Prof. George’s Lecture on the Use of the Psalms in Divine Worship. In this issue we reprint this excellent lecture by Prof. George on the use of the Psalms in divine worship. The lecture appeared in our pages before, but for the sake of our young people who need instruction in these matters we are taking the liberty of reprinting it. It is well that we should have intelligent reasons for the position taken up by our Church of the exclusive use of the Psalms as the manual of praise in divine worship. The publication of the lecture is all the more timeous in view of the bewildering muddle into which the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland have plunged themselves in departing from the honoured scriptural customs of their fathers. The present dissatisfaction so outspokenly made at Presbyteries with the new draft Hymnary would be unnecessary if the Presbyterian Churches had faithfully adhered to the exclusive use of the Psalms in divine worship.
A United Free Church Professor on the Pentateuch. Dr John E. McFadyen, Professor of Old Testament Language, Literature, and Theology, Glasgow United Free Church College, is writing a series of articles under the general title—”The Bible and Modern Thought”—for the “Record” of the United Free Church. His second article, which deals with the Pentateuch, appears in the November issue. Deuteronomy, according to Dr McFadyen, for “several excellent reasons” is believed to be the book of the law discovered in Josiah’s reign. “It seems reasonable,” he says, “to conclude that it was written some time between 700 and 621 and hidden away, perhaps during Manasseh’s persecutions, by some sorrowing heart that hoped for better days. The book would thus be red with the blood of martyrs. This conclusion—that Deuteronomy comes from the seventh century B.C., thus falling midway between Isaiah and Jeremiah, is of very far-reaching consequence for a true appreciation of the development of Old Testament history and literature. In keeping with this the higher critical theories of two sources of the creation and flood narratives are stated as assured results without ever a hint that the higher critical views have been met and successfully overturned time and again. The Deuteronomist, the Jahwist, the Elohist, and the writer of the so-called Priestly Code are all mentioned as if they once really existed in the flesh. “Deuteronomy,” we are seriously told, “stands by itself. P consists of Leviticus and the cognate parts of Exodus and Numbers, with a few sections in Genesis; all the rest is JE.” P, we may explain to our readers, is the name given by these scholars to the writer of the so-called Priestly Code, and J stands for Jahwist and E for Elohist, two other imaginary writers begotten in the imaginative brains of the Higher Critics. How long is the Church of Christ to tolerate this learned fooling?