The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1906-08-15

the Portrait OIL CHrlsC, by MatheSOn, find
this on page Q, vol. q:
81 have already said that in my opinion the
earliest hope of Jesus was that during His life
fine on earth, He might witness the establish
ment of Kingdom of Righteousness This
hope have called His first ideal Such
was the ideal Jesus hoped to realize on earth
while He should still be on earth What
shock to this hope was the attitude of that crowd
in the desert of Bethsaida * Page 1O-Jesus
felt as if His whole work was about to be torn
up by the foundation. There is a whole world
of despair in the question He addressed to the
original twelve-Will We also go away
Jesus experiences bitter disappointment
Bushnell points out that our Lord was never
taken by surprises; was never disappointed Our
Overwhelming assurance of the inerrancy of the
divine wisdom that was in Christ, precludes the
suspicion that he was misguided or defeated in
his cherished expectations, and compels us to
the rejection of the destructive theories of this
irreverent specialist.
We have been quite thrilled by retort of the
New York Observer to statement made by Dr.
R. F. Horton in his volume called "The Bible
a Missionary Book" in which he says: 'eUntil
the most fervent believers will open their eyes
to the essential piety of candid and reverent
scholarship, the danger must remain of piety
and scholarship being antagonists instead of
fe[owworkers, and that danger can only be
overcome when those who understand the two
positions attempt to bring them together by re-
moving the mutual irritations, the impatience
of scholarship and the suspicion of piety."
Upon which the Observer remarks very in
cisively:
Or Horton will not have to wait long before he
will find that the mass of intelligent believers ac
eept cheerfully every ray of true light which any
scholarship throw the way of life eternal
But he will wait long before any considerable num-
her of intelligent believers will regard with patience
or respect the of critical assumption that has
been poured out upon the religious world by men
who had no appreciation of capacity for the task
OF investigating the revealed word Hundreds of
their theories and pretended discoveries have been
totally discredited and abandoned In time plain
people may learn to distinguish between these de-
structive critics and reverent scholars. 1t is not
strange. however if they regard certain style and
method of scholarship with suspicion and aversion
ignorant and superstitous negro preachers do not
stupefy their congregations with amazing tom
looery than we have had from theoogians and
les with boundles faith in their analytical and
pathological maginations Even Matthew Arnold
iancied that he could distinguish between what the
apostle Paul actually thought and what the Apostle
Paul thought he thought about the Resurrection
from the binding brillancy of all such literary crit
cism we humbly pray, Good Lord, deliver us!"
Two conclusions then appear to be valid from
the commentary of the Observer on DR.. Hor-
toms proposed amnesty. One is that the crit
les themselves are, as a class, presumptuous
and pretentious lot, fegning to be something
mat they are not, and claiming something that
they do not possess, namely towering critical