gators. These documents have the undoubted advantage of being preserved in their original form, and while some are professedly old legends going back to a hoar antiquity, others, and the greater number by far, refer to the events and history of the period. Some of these go back to a time compared with which the greater part of the Jewish Scriptures is modern history. What is now known of these old records and their bearings on Christian dogma has been practically ignored by most of our clergy, at least so far as concerns their public teachings, and their people are still instructed in the old. faith of their fathers, or in those parts of it which are common to the accepted systems of philosophy and morals. It may seem presumptuous, when we have so many able official teachers, for an outsider to attempt to enlighten the community of which he is but a humble member. But he has this advantage, that X PLEA FOR A SIMPLER FAITH of a he is free to inquire into any doubtful questions without fear of injury to himself, either as to his position in the society in which he moves, or as to his means of supporting himself and his family. These may seem to be matters very secondary nature, but in the circumstances of the present day they are very real and very commanding. The humble outsider who here ventures into this troubled arena has long felt that reform in the direction of greater simplicity was needed in the theological as in the medical field, and on the same lines; very much because it has been supposed that the guardianship of truth belongs to a class, and that with the multitude duty lies in obedience. In the present as in his former endeavour1 his one resolve has been to follow truth wherever it led, without fear and without compromise. What can be shown to be wrong and false must be re 1 Plea for a Simpler Life. A. and C. Black. jected, and something truer and more stable sought for to put in its place. Many earnest workers have striven for this; more than ever in our own day, and in our own country. May this little volume, which is intended to be a plain book for plain people, help in advancing the good work. It may be safe, and in some circumstances it may be wise, to build a new edifice on the ruins of an old one, provided the foundations of the latter are strong and sound, and if only the damaged portions are first removed. But if the foundations are undermined, or have become worn out and unstable, the whole of the old structure must be removed, and the new building must be raised on its own foundations. Any attempt on the part of the most skilled builder to restore the edifice on the old foundations must be futile, even though he makes use of only the best of the stones that still remain erect or have already fallen. But on a new foundation he may use many of the old xii PLEA FOR A SIMPLER FAITH stones, and he may find them better fitted. for his purpose than any he can procure fresh from the quarry; he may even arrange them so as to restore some of the finest and most cherished portions of the ancient fabric; and a house thus renovated may have a charm to the old inhabitants which a wholly new house would lack. G. S. K. CURRIE, MIDLOTHIAN, |