English Art/Literary Religion the relevance of Scripture to today's society

Are we right to dismiss the outlook of Bunyan (author of ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’) and Milton of the 17th century with their straightforward belief in Scripture? Are we right to turn from the fervent preaching of Wesley and Whitefield of the 18th century who, ***with their appeal to Scripture***, by God’s grace turned England from moral and political disaster? Should we let loose from the anchor that held England steady in the 19th century? Were Spurgeon, Ryle and Müller all mistaken in their firm adherence to the Book of books, such that the Prime Minister (Gladstone) spoke of the ‘impregnable rock of Holy Scripture’? Nobody denies that 19th century England had its faults, such as the inhumane social conditions endured by many workers in coal mines, factories and mills. Dickens so eloquently pointed out all these in Oliver Twist and other classic books, but Britain’s faults were not in its belief in the Bible as history. The faults of a bigoted and narrow spirit are not the fault of the Scripture but of a pharisaical self-righteousness which completely denies the Bible. Christ condemned hypocrisy wherever he saw it. It was a fullblooded, total belief in Scripture in the 19th century that, in fact, produced world-class men and women of catholicity and generosity...