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 The Eiiglisli Bible 
 
 A CANADIAN CHAUTAUOUA LECTURE 
 
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 l^<l'SS «n< IMF. ('aNAIM r^RKSHY'l KWIAN 
 
 1891 
 
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 HOW TO KEAD the ENGLISH BIBLE 
 
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 A CANADIAN CHAUTAUQUA l.LCTURt. / (/ 7 U^ 
 
 " Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing unto 
 God, for he that cometh to God must first bolieve that He 
 is. — Belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of 
 Christ." Thai word for Protestant Christendom is to be 
 found in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, 
 which confessedly contain " all things necessary to salva- 
 tion ;" and, being "given by inspiration of God," arc the 
 supreme rule of Christian faith and life. Worried with 
 doubts, frenzied by the lashings of an awakened conscience, 
 Augustine fled from the schools of philosophy wherein no rest 
 was found, to the sects of Christendom only to find perplex- 
 ities multiplied ; flinging himself under a fig tree in despair 
 a voice directed him to the Scriptures in the hands of a friend 
 crying, " ToUe lege ; toUe lege." " Take, read." He read 
 and found peace. " The Holy Spirit bore witness by and 
 with the word in his heart." This is practically the position 
 of the Churches of Evangelical Protestantism as to the rela- 
 tion borne by the Scriptures to the individual soul. 
 
 Hut, as our translators in their epistle to the reader ask : 
 " How shall men understand that which is kept close in an 
 unknown tongue ? " One characteristic of evangelical Chris- 
 tianity is that all men have common right unto and interest 
 in these Scriptures, hence one of its crowning principles is, 
 the Bible in the vulgar or mother tongue to all peoples 
 Many years \go a returned missionary said to his friends that 
 wherever he went in China, [ava. Slam or elsewhere, he met 
 one missionary neither Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Congre- 
 gational nor Methodist, but who combined the excellencies of 
 all ; who was always ready to speak for God with undoubted 
 
2 
 
 utterance ; was never offensive ; could be silent where not 
 wanted ; and who was more satisfactory in the presentation 
 of truth than any other. That missionary was the Bible as 
 given in the native tongue by the Bible societies. The book 
 of all books, the book whose teaching has changed the face 
 of the earth, and which is the true palladium of liberty 
 wherever it is an open page for the people to read, i.e., 
 where men have it m their homes and in their own tongue. 
 Therefore, for us English-speaking peoples the English Bible 
 is our Bible, the Bible we must read, by which we, through 
 patience and comfort, have hope. 
 
 This applies not only to the merely English reader, but to 
 those who in after years may become f?-niliar with the ori- 
 ginal Hebrew and Greek ; for their first impressions in 
 childhood, which largely mould all after judgments and feel- 
 ings, are made by the truths as taught in English words ; 
 the prayers lisped in earliest life are English prayers, after 
 the English Bible's model. Therefore, for learned and un- 
 learned, prince, peer and peasant, how to use aright the 
 English Bible is a question of no small import, not only to 
 the teacher, but also to the parent and the friend. As the sub- 
 iect opens up it is so wide that we must crave pardon for 
 what we do not say which is important to say, and to present 
 mere hints on some few points so far as our time limit will 
 permit. Take what we do say as merely introducing a study 
 your lifetime will leave incomplete. 
 
 For practically giving the Bible to his countrymen in an 
 English dress, Wycliffe has been called the Morning Star 
 of the Reformation ; our chief interest lies in *Iie version 
 generally used and known as the Authorized, and which is 
 almost a lineal descendant of the Wycliffe Bible. The 
 stately yet simple grandeur of the Authorized Version's style 
 has woven it into the very texture of Anglo-Saxon life wher- 
 ever found. Moreover, its general faithfulness to the spirit 
 of the originals has given it an unquestioned superiority. It 
 must, however, be remembered that no translation, however 
 faithful, can exactly reproduce. We cannot give another 
 tongue the music of our own. In all the richness of classic 
 languages there is no word that exactly represents the mel- 
 
ody and sentiment of our one word " home." There is no 
 English representative of the Scotch " pawky." We may 
 have found some years ago amid the Highlands of Scotland 
 some of the tenderness to be found in the Oriental "shep- 
 herd.*' Certainly not in the " droves " of sheep huddled tr 
 gether for our markets. Our word " word " is in many re- 
 spects a poor rendering of the Greek "logos" (John i. i), 
 as Goethe's Faust makes plain when studying that verse he 
 reasons • — 
 
 " 'Tis written, ' In the beginning was the IVord.' 
 Here am I balked : Who now can help afford? 
 The Wordf Impossible so high to rate it. 
 And otherwise must I translate it, 
 If by the Spirit I am truly taught, 
 Then thus : ' In the beginning was the TJwiight' 
 This first line let me weigh completely. 
 Lest my impatient pen proceed too fleetly. 
 Is it the Thouf^ht which works, creates indeed .'' 
 
 * In the beginning was the Powers I read. 
 Yet as I write a warning is suggested, 
 That I the sense may not have fairly tested : 
 The Spirit aids me ; no I I see the light ! 
 
 ' In the beginning was the Act,* I write." 
 
 This certainly is an exceptionally difficult word for the 
 translator, but the example may suffice to indicate the un- 
 avoidable weakness of a translation. Could our theological 
 colourings be minimized instead of magnified, a paraphrased 
 rather than a translated Bible would better serve the general 
 public. 
 
 But if every one of us must give an account of himself to 
 God, how can that account be intelligently rendered if under 
 ,1 translation His will may be veiled? The object of this 
 lecture is in a measure so to direct that none need err, if only 
 men would be content to rightly use that which they have, 
 and not presume on that which they have not. Our I£nglish 
 Bible is a translation, as its title page^ declare ; and as a 
 translation it should be read ; and though a translation must 
 in some respects fail in exactly reproducing the original, it 
 ought not to fail in representing the. spirit ; and confessedly 
 the spirit of the revelations found in both the Old Testament 
 
and the New has been well maintained in our accepted 
 version. Let the plainest reader be content to find the will 
 oi God for man's salvation in the Scriptures, and though a 
 wayfaring man he need not err therein. No, nor in minuter 
 matters if he will but walk advisedly ; circumspectly and not 
 haughtily or hastily. 
 
 By a strange perversiiy of our printers, while our com- 
 mon English Bible still retains our translators' fulsome 
 dedication to '* the most high and mighty '' pedant '* Prince 
 James," their noteworthy epistle to the reader has been left 
 out. In it we are admonished that they "have not tied them- 
 selves to a uniformity of phrasing, or to an identity of words" 
 in their rendering of the Hebrew or Greek, lest they should 
 fall into that " niceness in words, which was always counted 
 the next step to trifling '' — or that they should be esteemed 
 " partial " in their use of good English words by saying "as 
 it were to certain words, stand up higher, have a place in the 
 Bible always, and to others of like quality get you hence, be 
 banished forever." The English reader thereby is hindered 
 from at once seeing that " eternal " and " everlasting " as 
 in Matt. xxv. 46 are identical , that " church " is in itself 
 nothing more than " assembly " as the word is rendered in 
 Acts xix. 41 ; that " bishopric," Acts i. 20, has no reference 
 whatever to the ecclesiastical authority known by that name, 
 but is simply overseership or charge ; and that " appear," 
 I John iii. 2, is the " manifest " of verses 5, 8, 10. In this 
 respect the Revised Version of 1881 is far the better guide. 
 As an illustration of the need of " helps," when one desires 
 to take advantage of verbal differences in the more minute 
 aiudy of the Scriptures, let the following, have its lessons. 
 Our translators, as they warned the reader, have used 
 synonyms as the rhythm of the sentence seemed to require. 
 (Hence its superiority in style to the Revised Version, which 
 has aimed at giving an exact translation.) Thus we find the 
 words " judgment — condemnation — damnation '' used appar- 
 ently at random for che Greek equivalent. A distinction we 
 have seen drawn between them, thus : Judgment is the 
 declaring of man guilty. In which sense we must all appear 
 before the judgment seat of Christ, Rom. iii. 9, xiv. 10. 
 
'l« 
 
 Condemnation is the passing of the sentence from which the 
 believer is freed, viii. i. Damnation is the infliction of the 
 penalty, iii. 8 — a very ingenious, and perhaps harmless, 
 exegesis, imperfect however in one particular, that is, in being 
 untrue. In the first instance "judgment seat " is a single 
 Greek word corresponding to our " criminal dock," while 
 judgment, condemnation, damnation, represent ihe same 
 word in the original, or when what might be held as i 
 st' onger word is used in the Greek, the translators have given 
 "judgment." In this connexion let my hearer read John iii. 
 1 7- 19, substituting as our revisers have, judge and Judgment 
 for condemn and condemnation, and ask themselves whether 
 some fresh light is not thereby thrown upon those utterances. 
 
 Reverent and faithful scholarship has done very much 
 during the past few years for the diligent student of the Eng- 
 lish Bible. And we almost venture che assertion that the 
 man who essays to teach without one or more of the helps 
 now ready to hand, if ignorant, is criminally so. Let two of 
 these aids be mentioned. 
 
 First, because of the wide range of scholarship engaged, 
 and the thoroughness of its work — the Revised Vcsion of 
 1881 and 1885, the New Testament appearing in the former 
 year, the entire Bible in the latter. Its prefaces, notes, and 
 the appendices of the American Committees are most valu- 
 able sou/ces of information, and reliable. The English 
 reader therein finds, e.g., that "flock " not " fold " should be 
 read John x. 16. and will learn thereby to discount the 
 struggle for mere organic unity in the Christian Church, and 
 to enlarge the sphere of Christian sympathy beyond the 
 limits of " Our Church," till all who follow the Good Shepherd 
 in sincerity and in truth are embraced in the folds which 
 together make up the flock of God. Such archaisms as 
 ^'Take no thought" (Matt. vi. 25, comp. i Sam. ix. 5 ) are 
 expressed in the language of to-day, " Be not anxious." 
 Work does not kill, worry does. Be prudent, not burdened 
 with anxiety. 
 
 The other help that in this connection calls for mention is 
 the " Variorum Bible '' of Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode of 
 London, which, in a portable form, gives to the English 
 
reader the results of the best and latest researches into the 
 text of Scripture, and enables him to form an independent 
 judgment as to the meaning of the sacred volume. This 
 work first appeared in 1876, and has improved through 
 several editions; its most recent edition notes all the impor- 
 tant readings of the Re.i'ised Version, as indeed many were 
 anticipated bv the earlier; aud the poetical parts of Scripture 
 'are printed in lines that bring out more plainly the paral- 
 lelisms or " thought rhythms " which form the characteristic 
 of Hebrew poetry. The brief but clear account in an intro- 
 duction of the principal manuscripts and versions is valu- 
 able to the thoughtful reader, and together with the various 
 renderings and readings composing the footnotes affords a 
 critical apparatus which leaves to the English reader little to 
 be desired, or indeed possible beyond. 
 
 In the infinity ot the universe of God we have still need 
 for the patient labours of the astronomer, though by their truth- 
 ful toil the sixpenny almanac is a suf^cient guide for gen- 
 eral life ; there is still call for scholarly and loving study in that 
 Divine Word we call the Bible ; we cannot know too much ; 
 but as all cannot be astronmers, so all, not even the many, 
 can be " exegetes " ; nevertheless all that is needed for a full and 
 true study of the English Bible is within the reach of every 
 Anglo-Saxon reader, nor need he go beyond the aids to which 
 already his attention has been directed. 
 
 Another important fact to be remembered as we read 
 our English Bible — or indeed the Bible in any language — is 
 that we have therein a library, not a single book. The Old 
 Testament is practically a nation's entire literature. *' Ta 
 Biblia," "The Books," our Bible was originally called. The 
 two great divisions indicate this— the Old Testament in He- 
 brew, the New Testament in Greek. The Old Testament 
 includes the law, the prophets, the sacred writings. The 
 New Testament the gospels, epistles and apocalypse. The 
 revelations these books contain were given " in divers por- 
 tions and divers manners" (Heb. i. i), and the time covered 
 thereby may be roughly estimated as twelve centuries. Let 
 us look back twelve centuries. Our Saxon ancestors had 
 scarcely given up their idols, English literature had not be- 
 
 II 
 
gun. And Israel underwenr daring that period changes as 
 great, even greater, than our own Anglo-Saxon land. The 
 exodus, the conquest, the anarchy and the kingdom, the ex- 
 ile and the return ; throughout all these changes the living 
 oracles spake, and each period had its own special record. 
 The bondage and deliverance gave us the commandments 
 and the law ,• Joshua records the conquest ; Judges the time 
 when, being no king in Israel, every tribe did what seemed 
 right in its own eyes. Samuel ushers in the kingdom which 
 the historical books take note of. Isaiah and contemporaries 
 span the exile, and the three prophets last in our order speak 
 of the return and restoration. The Psalms sing through all 
 the periods from '* The prayer of Moses, the man of God," 
 (xc.) till the harps were taken down from the willows and 
 tuned again to the strains on Zion hill (e.g., cxxxvi.). The 
 century that was ushered in by the birth of Jesus at Bethle- 
 hem must have seen all the authentic books of the New 
 Testament, but very varied were the circumstances which 
 called forth the separate writings. You will readily see, 
 therefore, that first each book should be read in the light of 
 its own day if we would take therefrom the true intent and 
 meaning. Ezekiel, e.g., must be read, not as if written in the 
 year of grace 1891, but as written on the banks of an eastern 
 stream while )udah was captive, but looking forward hope- 
 fully to the return. 
 
 One great defect of a child's picture is want of perspec- 
 tive ; it lies flat ; a true picture stands out. To the diligent 
 student of the Bible its varied volumes stand out in a grand 
 perspective ; the childlike tlatness in which many carelessly 
 read it leads to distorted views and ignorant bitterness ; re- 
 member that the earlier part of Isaiah was written while the 
 kingdoms of Judah and Israel still existed, that the two great 
 rival powers of the then known world were Egypt and As- 
 syria, that Palestine lay on the great highway between, very 
 much a5 Afghanistan lies between the advan ing Russian 
 power and our Indian lines ; remember also that men then as 
 now were ready to follow the dictates of policy rather than 
 of righteousnt^ss, playing Egypt against Assyria and Assyria 
 against Egypt, as we can imagine the Ameer of Afghanis- 
 
8 
 
 tan to do ; and you read a life into those prophecies yoa 
 fail to feel if simply read as a treatise of yesterday, and rid 
 yourself of a host of "cranky" commentators. 
 
 Yet these separate volumes are part of a whole. There 
 are stages in the revelation ; there are " rudiments " (Gal. 
 iv. 3, R.V.), and the consciousness of sonship. The per- 
 spective unifies, does not isolate. We may note a providen- 
 tial guiding which, placing Genesis first on the shelf of this 
 library, brings Revelation to close the series. Beginning 
 with an Eden lost we stay at the Paradise regained ; and all 
 between " the divers portions and divers manners '' are 
 stages in the progress, steps in the ladder whose base resting 
 on earth leads up to the heaven of our highest hopes, the 
 goal of the regenerated human race. A wise reader, stand- 
 ing upon the vantage ground which Christ's teachings afford, 
 will read from the beginning on to the many mansioned 
 home, the way by which God leads from the primitive Eden 
 up to the glory in which He Himself dwells. 
 
 Ah me ! sighs some poor heart, if all this trouble is to be 
 taken, where is rest to be found ? All things are full of labour. 
 You take some pains in choosing a suit, selecting a hat or 
 bonnet. I have known some people spend some hours se- 
 lecting a scarf pin, ring or brooch. Certainly we spend 
 labour to spread our table for our daily meal. " Is not the 
 life more than the food, and the body than the raiment ? " 
 and God's kingdom and His righteousness above all things 
 to be sought ? Some little care to read and pains to search, 
 may surely be exercised in the reading of those writings in 
 which we profess to find the will of the Lord for our salva- 
 tion. " I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect un- 
 to thy ways " is the resolve of the earnest soul. Moreover, 
 all our utterances in this lecUre are within the range of any 
 thoughtful common school lad or lass. Whatever advantages 
 the speaker may have in scholarship has been used in ab- 
 staining from saying things false or doubtful. We avoid 
 the realm of ignorant learning, and content ourselves with 
 drawing attention to acknowledged facts in their practical 
 bearing, and to opinions readily weighed by any attentive 
 hearer. 
 
A few words as to interpretation. In a letter you readi: 
 " You are a fine fellow," a simple English sentence. What 
 does it mean ? As it reads ? or is it an expression of scorn ? 
 The voice would declare by inflection in a moment ;|but 
 there is no voice, only the plain blank lines. Need we re- 
 main in doubt ? Not if we understand the relation which ex- 
 ists between the writer and ourselves. The entire tenor of 
 the letter also renders misunderstanding out of the question. 
 If we would read the Bible aright our relation to the God of 
 the Bible and His to us must be experienced and main- 
 tained. We need clean hands to handle and pure hearts to 
 read. And I venture to say that the reason why " This is 
 the book where each his dogma seeks. And this the book 
 where each his dogma finds," is, that we do not allow our- 
 selves to be moved into a right relation with our Father in 
 heaven. I shall give an example, speaking unto wise men, 
 judge ye what I say. We may safely conclude that when in 
 our best moods, still far above and beyond us is our Father 
 which is in heaven. See Matt. vii. ii. 
 
 The wrong that pains my soul below 
 
 I dare not throne above ; 
 I know not of His hate — I know 
 
 His goodness and His love. 
 
 No father would punish his child because the nurse had 
 neglected to wash his face ; or damn a boy of obedient spirit 
 because he had overlooked some small attention to his toilet. 
 True, if a son is told to pick up a straw and refuses, the 
 straw is a trifle, but disobedience is a sin ; but even here, a 
 wise father will scarcely seek to show his authority by mak- 
 ing the straw a test of obedience ; and certainly not should 
 he be striving to reclaim a prodigal. Read Mark xvi. i6. 
 Unless overwhelming reason can be given for such an interpre- 
 tation, it is inconceivable that Jesus should have said that water 
 baptism is one of the conditions of salvation ? Yet ecclesi- 
 .isticism has practically thus af]t<rmed. We have appropriated 
 the word *' baptize " and narrowed it down exclusively in our 
 common parlance to the rite, the ceremony, in one or other 
 of its controverted administrations ; but Mark i. 8 should at 
 
10 
 
 once teach us otherwise. He that confiding in Jesus receives 
 of His spirit shall be saved ; the unconfiding will not come to 
 have life and must needs perish. There need be no difficulty 
 here if we remember that the Gospel message is one of 
 reasonable love, and peace ; not of ritual or of discord. " Hear 
 what God the Lord will speak : For He will speak peace to 
 His people and to His saints ; but let them not turn again to 
 folly." 
 
 To the Christian the Bible is emphatically the Word of 
 God. Some conception therefore of what is meant by " in- 
 spired of God '' (2 Tim. iii. i6) seems necessary in rightly 
 reading the same, and though the subject with our present 
 surroundings and prejudices bristles with difficulties, this 
 essay would be worse than incomplete were no reference 
 made thereto. We shall however best show our reverence for 
 "the oracles of God" (r Pet. i v. ii) by confining ourselves 
 to what they say concerning themselves. This testimony is 
 concisely given, 2 Pet. i. 21, where we read (R. V.) " Men 
 spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." A divine 
 enlightenment, the supernatural inbreathing of the Holy 
 Spirit, far above the ordinary utterances of men 'as Sirius 
 shines above the Rockies. Certainly our supernatural is God's 
 natural ; but here we are plainly told that in an excep- 
 tional way these men were moved by the Holy Ghost. The 
 message was, is, through men to men, as the Spirit of God 
 moved the utterance. God did not use the prophet's lips as 
 a lifeless speaking trumpet ; or the scribes as a mere type- 
 writer ; but men spake His message to men. We need not 
 fear the humanity of the Scriptures, the prophetic word is 
 through man to men. The message burned within them, 
 as Jeremiah (xx. 9) " If I say I will not make mention of Him, 
 nor speak in His name, then there is in mine heart as a burn 
 ing fire shuL up in my bones, and 1 weary myself to hold 
 it in but cannot." The divine inspiration constrains, the 
 prophet must speak ; necessity is laid upon him. 
 
 This fact that ?nen spe *k, emphasizes a principle of inter- 
 pretation to which already reference has been made, to un- 
 derstand the .message we must place ourselves en rapport 
 with its occasion, The common practice of selecting texts 
 
11 
 
 out from their living connection, as jewellers choose gems for 
 setting in some special form, e. g., that of a cross, may make 
 a seemly ornanrient but fail most thoroughly m discerning 
 what the prophecy is designed f teach. Texts are not to 
 be torn from their native context to adorn our pet systems, 
 but used as the message of God through the prophet to our 
 soul. Men spake with al! their surroundings moved, borne 
 along, by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Thoroughly conscious of the necessary imperfection of this 
 effort, we are also assured that if in the way of the facts and 
 principles presented the English Bible is studied, that Hible 
 will be to us a much more living word than in moments of 
 depression it sometimes appears. The history of Noah will 
 be none the less real if we cease to discuss whether the 
 flood was partial or universal, whether or no all existing 
 species of animals found refuge in the ark ; and realize that 
 there are to-day ark-builders patiently toiling — " pegging 
 away " as Abraham Lincoln would say — amidst ridicule, dis- 
 couragement and opposition, that their house may be saved 
 amid floods of ungodliness. Isaiah will speak even more 
 evangelically if we take pains to read — as in Kings and Chron- 
 icles we may — that from the fortieth chapter onward there is 
 primary reference to the approaching day when Israel's ex- 
 iles were to rejoice in their own land, and sing again the 
 songs of Zion in the city of the great King. We might get 
 less speculative theology, but we should find more life ; the 
 prophecy nionger would be largely discounted, but the ways 
 of God would be more clearly seen ; we should find greater 
 unity and a more blessed peace. 
 
 Thus intelligently reading we should deepen our reverence 
 for that record of continued and progressive revelation made 
 by divers portions and in divers manners, to be " once for 
 all " Completed — not in our apprehension, but— in the Christ. 
 Comparisons with the sacred books of the East, with Vedas or 
 Koran, will only make our word of prophecy more sure and 
 its light more clear. The Bible presents progressive revela- 
 tion ; the Vedas delenoraiion, the earlier being the simplest 
 and the purest. The Koran is as an iron coat, no growth or 
 
12 
 
 freedom possible. The IJible preseius a life that ever forget- 
 ting things'behind presses on, and its heaven is not a dream- 
 less Nirvana, nor a voluptuous garden of self-indulgence ; but 
 a life of service and of joy ever pressing on to the fulness of 
 an infinite God who is love. 
 
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