The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-09-19
An Old Book for the New Times.


of 1917, / had to cross the North sea
from Bergen to Aberdeen. Two other
Americans were making the same
voyage, and one of them gave much
of his waiting time in Bergen to read
ing the Bible. The submarine menace
was at its height. Our path lay across
the worst of waters. The little dis
patch boat in which we rode was pre-
sumably a special objective or the
U-boats. So, despite the two Destroy
ers which guarded US all the way, our
chances of being sunk were not wholly
negligible. Therefore my American
fellow-traYeler, not normally a reli-
gious man. took to Bible-reading and
prayer. He was driven to devotion by
stark fear.
His companion jeered. I. too,
smiled. Neither heaven nor earth can
have much respect for such a sudden
accession of fright-born religious in
terest Still, the incident revealed that
Engush-speaking people instinctively
turn to the Bible for light and COM
fort in perplexity. When feet are
called to tread a difficult and danger
Gus way that Book really is a light to
ones path. The sober conviction of
many thoughtful persons is that a
widespread vogue of Bible study
would do more than any other one
thing to steady the course of America
and Canada in this critical hour.
Our Nations Rock Foundation.
Next year is the three hundredth
anniversary of the landing of the Pill
grim Fathers; and the occasion recalls
civilization of this western continent
has been shaped by ideals of God
fearing, Bible-bel:eving Scripture
searching men and women. AS Queen
Victoria is said to have told an Afri-
can chief that Britain's greatness is
oil Cd he "
reverently say that our western ideals
of liberty and democracy spring
straight from the Book which our
forefathers accepted as their supreme
law. America is not founded upon
Plymouth Rock so much as on what
Gladstone called the impregnable
rock of Holy Scripture"
Times are strangely troubled just
now; there is no shorter, surer way
of going thru them safely and sensi-
bly, than by following the clear direc-
tions laid down in the inspired pages
of Holy Writ. If all the people who
are reading books upon social prob
lens. books upon unrest, were to take
to reading the Book which makes
plain Gods will and mans duty there
would be an immediate and percept-
ible lessening of the days strain. For
the nearer we come to the mind OF
God the closer we get to the welfare
of man.
Rabbits Foot or Bible.
AS some men carry a rabbits foot
for luck, so others keep a Bible in
their house or in their trunk. 1t is
a matter of superstition. My friend
at Bergen regarded his Bible some
what as a talisman. This attitude of
fetch worship. as applied to the Bible,
is not rare. Ignorant awe. rather than
intelligent use, marks some persons
attitude toward the Book that was
- he
stood.
Never so clearly as now have per-
sonally realized what a place-book the
Bible is. Lately, have been reading
the Book of Exodus while encamped
on Mt Sinai: and IL is more illuminat-
ing than a guide book 1 have read
the Passover story in Egypt; and the
Ten Commandments and their story
while seated on the top of the Noun
| tain of the Law, where Moses received
them. On the bosom of Lake Galilee
1 have recalled the words of life which
Jesus spoke there; and beside the
green slopes of the Mount of Beati-
tudes 1 have unused upon the applica-
ton of Christ's kingdom platform to
our times. Standing on the very
stones of the porch of the synagogue
at Capernaum where the Master him
self stood. and looked out over the
| lake that He loved, 1 have conned the
place of that now ruined city in His
| life and teachings. Upon the Mount
of Olives, beneath a flooding Passover
moon, I have gazed upon Jerusalem
and quoted His tragic words.
What Traveller Saw
Travelling as I have been this year,
to and fro over Bible lands-from
| Egypt to Damascus and Tarsus and
Iconium and Thessalonica and Athens
/ and Corinth and Rome and Patmos-
! have had a new sense of the
| ~, 6n 10
1t was written by real men to real
people who lived upon real earth, at
spots which anyone may visit. Some
body has called the Holy Land "the
fifth Gospel" so perfectly does 1t cor
roborate the written text. Reality is
a quality of the Scriptures beyond any
other book ever written.
And when one examines, as 1t has
! been my privilege to do, ancient copies
of Holy Writ, toilsomely and beauti-
| fully created by consecrated hands OF
monks and scholars, in the far away
centuries which were almost a thou
sand years nearer to the times OF
| Jesus than they are to our own day
the vitality of this book grips ones
imagination. With my own hands
have handled a fourth century copy OF
the Bible. There are later, but still
very ancient manuscript copies OF the
Bible in the library of the Monastery
of st. Catherine, on Mt. Sinai. The
romantic story OF the preservation OF
the text of the Bible thruout the ages
is one too often neglected by religion:
teachers.
Living, And Making Alive.
Moody used to say, with his rugged
common sense, II know that the Bible
is inspired, because it inspires me-
Only life can impart life. Because
this Book is living. in sense true OF
no other. it makes human spirits tC
live again. In a larger sense thar
ever the Psalmist meant. THE en-.
trance of thy word giveth light"
Where the Bible is read, there lib
erty comes-political liberty. as vel
as intellectual and spiritual liberty
No Bible-studying people have re-
manned under despotism; the present
day case of the Korean Christians Is
in point Nor has any Biblestudyins
people ever given way to anarchy oil