we can rest in the homely counsels of St. James." But the variety of Scripture also regards the needs and moods of men. There are "shallows which the lamb can ford as well as depths which the elephant must swim. There is Poetry for the student, History for the statesman, Psalms for the Temple, and Proverbs for the Mart. There are appeals, denunciations, arguments, stories of battle, songs of love. There are mountains and valleys, shadow and sunshine, calm and tempest, stormy waves and still waters, lilies of green pastures and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." With such variety of material as is afforded in the sweep of the Book from Genesis to Malachi, from Matthew to Revelation, with such multiplied points of contact, and such diversified appeals, it must be said that the teacher of such a book has inherited a veritable Golconda. He, however, who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must take the wealth of the Indies with him. Therefore let the teacher know well the pathways of the Book, that being himself an interested guide, he may lead others with delight into its varied store.

5. The human kinship and the spiritual imperative of the Book constitute its strongest element of surprise. Opening a book which is called God's Book, we find that it is also man's book. The humanity of Scripture constantly takes us unawares. It is a great book of the heart that seems to have felt all the loves and fears of men in all ages; seems to have shared their dangers, suffered their woes, and indulged their high hopes. "The power of all the griefs and trials of man," said Faber, "is hidden be

neath its words." Abraham buying the cave of Machpelah to "bury his dead out of his sight"; Boaz in the idyllic picture of Ruth coming out to the field. in the morning and greeting his reapers, "The Lord be with you," and receiving their greeting in return, "The Lord bless thee"; Elijah seated under the juniper tree and crying out in his despair, "It is enough"; Isaiah bringing the gospel to the heart in terms of the "wells of salvation"; Amos, the embodiment of spiritual courage, standing unabashed before the priest of Bethel; Paul with his last penstrokes sending for his cloke and books-a Book that contains such pictures as these is pre-eminently a Book of human sympathies. It is within reason to say that no element of human experience is left without some record here. Like the poet who stirred a Roman audience to applause, the Bible looks out upon life to say, "There is nothing human that fails to interest me." Yet even as we dwell upon its human sympathy, we realize that a higher light constantly breaks through and envelops persons and incidents. It is the swift vision of a spiritual life. It is the true idealism of life coming upon the heels of its true realism. No book is so realistic, none is so idealistic, as the Bible. From a window in the armory at Warwick Castle in England, the traveller looks out upon a beautiful vista of the Avon, begirt by trees and spanned by a bridge beyond, seeming to say to the heart, "There is more than man here; God is also here." The greatest surprise of all in the Scripture is the sudden vistas in the history, in personal life or incident, where the heart sees God. The highest art of the teacher lies

here, to open up these vistas, to bring these quick but abiding impressions to the mind, to lay this vast and varied literature under tribute to the growth of the Kingdom of God in the Soul.

IV

THE RELIGIOUS USE OF IMAGINATION*

THE Bible is not a Book of the imagination. Nevertheless it is pre-eminently a Book for the imagination. In this statement lies the suggestion of many methods of handling the Book. Still more it suggests a possible solution of the whole problem of appreciation. If men could be brought to regard the Bible with lively interest, they would more readily adopt it as their vade mecum. Now the existence of "lively interest" is somehow dependent upon the presence of imagination. We are accustomed to explain the dulness or indifference of men in the most ordinary affairs by saying that they are "unimaginative." We see how necessary it is that men should realize what they know, have a living picture of truth before the mind, feel keenly, to the point of resolution and action, the things that are presented to the inward eye of the soul. The function of the imagination was once imaginatively stated by Horace Bushnell in an inspiring moment of conversation

* The title of this chapter is the exact title of a recent volume by Professor E. H. Johnson of Crozer Theological Seminary. Professor Johnson's discussion is penetrative and suggestive at every point, reminding one not a little of Horace Bushnell. His discussion, however, does not include the consideration of imagination as a faculty of appreciation in reading and handling the Bible, which is our purpose here.

with a friend. When God made man he declared that his work was well done. But God considered his work, and added, "No, man is not finished; there is no way into his soul large enough to admit me. I will open in him the great door of imagination, that I may go to him and he may come to me." The truth thus luminously stated comes to meet us in very practical affairs. It is evident that there is some faculty of the mind which rightly used makes life seem more to us than before. It works apparently by a process of giving intense reality to the truth of life. The leaders of men in every line of activity possess this power. It is the architectonic element in genius; and it is also the faculty of common minds that clothes even feeble incidents of life with reality and dignity. An indescribable dulness possesses the soul that lacks the enlivenment of imag ination. Sir Walter Scott told a friend that he thought he could be happy even though the rest of his days should be spent in a dungeon. No prison, he said, could confine his thought or limit the power of his imagination.

It was Napoleon who said: "Imagination rules the world"; while a recent English critic affirms that "the cause of the failure of some of the English generals is lack of imagination, the inability to realize the courage and resource of the enemy, to realize situations." A well-known writer includes in a volume of essays on man's social value, an essay on "Imagination as the architect of manhood"; and another boldly asserts that "Imagination is the very secret and marrow of civilization." No great labor of man, whether the building of a bridge or the build