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Vii"KInia State r, |
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aMMHM/J flM I
VOL. LXXXVII. RICHIV
The Greates
This is the title of a new book. The author
is well known. Dr. Cleveland B. McAfee. He
lens us tnat the lectures included in the volume
were prepared at the request of the Brooklyn
Institute of Arts and Sciences and were delivered
under its auspices. They were suggested
by the Tercentenary of the King James version
of the Bible. The plan adopted led to a re-statement
of the history which prepared for the version
and of that which produced it. Then its
principal characteristics as a piece of literature
are pointed out. The third and fourth lectures
note its influence on literature and on history.
The course of lectures closes with a statement
and argument regarding the place of the Bible in
the life of today. From this outline we see the
scope of the bock. It is
needless to say that Dr. =
McAfee is perfectly at HAIF
home <with his subject.
He brings forth things
old and new. Many addresses
and articles last
year made the average Once a day in chu
Bible student familiar And the other In
... , - .v Once a day beside
with the history of the /Jn hatjJ_time anc
King James version. But shall the soul some
we have seen nothing to Wake up docked a
surpass these lectures.
They are masterly. The Uveal fast may be t
author is evidently in Morning bloom u
love with his theme We "" h?K
' i L annot stand oni
are carried along with Scrimpy faith cut
him in his lucid and glow- .Uvxt half-starve M'i
ing style. There is not '
a dull page in the book. ^l,,ls f**
rnu _a I art iw tcorslnp,
There a not a superfluous 's
illustration. While con- Itroken doses all
cise it is popular. The And the season flic,
reader wants to read With the colors at
every word and read the
book to the end. It lays Parson meanwhile ,
hold upon him. It is f,am ,h"r
charming. One man read e v00' 1 astor
at almost through at a Whack,
sitting. The next day he
laid aside everything else 8m*' "s ",ere and
and devoted himself to .
the one book. It is reverent,
earnest, clear, simple, and enthusiastic.
The last lecture, '"The Bible in the liife of To- i
day," is so practical that it should be studied t
by every parent, teacher, and patriot. If this were
the proper place we would like to commend :
this manual as a text book in the Bible Course <
of our academies and colleges. In some locali- t
1 ies it would be aji ideal book for study in the <
organized Bible class. Tt would be an appropriate
gift for some wealthy man or woman to i
put a copy into the hands of every graduate t
from our theological seminaries. r
But what is Dr. McAfee's book? The first c
chapter is preparing the way?"The English c
Bible before King James." This chapter is a fl
<1
me Sou*
IOND, NEW ORLEANS, ATLANTA, N
>t English CI
noble contribution to history. It would be dif4.-.
A- J * *
imtun iu una so many interesting facts so concisely
arranged anywhere else. "It is a curious
fact," says the author, "that & book written in
one tongue should have come to its largest power
in other languages than its own. The Bible
means more today in German and French and
English than in Hebrew and Chaldaic and
Greek. There is nothing just like that in history."
Wiclif was rector at Lutterworth, Tennyson
compares The Village of Lutterworth to
that of Bethlehem. If the word of God was
born at Bethlehem, the word of Life was born
at Lutterworth. A copy of the Wiclif version
was sold for $150 cr $200. A load of hay was
given for the use of a New Testament one hour
a day!
-WAY RELIGION ISNT GOOD ENOUGH FC
ox iulv. u. f. BOWEN, D. D.
rch attendance Then the sinners, nau
ours to shirk, What shall these u
God's altars, When they size, up o
I in dull work, -Is too scant to last
lazy day Fickle zeal of slack b
nd on half-payt Only intermittent fev
quite nutritious. Is it spiritual duspci
pan the cheek, Is it morbia apintii
e and muscle Is our piety too flims\
; meal a week; For devotions mor
short on bread, Wonder if we shall bt
hen but half-fed. Only half a harp in
s meander, Come, my soul, and U
part in play, | What perchance if
hort rations, On some semuSabbatl
the way; Unexpectedly shoul
kcrs past Slighting here God's <
half-mast. How all thin will look
ind old Satan If two sendees on Sur
>.s and defeat* 1m *M *
m v ?vi/ inHt /l- ^'/r Md
single-handed' 'W"f [he,,Iiler'l
* . And the hallelujah
empty. 3e<its; ascended saints
i require On half-time and o
misses fire. Berlin, Md.
Our author's description of the King whose
name is linked with the great version of 1611
iharpens our appetite for more English history
?"37 years old, little over middle height, loves
i good horse, etc. Macau lay said he was "an
>bject of derision": Henry IT of Prance said
:hat James was the "wisest fool in Chriatenlom."
The brief story of the Kincr Jam
CT ^ f VAkJtVU iO
old: "Very faithfully these great scholars of
,beir time wrought. No one worked for money
ind no one worked for pay, but each for the joy
>f the working. Three years they spent on the
niginal work, three years on careful revision
ind on the marginal references. Then in six
?SS Y TEP/AAh
>al presbyter/an f
trern Presbyter/an
IARCH 5. 1913. NO."9*./<)
By REV. S. C.
assic CALD[WELL
months a committee reviewed it all, and at last
in 1 (l 1 1 tl l r? TCiricr Jomno -1 ' '
~ vniiico ?uaiuil t"U.
Dr. McAfee says three things of this version:
1. It was an honest version. It was simply
an out-and-out version of the Scriptures, as honestly
as Ihcv could produce it.
2. A second remark is its remarkable accuracy.
The italicised words of the King James
version are a frank effort to be accurate and
yet fair.
3. The third trait of the work is its striking
blendincr of diirniiv ? Tl'l nnnnlnritw in i*? In ?
w _.0 ill 1 tO 1CII1guage.
It is largely this blending of dignity
and popularity that has made the King Jamas
version so influential in English literature. It
talks the language, not of the. upper level nor
the lower level, but of the middle level, where
all meet sometimes and
?1| where most men are all
)R ME. thp while '"
The elaboration of
these three points i* exceedingly
inter ? ?t i n a
0-?
The third lecture. "The
glity sinners King James Version as
urnUgion11' En8,iah Literature," is
all day; a matchless production,
elicver so far as this writer has
cr' read or heard from platforms.
A Teview of the
,cf lecture would exceed our
y limits. The most popular
?? and nightt of all these lectures how3
given ever, is, doubtless, the
Heaven! fourth, "The Influence
j.. .J-.j ?f the Kinir James Ver
'* 4 ut Cll"axa> 8ion on English Literayou
and I, , . , . .
t furlough, tare." It is here we find
d diet the evidences of the aulourts,
1 wonder t h o r ' s broad reading,
up yonwrl careful research and fine
* discrimination. The in'dol
n here, flucncc of the Bible 0,1
al Sabbaths English Literature islits
thereI erally everywhere. If
still stay every Bible in every conn
half-pay t siderable city were destroyed,
the Book could
? M be restored in all its essential
parts from the
quotations on the shelves of the city public library.
English Literature in these 300 years
has found in the Bible three influential elements:
style, language and material. In the time of
Elizabeth "England became a nest of singing
birds." No -writer has assimilated the thoughts
and reproduced the words of Holy Scripture
more coniouslv than ? rm-- T'"
? ^...mvopcaic. ine ixing
James version appeared only five years before
his death. They were formed by the same influence
as to their English style. Shakespeare
was familiar with the Genevan. Milton's mind
was like a garden where the seeds of Scripture
came to flowers and fruit.. Pilgrim's Progress
is the most widely read book in the English lan