The Scripture Guide, a Familiar Introduction to the Study of the Bible [pp. 201-221]

Critical Study of the English Bible. [APRIL
effect produced by the exclusive study of translations. If,
for example, some sublime and interesting chapter of Isaiah
is the subject of the operation, you shall hear it read precisely
like a chapter of the same length in the book of Proverbs.
Instead of being uttered as a coherent chain of sentences, it is transformed into a series of insulated aphorisms,
which might just as well have stood in any other order.
Another curious effect of the same cause is an almost superstitious reverence for the conventional and arbitrary separation of the text into chapters and verses. To those who can
find out no connexion for themselves, a ready-made division
is exceedingly convenient, and it is frequently amusing to
observe with what fidelity the reader follows this unerring
guide, even when it leads into inextricable nonsense. The
first clause of a long verse, for example, may be quoted to
establish or illustrate a position, and then the last clause must
be added to complete the verse, however irrelevant or foreign to the subject. So in reading, some appear to think it
sinful to abridge a chllapter, even when the last part selfevidently appertains to the succeeding context. It may
even be doubted whether some of our good brethren do not
look upon the chapters as an inspired division of the text.
There is, however, a far more serious and extensive evil, arising from this want of clear perception in regard tothe connexion of the Scriptures. This evil is the general neglect of the
Old Testament. It is in that part of the English Bible that
the nexus of the parts is most obscure; partly because the original itself is there more dark and broken; partly because the
English version is less accurate and masterly in the Old
Testament than in the Newv. Hence the prophecies are
really a sealed book to multitudes of authorized expounders,
sealed not by their own intrinsic difficulty, but by wilful
ignorance. There are, indeed, difficulties which no erudition, ingenuity, and skill, have ever solved completely;
but the persons here referred to, are unable to distinguish between these and other passages involving no such
difficulty. Instead of learning to explain that which is explicable, they secretly set down the whole as unintelligible,
and confine their labours to the more perspicuous scriptures.
And this abandonment of the obscure parts of the 01d Testament has led to a general neglect of all its parts. MAlany
who are familiar with the gospels and epistles, have a vague
feeling with respect to the Old Testament, as something antiquated and outlandish. I speak not now of those whose
theological opinions lead them to disparage the Old Testa
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