[Editorial in the Journal, Lakeside, California]

At a convention of the National Federation of Men's Bible Classes held in Baltimore last week [May] the following message from President Hoover was read by Representative Walter H. Newton of Minnesota, who was appointed secretary by the President to appear at the convention and deliver the message:

"There is no other book so various as the Bible, nor one so full of concentrated wisdom. Whether it be of the law, business, morals, or that vision which leads the imagination in the creation of constructive enterprises for the happiness of mankind, he who seeks for guidance in any of these things may look inside its covers and find illumination. The study of this book in your Bible classes is a postgraduate course in the richest library of human experience.

"As a nation we are indebted to the Book of books for our national ideals and representative institutions. Their preservation rests in adhering to its principles."

[Stanley High, in the Christian Herald, New York, New York]

Daily Vacation Bible Schools have become a thriving institution in Japan. Last year there were forty-six such schools with a total enrollment of two thousand six hundred and forty. In Tokyo, a staff of teachers has been enrolled to visit all the public schools in the city for Christian story hours. Interestingly enough, the public school authorities welcome these story tellers. Christian ideals, they say, are a decided asset in the moral education of Japanese boys and girls.

[Albert D. Belden, in the Christian Leader, Boston, Massachusetts]

There is nothing forced or artificial in the . . . Bible. It is a truly wonderful record of the free dealings of man with the divine Spirit over a long course of generations. It displays the different levels of human moral achievement, the moving realities of divine initiative and response. As the historical background looms up behind each book and gives the breath of reality and perspective to its record, religion is rescued from the shadows of the magical and artificial realm to which a mechanical theory of inspiration had relegated it, and it becomes instinct once more with simple everyday vitality—a thing of real life speaking across the centuries to our own real life. So it gains a new authority for the modern reader. Wherever it is capable of doing so, and there are so many occasions, the Bible finds him, teaches him, inspires him, and becomes to him a true word of God.

In this connection we who are teachers may well realize that not till our own souls have tested these values to the full are we likely to succeed in getting them over to our scholars. Our textbook is not less holy, but more so, on this modern view than on the other, because it is no longer an idol before which our minds are closed. It is a power before which our minds are open, and which plays upon them and through them upon others. . . .

Whenever the "special and unique" is brought into the category of everyday life and treated after the manner of more familiar things, it runs the risk of less reverent treatment.

But here emerges one of the signal proofs of the Bible's supremacy. While this risk is a very real one with those who only change their view of Scripture and still leave the Scripture unused—as, alas, many do—with those who really use the Bible, the book becomes dearer than ever, more profoundly reverenced, more demonstrably a word of God. This is particularly so with specific books of the Bible, of Jonah. This under the old view was a book of miracle remote from everyday life, renowned chiefly for a whale provocative of skepticism. But under the new view it becomes the first missionary classic—a book of bedside devotion—an artistic and powerful allegory of the universal love of God. . . .

There is little use in being liberated from the "letter" of the Scripture if we are not mastered by the "Spirit." It is a sorry thing to boast your emancipation if there is no positive content to our freedom, no still more glorious rebirth of passion. It is those who have been so emancipated who should show themselves Bible-lovers indeed, and who by their knowledge of the Scriptures should be able to confound those who are in error. Those who have the real Bible should prove themselves the real students of the Word of God. Rejoicing in being led moment by moment by the spirit of the living Christ, we should find a deeper joy than ever in tracing the movements of that Spirit in historic records of the past. In fact we should simply heed our Lord's own words, "Search the scriptures; . . . they are they which testify of me."

[From the Signs of the Times, Mountain View, California]

It is a significant fact that all the men and women who have produced literature that has really influenced mankind for good have been inveterate readers of the Scriptures, and have interwoven the phraseology, the ideals, ... of the Bible into every page they have written. The immortal Shakespeare, for example, has thousands of Biblical quotations and allusions in his works. If the contribution of the Bible to literature were to be subtracted, we would have no literature worth the name remaining. . . . Holland's Magazine has some worth-while editorial comments upon the Bible. . . . "For more than two thousand years, disbelievers have fought the work of the Bible, have striven to undo the good wrought by Christianity. Pharaohs, Herods, kings, the most powerful potentates of temporal realms in the history of the world, have commanded it destroyed utterly—banished from their empires. At one period in the world's history, every copy thought to exist was burned by royal edict.

"To-day, the Bible is recognized as the greatest force for good in all the world. More copies of the Bible are sold annually than of any other book ever printed. Its cumulative influence is the most powerful ever known. It is accepted by countless millions as the inspired Word of God. To-day, after two thousand years of assault and criticism, it stands as the only record of the beginning of the world, and the history of the life and death of the Man of Nazareth, to whose standards men are daily drawn in thousands. . . . The work of the Bible has always been constructive, uplifiting, ennobling, teaching men to live cleaner, finer, more spiritual lives."

[Rev. John Q. Adams, D. D., in the Boston Evening Transcript, Massachusetts]

Our Bible is unique and supreme in all literature as a means for promoting the spiritual life. It is the chief book of devotion, yet it is hardly mentioned in many discussions about this life. It is the only "sacred book" that strongly commends knowledge and the spirit of inquiry. It has no "esoteric or secret wisdom to be imparted only to the initiated." While it insists that its truths are spiritually discerned, it also insists that this discernment is within the reach of anyone. So the important place the Bible holds in our subject is at once apparent. The late President Harper gave two reasons why it ought to be studied; because it is so well known, and, because it is so unknown. Seemingly contradictory—both statements are still true.

The Bible is well known. Everybody thinks he knows it and can easily discuss its merits and demerits. You will find the Bible everywhere. In its English versions it is "the best seller" known to the trade. It has been translated into more languages, speaks to more people, travels more miles, and keeps the sunshine on its pages more constantly than any other book, probably more than any ten books, the world has known. There is a universality about it unlike any other book. Like Banquo's ghost it will not down, although more vigorous efforts have been put forth to down it than to suppress any other book. We may or may not like it, we may or may not read it, but it meets us, go where we will, and cannot be ignored. No book has been more grossly abused by its enemies or more shamefully treated by its friends, but it lives, spite of friend and foe, and continues to unveil the face of God to each generation. Much of the world's best literature and art, its finest legal institutions and most heroic lives have been inspired by it. Vice and corruption stand abashed in its presence. Evil cannot abide its coming. "The entrance of thy words giveth light." All this is simply the statement of facts beyond dispute. The Bible is well known, and a knowledge of it is indispensable to a liberal education. It is the only ancient book vital still for every man.

[Editorial in the Christian Advocate, New York, New York]

The American Bible Society's presses continue to throw off copies by the ten thousand, and we are told that in this amazing generation one may purchase a Bible in morocco bindings of many hues, to match any costume—even white for brides! The British and Foreign Bible Society, celebrating its one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary in London recently, reported 11,399,540 copies produced and distributed in 1928, nearly a million and a half above 1927. Not all of these are in English. On an average the Scriptures are printed in a fresh language or dialect every fifth week. Whereas in 1800 the Bible was printed in only seventy-one languages, it is now found in eight hundred and fifteen tongues. Africa alone has two hundred and three versions. The Society's annual income is about $2,000,000. It works in close cooperation with the American Bible Society.

[Colonel G. S. Turner, as quoted in the Yorkshire Observer, Bradford, England]

Little by little, Christian ideas and Christian ways of doing things are penetrating our law courts, our prisons, and every section, indeed, of our public life. . . . I don't mind confessing to you, that since I came into prison service four years ago I have read everything I could find in criminology, penal science, and the history of delinquency in this and many other countries. I have found that the best guidance I have been able to have in dealing with criminals has come from the pages of the New Testament. I know nothing better on which I could act.

[Dr. Bruce Brown, as quoted in the Times, Los Angeles, California]

The Book of books comes to us from the long-distant past, when ignorance and superstition abounded, long before the birth of science. . . . Yet it ever keeps abreast of modern discoveries and it is the inspiration of every noble reformation. The ones who have led mankind to higher ground have been prepared for their task by its teachings.