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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Personal Problems (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 16. The Book.
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The Book.
In such a spirit, and for such a purpose, let a man begin reading this Book through. Let him read it just as he would any other book so far as his mental processes are concerned, thoughtfully and clear through, reserving his conclusion, as of course he will, until he is through. He may find much that does not seem clear. He may find what seem to be inconsistencies or inaccuracies. Let him note these mentally, but hold them strictly in abeyance, for he is aiming to get the spirit and swing of the Book clear through. Repeated readings have been found to clear up many matters that seemed puzzling at first, and some never are cleared up. But those, it is to be noted, never affect the main purpose of the Book.
There are certain things to be noted about the Book. It has had a strange history. Indeed, in the strangeness of its history it is apart from all other books of any nation or people. It has been printed in greater numbers by far than any other book, and in many more languages. More scholarly men of acute mind have given their time and lives to its study and explanation than to any other. It has been and still is the most studied, the most read, the best loved, and the worst hated of any book. It has been a veritable storm centre, and also, in sharp contrast with that phrase, a veritable haven of rest. Thousands of men have stormed over its contents, and hundreds of thousands have found in its pages that which spoke sweetest peace to their spirits, and held them steady in life's roughest storms.
It has had a strange vitality, outliving all sorts of enmity. Men used to burn it up in their efforts to get rid of it. Of late years they have taken to cutting it up with keen fingers and sharp-edged knives. But it seems to survive either process about equally well, and is to-day being printed in larger numbers than ever, scattered more widely, studied more thoroughly and keenly, and apparently loved more devoutly. No intelligent man can afford to be ignorant of a book with such a record.
The Book itself is found to contain as many as sixty-six distinct books, written by many writers, at least as many as forty. These men writing it are from all classes of society. Some have had the best learning and culture of their times and of the world; others seem to have had practically no such advantages. They wrote in many different places, as far apart in extremes as Rome in Europe and Babylon in Asia. The period of writing runs through as much as sixteen hundred years. So that it is not like most books, in being written by one man. It is a collection of books by many men, of different sorts, written under all sorts of conditions and circumstances, in many different countries, running through a very long period of time.
Now please note what is the most noteworthy thing of all this Book, its subject. It is about religion. There is no one subject on which men have talked so much and about which they have differed so radically and so violently as the subject of religion. The greatest hatreds of the race have been about religion. The worst cruelties have been practiced in religion's name and for its sake. Wherever men gather in groups large or small they will sooner or later get to talking about two subjects, and differ with each other on each. It may be in the logging-camp, or about the miner's common fire, on the upper deck or in the steerage of a steamer, in social circles or university circles, in the commercial club or in the slums. Let men talk freely together and two subjects crop out, religion and politics; the relation of man to God and his relation to his fellow. And invariably they differ, politely, gently, intensely, abruptly, stormily, according to the sort of men, but always differ.
Now this Book, or collection of small books, from so many different men, so different in every way, is about this stormy, divisive subject of religion. Yet there is here an essential agreement. There is a practical unity of thought and ideal and purpose throughout from end to end. This is one of the first things that strikes one most forcibly in examining this book. And finding it intensifies one's interest greatly and sets his appetite on edge as he goes at it farther.
There is a second thing to note. This Book is a sort of mother of books. It has given birth to great numbers of books, on all phases of life on which books are written. It seems to have had a peculiar power of stimulating thought. There is here a vitality that has been felt in every department of writing and research. And more, all the lines of study to which men have devoted their strength seem to run their roots down into this Book, and to draw a certain element of life from it. Here in the Book is the oldest history, hoary with age; and here in the scholarly world are books written by strong men who have spent money and time and talent in digging up the old records out of the earth, and verifying these simple statements of the old Book. Here in the Book is a system of political economy, or at least the principles of that science; and here in the college libraries and halls are hundreds of books on that subject which work out and amplify the principles found here. Students of the perplexing land question will find a simple solution proposed here; though it is not a solution that ambitious men with selfish desires are very likely to adopt for their own holdings.
The laws of Moses have come to be the fountain of all modern as well as earlier jurisprudence. Behind Blackstone and Coke and other great legal authorities is Moses. They build upon his foundations. The strongest nations of to-day have the primary principles of the Mosaic code interwoven inextricably into their common law, and so into their life.
A former United States Senator from one of the northwestern States, noted for his strength as a legal advocate, has told the story of his early ambition to be a lawyer. As a youth he had gone tremblingly to a famous lawyer and made application to read law in his office. To his utter astonishment the lawyer said brusquely, "Can you recite the Bible through, sir?" The young man managed to stammer out his astonished'' No.'' "Well," the old judge said shortly, "go and memorize the Bible and then you may come and read law here." And out the youth went in an utter daze, wondering what the Bible had to do with reading law. But the coveted permission depended upon that, so he set to work and did commit great portions of the Book. He became famous as a lawyer both within and beyond the bounds of his own State, and frequently said he realized in the after-years what a foundation for his legal knowledge and practice was laid in that early biblical study.
The best books on moral philosophy, on sanitation and personal health, on shrewd business ethics, draw their inspiration from the principles first found here. Its language and imagery honeycomb the finest literature of the English tongue. If one were to cut out of Shakespeare and Tennyson and the other great English poets all allusions taken from this Book, scarcely a page of their writings would escape the scissors.
When Benjamin Franklin was ambassador at the French court he was one of a circle of scholarly men who met frequently to discuss literary matters. It was their custom to bring to the gatherings choice, rare bits of literature to be read and discussed. It was a time when skepticism was rampant and the Bible a hated hook. One day Franklin said: "Gentlemen, I have found a rare gem of literary beauty, which I have brought to read to you." They listened keenly as he read through the little book of Ruth, making slight changes that its Biblical identity might not be suspected. As he finished they were all enthusiastic in praise of its simple beauty, and inquired eagerly where he had found such a choice gem. He dryly said he had found it in a book called the Bible.
There is one feature of this Book that is most peculiar, and that is its scientific accuracy. It is not written, of course, in any part from a scientific standpoint. Its language is never scientific, but is just the simple language of the common people. But it always 'fits in with well attested scientific facts. There is no jarring, no slips, no glaring breaks, no language ever used that does not fit in with the matured statements of science. When we recall the statement commonly made that any technical book as much as ten years old must be thrown aside as worthless, because of the constant change in the state of knowledge, one begins to realize and appreciate what a tremendous peculiarity this is.
But the main thing that gets hold of a man reading thoughtfully here, and then grips him hard and holds him in its tight grip, is the ideals of the Book, wonderful high moral ideals such as he finds nowhere else. Its conception of God, of the worth and nobility of man, its insistent ideals of right, and of love as the standard in life, are such as can be found nowhere else. They are such as to swing the earnest man, eager for a pure, strong life, clear off his feet.
And these ideals are held to strenuously in the midst of the world's worst sin. Its exposure of sin, of insincerity, and selfishness in all phases and forms is terrific, and its hatred of them more intensely terrific still. Its heroes are praised, but always with the plainest unvarnished dealings with their faults and weaknesses.