167 



OEDINARY GENERAL MEETING.* 

 Rev. Caxox Girdlestone, M.A., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting wei'e read and confirmed. 



The following elections were announced : — 



Member :— The Right Hon. the Earl of Ducie, D.L., F.E.S., 16, Portman 

 Square, London. 



Associate : — Charles Little, Esq., Ontario. 



The Secretary (Prof. Edward Hull, M.A., LL.D., etc.)— Letters 

 of regret at not being able to attend have been received, including one 

 from Bishop Welldon, who, I am sorry to say, has been very unwell. 



The following paper was then read by the Author, entitled : — 



MODERN THEORIES CONCERNINa THE COMPO- 

 SITION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. By Eev. John 



TUCKWELL, M.Pt.A.S. 



""VrO one conversant with the religious thought of our own and 



other Protestant countries during the last thirty or forty 

 years, can have failed to observe that an attitude has been assumed 

 by many minds in Christian circles towards Holy Scripture of an 

 entirely different character from that which formerly prevailed. 

 This is the more remarkable, since it is not due to any fresh 

 light from modern scientific or other discoveries thrown upon 

 the sacred page, but to tlie adoption of new theories formed to 

 account for its composition. This change, how^ever, although it 

 has come about quietly and unobtrusively, is yet of the 

 magnitude and importance of a revolution. To many it has 

 brought with it as a logical consequence the rejection of some 

 of the cardinal doctrines of Christianity, or a new interpreta- 

 tion of them scarcely distinguishable therefrom. A highly 

 commended exponent of this " new theology " has declared that 

 " it holds to the Trinity, though indifferent to the use of the 

 word, but not to a formal and psychologically impossible 

 Trinity (whatever that may mean) ; to the Incarnation not as 

 a mere physical event, for that has entered into many religions, 



* Monday, April 6th, 1903. 



