National Literature the Exponent of National Character [pp. 201-225]

Natz'onal Literature, the
threatening the just judgment of God;- of a man, to whom
repose was indeed impossible, because of the ceaseless conflict
between his conscience and his passions; because of the abuse
of great powers, of high aims, and the everlasting forfeiture of
fair renown. The most high God himself has revealed his
nature in his word. As in the prophet's vision the spirit of the
living creature was in the wheels, so in the very words of
Scripture does there reside the Spirit of the incorruptible God.
"The words that I speak unto you, (says our Lord) they are
spirit and they are life:" John vi. 63. "All Scripture is given
by inspiration of God," is in the highest signification of the
term O2olvEoV. 2 Tim. iii. 16. God expresses the eternal
majesty, the untainted and infinite truth, the glorious fulness,
the transcendent and holy beauty of his nature in his word,
as apostate man exhibits the feebleness, the ignorance and the
perverseness of human nature in every thing that he writes, as
in every thing that he does, in every imagination of his heart,
and in every work of. his hands.
The ground on which all men, wise and unwise, learned and
ignorant, are required to receive the Bible as divine is, that it
is instinct with the Spirit; it is invested with the incommunicable glory of the Most High God. As the Roman penny
bare the image and superscription of Csesar, so does the Bible
the image and superscription of Jehovah. These the devout
believer rejoices to recognize, in representations of the divine
nature everywhere consistent with itself and accordant with his
own most intimate, exalted and hallowed convictions; in the
authority with which it addresses his conscience; in the consolation which it administers to his bruised spirit; in the holy
peace which it diffuses through his troubled bosom; in the
superhuman majesty of its doctrines; in the simple grandeur of
the style in which men inspired of God speak of the things of
God. The Author of this book, in full, must be more than man,
for he knows man far better than man knows himself. The
feeling expressed by the woman at the well of Samaria is perfectly coincident with the common experience. "Come, see a
man which told me all things that ever I did; is not this the
Christ?" John iv. 29. The language of the mind enlightened
and renewed by the Spirit of truth is, "To whom shall we go?
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