and suddenly rise to the level of rhapsodic presentation.
I believe few people realise what an immense addition has been made to the literary patrimony of the English reader by the Revised Version of the Bible, and such other presentations of the sacred Scriptures as this Revised Version has made possible. The language of Biblical writers, and the sentences of which their writings are made up, have long been familiar through the earlier versions; the Revisers, by the attention they have given to connectedness of thought, have carried forward translated language into translated literature. It is thus open to a person of average culture to add to his other mental possessions the whole expression of itself which a great people has made in poetry and prose throughout all the periods of its development. With the exception of humorous writing, which is foreign to the genius of the ancient Hebrews, the whole range of literary production is here illustrated; and varieties of literary form are presented to which classic Greek or modern European writers furnish no parallel. It is a literature numbering among its authors some who—by critics entirely outside the ranks of theologians—have been classed with the greatest names in the world's roll of honour. More than this, the English reader who gives attention to the literary side of the Bible is studying what is to him ancestral literature. The Hebrew writers of the Old Testament, and their followers the Christian Hebrews of the New Testament, have been the inspiration of those who have inspired our own writers: their style has largely leavened the style of modern English, their thought has become so closely interwoven with English thought of the last three centuries that it is impossible to sever the two. And, if the question be of what is higher than literary impressions, no reader need fear that the more sacred uses of the Bible will be imperilled by his reading, not with the spirit only, but with the understanding also.
In this, as in the other volumes of this series, the text of the Selections is that of the Revised Version, the marginal alternatives being often substituted for the readings in the text. For the use of this Revised Version I express my obligation to the University Presses of Oxford and Cambridge. A Reference Table at the end connects the Selections with the volumes of the Modern Reader's Bible from which they are taken, and with the chapters and verses of the ordinary versions.
STORIES
| PAGE | ||
| I | Joseph and his Brethren | 5 |
| II | The Witness of Balaam to Israel | 32 |
| III | The Crowning of Abimelech | 43 |
| IV | Samson's Wedding Feast | 49 |
| V | The Expedition against Elisha | 53 |
| VI | The Dream of the Tree cut down | 55 |
| VII | Belshazzar's Feast | 60 |
| ORATORY | ||
| I | The Oration of Moses at the Rehearsal of the Blessing and the Curse | 67 |
| II | A Discourse on Immortality and the Covenant with Death | 75 |
| III | Isaiah: The Great Arraignment | 84 |
| IV | Isaiah: The Covenant with Death | 87 |
| V | Isaiah: The Utter Destruction and the Great Restoration | 90 |
| VI | Ezekiel: The Sword of the Lord | 93 |
| VII | Ezekiel: Wreck of the Goodly Ship Tyre | 98 |
| VIII | Prophetic Sentences (from Jeremiah) | 101 |
| WISDOM | ||
| Wisdom Brevities | 107 | |
| Essays | ||
| i | Wisdom's Way with her Children | 112 |
| ii | Prosperity and Adversity are from the Lord | 113 |
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