ucture impossible.

As the story of past civilizations sadly shows, the gulf between the
popular superstitions and the thoughts of scholars may widen until no
bridge can span it, and religion perishes in it. It seems to me that the
time has come when the pulpit must keep no longer silence. Its silence
will not seal the lips of other teachers. Books and papers are everywhere
forcing the issue upon our generation. Men's minds are torn asunder, their
souls are in the strife. It behoves the Churches to remember that great
word of Luther:

"It is never safe to do anything against the truth!"

When the venerable cathedral, in which our forefathers sought God and
found Him, grows dangerously unsound; when its columns have crumbled and
its arches have sprung, and its stout oaken timbers have dried into dust;
the guardians of the sacred pile must plan its restoration as best they
can. They must shore up its treacherous walls, take out its dead
materials, carve new heads for the saints in the niches of the doors,
build up the edifice anew, following faithfully as may be the old lines,
and striving for the old spirit. When the scaffolding comes down, we may
feel a shock of pain at the strange raw look of that which Time had
stained with sacredness. But the minster has been saved for our children;
and, when they shall gather within its historic walls, those walls will
have grown venerable again with age, and they will not feel the loss which
we have suffered, while as of old, they, too, shall hear the voice of God
and find His Holy Presence.

I propose to consider with you, carefully but frankly, the real nature and
the true uses of the Bible.

* * * * *

Let us examine to-day the traditional view of the Bible.

It is not easy to define the popular theory of the Bible. Like its kindred
theory of Papal Infallibility, it is a true chameleon, changing constantly
in different minds, always denying the absurdity of which it is made the
synonym, ever qualifying itself safely, yet never ceasing to take on a
vaguely miraculous character. Various theories are given in the books in
which theological students are mis-educated, all of which unite in
claiming that which they cannot agree in defining. The Westminster
Confession of Faith may be taken as the dogmatic petrifaction of the
notion which lies, more or less undeveloped and still living, in the other
Protestant Confessions.

This Confession open