His work produced its effect. It had much to do with arousing a new
generation of English, Scotch, and American scholars. While very
many of his minor statements have since been modified or rejected,
his main conclusion was seen more and more clearly to be true.
Reverently and in the deepest love for Christianity he had made the
unhistorical character of the Pentateuch clear as noonday.
Henceforth the crushing weight of the old interpretation upon
science and morality and religion steadily and rapidly grew less
and less. That a new epoch had come was evident, and out of many
proofs of this we may note two of the most striking.
For many years the Bampton Lectures at Oxford had been considered
as adding steadily and strongly to the bulwarks of the old
orthodoxy. If now and then orthodoxy had appeared in danger from
such additions to the series as those made by Dr. Hampden, these
lectures had been, as a rule, saturated with the older traditions
of the Anglican Church. But now there was an evident change.
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