172 REV. JOHN TUCKWELL, M.R.A..S., ON MODERN THEORIES 



ignorance, carelessness or even wickedness of man at the cost of 

 purity and wholesomeness. It is admitted therefore tliat no 

 MS. of either Testament is faultless, and that as a consequence 

 no version can safely be alleged to be absolutely accurate in 

 every word. But there is reason to believe that the pains- 

 taking labour of many scholars in this field of " textual " or 

 " lower criticism " has given us texts so approximately accurate 

 as to be absolutely trustworthy concerning every important and 

 fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. With regard to 

 alleged errors and contradictions it is maintained that a 

 sufficient number has been already corrected to justify the 

 conclusion that others would be removed also, could an 

 absolutely accurate text be obtained ; while so many alleged 

 scientific and historical mistakes have been found to lie, not in 

 the Sacred Volume, but in the imperfection of human knowledge, 

 that there is reason to believe that those which remain are of a 

 similar nature. 



According to this view also, wdiilst recognizing the obligation 

 of an absolute loyalty to all objective truth, it is maintained 

 that the truth of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian 

 Faith generally, and of the Christian Scriptures in particular, 

 has been established by nearly 2,000 years experience ; for 

 wherever they have gone they have elevated and blessed 

 mankind to an extraordinary degree. But nothing has occurred 

 nor been discovered in modern times to remove them from their 

 position of pre-eminence, while all rival or contrary systems 

 have hitherto proved so dynamically inferior, that unless 

 falsehood be mightier than truth, the case of the latter against 

 the former must be regarded as non-proven. 



Similarly wdth regard to the objections raised against the 

 high ideals of life ; the advanced conceptions of the nature and 

 attributes of the Deity ; the knowledge disclosed by the sacred 

 writers and speakers of things past, present and future, and of 

 both worlds ; the accuracy of the records concerning the person 

 and work of Christ ; and the presence of a Personal Spiritual 

 Force among those who share the Christian faith and life ; it is 

 claimed that since all these difficulties relate to matters 

 supernatural, they must be solved by reference to the super- 

 natural, while the effort to eliminate the supernatural from the 

 Christian Scriptures and from the faith and life to which they 

 relate, if successful, w^ould deprive them of all that gives to 

 them their distinctive character and value. 



Hence with regard to the date and authorship of the books of 

 Scripture, where these are deduced from a plain and reasonable 



