Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1900-11-15
LECTURE AT NEW-CENTURY CLUB.

A magnificent address was delivered
Thursday before the club by Prof. Richard
Moulton of the University of Chicago, on
1.-THE Literary Study of the Bible" which
he distinguished from Its study in theo-
logical sense, or by the Higher Criticism.
In illustration he recited the XIV Psalm
as usually given. when It appears in distinct
parts without reference to each other, then
as it was intended to be used, as an anthem
of joy at the triumphal entry of David into
the captured city of Jerusalem, and thus
demonstrated the new light and life that
comes into any portion of the Sc captures
when read In its true form, the exact one
10 which 1t was composed. He said, You
may say. This is mere matter of form,
but what do We care about that, who want
the matter.and spirit Of Scripture?' Yet
clear grasp of technical literary form is
absolutely essential for catching the matter
and spirit A plain, straightforward Chris
tian reading the Bible In devotional spirit
may yet receive quite mistaken impressions.
Even the Higher Criticism with Its exclusive
method of looking at it from historical
standpoint fails to make II clear.
You ask: why is this study new? How
comes 1t, If 1t Is so important to knowl-
edge of the Scriptures, that the literary
study of the Bible is a new thing?" The
Scriptures go back to the age when litera-
ture was spoken, not written. They were
the utterances of a prophet TO his audience I;
II committed to writing at all 1t was merely
for their preservation. Between then and
our modern days the Bible passed into the
hands of those to whom we owe debt of
gratitude for the care they took of 1t, but
who never thought OF it as literature. but
only as material for commentary or texts
on which to comment. From them it passed
to translators who received 1t as texts for
comment, and under this monotony of texts
| all literary form was buried. The Bible is
the worst printed book in the world. Do
you see In II any of the dramas, epics,
| sonnets, which were Its original form. No;
| you see verse i, z, B, &C., us IL the Bible
were divine scrap book. Suppose you took
poems from Longfellow, essays OF Elmer
son. history of Morley. omitted all titles
| and form and printed them together In a
| solid column like newspaper, only with
| out the aid of newspaper gives in its head
| ings. The age of commentary lost sight of
all literary form and had no suspicion that
any of the Bible was poetry, The revised
edition got rid of the division into verses
| but does not restore completely the literary
structure.
How shall we set about this literary study
| of the Bible? Raise your mind from the
text to the context; anything can be
proved out of the Bible If you only chouse
the proper text; there is no doctrine that
cannot be plausibly supported from 1t if
| you take isolated texts, but read one of the
books straight through at sitting and you
catch more OF Its meaning. The Psalms
are a chaplet of pearls, but with the string
| broken. In the modern literary version
what was before disiointed becomes clear
| the new version is literature, the old was
| language. The book of Deuteronomy was
the chief work of devotion of pious He.
brews, but the average Christian does not
| understand 1t; he thinks 1t sort of law
book, but It contains the greatest orations
ever uttered. Imagine the strange pathetic
situation of Moses, the only one who knows
the glories of the Promised Land, yet the
| only one who will not see it.
If but for the sake of literature this form
of study of the Bible Is important. Litera
ture Is the backbone of education The an.
cestors OF the English literature were the
classics of Greece and Rome, and the sacred
literature of the Bible. These are the quar-.
ries in which dug our greatest writers. The
literature of Greece and Rome is an apoth
costs of the seuses; we have not yet re
covered from the organism of the Renais.
sance, while the literature of the Hebrews
fer greater than that of Greece and Rome
is that of people distinguished by passion
for righteousness. is 1t DOT reasonable that
one should be supplemented by the other;
That side by side with the classics IN the
studies of schools and colleges should bt
the enlightened study of the Bible?
Prof. Moulton has exemplihed this new,
or rather. restored form of the Bible in hi,
work, 1.-THE Modern Readers Bible, - som,
volumes of which are In the Institute Ii
brary. He has also arranged Child
Bible Story, from the Old Testament.