The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-10-05

What 10 the reason the Bible is not gen.
orally read? asks the Chicago Herald.
That may sound to you like q very i'm
pertinent question, and you may answer
me loftily: Young man, the Bible is very
generally read"
But it isn't.
Say what you will, the Bible is not gen.
rally read. Take the average man in bust
Bible? Oh, he sees it every time he gets
home. Yes, he does; and that is all.
He sees it lying on the table in
very conspicuous place, and he could
not help seeing it it he wanted
to. He NAV never look at it. We all know
he never looks at it; but he sees il. The
children may examine its pages once in
while, but that is hardly probable. The
wife may look into it but that is a scarcely
a remote contingency. The help may read
it once in while, but that is not the hand
some family affair that lies in the parlor or
the library, but the humble little volume
that has been given her at some Sunday
school or that she has been able to buy out
of her savings. So far rs the family is con.
cerned the Bible is never read.
Take the average woman who earns her
living by work in the city. How often does
she consult its pages? Not once month.
And yet she is a regular, studious reader
in comparison with the woman of fashion.
Take that other young man, the society
ornament. and the stay of the gay gather
ings Of women. How often does he see the
volume? Why, We all know he would es-
TEEN it a veritable catastrophe to be
caught reading it. And the yonng
when she did last see the inside of the
sacred volume. So that the whole OF what
We call 1.-THE world" is very, very rarely
seen with a Bible in its hands. Nearly
every family has copy somewhere in the
house. and the children now and then press
leaves in its pages; the older members of
the family, not yet launched on the sea of
self direction, are said to find it con-
venient and a safe place in which to hide
their letters from the young men whose
suits IRE not smiled on by the heads of the
house. But they cannot be said to read it,
and they never have been.
Then take the church members. How
often does the mother who has children to
look after-how often does she read the
Bible? Not once week. Does her hus-
band read it oftener? Not by good deal
He never has time to look at the book. He
is too busy during the week and too. tired
on Sunday. He may be good member of
church, and if he has children he is prOba-
bly, at least a regular attendant at some
place OF worship, but he does not
search the scriptures to any very
great extent. The young people who
make SO much of the social and religious
side of the church do not read the Bible
with anything like either system or habit.
They can find something SO much more in
teresting and even instructive, and that u
what they choose. Books, papers, leaflets
and all the varied things that 60 to make
mp the literature of the church are chosen
long before the Bible, and they have the
endorsement Of the church authorities in
the matter.
Here and there is an old woman or an
equally old man, who has seen the best
there il in life, and who, sitting nearly
in the twilight, lenRthens the gloom Of
approaching night with almost constant
study Of the book, but they cannot be
said to form any appreciable part of the
public. All that is strong and busy, all
that Is prosperous and powerful, all
that il happy and dvmming on the
tidal wave Of good fortune leave it and
nssaT call On il for eitheg consolation or en-