is so rich in treasures of wisdom. We see that we can not exhaust the
Bible because we can not exhaust God. The Bible wields an influence
that can not be estimated. The spoken word is powerful, the printed
word surpasses it. The one is temporal, the other is eternal; the one
is circumscribed, the other is unlimited. The spoken sermon of today
is forgotten tomorrow; the written word of thousands of years ago still
sways the masses of today.
The whole civilized world bows down with reverence before the book of
all books, the Bible. The Roman sword, the Grecian palette and chisel,
have indeed rendered noble service to the cause of civilization, yet
even their proudest claims dwindle into insignificance when compared
with the benefits which the Bible has wrought. It has penetrated into
realms where the names of Greece and Rome have never resounded. It has
illumined empires and ennobled peoples, which Roman war and Grecian art
had left dark and barbarous. Where one man is charmed by the Odyssey,
tens and hundreds of thousands are delighted by the Pentateuch; where
one man is enthused by the Philippics of Demosthenes, millions are
enthused by the orations of Isaiah; where one man is inspired by the
valor of Horatious, tens of millions are inspired by the bravery of
David; where one man's life is ennobled by the art in the Parthenon,
scores of millions of lives are ennobled by the art in the sanctuary:
where one man's life is guided by the moral maxims of Marcus Aurelius,
hundreds of millions find their law of right and their rule for action
in the Bible. It is read in more than two hundred and fifty languages,
by four hundred millions of people living in every clime and zone of
the globe. It constitutes the only literature, the only code of law
and ethics, of many peoples and tribes. For thousands of years it has
gone hand in hand with civilization, has led the way towards the moral
and intellectual development of human kind, and despite the hatred of
its enemies and the still more dangerous misinterpretations of its
friends, its moral law still maintains its firm hold upon the hearts
and minds of the people, its power is still supreme for kindling a love
of right and duty, of justice and morality, within the hearts of the
overwhelming masses. Were it possible to annihilate the Bible, and
with it all the influence it has exercised, the pillars upon which
civilization rests would be knocked from under it, and, as if with one
thrust of the fatal knife, we would deal the death blow to our
morality, to our domestic happiness, to our commercial integrity, to
our peaceful relationships, to our educational and chart-table
institutions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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