John Fiske's three subjects are all familiar themes to the readers of
the Bible. Its style is incomparable in grandeur and variety. It
approaches the intellect with every form of literary style. It is the
supreme intellectual force in the life of the common people. It has
been teacher and school for the millions. The Puritans, for example,
used it as a poem, story book, history, law and philosophy. Out of it
New England was born. It has been the chief representative of the
English language at its best. Anglo-Saxon life and learning are
saturated with it. The literature of England and America is full of
the Bible. Shakespeare and Tennyson are specimens. Each of these
authors quote from nearly every book in the Bible, and each of them
refers to the Bible not less than five hundred times. Herbert Spencer
admits that it is the greatest educator. It is winning its place in
school and college. No education is complete without a knowledge of
this literature. It is the privilege of Odd-Fellowship to enthrone the
Bible in the lodge-room, and in the home. It teaches the intellectual
life from above and lifts it to the Bible's own level.

Dean Stanley was visiting the great scholar, Ewald, in Dresden, and in
the course of the conversation, Ewald snatched up a copy of the New
Testament and said, in his impulsive and enthusiastic way, "In this
little book is contained all the wisdom of the world." There is a
sense in which this statement is not extravagant. The book contains
the highest and fullest revelation of truth the world has known. The
greatest themes man's mind can ponder are here presented. The most
profound problems with which the human intellect has ever grappled are
here discussed. We maintain that a mastery of the contents of this
book will in itself provide an intellectual discipline no other book
can give. Refinement of character, refinement of thought, refinement
of speech, all of the essential characteristics of the intellectual as