THE BIBLE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. 



33 



1. Literary and Historical Criticism. — This we need not fear. 

 We have certainly made a good many mistakes as to dates and 

 authorship of our sacred writings, e.g., we thought the Psalms 

 were all written by David, and the book we call " Isaiah " was 

 the work of one man. Learning is a valuable helper in all this 

 division. It requires great care in handling, but we need not be 

 afraid of the result. It does not touch the question of Inspiration. 



2. Scientific Criticism. — This is an infinitely more difficult 

 region. Not only does the account of the Creation need to be 

 entirely remodelled, but the question of Miracle is at stake; the 

 two great Christian miracles, the Incarnation and the Resurrec- 

 tion, are implicated. I bid you beware how you approach this 

 subject. 



3. Ethical Criticism. — This is the hardest of all, I do not 

 think any of us can see the end of it, or even attempt to explain 

 it. The divine approval of the mean character of Jacob, the 

 exterminating wars of Joshua, the extraordinary tales in the book 

 of the Judges, the existence of the imprecatory Psalms — we 

 submit, we cannot explain how such as these can be the outcome 

 of a God of perfect Goodness and Love. Here is a very strong 

 enemy. 



Such was the pamphlet ; though I fear that in this summary 

 I am giving you Ur more of the effect upon my own mind than 

 the words of Dr. Christlieb. To some of you it may sound 

 like the echoes of a past age, but to me it was a great satisfaction 

 to find our enemies were not innumerable, but were in definite 

 bands. Yet I could not fight, for I would not read. Where 

 was the use of speaking to people at homie, who checked all 

 progress with the wards, " To doubt is to sin "? W^here was 

 the use of confiding in agnostic friends who said light-heartedly, 



All life is change and progress. You thought one thing yester- 

 day, why cannot you think another thing to-day, and perhaps 

 another to-morrow? " This to my mind meant the death of 

 the soul. Once I remember confiding in a German pastor, for 

 I thought he would sympathize, but he turned his gentle eyes 

 on me and said slowly, " And you would like to know all the 

 different poisons by taste? " 



This is not a biography, and I will only add that I toiled 

 along the road for many years, blind and dumb toward the 

 speculative side (though one cannot be wholly deaf if one lives 

 in the world of thought), but keeping eyes and tongue and hands 

 fully occupied with the practical side of religion. Never did I 

 omit reading the Bible, or trying to help others who knew less 

 than myself, and when one sees the flame of a new life kindled in 

 a young heart, and the whole being shoots heavenward like a sky- 

 rocket, doubts sink into the background. Yet they remain, 



C 



