BOOK OF BOOKS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 October 1940, Page 9

BOOK OF BOOKS

UNITED STATES SENATOR’S TESTIMONY WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES. A RICH HERITAGE. Thought of the Bible for most of us goes back to what we learned of it. from our parents, states James J. Davis, a United States senator. It is so with me. My earliest memories as a child in South Wales concerned our family gathered together for worship. My grandfather as the head of the family opened every meal with a brief Scripture reading and a word of prayer.

There never was anything speculative or theoretical about the Bible as it was early presented to me. Its central figures and heroes were intensely real. They gathered up the important duties and obligations of life, instructed me in a definite, positive way. This familiar teaching in our home was supported and enriched by experience in the Sunday School, which was the best schooling I have ever enjoyed. In fact, the Sunday School and Bible teaching made up the largest part of my early education, which was limited because I went to work in the mills at the age of eleven to help support the family.

The spirit of depression which now grips the entire world will not be lifted until the teachings of the Bible are accepted as the daily pattern of life to replace the pagan standards which now prevail. The Bible teaching is unmistably sound and true. There is no uncertainty in it. In its precepts and commandments arc the positive words of life. Through them we are called to be true to the highest and best within ourselves, to keep faith with our fellow men, and to yield ourselves to the guidance of God. If we were to govern our lives in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount, we should not today be tortured by widespread international conflict, class and racial hatred, or the assaults on the moral foundations of America which threaten to overwhelm us. I am not suggesting that we seek in the twinkling of an eye to transform ourselves to some impossible angelic form. I am only saying that if as a nation we should work as hard at the application of religion to life as we do in the application of science to such problems as highway development, radio transmission, or refrigeration, this would be a far better land in which to live. The .Bible is the most modern book in all the existing literature of the world. It deals with the basic problems of our day in a more realistic way than any other book. It gives no standing room for atheistic communism or totalitarian states that try to elbow God out of the world. It says no good word for the spendthrift, the waster, or the prodigal; gives no encouragement to those who accept scarcity when abundance is possible. The Bible teaches individual liberty, obedience to law, and social justice; demonstrates that righteousness exalteth a nation and that sin is a reproach to any people. This book is the great book of yesterday, a greater book today, and with even more promise tomorrow, when men shall live in peace and brotherhood together if they will accept its prophetic teachings.

The Bible is a book of comfort. It has been a companion for me on my travels. Many a time I have gone to a hotel room in a strange city to find that a friend had prepared the way for me. The Gideon Society had been there before me and had left a copy of God’s Word. Times without number I have been comforted in this way. The spirit of goodwill which was manifest in the gift of this matchless book to weary travellers has spoken healing words to the hearts of an unnumbered host. The American Bible Society has been dedicated to this same high task. If we do not know and read the Bible, it is not for lack of opportunity in this country, and for this opportunity we should ever be grateful .... The Bible is our bulwark of defence for freedom. Where the Bible is read and revered, constitutional government, individual liberty, and the rights of the people are respected. Where the Bible is unknown or rejected, despotism, dictatorship or rejected, despotism, dictatorship or the rule of class hatred prevail. We of America are called to stand for the Bible, for representative government, the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights; for all these high defences of the good life we seek to cherish. Let us positively, unitedly, loyally uphold the cause we love —the cause for which our fathers came to these shores. Let us firmly maintain the liberty under God to which they dedicated their lives. Let us pass on to our children, and our children’s children, our rich heritage of scriptural truth.