242 THE KING’S BUSINESS whether we can answer the difficulties or not, we must stand by the fundamental truth so often asserted in so many different ways in the Word of God, namely,, the absolute sinlessness of our Lord. He was as holy as God Himself is holy. Sin was something absolutely apart from Him. It did not appeal to Him. He could not sin. The Appalling Waste of Time Occasioned by the Higher Criticism T HE undermining of the faith of superficial Bible readers who are willing to swallow anything that they are assured is the result of the latest scholarship is not the only mischief wrought by the so-called “Higher Criticism.” It has wasted the precious time of thousands of ministers and theological students who have not been at all affected by its vagaries. Thou sands upon thousands of earnest-minded men have been made to feel that, if they did not go thoroughly into the study of the methods and theories of the Higher Critics, they were not abreast of the times. So many precious hours and days and weeks and months, that might have been put into the study of the Bible itself, have been put into the study of what various critics have had to say about the source of the Pentateuch, Isaiah, etc. As the prevailing methods of the modern Higher Criticism are thoroughly unscientific and fan ciful they have, of course, led to no solid and satisfactory results. And the time put into the study of various German, Scotch and English authors along these lines has been simply wasted, and when the student gets through he finds himself just where he started and all his precious time gone. Some years ago a recent graduate of one of otir Eastern universities came to Mr. Moody and asked his advice as to what he should make his life work. Mr. Moody said, “Why do you not give your life to the teaching of the English Bible?” “Mr. Moody,” he replied, “I know nothing about the English Bible.” “Why,” said Mr, Moody, “I thought you had just graduated from -------- University, where they have a professor paid to teach the Eng lish Bible.” “I have,” he said, “and what is more I have taken his classes. Would you like to know how they teach the English Bible? We have been studying for six months to find out who wrote the Pentateuch, and we know less about it now than when we started.” Those six months might have been put into the study of the Bible itself and that man in a measure equipped for a life of usefulness. In many of our seminaries that are perfectly sound in their own teaching regarding the Bible, the students are kept for months or years on the study of these critical questions, giving precious time and study to a science that has no sure foundation and that leads nowhere, that might haVe been devoted to digging into the precious treasures of God’s Word;.and thus oftentimes men come out of our seminaries knowing a great deal about critical questions, and very likely quite sound on these critical questions, but knowing nothing about the Bible truth which they are expected to proclaim to their congregations. When one stops to consider it, it is simply appalling to think of the days and weeks and months and years of precious time spent upon this tv-e'c/ literary criticism of the Bible that oftentimes is fantastic in its methods
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