THE KING’S BUSINESS
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“The Fundamentals” . [“ The Fundamentals” (described in our D ecem ber num ber) are mailed free to te n s of thousands of m inisters, evangelists, m issionaries and C hristian w orkers throughout th e world. “H undreds of thousands of letters of approval” have been received by th e publishers, and m any of disapproval. W e co n grat u late the “two C hristian laym en” who b ear th e heavy financial cost, th a t th eir efforts in “th e defense and confirm ation of th e fa ith ” a re as effective as the following rem onstrance from some “th a t oppose them selves” shows. W e th an k th e H ead of th e C hurch if “ The Fundamentals” are m aking It “m ore difficult for th e ‘m odern’ m in ister,” and “th e ‘m odern’ in terp retatio n ” of th e Bible to m ake headw ay. Only so can a "Gospel?” a real Gospel, be preserved “to send to th e e a rth ’s rem otest bounds.” T he lost, world.—E ditors. ] T estimony P ublishing C o ., Chicago, 111. lost cause” is the only hope of th e
the “two laymen’’ for example. “They know not what they do.” The only way, abso lutely, to save the things they really love is to go forward to the very positions they here antagonize; for this reason I am sorry for these publications; they will help to re tard the progress of the modern theories by a generation or two. I presume it would hardly be worth while, under the circum stances, to keep sending the books to me. All of the arguments set forth by these good brethren I -have gone over time and again in years gone bv when I was thresh ing out this whole matter. But it seems like reading the works of the old Church Fathers to look ,over such arguments now. But since every^ truth has had to fight its way into the world, I suppose this new truth of the modern historical interpreta tion of the Scriptures will have to come in the same way. These books going into the hands of laymen,- Sunday school super intendents, etc., simply make it that much moi e difficult for the modern minister to do what he' surely has to do to keep the world studying the Bible, viz., to lead the world to the modern historical interpreta tion of it. I do not know of a modern theological seminary or divinity school to day that is not teaching these views to the young men preparing for the ministry. These young men go out to the churches to find the minds of laymen prejudiced by the I ( Concluded on page 258. )
Gentlemen: I have been* interested, of course, in these little booklets you have been, sending. But I very much deplore their publication. They serve to retard the progress of the Kingdom because they will make it more difficult for the world to accept the general principles of Biblical crit icism which they antagonize. The publica tion of these -pamphlets is exactly in line with the publications against the Copernican astronomy centuries ago. Most of the pa pers, or essays, in- these pamphlets are de fending a position that has as surely been passed forever by the thinking world as has been the astronomy before Copernicus. If will simply take us a little longer to brine the whole' Church ut> to the new posi tions because of the prejudice awakened by such belated matter as is set forth in these books. They will become theological curios-, »ties in the not distant future. I am- amazed that some of the men whose names appear in this series have lent themselves to any such reactionary methods; for I once heard one of them say that substan tially every noted scholar in this country and in Europe held to the composite theory of the origin of the Pentateuch; and here he is lending himself, at least remotely, to this kind of reactionary movement. Of course, I have nothing but the kindest feel ings for men who are doing these things;
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