Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-11-26

there was not q novel. Now there
are free public libraries in every town
where novels can be obtaind. In the
old days when there were no novels.
the people had more time to read
the Bible.
President Roberts declared that
one of the most interesting and
startling phenomena of our day il the
great increase in newspaper read
ing: it has increased 100 fold in the
last 40 years. And when people are
reading newspapers, three or four .
day, they are not reading the Bible.
Family prayers are now an OBJ
solete institution. In very few fam
lilies daily prayers are held. These
were common enough institutions in
the old days. About every Christian
family had an altar. and the family
gathered there and read the Bible.
In the old days, the Sunday school
lessons used to be the committing to
memory the Scriptures. In this con-
nection, President Roberts quoted
from an 1921 Sunday school report
of the. town OF Temple, Me-, publish
ed in the Christian Mirror, in which
it was stated that one girl had
learned and recited 1912 verses of
Scripture. and another child had
learned and recited 1920 verses. In
these days, IL Sunday school pupil
can repeat the Lords prayer, the
Twenty third Psalm and the Be
attitudes he is quite the show of the
Sunday school. the pupil declared.
The Bible is not read in the public
schools now, and there is not so much
of the Bible in the sermons nowadays
as formerly when the pastors proved
all Of their statements by Bible pas
sages. In the old days. an intelligent
person had very little chance to es-
finds it very easy.
That the Bible is not a book, but a
library, was pointed out by President
Roberts, who showed that if the best
books on philosophy, poems. orations
were put together, they would repre-
sent American literature IN much tho
same way as the Bible represents the
Hebrew literature. He emphasized
the point that the reason many of us
think the Bible is a dull book is bez
cause we read it in scraps and not
consecutively, and 0ecause. we read it
at night when we are tired out from
the days labor.
The speaker then gave brief sum-
mary of some of the books of the
Bible. He stated that il Jesus was
a mere man he was the profoundest
thinker the world ever knew. No
man ever had such comprehensive
knowledge of the human heart as he;
no man ever had such gift of COMPEL
ing expression. The four biographies
of Jesus make up the most important
body of reading that is offered. In
the same class are the letters of st.
Paul.
There IS hardly an American who
has attained prominence in the ma
ton. that has not. left on paper an
account of the debt he owed the BIZ
BILE. John Ruskin once declared that
after reading parts of the Bible. it
was impossible for him to write
wholly formal or superficial English.
He considered the Bible knowledge
the most important part OF a literary
educate
In closing his address. President
Roberts stated that when Sir Walter
Scott was dying. he asked his son-in-
law. Mr.. I,ockhart to read to him.
and when the latter asked, What
book" Scott replied There Is only
one book-the Bible" And the speak
or pointed out that we ought not to
wait until we are dying. but that we
ought to be reading the Bible in the
best and happiest hours Of our life.
At the close of his interesting ad-
dress. President Roberts was given
rising vote of appreciation and hearty
applause. and the meeting was de-
cIared adjourned.