trict accordance with the logic of the
schools. His dialect may be unpolished. He may betray a lack of
acquaintance with modern science. He may not be perfect even in his
knowledge of religion and virtue. But he will show a godly spirit. The
aim and tendency of all he says will be to do good, to promote
righteousness and true holiness.

And so if a man be moved to _write_ by the Holy Spirit, there will be an
influence favorable to holiness in all he writes. His object will be
good. If he be a scholar, he will unconsciously show his learning; if he
be a man of science, he may show his science. If he be ignorant of
science, his ignorance may show itself. The Spirit of Holiness will
neither remove his ignorance nor conceal it: it will not make him talk
like a learned man or a philosopher; but it will make him talk like a
saint, like a servant of God, and a friend of man. His writings will
breathe the spirit and show the love of holiness, and a tendency to all
goodness.

And these are just the qualities we see in the Bible. It breathes a holy
spirit. It tends to promote holiness. The writers were not all equally
advanced in holiness; hence there is a difference in their writings.
They were not alike in their mental constitutions or their natural
endowments. They were not equal in learning, or in a knowledge of
nature, or in general culture. They differed almost endlessly. And their
writings differ in like manner. But they all tend to holiness. Some of
the writers were poets, and their writings are poetical. Others were not
poets, and their writings are prose. The poets were not all equal. Some
of them were very good poets, and their writings are full of beauty,
sublimity and power. Others of them were inferior poets, and their
compositions are more coarse, or more formal. Some of the writers were
shepherds or herdsmen, and their writings are rough and homely. Some of
them were princes and nobles, scholars and philosophers, and their
writings are richer and more polished. Some of them were mere clerks
and chroniclers, and their writings are dry and common-place; others
were fervid, powerful geniuses, and their works are full of fire and
originality. Their thoughts startle you. Their words warm you. They are
spirit and life. All the writers show their natural qualities and
tempers. All exhibit the defects of their learning and philosophy. All
write like men,--like men of the age, and of the rank, and of the
profession, and