different plans and opinions as there were ladies, it began to look
very much as if no decision could ever be reached.

"I hope," said Mrs. Lewis, "that I shall not be thought persistent or
officious if I say a few more words. You know I am fond of reading,
there was a time when I read everything, now I am turning away from
it all, to the blessed Bible. While I would not disparage liberal
culture, nor the reading that conduces to it, I think the time has
come when we cannot remain ignorant of the Bible and be guiltless.
Some people feel mortified if they cannot tell just where every line
of poetry that happens to be quoted can be found, but who thinks of
being ashamed because they cannot tell the author of the matchless
poems in the Old Testament? I do think there are no poems like
Isaiah's and Jeremiah's and the Psalms. For imagery and pathos and
sweetness all other poems are tame in comparison. Do we want works of
power? He says, 'My word is as the fire and the hammer.' Is it
tragedy that our souls delight in? There is the divine tragedy: 'But
He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our
iniquities.... He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a
sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth,' and
the closing scene: 'And behold the veil of the temple was rent in
twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the
rocks rent, and the graves were opened.'"

"If we wish to strengthen and discipline our minds, and grow in
knowledge, let us study the Bible by all means, for here we find
difficulties enough to tax an angel's powers, and at the same time
find rest and consolation, means of growth, too, for we are assured
that those who meditate on that Word 'shall be like a tree planted by
the rivers of water.' Oh, you do not know, if you never have tried