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THE

LITERARY ATTRACTIONS

or

THE BIBLE;

OR

A PLEA FOR THE WORD OF GOD, CONSIDERED
2. AS A CLASSIC.

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ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by

CHARLES SCRIBNER,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York.

W. H. TINSON, STEREOTYPER.

R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER.

PREFACE.

THE topics presented in the several chapters of this volume, though apparently disconnected, have all been selected and discussed with one great end constantly in view; and that is to make them bear, as an unbroken and cumulative argument, on the superhuman and consequently Divine character of the Bible. This is the thought that underlies the whole arrangement and gives it unity. This main design, though running through a wide range of illustration, will be found constantly recurring, especially at the end of the chapters, and most of all in the last chapter, which was first in the order of conception and led to the composition of all the rest.

In contemplating the adorable person of Immanuel, there is a human as well as a Divine side to the picture. So also is it with the book of God. It has a human and a Divine side. There is a higher, and there is a lower point of view. It is the aim of the present work to occupy only this lower place, and from it to contemplate the human side exclusively. But it has been with an impression ever present to the writer's mind and growing to the end, that it is impossible to look long even

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upon the human, without seeing the bright beans of the Divine, streaming through from the other side. Like the manhood in Immanuel's person, humanity here appears in a mood so original, and so far above the usual style of man, that it seems itself a demonstration of Divinity.

Of course nothing new can now be offered or attempted on such a theme. But it is hoped that the easy argument, if the writer may venture to call it such, which runs through these chapters, will at least arrest the attention of some who might be repelled by more difficult, and formal discussions of the evidence for the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures. Perhaps the best evidence, after all, is to let the Bible speak for itself. It is a great point gained, when we can get what is in the Bible fairly before the minds of men. But there is more in it than many think; much more than any casual reader is ever aware of. And how is the Bible to speak for itself to those who will not patiently read it? Other books must speak for it, and tell what it contains.

The object of these pages is to tell, at least in part, what it contains; to gain the eye of those, who, under an impression that there is nothing in the Bible but religion, really do not know how much there is in it; to bring out to their view some of its many treasures; and to present them in such a way that they shall desire to see more; and so be attracted to the book itself. And if, from this lower point of view, and from this human side, the reader should receive any favorable impression of its truth, what might he not expect to find, should

he but ascend to the higher and holier ground? What but the luminous strokes of God's own finger!

"On every line.

Marked with the seals of high Divinity

On every leaf bedewed with drops

Of love Divine, and with the eternal heraldry
And signature of God Almighty stamped
From first to last."

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