The great nineteenth century English Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, was once asked to defend the Bible against various charges. “Defend the Bible?” he retorted, “I’d rather defend a lion! The Bible doesn’t need defending. It can defend itself.” But the title of my talk tonight certainly suggests such a defence. My subtitle asks, “Is the Good Book still good for a watching world?” (By ‘a watching world’ I mean people outside the Church. Of course, they are not ‘watching’ Christians all the time, as if they followed us around and scrutinised our every move. Such people might even be offended if we imagined that about them. However, many people do remain aware of us; and when our leaders face various accusations or say something difficult, it certainly seems that there remains a high level of interest in Christians and their communities.)