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AUDIO BOOK -
CD-ROM - mp3
INTRODUCTION
THE PURPOSE AND PLAN OF
THIS AUDIO BOOK
Some years ago, the
editor of an English magazine sent a communication to "the
hundred greatest men in Great Britain" asking them this
question: "If for any reason you were to spend a year absolutely
alone, in a prison for instance, and could select from your
library three volumes to be taken with you as companions in your
period of retirement please to inform us what those three books
would be." The inquiry was sent to peers of the realm, prominent
leaders in politics, judges, authors, manufacturers, merchants,
gentlemen of leisure—men who would represent every aspect of
successful life. In the answers it was found that ninety-eight
of the hundred men named "The Bible" first on the list of the
three books to be chosen.
If from the middle class of society,
instead of the highest, another hundred names were taken at
random, requiring only character and not greatness, the
proportion of those who would name the Bible as the most
desirable book in all literature would be almost, perhaps quite,
as large. And if one should ask the same question of a hundred
moral honest people in the lower walks of life—workingmen and
housewives in humble homes,—the answer from the largest number
would still be "The Bible." There is no other book in all the
world which commands annually a circulation of ten million
copies, in order to supply the demand for it in every land and
in every language. Choose if you please the new novel that last
year sold the largest number of copies, and you will find during
the same year more than ten times the number of Bibles were
sold. And three years from now, when the new novel will ]w old,
forgotten, and no longer in demand, there will again be ten
million Bibles in three hundred and twenty-five languages
printed and bound and sold in a year!
A book which stands in such honor as the
Bible no one can afford to neglect. It is everywhere quoted,
referred to, written about, preached from, and every one who
would be considered as intelligent must have some acquaintance
with it. And the time when one can most readily obtain a
familiarity with the Bible is in early life. Those who in
childhood learn the Story of the Bible are fortunate, for they
will never forget it. Wise parents tell the Stories of the Bible
to their little children, and both parents and children find
them the most fascinating of all stories. "David and Goliath" is
more interesting than "Jack, the Giant Killer;" "Joseph and His
Brothers" will compare favorably with "Whittington, Lord Mayor
of London;" the battles of Joshua and David are as wonderful as
those of "King Arthur and the Table Round." The Bible is a
veritable "Arabian Nights" of entertainment when parents are
themselves familiar with the stories and know how to tell them.
No book is so delightful to children as the Bible.
But the parents who are not thoroughly
informed, or who do not possess the great gift of story-telling,
find difficulties in the path of teaching the contents of the
Bible to their children. Here is a great Book with masses of
matter interesting only to students, as history, genealogy,
details of law and customs of worship, psalms, prophecies,
proverbs, epistles—how shall a selection be made appropriate to
childhood? There are Oriental forms of speech, antiquated,
unfamiliar, sometimes unacceptable to the taste of the age. The
Stories of the Bible must be chosen with care, some statements
must be explained, and some allusions must be omitted. There is
need of a "Child's Bible," if children are to be interested in
the Book of Books.
The writer of this work has been for many
years a Bible student, a Bible teacher and a helper through the
press, of many who are instructing the young in the Bible. He
has long felt the need of a Book of Bible Stories, different in
some respects from any work that has yet appeared. With this
conviction he has undertaken the preparation of this work, which
after patient labor and many revisions is now submitted to the
public. In its purpose and plan its distinguishing features are
the following:
1. The aim has been not merely to make a
selection of the most striking and interesting among the stories
contained in the Bible, but to tell all the principal stories in
their connected order, and in such relation with each other as
to form a continuous history. Whoever reads this book will find
in it not only "Stories from the Bible," but also the "Story of
the Bible" in one narration. He will follow the current of
Scripture history and biography.
2. This Bible Story, though continuous and
connected, is arranged in the form of a series of Stories, each
independent of all the others and treated separately. Every
Story has its title; and an effort has been made to give to each
a striking title, one that will arrest the young reader's
attention. A child or a parent who might hesitate in undertaking
to read through the history in the Bible, may open almost at
random and find a Story. Here are one hundred and sixty-eight
Stories, each one complete in itself, while together combining
to form one narrative. And with each Story is named the place
where it may be found in the Bible.
3. Special care has been given to the
language of this book. I have endeavored to make it childlike
without making it childish. Every word has been carefully chosen
and there are few words in these Stories which a child of ten
years old will not readily understand. Whenever it has been
found necessary to introduce any word outside the realm of
childhood, as "altar," "offering," "tabernacle," "synagogue,"
"centurion," etc., it is carefully explained, not once only, but
a number of times, until it becomes familiar. Doctrinal and
technical terms have been everywhere excluded, and in place of
them plain, familiar words have been given.
4. Inasmuch as the book is designed to
lead the young reader to the Bible itself, and not away from it,
the language of the Bible, or a language somewhat like that of
the Bible, has been employed. For the same reason I have
refrained from adding to the Bible record any imaginary scenes
or incidents or conversations. I wish every child who hears this
book read to feel instinctively that it is the Bible, and
not a fairy-tale, to which he is listening. When he grows older
and reads these Stories himself for the first time in the Bible
itself, I would not have him feel that he has been misled, or
taught that which is not contained in the Word of God. The Bible
stories are made plain, but they are not rewritten or changed.
5. In my opinion many books for children
containing stories from the Bible are greatly marred by the
evident attempt to interject a body of divinity into them, to
make them teach doctrines which may be right or may be wrong,
but are not stated nor hinted in the Scripture stories. Some
excellent works have occupied much space here and there in
trying to put into childlike language and to connect with Bible
stories the deepest and most mysterious doctrines, which
theologians find hard to understand. Others contain many moral
reflections and applications which may be useful, but are not
contained in the text of the story. I have sought to explain
what needs explanation, but to avoid all doctrinal bias, and not
to be wise above what is written. Only in a few instances where
the New Testament warrants a spiritual interpretation of the Old
Testament story has an application been given, and then in the
simplest and fewest words. It is my confident hope that all
denominations of Christians may feel at home in the pages of
this book.
6. In the management of the material, the
paragraphs are short, and according to the modern manner the
conversations are generally printed in separate paragraphs. The
results of recent knowledge in Bible lands and Bible history are
used as far as is suitable in a book for children. Where the
Revised Version is a manifest improvement upon the Old Version,
it has been followed, as bringing the reader a step nearer to
the thought of the Biblical writers.
7. Many of the engravings have been
designed expressly for this book, and both the subjects for
illustrations and the pictures themselves have been prepared
with great care. The publishers have not allowed, in the book,
scenes of blood or such as would be repulsive to people of
taste. There is a realism in some modern views of Oriental
manners and customs, which may be accurate, but is not pleasing
and does not promote reverence. We have sought for pictures
representing action and life, rather than those of ruined cities
and squalid modern villages which may represent the Holy Land of
to-day, but give no conception of the country and its people in
Bible times. The pictures and the stories with them are designed
to make the Word of God real to the young people who read these
pages.
In the hope that this book may be an aid
to parents and teachers in imparting Bible truth, and to
children in learning it, with an earnest desire to increase the
interest in the Sacred Narrative, these pages have been prepared
and are sent forth into the world.
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