The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-06-08

l0nged to past and had not at nanu
so much data on which to rest.
While any criticism which ques
tions the genuineness of book or
text, or may unfix date, or may
change mems opinions of the author
ship of writing, can not be called
conservative or even thought of as
such. Scholars who are conservative
in spirit have INDUCED to an extent
in this class of criticism. 1t was not
their conservatism, of course, that
moved them. to it, but the touch of
nature which makes them to others
akin. In it we have very practical
and wholesome illustration that the
radical and conservative methods are
not necessarily hostile to each other;
that conservative man with dis
position to keep the good of the past
may question unto the certainty of it
and unto the learning of its relations
and conditions in time and place; that
the radical who searches most thor
oughly for all the facts relating to
book or manuscript, is ready to re-
cognize the rightness of any opinions
that have been held and to admit the
facts to an eternal abiding place.
1t is also an illustration that what
is genuinely radical shall be more or
less conservative while the truly
conservative mot the merely con-
servative) is not opposed to progress;
that while the two, considered alone,
are differentiated, one belonging to
the present, the other submitting to
the past, they are together in brother
hood, and have a life and a breath
and a movement in common.
We may pause moment to note
that the type of criticism which In
gersoll represents is not radical while
it is not conservative. 1t might be
called modern, and yet it is of SO ex-
ceptional kind that it should not be
considered representative modern
criticism. 1t is not radical, because
it is not thorough, goes not to the
root of things, is not fair, is not fun
damental; but it is prejudiced, it has
read the Bible to find fault with it,
it has distorted the face of it to laugh
at it, it has picked passages, here and
there, and held them up as represen-
tative of the teachings of the Bible
when the real Bible, that that is
read and loved, is ignored. When
Mr.. Ingersoll recently gave his lee
ture on the Bible at the La Crosse
theater, | was sure that the Bible he
talked about the people do not hear
read from Sunday after Sunday, year
after year. He said nothing about
the Bible which is read from the pull
pit, and one might not have known
from his lecture that that Bible had
an existence, and yet it is very
large book. So it may be justly said
that the biblical criticism which Mr..
Ingersoll champions is too partial,
too superficial, too prejudiced, to
merit generous attention, and it is
only needful to state that it is the
exceptional and not the general
modern biblical criticism which is
having place and shall hold place in
the world.
We may pass to consider that
modern biblical criticism, or the
higher criticism, is not itself a result,
but process. 1t is reaching results;
but its final word has not been said,
and is not likely to be said for long
while yet, if ever. The truth of God
shall stand in the meantime with its
combinations in the experiences of
men.
Divine truth was before it was ex-
pressed, and the date of its express
ion, and by whom expressed, while
matters OF great interest have moth
ing to do with the minds perception
of it, the souls embodiment of it, and
the life's practice of it. The faith of
men, having found rock on which
to rest, may be always sure of it. The
receiving spirit bears witness to the
ministering spirit. A date may be
moved forward or backward. Truth
was fixed before it in either case, and
appeals to mans consciousness. An
authors name may not be known, or
may be wrongly attached. AS the
flavor of the peach would not be
changed by calling the peach an APP
pie, as the scent of the rose would be
as sweet with some other name, so
the disturbed identity of an author
shall not change the moral and spir-
itual truth of any book. The Penta-
touch shall continue to be worth as
much to us if Moses did not write it
or if he is the author of only small