divine inspiration and infallibility of the Bible, except a very slight
one about the method of inspiration, which I have already detailed of
my student days. As a Methodist I had become fairly proficient in my
ability to defend every detail of my church doctrine. I could repeat
almost every passage of scripture from Genesis to Revelation in support
of each of the Twenty-five Articles. My only trouble was when I would
occasionally run across some sceptic who would question my
authority,--the Bible. Of course I would tell him the Bible was the
word of God; and he would demand proof, "_detailed facts_," in support
of my assertion. While perfectly satisfied in my own mind, these
"detailed facts" were not in my possession. But now I was going to get
them.

In the last year of my conference course of study, one of the books
prescribed was "Harman's Introduction to the Study of the Holy
Scriptures." Dr. Harman was Professor of Greek and Hebrew in Dickinson
College. I was told that in this book I would find "completely
detailed, uncontrovertible proofs of the divine authenticity,
inspiration, and infallible truth of the Bible." This was just what I
had long been looking for, and just how I found it will soon appear.

APPROACHING THE CRISIS

The first one-third of this book of 770 pages is devoted to proving the
Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, its inspiration and infallible
truth. On the subject of inspiration generally the author follows the
_ideal_ rather than the _verbal_ theory. His theory of the _necessity_
of inspiration is based upon the idea that the Bible contains records
that could not otherwise have been known at the time they were written;
for example, the account of Creation "must have been divinely revealed
to Moses, as he could not otherwise have known it." The _extent_ of
inspiration he limits to those matters that were "not otherwise known"
to the writers. Things of which they had personal knowledge were
therefore not the subjects of inspiration. For example, the advice of
Jethro, concerning the division in the burdens of the government, was
_not_ inspired, because Moses got it directly from the mouth of Jethro
himself. Nevertheless the author was "divinely guided" in writing of
matters of his personal knowledge, in order that the "sacred record"
might be preserved from error. As to the _proofs_ of inspiration, I
quote verbatim: "The inspiration of the Bible is evident from its
subli