our instruction, and none of which, even the best, deserve the name, if compared with the Book — the Scriptures. For the Bible is the Book of books, having God for its Author, and for its matter a subject worthy of Him — God Himself. It differs from and is superior to all others in that it has a double sense, the literal and the spiritual. As a history it is the most universal of all — beginning by the very cradle of humanity, following its past vicissitudes and illumining its future path through all time with the search-light of prophetic vision. It is at once a repository of history, art, science, and literature. The history, not of the rise and fall of this city or that — this nation or that, but of the building up and tearing down of the universe. Its preaching seeks to excite emotions more than human — divine. Philosophic speculation reaches to the highest stars, but the Scriptures lead us higher still, to the very throne of God. There we find, too, the sciences — medicine, dealing not merely with the ills of the body but with the wounds of the soul; and law, interpreting for us God's last will and testament, and settling our heirship to the kingdom of heaven. Nothing human is perfect. No merely human agent, be he ever so great or holy, but can strike his breast and say: " I have sinned — forgive me my trespasses," and even Homer sometimes nods; but the Bible recounts the achievements of God whose works are perfect, and so perfect is the style of the original that to assert there is even one useless word in its pages, is called by St. Basil downright blasphemy.
