--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Beirlah M. World collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 17 number: 10 published: 1914-08 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Beirlah M. World, "The Bible," *Improvement Era* 17, no. 10 (August 1914): 935–936.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera17010unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera17010unse start_page: 935 end_page: 936 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-08) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera17010unse publication_year: 1914 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Bible — — The Bible BY BEULAH M. WORLD, A. B. [At the M. I. A. Oratorical Contest held in Salt Lake City, June, 1914, therewere five Church districts represented at the finals in advanced senior orations. Miss Beulah M. World, with "The Bible," for her subject, won. Editors.] The Bible! How much it has meant to millions of people, more to many than life itself! How many have clung to it in their darkest hour of grief and despair, and have found in it, a helping hand of God tenderly and compassionately stretched to them in their misery! Yet today, in spite of all the glorious history of its past, in spite of the countless numbers who have reached God through its inspiration, today, the Bible is made the subject of sharp criticism. These scientific critics would no longer call the Bible "holy" but "history;" they would di- vest it of all magnificence and inspiration for righteousness. Let us forget for a while the holy nature of the Bible and look at it only as a piece of literature. To one thorough- ly acquainted with the Bible, it opens up a field of marvelous resources, for it embraces all literature of the highest type. If we wish to read history, we BEULAH M. WORLD. may find here the grandest epic history ever recorded the history of a people struggling through darkness, to the bright, the eternal, the unchanging truth, "Behold, there is no other God — before me" a triumphant belief and worship of one eternal Be- ing. While other nations were blindly worshiping graven images and bowing themselves before gods of iniquity, Hebrews were seeing the great light and the Bible records their glorious strug- ; gle to climb from the engulfing pit of ignorance, into the clear, : 936 IMPROVEMENT ERA bright sunlight of God's eternal truth. A wonderful, matchless history, is it not? Then again, if we want poetry we need only turn to the Bible to find the highest. The Psalms of David, to mention only one instance, are the purest, most sublime poetry unsurpassed in all time, because they are the outbreak of an inspired heart pour- ing forth praise to God. The sonorous rhythm, the exquisite beauty, the tender, yet proud abiding faith of the twenty-third Psalm are unequaled in all the annals of poetry. Suppose we wish to read a short story, all we need to do is turn to the story of Ruth, of Esther, of David and Jonathan, of Joseph — and his brethren to mention only a very few. These are per- fect short stories lacking none of the essentials of a short story as given by our most learned literary men. They go far beyond the modern short story, for their purpose is not merely to amuse, but to aid and inspire the human mind, to show the way to a life of holiness, of happiness, of love. Even Shakespeare could not have composed a drama of — such awesome grandeur as that drama of dramas the Book of Job. It is a poetic drama, full of action, of deep feeling, of a supreme struggle in which faith triumphant overcomes great bodily suffering and gives utterance to that magnificent cry, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." Even those thousands of years ago, ages before the birth of Christ, that thought was ut- tered by a man in extreme physical agony, with family and home all lost, with streaming eyes and arms outsretched to God. Only mentioning briefly the great prophecies which have been fulfilled, the marvelous truths which have stood the test of the time of the ages, the old, old story of Christ and his mission which revolutionized the world, not for a time but for all time, can we not see that the Bible is the Book of books? Even if we do not believe that the Bible is directly the w*>rd of God, still the more we study, the more we read, do we find that it was writ- ten bv men filled with the glory and the inspiration of God. But the Bible does not stand alone by its content. It has over a thousand years of glorious history. Through it, countless millions of people have not forgotten God but have turned to him with pure and worshiping hearts through it, the sin-stained soul ; has found salvation, and with a heart full of repentance, with tear dimmed-eves, has stood upon the verge of the valley of death, and stretched his hands in prayer to God through it many have fol- ; lowed Christ through martyrdom, unflinchingly secure in the eternal kingdom of God through it we may live pure and upright ; lives, safely escaoe all the temptations of the world, and with supreme trust in God, say as did David "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.