Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-11-21
is BIBLE HISTORY TRUE2
Reliability of the Statements OF Our
Sacred Hooks

In his lecture on "'rhe Historical As.
poet of the Bible Professor Gigs in his
book, "Thc Bible as Literature" saws.
| I'VE now come to the chief point Of
| the present lecturc-to wit, the truthful
characcr of the history contained in our
| sacred writings. Are the historical state
mrnts Of the Bible truly reliable? This
| is the great question Of the day. AZ it has
| bc'n, indeed, for many years. both with
! III and without-mOre especially without
the pale OF the Catholic church. y
1hs question is one of great difficulty
and complexity. and we cannot under.
take here anything like detailed study
of it.
I'VE shall therefore confine ourselves
! TO few general remarks going for to-
| ward proving the full reliability of tho
/ historical statements Of our sacred books
and suggesting TO Christian believers
grounds to satisfy every one that askcth
| them reason of the hope which is in
| Them
no first reason to believe in the
| truthful character Of the sacred writer's
Is their obvious candor. Their manifest
tone OF sincerity in recording events il
| never surpassed. If ever equulcd, by that
of any trustworthy historian.
nus they record not only the glorious
d'cdS of their nation in peace and war.
hUt also its military reyerSos. its repeated
1dlis into idolatry together with their
most shameful consequences. its intor-
nal political and religious divisions, etc.
In like manner the mistakes faults
nnd even heinous crimes of its greatc>t
heroes. princes. chief priests, etc, are
stated with wonderful simplicity.
y second DNopf uf thn trut bfr1 ,bo -
acter OF the history contained in the
Bihle may be drawn from comparison
between the several accounts Of the same
fact found therein. However strange this
may appear at first sight il is neverthe-
less beyond question that the moral GER
taihty which belongs to history is reach
cd all the more securely when the sew
eFal accounts Of the same event. while in
substantial agreement, are found to vary
as regards the details recorded
II Is but seldom. for instance, that we
feel sure of the occurrence of an i'm
portant fact when we hear OF it through
only one dispatch. On the contrary, we
naturally consider as reliable the news
given by several different correspondents
with differences as to wording. particu-
lars stated, arrangement of details. etc,
because all such variations bespeak in
dependent sources of information.
The last and by far the strongest evil
dence for the truthful character of the
history contained in the Bible is derived
from the accounts of eastern travellers
and data Of modern discoveries.
Whoever has, on the one hand, care
fully noted the principal narratives Of
journeys made through the east and re-
cent discoveries of ruins, cylinders. in
scrptions monuments, records OF various
kinds, etc. in Bible lands and has, on the
ether, endeavored to realize their bearing
on our sacred history will readily and
fully indorse the following words of
Henry A. Harper at the beginning of his
work, entitled From Abraham to Da-
vid'
The author is firmly convinced that
the more the lands of the Bible and the
customs of the east are studied and I'M
derstood the fuller will be the light that
is thrown on the brief statements in the
Bible and the more those statements will
be found to be accurate 10 the last de-
gree. New York Journal