Jesus, he might choose some other appellation than Christian that would better fit him.

This book will not attempt formal proof of the foregoing propositions. They will only incidentally, and almost accidentally, furnish subject of discussion. They are the fundamental data on which the entire discussion proceeds; so nearly axiomatic, in the author's view, that the mere statement of them should secure hearty assent from the thoughtful Christian reader. Indeed, his fear is that more readers will pronounce them truisms than untruths. But it is only fair to give warning that any reader who seriously dissents from them will do well to lay the book aside at this point, as it would probably be pure waste of time and mental energy for him to read further. For if these fundamentals are untrue, or even doubtful, the following pages are worthless.

II

Evangelists and preachers of a certain type are very fond of saying in public that "they believe the Bible from cover to cover," that they "believe every word in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation" (only, that type usually says "Revelations"). Even theologians educated enough to be reasonably intelligent, and so to know better, profess and teach belief in the absolute inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible. Nay more, they wage open and bitter warfare on all who will not pronounce their shibboleths. Nearly all the so-called "Bible Schools" are given over to this heresy, which they proclaim to be the only orthodoxy. One very prominent religious newspaper (at least, it makes high pretensions to religion) loses no opportunity to defame every theological institution in which it thinks this doctrine is not taught. What's in a name? especially in religious parties. There are "Evangelicals" utterly destitute of the gospel spirit; "Catholics" who are in mind

and temper hopeless sectarians; "Liberals" who are the perfection of illiberality; and "Orthodox" who hold fast what is not, never was, and never can be Christianity.

All signs show that a determined and systematic propaganda of this view of the Bible has been undertaken, with the explicitly avowed purpose of branding as heretics all men and institutions that fail to conform to this standard of orthodoxy, and the more than hinted purpose of establishing some new form of organization, if that prove necessary to the attainment of the leaders' ends. In these days when the majority of Christians are thinking and talking much about Christian unity, we are seriously threatened with a new schism.

It is a time therefore for plain speech. In this age of the world no man can avow belief in "the whole Bible, from cover to cover," without casting painful suspicion upon either his sincerity or his intelligence. Nobody needs to accuse him of such defect; he accuses himself when he so speaks. No man who makes public proclamation of this belief could stand cross-examination for five minutes in the presence of the very audience that unthinkingly applauds his words. Before half a dozen questions had been asked, he would be hedging and explaining and retracting. There is no educated man living who really believes the Bible from cover to cover. There is no half educated man who believes the Bible in that wholesale way. No man can make such profession sincerely unless he has escaped education altogether. Men who say such things are talking buncombe, playing to the galleries.

There are few people of any age or any schooling who have read their Bibles with any degree of intelligence or care, without finding statements that have perplexed them, and in some parts ethics that have astonished and revolted them, as well as contradictions and inconsistencies that they could neither deny nor explain. Only an inherited reverence for the Book, or, better still, personal experi

ence of the high spiritual worth of large portions of it, have kept many from refusing to read further. Others may have refused to read further because of just these difficulties.

Those who know how shallow and false is this dogma of Biblical infallibility, those who have learned from Christian history how and why it came to be held, those who know how unscrupulous are some of its advocates and how ignorant others, those who realize how it contradicts the hard-won results of Biblical study through the centuries, those who appreciate how damaging such a dogma is to the cause of true religion, how impossible it is to build an edifice of Truth on a foundation of liesthese must have the courage of their knowledge and convictions, must accept the challenge proffered them, must begin without delay to teach the plain Christian people the truth about the Bible, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. If they hesitate, if they listen to the counsels of their timid and half-hearted fellows, the churches will fall a prey to vociferous ignorance, and true religion will be betrayed in the house of its friends. The path of boldness, of utter frankness, of rugged honesty, is the path of safety.

III

Many of the clergy, who have been adequately instructed in a good modern theological seminary, and consequently know the facts about the Bible, are afraid to take their people into their confidence and tell them the truth. Some fear that if they should tell the truth, their people would regard them as heretics and turn against them; and they cannot bring themselves to quarrel with their bread and butter. Others excuse themselves from the duty of fearless truth-speaking, on the plausible plea that the pulpit is no place for discussing such matters,

which should be left for class rooms and learned periodicals to thresh out. As to this, it may be said that of course it would be unwise to carry into the pulpit technical discussions, and expect the ordinary congregation to act as a jury and decide questions about which competent scholars differ.

But this is not at all what is meant by telling people the truth about the Bible. There is no important truth about religion that cannot be made clear to the ordinary believer. No one who has had experience in teaching in a Sunday school doubts that even minds of children are capable of taking in any important truth, when a properly trained teacher puts it before them. The average Christian congregation is fully competent to understand the general results that have been reached, within the last century especially, by historical, exegetical and literary study of the Bible. The results can be stated in untechnical language that the reader of any daily newspaper will comprehend without undue mental effort. And every preacher, when he takes a text of Scripture as subject of his discourse, or even as a mere motto, by so doing attests the traditional theory of his office: that his chief function is to expound the Scriptures to his people. How shall he honestly discharge this function, while he leaves them in ignorance of fundamental truth about the Bible? Truth that it much imports them to know, truth that would greatly alter their way of looking at all other religious truth, truth so vitally important that if they remain ignorant of it they cannot be intelligent Christians? There can be no excuse for such dereliction of duty that will stand slightest examination.

At the present moment no duty makes a more imperious call on the Christian minister than the duty of telling his people all the truth about the Bible. Claims have been made for the Bible, and are now made with fresh insistence, that the Bible does not make for itself. The valid

ity of the Christian religion is staked by many noisy champions of it on impossible theories of the Bible's origin, meaning and authority. If those who know this, and also know what is the truth, preserve a prudent silence, how shall they excuse themselves for their failure to speak out?

Oh, but they fear they may unsettle men's minds and wreck the faith of some of Christ's little ones, if they should speak! That is a coward's plea. No man's faith was ever wrecked by truth, who had a faith worth saving. One lacks trust in God, the author of all truth, who fears to speak it. It was our Lord himself who assured us "The truth will make you free”—falsehood can make only slaves and dastards. Speak, my brothers in the ministry of the grace of God; speak, as you are called to be God's prophets; speak the truth without dilution or camouflage; and with God be the rest!

IV

What, then, should the people be taught about the Bible? They should be taught first of all its proper place in the Christian religion and warned against a cheap and harmful, even a superstitious, bibliolatry. Christianity and Mohammedanism are often said to be alike in this, that both are religions of a Book. This is far from the truth. Mohammedanism may be the religion of a Book; Christianity is the religion of a Person. Jesus the Christ is its corner-stone, not the Bible; He, not it, is the "author and perfecter of our faith." With Paul, every believer says, "I know whom I have believed"-whom, not what. Once let people get it firmly into their minds that the essence of the Christian religion is a personal experience of God's love, through Jesus who has revealed him to us as our Father in Heaven, and their faith will be built on a Rock and nothing thenceforth can shake it. Until they have this experience and comprehend its significance, they