Mr. Bruce Barton and the Bible
The Book Nobody Knows. By Bruce Barton. (Constable and Co. 5s.) BOOKS on the Bible constitute a vast literature which grows in volume as the generations pass, and the exegesis and criticisms of one age become dead, generally speaking, in the next ; but the Bible possesses the secret of perpetual youth. Most of the books written about it, as Mr. Barton observes, are of a technical character and are certainly not much read by the layman, who is content to take the results of exegesis, filtered from the pulpit.
Mr. Barton, however, is convinced that just as the life of Jesus possesses an unexpected and highly practical appeal to the average man, when stripped of the theological controversies that have raged around the Central Figure of Christianity, so the Bible will make a very distinct appeal to the average man, when the confusion of its present arrange- ment is set in order and a historic background sketched in. Obviously, then, this book is no learned exposition of Holy Writ--rather is it an attempt to bring home to the average Man the intense humanity of its stories and their value as studies of human character, imglossed and unglorified.
It is no easy task which Mr. Barton has set himself, Tait he has carried it out with a brevity, a humour, and grasp of general Principles that are admirable. He passes from phase to phase of the history of the .Jewish race, and traces the evolution of religious opinions, from Stone-Age crudity to the high vision of the prophets ; moreover, he succeeds (and this, I take it, is his object) in selecting the incidents in such a way, and telling just enough about them, to have the effect of stimulating the readers' curiosity. He treats the New Testament story of the heroic struggles and the differences of opinion which mark the early days of Christian struggle against the power of established forms of religion and the organized might of the Roman Empire, in the same way and with the same talent for the selection of essentials. To do what he has done in the space of 220 pages is certainly an accomplishment ; and it is the work of a man who has brushed aside the small details of controversy, and gone straight to the heart of his problem. He adopts the general outlook of Higher Criticism, recognizing, for example, that the Psalms are not all the work of David, and that Isaiah comprises the work of more than one writer ; but he is more concerned with the vital essence than with the authorship of the various books.
There are some twenty admirable character studies of great men and women in the Old and New Testaments and there is especial grace in his treatment of the ten great women. In Eve he is interested as the prototype of all pioneer women, following her husband into exile and he hails her as the first singer of a cradle song—" I have gotten a man from the Lord " ; the theme all mothers have sung ever since.
Mr. Barton is no advocate for a crude supernaturalism in regard to the value of the Bible. It is by force of its sheer merit he considers that it has come down the ages, a power in the lives of men :—
" The Bible rose to the place it now occupies because it deserved to rise to that place, and not because God sent anybody with a box of tricks to prove its divine authority. Its answer to men's spiritual needs made it what it is. Like the blacksmith's anvil that had worn out a hundred hammers and still stood firm, it has outworn the attacks of ten thousand enemies. What is more significant, it has lived in spite of the folly of its defenders."
E. &NELL HICKS.
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