Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-12-21

conserve the dignity of English character
and save 1t from the contempt of individual
caprice and vulgarity that would be brought
upon it If dissenters were allowed the free
use of their forms. For these reasons no.
body should object TO the use of the burial
service. But since some do object he is
willing TO allow disscnters silent burial ser
vice He would forbid them, however, to
offer voluntary prayers or remarks, in his
last essays for the treatment of these ques-
tons. This from our point of view is ar
rogant enough, dogmatic and unfair. 1t is
equally 80 in the eyes of many an English
man of the John Bright or Gladstone type.
But to take up the last thing that has come
to hand representative of Mr.. Arnold on the
evangelical faith or the Scriptures that teach
it. A late number of Choice Literature con-
tains Mr.. Arnold's "Isaiah of Jerusalem"
taken from the Nineteenth Century of April
last. In this article Mr.. Arnold maintains
that In the book of the Prophet Isaiah "the
deliverances of two distinct prophets have
got joined togethcr-the deliveranccs of one
|
of another prophet whose centre was Babylon
and who had before his eyes the events of a
time one hundred and sixty years later"
This is the arrangement Mr. Arnold makes to
account for the difference in style and
character between the first thirty. nine
chapters and the remainder TO the close
OF the book. In this Mr.. Arnold does
not differ materially from Professor
w. Robertson Smith. In the Prophets of
Israel Professor Smith thinks "the book
Isaiah as 1t stands is in somewhat disorder
cd state" lie illustrates how naturally this
disordcrcd state came about. sin an ancient
book" lie says, ''the most various treatises
arc often comprised in one volume; the
scribe had certain number of skins, aud he
wished to Oil them. Thus even IN the minor
collections that fell into the hands of the edi-
tor OF the prophets prophecy of Isaiah and
one from another source might easily occu-
py the same roll copies were not so
numerous that it was always possible to tell
by comparison of many MSS. what pieces
had always stood together and what had only
come together by accident, and so taking all
in ALL we need not be surprised that the ar
rangcmcnt is imperfect according to our
literary lights, but will rather expect TO find
much more serious faults of order than the
lack of just chronological disposition. If
the prcsent book of Isaiah has itself boou
made up from several MSS, a conclusion
renders almost inevitable wo r,ro, door,
!, rrohoh,o ,bo, =, tho ond 81 son,o 81 ,,,o,o
| MSS pronhcc;cs no, Inv Js,iob a, all may
have been written IN to save wostc of tho
small books came to bo ioncd torctb.r
prophecies Nv otlor hands Womb get ,o he
limbcIl,d in ti,ct.v, or Isaiah M ,,,ror 10 bo
ldis,ipruishrd rvc.n, bv ;,,crro, ov;do,co ;,
rThe Prophpts # Israel ~ ON -1al And en-
thus Snl and Jonathan orc lovely and
pleasant and sweet in their theories and in
their conclusions not divided
But Mr. Arnold ,p,icina,ce ,ha, sor,o oro
will object ,o his ,rca,mcn, of Isaiah and
saw "arrouce the hool, how vo,, will ISAIAH
does prod;ctr NV bc rcnlos emo,
superraturallv. He nredic,s tbc discontinue
of Scnuache,ib ms n contemporary If tbe
Firs, Napocon mirh, have predicted hi,
failure 10 Russia. or rs Milton actually pre.
dictcd disaster To The Church of England.
But lie docs not Predict the taking of Baby.
lon any more than contemporaries of tho
| rat Lao tol; ~
Sebastopol. He does not mention Cyrus any
more than Milton mentions Mr.. Carroll vii.
iams Isaiah had indeed sweep of vision,
depth of insigh. far beyond Millions, and
which cannot be too much revered but they
arc not suDcrngturln He declares tha,
Isaiah "has nothing preternatural.n TIC
, show this, he takes Isaiah's famous prdph.
ccy of Emmanuel" as he calls it, and main.
tains that in this the prophet was mistaken
both in regard to the person he expected and
the time OF his coming. Isaiah indeed
J announced, with faith and ioy, a leader and
, a remnant certain to superscdc them and
be the seed of fl better future. but he mt the
| leaders coming and the success of the rem.
nant's work far too soon. His convention in
this rcspcct Ia .'(autastic.n ole mt his I'm.
manuel too soon. ,.drcd Inv seven centuries
He mt his roirn or Immo,rol and tho sa;,,s
too soon by far more than seven centuries for
Ii, has not come nb,ut eve, vetr
I'm, our Err,isl, vis;,or tho ovford rro
} lessor holds r,s;,ions far moro destructive
and startling than this In "God and the
Biblc"-the work of 1875. he essays to meet
the damaging criticisms that had been made
to his earlier work "Llt.uture and DOGMA. ),
Hero he rnes c, far ma tn hisollow ,bn nor