The course of study outlined in this book may be divided into about two equal parts. The first part consists mainly of a study of the narratives contained in the Bible and of such books as Ruth, Job, the Psalms, Proverbs, and Isaiah as literary masterpieces, together with a briefer study of the other books. The second part of the book is devoted to a study of the Bible as used by the great masters in literature. This study is based upon selections from the poets, orators, essayists, and novelists. The first part of the course should give the student a knowledge of the Bible itself and the second part should give him an appreciation of the Bible as a piece of literature. No attempt has been made to make these studies complete, but it is thought that the selections are sufficiently numerous to cover the ground of a year's course. Every earnest student will find a large number of passages in which the Bible has been used by literary people in addition to those gathered here. Indeed, it should be one of the chief purposes of the course to stimulate the student to collect such passages.

A prominent feature of a course such as has been ar ranged should be the notebook. A properly arranged and systematized set of notes ought to be the basis of a life study of the Bible.

The list of quotations which follow is taken from the utterances of men whose opinions should have great weight. It is by no means complete, and it should be the purpose of the student to add to this list whenever he comes across an appropriate quotation.

Theodore Roosevelt: To every man who faces life with real desire to do his part in everything, I appeal for a study of the Bible. No book of any kind ever written has so affected the whole life of a people.

Woodrow Wilson: A man has deprived himself of the best there is in the world who has deprived himself of intimate knowledge of the Bible.

James Anthony Froude: The Bible is in and of itself a liberal education.

John Dryden: If everything else in our language should perish, the Bible alone would suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power.

Alfred Tennyson: The Bible ought to be read, were it only for the sake of the grand English in which it is written.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Intense study of the Bible will keep any writer from being vulgar in point of style.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: Shakespeare leans upon the Bible.

Thomas H. Hurley: The Bible has been the Magna Charta of the poor and the oppressed.

Lyof A. Tolstoy: Without the Bible the education of the child in the present state of society is impossible. Giuseppe Garibaldi: The best of allies you can procure for us is the Bible. That will bring us the reality

of freedom.

Napoleon Bonaparte: Behold it upon this table. never omit to read it, and every day with the same pleasure. Not only is one's mind absorbed, it is controlled; and the same can never go astray with this book for its guide.

John Quincy Adams: The first and almost the only book deserving of universal attention is the Bible.

Thomas Paine: As a composition it [the Bible] is sublime, beautiful, and scientific; full of sentiment, and abounding in grand metaphorical description.

Daniel Webster: The Bible is the book of all others for lawyers as well as divines; and I pity the man who cannot find in it a rich supply of thought, and rule for conduct.

Goethe: It is a belief in the Bible, the fruits of deep meditation, which has served me as the guide of my moral and literary life.

John Milton: There are no songs comparable to the songs of Zion, no orations equal to those of the prophets, and no politics like those which the Scriptures teach.

Andrew D. White: Our English Bible was translated at the very best period of English literature, and anyone who has a multitude of passages at his command has not only stored up principles of the very highest value, but a multitude of the choicest examples of our own great literature.

Professor J. H. Gardiner: In all study of English literature, if there be any one axiom which must be accepted without a question, it is that the ultimate standard of English prose style is set by the King James Version of the Bible.

Professor W. L. Phelps: It is a great book to readfrom even a literary point of view the greatest book in the world.

1

CHAPTER I

A COLLECTION OF PASSAGES OF ESPECIAL LITERARY VALUE

In this chapter are set down lists of passages which are readily recognized for their literary excellence, or are made use of by the best writers for purposes of illustration or embellishment. The personal equation has, of course, entered largely into the making of these selections. Eighty-six passages were selected from the larger list and these were submitted to forty-three professors of English and biblical literature, and others whose literary judgment is of a high order, and each selected twenty-five and from the twenty-five ten which seemed to be entitled to especial distinction. Each passage chosen among the first ten was given a weight of two, and the others in the first twenty-five a weight of one.

The first list, which follows, is the ten passages with. their weights; the second the fifteen similarly weighted; the third list the remaining sixty-one passages; and the last list the remaining passages origi nally selected.

These lists of passages should be used in connection with the study of the various books of the Bible. The student should be familiar with the setting in each case, and be able to explain its literary application. The following will serve as illustrations of the method of study suggested: Gen. 3. 19-"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." This was said by Jehovah to Adam when he was expelled from the Garden of Eden, and it is frequently quoted to illustrate the necessity of labor.

Judg. 5. 20-"The stars in their courses fought