is is all that
is offered us by those who reject and revile the Bible. Such have
exceeding deep ignorance, exceeding ill manners, exceeding bad taste,
and exceeding great folly. "I find more sure marks of the authenticity
of the Bible," says Sir Isaac Newton, "than in any profane history
whatever." We use the word "secular" nowadays where "profane" was
formerly written. "Profane" meant "before" or "outside" the "fane," or
"temple."

THE BOOK OF JOB

is older than any other writing on earth. It antedates the Chinese
Empire. It is lost in the mist of years. The histories of Moses are as
old as the pyramids, and the pyramids and obelisks proclaim the
integrity of the Hebrew leader and chronicler. So let us prize this
greatest gift of God to man. Let us humbly thank Him for the liberties
and comforts it has brought us--for even the Atheist himself refrains
from robbing us of our property through the influence of the Christian
religion. Let us thank God for the schools, and the hospitals, and the
charities which have

THE BIBLE AT THEIR FOUNDATION,

and which, without it, it is fair to say, would not be in existence
to-day. Those who are the best are guided by its precepts. Those who are
the wisest have implicit confidence in it. Those who are the most
eloquent have studied it intensely. Those who are powerful in narration
of events have imitated its divine simplicity. Have it at your bedside.
Your mind will broaden faster under its influence than under that of the
daily newspaper. If you have not time to read both, sacrifice the paper.
The paper is trash. The Bible is solid gold. If you fill your mind with
grand thoughts, your mind will be noble. You will have principle.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND AS GRAND LANGUAGE

in any politician's speech?--"The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;
the God of glory thundereth; deep calleth unto deep; the voice of the
Lord shaketh the wilderness." Where can you find as graceful
speech?--"He shall come down as rain upon the mown grass; mercy and
truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each
other." The day is now dawning in this Western world when taste and
poetic feeling are to flourish. We have got the dollars. We must now get
something for the dollars. Now will the Bible, as ever at such epochs in
the past, shine out anew, the criterion, not only of the soul, but of
the sentiments--the book that is first under the scholar's lamp and
alone in his bedchamber.