uently
there is a discrepancy, a discord, a contradiction between our
theology and the other sciences. Men of intelligence feel this.
Dr. Briggs concluded that a perfectly good and intelligent God
could not have created billions of sentient beings, knowing that
they were to be eternally miserable. No man could do such a thing,
had he the power, without being infinitely malicious. Dr. Briggs
began to have a little hope for the human race--began to think that
maybe God is better than the creed describes him.

And right here it may be well enough to remark that no one has ever
been declared a heretic for thinking God bad. Heresy has consisted
in thinking God better than the church said he was. The man who
said God will damn nearly everybody, was orthodox. The man who
said God will save everybody, was denounced as a blaspheming wretch,
as one who assailed and maligned the character of God. I can
remember when the Universalists were denounced as vehemently and
maliciously as the Atheists are to-day.

Now, Dr. Briggs is undoubtedly an intelligent man. He knows that
nobody on earth knows who wrote the five books of Moses. He knows
that they were not written until hundreds of years after Moses was
dead. He knows that two or more persons were the authors of Isaiah.
He knows that David did not write to exceed three or four of the
Psalms. He knows that the Book of Job is not a Jewish book. He
knows that the Songs of Solomon were not written by Solomon. He
knows that the Book of Ecclesiastes was written by a Freethinker.
He also knows that there is not in existence to-day--so far as
anybody knows--any of the manuscripts of the Old or New Testaments.

So about the New Testament, Dr. Briggs knows that nobody lives who
has ever seen an original manuscript, or who ever saw anybody that
did see one, or that claims to have seen one. He knows that nobody
knows who wrote Matthew or Mark or Luke or John. He knows that
John did not write John, and that that gospel was not written until
long after John was dead. He knows that no one knows who wrote
the Hebrews. He also knows that the Book of Revelation is an insane
production. Dr. Briggs also knows the way in which these books came
to be canonical, and he knows that the way was no more binding than
a resolution passed by a political convention. He also knows that
many books were left out that had for centuries equal authority
with those that were put in. He also knows