e sense, still retain the use of this and other words,
as if afraid to make it plain how far they differ from those opinions
which are commonly received.

The present age is certainly more enlightened than any which has preceded
it; but, hitherto at least, a professed belief in the orthodox doctrines
of religion has increased rather than diminished. We find moreover that
persons of all ranks, and every kind of mental calibre, have declared
that they find something in the Bible which they do not find in any other
book; something, in fact, which, when duly received, comes home to their
hearts as men, and seems admirably adapted to the deepest wants of human
nature. We see too that those who appear to have accepted the Bible most
fully, and to hold it most firmly, have been so much impressed with a
sense of its importance to the world at large, as to have endeavoured,
often at considerable risk and expense, to communicate to others, both
at-home and abroad, the knowledge of those things which they have
received as truths--a method of proceeding which has not been adopted,
and, in fact, could not have been, without a manifest absurdity, by those
who profess to believe in the inspiration of Plato, Milton, Shakespeare,
and other great, but, according to common opinion, uninspired men. All
these and various other considerations which might be adduced seem to
mark out the Bible, as being a book at least _different_ from all other
books, and to lead to the presumption that it may contain that knowledge
of God which, as has been remarked in the earlier part of these
"Thoughts," it appears most important for men to be acquainted with, and
a revelation of which, in some way or other, has been very commonly
believed in. Assuredly there is a strong presumption in its favour, and
the _onus probandi_, in our own day, lies with those who deny its claims
to acceptance. Whether however the Bible actually is, or contains a
revelation from God is still a fair subject for reverent examination.

Without attempting to enter upon such an examination here, we may,
without impropriety, offer a suggestion as to the _spirit_ in which it
should be conducted. It must be remembered that the examination of a
theological, or any other subject which bears upon the interests of our
daily lives, involves principles of a very different character from those
which are connected with an investigation of the science of number, or
any other abstract scienc