Result of Searching the Bible
A GENTLEMAN was asked what led him to embrace the Gospel which formerly he was known to have despised. He said, “A person put into my hands Paine’s ‘Age of Reason.’ I read it with attention, and was much struck with the strong and ridiculous representation he made of many passages in the Bible. I confess, to my shame, I had never read the Bible through; but from what I remembered to have heard at church, and accidentally on other occasions, I could not persuade myself that Paine’s report was quite exact, or that the Bible was quite so absurd a book as he represented it. I resolved, therefore, that I would read the Bible regularly through, and compare the passages when I had done so, that I might give the Bible fair play. I accordingly set myself to the task, and as I advanced, I was struck with the majesty which spoke, the awfulness of the truths contained in it, and the strong evidence of its divine origin, which increased with every page, so that I finished my inquiry with the fullest satisfaction of the truth as it is in Jesus, and my heart was penetrated with a sense of obligation I had never felt before. I resolved henceforth to take the Sacred Word for my guide, and to be a faithful follower of the Son of God.”