i8 7 o] PROPHECY IN CRITICAL SCHOOLS 165 



where we cannot pierce through the outer shell of tradition 

 into the life of a past age, mirrored in the living record of 

 men who were themselves eye-witnesses and actors in the 

 scenes they describe. Not mere facts, but the inner kernel 

 of true life, is what the critical student delights to find in 

 every genuine monument of antiquity ; and the existence 

 of such a kernel is to him the last criterion of historical 

 authenticity. A tradition that violates the continuity of 

 historical evolution and stands in no necessary relation 

 to the conditions of the preceding and following age must 

 be untrue ; and, above all, an ancient writing which is no 

 frigid product of the school, but is instinct with true life, 

 must be the product of that age which contained the 

 conditions of the life it unconsciously reflects. 



It is clear that this theory of history contains much 

 that is true. That a unity of plan runs through all 

 history, all must hold who in any sense believe in Provi 

 dence. But just as the name of Providence may be used 

 to express the most diverse theories of God s working in 

 the world, the word organic, applied to the providential 

 development of history, may cover the widest differences 

 of thought ; for to one thinker the organic development 

 of history will mean the unbroken sweep of natural law 

 without one breath of the creative Spirit from on high, 

 while to a higher school of thought the one purpose of 

 history is the purpose of everlasting love, worked out, in, 

 and through human personality, by a personal redeeming 

 God. Now, the sphere in which all differences on this 

 point appear in clearest relief is that part of history of 

 which the Bible is the most authentic monument. For 

 the problems of Israel s history are essentially religious 

 problems. Rightly to conceive the progress of religious 

 faith, thought, and life in the people of Israel, until the 

 theocratic development received its absolute conclusion in 

 the life of Him who gathered all the rays of splendour 

 that flash through the Old Testament into the effulgent 

 focus of His transcendent personality, and in the course 



