vii.] WHAT is INSPIRATION ? 117 



coming if the various books of the Bible had been 

 found able to withstand 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 

 remarkable, 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 know- 

 ledge and with modern morality, but that the various 

 parts of it often hopelessly contradict each other in 

 matters of fact, and sometimes present irreconcilable 

 divergences in matters of doctrine, while minor errors 

 of historical 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 probably be re- 

 garded 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 who 

 truly loves and reveres the Bible. To make a fetish 

 of the best of books does not, after all, seem to be 



