WHAT men now demand and always have demanded is some infallible standard of truth. If destiny depends upon conduct and belief, he wants to know what are the principles of right conduct and what are the doctrines to be believed. He wants to find something in the domain of morals and of faith of which he can say of a surety: "This is truth." He may admit of speculation upon scientific subjects, social questions, economic propositions and other questions of like order; but he is not content with speculations upon these questions which affect happiness, welfare, and eternal destiny. That is why a positive faith is the one which is most readily accepted.
And herein lies the weakness of what is denominated the "higher criticism." The higher criticism removes from the common mind something of confidence in the Bible as an infallible standard of truth. A secular paper of New York, speaking to this thought, very justly and pertinently says: "The weakness of every attempt to reconcile faith and the higher criticism by asserting that while the Bible is not in itself infallible it contains infallible truth, is that it throws upon every individual the personal responsibility of sifting the truth in the book from the error. This is a duty which can not be delegated either to critic or to spiritual adviser. The passages of the Bible are not bracketed and marked, 'This is true,' and, 'This is not true,' and there is no knowledge taught in seminary or college which gives assurance of infallible discrimination. If some is truth and some is error and there is no authority outside of the Bible itself to guide the reader, the church may as well disband, for its very foundations are unsettled."6
The common mind is dependent; it is not independent. In its dependence and helplessness and inability to know the truth, it leans upon that book which has been presented to it as containing the ultimate truth. How then is it robbed, if that which it fondly thought was infallible is taken away from it! It is adrift upon a tumultuous sea without compass. That the Bible contains infallible truth is not enough to know. It is the possibility of error which destroys confidence. Left to himself, one man's truth may be rejected as error by another. If elimination once begins, where is the process to end? Where shall the ultimate truth be found? The Bible was not given of God to a race of philosophers, but to a race of weak, fallible, erring, and misguided men. It was given as a guide, to be a manual of instruction so plain that even a fool may not err therein. So regarding it, it meets man's need. He feels that here is something under which the finger of God may write: "This is true."—Methodist Recorder.