BIBLICAL ANALYSIS; OR A TOPICAL ARRANGEMENT OF THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. ADAPTED TO THE USE OF MINISTERS, SABBATH SCHOOL AND BIBLE CLASS TEACHERS, FAMILY WORSHIP, AND PRIVATE MEDITATION. COMPILED BY J. U. PARSONS. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY WHIPPLE & DAMRELL, No. 9 Cornhill. 1837. PREFACE. PHILOSOPHERS of all ages have deplored the inefficiency of systems of Ethics, however pure, to reform and regulate society. And while their own hearts have struggled against their precepts, they have buried the last hope of essentially benefitting their race, by witnessing how powerless all their demonstrations of duty and right fell upon the multitude. What heathen or Christian philosophy never could accomplish, God proposes to do by his word. THE BIBLE, AS A REVELATION FROM GOD, AND THE BIBLE ONLY, CAN RESTORE MAN, AND REBUILD THE RUINS OF HIS FALL. To this end it is expressly and PERFECTLY adapted. "The law of the Lord is perfect, CONVERTING THE SOUL." The Gospel of Christ is WISDOM and POWER. It may not be unprofitable to bestow a few thoughts on the perfect adaptation of this instrumentality to its purpose, the recovery of the world to holiness and God; and the manner in which it should be employed to promote that object. When the word of God challenges for itself perfection, it must by no means be limited in our minds to a freedom from inculcating errors in sentiment, or immoralities in practice. The moral code of Plato or Seneca might be as pure as that of the gospel, and yet be perfectly powerless in reclaiming men. Truth from their lips is truth; but it is the production of the statuary; fair in its proportions, comely in its features, the combination of all beauties in its design, and adorned with every grace; yet cold, motionless, lifeless a statue of In the Bible, it is the production of the great Architect of the universe, who breathes upon a fabric of clay, and it becomes a living soul. It is vivified by the same divine inspiration which clothed the universe with life. stone. |