Indestructibility of the Bible.
Four thousand years this volume has withstood, not only the iron tooth of time, but all the physical and intellectual strength of man. Pretended friends have endeavored to corrupt and betray it: Kings and Princes have perseveringly sought to banish it from the world; the civil and military powers of the greatest empires of the world have been leagued for its destruction, the fires of persecution have been lighted to consume it and its friends together, and at many seasons, death, in its most horrid form, has been the almost certain consequence of affording it an asylum from the fury of its enemies. Though it has been ridiculed more bitterly, misrepresented more grossly, opposed more rancorously, and burnt more frequently than any other book; and perhaps, than all other books united, it is so far from sinking under the efforts of its enemies, that the probability of its surviving until the final consummation of all things is greater than ever. The rain has descended, the floods have come, the storm has arisen, and beat upon a rock. Like the burning bush, it has been in the flames yet it is still unconsumed; a sufficient proof, were there no other, that He who spake from the bush is the author of the Bible.