When we say that the Bible is the word of God we mean first of all that God is its author. That is to say God inspired human writers to compose the books which we call the Sacred Scriptures. But he did not dictate them: the human authors were not mere secretaries who had no words of their own to utter. But they were inspired, and inspired by the Holy Spirit who is the Truth itself. God used these men as his instruments: he respected, as it were, their own gifts and skill, their mental outlook and their individuality of style and diction. But he preserved them from error, for they were to write of God's own work—and in that there can be no lie. If God exists, then God can neither deceive nor be deceived: he is not merely truthful, he is the Truth, and so the words that are his are true.

Drought and flood, too little and too much, are alike man's bane. Water is at once a blessing and a curse. In the biblical tradition it has been chosen for a villainous role: from the primeval abyss through to the Deluge, from the threat of the Red Sea to the menace of Assyria's overflowing river, from the flood that would overwhelm the Psalmist to the great waters that were the throne of persecuting Rome, this one element of the four has played its malicious part. Of its nature unruly, it symbolizes the chaos which would, if it could, defy the check and order of God. But it can be harnessed. The controlling spirit of God dominates the first abyss, his hand shuts the doors of the cataracts of heaven; he divides the obstructing Sea, Emmanuel survives the cascades of Assyria; God delivers his Psalmist from great waters and, like Daniel's beasts, the Prostitute is thrust back into the abyss from which she came.

We publish this article, a paper from South Africa read by an Anglican religious, a member of the Society of the Sacred Mission—and a grateful reader of ‘The Life of the Spirit'—to a group of ministers of several Christian allegiances. In reading it we are listening in, so to speak, to a private conversation between some of our separated brethren, themselves separated from each other. Their language is not altogether ours, nor can we make our own some of their assumptions, but we can recognize at least one thing that we share wholly with them, a faith in and love for Christ Our Lord and a desire to be his disciples. To realise this and apprehend it more clearly is to take at least one step forward towards the unity of all Christian men in the One, True Church.

It is undoubtedly one of the glories of our English language that normal usage, both in speech and in writing, is so frequently in debt to the text of the Bible. It is probably true that the speech of civilised man has for centuries everywhere been greatly influenced by the words of Scripture, but it may perhaps be claimed that this is particularly true of the speech of Englishmen. Whether we realize it or not, we are constantly quoting Scripture, or using phrases or metaphors coming directly from the Bible. Often enough we are unaware that we are quoting the Sermon on the Mount, when we describe someone as the ‘salt of the earth’ (Matt. 5, 13) or ‘a wolf in sheep's clothing’ (7, 15), when we speak of ‘blowing one's own trumpet’ (6, 2), not caring a ‘jot’ or ‘iota’ (5, 18), putting a light ‘under a bushel’ (5, 15), or serving ‘God and mammon’ (6, 24).

This is the account of an experiment. While the need for the teaching of the Old Testament in Catholic schools is gradually becoming more widely recognized, our children do not, in general, have that familiarity with the language of the Old Testament which is so often found among Christians brought up in other surroundings. While this is neither the time nor the place to discuss the pros and cons of a vernacular liturgy, it is obvious that a child who hears some portion of the Scriptures read at the daily Assembly will acquire a familiarity with the language and images employed therein. To attempt to teach the New Testament without a good grounding in the Old, is to deprive it of considerable significance, and it is in the Junior School that such a foundation can be laid.

While there are many collections of Bible stories (and nowadays even strip-cartoons) for children, the real value of all these attractive aids should be to lead the child to a desire for the real thing: the inspired word of God.