The German Emperor's Rescript of February 15th, addressed to Admiral
Hohmann, criticising the position of Professor Delitzsch as a " higher critic," is an interesting document couched in the interpretative and somewhat irre- sponsible form used by the Roman Emperors. The Professor, in the concluding lecture of a course dealing with the bearing of certain Assyrian discoveries on the textual structure of the Old Testament, attacked " antiquated dogmas," and pleaded for a " further development of religion." Subsequently at an Imperial evening party the Professor in a private conversa- tion expressed, in the presence of the Emperor, doubts as to the divinity of our Lord, and alleged that the Old Testament contains no revelation of the Messiah. The Emperor in con- sequence has felt compelled to warn the world against the views of Professor Delitzsch, and to state his own views on the subject of revelation. The Emperor, moreover, feels that the Old Testament contains " God's revealed word" side by side with uninspired passages of purely human history. The Rescript concludes by stating, in a passage which enables us to sympathise thoroughly with the German Emperor, that "religion was never a product of science; it is an effluence of the heart and being of man, arising from his relations with God."
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