BIBLE TERCENTENARY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1115, 1 May 1911, Page 6

BIBLE TERCENTENARY.

THE NEW ZEALAND CELEBRATION. PULPIT KEFKRKXCES. In most of the Wellington churches yesterday reference was niado by the preachers to the Tercentenary of the Authorised Version of the Diblo (lfill--1011), and the great influence lor good which this magnificent rendering of I lie Holy Scriptures into the English language has had upon the life and literature of the- English-speaking peoples. SERMON BY DR. GIBB. "THE ROMANCE OP THE LOVE OF GOD." The Tercentenary of tho Authorised Version of the Biole was commemorated lit St. John's Church yesterday evening. There was a crowded congregation. Dr. Gibb chose as his text the words "Thy word is a lamp unto ray path and a light until my le-st," and delivered a sermon appropriate to the occasion, and suitable music was sung by the choir. The sermon made brief reference to the circumstances under which tho Authorised Version, originated, ajid . testimony was borne to its uncommon beauty and marvellous English. It had a stylo adequate to the most diverse purpoje.i—"now (lowing along in the tender simplicity 01' a patoral lyric, now rising with effortless easo to the highest majesty of human speech." But it was infinitely more than literature. It was the word of God, and as the .Westminster divines had said, the assurance of its Divine authority was from the iaward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word in human hearts. Passing from this, the preacher set himself to give an account of the theme- of the Bible—the story the Bible told—and to indicate tho , various literary forms in which the theme whs set forth. To attempt to divorce the literary and spiritual values of the Bible was, as Dr. K. Nicoll had pointed out, a profound and dangerous error. One of the things most needed to-day was an edition of the Bible which would show the varied' nature of its contents, and submit them to the eye in modern literary forms instead of the close, packed chapters and verses, which, howsver useful for reference purposes, really hid not only the beauty of the language, but was often responsible, too, for hiding the spiritual truths. Such an edition was Dr. Jlniiltota's Bible, for Modern Readers. The Bible was not a book, but a library of sixty-six books by forty or more author?, who wrote during a period of fifteen or sixteen hundred years. Jt contained history, song, poetry in all its forms, lyric, epic, and dramatic, fiction, oratory, letters, rhapsodies, prophecy, philosophy, or, as the Hebrews termed it, wisdom. Yetit was one book—united by a common spirit and a common message. Herein was a marvellous thing—a token of its divinity as well as its humanity. The message was from first to last a message of redemption. It might l>o called the romance of the love of God—the story of how God sought till He found at a cost past all calculation the race He loved, but who had through their sin become separated from Him. Genesis gave the starting point. Men asked and answered questions as to the scientific accuracy of Genesis, but such questions and answers were utterly foolish. Genesis was written to make it clear that the God of the universo is .the God of redemption. First there was God, then the creation, then man, then a special family of men —the race chosen to bo the •medium of.'revelation to mankind. The Genesis stories wero told with all the directness ' and' rhythm of an epic poem. . The, speaker went on to trace what he had called the. theme of the Bible, in a series of brief paragraphs, in which he dealt with most of the books of tho Old Testament, indicating how the light of the truth about God steadily grew, as did the conception of man's true relationship to God. Ho nlso indicated the chief literary characteristics of each book. Tho prophets were the high-water mark of revelation under the Old Testament dispensation. The predictions of tho prophets were not cut-and-(lried announcements of coming events. .They spoke to their times. They wero statesmen and jurists as well as preachers. But all through the prophets there ran two convictions—one that Israel had been a failure. They turned in hope lo the doctrine of a remnant, and to the coming of the Deliverer, the Servant of Jehovah, Who would find in the remnant a people prepared for His message. The night was far spent, the day was.at hand. "Behold," cried the last of the Old Testament prophets, "behold the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. Behold, He shall come, said tho Lord of hosts." And He came. Ho cairio and fulfilled, if not in the letter, then in the spirit all these ancient, oracles. The Gospels recorded His life, teaching, death, and resurrection. The Acts, likened by a great critic to the best' classical histories of Greece and Rome, showed the new Church setting out on its mission of world conquest. The letters of Paul and the others, occasional writings though they were, showed that the believers were in living communion with their Lord through the Spirit. The Apocalypse painted in marvellous colours the future triumph, and showed the world of men here and hereafter kneeling at the feet of Christ. Thoy are satisfied for to ero His face. He is satisfied, for in them Ho sees His own The long, long purpose, the eternal purpose of God is realised. His holy love has won (ho final victory over sin, and God is all and in all. The sermon closed with a quotation from Watts Dunton:—"A great living savant has characterised (he Biblo as a collection of the rude imaginings of Syria, (he worn-out bottle of Judaism into which tho generous wine, of science is being poured. The great'savant was angry when he said so. The new wine of science is a generous vintage, undoubtedly, and deserves all the respect it gets from us. So do those who make it and servo it out. But whatever may hecomo of their wine in a few years, when the wine dealers shall have passed away, when the favant is forgotten as any stargazer of Chaldaea, the old bottle, is going to bo older yet—the Bible is going to bo eternal." The above is an outline of a sermon which occupied over 40 . minutes in delivery, and was listened'to with the. deepest attention. THANKSGIVING AND HUMILIATION. Preaching at St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral yesterday morning tho l!cv. 'i\ H. Sprott, referring to tho desire of Erasmus that the words of the Biblo might become, the daily delight and comfort of the ploughman, tho weaver, and the traveller, stated that if the Reformation had proceeded on the lines of the ideal'of Erasmus, as a silent diffusion of light, we would not at. tho present day be living in a divided and shattered Christendom. Dealing with the popularisation of tho best thought at the present day in the form of cheap literature, Mr. Sprott stated that we were in a better position than the people of any other age, since the books were written to undorstand the Scriptures. The work was- being done by the very ablest scholars, and the results of enormous labour were being given to the people in the cheapest, simplest, 'and clearest form. At last it has become • possible for tho ordinary man to read his Bible with intelligence. It was absolutely true to-day in this matter that "prophets and kings have desired to see those things which wo see, anil have not wen them; and to henr those things which we bo;ir, and have not heard them." Mr. Sprott quotpd the tributes oT Huxley, Ruskin. and Carlyln to the Bible, and said that in view of tho manner in which people were neglecting their great privileges and opportunities of knowing the Scriptures he sometimes felt that a? well as marking the Tercentenary by thanksgiving; tliero was also reason for humiliation. Speaking as their vicar for the last Sunday. ho might say his ideal for 1!) years had been to make the Bible a little better known, and if he had during that time been able 1.0 help some to understand it a little belter, to love it a little more, and to read it a little more diligently, it would mako him very glad. "ITS' OWN INTRINSIC MERITS." At both services at St. James's Ttfttbytorian Church. AVellington South, yesterday, special reference, was made by the Kev. W. Shirer to the. Tercentenary of the Authorised Version. At tho morning service, "The Word" was tnken as the [subject—(l) spoken, (2) recorded,and(3) in.

carnate. At the evening service the preacher mads special reference to the version of Scripture Kill, known as "the Authorial Version." its place in history, its relation to preceding translations, and lo nuinu>cript» received special notice. The diagram showing "how we got our Bible" (T. l'ater.ion Smyth), and "Our Grand Old Bible" (M.uir) were mentioned as helpful (o students. The words wore quoted, "the only authority of the Au-thori.-.ed Version was its own intrinsic merits." The Revised Version was valuable in view of advance made in textual criticism, but the Authori.-ed Version still held its place of honour in tho life and work of the Christian Hunch, in Ihe British Kmpire. and in the world. An appeal was made for the recognition of Holy Scripture in every department of life, and s-pcciallv for regular individual study, WELLINGTON BROTHERHOOD. "The Influence of the Bible" was the subject selected by Mr. B. A. Wright, M.P., for his address to the Wellington Brotherhood yesterday afternoon. The speaker, who stated that it was 300 years since King James authorised the publication of the present edition of the Bible, said he believed that most of the reforms which had been of .genuine service to mankind were the outcome of a knowledge of the Bible. The Roman Empire had been built upon good lows, but, its treatment of conquered nations was inhumanlv brutal, thousands being slaughtered or' sold into captivity. The slave trade.of America had been fought against by John Brown and the Quakers, their hostility to the slave system being based upon the teachings of the Scriptures. The French Revolution was an attempt to destroy the power of tho Word, and 'Wesley and . AVhitefield, early in tha eighteenth century, prevented a rising in England similar to that in France. The Bible was responsible for the weekly day of rest, and the realisation of the brotherhood of man, and hospitals and asylums had been established in every Christian country at the instance of Holy Writ. The speaker spoke of Macaulay's prophecy that England would decay, but the speaker believed that the. Empire would never go back as long as the Bible was included in its Constitution and the cross was emblazoned upon its flag. ■At tho conclusion of the address, the. following resolution was carried:—"That this meeting approves of the peace, proposals made by Karl Grey and supported by our Premier in London." A hearty, vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Wright for his address. J TIMARU. (By Tclesra ph.—Press Association.! Timaru, April 30. In most of the Protestant. Churches today the preachers referred to the Tercentenary of the Authorised Version of the Bible'.