The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-29 00:00:00

The Bishop of Oxford on Inspiration.

The followin letter from the Bishop of Oxford
to the Rev. Mr. ristopher, of S. Aldate's, Oxford,
on the subject of the inspiration of the Holy Scrip.
tures, has been publishet: . .

Aug. 17, 1861.

Many thanks for your very kind letter. I had not seen
either of the newspaper extracts you seAd me. But if I had
I should not have answered them. It is a hopeless endea-
vour to set oneself right by answering anything; and if
you reply to one you must to all. I therefore leave matters
to right themselves. It is quite a different matter replying
to you; and I do it with the greatest pleasure.
I said nothing of the sort attributed to mo in these ex-
tracts. Perhaps the subject was too abstruse to be treated
so briefly; and this has led to misapprehension. In brief,
my belief is this : The whole Bible comes to us as " The
Word of God," under the sanction of God the Holy Ghost.
We cannot pick and choose amidst its contents. All is
God's Word to us. But as I believe that this, which I hold
as the only orthodox view, is encompassed with many diffi-
culties by what is called the theory of" verbal inspiration,"
I desired to show how, in my judgment, a careful scrutiny
of the Bible which revealed the "divers manners" in which
the Holy Ghost spake—
I. Sometimes by the mere mechanical use of the human
agent who conveyed the message; as when. 1, God wrote
words on the first tables ; 2, dictated them for the second ;
or, 3, committed them to prophets simply to repeat; or, 4,
spake them through the prophets.
11. Sometimes by possessing the human instrument with
a complete knowledge of that he was to speak, and leaving
him to express it under the mere suggestions and guardian-
ship of his own special presence according to the natural
use of his human faculties ; I desired, I say, to show how
this would greatly lessen these difficulties. and enable men
to realise the essential difference between Holy Scripture
and any other books, namely, that as all truth from God,
ether books may be in a sense said to be inspired, because
they are true, but Holy Scripture alone can be true because
it is inspired.

You are quite free to make any use of this you see fit.—
am ever yours, most truly, S, OXON.

SHIPPING-THIS DAY,

LONDON, Ang. 29.—Wind at noon, N.W., light breeze,
and fine.

(BY MAGNETIC TELEGRAVO

GRAVESEND, Monday Morning.
Arrived, August 28—Haaket, from iklalmo—Merle, from
Dominica—Alma M., from Sulina—Speculant and Wan-
derer, from Archangel—Prins Carl, from Soderham—
Artamatea, from Cardenas—Summer Cloud, from Nantes.
Arrived, August 29—Magdaiaine, from Bordeaux—
Hero, from Jamaica—Lionne and Furet, from Gravelines—
Mondego, from Wydah—Thames, from Pugwash—Hecla,
from Ghent.

DEAL, Monday Morning.
Passed, Aug. 28—Victory, from Rangoon, for Antwerp
—New Whim, of Portsmouth, Cymbeline, Guide, of
Poole, Hero, of Weymouth-41i from the West, for the
North.

Passed, Aug. 29—Phail Minden, from Taganrog, for
Hull—Sphea, from Quebec—Moan, from Bilboa—.both
for London.

Anchored—Nova Contra, of Cardiff, for Porto—Hastings
for Swansea—both from London.

TUE CHOLERA IN THE LINCOLNSHIRE FENS.—
We understand that the dreadful malady, Asiatic
cholera, has made its appearance in the Lincolnshire Fens
and proved fatal in several cases, owing, it is said by the
medical men, to the long-continued drought which has
caused the drains to become little better than stagnant pools,
emitting odours of an extremely unpleasant and unhealthy
character. The East Fens in the neighbourhood of Boston,
and along by the banks of the Bell Drain, are the places
where it has made the greatest devastation.
batu rday evening last,
ea
namplaoSHOCKINGny ofnamed
Messrs. D E
George
s AaTr
u. —do
ironvha
who resided at 23, West-terrace, Manchester-road, Cuhitt's
eta plumber in the
ipbuilders, of Poplar,
town, expired at Woolwich under the following circum-
stances :—lt appears that on Friday last the deceased, who
was a foreman, had been superintending some work on
board the iron cased ship Prince Albert, built by Messrs.
Samud a, and now under completion at Woolwich dockyard.
On leaving the dockyard the deceased became the worse for
liquor, and yielded to the advice of his companions to re-
main at Woolwich rather than proceed home at a late hour.
Lodgings were obtained at the Globe Tavern, Church-
street ; but about ono o'clock on Saturday morning a police-
man on duty saw the deceased either fall or jump from the
chamber window to the pavement beneath. He was imme-
diately removed to the tavern, and attended by Dr. Stuart,
who had sustained such injuries to his head that he expired
after lingering about 14 hours.

STATISTICS OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.—The
Union Chretienne, which always contains interest,.
ing information about the Russian Church, gives us iu a
numbering 5,648 presented to the
late number the matter of the report of the Holy Synod for
Emperor.lB6l, T
which, h
e There
are
according477n
toco custom,vethia
o was
fmen,
monks, and 4,879 novices ; and 137 convents of women,
numbering 2.931 nuns, and 7,669 novices. There are 59,165
consecrated buildings for worship, and others are being
built. There are 87 bishops, 37,950 priests, 12,444 deacons,
and 63,421 other clerics. With the addition of the
ecclesiastics en retraite, the number of secular clergy
amounts to 126,164. Tho orthodox population. omitting
those in the army and navy, 52,034,650, of those 35,612,97§
communicated at Easter. In 1861, 9,605 converts to Russo-
Catholicism are claimed ; 5,519 Raskelniks, 1,019 Roman
Catholics, 40 Armenians, 536 Lutherans, 8 of the Reformed
persuasion, 427 Jews, 570 Mahometans, and 1,457 Pagans.
—Church Review.

DEATH FROM FRIGHT.—The daughter of a
tradesman living in St. John's, Worcester, died from
the fright of seeing the bodies of a man and woman,
who had committed suicide, taken out of the Severn.
The young lady had been attacked with consumption.
She was passing over the bridge at the moment the
bodies were being lifted out of the river. Fear so operated
on her delicate frame that she died a short time alter the
BC6IIO.

BISHOP COLENSO.—The Natal Mercury says,
Bishop Coleus° has declared his intention to return to
Natal after his petition to her Majesty has been replied to.
The same paper says that a friendly and sympathetic note
from Garibaldi to Colenso has been published.