"By persistently ignoring the spiritual and cultivating the intellectual faculties, mankind has well nigh lost the highest means of inspiration, but now that we again, like the prophets and apostles of old, seek for signs of the Infinite, we are gradually recovering the key by which they unlocked its mysteries. "As to the infallibility of what is thus revealed, we must remember that while truth is always infallible, there is a possibility of its recognition or conception being tinged to a greater or less degree, with our erroneous judgements, and as the light, pure in itself, is colored by the glass through which it passes, so is the divinest truth colored with the quality of mind through which it comes to the world. As Heber Newton says, 'Inspiration can not do away with the limitations of the human individuality.' Thus, in our discrimination of so-called inspired literature, language or thoughts, we must learn that whatever is opposite God, the universal idea of goodness, is the chaff that must be blown away. In other words it is the assumption of mortal thought instead of absolute knowledge of divine mind. "It would be an utter impossibility to describe infinite truth in finite language. Words are inadequate to express the grandeur of sacred revelation. "With this view of inspiration, we can readily see how far short we have come in our conceptions of the Bible, and now that we are to use and understand this wonderful book as never before, it is well that we consider it a little more closely. "There are three general views held in regard to the Bible as an inspired book. 1. That it is verbally inspired; _i. e._, that every word is direct from God. 2. That it is partially inspired; and, 3. That it is no more inspired than any other good book. The first two of these views have been and are accompanied with the idea that everything going under the name of inspiration, is infallible, hence the idea that every statement made throughout the entire book is absolute truth. "The Bible itself makes no claim to infallibility, though there are frequent references to inspiration and the influence of the Holy Ghost in moving men to speak, but the principal text on which is based this claim of infallibility is II. Tim. iii: 16. At the time this was written, there was only the Old Testament, including the Apocrypha, that could be referred to as Scripture, so when we read Paul's assertion that, 'all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,' if we take it to be infallible, we have a reasonable ground for regarding the Old Testament and the Apocrypha as infallible. But a more literal rendering of the Greek text would be, 'all scripture divinely inspired is indeed profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction,' etc., and by simply changing the position of the little word _is_, we have a vastly different sentence.