Article February 20, 1915 Issue

From Our Exchanges

with contributions from R. J. Campbell, Herbert Booth Smith

[Zion's Herald]

In all study of science, philosophy, and theology, we need to have the temper which will search whether or not such and such things are so, without setting up an artificial bound to investigation, or prematurely, previous to proof, hardening an incipient prejudice into a rigid opinion. This principle, so important for science and philosophy (and by sinning against which too many teachers fall into narrowing individualisms or eccentric intellectual fads), also deserves to be applied in the domain of theology, whose materials for research are afforded by the sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. This would be a good rule to propound: Whenever in doubt, look in the Bible! The Bible, however, is not a magical book to be conjured with, out of which here or there we may cite a stray text by way of special pleading to reenforce a view which we have ourselves already decided shall be right, but a collection of consistent deliverances concerning faith and duty whose full meaning can be explicated only by patient, candid, and prayerful comparison of Scripture with Scripture, in order that, as the result of systematic search, we may know whether these things are so.

[Rev. R. J. Campbell, M.A., in The Christian Commonwealth]

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