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THE BOOK OF BOOKS

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 11, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 19.

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THE BOOK OF BOOKS.

WHAT a book is the Bible! In how many ways it appeals to the thoughtful soul!
Its spirit, its subject matter, its object, its proportion, its method, all appeal to the candid, earnest person who looks beyond the present, and who weighs from principle rather than from appearance.
The Bible is a serious Book. It does not treat lightly the problems of life. It is neither mawkish nor sentimental. It comes to us in a straightforward, open, manly way, appealing to our sober judgment and common sense. In precept it is serious, in promise it is serious, as befits the problem with which it deals; and he who fails to take it seriously is making one of the most serious mistakes of his life. The Bible comes to you open, honest, serious; receive it as such.
It presents before us great serious examples of men and women with something to do. It is Adam with a divine model before him, after which the earth was to be fashioned. It is Noah with the responsibility of a world to be warned and saved if possible. It is a Joseph, true to duty, conducting with equal integrity his work as a bondman in the prison or as prime minister upon the throne. It is a Moses leading, educating, a nation of ignorant erstwhile slaves to nationhood and a kingdom. It is a Joshua, a David, a Solomon, an Elijah, an Isaiah, a Jeremiah, a Daniel, a Nehemiah, a John the Baptist, a Paul, a John, and a host of other mighty men with serious work to do, and who did it faithfully and well,—shining examples of faith, courage, perseverance, and loyalty.
And yet these great heroes of the ages are never flattered. No sycophantish Eusebius glozes over with flattering words the deeds a Constantine may have committed against God and man. The weakness of the great Elijah is told; the sins of David and Solomon are faithfully laid open, not alone to coming ages, but by the servant of God to the very men themselves it was said, "Thou art the man." No sins are glossed over, no man is flattered; yet, somehow, from the records of their lives, we come away stronger men, with more faith and heart and hope, and more love for God who made them the men of action they were, the moulders of the ages.
The Bible is a practical Book. It deals with the practical things of life. We once met an old Pennsylvania farmer who was prosperous in his farming. Asking the secret of his success, he frankly said that it was all found in the book of Proverbs. Tho not a Christian, he believed the Bible for its practical every-day worth, and he needed no better advice for practical every-day work than he found in Proverbs.
The Bible deals with visions, but it is not visionary. The outlook of all that is revealed is tremendously practical. It lays hold of the every-day life. It reveals a religion which includes every practical duty of life, duty to God, duty to our fellow men. No other book in all the world is so practical concerning the life which now is, and the life which is to come. Its right concept brings the life which is to come into the life now.
It is a proportional Book. It does not place first some fad or fancy, some dream or unsolvable mystery. First of all it places character. By that, God is revealed. By that, manhood is measured. By character, fitness for the life to come is ascertained. In the world oftentimes business or profit or pleasure or expediency stands first; in the Book of God character, morality, righteousness, in this life here, for this age, in preparation for the life to come.
What a simple Book is the Bible in all its fundamental teaching! It makes the great foundation truths stand out clear and strong, so that the simplest may understand them. It enforces these teachings by object lessons with which all are familiar. Everything common in nature and art is laid under tribute to make plain the Gospel of the wonderful Book.
So much in brief for the Book as a book. How incomparably superior in all these important characteristics is the Bible! But it is more than this to the humble believer in Jesus Christ. "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. 3:16, 17.
"Were all the world one chrysolite, The sun a golden ball, And diamonds all the stars of night, This Book were worth them all."