The more I read the Bible with my altered feelings and change of
purpose, the more was I impressed with its transcendent worth, and the
more was I influenced by its renovating power. I saw that whatever might
be said with regard to particular portions of the Book, it was, as a
whole, the grandest revelation of truth and duty that the mind of man
could conceive. I could no longer find in my heart to talk or write
about what appeared to be its imperfections. There were passages that
seemed dark or doubtful: there were some that seemed erroneous or
contradictory; but they amounted to nothing. They did not affect the
scope, the drift, the aim, the tendency of the Book as a whole. They
might not be consistent with certain erroneous theories of inspiration,
or with certain unguarded statements of extravagant theologians; but
they were consistent with the belief that the book, as a whole, was
worthy of the Great Good being from whom it was said to have come, and
adapted to the illumination and salvation of the race to which it had
been given. Christianity began to present itself to my mind as the
truest philosophy; as the perfection of all wisdom and goodness. While
it met man's spiritual wants, and cheered him with the promise of
eternal bliss, it was manifestly its tendency to promote his highest
interests even in the present world.
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