Editorial January 12, 1907 Issue

"SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES"

Anne M. Knott

Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal
life ... and ye will not come to me that ye may have life.
John, 5:39, 40 (Revised Version).

Much interest has been expressed in the recent utterance of a professor of English literature at Yale, in which he advocates the use of the Bible for college entrance examinations. He says that "the ignorance of college students, of Biblical literature, is universal, profound, and complete," and he adds, "It is certainly unfortunate that the best book ever printed should be so little known, and that the frequent references to it in practically every author should be meaningless. I would therefore refuse to allow any candidate to enter a university until he had satisfactorily passed an examination on the Bible. The Bible has within its pages every single kind of literature that any proposed list of English classics contains. It has narrative, descriptive, poetical, dramatic, argumentative, and oratorical passages. ... Priests, atheists, skeptics, devotees, agnostics, and evangelists are all agreed that the Authorized Version of the English Bible is the best example of English composition that the world has ever seen. It combines the noblest prose and poetry with the utmost simplicity of diction. ... It is deplorable that college students should be so ignorant of the great classic in their mother-tongue."

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January 12, 1907
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