ii8 What is Inspiration? [vh. 



the most reverent way of treating it. Take away 

 the discredited hypothesis of infallibility, and the 

 errors of statement and crudities of doctrine at once 

 become of no consequence, and cease to occupy our 

 attention. It no longer seems worth while to write 

 puerile essays to show that the Elohist was versed in 

 all the conclusions of modern geology, or that the 

 books of Kings and Chronicles tell the same story. 

 The spiritual import of this wonderful collection of 

 writings becomes its most prominent aspect ; and, 

 freed from the exigencies of a crude philosophy and 

 an inane criticism, the Bible becomes once more the 

 Book of mankind. 



August 1878. 



