Page:Catholic Thoughts on the Bible and Theology.djvu/16

 times and in extraordinary manners, without the anticipation or effort of men, and even often contrary to their will, and ordained of as a special scheme of Education for a portion of His creatures on earth: but it is also a Register of the workings of  Spirit on man’s in all ages of the world from the first, Divinely ordered and preserved for the instruction of all men of all time, so that its facts, as well as its precepts, constitute a special manifestation of  Character and Will.

And also when we look even for a moment at the history of this Book, and carefully endeavour to contemplate the influence for good which it has exerted in the world, and the grand web of interests and events which have been, and which are, connected with it, we must ever regard it with feelings. such as never can be associated with any other on earth. The number of the individual souls which this Book has nourished and blessed, and the magnitude and variety of the Institutions to which it has given rise—how it has mingled itself with the deepest thoughts and feelings and utterances of men, and how this has been more and more the case the more spiritual and cultured the ages have become—these, too, are considerations which at once and alone must compel every religious soul to render a homage to the Bible the most sincere and the most profound.

But though the Bible is this, and very much more than this, it is not either a Revelation concerning all necessary knowledge, or wholly Revelation at all. It is rather only a Divine Communication of such portion of necessary knowledge concerning man’s origin and destiny, his duties and his hopes, as he could not of himself conclusively determine. Its whole aim throughout is ethical and spiritual: it is concerned altogether with the formation of man’s Character through the exhibition of ; its subject and object are essentially one-the education of the soul of man for re-union with his