Sath, 4-71-26 PREFACE. HE Papers in this volume the fifty-seventh of the series THE cover a wide range of investigation and thought, and in some of them the element of speculative inquiry will be detected by the careful reader. It is, however, firmly believed that, taken as a whole, the present series of Essays represents a serious endeavour to encourage sober inquiry and to stabilize thought in regard to issues which have a vital relation to the Christian faith. The contributions to Oriental study as it bears upon Holy Scripture, and the tracking of ancient peoples and nations that are named therein, are significant, and in every case they embody the fruits of up-to-date research. In cases where less useful results have found expression in the Papers themselves, then the Discussion which has followed has more than once thrown light upon dark and difficult problems. Professor Albert T. Clay, whose Paper on "The Early Civilization of Amurru" appears in this volume, has passed to his rest since the Essay was read. He will be greatly missed in the world of Oriental investigation. The Paper on "Great Britain and the Palestine Mandate" called attention to a subject of profound interest from various points of view; and while the political aspect was indifferent to the acknowledged platform of the Institute, there could not but be deeper and more permanent thoughts stirred in many minds as Sir Wyndham Deedes dealt with a subject which he has made his own through personal examination in the Holy Land, as well as prolonged study in an ever-growing field of literature, official and otherwise, 66 The Essay by Professor McCready Price was read on a day set apart for a Paper to be submitted by the late William Jennings Bryan. The failure of the American statesman, through stress of engagements, to send a Paper that had been promised, afforded opportunity for the Langhorne-Orchard Prize Essay to be read at a time when the subject of Organic Evolution was in the air." While no one would for one moment say that the last word has been spoken or written upon Professor Price's subject, "Revelation and Evolution," nor yet upon the special geological theories which he propounds, yet on many hands witness has been borne to the importance of the facts and the value of the arguments presented in reply to the inquiry whether, in sober fact, it is possible to harmonize Divine Revelation and the Evolutionary Theory as it is popularly held to-day. Though particularizing as to certain Papers now presented, we would not for one moment suggest that the other Essays are of secondary interest or value. Each of them, we are convinced, has a message for the present time, and as a whole they are confidently commended to the careful study of Members and Associates of the Institute, and to others, in various lands, who year by year look to the Journal of Transactions for the enunciation of problems, scientific and philosophical, treated with mental candour, and in a spirit of submission to the revealed will of God. Signed on behalf of the Council, J. W. THIRTLE, Chairman of Council. November, 1925. |