Biblical Archæology and the Critics.
In his recently issued “Reminiscences,” Prof. Sayce has the following paragraph:—”Just as the archæological discoveries in the Mediterranean had given a death-blow to the “critical” theories about Homer and the early traditions of Greece, so similar discoveries were now giving the same death-blow to the theories about the Old Testament and its contents which had been imported from Germany. Subjective fantasies must make way for the solid facts of science which were at last being recovered. One after another the foundations upon which such theories had been built had been shown to be baseless; first came the discovery of the Tel-al-Amarna tablets and its revelation of the use of writing in the pre-Mosaic age, then that of the legal code of Khammurabi, the contemporary of Abraham, and finally that of the Aramaic papyri of Elephantine. With hardly an exception the archæological discoveries of the last thirty-five years in the Nearer East have been dead against the conclusions of the self-appointed critic and on the side of ancient tradition.” It is of special interest that two of the most distinguished Biblical archæologists, Prof. Sir William Ramsay and Prof. Sayce, whose whole out-look to begin with was strongly against the traditional views of the Bible, should be forced by the hard facts of archæology to become two of the strongest opponents the Higher Critics have to face—Prof. Sayce in the Old Testament field, and Sir William Ramsay in the New Testament.
Modernists Rebuked by a Coloured Preacher.
At the Church Congress (Church of England) held at the beginning of last month at Oxford, the Rev. W. Granville Burgan, a coloured clergyman, vicar of Belladrum, Berbice, British Guiana, spoke out strongly against Modernist teaching in the Church of England. “We are not getting a lead,” he said, “from you in the Colonies. What we want is real old English religion—we don’t want the modernist Jesus Christ there. One minute we are told that Jesus Christ was not born, as we have it in the Gospel story, and that He did not rise from the dead. Another minute it is something else. You can’t expect people to be stable in their belief if this sort of thing goes on in the Church of England. I think,” he concluded, “that a great deal of the weakness of the English Church to-day has come about because of the weakness of the bishops. The bishops ought really to lead.” It has often been said if things go on much longer at home as they have been going we will require missionaries from abroad to teach us the truths of the Bible, and it is refreshing to read these words from one who has come from so far to Oxford, where the Modernists recently proclaimed their anti-Scriptural views, and who was not ashamed to lift up his voice against these traitors to the faith.
London’s Roman Catholic Civic Heads.
For the first time, says the “Daily Mail,” since Protestantism was restored to England by the accession in 1558 of Queen Elizabeth the City of London’s Lord Mayor and Sheriffs who take up office on November 8, will be Roman Catholics. The Lord Mayor-elect is Sir Alfred Bower, and Sheriffs Mr F. J. Barthorpe and Mr H. G. Downer. While it is remarkable for all three to be Roman Catholics, it is not thought in official circles that any difficulty will arise in the discharge of their duties. Already they have appointed as their chaplains clergy of the Church of England. It was also stated that all official religious functions will be attended when necessary by Sir Alfred and the two new Sheriffs.
The Higher Critics on their Defence.
Dr Gore, in his recently issued “The Doctrine of the Infallible Book,” says “there is a revival to-day of the position that faith in Christianity, as really the divinely given gospel for the world, is bound up with the old-fashioned belief in the Bible as the infallible book.” So deeply concerned is he lest this view should drive back the often trumpeted assured results of the higher critical learning, that Dr Gore has written this book for the Student Christian Movement. It is an ominous sign of the times that so many of the books issued under the auspices of this Movement should be tainted with the new views of the Bible. It is interesting to learn from that faithful propagator of the higher critical views—the “Expository Times”—that “the necessity for maintaining, in the interests alike of truth and religion, the rights of a reasonable and temperate criticism, has been once more abundantly evidenced by the vigour of the Fundamentalist controversy which is raging in America.” It is encouraging to learn that the Fundamentalist struggle in America is making itself felt in this country, and we trust, though in a different sense from the “Expository Times,” that it will be in the interests of truth and religion.