15.—"A Small Portion of Mankind."

Mr. Stout impugns the wisdom of God in the distribution of the Bible. He seems either to forget, or to ignore, well-established facts of history. God certainly committed to the Hebrews the Divine books. He did not, however, prevent other nations knowing of them and using them. Moreover, Mr Stout has not taken into account how widely the Bible was circulated over the world in the early days of Christianity, and that many years before our era it had been published in the popular language of the day. It was carried far south in Africa, west in Spain, north in Europe, and east in India, reaching possibly to China. Yet Mr. Stout says it was given to only a small portion of mankind. Had it not been for man's inveterate love of man-made gods and man-appointed priests, the paganism of their ancestors, and their own refusal to accept the Divine oracle, the Bible would for ages have been the univeral illuminator of mankind.