t aver
of every truth discovered or revealed, of every knowledge needful to man
and won by man; that which we must affirm as the only rational
interpretation of the mysterious suggestions rising below the conscious
thoughts of man, and prompting to noblest benedictions on the race; that
we must, with deepened awe, say of the holiest truths shown to the human
soul,--Inspired!

With sincere and reverent confession we must say then in the words of Holy
Writ:

"Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." "Every
Scripture profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness is God-inspired."[23]

The consciousness and experience of Israel could not have found fitter
expression than in the words of our great seer:

"I conceive a man as always spoken to from behind, and unable to turn
his head and see the speaker. In all the millions who have heard the
voice, none ever saw the face. That well-known voice speaks in all
languages, governs all men; and none ever caught a glimpse of its form.
If the man will exactly obey it, it will adopt him, so that he shall
not any longer separate it from himself in his thought; he shall seem
to be it, he shall be it. If he listen with insatiable ears, richer and
greater wisdom is taught him, the sound swells to a ravishing music, he
is borne away as with a flood, he is the fool of ideas, and leads a
heavenly life. But if his eye is set on the things to be done, and not
on the truth that is still-taught, and for the sake of which the things
are to be done, then the voice grows faint, and at last is but a
humming in his ears."[24]

We have thus seen in the Bible an ancient and noble literature, the
literature of a noble race, the literature supremely influencing and
enriching Christian civilization; demanding, therefore, our rational
reverence, as constituting a truly Sacred Book.

We have seen in the Old Testament the literature of the people of
religion, commissioned with its normal evolution; writings charged with
deep religiousness; the records of the various moods and tenses through
which religion grew continuously and insistently toward perfection, in an
organic process watched and directed by a Higher Power than man. We have
seen in the New Testament the record of the realization of this
long-sought aim of the people of religion; the story of the Divine Man,
who breathed religion out