The Real Bible.
"Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."--2 Peter,
i. 21.
"Men of the Scriptures" was the title assumed by the Karaites, a sect of
devout Jews, who, about the middle of the eighth century of our era, threw
aside tradition, and accepted as their sole authority the canonical
writings of the Old Testament. Seeing the good that the Bible has wrought
for man in the past, we may well emulate the reverence of these Karaites;
while, seeing the unreality of the traditional notion of the Bible that
they held, and the mischiefs it has bred, we may well disown their
superstitiousness. Can we gain a view of the Bible which, without
stultifying our intellectual nature, may satisfy our spiritual nature, and
leave us free to call ourselves men of the Scriptures? The only road to
such an end must be that which our age is opening so successfully through
every field of study; as, dismissing preconceptions, it builds with care
and candor, upon solid facts, the causeway to a certain knowledge.
Let us take up the Bible as we would any other collection of books, and
see if, without assuming anything concerning it, we cannot find our way to
a rational reverence for it, as real as that which our fathers had. The
lines of our inquiry have been projected by a hand you own as high
authority. The results of the survey are in the text. Real men wrote real
books; holy men wrote holy books; and, when we come to account for their
holy, human power, we can only say--The Divine Spirit stirred in them;
"holy men of old spake as they were moved of the Holy Ghost."
The Bible is a collection of many writings, in many forms, by many hands,
from many ages. Genuine letters these, whether they be _belles-lettres_ or
not; by every mark and sign most human writings, whether they be holy
Scriptures or not; the product of honest toil of brain and hand. Whatever
more they are, these are _bona fide_ books, of men of like passions and
infirmities with ourselves.
What is there in these books which has led Christendom to assign to them
so high an honor?