Excerpt from Results of Higher Criticism: As Applied to the Old Testament

Of the many toilers in the field of really constructive and en during religious thought, the Rev. Dr. W. S. Crowe is one of the most able, tireless, candid and courageous. Naturally, and almost necessarily, much that he says in trying to clear away the old errors and prepare the way for the new, the larger and better faith of the true, may seem to some destruction; but his effort is not to destroy, but to fulfil; not to take away faith, but to free faith from the accretions of error that have been and are the prolific sources of unfaith. He has faith in the truth; is not afraid to trust truth to the rational and moral consciousness of mankind clearly sees the facts of history and literature; gives them as he finds them; is not the retained attorney of a sect, or a school of thought or theology, but the fearless advocate of the faith and religion of a world.

The right of one in a denomination to thus think and write, may be questioned by some, and even criticised, but to those who would minister most deeply and helpfully to the present needs of our transitional and unsettled time, the supreme question in all cases must be, not what has been thought to be truth, but what is truth. The truth is that which is; error is that which is not. And only the true can stand the test of the ages.

When, some twenty-five years ago, Bishop Colenso ventured to question the historic accuracy of certain statements in the Old Testament, the Orthodox churches of England and our own country were frightened, fearing that the foundations of faith were endangered, or were being hopelessly undermined. But such a fear was a poor answer to the facts he presented, and the larger-minded Dean Stanley confessed that the difference between himself and 'dr. Colenso, who was on trial for heresy, was largely in the fact that the Dean dwelt upon the excellencies of the Bible, while the Bishop felt called upon to criticise its defects.

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