The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-04-25

went no further than the preface or4 the prison-penned chronicles until wes. found the great Englishman quoting from solomon and James. Did Some . teacher prescribe Bacons IlssaN@. thinking we needed meaty diet? found a philosopher drawing witt spendthrift's prodigality upon treasure of IsraeFs proverbs and tory and prophecies. And. oh lines of Shakespeare with the pi ing phrases of Scripture in themt L4l we take Milton from the library shelf? We touched the mantle of a Messianlc prophet fallen upon Nthe shoulders of Seventeenth cen >'y' Englishman. And there was tinker's son who became an itine preacher and a prison-martyr to ligious liberty, but whose p clothes ware the raiment of am John who saw the New Jerusa Did Bulwer Lytton open for LIE gates of doomed Pompeii and shom# VesuviuS in the scarlet robes of an eNecutioner? Did Beaconsfield lead us through Jerusalem in Hancred? Both had the Book of books in their fas- cinating stories Did we read Thack~ eray's description of the death of Colo- rel New come or did we watch with Charles Dickens the death of Joe, the | crossing We found the or | | Book of God upon the pens of U
 masters of English prose. We lear 1 that John Ruskin's father was a wi5 merchant. but in the writings of son we found a rarer vintage; and
 much of it was tofd wine in new bc tles,' as R1skin put scriptural trut1 in the phrasing of a master. Did VI go over The Road of a Loving Hearty to the writing table of Stevensor exiled aw disease? We found one wh&. had gottne inspiration for great nter@ ark tasks from the same fountair head. Did we dig through tonnes o4 ancient classics reluctantly as bond4 men under the preceptors lash? WA koften found thoughts in the clay of at old language. but after the patte
 ot an older literature. as principl preserved in Soiomon's proverbs foul 1 echo in the sayings of a solon. N5 l found that the early writing of t
 continent were for the most part fro, the monastery which. with the Hot
 Bible In it's keeping. was for mala | centuries the birth chamber of litek ature. Was Rabelais placed seco 1 only to Shakespeare? He was abb 1 trained. Dis Pascal astonish the woi8 ! with his scientific treatises? He VI | of the monastery. The baroch v school had it's faults, but 1t exalted l Bible as 8 book to be revered hie4 ] Rousseau: 'Peruse the works of ef | philosophers with all the pomp of 0
 ton. How contemptible they are co
 pared with. the Seriptures.'
 There's literature of Germa%
 that has had the sweetness of vesp l bells cahing men to worship, and
 kind that has had the harshness 1 iron shields beaten with war clu4
 Coethe's Faust is sermon withe.
 text from the Scriptures. Leagt
 apart are Schiller's arraignment ! Phillip the Second and modern HE 1 literature justifying the spirit an
 Ideals of the erstwhile kaiser 1 1 modern literature of Germany. tn | terrible blasphemy. has been the sd | way to oblivion for an empire
 produced the greatest reformation 1 the history of relig.ous liberty N ! the greatest of all Inventions Tor 1 aid Russia's earliest literature NJ
 Of the ehureh's begettlng. and ! stoy was a preacher of righteous l in the latter days of her impeN
 sway; but if Russia had been sos 1 dcast with literature impreEnat with Biblical preceDts like that England and America perhaps h latter revolutions would not nan l been led by godle $ groups. V 1 aas not Turkey produced world | spring literature? Let Caliph O lanswer as he burns that great ] andrian library and jUstifies hts pa
 sct by saying. All one needs se lJe
 is the Koran.
 "Go through the list of Ameri@
 works that find shelf room in 1 average library. the Looks that ', safeguarded against the careless ] borrower and you Will find thenf se the works of men and. women esteemed the Book or God and X upon it's treasure house of truth. H And why should rot the Bihle1 fluence the literature of the best C igatione Why should not this bf elf of sixty-six books be the shelf of literatures Soma of
 books mean more to you than ot t2
 Some of them you do not read beci
 they are obscure. and you cannot
 interpret their meaning. Some
 to do with the intr.gues of ana \ kings and the vices of ancient cq
 Ci which you may not care to II
 But there are tho books on that that spysal to ths best that is in
 that put God on the throne tha igh above all tribunals of auth .and judgment books that put hand of God on the lever of ere
 and his voice in the law of growti
 developments: books that reveal
 Man of the Ages; that describe
 wonders of a new world and 1tA- life eternal: books that define n
 duties and spiritual laws uAl
 moral sense and challenge mora
 ouct. such a shelf of books hx
 right to prominent place in the Il
 Of home and school; and on tke H
 ence for this Book hingeS4 cus
 sioaai prosperity-yea. ouf paJ l.fe.'