No More Learning



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10565
THE NEW TESTAMENT
ITS LITERARY GRANDEUR
BY FREDERICK W. FARRAR
HERE may possibly be some who think that the Bible has
nothing to do with literature, and that it is almost a profa-
nation to regard the New Testament on its literary side.
Certainly this would be a correct view if we pretended to judge
of our sacred books simply from their literary aspect. Wordsworth
professed boundless contempt for the man who could peer and botan-
ize upon his mother's grave; and we should be guilty of a similar
callousness if we were capable of approaching the most sacred utter-
ances in the world exclusively or mainly in the attitude of literary
critics. But the case is widely altered when our sole object is to
find, and to point out, fresh glories and perfectness even in the
human form into which the divinest of all lessons are set before
It is something to observe the glories of the wheels and wings
of the Divine chariot, though they only move as the Spirit moves
them. *
us.
And when we thus approach the subject "with meek heart and
due reverence," there will be real gain in calling attention to the
supremacy of the New Testament even in the points of comparison
which it offers to purely human writings. For after all, the Divine
Word is here also present among us in human form and vesture;
and the highest thoughts of man would never be so penetrating and
diffusive if they were not enshrined in the noblest types of expres-
sion. It was one of the wisest sayings of the Rabbis that "The Law
speaks to us in the tongue of the Sons of Men. " Something would
be lacking to any revelation which proved itself, even in outward
expression, inferior to other human writings. The object of language
is indeed primarily to express thought; and if this be done effectu-
ally, style is a secondary consideration. But words are necessary as
the vehicle of thought; and we should have lost much if, in spite
of the animating spirit, the wheels were cumbrous, and the wings
feeble and broken. Two books may express essentially the same con-
victions, and yet the one may be found dull and repellent, while the
other, by its passionate force or its intrinsic grace and finish, may win
Ezek. i. 20. This chapter was called by the Jews "the chariot » (chagi
gah); cf. xi. 2.


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
rapturous attention. Great orators-C. J. Fox, for instance - have
sometimes repeated with incomparable effect the very arguments
which they borrowed exclusively from previous speakers who-though
with them the materials were original-produced no effect whatever.
The force of this consideration was keenly felt by Father Faber,
when he became a Romanist, and had to give up our Authorized
Version for the Vulgate and the Douai Bible.
"Who will not say," he asks, "that the uncommon beauty and marvelous
English of the Protestant Bible is not one of the great strongholds of heresy
in this country? It lives on the ear like a music which can never be forgot-
ten-like the sound of church bells which the convert hardly knows how he
can forego. Its felicities often seem to be almost things rather than mere
words. It is part of the national mind and the anchor of national seriousness.
The power of all the griefs and trials of man is hidden beneath its words.
In the length and breadth of the land there is not a Protestant, with one
spark of seriousness about him, whose spiritual biography is not in his Saxon
Bible. »
Now, it is an additional proof that the spirit of man, which speaks
to us through the pages of the New Testament, is indeed also the
Spirit of the Lord, and that the breath and pure effluence of the
Almighty gave inspiration to its writers, if we can show that the same
consummate qualities are found in its modes of utterance as in its
essential messages.
It might be supposed that the literary glory of the New Testa-
ment is at once bedimmed by the fact that the dialect in which it is
written is not the perfect Greek of Thucydides and Plato, but a form
of Greek known as "Hellenistic"; that is, Greek spoken by foreign-
ers who acquired it as a secondary language. Hellenistic Greek is a
somewhat decadent form of the old classic language; and it was uni-
versal as a lingua franca, especially round the Mediterranean coasts.
It is not unmixed with Hebraisms; a certain disintegration is perceiv-
able in its grammatical forms; it has lost much of its old synthetic
terseness; it has not all the exquisite nicety and perfection of the
best Attic. Nevertheless one dialect may be less ideally perfect than
another, and yet may be available for purposes s of the loftiest elo-
quence.
The Latin, for instance, of Tertullian and St. Augustine is,
in many respects, inferior as a language to that of Cicero: yet the
treatises of Tertullian glow with a hidden fire of eloquent passion,
which has caused them to be compared to the dark lustre of ebony;
and the exquisite antitheses and images of St. Augustine linger in
the memory more powerfully than the most impassioned appeals of
Tully. Since they had to express new conceptions and ideas, the
Apostles gain rather than lose by their possession of a type of speech,
which, though showing signs of deterioration, had been rendered


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
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plastic for the reception of fresh impressions. The seething ferment
of the new wine could no longer be contained in old bottles, however
perfect their external finish.
In reading the New Testament we have, as in the Old, the wealth
and blessing of variety. We have not the monotonous work of one
mind, as in the Zend-Avesta, the Qu'ran, or the Analects of Confu-
cius. The New Testament writers differed widely from each other.
The Evangelists, even from the days of St. Irenæus, were compared
to "the fourfold-visaged four" of Ezekiel's cherubic chariot: they
were one, yet diverse; and though all moved alike under the impulse
of the Lord of Life, each has his separate semblance and characteris-
tics. St. Matthew, the Galilean publican, sets before us the fulfilled
Messianic Ideal of Olden Prophecy. St. Mark, an inhabitant of Jeru-
salem, the "son" and "interpreter » of St. Peter, is intense, rapid,
concise, and reveals the energetic touches which could only have
come from the Chief Apostle. St. Luke, probably of Gentile birth,
and varied experience, softens his whole picture with the sweetness
and tenderness-the love for the poor, the fondness for childhood,
the passion of humanity, combined with a certain ascetic austerity-
which have earned for his Gospel, even from the French skeptic, the
title of "the most beautiful book in the world. " St. John stamps
on every verse the inimitable individuality of one who was at once
the Son of Thunder and the Apostle of Love; and while he soars
heavenward as on the pinions of a great eagle, "reflecting the sun-
light from every varying plume," he yet recalls the dove who is
"covered with silver wings and her feathers like gold. " From each
Evangelist we derive details of inestimable preciousness; yet only
from the combination of the four can we obtain the perfect picture
which portrays the all-comprehensive and Divine Humanity of the
Son of Man and the Son of God.
When we pass to the remainder of the New Testament, it is no
small gain to us that it mainly consists of epistles. No form of lit-
erature was better calculated, in the Divine economy, to give full
sway to the personal element. - the confidentialness, the yearning
emotion, the spontaneity, the touches of simple, familiar, informal
reality, which enable us to feel that we are in closest contact with
the sacred writers. The unchecked individuality of utterance which
marks an epistle renders it impossible for us to regard the Apostolic
writers as abstractions; it enables us, as it were, to lay our hands
upon their breasts, and to feel the very beating of their hearts. We
are won by the sense that we are listening to the teaching of friends,
not to vague voices in the air. The intensity, for instance, the ex-
quisite sensitiveness, the biographical digressions, the pathetic experi-
ences, the dauntless courage, the yearning for sympathy, the flashes


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
of emotion which we constantly find in Paul the man, induce us all
the more readily to consider the logic and listen to the arguments
of Paul the thinker, the controversialist, the converted Rabbi, the
former Pharisee, the Preacher of the Gospel. We are charmed at
once by the manly naturalness of St. Peter and the uncompromising
moral forthrightness of St. James. The "brief quivering sentences »
of St. John become more individualistic as they are addressed to
friends and converts; and in the letters of the other writers we feel
that we are not studying dull compendiums of theology, but "the
outpourings of the heart, and the burning messages of prophecy,"
even when they are uttered by fishermen and publicans-by peasants
originally unlettered and untrained in scholastic lore-as with the
"stammering lips of infancy. " And so at last we come to the Apoca-
lypse of St. John; which, though probably one of the earliest of the
Christian writings in date, now shuts up the whole sixty-six books of
Revelation, and the acts of their "stately drama" (as Milton calls it),
"with the sevenfold chorus of Hallelujahs and harping symphonies. "
And the Apocalypse illustrates in a remarkable manner the fact to
which I have already called attention,- that the loftiest ranges of
human eloquence are not incompatible with the use of inferior dia-
lects; for the language of the Apocalypse exhibits the very worst
Greek in the whole New Testament, the most uncouth, the most
deeply dyed with Hebraisms, and in some instances even the most
glaringly ungrammatical,- and yet many of its paragraphs are of
matchless power and beauty. I once heard the late Lord Tenny-
son dwell on the tremendous impression which we derive from the
words-"And again they said Hallelujah: and her smoke riseth up
for ever and ever. " It may be doubted whether any passage in our
greatest writers can equal the magic and haunting charm of the last
chapter of Revelation, with its lovely opening words:-
"And he shewed me a pure river of Water of Life, clear as crystal, pro-
ceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the
street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the Tree of Life, which
bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the
leaves of the Tree were for the healing of the nations. »
It is to this element of variety that the New Testament — con-
sidered for the present only in its outward form-owes something of
its universal efficacy. It has everything for some minds, and some-
thing for every mind. The human individuality of the writers was
not extinguished, but only elevated, inspired, intensified, by the inspi-
ration which dilated their ordinary faculties. We have to do with
the writings of men as widely diverse as passionate enthusiasts and


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
10569
calm reasoners; unlearned fishermen and Alexandrian theologians;
philosophers who deduced truth from argument, and mystics who saw
by intuition; prophets who were enlightened by direct inspiration,
and practical men who learnt by long experience the truths of God.
Touched by one or other of these many fingers, so variously skillful,
our hearts cannot but respond. If St. Paul be too difficult for us,
we have the practical plainness of St. Peter and the uncompromising
ethics of St. James. If St. John soar into an empyrean too spiritual
for our incapacity, we can rejoice in the simple sweetness of St.
Luke.
But what gives fresh force and charm to this marked variety is,
that these diverse minds are nevertheless dominated by an over-
powering unity. They revolve like planets around the attracting
force of one central Sun. Though they are many, they are yet, in
a higher sense, one in Christ; and they all might use the words
which the poet puts into the mouth of St. Paul:
-
"Yea, through life, death, through sorrow and through sinning,
Christ shall suffice me, for he hath sufficed;
Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning,
Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ. »
-
When we consider what Christ the Lord of Glory was in his
"kenosis,»*—in the "exinanition" of his Eternal Power, when he humil-
iated himself to become man,- - does it add no additional force to the
argument that this Son of Man was in very truth the Son of God,
if we consider the all-penetrative, all-diffusive, all-comprehensive per-
fectness of his words? He said himself, "The words which I speak
unto you, they are spirit and they are life. " Even the officers sent
to arrest him in the Temple were so overawed by his majestic and
thrilling utterance as to return with nothing accomplished, and to
bear to the sacerdotal conspirators of the Sanhedrin the unwilling
testimony, "Never man spake like this man. " I am not now dwelling
on the Divine originality of his revelations, but on the matchless
beauty which lies in their unparalleled compression and simplicity.
There is no phenomenon so striking in all the literature of all the
world. I will not take, by way of specimen, those last discourses to
his loved ones on the night he was betrayed, "so rarely mixed," as
Jeremy Taylor says, "of sorrows and joys, and studded with myster-
ies as with emeralds"; but I will take two brief and familiar speci-
mens of his every-day discourse. One is from the Sermon on the
Mount. "Consider the lilies of the field how they grow: they toil
not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you that even Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God
* Phil. ii. 5-7: ἀλλ᾽ ἑαυτόν ἐκένωσεν.


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10570
THE NEW TESTAMENT
so clothed the grass of the field which to-day is, and to-morrow is
cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little
faith? "
Is there a passage like this in all the previous literature of the
whole human race? Observe the unwonted sympathy with the loveli-
ness of the outer world which it conveys. That sympathy was but
very little and very vaguely felt, even by the refined intellects of
exquisite Athens. There is but one brief description of scenery in
all the 'Dialogues' of Plato. It is at the beginning of the 'Phædrus';
and it sounded so odd to the youth to whom Socrates addressed it
as to provoke an expression of amused surprise. * It was Christ who
first taught us to find in the beauty even of little and unnoticed
things a sacrament of goodness, and to read in the flowers a letter
of the very autograph of the love towards us of our Father in
Heaven. Yet in what few and simple words, in what concrete and
homely images, is this instruction - which was to be so prolific here-
after for the happiness of the world-set forth! and how full of
far-reaching and perpetual comfort is the loving tenderness of God's
Fatherhood here demonstrated for our unending consolation!
"O purblind race of miserable men!
How many among us, at this very hour,
Do forge a lifelong trouble for ourselves
By taking true for false, and false for true,
Here in the dubious twilight of the world
Groping - how many, till at last we reach
That other where we know as we are known! »
But the consolation which Christ here imparted was to support us
in this world also, by showing that the invisible things of God are-
to quote St. Paul's striking paradox-clearly seen in the things that do
appear, apart from the hopes of what death may have in store.
As one other specimen of this supremacy of Christ's words, even
regarded in their outward aspect, take the parable of the Prodigal
Son. It forms part of the most beautiful chapter of "the most beau-
tiful book in the world. " It may well be called the flower and pearl
of parables, and the Evangelium in Evangelio. It occupies less than a
page; it may be read aloud in four minutes: yet can we adduce from
all the literature of all the world any passage so brief- or indeed
any passage at all-which has exercised one fraction of the eter-
nal influence of this? Dante and John Bunyan have touched thou-
sands of human souls; but this parable has been precious to millions
of every age and every tongue, who never so much as heard of the
* Baron Humboldt in his Cosmos shows at length that the "romantic"
love of the beauties of nature is quite a modern phenomenon in the world's
literature.


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
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'Divina Commedia' or the 'Pilgrim's Progress. ' The works of fiction
in the world can be counted by tens of thousands: which of them all
has ever produced the minim of an impression so intense and so
world-wide as this brief parable? On this subject it is worth while
to adduce the opinions of three of the most popular and eminent
writers of fiction in our own generation.
Charles Reade was an earnest and constant student of Scripture.
Accustomed to study and exhibit character in his novels, he gave it
as his deliberate judgment that no ordinary, no uninspired human
skill or genius could rival the marvelous brevity, the "swift fresco
strokes" with which again and again Scripture, as it were undesign-
edly and unconsciously, with only a word or two, makes the char-
acters of men stand out vividly before us, and live in our memory
so that we might almost seem to have seen and known them.
Not
even in Shakespeare do we find so marvelous a power. And yet in
other writers this graphic skill-this endeavor рò oµµáτwv nociv—is a
main object, whereas in Scripture it is entirely secondary, and so to
speak, accidental.
Similarly Robert Louis Stevenson, speaking of the matchless
verve and insight displayed in the delineation of characters in the
Bible, a point respecting which a novelist can give an instructed
judgment,
says:
"Written in the East, these characters live for ever in the West; written
in one province, they pervade the world; penned in rude times, they are
prized more and more as civilization advances; a product of antiquity, they
come home to the business and bosoms of men, women, and children in
modern days. Then is it any exaggeration to say that the characters of
Scripture are a marvel of the mind? ? »
-
Once more, Mr. Hall Caine says, in McClure's Magazine:
"I think that I know my Bible as few literary men know it. There is
no book in the world like it; and the finest novels ever written fall far short
in interest of any one of the stories it tells. Whatever strong situations
I have in my books are not of my creation, but are taken from the Bible.
The Deemster is the story of the Prodigal Son. The Bondman' is the
story of Esau and Jacob. 'The Scapegoat' is the story of Eli and his sons,
but with Samuel as a little girl; and The Manxman' is the story of David
and Uriah. "
:-
I should like to give some further instances of the power of words
as illustrated in the Bible.
If there be one lesson on which all our great poets and think-
ers most insist in modern days, it is, that upon "self-mastery, self-
knowledge, self-control" depends all the dignity of life. It is in
effect Plato's old lesson of the tripartite nature of man, as consisting
of a Man, a Lion, and a Many-headed Monster: in which synthesis the


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
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Man, who represents the Reason and the Conscience, must sit supreme
in tranquil empire over the subjugated Lion, who represents the pas-
sions of Wrath and Pride, - passions to be controlled and made to
subserve noble uses, but not to be destroyed; the Monster, which
represents the concupiscence of the flesh, must be crushed into con
pletest subjection. Is not the essence of this world-famous allegory
compressed into the single verse of the Psalmist, as it is represented.
in glorious sculpture on the west front of the Cathedral of Amiens,
-"Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder; the young lion
and the dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet"? Now take all
the high instruction upon this subject contained in Ovid's -
and in Dante's—
«Video meliora proboque,
Deteriora sequor;"
(I see the better way, and I approve it,
Yet I pursue the worse;)
"I crown and mitre thee over thyself;"
and in Milton's-
and in Shakespeare's-
"I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial;"
and in Fletcher's-
"Man is his own star; and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man
Commands all life, all influence, all fate; "
"Converse with heavenly habitants
Begins to cast a beam on the outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,
And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence,
Till all be made immortal;"
and in Sir Henry Wotton's-
and in Wordsworth's -
"This man is free from servile bonds
Of hope to rise or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of lands,
And having nothing, yet hath all;"
"This is the happy warrior; this is he
Whom every man in arms would wish to be; >
and in Matthew Arnold's
"Resolve to be thyself, and know that he
Who finds himself loses his misery;"


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
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and in Clough's-
"Seek, seeker, in thyself, and thou shalt find
In the stones bread, and life in the blank mind;»
and in Christina Rossetti's -
"God, harden me against myself,-
This traitor with pathetic voice
That craves for ease, and rest, and joys;»
and in many more which might be quoted: and I venture to assert
that the inmost quintessence of all this Divine philosophy is
pressed-and is even expressed with a new and deeper element of
thought absolutely and unapproachably original-in a single word of
Christ our Lord,-"In your endurance ye shall acquire your souls. "*
In our version the word is rendered "possess "; but it connotes some-
thing more than "self-possession, "-namely, self-acquisition. It teaches
us that to be we must become; and we cannot become "lords of our-
selves"- except indeed as "a heritage of woe"-without our own
strenuous endeavors. Here, in one word, lies the secret of all noble
life. That which is essentially eternal within us- the inmost reality
of our beings-is not given to us with our being, but has to be
attained and achieved by us. And here it is worth while to observe
how very often even the early copyists and translators of the New
Testament miss its essential point. If ever they venture to interfere
between the sacred writer and his readers they invariably deface and
vulgarize; because, without adequate understanding, they endeavor to
interpret or to amend. Take but one specimen. In Hebrews x. 34
we read in our Authorized Version, "Ye took joyfully the spoiling
of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better
and enduring substance. " Now, if that was the correct reading of
the original, it would convey the very true but very ordinary topic of
consolation that heaven would redress the uneven balances of earth.
But it is almost certain that "in yourselves" is the correction of an
unapprehensive scribe for "yourselves" (avroiç); and that "in heaven"
is an explanatory gloss added by those who were unable to under-
stand that the real consolation offered to the Hebrews is not a distant
expectation, but the fact that here and now they possessed something
-even "themselves"—which far outweighed any treasure of which
they had been despoiled, and that they were
"Richer possessing such a jewel
Than twenty seas, though all their sands were pearl,
Their waters crystal, and their rocks pure gold. »
* Ἐν τῇ ὑπομονῇ ὑμῶν κτήσεσθε (or κτήσασθε) τὰς ψυχὰς ὑμῶν. —Luke xxi. 19.


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
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When Dean Stanley visited Heinrich von Ewald, a little Greek
Testament lay on the table, and it accidentally fell on the ground.
Ewald picked it up, and as he laid it on the table, exclaimed with
indescribable enthusiasm, "In this little book is contained all the
best wisdom of the world. " Was he not right? Take the five classics
of Confucius, the 'Vedas,' the Tripitaka,' the whole collection of the
'Sacred Books of the East,' the 'Dialogues' of Plato, the 'Ethics' of
Aristotle, the moral treatises of Cicero, the 'Enchiridion' of Epictetus,
the letters of Seneca to Lucilius, the Thoughts' of Marcus Aurelius,
the Qu'ran of Mahommed-all that represents the very crown and
flower of Pagan morality; then turn to Christian literature, and cull
every noble thought you can find in the Fathers, in the Schoolmen, in
the Mystics, in the 'Imitatio Christi,' in the Puritan divines, in Tauler
and John Bunyan, in Hooker, Jeremy Taylor, Sanderson, or Butler,
in the Whole Duty of Man,' and the writings of the early Evan-
gelicals and while in all pagan and some Christian books you may
find imperfect and even pernicious elements, you will not find, either
before or after Christ, one single fruitful rule or principle of morals
(to say nothing of the deepest truths of religion), for which we could
not quote deeper reasons and a more powerful enforcement from the
brief pages of the New Testament alone. Does not this undoubted
fact, as well as the universal adaptability of the Book to all classes
and conditions of men in every age, in every clime, of every nation-
ality, at every period of life, in every stage of culture or ignorance,-
does it not show, apart from all else that might be said about it, the
supreme and unapproachable literary force and grandeur of the New
Testament? No one has expressed this truth more strikingly than
the American poet J. G. Whittier:-
―――
"We search the world for truth: we cull
The good, the pure, the beautiful,
From graven stone and written scroll,
From all old flower-fields of the soul;
And, weary seekers of the best,
We come back laden from our quest,
To find that all the sages said
Is in the Book our mothers read. "
And indeed it is a most memorable proof of that Indwelling Pres-
ence of the Spirit of the Almighty in human souls which we call
Inspiration, that, owing to the supreme literary force and beauty of
the New Testament, we find direct traces of its influence on the
pages of all the best poets, - who are the loveliest as well as the
deepest teachers of moral wisdom. Read them whether, like
Dante, Milton, George Herbert, Cowper, Tennyson, Browning, they
speak no word that does not make for righteousness; or whether,
-


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
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like Chaucer, Shakespeare, Goethe, Burns, Byron, they had learnt
by bitter experience of evil that good is best, and that unfaithful-
ness
"Hardens all within
And petrifies the feeling":
and you will find, alike from the poems of the sinners in their shame
and penitence, and of the saints whose singing robes were white and
their garlands of heaven's own amaranth, that, apart from what they
learnt from the Apostles and Evangelists, they would have but little
of what is supremely good and noble left. Bring me the book,"
said Sir Walter Scott, as he lay upon his death-bed. "What book? "
asked his son-in-law, Lockhart. "The book-the Bible," answered
Sir Walter: "there is but one. "
«<
Let us put this assertion of the supreme sufficiency of Scripture
to a partial test. In this age, which shows so many symptoms of
greed, of struggle, of unbelief, of retrograde religious teaching, there
are three lofty souls to whom we turn most often, and to whom we
specially look up as to "moral light-houses in a dark and stormy sea,"
- Dante, Shakespeare, Milton. How deep is the influence of the
New Testament on each of them! How impossible it would have
been that its books should have exercised this influence without the
perfectness of their literary form!
Dante himself practically explains to us that the true meaning
of his 'Divina Commedia is "Man as liable to the Reward or Pun-
ishment of Eternal Law;- Man according as, by the freedom of his
will, he is of good or ill desert. " Like the parable of the Prodigal
Son, the 'Divine Comedy' is nothing more nor less than the life
history of a human soul, redeemed from sin and error, from lust and
worldliness, and restored to the right path by the reason and the
grace which enable it to see the things that are, and to see them as
they are. The three great divisions of the poem might be called,—
not 'Hell,' 'Purgatory,' 'Paradise,' but Guilt,' 'Repentance,' 'Regen-
erate Beatitude. ' Hell is simply self without God; Penitence is the
soul's return to God; Heaven is self lost in God: and the three can-
tos do but expand and enforce these three texts:-
-
"The end of those things is Death. "
"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. "
"This is life eternal,- to know thee, the only God, and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. "
Let us next take Milton. He has left us in no doubt as to the
sources of his own inspiration. His 'Paradise Lost' and 'Paradise
Regained' are of course avowedly his comments on the Fall and
the Redemption; but in his 'Comus' he teaches the lesson, which he


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
has also expressed in such matchless prose, that "if the love of God,
as a fire to be kept alive upon the altar of our hearts, be the first
principle of all Godly and virtuous actions in men, the pious and just
honoring of ourselves is the second, and the fountain-head whence
every laudable and worthy enterprise issues forth. " The inmost
meaning of 'Comus' lies in the lines.
"He that hath light within his own clear breast
May sit in the centre and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the midday sun:
Himself is his own dungeon. "
What is this high teaching but "If the light that is in thee be
darkness, how great is that darkness"? and "I am tied and bound
with the chain of my sins"? Or take Milton's last and most in-
tensely characteristic poem, the 'Samson Agonistes. ' Its meaning is
summed up in the last lines:-
"All is best; though we oft doubt
What the unsearchable dispose
Or highest wisdom brings about,
And ever best found in the close. »
Could Milton have arrived at this lofty and all-consoling truth if
he had never read the words "What I do thou knowest not now, but
thou shalt know hereafter"?
And now turn to Shakespeare.
One commentator says of him,
"It has been remarked that Shakespeare was habitually conversant
with the Bible. " And another that "he had deeply imbibed the
Scriptures. " The late Bishop Wordsworth of St. Andrews showed in
an interesting volume that Shakespeare was not uninfluenced by the
grammar, by noticeable words and noticeable forms of speech, with
which the English Bible had made him familiar; that he is full of
allusions to the historical facts and characters of the Bible; and that
his religious principles and sentiments on almost all the chief sub-
jects of human concern, moral no less than spiritual,—and indeed
the dominant spirit of his poetry,- were derived from the volume of
Holy Writ, against the abuse and the wrong use of which he has
yet uttered such strong and wholesome warnings. Shakespeare was
one of the few who "saw life steadily and saw it whole. " Goethe
rightly said of him that "his plays are much more than poems. The
reader seems to have before him the books of fate, against which
is beating the tempest of eager life so as to drive the leaves back-
ward and forward with violence. " Yet what did Shakespeare know
which he had not learnt from the New Testament? Take but two
instances. Does not 'King Lear,' that tragedy of tragedies, set forth


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
10577
the absolute triumph of a faith and love which burns bright even
amid apparently irremediable failure; and is not this the lesson set
forth already, even more supremely, in the Epistles, in the Apoca-
lypse, above all in the Gospel narratives? Is it not the lesson of the
cross of Christ himself? Can even Shakespeare's genius do more than
set in new light the truth that all must be well with those who are
obedient to, and are supported by, the Eternal Laws? Or take the
tragedy of Macbeth,' which sets before us in such lurid illumination
the horror of an avenging conscience. What is it but the concrete
presentment of the eternal tragedy of the guilty soul? It is like
the stories of Adam and Eve, of Balaam, of Achan, of David, of
Judas- the picture of crime through all its stages: temptation; glam-
our; the spasm of guilty act, the agony of awakenment; the haunt-
ing of shame; the permanence of sorrow; last of all, retributive
catastrophe and unutterable despair. And yet may we not say, with
simplest truthfulness, that in the New Testament alone do we find
the ultimate solution, the sovereign and revealing utterance respect-
ing those fundamental convictions which Dante and Shakespeare and
Milton can but illustrate by throwing upon them the illuminating
splendor of their heaven-bestowed genius and insight? Is it not
proved, therefore, that we find the New Testament still inestimably
precious when we consider it only in its literary aspect?
I will conclude with one swift glance at the natural order of the
books of the New Covenant.
In St. Matthew we have the Gospel of the Jew and of the Past,-
the setting forth of the Messiah of olden prophecy, in St. Mark the
Gospel for the Roman, the Gospel of the Present; in St. Luke the Gos-
pel for the Greek, the Gospel of the Future; in St. John the Gospel
in its most spiritual aspect, the Gospel for Eternity;-and the Past,
the Present, the Future, the Eternal, are all summed up in Christ.
In the Acts we have the book of beginnings, the story of the
foundation of the Church; the earliest and best of all ecclesiastical
histories. Then follow twenty-one most precious Epistles of great
Apostles, each marked by its special topic. The two to the Thessa-
lonians turn mainly on the near Second Advent of Christ. The first
to the Corinthians is on Christian Unity in faith, and worship, and
life; the second is mainly the Apostle's Apologia pro vita sua. The
Epistles to the Galatians promulgate the indefeasible rights of Lib-
erty; that to the Romans sets forth, among other topics, the true
meaning of justification by faith; that to the Philippians shows us
the glory of love and exultations, burning bright amid apparently
overwhelming defeat and calamity; that to the Colossians turns
chiefly on the subject of Christ as all in all; that to the Ephesians
is the Epistle of the Ascension, the Epistle of "the Heavenlies »—the
XVIII-662


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10578
THE NEW TESTAMENT
Epistle of Christ in the midst of the ideal, eternal, universal Church;
that to Philemon is the earliest charter of emancipation to the
slave; the first Epistle to Timothy, and that to Titus, constitute the
best Pastor's Manual; the second to Timothy, amid its affectionate
counsels, exhibits the completeness of the Christian's victory in the
apparent defeat of lonely death. The powerful and interesting, but
anonymous, Epistle to the Hebrews sets forth Christ as the end and
fulfillment of the law, the Eternal and all-sufficient Savior. St.
James writes the sternly passionate letter of Christian morality; St.
Peter's is the Epistle of Hope, St. John's of Love. Finally the radiant
and impassioned imagery and visions of the Apocalypse, though they
come among the earliest in time, form the fitting literary conclusion
of this Book of Books - the last gem of this Urim and Thummim
upon that Ephod of Humanity "whereon should be inscribed the one
word God. " Could we possess a more priceless treasure? “What
problem do these books leave unexamined? what depth unfathomed?
what height unscaled? what consolation unadministered? what heart
untouched? what conscience unreproved? " May we not say with our
Translators of 1611: "If we be ignorant, the Scriptures will instruct
us; if out of the way, they will bring us home; if out of order, they
will reform us; if in heaviness, comfort us; if dull, quicken us; if
cold, inflame us. Tolle, lege; tolle, lege-Take and read! take and
read! "
-
"For many books I care not; and my store
Might now suffice me though I had no more
Than God's Two Testaments, and then withal
That mighty volume which 'the world' we call. »
-давала
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
From the Gospel according to St. Matthew
A
ND Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their syn-
agogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and
healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness
among the people. And the report of him went forth into all
Syria: and they brought unto him all that were sick, holden with
divers diseases and torments, possessed with devils, and epileptic,


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
10579
and palsied; and he healed them. And there followed him great
multitudes from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judæa
and from beyond Jordan.
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into the mountain:
and when he had sat down, his disciples came unto him: and
he opened his mouth and taught them, saying,
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness:
for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peace-makers: for they shall be called sons of
God.
Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness'
sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when
men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner
of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceed-
ing glad for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted
they the prophets which were before you.
Ye are the salt of the earth. but if the salt have lost its
savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for
nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. Ye
are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but
on the stand; and it shineth unto all that are in the house. Even
so let your light shine before men, that they may see your good
works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets:
I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you,
Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least command-
ments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the king-
dom of heaven but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall
be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you,
that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of
the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the
kingdom of heaven.


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10580
THE NEW TESTAMENT
Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou
shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the
judgment: but I say unto you, that every one who is angry with
his brother shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever
shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council;
and whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the
hell of fire. If therefore thou art offering thy gift at the altar,
and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee,
leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be
reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art with him
in the way; lest haply the adversary deliver thee to the judge,
and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into
prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come
out thence, till thou have paid the last farthing.
Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt not commit
adultery: but I say unto you, that every one that looketh on a
woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her al-
ready in his heart. And if thy right eye causeth thee to stum-
ble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for
thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole
body be cast into hell. And if thy right hand causeth thee to
stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable
for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy
whole body go into hell. It was said also, Whosoever shall
put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
but I say unto you, that every one that putteth away his wife,
saving for the cause of fornication, maketh her an adulteress: and
whosoever shall marry her when she is put away committeth
adultery.
Again, ye have heard that it was said to them of old time,
Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord
thine oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by the
heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is
the footstool of his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of
the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, for thou
canst not make one hair white or black. But let your speech be,
Yea, yea; Nay, nay: and whatsoever is more than these is of the
evil one.
Ye have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye, and a
tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, Resist not him that is


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
10581
evil: but whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to
him the other also. And if any man would go to law with
thee, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And
whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him twain.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow
of thee turn not thou away.
Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor,
and hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, Love your enemies,
and pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be sons of
your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise
on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the
unjust. For if ye love them that love you, what reward have
ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your
brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the
Gentiles the same? Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heav-
enly Father is perfect.
Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to
be seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father which
is in heaven.
When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before
thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They
have received their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not
thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms
may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret shall
recompense thee.
And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites: for they
love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of
the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto
you, They have received their reward. But thou, when thou
prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy
door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which
seeth in secret shall recompense thee. And in praying use not
vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do: for they think that they
shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not therefore like
unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need
of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our
Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy king-
dom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Give
us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we
also have forgiven our debtors. And bring us not into tempta-


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10582
THE NEW TESTAMENT
tion, but deliver us from the evil one. For if ye forgive men
their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But
if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses.
Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad
countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may be
seen of men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have received
their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and
wash thy face; that thou be not seen of men to fast, but of thy
Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret,
shall recompense thee.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where
moth and rust doth consume, and where thieves break through
and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where
neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not
break through nor steal: for where thy treasure is, there will thy
heart be also. The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore
thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But
if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is
the darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he
will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to
one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what
ye shall eat, or. what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body,
what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and
the body than the raiment? Behold the birds of the heaven, that
they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and
your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more
value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add
one cubit unto his stature ? And why are ye anxious concern-
ing raiment ? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day
is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more
clothe you, O ye of little faith? Be not therefore anxious, say-
ing, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Where-
withal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the
Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have
need of all these things. But seek ye first his kingdom, and his


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
10583
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will
be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment
ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete,
it shall be measured unto you. And why beholdest thou the
mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam
that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother,
Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is
in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out
of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the
mote out of thy brother's eye.
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your
pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their
feet, and turn and rend you.
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,
and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh
receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh
it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his
son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone; or if he
shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent? If ye then, being
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to
them that ask him? All things therefore whatsoever ye would
that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for
this is the law and the prophets.
Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and
broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they
that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened
the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's cloth-
ing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall
know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the cor-
rupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring
forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and
cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord,


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10584
THE NEW TESTAMENT
Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast
out devils, and by thy name do many mighty works? And then
will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me,
ye that work iniquity. Every one therefore which heareth these
words of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man,
which built his house upon the rock: and the rain descended,
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon the rock. And
every one that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them not,
shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon
the sand and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the
winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it fell: and great
Iwas the fall thereof.
And it came to pass, when Jesus ended these words, the mul-
titudes were astonished at his teaching: for he taught them as
one having authority, and not as their scribes.
FROM THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK
ANT
ND they brought unto him little children, that he should
touch them; and the disciples rebuked them. But when
Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation, and said unto
them, Suffer the little children to come unto me; forbid them
not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you,
Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child,
he shall in no wise enter therein. And he took them in his
arms, and blessed them, laying his hands upon them.
And as he was going forth into the way, there ran one to
him, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what
shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto
him, Why callest thou me good? none is good save one, even
God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not kill, Do not
commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not
defraud, Honor thy father and mother. And he said unto him,
Master, all these things have I observed from my youth. And
Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said unto him, One thing
thou lackest: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor,
and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
But his countenance fell at the saying, and he went away sor-
rowful: for he was one that had great possessions.


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THE NEW TESTAMENT
10585
THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN
From the Gospel according to St. Luke
ND behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, say-
Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And
he said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest
thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.
And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and
thou shalt live. But he, desiring to justify himself, said unto
Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Jesus made answer and said,
A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and
he fell among robbers, which both stripped him and beat him,
and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain
priest was going down that way: and when he saw him, he
passed by on the other side. And in like manner a Levite also,
when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other
side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he
was: and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion, and
came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on them oil
and wine; and he set him on his own beast, and brought him
to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow he took
out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said, Take care
of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, I, when I come
back again, will repay thee. Which of these three, thinkest thou,
proved neighbor unto him that fell among the robbers? And
he said, He that shewed mercy on him. And Jesus said unto
him, Go, and do thou likewise.
THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL SON
From the Gospel according to St. Luke
Α
ND he said, A certain man had two sons: and the younger of
them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of thy
substance that falleth to me. And he divided unto them
his living. And not many days after, the younger son gathered
all together, and took his journey into a far country; and there
he wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had
spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that country; and he
began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to one
of the citizens of that country; and he sent him into his fields to


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10586
THE NEW TESTAMENT
feed swine.