True Education Demands a Knowledge of the Bible
No book is so universally popular as the Book of books!

The Rev. James L. Fowle, D.D., LL.D., Litt.D.
(1897-1978)
Pastor of First Presbyterian Church
Chattanooga, Tennessee
1929-1967

"And that from a child thou has known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." II Timothy 3:15.

Last Monday our Chattanooga ministers assembled at the invitation of Messrs. Moses and Garrison Siskin in the Siskin Memorial Education Building to meet and hear the distinguished, scholarly, and articulate Rabbi Harris Swift.

The Rabbi expressed great concern over the ruling of the Supreme Court as regards the recitation of the Lord's Prayer and the reading of the Scriptures in our public schools. He emphasized the great loss to our children of no reverent recognition of God and of the Bible in our American public schools.

In England the minority groups supply their own Bible teachers. "Why couldn't this be done in America?" he asked. "If there are minority groups of fifty Roman Catholic children and twenty Jewish children, why not supply them with Catholic and Jewish teachers? This is the way they do it in England - why lose the great contribution that is made in the lives of our young people because we have diversity of opinion? Surely we who compose the majority group would not desire to tyrannize the minorities. Surely also the minority groups do not desire to tyrannize the majority group. Why not let each supply its own teachers?"

The late Dr. Daniel L. Marsh, President of Boston University, in speaking to students of this great university said: "A full orbed education, whatever else it requires, demands that you have an acquaintanceship with one certain book. There are a few books, relatively very few, that must be read by everybody who aims to be educated in any sense of the term, or even moderately well informed. One of these bears such a vital relationship to our culture, our mores, that a knowledge of it is absolutely indispensable to anyone who desires to feel intellectually at home in the American scene.That book is the Bible."

No one can be well educated without a knowledge of the Bible. Of all the books that come from our printing presses, there is none so universally popular as this Book of books. The Bible was the first book to be printed. It is the best seller in every bookstore.

Recently in one of our popular publications a list of the "best sellers" for the past generation was published. Such books as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Gone with the Wind, The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come and the like, were listed. These books were best sellers for a year. The Bible has outsold any best seller in fiction every year and has remained the best seller for centuries. What a record! What a Book! It is the Book of the Ages!

Dr. Alphonso Smith, late professor of English at Annapolis, has given us quite a stimulating book titled "What Literature Can Do for Me." In this book, he points out that literature gives us an outlet of self-expression, a vision of the ideal, an acquaintance with many wonderful characters, a mastery of our own language, and an escape from the limitations of time and space. We are intrigued by these suggestions as we read the Bible. Nowhere else do we find anything that speaks so truly the language of the heart. All of our pent-up feelings find expression here. Men are still haunted by God's ideal for society and for a warless world. Think of the wonderful characters the Bible reveals: Moses, the lawgiver; David, the man after God's own heart; Abraham, who lived by faith; and John and Peter and Paul; and best of all, the incomparable man of Galilee, Jesus the Christ. Surely if one would be well educated, a knowledge of this book is imperative.

I. The Bible Excels All Others as Literature.

1. Its influence on other literature and culture.

The Bible has exerted a profound influence on all literature and culture.

DeQuincy has divided all literature into two classes: the literature of Knowledge and the literature of Power. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and books of science are classified as belonging to the literature of Knowledge. The Bible is pre-eminently the literature of Knowledge. The Bible is pre-eminently the literature of Power.

There has never been a book published in the English language that has had such an effect upon other literary works as the Bible. Thousands, yes, tens of thousands of books have been written about it, either to sing its praises or to attack its teachings.

All the great writers of English have known the Bible, and many references have they made to it, either quoting it in part or using its stories or teachings as topics for their own works.

The plays of Shakespeare are saturated with Bible ideas and expressions. I am sure you remember the familiar words of Antonio in The Merchant of Venice when he exclaims, "The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose." This refers to the temptation of Christ when the Devil said to the Master, "Cast thyself down: for it is written, 'He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.'" Matthew 4:6

The greatest allegory ever written, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, was inspired by the Bible. The greatest poems of the last four hundred years, Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, by the blind poet, John Milton, and Saul, A Death in the Desert, by Browning, were all suggested by the Scriptures.

To read the poems of Tennyson is to come constantly upon the teachings and words of our Bible. Someone has noted five hundred references to the Bible in Tennyson. You are familiar with this one:  "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of."

Shelley, the youth of wonderful promise, the gifted bard, yet atheist, once said, "The genius of human happiness must tear every leaf from the accursed book of God, ere man can read the inscription of his heart." Though he abused the Bible and would tear away its pages, yet he himself could not get away from the beauty of its expressions. In his best prose work, A Defence of Poetry, he wrote, "Their errors have been weighted and found to have been dust in the balance; if their sins were as scarlet, they are now white as snow; they have been washed in the blood of the mediator and redeemer, 'Time.'"

One of the most masterful writers of English prose who ever lived was Ruskin. He makes constant reference to the Scriptures, and one of his books, Unto This Last, has a title which was taken from the words of Christ.

Carlyle, satiric, biting, yet the preacher of a great doctrine, the abolition of shams, finds in the Bible a book of inspiration and power. In Past and Present (Book III, Chapter II) we read: "Like Gideon thou shalt spread out thy fleece at the door of thy tent; see whether under the wide arch of Heaven there be bounteous moisture, or none."

If you have read the writings of Spenser, Bacon, Addison, Johnson, Dickens, Thackeray, Wordsworth, Scott, Howells, Hawthorne and Lowell, you must have been constantly struck with the references to the Bible.

I think one of the most pathetic scenes from any of the works of these writers is found in The Heart of Midlothian by Sir Walter Scott. Effie Deans, the wayward daughter of old Davis Deans, an upright and God-fearing old man, is on trial for her life. She is accused of the death of her own child. As the facts are proved against her, old Davis Deans bows his head, a head that he has held high against all the vicissitudes of life, as he looked every man in the eye; with bowed head he mutters to himself, "Ichabod! My glory is departed."

Though the Bible has been assailed by hostile critics time and time again, not one of these critics has equaled in literary excellency the Bible, which he has attacked.

Not only has the Bible been the inspirer of literature, but it has also influenced music, sculpture and art. The great cathedrals and their paintings, mosaics and statuary were created by those who caught their inspiration from the Bible. Architects like Brunelleschi and Giotto, and sculptors like Donatello and Michelangelo, painters like Raphael and Correggio used Bible figures for their models. The spirit of the Bible breathes through the great oratorios and reaches a marvelous climax in the Creation and Messiah.

2. The Bible Excels as Literature.

The Bible is the best book in all literature, not alone because of the mighty influence it has had upon literature and culture, but also because it is itself the best book from a purely literary standpoint.

The best sonnet in the English language is found in the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes: "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth."

What oratory can surpass the words of Moses in Deuteronomy or the defense of the Apostle Paul before King Agrippa in the 16th chapter of Acts? What prose poem has the delicacy and charm of the book of Ruth? What philosophy is more practical and true than that found in the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes? What drama more strikingly drawn than Job?

Children know the wonderful stories of the Old Testament if their parents have opened the Bible to their eager minds. There is no storybook published for children that can compare with the Old Testament.

In addition to all these forms of literary art, the Bible has produced a distinctive literary form; I refer to the prophecy. In our reading of the Bible we greatly neglect the Prophets, but we assure you a careful reading of them will richly repay anyone. Sit down with Bible in hand and read all the Minor Prophets at one sitting. You will be richly repaid. But perhaps we are more familiar with Isaiah than the Minor Prophets. His writings are sublime.

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.? All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.?" Isaiah 53:5-6.

No book in literature excels the charm, variety, clearness of style, and lack of affectation of the Bible. The critics have said that this book was the work of man alone, but if so, it was the work of ignorant men, fishermen like Peter, herdsmen like Amos. They are placed in this strange dilemma that either they, with all their learning, ought to be able to produce a better book or their theory of evolution is wrong and the minds of men hundreds of years ago were better than the minds of men today. Could it be the superiority of the Bible is explained in II Timothy 3:16 -- "All scripture is given by inspiration of God."

What form of expression do you want to read? Is it history or simple narration? You will find the Books of Joshua and Judges most interesting.

Do you prefer argumentation? What is more forceful than Romans?

Is it description of nature that delights you? Read the Psalms.

Some prefer exposition. You will find your wish gratified in the Epistles.

But someone sixteen says, "I want a love story.?" Read the book of Ruth.

And Ruth said, "Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me." Ruth 1:16-17.

Do you desire poetry? John Milton has said of the Psalms: "Not in their divine arguments alone, but in the very critical art of composition, the Psalms may be easily made to appear over all kinds of lyric poetry incomparable."

II. The Bible Excels All Others as a Sacred Book of Religion.

It alone is a safe guide to the soul, able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

The Koran with its sensualism cannot compare with the ethics of our Bible.

The Three Baskets of Buddhism offer no way out for man, no Redeemer. Though quite in contrast with Mohammedanism, the morals of Buddhism are good, yet the end to be attained is faulty, for the best that is offered to a good Buddhist is to attain unto Nirvana, which is cessation of desire. They believe in the transmigration of the soul as an old folklore song of India reads:

"How many births are past, I cannot tell.
How many yet to come, no man can say.
But this I know and know full well
That grief and pain embitter all the way."

The best that is offered to these people by their sacred book is extinction. Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10.

And so the Vedas of the Brahmans and their Upanishads, and the Five King and Four Shoe of Confucianism cannot compare with our Bible.

No book has ever had the influence over man that our Bible has had. Part of the Koran is taken from it. No sacred book has ever shown men God the Father in His holiness, mercy, and love, as has our Bible. No book has stood for such high moral life, and not only stood for it, but shown men the way that life might be experienced, even through Jesus Christ our Savior.

It contains all the good points of these other books without the evil. No book in the world has so understood the needs of men and ministered to their needs, as has the Bible.

It is wonderfully adapted to the young. Timothy had known it from a child. "I put a New Testament among your books," wrote Charles Dickens to his son who was starting out to make his way in the world, "because it is the best book that ever was or will be known in the world, and because it teaches you the best lessons by which any human creature who tries to be truthful and faithful to duty can possibly be guided."

Professor Huxley, who was an agnostic, said this about the Bible: "By the study of what other book could children be so much humanized and made to feel that each figure in that vast historical procession fills, like themselves, but a momentary space in the interval between two centuries, and earns the blessings or the curses of all times, according to its efforts to do good and hate evil, even as they are also earning payment for their work."

But the Bible was not written for the young alone: men in the active vigor of life find it their help and inspiration. Listen to these remarkable words of Napoleon as recorded in Bertrand's Memoirs: "Behold it upon this table (here he solemnly placed his hand upon it); I never omit to read it and every day with the same pleasure. Not only is one's mind absorbed, it is controlled, and the soul can never go astray with this book for its guide."

Who can estimate the benefits and comforts this book has brought to those who have approached the twilight of life and have felt the touch of the shadow stealing upon them? When Dr. Jonathan Bachman was eighty-five years old, he had been pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for more than fifty years. One morning one of his church officers found him reading his Bible with the aid of a large magnifying glass. "Do you still find that book interesting?" the church officer asked. "I find it new," this old saint of God replied. You can never exhaust the riches of the word of God. Gladstone wrote in his old age: "If I am asked what is the remedy of the sorrows of the heart, I must point to something which in a well known hymn is called the 'Old, Old Story,' told in an old, old Book, and taught with an old, old teaching, which is the greatest and best gift ever given to mankind."

Daniel Webster, great orator and statesman, said, "From the time that, at my mother's feet or on my father's knee, I first learned to list verses from the sacred writings, they have been my daily study and vigilant contemplation." When he was upon his deathbed, his physician quoted him the verses of the twenty-third Psalm: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." And the great strong man faltered not, "Yes, that is what I want. Thy rod, Thy rod; Thy staff, Thy staff." These were the last words that he spoke.

When Sir Walter Scott lay dying he said to Lockhart, his son-in-law, "Bring me the Book." "What book?" said Lockhart, thinking perhaps that Scott wanted one of the books that he had written. "The Book," said Sir Walter, "the Bible; there is but one."

Lockhart read to him from the 14th Chapter of John, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

This great passage of the Word of God brought comfort to this dying man as it has to many others.

In the hour of trial there is no book that can be relied upon to bring comfort like the Bible. The writings of men fade away then. We no longer care for them, but we can always find in the Bible that which will ease the heart and give us comfort. True education demands a knowledge of the Book that has been the "Best Seller" for centuries, that has had the greatest influence on literature and that excels all religious books in its revelation of God, its standard of ethics and morals, its plan of redemption.

You cannot read a copy of any modern publication such as Life, Saturday Evening Post, Reader's Digest, Look, or any of the rest, without finding reference to Bible stories, language or figures of speech.

In the light of what we have seen about the Bible, why should we make it a closed book in our schools, in our homes? Why do you not read the best not only from a literary standpoint but also from a spiritual, religious standpoint? Teach it to your children.

The historian Green said of England, "England became the people of a Book, and that Book was the Bible."

Oh, that America might become the people of one Book, and that that book might be the Bible! What a change there would be in moral life, in industrial life, in social life, in religious life!? Brotherly love would take the place of hate and strife; peace would reign in the hearts of men. There never was, there is not now, there never shall be a greater, grander, nobler book than our Bible. It is God's gift to you - your book, my book, everybody's book.

Make this book your companion; take it with you wherever you go. Eddie Rickenbacker found it a source of strength when adrift in a rubber boat on the broad Pacific. You, too, may claim its treasures for your own.

In the words of Henry Van Dyke I close:

"No man is poor or desolate who has this treasure for his own. When the landscape darkens and the trembling pilgrim comes to the valley named of the Shadow, he is not afraid to enter: he takes the rod and staff of Scripture to his hand; he says to friend and comrade, Good-bye; we shall meet again; and comforted by that support, he goes toward the lonely pass as one who walks through darkness into light."