118 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



unless upheld by very weighty evidence. Such 

 evidence might be forthcoming if the various 

 books of the Bible had been found able to with- 

 stand every test of scientific and literary criticism 

 that could be brought to bear upon them, and 

 come out unscathed in every statement. Such a 

 phenomenon would at least have been very re- 

 markable, but in point of fact the outcome of 

 Biblical criticism has been very different from 

 this. A century of intense study and searching 

 controversy has superabundantly proved that the 

 Bible not only contains much that conflicts both 

 with modern knowledge and with modern moral- 

 ity, but that the various parts of it often hope- 

 lessly contradict each other in matters of fact, and 

 sometimes present irreconcilable divergences in 

 matters of doctrine, while minor errors of histor- 

 ical or philological interpretation abound in it 

 throughout. In view of such a conclusion there 

 would seem to be no need for any hypothesis of 

 special Divine action in the composition of the 

 Bible. On the contrary, the belief in the peculiar 

 inspiration of this collection of books should prob- 

 ably be regarded as one of the incumbrances with 

 which Christianity has been loaded by the old 

 heathen way of looking at things. 



A sad incumbrance it certainly is to any one 



