Church of England -- Clergy -- Correspondence; Clergy -- England -- Correspondence; Robinson, Forbes, 1867-1904 -- Correspondence
I have succeeded in unfreezing my ink, so I can write and--although it
is late to do so--wish you a happy new century. It is only once in a
lifetime that one can do that sort of thing! I am out here for my
health. I wasn't up to much last term. However, I am as fit as a lord
now, and return to Cambridge this week. I have been reading out here
two very different kinds of books. One is Wellhausen's 'History of
Israel,' the other Moody's Life by his son. Wellhausen's book gives
you in outline the position of modern advanced criticism of the Old
Testament. I have never before studied the history from the critical
point of view really seriously. The study has proved extraordinarily
interesting, and I {137} must say that in the main I agree thoroughly
with Wellhausen's position. You will see it more or less clearly put
in that 'History of the Hebrew People' in two small volumes by Kent
which I recommended to you before. The history of the gradual progress
of the divine revelation to the human race is a marvellous study: the
way in which that people were educated to become the teachers of the
world is utterly different from anything which we should have devised.
I am struck more and more by the marvellous fact that God can and does
reveal Himself--in His essential moral nature--to man; that we are so
made that we can apprehend the revelation; nay, that we in turn can in
measure reveal Him to men!
Moody's Life stirs me up to realise more the worth of the individual,
the surpassing value of man's moral and spiritual nature. I long to
help men to see what I see, to love Him whom I love, and the failure of
my efforts is largely, I feel, due to defects in myself. Still I do
not despair of doing something.
_To his brother Edward in South Africa._
Brislington, Bristol; April 10, 1901.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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