CHRISTIANITY AND AGNOSTICISM. 345 



I say to myself (says her spokesman, p. 466) it has taken some thirty years for 

 German critical science to conquer English opinion in the matter of the Old Testa- 

 ment. . . . How much longer will it take before we feel the victory of the same 

 science . . . with regard to the history of Christian origins ? 



Remembering that the main movement of New Testament criti- 

 cism in Germany dates not thirty, bnt more than fifty years back, 

 and that thirty years ago Baur's school enjoyed the same applause 

 in Germany as that of Wellhausen does now, does it not seem 

 more in conformity with experience and with probability to an- 

 ticipate that, as the Germans themselves, with longer experi- 

 ence, find they had been too hasty in following Baur, so with an 

 equally long experience they may find they have been similarly 

 too hasty in accepting Wellhausen ? The fever of revolutionary 

 criticism on the New Testament was at its height after thirty 

 years, and the science has subsided into comparative health after 

 twenty more. The fever of the revolutionary criticism of the Old 

 Testament is now at its height, but the parallel suggests a similar 

 return to a more sober and common-sense state of mind. The 

 most famous name, in short, of German New Testament criticism 

 is now associated with exploded theories ; and we are asked to 

 shut our eyes to this undoubted fact because Mrs. Ward prophe- 

 sies a different fate for the name now most famous in Old Testa- 

 ment criticism. I prefer the evidence of established fact to that 

 of romantic prophecy. 



But these observations suggest another consideration, which 

 has a very important bearing on that general disparagement of 

 English theology and theologians which Prof. Huxley expresses 

 so offensively, and which Mrs. Ward encourages. She and Prof. 

 Huxley talk as if German theology were all rationalistic and Eng- 

 lish theology alone conservative. Prof. Huxley invites his readers 

 to study in Mrs. Ward's article 



the results of critical investigation as it is carried out among those theologians 

 who are men of science and not mere counsel for creeds ; 



and he appeals to 



the works of scholars and theologians of the highest repute in the only two coun- 

 tries, Holland and Germany, in which, at the present time, professors of theology 

 are to be found, whose tenure of their posts does not depend upon the results to 

 which their inquiries lead them. 



Well, passing over the insult to theologians in all other countries, 

 what is the consequence of this freedom in Germany itself ? Is it 

 seen that all learned and distinguished theologians in that coun- 

 try are of the opinions of Prof. Huxley and Mrs. Ward ? The 

 quotations I have given will serve to illustrate the fact that the 

 exact contrary is the case. If any one wants vigorous, learned, 

 and satisfactory answers to Prof. Huxley and Mrs. Ward, Ger- 



