I. THE WORD OF GOD. OME writers, of the highest Christian standing, SOM have brought themselves to look upon the Bible as a book obviously marked by incongruity, self-contradiction, historical impossibility, and occasional moral outrage, in which, nevertheless, many a direct and genuine message from God may be found if sought for with a reverent, humble, and obedient spirit. Such writers, regarded as a class, decline, with an energy hardly less than vehement, to speak of the Bible as "the Word of God," yet, happily, they are equally emphatic and fervid in declaring that in ancient times the Word of God came to individual prophets and suppliants, and that a record of the communication is to be found in the Bible. writers in question go much farther than this, their urgent contention being that the Word of God not The |