BIBLICAL INFALLIBILITY.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR:9 may be quite true that to the great majority of a few thousand trainel reasoners, belief in Biblical infallibility (" truth without any mixture of error '') would be a mere Credo quia impossibile est, and that they would prefer to it the re- nunciation of Christianity. But it is not less true that to the great majority of the masses and millions, Biblical non- infallibility would seem to involve in it the same renunciation. For with these millions, the supernaturally assured infallibility of the Bible is their faith's one foundation.
It was so with myself. As soon as I saw clearly that the doctrine of Biblical infallibility was untenable, my immediate feeling was that faith in the Lord Jesus had no foundation. It was not until after anxious thought that I perceived that faith in the Divine Person might have a foundation other than the infallibility of the Divine Book. Bat that other foundation had to be found ; and—this is the point especially to be insisted upon—it must be one of super- natural, objective fact, such as the infallibility bad. been. The credentials of one accredited by Him who is above Nature must be above Nature themselves. "Homo minister et interpres Dei" must exhibit some power above that of " Homo minister et interpres naturm." Such an ex- hibition there is in the Resurrection. Having sufficient practical assurance of that, I had no need to be troubled because I felt myself incompetent to come to a decision on the various questions, historical, linguistic, physical, metaphysical, of which in the region of criticism the air is full. It is this doctrine of the Resurrection as a supernatural, objective fact, -which needs to be brought forward and in- sisted upon with endless iteration. When it has been intro- duced and made sure as the foundation, that other false foundation of Biblical infallibility may safely be withdrawn. " Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrection from the dead."—I am,
Sir, &a, F. W. HAMPER, ex-Vicar of Selby.
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