Scripture Made Easy.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3820, 26 March 1881, Page 4

Scripture Made Easy.

In a late number of the Tablet the following appears :— Apropos of the authenticity of the Bible, we find the sacred volume is now m generally being made easy to meet the * needs* of the advancing scepticism. It Cis for such a purpose that Professor Robertson Smith has issued the publications that have so disturbed the Free Church in Scottand, and it seems to be with a similar intent that the Eev. Charles strong, of the Scots' Church, Melbourne, has also published doctrines have horrified the orthodox of his --"-communion, and led to his prosecution

for heresy being talked of. His reply to —aa- address presented to him by his and which was intended to Support him against his accusers, is very fuggestive. He said; "This was an age of development in which the :? jthings of tne past were merging into the 'Qfynde and open future. Ministers had to Igldlpt themselves to many classes of people. He had in his congregation the old and the young ; the old who were slow to abandon the cherished ideas of their youth, and the young, who were illger-^ to keep pace with the ever moving spirit of the age. He had among his listeners men of different decrees of culture, men who thought and those 1 jsho had few opportunities of thinking. . . . He felt heartily thankful to ,!/inow that he had been able to guide them i.clear understanding of matters which had formed the subject of inquiry among thoughtful men during the last few years. ,Ie felt sometimes that he might *-beCTe^arded as an iconoclast: what he deiired was to build them up in the .j^h^'stiani (faith. They all knew that in God's providence changes were taking place .greater than any. yet seen in the Chrisnan church, and his desire was to YiantrcipateJ'those changes so that when they took place the people might not be alarmed but strengthened in the faith."

The minister, indeed, is sadly placed who findXMm^elf obliged to go before the . crowing of one part of his it appears to us with little *11i§teq£'beneiit'—in order to save to them, t9by alleriiikiVto suit their requirements, gome remnant of a dying Christianity; atjd^wid^is'i'Wt the same time, retarded

and weighed down by the obstinacy of • MftlKnisirig tfclders in adhering to their untenable and out-of-date notions. What ripo'sitibnVcan be more pitiable?