The Spirit of the Bible a Superhuman Spirit
Human authors leave the impress of their character upon their works. No human volume was ever written, that does not itself show that it is human. The best spirit and the purest motives that ever guided the pen of man, have been discolored and tinged by the obvious frailties of humanity. The works even of such men as Richard Baxter, Jonathan Edwards, and Robert Hall, discover the imperfections common to good men; while, at the same time, in reading the productions of such authors, we feel that we are holding intercourse with minds and hearts that were the adornments of their race. We not only find ourselves ranging rich fields of thought, but we breathe the atmosphere of sincerity and kindness; we are refreshed with fruits plucked for us from the Tree of Life. When, on the other hand, we read the works of such men as Voltaire, Hume, and Byron, the first and predominant feeling which arises in our bosoms is the admiration of high talent prostituted to vile ends; we are revolted by their cold and remorseless selfishness and pride. If they interest us, it is because they interest our weaknesses and faults; if they conduct us sometimes to a clear and mountain atmosphere, it chills us; if sometimes into low and marshy grounds, it is to diffuse an offensive and infectious miasma; and if sometimes they invite us to repose, it is under shadows which, like the branches of the Upas, distil poison upon us, and invite us to the sleep of death. The most imposing efforts of intellect are but splendid sins” where they originate in a wrong spirit, and are not controlled by the love of God and man. Where selfishness and pride, deceit and malignity, are the presiding genius, nothing is more to be dreaded than preeminent intellectual endowments.
It is not more true, that the Bible is too great ever to have been the invention of the human intellect, than that it is too good a book ever to have originated with the human heart. Infinite intelligence is not more certainly the exclusive attribute of the God only wise,” than unmingled, infinite goodness belongs only to him nature and whose name are Love.” His intelligence renders him great; his goodness bespeaks him amiable and lovely. They are not so much the bright, far-reaching thoughts of his mighty intellect, flowing as they do, clear as crystal from the uncreated Fountain, that so much interest us, as the brighter and purer emotions of his wonderful love, flowing as they do, and sparkling as they flow, in rivers of life from that eternal, immense ocean of kindness, which no line can fathom, and which is bounded by no shore.
Deism rests its whole system of unbelief in the Sacred Scriptures upon the fact that God is good; while it is from the same premises that, as believers in divine revelation, we deduce the conclusion that they have God for their author. If this is God’s Bible, it is not merely a revelation of the mind and intelligence of God, it is a peculiar cast of intelligence; a peculiar spirit; a spirit to which the unaided mind of man never attained; and which, though partially infused into the works of uninspired men, was first infused into this parent reservoir. It is the intrinsic goodness, the inherent loveliness of the Bible, that gives it its preeminence. The spirit of this Book is the spirit of love and kindness, of benignity and good will; it is a disposition which delights in contributing to the happiness of others; which exercises itself in directing men to the true sources of happiness, in gratifying their best wishes, supplying their wants, alleviating their distresses, shielding them from the dangers to which they are exposed, and consulting their highest good upon the largest scale, both for the life that now is, and that which is to come. This is its uniform turn of thought. Goodness is luminous on every leaf; it transpires in every paragraph; it breathes itself throughout the whole; and though to an unintelligent reader, and to a perverted mind, it may sometimes be obscured, yet does this peerless spirit become more obvious with every intelligent and ingenuous view of its pages.
1. In illustrating these general observations we remark, in the first instance, that this peculiar spirit of the Bible appears in its precepts and truths,
Bible not of Man. A
y THE BIBLE NOT OF UMS.
There is a single affection of the heart which exhausts all its precepts. “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” Within the comprehensive range of this single affection is found all that is amiable and benevolent; all that gives joy to the bosom that fosters it; all that transforms the world in which we dwell from the chaos which it is, to the paradise which it should be. There is nothing here that is ungenerous and mean, nothing dark and suspicious, nothing selfish and solitary, nothing overbearing and contemptuous, nothing that is implacable and cruel. It is the spirit of gentleness in opposition to violence, blessing in opposition to cursing, pity in opposition to contempt, meekness and loveliness in opposition to haughtiness, patience in opposition to rashness and insult, forgiveness in opposition to wrong and injury, love in opposition to hatred. Here are all those sweet sympathies which not only tranquillize the stormy passions, but, like flowers that skirt the snow-clad mountain tops, show the power of heavenly truth upon the soul, melting away its cold indifference, and cheering the chilled traveller in his wearied way. There is not one among all its truths that does not fall in with this delightful spirit. The design and tendency of the most humbling of them is to produce a spirit of love, and a loveliness of spirit, such as no other truths produce. There is nothing in them that is revolting, save to a selfish and narrow mind; they have no wayward spirit, but all their aim and tendency are to subdue the wayward spirit of men. They form a sort of mould, into which, when the heart of man is cast, the rough ore is melted and transformed, and comes out with streaks and layers of gold. The mighty Agent in this wondrous transformation records the blessedness of his own work in the memorable sentence, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance.” Deceivers there have been among those who professed to be influenced by it; deceived and enthusiasts there have been, carried away by a warmed and overweening imagination, who, like the stony-ground hearers, received the word with joy only for a time; imperfect men there are, and have been, and will be, who notwithstanding its benign influence show that the root of bitterness is not altogether eradicated; while there are millions who, in all sobriety of thought, have felt and proved its power in making them bright patterns of its benevolent spirit. Its object is to impress upon the mind its own image, imbue it with all that is affectionate and kind, and perpetuate a habit and temper of mind, which are as far above this world as the heavens are above the earth.
2. It deserves remark too, that this peculiar spirit is most emphatically expressed in all its tenderness, when and where it is most needed. There are periods in every man’s history, when the accents of love are winning accents; when the voice of tenderness reaches the deep recesses of his woe; and when, like the harp of David upon the agitated mind of Saul, it charms the evil spirit within the soul. Such is the Bible in those periods of discomfort, depression and darkness, which are superinduced by man’s condition, and which are not a little peculiar in different stages of his moral career. Extending its views far beyond the horizon of human vision, and its sympathies far beyond the sympathies of earth, not only is it a messenger of love, but fits its relief, and times its counsels, to the exigences of human woe. To the unblest millions in pagan lands, its message is, ^’ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else!” To the obdurate and stout-hearted, its message is, “Hearken unto me, ye that are stout-hearted and far from righteousness; behold, I bring near my righteousness, and my salvation shall not tarry.” To restless pride, and wearied self-righteousness, and ceremonial superstition, it says, ‘^ Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” To the unhappy of every name and age, it proclaims, ‘^ Ho every one thatthirsteth,” let him “take the water of life freely.” It watches over the germ of awakened thought and right feeling, and; encourages every hesitating and discouraged effort. towards holiness and heaven. To the returning prodigal, naked and starved, it speaks of his Father’s house, where there is bread enough and to spare, and of the best robe to cover his shame. Over the broken-hearted, who has scarcely courage to say, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” its language is, “Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.” Over the abandoned and incorrigible, it breathes sighs, and drops tears of compassion; over the penitent, it utters its songs of rejoicing. It wounds to heal; it kills only to make alive; it disturbs the vain hopes of the deceived only to drive them from their refuges of lies to the Refuge where are security and peace. When the wanderer is benighted, it sends out its light and truth, and leads him in a plain path: if he is surrounded by enemies, it sounds its note of alarm, and spreads around him its protecting shield; if he slumber, it wakes him; and if he stumbles and falls, the Angel of its Covenant carries him in his arms, and the Shepherd of Israel folds him in his bosom. It tells the tempted of a ‘^ great High Priest, touched with the feeling of their infirmities;” to the afiiicted it speaks of ^’ an exceeding and eternal weight of glory,” wrought out by ^’ their light afiiictions, which are but for a moment;” to the dying, it speaks of an “house not made with hands,” when the “earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved;” while, in view of an assembled universe and the last judgment, it reveals the sentence to all who listen to its counsels, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!”
And is such a spirit the spirit of imposture? Is such a Book the work of man? Has it not counsels for the wretched which the world does not know; and when, for all this world can proffer, everything around them were a dreary waste? Is not such a spirit a novel spirit; so novel as never to have been known until it was revealed from heaven — so novel, so unearthly, that the original model of it finds no place in the imaginations of men, and only in the counsels of heavenly love?
3. In perfect accordance with this spirit is the spirit of those institutions which this Book establishes. They are all institutions of unearthly kindness. Where they exist in their Scriptural purity, they express a purely benevolent design, and exert an influence that is purely benevolent. The message ushered by its ministry is “peace on earth and good will to men;” — ^’ peace, like the dew of Hermon, and love, like the holy oil which consecrated God’s high priest.’- The world could not live without its Sabbath; yet benighted as it is, and wearied and wasted by its moral vassalage, the light and emancipation of such a day of rest would never have entered into its wisest inventions. Its ordinances are the token of Heaven’s covenanted mercy, and the pledge of love that is unearthly; they breathe the spirit of love — the fervency and strength of love: the ardor of God’s love to man — the reflected love of man to God — the reciprocal love of man to man! They arrest attention, and strike with awe as symbols of love.
That visible community to which the Bible has given rise among men, all eating the same spiritual meat, and drinking the same spiritual drink; all professing one faith, one calling, one hope; is no human device. The public and distinct association of all those who profess to be governed by the principles of the Bible, most certainly forms a peculiarity in human history. There are other associations among men, bound together by common principles and pursuing common objects: they are not unknown to false rehgions; but there are none that profess to be governed by love to God and love to one another, as the essential basis of their union and fellowship. However separated by time and place, custom and usage, so far as they are true to their profession, they have all been made to “drink into the same spirit.” They have ‘an unction from the Holy One,” the fragrance of which is “as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed,” where, like flowers cherished by heaven’s dews and sun, they immingle and increase their beauty; and where
“Lebanon, with all its trees,
Yields not a comely sight as these.*’
There is no stronger, and no sweeter bond, than that which binds minds and hearts that are thus governed by the principles and spirit of this holy Book. The contention and strife of wicked nations and wicked men, have no place here. This heavenly spirit would soften the savage sternness of earth, eradicate its barbarism and ferocity, and transform its tragic scenes of wretchedness and suffering, into scenes on which the eye of Infinite love might look down with gratified and complacent smiles. This is the great principle of all Christian association; it is one which would render the life of man here below — as the days of heaven upon earth,” when the triumphs of love shall be celebrated,
“Loud as from numbers without number, sweet As from blest voices uttering joy.”
These institutions are all remarkable features of the Bible. The very existence and design of them indicate a spirit that is superhuman; and, were there no other, would themselves alone be proof of the divine origin of Christianity.
4. Still greater emphasis will be given to the preceding considerations by the fact, that the spirit of kindness, expressed in the Bible, flows out towards all classes of the human family. There are classes that are neglected and depressed by all false religions.
Womvan, under the influence of every religion in the world, save that revealed in the Scriptures, instead of being the loved and attached companion of man — a helper, meet for his labors, trials, joys, and immortality — is his servant, and deemed fitting and worthy only to minister to his wants and passions. Instead of being entitled to that place in his affections, that honorable position in society which belongs to her, she is the dishonored portion of the race. Instead of being its ornament and crown, and designed by her beauty, loveliness, weakness, and shrinking delicacy, to influence, charm, soften, purify, and elevate the stronger and coarser sex, she is excluded from this honorable and elevating intercourse, and made the corrupter of human society. In lands not a few, she forms no constituent part of the domestic circle; she is even denied her immortality; her birth is bewailed as a misfortune, and her death hailed with rejoicing; and if she is allowed to survive her minority, it is to immolate herself on the funeral pile of her husband, or become the universal scorn even of her own children. I need not dwell on the fact, that this is no part of the spirit of the Bible.
It is a remarkable feature of the Bible also, that it has peculiar respect to little children and the rising generation. Both under the Old and New Testaments, its great designs of mercy are carried into ejffect, by its effective solicitude and tenderness towards the young. It is out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, that its Author would perfect praise. Next to the garden and the cross, there is not a more affecting or characteristic symbol of Christianity, than the scene where the Saviour took little children in his arms and blessed them. How different is this from the brutal negligence, and horrid rites, and practised infanticide of paganism! “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven!” Did the voice of earth ever utter a sentence like this? and is it not a proof of Heaven’s own tenderness?
We might expatiate largely also, on the benign influence of the Bible upon that class of men who by crime, or war, or cupidity, become the slaves of their fellow men. The slavery of the Bible, in its worst form, is a very different thing from the slavery of pagan and anti-Christian lands. It can scarcely deserve to be called slavery; nor is there any doubt, that in the same measure in which the principles and spirit of the Bible are imbibed, the yoke of human bondage will melt away, and every form of human oppression cease. ‘^ There is no respect of persons with God.”
This Book is throughout the friend of the poor. In this particular, there is a marked difference between the Bible and all other systems of religious faith and duty. Plato makes the strange remark, that “it is impossible to make God known to alV^ “All pure and spiritual religion,” says Neander, “was considered as the peculiar possession of a small number; it seemed impossible to communicate this knowledge to the lower classes. “False religions impoverish the poor by their severe exactions. One of the great causes of poverty and suffering in the mass of the community in pagan lands, is the intolerable burden of their religious systems; while it is not less true that the poverty and distress of the lower classes under our own observation, are to be attributed, in no small degree, to the vast amount of property wrung from them by a corrupted and false religion. Nor is this all. The poor, the sick, the aged, are they whose blood stains the altars of false religions, and who are ordinarily selected as the sacrifices to idol gods. How different is all this from the spirit of that Book which teaches us, that ‘^ the rich and the poor meet together, and the Lord is the Maker of them all;” that he is “a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress;’’ that he “vindicates the poor of the people, and saves the children of the needy;” that “to the poor the Gospel is preached,” and that “God hath chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised.” The spirit of the Bible is in this particular of high origin; it was born in heaven and trained to deeds of mercy. It has counsels for the throne — for the prison it has consolation. “I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” It has admonitions for the rich — for the poor glad tidings. ‘* It is one of the prime and distinguishing features of the character of the Deity, as revealed to us in Scripture, that the poor man, just as well as the rich man, is the object of his watchfulness: that he bows his ear to the cry of the meanest outcast; so that there is not a smile upon a poor man’s cheek, and there is not a tear in a poor man’s eye, which passes any more unheeded by our God, than if the individual were a monarch on his throne, and thousands crouched in vassalage before him.“* The condition of the poor in lands that are Christian, compared with other lands, speaks volumes for the Bible. The ten thousand acts of private nriunificence, as well as more public bounty in the forms of legal enactment, and the various eleemosynary institutions unknown to the world where the Bible is unknown, are no doubtful proof of the benevolence of its spirit. This blessed Book has no characteristic more obvious than sympathy for the oppressed and suffering classes of human society. It is like a bright sun, when he breaks through the cloud and falls upon the lowly vale; it is God’s light, cheering those who “dwell in darkness and unseen.”
5. Another consideration by which the unearthly
* Melvill.
spirit of the Bible is illustrated, is derived from the great end and motive which it reveals as the supreme and governing principle of the Divine conduct. This Book discloses what no human philosophy ever thought of, and no systems of paganism have ever revealed — the ultimate end of the Deity in the creation and government of this lower world. It instructs us that God ‘* made all things for himself;’’ that ^’ for his pleasure they exist, and were created;” that “of him, and to him, and through him are all things, to whom be glory for ever.” It instructs us, that by all his works, he illustrates and manifests the inherent and unchanging perfection of his own glorious nature.
And what are these perfections.’* ‘^ God is light;” “God is love:” his infinite wisdom and goodness are those moral properties of his nature which he designs thus to unfold. There was no motive, no incitement from without; the irresistible impulse was all from within his own wise and benevolent mind. He could not but express and gratify his own wisdom and goodness; this was the consideration which moved him to create, to govern, to redeem. This, to some minds, may appear an abstract and metaphysical truth; but it is a great and glorious truth, a most precious and lovely truth; one which the Bible only reveals, and one in which we discover the true spirit of the book itself. As a dogma merely, it has a cold and abstract form; but it is inwoven and mingled with the genial warmth of love. It is not aj frigid abstraction, but living, breathing kindness.
ITS SPIRIT SUPERHUMAN. yS
It is the theory of love, and a sure pledge for the actings of love. It is not a beautiful moonlight scene, but the sun of summer, filling all the regions of the earth, coming upon us with its balmy air, and enkindling within our bosoms deep-felt gratitude. What shall we say of the spirit of that Book which brings the blessed truth home to the business and bosoms of men, that all that God does is under the invariable impulse to what is wisest and best; which speaks of love under the control of intelligence, and intelligence controlled by love — love that is all emotion and tenderness, all that is fond and paternal — that has not one chilling, or cheerless aspect, and no counterpart in the inventions of men? The infidel sees difficulties in the government of the Most High, and sees them everywhere — difficulties which, as a moral and sensitive being, fill him with perplexity and darkness. Events have taken place, are taking place now, and will hereafter take place, that are evil; but the Bible teaches us, that there is a benevolent design in the darkest dispensations; and that they present the deep background of that great moral landscape, which brings out the strongest outlines of the Divine wisdom and goodness. What is difficult to us, is easy to God; what to us is doubtful, to him is ascertained; what to our view is full of perplexity, we are assured is directed to what is best. The Bible is not silent upon such topics as these; it sees these evils; it weighs them, feels them, discloses them, and that it may provide a remedy for them.
It is a strong mark of divine teaching, to be told, that everything that God does is under the impulse of goodness — goodness as extensive as creation, as constant as time, as enduring as eternity. Such are the teachings, and such the spirit of the sacred volume. Such is the relief it affords to millions of minds, otherwise shrouded in gloom. It pours light upon the darkest pages of this world’s history, and makes the interminable future luminous. Nor are there any such benevolent teachings, except from the God of love.
6. Let us, as the crowning thought of the whole, dwell a few moments on the spirit of this Book as expressed in its own wondrous method of redeeming mercy. That it is above the invention of the human intellect, we have seen; equally is the spirit which dictated it above the well-known spirit of man. The more just indeed are our conceptions of the goodness which gave it birth, the deeper are our convictions that it is immeasurably above our reach. No man ever seriously addressed himself to the effort of making a due estimate of the love which originated this mysterious arrangement, without the impression, the strong inward feeling, that it is infinitely beyond the reach of his moral, as well as his intellectual powers. It requires love to perceive love: we have not love enough in oiu- own bosoms, to perceive this amazing love of God. The true spirit of the Bible is not in its rightful and unbending authority merely, replete as this authority is with the goodness and majesty of its Divine Author; nor is
I it merely in those rich and embodied truths, those moral considerations, drawn from so many sources, and which none but the heart of Infinite love could suggest: it is in the revelation it makes of the love of its Atoning, Redeeming Saviour. They are “thoughts that breathe, and words that burn,” which make this disclosure; but they are words of peace to the guilty; counsels of peace, thoughts of love, overflowings of heavenly solicitude and compassion, which sought a channel at the greatest sacrifice, and one which ‘^ none of the princes of this world knew.” It was to subdue to the spirit of the Bible, and wash their sins away, and adopt into the family of heaven those whose wickedness had made them outcasts, and who were fit only for the abodes of infamy and shame, that the God of the universe consecrated his Son — his only and equal Son, on the altar of Justice; ‘^ gave him up,” abandoned him to sorrows that rent the heavens with an exceeding great and bitter cry; to agony with which the graves, the rocks, the sun, the whole material world sympathized. And all for man that is a worm!
“O more exceeding love, or law more just — Just law indeed, but more exceeding love!”
“God SO loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life!” Dwell on this thought, and tell me whence it came? Does it fall on the ear as the voice of man? Has not every heart, that is not bereft of the last vestige of filial affectiorij the irresistible consciousness that it is the voice of his ‘^ Father who is in heaven?’’ O, if it were for nothing else than the revelation the Bible makes of that “mighty movement made in heaven” when men were lost, this alone were enough to rescue it from the imputation of being the device of a vile impostor! There is an amplitude of goodness here, which is literally immeasurable; a self-denial of goodness, which never can be recompensed; a purity of goodness, which nothing can impeach; a constancy and watchfulness of goodness, that are never wearied, and that nevei slumber. Time does not weaken such love as this; distance does not change it; unkindness, ingratitude, and abuse do not exhaust it; nor is it exhausted by poverty, disease, crime, and death. It never shuts up the bowels of its compassion. It has a strength that surmounts the greatest obstacles; a height, and depth, and length, of which those who know most of it can only say that “it passeth knowledge.” Was it ever known that an impostor put on such robes of love; or was any creature ever thus clad in the brightest adornment of the Deity?
Such is the spirit of the Bible; such is its love, its amazing, unsearchable love, in more respects than those of which the preceding induction of particulars is but a very partial expression. Love and mercy, the infinite love and mercy of the Infinite One, constitute its great and glowing themes from beginning to end; themes never lost sight of, never obscured, never losing their ascendancy. Such a production was never the production of man: it is more than the human mind can conceive, that such a book should have its origin in this low earth. It is not the spirit of man, which this Book discloses; it is a spirit which belongs not to man’s nature. Never has the universe seen, nor will it ever see so heavenly a spirit, save in these annals of heavenly mercy. No other book is imbued with such a spirit, because this alone is the Book of God. O, how unlike all other books is the sweet spirit of the Bible!
Let a man retire from the world with the Bible in his hand, and, even though the enemy of this wondrous Book, he must feel as though he were in another atmosphere than the atmosphere of earth. Nor can even such a man fail to contrast the heavenly fragrance of its spirit, with the nauseous fumes that come up from his own agitated and effervescing bosom; and if he is its friend, he feels as if he were fanned by the zephyrs of heaven, and encircled by its balmy breezes. Let us suppose an intelligent and well-instructed pagan, but lately emerged from the darkness of paganism, and brought to an acquaintance with the Bible, and to feel its power. It were difficult for us to conceive the impressions made upon such a mind, by the beauty and excellence of the spirit which this Book expresses. Contrasted with the spirit of paganism, it would seem to him like the balmy air and flushing verdure of spring after the dreary chills of a long winter. His dreaming anticipations of his own Elysium, would be more than realized in that wondrous system of truth and love; that tender regard for men, in all the various stages of their moral history; that uniform and benignant tendency of its high-born institutions; that impartial goodness to classes of men which paganism overlooks and despises; that supreme and governing end of all the Divine conduct; and that method of redeeming mercy, the design and object of which are to extricate men from darkness, by bringing them to the light of life; to deliver them from bondage, by rescuing them from guilt; to make them happy, by making them good. Such a man would almost involuntarily exclaim, This is truly a most wonderful book; there is nothing like it in the counsels of earthly wisdom: it cannot be the work of an impostor!
And such are our own conclusions. There are associations of thought and feeling here, not only from which the dark and subtil mind of an impostor is widely and forever alienated, but which it is as irrational to trace to any other than a divine source, as it would be to attribute the Pilgrim’s Progress to such a man as Thomas Paine. To a mind at all imbued with the spirit of the Bible, its divine origin is a thing of instant conviction, as if seen in the light of its own evidence, rather than a thing of lengthened and laborious proof. God has so ordained our mental constitution, that if the mind be not, to a lamentable degree, disordered and perverted by wickedness, we cannot but see that this lovely production is his own work. Like the manna miraculously rained down in the Arabian desert, we need only inspect it in order to see that it is the ^’ bread of heaven, which giveth life to the world.” No more than a child can mistake the letter of love from the well-known hand of his earthly parent, can we mistake the celestial origin of these epistles of heavenly mercy. No more than a son can mistake his father’s last will and testament, can we mistake this last Will and Testament of Him ‘’who liveth and was dead, and is alive for evermore.” Never could it have been written by any other hand. It is Godlike throughout, and breathes his lovely and blessed spirit. It has no origin, save in those eternal counsels of love which devised it; no resemblance, save where its own superhuman spirit is inscribed; no fulfilment, save in that heaven to which it tends. It presents a distinct exhibition of God himself. It is the mighty conception of his love. It stands alone in the world. It is God’s Bible.
“Hast thou ever heard
Of such a book? The author, God himself;
The subject, God and man, salvation, life
And death — eternal life, eternal death —
Dread words! whose meaning has no end, no bounds.
Most wondrous book! bright candle of the Lord ’
Star of eternity! the only star
By which the bark of man could navigate
The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss
Securely! only star which rose on time.
And on its dark and troubled billows, stole,
As generation, drifting swiflly by.
Succeeded generation, thence a ray
Of heaven’s own light, and to the hills of God,
Th’ eternal hills, pointed the sinner’s eye. This book, this holy book, in every line Marked with the seal of high divinity, On every leaf bedewed with drops of love Divine, and with th’ eternal heraldry And signature of God Almighty stamped From first to last — this ray of sacred light, This lamp from off the everlasting throne, Mercy took down, and in the night of time Stood, casting on the dark her gracious bow. And evermore beseeching men, with tears And earnest sighs, to hear, believe, and live. And many to her voice gave ear and read. Believed, obeyed: and now, as the Amen, True, faithful Witness swore, with snowy robes And branching palms surround the fount of life. And drink the streams of immortality. Forever happy, and forever young.”
If the intelligence of this Book should fail to convince the reader, let its love persuade him. It is a kind volumcj fitted to disarm prejudice, and subdue hostility. There are dark jealousies and most unworthy suspicions of it in the world. Men do injustice to it, because guilt is always suspicious; nor do their suspicions always go at their bidding. You love the man who throws around him an atmosphere of kindness. The Bible itself is such an atmosphere, without any mixture of impurity. It lives only to bless the world. And when its work of touching tenderness, diffusive, attractive blessedness is accomplished, it will return to Him who gave it, to impart new blessings, and shed new lustre on the heaven whence it came.