assuming the power of spiritual in
sight, have given minute descriptions of what no

THE BOOK OF GOD. 307
eye has seen ; but, in the Book of God, charactei
here is of far greater moment than a revelation of
Heaven itself. A modern philosopher has given
seventeen reasons for believing in the immortal
life ; the Book of God does not give even one.
" Gathered to his people " is the unexplained
statement of the faith of the patriarchs ; but what
they meant by the term is not declared. Life and
immortality have been brought to light by Him
who " spake as never man spake " ; but no delin
eations of the " mansions " there preparing, have
been given. The fact of immortahty is all we
need to know.
The superhuman origin of the Book, revealed
in the words of Christ and in the certain fulfill
ment of what had been prophesied, commands
attention when the immortahty of the soul is
assumed as beyond aU cavil or doubt. Our belief
in the revelation of what shaU come is compelled
by the truth of the Bible's teachings as to this
life. It proves the certainty of its teachings con
cerning the life that is to come, by its undisputed
authority over the Ufe that now is. The intui
tions of the soul as to the immortal life, manifest
even in the classics, are stamped as true in this
Book of God.

308 THE BOOK OF GOD.
Concerning the mode of such an inspiration
given through men, we make no suggestion. In
face of the universally acknowledged fact of the
power of mind over mind, it ill becomes us to
deny the same fact as existing between God and
men. Spiritual truths depend for their efficiency
upon a spiritual power to receive them. More
than this, perhaps, we need not say. The writers
of God's thoughts were in no frenzied condition.
" I think Thy thoughts after Thee, O God," were
Kepler's words, as the long hidden things of God
dawned upon his vision; words perhaps suggestive
of the writers' part in giving the Book.
We make no comparison as to the degrees of
inspiration. Between the quickened illumination
of our purest Uterary writers and the inspiration
of the Apostle Paul, we draw no conclusions.
The Book, by its own claims, is certified as true
in all history. It remains intact against the un
relenting criticisms of every century ; our one
earthly Book of life. Say what we wiU of the
modes of inspiration, the Book claiming to have
been inspired of God has given the subhmest im
pulse to the race of men in all the centuries.
The Book of God, proving its power with the
living, is at the same time the solace in that dark-

THE BOOK OF GOD. 309
est of all earthly hours when the brightest things
begin to fade. Its words are for a guide to the
faithful, untU beyond the reading of its pages there
shaU burst upon the immortal vision the glories that,
even to devoutest men, the Book of God cannot re
veal. The history of all men is like that of Doctor
Johnson when he said, " You cannot conceive with
what acceleration I advance toward death." The
revelation of life and immortality is in but one
Book, " the lamp unto our feet and the light unto
our path."
In the Newport Church in the Isle of Wight, is
a monument thrilling the beholder with a story
that breathes in its marble coldness. The history
is of the daughter of Charles the First, the Prin
cess Elizabeth. During the wars of the Common
wealth she languished alone, in Carisbrook Castle,
away from the companionships of all she loved
best. From the severity of her imprisonment,
there came at last a release. She was found one
morning by her attendant, her head resting upon
the open Bible, and from the page upon which she
had last gained comfort, were these words of One
who had been weary himself : " Come unto me aU
ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give
you rest." The marble finger on that monument

310 THE BOOK OF GOD.
is pointing for the ages to read, to the words that
above all the vicissitudes of an unhappy Ufe had
given peace to the troubled spirit; words meant
for aU.
Twelve centuries ago the Father of English
history was kneeling in his cell in the monastery
at Wearmouth. The one great Book — the foun
dation of English history — lay on the bench before
him. Ceaseless nightly vigUs had done their work,
and the time was short. One chapter only remained
in John's gospel for translation, and his work should
be done. Upon his wasted cheeks was the hectic
flame, whose brUliancy gained its brightness from
the life which it consumed. The quick pen
of the scribe recorded the dying man's words.
" Still one sentence, dear master, remains unwrit
ten," said the scribe. " Write quickly," whispered
his teacher ; and in a moment the ashen lips
declared, both of his work and his Ufe, "It is
finished." " Raise my head in your hands," said
the venerable Bede, "for it pleases me much to
recline opposite to that holy place of mine in
which I used to pray, so that while resting there I
may call upon God my Father." Fainter, slower
was his breathing as kneeling upon the pavement
of stone, he half-chanted and half-whispered.

THE BOOK OF GOD. 311
"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to
the Holy Ghost" — and with these words on his
lips he breathed no more. The Book over which
he died, is the Book for the dying.
When the announcement of the near approach
of his death was made to the great book-publisher,
Thomas Nelson, he calmly replied : " I thought so ;
my days are wholly in God's hands. He doeth all
things weU, his will be done " ; and then he who
knew so weU the world's literature, took up again
his New Testament, and said, " Now I must finish
my chapter " ; and so ended the chapter of his life.
The marvelous career of the eminent statesman
and philanthropist, William Wilberforce, adds a
hundred-fold power to the words of his dying
hour : " I never knew happiness tiU I found Christ
as a Saviour. Read the Bible; read the Bible.
Through all my perplexities and distresses I never
read any other book, and I never knew the want
of any other. It has been my hourly study ; and
aU my knowledge of the doctrines, and all my
acquaintance with the experience and realities of
religion have been derived from the Bible only."
Since his life is the reflection of such a power, we
may accept his judgment as our own ; " I think
religious people do not read the Bible enough."

312 THE BOOK OF GOD.
The testimony of Sir Humphry Davy — the
greatest benefactor, aU things considered. Science
has ever given humanity — is not to be cast aside.
The whole world was his debtor for the laws of
nature he had discovered. This greatest scientist
in his last sickness spoke of another revelation
than nature gives, when he summed up all the
knowledge and experience of a Ufe-time : " If I
might choose what I should count most useful and
most deUghtful for myself, I should prefer as far
beyond aU temporal blessings — genius, wit, learn
ing, fame or wealth — a firm Scriptural faith."
No brighter, purer name than that of Jphn Jay,
if we except that of Washington, holds its place
among the statesmen and patriots of our Revolu
tionary times. The secret of his eminence in char
acter, even more than matching his great ability,
may be read in the language he penned for only
his wife to read : '' A few years wUl put us aU in
the dust, and then it wiU be of more importance
to me to have governed myself than to have gov
erned the state." His unsulUed office as the first
Chief Justice of our Nation, was enough to entitle
his words to a hearing. In reply to the question
for the information of his children as to the foun
dation of his hopes and the source of his consola-

THE BOOK OF GOD. 313
tion, this venerable jurist and statesman left these
few plain words : " They have the Book."
There is something in this Book holding to
itself the homage of the wisest men. Scholars
devout and undevout, may seek by criticism, a
truer knowledge of its manner of revelation ; but
more than this they cannot do; they cannot add
to, nor take away from, the teachings that it gives.
It is probable that every death chamber has had
woven into its memories thoughts that have
dropped from the divine Book into some one's
soul. We enter upon no such history in which, as
with a verse of the Book upon their Ups, the lives
of multitudes have broken from the dwelhngs of
clay and gone from sight.
In all the centuries there has not been a man
who has risen as an acknowledged teacher of
truths above those written in this one Deathless
Book. It has revealed through its writers what
every man is privUeged to learn for himself ; the
nearness of God to all men. No reverent experi
ence wiU ever dissent from what is therein written.
The Book stamps its divineness upon the divine
ness of the human soul.
If a powerful intellect can impress these truths,
we seek the testimony it can give. If to stand on

314 THE BOOK OF GOD.
the threshold of the two worlds adds any signifi
cance to what that intellect shall speak, we seek
that place. If an undoubted clearness of thought
is not dimmed in such an hour, we must seek the
chamber where, rising above all pain and weakness,
the unclouded intellect of such an one shall say in
all the surroundings of death: "I still live." If
we are to know the most that can be known, we
must seek the assured testimony from those there
present, and whose coolness of reason and un
emotional natures shall keep within the truths of
such an event.
We have found such a biographer ; and of the
dissolution which he has described, he draws this
conclusion : " It seemed plain . . . that death
could have no power over that essence, whatever it
may be, that constitutes the soul of man. We
seemed to see it proved before us, that death is but
the dissolution of the tie that has bound the immortal
spirit to the perishable flesh." The death chamber
he described was one over which a nation, and
perhaps a world, was watching. The death-bed
was that of Daniel Webster.
Out from that chamber his measured words
have been repeated. In order that the concep
tions which he had of truth should become as

THE BOOK OF GOD. 315
lasting as the granite, the great thinker and states
man dictated and corrected with his own hand the
inscription that was to be placed upon his mon
ument. Over his signature he has left these words :
" Lord, I beheve ; help Thou mine unbelief."
" PhUosophical argument, especiaUy that drawn
from the vastness of the universe in comparison
with the apparent insignificance of this globe, has
sometimes shaken my reason for the faith that is
in me ; but my heart has assured and re-assured
me, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be a
Divine Reality.
" The Sermon on the Mount cannot be a merely
human production. This behef enters into the
very depth of my conscience. The whole history
of man proves it."
Words Uke these shall suffice. Alike in the hu
man soul and in the universe itself there is the
reflection of a majesty and power superhuman.
" The heavens declare the glory of God " ; while
under our feet every lily and the grass of the fields
are reflections of the matchless wisdom and power
of the God who made them. The rocks of the
mountains have voices, speaking of God. "Day
unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night
showeth knowledge," but the speech and the

316 THE BOOK OF GOD.
knowledge are of Him, who is clearly understood
" by the things that are made." The glory that
can shine in a star and gleam from a lily's face
must not surprise us when it is felt in the human
soul. There is no escape from the presence that
we know is near. " If I ascend up into heaven,
thou art there ; if I make my bed in heU, behold
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morn
ing, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right
hand shaU hold me. If I say, surely the darkness
shall cover me, even the night shall be Ught about
me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee ; but
the night shineth as the day ; the darkness and the
light are both alike to thee."
In view of the harmony of science with all the
teachings of the volume ; in recognition of the in
debtedness of history to its principles ; in the cer
tainty that the principles it declares are the only
sure basis of a successful hfe; in its marvelous
adaptation to the necessities of all men ; in the
proofs borne upon its pages substantiating its
claims, we read what no one has yet successfully
denied : The World's Deathless Book is the Book
of God.

INDEX.

ABRAHAM, 800 years before Con-
fhciufl, 14; 1500 years before Bud
dha, 14; covenant Included all na
tions, 57; sacrificing Isaac, the
sacredness of life, 72.
Adams, John, at Shrewsbury tavern,
215; manners of woman and na,-
tional morality, 102; Bible, test
book, 100.
Adams, Abigail, and Declaration of
Independence, 101.
Addison, Bible morality, 225.
Africa, degenerated, 33.
African Embassy to Queen Victoria,
42.
Agassiz, Prof., missionaries and sci
ence, 147.
Agriculture, Monks leaders in, 144.
Albert, Prince, death song, 281.
Alcuin, founder of French polite lit
erature, 223.
Alexandrian library, destruction of,
135.
Alfred, King, borrowing from laws of
Moses, 169 ; parent of English prose,
223.
Ambrose, on Charity, 81-82.
Ames, Fisher, indebtedness to Bible,
247.
Anaxagoras, Kjiowledge derived from
Moses, 160.
Anderson, Common law absorbing
Christian principles, 171.
Angell, Pres't, Chinese stagnation re
sult of false religfion, 136.

AngelOf Michael, indebtedness to
Isaiah, 248 ; the spirit of the proph
ets, 265.
Antagonism of gospel to the timesi
64.
Antiquity, of Hebrew lyric poetry,
14; of New Testament MSS., 25.
Apostolic Constitutions, on Masters
and slaves, 98.
Arabians, indebted to Christians, 186.
Archaeology, ally of Bible, 26.
Architecture, test of civilization, Pres-
cott on, 35; exponent of reU^on,
252 ; church art superior, 256.
Aristobulus, on influence of Moses
upon Plato, 159.
Aristotle, advocating Infanticide, 75;
despising mechanics, 103; knowl
edge of Moses, 158; and Scholas
ticism, 208.
Army of God at Runnymede, 115.
Arnold of Rugby and fifty-first Psalm,
49.
Arnold, Matthew, conduct, three
fourths of human life, 42; wh}' study
the Bible, 54 ; comparison of Bible
with other books, 55; upon Chris
tianity, 287.
Art, and the Bible, 252; Moham
medan intolerant, 253; true art
must conform to nature, 253; de
fined, 254: Greek and Christiiin
compared, 254; dependence on
Christiiuiity, 266.
Asia, cradle of progressive race?, but

317

318

INDEX.

now corrupt, 33; famished the earli
est Greek writers, 34; and Greek
philosophy, 34; and Greek histori
ans, 34.
Asia Minor, and Architecture, 35.
Assyria, Arts in, Layard on, 35.
Athens, Macaulay on, 89.
Augustine, and fifty-first Psalm, 49;
on hymns of the Church, 280.
Augustus, Emperor, and murder of
Senator, 163.
Average, edition of books in Great
Britain, 2; life of books, 2.
BACH, Sebastian, piety and sufier-
ing, 273.
Bacon, Lord, Scriptures, source of his
philosophy, 196; value of Ms phil
osophy, 209; books, "ships of
thought," 221.
Bacon, Roger, predictions verified,
230.
Baldwin, Greek writers from Asiatic
civilization, 34.
Bancroft, upon" Body of Liberties,"
112; upon Calvin, 119.
Barbarism, overcome by Bible, 136.
Baronius, upon Bible and astronomy,
293.
Barrow, Dr. Isaac, indebtedness of
Lord Chatham to, 218.
Bede, first English historian, 223; the
venerable, death after translation of
John's Gospel, 310.
Beethoven, devout in'^piration of, 271.
Benjamin, rebeUion of, 181.
Bernard, Jerusalem, the golden, 282.
Bible, tbe "World's Book,l; Luthardt
on, 15 ; pre-eminence of, Max Miiller
on, 15; Taine on, 16; the "Library"
17; Prof. Whitney on, 17; founda
tion of Universities, 17; Glasgow
Universit>- built on, 17; Stuart Mill
on, 17; inspiration of modem poets,
18; Theodore Parker on, 18; Max
Muller on, 19 ; read in 250 languages
and dialects, 20; and languages,

Gov. Bullock on, 20 ; survived three
great dangers, 21; impossible to
destroy, 21; secure against false
doctrine, 22; printed on Voltaire's
press, 23; first book printed, 25;
most profitable book for publishers,
26; sublimity of. Sir Wm. Jones on,
26; Geology an ally of, 26; Archae
ology ally of, 26; its character, 28;
in English History, Huxley on, 43;
fundamental doctrines of, 45; book
dignifying man, 47 ; matches every
disposition, 47; universal book, 50;
regenerating book for degenerated
man, 51; test ofpower in individual,
51; non-acceptance no argument
against, 52; John Locke on, 53;
why study, Matthew Arnold on, 54 ;
superiority of, Matthew Arnold on,
54-55; broadens sphere of duty,
58; Bowen on, 59; and French Rev
olution, Carlyle on, 60; and Refor
mation, Dr. Draper on, 60; as
weapon, Max Muller on, 61 ; carried
to battle by Cromwell's hosts, 61;
revolutionizing book, 62 ; only sym
metrical book, 63 ; relation to human
motives, 64; and sacredness of life,
68-69; its mission to the weak aud
infirm, 80; infiuence of, Theodore
Parker on, 84; profound and lolty
wisdom of, Fichte on, 88 ; and gov
ernment, Gov. Seward on, 88; and
woman's position, 99 ; in relation to
liberty, 104; in Revolutionary war,
108 ; John Adams on, 109 ; and spell
ing-book, Everett on, 109; and civil
liberty, Webster on, 109 ; and early
American settlements, 110; Garri
son on, 113 ; as interpreted by priest
hood, an injuiy, 115; and natioual
prosperity, Webster on, 120; and
Commerce, 121; and Commerce in
personal refinement, 130; influence
over barbarism, 136; quickens in
tellect for inventions, 139 ; and Civil
Government, 152; a book of prin-

INDEX,

319

ciples, 153; and Learning, 185 ; and
Homer, 193; Winthrop on trans
cendent value of, 193; preserved the
Greek language, Everett on, 194;
and purity of language, Peabody
on, 196; intellectual power of its
themes, 197; Luthardt on, 200; and
learning, 200; and multiplication of
books, 201 ; in Dark Ages, 204 ; and
Inquisition,205 ; Council of Toulouse
on, 206; in the Reformation, 206;
text-book of Reformation, 211 ;
and literature of people, 213; and
Free Schools, 214; in Literature,
219; Wicklifie's Comer-stone of
English Thought, 224; and Theo
logical discussions, 229; People's
Book, 230; literary beauty of. Dr.
Peabody on, 232; source of Shakes
peare's power, 232; characters in
Shakespeare, 233; names in Shakes
peare, 234 ; Imagery in Walter
Scott's works, 240; and Poetry,
242; imagery and Webster, 242;
indebtedness of Fisher Ames to,
247 ; indebtedness of Ruskin to, 250 ;
and Art, 252; true to Nature, 254;
in Gothic Art, 260; inspiration of,
in Music, 267; sublime anthems in,
268; in part a book of songs, 269;
Book of God, 284 ; summary of its
power, 284; its claims, 288; proven
tme in history, 290; the lonely
Book, 291; true in philosophy, 292;
unrefuted by science, 293 ; Herschel,
Gladstone, Dana on, 295; highest
morality, James Russell Lowell on,
295; impossible, if fraudulent, to
accomplish such good, 297 ; methods
and conduct of its writers, 298;
unity of doctrine, 299; only sacred
book with many authors, 302; in
cottage casement, Coleridge on,
302; proven true in the history of
Christ, 303; proven true in fulfiU
ment of prophecy, 304; deals with
immortality, 306; authority aa to

immortality proven by its authority
in the present Ufe, 309 ; and Princess
Elizabeth, 309 ; and translation,
death of Bede, 310; and Thomas
Nelson, his death, 311; WUberforce
on, 311; and Sir Humphry Davy,
his testimony, 312; John Jay on,
312; the book in the death chamber,
313; and statement of Webster, his
death bed, 315; conclusion, 316.
Bible History, three periods of, 204.
BibUcal be^nnings of modem Utera
ture, 223.
Biblical models in industrial art, 141.
Bible House, where WickUfie's writ
ings were condemned, 24.
Bible Society, honored names in, 109.
Blackstone, on revelation of law, 169.
** Body of Liberties," and Nathaniel
Ward, 112.
Bolingbroke, testimony to Christian
ity, 287.
Book, value of, how measured? 4;
"great as a battle," 4; living, what?
10; of Uberty, Hebrew Scriptures,
97.
Books, mortaUty of, 1; average edi
tion in Great Britain, 2; average
life of, 2; out qf print in Imperial
Library, 8; great mass destroyed,
0; of Moses, older than Vedas, 13;
power of, in shaping character, 189;
death of, when a glory? 297.
Book Lover's Euchiridion, 7.
Bowen, Prof., on deterioration of
races, 36; on Bible influencing
human afiairs, 69; on Christianity
and civiUzation, 120; on Book of
Job, 246; on Psalm xviii, 249.
Brewer, Shakespeare most religious
poet, 240.
Briggs, Bible source of poetry and
history, 243.
British Museum adopts scientific
order of Genesis, 294.
Brittanica, on Christianity and social
morality, 83.

320

INDEX.

Brotherhood of Man, 64.
Bryant, Thanatopsis suggested by
bookof Job, 249.
Buckle, civiUzation dependent on cU
mate, 39; on Galvanism, 118; on
ChiUingworth's " Religion of the
Protestants," 217.
Buddhism, 1500 years after Abraham,
14; no vitaUty, 44.
BuUock, Gov., transmission of Bible
through languages, 20.
Burke, on Gospels as rules of highest
living, 17; on Levitical law, 169;
Bede, father of English learning,
223; on Free Thinkers, 226.
Burton, on rarity of ancient books,
6; on desti-uction of books, 8; on
defects in common books, 22.
Buxton, in Wheeler St. Chapel, 217.
Byron, Lord, Bible themes, 222.
C^DMON first English poet, 223.
Calvin, on legislation based upon that
of Moses, 117; Bancroft on, 119;
psalms, "anatomy of the soul,"
280.
Galvanism, Buckle on, 117.
Capital punishment, 69.
Careers of great men shaped by books,
190.
Carlyle, on Bible and St. Paul's Cath
edral, 17; on Bible and French
Revolution, 60; on reUgion and the
world's heroes, 67 ; on vesture of
thought, 220 ; on Book of Job, 246.
Carthage, cruelty to ChUdren, 74,
Cathedral, St. Paul's and Bible, Car
lyle on, 17 ; symbolism of, 260.
Cause and effect, greatest law, 286.
Character, of Bible, 28; measured by
estimate of life, 68 ; revealed by
choices, 122; shaped by books, 190.
Charity, Christian, 81-83.
Chateaubriand, election of rulers by
the mled, 108.
Chatham, Lord, and Isaac Barrow,
218.

Chaucer, power firom Bible themes,
224.
Chesterfield, parlor of, a prayer room,
24.
ChiUingworth's "ReUgion of the
Protestants," 217.
China, no railroads in, in 1883, 123.
Chippewas of Canada, 126.
Choate, Rufus, Constitution in Greek
Testament, 152.
Christ, parables from nature, 255.
Christian architecture dates from Con
stantine, 259.
Christianity, coining words, 66; Lecky
on, 68; against infanticide, 76; uid
gladiatorial shows, Lecky on, 79;
and hospitals, 81-83; and Gospels,
Goethe on, 87; aboUshing slavery,
Lecky on, 98; under Constantine,
104; phUosophy of, regarding slav
ery, 105; conquering paganism,
106; and Commonwealth, Winthrop
on, 110; and civilization, Bowen
on, 120 ; and civUization, how com
pared, 124; does not license evU,
civiUzation does, 125 ; spiritual, civi
Uzation material, 125; creates what
Commerce supplies, 128 ; and labor,
138; and great inventions, 139; and
Commerce, difference in motives,
145; influence of, on Roman law,
165; in Justinian's code, 167; influ
ence of, Kent on, 170; and civU so
ciety, Webster on, 171; and Com
mon law, Anderson on, 171; sym
bolized by vertical lines, 252; and
pointed arch, 253; dependence of
art on, 266; indebtedness of music
to, 274; and the organ, 274; Boling
broke on, 287 ; Matthew Arnold on,
287; and its fruits, James RusseU
Lowell on, 296.
Church Fathers upon Thank-offer
ings, 81.
Church History, as a whole, 229.
Church, a refuge of slave, 98; in
Dark Ages, use of Bible, 206;

INDEX,

321

Church, Roman, controlling Bible,
208; progress of, marked by its
hymns, 277.
Cicero, claimed infanticide as justifi
able, 76; on the " Twelve Tables "
163; eloquence of, sui-passed by that
of Scriptures, 244.
City, Government under Mosaic code,
180.
CivU Government, and the Bible, 152;
CivUization, not product of nature, 33 ;
tested by architecture, 35; from
outside influences, 37; and climate,
Buckle on, 39; produced by its
religion, 41; printing-press in, 116;
does not civUize, 123; relative
term, 124; and Christianity com
pared, 124; not by colonies, 125;
the highest is Christian, 128; ad
vanced by inventions, 141; modem,
traceable to Hebrew, Greek and
Latin, 155.
Claims of the Bible, 283; emphasized
in methods and conduct of the
writers, 298 ; manifest in the history
of Christ, 303.
Clarendon, History of RebeUion, 6.
Clarke, J. F., Ten Great ReUgions,
45.
Classic literature lost, 10; fascinating
but powerless, 16.
Clement of Alexandria, on obligation
of Plato to Moses, 159.
Clergymen, founders of States, 215.
CUmate, and civiUzation, Buckle on,
39.
Clock, its invention, 144.
Cobden, dying, repeated Wesley's
hymn, 281.
Coleridge, on Plato, 62; on Bible and
purity of language, 194; on Luther
and his hynms, 278; on book of
Proverbs, 246; on Bible in Cottage
Casement, 302.
Collectors, on rarity of anc't books, 6.
CoUeges, never founded on infidel
basis, 200.

Colonies, colonization never by, 126.
Colosseum, inauguration of with
blood, 78.
Commandments at Sinai, modem laws
based on, 108.
Commerce and Bible, 121; never phil
anthropic, 126; its selfish objects,
127; aUy of Christianity, 128; mis
sionaries, pioneers in, 145; and
Christianity, difference in motives,
145.
Commercial spirit, foUowing religious
movements, 128.
Common law, Sir Matthew Hale, on
the influence of Christiani^ upon,
170.
Commonwealth and Christianity, Win
throp on, 110.
Compassion, unknown in Greece and
Rome, 80.
Composers, musical, their piety, 271-
275.
Confucius, 1000 years after Moses, 13;
on cheapness of life, 74; nearly dis
covering the Golden Rule, 62.
Confucianism and Christianity com
pared, 63.
Congress, American, Bible in Revo
lutionary War, 108.
Connecticut, early governed by Mo
saic laws, 182.
Conscience, Richard ill. and, 237.
Constantine, on Pagan corruptions
and Christianity, 104; and Christian
art, 259.
Copyright, act of 1772, 5.
Cotton, John, " oracle " of Massachu
setts, 215.
Cowper, forerunner of restoration of
EngUsh Uterature, 279.
Creation, story of, in ancient litera
ture, 12; story of, theme of oratorio,
12.
Cromwell's hosts carry Bible and
chant sixty-eighth Psalm, 61.
Culture, and religion, Principal Shairp
on, 213.

322

INDEX.

Cushing, Caleb, on Christianity and
woman's elevation, 102.
Cust, R. N. Esq., on the missionaiy,
150.
Cutler, Manasseh, and Western Re-
sei-ve, 215.
DANA, Prof., God author of Scrip
tures, 244; on geology, sustaining
the Bible, 295.
Dark Ages, what relation to the Bible,
204.
D'Aubigne, poetry and music, 279.
Diivid, hymnist of the centuries, 268.
Davies, Dr. S., and Patrick Henry,
217.
Davy, Sir Humphry, value of scrip
tural faith, 312.
Death of nations, 29; of books, when
agloiy, 197; of infidels, 202.
Decalogue, first declaration of human
rights, 176.
Decay of Greece, 30.
De Foe, object in writing Robinson
Crusoe, 225.
Degeneration, of Spain and Portugal,
31, of races, phUosophy of, 32; and
regeneration, 40.
Degraded nations become civiUzed,
32.
Deism, belief in God, no harder than
belief in revelation, 298.
De Quincey, on evciy year's litera
ture, 3; on reUglons resting on a
book, 19; on footsteps of Chris
tianity, 108; on Bible scientific in
not teaching science, 294.
Descartes, bis speculative phUosoph)'-,
210; his obligations to truth, 210.
Deterioration of Races, Bowen on,
36.
Deuteronomy, indebtedness of Fisher
Ames to, 247.
Diocletian, boast of, put to shame,
24.
"Dispensary of the Soul," inscrirtion
over libraiy of Rameses i.', 10.

Disraeli, a book great as a battle, 4.
Divinity, old works on, Uttle read, 6.
Doctrines of eternity and sin; their
power, 199.
Draper, Dr., on Bible and Reforma
tion, 60.
Drudgeiy, doctrine of immortahty
elevates from, 137.
Duty, as a motive, 57 ; broadened by
Bible doctrines, 58.
EAST INDIA COMPANY, attack
on missionaries, 149.
Ecclesiastes, Peabody on, 248.
Ecclesiastical period, when? 205.
Education does not civUize, 122.
Egypt, libraries of, 10; oldest record
of history, 12; arts in, Layard on,
35.
Elections under Mosaic law, 178.
Elevation of ideal creates wants, 121.
Elizabethan Age, its three great
writers, 224.
EUiott, Charlotte, quoted, 281.
Ely Volume, Missions and Science,
124.
Emerson, R. W., his librarj', 3 ; on old
and famed books, 7.
Emigrant Aid Society, Kansas, 126.
English law, king successor of peo
ple, 107; dependence on Roman
law, 168.
English prose indebted to King
Alfred, 223.
Equality, human, 64-65.
Erasmus, power through Greek Tes
tament, 211; on Scripture above
eloquence of Cicero, 244.
Ethics and the Mechanical Arts, 143.
Europe, first pubUc Ubrary in, origin
to Bible, 17.
Everett, Edward, on God and liberty,
92; on representative government,
108; on Bible and spcUing-book,
109 ; on Bible preserving Greek lan
guage, 194; on use of the Proverbs
247.

INDEX.

323

FENELON, and Adam Smith, 217.
Fichte, on profound and lofty wisdom
of Bible, 88.
Field for religion and commerce the
same, 145.
Forret, Thomas, and fifty-first Psalm,
48.
Forum, the, upon morals and religion
103.
Fragments of literature of Greece
and Rome, 11.
Francesca, bis piety, 264.
Francis i., and literary men, 190.
Franklin, Benj., letter to Thomas
Paine on •• Age of Reason," 55; on
Bible and Morals, 55; on Morals of
Jesus, 87; upon prayer, 114; and
prayer of Habakkuk, 245.
Frederick the Great, and peasant of
Potsdam, 116.
Freedom, definition of, 95; to others.
Christian doctrines, 98 ; and Mosaic
law, 176; of the will, 199.
Free Schools, Bible and, 214.
Free Thinkers, Burke on, 226; Lecky
on, 226.
French Academy of Science, adopts
scientific order of Genesis, 294.
French polite literature, Alcuin
founder of, 223.
French Protestants, and filly-first
Psalm, 48.
French Revolution, and Bible, Car
lyle on, 60.
Froude, greatness from environment,
38.
Fugitive slave law of the Hebrews,
182.
Fundamental doctrines of Bible, 45.
GARRISON, faith m the Bible, 113.
Genesis, oldest literature, 11 ; covers
period 2000 years, 11 ; oldest record
Egyptian history, 12; Goguet on,
13 ; first chapter, order of, adopted
in British Musenm and French
Academy, 294.

Geneva, and Europe, 61 ; its sceptre,
the Book, 61; Calvin in, 117.
Geographical knowledge, mission
aries pioneers in, 146.
Geology, ally of Bible, 26.
Gibbon, house of, a depot of the Bible,
23; population Roman Empire, 93;
upon laws of Solon and Moses, 163.
Giotto, laid foundation of modern
painting, 264.
Girard, and " will," 86.
Gladiatorial shows, how excused, 77-
78; universality of, 78; and Chris
tianity, Lecky on, 79.
Gladstone on Psalms, 248; biblical
order of Genesis scientific, 295.
Glasgow, Ubrary of, origin to Bible,
17.
Goethe, hopelessness of nature, 60;
on Gospels and Christianity, 87 ; on
Book of Ruth, 245.
Goguet, on Moses, 13; on Genesis, 13.
Golden Age in human afiairs, 33.
Goldsmith extolled biblical virtues,
226.
Gospels, Renaa on, 17; rules of llv
ing, Burke on, 17 ; and Christianity
Goethe on, 87.
Gothic Art, and Bible, 260.
Government and Bible, Gov. Seward
on, 88; democratic inception of,
Mayhew on, 111.
Grecians, superstition causes stagna
tion, 140; ignorant of music, 274.
Grecian laws, Lycurgus, Solon, 14;
infiuence of Hebrew laws on, 156;
influence of, upon Roman laws, 163.
Grecian statesman, a, upon mission
aries, 149.
Greece, and its decay, 30 ; illustrious
slaves of, 93; treatment of women,
99.
Greek Art, compared with Christian,
254;
Greek historians, from A sia, 34.
Greek language, preserved by Bible,
194.

324

INDEX.

Greek phUosophy from Asia, 34.
Greek Testament, age of MSS., 25;
Tischendorf on, 25.
Greene, Christian faith and arts, 144.
Gregory the Great, use of painting,
263; and his "Gregorian chant,"
275.
Grey, Lady Jane, and fifty -first Psalm,
48.
Grotius, on Attic lawa derived from
Mosaic code, 161.
Ground, the, reflects character, 132.
Guilds, their object, 262.
Guizot, philosophy and religion, 211.
Guthrie, Dr., indebtedness of Scotch
men to book of Proverbs, 247.
HABAKKUK, Franklin and, 245.
Hale, Sir Matthew, on Mosaic writ
ings, 162; Christianity and the Com
mon law, 170.
HaUam, libraries, cemeteries of de
parted reputation, 9; on first Bible
upon printing-press, 25.
Handel, his Messiah inspired, 273.
Harmony of Bible with science, 12.
Harvey, obUgations of science to, 197.
Hats and caps, symbols of conscious
dignity, 131.
Haven, on Jewish theology upon Gre
cian mind, 160.
Hawaiian Islands, financial value from
Christianity, 134 ; yearly profits
equivalent to yearly cost of aU mis
sions, 272.
Haydn, reverence as an artist, 272.
Hebrew devotional hymns, Theodore
Parker on, 231; Humboldt on, 245.
Hebrews, knowledge of among na
tions, 157; respect for woman, 100;
labor honorable among, 103.
Hebrew law, influence on Grecian
law, 156;
Hebrew thought, knowledge of in
Greece, 158.
Hellenitim, language of, 158 ; influenre
of, 158.

Henry, Patrick, indebtedness to Dr.
S. Davies, 217.
Herbert, Lord, denying revelation,
288.
Herder, on Song of Solomon, 247 ; on
Psalms, 280.
Herodotus, 1100 years after Moses,
14; age of MSS., 25.
Heroism, philosophy of, 66.
Herschel, Sir John, on discoveries
confirming Scripture, 244; ibid, 295.
Historian, first English, Bede, 228.
Historic connection of the Psalms,
268.
History of Egypt, oldest record, 12.
Historyof RebeUion, Clarendon's, 6.
History proves truth of the Bible,
290.
Hobbes, his dying declaration, 202.
Homer, and Hebrew Scriptures, 192.
Human sacrifices in Roman empire,
77.
Humanity, unknown in Greek
thought, 65.
Humboldt, and Book of Job, 231; on
Hebrew lyrics, 245.
Hume, David, phUosophy against
" superstition," 23 ; Dr. Johnson on,
66; his death, 203.
Hunter, influence of Mosaic law upon
Roman law, 166.
Huss, John, and fifty-first Psalm, 48.
Huxley, on Bible in English History,
43.
Hymns, Augustine on, 280.
IDEAS, slow growth of. 105.
Immortality, poets nearer to, 6; in
relation to large motives, 58-59;
relation of, to inventions and labor,
137; as doctrine, elevates from
drudgery, 137.
Individual, Bible tested in, 51.
Infanticide, Hebrew ideas compared
with those of surroundiug nations
73-74; custom universal in Greece
75-76; Christianity against, 76-77.

INDEX.

325

Infidelity founds no colleges, 201;
staple themes biblical, 222; borrows
songs of Christian Church, 267.
Inquisition and the Bible, 205.
"Intellectual Development of Eu
rope," Dr. Draper on Bible, 60.
Intellectual power of Bible, 197.
Invention and liberty, 115.
Inventions, biblical results of, 139;
follow nature, 140; influence of in
civilization, 141.
Isaiah, inspiring Michael Angelo, 248.
JAY, John, testimony to Bible, 312.
Jefferson, Thomas, on ethical precepts
of Jesus, 86-87; theories of govern
ment based upon Moses, 181; on
Psalms, 248.
Jeremiah, and poem of Lord Byron,
249.
Jerome on Psalms, 280.
Jerusalem, the golden, hymn of Ber
nard, 282.
Jesus, ethical precepts of, Thomas
Jefferson on, 86-87; Lecky on,
Goethe on, 87 ; chiefest person in ail
history, 303.
Jethro, and principles of town meet
ing, 108.
Jews, Max Miiller, on history of, 27 ;
persecution of, 96; not literary peo
ple, 299.
Job, book of, Humboldt on, 231 ; Prof.
Bowen on, 246; Webster on, 246;
Carlyle on, 246; suggested Thana
topsis of Bryant, 249.
Johnson, Dr., on David Hume, 56;
inspiration to deeper faith, 226;
and story of Ruth, 245; music a
" noise," 277.
Jones, Sir Wm., quoted, 26.
Journal of Congress, on use of Bible,
108.
Journal of Science, upon contribution
of missionaries, 147.
Journal of the Society of the Arts, 133.
Jubilee year, economy of, 177.

Judgment Day in Shakespeare, 238.
Justice, in Mosaic Code, 179.
Justinian, legislation of, outgrowth of
Christianity, 82; digest of and Chris
tianity, 167.
Juvenal, despair of, quoted, 192.
KEATS, his epitaph, 226.
Kent, upon inffuence of Christianity,
170.
King, Starr, upon Saul as biblical
Macbeth, 233.
Kings, Bible protests against, 107.
Knight, Charles, quoted, 2; shilling
voliunes, 6.
Knox, John, and liberty in Scotland,
116.
Koran, and Scripture, 45; and degra
dation of Mohammedan women, 99.
LABOR, degradation of in Greece
and Rome, 103; dignity of, 103; and
Christianity, 138.
Laboring men, Christ's disciples, 103.
Ladd, Prof., three periods of Bible
history, 204.
Lamartine on the Psalms, 280.
Lamech, song of, oldest lyric poetry,
248.
Lamentations of Jeremiah, sublimest
elegy, 249.
Languages, of Bible, Gov. Bullock
on, 20; and Missionaries, 148.
Language, beauty of. Max Miiller,
35; kept pure by Bible study, 194;
English, purity dependent on Bible,
196.
Law, Grecian, centuries after Moses,
14; of Moses, older than Grecian,
14; from one of two sources, 154;
of Moses, cosmopolitan, 154; and
idolatry, 175; essential to liberty,
176.
Laws, unjust against Jews, 97.
Layard, arts in Assyria and Egypt,
35.
Learned men in Reformation, 212.

326

INDEX.

Leaming, Bible and, 185; influence
of Bible on, 200; essential to reli
gion, 201.
Lecky, on Christianity, producing
heroism, 68; on Christiamty and
gladiatorial shows, 79; on Jesus,
87 ; ou Christianity abolishing slav
ery, 98; on Free Thinkers and des
potism, 226.
Leibnitz, philosophy of, 210.
Liberty, man's normal state, 93; re
sult of Christian doctrines, 95;
springs from within, 96 ; its relation
to the Book, 104; and Bible, Web
ster on, 109; inventions leading to,
115; John Knox as exponent of,
117; impossible without law, 176.
Library, Imperial of Paris, 3; Impe
rial, a mUlion volumes since 14th
century, 8; Imperial, seven hun
dred thousand volumes out of print,
8; "cemetery of departed reputa
tion," 9; ofRamesesi.,10;theBible
a "Ubrary,'* 17; of Glascow. owes
origin to the Bible, 17; Alexan
drian, destruction of, 185.
License, of evil by civUization, not
Christian, 125.
Life, sacredness of, and Bible, 68;
and persecution, 69; sacred, most
mysterious, 70; held as property of
father, 72; sacredness of, Abraham's
sacrifice, 72; cheapness of, under
Confucius, 74.
Literary prominence, two tests of,
228.
Literature, 3000 years required to
read, 8; superabundance of, Prof.
Phelps on, 8; loss of classic, 10;
ancient, story of creation, 12; Chris
tian and pagan compared, 192;
progress of, Burke on, 202 ; of peo
ple, dependent on the Bible, 213;
yearly sermonic, 216; clears itself
of the useless, 222; modei*n begin
nings biblical, 223; permanence of,
how determined, 228.

Literature, English, Cowper and res
toration of, 279; declares mental
grasp of its Author, 237.
Living Book, what ? 10.
Livingstonia Mission and Commerce,
134.
Lock-making, parent of machinery,
144.
Locke, John, on the Bible, 53; on
consent of the governed, 107.
Lonely people and their "lonely
Book," 291.
Longmus, upon Paul, 243.
Loom, invented by Doctor of Divinity,
144.
Lord, Dr. John, on Moses and eleva
tion of woman, 100.
Loss of classic literature, 10.
Love, unknown in Grecian philoso
phy, 65.
Lowth, Bishop, Virgil and Isaiah, 193.
LoweU, James RusseU, on the influ
ence of Christianity, 296.
Luthardt, ou the Bible, 15; on Bible
as Uterary production, 200.
Luther, translation of his Bible, and
Uberty, 116; and his hymns, Cole
ridge on, 278.
MACAULAY. on Athens, 89; refor
mation of philosophy and religion,
211.
Machinery, ethical results of, 142.
Madonna in art, elevating power of,
265.
Magna Charta, and King John, 115 ;
parchment of, rescued from the
bands of a taUor, 120.
Man, noblest object of creation, 12;
scriptural philosophy of his dual
nature, 39; brotherhood of, 64;
biblical exaltation of, 129 ; dominion
over material things, 130.
Marden, Hemy, on Gospel and inven
tions, 133.
March, Prof., upon Tyndale's transla
tion, 194.

INDEX.

327

Mai-tyn, Henry, taking translation oi
Bible to Shah, 53.
Martyrdom, not art, a characteristic
in early Christian centuries, 258.
Martyi-s, from truth, not error, 67.
Mary, Queen, and John Knox, U7.
Mayhew, letter to James Otis, 111.
Mendelssohn, piety and habits, 271.
Merivale, on religion and civilization,
37.
Michaelis, on Moses, 169; on democ
racy of Israel, 177 ; on antiquity of
books of Moses, 184.
MiU, J. S., on Bible, 17; progressive
morality against stationary, 39; on
phUosophy anticipated in Chris
tianity, 88.
MUman, Dean, on pre-eminence of
the Hebrew language, 120; on char
acter of Moses, 170.
MUton, on the keys of the press, 205;
on superiority of the Scriptures,
142; on the Psalms, 280.
Missionaries, pioneers of Commerce,
145 ; pioneers in geographical knowl
edge, 146; in science. Prof. Agassiz
on, 147; indebtedness of languages
to, 148; Christians, greatest lin
guists, 148; A Grecian statesman
on, 149.
Missionary, the, R. N. Cust, Esq.,
on, 150.
Missionary Herald, oldest monthly
magazine in America, 147 ; Dr. Pea
body on, 147; Carl Ritter on, 147,
Missionary Spirit, no one Christian
without, 58.
Missions, J. P. Thompson on, 125;
and commerce, Pres't. Seelye on,
127; Christian, financial value of,
132; result of, appendix to New
Testament, 135.
Mohammedan art, indebted to Chris
tian, 261.
Monasteries, studios, 264.
Monks, leaders in agriculture, 144;
artists, 264.

More, Sir Thomas, and fifty-first
psalm, 48.
MortaUty, of books, 1; national, and
manners of women, John Adams on,
112.
Morals, of Jesus, Franklin on, 55,
ibid, 87; Jefferson on, 87; Goethe
on, 87; of the Bible supreme, 295.
Mosaic laws, centuries before Grecian,
14; cosmopolitan, 154; only ancient
code entire, 156; and Grecian laws,
Grotius on, 161; Indebtedness of
Solon to, Gibbon on, 164; humane
character of, 173 ; and civU freedom,
176; and unity of the people, 176;
and poUtical equaUty, 177; rested
upon consent of the people. 177;
and choice of rulers, 178; and city
government, 180; and tribal gov
ernment, 180 ; and national govern
ment, 181; Jefferson's dependence
on, 181.
Mosaic Records, Jean Paul on, 198.
Moses, Goguet on, 13; book of, older
than Vedas, 13; antiquity of Moses,
before Confucius, 13 ; father of his
tory eleven centuries before Herod
otus. 14; and elevation of woman,
100; reference to in classic writers.
160 ; Sir Matthew Hale on, 162 ; writ
ings of. Schlegel on, 162; Michaelis
on, 169; Dean Milman on, 170;
character of, 183.
MiiUer, Max, on pre-eminence of the
Bible, 15; on the Bible, 19; on his
tory of the Jews, 27; ou former
beauty of language, 35; on Bible as
weapon in Luther's hands, 61.
Music, as an art nearest universal,
266; none in nature, 267; Ambrose
and modem, 275; and Napoleon's
army, 277 ; church music not a mere
exhibition of art, 279; unsectarian,
282.
NAPOLEON, and map of Europe,
54; army of, and music, 277.

328

INDEX.

Nations, death of, 29; as suicides, 30.
National government under Mosaic
code, 181.
National history includes what? 229.
Nature, laws of, in inventions, 140;
no music in, 267.
Neander, his burial, 219.
Nelson, Thomas, book publisher, his
death, 311.
New Testament, 600 quotations from
the Old Testament, 300.
Newton, Sir Isaac, Bible source of
power, 196.
Newton, John, influencing famous
men, 217.
Normans, civUized by missionaries,
37.
North American Review, upon Mis
sionary Herald, 147.
ODE on Immortality, fifteenth chap
ter first Corinthians, 249.
Old Testament is one third poetry,
267.
One per cent of literature reprinted
after five years, 1.
Oratorio the, theme of the story of
Creation, 12; the origin of, when?
275.
Organ, trophy of Christianity, 274.
Owen, John, illustrious pupils, 217.
Ox yoke and Christianity, 123.
PAGANISM, overthrown by Chris
tianity, 106; marked by horizontal
lines, 252; destroys love of nature,
255.
Paine, Thomas, letter of Benjamin
Franklin to, 55; his death, 203.
Painting, its use, 263; modern begun
in religious thought, 264.
Palestine, against Greece and Rome,
90-91.
Palestrina, reform of church music,
275.
Papacy and Protestantism with the
Bible, 114.

Parker, Theodore, on Bible, 18; on
influence of Bible, 84; upon Hebrew
devotional hymns, 231.
Parliament, copyright act of 1772, 5.
Paul, orator, Longinus on, 243; great
est letter writer, 244.
Paul, Jean, on Mosaic record, 198.
Peabody, Christian ethics, influence
on Roman law, 166 ; power of Bible
on English language, 196; on Ute-
raiy sublimity of the Bible, 232;
on Ecclesiastes, 248.
Pentateuch, antedates other " sa
cred " books, 13; Prof. Briggs upon,
243.
Pericles, upon woman, 100.
Phelps, Prof., inabUity to read all
literature, 8; on lyric poetry, 14.
PhUo, Moses and Greek phUosophers,
160.
Philology, EngUsh, and T}-ndale's
translation, 194.
PhUosophy and Christianity, Stuart
MiU on, 88; of Bible, Fichte on, 88;
Sir Isaac Newton on, 89; Prof.
Bowen on, 89; of Lord Bacon, 209;
of Descartes, 210; proves Bible
true, 292; of Hume and Gibbon life
less, 292.
Physical nature elevated by spiritual,
40.
Pilgrims, armed agents of Bible, 61.
PUgrim's Progress, next in demand to
the Bible, 227; testimony of noted
men on, 227.
Plato, on age of MSS., 25; on infanti
cide, 75; shopkeeper a criminal,
103; obligations to Moses, 159; and
Moses, Aristobulus on, 159.
Plutarch, "Delay," etc., a classic, 43;
on laws of Lycurgus, 75; depicting
cruelty to slaves, 94.
Poet, Csedmon, first English, 223.
Poetry, lyric, Prof. Phelps on, 14.
Poets, modern, inspiration of, 18.
Pointed arch, and Christian religion,
253.

INDEX.

329

PoUtical equality, under Mosaic law,
177.
Poor, Christian treatment of, 81.
Portugal, degeneration of, 31.
Prescott, architecture, a test of civili
zation, 46; dead in his libraiy, 219.
Prideaux, on Aristotle's knowledge
of Moses, 158.
Priesthood, assumption ofpower, 107 ;
Bible interpreted by, how an injury.
115.
Princeton Review, upon missionaries
and geographical science, 147.
Printing-press in civilization, 116.
Progress, the result of instruction, 38 ;
two ideas, God and liberty, 92 ; three
steps in, 104.
Prophecies, of Erasmus and Tyndale
fulfiUed, 23.
prophets, steady place in Uterature,
11,
protestantism and the Bible, 207.
Proverbs, book of, Coleridge on, 246;
Wordsworth on, 247; Guthrie on,
247; Edward Everett on, 247; Prof.
Stuart on, 247; Dean Stanley on,
247.
Psalms, forty-sixth, 16; fifty-first, its
power on the race, 48; death song
of French Protestants, George Wis
hart, Thomas Forret, Lady Jane
Grey, John Huss, John Rogers, Sir
Thomaa More, Augustine, Arnold
of Rugby, 48-49; sixty-eight, chant
ed by CromweU's hosts, 61; one
hundred thirty -ninth, Webster's use
of, 242; one hundred and fourth,
Humboldt on, 245; Jefferson on,
248; Gladstone on, 248; eighteenth.
Prof. Bowen on, 249; historic con-
nections of, 268; and piety, 278;
Calvin on, 280 ; MUton on, 280 ; Je
rome on, 280; Herder on, 280;
Lamartine on, 280.
Public opinion and thought, 188.
Pulpits, Christian, their power, 215.
Puritanism and leaming, 201.

RACES, degeneration of, 31 ; deterio
ration of, Bowen on, 36; of men,
how divided, 41.
Railroads, none in China in 1883, 123.
Rameses i., library of, 10.
Raphael and decline of art, Ruskin
on, 266.
Reber, upon Mohammedan art, 261.
Records, Hebrew, sur^'ive unhurt, 11.
Reformation, Carlyle on Bible and,
60; gave Bible to the people, 206;
and Revival of Leaming, 207.
Reforms and the common people, 215.
Regeneration and degeneration, 40.
Relation of mdividual to the race, 64.
Religion and civilization, Merivale
quoted, 37 ; factor in civUization, 41 ;
and World's Heroes, Carlyle on, 67;
sound leaming essential to, 201.
Religions, three resting on a book, 18.
Renaissance, revival of Grecian ideas,
261.
Renan, on gospels, democratic book,
17.
Resurrection, greatest event of all
history, 303; proofs of Christ's mis
sion from, 303.
Revelation, Lord Herbert on, 288.
Revival of Learning and Reformation,
207.
Ritter, Carl, on Missionary Herald,
147.
Robinson Crusoe, its object, 225.
" Rock of Ages," and death of Prince
Albert, 281.
Rogers, John, and fifty-first psalm, 48.
Roman Emperors and gladiatorial
shows, 78.
Roman Empire, population in first
century, 93.
Roman law, indebtedness to Grecian,
163; relation to modem Common
Law, 164; influence of Christianity
on, 165 ; codification of, 165 ; and Mo
saic law. Hunter on, 166; influence
of Christian ethics on, Peabody on,
166; influence on English law, 168.

330

INDEX.

Rome, her treatment of Christ, 91;
treatment of woman, 99; no author
ess in, 100.
Romish Church, devout names in,
207; PUgrim's Progress, 228.
RothschUd, Baron, 97.
Ruskin, St. Mark's of Venice, " Book
of Common Prayer," 17; on fifty-
first psalm, 49 ; style from the Bible,
250; and one himdred and nine
teenth psalm, 250; on antagonism
of Pagan and Christian art, 255;
St. Mark's of Venice, 261; aud de-
clmeofart, 266.
Ruth, book of. Dr. Johnson on, 245 ;
Goethe on, 245.
SACREDNESS of life, Bible and, 68.
Samoan Islands, financial value of
missions to, 132.
Saul, the bibhcal Macbeth, 233.
Savages have never civiUzed them
selves, 32.
Savonarola, on painters and paintings,
265.
Schlegel, upon Mosaic writings, 162;
upon Spenser. Shakespeare and
Milton, 224
Schliemann, civUization of Troy, 36.
Scholasticism, and Aristotle, 208; its
value, 209; HaUam upon, 209.
Science, and missionaries, Prof. Agas
siz on. 147; confirming Scripture,
Prof. Dana on, 244; confirms the
Bible, 294; returning to the Book,
295.
Scotland ^d John Knox, 119.
Scott, Sir Walter, but one book, 89;
and the Bible, 240.
Scottish history and Bible story. 240.
Scriptural doctrines in Shakespeare,
235.
Scriptural philosophy of man, 39.
Scriptures, confirmed by science, 244.
Seelye, Pres't, on Commerce, 127.
Seneca, compared with Paul, 76.
Sermonists, Addison and Steele, 22o.

Sermons, Uterature of, 216.
Servitude, Hebrew, 94.
Seward, Gov., on Bible and govern
ment, 288.
Shadows of the Old BookseUers, 2.
Shairp, Principal, on Bible and
Shakespeare, 193; Culture and Re
ligion, 213.
Shakespeare's England, and its Book.
Taiue on, 42.
Shakespeare, and the Bible, 232; Bi
ble names in, 234; scriptural doc
trines in, 235; upon conscience, 237.
Shah, and Henry Martyn, 53.
Silliman, Prof., contributions of mis
sionaries to science, 147,
Slavery, in Egypt and Greece, 93; in
Rome, 93; central fact of the old
civiUzation, 93 ; aboUshed by Chris
tianity. 98.
Slaves, degradation of in classic times,
94; Paul's treatment of, 106.
Solomon's temple aud Chiistian
church, 257.
Solon and Moses, laws of. Gibbon on,
164.
Song of Solomon, Herder on, 247.
Songs, of the Bible, 269 ; outgrowth of
experience, 297.
Sovereignty of God, power of the doc
trine, 118.
Spain, degeneration of, 31.
Spenser, Red Cross Knight, from
Ephesians vi., 249.
Spiritual nature, degraded by physi
cal. 40.
Standard literature of the world, im
possible to read, 8.
Stanley, Dean, upon wisdom of Solo
mon, 158; on Proverbs, phUosophy
of practical life, 247.
Story of creation in ancient litera
tures, 12.
St. Mark's of Venice, "the Book
Temple," 261.
Stuart, Prof., on Book of Proverbs,
217.

INDEX.

331

Suicides of Nations, 30.
Summary of influence of the Bible,
284.
Survival of the fittest in literature, 6 ;
ibid, 227.
TABERNACLE, architecture of, 257.
Taine, on Bible, 16; on Shakespeare's
England and its Book, 42.
Taylor, Jeremy, " Shakespeare of
divines," 225.
Telemachus and last gladiatorial con
test, 79.
Temple of Solomon in architecture,
257.
" Ten Great Religions," J. F. Clarke,
45,
Testament, Greek, age of MSS., 25;
New, 600 quotations from Old Tes
tament, 300.
"The Braised Reed," influence of,
189.
Theme of oratorio, story of creation,
12.
Theological discussions and Bible
truth, 229.
Tholuck, upon Psalms and piety, 278.
Thompson, J. P., on Christian mis
sions, 125.
Thompson, Sir Rivers, upon Christian
missionaries, 149.
Thoth, sacred book of, lost, 10.
Thought, and public opinion, 188;
vesture of, Carlyle on, 220.
Tischendorf, original sources of Greek
Testament, 25.
Tocqueville, religion companion of
liberty, 109.
Toulouse, council of, Bible forbidden,
206.
Town meeting, from Jethro, 108.
Tribal Government under Mosaic
code, 180.
Troy, civilization of, Schliem.%nn on,
36.
" Twelve Tables " Roman, borrowed
from Greece, 163.

Tyndale, translation of and English
philology, 194.
UNITY of God, and unity of the peo
ple, 176.
Universities, foundations of, rest on
the Bible, IV ; founded by the clergy,
216.
Vedas, books of Moses older than, 13.
Victoria, the Bible aud African Em
bassy, 42.
Virgil and Isaiah, 193.
Voltaire, boast of, powerless, 23; his
death, 202.
WARD, Nathaniel, and "Body of
Liberties," 112.
Wars, Holy, when? 69.
Waverley, Dickson on, 241.
Weapon, Bible as. Max Miiller on, 61.
Webster, Daniel, good Christians,
good citizens, 88; Bible and Lib
erty, 109; Bible and national pros
perity, 120; Christianity, foundation
of civil society, 171; indebtedness
to his pastor, 218; use of Bible im
agery, 242; on book of Job, 246;
death chamber of, 314; on gospel
of Christ a divine reality, 315.
Wesley, John, power of forty thou
sand sermons, 216.
Wesleys, preacher and hymnist, 278 ;
at death bed of their mother, 281.
Western Reserve, settlement of,
by Manasseh Cutler, 215.
Whipple, E. P., 3.
White's "Eighteen Christian Centu
ries " on progress, 41.
Whitefield, power of, 216.
Whitman, indebtedness of Republic
to, 216.
Whitney on Bible, 17.
Winthrop, R. C, on Christianity
comer-stone of the Commonwealth,
110 ; modem laws from Sinai, 152 ;
transcendent value of Bible, 193.

332

INDEX.

Wilberforce, on value of the Bible,
311.
Wisdom of Solomon, Dean Stanley on,
168.
Wise, John, democracy in Christ's
government. 111; influence of, in
Declaration of Independence, 112.
Wishart, George, and fifty-first psalm,
48.
Woman, under Roman code, 99 ; posi
tion in Greece, 99; elevation of, 99;
degraded without Christianitv, 99;
decree of Hindoo book, 99; posi
tion among Hebrews, 100 ; Pericles
upon her glory, 100; influence of,
101.
Wood, Doctor, influence upon \Wh-
ster, 218.

Wordsworth, to Jeffreys, 219 ; on book
of Proverbs, 247; " Ode on Immor
tality " and 1 Cor. xv. ch., 249.
Writings of Old Testament, living,
11; their authors, 298; unity of,
299 ; honesty of their authors, 301.
Wickliffe, bones of, exhumed and
burnt, 24; his translation of Script
ures, 115; his translation, comer-
stone of English thought, 224.
YOUNG, immortal tmths, 225.
ZEND AVESTA, no life in it, 44;
no hold on the race, 63.
Znroaster, 800 years after Abraham,
13.
Zulus, Christianity among, 133.

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