WONDERS OF THE BIBLE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 2, 25 September 1937, Page 14

WONDERS OF THE BIBLE

15 Types of Literature "One of the wonders of this gfeat book is the Varieties of its literature/' said ilotarian A. J. H. Dow, at a Botafy Glub luucheon. Ha said it was not known how mafiy differdiit WfitefS wefe represented iii tiie Boo'k,- but there Wefe 15 difiefeht types of litefaitife, ineitidiiig biogr'aphy, liistofy, trdvei, Iettefs,roiiiaiice, prayef and stdries. "Soine of the flnest of the stofxes/' Edtarian Bow added, "are told by our Lord Jesus Ghrist hittiself, and 3 wOuld Class them as airiong . the most wOnder'ful stories in the world; Maiiy of thein afe knOwn to evcrybody. For instance, you hear the tefm ' good Sam&fitan' eVefyWhefe. Only One of the WfitefS in the BoOk was, a GOhtile, aiid that Was St. Lufce,whose book had beOn called oue of the rnbst beautiful in the wrold. It was a pity that'it had beeh translated in its pfesent form with the divisiOhs of verses and ehapters at often the Wroiig places, but the fevised A'efsion had tried lo femedy this, helping to presefve soniething of the poetry of the Bibie. "There is poetry in this Book," the speakef continued, "and poetry is a most important part of the literature of any ianguage. It is not ordinafy prose that you read, but a tfanslatioii ■of poetry." There was niucli biogfaphy in the Bible. Although there was no complete biograph, stories were told of many lives. There was also history, such as of Moses iiaoulding a people of slaves into a nation. In those days, however, it wsa not classified as history but as prophecy, Travel also occiipied aii importaiit place in tiie Bible, which told of the travels of St. Paul aiid of Abraham setting out on one of the greatest queStS of any explorer. The shipwreck in the Acts was one of the mostgraphic descriptions that could be found anywhere. In roihance found in the Bible, the charaeters Were made to live before the reader. There wefe love stories, too, and that of Etith W'as oue Of tiie flnest things ever written, There WSf6 other stories, such as Joseph, Daniel and jeremiah. Letteis hnd prayers alsO Were to be found. The Lord's Frayer put in small compass what Christianity really meant. There were in all 15 diffefeht kinds of literature in the one Book, and each came as a revelation of the Supfeme Being. The Bible was how traUslated into 1900 languageS.