6^6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Gospels truly report that which an incarnation of the God of 

 Truth communicated to the world, then it surely is absurd to 

 attend to any other evidence touching matters about which he 

 made any clear statement, or the truth of which is distinctly im- 

 plied by his words. If the exact historical truth of the gospel is 

 an axiom of Christianity, it is as just and right for a Christian to 

 say, Let us " close our ears against suggestions " of scientific crit- 

 ics, as it is for the man of science to refuse to waste his time 

 upon circle-squarers and flat-earth fanatics. 



It is commonly reported that the manifesto by which the 

 Canon of St. Paul's proclaims that he nails the colors of the 

 straitest biblical infallibility to the mast of the ship ecclesias- 

 tical, was put forth as a counterblast to Lux Mundi ; and that 

 the passages which I have more particularly quoted are directed 

 against the essay on The Holy Spirit and Inspiration in that col- 

 lection of treatises by Anglican divines of high standing, who 

 must assuredly be acquitted of conscious "infidel" proclivities. 

 I fancy that rumor must, for once, be right, for it is impossible to 

 imagine a more direct and diametrical contradiction than that be- 

 tween the passages from the sermon cited above and those which 

 follow : 



What is questioned is that our Lord's words foreclose certain critical positions 

 as to the character of Old Testament literature. For example, does his use 

 of Jonah's resurrection as a type of his own, depend in any real degree upon 

 whether it is historical fact or allegory ? . . . Once more, our Lord uses the time 

 before the flood, to illustrate the carelessness of men before his own coming. . . . 

 In referring to the flood he certainly suggests that he is treating it as typical, for 

 he introduces circumstances — " eating and drinking, marrying and giving in mar- 

 riage" — which have no counterpart in the original narrative (pp. 358, 359). 



While insisting on the flow of inspiration through the whole 

 of the Old Testament, the essayist does not admit its universality. 

 Here, also, the new apologetic demands a partial flood : 



But does the inspiration of the recorder guarantee the exact historical truth 

 of what he records ? And, in matter of fact, can the record, with due regard to 

 legitimate historical criticism, be pronounced true ? Now, to the latter of these 

 two questions (and they are quite distinct questions) we may reply that there is 

 nothing to prevent our believing, as our faith strongly disposes us to believe, that 

 the record from Abraham downward is, in substance, in the strict sense historical 

 (p. 351). 



It would appear, therefore, that there is nothing to prevent 

 our believing that the record, from Abraham upward, consists 

 of stories in the strict sense unhistorical, and that the pre- 

 Abrahamic narratives are mere moral and religious "types' 

 and parables. 



I confess I soon lose my way when I try to follow those who 



