The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-09
REV. DR. J. C. HIDEN ON
 THE ADVANCED CRITIC

1 of God and therefore a satisfactory rule of faith and practice
 | If you think that Moses wrote the book | of Deuteronomy, or if you reject the l 7th verse of the 9th chapter of Johns | First Epstle as spurious in either ease you are a Biblical critic. In the first case you are indulging in what is called the 'higher criticism" and in the last in
 what is called 'lower,' or "teXtuaI crit icism."
 Innocent Criticism Now both these kinds of criticism may be, and often are, not only perfectly in-
 nocent but immensely valuable. If there
 had been no "higher criticism" in the sec ond century there could be no recognized New Testament canon HOW.
 Textual criticism as science, is mod ern. Its object is to ascertain as nearly
 as possible just what the evengelists and apostles wrote. or, in critical language, ito settle the text" Now, unless we are prepared to hold that the divers read ings' of the multitudinous manuscripts l of the New Testament are all of equal value (which is absurd), then it logically follows that intelligent and candid exam ination and comparison of these docu- l ments is a necessity, if we wish to as- certain as nearly as ossible what John and Paul wrote.
 Nobody who has studied the subject will be likely to doubt that John A. | Broadus was legitimately employed when | he looked into the questions of the date 1 and the authorship of the First Gospel, or that it was perfectly proper for him | to investigate the question whether Mat thew wrote the "Doxoogy" of ''The
 Lords Prayer; and the first two of these questions belong to the department | of Higher criticism" as the third be- 1 longs to that of "textual criticism" Plain Christian. Thus far the plain Christian may go, l and indeed, if intelligent, he must go, | with the Biblical critics. But when the l advanced critic" assumes that the Bible is purely human growth and that every | thing in it is to be explained on purely natural principles; and when he then pro- ceeds to dissect the various books ac cording to these principles. then the plain | Christian holds that such criticism is un- sound and unuwise.
 l pr. Toy. :! After q careful reading of Wellhausen am prepared to say that he holds and ! advocates the views just now stated. Per | haps the most scholarly and centainly 1 one of the most radical of the American | representatives of this school Is Prof. c.
 II. Toy of Harvard and with his views,
 as set forth in his published works l l shall here deal. With Professor Toy per- sonally l have been on intimate terms since early manhood. ] was his pastor | for some years. and taught with him in ! the Southern Baptist Theological semi
 nary. Few men living or dead, have ever won from me such admiration and love. After he had become a Harvard pro- | lessor, Bishop Dudley. in bidding him | adieu from the Conversation club" of l Louisville wrote:
 | And Toy, our founder, preacher, scholar, sage.
 1 Who knew all learning whatsoever its | age,
 | Who dreamed in Arabic and smoked in | Greek,
 l And read the Zend Avesta once a week. l At brave as Paladin, as shy as girl ] As bright as diamond. pure as any pearl, l Alas, he. too, is gone, nor shares our l feast,
 l A modern Magus, he went to the East;
 His learning grew too heavy for his sta
 ton.