The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-05-13

sylvania, and the women largely from
New England Their fathers were pro-
fessional men, business men and farmers.
That is, for the most part they were men
of more than average information In re-
gard to books. DR.. Thwing says that with
one exception these young men and women
had ecclesiastical affiliations of some sort.
The twenty-five passages of Tennyson
submitted to the classes referred to are as
follows:
l. My sin was as thorn
Among the thorns that girt Thy brow
2. AS mama on my wilderness,
8. That God would move
And strike the hard. hard rock: and thence
Would issue tears of penitence.
L. Like that strange angel which Of old.
Wrestled with wandering Israel.
5. Like Hezekiahs backward runs
The shadow of my days.
s. Joshua's moon In AJalon.
s. Cash myself. priest, and honour thy brute
Q. Ruth among the fields of corn.
10. Pharaohs darkness.
H. Up in one night and due to sudden sun.
13 Arimathaean Joseph.
IA a. For have flung thee pearls and find thee
IL b. Not red like Iscariot's.
D..
Our Arthur kept his best until the last.
16. And marked me even as Cain.
Is Let her eat it like the serpent. and be driven
out of her paradise.
49, whole Peters sheet.
20. The goddess Jephtha vows his child
To one cast of the dice.
p. Till you find the deathless angel seated In
the vacant tomb.
Doubtless most elderly people who had
few books to read when young, and who
did read the Bible or hear 1t read will
find little difficulty in relating the Incl
dents in the Bible to which the passages
quoted refer. Indeed, those people whose
education in early life consisted chiefly
in hearing the Bible read morning and
evening. even If they have read the Bible
very little themselves since that period,
will be able to relate more or less accurate
ly the incidents to which Tennyson refers
Yet, of the eighty-five students to whom
DIR. Thwing gave his examination paper
one-fourth knew nothing of the crown
were ignorant of the incident of the smit-
ing of the rock: about forty could not re-
call the story of the mark Of Cain, or
that of Esau, or that of Ruth, or of the
angel seated at the tomb. All of the girls
except three could tell about Lots wife,
and all but ten could tell of Ewes ex-
perience with the serpent, but two-thirds
of the young men knew nothing of either.
Regarding the better known references
to stories in the Scripture which used to
be as familiar as household words, only
one-half of the collegiates could tell any,
thing. Sixty-five OF the eighty-five had
never heard of Jonah's gourd in q way to
recall it, and only twenty-five could tell of
Joshua's moon or Peters sheet One gave
the amazing explanation that 'Iscariot
means the cross on which Christ was
crucified." There were several answers
and explanations quite as original and
startling.
DR.. Thwing's experience leads him to
conclude that the Bible has not only
ceased TO be a force in American litera-
ture, but in American theology. He de-
clares that 1.-THE people do not read the
Bible. or. IL they do read IL, they are not
De-
come a world of books. magazines and
newspapers. and not a people of one book
and that book the Bible, as was the case
In New England and, indeed. In the whole
country years ago. Family prayers are
less common than formerly. so that the
Bible is opened in many Christian homes
only once a week. The Sunday-school has
taken the place of the family in teaching
the facts and truths of the Bible. The
tendency of the Christian world. DR..
Thwing says. is now to direct worship of a
divine person and not to a divine book.
DR.. Thwings discovery does not sur
prise observing men and women
OF maturer years. Fifty years ago
the Bible was The best known