Claims of the Bible. 23 



we are searching for, revealing His character and 

 answering every question we need to propound re- 

 specting Him and our relations to Him. If this 

 Book is all it claims to be, it is all we need in this 

 investigation. But we have not yet learned even 

 that there is such a Being ; or, granting His existence, 

 that the Bonk is 1 1 is work. \Ve are not yet prepared 

 to pronounce the Bible obsolete, a collection of old 

 wives fables mingled here and there with flashes of 

 a high philosophy; but we freely acknowledge that 

 the Bible must stand the tests which science can 

 fairly put it to. If, by fair interpretation, it is shown 

 to conflict with the revelations of nature, it can no 

 longer claim authority as the Word of God, But we 

 find this Book boldly proclaiming its own Author to 

 be the same that created the world and all it con- 

 tains. We find it boldly referring to the world as 

 evidence of the existence and attributes of this Being. 

 The heavens, the sea, and dry land, the change of 

 M>ns and the history of nations, are all referred 

 to as proof of the existence of this Creator and 

 Governor of the universe. It makes no attempt to 

 stand by itself; but claiming to be the Word of God, 

 it claims also that the world was made by Him. 

 Whether, therefore, we ignore the Bible in religion 

 or desire to accept it, we are shut up in the first 

 place to the study of nature. But if that Book is 

 shown to be false, we are shut up to the study of 

 nature alone for all knowledge of God and of a fu- 

 ture life. Is there any evidence then in nature, not 

 only of the existence of God, but that this Book 



