The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-09

the desire to be looked on as a super natural being.' It is noticeale and sus- picious that the critic here quietly and arbitrarily rules out Johns gospel, though he quotes it when it suits his purpose. Is there any satisfactory req son for holding Johns narrative in less esteem than the others as historical au- thority as to the sayings and doings of Jesus? I have seen none whatever.
 But taking Dr. Toy on his own ground: Matthew tells us that Christ forgave sins and that he vindicated his right to do so; that he gave men power to heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out de- mons. He reports Jesus as saying, "All things are delivered unto me of my Fa- ther-neither knoweth any man the Fa- ther save the Son, and he to whomsoever
 the Son will reveal him. In Matthew we find Christ claiming to be Lord, even of the Sabbath day" to cast out demons by the spirit of God. and to be the final judge of the world. In Mark and in Luke similar claims on the part of Christ abound. If Jesus was not a super human being, then the plain Christian must believe that his enemies were per- fectly right in pronouncing him a blas- phemer.
 Dr. Toy is slow to believe that Paul professed to work physical miracles. But
 what did the apostle mean when he said
 to Blymas, the sorceror, "The hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind?' And the blindness at once comes upon the charlatan. What did Paul mean by commanding a cripple who never had walked to stand upright on his feet? And the cripple is at once cured. What did the apostle mean by the
 mighty signs and wonders" which he said attended his preaching from Jerusa- lem and around about unto Illyricum" and also during his ministry at Corinth. vt-I1 fo,, tI,o methods of Wellmausen. Baur and the | 'advanced" school may wonder how
 upon earth such results as Dr. Toys can be extracted from the documents
 before him. The answer is. by recon structing the documents themselves ahridgng here, expanding there, discred- iting yonder
 Is whole treatise like the fourth gos- pei saturated with the divinity of Christ? Then it is the production of a later time written by some unknown Gnostic of the second century and posing as an eye witness. Is another work like Acts" full of the miracles of Chrsts followers, and of assumptions of Chrsts heavenly origin and destiny? It is ruled
 out as a "later growth" and discredted
 as unhistorical and "tendential.' can pay Dr. Toy the compliment of
 saying that very few Americans could have produced such a book as this, and I SohHpb ItSiSI tile ltIIlpldllOn to duu that I am heartily glad of it.
 But what is pr. Toys attitude towards the Old Testament? If possible it is more radical still. In a discussion of ,"The Date of Deuteronomy" he con- cludes that this book was written not long before the time of 8osiah, and he holds that there may be seen in it the codifica- tion of the social. political and religious principles accepted by the prophetic class at the highest point of growth. l once heard of mountaineer, who upon his first view of the ocean, exclaimed, "Why you can see clean out of sight" and the humorous poet tells us of
 "Optics keen.
 That see what is not to be seen'' Dr. Toy further holds that the ethical unsavoriness of this view need be no stumbling block in the way; that the as- slgnment of the book to Moses was in accordance with the literary fashion of the day, and that the hiding of the book in the temple, and then bringing it out as an autograph of Moses, would be only of u piece with the procedure of the prophet Jeremiah in the case of King Zedskiah and the princes
 T-- says the plain Christian, we find that when Jesus was tempted by the devil to command the stones to be made