The state of the English language and the strength of religious THE BIBLE AS ENGLISH LITERATURE CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION I WHEN one begins to study the Bible from the point of view of English literature, one sees at once that though it has grown into the substance of that literature nevertheless it has still its own character and its own place apart. At first sight sufficient explanation for this separateness seems to be found. in the fact that it always has been and is still venerated as the word of God. A little further consideration, however, shows that though this is one cause it is far from being the only cause or even the chief cause for this peculiar position of the Bible in our literature; for all its literary characteristics and the mode of thought and the purpose of its writers are demonstrably different from those which lie behind any other work in the language. This uniqueness of character and of position of the Bible in English literature springs from the essen 1 tial character of the book itself, and not merely from the attitude of its readers toward it. Before we go on, however, to study this unique character of this great work of literature we must first clearly recognize the closely related fact that in English literature the Bible is a single book. Before long we shall have to enter into some analysis of the parts of the book into their component sources, and this analysis may tend to obscure the essential unity of the whole. Yet the popular usage which speaks of the Bible as a single book in spite of the diversity of its parts, and in an equally natural way of Biblical style as established fact in literature, is a sound usage. In English literature the Bible is a single book, and not a "library of books." This distinctness and unity of character runs not only to the style but to the substance. In substance a minute's consideration will show any one how naturally he thinks of this book as the sum of the actions and sayings of men of another region and another age of the world; and whether these men of Palestine come from the time of David or from the time of St. Paul, they lie together in one's mind as belonging to a single land and a single marvellous period of the world's history. Moreover, the whole substance is imbued with a directness and a freshness of inspiration which are unique. It is a right instinct, for all that Emerson has said, which puts the sayings of Isaiah and of Amos, of St. Paul and of St. John on a higher level than the sayings of Socrates or of Marcus Aurelius, and puts the words of Jesus in a place apart and above them all. The older and normal classification is merely a recognition of established facts in history and literature. Even as between the Old Testament and the New Testament the differences seem slight and negligible when we compare either with anything else in English literature. Moreover, the two run together through many common characteristics: Christianity is deeply rooted in the religion of Israel; and all through the book, whether in the Old Testament or the New, there is the same earnestness and underlying warmth of feeling, even in the stories of Samson and his rude jests on the Philistines, or in the quite unreligious book of Esther. Everywhere one feels the consciousness of the original writers that they were telling the story of the chosen people of God and setting forth the fulfilment of his promises to them. And throughout the whole book there is the unswerving and developing sense that there is a God in the world whose sway is justice and righteousness and love, and whose service is the highest duty of mankind. In all these ways the substance of the Bible is marked by an essential, |