to be able to make a pretty good hammer by this time." "No, sir," was the answer. "I never made a pretty good hammer; I make the best hammer made in the United States."—William C. Gannett.
(213)
Best, The, is Brief Here—See Life, Uses of.
Betrayal—See Displacement.
Betting—See Gambling.
BIBLE
Charles A. Dana was a great editor and thinker. This is his fine tribute to a book that has influenced the life and destiny of more men than any other literature:
There is perhaps no book whose style is
more suggestive and more instructive, from
which you learn more directly that sublime
simplicity which never exaggerates, which
recounts the greatest event with solemnity,
of course, but without sentimentality or affectation,
none which you open with such
confidence and lay down with such reverence:
there is no book like the Bible. When
you get into a controversy and want exactly
the right answer, when you are looking for
an expression, what is there that closes a
dispute like a verse from the Bible? What
is it that sets up the right principle for you,
which pleads for a policy, for a cause, so
much as the right passage of Holy Scripture?
(214)
See Directions; Letter of God; Way,
Direction of; Word the, a Hammer.
Bible a Book of Directions—See Directions.
Bible a Book of Life—See Higher Criticism.
Bible Adaptation—See Adapting the
Bible.
BIBLE A HANDBOOK
Primarily the Bible is a handbook setting
forth the way of God with individuals. When
an inventor sells his sewing-machine, or car,
he accompanies the mechanism with an illustrated
handbook describing each wheel,
each lever and hidden spring. Now the Bible
is an illustrated handbook that accompanies
the mechanism of the soul, with all its mental
levers and moral springs. Having first
stated the facts about life and duty and destiny,
the Bible goes on to illustrate these
facts. (Text.)—N. D. Hillis.
(215)
BIBLE A LAMP
This book is a lamp, but lamps are not to
be pulled in pieces; lamps are to be read by.
When you go down into the valley and the
shadow, you will need a light. In that long
journey down into the darkness of death you
will travel alone. And here is a lamp that
will light your path and bring you out of the
chill and the damp and the dark into the
morning, and the dawn shall be followed by
day and the day shall deepen into high noon,
the noon of God's heaven. (Text.)—N. D.
Hillis.
(216)
BIBLE AMONG HEATHEN
The eagerness of the Tahitians to have and read the Bible is indicated by the following account:
For years Mr. Nott had been translating
the Gospel of Luke into Tahitian, assisted
by Pomare and while the book was in press
the natives often constrained Mr. Ellis to
stop printing to explain to them what they
read. The missionaries wished to bind the
books before they were distributed, but the
impatience of the people constrained them
to give up waiting for proper binding materials.
The natives, however, did not suffer
these precious books to remain without
proper protection; dogs and cats and goats
were killed so that their skins might be prepared
for covers, and the greatest anxiety
was manifested to obtain these new copies
of the Word of God.—Pierson, "The Miracles
of Missions."
(217)
Bible and Experience—See Experience and Bible.
BIBLE AND HUMAN NATURE
Rev. Jacob Chamberlain, of India, went
to a native city where the name of Jesus
had never been heard. He began to explain
to them the first chapter of Romans, that
chapter which describes the heart of man
wandering away from God and into sin, and
conceiving evil conceptions of God, until at
last, "Tho they know the judgment of God—that
they which do such things are worthy of
death—not only do the same, but have
pleasure in them that do them." The most
intelligent man in the audience, a Brahman,
stept forward and said to Dr. Chamberlain,
"Sir, that chapter must have been written for
us Hindus. It describes us exactly."
(218)
