IGNORANCE OF THE BIBLE.
By Editor
It is simply marvelous, even among those who profess to believe it, and hold it as the guide of salvation. It is popular to possess a copy or so, but it is not popular to read it or to be seen reading it. Apart from its divine message it is worth reading for its English, its strong, lucid style, its expressive figures of speech. William Lyon Phelps, professor of English at Yale University, suggests that entrance examinations in English for college work be simply from the Bible. He remarks: “If all the undergraduates in America should be placed in one room and tested by a common examination on the supposedly familiar stories of the Old Testament—I mean on such instances as Adam, Eve, and the Garden of Eden, Noah, Samson, David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh—the results would be a magnificent contribution to American humor.” Professor Phelps cites an instance of “one fine specimen of American manhood” who believed that it was Adam, instead of Cain, who killed his brother. Would the high classmen make a better showing? The Professor further says: “The Bible has within its pages every single kind of literature that any proposed list of English classics contains.” Upon this the New York “World” remarks: “Ignorance of the English language on the part of the average student is one of the serious problems in American colleges, and the suggestion of Professor Phelps, despite its sweeping character, has much to commend it. Most of the great orators of England and America used the Bible as the basis of their style. Broughman, Macaulay, Webster, and Garfield knew the Bible better than most ministers. Lincoln’s literary style was formed largely by the study of the King James version. When Macaulay, who began his literary career by learning to read at three years of age, wished to acquire a new language—and he learned most of the principal modern languages—he bought the Bible in that language, and his familiarity with it made his study easy. “Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poet, said: ‘Study of the Bible will keep any man from being vulgar in point of style.’ Kossuth, the great Hungarian patriot, who electrified American audiences by his eloquence, was asked how he had acquired such a mastery of the English language, and replied that it was the result of studying the Bible.” And many others of the masters in English might be cited as examples. We appeal to our readers to study the Bible with us. We shall put forth more earnest effort than ever before to make the SIGNS OF THE TIMES a Bible paper in the year 1907.