164 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1868- 



lays bare to himself and others the real principles and 

 unavoidable problems of a purely naturalistic criticism ; 

 while in Gustav Baur, with less genius than Ewald, and 

 less acuteness than Kuenen, we find most fully the 

 qualities, happily by no means rare among German 

 critics, which seem to us to give most hope for the future 

 an honest painstaking spirit of inquiry which, though 

 heartily devoted to the critical method, has reached, and 

 is not afraid to speak out, the conviction that that is not a 

 true criticism which refuses to find in the Old Testament 

 the special hand of a revealing God. 



In the choice of these typical writers, we confine 

 ourselves to disciples of the critical school men who 

 approach the questions of prophecy from the historical, 

 not from the theological side. We do not think that this 

 is the only line of inquiry that can be fruitful ; we are 

 persuaded, indeed, that the want of a clear theological 

 position has greatly limited the real value of the work of 

 men like Ewald, and we see in the labours of such theo 

 logians as Hofmann and Delitzsch, to mention two names 

 only, very much which has merited the lasting gratitude 

 of every Old Testament student. But in their starting- 

 point, at least, the historical and theological methods are 

 so different, even where they lead ultimately to the same 

 result, that it is impossible to speak of both in the limits 

 of a single article ; and in our country the critical method 

 seems most to call for exposition, especially in view of 

 the unscrupulous pertinacity with which the enemies of 

 Christianity in England are accustomed to claim every 

 critic as a witness on their side. 



The fundamental principle of the higher criticism lies 

 in the conception of the organic unity of all history. We 

 must not see in history only a medley of petty dramas 

 involving no higher springs of action than the passions 

 and interests of individuals. History is not a stage-play, 

 but the life and life-work of mankind continually unfolding 

 in one great plan. And hence we have no true history 



