BOOK IV.
THE RELATION OF THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT TO THE GREATEST OF BOOKS, OR A DISCOURSE OF THE BIBLE.
CHAPTER I.
POSITION OF THE BIBLE—CLAIMS MADE FOR IT—STATEMENT OF THE QUESTION.
View it in what light we may, the Bible is a very surprising phenomenon. In all Christian lands, this collection of books is separated from every other, and called sacred; others are profane. Science may differ from them, not from this. It is deemed a condescension on the part of its friends, to show its agreement with Reason. How much has been written by condescending theologians to show the Bible was not inconsistent with the demonstrations of Newton! Should a man attempt to reëstablish the cosmogonies of Hesiod and Sanchoniathon, to allegorize the poems of Anacreon and Theocritus as divines mystify the Scripture, it would be said he wasted his oil, and truly.[1]
This collection of books has taken such a hold on the world as no other. The literature of Greece, which goes up like incense from that land of temples and heroic deeds, has not half the influence of this book from a nation alike despised in ancient and modern times. It is read of a Sunday in all the thirty thousand pulpits of our land. In all
- ↑ See the recent literature relating to a Plurality of Worlds for another illustration.
