if we wish to keep the unity of the faith in the bond of peace. All
those who set out for a complete return to Jerusalem have not held on
their way; some have gone a long way back and others are going. What
has happened in other lands may happen here, unless we watch and are
faithful. The more carefully we look into matters, we shall be the
less inclined to move. Putting all God's arrangements faithfully and
earnestly to the test, and comparing them with others, increases our
faith in them. Faithfulness increases faith. This keeps growing upon
you till you become certain that only God's means will accomplish God's
ends. Sectarianism, tested by experience, is a failure.

The time was when our danger in departing from our simple plea of
returning to the Bible alone lay in our being moved by clerical and
sectarian influences. To the young in particular in the present day that
can hardly be called our greatest danger. The influences at work to
produce doubt in regard to the truth of the Bible were never so great as
they are now. This used to be the particular work of professed infidels;
now it is more largely the work of professed Christian scholars. If you
wish to pass for a "scholar," you must not profess to believe the Old
Testament. You must not say too much against the truth of that book, or
you may be called in question, but you can go a good long way before
there is much danger.

Jesus believed that old book to be the word of God. But he was not a
"scholar." He was the son of a country joiner, and you must not expect
him to rise too far above his environment. It surprises me that the
"scholars" have not called more attention to the ignorance of Jesus in
this respect. They will no doubt pay more attention to this later on;
for as _Christian_ "scholars" it becomes them to be consistent, and I
have no doubt that they will shortly, in this respect, make up for lost
time.

To expect that none of our young people will be influenced by this
parade of scholarship is to expect too much. But faith in Christ should
keep them from rushing rashly out against a book that Christ professed
to live up to and came to fulfill. This battle of the scholars over the
truth of the Bible is only being fought. We have no wish that it should
not be fought. Everything has a right to be tested with caution and
fairness, and when the battle is lost, it will be time enough for us to
pass over to the side of the enemy. This question as to the tr