Page:The Bible- Its True Character and Spiritual Meaning.djvu/22

12 really affected by the Scriptures perceive in them a power far transcending that which is felt in any other writing, and such facts of experience are not to be ignored. The simple literal meaning of a verse by no means accounts for the impression it may produce. There are religious faculties in us all, that respond with fear or hope to the statutes and commands, the warnings and promises of Holy Scripture, even though intellectually we profess to believe them the product of men in past time; there is a Divine power in them which has asserted itself to every generation for ages.

3. Consider, then, in view of what the Scriptures claim to be, the Word of God, whether they can possibly be such without containing the mind of God in spiritual truths utterly distinct from that which appears in the grammatical construction of the letter. It must be admitted that a large part of the Bible claiming to be the Word of God, is not the Word of God to us unless indeed it be uttered in parable and contain secrets within its bosom ready to be unfolded to the teachable mind. But could any of it be the Word of God without a spiritual sense within the letter? Rationally it is impossible to conceive of a Divine truth descending into the language of men, and taking to