pose of each of the four is to present Jesus Christ as the divine Saviour of the World; but each of the four presents him as such in a distinctive light. Matthew's picture is a Profile, wherein Jesus is presented in clear-cut outline against the background of Old-Testament history, prophecy, promise, and type as the Promised Messiah. Mark's picture is like a Steel Engraving, wherein the very straightforwardness and directness of the inspired artist, and his boldness of delineation, leave an irresistible impression of the Powerful One who is able to save. Luke's picture is a Half-Tone Picture, wherein the strong light of Divinity is sifted and in a sense moderated as it passes through the fine lines of Humanity, showing Jesus as the Son of Man, the Friend of Sinners, the Elder Brother who can restore us to the love of the Father. John's picture is the Life-Size Portrait, wherein the latest of the four artists, the one who was closest to Jesus, paints a picture of Jesus as the loving heart of faith is bound to see him, his divinity and his humanity rounded out into the completeness which experience gives, in whom is unfolded the whole secret of life and salvation-in other words Jesus as the ne plus ultra of the heart's desire and need (John xx:31). How necessary it is to be familiar with each of these pictures of Christ in order that the composite picture of Christ in the heart may contain something of the fulness of his Person.*

Third. The third suggestion is that such grasp of the books is productive of very important results. The first of these is the growing sense of mastery in the

* See Chapter XI, "Four Pictures of Jesus."

mind of the reader. It is possible in this way to go through the Bible as a housekeeper might go through a house with her bunch of keys, unlocking door after door and opening the house from beginning to end. This is the true meaning of an open Bible. Such a plan possesses incalculable advantage. If nothing more it is the feeling of ownership, the joyous sense like that of Kepler, the astronomer, of "thinking God's thoughts after him." With this feeling of mastery comes also a kind of familiarity and facility with the Scripture which is one secret of its fascination. By this we do not mean the familiarity which may breed contempt and indifference, nor the facility which produces dogmatic confidence. We mean rather that sense of being at home in the Bible, which is like the feeling of one who has watched the building of his house, and knows by experience its structural completeness. One never knows how well built the House Beautiful is that contains the Revelation of God until he has examined its structural parts. Another result will be found among the impressions of this manner of dealing with Scripture, and this is the feeling of its solidity. We have already suggested that to know the Bible by verses and passages merely is to have the thin edge of Scripture presented to the mind. Its massive force and effectiveness are manifest when the mind tries to grasp the meaning of its several books. The traveller finds great delight in viewing the forest of statues that adorn the Cathedral of Milan; yet there is a structural grandeur and solidity about the great Cathedral which is the background of every statue, and which constitutes its real meaning to the

thoughtful beholder. For the practical needs of instruction the grasp of the books brings incalculable benefits. Not the least of these is the imperious demand for study. Dilettante methods of handling the Book are wholly inadequate for these things. To know the books of the Bible and the place which they severally occupy in the great plan of Revelation requires the utmost diligence in study. It discourages likewise those superficial ways of dealing with the Scripture which may entertain for the time, but which leave no real deposit of interest in the mind. Still another benefit is found in the interest of variety which is thus introduced into Bible study. The bane of Bible teaching is sameness. The preacher who will now and then take up an entire book of the Bible and tell its story, with the fullest intelligence and skill at his command, will not only produce a pleasing variety in his pulpit method-he will at the same time invest the Bible with new interest. Moreover, the compulsion of thought comes with this way of handling the Scripture. We insist that our ordinary methods of teaching the Bible too frequently fail to create in the mind an impression of the Bible's majestic power. In reality, no other book can equal it as a quickener of thought. Only give it an opportunity to speak for itself; let it have full sway with the mind; and it will almost invariably acquire "a new splendor and significance." This method contemplates, as the reader will observe, a real education of the people in the Scripture. This is one of the pressing needs of the church to-day. Experience proves also that it is productive of interest. It is found that even the

Minor Prophets-terra incognita to most Bible readers-are replete with interest and fascination when they are studied as separate messages; and their very leaves, as Goethe said of Shakespeare, seem to rustle and to be driven to and fro by the great winds of destiny.

It remains to offer a few very simple suggestions as to how to grasp the meaning of a book of the Bible, especially for the purpose of instruction.

1. There are, of course, many and learned Introductions for every book and it will not do to neglect the material accumulated by scholarship. Apart from such help, however, the simplest and most efficient plan is to read and re-read the book until it possesses the mind, until the impression of the whole is perfectly clear. No amount of comments and explanations will fit one to present a book of the Bible to others; the teacher must know it himself famil iarly, must enter its atmosphere, must obtain in other words its very feeling. Details will come with further study; the first thing desired is the impressionistic effect. Those who have not tried the plan of giving many successive readings to a book of Scripture can hardly understand how, by such a simple plan, a book will gradually stand out in the mind in an ever clearer light.

2. The next step is to obtain, if possible, a mental picture of the author. The interest in personality is unabating. The Bible teacher may depend upon producing an initial interest in any of the books by presenting the man with his message. Very often the autobiographic element is the most convenient handle to lay hold of. It was a naïve remark of Voltaire

that "all kinds of literature are good except the kinds that bore, and the kind that bores the least usually is autobiography." Suppose, for example, that one is studying the Book of Amos for the purpose of telling its story effectively to an audience, and of investing it with permanent interest for the mind. The book furnishes merely the outline of the author's personality, but there is enough to make one feel that Amos the Prophet is worthy to be classed with men of heroic mould, such as Elijah, John the Baptist, Wickliffe, Savonarola, Luther, and Knox. He was a native of Tekoa. Draw a picture of the shepherd life roundabout Tekoa.* Amos was "among the herdsmen of Tekoa." The Lord took him from following the flock, and from the dressing of sycamore trees-an inspired farmer! The atmosphere of the book is that of all-out-of-doors. The sheep, the trees, the wild animals, the stars, the locusts, the fruit decaying, furnish him his most striking images. It is the picture of a rude yet strong individual, not taught in the schools, but taught of God in righteousness and justice. The climax of the dramatic is in the scene where Amos stands before Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, fearlessly saying to him, "Hear thou the word of the Lord," a scene that reminds one of Nathan before David, of John the Baptist before Herod, of John Knox before Queen Mary, of Luther at the Diet of Worms. The book becomes tenfold more interesting for having obtained a mental picture of the rugged personality of the prophet. The same is true of many other books of Scripture. It is impossible, for example,

* See Amos, An Essay in Exegesis, by H. G. Mitchell, pp. 3-4.