USING THE BIBLE.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14836, 29 November 1913, Page 16

USING THE BIBLE.

Teachers, said Professor A. S. Peake, in an address at the Primitive Methodist Triennial Sunday-school Conference at Liverpool, would" only make the best use of the Bible when they understood what the Bible was. While they were

all awaro that ono of tho great changes wiiicii Kiwi couio auout in iue rutuiit atumuo towaidstviigious naa been mo ciiaujjo wiiien uau couio witu reierenco to tuuir cuuuepUuu of wliat Keveiatiou was, aud tuo relatiou in wiiicn tue Bibiu stood to it, it was a j claaiigo wuicii itad not couio about in j tno mam throuyu Uiblical cruicism, j taougu that iiud eoucnoutod, but a • wiioio series of causes iiad lod up to a I more investigation into tho I ciiantcter oi tho BiOic, wnich aad re- i s.uctni in their beiu.: abie to sco much ; uioro clearly than tnoir preuccossorii ' wiiat tho liiulo was intended m> bo. It i never was intended to bo a book of ' puxzles on which tbey mignt set to work to iind out tbo course oi mo iuturo and construct prophetic almanacs. .Nor was it intended to be a manual of sociology or economics. There were great eternal principles applicable to present social conditions wnieu were applied by tho prophets to conditions of tiieir own day. What the prophets were mainly concerned with was' not economics or sociology, but righteousness aud justice, and they looKod upon economics and sociology largely through their desire to secure a happy and prosperous community, in wjiich justice should bo dono aud mercy practised. Tho liiblo was not a book of literature, although one of its values was that so much of it was great literature. Aor was it history in tho ordinary sense of tho term. Tho Biblo was mainly concerned with religion and morality, tho relation of man to God, and with tho coining of the Kingdom of God upon earth. But even there thoy had to distinguish that the Biblo was not primarily a textbook of theology or a manual of ethics. Revelation consisted not so much in tho communication of truth about God, but in the conception of God Himself.