ileans--the impassioned
but rugged addresses of the tent-maker of Cilicia?" Dr. Adam Clarke,
no mean judge, pronounced by the late Rev. Robert Hall to have been
"an ocean of learning," said, "I have diligently examined the
question, and I can conscientiously say that we have the Sacred
Oracles, at least in essential sum and substance, as they were
delivered by God to Moses and the prophets; and to the Church of
Christ by Jesus, His evangelists and apostles; and that nothing in the
various readings of the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts can be found to
strengthen any error in doctrine or obliquity in moral practice. All
is safe and sound--all is pure and holy." And the judicious Selden,
whom Grotius calls "the glory of the English nation," in his "Table
Talk," speaking of the Bible, says, "The English translation of the
Bible is the best translation in the world, and renders the sense of
the original best; taking in for the English translation the Bishop's
Bible as well as King James'. The translators in King James' time took
an excellent way. That part of the Bible was given to him who was most
excellent in such a tongue, and then they met together, and one read
the translation, the others holding in their hands some Bible, either
of the learned tongues, or French, Spanish, or Italian, etc. If they
found any fault they spoke, if not he read on."[24]

_From its important discoveries._ It makes discoveries to man on the
most momentous subjects, which natural reason never could have made.
One of the ancients said, "The Bible is the history of God." It
reveals all that is needful to be known of the existence, nature,
perfections, relations, mind and will of God. It discloses the whole
history of man--opening with his creation, continuing with his present
state, and closing with his eternal destiny. It lays open the amazing
love of God to man, the plan of redemption, the means of salvation and
the cleansing nature of the blood of Christ. It furnishes answers to
the most interesting and perplexing questions ever suggested to man by
himself, or propounded to him by his fellow-beings; and thus supplies
him with that information which no other volume can impart. It points
a second life, unveils eternity, and speaks of the resurrection of the
body--the immortality of the soul--a judgment to come--a heaven, the
gift of redeeming love--and a hell, the dire desert of sin. In one
word, it is God's heart opened to man--a map of heaven--a