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in order to assail the Scripture records. They are not, there- 
fore, in a hurry to receive the conclusions of scientific investi- 
gation as final ; they are not disposed, at the will of the science 
of the day, to convict the sacred authors of inaccuracy, or of 
ignorance. They remember that the evidence in favour of the 
Scriptures is great and varied, and has survived the hostile 
criticism of a vast number of centuries. They remember that 
this evidence is altogether independent of modern science. 
Not only were there various versions at an early period of the 
Church’s history ; not only was the Old Testament translated 
into Greek three hundred years belore Christ; not only was 
the Pentateuch existing in the Samaritan language and cha- 
racter three or four hundred years earlier : but also men of 
learning and intellectual ability, in each successive age, have 
admitted that He, whose words are preserved for us in the New 
Testament, proved Himself indeed to be the Son of God. 
Christians believe that Jesus Christ, by Whom the truth of the 
Old Testament was ratified and confirmed, was God as well as 
man, and that His authority is final. 
It appears to me very uncandid to ignore this feature when 
treating of the common subservience to authority, and of the 
mischievous tendency which it has to retard progress. If it be 
true that Jesus Christ is our God, the Creator of the universe, 
then weare not only bound to pay respect to His authority, 
but those who repudiate and reject it will certainly have to 
bear their guilt. 
Nor is it more reasonable on similar scientific grounds to 
quarrel with the details of Christ’s commands. If He tells His 
disciples that they are to pray, and that their prayers will be 
heard and answered by God, it appears captious and unreason- 
able (not to say blasphemous) to propose means of testing 
publicly the utility of prayer. To the biblical student, such 
tests will appear arbitrary and presumptuous. They will be 
counted like the signs which the Jews required from their Lord, 
while they rejected the evidence which was already within their 
reach. There is no sufficient evidence that unbelievers would 
be convinced by such additional proof, supposing it were 
vouchsafed to them, and to believers it is superfluous. For 
the spirit of Christianity, it is never to be forgotten, is docility 
and readiness to receive Christ’s teaching. Doubt may be the 
proper attitude for philosophy as well as science, but it is not 
so in the case of those who wish to attain to the knowledge of 
God. Jesus Christ came into the world, we are told, in order 
to declare Him, and He assures us that, unless we become as 
little children, we shall not enter into the kingdom of God. 
The natural characteristic of children is a readiness to believe, 
