The Bible would be the greatest book ever written if it rested on its literary merits alone, stripped of the reverence that inspiration commands; but it becomes infinitely more valuable when it is accepted as the Word of God.  As a man-made book it would compel the intellectual admiration of the world; as the audible voice of the Heavenly Father it makes an irresistible appeal to the heart and writes its truths upon our lives.  Its heroes teach us great lessons—­they were giants when they walked by faith, but weak as we ourselves when they relied upon their own strength.

The Bible starts with a simple story of creation—­just a few words, but it says all that can be said.  The scientists have framed hypotheses, the philosophers have formulated theories and the speculators have guessed—­some of them have darkened “counsel by words without knowledge”—­but when the smoke of controversy rises we find that the first sentence of Genesis, still unshaken, comprehends the entire subject:  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  No one has been able to overthrow it, or burrow under it or go around it.

And so when we set out in search of a foundation for statute law; we dig down through the loose dirt, the mould of centuries, until we strike solid rock and we find the Tables of Stone on which were written the ten commandments.  All important legislation is but an elaboration of these few, brief sentences, and the elaborations are often obscuring instead of clarifying.

If we desire rules to govern our spiritual development we turn back to the Sermon on the Mount.  In our educational system it takes many books on many subjects to prepare a mind for its work, but three chapters of the Bible (Matthew 5, 6 and 7) applied to life, would have more influence than all the learning of the schools in determining the happiness of the individual and his service to society.

If we want to understand the evils of arbitrary power, we have only to read Samuel’s warning to the children of Israel when they clamoured for a king (1 Sam. 8:  11, 17).

If we would form an estimate of the influence that faith can exert on a human life, and, through it, upon a world, we follow the career of Abraham, “the friend of God,” and see how his trust in Jehovah was rewarded.  He founded a race, than which there has never been a greater, and established the religion through which to-day hundreds of millions worship God.

David showed us how a shepherd lad could become the “warrior king” and the “sweet singer of Israel,” with virtues so big that, in spite of his enormous sins, he is described as “a man after God’s own heart.”