irreligious. In its best sense it is deeply religious. In its estimate of Christianity, it finds that the life and work of the founder of this great religion were contained within purely human conditions. It therefore rejects all supernatural pretensions made in his behalf, and receives him as one of the great moral and spiritual teachers of the world. In this direction the tendency of the thought of mankind is irresistible. It is supported by an induction gathered from the widest range of history and experience, by study of the processes and steps of the spiritual and moral development of the race, by accumulating facts in every department of culture and know ledge. Churchmen should not mistake this tendency, which is not irreligious, for a sign of general falling away from that sense of duty to God and regard for man which is the true basis of the religious character and religious life. The best and surest hold that religion possesses is in reconcilement of the intellectual with the spiritual nature of man. This process or result some call "infidelity," and, seeing it, they bewail the supposed decay of religion. Men of the Church will be wiser in the next ages.
Mr. Scott's study of the Bible, it appears, was motivated not merely by his interest in theology but by his feeling for the greatness of its literary style.
An editorial of June 22, 1902, was headed by Mr. Scott "The Bible the Masterpiece of English Prose." This article, emphasizing the importance of the Bible as an English masterpiece, follows, in part:
The English Bible is the masterpiece of our prose, as Shakespeare's work is of our poetry; it beats, not only with the divine impulse of its original, but also with that immense vitality of religious life in the days when to our ancestors religion and life were identical. In this version we have that tremendous reach of emotion, borne on a style majestic and clear, which has been, and will continue to be, one of the great forces in the movement of history. This English Bible is among the greatest of the agencies in spreading the English language throughout the world, and in extending the principles of liberty and of jurisprudence, that go with it and find their expression through it. This view shows that missionary work carried on in the English tongue throughout the world has a field vastly wider than propagation of mere ecclesiastical dogma. It is introductory to, and part of, a greatly wider field of effort and prograss. . . .
Oregon history was another of Mr Scott's favorite subjects. He
