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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1592.txt b/1592.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b098a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/1592.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8820 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext of Study of the King James Bible, McAfee + + +****************************************************** +THERE IS AN IMPROVED EDITION OF THIS TITLE WITH LINKED +FOOTNOTES WHICH MAY BE VIEWED AS EBOOK (# 40822) at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40822 +****************************************************** + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. 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PREPARING THE WAY--THE ENGLISH BIBLE BEFORE KING JAMES + II. THE MAKING OF THE KING JAMES VERSION; ITS CHARACTERISTICS + III. THE KING JAMES VERSION As ENGLISH LITERATURE + IV. THE INFLUENCE OF THE KING JAMES VERSION ON + ENGLISH LITERATURE + V. THE KING JAMES VERSION--ITS INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH + AND AMERICAN HISTORY + VI. THE BIBLE IN THE LIFE OF TO-DAY + + + +PREFACE + +THE lectures included in this volume were +prepared at the request of the Brooklyn +Institute of Arts and Sciences, and were delivered +in the early part of 1912, under its +auspices. They were suggested by the tercentenary +of the King James version of the Bible. The +plan adopted led to a restatement of the history +which prepared for the version, and of that which +produced it. It was natural next to point out its +principal characteristics as a piece of literature. +Two lectures followed, noting its influence on +literature and on history. The course closed with +a statement and argument regarding the place +of the Bible in the life of to-day. + +The reception accorded the lectures at the time +of their public delivery, and the discussion which +ensued upon some of the points raised, encourage +the hope that they may be more widely useful. + +It is a pleasure to assign to Dr. Franklin W. +Hooper, director of the Institute, whatever credit +the work may merit. Certainly it would not +have been undertaken without his kindly urgency. + CLELAND BOYD McAFEE. + + Brooklyn, New York, May, 1912. + + + +THE GREATEST +ENGLISH CLASSIC + +LECTURE I + +PREPARING THE WAY--THE ENGLISH BIBLE BEFORE KING JAMES + +THERE are three great Book-religions-- +Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism. +Other religions have their sacred writings, +but they do not hold them in the same regard as +do these three. Buddhism and Confucianism +count their books rather records of their faith +than rules for it, history rather than authoritative +sources of belief. The three great Book-religions +yield a measure of authority to their +sacred books which would be utterly foreign to +the thought of other faiths. + +Yet among the three named are two very distinct +attitudes. To the Mohammedan the language +as well as the matter of the Koran is +sacred. He will not permit its translation. Its +original Arabic is the only authoritative tongue +in which it can speak. It has been translated +into other tongues, but always by adherents of +other faiths, never by its own believers. The +Hebrew and the Christian, on the other hand, +but notably the Christian, have persistently +sought to make their Bible speak all languages at +all times. + +It is a curious fact that a Book written in one +tongue should have come to its largest power in +other languages than its own. The Bible means +more to-day in German and French and English +than it does in Hebrew and Chaldaic and Greek-- +more even than it ever meant in those languages. +There is nothing just like that in literary history. +It is as though Shakespeare should after a while +become negligible for most readers in English, +and be a master of thought in Chinese and Hindustani, +or in some language yet unborn. + +We owe this persistent effort to make the Bible +speak the language of the times to a conviction +that the particular language used is not the +great thing, that there is something in it which +gives it power and value in any tongue. No book +was ever translated so often. Men who have +known it in its earliest tongues have realized that +their fellows would not learn these earliest +tongues, and they have set out to make it speak +the tongue their fellows did know. Some have +protested that there is impiety in making it +speak the current tongue, and have insisted that +men should learn the earliest speech, or at least +accept their knowledge of the Book from those +who did know it. But they have never stopped +the movement. They have only delayed it. + +The first movement to make the Scripture +speak the current tongue appeared nearly three +centuries before Christ. Most of the Old Testament +then existed in Hebrew. But the Jews had +scattered widely. Many had gathered in Egypt +where Alexander the Great had founded the city +that bears his name. At one time a third of the +population of the city was Jewish. Many of +the people were passionately loyal to their old +religion and its Sacred Book. But the current +tongue there and through most of the civilized +world was Greek, and not Hebrew. As always, +there were some who felt that the Book and its +original language were inseparable. Others revealed +the disposition of which we spoke a moment +ago, and set out to make the Book speak +the current tongue. For one hundred and fifty +years the work went on, and what we call the +Septuagint was completed. There is a pretty +little story which tells how the version got its +name, which means the Seventy--that King +Ptolemy Philadelphus, interested in collecting all +sacred books, gathered seventy Hebrew scholars, +sent them to the island of Pharos, shut them up +in seventy rooms for seventy days, each making +a translation from the Hebrew into the Greek. +When they came out, behold, their translations +were all exactly alike! Several difficulties appear +in that story, one of which is that seventy men +should have made the same mistakes without +depending on each other. In addition, it is not +historically supported, and the fact seems to be +that the Septuagint was a long and slow growth, +issuing from the impulse to make the Sacred +Book speak the familiar tongue. And, though +it was a Greek translation, it virtually displaced +the original, as the English Bible has virtually +displaced the Hebrew and Greek to-day. The +Septuagint was the Old Testament which Paul +used. Of one hundred and sixty-eight direct +quotations from the Old Testament in the New +nearly all are from the Greek version--from the +translation, and not from the original. + +We owe still more to translation. While there +is accumulating evidence that there was spoken +in Palestine at that time a colloquial Greek, with +which most people would be familiar, it is yet +probable that our Lord spoke neither Greek +nor Hebrew currently, but Aramaic. He knew +the Hebrew Scriptures, of course, as any well- +trained lad did; but most of His words have come +down to us in translation. His name, for example, +to His Hebrew mother, was not Jesus, but +Joshua; and Jesus is the translation of the Hebrew +Joshua into Greek. We have His words as they +were translated by His disciples into the Greek, +in which the New Testament was originally written. + +By the time the writing of the New Testament +was completed, say one hundred years after +Christ, while Greek was still current speech, the +Roman Empire was so dominant that the common +people were talking Latin almost as much +as Greek, and gradually, because political power +was behind it, the Latin gained on the Greek, +and became virtually the speech of the common +people. The movement to make the Bible talk +the language of the time appeared again. It is +impossible to say now when the first translations +into Latin were made. Certainly there were +some within two centuries after Christ, and by +250 A.D. a whole Bible in Latin was in circulation +in the Roman Empire. The translation +of the New Testament was from the Greek, of +course, but so was that of the Old Testament, +and the Latin versions of the Old Testament +were, therefore, translations of a translation. + +There were so many of these versions, and +they were so unequal in value, that there was +natural demand for a Latin translation that +should be authoritative. So came into being +what we call the Vulgate, whose very name indicates +the desire to get the Bible into the vulgar +or common tongue. Jerome began by revising +the earlier Latin translations, but ended by going +back of all translations to the original Greek, +and back of the Septuagint to the original Hebrew +wherever he could do so. Fourteen years he +labored, settling himself in Bethlehem, in Palestine, +to do his work the better. Barely four +hundred years (404 A.D.) after the birth of +Christ his Latin version appeared. It met a +storm of protest for its effort to go back of +the Septuagint, so dominant had the translation +become. Jerome fought for it, and his version +won the day, and became the authoritative Latin +translation of the Bible. + +For seven or eight centuries it held its sway +as the current version nearest to the tongue of +the people. Latin had become the accepted +tongue of the church. There was little general +culture, there was little general acquaintance +with the Bible except among the educated. +During all that time there was no real room for +a further translation. One of the writers[1] says: +"Medieval England was quite unripe for a Bible +in the mother tongue; while the illiterate majority +were in no condition to feel the want of +such a book, the educated minority would be +averse to so great and revolutionary a change." +When a man cannot read any writing it really +does not matter to him whether books are in +current speech or not, and the majority of the +people for those seven or eight centuries could +read nothing at all. Those who could read anything +were apt to be able to read the Latin. + + +[1] Hoare, Evolution of the English Bible, p. 39. + + +These centuries added to the conviction of +many that the Bible ought not to become too +common, that it should not be read by everybody, +that it required a certain amount of learning +to make it safe reading. They came to feel +that it is as important to have an authoritative +interpretation of the Bible as to have the Bible +itself. When the movement began to make it +speak the new English tongue, it provoked the +most violent opposition. Latin had been good +enough for a millennium; why cheapen the Bible +by a translation? There had grown up a feeling +that Jerome himself had been inspired. He had +been canonized, and half the references to him +in that time speak of him as the inspired translator. +Criticism of his version was counted as +impious and profane as criticisms of the original +text could possibly have been. It is one of the +ironies of history that the version for which +Jerome had to fight, and which was counted a +piece of impiety itself, actually became the +ground on which men stood when they fought +against another version, counting anything else +but this very version an impious intrusion! + +How early the movement for an English Bible +began, it is impossible now to say. Certainly +just before 700 A.D., that first singer of the English +tongue, Caedmon, had learned to paraphrase +the Bible. We may recall the Venerable Bede's +charming story of him, and how he came by his +power of interpretation. Bede himself was a +child when Caedmon died, and the romance of +the story makes it one of the finest in our literature. +Caedmon was a peasant, a farm laborer +in Northumbria working on the lands of the great +Abbey at Whitby. Already he had passed middle +life, and no spark of genius had flashed in +him. He loved to go to the festive gatherings +and hear the others sing their improvised poems; +but, when the harp came around to him in due +course, he would leave the room, for be could not +sing. One night when he had slipped away +from the group in shame and had made his +rounds of the horses and cattle under his care, +he fell asleep in the stable building, and heard +a voice in his sleep bidding him sing. When he +declared he could not, the voice still bade him +sing. "What shall I sing?" he asked. "Sing +the first beginning of created things." And +the words came to him; and, still dreaming, he +sang his first hymn to the Creator. In the +morning he told his story, and the Lady Abbess +found that he had the divine gift. The monks +had but to translate to him bits of the Bible +out of the Latin, which he did not understand, +into his familiar Anglo-Saxon tongue, and he +would cast it into the rugged Saxon measures +which could be sung by the common people. +So far as we can tell, it was so, that the Bible +story became current in Anglo-Saxon speech. +Bede himself certainly put the Gospel of John +into Anglo-Saxon. At the Bodleian Library, at +Oxford, there is a manuscript of nearly twenty +thousand lines, the metrical version of the +Gospel and the Acts, done near 1250 by an +Augustinian monk named Orm, and so called +the Ormulum. There were other metrical versions +of various parts of the Bible. Midway +between Bede and Orm came Langland's +poem, "The Vision of Piers Plowman," +which paraphrased so much of the Scripture. + +Yet the fact is that until the last quarter of +the fourteenth century there was no prose version +of the Bible in the English language. Indeed, +there was only coming to be an English +language. It was gradually emerging, taking +definite shape and form, so that it could be +distinguished from the earlier Norman French, +Saxon, and Anglo-Saxon, in which so much of +it is rooted. + +As soon as the language grew definite enough, +it was inevitable that two things should come +to pass. First, that some men would attempt +to make a colloquial version of the Bible; and, +secondly, that others would oppose it. One can +count with all confidence on these two groups +of men, marching through history like the +animals into the ark, two and two. Some men +propose, others oppose. They are built on +those lines. + +We are more concerned with the men who made +the versions; but we must think a moment of +the others. One of his contemporaries, Knighton, +may speak for all in his saying of Wiclif, +that he had, to be sure, translated the Gospel +into the Anglic tongue, but that it had thereby +been made vulgar by him, and more open to the +reading of laymen and women than it usually +is to the knowledge of lettered and intelligent +clergy, and "thus the pearl is cast abroad and +trodden under the feet of swine"; and, that we +may not be in doubt who are the swine, he adds: +"The jewel of the Church is turned into the +common sport of the people." + +But two strong impulses drive thoughtful +men to any effort that will secure wide knowledge +of the Bible. One is their love of the Bible and +their belief in it; but the other, dominant then +and now, is a sense of the need of their own +time. It cannot be too strongly urged that the +two great pioneers of English Bible translation, +Wiclif and Tindale, more than a century apart, +were chiefly moved to their work by social conditions. +No one could read the literature of +the times of which we are speaking without +smiling at our assumption that we are the first +who have cared for social needs. We talk about +the past as the age of the individual, and the +present as the social age. Our fathers, we say, +cared only to be saved themselves, and had no +concern for the evils of society. They believed +in rescuing one here and another there, while +we have come to see the wisdom of correcting +the conditions that ruin men, and so saving men +in the mass. There must be some basis of +truth for that, since we say it so confidently; +but it can be much over-accented. There were +many of our fathers, and of our grandfathers, +who were mightily concerned with the mass of +people, and looked as carefully as we do for a +corrective of social evils. Wiclif, in the late +fourteenth century, and Tindale, in the early +sixteenth, were two such men. The first English +translations of the Bible were fruits of the +social impulse. + +Wiclif was impressed with the chasm that +was growing between the church and the people, +and felt that a wider and fuller knowledge +of the Bible would be helpful for the closing of +the chasm. It is a familiar remark of Miss +Jane Addams that the cure for the evils of +democracy is more democracy. Wiclif believed +that the cure for the evils of religion is more +religion, more intelligent religion. He found a +considerable feeling that the best things in +religion ought to be kept from most people, +since they could not be trusted to understand +them. His own feeling was that the best things +in religion are exactly the things most people +ought to know most about; that people had better +handle the Bible carelessly, mistakenly, than +be shut out from it by any means whatever. +We owe the first English translation to a faith +that the Bible is a book of emancipation for the +mind and for the political life. + +John Wiclif himself was a scholar of Oxford, +master of that famous Balliol College which +has had such a list of distinguished masters. +He was an adviser of Edward III. Twenty +years after his death a younger contemporary +(W. Thorpe) said that "he was considered by +many to be the most holy of all the men of his +age. He was of emaciated frame, spare, and +well nigh destitute of strength. He was absolutely +blameless in his conduct." And even +that same Knighton who accused him of casting +the Church's pearl before swine says that in +philosophy "he came to be reckoned inferior +to none of his time." + +But it was not at Oxford that he came to know +common life so well and to sense the need for +a new social influence. He came nearer to it +when he was rector of the parish at Lutterworth. +As scholar and rector he set going the +two great movements which leave his name in +history. One was his securing, training, and +sending out a band of itinerant preachers or +"poor priests" to gather the people in fields +and byways and to preach the simple truths +of the Christian religion. They were unpaid, +and lived by the kindness of the common people. +They came to be called Lollards, though +the origin of the name is obscure. Their followers +received the same name. A few years +after Wiclif's death an enemy bitterly observed +that if you met any two men one was sure to +be a Lollard. It was the "first time in English +history that an appeal had been made to the +people instead of the scholars." Religion was +to be made rather a matter of practical life than +of dogma or of ritual. The "poor priests" in +their cheap brown robes became a mighty religious +force, and evoked opposition from the +Church powers. A generation after Wiclif's +death they had become a mighty political force +in the controversy between the King and the +Pope. As late as 1521 five hundred Lollards +were arrested in London by the bishop.[1] Wiclif's +purpose, however, was to reach and help the +common people with the simpler, and therefore +the most fundamental, truths of religion. + + +[1] Muir, Our Grand Old Bible, p. 14. + + +The other movement which marks Wiclif's +name concerns us more; but it was connected +with the first. He set out to give the common +people the full text of the Bible for their common +use, and to encourage them not only in reading +it, if already they could read, but in learning to +read that they might read it. Tennyson +compares the village of Lutterworth to that of +Bethlehem, on the ground that if Christ, the +Word of God, was born at Bethlehem, the Word +of Life was born again at Lutterworth.[1] The +translation was from the Vulgate, and Wiclif +probably did little of the actual work himself, +yet it is all his work. And in 1382, more than +five centuries ago, there appeared the first complete +English version of the Bible. Wiclif made +it the people's Book, and the English people were +the first of the modern nations to whom the +Bible as a whole was given in their own familiar +tongue. Once it got into their hands they have +never let it be taken entirely away. + + + [1] "Not least art thou, thou little Bethlehem + In Judah, for in thee the Lord was born; + Nor thou in Britain, little Lutterworth, + Least, for in thee the word was born again." + --Sir John Oldcastle. + + +Of course, all this was before the days of +printing, and copies were made by hand only. +Yet there were very many of them. One hundred +and fifty manuscripts, in whole or in part, +are extant still, a score of them of the original +version, the others of the revision at once undertaken +by John Purvey, Wiclif's disciple. The +copies belonging to Edward VI. and Queen +Elizabeth are both still in existence, and both +show much use. Twenty years after it was +completed copies were counted very valuable, +though they were very numerous. It was not +uncommon for a single complete manuscript +copy of the Wiclif version to be sold for one +hundred and fifty or two hundred dollars, and +Foxe, whose Book of Martyrs we used to read as +children, tells that a load of hay was given +for the use of a New Testament one hour a day. + +It would be difficult to exaggerate the influence +of this gift to the English people. It constitutes +the standard of Middle English. Chaucer and +Wiclif stood side by side. It is true that +Chaucer himself accepted Wiclif's teaching, and +some of the wise men think that the "parson" +of whom he speaks so finely as one who taught +the lore of Christ and His apostles twelve, but +first followed it himself, was Wiclif. But the version +had far more than literary influence; it had +tremendous power in keeping alive in England +that spirit of free inquiry which is the only safeguard +of free institutions. Here was the entire +source of the Christian faith available for the +judgment of common men, and they became at +once judges of religious and political dogma. +Dr. Ladd thinks it was not the reading of the +Bible which produced the Reformation; it was +the Reformation itself which procured the reading +of the Bible.[1] But Dr. Rashdall and Professor +Pollard and others are right when they +insist that the English Reformation received less +from Luther than from the secret reading of the +Scripture over the whole country. What we +call the English spirit of free inquiry was fostered +and developed by Wiclif and his Lollards +with the English Scripture in their hands. Out +of it has grown as out of no other one root the +freedom of the English and American people. + + +[1] What Is the Bible?, p. 45. + + +This work of Wiclif deserves the time we have +given it because it asserted a principle for the +English people. There was much yet to be +done before entire freedom was gained. At +Oxford, in the Convocation of 1408, it was +solemnly voted: "We decree and ordain that +no man hereafter by his own authority translate +any text of the Scripture into English, or +any other tongue, by way of a book, pamphlet, +or other treatise; but that no man read any +such book, pamphlet, or treatise now lately composed +in the time of John Wiclif ... until the +said translation be approved by the orderly of +the place." But it was too late. It is always +too late to overtake a liberating idea once it +gets free. Tolstoi tells of Batenkoff, the Russian +nihilist, that after he was seized and confined +in his cell he was heard to laugh loudly; +and, when they asked him the cause of his mirth, +he said that he could not fail to be amused at +the absurdity of the situation. "They have +caught me," he said, "and shut me up here; +but my ideas are out yonder in the streets and +in the fields, absolutely free. They cannot +overtake them." It was already too late, +twenty years after Wiclif's version was available, +to stop the English people in their search +for religious truth. + +In the century just after the Wiclif translation, +two great events occurred which bore +heavily on the spread of the Bible. One was +the revival of learning, which made popular +again the study of the classics and the classical +languages. Critical and exact Greek scholarship +became again a possibility. Remember that +Wiclif did not know Greek nor Hebrew, did not +need to know them to be the foremost scholar +of Oxford in the fourteenth century. Even as +late as 1502 there was no professor of Greek at +the proud University of Erfurt when Luther was +a student there. It was after he became a +doctor of divinity and a university professor +that he learned Greek in order to be a better +Bible student, and his young friend Philip +Melancthon was the first to teach Greek in +the University.[1] But under the influence of +Erasmus and his kind, with their new insistence +on classical learning, there came necessarily a +new appraisal of the Vulgate as a translation +of the original Bible. For a thousand years +there had been no new study of the original +Bible languages in Europe. The Latin of the +Vulgate had become as sacred as the Book itself. +But the revival of learning threw scholarship +back on the sources of the text. Erasmus +and others published versions of the Greek +Testament which were disturbing to the Vulgate +as a final version. + + +[1] McGiffert, Martin Luther. + + +The other great event of that same century +was the invention of printing with movable +type. It was in 1455 that Gutenberg printed +his first book, an edition of the Vulgate, now +called the Mazarin Bible. The bearing of the +invention on the spread of common knowledge +is beyond description. It is rather late to be +praising the art of printing, and we need spend +little time doing so; but one can see instantly +how it affected the use of the Bible. It made it +worth while to learn to read--there would be +something to read. It made it worth while to +write--there would be some one to read what +was written. + +One hundred years exactly after the death of +Wiclif, William Tindale was born. He was +eight years old when Columbus discovered +America. He had already taken a degree at +Oxford, and was a student in Cambridge when +Luther posted his theses at Wittenburg. Erasmus +either was a teacher at Cambridge when +Tindale was a student there, or had just left. +Sir Thomas More and Erasmus were close +friends, and More's Utopia and Erasmus's +Greek New Testament appeared the same year, +probably while Tindale was a student at Cambridge. + +But he came at a troubled time. The new +learning had no power to deepen or strengthen +the moral life of the people. It could not make +religion a vital thing. Morality and religion +were far separated. The priests and curates +were densely ignorant. We need not ask Tindale +what was the condition. Ask Bellarmine, +a cardinal of the Church: "Some Years before +the rise of the Lutheran heresy there was almost +an entire abandonment of equity in ecclesiastical +judgments; in morals, no discipline; in +sacred literature, no erudition; in divine things, +no reverence; religion was almost extinct." Or +ask Erasmus, who never broke with the Church: +"What man of real piety does not perceive with +sighs that this is far the most corrupt of all +ages? When did iniquity abound with more +licentiousness? When was charity so cold?" +And, as a century before, Wiclif had felt the +social need for a popular version of the Bible, +so William Tindale felt it now. He saw the +need as great among the clergy of the time as +among the laity. In one of his writings he +says: "If you will not let the layman have the +word of God in his mother tongue, yet let the +priests have it, which for the great part of +them do understand no Latin at all, but sing +and patter all day with the lips only that which +the heart understandeth not."[1] So bad was +the case that it was not corrected within a whole +generation. Forty years after Tindale's version +was published, the Bishop of Gloucester, +Hooper by name, made an examination of the +clergy of his diocese. There were 311 of them. +He found 168, more than half, unable to repeat +the Ten Commandments; 31 who did not even +know where they could be found; 40 who could +not repeat the Lord's Prayer; and nearly as +many who did not know where it originated; +yet they were all in regular standing as clergy +in the diocese of Gloucester. The need was +keen enough. + + +[1] Obedience of a Christian Man. + + +About 1523 Tindale began to cast the Scriptures +into the current English. He set out to +London fully expecting to find support and +encouragement there, but he found neither. He +found, as he once said, that there was no room +in the palace of the Bishop of London to translate +the New Testament; indeed, that there was +no place to do it in all England. A wealthy +London merchant subsidized him with the munificent +gift of ten pounds, with which he went +across the Channel to Hamburg; and there and +elsewhere on the Continent, where he could be hid, +he brought his translation to completion. Printing +facilities were greater on the Continent than +in England; but there was such opposition to +his work that very few copies of the several +editions of which we know can still be found. +Tindale was compelled to flee at one time with +a few printed sheets and complete his work on +another press. Several times copies of his books +were solemnly burned, and his own life was frequently +in danger. + +There is one amusing story which tells how +money came to free Tindale from heavy debt +and prepare the way for more Bibles. The +Bishop of London, Tunstall, was set on destroying +copies of the English New Testament. He +therefore made a bargain with a merchant of +Antwerp, Packington, to secure them for him. +Packington was a friend of Tindale, and went +to him forthwith, saying: "William, I know +thou art a poor man, and I have gotten thee a +merchant for thy books." "Who?" asked Tindale. +"The Bishop of London." "Ah, but +he will burn them." "So he will, but you will +have the money." And it all came out as it +was planned; the Bishop of London had the +books, Packington had the thanks, Tindale had +the money, the debt was paid, and the new +edition was soon ready. The old document, +from which I am quoting, adds that the Bishop +thought he had God by the toe when, indeed, +he found afterward that he had the devil by +the fist.[1] + + +[1] Pollard, Records of the English Bible, p. 151. + + +The final revision of the Tindale translations +was published in 1534, and that becomes the +notable year of his life. In two years he was +put to death by strangling, and his body was +burned. When we remember that this was +done with the joint power of Church and State, +we realize some of the odds against which he +worked. + +Spite of his odds, however, Tindale is the real +father of our King James version. About eighty +per cent. of his Old Testament and ninety per +cent. of his New Testament have been transferred +to our version. In the Beatitudes, for +example, five are word for word in the two versions, +while the other three are only slightly +changed.[1] Dr. Davidson has calculated that +nine-tenths of the words in the shorter New +Testament epistles are Tindale's, and in the +longer epistles like the Hebrews five-sixths are +his. Froude's estimate is fair: "Of the translation +itself, though since that time it has been +many times revised and altered, we may say +that it is substantially the Bible with which we +are familiar. The peculiar genius which breathes +through it, the mingled tenderness and majesty, +the Saxon simplicity, the preternatural grandeur, +unequaled, unapproached, in the attempted +improvements of modern scholars, all are here, +and bear the impress of the mind of one man, +William Tindale."[2] + + +[1] The fourth reads in his version, "Blessed are they which +hunger and thirst for righteousness"; the seventh, "Blessed are +the maintainers of peace"; the eighth, "Blessed are they which +suffer persecution for righteousness' sake." + +[2] History of England, end of chap. xii. + + +We said a moment ago that Wiclif's translation +was the standard of Middle English. It is +time to add that Tindale's version "fixed our +standard English once for all, and brought it +finally into every English home." The revisers +of 1881 declared that while the authorized version +was the work of many hands, the foundation +of it was laid by Tindale, and that the +versions that followed it were substantially +reproductions of Tindale's, or revisions of versions +which were themselves almost entirely based +on it. + +There was every reason why it should be a +worthy version. For one thing, it was the first +translation into English from the original Hebrew +and Greek. Wiclif's had been from the +Latin. For Tindale there were available two +new and critical Greek Testaments, that of +Erasmus and the so-called Complutensian, +though he used that of Erasmus chiefly. There +was also available a carefully prepared Hebrew +Old Testament. For another thing, it was the +first version which could be printed, and so be +subject to easy and immediate correction and +revision. Then also, Tindale himself was a +great scholar in the languages. He was "so +skilled in the seven languages, Hebrew, Greek, +Latin, Italian, Spanish, English, and French, +that, whichever he spoke, you would suppose it +was his native tongue."[1] Nor was his spirit +in the work controversial. I say his "spirit in +the work" with care. They were controversial +times, and Tindale took his share in the verbal +warfare. When, for example, there was objection +to making any English version because +"the language was so rude that the Bible could +not be intelligently translated into it," Tindale +replied: "It is not so rude as they are false +liars. For the Greek tongue agreeth more with +the English than with the Latin, a thousand +parts better may it be translated into the English +than into the Latin."[2] And when a high +church dignitary protested to Tindale against +making the Bible so common, he replied: "If +God spare my life, ere many years I will cause +a boy that driveth a plow shall know more of +the Scriptures than thou dost." And while that +was not saying much for the plowboy, it was +saying a good deal to the dignitary. In language, +Tindale was controversial enough, but +in his spirit, in making his version, there was no +element of controversy. For such reasons as +these we might expect the version to be valuable. + + +[1] Herman Buschius. + +[2] This will mean the more to us when we realize that the +literary men of the day despised the English tongue. Sir Thomas +More wrote his Utopia in Latin, because otherwise educated +men would not deign to read it. Years later Roger Ascham +apologized for writing one of his works in English. Putting the +Bible into current English impressed these literary men very +much as we would be impressed by putting the Bible into current +slang. + + +All this while, and especially between the time +when Tindale first published his New Testament +and the time they burned him for doing so, an +interesting change was going on in England. +The King was Henry VIII., who was by no means +a willing Protestant. As Luther's work appeared, +it was this same Henry who wrote the +pamphlet against him during the Diet of Worms, +and on the ground of this pamphlet, with its +loyal support of the Church against Luther, he +received from the Roman pontiff the title "Defender +of the Faith," which the kings of England +still wear. And yet under this king this +strange succession of dates can be given. Notice +them closely. In 1526 Tindale's New Testament +was burned at St. Paul's by the Bishop of +London; ten years later, 1536, Tindale himself +was burned with the knowledge and connivance +of the English government; and yet, one year +later, 1537, two versions of the Bible in English, +three-quarters of which were the work of Tindale, +were licensed for public use by the King +of England, and were required to be made available +for the people! Eleven years after the +New Testament was burned, one year after +Tindale was burned, that crown was set on his +work! What brought this about? + +Three facts help to explain it. First, the +recent years of Bible translation were having +their weight. The fugitive copies of the Bible +were doing their work. Spite of the sharp opposition +fifty thousand copies of Tindale's various +editions had actually been published and +circulated. Men were reading them; they were +approving them. The more they read, the less +reason they saw for hiding the Book from the +people. Why should it not be made common +and free? There was strong Lutheran opinion +in the universities. It was already a custom +for English teachers to go to Germany for +minute scholarship. They came back with German +Bibles in Luther's version and with Greek +Testaments, and the young scholars who were +being raised up felt the influence, consciously or +unconsciously, of the free use of the Bible which +ruled in many German universities. + +The second fact that helps to explain the sudden +change of attitude toward the Bible is this: +the people of England were never willingly +ruled from without, religiously or politically. +There has recently been a considerable controversy +over the history of the Established +Church of England, whether it has always been +an independent church or was at one time +officially a part of the Roman Church. That +is a matter for ecclesiastical history to determine. +The foundation fact, however, is as I +worded it a moment ago: the people of England +were never willingly ruled from without, religiously +or politically. They were sometimes +ruled from without; but they were either indifferent +to it at the time or rebellious against +it. Those who did think claimed the right to +think for themselves. The Scotch of the north +were peculiarly so, but the English of the south +claimed the same right. There has always been +an immense contrast between the two sides of +the British Channel. The French people during +all those years were deeply loyal to a foreign +religious government. The English people +were never so, not in the days of the fullest +Roman supremacy. They always demanded at +least a form of home government. That made +England a congenial home for the Protestant +spirit, which claimed the right to independent +study of the sources of religion and independent +judgment regarding them. It was only a continuance +of the spirit of Wiclif and the Lollards. +The spirit in a nation lives long, especially when +it is passed down by tradition. Those were not +the days of newspapers. They were instead +the days of great meetings, more important still +of small family gatherings, where the memory +of the older men was called into use, and where +boys and girls drank in eagerly the traditions +of their own country as expressed in the great +events of their history. Newspapers never can +fully take the place of those gatherings, for they +do not bring men together to feel the thrill of +the story that is told. It must be remembered +that the entire population of England at that +time was only about three millions. And that +old spirit of independence was strongly at work +in the middle-class villages and among the +merchants, and they were a ruling and dominant +class. That was second, that in those ten years +there asserted itself the age-long unwillingness +of the English people to be ruled from without. + +The third fact which must be taken into account +to explain this remarkable change of +front of the public English life is Henry VIII. +himself. There is much about him that no +country would willingly claim. He was the +most habitual bridegroom in English history; +he had an almost confirmed habit of beheading +his wives or otherwise ridding himself of them. +Yet many traits made him a typical outstanding +Englishman. He had the characteristic spirit of +independence, the resentment of foreign control, +satisfaction with his own land, the feeling +that of course it is the best land. There are no +people in the world so well satisfied with their +own country as the people of England or the +British Isles. They are critical of many things +in their own government until they begin to +compare it with other countries; they must +make their changes on their own lines. The +pamphlet of Henry VIII., which won him the +title of Defender of the Faith, praised the pope; +and, though Sir Thomas More urged him to +change his expressions lest he should live to +regret them, he would not change them. But +that was while the pope was serving his wishes +and what he felt was England's good. + +There arose presently the question, or the +several questions, about his marriage. It sheds +no glory on Henry VIII. that they arose as they +did; but his treatment of them must not be +mistaken. He was concerned to have his marriage +to Anne Boleyn confirmed, and there are +some who think he was honest in believing it +ought to be confirmed, though we need not believe +that. What happened was that for the +first time Henry VIII. found that as sovereign +of England he must take commands from a foreign +power, a power exercising temporal sovereignty +exactly as he did, but adding to it a claim +to spiritual power, a claim to determine his conduct +for him and to absolve his people from +loyalty to him if he was not obedient. It arose +over the question of his divorce, but it might +have arisen over anything else. It was limitation +on his sovereignty in England. And he let +it be seen that all questions that pertain to England +were to be settled in England, and not +in another land. He would rather have a matter +settled wrong in England than settled right +elsewhere. That is how he claimed to be +head of the English Church. The people back +of him had always held to the belief that they +were governed from within, though they were +linked to religion from without. He executed +their theory. That assertion of English sovereignty +came during the eventful years of which +we are speaking. + +Here, then, are our great facts. First, thoughtful +opinion wanted the Bible made available, +and at a convention of bishops and university +men the King was requested to secure the issuance +of a proper translation. Secondly, the +people wanted it, the more because it would +gratify their English instinct of independent +judgment in matters of religion. Thirdly, the +King granted it without yielding his personal +religious position, in assertion of his human +sovereignty within his own realm. + +So England awoke one morning in 1537 to +discover that it had a translation of the Bible +two of them actually, open to its use, the very +thing that had been forbidden yesterday! And +that, one year after Tindale had been burned in +loyal France for issuing an English translation! +Two versions were now authorized and made +available. What were they? That of Miles +Coverdale, which had been issued secretly two +years before, and that known as the "Matthew" +Bible, though the name has no significance, +issued within a year. Details are not to our +purpose. Neither was an independent work, +but was made largely from the Latin and the +German, and much influenced by Tindale. +Coverdale was a Yorkshire man like Wiclif, +feminine in his mental cast as Tindale was masculine. +Coverdale made his translation because +he loved books; Tindale because he felt driven +to it. But now the way was clear, and other +editions appeared. It is natural to name one +or two of the more notable ones. + +There appeared what is known as the Great +Bible in 1539. It was only another version +made by Coverdale on the basis of the Matthew +version, but corrected by more accurate knowledge. +There is an interesting romance of its +publication. The presses of England were not +adequate for the great work planned; it was to +be a marvel of typography. So the consent of +King Francis was gained to have it printed in +France, and Coverdale was sent as a special +ambassador to oversee it. He was in dread of +the Inquisition, which was in vogue at the time, +and sent off his printed sheets to England as +rapidly as possible. Suddenly one day the order +of confiscation came from the Inquisitor-General. +Only Coverdale's official position as representing +the King saved his own life. As for the +printed sheets on which so much depended, +they seemed doomed. But in the nick of time +a dealer appeared at the printing-house and purchased +four great vats full of waste paper which +he shipped to England--when it was found that +the waste paper was those printed sheets. The +presses and the printers were all loyal to England, +and the edition was finally completed. The +Great Bible was issued to meet a decree that each +church should make available in some convenient +place the largest possible copy of the +whole Bible, where all the parishioners could +have access to it and read it at their will. The +version gets its name solely from the size of +the volume. That decree dates 1538, twelve +years after Tindale's books were burned, and +two years after he was burned! The installation +of these great books caused tremendous +excitement--crowds gathered everywhere. Bishop +Bonner caused six copies of the great volume +to be located wisely throughout St. Paul's. He +found it difficult to make people leave them +during the sermons. He was so often interrupted +by voices reading to a group, and by the +discussions that ensued, that he threatened to +have them taken out during the service if people +would not be quiet. The Great Bible appeared +in seven editions in two years, and +continued in recognized power for thirty years. +Much of the present English prayer-book is +taken from it. + +But this liberty was so sudden that the people +naturally abused it. Henry became vexed +because the sacred words "were disputed, rimed, +sung, and jangled in every ale-house." There +had grown up a series of wild ballads and ribald +songs in contempt of "the old faith," +while it was not really the old faith which was +in dispute, but only foreign control of English +faith. They had mistaken Henry's meaning. +So Henry began to put restrictions on the use +of the Bible. There were to be no notes or +annotations in any versions, and those that +existed were to be blacked out. Only the upper +classes were to be allowed to possess a Bible. +Finally, the year before his death, all versions +were prohibited except the Great Bible, whose +cost and size precluded secret use. The decree +led to another great burning of Bibles in 1546-- +Tindale, Coverdale, Matthew--all but the Great +Bible. The leading religious reformers took +flight and fled to European Protestant towns +like Frankfort and Strassburg. But the Bible +remained. Henry VIII. died. The Bible lived on. + +Under Edward VI., the boy king, coming to +the throne at nine and dying at fifteen, the +regency with Crammer at its head earned its +bad name. But while its members were shamelessly +despoiling churches and enriching themselves +they did one great service for the Bible. +They cast off all restrictions on its translation +and publication. The order for a Great Bible +in every church was renewed, and there was to +be added to it a copy of Erasmus's paraphrase +of the four gospels. Nearly fifty editions of +the Bible, in whole or in part, appeared in those +six years. + +And that was fortunate, for then came Mary +--and the deluge. Of course, she again gave in +the nominal allegiance of England to the Roman +control. But she utterly missed the spirit of +the people. They were weary with the excesses +of rabid Protestantism; but they were by no +means ready to admit the principle of foreign +control in religious matters. They might have +been willing, many of them, that the use of the +Bible should be restricted, if it were done by +their own sovereign. They were not willing +that another sovereign should restrict them. +So the secret use of the Bible increased. Martyr +fires were kindled, but by the light of them the +people read their Bibles more eagerly. And this +very persecution led to one of the best of the +early versions of the Bible, indirectly even to +the King James version. + +The flower of English Protestant scholarship +was driven into exile, and found its way to +Frankfort and Geneva again. There the spirit +of scholarship was untrammeled; there they +found material for scholarly study of the Bible, +and there they made and published a new version +of the Bible in English, by all means the +best that had been made. In later years, under +Elizabeth, it drove the Great Bible off the field +by sheer power of excellence. During her reign +sixty editions of it appeared. This was the version +called the Genevan Bible. It made several +changes that are familiar to us. For one thing, +in the Genevan edition of 1560 first appeared +our familiar division into verses. The chapter +division was made three centuries earlier; but +the verses belong to the Genevan version, and +are divided to make the Book suitable for +responsive use and for readier reference. It was +taken in large part from the work of Robert +Stephens, who had divided the Greek Testament +into verses, ten years earlier, during a journey +which he was compelled to make between Paris +and Lyons. The Genevan version also abandoned +the old black letter, and used the Roman +type with which we are familiar. It had full +notes on hard passages, which notes, as we shall +see, helped to produce the King James version. +The work itself was completed after the accession +of Elizabeth, when most of the religious leaders +had returned to England from their exile under Mary. + +Elizabeth herself was not an ardent Protestant, +not ardent at all religiously, but an ardent +Englishwoman. She understood her people, and +while she prided herself on being the "Guardian +of the Middle Way," she did not make the +mistake of submitting her sovereignty to foreign +supervision. Probably Elizabeth always +counted herself personally a Catholic, but not +politically subject to the Roman pontiff. She +had no wish to offend other Catholic powers; +but she was determined to develop a strong +national spirit and to allow religious differences +to exist if they would be peaceful. The dramatic +scene which was enacted at the time of +her coronation procession was typical of her +spirit. As the procession passed down Cheapside, +a venerable old man, representing Time, +with a little child beside him representing +Truth--Time always old, Truth always young-- +presented the Queen with a copy of the Scriptures, +which she accepted, promising to read +them diligently. + +Presently it was found that two versions of +the Bible were taking the field, the old Great +Bible and the new Genevan Bible. On all +accounts the Genevan was the better and was +driving out its rival. Yet there could be no +hope of gaining the approval of Elizabeth for +the Genevan Bible. For one thing, John Knox +had been a party to its preparation; so had +Calvin. Elizabeth detested them both, especially +Knox. For another thing, its notes +were not favorable to royal sovereignty, but +smacked so much of popular government as to +be offensive. For another thing, though it had +been made mostly by her own people, it had been +made in a foreign land, and was under suspicion +on that account. The result was that Elizabeth's +archbishop, Parker, set out to have an authorized +version made, selected a revision committee, +with instructions to follow wherever +possible the Great Bible, to avoid bitter notes, +and to make such a version that it might be +freely, easily, and naturally read. The result +is known as the Bishops' Bible. It was issued +in Elizabeth's tenth year (1568), but there is +no record that she ever noticed it, though Parker +sent her a copy from his sick-bed. The Bishops' +Bible shows the influence of the Genevan +Bible in many ways, though it gives no credit +for that. It is not of equal merit; it was expensive, +too cumbersome, and often unscholarly. +Only its official standing gave it life, and after +forty years, in nineteen editions, it was no longer +published. + +Naming one other English version will complete +the series of facts necessary for the consideration +of the forming of the King James +version. It will be remembered that all the +English versions of the Bible thus far mentioned +were the work of men either already out of favor +with the Roman pontiff, or speedily put out of +favor on that account. Thirty years after his +death; Wiclif's bones were taken up and burned; +Tindale was burned. Coverdale's version and +the Great Bible were the product of the period +when Henry VIII. was under the ban. The +Genevan Bible was the work of refugees, and +the Bishops' Bible was prepared when Elizabeth +had been excommunicated. That fact +seemed to many loyal Roman churchmen to +put the Church in a false light. It must be +made clear that its opposition was not to the +Bible, not even to popular use and possession +of the Bible, but only to unauthorized, even +incorrect, versions. So there came about the +Douai version, instigated by Gregory Martin, +and prepared in some sense as an answer to the +Genevan version and its strongly anti-papal +notes. It was the work of English scholars connected +with the University of Douai. The New +Testament was issued at Rheims in 1582, and +the whole Bible in 1609, just before our King +James version. It is made, not from the Hebrew +and the Greek, though it refers to both, +but from the Vulgate. The result is that the +Old Testament of the Douai version is a translation +into English from the Latin, which in +large part is a translation into Latin from the +Greek Septuagint, which in turn is a translation +into Greek from the Hebrew. Yet scholars are +scholars, and it shows marked influence of the +Genevan version, and, indeed, of other English +versions. Its notes were strongly anti-Protestant, +and in its preface it explains its existence +by saying that Protestants have been guilty +of "casting the holy to dogs and pearls to hogs." + +The version is not in the direct line of the +ascent of the familiar version, and needs no +elaborate description. Its purpose was controversial; +it did not go to available sources; +its English was not colloquial, but ecclesiastical. +For example, in the Lord's Prayer we read: +"Give us this day our supersubstantial bread," +instead of "our daily bread." In Hebrews xiii: +17, the version reads, "Obey your prelates and +be subject unto them." In Luke iii:3, John +came "preaching the baptism of penance." In +Psalm xxiii:5, where we read, "My cup runneth +over," the Douai version reads, "My chalice +which inebriateth me, how goodly it is." +There is a careful retention of ecclesiastical +terms, and an explanation of the passages on +which Protestants had come to differ rather +sharply from their Roman brethren, as in the +matter of the taking of the cup by the people, +and elsewhere. + +Yet it is only fair to remember that this much +answer was made to the versions which were +preparing the way for the greatest version of +them all, and when the time came for the making +of that version, and the helps were gathered +together, the Douai was frankly placed among +them. It is a peculiar irony of fate that while +the purpose of Gregory Martin was to check +the translation of the Bible by the Protestants, +the only effect of his work was to advance and +improve that translation. + +At last, as we shall see in our next study, the +way was cleared for a free and open setting of +the Bible into English. The way had been +beset with struggle, marked with blood, lighted +by martyr fires. Wiclif and Purvey, Tindale +and Coverdale, the refugees at Geneva and the +Bishops at London, all had trod that way. +Kings had fought them or had favored them; +it was all one; they had gone on. Loyal zest +for their Book and loving zeal for the common +people had held them to the path. Now it +had become a highway open to all men. And +right worthy were the feet which were soon +treading it. + + + +LECTURE II + +THE MAKING OF THE KING JAMES VERSION; ITS +CHARACTERISTICS + +EARLY in January, 1604, men were making +their way along the poor English highways, +by coach and carrier, to the Hampton +Court Palace of the new English king. They +were coming from the cathedral towns, from the +universities, from the larger cities. Many were +Church dignitaries, many were scholars, some +were Puritans, all were loyal Englishmen, and +they were gathering in response to a call for +a conference with the king, James I. They were +divided in sentiment, these men, and those who +hoped most from the conference were doomed +to complete disappointment. Not one among +them, not the King, had the slightest purpose +that the conference should do what proved to +be its only real service. Some of the men, +grave and earnest, were coming to present their +petitions to the King, others were coming to +oppose their petitions; the King meant to deny +them and to harry the petitioners. And everything +came out as it had been planned. Yet +the largest service of the conference, the only +real service, was in no one's mind, for it was at +Hampton Court, on the last day of the conference +between James and the churchmen, +January 18, 1604, that the first formal step was +taken toward the making of the so-called Authorized +Version of the English Bible. If there +are such things as accidents, this great enterprise +began in an accident. But the outcome of +the accident, the volume that resulted, is "allowed +by all competent authorities to be the +first, [that is, the chief] English classic," if our +Professor Cook, of Yale, may speak; "is universally +accepted as a literary masterpiece, as +the noblest and most beautiful Book in the +world, which has exercised an incalculable influence +upon religion, upon manners, upon literature, +and upon character," if the Balliol College +scholar Hoare can be trusted; and has +"made the English language," if Professor March +is right. The purpose of this study is to show +how that accident occurred, and what immediately +came from it. + + +With the death of Elizabeth the Tudor line +of sovereigns died out. The collateral Stuart +line, descending directly from Henry VII., +naturally succeeded to the throne, and James +VI. of Scotland made his royal progress to the +English capital and became James I. of England. +In him appears the first of that Stuart +line during whose reign great changes were to +occur. Every one in the line held strongly to +the dogma of the divine right of kings, yet under +that line the English people transferred sovereignty +from the king to Parliament.[1] Fortunately +for history, and for the progress of popular +government, the Stuart line had no forceful +figures in it. Macaulay thinks it would have +been fatal to English liberty if they had been +able kings. It was easier to take so dangerous +a weapon as the divine right of kings from weak +hands than from strong ones. So it was that +though James came out of Scotland to assert +his divine and arbitrary right as sovereign, by +the time Queen Anne died, closing the Stuart +line and giving way to the Hanoverian, the real +sovereignty had passed into the hands of Parliament. + + +[1] Trevelyan, England Under the Stuarts. + + +But the royal traveler, coming from Edinburgh +to London, is interesting on his own +account--interesting at this distance. He is +thirty-seven years old, and ought to be in the +beginning of his prime. He is a little over +middle height; loves a good horse, though he is +an ungainly rider, and has fallen off his horse +three or four times during his royal progress; +is a heavy drinker of the liquors of the period, +with horribly coarse, even gross manners. Macaulay +is very severe with him. He says that +"his cowardice, his childishness, his pedantry, +his ungainly person and manners, his provincial +accent, made him an object of derision. Even +in his virtues and accomplishments there was +something eminently unkingly."[1] It seemed +too bad that "royalty should be exhibited to the +world stammering, slobbering, shedding unmanly +tears, trembling at the drawn sword, and +talking in the style alternately of a buffoon and +of a pedagogue." That is truly not an attractive +picture. But there is something on the +other side. John Richard Green puts both +sides: "His big head, his slobbering tongue, his +quilted clothes, his rickety legs stood out in as +grotesque a contrast with all that men recalled of +Henry and Elizabeth as his gabble and rhodomontade, +his want of personal dignity, his +buffoonery, his coarseness of speech, his pedantry, +his contemptible cowardice. Under this +ridiculous exterior, however, lay a man of much +natural ability, a ripe scholar with a considerable +fund of shrewdness, of mother wit and +ready repartee."[2] + +[1] History of England, chap. i. + +[2] Short History of the English People, chap. viii, sec. ii. + + +Some good traits he must have had. He did +win some men to him. As some one has said, +"You could love him; you could despise him; +you could not hate him." He could say some +witty and striking things. For example, when +he was urging the formal union of Scotland and +England, and it was opposed, he said: "But I +am the husband, and the whole island is my +wife. I hope no one will be so unreasonable +as to suppose that I, that am a Christian king +under the Gospel, should be a polygamist and +husband to two wives."[2] After the conference +of which we have been speaking, he wrote to a +friend in Scotland: "I have had a revel with the +Puritans and have peppered them soundly." +As indeed he had. Then, in some sense at least, +"James was a born theologian." He had studied +the Bible in some form from childhood; one of +the first things we hear of his doing is the writing +of a paraphrase on the book of the Revelation. +In his talk he made easy and free use of +Scripture quotations. To be sure, his knowledge, +on which he prided himself unconscionably, was +shallow and pedantic. Henry IV. of France, +one of his contemporaries, said that he was "the +wisest fool in Christendom." + + +[2] Trevelyan, England Under the Stuarts, p. 107. + + +Now, it was this man who was making his +royal progress from Edinburgh to London in +March, 1603, nearly a year before the gathering +of men which we were observing at the opening +of this study. Many things happened on the +journey besides his falling off his horse several +times; but one of the most significant was the +halting of the progress to receive what was +called the Miliary Petition, whose name implies +that it was signed by a thousand men--actually +somewhat less than that number--mostly ministers +of the Church. The Petition made no +mention of any Bible version, yet it was the +beginning of the events which led to it. Back +of it was the Puritan influence. It asked for +reforms in the English Church, for the correction +of abuses which had grown under Elizabeth's +increasing favor of ritual and ceremony. +It asked for a better-trained ministry, for better +discipline in the Church, for the omission of +so many detailed requirements of rites and +ceremonies, and for that perennially desired reform, +shorter church services! + +Very naturally the new King replied that he +would take it up later, and promised to call a +conference to consider it. And this he did. +The conference met at Hampton Court in January, +1604, and it was for this that the men +were coming from many parts of England. The +gathering was held on the 14th, 16th, and 18th +of the month. Its sole purpose was to consider +that Miliary Petition; but the King called to it +not only those who had signed the Petition, but +those who had opposed it. He had no notion +of granting any favor to it, and from the first +he gave the Puritans rough treatment. He +told them he would have none of their non- +conformity, he would "make them conform or +harry them out of the land." Someone suggested +that since this was a Church matter there be +called a Synod, or some general gathering fitted to +discuss and determine such things, rather than +leave it to a few Church dignitaries. For the +purposes of the petitioners it was a most unfortunate +expression. James had just come from +Scotland, where the Presbyterians were with +their Synod, and where Calvinism was in full +swing. He was much in favor of some elements +of Calvinism; but he could not see how all the +elements held together. Predestination, for +example, which offends so many people to-day, +was a precious doctrine to King James, and he +insisted that his subjects ought to see how clearly +God had predestined him to rule over them! +But he could not tolerate the necessary logical +inference of Calvinism that all men must be +equal before God, and so men can make and +unmake kings as they need to do so, the matter +of king or subject being purely an incidental +one. He remembered the time when Andrew +Melville, one of the Scotch ministers, had +plucked him by his royal sleeve and called him +"God's silly vassal" right to his face. So, +when some one said "Synod" it brought the +King up standing. He burst out: "If that is +what you mean, if you want what the Scotch +mean by their Synod and their Presbytery, then +I tell you at once that I will have none of it. +Presbytery agrees with monarchy very much as +God agrees with the devil. If you have no +bishop, you will soon have no king." He was +perfectly right, with reference to the kind of +king he meant. These things were to be settled, +he meant, by authority, and not by conference. +That is the point to which Gardiner +refers when he says that "in two minutes James +sealed his own fate and that of England forever."[1] + + +[1] History of England, 1603-42. + + +After that there was only a losing fight for +the petitioners. They had touched a sore spot +in James's history. But it was when they +touched that sore spot again that they started +the movement for a new version of the Bible. +It was on the second day of the conference, +January 16th, that Dr. Reynolds, president of +Corpus Christi College, Oxford, who represented +the moderate Puritan position, and, like many +moderate men, was rather suspected by both +extreme wings, instanced as one of the hardships +of the Puritans that they were compelled to use +the prayer-book of the time, and that it contained +many mistranslations of Scripture, some +of which he quoted. Now, it so happens that +the errors to which he referred occur in the +Bishops' and the Great Bible, which were the +two authorized versions of the time, but are +all corrected in the Genevan version. We do +not know what point he was trying to make, +whether he was urging that the Genevan version +should supplant these others, or whether +he was calling for a new translation. Indeed, +we are not sure that he even mentioned the +Genevan version. But James spoke up to say +that he had never yet seen a Bible well translated +into English; but the worst of all he +thought the Genevan to be. He spoke as though +he had just had a copy given him by an English +lady, and had already noted what he called its +errors. That was at the very least a royal +evasion, for if there was any Book he did know +it was the Genevan version. He had been fairly +raised on it; he had lived in the country where +it was commonly used. It had been preached +at him many and many a time. Indeed, he +had used it as the text for that paraphrase of +the Revelation of which we spoke a moment ago. +And he knew its notes--well he knew them-- +knew that they were from republican Geneva, +and that kingly pretensions had short shrift +with them. James told the conference that +these notes were "very partial, untrue, seditious, +savoring too much of traitorous and dangerous +conceits," supporting his opinion by two instances +which seemed disrespectful to royalty. +One of these instances was the note on Exodus +1:17, where the Egyptian midwives are said to +have disobeyed the king in the matter of destroying +the children. The note says: "Their +disobedience to the king was lawful, though +their dissembling was not." James quoted that, +and said: "It is false; to disobey the king is +not lawful, and traitorous conceits should not +go forth among the people." + +Some of the High Church party objected that +there were translations enough already; but it +struck James's fancy to set them all aside by +another version, which he at once said he would +order. It was to be made by the most learned +of both universities, then to be revised by the +bishops and other Church dignitaries, then presented +to the Privy Council, and finally to be +passed upon by himself. There is the echo of +some sharp Scotch experiences in his declaration +that there were to be no marginal notes in that +new version. + +When they looked back on the conference, +the Puritans felt that they had lost everything, +and the High Church people that they had gained +everything. One of the bishops, in a very servile +way, and on his knee, gave thanks to God +for having given the country such a king, whose +like had never been seen since Christ was on +earth. Certainly hard times were ahead for +the Puritans. The King harried them according +to his word. Within sixteen years some of them +landed at Plymouth Rock, and things began to +happen on this side. That settlement at Plymouth +was the outcome of the threat the King +had made at the Hampton Court conference. + +But looking back one can see that the conference +was worth while for the beginning of +the movement for the new version. The King +was true to his word in this line also, and before +the year was out had appointed the fifty-four +best Bible scholars of the realm to make the new +version. They were to sit in six companies of +nine each, two at Oxford, two at Cambridge, +and two at Westminster. The names of only +forty-seven of them have come down to us, and +it is not known whether the other seven were +ever appointed, or in what way their names have +been lost. It must be said for the King that the +only principle of selection was scholarship, and +when those six groups of men met they were +men of the very first rank, with no peers outside +their own numbers--with one exception, and +that exception is of some passing interest. Hugh +Broughton was probably the foremost Hebrew +scholar of England, perhaps of the world, at the +time, and apparently he was not appointed on +the committee. Chiefly, it seems to have been +because he was a man of ungovernable temper +and utterly unfitted to work with others. Failure +to appoint him, however, bit and rankled, +and the only keen and sharp criticism that was +passed on the version in its own day was by +Hugh Broughton. He sent word to the King, +after it was completed, that as for himself he +would rather be rent to pieces by wild horses +than have had any part in the urging of such a +wretched version of the Bible on the poor people. +That was so manifestly pique, however, +that it is only to be regretted that the translation +did not have the benefit of his great +Hebrew knowledge. John Selden, at his prime +in that day, voiced the feeling of most scholars +of the times, that the new translation was the +best in the world and best gave the sense of +the original. + +We do not know much of the personnel of +the company. Their names would mean very +little to us at this distance. All were clergymen +except one. There were bishops, college +principals, university fellows, and rectors. Dr. +Reynolds, who suggested it in the first place, +was a member, though he did not live to see the +work finished. This Dr. Reynolds, by the way, +was party to a most curious episode. He had +been an ardent Roman Catholic, and he had a +brother who was an equally ardent Protestant. +They argued with each other so earnestly that +each convinced the other; the Roman Catholic +became a Protestant, and the Protestant became +a Roman Catholic! Dr. Lancelot Andrewes, +chairman of one of the two companies that met +at Westminster, was probably the most learned +man in England. They said of him that if he +had been present at the tower of Babel he could +have interpreted for all the tongues present. +The only trouble was that the world lacked +learning enough to know how learned he was. +His company had the first part of the Old +Testament, and the simple dignity of the style +they used shows how scholarship and simplicity +go easily together. Most people would consider +that the least satisfactory part of the work is +the second section, running from I Chronicles +to Ecclesiastes. A convert from another faith, +who learned to read the Bible in English, once +expressed to a friend of my own his feeling that +except for the Psalms and parts of Job, there +seemed to be here a distinct letting-down of the +dignity of the translation. There is good excuse +for this, if it is so, for two leading members +of the company who had that section in charge, +both eminent Cambridge scholars, died very +early in the work, and their places were not +filled. The third company, sitting at Oxford, +were peculiarly strong, and had for their portion +the hardest part of the Old Testament--all the +prophetical writings. But they did their part +with finest skill. The fourth company, sitting at +Cambridge, had the Apocrypha, the books which +lie between the Old and the New Testaments +for the most part, or else are supplemental to +certain Old Testament books. Their work was +rather hastily and certainly poorly done, and +has been dropped out of most editions. The +fifth company, sitting at Oxford, with great +Greek scholars on it, took the Gospels, the Acts, +and the Revelation. This company had in it +the one layman, Sir Henry Savile, then the greatest +Greek scholar in England. It is the same +Sir Henry Savile who heard, on his death-bed +in 1621, that James had with his own hands +torn from the Journal of Parliament the pages +which bore the protest in favor of free speech +in Parliament. Hearing it, the faithful scholar +prayed to die, saying: "I am ready to depart, +the rather that having lived in good times I +foresee worse." The sixth company met at +Westminster and translated the New Testament +epistles. + +It was the original plan that when one company +had finished its part, the result should go +to each of the other companies, coming back +with their suggestions to the original workers to +be recast by them. The whole was then to be +reviewed by a smaller committee of scholars to +give it uniformity and to see it through the +press. The records are not extant that tell +whether this was done in full detail, though we +may presume that each section of the Scripture +had the benefit of the scholarship of the entire +company. + +We know a good deal of the method of their +work. We shall understand it better by recalling +what material they had at hand. They +were enabled to use the result of all the work +that had been done before them. They were +instructed to follow the Bishops' Bible wherever +they could do so fairly; but they were given +power to use the versions already named from +Wiclif down, as well as those fragmentary versions +which were numerous, and of which no +mention has been made. They ransacked all +English forms for felicitous words and happy +phrases. It is one of the interesting incidents +that this same Hugh Broughton, who was left +off the committee and took it so hard, yet without +his will contributed some important matter +to the translation, because he had on his own +authority made translations of certain parts of +the Scripture. Several of our capital phrases +in the King James version are from him. There +was no effort to break out new paths. Preference +was always given to a familiar phrase +rather than to a new one, unless accuracy required +it. First, then, they had the benefit of +all the work that had been done before in the +same line, and gladly used it. + +In addition, they had all other versions made +in the tongues of the time. Chiefly there was +Luther's German Bible, already become for the +German tongue what their version was destined +to be for the English tongue. There were parts +of the Bible available in Spanish, French, and +Dutch. They were kept at hand constantly +for any light they might cast on difficult passages. + +For the Old Testament there were very few +Hebrew texts. There had been little critical +work yet done on them, and for the most part +there were only different editions running back +over the centuries. We have little more than +that now, and there is almost no new material +on the Old Testament since the days of the +King James translators. There was, of course, +the Septuagint, the Greek translation from the +Hebrew made before Christ, with the guidance +it could give in doubtful places on the probable +original. And finally there was the Vulgate, +made into Latin out of the Greek and Hebrew. +This was all the Old Testament material they +had, or that any one could have in view of the +antiquated original sources. + +The New Testament material was more +abundant, though not nearly so abundant as +to-day. There were few manuscripts of the +early days to which they could refer; but there +were the two great critical versions of the New +Testament in Greek, that by Erasmus and the +Complutensian, which had made use of the best +manuscripts known. Then, finally again, there +was the Vulgate. + +We must stop a moment to see what was the +value of the Vulgate in this work. It is impossible +to reckon the number of the early New +Testament manuscripts that have been lost. +In the earlier day the Scriptures were transmitted +from church to church, and from age to +age, by manuscripts. Many of them were +made as direct copies of other manuscripts; but +many were made by scribes to whom the manuscripts +were read as they wrote, so that there are +many, though ordinarily comparatively slight, +variations among the manuscripts which we now +know. More manuscripts are coming to light +constantly, manuscripts once well known and +then lost. Many of them, perhaps many earlier +than we now have, must have been familiar to +Jerome four hundred years after Christ. When, +therefore, there is a plain difference between the +Vulgate and our early Greek manuscripts, the +Vulgate may be wrong because it is only a translation; +but it may be right because it is a translation +of earlier manuscripts than some of ours. +It is steadily losing its value at that point, for +Greek manuscripts are all the time coming to +light which run farther back. But we must not +minimize the value of the Vulgate for our King +James translation. + +With all this material the scholars of the early +seventeenth century set to work. Each man +in the group made the translation that seemed +best to him, and together they analyzed the +results and finally agreed on the best. They +hunted the other versions to see if it had been +better done elsewhere. The shade of Tindale +was over it all. The Genevan version was most +influential. The Douai had its share, and the +Bishops' was the general standard, altered only +when accuracy required it. On all hard passages +they called to their aid the appropriate departments +of both universities. All scholars everywhere +were asked to send in any contributions, +to correct or criticize as they would. Public +announcement of the work was made, and all +possible help was besought and gladly accepted. + +Very faithfully these greatest scholars of their +time wrought. No one worked for money, and +no one worked for pay, but each for the joy of +the working. Three years they spent on the +original work, three years on careful revision +and on the marginal references by which Scripture +was made to throw light on Scripture. +Then in six months a committee reviewed it all, +put it through the press, and at last, in 1611, +with the imprint of Robert Barker, Printer to +the King's Most Excellent Majesty, the King +James version appeared. The name Authorized +Version is not a happy one, for so far as the +records go it was never authorized either by +the King or the bishop; and, even if it were, the +authority does not extend beyond the English +Church, which is a very small fraction of those +who use it. On the title-page of the original +version, as on so many since, is the familiar +line, "Appointed to be Read in Churches," but +who made the appointment history does not say. + +The version did not at once supersede the +Genevan and the Bishops'; but it was so +incomparably better than either that gradually +they disappeared, and by sheer excellence it +took the field, and it holds the field to-day in +spite of the numerous supposedly improved versions +that have appeared under private auspices. +It holds the field, also, in spite of the excellent +revised version of 1881 made by authority, and +the more excellent version issued in 1901 by the +American Revision Committee, to-day undoubtedly +the best version in existence, considered +simply as a reproduction of the sense +of the original. And for reasons that may later +appear, the King James version bids fair to +hold the field for many years to come. + +When we turn from the history of its making +to the work itself, there is much to say. We +may well narrow our thought for the remainder +of the study to its traits as a version of the +Bible. + +I. Name this first, that it is an honest version. +That is, it has no argumentative purpose. It +is not, as the scholars say, apologetic. It is +simply an out-and-out version of the Scripture, +as honestly as they could reproduce it. +There were Puritans on the committee; there +were extreme High Churchmen; there were +men of all grades between. But there is nowhere +any evidence that any one was set on +making the Bible prove his point. There were +strong anti-papal believers among them; but +they made free use of the Douai version, and, +of course, of the Vulgate. They knew the feeling +that Hugh Broughton had toward them; +but they made generous use of all that was good +in his work. They were working under a royal +warrant, and their dedication to King James, +with its absurd and fulsome flattery, shows what +they were capable of when they thought of the +King. But there is no twist of a text to make +it serve the purposes of royalty. They might +be servile when they thought of King James; +but there was not a touch of servility in them +when they thought of the Scripture itself. They +were under instruction not to abandon the use +of ecclesiastical terms. For instance, they were +not to put "congregation" in place of "church," +as some Puritans wanted to do. Some thought +that was meant to insure a High Church version; +but the translators did not understand it +so for a moment. They understood it only to +safeguard them against making a partisan version +on either side, and to help them to make +a version which the people could read understandingly +at once. It was not to be a Puritan +Book nor a High Church Book. It was to +be an honest version of the Bible, no matter +whose side it sustained. + +Now, if any one thinks that is easy, or only +a matter of course, he plainly shows that he has +never been a theologian or a scholar in a contested +field. Ask any lawyer whether it is easy +to handle his authorities with entire impartiality, +whether it is a matter of course that he will let +them say just what they meant to say when his +case is involved. Of course, he will seek to do +it as an honest lawyer, but equally, of course, he +will have to keep close watch on himself or he +will fail in doing it. Ask any historian whether +it is easy to handle the original documents in a +field in which he has firm and announced +opinions, and to let those documents speak exactly +what they mean to say, whether they support +him or not. The greater historians will always +do it, but they will sometimes do it with a bit +of a wrench. + +Even a scholar is human, and these men sitting +in their six companies would all have to +meet this Book afterward, would have their +opinions tried by it. There must have been +times when some of them would be inclined to +salt the mine a little, to see that it would yield +what they would want it to yield later. So far +as these men were able to do it, they made it +say in English just what it said in Hebrew and +Greek. They showed no inclination to use it +as a weapon in their personal warfare. + +One line of that honest effort is worth observing +more closely. When points were open to +fair discussion, and scholarship had not settled +them, they were careful not to let their version +take sides when it could be avoided. On some +mooted words they did not try translation, but +transliteration instead. That is, they brought +the Greek or Hebrew word over into English, +letter by letter. Suppose scholars differed as to +the exact meaning in English of a word in the +Greek. Some said it has this meaning, and some +that it has that. Now, if the version committed +itself to one of those meanings, it became an +argument at once against the other and helped +to settle a question on which scholarship was not +yet agreed. They could avoid making a partisan +Book by the simple device of bringing the +word which was disputed over into the new +translation. That left the discussion just where +it was before, but it saved the work from being +partisan. The method of transliteration did not +always work to advantage, as we shall see, but +it was intended throughout to save the Book +from taking sides on any question where honest +men might differ as to the meaning of words. + +They did that with all proper names, and +that was notable in the Old Testament, because +most Old Testament proper names can be translated. +They all mean something in themselves. +Adam is the Hebrew word for man; Abraham +means Father of a Great Multitude; David is +the Hebrew word for Beloved; Malachi means +My Messenger. Yet as proper names they do +not mean any of those things. It is impossible +to translate a proper name into another tongue +without absurdity. It must be transliterated. +Yet there is constant fascination for translators +in the work of translating these proper names, +trying to make them seem more vivid. It is +quite likely, though it is disputed, that proper +names do all go back to simple meanings. But +by the time they become proper names they no +longer have those meanings. The only proper +treatment of them is by transliteration. + +The King James translators follow that same +practice of transliteration rather than translation +with another word which is full of controversial. +possibility. I mean the word "baptism." +There was dispute then as now about +the method of that ordinance in early Christian +history. There were many who held that the +classical meaning which involved immersion had +been taken over bodily into the Christian faith, +and that all baptism was by immersion. There +were others who held that while that might be +the classical meaning of the word, yet in early +Christian custom baptism was not by immersion, +but might be by sprinkling or pouring, and who +insisted that no pressure on the mode was wise +or necessary. That dispute continues to this +day. Early versions of the Bible already figured +in the discussion, and for a while there was +question whether this King James version should +take sides in that controversy, about which men +equally loyal to truth and early Christian history +could honestly differ. The translators +avoided taking sides by bringing the Greek +word which was under discussion over into +English, letter by letter. Our word "baptism" +is not an English word nor a Saxon word; it +is a purely Greek word. The controversy has +been brought over into the English language; +but the King James version avoided becoming +a controversial book. A number of years ago +the convictions of some were so strong that another +version of the Bible was made, in which +the word baptism was carefully replaced by +what was believed to be the English translation, +"immersion," but the version never had +wide influence. + +In this connection it is well to notice the +effort of the King James translators at a fair +statement of the divine name. It will be remembered +that it appears in the Old Testament +ordinarily as "LORD," printed in small capitals. +A very interesting bit of verbal history lies back +of that word. The word which represents the +divine name in Hebrew consists of four +consonants, J or Y, H, V, and H. There are no +vowels; indeed, there were no vowels in the +early Hebrew at all. Those that we now have +were added not far from the time of Christ. +No one knows the original pronunciation of that +sacred name consisting of four letters. At a +very early day it had become too sacred to pronounce, +so that when men came to it in reading +or in speech, they simply used another word +which is, translated into English, Lord, a word of +high dignity. When the time came that vowels +were to be added to the consonants, the vowels +of this other word Lord were placed under the +consonants of the sacred name, so that in the +word Jehovah, where the J H V H occur, there +are the consonants of one word whose vowels +are unknown and the vowels of another word +whose consonants are not used. + +Illustrate it by imagining that in American +literature the name Lincoln gathered to itself +such sacredness that it was never pronounced +and only its consonants were ever printed. Suppose +that whenever readers came to it they +simply said Washington, thinking Lincoln all +the while. Then think of the displacement of +the vowels of Lincoln by the vowels of Washington. +You have a word that looks like Lancilon +or Lanicoln; but a reader would never +pronounce so strange a word. He would always +say Washington, yet he would always think the +other meaning. And while he would retain the +meaning in some degree, he would soon forget +the original word, retaining only his awe of it. +Which is just what happened with the divine +name. The Hebrews knew it was not Lord, yet +they always said Lord when they came to the +four letters that stood for the sacred word. +The word Jehovah, made up of the consonants +of an unknown word and the vowels of a familiar +word, is in itself meaningless. Scholarship +is not yet sure what was the original meaning +of the sacred name with its four consonants. + +These translators had to face that problem. +It was a peculiar problem at that time. How +should they put into English the august name of +God when they did not know what the true +vowels were? There was dispute among scholars. +They did not take sides as our later American +Revision has done, some of us think quite unwisely. +They chose to retain the Hebrew usage, +and print the divine name in unmistakable type +so that its personal meaning could not be mistaken. + +On the other hand, disputes since their day +have shown how they translated when transliteration +would have been wiser. Illustrate with +one instance. There is a Hebrew word, Sheol, +with a Greek word, Hades, which corresponds to +it. Usage had adopted the Anglo-Saxon word +Hell as the equivalent of both of these words, +so they translated Sheol and Hades with the +English word Hell. The only question that had +been raised was by that Hugh Broughton of +whom we were speaking a moment ago, and it +had not seemed a serious one. Certainly the +three terms have much in common, and there +are places where both the original words seemed +to be virtually equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon +Hell, but they are not the same. The Revised +Version of our own time returned to the original, +and instead of translating those words whose +meaning can be debated, it transliterated them +and brought the Hebrew word Sheol and the +Greek word Hades over into English. That, +of course, gave a chance for paragraphers to say +that the Revised Version had read Hell out of +the Scriptures. All that happened was that +cognizance was taken of a dispute which would +have guided the King James translators if it +had existed in their time, and we should not +have become familiar with the Anglo-Saxon +word Hell as the translation of those disputed +Hebrew and Greek words. + +We need not seek more instances. These are +enough to illustrate the saying that here is an +honest version, the fruit of the best scholarship +of the times, without prejudice. + +II. A second trait of the work as a version is +its remarkable accuracy. It is surprising that +with all the new light coming from early documents, +with all the new discoveries that have +been made. the latest revision needed to make +so few changes, and those for the most part +minor ones. There are, to be sure, some important +changes, as we shall see later; the wonder +is that there are not many more. The King +James version had, to be sure, the benefit of +all the earlier controversy. The whole ground +had been really fought over in the centuries +before, and most of the questions had been discussed. +They frankly made use of all the earlier +controversy. They say in their preface: "Truly, +good Christian reader, we never thought from +the beginning that we should need to make a +new translation, nor yet to make a bad one a +good one, but to make a good one better. That +hath been our endeavor, that our work." Also, +they had the advantage of deliberation. This +was the first version that had been made which +had such sanction that they could take their +time, and in which they had no reason to fear +that the results would endanger them. They +say in their preface that they had not run over +their work with that "posting haste" that had +marked the Septuagint, if the saying was true +that they did it all in seventy-two days; nor +were they "barred and hindered from going over +it again," as Jerome himself said he had been, +since as soon as he wrote any part "it was +snatched away from him and published"; nor +were they "working in a new field," as Origen +was when he wrote his first commentary on the +Bible. Both these things--their taking advantage +of earlier controversies which had cleared +many differences, and their deliberation--were +supplemented by a third which gave great accuracy +to the version. That was their adoption +of the principle of all early translators, perhaps +worded best by Purvey, who completed the +Wiclif version: "The best translation is to +translate after the sentence, and not only after +the words, so that the sentence be as open in +English as in Latin." That makes for accuracy. +It is quite impossible to put any language over, +word for word, into another without great +inaccuracy. But when the translators sought to +take the sentence of the Hebrew or the Greek +and put it into an exactly equivalent English +sentence, they had larger play for their language +and they had a fairer field for accuracy. These +were the three great facts which made the +remarkable accuracy possible, and it may be +interesting to note three corresponding results +which show the effort they made to be absolutely +accurate and fair in their translation. + +The first of those results is visible in the +italicized words which they used. In the King +James version words in italics are a frank acknowledgment that +the Greek or the Hebrew +cannot be put into English literally. These are +English words which are put in because it seems +impossible to express the meaning originally +intended without certain additions which the +reader must take into account in his +understanding of the version. We need not think +far to see how necessary that was. The arrangement +of words in Greek, for example, is different +from that in English. The Greek of the +first verse of the Gospel of John reads that "God +was the Word," but the English makes its sentences +in a reversed form, and it really means, +"the Word was God." So the Greek uses particles +where the English does not. Often it +would say "the God" where we would say +simply "God." Those particles are ordinarily +wisely omitted. So the Greek does not use verbs +at some points where it is quite essential that +the English shall use them. But it is only fair +that in reading a version of the Scripture we +should know what words have been put in by +translators in their effort to make the version +clear to us; and the italicized words of the King +James version are a frank effort to be accurate +and yet fair. + +The second result which shows their effort at +accuracy is in the marginal readings. Most of +these are optional readings, and are preceded +by the word "or," which indicates that one may +read what is in the text, or substitute for it what +is in the margin with equal fairness to the +original. But sometimes, instead of that familiar +"or," occur letters which indicate that +the Hebrew or the Greek literally means something +else than what is given in the English +text, and what it literally means is given in the +margin. The translators thereby say to the +reader that if he can take that literal meaning +and put it into the text so that it is intelligible +to him, here is his chance. As for them, they +think that the whole context or meaning of the +sentence rather involves the use of the phrase +which they put into the text. But the marginal +references are of great interest to most of us +as showing how these men were frank to say +that there were some things they could not +settle. They were rather blamed for it, chiefly +by those who had committed themselves to the +Douai version, which has no marginal readings, +on the ground that the translation ought to be +as authoritative as the original. The King +James translators repudiate that theory and +frankly say that the reason they put these +words in the margin was because they were not +sure what was the best reading. In the margin +of the epistle to the Romans there are eighty- +four such marginal readings, and the proportion +will hold throughout most of the version. They +were only trying to be accurate and to give every +one a chance to make up his own mind where +there was fair reason to question their results. + +The third thing which shows their effort at +accuracy is their explicit avoidance of +uniformity in translating the same word. They +tried to put the meaning into English terms. +So, as they say, the one word might become +either "journeying" or "traveling"; one word +might be "thinking" or "supposing," "joy" or +"gladness," "eternal" or "everlasting." One +of the reasons they give for this is quaint enough +to quote. They said they did not think it right +to honor some words by giving them a place +forever in the Bible, while they virtually said +to other equally good words: Get ye hence and +be banished forever. They quote a "certaine +great philosopher" who said that those logs +were happy which became images and were worshiped, +while, other logs as good as they were +laid behind the fire to be burned. So they +sought to use as many English words, familiar +in speech and commonly understood, as they +might, lest they should impoverish the language, +and so lose out of use good words. There is no +doubt that in this effort both to save the language, +and to represent accurately the meaning +of the original, they sometimes overdid that +avoidance of uniformity. There were times +when it would have been well if the words had +been more consistently translated. For example, +in the epistle of James ii: 2, 3, you have goodly +"apparel," vile "raiment," and gay "clothing," +all translating one Greek word. Our revised +versions have sought to correct such inconsistencies. +But it was all done in the interest +of an accuracy that should yet not be a slavish +uniformity. + +This will be enough to illustrate what was +meant in speaking of the effort of the translators +to achieve accuracy in their version. + +III. The third marked trait of the work as +a version of the Scripture is its striking blending +of dignity and popularity in its language. At +any period of a living language, there are three +levels of speech. There is an upper level used +by the clearest thinkers and most careful writers, +always correct according to the laws of the language, +generally somewhat remote from common +life--the habitual speech of the more intellectual. +There is also the lower level used by the +least intellectual, frequently incorrect according +to the laws of the language, rough, containing +what we now call "slang," the talk of a knot of +men on the street corner waiting for a new bulletin +of a ball game, cheap in words, impoverished +in synonyms, using one word to express any +number of ideas, as slang always does. Those +two levels are really farther apart than we are +apt to realize. A book or an article on the upper +level will be uninteresting and unintelligible to +the people on the lower level. And a book in +the language of the lower level is offensive and +disgusting to those of the upper level. That is +not because the ideas are so remote, but because +the characteristic expressions are almost unfamiliar +to the people of the different levels. +The more thoughtful people read the abler +journals of the day; they read the editorials or +the more extended articles; they read also the +great literature. If they take up the sporting +page of a newspaper to read the account of a +ball game written in the style of the lower level +of thought, where words are misused in disregard +of the laws of the language, and where one +word is made to do duty for a great many ideas, +they do it solely for amusement. They could +never think of finding their mental stimulus in +that sort of thing. On the other hand, there are +people who find in that kind of reading their +real interest. If they should take up a +thoughtful editorial or a book of essays, they would +not know what the words mean in the connection +in which they are used. They speak a good deal +about the vividness of this lower-level language, +about its popularity; they speak with a sneer +about the stiffness and dignity of that upper +level. + +These are, however, only the two extremes, +for there is always a middle level where move +words common to both, where are avoided the +words peculiar to each. It is the language that +most people speak. It is the language of the +street, and also of the study, of the parlor, and +of the shop. But it has little that is peculiar +to either of those other levels, or to any one +place where a man may live his life and do his +talking. If we illustrate from other literature, +we can say that Macaulay's essays move on the +upper level, and that much of the so-called popular +literature of our day moves on the lower +level, while Dickens moves on the middle level, +which means that men whose habitual language +is that of the upper and the lower levels can both +enter into the spirit of his writing. + +Now, originally the Bible moved on that middle +level. It was a colloquial book. The languages +in which it first appeared were not in the +classic forms. They are the languages of the +streets where they were written. The Hebrew +is almost our only example of the tongue at its +period, but it is not a literary language in any +case. The Greek of the New Testament is not +the Eolic, the language of the lyrics of Sappho; +nor the Doric, the language of war-songs or the +chorus in the drama; nor the Ionic, the dialect of +epic poetry; but the Attic Greek, and a corrupted +form of that, a form corrupted by use in +the streets and in the markets. + +That was the original language of the Bible, +a colloquial language. But that fact does not +determine the translation. Whether it shall be +put into the English language on the upper +level or on the lower level is not so readily +determined. Efforts have been made to put it +into the language of each level. We have a so- +called elegant translation, and we have the +Bible cast into the speech of the common day. +The King James version is on the middle level. +It is a striking blending of the dignity of the +upper level and the popularity of the lower level. + +There is tremendous significance in the fact +that these men were making a version which +should be for all people, making it out in the +open day with the king and all the people behind +them. It was the first independent version +which had been made under such favorable +circumstances. Most of the versions had been +made in private by men who were imperiling +themselves in their work. They did not expect +the Book to pass into common use; they knew +that the men who received the result of their +work would have to be those who were earnest +enough to go into secret places for their reading. +But here was a changed condition. These men +were making a version by royal authority, a +version awaited with eager interest by the people +in general. The result is that it is a people's +Book. Its phrases are those of common life, +those that had lived up to that time. It is not +in the peculiar language of the times. If you +want to know the language of their own times, +read these translators' servile, unhistorical dedication to the +king, or their far nobler preface to +the reader. That is the language peculiar to +their own day. But the language of the Bible +itself is that form which had lived its way into +common use. One hundred years after Wiclif +it yet speaks his language in large part, for +that part had really lived. In the Bibliotheca +Pastorum Ruskin makes comment on Sir Philip +Sidney and his metrical version of the Psalms in +these words: "Sir Philip Sidney will use any +cow-boy or tinker words if they only help him +to say precisely in English what David said in +Hebrew; impressed the while himself so vividly +of the majesty of the thought itself that no +tinker's language can lower it or vulgarize it in +his mind." The King James translators were +most eager to say what the original said, and +to say it so that the common man could well +understand it, and yet so that it should not be +vulgarized or cheapened by adoption of cheap +words. + +In his History Hallam passes some rather +sharp strictures on the English of the King James +version, remarking that it abounds in uncouth +phrases and in words whose meaning is not +familiar, and that whatever is to be said it is, +at any rate, not in the English of the time of +King James. And that latter saying is true, +though it must be remembered that Hallam +wrote in the period when no English was recognized +by literary people except that of the upper +level, when they did not know that these so- +called uncouth phrases were to return to common +use. To-day it would be absurd to say +that the Bible is full of uncouth phrases. +Professor Cook has said that "the movement of +English diction, which in the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries was on the whole away +from the Bible, now returns with ever-accelerating +speed toward it." If the phrases went out, +they came back. But it is true that the English +of the King James version is not that of the time +of James I., only because it is the English of the +history of the language. It has not immortalized +for us the tongue of its times, because it has +taken that tongue from its beginning and determined +its form. It carefully avoided words +that were counted coarse. On the other hand, +it did not commit itself to words which were +simply refinements of verbal construction. That, +I say, is a general fact. + +It can be illustrated in one or two ways. For +instance, a word which has become common to +us is the neuter possessive pronoun "its." That +word does not occur in the edition of 1611, and +appears first in an edition in the printing of +1660. In place of it, in the edition of 1611, the +more dignified personal pronoun "his" or "her" +is always used, and it continues for the most +part in our familiar version. In this verse you +notice it: "Look not upon the wine when it is +red; when it giveth HIS color aright in the cup." +In the Levitical law especially, where reference +is made to sacrifices, to the articles of the furniture +of the tabernacle, or other neuter objects, +the masculine pronoun is almost invariably +used. In the original it was invariably used. +You see the other form in the familiar verse +about charity, that it "doth not behave itself +unseemly, seeketh not HER own, is not easily +provoked." Now, there is evidence that the +neuter possessive pronoun was just coming into +use. Shakespeare uses it ten times in his works, +but ten times only, and a number of writers do +not use it at all. It was, to be sure, a word +beginning to be heard on the street, and for the +most part on the lower level. The King James +translators never used it. The dignified word +was that masculine or feminine pronoun, and +they always use it in place of the neuter. + +On the other hand, there was a word which was +coming into use on the upper level which has become +common property to us now. It is the word +"anxiety." It is not certain just when it came +into use. I believe Shakespeare does not use it; +and it occurs very little in the literature of the +times. Probably it was known to these translators. +When they came, however, to translating +a word which now we translate by "anxious" +or "anxiety" they did not use that word. +It was not familiar. They used instead the word +which represented the idea for the people of the +middle level; they used the word "thought." +So they said, "Take no thought for the morrow," +where we would say, "Be not anxious for +the morrow." There is a contemporary +document which illustrates how that word "thought" +was commonly used, in which we read: "In five +hundred years only two queens died in child +birth, Queen Catherine Parr having died rather +of thought." That was written about the time +of the King James version, and "thought" +evidently means worry or anxiety. Neither of +those words, the neuter possessive pronoun or +the new word "anxious," got into the King James +version. One was coming into proper use from +the lower level, and one was coming into proper +use from the upper level. They had not yet +so arrived that they could be used. + +One result of this care to preserve dignity and +also popularity appears in the fact that so few +words of the English version have become obsolete. +Words disappear upward out of the upper +level or downward out of the lower level, but it +takes a long time for a word to get out of a +language once it is in confirmed use on the middle +level. Of course, the version itself has tended +to keep words familiar; but no book, no matter +how widely used, can prevent some words from +passing off the stage or from changing their +meaning so noticeably that they are virtually +different words. Yet even in those words which +do not become common there is very little tendency +to obsolescence in the King James version. +More words of Shakespeare have become obsolete +or have changed their meanings than in the +King James version. + +There is one interesting illustration to which +attention has been called by Dr. Davidson, +which is interesting. In the ninth chapter of +the Judges, where we are told about Abimelech, +the fifty-third verse reads that a woman cast a +stone down from the wall and "all to break his +skull." That is confessedly rather obscure. +Our ordinary understanding of it would be that +she did that for no other purpose than just to +break the skull of Abimelech. As a matter of +fact, that expression is a printer's bungling way +of giving a word which has become obsolete in +the original form. When the King James translators +wrote that, they used the word "alto," +which is evidently the beginning of "altogether," +or wholly or utterly, and what they +meant was that she threw the stone and utterly +broke his skull. But that abbreviated form of +the word passed out of use, and when later +printers--not much later--came to it they did +not know what it meant and divided it as it +stands in our present text. It is one of the few +words that have become obsolete. But so few +are there of them, that it was made a rule of +the Revised Version not to admit to the new +version, where it could be avoided, any word +not already found in the Authorized Version, +and also not to omit from the Revised Version, +except under pressure of necessity, any word +which occurred there. It is largely this blending +of dignity and popularity that has made the +King James version so influential in English +literature. It talks the language not of the +upper level nor of the lower level, but of that +middle level where all meet sometimes and +where most men are all the while. + +These are great traits to mark a book, any +book, but especially a translation--that it is +honest, that it is accurate, and that its language +blends dignity and popularity so that it lowers +the speech of none. They are all conspicuous +traits of our familiar version of the Bible, and +in them in part lies its power with the generations +of these three centuries that have followed its +appearance. + + + +LECTURE III + +THE KING JAMES VERSION AS ENGLISH LITERATURE + +LET it be plainly said at the very first that +when we speak of the literary phases of +the Bible we are not discussing the book in its +historic meaning. It was never meant as literature +in our usual sense of the word. Nothing +could have been further from the thought of +the men who wrote it, whoever they were and +whenever they wrote, than that they were +making a world literature. They had the +characteristics of men who do make great literature-- +they had clear vision and a great passion for +truth; they loved their fellows mightily, and +they were far more concerned to be understood +than to speak. These are traits that go to make +great writers. But it was never in their minds +that they were making a world literature. The +Bible is a book of religious significance from +first to last. If it utterly broke down by the +tests of literature, it might be as great a book +as it needs to be. It is a subordinate fact that +by the tests of literature it proves also to be +great. Prof. Gardiner, of Harvard, whose book +called The Bible as English Literature makes +other such works almost unnecessary, frankly +bases his judgment on the result of critical study +of the Bible, but he serves fair warning that he +takes inspiration for granted, and thinks it +"obvious that no literary criticism of the Bible +could hope for success which was not reverent +in tone. A critic who should approach it superciliously +or arrogantly would miss all that has +given the Book its power as literature and its +lasting and universal appeal."[1] Farther over +in his book he goes on to say that when we +search for the causes of the feelings which made +the marvelous style of the Bible a necessity, +explanation can make but a short step, for "we +are in a realm where the only ultimate explanation +is the fact of inspiration; and that is only +another way of saying that we are in the presence +of forces above and beyond our present +human understanding."[2] + + +[1] Preface, p. vii. + +[2] Page 124. + + +However, we may fairly make distinction between +the Bible as an original work and the +Bible as a work of English literature. For the +Bible as an original work is not so much a book +as a series of books, the work of many men working +separately over a period of at least fifteen +hundred years, and these men unconscious for +the most part of any purpose of agreement. +This series of books is made one book in the +original by the unity of its general purpose and +the agreement of its parts. The Bible in English +is, however, not a series of books, but properly +one book, the work of six small groups of +men working in conscious unity through a short +period of years. And while there is variation in +style, while there are inequalities in result, yet +it stands as a single piece of English literature. +It has a literary style of its own, even though +it feels powerfully the Hebrew influence throughout. +And while it would not be a condemnation +of the Bible if it were not great literature in +English or elsewhere, it is still part of its power +that by literary standards alone it measures +large. + +It is so that men of letters have rated it since +it came into existence. "It holds a place of +pre-eminence in the republic of letters." When +John Richard Green comes to deal with it, he +says: "As a mere literary monument the English +version of the Bible remains the noblest language +of the English tongue, while its perpetual use +made of it from the instant of its appearance +the standard of our language."[1] And in Macaulay's +essay on Dryden, while he is deploring +the deterioration of English style, he yet says +that in the period when the English language +was imperiled there appeared "the English +Bible, a book which if everything else in our +language should perish would alone suffice to +show the extent of its beauty and power." + + +[1] Short History of the English People, Book vii, chap. i. + + +The mere fact that the English Bible contains +a religion does not affect its standing as literature. +Homer and Virgil are Greek and Roman +classics, yet each of them contains a definite +religion. You can build up the religious faith +of the Greeks and Romans out of their great +literature. So you can build up the religious +faith of the Hebrews and the early Christians +from the Old and New Testaments. "For fifteen +centuries a Hebrew Book, the Bible, contained +almost the whole literature and learning of a +whole nation," while it was also the book of +their religion. + +As literature, however, apart from its religious +connection, it is subject to any of the criteria +of literature. In so far it is the fair subject of +criticism. It must stand or fall when it enters +the realm of literature by the standards of other +books. Indeed, many questions regarding its +dates, the authorship of unassigned portions, the +meaning of its disputed passages may be +answered most fairly by literary tests. That +is always liable to abuse; but literary tests +are always liable to that. There have been +enough blunders made in the knowledge of us +all to require us to go carefully in such a matter. +The Waverley Novels were published anonymously, +and, while some suspected Scott at once, +others were entirely clear that on the ground of +literary style his authorship was entirely impossible! +Let a magazine publish an anonymous +serial, and readers everywhere are quick to +recognize the writer from his literary style and +his general ideas, but each group "recognizes" +a different writer. Arguments based chiefly on +style overlook the large personal equation in all +writing. The same writer has more than one +natural style. It is not until he becomes in a +certain sense affected--grows proud of his +peculiarities--that he settles down to one form. +And it is quite impossible to assign a book to +any narrow historical period on the ground of +its style alone. But though large emphasis +could be laid upon the literary merits of the +Bible to the obscuring of its other more important +merits, it is yet true that from the literary +point of view the Bible stands as an English +classic, indeed, as the outstanding English +classic. To acknowledge ignorance of it is to +confess one's self ignorant of our greatest literary +possession. + +A moment ago it was said that as a piece of +literature the Bible must accept the standards +of other literary books. For all present purposes +we can define great literature as worthy +written expression of great ideas. If we may +take the word "written" for granted, the rough +definition becomes this: that great literature is +the worthy expression of great ideas. Works +which claim to be great in literature may fail +of greatness in either half of that test. Petty, +local, unimportant ideas may be well clothed, +or great ideas may be unworthily expressed; in +either case the literature is poor. It is not until +great ideas are wedded to worthy expression +that literature becomes great. Failure at one +end or the other will explain the failure of most +of the work that seeks to be accounted literature. +The literary value of a book cannot be determined +by its style alone. It is possible to +say nothing gracefully, even with dignity, symmetry, +rhythm; but it is not possible to make +literature without ideas. Abiding literature +demands large ideas worthily expressed. Now, +of course, "large" and "small" are not words +that are usually applied to the measurement of +ideas; but we can make them seem appropriate +here. Let us mean that an idea is large or +small according to its breadth of interest to the +race and its length of interest to the race. If +there is an idea which is of value to all the +members of the human race to-day, and which +does not lose its value as the generations come +and go, that is the largest possible idea within +human thought. Transient literature may do +without those large ideas. A gifted young reporter +may describe a dog fight or a presidential +nominating convention in such terms as lift his +article out of carelessness and hasty newspaper +writing into the realm of real literature; but it +cannot become abiding literature. It has not a +large enough idea to keep it alive. And to any +one who loves worthy expression there is a sense +of degradation in the use of fine literary powers +for the description of purely transient local +events. It is always regrettable when men with +literary skill are available for the description of +a ball game, or are exploited as worthy writers +about a prize-fight. If a man has power to +express ideas well, he ought to use that power +for the expression of great ideas. + +Many of us have seen a dozen books hailed +as classic novels sure to live, each of them the +great American novel at last, the author to be +compared with Dickens and Thackeray and +George Eliot. And the books have gone the +way of all the earth. With some, the trouble +is a weak, involved, or otherwise poor style. +With most the trouble is lack of real ideas. +Charles Dickens, to be sure, does deal with +boarding-schools in England, with conditions +which in their local form do not recur and are +not familiar to us; but he deals with them as +involving a great principle of the relation of +society to youth, and so David Copperfield or +Oliver Twist becomes a book for the life of all +of us, and for all time. And even here it is +evident that not all of Dickens's work will live, +but only that which is least narrowly local and +is most broadly human. + +There is a further striking illustration in a +familiar event in American history. Most young +people are required to study Webster's speech +in reply to Robert Hayne in the United States +Senate, using it as a model in literary construction. +The speech of Hayne is lost to our interest, +yet the fact is that Hayne himself was +gifted in expression, that by the standards of +simple style his speech compares favorably with +that of Webster. Yet reading Webster's reply +takes one not to the local condition which was +concerning Hayne, but to a great principle of +liberty and union. He shows that principle +emerging in history; the local touches are lost +to thought as he goes on, and a truth is expressed +in terms of history which will be valid until +history is ended. It is not simply Webster's +style; it is that with his great idea which made +his reply memorable. + +That neither ideas nor style alone can keep +literature alive is shown by literary history after +Shakespeare. Just after him you have the +"mellifluous poets" of the next period on the +one hand, with style enough, but with such +attenuated ideas that their work has died. Who +knows Drayton or Brown or Wither? On the +other hand, there came the metaphysicians with +ideas in abundance, but not style, and their +works have died. + +Here, then, is the English Bible becoming the +chief English classic by the wedding of great +ideas to worthy expression. From one point of +view this early seventeenth century was an +opportune time for making such a classic. +Theology was a popular subject. Men's minds +had found a new freedom, and they used it to +discuss great themes. They even began to sing. +The reign of Elizabeth had prepared the way. +The English scholar Hoare traces this new liberty +to the sailing away of the Armada and the +releasing of England from the perpetual dread of +Spanish invasion. He says that the birds felt +the free air, and sang as they had never sung +before and as they have not often sung since. +But this was not restricted to the birds of +English song. It was a period of remarkable +awakening in the whole intellectual life of +England, and that intellectual life was directing +itself among the common people to religion. +Another English writer, Eaton, says a profounder +word in tracing the awakening to the reformation, +saying that it "could not fail, from the +very nature of it, to tinge the literature of the +Elizabethan era. It gave a logical and disputatious +character to the age and produced men +mighty in the Scriptures."[1] A French visitor +went home disgusted because people talked of +nothing but theology in England. Grotius +thought all the people of England were +theologians. James's chief pride was his theological +learning. It did not prove difficult to find +half a hundred men in small England instantly +recognized as experts in Scripture study. The +people were ready to welcome a book of great +ideas. Let us pass by those ideas a moment, +remembering that they are not enough in them- +selves to give the work literary value, and turn +our minds to the style of the English Bible. + + +[1] T. R. Eaton, Shakespeare and the Bible, p. 2. + + +From this point of view the times were not +perfectly opportune for a piece of pure English +literature, though it was the time which +produced Shakespeare. A definite movement was +on to refine the language by foreign decorations. +Not even Shakespeare avoids it always. No +writer of the time avoids it wholly. The +dedication of the King James version shows that +these scholars themselves did not avoid it. In +that dedication, and their preface, they give us +fine writing, striving for effect, ornamental +phrases characteristic of the time. Men were +feeling that this English language was rough and +barbarous, insufficient, needing enlargement by +the addition of other words constructed in a +foreign form. The essays of Lord Bacon are +virtually contemporaneous with this translation. +Macaulay says a rather hard word in calling +his style "odious and deformed,"[1] but when +one turns from Bacon to the English Bible there +is a sharp contrast in mere style, and it favors +the Bible. The contrast is as great as that which +Carlyle first felt between the ideas of Shakespeare +and those of the Bible when he said that +"this world is a catholic kind of place; the +Puritan gospel and Shakespeare's plays: such +a pair of facts I have rarely seen save out of one +chimerical generation."[2] And that gives point +to the word already quoted from Hallam that +the English of the King James version is not +the English of James I. + + +[1] Essay on John Dryden. + +[2] Historical Sketches, Hampton Court Conference. + + +Four things helped to determine the simplicity +and pure English--unornamented English--of +the King James version, made it, that +is, the English classic. Two of these things have +been dealt with already in other connections. +First, that it was a Book for the people, for the +people of the middle level of language; a work +by scholars, but not chiefly for scholars, intended +rather for the common use of common people. +Secondly, that the translators were constantly +beholden to the work of the past in this same +line. Where Wiclif's words were still in use +they used them. That tended to fix the language +by the use which had already become +natural. + +The other two determining influences must be +spoken of now. The third lies in the fact that +the English language was still plastic. It had +not fallen into such hard forms that its words +were narrow or restricted. The truth is that +from the point of view of pure literature the +Bible is better in English than it is in Greek or +Hebrew. That is, the English of the King +James version as English is better than the Greek +of the New Testament as Greek. As for the +Hebrew there was little development for many +generations; Renan thinks there was none at all. +The difference comes from the point of time in +the growth of the tongue when the Book was +written. The Greek was written when the +language was old, when it had differentiated its +terms, when it had become corrupted by outside +influence. The English version was written +when the language was new and fresh, when a +word could be taken and set in its meaning +without being warped from some earlier usage. +The study of the Greek Testament is always +being complicated by the effort to bring into its +words the classical meaning, when so far as the +writers of the New Testament were concerned +they had no interest in the classical meaning, +but only in the current meaning of those words. +In the English language there was as yet no +classical meaning; it was exactly that meaning +that these writers were giving the words when +they brought them into their version.[1] There is +large advantage in the fact that the age was not +a scientific one, that the language had not +become complicated. So it becomes interesting to +observe with Professor March that ninety-three +per cent. of these words, counting also repetitions, +are native English words. The language was new, +was still plastic. It had not been stiffened by +use. It received its set more definitely from +the English Bible than from any other one +work--more than from Shakespeare, whose influence +was second. + + +[1] Trevelyan, England under the Stuarts, p. 54, + + +The fourth fact which helped to determine its +English style is the loyalty of the translators to +the original, notably the Hebrew. It is a common +remark of the students of the original +tongues that the Hebrew and Greek languages +are peculiarly translatable. That is notable in +the Hebrew. It is not a language of abstract +terms. The tendency of language is always to +become vague, since we are lazy in the use of it. +We use one word in various ways, and a pet one +for many ideas. Language is always more concrete +in its earlier forms. In this period of the +concrete English language, then, the translation +was made from the Hebrew, which was also a +concrete, figurative language itself. The structure +of the Hebrew sentence is very simple. +There are no extended paragraphs in it. It is +somewhat different in the New Testament, +where these paragraphs are found, certainly in +the Pauline Greek; but even there the extended +sentences are broken into clauses which can be +taken as wholes. The English version shows +constantly the marks of the Hebrew influence in +the simplicity of its phrasing. Renan says that +the Hebrew "knows how to make propositions, +but not how to link them into paragraphs." So +the earlier Bible stories are like a child's way of +talking. They let one sentence follow another, +and their unity is found in the overflowing use +of the word "and"--one fact hung to another +to make a story, but not to make an argument. +In the first ten chapters of I Samuel, for example, +there are two hundred and thirty-eight verses; +one hundred and sixty of them begin with AND. +There are only twenty-six of the whole which +have no connective word that thrusts them back +upon the preceding verse. + +In the Hebrew language, also, most of the +emotions are connected either in the word used +or in the words accompanying it with the physical +condition that expresses it. Over and over +we are told that "he opened his mouth and +said," or, "he was angry and his countenance +fell." Anger is expressed in words which tell +of hard breathing, of heat, of boiling tumult, of +trembling. We would not trouble to say that. +The opening of the mouth to speak or the falling +of the countenance in anger, we would take +for granted. The Hebrew does not. Even in +the description of God you remember the terms +are those of common life; He is a shepherd when +shepherds are writing; He is a husbandman +threshing out the nations, treading the wine- +press until He is reddened with the wine--and +so on. That is the natural method of the Hebrew +language--concrete, vivid, never abstract, +simple in its phrasing. The King James translators +are exceedingly loyal to that original. + +Professor Cook, of Yale, suggests that four +traits make the Bible easy to translate into any +language: universality of interest, so that there +are apt to be words in any language to express +what it means, since it expresses nothing but +what men all talk about; then, the concreteness +and picturesqueness of its language, avoiding +abstract phrases which might be difficult to +reproduce in another tongue; then, the simplicity +of its structure, so that it can be taken +in small bits, and long complicated sentences +are not needed; and, finally, its rhythm, so that +part easily follows part and the words catch a +kind of swing which is not difficult to imitate. +That is a very true analysis. The Bible is the +most easily translated book there is, and has +become the classic for more languages than any +other one book. It is brought about in part in +our English version by the faithfulness of the +translators to the original. + + +Passing from these general considerations, +let us look directly at the English Bible itself +and its literary qualities. The first thing that +attracts attention is its use of words, and since +words lie at the root of all literature it is worth +while to stop for them for a moment. Two +things are to be said about the words: first, +that they are few; and, secondly, that they are +short. The vocabulary of the English Bible is +not an extensive one. Shakespeare uses from +fifteen to twenty thousand words. In Milton's +verse he uses about thirteen thousand. In the +Old Testament, in the Hebrew and Chaldaic +tongue, there are fifty-six hundred and forty- +two words. In the New Testament, in the Greek, +there are forty-eight hundred. But in the whole +of the King James version there are only about +six thousand different words. The vocabulary +is plainly a narrow one for a book of its size. +While, as was said before, the translators avoided +using the same word always for translation of +the same original, they yet managed to recur +to the same words often enough so that this +comparatively small list of six thousand words, +about one-third Shakespeare's vocabulary, sufficed +for the stating of the truth. + +Then, Secondly, the words are short, and in +general short words are the strong ones. The +average word in the whole Bible, including the +long proper names, is barely over four letters, +and if all the proper names are excluded the average +word is just a little under four letters. Of +course, another way of saying that is that the +words are generally Anglo-Saxon, and, while in +the original spelling they were much longer, yet +in their sound they were as brief as they are in +our present spelling. There is no merit in Anglo- +Saxon words except in the fact that they are +concrete, definite, non-abstract words. They +are words that mean the same to everybody; +they are part of common experience. We shall +see the power of such words by comparing a +simple statement in Saxon words from the +English Bible with a comment of a learned +theologian of our own time on them. The +phrase is a simple one in the Communion service: +"This is my body which is given for you." +That is all Saxon. When our theologian comes +to comment on it he says we are to understand +that "the validity of the service does not lie +in the quality of external signs and sacramental +representation, but in its essential property and +substantial reality." Now there are nine words +abstract in their meaning, Latin in their form. +It is in that kind of words that the Bible could +have been translated, and in our own day might +even be translated. Addison speaks of that: +"If any one would judge of the beauties of poetry +that are to be met with in the divine writings, +and examine how kindly the Hebrew manners of +speech mix and incorporate with the English +language, after having perused the Book of +Psalms, let him read a literal translation of +Horace or Pindar. He will find in these two +last such an absurdity and confusion of style +with such a comparative poverty of imagination, +as will make him very sensible of what I have +been here advancing."[1] + + +[1] The Spectator, No. 405. + + +The fact that the words are short can be +quickly illustrated by taking some familiar +sections. In the Ten Commandments there are +three hundred and nineteen words in all; two +hundred and fifty-nine of them are words of +one syllable, and only sixty are of two syllables +and over. There are fifty words of two syllables, +six of three syllables, of which four are such +composite words that they really amount to two +words of one and two syllables each, with four +words of four syllables, and none over that. +Make a comparison just here. There is a paragraph +in Professor March's lectures on the English +language where he is urging that its strongest +words are purely English, not derived from +Greek or Latin. He uses the King James version +as illustration. If, now, we take three +hundred and nineteen words at the beginning +of that paragraph to compare with the three +hundred and nineteen in the Ten Commandments, +the result will be interesting. Where +the Ten Commandments have two hundred and +fifty-nine words of one syllable, Professor March +has only one hundred and ninety-four; over +against the fifty two-syllable words in the Ten +Commandments, Professor March has sixty-five; +over against their six words of three syllables, +he has thirty-five; over against their four words +of four syllables, he uses eighteen; and while +the Ten Commandments have no word longer +than four syllables, Professor March needs five +words of five syllables and two words of six +syllables to express his ideas.[1] + + +[1] This table will show the comparison at a glance: + +Syllables 1 2 3 4 5 6 +The Commandments 259 50 6 4 0 0 319 +Professor March 194 65 35 18 5 2 319 + + +The same thing appears in the familiar 23d +Psalm, where there are one hundred and nineteen +words in all, of which ninety-five are words of +one syllable, and only three of three syllables, +with none longer. In the Sermon on the Mount +eighty two per cent. of the words in our English +version are words of one syllable. + +The only point urged now is that this kind of +thing makes for strength in literature. Short +words are strong words. They have a snap and a +grip to them that long words have not. Very few +men would grow angry over having a statement +called a "prevarication" or "a disingenuous +entanglement of ideas," but there is something +about the word "lie" that snaps in a man's +face. "Unjustifiable hypothecation" may be +the same as stealing, but it would never excite +one to be called "an unjustifiable hypothecator" +as it does to be called a thief. At the very +foundation of the strength of the literature of the +English Bible there lies this tendency to short, +clear-cut words. + +Rising now from this basal element in the +literature of the version, we come to the place +where its style and its ideas blend in what we +may call its earnestness. That is itself a literary +characteristic. There is not a line of trifling +in the book. No man would ever learn +trifling from it. It takes itself with tremendous +seriousness. Here are earnest men at work; +to them life is joyous, but it is no joke. That is +why the element of humor in it is such a small +one. It is there, to be sure. Many of its +similes are intended to be humorous. A few of +its incidents are humorous; but it has little +of that element in it, as indeed little of our literature has +that element markedly in it. We have +a few exceptions. But what George Eliot says +in Adam Bede is true, that wit is of a temporary +nature, and does not deal with the deep and +more lasting elements in life. The Bible is not +a sad book. There are children at play in it; +there are feasts and buoyant gatherings fully +recounted. But it never trifles nor jests. + +So it has given us a language of great dignity. +Let Addison speak again: "How cold and dead +does a prayer appear that is composed in the +most elegant and polite forms of speech, which +are natural to our tongue, when it is not heightened +by that solemnity of phrase which may be +drawn from the sacred writings. It has been +said by some of the ancients that if the gods +were to talk with men, they would certainly +speak in Plato's style; but I think we may say, +with justice, that when mortals converse with +their Creator they cannot do it in so proper a +style as in that of the Holy Scriptures." + +As that earnestness of the literature of the +original precluded any great amount of humor +in the wide range of its literary forms, so in the +King James version it precluded any trifling expressions, any +plays on words, even the duplication +of such plays as can be found in the Hebrew +or the Greek. You seldom find any turn of a +word in the King James version, though you do +occasionally find it in the Hebrew. One such +punning expression occurs in the story of Samson +(Judges xv:16), where our version reads: +"With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, +with the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand +men." In the Hebrew the words translated +"ass" and "heaps" are variants of the +same word. It comes near the Hebrew to say: +"With the jawbone of an ass, masses upon +masses," and so on. These translators would +not risk reproducing such puns for fear of lowering +the dignity of their results. There is a +deadly seriousness about their work and so +they never lose strength as they go on. + +That earnestness grows out of a second fact +which may be emphasized--namely, the greatness +of the themes of Bible literature. Here is +history, but it is not cast into fiction form. +History always becomes more interesting for a first +reading when it is in the form of fiction; but it +always loses greatness in that form. Test it by +turning from a history of the American revolutionary +or civil war to an historical novel that +deals with the same period; or from a history +of Scotland to the Waverly novels. In some +degree the earnestness of the time is lost; the +same facts are there; but they do not loom so +large, nor do they seem so great. So there is +power in the fact that the historical elements +of the version are in stately form and are never +sacrificed to the fictional form. + +These great themes save the work from being +local. It issues from life, but from life +considered in the large. The themes of great +literature are great enough to make their immediate +surroundings forgotten. "The English +Bible deals with the great facts and the great +problems. It is from the point of view of those +great facts that it handles even commonplace +things, and you forget the commonplaceness of +the things in the greatness of the dealing. Take +its attitude toward God. One needs the sense of +that great theme to read it fairly. It quietly +overlooks secondary causes, goes back of them +to God. Partly that was because the original +writers were ignorant of some of those secondary +causes; partly that they knew them, but wanted +to go farther back. Take the most outstanding +instance, that of the Book of Jonah. All its +facts, without exception, can be told without +mention of God, if one cared to do it. But +there could not be anything like so great a story +if it is told that way. One of his biographers +says of Lincoln that there is nothing in his whole +career which calls for explanation in other than +a purely natural and human way. That is true, +if one does not care to go any farther back than +that. But the greatest story cannot be made +out of Lincoln's life on those terms. There is +not material enough; the life must be delocalized. +It can be told without that larger view, so that +it will be of interest to America and American +children, but not so that it will be of value to +generations of men in all countries and under all +circumstances if it is told on those terms. Part +of the greatness of Scripture, from a literary +point of view, is that it has such a tremendous +range of theme, and is saved from a mere narration +of local events by seeing those events in the +light of larger considerations. + +Let that stand for one of the great facts. +Now take one of the great problems. The thing +that makes Job so great a classic is the fact that, +while it is dealing with a character, he is standing +for the problem of undeserved suffering. A +man who has that before him, if he has at all +the gift of imagination, is sure to write in a far +larger way than when he is dealing with a man +with boils as though he were finally important. +One could deal with Job as a character, and do +a small piece of work. But when you deal +with Job as a type, a much larger opportunity +offers. + +It is these great ideas, as to either facts or +problems, that give the seriousness, the earnestness +to the literature of the Bible. Men +who express great ideas in literary form are not +dilettante about them. One of the English +writers just now prominent as an essayist is +often counted whimsical, trifling. One of his +near friends keenly resents that opinion, insists +instead that he is dead in earnest, serious to the +last degree, purposeful in all his work. What +makes that so difficult to believe is that there is +always a tone of chaffing in his essays. He +seems always to be making fun of himself or of +other people; and if he is dead in earnest he has +the wrong style to make great literature or +literature that will live long. + +It is that earnestness and greatness of theme +which puts the tang into the English of the +Bible. Coleridge says that "after reading Isaiah +or the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homer and Virgil +are disgustingly tame, Milton himself barely +tolerable." It need not be put quite so strongly +as that; but there is large warrant of fact in +that expression. + +Go a little farther in thought of the literary +characteristics of the Bible. Notice the variety +of the forms involved. Recall Professor Moulton's +four cardinal points in literature, all of it +taking one of these forms: either description, +when a scene is given in the words of the author, +as when Milton and Homer describe scenes +without pretending to give the words of the +actors throughout; or, secondly, presentation, +when a scene is given in the words of those who +took part in it, and the author does not appear, +as, of course, in the plays of Shakespeare, when +he never appears, but where all his sentiments +are put in the words of others. As between +those two, the Bible is predominantly a book +of description, the authors for the most part +doing the speaking, though there is, of course, +an element of presentation. Professor Moulton +goes on with the two other phases of literary +form: prose, moving in the region limited by +facts, as history and philosophy deal only with +what actually has existence; and poetry, which +by its Greek origin means creative literature. +He reminds us that, however literature starts, +these are the points toward which it moves, the +paths it takes. All four of them appear in the +literature of the English Bible. You have more +of prose and less of poetry; but the poetry is +there, not in the sense of rhyme, but in the sense +of real creative literature. + +A more natural way of considering the literature +has been followed by Professor Gardiner. +He finds four elements in the literature of the +Bible: its narrative, its poetry, its philosophizing, +and its prophecy. It is not necessary +for our purpose to go into details about that. +We shall have all we need when we realize that, +small as the volume of the book is, it yet does +cover all these types of literature. Its difference +from other books is that it deals with all of its +subjects so compactly. + +It will accent this fact of its variety if we note +the musical element in the literature of the Bible. +It comes in part from the form which marks +the original Hebrew poetry. It has become familiar +to say that it is not of the rhyming kind. +Rather it is marked by the balancing of phrases +or of ideas, so that it runs in couplets or in +triplets throughout. In the Psalms there is +always a balance of clauses. They are sometimes +adversative; sometimes they are simply +cumulative. Take several instances from the +119th Psalm, each a complete stanza of Hebrew +poetry; (verse 15) "I will meditate in thy precepts, and have +respect unto thy ways"; or this +(verse 23), "Princes also did sit and speak +against me: but thy servant did meditate in +thy statutes"; or this (verse 45), "And I will +walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts"; +(verse 51,) "The proud have had me greatly in +derision: yet have I not inclined from thy law." +Each presents a parallel or a contrast of ideas. +That is the characteristic mark of Hebrew poetry. +It results in a kind of rhythm of the English +which makes it very easy to set to music. +Some of it can be sung, though for some of it +only the thunder is the right accompaniment. +But it is not simply in the balance of phrases +that the musical element appears. Sometimes +it is in a natural but rhythmic consecution of +ideas. The 35th chapter of Isaiah, for example, +is not poetic in the Hebrew, yet it is remarkably +musical in the English. Read it aloud from +our familiar version: + + +"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be +glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and +blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, +and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of +Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of +Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the glory of the +Lord, and the excellency of our God. Strengthen ye +the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say +to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear +not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, +even God with a recompense; He will come and save +you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and +the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall +the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the +dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break +out, and streams in the desert. And the parched +ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land +springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where +each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And +a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be +called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not +pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring +men, though fools, shall not err therein. No +lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go +up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the +redeemed shall walk there: and the ransomed of the +Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and +everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain +joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee +away." + + +That can be set to music as it stands. You +catch the same form in the familiar 13th chapter +of I Corinthians, the chapter on Charity. +It could be almost sung throughout. This +musical element is in sharp contrast with much +else in the Scripture, where necessity does not +permit that literary form. For example, in the +Epistle to the Hebrews, which is argumentative +throughout, there is no part except its quotations +which has ever been set to music for uses in +Christian worship. It is rugged and protracted +in its form, and has no musical element about +it. The contrast within the Scripture of the +musical and the unmusical is a very marked +one. + +Add to the thought of the earnestness and +variety of the Scripture a word about the simplicity +of its literary expression. There is nothing +meretricious in its style. There is no effort +to say a thing finely. The translators have +avoided all temptation to grow dramatic in +reproducing the original. Contrast the actual +English Bible with the narratives or other literary +works that have been built up out of it. +Read all that the Bible tells about the loss +of Paradise, and then read Milton's "Paradise +Lost." Nearly all of the conceptions of Milton's +greatest poem are built up from brief +Scripture references. But Milton becomes subtle +in his analysis of motives; he enlarges greatly +on events. Scripture never does that. It gives +us very few analyses of motive from first to last. +That is not the method nor the purpose of +Scripture. It tells the story in terms that move +on the middle level of speech and the middle +level of understanding, while Milton labors with +it, complicates it, entangling it with countless + +details which are to the Scripture unimportant. +It goes straight to the simple and fundamental +elements in the account. Take a more modern +illustration. Probably the finest poem of its +length in the English language is Browning's +"Saul." It is built out of one incident and a +single expression in the Bible story of Saul and +David. The incident is David's being called +from his sheep to play his harp and to sing +before Saul in the fits of gloom which overcome +him; the expression is the single saying that +David loved Saul. Taking that incident and +that expression, Browning writes a beautiful +poem with many decorative details, with keen +analysis of motive, with long accounts of the +way David felt when he rendered his service, +and how his heart leaped or sang. Imagine +finding Browning's familiar phrases in Scripture: +"The lilies we twine round the harp-chords, +lest they snap neath the stress of the noontide-- +those sunbeams like swords"; "Oh, the wild joy +of living!" "Spring's arrowy summons," going +"straight to the aim." That is very well for +Browning, but it is not the Scripture way; it +is too complicated. All that the Bible says can +be said anywhere; Browning's "Saul" could not +possibly be reproduced in other languages. It +would need a glossary or a commentary to make +it intelligible. It is beautiful English, and great +because it has taken a great idea and clothed +it in worthy expression. But the simplicity of +the Bible narrative appears in sharp contrast +with it. In my childhood my father used to +tell of a man who preached on the creation, +and with great detail and much elaboration and +decoration told the story of creation as it is +suggested in the first chapter of Genesis. When it +was over he asked an old listener what he thought +of his effort, and the only comment was, "You +can't beat Moses!" Well, it would be difficult +to surpass these Bible writers in simplicity, in +going straight to the point, and making that +plain and leaving it. Where the Bible takes a +hundred words to tell the whole story Browning +takes several hundred lines to tell it. + +The simplicity of the Bible is largely because +there is so little abstract reasoning in it. Having +few or no abstract ideas, it does not need abstract +words. Rather, it groups its whole movement +around characters. Three eminent literary men +were once asked to select the best reviews of a +novel which had just appeared. One of the +three statements which they rated highest said +of the book that it "achieves the true purpose +of a novel, which is to make comprehensible the +philosophy of life of a whole community or race +of men by showing us how that philosophy accords +with the impulses and yearnings of typical +individuals." Few phrases could be more foreign +to Bible phrases than those. But there is +valuable suggestion in it for more than the +literature of the novel. That is exactly what the +Scripture does. Its reasoning is kept concrete +by the fact that it is dealing with characters +more than movements, and so it can speak in +concrete words. That always makes for simplicity. + +There are two elements common to the history +of literature about which a special word +is deserved. I mean the dramatic and the oratorical +elements. The difference between the +dramatic and the oratorical is chiefly that in +dramatic writing there is a scene in which many +take part, and in the oratorical writing one man +presents the whole scene, however dramatic the +surroundings. There is not a great deal of either +in the Scripture. There is no formal drama, +nothing that could be acted as it stands. It is +true, to be sure, that Job can be cast into dramatic +form by a sufficient manipulation, but it +is quite unlikely, in spite of some scholars, that +it was ever meant to be a formal drama for +action. It does move in cycles in the appearance +of its characters, and it does close in a way +to take one back to the beginning. It has many +marks of the drama, and yet it seems very unlikely +that it was ever prepared with that definitely +in mind. On the other hand, a most +likely explanation of the Song of Solomon is +that it is a short drama which appears in our +Bible without any character names, as though +you should take "Hamlet" and print it continuously, +indicating in no way the change of +speakers nor any movement. The effort has +been measurably successful to discover and insert +the names of the probable speakers. That +seems to be the one exception to the general +statement that there is no formal drama in the +Scripture. But there are some very striking +dramatic episodes, and they are made dramatic +for us very largely by the way they are told. +One of the earlier is in I Kings xviii:21-39. It +is almost impossible to read it aloud without +dramatic expression: + + +"And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, +How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord +be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. +And the people answered him not a word. Then +said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain +a prophet of the Lord; but Baal's prophets are four +hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give us +two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for +themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, +and put no fire under; and I will dress the other +bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: +and call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call +on the name of the Lord: and the God that answereth +by fire, let him be God. And all the people +answered and said, It is well spoken. And Elijah +said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock +for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are +many; and call on the name of your gods, but put +no fire under. And they took the bullock which +was given them, and they dressed it, and called on +the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, +O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that +answered. And they leaped upon the altar which +was made. And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah +mocked them, and said, Cry aloud; for he is a god; +either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or, he is in a +journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be +awakened. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves +after their manner with knives and lancets, +till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came +to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied +until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, +that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor +any that regarded. And Elijah said unto all the people, +Come near unto me. And all the people came +near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the +Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took +twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes +of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the +Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And +with the stones he built an altar in the name of the +Lord; and he made a trench about the altar, as great +as would contain two measures of seed. And he put +the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and +laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with +water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the +wood. And he said, Do it the second time. And +they did it the second time. And he said, Do it +the third time. And they did it the third time. +And the water ran round about the altar; and he +filled the trench also with water. And it came to +pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that +Elijah the prophet came near, and said, +Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be +known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that +I am thy servant, and that I have done all these +things at thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that +this people may know that thou art the Lord God, +and that thou hast turned their heart back again. +Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the +burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and +the dust, and licked up the water that was in the +trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell +on their faces: and they said, The Lord, he is the +God; the Lord, he is the God." + + +That is not simply a dramatic event; that is +a striking telling of it. It is more than a narrative. +In narrative literature the scene is accepted +as already constructed. In dramatic +literature such appeal is made to the imagination +that the reader reconstructs the scene for himself. +We are not told in this how Elijah felt, +or how he acted, nor how the people as a whole +looked, nor the setting of the scene; but if one +reads it with care it makes its own setting. The +scene constructs itself. + +The dramatic style does not prevail at most +important points of the Scripture, because it is +a fictitious style for the presenting of truth. It +inevitably suggests superficiality. Things actually +do not happen in life as they do in drama. + +One of our latest biographers says that a +scientific historian is always suspicious of dramatic +events.[1] They may be true, but they +are more liable to be afterthoughts, like the +bright answers we could have made to our opponents +if we had only thought of them at the +time. You never lose the sense of unreality in +the very construction of a drama. Life cannot +be crowded into two or three hours, and justice +does not come out as the drama makes it do. +So that at most important points of the Scripture +dramatic writing does not appear. The +account of the carrying away into captivity of +the children of Israel is at no point dramatic, +though you can see instantly what a great opportunity +there was for it. It is simply narrative. +It is noticeable that none of the accounts +of the crucifixion is at all dramatic. They are +all simply narrative. The imagination does not +immediately conjure up the scene. There may +be two reasons for that. One is that there are +involved several hours in which there is no +action recorded. The other is that by the time +the accounts were written the actual events +were submerged in importance by their unworded +meaning. The account of the conversion of +Paul, on the other hand, brief as it is, has at +least minor dramatic elements in it. On the +whole, the Old Testament is far more dramatic +than the New. + + +[1] McGiffert, Life of Martin Luther. + + +There is even less of the oratorical element in +the Scripture. There is, to be sure, a considerable +amount of quotation, and men do speak at +some length, but seldom oratorically. The +prophetical writings are generally too fragmentary +to suggest oratory, and the quotations in the +New Testament, especially from the preaching +of our Lord, are evidently for the most part +excerpts from longer addresses than are given. +There are few of the statements of Paul, as in +the 26th chapter of Acts, which could be delivered +oratorically; but here again the Old +Testament is more marked than the New. The +earliest specimen of oratory is also one of the +finest specimens. It is in the 44th chapter of +Genesis, and is the account of Judah's reply to +his unrecognized brother Joseph: + + +"Then Judah came near unto him, and said, O my +lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in +my lord's ears, and let not thine anger burn against +thy servant: for thou art even as Pharoah. My lord +asked his servants, saying, Have ye a father, or a +brother? And we said unto my lord, We have a +father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a +little one; and his brother is dead, and he alone is +left of his mother, and his father loveth him. And +thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down unto +me, that I may set mine eyes upon him. And we +said unto my lord, The lad cannot leave his father: +for if he should leave his father, his father would die. And thou +saidst unto thy servant, Except your +youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see +my face no more. And it came to pass when we +came up unto thy servant my father, we told him the +words of my lord. And our father said, Go again +and buy us a little food. And we said, We cannot +go down; if our youngest brother be with us, then we +will go down: for we may not see the man's face, +except our youngest brother be with us. And thy +servant my father said unto us, Ye know that my +wife bare me two sons: and the one went out from +me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces; and I +saw him not since: and if ye take this also from me, +and mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my gray +hairs with sorrow to the grave. Now therefore when +I come to thy servant my father, and the lad be not +with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's +life; it shall come to pass, when he seeth that the +lad is not with us, that he will die: and thy servants +shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our +father with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant +became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, +If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the +blame to my father for ever. Now therefore, I pray +thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my +lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go +up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I +see the evil that shall come on my father." + + +That is pure oratory, and it is greatly helped +by the English expression of it. Here our King +James version is finer than either of the other +later versions, as indeed it is in almost all these +sections where the phraseology is important for +the ear. + +We need not go farther. Part of these outstanding +characteristics come to our version +from the original, and might appear in any version +of the Bible. Yet nowhere do even these +original characteristics come to such prominence +as in the King James translation; and it adds +to them those that are peculiar to itself. + + + +LECTURE IV + +THE INFLUENCE OF THE KING JAMES VERSION +ON ENGLISH LITERATURE + +THE Bible is a book-making book. It is +literature which provokes literature. + +It would be a pleasure to survey the whole +field of literature in the broadest sense and to +note the creative power of the King James version; +but that is manifestly impossible here. +Certain limitations must be frankly made. +Leave on one side, therefore; the immense body +of purely religious literature, sermons, expositions, +commentaries, which, of course, are the +direct product of the Bible. No book ever +caused so much discussion about itself and its +teaching. That is because it deals with the +fundamental human interest, religion. It still +remains true that the largest single department +of substantial books from our English presses is +in the realm of religion, and after the purely +recreative literature they are probably most +widely read. Yet, they are not what we mean +at this time by the literary result of the English +Bible. + +Leave on one side also the very large body +of political and historical writing. Much of it +shows Bible influence. In the nature of the +case, any historian of the past three hundred +years must often refer to and quote from the +English Bible, and must note its influence. An +entire study could be devoted to the influence +of the English Bible on Green or Bancroft or +Freeman or Prescott--its influence on their +matter and their manner. Another could be +given to its influence on political writing and +speaking. No great orator of the day would fail +us of material, and the great political papers +and orations of the past would only widen the +field. Yet while some of this political and historical +writing is recognized as literature, most +of it can be left out of our thought just +now. + +It may aid in the limiting of the field to +accept what Dean Stanley said in another connection: +"By literature, I mean those great +works that rise above professional or commonplace +uses and take possession of the mind of +a whole nation or a whole age."[1] This is one +of the matters which we all understand until +we begin to define it; we know what we mean +until some one asks us. + + +[1] Thoughts that Breathe. + + +The literature of which we are thinking in this +narrower sense is in the sphere of art rather than +in the sphere of distinct achievement. De +Quincey's division is familiar: the literature of +knowledge, and the literature of power. The +function of the first is to teach; the function of +the second is to move. Professor Dowden +points out that between the two lies a third +field, the literature of criticism. It seeks both +to teach and to move. Our concern is chiefly +with De Quincey's second field--the literature +of power. In the first field, the literature of +knowledge, must lie all history, with Hume and +Gibbon; all science, with Darwin and Fiske; +all philosophy, with Spencer and William James; +all political writing, with Voltaire and Webster. +Near that same field must lie many of those +essays in criticism of which Professor Dowden +speaks. This which we omit, this literature of +knowledge, is powerful literature, though its +main purpose is not to move, but to teach. +We are only reducing our field so that we can +survey it. For our uses just now we shall +find pure literature taking the three standard +forms: the poem, the essay, and the story. It +is the influence of the English Bible on this +large field of literature which we are to observe. + +Just for safety's sake, accept another narrowing +of the field. The effect of the Bible and its +religious teaching, on the writer himself is a +separate study, and is for the most part left out +of consideration. It sounds correct when Milton +says: "He who would not be frustrate of +his Power to write well ought himself to be a +true poem." But there is Milton himself to +deal with; irreproachable in morals, there are +yet the unhappy years of his young wife to +trouble us, and there were his daughters, who +were not at peace with him, and whom after +their service in his blindness he yet stigmatizes +in his will as "undutiful children." Then, if +you think of Shelley or Byron, you are troubled +by their lives; or even Carlyle, the very master +of the Victorian era--one would not like to scan +his life according to the laws of true poetry. +Then there is Coleridge, falling a prey to opium +until, as years came, conscience and will seemed +to go. Only a very ardent Scot will feel that he +can defend Robert Burns at all points, and we +would be strange Americans if we felt that +Edgar Allen Poe was a model of propriety. That +is a large and interesting field, but the Bible +seems even to gain power as a book-making book +when it lays hold on the book-making proclivities +of men who are not prepared to yield to its +personal power. They may get away from it +as religion; they do not get away from it as +literature. + +The first and most notable fact regarding the +influence of the Bible on English literature is +the remarkable extent of that influence. It is +literally everywhere. If every Bible in any +considerable city were destroyed, the Book could +be restored in all its essential parts from the +quotations on the shelves of the city public +library. There are works, covering almost all +the great literary writers, devoted especially to +showing how much the Bible has influenced them. + +The literary effect of the King James version +at first was less than its social effect; but in +that very fact lies a striking literary influence. +For a long time it formed virtually the whole +literature which was readily accessible to ordinary +Englishmen. We get our phrases from a +thousand books. The common talk of an intelligent +man shows the effect of many authors +upon his thinking. Our fathers got their phrases +from one great book. Their writing and their +speaking show the effect of that book. + +It is a study by itself, and yet it is true that +world literature is, as Professor Moulton puts it, +the autobiography of civilization. "A national +literature is a reflection of the national history." +Books as books reflect their authors. As literature +they reflect the public opinion which gives +them indorsement. When, therefore, public +opinion: keeps alive a certain group of books, +there is testimony not simply to those books, +but to the public opinion which has preserved +them. The history of popular estimates of literature +is itself most interesting. On the other +hand, some writers have been amusingly overestimated. +No doubt Edward Fitzgerald, who gave +us the "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" did +some other desirable work; but Professor Moulton +quotes this paragraph from a popular life of +Fitzgerald, published in Dublin: "Not Greece +of old in her palmiest days--the Greece of Homer +and Demosthenes, of Eschylus, Euripides, and +Sophocles, of Pericles, Leonidas, and Alcibiades, +of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, of Solon and +Lycurgus, of Apelles and Praxiteles--not even +this Greece, prolific as she was in sages and +heroes, can boast such a lengthy bead-roll as +Ireland can of names immortal in history!" +But "this was for Irish consumption." And +popular opinion and even critical opinion has +sometimes gone far astray in its destructive +tendency. There were authoritative critics who +declared that Wordsworth, Shelley, and Coleridge +wrote "unintelligible nonsense." George +Meredith's style, especially in his poetry, was +counted so bad that it--was not worth reading. +We are all near enough the Browning epoch to +recall how the obscurity of his style impressed +some and oppressed others. Alfred Austin, in +1869, said that "Mr. Tennyson has no sound +pretensions to be called a great poet." +Contemporary public opinion is seldom a final +gauge of strength for a piece of literature. It +takes the test of time. How many books we +have seen come on the stage and then pass off +again! Yet the books that have stayed on the +stage have been kept there by public opinion +expressing itself in the long run. The social +influence of the King James version, creating a +public taste for certain types of literature, tended +to produce them at once. + +English literature in these three hundred +years has found in the Bible three influential +elements: style, language, and material. + +First, the style of the King James version has +influenced English literature markedly. Professor +Gardiner opens one of his essays with the +dictum that "in all study of English literature, +if there be any one axiom which may be accepted +without question, it is that the ultimate standard +of English prose style is set by the King +James version of the Bible."[1] You almost +measure the strength of writing by its agreement +with the predominant traits of this version. +Carlyle's weakest works are those that +lose the honest simplicity of its style in a forced +turgidity and affected roughness. His Heroes +and Hero Worship or his French Revolution +shows his distinctive style, and yet shows the +influence of this simpler style, while his Frederick +the Great is almost impossible because he has +given full play to his broken and disconnected +sentences. On the other hand, Macaulay fails +us most in his striving for effect, making nice +balance of sentences, straining his "either-or," +or his "while-one-was-doing-this-the-other-was- +doing-that." Then his sentences grow involved, +and his paragraphs lengthen, and he swings +away from the style of the King James version. +"One can say that if any writing departs very +far from the characteristics of the English Bible +it is not good English writing." + + +[1] Atlantic Monthly, May, 1900, p. 684. + + +The second element which English literature +finds in the Bible is its LANGUAGE. The words of +the Bible are the familiar ones of the English +tongue, and have been kept familiar by the use +of the Bible. The result is that "the path of +literature lies parallel to that of religion. They +are old and dear companions, brethren indeed +of one blood; not always agreeing, to be sure; +squabbling rather in true brotherly fashion now +and then; occasionally falling out very seriously +and bitterly; but still interdependent and necessary +to each other."[1] Years ago a writer remarked +that every student of English literature, +or of English speech, finds three works or subjects +referred to, or quoted from, more frequently +than others. These are the Bible, tales of Greek +and Roman mythology, and Aesop's Fables. Of +these three, certainly the Bible furnishes the +largest number of references. There is reason +for that. A writer wants an audience. Very +few men can claim to be independent of the +public for which they write. There is nothing +the public will be more apt to understand and +appreciate quickly than a passing reference to +the English Bible. So it comes about that when +Dickens is describing the injustice of the Murdstones +to little David Copperfield, he can put +the whole matter before us in a parenthesis: +"Though there was One once who set a child +in the midst of the disciples." Dickens knew +that his readers would at once catch the meaning +of that reference, and would feel the contrast +between the scene he was describing and that +simple scene. Take any of the great books of +literature and black out the phrases which manifestly +come directly from the English Bible, and +you would mark them beyond recovery. + + +[1] Chapman, English Literature in Account with Religion. + + +But English literature has found more of its +material in the Bible than anything else. It has +looked there for its characters, its illustrations, +its subject-matter. We shall see, as we consider +individual writers, how many of their titles and +complete works are suggested by the Bible. +It is interesting to see how one idea of the +Scripture will appear and reappear among many +writers. Take one illustration. The Faust story +is an effort to make concrete one verse of Scripture: +"What shall it profit a man if he shall +gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" +Professor Moulton reminds us that the Faust +legend appeared first in the Middle Ages. In +early English, Marlowe has it, Calderon put it +into Spanish, the most familiar form of it is +Goethe's, while Philip Bailey has called his +account of it Festus. In each of those forms +the same idea occurs. A man sells his soul to +the devil for the gaining of what is to him the +world. That is one of a good many ideas which +the Bible has given to literature. The prodigal +son has been another prolific source of literary +writing. The guiding star is another. Others +will readily come to mind. + +With that simple background let our minds +move down the course of literary history. Style, +language, material--we will easily think how +much of each the Bible has given to all our great +writers if their names are only mentioned. There +are four groups of these writers. + +1. The Jacobean, who wrote when and just +after our version was made. + +2. The Georgian, who graced the reigns of +the kings whose name the period bears. + +3. The Victorian. + +4. The American. + +There is an attractive fifth group comprising +our present-day workers in the realm of pure +literature, but we must omit them and give our +attention to names that are starred. + + +It is familiar that in the time of Elizabeth, +"England became a nest of singing birds." In +the fifty years after the first English theater was +erected, the middle of Elizabeth's reign, fifty +dramatic poets appeared, many of the first +order. Some were distinctly irreligious, as were +many of the people whose lives they touched. +Such men as Ford, Marlowe, Massinger, Webster, +Beaumont, and Fletcher stand like a chorus +around Shakespeare and Ben Jonson as leaders. +As Taine puts it: "They sing the same piece +together, and at times the chorus is equal to the +solo; but only at times."[1] Cultured people +to-day know the names of most of these writers, +but not much else, and it does not heavily serve +our argument to say that they felt the Puritan +influence; but they all did feel it either directly +or by reaction. + + +[1] History of English Literature, chap. iii. + + +Edmund Spenser and his friend, Sir Philip +Sidney, had closed their work before the King +James version appeared, yet the Faerie Queene +in its religious theory is Puritan to the core, +and Sidney is best remembered by his paraphrases +of Scripture. The influence of both +was even greater in the Jacobean than in their +own period. + +It is hardly fair even to note the Elizabethan +Shakespeare as under the influence of the King +James version. The Bible influenced him markedly, +but it was the Genevan version prepared +during the exile of the scholars under Bloody +Mary, or the Bishops' Bible prepared under +Elizabeth. Those versions were familiar as +household facts to him. "No writer has +assimilated the thoughts and reproduced the +words of Holy Scripture more copiously than +Shakespeare." Dr. Furnivall says that "he is +saturated with the Bible story," and a century +ago Capel Lloft said quaintly that Shakespeare +"had deeply imbibed the Scriptures." But the +King James version appeared only five years +before his death, and it is in some sense fairer +to say that Shakespeare and the King James +version are formed by the same influence as +to their English style. The Bishop of St. +Andrews even devotes the first part of his book +on Shakespeare and the Bible to a study of +parallels between the two in peculiar forms of +speech, and thinks it "probable that our translators +of 1611 owed as much to Shakespeare as, +or rather far more than, he owed to them."[1] +It is generally agreed that only two of his works +were written after our version appeared. Several +other writers have devoted separate volumes +to noting the frequent use by Shakespeare +of Biblical phrases and allusions and characters +taken from early versions. It is a very tempting +field, and we pass it by only because it is hardly +in the range of the study we are now making. + + +[1] Wordsworth, Shakespeare's Knowledge and Use of the Bible, p. +9. + + +When, however, we come to John Milton +(1608-1674), we remember he was only three +years old when our version was issued; that +when at fifteen, an undergraduate in Cambridge, +he made his first paraphrases, casting two of +the Psalms into meter, the version he used was +this familiar one. A biographer says he began +the day always with the reading of Scripture and +kept his memory deeply charged with its phrases. +In later life the morning chapter was generally +from the Hebrew, and was followed by an hour +of silence for meditation, an exercise whose +influence no man's style could escape. As a +writer he moved steadily toward the Scripture +and the religious teaching which it brought his +age. His earlier writing is a group of poems +largely secular, which yet show in phrases and +expressions much of the influence of his boyhood +study of the Bible, as well as the familiar use of +mythology. The memorial poem "Lycidas," +for example, contains the much-quoted reference +to Peter and his two keys-- + + "Last came and last did go + The pilot of the Galilean lake; + Two massy keys he bore of metals twain, + (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain)." + + +But after these poems came the period of his +prose, the work which he supposed was the abiding +work of his life. George William Curtis told +a friend that our civil war changed his own +literary style: "That roused me to see that I +had no right to spend my life in literary leisure. +I felt that I must throw myself into the struggle +for freedom and the Union. I began to lecture +and to write. The style took care of itself. +But I fancy it is more solid than it was thirty +years ago." That is what happened to Milton +when the protectorate came.[1] It made his style +more solid. He did not mean to live as a poet. +He felt that his best energies were being put into +his essays in defense of liberty, on the freedom +of the press and on the justice of the beheading +of Charles, in which service he sacrificed his +sight. All of it is shot through with Scripture +quotations and arguments, and some of it, at +least, is in the very spirit of Scripture. The plea +for larger freedom of divorce issued plainly from +his own bitter experience; but his main argument +roots in a few Bible texts taken out of +their connection and urged with no shadow of +question of their authority. Indeed, when he +comes to his more religious essays, his heavy +argument is that there should be no religion +permitted in England which is not drawn directly +from the Bible; which, therefore, he urges +must be common property for all the people. +There is a curious bit of evidence that the men +of his own time did not realize his power as a +poet. In Pierre Bayle's critical survey of the +literature of the time, he calls Milton "the +famous apologist for the execution of Charles +I.," who "meddled in poetry and several of whose +poems saw the light during his life or after his +death!" For all that, Milton was only working +on toward his real power, and his power was to +be shown in his service to religion. His three +great poems, in the order of their value, are, of +course, "Paradise Lost," "Samson Agonistes," +and "Paradise Regained." Whoever knows anything +of Milton knows these three and knows +they are Scriptural from first to last in phrase, +in allusion, and, in part at least, in idea. There +is not time for extended illustration. One instance +may stand for all, which shall illustrate +how Milton's mind was like a garden where the +seeds of Scripture came to flower and fruit. He +will take one phrase from the Bible and let it +grow to a page in "Paradise Lost." Here is an +illustration which comes readily to hand. In +the Genesis it is said that "the spirit of God +moved on the face of the waters." The verb +suggests the idea of brooding. There is only +one other possible reference (Psalm xxiv: 9.) +which is included in this statement which Milton +makes out of that brief word in the Genesis: + + "On the watery calm + His broadening wings the Spirit of God outspread, + And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth + Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purged + The black tartareous cold infernal dregs, + Adverse to life; then formed, then con-globed, + Like things to like; the rest to several place + Disparted, and between spun out the air-- + And earth self-balanced on her center swung." + + +[1] Strong, The Theology of the Poets. + + +Any one familiar with Milton will recognize +that as a typical instance of the way in which +a seed idea from the Scripture comes to flower +and fruit in him. The result is that more people +have their ideas about heaven and hell from +Milton than from the Bible, though they do not +know it. + +It seems hardly fair to use John Bunyan +(1628-1688) as an illustration of the influence +of the English Bible on literature, because his +chief work is composed so largely in the language +of Scripture. Pilgrim's Progress is the most +widely read book in the English language after +the Bible. Its phrases, its names, its matter +are either directly or indirectly taken from the +Bible. It has given us a long list of phrases +which are part of our literary and religious +capital. Thackeray took the motto of one of +his best-known books from the Bible; but the +title, Vanity Fair, comes from Pilgrim's Progress. +When a discouraged man says he is "in the +slough of despond," he quotes Bunyan; and +when a popular evangelist tells the people that +the burden of sin will roll away if they look at +the cross, "according to the Bible," he ought +to say according to Bunyan. But all this was +only the outcome of the familiarity of Bunyan +with the Scripture. It was almost all he did +know in a literary way. Macaulay says that +"he knew no language but the English as it +was spoken by the common people; he had +studied no great model of composition, with the +exception of our noble translation of the Bible. +But of that his knowledge was such that he might +have been called a living concordance."[1] + + +[1] History of England, vol. III., p. 220. + + +After these three--Shakespeare, Milton, and +Bunyan--there appeared another three, very +much their inferiors and having much less +influence on literary history. I mean Dryden, +Addison, and Pope. It is not necessary to credit +the Scripture with much of Dryden's spirit, nor +with much of his style, and certainly not with +his attitude toward his fellows; but it is a constant +surprise in reading Dryden to discover +how familiar he was with the King James version. +Walter Scott insists that Dryden was at +heart serious, that "his indelicacy was like the +forced impudence of a bashful man." That is +generous judgment. But there is this to be +said: as he grows more serious he falls more +into Bible words. If he writes a political pamphlet +he calls it "Absalom and Ahithophel." +In it he holds the men of the day up to scorn +under Bible names. They are Zimri and Shimei, +and the like. When he is falling into bitterest +satire, his writing abounds in these Biblical +allusions which could be made only by one who +was very familiar with the Book. Quotations +cannot be abundant, of course, but there is a +great deal of this sort of thing: + + "Sinking, he left his drugget robe behind, + Borne upward by a subterranean wind, + The mantle fell to the young prophet's part, + With double portion of his father's art." + +In his Epistles there is much of the same sort. +When he writes to Congreve he speaks of the +fathers, and says: + + "Their's was the giant race before the flood." + +Farther on he says: + + "Our builders were with want of genius curst, + The second temple was not like the first." + +Now Dryden may have been, as Macaulay said, +an "illustrious renegade," but all his writing +shows the influence of the language and the +ideas of the King James version. Whenever we +sing the "Veni Creator" we sing John Dryden. + +So we sing Addison in the paraphrase of +Scripture, which Haydn's music has made +familiar: + + "The spacious firmament on high, + With all the blue ethereal sky." + +While Dryden yielded to his times, Addison did +not, and the Spectator became not only a literary +but a moral power. In the effort to make it so +he was thrown back on the largest moral influence +of the day, the Bible, and throughout +the Spectator and through all of Addison's +writing you find on all proper occasions the +Bible pressed to the front. Here again Taine +puts it strikingly: "It is no small thing to make +morality fashionable; Addison did it, and it +remains fashionable." + +If we speak of singing, we may remember +that we sing the hymn of even poor little dwarfed +invalid Alexander Pope. He was born the year +Bunyan died, born at cross-purposes with the +world. He could write a bitter satire, like the +"Dunciad"; he could give the world The Iliad +and The Odyssey in such English that we know +them far better than in the Greek of Homer; +but in those rare moments when he was at his +better self he would write his greater poem, +"The Messiah", in which the movement of +Scripture is outlined as it could be only by one +who knew the English Bible. And when we +sing-- + + "Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem, rise"-- + +it is worth while to realize that the voice that +first sung it was that of the irritable little poet +who found some of his scant comfort in the grand +words and phrases and ideas of our English +Bible. + +With these six--Shakespeare, Milton, Bunyan, +Dryden, Addison, and Pope--the course of the +Jacobean literature is sufficiently measured. +There are many lesser names, but these are the +ones which made it an epoch in literature, and +these are at their best under the power of the +Bible. + +In the Georgian group we need to call only +five great names which have had creative influence +in literature. Ordinary culture in literature +will include some acquaintance with each +of them. In the order of their death they are +Shelley (1829.), Byron (1824), Coleridge (1831), +Walter Scott (1832), and Wordsworth (1850). +The last long outlived the others; but he belongs +with them, because he was born earlier +than any other in the group and did his chief +work in their time and before the later group +appeared. Except Wordsworth, all these were +gone before Queen Victoria came to the throne +in 1837. Three other names could be called: +Keats, Robert Burns, and Charles Lamb. All +would illustrate what we are studying. Keats +least of all and Burns most. They are omitted +here not because they did not feel the influence +of the English Bible, not because they do not +constantly show its influence, but because they +are not so creative as the others; they have not +so influenced the current of literature. At any +rate, the five named will represent worthily and +with sufficient completeness the Georgian period +of English literature. + +Nothing could reveal more clearly than this +list how we are distinguishing the Bible as +literature from the Bible as an authoritative +book in morals. One would much dislike to +credit the Bible with any part of the personal life +of Shelley or Byron. They were friends; they, +were geniuses; but they were both badly afflicted +with common moral leprosy. It is playing with +morals to excuse either of them because he was +a genius. Nothing in the genius of either demanded +or was served by the course of cheap +immorality which both practised. It was not +because Shelley was a genius that he married +Harriet Westbrook, then ran away with Mary +Godwin, then tried to get the two to become +friends and neighbors until his own wife committed +suicide; it was not his genius that made +him yield to the influence of Emilia Viviani +and write her the poem "Epipsychidion," telling +her and the world that he "was never attached +to that great sect who believed that each +one should select out of the crowd a mistress or +a friend" and let the rest go. That was not +genius, that was just common passion; and our +divorce courts are full of Shelleys of that type. +So Byron's personal immorality is not to be +explained nor excused on the ground of his +genius. It was not genius that led him so +astray in England that his wife had to divorce +him, and that public opinion drove him out of +the land. It was not his genius that sent him +to visit Shelley and his mistress at Lake Geneva +and seduce their guest, so that she bore him a +daughter, though she was never his wife. It was +not genius that made him pick up still another +companion out of several in Italy and live with +her in immoral relation. In the name of common +decency let no one stand up for Shelley +and Byron in their personal characters! There +are not two moral laws, one for geniuses and one +for common people. Byron, at any rate, was +never deceived about himself, never blamed his +genius nor his conscience for his wrong. These +are striking lines in "Childe Harold," in which +he disclaims all right to sympathy, because, + + "The thorns which I have reaped are of the tree + I planted,--they have torn me and I bleed. + I should have known what fruit would spring from + such a tree." + + +Shelley's wife would not say that for him. +"In all Shelley did," she says, "he at the time +of doing it believed himself justified to his own +conscience." Well, so much the worse for +Shelley! Geniuses are not the only men who +can find good reason for doing what they want +to do. One of Shelley's critics suggests that the +trouble was his introduction into personal conduct +of the imagination which he ought to have +saved for his writing. Perhaps we might explain +Byron's misconduct by reminding ourselves of +his club-foot, and applying one code of morals +to men with club-feet and another to men with +normal feet. + +If we speak of the influence of the Bible on +these men, it must be on their literary work; +and when we find it there, it becomes peculiar +mark of its power. They had little sense of it +as moral law. Their consciences approved it +and condemned themselves, or else their delicate +literary taste sensed it as a book of power. + +This is notably true of Shelley. When he was +still a student in Oxford he committed himself +to the opinion of another writer, that "the mind +cannot believe in the existence of God." He tries +to work that out fully in his notes on "Queen +Mab." When he was hardly yet of age he himself +wrote that "The genius of human happiness +must tear every leaf from the accursed Book of +God, ere man can read the inscription on its +heart." He once said that his highest desire +was that there should be a monument to himself +somewhere in the Alps which should be only a +great stone with its face smoothed and this short +inscription cut in it, "Percy Bysshe Shelley, +Atheist." + +It would seem that whatever Shelley drew of +strength or inspiration from the Bible would be +by way of reaction; but it is not so. However +he may have hated the "accursed Book of God," +his wife tells in her note on "The Revolt of Islam" +that Shelley "debated whether he should devote +himself to poetry or metaphysics," and, resolving +on the former, he "educated himself for it, +engaging himself in the study of the poets of +Greece, England, and Italy. To these, may be +added," she goes on, "a constant perusal of portions +of the Old Testament, the Book of Psalms, +Job, Isaiah, and others, the sublime poetry of +which filled him with delight." Not only did +he catch the spirit of that poetry, but its phrases +haunted his memory. In his best prose work, +which he called A Defense of Poetry, there is an +interesting revelation of the influence of his +Bible reading upon him. Toward the end of +the essay these two sentences occur: "It is +inconsistent with this division of our subject to +cite living poets, but posterity has done ample +justice to the great names now referred to. Their +errors have been weighed and found to have +been dust in the balance; if their sins are as +scarlet, they are now white as snow; they have +been washed in the blood of the mediator and +redeemer, Time." There is no more eloquent +passage in the essay than the one of which this +is part, and yet it is full of allusion to this Book +from which all pages must be torn! Even in +"Queen Mab" he makes Ahasuerus, the wandering +Jew, recount the Bible story in such broad +outlines as could be given only by a man who +was familiar with it. When Shelley was in Italy +and the word came to him of the massacre at +Manchester, he wrote his "Masque of Anarchy." +There are few more melodious lines of his writing +than those which occur in this long poem in +the section regarding freedom. Four of those +lines are often quoted. They are at the very +heart of Shelley's best work. Addressing freedom, +he says: + + "Thou art love: the rich have kissed + Thy feet, and, like him following Christ, + Gave their substance to the free, + And through the rough world follow thee." + +Page after page of Shelley reveals these half- +conscious references to the Bible. There were +two sources from which he received his passionate +democracy. One was the treatment he +received at Eton, and later at Oxford; the other +is his frequent reading of the English Bible, even +though he was in the spirit of rebellion against +much of its teaching. In Browning's essay on +Shelley, he reaches the amazing conclusion that +"had Shelley lived, he would finally have ranged +himself with the Christians," and seeks to justify +it by showing that he was moving straight toward +the positions of Paul and of David. Some +of us may not see such rapid approach, but that +Shelley felt the drawing of God in the universe +is plain enough. + +The influence of the Bible is still more +marked on Byron. He spent his childhood years +at Aberdeen. There his nurse trained him in +the Bible; and, though he did not live by it, he +never lost his love for it, nor his knowledge of +it. He tells of his own experience in this way: +"I am a great reader of those books [the Bible], +and had read them through and through before +I was eight years old; that is to say, the Old +Testament, for the New struck me as a task, +but the other as a pleasure."[1] One of the earliest +bits of his work is a paraphrase of one of the +Psalms. His physical infirmity put him at odds +with the world, while his striking beauty drew +to him a crowd of admirers who helped to poison +every spring of his genius. Even so, he held +his love for the Bible. While Shelley often spoke +of it in contempt, while he prided himself on his +divergence from the path of its teaching, Byron +never did. He wandered far, but he always +knew it; and, though he could hardly find terms +to express his contempt for the Church, there +is no line of Byron's writing which is a slur +at the Bible. On the other hand, much of his +work reveals a passion for the beauty of it as +well as its truth. His most melodious writing +is in that group of Hebrew melodies which were +written to be sung. They demand far more +than a passing knowledge of the Bible both +for their writing and their understanding. There +is a long list of them, but no one without a +knowledge of the Bible would have known what he +meant by his poem, "The Harp the Monarch +Minstrel Swept." "Jephtha's Daughter" presumes +upon a knowledge of the Old Testament +story which would not come to one in a passing +study of the Bible. "The Song of Saul Before +his Last Battle" and the poem headed "Saul" +could not have been written, nor can they be read +intelligently by any one who does not know his +Bible. Among Byron's dramas, two of which +he thought most, were, "Heaven and Earth" +and "Cain." When he was accused of perverting +the Scripture in "Cain," he replied that he +had only taken the Scripture at its face value. +Both of the dramas are not only built directly out +of Scriptural events, but imply a far wider knowledge +of Scripture than their mere titles suggest. + + +[1] Taine, English Literature, II., 279. + + +There are striking references in many other +poems, even in his almost vile poem, "Don +Juan." The most notable instance is in the +fifteenth canto, where he is speaking of persecuted +sages and these lines occur: + + "Was it not so, great Locke? and greater Bacon? + Great Socrates? And Thou Diviner still, + Whose lot it is by men to be mistaken, + And Thy pure creed made sanction of all ill? + Redeeming worlds to be by bigots shaken, + How was Thy toil rewarded?" + +In a note on this passage Byron says: "As it +is necessary in these times to avoid ambiguity, +I say that I mean by 'Diviner still' Christ. If +ever God was man--or man God--He was both. +I never arraigned His creed, but the use or abuse +of it. Mr. Canning one day quoted Christianity +to sanction slavery, and Mr. Wilberforce had +little to say in reply. And was Christ crucified +that black men might be scourged? If so, He +had better been born a mulatto, to give both +colors an equal chance of freedom, or at least +salvation." Byron could live far from the influence +of the Bible in his personal life; but he +never escaped its influence in his literary work. + +Of Coleridge less needs to be said, because we +think of him so much in terms of his more +meditative musings, which are often religious. +He himself tells of long and careful rereadings +of the English Bible until he could say: In the +Bible "there is more that finds me than I have +experienced in all other books together; the +words of the Bible find me at greater depths of +my being." Of course, that would influence his +writing, and it did. Even in the "Rime of the +Ancient Mariner" much of the phraseology is +Scriptural. When the albatross drew near, + + "As if it had been a Christian soul, + We hailed it in God's name." + +When the mariner slept he gave praise to Mary, +Queen of Heaven. He sought the shriving of +the hermit-priest. He ends the story because +he hears "the little vesper bell" which bids him +to prayer. When you read his "Hymn Before +Sunrise in the Vale of Chamounix" you find +yourself reading the Nineteenth Psalm. He calls +on the motionless torrents and the silent cataracts +and the great Mont Blanc itself to praise +God. Coleridge never had seen Chamounix, +nor Mont Blanc, nor a glacier, but he knew his +Bible. So he has his Christmas Carol along with +all the rest. His poem of the Moors after the +Civil War under Philip II. is Scriptural in its +phraseology, and so is much else that he wrote. +Frankly and willingly he yielded to its influence. +In his "Table Talk" he often refers to the value of +the Bible in the forming of literary style. Once +he said: "Intense study of the Bible will keep +any writer from being vulgar in point of style."[1] + + +[1] June 14, 1830. + + +The very mention of Coleridge makes one +think of Wordsworth. They had a Damon and +Pythias friendship. The Wordsworths were +poor; they had only seventy pounds a year, and +they were not ashamed. Coleridge called them +the happiest family he ever saw. Wordsworth +was not narrowly a Christian poet, he was not +always seeking to put Christian dogma into +poetry, but throughout he was expressing the +Christian spirit which he had learned from the +Bible. His poetry was one long protest against +banishing God from the universe. It was literally +true of him that "the meanest flower that +grows can give thoughts that too often lie too deep +for tears." If this were the time to be critical, +one would think that too much was sometimes +made of very minute occurrences; but this +tendency to get back of the event and see how +God is moving is learned best from Scripture, +where Wordsworth himself learned it. If you +read his "Intimations of Immortality," or the +"Ode to Duty," or "Tintern Abbay," or even +the rather labored "Excursion," you find yourself +under the Scriptural influence. + +There remains in this Georgian group the +great prose master, Walter Scott. Mr. Gladstone +said he thought Scott the greatest of his +countrymen. John Morley suggested John Knox +instead. Mr. Gladstone replied: "No, the line +must be drawn firmly between the writer and +the man of action--no comparison there."[1] He +went on to say that Burns is very fine and true, +no doubt, "but to imagine a whole group of +characters, to marshal them, to set them to +work, and to sustain the action, I must count +that the test of highest and most diversified +quality." All who are fond of Scott will realize +how constantly the scenes which he is describing +group themselves around religious observances, +how often men are held in check from deeds of +violence by religious conception. Many of these +scenes crystallize around a Scriptural event. +Scott's boyhood was spent in scenes that +reminded him of the power the Scripture had. +He was drilled from his childhood in the knowledge +of its words and phrases, and while his +writing as a whole shows more of the Old Testament +influence than of the New, even in his style +he is strongly under Bible influence. + + +[1] Morley, Life of Gladstone, vol. iii, p. 424. + + +The preface to Guy Mannering tells us it is +built around an old story of a father putting a +lad to test under guidance of an ancient astrologer, +shutting him up in a barren room to be +tempted by the Evil One, leaving him only one +safeguard, a Bible, lying on the table in the +middle of the room. In his introduction to +The Heart of Midlothian, Scott makes one of the +two men thrown into the water by the overturned +coach remind the other that they "cannot +complain, like Cowley, that Gideon's fleece +remains dry while all around is moist; this is +the reverse of the miracle." A little later a +speaker describes novels as the Delilahs that +seduce wise and good men from more serious +reading. In the dramatic scene when Jeanie +Deans faces the wretched George Staunton, who +has so shamed the household, she exclaims: +"O sir, did the Scripture never come into your +mind, 'Vengeance is mine, and I will repay +it?' " "Scripture!" he sneers, "why I had not +opened a Bible for five years." "Wae's me, +sir," said Jeanie--"and a minister's son, too!" +Anthony Foster, in Kenilworth, looks down on +poor Amy's body in the vault into which she +has fallen, in response to what she thought was +Leicester's whistle, and exclaims to Varney: +"Oh, if there be judgment in heaven, thou hast +deserved it, and will meet it! Thou hast destroyed +her by means of her best affections--it +is the seething of the kid in the mother's milk!" +And when, next morning, Varney was found +dead of the secret poison and with a sneering +sarcasm on his ghastly face, Scott dismisses him +with the phrase: "The wicked man, saith the +Scripture, hath no bonds in his death." + +His characters use freely the familiar Bible +events and phrases. In the Fortunes of Nigel, a +story of the very period when our King James +version was produced, Hildebrod declares that +if he had his way Captain Peppercull should +hang as high as Haman ever did. In Kenilworth, +when Leicester gives Varney his signet- +ring, he says, significantly: "What thou dost, +do quickly." Of course, Isaac, the Jew in Ivanhoe, +exclaims frequently in Old Testament terms. +He wishes the wheels of the chariots of his +enemies may be taken off, like those of the host +of Pharoah, that they may drive heavily. He +expects the Palmer's lance to be as powerful as +the rod of Moses, and so on. + +Scott was writing of the period when men +stayed themselves with Scripture, and his men +are all sure of God and Satan and angels and +judgment and all eternal things. His son-in- +law vouches for the old story that when Sir +Walter was on his death-bed he asked Lockhart +to read him something from the Book, and +when Lockhart asked, "What book?" Scott replied: +"Why do you ask? There is but one +book, the Bible." + +All this is scant justice to the Georgian group; +but it may give a hint of what the Bible meant +even at that period, the period when its grip +on men was most lax in all the later English +history. + + +It is in the Victorian age (1840-1900) that the +field is most bewildering. It is true, as Frederick +Harrison says, that "this Victorian age has no +Shakespeare or Milton, no Bacon or Hume, no +Fielding or Scott--no supreme master in poetry, +philosophy, or romance whose work is incorporated +with the thought of the world, who is +destined to form an epoch, to endure for +centuries."[1] The genius of the period is more +scientific than literary, yet we would be helpless +if we had not already eliminated from our discussion +everything but the works and writers +of pure literature. The output of books has been +so tremendous that it would be impossible to +analyze the influences which have made them. +There are in this Victorian period at least twelve +great English writers who must be known, whose +work affects the current of English literature. +Many other names would need mention in any +full history or any minute study; but it is not +harsh judgment to say that the main current +of literature would be the same without them. +A few of these lesser names will come to mind, +and in the calling of them one realizes the +influence, even on them, of the English Bible. +Anthony Trollope wrote sixty volumes, the titles +of most of which are now popularly unknown. +He told George Eliot that it was not brains that +explained his writing so much, but rather wax +which he put in the seat of his chair, which held +him down to his daily stint of work. He could +boast, and it was worth the boasting, that he +had never written a line which a pure woman +could not read without a blush. His whole +Framley Parsonage series abounds in Bible +references and allusions. So Charlotte Bronte is +in English literature, and Jane Eyre does prove +what she was meant to prove, that a commonplace +person can be made the heroine of a novel; +but on all Charlotte Bronte's work is the mark +of the rectory in which she grew up. So Thomas +Grey has left his "Elegy" and his "Hymn to +Adversity," and some other writing which most of +us have forgotten or never knew. Then there +are Maria Edgeworth and Jane Austen. We +may even remember that Macaulay thought +Jane Austen could be compared with Shakespeare, +as, of course, she can be, since any one +can be; but neither of these good women has +strongly affected the literary current. Many +others could be named, but English literature +would be substantially the same without them; +and, though all might show Biblical influence, +they would not illustrate what we are trying to +discover. So we come, without apology to the +unnamed, to the twelve, without whom English +literature would be different. This is the list +in the order of the alphabet: Matthew Arnold, +Robert Browning (Mrs. Browning being grouped +as one with him), Carlyle, Dickens, George Eliot, +Charles Kingsley, Macaulay, Ruskin, Robert +Louis Stevenson, Swinburne, Tennyson, and +Thackeray. + + +[1] Early Victorian Literature, p. 9 + + +It is dangerous to make such a list; but it +can be defended. Literary history would not +be the same without any one of them, unless +possibly Swinburne, whose claim to place is +rather by his work as critic than as creator. +Nor is any name omitted whose introduction +would change literary history. + +Benjamin Jowett thought Arnold too flippant +on religious things to be a real prophet. At any +rate, this much is true, that the books in which +Arnold dealt with the fundamentals of religion +are his profoundest work. In his poetry the +best piece of the whole is his "Rugby Chapel." +His Religion and Dogma he himself calls an "essay +toward a better apprehension of the Bible." +All through he urges it as the one Book which +needs recovery. "All that the churches can +say about the importance of the Bible and its +religion we concur in." The book throughout +is an effort to justify his own faith in terms of +the Bible. The effort is sometimes amusing, +because it takes such a logical and verbal agility +to go from one to the other; but he is always +at it. He is afraid in his soul that England will +swing away from the Bible. He fears it may +come about through neglect of the Bible on one +hand, or through wrong teaching about it on the +other. Not in his ideas alone, but markedly in +his style, Arnold has felt the Biblical influence. +He came at a time when there was strong temptation +to fall into cumbrous German ways of +speech. Against that Arnold set a simple +phraseology, and he held out the English Bible +constantly as a model by which the men of +England ought to learn to write. He never +gained the simplicity of the old Hebrew sentence, +and sometimes his secondary clauses follow one +another so rapidly that a reader is confused; +but his words as a whole are simple and direct. + +There is no need of much word on the spell +of the Bible over Robert Browning and Mrs. +Browning. It is not often that two singing- +birds mate; but these two sang in a key pitched +for them by the Scripture as much as by any one +influence. Many of their greatest poems have +definite Biblical themes. In them and in others +Biblical allusions are utterly bewildering to men +who do not know the Bible well. For five years +(1841-1846) Browning's poems appeared under +the title Bells and Pomegranates. Scores of +people wondered then, and wonder still, what +"Pippa Passes" and "A Blot in the Scutcheon " +and the others have to do with such a title. +They have never thought, as Browning did, of +the border of the beautiful robe of the high priest +described in the Book of Exodus. The finest +poem of its length in the English language is +Browning's "Saul"; but it is only the story of +David driving the evil spirit from Saul, sweeping +on to the very coming of Christ. "The Death +in the Desert" is the death of John, the beloved +disciple. "Karshish, the Arab Physician" tells +in his own way of the raising of Lazarus. The text +of "Caliban upon Setebos" is, "Thou thoughtest +that I was altogether such an one as thyself." +The text of "Cleon" is, "As certain of your own +poets have said." In "Fifine at the Fair" the +Cure expounds the experience of Jacob and his +stone-pillow with better insight than some better- +known expositors show. In "Pippa Passes," +when Bluphocks, the English vagabond, is +introduced, Browning seems to justify his appearance +by the single foot-note: "He maketh His sun to +rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth +rain on the just and on the unjust"; and Mr. +Bluphocks shows himself amusingly familiar +with Bible facts and phrases. Mr. Sludge, "the +Medium," thinks the Bible says the stars are +"set for signs when we should shear sheep, sow +corn, prune trees," and describes the skeptic in +the magic circle of spiritual "investigators" as +the "guest without the wedding-garb, the doubting +Thomas." Some one has taken the trouble +to count five hundred Biblical phrases or allusions +in "The Ring and the Book." Mrs. Browning's +"'Drama of Exile" is the woman's side of the +fall of Adam and Eve. Ruskin thought her +"Aurora Leigh" the greatest poem the century +had produced at that time. It abounds in +Scriptural allusions. Browning came by all this +naturally. Raised in the Church by a father +who "delighted to surround him with books, +notably old and rare Bibles," and a mother +Carlyle called "a true type of a Scottish gentlewoman," +with all the skill in the Bible that that +implies, he never lost his sense of the majesty +of the movement of Scripture ideas and phrases. + +We need spend little time in discussing the +influence of the English Bible on Thomas Carlyle. +He does not often use the Scripture for +his main theme; but he is constantly making +Biblical allusions. On a railway journey when +I was rereading Carlyle's Historical Sketches, I +found a direct Biblical reference for every five +pages, and almost numberless allusions beside. + +The "Everlasting Yea," of which he says +much, he gets, as you at once recognize, from +the Scripture. His "Heroes and Hero Worship" +is based on an idea of heroism which he learned +from the Bible. He is an Old Testament prophet +of present times; and, while he degenerated +into a scold before he was through with it, he +yet spoke with the thunderous voice of a true +prophet, and much of the time in the language +of the prophets. Some one said once that the +only real reverence Carlyle ever had was for +the person of Christ. Certainly there is no note +of sneer, but of the profoundest regard for the +teaching, the ideas and the history of the Scripture. + +The name of Charles Dickens suggests a +different atmosphere. He is a New Testament +prophet. Where Carlyle has caught the spirit +of rugged power in the Old Testament, Dickens +has caught the sense of kindly love in the New +Testament. Dickens's love for the child, the +fact that he could draw children as he could draw +no one else and make them lovable, suggests the +value to him of those frequent references which +he makes to Christ setting a child in the midst +of the disciples. It is notable, too, how often +Dickens uses the great Scripture phrases for his +most dramatic climaxes. There are not in literature +many finer uses of Scripture than the scene +in Bleak House, where the poor waif Joe is dying, +and while his friend teaches him the Lord's +Prayer he sees the light coming. A Christmas +season without Dickens's Christmas Carol would +be incomplete; but there again is the Scripture +idea pressed forward. + +George Eliot surely, if any writer, was under +the spell of the Scripture. One of her critics +calls her the historian of conscience. All of her +heroes and heroines know the lash of the law. +She knows very little about the New Testament, +one would judge; but the one thing about which +she has no doubt is certainly the reign of moral +law. If a man will not yield to its power, it will +break him. There is no such thing as breaking +the moral law; there is nothing but being broken +by it. Her characters are always quoting the +Bible. They preach a great deal. She tells +that she herself wrote Dinah Morris's sermon on +the green with tears in her eyes. She meant it +all. While her own religious faith was clouded, +her finest characters are never clouded in their +religious faith, and she grounds their faith quite +invariably on their early training in the Scripture. +It is an interesting fact that George Eliot +has no principal story which has not in it a +church, and a priest or a preacher, with all that +they involve. + +Charles Kingsley is grouped hardly fairly in +this list, because he was himself a preacher, and +naturally all his work would feel the power of +the Book, which he chiefly studied. Professor +Masson says that "there is not one of his novels +which has not the power of Christianity for its +theme." No voice was raised more effectively +for the beginning of the new social era in England +than his. Alton Locke and Yeast are epoch- +making books in the life of the common people +of England. Even Hypatia, which is supposed +to have been written to represent entirely pagan +surroundings, is full of Bible phrases and +ideas. + +Lord Macaulay had been held up for many a +day as one of the masters of style. Such great +writing is not to be traced to any one influence. +It could not have been easy to write as Macaulay +wrote. Thackeray may have exaggerated +in saying that Macaulay read twenty books to +write a sentence, and traveled a hundred miles +to make a description; but all his writing shows +the power of taking infinite pains. It becomes +the more important, therefore, that Macaulay +held the Bible in such estimate as he did. "In +calling upon Lady Holland one day, Lord +Macaulay was led to bring the attention of his +fair hostess to the fact that the use of the word +'talent' to mean gifts or powers of the mind, +as when we speak of men of talent, came from +the use of the word in Christ's parable of the +talents. In a letter to his sister Hannah he describes +the incident, and says that Lady Holland +was evidently ignorant of the parable. 'I +did not tell her,' he adds, 'though I might have +done so, that a person who professes to be a +critic in the delicacies of the English language +ought to have the Bible at his fingers' ends.' " +That Macaulay practised his own preaching you +would quickly find by referring to his essays. +Take three sentences from the Essay on Milton: +"The principles of liberty were the scoff of every +growing courtier, and the Anathema Maranatha +of every fawning dean. In every high place +worship was paid to Charles and James, Belial +and Moloch, and England propitiated these obscene +and cruel idols with the blood of her best +and brightest children. Crime succeeded to +crime, and disgrace to disgrace, until the race, +accursed of God and man, was a second time +driven forth to wander on the face of the earth +and to be a by-word and a shaking of the head +to the nations." In three sentences here are +six allusions to Scripture. In that same essay, +in the paragraphs on the Puritans, the allusions +are a multitude. They are not even quoted. +They are taken for granted. In his Essay on +Machiavelli, though the subject does not suggest +it, he falls into Scriptural phrases over and +over. Listen to this, "A time was at hand when +all the seven vials of the Apocalypse were to be +poured forth and shaken out over those pleasant +countries"; or this, "All the curses pronounced +of old against Tyre seemed to have +fallen on Venice. Her merchants already stood +afar off lamenting for their great city"; or this, +"In the energetic language of the prophet, +Machiavelli was mad for the sight of his eyes +which he saw." + +And if Macaulay is baffling in the abundance +of material, surely John Ruskin is worse. Carlyle's +English style ran into excess of roughness; +Macaulay's ran into excess of balance and delicacy. +John Ruskin's continued to be the smoothest, +easiest style in our English literature. He +also was a Hebraic spirit, but of the gentler type. +Mr. Chapman calls him the Elisha to Carlyle's, +Elijah, a capital comparison.[1] Ruskin is one of +the few writers who have told us what formed +their style. In the first chapter of Praeterita he +pays tribute to his mother. He himself chose +to read Walter Scott and Pope's Homer; but he +says: "My mother forced me by steady daily +toil to learn long chapters of the Bible by heart, +as well as to read it, every syllable aloud, hard +names and all, from Genesis to the Apocalypse +about once a year; and to that discipline-- +patient, accurate, and resolute--I owe not only +a knowledge of the Book which I find occasionally +serviceable, but much of my general power +of taking pains and the best part of my taste +in literature." He thinks reading Scott might +have led to other novels of a poorer sort. +Reading Pope might have led to Johnson's +or Gibbon's English; but "it was impossible +to write entirely superficial and formal English" +while he knew "by heart the thirty- +second of Deuteronomy, the fifteenth of I +Corinthians, the One hundred and nineteenth +Psalm, or the Sermon on the Mount." In the +second chapter of Praeterita he is even more +explicit. "I have next with deeper gratitude to +chronicle what I owed to my mother for the resolute +persistent lessons which so exercised me in +the Scripture, as to make every word of them +familiar in my ear as habitual music, yet in that +familiarity reverenced as transcending all thought +and ordering all conduct." He tells how his +mother drilled him. As soon as he could read +she began a course of Bible work with him. +They read alternate verses from the Genesis to +the Revelation, names and all. Daily he had to +commit verses of the Scripture. He hated the +One hundred and nineteenth Psalm most; but +he lived to cherish it most. In his old Bible he +found the list of twenty-six chapters taught by +his mother. + + +[1] English Literature in Account with Religion. + + +Not only was Ruskin well trained in the Bible, +but he was a great teacher of it. In his preface +to the Crown of Wild Olives he answers his critics +by saying he has used the Book for some forty +years. "My endeavor has been uniformly to +make men read it more deeply than they do; +trust it, not in their own favorite verses only, +but in the sum of it all; treat it not as a fetish +or a talisman which they are to be saved by daily +repetition of, but as a Captain's order, to be held +and obeyed at their peril." In the introduction +to the Seven Lamps of Architecture he urges that +we are in no danger of too much use of the Bible. +"We use it most reverently when most habitually." +Many of Ruskin's most striking titles +come straight out of the Scripture. Crown of +Wild Olives, Seven Lamps, Unto this Last--all +these are suggested by the Bible. + +It is almost superfluous to speak of Robert +Louis Stevenson. John Kelman has written a +whole book on the religion of Stevenson, and it +is available for all readers. He was raised by +Cummy, his nurse, whose library was chiefly the +Bible, the shorter catechism, and the Life of +Robert Murray McCheyne. He said that the +fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah was his special +chapter, because it so repudiated cant and demanded +a self-denying beneficence. He loved +Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress; but "the Bible +most stood him in hand." Every great story +or essay shows its influence. He was not critical +with it; he did not understand it; he did not +interpret it fairly; but he felt it. His Dr. Jekyll +and Mr. Hyde is only his way of putting into +modern speech Paul's old distinction between +the two men who abide in each of us. They +told him he ought not to work in Samoa, and he +replied that he could not otherwise be true to +the great Book by which he and all men who +meant to do great work must live. Over the +shoulder of our beloved Robert Louis Stevenson +you can see the great characters of Scripture +pressing him forward to his best work. + +Not so much can be said of Swinburne. There +was a strong infusion of acid in his nature, which +no influence entirely destroyed. He is apt to +live as a literary critic and essayist, though he +supposed himself chiefly a poet. His own +thought of poetry can be seen in his protest +in behalf of Meredith. When he had been accused +of writing on a subject on which he had +no conviction to express ("Modern Love"), Swinburne +denied that poets ought to preach anyway. +"There are pulpits enough for all preachers +of prose, and the business of verse writing +is hardly to express convictions." Yet it is +impossible to forget Milton and his purpose to +"assert Eternal Providence, and justify the ways +of God to men." Naturally, most poets do +preach and preach well. Wordsworth declared +be wanted to be considered a teacher or nothing. +Mrs. Browning thought that poets were the only +truth-tellers left to God. But Swinburne could +not help a little preaching at any rate. His +"Masque on Queen Bersaba" is an old miracle +play of David and Nathan. His "Christmas +Antiphones" are hardly Christian, though they +are abundant in their allusions to Scripture. +The first is a prayer for peace and rest in the +coming of the new day of the birth of Christ. +The second is a protest that neither God nor +man has befriended man as he should, and the +third is an assurance that men will do for man +even if God will not. Now, that is not Christian, +but the Bible phrases are all through it. +So when he writes his poem bemoaning Poland, +he needs must head it "Rizpah." At the same +time it must be said that Swinburne shows less +of the influence of the Bible in his style and +in his spirit than any other of our great English +writers. + +We come back again into the atmosphere of +strong Bible influence when we name Alfred +Tennyson. When Byron died, and the word +came to his father's rectory at Somersby, young +Alfred Tennyson felt that the sun had fallen +from the heavens. He went out alone in the +fields and carved in the sandstone, as though it +were a monument: "Byron is dead." That was +in the early stage of his poetical life. At first +Carlyle could not abide Tennyson. He counted +him only an echo of the past, with no sense for +the future; but when he read Tennyson's "The +Revenge," he exclaimed, "Eh, he's got the +grip o' it"; and when Richard Monckton Milnes +excused himself for not getting Tennyson a +pension by saying his constituents had no use +for poetry anyway, Carlyle said, "Richard +Milnes, in the day of judgment when you are +asked why you did not get that pension, you +may lay the blame on your constituents, but it +will be you who will be damned!" Dr. Henry van +Dyke studied Tennyson to best effect at just +this point. In his chapter on "The Bible in +Tennyson" are many such sayings as these: "It +is safe to say that there is no other book which +has had so great an influence upon the literature +of the world as the Bible. We hear the echoes +of its speech everywhere, and the music of its +familiar phrases haunts all the field and grove +of our fine literature. At least one cause of his +popularity is that there is so much Bible in +Tennyson. We cannot help seeing that the poet +owes a large debt to the Christian Scriptures, not +only for their formative influence on his mind +and for the purely literary material in the way +of illustrations and allusions which they have +given him, but also for the creation of a moral +atmosphere, a medium of thought and feeling +in which he can speak freely and with an assurance +of sympathy to a very wide circle of +readers." + +I need not stop to indicate the great poems +in which Tennyson has so often used Scripture. +The mind runs quickly to the little maid in +"Guinevere," whose song, "Late, Late, so Late," +is only a paraphrase of the parable of the +foolish virgins. "In Memoriam" came into the +skeptical era of England, with its new challenge +to faith, and stopped the drift of young men +toward materialism. Recall the fine use he +makes, in the heart of it, of the resurrection of +Lazarus, and other Biblical scenes. Dr. van +Dyke's "four hundred direct references to the +Bible" do not exhaust the poems. No one can +get Tennyson's style without the English Bible, +and no one can read Tennyson intelligently +without a fairly accurate knowledge of the Bible. + +In this Victorian group the last name is +Thackeray's. He is another whose mother +trained him in the English Bible. The title of +Vanity Fair is from Pilgrim's Progress, but the +motto is from the Scripture; and he wrote his +mother regarding the book: "What I want is +to make a set of people living without God in +the world (only that is a cant phrase.)" It is +certain his mother did not count it a cant phrase, +for he learned it from the Scripture. The subtitle +of his Adventures of Philip says he is to show +who robbed him, who helped him, and who +passed him by. Thackeray got those expressions +from the Bible. Somewhere very early in any +of his works he reveals the influence of his +childhood and manhood knowledge of the English +Bible. + +All this about the Victorian group is meant +to be very familiar to any who are fresh from +the reading of literature. They are great +names, and they have differences as wide as the +poles; but they have this in common, that they +have drunk lightly or deeply from the same +fountain; they have drawn from it ideas, allusions, +literary style. Each of them has weakened +as he has gotten farther from it, and +loyalty to it has strengthened any one of them. + + +Turn now to the American group of writers. +If we except theological writers with Jonathan +Edwards, Horace Bushnell, Henry Ward Beecher, +and their like, and political writers with Jefferson, +Webster, and their like, the list need not +be a long one. Only one writer in our narrower +sense of literature must be named in the earlier +day--Benjamin Franklin. In the period before +the Civil War must be named Edgar Allan Poe +(died 1849) and Washington Irving (died 1859). +The Civil War group is the large one, and its +names are those of the later group as well. Let +them be alphabetical, for convenience: William +Cullen Bryant, poet and critic; George William +Curtis, essayist and editor; Emerson, our +noblest name in the sphere of pure essay literature; +Hawthorne, the novelist of conscience, as +Socrates was its philosopher; Oliver Wendell +Holmes, whose "two chief hatreds were orthodoxy +in religion and heterodoxy in medicine"; +James Russell Lowell, essayist and poet, apt to +live by his essays rather than by his poetry; +Longfellow, whose "Psalm of Life" and "Hiawatha" +have lived through as much parody and +ridicule as any two bits of literature extant, +and have lived because they are predestined +to live; Thoreau, whose Walden may show, as +Lowell said, how much can be done on little +capital, but which has the real literary tang to it; +and Whittier, whose poetry is sung the world +around. + +That makes only twelve names from Franklin +to Whittier. Others could be included; but +they are not so great as these. No one of these +could be taken out of our literature without +affecting it and, in some degree at least, changing +the current of it. This is not to forget +Bret Harte nor Samuel L. Clemens. But each +is dependent for his survival on a taste for a +certain kind of humor, not delicate like Irving's +and Holmes's, but strong and sudden and a bit +sharp. If we should forget the "Luck of Roaring +Camp," "Truthful James," and the "Heathen +Chinee," we would also forget Bret Harte. We +are not apt to forget Tom Sawyer, nor perhaps +The Innocents Abroad, but we are forgetting much +else of Mark Twain. Whitman is not named. +His claims are familiar, but in spite of his admirers +he seems so charged with a sensuous egotism +that he is not apt to be a formative influence in +literary history. It is still interesting, however, +to remember how frequently he reveals his reading +of Scripture. + +Fortunately, all these writers are so near, and +their work is so familiar, that details regarding +them are not needed. Two or three general +words can be said. In the first place, observe +the high moral tone of all these first-grade +writers, and, indeed, of the others who may be +spoken of as in second rank. There is not a +meretricious or humiliating book in the whole +collection. There is not one book which has +lived in American literature which has the tone +of Fielding's Tom Jones. Whether it is that the +Puritan strain continues in us or not, it is true +that the American literary public has not taken +happily to stories that would bring a blush in +public reading. Professor Richardson, of Dartmouth, +gives some clue to the reason of that. +He says that "since 1870 or 1880 in America +there has been a marked increase of strength +of theistic and spiritual belief and argument +among scientific men, students of philosophy, +religious 'radicals,' and others." He adds that +while much contemporary American literature +and thought is outside the accepted orthodox +lines, yet "it is not hostile to Christianity; to +the principles of its Founder it is for the most +part sincerely attached. On the other hand, +materialism has scarcely any hold upon it." +Then follows a very notable sentence which is +sustained by the facts: "Not an American book +of the first class has ever been written by an +atheist or denier of immortality." That sentence +need not offend an admirer of Walt Whitman, +for he "accepts both theism and the doctrine +of the future life." American thought has +remained loyal to the great Trinity, God, Freedom, +and Immortality. So it comes about that +while there are a number of these writers who +could be put under the ban of the strongly +orthodox in religion, every one of them shows +the effect of early training in religion and in +the Scripture.[1] + + +[1] This is fully worked out in Professor Richardson's American +Literature, with ample illustration and argument. + + +Another thing to be said is that America has a +unique history among great nations in that it +has never been affected by any great religious +influence except that which has issued from the +Scriptures. No religion has ever been influential +in America except Christianity. For many +years there have been sporadic and spasmodic +efforts to extend the influence of Buddhism or +other Indian cults. They have never been successful, +because the American spirit is practical, +and not meditative. We are not an introspective +people. We do not look within ourselves +for our religion. Whatever moral and religious +influence our literature shows gets back first or +last to our Scriptures. The point of view of +nature that is taken by our writers like Bryant +and Thoreau is that of the Nineteenth Psalm. +Moreover, we have been strongly under the +English influence. Irving insisted that we ought +to be, that we were a young nation, that we +ought frankly to follow the leadership of more +experienced writers. Longfellow thought we +had gone too far that way, and that our poets, at +least, ought to be more independent, ought to +write in the spirit of America and not of traditional +poetry. Whether we ought to have yielded +to it or not, it is true that English influence +has told very strongly upon us, and the writers +who have influenced our writers most have been +those whom we have named as being themselves +under the Bible influence. + +We need not go into detail about these writers, +though they are most attractive. Bryant did +for us what Wordsworth did for England. He +made nature seem vocal. "Thanatopsis" is not +a Christian poem in the narrow sense of the +word, and yet it could hardly have been written +except under Christian influence. His own genial, +beautiful character was itself a tribute to +Christian civilization, and his life, as critic and +essayist, has left an impression which we shall +not soon lose. Professor Richardson thinks +that the three problematical characters in American +literature are Emerson, Hawthorne, and +Poe. The shrewdest estimate of Poe that has +ever been given us is in Lowell's Fable for Critics: + + "There comes Poe with his raven like Barnaby + Rudge, + Three-fifths of him genius, and two-fifths sheer + fudge, + Who has written some things quite the best of + their kind, + But the heart somehow seems all squeezed out by + the mind." + +That says it exactly. Poe knew many horrible +situations, but he did not know the way out; +and of all our American writers laying claim to +place in the first class Poe shows least influence +of the Bible, and apparently needs it most. + +Irving was the first American writer who +stood high enough to be seen across the water. +Thackeray's most beautiful essay is on Irving and +Macaulay, who died just one month apart. In +it he describes Irving as the best intermediary +between the nations, telling us Americans that +the English are still human, and assuring the +English that Americans are already human. +Irving was trained early and thoroughly in the +Bible. All his life he was an old-fashioned +Episcopalian with no concern for new religious +ideas and with no rough edges anywhere. +Charles Dudley Warner, speaking of Irving's +moral quality, says: "I cannot bring myself to +exclude it from a literary estimate, even in the +face of the current gospel of art for art's sake."[1] +Like Scott, he "recognized the abiding value +in literature of integrity, sincerity, purity, charity, +faith. These are beneficences, and Irving's +literature, walk around it and measure it by +whatever critical instruments you will, is a +beneficent literature." + + +[1] American Men of Letters Series, Washington Irving, p. 302. + + +Then there is Emerson, a son of the manse +and once a minister himself. He was, therefore, +perfectly familiar with the English Bible. He +did not accept it in all its religious teaching. +Indeed, we have never had a more marked +individualist in our American public life than +Emerson. At every point he was simply himself. +There is very little quotation in his writing, +very little visible influence of any one else. +He was not a follower of Carlyle, though he was +his friend. If there is any precedent for the +construction of his sentences, and even of his +essays, it is to be found in the Hebrew prophets. +As some one puts it, "he uttered sayings." In +many of his essays there is no particular reason +why the paragraphs should run one, two, three, +and not three, two, one, or two, one, three, or +in any other order. But Mr. Emerson was just +himself. It is yet true that "his value for the +world at large lies in the fact that after all he +is incurably religious." It is true that he could +not see any importance in forms, or in ordinary +declarations of faith. "He would fight no battle +for prelacy, nor for the Westminster confession, +nor for the Trinity, but as against atheism, +pessimism, and materialism, he was an ally of +Christianity." The influence of the Bible on +Emerson is more marked in his spirit than in +anything else. Once in a while, as in that familiar +address at Concord (1873), you run across +Scripture phrases: "Shall not they who receive +the largest streams spread abroad the healing +waters?" That figure appears in literature only +in the Bible, and there are others like it in his +writings. + + +As for Longfellow, he is shot through with +Scripture. No man who did not know Scripture +in more than a passing way could have written +such a sentence as this: "There are times when +the grasshopper is a burden, and thirsty with the +heat of labor the spirit longs for the waters of +Shiloah, that go softly." There are two strikingly +beautiful expressions from Scripture. Take +another familiar saying in the same essay when +he says the prospect for poetry is brightening, +since but a short time ago not a poet "moved +the wing or opened the mouth or peeped." He +did not run across that in general current writing. +He got that directly from the Bible. In +his poems is an amazing amount of reference +to the Bible. One would expect much in the +"Courtship of Miles Standish," for that is a +story of the Puritans, and they spoke, naturally, +in terms of the Bible; yet, of course, they could +not do it in Longfellow's poem, if Longfellow +did not know the language of the Bible very well. +One might not expect to find it so much in +"Evangeline," but it is there from beginning to +end. In "Acadia," the cock crowed + + "With the self-same + Voice that in ages of old had startled the penitent + Peter." + +And, + "Wild with the winds of September, + Wrestled the trees of the forest, as Jacob of old + with the angel." + +Evangeline saw the moon pass + + Forth from the folds of the cloud, and one star + followed her footsteps, + As out of Abraham's tent young Ishmael + Wandered with Hagar." + +There is a great deal of that sort of thing in his +writing. He has done for many what he did +for Lowell one day. Discouraged in settling +the form of a new edition of his own poems, +Lowell took up a volume of Longfellow just to +see the type, and presently found that he had +been reading two hours. He wrote Longfellow +he could understand his popularity, saying: +"You sang me out of all my worries." That is +a great thing to do, and Longfellow learned from +the Scripture how to do that in the "Psalm of +Life" and all his other poems. + +We need only a word about Lowell himself. +He was the son of a minister, and so knew the +Bible from his infancy. He belonged to the +Brahman caste himself, but a good deal of the +ruggedness of the Old Testament got into his +writing. It is in "The Vision of Sir Launfal." +It is in his plea for international copyright where +the familiar lines occur: + + "In vain we call old notions fudge, + And bend our conscience to our dealing, + The Ten Commandments will not budge, + And stealing will continue stealing." + +There is hint of it in his quizzical lines about +himself in the Fable for Critics. He says that +he is in danger of rattling away + + "Until he is as old as Methusalem, + At the head of the march to the last New Jerusalem." + + +Whittier needs no words of ours. His hymns +are part of our religious equipment. "Snowbound" +and all the rest of the beautiful, quiet, +Quaker-like writing of this beloved poet are +among our national assets. We join in his sorrow +as he writes the doom of Webster and his +fame, and we do not wonder that he chose for +it the Scriptural title "Ichabod." + +Whatever is to be said about an individual +here or there, it is true that great American +literature shows the influence of the Bible. Like +everything else in America, it has been founded +on a religious purpose. Writers in all lines have +been trained in the Bible. If they feel any +religious influence at all, it is the Bible influence. + +This has been a long journey from Shakespeare +to Whittier, and it leaves untouched the +great field of present-day writers. Let the +unstarred names wait their time. Among them +are many who can say in their way what Hall +Caine has said of himself: "I think I know my +Bible as few literary men know it. There is no +book in the world like it, and the finest novels +ever written fall far short in interest of any one +of the stories it tells. Whatever strong situations +I have in my books are not of my creation, +but are taken from the Bible. The Deemster is +a story of the Prodigal Son. The Bondman is +the story of Esau and Jacob. The Scapegoat is +the story of Eli and his sons, but with Samuel +as a little girl; and The Manxman is the story of +David and Uriah." Take up any of the novels +of the day, even the poorer ones, but notably +the better ones, and see how uniformly they show +the Scriptural influence in material, in idea, and +in spirit. What the literature of the future will +be no one can say. This much is as sure as any +fact in literary history, that the English Bible +is part of the very fiber of great literature from +the day it first appeared in our tongue to this +hour. + + + +LECTURE V + +THE KING JAMES VERSION--ITS INFLUENCE ON +ENGLISH AND AMERICAN HISTORY + +THE King James version of the Bible is +only a book. What can a book do in history? +Well, whatever the reason, books have +played a large part in the movements of men, +specially of modern men. + +They have markedly influenced the opinion +of men about the past. It is commonly said that +Hume's History of England, defective as it is, +has yet "by its method revolutionized the writing +of history," and that is true. Nearer our +own time, Carlyle's Life of Cromwell reversed the +judgment of history on Cromwell, gave all +readers of history a new conception of him and +his times and of the movement of which he +was the life. After the Restoration none were +so poor as to do Cromwell reverence until Carlyle's +BOOK gave him anew to the world. + +There are instances squarely in our own time +by which their mighty influence may be tested. +They are of books of almost ephemeral value +save for the student of history. As literature +they will be quickly forgotten; but as FORCES +they must be reckoned with. There is Uncle +Tom's Cabin. It would be absurd to say that +it brought the American Civil War, or freed +the negroes, or saved the Union. It did none +of those great things. Yet it is not at all absurd +to name it among the potent powers in all +three. It is not to our purpose whether it is +true or not as a statement of the whole fact. +Doubtless it was not true of the general and +common circumstances of Southern slavery; but +everything in it was possible, and even frequent +enough so that it could not be questioned. It +pretended no more. But its influence was simply +tremendous. In book form it became available +in 1852, and within three years, 1855, it +was common property of English-speaking people. +No other book ever produced so extraordinary +an effect so quickly in the public mind.[1] +It held up slavery to judgment. It crystallized +the thoughts of common people. The work of +those strenuous years in the '60's could not have +been done without the result of that book. It +made history. Come nearer our own day. We +could not be long in London without feeling +the concern of the better people for conditions +in the East End. A new social impulse has +seized them. To be sure, it lacks much yet of +success; but more has been done than most +people realize. The new movement, the awakening +of that social sense, traces back to the book +of Gen. William Booth, In Darkest England +(1890). It has helped to change the life of a +large part of London. + + +[1] Rhodes, History of the United States, vol. i, pp. 185-303. + + +On this side, the new concern for city conditions +dates from the book of a newspaper reporter, +Jacob A. Riis, How the Other Half Lives. +It thrust the Other Half into such prominence +that it has never been possible to forget it. +Marked advance in all American cities, in legislation +and life, goes straight back to it. Name +one other book still in the field of social service, +even so unpleasant, so terrible, so obnoxious a +book as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. It started +and sustained movements which have unsettled +business and political life ever since it appeared. +It made some conditions vivid, unescapable. + +Do not misunderstand the argument. No +man can tell what will be said in the histories +a century from now about these lesser books. +We can never go beyond guesses as to the whole +cause of any chain of events.[1] As time passes, +incidental elements in the causes gradually sink +out of sight and a few great forces take the +whole horizon. Whatever the histories a century +from now say about the relative place of +such books as we have named, it is certain that +they have influenced the movements mightily. +The literary histories will say nothing at all +about them. They are not great literature, but +they were born of a passion of the times and +voiced and aroused it anew. + + +[1] MacPhail, Essays on Puritanism, p. 278. + + +When, therefore, it is urged that the English +Bible has influenced history, it is not making an +undue claim for it. When it is further urged +that of all books in English literature it has been +most influential, it has most made history, it +has most determined great movements, the +argument only claims for it the highest place +among books. + +And it would not be surprising if it should +have such influence. It is the one great piece +of English literature which is universal property. +Since the day it was published it has been kept +available for everybody. No other book has +ever had its chance. English-speaking people +have always been essentially religious. They +have always had a profound regard for the terms, +the institutions, the purposes of religion. Partly +that has been maintained by the Bible; but the +Bible in its turn has been maintained by it. So +it has come about that English-speaking people, +though they have many books, are essentially +people of one Book. Wherever they are, the +Bible is. Queen Victoria has it near by when the +messenger from the Orient appears, and lays her +hand upon it to say that this is the foundation +of the prosperity of England. But the poor +housewife in the cottage, with only a crust for +food, stays her soul with it. The Puritan creeps +into hiding with the Book, while his brother sails +away to the new land with the Book. The settler +may have his Shakespeare; he will surely +have his Bible. As the long wagon-train creeps +across the plain to seek the Western shore, there +may be no other book in all the train; but the +Bible will be there. Find any settlement of +men who speak the English tongue, wherever +they make their home, and the Bible is among +them. When did any book have such a chance +to influence men? It is the one undisturbed +heritage of all who speak the English tongue. It +binds the daughter and the mother country together, +and gathers into the same bond the scattered +remnants of the English-speaking race the +world around. Its language is the one speech +they all understand. Strange it would be if it +had not a profound influence upon history! + +Another fact that has helped to give the Bible +its great influence is the power of the preaching +it has inspired. The periods of greatest preaching +have always been the periods of freest access +to the Bible. No one can overlook the immense +power of the sermons of history. There have +been poor, inept, banal expositors, doubtless; +but even they turned men's minds to the Bible. +Reading the Bible makes men thinkers, and so +makes preachers inevitably. Witness the Scotch. +James was raised in Scotland and believed in +the power of preaching. At one time he wanted +to settle endowments for the maintenance of +preaching under government control. But Archbishop +Whitgift convinced him that much preaching +was "an innovation and dangerous," since it +is quite impossible to control a man's mouth +once it is given a public chance. Under Charles +I. the sermon was mighty in the service of the +Puritans until it was suppressed or restricted. +Then men became lecturers and expounded the +Bible or taught religious truth in public or private. +Rich men engaged private chaplains since +public meetings could not be held. Somehow +they taught the Bible still. Archbishop Laud +forbade both. Yet the leaven worked the more +for its restriction. At least one good cook I +know says that if you want your dough to rise +and the yeast to work, you must cover it. Laud +did not want it to rise, but he made the mistake +of covering it. + +There has never been a book which has provoked +such incessant preaching and discussion +as has the Bible. The believers in the Koran +teach it as it is, word for word. Believers in the +Bible have never stopped with that. They +have always tried to come together and hear it +expounded. Such gatherings and such constant +pressure of the Book on groups of hearers would +inevitably give the Bible great influence. When +it is remembered that in America alone there +are each week approximately four hundred thousand +gatherings of people which have for their +avowed purpose instruction or inspiration in +religion, and that the instruction and inspiration +are professedly and openly drawn from the Bible, +that more than three hundred thousand sermons +are preached every week from it and passages +of it read in all the gatherings, it appears that the +Bible had and still has such a chance to influence +life as no other book has had. President Schurman +traces a large part of our own stronger +American life to the educative power of our +Sundays. But central in the education of those +days is now, and has been from the first of our +national history, the English Bible. + +The influence of the Bible comes also from +the fact that it makes its chief appeal to the +deeper elements in life. "Human history in its +real character is not an account of kings and of +wars; it is the unfolding of the moral, the political, +the artistic, the social, and the spiritual +progress of the human family. The time will +yet come when the names of dynasties and of +battles shall not form the titles of its chapters. +The truths revealed in the Bible have been the +touchstone which has tried men's spirits."[1] + + +[1] H. B. Smith, Faith and Philosophy, p. 54. + + +Those words go to the heart of the fact. The +influence of the English Bible on English- +speaking history for the last three hundred +years is only the influence of its fundamental +truths. It has moved with tremendous impact +on the wills of men. It has made the great +human ideals clear and definite; it has made +them beautiful and attractive; but that has not +been enough. It has reached also the springs of +action. It has given men a sense of need and +also a sense of strength, a sense of outrage and a +sense of power to correct the wrong. There it +has differed from most books. Frederick Robertson +said that he read only books with iron in +them, and, as he read, their atoms of iron entered +the blood, and it ran more red for them. +There is iron in this Book, and it has entered +the blood of the human race. Where it has +entered most freely, the red has deepened; and +nowhere has it deepened more than in our +English-speaking races. The iron of our blood +is from this King James version. + +Bismarck explained the victories of the Germans +over the French by the fact that from +childhood the Germans had been trained in the +sense of duty, as the French had not been trained, +and as soldiers had learned to feel that nothing +could escape the Eye which ever watched their +course. They learned that, Bismarck said, from +the religion which they had been taught. There +is no mistaking the power of religion in rousing +and sharpening the sense of duty. Webster +spoke for the English-speaking races, and found +his phrases in the Bible, when he said that this +sense "pursues us ever. It is omnipresent like +the Deity. If we take to ourselves the wings +of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts +of the sea, duty performed or duty violated is +still with us for our happiness or our misery. +If we say the darkness shall cover us, in the +darkness as in the light our obligations are yet +with us. We cannot escape from their power or +fly from their presence." It is religion which +makes that sense of duty keen; and, whatever +religion has done among English-speaking races, +the English Bible has done, for it has been the +text-book and the final authority of those races +in the moving things of their faith. + +It would be easiest in making the argument +to single out here and there the striking events +in which the Bible has figured and let them stand +for the whole. There are many such events, +and they are attractive. + +We can imagine ourselves standing on the shore +at Dover in 1660, fifty years after the version +was issued, waiting with the crowd to see the +banished King return. The civil war is over, +the protectorate under Cromwell is past. Charles +II., thick-lipped, sensuous, "seeming to belong +rather to southern Europe than to Puritan England," +is about to land from France, whence the +people, wearied with Puritan excesses, have called +him back. There is a great crowd, but they do +not cheer wildly. There is something serious +on hand. They mean to welcome the King; but +it is on condition. Their first act is when the +Mayor of Dover places in his hands a copy of +the English Bible, which the King declares he +loves above all things in the world. It proves +only a sorry jest; but the English people think +it is meant for truth, and they go to their homes +rejoicing. They rejoiced too soon, for this is +that utterly faithless king for whom his witty +courtier proposed an epitaph: + + "Here lies our sovereign lord, the king, + Whose word no man relies on; + Who never said a foolish thing, + And never did a wise one."[1] + + +[1] White, in his History of England, says that Charles replied +that the explanation was easy: His discourses were his own, his +actions were his ministry's! + +As at other times, the King was only talking +with no meaning; but the people did not know +him yet. They had made their Bible the great +test of their liberties: will a king stand by that +or will he not? If he will not, let him remember +Charles the First! And from that day no English +king, no American leader, has ever successfully +restricted English-speaking people from +free access to their great Book. It has become +a banner of their liberties. The child was wiser +than he knew when he was asked what lesson +we may learn from Charles I., and replied that +we may learn that a man should not lose his +head in times of excitement. Charles lost his +head long before he laid it on the block. + +Besides the scene at Dover, we may watch +that great emigration of the Scotch-Irish from +Ulster, beginning in 1689, seventy years after +the Puritan exodus and eighty years after the +version was issued, which peopled the backwoods +of America with a choice, strong population. +They were only following the right to worship +freely, the right to their Bible without chains +on its lids or on the lips of its preachers. They +were making no protest against Romanism nor +against Anglicanism in themselves. They only +claimed the right to worship as they would. +Under William and Mary, after James II. had +fled to France, toleration became the law in +England; but when Ireland was reconquered +by William's generals, the act of toleration was +not extended to it. Baptists, Presbyterians, all +except the small Anglican Church, were put +under the ban and forbidden to worship. But +the Bible had made submission impossible, and +there came about that great exodus to the new +land which has so blessed it. + +There are other signal events which might be +observed. But all the while there would be +danger of magnifying the importance of events +which seem to prove the point. The view needs +to be a more general one instead. The period +is not long--three hundred years at the most-- +though it has a background of all English history. +We have already seen how from the first +there have been determined efforts to make the +Bible common to the people; yet, of course, the +influence of our version can appear only in these +three hundred years since it was issued. That +short period has not only been interesting almost +to the point of excitement in English life, but +it covers virtually all American life. Take, +therefore, the broader view of the influence of +the English Bible on history, apart from these +striking events. + +It is to be assumed at once that much of its +influence is indirect. Indeed, its chief influence +must be through men who prove to be leaders +and through that public sentiment without which +leaders are powerless. If leaders live by it and +stand or fall by its teaching, then their work is +its work. If they find a public sentiment issuing +from it which gives them power, a sentiment +which crystallizes around them when they appear, +because it is of kindred spirit with themselves, +then the power of that sentiment is the power +of the Bible. The influence of Pilgrim's Progress +or The Saint's Rest is the influence of Bunyan +and Baxter; but back of them is the Bible. In +language, in idea, in spirit, they were only making +the Bible a common Book to their readers. +Their value for life and history is the Bible's +value for life and history. + +The power of great souls is frequently and +easily underestimated. Scientific study has +tended to that by magnifying visible conditions +and by trying to calculate the force of +laws which are in plain sight. Buckle's theory +of civilization has influenced our times greatly. +It explains national character as the outcome of +natural conditions, and lays such stress on circumstances as left +it possible for Buckle to declare +that history and biography are in different +spheres. It is still true, however, that most +history turns on biography. Great souls have +been the chief factors in great movements. +Whether the movement could have occurred +without them will never be possible to decide, +if it should be disputed. In a chemical laboratory +the essential factors of any phenomenon +can be determined by the process of elimination. +All the elements which preceded it except one +can be introduced; if the result is the same as +in its presence, manifestly it is not essential. +So the experiment can go on until the result becomes +different, when it is evident that the last +omitted element is an essential one. But no +such process is possible in great historical movements. +The only course open to us is to consider +carefully the elements which do appear. + +Take three great movements which are easiest +to follow in these three centuries. Whether the +spiritual independence of England would have +been secured without the Quakers may be debated; +but this fact can hardly be debated: +certainly it was not so secured; whether or not +the Quakers could have been without George +Fox, certainly they did not occur without him. +Take the second: whether or not some other +movement could have done what Puritanism +did is hardly a question for history; Puritanism +actually did the work for England and America +which gave both their strongest qualities. There +is no testing the period to see whether Puritanism +could be left out. There it stands as a +powerful factor, and no analysis of the history +can possibly omit it. Or the third: it is not a +question for a historian whether English history +could have been the same without Methodism +and whether Methodism could have been at all +without the Wesleys; certainly nothing took its +place, nor did any one else stand at the head of +the movement. + +Here are these three great movements, not +to seek others. All of them have had tremendous +influence in the religious and political history +of both the nations where they have moved +most freely. Each of them is a direct and +undisputed result of the influence of the Bible. +Much has already been said of the Puritans in +England, and there will be occasion to see what +was their influence in America. But think for +a moment of the Quakers. James Freeman +Clark calls them the English mystics; certainly +they were more than that.[1] George Fox had +little learning but the Bible; that he knew well. +He first came to himself out in the fields alone +with the Bible. He was not stirred to the origin +of the movement nor to his greatest activity by +experiences he had in public places. He came +to those public places profoundly affected by his +familiarity with the English Bible. He came at +a time when his protest was needed, a protest +against formalism, against mere outward conformity. +A thousand years before, Mohammedanism +had really saved the Christian faith by +its protest, violent and merciless, against its +errors, challenging it to purity in faith and life. +Now Fox and the Quakers saved church life by +protest against church life. The Bible was still +the law, but not the Bible which you read for +me, but that which you read for you and I for +me, each of us guided by an inner light. The +Quaker movement was a distinct protest against +church formalism in the interests of freedom of +the Bible. + + +[1] David Gregg, The Quakers in America. + + +That Quaker influence was far stronger in +America than it ever proved to be in England. +George Fox himself visited the colonies and extended +its influence. Three great effects are +easily traceable. The very presence of the +Quakers in the New England colonies, notably +in Massachusetts, and the persecutions which +they endured, did more to purify the Puritans +than any other one influence. One is only loyal +to the Puritan character and teaching in declaring +that in the manner of the Puritans toward +the Quakers they were wrong; they were wrong +because they were untrue to their own belief, +untrue to their own Bibles, and when the more +thoughtful among them found that they were +taking the attitude toward the Quakers which +they had resented toward themselves, remembering +that the Quakers were drawing their +teaching from the same Bible as themselves, +they were naturally checked. And, while the +Quakers in New England suffered greatly, their +suffering proved the purification of the Puritans. +It accented and so it removed the narrowness of +Puritan practice. Further, the Quaker movement +gave to American history William Penn +and the whole constitution of Pennsylvania. It +was there that a state first lived by the principle +which William Penn pronounced: "Any government +is free where the people are a party to the +laws enacted." So it came about that Independence +Hall is on Quaker soil. The Declaration +of Independence appeared there, and not +on Puritan soil. It may be there was more +freedom of thought in Pennsylvania. It may +be explained on purely geographical ground, +Philadelphia being the most convenient center +for the colonies. But it remains significant +that not on Cavalier soil in Virginia, not on +Dutch soil in New York, not on Puritan soil in +Boston, but on Quaker soil in Philadelphia the +movement for national independence crystallized +around a general principle that "any +government is free where the people are a party +to the laws enacted," but that no government is +free whose people have not a voice. That is not +minimizing the power of Puritanism, nor forgetting +Fanueil Hall and the Tea Party. It only +accents what should be familiar: that Puritanism +drew into itself more of the fighting element +of Scripture, while the Quaker movement drew +into itself more of the uniting, pacifying element +of Scripture. The third effect of the Quaker +movement is John Greenleaf Whittier, with his +gentle but never weak demand that national +freedom should not mean independence of other +people alone, but the independence of all people +within the nation. So that while the Quaker +spirit helped the colonies to break loose from +foreign control and become a nation, it helped +the nation in turn to break loose from internal +shackles. The nation stood free within itself +as well as free from others. Yet the Quaker +movement--and this is the argument--is itself +the result of the English Bible, and the Quaker +influence is the influence of the English Bible +on history. + +There is not need for extended word about the +great Wesleyan movement in the midst of this +period, which has so profoundly affected both +English and American history. It has not +worked out into such visible political forms. +But any movement that makes for larger spiritual +life makes for the strengthening of the entire +life of the nation. The mere figures of the early +Wesleyan movement are almost appalling. Here +was a man, John Wesley, an Oxford scholar, +who spent nearly fifty years traveling up and +down and back and forth through England on +horseback, covering more than two hundred and +fifty thousand miles, preaching everywhere more +than forty thousand times, writing, translating, +editing two hundred works. When death ended +his busy life there were in his newly formed +brotherhood one hundred and thirty-five +thousand members, with five hundred and fifty +itinerants who were following his example with +incessant preaching and Bible exposition. It +was the old Wiclif-Lollard movement over again. +And here was the other Wesley, Charles, teaching +England to sing again, teaching the old +truths of the Bible in rhyme to many who could +not read, so that they became familiar, writing +on horseback, in stage-coaches, everywhere, +writing with one passion, to help England back +to the Bible and its truth. Such activity could +not leave the nation unmoved; all its religious +life felt it, and its political life from serf to king +was deeply affected by it. It is a common saying +that the Wesleyan movement saved English +liberty from European entanglement. Yet the +Wesleyan movement issued from the Bible and +led England back to the Bible. + +But apart from these wide movements and +the great souls who led them, there is time for +thought of one typical character on each side +of the sea who did not so much make a movement +as he proved the point around which a +great fluid idea crystallized into strength. Across +the sea the character shall be that man whom +Carlyle gave back to us out of obloquy and +misunderstanding, Oliver Cromwell. Choosing him, +we pass other names which crowd into memory, +names of men who have served the need of England +well-Wilberforce, John Howard, Shaftesbury, Gladstone--who drew +their strength from +this Book. Yet we choose Cromwell now for +argument. On this side it must be that best +known, most beloved, most typical of all Americans, +Abraham Lincoln. + +An English historian has said that the most +influential, the most unescapable years in English +history are those of the Protectorate. That +is a strong saying. They were brief years. +There were many factors in them. Oliver Cromwell +was only one, but he was chief of all. He +was not chief in the councils which resulted in +the beheading of Charles I. on that 30th of +January, 1649, though he took part in them. +Increasingly in the movements which led to +that event and which followed it he was growing +into prominence. After Marston Moor, +Prince Rupert named him Ironsides, and his +regiment of picked men, picked for their spirit, +went always into battle singing psalms, "and +were never beaten." As he rode out to the field +at Naseby (1645) he knew he faced the flower +of the loyalist army, while with him were only +untrained men; yet he smiled, as he said afterward, +in the "assurance that God would, by +things that are not, bring to naught things that +are." Then he adds, "God did it." Never +did he raise his flag but in the interests of the +liberty of the people, and back of every movement +of his army there was his confidence in the +Bible, which was his mainstay. They offered +him the throne; he would not have it. He dissolved +the Parliament which had dragged on +until the patience of the people was exhausted. +He called another to serve their need. The +evening before it met he spent in meditation on +the One hundred and third Psalm. The evening +before the second Parliament of his Protectorate +he brooded on the Eighty-fifth Psalm, and +opened the Parliament next day with an exposition +of it. The man was saturated with Scripture. +Yes, the times were rude. It was an Old +Testament age, and in right Old Testament +spirit did Cromwell work. And it seemed that +his work failed. There was no one to succeed +him, and soon after his death came the Restoration +and the return of Charles II., of which we +have already spoken, in which occurred that +hint of the real sentiment of the English people +which a wise man had better have taken. +Yet, recall what actually happened. Misunderstanding +the spirit of the English people, which +Cromwell had helped to form, but which in +turn had made Cromwell possible, the servile +courtiers of the false king unearthed the Protector's +body, three years buried, hanged it on +a gallows in Tyburn for a day, beheaded it, and +threw the trunk into a pit. His head they +mockingly set on a pinnacle of the Parliament +Hall, whence for some weeks it looked over the +city which he had served. Then, during a +great storm, it came clattering down, only a poor +dried skull, and disappeared no one knows where. +But when you stand opposite the great Parliament +buildings in London to-day, the most +beautiful buildings for their purpose in the world, +the buildings where the liberties of the English +express themselves year after year, whose is the +one statue that finds place within the inclosure, +near the spot where that poor skull came rattling +down? Not Charles II.--you shall look in +vain for him. Not George Monk, who brought +back the King--you shall not find him there. +The one statue which England has cared to plant +beside its Parliament buildings is that of Oliver +Cromwell, its Lord Protector. There he stands, +warning kings in the interests of liberty. John +Morley makes no ideal of him. He thinks he +rather closed the medieval period than opened +the modern period; but he will not have Cromwell +compared to Frederick the Great, who +spoke with a sneer of mankind. Cromwell "belonged +to the rarer and nobler type of governing +men, who see the golden side, who count faith, +piety, hope among the counsels of practical +wisdom, and who for political power must ever +seek a moral base." That is a rare and noble +type of men, whether they govern or not. But +no man of that type governs without red blood +in his veins; and the iron that made this man's +blood run red came from the English Bible. + +It is a far cry from Oliver Cromwell to Abraham +Lincoln--far in years, far in deeds, far in +methods, but not far in spirit. Great men are +kindred, generations over. We pass from the +Old Testament into the New when we pass from +Cromwell to Lincoln; but we still feel the spirit +of liberty. From the days of the Puritans, the +Quakers and the Dutch, history had been preparing +for this time. Benjamin Franklin had +done his great work for human liberty; he had +summed up his hope for the nation in his memorable +address in 1787, when he stood eighty- +one years old, before the convention assembled to +frame a constitution for the new government. He +reminded them that at the beginning of the contest +with the British they had had daily prayers +in that room in Philadelphia for the Divine protection, +and said: "I have lived for a long time, +and the longer I live the more convincing proof +I see of this truth, that God governs in the +affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall +to the ground without His notice, is it probable +that an empire can rise without His aid? We +have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, +that 'Except the Lord build the house, they labor +in vain that build it.' I firmly believe this, and +I also believe that without His concurring aid +we shall proceed in this political building no +better than the builders of Babel. I therefore +beg leave to move that, henceforth, prayers imploring +the assistance of Heaven and its blessing +on our deliberation be held in this assembly +every morning before we proceed to business, +and that one or more of the clergy of this city +be requested to officiate in that service." + +George Washington sounded a familiar note +in his farewell address: "Of all the dispositions +and habits which lead to political prosperity, +religion and morality are indispensable supports. +A volume could not trace all their connection +with private and public felicity. Let us with +caution indulge the supposition that morality +can be maintained without religion. Whatever +may be conceded to the influence of refined education +on minds of peculiar structure, reason and +experience both forbid us to expect that national +morality can prevail in exclusion of religious +principles." Thomas Jefferson, of whom it is +sometimes said that he was indifferent to religion, +had yet done his great work under inspiration, +which he himself acknowledges in his +inaugural address, when he speaks of the nation +as "enlightened by a benign religion, professed +indeed, and practised in various forms, yet all +of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, +gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging +and adoring an overruling Providence, which +by all its dispensation proves that it results in +the happiness of man here and his greater happiness +hereafter." Greater than Jefferson had +appeared John Marshall, greatest of our Chief +Justices, like in spirit to that John Marshall +Harlan, whose death marked the year which +has just closed, of whom his colleagues said that +he went to his rest each night with one hand on +the Bible and the other on the Constitution of +the United States, a description which could +almost be transferred to his great predecessor +in that court. Moreover, when Lincoln came, +Joseph Story, the greatest teacher of law which +our country had produced, had only just died +from his place on the Supreme Bench, In his +Phi Beta Kappa address at Harvard (1826), in +a brilliant and masterful analysis of "The +Characteristics of the Age," he had paid tribute after +tribute to the power of religion and the Bible. +He had declared his belief that the religion of +the Bible had "established itself in the hearts +of men by all which genius could bring to illumine +or eloquence to grace its sublime truths." Of +the same period with Lincoln was also Webster, +who was called the "concordance of the House." +Many of his stately periods and great ideas came +from the Bible. Indeed, there is no oratory of +our history, which has survived the waste of the +years, which does not feel and show the power +of the Scriptures. The English Bible has given +our finest eloquence its ideas, its ideals, its +illustrations, its phrases. + +The line is unbroken. And it leads to this tall +figure, crowned with a noble head, his face the +saddest in American history, who knew Gethsemane +in all its paths. The heart of the American +people has always been touched by his early +years of abject poverty. But there were +compensations. He had few books, and they entered +his blood and fiber. In his earliest formative +years there were six books which he read and +re-read. Nicolay and Hay name the Bible first +in the list, with Pilgrim's Progress as the fourth. +Mr. Morse calls it a small library, but nourishing, +and says that Lincoln absorbed into his own +nature all the strong juice of the books.[1] How +much he drew from the pages of the Holy Book +let any reader of his speeches say. Quotation, +reference, illustration crowd each other. The +phrases are familiar. The man is full of the +Book. And what the man does is part of the +work of the Book. + + +[1] American Statesman Series, Abraham Lincoln, i, 12, 13. + + +One of his biographers says that there is +nothing in the life or work of Lincoln which cannot +be explained without reference to any supernatural +influence or power. That depends on +what is meant by supernatural. There were no +miracles, no astounding visions nor experiences. +But there ran into Lincoln's life from his young +manhood onward this steady and strong current +of ideas and ideals from the Bible. In his +second inaugural address he worded the thought +that was the deepest horror of the Civil War-- +that on both sides of the strife men were reading +the same Bible, praying to the same God, and invoking +His aid against each other! In that very +brief inaugural Mr. Lincoln quotes in full three +Bible verses, and makes reference to two others, +and the whole address lasted barely four minutes. +There could be no mistaking the solemn importance +of the fact to which he referred in the +inaugural, the presence on the other side of men +who held their Bibles high in regard. "Stonewall" +Jackson was devout beyond most men. +The two books always at his hand were his +Bible and the Manual of the Rules of War. +Robert E. Lee was a cultured, Christian gentleman, +as were many others with him, while +throughout the South were multitudes who +loved and reverenced the Bible as fully as could +any in the North. As we look back over half a +century, this comes out plainly: that so far as +the American civil war was a strife about union +pure and simple, having one nation or two here +in our part of the continent, it was matter of +judgment, not of religion. There grew around +that question certain others of national honor and +obligation, which were not so clear then as now. +But men on opposite sides of the question might +read the same Bible without finding authoritative +word about it. In so far, however, as the war +had at its heart the matter of human slavery, +it was possible for men to differ only when one +side read the letter of the Bible while the other +read its manifest spirit. Written in times when +slavery was counted matter of course, its letter +dealt with slavery as a fact. It could be read as +though it approved slavery. But long before +this day men had found its true spirit. England +had abolished slavery (1808) under the insistence +that it was foreign to all right understanding +of God's Word. Lincoln knew its letter +well; he cared for its spirit more, and he found +his strength not in the familiar saying that God +was on his side, but in the more forceful one +that he believed himself to be on God's side. +So he became a point around which the great +fluid idea crystallized into strength--a point +made and sustained by the influence of the Bible, +which he knew only in the King James version. + + +We have spoken of some wide movements and +of men around whom they crystallized, finding +in them the influence of the Bible. It will be +well to note two outstanding traits of the Bible +which in English or any other tongue would +inevitably tend to strong and favorable influence +on the history of men. Those two traits are, +first, its essential democracy, and, secondly, its +persistent moral appeal. + +Here must be recalled that century before +the King James version, when by slow filtration +the fundamental ideas of the Bible were entering +English life. Surely it is beyond words that +the Bible made Puritanism, though it was in +strong swing when James came to the throne. +Now John Richard Green is well within the fact +when he says that "Puritanism may fairly claim +to be the first political system which recognized +the grandeur of the people as a whole."[1] It, was +the magnifying of the people as a whole over +against some people as having peculiar rights +which marked Puritanism, and which is democracy. +Shakespeare knew nothing of it, and had +no influence on the movement for larger democracy. +After we have said our strong word of +Shakespeare's powerful influence upon literature +it yet must be said that it is difficult to lay +finger on one single historical movement except +the literary one which Shakespeare even remotely +influenced. The Bible, meanwhile, was absolutely +creating this movement. Under its influence +"the meanest peasant felt himself ennobled +as the child of God, the proudest noble +recognized a spiritual equality with the meanest +saint." That was the inevitable result of a +fresh reading of the Bible in every home. It assured +each man that he is a son of God, equal in +that sonship with all other men. It assured +him no man has right to lord it over others, +as though his relation to God were peculiar. +The Bible constantly impresses men that this +relation to God is the essential one. Everything +else is incidental. Granted now a people freshly +under the influence of that teaching, you have +a large explanation of the movement which followed +the issuance of this version. + + +[1] Short History of the English People, chap. vii, sec. vii. + + +James opened his first parliament (1604) with +a speech claiming divine right, a doctrine which +had really been raised to meet the claim of the +right of the pope to depose kings. James argued +that the state of monarchy is the supremest +thing on earth, for kings are not only God's +lieutenants on earth and set upon God's throne, +but even by God Himself are called gods. (He +never found that in the Genevan version or its +notes!) As to dispute what God may do is +blasphemy, so it is sedition in subjects to dispute +what the king may do in the height of his +power. "I will not be content that my power +be disputed on." The House of Commons sat by +his grace and not of any right. + +Set that idea of James over against the idea +which the Bible was constantly developing in +the mind of the people, and you see why Trevelyan +says that the Bible brought in democracy, +and why he thinks, as we have already seen, +that the greatest contribution England has made +to government is its treatment of the Stuarts, +when it transferred sovereignty from the king +to Parliament. Among the men who listened +to that kind of teaching were Eliot, Hampden, +Pym, all Puritans under the spell of the Bible. +But the strife grew larger than a merely Puritan +one. The people themselves were strongly feeling +their rights. "To the devout Englishman, +much as he might love his prayer-book and hate +the dissenters, the core of religion was the life +of family prayer and Bible study, which the +Puritans had for a hundred years struggled not +in vain to make the custom of the land." It was +this spirit which James met. + +We have already thought sufficiently of the +events which actually followed. The final rupture +of Charles I. with parliamentary institutions +was due to the religious situation. There were +many Bible-reading families, learning their own +rights, while kings and favorites were plotting +war. Laud and the bishops forbade non-conforming +gatherings, but they could not prevent +a man's gathering his household about him while +he read the great stories of the Bible, in which +no king ruled when he had ceased to advance +his kingdom, in which each man was shut up +to God in the most vital things of his life. The +discussion of the time grew keen about predestination +and free-will. One meant that only +God had power; the other meant that men, and +if men, then specially kings, might control other +men if only they could. Not fully, but vaguely, +the crowd understood. Very fully, and not +vaguely, the leaders understood. Predestination +and Parliament became a cry. That is, +control lifted out of the hands of the free-will +of some monarch into the hands of a sovereign +God to whom every man had the same access +that any other man had. Laud decreed that all +such discussion should cease. He revived an +old decree that no book could be printed without +consent of an archbishop or the Bishop of +London. So the books became secret and more +virulent each year. The civil war (1642-46) +between Charles and Parliament was a war of +ideas. It is sometimes called a war of religion, +not quite fairly. It was due to the religious +situation, but actually it was for the liberties +of the people against the power of the king. And +that question rooted far down in another regarding +the rights of men to be free in their +religious life. Charles struck his coin at Oxford +with the Latin inscription: "The Protestant religion; +the laws of England; the liberties of +Parliament." But he struck it too late. He +had been trifling with the freedom of the people, +and they had learned from their fireside Bibles +and from their pulpits that no man may command +another in his relation to God. It was long +after that Burns described "The Cottar's Saturday +Night"; but he was only describing a condition +which was already in vogue, and which was +having tremendous influence in England as well +as in Scotland: + + "The cheerfu' supper done, wi' serious face, + They, round the ingle, form a circle wide; + The sire turns o'er, wi' patriarchal grace, + The big ha' Bible, ance his father's pride: + His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside, + His lyart haffets wearing thin an' bare; + Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide, + He wales a portion with judicious care, + And 'Let us worship God!' he says, with solemn air." + + +Under such guidance as this the people of +England, Puritans and others, relaxed the power +of the Stuarts and became a democracy. For +democracy is not a form of government. It can +exist under monarchy, provided the monarchy +is a convenience of the will of the people, as it +is in England. It can exist under institutions +like our own, provided they also are held as a +convenience of the people. This was no rebellion +against some form of monarchy. It was simply +a claim of every man to have his rights before +God. Under the Parliament of eighteen years +duration, the Independensts, Presbyterians, and +all other non-conforming bodies suffered as +heavily as under James and Charles, yet they did +not flee the land. Their battle was really won. +They believed the time would come when they +as part of "the people" who now governed +should assert themselves. If they were persecuted, +it was under a government where yet +they might hope for their rights. Fleeing from +England in 1620 was heroism; fleeing in 1640 +would have been cowardly. It is impossible to +calculate what was the revelation to the readers +of the English Bible of their rights. + +Let Trevelyan tell the story: "While other +literary movements, however noble in quality, +affect only a few, the study of the Bible was +becoming the national education. Recommended +by the king, translated by the Bishops, yet in +chief request with the Puritans, without the +rivalry of books and newspapers, the Bible told +to the unscholarly the story of another age and +race, not in bald generalization and doctrinal +harangue, but with such wealth of simple narrative +and lyrical force that each man recognized +his own dim strivings after a new spirit, written +clear in words two thousand years old. A deep +and splendid effect was wrought by the monopoly +of this Book as the sole reading of common +households, in an age when men's minds were +instinct with natural poetry and open to receive +the light of imagination. A new religion arose, +of which the mythus was the Bible stories and +the pervading spirit the direct relations of man +with God, exemplified in the human life. And +while imagination was kindled, the intellect was +freed by this private study of the Bible. For its +private study involved its private interpretation. +Each reader, even if a Churchman, became in +some sort a church to himself. Hence the hundred +sects and thousand doctrines that astonished +foreigners and opened England's strange path +to intellectual liberty. The Bible cultivated +here, more than in any other land, the growth +of intellectual thought and practice."[1] + + +[1] England under the Stuarts. + + +All that has seemed to refer only to England, +but the same essential democracy of the Bible +came to America and founded the new nation. +It was a handful of Puritans turned Pilgrims +who set out in the Mayflower to give their Bible +ideas free field. In a dozen years (1628-40), +under Laud's persecution, twenty thousand Englishmen +fled to join those Pilgrims. And how +much turned on that! Suppose it had not happened. +Then the French of the North and the +cavaliers of Virginia, with the Spanish of the +South, would have had only the Dutch between +them. And of the four, only the Dutch had +free access to the Bible. The new land would +not have been English. It is an English writer +who says that North America is now preparing +the future of the world, and English speech is +the mold in which the folk of all the world are +being poured for their final shaping.[1] It is the +democracy of the Bible which is the fundamental +democracy of America, in which every man has +it accented to him that he is so much a child +of God that his rights are inalienable. They +cover life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. +And though we have held that principle +of democracy inconsistently at times, and have +paid a terrible price for our inconsistency in the +past, and may pay it in the future again, it is +still true that the fundamental democracy of our +American life is only that essential democracy +of the Bible, where every man is made the equal +of his fellow by being lifted into the same relation +with Almighty God. + + +[1] Trevelyan, England under the Stuarts, p. 174. + + +The Bible makes its moral appeal on the same +basis. If a man is a child of God, then he is +shut up to duties which cannot be avoided. +Some one else may tell a man his duty in a true +monarchy. In a democracy each man stands +alone at the most solemn point of his duty. +There is no safe democracry where men refuse +to stand alone there. In Jefferson's great speech, +replying to the forebodings of Patrick Henry, he +insisted that if men were not competent to govern +themselves they were not competent to +govern other people. The first duty of any man +is to take his independent place before God. +Democracy is the social privilege that grows out +of the meeting of these personal obligations. + +Several facts strengthen this persistent moral +appeal. For one thing, the Book is absolutely +fair to humanity. It leaves out no line or +wrinkle; but it adds none. The men with whom +it deals are typical men. The facts it presents +are typical facts. There are books which flatter +men, make them out all good, prattle on about +the essential goodness of humanity, while men +who know themselves (and these are the only +ones who do things) know that the story is not +true. On the other hand, there are books which +are depressing. Their pigments are all black. +They move from the dignity of Schopenhauer's +pessimism to the bedlam of Nietzsche's contempt +for life and goodness. But here, also, the sane +common sense of humanity comes to the rescue. +The picture is not true if it is all white or all +black. The Bible is absolutely fair to humanity. +It moves within the circle of man's experience; +and, while it deals with men, it results in a treatment +of man. + +That is how it comes about that the Bible inspires +men, and puts them at their best. No +moral appeal can be successful if it fails to reach +the better part of a man, and lays hold on him +there. Just that it did for the English people. +"No greater moral change ever passed over a +nation than passed over England during the +years that parted the middle of the reign of +Elizabeth from the meeting of the Long Parliament. +England became the people of a Book, +and that Book was the Bible."[1] + + +[1] Green, Short History of the English People. + + +Add to that personal appeal and that absolute +fairness to humanity the constant challenge +of the Bible to the nobler elements of humanity. +It never trifles. It is in deadly earnest. And +it makes earnest men. Probably we cannot illustrate +that earnestness more clearly than by +a study of one element in Puritan history, which +is confused in many minds. It is the matter +of the three great antagonisms of Puritanism in +England and America. They can never be understood +by moral triflers. They may not be approved +by all the morally serious, but they will +be understood by them. What are those three +marked antagonisms? The antagonism to the +stage, to popular frivolity, and to the pleasure +Sabbath. + +1. The early English stage had the approval +of virtually all the people. There were few +voices raised against the dramas of Shakespeare. +But the cleavage between the Puritans and the +stage grew greater as the years went on. There +were riotous excesses. The later comedy after +Shakespeare was incredibly gross. The tragedies +were shallow, they turned not on grave scenes +of conscience, but on common and cheap intrigues +of incest and murder. In the mean time, +"the hatred of the Puritans for the stage was +only the honest hatred of God-fearing men +against the foulest depravity presented in poetic +and dramatic forms." The Bible was laying +hold on the imagination of the people, making +them serious, thoughtful, preparing them for +the struggle for liberty which was soon to come. +The plays of the time seemed too trifling or else +too foul. The Puritans and the English people +of the day were willing to be amused, if the stage +would amuse them. They were willing to be +taught, if the stage would teach them. But +they were not willing to be amused by vice and +foulness, and they were not willing to be taught +by lecherous actors who parroted beautiful sentiments +of virtue on the stage and lived filthy +lives of incest and shame off the stage. Life had +to be whole to the Puritan, as indeed it has to +be to other thoughtful men. And the Bible +taught him that. His concern was for the higher +elements of life; his appeal was to the worthier +values in men. The concern of the stage of his +day was for the more volatile elements in men. +The test of a successful play was whether the +crowds, any crowds, came to it. And as always +happens when a man wants to catch the interest +of a crowd, the stage catered to its lowest interests. +You can hardly read the story of the +times without feeling that the Puritan made +no mistake in his day. He could not have been +the thoughtful man who would stand strong in +the struggle for liberty on that side of the sea +and the struggle for life on this side of the sea +without opposing trifling and vice. + +2. The antagonism of the early Puritan to +popular frivolity needs to have the times around +it to be understood. No great movement carries +everybody with it, and while it is still struggling +the majority will be on the opposing side. While +the real leadership of England was passing into +the stronger and more serious hands the artificial +excesses of life grew strong on the people. +"Fortunes were being sunk and estates mortgaged +in order that men should wear jewels and +dress in colored silks."[1] In the pressure of +grave national needs men persisted in frivolity. +The two reigning vices were drunkenness and +swearing. In their cups men were guilty of +the grossest indecencies. Even their otherwise +harmless sports were endangered. The popular +notion of the May-pole dances misses the real +point of the Puritan opposition to it in Old and +New England. It was not an innocent, jovial +out-door event. Once it may have been that. +Very often it was only part of a day which +brought immorality and vice in its train. It was +part of a rural paganism. Some of the customs +involved such grave perils, with their seclusion +of young people from early dawn in the forests, +as to make it impossible to approve it. Over +against all these things the Puritans set themselves. +Sometimes they carried this solemnity +to an absurd length, justifying it by Scripture +verses misapplied. Against the affected elegancies +of speech they set the plain yea, yea +and nay, nay of Scripture. In their clothing, +their homes, their churches, they, and in even +more marked degree, the Quakers, registered +their solemn protest against the frivolity of the +times. If they went too far, it is certain their +protest was needed. Macaulay's epigram is +familiar, that the Puritan "hated bear-baiting, +not because it gave pain to the bear, but because +it gave pleasure to the spectators." In so far +as that is true, it is to the credit of the Puritan; +for the bear can stand the pain of being baited +far better than human nature can stand the +coarsening effects of baiting him, and it is nobler +to oppose such sport on human grounds than on +animal grounds. But, of course, the epigram is +Macaulay's, and must be read with qualification. +The fact is, and he says it often enough without +epigrams, that the times had become trifling +except as this grave, thoughtful group influenced +them. + + +[1] Trevelyan, England under the Stuarts, p. 66. + + +3. The attitude of the Puritans toward the +Sabbath came from their serious thought of the +Bible. Puritanism gave England the Sabbath +again and planted it in America as an institution. +Of course, these men learned all that they knew +of it from the Bible. From that day, in spite +of much change in thought of it, English- +speaking people have never been wilful abusers +of the Sabbath. But the condition in that day +was very different. Most of the games were on +the day set apart as the Sabbath. There were +bull-baiting, bear-baiting, and football on Sunday. +Calvin himself, though not in England, +bowled on Sunday, and poor Knox attended +festivities then, saying grimly that what little +is right on week-days is not wrong on Sundays. +After the service on Sunday morning the people +thronged to the village green, where ale flowed +freely and games were played until the evening +dance was called. It was a work-day. Elizabeth +issued a special injunction that people work +after service on Sundays and holidays if they +wished to do so. Employers were sustained in +their demand for Sunday work. + +There are always people in every time who +count that the ideal Sabbath. The Puritans +found it when they appeared. The English +Reformation found it when it came. And the +Bible found it when at last it came out of +obscurity and laid hold on national conditions. +Whatever is to be said of other races, every +period of English-speaking history assures us +that our moral power increases or weakens with +the rise or fall of Sabbath reverence. The +Puritans saw that. They saw, as many other +thoughtful people saw, that the steady, repeated +observance of the Sabbath gave certain +national influences a chance to work; reminded +the nation of certain great underlying and undying +principles; in short, brought God into +human thought. The Sunday of pleasure or +work could never accomplish that. Both as religionists +and as patriots, as lovers of God and +lovers of men, they opposed the pleasure-Sunday +and held for the Sabbath. + +But that comes around again to the saying +that the persistent moral appeal of the Bible +gives it inevitable influence on history. It centers +thought on moral issues. It challenges men +to moral combats. + +Such a force persistently working in men's +minds is irresistible. It cannot be opposed; it +can only fail by being neglected. And this is +the force which has been steadily at work everywhere +in English-speaking history since the +King James version came to be. + + + +LECTURE VI + +THE BIBLE IN THE LIFE OF TO-DAY + +THIS lecture must differ at two points from +those which have preceded it. In the first +place, the other lectures have dealt entirely with +facts. This must deal also with judgments. In +the earlier lectures we have avoided any consideration +of what ought to have been and have +centered our interest on what actually did occur. +We especially avoided any argument based on +a theory of the literary characteristics or literary +influence of the Bible, but sought first to find +the facts and then to discover what explained +them. It might be very difficult to determine +what is the actual place of the Bible in the +life of to-day. Perhaps it would be impossible +to give a broad, fair judgment. It is quite certain +that the people of James's day did not +realize the place it was taking. It is equally +certain that many of those whom it most influenced +were entirely unconscious of the fact. +It is only when we look back upon the scene that +we discover the influence that was moving them. +But, while it is difficult to say what the place of +the Bible actually is in our own times, the place +it ought to have is easier to point out. That will +involve a study of the conditions of our times, +which suggest the need for its influence. While +we must consider the facts, therefore, we will be +compelled to pass some judgments also, and +therein this lecture must differ from the others. + +The second fact of difference is that while the +earlier lectures have dealt with the King James +version, this must deal rather with the Bible. +For the King James version is not the Bible. +There are many versions; there is but one +Bible. Whatever the translators put into the +various tongues, the Bible itself remains the +same. There are values in the new versions; +but they are simply the old value of the Bible +itself. It is a familiar maxim that the newest +version is the oldest Bible. We are not making +the Bible up to date when we make a new version; +we are only getting back to its date. A +revision in our day is the effort to take out of +the original writings what men of King James's +day may have put in, and give them so much the +better chance. There is no revised Bible; there is +only a revised version. Readers sometimes feel +disturbed at what they consider the changes +made in the Bible. The fact is, the revision +which deserves the name is lessening the changes +in the Bible; it is giving us the Bible as it +actually was and taking from us elements which +were not part of it. One can sympathize with +the eloquent Dr. Storrs, who declared, in an +address in 1879, that he was against any new +version because of the history of the King James +version, describing it as a great oak with roots +running deep and branches spreading wide. He +declared we were not ready to give it up for any +modern tulip-tree. There is something in that, +though such figures are not always good argument. +Yet the value to any book of a worthy +translation is beyond calculation. The outstanding +literary illustration of that fact is +familiar. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam lay +in Persian literature and in different English +translations long before Fitzgerald made it a +household classic for literary people. The translator +made the book for us in more marked way +than the original writer did. In somewhat the +same way the King James version gave to the +English-speaking people the Bible; and no other +version has taken its place. + +Yet that was not a mistaken move nearly +forty years ago, when the revision of the King +James version was proposed and undertaken. +Thirty years ago (1881) it was completed in what +we ordinarily call the Revised Version, and ten +years ago (1901) the American form of that +Revised Version appeared. Few things could +more definitely prove the accepted place of the +King James version than the fact that we seem +to hear less to-day of the Revised Version than +we used to hear, and that, while the American +Revised Version is incomparably the best in +existence in its reproduction of the original, even +it makes way slowly. In less than forty years +the King James version crowded all its competitors +off the field. The presence of the Revised +Version of 1881 has not appreciably affected +the sales or the demand for the King James version. +In the minds of most people the English +and the American revisions stand as admirable +commentaries on the King James version. If +one wishes to know wherein the King James +version failed of representing the original, he will +learn it better from those versions than from +any number of commentaries; but the number +of those to whom one or other of the versions +has supplanted the King James version is not +so large as might have been expected. + +There were several reasons for a new English +version of the Bible. It was, of course, no +indignity to the King James version. Those +translators frankly said that they had no hope +to make a final version of the Scriptures. It +would be very strange if in three hundred years +language should not have grown by reason +of the necessities of the race that used it, so that +at some points a book might be outgrown. In +another lecture it has been intimated that the +English Bible, by reason of its constant use, has +tended to fix and confirm the English language. +But no one book, nor any set of books, could +confine a living tongue. Some of the reasons for +a new version which give value to these two revisions +may be mentioned. + +1. Though the King James version was made +just after the literary renaissance, the classical +learning of to-day is far in advance of that day. +The King James version is occasionally defective +in its use of tenses and verbs in the Greek and +also in the Hebrew. We have Greek and Hebrew +scholars who are able more exactly to reproduce +in English the meaning of the original. +It would be strange if that were not so. + +2. Then there have been new and important +discoveries of Biblical literature which date +earlier in Christian history than any our fathers +knew three hundred years ago. In some instances +those earlier discoveries have shown that +a phrase here or there has been wrongly +introduced into the text. There has been no marked +instance where a phrase was added by the revisers; +that is, a phrase dropped out of the +original and now replaced. One illustration of +the omission of a phrase will be enough. In +the fifth chapter of I John the seventh verse +reads: "For there are three that bear record +in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy +Ghost, and these three are one." In the revised +versions it is omitted, because it seems +quite certain that it was not in the original +writing. It does not at all alter the meaning +of Scripture. While it appears in most of the +best manuscripts which were available for the +King James translators, earlier manuscripts +found since that time have shown that it was +formerly written at the side as a gloss, and was +by some transcriber set over in the text itself. +The process of making the early manuscripts +shows how easily that could have occurred. +Let us suppose that two or three manuscripts +were being made at once by different copyists. +One was set to read the original; as he read, the +others wrote. It would be easy to suppose that +he might read this marginal reference as a suitable +commentary on the text, and that one or +more of the writers could have written it in the +text. It could easily happen also that a copyist, +even seeing where it stood, might suppose it had +been omitted by the earlier copyist, and that he +had completed his work by putting it on the +margin. So the next copyist would put it into +his own text. Once in a manuscript, it would +readily become part of the accepted form. Discoveries +that bring that sort of thing to light +are of value in giving us an accurate version of +the original Bible. + +3. Then there are in our King James version +a few archaic and obsolete phrases. We +have already spoken of them. Most of them +have been avoided in the revised versions. The +neuter possessive pronoun, for example, has been +put in. Animal names have been clarified, +obsolete expressions have been replaced by more +familiar ones, and so on. + +4. Then there were certain inaccuracies in +the King James version. The fact is familiar +that they transliterated certain words which +they could not well translate. In the revised +versions that has been carried farther still. The +words which they translated "hell" have been +put back into their Hebrew and Greek equivalents, +and appear as Sheol and Hades. Another +instance is that of an Old Testament word, +Asherah, which was translated always "grove," +and was used to describe the object of worship +of the early enemies of Israel. The translation +does not quite represent the fact, and the revisers +have therefore replaced the old Hebrew +word Asherah. The transliterations of the King +James version have not been changed into translations. +Instead, the number of transliterations +has been increased in the interest of accuracy. +At one point one might incline to be adversely +critical of the American revisers. They have +transliterated the Hebrew word Jehovah; so +they have taken sides in a controversy where +scholars have room to differ. The version would +have gained in strength if it had retained the +dignified and noble word "Lord," which comes +as near representing the idea of the Hebrew word +for God as any word we could find. It must be +added that the English of neither of our new +versions has the rhythm and movement of the old +version. That is partly because we are so +accustomed to the old expressions and new ones +strike the ear unpleasantly. In any case, the +versions differ plainly in their English. It seems +most unlikely that either of these versions shall +ever have the literary influence of the King +James, though any man who will prophesy about, +that affects a wisdom which he has not. + +These, then, are the two differences between +this lecture and the preceding ones, that in this +lecture we shall deal with judgments as well as +facts, and that we shall deal with the Bible +of to-day rather than the King James version. + +Passing to the heart of the subject, the question +appears at once whether the Bible has or +can have to-day the influence or the place which +it seems to have had in the past. Two things, +force that question: Has not the critical study +of the Bible itself robbed it of its place of +authority, and have not the changes of our times +destroyed its possibilities of influence? That is, +on the one hand, has not the Bible been changed? +On the other hand, has it not come into such new +conditions that it cannot do its old work? + +It is a natural but a most mistaken idea that +the critical study of the Bible is a new thing. +From long before the childhood of any of us +there has been sharp controversy about the +Bible. It is a controversy-provoking Book. It +cannot accept blind faith. It always has made +men think, and it makes them think in the line +of their own times. The days when no questions +were raised about the Bible were the days when +men had no access to it. + +There are some who take all the Bible for +granted. They know that there is indifference +to it among friends and in their social circle; +but how real the dispute about the Bible is no +one realizes until he comes where new ideas, say +ideas of socialism, are in the air. There, with +the breaking of other chains, is a mighty effort +to break this bond also. In such circles the +Bible is little read. It is discussed, and time- +worn objections are bandied about, always growing +as they pass. In these circles also every +supposedly adverse result of critical study is +welcomed and remembered. If it is said that +there are unexplained contradictions in the Bible, +that fact is remembered. But if it is said further +that those contradictions bid fair to yield to +further critical study, or to a wiser understanding +of the situations in which they are involved, that +fact is overlooked. The tendency in these circles +is to keep alive rather the adverse phases +of critical study than its favorable phases. Some +of those who speak most fiercely about the study +of the Bible, by what is known as higher criticism, +are least intelligent as to what higher +criticism actually means. Believers regret it, +and unbelievers rejoice in it. As a matter of +fact, in developing any strong feeling about higher +criticism one only falls a prey to words; he +mistakes the meaning of both the words involved. + +Criticism does not mean finding fault with the +Bible.[1] It is almost an argument for total +depravity that we have made the word gain an +adverse meaning, so that if the average man +were told that he had been "criticized" by another +be would suppose that something had been +said against him. Of course, intelligent people +know that that is not necessarily involved. +When Kant wrote The Critique of Pure Reason +he was not finding fault with pure reason. He +was only making careful analytical study of it. +Now, critical study of the Bible is only careful +study of it. It finds vastly more new beauties +than unseen defects. In the same way the adjective +"higher" comes in for misunderstanding. It +does not mean superior; it means more difficult. +Lower criticism is the study of the text itself. +What word ought to be here, and exactly what +does that word mean? What is the comparative +value of this manuscript over against that +one? If this manuscript has a certain word and +that other has a slightly different one, which +word ought to be used? + + +[1] Jefferson, Things Fundamental, p. 90. + + +Take one illustration from the Old Testament +and one from the New to show what lower or +textual criticism does. In the ninth chapter of +Isaiah the third verse reads: "Thou hast multiplied +the nation and not increased the joy." +That word "not" is troublesome. It disagrees +with the rest of the passage. Now it happens +that there are two Hebrew words pronounced +"lo," just alike in sound, but spelled differently. +One means "not," the other means "to him" +or "his." Put the second word in, and the sentence +reads: "Thou hast multiplied the nation +and increased its joy." That fits the context +exactly. Lower criticism declares that it is +therefore the probable reading, and corrects the +text in that way. + +The other illustration is from the Epistle of +James, where in the fourth chapter the second +verse reads: "Ye lust, and have not; ye kill, +and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight +and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not." +Now there is no commentator nor thoughtful +reader who is not arrested by that word "kill." +It does not seem to belong there. It is far more +violent than anything else in the whole text, +and it is difficult to understand in what sense +the persons to whom James was writing could +be said to kill. Yet there is no Greek manuscript +which does not have that word. Well, it +is in the field of lower criticism to observe that +there is a Greek word which sounds very much +like this word "kill," which means to envy; +that would fit exactly into the whole text here. +All that lower criticism can do is to point out +such a probability. + + +When this form of criticism has done its part, +and careful study has yielded a text which holds +together and which represents the very best +which scholarship can find for the original, there +is still a field more difficult than that, higher in +the sense that it demands a larger and broader +view of the whole subject. Here one studies +the meaning of the whole, the ideas in it, seeks +to find how the revelation of God has progressed +according to the capacities of men to receive it. +Higher criticism is the careful study of the +historical and original meanings of Scripture, the +effort to determine dates and times and, so far +as may be, the author of each writing, analyzing +its ideas, the general Greek or Hebrew style, the +relation of part to part. That is not a thing to +be afraid of. It is a method of study used in +every realm. It is true that some of the men +who have followed that method have made others +afraid of it, because they were afraid of these +men themselves. It is possible to claim far +too much for such study. But if the result of +higher criticism should be to show that the latter +half of the prophecy of Isaiah is much later than +the earlier half, that is not a destruction of the +Word of God. It is not an irreverent result of +study. If the result of higher criticism is to show +that by reason of its content, and the lessons +which it especially urges, the Epistle to the Hebrews +was not written by the Apostle Paul, as it +does not at any point claim to have been, why, +that is not irreverent, that is not destructive. +There is a destructive form of higher criticism; +against that there is reason to set up bulwarks. +But there is a constructive form of it also. +Scholarly opinion will tell any one who asks +that criticism has not affected the fundamental +values of the Bible. In the studies which have +just now been made we have not instanced anything +in the Bible that is subject to change. +No matter what the result of critical study may +be, the fundamental democracy of the Scripture +remains. It continues to make its persistent +moral appeal on any terms. Both those great +facts continue. Other great facts abide with +them. And on their account it is to our interest +to know as much as we can learn about it. The +Bible has not been lessened in its value, has not +been weakened in itself, by anything that has +taken place in critical study. On the other hand, +the net result of such studies as archaeology has +been the confirmation of much that was once +disputed. Sir William Ramsay is authority for +saying that the spade of the excavator is to-day +digging the grave of many enemies of the Bible. + +Take the second question, whether these times +have not in them elements that weaken the hold +of the Bible. There again we must distinguish +between facts and judgments. There are certain +things in these times which relax the hold +of any authoritative book. There is a general +relaxing of the sense of authority. It does not +come alone from the intellectual awakening, because +so far as that awakening is concerned, it +has affected quite as much men who continue +loyal to the authority of the Bible as others. +No, this relaxing of the sense of authority is the +result of the first feeling of democracy which +does not know law. Democracy ought to mean +that men are left independent of the control of +other individuals because they realize and wish +to obey the control of God or of the whole equally +with their fellows. When, instead, one feels +independent of others, and adds to that no sense +of a higher control which he must be free to +obey, the result is not democracy, but individualism. +Democracy involves control; individualism +does not. A vast number of people +in passing from any sense of the right of another +individual to control them have also passed out +of the sense of the right of God or of the whole +to control them. So that from a good many all +sense of authority has passed. It is characteristic +of our age. And it is a stage in our progress +toward real democracy, toward true human +liberty. + +Observe that relaxed sense of authority in the +common attitude toward law. Most men feel +it right to disregard a law of the community +which they do not like. It appears in trivial +things. If the community requires that ashes +be kept in a metal receptacle, citizens approve +it in general, but reserve to themselves the right +to consider it a foolish law and to do something +else if that is not entirely convenient. If the +law says that paper must not be thrown on the +sidewalk, it means little that it is the law. Those +who are inclined to be clean and neat and do +not like to see paper lying around will keep the +law; those who are otherwise will be indifferent +to it. That is at the root of the matter-of- +course saying that a law cannot be enforced +unless public opinion sustains it. Under any +democratic system laws virtually always have the +majority opinion back of them; but the minority +reserve the right to disregard them if they +choose, and the minority will be more aggressive. +Rising from those relaxations of law into far +more important ones, it appears that men in +business life, feeling themselves hampered by +legislation, set themselves to find a way to evade +it, justifying themselves in doing so. The mere +fact that it is the law does not weigh heavily. +This is, however, only an inevitable stage in +progress from the earliest periods of democracy +to later and more substantial periods. It is a +stage which will pass. There will come a democracy +where the rule of the whole is frankly +recognized, and where each man holds himself +independent of his fellows only in the sense that +he will claim the right to hold such relation to +God and his duty as he himself may apprehend. + +In these times, also, the development of temporal +and material prosperity with the intellectual +mood which is involved in that affects +the attitude of the age toward the Bible. Sometimes +it is spoken of as a scientific age over +against the earlier philosophical ages. Perhaps +that will do for a rough statement of the facts. +It is the age of experiment, of trying things out, +and there naturally works into men a feeling +that the things that will yield to the most material +scientific experimentation are the things +about which they can be certain and which are +of real value. That naturally involves a good +deal of appreciation of the present, and calls for +the improvement of the conditions of present +life first of all. It looks more important to see +that a man is well fed, well housed, well clothed, +and well educated than that he should have the +interests of eternity pressed on his attention. +That is a comparatively late feeling. It issues +partly from the fact that this is a scientific age, +when science has had its attention turned to the +needs of humanity. + +Another result of our scientific age is the magnifying +of the natural, while the Bible frankly +asserts the supernatural. No effort to get the +supernatural out of the Bible, in order to make +it entirely acceptable to the man who scouts +the supernatural, has thus far proved successful. +Of course, the supernatural can be taken out of +the Bible; but it will destroy the Bible. Nor is +there much gain in playing with words and insisting +that everything is supernatural or that +everything is natural. There is a difference between +the two, and in an age which insists upon +nature or natural laws or forces or events as all- +sufficient it is almost inevitable that the Bible +should lose its hold, at least temporarily. + +Regarding all this there are some things that +need to be said. For one thing, this, too, is a +passing condition. As a matter of fact, men are +not creatures of time. They actually have +eternal connections, and the great outstanding +facts which have always made eternity of importance +continue. The fact is that men continue +to die, and that the men who are left behind +cannot avoid the sense of mystery and awe +which is involved in that fact. The fact also +is that the human emotions cannot be explained +on the lower basis, and the only reason men +think they can be is because they have in the +back of their minds the old explanations which +they cast into the lower forms, deceiving themselves +into thinking they are new ideas when +they are not. + +It ought to be added that the Bible has greatly +suffered in all its history at the hands of men +who have believed in it and have fought in its +behalf. Many of the controversies which were +hottest were needless and injurious. All the +folly has not been on one side. Some one referred +the other day to a list of more than a +hundred scientific theories which were proposed +at the beginning of the last century and abandoned +at the end of it. Scientific men are feeling +their way, many of them reverently and +devoutly, some of them rather blatantly and +with a readiness for publication, which hastens +them into notoriety. But there has been enough +folly on both sides to make every one go +cautiously. It has been remarked that in Dr. +Draper's book The Conflict Between Science and +Religion he makes science appear as a strong- +limbed angel of God whereas religion is always +a great ass. The title of the book itself is +not fair. In no proper understanding of the +words can there be any conflict between science +and religion. There can be a conflict, as Dr. +Andrew D. White puts it, between science and +theology. There can certainly be contest between +scientists and religionists. Science and +religion have no conflict. + +It is interesting to observe how far back most +of the supposed conflicts actually lie. There is +no warfare now; and, while our fathers one or two +generations ago felt that they must fly to the +defense of religion against the attacks of science, +no man wastes his strength doing that to-day. +That period has passed. The trouble is that some +good people do not know it, and are just fond +enough of a bit of a tussle to keep up the fighting +in the mountain-passes while out in the plain +the main armies have laid down their arms and +are busy tilling the soil. + +The period of conflict is past, partly because +we are learning to distinguish between the Bible +as it really is and certain long-established ideas +about the Bible which came from other sources +and have become attached to it until it seemed +to sustain them. The proper doctrine of evolution +is entirely compatible with the Bible. The +great Dr. Hodge declared that the consistent +Darwinian must be an atheist. For that matter, +Shelley defended himself by saying that, of +course, "the consistent Newtonian must necessarily +be an atheist." But fifty years have made +great changes in the doctrine of evolution, and +the old scare has been over for some time. Newton +is honored in the church quite as much as +in the university, and Darwin is not a name +to frighten anybody. Understanding evolution +better and knowing the Bible better, the two do +not jangle out of tune so badly but that harmony +is promised. + +The doctrine of the antiquity of the world is +entirely compatible with the Bible, though it is +not compatible with the dates which Archbishop +Ussher, in the time of King James, put +at the head of the columns. That is so with +other scientific theories. Any one who has read +much of history has attended the obsequies of +so many theories in the realm of science that he +ought to know that he is wasting his strength +in trying to bring about a constant reconciliation +between scientific and religious theories. It +is his part to keep an open mind in assurance of +the unity of truth, an assurance that there is no +fact which can possibly come to light and no +true theory of facts which can possibly be formed +which does not serve the interest of the truth, +which the Bible also presents. The Bible does +not concern itself with all departments of knowledge. +So far as mistakes have been made on +the side of those who believe it, they have issued +from forgetting that fact more than from any +other one cause. + +On the other hand, it has sometimes occurred +that believers in the Bible have been quite too +eager to accommodate themselves to purely +passing phases of objection to it. The matter +mentioned a moment ago, the excision of the +supernatural, is a case in point. The easy and +glib way in which some have sought to get +around difficulties, by talking in large terms +about the progressiveness of the revelation, as +though the progress were from error to truth, +instead of from half light to full light, is another +illustration. The nimble way in which we have +turned what is given as history into fiction, and +allowed imagination to roam through the Bible, +is another illustration. One of our later writers +tells the story of Jonah, and says it sounds like +fiction; why not call it fiction? Another tells +the story of the exodus from Egypt, and says it +sounds like fiction; why not call it fiction? +Well, certainly the objection is not to the presence +of fiction in the Bible. It is there, openly, +confessedly, unashamed. Fiction can be used with +great profit in teaching religious truth. But +fiction may not masquerade in the guise of history, +if men are to be led by it or mastered by +it. If the way to be rid of difficulties in a narrative +is to turn it into pious fiction, there are +other instances where it might be used for relief +in emergencies. The story of the crucifixion +of Christ can be told so that it sounds like +fiction; why not call it fiction? Certainly the +story of the conversion of Paul can be made to +sound like fiction; why not call it fiction? +And there is hardly any bit of narrative that can +be made to sound so like fiction as the landing +of the Pilgrims; why not call that fiction? It +is the easy way out; the difficulties are all gone +like Alice's cat, and there is left only the broad +smile of some moral lesson to be learned from +the fiction. It is not, however, the courageous +nor the perfectly square way out. Violence has +to be done to the plain narrative; historical +statement has to be made only a mask. And +the only reason for it is that there are difficulties +not yet cleared. As for the characters involved, +Charles Reade, the novelist, calling himself "a +veteran writer of fiction," declares that the +explanation of these characters, Jonah being one +of them, by invention is incredible and absurd: +"Such a man [as himself] knows the artifices +and the elements of art. Here the artifices are +absent, and the elements surpassed." It is not +uncommon for one who has found this easy +way out of difficulties to declare with a wave of +his hand, that everybody now knows that this +or that book in the Bible is fiction, when, as a +matter of fact, that is not at all an admitted +opinion. The Bible will never gain its place +and retain its authority while those who believe +in it are spineless and topple over at the first +touch of some one's objection. It could not be a +great Book; it could not serve the purposes of a +race if it presented no problems of understanding +and of belief, and all short and easy methods +of getting rid of those problems are certain to +leave important elements of them out of sight. + +All this means that the changes of these times +rather present additional reason for a renewed +hold on the Bible. It presents what the times +peculiarly need. Instead of making the influence +of the Bible impossible, these changes +make the need for the Bible the greater and +give it greater opportunity. + + +Add three notable points at which these times +feel and still need the influence of the Bible. +First, they have and still need its literary influence. +So far as its ideas and forces and words +are interwoven in the great literature of the past, +it is essential still to the understanding of that +literature. It remains true that English literature, +certainly of the past and also of the present, +cannot be understood without knowledge of the +Bible. The Yale professor of literature, quoted +so often, says: "It would be worth while to read +the Bible carefully and repeatedly, if only as a +key to modern culture, for to those who are +unfamiliar with its teachings and its diction all +that is best in English literature of the present +century is as a sealed book." + +From time to time there occur painful reminders +of the fact that men supposed to know +literature do not understand it because they are +not familiar with the Bible. Some years ago +a college president tested a class of thirty-four +men with a score of extracts from Tennyson, +each of which contained a Scriptural allusion, +none of them obscure. The replies were suggestive +and quite appalling. Tennyson wrote, in +the "Supposed Confessions": + + "My sin was a thorn among the thorns that + girt Thy brow." + +Of these thirty-four young men nine of them +did not understand that quotation. Tennyson +wrote: + + "Like Hezekiah's, backward runs + The shadow of my days." + +Thirty-two of the thirty-four did not know what +that meant. The meaning of the line, + + "For I have flung thee pearls and find thee swine," + +was utterly obscure to twenty-two of the thirty- +four. One of them said it was a reference to +"good opportunities given but not improved." +Another said it was equivalent to the counsel +"not to expect to find gold in a hay-stack." +Even the line, + + "A Jonah's gourd + Up in one night, and due to sudden sun," + +was utterly baffling to twenty-eight of the +thirty-four. One of them spoke of it as an +"allusion to the uncertainty of the length of +life." Another thought it was a reference to +"the occasion of Jonah's being preserved by the +whale." Another counted it "an allusion to the +emesis of Jonah by the whale." Another considered +it a reference to "the swallowing of +Jonah by a whale," and yet another considered +that it referred to "things grand, but not worthy +of worship because they are perishable." It is +amazing to read that in response to Tennyson's +lines, + + "Follow Light and do the Right--for man can + half control his doom-- + Till you find the deathless Angel seated in the + vacant tomb," + +only sixteen were able to give an explanation of +its meaning! The lines from the "Holy Grail" +were equally baffling: + + "Perhaps like Him of Cana in Holy Writ, + Our Arthur kept his best until the last." + +Twenty-four of these thirty-four young men +could not recall what that meant. One said that +the keeping of the best wine until the last meant +"waiting till the last moment to be baptized!" + +All that may be solely the fault of these young +men. Professor Lounsbury once said that his +experience in the class-room had taught him the +infinite capacity of the human mind to withstand +the introduction of knowledge. Very +likely earnest effort had been made to teach +these young men the Bible; but it is manifest +that they had successfully resisted the efforts. +If Tennyson were the only poet who could not +be understood without knowledge of the Bible, +it might not matter so much, but no one can +read Browning nor Carlyle nor Macaulay nor +Huxley with entire intelligence without knowledge +of the greater facts and forces of Scripture. +The value of the allusions can be shown by comparing +them with those of mythology. No one +can read most of Shelley with entire satisfaction +without a knowledge of Greek mythology. That +is one reason why Shelley has so much passed +out of popularity. We do not know Greek +mythology, and we have very largely lost Shelley +from our literary possession. The chief power +of these other great writers will go from us when +our knowledge of the Scripture goes. + +The danger is not simply with reference to the +great literature of the past. There is danger of +losing appreciation of the more delicate touches +of current literature, sometimes of a complete +missing of the meaning. An orator describing +present political and social conditions used a fine +phrase, that "it is time the nation camped for a +season at the foot of the mount." Only a knowledge +of Bible history will bring as a flash before +one the nation in the desert at Sinai learning +the meaning and power of law. Yet an intelligent +man, hearing that remark, said that +he counted it a fine figure, that he thought there +did come in the life of every nation a time before +it began its ascent to the heights when it +ought to pause and camp at the foot of the +mountain to get its breath! After Lincoln's +assassination Garfield stood on the steps in New +York, and said: "Clouds and darkness are around +about him! God reigns and the government at +Washington still lives!" Years after, some one +referring to that, said that it was a beautiful +sentence, that the reference to "clouds and +darkness" was a beautiful symbolism, but that +Garfield had a great knack in the building-up of +fine phrases! He lacked utterly the background +of the great Psalm which was in Garfield's mind, +and which gives that phrase double meaning. +If we go back to Tennyson again, some one has +proposed the inquiry why he should have called +one of his poems "Rizpah," since there was no +one of that name mentioned in the whole poem! +When, some years ago, a book was published, +The Children of Gideon, one of the reviewers +could not understand why that title was used, +since no one of that name appeared in the entire +volume. And when Mrs. Wharton's book, The +House of Mirth, came out some one spoke of the +irony of the title; but it is the irony of the Scriptures +and the book calls for a Scriptural knowledge +for its entire understanding. + +Take even an encyclopedia article. Who can +understand these two sentences without instant +knowledge of Scripture? "Marlowe and Shakespeare, +the young Davids of the day, tried the +armor of Saul before they went out to battle, +then wisely laid it off." "Arnold, like Aaron +of old, stands between the dead and the living; +but, unlike Aaron, he holds no smoking censor of +propitiation to stay the plague which he feels +to be devouring his generation."[1] That is in an +encyclopedia to which young people are often +referred. What will they make out of it without +the Bible? In a widely distributed school +paper, in the question-and-answer department, +occurs the inquiry: "Who composed the inscription +on the Liberty Bell?" The inscription +is, "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land to +all the inhabitants thereof."[2] It is to be hoped +it was a very young person who needed to ask +who "composed" that expression! + + +[1] New International Encyclopedia, art. on English Literature. + +[2] Current Events, January 12, 1912. + + +This applies to all the great classics. There +has come about a "decay of literary allusions," +as one of our papers editorially says. In much +of our writing, either the transient or the permanent, +men can no longer risk easy reference +to classical literature. "Readers of American +biography must often be struck with the important +part which literary recollection played +in the life of a cultured person a generation or +two ago. These men had read Homer, Xenophon +and Virgil, Shakespeare, Byron and Wordsworth, +Lamb, De Quincey and Coleridge. They +were not afraid of being called pedants because +they occasionally used a Latin phrase or referred +to some great name of Greece or Rome." +That is not so commonly true to-day. Especially +is there danger of losing easy acquaintance +with the great Bible references. + +There are familiar reasons for it. For one +thing, there has been a great increase of literature. +Once there was little to read, and that +little became familiar. One would have been +ashamed to pretend to culture and not to know +such literature well. Now there is so much that +one cannot know it all, and most men follow the +line of least resistance. That line is not where +great literature lies. Once the problem was how +to get books enough for a family library. Now the +problem is how to get library enough for the books. +Magazines, papers, volumes of all grades overflow. +"The Bible has been buried beneath a +landslide of books." The result is that the +greatest literary landmark of the English tongue +threatens to become unknown, or else to be +looked upon as of antiquarian rather than present +worth. There our Puritan fathers had the advantage. +As President Faunce puts it: "For +them the Bible was the norm and goal of all +study. They had achieved the concentration +of studies, and the Bible was the center. They +learned to read that they might read the literature +of Israel; their writing was heavy with +noble Old Testament phrases; the names of Old +Testament heroes they gave to their children; +its words of immortal hope they inscribed on +their tombstones; its Mosaic commonwealth they +sought to realize in England and America; its +decalogue was the foundation of their laws, and +its prophecies were a light shining in a dark +place. Such a unification of knowledge produced +a unified character, simple, stalwart, invincible." +It is very different in our own day. +As so-called literature increases it robs great +literature of its conspicuous outstanding character, +and many men who pride themselves on +the amount they read would do far better to +read a thousandth part as much and let that +smaller part be good. + +Another reason for this decay of the influence of +literary knowledge of the Bible is the shallowness +of much of our thinking. If the Bible were +needed for nothing else in present literary life, +it would be needed for the deepening of literary +currents. The vast flood of flotsam and jetsam +which pours from the presses seldom floats on a +deep current. It is surface matter for the most +part. It does not take itself seriously, and it +is quite impossible to take it seriously. It does +not deal with great themes, or when it touches +upon them it deals with them in a trifling way. +To men interested chiefly in literature of this +kind the Bible cannot be of interest. + +That is a passing condition, and out of it is certain +to come here and there a masterpiece of +literature. When it does appear, it will be +found to reveal the same influences that have +made great literature in the past, issuing more +largely from the Bible than from any other book. +That is the main point of a bit of counsel which +Professor Bowen used to give his Harvard +students. To form a good English style, he +told them, a student ought to keep near at hand +a Bible, a volume of Shakespeare, and Bacon's +essays. That group of books would enlarge the +vocabulary, would supply a store of words, +phrases, and, allusions, and save the necessity +of ransacking a meager and hide-bound diction +in order to make one's meaning plain. Coleridge +in his Table-Talk adds that "intense study of the +Bible will keep any writer from being VULGAR in +point of style." So it may be urged that these +times have and still need the literary influence +of the Bible. + +Add that the times have and still need its +moral steadying. Every age seems to its own +thoughtful people to lack moral steadiness, and +they tend to compare it with other ages which +look steadier. That is a virtually invariable +opinion of such men. The comparison with +other ages is generally fallacious, yet the fact is +real for each age. Many things tend in this age +to unsettle moral solidity. Some of them are +peculiar to this time, others are not. But one +of the great influences which the Bible is perpetually +tending to counteract is stated in best +terms in an experience of Henry M. Stanley. +It was on that journey to Africa when be found +David Livingstone, under commission from one +of the great newspapers. Naturally he had made +up his load as light as possible. Of books he +had none save the Bible; but wrapped about his +bottles of medicine and other articles were many +copies of newspapers. Stanley says that "strangest +of all his experiences were the changes wrought +in him by the reading of the Bible and those +newspapers in melancholy Africa." He was frequently +sick with African fever, and took up the +Bible to while away his hours of recovery. +During the hours of health he read the newspapers. +"And thus, somehow or other, my views +toward newspapers were entirely recast," while +he held loyal to his profession as a newspaper +man. This is the critical sentence in Stanley's +telling of the story: "As seen in my loneliness, +there was this difference between the Bible and +the newspapers. The one reminded me that +apart from God my life was but a bubble of air, +and it made me remember my Creator; the +other fostered arrogance and worldliness."[1] +There is no denying such an experience as that. +That is precisely the moral effect of the Bible +as compared with the moral effect of the newspaper +accounts of current life. Democracy +should always be happy; but it must always +be serious, morally steady. Anything that tends +to give men light views of wrong, to make evil +things humorous, to set out the ridiculous side +of gross sins is perilous to democracy. It not +only is injurious to personal morals; it is bound +sooner or later to injure public morals. There +is nothing that so persistently counteracts that +tendency of current literature as does the +Bible. + + +[1] Autobiography, p. 252. + + +From an ethical point of view, "the ethical +content of Paul is quite as important for us as +the system of Schopenhauer or Nietzsche. The +organization of the New England town meeting is +no more weighty for the American boy than the +organization of the early Christian Church. John +Adams and John Hancock and Abraham Lincoln +are only the natural successors of the great +Hebrew champions of liberty and righteousness +who faced Pharoah and Ahab and put to flight +armies of aliens." But aside from the definite +ethical teaching of the Bible there is need for +that strong impression of ethical values which it +gives in the characters around which it has +gathered. The conception of the Bible which +makes it appear as a steady progression should +add to its authority, not take from it. The +development is not from error to truth, but from +light to more light. It is sometimes said that +the standards of morality of some parts of +Scripture are not to be commended. But they +are not the standards of morality of Scripture, +but of their times. They are not taught in +Scripture; they are only stated; and they are so +stated that instantly a thoughtful man discovers +that they are stated to be condemned. When +did it become true that all that is told of a good +man is to be approved? It is not pretended +that Abraham did right always. David was +confessedly wrong. They move much of the time +in half-light, yet the sum total of the impression +of their writings is inevitably and invariably for +a more substantial morality. These times need +the moral steadying of the Bible to make men, +not creatures of the day arid not creatures of +their whims, but creatures of all time and of +fundamental laws. + +Add the third fact, that our times have and +still need the religious influence of the Bible. +No democracy can dispense with religious culture. +No book makes for religion as does the +Bible. That is its chief purpose. No book can +take its place; no influence can supplant it. +Max Muller made lifelong study of the Buddhist +and other Indian books. He gave them to the +English-speaking world. Yet he wrote to a +friend of his impression of the immense superiority +of the Bible in such terms that his +friend replied: "Yes, you are right; how tremendously +ahead of other sacred books is the +Bible! The difference strikes one as almost unfairly +great."[1] Writing in an India paper, +The Kayestha Samachar, in August, 1902, a +Hindu writer said: "I am not a Christian; but +half an hour's study of the Bible will do more +to remodel a man than a whole day spent in +repeating the slokas of the Purinas or the +mantras of the Rig-Veda." In the earlier +chapters of the Koran Christians are frequently +spoken of as "people of the Book." It is a +suggestive phrase. If Christianity has any value +for American life, then the Bible has just that +value. Christianity is made by the Bible; it +has never been vital nor nationally influential +for good without the Bible. + + +[1] Speer, Light of the World, iv. + + +Sometimes, because of his strong words regarding +the conflict between science and theology, +the venerable American diplomat and educator, +Dr. Andrew D. White, is thought of as a +foe to religion. No one who reads his biography +can have that impression half an hour. Near +the close of it is a paragraph of singular insight +and authority which fits just this connection: +"It will, in my opinion, be a sad day for this or +for any people when there shall have come in +them an atrophy of the religious nature; when +they shall have suppressed the need of communication, +no matter how vague, with a supreme +power in the universe; when the ties which bind +men of similar modes of thought in the various +religious organizations shall be dissolved; when +men, instead of meeting their fellow-men in +assemblages for public worship which give them a +sense of brotherhood, shall lounge at home or in +clubs; when men and women, instead of bringing +themselves at stated periods into an atmosphere +of prayer, praise, and aspiration, to hear +the discussion of higher spiritual themes, to be +stirred by appeals to their nobler nature in behalf +of faith, hope, and charity, and to be moved +by a closer realization of the fatherhood of God +and the brotherhood of man, shall stay at home +and give their thoughts to the Sunday papers, +or to the conduct of their business, or to the +languid search for some refuge from boredom."[1] +Those are wise, strong words, and they sustain +to the full what has been urged, that these +times still need the religious influence of the +Bible. + + +[1] Autobiography, vol. ii, p. 570. + + +The influence of the Bible on the literary, +moral, and religious life of the times is already +apparent. But that influence needs to be constantly +strengthened. There remains, therefore, +to suggest some methods of giving the Bible +increasing power. It should be recognized first +and last that only thoughtful people will do it. +No help will come from careless people. Moreover, +only people who believe in the common +folk will do it. Those who are aristocrats in +the sense that they do not believe that common +people can be trusted will not concern themselves +to increase the power of the Bible. But +for those who are thoughtful and essentially +democratic the duty is a very plain one. There +are four great agencies which may well magnify +the Bible and whose influence will bring the +Bible into increasing power in national life. + +First among these, of course, must be the +Church. The accent which it will place on the +Bible will naturally be on its religious value, +though its moral value will take a close second +place. It is essential for the Church to hold +itself true to its religious foundations. Only +men who have some position of leadership can +realize the immense pressure that is on to-day +to draw the Church into forms of activity and +methods of service which are much to be +commended, but which have to be constantly +guarded lest they deprive it of power and concern +in the things which are peculiar to its own +life and which it and it alone can contribute to +the public good. The Church needs to develop +for itself far better methods of instruction in +the Bible, so that it may as far as possible drill +those who come under its influence in the knowledge +of the Bible for its distinctive religious +value. This is neither the time nor the place +for a full statement of that responsibility. It is +enough to see how the very logic of the life of +the Church requires that it return with renewed +energy to its magnifying and teaching of the +Bible. + +The second agency which may be called upon +is the press. The accent of the press will be +on the moral value of the Bible, the service which +its teaching renders to the national and personal +life. There seems to be a hopeful returning +tendency to allusions to the Scripture in newspaper +and magazine publications. It is rare to +find among the higher-level newspapers an +editorial page, where the most thoughtful writing +appears, in which on any day there do not +appear Scripture allusions or references. When +that is seriously done, when Scripture is used +for some other purpose than to point a jest, it +helps to restore the Bible to its place in public +thought. In recent years there has been a +noticeable return of the greater magazines to +consideration of the moral phases of the Scripture. +That has been inevitably connected with +the development of a social sense which condemns +men for their evil courses because of +their damage to society. The Old Testament +prophets are living their lives again in these +days, and the more thoughtful men are being +driven back to them for the great principles on +which they may live safely. + +The third agency which needs to magnify the +Bible is the school. The accent which it will +choose will naturally be the literary value of the +Bible, though it will not overlook its moral +value as well. Incidental references heretofore +have suggested the importance of religion in a +democracy. But there are none of the great +branches of the teaching of the schools, public +or private, which do not involve the Bible. It +is impossible to teach history fairly and fully +without a frank recognition of the influence of +the Bible. Study the Reformation, the Puritan +movement, the Pilgrim journeys, the whole of +early American history! We can leave the Bible +out only by trifling with the facts. Certainly +literature cannot be taught without it. And if it +is the purpose of the schools to develop character +and moral life, then there is high authority for +saying that the Bible ought to have place. + +Forty years ago Mr. Huxley, in his essay on +"The School Boards: What They Can Do, and +What They May Do," laid a broad foundation +for thinking at this point, and his words bear +quoting at some length: "I have always been +strongly in favor of secular education, in the +sense of education without theology; but I must +confess I have been no less seriously perplexed to +know by what practical measures the religious +feeling, which is the essential basis of conduct, +was to be kept up, in the present utterly chaotic +state of opinion on these matters, without the +use of the Bible. The pagan moralists lack life +and color, and even the noble stoic, Marcus +Aurelius Antoninus, is too high and refined for +an ordinary child. Take the Bible as a whole; +make the severest deductions which fair criticism +can dictate for shortcomings and positive +errors; eliminate, as a sensible lay teacher would +do if left to himself, all that is not desirable +for children to occupy themselves with; and there +still remains in this old literature a vast residuum +of moral beauty and grandeur. And then consider +the great historical fact that, for three centuries, +this Book has been woven into the life of +all that is best and noblest in English history; +that it has become the national epic of Britain, +and is as familiar to noble and simple, from +John-o'-Groat's House to Land's End, as Dante +and Tasso once were to the Italians; that it is +written in the noblest and purest English, and +abounds in exquisite beauties of mere literary +form; and, finally, that it forbids the veriest +hind who never left his village to be ignorant +of the existence of other countries and other +civilizations, and of a great past, stretching back +to the furthest limits of the oldest nations of the +world. By the study of what other book could +children be so much humanized and made to +feel that each figure in that vast historical procession fills, +like themselves, but a momentary +space in the interval between two eternities; +and earns the blessings or the curses of all time, +according to its effort to do good and hate evil, +even as they also are earning their payment for +their work? On the whole, then, I am in favor +of reading the Bible, with such grammatical, +geographical, and historical explanations by a lay +teacher as may be needful, with rigid exclusion +of any further theological teaching than that contained +in the Bible itself." Mr. Huxley is an Englishman, +though, as Professor Moulton says, "We +divide him between England and America." But +Professor Moulton himself is very urgent in this +same matter. If the classics of Greece and Rome +are in the nature of ancestral literature, an equal +position belongs to the literature of the Bible. +"If our intellect and imagination have been +formed by Greece, have we not in similar fashion +drawn our moral and emotional training +from Hebrew thought?" It is one of the curiosities +of our civilization that we are content +to go for our liberal education to literatures +which morally are at opposite poles from ourselves; +literatures in which the most exalted +tone is often an apotheosis of the sensuous, +which degrade divinity, not only to the human +level, but to the lowest level of humanity. "It +is surely good that our youth during the formative +period should have displayed to them, in a literary +dress as brilliant as that of Greek literature, +a people dominated by an utter passion for +righteousness, a people whose ideas of purity, +of infinite good, of universal order, of faith in +the irresistible downfall of moral evil, moved +to a poetic passion as fervid and speech as +musical as when Sappho sang of love or Eschylus +thundered his deep notes of destiny."[1] + + +[1] Literary Study of the Bible, passim. + + +But there is a leading American voice which +will speak in that behalf, in President Nicholas +Murray Butler, of Columbia University. In his +address as President of the National Educational +Association, President Butler makes strong plea +for the reading of the Bible even in public schools. +"His reason had no connection with religion. It +was based on altogether different ground. He +regarded an acquaintance with the Bible as absolutely +indispensable to the proper understanding +of English literature." It is unfortunate in the +extreme, he thought, that so many young men +are growing up without that knowledge of the +Bible which every one must have if he means +to be capable of the greatest literary pleasure +and appreciation of the literature of his own +people. Not only the allusions, but the whole +tone and bias of many English authors will become +to one who is ignorant of the Bible most +difficult and even impossible of comprehension. + +The difficulties of calling public schools to +this task appear at once. It would be monstrous +if they should be sectarian or proselytizing. +But the Bible is not a sectarian Book. +It is the Book of greatest literature. It is the +Book of mightiest morals. It is governing history. +It is affecting literature as nothing else +has done. A thousand pities that any petty +squabbling or differences of opinion should prevent +the young people in the schools from realizing +the grandeur and beauty of it! + +But the final and most important agency. +which will magnify the influence of the Bible +must necessarily be the home. It will gather +up all its traits, religious, moral, and literary. +Here is the fundamental opportunity and the +fundamental obligation. Robert Burns was right +in finding the secret of Scotia's power in such +scenes as those of "The Cottar's Saturday Night." +One can almost see Carlyle going back to his +old home at Ecclefechan and standing outside +to hear his old mother making a prayer in his +behalf. A newspaper editorial of recent date +says this decay of literary allusion is traceable +in part to the gradual abandonment of family +prayers. Answering President Butler, it is +urged that it is not so important that the Bible +be in the public schools as that it get back again +into the homes. "Thorough acquaintance with +the Bible is desirable; it should be fostered. +The person who will have to foster it, though," +says this writer, "is not the teacher, but the +parent. The parent is the person whom Dr. +Butler should try to convert." Well, while +there may be differences about the school, there +can be none about the place of the Bible in the +home. It needs to be bound up with the earliest +impressions and intertwined with those impressions +as they deepen and extend. + +So, by the Church, which will accent its religious +value; by the press, which will accent its +moral power; by the school, which will spread +its literary influence; and by the home, which +will realize all three and make it seem a vital +concern from the beginning of life, the Bible +will be put and held in the place of power to-day +which it has had in the years that are gone, and +will steadily gain greater power. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Study of the King James Bible, McAfee + diff --git a/1592.zip b/1592.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..47797d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/1592.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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