Dean Bartlett, of the Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church
of Philadelphia, is prominent as a devout and careful Bible scholar, who
has the confidence of the Christian community to a rare degree. He was
the first president of the American Institute of Sacred Literature, and
he is the vice-president of the Society of Biblical Literature and
Exegesis. His work, on the “Scriptures Hebrew and Christian,” as an
introduction to the study of the Bible, won for him commendation from
eminent scholars. Having read the proof-sheets of this book, Dean
Bartlett writes:
“I thank you for the opportunity to read your book ‘The Threshold
Covenant.’ And I also want to thank you for allowing me to know
something of the growth of your thought on the subject, in the frequent
conversations we have had about it during the years past. Ever since I
came into the privilege of calling you friend I have been a witness of
the truth of your statement in the Preface, that your theory is wholly a
result of induction, that it came to you out of the gathered facts,
instead of the facts being gathered in support of the theory. What I
know as to your method would lead me to expect a result that must stand,
and there are few writers who would be for me as authoritative as you in
matters which I could not verify for myself. But here you furnish the
means of verification.
“As the subject has come up between us from time to time and part by
part, I have been led to think over what you told me, and it has seemed
to me that nothing could exceed the care with which you advanced in your
induction. And now that I review the work as a whole, I am convinced
that you have demonstrated your theory. In doing so, you have thrown a
whole flood of new bright light on primitive culture, on some of the
sacredest phases of human life in all ages, on many places of Scripture
from the first chapter to the last, and on the central sacraments of the
Old and New Covenants.
“If this light came to me now for the first time in all its fulness, I
am not sure whether I should be startled and almost blinded by it, or
whether I should, at first at least, altogether fail to appreciate it.
But you have been giving it to me gradually as it came to you, and so I
have been in a position to become adjusted to it, and also to test its
illumining quality. I find that it is not transitory, but permanent, not
a flash but a steady light, in which the great objects of our Christian
faith stand clearly revealed.
“I sincerely congratulate you upon the completion of such an important
and illuminating work.”