startled the minds of all believers in the Bible. The first shock
which the old belief sustained was from the establishment of the
Copernican view of the Solar System. That the world was the
immovable centre of the universe, around which sun, moon, and
planets moved in their appointed courses, was universally held to
be the express teaching of the Bible; and when Galileo ventured to
maintain the new views in Italy, the Roman Curia took up the
question, and by the agency of the Inquisition wrung from him a
reluctant retractation of his so-called heresy. But it was of no
avail. The new doctrine was true, and it could not be crushed.
Fresh evidence of its truth was continually coming forward, till
at last it was universally received. Then the defenders of the
Bible had recourse to the suggestion that as the Bible was not
intended to teach us science, such errors were of no consequence,
But this argument, though perfectly sound with reference to such
passages as Joshua x. 12-14, where an event is described as it
appeared to those who witnessed it, is not admissible in such a
passage as Psalm xcvi. 10, where the supposed immobility of the
earth is alleged as a proof of God's sovereignty, and is made the
foundation of the duty of proclaiming that sovereignty among the
heathen. When the supposed proof was found to be a fallacy, the
statement in support of which it was alleged would be more or less
shaken. In such a passage, then, the theory of limited inspiration
is evidently untenable. At last the only sensible course was
adopted. Recourse was had to the original, and it was at once
apparent that the supposed difficulty had no real existence, but
that there was a very trifling inaccuracy in the translation; for
that the word translated "shall not be moved" really signified
"shall not be shaken or totter." The same word is used in Psalm
xvii. 5, "Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps SLIP