“Considering the asserted origin of these records--indirectly from God himself--we might justly expect that they would bear to be tried by any standard that man can apply, and vindicate their truth and excellence in the ordeal of human criticism. We ought therefore to look for universality, completeness, perfection. We might expect that they would present us with just views of the nature and position of this world in which we live, and that, whether dealing with the spiritual or material, they would put to shame the most celebrated productions of human genius, as the magnificent mechanism of the heavens, and the beautiful forms of the earth are superior to the vain contrivances of man. We might expect that they would propound with authority, and definitely settle those all important problems, which have exercised the mental powers of the ablest men of Asia and Europe for so many centuries, and which are at the foundation of all faith and all philosophy; that they should distinctly tell us, in unmistakable language, what is God, what is the world, what is the soul, and whether man has any criterion of truth; that they should explain to us how evil can exist in a world, the Maker of which is omnipotent, and altogether good; that they should reveal to us in what the affairs of men are fixed by destiny, in what by free will; that they should teach us whence we came, what is the object of our continuing here, what is to become of us hereafter. And since a written word claiming a divine origin must necessarily accredit itself, even to those most reluctant to receive it, its internal evidences becoming stronger and not weaker, with the strictness of the examination to which they are submitted, it ought to deal with those things that may be demonstrated by the increasing knowledge and genius of many anticipating therein his conclusions. Such a work noble as may be its origin, must not refuse, but court the test of natural philosophy, regarding it not as an antagonist but as its best support. As years pass on and human science becomes more exact and more comprehensive, its conclusions must be found in unison therewith. When occasion arises they should furnish us at least the foreshadowings of the great truths discovered by astronomy and geology, not offering for them the wild fictions of earlier ages. They should tell us how suns and worlds are distributed in infinite space, and how, in their succession they come forth in limitless time. They should say how far the dominion of God is carried out by law, and what is the point at which it is his pleasure to resort to his own arbitrary will. How grand would have been the description of the magnificent universe written by the omnipotent hand! Of man they should set forth his relations to other living beings, his place among them, his privileges and responsibilities. They should not leave him to grope his way through the vestiges of Greek philosophy, and to miss the truth