178 KIGHT RKV. THE BISHOP OF DOWN, ON 



down to the intellectual dregs of the population, and if the same 

 unfortunate position is to be avoided in our own land the broadening 

 of the bases of official Christianity appears to me the only safe course. 

 I quite agree that many wild theories about New Testament dates 

 have practically vanished, but I cannot agree that the majority of 

 these books belong to the age and were written by the authors to 

 which tradition assigns them, particularly the gospels, in fact, it is 

 all theory and conjecture. Our author's thoughts about the laws 

 of Nature (p. 169) appear to me to be confused : to control natural 

 forces is surely not to alter their inexorable order. All that man 

 can do is to move matter, so that the inexorable result is to his 

 advantage. True science is not materialistic, on the other hand, Sir 

 Ray Lankester, I think, rightly repudiates emphatically, in the name 

 of the men of science in general. Sir Oliver Lodge's little flirtations 

 with mysticism. 



The Rev. C. L. Drawbridge, M.A., said : Before commencing to 

 read the paper, his lordship mentioned the fact that the title of it 

 had not been chosen by him, but by the Institute. What w^as the 

 idea in the Bishop's mind when he made this explanation about the 

 title, " Difficulties of Belief " 1 I think that the contrast between the 

 spirit displayed by some speakers in the discussion which followed 

 the reading of the paper, and the spirit of the paper itself, sheds 

 light upon the point. One of the chief objects of some members, I 

 gather, is to lessen the difficulties of retaining certain specific beliefs, 

 i.e., to find arguments to substantiate certain definite opinions — 

 which some of the members entertain and do not intend to relin- 

 quish — rather than to go to the Bible and to nature with a perfectly 

 open mind to find out what beliefs are suggested by an impartial 

 study of the actual facts. There is, of course, a fundamental 

 difi'erence between (1) seeking the truth, for its own sake, wherever 

 it may lead us, and (2) searching for arguments to support one's 

 existing opinions. If any specific belief becomes more and more 

 difficult in the growing light of modern investigation, with the 

 result that ultimately it is impossible to retain it, what then ? 

 Surely the result is by no means to be deplored, because the 

 discovery of the truth is of much more importance than the dogged 

 retention of any old beliefs if they are not justified by the facts. 

 The attitude of biblical scholars towards the Bible has changed 

 considerably since the days of our grandparents. Whether that 



