Joining Hands with Infidelity.
By Uriah Smith
OUR Lord asks the question: "Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Although it is claimed that this should read, "Shall he find this faith on the earth?" referring to a faith that the Lord will come and avenge his own elect as stated in the sentence preceding, which may be the true idea; we are constrained to ask the question in a more general sense, applying it to a belief in God's word, in view of the unaccountable and unsolicited surrenders which many of the professed defenders of the gospel are making to the baldest infidelity. This work is becoming so notorious as to be a marked feature of our time; and what is the more singular about the matter is, that these Christians do not confine themselves to infidel attacks and yield only to their claims; but they manufacture difficulties for themselves and then dispose of them just as infidels dispose of their supposed difficulties; that is, by denying the inspiration of those in whose writings these are found, and attributing them to ignorance, misconception, or carelessness of expression. How long will it be possible for any degree of reverence for the Scriptures to be maintained in the public mind when they are thus wantonly sacrificed in the house of their friends? In justification of these remarks we cite the case of H. W. Beecher, who has openly renounced all evangelical views of man's nature, present moral condition, relation to God, the atonement, and in short, the whole remedial system as instituted by God and Christ for the salvation of men. His position is essentially infidel. The Christian at Work, unable to reconcile the imprecatory psalms with the sermon on the mount, coolly concludes that David, though sometimes inspired, at other times put in matter on his own account. The Independent thinks Paul was not up with the times but labored under great misapprehension in some things he wrote about the coming of the Lord. President Woolsey declares that some things which Christ said should take place in his own generation did not take place then; and he don't know what to make of it. And so we might go on. This is indeed an easy way to dispose of those things which perplex them. But what is the result? The whole Bible is thrown to the dogs by such treatment. To one who reads the Bible with a willingness that scripture shall interpret scripture according to the literal system of exposition, a system that lies at the basis of every reform in doctrine since the dark ages, the difficulties and perplexities of these men over which they stumble upon infidel ground, appear very puerile. But it does not seem to occur to them that any traditionary dogma may be discarded, or that any Romish errors yet remain to be renounced. While it seems to us so easy to propose a remedy, that does not alter the fact that this new way of disposing of the Bible which has so suddenly sprung up in leading circles must be deplorable in the extreme. U. S.