g of the Bible is our literature. An allusion from
the Scriptures adorns almost every page of such writers as Browning
and Ruskin. Five hundred Biblical allusions appear in the Ring and the
Book alone. Thousands of them are scattered through Shakespeare and in
their use the poet climbs perhaps oftenest to the heights of his
genius. It has been said that no other passage in Shakespeare has the
sublimity of that one patterned by the lover of Jessica from the Book
of Job:--

[Footnote: Lorenzo thus addresses Jessica. (See page 157.)]

"Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;
There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel sings."

Our masters of poetry and prose have thus become the Bible's
messengers; but such also are the lesser writers and speakers of every
day. The Bible words find a response that is universal; for Truth
knows no chosen vessel but rather has chosen all. Story and lyric,
epic and drama, alike carry onward the Bible's messages and continue
to spread their truth among all people of the English tongue.

But perhaps most precious of all the Bible's contributions to our
literature is the gift of its spirit. The creators of the best in
English have shared that spirit in that their works have shared the
Bible's lofty purposes. Who so earnestly preaches the living of a life
as John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress? Who more resembles the Hebrew
seer warning his people of their danger, than Lincoln, when with
solemn prophecy he declares: "'A house divided against itself cannot
stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave
and half free"? Carlyle calling the world to repentance, Dickens and
Thackeray calling it to reform, Emerson pointing new heights for
reason and faith and love, Browning proclaiming "The best is yet to
be"--each in his own way seeks to bring in the Kingdom. And what is
the spirit of the Bible, unless it be the spirit of a people seeking
after God if haply they might find Him?

If we should study what has called out the best in men or letters in
order that we may understand that best, how much more ought we to know
the Bible for itself. The deep experiences of the soul are the {115}
stuff of which literature is made; and in language whose appeal is
alike to the wise and the simple this Book dramatizes the life of the
soul. Though struggling much between right and wrong and falling
often, the