The following valuable and impressive letter has been received by the Rev. Dr. Kerr from Dr. Monro, medical missionary, Darjeeling, Bengal :—
LOCHNAGAR, DARJEELING, BENGAL,
September 21, 1903.
Rev. Sir,—A few mails ago an unknown friend sent me a little book published by you entitled “The Higher Criticism in Scotland : Disastrous Results, etc.” I have read it with the greatest interest and with the deepest thankfulness, for there can be no doubt whatever that this pernicious heresy of so-called Higher Criticism has done and is doing incalculable injury to the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially by alienating our young men and young women from the old faith. I am specially interested to read your chapter headed “The Heathen Deceived,” in which you show most convincingly that if “critical” views are true, missions are a farce and a fraud. This teaching, as you may imagine, appeals powerfully to one who is a missionary in the field, and who as such wrote to The Christian the remarks which you quote in the chapter referred to. I feel very deeply that we cannot profess to work alongside of missionaries whose message is not the message of the Bible but of the Encyclopædia Biblica ; and the sooner people at home awake to the fact that the message of the “critic” to the heathen is not the message of the missionaries of the Lord Jesus Christ the better. In a recently-published book called “Old Testament Critics,” Dr. Whitelaw, of Kilmarnock, has most powerfully pointed out that there can be no toleration of these “critical” and sceptical views, but that uncompromising rejection of the same is the only policy which can be honestly adopted by adherents of the old faith. And your cross-examination of Profs. G. A. Smith, Marcus Dods. and Denney very clearly emphasises the same conclusion. I send you reprint of an address which was lately given by the Rev. Mr. Reid of the United Free Church in Calcutta, and it seems to me simply deplorable that such teaching should proceed from one who fills the pulpit from which that prince of missionaries, Dr. Duff, preached, and who holds the parish of which the veteran missionary, Dr. Murray Mitchell, for a time had charge.
The effect of this pernicious teaching on missionary work will be lamentable. And this is not a groundless conjecture, for already in a Moslem periodical, The Review of Religions, issued by a bitter opponent of Christianity, the adherents of the critical school are claimed as allies of Islam, and are called on to join with Moslems in repudiating the Bible and denouncing the false teaching of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. A reprint of the article from The Review of Religions I also send you, and I have called attention to it both in The Christian and in an article which I hope may appear in The East and the West for October. I cannot say whether it will so appear, but if it does you will be able to see how entirely I sympathise with your views as to missions being entirely incompatible with “critical” views.
I must apologise for the liberty which I, a stranger to you have taken in addressing you. The vital importance of the subject is my excuse. And I trust that the attention of all who are interested in Christian missions may be aroused to the fact that with the adoption of “critical” views missionaries have no message to deliver to non-Christians—certainly not the message which our Lord commissioned His disciples to proclaim, not the message which His Apostles delivered, not the message which Christendom of all ages has endorsed. If “Criticism” is true, then let missions cease; but if it is not true—then let “critical” missionaries be removed from the ranks of those who are trying to give the message of an inspired Bible, and of an infallible Christ, the Saviour of the world.—Yours very faithfully,
JAMES MONRO,
Director, Ranaghat Medical Mission, Bengal.
It has been our conviction for a number of years that the same pernicious errors in regard to the Bible, which has been permeating the larger Churches at home, were also being disseminated by their missionaries abroad. The above letter strongly confirms our opinion. Better almost it were that the heathen should never hear of Christ at all than that they should be put in possession of a false Christ, and sent into eternity with a lie in their right hand. It is appalling in the extreme to think of the havoc this infidel criticism must be working in the minds of people both at home and abroad, and it is matter of thankfulness that even one missionary lifts up his voice faithfully and loudly against it. May the Most High enable other missionaries to speak out with equal vigour!
Acknowledgment of Donations.—The Rev. Neil Cameron begs to thank “Carridge” for £1, and “A Friend,” Tomatin, for 10s. in aid of St. Jude’s Building Fund.