The results of Geology have been opposed by those who insist that the world was made in six days of twenty-four hours. Biology has to fight its way against those who affirm that the doctrine of development is against the Scriptures. Such use of the Bible has too often the effect of driving scholars away from it, and especially from the Old Testament, the most abused part of it. As Dr. C. A. Row says:

"The fact is therefore indisputable, that theologians have handled Scripture on such faulty principles, that they have laid down as truths indisputably divine, a number of dogmas which have brought reve.. lation into direct collision with some of the greatest discoveries of modern science, and that after having, on their first enunciation, denounced them as inconsistent with the belief that Scripture contains the record of a divine revelation, they have been compelled to accept them as unquestionable verities. Moreover, the general distrust arising from failures of this kind has been intensified by the pertinacity with which theologians have clung to various unsound positions which they have only abandoned when further resistance had be come impossible. The history of the conflict between Science and Revelation is full of such instances, and the consequences have been disastrous in the extreme."*

Such theologians as those here described have brought disgrace upon the Church and especially upon the Old Testament Scriptures. Other and better theologians have taken the side of truth and science, and through their help progress has been made.

It is ever necessary for the friends of truth, and of progress in the Church to oppose and to overcome obstructionists. It is the duty of all lovers of the Bible to break up the superstitions that cluster about it, to expose the false dogmatic and polemic use of its texts, and to show that it favors all truth and every form of

* Revelation and Modern Theology Contrasted. London, 1883. p. 7.

scholarly investigation. The Bible is an honest book in all its parts, it is the Word of God, and every sincere disciple of wisdom will find in its pages not only the real and the highest truth, but will be stimulated and encouraged to press forward under the guidance of the Holy Spirit unto all truth (John xvi. 13).

The design of this book is to set forth the principles, methods, and branches of Biblical study, and to give sketches of their history. It is proposed, first of all, to survey the whole field, and then to examine the several departments. We shall aim to explain the true uses of the Bible and show throughout that Biblical study is, as we have claimed, the most important, extensive, profound, and attractive of all studies.

1*

CHAPTER II.

EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.

THE most general term for the various departments of Biblical study is Exegetical Theology. Exegetical Theology is one of the four grand divisions of Theological Science. It is related to the other divisions, historical, systematic, and practical, as the primary and fundamental discipline upon which the others depend, and from which they derive their chief materials. Exegetical Theology has to do especially with the sacred Scriptures, their origin, history, character, exposition, doctrines, and rules of life. It is true that the other branches of theology have likewise to do with the sacred writings, in that their chief material is derived therefrom, but they differ from Exegetical Theology, not only in their methods of using this material, but likewise in the fact, that they do not themselves search out and gather this material directly from the holy writings, but depend upon Exegetical Theology therefor; while their energies are directed, in Historical Theology in tracing the development of that material as the determining element in the history of the people of God; in Systematic Theology, in arranging that material in the form most appropriate for systematic study, for attack and defence, in accordance with the needs of the age; in Practical Theology, in directing that material to the conversion

of souls, and training them in the holy life. Thus the whole of theology depends upon the study of the Scriptures, and unless this department be thoroughly wrought out and established, the whole structure of theological truth will be weak and frail, and it will be found, in the critical hour, resting on the shifting sands of human opinion and practice, rather than on the rock of infallible divine truth.

The work of Exegetical Theology is all the more important, that each age has its own peculiar phase or department of truth to elaborate in the theological conception and in the life. Unless, therefore, theology freshen its life by ever-repeated draughts from the Holy Scriptures, it will be unequal to the tasks imposed upon it. It will not solve the problems of the thoughtful, dissolve the doubts of the cautious, or disarm the ob jections of the enemies of the truth. History will not, with her experience, unless she grasp the torch of divine revelation, which alone can illuminate the future and clear up the dark places of the present and the past. Systematic Theology will not satisfy the demands of the age if she appear in the worn-out armor or antiquated costume of former generations. She must beat out for herself a new suit of armor from biblical material which is ever new; she must weave to herself a fresh and sacred costume of doctrine from the Scriptures which never disappoint the requirements of mankind; and thus armed and equipped with the weapons of the Liv. ing One, she will prove them quick and powerful, convincing and invincible, in her training of the disciple, and her conflicts with the infidel and heretic. And so Practical Theology will never be able to convert the world to Christ, and sanctify the Church, without ever renewing its life from the Bible fountain. The pure,

noble, and soul-satisfying truths of God's Word must so pervade our liturgy, hymnology, catechetical instruction, pastoral work and preaching, as to supply the ne cessities of the age, for "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. iv. 4; Deut. viii. 3).

The history of the Church, and Christian experience, have shown that in so far as the other branches of theology have separated themselves from this fundamental discipline, and in proportion to the neglect of Exegetical Theology, the Church has fallen into a dead orthodoxy of scholasticism, has lost its hold upon the masses of mankind, so that with its foundations undermined, it has yielded but feeble resistance to the onsets of infidelity. And it has ever been that the reformation or revival has come through the resort to the sacred oracles, and the organization of a freshly-stated body of doctrine, and fresh methods of evangelization derived therefrom We thus have reason to thank God that heresy and un. belief so often drive us to our citadel, the sacred Script. ures, and force us back to the impregnable fortress of divine truth, in order that, depending no longer merely upon human weapons and defences, we may use rather the divine. Thus we reconquer all that may have been lost through the slackness and incompetence of those who have been more anxious for the old ways than for strength of position and solid truth, and by new enterprises we advance a stage onward in our victorious progress toward the end. Our adversaries may overthrow our systems of theology, our confessions and catechisms, our church organizations and methods of work, for these are, after all, human productions, the hastily thrown up outworks of the truth; but they can never contend successfully against the Word of God that liveth and abideth