Article October 18, 1913 Issue

From Our Exchanges

with contributions from R. J. Campbell

[The Christian Advocate]

The Bible is always on trial for its life. It was born out of great tribulations and its subsequent career has been beset with constant perils. It required many centuries and a host of writers to assemble its parts, and ever since it was compacted into a single library, more centuries and a larger body of men have been involved in the attempt to destroy it. Its gradual emancipation from the ancient languages in which its treasures were originally confined, has been a slow and painful process, which is not even yet finished.

But when it has been liberated from the bondage of familiar tongues, the conflicts of the Bible have only just begun. Every sinner whose life it condemns, every institution of society which it rebukes, every system of philosophy which it antagonizes, every scholar whose boasted erudition it balks, enters a confederation to oppose its progress. Its translators have been persecuted, its readers have been martyred, its teachers have been suppressed by brute force, and its messages have been falsified. Yet it has survived the attacks of its foes and the treason of its avowed friends. If we could believe the claims of its adversaries, nothing has ever been destroyed so frequently, yet nothing has exhibited such invincible vitality. It is the most persistent literary force in the world. In our day the Bible is subjected to a comparatively new and unique trial. It is passing under the scrutiny of a literary and historical criticism of the most scientific and relentless character. It is meeting that severe test in the same triumphant fashion that has marked all its previous trials. To doubt that it will come out of this ordeal unscathed, is to give proof that we have lost faith in the divinity of its origin and character.

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