The times., 1897-11-14
THE PHENOMENAL BOOK.
ByJ Z RANKIN, p.p.,L.L. d.
President Of Eowara University, ana Eel
low OF the American Society of
Religious Educa tion.
II IrMusr BE ACCOUNTED FOR.

A pEeronenon is something remarkable.
unusl.-d, not easily accounted for, upon or
binary principles. A book takes the stamp
OF its authors bent or genus + he be u
ganuiIc man and the book be genuine
book, he Puts himself into it If he be a
! phenomenal his boCk viii be phenomenal
| Inis : what Milton meant when Ii. said,
| IT YOU Kill good book you kill "A gCod
| man; foT a good book is the precious life
blood Of a master spirit, embalmed and
| treasured up or u life beyond life The
Bible is the embalnment aat suring up
or the pre-, ts lifrhlood % many n.ast r
| spirit Moses, David, John, Paul-whos Sc
| l'febluod pnlsates IN humanity, geGefa IL, (
| after generation How true the words,
"IIeaven and earth stall pass away, but
my words Shall not pass away My words
shall not pass away III u sense it is tras
| Cf eyeri writer whose words have gone
| into this book
IL gong INTO this book, like the sacred
body % Hin Mhrm they loved, they have
been wonnd in linen with spices 80 they
Shall endure forever. Goethe says: My
cCmtrymen, who nave a peculiar rage
! f0r the idea III all things are continually
asking me what idea Ineantto embody in
Faust?' As If i knew myself, or could
inform them - And yet, every true
book is the embodiment of an idea; eX
aculy tl,at The onward lnvestiture of
the life OF tie thinking being who pro
dGced it. And Faust is no exception.
For when its distinguished author adds:
Il receivedinto nysoulcertain IMPRESSIONS.
| vivid, varied and pleasant, just as lively
| Imagination presented them and lad a IS
! p0etGothing more TO DO han artisheally To
walnut off and elaborate such views and
Impressions, and by means OF a lively
I representation so 10 bring them forward
that others might he impressed in ike
way 1t is Goethe, then himself, from
whom comes these wild and coarse out
bursts OF passion, - ''tnat sublime aud
touching Innocence of the heart" and
Those aspirations and longinEs of the
soul, which combine in this drama to
make d picture of human nature 20 which
probably literature has no equal. Goethe
Impressed, impresses Others.
lie surrounded his characters with tue
conditions and circumstances which would
evoke these various ana contrary qualities
of mind anu of heart, ali of which he
found within himself. As really as you can
find Homer in the Had you can find Goe ne,
the Iuany-slueCi, in Faust" Goethe himself
SAYS: All the characters Of Sophocles bear
something OF that POETS lofty soul, and it
i tl.t same with the characters of Shakes
peare. This is as II ought to be. Nay,
Shakespeare goes further and makes his
Romans Englishmen, and there, too, he
is right, for other wise his nation would not
have understood him." Yes, Shakespeare
makes his Romans Enslishmen, but he
makes his EngliShmeh men, and this Is the
reason his countrymen understand him.
tins is the reason humanity understands
him. 1t is because tie whole world is kin
that il responds To Cne touch OF nature
1t is its nature that is touched.
Now, the Bible is book with au idea
an idea always aims at, alw4 Us accom-
plishes. The more destructive modern
criticism; The more dsrespectful you speak
OF IL. the more wonderful is the fact that
this book mas lived so long that it still
lives that il shows no signs OF decay or
death -of passing away. Admit, for the
sake OF argument, that its account of crea-
ton has again ana again seemed inoon
sistcnt with the theories of advancing
science; that the Hebrew civilization. "a
developed under the LeviJical law. though
far superior To that of any other contem-
poraneous nation, is get. tried by The stand
ards OF the present day, crude and semi
barbarous; ADMIT the truth of al the criti-
CismS made upon I, and yet IL shines out
und!nred from cloud after cloud and
moves inward iato ages, like great orb
OF light ia whose rays the various tribes
Cf the human family delight 10 yak ap-
parcntly no more affected in It's life
giving influence by the minor defects at
tributed to 1t than the sun IS by the dis
covsrICs or earth's astrpnomers respect
ing = sIots Tie only method by which
you can see the spcts on the surface uf
the sun is by rejecting most OF the light
that comes from the sun itself. This is
the nature of what is called the de
stCuctive criticism. 1t is the criticism
of men who have shut out from their eye
piece the large percentage OF the suns
rays that they may look at spots. And
the criticisms OF today are not the orit3
cisnls OF Yesterday They are all the
time changing like the spots on the sun.
Whatey er the origin of the Bible, what
ever its enc, it has the same time Of vital
itY a tde sun. 1t is go whether it is in
Hebrew or Creek language dead or living;
in the version OF Wiclliff or Tyndan, or
Edward VI, or James l, or the Revision.
There are those who expected that the yer
sion OF 1881 as likely TO abstract sGme
thing substantial from this book; some
foundation doctrine: some essential part;
that the eminent English and American
scholars, after Their ten years of la Dor,
We're sure to strip the old orthodoxy OF
some oil its mysteries and terIors. ami give
us system of truth such as the ration-
alists and materialists have been clamur
ing for. But the truth is, change She Ian
guage of the Bible as YOU VIII put it into
the tongues of every nation on the face Of
the earth: apply to it all the tests of schoI-
arly criticism, and every time you VIII
have left an unchanged BILE residuum: that
which has life in itself; which no change
Of period CIR language can DESTROY some
thing that cannot die.
There are books which indicate high.
water mark in the different literatures Of
the world-the work of Goethe and Schiller
III German; the works OF Milton and
Shakespeare in English. Indeed, the
tile of human thought never rose higher
in any nation. But you cannot translate
Goethe and Schiller. Milton and Shakes
peare into any other language without
detriment. Translation from one langua ge
TO another is like taking the soul OF one
man ont Of his body and putting it into
the body Of another man. 1t is often A
niisfit. This is a match that is made in
heaven. The shepherd boy, David, did
not want the armor Of King Saul. He
wanted his simple stone and sling. There
isno translation from langua ge to language
without seeing death, because the soul Of
man, the precious lifeblood Of a master
split. can thus be eXtinguished Apply
II, Y,.,,