The Cecil Whig., 1882-11-04
SCRIPTURE INSPIRATION.

The sessions of the Episcopal Church
Congress at Richmond, Va, have been
marked by great freedom i'll the express
sion of individual opinion ON points of
doctrine. The discussion the other day
as to whether the ministry is a priesthood
are in a ,cord with ''Evangelical'' doctrine
on that point. One of the most interesting
sessions was that in which the inspiration
of the Bible was the subject. Only one
of the speakers contended for exact vcr-
bal inspiration, and most Of them went
further in the other direction, admitting
errors and Inconsistencies, than the vast
body of Christians will not be inclined to
follow them. In fact, if they are cor
rectly reported, three only held to any
theory which can be reconciled with pie
nary inspiration in any form. Dir. Ran
dolph said that the whole of the Bible is
inspired, but the letter is human and the
errors are human. Inspiration protects
the facts: all Inconsistencies are merely
human 4 logical deduction from DR..
Randolph's premises would lead us to the
conclusion that the errors in the Bible
are inspired. Further, if the Bible is
admitted to contain errors. what is the
supreme rule by which they may be de-
termned to be errors? If it is each man
private judgment, we are at once ailoat
IN sea of conflicting opinions. Many
things in the Bible that were once inex-
plicable are now seen to be true by the
light thrown upon them by modern
science: for instance, the statement in
the first chapter of Genesis, that light
was created long before the sun and moon
appeared.
We do not see how any one can hold
the theory OF the exact verbal inspiration
of the Bible as we have it; but, on the
other hand, it see rs to US that any theory
which falls short of plenary inspiration
an inspiration sufficient to make the Bible
Gods infalible truth-has in it the ele
ments of the destruction of any firm be-
lief in the Scriptures as Gods revelation
to man. BY this we do not mean to say
that the Bible contains all of Goo truth;
only that all it does contain is Gods
truth. That the writers we're left free as
to the manner of :heir expression scarce
ly any one denies; as to the matter, it is
claimed to have been supervised or COM
municated by the Holy Spirit. In closing
we cannot do better than quote the words
of DR.. Tiffany, of New York. promising
that we do not endorse the word 50 imper-
fections - as meaning errors. Dir. Tiffany
said that "God did not begin by letting
down book into the world, but lie chose
to reveal Himself in the historical course
of events and in the only way in which
the ancients could have understood Him.
The inspiration OF the Old Testament was
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God,
but as the people of whom these are re-
cords were imperfect, so there might be
imperfections in the records themselves.
In the New Testament, when God made
His perfect revelation of Himself, He
made it in the person and life of Jesus
Christ, and after that in the historic
Church founded upon the life and work
of Jesus Christ"
We are glad that this subject is become
SO prominent in church discussion. The
more men think about it, the more they
will see that the only logical position to
take in the matter is that occupied by the
advocates of plenary inspiration, com
monty called the orthodox position.