which cannot be obtained
anywhere else. In this view its many contradictions, discrepancies,
errors of fact, and incredible statements become at once of little
force and easily accounted for; and when we consider the various ages
in which its parts were written, the many different authors of its
different parts, the standards of human knowledge and attainment in
these times, the wonder is that there are not more. The Bible is thus
the greatest book of _religious instruction_ that the world knows, or
ever has known. It contains inexhaustible treasures of religious
thought, feeling, emotion and experience, of every conceivable type and
variety, which makes it indeed "profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness." It is an
inexhaustible mine of the richest and purest gold, fused in the fires
of human experience in many ages. But the gold is mixed with the sand
and dirt and rocks and rubbish of the human frailties and weaknesses of
the ages in which it was accumulated in this mine. The pure gold must
be separated from this dross in the crucible of _present day_ human
intelligence, reason and experience. It is like a great river that has
wound its course thru many countries and as many different kinds of
soil, receiving tributaries from many different sources and directions.
It contains much pure water; but it is impregnated with the sand and
dirt and mud of the channels thru which it has passed. It must be
filtered and these elements eliminated before it can be put to its
highest and best use. As a great book of religious instruction it
contains riches in human experience and inspiration from which any and
all may draw something to fit their particular case and need. But to
get the highest value, each must separate the gold from the dross, the
pure water from the sand and mud, according to his particular case and
need. Used in this way and for this purpose, the Bible will doubtless
remain the world's greatest book of religious instruction and
inspiration. But to persist in the claim, in the light of present-day
knowledge, that the whole of it is a divine revelation, supernaturally
given from heaven, and infallibly and inerrantly true, is to perpetuate
confusion and discord among men, and cause the wisest and best among
them to discredit it altogether, as many of them have already done.
But to reverence it for what it really is, a record of the religious
evolutio