ting the processes of results of recent criticism,
gives an account of the canon in both Testaments. Articles and essays upon
the subject there are; but their standpoint is usually apologetic not
scientific, traditional rather than impartial, unreasonably conservative
without being critical. The topic is weighty, involving the consideration
of great questions, such as the inspiration, authenticity, authority, and
age of the Scriptures. The author has tried to handle it fairly, founding
his statements on such evidence as seemed convincing, and condensing them
into a moderate compass. If the reader wishes to know the evidence, he may
find it in the writer's _Introductions to the Old and New Testaments_,
where the separate books of Scripture are discussed; and in the late
treatises of other critics. While his expositions are capable of
expansion, it is believed that they will not be easily shaken. He commends
the work to the attention of all who have an interest in the progress of
theology, and are seeking a foundation for their faith less precarious
than books however venerable.

It has not been the writer's purpose to chronicle phases of opinion, or to
refute what he believes to be error in the newest hypotheses about the
age, authority, and composition of the books. His aim has been rather to
set forth the most correct view of the questions involved in a history of
the canon, whether it be more or less recent. Some may think that the
latest or most current account of such questions is the best; but that is
not his opinion. Hence, the fashionable belief that much of the
Pentateuch, the Book of Leviticus wholly, with large parts of Exodus and
Numbers, in a word, that all the laws relating to divine worship, with
most of the chronological tables or statistics, belong to Ezra, who is
metamorphosed in fact into the first Elohist, is unnoticed. Hence, also,
the earliest gospel is not declared to be Mark's. Neither has the author
ventured to place the fourth gospel at the end of the first century, as
Ewald and Weitzsaecker do, after the manner of the old critics; or with
Keim so early as 110-115 A.D.

Many evince a restless anxiety to find something novel; and to depart from
well-established conclusions for the sake of originality. This shows a
morbid state of mind. Amid the feverish outlook for discoveries and the
slight regard for what is safe, conservatism is a commendable thing. Some
again desire to return, as far as they