The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-05-12 00:00:00

Ertiantr.

STEAM COMMUNICATION FROM LIVERPOOL TO
WATERFORD.
•
o
The new powerful and fast-sailing steam ship
11.1;
Alt VitOi MARS,
Captain M. Bursas;
or other eligible vessel. is intended to sail
FROM CLARENCE DOCK.
Tuesday.... l3th May, at 5 o'clock, afternoon
Tuesday .... 20th May, at 10 o'clock, morning
Tuesday 27th May, at 4 o'clock, afternoon
Leaving Waterfos d for Liverpool every Friday.

FArtas—Cabin (Including Steward's fee). 15a; Deck, 7s 6d.
For freight or passage roply i Waterford at the Waterford Steam
Ship Company, Mall; or in Liverpool to
• GEORGE K. PAYNE, 23, Brunswick-street.

WEST OF IRELAND

STEAM COMMUNICATION BETWEEN LIVERPOOL

AND WESTPORT.

• • The splendid and powerful steam-ships
fro, vb-\\N NORTHMAN,
' UV- - Captain JAMES BUTLER. •
EARL OF LIICAN,

(Now building);
KOHINOOII.. . Captain JOHN PUGH WILLIAMS.
Are intended to sail as follow, in May, unless prevented by unfore-
seen accidents, from LIVERPOOL (south east corner of Clarence
basin) to WESTPORT :

Thursday lsth May,
Saturday 24th May,
Saturday.. 3lst May,

The owners of these steamers will not be accountable for loss or
damage of any kind sustained by live stock, nor for passengers' lug-
gage, nor parcels above the value of e 5, unless booked and paldfor
according to their value; nor for breakage, leakage, or damage of
any kind whatever. - • -

Cargo received at the south-east corner of the Clarence Basin,
Liverpool. Freight on all goods payable on delivery_

The KOHINOOR upon her trial trip on Friday, the 18th April,
1856 on the West Coast, accomplished 14 miles per hour, which
vessel is intended to ply between Westport and the following ports--
Newport, Belmullet, Bally roy, Ballina, Clifden, Connomara, Clare
Island, Black Sod Bay, Achill, Sie., &C., as a feeder to the line.
This is the cheapest and most expedi iious route for goods to Cast:e-
bar, Ballinrobe, Holyroount, and other towns in Mayo.
Cabin passage, 15s including fees ; Deck, 7s.

For freight or pagsage, or further particulars, apply to John
Onell Lever and Co., Westport; to John Orreli Lever, Man-
cheater ; or to
JOHN ORRELL LEVER.
South East Corner of Clarence Basin Liverpool,

LITERATURE

The Doctrine of Inspiration. By the Rev. JOHN MAC.
NAUGHT, M.A., incumbent of St. Chrysostom's church,
Everton, Liverpool. London : Longman & Co.
The book before us is less remarkable for its intrinsic
qualities, than for the source from which it comes. Many
books have been written, even within the last few years,
which strive to meet the difficulties, and reconcile the
contradictions, embraced in the doctrine of which this
book treats. Many writers have come to the same con-
clusions, and by processes of argument nearly similar. But
the remarkable feature about this work is, that it is the
production of a member of a body, which usually seems to
hold itself professionally bound to maintain a contrary
conclusion, and to exhaust all means of persuasion
and ingenuity, rather than admit that any difficulty or
contradiction can exist upon the subject. The fatal error
of churchmen usually is to regard themselves as a body
of advocates retained to maintain a particular set of views,
and to regard all opinions and arguments from an
opposite side as subjects not for study and enquiry,
but for instant contidation, and, in too many instances,
denunciation. It is no slight encomium, then, to pro.
nounce upon the author of the work before us, when we
say that he has displayed a calm spirit of earnest enquiry,
and a fearless candour in proclaiming his convictions,
not inferior in degree to the qualities displayed by the
most sincere and high-minded writers who have adopted
the same conclusions outside the body to which the Rev.
Mr. Mac Naught belongs. There is, indeed, one other
peculiar feature in this work, principally contained in its
concluding portion—a feature which we do not remember
having seen developed in the same degree by any other
writer. We refer to that portion of the work—a portion
deserving the most careful and earnest consideration—in
which the author, after having avowed with the most
perfect openness the full extent of the convictions at
which he has arrived, proceeds to show that these con-
victions are fully reconcilable with the strictest adher-
ence to the orthodox doctrines of the church to which he
still belongs.
The difficultieslo which the author refers in the earlier
portions of this work cannot fail to have struck with a
painful effect, at some period, even many of those who
profess to confute them most easily. It is scarcely pos-
sible, for even the least enquiring mind, to read any single
chapter of the Bible without being visited by an occasional
doubt as to the possibility of reconciling the facts of the
outer world with the doctrine that that great volume is a
work of inspiration in the popular sense—that is, a volume
of which every word is inspired, and every word infallible.
Nor can there be much doubt that, whatever the truth
may be, the arguments usually advanced from platforms
and pulpits, and in controversial works, to maintain the
doctrine of inspired infallibility, are usually inconclusive
and contradictory—mere displays of argumentative in-
genuity to support a case which the utterer was deter-
mined, under all circumstances, to uphold ; bewilderingly—
skilful efforts, calculated frequently indeed to puzzle and
distract the listener, but which could not possibly pro-
duce the final conviction of any enquirer, possessed even
of average intellectual power. We have indeed
heard some loudly applauded disquisitions directed
to the same end, which scarcely deserved even
the doubtful commendation we have just given.
We have heard an eminent divine in this town
deliver a lecture to demonstrate this doctrine, in which he
argued that the correct picture of Jewish manners, laws,
and social arrangements given in the Bible, being fully
established by all modern travel and enquiry, proved an
equal degree of reliability in the sacred writers on all
other subjects. This was to argue that correctness in
the description of matters regarding which the writer
had an obvious facility of obtaining knowledge, must
establish his perfect credibility, when treating of matters
regarding which no human being, in an ordinary way,
could possibly have any knowledge. This would be—and
we make the comparison in no profane sense—to argue
that the accuracy of Ilomer's Geographical and Economical
Descriptions should demonstrate his credibility, when he
tells us that a river overflowed its banks at the bidding
of a deity to swallow up Achilles, and describes the cha-
racter of the future life from the visit of Ulysses to the
other worlds.
To meet difficulties which are but too obvious, writers
holding a high position in the Protestant Church have put
forward different theories. The popular belief is that the
Bible is in every word inspired and infallible, and that wher-
ever human reason, human science, and established facts
contradict it, the latter must be declared false and incre-
dible. This belief could not reconcile itself to the minds of
highly educated and thoughtful men. A ccordingly some Pro-
testant authorities declare that the Bible is inspired and
infallible in all that relates to religion and morality, but
where the writers digressed into questions of physical
science and national history, they did so on their own
limited fallible knowledge, and were liable to erzor
whenever they went beyond these narrow boundaries.
Another authority, who perceives thet many more serious
difficulties than scientific or historical errors yet remain,
goes farther, and argues that the infallible inspiration of'
the Bible only extends to strictly religious teaching, as
distinguished from moral teaching, and while asserting
inspiration for the former, admits that there may be found
embodied in the language of the Bible " much of the false
ethical philosophy which systems may have established."
Nor does this idea seem to us at all to involve necessarily a
paradox. There is no self-contradiction wrapped up in
the statement, that a man was inspired to announce the
great truth of a loving Creator presiding over all the
universe, and yet was unable, of his own unaided faculties,
to perceive that one of the inevitable consequences of such
a doctrine must be the abandonment of the false ethical
system, which previously prevailed. But Mr. Mac Naught
perceives that other difficulties arise from the acceptance
of such a theory. He perceives the utter impossibility of
at all times clearly distinguishing the boundaries between
religious and moral teaching. He perceives that per-
petual controversy must arise as to what doctrine we are
to understand to be merely moral, and therefore
questionable, and what we are to recognise as reli-
gious, and therefore infallibly authoritative. He
cannot admit the doctrine of the Roman Catholic
Church, that for the decision of all debateable
and doubtful questions an infallible interpreter is
provided. The conclusion at which he aims, therefore,
he thus states :—" This seems to us to be the Bible's
own teaching on the subject of inspiration, namely,
that everything good in any book, person, or thing,
is inspired ; and that the value of any inspired
book must be decided by the extent of its inspira-
tion, and the importance of the truths which it
well (or inspiredly) teaches. Milton and Shakespere, and
Bacon and Canticles, and the Apocalypse and the Sermon
on the Mount, and the Bthshapter to the Romans, are in
our estimation all inspirffl; but which of them is the
most valuable inspired document ; or whether the Bible,
as a whole, is not incomparably more precious than any
other book ; these are questions whichj must be decided
by examining the observable character and tendency of
each book, and the beneficial effect which history may
show that each has produced." In other words, Mr.
Mac Naught denies altogether the inspiration of the Bible,
in the popular sense of the word, which, of course, implies
infallibility with inspiration.
We have stated Mr. Mac Naught's conclusion, but have
not attempted any detail of the arguments by which he
supports it. It may be sufficient to say, that he examines
most carefully the questions, whether the Bible itself
permits us to regard its teaching as infallible ; what
reasons we have for expecting that it should be so ; what
is the true meaning of the term inspiration ; and,
what is the just authority of the Holy Writ.
He contends that scientific, historical, and even religious
errors exist in the Scriptures, and that many portions are
wholly inconsistent with each other. On this part of the
question, it will not be expected that the author should
introduce anything very new to most readers who have
considered the difficult questions, and the principal
writers by whom these questions are treated. Mr. Mac-
Naught frankly acknowledges that he is indebted to many
sources for several of his arguments. Many, indeed, of
the grounds on which he has based his conclusions will
be found in Francis Newman's Phases of Faith—a book
written with great ability • and, although not at all
attractive in style, very well known to general readers.
It need hardly be said that Mr. Mac Naught, and the
author of Phases of Faith, arrive at totally different con-
clusions upon almost all points, except that of the
infallible inspiration of the Bible.
On the principle, then, which he has laid down—that of
"examining the observable character and tendency of
each book, and the beneficial effect which history may
show that each has produced," Mr. Mac Naught proceeds
to consider the just extent of the authority of Holy Writ.
Here, we think, it will be conceded by all readers, that the
author has not failed in high reverence for the subject of
his enquiry. An earnest and devout spirit characterises
every word he has written upon the question. " The
reverence," he finally says, "which we regard as due to
Holy 'Writ in consideration of the part which the Bible has
taken in the history of the world, iu consideration of the
tendencies which are discernible in the pages of the
Bible, and in consideration that all good things derive
their excellence from the presence or influence of God's
Holy Spirit, is of the same kind, but of an incomparably
higher degree,fpfoaiiffrtcoffspring
p dsgr,t,
oi
novaagh(
ninnidchethohys
of high
,aashvvrui
ewgeb
himaas
proai sepuas
ateni
hroodenon
nrywlti
loving
convinced
n;
ecn
dhgt
buttmhhp eaaa
fettanbhcteteeh. claimedßible
rbt fromiiemochael,uystheihni
esos
ofsatmhee
inspired writings themselves altogether forbid our enter-
taining the idea of inspirational infallibility."
In examining the claims of the Bible to authority, Mr.
thehlVln greatatweNeean theught has most justly drawn the due distinction
highests
of
Christianity.teachings
It
isheathen
not
always
that and lesson
the justice
extreme isdoorfierattoionthailsistqiucessetieopnticisAmlanayrewahcocudsteolmigehdt
tino
claim an ethical doctrine for the philosophy of the heathen
world altogether fanciful and over-rated ; while, on
the other hand, it cannot be denied that
Christian teachers are too much in the habit
of needlessly striving to exalt Christianity by
denying the existence in heathen ages of moral doc-
trines, which an hour's perusal of any chapter of Plato
must establish. Mr. Mac Naught has shown precisely
how far the highest lessons of the latter reached, and
where Christianity entirely surpassed them. In reference
to this point, however, we cannot help observing that Mr.
Mac Naught appears to have carelessly endorsed a very
popular error, when he defines the difference between the
philosophy of Bacon and that of the Greek schools to
have consisted in the former having first taught mankind
the inductive process of reasoning. There never could
have been a period when, what we call the inductive
process, was wholly unknown. Bacon directed
philosophy to its true, attainable, and progressive objects;
and thus, for the first time, and as an inevitable conse-
quence, brought out into its full and clearly-defined
importance, the use of the inductive process.
The fifth and conclusive portion of this work is [written
. to prove that the views of the previous parts are not in-
compatible with orthodoxy. This is a most difficult and
delicate question. It is no part of our duty to give any

opinion of our own upon the direct point involved, anci
which may be thus plainly stated—ls a denial of the
Bible's special inspiration in accordance with the doe;
trines laid down in the Thirty-nine Articles ? But .0,
cannot hesitate to say that we do not consider this portio
of the work—viewing it, as we have viewed the precediaeg..
portions, merely as a chain of argument—at all satisf. _
tory, explanatory, or conclusive. We do not think,t,in
author has sufficiently e-xkplained why, having followec L.Lf,
guidance merely of intellect and reason in the enreq
contained in the first four books he appears constrf.ie;
to fall back upon other aid in'the fifth. Few re a_,,d
can fail to ask themselves, whether the conclusion arra the
at in the fifth book is the natural dedtiction frolniabss,
preceding books—and if it be not, why have the ge 40,
which were deemed sufficient in the latter, been laid allity-
as no longer sustaining in the former. This diediffiet and
arises which we should be glad to hear plainly the
which Mr. Mac Naught has not met- If there be
Bible no inspiration wholly different in its kind froM 7re
of any other book whatever, why are we, upon its °::ting
tions, to believe statements which no other exl%ns
authority, or accumulation of authorities, could indtt7 of
to believe ? It is idle to affirm that any awnlitin of
historical authority—that all the combined testimo that
all ancient history could satisfy a modern reader
such things actually occurred as most modern reanicle
believe on the authority of the New Testament. ""fthe
to tell us, if we are to deny the positive inspiration 0 •
authorit, tht theiracles of the New Testament arel
accordance with th mmiraculous birth of Christ. Ih'nd
to argue that the divine birth proves the miraelet.Wb,
the miracles establish the divine character of the Lildoe.
This is, surely, just such arguing in a circle as Mr'
r wts
Naught himself in the earlier portions of the work e.
with
Viewing g
ust disreard.
iv
da IV'
the whole work, then, as a piece of argura :et
,i 0 p,
tive enquiry, we cannot give to the concluding 'esi.
the same encomium for clearness of judgment and untbions•
tating candour whichwe gladly offer to the earlier por
That the whole work is one characterised byehigh abtibose
scholarship, thought, and sincerity, we hop even not
who may most entirely differ from the author will
deny. We are glad to see such g book, if only that it may
afford another proof of the utter futility of thedisci-
dogmatism which would seek to force on the
inost
ently constituted minds its own rules and its 01,41 Zeal
sions. As the truth grows more and more 511° 74 reit'
recognition, that the most earnest, thoughtfold
gious minds may draw from the same doubtful "„;_oler'
text utterly different conclusions, the power en
__Anb,ss•
ance and the fear of enquiry must grow less au",,t
tbd
Some will, no doubt, be ready enough to whisper 8;04
charges which are embraced in the comprehensin
.to pi-
" heresy " against the author of the Doctrine of 10%01
ration. But the majority will not believe that a ious•
who deserved respect and admiration during a Prneivitiese
life-time has lost any of his claims to these clu'*" soi-
because of the conclusion to which an honest and conoo.
entious enquiry has led him. And they 'who alr.•
recognise truth, conscience, and ability in the Re see
Mae possibilityeNaugh of such Mac Naught, afterehie
hisquaditetclas alsoratio .n of opinienin, others
th
existing „or or
whom the same spirit of enquiry has led to gin'
differing conclusions.