The record-union., 1899-07-16
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
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EXPRESSIONS irRoM VARIOUS
REEIcfogsE NEyvsfAPERs.
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The Religious Thought Of the Day
as Expressed In the Sec--
tartan Press.
1--WE are asked says the Living
Church" (P. Ed of Chicago. ''to ap-
proach the study of the Scriptures with
all our old preconceptions placed out
OF sight. We are to study them as
persons who know nothing of the In
carnation, who are not aware that the
words of Christ are the words of a
divine person, who have no previous
clew to the doctrinal significance of
st. PauPs Epistles, who have. had no
familiarity with the immemorial insti-
tutions of the church, or the meaning
OF that word church itself This is
the attitude of mind we must bring to
this work and see what we can make
of it. What this process has made
of it is opened before us in more than
one volume of recent date, and it is
not reassuring from any Christian
point of view. The method in oues-
ton is called scientific, but method
is not properly scientific which either
disregards the setting or attendant cir
cumstances in relation to the facts
with which it DEALS or ignores the
necessities of the human mind. AS too
often handled, what are called the
scientific methods of historical or ex-
egetical study are faulty in both re-
spects. A little consideration will
make our position plain
'If everything be conceded to crit
icism arbitrarily subjective" says the
New York Observer Pres); 'if each
man consider himself capable of pick
ing and choosing throughout the area
of the Divine Word, and if the Bible
be treated as subject for dissection
by little human minds, there will be
many Bibles with small 81 but there
will remain no Bible in capital letters.
When, for example, leading scholar
of America declares that there is in
the Bible great deal of rubbish and
promiscuous DEBRIS the way is pre-
pared for this man or that man to
throw this book or that chapter on
his own private rubbish heap as he
sees fit, no supreme norm really re-
naming by which to judge and direct
human life. If one writer can err, so
can another; if Paul is wrong, so might
Inh I'm, no H.
Jesus breast; or, for that matter
(Which is the latest fruit of this Vi
cious subjective dissection of Scrip
ture), so might Jesus himself be in
error, or even a falsifier. All these
scrlptural skepticisms are possible
where human conceit exalts itself to
determine just what the Lord AL
mighty did say, or ought to have said,
to mankind in the way of revelation.
What is needed is a revival of respect
for the Bible, The Bible deserves, by
reason of all it has so far done for
the race, to be taken upon it's own
terms. 1t is not only a good book; it
is the best book. 1t is the authority
of God, and it is Gods book. There
is no rubbish in the Bible The Scrip
lures are not the debris of centuries,
but the lively and enduring oracles of
the great Jehovah .,
What effect the higher criticism is
having upon pastors can be discerned,"
says the New. York christian Advo-
vate" (Meth), t'by a careful noting of
what they emphasize and what they
ignore in preaching and pastoral con-
TrnfnSSa6lxy CT
dents of the higher criticism and ig
more the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
the distorted condition of human ma
ture, the danger in which all men are
of perishing and of losing everlasting
life unless they deny themselves, take
up the cross, and follow Christ; if
they emphasize merely a good life that
is not religious life; if they ignore
the historical facts and prophecies on
which Christ rested His claim to be
the Son of God, and speak slightingly
of the miracles by which He enforced
that claim, when He said, Believe Me
for the very works sake then their
study of the higher criticism is a cur
rent strongly setting in the direction
of the anti-supernatura1, and such
preachers and teachers are blind lead
ers of the blind. But if he emphasizes
what Christ emphasized, and ignores
in his preaching those things which arc
not essential to spiritual religion and
symmetrical holy living, there is no
presumption to be adduced from his
study of the higher criticism that it
is pernicious to him."
cit has fallen to the lot of the Pres
bytery of New York" says the New
York Christian Intelligencer'' CRef.)
"to deal with the higher criticism of
the Bible. That is far from being the
easy task which some seem to regard
it to be- The fact is the higher criti-
cism is not settled. 1t was probably
reached it's climax, and hereafter will
be largely modified, as all preceding
attempts of the kind have been. The
problem before the Presbytery is COM
plicated by the fact that the advocates
of the higher criticism with whom it
has to deal are unQuestionably Chris.
tian men and of the Presbyterian or
der. AS Christian men who adorn the
doctrine of God our Saviour they are
held in high esteem. The Presbytery
of New York has no intention to perse-
cute men who are both Presbyterians
and Christians. It's desire is to ascer-
tain the right and the truth and to
establish it in a verbal declaration and
in corresponding deeds. While this mat
ter is under consideration the Presby-
terian Churches of Greater New York
must endure as patiently as possible
the Misrepresentation which may be
spoken or printed by those who do not