in /s 
 
 REESE LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 d. c:/,?s.s 
 
 Sr-v wv u r- 
 
BELIGIOUS TEACHING IN 
 SECONDARY SCHOOLS 
 
KELIGIOUS TEACHING 
 
 IN 
 
 SEOONDAKY SCHOOLS 
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS AND PARENTS 
 
 FOR LESSONS ON 
 
 THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS 
 
 EARLY CHURCH HISTORY 
 
 CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES 
 
 ETC. 
 
 REV. GEORGE C. BELL, M.A. 
 
 MASTER OF MARYBOROUGH COLLEGE 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED 
 
 NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1897 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
13* 
 
UXORI CARISSIMAE 
 
 CONSILirE,T LABORIS 
 
 PARTICIPI 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE following pages sufficiently explain their 
 purpose ; they are the outcome of a sugges- 
 tion made by the Publishers, who considered 
 that there was occasion for such a book, and 
 that there were reasons for asking me to 
 undertake it. But I have widely departed 
 from the scheme which they suggested. 
 
 I have " taken my material where I found 
 it," usually with careful reference to its 
 sources; and one chief use of this short 
 compilation will be to draw the attention of 
 teachers to useful and accessible books, which 
 have been freely used for it. 
 
 To their writers I must express my great 
 obligations, as well as to friends who have 
 given me help and counsel; especially the 
 
viii RELIGIOUS TEACHING 
 
 President of Queens' College, Cambridge (Dr. 
 Herbert Byle) ; Archdeacon Sandford ; Canon 
 E. R Bernard ; Mr. George Macmilltin ; the 
 Kev. H. F. Stewart (Vice-Principal of the Theo- 
 logical College, Salisbury) ; Mr. A. F. Hprt of 
 Harrow ; and others. But I am solely respon- 
 sible for what is found here ; indeed, to some 
 of these friends I am also indebted for kindly 
 criticisms on parts of the MS., which lead 
 me to offer a word of explanation on the fol- 
 lowing points. 
 
 (1) The short statement in Chapters IV. 
 and V. of some results of the " Higher Criti- 
 cism." l I am asked whether it is wise to 
 invite the attention of young teachers to such 
 information, and so possibly encourage its pre- 
 mature diffusion among pupils. In Chapter I. 
 some reasons for this course are indicated. 
 I may add that a wise teacher, recognising 
 that education must be progressive, will not 
 think it a duty to blurt out information indis- 
 criminately, without due regard to the age 
 and mental development of pupils. In good 
 
 1 "Higher criticism" is concerned with questions of 
 authorship and historical construction, as compared with 
 criticism which has to do with the editing of texts. 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 teaching of any subject the " Law of Par- 
 simony" must be observed. But for the 
 teachers themselves, under the circumstances 
 of our time, I am persuaded that some know- 
 ledge of the " more assured results of criticism," 
 as applied to the Old Testament, is not 
 dangerous but helpful to faith. 
 
 Among educated laymen perplexity about 
 the Old Testament is not uncommon an 
 uneasy feeling that it is full of difficulties 
 which debar discussion or exposition of it. 1 
 I have known cases in which a study of " the 
 higher criticism " in books of various schools 
 of thought, including the more advanced, has 
 resulted, not merely in the removal of such 
 perplexity, but in a fresh intelligent love and 
 admiration of the Hebrew Scriptures. 
 
 Such study shows that throughout them, 
 from Genesis to Malachi, witness is borne 
 to God's love, mercy, righteousness, justice, 
 wisdom ; the several books uttering their 
 testimony " by divers portions and in divers 
 
 1 See the Rev. A. F. W. Ingram's Old Testament Difficul- 
 ties (S.P.C.K.) ; brief answers to the more common and 
 obvious questions. 
 
x RELIGIOUS TEACHING 
 
 manners." The teacher of the Old Testament 
 has to disengage this testimony, to interpret 
 it in simple ways adapted to young minds, to 
 show its progressive development. And that 
 he may be fitted for this Work, that he may 
 follow it on the right lines, without straying 
 into irrelevance, he should from the outset 
 look forward to the culmination of the teach- 
 ing of the Old Testament in the Prophets, 
 the Psalms, the Book of Deuteronomy; and 
 then still further forward to its Divine inter- 
 pretation and fulfilment in the Gospel. 
 
 The Divine inspiration of the Old Testa- 
 ment, its spiritual power, and its abiding 
 influence on human character and destiny, 
 will be fully appreciated only by him who 
 recognises how it enfolds, even in its early 
 pages, the germs of the fundamental ideas of 
 the Gospel ; how " the Law leads to Christ " ; 
 how He " fulfils the Law " ; how " the testi- 
 mony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." 
 
 Such intelligent study of the Bible is much 
 helped by knowledge of facts about its histori- 
 cal development, such as are supplied by the 
 reverent and sober teachings of the writers 
 
PREFACE xi 
 
 from whom the materials for Chapters IV. and 
 V. are mainly derived. 
 
 (2) The omission of detailed reference to 
 the history and formularies of the English 
 Church. This is not because I undervalue 
 the teaching of such subjects ; it is indeed a 
 cherished duty of my position. But outside 
 the limits of the Church of England what is 
 said in this book may be of use, whereas the 
 inclusion of such special matter might limit 
 its range. 
 
 In writing it I have had in view chiefly 
 young masters and mistresses in "secondary" 1 
 schools of every type, who feel such difficulties 
 as I have sketched in Chapter L, or (under 
 the strong influences of examinations and text- 
 books) are liable to overlook some of the main 
 objects of religious teaching. 
 
 It may also be of some use to parents 
 (especially of pupils in day-schools) who take 
 part or interest in the religious teaching of 
 their children. 
 
 1 To avoid ambiguity, it may be explained that 
 "secondary" education includes all between elementary 
 (or primary) education and the Universities. 
 
xii RELIGIOUS TEACHING 
 
 If these pages have any good seed in them, 
 may Grod's Holy Spirit make it fruitful for 
 
 His lor >'- G. C. BELL. 
 
 P.S. I had hoped to add a chapter on 
 Christian Ethics, for which some materials 
 were collected, but time failed for complet- 
 ing it. 
 
 MAULBOROUGH COLLEGE, 
 
 1897. 
 
PAGE 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 1. THE DIFFICULTIES OF RELIGIOUS TEACHING 
 IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 
 
 2. THE RANGE AND SUBJECTS OF SUCH TEACHING 23 
 
 3. SUGGESTIONS ABOUT METHODS 
 
 A. Lessons on the Old Testament . . 30 
 
 B. The Inter-Testamental Period . . 63 
 
 C. The New Testament . . .75 
 
 D. Early Church History . . .89 
 
 4. THE INSPIRATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 97 
 
 5. THE COMPOSITE CHARACTER OF THE BOOKS 
 
 OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, ESPECIALLY THE 
 HEXATEUCH 129 
 
xiv RELIGIOUS TEACHING 
 
 PAGE 
 
 6. CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES 
 
 Introductory . . . . . .131 
 
 A. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ . 134 
 
 B. Miracles 139 
 
 C. The Character and Teaching of Jesus 
 
 Christ 151 
 
 D. The Epistles of St. Paul . . .156 
 E. Christianity and Evolution . . 159 
 F. Evolution in History . . .163 
 G. Christianity and Christendom . . 169 
 H. The cumulative value of these Evi- 
 dences 175 
 
 I. The Difficulties of constructive Un- 
 belief . 177 
 
CHAPTEK I 
 
 THE DIFFICULTIES THAT BESET THE TEACHER 
 OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE 
 
 THE teacher of religious knowledge has an 
 aim. different from that of teachers in many 
 other subjects ; instruction in grammar, mathe- 
 matics, science, has for its object mainly the 
 development of the intellectual faculties, 
 memory, attention, reasoning power, etc. ; but 
 religious teaching is valueless, if it does 
 not aim more at the heart than the head ; 
 its action upon the intellect must be sub- 
 ordinated to the primary object of stirring, 
 lifting, purifying the desires and affections, 
 so as to bring the heart and will into obedi- 
 ence to the will of God. 
 
 The ultimate aim of the Christian teacher 
 is to lead his pupils to the Father through 
 Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that 
 
2 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 they may grow up in the love of God and 
 man. A subject such as this must be ap- 
 proached by a teacher with awe and reverence, 
 a warning eloquently enforced by James 
 Darmesteter, 1 who says, " Malheur au savant 
 qui aborde les choses de Dieu sans avoir au 
 fond de sa conscience un sanctuaire inconnu 
 d'ou s'^leve par instants un parfum d'encens, 
 une ligne de psaume, un cri douloureux ou 
 triomphal qu'enfant il a jete vers le ciel, et 
 qui le remet en communion avec les prophetes 
 d'autrefois." " The place whereon thou standest 
 is holy ground." 
 
 In teaching children and young people it 
 is of course necessary to lay a foundation of 
 detailed instruction in the main facts of the 
 history of God's revelation of Himself and 
 His dealings with mankind, as recorded in the 
 history of the Jewish and Christian Church ; 
 but always under the essential condition that 
 instruction in historical facts shall be relevant 
 and subordinate to the primary objects of 
 religious teaching. Yet religious teaching is 
 often degraded to the level of unintelligent 
 history teaching ; and there is perhaps no 
 subject that can be taught so unintelligently 
 as history. The mind may be burdened with 
 1 Proplibtes d" Israel. 
 
i IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 3 
 
 facts, dates, details, and plans of battles, so 
 treated as to be little more than a toilsome 
 exercise of the memory ; and after years 
 spent upon such work the pupil may never 
 have gained any clear ideas of the social and 
 political lessons which history should teach. 
 The religious teacher, recognising that in- 
 struction on such lines is utterly inadequate 
 for his main purpose, will value the facts and 
 details of Bible and Church history in pro- 
 portion to their fitness for teaching and 
 illustrating lessons of religion and morality. 
 
 " The true value of religious education isx 
 to supply children with that faith in man's 
 destination for a spiritual life which nothing / 
 can give them except a belief that the universe \ 
 is under the guidance of a Divine all-powerful / 
 Spirit. Without such belief man drops intof 
 a utilitarian secularist. We need then to use I 
 specially for education such parts of the Bible \ 
 as display the highest qualities of human : 
 character developing under the influence of I 
 a pure faith, and thus foster the germs 
 spiritual heroism and earnest devotion." l 
 
 But in this, as in other subjects, teaching 
 must be graduated according to capacity. In 
 the religious teaching of young children, as in 
 
 1 Spectator, February 1896. 
 
4 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 other subjects, their quickness and freshness of 
 memory will be turned to account by making 
 them learn facts and details suited to their 
 intelligence ; but the primary aim will be 
 to select and use facts and details as means 
 of quickening and cultivating the germs of 
 religious and moral feeling ; towards God, love, 
 reverence, trust ; towards man, such emotions 
 as are stirred by the biographies of the Bible. 
 The purity and magnanimity of Joseph, the 
 piety and wisdom of Samuel, the manly 
 faith and religious earnestness of David, the 
 heroism of Stephen, the unselfish zeal of 
 Paul, and, far above all, the ensample of Jesus' 
 most holy life, attract the fresh sympathies of 
 the young, and teaching must indeed be dull 
 which fails to draw from such sources that 
 which stirs emotion and lifts the heart. 
 
 And in the early years this will be the 
 main object and result of religious teaching ; 
 the reason is not much exercised ; the higher 
 ideas and truths of religion, sin, atonement, 
 judgment, heaven, eternity, are as yet almost 
 unintelligible, dimly foreshadowed by familiar 
 types or analogies ; the difficult problems of 
 freewill, predestination, inspiration, have not 
 as yet taken shape in the mind ; the battle- 
 cries of sects, baptismal regeneration, transub- 
 
I IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 5 
 
 stantiation, infallibility of Pope, or Church, or 
 Bible, are unheard or meaningless. 
 
 And thus it comes to pass that what is 
 called " the religious difficulty " does not, or 
 should not, exist up to the age when the 
 reasoning and critical faculties begin to 
 develop ; until then the main difficulties of 
 the religious teacher arise from the imperfec- 
 tions of his pupil's character and environment. 
 But more serious difficulties begin to arise at 
 the time when the young learner, in whose 
 mind history, legend, and fiction have 
 hitherto had indistinct lines of demarca- 
 tion, begins seriously to ask, " Is it true ? " 
 No doubt this period may be delayed by lay- 
 ing on the mind at an early stage heavy 
 burdens of rote work. It is as possible in this, 
 as in other subjects, to transform the eager 
 curiosity and interest of the child into the 
 dull acquiescence of the fourth form boy, who 
 will get up the history of the Old Testament 
 or the Gospels with the same degree of interest 
 and emotion as he expends on the campaigns 
 of Caesar, or the reigns of the English kings. 
 Such apathy may be more or less venial in the 
 years when vital energy is largely absorbed 
 in meeting the demands of physical growth ; 
 but when the young lad or girl begins to 
 
6 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 grow up into the young man or woman, 
 education has to satisfy the growing demands 
 of the reason. A wider field of knowledge is 
 opening; history, literature, science, philosophy, 
 present their suggestions and problems to the 
 developing intellect, and the old question of 
 childhood returns with quickened urgency, 
 " Is it true ? " The teachings of the Confirma- 
 tion class may have awakened a sense of the 
 personal living interest and reality of religion ; 
 facts and ideas hitherto passively or trustfully 
 accepted suggest " obstinate questionings," 
 and the young mind must endeavour to co- 
 ordinate and reconcile them with the fresh 
 knowledge that is streaming in from every 
 side. 
 
 During this period of intellectual awakening 
 the difficulties of the religious teacher are 
 progressively increasing. If he is a mere 
 literalist, with a compact logical system, he 
 has only to deliver his message to his pupils, 
 whether they will hear or whether they will 
 forbear ; and if they escape from the cramping 
 narrowness of his system into the freedom of 
 scepticism, he may still feel that he has done 
 his duty according to his light. 
 
 It is otherwise with a teacher who lias 
 learned that religion is full of mysteries, 
 
i IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 7 
 
 imperfectly grasped by even the most mature 
 intellects, and that the gift of God's revela- 
 tion of Himself is conveyed in earthen vessels 
 of human fallibility, so that the purest of 
 human systems are, after all, only approxi- 
 mations to the "eternal verities." He is 
 conscious that he has reached his own stand- 
 ing-ground of faith through mists and quick- 
 sands of doubt and perplexity, and that even 
 yet at times it seems to heave and shake under 
 his feet. And then, as he looks at his young 
 pupils, he recognises that, even as God led man 
 to Christ through gradual stages of revelation, 
 so the individual mind must be educated pro- 
 gressively ; milk must come before strong meat, 
 and there must be a certain " economy " in 
 religious teaching. 
 
 But what practical steps is he to take ? 
 Let us suppose a senior class of young lads 
 or girls whose intellectual powers are being 
 developed and stimulated by the subjects of 
 a higher liberal education ; they are being 
 taught to think ; they have in their hands 
 the masterpieces of ancient or modern litera- 
 ture ; they are becoming acquainted with the 
 philosophic scepticism of Euripides or Lucretius, 
 with the rationalism of Thucydides, with 
 Goethe, Heine, Voltaire. Their critical faculty 
 
8 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 is stimulated by discussions on points of 
 history, textual criticism, etc. ; they are 
 encouraged to take interest in the books and 
 questions of the day ; there is no censorship 
 or " Index Expurgatorius " which shall debar 
 them from theological or agnostic discussions 
 in the magazines, or from the unorthodox 
 speculations of Robert Elsmere or Trilby. In 
 proportion to their intelligence, their love of 
 truth, and their interest in higher things, 
 they will eagerly read, and perhaps discuss 
 among themselves, speculations on fundamental 
 points in the pages of books or periodicals. 
 
 Meantime the religious teacher has to take 
 them through a course of Scripture history, 
 appointed for the term, and to be tested by 
 an examination. His subject is the Book of 
 Judges ; he comes to the history of Samson ; 
 if he followed his own inclination he might 
 pass it by, or take refuge in generalities, or 
 say with the Scottish minister, " This is a 
 very difficult subject ; let us, my brethren, 
 look it boldly in the face, and pass on." But 
 in the supposed case none of these courses is 
 possible ; the book has to be " got up," and in 
 the course of getting it up, some of the pupils 
 will ask themselves, or each other, " Is it true ? " 
 
 The teacher in such a case has a choice of 
 
i IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 9 
 
 courses. He may reverently and discreetly set 
 before them a view of " inspiration " less 
 literal and mechanical than the old traditional 
 theories, and teach them that the writers of 
 the books of the Bible were enlightened and 
 inspired in varying degrees, and that national 
 or local traditions may have been incorporated 
 into the early history of the chosen people. 1 
 
 In taking this course, certain dangers must 
 be seriously considered, and carefully guarded 
 against. Such meat may be too strong for 
 the immature ; after the fashion of disciples 
 they may follow their teacher's method further 
 than he intended, so that the effort to lay 
 secure foundations for a reasonable faith may 
 undermine the structure of their belief. Again, 
 some of the pupils may not have reached the 
 stage of inquiry and speculation ; so that 
 discussion and criticism of what they have 
 been taught to believe implicitly may shock 
 them (and perhaps their parents), and lead 
 them to regard with suspicion and distrust 
 the teaching that was intended to guide them 
 to a more intelligent belief. 
 
 Another course is to keep to the text 
 of the book ; have it " got up " carefully, 
 with special attention to names and dates, 
 
 1 Of. Chap. IV. p. 108 ff. 
 
10 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 geography, and illustrative detail, so that they 
 may be well prepared for the conventional 
 examination paper. For this course of in- 
 struction the ordinary manuals of Bible his- 
 tory are well adapted ; they abound in ex- 
 aminable details, but they give little indication 
 of differences in the value or inspired authority 
 of different parts of the Bible. They cover 
 all with an even surface of comment or para- 
 phrase, even as a plasterer puts a uniform 
 coat of stucco over some old wall, concealing 
 alike the Eoman tiles in the basement, and 
 the medieval arch thab was filled in with 
 bricks in Queen Anne's reign. 
 
 Such a course of instruction and examina- 
 tion is far simpler than the other, and appar- 
 ently much safer. Yet it is open to far 
 graver objections. In the first place, this in- 
 struction has not really been religious teaching; 
 it has been a teaching of facts from which the 
 vital spirit has evaporated. Moreover, little 
 or no provision has been made for the pupil's 
 further development in religious thought and 
 knowledge. Perhaps the docility of early years, 
 and the personal influence of the master, may 
 for a time restrain and defer inquiry into the 
 questions inevitably suggested to the growing 
 intellect by the sceptical temper of modern 
 
I IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 11 
 
 society. But there are grave risks in thus 
 delaying the first steps towards the reconcilia- 
 tion of faith with reason. The young pupil 
 passes from the schoolroom into the freedom 
 of a university, or of social and professional 
 life. The fabric of religious history and 
 doctrine that has been reared in his mind is 
 hollow and unsubstantial, liable to succumb 
 to the first shocks of objection, argument, or 
 ridicule. 
 
 There is, however, very serious practical 
 difficulty in deciding at what stage in educa- 
 tion, and by what methods and agencies, the 
 teacher should begin to supplement instruction 
 in the letter of Bible history and doctrine by 
 a gradual unfolding of the principal arguments 
 and objections that will ultimately have to be 
 faced. There are two questions of first im- 
 portance on which such supplementary teach- 
 ing seems to be necessary: (1) the historical 
 truth, and degree of inspiration, of the various 
 parts of the Bible, especially the Old Testa- 
 ment ; (2) the evidences of the Christian 
 religion, i.e. those facts and arguments which 
 convince an educated Christian that his faith 
 is intellectually and spiritually more tenable 
 than any of the rival theories of belief or 
 unbelief that prevail in modern society. 
 
12 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 It may be said that questions of such diffi- 
 culty are premature in school teaching, and 
 are rightly deferred to a later stage of develop- 
 ment. The answer is that if at least the 
 elements of systematic teaching on such sub- 
 jects are not presented to our pupils before 
 leaving school, in such a form as to encourage 
 further study and inquiry, the majority of 
 them will never find or make the opportunity 
 of entering upon such study ; there is great 
 risk that many will lapse into the apathetic 
 agnosticism that is not uncommon among the 
 educated classes. 
 
 It is already obvious that the religious 
 teacher's task is beset with difficulties in- 
 herent in the subject ; there are others not 
 less serious arising from imperfect qualifica- 
 tions in the teacher. Such difficulties, of 
 course, impede teaching of every kind ; still 
 arithmetic or Latin may be fairly taught 
 without a deep conviction of the value of 
 science or literature ; but if a man lacks con- 
 viction of the value of religious knowledge, he 
 is peculiarly disabled from teaching it ade- 
 quately ; he may, indeed, impart knowledge of 
 facts, but he cannot impart that without 
 which the facts are comparatively valueless. 
 
i IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 13 
 
 There are some who, having taken up 
 school work with an honest sense of responsi- 
 bility, and a faithful purpose to do their duty 
 to their pupils, are yet conscious that they 
 have themselves no sure standing-ground of 
 faith ; they can accept or acquiesce in the 
 Bible and Christianity so far as to feel justi- 
 fied in undertaking " Divinity lessons " if re- 
 quired, but they are conscious of a certain 
 haziness about the truths and doctrines of 
 revelation, and the authority of the inspired 
 books ; and they are too honest to make a 
 false show by affecting that which they do 
 not fully believe. They are in that " twilight 
 of belief" which makes a man unwilling to 
 speak to others about truths of which he is 
 half doubtful, while he is too conscientious 
 to inoculate his pupils with disbelief or doubt 
 or critical theories which, for lack of time or 
 interest, he has not himself investigated. He 
 takes up his " Divinity lesson " with mingled 
 perplexity and uneasiness, and instinctively 
 seeks refuge in details of Jewish history, 
 geography, scenery, antiquities, and a variety 
 of illustrative matter. Such instruction does 
 not compromise ; it can arouse and retain the 
 attention of young people at the age when 
 they have an eager appetite for facts, especially 
 
14 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 if they are enlivened by lively narrative and 
 illustration. But such teaching- has little to 
 do with religion ; it does not stir the heart, 
 or affect character and conduct ; it tells 
 nothing of " the deep things of God." In fact, 
 the teacher, not having life in himself, cannot 
 impart it to others, and, with the best in- 
 tentions, he fails, and is sometimes conscious 
 of failure, in the most important subject that 
 he has to teach. 
 
 This book does not profess directly to offer 
 " aids to faith," or definite remedies for such 
 weakness or haziness of belief ; it has no such 
 ambitious aim. Yet those who are conscious 
 of, and perhaps deplore, this serious defect 
 may find here incidental suggestions that may 
 be helpful to them. If it awakens in them 
 any fresh thoughts about the width, and 
 depth, and living interest of the most vital 
 part of their professional duty, they may be 
 stirred to further inquiry and study. One 
 of its objects is to map out a course of 
 religious instruction on practical lines, and to 
 suggest methods and books which may point 
 the way to a higher standpoint and a wider 
 horizon. 
 
 There is also the teacher who, with little or 
 no interest in the religious purpose of educa- 
 
i IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 15 
 
 cation, has entered on school work because it 
 seems to him the easiest or the pleasaiitest 
 way of getting a livelihood ; if he is required 
 to take a " Divinity lesson," he seems to himself 
 to be " bowing down in the house of Kimmon." 
 It is the most irksome and uneasy of his 
 tasks ; he would gladly be relieved of it ; and 
 this inward feeling he cannot permanently 
 conceal from the keen observation of boys and 
 girls. His pupils will not be strengthened in 
 the faith ; he is a cause of grave anxiety to 
 all who are interested in them, and, whatever 
 may be his personal estimate of the use or 
 reasonableness of faith, he cannot rid himself 
 of a shamefast sense that he is in a false 
 position. How can he set himself right ? 
 He may be able to get exemption by exchang- 
 ing " Divinity " for some more congenial work ; 
 he may decline to take a mastership where 
 such exemption is not possible ; and if he can 
 thus get time for reflection, he may even come 
 to recognise what is the highest and most 
 sacred function of a teacher of the young, and 
 seek God's help to qualify himself for it by 
 inquiry and study. The references in this 
 small book may furnish some hints and 
 directions. 
 
 On the other hand, there are many who 
 
16 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 have a steadfast and earnest belief in the 
 Bible and in Christian doctrine; who aiv 
 genuinely anxious that their pupils should 
 be rooted in the faith, and that, as a chief 
 means to this end, they should learn and love 
 " the sacred writings which are able to make 
 them wise unto salvation, through faith which 
 is in Christ Jesus." l They would therefore 
 spare no pains to make the Bible a living 
 reality, by such comment, exposition, criticism, 
 and illustration as are suited to the age and 
 capacity of the young. 
 
 Half a century ago the course of such 
 teachers lay plain before them ; they had 
 inherited traditions which were generally 
 accepted and little questioned. Discussions 
 about the authenticity of particular books, 
 the inspiration of Scripture, the relations 
 between religion and science, and kindred 
 problems, had not yet pervaded the atmo- 
 sphere of educated society. But now the per- 
 plexities of the Christian teacher are at least 
 twofold ; amid the Babel of controversy he 
 has to decide (1) how far these discussions may 
 or should affect the form and character of his 
 own belief; (2) what influence they should or 
 must have on his teaching. 
 
 1 2 Tim. iii. 15, 
 
I IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 17 
 
 Specially worthy of consideration is the 
 case of young masters and mistresses whose 
 mind is sufficiently open to recognise not only 
 the existence, but also something of the weight 
 and force of the common critical objections to 
 the traditional views in which they have been 
 trained ; while yet the pressure of work, the 
 absence of leisure, the lack of trustworthy 
 advice and well-informed sympathy, make it 
 hard for them to get assurance as to the right 
 course. Ought they to abide by the old re- 
 ceived views and methods ? Or has the time 
 come when some modifications are demanded 
 by the progress of knowledge and thought ? 
 Those who are in this state of uncertainty 
 may welcome some suggestions offered for 
 their guidance. These suggestions make no 
 pretence to originality ; much of the material 
 for them is drawn from recent writings of 
 English theologians at Oxford and Cambridge, 
 whose reverence, moderation, and sobriety of 
 thought is recognised even by those who 
 are disposed to differ from some of their con- 
 clusions. 
 
 In the following pages it is proposed to 
 
 indicate some points in which traditional 
 
 views about the Bible, or conventional methods 
 
 of religious teaching, seem to require and 
 
 c 
 
18 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 admit of modification ; the most valuable 
 feature of these outlines will be the references 
 to the books (most of them easily accessible) 
 from which the material is largely drawn. 
 
 Again, something may be said on the in- 
 fluence of examinations on religious teaching. 
 An intelligent teacher will desire, at least in 
 senior classes, to give instruction about the 
 morality and theology of the Old and New 
 Testaments, the character arid work of our 
 Lord, the doctrines of Christianity, etc. Such 
 teaching may be of the highest value to pupils, 
 but it is less suitable for reproduction on 
 paper, and for testing by marks, than ques- 
 tions on history, geography, etc. ; and classes 
 taught on such lines may be at a disadvantage 
 in examinations of the ordinary type. Such 
 incompatibility between examinations and in- 
 telligent teaching may be in a certain degree 
 inevitable. Nevertheless, it may be reason- 
 ably urged that there is much room for im- 
 provement in the ordinary type of " Divinity " 
 examinations ; for, whatever be the cause, it 
 often happens that examination papers con- 
 tain an undue proportion of dry bones ques- 
 tions on unimportant names, insignificant 
 details of history, etc. etc. There was an 
 Oxford story of a viva voce examination, in 
 
i IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 19 
 
 which a perplexed undergraduate was asked 
 in slow succession, " Who were the Emims ? 
 Who were the Zuzims ? Who were the Zam- 
 zummims ? " There is a Cambridge story of 
 one who expressed his surprise that a pedantic 
 colleague could not give information on some 
 small point " I wonder you do not know it, 
 it is so unimportant." This seems to be the 
 attitude of some examiners. 
 
 The nature of the subject makes it impos- 
 sible to remove this difficulty completely, but 
 it may be palliated in various ways : 
 
 (1) Teachers may be persuaded that if they 
 limit their teaching strictly to that which is 
 examinable, or to the range of the average 
 examination paper, their teaching will neces- 
 sarily be defective ; so that they should either 
 assign so much time to religious instruction 
 as will enable them to supplement by higher 
 teaching that which is necessary for examina- 
 tion work ; or economise time and energy 
 by excluding from their " Divinity " teaching 
 much that is not relevant to its higher pur- 
 poses. 
 
 (2) Examiners and Examining Boards may 
 be enlightened as to the relative importance of 
 subjects, so that they may lessen the diffi- 
 culties of the teacher by ceasing to require 
 
20 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 a knowledge of comparatively unimportant 
 matters, and by arranging their papers so as to 
 encourage as far as is possible the teaching 
 and knowledge of higher things. It is worth 
 while to make an effort in this direction, for 
 examinations naturally exercise a strong in- 
 fluence on teaching ; according as they are 
 good or bad, they can do much to guide or 
 misguide. There are some examinations of 
 wide range which powerfully affect the char- 
 acter and limits of religious teaching through- 
 out England, e.g. the Local Examinations, the 
 examinations of the Oxford and Cambridge 
 Board, and of the College of Preceptors, which 
 between them give the tone to the class teach- 
 ing in many hundreds of higher and middle 
 schools. Those who have the control of such 
 examinations incur a great responsibility for 
 that which they do, or leave undone. School- 
 masters and schoolmistresses, acting through 
 the various organised bodies which focus their 
 opinion, might do much to raise the standard 
 and improve the quality of " Divinity " ex- 
 aminations by appeals to the Examining 
 Boards. 
 
 Possibly the theological faculties at Oxford 
 and Cambridge might be persuaded to com- 
 bine their influence with, the view of intro- 
 
i IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 21 
 
 ducing into the examinations conducted by 
 these universities a more intelligent method 
 and a higher standard. One obvious and 
 simple reform would be to put " Divinity " 
 on the same footing as history. The latter 
 subject, as befits its dignity and difficulty, is 
 usually examined by experts. Why should 
 " Divinity " be combined with classical books, 
 verses, critical papers, etc., and assigned to 
 men who may have little knowledge of the 
 subject, and little interest in it ? Such an 
 arrangement is unscientific ; it deals inade- 
 quately with a weighty subject, and it tends 
 to impoverish the teaching. The one argu- 
 ment in its favour is that it is a simple plan, 
 moving on the lines of least resistance, free 
 from the danger of " clerical dogmatism " and 
 party opinion. But previous remarks tend to 
 show that too great a price is paid at present 
 for this simplicity and avoidance of danger. 1 
 
 Another difficulty has been already referred 
 to the character and quality of the ordinary 
 manuals and text-books. If what has been 
 said on pp. 1 ff. is accepted as a fair outline 
 of the aims of religious teaching, there is a great 
 
 1 Some detailed suggestions respecting methods of teach- 
 ing and examining will be found in Chap. III. A for Old 
 Testament, Chap. III. C for New Testament. 
 
22 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP, i 
 
 scarcity of such books as satisfy those condi- 
 tions. This statement is not made at random, 
 but after a scrutiny of many of the text-books 
 commonly used ; and it may be supposed that 
 the masters and mistresses of secondary schools 
 take trouble to select the best books that are 
 available. Such Societies as the S.P.C.K., the 
 Eeligious Tract Society, etc., and the many 
 diocesan organisations for higher religious 
 education, might do much to raise the stand- 
 ard of school manuals by laying down the 
 lines on which they should be constructed ; 
 the demand would quickly produce a supply. 
 This book will suggest subjects that deserve 
 their consideration. 
 
CHAPTEE II 
 
 THE RANGE AND SUBJECTS OF RELIGIOUS 
 TEACHING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 
 
 THE arguments for the necessity of religious 
 teaching in schools have been much strengthened 
 of late years by observation of some results of 
 purely secular systems of elementary education 
 in France, and in parts of the British Empire. 
 In England Mr. Herbert Spencer has widely 
 influenced opinion by his philosophical treatise 
 on education, but in discussing intellectual, 
 moral, and physical education he assigns no 
 place to religious teaching ; indeed, there is 
 no reference to any religious sanction ; parents 
 and teachers are to be guided by purely utili- 
 tarian considerations, and the main agency is 
 the discipline of experience. But no system 
 of education has life in itself unless it teaches 
 the essential principles of religion, and their 
 bearing on character and conduct. 
 
24 RELIGIOUS TEACHING niAi>. 
 
 Eeligion has been defined as being " subject- 
 ively man's conception of the highest law to 
 which he is subject, and his feeling and action 
 towards it ; while its objective quality is deter- 
 mined by the character of this highest concep- 
 tion." 1 Christian religion and morality inherit 
 that which was the most distinctive feature of 
 Jewish morality ; the teaching that the good- 
 ness and holiness of God are to be the types 
 of such attributes in men. 2 Eeversing the 
 normal order of religious speculation, the 
 Biblical writers start from the nature of God 
 as an ideal, and test the life and character of 
 man by relation to it ; God's own Being is the 
 rule of man's life : " Be ye holy, for I am holy." 
 Departure from this ideal is rebellion and sin, 
 and this idea is developed in Christianity : 
 " Ye shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father 
 is perfect" (Matt. v. 48). The God of Chris- 
 tians, as revealed first in the Old Testament, 
 and then more fully by Jesus Christ, is good, 
 righteous, compassionate, loving ; therefore the 
 religious man hates sin, loves goodness and 
 justice, is sympathetic arid loving. 
 
 The religious teacher, starting from such 
 ideas of God and of the meaning of religion, 
 
 1 A. M. Fairbairn, Religion in History. 
 2 T. B. Strong, Christian Ethics. 
 
ii IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 25 
 
 will seek in the Old and New Testament 
 materials for setting before his pupils the 
 character of God, and its effect on the character 
 of man. 
 
 The Christian teacher looks on Jesus Christ 
 as the centre of the history of religion; all 
 that goes before converges to Him, all that 
 comes after radiates from Him. Books, sub- 
 jects, details, are suitable for a scheme of 
 religious teaching in proportion as they con- 
 tribute to a fuller and clearer knowledge of 
 (1) the preparation for the Gospel by God's 
 providence and revelation ; (2) the Gospel 
 itself; (3) the results of the preaching of the 
 Gospel. Books, subjects, details that do not 
 contribute to such knowledge, however valuable 
 and interesting in themselves, are not suitable ; 
 nay, the scheme itself is so wide and com- 
 prehensive that it is absolutely necessary to 
 guard against diverting attention to irrelevant 
 matter. 
 
 The following considerations may help to 
 enforce this necessity: 
 
 School education has to provide for the 
 religious teaching of young people between ten 
 and eighteen or nineteen. This range of age 
 would include most of the pupils in pre- 
 paratory, " public," and " high " schools. The 
 
26 RELIGIOUS TEACHING OHAP. 
 
 time devoted to class teaching in this subject 
 is usually two hours weekly for not more than 
 thirty-five weeks in the year (allowing for 
 examinations, holidays, etc.), i.e. in the nine 
 years from ten to nineteen a practical maxi- 
 mum of 2x35x9 = 630 hours. A good 
 deal of this time must be assigned in the 
 later stages to repeating, revising, expanding 
 the elementary knowledge which has been 
 more or less imperfectly apprehended in 
 the earlier stages. Accordingly, in most 
 schemes arrangements are made for junior and 
 senior courses ; in the latter the subjects of 
 the former are taught more thoroughly and 
 widely, and supplemented by others suited to 
 more developed brains. 
 
 Plainly this maximum of 630 hours is 
 already full short for all the subjects that 
 should be included in a scheme of liberal 
 religious education, viz.: 
 
 (a) The preparation for the Gospel, the 
 history of the Jewish Church, the 
 theology and morality of the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 (6) The preaching of the Gospel, the 
 life of Jesus Christ, His revelation 
 of the Father, and foundation of His 
 Church. 
 
ii IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 27 
 
 (c*) The results of Jesus's life, death, arid 
 revelation in 
 
 (1) The growth of the Church in the 
 
 Apostolic age (and later, if time 
 permits). 
 
 (2) Christian ethics, as shown in the 
 
 Gospels and Epistles. 
 
 These subjects are plainly necessary for all. 
 Other subjects suited to senior classes, and 
 intrinsically important, are : 
 
 (d) Creeds, formularies, liturgies. 
 
 (e) Christian evidences. 
 
 (/) Some knowledge of the history of 
 religion in England. 
 
 Even the most necessary parts of this 
 scheme cannot be adequately taught unless 
 time is carefully economised by the exclusion 
 of all matter that is not closely relevant to 
 the object of religious education. 
 
 Before proceeding to details it may be well 
 to anticipate the objection that such a pro- 
 gramme is needlessly comprehensive, because 
 the education of intelligent people does not 
 stop at nineteen, and much that is here in- 
 cluded may be left for a later stage of develop- 
 ment. In answer to this it may be said that 
 in a very large proportion of cases systematic 
 instruction in religious subjects comes abruptly 
 
28 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 to an end when the boy or girl leaves school. 
 If school education has laid, or even traced, 
 foundations for the knowledge of these subjects, 
 and if also the teaching has been such as to 
 awaken interest in them, there is some hope, 
 or even probability, that this interest may 
 carry the learner on to fuller knowledge. 
 Otherwise the conditions of modern life and 
 society are such as to make this further ad- 
 vance hopeless or improbable in average cases. 
 
 If the boy or girl has acquired no real in- 
 terest in religious knowledge before leaving 
 school, if " Divinity " taught in a narrow con- 
 ventional way has failed to get a hold both on 
 his heart and his intellect, the ordinary pursuits 
 and distractions of secular business and society 
 will soon absorb interest and attention ; the 
 ignorant scepticism or indifference of compan- 
 ions will insensibly undermine the rickety 
 fabric of conformity to orthodox views ; that 
 which has been slightly prized will be readily 
 abandoned, and, with little reluctance or 
 regret, the young man or young woman will 
 lapse into the apathy for religion, not un- 
 mingled with contempt, which is only too 
 common in the educated classes. 
 
 The difficulty of obviating this danger is 
 increased by the fact that not a few teachers, 
 
ii IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 29 
 
 recruited from the ranks of those who have 
 lapsed into such indifference, themselves lack 
 interest in the " Divinity " which they are 
 required to teach ; and under such circum- 
 stances the inadequacy of religious teaching 
 propagates itself from generation to generation 
 of teachers and pupils. 1 
 
 Experience has shown that it is quite 
 possible to include all the subjects above 
 suggested within the limits of a school pro- 
 gramme ; and that they can be taught fruit- 
 fully, so as not merely to awaken the interest 
 of pupils, but also to supply them with such 
 modest " aids to faith " as may in some 
 measure prepare them to encounter the diffi- 
 culties of belief which beset young people at 
 or near the close of school life. It is worth 
 while to spend labour on such teaching; 
 respect, confidence, perhaps even gratitude, 
 will be felt towards a teacher who shows that 
 he has weighed and measured his reasons for 
 belief in that which he offers to teach, and 
 that he is anxious to give some clues for 
 future guidance. 
 
 1 Of. Chap. I. pp. 12 ff. 
 
CHAPTEE III 
 
 SUGGESTIONS ABOUT METHOD, ETC. 
 
 A. LESSONS ON THE OLD TESTAMENT 
 
 METHODS are determined by aims, as the 
 choice of a path depends on the goal v to be 
 reached. 
 
 The Old Testament has been read too much 
 as a history book; the history was written 
 under divine guidance and inspiration for the 
 main purpose of teaching religion and morality; 
 but the historical detail has been too much 
 regarded as an end in itself, whereas the 
 chief aims and objects of lessons in the Old 
 Testament should be : *- 
 
 1. To set forth what it reveals about the 
 character of God in His relations with man ; 
 
 1 In writing the following paragraphs I have been 
 greatly indebted to Professor Driver's Sermons on the Old 
 Testament. 
 
CHAP, in RELIGIOUS TEACHING 31 
 
 His holiness, justice, wisdom ; His gracious- 
 ness and lovingkindness ; His desire that man 
 shall love Him in return ; His anger against 
 sin, mingled with readiness to forgive the 
 penitent ; His fatherly guidance of His chosen 
 people, and of individual souls, by blessing and 
 chastening, through success and failure ; His 
 providential rule over the nations ; His gradual 
 preparation for the kingdom of God in Christ, 
 so that Egypt, Phoenicia, Assyria, Chaldaea, 
 Persia, Greece, in turn contributed to " prepare 
 the way of the Lord." 
 
 2. To interpret and show the moral value 
 and significance of the manifold examples of 
 human action and character which the Old 
 Testament presents; to show (as in the llth 
 chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews) the 
 power of faith and trust in God under every 
 variety of circumstance; to lead the hearts 
 and intelligences of young people to recognise 
 the nobility, beauty, and attractiveness of the 
 best men and women who were" trained under 
 God's discipline and law ; to discriminate 
 between the good and the evil in characters 
 formed under a progressive moral law which, 
 in its earlier stages, was imperfect and rudi- 
 mentary. 
 
 3. To show the relation of the law to the 
 
32 RELIGIOUS TEACHING .HAP. 
 
 Gospel ; how it was a " schoolmaster leading 
 to Christ " ; how " the testimony of Jesus is 
 the spirit of prophecy " ; how the fundamental 
 ideas of the Gospel sin, righteousness, redemp- 
 tion are found in germ in the Old Testament, 
 waiting for their fuller development ; how 
 the twilight of the old system is more and 
 more irradiated by the distant dawn of the 
 " Sun of Righteousness/ 1 The wise teacher 
 will treat this branch of his subject broadly 
 and intelligently, not laying undue stress on 
 far-fetched types, strained predictions, and 
 minutiae of detail. The prophets and men 
 of old saw " in a mirror, darkly " ; they 
 " desired to see the things that we see, and 
 did not see them." 
 
 4. To lead young people, according to their 
 various characters and stages of development, 
 to appreciate the value of the Old Testament 
 for devotional purposes, showing how prayer 
 pervades it from end to end ; how it inculcates 
 and gives examples of thankfulness to God, 
 adoration of His greatness and glory, longing 
 for His presence, and for communion with 
 Him, faith and trust in Him, confession of 
 sin and supplication for pardon, joy and 
 gratitude for His mercy and grace ; how the 
 character and attributes of God, and His 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 33 
 
 relation to man, remain unalterably the same 
 in all ages, and amid all the varying conditions 
 of human life. From the Psalms, the Pro- 
 phets, the more spiritual parts of the Law, and 
 the lives of the Old Testament saints, the re- 
 ligious teacher will draw abundant material 
 for lessons peculiarly suitable to the earlier 
 stages of religious feeling and belief. 
 
 5. A subsidiary, but not unworthy, aim is 
 to show that the books of the " Divine Library" 
 are noble models of literature in a great 
 variety of forms. " The bright, picturesque 
 narrative of the historical books, the graphic, 
 living reality of the biographical sketches, the 
 sublime, impressive oratory of the prophets, 
 the delicacy and brightness of the Hebrew 
 lyric, all possess the peculiar charm and grace 
 of style which entitles them to a high rank 
 simply as literature among the classical works 
 of the human intellect and heart." 1 Some 
 twenty-five years ago Matthew Arnold, in his 
 Isaiah, the Prophet of the Restoration, made an 
 eloquent plea for the use of the later chapters 
 of Isaiah as a reading book in elementary 
 schools, though he characteristically dwelt most 
 upon their literary value. Admitting all that 
 
 1 Professor Driver, p. x, ; Mr. R. G. Moulton's Literary 
 Study of the Bible, 
 
 P 
 
34 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 he says on this point, there are much more 
 cogent reasons for imparting to young people 
 so much of the religious teaching of the 
 prophets as is within their compass. 
 
 This is a wide and comprehensive pro- 
 gramme, yet it is such that even young 
 children can follow the outlines of it, while 
 more advanced pupils will be fully occupied 
 in filling them in with relevant details. 
 Still it is already so wide that we must 
 avoid, as far as possible, enlarging it by sup- 
 plementary matter that lies outside its limits. 
 
 Shall we then say nothing about the critical 
 problems which for many years past have 
 absorbed a large share of the attention of 
 students of the Old Testament ? That is a 
 question that demands careful consideration. 
 
 On the one hand it is acknowledged that 
 the " religious, moral, and devotional value of 
 the Old Testament is unaffected by critical 
 questions respecting the authorship or date of. 
 its various parts." 
 
 On the other hand its historical and 
 evidential value may be seriously affected by 
 such criticisms, and also (a point of great 
 moment in the teaching of young people), 
 those who adopt " critical " views are com- 
 pelled to depart in a greater or less degree 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 35 
 
 from the traditional estimate of the literal 
 and verbal accuracy of some of the Scripture 
 narratives. What line must they take in 
 presence of young pupils ? 
 
 The present period of conflict and discussion 
 of the criticism of the Old Testament has 
 some resemblance to the time, some fifty 
 years ago, when debate was hot, and opinion 
 much divided, about similar critical questions 
 affecting the authorship and authenticity of 
 the books of the New Testament. Plausible 
 theories were then being advocated, with in- 
 complete knowledge of the facts, which since 
 then have been finally abandoned. At that 
 time teachers would have been unwise in 
 according hasty belief to unproved hypotheses; 
 they would have done wrong if they had 
 attempted to expound them to pupils. Even 
 so now the wise and right course seems to 
 be a certain suspension of judgment on 
 many questions of Old Testament criticism, 
 and a judicious reticence with regard to 
 theories and hypotheses which have not yet 
 been amply verified by facts and arguments. 
 
 This vague general statement requires some 
 detailed examples and illustrations which 
 may show what are the limits and boundary 
 marks of the reticence thus recommended. 
 
36 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 For instance, is the teacher bound to adhere 
 to the traditional explanation of such Bible 
 narratives as those of the Fall and the Flood ? l 
 Is he to deal with them as inspired literal 
 statements of fact, discussing and commenting 
 on them as he would treat, say, a narrative 
 of the battle of Hastings ? This is still the 
 method adopted in many popular manuals. 
 But this method can no longer be followed 
 by a teacher who knows that sober criticism 
 has shifted the conception of large portions of 
 Biblical history to a different plane. 
 
 It is true that "the assured results of 
 criticism " is a phrase that is often used with 
 undue elasticity of meaning ; nevertheless the 
 more conservative defenders of the inspired 
 truth of the Bible are prepared to admit that 
 the early narratives of the Bible are partly 
 based upon traditions, probably brought by 
 Abraham 2 from the home of his fathers, some of 
 which have interesting resemblances to tradi- 
 tions found in Chaldaean records ; and that the 
 inspiration of the Holy Scriptures is shown 
 not so much in the letter of the record as in 
 the purifying process which has transfigured 
 and spiritualised the primitive traditions ; 3 
 
 1 Chap. IV. pp. 108 ff. 
 
 2 Bishop Ellicott, Christus Comprolator, pp. 70 sqq. 
 
 3 Chap. IV. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 37 
 
 and also in the selection of material in such 
 ways as to point steadily and progressively 
 towards a definite goal, the higher righteous- 
 ness ultimately developed, and manifested in 
 the more spiritual parts of the Old Testament. 1 
 
 Such considerations are, however, not within 
 the grasp of pupils of all ages; to scatter 
 them broadcast among children would show 
 want of intelligence. 
 
 In fact, three stages must be distinguished : 
 (1) The knowledge, belief, or opinion possessed 
 by the teacher ; (2) that which may be im- 
 parted with caution and discretion to elder 
 and more advanced pupils, say after Confirma- 
 tion, if it is deferred till the age of fifteen or 
 sixteen; (3) that which must be taught to 
 younger pupils. 
 
 To the latter we must teach the facts as 
 they stand on the pages of Scripture } not 
 cramped and disfigured by any summary, 
 analysis, or paraphrase, but in the simple 
 beauty of the language of the English Bible. 
 There are, no doubt, arguments in favour of 
 the use of selections for junior pupils, while 
 the study of the complete text of the Bible is 
 
 1 Hermann Schultz, Old Testament Theology (translated 
 by J. A. Patterson ; the second volume is specially 
 valuable). 
 
38 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 deferred to a later stage ; and there is no lack 
 of selections that may be used with advantage, 
 suited to various methods and principles of 
 teaching (such as those of Miss Yonge, 
 William Eogers in his Children's Bible, the 
 Eev. M. G. Glazebrook, Dr. Stokoe). But 
 in any case it is most important for every 
 reason that from the first young people should 
 grow familiar with the actual words of the 
 English Bible. 
 
 They must learn about names, places, 
 actions, the sequence of events, the marked 
 features of character; but everywhere there 
 must be such a discreet selection as shall 
 winnow out details that will not help towards 
 the fuller conceptions that will be within their 
 range at a later stage. For the purposes of 
 this elementary teaching it is useful to con- 
 struct a scheme or framework of the several 
 main periods of the Jewish Church, showing 
 the religious and moral relation of each to 
 those that precede and follow it. Such a 
 scheme can be made so short and simple that 
 even the youngest pupils may be made familiar 
 with it by frequent repetition. It helps 
 materially to an intelligent grasp of the 
 history. Within this framework the outlines 
 of Bible history and biography will be traced 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 39 
 
 with judicious economy. These earlier out- 
 lines will resemble the practical maps, in 
 which only such lines, names, and features are 
 introduced as are of cardinal significance, in 
 lieu of the well-intentioned but mistaken com- 
 pleteness of detail, which simply confuses and 
 blurs the attention and the memory. 
 
 And even in the later stage there will be 
 a discriminating avoidance of less important 
 detail ; the object will be not greatly to increase 
 the mass of facts, names, etc., that have to be 
 remembered; but rather to infuse life and 
 spirit into the letter of the record by im- 
 parting to the more mature intelligence, to 
 the more developed and deepened feeling, so 
 much as it can assimilate of the moral and 
 spiritual meaning of that which was learned 
 in the more elementary stage. 
 
 For instance, in the earlier stage, from the 
 first chapter of Genesis the young boy or girl 
 will learn the Bible narrative of creation and 
 of the " days/' with their successive stages of 
 development. In the later stage the pupil 
 will be led to think of the meaning, the 
 wonder, the glory of God's creative work ; to 
 see that the ancient story, though not literally 
 foreshadowing the later discoveries of science, 
 yet sets forth in sublimely poetic form the 
 
40 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 omnipotence, the wisdom, the loving provi- 
 dence of God, who has so adapted His mar- 
 vellous works to the needs of man and the 
 lower animals. 1 And, in connection with this, 
 illustrations will be drawn from such later 
 commentaries on the creation as are supplied 
 by some of the Psalms (e.g. Ixv., civ.), by 
 passages in the Prophets, in the books of Job 
 and Wisdom, in the words of our Lord, in the 
 Epistles. 
 
 Just as a good edition of the Bible is fur- 
 nished with the references which supply in 
 themselves the most useful of Bible com- 
 mentaries, so the teacher's notebook will be 
 plentifully enriched with parallel passages 
 which interpret scripture by scripture, and 
 show not only the unity of the Bible, but the 
 growing richness and depth of the thoughts 
 which link together the writers of Holy Writ 
 by the chain of Divine inspiration. 
 
 Again, in the third chapter of Genesis the 
 younger pupils will read the letter of the 
 narrative of the Fall the serpent, the trees, 
 the temptation, the sin, the judgment, the 
 promise of ultimate victory. In the later 
 stage it will be explained that it is not a 
 literal record of historical facts, but an inspired 
 
 1 Professor Kyle's Early Narratives of Genesis. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 41 
 
 presentation of essential truths respecting 
 temptation, sin, retribution, redemption ; and, 
 in connection with this, reference will be 
 made to passages in later books, such as the 
 Psalms, Proverbs, Wisdom, the temptation of 
 our Lord, St. James, St. Paul in the Epistle to 
 the Eomans. Thus the story of the Fall, 
 instead of standing isolated in the memory, to 
 become in later years a perplexity, a stumbling- 
 block, or an occasion for profane merriment, 
 will be accepted and cherished as the germ of 
 some of the deepest teaching about the most 
 solemn and momentous realities of human life. 
 And plainly, if the main points of the Bible 
 history are treated with similar fulness of 
 exposition and illustration, the teacher will 
 110 longer have any inclination to waste 
 precious time and energy on unimportant 
 detail ; he will pass from peak to peak of 
 the Bible history by a high-level route. He 
 will appreciate the relative importance of the 
 facts, ideas, materials, methods, that are or 
 can be utilised for Bible teaching ; and the 
 selection of that which is more intrinsically 
 valuable will stimulate his own interest in 
 " Divinity lessons," will awake in his pupils a 
 vital, germinal, fructifying appreciation of the 
 rich treasures of the Bible, and open avenues 
 
42 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 of access to higher truth, which will in many 
 cases be followed up in mature life. 
 
 The necessity of such selection has already 
 been more than once indicated ; principles and 
 methods of selection have still to be considered. 
 It may be supposed that before going to the 
 first school, say at the age of ten or eleven, a 
 child will have learned at home outlines of 
 the simpler narratives of the Bible, so as to 
 know something of the history of Abraham, 
 Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, etc. This 
 outline of knowledge the school course will 
 supplement with further details. But the 
 amount of detail in the books of the Old 
 Testament is enormous and bewildering by its 
 mass and variety. Of the three great volumes 
 of the Dictionary of the Bible a large propor- 
 tion is devoted to Old Testament history, 
 biography, geography, etc. It is not possible, 
 even if it were desirable, that young people 
 should learn all indiscriminately; it would 
 be a crushing burden for the attention and 
 memory. 
 
 What principles of selection should be 
 adopted ? Is every fact in the history (say) 
 of the Judges or of the Hebrew monarchy 
 equally " profitable for teaching, for reproof, 
 for correction, for instruction in righteousness " 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 43 
 
 (2 Tim. iii. 16) ? From these historical books 
 a Christian boy or girl should gather the main 
 outlines of the history of the Jewish Church 
 that is, of the principal men, events, laws, 
 and revelations, by which the chosen people 
 were gradually trained and fitted to become 
 the depositaries of the Gospel revelation. 
 
 It is not then necessary to learn details of 
 the history of the nation which are relatively 
 unimportant in their bearing on the history 
 of the Church. These details are, no doubt, 
 valuable to the student of history ; to him 
 nothing can be more interesting than the 
 records of the marvellous nation whose destiny 
 has been unique. But the religious teacher 
 will be wise if he omits many of them, and 
 selects only those which are useful for his 
 special purpose ; for there is urgent need of 
 economy of time in order to find space for 
 matters of great intrinsic importance. Under 
 the present system it is common for boys and 
 girls to know facts about insignificant persons 
 and places, and yet to know practically nothing 
 about the religious teaching of the Law, the 
 Prophets, and Psalmists ; or about the gospel 
 of St. John; or the ethics of Christianity 
 diffused through the Gospels and Epistles (ex- 
 cept so far as they are included in various 
 
44 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 Catechisms) ; or the influence of such men as 
 Athanasius, Chrysostom, Augustine, on the 
 history of the Christian Church ; or the evi- 
 dences of Christianity. It is full time to 
 plead for careful reconsideration of the method 
 of dealing with this important and difficult 
 subject of Old Testament history. We have 
 not done our duty by our pupils if we are 
 content to cut the Bible from Genesis to 
 Nehemiah into a certain number of approxi- 
 mately equal sections, and then to leave 
 teachers and examiners to decide without 
 guidance, by mutual action and reaction, what 
 knowledge is to be required of boys and girls. 
 There is urgent need of a more intelligent, 
 discriminating, religious system of instruction 
 in the Old Testament Scriptures, on such 
 lines as are broadly traced in the preceding 
 pages. 1 
 
 Such parts of the history as are less pertin- 
 ent to this purpose would then be omitted, or 
 passed over lightly ; there would be a careful 
 sifting which would set aside (as valuable mainly 
 to the student of Hebrew history), some parts of 
 Genesis and of the other books of the Penta- 
 teuch, and much of the history of the Judges 
 
 1 W. Sanday, The Oracles of God, pp. 118, 120-126 ; A. 
 F. Kirkpa trick, The Doctrine of the Prophets, Lecture XVIII. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 45 
 
 and the later historical books. 1 This economy 
 of time would make it possible in the more 
 advanced stages of teaching to give more 
 attention to the religious and moral teaching 
 of the Law 2 (especially the book of Deuter- 
 onomy), the Psalms, and the prophetical 
 books ; it should be possible even in a junior 
 course to show in outline why these elements of 
 the Old Testament Scriptures have a transcend- 
 ent and permanent interest and value, which 
 the fuller revelation of the New Testament has 
 by no means abrogated or destroyed. "For 
 all of us the Old Testament is a useful way of 
 entrance into the New Testament. We never 
 can understand the New Testament while we 
 are ignorant of the Old Testament. It supplies, 
 as it were, the alphabet, the letters, the simple 
 thoughts in which the higher and deeper 
 lessons of the New Testament are written. 
 Nay, more, there is much about our life here 
 on earth, as God would have it be, which is 
 taught plainly in the Old Testament, and 
 which is either not taught at all, or taught 
 very slightly in the New Testament. Any 
 one who tries to carve out for himself a 
 
 1 See Appendix to Chap. III. A, p. 61. 
 
 2 S*ee Duncker, History of Antiquity, vol. i. pp. 387, 479, 
 484 ; ii. 202 ; iii. 24-29, 
 
46 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 religion out of the New Testament will as- 
 suredly make something extremely unlike the 
 true complete Christian faith." l 
 
 What has been said about selection, and the 
 avoidance of irrelevant detail, may give rise to 
 a misconception of its scope and purpose. The 
 spiritual teaching of the Bible, especially of 
 the Old Testament, is a subject by no means 
 easy to convey to the minds and hearts of young 
 people ; it would be obviously futile to attempt 
 to convey it in an undiluted, incessant stream 
 of homiletic exposition ; that would only pro- 
 duce weariness and disgust, or, at the best, what 
 has been called " devout inattention." The Bible 
 cannot be taught effectively to any one, still 
 less to boys and girls, unless they are led to 
 feel its reality, to understand that its books 
 were written by and to real men in times as 
 real and living as our own. Accordingly, in 
 reading such parts of the Bible as are selected 
 for class work, many kinds of illustrative 
 matter (history, antiquities, geography, pictures, 
 photographs, etc.) will be turned to account 
 by the practical teacher ; but always under the 
 conditions that (1) such illustration shall be 
 strictly pertinent, and contributory to the main 
 purpose of conveying to his pupils the spiritual 
 
 1 Professor F. J, A. Hort, Village Sermons, p. 141. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 47 
 
 import of the book or passage selected ; (2) the 
 setting must not obscure or impair the jewel ; 
 the framework must not overlay the picture ; 
 from the lesson, or course of lessons, the spiritual 
 teaching must stand out in central and pre- 
 eminent clearness. Such teaching, if it is 
 plainly seen to be the outcome of knowledge 
 and conviction, will not fail to reach the heart 
 and conscience, and stir interest and attention. 
 
 In considering criteria for estimating the 
 relative value and importance of different books, 
 or parts of books, of the Bible, the religious 
 teacher will have to accept from others, or 
 form for himself, judgments on some difficult 
 and delicate questions of Biblical criticism. 
 Few even of the most conservative students 
 of the Bible (as distinguished from the average 
 uninstructed reader) can now retain the 
 opinion, not uncommon thirty or forty years 
 ago, that all parts of the Bible are of equal 
 value and authority; varying degrees of in- 
 spiration are now almost universally admitted. 
 
 Again, traditional opinions about the date 
 and authorship of many parts of the Old 
 Testament have been called in question, and 
 some of them can no longer be considered to 
 rest on sound foundations ; criticism, history, 
 archaeology have more or less recently dis- 
 
48 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 covered and established facts which make some 
 of the old positions untenable. It is beyond 
 the scope of this book to enter minutely into 
 this subject, but the following questions may 
 be mentioned as among the most important 
 which have been either practically decided, or 
 are still under discussion : 
 
 (a) The composite structure of the Penta- 
 teuch. 
 
 (6) The relatively late date of the book of 
 Deuteronomy and of other parts of 
 " the Law." 
 
 (c) Doubts about the Davidic authorship 
 
 of many Psalms attributed to David, 
 
 and the authorship of Proverbs, Ec- 
 
 clesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. 
 
 (cfy Doubts (or even definite conclusions) 
 
 respecting the traditional date and 
 
 authorship of the book of Daniel. 
 
 (e) The ascription of the later chapters of 
 
 Isaiah to one or more unknown 
 
 prophets later than Isaiah. 
 
 It will be seen that in some cases, as in (a) 
 
 above, an opinion on a critical question may 
 
 be the basis of a principle of selection (as in 
 
 the case of Mr. Glazebrook's books). In many 
 
 cases criticism need in no way affect the 
 
 teacher's estimate of the usefulness of a docn- 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 49 
 
 merit for his special purpose. There are chapters 
 in Deuteronomy, Psalms, passages of Isaiah, 
 whose intrinsic value is in no way affected by 
 questions of authorship ; such questions may 
 in such cases be rightly set aside as irrelevant 
 to a school course. 
 
 And it may be added that young people 
 care little about the date or authorship of the 
 books that interest them ; they will love and 
 cherish their Bible in proportion as they are 
 led to see and feel that it has a living interest 
 now ; they will be convinced of the essential 
 truthfulness of the Old Testament history if 
 they are led to see that it is the early source 
 and foundation of some of the most vital truths 
 in the world they live in. And to ensure 
 this result the teacher in his class lessons will 
 be carefully on his guard against a purely 
 literary treatment of the books of the Bible. 
 
 But the teacher will naturally seek for 
 himself further knowledge, more assurance of 
 the quality and firmness of the ground on 
 which he treads ; it is, in fact, his duty thus 
 to inform himself, both for the satisfaction of 
 his conscience and intellect, and that he may 
 avoid the vagueness which produces mistrust 
 in his hearers. Eeticence should be the result, 
 not of haziness or ignorance, but of a deliberate, 
 E 
 
50 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 thoughtful choice between that which is and 
 that which is not adapted to his class. For 
 the benefit of those who may have small time 
 or opportunity for independent study, or who 
 have not easy access to sources of information, 
 a slight sketch will be given later of some of 
 the more important critical questions, with 
 references to some of the most handy and 
 accessible books. 1 
 
 After knowledge of this kind has been ac- 
 quired it will be necessary to decide in what 
 measure, and at what stage, it should be com- 
 municated. The following suggestions are 
 offered : 
 
 If it is assumed that the junior classes will 
 range from about 10 years of age to 15-16, 
 and the seniors from 15-16 to 18-19, 
 (a) the juniors will be taught simply the 
 letter of the Bible, with such omission, 
 compression, rearrangement, and grouping of 
 materials as has been previously recommended ;' 2 
 always with careful insistence on the religious 
 features and aspects of the narratives, e.g. the 
 Creation, the Fall, the Call of Abraham, the 
 history of Jacob, Joseph, Moses ; the Law, and 
 especially the Decalogue (dwelling on the 
 relatively high moral and religious standard 
 
 1 See Chaps. IV. and V. 2 Chap. II. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 51 
 
 of the Jews as compared with their neighbours 
 and with other nations of antiquity) ; Samuel 
 and the beginnings of the prophetic order; 
 Saul and David, the apostasy, Elijah and 
 Elisha, the great reformations under Hezekiah 
 and Josiah, the influence of the more im- 
 portant prophets (Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Jere- 
 miah, Ezekiel), the Exile, the Return. 
 
 It will be observed that this choice of 
 topics implies very considerable omission of 
 details now commonly included in " Divinity 
 lessons " of quite young boys ; but even so it 
 is a large programme, which will require care- 
 ful arrangement and judicious selection of the 
 points most worthy of attention. Perhaps 
 in this junior period as much time may 
 be assigned to study of the Old Testa- 
 ment as to that of the New Testament ; its 
 standard of morality and religion has a certain 
 affinity to that of young people (at any rate 
 boys) up to their " years of discretion." 
 
 (&) In senior classes the staple of the work 
 will, of course, be to complete and fill in the 
 previous outlines of the religious and moral 
 teaching of Scripture; but this may be sup- 
 plemented by some elementary teaching about 
 such questions as the origin and nature of the 
 early narratives of Genesis ; the composite 
 
52 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 character of books ; the different documents of 
 the Hexateuch (recognised in some degree even 
 by the defenders of traditional views) ; 1 the re- 
 editing and gradual accretion and compilation 
 of the historical books, affording a reasonable 
 explanation of many difficulties which give 
 occasion for the more dull and vulgar objec- 
 tions to the Old Testament history; the evi- 
 dences that God's revelation to His people was 
 gradual and progressive, affording a solution 
 of other difficulties. The character and per- 
 manent value of the religious, moral, and social 
 teaching of prophets and psalmists will be 
 more fully treated; and, with due discretion, 
 something will be said about the character of 
 the Divine inspiration of the Old Testament, 
 to which it owes its unique power and influ- 
 ence on human progress in pre-Christian and 
 Christian times. 2 
 
 Much discretion will indeed be necessary 
 in handling such questions as are still under 
 discussion, and excite strong feeling among 
 the upholders of conflicting theories. In 
 what the teacher says about them to his 
 pupils he will desire not to enlist them as 
 
 1 Bishop Ellicott, Christus Comprobator. 
 
 2 Much useful material for such teaching may be 
 gathered from the Cambridge Companion to the Bible ; see 
 also Chap. IV. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 53 
 
 partisans, not prematurely to encourage a 
 critical spirit ; but only to afford such informa- 
 tion as may give a clue for their guidance 
 through some of the more obvious difficulties 
 of Scripture, and help them to form intelligent 
 principles of interpretation, so that as they 
 grow older they may be better qualified to 
 " give a reason for the faith that is in them." 
 He will always bear in mind that the 
 main object of his teaching is to lead them 
 to value and love their Bible. It has been 
 compared to a great cathedral which was in 
 building for some fifteen centuries. It was 
 built for worship, holiness, devotion ; for this 
 it is not essential to know at what precise 
 date each part was built, from what quarry 
 the stones were brought, and what materials 
 from older buildings may have been used in 
 its construction. 1 It is essential to enter it 
 with a reverent sense of the high purposes 
 for which it was built, and a desire to be 
 taught of God. Therefore the main point in 
 the teaching of the Old Testament, while or 
 after impressing the important facts on the 
 memory, is to direct attention to the great 
 moral and religious truths which are the 
 essence of the Bible. 
 
 1 Professor A. F. Kirkpatrick, The Divine Library. 
 
54 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 It is in this point that some of the 
 most popular manuals of the Old Testament 
 are seriously defective; they give full ^and 
 interesting explanations and illustrations of 
 history, geography, ceremonial, customs, etc. ; 
 but the moral and religious truths are assumed 
 or ignored; they are not drawn out and 
 enforced. It may be that the writers assume 
 that such enforcement may, should, and will 
 be part of the teacher's duty ; it may be 
 that they keep their eye too steadily fixed 
 on the requirements of examinations. Then 
 the majority of teachers, guided by the text- 
 book, and anxious about the examinations, 
 are content if their pupils can reproduce the 
 facts of Bible narratives, with the illustrations 
 from history, geography, etc. ; while the ex- 
 aminer thinks he is bound to limit his ques- 
 tions by the range of the ordinary text-books. 
 Thus writer, teacher, examiner, each in- 
 fluenced by, and influencing the others, un- 
 consciously form a kind of " triple alliance " 
 for excluding from the teaching of the Old 
 Testament just that which is most essential 
 to it. 
 
 Now, when a large number of able and 
 conscientious people combine to follow a course 
 which is not the best possible, there must be 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 55 
 
 some strong reasons for their action. In this 
 matter they are obviously influenced by the 
 difficulty (1) of effectively teaching moral 
 and religious truths to young people in lesson 
 hours; (2) of adapting such teaching to the 
 requirements of examinations. 
 
 The conditions of the problem will be more 
 clearly shown by giving a few specimens of 
 subjects and questions which, if not included 
 in text-books and examination papers, should 
 at any rate find their place in the teaching ; 
 such as the following : 
 
 1. For topics suggested by the early chapters 
 of Genesis see Chapter IY. 
 
 2. God's covenants with men : 1 (a) with Abra- 
 ham ; its literal and spiritual fulfilments (the 
 latter admitting of copious illustrations from the 
 New Testament) : (b) with Israel in the Mosaic 
 dispensation ; its literal and spiritual fulfilments ; 
 its differences from the earlier " covenant of 
 promise " ; its gradual preparation for (c) the 
 new Covenant of the Christian dispensation 
 (Eom. iv. ; Gal. in.; Jer. xxxi. 31). 
 
 3. The characters of the chief personages in 
 the Bible, and the qualities that God approves, 
 
 1 In these pages, and elsewhere, I must acknowledge 
 great obligations to Mr. C. G. Montefiore's Bible for Home 
 Heading. I cannot, however, accept all his conclusions. 
 The book is indeed written for Jewish parents from a rather 
 advanced standpoint, but Christian teachers and parents 
 may gather from it much that may be helpful. 
 
56 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 encourages, develops in them ; their faults and 
 frailties indicating the truthfulness and honesty 
 of the narrative, and showing their 'human 
 naturalness : " they were tempted even as we 
 are." Therefore, while we are warned to shun 
 their faults we may be encouraged to imitate 
 their excellences. 1 
 
 4. The significance of Abraham's call, and of 
 his obedience to it. 
 
 5. "The blessing of the nations" a prophecy 
 not simply of the Messiah's advent, but of all 
 God's revelation to the Jewish and Christian 
 churches, and of its results in human history. 
 
 6. The sacrifice of Isaac, both a trial of faith, 
 and an effectual discouragement of human 
 sacrifice. 
 
 7. The selfishness of Jacob, Joseph, and his 
 brethren, and the sorrow and suffering that 
 resulted from it. 
 
 8. Joseph's later magnanimity and forgiveness, 
 results of the discipline of trial and suffering. 
 
 9. The historical importance of the Exodus 
 not merely to the Jewish people (illustrated by 
 the frequent references to it throughout the 
 Scriptures), but also to mankind at large. 
 
 10. Jewish ideas about the punishment of 
 their enemies, characteristic of an early stage of 
 morality and religion, not consonant with the 
 nature of God as it was more fully revealed in 
 later ages. 
 
 11. The teaching of Scripture in reference to 
 
 1 See Dean Church's Discipline of the Christian Character. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 57 
 
 the bondage in Egypt, and the deliverance from 
 it ; inculcating justice, charity, consideration for 
 others ; and also thankfulness to God and self- 
 consecration ; connection with Christian ideas. 
 
 12. The sacredness of law and justice, Exodus 
 xviii. 
 
 13. The Jewish people to be "a peculiar 
 treasure, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation " 
 (Exod. ix. 16; 1 Peter ii. 5, 9); the bearing of 
 this on the individual and social religion and 
 morality of Christians. 
 
 14. The fundamental importance of every com- 
 mandment in the Decalogue ; affording abundant 
 material for both simple and advanced teaching ; 
 Christ's " fulfilment " of the law. 
 
 15. The love of God ; its meaning to the Jew ; 
 its fuller meaning to the Christian. 
 
 16. The significance of Pentecost to the Jew 
 in Biblical and post-Biblical times ; its further 
 significance to the Christian. 
 
 1 7. The Day of Atonement ; Jewish feeling 
 about it in Mosaic and in later times ; it suggests 
 both simple and advanced teaching about repent- 
 ance and the forgiveness of sins ; early, prophetic, 
 and Christian ideas about atonement, sacrifice, 
 fasting, etc. 
 
 18. From the Law books it is possible to select 
 many passages for teaching morality and social 
 duties. 
 
 19. The book of Euth; one of its lessons was 
 a rebuke of Jewish exclusiveness. 
 
 20. The character of David ; its mingled good 
 
58 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 and evil ; its idealisation by the later writers. In 
 what higher sense was our Lord the " Son of 
 David " 1 
 
 21. The Psalms ; a treasury of worship, thanks- 
 giving, prayer, penitence, and all the deepest 
 feelings of religion. 1 
 
 22. Anthropomorphic ideas of God in the 
 Psalms and other books. What moral and 
 spiritual truths lie beneath them ? 
 
 23. The historical books should be plentifully 
 illustrated by selections from the Psalms and the 
 Prophets. 
 
 24. Josiah's reform; the benefits resulting from 
 it, especially the ultimate abolition of local 
 sanctuaries. 
 
 25. The religious, political, social, moral teach- 
 ing of the Prophets. 2 
 
 26. The evidences of their special inspiration. 3 
 
 27. Their doctrine of sin ; how developed and 
 modified by Christian teaching. 
 
 28. The nobility of Amos's teaching (chapter 
 iii.) : " You only have I chosen of all the families of 
 the earth : therefore I will visit upon you all your 
 iniquities " ; the opposite and antidote to illiberal 
 or Pharisaic patriotism, whether of nation, or 
 public school, or social grade. 
 
 1 Dean Church, The Gifts of Civilisation (Lecture on the 
 Psalms) ; Professor A. F. Kirkpatrick (the Cambridge Bible). 
 
 2 See F. D. Maurice, Prophets and Kings of the Old 
 Testament ; "W. Robertson Smith, The Prophets of Israel ; 
 Dean Farrar, The Minor Prophets; Professor G. Adam Smith, 
 The Book of the XII. ; also Chapter IV. and the refer- 
 ences given there. 
 
 3 Professor W. Sanday, Inspiration, Lecture III. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 59 
 
 29. Isaiah's teaching about Israel as the suffer- 
 ing " servant " of God ; the meaning, use, and 
 blessedness of suffering; the nobility and power of 
 self-sacrifice (chapters xli., xlii.) fulfilled in Christ, 
 and in all who live in the spirit of Christ. The 
 reward of the servant's work, not anything selfish, 
 but (as in St. Paul) the success of his work. 
 
 30. Jeremiah's " new covenant " ; the fulfil- 
 ment of his prophecy under the Gospel. 
 
 31. The religious and moral results of the 
 Exile ; the reformations under Ezra and Nehemiah 
 incidentally show the great advance in the re- 
 ligion of the people since the age of Josiah. 1 
 
 . 32. The growth of the doctrine (in Jeremiah 
 and Ezekiel) that God's dealings and discipline 
 affect not only nations, but also the souls of 
 individual men. 
 
 33. Ezekiel's teaching about the shepherds and 
 the watchmen applies to all who fill any post of 
 trust or influence ; the duty of moral courage. 
 
 Such suggestions are but gleanings from 
 the rich field of religious, moral, practical 
 teaching laid open to any one who enters 
 devoutly and seriously on the study of the 
 Old Testament ; they are but scanty samples 
 of the abundant harvest that may be gathered 
 by the help of many writers who have 
 laboured in this field of Biblical study. 
 
 But obviously many of these questions are 
 
 1 Chapter III., B. 
 
60 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 beyond the capacity of the average young girl 
 or boy ; they would therefore form no part of 
 an elementary course. The elder pupils would, 
 from effective teaching on such questions, 
 gather ideas, impressions, influences, which 
 would infuse into their Bible lessons the 
 spirit of life. Nevertheless, the characteristic 
 English reserve, shyness, inability to express 
 ideas, and other hindrances, would prevent 
 even elder pupils, certainly many of the boys, 
 from adequately reproducing on paper the 
 results even of the best teaching. Character 
 and principle, piety, reverence, and the love 
 of righteousness, may not be expressible in 
 written answers, nor calculable in marks ; and 
 to persons who estimate the value of an 
 educational subject by the number of marks 
 that can be got by it, the best teaching might 
 seem to be a comparative failure. 
 
 This being admitted, it still seems worth 
 while seriously to consider whether writers of 
 text-books, and examiners, might not do more 
 to encourage teachers in giving great attention 
 to the moral and religious truths of the Bible. 
 In any case teachers, recognising that the 
 examination test is both generally unavoid- 
 able and irremediably imperfect, will also 
 recognise that their own teaching of the Bible 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 61 
 
 is almost certainly inadequate if it can be 
 adequately estimated by examination marks. 
 
 SCHEME OF SELECTIONS FROM THE 
 OLD TESTAMENT 
 
 [The following is a tentative scheme of selections from 
 the historical books of the Old Testament ; it is framed on 
 principles suggested in the preceding pages. In every 
 case the selections include the last verse mentioned. A 
 reference Bible (which is indispensable for teachers, and 
 even for pupils) will show the connection of some of these 
 passages with those in other books.] 
 
 GENESIS i.-iv. ; vi. 5-ix. 19 ; xi. 1-9, 27-32 ; xii. 
 
 1-9 ; xiii.-xix. 28 ; xxi.-xxiv. ; xxv. 
 19-xxxiii. 20 ; xxxv. 1-20 ; xxxvii. ; 
 xxxix. 1-xlvi. 7; xlvi. 28 -end of 
 book. 
 
 EXODUS i. 7-14; i. 22-vi. 13; vii.-xxiv. ; xxxi. 
 
 18-xxxiv. 35 ; xl. 34-38. 
 
 LEVITICUS viii. 1-17; xxiii.-xxiv. 9; xxv. 
 
 NUMBERS x. 33-xi. 35 ; xiii. 17-xiv. 45 ; xvi. ; 
 
 xviii. 20-32 ; xx.-xxi. 9 ; xxii.-xxiv. ; 
 xxxii. 1-33. 
 
 DEUTERONOMY iv.-vi. ; viii. ; xii. 1-28 ; xvi. ; xviii. ; 
 xxvi. ; xxviii. 1-14; xxx.-xxxiv. 12. 
 
 JOSHUA i. ; iii. 1-vi. 21; x. 1-14; xx. ; xxiii.- 
 
 xxiv. 33. 
 
 JUDGES ii.-iii. 7; iv.-vii. 25; xi.-xii. 7; xiii. 
 
 RUTH All. 
 
RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 i.-iv. 22 ; vi.-xiii. 16 ; xv.-xxiv. 22 ; 
 xxvi. ; xxviii. ; xxxi. 
 
 i.-ii. 11 ; v. 1-12 ; vi.-vii. 29 (cf. I Cliron. 
 xxii., xxviii., xxix.) ; xi.-xii. 25 ; xv. ; 
 xviii.-xix. 43; xxii.-xxiii. 7; xxiv. 
 (cf. 1 Chron. xxi.). 
 
 i. 5-iii. 28 ; iv. 20-vi. 1 ; vii. 51-x. 13 ; 
 xi.-xiv. 31 (cf. 2 Chron. xii.) ; xvi. 29- 
 xix. 21 ; xxi.-xxii. 40. 
 
 ii. 1-22; iv.-v. 27; xvi. 1-20 (cf. 
 2 Cliron. xxviii.); xvii.-xx. 21 (cf. 
 2 Chron. xxix.-xxxii.) ; xxii.-xxiii. 
 30 (cf. 2 Chron. xxxv.) ; xxiii. 31- 
 xxv. 30. 
 
 i. ; ii. 64-vii. 28 ; ix.-x. 17. 
 
 i.-ii. 20 ; iv. ; v. ; viii. ; ix. ; xiii. 
 
 The prophetical books and the Psalms will be freely 
 used for illustrations of the historical books. For this 
 purpose a reference Bible will often be helpful ; but 
 further guidance is needed by the aid of such books as 
 are recommended in p. 58. The Kev. M. G. Glazebrook, 
 in his Lessons from the Old Testament, gives a useful 
 selection of passages. 
 
 The more important prophets will also be separately 
 and specially studied in higher forms, for the reasons 
 indicated in Chap. IV. p. 104 ff., and in Chap. VI. p. 
 166. 
 
 62 
 
 1 SAMUEL 
 
 2 SAMUEL 
 
 1 KINGS 
 
 2 KINGS 
 
 EZRA 
 NEHEMIAH 
 
IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 63 
 
 R THE INTER-TESTAMENTAL PERIOD 
 
 [The following short notes are meant simply to indicate 
 the wide variety of interesting matter for lessons respecting 
 this period ; it is all helpful, and in part necessary, as a 
 sequel to the Old Testament, and a preparation for the 
 study of the New Testament. The section is an abridg- 
 ment of notes for lessons given to a Vlth form.] 
 
 It has been previously suggested that the 
 purely political history of the Jewish nation 
 should, for the sake of economising time, be 
 disentangled from the history of the " Jewish 
 Church " : that is to say, the development of 
 revelation, religion, and morality among the 
 Jews should be traced without diverting 
 attention to such political events as are less 
 closely connected with this development. One 
 of the sound reasons for such compression 
 and abridgment of the Biblical narrative is 
 that time may thus be gained for subjects to 
 which too little attention has hitherto been 
 given. For instance, it seems irrational, after 
 following the history up to the time of Ezra 
 and Nehemiah, to leave unnoticed a period 
 of more than four centuries, during which the 
 development of the Jews, and God's discipline 
 of them, was not intermitted, and the prepara- 
 tion for the Gospel was further matured. 
 
 It is true that no canonical books of 
 
64 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 Scripture shed light upon this interval, and 
 that after Malachi (qirca 432 B.C.) comes a 
 period of some three centuries, of which scanty 
 records are left in the history of Palestine. It 
 is a period that shows some slight advance ; the 
 growth of a more catholic hope, and of a clearer 
 belief in a future life; but more and more towards 
 the close its history produces a sense of dis- 
 appointment : " it is a trial to one's faith in 
 the religious vocation of Israel ; if the Divine 
 spirit was immanent, whence came the sad 
 decadence ? " l Yet such periods of local ebb 
 in the advancing tide of human progress are 
 not unfamiliar in other historical epochs, for 
 instance, in the age before the Eeformation. 
 The close of this period has been compared 
 to the time in winter when seeds and kernels 
 have grown dry and hard, and yet the promise 
 of spring is at hand. The legalism of 
 the Scribes and Pharisees served to bring 
 into relief the inherent incompleteness of 
 the law, and so prepared the way for Christ. 
 And in spite of the discouraging semblance of 
 failure, there were, between Malachi and the 
 Advent, persons, events, movements of thought, 
 changes of national character and feeling, which 
 well merit more attention than they commonly 
 
 1 Professor A. B. Bruce, Apologetics, p. 288 sq. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 65 
 
 receive ; not only because they present the 
 natural sequel of the Old Testament history, 
 but still more because they contribute much 
 to the understanding of the state of Jewish 
 religion and morality at the time of our Lord's 
 coming. They enable us better to appreciate 
 the reasons why, when " He came to His own, 
 they that were His own received Him not " ; 
 and also how the seed-bed had been prepared 
 for the fruitful sowing of the Word, first in 
 the hearts of a faithful few; and then, after 
 the Eesurrection, widely throughout the Eoman 
 Empire. 
 
 Accordingly, it is suggested that material 
 for some interesting and useful lessons to 
 senior classes might be afforded by the follow- 
 ing topics, for which details could be gathered 
 from such books as Josephus; Stanley's Jewish 
 Church, vol. iii. ; Ewald, History of Israel, 
 vols. v. and vi. ; Edersheim, Jesus, the Messiah, 
 vol. i. ; the Eev. E. A. Eedford, four Centuries 
 of Silence ; Judaea and her filers (S.P.C.K.) ; 
 Edersheim's History of the Jewish Nation, 
 edited by the Eev. H. A. White ; Mr. W. D. 
 Morrison, The Jews under Eoman Rule ; the 
 Eev. Arthur Carr, in the Cambridge Companion 
 to the Bible, pp. 102-109 ; and, above all, E. 
 Schiirer, History of the Jewish People in the 
 F 
 
66 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 Time of Jesus Christ (6 vols., T. Clark, Edin- 
 burgh, a mine of well - arranged information, 
 with ample lists of books'). 
 
 (a) The influence of the Exile and Captivity 
 on Jewish religion and morality, producing a 
 contempt and hatred of polytheism, and a 
 final abandonment of it ; and, as a natural 
 result, a growing spirituality of religion and 
 purification of morals. 
 
 Judaism could not have reached its higher 
 developments without the exile to Babylon. 1 
 It taught the Jews a inore catholic view of 
 religion, that God's promises of mercy and 
 grace were not limited to one spot on the 
 earth, and that righteousness such as Daniel's 
 was as possible in Babylon as in Jerusalem. 
 It prepared the way for the final abolition of 
 sacrifice ; exiles debarred by the Deutero- 
 nomic law from sacrifices elsewhere than at 
 Jerusalem had to learn perforce that it was 
 possible to serve God without them. It paved 
 the way for the belief and hope (expressed in 
 the later chapters of Isaiah and elsewhere), 
 that their religion would ultimately so develop 
 and expand as to become no longer national 
 but universal. 
 
 (&) The transference of the centre of gravity 
 
 1 Mr. C. G. Montefiore, The Bible for Home Reading. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 67 
 
 of Judaism to Alexandria, and the consequent 
 fusion of Greek and Jewish elements of 
 thought, learning, morality, and conduct among 
 the Hellenists, whose greatest representative 
 was Philo. 1 
 
 (c) The LXX. version ; its origin, character, 
 importance ; how it maintained the knowledge 
 of the Law among the Jews of the dispersion, 
 who were ignorant of Hebrew ; and also was 
 ostium gentibus ad Christum, spreading among 
 the Gentiles a knowledge of the true God, 
 and of His promises of a Messiah, which at 
 the time of the Advent were current through- 
 out the Eastern world. After the Ascension 
 it was most helpful to the spread of the 
 Gospel (cf. Acts viii. 28, xv. 21); those 
 who were scattered abroad by persecution 
 carried tidings of Christ, confirmed by the 
 things written of Him in the LXX. Many of 
 the Fathers used it ; the old Latin version 
 was a translation of it long used in the West, 
 till superseded by Jerome's Vulgate, based on 
 the Hebrew ; it was translated into other 
 languages, and, in fact, for a long period was 
 the Old Testament of the larger part of the 
 Christian Church. 
 
 The variations from the received Massoretic 
 
 1 The Rev. T. B. Strong, Christian Ethics. 
 
68 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 Hebrew text show that the LXX. editors 
 used other, possibly older, MSS., which in 
 some cases had better readings ; and some of 
 these variations appear in quotations from Old 
 Testament in New Testament. A good example 
 is found in Hebrews x. 5 ; and other very 
 interesting instances are given by Eobertson 
 Smith from Jeremiah xxvii. 5 ff., 1 and the 
 narrative of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel. 
 
 Moreover, " the language of the LXX. is the 
 mould in which the thoughts and expressions 
 of apostles and evangelists are cast. It 
 created a new religious phraseology, trans- 
 ferring Hebrew terms and ideas into a 
 language teeming with ideas at variance with 
 Hebraism," 2 so that it is a treasury of illustra- 
 tion for the Greek Testament. 
 
 (<$) The Apocrypha, which can now be 
 studied with fresh profit in the Eevised 
 Version ; in the Cambridge Companion, pp. 8, 
 and 61 f., Professor Eyle gives a clear account 
 of the several books, and of their relation to 
 the Canonical books. 
 
 The LXX. version incorporated most of the 
 Apocrypha, and many of the Fathers, know- 
 
 1 The Old Testament in the Jewish Church. 
 
 2 Cambridge Companion to the Bible ; Dictionary of the 
 Bible, article on the LXX. ; Paterson Smyth, Old Docu- 
 ments and New BiUe. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 69 
 
 ing only Greek, accepted and quoted them as 
 Scripture. The Western Church, using the old 
 Latin version translated from the LXX., freely 
 accepted them ; and though Jerome excluded 
 them from his revised Vulgate, they were subse- 
 quently added by others. At the Eeformation, 
 Luther and the other Eeformers again set 
 them apart ; but the Council of Trent in 1547, 
 by the vote of a small and illiterate majority, 
 solemnly set them on the same level as the 
 Canonical books, thereby lowering the standard 
 which the Eeformers jealously maintained. 
 There is, indeed, a clear line of demarcation. 
 The Apocryphal books are marked by their 
 legendary and superstitious character, by their 
 lower religious tone, and by elements of a new 
 religious philosophy l due to Alexandrine influ- 
 ences. Some of these features obviously make 
 them helpful to the system and traditions of 
 the Eomish Church. 
 
 It may be asked, how then are they profit- 
 able to members of Eeformed churches ? If 
 once it is clearly understood that they are 
 not applied to establish any doctrine, they 
 serve "for example of life and instruction 
 of manners." Moreover, they supply much 
 
 1 The Rev. R. A. Redford, Four Centuries of Silence, 
 chap. v. 
 
70 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 material that is absolutely indispensable for 
 the Church history of the four centuries 
 between Malachi and John the Baptist ; they 
 show how God carried on the training of His 
 people, in reverence for the law, in morality, 
 in the growing belief of a future life and immor- 
 tality; and they help to illustrate the New 
 Testament by many coincidences of language 
 and thought. 1 
 
 (e) The cruel tyranny of Antiochus Epi- 
 phanes, and the wars of the Maccabees, afford 
 striking examples of the good that may result 
 from evil. From the time of Alexander, 
 Hellenising influences became more and more 
 powerful; in 175 B.C. they had already gained 
 over the majority; and if things had gone 
 smoothly, Judaism might either have been 
 absorbed, or have become more eclectic even 
 than the religious philosophy of Philo. The 
 violence of Antiochus Epiphanes saved Judaism 
 from this fate, and ultimately, in Palestine at 
 least, Hellenism became entirely subordinate. 2 
 
 (/) The wars of the Maccabees are interest- 
 ing in themselves ; and still more because they 
 
 1 For an appreciation of their value in these respects, 
 and also of their literary beauty and interest, see Dean 
 Stanley, Lecture XL VI I. ; Dean Farrar on Wisdom, and 
 Dr. G. Salmon's Introduction to the Apocrypha, in the 
 Speaker's Commentary. 2 E. Schiirer, vol. i. p. 194 sqq. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 71 
 
 resulted in elevation and purification of the 
 religious spirit, and in an ardent patriotism 
 and national pride, which, in spite of adverse 
 influences, survived to the Eoman period as a 
 living power ; not the weakest among the 
 national and popular sentiments that affected 
 the ministry of our Lord, and the progress of 
 the Church. Another outcome of this time 
 was the growing strength of the belief in a 
 future life and resurrection, which ultimately 
 contributed to prepare men to welcome the 
 preaching of " the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 (#) The establishment and growing influ- 
 ence of the synagogue system ; its effect in 
 promoting the growth of religious parties. 
 The Pharisees were closely connected with the 
 Scribes, who expounded the law. A singular 
 fluidity, and want of system in religious belief, 
 resulted from the Scribes' uncritical reverence 
 for the very letter of the Scriptures, written 
 in different ages, and far from uniform in 
 their presentation of religious views. They 
 ultimately "buried religion in the vast pyramid- 
 tomb of the Talmud/' 1 and their system of 
 teaching too frequently resulted in external- 
 ism, formalism, and inward scepticism. 2 Still 
 
 1 W. S. Bruce, Ethics of the Old Testament, p. 241. 
 
 2 Professor A. B. Bruce, Apologetics, p. 270 ; Mr. W. D. 
 Morrison, chap. x. 
 
72 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 the synagogue system was a means of main- 
 taining personal devotion and piety, and thus 
 it prepared the way for the time when the 
 Temple, with its sacrifices and ritual, should 
 disappear, and men should "worship the Father 
 in spirit and in truth." 
 
 Moreover, all-embracing legalism fostered 
 a high reverence for practical morality. 1 
 The sanctimonious Pharisees, whom our Lord 
 so frequently condemned, were not the type, 
 but the caricature of the normal Jew. 
 "Babbinic morality was simple and pure, 2 
 earnest yet cheerful, penetrating through 
 Jewish society; men were fitted by it for 
 the simple duties of everyday life, and also 
 made ready for the sublimest self-sacrifice for 
 the cause of God," such as was exemplified by 
 the apostles and martyrs of the early church. 
 In estimating the morality of the later Juda- 
 ism a distinction must be drawn between the 
 debased population of the capital, and the 
 simple peasants of the country districts ; just 
 as imperial Eome, and modern Paris, cannot 
 fairly be taken as representing the morality 
 of the provincial districts. 
 
 Thus the Law, in more senses than one, was 
 
 1 A. Ederslieim, Jewish Social Life. 
 2 Mr. C. G. Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 547. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 73 
 
 a " schoolmaster to lead men to Christ," and 
 some study of its continuous progressive in- 
 fluence on national and individual character 
 during this period is helpful, if not necessary, 
 for a just appreciation of that which helped, 
 and that which hindered, the preaching of 
 Christ's Gospel. 
 
 (li) The growing influence of Eome ; at 
 first favourable to Jewish independence by 
 weakening the power of Syria ; then after the 
 Mithridatic wars becoming predominant in 
 Judea ; and later, in the times of Julius Caesar 
 and Augustus, fostering the power of the 
 Herods, whose public works, and especially 
 the Temple, with its magnificent buildings 
 and stately ritual, stimulated the patriotic 
 and religious pride of the Jews and their 
 jealousy of any rival system. On the other 
 hand the Jewish settlement at Eome became 
 later the seed-plot of the Eoman Church, whose 
 branches were to overshadow the world. 
 
 (i) An outline sketch of the condition of 
 Jerusalem and Galilee at the time of our 
 Lord's birth. Some such sketch is sometimes 
 given as an introduction to text-books of the 
 Gospel history. It would be useful to point out 
 that Christianity, however much the law and 
 other influences had prepared the way for it, was 
 
74 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 not a natural product of such antecedents ; that 
 the appearance of the Son of God, the " Son 
 of Man," among such environments was not 
 the result of ordinary historical evolution ; but 
 was in simple truth a miracle, analogous to 
 that which followed the creative word, " Let 
 there be light, and there was light " (cf. John 
 i. 4, 5, 9). 1 
 
 (&) In higher classes it might be well to 
 speak of the preparation for Christianity 
 during these centuries by God's providential 
 guidance of the world's history, through (1) 
 the spread of Greek influence, thought, and 
 language ; (2) the growing political influence 
 and organisation of Eome. The pause in the 
 development of Judaism is coincident with 
 these successive or partly contemporaneous 
 movements, originating in the conquests of 
 Alexander and of Eome, like tide- waves flow- 
 ing in from east and west. The results of 
 conquests are not matured at once, and 
 Judaism was to wait until the new forces and 
 organisations had developed themselves. The 
 Saviour was born when the fulness of the 
 times had come through the convergence of 
 
 1 Edersheim, Jewish Social Life in the Time of Christ ; 
 Professor A. B. Bruce, The Miraculous Elements in the 
 Gospels, p. 334 sq. ; Newman Smyth, Old Faiths in New 
 Lights ; Bishop Moorhouse, The Teaching of Christ. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 75 
 
 the influences of Jerusalem and Alexandria, 
 of Greece and Eome. 1 
 
 0. NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 The main object is to gather from the New 
 Testament " that which is necessary to salva- 
 tion " (Article VI.) ; and, for reasons previously 
 given, this object should be pursued with as 
 much directness as is possible, avoiding all 
 that is relatively unimportant. Obviously the 
 questions of primary importance are, " the 
 steps of Christ's most holy life " ; what He 
 is ; what He did and taught ; what was His 
 purpose in coming among men; how He effected 
 it ; in what ways He is an example to us ; the 
 significance of His death and resurrection ; 
 His foundation of a Church ; its progress 
 under the teaching of the Spirit. Parts of 
 this scheme of instruction are plainly more 
 suitable for senior classes ; but in any case it 
 is a full programme, demanding careful selec- 
 tion and arrangement of materials. 
 
 1 For details see P. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 
 chap. i. ; Archdeacon Cheetham, Church History, chap, i., 
 and the authorities quoted by them ; also the Bishop of 
 Rochester's essay in Lux Mundi ; Professor A. B. Bruce, 
 Apologetics, Book II. (Internat. Theol. Library). 
 
76 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 No one would propose to read the life of any 
 great thinker, preacher, missionary, founder, in 
 three or four differently arranged biographies, 
 without any attempt to harmonise them, or 
 draw the broad outlines of a consistent picture. 
 But the life of our Lord is commonly studied 
 by reading the three synoptic Gospels suc- 
 cessively. Many of the discourses, parables, 
 miracles, etc., are thus read repeatedly, some- 
 times in different order and combination, and 
 with differing details. This causes not only an 
 ill-arranged expenditure of time, but also con- 
 fused notions of the relation and sequence of 
 events. The result is that the history of our 
 Lord's ministry, especially in Galilee, leaves in 
 the minds of most boys and girls a very frag- 
 mentary and inconsequent idea of its progress 
 and meaning. At a later stage of theological 
 teaching it may become necessary to study care- 
 fully the distinctive features of the Gospels ; but 
 a clear view of the whole course and purport of 
 the life of Christ should precede the examina- 
 tion of the characteristics of the writers of it. 
 
 Again, school programmes not uncommonly 
 omit the whole or the larger part of St. 
 John's Gospel. No doubt, the discourses, if 
 studied in detail, are difficult for young people ; 
 yet even juniors should not be ignorant of 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 77 
 
 St. John's supplementary narratives respecting 
 the ministry in Judaea ; arid the discourses, 
 at least in outline, can be so explained to elder 
 classes as to interest them deeply in the 
 presentations of the Divine personality and 
 higher teaching of Jesus. In fact, in the later 
 stages of school life they are a necessary com- 
 plement to the more rudimentary narratives of 
 the synoptic Gospels. It is true that there 
 is serious difference of opinion respecting the 
 order of events in the Gospels. Still it is 
 quite possible to agree upon a harmonic 
 arrangement, after the manner of the old 
 " Diatessaron," which, though not claiming to 
 be scientifically accurate in its chronology and 
 sequence of events, shall yet serve as a definite 
 framework for the narrative. 1 
 
 In this way the history of our Lord's life 
 may conveniently be divided into lessons for 
 three or four school terms, provided that 
 attention be confined to such matters as shall 
 help to produce a full, clear, living conception 
 and picture of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 
 and His ministry. But some points that are 
 now commonly insisted on may be reserved for 
 
 1 Simple outlines of such a harmony will be found in 
 Fuller's Harmony of the Gospels, S.P.C.K. (a translation of 
 Tischendorf, used also in the Rev. A. E. Hillard's Life of 
 Christ}. 
 
78 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 a later stage. Every one of the four Gospels 
 is of inestimable value and interest ; but 
 some questions relating to their individual 
 peculiarities, their relation to each other, etc., 
 belong to the province of " higher criticism " ; 
 it is premature to introduce them into the 
 teaching of younger pupils. It has been cus- 
 tomary to get up lists of non-pertinent details, 
 such as the parables or miracles peculiar to 
 each gospel, and other special characteristics ; 
 but matters of this sort are far less important 
 than that which is the central purpose of 
 every one of the Gospels : they are written 
 " that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, 
 the Son of God ; and that believing we may 
 have life in His name" (St. John xx. 31). 
 Similarly, some of the helps to the study of 
 the Bible, however well meant, may be practi- 
 cally hindrances to a living apprehension of its 
 higher purposes, " tithing mint, anise, and cum- 
 min, and neglecting the weightier matters." 
 A mass of detail diverts the attention, and 
 confuses the picture ; and young people may 
 come away from lessons on the Gospels burdened 
 with unimportant facts, yet without a clear 
 and high conception of the person and work 
 of Jesus ; of the course, meaning, results of 
 His ministry ; of His methods of training His 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 79 
 
 disciples for their future work ; l of the gradual 
 laying of the foundations of His Church and 
 kingdom by influence, teaching, and ordinance ; 
 of the reasons and tokens of the growing hatred 
 of His Pharisaic and priestly adversaries ; of 
 the different stages of the conflict in Galilee 
 and Jerusalem ; of His victory in spite of 
 seeming failure. 2 
 
 It should be obvious that even in junior 
 classes the Gospel history should be immedi- 
 ately followed by some outlines of the history 
 in the Acts, showing how the Lord's work was 
 carried on by His disciples, and how His 
 promises were fulfilled in the early history of 
 the Church. In the senior classes, after a 
 more detailed course in the Gospels, the Acts 
 will in like manner be studied more fully, 
 illustrated and supplemented by the corre- 
 lated parts of the Epistles, so as to show 
 the difficulties of various kinds that impeded 
 the work of the Gospel ; how they were over- 
 come ; the development of the Churches, and 
 of Christian doctrine, under the influence of 
 the Spirit ; the traces of organisation in the 
 infant Church. 3 
 
 1 Dr. H. Latham, Pastor Pastorum. 
 
 2 Bishop of Durham, St. John; F. Godet, St. John; 
 J. B. Mozley's University Sermon, The Pharisees. 
 
 3 Such a study of the Acts has been rendered more 
 
80 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 This scheme will once more require the 
 compression or omission of some of the his- 
 torical, geographical, political information that 
 is commonly included in Divinity lessons on 
 the Acts. About places of minor significance 
 such details may be given sparingly, just 
 enough to explain incidents in the narrative, 
 and add some " local colour " ; but they are 
 sometimes allowed to overlay and obscure on 
 pretence of illustrating. > Similarly, the gene- 
 alogy and family of the Herods, the personal 
 history of Gallio, Felix, Festus, etc., are allowed 
 to absorb needless attention. There are, how- 
 ever, some cities so closely concerned with 
 the spread of Christianity that well-sifted 
 information about them is almost essential ; 
 for instance, it is important to realise the 
 shifting of the centre of gravity from Jeru- 
 salem to Antioch, and the part played by 
 Ephesus. 
 
 It is even a question whether in higher 
 classes it is well to devote to the Hellenistic 
 Greek of the New Testament time that might 
 
 attractive, intelligent, and fruitful by the recent labours 
 of Professor W. Ramsay. See The Church in the Roman 
 Empire and Paul the Traveller ; these books greatly 
 strengthen the evidences of the historical genius of St. 
 Luke, and of the genuineness and accuracy of his writings. 
 See also the Preface to Blass's edition, and his article on the 
 Acts in the new edition of the Dictionary of the Bible. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 81 
 
 with greater advantage be employed on other 
 subjects. It is, indeed, a convenient neutral 
 ground, especially for those who know or like 
 Greek better than Divinity ; but the " ecbatic 
 and telic " senses of Iva, or the peculiar uses 
 of fir), may be made more prominent than some 
 of the primary objects of the Acts and Epistles. 
 It is desirable that candidates for Holy Orders 
 should know much of Hellenistic Greek, and 
 it is well that sixth-form boys should know 
 something of it ; but it is not so important 
 to their religious education as school exam- 
 ination papers often seem to imply. On the 
 other hand, more attention might well be 
 given to the simpler parts, especially the 
 ethical teaching, of the Epistles, without 
 entering upon questions of " higher criticism." 
 There are many chapters and passages which 
 might be read even in junior classes; they 
 would be compared with, and illustrated by, 
 our Lord's teaching, so as to show how His 
 apostles, guided by His Spirit, developed and 
 applied what they had learned from Him. 
 They would afford useful opportunities of in- 
 culcating the principles of Christian ethics, 
 and serve as a substitute for, or an introduc- 
 tion to, a more formal treatment of this unduly 
 neglected subject. Any teacher could easily 
 G 
 
82 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 select such passages. The following present 
 themselves as the most obvious : 
 
 Epistle to Komans xii., xiii. 
 1 Corinthians xiii., xv. 
 Galatians v. 16-vi. 10. 
 Ephesians iv.-vi. 
 Philippians iii.-iv. 9. 
 Colossians iii.-iv. 6. 
 1 Tliessalonians iv., v. 
 
 1 Timothy i.-ii. 7 ; vi. 
 
 2 Timothy i.-iii. 
 Titus ii., iii. 
 Philemon. 
 Hebrews xii., xiii. 
 
 And selected passages from James, 1 Peter, and 
 1 John. 
 
 The whole of this list might be beyond 
 the compass of a school programme, but it 
 offers a rich field of choice for continuous 
 or occasional lessons. 
 
 NOTE ON THE INFLUENCE OF EXAMINATIONS 
 ON THE TEACHING OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 I have read a large number of examination 
 papers set to secondary schools of various 
 grades by different examining bodies. They 
 naturally vary in range and difficulty, but the 
 character of them is singularly uniform. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 83 
 
 There is a lack of discrimination between the 
 facts that are and those that are not import- 
 ant, or rather a prevailing tendency to select 
 those that are of the latter kind. Far too 
 many questions are set on comparatively 
 minute details, on places, persons, incidents 
 that have little relation to the main purposes 
 for which the Bible should be studied. 
 
 On the other hand, there is quite a singular 
 want of such questions as encourage teachers 
 and pupils to think of and enter into the 
 moral and spiritual teaching of the inspired 
 books. This defect is specially remarkable in 
 papers on the Gospels. I have before me sets 
 of papers composed for examinations affecting 
 thousands of candidates in the years 1893 to 
 1895. In those three years successive papers 
 were set on the three synoptic Gospels. 
 They are such as to encourage or compel 
 teachers to impart a knowledge of the special 
 characteristics of the several books, and 
 the additions, omissions, peculiarities in the 
 narratives recorded by each; knowledge, no 
 doubt, of much interest and value, but belong- 
 ing properly to the department of literary 
 criticism. Then there are questions on the 
 Greek text, " explanations with reference to the 
 context," meanings of parables, etc. etc. But 
 
84 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 a boy or girl who had passed through a three 
 years' course on these three Gospels might 
 have got full marks for these papers, and yet 
 have no connected ideas about the personality 
 of Jesus, the special character of His teaching, 
 the purpose of His coming, the broad outlines 
 of His life, etc. 
 
 No one would be content to read the life 
 say of Luther, or Wesley, or Pitt, or Well- 
 ington, by such a method as these papers 
 encourage. Even from a purely secular point 
 of view such a method would be unintelligent. 
 And it must be remembered that the influence 
 of such papers on the teaching is resistless. 
 No doubt many teachers look above and 
 beyond the scope of the examination for 
 which the pupils are being prepared ; but a 
 large majority will consider that their duty is 
 fulfilled if, after studying the character and 
 range of the examination, they have prepared 
 their pupils to pass it successfully. 
 
 It may be said that these defects are in- 
 evitably inherent in any examination of such 
 a subject as " Divinity " ; or that criticism of 
 existing papers and methods is valueless with- 
 out some indication of a remedy. Some 
 detailed suggestions are therefore offered (as 
 in the case of the Old Testament) with refer- 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 85 
 
 ence to the kind of questions that may 
 reasonably and profitably be included among 
 the subjects of teaching, even in junior classes. 
 Assuming that the life of Jesus Christ has 
 been taught, or is being taught, with some 
 attention to its historical course, much matter 
 for teachers, perhaps even for examiners, might 
 be found in the following topics. An apology 
 for presenting such obvious suggestions in 
 a manual for teachers may be found in the 
 circumstances that tend to limit unduly the 
 subject matter of average religious teaching. 
 
 1. The character of Jesus as the Son of 
 Man ; what is to be learned from His child- 
 hood and boyhood ; His method of life, His 
 voluntary poverty and suffering ; how far 
 they were helpful, or even essential, to His 
 mission ; His love, sympathy, compassion ; 
 His purity, humility, obedience ; His manli- 
 ness and courage ; His freedom from passion, 
 pride, ambition, love of popularity ; His faith, 
 devoutness, prayerfulness, knowledge of the 
 Old Testament Scriptures; His freedom from 
 prejudice ; His discernment and dislike of 
 hypocrisy ; His liberality and catholicity ; 
 His claim of sinlessness, and all that this 
 connotes ; the miraculous combination of ap- 
 
86 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 parently conflicting qualities ; the manifold 
 influence that such an " ensample " should 
 have on those who claim to be His disciples. 
 
 2. Jesus as the Son of God ; the marks of 
 His Divinity in His history, words, and 
 actions ; His miraculous powers ; the object 
 of them ; His self-restraint in the use of them ; 
 the light they throw on His nature, character, 
 and mission ; human acknowledgments of His 
 Divinity, and His reception of them ; the 
 central importance of the Eesurrection ; " the 
 teaching of the Forty Days." 
 
 3. Jesus as a Teacher : " He taught as one 
 having authority, and not as the scribes " ; the 
 nature and explanation of the difference ; His 
 teachings about the Father, the Holy Spirit, 
 the Christian Church, Baptism, the Lord's 
 Supper, the Commandments, and their rela- 
 tion to Christian religion and morality ; His 
 teaching about the aims of life ; about riches, 
 almsgiving, thanksgiving, prayer, worship, 
 faith, death, judgment, heaven, hell; the 
 originality of His teaching ; its relation to His 
 " environment," and to previous teachers. 
 
 4. His relations to various sections of the 
 Jews ; His popularity with the common people ; 
 the causes of it, and His own action in face of 
 it ; why He was received in Galilee, rejected 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 87 
 
 at Jerusalem ; the hostility of the Pharisees, 
 Sadducees, and priests, and the causes of it. 
 
 5. Jesus as Prophet, Priest, King, Messiah ; 
 resemblances to, and differences from, the old 
 types ; in what sense " the testimony of Jesus 
 is the spirit of prophecy " ; Jewish misconcep- 
 tions of His personality and mission; their 
 causes and results. 
 
 6. Simple applications of the principles of 
 the Gospel to modern life ; their bearing on 
 the aims of life, and the choice of a career ; 
 on self-denial, almsgiving, and the relief of 
 the poor ; on the duties of property, and the 
 right use of " the blessings of this life " ; on 
 elementary social and civic duties. 
 
 Some of these questions may be mainly 
 suitable for senior classes, but the large 
 majority demand no more than knowledge 
 of the facts about Jesus Christ and His 
 teaching, coupled with elementary conceptions 
 of their significance, in such a measure as is 
 essential for intelligent understanding of what 
 He was and what He came to do. 1 
 
 1 Books for reference are innumerable ; among the more 
 obvious are F. W. Robertson, Sermons; J. H. Newman, 
 Sermons; H. P. Liddon, Bampton Lectures; Newman Smyth, 
 Old Faiths in New Lights ; Dr. A. M. Fairbairn, Studies 
 of the Life of Christ ; J. R. Seeley, Ecce Homo, especially 
 chaps, xiv. , xvii. -xxiii. ; Bishop Moorhouse, The Teaching 
 of Christ ; Dr. H. Latham, Pastor Pastorum. 
 
88 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 Iii answer to what has been said it might 
 be urged that the Churches, by services, 
 sermons, lectures, etc., provide supplementary 
 instruction in the Christian Faith which may 
 remedy deficiencies in school teaching. Such 
 an answer might be valid in respect of the 
 large number of elementary school children 
 who attend Sunday schools in which system- 
 atic teaching is organised. But there are 
 many pupils of secondary schools who have 
 no similar advantages and opportunities, 
 except in Confirmation classes (yet, as the time 
 allotted to these does not usually exceed a 
 few hours, it is not possible to cover the 
 whole of the ground) ; or through such 
 similar agencies as may exist among Non- 
 conformists ; and some few may be members 
 of congregations in which the ancient and 
 most wholesome observance of public catechis- 
 ing is maintained. The teaching of sermons , 
 and lectures is generally fragmentary and 
 unsystematic ; in most congregations it is 
 addressed chiefly to adults, and it has to 
 assume that the hearers already possess a 
 framework of the essential truths and prin- 
 ciples of the Gospel. If then such a framework! 
 is not built up by the teaching of the school, 
 there is a probability that a large number of 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 89 
 
 young people will grow up with most un- 
 formed conceptions of the elementary truths 
 of Christianity. 
 
 Much that was said (Chap. I. p. 18, 
 and Chap. III. p. 54) about the influence, 
 and the corresponding duty, of examining 
 bodies will apply mutatis mutandis to the 
 subject now under consideration. To discover 
 and apply a remedy for defects is, no doubt, 
 more difficult. Sectarian divisions are wider 
 and deeper in respect of the teaching of the 
 New Testament ; yet, after all, there appears 
 to be no adequate reason against agreement 
 about the right method of examining knowledge 
 of the large body of fundamental Christian 
 truth which is held in common by all, or 
 nearly all, the Eeformed churches. In any 
 case examining bodies bear a responsibility 
 proportioned to the influence they wield ; and 
 it is their duty to consider whether the pre- 
 sent system of examinations is the best that is 
 possible under existing circumstances ; and if 
 not, to improve it. 
 
 D. EARLY CHURCH HISTORY 
 
 There are strong reasons why this subject 
 should be taught to elder pupils in out- 
 
90 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 lines as far (say) as the end of the fourth 
 century. 
 
 It is the natural sequel to our Lord's life, 
 and to the Acts of the Apostles ; and if 
 judiciously presented in a form suitable to 
 young minds, it is full of interest and in- 
 struction. To this end the teaching should 
 be based on some such principles as the 
 following : 
 
 (1) The history should not be arranged on 
 the annalistic plan, travelling steadily through 
 the period in chronological order. Such a 
 treatment is dry and confusing; the large, 
 broad features of the Church's growth and 
 progress are obscured by overlapping details. 
 
 (2) Heresies and strifes about doctrine 
 should be kept as much as possible in the 
 background ; they are confusing and repellent 
 to young people, who have as yet barely 
 assimilated what is normal and catholic in 
 doctrine. Besides, not a few heresies, even 
 some which loom large in Church histories, 
 were but of local or transitory importance; 
 to make them prominent in early teaching 
 is a mistake akin to that of giving undue 
 prominence to irregularities in the teaching 
 of grammar. 
 
 (3) The important topics, carefully selected 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 91 
 
 and limited, should be arranged under separate 
 headings, as is done, for instance, in Arch- 
 deacon Cheetham's Church History, where the 
 important facts are grouped so as to show 1 
 (a) the preparation of the world for the spread 
 of Christianity; 2 (5) the outline of the 
 struggle between the Church and the Empire ; 
 with special reference to Trajan, Hadrian, and 
 Marcus Aurelius, and the reasons why per- 
 secution was inevitable, even under the best 
 emperors ; the main persecutions and their 
 results; the ultimate victory of the Church 
 and its causes. " The main cause of the ruin 
 of the Empire was the moral deterioration of the 
 lower classes ; Christianity, if adopted in time, 
 might have prevented this result." 3 (c) An 
 outline of the attack and defence by argument, 
 giving a brief notice of the principal assailants 
 of Christianity and the apologists. If presented 
 in a simple form, such an outline would show 
 the moral and intellectual obstacles to the 
 spread of Christianity, and the methods by 
 
 1 For such outlines there is no lack of material in the 
 Church histories of W. H. Simcox, J. C. Robertson, Arch- 
 deacon Cheetham, the Rev. A. H. Hore, and above all in 
 Dr. Philip Schaffs History of the Christian Church, and the 
 copious list of authorities cited by him. 
 
 2 Bishop of Rochester's Essay in Lux Mundi. 
 
 3 Bishop Westcott's "The Church and the World," in 
 his Epistles of St. John ; Professor W. Ramsay's The Church 
 and the Roman Empire. 
 
92 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 which they were overcome. 1 (d) The spread of 
 the Gospel in the several provinces of the 
 Eoman Empire ; the chief Churches and their 
 characteristics; biographical outlines of a 
 selected few of the chief representatives of the 
 Churches (see 4). (e) Very - briefly, the 
 development of catholic doctrine, with sparing 
 references to the influence of Gnosticism, 
 Arianism, etc.; the Apostolic and Mcene Creeds; 
 not the Athanasian 2 (see 2). (/) The 
 organisation of the Church, which enabled it 
 to withstand the opposition of the Empire, 
 and ultimately to become its chief ally and 
 support; with short details of worship, 
 ceremonies, etc. (g) Christian social life and 
 morality. With reference to this, Professor 
 Sanday says, 3 " The one thing that is 
 most needed in the history of the Church, 
 and of its institutions, is to ascertain 
 truly and describe sympathetically, not the 
 higher flights of genius within the Church, 
 not the eccentricities of those who sought to 
 recast Church life or Church doctrine, but the 
 
 1 The translation of Justin's apology in Griffith and 
 Farran's Library would supply matter for an interesting 
 lesson to a senior class. 
 
 2 Archdeacon Watkins' Arianism, chap, i, ; Archdeacon 
 Cheetham, 96-102. 
 
 3 Guardian, 23rd September 1896. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 93 
 
 slow, steady, onward progress of the main body 
 of inute inglorious Christians with those of 
 their leaders, who are for us also mute and 
 inglorious because they did not write, and 
 have no historian." The difficulty of supply- 
 ing such a demand is obvious ; material may, 
 however, be found in such early writings 
 as the Epistle to Diognetus, the Homilies of 
 Chrysostorn, the letters of Pliny to Trajan ; 
 Aristides, Apology, 15-17; Eusebius, vii. 22; 
 Tertullian, Apology, ix., xxviii.-xxxvi., xxxix., 
 xlii. ; Ad Scap. iv., v. ; De Spect. i. See also Dr. 
 C. Croslegh, Christianity judged ~by its Fruits 
 (S.P.C.K.) ; Dr. C. G. A. Schmidt, Social Results 
 of Early Christianity ; Dr. P. Schaff, History 
 of the Church, Part I. chap. viii. ; Part II. 
 chap. viii. ; and the books referred to by 
 him. C. L. Brace, Gesta Christi, chaps, i.-x., 
 shows the influence of the Gospel during 
 the Eoman period on social and individual 
 morality. 
 
 (4) The biographical element 1 (see 3) must 
 be prominent. Young people ought to be 
 made acquainted with the character and life- 
 work of such men as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, 
 Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, 
 
 1 It is a question whether biographical notices should be 
 inserted in their places in 3, or grouped together in a 
 separate section. 
 
94 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 Cyprian, Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius, 
 Chrysostoin, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine. 1 
 
 If the foregoing principles are accepted 
 as the basis of a Church history for schools, 
 it will not be easy to find an existing text- 
 book which satisfies the conditions. But if 
 a demand arose for such a book it would no 
 doubt be speedily supplied. 
 
 (The following words were spoken at the 
 Head Masters' Conference, 1892, in reference 
 to a resolution recommending instruction in 
 Church history, passed at a Conference on 
 Eeligious Teaching held at Sion College in 
 June 1892): 
 
 I entirely agree that Church history should be 
 taught in all schools : in fact schoolmasters are 
 doing that now ; they are teaching the Bible 
 history of the Jewish Church, and of the begin- 
 ning of the Christian Church. If they are to add 
 Church history of a later date, time must be found 
 for it by economising in respect of the subjects 
 that are already being taught. Now Bible history 
 is not all Church history; much of it is the history 
 of the Jewish people ; similarly, English history 
 is not entirely Church history. Jewish history, 
 as a whole, is of course supremely interesting; 
 yet there are parts of the general history of the 
 
 1 Dean Farrar's Lives of the Fathers ; Dr. A. Plummer, 
 The Church of the Early Fathers ; Dr. F. J. A. Hort, The 
 Ante-Nicene Fathers. 
 
in IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 95 
 
 Jewish people which are now of secondary import- 
 ance to English boys, e.g. the details of the 
 partition of the land of Canaan, the wars and 
 conquests of Joshua and some of the kings, 
 the complicated relations of the kings of Israel 
 and Judah. 
 
 Economy of time in Old Testament teaching 
 might be obtained by omitting or passing lightly 
 over matters of secular history in order to find 
 time for that which is closely related to the history 
 of the Jewish Church ; that is, to the system and 
 discipline by which God prepared His chosen 
 people to receive the Messiah, and to give their 
 sons and daughters to be His followers, apostles, 
 and evangelists. 
 
 Similarly, in teaching the New Testament, 
 while teachers would not think of omitting any 
 word of the Gospels or Acts, they would give 
 less heed to more secular matters, such as the 
 sites, history, and antiquities of Corinth, Ephesus, 
 etc., in order that they might give more attention 
 to the growth of the Christian Church, and the 
 germs of the institutions and doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity and Christendom. 
 
 If later Church history is attempted, there 
 must be a careful choice among the immense mass 
 of materials. Church history is a part of Welt- 
 Geschichte, world -history ; it has to be studied in its 
 relation to many secular political events ; by itself 
 it is comparatively unintelligible, at any rate after 
 the first four centuries of our era. English schools 
 usually do not attempt to teach world-history 
 
96 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP, in 
 
 as it is taught in German schools ; this is a 
 reason why English schools might confine them- 
 selves to the history of religion in England. 
 Again, the history of the Eastern and Western 
 Churches is largely concerned with heresies, 
 strifes, wars of religion, which are unedifying 
 to the young. If, however, it is thought fit to 
 teach general Church history, it should be in 
 the spirit and on the lines of the admirable 
 chapters in Guizot's Civilisation in Europe, in 
 which he shows the influence of the Church in 
 organising, moulding, civilising, and spiritualising 
 the complex elements, first of the decaying 
 Eoman Empire, then of the feudal system and 
 the growing nationalities of Europe. 
 
 Similarly in teaching English Church history 
 much would be omitted that finds a place in the 
 ordinary manuals. The object would be to show 
 how, under God's providence, the English Church 
 has been a main agency in civilising the country, 
 and maintaining in it religion and piety. There 
 would be a large use of biography ; facts and 
 principles would be grouped round the lives of 
 such men as Bede, Theodore, Anselm, Langton, 
 Wycliffe, Tyndale, Latimer, etc. It may be said 
 that manuals for such teaching are not in exist- 
 ence, but if there were a call for them they would 
 soon be produced. [G. C. B.] 
 
CHAPTEE IV 
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 
 
 " THE word of God contained in the Old and 
 New Testaments " may, to the most simple and 
 ignorant believers, " become effectual unto 
 salvation if they attend to it with diligence, 
 preparation, and prayer, receive it with faith 
 arid love, lay it up in their hearts, and practise 
 it in their lives." l But the study of the Bible 
 raises in an educated mind questions of which 
 one of the foremost is the inquiry into the 
 nature, extent, and efficacy of its inspiration. 
 No intelligent study of it is possible for him 
 who starts with a false theory of inspiration 
 resting on a priori notions of it ; such theories 
 have been, and still are, fatal obstacles to a 
 just comprehension of God's ways of revealing 
 Himself to man. 
 
 1 The Scottish Shorter Catechism. 
 H 
 
98 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 Inspiration is plainly asserted in Holy 
 Scripture : " God spake unto the fathers 
 through the prophets " ; " The Holy Ghost 
 spake through the prophets " ; " The Spirit 
 of Christ testified beforehand in them " ; and 
 it must be remembered that in the Jewish 
 Canon " the Prophets " include the historical 
 books. 1 But it is nowhere defined either in 
 Scripture, or in the formularies of the Church 
 (see Articles vi., vii.) ; its nature must be 
 gathered simply from examination of the books 
 themselves, and the method of their writers is 
 clearly indicated by what St. Luke says of 
 his own labours in compiling his Gospel 2 
 (Luke i. 1-3). 
 
 The leading characteristics of the books of 
 the " Divine Library " may be briefly summar- 
 ised as follows : 
 
 I. Notwithstanding the very wide range and 
 variety of these Scriptures, which embody tra- 
 ditions, documents, etc., of unknown antiquity, 
 there is an unbroken but progressive unity of 
 purpose ; the revelations, and religious and 
 moral principles contained in the earlier 
 books, are on the same lines as those in the 
 later, only less full, clear, and definite. No 
 
 1 Professor A. F. Kirkpatrick, The Divine Library. 
 2 Professor Driver, Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 146. 
 
iv IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 99 
 
 other literature is thus penetrated with a 
 single purpose, and connected with a national 
 history so unique in its character, progress, 
 and results. It records the gradual training 
 of the seed of Abraham, the chosen people, 
 and the preparation for the coming of the 
 Messiah from their stock. Successively or 
 contemporaneously, the Law, the priestly 
 sacrificial system, the monarchy, the prophets, 
 the Captivity, the Eeturn, and the " Interval," 
 carry forward this education of Israel, and 
 prepare the way for Him who fulfilled the 
 Law ; in whom, as Priest, King, Prophet, and 
 suffering Kedeemer, all the lines of this unique 
 history marvellously converge, and find their 
 complete synthesis and interpretation. 
 
 Attentive study of these facts confirms the 
 belief, inherited by the Christian Church, that 
 this unity is due to the influence of God's 
 Holy Spirit, guiding not only the progress of 
 the history, but also the writers whose records 
 are our only witness to it. 
 
 II. Further examination shows (1) that this 
 influence did not so act as to overcome the 
 personality of the writers, or cause them to 
 express themselves in the same manner. The 
 writers made use of their ordinary human 
 faculties in composing, compiling, editing, 
 
100 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 using existing materials and old traditions. 
 They have recourse to different forms of literary 
 composition, historical, poetical, dramatic. 1 
 
 (2) The inspiring influence did not so 
 work in them as to ensure accuracy in 
 every minute detail of history. But such 
 circumstantial errors lie within such narrow 
 limits 2 as in no way to affect the general 
 veracity of the record of facts, still less to 
 impair the authority of the Bible in matters 
 of faith and practice. 3 
 
 (3) It acted on men who were in very 
 different stages of moral development. God 
 works slowly ; it was no more a part of His 
 plan to impart a completely developed morality 
 in early times than it was to impart accurate 
 scientific knowledge. Jesus speaks of a law 
 of Moses in which a great moral principle 
 was partly suspended ; and the enactment was 
 not intrinsically perfect, but was at that time 
 adapted to " the hardness of their hearts." 
 Training of any kind implies adaptation to 
 imperfect conditions; and in this may be 
 
 1 Mr. R. G. Moulton, Literary Study of the Bible. 
 
 2 Professor W. Sanday, Inspiration, p. 161. 
 
 3 Dr. C. A. Briggs, in The Bible, The Church, and Reason, 
 chap. iv. , quotes passages from Origen, Jerome, Augustine, 
 Luther, Calvin, Baxter, etc., to confirm this qualifying 
 view of inspiration. 
 
iv IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 101 
 
 found a solution of many of the common 
 difficulties of Old Testament history, such as 
 the sacrifice of Abraham, the deceitfulness of 
 Jacob, the wars in Canaan, the patriotism 
 of Jael, the imprecatory Psalrns. 1 Professor 
 Fairbairn speaks of " the intellectual in- 
 nocence " of him who rejects the Bible 
 because of its accounts of Cain, Jacob, David, 
 etc. " If the Bible is absurd or ridiculous, 
 the history of mankind, which has been so 
 much influenced by it, is a march of unreason. 
 The best progress of humanity has come from 
 the Bible, and such innocent objections are 
 based on a wrong conception of its nature." ' 
 
 God did not make His people an entirely new 
 creation under wholly new conditions ; He 
 took the sons of Abraham with their inherited 
 characteristics and traditions ; He progressively 
 sifted out the evil and infused the good so as 
 to produce something purer and higher than 
 would have been developed without this special 
 aid, guarding this product from contamination, 
 and guiding its growth and expansion through 
 all the vicissitudes of history. 
 
 It may be added that the moral difficulties 
 of the Old Testament are complicated by 
 
 1 Prof. Driver, Sermons on the Old Testament, pp. 149 ff. 
 - Religion in History, p, 104. 
 
102 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 the practice, common in Hebrew writings, of 
 ascribing men's purposes and actions to the 
 direct intervention of God ; and by a too 
 literal acceptance of expressions such as " God 
 spake," " The Lord said." Compare 2 Samuel 
 xxiv. 1 with 1 Chronicles xxi. 1 ; the writers' 
 different accounts of the origin of David's 
 action indicate their meaning, and their 
 estimate of his policy. 
 
 III. But it may now be asked, if all these 
 qualifications are admitted, what then are the 
 limits, the power, the value and authority 
 of the inspiration of the Bible books ? " The 
 inspiration of the Old Testament is to be 
 traced not so much in the form and matter 
 of the records as in the moral and religious 
 purposes that guide the writers. The fully 
 developed ' Laws of Moses ' appear to be 
 the result of successive redactions and develop- 
 ments of traditions of a much older period, 
 They derive their religious significance and 
 value from the purpose that shines through 
 them, and their relation to the pure religion 
 that they helped to develop." ] M. Lenormant 
 (a Eoman Catholic and a man of science) says : 
 " L'inspiration Divine se trouve dans 1'esprit 
 absolument nouveau qui anime la narration." 
 
 1 The Rev. W. F. Cobb, Oriyines Judaicae. 
 
iv IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 103 
 
 Inspiration has worked by a process of 
 selection from materials of the most diverse 
 kinds, on a system which progressively de- 
 velops itself; so that while the Old Testament 
 pays little attention to the course of material 
 civilisation, it traces in preference the pic- 
 ture of moral progress and of religious truth. 
 The exuberant polytheism of the Chaldaean 
 histories has been eliminated to give place to 
 the most severe monotheism ; naturalist ideas 
 of singular coarseness have been so modified 
 as to express moral truths of the most spiritual 
 order ; and between the Bible and the sacred 
 books most closely akin to them lies the in- 
 terval of a complete revolution in human belief. 
 The ideas become progressively more wide, pure, 
 and spiritual from the early pages of Genesis 
 to the call of Abraham, the promulgation of 
 the Mosaic Law, and the mission of the 
 prophets, who, in their turn, point onward to 
 the supreme fulfilment in Jesus Christ and 
 the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 If the very letter of the entire record is 
 held to be inspired, experience has shown 
 that new discoveries may at any time weaken 
 belief in its value and power (though, in 
 fact, recent discoveries have in many points 
 brought fresh testimony to its accuracy) ; 
 
104 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 but if the Old Testament is judged by com- 
 paring and correlating its moral, religious, and 
 devotional purpose with that of the Christian 
 system, the position is impregnable. " The 
 Divine element in Scripture is indeed abun- 
 dantly manifest ; ' the heavenliness of the 
 matter ' to use the expressive phrase of the 
 Westminster Confession speaks in it with 
 a clearness that none can mistake." l The 
 historians show how Israel was more and more 
 separated from its neighbours to be a witness 
 and keeper of the law of holiness and truth ; 
 in the Psalms 2 all the highest and deepest 
 feelings of the religious soul are expressed, 
 with a living power which makes them inex- 
 pressibly precious to the believing Christian ; 
 in the prophets shine forth sublime declara- 
 tions of truth, righteousness, and judgment. 
 
 The function of the prophets was so im- 
 portant that it calls for somewhat fuller con- 
 sideration. 3 The prophet differs from the 
 ordinary teacher in that he produces something 
 new. 4 Watching the stream of the people's 
 life, he proclaims the advancing accomplish- 
 ment of God's eternal counsels; in the present 
 
 1 Professor Driver, Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 147. 
 
 2 Dean Church, The Gifts of Civilisation, pp. 336 ff. 
 8 See Chap. VI. p. 166. 
 
 4 Dr. H. Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, p. 295 ff. 
 
iv IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 105 
 
 he shows at once the fulfilment of past types, 
 and the visions of still more complete fulfil- 
 ment in the future ; for he recognises that the 
 Old Covenant of Jehovah with His people is 
 but preparatory for the New Covenant of a 
 Messianic future. But in all his utterances 
 he is but the channel of a Divine word 
 " which was spoken by the Lord through the 
 prophet " (Matt. i. 22), and this word is usually 
 in close relation to contemporary history ; the 
 Divine Spirit who .manifests Himself in the 
 historical fact declares Himself also in the 
 prophetic word which reveals the spiritual 
 significance of the fact. Yet always prophecy, 
 like knowledge, is "in part" (1 Cor. xiii. 9), 
 fragmentary, limited by the mysterious rela- 
 tions of God's omniscient providence to the 
 future of humanity, and to human freewill, 
 until the fulness of time when type and 
 prophecy were fulfilled and harmonised in 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Messianic prophecy in its development 
 through the centuries, from Genesis to Malachi, 
 exhibits these positive and negative character- 
 istics, and is the most convincing proof of 
 Divine inspiration ; not so much by the exact 
 correspondence of prophecy with fulfilment, 
 for " though there are undoubted examples of 
 
106 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 true prediction, yet the predictive element in 
 the prophets is not so great as is sometimes 
 supposed " ; l but rather by the marvellous con- 
 vergence of apparently unconnected or incom- 
 patible types, features, foreshadowings, in the 
 personality and life of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 But the prophets were far more than fore- 
 tellers of the new covenant ; they were God's 
 chief instruments in the development and 
 education of the chosen people, from whom 
 the Son of David was to come forth. 
 
 Their predominant activity has given rise 
 to the theory adopted by Kenan and other 
 scholars that the religion of Jehovah owes its 
 birth to their " ardent meditations." Though 
 such a theory cannot be reconciled with the 
 facts of history and the ancient traditions of 
 Israel, it may serve to throw into relief the 
 strength of the prophetic influence through 
 which, from the time of Abraham, Israel began 
 and continued to be " the prophet among the 
 nations," the chief depositary of the light 
 of Divine revelation. It has been said that 
 the strain of the prophetic teaching is an ever 
 fresh variation on four main themes : what 
 is not founded on righteousness must perish ; 
 Jehovah has revealed His righteousness to 
 1 Professor Driver, Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 107. 
 
iv IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 107 
 
 Israel; Israel should fulfil righteousness; 
 righteousness shall be fulfilled in |he day of 
 Jehovah. 1 Thus, proclaiming God's righteous- 
 ness, protesting against evil without fear or 
 favour, reminding the people of their duty to 
 God, blending threats of God's judgments with 
 most gracious promises of His favour, shedding 
 on the darkest moments of national disaster the 
 bright gleams of hope and future restoration, 
 not only are the prophets of Israel unique 
 among the writers of ancient times, but also 
 their Divine inspiration is ratified and con- 
 firmed by the unique history of the chosen 
 people. " The Old Testament does not simply 
 contain prophecies it is one vast prophecy; 
 in the record of national fortunes, in the ordi- 
 nances of a national law, in the expression 
 of a national hope, Israel in its history, in its 
 ritual, in its ideal, is, among the peoples of the 
 world, a unique enigma, of w r hich the Christ 
 is the complete solution." f * 
 
 The principles of selection and elimination, 
 which are among the tokens of inspiration, 
 
 1 James Darmesteter, Les Prophetes d' Israel; Professor 
 A. B. Bruce, Apologetics, bk. ii. ; Mr. C. G. Montefiore, 
 Hibbert Lectures. 
 
 2 Bishop of Durham, Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 491. 
 (The whole excursus from which these words are taken is 
 most valuable.) 
 
108 RELIGIOUS TEACHING OHAP. 
 
 can be effectively illustrated from the early 
 chapters of Genesis. Taken in their literal 
 simplicity, they have been a constant source 
 of difficulties and a stumblingblock to believers ; 
 and have supplied materials for scoffing or 
 serious objections, such as are absolutely un- 
 answerable by the advocates of a verbal or 
 mechanical inspiration in the present con- 
 dition of science and literary criticism. 
 Nevertheless in them, as in the higher 
 parts of the Bible, there is an unfaltering 
 testimony to God's holiness and His require- 
 ment of righteousness in man, combined with 
 other marks of Divine guidance and inspira- 
 tion. 
 
 (a) The Creation. 1 Innumerable attempts 
 have been made to co-ordinate a literal ex- 
 planation of the Biblical narrative with the 
 established facts of science ; but in compara- 
 tively recent years archaeological discoveries 
 have shown that the framework of the 
 Scripture record is in all probability derived 
 from an Assyrian tradition of great anti- 
 quity, which is also the original source of a 
 Babylonian document, now in the British 
 Museum, brought from the "library" of 
 
 1 For the material for these paragraphs I am largely 
 indebted to Professor Ryle's Early Narratives of Genesis. 
 
iv IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 109 
 
 Assurbanipal (who reigned 668-626 B.C.). 
 In this instance the influence of inspiration 
 is apparent in the purity and elevation of 
 the conceptions of God, man, and the material 
 universe. No similar influence can be traced 
 in the early religious traditions of other nations 
 akin to Israel, or indeed of any other nation 
 known to history. They stand forth as 
 revelations by the Spirit of God of some of 
 the most vital and momentous truths of 
 spiritual religion, communicated to Israel 
 in ages when Egypt and other civilised 
 nations of antiquity were groping in the 
 darkness of polytheistic superstition. And 
 these truths are set in a framework obviously 
 intended as a help to the memory ; l in fact, 
 there is reason to consider it as a poem, but 
 the poetry is so inspired as to be free from 
 the tendency to deify the forces and phenomena 
 of nature, and from other mythological super- 
 stitions of Chaldea, Egypt, and other nations 
 of antiquity ; it teaches that God by successive 
 stages was the creator of matter, life, and 
 human consciousness. Thus at the very 
 beginning the history is based on principles 
 of theology and morality which still under- 
 
 1 Dr. Newman Smyth, Old Faiths in New Lights, chaps, 
 iii., iv. 
 
110 RELIGIOUS TEACHING OHAP. 
 
 lie the religious creeds of the most highly 
 cultivated nations of Christendom. God 
 is set forth (not as evolved from chaos, or 
 from pre-organised matter, not as one of a 
 group of discordant deities, but) self-existing, 
 the Maker and Euler of all things, wise, benefi- 
 cent, loving man, and hating sin. Man is 
 presented (not as the degenerate outcome of 
 some subordinate divinity, but) made in the 
 image of God, deriving his life from the 
 Divine Spirit, with a conscience, freedom of will, 
 intellectual powers. The physical universe 
 is (not essentially evil, or in conflict with the 
 Deity, but) " very good " in His sight, brought 
 into existence by His will, developed according 
 to His plan, made subservient to the needs 
 of human kind. " The Creator reveals His 
 power as the power of wisdom and love by 
 the production of a world endowed with 
 freedom, and a limited measure of independent 
 power." ] 
 
 (&) The Fall of Man. In this case also an 
 ancient Semitic tradition appears to have been 
 the common source both of the Bible narrative 
 and of a corresponding Babylonian record. 
 But Divine inspiration has infused such 
 elements of purity and spirituality into the 
 1 Dr. H. Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, p. 117. 
 
iv IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 111 
 
 old story that it has become the vehicle of 
 new truths respecting freewill, temptation, sin, 
 and retribution. Man is represented as free 
 to choose between good and evil. The serpent 
 (not to be identified with the later developed 
 conception of Satan *) personifies the tempta- 
 tions of the lower desires and appetites. 
 Man's choice to gratify them rather than 
 obey the will of God brings upon him separa- 
 tion from God's presence, unhappiness, suffer- 
 ing, and death. 2 Yet God does not leave 
 him without hope. Dimly and obscurely, after 
 the manner of prophetic inspiration, yet in 
 words that were full of growing significance 
 to later generations, it is promised that " the 
 seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's 
 head" (cf. Eomans v. 12-21 ; xvi. 20). 
 
 An unexplained difficulty in the story, viz. 
 the relation between sin and death, seems to 
 
 1 See some interesting pages in Miss Julia "Wedgwood, 
 The Moral Ideal, 78-80, on the gradual development of the 
 conception of Satan in the Bible, culminating in the book 
 of Revelation ; our Lord's words are very significant, Luke 
 x. 18 ; Matthew xvi. 23 ; Matthew iv. 10. 
 
 2 See an interesting passage on the Tree of Knowledge in 
 Mr. C. G. Montefiore's Bible for Home Heading, p. 564. It has 
 no parallel in similar stories of other races, though the Tree 
 of Life is customary ; the combination of good and evil 
 indicates the relation of human wisdom and goodness to 
 the knowledge of evil in its various forms of sorrow, 
 suffering, pain, and sin. 
 
112 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 be due to the tendency (visible through all 
 the earlier periods of the Jewish history) 
 to regard every form of material suffering as 
 the direct punishment of evil-doing ; and to 
 an effort of the Biblical writer to suggest a 
 solution of the insoluble mystery of the origin 
 of evil. Speculations on this subject are 
 frequent in Job, the Psalms, the Prophets, 
 and the "Wisdom Books"; larger and more 
 philosophical views were developed, and in 
 the fulness of time the Cross of Christ shed 
 some rays of light upon the mystery by 
 showing the beauty and efficacy of " vicarious 
 suffering." But in the main, the darkness, is 
 abiding ; God, who permits many of His 
 gracious purposes to be intelligible, has kept 
 the veil over the origin of evil. 1 
 
 The story of Cain and Abel, by its 
 brevity, its omissions, its abrupt references 
 to unexplained facts (such as the origin of 
 sacrifice, the existence of blood avengers, etc.), 
 indicates that here also earlier traditions have 
 been sifted and compressed. But in this very 
 short section Divine inspiration has once more 
 communicated fresh spiritual truth ; it has 
 
 1 The symbolism of the Mosaic narrative of the Fall, the 
 moral significance of the tree of life, the tree of knowledge 
 with its tempting fruit, the serpent, is well explained in 
 Martensen's Christian Dogmatics (translation, pp. 155-159). 
 
iv IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 113 
 
 shown self-will and rebellion against God 
 leading to hardness of heart (Genesis iii. 9) 
 and hatred against man ; l God's warnings in 
 the conscience (iii. 7) ; His anger against 
 sin mingling with compassion and mercy (iii. 
 11, 15). 
 
 (c) The Mood. Once more the narrative 
 has affinities to a correlated " Chaldaean " 
 record, preserved in a tablet of Assurbanipal's 
 " library/' The resemblances are as marked 
 as the differences are significant. The 
 Biblical writer represents the Flood as 
 sent (not by the caprice of a junto of 
 gods, but) by the one Almighty God as 
 a punishment for sin ; and then abated 
 (not through the intercession of other gods, 
 but) by the mercy of Him who sent it. The 
 story shows also the value and power of faith 
 (Heb. xi. 7), and the principle of the election 
 and salvation of " a remnant/' which is a dis- 
 tinctive feature of the theology of the Bible 
 (cf. Isaiah vi. 13 ; x. 21 ; Komans ix. 27 ; xi. 
 4). In the theology of the later prophets, and 
 of the New Testament, it becomes increasingly 
 plain that the wise purpose and foreknowledge 
 of God was designing, through this tem- 
 porary method of election and particularism, 
 
 1 Of. 1 John iii. 12-15. 
 I 
 
114 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 ultimately to benefit all the nations of the 
 earth. 
 
 But, as before, the framework of the narra- 
 tive displays the limited knowledge of the 
 historian, and his adherence to details of the 
 ancient story. Some terrible local visitation 
 is conceived as affecting the whole of the 
 known world ; and the account of the creation 
 (or appointment) of the rainbow as a token of 
 God's covenant with man is a gracious relic 
 of the ancient tradition. 1 
 
 It may be remarked incidentally that this 
 section supplies very clear and instructive 
 evidences of the composite structure of the 
 books of Scripture. In this case two docu- 
 ments, differing in style, phraseology, and 
 incident, have been interwoven; yet so that 
 their distinctive features enable scholars to 
 disentangle and analyse them with a close 
 approach to certainty. 
 
 These brief remarks may help to show by a 
 few simple instances how a comparison of the 
 Bible records with the corresponding religious 
 traditions of other nations supplies evidence of 
 the guiding and informing power of Divine 
 
 1 For a good exposition of the Creation, the Fall, and the 
 Flood on "traditional " lines see Edersheim's Bible History, 
 vol. i. (R. T. Society). 
 
iv IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 115 
 
 inspiration in the Old Testament. But here 
 and elsewhere the student of the Bible will 
 always bear in mind that, as the revelation 
 is progressive, there must be imperfections 
 in the earlier stages (cf. the estimate of 
 the Levitical system in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews). To use the Old Testament aright 
 he must be filled with the spirit of the New 
 Testament ; for in this, as in every form of 
 development, the final stage gives the standard 
 by which the value of the earlier stages must 
 be estimated. Such considerations are help- 
 ful, or even necessary, in face of difficulties 
 that frequently occur in the study of the Old 
 Testament, such as defective morality ; crudity 
 of the Law (Matt. v. 38, 39; xix. 8); exagger- 
 ated estimates of material prosperity ; vindic- 
 tiveness, as in some of the Psalms. 1 
 
 1 Professor A. B. Bruce, Apologetics, bk. ii. chap. x. 
 
CHAPTEK V 
 
 THE COMPOSITE CHARACTER OF THE BOOKS OF 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT, ESPECIALLY THE 
 HEXATEUCH 
 
 "HIGHER criticism" is so called to distin- 
 guish it from that which deals simply with 
 the text of writings ; its province is to discuss 
 the integrity, authenticity, credibility, style, 
 and other literary qualities of books. Its 
 methods and tests, long used in the criticism 
 of the classics, have now for many years 
 been applied to the Bible ; its results are 
 variously estimated under the influence of 
 cherished opinions and traditions. 
 
 But scholars of all schools have now come 
 to a practically unanimous agreement that the 
 five " books of Moses " and the book of Joshua 
 (commonly grouped under the name of " the 
 Hexateuch ") were compiled from documents 
 of different dates and of different authors. Dr. 
 
CHAP, v RELIGIOUS TEACHING 117 
 
 C. A. Briggs gives a tabulated list, twelve pages 
 long, of European and American scholars who 
 hold what is called the " documentary " theory. 
 He adds that those who have advocated in 
 print the old traditional view " may be counted 
 on one's fingers." l 
 
 The possibility of analysing the different 
 elements in these and other parts of the Old 
 Testament arises from the peculiar system on 
 which Hebrew historical books are composed. 
 In using older materials the historians do not 
 rewrite the matter in their own language, as 
 modern historians would do ; they extract 
 from the sources at their disposal such passages 
 as are suitable for their purpose, and weave 
 them together in such a way that the marked 
 individualities of style and phraseology in the 
 older writers are generally distinguishable in 
 the compound result. 2 
 
 Evidences of such a compound structure can 
 be traced throughout the historical books, but 
 nowhere more clearly than in the Hexateuch. 
 
 It may be convenient to give a brief 
 summary of a theory respecting the structure 
 of the Hexateuch which has obtained wide 
 
 1 The Bible, the Church, and Reason, p. 122 ff. 
 
 2 Bishop of Worcester, Cambridge Companion to the Bible; 
 Professor Lias, Principles of Biblical Criticism, p. 132. 
 
118 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 acceptance among students of the Bible. In 
 the face of opposing arguments it cannot 
 be taken as absolutely proved ; but it has the 
 characteristics of a good "working hypothesis"; 
 it co-ordinates and accounts for a large pro- 
 portion of the facts and features which have 
 been disclosed by the scrutiny and analysis 
 of many scholars. A full and clear statement 
 of it is given in Professor Driver's Introduction 
 to the Literature of the Old Testament. He, 
 and those who agree with him, consider that 
 the documents which have been combined in 
 the Hexateuch are such as they are described 
 in the following paragraphs. 1 
 
 (a) The basis or framework of the whole is 
 said to be a document distinguished by the 
 name of the Priests' Code (indicated by the 
 symbol P), because a large proportion of it, in 
 Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers especially, is 
 devoted to details of ceremonial legislation. 
 It aims at giving a systematic view, from a 
 priestly standpoint, of the origin and chief 
 institutions of the Jewish nation, with special 
 attention to statistics and chronology. The 
 prosaic and methodical style, and a multitude 
 
 1 The Appendix to Origines Judaicac by the Rev. W. F. 
 Cobb gives a convenient summary of arguments for the 
 following analysis. 
 
v IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 119 
 
 of peculiar words and phrases, mark it off from 
 the other constituents that are woven together 
 with it. By the majority of critics it is con- 
 sidered that this is the latest in date of the 
 elements of the Hexateuch, belonging approxi- 
 mately to the period of the Babylonish captivity 
 subsequent to Ezekiel, and being a codification 
 of various ceremonial laws and regulations that 
 had been developed from the time of Moses. 
 
 But there is much difference of opinion as 
 to the dates of the origin and enactment of 
 the several laws and institutions which the 
 priestly writer thus compacted into his definite 
 framework. Moses was undoubtedly the 
 founder of the national and religious life of 
 Israel. The nucleus of his teaching is preserved 
 in the Decalogue and the " Book of Covenants " 
 (Exodus xx.-xxiii.), and for the rest the most 
 tenable account is that the chief ceremonial 
 institutions are of very ancient origin; but 
 the laws and regulations respecting them 
 were gradually reshaped and developed, and 
 the " Priests' Code " represents the form which 
 they finally assumed. Its sacrificial and cere- 
 monial enactments are contained in Exodus 
 xxv.-xxxi, xxxv.-xl. ; Leviticus i.-xvi., xxvii. ; 
 Numbers i.-x., xv., xviii., xix., xxv. 10-xxxvi. 1 
 
 1 Professor S. R. Driver, Deuteronomy. 
 
120 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 Further, in Leviticus xvii.-xxvi. is a group of 
 chapters which appear to be an independent 
 and probably older code, now incorporated in 
 the priestly code. The duty of holiness is 
 here insisted upon with special emphasis and 
 frequency, and this section has consequently 
 been marked by the title of " the Law of 
 Holiness " l (indicated by the symbol H). 
 
 (&) An early narrative, usually designated 
 as JE, because it is itself compiled from 
 two earlier writings, which use respectively 
 Jehovah and Elohim as the name of God. 
 The characteristics make it probable that J 
 was written in the southern, E in the 
 northern kingdom ; they give prominence in 
 their history to Judah and Ephraim respect- 
 ively. The date of them is most probably not 
 later than the earliest of the canonical prophets, 
 i.e. circa 750 B.C.; in all probability it is 
 decidedly earlier, written possibly in the earlier 
 centuries of the monarchy, but incorporating 
 
 1 On the antiquity of much of the ritual and sacrificial 
 system thus formulated see the Rev. T. B. Strong's Christian 
 Ethics, p. 41 ff. "The ritual enactments are in very many 
 cases archaic in type, characteristic of an extremely early 
 period of religion. Professor Robertson Smith has shown 
 that the Levitical sacrifices are based upon ancient con- 
 ceptions traceable throughout early Semitic history, and 
 though later ideas are grafted on to the old system, the 
 basis of it is antecedent to our earliest history of the Jewish 
 people." Of. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites. 
 
v IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 121 
 
 much older material. It is not, however, 
 archaic in style, but " belongs to the golden 
 period of Hebrew literature." From its tone 
 and other distinctive features JE is sometimes 
 called the "prophetical narrative." 
 
 It includes a simple primary code of religious 
 and civil law in Exodus xx.-xxiii., xxxiv. 
 10-26, xiii. 3-16. 1 
 
 (c) The book of Deuteronomy. 2 It is 
 argued that this was composed before P 
 and JE had been combined, because the 
 differences of detail between Deuteronomy and 
 P are in many points only to be explained by 
 the supposition that the two systems of law 
 represent the usage of two distinct periods of 
 the nation's life. Also it must be considerably 
 later than JE, for its laws imply a higher 
 civil organisation. The actual date of it 
 cannot, however, be later than 621 B.C.; and 
 there is high probability that it is " the book 
 of the law " presented in that year to King 
 Josiah (2 Kings xxii. 8 fit); the reformation 
 carried out by him was certainly on the lines 
 of Deuteronomy. Its legislation is based 
 mainly on JE, and in some cases is parallel 
 
 1 For details of the passages included in JE see Professor 
 Driver's Introduction. 
 
 2 Professor S. R. Driver, Deuteronomy. 
 
122 RELIGIOUS TEACHING .HAT. 
 
 with H. In the latter case the materials are 
 apparently derived from a common source; 
 but it displays irreconcilable divergences from 
 P, though at times alluding to laws similar to 
 those in P. 
 
 The book is unique among the writings of 
 the Old Testament by its strong individuality, 
 oratorical power, and warm and persuasive 
 eloquence. " Nowhere else in the Old 
 Testament is displayed such generous de- 
 votion to God, such large-hearted benevolence 
 towards man ; nowhere are duties and motives 
 set forth with such depth and tenderness of 
 feeling, elevating the life of the community 
 by the power of high principles. Its style, 
 smooth, copious, impassioned, distinguishes its 
 literary form from that of any formal official 
 code ; it was a prophetic formulation of the 
 law of Moses adapted to the requirements of 
 that later time ; in it God's wisdom made 
 provision for the spiritual survival of His 
 chosen people on the eve of their political 
 annihilation." 1 The influence of Deuteronomy 
 upon the subsequent books of the Old Testa- 
 ment is clearly traceable in the historical 
 books, and in the writings of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 
 
 1 Professor S. R. Driver, Deuteronomy, Introduction ; 
 Professor H. E. Ryle, The Canon of the Old Testament. 
 
v IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 123 
 
 and the latter part of Isaiah ; and our Lord 
 Jesus set his seal on the value of this prophetic 
 book by his quotations from it on the occasion 
 of His Temptation (Deuteronomy vi. 13, 16 ; 
 viii. 3). Its religious value is very great ; it 
 teaches that religion is not concerned merely 
 with the intellect and the will, but with the 
 exercise and right direction of the affections ; 
 it makes religion the real basis of all moral 
 and social order, transfers it from national 
 observance to personal consciousness, and thus 
 aims at regenerating the community by the 
 love and loyalty of individual souls ; in fact, 
 its teaching points directly to the kingdom of 
 heaven to be founded by Christ. 
 
 In this case again there is great division 
 of opinion as to the date and authorship. It 
 does not actually claim to be written by 
 Moses, but it represents Moses as speaking in 
 his own person, issuing commands, and enact- 
 ing laws as God's representative to Israel. 
 How far, then, is the form of it consistent on 
 the one hand with historical truth, on the 
 other with the statements just made respecting 
 the date and contents of the book ? 
 
 An effective answer is given to this question 
 by a writer who is allowed to be a good 
 representative of the moderate conservative 
 
124 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAF. 
 
 school of Biblical criticism, and who, as Pro- 
 fessor of Oriental Languages at Glasgow, speaks 
 with authority on the question under discussion. 1 
 He draws attention to the peculiarity of the 
 Hebrew language, that it has not developed 
 what we call " indirect speech " ; it always 
 gives, or professes to give, the actual words 
 spoken; and from the beginning to the end 
 of the Old Testament it remains always at 
 this stage. Moreover, it was quite consonant 
 to the spirit of Hebrew literature that a 
 writer at a later date, whether soon or long 
 after Moses (recalling the events of national 
 history, and using we know not what docu- 
 ments ; seeing the actual development of 
 events which were only in germ in Moses' 
 time, and the changes and modifications of 
 Mosaic laws under the influence of past 
 circumstances), should adapt the Mosaic tradi- 
 tions to the time at which he wrote, not 
 inventing history or law, but setting forth 
 in Moses' name that which had become under 
 Divine guidance the outcome of Mosaic laws 
 and institutions. Thus the book is " a revised 
 and enlarged edition of the Book of the 
 Covenant," a prophetical law - book, owing 
 
 1 Professor James Robertson, Early Religion of Israel. 
 Of. Church Quarterly Review, October 1892. 
 
v IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 125 
 
 much to the teaching of Hosea, and also of 
 Amos, Micah, and Isaiah. 1 
 
 On the other hand, the advocates of the 
 traditional view repudiate this " dramatic " 
 interpretation, and consider that it would 
 have been simply dishonest to put into the 
 mouth of Moses a series of discourses of such 
 a nature. One of their main arguments 
 (developed fully and ably by Bishop Ellicott 
 in his Christus Comprobator} is that opinions 
 on the authorship of the " Books of Moses," 
 and of other books of the Old Testament, must 
 be strictly governed by what our Lord said 
 about them. If in quoting a passage He 
 assigned it to Moses or David, there can be 
 no further discussion ; e.g. Mark x. 3 and 
 Deuteronomy xxiv. 1 ; John v. 46 and 
 Deuteronomy xviii. 15, 18; Matthew xxii. 
 44 and Psalm ex. 1. 
 
 They entirely decline to accept any of the 
 arguments urged to reconcile our Lord's 
 method of quotation with the results of criti- 
 cism ; viz. (a) that it was no more part of our 
 Lord's mission to teach Biblical criticism than 
 to teach natural science, and therefore His refer- 
 ences to Scripture are adapted to the opinions 
 
 1 On the other side see Professor Stanley Leathes, The 
 Law in the Prophets. 
 
126 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 current among His hearers ; (&) that if He 
 had attempted to traverse received ideas about 
 the Scriptures, He would have raised diffi- 
 culties, perplexities, animosities which would 
 have seriously and needlessly aggravated the 
 hindrances to His work ; (c) (a more doubtful 
 and hazardous argument, concerned with 
 matters which lie "beyond the veil"), that 
 our Lord, in taking our nature upon Him, 
 had for the time " emptied himself " (Philip, ii. 
 6, 7) of some of the attributes of the Deity, 
 and that His knowledge in this matter, as in 
 another (St. Mark xiii. 32), was subject to 
 limitations. 1 
 
 Those who decline to accept any such ex- 
 planation of our Lord's method of quoting 
 the Old Testament Scriptures have yet to find 
 an adequate answer to the difficulties arising 
 from a study of the historical books ; such as 
 what Bishop Ellicott 2 calls the "apparent fact" 
 that the historical books indicate that the 
 Mosaic law was not observed, even in its most 
 stringent ordinances, between the entry into 
 Canaan and the times of the early kings. 
 One answer suggested is that the ordinances 
 
 1 Canon Gore's Dissertations; Bishop Moorhouse, The 
 Teaching of Christ, p. 25 ff. ; Luke ii. 52. 
 
 2 Christus Coyiprokator, p. 73 ff. 
 
v IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 127 
 
 in Deuteronomy and the Priests' Code were 
 prophetic, pointing forward to a time when 
 they could be complied with. Another writer 
 says : " Our theory is that both JE and 
 Deuteronomy are founded on traditions current 
 in Moses' time, and on writings to be traced 
 (though we may not be able to trace them) 
 to Moses himself." 1 
 
 The foregoing analysis of the Hexateuch, 
 and the facts and arguments by which it is 
 corroborated, appear to indicate a via media 
 between the less convincing explanations 
 offered by defenders of the " traditional " 
 views, 2 and the wild, unhistorical theories of 
 the extreme school of critics, which are re- 
 pudiated by the learning and judgment of 
 the best English theologians. 
 
 An example of the dangerous extravagance 
 of such theories is quoted by Professor J. 
 Eobertson in his History of Israel, p. 469, 
 from Maurice Yernes (JResultats de I'exegese 
 BiUique), who says : " The theologians and 
 writers of the post -Exile period have been 
 able to give such a life-like character to their 
 
 1 Church Quarterly Review, January 1896. 
 
 2 For a statement of these views, and arguments against 
 the foregoing analysis, see Professor Lias, Principles of 
 Biblical Criticism ; Lex Mosaica, a series of essays by 
 different writers, edited by the Rev. R. V. French ; Pro- 
 fessor Stanley Leathes, The Law in the Prophets. 
 
128 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP, v 
 
 creations that posterity has been thereby 
 deceived, and has believed in a Moses living 
 1500 years before our era; whereas this Moses 
 was only created in the fourth century." 
 This extract illustrates the serious import- 
 ance of care and discrimination in the selection 
 of books on this difficult subject, lest teachers 
 and pupils should be led astray by speculations 
 unsupported by facts. 
 
CHAPTEE VI 
 
 CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES 
 
 [Some reasons for including this subject in the school 
 course of elder pupils may be gathered from the arguments 
 of Chaps. I. and II. See also the Rev. C. W. Formby, 
 Education and Modern Secularism.] 
 
 AT the outset it is well to recognise what is 
 the real value of studying a scheme of Chris- 
 tian evidences. It can do comparatively little 
 for the conversion of unbelievers; men are 
 not argued into faith, which lives far more in 
 the heart than in the reason. 1 
 
 But it can do something to safeguard, 
 confirm, and develop faith, especially in 
 the rudimentary stage, by showing that the 
 reasons for it are manifold and convergent ; 
 by anticipating common objections and difficul- 
 ties, and showing that they are either ground- 
 less, or far less formidable than they at first 
 
 1 Pascal, Penstfes, 
 K 
 
130 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP, 
 
 appear to be ; and by helping to dispel the 
 notion, very prevalent in our day (and not 
 uncommon in the past), that Christian faith 
 is no longer tenable, because there are more 
 rational explanations of the facts of human 
 life. For it can be shown that far greater 
 difficulties have to be faced by every other 
 system of religion or philosophy which fairly 
 attempts to embrace the results of history and 
 experience, and to frame an hypothesis that 
 shall cover the sum total of human life. 
 
 The following pages are based on notes of 
 lectures delivered to a sixth form in 1891 
 and 1893. After careful inquiry it appeared 
 that no suitable text-book exists, and the 
 notes were compiled from a number of books, 
 mostly easy of access, to which frequent refer- 
 ences are made. The results of the teaching 
 were tested by an independent examiner, and 
 appeared to show that the subject had inter- 
 ested the boys, and that the method of treat- 
 ing it had been intelligible. These preliminary 
 remarks may obviate the idea that such a 
 course is too complicated and difficult for 
 class teaching, and also may serve as an 
 excuse for the brief disjointed form in which 
 the facts and arguments are presented. The 
 object is to offer a kind of syllabus, which 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 131 
 
 may be easily expanded by help of the books 
 that are quoted or referred to. To develop 
 it in a literary form would require far more 
 space than can be allotted to the subject in 
 this elementary book. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 Some of the chief possible theories about 
 God, the world, and human life : 
 
 1. Atheism. 
 
 2. Agnosticism. Based on an illogical con- 
 fusion of the relations and provinces of know- 
 ledge and faith ; or (in its commoner and 
 more prevalent form) on an absence of, or 
 indifference to, knowledge or inquiry about 
 the facts and arguments which support faith. 1 
 
 3. Deism. Belief in a personal God who 
 acts only through the laws of nature ; pre- 
 valent in England in the latter part of the 
 seventeenth century and the earlier part of 
 the eighteenth. 
 
 4. Theism. A much wider term, including 
 most forms of monotheism, e.g. the religion of 
 Israel, Mohammedanism, and modern theories, 
 such as Unitarianism. 2 
 
 1 See p. 177. 
 
 2 Professor Robert Flint, Theism ; and article on Theism 
 in Encycl. Britt. 
 
I 
 
 132 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 5. Polytheism. 
 
 6. Pantheism. Belief in a Divine power, 
 not personal, but infused into nature, and 
 finding its expression in the products and 
 energies of natural forces. 
 
 7. Positivism. In its best -known form, a 
 singular modification of utilitarian philosophy, 
 in which the conception of God is superseded 
 by the abstract idea of Humanity, past, present, 
 and to come, to which every individual of 
 human kind owes service, allegiance, and even 
 worship. 
 
 It is presumed that for the great majority 
 of pupils in secondary schools, discussions 
 about the being and nature of God are not 
 necessary ; and that the teacher may begin by 
 assuming that which is the foundation of the 
 religion both of the Old "and New Testament:, 
 belief in a personal God, whose attributes are 
 holiness, righteousness, wisdom, and love. 
 
 He may assume also the probability that 
 such a God will make Himself known to such 
 of His creatures as are capable of knowing Him, 
 and this not merely by the facts and " laws " 
 of nature, but also by some direct revelation. 1 
 
 1 Inverted commas are meant to indicate that "laws" 
 of nature have no connection with legislation of any kind ; 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 133 
 
 Facts and " laws " of nature are the subject of 
 knowledge ; the revelation of an infinite God 
 to finite man cannot be the subject of know- 
 ledge in the same sense and degree ; know- 
 ledge must be supplemented, in some matters 
 replaced, by faith in that which is and must 
 be unseen. 
 
 Faith in its most general form is clearly 
 defined by Bishop Pearson, The Creed, vol. i. 
 p. 4 (1847) ; its essence is assent to adequate 
 testimony; the testimony may be so strong 
 that faith may ultimately grow into a kind of 
 knowledge (cf. John vii. 17). The nature of 
 faith is illustrated by the fact that in the Old 
 Testament the word is hardly found at all ; it 
 is replaced by " trust." But the Christian faith 
 does not rest simply on presumptions, prob- 
 abilities, or trust in God's goodness and 
 veracity; it has also historical foundations. 1 
 The most important of these is laid in the 
 doctrine of the Eesurrectioii of Jesus Christ ; 
 this, then, may be first considered as an 
 evidence of the Christian faith. 
 
 much confused reasoning may be confuted by pointing out 
 the essential difference. 
 
 1 Bishop Goodwin, The Foundations of the Creed, p. 
 441 ff. 
 
134 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 A. THE KESURRECTION, A HISTORICAL FACT ; 
 THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES TO IT 
 AS THE KEYSTONE OF THE FAITH 
 
 I. Of the written testimonies the earliest 
 in date is that of St. Paul, especially in 
 his 1st Epistle to Corinthians, written in 
 5 7 A.D., less than thirty years after the Kesur- 
 rection (as though a man, now in mature life, 
 were writing of what happened in his own 
 country since 1867). It should be added that 
 this is one of the Epistles whose authority 
 and authenticity is now undisputed. In 
 chapter xv. 3-11 are included six separate 
 testimonies of Jesus's appearances 1 after His 
 crucifixion, to 
 
 (1) St. Peter ; nowhere described in the 
 Gospels, but referred to in St. Luke 
 xxiv. 34. 
 
 (2) The Twelve (cf. Matt, xxviii. 17). 
 
 (3) "Five hundred brethren at once, of 
 whom the greater part remain unto this 
 present." 
 
 (4) St. James ; not recorded elsewhere, but 
 
 1 Bishop Goodwin, The Creed, p. 201 ff. ; F. Godet, 
 defence of the Christian Faith, 
 Milligan, The Resurrection of our . 
 
 Defence of_ the Christian Faith, pp. 1-53 ; Professor W. 
 
 Lord. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 135 
 
 St. Paul knew him personally (Gal. i. 1 9 ; 
 ii. 9). 
 
 (5) "All the Apostles" (cf. Luke'xxiv. 50- 
 53 ; the leave-taking before the Ascen- 
 sion). 
 
 (6) St. Paul himself. The line of argu- 
 ment in 1 Cor. xv. plainly shows that 
 he is referring not to a vision, but to 
 a bodily appearance of Jesus ; he was 
 absolutely convinced of the fact, and his 
 life and labours are the proof of his con- 
 viction. 
 
 II. The Gospels. The first three, in their 
 present form, incorporate traditions and writ- 
 ings of a much earlier date. 
 
 (a) St. Matthew 
 
 (1) To the women, xxviii. 1 ff. 
 
 (2) To the Eleven in Galilee, xxviii. 17 
 (cf. I. 3). 
 
 (6) St. Mark 
 
 (1) To Mary Magdalene, xvi. 9. 
 
 (2) To the two going "into the country/' 
 xvi. 12 (cf. St. Luke xxiv.) 
 
 (3) To the Eleven, xvi. 14. 
 
 [It should be added that there is doubt about 
 the authenticity of Mark xvi. 9-20 as a part 
 of the original Gospel. The passage appears, 
 
136 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 however, to be " older than the time when the 
 Canonical Gospels were generally received ; it 
 is doubtless founded on some tradition of the 
 apostolic age." l ] 
 
 (c) St. Luke 
 
 (1) To two going to Eminaus, xxiv. 
 13 ff. 
 
 (2) To St. Peter (cf. 11), xxiv. 34. 
 
 (3) To the Eleven (cf. I. 2), xxiv. 36. 
 
 (4) To the Eleven (cf. L 5), xxiv. 50. 
 
 (d) St. John 
 
 (1) To Mary Magdalene, xx. 1 (cf. Mark 
 xvi. 9). 
 
 (2) To the Apostles without Thomas, xx. 
 19. 
 
 (3) To the Apostles with Thomas, xx. 26. 
 
 (4) To seven disciples at the Lake of 
 Galilee, xxi. 1. 
 
 Fully to estimate the value of these con- 
 verging testimonies in the four Gospels it 
 would be necessary to discuss the relations of 
 the several Gospels to the others, a question 
 too large and complex for the present purpose. 
 It may be sufficient to point out that the 
 independence of the testimonies is indicated 
 by the variation of detail, their veracity by 
 
 1 Westcott and Hort's Greek Testament, vol. ii. p. 28 ff. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 137 
 
 the agreement in substance; they combine 
 into a consistent picture. 1 
 
 III. St. Peter- 
 
 (1) Acts ii. 32. 
 
 (2) 1 Peter i. 3. 
 
 Another very strong evidence of the truth 
 of the Eesurrection is the immediate effect 
 that the belief in it produced on the character 
 and actions of the apostles. 2 
 
 The witness of the apostles to the Eesur- 
 rection was their primary duty (Luke xxiv. 
 48 ; John xv. 27 ; Acts i. 8, 22 ; ii. 32), and 
 the effect of it was immediate and widespread. 
 It is admitted by Strauss, Baur, and other 
 negative critics that this testimony was not 
 a fraudulent imposture, but based on honest 
 belief; and they cannot deny that on their 
 belief in this historical fact is based the 
 historical development of the Christian Church, 
 which thus becomes an auxiliary evidence of 
 great and increasing weight. 
 
 But may they not have been honestly 
 mistaken ? Instead of an actual resurrection 
 from the dead may there not have been 
 simply a revival from a swoon or lethargy ? 
 
 1 Goodwin, p. 203 ; Godet, p. 16. 
 2 Professor Milligan, p. 46. 
 
138 . RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 Full discussion of this suggestion has shown 
 that the objections to it are unanswerable, 
 and that it must be abandoned. 
 
 The only remaining hypothesis (still 
 seriously maintained) is that Jesus's supposed 
 appearances were but visions and hallucinations 
 arising in excited imaginations. But the 
 witnesses testify that they heard discourses 
 and touched Jesus, that He ate and drank 
 with them. Hallucinations are marks of a 
 morbid constitution of mind, yet the acts and 
 writings of St. Peter and St. Paul show their 
 perfect sanity and good sense. And is it 
 possible that 500 people assembled together 
 could persuade themselves that they saw the 
 same vision simultaneously ? Again, halluci- 
 nations are the reflections of excited hopes 
 and expectations. But after the crucifixion 
 Mary Magdalene, the women, the apostles, 
 the disciples at Emmaus, show no signs of 
 hope ; believing Jesus to be dead, they are 
 utterly dispirited. Finally, if Jesus, having 
 died, did not revive, what became of His 
 body ? The answer to this question is more 
 difficult than it seems at first sight. 1 
 
 1 See Dr. G. P. Fisher, The Grounds of Theistic and 
 Christian Belief, pp. 170-174 ; he quotes Keim's conclusion 
 that the hallucination theory is untenable. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 139 
 
 This body of testimony establishes the Eesur- 
 rection as a historical fact, of which the evidence 
 cannot be explained away by those who refuse 
 to accept its historical truth. This truth 
 receives additional support from the follow- 
 ing considerations of the importance of the 
 doctrine of the Eesurrection as a keystone of 
 Christianity, and indeed of God's revelation of 
 Himself to man: (1) its satisfaction of the 
 widespread hopes and beliefs of mankind in 
 many ages and countries; (2) the victory 
 which the Church achieved by the preaching 
 of the Eesurrection ; (3) the abiding and 
 growing influence that it has exercised over 
 the character and destiny of mankind. 1 
 
 B. MIRACLES 
 
 The Eesurrection is closely connected with 
 the Tncarnation and the Ascension. Assum- 
 ing that God wills and desires to reveal 
 Himself to man, the a priori reasonableness 
 of the great central doctrine of the Incarnation 
 rests on strong argument. Yet, ultimately, 
 it is a matter of faith resting on the testi- 
 mony of St. Matthew (who is supposed to 
 have gathered the facts from Joseph), and 
 
 1 Goodwin, p. 217. 
 
140 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 still more of St. Luke (who may well have 
 derived it from the mother of Jesus) ; and 
 there is much to prove that St. Luke was 
 a singularly careful and accurate witness. 1 
 Further support to this doctrine is given by 
 evidences to be adduced later. 
 
 All these great events are miraculous. 
 They are, therefore, disbelieved by those who 
 say (not that miracles are impossible, this is 
 now admitted to be an unscientific statement, 
 but) that " they never happen." Of course if 
 this statement is accepted as axiomatic, argu- 
 ment and evidence become useless. But what 
 right has it to be considered an axiom ? A 
 more scientific course is to consider the 
 credibility of miracles in general, and then 
 the arguments in support of particular 
 miracles of cardinal importance. 
 
 I. The credibility of miracles in general, or 
 of what is sometimes called "the supernatural;" 2 
 (a question-begging expression on which many 
 unsound arguments have been based). It is 
 said " miracles never happen" ; but one miracle, 
 
 1 Professor W. Ramsay, The Church and the Empire ; ' 
 and St. Paul the Traveller. 
 
 2 J. B. Mozley, Miracles; Archbishop Trench, Miracles 
 (introductory chapter) ; G. Warington, Can We believe in 
 Miracles? (S.P.C.K.) ; Professor A. B. Bruce, The Miracu- 
 lous Elements in the Gospels. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 141 
 
 the Besurrection, cannot be explained away ; 
 no tenable theory has yet destroyed its his- 
 torical basis. This fact shakes the presump- 
 tion against miracles, so far as it rests upon 
 the absolute uniformity of the " laws " of 
 nature. Yet experience appears to prove 
 this uniformity. How then can experience 
 be reconciled with miracle ? One answer is 
 that for adequate moral reasons God may 
 supersede the action of His ordinary " laws " 
 of nature by higher " laws " as yet unknown 
 to ordinary experience. This argument may 
 be illustrated by the progress of science, 
 which has shown both how much and how 
 little any given generation may know about 
 the possibilities of the " laws " and forces of 
 nature. Conceive Hume or Franklin told 
 about telephoning from London to Paris, or 
 hearing a poet's or statesman's voice after his 
 death. According to this line of argument 
 what is called the " supernatural " may be 
 simply a higher unrevealed form of the 
 " natural," i.e. there is no difference of kind 
 between ordinary events and miracles. 1 
 
 This argument may be confirmed by the 
 
 1 See Aubrey Moore, Science and the Faith, p. 104 ; and 
 Appendix, p. 225 ; also Archbishop Trench on Miracles, 
 chap. ii. 
 
142 RELIGIOUS TEACHING .HAP. 
 
 analogy of the action of man's will, when, for 
 his own purposes, he supersedes or interferes 
 with physical " laws " and forces by intro- 
 ducing others: e.g. a chemist, or a man throwing 
 up a stone. Thus while "nature conceals 
 God, man reveals Him" by the action of a 
 will and personality derived from, and having 
 analogies with, the Will and Personality of God. 1 
 
 Moreover, in the history of the Universe 
 there are periods of " Divine initiative," or 
 new beginnings ; at the creation of matter ; 
 at the introduction of the germs of life ; at 
 the commencement of self -consciousness in 
 man ; each of these has been a departure from 
 the preceding uniformity of Nature, analogous 
 to a miracle. 2 
 
 The credibility of miracles is much sup- 
 ported by arguments which show the need of 
 them as : 
 
 (1) Attestations of a revelation, vouching 
 for the reality of it. Supposing, for instance, 
 that Jesus had spoken all His discourses 
 without working any miracle, what would 
 have differentiated Him in kind from Socrates 
 or Confucius ? Would His hearers have had 
 adequate evidence of His Divine mission? 
 
 1 Dean Hansel in Aids to Faith (1861). 
 2 Goodwin, p. 138. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 143 
 
 Of. John v. 36, "The works that I do, bear 
 witness of me, that the Father hath sent 
 me"; xiv. 11, " Believe me for the very 
 works' sake"; x. 38; xv. 24. If it be 
 answered that Mohammed succeeded without 
 miracles, the answer is that his success was 
 largely due to the use of means which Jesus 
 deliberately rejected. 
 
 It may, in' fact, be argued that miracle, 
 especially " physical " miracle, is necessary as 
 an instrument, or as a guarantee, of communi- 
 cations between the invisible and the visible 
 order of things, when there is an adequate 
 object for such communications. 
 
 Miracles attested the revelations made by 
 Christ and His apostles; from their doctrine 
 resulted the regeneration of mankind. Such 
 a result was an adequate end for Divine 
 intervention by miracles ; when this object was 
 so far accomplished that new agencies had 
 been set at work for carrying it on, miraculous 
 agency ceased to be necessary. 
 
 (2) Miracles are often " signs " of moral 
 and spiritual truths, the seal of a Divine 
 teaching which cannot be dissociated from 
 them, and which in its turn becomes a main 
 guarantee for the reality of them. 1 " The 
 
 1 Godet, p. 149. 
 
144 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 miracle seals the doctrine, the doctrine tries 
 or tests the miracle." This argument applies 
 again most obviously to " physical " miracles, 
 such as Jesus's works of healing. " Moral " 
 miracles, which are of a higher order, such as 
 the character and teaching of Jesus, 1 confirm 
 and complete the witness of God to His 
 servants and messengers. 
 
 II. Accordingly, in discussing and estimat- 
 ing the credibility of particular miracles, 
 instead of saying " miracles never happen " we 
 should consider the nature and adequacy of the 
 testimony to them ; and also the adequacy of 
 their moral purpose, and of their result. 
 
 Acceptance of the truth of the Eesurrection 
 practically involves the acceptance of the 
 Incarnation and the Ascension. 2 
 
 Consider next other arguments bearing 
 on the miracles recorded in the Life of 
 Jesus. 3 - 
 
 (1) If the Synoptic Gospels (or any one of 
 them) were published between 60 and 80 A.D., 
 contemporaries of Jesus would be surviving, 
 and such circumstantial accounts could hardly 
 gain acceptance. 
 
 (2) Jesus's teaching (universally accepted 
 
 1 See p. 151 ff. 2 Goodwin, p. 271. 
 
 3 Godet, p. 122 ff. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 145 
 
 as authentic) is so closely interwoven with 
 miracles that it is not possible to accept the 
 one and reject the other. Jesus Himself, in 
 His discourses, constantly appeals to His 
 " works " as evidences of His Divine mission 
 (Matthew xii. 22 ; John vi., ix.). 
 
 (3) Compare the simplicity of the Gospel 
 records with the amazing fabrications of the 
 Apocryphal Gospels, which show the character 
 of purely human inventions in that age, even 
 with the Gospels as models. 
 
 (4) The general argument from the analogy 
 of the will of man is applicable a fortiori to 
 the will of Him who came to reveal the 
 Father, being one with Him in purpose. 
 
 (5) The circumstances that introduced and 
 attended our Lord's earthly ministry make it 
 antecedently probable that His mission would 
 be attested by miracles. 
 
 (6) If belief is refused to these miracles 
 of Jesus, the historical Christ disappears. 
 What account then is to be given of that 
 which actually came to pass, the immediate 
 results of the preaching of the Gospel of the 
 Resurrection ; the conversion of the Roman 
 world ; " Christianity and Christendom " ? l 
 
 Destructive arguments are comparatively 
 
 1 A. B. Bruce, chap. x. 
 L 
 
146 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 easy (see Archbishop Whately's amusing proof 
 of the non-existence of Napoleon Bonaparte) ; 
 their weakness may often be shown by de- 
 manding a constructive account of that which 
 is admitted to exist. 
 
 (7) The net result of criticism has been 
 to show (not, as was argued in the Paulus- 
 Strauss-Baur period, that the occurrence of 
 miracle in a document is a proof of its late 
 date and lack of authenticity, but) that the 
 earliest documents contained a large proportion 
 of miraculous records. 1 
 
 Other considerations bearing on this subject 
 will be found in a later section, on the char- 
 acter of Jesus. 2 
 
 III. A more difficult question follows : Are 
 the foregoing arguments valid in respect of 
 every miracle recorded in the Bible ? Plainly, 
 while some retain their force mutatis mutandis, 
 others are wholly or partially irrelevant. 3 
 
 In the case of many of the Old Testament 
 miracles the indications of adequate moral 
 purpose are less convincing, and the testi- 
 mony is not so strong. Accordingly, such 
 narratives as the miracles wrought by Samson, 
 and some of those attributed to Elisha, are 
 
 1 A. B. Bruce, p. 110. 2 See p. 151 if. 
 
 3 Archbishop Trench, Miracles, chap. iv. 1. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 147 
 
 the sport of secularist lecturers and other 
 illiterate critics of the Bible. They base their 
 criticisms on the assumption that Christian 
 believers hold that every part of the Bible 
 is inspired in the same degree. This view 
 of inspiration, once common, has of late been 
 largely modified ; almost all Biblical scholars 
 now recognise various grades of inspiration 
 in the Bible books. 1 
 
 Many questions respecting the date, the 
 method of composition, the authenticity and 
 authority of parts of the Old Testament are 
 still under discussion ; but the belief of most 
 educated Christians in the truth of Christian- 
 ity would not be in any way undermined by 
 proof (if such were possible) that some of the 
 Old Testament miracles were not supported by 
 sufficient testimony to make them accepted as 
 historical facts. 2 Professor Lias, in his Prin- 
 ciples of Biblical Criticism, p. 217, says: "To 
 demand as a condition precedent to the accept- 
 ance of Christianity that men shall first of all 
 accept all the most startling miracles related in 
 the Old Testament is, it may be granted, even 
 a more dangerous course than that taken by 
 
 1 Chap. IV. 
 
 2 Archbishop Temple's Bampton Lectures (1884), Religion 
 and Science, p. 153. 
 
148 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 those who would make something like a clean 
 sweep of them. . . . Even if we attempt to 
 explain these miracles by natural causes, or 
 imagine them to be in some cases merely the 
 forms in which spiritual mysteries are pre- 
 sented to the untutored understanding, at least 
 we need not shrink from the assertion that 
 the finger of God is plainly manifested in the 
 series of marvellous events related in the Old 
 Testament." 
 
 And with regard to the more important 
 miracles of the Old Testament it may be ob- 
 served that they cluster round two critical epochs 
 in the history of Israel, the establishment of the 
 Theocracy under Moses and Joshua, and the 
 restoration of the Theocracy through Elijah ; 
 at such times Jehovah's intervention to help 
 His people was antecedently probable. 1 Much 
 that has been said on p. 142 ff. is applicable to 
 the miracles of these periods, as attestations 
 and " signs." Of the miracles that preceded 
 the Exodus it is said in the Speaker's Com- 
 mentary (Introduction to vol. i.) that they 
 are all, except the death of the first-born, 
 specially Egyptian in character, correspond- 
 ing to natural phenomena w r hich frequently 
 
 1 Modern Scepticism (Christian Evidence Society's 
 Lectures, 1871). 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 149 
 
 happen, and occurring in their natural 
 seasons. 
 
 Two recent expressions of opinion on this sub- 
 ject by distinguished scholars may be helpful. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone makes some valuable remarks 
 on miracles in his Studies on Bishop Butler, 
 p. 311 sq. Discussing Hume's argument, he 
 refers to J. H. Newman's short but effective 
 answer in the Grammar of Assent, p. 298; 
 adding that, whereas Hume appeals to our 
 experience of this uniformity of the " laws " 
 of nature, our knowledge of these " laws " is 
 obviously incomplete and progressive ; it can- 
 not be the basis of a general negation. We 
 may admit that in the present state of know- 
 ledge miracles are " anomalies " in nature ; but 
 there is good reason for such anomalies, because 
 miracles have served with great, perhaps 
 indispensable power, in establishing the 
 Jewish and Christian religions, whose great 
 purpose is the " ejection of sin " from the 
 world. He appeals to the analogy of the 
 human will to God's action, in using, combin- 
 ing, modifying " laws " of nature for definite 
 purposes. The denial of God's power or will 
 to work miracles, because we conceive that 
 experience is against it, is open to all the 
 objections against Deism. 
 
150 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 In St. Paul the Traveller, p. 87, Professor 
 W. Kamsay says, " The marvels in Acts are 
 difficulties, but the narrative apart from them 
 is stamped as authentic, and they are an in- 
 tegral part of it. Twenty years ago I found 
 it easy to dispose of them ; nowadays probably 
 not even the youngest among us can maintain 
 that we have mastered the secrets of nature, 
 and determined the limits that divide the 
 unknown from the impossible. That Paul 
 believed himself to be the recipient of direct 
 revelations from God, to be guided and con- 
 trolled in his plans by direct interpositions of 
 the Holy Spirit, to be enabled by the Divine 
 Power to move the forces of nature in a way 
 that ordinary men cannot, is involved in this 
 narrative. You must accept or reject it, but 
 you cannot cut out the marvellous from the 
 rest, or believe that either Paul or Luke was 
 a mere victim of hallucinations. The mar- 
 vellous is indissolubly interwoven with the 
 narrative, and cannot be eliminated." It may 
 be added that throughout the book Professor 
 Eamsay shows his appreciation of St. Luke's 
 ability and accuracy as a historian. 
 
IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 151 
 
 C. THE CHARACTER AND TEACHING OF 
 JESUS CHRIST AS EVIDENCES OF His 
 DIVINITY x 
 
 The main points to be noted are : 
 
 (1) The impressions produced on His con- 
 temporaries ; Pilate ; the Eoman centurion ; 
 the Apostles, especially John, Peter, and 
 Judas. 
 
 (2) And on many moderns who have dis- 
 believed His divinity, e.g. Strauss, Eenan, 
 Napoleon I., 2 etc. 
 
 (3) His own unconsciousness of sin, " Which 
 of you convinceth me of sin ? " John viii. 46 ; 
 " The prince of this world cometh, and hath 
 nothing in me," xiv. 30; "I do always the 
 things that are pleasing to the Father," 
 viii. 29. He claims to be a ransom from sin, 
 Mark x. 45 ; to be the judge of sinners, Matt, 
 vii. 21-23. 3 In this respect the moral con- 
 sciousness of Jesus differs not in degree only, 
 but in kind from that of the best and holiest 
 men, Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, even St. Paul 
 
 1 Godet, Defence of the Faith, chap. v. ; H. P. Liddon, 
 Bampton Lectures, III. IV. 
 
 2 Goodwin, p. 434. 
 
 3 See Keim's summary of this argument quoted by 
 Godet, p. 246. 
 
152 RELIGIOUS TEACHING HAP. 
 
 and St. John (1 John i. 8, " If we say that we 
 have no sin. . . .) 
 
 (4) His claims to divine power, as the 
 Bread of life, John vi. 35 ; the Light of the 
 world, viii. 1 2 ; the Son of Man (a most 
 significant expression, see particularly Matt, 
 xxvi. 63-65, and the parallels in Mark and 
 Luke); equal to the Father, John v. 22, 23 ; 
 one with the Father, John x. 30. 1 Other 
 founders of a religion Confucius, Zoroaster, 
 Buddha made no similar claims to a divine 
 commission, with the exception of Moses 
 (whose claim was attested by miracles and by 
 results) and Mohammed. 
 
 (5) By the side of such claims set the traits 
 of character universally recognised in Him ; 
 sincerity, and the demand for it in others 
 (the Scribes and Pharisees, the rich young 
 man) ; unselfishness, and requirement of it in 
 others ; humility, " I am meek and lowly in 
 heart," Matt. xi. 29 ; and dislike of notoriety, 
 Matt. xii. 16 ; ix. 30, etc. 
 
 The conclusion must be either 
 
 that Jesus was a self-deluded fanatic, as 
 
 his relatives thought at first, Mark iii. 21 ; 
 
 and his enemies, John x. 20; this alternative, 
 
 1 See the summary of these claims in Dr. G. P. Fisher's 
 Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief, p. 125. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 153 
 
 adopted by Kenan, demands explanations so 
 forced and inconsistent that it is plainly a 
 reductio ad absurdum ; 1 
 
 or that he was guilty of fraudulent im- 
 posture, an opinion open to even greater 
 objections, and now generally scouted ; 
 
 or that such claims and traits combined in one 
 person are evidences of His divinity, and His 
 sinlessness is a direct attestation of his " super- 
 natural " mission ; it is a " moral miracle " of 
 the highest order. 2 
 
 (6) The teaching of Jesus. 
 
 He is the only teacher who fully satisfies 
 the needs and aspirations of human nature : 3 
 
 (a) by His revelation of God as a Father ; 
 
 (6) by His doctrine of salvation from the 
 guilt and power of sin, thus satisfying a 
 need felt by all races, and evidenced by sacri- 
 fice and other forms of propitiation. The 
 Epistle to the Hebrews recognises the inefficacy 
 of these, even in Judaism. 
 
 (c) Hence arose a new possibility of holi- 
 ness in man, and a new standard of moral- 
 ity, which has regenerated human society 
 
 1 Dr. Fisher, p. 178. 
 
 2 See Professor A. B. Bruce, The Miraculous Elements 
 in the Gospels, chaps, ix. x. 
 
 3 Modern Scepticism, p. 429 (Christian Evidence Society's 
 Lectures, 1871). 
 
154 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 in proportion as it has been received and 
 practised. 1 
 
 (d) Jesus offers a new source of consolation 
 for suffering and sorrow ( " My peace I give 
 unto you"): no other form of religion offers 
 similar consolation ; contrast the sadness of 
 Stoicism in Marcus Aurelius, and the apa- 
 thetic hopelessness of Buddhism. 
 
 (e) Jesus brings new hopes by His revelation 
 of the Kesurrection, the future life, the king- 
 dom of heaven. 
 
 (7) The accuracy of historical detail which 
 modern criticism has verified. 
 
 Add the fact that the history and character 
 of Jesus, such as we know them, were accepted 
 as historical within a few years by widely 
 separated Churches in Asia, Greece, Syria, 
 Italy, etc., as is seen from St. Paul's Epistles. 
 Further, take into account the good sense, 
 moderation, caution, and discretion shown by 
 the leaders of the Church in its beginnings. 
 
 All that precedes rests on the assumption 
 that the Jesus of the Gospels is historical. 
 It may be well to say a word about the theory 
 that the history and character of Jesus are 
 largely "mythical," the product of gradual 
 1 C. L. Brace, Gesta Christi. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 155 
 
 accretions. On this assumption the unique 
 and perfect character of Jesus is developed 
 in four narratives, compiled from a mass 
 of traditions, legends, myths, hallucinations, 
 and pious fictions. 1 The fabricators and com- 
 pilers of these materials must then have been 
 persons of real genius and moral elevation ; 
 " the inventor of a Gospel would be a more 
 astonishing character than the hero " ; yet 
 by hypothesis they were also credulous and 
 superstitious enthusiasts. 2 
 
 Now (even if we leave St. John aside, and 
 consider only the synoptic Gospels) there 
 seems to be insuperable difficulty in recon- 
 ciling the supposed variety and multiplicity of 
 origin and authorship with the unity, har- 
 mony, and perfection of the result, shown in 
 the blending of Divine and human elements 
 in Jesus Christ ; the combination of love 
 and beneficence with sternness ; the mixture 
 of humility with self-assertion ; the creation 
 of a new type of moral perfectness utterly 
 unlike any in the past, or in the Gospel age ; 
 especially by the delineation of a suffering 
 Messiah. 8 
 
 1 C. A. Row, Christian Evidences, chaps, iv. v. ; see also 
 Modern Scepticism, p. 344 ff. 
 
 2 Compare the Apocryphal Gospels. 
 
 3 C. A. Row, Christian Evidences, p. 87 ff. 
 
156 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 It is said by Dr. Keim (quoted in Fisher, 1 
 p. 173): "This mythical theory, which has 
 lately become popular, is only a hypothesis, 
 which explains some things, but does not ex- 
 plain the main thing; nay, deals with the 
 historical facts from perverse and untenable 
 points of view." 
 
 D. THE EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF ST. PAUL'S 
 EPISTLES 
 
 It might seem natural, in connection with 
 the character and teaching of Jesus, further to 
 discuss the authority of the Gospels which 
 give the portraiture of Him. But the discus- 
 sion is long, complicated, full of unavoidable 
 detail ; moreover, the materials are easily 
 accessible in such books as Bishop Westcott's 
 Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, 
 Bishop Ellicott's Commentary, the Speaker's 
 Commentary, etc. 
 
 Also several of St. Paul's most important 
 Epistles are earlier in date than the Gospels, 
 whose authority is strongly reinforced by 
 them. We have to consider 
 
 1 See also the summary in Row's Christian Evidences, 
 chap. x. ; and in Modern Scepticism, p. 359. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 157 
 
 I. St. Paul's Value as a Witness 
 
 (1) His authentic writings prove his great 
 ability, and other intellectual qualities : 
 
 (2) also moral qualities necessary in a good 
 witness, such as sincerity, toleration, calmness 
 of judgment, accuracy (see Paley's Horae Paul- 
 inae). 
 
 (3) By training and position he was pre- 
 judiced against Jesus : he ascribes his con- 
 version to a miracle. The theory which 
 ascribes it to hallucination has been fairly 
 described as " a cobweb of conjectures belied 
 by the facts of the narrative." St. Paul 
 claims to have actually seen and heard Jesus, 
 and puts the appearance on a level with those 
 seen by other apostles (1st Corinthians xv. 8 ; 
 ix. 1 ). From Jesus Himself he claims to have 
 received his commission. 
 
 (4) His sudden and absolute change of life 
 and aims occurred when he was in fullest 
 activity as a persecuting inquisitor ; he then 
 gave up everything, and proved his sincerity 
 by life-long toils and sufferings. 1 
 
 (5) He had easy access to the facts about 
 Jesus and His Gospel. The date of his con- 
 version was probably not later than 36 A.D., 
 
 1 Dean Farrar's St. Paul. 
 
158 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 when he was still a young man; he had 
 settled at Jerusalem soon after 30 A.D. ; he 
 must then have had full opportunity of 
 learning the facts of Jesus's life, at any rate 
 of His ministry in Judaea. Four of his 
 chief epistles (Bonians, 1st and 2nd Corin- 
 thians, Galatians), universally recognised as 
 authentic after long discussion, were written 
 probably in 57 or 58 A.D., less than thirty 
 years after the Crucifixion. 1 
 
 II. Nature and Value of the Evidence supplied 
 ~by the Epistles 
 
 (1) When 1 Corinthians xv. 6 was written 
 the larger number of 500 persons still sur- 
 vived who had seen Jesus after His resurrec- 
 tion. The same chapter shows that Paul's 
 assertions about this and other appearances 
 were already familiar to the Corinthians. 
 Some of them were adversaries of Paul, some 
 sceptical ; they were keen-witted Greeks. If 
 Paul's statements had been untrue, he would 
 have been refuted, and certainly would not 
 have written the 2nd Epistle to Corinthians. 
 
 (2) In Komans xv. 23 he says, "These 
 
 1 C. A. Row, Christian Evidences ; Professor Stanley 
 Leathes in Modern Scepticism, p. 366. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 159 
 
 many years I have a longing to come to you." 
 He appeals to their knowledge (not learned 
 from him) of the risen Christ as a living 
 power, i. 3, 4; vi. 10 ; viii. 11 ; i.e. in Italy, 
 as in Greece, when Paul wrote, less than thirty 
 years after the Crucifixion, there was an iden- 
 tical belief in the risen Christ, which had 
 already existed for some time. 
 
 (3) And further, we find in these Epistles a 
 system of belief, such as we have it, about the 
 Incarnation (Eomans i. 3) ; Baptism (Eomans 
 vi. 3 ; 1 Corinthians i. 13 ; Galatians iii. 27) ; 
 the Holy Communion (1 Corinthians xi. 23) ; 
 etc. 1 
 
 Further evidence of a similar kind might be 
 adduced from other books of the New Testa- 
 ment, but the line of argument has perhaps 
 been indicated sufficiently. It may be traced 
 further by help of the ordinary commentaries. 
 
 E. CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTION 
 
 Having adduced certain evidences for 
 Christianity based mainly on admitted facts, 
 it may be well to consider some objections to 
 
 1 See further remarks on the force of this evidence of 
 Christian belief held firmly amid persecution in Row's 
 Christian Evidences, p. 167 ; Modern Scepticism, pp. 401 sq. 
 
160 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 Christianity, which are also said to rest upon 
 admitted facts. 
 
 In many scientific and speculative works 
 the theory of evolution is said to be fatal to 
 Christian belief, and even to a belief in a 
 Creator and moral Governor of the world, i.e. to 
 religion. Evolution is defined as a theory 
 " that all forms of life have been evolved or 
 developed from simple and low organisms, and 
 that in the long series of successive develop- 
 ments each organism tended continually to 
 develop into more complex forms, and organs 
 that at first had several functions tended to 
 become specialised." - 1 With this theory is 
 closely connected Darwin's theory of natural 
 selection, and the " struggle for existence." 
 
 Now this theory or hypothesis (so far as it 
 is scientifically proved) appears to be quite 
 compatible not only with religion, but with 
 the Christian religion. 
 
 (1) It has, no doubt, modified the form 
 of the " argument from design " (the teleo- 
 logical argument) which is prominent in 
 such books as Paley's Natural Theology, 
 the Bridg water Treatises, etc. ; viz. that the 
 facts of nature, especially the animal creation, 
 give innumerable proofs of a Creator and 
 1 Cassell's Dictionary. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 161 
 
 Designer of Nature ; and show His power, 
 wisdom, and goodness by the ways in which 
 parts of the organism (such as the eye or 
 the hand) are adapted to external circum- 
 stances, 1 and to particular purposes ; 2 whereas 
 the evolution theory ascribes these appear- 
 ances of design, not to the creation of 
 definite species of plants, animals, etc., by 
 separate creative acts ; 3 but to the slow con- 
 tinuous action of natural forces and "laws/ 5 
 such as heredity, variation, influences of en- 
 vironment, combined with " natural selection/' 
 which have winnowed out such variations in 
 species and individuals as were less favourable, 
 and developed such as were more favourable 
 to life ; so that the eye, for instance, is but a 
 highly developed form of some rudimentary 
 organ, or even of a mere cell. Similarly 
 man himself is said to be developed from 
 lower stages of existence, and even the whole 
 solar system to be developed from a mass of 
 heated nebulous matter. 4 
 
 This theory, however, does not affect the 
 
 1 Paley's Natural Theology, chaps, iii. vi. 
 
 2 For a short summary of the argument, and of its 
 history, see Dr. R. Flint's Theism, pp. 196, 387. 
 
 3 Milton, Paradise Lost, vii. 414. 
 
 4 For a sketch of Laplace's and Darwin's theories see 
 Archbishop Temple's Bampton Lectures, p. 163 sq. ; Flint, 
 Theism, pp. 200, 397. 
 
 M 
 
162 RELIGIOUS TEACHING .HAP. 
 
 substance of the " argument from design," 
 but only its details, and the way of putting 
 it. In fact, the proofs of the power, wisdom, 
 and goodness of God become even stronger 
 than before, if the latent properties of matter, 
 and the forces that act upon it, were devised 
 by God in such a way as to produce by their 
 mutual action in the course of ages all the 
 wonders of nature, including man. Further, 
 matter and force cannot act of themselves ; 
 so that the theory of evolution implies God's 
 " immanence in nature, and the constant omni- 
 presence of His shaping and directing power." ] 
 
 (2) How does the theory affect belief in 
 the Bible, and especially in the narratives of 
 Creation given in Genesis ? Science has filled 
 in with magnificent wealth of accurate detail 
 the rudimentary traditional outlines of the 
 Bible record ; and it has been said previously 2 
 that the Bible record is not intended as 
 a Divine revelation of scientific facts ; in 
 particular as to the antiquity of man on 
 the earth Genesis gives no certain date. On 
 the other hand, Darwin's theory of man's origin 
 and development is still imperfectly proved. 
 
 Is there any valid objection against the 
 
 1 Aubrey Moore, Science and the Faith, p. 184. 
 2 Chap. IV. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 163 
 
 hypothesis that at a certain stage in the 
 evolution of the world, so soon as certain 
 conditions were satisfied, a new " law," brought 
 into operation by the Divine initiative, was 
 manifested by the development of the " super- 
 sensual " phenomena of consciousness, the sense 
 of duty, and all the special powers and qualities 
 of the human soul ? l This would be analogous 
 to what happened at the introduction into the 
 world, first of life in its lower forms; then of 
 feeling, instinct, etc. 
 
 (3) The theory of evolution itself supplies 
 an answer to objections against God's power, 
 wisdom, and goodness based on the existence 
 of pain and suffering and on the apparent 
 waste of life ; viz. that in a work which ex 
 hypothesi is still unfinished, there necessarily 
 must be imperfections, which must be inex- 
 plicable to those who cannot see the ultimate 
 issue. 2 
 
 F. EVOLUTION IN HISTORY 
 
 History, showing the course of God's designs 
 for the development and education of mankind, 
 
 1 A. R. Wallace, Darwinism, last chapter. 
 
 2 Lux Mundi, p. 190. (See in Modern Scepticism, p. 
 259 sq., a lecture by Bishop Goodwin on the lines of Butler's 
 Analogy, respecting the analogy between evolution in 
 Nature, and evolution in Revelation.) 
 
164 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 strongly corroborates the teachings of Eevela- 
 tion. It shows " God in history," l preparing 
 the world for Jesus Christ, so that Augustine 
 boldly says, " Christianity is as old as the 
 world"; Christ came in the fulness of time, 
 as the consummation of ages of moral, social, 
 and political evolution. This slow process was 
 strictly analogous to the slow development 
 of Nature. The main lines of converging 
 progress can be traced in the history of 
 Greece, Eome, and the Jewish race. 
 
 (a) In Greece, guarded against Asiatic 
 despotism by the spirit of Athens and Sparta, 
 against the uncivilised powers of the North 
 and "West by its mountain rampart and the 
 sea, the flower and fruit of Hellenic civilisation 
 had time to come to perfection before Macedon 
 and Eome had strength to hinder it. 
 
 Thus were developed (1) the highest type 
 of human excellence in literature, art, etc., 2 
 which yet showed man's incapacity to solve 
 unaided the " enigmas of life," and to discover 
 truth and righteousness ; (2) the cultivation 
 of the reasoning faculty and power of dialectic, 
 which, though in pre-Christian times incapable 
 
 1 Bishop of Rochester in Lux Mundi ; Dean Farrai's 
 Hulsean Lectures (1870), the Witness of History to Christ. 
 
 2 Archbishop Temple, Essays and Reviews, p. 15 ff. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 165 
 
 of arriving at religious truth, yet was invalu- 
 able to the early Church for winnowing truth 
 from falsehood ; (3) a perfect language, which 
 became the vehicle of revelation in the LXX. 
 and New Testament, being spread widely over 
 the East through Alexander's conquests. 
 
 (6) Eome developed and handed on (1) 
 traditions and examples of stern, manly 
 virtues ; fortitude, austere simplicity, patriot- 
 ism, and public spirit : (2) a framework of 
 law and political organisation which was of 
 immense value in the development of the 
 Church both in the East and the West : (3) the 
 " Pax Komana," giving physical, material, and 
 moral facilities for the spread of Christianity ; 
 in the Acts may be seen the helpfulness of 
 the imperial provincial system, established 
 not long before the foundation of the Church : 1 
 (4) some elements of " moral preparation " in 
 the Stoic philosophy. 2 
 
 (c) The Jewish nation and race present 
 evidences of evolution in the Law, prophecy, 
 and history. 3 
 
 (1) The Law its sacrifices,in themselves in- 
 effectual, pointing forward to their "fulfilment " 
 
 1 Professor Ramsay's books (passim). 
 
 2 Dean Farrar's Seekers after God. 
 
 3 C. A. Row's Christian Evidences, chap. xi. 
 
166 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 iii Christ ; its ritual, whose symbolism was 
 fulfilled in Christ ; its morality, progressively 
 training the Jewish people, and " fulfilled " 
 by Christ ; its progressive religious teaching 
 on the unity and holiness of God, on the 
 destiny of man,' and his obligation to seek 
 righteousness from a higher source. 1 
 
 (2) The Prophets. In Paley and other 
 older books undue importance is attached to 
 the more or less literal fulfilment of predictive 
 prophecy, especially in reference to the Messiah. 
 Lists of these are given in many accessible 
 books. 2 The argument still has a certain 
 weight, for the conditions of a weighty 
 prophecy are often satisfied, viz. that it should 
 be " obscure when delivered, clear when ful- 
 filled " (for if clear when delivered, it is liable 
 to the objection that it had traced the lines for 
 its own fulfilment) ; and the fulfilment in Jesus 
 Christ of many apparently incompatible pro- 
 phecies is like finding the right key for a 
 complicated lock. Moreover, from Abraham 
 to Malachi there is a continuous series of 
 prophets whose " collective consciousness " is a 
 cumulative argument of enormous weight, and 
 
 1 Bishop Westcott, Ep. to Hebrews ; Fisher's Christian 
 Belief, p. 405. 
 
 2 Whately's Evidences, chap. iv. ; Chalmers's Evidences, 
 p. 180. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 167 
 
 little affected by questions about the date 
 and authorship of individual books. No one 
 disputes that all the books in which pro- 
 phecies occur were in existence, and accepted 
 by the Jews, long before Christ. It may be 
 added that, however numerous and convergent, 
 these prophecies would have been utterly in- 
 sufficient of themselves for constructing the 
 portrait of Christ as given in the Gospels. 1 
 
 Yet, after all, " the fulfilment of prophecy 
 is an obscure and difficult subject ; the safety 
 of Christian truth should not be made to 
 depend much upon it." ' There is another 
 view of prophecy which displays more clearly 
 its permanent value and importance. The 
 prophets educated their race in great re- 
 ligious ideas ; monotheism ; the government 
 of the world by a just and holy God ; a 
 Divine purpose shaping the history of nations, 8 
 and preparing by slow steps the advent of a 
 new kingdom of righteousness, arising in and 
 from Israel, yet admitting all nations into it 
 (Jer. xxxi. 31-34; Isaiah Ivi. 7; lx.; Hebrews 
 viii. 8-13). Much of their teaching was, no 
 
 1 On the evidential force of predictive prophecy see 
 C. A. Row, Hampton Lectures, 1877, p. 219, etc. ; Bishop 
 Westcott on Hebrews, p. 69. 
 
 2 Goodwin, p. 134. 
 
 3 Bunsen, God in History, p. 140. 
 
168 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 doubt, rudimentary and embryonic; in this 
 it resembled other evolutionary developments ; 
 but it had this special mark of "supernatural" 
 force, that the prophet is often utterly opposed 
 to the spirit of the time in which he lives, 
 nay, shrinks himself from the message he 
 delivers ; and his message reaches beyond the 
 facts and possibilities of the present, having not 
 only a partial fulfilment at the time, but also 
 " a germinant accomplishment through many 
 ages," culminating in the kingdom of Christ. 1 
 
 (3) The history of the Jews : evolved in 
 successive stages, from the call of Abraham, 
 and the promises, to the deliverance from 
 Egypt ; the long struggles against powerful 
 idolatrous nations (during which their mono- 
 theism was braced and purified); the Exile 
 and its chastening ; the unique phenomenon 
 of the Eeturn ; the Dispersion, scattering the 
 Jews east and west, to carry with them their 
 Scriptures, which powerfully helped the dif- 
 fusion of Christianity. 2 
 
 Yet it cannot be said that Christianity was 
 simply a " natural " evolution from Judaism. 
 These influences and forces had not prepared 
 
 1 On the work of the prophets see also Chap. IV. p. 104 ; 
 Professor W. Sanday, Inspiration, Lecture III. 
 
 2 Godet, p. 199. 
 
IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 
 
 the leaders of Jewish thought, religion, and 
 society to receive Christ ; they crucified Him. 
 Nevertheless God's preparation of " the rem- 
 nant " had been effectual, and the crucified 
 King of the Jews established the new kingdom 
 of righteousness. 
 
 Gr. CHRISTIANITY AND CHRISTENDOM 
 
 These are, as Coleridge said, two of the main 
 evidences for the Gospel, meaning by this 
 
 (1) The relations of Christian doctrines to 
 human needs and aspirations ; by their con- 
 formity with the voice of conscience (" Eevela- 
 tion is probable, not because the truths it 
 makes known to us are distant, but because 
 they are so near," 1 ) cf. Deuteronomy xxx. 11-14; 
 by satisfying the need of something higher 
 and larger than earth can give (Job xiv. 1 ; 
 Ecclesiastes ii.) ; by solving the problems of 
 suffering, pain, death, which baffle and sadden 
 philosophic speculation ; by releasing from 
 the sense of guilt and fear, evidenced by 
 the almost universal prevalence of sacrifice. 2 
 Christianity satisfies all these needs and 
 aspirations by offering reconciliation to God 
 
 1 Dr. H. Wace, Boyle Lectures, p. 264. 
 2 Fisher, p. 338. 
 
170 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 through a Saviour who, having borne our 
 nature, knows our wants, brings pardon of sin, 
 hope and consolation in sorrow, and deliver- 
 ance from death, through union with the 
 Divine nature, and progressive advance in the 
 spiritual life, which is begun on earth, and 
 perfected hereafter. By these offers, open to 
 all men without distinction, it conquered 
 Paganism in the first centuries, and has won 
 the allegiance of the most highly civilised 
 races. 
 
 There is much to be said also about the 
 intellectual depth and strength of Christian 
 philosophy, as compared with other philoso- 
 phies, on such subjects as God, man, will, sin, 
 pain, death, etc. ; l a fresh evidence of " super- 
 natural" influences acting on a handful of 
 unlettered Jews in the first century. 
 
 (2) The effects of Christian doctrines on 
 national and social development. 
 
 They show their vital power by supplying 
 the motives and the means for continuous 
 advance towards a high ideal ; by teaching the 
 equality of men, and thus undermining slavery ; 
 by raising the position of women; by stimulating 
 philanthropy; by reconciling freedom of opinion 
 with obedience to authority ; by laying down 
 
 1 Aubrey Moore in Lux Mundi. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 171 
 
 principles which have already greatly influ- 
 enced international and social relations, and 
 seem destined to influence them still more ; 
 by encouraging missionary enterprise in all 
 Christian Churches ; and by raising the Chris- 
 tian nations above the moral and religious 
 standard of the rest of the world, in propor- 
 tion to the purity and sincerity of Christian 
 belief and practice. 1 
 
 (C. L. Brace, Gesta Christi, 1886, shows the 
 influence of the Gospel during the Eoman 
 period on patria potestas and family rela- 
 tions, in checking unnatural vice and teaching 
 purity, in putting an end to the exposure of 
 children, in encouraging philanthropy and 
 charitable institutions, in checking licentious 
 and cruel sports, in promoting humane legisla- 
 tion, in mitigating and undermining slavery, 
 in elevating marriage and the position of 
 women.) 
 
 (3) The force of the foregoing considerations 
 will be strengthened by a brief comparison 
 between Christianity and the other great re- 
 ligions of the world. 2 
 
 St. Paul (Eomans ii. 14, 15; i. 19, 20) 
 
 1 Fisher, p. 368 ff. 
 
 2 Professor Max Miiller, Chips from a German Workshop, 
 vol. i. ; C. Hardwick, Christ and Other Masters. 
 
172 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 teaches us to regard them as more or less im- 
 perfect means of training the conscience, in so 
 far as the followers of each religion are faithful 
 to its highest principles. "There is no re- 
 ligion which, among its many errors, does not 
 contain some divine truths " (St. Augustine). 
 But they all lack the vitalising progressive 
 powers of Christianity; they are stationary 
 and stagnant, and therefore liable to deadly 
 corruption. Paganism, comparatively pure in 
 the Homeric age, ultimately sank into nameless 
 abominations (Eomans i. 21-32). 
 
 Besides Christianity and the innumerable 
 varieties of savage religions, there are six great 
 historical religions l - 
 
 (a) Semitic (1) Judaism, superseded, as 
 we believe, by Christianity ; 
 
 (2) Mohammedanism, valuable by its 
 antagonism to idolatry, its central doctrine 
 of submission to the will of God, and its 
 enforcement of certain moral virtues. But 
 even those who most appreciate its good 
 qualities insist on its inferiority to Chris- 
 tianity, in representing God not as Love, 
 but as absolute arbitrary Will; in making 
 access to God indirect, through the Prophet ; 
 
 1 Professor Max Miiller, vol. iv. ; F. D. Maurice, Boyle 
 Lectures. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 173 
 
 in its lower ideals of morality, holiness, and 
 spiritual life ; in appealing to lower motives, 
 of fear, sensual desire, etc. ; in the immeasur- 
 able inferiority of its sacred writings ; and in 
 its lack of progressiveness, largely due to the 
 doctrine of " Kismet." 3 
 
 (&) Aryan (3) Brahmanism, which appears 
 to be gradually collapsing under the influence 
 of western ideas and missionary enterprise. 
 
 (4) The small remnant of Zoroaster's fol- 
 lowers (said to be only about 100,000) are 
 becoming subject to similar influences. 
 
 (5) Buddhism, numbering some 450 mil- 
 lions of adherents, has attracted attention 
 and sympathy in the West by the life and 
 character of its founder, " one of the most 
 beautiful figures in Paganism, whose self- 
 sacrifice might read a useful lesson to Chris- 
 tians " ; 2 by the elevation and purity of its 
 moral teaching, far superior to Mohammed- 
 anism or Stoicism ; by some singular re- 
 semblances to Christian systems ; and by its 
 pessimistic mysticism, which has had a strange 
 charm for some European agnostics. But in 
 the religion of Buddha there is no god ; life 
 
 1 Mr. R. Bosworth Smith, Mohammedanism; Stanley's 
 Eastern Church, Lecture VIII. ; Dr. R. Flint, Theism. 
 
 2 H. P. Liddon, Essays and Addresses. 
 
174 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 is a misery for soul and body, from which 
 there is no escape but Nirvana, which is prac- 
 tically extinction ; it inspires no idea of duty, 
 and its mainspring is but a subtle form of 
 selfishness. 1 In fact, it is not so much a 
 religion as a philosophy of life ; and therefore, 
 like the doctrine of Socrates, in its purer form 
 it attracts only the few ; to the many it offers 
 neither hope nor faith, and in its more pre- 
 valent forms it has degenerated by curious 
 stages into external formalism and grovelling 
 idolatry ; while neither the old nor the new 
 Buddhism profess to do much for practical 
 morality. 
 
 (6) The sixth great religion is Confucianism. 2 
 Its founder (551-473 B.C.) made no claim to 
 a divine mission ; he taught no theology, but 
 only a lofty, purely secular morality (possibly 
 derived from the same sources as that of 
 Pythagoras), based on the assumption of man's 
 original purity and innocence. 
 
 Superior and alone Confucius stood, 
 Who taught that useful science, to be good. 
 
 POPE. 
 
 One of his sayings was, " He only is pure in 
 
 1 Sir Edwin Arnold, The Light of Asia ; H. P. Liddon, 
 Essays and Addresses; Bimsen, God in History, vol. i. p. 
 374 ; Bishop R. S. Copleston on Buddhism in Ceylon. 
 
 2 General Alexander, Life of Confucius. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 175 
 
 mind who hates vice as one would hate a 
 bad odour." In its purer form Confucianism 
 has an elevating influence, especially on the 
 educated classes, but being merely secular, it 
 fails to satisfy the deep-seated craving for 
 religion. Accordingly, the bulk of the Chinese 
 have turned either to idolatrous corruptions of 
 Buddhism, or to the worship of ancestors. 
 
 Fuller study of the comparative history of 
 Eeligions will deepen the conviction that 
 Christianity differs from them all in kind ; in 
 its origin, in its " supernatural " sanctions 
 confirmed by historical facts, in its ideal, in 
 its accomplished results, and in its promise of 
 the future. 1 " In Christ is life ; and the life is 
 the light of men." 
 
 H. THE CUMULATIVE VALUE OF THESE 
 EVIDENCES 
 
 It is a law of evidence that one witness to 
 a fact or statement may be of little weight. 
 Two or three independent witnesses may 
 suffice for absolute proof; and if more inde- 
 pendent witnesses are brought forward, the 
 probability of the truth of their testimony 
 
 1 S. T. Coleridge, Aids to Reflection. 
 
176 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 increases, not in arithmetical, but inore nearly 
 in geometrical ratio. 
 
 Similarly, in proportion as Christian evi- 
 dences are independent and trustworthy, their 
 cumulative force is measured, not by addition, 
 but by multiplication. The evidences here 
 presented may be thus summarised 
 
 (1) The manifest preparation for Chris- 
 tianity in history. 
 
 (2) The work of prophecy in foretelling 
 and preparing. 
 
 (3) The historical facts concerning Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 (4) The witness of the several books of the 
 New Testament, especially St. Paul's epistles 
 and the Gospels, to the " supernatural " events 
 of His earthly life. A century of criticism 
 has in some respects greatly strengthened the 
 cogency of this branch of the " evidences." 
 
 (5) The unique position, character, and 
 teaching of Jesus. 
 
 (6) If the possibility and probability of 
 Divine intervention for an adequate purpose 
 be admitted, miracles supported by adequate 
 historical testimony are strong evidences. 
 
 (7) The doctrines of Christianity and their 
 historical results. 
 
 (8) (A branch of evidence which does not 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 177 
 
 by its nature admit of being formally set 
 forth and discussed) the witness of the Holy 
 Spirit to Christ in the individual conscience. 
 
 (9) His witness in the corporate life of 
 Christ's Church. 
 
 /. THE DIFFICULTIES OF CONSTRUCTIVE 
 UNBELIEF 
 
 There is little or no difficulty in taking up 
 the position of destructive or negative unbelief. 
 As religion has to do with the unseen, 
 eternal, and infinite, it is naturally open to 
 doubts and objections on the part of those 
 who take their stand on what is seen, 
 temporal, and limited, i.e. on facts of sense 
 and experience, scientific evidence, etc. ; and 
 deny the existence of anything beyond. For 
 meeting purely negative and destructive argu- 
 ments the method of Bishop Butler's Analogy 
 will supply some help ; it has been ably used 
 by Christian apologists. 1 
 
 Again, there is no difficulty whatever in 
 adopting the commoner form of " Agnosticism," 
 which practically consists in taking unbelief on 
 trust without inquiry. But it is not a position 
 worthy of an educated man, who ought to care 
 
 1 Mr. Gladstone's Studies subsidiary to Butler's Analogy. 
 
 N 
 
178 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 to inquire what answers have been given to 
 the great questions of human existence. It is, 
 in fact, intellectually contemptible to take a 
 lively interest about the last scrap of news 
 in the evening paper, about a murder or a 
 divorce scandal ; and yet to care nothing, and 
 inquire nothing about the evidence for the 
 existence of a God, or the question whether 
 Jesus Christ is the Son of God, or was an 
 impostor or a fanatic. A million people 
 of the ordinary " Agnostic " stamp, who take 
 unbelief on trust from sheer intellectual lazi- 
 ness or frivolity, do not weigh in the scale 
 against one convinced believer ; or even against 
 one unbeliever who, having done his best 
 to explore the great questions of existence, 
 honestly concludes that he can find no satis- 
 factory solution. 1 But in regard to inquiring 
 unbelievers Dr. Martineau says, 2 " To make 
 the case of Agnosticism good, you must be 
 
 1 ''I should deem him a coward who did not prove to 
 the uttermost what is said about such questions (life, 
 death, immortality). He should persevere until he has 
 attained one of two things ; either he should discover or 
 learn the truth about them ; or, if this is impossible, I 
 would have him take the best and most irrefragable of 
 human notions, and let this be the raft on which he sails 
 through life not without risk, as I admit if he cannot 
 find some word of God which will more surely and safely 
 carry him." Plato, Pkaedo, chap. xxxv. p. 85 (Jowett's 
 translation). 
 
 2 Study of Religion, preface, p. viii. 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 179 
 
 careful not to look beyond phenomena, as 
 empirical facts ; you must abjure the inquiry 
 into causes, and the attempt to trace invisible 
 issues, and never lift the veil that bounds 
 experience. But if once you allow yourself 
 to think about the origin and end of things, 
 you will have to believe in a God and im- 
 mortality." 
 
 By constructive unbelief is meant any non- 
 Christian theory of human existence based 
 upon inquiry into causes, and thoughts " about 
 the origin and end of things." Such a theory 
 has to take into its account, among these 
 ideas and inquiries, the sense of obliga- 
 tion (that " ought " which Bentham wished 
 to abolish) ; the sense of the Infinite ; and 
 the things that trouble human life sin, pain, 
 sorrow, death, as well as the apparent injustices 
 and inequalities of life. 
 
 Besides Christianity and the other great 
 religions, there are certain constructive theories 
 or philosophies which attempt to give an 
 account of these fundamental facts and diffi- 
 culties of human existence ; such as Pan- 
 theism ; Dualism (of two co-ordinate powers 
 of good and evil, an ancient theory which 
 found an able modern advocate in J. S. Mill) ; 
 forms of pessimistic philosophy reproducing 
 
180 RELIGIOUS TEACHING CHAP. 
 
 some of the features of Buddhism ; various 
 forms of " Positive " philosophy, recognising 
 nothing but matter and force ; Herbert 
 Spencer's " Unknowable, but omniscient and 
 Eternal Power, the cause of all phenomena " ; 
 Matthew Arnold's shadowy " Power not our- 
 selves" (and not personal) "that makes for 
 righteousness " ; and Theism in its various 
 forms. 1 
 
 There is another attempted solution, the 
 reformed Christianity, which would elimi- 
 nate all the " supernatural " and miraculous 
 elements, and retain only the morality of 
 Christianity. This is well dissected by Bishop 
 Goodwin (The Creed, p. 449 sq.\ who shows that 
 though it retains some of the outward form of 
 Christianity, it has no vital principle, no heart, 
 blood, or life ; no promise of endurance even in 
 a sect, still less of becoming the basis of a 
 world religion. 2 
 
 Some of these systems explain away the 
 sense of moral obligation ; not one of them 
 gives an adequate account of the " enigmas of 
 
 1 Dr. J. Martineau, Study of Religion, vol. i. ; Types of 
 Ethical Theory, vol. ii. ; Professor H. Sidgwick, History 
 of Ethics. 
 
 2 See also the chapter on "Christianity without 
 Miracle " in Professor A. B. Bruce's Miraculous Elements 
 in the Gospels. His conclusion is that ''Christianity 
 without miracle must cease to be a substantive religion." 
 
vi IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 181 
 
 life " ; not one offers or supplies to ordinary 
 men and women the strong sanctions of duty 
 and morality ; the comfort and strength in 
 sorrow and pain ; the release from the power, 
 guilt, and misery of sin ; the hope and courage 
 in the face of death and bereavement ; the 
 trust in God's Fatherly love of the individual 
 soul and of human kind, which Christianity 
 offers through faith in Christ, and through 
 the piety, worship, service, brotherhood, and 
 fellowship with God and man, which are 
 among the fruits of the Tree of Life that is 
 for the healing of the nations (Eev. xxii. 2). 1 
 
 " Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast 
 the words of eternal life." 
 
 1 See also section Gf. Christianity and Christendom. 
 
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