p. 8 | M. E. KERN by M. E. KERN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 27, 1908

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 9.

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M. E. KERN

By M. E. KERN

The Bible in Education—No. 4

(Continued)

M. E. KERN

Literature

THE poetry of the Psalms and Proverbs, the strains of Isaiah, and the sublime visions of heaven and the New Jerusalem given to John, are unequaled in the literature of the world. Here we are among the fountains and mountain streams whence the stream of the highest literature has flowed. The greatest men of letters have received their inspiration here. Mr. Ruskin confesses that the power and beauty of all he has written was derived from his early and continuous reading of the Bible, his mother requiring him when a boy to read aloud a chapter every day, till his mind became thoroughly imbued and saturated with its spirit and imagery. If we can fill the minds of our children and youth with these grand thoughts and words of God, they will be saved from the corrupting influence of much of the literature which floods the world to-day, and which many of our young people are reading. Their taste for the murky and filthy waters of the valley will be taken away if we can bring them to appreciate these living streams. O for power to do it! But we are slow to learn. We are timid to break away from the beaten path in which we were led. In Biblical literature there is a wonderful field for some servant of God to develop. A writer in the Educational Review, in speaking of the question of literature, says: “The strange preference for what may be called heathen classics becomes all the more unaccountable when the objectionable nature of some portions of them is considered. . . . If they were fully and literally translated, they would be subject to lawful interdiction on account of their corrupting influence.”

Dr. Franklin read the story of Ruth to a circle of French infidels after listening to a tirade against the Bible, representing it as an Oriental tale, but not giving the source. These educated ignoramuses listened with delight to this unique and

beautiful story, and expressed their wonder that so charming a pastoral had never been known before. Their astonishment and chagrin can be imagined when they found that the story was taken from one of the despised books of the Old Testament.

History

Here our way has been quite clear, yet there is much to learn. The Bible as a history, supplies what no other can, “spanning a period which but for this luminous arch, would be an empty void.” It fills with real personalities and authentic facts a period which in other literatures is but vague tradition and mythology. Here only can the true story of the origin of our race, and of the origin of evil, be found. Satan purposes to blind men's eyes to the beginning and end of this great controversy, and deaden their sensibilities to the present. But the highest excellence of the Bible as history is that it presents the divine and not the human side, and furnishes a key for the interpretation of all history. Here and there only do we find the true philosophy of history. It is divine philosophy, teaching by example. History and prophecy from the standpoint of the great conflict between good and evil is a sacred study. It is far above the political and social conceptions of history teachers in general. They study and teach for time, and we for time and eternity. It is a privilege that has been given us to cast aside the lower conceptions of history, and build upon this elevated platform. It is worthy of the expenditure of the highest capabilities committed to us.

Philosophy

Here only is the true philosophy of life. Here are the fundamental principles upon which any true system of philosophy must be built. As one writer says, “The mind of this alone sinless and therefore alone normal man (Christ) can be the fundamental datum for all that is enduring in philosophy.”—Geo. S. Burroughs, Andover Review, Vol. VIII, page 253. All educators believe that morality should be taught. But there is no true standard of morality except in the Bible, where it has its root in religious faith and a belief in God, and where its motive power is love. This is not true in other religions. Altruistic sentiments are derived from the Bible, though it may be denied by those who hold them.

Thus the Bible is seen to contain much on the subjects of literature, history, and philosophy, as well as to contain the foundation and key to their study.

This instruction is lacking in mathematics, and meager in physical and natural science. But here it is not needed because of God's other grand book of revelation, nature. There are many references to nature, and we are admonished to study this book, and when we do it (as the world in general is not doing) under the guidance of the revelation in the Bible, reading God's thoughts in the creation, we come into close sympathy with its Author. Studied in this way, too, it stimulates a greater interest in that fuller and complete revelation, the Bible.

Rightly studied, even under the curse, nature speaks of God; and many are the lessons of life to be received from the heart of nature by the one who, with his mind in tune with nature's God, listens. The Bible and nature are the two great text-books of Christian education.

College View, Neb.