The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1898-05-13
NOSEGAY OF LITERATURE.
The Bible the Nest0r of All Teachers
and Educators.

DR.. Drivers sermon Sunday morn.
ing was on the nature, mission and
minis tration of the angels, sermon
that was thoroughly enjoyed by all
mature Christians and advanced
students of the Bible. In the eve
ming his subject was 1.-THE Best Book
Of ALI fol Summer Reading" mean
ing, of course, the Bible. The SER
mon abounded with many beautiful
quotable excerpta. After showing
that all scholarship and literature OF
note stand "reverently uncovered be-
fore this Dean of all literatures and
Nestor of all teachers" he said:
"Turn to art and architecture. Here
again every poet, painter, sculptor,
musician, and architect acknowledges
his Indebtedness to the Bible. The
Bible says 'Buildr and up leap glori-
Gus temples and cathedrals. The
Bible says Carve and engraved and
and galleries of immortal sculpture
gaze a.down the ages. The Bible
says 'Paintr and all the world is a.
laugh with the triumphs of brilliant
colors and exquisite blendings. The
Bible says 'Singp and the loftiest
singers of the universe are instantly
a-throb with song, all the way from
the throne of the king to the hearth
Of the peasant. The Bible says
Speak, nor is the order more than
given until the very atmosphere is
alive with eloquence, human angelic.
and divine. The Bible says BE ye
transformedr and cities that yester-
day were of mud blossom into granite
and veined and tinted marble and
cleaning and glowing porphyry, and
barbarism blazes into civilization,
and the cannibal of the former day is
transmitted and TRANSPORTED into the
passionate and all-eloquent herald of
the Cross.
II read Ben-Hur. one summer, in
hammock overlooking the Atlantic
ocean, with the struggling greensward
Of the stern and rockbound coast at
my feet, the blue sky and the signing
and sobbing hemlock branches for my
canopy, the white and gilded and
jew eled spires and domes and towers
Of old Boston for the background, in
Vulnerable white and pink and purple
and yellow sails ajaunt and afloat
everywhither, to remind me of the
Roman galleys and f1otillas of the
Mediterranean, and the music of the
spheres to fill in the interstices and
to serve as preludes and interludes
and postludes, offertories and grand
professionals and recessionals.
"Ordinarily, men are deitied or de-
monized by their biographers. The
pell-mell instinct is no more common
with the crowd than with the indi-
vidual We laud the man we like to
the skies, and berate the man we dis
like to the-well to the other place;
the one we tell all the |
good things we can think Of, and con-
corning the other we repeat, with |
many variation, every imaginable |
With most men there is
no middle ground; they must be wor-
shippers of man or his cruciiers;
they must shout his praises or shout |
his miseries. The inhabitants of |
Derbe and Lystra were typical of the
of every other town."
DR.. Driver discussed the antiquity
of the Bible, it's interesting nara
tives, it's matchless biographies, it's
sublime poetry, it's pan-ethnic and
morality and it's I'm.
paralleled and infallible pathology |
Of the soul. The audiences were
large and responsive both morning
and evening. Four adult members
were added to the church during the
day. |