LIBRARY OF PRINCETON 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 
From^ ^ ^ «s6 
 A Cloud ^ ^ 
 Of Witnesses. 
 
 Three Hundred and Nine Tributes 
 to tiie Bible. 
 
 DAVIS WASGATT CLARK. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 ei«ei««ATi : eaRTs & jEfiNifies. 
 
 fiEW gORK: EATOM & MAIKS. 
 1891 
 
COPYRIGHT, 
 
 BY CURTS & JENNINGS. 
 
 1897. 
 
nr^mS is the richest compilation of 
 its kind that has yet appeared. 
 It outnumbers by some two hundred 
 quotations the largest collection now in 
 print. It is unique in plan. Its value 
 is enhanced by an introduction^ appen- 
 dix, and quadruple cross index. It 
 shows at a glance how many brilliant 
 thinkers have reflected upon the Bible, 
 and the substance of their thoughts in 
 pithy sentences. The chronological 
 notations of year of birth and death in- 
 dicate the era to which each belongs. 
 The indexes by nationality and pro- 
 fession serve to locate authorities still 
 more perfectly. The topical index is 
 in itself very suggestive. A metropol- 
 itan newspaper recently affirmed edi- 
 torially that good books concerning the 
 Bible are increasingly in demand. It 
 is believed that this uncommon volume 
 will find a welcome and serve a purpose, 
 
 C, & J, 
 3 
 
nr^HE Bible is the life-thought of the 
 world. It is replete with all that 
 can excite the fancy or give wings to 
 the imagination ; all that can refine 
 the taste, ennoble the affections, and en- 
 large the intellect; all, in fine ^ that can 
 call forth the sublimest thoughts^ pre' 
 sent the grandest motives of action^ and 
 enkindle the loftiest expectation in the 
 illimitable future. It enters into all 
 thought and all feelings and is allied to 
 all interests^ earthly and heavenly. It 
 is just such a book as must be read, will 
 be read. It will travel through all 
 lands, dwell among all people ^ find a 
 home in all languages, permeate all 
 thought. The very study and effort 
 to destroy it will only cause it to pene- 
 trate still more deeply into the world's 
 thought, and imbed it still more firmly 
 in the literature of all ages. 
 
 —BISHOP DAVIS W. CLARK. 
 1812-1871, 
 
 4 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PuBiviSHERS' Announcement 3 
 
 Introduction, 7 
 
 Appendix, 177 
 
 The International Bible Ivesson Sys- 
 tem: Origin and Extent to Which 
 
 Used, 179 
 
 The Bible Societies and Bible Distri- 
 bution, 182 
 
 Ignorance Respecting the Bible, . . 184 
 
 The Bible as a Text-book, 191 
 
 A Laureate's Debt to the Bible, . . 200 
 A Prayer Over the Bible, 201 
 
 Indexes, 203 
 
 General, 205 
 
 Topical, 212 
 
 By Professions, 214 
 
 By Nationality, 216 
 
 Annotations, 217 
 
 5 
 
^T^HE Bible thoroughly known is a 
 "* literature in itself- — the rarest and 
 richest in all departments of thought 
 or imagination which exists. 
 
 TAMES ANTHONY FROUDE. 
 
 VERY hour 
 I read you, kills a sin^ 
 Or lets a virtue in 
 To fight against it. 
 
 IZAAK WALTON. 
 
 \JL7 RITTEN i7i the East^ these char- 
 acters live forever in the West ; 
 written in one provi7ice, they pervade 
 the world ; permed in rude times, they 
 are prized more and more as civiliza- 
 tion advances ; product of aritiquity^ 
 they come home to the business and 
 bosoms of men, women, and children in 
 modern days. Then is it an exagger- 
 ation to say that the characters of the 
 Scriptures are a marvel of the mindf 
 ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. 
 6 
 
IMTRODUCTION. 
 
 TT HIS compilation is not intended to 
 encourage bibliolatry. The Bible 
 is God's vehicle. By it he comes to 
 our minds and hearts. To worship 
 the vehicle is idolatrous. If the book 
 could speak, it would cry as the angel 
 did to John, ''See thou do it not !" 
 
 The trend of our day, however, is 
 not in the direction of over-vener- 
 ation for the Bible. The first effect 
 of the application of the scientific 
 method to the Scriptures is to mar 
 their beauty for the average eye. At 
 first blush they are left without form 
 or comeliness, as the Messiah himself 
 appeared. 
 
 A prince of the American pulpit 
 once exclaimed, " These scientists and 
 higher critics are God's Irishmen: 
 with pick, spade, and barrow, they 
 
 7 
 
8 3ntrobuction. 
 
 are removing the dibris of tradition. 
 After their work is all done, the rock 
 will still remain." 
 
 Some timid souls, however, may 
 think the pick is striking deeper than 
 the superimposed strata of human 
 opinion. They may even imagine 
 that the rock itself is being drilled 
 preparatory to the introduction of 
 explosives that, when the mine is 
 sprung, will leave nothing of it. 
 
 While the case is still pending, this 
 cloud of witnesses has been sum- 
 moned. It is a surprising array, 
 representative of every nation, pro- 
 fession, rank, and station; of every 
 faith, unfaith, anti-faith. The testi- 
 mony is clear and largely disinter- 
 ested. While its power is certainly 
 cumulative, it is not expected or 
 claimed to be conclusive. It will 
 probably be generally conceded, how- 
 ever, that it establishes a good and 
 unique character for the Bible. It 
 
3ntro6uction, 
 
 justifies at least a suspension of opinion 
 until the case of the Scientific Method 
 versus the Bible is closed and the 
 book (not a priori theories concern- 
 ing it) is vindicated, as it certainly 
 will be. 
 
 In these noble tributes, culled with 
 care from every available source, 
 many will find expression of the pro- 
 foundest sentiments of their souls 
 concerning the Bible. Admiration, 
 reverence, love, faith, here have a 
 vocabulary. 
 
^T^HE time has been when men said: 
 " Give us a Bible without the su- 
 pernatural and the miracle T The time 
 is coming whe7i men shall say : '^ No 
 Bible shall satisfy the sons of men*who 
 have learned that they are the children 
 of God, except as it draws men nearer 
 to Gody and makes man manifest in 
 Gody the power of miracle which comes 
 of absolute consecration to and union 
 with him.'' O^ily then shall the soul 
 of man rest conte^it in the great Bible ^ 
 where t in the 7iew nature that has come 
 to himy the supernatural, as he used to 
 call it, becomes his home. 
 
 PHILLIPS BROOKS. 
 
 W AM a creature of a day, passing 
 through life as an arrow through 
 the air. I waftt to know one thing — 
 the way to heaven. God himself has 
 condescended to teach the way. He 
 hath writte7i it down in a book. O give 
 me that book ! At any price give me 
 the book of God! I have it, here is 
 knowledge enough for me. 
 
 JOHN WESLEY. 
 lO 
 
TRIBUTES 
 
 PART 1. 
 
W THINK I know my Bible as few 
 "* literary men know it. There is no 
 book in the world like it, and the finest 
 novels ever written fall far short in in- 
 terest of any one of the stories it tells. 
 
 Whatever strong situatioyis I have 
 
 in my books are not of my creation^ 
 
 but are taken from the Bible. " The 
 
 Deemster " is the story of the Prodigal 
 
 Sony " The Bondman " is the story of 
 
 Esau and facob, " The Scape g oat ^^ is 
 
 the story of Eli and his sons, " The 
 
 Manxman " is the story of David and 
 
 Uriah, 
 
 HALL CAINE, in McClure's. 
 
 W PUT a New Testament among your 
 '■ books for the very same reasons and 
 with the very same hopes that m,ade me 
 write an easy account of it for you 
 when you were a little child — because 
 it is the best book that ever was or will 
 be known in the world, and because it 
 teaches you the best lessons by which 
 any human creature, who tries to be 
 truthful a7id faithful to duty, can pos- 
 sibly be guided. 
 
 CHARLES DICKENS, 
 Forster, III, 445. 
 12 
 
A Cloud of Witnesses. 
 ji ji ji jt ji 
 
 pari I. 
 
 To the Bible men will return be- 
 ■ cause they can not do without it; 
 because happiness is our being's end 
 and aim, and happiness belongs to 
 righteousness, and righteousness is 
 revealed in the Bible. For this sim- 
 ple reason men will return to the Bi- 
 ble, just as a man who tried to give 
 up food, thinking it was a vain thing 
 ^nd that he could do without it, 
 would return to food; or a man 
 who tried to give up sleep, thinking 
 it was a vain thing and he could do 
 without it, would return to sleep. 
 1822-1888, — Matthew Arnold. 
 
 ' £]^h Scripture is practical, and in- 
 tended to minister to our im- 
 provement rather than to our cu- 
 riosity, ^/did, 
 
 13 
 
14 d Cloub of tOitnesses. 
 
 •♦' 
 
 3 I T is astonishing how a Bible sen- 
 ■ tence clinches and sums up an ar- 
 gument. — /did. 
 
 4 There is no passion that is not 
 
 ■ finely expressed in those parts of 
 the inspired writings which are proper 
 for Divine songs and anthems. 
 
 1672-17 19. — ^Joseph Addison. 
 
 5 The Scripture so speaketh that, 
 
 ■ with the height of it, it laughs 
 proud and lofty-spirited men to scorn ; 
 with the depth of it, it terrifies those 
 who, with attention, look into it; with 
 the truth of it, it feeds men of the 
 greatest knowledge and understand- 
 ing ; and with the sweetness of it, it 
 nourisheth babes and sucklings. 
 
 354-430. — St. Augustine, 
 
 Bishop of Hippo. 
 
 6 I HAVE examined all, as well as 
 * my narrow sphere, my straitened 
 means, and my busy life would 
 allow me; and the result is, that 
 the Bible is the best book in the 
 world. 1 735-1826. — ^JoHN Adams, 
 
 Second President United States. 
 
CI Cloub of IDttnesses, 15 
 
 7 CO great is my veneration tor the 
 ■^ Bible that the earlier my children 
 begin to read it, the more confident 
 will be my hopes that they will prove 
 useful citizens to their country and 
 respectable members of society. 
 1767-1848. — John Quincy Adams, 
 6th President United States. 
 
 8 IN what light soever we regard the 
 ■ Bible, whether with reference to 
 revelation, to history, or to morality, 
 it is an invaluable mine of knowledge 
 and virtue. —Ibid. 
 
 9 I SPEAK as a man of the world to 
 ' men of the world ; and I say to you, 
 "Search the Scriptures." The Bible 
 is the Book of all others to be read at 
 all ages and in all conditions of hu- 
 man life ; not to be read once or twice 
 or thrice through, and then laid aside, 
 but to be read in small portions of 
 one or two chapters every day, and 
 never to be intermitted unless by 
 some overruling necessity. 
 
 —Ibid. 
 
i6 a Cloub of IPitnesses. 
 
 to f IRS, I have devoured it [the Bible], 
 finding in it words suitable to, 
 and descriptive of, the states of my 
 mind. The Lord, by his Divine Spirit, 
 has been pleased to give me an under- 
 standing of what I read therein. 
 
 I777-1825. — ALEXANDi^R I, 
 
 Czar of Russia. 
 
 "N 
 
 O man ever did or ever can be- 
 come truly eloquent without be- 
 ing a constant reader of the Bible, 
 and an admirer of its purity and sub- 
 limity. — Fisher Ames. 
 1756-1808. 
 
 12 Before me lay the Sacred Text: 
 
 The help, the guide, the balm of 
 souls perplexed. 
 
 1538-83. — AlyEXANDER ArBUTHNOT. 
 
 13 ilCCEPT the glad tidings, 
 
 The warnings and chidings, 
 Found in this volume of heavenly 
 lore; 
 With faith that 's unfailing, 
 And love all prevailing, 
 Trust in its promise of life ever- 
 more. ^Amm. 
 
CI Cloub of IDttnesses. 17 
 
 14 THE Bible is full and complete as 
 * a book of direction ; human life is 
 full and complete as a field of exercise. 
 1835 — Lyman Abbott. 
 
 15 iJS a mere book it will never die. 
 ^* Such height of thought, such 
 breadth of expression, such aptness 
 in speaking to the great heart of the 
 race, — surely it will live and be read 
 in the world's latest afternoon; and 
 when the last ray is fading out of the 
 eye of humanity, it will not be to- 
 ward Homer or Plato that the strain- 
 ing orb will be found directing itself, 
 but rather toward the various glories 
 of that one Book which deserves to 
 be called the Book of Mankind. 
 
 —Ad Fidem. (F. E. Burr.) 
 1818— 
 
 16 THEY who are not induced to be- 
 
 lieve and live as they ought by 
 those discoveries which God hath made 
 in Scripture, would stand out against 
 any evidence whatever, even that of 
 a messenger sent express from the 
 other world. 
 
 1662-1732. —Francis Atterbury. 
 
i8 CI Cloub of tPitnesses. 
 
 •*■ 
 
 'A 
 
 SACRKD ark, which from the 
 deeps 
 Garners the Hfe for worlds to be> 
 And with its precious burden 
 sweeps 
 Adown dark Time's destroying 
 sea. — Anon. 
 
 i8 ^F most other things it may be 
 
 ^ said, "Vanity of vanities, all is 
 vanity ;" but of the Scriptures, Verity 
 of verities, all is verity. 
 
 1 602- 1 659. — John Arrowsmith, 
 
 19 nr 
 
 HE Bible evidently transcends all 
 human effort ; it has upon its face 
 the impress of divinity ; it shines with 
 a light which, from its clearness and 
 its splendor, shows itself to be celes- 
 tial. Surely, then, it is the Word of 
 God. — ArchibaIvD Alexande:r. 
 
 1772-1851. 
 
 20 TT HE Bible is the standard for earth's 
 
 ■ erring millions. The sacred rays 
 
 of Love, Peace, Truth, and Purity 
 
 beam and radiate from its glowing 
 
 page. — Anon. 
 
a Cloub of IDttnesses. 19 
 
 21 The Bible is the only cement of 
 ■ nations. 
 
 — Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen. 
 1791-1860. (Chevauer Bunsetn.) 
 
 22 There is not a book on earth so 
 favorable to all the kind, and to all 
 the sublime affections, or so unfriendly 
 to hatred and persecution, to tyranny, 
 injustice, and every sort of malevo- 
 lence, as the Gospel. 
 
 1 735-1 803. —James Beattie. 
 
 ^3 M O book in the world equals the 
 Scripture, even as regards the 
 manners and affections. 
 On Acts XX, jj. 
 
 — Johann A1.BRECHT BengeIv. 
 1687-1752. 
 
 24 lUH think of the Bible as of a struc- 
 
 " ture solid and eternal. 
 
 — Cyrus Augustus Bartoi<. 
 1813 
 
 25 T' IS very vain for me to boast 
 
 How small a price this Bible cost ; 
 The day of judgment will make clear 
 'T was very cheap or very dear. 
 1746-1767. — Michael Bruce, 
 
 [On the fly-leaf of his Bible.] 
 
^o CI Cloub of XDttnesses. 
 •♦• 
 
 26 f O FAR as I have observed God's 
 ■^dealings with my soul, the flights 
 of preachers sometimes entertained 
 me ; but it was Scripture expressions 
 which did penetrate my heart, and in 
 a way peculiar to themselves. 
 1722-1787. — J. Brown, 
 
 Of Haddington. 
 
 27 TTHE Bible is a precious storehouse 
 and the Magna Charta of a Chris- 
 tian. There he reads of his Heavenly 
 Father's love and of his dying Sav- 
 ior's legacies. There he sees a map 
 of his travels through the wilderness, 
 and a landscape, too, of Canaan. 
 1689-1768. — John Berridge). 
 
 28 I F these facts (on the origin, nature, 
 * and progress of the Christian re- 
 ligion) are not therefore established, 
 nothing in the history of mankind can 
 be believed. 
 1767-1843. 
 — C. Kendal Bushe, Chief Justice. 
 
CI Cloub of XPhnesses. 21 
 
 29 ^THK Bible owes its continued au- 
 ■ thority and influence to the fact 
 that it really contains the Word of 
 God; that in its various records flows 
 down the full and vigorous river of 
 God's truth and grace, in the history 
 of a race peculiarly and providen- 
 tially fitted to receive special com- 
 munications from on high. Nothing 
 can ever change or destroy the sub- 
 lime merits and religious influence of 
 the Mosaic dispensation ; nothing out- 
 live the strains of David's glorious 
 harp ; nothing take the place of Isaiah's 
 exalted prophecies ; much less can the 
 record of our Savior's life and conver- 
 sations ever cease to win the profound- 
 est reverence and gratitude of man- 
 kind. — Henry W. Bellows. 
 1814-1882. 
 
 30 /ILTHOUGH the Greek literature 
 ■• of the New Testament has no 
 Demosthenes "On the Crown" or 
 Plato's Republic, as it has no Iliad or 
 Prometheus, yet it lays the founda- 
 tion of the sermon and the theological 
 tract, those forms of literature which, 
 
22 a Cloub of IDttnesses. 
 
 however little they may appeal to the 
 aesthetic taste, have yet been the lit- 
 erary means of a world-transform- 
 ing power; as, from pulpit and chair, 
 Christian ministers have stirred the 
 hearts and minds of mankind. 
 
 1 84 1 — Charles A. Briggs, 
 
 Lecture : Languages of the Bible. God's 
 Word Man's Light and Guide. Lec- 
 tures before N. Y. S. S. Association, 
 American Tract Society. 
 
 31 I FIND the Bible the patriot's chart- 
 ■ book, the child's delight, the old 
 man's comfort, the young man's 
 guide. In its pages the sick and the 
 weary find solace, and the dying hope 
 and peace. — Richard Beard. 
 
 1799-1880. 
 
 32 ^HB poetry of the Bible has been 
 
 ■ the forming-power of the greatest 
 modern poems. —Ibid. 
 
 33 ^'HE Bible stands alone in human 
 
 ■ literature in its elevated concep- 
 tion of manhood as to character and 
 conduct. It is the invaluable train- 
 ing-book of the world. 
 
 1813-1887. — Henry Ward Beecher- 
 
a Cloub of IDttnesses, 23 
 
 34 TTHE Bible emptied, effete, worn 
 
 out ! If all the wisest men of the 
 world were placed man to man, they 
 could not sound the shallowest depths 
 of the Gospel of John. —Ibid. 
 
 35 IjriHOKVBR made that book made 
 
 ^ me. It knows all that is in my 
 heart. It tells me what no one else 
 except God can know about me. 
 Whoever made me, wrote that book. 
 — Bishop Boone's Chinese Assistant 
 in the translation of the Bible (before 
 his conversion). 
 
 361 BBI.IEVK the Bible, all of it! 
 ' The very things I do n't under- 
 stand I believe the most of all. I 
 would n't exchange my faith for any 
 man's knowledge. 
 
 1818-1885. —Henry W. Shaw, 
 
 (Josh Billings.) 
 
 37 T'HERE never was found in any 
 ■ age of the world either religion 
 or law that did so highly exalt the 
 public good as the Bible. 
 
 1561-1626. — Francis Bacon. 
 
24 (X Cloub of IDttnesses. 
 .«• 
 
 38 /I S THE moon, for all those darker 
 *^ parts we call her spots, gives us 
 
 much greater light than the stars, 
 which seem all luminous, so will the 
 Scripture; for all its obscurer pas- 
 sages afford more light than the 
 brightest human authors. 
 1626-1691. — Robert Boyle. 
 
 39 ^ S SOME pictures seem to have 
 ** their eyes fixed upon every one 
 from whatsoever part of the room he 
 eyes them, there is scarce a frame of 
 spirit a man can be of, to which some 
 passage of Scripture is not as appli- 
 cable as if it were meant for or said 
 to him. — /did. 
 
 40 I USE the Scriptures, not as an ar- 
 ■ senal to be resorted to only for 
 arms and weapons, . . . but as a 
 matchless temple, where I delight to 
 contemplate the beauty, the symme- 
 try, and the magnificence of the 
 structure, and to increase my awe 
 and excite my devotion to the Deity- 
 there preached and adored. — /did. 
 
(X Cloub of IDttnesses. 25 
 
 41 TT HOUGH many other books are 
 ■ comparable to cloth, in which by 
 a small pattern we may safely judge 
 of the whole piece, yet the Bible is 
 like a fair suit of arras, of which 
 though a shred may assure y^ of 
 the fineness of the colors and rich- 
 ness of the stuff, yet the hangings 
 never appear to their full advantage 
 but when they are displayed to their 
 full dimensions and are seen together. 
 
 —Ibid. 
 
 42 1 N THE Bible the ignorant may 
 ■ learn all required knowledge, and 
 the most knowing may learn to dis- 
 cern their ignorance. — Ibid, 
 
 43i^HE Parable of the Prodigal Son, 
 ■ the most beautiful fiction that ever 
 was invented ; our Savior's speech to 
 his disciples, with which he closed 
 his earthly ministrations, full of the 
 sublimest dignity and tenderest affec- 
 tion, surpass anything that I ever 
 read, and, like the spirit by which 
 they were dictated, fly directly to the 
 heart. — W11.1.1AM Cowper. 
 
 1731-1800. 
 
26 (X (Eloub of IPitnesses. 
 •♦• 
 
 44 T' IS Revelation satisfies all doubts, 
 
 Explains all mysteries, except 
 her own, 
 And so illuminates the path of life, 
 That fools discover it and stray no 
 more. — Idz'd. 
 
 45 dj CRITIC on the Sacred Book 
 " should be 
 
 Candid and learned, dispassionate and 
 free, — 
 
 Free from the wayward bias bigots 
 feel, 
 
 From fancy's influence and intem- 
 perate zeal. — /did. 
 
 46 No other Scriptures of man compare 
 
 with it for wide, deep, and ever- 
 growing influence. It is the highest 
 work of its class— that is, of ^/le sa- 
 cred writings of mankind — and these 
 sacred writings are, among all other 
 writings, the most important and in- 
 fluential. . . . 
 
 Every commanding race, every vast 
 civilization, has been directed and con- 
 trolled by its sacred writings. The 
 hundred and fifty millions of Hindus 
 
a Cloub of IDUnesses* 27 
 
 have been ruled, during twenty-five 
 centuries, by their Vedas and Pu- 
 ranas. Chinese civilization has taken 
 its stamp from the " Four Books " 
 and "The Kings." The brilliant 
 career of the Persian Empire was 
 inspired throughout by the Zend- 
 Avesta. The tribes of Arabia were 
 gathered, molded, banded, and wielded 
 in a resistless tide of conquest by the 
 Koran. The sacred books of the 
 Buddhists have been the leaven of 
 civilization among a third part of the 
 human race during a vast period of 
 time. If we judge them by their in- 
 fluence, these are the great books of 
 the human race. But, for various 
 reasons, the Bible stands above them 
 all. The others are the books of 
 particular races — of the Hindus 
 only, or the Mongols, or the Per- 
 sians, or the Chinese; but the 
 Bible has a constituency composed of 
 all the races of the world. The oth- 
 ers belong to decaying, arrested, or 
 dead civilizations; the Bible to the 
 advancing and all-conquering races, 
 who stand for the highest civilization 
 
28 a Cloub of XPttnesses. 
 
 attained on this planet. The others 
 are either narrow or shallow in some 
 directions; the Bible is a fountain 
 whose waters feed intellect, heart, 
 life, promoting the highest worship 
 as well as the largest humanity. . . ? 
 
 Kingdoms fall, institutions perish, 
 civilizations change, human doctrines 
 disappear ; but the imperishable truths 
 which pervade and sanctify the Bible 
 shall bear it up above the flood of 
 change and the deluge of years. 
 
 — James Freeman Clark, 
 Lecture : " What is the Bible ? and Where 
 
 Did it Come From?" 
 
 1810-1883. 
 
 47 ^'HE incongruity of the Bible, with 
 1 the age of its birth, its freedom 
 from earthly mixtures, its original 
 unborrowed, solitary greatness, the 
 suddenness with which it broke forth 
 amidst the universal gloom, — these to 
 me are strong indications of its di- 
 vine descent. I can not reconcile 
 them with a human origin. 
 
 — William Ellery Channing. 
 1780-1842. 
 
CC Cloub of XDttnesses. 29 
 
 48 THE Gospels, in which the Christ 
 
 ■ is placed before us so vividly, are, 
 in truth, the chief repositories of di- 
 vine wisdom. The greatest produc- 
 tions of human genius have little 
 quickening power in comparison with 
 these simple narratives. In reading 
 the Gospels, I feel myself in presence 
 of one who speaks as man never 
 spake; whose voice is not of the 
 earth; who speaks with a tone of 
 reality and authority altogether his 
 own. . . . No books astonish me 
 like the Gospels. . . . Of all books 
 they deserve most the study of youth 
 and age. — /did. 
 
 49 IN the Bible there is more that Jinds 
 ■ me than I have experienced in all 
 other books put together; the words 
 of the Bible find me at greater depths 
 of my being; and whatever ^nds me 
 brings with it an irresistible evidence 
 of its having proceeded from the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 — Samueiv Taylor Coleridge, 
 In Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit: 
 Ivondon Ed., William Pickering. 1840. 
 1772-1834. 
 
30 G. Cloub of IDttnesses. 
 
 •*— — 
 
 50 INTENSE study of the Bible will 
 * keep any man from being vulgar in 
 point of style. — /did. 
 
 51 W OUI.D I withhold the Bible from 
 ■* the cottager or the artisan? 
 Heaven forbid! The fairest flower 
 that ever clomb up a cottage window 
 is not so fair a sight to my eyes as 
 the Bible gleaming through the lower 
 panes. — Jdzd,, p. 85. 
 
 52 pOR more than a thousand years 
 * the Bible, collectively taken, has 
 gone hand in hand with civilization, 
 science, law; in short, with moral 
 and intellectual cultivation; always 
 supporting, and often leading, the 
 way. — Ibid., p. 71. 
 
 53 THE sanctions of the Divine law 
 
 ■ cover the whole area of human 
 
 action, reach every case, punish every 
 
 sin, and recompense every virtue. 
 
(X Cloub of XDttnesses. 31 
 
 Its rewards and its punishments are 
 graduated with perfect justice. 
 1 769-1 828. — DeWitt Clinton. 
 
 54y 
 
 HERE was plainly wanting a Di- 
 vine revelation to recover man- 
 kind out of their universal corrup- 
 tion and degeneracy. 
 
 1675-1729. — Samuei. C1.ARKE. 
 
 55 I T is just as if the art of ship-build- 
 * ing should be conducted without 
 helms. Tall ships should be set 
 afloat to be guilded by the winds 
 only. For such are the immortal ships 
 on the sea of human life without the 
 Bible. Its knowledge, its principles, 
 ought from the first to be as much a 
 part of the educated, intelligent con- 
 stitution as the keel or rudder is part 
 and parcel of a well-built ship. 
 
 1807 — George B. Cheever, 
 
 Pilgrim of the Jungfrau, p. 59. 
 
 56 I CAN not look around me without 
 ' being struck by the analogy observ- 
 able in the works of God. I find the 
 
32 (X Cloub of IDttnesses. 
 ■♦— — 
 
 Bible written in the style of his other 
 books of creation and providence. 
 The pen seems in the same hand. I 
 see it at times, indeed, write mysteri- 
 ously in each of these books; but I 
 know that mystery in the works of 
 God is only another name for my ig- 
 norance. The moment, therefore, 
 that I become humble, all becomes 
 right. — Richard Cecil. 
 
 1748-1810. 
 
 57 The Bible resembles an extensive 
 ■ garden where there is a vast va- 
 riety and profusion of fruits and flow- 
 ers, some of which are more essential or 
 more splendid than others ; but there 
 is not a blade suffered to grow in it 
 which has not its use and beauty in 
 the system. — Idz'd. 
 
 58 I KARNKSTivY hope that God's day 
 may be hallowed, and his Word may 
 be studied through this whole land, till 
 their obligations are felt and acknowl- 
 edged by all its people. 
 1 782-1 866. — Lewis Cass. 
 
a Cloub of IDitncsses, 33 
 •♦ 
 
 59 I HAVK but one book, but that is 
 ' the best. 
 
 — WiiyiviAM Collins to Dr. Johnson. 
 1720-1756. 
 
 60 Jj NOBIyK Book ! All men's Book ! 
 ■■ It is our first oldest statement of 
 the never-ending problem — mans des- 
 tiny and God's ways with him here on 
 earth ; and all in such free-flowing 
 outlines — grand in its sincerity, in its 
 simplicity and its epic melody. 
 
 1795-1881. — Thomas Carlyle;. 
 
 61 IN the poorest cottage are books — 
 ■ is one Book wherein, for several 
 thousands of years, the spirit of man 
 has found light and nourishment and 
 an interpreting response to whatever 
 is deepest in him. — /did. 
 
 62 T'O see God's own law universally 
 
 ' acknowledged as it stands in the 
 Holy Written Book; to see this — or 
 the true unwearied aim and struggle 
 toward this — is a thing worth living 
 and dying for. — /did. 
 
 3 
 
34 CI Cloub of lt)itnes5e$« 
 
 ,4, 
 
 63 W HKN one said to Carlyle that 
 there was nothing remarkable in 
 the Book of Proverbs, he simply re- 
 plied, "Make a few." 
 
 64^ 
 
 HATEVER strong situations I 
 have in my tales are not of my 
 creation, but are taken from the Bible. 
 — Thomas Henry Hall Caine. 
 1853- 
 
 65 T HE Bible is unquestionably the 
 richest repository of thought and 
 imagery, and the best model of pure 
 style that our language can boast. 
 — W. B. Clulow. 
 
 66 C CHOLARS may quote Plato in 
 ^^ studies, but the hearts of millions 
 shall quote the Bible at their daily 
 toil, and draw strength from its inspi- 
 ration as the meadows draw it from 
 the brook, 
 
 — MoNCURE Daniel Conway. 
 1832- 
 
<X (£Iou5 of IDttnesses, 35 
 .4. 
 
 67^ R whether more abstractedly we 
 v/ look 
 Or on the writers or the written 
 
 book, 
 Whence but for heaven could men 
 
 unskilled in arts, 
 In several ages born, in several parts 
 Weave such agreeing truths ? or how 
 
 or why- 
 Should all conspire to cheat us with 
 
 a lie? 
 Unasked their pains, ungrateful their 
 
 advice ; 
 Starving their gain, and martydom 
 
 their price. — John Dryden. 
 1 63 1- 1 700. 
 
 68p OR Scripture style is noble and 
 • divine, 
 It speaks no less than God in every 
 
 line; 
 It is not built on disquisition vain, 
 The things we must believe are few 
 and plain. — /did. 
 
36 Ct (£Ioub of IDitnesses. 
 
 69 HlBIyE Christianity is the compan- 
 
 ion of liberty in all its conflicts, 
 the cradle of its infancy, and the 
 divine source of its claims. 
 
 — Charles Henri Clerei. de 
 
 1805-1859. ToCQUEVILIyE. 
 
 70 ^ThK Bible is a window in the prison 
 
 of hope through which we look 
 into eternity. — Timothy Dwight. 
 1752-1818. 
 
 71 The grand old Book of God still 
 
 stands; and this old earth, the 
 more its leaves are turned over and 
 pondered, the more it will sustain 
 and illustrate the Sacred Word. 
 1813-1895. — James D WIGHT Dana. 
 
 72 The first thought that strikes the 
 
 scientific reader is the evidence 
 of divinity, not merely in the first 
 verse of the record and the successive 
 fiats, but in the whole order of crea- 
 tion. There is so much that the most 
 recent readings of science have for the 
 first time explained, that the idea of 
 man as the author becomes utterly in 
 
a Cloub of IDttnesses. 37 
 
 '♦• 
 
 comprehensible. By proving the rec- 
 ord true, science pronounces it divine; 
 for who could have correctly narrated 
 the secrets of eternity but God him- 
 self? —Ibid. 
 
 73 /] ND, finally, I may state, as the 
 
 " conclusion of the whole matter, 
 that the Bible contains within itself 
 all that, under God, is required to ac- 
 count for and dispose of all forms 
 of infidelity, and to turn to the best 
 and highest uses all that man can 
 learn of nature. 
 
 1820— John W. Dawson. 
 
 74 m O better lessons than those of the 
 1^ Bible can I teach my child. 
 
 1 713-1784. — Denis Diderot. 
 
 75»|i^HB cruel battles fought some 
 i years ago round the Malakoff 
 tower showed that in that fortress lay 
 the key of war, and on it depended 
 defeat or triumph. So the multiplied 
 attacks directed in our day against the 
 Bible indicate that it is, in view of 
 
38 CI (Eloub of IDttnesses. 
 
 our adversaries, the tower which, 
 above all others, must be torn down. 
 
 —Jean Henri Merle, D'Aubigne. 
 
 1794-1872. 
 
 76 TlHK voice of the past is now sel- 
 ■ dom heard in the din of clashing 
 opinions and interests. Saint Augus- 
 tine and Saint Chrysostom, of the 
 early Christian era, commanded the 
 attention of the world. The school- 
 men of the Dark Ages led the 
 thought of the times through uni- 
 versities, where thirty thousand stu- 
 dents were entered on the rolls. 
 Luther and Melanchthon, and Eras- 
 mus and Grotius, were spokesmen of 
 the effort for spiritual, intellectual, and 
 civil liberty, which has incalculably 
 affected the destinies of mankind. The 
 Puritan divines of the first hundred 
 years of New England settlement in- 
 spired the thought and governed the 
 course of the colleges and controlled 
 the minds of the people. Now, no 
 one, outside the antiquaries and crit- 
 ical few, reads the Fathers of the 
 Church, the Schoolmen, the Leaders 
 
(X (Eloub of XPttnesses. 39 
 
 of the Reformation, or Cotton Mather, 
 or Jonathan Edwards. The body of 
 truth from which they derived their 
 doctrines and constructed their sys- 
 tems is found in the open Bible, by 
 every fireside in the land. From its 
 pages the individual, according to his 
 or her light and opportunity, draws 
 the lessons of life. 
 
 1834- — Chauncey M. Depew. 
 
 77 The next point to be attended to 
 is this : What books ought you to 
 read? There are some books that are 
 absolutely indispensable to the kind 
 of education that we are contemplat- 
 ing, and to the profession that we are 
 considering ; and of all these the most 
 indispensable, the most useful, the 
 one whose knowledge is most effective, 
 is the Bible. There is no book from 
 which more valuable lessons can be 
 learned. I am considering it now not 
 as a religious book, but as a manual 
 of utility, of professional preparation 
 and professional use, for a journalist. 
 There is, perhaps, no book whose 
 style is more suggestive and more 
 
40 CI Cloub of IDitnesses. 
 
 instructive, from which you learn 
 more directly that sublime simplic- 
 ity which never exaggerates, which 
 recounts the greatest event, with so- 
 lemnity of course, but without senti- 
 mentality or affectation; none which 
 you open with such confidence and 
 lay down with such reverence ; there 
 is no book like the Bible. When you 
 get into a controversy and want ex- 
 actly the right answer, when you are 
 looking for an expression, what is 
 there that closes a dispute like a verse 
 from the Bible ? What is it that sets 
 up the right principle for you, which 
 pleads for a policy, for a cause, so 
 much as the right passage of Holy 
 
 Scripture? 
 
 — Charles A. Dana, 
 Of the New York Sun, in " Journal- 
 ism," a lecture at Union College. 
 1819— 
 
 78 I N this Book is all the wisdom of the 
 ^ world. 
 
 — Georg Henrich August Ewai.d, 
 
 In conversation with Dean Stanley. 
 1803-1875. 
 
a Cloub of IPitncsses. 41 
 
 79 AUT from the heart of nature rolled 
 ^ The burdens of the Bible old. 
 —Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 1803-1882. 
 
 80 TTHERB is yet another sword to be 
 ' delivered to me. I mean the 
 sacred Bible, which is the Sword of 
 the Spirit, without which we are noth- 
 ing, neither can we do anything. 
 — Edward VI, 
 (At his coronation, on receiving the 
 swords of England, France, and 
 Ireland.) 
 Reigned 1 547-1 553- 
 
 81 Ahh the distinctive features and su- 
 *■ periority of our republican insti- 
 tutions are derived from the teachings 
 of Scripture. —Edward Everett. 
 1794-1865. 
 
 82 'T' HIS narrative contains nothing 
 ^ which does not accurately corre- 
 spond to a court of Pharaoh in the 
 best times of the kingdom. 
 
 1837 — — Georg Ebers. 
 
42 a (Eloub of IPttnesses. 
 
 -4-- — 
 
 83 ftOD has not so poised the Rock of 
 ^ Ages that the higher or lower 
 criticism, with pickax or crowbar dig- 
 ging out a chronological inaccuracy 
 here or prying oflf a historical contra- 
 diction there, is going to upset it. 
 The critic may be all right, and the 
 crowbar may be all right; but the 
 Rock of Ages is all right too, and it 
 will stand forever. 
 
 — Professor ly. J. Evans. 
 Biblical Scholarship and Inspiration, 
 p. 70 
 
 84 ^^E yardstick, if used for micro- 
 
 ■ scopic measurements, would fail; 
 but as a yardstick it is infallible. So 
 with the Bible. Its infallibility is 
 not microscopic, infinitesimal infalli- 
 bility respecting all particular things 
 in the heavens above and the earth 
 beneath, or in the waters under the 
 earth. —/did., p. 82,1. 
 
 85 IS it not the claim and glory of the 
 ' Gospel story that it combines the 
 dignity and authority of a heavenly 
 
a Cloub of tPtlnesses, 43 
 
 •♦' 
 
 recital with the piquant frankness of 
 the conversational fireside tale? 
 
 —/did. 
 
 86 Which book has done the most for 
 
 liberty, justice, progress? Which 
 book has most persistently branded, 
 defied, and theatened every form of 
 tyranny? Which book has spoken 
 with the truest pathos to the wounded 
 and sorrowing heart? The test is 
 fair ; the words and works are before 
 you — judge them. 
 1830 Ecce Deics: Jose;ph Parker. 
 
 87 Y^UNG man, my advice to you is, 
 
 that you cultivate an acquaint- 
 ance with, and a firm belief in, the 
 Holy Scriptures. This is your cer- 
 tain interest. 
 
 1 706-1 790. — Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 88 /I BIBLE and a newspaper in every 
 
 house, a good school in every dis- 
 trict — all studied and appreciated as 
 they merit — are the principal support 
 of virtue, morality, and civil liberty. 
 
 —Ibid. 
 
44 ^ Cloub of XDttnesses* 
 
 89"^ HE Scriptures teach us the best 
 ■ way of living, the noblest way of 
 suffering, and the most comfortable 
 way of dying. — ^John Fi^aveji,. 
 
 1 630-1 69 1. 
 
 90 U OW precious is the Book divine, 
 * " By inspiration given ! 
 Bright as a lamp its doctrines shine, 
 To guide our souls to heaven. 
 1 739-1 8 1 9. — ^JoHN Fawcett. 
 
 91 1 WOUI^D not now exchange for any 
 ■ amount of money the acquaintance 
 with the Bible that was drummed into 
 me when a boy. — Eugene Field. 
 1850- 1895. 
 
 9^^ HE uncommon beauty and mar- 
 ■ velous English of the Protestant 
 Bible — it lives on the ear like music 
 that never can be forgotten; like the 
 sound of choice bells which the con- 
 vert hardly knows how to forego. 
 Its felicities often seem to be things 
 rather than mere words. It is part of 
 
CI <£lonb of VOxtmsszs, 45 
 
 the national mind, and the anchor of 
 national seriousness. 
 
 — Fre;dkrick W11.1.1AM Fabe;r. 
 1814-1863, 
 
 93 The peculiar genius, if such a word 
 
 ■ may be permitted, which breathes 
 through it [the authorized version]; 
 the mingled tenderness and majesty; 
 the Saxon simplicity, the preternatural 
 grandeur, unequaled, unapproached 
 in the attempted improvements of 
 modern scholars, — all are here, and 
 bear the impress of the mind of one 
 man, and that man William Tyndale. 
 — Jameis Anthony Froud^. 
 T818-1894. 
 
 94 TThK Bible — a stream, where alike 
 
 the elephant may swim and the 
 lamb may wade. 
 
 — Pope; Gregory I: The Great. 
 544-604. 
 
 95 QTHKR books, after shining their 
 ^^ season, may perish in flames 
 fiercer than those which consumed 
 the Alexandrian library. This, in 
 
46 Ct Cloub of XPttnesses* 
 
 essence, must remain pure as gold and 
 unconsumable as asbestos. 
 
 1813-1878. — Ge;orge; G11.F11.1.AN. 
 
 961 T has been subjected, along with 
 
 ■ many others books, to the fire of 
 the keenest investigation — a fire 
 which has contemptuously burned up 
 the cosmogony of the Shaster, the 
 absurd fables of the Koran; nay, the 
 husbandry of the Georgics, the his- 
 torical truth of lyivy, the artistic 
 merit of many a popular poem, the au- 
 thority of many a book of philosophy 
 and science. And yet there this art- 
 less, loosely-piled book lies unhurt, 
 untouched, with not one page singed ; 
 and not even the smell of fire has 
 passed upon it. — Ibid, 
 
 97 1 BKI.IKVK in God, and adore him. 
 
 ■ I have a firm belief in the history 
 contained in the Old and New Testa- 
 ments and in the regeneration of the 
 human race by the sacrifice of Jesus 
 Christ. I bow before the mysteries 
 of the Bible and the gospel, and I 
 hold myself aloof from scientific 
 
a (Eloub of IDitnesses, 47 
 
 discussion and solutions by which 
 men have attempted to explain them. 
 — Francois Pierre; Guili^aume; 
 1 787-1874. GuizoT. 
 
 981-1 OlyD fast to the Bible as the sheet 
 * * anchor to your liberties, write its 
 precepts in your hearts, and practice 
 them in your lives. To the influence 
 of this Book we are indebted for all 
 progress made in our true civilization, 
 and to this we must look as our guide 
 in the future. — U. S. Grant, 
 
 1822-1885. i8th President U. S. 
 
 99T HIS is the cannon (the Bible) that 
 ■ will make Italy free. 
 
 1 807-1 882. ^Giuseppe Garibai^di. 
 
 I001¥J ;g all require to feed in the pas- 
 ^ tures and to drink at the wells of 
 Holy Scripture. 
 
 — W1I.I.IAM EWART G1.ADSTONE;. 
 
 loi I F I am asked what is the remedy 
 ' for the deeper sorrows of the hu- 
 man heart — what a man should chiefly 
 
48 a (Eloub of IPitnesscs, 
 
 look to in his progress through life 
 as the power that is to sustain him 
 under trials and enable him man- 
 fully to confront his afflictions — I 
 must point to something which in a 
 well-known hymn is called ''The old, 
 old story," told of an old, old Book, 
 and taught with an old, old teaching, 
 which is the greatest and best gift 
 ever given to mankind. — /did. 
 
 102 1 1^ is impossible to mentally or so- 
 
 ■ cially enslave a Bible-reading peo- 
 ple. The principles of the Bible are 
 the ground-work of human freedom. 
 
 1811-1872. — Horace: Greeley. 
 
 ^<^3 MO criticism will be able to perplex 
 
 ■ the confidence I have entertained 
 in a writing whose contents have 
 stirred up and given life to my energy 
 by its own. 
 
 — ^JoHANN Wolfgang von Goethe. 
 1749-1833. 
 
 104 |T is a belief in the Bible, the fruits 
 
 ■ of deep meditation, which has 
 served me as the guide of my moral 
 
<X Cloub of XDitnesses. 49 
 
 and literary life. I have found it a 
 capital safely invested, and richly 
 productive of interest. — /did. 
 
 105 I KSTKBM the Gospels to be thor- 
 ' oughly genuine, for there shines 
 forth from them the reflected splendor 
 of a sublimity proceeding from the 
 person of Jesus Christ of so divine a 
 kind as only the divine could have 
 manifested upon earth. — /did. 
 
 loSnr'HE farther the ages advance in 
 ■ cultivation, the more can the Bi- 
 ble be used, partly as the foundation, 
 partly as the means of education, not, 
 of course, by superficial, but by really 
 wise men. — /did. 
 
 107 I T is a sacred duty to hear and de- 
 ■ voutly read the Word of God. 
 — Cardinal Gibbons, 
 In sermon in Cathedral at Baltimore. 
 1834— 
 
 108 WHATEVER changes we may ex- 
 ^ pect to be introduced by new 
 discoveries, in our present view of 
 4 
 
50 (X (£Ioub of XDitnesses* 
 
 the universe and the globe the prom- 
 inent traits of this vast picture will 
 remain. And these only are traced 
 out in this admirable account of Gen- 
 esis. These outlines were sufficient 
 for the moral purposes of the book; 
 the scientific details are for us pa- 
 tiently to investigate. They were, 
 no doubt, unknown to Moses, as the 
 details of the life and of the work of 
 the Savior were unknown to the 
 great prophets who announced his 
 coming, and traced out with master 
 hand his character and objects, cen- 
 turies before his appearance on earth. 
 But the same divine hand which 
 lifted up before the eyes of Daniel 
 and of Isaiah the veil which covered 
 the tableau of the time to come, un- 
 veiled before the eyes of the author 
 of Genesis the earliest ages of crea- 
 tion. And Moses was the prophet 
 of the past, as Daniel and Isaiah and 
 many others were the prophets of the 
 future. — Arnold He;nry Guyot. 
 I 807-1 884. 
 
CI Cloub of XDttnesses. 51 
 
 109 To say that the Hebrew literature 
 is the best literature that the 
 world has ever produced is to say very 
 little. It is separated widely from 
 all other sacred writings. Its con- 
 structive ideas are as far above those 
 of the other books of religion as the 
 heavens are above the earth. I pity 
 the man who has had the Bible in 
 his hand from his infancy, and who 
 has learned in his maturer years some- 
 thing of the literature of the other re- 
 ligions, but who now needs to have 
 this statement verified. 
 
 — Washington Gladden, 
 "Who Wrote the Bible?" p. 15. 
 
 no ttlBLKS laid open — millions of sur- 
 prises! George Herbert. 
 
 1593-1632. 
 
 II 
 
 I TThIS Book of stars lights to eter- 
 nal bliss. — Ibid. 
 
 112 The Bible is common sense in- 
 spired. — R. HowELi^. 
 
52 a Cloub of IDxtnesses. 
 
 113 CYSTKMATIC study of the Sacred 
 ^^ Scriptures is essential to the pro- 
 motion of a spiritual life. 
 
 1 802- 1 887. — Mark Hopkins. 
 
 "4 pvKRY leaf is a spacious plain, 
 every line a flowing brook, every 
 period a lofty mountain. 
 
 1 7 14-1758. — James Hervey. 
 
 115 The Bible is the most sensible book 
 in the world. The maiden does 
 not find her chapter in the Bible from 
 which she passes away when she comes 
 among mothers, to find her new sec- 
 tion ready for her; but the whole Bi- 
 ble is the common heritage of mother 
 and maiden. — ^John Hali*. 
 
 1829— 
 
 116 The Word of God is solid; it will 
 
 stand a thousand readings; and 
 
 the man who has gone over it the 
 
 most frequently and carefully is the 
 
 surest of finding new wonders there. 
 
 1814-1867. — ^James Hamilton. 
 
d (£Ioub of IDitnesses, 53 
 ^ 
 
 1^7 In preparing a guide to immortality, 
 infinite wisdom gave not a diction- 
 ary nor a grammar, but a Bible — a 
 Book which, in trying to catch the 
 heart of man, should captivate his 
 taste, and which, in transforming his 
 affections, should also expand his in- 
 tellect, —/did. " 
 
 ii8"^HE most illiterate Christian, if he 
 can but read his English Bible, 
 will not only attain all that practical 
 knowledge which is essential to sal- 
 vation, but, by God's blessing, he will 
 become learned in everything relating 
 to his religion. 
 
 •- SAMUEIy HORSI.EY. 
 
 1 733-1806. 
 
 119 ^OME of the pleasantest recollec- 
 ^^ tions of my childhood are con- 
 nected with the voluntary study of 
 an ancient Bible which belonged to 
 my grandmother. I enumerate, as 
 they issue, the childish impressions 
 which come crowding out of the 
 pigeon-holes in my brain, in which 
 
54 ^ <Llonb of XDttnesses, 
 .^ — - 
 
 they have lain almost undisturbed 
 for forty years. 
 
 — Thomas Henry Huxley. 
 1825— 
 
 120 1 HAVE always been strongly in 
 ■ favor of secular education, in the 
 sense of education without theology; 
 but I must confess I have been no 
 less seriously perplexed to know by 
 what practical measures the religious 
 feeling, which is the essential basis 
 of conduct, was to be kept up, in the 
 present utterly chaotic state of opin- 
 ion on these matters, without the use 
 of the Bible. The pagan moralists 
 lack life and color ; and even the no- 
 ble stoic, Marcus Antoninus, is too 
 high and refined for an ordinary child. 
 Take the Bible as a whole ; make the 
 severest deductions which fair criti- 
 cism can dictate, and there still re- 
 mains in this old literature a vast re- 
 siduum of moral beauty and grandeur. 
 By the study of what other book 
 could children be so much human- 
 ized ? If Bible-reading is not accom- 
 panied by constraint and solemnity, 
 
d dloub of IDttnesse?. 55 
 
 I do not believe there is anything in 
 which children take more pleasure. 
 — Ibid., in public address. 
 
 ^21 I HOLD to the Bible as a great edu- 
 ■ cator. It is an unquestioned fact 
 that for the last three centuries this 
 Book has been woven into all that is 
 best and noblest in English literature 
 and history. — Ibid. 
 
 122 
 
 FOR fifty years I have been study- 
 ing the Bible with all my might, 
 digging into it and searching it 
 through and through, and it is al- 
 ways fresh. I seem still to be only 
 scratching the surface. 
 
 1781-1865. Charles J. Hoare, 
 
 Archdeacon of Surry. 
 
 I23llf« H are astonished to find in a lyr- 
 
 ■■ ical poem, so limited in compass, 
 the whole universe— the heavens and 
 the earth — sketched with a few bold 
 touches. 
 — Baron William von Humboldt, 
 1 767-1 835. On Psalm civ. 
 
56 a Cloub of IDttnesses, 
 •♦< 
 
 124/1 LL that has been done to weaken 
 the foundation of an implicit faith 
 in the Bible, as a whole, has been at 
 the expense of the sense of religious 
 obligation, and at the cost of human 
 happiness. — J. G. Holland. 
 
 1819-1881. 
 
 ^25l¥#B believe that the Scriptures of 
 the Old and New Testaments 
 form a collection of laws never to be 
 repealed; of infallible judgments 
 never to be reversed ; of answers to the 
 most momentous inquiries man can 
 propose, answers never to be recalled; 
 all the information which heaven 
 deems necessary for earth — so sufl&- 
 cient that no serious doubts can ever 
 be started, no important question ever 
 arise on any moral subject, which it 
 has not anticipated, and to which it 
 does not reply. — John Harris. 
 
 1667-1719. 
 
 126 I SEE that the Bible fits into every 
 
 fold and crevice of the human 
 
 heart. I am a man; and I believe 
 
d (Lloub of IDttncsses, 57 
 ,^ 
 
 that this is God's Book, because it 
 is man's Book. — He;nry Hallam. 
 1777-1859. 
 
 127 ■INHERE is scarcely any part of 
 
 knowledge worthy of the mind 
 of man but from Scripture it may 
 have some direction and light. 
 1553-1600. — Richard Hooker. 
 
 128 What a Book ! Vast and wide as 
 
 the world, rooted in the abysses 
 of Creation, and towering up behind 
 the blue secrets of heaven. Sunrise 
 and sunset, promise and fulfillment, 
 birth and death, the whole drama of 
 humanity, all in this Book ! 
 
 1 797-1847. — Heinrich Heine. 
 
 129 I ATTRIBUTE my illumination en- 
 
 tirely and simply to the reading of 
 a book. Yes, and it is an old, homely 
 book, modest as nature, also as nat- 
 ural as she herself — a book which has 
 a work-a-day and unassuming look, 
 like the sun which warms us, like the 
 bread which nourishes us — a book 
 which looks at us as cordially and 
 
58 CI (Eloub of IPttnesses. 
 
 blessingly as the old grandmother 
 who daily reads in it with her dear 
 trembling lips, and with her specta- 
 cles on her nose; and this book is 
 called shortly the book, the bible. 
 With right is this named the Holy 
 Scripture ; he who has lost his God 
 can find him again in this book, and 
 he who has never known him is here 
 struck by the breath of the Divine 
 Word. —Ibid. 
 
 ^30 1 N a few chosen sentences we acquire 
 ■ more accurate knowledge of the 
 affairs of Egypt, Tyre, Syria, As- 
 syria, Babylon, and other neigh- 
 boring nations than had been pre- 
 served to us in all the other remains 
 of antiq^uity up to the recent discov- 
 eries in hieroglyphical and cuneiform 
 monuments. 
 
 — Arthur Hervey, 
 Smith B. Die. Vol. Ill, p. 1561, Am. Ed. 
 
 13^ I F an uninterested spectator, after a 
 i careful perusal of the New Testa- 
 ment, were asked what he conceived 
 to be its distinguishing characteristic, 
 
Ct (£Ioub of IPttnesses, 59 
 4. — » 
 
 he would reply without hesitation, 
 "That wonderful spirit of philan- 
 thropy by which it is distinguished." 
 It is a perpetual commentary on that 
 eternal aphorism, *'God is love." 
 1 764-1 83 1. — Robert Hali,. 
 
 132 /■ lyL human discoveries seem to be 
 n made only for the purpose of 
 confirming more and more strongly 
 the truths contained in the Holy 
 Scriptures. 
 
 — John Frederick Wiluam 
 Herschel. 
 1792-1871. 
 
 133 1 N those fragments, there is the tri- 
 ■ umph of the great Personality of 
 all time. Lord of Life, we call him 
 wisely. Because the Bible incloses 
 the Four Gospels, explains, illus- 
 trates, leads down to them and leads 
 back to them ; because, so leading, it 
 shows always that life is always mas- 
 ter, and that forms obey— forms, 
 methods, law, fashion, and all the 
 outside — that these obey and must 
 obey ; because the Bible is the Book 
 
6o a (Lloub of IDttnesses, 
 
 of Life, and the Book of the Lord of 
 Life — because of this it keeps its 
 hold upon the world. 
 
 1822 — — Edward Everett Hale. 
 
 134QIVK to the people who toil and 
 ^ suffer, for whom this world is 
 hard and bad, the belief that there is 
 a better made for them ; scatter the 
 gospel among the villages, a Bible 
 for every cottage. 
 
 1 802- 1 885. — ^Victor Marie Hugo. 
 
 135 y HEY have the Bible.— John Jay, 
 
 ■ First Chief Justice U. S., when 
 asked if he had any farewell address 
 to leave his children. 
 
 1745-1829. 
 
 136 ^HAT Book is the rock on which 
 
 ■ the Republic stands. 
 
 — Andrew Jackson, 
 1 767-1 845. 7th President U. S. 
 
 137 I HAVE always said, and always 
 ■ will say, that the studious perusal 
 of the Sacred Volume will make bet- 
 ter citizens, better fathers, and better 
 husbands. — Thomas Jeeferson, 
 
 1743-1826. 3d President U. S. 
 
<X Cloub of XDxtmsszs. 6i 
 
 *38 1 HAVE carefully and regularly pe- 
 ■ rused the Holy Scriptures, and am 
 of opinion that the volume, inde- 
 pendently of its Divine origin, con- 
 tains more sublimity, purer morality, 
 more important history, and finer 
 strains, both of poetry and elo- 
 quence, than could be collected 
 within the same compass from all 
 other books that were ever composed 
 in any age or in any idiom. 
 . 1 746-1 798. — W. Jones. 
 
 i39rjOD in tender indulgence to our 
 ^ different dispositions has strewed 
 the Bible with flowers, dignified it 
 with wonders, and enriched it with 
 delight. — F. Joubert. 
 
 1689-1763. 
 
 140 YOUNG man, attend to the voice 
 ■ of one who has possessed a cer- 
 tain degree of fame, and who will 
 shortly appear before his Maker. Read 
 the Bible every day of your life. 
 1 709-1 784. —Samuel Johnson, 
 In conversation. 
 
62 (X Cloub of XPttnesses. 
 
 HI Q[TIKS fall, kingdoms come to 
 nothing, empires fade away as 
 smoke. Where is Numa, Minos, 
 lyycurgus? Where are their books, 
 and what is become of their laws ? 
 But that this Book no tyrant should 
 have been able to consume, no tradi- 
 tion to choke, no heretic maliciously 
 to corrupt; that it should stand unto 
 this day, amid the wreck of all that 
 is human, without the alteration of 
 one sentence so as to change the doc- 
 trine taught therein, — surely there is 
 a very singular providence claiming 
 our attention in a most remarkable 
 manner. — John Jewell, 
 
 1 522-1 57 1. Bishop of Salisbury, 
 
 142 lOOK in the Holy Scriptures for 
 
 truth, not for eloquence, and read 
 
 them with that mind wherewith they 
 
 were written — for thine everlasting 
 
 profit, and not for a polished phrase. 
 
 1 380-1 47 1. — Thomas a Kempis. 
 
 143 The general diflfusion of the Bible 
 
 is the most effectual way to civil- 
 ize and humanize mankind , to purify 
 
a Cloub of XDitnesses. 63 
 ^' 
 
 and exalt tiie general system of pub- 
 lic morals ; to give efficacy to the just 
 precepts of international and munic- 
 ipal law; to enforce the observance of 
 prudence, temperance, justice, and 
 fortitude ; to improve all the relations 
 of social and domestic life. 
 1 763-1847. —James Kent, 
 
 Chancellor of N. Y. 
 
 X44 The Bible of the Christian is, with- 
 out exception, the most remark- 
 able work now in existence. In the 
 libraries of the learned are frequently 
 seen books of an extraordinary antiq- 
 uity, and curious and interesting from 
 the nature of their contents; but none 
 approach the Bible, taken in its com- 
 plete sense, in point of age, while cer- 
 tainly no production whatever has 
 any pretensions to rival it in dignity 
 of composition or the important na- 
 ture of the subjects treated of in its 
 pages. —John Kitto. 
 
 1804-1854. 
 
64 Ct Cloub of IDttnesses. 
 
 ^45 IN regard to the great Book I have 
 ' only to say, it is the best book God 
 has given to man. All the good from 
 the Savior of the world is communi- 
 cated in this Book. 
 
 1 809-1 865. — Abbraham Lincoln, 
 i6th President U. S. (to the colored men 
 of Baltimore, who presented him with 
 a Bible, September 14, 1864). 
 
 146 ^^HB Bible is a book in comparison 
 1 with which all others in my eyes 
 are of minor importance, and which 
 in all my perplexities and distresses 
 has never failed to give me light and 
 strength. 
 
 — Robert E. I/EE. 
 1 807-1 870. 
 
 147^ HE Bible is indeed the most in- 
 1 teresting book in the world — to 
 the poet, to the historian, to the phi- 
 losopher, to the student of human na- 
 ture, to the lover of the picturesque 
 and of the marvelous, to the archaeol- 
 ogist, to the man of letters, to the 
 man of afiairs. To each of these it 
 
CI (£(ou6 of IDitnesses. 65 
 ^ 
 
 has much to say that he will find no- 
 where else. 
 
 — Henry Parry Liddon. 
 Sermon : " Supreme Value of the Scrip- 
 tures," preached in St. Paul's. 
 1829-1890. 
 
 148 'I^HK best literature of thirty cen- 
 ■ turies is to be found in the Bible. 
 Warriors have fought for it; mar- 
 tyrs have died for it. The sacred 
 books of the Christian, Mohamme- 
 dan, and the works of the philos- 
 ophers have stolen its brightest gems. 
 It fired the eloquence of an Akiba 
 and a Chrysostom, "upon whose lips 
 the bees settled and left their honey 
 there." It suggested the divine 
 poems of Halevi, Racine, and Milton. 
 It awoke the intrepid genius of Maim- 
 onides, Spinoza, and Mendelssohn. It 
 inspired the pictures of Raphael, the 
 sculptures of Angelo, the music of 
 Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Handel. 
 This Book has destroyed tyranny. 
 — Rabbi J. Leonard L,evy. 
 
66 (X Cloub of tPttnesses. 
 •♦« 
 
 ^49 I AM heartily glad to witness your 
 veneration for a Book which, to 
 say nothing of its holiness or author- 
 ity, contains more specimens of genius 
 and taste than any other volume in 
 existence. 
 
 — ^Walter Savage I^andor. 
 1775-1864. 
 
 150 ^HB Bible is the Book of life, writ- 
 ten for the instruction and edifi- 
 cation of all ages and nations. No 
 man who has felt its divine beauty 
 and power would exchange this one 
 volume for all the literature of the 
 world. — ^JoHANN Peter Lange. 
 
 I 802-1 884. 
 
 ^51 In morality there are books enough 
 written, both by ancient and modern 
 philosophers ; but the morality of the 
 Gospel doth so exceed them all, that 
 to give a man a full knowledge of 
 true morality I shall send him to no 
 other book than the New Testament. 
 1 632-1 704. — John Locke. 
 
Ct (£Iou6 of IPttnesses. 67 
 — — -*' 
 
 ^52 r^AN can weary himself in any- 
 secular affair, but diligently to 
 search the Scripture is to him tedious 
 and burdensome. Few covet to be 
 mighty in the Scriptures, though con- 
 vinced their great concern is en- 
 veloped in them. — /did. 
 
 153 I CAN not attempt to describe this 
 moral power of Holy Scripture in 
 language. I dare not hope to add 
 anything to the image of the text 
 (Hebrews iv, 12, 13). The joints and 
 the marrow of the human soul and 
 spirit — the most complex interdepend- 
 encies of passion and thought and 
 purpose and action, and the vital cen- 
 ter and home of the moral life — both 
 these the Word of God probes and 
 severs and lays bare. It is just this 
 dissecting power, this keen penetra- 
 tion of the Scriptural record, which 
 is its most wonderful moral feature. 
 I have read in other books many wise 
 and beautiful reflections on the rela- 
 tions of God and man, on life and 
 death, on time and eternity; many 
 lofty precepts and salutary rules for 
 
68 CX Cloub of IPitnesses, 
 >*• 
 
 the guidance of human conduct — much 
 of all kinds which instructs, improves, 
 elevates. I have read such with deep 
 thankfulness; and I believe that all 
 light, whatever it may be, comes from 
 the great Father of lights. But in no 
 other book, unless its inspiration has 
 been derived from this Book, do I 
 find the same delicate discrimination 
 between the real and the seeming in 
 things moral, the same faculty of 
 piercing through the crust of outward 
 conduct, and revealing the hidden 
 springs of action, of stripping off all 
 conventional disguises, of separating 
 mixed motives, with their contradic- 
 tory elements of good and evil. This 
 analyzing, dissecting moral power is 
 the logical attribute of the Written 
 Word. 
 
 — Joseph Barber I^ightfoot, 
 Bishop of Durham, in Cambridge Ser- 
 1 828-1 889. mens. 
 
 154 IpNGDOMS may be moved, thrones 
 *^ pass away, generations go down 
 to the valley of death, customs change, 
 languages alter, but so long as the 
 
a Cloub of XPitnesses. 69 
 
 earth endureth, the morality, doc- 
 trines, and precepts of the Bible 
 shall continue among men. In vain 
 is the cry against it, bootless the toil 
 to make it obsolete, rash and foolish 
 the attempt to turn it into ridicule ; 
 it is surrounded by a wall of fire, 
 watched over by that eye which 
 flashes destruction on its foes. 
 
 — William I^eask, 
 "Beauties of the Bible," p. 303. Par- 
 tridge & Co., London, 2d Ed. 
 
 1550 UT the child is not allowed to re- 
 ■^ ject its primer because the con- 
 junction of letters into words, and 
 words into sentences, is a mystery; 
 and we are not in the habit of tossing 
 away a rose in disdain because we are 
 ignorant concerning the mysteries of 
 its life, its velvet texture, its colors, 
 and its delicious fragrance; on the 
 contrary, these all give it a sort of 
 saored attraction, as if it must have 
 bloomed originally in the garden of 
 the Lord. So the veiled mysteries of 
 the Bible are interwoven with its tex- 
 
70 (X (Eloub of tPitnesses. 
 
 ture, and impart to it a sacred beauty, 
 of which without them it would have 
 been destitute. — /did., p. 17. 
 
 156 "^HE astonishing variety of subjects 
 ■ in the Bible may be thus con- 
 densed; History, like a picture, re- 
 producing an extensive landscape ; bi- 
 ography, immortalizing certain minds 
 and retaining their duplicates upon 
 the earth for the imitation or warn- 
 ing of subsequent generations ; proph- 
 ecy, anticipating the world's future; 
 doctrines, which are clustered in 
 the moral firmament, deep as the 
 nature of Deity and resplendent with 
 the luster of his brightness; precepts, 
 which find their way direct to the 
 heart of man; denunciations, which 
 impress the soul with awful feelings ; 
 appeals, which demonstrate the Di- 
 vine solicitude ; promises, which pour 
 the warm love of a Father's heart 
 upon burdened souls; epistles, in 
 which the thoughts of one man 
 are familiarly given to another: 
 and poetry, in which the hallelu- 
 jahs of heaven are brought down to 
 
CI Cloub of IDitnesses. 71 
 
 earth, and the grand future of the 
 Church and the world is sung in 
 strains of rapture and bursts of mag- 
 nificent imagery, such as never yet 
 issued from uninspired pen. 
 
 —Ibid., p. 7. 
 
 I57»|*HBRK are no songs comparable 
 I to the songs of Zion, no orations 
 equal to those of the prophets, and 
 no politics like those which the Scrip- 
 tures teach. — John Mii^ton. 
 1 608- 1 675. 
 
 158 I T is not hard for any man who hath 
 I a Bible in his hand to borrow good 
 words and holy sayings in abundance. 
 
 —Ibid. 
 
 159 1 VF HOHVKR would acquire a knowl- 
 W edge of pure English must study 
 King James's version of the Scrip- 
 tures. 
 — Thomas Babington : 
 
 1800-1859. (lyORD MACAUIyAY.) 
 
72 0, Cloub of IDttnesses. 
 
 -4 
 
 i6o /If the time when the odious style 
 ** which deforms the writings of 
 Hall and of Lord Bacon was almost 
 universal, had appeared that stupen- 
 dous work, the English Bible, a Book 
 which, if everything else in our lan- 
 guage should perish, would alone 
 suffice to show the whole extent of 
 its beauty and power. — /dzd. 
 
 i6i |T is certain, certain on the confes. 
 
 sion of its enemies, that a pure and 
 high morality is to be gathered only 
 from the pages of the Bible. 
 
 1798-187 1. — Henry Melville;, 
 Chaplain-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria. 
 
 i62l¥#B are persuaded that there is no 
 
 book by the perusal of which the 
 
 mind is so much strengthened and so 
 
 much enlarged as it is by the perusal 
 
 of the Bible. —/did. 
 
 163 The Bible furnishes the only fitting 
 ■ vehicle to express the thoughts 
 that overwhelm us when contemplat- 
 ing the stellar universe. 
 1 809-1 862. — O. M. Mitchell. 
 
Ct Cloub of IDitncsses. 73 
 ^, 
 
 164^^ HE Bible makes everything speak 
 ■ for God. God, in these last days, 
 has made everything speak for the 
 Bible. Even the stone has cried 
 out of the wall, and the beam out 
 of the timber has answered it, "that 
 prophecy came not in old time by the 
 will of man, but holy men of God 
 spake as they were moved by the 
 Holy Ghost." 
 
 — Herbert W. Morris, 
 " Testimony of the Ages," p. 5. 
 
 i65lVf HEN you write to me, tell me 
 ^ the meanings of Scripture; one 
 gem from that ocean is worth all the 
 pebbles of earthly streams. 
 
 — Robert Murray McCheyne. 
 181 3-1843. 
 
 166 1 HAVE always found in my sci- 
 * entific studies that, when I could 
 get the Bible to say anything upon 
 the subject, it afforded me a firm plat- 
 form to stand upon, and a round in 
 the ladder by which I could safely 
 ascend. 
 — Lieut. Matthew Fontaine Maury. 
 1806-1873. 
 
74 <^ (Lloub of XPttnesses. 
 
 i67S|»HE Bible is the Word of God— 
 I with all the peculiarities of man 
 and all the authority of God. 
 
 Professor J. G. Murphy. 
 
 1 68 w^HE vigor of our spiritual life will 
 E be in exact proportion to the 
 place held by the Word in our life and 
 thoughts. I can solemnly state this 
 from the experience of fifty-four 
 years. The first three years after con- 
 version I neglected, comparatively, 
 the Word of God. Since the time 
 I began to search it diligently the 
 blessing has been wonderful, I have 
 read since then the Bible through one 
 hundred times, and each time with in- 
 creasing delight. When I begin it 
 afresh, it always seems like a new 
 book to me. Since July, 1820, I can 
 not tell you how great has been the 
 blessing from consecutive, diligent, 
 daily study. I look upon it as a lost 
 day when I have not had a good time 
 over the Word of God. 
 1805 — — Ge;orge: Muller. 
 
(X CIou6 of IDttnesses, 75 
 .+. 
 
 <69 PRECISELY so has it been with 
 * these latent scientific prophecies 
 or anticipations of the Word of God, 
 of which we have been vSpeaking, 
 which seem to have been so deeply 
 imbedded in the sacred text that the 
 world has not seen them hitherto, nor, 
 indeed, could see them now, were it 
 not that our advancing science is re- 
 vealing them. The geologic prophe- 
 cies, though they might have been 
 read, could not be understood till 
 the fullness of the time had come. 
 And it is only as the fullness of the 
 time comes, in the brighter light of 
 increasing scientific knowledge, that 
 these grand old oracles of the Bible, so 
 apparently simple, but so marvelously 
 pregnant with meaning, stand forth 
 at once cleared of all erroneous hu- 
 man glosses, and vindicated as the in- 
 spired testimonies of Jehovah. 
 1802-1856. — Hugh Miller. 
 
 170 INDEED, it is only in the Bible that 
 ■ we find a large, free, and unpreju- 
 diced history, for the reason that it 
 
76 (X (Eloub of XPitnesses* 
 
 is taught incidentally. When we read 
 Hume, we read Toryism ; or Macaulay, 
 Whiggism; and thus nearly all his- 
 tory is shot through with human prej- 
 udice, and wears the limitations of a 
 single mind. But the Bible simply re- 
 flects the ages; they shine through 
 its pages by their own light. And, 
 above all, it gives us the secret of his- 
 tory ; it tells us why and for what end 
 the nations have existed, and shows 
 us whither they are tending. And 
 this is what a true student of history 
 desires to learn — not how the forces 
 were marshaled at Waterloo, but by 
 what force and toward what goal hu- 
 manity is moving. 
 
 — Theodore T. Hunger, 
 1830 — In the Christian Union. 
 
 171 JJ ND will this old Bible of King 
 ■^ James's version continue to be 
 held in highest reverence? Speaking 
 from a literary point of view, which is 
 our standpoint to-day, there can be no 
 doubt that it will ; nor is there good 
 reason to believe that, on literary 
 
(X <£loub of IDitnesses. 77 
 
 lines, any other will ever supplant it. 
 There may be versions that will be 
 truer to the Greek; there may be 
 versions that will be far truer to the 
 Hebrew; there may be versions that 
 will mend its science, that will mend 
 its archaeology, and will mend its his- 
 tory; but never one, I think, which, 
 as a whole, will greatly mend that 
 orderly and musical and forceful flow 
 of language springing from early 
 English sources, chastened by Eliza- 
 bethan culture and flowing out, 
 freighted with Christian doctrine, 
 over all lands where Saxon speech is 
 uttered. Nor in saying this do I yield 
 a jot to any one in respect for that 
 modern scholarship which has shown 
 bad renderings from the Greek, and 
 possibly far worse ones from the He- 
 brew. No one, it is reasonably to be 
 presumed, can safely interpret doc- 
 trines of the Bible without the aid of 
 this scholarship and of the "higher 
 criticism;" and no one will be 
 henceforth fully trusted in such in- 
 terpretation who is ignorant of, or 
 who scorns, the recent revisions. 
 
78 a (£Ioub of IDttnesses. 
 
 And yet the old book, by reason of 
 its strong, sweet, literary quality, 
 will keep its hold on most hearts and 
 minds. — Donald G. MitchkIvI., 
 
 (Ik Marvel,) " In English Lands, Let- 
 ters and Kings." 
 
 1822— 
 
 ^72 I FIND more sure marks of authen- 
 ticity in the Bible than in any pro- 
 fane history whatever. 
 
 1642-1 727. — Isaac Newton. 
 
 ^73 VU'B account the Scriptures of God 
 to be the most sublime philos- 
 ophy. — /did. 
 
 174THK Bible begins gloriously with 
 paradise, the symbol ol youth, 
 and ends with the everlasting king- 
 dom, with the holy city. The history 
 of every man should be a Bible. 
 
 — NOVALIS. 
 
 Frederick von Hardenberg. 
 1772-1801. 
 
Ct €loub of IDttnesses, 79 
 ^ 
 
 175 I IKK the needle to the north pole, 
 the Bible points to heaven. 
 
 — R. B. NicHoi.. 
 
 176 Men can not be well educated 
 without the Bible. It ought, 
 therefore, to hold the chief place in 
 every situation of learning through- 
 out Christendom; and I do not know 
 of a higher service that could be ren- 
 dered to this Republic than the bring- 
 ing about of this desired result. 
 
 1 773-1 866. — BUPHLALET NOTT. 
 
 177 /llyL systems of morality are fine. 
 The gospel alone has exhibited 
 a complete assemblage of the prin- 
 ciples of morality divested of all ab- 
 surdity. — Napoleon I. 
 1768-1821. 
 
 i78ttoOK unique! Who but God 
 could produce that idea of per- 
 fection, equally exclusive and orig- 
 inal ? — fdzii. 
 
8o <X Cloub of IDttnesses, 
 
 179 T*HE Bible contains a complete se- 
 * ries of facts, and of historical 
 men, to explain time and eternity, 
 such as no other religion has to offer. 
 Everything in it is grand and worthy 
 of God. Even the impious them- 
 selves have never dared to deny the 
 sublimity of the Gospel, which in- 
 spires them with a sort of compulsory 
 veneration. — /6td. 
 
 180 ^P'HK Gospel is not merely a book, 
 ■ it is a living power — a Book sur- 
 passing all others. I never omit 
 to read it, and every da}^ with the 
 same pleasure. Nowhere is to be 
 found such a series of beautiful ideas 
 and admirable moral maxims, which 
 pass before us like the battalions of 
 a celestial army. The soul can never 
 go astray with this Book for its guide. 
 
 —Ibid. 
 
 % 
 
 ^^^ nEFORE the literature of Greece 
 
 had been thought of, song and 
 
 story and the noblest inspirations of 
 
 philosophy and poetry had come into 
 
(X (Lloub of IDttnesses. 8i 
 
 being upon the little crests of Zion 
 and Moriah; the Temple had been 
 there which has never faded, though 
 destroyed, burned, broken down a 
 dozen times, swept far from sight and 
 knowledge, from the memory and 
 imagination of men ; and the records 
 of humanity had begun to be put 
 forth in full splendor of character and 
 impulse and feeling, in chronicles 
 which are as fresh and living now as 
 when they were the transcripts of 
 the life of three thousand years ago. 
 We go no farther than the heroic age 
 of Hebrew genius when we name 
 this date; beyond, in the midst of 
 the ages, before even ancient Egypt 
 had begun to engrave her rigid an- 
 nals upon stone, the record goes 
 back, not in hieroglyphics, but in his- 
 tories of living men. A learned sect 
 studies and scrutinizes with painful 
 confusion of images what a great 
 Rameses may or may not have done ; 
 but the child of to-day wants no bet- 
 ter entertainment than that story of 
 Joseph and his brethren, which is told 
 in every language, and never fails to 
 6 
 
82 G, (£Iou6 of XPitnesses, 
 
 ♦ — 
 
 touch the simple heart. Before Ho- 
 mer had begun his primitive minstrel 
 strain to celebrate the fights and wiles 
 of the chiefs and kings, Isaiah had 
 risen to the highest heights of poetry, 
 had opened the dim gates of Hades, 
 and had revealed, on the other hand, 
 a dazzling glimpse of a heaven in 
 which one God sat upon a throne of 
 light and judged and tried the spirits 
 of men. There is no such record in 
 all the histories. The Psalms which 
 began with David breathe forth the 
 deepest emotions of our race to-day. 
 The wisdom which, throughout all 
 the tenacious Bast, bears the name of 
 Solomon, has never been outpassed 
 by any successor. And when we de- 
 scend the course of the ages and come 
 to a still more glorious and wonder- 
 ful history, it is Jerusalem still which 
 is the scene both of tragedy and tri- 
 umph, of the greatest and most won- 
 derful life which was ever lived among 
 men. 
 
 — Margaret Wilson OIvIphant, 
 1828— In " Jerusalem." 
 
a Cloub of IDttnesses, 83 
 ♦ 
 
 182 ^'HE pure and noble, the graceful 
 ■ and dignified simplicity of lan- 
 guage is nowhere in such perfection 
 as in the Scriptures. 
 
 1 688-1 744. — Alexander Pope, 
 
 183 |N a word, destroy this volume, and 
 ■ you take from us at once every- 
 thing which prevents existence be- 
 coming of all curses the greatest ; you 
 blot out the sun, dry up the ocean, 
 and take away the atmosphere of the 
 moral world; and degrade man to a 
 situation from which he may look 
 up with envy to that of the brutes 
 that perish. — Edward Payson, 
 
 1783-1827. 
 
 184 ^CARCELY can we fix our eyes 
 ^ upon a single passage in this won- 
 derful Book which has not afforded 
 comfort and instruction to thousands, 
 and been met with tears of penitential 
 sorrow or grateful joy drawn from 
 eyes that will weep no more. 
 
 —/did. 
 
84 CX Cloub of IDitnesses* 
 
 185 "piE answer to the Shaster is India; 
 
 the answer to Confucianism is 
 China; the answer to the Koran is 
 Turkey; the answer to the Bible is 
 the Christian civiHzation of Protest- 
 ant Europe and America. 
 
 1811-1884. — Wendeli. PHI1.1.1PS. 
 
 186 JP^OST wondrous book! bright can- 
 
 dle of the Lord ! 
 
 Star of eternity ! the only star 
 
 By which the bark of man could nav- 
 igate 
 
 The sea of life, and gain the coast of 
 bliss 
 
 Securely. — Robert Pollok. 
 
 1798-1827. 
 
 187 This lamp from off the everlasting 
 
 throne 
 
 Mercy took down, and in the night 
 of time. 
 
 Stood casting on the dark her gra- 
 cious bow, 
 
 And evermore beseeching men, with 
 tears 
 
 And earnest sighs, to hear, believe, 
 and live. — Ibid. 
 
d Cloub of IDttnesses, 85 
 
 •♦• 
 
 188 TT HIS Book, this holy Book, on 
 
 ■ every line 
 
 Marked with the seal of high di- 
 vinity — 
 
 On every leaf bedewed with drops of 
 love 
 
 Divine, and with the eternal heraldry 
 
 And signature of God Almighty 
 stamped 
 
 From first to last. — /did. 
 
 i89«p^HE Bible goes equally to the 
 ' cottage of the plain man and the 
 palace of the king. It is woven into 
 literature, and it colors the talk of 
 the street. The bark of the mer- 
 chant can not sail to sea without it. 
 No ship of war goes to the conflict 
 but the Bible is there. It enters 
 men's closets, mingling in all grief 
 and cheerfulness of life. 
 
 1810-1871. —Theodore Parker. 
 
 190 C OMK thousand famous writers 
 ^ come up in this century, to be for- 
 gotten in the next. But the silver 
 cord of the Bible is not loosed, nor 
 
86 a Cloub of XDiimssts. 
 
 its golden bowl broken, though 
 time chronicles his tens of centuries 
 passed by. — /did. 
 
 ble across the world from the 
 day of Pentecost to this day. As a 
 river springs up in the heart of a 
 sandy continent, having its father in 
 the skies; as the stream rolls on, 
 making, in that arid waste, a belt of 
 verdure wherever it turns its way, 
 creating palm - groves and fertile 
 plains, where the smoke of the cot- 
 tage curls up at eventide, and marble 
 cities send the gleam of their splen- 
 dor far into the sky: such has been 
 the course of the Bible on earth. 
 There is not a boy on all the hills of 
 New England ; not a girl born in the 
 filthiest cellar which disgraces a cap- 
 tal in Europe, and cries to God against 
 the barbarism of modern civiliza- 
 tion; not a boy nor a girl all Chris- 
 tendom through, but their lot is made 
 better by that great Book. — /6zd. 
 
Ct Cloub of XDttnesses. 87 
 ^ 
 
 192 I HAVE always felt atttached to this 
 
 Divine production, even when I 
 have not believed myself one of its 
 avowed followers. With the love of 
 God and mankind, it inspired me also 
 with a veneration for justice and an 
 abhorrence of wickedness, along with 
 a desire of pardoning the wicked. 
 1 789-1 854. — Silvio PeIvLico. 
 
 193 I LOVE the Bible. I read it every 
 
 day; and the more I read it, the 
 more I love it. There are some peo- 
 ple who do not love the Bible. I do 
 not understand them. I do not un- 
 derstand such people, but I love it; 
 I love its simplicity, and I love its very 
 repetitions and reiterations of truth. 
 As I said, I read it daily, and the more 
 I read it, the more I love it. 
 
 — The Emperor Dom Pedro II., 
 In conversation with Rev. J. C. Fletcher, 
 
 reported in the N. Y. Evangelist. 
 
 1825-1891. 
 
 194 T'HERE is no one book extant in 
 
 any one language, or in any coun- 
 try, which can in any degree be com- 
 
88 (X (Lloub of IDitncsses. 
 
 pared with the Bible for antiquity, 
 for authority, for the importance, the 
 dignity, the variety, and the curiosity 
 of the matter it contains. 
 
 — Beilby Porteus, 
 1 731-1808. Bishop of IvOndon. 
 
 ^QS^P'HE Scriptures, having been 
 i written at different periods and 
 in divers languages, requiring for 
 their interpretation the aid of knowl- 
 edge that is always increasing, not 
 only may, but must give forth fresh 
 light with each new century. 
 
 1811-1892. — Noah Porter, 
 
 From Sermon on " Religious Progress," 
 in the Independent. 
 
 196 /IFTER reading the doctrines of 
 " Plato, Socrates, or Aristotle, we 
 feel that the specific difference be- 
 tween their words and Christ's is the 
 difference between an inquiry and a 
 revelation. — Joseph Parker. 
 
 1830- 
 
 ^97 I AM impressed by the abundant 
 ■ evidence that your style has been 
 unconsciously formed by your famil- 
 
a Cloub of IDttncsses. 89 
 
 iarity with our English Bible, which 
 has a unique worth in shaping a dic- 
 tion equally pure, dignified, easy, 
 graceful, and euphonious. Did I 
 kuow nothing about you personally, 
 I should infer from your books that 
 you have that thorough acquaintance 
 with the ipsissima verba of our Bi- 
 ble, which was much more common 
 in your and in my earlier days than I 
 fear it is among even the sincere Chris- 
 tians of a younger generation. I am 
 accustomed to say to young men who 
 are ambitious to write well: "Study 
 the English Bible. It will be worth 
 more to you than all oral or written 
 rules, and than all other examples of 
 English composition." 
 
 — Andrew Preston Peabody, 
 
 To an American Author. 
 1811-1893. 
 
 198 ^ HE most highly-valued treasure of 
 ■ every family library, and that most 
 frequently and lovingly made use of, 
 should be the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 — Plenary Council, 
 At Baltimore, 1884. 
 
90 d Cloub of XPitnesses. 
 
 ^. 
 
 1 99 ^OMK words excell in vertue, and 
 
 discover 
 
 A rare condition, thrice repeated 
 over. 
 
 Our Saviour thrice was tempted; 
 thrice represt 
 
 The assaulting tempter with thrice 
 Scriptus est. 
 
 II thou wouldst keep thy soule se- 
 cure from harme, 
 
 Thou know'st the words : It is a po- 
 tent charme. 
 
 God's Sacred Word is Uke the I^ampe 
 
 of Day 
 Which softens wax, but makes ob- 
 
 dure the clay ; 
 It either melts the heart, or more ob- 
 
 dures ; 
 It never falls in vain : It wounds or 
 
 cures, 
 1 592-1 644. — Francis Quarles, 
 In " Divine Fancies," 1641 A, D. 
 
 200 I MUST confess the majesty of the 
 
 Scriptures astonishes me. 
 
 — Jean Jacques Rousseau. 
 1712-1778. 
 
G, Clou6 of IDttncsses, 91 
 
 201 How petty are the books of the 
 
 philosphers, with all their pomp, 
 compared to the Gospels ! — /did. 
 
 202 /I BAD heart is the great objection 
 
 against the Holy Book. 
 1648-1680. — John Wilmot, 
 
 Earl of Rochester. 
 
 203 QhRISTIANITY is the only true 
 
 and perfect religion, and in pro- 
 portion as mankind adopt its prin- 
 ciples and obey its precepts, they 
 will be wise and happy. And a bet- 
 ter knowledge of this religion is to 
 be acquired by reading the Bible than 
 in any other way. 
 
 1741-1813. — Benjamin Rush. 
 
 204 I WILL answer for it, the longer 
 
 you read the Bible, the more you 
 will like it. It will grow sweeter 
 and sweeter; and the more you get 
 into the spirit of it, the more you 
 will get into the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 1 7 14-1795. — WiLUAM ROMAINE. 
 
92 Ct (Eloub of IDitnesses. 
 ^ 
 
 205 -p HIS Book has held spell-bound 
 ■ the hearts of nations in a way 
 in which no single Book has ever 
 held men before. States have been 
 founded on its principles. Men hold 
 the Bible in their hands when they 
 prepare to give solemn evidence affect- 
 ing life. 
 
 — Frederick W. Robertson. 
 1816-1853. 
 
 206 I p all the books were placed in one 
 ■ library, and this single One set on 
 a table in the middle of it, and a 
 stranger were told that this Book, af- 
 firmed to be for the most part the work 
 of a number of unlearned and ob- 
 scure men, belonging to a despised 
 nation called the Jews, had drawn 
 upon itself for its exposure, con- 
 futation, and destruction, this multi- 
 tude of volumes, — I imagine he would 
 be inclined to say : " Then, I presume, 
 this little Book was annihilated long 
 ago; though how it could be needful 
 to write a thousandth part so much for 
 any such purpose I can not compre- 
 hend ; for if the book be what these 
 
(X Cloub of IDitnesses. 93 
 
 207 
 
 authors say, surely it should not be 
 difficult to show it to be so; and if 
 so, what wonderful madness to write 
 all these volumes!" How surprised 
 would he then be to learn that they 
 were felt not to be enough ; that sim- 
 ilar works were being multiplied every 
 day, and never more actively than at 
 the present time. 
 
 — Henry Rogers, 
 "Superhuman Origin of the Bible,'^ p. 254. 
 
 The Book which has given them 
 all their ephemeral renown, 
 seems alone untouched by time. It 
 is like some old oak which has seen 
 the harvest of a thousand years' 
 springs ripen and fall beneath the 
 sickle. — Ibid., p. 279. 
 
 208 TilK Bible is not such a Book as 
 
 man would have made if he 
 could, or could have made if he would 
 have done so. — Ibid., p. 5. 
 
 209 'T'o my early knowledge of the Bi- 
 
 ble I owe the best part of my 
 taste in literature and the most pre- 
 
94 ^ Cloub of IPitnesses, 
 
 cious and, on the whole, the one es- 
 sential part of my education, 
 
 1819 — ^JOHN RUSKIN. 
 
 210 I HAVE been blamed for the famil- 
 ■ iar application of its sacred words. 
 I am grieved to have given pain by 
 so doing ; but my excuse must be my 
 wish that those words were made the 
 ground of every argument and the test 
 of every action. We have them not 
 often enough upon our lips, nor 
 deeply enough in our memories, nor 
 loyally enough in our lives. The 
 snow, the vapor, and the stormy wind 
 fulfill His word. Are our acts and 
 thoughts lighter and wilder than 
 these, that we should forget it? 
 
 —Ibid. 
 
 2"<'/lFTKR our chapters (from two to 
 ** three a day, according to their 
 length), the first thing after breakfast 
 (and no interruptions from servants 
 allowed, none from visitors, who 
 either joined in the reading or had to 
 stay up-stairs, and none from any vis- 
 iting or excursions, except real trav- 
 
<X <Z\oub of IDitnesses. 95 
 
 eling), I had to learn a few verses by 
 heart, or repeat, to make sure I had 
 not lost something of what was 
 already known; and, with the chap- 
 ters thus gradually possessed from 
 the first to the last, I had to learn 
 the whole body of the fine old Scotch 
 paraphrases, which are good, melodi- 
 ous, and forceful verses, and to which, 
 together with the Bible itself, I owe 
 the first cultivation of my ear in 
 sound." Mr. Ruskin prints his mother's 
 list of the chapters, ** with which, 
 thus learned, she established my soul 
 in life." It is as follows : Exodus, 
 chapters xv, xvi ; 2 Samuel i, from the 
 seventeenth verse to the end ; i Kings 
 viii; Psalms xxii, xxxiii, xc, xci, ciii, 
 cxii, cxix, cxxxix; Proverbs chapters 
 ii, iii, viii, xii ; Isaiah Iviii; Matthew, 
 chapters v, vi, vii; Acts xxvi; i Co- 
 rinthians, chapters xiii, xv ; James iv ; 
 Revelation, chapters v, vi. And 
 truly Mr. Ruskin says : " Though I 
 have picked up the elements of a lit- 
 tle further knowledge — in mathemat- 
 ics, meteorology, and the like, in after 
 life — and owe not a little to the teach- 
 
96 a Cloub of IDttncsses, 
 
 ing of many people, this material 
 installation of my mind in that prop- 
 erty of chapters I count very confi- 
 dently the most precious, and, on the 
 whole, the one essential part of my ed- 
 ucation." John Ruskin, 
 
 In "Autobiography." 
 
 212 Walter SCOTT and Alexander 
 
 Pope were the reading of my 
 own early election; but my mother 
 forced me to read the Bible from Gen- 
 esis to Apocalypse, and to that disci- 
 pline, patient, accurate, resolute, I owe 
 not only a knowledge of the Bible, 
 but the best part of my taste in lit- 
 erature. . . . Knowing by heart 
 the hundred and nineteneth Psalm, the 
 Sermon on the Mount, and other places 
 of Holy Scripture, it was not possible 
 for me to write entirely superficial 
 English. — /did., in " Fors Clavigerae." 
 
 213 I SEE in your columns, as in other 
 
 journals, more and more buzzing 
 and fussing about what M. Renan 
 has found the Bible to be, or Mr. 
 Huxley not to be, or the bishops that 
 
CI Cloub of IDttnesses. 97 
 
 it might be, or the school board that 
 it must n't be, etc. I^et me tell your 
 readers who care to know, in the 
 fewest possible words what it zs. It 
 is the grandest group of writings ex- 
 istent in the rational world, put into 
 the grandest language of the ra- 
 tional world, in the first strength of 
 the Christian faith, by an entirely 
 wise and kind saint, St. Jerome ; trans- 
 lated afterward with beauty and felic- 
 ity into every language of the Christian 
 world; and the guide, since so trans- 
 lated, of all the arts and acts of that 
 world which have been noble, fortu- 
 nate, and happy. And by consulta- 
 tion of it honestly, on any serious 
 business, you may always learn— a long 
 while before your Parliament finds 
 out — what you should do in such 
 business, and be directed perhaps be- 
 sides to work more serious than you 
 had thought of. 
 
 — J^t'd., in the Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
9S d (Eloub of VOximsszs, 
 
 ■ •♦ 
 
 214 p ATHKR of Mercies, in thy Word 
 
 What endless glory shines ! 
 Forever be thy name adored 
 For these celestial lines. 
 1 717-1778. — Anne Steele. 
 
 215 I KNOW that what I read and pos- 
 
 sess in the Word will remain when 
 the world passes away, and that its 
 slightest sentence will prove a better 
 dying pillow than all else that man 
 could conceive or possess. 
 
 1 800-1 862. — Rudolf Stier. 
 
 216 QnE Book alone has outlasted 
 
 many generations, in all nations 
 equally, and that is the Bible; and 
 this is because of its exceeding 
 breadth — because it embraces every 
 variety and element of thought, and 
 every phase of society; above all, be- 
 cause it embodies in every part the 
 moral commandment of God, which 
 endures forever in heaven, and which 
 applies not to one condition of life 
 only, but to all. 
 
 — Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, 
 1815-1881. Dean of Westminster. 
 
Cr (Eloub of XDltnesses. 99 
 
 ^^7 OUT we ought not to tremble too 
 '^ much for the ark of God; it is 
 God's ark, and he will take charge of 
 it. This is only an episode in the 
 history of the Bible ; the providence 
 of God is watching over it; and we 
 may be very sure that when it is over, 
 the Bible, being better understood, 
 will be seen more clearly than ever 
 to be suited to the deepest wants of 
 man, and fitted to be the torch which 
 guides him along the pathway of 
 progress. — James Stai.ker, 
 
 75th Anniversary Amer. Bible Society, 
 
 218^1^ HE whole hope of human prog- 
 ■ ress is suspended on the ever- 
 growing influence of the Bible. 
 1801-1872. — WiLiyiAM H. Seward. 
 
 2191a OBODY ever outgrows Scripture. 
 ■ The Book widens and deepens 
 with our years. 
 
 — Charles H. Spurgeon. 
 1834-1892. 
 
loo a Cloub of IDttnesses, 
 
 220 p vKN the style of the Scriptures is 
 ■■ more than human. 
 
 1671-1729. — Richard SteeIvE;. 
 
 22i^r jj;g^ popular reverence for the Bi- 
 ble is also strong, and it extends 
 to every copy of the printed Book, 
 and includes even those who reject 
 the supernatural authority of Scrip- 
 ture. At least so far as the exhibition 
 of outward and formal respect is con- 
 cerned, they are all of one mind. 
 The various Bible societies are care- 
 ful to put copies of the Scriptures 
 in the reading-rooms and bedrooms 
 of hotels and upon all ships and 
 steamers. It can not be_ said that 
 those volumes give evidences of hav- 
 ing been extensively read, but they 
 are never defaced. The most flippant 
 treat the Holy Bible with instinctive 
 and distinctive respect. 
 
 — New York Sun. 
 
 222 flNIvIKK other books, the Bible has 
 
 neither preface nor introduction. 
 
 Nor has it definitions, postulates, 
 
 axioms, or elementary theorems on 
 
 which to build its science of the- 
 
CI (Eloub of IDitnesses, loi 
 
 ology or to prepare its students for its 
 higher revelations or developments. 
 Its first words bring us face to face 
 with eternity and divinity. 
 
 Matthew Simpson, 
 I^ecture : Majesty and Holiness of Bible. 
 
 God's Word, Man's Light and Guide, 
 
 Lectures before N. Y. S. S. Association, 
 
 American Tract Society. 
 
 1811-1884. 
 
 223 I HAVE surveyed most of the learn- 
 
 ing that is among the children of 
 men, yet at this moment I recall noth- 
 ing in them on which to rest my soul 
 save one from the sacred Scriptures 
 which rises much on my mind : " The 
 grace of God which bringeth salva- 
 tion hath appeared unto all men." 
 — John Sei^den, 
 
 1 584-1658. To Archbishop Usher. 
 
 224 IflKWED merely as a literary pro- 
 
 * duction, the Bible is a marvelous 
 Book, and without a rival. All the 
 libraries of theology, philosophy, his- 
 tory, antiquities, poetry, law, and 
 
I02 (X Cloub of n)ttnesses» 
 
 .4, 
 
 policy would not furnish material 
 enough for so rich a treasure of the 
 choicest gems of human genius, wis- 
 dom, and experience. 
 
 1819-1893. — Phiup Schaff. 
 
 225 TTHB translators of the Bible were 
 ■ makers of our English style much 
 fitter for that work than any we see 
 in our present writings. The which 
 is owing to the simplicity that runs 
 through the whole. 
 
 — Jonathan Swift, 
 Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. 
 1667-1745. 
 
 226 
 
 I KT us cling with a holy zeal to the 
 Bible, and the Bible only, as the 
 religion of Protestants. I^et us pro- 
 claim, with Milton, that neither tradi- 
 tions, nor councils, nor canons of visi- 
 ble Church, much less edicts of any 
 civil magistrate or civil session, but the 
 Scriptures only, can be the final judge 
 or rule. — ^Joseph Story, 
 
 Justice Supreme Court, U. S. 
 1779-1845. 
 
(X €lonb of IDttnesscs. 103 
 
 227 I N the whole compass of poetry 
 ■ there is nothing more poetical, 
 more musical, more thrilling, and, in 
 some passages, more full of lofty in- 
 spiration than the Psalms of David. 
 — He:nry Stephanus. 
 
 228 U E) who has once gained this 
 * ■ broader view of the Bible as the 
 development of a course of history 
 itself, guided and inspired by Jeho- 
 vah, will not be disconcerted by the 
 confused noises of the critic. His 
 faith in the Word of God lies deeper 
 than any difficulties or flaws upon 
 the surface of the Bible. He will not 
 be disturbed by seeing any theory of 
 its mechanical formation or school- 
 book infallibility broken to fragments 
 under the repeated blows of modern 
 investigation. The water of life will 
 flow from the rock which the scholar 
 strikes with his rod. 
 
 — Newman Smyth, 
 " Old Faiths in New lyights," p. 59. 
 1843- 
 
I04 d (£lou6 of XDttnesses. 
 
 229 "yHE Bible has been the potent in- 
 
 ■ terpreter of the spiritual instincts 
 of a considerable portion of our race, 
 giving form and voice and force to 
 their thoughts of God, of duty, of 
 judgment and the life to come 
 throughout the length and breadth 
 of the Christian world. 
 
 — ^Vancb Smith, 
 " The Bible and its Theology," p. 300. 
 
 230 l¥f HEN you can prove to me that 
 
 ■■ man has built the mountains of 
 brick-work and has covered the earth 
 with a mud which he has manufac- 
 tured for soil, then you may prove to 
 me that the Bible, with its oneness 
 and variety, its production extending 
 over fifteen hundred years, with its 
 last verse answering to its first across 
 the dreary drift of ages, has come to 
 us from man. 
 
 182 1 — — Richard S. Storrs. 
 
 ^31 ^ INMOST every feeling finds a voice 
 " in the Psalms. But here are not 
 their only expressions. The prophe- 
 cies contain them. They break upon 
 us through scores of narratives and 
 
a (Eloub of IDttncsses. 105 
 
 in hundreds of incidents. And there 
 is not a note of human emotion, 
 from the plaint of despondency or 
 the wail of despair up to the noblest 
 Christian war-hymn — yea, up to the 
 very Te Deum of saints celebrating 
 the final attainment of heaven — that 
 is not somewhere sounded in the 
 Bible. —Ibid. 
 
 Sermon: Jubilee American Bible So- 
 ciety, 1866. 
 
 232 npHE most learned, acute, and dili- 
 * gent student can not in the long- 
 est life obtain an entire knowledge of 
 this one volume. The more deeply 
 he works the mine, the richer and more 
 abundant he finds the ore ; new light 
 continually beams from this source of 
 heavenly knowledge, to direct the 
 conduct and illustrate the works of 
 God and the ways of men; and he 
 will at last leave the world confessing 
 that the more he studied the Scrip- 
 tures the fuller conviction he had of 
 his own ignorance and of their inesti- 
 mable value. — Wai^ter Scott. 
 1771-1832. 
 
io6 G. Cloub of IDttncsses, 
 
 •«. 
 
 233 l¥f ITHIN this awful volume lies 
 ■^ The mystery of mysteries ; 
 Happiest they of human race 
 To whom their God has given grace 
 To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, 
 To lift the latch, to force the way ; 
 But better had they ne'er been born, 
 That read to doubt, or read to scorn. 
 
 —/did. 
 "The Monastery." 
 
 234 MANY a fathom dark and deep 
 ■ ■ I have laid the Book to sleep ; 
 Ethereal fires around it glowing- 
 Ethereal music ever flowing — 
 The sacred pledge of Heaven. 
 All things revere, 
 Each in his sphere. 
 Save man for whom 'twas given; 
 Lend thy hand and thou shalt spy 
 Things ne'er seen by mortal eye. 
 
 —3id. 
 "The Monastery." 
 
(X Cloub of XPttnesses, 107 
 
 ^ 
 
 "THERE IS BUT ONE BOOK." 
 
 [From the last words of Sir Walter Scott.] 
 
 235 pKTCH me the Buke, dear Lock- 
 * hart, 
 
 An' gie me ane sweet ward. 
 What buke ? There is nae ither, — 
 
 The lyife o' th' Incarnate lyord ; 
 I feel the shadows creepin' ; 
 
 My licht 's nae burnin' lang, 
 Sae read frae the blessit Gospels 
 
 A bit, chiel, ere I gang; 
 Fin' whaur He holpit the needy, 
 
 His pity wi' His micht ! 
 O, my soul 's fair hungry, Lockhart, 
 
 For the lyivin' Bread, the nicht. 
 
 I think o' the dear disciples 
 
 Sae tassit on the sea, 
 An' the wards He spak' tae Simon, — 
 
 I ken they 'd comfort me ; 
 Tell o' the chitterin' sparrows, — 
 
 "Nae wan o' them can' fa' ;" 
 Tell hoo He callit the bairnies, — 
 
 The dearest thocht o' a'. 
 Read owre hoo the ravin' tempest 
 
 Seekit silence i' the deep; 
 Sae the surges i' my bosom 
 
 Are croonin' a' tae sleep; 
 
io8 CX Cloub of IDitnesses* 
 
 Ye maun catch the roll o' Jordan 
 
 I' His wards tae the Pharisee, 
 But ye '11 hear Him prayin' dearie, 
 
 I' the sough o' Galilee; 
 Dinnah fash 'bout Judas kisses; 
 
 Nae greet i' the garden dim, 
 But joy hoo the dyin* beggar 
 
 Foun' paradise wi Him ; 
 Nae hent o' Thamas dootin', 
 
 Nae ward hoo Peter fell ; 
 It grie's me, sair, — their weakness 
 
 Wha ken't oor lyord sae weel; 
 
 Read o' the walk tae Emmaus 
 
 That long an' tearfu' day, 
 An lat oor hearts burn, I^ockhart, 
 
 As we gang the countrie way; 
 Pluck me ane lily, lyockhart, 
 
 A' siller-dew't an' sweet; 
 I speer the rose o' Sharon, 
 
 An' smell the growin' wheat; 
 Lat's join the throngin', dearie. 
 
 An' wait i' the wee bit ships 
 For the ward, like beads o' honey, 
 
 That fa' frae His haly lips. 
 
 Hoo sad the Gospels, lyockhart, 
 Wi' his wand'rin' hameless life ! 
 
ex (£Iou6 of XPttnesses. 109 
 ■♦■ 
 But there 's ane grief fetches comfort, 
 
 Ane rest that comes o' strife : 
 Noo tak' me, kin', gude Lockhart, — 
 
 Aye tenner-true tae me ! — 
 Oot wi' the dear disciples, 
 "As far 's tae Bethany;" 
 I sair need rest, belov'd, 
 
 An' the licht 's a-wearin' dim ; 
 But heaven's nae far fra Bethany, 
 An' sune I '11 be wi' Him. 
 
 — Agnes E. Mitche;i.i,. 
 
 236QOOD heaven, were the truths of 
 ^ the Book prevalent in the hearts 
 of men, should we be disturbed and 
 frightened as we are day by day by 
 those gigantic frauds that are burst- 
 ing out in every community, and 
 which lead us to believe that all hon- 
 esty in trade, all honesty in public 
 life, all honesty in private life, have 
 left the world forever? Is it unsuited 
 to the times in which we live, when, 
 if its holy precepts and its Divine 
 commands had been listened to, we 
 should not have these gigantic evils? 
 — The; 7TH Earl of Shaftesbury, 
 1801 — Life of Vol. I, p. 7. 
 
no a Cloub of IDitnesses. 
 
 237 ^ H ! but now they come and tell 
 m% us that the Bible is effete ; that it 
 is worn out ; that it can do nothing, and 
 that we must now have some new in- 
 fluence, some new principle, by which 
 to regulate and guide man. Effete! 
 Indeed, I should like to know whether 
 it is effete at this moment in India. 
 Is it effete in the effect, lately begun, 
 to be produced in China ? Is it effete 
 in the islands of the Pacific Ocean ? 
 Is it effete in Madagascar? Is it 
 effete in Italy? You see what a 
 country Italy has now become; you 
 see how the Italians are now grasping 
 at the Word of God, and although 
 they have not thrown off the tram- 
 mels of the Church of Rome, they 
 have imbibed the first principles, 
 whereby their conduct in public and 
 private life should be guided. The 
 Bible lies at the root of their freedom, 
 and they know it well enough to 
 make it the basis of their hopes and 
 fears. That is the Book that will 
 guide them. — /did., Vol. I, p. 7. 
 
(X Cloub of IDttnesses. m 
 
 -^ 
 
 238 ^ O the Neologists themselves think 
 ■^ it effete? If so, why do they 
 pass their nights, why do they 
 sweat and toil over the midnight 
 lamp, for the sole purpose of destroy- 
 ing a Book that is so effete that, if 
 left to itself, would soon die or be- 
 conie an object of general contempt? 
 They do not think it effete. They 
 know its power upon the heart and 
 the conscience. They know that, if 
 left to itself, that good old Book must 
 work its own way, and what they 
 deny with their lips they confess with 
 their fears. Effete? It is effete as 
 Abraham was effete, when he became 
 the father of many nations, when they 
 sprang of one, and him as good as 
 dead, as many as the stars for multi- 
 tude and the sands upon the seashore 
 innumerable. It is effete as eternity 
 past, present, and future is effete. It 
 is effete, and in no other sense, as God 
 himself is effete— the same yesterday, 
 to-day, and forever. 
 
 ^/dzd., Vol. I, p. 8. 
 
112 a (£Iou6 of IDitnesscs. 
 .^ 
 
 239 C AVE for my daily range 
 
 ^^ Among the pleasant fields of Holy 
 
 Writ, 
 I might despair. 
 
 — Alfred, IvOrd Tennyson. 
 1809-1892. 
 
 240 WITH the history of Moses, no 
 " book in the world, in point of 
 antiquity, can contend. 
 
 1 630- 1 694. — John Tillotson, 
 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 241 MOIyY Scripture becomes resplend- 
 * * ent, or, as one might say, incan- 
 descent throughout. 
 
 1787-1865. — Isaac Taylor. 
 
 242 ^ HK integrity of the records of the 
 ■ Christian faith is substantiated by 
 evidence in a tenfold proportion more 
 various, copious, and conclusive than 
 that which can be adduced in sup- 
 port of any other ancient writings. 
 
 --Ibid. 
 
Ci Cloub of IDitnesses. 113 
 4. 
 
 ^43 /l S the profoundest philosophy of 
 
 ancient Rome and Greece lighted 
 
 her taper at Israel's altar, so the 
 
 sweetest strains of the pagan muse 
 
 were swept from harps attuned on 
 
 Zion's Hill. 
 
 — Edward Thomson. 
 1810-1870. 
 
 244 TT HE Bible is a thing of light, and 
 
 illumines whatsoever it shines 
 
 upon ; a thing of beauty, and adorns 
 
 whatsoever it touches; a thing of 
 
 life, and quickens whatsoever it comes 
 
 in contact with. 
 
 — W. Traii., 
 " Literary Characteristics and Achieve- 
 ments of the Bible." 
 
 245TrHE man of one book is always 
 * formidable; but when that Book 
 is the Bible, he is irresistible. 
 1 829- 1 896. — William M. Taylor. 
 
 246^ HE Book is literature, and not 
 ■ mere theology. Its moral pre- 
 cepts and ever-to-be-remembered 
 stories of fidelity and self-sacrifice 
 8 
 
114 CI (£lou6 of IDttncsses. 
 .♦• 
 
 never lose their wonted charm or 
 grandeur. 
 — Boston Evening Transcript, Satur- 
 day, April II, 1896. 
 
 247 T'HK present-day critical investiga- 
 tion of the Bible may in some re- 
 spects modify or change the popu- 
 lar conception of it. Indeed, it has 
 done so in a measure already ; but in 
 so far as we can see, it has in no de- 
 gree weakened the hold of the Bible 
 on the conscience of Christendom. 
 Nor is there the faintest sign that 
 modern civilization intends to part 
 with any of the essential principles 
 and ideals which it has learned from 
 that venerable Book. Possibly Moses 
 may have made mistakes; he was 
 great enough to do so. But no mis- 
 take he ever made compares with 
 that of those who think to elevate 
 and ennoble the world by splitting 
 ''the ears of the groundlings" with 
 coarse sneers at religion and the 
 Bible. — ^The New York Tribune. 
 
CI Cloub of IPitnesses. 115 
 4, 
 
 248 1 MMKNSKLY as the literature of 
 
 ■ this country has increased in this 
 century, the Bible now occupies a 
 larger proportionate space in that liter- 
 ature than ever it did. No Book raises 
 so many inquiries or touches so many 
 interests. The Bible sends the stu- 
 dent to libraries and archives. To 
 the Bible we owe much of the in- 
 tense and spreading interest in lan- 
 guages and in the originals of cus- 
 toms and of peoples. It directs the 
 traveler to buried cities, to the tombs 
 of kings, to the records of States 
 once great, and well-nigh forgotten. 
 Wherever the battle of opinion is 
 now the liveliest, wherever the race 
 for discovery is most eager, wherever 
 the earth at last reveals her buried 
 history, it is to add to our knowledge 
 of the sacred story, and to our under- 
 standing of the sacred volume. 
 
 — ^The I^ondon Times. 
 
 249 «^HK man who recreated the Ger- 
 
 ■ man language — I hardly think 
 the expression too strong — was Mar- 
 tin Luther. It was his fortune and 
 
ii6 Ct Cloub of XPttnesses. 
 
 that of the world that he was so 
 equally great in man}' directions— 
 as a personal character, as a 
 man of action, as a teacher and 
 preacher, and finally as an author. 
 No one before him, and no one for 
 nearly two hundred years after him, 
 saw that the German tongue must be 
 sought for in the mouths of the peo- 
 ple — that the exhausted expression of 
 the earlier ages could not be revived, 
 but that the newer, fuller, and richer 
 speech, then in its childhood, must at 
 once be acknowledged and adopted. 
 He made it the vehicle of what was 
 divinest in human language ; and those 
 who are not informed of his manner 
 of translating the Bible, can not ap- 
 preciate the originality of his work, 
 or the marvelous truth of the in- 
 stinct which led him to it. 
 
 With all his scholarship, Luther 
 dropped the theological style, and 
 sought among the people for phrases 
 as artless and simple as those of the 
 Hebrew writers. He frequented the 
 market-place, the merrj^-making, the 
 house of birth, marriage, or death 
 
(X (Llonb of tPttnesses. 117 
 
 among the common people, in order 
 to catch the fullest expression of their 
 feelings in the simplest words. He 
 enlisted his friends in the same serv- 
 ice, begging them to note down foi 
 him any peculiar, sententious phrase ; 
 "for," said he, "I can not use the 
 words heard in castles and at courts." 
 Not a sentence of the Bible was trans- 
 lated until he had sought for the 
 briefest, clearest, and strongest Ger- 
 man equivalent to it. He writes, 
 in 1530: '* I have exerted myself, in 
 translating, to give pure and clear 
 German. And it has verily hap- 
 pened that we have sought and 
 questioned a fortnight, three, four 
 weeks, for a single word, and yet it 
 was not always found. In Job we so 
 labored — Philip Melanchthon, Auro- 
 gallus, and I — that in four days we 
 sometimes barely finished three lines. 
 . . . It is well enough to plow 
 when the field is cleared ; but to root 
 out stock and stone, and prepare the 
 ground, is what no one will." 
 
 He illustrates his own plan of trans- 
 lation by an example which is so inter- 
 
ii8 (X (Lloub of IPitnesscs* 
 
 •♦• 
 
 esting that I must quote it: "We 
 must not ask the men of letters in 
 the lyatin language how we should 
 speak German, as the asses do ; but 
 we must ask the mother in the house, 
 the children in the lanes, the common 
 man in the market-place, and read in 
 their mouths how they speak, and 
 translate according thereto ; then they 
 understand, for they see we are speak- 
 ing German to them. As when Christ 
 says : Bx abundantia cordis os loquitur. 
 Now if I were to follow the asses, 
 they would dissect for me the letters 
 and thus translate : ' Out of the super- 
 abundance of the heart speaks the 
 mouth.' Now tell me is that spoken 
 German? No German would say 
 that, unless he meant that he had too 
 much of a heart, although even that 
 is not correct ; for superabundance of 
 heart is not German, any more than 
 superabudance of house, superabun- 
 dance of cooking-stove, superabun- 
 dance of bench ; but thus speaketh 
 the mother in the house and the com- 
 mon man : * Whose heart is full, his 
 mouth overflows.' That is Germanly 
 
a Cloub of tPttncsses, 119 
 
 spoken, such as I have endeavored 
 to do, but alas ! not always suc- 
 ceeded." 
 
 IvUther translated the Bible eighty 
 years before our English version was 
 produced. I do not know whether 
 the English translators made any use 
 of his labors, although they inclined 
 toward the same plan, without follow- 
 ing it so conscientiously. In regard 
 to the accuracy of rendering, there 
 is less difference. But in regard 
 to the fullness, the strength, the ten- 
 derness, the vital power of language, 
 I think lyUther's Bible decidedly 
 superior to our own. The instinct 
 of one great man is in such mat- 
 ters, if not a safer, at least a more sat- 
 isfactory guide than the average judg- 
 ment of forty-seven men. Luther 
 was a poet as well as a theologian, and 
 as a poet he was able to feel, as no 
 theologian could, the intrinsic differ- 
 ence of spirit and character in the 
 different books of the Old Testa- 
 ment — not only to feel, but, through 
 the sympathetic quality of the poetic 
 nature, to reproduce them. These 
 
I20 CX Cloub of XPttnesses. 
 ■♦■ 
 
 ten years, from 1522 to 1532, which 
 he devoted to the work, were not only 
 years of unremitting, prayerful, con- 
 scientious labor, but also of warm, 
 bright, joyous, intellectual creation. 
 We can only appreciate his wonder- 
 ful achievement by comparing it with 
 any German prose before his time. 
 1825-1878. — Bayard Taylor, 
 Studies in German Literature. 
 
 250 /|ftER all, the Bible must be its 
 ^^ own argument and defense. The 
 power of it can never be proved un- 
 less it is felt. The authority of it 
 can never be supported unless it is 
 manifest. The light of it can never 
 be demonstrated unless it shines. 
 
 — H. J. Van Dyke. 
 
 251 pROM the time that, at my mother's 
 feet or on my father's knee, I first 
 learned to lisp verses from the Sa- 
 cred Writings, they have been my 
 daily study and vigilant contempla- 
 tion. — Danieiv Webster. 
 1782-1852. 
 
a Cloub of IDttnesses. 121 
 ■♦• 
 
 252 I HAVE read the Bible through 
 
 many times; I now make a prac- 
 tice of going through it once a year. 
 It is the Book of all others for law- 
 yers as well as divines; and I pity 
 the man who can not find in it a rich 
 supply of thought and rules for con- 
 duct, —/did. 
 
 253 f\^ style in language and thought 
 ■ ■ is due to my early love of the 
 Scriptures. — Idz'd. 
 
 254 ^'HE biography of the seventh 
 
 ■ Earl of Shaftesbury contains a 
 letter addressed to him by Daniel 
 Webster, dated Washington, May 7, 
 1840, which begins as follows: 
 
 "Dear Lord Ashi^ky, — I owe you 
 many thanks for a kind note which I 
 received at the moment of my de- 
 parture from London last autumn, and 
 for the present of a copy of a very 
 excellent edition of the Holy Bible. 
 You could have given me nothing 
 more acceptable, and I shall keep it 
 near me, as a valued token of your 
 
122 Ct Cloub of tPttnesses. 
 
 4- 
 
 regard. The older I grow, and the 
 more I read the Holy Scriptures, the 
 more reverence I have for them, and 
 the more convinced I am that they are 
 not only the best guide for the con- 
 duct of this life, but the foundation 
 of all hope respecting a future state 
 of existence." — Ibid. 
 
 255 I BELIEVE that the Bible is to be 
 
 ■ understood and received in the 
 plain and obvious meaning of its 
 passages; for I can not persuade my- 
 self that a Book intended for the in- 
 struction and conversion of the whole 
 world should cover it-s true meaning 
 in any such mystery and doubt that 
 none but critics and philosophers can 
 discover it. — Ibid. 
 
 256 |F we abide by the principles taught 
 
 ■ in the Bible, our countrj^ will go on 
 prospering and to prosper; but if we 
 and our posterity neglect its instruc- 
 tions and authority , no man can tell 
 how sudden a catastrophe may over- 
 whelm us, and bury all our glory in 
 profound obscurity. — Ibid. 
 
a Cloub of IDttnesses. 123 
 
 4. 
 
 257 »HII,OSOPHICAL argument, espe- 
 ' cially that drawn from the vastness 
 of the universe in comparison with 
 the comparative insignificance of this 
 globe, has sometimes shaken my rea- 
 son for the faith that is in me ; but 
 my heart has always assured and re- 
 assured me that the Gospel of Jesus 
 Christ must be a Divine reality. 
 
 —/did. 
 
 258 T'HE misfortunes of China seem 
 ■ likely to bring her to a more 
 teachable mood. One of the symp- 
 toms of a new feeling is the accept- 
 ance by the dowager empress, on the 
 sixtieth anniversary of her birthday, 
 of a Bible in the Chinese language, 
 for which she expressed her grateful 
 thanks, at the same time promising 
 to read it. What is more significant 
 is, that the emperor last week sent 
 one of the chief officers of his house- 
 hold to the Bible Society's depot, to 
 purchase a copy of the Scriptures 
 similar to the one presented to the 
 empress. — Christian World. 
 
124 ^ €Iou5 of IDtlnesses. 
 
 4^ 
 
 259 The Bible is a rock of diamonds, 
 a chain of pearls, the sword of 
 the Spirit, a chart by which the Chris- 
 tian sails to eternity, the map by 
 which he daily walks, the sun-dial by 
 which he sets his life, the balance in 
 which he weighs his actions. 
 —1690. — T. Watson. 
 
 260 Y" HAT the truths of the Bible 
 have the power of awakening an 
 intense moral feeling in every human 
 being ; that they make bad men good, 
 and send a pulse of healthful feeling 
 through all the domestic, civil, and 
 social relations ; that they teach men 
 to love right and hate wrong, and seek 
 each other's welfare, as children of a 
 common parent ; that they control 
 the baleful passions of the heart, and 
 thus make men proficient in self- 
 government ; and, finally, that they 
 teach man to aspire after conform- 
 ity to a Being of infinite holiness, 
 and fill him with hopes more 
 purifying, exalted, and suited to 
 his nature, than any other book the 
 
G, (Eloub of XDitnesses. 125 
 
 world has ever known, — these are 
 facts as incontrovertible as the laws 
 of philosophy or the demonstrations 
 of mathematics. 
 
 1796- 1865. — Francis Wayland. 
 
 261 IjiK search the world for truth, we 
 W cull 
 
 The good, the pure, the beautiful, 
 From graven stone and written scroll, 
 From the old flower-fields of the soul, 
 And, weary seekers for the best. 
 We come back laden from our quest, 
 To find that all the sages said 
 Is in the Book our mothers read. 
 — John GreenIvEAF Whittier. 
 1807-1892. Miriam. 
 
 262 |T is sheer waste of time to quarrel 
 * about modes of inspiration. Let 
 the Book prove its own inspiration. 
 When we read it, we feel itg power. 
 When we give it to others, it proves 
 its divineness. The flowing tide is 
 with the Bible, and, as the tide rises, 
 the brawling streams by its shores 
 are hushed. Send on the Book, and 
 
126 CI (£Ioub of IDitncsses. 
 
 see what it will do. It makes the 
 savage a man. It strikes from the 
 captive his chains, and makes the 
 freeman more free. It fills civilized 
 communities with the voices of love 
 in its purity, and the pledges of friend- 
 ship in its faithfulness. The Word 
 that has gone forth out of God's 
 mouth will prove the power of God ; 
 and the more we read that Word our- 
 selves, we shall be able to say with 
 greater confidence, " It is my Bible." 
 — ^WiiyLiAM Wright. 
 
 263 I N Job and the Psalms we shall find 
 ■ more sublime ideas, more elevated 
 language, than in any of the heathen 
 versifiers of Greece or Rome. 
 1674-1748. Isaac Watts. 
 
 264|^OMPARE the Book of Psalms 
 ^ with the Odes of Horace or An- 
 acreon, with the Hymns of Callim- 
 achus, the Golden Verses of Pythag- 
 oras, the Choruses of the Greek 
 tragedians, and you will quickly see 
 how greatly it surpasses them all in 
 
CI (Eloub of XPitnesses. 127 
 
 piety of sentiment, in sublimity of ex- 
 pression, in purity of morality, and 
 in rational theology. 
 
 1737-1816. — Richard V/atson, 
 
 Bishop of Llandaff. 
 "An Apology for the Bible. Reply to 
 Paine's 'Age of Reason.' " 
 
 265 TTHIS, for my part, I do believe, that 
 
 the Scripture is clear and full of 
 light, as to all matters of conscience, 
 as to all rules of light, as to all nec- 
 essary matters of faith, so that any 
 well-minded man that takes up the 
 Bible and reads, may come to under- 
 standing and satisfaction. And to 
 this purpose then is the Divine Spirit 
 to wait upon this iUvStrument of God. 
 — Benjamin Whichcote;. 
 1610-1683. 
 
 266 C TAR of eternity ! The only star 
 ^^ By which the bark of man could 
 
 navigate 
 The sea of life, and gain the coast of 
 
 bliss 
 Securely; only star which rose on 
 
 Time, 
 
128 G, Cloub of IDitncsses. 
 
 And, on its dark and troubled billows, 
 
 still, 
 As generation, difting swifl}^ by, 
 Succeeded generation, threw a ray 
 Of Heaven's own light, and to the 
 
 hills of God, 
 The eternal hills, pointed the sinner's 
 
 eye. — Ai^exandkr Wai^lace. 
 
 267 IWIFFUSE the knowledge of the Bi- 
 ■^ ble, and the hungrj^ will be fed 
 and the naked clothed. Diffuse the 
 knowledge of the Bible and the 
 stranger will be sheltered, the pris- 
 oner visited, and the sick ministered 
 unto. Diffuse the knowledge of the 
 Bible and temperance will rest upon 
 a surer basis than any mere private 
 pledge or public statute. 
 
 1809 — — Robert C. Winthrop. 
 
 rIKRE are in Shakespeare's 
 works more than five hundred 
 and fifty Biblical quotations, allusions, 
 references, and sentiments. " Hamlet " 
 alone contains about eighty, " Rich- 
 ard the Third" nearly fifty, "Henry 
 
a Cloub of IDttnesses, 129 
 
 the Fifth" and Richard the Second" 
 about forty each. Shakespeare quotes 
 from fifty-four of the Bibhcal books, 
 and not one of his thirty-seven plays 
 is without a Scriptural reference. 
 Genesis furnishes the poet thirty-one 
 quotations or allusions, the Psalms 
 with fifty-nine, Proverbs with thirty- 
 five, Isaiah with twenty-one, Matthew 
 with sixty, lyuke with thirty, and Ro- 
 mans with twenty. 
 
 Christopher Wordsworth, 
 Shakespeare and the Bible. 
 1807— 
 
 269 TT URN from the oracles of man, 
 still dim even in their clearest re- 
 ponse, to the oracles of God, which 
 are never dark. Bury all your books 
 when you feel the night of skepticism 
 gathering around you ; bury them all, 
 powerful though you may have 
 deemed their spells to illuminate the 
 unfathomable ; open your Bible, and 
 all the spiritual world will be bright 
 as day. 
 
 —John Wilson (Christopher North). 
 1785-1854. 
 
I30 (\ Cloub of IDttnesses, 
 
 270 T is my earnest wish, gentlemen, 
 that the words you have just heard 
 from the pulpit may find place and 
 realization in the hearts and thoughts 
 of all. ... If there is anything 
 that, amidst the drifting stress of the 
 world's life, can give us a holdfast, it 
 is the one, the solitary, foundation 
 which is laid in Jesus Christ. Do not 
 allow yourselves to be bewildered 
 into missing this, gentlemen, by the 
 flux of change which, especially at 
 the present period, traverses the 
 world. Do not join the multitude of 
 those who either ignore the Bible al- 
 together as the one foundation of truth, 
 or at least give it a spurious inter- 
 pretation of their own devising. You 
 all know that I am a member, on full 
 and free conviction, of Jthe '/ Positive 
 Union" established by my late dear 
 father. The basis and rock on which 
 I, and we all, are bound to fix our 
 foothold, is the unadulterated faith as 
 taught us by the Bible. There are, to 
 be sure, many who do not all take 
 exactly the same line of interpreta- 
 tion; each uses his knowledge and 
 
a Cloub of IDitnesses. 131 
 
 conscience as well as he can, and. 
 thereby regulates his acts and pur- 
 poses. . . . May all the Alumni 
 of this institution find this day so 
 blest to them that the knowledge of 
 God and his only-begotten Son Jesus 
 Christ, as the alone source of true 
 salvation, may advance in them ! 
 Bach indeed is free to deal with this 
 according to the voice of his con- 
 science; but all must build on the 
 foundation of the Bible and the Gos- 
 pel. lyCt but this be secured, and 
 all will be enabled to develop a Di- 
 vinely-blest ministerial work, each 
 according to his special gift. 
 
 1859 — — The Emperor Wii<IvIAm, 
 In an Adress at the Jubilee of the Ca- 
 thedral College for Candidates for 
 Orders. 
 
 271 KTIRK and read thy Bible, to be 
 
 gay; 
 There truths abound of sovereign aid 
 
 to peace; 
 Ah! do not prize them less, because 
 
 inspired, 
 
132 Ci Cloub of IDttnesses. 
 .4. 
 
 As thou and thine are apt and proud 
 
 to do. 
 If not inspired, that fragrant page 
 
 had stood, 
 Time's treasure, and the wonder of 
 
 the wise ! 
 1 68 1 -1765. — Edward Young. 
 
TKlBaTES. 
 Part 1 1 
 
HE Bible is like nature^ omnivor- 
 ous, yet healthful. It has a Di- 
 vine vitality y which enables it to absorb 
 and assimilate elements most diverse 
 and contradictory. Nature is ever 
 clean, healthful, and serene. Though 
 teeming cities may shed their filth upon 
 her bosom^ though the malaria may 
 reeky and the earthquake throb here 
 and there, yet she has an exhaustless, 
 recuperative, and assimilative energy , 
 which distills perfume from carrion, 
 sweetness from rottenness. So the 
 Bible, with all its contradictory moods, 
 and conflicting statements, is ever in- 
 finitely calm and healthful, because in- 
 finitely vital. Nature, jnan, and Scrip- 
 ture, when read with an open eye, prove 
 themselves to be successive volumes on 
 the same theme, and from the same Hand. 
 —FALES H. NEWHALL, D. D. 
 134 
 
part II. 
 
 272 T may be that this last battle of the 
 world is to prove the most terrible 
 of all. Satan is evidently bringing 
 up his reserves, and arming his hosts 
 for the heaviest onset the Church has 
 yet seen. Ancient paganism fell be- 
 fore the Gospel; mediaeval supersti- 
 tion gave way before it. But will not 
 these new organizations of evil in 
 which the human heart is displaying 
 its deadliest antipathies to God, prove 
 too strong for it? Will it not have to 
 retire discomfited before those armies 
 of the aliens? No; if this be the last 
 battle, there must out of it come a 
 last victory for the Book of God. 
 Whether that victory may result in 
 a wide acceptance of the Truth over 
 Europe is a question I do not under- 
 take to answer; but that there will 
 be a victory of some kind for the 
 Bible, I believe — victory which will 
 show that there is no amount of an- 
 tagonism to God which it can not 
 
 135 
 
136 (X Cloub of XDitnesses. 
 
 face, and no strength of human evil 
 with which it can not cope success- 
 fully as the power of God unto sal- 
 vation. 
 
 1 808-1 890. H. BONAR, 
 
 " White Fields of France," p. 324, 
 
 273 t^ HERE are philosophers of the 
 
 ■ world — your cosmogonists, or 
 whatever you please to term them — 
 that are boring down to the deepest 
 stratum to frame their hypotheses, 
 their ideas. God forbid that I should 
 hold for a moment true science to be 
 in quarrel with revelation. That can 
 never be. No, sir; the God who made 
 nature wrote the Bible ; and I am not 
 prepared to be an infidel as regards 
 the one principle any more than an 
 infidel as regards the other. 
 1805- 1 862. —George W. Bethune. 
 
 274 ^^HE inspired poetry of David or of 
 
 I Job, the simple narrative of the 
 evangelists, the fiery eloquence of 
 Peter and Paul, are unequaled by any 
 poets or prose-writers of any age or 
 country. And why should they not, 
 
CI Cloub of XDitnesses. 137 
 
 then, educate their students as well as 
 Homer or Virgil? 
 
 —Maud B. Booth, 
 "Beneath Two Flags," p. 249. 
 
 275 ^HAT the Bible is not less condu- 
 I cive to the well-being of man in 
 this life, than it is essential to his 
 hopes in that which is to come, as a 
 theoretical truth might in advance be 
 deduced from the character of the 
 Sacred Volume, the nature of its con- 
 tents and their adaptation to the char- 
 acter and condition of man, both as 
 an isolated individual and as a mem- 
 ber of organized society. As a prac- 
 tical truth it is established by our 
 experience of the past, and is there- 
 fore an historical fact; indeed, the 
 course of the sun in the progress of 
 the seasons is not more distinctly 
 marked by its impress on vegetable 
 life than has been the dissemination 
 of the Bible in its influence upon the 
 individual character and the social 
 condition of man. Wherever the 
 Bible has been circulated it has re- 
 
138 ex <£loub of IPttnesses. 
 
 claimed the individual from supersti- 
 tion ;__ha^._exLlightened, purified, and 
 given true direction to that religious 
 principle which seems to be a constit- 
 uent element in his nature. . , . 
 Still more extensive has been the in- 
 fluence of the Bible upon man's social 
 condition. . . . Wherever it has 
 gone it has carried with it juster no- 
 tions of individual rights and sounder 
 views of the true end and object of 
 government. It has exerted a great 
 and benign influence upon the enact- 
 ment of laws and their execution. 
 It has given its solemn sanction to 
 the establishment of right, and has 
 tempered with mercy the administra- 
 tion of justice. And while it has 
 meliorated the punishment of of- 
 fenses by the introduction and im- 
 provement of penitentiary and cor- 
 rectional systems, it has greatly 
 strengthened those of preventive po- 
 lice by imposing its binding restraints 
 upon the indulgence of the passions 
 and the commission of crimes. 
 Equally great and salutary has been 
 the influence of the Bible upon 
 
N 
 
 (X Cloub of IDttnesses, 139 
 
 the mental labors and the intellectual 
 condi tion ■ < ) £ ma n in all ages and in 
 all countries. It has chastened his 
 imagination and invigorated his judg- 
 ment. It has purified literature, ele- 
 vated philosophy, directed science to 
 its true ends and aims, and thus effect- 
 ually contributed to the advancement 
 of civilization and the melioration of 
 the world. 
 
 — Hon. lyUTHKR Bradish, 
 Address before the American Bible So- 
 ciety. 
 1783-1863. 
 
 276 OT only does the Bible inculcate 
 
 with sanctions of highest import 
 a system of the purest morality; but 
 in the person and character of our 
 blessed Savior it exhibits a tangible 
 illustration of that system. In him 
 we have set before us — what, till the 
 publication of the Gospel, the world 
 had never seen — a model of feeling 
 and action, adapted to all times, 
 places, and circumstances; and com- 
 bining so much of wisdom, benev- 
 
140 a Cloub of IDitnesses. 
 
 olence, and holiness, that none can 
 fathom its sublimity ; and yet pre- 
 sented in a form so simple that even 
 a child may be made to understand 
 and taught to love it. 
 
 — Benjamin F. Butler, 
 In an Address at Alexandria, D C. 
 1818-1876. 
 
 277 ■|>' HIS Work in all ages of the 
 ■ world has ever met the wants of 
 man, has ever answered the earnest 
 questions of a struggling spirit as no 
 human philosophy ever can. While 
 it offers its truths to those men 
 highly endowed by God, it is emphat- 
 ically also the poor man's Book, 
 though he may be ignorant of the 
 various arguments to support it. 
 The Scriptures come home to his na- 
 ture and meet the various wants of 
 his soul, and he finds a basis for be- 
 lief that the hands of infidelity can 
 never tear down. They bring him 
 comfort in his hours of despondency. 
 Were the Bible removed, the millions 
 of earth would be like mariners upon 
 
(X €ionb of tPttnesses. 141 
 ♦■ 
 
 the stormy ocean without pole-star 
 or compass. 
 
 1817 — — Joseph Cummings, 
 
 President Wesleyan University. 
 
 278 IT is a grand subject for meditation, 
 ■ to behold in our modern societies 
 the love of the holy doctrines of the 
 Gospel advancing with the progress 
 of philosophy and of political insti- 
 tutions, so that the nations which are 
 most advanced in civilization and in 
 liberty are also the most religious, 
 the most truly Christian. 
 
 — Baron De Stael (fi/s). 
 
 279 WHENCE has sprung this redeem- 
 ■■ ing spirit that has already borne 
 its blessings to every clime ; that floats 
 the Bethel flag, penetrates the gloom 
 of the prison; that soothes the or- 
 phan's cry, and pleads the cause of 
 the widow; that opens the stores of 
 thought and memory to the long- 
 bound intellects of the deaf and 
 dumb ; that is now closing the door 
 of the dram-shop — that broad and 
 
142 Ct Cloub of IDttnesses. 
 
 crowded gateway to despair — and 
 is sounding the alarm and concen- 
 trating the efforts of the wise and 
 good in view of the Sabbath profa- 
 nation? The Bible has done all, 
 sir. Seal up this one volume, and in 
 half a century all these hopes would 
 wither and these prospects perish for- 
 ever. Those sacred temples would 
 crumble or become receptacles of pol- 
 lution and crime. 
 
 — Theodore Frelinghuysen. 
 1787-1 
 
 280 Y present object is to hint at the 
 intimate connection between the 
 Bible and our national prosperity. 
 The destinies of our beloved country 
 are peculiarly associated with the 
 Bible. It was under the auspices of 
 the Bible that our country was set- 
 tled ; it was the Bible that conducted 
 the Pilgrim to our eastern, and the 
 Friend to our central wilderness. If 
 the revolution which made us free dif- 
 fered in mildness of character from all 
 previous revolutions, it was because 
 the Bible mitigated its severity. If 
 
ex Cloub of IDttnesses- 143 
 
 our emancipated country has risen 
 from infancy to vigorous youth, if 
 she is now hailed as the hope of the 
 world, the tyrant's dread, and the 
 patriot's boast, let her thank her 
 statesmen much; let her thank her 
 Bible more. A despotic government 
 may subsist without the Bible ; a re- 
 public can not. A republic can not, 
 like a despotic government, be sus- 
 tained by force. She can not, like a 
 despot, tame her children into heart- 
 less submission by the bayonets of a 
 mercenary army; her bayonets are 
 reserved for the invading foe. She 
 must depend for domestic tranquillity, 
 for preserving her mild institutions 
 pure and unimpaired, on the wide 
 diffusion of moral principle. Were 
 men angels, they would need no gov- 
 ernment but the precepts of their 
 Creator. Were they devils, they must 
 be bound in adamantine chains; and 
 as they approximate the one state or 
 the other, their government must be 
 free or must be severe. The patriot 
 then, as well as the Christian, must 
 anxiously inquire, What are the best 
 
144 a £Iou6 of XPitnesses. 
 
 '♦■ 
 
 means of promoting, what the surest 
 foundation of human virtue ? . . . 
 The Being who made man has also 
 condescended to propose a plan for 
 his moral improvement; a plan ex- 
 ceeding in eJBfect all human systems 
 as far as the Legislator of the heavens 
 surpasses in wisdom the statesmen of 
 earth. The Bible is not a scheme of 
 abstract faith and doctrine; its great 
 object is to render man virtuous here, 
 and thus prepare him for happiness 
 hereafter. ... It pervades every 
 department of society, and brings its 
 variegated mass within the influence 
 of that high moral principle which 
 is the only substitute for despotic 
 power. This controlling and sus- 
 taining principle has no substantial 
 basis but the Bible; its other founda- 
 tions have ever proved to be sand. 
 The Bible is found to be its only 
 rock. ... A republic without the 
 Bible will inevitably become the vic- 
 tim of licentiousness; it contains 
 within itself the turbulent and un- 
 tamable elements of its own destruc- 
 tion. There is no political Bden for 
 
CI Cloub of IDttnesses. 145 
 ■♦■ 
 
 fallen man save what the Bible pro- 
 tects. — George Griffin, 
 
 New York. Address before the Amer- 
 ican Bible Society. 
 
 281 ^KSPOTISM may exist independ- 
 ent of morality; but republics 
 soon perish when the people becomes 
 corrupt. The efforts of Christian 
 patriots, therefore, must be directed 
 to elevate and sustain the moral 
 character of our citizens; and no 
 method is so efficient to this end as to 
 imbue them with the knowledge and 
 wisdom of the Bible. It opens to our 
 view the only true source of moral 
 obligation or of public and private 
 duty, and enforces these with the 
 only sanctions that can affect the 
 mind and reach the conscience of man; 
 namely, the omniscience and goodness 
 and mercy of God and the certain ret- 
 ributions of the life to come. With- 
 out these sanctions, the laws are no 
 longer observed; oaths lose their 
 hold on the conscience; promises are 
 violated; frauds are multiplied, and 
 moral obligation is dissolved. And 
 
146 a Cloub of XPttnesses. 
 
 these securities natural religion does 
 not furnish; they are found in the 
 Bible alone. In sublimity of thought, 
 in grandeur of conception, in purity 
 and elevation of moral principle, in 
 the practical wisdom of its teachings, 
 and, above all, in the high and im- 
 portant character of its themes, the 
 Holy Bible is not even approached 
 by any human composition. 
 
 —Simon Greenlkaf, 
 Harvard University School of Law. 
 1781-1853. 
 
 282 1¥/K say, then, that the writings 
 " about which there is no dispute 
 amongst Christians, and which have 
 any particular person's name affixed 
 to them are that author's whose title 
 they are marked with, because the 
 first writers quote those books under 
 those names. Neither did any hea- 
 thens or Jews raise any controversy as 
 if they were not the works of those 
 whose they were said to be. . . . 
 There is no reason for us Christians 
 to doubt the credibility of these 
 
CI (Cloub of tPttnesses. 147 
 ■ ♦■ 
 
 books (of the Old Testament) because 
 there are testimonies in our books 
 (of the New Testament) out of al- 
 most every one of them. Nor did 
 Christ, when he reproved many things 
 in the teachers of the I^aw, ever ac- 
 cuse them of falsifying the books of 
 Moses and the Prophets, or of using 
 supposititious or altered books. And 
 it can never be proved or made cred- 
 itable that after Christ's time the 
 Scripture should be corrupted in any- 
 thing of moment, if we do but con- 
 sider how far and wide the Jewish 
 nation, who everywhere kept these 
 books, was dispersed over the whole 
 world. Hugo Grotius. 
 
 1583-1645. 
 
 283 I KT this precious Volume have its 
 ■■ proper influence on the hearts of 
 men, and our liberties are safe, our 
 country blessed, and the world happy. 
 There is not a tie that unites us to 
 our families, not a virtue that endears 
 us to our country, nor a hope that 
 thrills your bosoms in the prospect of 
 future happiness, that has not its 
 
148 a (Cloub of IDttnesses. 
 
 foundation in this Sacred Book. It 
 is the charter of characters — the pal- 
 ladium of liberty — the standard of 
 righteousness. Its Divine influence 
 can soften the heart of the tyrant, can 
 break the rod of the oppressor, and 
 exalt the humblest peasant to the 
 dignified rank of an immortal being, 
 an heir of eternal glory. 
 1777-1864. — John C. Hornblower, 
 
 Chief Justice of New Jersey. 
 
 284 MO good for bad white man to tell 
 
 N 
 
 stopped my swearin' and stealin' and 
 lyin', when I'd done 'em all forty 
 years steady. It 's a miracle that I 've 
 stopped, but it would be a bigger one 
 if a book that wa'n't true could 'a' 
 made me." — Indian Convert. 
 
 285 IJUMAN laws labor under many 
 ■ i other great imperfections. They 
 extend to external actions only. They 
 can not reach that catalogue of secret 
 crimes which are committed without 
 any witness save the all-seeing eye 
 of that Being whose presence is 
 
a Cloub of IDttnesses, 149 
 
 everywhere, and whose laws reach 
 the hidden recesses of vice, and carry 
 their sanctions to the thoughts and 
 intents of the heart. In this view 
 the doctrines of the Bible supply all 
 the deficiencies of human laws, and 
 lend an essential aid to the adminis- 
 tration of justice. — ^jAMEs Kent, 
 1763-1847. Chancellor, New York. 
 
 286 jp^Y opinion of the Sacred Volume 
 
 is, that it is to a nation as the 
 keystone to the arch. No nation can 
 long exist in peace that does not re- 
 spect it. It carries peace and happi- 
 ness into every society where its pre- 
 cepts are loved and its commands 
 obeyed. To the young, its value and 
 importance are beyond compare. 
 
 — Coi^ONEIv LOOMIS, 
 
 1852— United States Army. 
 
 287 ijs the king among his subjects, as 
 
 the sun among the stars, so is the 
 Bible compared with every other 
 book. . . . It is to this blessed Vol- 
 ume that we are indebted for the gen- 
 
ISO CX Cloub of XPitnesses. 
 
 eral temperance, industry, and content- 
 ment of the teeming millions of this 
 happy and highly-favored country. 
 — Joseph Henry Lumpkin, 
 i8i2-i86o. Chief Justice, Georgia. 
 
 288^ HE Book is not the truth ; it con- 
 ■ tains it. The types and words are 
 not the truth or the Word of God ; 
 they are but the outward expression 
 and symbols of that Word. 
 
 — Chari.ES Pettit McIlvaine, 
 
 Bishop Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 Address at 42 d Anniversary American 
 
 Bible Society. 
 
 1799-1873. 
 
 289 ttUT herein to our Prophets far be- 
 ■^ neath 
 As men divinely taught and better 
 
 teaching 
 The solid rules of civil government 
 In their majestic, unaffected style, 
 Than all the oratory of Greece and 
 
 Rome. 
 In them is plainest taught and easiest 
 
 learnt 
 
CI Cloub of IPttnesses, 151 
 - — 4— r 
 
 What makes a nation happy, and 
 
 keeps it so, 
 What ruins kingdoms and lays cities 
 
 flat. 
 1608-1674. —John Milton. 
 
 290 M O one can estimate or describe the 
 salutary influences of the Bible. 
 What would the world be without 
 it ? Compare the dark places of the 
 earth where the light of the Gospel 
 has not penetrated with those where 
 it has been proclaimed and embraced 
 in all its purity. . . . The Bible 
 has shed a glorious light upon our 
 world. . . The Bible has given us 
 a sublime and pure morality, to which 
 the world was a stranger. . . . 
 No system out of the Bible recog- 
 nizes an Omniscient Power which 
 scrutinizes the actions of men, and, 
 looking behind the act, takes notice 
 of the motive. . . . The laws 
 
152 d (£loub of IPttnesses. 
 .♦■ 
 
 which belong to the social relation are 
 found in the Bible. 
 
 — John McI^ean, 
 Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court. 
 1785-1861. 
 On the Wholesome Influence of the 
 Bible on our Social and Civil lyife. 
 
 291 ^ S bread accompanies all our meals 
 " all through our lives, so ought 
 the reading of the Word of God to 
 accompany all our studies. 
 
 — Je:an Frederick Oberun. 
 1 735-1 806. 
 
 i we believe the Scriptures to con- 
 tain a declaration of the mind and 
 will of God in and to those ages in 
 which they were written ; being given 
 forth by the Holy Ghost, moving in 
 the hearts of holy men of God; that 
 they ought also to be read, believed, 
 and fulfilled in our day ; being use- 
 ful for reproof and inspiration, that 
 
Ct Cloub of IDitnesses. 153 
 
 >♦■ 
 
 the man of God may be perfect. 
 They are a declaration and testimony 
 of heavenly things, but not the heav- 
 enly things themselves, and, as such, 
 we carry a high respect for them. 
 We accept them as the words of God 
 himself; and, by the assistance of his 
 Spirit, they are read with great in- 
 struction and comfort. 
 1644-17 18. — ^William Penn. 
 
 *93 There is a saying, as true as it is 
 ■ trite, that we seldom estimate 
 blessings properly until we have lost 
 them ; and perhaps, therefore, the vast 
 importance of the Bible, not only to 
 ourselves, but to those unhappy beings 
 who have never known it, may be 
 best imagined and most strongly im- 
 pressed upon our minds by consider- 
 ing, for a moment, what we our- 
 selves would be without it. Sup- 
 pose, then, that at this very mo- 
 ment the Bible, with all the institu- 
 tions connected with it, were blotted 
 from existence, what would be the 
 effect upon this happy and enlight- 
 
154 ^ £Iou6 of IDttnesses. 
 ♦ 
 
 ened land? Would it not become 
 comparatively a scene of worse than 
 Egyptian darkness and savage barbar- 
 ism ? Would it not become, compared 
 with what it now is, a melancholy 
 scene of civil, political, and moral 
 degradation; and exhibit the same 
 relation to its present palmy state 
 that is now presented by the pagan 
 and heathen natives of the world? 
 Can there be a doubt of this? Is it 
 not a fact that exactly in proportion as 
 the principles of the Gospel prevail 
 among a people, or they are ignorant 
 of and unactuated by them, so they 
 are either distinguished by all the 
 qualities and endowments that ele- 
 vate and purify and adorn our na- 
 ture, or debased by the vices and 
 abominations that degrade it ? Is it 
 not a fact that heathen nations gen- 
 erally are the more ignorant and bar- 
 barous on the earth; and that while 
 all Christian nations are immeasurably 
 elevated above the heathen in knowl- 
 edge, virtue, and benevolence, so the 
 relative rank and attainments of 
 Christian uations themselves are gov- 
 
a (£Iou6 of IDitnesses. 155 
 
 emed by the extra degree in which 
 they possess and practice the Gospel 
 in its purity ? 
 
 — H. ly. PiNCKNEY, M. C, 
 From South CaroHna. 
 In Address at Bible Meeting, District 
 of Columbia. 1834. 
 
 ^94 Jn New Zealand, and in other parts 
 ' of the world, we are laying the foun- 
 dation of new societies; and the future 
 character and moral tendency of those 
 societies which may spring up into 
 great kingdoms may be, and no doubt 
 will be, determined by the basis of 
 moral and religious instruction upon 
 which we now establish them. If at 
 their first institution there be no pains 
 taken to instill into their minds the 
 principles of true religion, in place of 
 becoming great and valuable king- 
 doms, the inhabitants may become 
 pests to all around them, corrupting 
 all within their reach ; but if, in lay- 
 ing the foundation of their future 
 empire, we shall sow the truth of 
 real religion, hereafter this land may 
 
156 CI £lou6 of IDttnesses. 
 ■♦ 
 
 claim for itself the proud and high 
 distinction of having propagated the 
 knowledge and Word of God, and of 
 having laid the foundation, not only 
 of great, but moral kingdoms. 
 1788-1850. — Robert Peeiv, 
 
 From Address, Tamworth. 1827. 
 
 295 P^ANY and ingenious speculations 
 * ■ have been given to the world to 
 account for the repeated and disas- 
 trous failure of the successive attempts 
 which have been made, during the 
 last seventy years, to establish and 
 sustain a system of free government 
 in this country. However nu- 
 merous and various the secondary 
 causes to which the melancholy and 
 remarkable fact may be ascribed, the 
 one efficient and primary cause, I am 
 convinced, is to be found in the gen- 
 eral eradication from the national 
 mind of Divine truth and Divine au- 
 thority by the philosophy, falsely so- 
 called, of the last century, which had 
 its origin and has continued to main- 
 tain its fatal influence here. The 
 French nation has not been wanting 
 
(Z (Zlonb of IDUnesses. 157 
 
 in many of the circumstances ordina- 
 rily deemed the most essential to the 
 practice and support of free govern- 
 ment. They have undoubtedly had, 
 in their successive essays at constitu- 
 tional liberty, the aid and direction of 
 many men of great and distinguished 
 talents, in a worldly sense, both in 
 the cabinet and the senate. Nor are 
 the mass of the people so ignorant 
 and uninformed on general topics as 
 is by some imagined. With the ex- 
 ception of the mere rural laborers, it 
 would be hard to find any country 
 in which the population engaged in 
 the ordinary industrious callings of life 
 are more intelligent, nimble-witted, 
 and even exercised in reading of cer- 
 tain kinds. There is one Book, how- 
 ever, which remains sealed, for the 
 the most part, to all classes of so- 
 ciety, and that is the Book of Eter- 
 nal Wisdom, with all its precious 
 lessons of duty to God and man, of 
 temperance, of moderation, of self- 
 control, of conscientious obedience to 
 the still small voice within. Hence it 
 is that in the agitations and struggles 
 
158 a £loub of IDitnesses. 
 4. 
 
 inseparable from the existence of civil 
 and political freedom, abandoned to 
 the infirmities of our common nature, 
 without the chastening discipline of 
 the Gospel, they have had no internal 
 strength to fortify and keep them 
 erect against the disturbing influ- 
 ences from without, and to restrain 
 the violence and fury of the passions ; 
 no monitor to recall them, from time 
 to time, from the eagerness of their 
 worldly contentions and pursuits to 
 the recollection of their immortal 
 destinies and responsibilities; no 
 standard of infallible truth by which 
 to try the inventions of mere human 
 reason. And thus have we seen in so 
 many instances, in this country, a fit- 
 ful and spurious liberty degenerating 
 into license and crime, or torn and 
 distracted by factions, or frightening 
 mankind by the proclamation of new 
 and disorganizing theories, to be swal- 
 lowed up at last in a degrading and 
 relentless despotism. The lesson 
 which the melancholy experience of 
 France teaches on this subject is 
 one of universal application. The 
 
(X £lou6 of IDttnesses. 159 
 
 blessings of a free popular govern- 
 ment can not, I am convinced, be long 
 preserved anywhere but by the influ- 
 ence and discipline of the Christian 
 religion deeply implanted in the 
 hearts and lives of all classes of so- 
 ciety. 
 
 — William Cabell Rives, 
 1793-1868. United States Minister to 
 France. 1852. 
 On the Connection Between Civil and 
 Political Liberty and the Study and 
 Reverence of the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 296 I HAVE had this Bible as my com- 
 
 ■ panion for fifty-three years. Forty- 
 one years of that time I have spent at 
 sea; I have been in forty-five engage- 
 ments; have been fifteen times 
 wounded, and three times ship- 
 wrecked; I have had fevers, of dif- 
 ferent kinds, fifteen times. But my 
 consolation has always been in this 
 little Companion of mine. 
 
 — An English Seaman, 
 On showing a well-worn Bible at the 
 depository of the I^ondon Bible So- 
 ciety. 
 
i6o CI Cloub of IDitncsses* 
 •*• 
 
 297WOUIyD that a history of the 
 *^ American Revolution could 
 have been written by one who, 
 like Xenophon, was a distinguished 
 actor in the scenes described, and 
 who, imbued with the right spirit, 
 could illustrate by appropriate facts 
 the influence which animated and 
 upheld the agents in that mighty 
 struggle! In such a work, if I mis- 
 take not, the present and future gen- 
 erations would perceive the fruits of 
 early Biblical instruction, and learn 
 the value of the Bible in the day of 
 adversity. They would see the effect 
 of a mother's early faithfulness to 
 the immortal Washington, who suf- 
 fered not a day to pass over him 
 without consulting his Bible. They 
 would behold in an American Con- 
 gress, fully exemplified, the union of 
 humble piety with exalted patriot- 
 ism ; a body on whom the whole con- 
 duct of the war was developed, but 
 who, nevertheless, could anxiously 
 deliberate on the means of obtaining 
 from abroad (such was their estimate 
 of its worth) copies of the Sacred 
 
(X £lou6 of IDitnesses. i6i 
 
 Volume for their destitute and implor- 
 ing fellow-citizens; in short, they 
 would perceive, not only the gallant 
 bearing of a patriot army, but their 
 patient endurance under unparalleled 
 privations, and the invincible spirit 
 displayed by all classes of a suffering 
 people plainly ascribable, in no mod- 
 erate degree, to an early and deeply- 
 impressed acquaintance with the Bi- 
 ble through the medium of maternal 
 faithfulness and the common school. 
 — John Cotton Smith. 
 1765-1845. 
 
 298 fcj ERE, then, the body of educated 
 ■■ men must take their stand. By 
 all the means in their power they 
 must endeavor to avert the pestilent 
 mischief of desecrating the places of 
 instruction, of separating the cul- 
 ture of the heart from that of the 
 mind, and under the pretense of a lib- 
 eral morality that is clear in its source, 
 pure in its precepts, and efficacious 
 in its influence — t/ie morality of the 
 Gospel. — ^JoHN Sargent, 
 
 Address Nassau Hall. 
 u 
 
i62 a Cloub of IPttnesses. 
 
 299 THE antiquary will return, with no 
 
 ■ ordinary curiosity, to the earliest 
 complete volume that remains to us 
 of ancient manuscript, and the first 
 that issued from the press after the 
 invention of printing. The historian, 
 if he regards it of no higher author- 
 ity than Herodotus, will prize it as 
 the precursor of that author and the 
 foundation of his department. The 
 statesman will face the outlines of the 
 earliest legislation and jurisprudence 
 known to history, and the most per- 
 fect moral code of any age or country. 
 The lawyer, in the details of the pro- 
 fessional pursuits which engage his 
 attention through life, will meet with 
 many pertinent examples and instruc- 
 tions. — David Swain, 
 1 801-1868. Governor North Carolina. 
 
 300 "y^K Scriptures also teach that to 
 
 " derive all the benefit which God 
 designed to bestow in revealing him- 
 self to his fallen creatures, man, on 
 his part, must strive to do God's will. 
 Let man do this, and he will know 
 whether the Bible is the Word of God 
 
a CIou6 of tPttnesses. 163 
 .4, 
 
 or a cunningly devised fable. Men of 
 any experience and observation must 
 have seen those who have been re- 
 claimed from a profane and immoral 
 course of conduct to sobriety, truth, 
 piety, and happiness, by studying and 
 obeying the Sacred Oracles of eternal 
 truth. — Commodore Skinner, 
 
 United States Navy. 1852. 
 
 301 ^HH Bible is the grand charter of 
 
 ■ man's political and civil equality, 
 liberty, and order. It is the guardian 
 and the only adequate protector of 
 his social happiness. Should the hu- 
 man race ever come fully under its 
 influence, both national wars and per- 
 sonal dissensions would cease, and this 
 world would become a terrestrial par- 
 adise. 
 
 — Benjamin Silliman, Sr., 
 1 779-1 864. Yale College. 
 
 302 ^NF all men, American scholars 
 ^^ ought not to be ignorant of any- 
 thing which the Bible contains. If 
 Cicero could declare that the laws of 
 the twelve tables were worth all the 
 
x64 a (£Iou6 of Witmsszs* 
 
 libraries of the philosophers ; if they 
 were the carmen 7iecessarium of the 
 Roman youth, — how laboriously 
 ought you to investigate its contents, 
 and inscribe them upon your hearts! 
 — Samuei. I/Ewis Southard, 
 1 787-1842. Governor of New Jersey. 
 
 303 IF there be any one subject that at 
 ' this day commands general atten- 
 tion, it is that of national and social 
 oppression. This is not confined to 
 one country or one people, but it is 
 so throughout all Christendom. Hu- 
 manity everywhere rises up and de- 
 nies the law of its bondage. . . . 
 How were the American people elec- 
 trified by the masses of Europe link- 
 ing together in one brotherhood, the 
 high and the low, under impulses 
 common to our nature ! All this we 
 saw with amazement and delight, and 
 then we beheld the ground, so nobly 
 won, all lost. Despotism and treach- 
 ery decimated and crushed the forces 
 of the free. Why was this? We 
 changed our form of government, and 
 peace and quiet followed. They made 
 
d Cloub of IDitnesses. 165 
 
 ■^ 
 
 the same attempt, and failed. The 
 cause did not exist in mere outward 
 circumstances, but in the want of 
 those early associations derived from 
 the Word of God. A free Bible 
 makes free men the world over. With- 
 out Bible views of liberty and equal- 
 ity, the American Revohition would 
 have been smothered in its own 
 blood. . . . We hear much of 
 the mission of the American people. 
 One mission, at least, we have; but it 
 should be understood that our suc- 
 cess lies, not in outward constitutions, 
 but in those inner principles that are 
 the seeds of a Christian democrac}^ 
 Constitutions and charters are all well, 
 but they must have their basis in that 
 great charter given by the King Eter- 
 nal, immortal, and invisible, as a foun- 
 dation on which to erect the super- 
 structure of human rights. The late- 
 lamented IvCgare said that every man 
 who stepped from the MayJIower was 
 himself a living constitution ; and un- 
 til Europe posseses such men she will 
 pant for liberty in vain. We can be 
 liberty-propagandists only by becom- 
 
i66 CI (£lou6 of IPttncsses. 
 .^ 
 
 ing Bible-propagandists. Carlyle may- 
 write his latter-day pamphlets to try 
 to stay the progress of democracy, but 
 here, in the Bible, is the great latter- 
 day pamphlet which will survive that 
 great day for which all other days 
 were made. It needs no eulogy. 
 Christianity has written it on the 
 whole course of her history. 
 
 — John Thompson, 
 In an Address to the theme : The Bible, 
 in its letter and spirit, furnishes 
 the best of all standards by which 
 to test the numerous theories of the 
 day for improving the condition and 
 prospects of the race. 
 
 304 I ACCEPT, with gratitude and pleas- 
 ■ ure, your gift of this inestimable 
 Volume. It was for the love of the 
 truths of this great and good Book 
 that our fathers abandoned their na- 
 tive shores for the wilderness. Ani- 
 mated by its lofty principles, they 
 toiled and suffered till the desert 
 blossomed as the rose. These same 
 truths sustained them in their resolu- 
 tion to become a free nation ; and, 
 
(X (£ioub of IDitnesses. 167 
 ■♦■ 
 guided by the wisdom of this Book, 
 they founded a government under 
 which we have grown from three mill- 
 ions to more than twenty millions of 
 people, and from being but a stock 
 on the borders of this continent, we 
 have spread from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific. — Zachary Taylor, 
 
 1 784-1 850. 1 2th President of the U. S. 
 
 To the ladies of Frankfort, on receiving 
 
 a copy of the Bible bound with that of 
 
 the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 305 R^ government, we are to under- 
 ■^ stand the power that makes and 
 administers law. Kvery government 
 has certain duties to discharge ; fore- 
 most among which is the restraint of 
 the passions of man, the repression of 
 turbulence and disorder, and this is 
 the direct object of a police. The ne- 
 cessity for such action grows out of 
 the universal prevalence of passions 
 that need to be repressed. The form 
 of this police depends upon the genius 
 of the people who are governed. In 
 a despotic nation it is very simple, 
 consisting merely in the exercise of 
 
i68 <X (£lou6 of XPttncsses* 
 
 terror and of force. So in decayed 
 and false republics, like that of Ven- 
 ice, the police has a secret and un- 
 bounded power. But in such a coun- 
 try as ours the problem is one not so 
 easily solved. Yet here, it must be 
 manifest that a vigilant and effective 
 police is absolutely necessary to the 
 prevalence of order and of quiet. The 
 liberty of speech and opinion which 
 prevails renders this essential, and to 
 accomplish this object we must look 
 to something more than the array of 
 civil officers. There is little in our 
 form of government to inspire awe or 
 fear; ft operates silently and almost 
 unnoticed. We must have other and 
 stronger support than the array of 
 authority finds. And although the 
 intelligence of the people is one great 
 element of this reliance, still to the 
 Bible, and to the power of the truths 
 which it contains, are we far more in- 
 debted than to any other cause for 
 the preservation of order and of peace 
 throughout the land. Even this city, 
 with a vastly increased police, with- 
 out the Bible, without the pulpit, 
 
CI (£Iou6 of IPitnesses. 169 
 
 without any of the influences that 
 flow from the power of reHgious truth, 
 could not preserve peace and order 
 and security of person and property, 
 for a single year. The Bible makes 
 a man afraid to do wrong, because it 
 teaches him that he thereby violates 
 the laws of his conscience and his God. 
 And by this influence alone it con- 
 tributes immensely to the peace and 
 good order of the community. The 
 Bible, moreover, infuses into the bosom 
 of every man a feeling of self-control, 
 and in so doing it lays the foundation 
 for a simple, thorough, and effective 
 government of the country. The 
 cheapness of this method of police, 
 moreover, should commend it to the fa- 
 vor of this money-loving age. In all 
 respects it is infinitely superior to 
 every measure of secret espionage to 
 which a Napoleon or a Nicholas may 
 resort. The elements of such a moral 
 police, it is evident, must be everywhere 
 diffused ; must pervade ' all classes, 
 purify all motives, and inspire every- 
 where a regard for justice and for the 
 high and holy truths of the Word of 
 
I70 a Cloub of XDitnesses. 
 •♦- 
 
 God. To accomplish this, the Bible 
 must find its way into every family 
 and every school-house in the coun- 
 tr5^ Nothing short of this will insure 
 success. Men must be fed, and fed 
 abundantly, with the Bread of Life. 
 1 800-1 877. — Emory Washburn, 
 
 Governor of Massachusetts. 
 Speaking to the theme : The general 
 diffusion of the Holy Scriptures, as an 
 efficient measure of domestic police in 
 a republic, deserves the countenance 
 and support of every friend of our free 
 institutions. 
 
 306 I REGRET that my time is not 
 * more at my command, that I might 
 evince the interest I feel in the Bi- 
 ble-cause by something of more ac- 
 count than mere profession. It is de- 
 lightful to witness the exertions that 
 are now making b}^ the Christian world 
 to dispel the night of ignorance that 
 yet obscures so large a portion of this 
 
CI Cloub of IDttnesses. 171 
 
 planet, and to supply its place by the 
 light of the cross. The manifesta- 
 tions of Divine support are well- 
 fitted to awaken all our energies and 
 excite us to higher efforts than have 
 ever yet been made. Even if we 
 should not succeed to the full extent 
 of our hopes and wishes, we shall 
 make such an impression as shall 
 shake the heathen world and prepare 
 the way for a complete victory by 
 those who are to follow us. Nay, 
 even if we fail in a great attempt, and 
 the grandeur and philanthropy of the 
 enterprise must be reward enough 
 for all our exertions. But we shall 
 not fail. There is a God who looks 
 down upon us and witnesses our ef- 
 forts, and a Savior who approves and 
 will sustain us by his intercession. 
 The cause is good, the hearts that 
 support it are true and good, and the 
 God who upholds it is almighty. Let 
 us go on, then, with courage and con- 
 stancy, nothing doubting, and the 
 Red Sea will open before us, the 
 Rock in the desert will pour forth its 
 stream, and the Eastern wilderness 
 
172 <X Cloub of IDitnesscs. 
 ^ 
 
 will once more bud and blossom like 
 the rose. — WiIvLiam Wirt, 
 
 1772-1834. 
 
 Attorney-General, United States. 
 
 From a letter addressed, in 1838, to a 
 
 meeting in New York, the design of 
 
 which was to increase the circulation 
 
 of the Scriptures throughout the world. 
 
 READ the Bible! Read the Bible ! 
 Let no religious book take its 
 place. Through all my perplexities 
 and distresses I never read any other 
 book, and I never felt the want of any 
 other. It has been my hourly study ; 
 and all my knowledge of the doctrines, 
 and all my acquaintance with the ex- 
 perience and realities of religion, 
 have been derived from the Bible 
 only. I think religious people do not 
 read the Bible enough. Books about 
 religion may be useful enough, but 
 they will not do instead of the simple 
 truth of the Bible. 
 
 — William Wilberforce. 
 1 789-1 833. His dying words. 
 
CI (Cloub of XDttnesses. 173 
 4. 
 
 308 ^PO those who have carefully ob- 
 
 ■ served or considered the progress 
 of civil and religious freedom at dif- 
 ferent times and in various countries, 
 it can be hardly necessary to say, it 
 has always been the most rapid as 
 well as the most healthy where the 
 Bible was most widely disseminated, 
 and where the sacred truths contained 
 therein were brought home to the 
 greatest number of the people. In- 
 deed, there is no nation, although 
 nominally civilized and Christianized, 
 which has made any very great ad- 
 vancement in the amelioration and 
 improvement of the social condition 
 of the masses except those nations 
 where the Sacred Scriptures were in 
 the hands of and studied by the peo- 
 ple generally. 
 
 — Reuben Henry Walworth, 
 1 789-1 867. Chancellor, New York. 
 
 309 I SHALL, however, as being in duty 
 ' bound to follow the truth so far as 
 I can discern it, have to make many 
 confessions to the prejudice, not, as I 
 trust, of Christian belief or of the 
 
174 ^ <£lou6 of XDttnesses. 
 
 Sacred Volume, but only of us who, 
 as its students, have failed gravely 
 and at many points in the duty of a 
 temperate and cautious treatment of 
 it, as unhappily we have also failed in 
 every other duty. But as the lines 
 and laws of duty at large remain un- 
 obscured, notwithstanding the imper- 
 fections everywhere diffused, so we 
 may trust that sufl&cient light yet re- 
 mains for us, if duly followed, whereby 
 to establish the authority and sufl&- 
 ciency of tloly Scripture for its high 
 moral and spiritual purposes. For 
 the present I have endeavored to 
 point out that the operations of crit- 
 icism, properly so-called, affecting as 
 they do the library form of the books, 
 leave the questions of history, mir- 
 acle, revelation, substantially where 
 they found them. I shall in several 
 succeeding papers strive to show, at 
 least by specimens, that science and 
 research have done much to sustain 
 the historical credit of the Old Testa- 
 ment ; that in doing this they have 
 added strength to the argument which 
 contends that in them we find a Di- 
 
Ci (£Iou6 of IDttncsses. 175 
 
 vine revelation ; and that the evi- 
 dence, rationally viewed, both of con- 
 tents and of results, binds us to stand 
 where our forefathers have stood, 
 upon the ImpregnabIvE Rock of 
 Holy Scripture. 
 
 — W11.1.1AM EwART Gladstone, 
 " The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scrip- 
 ture." 
 1809 — 
 
W TS light is like the body of heaven 
 in its clearness; its vastness, like the 
 bosom of the sea; its variety y like 
 scenes of nature. 
 
 JOHN HENRY NEWMAN. 
 
 nr^AKE away the Bible from us and 
 our warfare against intemperance^ 
 and impurity, and oppression, and in- 
 fidelity, a?id crime, is at an end. We 
 have no atctkority to speak, no courage 
 to act. 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, 
 
 JpOR many books I care not, and my store 
 
 Might now suffice me, though I had 
 
 no more 
 
 Than God^s two Testaments, and then withal 
 
 That mighty volume which the world we 
 
 call: . . . 
 Books which better far instruct m,e can 
 Than all the other paper works of man; 
 And some of these I may be reading, too. 
 Where'er I come, whatsoe'er I do. 
 
 GEORGE WITHER. 
 176 
 
APPE/NDIX. 
 
 177 
 
f^ NE of the most thrilling incidents 
 in the War of 1812 was the bom- 
 bardment of Fort McHeyiry. As dark- 
 7iess settled dow7i, it left our flag still 
 floating. The night was made hideous 
 by the glare of'^ bombs bursting in airT 
 Anxiety drove sleep froyn the eyes of 
 patriots. They yearjied for the 7norn- 
 ing, and yet dreaded its revelaiioji. 
 But when the daw7i came, they beheld 
 with joy that the ''flag was still 
 there'^ — the fort had ivithstood its foes / 
 There stands the Bible^ the citadel of 
 our faith. Enemies open upon it their 
 broadsides. So^neiimes Christians al- 
 viost despair. But when the smoke 
 rolls away, though beneath its ram- 
 parts is piled the debris of human 
 opiiiions, there siajids the Bible, and, 
 floatijig serenely from the outer wall, 
 the bajiner, bearing this device : ** The 
 gates of hell shall not prevail against 
 
 it:' DR. DAVID H. MOORE. 
 
 178 
 
THE INTERNATIONAL BIBLE- 
 LESSON SgSTEM. 
 ■♦■ 
 IT is significant that a business 
 ' man and a bishop* share the laurel 
 wreath as inaugurators of the Interna- 
 tional System of Uniform Bible Les- 
 sons. When the idea was first pro- 
 posed in the National Sunday-school 
 Convention, at Indianapolis, 1872, a 
 delegate characterized it as impracti- 
 cable. In illustration, he told of Jef- 
 erson's saw-mill, on top of a mountairi: 
 "A good enough saw-mill, but how 
 were the logs to be gotten up to itf 
 Well, the logs have come to the mill. 
 The system is a triumphant success. 
 Evangelical denominations of Chris- 
 tendom, with but small exception, 
 have adopted it. The scheme is af- 
 fecting deeply, and in a salutary man- 
 ner, our current Christian life. It is 
 
 *B. F. Jacobs, Esq., and Bishop John H. Vin- 
 cent. 
 
 179 
 
i8o Ctppen^tf* 
 
 producing some blessed phenomena; 
 notably, practical Christian unity, a 
 prodigious and excellent Bible-litera- 
 ture, and such general and thorough 
 study of the blessed Word as the world 
 has never seen before. 
 
 A few figures show the wideness of 
 the influence of this system, now be- 
 ginning the second quarter-century of 
 its history. 
 
 The International Lessons are now 
 practically adopted by the Sunday- 
 school world, in which, according to 
 the last census, there were 218,562 
 schools, 2,229,728 ofiicers and teach- 
 ers, and 20,168,933 scholars.* In the 
 United States, enough teachers' helps 
 upon the current lessons are published 
 to supply each of the million teachers 
 with two of different kinds; and of 
 scholars' helps, one each to 8,500,000. 
 The aggregate of leaflets is 485,000,000 
 copies per annum.^ The aggregate cir- 
 culation of evangelical weekly papers 
 
 *Iyast World's Sunday-school Convention, 
 St. lyouis, 1893. 
 
 t Seventh International Sunday-school Con- 
 vention, St. Ivouis, 1893. 
 
Ctppenbty. i8i 
 
 ^ 
 
 is 2,479,000 per annum.* Almost 
 without exception, these periodicals 
 devote some space, more or less, to 
 the current lesson. An increasing 
 number of secular newspapers, daily 
 and weekly, are doing the same. 
 
 * Evan's Standard I,ist of Evangelical Peri- 
 odicals. 
 
THE BIBLE SOCIETIES AND THE 
 
 DIFFCISION OF THE WORD. 
 
 •♦< 
 
 5EVERAIv Bible Societies were in 
 evidence in Europe before the 
 opening of this century. They were, 
 however, limited in resources and 
 sphere of operation. In 1804 the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society was 
 founded. It has proved "the greatest 
 agency for the diffusion of the Word 
 of God." In its first ninety-two years 
 It distributed 147,366,669 copies. In 
 fhe making of translations and ver- 
 sions for use in mission-fields, and 
 donations to the same, printing, 
 binding, colportage, and general ad- 
 ministration, the princely sum of over 
 $50,000,000 has been expended by 
 this Society since its inception. 
 
 The American Bible Society, the 
 next greatest association of this 
 kind, was organized in 18 16,. In the 
 first eighty years of its history it dis- 
 tributed 61,705,841 copies in about 
 one hundred languages and dialects. 
 182 
 
dppenbiy. 183 
 4 
 
 There are upwards of seventy other 
 Bible Societies in the world, besides 
 several thousand Auxiliary Societies. 
 It is estimated that their aggregate 
 issues, previous to April, 1897, amount 
 to more than 257,000,000 copies. 
 F. M. Rains asserts that the Bible is 
 now translated into a sufl&cient num- 
 ber of languages to make it accessible 
 to nine-tenths of the inhabitants of 
 the world. 
 
IGNORANCE RESPECTING THE 
 BIBLE. 
 
 T^HE Bible is studied in a certain 
 * one of our colleges one hour a 
 week during the larger part of the 
 four years of the course. At Xhe first 
 exercise of the years 1894-95 of the 
 freshman class, I determined to gather 
 up evidence as to what the men knew 
 of the Bible. At this first recitation, 
 thirty-four men were present. On 
 the blackboard of the room I wrote 
 out twenty- two extracts from Tenny- 
 son. Each of these extracts had an 
 allusion to some Scriptural scene or 
 truth. Each man was provided with 
 paper, and was asked to explain each 
 allusion. The twenty-two selections 
 which were made are as follows : 
 
 " My sin was a thorn 
 Among the thorns that girt Thy brow." 
 — '■'Supposed Confessions.^* 
 "As manna on my wilderness." — Ibid, 
 
 184 
 
Clppenbiy. 185 
 ^ 
 
 "That God would move, 
 And strike the hard, hard rock, and thence. 
 Sweet in their utmost bitterness. 
 Would issue tears of penitence." — /did. 
 "Ivike that strange angel which of old 
 Until the breaking of the light 
 Wrestled with wandering Israel." 
 
 —" To " 
 
 " Like Hezekiah's, backward runs 
 The shadow of my days." 
 
 —''Will Waterproof:' 
 "Joshua's moon in Ajalon." 
 
 — ''Locks ley Hall:' 
 "A heart as rough as Esau's hand," 
 — " Godiva:' 
 " Gash thyself, priest, and honor thy brute 
 Baal." —"Alymer's Field:' 
 
 " Ruth amid the fields of corn:'— Ibid. 
 "Pharaoh's darkness." — Ibid. 
 "A Jonah's gourd 
 Up in one night, and due to sudden sun." 
 — "The Princess:' 
 "Stiff as Ivot's wif e."-^Ibid. 
 "Arimathsean Joseph."—" T/ie Holy GraiL" 
 " For I have flung thee pearls, and find thee 
 
 swine." — The Last Tournament." 
 " Perhaps, like him of Cana in Holy Writ, 
 Our Arthur kept his best until the last." 
 — " The Holy Graii:' 
 "And marked me even as Cain." 
 
 — " Queen Mary.** 
 
i86 CXppenbty, 
 
 ^ 
 
 " The Church on Peter's Rock.''— Ibid. 
 " IvCt her eat dust like the serpent, and be 
 driven out of her Paradise." 
 
 — " Becket:' 
 
 "A whole Peter's sheet." — Ibid. 
 " The godless Jephtha vows his child. . . . 
 To one cast of the dice." 
 
 — ^^ Early Spring.'' 
 
 "A Jacob's ladder falls."—" The Flight:' 
 " Follow Light and do the Right — for man 
 can half control his doom — 
 Till you find the deathless Angel seated 
 
 in the vacant tomb." 
 — " Locksley Hall, Sixty Years After:' 
 
 It is to be noticed that the allusions 
 contained in these extracts are not at 
 all recondite ; one might, indeed, have 
 chosen selections which do con- 
 tain recondite illusions. For instance, 
 one might have asked the class to 
 explain this line, taken from "The 
 Palace of Art:" 
 
 "One was the Tishbite whom the raven 
 fed." 
 
 Or one might have taken these lines 
 from "A Dream of Fair Women:" 
 
 " Moreover it is written that my race 
 Hewed Ammon hip and thigh from Aroer 
 On Arnon unto Minnith." 
 
Ctppenbty. 187 
 
 But the allusions that were selected 
 are of the more common sort. 
 
 And now let me ask, Who and what 
 were the men who were asked to ex- 
 plain these allusions? They were 
 young men of about twenty years of 
 age, born in the northern part of 
 Ohio, or in the central part of New 
 York State, or in Western Pennsyl- 
 vania. Every one was born in this 
 country excepting one, who was born 
 in lyondon. They were the sons of 
 lawyers, preachers, teachers, mer- 
 chants, and farmers. Every one, ex- 
 cept one, expressed himself as hold- 
 ing an ecclesiastical affiliation, and 
 more than half were associated with 
 two Churches which are supposed 
 specially to represent an intelligent 
 knowledge of the Bible. Of the 
 number, nine were Congregational- 
 ists and Presbyterians each, five were 
 Methodist, three were Baptists, two 
 were of the Reformed Church, two 
 were Jews, and one each belonged to 
 the Free Baptist, the Unitarian, and 
 the Roman Catholic Churches, and 
 
i88 Clppenbty. 
 ■»■ 
 
 one, as has been said, indicated no 
 ecclesiastical relation. 
 
 And what did the men thus born 
 and bred and trained know of the 
 Scriptural scenes and truths ex- 
 pressed in these verses of Tennyson? 
 I venture to give the record just as 
 it stands. Nine failed to understand 
 the quotation: 
 
 "My sin was a thorn 
 Among the thorns that girt Thy brow." 
 
 Eleven failed to apprehend the 
 ** manna on my wilderness." Six- 
 teen were likewise ignorant of the 
 significance of striking the rock. 
 Sixteen, also, knew nothing about 
 the wrestling of Jacob and the angel. 
 No less than thirty-two had never 
 heard of the shadow turning back on 
 the dial for Hezekiah's lengthening 
 life. Twenty-six were ignorant of 
 "Joshua's moon." Nineteen failed 
 to indicate the peculiar condition of 
 Esau's hand. Twenty-two were un- 
 able to explain the allusion to Baal. 
 Nineteen had apparently never read 
 the idyl of Ruth and Boaz. Eighteen 
 failed to indicate the meaning of 
 
Clppen6ty. 189 
 
 "Pharaoh's darkness. Twenty-eight 
 were laid low by the question about 
 Jonah's gourd. Nine, and nine only, 
 were unable to explain the allusion 
 to Lot's wife. Twenty-three did not 
 understand who "Arimathaean Jo- 
 seph " was. Twenty-two, also, had not 
 read the words of Christ sufficiently 
 to explain, " For I have flung thee 
 pearls and find thee swine." Twenty- 
 four had apparently not so read the 
 account of Christ's first miracle as to 
 be able to explain the reference. 
 Eleven did not understand the mark 
 which Cain bore. Twenty-five were 
 as ignorant as a heathen of the foun- 
 dation of the Church on Peter. 
 Twelve, and twelve only, had not 
 gathered up knowledge sufficient to 
 indicate certain truths about the ser- 
 pent in Eden. No less then twenty- 
 seven were paralyzed by the allusion, 
 "A whole Peter's sheet." Twenty- 
 four were unable to write anything as 
 to Jephtha's vow. Eleven only, how- 
 ever, were struck dumb by the allu- 
 sion to Jacob's ladder. But sixteen 
 were able to write a proper explana- 
 
I90 Clppen6tj. 
 
 ■♦■ 
 
 tion of " the deathless angel seated in 
 the vacant tomb." In a word, to each 
 of these thirty-four men, twenty-two 
 questions were put, which would de- 
 mand seven hundred and forty-eight 
 answers. The record shows that out 
 of a possible seven hundred and 
 forty- eight correct answers, only 
 three hundred and twenty-eight were 
 given. — ''A College President^'' in the 
 Indepefident, 
 
THE BIBLE AS A TEXT-BOOK. 
 
 jjl S the chairman of the Committee 
 of the American Society of Re- 
 ligious Education — one of whose 
 aims it is to increase the study of the 
 Bible— on the subject of "The Bible 
 in College and University," about 
 the last of October and the first of 
 November, 1895, 1 issued seventy-one 
 circulars, propounding the following 
 questions : 
 
 '*i. Is the Bible used as a text- 
 book in your institution? If so, 
 please state how much time is given. 
 
 **2. Are there any organized Bible- 
 reading classes among your students? 
 
 "3. Is the interest in the Bible 
 among your students on the increase? 
 
 " 4. Can you make any helpful or 
 stimulating suggestions by which to 
 increase the interest of college stu- 
 dents in the Bible? 
 
 " 5. Are you willing to co-operate 
 in an effort in behalf of the Bible in 
 the college? 
 
 ** 6. Can our Society assist you on 
 this matter in any way?" 
 
 191 
 
192 appenbty, 
 
 I received forty-one answers, mostly 
 immediate, and from the hand of the 
 presidents of the institutions ad- 
 dressed. The following is the sub- 
 stance of the replies from some of 
 the New England colleges. 
 
 President Andrews, Brown Uni- 
 versity : 
 
 " In Brown, the Bible is the basis 
 of eleven courses of study, each cov- 
 ering three hours a week for one- 
 third of a year. There are several 
 voluntary Bible-classes among the 
 students. The interest in the Bible 
 among the students is decidedly 
 increasing. The interest of col- 
 lege students in the study of the Bi- 
 ble may be stimulated by having it 
 systematically taught by competent 
 Bible scholars. The president would 
 gladly aid in any effort to promote 
 the systematic study of the Bible in 
 the college or elsewhere." 
 
 President Gates, Amherst: 
 
 "Amherst College is one of the in- 
 stitutions which led the way in the 
 systematic study in our colleges of 
 the Bible, as a regular text-book. 
 
Ctppenbtj. 193 
 
 ■♦ 
 Besides the four Bible-classes main- 
 tained and taught by members of the 
 Faculty for the study of the Bible 
 with reference to direct spiritual re- 
 sults, the Department of Biblical I^it- 
 erature is fully equipped and organ- 
 ized. This elective ranks in junior 
 and senior year with the other elec- 
 tives in the course, and is chosen, by 
 from ten to forty men in each class." 
 President Hyde, Bowdoin College: 
 
 " I am happy to say that one term 
 of freshman year, four hours a week, 
 is devoted to the study of one of the 
 Gospels in Greek, as a basis for the 
 study of a life of Christ. There 
 are organized classes for the study 
 of the Bible. I think the inter- 
 est is on the increase. Have no 
 suggestions to make, but we should 
 be glad of help in this matter from 
 any source." 
 
 President Kliot, Harvard: 
 
 " I do not think the Bible is used as 
 a text-book, in the sense in which 
 you use the word. In our Divinity 
 School we have courses on the Old 
 
194 Ctppen6ij, 
 
 and New Testaments, Church His- 
 tory, Comparative Religion, Sociol- 
 ogy, and Theology; all of which 
 courses, with insignificant exceptions, 
 can be counted toward the degree 
 of Bachelor of Arts. The Divinity 
 School is undenominational, no de- 
 nomination having at this time more 
 than one-third of the students. The 
 Bible-classes for students are con- 
 ducted by pastors of neighboring 
 Churches in Cambridge, and are or- 
 ganized in the several religious so- 
 cieties of the university. As to the 
 best way of promoting an interest in 
 the study of the Bible, it is done here 
 by maintaining stated interesting re- 
 ligious services in the university 
 chapel every week-day morning, and 
 every Sunday evening and Thursday 
 afternoon during the winter, the attend- 
 ance on which is wholly voluntary. 
 I should not approve of using the 
 English Bible as a text-book in or- 
 dinary weekly instruction in large het- 
 erogeneous classes. I think it has 
 been abundantly demonstrated that 
 it is not a good way to use the Bible. 
 
^ 
 
 The conditions here are somewhat pe- 
 culiar, inasmuch as the university con- 
 tains representatives of almost every 
 possible religious belief; and no sin- 
 gle denomination is represented by 
 more than one-sixth of the whole 
 number of students. The teachers, 
 also, are of many denominations." 
 President Carter, Williamstown : 
 "The Bible is not used as a text- 
 book in our institution; I can not 
 say the interest in the Bible among 
 our students is on the increase. 
 There are organized Bible-classes, 
 taught by the professors, but they 
 are generally under the auspices of 
 the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion. I can not suggest any method of 
 increasing the interest in the Bible 
 among college students. My belief 
 is that there should be, in every col- 
 lege, elective courses in Bible study. 
 We offer such a course every year; 
 but the gentleman who conducts it 
 required rather severe work of his 
 class the first year, and the students 
 have been shy of it ever since. Where 
 the college is small and the religious 
 
196 appenbiy. 
 
 sentiment and tradition is strong, I see 
 no reason why the Bible should not 
 be required as part of the curriculum. 
 1 should certainly be glad to see the 
 study of the Bible everywhere in- 
 creased. I do not know that your 
 Society can do much, except to 
 awaken a general interest in the sub- 
 ject." 
 
 President Warren, Boston Univer- 
 sity: 
 
 "Elective courses in Bible study 
 are offered in connection with our Col- 
 lege of I^iberal Arts, more this year 
 than ever before. The number elect- 
 ing them is not large, but perhaps 
 never as large as now. A very high 
 percentage of our students belong to 
 the different evangelical Churches; 
 but I do not know of any organized 
 Bible-reading among them, except 
 such as they carry on in their differ- 
 ent Sunday-schools and Bible courses 
 in the Churches where they worship." 
 
 President Chase, Bates College: 
 
 "We give one hour a week to a 
 systematic Bible study by all the 
 
Ctppettbiir. 197 
 
 members of the freshman class. The 
 work is laid out by the use of topical 
 questions, requiring several hours* 
 reading of the Bible itself, and of 
 works dealing with Bible subjects. 
 We spend an hour each week dis- 
 cussing the results obtained from the 
 study. The interest in Bible study is de- 
 cidedly on the increase. There are vol- 
 untary classes carried on under the au- 
 spices of the Young Men's and Young 
 Women's Christian Associations. Our 
 method is largely an attempt to show 
 the relation of Bible history and 
 teaching to the moral questions of 
 our own time. Our Bible study is 
 really the study of Christian ethics. 
 We find our students greatly inter- 
 ested. Would be glad to be ac- 
 quainted with the literature and 
 methods of your Society. We use 
 the International Sunday-school Ivcs- 
 sons, and have frequent lectures on 
 the Bible." 
 
 From Mount Holyoke College we 
 have this response: 
 
 " The Bible is used as a text-book 
 in our college. The time given is 
 
198 dppenbti 
 
 one hour a week for four years^ — 144 
 hours in all ; and it is required work. 
 There are five organized Bible-reading 
 classes among our students; also, 
 three organized classes for mission 
 study, which at present take the place 
 of other Bible-classes. The interest 
 in Bible study is on the increase. 
 The best way of increasing the inter- 
 est in Bible study is the use of the 
 highest methods of instruction." 
 President Irvine, Wellesley: 
 " The Bible has been used as a text- 
 book in this college ever since its 
 opening. The present requirement is 
 that of four hours out of the fifty- 
 nine required for the Bachelor of Arts 
 degree. Regularly organized classes 
 for the study of the Bible have been 
 formed by the students among their 
 own numbers. Interest in Bibie study 
 among our students is certainly not 
 declining. We think that the his- 
 tory of the Bible study in this col- 
 lege proves that such is generally 
 interesting, when ably conducted. 
 The friendly interest of your Society 
 
Ctppenbtf. 199 
 
 is, in itself, an encouragement and 
 assistance." 
 
 On the whole, this report shows 
 that the authorities of our colleges 
 and universities are alive to the sub- 
 ject, and doing, each in his sphere, 
 and according to his best judgment, 
 what seems wisest in the premises. 
 Certainly, the Bible is not ignored 
 or totally neglected. There is a great 
 advance upon the condition of things 
 a generation ago; and the evident 
 trend is toward more study of the 
 Bible, if not toward putting the Bible 
 into the regular curriculum.— /*r<?^2- 
 dent Rankin, in the Independent. 
 
A LAUREATE'S DEBT TO THE 
 BIBLE. 
 
 I ORD TENNYSON'S debt to the 
 "■* Bible is one of the most striking 
 incidents in the history of letters. 
 It sustains Professor Huxley's admis- 
 sion that the Bible has been woven 
 into all that is best in English litera- 
 ture. There are 460 quotations or 
 allusions in the laureate's works— 201 
 from the Old Testament, 259 from the 
 New Testament. These quotations are 
 from 52 out of the 66 books. 
 
A PRAgER OVER THE BIBLE. 
 
 ^^ HK following prayer was prefixed 
 ■ to some editions of the early 
 Knglish versions of the Bible : 
 
 " O gracious God and most merciful 
 Father, which hast vouchsafed us the 
 rich and precious jewel of thy Holy 
 Word, assist us by thy Spirit, that it 
 may be written in our hearts ; to our 
 everlasting comfort, to reprove us, to 
 renew us according to thine own im- 
 age; to build us up, and edify us 
 unto the perfect building of thy 
 Christ; sanctifying and increasing in 
 us all heavenly virtues. Grant this, 
 O Heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ's 
 sake. Amen." 
 
 20I 
 
^yWfi" Bible is either the most adven- 
 •* turous and astounding fraud that 
 has ever gained currency among men^ 
 or the most sublime and momentous 
 system of verities that has at any time 
 appeared upon earth. If the former^ 
 it ought not to be impossible to expose 
 the imposture ; if the latter y it ought to 
 be possible to command for it the re- 
 spect of unprejudiced reason and the 
 acceptance of rational faith. That 
 after so many ages it is still in debate^ 
 mighty to a superficial observer ^ seem 
 to be to the discredit of its claim. A 
 more astute and careful judge would 
 find the explanation to consist ^ in party 
 of the unique nature and intrinsic dif- 
 ficulty of the claim itself y andy in party 
 of the peculiar relations of the jury to 
 the question in dispute. 
 
 —BISHOP RANDOLPH S. FOSTER. 
 
INDEXES. 
 
 203 
 
]\^ AY we not discover in the for- 
 tunes of this perhaps latest of all 
 the sacred writers^ save fohn, a sig- 
 nifcent type of the fortunes of that 
 inspired Word on which we have 
 been dwelling f Ofttimes has it been 
 dragged over the sharp rocks of hostile 
 criticism^ ofttimes across the hot sands 
 of scorching sarcasm^ ofttimes through 
 the mire of filthy jesting ; but God 
 has been with it. It refuses to die. 
 Even when its enemies have fancied it 
 finally and forever dispatched^ it has 
 erelong reasserted its indestructible vi- 
 tality , overtoppling earthborn fanes of 
 superstition^ and replacing them with 
 temples not made with hands. Even 
 the works of nature are frail ^ caducous y 
 and transitory when compared with this 
 inspired Book. The grass withereth, 
 the flower fadethy but the Word of our 
 God abideth forever. 
 ^PRESIDENT WILLIAM F. WARREN. 
 
 * Tradition says effort to martyr St. 
 Mark, by dragging him behind a chariot, 
 failed. 
 204 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 ■♦■ 
 
 Arnold, Matthew i, 2, 3 
 
 Addison, Joseph 4 
 
 Augustine, St. 5 
 
 Adams, John 6 
 
 Adams, John Quincy 7, 8, 9 
 
 Alexander, I, Czar 10 
 
 Ames, Fisher 11 
 
 Arbuthnot, Alexander 12 
 
 Anonymous 13, 17, 20 
 
 Abbott, layman 14 
 
 Ad Fidem (F. E. Burr) 15 
 
 Atterbury, Francis 16 
 
 Arrowsmith, John 18 
 
 Alexander, Archibald, 19 
 
 Bunsen, Chevalier 21 
 
 Beattie, James 22 
 
 Bengal, J. A 23 
 
 Bartol, C. A 24 
 
 Bruce, Michael 25 
 
 Brown, J 26 
 
 Berridge 27 
 
 Bushe, Chief Justice 28 
 
 Bellows, Henry W 29 
 
 Briggs, Charles A 30 
 
 Beard, Dr 31, 32 
 
 Beecher, Henry Ward 33, 34 
 
 Bishop Boone's Assistant 35 
 
 Billings, Josh 36 
 
 Bacon, I^ord 37 
 
 Boyle, Robert 38, 39, 40, 41, 42 
 
 Bonar, H 272 
 
 Bethune, George W .273 
 
 Booth, Maud B .274 
 
 205 
 
2o6 <5eneral '^ribz^c. 
 
 »■ 
 
 Bradish, I^uther 275 
 
 Butler, Benjamin F 276 
 
 Cowper, William 43, 44, 45 
 
 Clarke, James Freeman 46 
 
 Channing, William Ellery 47, 48 
 
 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor 49, 50, 51, 52 
 
 Clinton, De Witt 53 
 
 Clark, Samuel 54 
 
 Cheever, George B 55 
 
 Cecil, Richard 56, 57 
 
 Cass, I^ewis 58 
 
 Collins, William 59 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas 60, 61, 62, 63 
 
 Caine, Hall 64 
 
 Clulow, W. B 65 
 
 Conway, M. D 66 
 
 Cummings, Joseph 277 
 
 Dryden, John 67, 68 
 
 De Tocqueville, Charles Henry 69 
 
 Dwight, Timothy 70 
 
 Dana, James Dwight 71, 72 
 
 Dawson, Chancellor 73 
 
 Diderot, Denis 74 
 
 D'Aubigne, Merle 75 
 
 Depew, Chauncy M ^ 76 
 
 Dana, Charles A 77 
 
 De Stael, Baron, Jils 278 
 
 Ewald, G. H. A 78 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo 79 
 
 Edward VI 80 
 
 Everett, Edward 81 
 
 Ebers, Georg 82 
 
 Evans, Professor I^. J 83, 84, 85 
 
 Ecce Deus (Joseph Parker) 86 
 
(general ^nbejc. 207 
 4. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin 87, 88 
 
 Flavel, J 89 
 
 Fawcett, John 90 
 
 Field, Kugene 91 
 
 Faber, F. W 92 
 
 Froude, James Anthony 93 
 
 Frelinghuysen, Theodore 279 
 
 Gregory I, The Great 94 
 
 GilfiUan, George 95, 96 
 
 Guizot, F. P. G 97 
 
 Grant, U. S 98 
 
 Garibaldi 99 
 
 Gladstone, W. K 100, loi, 309 
 
 Greeley, Horace 102 
 
 Goethe, J. W. von 103, 104, 105, 106 
 
 Gibbons, Cardinal 107 
 
 Guyot, A. H 108 
 
 Gladden, Washington 109 
 
 Griffin, George 280 
 
 Greenleaf, Simon 281 
 
 Grotius, Hugo 282 
 
 Herbert, George no, in 
 
 Howells, R 112 
 
 Hopkins, Mark 113 
 
 Hervey, James 114 
 
 Hall, John 115 
 
 Hamilton, James 116, 117 
 
 Horsley, Samuel n8 
 
 Huxley, Professor 119, 120, 121 
 
 Hoare, Canon 122 
 
 Humboldt, Baron 123 
 
 Holland, J. G 124 
 
 Hornblower, John C 283 
 
 Harris, John 125 
 
 Hallam, Henry 126 
 
2o8 (general 3^^^l* 
 
 ■♦■ 
 
 Hooker, Richard r27 
 
 Heine, Heinrich 128, 129 
 
 Hervey, I,ord Arthur 130 
 
 Hall, Robert 131 
 
 Herschel, Sir John 132 
 
 Hale, Edward Everett 133 
 
 Hugo, Victor 134 
 
 Indian Convert 284 
 
 Jay, John, Chief Justice 135 
 
 Jackson, Andrew 136 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas 137 
 
 Jones, Sir William 138 
 
 Joubert, F 139 
 
 Johnson, Samuel 140 
 
 Jewell, John 141 
 
 Kempis, Thomas a 142 
 
 Kent, Chancellor James 143, 285 
 
 Kitto, John 144 
 
 I^incoln, A 145 
 
 I,ee, Robert E 146 
 
 I^iddon, Canon 147 
 
 Ivcvy, Rabbi J. Leonard 148 ' 
 
 I,andor, Walter Savage 149 
 
 I^ange, J. P 150 
 
 lyocke, John 151, 152 
 
 Lightfoot, J. B 153 
 
 Loomis, Colonel 286 
 
 I/Umpkin, Joseph Henry 287 
 
 Ivcask, William 154, 155, 156 
 
 Milton, John 157, 158, 289 
 
 Macaulay, I^ord 159, 160 
 
 Melville, Henry ; 161, 162 
 
 Mitchell, O. M. 163 
 
general 3^^^?- 209 
 ■♦■ 
 
 Morris, H. W 164 
 
 McCheyne, Robert M 165 
 
 Maufy, I^ieutenant 166 
 
 Murphy, Professor 167 
 
 Muller, George 168 
 
 Miller, Hugh 169 
 
 Munger, Theodore T 170 
 
 Mitchell, Donald G 171 
 
 Mcllvaine, Charles P 288 
 
 Mcl^ain, John 290 
 
 Newton, Sir Isaac 172, 173 
 
 Novalis (von Hardenberg) 174 
 
 Nichol, R. B 175 
 
 Nott, Kliphalet 176 
 
 Napoleon 1 177, 178, 179, 180 
 
 Oliphant, Mrs i8r 
 
 Oberlin, Jean Frederick 291 
 
 Pope, Alexander 182 
 
 Payson, Edward. 183, 184 
 
 Phillips, Wendell 185 
 
 Pollok, Robert 186, 187, 188 
 
 Parker, Theodore 189, 190, 191 
 
 Pellico, Silvio 192 ' 
 
 Pedro, Emperor Dom 193 
 
 Porteus, Bishop 194 
 
 Penn, William 292 
 
 Pinckney, H. L, 293 
 
 Porter, Noah 195 
 
 Parker, Joseph 196 
 
 Peel, Robert 294 
 
 Peabody, A. P 197 
 
 Plenary Council 198 
 
 Quarles, Francis 199 
 
2IO ©cneral 3"^^^- 
 .+. 
 
 Rousseau, Jean Jacques 200, 201 
 
 Rochester, Earl of 202 
 
 Rush, Benjamin • .203 
 
 Romaine, William 204 
 
 Robertson, Frederick W 205 
 
 Rogers, Henry 206, 207, 208 
 
 Ruskin, John 209, 210, 211, 212, 213 
 
 Rives, William C 295 
 
 Steele, Anne 214 
 
 Stier, Rudolph 215 
 
 Stanley, A. P 216 
 
 Stalker, James 217 
 
 Seward, William H 218 
 
 Spurgeon, Charles H 219 
 
 Steele 220 
 
 Sun, New York 221 
 
 Simpson, Matthew 222 
 
 Selden, John 223 
 
 SchaflF, Philip 224 
 
 Swift, Dean 225 
 
 Story, Chief Justice 226 
 
 Skinner, Commodore 300 
 
 Silliman, B. Sr 301 
 
 Southard, Samuel I, 302 
 
 Sargeant, John 298 
 
 Stephanus, Henry 227 
 
 Smyth, Newman 228 
 
 Smith, Vance 229 
 
 Storrs, Richard S 230, 231 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter 232, 233, 234, 235 
 
 Swain, David 299 
 
 Shaftesbury, Karl of 236, 237, 238 
 
 Seaman, An English 296 
 
 Smith, John 297 
 
 Tennyson, Alfred 239 
 
 Tillotson, Archbishop 240 
 
 Taylor, Isaac 241, 242 
 
©eneral 3"^^?- 211 
 •♦• 
 
 Thomson, Edward 243 
 
 Trail, W [[244 
 
 Taylor, W. M 245 
 
 Thompson, John 303 
 
 Taylor, Zachary 304 
 
 Transcript, Boston Evening 246 
 
 Tribune, New York • 247 
 
 Times, lyondon 248 
 
 Taylor, Bayard 249 
 
 Van Dyke, H. J 250 
 
 Webster, Daniel. .251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257 
 
 World, Christian 258 
 
 Watson, T 259 
 
 Wayland, Francis 260 
 
 Whittier, John G 261 
 
 Wright, Wiliam 262 
 
 Watts, Isaac 263 
 
 Watson, Richard 264 
 
 Whichcote, Benjamin 265 
 
 Wallace, Alexander 266 
 
 Winthrop, R. C 267 
 
 Wordsworth, Bishop 268 
 
 Wilson, John 264 
 
 William, E^mperor 270 
 
 Washburn, Emory 305 
 
 Wilt, William '. '. ^306 
 
 Wilberforce, William 307 
 
 Walworth, R. H .308 
 
 Young, Edward 271 
 
TOPICAL INDEX. 
 ■♦■ 
 
 Antiquity, 144, 181, 194, 240, 299. 
 Authenticity and Integrity, 172, 242, 282, 309. 
 Authority, Supreme, 226. 
 All, Bible for, 51, 66, 74, 76, 94, 100, 115, 119, i2q 
 
 134, 143, 147, 189, 191, 277. 
 Accuracy, Historical, 18, 28, 82, 130, 172. 
 
 Circulation, Advantages of General, 306. 
 Civilization, The Bible and, 52, 106, 131, 148, 191, 
 
 213, 217, 218, 247, 275, 278, 290, 293, 301, 308. 
 Character, Effect upon, 7, 14, 16, 23, 25, 26, 30, 
 
 33. 39, 53, 129, 140, 162, 175, 176, 192, 214, 215, 
 
 218, 240, 284, 296, 300. 
 Criticism, Higher, and Infidelity, 75, 83, 96, 124, 
 
 206, 217, 228, 247, 250, 262. 
 Christ, Bible and, 48, 133, 204, 257, 276. 
 Classics, Bible and, 263, 264, 274. 
 
 Devotion, Bible Means of, and Aid to, 40, 113, 
 
 168, 229,231. 
 Duty of Giving Attention, 107, 187, 198. 
 
 Excellence, General, 6, 8, 10, 20, 22, 31, 38, 41, 
 43, 44, 57, 59, 60, 62, 78, 90, no, in, 112, 114, 
 128, 138, 139, 145, 146, 152, 157, 165, 173, 174, 
 185, 187, 191, 201, 205, 214, 222, 224, 233, 234, 
 235, 241, 244, 254, 259, 261, 271. 
 
 Examined, Spirit in which should be, 45. 
 
 Exploration, Bible and, 164, 248. 
 
 Faith in and Respect for, 36, 97, 103, 104, 221. 
 
 History, The Philosophy of, 170, 179. 
 
 Inexhaustible, n6, 122, 125, 232. 
 Imperishable, 15, 17, 24, 34, 95, 141, 154, 190, 207, 
 237,238, 272, 291. 
 212 
 
(topical 3n6ej. 213 
 ♦ 
 
 Interpretation, 195, 355. 
 
 Indispensable, 1,9, 12, 55, 80, 87, 91, loi, 150, 
 184, 270, 302. 
 
 Liberty, The State and Personal ,21, 37, 58, 69, 
 81, 86, 88, 98, 99, 102, 136, 137, 143 203, 256, 
 260, 294. 
 
 Morality, Public and Private, 153, 161, 177, 216, 
 
 236, 284, 287, 290, 298. 
 Mystery, Not to be Rejected on account of, 155. 
 
 Nature and Providence, lyikeness of Bible to, 57, 
 
 71, 72, 75, 273. 
 National I,ife, 280, 281, 283, 286, 289, 294, 295, 
 
 297. 301, 303, 304- 
 
 Philanthropy, 279. 
 
 Practical and Efficient, 42, 120, 122, 126, 131, 146, 
 153, 204, 213, 218, 244, 257, 270, 271, 277, 284. 
 
 Revelation, The Bible an Inspired, 19, 29, 35, 44, 
 48, 49, 54, 67, 84, 105, 108, 126, 167, 178, 188, 
 196, 208, 220, 230, 292. 
 
 Reading, Daily, 168, 180, 193, 198, 204, 251, 252. 
 
 Science and the Bible, 132, 163, 166, 169, 273. 
 
 Self-evidencing Power, 300. 
 
 Style, Iviterary, Effect of Bible on, 11, 32, 50, 65, 
 64, 68, ^^, 85, 91, 92, 93, 121, 123, 149, 157, 158, 
 159, 160, 171, 182, 197, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 
 220, 225, 227, 243, 246, 248, 253, 268, 274. 
 
 Sufficiency of the Bible, 135, 151, 306. 
 
 Variety, 156. 
 
 Writings, Other Sacred, and the Bible, 46, 109, 
 182. 
 
INDEX Bg PROFESSIONS. 
 
 Anonymous, 13, 17, 20. 
 
 Clergymen, 5, 14, 15, 24, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 
 38, 39» 40, 41, 42, 46, 47, 48, 54, 55, 56, 57, 86, 
 89, 90, 92, 94, 107, 109, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 
 122, 125, 127, 131, 141, 142, 147, 148, 153, 154, 
 155, 156, 168, 170, 176, 183, 184, 194, 196, 204, 
 205, 216, 217, 219, 222, 225, 228, 230, 231, 240, 
 243, 244, 245, 259, 262, 263, 264, 265, 268, 272, 
 273, 288, 291. 
 
 Commentators, 14, 23, 144, 150, 167, 215, 282. 
 
 Converts from Heathenism, 35, 284. 
 
 College Presidents and Professors, 30, 70, 71, 72, 
 
 83, 84, 85, 113, 195, 197, 224, 260, 281, 299, 301. 
 Commanders in Army and Navy, 58, 98, 99, 136, 
 
 146, 163, 276, 286, 300. 
 
 Evangelist, 274,300. 
 
 Historians, 75, 78, 82, 93, 97, 108, 126. 
 
 Infidels, 74, 128, 129, 200, 201, 202. 
 
 Journalists, 36, 77, 102. 
 
 Jurists, 28, 135, 143, 226, 283, 287, 290. 
 
 I^iterary Critics and Essayists, i, 2, 3,60, 61, 62 
 63, 69, 79, 91, 95, 96, 124, 130, 133, 140, 149, 
 159, 160, 164, 171, 174, 181, 206, 207, 208, 209, 
 210, 211, 212, 213, 249, 269. 
 
 I^ayman, 280, 303. 
 
 Liberal Thinkers, 24, 46, 47, 48, 66, 189, 190, 191. 
 
 Novelists, 64, 82, 134. 
 Newspapers, 221, 246, 247, 248, 258. 
 Orators, 76, 81, 185. 
 Orientalists, 138. 
 214 
 
3n5ey by professions, 215 
 .^ 
 
 Poets, 4, 12, 22, 43, 44, 45, 49, so, 51, 52, 59, 67, 
 
 68, 79, 103, 104, 105, 106, no, III, 128, 129, 139, 
 157, 158, 165, 174, 182, 186, 187, 188, 199, 214, 
 232, 233, 234, 235, 239, 250, 261, 271, 289. 
 
 Philosophers, 37, 151, 152, 172, 173. 
 
 Philanthropists, 306. 
 
 Physician, 203. 
 
 Rulers, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,80, 98, 136, 137, 145, 177, 178, 
 179, 180, 193, 270. 
 
 Statesmen, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 58, 87, 88, 100, loi, 218, 
 236, 237, 238, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 
 275, 279, 292, 293, 294, 295, 297, 298, 299, 302, 
 304, 305, 307, 308. 
 
 Scientists, 21, 71, 72, 119, 120, 121, 123, 132, 163, 
 166, 169. 
 
INDEX Bg NATIONALITg. 
 
 Great Britian, i, 2, 3, 4, 12, 16, 18, 19, 22, 25, 26, 
 
 27, 37, 38, 43, 44, 45, 49, 50, 51, 52, 56, 57, 59, 
 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 67, 68, 80, 86, 89, 90, 92, 93, 
 95, 96} 100, loi, no, III, 114, 116, 117, 118, 
 119, 120, 121, 122, 126, 127, 130, 131, 132, 138, 
 140, 141, 144, 145, 146, 149, 151, 152, 153, 154, 
 155, 156, 157, 158, 159. 160, 161, 162, 168, 169, 
 172, 173, 181, 182, 186, 187, 188, 194, 196, 202, 
 204, 205, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 216, 217, 
 219, 223, 225, 229, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 
 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 244, 248, 259, 263, 264, 
 265, 266, 268, 269, 271, 272, 274, 289, 294, 296, 
 
 307, 309- 
 
 America, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 24, 28, 29, 30, 33, 
 34, 46, 47, 48, 53, 55, 58, 66, 70, 71, 72, 76, T], 
 79, 81, 83, 84, 85, 87, 88, 91, 98, 102, 107, 109, 
 113, 115, 124, 133, 135, 136, 137, 143, 147, 148, 
 163, 164, 166, 170, 171, 176, 183, 184, 185, 189, 
 190, 191, 195, 197, 198, 203, 218, 221, 222, 224, 
 226, 228, 230, 231, 243, 245, 246, 247, 249, 251, 
 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 260, 261, 262, 
 273, 275, 276, 277, 279, 280, 281, 283, 284, 286, 
 287, 288, 290, 292, 293, 295, 297, 298, 299, 300, 
 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 308. 
 
 Russia, 10. 
 
 France, 69, 74, 97, 134, 139, I77, 178, i79, 180, 200, 
 201, 278. 
 
 Germany, 21, 22, 78, 82, 103, 104, 105, 106, 123, 
 128, 129, 150, 215, 270, 291. 
 
 Holland, 282. 
 
 Brazil, 193. 
 
 Switerland, 75, 108. 
 
 Italy, 94, 99. 
 216 
 
ANNOTATIONS 
 
 217 
 
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