Part 15 (1/2)

A lish Grammar?' My ansas, 'The first you coood one to-rammar you have; and you will soon find out which is the best' And so I say with regard to books on other subjects Make the best use you can of the books you have, and you will soon come across better And when you do come across them, you will be all the better prepared to profit by them, than if you were to waste your tiet hold of the best of all

Besides; the book that is best for others, may not be the best for you

And if a man should ask me, 'Which is the best translation of the Bible?' I would say, 'The first you come at Read any, till youyour coe for yourself which is best That which does , a useful and a happy man is the best'

Some want books and teachers that will save them the trouble of study

And there are none such It would be a pity if there were They would do no good, but harthens and develops the mind like labor

But if you had the best books possible they would not enable you to acquire orous mental effort

I learned Greek with the worst Greek Grae tolerably, I found one of the best Greek Grah it, and found that it had little to add to the inforained already froard to books on God, religion, and duty

Books with nuement, and even defects in matter, may teach you many useful lessons, if you read and study them properly; and the best books on earth will not teach you reat deal, al, depends on the spirit or the object hich a ood book You reat good froious and moral book on earth; it is, in its ood, and useful, and happy to the last degree, if they will read and study it properly But there is not a better book on earth fora man a fool, if he comes to it with a vain mind, a proud spirit, a fulness of self-conceit, or a wish to be a prophet A desire to be a prater about the n, the orders of angels, the ranks of devils, the secrets of God's counsels, the hidden ers' skins, the shi+ttim wood, the Urim and Thummim, the Cherubiinary inary types, and the place where Paradise was situated, and the mountain peak on which the Ark rested, and Behemoth, and Leviathan, and the spot at which the Israelites entered the Red Sea, and the coe before he naate of Paradise, and the controversial parts of Paul's epistles, and theof Solo with the sons of God in the days of Job, and the exact way in which Job used the potsherd, when he scraped hi the ashes, &c, &c,--I say if this is what a man desires, the Bible will help hi-stock, or the pity of all sensible men

And if he employs the one hundred and fifty rules of Hartwell Horne forthe plain portions of the Bible, and his one hundred and forty other rules for darkening hishis soul, the Bible will ruin hi ahis honesty, and piety, and charity, if he has those virtues, and fora man's vanity, and pride, and selfishness, and perversity, if he be the slave of such passions, God could hardly have given And to try and to bless reat objects of all God's revelations

My opponent was fond of saying that the Bible was an infallible guide

The stateorous sense of the words And it was foolish for hier debate, for he could never prove it And he was not long in finding this out A few plain questions set hiuide, you say We ask, Which Bible? The common version? No John Wesley's version? No Dr Conquest's? No The Unitarian version? No _Any_ version? No Is it some particular Greek or Hebrew Bible then? No Is it the manuscripts? No But these are all the Bibles we have

The Bible is an infallible guide, you say What to? Uniformity of opinion? No Uniformity of worshi+p? No Unifor, of affection, of effort? No It does not even require uniformity in those matters It supposes diversity It asks only for sincerity, honesty, fidelity But it is an infallible guide to all truth and duty, you say Has it guided you to all truth and duty? No

Whouided to those blessed results? You cannot say

But it is an infallible guide to all that truth which is necessary to a man's salvation, you say But there is no particular amount of truth that _is_ necessary to a man's salvation The amount of truth necessary to a es

That which is necessary to an It is sincerity in the search of truth, and fidelity in reducing it to practice, which is necessary to a man's salvation, and not the acquisition of some particular quantity of truth

The Bible is an infallible guide To whom? To the Catholics? No To the Unitarians? No To the Quakers? No To the Church of England people? No

To Methodists and Calvinists? No

That the Bible is a trusty guide enough, I have no doubt, if ill faithfully and prayerfully follow it; but to talk as if it would guide every one infallibly to exactly the same views, or to the fulness of all truth, is not wise It is not warranted either by the Bible itself, or by facts

Besides, if a book is to guide a man infallibly, it must be made perfectly plain; it must be infallibly interpreted And where are the infallible interpreters? We know of none that even profess to be such outside the Church of Rome; and none but themselves and their own Church members believe their professions _You_ do not believe them As a rule, the claim of infallibility is taken as a proof that theworse

But if we had infallible interpreters, they would not be able to keep us from error, unless we had infallible hearts and infallible understandings And we have no such things If we had, we should neither need infallible books nor infallible interpreters

That the Bible is all that it _needs_ to be, and all that it _ought_ to be, I am satisfied; but that it is all that some of its zealous advocates _say_ it is, plain and unquestionable facts make it impossible for any candid, unbiassed, and well-inforuide within us, if we be true Christians For the Spirit of God dwells in the hearts of all true disciples of Christ

But the infallible guide does not make us all infallible followers The infallible teacher does not make us all infallible learners We are blessed with divine inspiration, but we are not converted into machines

Inspiration does not e or virtue, still less does it h, and we shall learn fast enough, if we are faithful; but we shall never be perfect or infallible in our knowledge in this world