“Few Read the Bible”

Under that heading a New York newspaper reported the statement of Dr. Robert J. McCracken of New York’s Riverside Church that “the Bible-reading habit is passing away”. “Too much should not be made of the fact that the Bible is the world’s best seller,” he said. Also, “All the evidence goes to show that in a disconcertingly large number of homes it is consulted as rarely as the collected works of Shakespeare or the volumes of the classics presented as dividends to members of book clubs. It serves more as an ornament than as an instrument. Brides carry it to their wedding and then put it away among their souvenirs. Politicians swear on it when they take office but seldom swear by it afterwards. Even where church members are concerned, the Bible is largely an unknown book. It is a fact that the majority of the people in this country have only the haziest notion of what the greatest book in the world teaches.”