BIBLES USEFUL IN THEIR PLACE.
We do not question but that Bibles served a useful purpose for those nations and tribes by whom and for whom they were written; but as they only represent the imperfect moral and religious conceptions of that age, and have always been sacredly guarded from improvement, to make them the rule of action for any subsequent age would be to stop all moral and religious improvement. It is strikingly evident that society can make no improvement while it follows a Bible which is interdicted from improvement. It must remain stationary, with respect to religion and morals, so far as it is tied to an unchangeable book. Bibles in this way become masters of human thought, and shackles for the soul, and thus inflict serious evils upon society by their tendency to stop all moral, and religious progress. Three thousand or ten thousand years may elapse, and no improvement can be made in the religion or morals of the people while the Bible from which they emanate is prohibited from improvement. Thus Bibles inflict a death-like torpor and stagnation upon the moral and intellectual progress of society so far as their precepts are lived up to; that is, so far as the assumption that there can be no improvement in the teachings of the Bible is practically observed. It is the source of a pleasing reflection, however, to know that most Bible believers habitually violate their own principles by trampling this assumption under foot. Otherwise we would have remained eternally in a state of barbarism.