ot
only to reconcile a fair knowledge of the natural sciences with the
Bible, but even, as in the argument for design, to make them
contributory to Bible teaching. But evolution changed all that and it
was really through the impact of the more sweeping scientific
conclusions upon his Bible that the average man felt their shock upon
his faith. If he had been asked merely to harmonize the genesis of the
new science with the genesis of the Old Testament he would have had
enough to occupy his attention, though perhaps he might have managed it.
The massive mind of Gladstone accomplished just that to its own entire
satisfaction.

But the matter went deeper. A wealth of slowly accumulated knowledge was
brought to bear upon the Scriptures and a critical acumen began to
follow these old narratives to their sources. There is no need here to
follow through the results in detail. They[6] were seen to have been
drawn from many sources, in some cases so put together that the joints
and seams were plainly discernible. One wonders how they had so long
escaped observation. The Bible was seen to contain contributory elements
from general ancient cultures; its cosmogony the generally accepted
cosmogony of the time and the region; its codes akin to other and older
codes. It contained fragments of old songs and the old lore of the
common folk. It was seen to record indisputably long processes of moral
growth and spiritual insight. Its prophets spoke out of their time and
for their time. It was plainly enough no longer an infallible dictation
to writers who were only the automatic pens of God, it was a growth
rooted deep in the soil out of which it grew and the souls of those who
created it. The fibres of its main roots went off into the darkness of a
culture too long lost ever to be quite completely understood. It was no
longer ultimate science or unchallenged history.

[Footnote 6: The Old Testament narratives particularly. The results of
New Testament criticism have not yet fully reached the popular mind.]

We have come far enough now to see that nothing really worth while has
been lost in this process of re-interpretation, and much has been
gained. If, as the French say in one of their luminous proverbs, to
understand is to pardon, to understand is also to be delivered from
doubts and forced apologies and misleading harmonies and the necessity
of defending the indefensible. In our use of the Bible, as in every
other region of life, th