AMONG the wedding gifts a young bride received was a handsome copy of the King James Version of the Bible. Beautiful linens and china and practical housewares and appliances had been showered on her. Then there were checks as well as other generous gifts, the kind with which good friends remember young people who are setting up housekeeping.
Just about everything was immediately put into practical use; that is, everything but the Bible. This sacred volume was respectfully placed by itself on a bookshelf where it remained alone and unopened. This was strange, because its owner had been and was a worker in the church of her choice.
Early in her religious experience she had read and had tried to understand this mighty work but had found neither comfort nor peace. It was not without regret that the Bible had had so little practical import in her life. How often she had heard of the simplicity of Biblical terminology! She agreed that the vocabulary of this Book of books was not prohibitively extensive, but why were its deeper meanings so obscure to her? How contradictory certain passages seemed to be! Many narratives, if not exactly frightening, appeared at least cloaked in mystery.
