Mr. Bryan as a Bible Student
ON the editorial page of the Boy's World is a little sketch in regard to the personal habits of Mr. Bryan with reference to Bible study. The writer relates that he met Mr. Bryan while on one of his journeys through New England, and asked him “how the power of the Bible had grown upon him,” to which Mr. Bryan replied: “My parents led me first into its study. In my boyhood we did not have a great variety of books to read, but the boy who wished to advance had to post himself through standard books. We had Shakespeare, the Bible, good spellers, and good readers. As I worked my way through all these I came to see how the Bible immeasurably leads all other books. There is not a line in it but that is pregnant with meaning. The teachings and history within the Book apply not only to the past, but to every human act of this day. “The Bible makes the moral code, that which regulates human conduct, too plain for any human being to misunderstand it. There are stars in the heavens so bright that any one picking them out can not, by following them, lose his way. To human life the Bible is such a star—no person can go astray who reads it understandingly and then strives to put into effect what it teaches. “I can not understand any education being regarded as completed which has ignored a study of the Bible. “No human life is so strong but that it needs something more than human to lean upon, to guide and uplift. Christ supplies this need. He is an inspiration at all times. Everything that is breathed out of His life helps. He never destroyed. Those who understand what He lived for can readily see that He was the greatest constructor for human happiness that ever existed.” Mr. Bryan has been before the world for a long time in the light of a politician as viewed by some, or as a statesman as viewed by others, but there is no one that has ever arisen to charge him with any kind of immorality or crookedness. His character stands out strongly as a clean, honest, pure man. The foregoing paragraphs will give the secret of it. Any man who conscientiously communes with God through His word every day can not fail to have strong moral principles implanted in his life and character. God’s word is the means through which He connects humanity with His infinite storehouse of righteousness and power. It would be well for the young men of this nation if they followed Mr. Bryan in this respect, regardless of what they might think of him in other directions.