Old Testament Criticism and New Testament Christianity 19 the Christian Church will require very much more convincing proofs before they can accept the critical position, and it does not facilitate our acceptance of this wholesale process of invention to be told that it is due to “the creative faculty and the religious feeling of the writers.” As to the fact that so many of our British and American “higher critics” are firm believers in the Divine authority of the Old Testament, and of a Divine revelation embodied in it, we cannot but feel the force of the words of the late Dr. W. H. Green, of Princeton: “They who have themselves been thoroughly grounded in the Christian faith may, by a happy inconsistency, hold fast their old convictions, while admitting principles, methods, and conclusions that are logically at war with them. But who can be surprised if others shall with stricter logic carry what has been thus commended to them to its legitimate conclusions ?” 7. CAN WE OVERLOOK THE EVIDENCE OF ARCHAEOLOGY? I t is well known that during the last sixty years a vast number of archaeological discoveries have been made in Egypt, Palestine, Babylonia, and Assyria. Many of these have shed remarkable light on the historical features of the Old Testament. A number of persons and periods have been illuminated by these discoveries and are now seen with a clearness which was before impossible. Now it is a simple and yet striking fact that not one of these discoveries during the whole of this time has given any support to the distinctive features and principles of the higher critical position, while, on the other hand, many of them have afforded abundant confirmation of the traditional and con- servative view of the Old Testament. Let us consider a few of these discoveries. Only a little over forty years ago the conservative “Speaker’s Com- mentary” actually had to take into consideration the critical arguments then so prevalent in favor of the late invention
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