THE AUTHORITY OF GREAT NAMES.
SPEAKING of the modern fanciful methods of interpreting scripture—methods by which the force of some of its plainest declarations is destroyed or evaded, and some of its most glorious doctrines spiritualized into absurdities, Buck in his "Exposition of Our Lord's Great Prophecy," p. 64 says:— " 'But they have the sanction of great names.' This is indeed true, and a source of deep regret. And so had the ancient theories of the universe: as great names sustained them as can be found on the historic page. Pythagoras and Thales and Ptolemy were neither idiots nor children; They were master spirits of a splendid age. But since the days of Copernicus and Newton, who thinks of receiving the once orthodox and popular theories and conclusions of former ages, simply because they had the sanction of great names? 'Great men are not always wise.' They may be great in some things, and far from great in other things. Great men are at variance in respect to a thousand things; and by the greatness of names we can never ascertain a doubtful truth. Truth is greater than great men; and sometimes God reveals to 'babes' what he hides from the 'wise and prudent.' Matt. xi, 25. 'Let God be true and every man a liar.'"