larger or better or equally good entered into the thought of men. Far above all our thinking rises strong, clear, pure, and unapproachable the biblical ideal of the Divine Being, as a vision that came down from heaven and broods over the earth as a lifegiving and sanctifying revelation.

Not only in the ideal of divinity, but also in the ideal morality for men the biblical conception rises far above every other. The best modern thinking, unless formed after its models, does not approach it in excellence of quality. In the field of ethics Plato, with whom Socrates and Aristotle practically agree, named four elements as comprehending his thought on the subject. They were: (1) Wisdom, (2) Courage, or fortitude, (3) Temperance, or orderliness, (4) Justice, or uprightness. There was no recognition of benevolence or of good will toward men in that early philosophy, nor did it occur to them to arrive at good morals by the way of a clean heart or a right spirit. The inward state, the source of all character, did not come within the scope of their thinking. The ethics of the Bible so far surpass all man's thinking,

both ancient and modern, that it is evident man did not formulate its teaching.

The Bible has been tested in the spiritual realm with similar results. The keenest intellects have found nothing to be added and nothing to be taken from the fundamental, all-inclusive law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself." The very announcement of it staggers the brain and dazzles the eyes; it is too high for human thought to climb to it; the mind of man never could have produced it without so marring it in the process as to render it other than what it is. Let a man sit down and try to think of something higher than this, to write out something that will equal or surpass it, and he will feel the truth of what we are saying about it. So far as we can see, it is not possible for any intelligence to conceive or express anything higher or better than that law.

In its practical teaching the same superiority to all human systems for regulating and ordering human conduct appears. In

all the ways of testing to which the Bible has been subjected in human experience it proves itself more than human, that it is manifestly of divine origin.

CHAPTER XI

THE BIBLE AMENABLE TO

CRITICISM

CRITICISM is the natural impulse, right, and duty of the intelligent mind, and no considerations of prudence, authority, or mock reverence can work the forfeiture of that right. No one can look upon the Parthenon or the temple of Theseus in Athens without at once raising the questions, "When was this building erected, by whom, and for what purpose?" The answer that his questions would evoke would at once be subjected to the keenest scrutiny of his best intelligence, unless he was ready to admit that his open-eyed wonder was too primitive and dull to generate thinking energy. Anything that claims antiquity or special authorship starts and justifies the question of the correctness of the claim, and must furnish proofs. A document that claims a certain date and authorship thereby eliminates every other, and so opens the door and invites to dis

cussion. There is no question whether a man ought to use his intelligence in criticizing, since he is so made that he must do it, or decapitate his own intelligence.

All thoughtful readers of the Bible may be classed as higher critics, for higher criticism is simply the consideration of these questions of date and authorship. The readers who find no occasion to depart from the traditional view are as truly higher critics as those who reject that view. Higher criticism is not a certain result, but a process that may and does lead to very different, and sometimes to directly opposite, results. In some cases the best scholarship finds for the traditional view; in other cases the findings are against that view; and this illustrates the peculiar difficulties of the field in which these discussions lie.

We cannot seriously consider the books of the Bible at all till we have come to some conclusions about these fundamental questions of their origin and authority. The five books of Moses give no hint of who was their author or when they were written, therefore the door is left open for