206 LIGHTS OF THE CHUKCH AND SCIENCE vi 



less press-ridden times, that what appears in print 

 must be true. We should rather hope that some 

 beneficent influence may create among the erudite 

 a like healthy suspicion of manuscripts and in- 

 scriptions, however ancient ; for a bulletin may lie, 

 even though it be written in cuneiform characters. 

 Hotspur's starling, that was to be taught to *speak 

 nothing but " Mortimer " into the ears of King 

 Henry the Fourth, might be a useful inmate of 

 every historian's library, if " Fiction " were sub- 

 stituted for the name of Harry Percy's friend. 



But it was the chief object of the lecturer to 

 the congregation gathered in St. Mary's, Oxford, 

 thirty-one years ago, to prove to them, by 

 evidence gathered with no little labour and 

 marshalled with much skill, that one group of 

 historical works was exempt from the general 

 rule ; and that the narratives contained in the 

 canonical Scriptures are free from any admixture 

 of error. With justice and candour, the lecturer 

 impresses upon his hearers that the special 

 distinction of Christianity, among the religions 

 of the world, lies in its claim to be historical ; to 

 be surely founded upon events which have 

 happened, exactly as they are declared to have 

 happened in its sacred books ; which are true, 

 that is, in the sense that the statement about 

 the execution of Charles the First is true. 

 Further, it is affirmed that the New Testament 

 presupposes the historical exactness of the Old 



