The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-10-01

soldiers in war.
The office boy in New York has fallen
heir to an English estate and title. He
never 'soldiered'' his work on to the
shoulders Of the other office boy.
The Bible.
There is a painful amount Of liter
AZURE written nowadays by self APP
pointed censors bewailing the fact that
people no longer read the Bible. 1t
would be interesting to be Informed
how they learned this fact. Have they
made census of the people as to their
reading habits, or do they take it that
nobody reads the Bible because they
are comparatively ignorant Of it them
selves? Or is it because they have not
seen the Bible enrolled in certain
slcklsh magazine among the most popu-
lar books of the week9 y.
Inc cocksureness Of this brand of
writer's is puzzling. How do they
know9 The Bible is not public library
book so they could have drawn no val
liable Inference from the fact that it
is not loaned from the shelves. Bibles
are not sold at ruinous cut prices in
department stores, so there is no testi-
mony available there. -. .--..
There is only one tangible fact in
the whole discussion, and that, inferen-
TALLY at least, destroys the argument
OF the brood Of pessimists, who are en-
quilting the world with wall over the
neglected Bible. This. fact is that there
are more Bibles printed and sold or
given away than ever before in the
worlds history. The. demand exceeds
the supply, and the great religious pub
llshlng houses are pushed all the time
to keep up with the calls for Bibles for
the home and foreign mission fields.
1 The Bible is popular in all the versions.
The authorized. version is of course the
standard. but booksellers will tell you
that the revised version sells well ap-
parently among people who have a Xix
ing for Studying the Bible for them.
selves and comparing one version with
another.
A down to-date version giving the
Savior's sermons and parallels in the
language of today has had quite a sue
cess. There has been great interest
in the Thomas Jefferson testament since
it's publication thru the government
printing office. 4.
All the publishers facts show a wide
spread and steadily increasing interest
in the Bible. This naturally suggests
the question: For what do people buy
the Bible if not to read it?
l The explanation offered by the per
: sons$who have assumed the premise thai
; the Bible is not read is that this agt
, is too stepped in commercialism to ap
0 preciate it's poetry and lofty morality
But the Bible is not all poetry ant
/ lofty ethics. There is a great deal O.
$ history and practical information in it
Why should not the story Of how Jacol
got Rachel andsa fortune appeal to I
J., commercial age.9s Is mot the; story O.
: Joseph the best pIyqof sgat that faith
n fitness and virtue are srewardedg Ar
e not the psalms themselves, aswhile cas-
# in the form of poetry, the experience
: of a man who had gone thru ever.
s phase of life from the position Of
e hunted exile to that Of war lord of :
If proud and buoyant nationg Are no
the parallels the most perfect illustrs
-. lions of the best method Of success i
life that the literature of all the age
has given us9 g.
+ A. commercial age cannot get alon
- without the Bible and it is evident ths
80 this commercial age is not trying t
-, get along without it. There is proc
% on every hand that this is not merel
y > commercial age. 1t is an age in
!. pregnated with the spirit of investig
!, ton, thought and conviction. Men 6
eI not talk about the Bible so much ::
~, they used to in the days when all me
!, : Were theologians and each had his ow
. explanation of the scheme of salvatic
ii which he was prepared to prove (
tv assault with a dangerous weapon upe
a. any one who failed to agree with hi1
se but this is not evidence that we do n
id think as much about the Bible as d
r. our ancestors or that we do not put
or much of it into everyday life.