The Lambertville record., 1897-04-07
Rev. DR.. William II. Roberts preached

Rev. DR.. William II. Roberts preached
two sermons last Sunday 10 the Fourth
Presbyterian church, Trenton, in which he
defended the Bible against the criticisms
OF the negative critics. 10 the morning
be combated the assertion Of the critics
10 the effect that the Old Testament was
lsrg, J mythical; that the Pentateuch was
written long after the time OF Moses by
d,s gning priests, and showed that free
speech was nota monopoly OF the negative
critics, and he disproved that the weight
OF the authority was with the negative
critics. The attack on the New Testament
was began fifty years ago, when it was
held that John didn't write the book cred
tied TO him, but that It was written after
his death. This attack had ended in the
complete overthrow OF the critics and
there was reason to believe that this
would be the case with the critics OF
Moses.
The negative critics claimed, he said,
to folsw only scientific methods. This
word scientific" had become very
amusing TO the speaker, but the degmatic
tone of the negative critics might impose
upon some. To these he would say that
when they heard such superb scholars and
scientific gentlemen, such as Professor
Green, OF Princeton, aud many others,
declared to be inaccurate and unscientiflc
they should remember that the peculiari-
ties OF human nature had not yet been
wiped out, although the Holy Spirit had
been at work for long time.
For his sermon in the evening Doctor
Roberts took his text from | Epistle of
Pete / % "But the Word OF the Lord
endureth forever"
The preacher said that the critics
argued from philology that the books OF
the Pentaieuch were Of a late date, and
that this was shown by many words used
in the books that were not used at the
time OF Moses or until the return from
the Babylonian captivity This was also
applied TO the song OF songs OF Solomon,
on account Of the use of the proposition
"of" but of late, the preacher said.
documents from the ruins of ancient
cities had proven that Solomon did write
his songs by the production OF writing
IN which the proposition "of' was used
and shown to be contemporaneOns with
Solomon. This covered the negative
critics with confusion.
The method of the negative critics was
to first form an opinion and then to look
for facts to support IL. II the facts found
did not support the opinion, then so
much the worse for the facts.
In the same way critics had attacked
| Homer and declared the heroes OF his
Siege of Troy to be poetic inventions.
certain German busOess man secured
permission to dig in the ruins OF ancient
| Troy from the Turks, and the result WAS
| TO prove the actual existence OF the char
actcrs Of lIomcr's Ilhad and Odyssey
| fhe spade completely overthrcw the
| literary ctltiCs in connection with Homer
The critics had laid great stress upon
the assertion that writing was unkr own
before Moses, as one German critic had
said in 1887. Since then mounds had
been opened on tue east bark of the Me
containing tablets of baked clay bearing
inscriptions in the Assyrian language,
showing that at a period one hundred
years before the exodus of Israel from
| Egypt, the Egyptians not only wrote
their own language but also spoke and
wrote the Assyrian language
| Nothing had so nstonishUd the modern
critic NJ the proof that there wns knowl
edge and science on the Nile a hundred
yeals before the exodus. The critics
had also claimed the iIittites of the Old
| Testament tn be creatures of the imagi.
nation, but within twelve years records
had been uncovered that showed them
to have really existed and showing that
the kings OF this race had "A double
headed eagle as coat Of arms.
So the argument that the books OF the
| Pentateueh were OF late date, because
| there ls no cOntemporaneons COrrobora-
tion, was no longer tenabe. This evil
dente OF the buried records was increas-
ing every day. Christians could afford
to await the work of explorers that prove
that the Old Testament writers were not
| frauds
The negative critics were not agreed
among themselves. There were TAI
theories as to the Bible held by them.
| They ask one to accept their hypothesis
aud on pain cf refusal to be charged
with being inaccurate and unscientitic.
| Might not one ask which hypothesis
they desired accepted, and how long it
was likely TO last The speaker quoted
| from Mr.. Gladstone, and said that over
against Lyman Abbott we could put
| William Il. Gladstone. The Christian
| masses, he said, would follow men who
were scholarly, who had strength of
mind and who had the faith OF God in
fhpu