Day 16 Bible

Henry Ossawa Tanner, Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures, 1908,

 
“…the knowledge of God is the principal knowledge, that Bible lessons are (our) chief lessons.”
 
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“The Bible the Chief Source of Moral Ideas. It would be well if the reticence of the Bible in this respect were observed by the writers of children’s books, whether of story or history, The child hears the history of Joseph (with reservations) read from the Bible, which rarely offers comment or explanation. He does not need to be told what was ‘naughty’ and what was ‘good’; there is no need to press home the teaching, or the Bible were written in vain, and good and bad actions carry no witness with them.”
 
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“…the Bible is not a single book, but a classic literature of wonderful beauty and interest. . . Here is poetry, the rhythm of which soothes even the jaded brain past taking pleasure in any other. Here is history, based on such broad, clear lines, such dealing of slow and sure and even-handed justice to the nations, such stories of national sins and national repentances, that the student realizes, as from no other history, the solidarity of the race, the  , and, if we may call it so, the individuality of the nations. Here is philosophy which, of all the philosophies that have been propounded, is alone adequate to the interpretation of human life.”
 
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“The Bible is, of course, a storehouse of most inspiring biographies; but it would be well if we could manage our teaching so as to bring out in each character the master-thought of all his thinking.”
 
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“Let us have faith and courage to give children such a full and gradual picture of Old Testament history that they unconsciously perceive for themselves a panoramic view of the history of mankind typified by that of the Jewish nation as it is unfolded in the Bible.”
 
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“…the Bible may be conceived as an autobiography; not the autobiography of an individual, not exactly that of a nation, but the autobiography of a spiritual evolution…an interpretation of history. A framework.”     
                                                   ~ Richard Green Moulton

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“The dramatic movement of the Bible has for its stage the whole universe, for its period all time; God is the hero of this drama, and its plot is Divine Providence.” 
                                                                                                                                                                         
                                                   ~ Richard Green Moulton
 
 
Examen: For Mason, the Bible is the grand story arch of reality - a unity into which everything else fits. Am I presenting the Bible as a list of things to do, “pressing home” the meaning, or, like Eli, am I helping Samuel to recognize the work and voice of God?

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...the knowledge of God: Charlotte M. Mason,  Home Education, 1:251.
The Bible the Chief: 1:336.
...the Bible is not: Charlotte M. Mason,  Parents and Children, 2:104.
The Bible is:  Charlotte M. Mason,  School Education, 3:133.
Let us have: Charlotte M. Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, 6:162.
the Bible may: Richard Green Moulton, The Bible at a Single View (Wentworth Press, 2019), 4.
The dramatic movement: Moulton, 7.

​Day 16 Bible meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025
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