496 
without some pretence of having studied the subject, mul- 
titudes judge themselves competent to deal extemporaneously 
with the most difficult questions of theology. 
But before closing this essay, I wish briefly to draw your 
attention to one most serious aspect of the question, viz., 
the war which many are waging in the name of reason, not 
against the outworks of revelation, but against the historical 
reality of the representations given us in the New Testament 
of the Divine Author of Christianity Himself. 
The principles of historical criticism are gradually working 
themselves into a scientific form, though it would be pre- 
mature to assert that they have yet attained to the accuracy of 
a science. Still it is indisputable that many important canons 
have been established of unquestionable validity, which have 
led to the rejection of a great deal of what, in former times, 
was falsely designated history. Many old historical works 
were composed with the smallest possible sifting of historical 
authorities, or any attempt to ascertain their relative value. 
Writers who had taken a party view, or who in an uncritical 
age had acquired popularity by the charm of style, had suc- 
ceeded in stereotyping their views on the history of previous 
ages. An attention to style rather than to truth is one of 
the greatest faults of the ancient historians. Their critical 
powers were small and their credulity large. I know of no 
more striking illustration of the uncritical mode in which the 
study of ancient history was pursued, even until times com- 
paratively recent, than Rollings Ancient History. We here find 
the good and the bad placed together in inextricable confusion. 
It is not too much to say that, prior to the present century, 
the state of history was in a most unsatisfactory condition. 
The character of ancient history was thoroughly misunderstood. 
In this country historical investigation is a plant of later 
growth. Many of us can remember the character of the 
books which were put into our hands at school as histories of 
England. Of the larger histories Hume, with all his errors, 
was the best work in existence. But the times are changed 
for the better. The work now called “ The Student's Hume," 
as far as I can judge, is not an abridgment, but a rewriting of 
the original. If the condition of English history was bad, 
ancient history was worse. Large portions of it consisted of 
a congeries of improbabilities. 
If the birth of a healthier school of historical criticism 
dates at an earlier period, we may assign the general recogni- 
tion of its principles as a result of the labours of Niebuhr. 
Since his days, the belief in the old so-called histories as 
correct reports of facts, is become impossible. 
