PKINCIPLES OF THE CRITICISM OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 243 



ask : " Who will criticise the critics themselves 1 " and we may 

 confidently reply that in Germany the Germans will do so. 



We do well, with the Dean, to recognize the valuable work of 

 Mr. Harold Wiener in our own country, and of other contributors 

 to the Bihliotheca Sacra in America. The general thesis worked out 

 by Mr. Wiener was, to my knowledge, discussed in private twenty- 

 five years ago, by individual scholars ; but Mr. Wiener has had the 

 honour and distinction of carrying the work through with an 

 enthusiasm which should command Christian satisfaction as well as 

 Jewish admiration. But so far that work has not received the 

 recognition that is its due. As for the positions taken up by " A 

 Layman," to which the Dean has also called attention, though not 

 quite new, they are of profound importance, and will doubtless lead 

 to far-reaching results when they come to their own. 



To the excellent work done by these scholars may be added that 

 of Dr. Melvin Grove Kyle, of Philadelphia, whose volume published 

 last year, with the title The Deciding Voice of the Monuments in Biblical 

 Criticism (issued in this country by the S.P.C.K.), deserves high 

 commendation. The title of the book is a proposition which some 

 of us think will abundantly vindicate itself in due time. Dr. Kyle 

 shows that, while investigations among the dust of bygone ages have 

 accredited the Scriptures, so also such investigations have, inimportant 

 particulars, discredited the method of criticism to which the Scriptures 

 have been subjected in recent times. His work, moreover, justifies 

 the expectation of still greater results in the same direction as the out- 

 come of continued exploration in the lands of the unchanging East, 



The late Dr. Emil Reich spoke of " the Bankruptcy of Criticism." 

 That bankruptcy, as Dr. Kyle shows, only waits on the further 

 product of archaeological research. For this we may well be thank- 

 ful ; and at the moment, moreover, we must be thankful to the 

 Dean for the very helpful way in which he has drawn attention to 

 the actual ])rogress of constructive thought in its bearing upon the 

 Old Testament Scriptures. 



The Rev. Canon Girdlestone said : I feel more and more that in 

 reading the Bible we ought to do so with Jewish eyes, not only the 

 Old Testament but also the New. We should try to imagine our- 

 selves Jews, with their history behind us : the Gospels, the Acts, and 

 the Letters would then speak to us with much greater power. In 

 relation to to-day's subject I should like to draw attention to one of 



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