Welsh Journals

The Inspiration of the Scriptures. By Dr. Cynddylan Jones. WE have arrived at a remarkable stage in the history of Religion in our country. For several centuries we have had able, scholarly divines who have successfully upheld the Christian Faith. "Successfully upheld," I said, because fierce assaults have been made upon it by able scholars of the calibre of Tom Paine and Voltaire. However, they were enemies outside the citadel, now the enemies are inside,-professors in our colleges and ordained ministers, who take their pay from the churches, whilst at the same time endeavour- ing to undo the work of the churches by denying the authority and trustworthiness of the Book which is their charter and bulwark. I am toler- ably well acquainted with the controversy, for and against, for over 60 years. When I was a young man of about 16 or 17 years of age, Colenso was a name to conjure with, especially in the day schools of the country. About that time he published a learned attack on the Books of Moses. Having been working away in school at Colenso's arithmetic and Colenso's algebra, I felt deeply grieved that a scholar of his repute should try to undermine faith in Moses, a scholar of equal repute to himself. From that time till now I have followed the con- troversy. The advocates of the Higher Critics boast much of their scholarship, an ominous sign. And yet if it came to a competition in scholarship the orthodox party could give a good account of itself. Robertson Smith, the pioneer of the destructive criticism in this country declares that knowledge of the Hebrew language affords little or no help, either way, in the dis- cussion of Old Testament problems. But allow- ing them a larger share of Hebrew learning, we claim the learned archaeologists on our side, such as Professors Sayce, Ramsay, Hommel, Hinders Petrie and a host of others-men who in their youth were followers of the Higher Critics, but in consequence of their explorations in Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Palestine and Asia Minor have abandoned their former leaders, and now vote confidence in Moses rather than in Driner. My confidence in the Bible, its inspiration and trustworthiness is unshaken. Why do I believe in it? I could present you with six lines of argument which would take an hour each to develop. But having only a limited space, I shall confine myself to one point,-What is inspiration? My answer is Inspiration to a large extent, if not wholly, is a matter of feeling. It is not a dogma, supported by reasons with which the intellect can grapple. To me inspira- tion is a matter of experience rather than of argument. I like warmth in a room. It is not necessary for me to see the fire,-that may be hid out of sight in a stove. But all the same I feel the warmth thereof, and the warmth drives away the shivers and makes existence enjoyable. The feeling of warmth proves the existence of fire. In like manner as I read the Bible I feel the Divine heat, and that suffices to convince me that fire burns somewhere. There is something in the Bible which I do not find in other book. Take for instance the sections in Exodus xix and xxxiii., xxxiv. At the start I feel awed, sub- dued, almost terrified; but as I read the last sections I feel elevated, inspired. The sense of greatness and divinity possesses me. I cry out with Moses, "0 God, shew me thy glory." The answer comes, "Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. Behold there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock; and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock; and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, I will cover thee with my hand while I pass by; and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed the name of the Lord, Jehovah, Jehovah, God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." No wonder it is added, "And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and wor- shipped." There is an element in all that which is unquestionably Divine. As I read it I feel constrained like Moses to bow my head and wor- ship. Can you point out a passage in any other book, ancient or modern, comparable in pathos and sublimity? It inspires me. And why? Because it is itself inspired. Nothing can come out which is not first in. If it pours inspiration into me, it is to me proof enough there is inspir- ation in it. Move on to Deuteronomy. The conclusions of criticism on the authorship of this book vary much. The Hebrew Church and the Christian Church have agreed so far to ascribe it to Moses. The view that the real author was a saint who dwelt centuries after the death of the Hebrew legislator seems to me preposterous. A bad man could not write so good a book-sweet fragrance does not issue from rank thistles. A good, holy man, living in a subsequent age would not write it and claim for it the authority of the great legislator of Israel, thereby perpetrating the foulest literary fraud in the history of mind. There are impossibilities in the world of morals; a wicked man could not write so holy a book, a pious man would not commit a conscious forgery. Apart from other reasons I accept the verdict of the Church and the assertion of the book itself concerning its Mosaic authorship. As I read it I feel as if I were climbing one of my native hills, leaving beneath me the sultry, unwhole- some atmosphere of modern literature, to