and some who utterly deny the Incarnation, and of course Christ's present existence and exaltation. As an astronomer, who should deny to the sun its central place in the solar system, would wholly fail to explain the order and courses of the planets; so these interpreters of the Scriptures, denying to Christ His central place, cannot see the biblical records in their true order and consistence. But even in this class there are critics and critics. In some is seen a positive hostility to Christ, a determination to pull Him down from the throne in which He sits, and to destroy the faith of men in Him. Their chief motive in studying the sacred records seems to be to prove them full of errors; and to this end they exaggerate differences, and exalt discrepancies into contradictions. The Scriptures are to them only an antiquarian book, whose chief value is that it supplies to them a field on which to display their critical acumen and their powers of invention in new readings of history. If any thing useful in biblical study can be learned from them, it is only in regard to very minor points and small details. But there are critics of a very different spirit, who holding the Scriptures to be God's word, and Christ to be the Son of God, seek to cast light upon their meaning by a more accurate knowledge and rendering of the texts, by the study of newly discovered or deciphered records, by identification of biblical sites, by archæological investigations, and by diligent use of all external means of knowledge. To these our thanks are due; they approach the Bible, not as a surgeon to dissect a dead body, but carefully to remove some excrescence, or to replace some dislocated limb, that there may be new life and strength. But the question arises whether the critics of this class do not often fall into the error of which Dean Stanley speaks, of confounding instrumentals with fundamentals, and spend much of their strength in discussions of matters of little moment. There is a sense in which all truth, even in its minutest details, may be said to be of value; but perfect truth is unattainable. Our best knowledge is partial. All events in a single human life can never be written, much less all in the life of a people. There is necessarily a choice between the important and the unimportant. The sacred records are comparatively very brief, yet criticism must here distinguish between the essential and non-essential; a hundred minor questions may remain unanswered. Investigations which concern events intrinsically unimportant — the length of a king's reign, the number of the slain in a battle, the site of a city, the exact date of a prophecy, the authorship of a psalm, and like points, the minima of biblical history cannot but hold a very subordinate place; they are but instrumentals; we may be ignorant of them, and suffer little loss. The general outlines of the Divine purpose as given in the Bible are clear and unmistakable. As we may know the course of a mountain range, its direction, the order of its summits, and yet cannot see the many little valleys at their feet, so we know the chief facts of the past, their order and significance; and our ignorance of details does not affect what is of chiefest importance to us, our existing relations to God and to His Christ. No knowledge of details, indeed, is to be despised; and he who removes a stone of stumbling out of the King's pathway, or straightens an angle, or cuts down a bush that obstructs the wayfarer's vision, does a service; but he may remember that a hundred generations have trod the pathway before him, and found Him whom they sought. I believe it will be truly said, in a time not very far distant, that many points which now occupy the attention of biblical scholars, and call forth learned dissertations and elaborate treatises, were not worthy of the attention given them; and that their labors will be regarded as the critical tithing of the mint, anise, and cummin. What is now most necessary, is to hold the Bible in its right relation to the Living Christ. We may dismiss at once all fear that criticism, even the most hostile and deadly, can affect His existence or His work; at most it can only hide Him for a moment from view by the smoke of its learn ing. The Incarnate Son lives, and Christianity in Him. Do not allow yourselves, my young friends, to be put merely on the defensive; you have something far higher to do than even to maintain the truth and integrity of the Bible against sceptical attacks. What the world would know, and what the Church is set to prove, is that the Son of the Virgin, the Crucified One, is to-day at God's right hand, made Lord over all. How shall the Church prove this? Not simply by appealing to apostolic testimony that He rose from the dead, and ascended to heaven, but by showing forth the power of His resurrection in her children; - in their lives of holiness, in their words of truth, and in their mighty works. It was the prayer of the apostles in the beginning, "Grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy Holy Child Jesus.” And this prayer is the prayer of His people unto the end. Christ working from heaven through His Church, is the proof that He is risen, and invested with all power and dominion. Accurate Hebrew and Greek scholarship is desirable in those who can attain to it, but it is only instrumental. Of far more importance is it to be so cleansed and illumined that we have spiritual discernment of the purpose of God; and such faith in His words, and such spirit of self-sacrifice, that we give ourselves to be co-workers with Him and with His Son. The one thing, and the only thing, that will enable the Church to overcome the growing infidelity of the time, is to trust in her Living Head and obey Him, as He trusted in and obeyed the Father. Then will Christ be His own witness from heaven: He will testify to Himself. The temptation of Protestants is to hide Christ behind the Book, that of Roman Catholics to hide Him behind the Church. Let us do neither, but holding both the Bible and the Church in their right relations to Him, keep our eyes ever fastened on Him till He comes forth to fill the earth with the glory of God. S. J. A. HARTFORD, CONN., Nov. 6, 1885. |