CONCERNING THE COMPOSITION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 171 



with which each party claims to be capable of dealing more 

 adequately and more reasonably than the other. They are all 

 recognized by the new school therefore, and the treatment of 

 them more or less covered by the theories it has adopted 

 to account for the composition of Holy Scripture. That 

 investigations into these difficulties have been followed by 

 many beneficial results need not be denied. (Jrude ideas 

 have been matured ; errors concerning matters of fact corrected ; 

 a more diligent search of the sacred records stimulated ; the 

 adoption of a more scientifically exact terminology promoted ; 

 while ignorant and erroneous exegetical interpretations have 

 been abandoned. But admitting all this, there is still a wide 

 and impassable gulf between the principles held and applied 

 by the two parties even in their nearest approach to each 

 other. A moment's review of these principles will make this 

 plain. 



The more Conservative A^iew. 



According to what, in the absence of a better term, we may 

 call the more conservative view, the volume of Holy Scripture 

 is a collection of writings produced at intervals during a period 

 of some 1400 or 1500 years under the influence of a super- 

 natural, miraculous and divine inspiration. This inspiration is 

 believed to have operated through the personality and the 

 faculties of the several writers, but no one knows exactly how ; 

 and since the phenomenon appears to have ceased, its scientific 

 investigation has become impossible. But its effects remain, and 

 are chiefly these — the revelation of truths not otherwise 

 attainable by the human understanding, such as the true nature 

 of the Deity, His methods of dealing with sin, the mysteries of 

 a future life, etc. ; and an infallible guidance given to the writers 

 in the selection of such historic or other facts as are best suited 

 to serve the Divine purposes of the volume. It is contended 

 moreover that as the very first condition of any communication 

 coming from God must be its truthfulness, and that as the truth 

 of this volume has in so many instances been established where 

 verification has been possil)le, there is ^^ri^yi^/ facie reason for 

 maintaining that this condition has been fulfilled. Of course it 

 is recognized that these writings were originally produced by 

 the hand ; but that as the originals are lost, like the food and 

 medicine provided by a Beneficent Providence for the welfare 

 of our bodies, the continuance of the supply is dependent on 

 human ingenuity and diligence, though often alas ! through the 



