14 The Fundamental�. led and swayed the movement, who made the theories that the others circulated, were strongly unbelieving. Then the higher critical movement has not followed its true and original purposes in investigating the Scriptures for the purposes of confirming faith and of helping believers to understand the beauties, and appreciate the circumstances of p th le e te o l r y ig t i h n e o B f i t b h l e e? various books, and so understand more com No. It has not ; unquestionably it has not. It has been deflected from that, largely owing to the character of the men whose ability and forcefulness have given predominance to c th is e m ir v w ie h w ic s h . is It b h a a s s ed be o c n om h e yp id o e th n e ti s fi e e s d a w nd ith su a pp sy o s s t i e ti m ons of w c h r i i c ti h have for their object the repudiation of the traditional theory, and has investigated the origins and forms and styles and b co il n it t y en a t n s, d a r p e p li a a r b e i n li t t l y y o n f ot th t e o S co cr n i fi p r t mure t s h , e b a u u t t t h o en d t i i s c c it r y ed a it nd in c m re o d s it cases their genuineness, to discover discrepancies, and throw doubt upon their authority. THE ORIGIN OF THE MOVEMENT, Who, then, were the men whose views have moulded the ·views of the leading teachers and writers of the Higher Crit ical school of today? We wiY answer this as briefly as possible. It is not easy to say who is the first so-called Higher Critic, or when the movement began. But it is not modern by any means. Broadly speaking, it has passed through three great stag 1 e . s: The French-Dutch. 2. The German. 3. The British-American. In its origin it was Franco-Dutch, and speculative, if not skeptical. The views which are now accepted as axiomatic by the Continental and British-American schools of Higher
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