ections to the Bible
Human minds vary. The minds of different education and thought receive
different impressions of the same words, and it is difficult for one mind to give to
one of a different temperament, education, and habits of thought by language exactly
the same idea as that which is clear and distinct in his own mind. Yet to honest men,
right-minded men, he can be so simple and plain as to convey his meaning for all
practical purposes. If the man he communicates with is not honest and will not want
to see and understand the truth, he will turn his words and language in everything
to suit his own purposes. He will misconstrue his words, play upon his imagination,
wrest them from their true meaning, and then entrench himself in unbelief, claiming
that the sentiments are all wrong.
This is the way my writings are treated by those who wish to misunderstand and
pervert them. They turn the truth of God into a lie. In the very same way that they treat
the writings in my published articles and in my books, so do skeptics and infidels treat
the Bible. They read it according to their desire to pervert, to misapply, to willfully
wrest the utterances from their true meaning. They declare that the Bible can prove
anything and everything, that every sect proves their doctrines right, and that the most
diverse doctrines are proved from the Bible.
The writers of the Bible had to express their ideas in human language. It was
written by human men. These men were inspired of the Holy Spirit. Because of the
imperfections of human understanding of language, or the perversity of the human
mind, ingenious in evading truth, many read and understand the Bible to please
themselves. It is not that the difficulty is in the Bible. Opposing politicians argue
points of law in the statute book, and take opposite views in their application and in
these laws.
The Scriptures were given to men, not in a continuous chain of unbroken
utterances, but piece by piece through successive generations, as God in His
providence saw a fitting opportunity to impress man at sundry times
