BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 252, 18 July 1919, Page 15

BOOKS OF THE DAY

Billy Sunday Re-writes the Bible. s It has been reserved for Mr. v Billy Sunday, an American evangelist, who has Attained celebrity—or notoriety—by the grotesouehess of the mettods he employs m his "conversion campaigns," to rewrite certain well-known stories in what, for want of a better term, ntay be called' the choicest>"American slanguage •" Im a volume entitled "Love Stories of the/Bible" '(G. P.' Putnam's Sons, per Messrs. Whitconibe and Tombs), llr. Sunday gives a selection of Scriptural narratives, re-written after a style which reealls'the purely worldly .fiction in which ■ figure Mr. Shorty M'Gabe and similar poptnlnr latter-day heroes. Reply-ing,-in his preface to a* possible charge 6t..irreverence, Mr.. Sunday waxes sarcastically denunciatory of ' the kind of people who, as he says, weren't, looking, for the kind of a gospel that got "tinder their skin and burned. . They wanted a talcum powder, violctscfintcd, ladylike proposition. They will fin'd.-plenty'who will pass out the gospel done up to them in tissue-paper and pink baby ribbons.' Too mauy of us have been ■ wrapping the Bible up'in moth-balls. And so on at some length and in similar style. ' According..'to.Sir. Sunday, "\Vc have failed to giye.it (the Bible) its proper place-in the life of to-day." Let us see in what guise Mr. Sunday gives us a.new, completely up to- date, "real • live Bible." i may just as well begin, as-does this extraordinary production of Mr'. Sunday's, with the stoty of Adam and Eve.' Here is a sample "slab" (as ro ! , doubt a;'quotation is called in Mr. Sun.] day's, language).: i "I have round the cutest apple, Adam," ' sho said; "and you can. have .tho core'.": "Where did you get it?" ho demanded.! "I'l'om that tree God was tolling us j about. It's delicious. Have a bit?!" ".Nothing doing.' I don't, care tor any," said Adam. . ■ \ "Don't be a quitter," pleaded Evt. I "Bui we mustn't eat'the fruit from that I tree." replied Adam. ! "That's all bunk," replied Eve. "There's j nothing to that stuff at all, absolutely uo- i thing," etc.. etc. The story of.Abraham begins with the I statement that "Abraham was in a tight pinch and showed it. . . .-'lk' had I locked the door of, his private'ollice and; disconnected his telephone, and given his clerks orders that .under no conditions was he to be ' disturbeu." Later on ws a;-;- introduced to Lot, 'who, was- the sort of man .who could only think in dollar, signs," find who "docs some quick thinking." When Lot and his family got "hit with the nioving fever." they go to tlarnn , which Mr. Sunday calls ii "live burg" which had "all the dinkur.is and high spots of the wiiite lights. . . all the keys tir the cabarets had been thrown into tho .well." In the story.of Jacob and Bachel, we find Jacob striking a match and'"look- 1 ing at his liigcrsoU" '. "I've got to be on my'way," says Jacob, "or Esau will be back before 1 am over tho cojinty .line!" ""ion will go at once to your Uncle kitian, over,in llaran, won't you?" whispered his mother. "Surest thing you know!" promised Jacol). "If there' is • a rich relative in the landscape who can put me next to a job; go you. suppose I am going to wear out shoe leather; answering tho. 'wanteds'?"-' ; "No, sir—it's up to me to find a meal ticket,'itud.nnd'jt quick. ,Unole Laban for Yours.Truly-'U-ntil lam out of.the 1 woods." "You will write ovary day?" persisted Ilebecca. ■ • -.. ; . •"I'll keep the , rural delivery . wagon ■busy,"; promised Jacob. Ancw'the next moment he was over the fence with,his. suit-case, and.waß gone. But.'Billy Sunday readies his highest point- of Shorty M'Cabe-ism in tho story of Samson and Delihih, When Samson tackles'the'libn—"' : .He'.Set "down. his v -box of .chocolates.'. .' . walked over to the.lion to see if it had aaenoidß or. enlarged tonsils. He ended up ;by -yanking the' .said lion in two.. as a. light morning exercise,. after which ho ; klcked. it into ..the bushes and continued ion his-way,'whistling "It's a Long Way ;to. Tipporary." . Later on— ■; Samson 'hit tho real spots on the 'day of his ■ wedding—it wasn't-any ice-croam-lawn social affair, either. Samson was feelling pretty foxy befor.e.it started; and before long he fell to gambling, and thought he would pull up on the bleaohers and show them' what cute proposition- they were really' up against. So he bet tho gang that no one could guesß a certain riddlo he had up the sleevo of .his. tunic,, and- to make it really excit-.ing.-he put the stakes at thirty changes of raiment. .'.'.. In-the'samehappy-go-lucky way Mr. Sunday"'retells--the stories of Euth, ot David, and .Abigail and . David. and Bathshebhi'tlie story of Esther—and even the .story of Joseph and'l'otiphar's' wife. In all there is the same display Of what no doubt the ingenious Mr. Sunday fondly, imagines to be "cuteness" and wit, hut which old-fashioned people such as 'Liber," who. have some reverence for Holy" Writ' as'it'appo-trs in the beautiful, the unsurpassably beautiful English of the Revised Version may, and will, I think, consider to be most distasteful. .And;distasteful is, in. this connection,an ' exceedingly mild term to employ. All I need say in conclusion is that to me, at least, it that if tho cause of religion in America stanrig in need of such literary garbage vs this book of Mr, .Billy Sunday's;-it is in a parlous state indeed. I am eomewhat surprised to find that a publishing firm of Messrs. Putnnm'B reputation and standing should have placed their imprint upon what, .to Many people, must ha a peculiarly offensive, if perhaps honestly well-intentioned, production..