The views set forth in these sermons were not hastily reached or lightly
accepted. They represent a growth of years. Their essential thought was
stated in a sermon that was preached and published eight years ago. My
positions concerning certain books, etc., have been taken in deference to
what seems to me the weight of judgment among the master critics. They are
open to correction, as the young science of Biblical criticism gains new
light. The general view of the Bible herein set forth rests upon the
conclusions of no new criticism. In varying forms, it has been that of an
historical school of thought in the English Church and in its American
daughter. It is a view that has been recognized as a legitimate child of
the mother Church; and that has been given the freedom of our own
homestead, in the undogmatic language of the sixth of the Articles of
Religion of the Protestant Episcopal Church. It is distinctly enunciated
in the first sentence of the first sermon in the Book of Homilies, set
forth officially for the instruction of the people in both of these
Churches.

"Unto a Christian man there can be nothing more necessary or profitable
than the knowledge of holy scripture, forasmuch as _in it is contained
God's true word_, setting forth his glory, and also man's duty."

The whole controversy in Protestantism over the Bible may be summed into
the question whether the Bible _is_ God's word or _contains_ God's word.
On this question I stand with the Book of Homilies.

These sermons were meant for that large and rapidly growing body of men
who can no longer hold the traditional view of the Bible, but who yet
realize that within this view there is a real and profound truth; a truth
which we all need, if haply we can get it out from its archaic form