that many passages--
and the very passages upon which many churches are founded--are
interpolations. He knows that the last chapter of Mark, beginning
with the sixteenth verse to the end, is an interpolation; and he
also knows that neither Matthew nor Mark nor Luke ever said one
word about the necessity of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, or
of believing anything--not one word about believing the Bible or
joining the church, or doing any particular thing in the way of
ceremony to insure salvation. He knows that according to Matthew,
God agreed to forgive us when we would forgive others. Consequently
he knows that there is not one particle of what is called modern
theology in Matthew, Mark, or Luke. He knows that the trouble
commenced in John, and that John was not written until probably
one hundred and fifty years--possibly two hundred years--after
Christ was dead. So he also knows that the sin against the Holy
Ghost is an interpolation; that "I came not to bring peace but a
sword," if not an interpolation, is an absolute contradiction.
So, too, he knows that the promise to forgive in heaven what the
disciples should forgive on earth, is an interpolation; and that
if its not an interpolation, it is without the slightest sense in
fact.

Knowing these things, and knowing, in addition to what I have
stated, that there are thirty thousand or forty thousand mistakes
in the Old Testament, that there are a great many contradictions
and absurdities, than many of the laws are cruel and infamous, and
could have been made only by a barbarous people, Dr. Briggs has
concluded that, after all, the torch that sheds the serenest and
divinest light is the human reason, and that we must investigate
the Bible as we do other books. At least, I suppose he has reached
some such conclusion. He may imagine that the pure gold of
inspiration still runs through the quartz and porphyry of ignorance
and mistake, and that all we have to do is to extract the shining
metal by some process that may be called theological smelting; and
if so I have no fault to find. Dr. Briggs has taken a step in
advance--that is to say, the tree is growing, and when the tree
grows, the bark splits; when the new leaves come the old leaves
are rotting on the ground.

The Presbyterian creed is a very bad creed. It has been the
stumbling-block, not only of the head, but of the heart for many
generations. I do not know that it is, in fact, worse than any
ot