There is the conserved spiritual force of Christian literature. This is stored up in the Bibles of the world, in commentaries upon its text, in expositions of its principles, in books illustrating its meaning. If all the Bibles of the world, books written about the Bible—in favor of it or against it—and all the books which have been inspired by some truth or precept taught in the Bible, and all the books which owe their existence directly or indirectly to the Bible, were burned up, Christendom would be well-nigh without literature. All Bibles and all books and literature which have grown out of the Bible owe their existence directly to Christ. They have come as straight from him as the coal in the mountain has come from the sun. Much force has been expended in the writing of all these books and in printing them, binding them, circulating them. They represent millions of dollars, ages of painful, patient thought. Into them a marvelous amount of force has lifted itself—physical force, money force, thought force. We are to find its equivalent. All the force that has arisen in Christian literature has subsided at some point, and the amount that subsided is the exact equivalent of that which has arisen. It must be remembered, too, that distinctly Christian literature has not made its way in the world, as have the writings of Homer and Plato, by their affinity with man’s fancy. The wonderful interest which has ever centered around the Bible is totally different in kind and degree from that which centers around the works of Shakspere. Whatever there is of literary merit, of philosophic thought, or of poetic depth in the Bible is incidental. There is the conserved spiritual force of Christian art. The masterpieces in painting, sculpture, music, poetry, and architecture are Christian. The inspiration which produced Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” Handel’s “Messiah,” Powers’ “Eve,” and St. Peter’s at Rome, has all come from Christ. In the conception and production of these an immense amount of the most subtle, refined force has been expended.