The Bible can never command or retain its place as the supreme mentor of human life unless its absolutely divine character is recognized. Its histories will never be studied as they require to be, or its hopes practically blended with the motives of human action, or its self-denying precepts adopted and acted upon in human life, where there is the least suspicion of the presence of a human element in its composition.
This suspicion saps confidence: and the lack of confidence leads but too easily to a neglect to which we are naturally predisposed. Society is a desolation today because of this.
The divine authority of the Bible is not recognized. If it were recognized, as it has been hitherto among the brethren, there would be that application to it in constant reading which would purify and ennoble with righteousness and hope.
Instead of this, it is regarded as a venerable piece of literary antiquity, good in its way, but not deserving of the first place in human life, and, on the whole, inconvenient and even hurtful, if it is put into that position. All confidence in it as the word of God has been undermined in the general ranks of society through the influence of learned but false theories.
A few have had that confidence restored, with the result of light and comfort and righteousness entering into their dark lives by the daily reading of the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make men wise unto salvation.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One