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8 this affair, and indict every one connected either di rect Iv or indirect Iv with the outrageous murder, for • * murder it is. “ruder our system of laws ami the constitution, the sheet anchor of our liberties, no one can be ]e"al!y executed until he has had a fair and impar tial trail before twelve jurors, properly and legally selected to hear the evidence and law. and then pass upon the question of his guilt and say he is guilty. When that is done the criminal may be punished. Before that, any one who constiutes himself judge, jury and sheriff, and assists in the taking of human life, becomes, in the eyes of the law. a murderer, lie has taken human life without authority for doing so. This is true, even though the victim be guilty of a most heinous crime and deserves to die. “A lynching is doubly outrageous where innocent blood is shed. I see that some of the newspaper men are trying Io throw all the responsibility for this out rage upon the citizens of Wayne county. This ought not to be. 1 am as deeply mortified and fee] as keenly as any one ran. the disgrace that is brought upon us. but it will do no good to try ami saddle the dis grace upon others. The newspapers, as moulders of public sentiment, ought to contend earnestly for the maintenance of law and order, and should, in every instance, condemn as strongly as they can these seri ous violations of law.' HAVE WE LOST THE BIBLE? By Bishop C. I). Williams, in American Magazine. There have been three attitudes of the Church on Hie difficult ies of reconciling the lessons of the Bible. Birst. science is always wrong ami the Bibb' is always right. If the Bible says the sun goes around the earth and Galileo says the earth goes around the sun. then Galileo must be excommunicated, if he can't be burned. That was the first attitude of the (’hureh. Second. Ihe words of scripture must be “handled deceitfully.’' wrested from their plain meaning, twisted, distorted, manipulated until they are forced into some conformity with science, 'flint is the posi tion of t lie harmonists, who patch up tenuous and shifting agreements bet ween < Jenesis ami geology. It is less brutal than the first, but it is less honest. Third, the scriptures were never intended to teach science, but religion. As a great Boman Catholic scholar once put it. “they teach not how the heavens go. but how to go to heaven." They reveal, not natural and physical truth, but moral and spiritual truth. That is the position to which our most intel ligent Christian thought has come. It is a great gain. Bui it does not meet all questions. Another set id’ problems arises. Is the Bible al ways tin* Word of God in this restricted field? Is its every utterance on moral and spiritual themes infal- THE REASON lible ? To that every sensitive Christian conscience must answer ‘‘ no.' The moral standard of tin* Book varies with the temper and enlightenment of the age and the writer. (Tully and treachery are in the Old Testament com mended by inspired prophets and even boldly attrib uted to the command of Jehovah. Deborah exults in the name of the Lord over Sisera s murder by Jael. Jehovah Himself issues the order for the extermina tion of the Canaanites. Samuel commands Saul in the name of the Lord to murder the captive women ami children of the Amalckites and hews Agag to pieces with his own hands, The polygamy and con cubinage of the patriarchs are sanctioned by the Al mightv. Laws of vengeance ami retaliation are issued amidst the thunders of Sinai and then art' swept aside by the merciful Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. The imprecatory Psalms curst' the oppres sors of tht' nation and the Psalmist's personal ene mies. Elijah calls down fire from heaven to consume the officers of the law sent to arrest him. which same thing the Apostles proposing to do art* severely re linked by the Master. A lying spirit is set forth by the Lord to trick Ahab. The she-bears are sent by God to devour little children who remark on Elisha’s bald head. And so on. These are the most serious difficult it's which a devout reader of tht' Bible en counters. He must either give up his belief in a Bible which is every where equally infallible ami inspirt'd even upon ethical and spiritual matters, or else his fa it h in a good < lod. And upon this comes the “higher or historical criticism" of modern times. It has shown us a Bible which is not one book, but a vast and variant litera ture, a patchwork of authorship and date, often stained by human passions. Bor example the parallel accounts of Chronicles ami Kings art* written, one by an ecclesiastical mind, the other by a prophetic or historical mind. It has brought down a large part of the law of Moses from Sinai to centuries later and shown that it has grown up gradually out of the exigencies of the times. It has found mvths folk lore and legends, very like those of the surrounding heathen, in what had passed as sober history. Mul titudes of minor questions are still unsettled. But the main results have been established, and the work has been done very largely by reverent Christian schola rs. We have here then a literature, not dictated by one Divine Mind, not characterized by one invariable and consistent spirit throughout, but a partieolred product of various ages and various minds. These are plain ami well-established facts. It will do no good but only incalculable harm to blink them. We must face them frankly, honestly and. let me add, sea rlessly. What is the result of all this criticism? A Bible is lost, lost beyond recovery, one of tin* Bibles which