It seems the more probable that the censure of Professor
Robertson Smith on Tuesday will, in some way or other, be reversed by the Assembly, because the result of the vote on the third count in the indictment against him, that concerning "inspir- ation," was to give him a triumphant majority on the evening of the same day on which he was censured. Dr. Thomas Smith moved that Professor Robertson Smith's "statement that an inspired writer allowed himself the same freedom as was taken by ancient historians, is, in the sense in which it appears to the General Assembly to be used by him, so unguarded as to be incompatible with the inspiration and infallible truth of the Holy Scriptures ;" whereupon Mr. Isdale, of Glasgow, moved that "the Assembly dismiss the complaint with appeal, and sustain the judgment of the Presbytery ;" and Mr. lsdale's motion was carried, by 283 against 140 votes for Dr. Thomas Smith. This very remarkable vote is not only a great victory for Professor Robertson Smith, but a clear evidence of the fluctuating condition of mind in the Free Church as to the true meaning of 'inspiration.' It is, in fact, an admission that human minds, and thoughts, and styles, and idioms have a great deal to do with the form of Scripture, and that it is quite as allowable to talk of the peculiar style and metaphor of Isaiah and Ezra as of the peculiar style and metaphor of ..Eschylus and Thucydides. That is a considerable step in the direction of freedom—for the Free Church.
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