The Christian remembrancer Volume 12 - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1846 Excerpt: ...Christian Remembrancer. My Dear Sir,--You ask me whether a statement in another periodical is correct, that Chevalier Bunsen looks upon the ages of the patriarchs as being periods and phases of civilization, not literal years; and whether he takes a rationalistic view of this portion of the sacred history? It is painful to speak thus of one who is known to us by the employments of earlier years--the compilation of pious hymns and of public prayers, superior to what the Germans yet possessed. But when one comes among us to introduce a very grave ecclesiastical change, and bring our Church into relations with religious bodies, such as it never yet entered into, the English Church may justly desire to know what the religious belief of the individual is, who recommends to her a great religious change in her relations, were his plan carried out,--which God avert! This work of Chevalier Bunsen touches only incidentally upon the history of the Bible, and much more is contained in the way of implication, or of general principle, than of direct statement. Chevalier Bunsen wishes to disbelieve as little as, without giving up his hypothesis, he can; he wishes also to represent to himself that what he disbelieves is detached from the actual substance of religion; he wishes, too, to put forward rather what he believes than what he disbelieves. But his statements do amount to disbelief in plain facts of Scripture history; his principles involve the denial of all historical inspiration; his glowing approbation of other books, of which I must speak, does evince a most painful amount of unbelief in the divinity of the Old Testament and its prophecies. The occasion of his entering into the question of the history of Holy Scripture at all is the Egyptian chronology. Of course...