i' ~n « w« w wwu 
 
 1*p 
 
 Su/ord llpsfyeatyed 
 
 or flj?e 
 
 Bibl^ for tlft /l\a$5es 
 
 J. M. PHILLIPPI 
 
tibvavy of Che ^theological ^eminarp 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 Rufus H. LeFevre 
 
 • 5.PS5 
 
The Sword Unsheathe* 
 
 OR 
 
 The Bible for the Masses 
 
 21 1952 
 
 iCAL 
 
 J. M. PHILLIPPI 
 
 Editor 
 The Religious Telescope 
 
 Dayton, Ohio 
 The Otterbein Press 
 
 IQII 
 
United Brethren Publishing House 
 
 W. R.Funk, Agent 
 
 1911 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 THE first three addresses in this volume 
 were given before the Ministerial Asso- 
 ciation of Southeast Ohio Conference of 
 the Church of the United Brethren in Christ 
 at Chillicothe, Ohio, June 28, 29, 1911. Their 
 very cordial reception is responsible in part 
 for their appearance in permanent form. 
 The fourth address is added that an important 
 phase of the subject might receive due notice. 
 
 This session of the Ministerial Association 
 of Southeast Ohio Conference was a grateful 
 recognition of the blessings of three hundred 
 years of the English Bible. All the interest 
 centered in the Word of God, and in its dis- 
 tribution to the masses. The open Bible 
 and the uplifted cross were the parallel needs 
 set forth, in harmony with the expressed con- 
 viction of many similar assemblies which are 
 at least partly celebrational of the greatest 
 gift to the English-speaking people. 
 
 It is noteworthy that the Bible was the 
 first book ever printed from type. It con- 
 tinues to lead the way in all material progress, 
 as well as that which is spiritual. If the 
 following pages shall increase the general use 
 of the Scriptures, or inspire reverence for 
 the sacred Book of Christianity, and thus 
 lead to the acknowledgement of Jesus Christ 
 as personal Savior, and God himself as loving 
 Father, the desire of the writer will have 
 been accomplished. — J. M. P. 
 
 
Contents 
 
 I. Growth of the English Bible . 7 
 
 II. The Bible and Education . 49 
 
 III. The Bible and Spirituality . 85 
 
 IV. The Bible and Character . Ill 
 
Growth of the English Bible 
 
 ANY modern growth must root in the 
 past. The English Bible cannot stand 
 on its own foundation any more than 
 the shingles for a house can grow in their 
 present form. The Hebrew Old Testament 
 came to its present proportions through a 
 period of more than a thousand years; but the 
 Hebrew became a dead language before the 
 birth of Christ. 
 
 In order to give different nations the Bible 
 in their own languages, translations were 
 made. Thus the Septuagint was prepared in 
 North Africa by somebody at some time for 
 the use of Grecian and Egyptian Jews. Syn- 
 chronizing with it are the earliest Chaldee 
 versions for those dwelling in Palestine and 
 Babylonia. The early Christians adopted the 
 Septuagint, which had a few Greek rivals for 
 supremacy ; but they failed to win approval, 
 
8 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 and almost all now are lost. In the second 
 century after Christ, the Syriac version was 
 made for the Syrian Christians, and a Latin 
 translation of the Septuagint was prepared 
 for the people of Rome. In the fourth cen- 
 tury this was superseded by the immortal 
 work of Jerome, called the Vulgate, after the 
 Latin word "vulgus," meaning "common." 
 It was to be a common Bible for all people. 
 The seventh century brought the Arabic ver- 
 sion, the Jews translating from the old He- 
 brew, the Christians from the work of the 
 Seventy. Besides these versions, which are 
 regarded as chief, there were various trans- 
 lations into different tongues. The New 
 Testament needed no early translation be- 
 cause it was written in Greek, the language 
 generally understood. 
 
 These versions are to the English Bible 
 what the foundation of a house is to the super- 
 structure, or what the soil is to the tree. 
 The original Hebrew, the Septuagint, the Vul- 
 gate, and some French translations served 
 the English scholars the best, though no one 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 9 
 
 is to despise the German translation of Martin 
 Luther, which still is regarded as a great 
 German classic. 
 
 Before the "morning star of the Reforma- 
 tion" attracted wide attention, there were 
 other stars. The night was darkest because 
 the morning star had not appeared above the 
 horizon. To Csedmon, a Benedictine monk, 
 who died in 680, belongs the honor of the 
 first English translation of any part of the 
 Bible. An ode composed by him in praise of 
 the Creator is the earliest specimen of Anglo- 
 Saxon metrical verse extant. Another and 
 longer poem treats on the creation and fall 
 of man. This is scriptural paraphrase rather 
 than faithful translation. It was the first 
 ray of light from the stars. About 700, the 
 Psalms appeared in Anglo-Saxon from the 
 pens of Aldhelm and Guthlac, working inde- 
 pendently. 
 
 The Venerable Bede, who died in 735, 
 besides writing an ecclesiastical history of 
 the English nation, translated a part of the 
 Bible. Although contracting pulmonary dis- 
 
10 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 ease through hard study, he worked on and 
 on until the last day. Dictating the Gospel of 
 John to his amanuensis, and feeling that the 
 end was near, he asked the scribe how many 
 chapters remained. "Only one," he replied, 
 "but you are too weak to dictate." "No," 
 said Bede, "take your pen and write quickly." 
 Soon the scribe said, "Master, it is finished," 
 using the Latin, "Consummatum est." "Thou 
 hast said truly, 'Consummatum est'; it is fin- 
 ished," referring to his earthly life rather than 
 to the completion of his work. As if in bene- 
 diction upon biblical translation which in the 
 future should need the blessing and protection 
 of the Lord, the dying man began to chant 
 the Gloria, "Glory be to the Father, and to the 
 Son, and to the Holy Ghost." One of his 
 students, in marked appropriateness, says that 
 as he reached the words, "the Holy Spirit," 
 that Spirit bore him away to the Father and 
 the Son, whose praise he had been chanting. 
 
 The next Bible translator was that stanch 
 defender of the faith, Alfred the Great, who 
 prefixed a paraphrase of the Ten Command- 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 11 
 
 ments to all the laws he issued. Freeman 
 gives a picture of his character in the follow- 
 ing words, making him a fit man to hand the 
 Bible to his subjects: "He was a saint without 
 superstition, a scholar without ostentation, 
 a warrior all of whose wars were fought in 
 defense of his country, a conqueror whose 
 hands were never stained by cruelty, a prince 
 never cast down by adversity, never lifted up 
 to insolence in the day of triumph." Alfred 
 was engaged in making a version of the 
 Psalms when he died in 901. 
 
 It is noted that these different men either 
 were translating verse or composing in verse. 
 It was the natural response of unfettered souls 
 to the influence of the Almighty. Rhythm is 
 native in man, and it marks the outpourings 
 of the human soul when God has his way. 
 
 Between these stars of the midnight and the 
 morning star, herald of the dawn, there was 
 a period of darkness. The sky was clouded 
 over, storms threatened, lightnings flashed, and 
 thunders rolled. 
 
12 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 John Wyckliffe is called the "morning star 
 of the Reformation." One must arise early 
 to see the morning star in all its glory. As 
 herald of the king of day, which Martin 
 Luther might be called, Wyckliffe is a com- 
 manding figure. 
 
 Every man must be measured in connection 
 with a study of the times in which he lives. 
 As the character of Peter the Hermit can be 
 appreciated only after discovering the condi- 
 tion of Palestine under the blight of Turkish 
 rule, and that of George Washington only 
 after knowing of the birth throes of American 
 freedom, so Wyckliffe can be estimated aright 
 only with knowledge of the political situation 
 and the tendencies of his times. Indeed, the 
 Bible which he prepared never would have 
 been translated except for the ecclesiastical 
 and national movements and purposes. 
 
 Wyckliffe was born about 1324. Papacy 
 was trying to keep its heel on developing" 
 nationality and personality. Spain and France 
 and England had begun to feel national 
 strength and long for political independence. 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 13 
 
 True to its age-long purpose and practice, the 
 Roman Catholic Church was holding on to 
 temporal power and enjoying the temporal re- 
 ward. Friars were false to their trust, monks 
 became spies more than spiritual messengers, 
 worship degenerated into a form and purpose 
 to defraud, and feasting and merry-making 
 beguiled the time of the spiritual overseers. 
 Under the slavery of superstition, in which the 
 Catholic Church has held its adherents when- 
 ever and wherever possible, the Latin monks 
 were supported by oppressive tribute levied 
 on countries dominated from the Tiber. 
 
 The doctrine of transubstantiation was the 
 greatest weapon in the hands of the priests. 
 The lowest men were exalted to church posi- 
 tions and controlled the consciences of the 
 most enlightened. The Pope decreed what 
 was good and what evil, but gave men liberty 
 to do the bad for suitable reward, and ex- 
 cused from doing good for remuneration. 
 In brief, the pope had taken the place of 
 God Almighty and of Jesus Christ. He was 
 able so to do because the Bible was in the 
 
14 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 hands of the clergy, but not in common cir- 
 culation among the laity. 
 
 The soul of Wyckliffe was vexed because 
 he saw the individual man's way to God 
 hedged up by Pope and clergy and saints. It 
 was restive under the papal denial of national 
 and individual liberty. It rebelled at the super- 
 stitious views of the Lord's supper which en- 
 slaved the people. With difficulty it brooked 
 the begging of mendicant orders for the indul- 
 gence of immoral and lazy priests. It saw the 
 solution of these problems in a popular Bible. 
 
 At this time the language of the pulpit was 
 French, with a mingling of monkish Latin, 
 which many of the clergy understood as little 
 as the people. Neither the Norman French 
 Bible nor the Vulgate of Jerome was of any 
 use to the masses. Chaucer was contempo- 
 raneous with Wyckliffe, which shows that the 
 English language was finding a permanent 
 setting throughout the country. When the 
 clergy interpreted the Scriptures to suit their 
 own greed, made and unmade religious prin- 
 ciples and laws as selfishness suggested, and 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 15 
 
 the people, deprived of the Scriptures, had 
 no recourse, a righteous soul which saw the 
 hypocrisy and tyranny on the one hand, the 
 superstition and servitude on the other, could 
 but determine to change conditions. 
 
 The purpose to bring about this change 
 made Wyckliffe the morning star, the John 
 the Baptist, of the Teutonic Reformation, 
 which set all western Europe free. Except as 
 kings truckled to popes for favors, Wyckliffe 
 had the support of the nobility when espous- 
 ing the rights of the personal conscience ; but, 
 when he attacked the doctrine of transubstan- 
 tiation, the nobles misunderstood and failed 
 to follow. A dauntless will determined to put 
 the Bible in the hands of all, and thus teach 
 them that salvation is by personal faith in a 
 personal Savior, rather than dependent upon 
 the caprice of a self-appointed vicegerent of 
 the Almighty. He purposed to give the people 
 truth for falsehood, liberty for slavery, mo- 
 rality for immorality, independence for de- 
 pendence both in thought and action. Did he 
 succeed ? 
 
16 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 Wyckliffe, though of Oxford University, 
 was not a thorough Hebrew and Greek scholar. 
 Using these sources but little, his translation 
 was made from the Latin Vulgate and the 
 Norman-French Bible then in use. Starting 
 with the Apochrypha, he had the New Testa- 
 ment completed by 1381. Death followed a 
 paralytic stroke in 1384, before the Old Testa- 
 ment was finished. But there were two kin- 
 dred souls, Nicholas de Hereford and John 
 Purvey, whom the Lord honored with the priv- 
 ilege of completing the unfinished task. 
 
 The art of printing had not yet been in- 
 vented. All the Bibles made had to be writ- 
 ten by hand — manuscript versions and copies. 
 These were the ones distributed all over 
 England for the next century. The Scrip- 
 tures were circulated and explained by what 
 were known as "poor priests," the adjective 
 reflecting light upon the general condition of 
 other priests. They were called Lollards by 
 others. As a semi-monastic order the Lol- 
 lards came into notice about the year 1300 
 at Antwerp, finding a sphere of work in caring 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 17 
 
 for the sick and the dead. They were Wyck- 
 liffe's stanch supporters when alive, and after 
 his death, helped his influence to survive. 
 Their duty as colporters was foreshadowed 
 by the peculiar name of John Purvey — a pur- 
 veyor, in truth, of the truth. 
 
 No people can be kept in slavery long, or 
 long subject to an ecclesiastical tyranny, if the 
 Bible is in their hands and inspiring their 
 thought. It works thus universally. Nehe- 
 miah and his readers gave the great congre- 
 gation the Bible and helped all to understand 
 its meaning, with marked influence for good. 
 When the high priest, Hilkiah, found the 
 long-lost book of the law in the house of the 
 Lord in Josiah's reformation, there was a 
 great revival of righteousness. The Savior's 
 command to go into all the world and preach 
 the gospel looks toward the same end. What- 
 ever things are crooked the Word of God 
 helps to make straight. It transforms the bad 
 things to good, and changes the iniquities of 
 life to fairness and equity. 
 
18 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 Wyckliffe's Bible had an influence upon the 
 masses hardly to be estimated. The results 
 were more apparent fifty years after his death, 
 when the Catholic Church, seeing itself the 
 loser through his labors, commanded that his 
 body be disinterred and the ashes of his 
 burned flesh and bones be scattered upon the 
 brook Swift. On went these remains into the 
 Avon, then into the Severn, then into the sea, 
 and out into the ocean to touch every land, 
 an emblem of the blessing which his trans- 
 lated Bible brought to every kindred and 
 nation. 
 
 The morning star heralded a later dawn, 
 and the dawn enlarged into the full day. All 
 that Wyckliffe hoped to accomplish by a gen- 
 eral circulation of the Scriptures was realized 
 after his death. His Bible was a second vul- 
 gate, for, like that of Jerome, it was in the 
 language of the common people. But the sun 
 had not yet risen. Other stars shone, and 
 they claim attention. 
 
 The Bible of William Tyndale was needed 
 fullv as much as that of John Wyckliffe. 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 19 
 
 Every effort had been made to check the 
 circulation of the Scriptures because the prev- 
 alence of such a book defeated the selfish 
 ends of the Catholic Church. Oppression can- 
 not thrive where information and light pene- 
 trate. 
 
 But the Bible could not have become general 
 if the English throne and the Roman Pope had 
 been favorable. The making of enough manu- 
 script copies to go around was a physical 
 impossibility. Besides, the cost was prohibi- 
 tive. The "poor priests" had expounded the 
 Scriptures more than they had sold them. 
 
 Tyndale was born just one hundred years 
 after Wyckliffe died, in 1484. The interval 
 was one of action. Papacy was rent by rival 
 claimants to the so-called throne of Peter. 
 After the third hearing, the Council of Con- 
 stance had condemned John Huss to be burned 
 at the stake, and the execution was carried 
 out in 1415, Jerome of Prague, his disciple, 
 suffering a similar fate, thus putting Bohemia 
 in line for religious reformation. The eastern 
 empire had gone to pieces at the middle of the 
 
20 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 fifteenth century, and the influx of scholars 
 into the west presaged a revival of common 
 learning. Martin Luther had been born the 
 year before Tyndale, and the Teutonic Refor- 
 mation was preparing to shake the ecclesias- 
 tical throne on the Tiber. America had been 
 discovered by Columbus, and the world was 
 rubbing its eyes as if awakening to the sig- 
 nificance of affairs. Most important of all, 
 the art of printing had been invented on the 
 continent, and William Caxton had introduced 
 it in England in 1476. Erasmus, born at Rot- 
 terdam, was making the first edition of the 
 New Testament in Greek, putting it forth in 
 1516. It is not surprising that the church 
 despots and grafters had no love for the print- 
 ing press. One of the monks said, "We must 
 root out printing, or printing will root us out." 
 In England all was stir. Kings allied them- 
 selves with popes to keep out the light, for 
 some of the rulers placed their dependence 
 in the favor of the church or the ignorance 
 of the people, or both. Decrees were backed 
 up by sentence of death. England was dyed 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 21 
 
 red, and her streams were sprinkled with the 
 ashes of her slain. Those who labored to 
 make the Bible a common book passed over 
 the road which the authors of the original 
 Bible trod. If the yielding of life for a cause 
 attests its worth, there is abundant proof of 
 value here. In another sense, the blood of 
 martyrs is the seed of the church. 
 
 Tyndale had one dominant purpose, to give 
 his brethren of England the same taste and 
 understanding of God's Word with which he 
 himself had been endued. He concluded that 
 the shortest road was to put the Bible in a 
 form accessible to all. Knowing the corrup- 
 tion in the church, and confident that a com- 
 mon Bible would render graft impossible, he 
 bent all energies to one end. To a monk who 
 declared that it would be better to be with- 
 out God's laws than without those of the 
 Pope, he replied : "I defy the Pope and all 
 his laws ; if God spares my life, I will cause 
 a boy that drives a plow to know more of the 
 Scriptures than you do." 
 
22 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 Tyndale was an accomplished scholar. He 
 went back to the Hebrew and the Greek and 
 made his translation directly therefrom, while 
 Wyckliffe had been obliged to stop with the 
 Latin and the French versions. Inasmuch as 
 there were no lexicons or grammars worth 
 mentioning, his work would be counted monu- 
 mental even if he had been favored by church 
 and state. He had a copy of Wyckliffe's ver- 
 sion at hand, but depended on it not at all. 
 
 The New Testament came from the press 
 in 1529, published on the continent through 
 opposition at home. Tunstall. the bishop of 
 London, and other churchmen were aggrieved 
 and determined to end the publication. The 
 bishop concluded to buy the whole three edi- 
 tions for destruction. Augustine Packington, 
 a friend of Tyndale, playing a double role, 
 offered to act as purchasing agent. Soon the 
 bishop had all the books, Packington had pro- 
 fuse thanks, and Tyndale had plenty of money 
 — to print a new edition. When these New 
 Testaments came across the English Channel 
 by boat load, the bishop called Packington to 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 23 
 
 account, but the purchasing agent replied that 
 the bishop made a mistake in not buying up 
 all the type and printing presses. 
 
 At another time a more serious loss was 
 suffered. While going from Antwerp to Ham- 
 burg to print some Old Testament transla- 
 tions, he was shipwrecked, and lost all his 
 books, writings, copies, and money. But he 
 boarded another ship, found other friends and 
 helpers, received a new impulse himself, and 
 returned to Antwerp in a year with more ac- 
 complished than he had hoped for at the first. 
 
 Tyndale's success enraged the Pope and prel- 
 ates, and they rested not till the king was en- 
 listed against him. He was betrayed on the 
 continent by a supposed friend, thrown into 
 prison at Filford, near Antwerp, and finally 
 strangled as a punishment for the most un- 
 selfish devotion to the rights of the people. 
 To make the vengeance more complete and 
 the example more impressive, his body was 
 burned and the ashes scattered. It was in 
 1536. With assurance of his own right 
 course, with conviction that the church and 
 
24 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 king were wrong, Tyndale prayed fervently 
 with expiring breath, "Lord ! Open the king 
 of England's eyes." Henry the Eighth, by 
 his very opposition, encouraged the Bible 
 translators. 
 
 The six thousand Bibles already distributed 
 had revolutionized England. It was made a 
 criminal offense to possess a copy. Men and 
 women were burned for it, a condition of af- 
 fairs which we scarcely are able to appreciate. 
 But it is because of the leaven of Tyndale's 
 work that we can possess a copy of the Word 
 and not be in danger of the stake or the hang- 
 man's noose. The same year that Tyndale 
 died, eight editions of the New Testament 
 were printed on English soil. The eyes of 
 Henry the Eighth were opened — to the futility 
 of trying to suppress a work which God was 
 directing. There were forty editions in all, 
 it is said. 
 
 Tyndale's enemies asserted that his transla- 
 tion was full of errors and heresy. He had re- 
 sponded : "I call God to record against the day 
 we shall appear before our Lord Jesus, that 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 25 
 
 I never altered one syllable of God's Word 
 against my conscience, nor would this day, 
 if all that is in the earth, whether it be honor, 
 pleasure, or riches, might be given me." His 
 work was approved by the revisers of the next 
 century, who followed partially the standard 
 form of Tyndale. Much of his translation 
 remains intact in our present Bibles, and his 
 spirit pervades the whole. He made the 
 Bible popular, rather than literary, spiritual 
 rather than formal. His own life backed up 
 the truth, and his jailer, with members of his 
 family, was converted through his influence. 
 An English historian characterizes Tyndale 
 as a man whose history is lost in his work, 
 and whose epitaph is the Reformation. 
 
 Henry the Eighth ruled on the throne 
 twenty-five years before Tyndale died. Be- 
 tween his death and the appearance of the 
 Authorized Version is a step of seventy-five 
 years — momentous years in history-making for 
 England. Henry lived according to caprice, 
 or at least by rules which never have been 
 reduced to a system. His first marriage to 
 
26 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 his brother's widow, six years his senior, was 
 followed by the blessing of the Pope because 
 Catharine of Aragon was a faithful Catholic. 
 His five subsequent marriages, some of which 
 were with Protestants, involved him in diffi- 
 culty with the papal hierarchy. His own atti- 
 tudes of lover, divorcer, and murderer admit 
 of no explanation. The best thing Henry the 
 Eighth did was to establish schools. It is said 
 that more grammar schools were founded in 
 the latter years of his reign than in three 
 centuries before. This may be accounted for 
 through the king's love of learning, and for 
 the accomplishments in which he took con- 
 siderable pride, disputing first with the Pope, 
 then with Luther, and finally with his own 
 secretaries, some of whom he sent to their 
 death with the same ruthlessness as that with 
 which he murdered some of his wives. 
 
 King Henry was succeeded by his son, Ed- 
 ward the Sixth, who adhered to the Protestant 
 faith partly because his mother, Jane Seymour, 
 was a Protestant. He reigned from 1547 
 to 1553, and was followed by Mary, the 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 27 
 
 Catholic daughter of Henry the Eighth and 
 Catharine of Aragon. Her reign was one of 
 terror. A fierce persecution of Protestants 
 was waged, and two hundred and eighty vic- 
 tims forfeited their lives during her last three 
 years. Among the most eminent of these 
 martyrs were Bishop Latimer of Worcester, 
 Bishop Ridley of London, and Cranmer, Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. The execution of these 
 three men alone is sufficient to condemn her 
 to everlasting infamy, and is a rebuke to later 
 historians who attempt to palliate her sins 
 and blame the condition of the times rather 
 than the queen. 
 
 During the early part of this period four 
 Bibles appeared, known as Coverdale's, Mat- 
 thew's, Taverner's, and the Great Bible, all 
 before King Henry died. It would seem that 
 Tyndale's last prayer for the Lord to open the 
 eyes of the king of England had been heard 
 in heaven and answered on earth. 
 
 Miles Coverdale worked in the time of 
 Tyndale. All the personal desire which Tyn- 
 dale had for a Bible in the vernacular of Eng- 
 
28 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 land was burning in the heart of Coverdale. 
 When Tyndale lost his manuscript in the 
 shipwreck going from Antwerp to Hamburg, 
 he was enabled to perform an unusual amount 
 of translating in one year because Coverdale 
 worked out the Pentateuch for him. But Cov- 
 erdale was a translator on his own responsibil- 
 ity. His version of the Bible, published in 
 1535 at Antwerp, was the first complete Eng- 
 lish Bible ever printed, a fact worth the re- 
 membrance of every Christian. 
 
 The association of Coverdale and Tyndale 
 seems to have been mutually agreeable and 
 helpful. Their versions revealed the charac- 
 ters of the men. The stateliness of the trans- 
 lation of Tyndale marks him as a man of 
 will power and determination which would not 
 swerve a hair's breadth from a marked-out 
 pathway, no matter what the consideration 
 or what the threat. It is such men who, when 
 upright at heart, travel straight for the stake 
 of martyrdom without recanting a syllable. 
 The smooth and suave translation of Cover- 
 dale betrays a gentler nature, which may win 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 29 
 
 its point equally well, but less calculated to 
 arouse antagonism while doing so. Some 
 critics have seen in Tyndale's work the strong 
 masculine, and in that of Coverdale more of 
 the feminine nature. Perhaps on this account 
 their spirits were congenial and their work 
 mutually complementary. 
 
 Coverdale seems not to have understood 
 Hebrew and Greek, naming the Latin and 
 German translations which were at his side. 
 He had the special favor of Sir Thomas Crom- 
 well, who espoused the Reformation in the 
 year Coverdale's complete Bible was pub- 
 lished. At the same time he was appointed 
 by Henry the Eighth as secretary of state. 
 The king had broken with the papacy, had 
 declared himself and his country independent 
 of religious dictation, and had made Crom- 
 well supreme, except for himself, over the 
 independent church of England. Monasteries 
 numbering six hundred and forty-five were 
 abolished at his command, and Coverdale's 
 Bible was issued with the tacit approval of 
 royal authority. That fortune turned and 
 
30 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 Cromwell was beheaded for treason is a sad 
 ending of the man who was worthy of a bet- 
 ter master and a better fate, and who had 
 much to do with answering the prayer of 
 Tyndale that the king's eyes might be opened. 
 Coverdale was banished, but died later in his 
 native land. Like Martin Luther, he was a 
 monk of the Augustinian order. 
 
 Two years after Miles Coverdale's Bible 
 appeared, the one known as Matthew's Bible 
 was issued, in 1537. It is a combination of 
 Tyndale and Coverdale, with some portions in 
 the translator's individual style. The Penta- 
 teuch and New Testament were given to Tyn- 
 dale ; the Old Testament from Ezra to Mala- 
 chi, to Coverdale, and the books from Joshua 
 to Second Chronicles, to the new author. The 
 name of Thomas Matthew is a pseudonym on 
 account of the martyrdom of Tyndale and 
 the consequent danger in which a Bible trans- 
 lator lived. This Bible was dedicated to 
 Henry the Eighth. Its author is supposed to 
 be John Rogers, who was burned in Smith- 
 field in 1555. The chief value of this trans- 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 31 
 
 lation is its helpfulness to the ones who pre- 
 pared the Authorized Version in the early part 
 of the seventeenth century. 
 
 Two years later, in 1539, another version 
 appeared, made by Richard Taverner. This 
 was the work of a layman, but he was 
 licensed as a layman to preach by Edward the 
 Sixth, anticipating the lay ministry of our own 
 day. The Bible was under the patronage of 
 Cromwell and dedicated to the king. Tav- 
 erner wrote several volumes to support the 
 reformation, the same general purpose under- 
 lying his translation of the Scriptures. 
 
 In the same year, 1539, another version, 
 called the Great Bible, was completed. It was 
 fifteen by nine inches in size, and was trans- 
 lated by such eminent men as Cranmer, then 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, Tunstall, Bishop 
 of London, Cromwell, Vicar General of the 
 Church of England, and Coverdale, whose 
 name and work have passed under review. 
 Several editions of the Great Bible were issued 
 under the names of colleagues, so that Crom- 
 well is supposed to have fathered the edition 
 
32 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 of 1539, and Cranmer that of 1540. This 
 was intended for use in parish churches. 
 King Henry issued a proclamation in 1540 to 
 accompany its reading. Thus the Bible be- 
 came a familiar book in every church, although 
 individual homes were not yet supplied be- 
 cause of pecuniary circumstances. It is re- 
 markable that in three years from the death 
 of Tyndale so much was accomplished, and 
 that, by the cooperation of leaders in the 
 church and state. Even Bishop Tunstall, who 
 was chief in driving Tyndale to execution, 
 was helping to prepare the English Bible in 
 this short period, performing the very deeds 
 which had aroused him to bitterest persecu- 
 tion. As an evidence of the spirit of the times, 
 of the devotion of scholars, the dates of these 
 four versions are repeated: Coverdale's, 1535; 
 Matthew's, 1537; Taverner's, 1539; the Great 
 Bible, 1539. The last two were issued eight 
 years before the end of Henry the Eighth's 
 reign. 
 
 After the appearance of the Great Bible, 
 eighteen years intervened until another ver- 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 33 
 
 sion. No other period of equal length was 
 marked by such great and sudden changes 
 in England. Henry the Eighth had begun to 
 play for the favor of Rome. Although his 
 portrait appeared in the Great Bible, he placed 
 the severest restrictions upon its use, or the 
 use of any other. In that Catholic reaction 
 which was aided by the fickleness of the king, 
 Parliament itself was swept off its feet, and 
 in 1543 forbade all translations bearing Tyn- 
 dale's name, and even placed the reading of 
 the Bible under the ban, whether in public or 
 private, for personal edification or the instruc- 
 tion of others, so far as merchants, artificers, 
 journeymen, farmers, and other laborers were 
 concerned. Under this decree the Word of 
 God became precious ; but the craving to know 
 the divine will and the longing for communion 
 with God through his Word could not be 
 stifled under threats of imprisonment or 
 death. When Edward the Sixth, before al- 
 luded to as the son of Jane Seymour, came 
 to the throne in 1547, for a six years' reign, 
 the Bible was welcomed back into the church 
 
34 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 and home. At his coronation he called for a 
 Bible and pronounced it the sword of the 
 Spirit. During his short reign the New Testa- 
 ment passed through thirty-five editions, and 
 the entire Bible thirteen. The sacred Book 
 was commended for the use of the people and 
 no one, rich or poor, great or small, feared 
 either sword or hangman's noose when read- 
 ing the Word. 
 
 But if it seemed that the Book had come to 
 stay, and the people were to enjoy the priv- 
 ilege vouchsafed by virtue of their creation, 
 such hopes were dashed to pieces by the pre- 
 mature death of Protestant Edward and the 
 accession to the throne of his half-sister, Cath- 
 olic Mary, bloody Mary, daughter of Cath- 
 arine of Aragon. Again persecution made 
 interest in God's Word thrive, and the blood 
 of martyrs was the seed of progress and 
 knowledge. At once, Mary began the fiercest 
 persecution of the Protestants. Had they not 
 crossed the English Channel for safety, the 
 three hundred martyrs would be an insig- 
 nificant number compared to those she would 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 35 
 
 have killed. Among the choice spirits in flight 
 were Coverdale, John Bodley, John Knox, and 
 William Whittingham, the last named a 
 brother-in-law of John Calvin. Perhaps, 
 through this relationship, the presence of Cal- 
 vin was sought. At any rate the influence of 
 that great reformer was marked in the life 
 and work of Whittingham. He succeeded 
 John Knox as pastor at Geneva, which city 
 had become a peace center on account of the 
 storms raging everywhere throughout Europe. 
 Whittingham's New Testament appeared in 
 1557, Calvin working side by side in perfect- 
 ing the French Bible. Thus the persecution 
 of bloody Mary had a direct influence on 
 furthering the very cause which she deter- 
 mined to destroy. It gave another Bible to 
 the people; and the Bible in the hands of the 
 people always is a weapon in defense of right, 
 justice, and liberty. 
 
 The Genevan Bible followed Whittingham's 
 New Testament in 1560. It was the first 
 English Bible printed in Roman type instead 
 of the black letters, and the first to break up 
 
36 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 the paragraphs into verses as appearing in the 
 Bibles familiar to us. Italicized words were 
 first used to complete the English sense where 
 they did not appear in the original. More than 
 any Bible before, it was a book for the com- 
 mon people and soon found general circulation 
 in England and Scotland. John Knox, whose 
 soul cried out for the salvation of Scotland, 
 used it in place of Tyndale's version. This 
 Bible was almost finished during the time of 
 stress at home. It was given to the public at 
 the most opportune time for general circula- 
 tion and acceptance. Elizabeth, daughter of 
 Henry the Eighth and Anne Boleyn, conse- 
 quently the half-sister both of Edward the 
 Sixth and bloody Alary, had ascended the 
 throne, and gave her subjects a gracious reign. 
 It was the golden age of English letters. 
 Shakespeare and Spenser were leaders in 
 England's literary eminence. Elizabeth, 
 though somewhat changeable in conduct if not 
 in character, gave general favor to anything 
 that uplifted the people and advanced them in 
 learning. The Bible issuing from Geneva, the 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 37 
 
 haven of the persecuted, found free access in 
 every road and byway of England. 
 
 The Bishops' Bible was originated and pro- 
 moted by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, for which reason it sometimes 
 bears the name of Parker's Bible. He distrib- 
 uted the Scriptures to able bishops and other 
 learned men, asking that they translate their 
 respective assignments in accordance with 
 their best understanding, adding marginal 
 notes for illustration or explanation. These 
 translations were to come back to him for 
 final revision, printing, and publishing. Thus 
 a very pronounced, composite work was pre- 
 pared, quite serviceable for popular use for 
 which it was devised. As there was no perse- 
 cution of Protestants at this time, the work 
 was done in England. Besides, it was chiefly 
 a Catholic undertaking. The distinction of 
 this version is that it was formally adopted 
 as the basis for the later King James version, 
 not of course to the exclusion of all influence 
 of its predecessors, or its successor, now to 
 be named. 
 
38 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 The next Bible in point of time is called the 
 Douay or the Rheims. Northeast of Paris 
 about one hundred miles, the English Cath- 
 olics were maintaining their oldest college. 
 The city otherwise was rather a dull place, 
 but now has grown to a population of about 
 twenty-five thousand. The increasing influ- 
 ence of the other English versions, particularly 
 in making the people more independent in 
 thought and action, greatly worried the lead- 
 ers of the Roman Catholic Church. They de- 
 termined to have a version of their own which 
 would be pointed enough to hold their ad- 
 herents in line. The Catholics were shrewd 
 enough to see that the common people would 
 read the Scriptures, and that the best thing 
 for the Catholic Church was to have a Bible 
 prepared under strict Catholic influences. 
 Further, the college at Douay, founded by 
 William Allen, taught the Bible daily to its 
 students. This is a remarkable deviation from 
 the beaten path of Catholicism, and cannot 
 be explained otherwise than on the ground 
 that the Catholics feared further defections 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 39 
 
 from their ranks. So much is to be credited 
 to the Protestant influence in securing the 
 Bible for the masses. 
 
 The Genevan Bible was the chief inspira- 
 tion of that known as the Douay or the 
 Rheims. It is called Rheims sometimes, from 
 the removal of the Douay College to the 
 city of Rheims in the northernmost province 
 of France, where it remained fifteen years, 
 going back to Douay after some national trou- 
 bles were settled. The new translation was 
 initiated by William Allen, the college founder, 
 an educated teacher in Oxford, then a cardinal 
 in the making, granted a red hat by Pope 
 Sixtus Fifth. Gregory Martin is credited 
 with most of the translating, his work 
 being passed upon finally by Allen, Bristow, 
 and perhaps other associates. The text 
 used as a guide was the Vulgate of 
 Jerome, so that to the Douay version were 
 transferred its excellences and its defects. The 
 New Testament appeared in 1582 at Rheims, 
 the Old Testament in 1609 or 1610, the ex- 
 tended period between the two being due to 
 
40 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 the lack of funds for publishing. At the head 
 of the chapters was printed the line of argu- 
 ment. Explanatory notes were made and 
 errors of the so-called Protestant heretics were 
 corrected. Not until the middle of the cen- 
 tury were the two Testaments issued together, 
 which was done by Richard Challoner. Amer- 
 ican editions of this version were made in 
 1854 and 1861. Revisions in Europe toned 
 down some of the controversial notes. 
 
 As the present year is the three hundredth 
 anniversary of the issuance of what is known 
 as the Authorized Version of the Bible, or the 
 King James Version, it has the greatest in- 
 terest. In point of time and daily use, it has 
 far outlived any other version. While men 
 learned in the Scriptures and exalted in state 
 positions labored together for the production 
 of this monumental work, God himself must 
 have had the directing power. Political af- 
 fairs were approaching a crisis, which the 
 most prophetic scarcely could foresee. James 
 the Sixth of Scotland had become James the 
 First of England. The two countries were 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 41 
 
 united under one head. The Puritan move- 
 ment, which resulted in the Genevan Bible, 
 was growing throughout England, and prom- 
 ising to control the ecclesiastical affairs of the 
 kingdom. This ultra-Protestant movement 
 was balanced by great activity in the Catholic 
 Church, which gave birth to the Douay Bible. 
 Oliver Cromwell was a boy of five, and 
 Charles the First, of whom he became the 
 opponent and avenging fury, was one year his 
 junior. It was but four years to the birth of 
 John Milton, the embodiment of all the force 
 and feeling of Puritanism, in so far as they 
 can be concentrated in one man. 
 
 The new King James was a mixture of 
 character traits. While building up his king- 
 dom, his foreign policy was a disgrace. He 
 disappointed the Catholics, who had hoped 
 much from his ascension, and soon turned his 
 back upon European Puritanism likewise. No 
 one knew where to find him. Although he 
 promulgated the doctrine of the divine right 
 of kings, he sent his own son to the scaffold. 
 He was a grafter in monopolies and patents 
 
42 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 which would make a modern American of that 
 class envious. Walter Scott's comment that 
 King James was reputed to be the most 
 learned fool in Christendom was justified. 
 That at the same time he possessed great 
 learning and was ignorant of what to do with 
 it, sums up his character. The disappointment 
 of the Catholics resulted in a plot to destroy 
 the king and parliament, known in history as 
 the Gunpowder Plot, the first knowledge of 
 which is handed school children in the rhyme, 
 "Remember, oh, remember, 
 The fifth day of November, 
 
 Of gunpowder, treason, and plot; 
 I can think of no reason 
 Why gunpowder treason 
 Should ever be forgot." 
 But the plot was discovered and its agents 
 foiled. Guy Fawkes was arrested after light- 
 ing the fuses, and subsequently suffered exe- 
 cution. 
 
 With the storms of trouble gathering, and 
 an era of political importance dawning, a Bible 
 in which all could agree, circulating freely, 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 43 
 
 would prove a greater mainstay of national 
 and church principles than any other one fac- 
 tor could prove to be. 
 
 Only by giving God a large place in directing 
 affairs can we understand the philosophy of 
 history in the early part of the seventeenth 
 century. Human causes are not sufficient for 
 the effects, or human plans for the accomplish- 
 ments. In January, 1604, James called a con- 
 ference on ecclesiastical matters in Hampton 
 Court Palace, near London. A Puritan peti- 
 tion, signed by eight hundred clergymen, was 
 denied in toto. Because of their persistence 
 he broke up the conference and threatened to 
 banish them from his realm. Thus James 
 opposed the radical Protestants and radical 
 Catholics alike. Susceptible to flattery, he 
 heeded the suggestions of Dr. John Reynolds, 
 president of Corpus Christi College, and a 
 Puritan leader, that a new version of the Bible 
 should be prepared. Reynolds claimed that 
 the Bishops' Bible, which was regarded as 
 authoritative, was the cause of much of the 
 ecclesiastical trouble. It was a stroke of 
 
44 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 policy to get rid of a Bible largely Catholic 
 in the hope of something modified through the 
 growing Puritan influence. The king favored 
 the undertaking and asked various bishops to 
 name men versed in Hebrew and Greek and 
 in the languages of the other versions, to per- 
 from the task. Six companies of nine each 
 were formed, two companies working at Ox- 
 ford, two at Cambridge, and two at West- 
 minster. Representatives brought the finished 
 work together for comparison and unification. 
 The actual labor began about 1607. How 
 thoroughly it was performed is shown in the 
 working over of some passages more than a 
 dozen times. Anticipating a large demand, 
 two editions were set up and printed simul- 
 taneously in 1611. The third edition was 
 printed the same year, one copy of which re- 
 mains now in New York. 
 
 The king had directed that the Bishops' 
 Bible be the basis for the new version, but the 
 scholars went beyond this point and used both 
 the Genevan and the Douay Bibles. Both of 
 these had been prepared by thorough scholars. 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 45 
 
 The catholicity of the revisers is proven by 
 their willingness to get light from the ultra- 
 radical of Protestants or Catholics. Soon the 
 new version came into universal use. In fifty 
 years the epistles and gospels in the English 
 prayer-book were changed for this version. 
 The good, clear, idiomatic style made it a 
 favorite, and it never has relaxed its hold on 
 the affections of men. That it should exist 
 through the mighty changes of empire and 
 tongues and beliefs is attributed to the faith- 
 fulness of the translators, and as well to the 
 power of heaven which always is at work for 
 the protection of its own. 
 
 What is known as the Revised Version of 
 the Bible was determined by the convocation 
 of Canterbury in 1870. Thirty-seven scholars 
 were set to work on the Old Testament and 
 twenty-nine on the New. Five religious 
 bodies were engaged in England. The United 
 States also had a part, nine denominations con- 
 tributing. Deliberations were exchanged 
 across the sea. All the versions and manu- 
 scripts available were worked thoroughly. The 
 
46 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 New Testament appeared in England, May 
 17, 1881, and in the United States three days 
 later. Three million copies were sold the first 
 year. A Chicago paper received the entire 
 Testament by cable from England and printed 
 all of it in a single morning issue. The Old 
 Testament did not appear until 1885. 
 
 There was considerable dissatisfaction with 
 the English version in its home land. One 
 class claimed that too few changes had been 
 made in style and diction. Another class, 
 which had become familiar with the phrase- 
 ology of the Authorized Version until its 
 words had acquired a kind of sacredness, did 
 not welcome what changes had been made. 
 Americans were displeased because the English 
 revisers paid little attention to the opinion of 
 the West and relegated most of the American 
 notes to an appendix. The English commit- 
 tee disbanded when the work was done, but 
 the American committee maintained its organ- 
 ization. 
 
 An agreement had been made that the 
 American committee might issue its own re- 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 47 
 
 vision fourteen years after the English edi- 
 tion. So, in 1901, the American Standard 
 Revised Version was given to the public, re- 
 garded both here and in England as the best 
 translation of the Scriptures ever made. The 
 greatest shipment of Bibles since they were 
 first printed occurred in June, 1911, when two 
 carloads of the American Standard Version 
 were sent from New York to San Francisco, 
 numbering twenty-five thousand, to be carried 
 in the men's parade at the San Francisco 
 International Sunday-School Convention, and 
 then to be distributed to the hotels on the 
 Pacific coast as the gift of the Gideons to their 
 brethren in commercial life. 
 
 Whether the Authorized Version will be 
 displaced by the American Standard revision, 
 no one can tell. Present indications are that 
 minds are turning back again to the old book 
 that has had a familiar place for three hundred 
 years. Certain it is that the English revision 
 has lost its grip upon the church. Whatever 
 the future may hold, any honest translation of 
 the Scriptures contains sufficient instruction 
 
48 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 to lead a soul out of darkness into light, from 
 the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of 
 God. In this way God honors his Word as 
 the important channel of instruction and ever- 
 lasting blessing. 
 
The Bible and Education 
 
 PROFESSOR THORNDIKE says that 
 the necessity for education arises from 
 the fact that what is, is not what ought 
 to be. This "ought" may be grounded partly 
 in utility; certainly it has partial basis in that 
 perfection of character which is every man's 
 right. 
 
 Education is development, training. It is 
 a cultivation of something for the purpose of 
 growth — the body, the mind, the soul. The 
 methods may be diverse, the scope more or 
 less inclusive, and the purpose as varied as the 
 types of mind. But the whole process is one 
 of growth, of culture, of adaptation, of train- 
 ing. It is a gradual putting of what ought to 
 be in the place of what is. 
 
 A liberal education looks toward quantity, 
 toward enlargement. It is unrestricted in 
 spirit and in scope. It despises stint and loves 
 bounty. It implies expansion as opposed to 
 
 49 
 
50 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 narrowness. It makes one broad in sympathy, 
 refined in taste, and strong in character. 
 
 What has the Bible to do with a liberal edu- 
 cation? Is it an impetus behind, an incentive 
 ahead, or a motive power along the way? Or 
 is it an integral part of that education entitled 
 to be called liberal ? What is the propriety of 
 hitching these two things together in a single 
 subject? 
 
 The Bible has a vital part in a liberal edu- 
 cation. It is an impetus, an incentive, a power 
 by the way. It is an essential part of a well- 
 rounded education. Indeed, the statement 
 may be made in advance that an education 
 apart from the form and the spirit of the Bible 
 is as defective as a pyramid without an apex, 
 a steam engine without a boiler, or a man 
 without a heart. In other words, a liberal edu- 
 cation without a knowledge of the sacred 
 Scriptures is a contradiction of terms. The 
 subject is all right. 
 
 In United Brethren circles it will meet with 
 approval to take the standard of Otterbein 
 Universitv as a guide to that which is liberal 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 51 
 
 in education. In the current catalogue there 
 are seven general groups of studies, not count- 
 ing the adjunct departments. And these cover 
 the recognized ground of collegiate education. 
 Without following the catalogue order, they 
 are as follows : 
 
 1. Classical Language and Literature. 
 
 2. Modern Language and Literature. 
 
 3. Philosophy and Education. 
 
 4. History and Political Science. 
 
 5. Chemistry and Biology. 
 
 6. Mathematics and Physics. 
 
 7. The Bible and Missions. 
 
 The seventh and last is eliminated from the 
 list on the ground that it is an interested party 
 and might be prejudiced in its own favor. 
 The fifth and sixth will receive no notice be- 
 cause of the superior claims of the first four. 
 What has the Bible to do with these, and what 
 attention must it have in order to their proper 
 understanding? 
 
 Classical languages and literature have a per- 
 manent interest for the student. Here one 
 finds the thought of the past embodied. Medi- 
 
52 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 eval life cannot be understood without knowl- 
 edge of that which was ancient, any more than 
 the present is clear without relation both to 
 ancient and medieval. The principal thing 
 which has descended to us from the remote 
 past is the language and that which is im- 
 bedded in the literature. This is the only 
 span of connection between the twentieth cen- 
 tury after and the tenth century before, and 
 reveals practically all we know about civili- 
 zation, customs, beliefs, and racial movements. 
 
 No self-respecting scholar can pass ancient 
 literature by and maintain that self-respect ; 
 certainly not the confidence of others. Far 
 better is it if the content of the ancient liter- 
 ature is gained from the original language, 
 instead of depending on a translation. A 
 generation ago some mothers chewed meats 
 and vegetables for their children ; but the 
 practice was a mistake. Greek poetry and 
 Latin history are offered to us chewed; it is 
 better in every way to do our own chewing. 
 
 Generally the classic languages are under- 
 stood to include the Greek and the Latin. The 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 53 
 
 Greek has so much of interest in itself, and 
 has so much of value to every modern gener- 
 ation, that it never can disappear from the col- 
 lege courses, let any man try to remove it 
 who will. As long as there is life there will 
 be philosophy; and the grandmother of mod- 
 ern philosophy was Greece before Christ. 
 Positively, we cannot understand ourselves, 
 our present mental processes, or how we 
 reached our present state and present forms of 
 activity, unless we go back nearly forty cen- 
 turies and come down the line. In this course 
 we come through Greece. 
 
 What would a history of philosophy be with- 
 out Socrates and Plato? How could the chain 
 of history hold every link without Xenophon 
 and Herodotus? How could the drama be 
 understood without Sophocles and ^Eschylus? 
 How could the epic take its course without 
 the immortal Homer, despised while alive, his 
 birthplace contended for by ten cities after he 
 had died? The works of Aristotle form a 
 reliable text-book yet in natural history. Every 
 line crowded perfection. But, whether we 
 
54 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 pursue one course or another, a single one or 
 all together, we are forced to exclaim, "One 
 thing thou lackest." A certain vitality is 
 wanting. There is a striving without attain- 
 ment, a day dream without realization, a vision 
 of outline but devoid of substance. Yet no 
 one can be ignorant of the Greek language 
 and the literature of the Greeks and claim 
 a comprehensive knowledge of affairs. 
 
 Cross the sea to the next peninsula. Change 
 Greece for Rome. Substitute Caesar, Livy, 
 and Tacitus for the other historians. Take 
 Cicero for Demosthenes in oratory, and for 
 Plato in philosophy. Put Virgil in the place 
 of Homer as the epic poet of the Augustan 
 age. Here is a book which for plot and exe- 
 cution has no superior; a book of beauty, of 
 pathos, and of power. The Latin language 
 alone could occupy one well from the cradle 
 to the grave. Virgil's ^Lneid is worthy a life- 
 time of study from the standpoint of mere 
 scholarship. The similes which he has de- 
 veloped stand unsurpassed in uninspired liter- 
 ature. No man has a right to love history, 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 55 
 
 and sociology, and political economy, and con- 
 stitutional law, and exquisite painting, and re- 
 nowned sculpture, unless he love the Latin 
 tongue. No one who prizes French and Span- 
 ish and Portuguese can despise Latin, for they 
 are the children of the Latin. If one should 
 begin from its mouth to explore the Missis- 
 sippi River, and should stop where the Ohio 
 empties, and then claim to have a complete 
 and accurate knowledge of the Father of 
 Waters, he would be no less truthful than a 
 man who lays claim to a liberal education but 
 does not go to the headwaters of the stream. 
 
 The Hebrew nation antedated both Greece 
 and Rome. While the Greek philosophers 
 were coming to their birth, Hebrew civiliza- 
 tion had attained a high standard. While the 
 Greek language was in process of formation, 
 the Hebrew was perfected. Rome came after 
 Greece. The Hebrew books, too, are classics. 
 They are the output of a great nation, ignor- 
 ance of which cannot be winked at. The Old 
 Testament is the chief production. It is in 
 prose and poetry. It contains myth, legend, 
 
56 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 history, legislation, oratory, drama, parable, 
 proverb, fable, philosophy. In the Words of 
 another: "It includes the perfervid outpourings 
 of the impassioned worshiper and the deliber- 
 ate musings of a reflective philosopher. There 
 are utterances hot from the furnaces of pas- 
 sion, and polished poems of the study. In- 
 deed, this literature runs the entire gamut 
 of national and individual emotion as well as 
 of literary form. Among the sacred books 
 of the world's faiths none is nearly so rich in 
 its variety of form, content, and expression as 
 the Old Testament of the Christian Bible." 
 
 Here we strike a new element — "sacred 
 books of the world's faith." The crowning 
 piece of Hebrew literature lays claim to an 
 unusual sacredness. The heart of the writer 
 was touched with a power from above. 
 Heaven joined with earth to make the earth 
 a training school for heaven. Revelation took 
 the place of evolution, and lifted mind and 
 heart to heights unattainable by mere human 
 effort. The inspired writings, the classics of 
 the most influential people on earth, have a 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 57 
 
 vitality all their own. That which was lack- 
 ing in the literature of Greece and Rome is 
 found all-pervasive in the Old Testament. In 
 place of the man-produced, we have the God- 
 breathed. 
 
 To one nation it has been given to direct the 
 practical business of the world more than any- 
 other, to find its way into every country and 
 settle in every city, to live according to law 
 and increase in wealth, to maintain physical 
 features and purity of blood, to reverence 
 ancestry and cultivate a kindred fraternalism, 
 to get control of the world to such an extent 
 that no great war dare be declared to-day 
 without asking the Hebrew whether he will 
 furnish the money to finance it. 
 
 Out of the loins of this race came a man, 
 the simple story of whose life has transformed 
 the cannibal into a peaceful citizen ; converted 
 the nude heathen, clothed him with raiment, 
 and started him in arts and industries ; sub- 
 dued lands and made them bud and blossom ; 
 penetrated dark continents, and destroyed idol- 
 atry, superstition, and polygamy ; robbed the 
 
58 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 Ganges of infants sacrificed to offended 
 deities ; battered down the exclusive walls of 
 Japan, and lifted her to a rank among nations ; 
 cut off the hoary locks of China, and inspired 
 her to discard the robes of an effete past and 
 put on the clothes of modern progress ; 
 knocked at the rusty-hinged door of Korea 
 till the sleepy old hermit nation heard the 
 voice, opened the door, and greeted her long- 
 lost Savior. Every nation and tongue and 
 people that heard the story has been healed 
 of infirmities, renewed in youth, and given that 
 one thing which makes it worth while. All 
 this is owed to the fact and the persistence 
 of a certain language, whose most familiar 
 book is a portion of the Bible. 
 
 The Greek New Testament was added to 
 the Hebrew of the Old, fulfilling its promises, 
 answering its hopes, calming its fears, and 
 comforting its sorrows. It has gone with 
 swifter foot, with more winsome voice, and 
 with wings of greater healing than its older 
 counterpart, a fellow-soldier in the battles of 
 the cross, and a sharer in all the joys of every 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 59 
 
 victory. It is this which has changed nations, 
 and boundary lines, and human hearts. The 
 Vedas and the Koran have nothing in com- 
 parison, and Confucianism consists of nega- 
 tive moral principles rather than rising into 
 a religion with salvation for the soul. If a 
 liberal education should not include the Bible, 
 what else has a right to be called liberal ? 
 
 If the Bible had a large part in ancient liter- 
 ature and every department of life that liter- 
 ature touched, much more has it a place in 
 modern language and literature. French in- 
 fidelity has been occasioned by it, for infidelity 
 is measured by one's antagonistic attitude 
 toward the truth as related to Jesus Christ. 
 German rationalism and English skepticism 
 also are negative beliefs which imply the gen- 
 eral presence of a positive. Dante and his 
 "Divine Comedy" must be regarded in a broad 
 education equally with Celsus, the first pagan 
 critic of Christianity, together with his stric- 
 tures. 
 
 But we are most at home in English. That 
 a knowledge of the Bible is necessary to the 
 
60 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 interpretation of English literature is shown 
 by Coleridge in these words : "To give the 
 history of the Bible as a book would be little 
 else than to relate the origin or first excite- 
 ment of all the literature we possess. From 
 this storehouse of literary materials our lead- 
 ing writers have most freely drawn." Roth 
 the spirit and the language of the Bible per- 
 meate the writings of Shakespeare, the first 
 literary genius of the western islands. Thirty- 
 seven of his plays are said to contain allu- 
 sions to the Scriptures. Francis Bacon, who 
 has been called the father of inductive study, 
 which course gave us reliable science, was a 
 close second in his acquaintance with the Bible 
 and the use of its terms. John Milton's im- 
 perishable work, "Paradise Lost," is satu- 
 rated with the Bible, and John Bunyan's 
 "Pilgrim's Progress" is a classic whose value 
 approaches zero when divorced from the 
 Bible. Tennyson, who ranks first among Eng- 
 lish poets, makes above four hundred refer- 
 ences to the Bible ; Longfellow, the sweet 
 singer of New England, almost as many; 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 61 
 
 while Browning puts one hundred and fifty 
 scriptural allusions into twenty-five hundred 
 lines. Robert Louis Stevenson, from the mid- 
 Pacific, writes essays that are full of Scrip- 
 ture. Hawthorne, the American writer of 
 fiction, whose "Great Stone Face" is a figure 
 of the soul becoming like its Lord, gives the 
 Bible and "Pilgrim's Progress" as the main 
 sources of his inspiration. Macauley's use of 
 Scripture is familiar to every student. Ed- 
 mund Burke, the political philosopher of 
 England, read some appropriate Scripture be- 
 fore making any speech in the House of Com- 
 mons. Charles Dickens, who is the nearest 
 to perfection in character delineation, said 
 that the most touching story in literature is 
 the story of the Prodigal Son. Ernest Renan, 
 the brilliant French infidel, although trying to 
 rob Jesus Christ of his divinity, says that the 
 Gospel of Luke is the most beautiful story of 
 the world. Doctor Spoffbrd, for years libra- 
 rian of Congress, who opposed making a cata- 
 logue of the books in the Congressional 
 Library, being able unaided to point out 
 
62 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 almost any subject or reference desired in that 
 bewildering array of books, testified as fol- 
 lows: "The Bible, considered merely as liter- 
 ature, without any regard to its doctrines, has 
 more strong, nervous English, more pathos, 
 more sublimity, more pith and power than any 
 other work in our language." President 
 Schurman, of Cornell University, says: "The 
 Bible is the most important document in the 
 world's history. No man can be wholly uned- 
 ucated who really knows the Bible, nor can 
 any one be considered a truly educated man 
 who is ignorant of it." No one will charge 
 Doctor Schurman with being unduly preju- 
 diced in favor of God's Word. With these 
 testimonies, how can any one lay claim to 
 scholarly attainments who eliminates the Bible 
 from the curriculum of his study? Certainly 
 it is indispensable to intellectual culture. 
 
 Philosophy is the most sublime of all 
 studies. If in earth, by preeminence, there is 
 nothing great but man, and if, by pre- 
 eminence, too, in man there is nothing great 
 but mind, the best work of the best minds 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 63 
 
 demands attention. Man always has asked 
 whence he came, and why ; what he is, and 
 why he is not something else; whither he is 
 going, and whether he could do otherwise ; 
 what his final condition will be, and whether 
 it will be marked by change or permanency; 
 whether consciousness shall persevere while 
 one crosses the great divide, or extinction 
 overtake the soul ; whether in the former case 
 a life of regulation is worth the effort, or is 
 a burning of energy to no purpose ; whether, 
 in the latter case, joy and sorrow are fixed 
 and everlasting, or yet under control of an 
 independent will; whether a life shall rein- 
 carnate itself in a second life, or pass through 
 this world but once ; and, finally, what the 
 relation of the created soul is to its Creator. 
 These questions concern man as man. They 
 overtop physics, and ascend above metaphysics, 
 and touch the eternal verities. Man unaided 
 has groped in darkness, floundered in per- 
 plexity, and died in despair. But the Bible 
 lets in the light. Other books have pretended 
 to dispel darkness, but only the Bible's philos- 
 
64 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 ophy satisfies the soul. In some way one is 
 driven to the conclusion that the author of the 
 one is the creator of the other, and that he 
 made the two to fit together. It is folly to 
 study Weber or Schwegler from cover to 
 cover and conclude that one knows the begin- 
 ning and the end of philosophy. 
 
 More and more are the teachers coming 
 back to the Bible to learn wisdom. The best 
 educators say that the underlying principles 
 of pedagogy are in the New Testament, and 
 that Jesus Christ is supreme in his methods of 
 leading the mind from the known to the un- 
 known. 
 
 The crowning of the king is fresh in mind. 
 England has a Parliament of two branches, far 
 removed from the absolutism of monarchy. 
 The Hebrew commonwealth was the first 
 government on the face of the globe to put 
 any restriction upon the power of a mon- 
 archy ; and the student of political economy 
 ought to read the Bible enough to know that. 
 We believe in a legislative department, not- 
 withstanding its abuse in States or United 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 65 
 
 States. The Hebrews were the first people 
 to have a popular assembly of this kind ; and 
 students of history ought to know it. The 
 unreliability of officials has created a demand 
 for the initiative and referendum method of 
 making laws, in addition to the general fran- 
 chise. The Hebrews were the first to ask the 
 judgment of the people in a general election; 
 and statesmen of our age should know it. 
 Our own government, following England in 
 part, has three general branches, executive, 
 legislative, and judicial. The Hebrews were 
 centuries ahead of us in this system ; and his- 
 torians should acquaint themselves with the 
 fact. Our Declaration of Independence as- 
 serts that it is a self-evident fact that all men 
 are created equal. The Hebrew nation was 
 the first to prohibit class or caste distinction; 
 and our sociologists should take account of it. 
 We take pride in our system of free schools 
 for the poor and the rich. The Hebrew com- 
 monwealth was the first to make any pro- 
 vision for popular instruction ; and our pres- 
 ent-day educators should discover it. The 
 
66 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 Bible is the mine of gold whence come all these 
 nuggets of truth, and the man who longs for 
 a liberal education should recognize it. 
 
 President Grant gave us good advice : "Hold 
 fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your 
 liberties. Write its precepts on your hearts 
 and practice them in your lives. To the influ- 
 ence of this book we are indebted for the 
 progress made in true civilization, and to this 
 we must look as our guide in the future." 
 Garibaldi spoke a parallel truth : "The best 
 of allies you can procure for us is the Bible. 
 That will bring us the reality of our freedom." 
 
 From the point of history, there is a section 
 of land lying between the Mediterranean Sea 
 and the Jordan River which is as rich in 
 records and human action as any other place 
 which receives rain from the clouds and sun- 
 shine from the heavens. The unspeakable 
 Turk is its modern curse. Many of its low- 
 lands are waste and its hills desolation. 
 Though small, and poor, and mistreated, and 
 covered with 'the rubbish of nineteen cen- 
 turies, this naturally uninviting place is the 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 67 
 
 center of attraction for travelers, and more 
 tourists seek it than any other place in the 
 world. Out of the districts, take one; out of 
 the multiplicity of cities, take one ; out of the 
 three hundred and sixty-five days in the year, 
 take one. Come to this city on this day. Situ- 
 ated on an eminence, commanding all the sur- 
 rounding country, Jerusalem, which is the 
 preeminent city of the Bible, and which is 
 preeminently a city of the Bible, has the his- 
 torical significance of being subjected to more 
 sieges than any other city of all the world. 
 
 On this special day the narrow and crooked 
 streets are thronged with people, strangers, 
 and sojourners, from all parts of the country 
 itself, from Egypt, from Greece, from Russia, 
 from Turkey, from Asia Minor. Some have 
 come by caravan, some afoot, and some 
 scarcely could tell how they came. It is the 
 one great festival of the Greek and Armenian 
 Catholic churches. The patriarch of the one 
 and the high priest of the other march side by 
 side, each fearing to gain a step on the other 
 lest the jealousy of their respective followers 
 
68 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 carry them to riot and murder. Leading a 
 motley procession of twenty thousand, gath- 
 ered from everywhere, they approach the 
 Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where the 
 frenzied throng jams into a mass, every one 
 carrying a torch which he expects to be lighted 
 by the miracle of the sacred fire. 
 
 Hear the chant in the language of the vari- 
 ous countries : "Oh, Jew ! Oh, Jew ! Your 
 feast is a feast of devils. Our feast is a feast 
 of rejoicing." Then hear them shriek, "This 
 is the tomb of our Lord." The chants, the 
 shouts, the shrieks, the hurling of defiance at 
 one another, the Turkish soldiers necessary 
 to preserve moderate peace and prevent flying 
 at the throats of the opposite party, fanatics 
 rushing hither and thither with their torches 
 lighted by fraudulent fire — what do they all 
 mean? There is general concert of answer 
 that superstition and frenzy are responsible 
 for the ceremonies on the Greek Easter day. 
 Perhaps they are for the character of the cele- 
 bration, but not for the celebration itself. 
 These exercises, curious or repellant as they 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 69 
 
 may be, have a basis in history. On a certain 
 day of a certain year, a certain man was 
 crucified on a Roman cross, after having been 
 convicted in a Roman court. He was sup- 
 posed to be dead and was buried; but, on the 
 third day after, all the city, even his closest 
 friends, was amazed at the report that he had 
 risen from the rock tomb in which his body 
 had been placed, and which was fastened with 
 the government seal lest those who loved him 
 might steal his body. One act, attributed to 
 one man, performed in one city, has given that 
 city everlasting interest and renown, has be- 
 come the basis of the religious faith of king- 
 doms and empires, and has constituted the 
 man himself worthy to sway the scepter of 
 spiritual power and wear the crown of 
 divinity. 
 
 Cut out sentiment and strike history. It 
 took one race, transplanted into this section, 
 above twenty-one hundred years to reach the 
 crucial point and produce the crucial man. 
 Our own brief history of one hundred and 
 thirty-five years of independence is worthy of 
 
70 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 volumes. But, from the time that Abraham 
 crossed the plains westward till the time that 
 Pilate pronounced the death sentence, there is 
 a span of fifteen times one hundred and thirty- 
 five years. America has not yet produced a 
 man at whose shrine any pilgrim worships. 
 With all respect to Mrs. Eddy, it has not yet 
 reared such a woman. No era takes its be- 
 ginning from the day any of America's sons 
 first drew breath. Our temples are reared to 
 the one who made Palestine famous. Suppose 
 an Englishman should lay claim to a liberal 
 education who does not know about the found- 
 ing of Jamestown or the Revolutionary War. 
 His claim would be a joke, however much he 
 might desire that the historian's pen had writ- 
 ten something else. But this little section 
 lived and wrought while America was un- 
 known. It multiplies our authentic records 
 by five, our independent history by fifteen, 
 and our influence upon the world by an inde- 
 terminable number. If a knowledge of Amer- 
 ica must enter into a liberal education, how 
 much more an acquaintance with the land 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 71 
 
 between the Mediterranean and the Jordan? 
 And this history is found first in the Bible. 
 The political fortunes of the kings and dynas- 
 ties, and the victorious tread of surrounding 
 militant nations, are recorded with an accu- 
 racy that challenges admiration and investi- 
 gation. And in no land has the revelation of 
 spade, and monument, and papyri been of 
 such striking corroborative value. The history 
 in the Bible is stamped as reliable, and the 
 repudiators have suffered repudiation. A lib- 
 erally educated man could not afford to be 
 ignorant of an important national humbug, 
 not to mention accurate records of a people 
 which have stamped their customs and beliefs 
 upon the race of mankind beyond any other 
 in the world's history. 
 
 But Jerusalem was only a center. There 
 was a circle and an area. What is true of 
 the center is true of the expanding area as 
 each concentric circle was added by the con- 
 quest of the Cross. The Nile Valley, as rich 
 in historic treasure as in the fertility of its 
 soil, touches the great characters of the Bible 
 
72 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 while they are laying the foundations of a 
 race ; and again, when the hope of the race 
 was born ; and between these two events, the 
 sojourn and the haven, when alliances were 
 made for political effect. But Egypt became 
 more closely identified with religious influ- 
 ences later, when her cities were Christian 
 centers, when her scholars had the ear of all 
 mankind, when she presented the world with 
 a Greek Bible to match the Hebrew which had 
 grown up around Jerusalem. If a liberal edu- 
 cation must cut out the Bible, it must cut 
 out Egypt. 
 
 Asia Minor lies to the north and west. The 
 life of one man linked Tarsus and its great 
 university to Jerusalem and its rabbinical 
 schools. The very turbulence of its people 
 wrote rapid annals. It was joined to Pales- 
 tine by a northwest highway, as Egypt was by 
 a southwest. No one can write the history of 
 Ephesus, and Antioch, and Colosse, and the 
 region of Galatia without connecting all these 
 places most closely with the Bible. 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 73 
 
 The Easter ceremony at Jerusalem to-day 
 is an enigma unless one takes account of all 
 the civilizations which have chased one an- 
 other over Asia Minor. The military cam- 
 paigns of George Washington are not better 
 substantiated than the religious work of the 
 Apostle Paul in Little Asia. But here again 
 the Bible leads, and other sources corroborate. 
 If a liberal education includes a knowledge of 
 the peoples, and the politics, and the basic re- 
 ligious principles of Asia Minor, it must in- 
 clude a knowledge of the Bible. Otherwise, 
 history is a lie, and philosophy is falsely so 
 called. 
 
 Nor can one understand the conquests of 
 Assyria, the annals of Babylon, or the chron- 
 icles of Persia without knowing what the 
 Scriptures say about these respective nations. 
 When countries are overrun, and cities be- 
 sieged, and capitals taken, and captives en- 
 slaved in the land of their conquerors, the 
 philosophy of history both unravels the con- 
 nections of nations and investigates why their 
 paths crossed and recrossed. \{ we subtract 
 
74 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 the Bible from a liberal education, Asia con- 
 tributes little that is worth while, and it pro- 
 vides no means for tying the fragments to- 
 gether. 
 
 Perhaps Europe will return more satisfac- 
 tion to the would-be scholar who would banish 
 the Book which makes his scholarship pos- 
 sible. The military campaigns of Alexander 
 the Great are not as important as the spiritual 
 campaigns of Paul the Little, as measured by 
 the way they have changed maps and minds. 
 That wave of humanity which rolled south- 
 west over Europe from the plains of Iran 
 and filled up the peninsular pocket of Greece, 
 has not had as great influence on the continent 
 of Europe as the preaching of a certain mis- 
 sionary and his helpers who traversed the same 
 country and planted in its chief cities the 
 seeds of a nobler life. That subsequent 
 migration of people from no one knows where, 
 which filled up the boot of Italy and started 
 the race of Rome, grew into world importance 
 as Rome came in contact with higher things 
 when she superseded Greece as mistress of the 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 75 
 
 world. This is another instance of the con- 
 queror conquered, for the edict of Constantine 
 had its foundation in a leavening of the na- 
 tion years before. No one can cut Constantine 
 the Great out of history. Making all due al- 
 lowance for misinterpretation of signs, and 
 mixed motives, and paths that swerved from 
 the accepted standard of modern times, we 
 can endorse the assertion of John Foxe that 
 he was a second Moses. Fighting under the 
 cross of Christ, he vanquished the persecu- 
 tors of the Christians in Rome who had been 
 at such task for three hundred years. The 
 peace he established was so firm and so lasting 
 that for a thousand years there was no set per- 
 secution against the Christians, and they en- 
 joyed peace till the morning star of the Refor- 
 mation arose in the person of John Wyckliffe. 
 What is Roman history worth without an ac- 
 count of the valorous deeds of Constantine? 
 And what is Constantine apart from the Bible 
 and the Christ of the Bible? 
 
 On continental Europe the Reformation led 
 by Martin Luther is more significant than the 
 
76 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 taming of the wild German in the time of 
 Tacitus, and his father-in-law, Agricola ; more 
 important than warring with France over 
 boundary lines ; more important than royal 
 intermarriages and the consequent conduct of 
 the state. The abuse of Biblical interpretation 
 and the arrogation to priests of powers de- 
 nied, followed by an unselfish reading of the 
 Bible and the incorporation of its principles 
 into the rules of life and conduct, gave the 
 German empire its present state religion ; and 
 this has been the greatest fact and factor in 
 her history in the last five hundred years 
 When Martin Luther, the Augustinian monk, 
 blazed the way, other countries followed. 
 Switzerland came along, and Scandinavia, and 
 Bohemia, and England, and there was a toning 
 up both of the Roman and Greek Catholic 
 churches, with respective headquarters in 
 Italy and Russia, lest the fires of revolt should 
 spread everywhere. God, working on the 
 hearts of men, through the Bible, is the chief 
 maker of European history. 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 77 
 
 England passed through fiery trials, as did 
 Scotland. And the chief source of trouble 
 was an attempt to override the conscience of 
 men. This met opposition from an inherent 
 sense of right and privilege. When the peo- 
 ple saw that the Bible supported them in their 
 ideas of spiritual freedom, the same Bible 
 which their oppressors claimed to follow, they 
 demanded their own. The tyranny of false 
 principles was ended only with the martyrdom 
 of those who stood for the truth, and by the 
 courage which then rose in the human heart. 
 England has an established church, and she 
 has those which refuse to conform to its teach- 
 ings. These religious differences are at the 
 foundation of her history, and so inwrought 
 into her annals that they form, as it were, the 
 architect's blue prints of her historical struc- 
 ture. On June 22, her new king was crowned, 
 but that priceless crown of precious stones 
 was placed on the head of King George by 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, the closest pos- 
 sible linking of the Bible and the throne. If 
 
78 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 a liberal education does not- include the Bible, 
 it has nothing of consequence from England. 
 
 Persecution in so-called Christian countries 
 is in spite of their Christianity, not in conse- 
 quence of it. Narrow men, cannot brook liber- 
 ality. America was peopled by colonies from 
 different European countries because those 
 colonies did not have the Bible freedom in 
 their native homes. The Pilgrims of Massa- 
 chusetts, the Baptists of Rhode Island, the 
 Quakers of Pennsylvania, and the Huguenots 
 of Georgia could join hands and sing the same 
 song of gratitude and praise for a haven of 
 refuge from tyrants here and despots there. 
 They wanted the privilege of worshiping God 
 according to the dictates of their own sensi- 
 tive consciences. The Bible was the universal 
 book in their possession. Take it away and 
 the historical foundation of our country 
 crumbles. We have effects without causes, 
 and history without philosophy. From the 
 beginning the moral force of the Word of 
 God has supported the right in legislative, ex- 
 ecutive, and judicial life, and equally has pro- 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 79 
 
 tested against the wrong. The strongest argu- 
 ment against an official act in our own day is 
 that it crosses the rights of the people ; and the 
 rights of the people are determined more from 
 the Bible than by all other works of authority 
 combined. 
 
 The scope of this theme is limited only by 
 the civilization of the Christian era. Beyond 
 that there is opportunity for contrast. China 
 has hoary locks, but the shape of her head is 
 the same as thirty centuries ago. The Bed- 
 ouins in part are said to be the lineal descend- 
 ants of the Herods who opposed the Christ, 
 who, it is claimed, were the direct descend- 
 ants of Esau — the son that went off into the 
 desert apart from the benign influence of the 
 gospel and the gospel peoples. Persistence 
 of low ideals and wrong ideas characterizes a 
 nation separated from the Bible. Its history 
 is a long, deep rut. Those peoples who are 
 blessed with the Bible do things worth while, 
 and the presence of the divine Book is the 
 only apparent explanation. 
 
80 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 Here an objector may ask about the ante- 
 Christian civilizations. Doubtless he will name 
 Greece as the most illustrious example, and 
 cite the supremacy of Athens in the fifth cen- 
 tury before Christ. Here was a height of 
 splendor and magnificence. Art, sculpture, 
 literature, philosophy, architecture rose beyond 
 anything antecedent, some of them above any- 
 thing subsequent. Why should it be so in the 
 absence of the Bible? We must remember 
 that Greece had some leaders at this period 
 who approximated Christian principles more 
 nearly than any other set of men in any coun- 
 try at any time. Socrates was a high-class 
 moral philosopher, so far ahead of his age 
 that he traveled the hemlock route to his 
 grave. Plato, his pupil, was a copious writer 
 on morals and questions of state. Some think 
 these teachers had knowledge of parts of the 
 Old Testament. Their attainments may have 
 been the result of ready response to the voice 
 of God in the soul. Whatever the truth, 
 Greece made her best history when running a 
 course nearest parallel to the Bible path. Had 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 81 
 
 the Bible been followed, a greater value would 
 have been placed upon the individual as the 
 unit of the state, and the ideal republic of 
 Plato would have had more room for the finer 
 feelings of a cultured and considerate people. 
 China in the days of Confucius is a less 
 conspicuous example, but the conclusions one 
 draws are similar to the foregoing. Egypt 
 falls naturally into the same class. 
 
 The obvious conclusion from a running sur- 
 vey of the history of the best nations is that 
 there is a difference between a Bible people 
 and a people deprived of the Bible — a differ- 
 ence in action, in thought, in life; and that the 
 Bible is the cause of the difference. Further, 
 that the great turning points and the forward 
 movements in a nation favored with the pos- 
 session of the Scriptures come from a better 
 interpretation of the Word and the resultant 
 effort to put the enlarged knowledge in vital 
 connection with human life and conduct. The 
 bibliocentric idea of all the history that is 
 worth while is correct, and he who lays claim 
 to a broad education without including the 
 
82 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 Scriptures is guilty of false pretenses, and is 
 playing a huge joke upon himself, for the 
 Bible is the most potent factor in all history. 
 
 If it is impossible to gain a fairly compre- 
 hensive knowledge of ancient language and 
 literature, of modern language and literature, 
 of philosophy and education, of history and 
 political science, not to mention art, of which 
 biblical themes and persons are the very soul, 
 without including the Bible in the curriculum, 
 why not count it in ? Why should it not have 
 a larger place in our homes ? Why should cer- 
 tain men, banded together, try to get it out of 
 the Sunday school and substitute something 
 else? Why should a supreme court or two 
 deny the Bible a place in the public school? 
 It ought to be the first text-book selected, and 
 used in every grade. It should have a well- 
 defined place in every college. 
 
 Infidels, Jews, and Roman Catholics, with 
 intensity in the order named, are uniting to 
 secure the exclusion of the Bible from our 
 public schools. The highest tribunal of Illi- 
 nois, because of a case carried up from Win- 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 83 
 
 Chester by Catholics, decreed its expulsion. 
 At the same time a State law requires that the 
 Bible be furnished every penitentiary convict 
 at State expense ; and the convict is the only 
 one that the State is caring for in such a way. 
 If a copy of the Scriptures is a good agent 
 in the reformation of the criminal, why should 
 it be regarded as destructive of morals or 
 inimical to the common good when placed in 
 the schoolroom? 
 
 The question implied in the subject reap- 
 pears at the close, "Can one gain a liberal edu- 
 cation without a study of the Bible ?" The im- 
 mediate, and emphatic, and indisputable answer 
 is, "No," a thousand times over. If one be- 
 lieves in form without substance, in outline 
 without reality, in pretense without fulfillment, 
 he may believe that ignorance of the chief in- 
 fluence for education is compatible with educa- 
 tion itself. But he who is accustomed to display 
 the wisdom of the average man outside the 
 asylum, or indeed inside its walls, will detect 
 the deception of the mirage, place his seal 
 only on the realities, and give the Bible, the 
 
84 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 mainstay of education, its fundamental place 
 therein. And he will see that it reinforces the 
 entire superstructure, while the God of the 
 Bible becomes the God of his life, and Jesus 
 Christ his personal Savior, his everlasting 
 King. 
 
The Bible and Spirituality. 
 
 WHAT is spirituality? Is the Bible 
 a factor in the production of spirit- 
 uality and a force in its cultivation ? 
 If so, how, and to what extent? On what 
 foundation is spirituality based, and what is 
 the height of its spire? Is the function of 
 the Bible at an end when spirituality is at- 
 tained ? 
 
 Human life is the vitality resulting from 
 the union of the body and soul. The body is 
 gifted with the powers of sensation and volun- 
 tary and involuntary motion ; that is, it can 
 feel pain, and it moves at will if not externally 
 constrained, and at times moves without in- 
 tending to. The soul, used in the sense of 
 mind, is gifted with the powers of intellectual- 
 ity, of emotionality, and of free will ; that is, 
 it can think, and perform other mental pro- 
 cesses dependent upon thought, such as mem- 
 ory, comparison, and judgment; it can feel, 
 as does the body, having the sensation of joy 
 
 85 
 
86 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 and pleasure, grief and remorse; and it can 
 do as it pleases, whatever external constraint 
 may be attempted. 
 
 Spiritual life results from giving God the 
 control and making him the inspiration of the 
 human life. Spirtuality, then, from the men- 
 tal side, is heavenly-mindedness. Thus far 
 it is the state of the disciples in Gethsemane, 
 whose spirit was willing. But spirituality 
 touches that part of human life represented 
 by the body, and puts strength in weakness 
 by bringing the passions and propensions of 
 the body into subjection to a higher power. 
 This goes beyond the garden disciples, whose 
 spirit was willing but whose flesh was weak. 
 Spirituality is the outbreathing, the manifesta- 
 tion of a nature made over by contact with 
 God. As heavenly-mindedness, it fulfills the 
 condition, "If ye then be risen with Christ." 
 But as heavenly-heartedness it appears in the 
 command, "Seek those things which are 
 above." 
 
 Anything which affects the body, the mind, 
 and the soul in a vital way is deserving of 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 87 
 
 attention. Spirituality is that thing. It im- 
 plies a transformation of life, which gives the 
 body third place instead of first, rebuking alike 
 the pagan who puts the body first and the 
 ascetic monk who gives it no place at all. It 
 fixes habits of thought after a divine model, 
 in some respects transcending Greek philos- 
 ophy as well as congenital imbecility. It places 
 the total excellency of man in a reasonable, 
 thinking, immortal soul, with its moral and 
 spiritual possibilities, and impels man to seek 
 there that imperishable excellence of charac- 
 ter. Spirituality links the soul of man to 
 heaven as gravity links his body to the earth. 
 Where, then, does the Bible come in? First, 
 it gives instruction in the way of life. The 
 best that paganism can offer is plunder, and 
 rapine, and murder, and lust, and slavery, 
 and cannibalism, and degredation. Any spir- 
 ituality here? No, because no Bible is here. 
 The best that Phoenicians and Ammonites can 
 afford is an idol to hold children sacrificed 
 alive by parents who mistake both the purpose 
 and the privilege of life. Any spirituality 
 
88 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 here? No, inhumanity, because no Bible is 
 here. The best that Shintoism can offer is 
 ancestor reverence and a superstitious regard 
 for the forces of nature ; but again the absence 
 of the Bible forbids the presence of spiritual- 
 ity. The best in Confucianism is moral pre- 
 cepts ; but these stop short of spirituality for 
 the reason already thrice stated. Buddhism 
 is a religion of fatalism, whose best, combined 
 with the best in Shintoism, can make men 
 brave and reckless at Port Arthur, and 203 
 Meter Hill, but it cannot produce spirituality. 
 Mohammedanism can slaughter enemies, and 
 put women lower than brute beasts, but it is 
 as devoid of spirituality as brass heavens are 
 of rain; for the Koran is not the Bible. 
 
 When the Bible is denied to the masses, as 
 is the case where Roman Catholicism has its 
 way, notably in South America, the church is 
 chiefly baptized paganism, and many of the 
 priests are fathers in fact as well as in name. 
 Whatever may be the explanation, a general 
 circulation of the Scriptures, followed by a 
 free reading, always goes in advance and re- 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 89 
 
 mains to accompany any marked national 
 heavenly-mindedness. The only rational ex- 
 planation is that the Bible contains instruction 
 along the line of man's best nature, and that 
 in this particular, other cults, and religions, and 
 sacred books fail. As knowledge of agricul- 
 ture is essential to good farming, and knowl- 
 edge of business necessary to accurate 
 bookeeping, so a knowledge of the Bible is 
 required that spirituality may flourish. 
 
 Secondly, the Bible creates a desire to 
 emulate Jesus Christ. No mind capable of 
 understanding the Scriptures is able to force 
 itself to despise the Son of God. In him we 
 expect spirituality to be at its height. Hold- 
 ing a copy of the Word in his hand, he yet 
 may say, "These are they which testify of 
 me." That testimony, satisfied by his actual 
 life, commands our mental assent, even though 
 we withhold a formal allegiance and refuse a 
 worshipful adoration. 
 
 In a well-known city lives a Chinese 
 laundryman. One of his patrons became in- 
 terested in his spiritual welfare, and pre- 
 
90 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 sented him a Chinese New Testament. It was 
 his first glimpse into the Book of books. He 
 read the gospels carefully, thoughtfully. A 
 few days later his friend met him and asked 
 his opinion of the book. "Jesu, fine man, 
 fine man," was the laundryman's reply. It 
 reminds one of the verdict inadvertently pro- 
 nounced upon the character of Christ by two 
 of his contemporaries, at least one of whom 
 had the privilege of personal contact with 
 the sinless One. Mrs. Pontius Pilate said, 
 "Have nothing to do with this just man." 
 Out of the anxiety of her heart, her cry was 
 that of the Chinaman of the twentieth cen- 
 tury, "Jesu, fine man." The old Roman 
 governor himself said, "I find no fault in 
 him." That was Pontius Pilate's "Jesu, fine 
 man." Judas Iscariot, even his hardened 
 conscience seared with the brand of murder, 
 under the pain of condemnation, confessed to 
 his purchasers, "I have betrayed innocent 
 blood." From the very gates of hell, wrung 
 from the lips of a man whose hardened heart 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 91 
 
 had begun to feel the very piercing of the 
 sword, came the betrayer's "Jesu, fine man." 
 
 Group together Isaiah in that vision which 
 revealed himself to himself because he saw 
 the King; Simeon, who was ready to depart 
 because his eyes had beheld the salvation of 
 the Lord; Paul, who was halted by the ob- 
 ject of his persecution before Damascus was 
 reached ; John, whose loneliness on the Isle of 
 Patmos was banished farther than he himself 
 had been because he looked into heaven and 
 saw Him whose vesture was inscribed "King 
 of kings and Lord of lords" ; add the wise 
 men from the east whose guide was a star of 
 heaven, and include the host whose song on 
 the Judean plains was a transfer of the melody 
 of heaven to a favored spot below, and the 
 substance of every expression of esteem, every 
 estimate of value, every ascription of praise 
 is, "Jesus, fine man, fine man." "These are 
 they which testify of me." 
 
 "Jesu, fine man," puts in other hearts a de- 
 sire for true nobility. We crave to become 
 more like our ideals. The laundryman paid a 
 
92 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 hundred dollars toward the construction of a 
 Young Men's Christian Association building. 
 He was becoming like the one who possessed 
 all the riches of heaven, but who, for the sake 
 of poverty-stricken men, gave up all, that they, 
 through his poverty, might become rich. Who 
 is he that is honest but does not wish he had 
 the honesty of Christ? What man of nobility 
 does not crave the character of his Savior? 
 What righteous follower would not be as sin- 
 less as his divine example? What spiritually- 
 minded Christian does not long and pray for 
 a mind more heavenly and a heart more holy 
 than he possesses — in other words, to be more 
 like the Son of God? 
 
 Directly or indirectly, Jesus Christ is the 
 inspiration of every life which has inspiration, 
 the hope of every man who is buoyed up with 
 the hope, the redeemer of every soul that has 
 experienced redemption, the instructor of 
 every pupil that has learned to sing the new 
 song, the fountain of youth, the mainstay of 
 character, and the elixir of life. 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 93 
 
 Thirdly, the Bible assures the devout reader 
 of progress in Christian life. Every gracious 
 promise in the Word is conditional. The word 
 "devout" is used here to supply that condi- 
 tion of increased spirituality. The soul is 
 not satisfied with the beginnings of things. It 
 cries out for completions. God has made it 
 so, and to halt on the first leg of the spiritual 
 journey is an affront to God as well as an in- 
 jury to one's deepest nature. The body is 
 not satisfied to stumble forward like the babe 
 of twelve months; it longs for trained mus- 
 cles, and fleet limbs, and developed physique, 
 because God meant it so. The mind refuses 
 to stop when it has learned the alphabet, and 
 that two and two are four. It sees in these 
 essential things the possibilities of literature, 
 and science, and mathematics, and is spurred 
 on toward superiority by its own inherent 
 force; but all this is in harmony with the un- 
 written law by which the Lord worked when 
 he made the mind, and man cannot be true to 
 himself if he refuses to progress in matters 
 intellectual. The soul is dissatisfied with a 
 
94 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 single glimpse of spiritual things. God made 
 the soul to see, not to squint. He intended 
 that it should feel, not merely guess it has a 
 sensation. The touch of the heavenly garment 
 guarantees the divine cure through inflow of 
 energy into the diseased soul ; but restoration 
 to full strength requires exercise with God, 
 and breathing the pure atmosphere of his 
 presence. 
 
 There is evidence of spirituality at the first 
 contact with God on the part of a man who 
 has heavenly aspirations ; but maturity re- 
 quires companionship. For this purpose and 
 with this result Enoch walked with God, and 
 his aptitude in the spiritual school is proved 
 by his being taken into the great university of 
 spirituality without a formal examination. In 
 his case the being of God took the place of 
 the Book of God ; but Enoch would have made 
 equally good use of his time, his talents, and 
 the means at hand if he had lived in the 
 twentieth century. 
 
 The call of God is onward. It is not right 
 to linger at Haran when the summons is to 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 95 
 
 Canaan. It is a waste of time, a toying with 
 death, and an insult to God to spend thirty- 
 eight years at Kadesh-Barnea when the divine 
 call is to cross the Jordan and possess the 
 land of promise. "The principles of the doc- 
 trine of Christ" are all right in their place, but 
 a time comes to leave them and "go on unto 
 perfection." Perfection is very desirable, but 
 between it and the principles is a going on ; 
 and the penalty for standing still is "dead 
 works," and laying the foundation for another 
 repentance. 
 
 Paul marks out this path of progress in the 
 third of Colossians : "Put on therefore, as 
 the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of 
 mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meek- 
 ness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, 
 and forgiving one another if any man have a 
 quarrel against any ; even as Christ forgave 
 you, so also do ye. And above all these things 
 put on charity, which is the bond of perfect- 
 ness." This may be called a hard road; but 
 going the opposite direction is harder, though 
 it may present powerful appeals. This is the 
 
96 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 Christian's spiritual pilgrimage. It marks the 
 course of the pilgrim's progress, assuring him 
 that charity, a love for every man sanctified 
 by a previous and supreme love for Jesus 
 Christ, is attainable in this life, and that it 
 girdles the loins of the spiritual man and 
 holds in place a dozen other indispensable 
 Christian graces. 
 
 The soul, more than the body and the mind, 
 is averse to stopping with mere beginnings. 
 It longs to rise, step by step, to an altitude 
 undefiled by the vice of the world. It sends 
 forth faith to explore regions not attained, 
 and lays plans for greater victories. It be- 
 holds Christ, the captain of its salvation, made 
 perfect through suffering, and yearns for 
 that perfection down in the ranks where it 
 marches, even at the cost of suffering. It 
 cries out for God, the living God, and re- 
 fuses to starve on worldly things without 
 making a protest. In short, the soul was not 
 made to be satisfied with things material and 
 things social, and it dares maintain its right 
 to something better. It claims for itself the 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 97 
 
 beatitude, "Blessed are they which do hunger 
 and thirst after righteousness : for they shall 
 be filled." It numbers itself among those 
 which mount up on wings as eagles, and dis- 
 ports itself in harmony with the higher law 
 of its being. And, by a spiritual forecast 
 which is perfectly legitimate, it takes a place 
 among the saved in heaven, forever to sing 
 the praises of God, the Creator, and the 
 Lamb, the sacrifice. 
 
 Assert that there is no growth in grace? 
 Better deny grace altogether ! Claim that 
 there is no progress in divine life? Better 
 deny the possibilities of life at all ! "Set your 
 affection on things above, not on things on the 
 earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid 
 with Christ in God. When Christ, who is 
 our life, shall appear, then shall ye also ap- 
 pear with him in glory." If the spiritually- 
 minded man is faithful until the glory station, 
 God will take care of the rest. But take away 
 the Bible, put nothing else in its place, and 
 see spirituality decline. The soul needs a 
 sacred book, a compass while crossing a 
 
98 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 tempest-tossed sea, a chart through the wilder- 
 ness of life. God made the soul. Being ac- 
 quainted with all its needs, the sacred Book 
 was not omitted. 
 
 Fourthly, the Bible points out the obstacles 
 in the path of spiritual progress. The instruc- 
 tion of Israel as a nation was to keep idols 
 out and to keep God in. The warning is the 
 same for a nation, for a church, or for a man. 
 There is no better biblical illustration of a 
 church than Paul's words about the believers 
 at Colosse — formal believers rather than 
 spiritual worshipers. Who would apply for 
 such a parish to-day when so many are seek- 
 ing the soft places? On the contrary, what 
 man of God, what spiritual man of God, 
 would not envy the man whose high privilege 
 it is to help the Lord spiritualize such a 
 worldly and sinful congregation? Listen to 
 Paul's characterization of this church as con- 
 tained in his advice : 
 
 "Mortify therefore your members which 
 are upon the earth ; fornication, uncleanness, 
 inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 99 
 
 covetousness, which is idolatry." And this 
 language to a church ! Nor did Paul claim 
 or think that writing such a beautiful letter 
 was casting pearls before swine! He makes 
 no suggestion of revising the records to keep 
 the church pure ! His business was to make 
 men pure. Paul continues : 
 
 "But now ye also put off all these; anger, 
 wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communica- 
 tion out of your mouth. Lie not one to an- 
 other, seeing that ye have put off the old man 
 with his deeds ; and have put on the new man." 
 
 Of the first group of sins quoted, Paul says: 
 "For which things' sake the wrath of God 
 cometh on the children of disobedience." He 
 could have repeated the statement after the 
 second group. Spirituality cannot grow where 
 the wrath of God is visited, until after the 
 cause of that wrath is removed. Life cannot 
 thrive on destructive poisons. He who prizes 
 certainty may be thankful that the Bible does 
 not leave him in the dark about obstacles. 
 
 The Old Testament command was: "Cast 
 ye up; cast ye up; prepare the way; take up 
 
100 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 the stumbling block out of the way of my 
 people." The stumbling blocks in the way of 
 God's people are the various forms of sin. 
 Where sin abounds, grace pines away. Where 
 sin thrives, spirituality dies. One grows more 
 like him with whom he has communion. The 
 tone of voice shows greater harmony with 
 the years, the countenance changes to cor- 
 respond, and the character is affected in the 
 same manner. Two watches lying side by side 
 will tick together, and a certain note on the 
 violin will call forth a response from a piano. 
 This is in accordance with inwrought consti- 
 tution and law, to which both man and things 
 are subject. One cannot have fellowship with 
 sin without becoming a fellow in sin. The 
 particular form or the guise in which it ap- 
 pears does not change the fact. 
 
 Sin, then, is the great foe to spirituality, 
 for sin separates the sinner from God and 
 heaven. Spirituality is heavenly-mindedness 
 and heavenly-heartedness. Sin cuts between 
 earth and heaven, between man and God. Sin 
 robs prayer of its power, if it does not seal 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 101 
 
 the lips of the one who has learned to pray. 
 The psalmist had an understanding of rela- 
 tions when he said, "If I regard iniquity in 
 my heart, the Lord will not hear me." God 
 cannot afford to answer some men's prayers 
 because sin crouches at the door of their lives. 
 Let a man shoot down another in cold blood 
 and then attempt to pray. If he prays at all, 
 the first sentence is for the blotting out of his 
 transgression because it has blocked his way 
 to the throne. Whether one's sins are open 
 or secret, they destroy the efficacy of prayer, 
 and, if continued, there is a funeral in that 
 house because the prayer-life is dead. When 
 one remembers to pray, sin is forgotten. 
 When one remembers to pray, he forgets to 
 sin. These two are as much opposed to each 
 other as darkness and light, as sweet and bit- 
 ter. Indeed, one is darkness and the other 
 light, one bitter and the other sweet. 
 
 All sin is selfishness at the core. Satan 
 started it with a selfish ambition. Our first 
 parents continued it with a selfish arrogation 
 to themselves of denied privileges. Whatever 
 
102 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 endorsement we make of sin in any form roots 
 in some sort of selfishness. The first principle 
 of Christianity is unselfishness. The Bible 
 tells how Jesus gave up everything he pos- 
 sessed in heaven that he might help others; 
 how he became a man that he might bear real 
 burdens of human life ; how he went lower, 
 and took the position of a slave, that he might 
 partake of the benefits of that servitude; how 
 he became subject to death that those under 
 sentence of death might live ; how the very 
 worst form of death was suffered — crucifixion 
 for a crime of which he was as innocent as 
 the angels which sang the glory song at his 
 birth — all that others might partake of his 
 generosity. 
 
 The call to discipleship is the call away from 
 selfishness. On one occasion Jesus said to a 
 man when their paths crossed, "Follow me." 
 The man replied, "Suffer me first to go and 
 bury my father." The things in which we are 
 interested impel us to cry out, "Me first." 
 There are too many "me-first" people for the 
 advancement of the kingdom. There are too 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 103 
 
 many "me-first" preachers to reveal the best 
 things in the life of our Lord. There are so 
 many "me-first" laymen that Jesus wonders 
 where he is going to get his dues. If our 
 Savior had said "me first," he never would 
 have been our Savior. How must the Lord 
 look upon the proud, and haughty, and self- 
 centered man ! 
 
 If Jesus Christ has not the chief place in 
 one's life, he has no place at all. His nature 
 fits nowhere else. As he served, so we must 
 serve. As he took a humble place, we cannot 
 be disciples if we seek the head of the table. 
 Spirituality demands humility, and we can- 
 not live without it. Pride and scorn are as 
 much out of place in the character of a pro- 
 fessed Christian as they would have been in 
 the character of Christ. All these are sin, 
 because they separate from God. Again, he 
 who remembers to sin, forgets to read his 
 Bible, to worship, and to pray. He who for- 
 gets to sin is a student of the Word, a devout 
 worshiper at the throne of grace, and an 
 
104 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 intercessor for his friends before the court of 
 high heaven. He petitions and communes. 
 
 Spirituality, then, implies that one's feet 
 are tramping hard on the pathway of life ; 
 that he is emulating the character of Jesus 
 Christ so far as it parallels his ; that he its mak- 
 ing progress toward the goal of life's race; 
 that he is avoiding the snares and pitfalls in 
 the way. All the while the Bible is his de- 
 pendable guide book. What, then, should be 
 his relation to the Bible? First, and last, and 
 all the time, he should make it his book, his 
 daily counselor, his dependence in trial, his 
 stay in prosperity. 
 
 Acquaintance with the Bible is for one of 
 two things — equipment for spirituality, or a 
 weapon against spirituality. When Jesus was 
 tempted in the wilderness, the Bible was his 
 defense. In the fourth chapter of Luke one 
 gains an insight into his habits which throws 
 a flood of light upon his character and his con- 
 duct. This follows the account of the tempta- 
 tion. Jesus had returned in the power of the 
 Spirit into Galilee. He came to Nazareth, the 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 105 
 
 home of his boyhood. Passing the Sabbath 
 there, he entered the synagogue, "as his custom 
 was." "As his custom was!" When they 
 were passing the books around, one was given 
 to him. It contained at least a portion of the 
 prophecies of Isaiah. He turned to the place 
 which told about the spirit of God resting 
 upon a certain man, which would be proved 
 by opened prisons, healed hearts, and a free 
 gospel, and then claimed to be the fulfillment 
 of that scripture. He knew what that proph- 
 ecy was before he went inside. He knew its 
 application to himself. But this is only an 
 index of his knowledge. Without a doubt 
 Jesus could begin at, "In the beginning God," 
 and continue to, "I come and smite the earth 
 with a curse," without missing a syllable. 
 
 In the wilderness hills Jesus withstood 
 temptation. If his character needed any prop, 
 the Scriptures provided it. But both con- 
 testants used the same weapon. Doubtless, 
 Satan could repeat the Bible from A to Z 
 and never blunder. He familiarized himself 
 with the Scriptures to destroy their force. It, 
 
106 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 was like a David in Saul's armor. It was 
 worse than stealing the livery of heaven to 
 serve the devil in. If one's heart is right, the 
 Bible helps it to stay right; if the heart is 
 wrong, every influence, Bible included, helps 
 to keep it wrong. 
 
 Spiritually-minded men have much to do 
 with God's Word. It is their meat and drink. 
 Their hunger is relieved and their thirst as- 
 suaged. Paul and Timothy were in such ac- 
 cord with the expressed will of God, and were 
 such good students of the Book, that they 
 were inspired to add to its pages. Beloved 
 John was honored likewise. Spiritual progress 
 is impossible apart from a knowledge of God's 
 will as revealed in God's Book. 
 
 Among men of modern times, the same gen- 
 eral truth holds good. The great poem of 
 John Milton owes its greatness to the Bible, 
 which saturates it from beginning to end. The 
 subject of paradise cannot be treated inde- 
 pendently of what the Scriptures say. "Pil- 
 grim's Progress" stands next to the Bible 
 itself in number of copies sold and in its 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 107 
 
 influence for good upon the human race. But 
 every man knows the reason. Every reader 
 has a higher mind and a holier heart when 
 he has finished the book, because it is woven 
 with the warp of Scripture and the woof of 
 a Christian's experience. Arrest, imprison- 
 ment, and general mistreatment could not 
 daunt the courageous soul of John Bunyan 
 because his courage was founded upon him 
 who never yielded to superior forces because 
 they were superior, and whose life had been 
 the model for his own. Let him who would 
 be spiritual not look for effects without ade- 
 quate causes. A good knowledge of the Bible 
 is the cause, combined with an honest heart. 
 There is a possibility of head knowledge 
 merely. As some criminal lawyers study law 
 chiefly to free the guilty, and throw justice 
 off the track, so some criminal men may study 
 the Bible only to destroy its effect for right- 
 eousness, or for the most abject selfishness. 
 A man in western Illinois posed as an infidel 
 at home, and argued his position from the 
 Scriptures. During the winter he passed as 
 
108 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 an evangelist farther west, and employed the 
 same Scriptures in persuading men to accept 
 Christ. Call him a spiiritually-minded man ! 
 Call him spiritually-hearted ! David declared 
 that he had hidden God's word in his heart 
 that he might not sin. His was a spiritual 
 mind and heart. The Illinois man had a part 
 of the head, but lacked all of the heart. The 
 roots of the spiritual life gain no sustenance 
 from hypocrisy. 
 
 Lastly, Bible knowledge shows in the actions 
 of the spiritual man. James did not underrate 
 faith, but he knew that faith cannot walk alone 
 and command respect. So he proposed to 
 show his faith by works. The proof of spirit- 
 uality is in what it does. 
 
 A story is told of a battlefield which illus- 
 trates the point. The incident is said to be 
 true. A man lay mortally wounded. He, was 
 approached by the chaplain and asked if he 
 would appreciate some message from the 
 Bible. "I would rather have a cup of water," 
 he replied. The chaplain gave him the drink, 
 and again asked him about the Bible. "I 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 109 
 
 would rather have something under my head," 
 was the response. The chaplain made a pil- 
 low of a blanket, and a third time mentioned 
 the sacred Word. "I am so cold ; can't you 
 cover me up to keep me warm?" was the third 
 request. The chaplain took off his own coat, 
 spread it over the fallen man, and once more 
 spoke of the message from God. Then the 
 soldier turned his eyes upon his benefactor 
 and said, "If that book tells other people to 
 do as you have done to me, that is the part 
 I want to hear." 
 
 Yes, that is the need of the world. There 
 are sick who need help ; convicts who need 
 comfort ; discouraged who need hope ; men 
 who are down and long for a hand to help 
 them up ; men who are out and want in, yet do 
 not know how to get in. The great majority 
 of this work is to be done by those whom we 
 term spiritual, and who at the same time know 
 their duty as prescribed in the law of life of 
 their great leader. 
 
110 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 The Bible ! Compass of bewildered men ! 
 The hope of life which anchors safe in God. 
 The chart of sinner and the comfort of the 
 
 saint. 
 The book divine. 
 
 The Bible ! Channel of God's love to men. 
 
 The hand of heaven stretched out still, 
 
 To welcome, succor, and restore the wayward 
 
 soul, 
 And make it thine. 
 
 The Bible ! Book of all the best, 
 Light thou the way and lead us on ; 
 Show us its author and our God, 
 And from the pathway which we tread, 
 Forever shine. 
 
The Bible and Character 
 
 A MAN sits before a block of metal or 
 stone or wood. In his hand is a tool, 
 a sharp instrument, with which he 
 is marking or engraving the block. The lines 
 he makes are termed characters. In this 
 sense we call the letters of the alphabet char- 
 acters. In course of time the original mean- 
 ing of character was lost in part, and by- 
 transference of idea the thing marked was 
 named a character, rather than the engraved 
 lines themselves. 
 
 Substitute a human life for the metal plate. 
 It is impossible for life to continue long with- 
 out being affected by external forces. Here 
 is a scratch, here a mark ; there is a line, there 
 a corrosion. These are characters in the 
 original sense of the term, and they help to 
 form character in the secondary meaning. 
 These forces may be physical, mental, moral, 
 spiritual ; they may be social, financial, edu- 
 
 111 
 
112 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 cative; they may be uplifting or depressing, 
 constructive or destructive. Altogether they 
 include the combined influences of heredity, of 
 environment, of heaven, of hell, and something 
 from the human heart itself. 
 
 Man, specific man, is the resultant of the 
 action and interaction of these forces. He is 
 not their sport, and helpless in their grasp ; 
 consequently, the outcome is not a mechan- 
 ical product. When any force rises above the 
 plane of mechanism, there is no rule of books, 
 no dictum of philosophy, no law of science, 
 to which the resultant is bound to show respect. 
 The power of heredity may be calculable some 
 day ; likewise that of environment, whether 
 the two act in harmony or in antagonism. The 
 power from above or from below is not re- 
 ducible to mathematical terms ; it defies both 
 scales and figures. Certainly one's own intel- 
 lect, or sensibility, or will cannot be regulated 
 by another man's rule, and frequently the 
 person himself is surprised beyond measure at 
 his marvelous attainments or at his humiliating 
 deficiencies. 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 1 13 
 
 While character is a resultant, it does not 
 grow out of mechanical forces, and is not 
 mechanically conditioned. In this connection 
 it stands for what a man is — for that combina- 
 tion of qualities which make him a separate 
 unit, distinguishing him from other men ; sim- 
 ilarly, a class of men may have character dif- 
 ferentiated from other classes. Passing from 
 what one is to what one can do, character is 
 the measure of one's moral force or influence. 
 
 Man has taken the place of the metal plate. 
 Four external forces and a part of the in- 
 ternal have become the tool ; but the directing 
 hand, the workman in fact, is that fifth force 
 risen into a free and independent personality, 
 capable of handling the tools to his own mak- 
 ing — or his unmaking. Where does the Bible 
 appear, and what sort of a line does it make 
 on a life? As a tool in the hands of a human 
 workman, what part has it in fashioning char- 
 acter? For what changes is it responsible in 
 the individual, the family, the state, the 
 church? Are the marks it leaves on a man 
 contributory to his strength of body, his keen- 
 
114 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 ness of mind, his beauty of soul ? Is the fam- 
 ily more concordant through its influence, a 
 greater asset to the community, and a stronger 
 safeguard of the state? Is the state itself the 
 gainer in peace, in power, and in stability 
 where the Bible enters into its structure? How 
 is religion affected by the prevalence of the 
 Bible, and by general obedience to its teach- 
 ings? To what extent are those influenced 
 by the Word who do not publicly acknowledge 
 its God as their own and its Christ as their 
 personal Savior? In a word, what has the 
 Bible to do with moral character, anyway, as 
 a contributory factor and as a preserving 
 force? Finally, might the Bible be dispensed 
 with and men suffer no serious disadvantage? 
 The moral character of any nation is de- 
 termined by its sacred book. This implies alle- 
 giance to the principles and precepts of that 
 book. Sacredness carries a belief in super- 
 natural origin. Confidence in the divine 
 source of such a volume precludes rising above 
 its teachings on the part of those taught. No 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 115 
 
 higher ideals are supposed to exist than it 
 embodies, and none committed to writing. 
 
 The Bible is incomparably above any other 
 sacred book. It lifts its devotees above those 
 of any other scripture. It makes every man 
 a priest of righteousness, and affords him 
 communion with its author. Its face-to-face 
 religion is illustrated in the lives of Enoch 
 and Moses. Its personal inspiration is shown 
 by David and Isaiah. Its care for the op- 
 pressed is revealed in the call and career of 
 Gideon and Samuel. Its political plans are 
 discovered in the organization of a theoc- 
 racy and a later kingdom. Its moral princi- 
 ples appear in the Ten Commandments, and 
 its protection of such principles in the rise of 
 the prophets. Its spiritual purpose is declared 
 in the constitution of a priestly tribe, whose 
 business was at the altar and the bowl of 
 cleansing. 
 
 To the extent that the Bible ideals have 
 entered into the life of any nation, to that 
 extent it has been ennobled, enriched, and 
 made the channel for uplifting other peoples. 
 
116 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 Spread out a map of the world to-day, and 
 study the relation of the Bible to enlighten- 
 ment, culture, and commerce. Africa is to be 
 reckoned with only as the Bible has had an 
 influence. Paganism has had things much its 
 own way, and not a single good is to its credit. 
 Everywhere is depravity, oppression, slavery, 
 and the mistreatment of woman. The con- 
 quest of Mohammedanism from the north 
 offers something better, but it travels in the 
 reflected light of Christianity. But only the 
 Bible has given natives ideals in character 
 and conduct which any man of average en- 
 lightenment can approve. As the Bible starts 
 inward from every coast, the magnitude of 
 its task is equalled only by the certainty of 
 its conquest and the joy over its final victory. 
 India, and China, and Japan are coming 
 into world relations as they come into the 
 spirit of the sacred book of the Christians. No 
 nationalism, however pronounced, can figure 
 in globe affairs if it have not that stability 
 vouchsafed by loyalty to the fundamental 
 ethics of the Scriptures. 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 117 
 
 The cruelty of the Turk is proverbial — cor- 
 rected only so far as the Bible has received 
 respect. The hermit habits of Thibet are well 
 known — broken only by the entrance of the 
 light. The instability of Persia is common 
 knowledge — overcome only by mixing Bible 
 morals with its politics. The voyages of Cap- 
 tain James Cook through three oceans were 
 attended with danger of tragic death. After 
 braving treachery and cannibalism safely till 
 his maps and charts of the sea became reliable 
 for all time, he yielded up his life at Hawaii 
 in 1779, savages serving as his executioners. 
 A century and a half has worked marvels in 
 the civilization of the islands of the sea, and 
 scarcely one may be found now where life 
 would be endangered. But the change has 
 been wrought by the Book which always takes 
 the part of the oppressed, always puts a kind 
 heart in the breast of the savage, and always 
 enacts laws for the guidance of conduct and 
 the punishment of violation. 
 
 Europe presents a complex situation. When 
 France let Christianity go for the atheism of 
 
118 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 Voltaire, which was consistent with her course 
 during the Reformation, she planned for car- 
 nage, and misery, and anarchy, and a series of 
 revolutions, all of which are the natural fruit 
 of atheism, but none of which have any place 
 where the Bible is honored and obeyed. Rus- 
 sia accepts the Bible for the leaders, but per- 
 verts its teachings so that it cannot be regarded 
 as a standard. Such massacres as have oc- 
 curred at Kishineff, and such inhumanity as 
 George Kenyon revealed twenty-five years ago 
 in his articles on the Siberian exile system, 
 occur where Scripture influence is barred — 
 in spite of the Bible and not in accordance 
 with it. Spain has no Bible for the masses, 
 and she is a disappearing factor in inter- 
 national matters. England, Scotland, Switzer- 
 land, and Germany were affected by the Ref- 
 ormation of the sixteenth century more than 
 any other countries. Ever since that day 
 they have stood for the open Bible and the 
 uplifted cross. To-day they have the largest 
 commercial business, the best government, the 
 greatest freedom, and the highest respect of 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 119 
 
 others. In response to an inquiry by a prince 
 of East India, Queen Victoria handed him a 
 Bible with the words, "This is the secret of 
 England's greatness." 
 
 South America is called the "neglected con- 
 tinent." Protestant missions have not been 
 planted and propagated there as in Africa, 
 India, China, and the Philippines. But all 
 South American countries have the cross. In 
 no place is there greater proof that a concep- 
 tion of vicarious sacrifice, with meaning per- 
 verted by unscrupulous priests, is totally inade- 
 puate to uplift the depraved, purify the un- 
 clean, and regenerate the sinner. The crucifix 
 without the Bible is but a proof of supersti- 
 tion and a badge of slavery. It leads to the 
 worship of images in violation of the Sinaitic 
 law. This worship has the tacit approval of 
 some priests, as is shown by the omission of 
 that second commandment from some Catholic 
 Bibles of the Philippines, and the splitting of 
 another of the ten into two in order to make 
 the list full and fool the reader. James M. 
 Taylor, of the "Faith and Love Mission," who 
 
120 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 has traveled extensively in South America and 
 adjacent islands, declares that Americans have 
 no conception of the cruelties practiced upon 
 the helpless Indians by churchmen in good 
 standing, and asserts that much of the Cath- 
 olic Church there is no more than bald pagan- 
 ism baptized with Christian ceremony. To the 
 cross the Bible must be added, and in the 
 vernacular of the people, if South American 
 ecclesiastical tyranny shall cease, and the stan- 
 dard of national life be elevated. 
 
 North America presents the most striking 
 contrast between the United States and the 
 Central American states. The former accepted 
 the boon at Jamestown, and ever since has 
 walked in the light which emancipates a nation 
 as well as the intellect and the soul. When 
 darkness is to be dispelled, it is the Bible land 
 which has purse and heart. When distress 
 is to be relieved, it is the land of the Scrip- 
 tures which has ability and inclination. Hos- 
 pitals, asylums, sanatoriums, and other phil- 
 anthropic institutions waited for the Bible to 
 lead the way, and now depend upon its teach- 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 121 
 
 ings to render them permanent and efficient. 
 The gospel is the parent of national strength, 
 and its absence is the cause of national weak- 
 ness. If one desires to bring about the de- 
 cadence of his country so that America may- 
 look like Spain ; if he wishes to see the phos- 
 phorescent glow of its declining virility ; if he 
 prefers that reverence for womanhood give 
 place to the harem of the Turk ; if he is satis- 
 fied for religious ideals to settle to the bottom 
 like those of South America ; if he prizes the 
 hazard belonging to cannibal islands ; if he 
 chooses to be the recipient of pitying favor 
 rather than the agent of significant blessing; 
 if he believes in low ideals and lower conduct, 
 — in brief, if he regards the absence of moral 
 character with greatest favor, and corruption 
 in high position with complacent mind, let him 
 set to work to destroy the Bible, or to under- 
 mine its influence. 
 
 Very truly does an Anglican bishop say: 
 "Which are the countries on the face of the 
 globe at this moment where there is the great- 
 est amount of idolatry, or cruelty, or impurity, 
 
122 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 or misgovernment, or disregard of life, liberty, 
 and truth? Precisely those countries where 
 the Bible is not known. Which are the Chris- 
 tian countries, so called, where the greatest 
 quantity of ignorance, superstition, and cor- 
 ruption is to be found at this moment? The 
 countries in which the Bible is a forbidden or 
 neglected book — such countries as Spain and 
 the South American states. Which are the 
 countries where liberty and public and private 
 morality have attained the highest pitch ? The 
 countries where the Bible is free to all, like 
 England, Scotland, Germany, and the United 
 States. Yes ! When you know how a nation 
 deals with the Bible, you may know what that 
 nation is." 
 
 The unit of the state is the individual. If 
 the state is made better in every way by the 
 common circulation of the Scriptures, it must 
 be through the uplifting of men, one by one. 
 The character of the whole cannot be changed 
 unless the constituent parts are affected. 
 
 Jacob and Esau were twin brothers. The 
 first was endowed with a grasping nature, 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 123 
 
 which needed to be made over before he was 
 a fit leader in spiritual things. After his 
 name, meaning "supplanter," was changed to 
 Israel, meaning "prince of God," he lined up 
 with his King. Esau headed toward the wil- 
 derness, and the Esauites became the Edom- 
 ites. When the Roman conquest swept away 
 the independence of Edom, the country, along 
 with Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, was placed 
 under a procurator, Antipater of Edom, or an 
 Idumean, after the Greek form, securing the 
 position through favoritism at Rome. Antip- 
 ater was the father of Herod the Great, the 
 first enemy of our Lord, the progenitor of 
 many who prefer the wilderness life with its 
 absence of law and order, and making the 
 traveler unsafe to-day in that rugged country. 
 The marks which their respective environ- 
 ments made on Jacob and Esau became 
 permanent traits of character. Nearly four 
 thousand years have not been able to efface 
 them, or render the characters more alike. 
 Every succeeding generation helped to fix 
 the chasm. Jacob and his descendants, man 
 
124 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 by man, kept in touch with God, and made at 
 least a show of obeying God's law. Esau and 
 his offspring, man by man, ran away from 
 God, and trampled his law under foot. The 
 murderous Herod is but an emphasized edition 
 of the Edom family ; and every modern out- 
 rage attributed to Esau's lineal descendants is 
 fresh evidence of the baneful influence of 
 banished law. 
 
 This law was the Old Testament in part. 
 Some remained yet to be written. Through 
 it God spoke, and by it blessed obedience and 
 punished infractions. These divergent streams 
 of humanity illustrate in a remarkable way 
 the force that a sacred book has in shaping 
 individual life until it acquires a distinct 
 national stamp. The Hebrew race and the 
 Arabs tell the story of the Bible's value. 
 
 Perhaps a man nearer our own day will 
 mean more. About the time Jesus was born 
 in Bethlehem, another child saw the light in 
 Asia Minor. No census was on, compelling 
 every family to return to the city of its 
 fathers for enrollment. No host of heaven 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 125 
 
 sang a praise harmony at his advent. No 
 heavenly body guided astrologers to his crib. 
 The birth was not preceded by the Magnificat 
 of a Mary, or followed by the benediction of 
 a Simeon. 
 
 But this child "grew, and waxed strong in 
 spirit," and also "increased in wisdom -and 
 stature." The educational advantages afforded 
 by the city of Tarsus were supplemented by 
 training in the rabbinical schools of the city 
 of Mount Zion. Strongly national, severely 
 religious, the zealous man became a zealot 
 in the face of any apparent antagonism. He 
 thought he was obeying the Bible, in perse- 
 cuting the followers of Him who was the ful- 
 fillment of the Jewish Scriptures. Rage, op- 
 pression, arrest, and imprisonment were 
 accompaniments of approved homicide. Worse 
 even than that was the compelled blasphemy 
 to escape the fury of the insane persecutor. 
 This course led the Apostle Paul to say later 
 that he was the chief of sinners. 
 
 A mistaken interpretation of the Old Testa- 
 ment led to this wild course. A vision of the 
 
126 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 Crucified changed both character and course. 
 Henceforth Paul's life was to be devoted to 
 the furtherance of the gospel he had deter- 
 mined to stamp out. In his remaking, a new 
 character was attained. The same zeal 
 remained, but applied to a different cause. 
 Devotion was unabated, but to the promised 
 Redeemer of Israel. Paul's journey across 
 the ^Egean Sea from Troas settled the destiny 
 of Europe, and, through Europe, that of the 
 two western continents. But his work was 
 based on argument from the Scriptures, as he 
 went from city to city, preaching and alleging 
 that Jesus was the Christ, and exhorting all 
 to see in him the hope of the Jewish race 
 and the promise of the Jewish P>ible. On this 
 one character, forged in the furnace of God's 
 chosen service, depends more than man can 
 calculate. The graces of love, joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, together with gentleness, goodness, 
 meekness, faith, were so displayed that others 
 acquired them and set a new standard that 
 was destined to displace the old, or establish 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 127 
 
 one in the absence of any moral or spiritual 
 ideals. Character grew through obedience. 
 
 On a small island about three miles seaward 
 from Sierra Leone, West Africa, are the re- 
 mains of a slave pen. It is built of concrete, 
 some large stones having entered into its con- 
 struction. On the island is a dungeon, in 
 which the more obstreperous blacks were con- 
 fined. 
 
 For about ten years John Newton was en- 
 gaged in the African slave trade. He could 
 see families separated forever, hear the moans 
 of frightened men and women, administer the 
 scourge when thought needful, and sell fellow 
 human beings into lifelong servitude without 
 any protest of conscience. But the Bible got 
 hold of the man's heart. It proved him in 
 the wrong, and pointed out the path of duty. 
 Yielding to its orders, John Newton became 
 an efficient minister in the Church of England, 
 and a hymn-writer whose products are used 
 in all churches to this day. 
 
 There is no more striking case of individual 
 regeneration. It exceeds that of Jerry 
 McAuley, the river thief of New York, 
 
128 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 founder of the celebrated mission in that city. 
 It is a charming story of transformation of 
 life and the building of a new character — 
 all owed to the Bible, and the Spirit of God 
 operating through his Word. Even the in- 
 sults of men are made to praise God. The 
 Rufus Clark and Wife Training School in 
 Sierra Leone is built in part from stones taken 
 from this old prison pen, a monument at the 
 same time of a type of civilization long passed 
 and of the amazing mercy and power of the 
 Lord. Well could John Newton write : 
 
 "While we seek supplies of grace 
 Through the dear Redeemer's name, 
 
 Show thy reconciling face ; 
 Take away our sin and shame. 
 
 "May the gospel's joyful sound 
 Conquer sinners, comfort saints, 
 
 Make the fruits of grace abound, 
 Bring relief from all complaints." 
 
 Mr. Newton lived the Bible life. None 
 need question the peaceful end. Writing his 
 own epitaph, he expressed a wish that it 
 might be inscribed on a plain marble tablet, 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 129 
 
 and placed near the vestry door. "And I 
 earnestly desire," said he, "that no other 
 monument and no inscription but to this pur- 
 port may be attempted for me." The first 
 half, which has especial fitness here, reads as 
 follows : 
 
 JOHN NEWTON, Clerk, 
 Once an infidel and libertine, a servant 
 of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich 
 mercy of our Lord and Savior, 
 
 JESUS CHRIST, 
 Preserved, restored, pardoned, and ap- 
 pointed to preach the faith he had long 
 labored to destroy. 
 
 Between the man and the state stands the 
 family. If the Bible has a beneficent influ- 
 ence upon the two extremes, it must affect 
 likewise everything intermediate. If religion 
 is good for anything, it must be a blessing 
 where lives mingle daily, and act and react 
 on one another. The man in a monastery or 
 on the mountain summit alone may be impure 
 in thought but never communicate the sin to 
 others. The Bible aims to establish personal 
 
130 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 character, with some purpose at least for that 
 character to manifest itself in domestic, social, 
 and business relations. 
 
 The family was God's first institution, un- 
 less the garden home be considered ante- 
 cedent ; but even it was to subserve the wel- 
 fare of the family. An a priori argument 
 would favor the Bible's wholesome influence 
 upon the family even more than upon school 
 or church or nation. Is this conclusion sus- 
 tained by inductive study? Let us see. 
 
 According to the latest statistics obtainable, 
 there were 945,625 divorces in the United 
 States in twenty years, two-thirds of them to 
 the wife. About one-twelfth of our marri- 
 ages are failures to the extent that they get 
 into the courts. More than sixteen per cent, 
 of these legal separations were on the charge 
 of adultery, a crime which the Lord thought 
 important enough to put under the ban of a 
 special prohibition. If this were the only 
 cause, and the Bible had been followed in 
 the protection of character, "Thou shalt not 
 commit adultery," 153,759 homes would have 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 131 
 
 remained happy in the two decades instead 
 of being broken up through sin. Drunkenness 
 is given credit for destroying four per cent, 
 of the disrupted homes, though it has been 
 a contributing factor in the cases assigned to 
 adultery, cruelty, desertion, and neglect; and 
 the curse of the Bible rests on drunkenness. 
 The Bible insists that kindness shall be a grace 
 of the Christian life ; but nearly twenty-two 
 per cent, of the divorces grow out of cruelty, 
 the greater part, of course, obtained by the 
 wife. How different it would have been if 
 the Bible had had its way in such homes ! 
 The good Book tells us that the man who does 
 not provide for his own is worse than an 
 infidel. Notwithstanding this, 367,502 divorces 
 are credited to desertions in twenty years, 
 forty per cent, of the whole. Again, disobedi- 
 ence means disruption. Nearly four per cent, 
 are caused by neglect to provide, which the 
 same Scripture covers. Naturally, these de- 
 crees would be granted to the wife ; but Utah 
 has six cases of divorce granted to men whom 
 their wives would not support according to 
 
132 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 the masculine standard. And Utah is a State 
 that is built on adultery, even though under 
 the guise of polygamous marital relations. 
 Above nine per cent, of divorces are combi- 
 nations of the preceding causes, and hence 
 show at least double violation of divine law. 
 These separations are destructive of morals, 
 as well as based on destroyed morals. The 
 Bible is a conserving force, and, given its 
 way, would put happiness into every miserable 
 home, save men and women from becoming 
 wrecks, floaters, and wanderers, and preserve 
 to children their divine right of natural pro- 
 tectors. This crime against childhood has no 
 equal in domestic annals, and is responsible 
 for starting numberless sons and daughters to 
 the bad. Instead of a "safety valve," divorce 
 is the sum of all villainies which touch the 
 home. Obedience to the Bible would prevent 
 all infidelity, all incompatibility of temper, 
 all cruelty, all neglect, all drunkenness, all sin 
 whose course is shame and whose end is sep- 
 aration. 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 133 
 
 Another commandment says, "Thou shalt 
 not kill." But for twenty years we have aver- 
 aged over sixty-five hundred homicides an- 
 nually in this country, while the murders of 
 two years, 1895 and 1896, ran up above ten 
 thousand each. Practically every one is a 
 proof that the Bible had been disregarded, 
 and that the character of the murderers had 
 been formed by causes antagonistic to the 
 Word of God. As forty-three per cent, of 
 our homicides are native whites, the fault lies 
 at our own door. A Bible life would have 
 saved every man from wilful murder. The 
 number of homes affected by these homicides 
 is not ascertainable, but every murder creates 
 a vacancy about some hearth, and every con- 
 viction shortens the life of some innocent 
 friend or relative. 
 
 Another commandment is directed against 
 covetousness. God knew that the greed of the 
 human heart needed the guard of a prohibi- 
 tory law. Yet in four years, 1906 to 1909, 
 the embezzlements averaged more than twelve 
 millions, with perhaps more than that amount 
 
134 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 of graft not included. And every case of 
 money fraud is a blight upon some home. 
 Respect for another's property would make for 
 character of the correct kind. 
 
 Drink claims nearly a hundred thousand 
 lives a year in the United States, every one 
 leaving a trail of misery, and wetchedness, and 
 woe which would be stopped if the Book of 
 books had its way. It tells us that no drunk- 
 ard shall inherit the kingdom ; much less shall 
 the drunkard-maker. God must have known 
 the terrible suffering, and poverty, and squalor 
 that follow in the wake of liquor-drinking, and 
 have had regard for home life and 
 home ties when consigning violators of this 
 law to hell for their iniquity. When we add 
 the seventy-five per cent, of crime due to 
 strong drink, and note the demand of the 
 drinker for the gaming table and immoral 
 women, we must respect God for his effort 
 to protect home and life by condemning strong 
 drink. 
 
 The social evil is the vice which undermines 
 a home and destrovs its affection. It works 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 135 
 
 so stealthily, and the sin is hidden under the 
 garb of innocence so successfully, that laws 
 are broken without discovery till a crash shat- 
 ters a home with overwhelming suddenness 
 and fury. All this is in contravention of the 
 seventh commandment, and the entire spirit 
 of the two Testaments. New York City is 
 said to support thirty thousand public women, 
 with an equal number of clandestine prosti- 
 tutes. In the entire country there are six 
 hundred thousand who wear the scarlet, and 
 as many more whose lives entitle them to the 
 same distinction, besides others whose occa- 
 sional mingling is caused partially by a desire 
 to eke out a precarious living by the price of 
 character. This vast army must be replen- 
 ished every five years, for the red-light district 
 is the short cut to the grave. An average 
 of five men is required to support every public 
 woman, rolling up an aggregate of six million 
 men sold under one kind of sin. No wonder 
 God thought best to inscribe a special pro- 
 hibition of this crime. It unfits any guilty 
 man or woman from becoming the head of a 
 
136 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 home or the parent of children. A babe has 
 a right to draw its first breath without being 
 mortgaged to Satan and death. Adultery or 
 fornication disrupts a home because it destroys 
 that foundation of purity on which alone a 
 stable home can be built. Just one thing — 
 obedience to the moral law as expressed both 
 in the Bible and in the constitution of man — 
 is a guarantee of the peace and the perpetuity 
 of happy domestic relations. 
 
 When the Bible has its way, all curable 
 moral ills give place to health. Some conse- 
 quences of shattered law cannot be overcome 
 by a tardy obedience, however bitter and gen- 
 uine the repentance. But the Bible is entitled 
 to its place of influence. One of the United 
 Brethren missionaries in the Philippines offici- 
 ated at the marriage of a man and woman 
 in the presence of their children and grand- 
 children. They were life-partners by com- 
 mon law, without the marriage bond. But the 
 Bible had opened their eyes to the wrong, 
 and they determined to right it as far as pos- 
 sible. Such instances are frequent in mission 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 137 
 
 lands, especially Catholic countries where ra- 
 pacious priests hold up matrimonial candidates 
 for sums exceeding their ability or their incli- 
 nation. The entire influence of the Bible is 
 for the clean life and the pure home. 
 
 One may hold that, since civilization has 
 reached a forward stage, and business honesty 
 acquired a firm basis, and moral character 
 made itself secure, the Bible has served its 
 purpose. They point to individual men who 
 do not know whether Ecclesiastes is in the 
 Old or New Testament, whose lives show 
 forth no moral flaw. They tell us that these 
 men have risen from the ranks by their own 
 genius and devotion to the right. The impli- 
 cation is that, since their good characters were 
 molded apart from the Bible, the Book has 
 passed its day and can be shelved with no 
 danger, if not with perfect propriety. 
 
 When Jesus lived, he said, "And I, if I be 
 lifted up from the earth, will draw all men 
 unto me." The conditions outlined in the 
 foregoing paragraph testify to the truth of 
 Jesus' prophecy. He was lifted up from the 
 
138 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 earth ; all men are being drawn unto him. This 
 is because his followers are the light of the 
 world, and others, not professed followers, are 
 walking and dwelling in that light. The estab- 
 lishment of Christian laws and Christian com- 
 munities has an effect beyond the circle 
 espousing Jesus as the Christ. The gospel 
 standard of life makes all men in a com- 
 munity prize their reputation more highly. 
 Jealousy of one's good name works well on 
 his character. The otherwise bad man be- 
 comes a good citizen, the cheat an honest man 
 of business, the petulant neighbor a charitable 
 friend, the unfaithful husband a true com- 
 panion, and cruel parents loving fathers and 
 mothers. But, take away the influence which 
 supports this morality, and it crumbles. Char- 
 acter by the indirect method is better by far 
 than none, but it cannot stand when the 
 primary disappears. As well might the statue, 
 after standing securely on its pedestal for 
 twenty-five years, claim the ability to maintain 
 its position without the presence and support 
 of the base. 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 139 
 
 Men walk the streets obedient to law who 
 would be murderers were it not for the Chris- 
 tian forces upholding them. Men with repu- 
 tation to sustain would crack the safe in the 
 bank were it not for the Bible light which en- 
 couraged them to cultivate a good name. Men 
 with passion firing their natures would render 
 any woman unsafe were it not for the self- 
 control which has been developed by the aid 
 of Christian conduct regulated by the Bible. 
 
 Jesus Christ is drawing all men unto him ; 
 but he does it chiefly through the medium of 
 the Bible. In its absence, direct divine influ- 
 ence may be turned about and men plunge into 
 wildest fanaticism. The Bible is the final 
 authority. Human propensions and passions 
 misinterpret direct revelation to their own in- 
 dulgence. The Bible keeps its devotees in line 
 directly, and others indirectly through those 
 devotees. 
 
 Suppose the Bible were blotted out, as one 
 suggests. Could we not move right on, suffer- 
 ing no inconvenience, and observing no dis- 
 turbance on the seismograph of character? 
 
140 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 Dr. W. J. Dawson answers the query by say- 
 ing that the ship swings hither and thither 
 in the trough of the sea, is drifted by the tide, 
 or founders in the tempest — when the fires of 
 the engine are out. Were Sirius, the dog star, 
 to be blotted out, no one in this generation 
 would miss its light ; but finally it would 
 become dark and its history would be written. 
 Character cannot persevere without constant 
 retouching by the Bible, that sharp tool in the 
 hand of the individual man. the character- 
 maker. The words of James Russell Lowell, in 
 response to an implied challenge in the preced- 
 ing speech of an infidel, are in such harmony 
 with the foregoing that they are given a place 
 here: 
 
 "I fear that, when we indulged ourselves 
 in the amusement of going without religion, 
 we are not, perhaps, aware how much we are 
 sustained at present by an enormous mass all 
 about us of religious feeling and religious con- 
 viction, so that, whenever it may be safe for 
 us to think, for us who have had great advan- 
 tages, and have been brought up in such a 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 141 
 
 way that a certain moral direction has been 
 given to our character, I do not know what 
 would become of the less favored classes of 
 mankind if they undertook to play the same 
 game. 
 
 "Whatever defects and imperfections may 
 attach to a few points of the doctrinal system 
 of Calvin — the bulk of which is simply what 
 all Christians believe — it will be found that 
 Calvinism, or any other ism that claims an 
 open Bible and proclaims a crucified and risen 
 Christ, is infinitely preferable to any form 
 of polite and polished skepticism which gath- 
 ers as its votaries the degenerate sons of heroic 
 ancestors, who, having been trained in society 
 and educated in schools, the foundations of 
 which were laid by men of faith and piety, 
 now turn and kick down the ladder by which 
 they have climbed, and persuade men to live 
 without God and leave them to die without 
 hope. 
 
 "The worst kind of religion is no religion 
 at all, and these men living in ease and luxury, 
 indulging themselves in the amusement of 
 
142 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 going without religion, may be thankful that 
 they live in lands where the gospel they neg- 
 lect has tamed the beastliness and ferocity of 
 the men who, but for Christianity, might long 
 ago have eaten their carcasses like the South 
 Sea Islanders, or cut off their heads and 
 tanned their hides like the monsters of the 
 French Revolution. 
 
 "When the microscopic search of skepticism, 
 which has hunted the heavens and sounded the 
 seas to disprove the existence of a Creator, 
 has turned its attention to human society, and 
 has found a place on this planet ten miles 
 square where a decent man can live in decency, 
 comfort, and security, supporting and educat- 
 ing his children unspoiled and unpolluted; a 
 place where age is reverenced, infancy pro- 
 tected, manhood respected, womanhood hon- 
 ored, and human life held in due regard; when 
 skeptics can find such a place ten miles square 
 on this globe, where the gospel of Christ has 
 not gone and cleared the way, and laid the 
 foundation and made decency and security 
 possible, it will then be in order for the skep- 
 
The Sword Unsheathed 143 
 
 tical literati to move thither and there venti- 
 late their views. But, so long as these very 
 men are dependent upon the religion they 
 discard for every privilege they enjoy, they 
 may well hesitate a little before they seek to 
 rob the Christian of his hope and humanity 
 of its Savior, who alone has given to man 
 that hope of life eternal which makes life 
 tolerable and society possible, and robs death 
 of its terrors and the grave of its gloom." 
 
 Not only is the Bible the chief instrument 
 in the making of character, but it is utterly 
 impossible to construct a strong character 
 without it. Whether one directs his search 
 toward one man, a family, a community, or 
 a state, the same conclusion is reached. 
 Whether he study business, social, moral, or 
 spiritual relations, the Bible is the source of 
 strength and the arbiter of all disputes. 
 Whether one regard character as condition or 
 character as conduct, the same conclusion is 
 unavoidable. In the words of Thomas Jef- 
 ferson, whom no one will accuse of being prej- 
 udiced in favor of divine truth, "The studious 
 
144 The Sword Unsheathed 
 
 perusal of the Sacred Volume will make bet- 
 ter citizens, better fathers, and better hus- 
 bands." 
 
 Approved character is a passport to life — 
 is life. "These are written," says John, refer- 
 ring to the recounted miracles of Jesus, "that 
 ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the 
 Son of God : and that believing ye might have 
 life through his name." 
 
1^878.5 .P55 ^^^