The Newtown bee., 1898-01-28

read, 1t is covered with every sort of
mark, and fairly bristles with exclam-
ations of every degree of intensity /;
while third reads a page or a chapter
and then with pencil and pad tries to see
much he can write of what he has read.
ALL THEsE METHODS HAVE THEIR ADVAN-
TAGEs,
and all are helpful within certain limits,
and yet they are but makeshifts, after
all. Clutches are most excellent helps
to one who has not the proper use of his
legs; but what would be thought Of
man who should insist ON using his
crutches after his limbs had been re-
stored to health, for fear of a pr ssible
fall9 The chief design of reading is to
stimulate the memory and enable it to
store up matter for future intellectual
use; and so far as you trus. absolutely
your memory, SO far will she justify
your confidence; but il you are all the
time afrlid of your memory, and all the
time busy yourself with sticking up posts
and fences for her to lean against, you
may be sure that she will use all the
helps you can give; for your memory is
just as lazy as you are. But if you in
sist on memory doing her legitimate
work, not making the load too heavy at
any given time, you will find a steady
increase in your power to recall it, and
ever page you read will be a positive
intellectual gain.
Thus much by way of general counsel
on "How to Read :" am now minded to
spend the remainder of the time allotted
to the discourse, in developing a more or
less specific answer to the que zion CHOW
to Read the Bible?'
Now the Bible Is different from any
and every other book. /, because it is
more widely circulated especially among
Christian people. There are about 450,-
900, 600, Christians in the world and if
one-half of them possess a Bible that
shows an immense circulation. 2. 1t is
book to be read constantly, through all
ones life and hence should require more
thorough, systematic study than any
other book. In the fl st place one
should become thoroughly acquainted
with it as book, so that he may know
how to use it. To this end let us pro-
coed to careful study of the table of
contents. Here we learn that instead of
one book we have library of66 volumes
written bv at least 40 different men Iiv-
ing at different times and in differsnt
countries. We find also that the books
are separated into two general divisions
containing 80 and 81 volumes respective
ly, and designated, the first as the Old
Testament and the second as the New
Testament.
THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
may be roughly divided into history,
poetry. and prophecy. The first five
books called, from their number, the
PentaGeuch, begin with brief account
of the creation of the world, then few
chapters on the general history Of man
kind, then more specific history of the
Hebrew race from their beginning in |
Abraham to the death of Moses the great
statesman and lawgiver. Then follows |
the history OF the chosen people, from
their settlement In the promised land |
through The times of the Judges and the |
days of the Kings, the captivity to the
Assyrians and sChaldrens, to the return
Of the Kingdom OF Judah from bondage
and the re-establishment of the Jew ish |
Church and Kingdom. This division be.
gins with the book of Joshua and ends
with that OF Esther.
The postical books are five in number
from Job to the Song Of solomon in
elusive. The Prophisical books ms
be considered insstwo sections commonly
called the greater pro. hets, and the
minor prophets, so designated from the
difference In the magnitude OF their
works. The former embracing ave