The Christian-Evangelist of April 10, in an article headed "Faith and Opinion," has quite a number of statements on current Biblical criticism which obscure instead of clarifying the subject. One or two of these we have selected for comment; and, first, this having reference to the authorship of the Pentateuch:

      It is not a question whether these books are true, or possess historical value, but it is a question of authorship and date.

      How can this be said, when these books declare four or five hundred times that Moses said and did things which he did not do or say if Moses is not their author? How can this be said, if hundreds of other sober historical statements made in these books are unfounded traditions, and if such men as Adam, Noah and Abraham are mythological heroes who never had a real existence? It is wrong to persist, as the Christian-Evangelist habitually does, in minifying the aberrations of destructive critics.

      Another of these cloudy statements is this: [373]

      Any man may he safely permitted to hold any view of the Pentateuch or of Jonah which seems to him true, who has Christ formed within him, the hope of glory.

      By the expression "may be safely permitted" is meant, I suppose, may be permitted without remonstrance, and especially without a charge of "incipient infidelity." If, then, it seem true to any man that these books were fabricated by designing priests for the purpose of deceiving men and gaining pelf for themselves, he is not to be charged with even incipient infidelity, provided he has "Christ formed within him, the hope of glory." And if this is true with respect to the Pentateuch and Jonah, the writer will not deny that it is true with reference to the other books of the Old Testament. And if it is true with reference to the Old Testament, it must be equally true with respect to the New Testament. If, then, according to this gum-elastic interpretation of the faith, a man rejects the whole Bible as mythical and legendary, but has Christ "formed within him, the hope of glory," he must be received into full fellowship, and no suspicion may be cast upon his faith. And who is to decide whether such a man has Christ formed within him, the hope of glory? If we are to have Christian liberty, a liberty, by the by, which the Christian-Evangelist seems to think some are trying, to take away from us, I must claim the liberty to judge of this for myself; and my judgment is that no man has Christ formed within him, the hope of glory, if he does not believe what Christ says. If he claims to believe in Christ, and yet denies the truth of something which Christ affirms, I can not avoid the conclusion that he is troubled with "incipient infidelity," which, like incipient consumption, will prove fatal if it has its natural growth. Many a man, especially among young men, has commenced by [374] doubting the story of Jonah, and gone on from this to doubting everything in the Bible.

[SEBC 373-375]