Mayi] PROCEEDINGS. [1894.new and unanswerable arguments the advocates of philosophic
materialismandpracticalatheism. The mere fact,however, that
the chief representativesof the so-called " Higher Criticism" in our
own country and in America are avowed Christians, mightbe
expected to exercise somedegreeof reassuring influenceuponsuch
natural but really illogical anxieties. This uneasiness is not
specially characteristic of our own time. Timesof discovery have
alwaysbeen times of mental disquietude. New truths and new
aspects of truth are usually disturbing to those whohad fondly
imagined that they were already in full possession of all truth.
Currencyhoweversoonwearsoff the gloss of novelty ; and people
insensiblycometo perceive thatthe new coinageis of the same
sterling metal as the old, though the image and superscription
mayhavebeen modernized. Believingtherefore in truth, andin
the God of truth, I am not alarmed by the results of recent inquiry
nor by the hypotheses whichthoseresultsseem to warrant in the
field of Old Testamentstudies. Theology will knowwhatto do
with thoseresults,if only the excusable anxietiesof believers and
the unscientific impatience of outsiders will givetheology time.
Onceagainit will be found —andhowoftenhas it happened so
before!—thatthe heterodoxy of yesterday is the orthodoxy of to-day;
notindeedbecauseessential truthis liable to the shifty changesof
error,but because the sum of truth is not given to any particular
generation. We all can do something to further or to retard
progress; and if we are animated by a worthy desireto advance
the most sacredof all causes, the cause of that Truthwhich is
indeed Divine, we shall be content to work ourway onwardin
patience,faith,and humility.
- —TUbALCAIN ANDNaAMAH
Professor Hommelenriched ourProceedings last year witha
hrilliantexpositionof the intimate relationsbetweenthe two lists of
theten antediluvian patriarchspreservedin Genesis, and an essen
tiallyidenticallist of old Babylonian namesgatheredfromBerosus
as verified and supplemented by cuneiform documents. A really
importantpointof contact wasthusestablishedbetween " the Bible
andthe monuments." I would now lay before you a minor com
parisonof somewhat similarcharacter.
It is impossible to read the brief noticesabout Lamechandhis
children(Gen.iv, 19-24) withoutfeelingthatwe have in this portion
191 R