Page:The Bible- Its True Character and Spiritual Meaning.djvu/18

8 of the simple and the spiritual intuitions of the wise, and present their varied lessons to the varied sorts and conditions of men.

I desire to commend to you this doctrine: That the Bible is a book of Divine Parables; its early portions are allegory; its historical records a vast drama enacted by living men as types of spiritual things, with the redemption and regeneration of man for its subject. The advent of the Lord, His sufferings, His death, His gospel, can thus be seen to be in harmony with this drama, which embraces the Deity, and represents the states of every living soul. The Word, teaching us thus, becomes at once spiritual in its subject, in its importance, and in its style; and is taken out of the arena of controversial criticism, and let out to the higher faculties of man for investigation and devout contemplation. Simple as this doctrine is, catholic as it is to the wisest thought of the church in primitive and modern times, I am unwilling to trust it to the fate of a plausible conjecture, and, therefore, ask your attention to some of the evidences of its truthfulness.

It must not be forgotten that the number of persons who feel themselves obliged to doubt whether the Bible is a revelation from God,