It would be disgraceful to borrow second-hand criticisms, and turn the Bible away unheard. It ought not to be read hurriedly, for that is not fair to any author who is dealing seriously with weighty subjects. A Book which master-minds have reverenced can only be despised by fools. To read the Book is to feel that it is full of power: a man must be wilfully wicked who should refuse this verdict, even if he hated that power. It has more thought in it than its opponents could have displayed. Their counterthought is only Bible-truth turned upside down, and therefore it owes its origin to the Book it assails.
A singular fact may here be mentioned; it is certain that those who love this Book best are those who have read it most, and, as a general rule, those who rail at it have not attained to more than a scanty knowledge of it.