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PEDAGOGICAL LiBi.rtuY
OF THE

PEDAGOGICAL LIBRARY
OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
YALE SCHOOL OF RELIGION

READING THE BIBLE

By WILLIAM LYON PHELPS

Essays on Modern Novelists
Essays on Russian Novelists
Essays on Books
Teaching in School and College
Reading the Bible
The Beginnings of the English Romantic Movement
The Advance of the English Novel
The Advance of English Poetry in the Twentieth
Century
Archibald Marshall
Browning: How to Know Him
A Dash at the Pole
The Twentieth Century Theatre

READING THE BIBLE

BY
WILLIAM LYON PHELPS
lAUPSON PR0FB6S0R OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AT YAIE

PEDAGOGICAL LIBRARY
OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
YALE SCHOOL OF RELIGION

Nrtn fork
THE MACMH^LAN COMPANY
1919
All rights resemi

COPVRIGHT, 1919
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY
Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 1919

PREFACE
THIS book is composed of three lectures,
on the L. P. Stone foundation, delivered
at Princeton Theological Seminary, on the third,
fourth, and fifth of February, 1919. I wish
to express to the professors and students at
Princeton my hearty appreciation of the honour
of their invitation, and of their dehghtful hos
pitality.
W. L. P.
Yale University,
Tuesday, 11 March 1919.

CONTENTS page
I. Reading the Bible . . . . i
n. St. Paul as a Letter Writer . . 47
ni. Short Stories in the Bible ... 92

vfi

READING THE BIBLE

READING THE BIBLE

READING THE BIBLE
WHEN I was five years old, my mother
offered me a dollar if I would read the
Bible through, from the first chapter of Genesis
to the last chapter of Revelation. I confess
that my price has risen since then; but in my
boyhood I had more leisure and less cash than
I have now. My total income was six cents a
week; and as I was expected to deposit one cent
in the contribution box every Sunday, I always
regarded my income as five cents, imconsciously
prophetic of the modem income-tax law. I
am glad that my mother bribed me to read the
Bible, and glad that she forced me to pay my
way in church. At first I thought more of the
dollar than of the Holy Writ; but as I became
interested, I found keener joy in the race than
in the prize.
The best books for children are those that

2 Reading the Bible
never were intended for children. The ordinary
child's Christmas book has an intolerable air
of condescension like the ingratiating smile of
the professional speaker to boys, who deceives
only those in bad health. Even children de
serve intellectual respect and profit by it. No
better books for children exist than Pilgrim's
Progress, Gulliver's Travels, Robinson Crusoe,
the anteburtonian Arabian Nights, and the
Bible. Apart from the mental discipline and
emotional enrichment obtained from these
books, there exists to a higher degree the same
reason for the inclusion of classics in university
education — the pleasure arising when educated
people have the same background, a common
storehouse of memory, from which current
coin may freely circulate.
In the Cornell Sun, March, 191 5, the venerable
Andrew D. White, in response to a request
that he should name the books that had given
him most real profit and abiding pleasure,
began his article with this paragraph: "First
of aU, like most American boys and girls of my
time, I was brought up to read the Bible, and
was nurtured in one of the religious bodies
which incorporates into its worship very many

Reading the Bible 3
of the noblest parts of our sacred books. Of
these, the portions which have always seemed
to me to give the ke3niote to the whole have
been, for the Old Testament, the grander
Psalms, the nobler portions of Isaiah, and above
aU the sixth chapter of Micah; and in the New
Testament, the utterances ascribed to Jesus
himself, of which the Sermon on the Mount is
supreme, with St. James's definition of 'pure
rehgion and undefiled,' and St. Paul's descrip
tion of 'charity.' In perfection of English
diction, there is, in the whole range of literature,
nothing to surpass the story of Joseph and his
Brethren." When I first read the Bible, I made up my
own mind as to the moral value of certain
celebrated achievements, and was encouraged
to express my views in the family conversation.
It seemed to me that the murder of the sleeping
Sisera was treacherous and detestable; and I
obtained no pleasure from the exultant song
of Deborah —
The mother of Sisera looked out at a window,
and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot
so long in coming? why tarry the wheels of his
chariots?

4 Reading the Bible
Many years later, while at an Episcopal church
one evening, whither I had gone to hear one
of my favourite preachers, the Rev. Harry P.
Nichols, I was both surprised and pleased, to
hear him say, at the conclusion of the reading
for the day, which was this same Song, "We
should remember that the glorification of this
abominable deed came from Deborah, and not
from Almighty God."
Yet Sisera was a scoundrel, and the result of
his deletion was good; the land had rest forty
years. Furthermore, if he had won the battle,
we learn from the words of his mother — capa
ble tigress for such a cub — that Captain Sisera
would have treated the captured men and
women even as the Germans treated the French
and the Belgians.
Nor did I think highly of David's exploit in
killing GoUath. All small boys Uke heavy
weight champions; and it may be I had a fond
ness for the big feUow. Anyhow, it seemed to
me that David did not fight fairly. GoUath
came out with the legitimate weapons for a
stand-up fight; David stood at a safe distance
and pimctured his thick head with a slingshot.
If he had missed the first time, he had four

Reading the Bible 5
more stones to throw; and if he had failed to
make a hit with any of them, he would doubt
less have nm away, and Goliath, encumbered
with his heavy suit, would have found it quite
impossible to catch him. I felt that David was
something like a guttersnipe, who, afraid to
fight with his fists, throws stones from a coign
of vantage; or like a man with a magazine gun,
taking the measure of a hippopotamus.
David's affair with Goliath compares un
favourably with the exploit of Benaiah, narrated
in that wonderfid eleventh chapter of the first
book of Chronicles, which celebrates the mighty
men.
Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man
of Kabzeel, who had done many acts; he slew two lion
like men of Moab; also he went down and slew a lion
in a pit in a snowy day.
And he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature,
five cubits high; and in the Egyptian's hand was a
spear like a weaver's beam; and he went down to him
with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's
hand, and slew him with his own spear.
These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and
had the name among the three mighties.
I had to comfort mj^elf with the reflection

6 Reading the Bible
that on other occasions, David exhibited plenty
of courage.
It is of course possible to regard David's
victory as the triumph of brains over brawn:
Goliath was conservative; he was naturally
beaten by the yoimger antagonist who used
more modem methods.
One day, by mere chance, I hit upon an
expedient that not only helped me to remember
the Bible stories, but which I heartily recom
mend to aU parents and guardians who still
wish to have the youth entrusted to their care
become familiar with the Scriptures. I was
drawing pictures. My prolonged and unusual
silence in the room aroused the interest of
my mother — "What are you doing there?"
"Drawing pictures." "But don't you know
this is Sunday? You must not draw pictures
on Sunday."
Nobody ought to infer from this that my
mother was grim. She and I were intimate
friends, understood each other perfectly, and
got along together beautifully.
Suddenly I remembered the Bible. "But
mother, it'U be aU right to draw Bible pic
tures?" She turned this suggestion up and

Reading the Bible 7
down in her mind, and found it good. I there
fore set to work, and after another period of
silence, I proudly exhibited to her a soldier,
armed to the teeth, UteraUy, for in addition to
gun and pistol, he had a large knife in his
mouth. "Didn't I teU you"— "But mother, this is
Joab, captain of the host of Israel." From
this accidental Sabbatarian exploit, I conceived
the idea of drawing a picture to illustrate every
chapter in the Bible. And this method I rec
ommend to the young, for if one draws a picture
for each chapter, one must read the whole
chapter through to find the best available
subject, and in this way, much will be remem
bered. It is not necessary to possess even
rudimentary skill with the pencil. I was
obliged to label my pictures distinctly — a union
of Uterature and art — ^in order that spectators
might know whether the picture were animal,
vegetable, or mineral — the invariable first en
quiry in the game Twenty Questions.
In the process of illustrating the sacred
volume, I got along excellently well in Genesis,
Joshua, Judges, Kings; there were frequent
fights. But when I plunged into the jungle of

8 Reading the Bible
Paul's doctrinal epistles, my advance was slow.
It is not easy properly to illustrate some of the
chapters in Romans. I remember reading
through the whole eighth chapter and finishing
in despair. Determined not to be beaten, I
began to read it again, and was brought up
with a turn at the twenty-second verse: "the
whole creation groaneth." I set to work with
an inspiration.
At that time I knew nothing of spiritual
suffering; I supposed that people groaned only
when there was something the matter with
them. Like aU small boys, I had eaten many
green apples, sometimes with disastrous results.
My conception of this passage was not alto
gether without a certain vast grandeur. I Ut
eraUy supposed that once upon a time every
Uving person in the world had indigestion at
the same moment; hence universal compulsory
groaning. I therefore drew a picture of a large
number of people standing in a circle, each in
an attitude of anguish: and under it I wrote
THE WHOLE CREATION GROANETH
When I brought this picture to my mother, she
looked at it and for some minutes was unable

Reading the Bible 9
to speak; she paid it that reverent silence which
I suppose is the highest tribute to art. Then
she told me that I had made an original contri
bution to New Testament interpretation, for
no commentator in the world had ever thought
of this explanation. I retired proudly. After
I grew up, I mistakenly regarded my exegesis
as absurd; and it was only a few years ago that
my respect for it was restored by my friend
President Hadley. I had narrated the story,
and he immediately said that after aU I was
correct; for from the orthodox point of view
it was the unauthorised eating of apples that
made the whole creation groan.
Even before the printed Bible was known in
England, manuscript copies were sometimes
chained in the churches. There stiU exists at
Hereford Cathedral a Ubrary of two thousand
books, about fifteen hundred of them chained;
some of these are in manuscript, and among
them is a catalogue, also chained. CromweU,
as vicar-general, by injunctions in September,
1538, and King Henry VIII, by a proclamation
dated 6 May, 1541, provided that every parish
church should supply itself with a Bible; the
book was of course chained in some pubUc

lo Reading the Bible
place. There were some copies of the Bible in
HoUand which excited the anger of the DevU,
as was proved by the marks of his claws upon
them; the result of which was a law requiring
them to be chained. Foxe's Book of Martyrs
was frequently available in similar fashion,
"not to be taken from the room."
The so-caUed Authorised, or King James
Version of the Bible, pubUshed in 1611, is the
most important and the most influential book
in EngUsh Uterature; and although copies of it
do not fetch an extraordinary price, it is a
rarity. The New York PubUc Library and the
Morgan Library both have one; university
Ubraries certainly should obtain one while it is
possible to do so. I do not know how many
were issued in the original edition, but for the
most part, whether chained or not, they were
read "hard," and many of them feU to pieces
or disappeared altogether. It is difficult to find
one in perfect condition, the great desideratum
of book-coUectors.
In 1611 Robert Barker had the exclusive
right to seU the volume. The size was 16
inches by 10 V2; the binding was full caff, with
covers haU an inch thick, hence caUed "boards."

Reading the Bible 1 1
It weighed 17'/, pounds. It was printed in
black-letter, with three styles of type. The
headlines, inserted words, summaries at heads
of chapters, references in margin to paraUel
passages were roman, and the side-notes giving
alternative readings were itaUc.
The Dean and Chapter of Worcester Cathe
dral in 1611 bought a Bible of the new issue for
two pounds, eighteen shillings; it was probably
in handsome binding.
Copies of the 1611 first edition vary, as was
common with other books in those days. The
earUer copies are known as the "he" Bible and
later ones as the "she" Bible, because of an
error in Ruth, III, 15, "and she went into the
city," where in the earUer printing the word
"he" was erroneously given. The "he" Bible
is, in general, a better piece of mechanical work
than the "she." The copies of the latter vary
considerably, almost aU showing combinations
of sheets of two and perhaps three printings.
To-day the "he" Bible is much more costly
than the "she," although, as has been said,
perfect copies of either are scarce. The Yale
University Library is fortunate in having a
perfect copy of the "he" Bible, and the same

12 Reading the Bible
Library also has an imperfect "she." The
Princeton Theological Seminary has two good
copies of the " she " issue, one of them pre
sented by Henry van Dyke.
The size of the vocabulary in the Authorised
Version is a matter of some interest, and Pro
fessor Albert S. Cook of Yale undertook the
task of counting aU the words. He says, "I
compute the number of words in the Authorised
Version to be 6,568. If to these were added
the inflected forms of nouns, pronouns, or
verbs, . . . the total would be 9,884."
The Authorised Version is incomparably the
best both for the pulpit and for educated
readers. I remember in the year 1881 that the
excitement over the Revised Version of the
New Testament was so intense that wheel
barrow loads of copies were sold in the streets,
and one of the New York newspapers pubUshed
the entire work in a Sunday issue. Many
beUeved that the Revised Version would sup
plant the old; but after a few years, the people
returned to the famiUar book. There are some
positive errors which were corrected in the
Revised Version; but the nineteenth century
scholars lost in beauty what they gained in

Reading the Bible 13
accuracy. There is no English in the world
equal to that foimd in the 1611 Bible. /The re
visers knew more Greek, and less EngUsh^^
Whether the original text was inspired or not;
I have never felt any doubt as to the divine in
spiration of the version of 1611.
For the benefit of soldiers in miUtary camps
and on duty overseas, an interesting and suc
cessful experiment in condensation has recently
been made. With the assistance of some
coUeagues, Professor Charles F. Kent of Yale
has prepared a new translation and rearrange
ment of the text, called The Shorter Bible, of
which the volume containing the New Testa
ment appeared in 1918. AU repetitions in the
Gospel narrative are omitted; the subject-
matter is logicaUy and topicaUy presented; the
original is translated into dignified but strictly
modem EngUsh, with the exclusion of archaic
and obsolete words. In this convenient form,
the greatest of aU books seems bom anew.
But except in special instances, and for
special needs, the Authorised Version is the one
above aU others for the general reader. I was
rather surprised to find in the Literary Supple
ment of the London Times, under date of the

14 Reading the Bible
fourth of July, 1918, a statement that British
churches are supplanting the Old with the
Revised. This testimony is cited here, not
merely as a witness to a regrettable tendency,
but as a fine tribute to the version of 1611.
And they constantly regret the increasing tendency,
noticeable in our chiu-ches, to replace the Authorised
Version, which gave us all, perhaps more than all, the
poetry and moving quality of the original, by the
Revised, which sacrifices these things to a grammatical
pedantry of intellectual precision. It is safe to prophesy
that if the Bible is ever to be restored to the place it
occupied a himdred years ago in the hearts and mem
ories of the English people it will not be through the
medium of the Revised Version. It is poetry, not
logical or grammatical accuracy, that moves and wins
men, and that not only by its beauty, but by its higher
and more essential truth.
It is worth remembering, that shortly after the
appearance of the Revised Version, Matthew
Arnold made a plea for the retention of the
Old. For those who wish to read the whole Bible,
and every one at some time ought to read it
aU at least once, those of systematic habits can
read it through — omitting the Apocr3^ha — in

Reading the Bible 15
exactly^ one year. There are 1,188 chapters,
928 in the Old Testament, 260 in the New. If
one reads three chapters every week day, and
five every Sunday, one wiU finish the under
taking just within the year. Or, if one reads
only on Sundays, and five chapters of the New
Testament each Sunday, one wiU complete
this task on the fifty-second day.
This is a chronological rather than a logical
way of reading the Bible, but it has its merits.
It is naturaUy much better to read a whole
book, or a whole connected narrative in one
sitting. I remember, when caught in the rain
one Sunday in a smaU town in England, that
I pleasantly celebrated being marooned by
reading the Gospel according to Mark without
rising from my chair.
The Bible is not only the foundation of
modem EngUsh literature, it is the foundation
of Anglo-Saxon civiUsation. It seems a narrow
and mistaken poUcy to drive it out of the pubUc
schools. When I was a boy, every day in
school began with a chapter in the Bible and
the Lord's Prayer; surely there is nothing sec
tarian about that. Merely in dignity, the
Hebrew and Christian religions compare favour-

1 6 Reading the Bible
ably with the Greek and Roman, with which
we were compeUed to famiUarise ourselves at
school, and so far as I know, without protest
from any source. If the Greek and Roman
gods and goddesses were alive to-day, every
one of them would be in jail.
American boys and girls know more about
the Bible than was the case twenty years ago;
at the dawn of the twentieth century BibUcal
ignorapce among our youth and particularly
among coUege undergraduates was by way
of becoming a pubUc scandal. WeU-bred boys
in many instances were innocent of even the
penumbra of knowledge. Professor Louns-
bury discovered a young gentleman in his
classes who had never heard of Pontius Pilate.
Twenty-five years ago I requested a Freshman
to elucidate the line in As You Like It, "Here
feel we not the penalty of Adam." He repUed
confidently, "It was the mark imposed on him
for slaying his brother." To another I asked
the meaning of the passage in Macbeth, "Or
memorise another Golgotha." Seeing the blank
expression on his handsome face, I said, "It is
a New Testament reference." "Oh yes," he
exclaimed, "it refers to Goliath." At about

Reading the Bible 17
this time, a young clergyman, obsessed with
the importance of the "higher criticism,"
announced that if he accepted a caU to a west-
em church, he must be aUowed to preach to
the younger people about the second Isaiah.
"That's aU right," said the deacon cheerfuUy;
"most of 'em don't know there is even one."
What with regular school and coUege courses
in the English Bible, and the pubUcation of
many first aids to BibUcal ignorance, we have
made much progress during the last twenty-
five years; but it is stiU true that the young
generation to-day are not so famiUar with the
Bible as was customary a century ago. Igno
rant as the boy, the girl, and the man in the
street are, however, there is not the sUghtest
indication of any faUing away from knowledge
among the poets, noveUsts, and dramatists.
The Bible has been a greater influence on the
course of English Uterature than aU other
forces put together; it is impossible to read
standard authors intelligently without knowing
something about the Bible, for they aU assume
famUiarity with it on the part of their readers.
But what particularly pleases me is that not
only standard, but contemporary authors.

1 8 Reading the Bible
exhibit consciously or unconsciously intimacy
with the Scriptures. So universaUy true is this,
that to any young man or woman eaten with
ambition to become a vpriter, I should advise
first of aU — "Know the Bible." Ibsen said his
chief reading was always in the Bible: "it is so
strong and mighty." Tolstoi knew the Scrip
tures Uke Timothy; it is quite impossible to
read Dostoevski's novels — ^and everyone wants
to read them just now — ^without knowing the
Bible. For four years in the Siberian prison,
the New Testament was his most intimate
friend. His greatest stories are reaUy com
mentaries. Andreev, giving a list of the books
that had influenced him the most, put the
Bible first. KipUng's finest poem, the Reces
sional, is almost as close a paraphrase of Scrip
ture as the hymn Nearer, my God, to thee, which
is a verse-translation of a passage in the twenty-
eighth chapter of Genesisy Every modem
novel, every modem play I read is almost sure
to reveal an acquaintance with the great Book.
And one of the chief features of twentieth-
century drama has been the dramatisation of
Bible stories, presenting to metropoUtan audi
ences the revelation of human passion where it

Reading the Bible 19
may be found in its most powerful and con
vincing forms. In Stuart WaUier's theatre
version of the Book of Job, the subUmity of the
speeches is impressive.
Within the last three years, three tributes
have been paid to the Bible by three distin
guished men of letters, who, curiously enough,
seem to be the last three on earth from whom
such a tribute would have been expected. The
finest EngUsh novel produced by the war is
Mr. Britling Sees it Through, by the apostle of
scientific education, H. G. WeUs; he could not
have written it without a profound knowledge
of the New Testament. The transcendent
element in this story is its spiritual force, which
he obtained directly from the Gospels. That
arch Pagan, George Moore, who boasts that he
has not even a grain of faith, and who, in an
autobiographical sketch, put down as his chief
recreation, Religion, wrote a long novel on the
life of Christ; and although it is fiUed with
sacrilege, it exhibits the sway over his heart
and mind held by the greatest PersonaUty in
history. flHe found he could not escape from
the Son orMan, and wrote this book to reUeve
his own mind, as old Burton wrote a treatise on

20 Reading the Bible
melancholy to cure himseU of it) FinaUy, the
wittiest iconoclast of our day, Bemard Shaw,
in the long preface to Androcles and the Lion,
has produced a carefuUy-written commentary
of one hundred and twenty-seven printed pages,
dealing with the Gospels in turn, with Acts, and
the life and letters of Paul. It is a marveUous
and reverent exposition of Christ's teaching as
he understands it, and we have the spectacle
of Bemard Shaw bowing his hitherto uncon-
quered head in the presence of the King of
Kings. He has been reading and rereading
the Bible with close attention; he emerges from
its study not only fascinated by the central
figure, but with a sincere belief that only
through following the teachings of Jesus can
society attain salvation. He believes that
Jesus knew more about human nature than
any other person who ever lived; that He knew
not only our diseases, but the remedy for them.
I am not concerned here with the truth or
error of the religious interpretations respectively
put forth by Mr. WeUs, Mr. Moore, Mr. Shaw;
but only with the plain fact that these three
creative artists have been recently studying
the Bible with extraordinary zeal.

Reading the Bible 21
The Bible contains every form of Uterature
in the highest degree, except humour. The
seriousness of the main theme — ^man's relation
to God — ^and the serious cast of mind charac
teristic of the various writers, forbade the
introduction of anything approaching hilarity.
Yet there are adumbrations of humour here and
there. In Stuart Walker's stage production,
The Book of Job, there are a haU dozen pas
sages or situations that arouse audible risibiUty.
I wish that we were able to interpret as humor
ous the famous passage (Job, XXXI, 35)
<*' behold, my desire is . . . that mine adversary
had written a book." No worse fate could be
wished for one's enemy, as every writer of
books knows only too weU; but although the
verse is often quoted Ughtly, I fear that in the
original there is no pleasantry. I have always
thought that the chronicler in Acts (XII, 18)
intended the puzzlement of the soldiers to be
faintly humorous: "Now as soon as it was day,
there was no smaU stir among the soldiers,
what was become of Peter."
It is difficult to read the foUowing verse in
Proverbs without smiling: "He that blesseth
his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the

22 Reading the Bible
morning, it shaU be counted a curse to him."
And the world-old joke about shrewish women
comes on the heels of the inopportune friend:
"A continual dropping in a very rainy day and
a contentious woman are aUke."
The pessimist who wrote Ecclesiastes ad
mitted that there was a time to laugh, but he
apparently found no time for it himseU. The
Puritans had good authority for their dislike
of laughter, and wei;e f(;)rever citing the thorns^
crackling under the pot. Their view was welT
expressed in Proverbs — "Even in laughter the
, heart is sorrowful."
I cannot recaU any occasion when Our Lord
laughed aloud; but He must have been amused
more than once. I am sure that He wanted to
laugh when the mother of Zebedee's chUdren
fatuously requested that her two sons might
sit, one on His right hand, and one on His left,
in the kingdom. He •settled that question and
calmed the subsequent indignation of the Ten
with divine tact.
Yet if there is Uttle_humour in the Bible,
there is an immense amount of irony. The
Psalms and the Prophetic Books abound with
iUustrations.

Reading the Bible 23
The Bible is fuU of both passion and senti
ment, but it has no sentimentality. It is rather
remarkable that there is, so far as I can re
member, not one touch of false sentiment. In
nearly aU old books, the pathos that drew tears
from contemporary readers often obtains either
smiles or yawns from later generations; but the
scenes of sentiment in the Bible are so deeply
founded on human nature, that they impress
the twentieth century with as much force as in
the time when they were written. Four su
preme instances, out of an uncountable number,
may be given — ^Ulustrating the love of man to
woman, the love of brother to brother, the love
of man to man, and the grief of a father for a
dead son.
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they
seemed imto him but a few days, for the love he had
to her.
In the marveUous story of Joseph and his
brethren, when Joseph saw the lad Benjamin,
his own brother, the situation is enough to tax
the power of the most consummate artist; but
the simpUcity and dignity of the Bible narrative
leave nothing to add, change, or omit.

24 Reading the Bible
And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your
father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet
alive? And they answered, Thy servant our father is
in good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed down
their heads, and made obeisance.
And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Ben
jamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your yoimger
brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said,
God be gracious unto thee, my son.
And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn
upon his brother; and he sought where to weep; and
he entered into his chamber, and wept there.
When David was informed of the death of
Saul and Jonathan, his lament for the latter is
unsurpassed in Uterature as a tribute to the
strength of men's friendships.
Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their
lives, and in their death they were not divided: they
were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than
lions. . . . How are the inighty fallen in the midst
of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine
high places. I am distressed for thee, my brother
Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been imto me: thy
love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.
When King David awaits the news of the
decisive battle of the civU war, he has only one
question for both messengers. Is the young man

Reading the Bible 25
Absalom safe ? Ahimaaz did not dare to teU the
tmth, when he saw where his master's interest
centered; Cushi repUed with matchless diplo
matic tact, but to no avaU. The king's passion
of grief for his cruel son seemed merely an
enigma to the two messengers, whilst to that
seasoned fighting-hack, Joab, it seemed ridicu
lous and disgusting. But to us it is not only
impressive beyond words, it reveals one of the
quaUties of the king that make us love him.
And the king said unto Cushi, Is the young man
Absalom safe? And Cushi answered, The enemies of
my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do
thee hurt, be as that young man is.
And the king was much moved, and went up to the
chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went,
thus he said, 0 my son Absalom, my son, my son
Absalom! would God I had died for thee, 0 Absalom,
my son, my son!
There is no narrative style superior to that
of the Old Testament historians. They in
cluded everything, both good and bad, never
trying to make an ideaUsed portrait. Now the
most important thing in a king's Ufe, both for
himself and for the weUare of his subjects, is
his moral character. Is it good or bad? This

26 Reading the Bible
statement is given first, for it deserves primacy;
his personal appearance, physical endowments,
accompUshments are aU secondary.
In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of
Ahaziah king of Judah Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began
to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen
years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the
Lord, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of
Nebat, which made Israel to sin; he departed not
therefrom.
Out of these impartiaUy written historical
pages, where one fact soberly foUows another,
individuals leap to life with astonishing vividity.
Agag, going delicately, and saying "Surely
the bittemess of death is past"; the sprinter
Asahel, "light of foot as a wild roe," who
turned not to the right hand nor to the left
from foUowing Abner, and whom Abner re
luctantly slew pushing his spear back at him;
Amasa, treacherously slain by Joab, "Art thou
in health, my brother?" Many characters
Uke the above, to whom only a few lines are
given, are nevertheless unforgettable; whUst
the more important personages, Jehu, Ahab,

Reading the Bible 27
Jezebel, Joab, are as real to us as the leading
figures in American history.
Jonathan has been somewhat obscured by
David, but he was the opposite of a weak
character. He was a fiirst-class fighting man.
It took immense courage to defy a father Uke
Saul, and let it be remembered that when
Saul, in ungovernable passion, threw a javelin
at Jonathan across the dinner-table, Jonathan
showed no fear. The history says, "So Jona
than arose from the table in fierce anger."
As for David himself, he had many sins to
answer for, including murder and adultery in
their most malignant form; yet every one loves
David, for he had a great heart. When Nathan
stood up to him, instead of kiUing the bold
prophet, he admitted his guUt; he was more
interested in the welfare of Absalom than in
the outcome of the rebelUon against his throne;
his attitude toward King Saul was a model of
loyalty and forbearance; his personal magnetism
was so powerful that mighty men loved to
risk their lives for him. Sometimes I think the
finest episode in his career was when he refused
to drink the water brought to him by the three
champions.

28 Reading the Bible
And David longed, and said. Oh that one would
give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem,
that is at the gate! And the three brake through the
host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well
of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and
brought it to David; but David would not drink of it,
but poured it out to the Lord, And said. My God for
bid it me, that I should do this thing; shall I drink
the blood of these men that have put their lives in
jeopardy? for with the jeopardy of their lives they
brought it. Therefore he would not drink it.
John Masefield, the EngUsh poet, in a memo
rable speech made in America in June, 1918,
cited this incident as a parable. He said that
after this great war is over, we shaU feel im-
worthy of using the freedom bought by victory;
for our Uberty wUl come to us through the
sacrifice of heroes.
And if the mature King David is splendid,
the lyric David is one of the most radiant
figures in history. Was there ever a finer
description of a young athlete, than the foUow
ing sketch of David? And remember that the
whole account of his appearance and accom
pUshments is compressed into a part of one
sentence, which is itself only a part of one
Bible verse:

Reading the Bible 29
Cunning in playing, and a inighty valiant man, and
a man of war, and prudent in speech, and a comely
person, and the Lord is with him.
This recommendation was naturaUy enough
for Saul, and he sent for the young harp
player. Although paraphrases of the Bible are usuaUy
weak — I once owned a book that contained
the Gospels told in rime, heaven knows why —
many of the masterpieces of EngUsh Uterature
have been founded directly on the Bible text.
We need to think only of Milton's Samson
Agonistes, and of Browning's Saul. In Brown
ing, David soothes the king by playing the old
tunes of the pasture. Saul was a cowboy; he
was rounding up his father's herd when the
king-hunters came after him; many times amid
the responsibiUties of the monarchy, he must
have been homesick for the free life of the
hiUs. David knew what he was about when
he played pastoral tunes.
The great prophets of Israel exhibited not
only a zeal for righteousness, but plenty of
common sense. I Uke the quiet way in which
they settled minor questions. When EUsha
was plowing, and EUjah cast his mantle on

30 Reading the Bible
him, the youth knew he was caUed to greater
things than farm work, but he asked the man
of God, "Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father
and my mother, and then I wiU foUow thee."
And EUjah replied, "Go back again: for what
have I done to thee?"
And the matter of courtesy toward a reUgious
service in which we do not believe, was settled
once for aU by EUsha. After Naaman had been
cured of leprosy, he told EUsha that of course
the God of Israel was the only true God, and
he would worship Him for the rest of his Ufe.
But he was troubled by a matter that might be
caUed reUgious etiquette. He is going back to
serve his royal master the king of Syria, and
how shaU he behave in the house of Rimmon
where the king worships?
In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that
when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to
worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow
myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down
myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy
servant in this thing. And he said unto him. Go in
peace. Pastoral Uterature, which is a form by itself,
has few good iUustrations in native EngUsh, for

Reading the Bible 3 1
our pastorals from Spenser and William Browne
down to the nineteenth century, are marred by
artificiaUty and indeed by insipidity. I sup
pose the best pastorals in secular Uterature are
the first, those by Theocritus. Yet even the
SiciUan masterpieces are inferior to a specimen
found in the Bible, the book of Ruth. This
wonderful idyl of the farm, told in an impec
cable style by the old Hebrew writer, must
forever remain supreme and unapproachable.
The economy of words is striking; in the narra
tive of David's great-grandmother, there is not
a superfluous sentence. The suppressed passion
in this tale has been felt by all inteUigent
readers; and Keats, with his genius for beauty
of feeling and beauty of tone, has arrested the
lonely figure of Ruth in the grain-field, where
she stands in immortal loveliness Uke the
images on the Greek urn.
Perhaps the self-same song that found a path
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when sick for home.
She stood in tears amid the alien corn.
Epistolary Uterature in the New Testament
reached its climax. There are no letters in the
history of the pen like the letters of John, and

32 Reading the Bible
James, and Peter, and Paul. It would be
difl&cult to improve on James's comment on
pure reUgion, or on his account of that untame-
able creature, the tongue. WhUst the short
letter by Jude is inferior to those vsrritten by the
great four, it contains a description of certain
ungodly men mightUy effective.
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own
shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the black
ness of darkness forever.
Although there are no books in the Bible
cast in the form of a play, there are not many
dramatic elevations in Uterature loftier than
the story of Esther, Haman, and Mordecai; of
Samson, the strongest man in the world, easy
prey to a woman; of Judith and Holof ernes; of
Ahab, Jezebel, and Naboth. These are pure
drama. And in these dramas of terrific passion,
there are natural, homely touches of surprising
reaUsm, that seem as if the events might have
happened yesterday. The night when King
Ahasuerus was wakeful, and after trying every
expedient to induce sleep, finaUy did what so
many of us did some night last week — ^he sat up
in bed and read a book. He merely exercised

Reading the Bible 33
the royal prerogative, and had the book read
to him.
The poetry of the Old Testament — especiaUy
in the books Solomon's Song, Job, Psalms,
Isaiah, — excels in every variety of poetical
expression, ranging from pure lyrical singing to
majestic epic harmonies. The most conven
tional subject for a poem is Spring, and among
the millions of tributes to the mUd air and the
awakening earth, none is more beautiful than
the passage in the Song of Songs.
My beloved spake, and said unto me. Rise up, my
love, my fair one, and come away.
For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing
of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in
our land;
The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the
vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise,
my love, my fair one, and come away. . . .
My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among
the lilies.
Until the day break, and the shadows flee away,
turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young
hart upon the moimtains of Bether.
As Browning began what is perhaps his greatest
work — ^the Pope's speech in the Ring and the

34 Reading the Bible
Book — ^with an aUusion to the story in Esther,
so, in giving the Pope's tribute to the soldier-
saint Caponsacchi, he borrowed some poetry
from Job. It is worth whUe for a moment to
compare the original and Browning's language,
to see what good use Browning made of his
BibUcal knowledge.
Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook? or his
tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his
jaw through with a thorn? . . .
Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou
bind him for thy maidens? . . .
His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a
piece of the nether millstone. . . .
He maketh a path to shine after him; one would
think the deep to be hoary. . . .
He beholdeth all high things; he is a king over all
the children of pride.
Browning, in the Pope's speech, gives some
advice to the teachers of young men. He bids
them remember the strength, passion, and
glory of youth, and not expect to tame ado
lescence with petty formaUsm, or vsdth tiny
devices. And suddenly the thought of Levia
than must have entered his mind, for the Pope
speaks

Reading the Bible 35
Irregular noble 'scapegrace — son the same!
Faulty — and peradventure oiu-s the fault
Who still misteach, mislead, throw hook and line,
Thinking to land leviathan forsooth.
Tame the scaled neck, play with him as a bird.
And bind him for our maidens! Better bear
The King of Pride go wantoning awhile,
Unplagued by cord in nose and thorn in jaw,
Through deep to deep, followed by all that shine.
Churning the blackness hoary; He who made
The comely terror. He shall make the sword
To match that piece of netherstone his heart.
If one reads the book of Psalms straight
through, no matter how fanuliar many pas
sages may be, the glory and splendour of the
majestic poetry wUl come like a fresh revela
tion; and if one wiU read the last three Psalms
aloud, one wiU feel how aU the hymns of sorrow,
deUght, repentance and adoration unite in one
grand universal choms of praise.
Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all
deeps: Fire and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind
fulfilUng his word:
Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:
Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl;
Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all
judges of the earth;
Both yoimg men, and maidens; old men, and chil-

36 Reading the Bible
dren. . . . Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his
sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according
to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with the sound' of the trumpet: praise
him with the psaltery and harp.
Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him
with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon
the high sounding cymbals.
Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.
Praise ye the Lord.
Handel's Messiah is the greatest of aU ora
torios; sometimes I think it is worth aU other
oratorios put together. Handel was an inspired
genius. When he wrote the HaUelujah chorus,
he said he saw the heavens opened and the Son
of God sitting in glory, and I have no doubt he
reaUy did. He was fortunate in being able to
match deathless words with sublime music^
Much of the grandeur of his work is owing to
the poetry, and especiaUy to the parts taken
from the prophet Isaiah. Passages of stem
authority alternate with ineffable tenderness.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain
and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be
made straight, and the rough places plain:

Reading the Bible 37
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all
flesh shall see it together: . . .
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather
the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom,
and shall gently lead those that are with young.
The poetry of the Bible is not only the high
est poetry to be found anywhere in Uterature,
it contains the essence of aU reUgion, so far as
reUgion consists in aspiration. In this way
Job, the Psahns, and Isaiah contain an eternal
element of truth, that no advance in the world's
thought can make obsolete. Through such
poetry rather than through any formal creed,
man is lifted into a communion with the Divine
Spirit. For in these immortal poems, which
express a fundamental and universal passion,
the human soul rises to that elevation which
brings assurance and peace.
The Bible contains not only the finest histor
ical prose, and the finest lyric and epic poetry;
in philosophy, practical wisdom, and poUtical
economy it is also supreme. Modem pessimism,
even in the great artist Schopenhauer, finds
no more beautiful expression than in the book
of Ecclesiastes; and the ancient pessimist has
a better key to the riddle of life than asceticism.

38 Reading the Bible
His conclusion of the whole matter is to fear
God and keep His commandments.
The poUtical economy taught in the Gospels
is not only better for humanity to foUow as a
practical guide, it is more deeply based on fact
than the treatises of John Stuart MiU or any
other classic authority. In the preface to
Androcles and the Lion, Bemard Shaw says
that humanity can never solve the problems
of society, can never arrange the social struc
ture properly, until the teaching of Jesus is
foUowed. He believes that Jesus knew more
about such things than any modem student.
It looks to-day as though all progress was an
attempt, naturaUy through much failure and
frequent relapse, to apply the doctrines of
Jesus Christ. And I think that in four or five
centuries, say, in the year 2500, humanity wiU
be nearer that goal than it is to-day.
Even those who do not beUeve that the
Bible is the revelation of God, wiU admit that
it is the supreme revelation of man. There is
more revelation of man's weakness and strength,
man's capacity for evQ and for good, in the
Bible than can be found in Shakespeare and
aU the dramatists of the world. It is the most

Reading the Bible 39
human of aU books. And it is tme in its de
piction of human nature as naturaUy sinful; it
does not flatter; men are instinctively bad, and
therefore need not palUatives, but regeneration.
The basest deeds of which men and women are
capable are faithfuUy recorded; and the great
est PersonaUty in history clearly set forth.
ReUgion, in its combination of reverence and
conduct, the attitude to God and the attitude
to man, was understood by the old prophets;
they had a passion for spiritual worship and a
passion for right living. When President EUot
was requested by the authorities at Washington
to select a sentence for a conspicuous place in
the great Library, he said there was nothing in
the history of Uterature more worthy than a
pair of lines from the prophet Micah. Accord
ingly there they stand, as true in the twentieth
century as when they were first uttered:
What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly,
and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
The practical wisdom expressed in the book
of Proverbs has not been surpassed by any of
our modem wise men. Nor has it yet become
stale. The wisest men to-day have nothing to

40 Reading the Bible
add in the way of a guide to Ufe, to this coUec-
tion of ancient Jewish wisdom, compiled from
long observation and experience. SensuaUty
is stUl a guidepost to the grave, and a soft
answer stUl turns away wrath. In the midst of
the bewildering changes not only in women's
garments, but in women's activities, the two-
verse sketch in the last chapter of Proverbs
StiU represents the ideal woman:
Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall
rejoice in time to come.
She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her
tongue is the law of kindness.
But of aU the sagacity in this extraordinary
book, the finest both in thought and expression,
is to be found in the penultimate chapter.
After enumerating four inexpUcable problems,
ending charmingly with "the way of a man
with a maid," which has been the stock subject
of the drama and the novel for many centuries,
the aUusion to the adulterous woman seems at
first to be an anti-climax. But a Uttle reflection
convinces us that her seU-satisfaction is after
aU the most inexpUcable thing in the world.
The things which disquieted (exceUent word)

Reading the Bible 41
the earth then, disquiet it now: the servant
reigning, and the handmaid heir to her mistress
are ruining Russia, and disquieting the world;
a fool with a hearty dinner inside his carcass
is insufferable, and an odious woman when she
is married becomes even more offensive. Then
foUow the immortal four iUustrations of wis
dom, unconscious examples of great ideas: the
ants, who can their food in the summer: the
feeble conies, who seek secure shelter; the
locusts, who govern themselves constitution
ally; the ugly spider, who Uves aloft in palatial
surroundings. Good things: — ^Foresight: Se
curity: Cooperation: Aspiration.
For the last sixty years, the chief inteUectual
passion of educated men and women has been
the passion for truth. Never has tmth been so
loved, and foUowed with such devotion. It is
worth remembering that in the first book of
Esdras in the Apocrypha, this passion for truth
was expressed in final and impressive words,
together with a picture of other forces as trae
to-day as then, and in one aspect amazingly
appUcable to the years from 1914 to 1918. The
three young men who competed for the prize
of declaring what- was the strongest thing on

42 Reading the Bible
earth, wrote their opinions in secret, and de
fended them in pubUc. The first wrote. Wine
is the strongest: the second, The king is the
strongest: the third, Women are strongest: but
above all things truth beareth away the victory.
The man who defended the second proposition
might easily have been referring to Kaiser
WUhelm H, and to the organisation of his
forces for war, some for fighting, some for the
conservation of food:
If he bid them make war the one against the other,
they do it; if he send them out against the enemies,
they go, and break down mountains, walls, and towers.
They slay and are slain, and transgress not the
king's commandment; if they get the victory, they
bring all to the king, as well the spoil, as all things else.
Likewise for those that are no soldiers and have
not to do with wars, but use husbandry, when they
have reaped again that which they had sown, they
bring it to the king, and compel one another to bring
tribute to the king. And yet he is but one man: if
he command to kill, they kill; if he coimnand to spare,
they spare;
If he command to smite, they smite; if he command
to make desolate, they make desolate; if he command
to build, they build;
If he command to cut down, they cut down; if he
command to plant, they plant. So aU his people and

Reading the Bible 43
his armies obey him; furthermore he Heth down, he
eateth and drinketh, and taketh his rest:
And these keep watch round about him, neither
may any one depart, and do his own business, neither
disobey they him in anything.
Then the third youth, after a witty and piquant
tribute to the power of women, began to speak
of the tmth.
Wine is wicked, the king is wicked, women are
wicked, and such are all their wicked works; and there
is no truth in them; in their unrighteousness also they
shall perish.
As for the truth, it endureth, and is always strong;
it Uveth and conquereth forevermore. . . .
With her there is no accepting of persons or rewards.
Neither in her judgment is any unrighteousness;
and she is the strength, kingdom, power, and majesty
of all ages.
Blessed be the God of truth.
And with that he held his peace. And all the people
then shouted, and said, Great is truth, and naighty
above all things.
I would give much if I knew the tone of Pilate's
voice, or the expression on his face, or his
particular impelling thought, when he asked
our Lord the question. What is truth? Jesus

44 Reading the Bible
had just spoken of the permanent importance
of tmth. "To this end was I bom, and for this
cause came I into the world, that I should bear
witness unto the truth. Every one that is of
the truth heareth my voice. PUate saith unto
him. What is truth?" and immediately went
out and declared that he found no fault in the
accused person. Bacon begins his first essay
with the words "What is Truth? said jesting
PUate; and would not stay for an answer."
But I am not at aU sure that PUate was jest
ing; in the New Testament narrative, PUate's
bearing was serious and dignified. The PUate
of the Mystery Plays was at times jocose and
it is more than possible that Bacon had the
stage PUate in mind, as Shakespeare had the
stage Herod, though I have never heard this
explanation suggested. Martin Luther, if I
understand him correctly, regarded PUate's
question as coming from a practical poUtician.
What good is truth in an emergency like this?
What you want is not truth; what you need is
some practical scheme to get you out of this
fix. It would be I suppose Uke the complacency
of the "regular" candidate: you may have the
tmth on your side, but I have the delegates.

Reading the Bible 45
Possibly aU PUate meant was to express his
impatience tinctured with dismay, that Jesus,
in such a dangerous moment, should begin
talking about an abstraction Uke tmth. Then
the question would simply mean. What is the
use now of talking about tmth? PUate regarded
Jesus as a harmless dreamer, and yet there was
something puzzUngly impressive about Him.
The Romans, exactly the opposite of the Rus
sians, were eminently practical; pure theory
had Uttle interest for them, and to discuss
an abstract question was at best a waste of
time. Some one has profanely remarked that even
God Himself could not answer PUate's ques
tion. At aU events, it remained unanswered,
and the answer would have been as incompre
hensible to PUate as the kingship of the speaker.
The scene is one of the most dramatic in
Uterature. The powerful Roman official, with
the whole force of the Empire behind him, is
confronted by a quiet figure, unaggressive but
unterrified, the only serene person in the haU.
The words of our Lord are a divine echo of the
famous testimony of the young man in the
Book of Esdras.

46 Reading the Bible
As for the truth, it endureth, and is always strong:
it liveth and conquereth forevermore.
With her there is no accepting of persons or rewards.
Neither in her judgment is any unrighteousness;
and she is the strength, kingdom, power and majesty of
all ages.
The impotence of physical force to destroy
truth has been proved many times, but it is a
fact always impressive in retrospect. History
is fuU of dramatic contrasts. After reading
the scurrilous attacks made by Aristophanes
on Socrates, one cannot help thinking to-day
that the figure of the dramatist, piteously
begging the Athenians for the prize, contrasts
harshly with the soUtaiy grandeur of Socrates
standing before his accusers, perfectly calm in
the contemplation of the grave. And the con
trast between the friendless prisoner and the
mighty Roman, who imagined he had final
power over Him, imposes itself on every one
who reads the Gospel narrative. I came into
the world to bear witness unto the truth. This
is God's world, not the Roman's nor the Jew's;
He rules it. I die on the cross; but tmth,
honour, moraUty do not die; my death is a wit
ness for aU time to the supremacy of Tmth.

n
ST. PAUL AS A LETTER-WRITER
THE fact that I have never studied theology
or New Testament interpretation gives
me a possible advantage in the darkness of
ignorance. In one of the stories of Captain
Manyat, an untrained man was compeUed to
fight a duel with swords against a trained
opponent; his skillful antagonist, expecting the
usual formal thrust and parry, was kiUed on
the first lunge. So, in grasping the sword of the
Spirit, I find myseU unhampered by any theo
logical or textual code. No one regrets my
lack of learning more than I; but my method
at aU events has the advantage of simpUdty.
I shaU take up the letters of Paul as I take up
the letters of Emerson, and read them as ex
amples of epistolary Uterature. I have no
theory to estabUsh and no systematic doctrine.
At what date each letter was written, what
corruptions if any have corroded the text,
whether Paul wrote aU or only some of them,
47

48 Reading the Bible
are for the moment questions of minor impor
tance; what we know for certain is that we have
before us, in the incomparable EngUsh of 1611,
a coUection of letters which discuss everything
of human interest from God to overcoats,
which reveal a brilliant, passionate personaUty,
and which have had a prodigious effect on the
development of the Anglo-Saxon race.
Dante, MUton, Bunyan have each and aU
helped to shape our conceptions of God, of the
future, of sin and salvation; but the formative
influence of Paul's letters has been and stiU is
greater than that of these three writers com
bined. Paul arrived exactly on time to aid in
the spread of the Christian reUgion; for he was
both a phUosopher and a man of action. He
was a profound thinker and a persuasive advo
cate. He was devoted to introspection and
Uked to travel. His love of metaphysics did
not prevent him from being a successful advance
agent of Christianity, carrying with him every
where an excellent sample of the article he
wished to distribute. His letters are fuU of
pure and appUed reUgion. He deals especiaUy
with the practical problems that confront
young students — the temptations of the mind

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 49
and the temptations of the body. He has been
weU caUed the "coUege man's apostie."
The year of his birth is not known, but he
was probably about the same age as Jesus, for
at the stoning of Stephen, he is caUed a young
man. That might mean anything from seven
teen to thirty-five. The rather important role
he played in persecutions would seem to indi
cate manhood. On the other hand, the fact
that at the murder of Stephen he took care of
the clothes, just as smaU boys to-day hold coats
for their big brothers, would indicate youth;
and his zeal in persecution would harmonise
with mental immaturity. I like to think of him
as younger than Jesus, and I think of Jesus as
forever young.
Paul was bom at Tarsus, in CiUcia, in Asia v
Minor. It was a city of importance, both for
its commercial industry and for its learning.
Paul has every mark of being city bred; there
is nothing provincial about his way of thought.
The union in Tarsus of Greek culture with
Yankee enterprise was typical of Paul's own
temperament. His father was a Jew, and
belonged to the narrowest sect of the Pharisees,
so that probably Paul was educated as sternly

50 Reading the Bible
and strictiy as our Puritan ancestors in New
England. In austerity and alertness, he was a
combination of Jonathan Edwards and Ben
jamin Franklin. His father was a Roman
citizen; and so Paul was a free-bom Roman as
weU as a Jew, a privUege which gave him ft
trump card in the game of life.
He seems to have made a journey to Jerusa
lem, with the intention of becoming a Rabbi;
and in order to maintain himseU whUe study
ing — analogous to the modem custom of work
ing one's way through coUege — ^he learned the
trade of a tent-maker, at which he turned many
an honest penny in later years. Thus early he
displayed the passion for righteousness and the
passion for business characteristic of his race.
Jerusalem was the centre of Jewish learning;
and the ambitious boy was fortunate in study
ing under a famous professor, GamaUel. Al
though this wise man had a reputation for
tolerance, Paul became a narrow and bitter
Jewish partisan. Yet as every good teacher
sows seed that sometimes comes to fruition
only after many years, who knows but that in
the marveUous words of Paul on Charity, we
behold the green leaves of old GamaUel?

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 51
The curriculum, like that of Oxford and
Cambridge in the eighteenth century, was not
broad, but it was decidedly intensive. It knew
Uttie of the elective system. It consisted of a
study of the Old Testament, with commentaries
thereupon. Paul obtained a sound and accu
rate knowledge of the Scriptures, which he
turned to account in his later work among the
Jews. His Letters abound in Biblical quota
tions. Paul was graduated from Jemsalem a zealous,
learned Jew. What does this mean? It means
that he beUeved the only way to righteousness
was to keep in detaU the Jewish law; not only
its moral precepts, but its technical formaUties.
This explains why Paul was so bitter against
the dead Jesus and His foUowers. Like an
orthodox party man in church and politics, he
viewed with alarm the teachings of the disciples
of Jesus, for he believed them to be not only
heretical, but subversive, revolutionary. And
his instinct, whether commendable or not, was
correct; they were exactiy what he thought
they were, irreconcUable with the religious and
social order in which he was brought up. A
cardinal idea in the teachings of Jesus is that

52 Reading the Bible
righteousness is a matter of the heart; forms
and ceremonies are relatively unimportant.
The coolness with which the greatest Demo
crat of aU time jettisoned the cargo of orthodox
ordinances caused priests to hold up their
hands in horror. Paul was convinced that
the Christian sect must be exterminated; and
he gazed admiringly at the torture of Stephen,
feeling certain of the approval of Jehovah.
WhUe seeking fresh worlds to conquer, he
learned that the Christian disease had broken
out in Damascus; he obtained credentials
from the high priest, and started for that city,
his object being to arrest and carry to Jeru
salem aU the criminals he could catch. When
he came near Damascus, he saw a great Ught,
and was converted. From the Christian point
of view, what happened to him was natural
enough; man does not always seek God, but God
is forever seeking man, the sole object of the
appearance of Christ on earth. The Hound of
Heaven was on his traU, and caught him on the
broad road to disaster.
Paul was not the man to do anything by
halves. As soon as he was baptised, he became
active, beginning with his neighbours in Damas-

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 53
cus, preaching for the new cause with the old
vigour. The Jews naturaUy regarded him as a
traitor, the inevitable fate of one who changes
his convictions on any question of general
concern. He escaped to Jerusalem, and had to
escape from it. After his flight, he went back
to his native town and stayed there for years.
He seems to have Uved quietly, but was evi
dently not forgotten, because Barnabas came
after him, brought him to Antioch, and there
the two friends worked together for twelve
months. Antioch was a large and famous city, and the
new faith took such hold there that the disci
ples in this place were first called Christians.
Paul now went on a missionary journey,
with Barnabas. He meant to work mainly
among the Jews, but he received such cold
treatment that he turned more and more to
others, and thus after this joumey he became
the great apostle to the GentUes. When the
two men started out, it was Bamabas and
Paul; when they returned, it was Paul and
Bamabas. Paul's supremacy as a Christian
preacher has never been chaUenged from that
day to this.

54 Reading the Bible
Not only were many individuals converted
to Christianity, but churches were foundfed;
and by visiting them again on the way home,
Paul succeeded in estabUshing them more
firmly. On the second missionary joumey,
Paul went over into Europe, planting the faith
in Western civUisation. The result of this
expedition exceeded his wUdest dreams, for he
actuaUy changed the currents of Western
thought, and we are aU different to-day from
what we should have been had he restricted
his wanderings. It was on this trip that he
met Dr. Luke, and thus we get our account of
Paul in the Acts of the Apostles. Obtaining
Uttle success with either the Jews or the edu
cated Athenians, he came more and more into
contact with the poor and lowly GentUes,
giving him much valuable training in clear
exposition, and in knowledge of human nature.
Paul's lack of success with the cultivated
Greeks is only what might have been expected.
Browning has dramaticaUy voiced it in the
poem Cleon. The inteUectual poet is vexed at
the king's curiosity about an itinerant pedlar
of reUgion. Yet though Cleon's armour of
culture is impenetrable, he is a witness to the

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 55
rising tide of Christianity, making its way
among the downtrodden and oppressed.
Thou canst not think a mere barbarian Jew
As Paulus proves to be, one circumcised, ^
Hath access to a secret shut from us?
Thou wrongest our philosophy, O King,
In stooping to inquire of such an one.
As if his answer could impose at all!
He writeth, doth he? Well, and he may write.
Oh, the Jew findeth scholars! certain slaves
Who touched on this same isle, preached him and Christ ;
And (as I gathered from a bystander)
Their doctrine could be held by no sane man.
During the second missionary joumey, Paul
wrote the two letters to the Thessalonians,
which were probably composed at Corinth.
His third missionary joumey included a
fifth visit to Jemsalem. At Ephesus, the me-
tropoUs of Asia Minor, Paul remained three
years, fighting Paganism. Here he met the
orator ApoUos, who was one of the disciples of
John the Baptist; and whose vigour in preaching
showed that John's influence had not been cut
off so easUy as his head. The difference be
tween the eloquence of ApoUos and the elo
quence of Paul was the same that, according to

56 Reading the Bible
Mommsen, separated the eloquence of Cicero
from the eloquence of Caesar. That of the
former was characterised by rounded periods;
that of the latter, by deeply-felt thought.
On his third joumey Paul seems to have
written the two letters to the Corinthians, the
letter to the Galatians, and to the Romans.
Why he undertook the fifth joumey to Jem
salem with such eagemess we hardly know.
He had coUected some money for the poor
there, and perhaps wished to distribute it in
person. Nearly sixty years old, worn out with
almost incredible hardships, he met with
prophets of evU along the road, who vainly
tried to dissuade him from his purpose. He
reached Jerusalem at the Feast of the Pentecost,
a time when crowds of Jews had flocked to the
Holy City. Excitement was mnning high;
many of the pUgrims came from places where
they had heard the new evangeUst, and when
they saw him in Jerusalem, their anger knew
no bounds. Paul could not reasonably com
plain of their treatment; for that was just
the method he had used with seditious
Christians. In Cesarea Paul remained two years in cap-

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 57
tivity, one of the best things that ever happened
to him. He needed rest, and the only way he
could get it was by going to jaU. During this
enforced idleness, his mind was active, as sub
sequent letters show. He might have been set
at Uberty at once, for Felix the Roman knew
weU enough that Paul was no criminal. Prob
ably Felix hoped that a bribe would be offered,
but Paul was not the kind of man to buy his
way out of prison. If he had not been a Roman
citizen, he would have been treated more
harshly. His Jewish enemies watched him as
a cat would watch a mouse in a cage. As soon
as Felix was succeeded by Festus, they eagerly
besought the new official to give him up. But
Paul appealed to Caesar, which left nothing for
Festus to do but to send him to Rome. Paid
had always wanted to go to Rome, and here
was a chance to travel thither at the expense
of the state.
It is interesting to remember what exceUent
and fair-minded Roman officials appear in the
New Testament. PUate displayed considerable
wisdom and courage; GalUo refused to bother
himself with sectarian controversies, being en
gaged in the business of governing the people,

58 Reading the Bible
and having no time for petty affairs; Felix,
Festus, and Lysias were sensible and humane.
Eling Agrippa, in whose presence Paul was
tried, was what Bemard Shaw would caU a
rubber-stamp King; an empty title, for he had
Uttie power, and even his thinking was done
for him, as is stiU the fortunate custom in
constitutional monarchies. This was no ju
dicial trial, but rather a parlour performance,
which Festus arranged for the entertainment
of his guest.
At Rome Paul remained two years, Uving in
practical freedom, although accompanied al
ways by one soldier, who, I dare say, was often
an agreeable companion. He preached and
conversed, making many conquests among the
GentUes, among the Roman soldiers who
guarded him, and even among Caesar's house
hold. He lived in his own hired house, and
seems to have passed his days in cheerful
activity. What became of him after this ex
perience, nobody knows.
Every now and then the course of Uterature
is disturbed by the appearance of a man who
is something more and something greater than

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 59
a Uterary artist; some one is bom who feels
within him the voice of a prophetic mission.
Such a person was Socrates: such a person was
Thomas Carlyle. These men exert an influence
on the history of thought merely by opening
their mouths and talking. So great a master
of oral speech was Carlyle that I feel sure that
with a gifted amanuensis, he could have af
fected the modem world deeply had he never
put pen to paper. Socrates talked to a few
friends in Athens and people of aU nations stiU
listen to him eagerly. The supreme iUustra-
tion is our Lord, whose brief addresses and
intimate conversations have changed the history
of the world. Everything must have a begin
ning; and the Christian reUgion began in the
word made flesh and remade into the Uving
word. Paul reUed on oratory so long as the
Church remained within narrow geographical
limits; but when, owing to his various jour
neys, the new faith spread far and wide,
he was naturaUy forced into epistolary ac
tivity. No letters have ever been so influential as
these; for although they were written to par
ticular groups at particular times and for

6o Reading the Bible
particular reasons, thousands and thousands
of men and women in the twentieth century
read them as if they were addressed directly to
themselves. In everything except length, these letters
are more like letters of to-day than like the
poUshed literary efforts of the eighteenth
century. Gray, Walpole, Cowper wrote famU-
iar epistles in beautifuUy elaborate EngUsh,
and often with conscious rhetorical effort;
to-day, as some one has said, we do not write
letters, we write only telegrams. Very few
business or personal letters show any care for
mere style; even the many letters written to
the newspapers show less interest in the art of
phrasing than the private correspondence of
our New England forefathers.
It is often said that cheap postage is the
cause of the degeneration of epistolary style;
but it is not cheap postage, it is rather the lack
of time that makes it difficult to write a good
letter. The reason why journalism is a syno
nym for bad writing is not because the journal
ists do not know how to write, it is because they
never have time to consider their sentences;
hence they dress thought in ready-made clothes,

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 6i
Uke "aU was bustle and confusion," "duU,
sickening thud," and that famiUar headline
X LAUDS Y
containing a verb one never hears and seldom
sees outside of the newspapers. It is an inter
esting fact that just as the invention of labour-
saving machinery meant the employment of
more men in production instead of less, so the
invention of time-saving devices always leaves
those who use them with less leisure than
before. Man has never been so busy as he is
now, when he talks through a telephone, dic
tates to a stenographer, and travels in aiv
automobUe. Paul's Uterary style, except at moments of
exaltation, lacks grace and fiiush; it is clumsy,
involved, twisted. Sometimes it winds itself
up in many folds, like a boa constrictor; some
times it is as brittle as a Western Union night
letter. These faults must be charged to him,
and not to his EngUsh translators; the original
loses nothing in the version of 1611.
Paul was too busy to spend much time on
the style of these epistles; they were written at
various places, in moments snatched from days

62 Reading the Bible
and nights of chronic activity. Possibly when
he wrote "The night is far spent, the day is at
hand," the actual dawn was breaking, and from
the streets sounded the songs of home-going
drunken reveUers. They are offhand and im
promptu, composed under the exigency of some
crisis in the particular church he was try
ing to strengthen in the new faith. His cus
tom was to dictate, and then when he signed
his name, to add a few words in his own writing.
The letters form no distinct body of articulated
doctrine; the theologians who came after him
tried with more or less success to codify his
rules. Paul evidently meant to settie special
cases as they came up — and he settied them
aU, not by the old laws, but by the new idea of
universal love.
What his style loses in finish and grace, it
gains in vivacity and vigour. The style has
behind it the impeUing force of white-hot
sincerity. OccasionaUy it rises to vertiginous
heights. What are now caUed the thirteenth
and the fifteenth chapters of the first letter to
the Corinthians are peaks of such lofty grandeur
that they tower above everything else in the
world's Uterature except the actual words of

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 63
Jesus in the Gospels. The eminence of Jesus
in Uterary art is as unique as his eminence in
moraUty. After one has read aU the letters of Paul, the
character of the writer appears with clearness.
Although he adapted each letter to the partic
ular needs of the recipients, the letters taken
together reveal a portrait vivid enough to
arouse the envy of John Sargent. We get a
better idea of the true nature of the apostle
from these letters than we do from the account
in the Acts written by Luke, and the doctor was
an exceUent chronicler. Schopenhauer said
that we can obtain a more accurate conception
of the character of a man by reading one of his
letters than we can from a personal interview.
Most men in Schopenhauer's day wore beards;
and the great pessimist said the beard was
intended by nature to conceal the mouth, the
one feature of the face that betrayed the inten
tions of its owner. He added that with women
beards were unnecessary; for with them, dis
simulation was inbom.
The first letter to the Thessalonians was
written at Corinth, during the second mission
ary joumey, and perhaps either in the year 50

64 Reading the Bible
or 52. Thessalonica, or as it is more tragicaUy
known in the twentieth century, Saloniki, had
been visited by Paul just before he made his
visit to Athens and Corinth. In this latter
city SUas and Timothy came to see him, bring
ing the latest news from Thessalonica; and he
was prompted therefore to write the earUest of
his letters which have come down to us. The
second letter was probably written a few
months after the first, whUe Paul was stiU at
Corinth. He wrote it to correct some misunder
standings that had been caused by the preced
ing epistie, chiefly with regard to the Second
Advent. At that time Greece was divided into two
parts — Macedonia and Achaia. Thessalonica
was the capital and chief city of Macedonia.
It was a highly important town, and partic
ularly important then and now, as a seaport.
One of the chief manufactures was and is the
making of goat's-hair cloth. This enabled
Paul to find steady employment during his
sojourn there.
He begins the letter in his usual diplomatic
fashion by congratulating them heartUy on the
exceUence of their work, for which he thanks

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 65
God. He exhorts them to refrain from sensu-
aUty, and to become good citizens; and then
he speaks of the second coming of Christ,
warning them to be ever on guard, Uke faithful
sentinels. The aU but universal antipathy to
hard work caused the Thessalonians to argue,
that if Christ was coming again so soon, there
was no particular reason for industry of any
sort; and a second letter became necessary, in
which he told them not to be weary in weU
doing. After he had finished dictating the
letter, he added in his own writing,
The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which
is the token in every epistle: so I write. The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
The Thessalonians were not the only people
who used the imminence of the second coming
as an excuse for shirking work. During the
famous Dark Day in Connecticut, May 19,
1780, a group of legislators were assembled in
Hartford, to transact business for the Common
wealth. When the darkness deepened, most
of the statesmen were terrified, and some feU
on their knees. I have always admired one
man, who spoke out loud and bold, saying,

66 Reading the Bible
"This is either the second coming of Christ or
it is not; if it is not, we are aU making fools out
of ourselves. If it is, the Lord cannot find us
in any better attitude than attending to the
work for which we are here. I move that the
candles be brought in, and that we proceed to
business." The two letters to the Corinthians were
probably written during the third missionary
joumey, in 57 or 58 or possibly earUer. The
first he wrote at Ephesus, the second at PhU-
ippi or in some part of Macedonia. Only a
few months came between the two, and there
is apparently a third letter which is lost. As
we have seen, Paul was at Corinth some five
years previous to the composition of these
episties. In 57 and 58 he was at Ephesus,
where he was visited by a deputation from
Corinth, bringing him news from the local
church; and he sent a letter back with them.
In the missing letter, he had made a severe
attack on sensuaUty, the besetting sin of Cor
inth, as everyone knows. This sin had actuaUy
been made a form of worship, and the church
needed some rather emphatic language from
Paul on the subject, and got it.

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 67
One of the most interesting things in this
great letter is the picture it gives of the apos-
toUc church, often held up by zealots as a
model for twentieth-century imitation. This
early church was no Paradise, and if it existed
in New York to-day, would probably be sup
pressed by the poUce. Some of the church-
members Uved opeiUy dissolute Uves; they
fought each other in the courts; they were
quarrelsome, lustful, avaricious, and glutton
ous; misunderstanding the institution of the
Lord's Supper, some of them got drunk at the
Communion table. Nous avons change tout
cela, and stUl there is room for improvement.
Those of us who, Uke myself, are sore dis
tressed by the weaknesses and imperfections
of the modem Church of Christ, and stiU more
by its lack of the quaUties of leadership in the
world's social organisation, ought to remember
that although the Founder of Christianity was
divine, the Church is neither more nor less than
human. It is as human as a poUtical party.
It is the result of human effort to foUow and
imitate a Divine Example, and is naturaUy
therefore far from ideal. It contains, like any
poUtical combination, men and women of the

68 Reading the Bible
highest type, and also some that help to dis
grace it in the eyes of outsiders. If the majority
of its members were not better than the average
of those without its pale, and if its influence in
society were not on the whole an elevating one,
it would be a complete instead of a partial
faUure. But its history is inspiring. The
Church has purged itseU of many cmelties,
sins, and foUies as it has climbed upward
through the centuries. Yet to-day it is true to
say that the organisation stiU needs the teach
ings of Jesus and the letters of Paid; and the
best thing about it is that both Jesus and Paul
find in the hearts of priests, ministers, and
lay-workers a more immediate response than
in any other group of men or women. As
Browning says, This it is to have to do
With honest hearts: they easily may err.
But in the main they wish well to the truth.
You are Christians; somehow, no one ever plucked
A rag, even, from the body of the Lord,
To wear and mock with, but, despite himself,
He looked the greater and was the better.
We must not expect too much of the Church.
When we remember that the teachings of its

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 69
Founder and Chief Apostle are directly opposed
to human instincts, the wonder is that any real
progress has been made. And I beUeve that in
some thousands of years the Christians may be
in the majority instead of in their present
minority. The Corinthian Church submitted aU sorts
of questions to Paul as referee. How about
marriage — the gift of tongues (I imagine there
were many fakers) — the position of women —
the relations of church-members with out
siders? It needed not only wisdom on Paul's
part to settle these disputed points, it required
some patience; and I suspect he wrote the
famous words on Charity as much to help
himseU as for those who were just learning to
walk in the new and difficult road. After a
careful explanation of the situation, together
with a persuasive plea for hearty cooperation
in which he used the metaphor of the human
body, he said he would show them a more
exceUent way. This way is not the way of the
law; it is not based on a system of rules, or
petty prohibitions; it is the way of the Gospel,
the way of affectionate sympathy. It is a pity
that the nineteenth-century revisers changed

70 Reading the Bible
the old seventeenth-century word charity into
the too general word love. They changed it
because "charity" had come commonly to
mean cheque-signing. For what Paul meant is
clearly the necessity of charity for the minds
of others, for their points of view, for their
weaknesses, and misunderstandings. If we
have this divine gift of charity, we shaU have
the key to human nature and the key to the
reUgious Ufe; we shaU have the greatest thing
in the world. As Henry Drummond used to
say, it is significant that the thirteenth chapter
of First Corinthians, was written, not by John,
but by Paul. It gains in eloquence, it gains in
intensity, by being the reasoned view of a man
who had originaUy little of this article of charity
in his nature, and who owed aU he had to the
grace of God. It was his experience of human
ity that taught him the overwhelming necessity
of this virtue.
What a pity that our Puritan ancestors, who
exhibited so bravely the sterner sides of the
Christian faith, never agreed with Paul that
Charity was greater than either faith or hope!
It would have saved their own souls — ^which in
many cases acutely needed the remedy they so

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 71
eamestiy advertised — ^and it would have made
their reverberating pulpit oratory resemble
something other than sounding brass.
After advising the Corinthians to insist on
decency and order — two things of which they
had only an elementary conception — ^Paul
suddenly rises to the heights of sublimity in
speaking of the resurrection of Christ, and of
our assured victory over death and the grave.
A party in the church, under the influence of
Greek teaching, had denied the Resurrection,
even as some ministers deny it now. Paul
showed that it was the fundamental basis of
the Christian faith; without it, we are of aU
men most miserable, not because the Christian
life is valuable only for its future reward, but
because we should aU have been guUed; and
there is perhaps no man on earth more pitiable
than one who is deluded.
To affirm no resurrection of the dead, wrote
Paul, is to deny Christ's resurrection, and thus
to destroy the edifice of Christianity. Gnostic
speculation grew Uke a fungus around the
trunk of the tree of faith; starting with the
idea that matter had always evU in it, the
Gnostics claimed that if the body rises again,

72 Reading the Bible
it must stiU contain evU. Paul is replying to
these objections in his remark about the spirit
ual body. He appeals also to the witnesses
that actuaUy saw Christ. AU that he says is
StiU persuasive, stUl eloquent, except his argu
ment, "what shaU they do which are baptised
for the dead, if the dead rise not at aU? Why
are they then baptised for the dead? " It is to
be hoped that this point seemed more impor
tant to Corinthians than it does to Americans;
there then prevaUed in the Corinthian church
the curious, and as it seems to me, sUly custom
of baptising Uving persons for some who had
died without baptism. Paul seems to have
beUeved in the efficacy of this superstitious
rite. It is important to understand the meaning
of the word mystery in the phrase, "Behold, I
shew you a mystery." In the seventeenth
century this word often meant secret, — and
what Paul is saying is not "I am about to
exhibit some hocus-pocus," but rather, as we
say to an expectant chUd, "I'U teU you a
secret." The conclusion, as always with Paul, is
practical rather than mystical. Don't let

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 73
Greek phUosophy and paganism unsettie your
minds. Have soUd convictions. Remain stead
fast. Keep busy.
It is a good thing for the early churches that
they had for leader one who was not only a
man of God but a man of sense. What would
have become of them if they had had as their
spiritual adviser somebody like A. Bronson
Alcott? Or the monk Rasputin? Think what
a following Rasputin would have had in Cor
inth! The second letter to the Corinthians was
written immediately after meeting Titus in
Macedonia, who brought him the latest news
from Corinth. This letter is a hot defense
against accusations that a faction in the
church had made against Paul.
No one knows where the letter to the Gala
tians was written, but the time seems to have
been during the third missionary joumey, per
haps either in 57 or 58. This letter is unique
among his works, being written not to one
church, but to aU the churches in Galatia. On
the second missionary joumey, Paul had trav
eled through that country, founding churches;
on the next trip he went through Galatia again,

74 Reading the Bible
and became alarmed at the fickleness and
instabiUty of the flock. Now whUe he was at
Ephesus or at Corinth — ^it reaUy doesn't matter
which — ^he received news that the Jew faction
had nearly ruined the Galatian churches, and
were cleverly undermining Paul's teachings.
This made him both alarmed and indignant,
and he immediately dictated this fiery missive.
It is an important letter, for its purpose — apart
from reUeving his mind — ^was not to give gen
eral advice, but to settie a fundamental ques
tion. Whether he settled it for the Galatians
or not, we shaU never know; but he certainly
settied it for the general body of Christians
from that day to this, whether they Uve in
Cape Town or in Michigan. This letter there
fore may be considered epoch-making in the
development of Christianity — ^both in theory
and in practice. The question was the same
one that made trouble for Paul on his previous
journeys and in aU his early preaching. Should
GentUes who became converted be compeUed
to conform to the Jewish law, including cir
cumcision and other detaUs? Three different
views were held: the Judaistic party insisted on
the strictest conformation; the regular aposties

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 75
took a middle course, foUowing the law them
selves, but not compelUng the GentUes to do
so; Paul, who always belonged to the extreme
left, insisted that the law was of no consequence
whatever; beUeving in Christ fulfiUed the law
and hence made it obsolete. Paul's doctrine
was so radical,, so clear, and so influential that
it ultimately enabled Thomas Carlyle to speak
Ughtly of the Ten Commandments.
The attitude of the apostle explains the
hatred which the Hebrew party had for him,
and their persistent efforts toward undercut
ting his teaching in every church founded by
him. No sooner had the sound of his eloquence
ceased in the new communities, than the Jews
began their countermine. It is not necessary
to suppose that their work was done by men
sent from Jemsalem; the Jew faction existed
everywhere. In the Galatian churches, the Jews had made
an impression on the people chiefly by three
arguments. First, that Paul was not a genuine
apostle, but an unauthorised demagogue. They
felt no more bound by him than a twentieth-
century Episcopal bishop feels bound by the
theology of BiUy Sunday. Second, that the

76 Reading the Bible
Jewish Law was sacred and divine — Christ
himself being the Messiah, not of the GentUes,
but of the Jews. Third, that Paul's attitude
towcird the Law meant absolute Ucense, the
destmction of holiness. No doubt the Jews
were sincere in this.
To these three powerful arguments the letter
to the "fooUsh Galatians" was addressed. It
is a masterpiece of force, knocking down every
shelter his enemies erected. The epistle may
be divided into three parts: a defense of his
credentials, the exaltation of Christ over the
law, a vindication of the ethical value of Uberty.
The world has yet much to learn about the
value of this third idea, and has lately been
engaged upon a universal war in the endeavour
to settle it once for aU.
Paul is so excited that he forgets or neglects
his usual custom of beginning with congratula
tions; contrariwise, he rebukes the church-
members sharply, pronouncing a curse on those
who teach any other gospel than that of Christ.
He said he had not hesitated to rebuke Peter
face to face for his cowardly yielding to Jewish
pubUc opinion. Soon he tries to carry his own
point by a brilUant flank attack. He starts

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 77
with the premisses of his antagonists, boldly
claiming Abraham as a witness to his own side
of the case, even as Lessing, in another con
troversy, claimed that the Uberty-loving Shake
speare was reaUy a better foUower of Aristotie
than the classicists who condemned him. If
you belong to Christ, you are the trae heir of
Abraham; U you stand by the law, you are his
bond-servant, not his free son.
The conclusion of the letter is a magnificent
defense of spiritual Uberty. Instead of freedom
meaning license, it creates a better character
than can be formed by the Law. The tme sons
of Christ need no set of rules; by following Him
they wiU produce the fruits of the Spirit, which
are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control:
with these Paul contrasts the fruits of the
flesh, that is, the results of the condition of
man before the tmth has made him free; and
we have an impressive but not exaggerated
roU-caU of deadly sins.
In a bitter sarcasm, the apostle says that he
wishes the sticklers for circumcision would go
a little farther, and cut themselves off the
earth.

78 Reading the Bible
God is greater than the moral code; in re
leasing ourselves from a troublesome Ust of
formaUties, we are more than ever bound to
obey the great natural law of Ufe — ^whatsoever
a man soweth, that wiU he also reap.
As usual. Paid closes the letter with a few
words in his own writing. He is so deeply
moved by the condition of the Galatians, re
garding them as bewitched, that he writes the
postscript as it were in capitals, making even
the shape of the words emphatic. "See with
how large letters I have written unto you with
mine own hand." And then, with that superb
combination of spirituality and common sense,
he brushes away forever the cobwebs of ritu
alism, centering aU his force on the one supreme
thing, the thing that reaUy makes the difference
between slavery and freedom: "for neither is
circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but
a new creature."
The importance of the letter to the Galatians
can hardly be overestimated; it settied forever
what should be the essential element of Chris
tianity. Paul's words are needed in the twenti
eth century: they stiU form the best answer
to those who seek salvation through elaborate

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 79
ceremonies or through elaborate dogmas. Tme
character must be formed within, springing
from cheerful obedience to the spirit of Christ's
teaching. The letter to the Romans was probably
written in the year 58 and from Corinth, whUe
he was on his third missionary joumey. This
great epistle was directed to a community that
Paul had never seen. He had always wanted
to go to Rome, and whUe at Corinth he was
nearer to Rome than to Jemsalem. He re
garded Rome as the centre of the civUised
world, and wished to conquer this citadel for
Christ. He contemplated making a long West-
em trip, including Spain, and wanted to make
Rome a base of operations. His zest for Rome
was sharpened by the fact that he was a free-
bom Roman citizen. It would have interested
him considerably could he have looked into the
future, and beheld Rome as the centre not
merely of civUisation, but of the Church of
Christ. Phoebe, a Christian woman, was about to
start for Rome, and she may have carried this
letter. Paul dictated the epistle in Greek, the
stenographer being Tertius, who naively added

So Readmg the Bible
a line himseU. At the close there are many
individual greetings; a long Ust of names is
given, and Tertius, not wishing to be omitted,
inserted "I, Tertius, who write the epistie,
salute you in the Lord."
This letter was to prepare the Roman Church
for Paul's coming visit; but unfortunately we
know nothing of the condition of the organisa
tion, and the letter does not teU us definitely.
Were they mainly Jews or GentUes? We do
not know. It is possible that the two parties
were openly hostile, and Paul wished to unite
them. The main aim of the letter is fairly clear.
Paul, knowing that he was about to reach the
centre of the Western world, wished to make
evident to the GentUes the nature of his free
Gospel. They must understand that they had
fuUy as much right to Christianity as the Jews.
His letter is accordingly a platform of Chris
tianity, both in theory and practice.
He seems to have taken more pains than
usual in composition; writing to those whom
he had not seen, he studied the principles of
cleamess and concUiation. The keynote is
Justification by Faith. AU, both Jews and

St. Paul as a Letter- Writer 8i
GentUes, are equaUy justified by faith. The
Jews may think themselves safe because they
have the law: yet not having the law, but keep
ing it, is the important thing. Even in that
there is no dean righteousness, hence Jews and
Gentiles both stand in need of the grace of God.
Considering Paul's rough treatment from the
Jews, and the way they had insidiously attacked
him in the Galatian churches, one might natu
raUy expect that in this letter he would furiously
assaU them. On the contrary, his tone toward
the Jews is affectionate. His heart bleeds for
his brethren; he even says he could wish himself
damned for their sakes. He writes that they
have a great natural advantage over the Gen
tiles, because they have been entrusted with
the oracles of God. But the core of the letter
is this: aU men are alike condemned by the
advent of Christ in the world, and aU must have
faith in Him to be saved.
Have Paul's ideas undergone a process of
development? Yes. He says Uttie about the
second coining, which occupied so much space
in the letters to the Thessalonians. The seventh
and eighth chapters reveal his amazing skiU
as an expounder of the theory of sin and re-

82 Reading the Bible
demption; the tweUth chapter reveals him as
a master-guide toward the elevation of daUy
conduct. Whatever may be thought of Paul's knowl
edge of the nature of Christ, there can be no
doubt of his profound acquaintance with the
nature of man. Every man, woman, and chUd
wUl find the seventh chapter an accurate mirror
of the human heart. When Faust told Wagner
that he had two souls within him, one Ufting
him aloft and the other dragging him down,
he was simply making a poetic paraphrase of
the immortal analysis by Paul. The foUowing
words might serve as a truthful autobiography
for anybody: "What I would, that do I not:
but what I hate, that do I." It is just as certain
that the human mind recognises Tmth, Beauty,
and Goodness as desirable goals, as it is certain
that the instincts of human nature puU in the
opposite directions.
The four letters to the PhiUppians, to the
Colossians, to PhUemon, and to the Ephesians,
are sometimes caUed the Prison Episties, be
cause it is thought that they were written whUe
Paul was under detention at Rome. His im
prisonment there probably lasted from 62 to

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 83
64. Paul had visited PhiUppi during the second
missionary joumey in 51-54. It was the first
city in Europe in which he preached, and
although he had been persecuted, his work was
highly successful. This was where Paul and
Silas were jaUed, and their conduct during the
earthquake — ^like that of the Salvation Army
on the sinking steamer — caused some immediate
conversions. PhiUppi was then a Roman city:
hence the famous remark by the writer, "Our
citizenship is in Heaven." Paul's Uvely inter
est in this church had been quickened by a
personal tribute. The members made up a
coUection of money and gifts for Paul, and sent
them to him by Epaphroditus. Any loving
remembrance touched Paul deeply — ^for he
had plenty of the other kind — and immediately
upon the receipt of the presents he composed
this letter. He lays no particular stress on any
doctrinal or ethical point — a wide difference
from the letter to the Galatians. Of aU the
episties, this is the most affectionate, the most
letter-like. He simply thanks them, talks over
affairs in general, and gives such advice as
happens to rise to the surface of his mind. This
is one reason why the style is so disconnected

84 Reading the Bible
and so human. The keynote is Joy. He says
tranquUly that the presents are most acceptable,
and adds, "not that I speak in respect of want;
for I have learned in whatsoever state I am,
to be content."
The church at Colossae, a town in South-
em Phrygia, southeast of Ephesus, Paul
had never seen. A new heresy was poisoning
the members — a combination of Judaism and
Gnosticism. The object of the letter was to
fight this perU. As we might guess from its
name. Gnosticism taught the supremacy of
Knowledge. Faith wUl do weU enough for
chUdren, invaUds, and old ladies, but the intel-
Ugentsia need only science. In this sense
Bazarov, Turgenev's nihilistic hero, was a
Gnostic. Like aU phUosophers, they concerned
themselves with the problem of evil, because
evU is the most evident fact of aU the facts in
the world. They tried to reUeve God of the
responsibiUty for it, Uke some later phUoso
phers; God could not therefore have immedi
ately created the world. They thus propounded
the foUowing theory, and let it always be
remembered that no one can invent a theory
so absurd but that some can be found who

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 85
wiU beUeve it. I do not know which is the
easier — to propound an absurdity, or to secure
disciples for it. The Gnostic idea was that
God produced one being, that another, and so
on untU the divine ingredient, becoming con-
stantiy weaker by dUution, like Puritanism in
the New England twentieth-century blood,
could scarcely be detected at aU. Then one of
these emanations was base enough to connect
with matter and create the world. Thus there
was a graduated series of Beings between God
and the World; which gave the phUosophers
the welcome task of arranging a systematic
hierarchy of angels. The origin of evU is not
in man, but in matter; and as a necessary
result, the way of salvation was through com
plete asceticism.
Mingled with this Gnosticism at Colossae
was Judaism, with aU its ritual of laws, feasts.
Sabbaths and other restrictions. News of these
difficulties came to Paul. Apparently he first
wrote a letter to Laodicea which has been lost,
and then this one to the Colossians. His style,
except for one grand outburst, is confused,
possibly for two reasons. He is not very weU
up in Gnosticism, and he has never seen the

86 Reading the Bible
people he is addressing. At the end of the
letter he wrote in his own hand
Remember my bonds.
The letter to Philemon is the only one written
to an individual on a private matter. This is
no church affair. It is exactly such a letter as
one man would write to another on business.
Perhaps Paul wrote other simUar letters which
are lost. This one shows the apostle in a nat
ural, intimate vein. Onesimus, the slave of
PhUemon, had run away, and, in leaving his
master, Uke Jessica, he had taken care not to
depart empty-handed. Escaping to Rome, he
had been attracted by Paul's teaching, had
become converted, and apparently wished to
do the square thing. He had a dog-like devo
tion to Paul, and had evidently made himself
useful in a thousand ways. The apostle wanted
to keep him; but he naturaUy felt it was his
duty to return him to his owner, and the whole
letter is a tactful intercession for the slave.
The style is marked by courtesy, refinement,
and consideration for both master and man.
It is needless to add that aU attempts to make
of this epistle a type of the plan of salvation

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 87
are as absurd as to twist the passionate love
lyrics of Solomon's Song into a symbol of
Christ and the Church.
The epistie to the Ephesians, like that to the
Colossians, is a circular letter: they are com
panion pieces. This is addressed whoUy to the
GentUes. The subject is Church Unity. Rec-
oncUe aU difficulties — ^both theological and
social — and get together on the basis of devotion
to the person of Christ. Observe how steadUy
Paul has grown in breadth of view, and in
tenderness. Instead of scolding, he pleads.
He grew in grace to the last day of his Ufe.
This has sometimes been caUed the pro-
foundest of his letters. He was writing to
phUosophic folk, who could understand deep
thinking and metaphysical ideas. The style,
Uke that of most phUosophers, is confused and
involved, much more so than in the letter to
the Colossians; but it rises in a superb passage
toward the close, where he enumerates the
complete outfit for the Christian soldier.
The episties to Timothy and to Titus are
caUed the Pastoral Epistles, because they were
written to these men in their capacity as Pastors
of Churches. Many scholars think they were

88 Reading the Bible
not written by Paul. Ignorant of New Testa
ment interpretation as I am, it would be an
impertinence for me to express an opinion on
this point. AU I can say is, I am glad we have
them, and I hope Paul wrote them. They were
intended to guide Titus and Timothy in funda
mental matters concerning Church government.
They differ in language from the known epistles
of Paul; but it is possible that Paul, like some
other writers, occasionaUy went outside of his
customary vocabulary. It is difficult to fit
them in to any known period of our apostle's
career of which we have definite information;
and it seems as though the Church spoken of
here had been more completely organised than
is supposed to have been the case in Paul's
Ufetime. Perhaps Paul, in a visit to the island of Crete,
had tried to consoUdate and strengthen the
young Church. He seems to have left Titus
behind to complete this work, and the letter
gives the necessary directions. Titus was not
a Jew. He was a GentUe whom Paul had run
across years before. He was a Greek, and was
one of the first Christian converts not circum
cised. On Paul's memorable visit to Jemsalem,

St. Paul as a Letter- Writer 89
when the question of circumcision was to be
settled, Paul took Titus along as an example.
Titus seems to have had difficulties at Crete.
The church was weak and fiUed with heretics
and slackers and sensuaUsts and scandal
mongers. Even one of their own prophets had
said, "The Cretians are always Uars, evU beasts,
slow belUes." Paul's advice is definite and
sensible, and contains a phrase that many who
read the Bible only when they are sick or in
danger, greet with recognition mingled with
surprise. "Unto the pure aU things are pure."
Timothy had been intimately associated
with Paul, and is first mentioned in the six
teenth chapter of the Book of the Acts. His
mother was a Jew. She had brought up her
son in a good knowledge of the Scriptures.
His father was a Greek. Although addressed
to an individual, the letters to Timothy are
not at aU private in the sense of the word which
fits the letter to PhUemon. Paul evidently
meant to have his advice read to the Church.
I confess without shame that the reason why
I hope they were written by Paul is not because
of their admonitions but simply because of
their personal aUusions, which bring the great

90 Reading the Bible
writer very close. I have always admired
Montaigne's curiosity about the tastes and
little pecuUarities of men of genius. Winter
was coming on; Paul was an old man, and felt
the approaching frost in his bones. Thomas
Gray wrote in one of his last letters, "Now I
even tremble at an east wind." Paul wants
his overcoat. "The cloke that I left at Troas
with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with
thee." He is not only cold, he is lonely. "Only
Luke is with me." Perhaps Doctor Luke had
occasion to employ his professional skiU, for
Paul writes under the shadow of death. "Take
Mark, and bring him with thee." But above
aU, he wants to see Timothy again, and twice
he implores him to hurry up. "Do thy diU-
gence to come shortiy unto me," and then,
after much misceUaneous information, he writes
again, "Do thy diUgence to come before win
ter." Instead of talking about the second coming
of Christ, he talks about his own death, which
he, like many other once hopeful adventists,
finaUy is forced to face. But although there
are moments of despondency and weakness in
these last words, the trumpet blast in the

St. Paul as a Letter-Writer 91
presence of the angel of death is like the clear
tone of the slughom of ChUde Roland. It is
a noble fareweU from an old veteran, who has
fought a good fight; it is a valediction forbid
ding mourning.

m
SHORT STORIES IN THE BIBLE
MUCH has been written in recent years
about the art of the Short Story. One
of our foremost contemporary American critics
and men of letters. Professor Brander Mat
thews, in an interesting and penetrating dis
cussion of the subject, has differentiated this
form sharply both from the novel and from
"the story that is short." ExceUent examples
of stories that are short are Silas Marner, Daisy
Miller, Taras Bulba; but not one of these
masterpieces could strictly be caUed a short
story. Those late Victorian Britons, Stevenson and
Kipling, who were also poets and noveUsts, and
who were saturated in the Bible, approximated
perfection in the art of the short story. When
I first read Stevenson's Beach of Falesa, I
seemed to hear a strange throbbing undertone,
an inexpUcable accompaniment to the flow of
the narrative. I stopped to discover what this
92

Short Stories in the Bible 93
sound might be — ^it was the beating of my
heart .... Many of KipUng's short stories are
modem Ulustrations of the wisdom of the Book
of Proverbs; he is fond of BibUcal titles, and
his familiarity with the Scriptures appears again
and again.
American writers have exceUed more often
in the field of the Short Story than in any other.
In novels, in poetry, and in drama, we are far
behind England and the Continent; but we
have contributed so many admirable specimens
of the Short Story to the world's Uterature that
in this department we may confidentiy chal
lenge comparison. Professor Barrett WendeU
says that American men of letters have had a
more conscious sense of form than the British.
We are perhaps closer to Continental models
than they. And in the Short Story the sense
of form is aU-important.
The art of the Short Story seemed to come
naturaUy to Americans. Washington Irving,
our first distinctive man of letters, wrote tales
of technical exceUence. There are many pages
in the longer works of Irving that have become
obsolete; his pathos is thin, and his moraUsing
flat. But Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of

94 Reading the Bible
Sleepy Hollow are as good to-day as when first
printed. Edgar AUan Poe has to his credit
more than a score of masterpieces, the beauty
of which cannot apparently be duUed by time.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, with aU of Poe's origi-
naUty and inventive power, wrote a long Ust
of short fictions, founded on the depths of moral
tmth, and rising from these foundations into
the spiritual atmosphere of the fourth dimen
sion. No noveUst has gone more profoundly
into the nature of sin than Hawthorne in the
tiny sketch caUed Ethan Brand — in fact, I think
a fine essay might be written by a student of
theology on Hawthorne's conception of sin. A
large portion of Bret Harte's work has already
gone to limbo; but The Luck of Roaring Camp
and The Outcasts of Poker Flat are as vivid and
impressive to-day as when they first startled
the world with their poignant pathos. Henry
James is best known for his long novels; but he
was also a master of the Short Story. In our
own time no one has exceUed the best work of
O. Henry. He wrote in the twentieth-century
vemacular; but he had the genius to combine
an intense locaUsm with a universal appeal.
If any one doubts the greatness of this

Short Stories In the Bible 95
American, one should reread The Furnished
Room.
No better Continental model for the Short
Story can be found than the work of French
authors; they have had an army of pupUs, and
even the mighty Russians, who are not given
to playing the game of foUow-my-leader,
leamed something here. With the single ex
ception of Dostoevski, aU the great Russian
writers, from Pushkin to Andreev, have prac
ticed successfuUy the art of the Short Story.
Chekhov's productions are amazing in their
number, and in their high level of exceUence.
Sologub's are remarkable for their condensa
tion, in that one respect resembling the speci
mens to be found in the New Testament: some
of them fiU only a page. Tolstoi's are directly
founded on the Gospel narrative, and his
masterpiece. Where Love is there God is also, is
the nearest approach in modem times to the
incomparable parables of our Lord; just as two
novels by Dostoevski, The Brothers Karamazov,
and The Idiot, might fairly be taken as a Rus
sian expansion of the Gospel according to John.
The Short Story must have unity, whereas
some of the greatest novels, Uke Anna Karenina,

96 Reading the Bible
manage to do without it. The Short Story
must be based on one event, or, as Professor
Matthews expresses it, on a "series of emotions
caUed forth by a single situation." The lyrical
poems of Robert Browning are short stories
told in verse; he probably invented more plots
than any other writer, and it is interesting to
recaU the remark of one of the shrewdest cinema
managers of our time, who emphaticaUy de
clared, "Robert Browning is the greatest
writer for the movies that ever Uved."
Now as the Bible excels aU other books in
poetry, in prose historical narrative, in pro
phetic eloquence, in philosophy, political econ
omy, and in worldly wisdom, so the finest Short
Stories are to be found in the Bible. And these
brief tales iUustrate every phase of human
nature. Just as I have repeatedly wished that
I might go to the theatre and see a Shakespear
ean play without being famUiar either with the
plot or with the name of the author, so I heart
Uy wish I might read for the first time the
Bible stories, and judge them apart from the
years of chUdhood training and instruction.
An interesting and amusing iUustration of the
effect produced when these narratives salute

Short Stories In the Bible 97
men's ears for the first time, was given in the
New York Times, January 8, 1919. The Rt.
Rev. John N. McCormick, Bishop of Westem
Michigan, who had been overseas in Red Cross
Work, is quoted as foUows:
"One of the chaplains in France told me
that although every soldier had a smaU New
Testament which went into his pack, he was
having constant demands for the whole Bible
in EngUsh. He had scoured the country for
Bibles and the supply was not equal to the
demand. FinaUy he asked a private why he
wanted the whole Bible.
"'Because I want to read about the wars,'
came the reply. 'The Old Testament is fuU of
wars and I want to read those stories.'
"When one of the transports went over last
Spring, the Chaplain, finding a group of men
sitting together on the deck, with nothing to
do, began to teU them stories. He just told
them for their brilUant value as tales. And he
told the story of Paul's shipwreck and those
fourteen days in a t)7phoon when he was mak
ing his famous voyage to Rome. When he had
finished, a man caUed out to him: 'Who was
that guy?' The story-teUer repUed that it was

98 Reading the Bible
a man named Paul. The soldier went below
and aroused his bunkie. 'The Chaplain was
telling us a story up on deck about a feUow
named Paul, and he was some man.'"
A few years ago a newspaper offered a prize
for the best answer to the question, "Which
is the finest short story ever written?" The
prize was awarded to a weU-known English
writer, who voted for the story of the woman
taken in sin. I find that this tale, as told in
the Gospel by John, contains two hundred and
five words.
I do not think any smaU boy ever forgets the
story of Jacob and Esau. Nothing rankles in
a boy's mind like injustice, unfair treatment.
Furthermore, in spite of the intense blood-
affection that unites brothers — ^instantly shown
when any of them is attacked by a person out
side the famUy — ^there is invariably a certain
jealousy between two brothers of nearly the
same age; and this jealousy is particularly sharp
in the difficult matter of paternal distribution of
awards. This ugly trait in human nature is the
basis of the story of Jacob and Esau, and the
story of the Prodigal Son. The most dangerous
foe to parental discipline as to the discipUne in

Short Stories In the Bible 99
a boy's school is any suspicion of favouritism;
and when the normal boy reads the story of
Jacob and Esau, the trick played by the mother
for Jacob's benefit, and the cmel disappoint
ment of honest Esau when he arrives too late,
the boy in his own heart identifies himseU with
the deceived huntsman — ^he is Esau. No
amount of exegesis, no reminders of the his
torical importance of Jacob, no recital of Jacob's
subsequent sufferings can ever make a boy
forget Jacob's sinister methods; Jacob from
that time forth is a swindler, and the boy must
look elsewhere in the Bible for a hero. Observe
how in this tale the height of dramatic power
is reached with severe economy of words.
And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and
his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called
Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and
he said imto him. Behold, here am I. And he said,
Behold, now, I am old, I know not the day of my
death: now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons,
thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and
take me some venison; and make me savoury meat,
such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat;
that my soul may bless thee before I die.
And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his
son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison.

loo Readmg the Bible
and to bring it. And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her
son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto
Esau thy brother, saying. Bring me venison, and make
me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee
before the Lord before my death. Now therefore,
my son, obey my voice according to that which I
command thee. Go now to the flock, and fetch me
from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will
make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he
loveth: and thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he
may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.
And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother. Behold Esau
my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man:
my father peradventure wUl feel me, and I shall seem
to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me,
and not a blessing. And his mother said unto him.
Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice,
and go fetch me them. And he went, and fetched,
and brought them to his mother: and his mother made
savoury meat, such as his father loved. And Rebekah
took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which
were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob
her younger son: and she put the skins of the kids
of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of
his neck: and she gave the savoury meat and the
bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son
Jacob. And he came unto his father, and said, My father:
and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son? And
Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn;

Short Stories In the Bible loi
I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray
thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless
me. And Isaac said imto his son, How is it that thou
hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said. Because
the Lord thy God brought it to me. And Isaac said
unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel
thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or
not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and
he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but
the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned
him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother
Esau's hands: so he blessed him. And he said. Art
thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. And
he said. Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's
venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought
it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him
wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac said unto
him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he
came near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell
of his raiment, and blessed him, and said. See, the
smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord
hath blessed: therefore God give thee of the dew of
heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of
corn and wine: let people serve thee, and nations bow
down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy
mother's sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one
that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.
And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an
end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone
out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau

I02 Reading the Bible
his brother came in from his himting. And he also
had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father,
and said unto his father. Let my father arise, and eat
of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me. And
Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And
he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac
trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he
that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I
have eaten of all before thou earnest, and have blessed
him? yea, and he shall be blessed. And when Esau
heard the words of his father, he cried with a great
and exceeding bitter cry, and said imto his father,
Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said,
Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away
thy blessing. And he said, Is not he rightly named
Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times;
he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath
taken away my blessing. And he said. Hast thou not
reserved a blessing for me? And Isaac answered and
said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord,
and all his brethren have I given unto him for servants;
and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and
what shall I do now unto thee, my son? And Esau
said unto his father. Hast thou but one blessing, my
father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And
Esau lifted up his voice, and wept. And Isaac his
father answered and said unto him. Behold, thy dwell
ing shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of
heaven from above; and by thy sword shalt thou Uve,
and shalt serve thy brother: and it shall come to pass

Short Stories in the Bible 103
when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt
break his yoke from off thy neck.
Esau inherited a good appetite for food from
his father. Both were hearty eaters, and both
were swindled through the love of eating: Isaac
once, and Esau twice.
There is no better story in the Old Testament
than the tale of Joseph and his brethren.
Everyone is interested in clothes — ^boys and
girls, old men and women; and the coat of
many colours which Joseph wore when he was
seventeen years old, is the first picturesque
touch in a picturesque career. This gaudy
plumage stimulated the envious hatred of his
brothers which his vivid dream enlarged be
yond endurance; when they threw the boy into
the pit, they stripped the coat off, and added
one more colour to the famous garment, the
colour of blood, which was too much for old
Jacob's nerves. The subsequent adventures
of Joseph in Egj^t are dramatic in the extreme;
and it is an interesting commentary on human
nature, that Joseph's emphatic refusal to
betray his benefactor has given him from that
time to this an undeserved reputation for
priggishness that he wiU never Uve down. The

I04 Reading the Bible
xcry name Joseph savours of pious mther than
honourable behaviour — consider Joseph Surface,
no doubt deUberately named. It is worth
remembering, too, that Potiphar's wife is one
of the first and most skillful of aU the black-
maUers recorded in criminal history.
Joseph became the Herbert C.'^ Hoover of
Egypt. He had the control of the food supply
when food was short, and apparently had the
sole power of determining rations. It was this
official position that brought his brothers back
to him, all unconscious as they bowed down
and made obeisance that they were fulfilling
the early dream. The passionate excitement
of Joseph at the appearance of Benjamin and
his inabiUty to control his feelings, show how
much stronger is famUy affection than any
pride of place or any poUtical honour. This is
one of the greatest of aU the great recognition
scenes in Uterature; and the happy reunion of
the whole famUy, father and brothers together,
is one of the brightest pages in a book fiUed
with tragedies of sin and pain.
-* After the city of Gibeon made peace with
the chUdren of Israel under General Joshua,
the enemies of the latter were considerably

Short Stories in the Bible 105
disquieted, and formed a league of nations
against the invader. It was a formidable coaU-
tion; the five kings of the Amorites, the king
of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of
Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon
made a solemn compact, encamped against
Gibeon, and invested the town. The people
of the besieged city managed to get word
through to Joshua, who by forced marches
arrived suddenly upon the scene and drove the
enemy into confusion. WhUe these battalions
were in fuU retreat, they were attacked by
celestial airplanes, or in other words, they
suffered severely from a terrific haUstorm,
which caused more casualties than Israel's
weapons. Now in order that the curtain of
night might not conceal the fl)Tng hosts, Joshua
commanded the sun to stand stUl.
Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon,
in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and
the moon stayed, until the people had avenged them
selves upon their enemies.
Here the chronicler, thinking perhaps the
story may seem incredible to future readers,
remarks conclusively, Is not this written in the
book of Jasher?

lo6 Reading the Bible
So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and
hasted not to go down about a whole day.
It must have seemed indeed a terribly long
day to the discomfited hosts of the league of
kings. There are only two references in the Bible
to the Book of Jasher — and they are tantaUsing,
for no one knows what has become of this
work, nor what kind of a work it was. It must
have contained some splendid Uterature, judg
ing from the citation here, and the one in the
first chapter of the second book of Samuel.
Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the
bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.
Then follows the magnificent lamentation of
David over Saul and Jonathan.
The obedience of the sun to Joshua is often
regarded as a stunning miracle. But some
years ago, whUe I stood reverently in front of
the statue of Copernicus in Warsaw, I could
not help thinking how much more enduring is
his influence over the sun than that exercised
by the famous fighter. Joshua commanded
the sun to stand stUl for one day; but Copemi-

Short Stories in the Bible 107
cus, after ages and ages in which the sun had
regularly revolved around the earth, com
manded the sun to stand stiU for the rest of
time; and the obedient sun has not moved from
that day to this.
The story of Gideon is as interesting as the
story of Gibeon; and it is not only on adolescent
examination-papers that the two are confused.
I remember many years ago, when the authors
of The Unseen Universe were in activity, they
were attacked by some scientific authority,
who, in ridiculing the old Bible narrative, spoke
of the s^n going down on Gideon. The deUghted
Bible apologists cheerfuUy admitted that such
an event would indeed be a miracle; at least,
they could not see how the sun could go down
on Gideon without at least causing great per
sonal inconvenience to that hero.
WhUe Gideon is in many ways an attractive
character, I think his courage has been over
praised. I am more impressed by his caution,
by his racial capacity to drive a shrewd bar
gain, by his reluctance to move imtU success
was assured. Gideon was the son of Joash, and
when we first see him, he is threshing wheat
secretly by the winepress, to hide it from the

io8 Reading the Bible
powerful Midianites. To his amazement the
angel of the Lord appears and salutes him as
foUows: The Lord is with thee, thou mighty
man of valour. Gideon's reply is thoroughly
characteristic: Oh my Lord, if the Lord be
with us, why then is aU this befaUen us? and
where be aU his miracles which our fathers
told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us
up from Eg3^t? but now the Lord hath for
saken us, and delivered us into the hands of the
Midianites. Then foUows divine reassurance;
but this is not enough for Gideon. He demands
a sign, and soon receives one that ought to have
convinced the most skeptical mind in the world.
Y But Gideon, the tme ancestor of all those who
come from Missouri, puts a fleece of wool in
the floor, and suggests that if the dew fall only
on the fleece, whUe aU the earth beside is dry,
then he wiU believe. On the morrow the mira
cle has happened; he wrings a bowl-fuU of
water out of the fleece, while all around the
ground is dry. One can see the expression on
his face as he makes the further request that on
the following night everything be wet except
the fleece. The divine patience is inexhaustible,
for now the fleece becomes a Uttle island in a

Short Stories In the Bible 109
sea of dew. After this triple trial of the Lord's
message, Gideon goes along with his host, and
the three hundred men are selected by the
famous experiment of lapping the water. The
impartial Bible chronicler narrates without
comment the foUowing facts, which prove that
uncertainty and fear yet lingered in the soul
of this chronic doubter.
And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord
said unto him. Arise, get thee down unto the host;
for I have dehvered it unto thine hand. But if thou
fear to go down, go thou with Phurah thy servant,
down to the host: and thou shalt hear what they say;
and afterward shall thine hands be strengthened to go
down unto the host. Then went he down with Phurah
his servant unto the outside of the armed men that
were in the host.
After the overwhelming victory, Gideon
foUowed the two kings Zebah and Zahnunna,
with his three hundred men, who, as the his
torian remarked in a phrase that was to be
memorable, were faint, yet pursuing. As the
people of Succoth declined to give his little
army any bread, Gideon adopted a stem peda
gogical method.

no Reading the Bible
And he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the
wilderness and briers, and with them he taught the
men of Succoth.
Tennyson aUudes to this switching in his sonnet
on Buonaparte. at Trafalgar yet once more
We taught him: late he learned humility
Perforce, like those whom Gideon school'd with briers.
Zebah and Zahnunna spoke weU and behaved
weU in the presence of death, and their regal
speech and maimer should not be forgotten.
Gideon asked them,
What manner of men were they whom ye slew at
Tabor? And they answered, As thou art, so were they;
each one resembled the children of a king. And he
said, They were my brethren, even the sons of my
mother: as the Lord liveth, if ye had saved them alive,
I would not slay you. And he said unto Jether his
firstborn. Up, and slay them. But the youth drew
not his sword: for he feared, because he was yet a youth.
Then Zebah and Zahnunna said, Rise thou, and fall
upon us: for as the man is, so is his strength. And
Gideon arose, and slew Zebah and Zahnunna, and
took away the ornaments that were on their camels'
necks.

Short Stories In the Bible ill
Gideon had many wives, seventy sons, and
in the Bible language, died in a good old age.
As soon as he was dead, the chUdren of Israel
forsook all his teachings and worshiped Baal.
His iUegitimate son, Abimelech, while not an
admirable character, for he slew his seventy
legitimate brothers on one stone, had more
natural courage than his father. He was a
desperado, and had the quaUties of his defects.
He was besieging a city, and there was a strong
tower within the waUs: thither fled aU the men
and women, barred the gate of the tower, and
stood together on the top, looking down at
furious Abimelech. He, who had formerly
brought Bimam wood to Dunsinane, attempted
to set fire to this edifice, perhaps in the same
fashion. And Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought
against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower
to bum it with fire. And a certain woman cast a piece
of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to brake
his skull. Then he called hastily unto the young man
his armour-bearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword,
and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew
him. And his young man thrust him through, and he
died.

112 Reading the Bible
There is something about this viUain that
compels admiration.
The story of Jephthah's daughter has made
an indelible impression on the world, although
her ultimate fate still rests in doubt — ^was she
slain, or merely condemned to remain un
married? BjTTon, who wrote one of the worst
of the many poems inspired by this girl, refused
to be drawn by a correspondent into a contro
versy on the subject. "Whatever may be the
absolute state of the case," said the poet, "I
am iimocent of her blood." And on another
occasion he remarked, "WeU, my hands are
not imbrued in her blood!" The fearless
realism of the narrator in the book of Judges
and his impartiality are plainly shown in the
first verse that begins this famous tale:
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of
valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead
begat Jephthah.
Certainly one of the most dramatic scenes in
the Bible is where the captain's daughter — ^his
only chUd — came out to meet him with timbrels
and with dances. The captain rent his clothes,
and cried, "Alas, my daughter! thou hast

Short Stories in the Bible 113
brought me very low, and thou art one of them
that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth
unto the Lord, and I cannot go back."
No angel intervened, as in the case of Abra
ham and Isaac; and this splendid girl met her
fate with resolution, thinking more of her
father's victory than of her own sorrow. It is
curious, that although she is one of the most
famiUar characters in history, the historian
neglected to mention her name.
That tedious old fool, Polonius, who, accord
ing to Coleridge, is "the personification of the
memory of wisdom no longer possessed," had
apparently forgotten the old story; when
Hamlet quoted the EngUsh baUad on the theme,
the aged counseUor was quite at a loss.
It is a fair surmise that Shakespeare in his
own mind condemned Jephthah for keeping the
vow; for in the play King Henry the Sixth, Part
III, Clarence impetuously declares
I will not ruinate my father's house.
Who gave his blood to lime the stones together.
And set up Lancaster. Why, trow'st thou, Warwick,
That Clarence is so harsh, so blimt, unnatural,
To bend the fatal instruments of war
Against his brother and his lawful king?

1 14 Reading the Bible
Perhaps thou wilt object my holy oath:
To keep that oath were more impiety
Than Jephthah's, when he sacrificed his daughter.
Faust is the story of the man who regretted
his compact with the Devil; Jephthah regretted
his compact with Jehovah.
Perhaps among the innumerable references
to this tragedy that mark the pages of EngUsh
literature, the finest tribute to the heroine is to
be found in Tennyson's Dream of Fair Women.
"Leaving the olive-gardens far below.
Leaving the promise of my bridal bower.
The valleys of grape-loaded vines that glow
Beneath the battled tower.
"The light white cloud swam over us. Anon
We heard the lion roaring from his den;
We saw the large white stars rise one by one.
Or, from the darken'd glen,
"Saw God divide the night with flying flame.
And thunder on the everlasting hills.
I heard Him, for He spake, and grief became
A solemn scorn of ills.
"When the next moon was roll'd into the sky,
Strength came to me that equall'd my desire.
How beautiful a thing it was to die
For God and for my sire!

Short Stories In the Bible 115
"It comforts me in this one thought to dwell.
That I subdued me to my father's will;
Because the kiss he gave me, ere I fell,
Sweetens the spirit still.
"Moreover it is written that my race
Hew'd Ammon, hip and thigh, from Aroer
On Amon unto Minneth." Here her face
Glow'd, as I look'd at her.
She lock'd her lips; she left me where I stood:
"Glory to God," she sang, and past afar,
Thridding the sombre boskage of the wood.
Toward the morning-star.
The first great iUustration of a modem
fashion in literary art is the dramatic story of
Rahab, who hid the spies on the top of her
house, and was duly rewarded in the day of
reckoning. She is highly complimented in the
Epistle to the Hebrews, by being included
among those who triumphed through faith;
while this writer mentions her as an example
of faith, the apostle James calls her to the stand
as one justified by works. Possibly our Lord
had Rahab in mind when He declared with
terrible force to the chief priests. Verily I say
xmto you, That the publicans and harlots go

Ii6 Reading the Bible
into the kingdom of God before you. The
professional reUgious hypocrite is placed lower
in the moral scale than the professional sinner.
It is curious that many who attack the
Bible to-day attack it for the very virtues they
praise most strenuously in modem writers — I
refer to its cahn realism and unashamed pre
sentment of aU the facts in the Uves of Old
Testament characters, where no attempt is
made to win the favour of the reader by the
suppression or glossing over of gross and hein
ous faults. Samson is surely a sympathetic
character; every reader loves him. MUton did
not hesitate to make a superb protagonist out
of him, and DeUlah has been a synonym for
wickedness, treachery, and deceit. But the
Bible narrator does not defend Samson; his
downfaU was his own fault for being such an
idiot. In reading MUton one would imagine
that Samson was some holy elder in the church
who, despite his sharp self-accusations, had
been crueUy deceived; but the Bible is more
objective, and puts down the good and the bad
in this giant's career without comment. One
naturally feels a certain sweetness in his revenge
when he puUed the buUding upon his jeering

Short Stories In the Bible 117
enemies. Perhaps it is not impertinent to
recall the jest of our American humorist, John
Kendrick Bangs, who said that Samson was a
famous practical joker and that his last joke
brought down the house.
The story of Balak and Balaam is one of the
first instances in history where a political boss
discovers to his chagrin that he cannot control
his most influential orator. With bribery and
flattery he invited Balaam to come and de
nounce Israel; but Balaam, as has happened
more than once since then, wUl not play the
role assigned to him, because he hears an inner
voice of duty louder than the blandishments
of Balak. The modem political analogy is
complete; for after two severe disappointments,
Balak said unto Balaam, Neither curse them at
all, nor bless them at all — I don't know why I
find that remark so amusing, except that I can
hear Balak's tone so plainly — " If you find you
can't help me, do at aU events stay neutral,
keep your mouth shut." But the disappointed
impresario is to regret even more bitterly that
he drew this obstinate speaker into the cam
paign; Balaam wiU be neither an advocate nor
silent, but pours out a flood of oratory for the

Ii8 Reading the Bible
other side, winding up with the rather strange
invitation to Balak to come and visit, "and
I wUl advertise thee what this people shaU do
to thy people in the latter days." The invita
tion does not seem particularly aUuring, yet
Balak, who is one of the few men in the Bible
characterised by undeviating stupidity, seems
to have accepted it.
The famous story of Ahab and Naboth's
vineyard reminds us of the towering insolence
and uncontroUed greed of the German Emperor,
WiUiam II: and the answer of Naboth, who
knew he was no match in power with the king,
reminds us of the reply made to a certain re
quest, by Belgium — ^And Naboth said unto
Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should
give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.
Peevish King Ahab went on a hunger strike,
but Jezebel knew how to manage both the
executive and the judicial departments of the
government. Whatever of truth there may be
in Kipling's general assertion that the female
of the species is more deadly than the male,
there can be no doubt that Jezebel was a more
formidable foe than Ahab. Like Macbeth, he
let I dare not wait upon I would; but Jezebel

Short Stories in the Bible 119
was even bolder than Lady Macbeth, for in
stead of trusting her husband to carry out her
plans, she attended to the matter herself. The
sequel to this story of avarice and murder is
fittingly tragic. EUjah prophesies that Jezebel's
body shaU be eaten by dogs, but the Bible
narrative turns aside to discuss so many other
matters that we forget — ^as perhaps Jezebel
did — the fate foretold. Suddenly, many chap
ters farther along, when the reader is absorbed
in the story of Joram and Ahaziah, Jehu ap
pears on the scene. His furious driving is an
indication of his imperious and impetuous
temperament. And there stood a watchman on the tower in Jezreel,
and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and
said, I see a company. And Joram said. Take an horse
man, and send to meet them, and let him say. Is it
peace? So there went one on horseback to meet him,
and said, Thus saith the king. Is it peace? And Jehu
said. What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee
behind me. And the watchman told, saying, The
messenger came to them, but he cometh not again.
Then he sent out a second on horseback, which came
to them, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace?
And Jehu answered. What hast thou to do with peace?
turn thee behind me. And the watchman told, saying,

I20 Reading the Bible
lie came even unto them, and cometh not again: and
the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nim-
shi; for he drive th furiously. . . . And when Jehu was
come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted
her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.
And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri
peace, who slew his master? And he lifted up his face
to the window, and said. Who is on my side? who?
And there looked out to him two or three. . . . And
he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down : and
some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on
the horses, and he trode her under foot. And when
he was come in, he did eat and drink, and said, Go,
see now this cursed woman, and bury her: for she is a
king's daughter. And they went to bury her: but
they found no more of her than the skull and the feet,
and the palms of her hands. Wherefore they came
again and told him. And he said. This is the word of
the Lord, which he spake by his servant, Elijah the
Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel, shall dogs
eat the flesh of Jezebel.
The recent conquest of Palestine by the
British army under General AUenby, has
brought vividly to the minds of many not only
the famous prophecies in Isaiah and in other
books, but the old stories. To imaginative
soldiers, Jemsalem, Jezreel, and other places
must have seemed fuU of ghosts. This idea is

Short Stories In the Bible 121
the inspiration of a poem by Thomas Hardy,
pubUshed in the London Times in 1918.
JEZREEL
Did they catch as it were in a Vision at shut of the day —
When their cavalry smote through the ancient Es-
draelon Plain,
And they crossed where the Tishbite stood forth in his
enemy's way —
His gaunt, mournful Shade as he bade the king haste
off amain?
On war-men at this end of time — even on Englishmen's
eyes —
Who slay with their arms of new might in the long-
ago place.
Flashed he who drove furiously? . . . Ah, did the
phantom arise
Of that queen — of that proud Tyrian woman who
painted her face?
Faint-marked they the words, "Throw her down,"
rise from Time eerily
Spectre-spots of the blood of her body on some
rotten wall?
And the thin note of pity that came: "A king's daughter
is she."
As they passed where she trodden was once by the
chargers' footfall?

122 Reading the Bible
Could such be the hauntings of men of to-day, at the
cease
Of pursuit, at the dusk-hour, ere slumber their
senses could steal?
Enghosted seers, kings — one on horseback who asks
"Is it peace?"
Yea, strange things and spectral may men have be
held in Jezreel!
One of the most simple and beautiful of the
short stories in the Bible is the account of the
mighty man Naaman, and how the little maid,
an Israelite captive among the Syrians, gave
witness to the power of the man of God in the
household of His enemies. Then after the cure
of leprosy was complete, and the great physi
cian had refused any fee, and had settied the
question of religious courtesy for his distin
guished visitor, the charming story has a tragic
close, all the more stem and solemn because
the reader is unprepared for such a conclusion.
Never shaU I forget the first time I read this
chapter, and my horror at the last sentence:
And he went out from his presence a leper as
white as snow.
Elijah and EUsha were pitiless when the occa
sion seemed to demand drastic methods; and

Short Stories In the Bible 123
I am afraid that their treatment of persons who
did not pay sufficient respect to their dignity
had a not altogether salutary effect on the
bearing of our Puritan ancestors. EUjah did
not hesitate to bum alive two companies of
men along with their captains; but I think the
most depressing page in the Bible is the con
duct of EUsha, who, having worn his new
honours only a short time, receives a fusiUade
of personal comments from the little gamins
who came out of the city streets. The type is
etemal; these boys are the same in aU countries
and in aU ages.
There came forth little children out of the city, and
mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald
head: go up, thou bald head. And he turned back,
and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of
the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of
the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.
I remember how this story affected me in my
chUdhood; and how my mother, who seemed
for some reason to feel it necessary to defend
all the acts of the prophet, reasoned with me
in a way that certainly did not convince me
and which I am now sure did not convince her.
Honest, faithful, reaUstic Bible, putting down

1 24 Reading the Bible
with appalling bluntness the good and the bad
in a man's Ufe! Even professional prophets
had their off days — ^and lost their temper with
unfortunate consequences to those in the im
mediate vicinity. But can't you see the Co
lonial Puritan reading aloud this incident at
morning prayers, with a final look over his
glasses at the chUdren?
The book of Esther, the book of Daniel, and
the Apocrypha abound in admirable specimens
of the art of the Short Story, where, as is com
monly the rule elsewhere in the Bible, dramatic
intensity is gained by the absence of rhetorical
flourishes. In the famous story of the writing
on the waU in the book of Daniel, the faimess
of the doomed king ought to be recorded to his
credit. Belshazzar announced that if Daniel
could interpret the writing, he should be
clothed in scarlet, have a chain of gold about
his neck, and become the third ruler in the
kingdom. Daniel's interpretation was not
only uncomplimentary to the king's character,
but also a stem prediction of his ruin. Yet
although Daniel, with studied insolence, had
decUned the rewards in advance, no sooner was
his indictment completed than it is followed

Short Stories In the Bible 125
by the simple words. Then commanded Bel
shazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet,
and put a chain of gold about his neck, and
made a proclamation concerning him, that he
should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
Let us remember that if this royal Pagan
could not keep his kingdom, he kept his
word. Although the Old Testament is fiUed with
short stories of great power and beauty, it is
when we tum to the New Testament thiat we
find the supreme examples of the art. The
supremacy of our Lord as a spiritual teacher is
cordiaUy recognised even by many who do not
beUeve in His divine mission; but he was su
preme in other ways as weU. The distinguished
American playwright, Augustus Thomas, has
in an admirable essay, emphasised the physical
prowess and endurance of Jesus Christ; from
every point of view He is not only the Teacher,
but the Model for all men. We should remem
ber also that He was a supreme Uterary artist.
The short stories that He produced with such
coUoquial ease are the finest in the world; they
are, indeed, the despair of all professional men
of letters. No tales ever written combine such

126 Reading the Bible
amazing power with such impressive economy
in the use of words. The parables are the
perfection of reaUstic art; the tremendous
paradoxes are driven home vrith a simpUcity
that has the apparent unconsciousness of a
flower. The Mediaeval Church made a Utur-
gical drama out of the story of the wise and
fooUsh virgins; the supper at Simon's house is
as though it happened yesterday; the three
famous parables dealing with money are aU
equaUy vivid, — I mean the woman who lost
the piece of sUver, the men who were entmsted
with the talents, and the labourers who were
hired for a certain sum. No one can forget the
two men named Lazarus; Lazarus who died
and went to heaven, and Lazarus who died and
returned to earth. The resurrection of Lazarus
has had an astonishingly germinal effect on
Uterature from that day to this. Tennyson
pauses and reflects about him in In Memoriam;
one of Browning's greatest poems deals with
his spiritual transformation; our American
poet, Anna Branch, was inspired by this tale
to vsTite one of her most dramatic pieces; and
no one who reads Dostoevski's marveUous
novel. Crime and Punishment, wiU faU to be im-

Short Stories In the Bible 127
pressed by the scene where Sonia with choking
voice reads aloud the story of Lazams to the
despairing criminal.
Sonia opened the book and found the place. Her
hands were shaking, her voice failed her. Twice she
tried to begin and could not bring out the first syllable.
"Now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of
Bethany," she forced herself at last to read, but at
the third word her voice broke like an overstrained
string. There was a catch in her breath. Raskolnikov
saw in part why Sonia could not bring herself to read
to him and the more he saw this, the more roughly
and irritably he insisted on her doing so. He under
stood only too well how painful it was for her to betray
and unveil all that was her own. He understood that
these feelings really were her secret treasure, which
she had kept perhaps for years, perhaps from child
hood, while she Hved with an unhappy father and a
distracted stepmother crazed by grief, in the midst of
starving children, and unseemly abuse. . . . "And
when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice,
Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came
forth." She read loudly, cold and trembling with ec
stasy, as though she were seeing it before her eyes. . . .
She StiU trembled feverishly. The candle-end was
flickering out in the battered candlestick, dimly light
ing up in the poverty-stricken room the murderer
and the harlot who had so strangely been reading to
gether the etemal book.

128 Reading the Bible
Jesus not only raised Lazams from the dead —
He did more: He gave him immortal Ufe on
earth, in aU languages and in aU nations.
The parable of the Prodigal Son is not prop
erly named. The word "prodigal" occurs
nowhere in the Bible. The reason why this is
caUed the Parable of the Prodigal Son is because
most readers stiU suppose it to be merely a
story of sin, repentance, and fatherly love.
But it is really the story of a certain man who
had two sons; and there is just as much empha
sis on the elder as on the younger brother.
The Puritan conception of sin was generaUy so
narrow that our ancestors actuaUy believed
that the rich farmer had two boys, one of whom
was bad and one good. Now as a matter of
fact he had two bad sons, both very bad, of
whom the elder was the worse. Let us grant
the selfishness and debauchery of the younger.
Perhaps he would never have come home at
aU if his money had not given out, sharpening
the importunate spur of himger. And it was
by no accident that his father met him on his
retum. The father was sure that the boy
would come home again, and who knows how
many days he had gone forth to await his

Short Stories in the Bible 129
appearance? When the ashamed lad tried to
apologise, the father made him feel at once
that his motive in retuming was of no impor
tance compared with the overwhelming joy of
the fact. If we could have back from the grave
those that we love, should we care very much
what motive brought them?
Now to regard the elder son as good and his
brother as bad is surely to misunderstand
profoundly the tme significance of this mar
veUous story. The elder brother was so case-
hardened by seffish respectabiUty that no force
of love could break through his armour; his
petulance is the outward sign of ineradicable
and incurable vice. When did I ever transgress
thy commandment? When have I ever done
anything wrong? . . . That negative concep
tion of virtue has been responsible for the error
of aU errors concerning the beauty of holiness.
Is virtue then negative? If his father had not
been so obstreperously happy in his boy's
retum, he might have asked this cold-hearted
prig some embarrassing questions.
Our Lord's matchless stories are the purest
realism; and in the strange book of Revelation
we find the wUdest romanticism. In the year

130 Reading the Bible
1918, the sudden fame of Ibaiiez's novel set
everybody to rereading the sixth chapter of
the most mystical work in the Bible, where the
four horsemen of the Apocalypse appear.
And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that
sat on him had a bow: and a crown was given unto
him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
And there went out another horse that was red:
and power was given to him that sat thereon to take
peace from the earth: and that they should kill one
another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
And I beheld, and lo a black horse: and he that sat
on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name
that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.
As the vision of the four horses inspired a
popular twentieth-century novel, so the story
of the One who had on his vesture and on his
thigh written. King of Kings and Lord of Lords,
gave to the verse of the twentieth century a
thrUling poem by that modem mystic Francis
Thompson, the poem caUed The Veteran of
Heaven. The story of the famous Beast has set many
would-be mathematicians to weary months of
calculation, in the attempt to find a fulfillment

Short Stories In the Bible 131
of the oracular description. Mr. BirreU some
where aUudes to that large and highly interest
ing class of persons who prefer statistics to
poetry. It is curious to reflect that the chief
interest of many in the book of Revelation is
to juggle with figures, just as there are those
whose main energy as they read the pages of
Shakespeare is to hunt for a cipher.
As the Bible day by day exerts its regener
ating and vivUying spiritual influence on the
souls of men, so its sublime and homely poetry
and prose recreate new masterpieces in aU
literatures, which rise from the inexhaustible
spring of Uving water in the Word of Life.

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