The Bible Story Part 43

The Ministry

Cana. 78 L.J.

Samaria. 82 L.J.

The Mount of Beat.i.tudes. 105, 107, 108 L.J.

Capernaum. 125 L.J.

The City of Nain. 130 L.J.

The Lake of Gennesaret. 136, 489 L.J.

The Banquet Hall of Herod. 154 L.J.

The Pool of Bethesda. 167, 489 L.J.

Caesarea Philippi. 178 L.J.

Bethany. 215 L.J.

Jericho. 221 L.J.

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Pa.s.sion Week

An Upper Chamber. 249 L.J.

The Mount of Olives. 264 L.J.

Palace of the High Priest. 269 L.J.

Pilate's Palace. 272 L.J.

The Palace of Herod. 275 L.J.

Pilate's Judgment Hall. 276 L.J.

Golgotha (Calvary) 281 L.J.

Joseph's Garden. 286 L.J.

The Resurrection

The Village of Emmaus. 301 L.J.

The Sea of Galilee. 307 L.J.

The Mount of Ascension. 310 L.J.

Trace out on the map on page 381 the first missionary journey of Paul. 376 L.J.

Trace out on the map on page 393 Paul's second missionary journey. 392 L.J.

Trace out on the map on page 415 Paul's third missionary journey. 417 L.J.

Follow the route on page 449 of Paul's journey to Rome. 462 L.J.

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PART IV

THE BIBLE IN LITERATURE

_For Lovers of Literature_

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"It is surely good that our youth, during the formative period, should have displayed to them, in a literary dress as brilliant as that of Greek literature, in lyrics which Pindar cannot surpa.s.s, in rhetoric as forcible as that of Demosthenes, or contemplative prose not inferior to Plato's--a people dominated by an utter pa.s.sion for righteousness."

--_Richard G. Moulton_.

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THE BIBLE IN LITERATURE

THE BIBLE'S PLACE IN LITERATURE

It may well be said that, like our English speech, our literature has drawn its material and its inspiration from many tongues and peoples.

Its sources are world-wide. Its stream flows from innumerable springs and fountains. Some of them have been shallow and some have given up only the waters of bitterness, but many there are which keep the current broad and pure and deep. And of those fountains that ever pour out living water the most abounding is our English Bible.

So abundantly has our literature drawn from the Bible that a study of it is the very beginning of the knowledge of English writings. He alone can be called educated who knows this Book; for its _style_, its _substance_ and its _spirit_ are thoroughly woven into the thought and language of English-speaking people.

In the age of Elizabeth, when the Bible was translated, our English words were coming fresh coined to our language from the mint of life.

New words were being made out of men's experiences. Such words brought the pictures and images of things and actions vividly to the mind as our abstract speech of to-day can never do. It was this living, concrete language which men like Tindale and Coverdale wrought into what became the King James Version; and with such mastery that to this day the Bible has no peer in the vigor, the directness, and the simplicity of its style. Then, too, in those days religious belief was often a matter of life and death. Many of the translators finally gave up their lives rather than to renounce their convictions, and it could only be that such men would give to the Bible a style that breathes always the n.o.ble dignity and earnestness of martyrs.

Thus he who would appraise our English writings must weigh whatever they possess of the earnestness, the simplicity, the vigor, the directness of the Bible. He must himself have mastered well that great source of English style.

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Then who shall measure the treasures of the Bible substance that our writers have poured into their books? The Bible has contributed their language, their plots, their incidents, their characters, their moral lessons, even their names. Words can no more than faintly suggest how full to overflowing of the Bible is our literature. An allusion from the Scriptures adorns almost every page of such writers as Browning and Ruskin. Five hundred Biblical allusions appear in the Ring and the Book alone. Thousands of them are scattered through Shakespeare and in their use the poet climbs perhaps oftenest to the heights of his genius. It has been said that no other pa.s.sage in Shakespeare has the sublimity of that one patterned by the lover of Jessica from the Book of Job:--

[Footnote: Lorenzo thus addresses Jessica. (See page 157.)]

"Look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold; There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings."