328 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



" Thus, in TJie Mysteries of God, I do not ask if this 

 " dogma is probable or improbable ; if this is worthy or 

 " unworthy of God, as I fashion Him in my imagination : 

 "I simply ask, How is it written? What saith the 

 " Scripture ? Assured that God has not raised Christ 

 " from the dead, in order to tell us lies I " 

 Put in a nutshell, then, his code was the Bible, and the 

 Bible only, without any modern modification whatever ; 

 without allowance for any difference between the old world 

 and the new, without any distinction of value in parts, 

 without the smallest concession to the critical spirit upon 

 any point ; an absolute, uncompromising, unquestioning 

 reliance on the Hebrew and Greek texts as inspired by the 

 mouth of God and uncorrupted by the hand of man. The 

 Bible, however, is full of dark sayings, and needs, as he 

 admitted, an interpreter. But my father did not doubt his 

 own competence to interpret. He had some reason to 

 hold this view. His knowledge of the Bible can hardly 

 have been excelled. His verbal memory of the Authorized 

 Version included the whole New Testament, all the Psalms, 

 most of the Prophets, and all the lyrical portions of the 

 Historical Books. The condition of his memory fluctuated, 

 of course, and was being daily refreshed at various points ; 

 but I have his own repeated assurance that, practically 

 speaking, he knew the Bible by heart. Nor was this in 

 any sense a parrot-feat or trick of memory. He knew the 

 text of Scripture in this extraordinary way, partly because 

 his mind had an unusual power of verbal retention ; partly 

 because, for nearly sixty years, whatever other occupations 

 might have been in hand, no day passed in which he did 

 not read and meditate upon some portion of the Bible. I 

 have called his creed invulnerable ; and when it is con- 

 sidered that he could not be assailed on the side of 

 sensibility or sentiment, which he tossed to the winds, nor 



