Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-04-05
BIBLE THE BEST LITERATURE.
II Is Thoroughly interviewer In Our
Speech " Not In Our Lives.


Christian lands about excluding the
Bible from the schools, and with what
scepticism they hear us speak Of II as
1.-The Word Of God" seeing how fat
ly actions contradict our assertions.
While their greatest care is to instruct
their youth in their religion as taught
in their holy books, 1t appears to be
the present effort Of Christian nations
to keep their young people from know
ing anything about the Bible; and. that
they are succeeding admirably in do
ing so a professor at Yale thus de-
clares: "The ignorance Of college stu
dents Of Biblical literature is universal,
profound and complete. If all the un-
der-graduates in America could be
placed in one room and tested by a
common examination on the supposed
ly familiar stories Of the Old Testa-
ment the result would be magnificent
contribution to American humor." In
cidentally we would say that ones
sense Of humor would need to be some
what peculiar could one find anything
amusing in this ignorance Of the Scrip
ture, even though considered from a
purely literary standpoint; but for
people "who profess and call them
selves Christians" to realize that their
sons and. daughters are growing up in
complete ignorance of that knowledge
wherein stands their eternal life" is
anything but laughing matter. And
yet It is the parents Of the rising
generation who are almost wholly res
ponsible for this ignorance. AS rule
the Bible is the hardest book to find
In any home Of the present day. All
the latest novels, magazines and news
papers are there in abundance; and
In many houses one finds books OF a
more serious nature on scientific SUBJ
jects, and books Of travel. biography
and history; but should one by any
accident wish to verify scriptural
quotation 1t will generally be found
that mothers Bible, in her own
room," is the only one available. 1t
was the fashion fifty years ago to have
a large family Bible, containing some
pages Of family records, upon a table
or in some conspicuous place In the
ordinary sitting room; but new-fan-
gled ideas Of fashion and good taste"
decreed its Punishment to some incon-
spicuous corner Of the bookshelf where,
as we said, it is difficult to find. Nor
was this portfolio Bible of former
days merely an empty show; for 1t
was the custom Of godly men and
women of those. times to collect their
children and servants morning and
evening to hear a portion Of 1t read.
and to join in family prayers. This
goodly custom has also fallen into al
most complete disuse, and families
grow up without hearing anything
more of the Scriptures than the dis
connected fragments they hear in
church and Sunday school and-what
is worst Of all-without learning the
beautiful Bible stories and the ele-
ments Of the Christian religion from
their parents lips.
To such an extent has the ignorance
now gone that professors OF literature
feel called to protest against 1t, II
purely as a matter Of common educa-
ton. Prof. william Lyon Phelps, OF
Yale, would go so far as to refuse to
allow a candidate to enter university
unless he could pass a creditable ex-
animation in the Bible; and he strong
ly recommends that 1t be adopted as
the standard for examination OF the
various English classics now In use
for this purpose, and concerning which
there is such diversity Of opinion and
such constant objections. He says:
"The Bible has within its pages every
single kind OF literature that any pro-
posed list of English classics contains.
It has narrative, descriptive, poeticaL
dramatic, argumentative and oratori-
cal passages. Priests, atheists, scep-
tics, devotees, agnostic and evange-
lists are all agreed that the author
lied version Of the English Bible is the
best example Of English composition
that the world has ever seen. 1t COM
bines the noblest prose and poetry
with the utmost simplicity Of diction.
But, besides solving at one stroke
host Of perplexing and complicated
problems, It would remove the univer-
sal and disgraceful ignorance Of the
Bible among college undergraduates"
It is not at all too much to say that
1t is impossible to regard any man or
woman as well educated who is ignor-
ant Of the Bible. It has so thoroughly
interviewer itself with our daily speech
that we are continually using scrip
tural words, phrases and illustrations
without being the least conscious OF
It; the best orators Of. the day seldom
make a speech without quoting Scrip
ture: the law Of the land is founded
upon It: so that a lawyer must know
his Bible as we'll as his. Blackstone
and his Coke upon Littleton,' or
whatever the modern equivalent Of
those legal authorities are. It Is I'M
possible for anyone to read fine Eng
fish literature intelligently unless ne Is
familiar with the Bible. What appre-
citation could one have Of Shakespeare,
of Milton. of even skeptical Byron, or
in fact, any Of the great English poets
unless one understood the scrtptural
imagery and phrases to be found on al
most every page? And Macaulay Is
one of the most conspicuous examples
among prose writer's Of the use OF BID
lical references which he fully expects
his readers to understand. Yet, not
withstanding all this, young men VINO
would be ashamed to confess ignor-
ance of Greek and Roman mythology
and literature do not know their Bible,
and Of them Mr.. Phelps says: 1T is
certainly unfortunate that the best
books ever printed should be so little
known, and that the frequent refer
ences to 1t in practically every Eng
lish author should be so meaningless
to our young men,"
In these days, when persons who aim
to be considered intelligent and well
read form classes for the study OF
every author Of any considerable repu-
tation, might not 1t be well for them
to organize classes for the study OF the
Bible? II they spent as much time
trying to understand 1t as they devote
to Browning, or to Ibsen, or In trying
to solve the question Of Hamlets
sanity, or give to any of these modern
riddles NJ literature they would ad-