CRITICISM OF THE BIBLE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 10070, 10 August 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

CRITICISM OF THE BIBLE.

The Rev Dr Butler, Master of Trinily College, Cambridge, presided at St. Mar. tin's Town Hall recently, over the 24th annual meeting of the Christian Evidence Society. He said that the marked reluotance among their ablest students to take holy orders was caused not by fear of hard work, nor, of poverty, or loss of worldly pleasures, but mainly by the fear of losing their freedom— by the thought that they would cea<e to be inquirers and be turned into advocates on one aide in a controversy. Some of the chief causes which Bet young people against revealed religion and the clerical position were to be found in certain old quarrels. "He could never forget the dismay and Indignation among serious young men when, in the name of orthodoxy, Maurice was expelled from his professorship, and Jowett's salary at Oxford was long withheld, Dr Temple's appointment to the see of Exeter was protested against by leading bishops to the very hour of his consecration, and Darwin's great and epochmaking work, the " Origin of Species," was denonnced as a presumptuous attack on Christian truth. Unbelievers were made by well-meant errors of this kind. Just now we had before us the great question of the authority of the Old Testament. Unfortunately, few in England were competent to deal with It, as we had so few Hebrew scholars. But this conflict as to the age and authorship of the various books and as to the human objects of their authors Blight be left to learned experts without any anxiety for the Christian faith. We should not take sides as if some religions interest were imperilled. The only religious interest was the victory of troth. The mistake of making the Godhead of Christ a bar to the discussion of matters of history and criticism should not be repeated. The argument was n«ed that- Christ quoted a psalm as David's, that Christ Bhared the omniscience and infallibility of God, and that, therefore, David wrote the psalm. This argument was most earnestly 1 to be deprecated, staking as it did the true doctrine 1 of Our Lard's person on a matter of do spiritual import, whiob ought to be left to the human reason. For successful Christian evidence work they needed an eager and unbiassed love for truth at any cost, intellectual power baoked by adequate learning, warm sympathy with every form of spiritual oonfliot, and courtesy and fairness towards opponents. Hardly anything repelled and disgusted the young more than books on the so-called orthodox side which dealt discourteously or timidly with opposition. The Bishop of Grahamstown was among the subsequent speakers