Excerpt from The Primary Charge of the Rt. Rev. David Williams, D. D., Bishop of Huron: Delivered Before the Synod of the Diocese in the Synod Hall, London, Ontario, June 20, 1905 It is folly for us to depreciate criticism, merely because of the vagaries of some critics; for criticism is our best human weapon for the vindication _of Truth and the overthrow of falsehood and superstition. Criticism, reverent and honest, has no dangers to truth, but it is a burning fiery furnace to false hood and superstition. Let it never be forgotten that to the application of criticism we owe our present intellectual and religious freedom. It was the rise of criticism, of independent and fearless research, that led to the Reformation, which was nothing but the application of criticism to the history and position of the Church. It was met with a storm 0' oppo aition and abuse; but the result was the overthrow of the whole fabric erected upon tradition and superstition and a signal triumph-for liberty, and progress and truth. The tem poral power and spiritual tyranny of the Medieval Church were shown to be no part of the true Church, but the usurpa tions and inventions of ecclesiastics. This was achieved by the agency of criticism, and we glory in the result. Some fifty years ago the same criticism was applied to the books of the New Testament. The first result was consterna tion. We have seen what may be termed the close of criticism as regards the New Testament, and now the New Testament is more than ever the Word of God tons, for now we accept these books because we know that historically they are what our traditions declared them to be. But we no longer rest them on tradition, but on knowledge. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.