The Fwidamentals. Hort would be called Lower Critics. But the term is not now a-days used as a rule. The Higher Criticism, on the con trary, was employed to designate the study of the historic origins, the dates, and authorship of the various books of the Bible, and that great branch of study which in the technical language of modern theology is known as Introduction. It is a very valuable branch of Biblical science, and is of the highest importance as an auxiliary in the interpretation of the Word of God. By its researches floods of light may be thrown on the Scriptures. The term Higher Criticism, then, means nothing more than the study of the literary structure of the various books of the Bible, and more especially of the Old Testament. Now this in itself is most laudable. It is indispensable. It is just such work as every minister or Sunday School teacher does when he takes up his Peloubet's Notes, or his Stalker's St. Paul, or Geikie's Hours with the Bible, to find out all he can with regard to the portion of the Bible he is studying; the author, the date, the circumstances, and purpose of its writing. WHY IS HIGHER CRITICISM IDENTIFIED WITH UNBELIEF? How is it, then, that the Higher Criticism has become identified in the popular mind with attacks upon the Bible a11d the supernatural character of the Holy Scriptitres! The reason is this. No study perhaps requires so devout a spirit and so exalted a faith in the supernatural as the pur suit of the Higher Criticism. It demands at once the ability of the scholar, and the simplicity of the believing child of God. For without faith no one can explain the Holy Scriptures, and without scholarship no one can investigate historic origins. There is a Higher Criticism that is at once reverent in tone and scholarly in work. Hengstenberg, the German, and Horne, the Englishman, may be taken as examples. Perhaps the greatest work inEnglish on the Higher Criticism is Horne's
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