full of Bible similes, allusions, references, quotations. The Bible has had no slight share in shaping and conserving the language itself. The translators rendered immortal the words and idioms they chose for their version. Who can understand the English language who has never read the Bible? If we wished to present the best book of Reference, we should choose the English Bible.

Further, if books are valuable at all, we may certainly expect much from the most widely circulated and influential book in the world. In the report of the British and Foreign Bible Society we have a list of 254 languages and dialects into which the Bible has been translated whole or in part. The same Society also circulates about three million copies a year either of the entire book or of Scripture portions. It is needless to say that no other can compare with it in range or degree of distribution, and it must be remembered that it circulates chiefly in those countries where the greatest progress, both material and moral, has been effected. If we wanted to present the one book of world-wide fame and influence, we should choose the Bible.

But although the Bible has literary attractions which suffice to raise it above all other books, its main interest is quite apart from these. We believe it contains the revelation of God's will to men and points out the way to eternal life. And at the outset it will be seen that in this capacity it possesses one important practical recommendation. It is not too long and too difficult to be easily read and understood. It is not necessary even to read the whole volume in order to know what Christianity is. The New Testament alone which can be read in a few days contains all the fundamental truths. Nor is the meaning as a whole difficult to understand, for although there are doubtless perplexing passages they seldom bear on questions of vital importance. The leading truths of Christianity are taught with the utmost clearness, and they are so few that they can be easily formulated into a short creed

to be repeated by Christian congregations. Now for men who have no time to lose it is surely of importance that they should first study a sacred book so brief and simple.

The Bible has, as we think, another strong claim on the first attention of Hindus. In many respects it lies midway between Hinduism on the one hand and Brahmoism and Muhammadanism on the other. We do not mean it lies midway in its spiritual and moral requirements, for we believe Christianity to surpass all other religions in the deep spirituality of its worship and the exalted morality it inculcates on its followers. But it acknowledges as these other systems do not the truth that underlies Hinduism. It recognizes the fact that a bare monotheism will not satisfy the cravings of man's nature, that a divine incarnation is necessary to bring God near to men, and that a great sacrifice is necessary to atone for sin. The Bible, as we think, accomplishes what Hinduism attempts in vain. In the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation and Atonement of Christ, man's deepest desires and needs find their complete satisfaction. We know that for this very reason many Hindus dislike Christianity. They have been surfeited with Hindu fable, and their recent study of science has made them coldly sceptical. They must have a religion without a tinge of the marvellous, and hence they rush to another extreme and seek a creed at the opposite pole of their own. But in religion as in every thing else the golden mean is likely to be right. It is probable that the scepticism of later years will lead them just as much astray as the blind superstition of earlier life. We cannot abandon either our reason or our faith, and we need a religion which satisfies both.

But our chief motive for pressing the claims of the Bible is founded on our personal experience of its priceless value. It is this which makes us so earnest and confident in recommending it to others. We feel that we can only discharge our own debt of obligation to its teaching by inducing others to share in the

blessing. This book has revealed to us God's holiness and love; it has led us to aim at a purer and nobler life; it has imbued us with love to our fellowit has a thousand times comforted us in sorrow; and it has implanted within us an undying hope. How can we refrain from urging others to study a book which has been of such value to ourselves?

men;

I know we shall be met by the objection that there are thousands called Christians on whom the Bible seems to have produced no good effect. They are just as immoral as the professors of other creeds. Perhaps we shall be reminded of the recent revelations of vice in the chief city of Christendom. But what inference can be deduced from these facts? Hindus generally do not know what a gulf there is in England between the religions and irreligious classes. In India immorality is often found associated with religion, but in Christian countries the immoral classes are, as a rule, outside the pale of the church. No book is so detested and shunned by immoral men as the Bible. They seldom have it in their houses; seldomer still do they open its pages. The pure and spiritual teaching of the Bible may be gauged by the intensity with which it is abhorred by those who live in flagrant violation of its precepts. One of the meanings of Christian found in standard dictionaries is, 'a real disciple of Christ ; a believer in Christ who is characterised by real piety.' In England this is a very common acceptation of the term, and it need not be said that in this sense immoral men are not Christians and in fact most of them would be greatly offended if they were called by that name.

In all fairness we must judge of the influence of the Bible by those who profess to be true Christians and are generally acknowledged as such. We wish our readers could be persuaded to peruse a few of the many thousand records of earnest Christian lives to be found in European literature. We might refer to such recent memoirs as those of Lord Lawrence, the Viceroy of India; the Princess Alice of Hesse, the daughter of

our Gracious Queen; and General Gordon, the celebrated hero of Khartoum. We wish still more that they could be brought into daily contact with Christianity as it exists in many an English community, transforming every variety of character, raising the whole tone of society, blessing the domestic circle with purity and peace, bringing comfort to afflicted and desolate homes, and brightening the dark chamber of death with the hope of happy re-union beyond the grave. Because we ourselves have lived among influences such as these, and because we have experienced the mighty power of Christ's Gospel in our own hearts, we recommend that Gospel with all possible earnest ness and confidence to the most serious attention of all into whose hands this book may fall.

II. REVELATION POSSIBLE AND

NECESSARY.

The meaning of the term Revelation and its difference from Intuition, are thus explained by Dr. Jardine, formerly of Calcutta :

"Revelation is distinguished from Intuition in this : that whereas the latter indicates human striving after a knowledge of the unseen-the effort of the human mind to penetrate into the concealed mysteries of the heavenly world; the former is the unveiling before the human mind of things existing or carried on in the invisible universe, an actual objective manifestation of divine acts or purposes. Intuition is essentially the result of human effort; Revelation is essentially the result of a divine act,-a communication of otherwise unknown things to the mind of man.'

It is admitted that there is a natural revelation as well as a supernatural communication of divine truth. The works of creation are sufficient to prove the existence of God. But some things are discernible by the light of nature only imperfectly; as the charac

ter of God and a future state of rewards and punishments. Other things cannot be known at all apart from revelation; as the offer of mercy through Jesus Christ.

There are things which from our limited faculties cannot be revealed; as the unveiling of the infinite mystery of God. "The end of revelation is not to satisfy the curiosity of those who 'seek after wisdom,' by the solution of metaphysical problems. The good offered is not science, but salvation. The final cause of revelation is the recovery of man to communion with God; that is, to true religion. Whatever knowledge is communicated is tributary to this end."

A Revelation should be in Writing.-Some years ago Theodore Parker and F. W. Newman contended that "Man is a sufficient light to himself, that his oracle is within; so clear as either to supersede the necessityor even the possibility-of all external revelation in any ordinary sense of that term." They wished to frame a religion according to their own ideas, opposed to every existing creed, and so they sneered at "bookrevelations.”

It is evident that a "book-revelation" must be much superior to a "lip-revelation." To listen with reverence to the oral teaching of a prophet and to deny authority to the same truths when written, would be absurd. "The existence of a written word," says Trench, "is one necessary condition of any progress whatever in the world. If succeeding generations are to inherit aught from those that went before them,—if there is to be any manhood of our race, and all is not to be always childhood,-it is plain that only thus, only through such an instrument could this be brought about." There is an old Latin proverb, The written letter remains. "It is only through a written record that great spiritual truths can be transmitted unimpaired to future generations. The most earnest oral tradition will, in a little while, lose its distinctness. Rival schools of disciples will begin to contend not merely how their master's words