entire {232} Bible and Christianity
as a whole. This abuse of the Old Testament was due in large part to
the use of faulty, or erroneous, methods of interpretation. And since
there seems to be even now a tendency in some places to defend these
methods, which are out of keeping with the spirit of scientific
investigation in this age, many intelligent men have come to look with
suspicion upon a book in the study of which unscientific methods
continue to be used.

Another important cause of the change of attitude toward the Old
Testament is to be found in the labors expended upon the Old Testament
by able scholars in the pursuit of a careful, critical study of the
ancient records. As has been stated in another connection, these
studies are not the outgrowth, as is often erroneously assumed, of a
desire to discredit the Bible, to displace it from the heart and
confidence of the people, or to attack its teaching or inspiration.
"It would be a most hopeless thing," says W. G. Jordan, "to regard all
this toil as the outcome of skepticism and vanity, a huge specimen of
perverse ingenuity and misdirected effort."[5] They are simply the
results of Protestantism and the Renaissance.[6] But whatever the
spirit back of the study, and whatever the gains of this investigation,
one result is that many Christians feel perplexed with regard to the
true position of the Old Testament. {233} What of its claims? What of
its inspiration? How far is it human in origin? How far divine?
These and similar questions are asked by men everywhere. Never was
there more interest, more inquiry, and, perhaps, more unrest and
disquietude among thoughtful people.

Surely, it is high time to realize that all this investigation has had
no harmful effect upon the substance of the divine revelations conveyed
in the Old Testament records. In the words of Jordan, "To me, with my
faith that the whole universe is filled with the presence of the
living, self-revealing God, I cannot conceive ... that the most severe
criticism can ever banish the divine power from that great literature
which is one of the choicest organs of its manifestations."[7] As has
been pointed out in the preceding chapters, some long-cherished notions
and interpretations have been overthrown; to some extent our ideas
concerning its literary forms have had to be modified, but its
substance has not been disturbed. On the contrary, it has come to be
seen with a clearness unrecogni