THE FASCINATION OF

THE BOOK

I

THE BIBLE INTERESTING

The Bible is an interesting Book.

It is the purpose of this volume to show that this proposition is not only thoroughly defensible, but also that an intelligent recognition of its truth is necessary to the most efficient use of the Word.

The proposition is likely to present itself in different forms to different minds, and even with varied meanings to the same mind.

Its first and most patent meaning is found in the transcendent importance of the Scripture as Revelation. The term interesting as applied to the Bible obtains in this view a supernatural meaning and intensity. Considering its purpose and contents, the sweep of its design from Heaven to Earth, from Earth to Heaven, no other book possesses such a high degree of interest to the soul. The Book which has preserved for this world the memory of the life and death of Jesus Christ-for this Book the term interesting seems all inadequate.

Another class of minds is satisfied with a much lower view of the Scripture. To them it is sufficient

to say that the Bible is interesting as a phenomenon in the world's spiritual history, a literary monument to the age-long aspirations of the human soul. As such the Bible is constantly to be reckoned with among the facts and forces of life. The rationalistic thinker does not feel called upon to assert the authentic supernaturalism of the Bible; but he is not for that reason careless of its remarkable interest for mankind.

Still another interpretation of the proposition that the Bible is an interesting Book is found in the thought of its general worth and impressiveness. This is the popular estimate, and may be consistently held either in connection with high supernatural or low rationalistic views. Few persons can escape this strange sense of dignity and worth. in the Bible. Whatever theories of its origin and authority may be held, it never ceases to be of interest to the sentiments of mankind. This may fairly be described as the atmospheric influence of the Scripture, and as such it is pervasive and penetrative. The solidest and most legitimate tradition among us is the tradition of the value of the Word of God. Neither science nor criticism can destroy this conviction of the heart. Happily the interest which men feel in religion, as Tholuck remarked, rises from the heart to the head; and it will therefore maintain itself, at least in relative strength, apart from the theories and methods of the schools.

Yet there is another meaning, the most simple of all, in our initial statement, which is not adequately recognized in either of the foregoing estimates. The Bible is interesting-simply interesting. The term,

in other words, is as properly applied to the Bible as it is to any other book. To say this is not to put the Bible on a par with other books; it is, nevertheless, to recognize a kinship between it and other books without which it would scarcely be able to accomplish its purpose for the human heart. It amounts to saying, what this volume is intended in various ways to illustrate, that the Bible as a divine Revelation has made use of the ordinary avenues of approach to the human mind. No new or separate set of faculties has been constituted as a tribunal before which the Bible may present its claims. Its appeal is to the ordinary faculties, the same that enter into judgment upon the common affairs of life.

Now it is in view of the standards set up in this common court of the mind, standards expressed by such terms as reason, judgment, logic, taste, sentiment, beauty, strength, order-whatever the mind finds to be worthy and useful in an instrument of appeal to the soul-it is in view of these that the Bible is in a very practical sense an interesting Book. In reality it is no slight advantage to be able to say the same thing of the Book of God that is said of the books of men. There is far less difficulty indeed in showing men the singular supernaturalism that separates the Scripture from all other books, than in showing them those traits and qualities of the Bible that associate it in the feelings of men with books of ordinary human authorship, in short, the characteristics that give to the Word its sense of familiarity, its force of intimacy, its sway with the natural instincts of the mind.