LITERARY MERIT OF THE SCRIPTURES.
We do not claim for the Scriptures simply the honor of having given the world its letters. This they might have done, and have left the field of literature barren, and with all the difficulties of cultivating it to be overcome by the tedious toil of successive generations. But they open upon you a "goodly land," every where fruitful and luxuriant, and ripened already to a full harvest. Mountain-meadow and pure streams diversify and adorn its surface; and at each step a mine is disclosed, yielding as it is explored new and exhaustless treasures. Who would not be a wayfarer amid such scenes? If the Bible is of human origin, it must certainly be regarded as the most wonderful effort of created intelligence. That there should be so perfect a book in so early a state of the world; that no volume, either ancient or modern, and written in the most advanced and cultivated condition of human society, should compare with this ancient record, originating in a comparatively rude age, is to my own mind a fact not easily accounted for on the principles of infidelity. The world is filled with books that are the product of the mightiest sons of genius; but they are sterile and jejune, deformed and ungainly, in comparison with the riches of thought, the extent of researches, the accuracy, the grace and beauty, which distinguish the Bible. Without the Scriptures the world would be profoundly ignorant of some of the most important and interesting points of historical inquiry. Within the narrow compass of the first few chapters of the book of Genesis we are furnished with a distinct and connected history of more than two thousand of the earliest years of time. The narrative of Moses completely covers that period of history which with other nations is called fabulous, and which is merged in the regions of fabrication and conjecture. There are no ages of uncertainty here—no regions of fable—no chasm. From the first dawn of the creation down to the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, the entire period is filled up with events, the effects of which are widely extended over the earth and are visible to the present hour.—Dr. Spring.