In its form, apart from its subject-matter. Some form it must have.
It might have been in the form of didactic statement only, without
illustrative facts or poetic beauties. It would not have been read
with interest. Or it might have been in the catechetical form.
However useful this method in fastening definite notions in carefully
chosen words, it would have failed to be a book to which men and
women would return with delight as they return to the Bible after the
period of youth has passed away. It is made interesting by the varied
forms in which truth is communicated. It is poetic, historical,
biographical. Its teaching is usually so connected with events and
persons as to present points of interest always fresh. The man finds
a solution of the profoundest problems of time and eternity. The
child finds in its narratives of persons and events a charm that
never fails. To its interesting form is owing, in a large degree, its
hold on those who read it from day to day (H. E. I. 607-609, 3860).