Attractions of the Bible.
God, who made the world, gave us the Bible. The world is full of attraction, and so is the word of the Lord. The Home Journal thus quotes the eloquent language of Dr. Hamilton on the literary attractions of the Bible. "A few simple sentences would have sufficed to tell what God is, and what he would have us be. There was no need for the picturesque narrative and the majestic poem; no need for the proverb, the story, and the Psalm. A chapter of theology, and another of morals; a short account of the incarnation, and the great atonement; and a few pages of rules and directions for the Christian life, might have contained the main truths of scripture, and have supplied us with a Bible of the simplest means and of the smallest size; and, in that case the Bible would have been consulted only by those rare and wistful spirits to whom the great hereafter is a subject of anxiety—who are really anxious to know what God is, and how they themselves may please him. But, in giving the Bible, its Divine Author had regard to the mind of man. He knew that man had more curiosity than piety, more taste than sanctity, and that more persons are anxious to hear some new, or read some beauteous thing, than to hear about God and the great salvation. He knew that few would ever ask, what must I do to be saved? till they came in contact with the Bible itself; and therefore he made the Bible not only an instructive book, but an attractive one—not only true, but enticing. He filled it with marvelous incidents, and engaging history; with sunny pictures from old world scenery, and affecting anecdotes from patriarch times. He replenished it with stately argument and thrilling verse, and sprinkled it over with sententious wisdom and proverbial pungency. He made it a book of lofty thoughts and noble images. A book of heavenly doctrine, but withal, of earthly adaptation. "In preparing a guide to immortality, infinite wisdom gave not a dictionary nor a grammar, but a Bible. A book which, in trying to catch the heart of man, should captivate his tastes; and which, in transforming his affections, should also expand his intellect. The pearl is of great price, but even the casket is of exquisite beauty. The sword is of ethereal temper, and nothing cuts so keenly as its double edge; but there are jewels on the hilt, and fine tracery on the scabbard. The speckles are of the purest ore; but even the scrip which contains them is of a texture more curious than that the artists of earth could fashion it. The apples are gold, but even the basket is silver."