The San Francisco call., 1896-12-25
Literary Value Of
The Story Of Christ
BY James H. Critics

chief characters of his opening verses
''There was in the days OF Herod, the
King of Judea, certain priest named
Zacharias, saws Luke, and therein he has
said more and proceeded farther along in
his narrative than any other author since
him could have done in as many long
paragraphs as there are words in his SEN
tences.
From first to last you will not find
single instance wherein the author has
attempted to express more than one prop
osition in one sentence. Let any writer
who thinks this an easy task attempt 1t
for himself He will find it one OF the
most difficult things in composition; he
will find it, it is almost safe to say, an
utter impossibiIity to preserve this quality
of unity throughout any lengthy descrip-
tion or narrative.
In power and forcefulness the writings
of st. John stand pre-eminent, and nowhere
else in literature is there a better ex-
mplifcation of the fact that brew
ity and terseness OF style makes
for beauty and strength of express
sion.' Consider the opening paragraph of
John: "In the beginning was the Word,
w
was God" In these simple, forceful words
there is a wealth of eloquence and power
that has not been equaled by any other
writer. In the same chapter John de-
scribes the whole meaning of the life of
Christ in eleven words, HE came to his
own, and mis- own received him not"
Herein is summed up the whole story of
the Christ.
In the fifth chapter, in describing the
departure of Jesus from Galilee, the fare
well feast that was given him, and his
subsequent departure for Jerusalem, the
author says: "After this, there was a
feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem" And therein is a long jour
| ney described, or at least told as forcibly
and as clearly as though many thousands
of words had been used in the description.
The literary value of the tale of Christ
may or may not be due in some measure
to those who translated the evangelical
writings from the original manuscripts.
This is question, however, that it is q
waste OF time TO inquire into, and the fact
| remains that no translator has ever yet
lived who could produce a great and last
ing piece of work from an indifferent
original. On the contrary, however, it is
true that some of the masterpieces of
literature have been sadly marred by the
vandal hand of Indifferent transIators,
and it is also true that the very best of
transiations always fall short OF doing
entire justice to the original production.
And while all honor may be due to the
early translators of the story of the life of
Christ the fact remains that the original
biographers produced monumental works
that have not since been equaled by the
greatest OF writers and, it is safe to say,
will never be excelled. When it is con-
sidered that at the period when these
four books were written (during first
century of the Christian era) printing
was unknown and that even the art OF
very laborious and complicated system of
penmanship was remarkably rare ac-
plishment, one begins to marvel at the
wonderful character OF the literary works
produced by these men. Especially is this
the case with Evangelist John, and, singu-