nd
behind the whole, our work will not have been in vain.

MILDRED DUFF.

CONTENTS

CHAP.

I. A LIVING BOOK
II. THE SECRET OF ITS GREATNESS
III. MOSES AND HIS WRITINGS
IV. THE HISTORY BOOKS
V. THE SCATTERING OF THE PEOPLE
VI. THE ATTACK ON THE SCRIPTURES
VII. TWO FAMOUS VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES
VIII. THE BIBLE IN THE DAYS OF JESUS CHRIST
IX. THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
X. THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
XI. HOW THE GOSPELS CAME TO BE WRITTEN
XII. SOME OTHER WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
XIII. THE FIRST BIBLE PICTURES

THE BIBLE IN ITS MAKING

CHAPTER I

A LIVING BOOK

[Illustration: (drop cap T) Symbol of "Asshur", the principal Assyrian
idol.]

There is only one Book that never grows old.

For thousands of years men have been writing books. Most books are
forgotten soon after they are written; a few of the best and wisest are
remembered for a time.

But all at last grow old; new discoveries are made; new ideas arise;
the old books are out of date; their usefulness is at an end. Students
are the only people who still care to read them.

The nations to which the authors of these first books belonged have
passed away, the languages in which they were written are 'dead'--that
is, they have ceased to be used in daily life in any part of the world.

Broken bits and torn fragments of some of the early books may be seen
in the glass cases of museums. Learned men pore over the fragments,
and try to piece them together, to find out their meaning once again;
but no one else cares much whether they mean anything or not. For the
books are dead. They cannot touch the heart of any human being; they
have nothing to do with the busy world of living men and women any more.

Now, our Bible was first written in these ancient languages: is it,
therefore, to be classed among the 'dead' books of the world?

No, indeed. The fact alone that the Word of God can be read to-day in
412 living languages proves clearly that it is no dead book; and when
we remember that last year 5,000,000 new copies of the Bible were sent
into the busy working world for men and women by one Society alone, we
see how truly 'alive' it must be.

Nations may pass, languages die, the whole world may change, yet the
Bible will live on. Why is this?

Because in the Bible alone, of all the books seen on this earth, there
is found a message for every man, woman, or child