A LITERARY STUDY.
BY
Rev. Marion D. Shutter, D. D.
“Bibles laid open; millions of surprises.”—Herbert.
BOSTON, MASS.,
Arena Publishing Company,
COPLEY SQUARE.
1893.
COPYRIGHT, 1892,
BY
MARION D. SHUTTER.
All rights reserved.
Dedication.
TO MY WIFE,
Mary Wilkinson Shutter.
PREFACE.
While “many have taken in hand to set forth in order” the pathos andsublimity of the Bible, those literary elements comprised under the titleof this book have rarely been mentioned. Feeling that here was a fielduntraversed, the author of this little volume began an investigation whoseresults were originally embodied in an article published some years ago inan Eastern review. That article is given in “Poole’s Index” as the onlyone extant upon the subject. Since its publication, additional study hasbrought to light other examples of the use of Wit and Humor by the writersof the Bible. These later results were embodied in a course of lecturesdelivered last winter before the students of Lombard University,Galesburg, Ill. They are now given to the public in the present volume. Itwould be presumptuous to claim that these few pages exhaust the subject.Such a claim the author does not wish to make. Further research would nodoubt bring to light instances that have escaped him. It is hoped,however, that these studies may be sufficiently complete to awakeninterest in a long-neglected side of our sacred literature.
MARION D. SHUTTER.
Minneapolis, Minn., Dec. 24, 1892.
First Universalist Church.
INTRODUCTORY.
“There is still one question before us. If humor be what we have claimedfor it, not a mere farce, but the depicting of the whole of human life,then we should expect that the highest literature should be found tocontain it. We should expect to find it everywhere; that it should satisfyall that desire which a reading in theology, or philosophy, or science, orhistory, or a study in art, has created in man. Are there, then, any greatbooks, or still more any great forces in human life which seem devoid ofit? Is there any humor in the gospels? This is a dilemma that must befaced; for if humor be life itself, how can human life in its highestdevelopment dispense with it?”—Shorthouse.
INTRODUCTORY.
“Even St. Paul could invent and enjoy a humorous pun; the proof ofwhich see Galatians V:12, in the original; so there is high authorityfor jesting.”—Kirke.
The title of this book will no doubt affect many persons unpleasantly atfirst. “Flat blasphemy!” I can hear some one exclaim, “We have already hadthe authority of the Bible undermined by critics, and here is a flippantrogue who goes still farther, and assures us that it is nothing more thana jest-book! This is the