CURRENT EVENTS. 



HIGHER CRITICISM AND THE PEOPLE. 



This has been a subject of special interest in Ontario during the 

 last few months owing to sensational incidents such as Dr. Carman's 

 arraignment of the Rev. G. Jackson, the attack against the English 

 Bible class of University College, Toronto, and Professor J. Orr*s 

 appeal to the people against the extravagances of criticism. To dis- 

 cuss all the material involved in this controversy would require a 

 volume rather than a brief note, but just as we go to press the de- 

 cision of the authorities at JNIcMaster University in regard to the 

 last charge of heresy is announced, and it seems possible to sum up 

 quietly some of the results of this recent and local phase of a great 

 movement. We are often told that the phrase " higher criticism " is 

 an unfortunate one, as it is liable in both of its parts to popular mis- 

 apprehension. That may be the case, but the only remedy for that 

 is a little more intelligence and care in the use of it. For about one 

 hundred and fifty years it has been in use among Biblical students 

 and it has become a technical term that cannot be dispensed with in 

 this department, ^^'e could mention many other technical phrases 

 well suited to the study or class-room which suffer under similar 

 disadvantages when bandied about in popular controversy. The 

 literary and historical criticism which seeks to set a book in its proper 

 framework and solve its real problems is certainly higher than the 

 criticism that limits itself to the narrower task of settling the text. 

 Both forms of study are legitimate and fruitful and only the most 

 ignorant can fall into the mistake of thinking that one who uses the 

 methods of the higher criticism by that fact claims to be a superior 

 person or shows himself to be a sceptic. A very loose popular ap- 

 plication of the phrase is to denounce as " higher criticism " a par- 

 ticular set of opinions about the Bible with which the speaker happens 

 to disagree and which in many cases he does not understand. When 

 a preacher supplies " hot stuff " for the newspaper by declaring that 

 the higher critics are " liars and infidels," he shows that he is sadly 

 lacking in knowledge and charity and places himself outside of the 

 pale of reasonable discussion. By the form of his words he de- 

 nounces every man who tries to form an intelligent view of the Bible, 

 while he thinks that he is merely denouncing those who differ from 

 him. 



