raised to
higher virtue by its influence. It has done much good; it is doing good
still; it is calculated to do still greater good in days to come. Old as
it is, it is a wiser book than the books of religion that are written
in the present day. It is wiser than the preachers; wiser than the great
divines. It is infinitely superior to the Bibles that have been made in
later times, such as the Bible of the Shakers, the Bible of Reason, and
the Book of Mormon.

"It is superior to the Koran, though the authors of the Koran, like
later makers of Bibles, had the older Bible to help them. The Koran is
the best of modern Bibles, because it borrows most freely from the Old
and New Testaments.

"The Bible is vastly better as a moral book, and as a persuasive and
help to duty, than the writings of the best of the ancient Greeks and
Romans. The Bible is consistent with itself as a moral teacher, though
the precepts of Judaism are inferior to those of Christianity. The Bible
treats man as a subject of law, as bound to obey God and do right, from
first to last; and though it begins with fewer and less perfect
precepts, suited to lower states of society, it goes steadily on to
perfection, till it gives us the highest law, and the most perfect
example, in the teachings and life of Christ. Read your Bibles; commit
the better portions of the Book to your memory; think of them, practise
them. Don't be ashamed to do so. The greatest philosophers, not
excepting such men as Newton, Locke, and Boyle; the most celebrated
monarchs, from Alfred to Victoria; the most venerable judges, with Sir
Matthew Hale as their representative; the sweetest poets, from Chaucer,
Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton, down to Dryden, Young, and Cowper; and
the most devoted philanthropists, from Penn, and Howard, and Wesley, to
Elizabeth Fry and Florence Nightingale, have been lovers and students of
the Bible. The men that hate the Bible and wish for its destruction, are
the base and bad. The men who love it and labor for its world-wide
circulation, are the good and the useful. You cannot have a better
companion than the Bible, if you will use it judiciously. There is no
danger that you should rate it too high. If you should regard it as
supernaturally inspired, it will do you no harm. Such ideas may make you
read it more carefully, and pay more respect to its teachings, and that
will be a blessing. Men are in no danger of prizing good books too
highly. As a rule,