The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-05-05
VICTIMS OF HIGHER CRITICISM.

It was a happy. yet pointed phase of
the Jesuit Father, who recently said
in New York that the Protestants OF
the world were the victims of so-called
higher criticism.
1t is almost a daily occurrence now
for some noted non-Catholic divine to
write himself out of the communion
to which he has belonged on the ground
that he has outgrown the belief which
he has professed and sworn to teach.
Indeed, the fioundering that is every
where manifest among the sects is
sign of dissDlving Christianity on their
! part, and is capable of no other inter
probation.
These so-called higher critics are the
advance guard of infidelity.
BY way of showing our readers the
state of mind of a large and influential
class of Protestants as well as the
wont of exact thought, we reproduce
the following from the New York Sun:
'"When Bishop Thoburn, Methodist
missionary bishop to India and Malay
STA, essayed to get over the difficulty
of the new Biblical criticism by sug-
costing to the missionary conference,
on Tuesday, that Christ rather than
the Bible is the foundation of Chris
tianity, on the ground that the Re
vealer is worth infinitely more than
the revealed he simply begged the
question in a very discreditable way,
and he was properly rebuked when the
Rev. DR.. Pierson said it is Impossible
to impair the integrity of the written
Word without impairing the living
Word
Bishop Thoburn is reported to have
pooh-poohed this utterance of DR.. Pier
son as a cranky little statement, to
which he did not think it worth while
to reply. The real reason why he
does not reply, however; is that it is
unansWerabe. The sole foundation of
all Protestant belief in Christ as the
Revealer' is the Bible, and consequent
ly the infallible authority of the Bible |
cannot be destroyed without destroying |
that belief. This Methodist bishop /
knows of Christ, of the Incarnation, of |
the supernatural character of Jesus,
only as he gets the knowledge from |
the Scriptures, and it is impossible for
him to believe in the one without be-
lieving in the other
1T has become fashionable for
preachers and theologians who have
given UP the theory or dogma of the
Divine inspiration and consequent in
of the Bible. to undertake
to save themselves from the reproach
of complete infidelity by protesting
that they believe in Christ rather than
in the Bible But how can that be?
How can they believe in the Incarna-
ton. impossible naturally. without be
lieving absolutely in the Bible, whence
alone they get -it? Nor is that miracle
any less incredible. as tested by nat
ural demonstration than the miracle
of Jonah and the whale, than any of
the other miracles of Scripture or than
the dogma of the infallible inspiration :
Of the Bible.
perhaps too much time has been
devoted to the Bible Bishop Thoburn | ]
told the missionary conference. That
cannot be true unless too much time
has been devoted to missionary effort
the sole impulse and justification for
which come from such devotion. If
he Bible is not wisdom from on high
here is no reason for sending out
Christian missions to upset other re-
igions as not Illuminated by the lamp
IF life
IF Bishop Thoburn has been preach
ng to the acute Oriental mind that h
he declaration of the infallibility of the
Scriptures as the essential fOUlldation Ii
# the belief he would incUlcate is a
cranky little statement, the self-sac- b
iffcing efforts by which the Methodists
lave sustained him as a missionary in
ndia have been cruelty wasted, and he
las been making himself ridiculous in
oriental ewes