traced the worst faults of that courageous band who lived and died
fighting for what they conceived to be truth and right.

[Sidenote: _Reaction against the Bible of Puritanism_]

It is undoubtedly true that during the past two decades the Old
Testament has in fact, if not in theory, been assigned to a secondary
place in the life and thought of Christendom. This is not due to the
fact that the Christ has been exalted to his rightful position of
commanding authority and prestige. All that truly exalts him likewise
exalts the record of the work of his forerunners which he came to bring
to complete fulfilment and upon which he placed his eternal seal of
approval. Rather, the present eclipse of the Old Testament appears to be
due to three distinct causes. The first is connected with the reaction
from Puritanism, and especially from its false interpretation of the
Bible. Against intolerance and persecution the heart of man naturally
rebelled. These rang true neither with life nor the teaching of Jesus.
Refuge from the merciless and seemingly flawless logic of the earlier
theologians was found in the simple, reassuring words of the Gospels.
The result was that, with the exception of a very few books like the
Psalter, the Old Testament, which was the arsenal of the old militant
theology, has been unconsciously, if not deliberately, shunned by the
present generation.

[Sidenote: _Doubts aroused by the work of the "Higher Critics"_]

Within the past decade this tendency has been greatly accelerated by the
work of the so-called "Higher Critics." Because it presents more
literary and historical problems, and because it was thought, at first,
to be farther away from the New Testament, the citadel of the Christian