The Bible | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 29, 1858

The Bible.

A NATION would, indeed, be truly blessed, if it were governed by no other laws than those of this blessed book. It is so complete a system that nothing can be added to it, or taken from it; it contains everything needful to be known or done; it affords a copy for a king, and a rule for a subject; it gives instruction and counsel to the senate, authority and direction for a magistrate; it cautions a witness, requires an impartial verdict of a jury, and furnishes the judge with his sentence.

It sets the husband as lord of the household, and the wife as mistress of the table—tells him how to rule, and how to manage. It entails honor to parents, and enjoins obedience to children. It prescribes and limits the sway of the sovereign, the rule of the ruler, and the authority of the master, commands the subjects to honor, and the servants to obey; and promises the blessing and protection of the Almighty to all that walk by its rules.

It gives directions for weddings and for burials. It promises food and raiment, and limits the use of both. It points out a faithful and eternal guardian to the departing husband and father—tells him with whom to leave his fatherless children, and in whom his widow is to trust; and promises a father to the former, and husband to the latter. It is the first book, the best book, and the oldest book in the world.

It contains the choicest matter, gives the best instruction, affords the greatest pleasure and satisfaction, that ever was enjoyed. It contains the best laws and the most profound mysteries that ever was penned; it brings the best tidings and affords the best of comfort to the inquiring and disconsolate. It exhibits life and immortality and shows the way to glory. It is a brief recital of all that is past, and a certain prediction of all that is to come. It settles all matter in debate, resolves all doubts, and eases the mind and conscience of all their scruples.

It reveals the only living and true God, and shows the way to him; and sets aside all other gods, and describes the vanity of them, and of all that trust in such; in short, it is a book of laws, to show right and wrong; a book of wisdom, that condemns all folly, and makes the foolish wise; a book of truth, that detects all lies and confutes all error; and a book of life, that shows the way from everlasting death. It is the most compendious book in the world, the most authentic, and the most entertaining history that ever was published.

It contains the most venerable antiquities, strange events, wonderful occurrences, heroic deeds, unparalleled wars; it describes the celestial, terrestrial, and infernal worlds, and the origin of the angelic myriads, human tribes, and devilish legions. It will instruct the accomplished mechanic, and the most profound artist. It teaches the best rhetorician, and exercises every power of the most skillful arithmetician; puzzles the wisest anatomist, and exercises the nicest critic. It corrects the vain philosopher, and confutes the unwise astronomer. It exposes the subtle sophist, and makes diviners mad.

It is a complete code of laws, a perfect body of divinity, an unequalled narrative, a book of lives, a book of travels, and a book of voyages. It is the best covenant that ever was agreed on, the best deed that ever was sealed, the best evidence that ever was produced, the best will that ever was made, and the best testament that ever was sealed. To understand it, is to be wise indeed; to be ignorant of it, is to be destitute of wisdom.

It is the king's best copy, the magistrate's best rule, the housewife's best guide, the servant's best directory, and the young man's best companion; it is the school-boy's spelling-book, and the learned man's masterpiece. It contains a choice grammar for the novice, and a profound mystery for the sage. It is the ignorant man's dictionary, and the wise man's directory. It affords knowledge of witty inventions for the humorous, and dark sayings for the grave; and it is its own interpreter. It encourages the wise, the warrior, the swift, and the overcomer; and promises an eternal reward to the excellent, the conqueror, the winner, and the prevailor. And that which crowns all, is that the Author is without partiality, and without hypocrisy. In whom is no variableness or shadow of turning."