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The Apocrypha is by no means to be neglected by the reader. Ecclesiasticus alone would call for a longer thesis than this to consider some of its literary treasures, for it is a series of beautiful essays which few know. The panegyric on Doctors, of itself (chapter 38), if the profession knew it, would be well worth engraving on tablets of gold.

Perhaps one thing more than another which the reading of the Bible would help to teach us is the power of the short word. The English language is a language of small words, and the Saxon of it gives it its strength and its brevity of speech. The early writers, the "pure wells of English undefiled," are full of small words. The Bible naturally uses the same vigorous style. An example may be cited from what is considered one of the most magnificent passages in Holy Writ, that, namely, which describes the death of Sisera :

At her feet he bowed, he fell: at her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down; where he bowed, there he fell down dead, etc.

Again, there is the passage in Ezekiel, which Coleridge is said to have considered the most sublime in all the Scriptures, beginning:

And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? and I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest,

etc.

We may note also the grand passage which begins the Gospel of St. John, "In the beginning was the Word," etc., and including the terse sentence, "There was a man sent from God whose name was John." In the first fourteen verses of this chapter there are twentyeight polysyllables and two hundred and one monosyllables.

Briefly, therefore, it may be said that the short word is characteristic of the Bible, and proof of its strong, terse, good English.

In conclusion, this advice may be offered: Read a verse or a chapter, as you will, from the Bible, every night before you go to bed, as was the pious practice, well observed, of your forefathers. Choose Isaiah, choose the Psalms, or Proverbs, or Ecclesiastes; or choose by the oldfashioned simple hazard of thumb, if you please. But, read a little in the Bible! It cannot hurt you. You may sleep the sweeter for it, and gain a purer diction; and, Heaven help you ! if you do not gain thereby a blessing and a benediction, too!

Suicide and
the Bible

FROM the time of the first great crime, when

Cain slew his brother, all nations, tribes and

peoples have held that the circumstances attending the taking of human life, and the reasons, motives, or provocation therefor greatly vary, and accordingly, in their laws, they have recognized degrees of homicide. They have differed, of course, as to what circumstances render the killing of another a crime to be punished or avenged, a misfortune to be condoned, or an act to be applauded and honored; but that the facts of each case should govern the judgment, and that the taking of another's life may or may not be criminal, has been the belief of all governments, civilized or savage, Christian or heathen, ancient or modern.

When the slayer and the slain are one and the same person, however, when it is suicide and not homicide that is in point, nations in general and moralists and philosophers in particular have differed widely in their views. A

few modern Christian nations, among which are England and America, alone say that selfdestruction is self-murder, and refuse to admit that there may be justifiable suicide as well as justifiable homicide.

The laws of England formerly punished the suicide by forfeiture of his property to the King and by his ignominious burial in the highway, with a stake driven through his body. Each wayfarer and passer-by thus trampled on his grave and so manifested his contempt for the impious act. And even to-day the established Church of England forbids that its beautiful burial service should be used over a suicide, and leaves him to be shoveled into his dishonored grave unwept, unhonored, and unsung. Nor is the Church of Rome less severe.

The Criminal Code of the State of New York has declared it "a grave public wrong" and has provided severe punishments for any unfortunate who unsuccessfully attempts it. And the laws of most of the states are similar in character. How different is this position from that which other peoples and other times have held, will appear from a glance at history in this regard.

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