THE BIBLE. 



THERE is probably no book on earth that has ever had anything like so 

 large a circulation as that which is known as the Bible ; and yet few 

 among the many millions who possess a copy ever think of asking 

 themselves the question, " Where and how did it originate ?" They are 

 satisfied with the ipse dixit of their parson that it " came from God." 

 That may be sufficient to satisfy the unthinking multitude, but it does 

 not suffice for thinking people, who prefer to follow the dictates of their 

 reason rather than rest on the mere word of a man or a number of men 

 who are paid to preach that the Bible is the word of God, and whose 

 incomes would cease if their followers thought otherwise. 



What is this Bible ? Where did it come from ? Let us see. As we 

 now have it, it consists of a number of books, which are divided into 

 two main portions, the Old and the New Testaments, the former being 

 made up of the five books said to have been written by Moses under 

 God's inspiration, and called the Pentateuch, and a number of historical, 

 poetical, and prophetic writings ; and the latter consisting of four narra- 

 tives of the life of Jesus, called the Gospels, a narrative of the Acts of 

 the Apostles, a number of letters, and the Vision or Revelation of one 

 John. The number of books which make up the Bible has varied from 

 time to time, according to the fancy of the age; but about 360 years 

 since a Council of Protestants determined that a number of hitherto 

 received sacred writings were not the "Word of God," and finally 

 decided that only those now included in the authorised version were of 

 divine origin. Before that time the following books had formed part of 

 the Bible viz., Tobit and Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, 

 Epistle of Jeremiah, Song of the Three Children, Susanna, Bel and the 

 Dragon, and Maccabees, all of which are considered canonical at the 

 present time by the Roman Catholic Church. Besides these writings 

 there are a large number of others that have, at different times, occupied 

 positions of honour in this ever-varying compilation, but which are now 

 almost forgotten by pious divines, and entirely unknown by their 

 credulous and ignorant dupes. 



Dr, Dupin, Professor of Philosophy at the Paris University, and one 



