Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1847-12-04
Influence Of the Bible upon the
Intellect.

Ertract from an Address on "THE BEN.
EFICIAL INFLUENCE OF LITERARY INsTr.
TuTIoNs." delivered before HoDard High
School, Fdyette, NO., by Rev. J. BOYLE,
Of Boonuille, Mo.
Before our Literary Institutions can at.
tain their full measure Of usefulness, there
must be general adoption of the Bible
as the Great Tert Book. In the days of
Mental Degradation, this Incompatible
Book was exied from the halls of science
and the institutions of learning, and incar.
cerated in monastic dungeons, since which
time il has constituted no part Of the regu.
lar conrse pursued in Semnaries of Learn
ing. We gaze on the long line of Litera.
ry Institutions through the centuries that
are past, and feel as did the Roman when
he beheld not the statues of Brutus and
Cassius in the funeral procession of their
families. When the Bible was banished
from the seats of learning, the sun was
quenched in the literary armament; and its
restoration will cause the lamps of science
to flame afresh, and all the spheres of learn.
ing to radiate brighter splendor.
The most important aspect of the sacred
scriptures is that under which they are con.
templated as the symbols and assurances
Of truth; but regarded merely as literary
monuments. they are not only the most an.
c;opf ond cnrous but ,b, r,ost ov,,,.sJ:
nary and valuable in the whole compass of
literature. Independently Of the divine
origin Of the scriptures" says the learned
and accomplished Sir William Jones, al
have found in them more true wisdom,
more real sublimity, purer morality, more
important history, a higher strain of
thought and poetry, and finer specimens Of
genuine eloquence. than can be collected
from all other books in whatever language
they may have been written" The Bible
is the great nourisher of Intellect;--the
only original, pure, and inexhaus.ible foun-
tain of thought; the only storehouse of the
elements of universal literature; the only
safe and infallible standard of taste; the
only depository of the richest, noblest,
specimens of the awful and majestic,
the graceful and the beautiful. This Book
of God sits proudly enthroned amidst the
purity and grandeur of her own heaven of
heavens, at an infinite height above the
loftiest dome that surmounts the temples of
Roman and Grecian genius.
II, then, we would
properly erect our Institutions of Learn.
ing, the Bible must be the basis. If we
would rear noble and imperishable struc.
ture, the foundations must be deeply i'm.
bedded in the revelations of God. If we
act otherwise, we will build our ediice on
a basis that cannot sustain it; every stone
added to its walls will increase the danger
of its destruction; the dome will tremble
on its yielding circle; and if il linger till it
be finished, the slight weight of its last or.
nament shall cause the downfall of the
whole! The thoughtful listener on the
plains of time hears the whole horizon re.
with the overthrow of noble
piles thus foolishly founded. and starts from
The moving shadows Of the central towers
that totter above and around him! Iwould
not exaggerate the value Of the Bible so as
10 displace any other book necessary to be
known; would not substitute the Bible
for everything else; but l would give il
precedence of every other, and make il
The basis and companion of the whole
course. 1t is preposterous to suppose that
The study of this Holy Volume is peculiar
to a theological course, as though to be ig-
norant of the only authentic record in ex.
istence of the origin, history and destiny
Of man, the creation of the world, the orr.
gin of nations. and the physical, political,
and moral revolutions of remote ages were
not discreditable to any man of literary
pretensions. We talk of the expansive
power Of other studies; of their discipline,
their scope and their elevation; and true il
is, that by law of our intellectual nature,
the mind grows dwarfsh or gigantic, &C.
cording to the nature and dimensions of
the objects with which it is kept in faml-
lar contact. If, then, We would give to
mind its full expansion, set it to span the
disclosures of revolution; to take the cir
and scale the altitude of eter.
nal truth; TO explore the depths of infinite