or. Read the Bible! Bead the
Bible! Through all my perplexities and distresses I never read any
other book, I never knew the want of any other." We are certainly not
despising the science which is worthy of a name, nor are we forgetting
any proposition which has found a place in the world's thought, if we
look into the face of Sir John Herschel, who tells us that "all human
discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more
and more strongly the truths contained in the holy Scriptures." It is
truly no part of wisdom for us to conclude that for scientific reasons
we ought to forsake our Bible when Professor Dana avers: "The grand
old book of God still stands; and this old earth, the more its leaves
are turned and pondered, the more will it sustain and illustrate the
sacred Word."

Surely it is not the hour dogmatically to withdraw this book, which
has proved the basis of civilization. Professor Lyell, the great
English geologist, tells us: "In the year 1806 the French Institute
enumerated no less than eighty geological theories which were hostile
to the Scriptures, but not one of these theories is held today."
Bacon's remark is still true: "There never was found in any age of the
world either religion or law that did so highly exalt the public good
as the Bible." And John Marshall and Prince Bismarck agree with Daniel
Webster when he says: "If we abide by the principles taught in the
Bible our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and
our posterity neglect its instructions and authority no man can tell
how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in
profound obscurity." There is not an anarchist in America who does not
clap his hands when he hears a Bible with the Ten Commandments and the
Sermon on the Mount denounced. Indeed, the civilization in which we
stand, as compared with the barbarism out of which we have been led
by the Bible, would make William Henry Seward's assertion only a mild
statement of the truth when he says: "The whole hope of human progress
is suspended on the ever-growing influence of the Bible." I prefer
lawyers like these to lead American public opinion. Part of the
service of these men has been that they have shown theology that the
Bible is not a set of texts on a dead level of authority and equal
value, but the revealing, slow and sure, of an inspiration obeyed by a
certain people in the realm of morals like that inspiration obeyed by
anoth