172 E£V. p. p. FLOUEXOY^ OX BEARING OF AECH-EOLOGICAL 



presenting the case for the New Testament Scriptures as they are 

 COMMENDED AND CONFIRMED by research ; and as we heard the 

 Essay Ave could not but be deeply impressed with the manner in 

 which the facts were presented, and their meaning and bearing made 

 obWous to all. Taken as a whole, the Essa}' may be said to answer 

 most effectively the ends for which the Gunning Prize was founded. 



But there are more witnesses that may be called. If the 

 " bearing which commends by confirmation is important, so also is 

 that which commends b}^ explanation. Those witnesses stand 

 behind the simple labels of Inscriptions, Papyri, and Ostraca, the 

 outcome of modern discoveries that have much to tell us respecting 

 the Xew Testament Scriptures. True, these will not, in every case 

 and direct!}', speak as to the integrity of the Books ; but assuredly, 

 in the first place, they imply the antiquity of the writings, and in 

 the second place they invest them with a realism that should 

 specially appeal to the modern mind. Here we are on the track of 

 the civilization of Imperial Rome, as interpreted to us in remains 

 that have been found in Egypt and the Levant ; and the results of 

 such investigations as concern us are given in the publications of 

 well-known societies devoted to exploration, also in works by Sir 

 William Ramsay, Professor George Milligan, Professor Deissmann, 

 and others. Whatsoever these results may contribute in the way of 

 confirming Scripture is of great value ; but the same may also be 

 said of the explanatory light which they throw, not only upon the 

 sacred text, but also upon the confirming material itself. These 

 witnesses exist, not in the form of literary documents of standard 

 order; they are simply commonplace writings — letters, deeds, and 

 wiUs ; contracts invoices, and receipts ; tax-papers, judicial forms, 

 diaries, and so forth. Dr. Flournoy has left these witnesses for 

 such examination as may now be applied to them. For myself, I 

 must be content with some general remarks. 



(1) In the first place, I recall the controversy of centuries gone 

 by in reference to the language in which the Xew Testament has 

 come to us. Out of this there emerged a theory which, on the 

 surface, was fanciful, but which none the less won influential 

 adherents, namely, that the Xew Testament was written in a 

 Greek of its own kind, a sacred form of speech, as it were, prepared 

 b}' the Spirit of God for a certain piu-pose, and consecrated to serve 

 in a special manner as a vehicle for the expression of Divine Truth. 



