The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-06-01
TIE NEK YERSLON

levers will say: If the New Testament was
inspired IN Hellenistc Greek it must have been
inspired in the English of King James's time.
and If inspired in the spirit, why not in the
word and letter. Then, not only all manu-
scripts. but all versions, should agree. If they
do not, then there have been blunders or forg-
cries. which destroy the doctrine of inspiration
and lower the character of the work as a his.
torlcal document As committee of theologians
have telt compelled to correct innumerable
plumbers IN copying and translation and some
forgeries they thereby admit that the Bible is
not divine work at all. but human and fallible,
like-any other book.-N. Y. Times.
The language attributed to the unbe-
levers in the foregoing paragraph gives
expression to very prevalent error with
regard to what is meant by the inspira-
ton of the Scriptures. When we say
that the gospel Of Matthew was written
by inspiration, we mean that Matthew,
IN the exercise Of his human faculties.
was so controlled in what he wrote, that he
said what the Holy Spirit guided him to
say, no more and no less; and that, al
though he expressed himself according to
the law of his own mental operations, he
was preserved from error in what he
wrote. If we had that original manu-
script, we should have a writing abso-
Lutte free from error. But God did not
make any miraculous provision for the
preservation of that original manuscript.
1t was copied by uninspired copyists, and
in the work of transcription errors have
crept into the text. That is one way in
which it happens that we have not an
absolutely faultless copy of the original
manuscript. The preservation of the origi-
nal documents was left to the Church.
God did not furnish the Church with a
strong box, and with some celestial Gus
todian to guard those records. That
would have been at variance with the
Divine method. AS a matter of fact, He
did see to it that those records never
persisted, and that no fundamental errors
marred the Revelation which He had
made. But this was done in the course
of his Providence, not through the agency
of some palpable, continuing miracle
AS he has preserved the Church, he has
preserved the Bible. We see the result
we do not see the hidden potencies. How
do we know that we have the Bible {
We know it as we know that we have
the history Of Thucydides or Tacitus
The evidence for the genuineness of the
Gospel of Matthew, and the integrity Of
the text, is tenfold stronger than in re.
gard to either of the above works, or the
Commentaries of Cesar. The writings oil
the ancients have come down to us ordi
narily in only one manuscript, and that
OF comparatively recent date Teemine
as it nece ssarily does with errors, there
are no other manuscripts to correct it
On the other hand, we have of the New
Testament l76o manuscripts, in whole OF
in parts, the most valuable of which &C
back to the middle of the fourth century
While this wealth of material multiplies
exceedingly the various readings, each
copy is a check on the other, and we be.
come almost absolutely assured of elicit.
ing a substantially correct text. The
many various readings pointed out by
the Biblical critics, it must be remem-
bered, are mainly verba1; the new yer.
sion touches no doctrine.
The Gospel of Matthew or the Epistles
to the Corinthians had, moreover, this
advantage over the other writings o.
antiquity; that an organised society, the
Christian Church, took charge of them
and have used them regularly in theil
weekly religious services for eighteen
hundred years. They are attested not
only by ancient manuscripts, and by
translations into various languages, as
the Syriac, the Latin, the Egyptian, but
by being constantly cited and referred
to by the Christian Fathers, beginning
with Clement of Rome, the friend Of
Paul; so that if the New Testament had
persisted, it could probably have beer
in substance restored from the quotation,
in the Fathers alone. We could reproduce
much of the four gospels from the com
mentary Of Ephraem the Syrian on the
Harmony of Tatian. This is merely the
external evidence for the integrity of the
sacred books. The internal evidence is
I L. 1