In the Occident of March 25, 1 find an article, brief, but thoughtful, from the pen of Mr. James Woodworth, in which he makes the following quotation from the Evangelical Lutheran Church Gazette, one of the most influential journals in Germany:

      Although among the university men there have been very few that have undertaken to defend the old views of the church with reference to the divine character of the Scriptures, the rank and file of the pastors have boldly come to the front in [201] this good work, and the anti-critical Biblical literature is greater than it has been for many years.

      By anti-critical literature is meant that which opposes the theories and conclusions of the recent criticism.

      The writer in the Occident says that this is truly encouraging, and that a similar encouraging state of things exists in our own country. "The champions of the new views," he says, "are to be found principally not in the ranks of the ministry, but in those of the college and university professors." So long as a body of sound believers in the truth of the Bible stand in between these professors and the people, there need be no fear of widespread defection among the latter from the faith of our fathers. Skeptical scholars will empty their poisonous gas into the open air, where it will be dissipated without spreading its contagion; and, whatever whiffs of it are brought down by counter currents into the stratum which the common people breathe, will be fanned away by the preachers.

      The preachers who come into daily contact with the people, and whose daily task it is to turn sinners to the Lord, know perfectly well that destructive criticism of the Bible tends to ruin men, and not to save them; and, for this reason, they will have nothing to do with it except to combat it when it comes in their way. And in this combat they will prevail; for it is to them, and not to the professors, that the people resort for their daily spiritual food. Not only so, but the few young preachers who are perverted in the colleges and seminaries where these rationalistic professors do their work, must find that the kind of criticism which they have imbibed will not work when they come to soul-saving. The serious men among them will, therefore, toss it behind their backs when they go before the people, while those who [202] are not sufficiently in earnest to do this, will soon find that the congregations of the faithful will toss them behind their backs and cling to the old Book. The professors in the infected institutions are making herculean efforts to draw the candidates for the ministry under their influence, and they are succeeding by the prestige of money and great names in drawing those who have more ambition than godliness; but this class are always lightweights in the pulpit, even if they stay in it long enough to weigh at all; while the men of humility, and of faith that can not be shaken, are the men in every age and country whom the people delight to follow.

[SEBC 201-203]