It may readily be conceded that the writers and compilers of all Bibles were honest, and that all the errors which those Bibles embrace, and the crimes which they sanction, were honestly believed to be right, and in accordance with the will of God. For all sacred history teaches us, as an important lesson of human nature, that no errors are too gross, no crimes too enormous, no statements too false or absurd, no contradictions too glaring, and no stories too preposterous or too ridiculous, to receive the fullest indorsement of the most honest and pious minds, and to be even cherished by them as _God-given_ or divinely revealed _truths_, when such has been their teaching every day of their lives, in connection with the habitual _suppression_ of the voice of reason, and the inherited conviction of their truth deeply implanted in the mind, derived from a thou sand preceding generations. A strong and unyielding cord of religious conviction thus grows in the human mind, which no reason, no philosophy, and no science can ever sever or even shake. It becomes a moral canker, which no remedy can reach, or arrest in its progress. It seems to grow into the very heartstrings. Such is the strength of religious prejudice, such the weak side of human nature. Three hundred millions of people believe in the Hindoo religion, one hundred millions in the Chinese religion, two hundred millions in the Mahomedan religion, and one hundred and fifty millions in the Christian religion,--all for the same reasons, because their parents so believed, and taught them, and their neighbors still believe it; and surrounding influences have caused them to continue in their erroneous belief. After the illuminating rays of the sun of science had to some extent dispelled the religious errors of our early education, the case was so plain, that we entered upon the work of trying to convince others, with sanguine hopes of success. But experience has established the conviction in our mind, that if every text of the Christian Bible were a falsehood, and every line of their creeds an absurdity, there are many devout admirers of the book who could never be made to see it, because they are ruled by their _religious feelings_, and not by their _reasoning faculties_; and hence they will live and die in their moral and religious errors. But we rejoice in the omnipotent power of truth, which will finally dispel all error from progressive minds. GENERAL CLAIMS OF BIBLES. More than twenty sacred books have been found in varions countries, which, if not in all cases denominated Bibles, have at least been venerated and used as such, and, properly speaking, are Bibles. Hence we shall call them Bibles. The list in this chapter comprises nearly all which recent research has brought to light. A brief synopsis of the character and contents of each will be presented, so far as a comparative view with the Christian Bible seems to make it requisite.