JESTING USE OF SCRIPTURE.
A JESTING use of Scripture is an abuse of Scripture. Yet it is so used both by believers and unbelievers. It is frequently used in jest in public lectures. Even such men as Spurgeon and Talmage employ Scripture in this way. Talmage's lecture at Louisville was severely criticised in one of our religious papers for exposing religion to ridicule. It is often jestingly used in social gatherings and ordinary conversation, and that by Christian people. Much of the wit and humor in social life derives its piquancy from allusion to Scripture. The head-lines and advertisements of newspapers are often filled with irreverent and flippant use of God's word. Allusions to the Bible and religion, often season the jokes and witty sayings which appear in secular and religious papers and magazines. Many of the good things in Harpers' Drawer are of this character. Our college songs and class-day jokes often depend upon allusion to Scripture for much of their wit and humor. Is not such use an abuse of Scripture? Shall our sacred Book become a jest-book? If a Buddhist or Mohammedan were to see extracts from the Bible made the basis of jokes, and that by Christian people, would it speak well for our religion? I am not aware that Mohammedans are wont to make allusions to the Koran an ingredient of jokes. Not only does this use of the Bible degrade it in the eyes of others, but it also degrades it in our own eyes. It associates the Bible with what is low and ridiculous, and tends to diminish our reverence for it. The writer has had several passages of Scripture so associated with ridiculous things, that the mention of the passages immediately brings up the jests made upon them, thus destroying almost their whole force. The spiritually minded Christian cannot but be jarred by the jesting use of Scripture. That this use of the word is irreverent and an abuse, is evident from the revulsion of the spiritual nature which it occasions. To be sure, many Christians become more or less accustomed to it; but the hardening is rarely complete, and the jar is there, though very slight perhaps, or very concealed. Large portions of Scripture have been, in the public mind and consequently in the Christian mind, more or less connected with the comical. For example, the stories of the fall, of Jonah, and of the ark, have come to be mostly a theme for joking remarks. It is hard for a Christian to study these without some ridiculous suggestion entering his mind. If the jesting use of Scripture is abuse of Scripture, what shall be done to repress it? It may indeed be said that such use of Scripture is inevitable; that the Bible has become so rooted in our thought that it connects itself necessarily with every form of speech. I think, however, that in England and Scotland, where the Scripture has impressed itself more deeply upon the minds of men, than in America, this abuse of the Scripture is rarely found. A little care and self-control will suppress the jests on Scripture which so readily suggest themselves to many minds. We pray "Thy name be hallowed;" shall we not also pray "Thy Book be hallowed?" The one petition is involved in the other. God's Book is called the "Holy Scriptures," and shall we not keep it holy and revered by not employing the word in jest ourselves, and protesting against this use by others?—California Christian Advocate.