LECTURE III.

THE BIBLE.-II.

In the last Lecture I started the question whether we can have a new doctrine of the Bible, and still retain Christianity among the living forces of the world. As a preparation for answering that question, I endeavoured to ascertain what position was taken by Christ himself, and by the great Apostle of the Gentiles, in relation to the ancient Scriptures. That position, we saw reason to believe, was widely different from that which has been generally occupied by the Christian Church. The infallibility of the Bible, as being from beginning to end a wholly exceptional and miraculous book, has been virtually a fundamental dogma of Christendom, and has failed to secure the same precise and rigid definition as other dogmas simply because it was so universally accepted. Even

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where the Church has been recognized as a co-ordinate authority, the Bible has been regarded as in every respect the Word of God; and any error attaching to its use lay, not in its own imperfect ideas or language, but in faulty interpretation. This doctrine is still maintained as vital and necessary by all who stand upon the old lines; and they look with consternation on the encroaching tide of criticism, which is slowly crumbling away the ancient landmarks in almost every section of the Church, and in the nobler and more spiritual thought of our time they can detect nothing but an irreverent rationalism. It is not very long1 since a document was issued by a number of the clergy of the Church of England to put a ban upon the labours of scholars who in all humility and devoutness are seeking after truth, and showing how it is possible to preserve the Divine treasure when the earthen vessel which contained it is worn or broken. These gentlemen do not speak as careful and competent students, but as messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord, who have received the Holy Ghost to be faithful dispensers of the Word of God;" and after a declaration of their belief in "all the

1 Unfortunately, I have not a note of the exact date.

THE TRADITIONAL VIEW.

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Canonical Scriptures" as "inspired by the Holy Ghost," they proceed to say:

"We believe these Scriptures because they have the authority of Divine revelation; and wholly independent of our own or of any human approval of the probability or possibility of their subject-matter; and independently of our own or of any human and finite comprehension thereof.

"And we believe that any judgment, either for or against them, formed on the ground of such approval or comprehension, or of the want thereof, is inapplicable to the matter of Divine revelation.

"And we believe the Holy Scriptures to have this Divine authority, on the testimony of the universal Church, the spouse and body of Christ, the witness and keeper of Holy Writ. So that no opinion of the fact or form of Divine revelation, grounded on literary criticism of the Scriptures themselves, can be admitted to interfere with the traditionary testimony of the Church when that has been once ascertained and verified by appeal to antiquity."

To an outsider this attempt to stop the progress of human thought by an assertion of authority can only prove how thickly the Judaic veil still lies upon the

heart of many nominal Christians, and illustrate the power which an inherited and ignorant prejudice can exercise upon the minds of good men. But the pity of it is that this teaching is fast destroying the reverence for the Bible in the hearts of the English people. There are numbers who, in revolt against this dogma, can now see in the Bible nothing but a bundle of "lies" (this word is often used), and find a keen pleasure in every cheap and flippant sneer against a collection of books of whose spiritual meaning and value they are utterly ignorant; and thus the narrow dogmatism of religion produces the narrower and meaner dogmatism of no-religion.1

Thanks, however, to the despised critics, and to the general advance of knowledge, the night is passing away, and the dawn is shedding its orient beams upon the world. For an ever-increasing number the dogma which has so long obscured and dishonoured the Bible has passed away; and yet their reverence for it has

1 Mr. Gore's well-known essay in Lux Mundi is an earnest attempt, from the point of view of the High Church, to meet this danger by making large concessions in regard to the Old Testament; but I doubt whether he fully appreciates the profundity of the change, and whether some of his opponents do not see more clearly the logical consequences of his position.

THE BEARING OF SCIENCE ON THE BIBLE. 85

remained with them, I will not say unimpaired, but augmented and deepened. Let us briefly review the grounds of these two really coincident, but at first sight antithetical, positions.

The great change, which is still in progress, in the doctrine of Biblical inspiration has been brought about by a variety of causes. These must be briefly indicated, without any attempt to discuss their validity or to estimate the value of apologetic arguments,-an attempt which would carry us far beyond our prescribed limits.

First, then, it is a simple fact that the advance of science has shattered what was believed to be the scientific teaching of the Bible until scientific men pronounced that teaching to be erroneous. When the results of the investigation of nature could no longer be denied, the difficulty was met, in the conservative interest, by giving a new interpretation to the Bible. Supposing this interpretation to be correct, instead of being, as I believe it is, a wresting of Holy Scripture in favour of a baseless dogma, still what a strange authority that is for the guidance of men which is certain to be misinterpreted until science steps in, and tells us plainly what the supposed authority had