126
The Fimdamentals. deceived) and acknowledge that their "assured results" are mere hypotheses, repudiated by Hebraists and theologians as competent and eminent as themselves. THINGS TO FEAR. The effects of this "Higher Criticism" are extremely grave. For it has dethroned the Bible in the home, and the good, old practice of "family worship" is rapidly dying out. And great national interests also are involved. For who can doubt that the prosperity and power of the Protestant nations of the world are due to the influence of the Bible upon character and con ducts? Races of men who for generations have been taught to think for themselves in matters of the highest moment will naturally excel in every sphere of effort or of enterprise. And more than this, no one who is trained in the fear of God will fail in his duty to his neighbor, but will prove himself a good citizen. But the dethronement of the Bible leads practically to the dethronement of God; and in Germany and America, and now in England, the effects of this are declaring themselves in ways, and to an extent, well fitted to cause anxiety for the future. CHltIST SUPREME. If a personal word may be pardoned in conclusion, the writer would appeal to every book he has written in proof that he is no champion of a rigid, traditional "orthodoxy." With a single limitation, he would advocate full and free criti cism of Holy Scripture. And that one limitation is that the words of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be deemed a bar to criti cism and "an end of controversy" on every subject expressly dealt with in His teaching. "The Son of God is come" ; and by Him came both grace and TRUTH. And from His hand it is that we have received the Scriptures of the Old Testament.
l (
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker