Inspiration and Interpretation

"[...]Bible arrests a man in his impatient course with many a significant History, -many an unmanageable precept. Much of its contents, it is true, are of such a nature that they may be glossed over, -explained away, -ignored, -set aside. The reading is doubtful: or there are two opinions, (perhaps twenty, ) concerning it: or the language may be figurative: or the words are not to be pressed too closely: or a perverse logic may pretend to find in it agreeable confirmation, instead of stern reproof. Not a few places there are, however, which defy any such handling; stubborn rocks which refuse to yield a single trace of the wished-for vegetation, in return for the most determined[...]."