nal events. What right have we, therefore, to accept as infallible
that in which we find such an admixture of error? It is the duty of
religious science to reconcile revelation with the growing requirements
of human thought, and to smooth over the transition from the dogma of
the past to that of the future. Dogmatic exegesis does this by
separating the substance from the form, faith from formulas, and by
distinguishing and pointing out the religious element under the
temporary expression which reveals it.

What then is the Bible which Scherer's exegesis presents to us? Faith in
it rests on two bases; _first_, the inspiration and canon of Scripture;
and _second_, the subjects or organs of inspiration. The first is
untenable and false, for the stand-point of authority has already
spoiled everything in our theology. Authority determines beforehand what
we must believe, whereas reason alone should perform that office. There
is a communicated revelation to our own minds which should claim the
high office of authority. The Bible, in an objective sense, is a divine
book, because it contains the remembrance of the most important events
in the religious history of the world. Judaism and Christianity are
there in their completeness. The Bible is therefore more than a book; it
presents us with the living personality of those who founded Christ's
Kingdom on earth. Inspiration, such as we find in the Scriptures, is not
confined to them, for it is immanent wherever there is intelligence. The
spirit of the Bible is the eternal spirit of God; but it is the same
spirit which has inspired all good men in past Scriptural periods,--the
Augustines, St. Bernards, Arndts, and Vinets. It is a falsehood of
theology against faith to deny these men the same kind of inspiration
which we find in the Scriptures. Biblical inspiration differs in
different writers. They wrote from diverse stand-points. The chroniclers
of Scripture told all they knew, but not much could be expected of them.
Who would dare to speak of the inspiration of the books of Samuel, Ruth,
Kings, and Chronicles?

But let us hear what Scherer says of the miracles of Christ. No
evangelical facts should be taken as points of departure in testing
Christianity. It is absurd to speak of Christ's miracles as being
designed for manifestations of his divinity. Conceding them to be
prodigies, they are far below those of Moses and Elijah. Christ did not
work miracles in attestation of his p