RECONSTRUCTION AND RESTATEMENT. 



19 



special revelations, as the men of any former age by the light 

 of theirs. There is an open door before ns, which no man, and 

 no body of men, alive or dead, can shut. We cannot be denied 

 the right to look through the telescope lest we should see spots 

 -on the sun. When, forty years ago, Bishop Colenso drew 

 general attention to that which devout scholars had already 

 several times observed, the " stratification " now so evident in the 

 books of the Pentateuch, he was hounded out of the communion 

 of the Orthodox. Even now there are pious souls who refuse 

 to read his scholarly works — lest they should see spots on the 

 •sun ! We are to a lesser extent witnessing a like attitude 

 assumed toward those who in our day are pointing to the 

 undeniable evidences of stratification in the composition of our 

 Gospels. It is not a question of science but one of scholarship. 

 Scholarship is now in possession of the records of ancient 

 Babylon and ancient Egypt, which antedate our Bibles and 

 which were not known until recently. Already these have been 

 sufficiently deciphered to throw much light upon the stratifica- 

 tion previously observed, and have vindicated the earlier 

 perceptions of the scholars. 



All the more reason have we, who can from a lower plane 

 ■appreciate the labours and conscientious care of a scholarship 

 that is itself far beyond us, to keep that open mind which the 

 study of science continually reminds us to be essential in all 

 true progress. Depth of faitli for some of us is measured 

 not by the quantity of pious beliefs which we can accept, but 

 by the simplicity of those which we find needful for guidance and 

 -conduct. A man's religious life consisteth not in the abundance 

 of the beliefs which he professes. Credulity is not faith. Even 

 in spiritual things there is a sacred renunciation of the self, 

 which enables one to lay aside many hindering things that are 

 but old garments inherited from our forefathers. When we 

 observe the greatest source of hindrance to all united work 

 for the spiritual betterment of mankind, to have been those 

 endless theological controversies which have embittered and 

 estranged the earnest and the devout, and have been ever 

 followed by persecution and spiritual cruelty, shall we not at 

 least declare that in the name of the Master whose we are and 

 whom we serve, we will have nothing to do with them or with 

 the un-Christ-like spirit that characterises them. We need to 

 ?iave faith enough to believe that suspense of judgment is 

 •often a more sacred duty than acceptance of any particular 

 dogma. For our age one of the greatest blessings that could 

 befal us would be to possess that reverential open mind which 



