THE DECLINE OF BIBLIOLATRY. 595 



" skeptics " and " infidels," I became aware of the existence of 

 people who trusted in carnal reason ; who audaciously doubted 

 that the world was made in six natural days, or that the deluge 

 was universal ; perhaps even went so far as to question the 

 literal accuracy of the story of Eve's temptation, or of Balaam's 

 ass ; and, from the horror of the tones in which they were men- 

 tioned, I should have been justified in drawing the conclusion 

 that these rash men belonged to the criminal classes. At the 

 same time, those who were more directly responsible for provid- 

 ing me with the knowledge essential to the right guidance of life 

 (and who sincerely desired to do so), imagined that they were dis- 

 charging that most sacred duty by impressing upon my childish 

 mind the necessity, on pain of reprobation in this world and 

 damnation in the next, of accepting, in the strict and literal 

 sense, every statement contained in the Protestant Bible. I was 

 told to believe, and I did believe, that doubt about any of them 

 was a sin, not less reprehensible than a moral delict. I suppose 

 that, out of a thousand of my contemporaries, nine hundred at 

 least had their minds systematically warped and poisoned, in the 

 name of the God of truth, by like discipline. I am sure that, even 

 a score of years later, those who ventured to question the exact 

 historical accuracy of any part of the Old Testament and a fortiori 

 of the Gospels, had to expect a pitiless shower of verbal missiles, 

 to say nothing of the other disagreeable consequences which visit 

 those who, in any way, run counter to that chaos of prejudices 

 called public opinion. 



My recollections of this time have recently been revived by 

 the perusal of a remarkable document,* signed by as many as 

 thirty-eight out of the twenty odd thousand clergymen of the 

 Established Church. It does not appear that the signataries 

 are officially accredited spokesmen of the ecclesiastical corpora- 

 tion to which they belong ; but I feel bound to take their word 

 for it, that they are " stewards of the Lord, who have received 

 the Holy Ghost," and therefore to accept this memorial as evi- 

 dence that, though the Evangelicism of my early days may be 

 deposed from its place of power, though so many of the colleagues 

 of the thirty-eight even repudiate the title of Protestants, yet the 

 green bay tree of bibliolatry flourishes as it did sixty years ago. 

 And, as in those good old times, whoso refuses to offer incense to 

 the idol is held to be guilty of " a dishonor to God," imperiling his 

 salvation. 



It is to the credit of the perspicacity of the memorialists that 

 they discern the real nature of the Controverted Question of the 

 age. They are awake to the unquestionable fact that, if Scripture 



* Declaration on the Truth of Holy Scripture. The Times, December 18, 1891. 



