Is the Authority of the Son of God to be Superseded by that of Modern Scholars? B$ DR. T. T. SHIELDS Toronto. Canada
will in th e Holy Scriptures. To our fath ers th e Bible was th e Word of. God. Do we still so regard it? If we do no t; if we have no longer a reliable compass and chart, our ship must surely d rift from her course; and, defaulting, in her mission, d isintegrate, and ultim ately disappear. No captain would p u t to sea in a ship whose steer ing gear was believed to be ou t of order. W e.muSt find our direction in th e au th o rity of th e Bible as th e word of God. But how shall th e rig h t a ttitu d e to w ard th e Bible be determ ined? Who shall tell us au tho ritatively w hether the Bible is th e word of God? Must we not in th is m a tte r reso rt to and rely upon th e au tho rity of Christ? Personally, I have no theory of th e inspiration of th e Scriptures. Bjit I am sure of ten thousand facts concerning Which I am unable to form ulate a theory. And it is of th e fact of inspira tion, no t of any theory of it, we m ust be convinced. We may no t know how “ holy men of God spake as they were moved by th e Holy Ghost,” and y et be abso lutely sure th a t they were so moved. The Bible is a hum an book, w ritten by hum an hands. I t has never been claimed th a t its m anuscripts were magically produced. B u t th e Bible is divine as well as human. This is the claim it everywhere makes on its own behalf. In w hat proportion, therefore, are these divine and hum an elements blended? Is it so hum an as to p artak e of such imperfection as is common to all things of hum an origin? Or is it so permeated by the' divine as to be sa t u rated w ith divine perfection? The Book tells us of a g rea t Person-
UR a ttitu d e toward Christ will determ ine our a ttitu d e toward raany other things— indeed, it will determ ine our a ttitu d e toward everything, tow ard Go#d above us, and man about us; toward “th e liie th a t now
is,” and “ th a t which is to come.” .
“W hat th ink ye of Christ, is th e te st, ' To try both your plan and your scheme; You cannot be rig h t in th e rest, Unless you th in k righ tly of H im .” Our a ttitu d e tow ard Christ will de term ine OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD .THE SCRIPTURES. It must be clear to. th e m ind of every earnest and though tfu l man and woman among us th a t th e tim e has come when we must clearly define to ourselves w hat our a ttitu d e tow ard th e Bible is to be, if we are to continue our work as a denom ination. No fam ily, nor community, nor institu tion , nor nation, can live a peaceful, progressive, and useful life, w ithout th e direction of some recognized authority. And w ithout some such au tho ritativ e direction no church nor denom ination can exercise a useful m inistry to th e world about it. A uthority must reside in some one. In whom? To whom can we look for di rection? There can be b u t one answer: “One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are b reth ren .” B u t who is t o . be the M aster’s mouthpiece? By w h at means is His will to be communicated to us? Where shall we find an order bearing His unm istakable signature? Formerly, and historically, we believed th a t the Head of th e church had revealed His
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