Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. THE HISTORICAL GROWTH OF THE BIBLE. We are to bring, then, our inherited faiths for judgment before the idea of development, which, as we have just acknowledged, is a regnant principle of modern thought. We submit, first, to the new criticism our belief in the Bible. Will that be dissolved, or come forth purified, if we search it thoroughly by this scientific method of inquiry into the origin and growth of existing things,—a method which seems to be the powerful .solvent of old beliefs ? How was the Bible formed ? Does it bear witness to, and is it the result of, a great historical process of revelation ? It will be noticed that we do not bring to the front in this inquiry any question touching the nature or extent of inspiration. We do not regard the question of inspiration as the real hinge upon which modern controversy over the Bible turns. We do not meet the scepticism of the hour simply by proceeding to gather evidences from the Scriptures in favour of their inspiration. The doubt is larger and broader than that customary circle of reasoning. It questions the historical fact of revelation; and the first and chief inquiry for us, therefore, concerns the historical fact and progress of revelation; the second and subordinate question relates to the manner or ways in which men may have been trained, or inspired, to receive and to become the bearers of a revelation. Hence an affirmative and very positive answer may be given to the former question, Have we a series or order of events and teaching which constitute a revelation from God ? while doubt or hesitancy may be felt in answering the other question, How was the Word of God made known, or what was the precise nature and degree of inspiration ? " Every ' how,' " long ago said Aristotle, " rests upon a ' tha... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.