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The Fundamentals volume has come. The Jews were anything but a literary people. They were not at all remarkable for culture, learn ing, art, or philosophy; and they were quite cut off by their peculiar customs, traditions, and religious institutions, from the progressive nations around them. There is no other Jew ish literature that is worth talking about.' .Yet, from such a people has come a volume whose sixty-six books,- now that we have them all together, evidently constitute one complete structure, unitary in design, yet which was fifteen centuries in attaining its completed state. This book, after the Jewish people were disintegrated and scattered,—even as that very book had distinctly foretold,—and had become the most de spised and persecuted people on earth, has entered into the place of supremacy in every nation which has attained to any degree of civilization, and has held that place without a rival for eighteen centuries, during which period of time every human institution has been overturned, not once only, but again and again. Why is it that the universal Book did not have its origin in the literature of Greece, or of ancient Rome, or in the Eliza bethan epoch of English literature? Why is 'i t that nations which have been famed for their culture and literary genius have produced nothing comparable to the Bible? What col lection of sixty-six booki; from the writings of about thirty authors of any nation could be made that would present any of the characteristics we have been noticing? Yet, it is certain that, it the Bible had a natural, instead of a supernatural origin, it would be far surpassed by the literary product of the literary nations of the earth. This property of adaptability to all languages and peoples will impress us still more if we compare it in this respect with other Oriental books. The mere fact that it is an Oriental book makes its career among the Occidental nations still more miraculous. All attempts to domesticate other Oriental books, particularly sacred books, have been complete failures. Other
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