24 PROLOGUE I 



The interest which attaches to this singular 

 document will, I think, be based by most thinking 

 men, not upon what it is, but upon that of which 

 it is a sign. It is an open secret, that the 

 memorial is put forth as a counterblast to a 

 manifestation of opinion of a contrary character, 

 on the part of certain members of the same 

 ecclesiastical body, who therefore have, as I 

 suppose, an equal right to declare themselves 

 " stewards of the Lord and recipients of the Holy 

 Ghost." In fact, the stream of tendency towards 

 Naturalism, the course of which I have briefly 

 traced, has, of late years, flowed so strongly, that 

 even the Churches have begun, I dare not say to 

 drift, but, at any rate, to swing at their moorings. 

 Within the pale of the Anglican establishment, I 

 venture to doubt, whether, at this moment, there 

 are as many thorough -going defenders of " plenary 

 inspiration " as there were timid questioners of 

 that doctrine, half a century ago. Commentaries, 

 sanctioned by the highest authority, give up the 

 " actual historical truth " of the cosmogomcal 

 and diluvial narratives. University professors of 

 deservedly high repute accept the critical decision 

 that the Hexateuch is a compilation, in which the 

 share of Moses, either as author or as editor, is 

 not quite so clearly demonstrable as it might be ; 

 highly placed Divines tell us that the pre- 

 Abrahamic Scripture narratives may be ignored ; 

 that the book of Daniel may be regarded as a 



