feuds and conquests described in the Norse sagas yield reason for believing in Thor and Odin. Add to which, that if these agreements with Assyrian and Egyptian records tend to verify the Hebrew religion, then, conversely, it might be held by Assyrian and Egyptian priests, did any now exist, that such agreements, verified their religions. Apart, however, from historic statements, thus proved true, investigations, scientific and literary, have served more and more to disprove, or to make doubtful, those parts of the biblical narrative which constitute its Theology. It needs but to contrast past confidence in them with present doubts and disbeliefs, to see that statements of this class have not, like those of Science, become gradually clearer and more certain, but the reverse.[1] Nor is confidence increased when we ask whether its guidance has been successful. After nearly two thousand years of Christian teaching and discipline, how near are we to that ideal life which Christian leading was to bring us to? What must we think of the sentiment implied in the saying of a glorified prince, repeated by a popular emperor, lauding "blood and iron—a remedy which never fails." Among the peoples who socially insist on duels, what advance do we see toward the practice of forgiving injuries? Or, turning from private to public transactions, what restraint do we find upon the passion of international revenge—revenge by the great mass insisted upon as a duty. How much moralization can we trace in the contrast between the practice of savages, whose maxim in their inter-tribal feuds is—"Life for life," and the practice of Christian nations, who in their dealings with weak peoples take as their maxim—"For one life many lives." Toward the foretold state when swords shall be beaten into plowshares, how much have we progressed, now that there exist bigger armies than ever existed before. And where are the indications of increased brotherly love in the doings of Christian nations in Africa, where, like hungry dogs round a carcass, they tear out piece after piece, pausing only to snarl and snap at one another.[2]
- ↑ Even while I write there comes to me, in The Academy, for April 2Vth, 1895, sufficient illustration in the following remarks, made by a learned biblical critic, the Rev. Prof. Cheyne:—"There is, indeed, no reason, since the Tell-el-Amarna discoveries, to doubt that religious myths of Babylonian origin found their way into Canaan long before the entrance of the Israelites, and were adopted by the Israelitish conquerors; but it may be reasonably held, (1) that the creation-myth in that early age was less developed than that which lies at the root of Gen. i.; (2) that some of its elements had lost much of their life by the time of Amos; (3) that renewed intercourse with Assyria and Babylonia resulted in the revival of the old myth, perhaps with new elements; and (4) that religious teachers in Judah adopted and adapted this and other myths."
- ↑ If it be complained that while emphasizing failures in guidance I have ignored successes, by omitting to name the good conduct in private life which has been fostered, I
