man; but Luke adds, that “immediately, while Peter "yet spake, the cock crew, and the Lord turned and "looked upon Peter." That sorrowing look of pitying, almost unreproving love, melted the denier's heart. Compunction and repentance were, according to this unmatched, exquisite narrative of St. Luke, so instantaneous, that there was no time for the cursing and swearing of which Matthew and Mark tell us, unless, indeed, the evangelists are here recording wholly different denials of Peter's. But, this idea once admitted, we shall be compelled to acknowledge at least ten different denials, for that is the number of distinct forms in which Peter's three denials stand recorded in the four gospels. As was to be expected, from what we have already seen, Matthew, Luke, and John record the first crowing of the cock after the third denial; but Mark says this was the second time the cock had crowed. If Mark be right in this assertion, what becomes of the other evangelists' words, "This night, before the cock "shall crow, thou shalt deny me thrice?" If Mark be wrong in this matter, what becomes of inspirational infallibility? If Mark, an inspired Bible writer, might err in this instance, why may not he, or any other sacred penman, have erred in recording any most important doctrine, even as they differ in their records of the words of institution in the Lord's supper, and as they widely and most perplexingly differ in their accounts of Christ's several appearances after his resurrection? These fourfold narratives are evidently not the dictation of an infallible Spirit, however much they may be the composi E tions of four honest early Christian men, in whom the promised Spirit of their Master was powerfully carrying on His glorious work of enlightenment and sanctifica tion. C. THE CENSUS OF DAVID, THE PURCHASE OF ACELDAMA, THE HOUR OF THE CRUCIFIXION, THE NUMBERS OF THE PLAGUESTRICKEN, ARE FURTHER ILLUSTRATIONS OF SUCH INACCU RACIES. THESE discrepancies, which mark all honest contemporary records, and which thoroughly evince the fallibility of man, may be multiplied to a great extent by any diligent student who will peruse such works as Strauss's Life of Jesus, or De Wette's Introduction to the Bible. Such a reader may observe, and should reflect upon the fact, that the book of Samuel tells us (2 Samuel xxiv. 9) that the result of David's famous numbering of the people was, that "Joab gave up the sum;" "and there were in Israel 800,000 valiant men "that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were "500,000 men." This seems a marvellous army, 1,300,000 soldiers, for a territory less than two hundred miles long by a hundred miles broad. But what is our amazement when we find the book of Chronicles (1 Chron. xxi. 5) giving the result of the same census as, besides the men of Levi and Benjamin, 1,100,000 soldiers in Israel, and 470,000 soldiers in Judah; i. e., 1,570,000 soldiers from Palestine alone! Such a reader will find that there are two accounts of what gave to the field of blood its name of horror, "Aceldama." On the one hand, Matthew* tells us that the field was so called because, after Judas, the traitor, had cast the price of his treachery down in the temple and had gone and hanged himself, the chief priests bought with that head-money the potter's field to bury strangers in. On the other hand, Peter, in the book of the Acts,† says, that Judas "purchased a field with the "reward of iniquity; and, falling headlong, he burst "asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out." A careful, student may observe that the evangelist Mark says, "it was the third hour" (that is, 9 a.m.), "and they crucified" Jesus; whereas the beloved disciple,§ in his account of his Master's trial and death, says, that as late as "the sixth hour" (that is, at our midday) Jesus was yet before the judgment-seat of Pilate, and that weak, time-serving judge was still writhing under the dread of condemning "that just man." Or, again, such a student will observe that, in a certain plague, the book of Numbers | gives 24,000 as the multitude who fell; whereas Paul, writing to the Corinthians about the same plague, states the victims as 23,000. SECTION 8.-The People, Learned and Unlearned, are noticing these Discrepancies. THAT there are in Scripture these, and a hundred other discrepancies, amounting sometimes to positive * Matt. xxvii. 3, &c. + Mark xv, 25. † Acts i. 18. || Numbers xxv. 9. and irreconcilable contradictions, is what every careful student cannot fail to discover-what every reader of general literature has pointed out to him in Horne's Introduction to the Scriptures, and in many other common books of so-called Christian evidences, if, indeed, he does not read of these and other discrepancies in the powerful, bold, and self-sacrificing language of Theodore Parker and Francis Newman; and this, too, is what multitudes even of our labouring and mechanical classes are devouring in the lectures and publications of men like Messrs. Holyoake, Barker, and their coadjutors in "Secularism." In vast numbers of cases, alternative questions may be proposed-Did 23,000 die in the plague, or was it 24,000? Was the Saviour crucified at nine in the morning, or was he still on trial at mid-day? Did Judas buy the Aceldama, or were the chief priests its purchasers? Did the cock crow once before Peter's two last denials, and is Mark right, or did the cock not crow at all till after Peter's three denials, and is Mark wrong? Alternative questions may thus be readily framed by the score; and, whichever alternative the reader accepts, the Bible alike denies its own infallibility. In all such alternative questions, the conviction on our mind is, that one or other of the inspired penmen was, in each case, mistaken; and, on whichever side the error may have been, the supposed infallibility of the Bible is equally disproved. CHAPTER III. THE EXISTENCE OF SUCH SCRIPTURAL ERRORS RECOGNISED BY THE LEARNED AND THE PIOUS. SECTION 1.-Forced Harmonies abandoned, and the Truth confessed. We know that there are devices by which it is possible to fence with these errors in the history of Holy Writ; but, for ourselves, we have too often felt, as we were using them, that our heart misgave us lest, instead of the sword of the Spirit, which is every soul-touching word of God, we might be holding a lie in our right hand. For ourselves, we have endured too much bitter anguish in this matter to doubt that the unsatisfactory apologies of well-meaning Christians, whose wish it is to defend what they suppose to be "the faith," have repelled many an anxious inquirer, and driven many an earnest heart into the bleak inhospitalities of unbelief. But truth is verily great; and although the popular mind -alike of believers on the one side, and of unbelievers on the other is still far removed from logical and true views on the grand subject of Inspiration, yet there has been progress in the right direction; so that the intelligent Christian apologist of the present day, concedes to his opponent many a point which, erewhile, it was thought wise to hold stoutly by in spite of difficulty and unreasonableness. |