The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-05-12


than forty nine for the women. And yet
the list Of illusions:
/. My sin was as thorn
Among the thcrns that girt Thy brow.
2. As mamma on my wilderness.
g. That God would
And strike the hard, hard rock. and thence
Sweet in their utmost bitterness,
Would issue tears Of penitence.
4. Like the strange angel which of old,
Until the breaking Of the light,
Wrestled with wandering Israel
s. Like HeEekiah's. backward runs
The shadow of my days.
8. Joshua's moon in Ajalon.
4 heart as rough as Esau's hand.
s. Cash thyself, priest, and honour thy brute
Baal
o. Ruth among the fields Of corn.
10. Pharaoh's darkness.
II. A Jonahs gourd,
Up in one night and due to sudden sun.
12. Stiff Lots wife.
l3. Arimathaean Joseph.
IA. (a) For have flung thee pearls and find thee
twine.
II. (b) Not red like Iscariot's
Is. Perhaps like him of Cana in Holy Writ,
Our Arthur kept his best until the last.
16. And marked as Cain
IL. The Church on Peters rock
Is. Let her eat il like the SERPENT and be driven
out of her paradise.
10. whole Peters sheet.
20. The goddess Jephthah VOWS his child
To cast of the dice.
q. A Jacobs ladder falls.
%. Till You find the deathless angel seated in
the vacant tomb
1t must be admitted that young men and
women Of twenty-five average age Of these
candidates-ought to know what most of
these quotations meant. But only ten out
| Of the whole eighty-fve knew anything
| about the incident Of Hezekiah, and Joseph
Of Arimathaea was an unknown character
to most of them. Peters sheet proved an
other hard nut to crack, and SO did the
brute Baal." One ingenious youth de-
clared that "Jonah's gourd was an allusion
| to the emesis Of Jonah by the whale" and
| somebody else said that Iscariot was the
cross on which Christ was crucified. All
| this indicates, DR.. Thwing believes, Sc
rlous deficiency iii modern education.
4 Whether 1t does or not lie debatable
point. There is no question that little time
| is devoted to the Bible, in comparison with
other school studies and DIR. Thwing seems
| to think that the student Of today knows
less about Biblical subjects than his father
or grandfather. But 1t must be remem-
bered that in the whole number Of stu
dents examined there were probably many
| who knew nothing whatever about the
| Questions. and that their bad record
| brought down the general average. These
students twenty-five years ago would not
have been In college. An examination pa
per is also a somewhat unfair test OF this
kind of knowledge. for when 1t is written
the students mind is in turmoil OF ex-
| ctement and trepidation. and he often
| misses question with the answer to
ticularly likely to happen when the cues
| tion involves allusion to some historical or
| literary character. The familiar name, sep
arated from It's context, looks strange and
perpleAing. There was sort OF scriptural
game in vogue several years ago in which
| the players were required to give the text
to which disjointed phrase belonged. and
the human mind is so prone to work in
| grooves. that well-known clause, taken
out of Its place, often puzzled good Bibli-
cal scholars. Fer example, one of the quo
tatious. which invariably proved puzzling.
| was:
| Sin as il were with a cart.rope.
| Who, even among those familiar with
Isaiah, would recognize this as part of
the eighteenth verse Of the fifth chapter
of that division of the Old Testament?
All the same II is not well that students
should be allowed to grow up ignorant OF
the Bible, even on mere literary grounds:
for during the centuries when this book
formed almost the only library OF thou
sands Of intelligent persons. literature be-
came rich in Biblical illusions. The folk
tales. the Oriental imagery, ard the deep
human interest of Old and New Tesla
ment history became closely interviewer
| with English literature. SO that II is by
no means possible TO know thoroughly
Shakespeare, Browning, Tennyson, or any
other great English author. without un-
Outstanding the illusions constantly made
to people and incidents of the Bible