The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-13
FEWER BIBLE-LIVES.
Influence of the Bible Less a
 Factor in Life To-day.

An incisive preacher, who has the gift of stating familiar truths in way that makes them memorable, says that, while he is interested in the people who made the Bible, he is more interested in the people whom the Bible makes, for they show the fibre and genius of Scripture as no verbal exegesis can do.
 What new dignity and significance such a thought as this lends to the life of the average, humble Christian, the man or woman whose daily thought and conduct are shaped by the Word of God! One sincere, consecrated, fruit full Bible life is worth more than all the science of Bible-building, all the theories and all the theological contro- versies that have grown up about the Book itself. The life is the essential thing, the ultimate thing; 1t is the fruit of the Book. All Scripture and all in- terpretations of Scripture exist for the life's sake only That is the vital thing. If the Word results in the life, its purpose is accomplished. How the life is made is of more account than how the Book was built.
 In this age of scientific study of the Bible, this age of criticism, and analy- sis, and new forms of exegesis, we are gradually losing the conception of the all-importance of the life that the Bible makes, the individual Christian life founded upon the fundamental verities of the Word of God. While we are pull ing to pieces the flowers of Bible liter ature, to see what is in them, we are destroying the fruit of the book. You cannot analyze an apple blossom with out destroying an apple. That is the practical result of carrying Bible study too far.
 In the days when sainthood was of more account than scholarship, there were muititudes of Bible lives in the world. Multitudes of consecrated souls found their daily meat and drink in Gods word. Millions of devout Chris tians were brought up to believe the Bible the all-suficient and all-neces- sary guide of life and conduct.
 But the childlike faith and simplicity of the old days are passing, and now adays we find fewer and fewer Bible lives of the earlier type-llyes wholl5 stayed upon the word of God, nourish- cd upon it, as the grass is nourishel by the sun and the rain. Someone has recently ventured the stateinens that "the avera 5e Christian does not open his Bible oftener than once q month.' Of course this statement is rhwarrant- ed and its implication extreme; but we must admit that there Is a sad falling off in the reading of the Bible for daily admonltion and strengthening. Chris tians are losing the old belief in the vital connection between the Book and the life. We do not feed upon the Bi- ble as older generations did, finding therein the souls daily sustenance and stimulus. The beautiful type of the Christian life, sustained, inspired, up- lifted, solaced by constant communion with God through His Word, is no longer the most familiar type There arc still Bible lives in the world, thous- ands upon thousands of them, no doubt. but we do not find them in every Christian household as of old. Already the picture of the saint with the Bible in lap has something of the WlHSOHle TeW0teneSS or chimney cor ner days It seems apart from pres ent materialism and modern methods; It Is bathed in the idealism of the past.
 To us there seems something infinite ly sad in this modern divorcing of the Book from the life. The Christian, try ing to live without the Word of God, is like the branch trying to live with out the vine. If a man abide not in me-" said Christ, "he is cast forth as branch and Is withered. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and 1t shall be done unto you"
 Did not our Lord foresee the time when men would seek to abide apart from him, by abandoning his word as the daily rule of life and conduct? Did he not know that the day would come when some of his children would seek spiritual strength and refreshment at the sources of their own finite knowl- edge? Let 1t not be said of us that we have departed from Gods Word, to seek the peace that passeth under. standing elsewhere-zion Herald.