Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1904-04-15
Canon Hensen on the Bible.

Canon Hensen on the Bible.
A profound sensation has been ere.
ated in the religious world by publica.
ton in the Contemporary Reriew, Lon.
don, of an article from Canon Henson
one of the chief dignitsries of West.
minister Abbey, and a select preacher
of both Oxford and Cambridge Uni
versities, OF an article which impugns
the inspiration OF the Old Testament
and characterizes its statements as "a
pack Of lies too gross for federation"
and refers to its incredible puerile or
demoralizIng narratives" OF course
the walls OF intolerant wrath are opened
and the thongs OF bigotry brought into
play to discipline Canon Henson, in
the shape of letters and resolutions bv
church and lay bodies, denounciag
( him, and this led to a well meant arii-
Gle from Sir Oliver Lodge, entitled
Suggestions Towards Rein terpreta-
/ ton of the Christian Doctrine" which
/ has had the effect OF adding fresh oil
to the flames, carrying with it, as #
does, an apparent endorsement OF the
Cauon's iconoclastlc views.
Henson applies the hammer of Rea.
son to every statement in the Old Ties.
lament, and whatever cannot stand
the blow has to crumble into atoms to
uncover what truth may lie hidden by
the dust OF ages. While he condemns
"indiscriminate reading of the Bible
in public as perilous proceeding" he
admits that the scriptures will con-
tinue for all time to be the best man.
ual Of fundamental morality and the
best corrective of ecclesiastical corrup.
ton, besides being the most efectual
check on the natural tendencies OF
modern life."
These bold utterances have caused
appeals to the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, but he seems to be slow to adopt
any action for relief of those whose
faith is capable of any belief that
comes cloaked in the garb of religious
superstition.
The Canon declares that he finds
very little in the New Testament, how.
ever, to offend reason or conscience,
but much or little, he declares, under
his rigid rule, "it will have to 60 with
the Old Testament prodigies."
There is SO much that is good and
beautiful and true, in the Christ-life,
that we are glad he has made even this
moderate concession. The New Tes-
lament breathes the spirit of tolera-
ton, of forgiveness, of charity, of
hope, of love, and OF all the better inn
pulses OF humanity, in so eminent a
degree, that it would be Elm to with
draw it from the high mission of civil
izer, as we'll as Christianizer, of hu.
mainly. If the suggestions OF Sir
Oliver Lodge should deprive the Chris.
tian religion OF the humility taught
by the Saviour, OF the love and charity
exemplified in his daily intercourse
with his disciples and the people, we
want none of it. No cloak OF right
eousness should be distorted to cover
the leprosy of sin or the horrible re.
suits OF iniquity that tester under the
concealment OF deceit.
Sir Oliver Lodge asks. now that
religion is becoming SO much more
real" whether the "formal statement
OF some Of the doctrines we have in.
herited cannot wisely and inoffen-
sively be modifed?" and shocks many
OF his coreligionists by declaring that
he regards the "doctrine OF atonement
in its concrete form as survival from
barbarous times; repudiating the be.
lief in an "angry God appeased by the
violent death OF Christ" and main.
tanning that human nature now is
"rising to the conviction that we are
part of Nature and so part of God. In
this sense, there is a union OF divinity
in what science some day will tell us is
the inner meaning OF the redemption
OF man."