(Map, page14 T.J.)
By noting the three great cities of Philistia, Ashdod, Askelon, and Gath, give the general location of the land of the Philistines, the people so long at enmity with the Israelites (342 H.T.,360 H.T.,375 H.T.) from whose hosts came the giant Goliath (386 H.T.)493 H.T.
(Map, page14 T.J.)
(Map, page14 T.J.)
(Map, page112 T.J.)
Trace out the journeys of Elijah from Samaria, the capital of Ahab's kingdom (113 T.J.) to Zarephath, where the widow served him,114 T.J.,115 T.J.; Mount Carmel near Jezreel where he met the prophets of Baal,116-122 T.J.; Beer-sheba, where he left his servant,123 T.J.; Mount Horeb, where he received new courage,123 T.J.,124 T.J.; Jezreel, the scene of Naboth's vineyard,127-130 T.J.; the Jordan, near Jerusalem, where Elijah was taken in a chariot of fire and where Elisha took up his work,130-134 T.J.leper who came to Elisha to be healed.143-147 T.J.
(Map, page14 T.J.)
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(Use map, page24 L.J., in addition to map in this volume.)
The scenes of Jesus' life were laid in many places throughout the land of Palestine. These places are here tabulated and divided according to the periods of His life. Three practical tests are proposed:--
(1) How many of the places given below suggest to you familiar stories?
(2) How many of these scenes can you locate on the map?
(3) Make an outline of the life of Jesus from the sequence of events here given by writing out in brief the incident connected with each place.
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"It is surely good that our youth, during the formative period, should have displayed to them, in a literary dress as brilliant as that of Greek literature, in lyrics which Pindar cannot surpass, in rhetoric as forcible as that of Demosthenes, or contemplative prose not inferior to Plato's--a people dominated by an utter passion for righteousness."
--Richard G. Moulton.
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It may well be said that, like our English speech, our literature has drawn its material and its inspiration from many tongues and peoples. Its sources are world-wide. Its stream flows from innumerable springs and fountains. Some of them have been shallow and some have given up only the waters of bitterness, but many there are which keep the current broad and pure and deep. And of those fountains that ever pour out living water the most abounding is our English Bible.
So abundantly has our literature drawn from the Bible that a study of it is the very beginning of the knowledge of English writings. He alone can be called educated who knows this Book; for itsstyle, itssubstanceand itsspiritare thoroughly woven into the thought and language of English-speaking people.
In the age of Elizabeth, when the Bible was translated, our English words were coming fresh coined to our language from the mint of life. New words were being made out of men's experiences. Such words brought the pictures and images of things and actions vividly to the mind as our abstract speech of to-day can never do. It was this living, concrete language which men like Tindale and Coverdale wrought into what became the King James Version; and with such mastery that to this day the Bible has no peer in the vigor, the directness, and the simplicity of its style. Then, too, in those days religious belief was often a matter of life and death. Many of the translators finally gave up their lives rather than to renounce their convictions, and it could only be that such men would give to the Bible a style that breathes always the noble dignity and earnestness of martyrs.
Thus he who would appraise our English writings must weigh whatever they possess of the earnestness, the simplicity, the vigor, the directness of the Bible. He must himself have mastered well that great source of English style.
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Then who shall measure the treasures of the Bible substance that our writers have poured into their books? The Bible has contributed their language, their plots, their incidents, their characters, their moral lessons, even their names. Words can no more than faintly suggest how full to overflowing of the Bible is our literature. An allusion from the Scriptures adorns almost every page of such writers as Browning and Ruskin. Five hundred Biblical allusions appear in the Ring and the Book alone. Thousands of them are scattered through Shakespeare and in their use the poet climbs perhaps oftenest to the heights of his genius. It has been said that no other passage in Shakespeare has the sublimity of that one patterned by the lover of Jessica from the Book of Job:--
[Footnote: Lorenzo thus addresses Jessica. (See page 157.)]
"Look how the floor of heavenIs thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'stBut in his motion like an angel sings."
Our masters of poetry and prose have thus become the Bible's messengers; but such also are the lesser writers and speakers of every day. The Bible words find a response that is universal; for Truth knows no chosen vessel but rather has chosen all. Story and lyric, epic and drama, alike carry onward the Bible's messages and continue to spread their truth among all people of the English tongue.
But perhaps most precious of all the Bible's contributions to our literature is the gift of its spirit. The creators of the best in English have shared that spirit in that their works have shared the Bible's lofty purposes. Who so earnestly preaches the living of a life as John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress? Who more resembles the Hebrew seer warning his people of their danger, than Lincoln, when with solemn prophecy he declares: "'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free"? Carlyle calling the world to repentance, Dickens and Thackeray calling it to reform, Emerson pointing new heights for reason and faith and love, Browning proclaiming "The best is yet to be"--each in his own way seeks to bring in the Kingdom. And what is the spirit of the Bible, unless it be the spirit of a people seeking after God if haply they might find Him?
If we should study what has called out the best in men or letters in order that we may understand that best, how much more ought we to know the Bible for itself. The deep experiences of the soul are the{115}stuff of which literature is made; and in language whose appeal is alike to the wise and the simple this Book dramatizes the life of the soul. Though struggling much between right and wrong and falling often, the Old Testament heroes groped their way upward to better things, and established their belief in one God upon a firm foundation. Their story is the epic of the soul's struggle and victory; but it is also the revelation of humanity's past, the mirror of its present of progress and defeat, the prophecy of its triumphant future. The Psalms, in the words of Heine, collect within themselves "sunrise and sunset, birth and death, promise and fulfillment--the whole drama of humanity." Excepting only those of the New Testament literature, no authors of any land or time have seized upon truths so unchanging and so everlasting as the writers of Job and the books of the Prophets. Ignoring life's vanities, soaring far above the things that are temporal, these writings ever summon the minds of men to dwell upon things eternal.
Finally in the literature of the New Testament the victories of faith replace the victories of war; the groping instinct of survival is justified in the Demonstration of Immortality; the Cult of the Chosen People gives way to the Gospel of Universal Brotherhood; the Omnipotent Creator is revealed also the God of Love; the Deity of Retribution and Justice becomes a Father; Man, the Child.
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What form of rhythm illustrated on page12 S.A.is used in the psalms:
Ruskin says that, among others, Psalms 1, 8, 15, 19, 23, 24, well studied and believed, are sufficient for all personal guidance. What principles of conduct are enjoined in:--