Mark Twain's Estimate of the Bible
THE following paragraph taken from one of Mark Twain's note-books is worthy to be classed with some of the finest and most helpful things that have ever been said about the Bible: "It is hard to make a choice of the most beautiful passage in a book which is so gemmed with beautiful passages as the Bible. Who taught those ancient writers their simplicity of language, their felicity of expression, their pathos, and, above all, their faculty of sinking themselves entirely out of sight of the reader and making the narrative stand out alone and seem to tell itself? Shakespeare is always present when one reads his books; Macaulay is present when we follow the march of his stately sentences; but the Old Testament writers are hidden from view."