Besides open enemies, the Bible has enemies who are less frank--enemies
who, while claiming to be friends of Christianity, spend their time
undermining faith in God, faith in the Bible, and faith in Christ. These
professed friends call themselves higher critics--a title which--though
explained by them as purely technical--smacks of an insufferable
egotism. They assume an air of superior intelligence and look down with
mingled pity and contempt upon what they regard as poor, credulous
humanity. The higher critic is more dangerous than the open enemy. The
atheist approaches you boldly and tries to blow out your light, but, as
you know who he is, what he is trying to do and why, you can protect
yourself. The higher critic, however, comes to you in the guise of a
friend and politely inquires: "Isn't the light too near your eyes? I
fear it will injure your sight." Then he moves the light away, a little
at a time, until it is only a speck and then--invisible.

Some who have used the title "higher critic" have approached their
subject in a reverent spirit and laboured earnestly in the vain hope of
satisfying intellectual doubts, when the real trouble has been with the
hearts of objectors rather than with their heads. Religion is a matter
of the heart, and the impulses of the heart often seem foolish to the
mind. Faith is different from, and superior to, reason. Faith is a
spiritual extension of the vision--a moral sense that reaches out toward
the throne of God and takes hold of verities that the mind cannot grasp.
It is like "the blind leading the blind" for a higher critic, however
honest, to rely on purely intellectual methods to convey truths that are
"spiritually discerned."

As a rule, however, the so-called higher critic is a man without
spiritual vision, without zeal for souls and without any deep interest