The times., 1897-11-07
THE PHENOMENAL BOOK.
BY j. E. RANKIN. D. D., LII. d.
President of Howard University, and Eel
low OF the merican Soeietyof
Religious Education.


Whatever in their own hearts and lives
men may do with the Bible, they cannot
avoid accepting IL as a fact. Make out OF
it what they viii, here it is, here 1t has
been, here il will be, till time shall be no
more. ffctis something done as the word
means; an effect produced, an end reached.
The Bible is such fact AS hook, it is
the most consummate fact in tile world of
books. 1t deserves the name it bears
The Book. 1t is more many y-sided than
any other book, and it grows more many
sided the longer the world lasts The
value of diamond consists of its many
sidedness For its every facet reflects the
light of the sun; burns as If kindled at the
suns heart of fire; repeats the image of the
sun. So the Bible repeats the image of
God on every one of its sides.
Anu all these men who are at work on
the Bifle today, the scientists and bioht
gists, who are filing away upon the Bible
account OF creation, the genesis Of the
worlds and the genesis of man; the an.
tioua rians who are comparing the facts
of sacred history, AS written by Moses
aud all the PROPHETS with the facts Of
profane history, Is found On Ass yrian
and Egyptian monuments. the records III
spired, with the records uninspired; the
students Of comparative religion, who
are so anxious to find the choice things OF
Christianity pre-intimated or paralleled
in some aspect OF phase of paganism, that
they may prove Christianity ethnic, and
not absolute; the moralists, who profess
to discover so much in the Bible which
iyrp
So much, which S upon a lower plane. than
that which they themselves occupy; the
socialists, VINO, in their disorganizing prog
ress, confront no obstacle, like the Thus
far ana no farther Of the word Of God:
and the delivers in what is called higher
criticism, wEo judge Of d manuscript
hoary With ee, accepted by allthe scholar
ship of its own and of intervening ages
as a tea-tester would Judge Of a chest
of tea, or tobacconist OF to-
bacco or snuff; these are all at work, little
as they sometimes mean it, multiplying
the facts OF this diamond making new
surfaces, where il will catch the hight "
God IttaR es months Of assiduous work to
cut a diamond. 1t has taken ages. it will
take other ages, to bring to light all
the facets OF this diamond; making new
The Bihle is not only a fact-it Is a fact
which indicates design. There is always
doer behind the thing done. There are
certain results OF intelligence. of moral and
spiritual inspiration and elevation, which
have sIw avs followed the Introduction of
the Bible Tho Bible goes into the lffa
of a man aud makes him a new man. He
ceases To be earnal and becolhes spiritual.
It goes intn the life OF a nation and makes
that nation humane, just, vigorous with
a masculine vigor. II vitaliZes man;
it vitalizes nations. We say the creation
OF such d ceiestial body as the moon indi-
Gates Creator, because it evinces design.
II we study this planet In her relations
TO the earth we say: God made the moon
for the eat, TIA; to be the eaFth's haudtn. I'd
and attendant through the fields OF space:
to light Ter pathway by night. twice
daily TO give her the tides of the great
deep; 10 give her her salt baptism. Here
is q book that just as really evinces ne
slgu, as this planet Can it be an acci-
dent-the result of chance-that a volume
has been produced which is at once ievel
to the capeeity OF the most degraded man,
OF the most degraded nation, and yet
which, as the philosopher Coleridge de-
cares, finds him at greater depths OF
his being than any other booi;?" II SO,
hy whatlaw? Science gives US the nehdl4r
hypothesis 10 account for the creation Il
tile worlds. What hypothesis will nc
court for the Bible? Here is the worfd of
thought, Of poetry, OF ethics, OF religion
unique, uEeQualed. 1t begins with the
tersest and sublinest account of the crea-
t.oh of the heavens and the earth and 1t
ends with pictures OF new heavens and a
new earth 1t begins with an earthly para
disc; it ends with a heavenly one. 1t
heeins with mans lapse from purity and
peace; it ends with his restoration TO him
self and 70 God. And between the birth
OF things III the book of Genesis, and the
consummation OF things in the book If
Revelaticr, we have the only accurate
ancient history in the world the only
faithful biography in the world; the only
truthful prophecies
We Lave in the book of Job poetry which
Alexander Pope says is better than Homer's
"Iliad;'' which Thomas Carlyle saws sur
passes all other poetry ever written. We
have, according to Sir William Jones, the
great jurist, lin guist, poet and orientalist,
book "whichcontained more true sublimity,
more exquisite beauty, more pure morality,
more important history, and finer strains of
poetry and eloqGence than can be collected
from all other books in whatever are or
language they have been written And
any student, according to Sir Walter Scott
VIII "atlastIeave the world confessing that
the more he studied the Scriptures the full
Ter conviction ne had of his own ignorance
and of their ineStimable value
Whatthis book does it evidently is for-it
does on purpose. No great mind ever lived
WHO has not got something helpful out of
1t. To despise it marks the petty mind.
TO belittle it, belittles oneself. / never
hear man speak slightingly OF the Bible
without doubling either his intelligence ar
his integrity, or both It's many-sidedness.
especially its literary and aesthetic side.
may be Illustrated from the Autobiography
of the great German, Goethe, himself So
many-Sided.
Failing, as we may fear, to find in it
the handwriting of his Father in Heaven,
the moral firmament of His being, into
whose serene depths ne could look up and
be at peace, he did yet find there a store
house of mental and aesthetic culture
materials upon which his boyhood fInagIna
tion wrought, until, as he expresses him
self, he was introduced into the greatest
solitude and the greatest society wan.
dering with the patriarchs lover the ocean
of deserts and pastures and under THAT
vault of heaven, with all its nightly stars
where Though their immoyable faith. ''tf9d
walked beside them, cared for them, guided
and them, until his stud dyofthe Scrip
tnres ended at laSt-I quote from him again
in producing in his Imagination live
her picture of that beautiful and famous
land, its envrons and its vicinities as