Social Life and Literature Fifty Years Ago. 16mo, pp. 96. Boston: Cupples & Hurd. Price, cloth, $1.

Not being in sympathy with any pessimistic view of life, we do not indorse the proposition of the anonymous author of these pages, that the literary writers of fifty years ago occupied a higher plane of thinking, displayed a more elegant style of composition, or were more affluent in literary skill and development than the writers of the present day. That age abounded in great men; this age in greater.

In Memoriam. A Record of the Funeral Services of Maria Louisa Phillips, wife of John M. Phillips of the Book Concern, who died September 9, 1888. The principal address was by her pastor, the Rev. W. V. Kelley, D.D., followed by remarks from Dr. John Miley, of Drew Theological Seminary, and a closing prayer by a former pastor, Rev. W. L. Phillips. The addresses, discriminating, tender, and comforting; the prayers, full of resignation and faith; the Scripture lesson, read by Dr. S. Hunt, descriptive of the virtuous woman, and a basis for the speaker's thoughts; the song, soothing in spirit, and restful in its words-all these are fittingly reported in this beautiful memento, and must assuage the grief of the bereaved.

The Land Beyond the Forest. Facts, Figures, and Fancies from Transylvania. By E. GERARD, Author of "Reata," The Waters of Hercules," "Beggar My Neighbor," etc. With Maps and Illustrations. 12mo, 403. New York: Harper & Brothers. Price, cloth, $1 50.

We have here a woman's impression of Transylvania. Her husband being a cavalry officer in that country for two years, she enjoyed every opportunity for close and accurate observation of the scenery, the customs of the people, the military spirit, and the working of the governmental machinery in its varied adaptations, making her book reliable, interesting, and profitable to the general reader. We know of no volume that is equal to it for the information it conveys.

The Problem; or, The "Irrepressible Conflict" in Politics. By I. VILLARS, D.D., President of McKendree College, Lebanon, Ill. 16mo, pp. 237. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. Paper cover, 25 cents.

A trenchant résumé of the evils of the liquor traffic, with a vigorous defense of the principle of prohibition, together with arguments for the Prohibition Party. Dr. Villars is doing excellent service by his brochure, but the new edition should contain revised statistics, if not more grip-like arguments.

Irish Wonders. The Ghosts, Giants, Pookas, Demons, Leprechawns, Banshees, Fairies, Witches, Widows, Old Maids, and Other Marvels of the Emerald Isle. Popular Tales as Told by the People. By D. R. MCANALLY, Jr. Illustrated by H. R. Heaton. Small quarto, pp. 218. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Price, cloth, $2.

An accumulation of folk stories, abounding in wit and humor, and illustrating a phase of Celtic literature quite worthy of preservation. The book is a cure for ennui.

METHODIST REVIEW.

MARCH, 1889.

ART. I.-INSPIRATION AND INFALLIBILITY. THE claim of infallibility, as inherent in inspiration, is to be justified as belonging to the sacred writers while engaged in writing the Holy Scriptures. This high characteristic is not to be held as determinable by arguments à priori, for the conviction must be warranted by a fair induction of all the facts involved as furnished by the Scriptures themselves. Infallibility must be found to be authoritatively asserted or authoritatively assumed, or both, in the contents of the sacred writings. This belief is further to be verified by a reasonable assurance that those who profess to speak or write in God's name profess to speak or write under the conscious information, direction, and personal guidance of the Spirit of God. That inspired men actually did teach fact, truth, and doctrine without error or omission, without defect or excess, is a view which, after jealous investigation, long since found acceptance and was settled in the conviction of the Church as valid; and so now the logical requirement is in place, that proof to the contrary shall be made complete on the part of him who affirms the opposite proposition. The argument being thus presented, the validity of the claim will appear in scientific form, and the conclusion becomes irresistible and cannot with reason be challenged by the disbeliever. Thus infallibility will be found to inhere in, and to be inseparable from, supernatural inspiration. 1. The argument opens by fixing the limitations within which the word infallible, and its cognate terms, are to be understood in this discussion. Infallibility is here employed in its exact 11-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. V.

sense, as expressing "exemption from error; that which is an unfailing and indubitable evidence; a sure proof, not capable of error." Thus it is applied to the sacred writers.

The meaning of this application is, that certain men, by virtue of being supernaturally inspired, became thereby the agents of God for the infallible expression of his will toward mankind in such a sense that what they taught God taught. The only infallibility involved is the infallibility of God. Chosen men became only the subjects of infallible wisdom when he inspired them. Upon the human side this infallibility was limited by the nature of man, but not so limited as to admit or imply fallibility in God. Infallibility, as it inheres in divine nature, is infinite in extent, and, accordingly, God always acts infallibly wherever he acts at all. He never errs. In the case of inspired men, it was God's own infallible power acting within and upon the powers of man, restricted by the domain of man's nature. This limitation does not, however, render nugatory the infallibility of God, since it furnishes a field for the exercise of God's inspirational and infallible energy. Within that limitation his infallibility was perfect. Under inspiration man's nature was responsive to the exercise of that power infallible, and was subject to its direction and guidance in expressing "the mind of the Spirit." Nevertheless, the infallible quality does not spring up within man as its source any more than does the sunshine. That, therefore, which calls in question the infallibility involved in the transactions supposed in inspiration simply calls in question the infallibility of God, which inheres in his every action.

No objection can be fairly alleged against the divine infallibility because of the limitation implied when God acts upon mind, since we do constantly witness the divine infallibility when his power is similarly conditioned and acts upon matter. "He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." During all the period of time the Almighty has held in his unseen grasp the whole created universe, whose forces he has organized in undeviating conservation and correlation, maintaining in perfect equilibrium the one part to another part, and every part to the whole, and the whole to every part; so that we can calculate with the exactness of a second where and when an eclipse began in the

We

centuries past, or will begin in the centuries to come. could not do this if God had made a mistake in "upholding all things by the word of his power." Yet in one sense matter limits the application of God's power, but certainly in no sense does that cancel or lessen his infallibility. There is no reason for believing that omnipotent infallibility is any less omnipotent or infallible when acting upon or within the realm of man's nature, than when acting upon or within the realm of the material universe.

Now, this predication of infallibility on the part of the subjects of supernatural inspiration applies to the writers of the Scriptures only so far as they are engaged in writing their autograph manuscripts. But this limitation excludes at once all errors, interpolations, and corruptions introduced since those autographs were completed. Unquestionably transcribers and translators, interpolators and interpreters, have made many mistakes touching the text of the Holy Scriptures; but criticism has settled the question that not one single doctrine has been thereby affected. Nevertheless, the mistakes of copyists or others are not the mistakes of the sacred writers. Many difficulties and errors supposed to be discovered in the divine record exist only in the minds which create them. No man from preconceptions and prepossessions has the right to assume that errors were committed by the original writers of Scripture, as not one single error has ever been detected in an autograph copy, since none are known to exist. In no event is the infallibility of the writer to be depreciated because of the fallibility of the reader. Nevertheless the claim of this quality is not made with reference to the book, but of the men who wrote the book. The book itself was not inspired, but it is the product of inspired men. Most of the difficulties involved in the discussion of this subject would disappear if the proper discrimination were made and maintained at this point. Supernatural inspiration applies to personality, not to parchment; and "infallibility is the highest perfection of the knowing faculty." It is not what the Bible contains, but what it teaches, that constitutes the internal evidence of inspiration. It is not what private opinions the sacred writers entertained, but that which they taught as truth, which is to be considered the criterion of judgment. Private opinions were never the subject of divine inspiration. Much is due

to a misunderstanding of what those sacred writers actually said and meant; much, also, to our ignorance of ancient manners and customs; of the method by which they expressed numbers, and their methods of omission in historical statement; but most of all to an unwarrantable bias in investigation characterizing those who emphasize the errors which they claim to have found. Criticism has shown amazingly how many statements in Scripture supposed to be direct contradictions were entirely consistent and correct when properly understood. The more exact and minute our knowledge becomes of that which the Bible teaches, the more confirmed do we find to be its propositions. As science has progressed in the verification of its hypotheses, it has amplified the field of illustrations of sacred truth beyond compare, furnishing confirmation to the statements of the inspired writers; and from this fact we infer that when science shall have verified its final utterances, and the truth of Scripture shall be perfectly understood, the apparent discrepancies now existing between the two will have disappeared.

None will deny that errors have taken place in transcription, that dates have been inaccurately copied, that glosses have been interpolated. We leave the determination of these to the ordinary resources of criticism. We take the text as identified with the original autographs, and we affirm that it contains truth, and nothing but truth. On no one point has criticism discovered a single contradiction to known facts, while it has brought to light an astonishing accordance with them. Exactly in proportion as our knowledge of the countries, circumstances, and nations alluded to in Scripture has become more precise and minute have all the statements of Scripture been more and more verified. Where ground has apparently existed for impugning its accuracy, further information has proved the objections to be only the product of human ignorance; and it is natural to conclude that what further information has done for some difficulties it would do for all should it be vouchsafed to us.' *

Next let us place distinctly before the mind just what is involved in the denial that infallibility is identical with divine inspiration. There must be no ambiguity in the conception if we would secure satisfaction in the conclusion. When men

were made the subjects of inspiration they were thereby rendered infallible, or not, in their statements. As it is a simple matter of fact, in which either the one proposition or the other

*Field.