"Ir is more honourable to see wisely what is presented for observation, than to believe there can be anything worthy to be called sound judgment in refusing to see it."-BALDWIN ON PRE-HISTORIC NATIONS, 351. PREFACE. THE question placed upon my title page is one that should not be difficult to reply to, nor provoke serious difference of judgment. The divine being is so immeasurably superior in the faculties possessed by the human race, that in estimating any work that possibly may be common to him and man, the marks of distinction between the product of the infallible and perfect workman, and that of the fallible and imperfect one, should be readily discernible. The conflict of opinion that has arisen on the pretensions of the Bible to be of divine origin is owing, not to the matter to be judged being ill defined or obscure, but because, commonly, the question is settled, in the affirmative, without examination. That this book is the very word of God, is an opinion formed for us in our childhood, and early impressions, whatever their character, take firm hold. A twig to which an artificial form has been given in the days of its pliancy, defies the efforts made at a later time to bring it back to its natural shape. And it is with such a warp on the judgment that in Christian lands the investigation of the authority of the Bible must be taken up, if indeed ever entered upon. But with the great body the conviction induced in youth is the final one, the mind resenting any attempt to interfere with its cherished belief. Those who have depended all their lives on corks or crutches, naturally are afraid to trust to their own proper unaided powers, and to |