On the other hand, Dr. Berg was heard with
general quiet by his opponents, and greeted with clamorous applause by
his friends."
I am afraid the above remarks were true. Still, Dr. Berg was almost a
gentleman compared with Dr. McCalla, and he was vastly more of a scholar
and debater, far as he was from being a model disputant.
Dr. Berg had the right side; he stood for the defence of all that was
good, and true, and great, and glorious; but the way in which he went
about his work was by no means the best one. He took a wrong
position,--a position which it was impossible for him to maintain. His
doctrine was that the Bible was absolutely perfect,--that the
inspiration of the Book was such as not only to make it a fit and proper
instrument for the religious instruction, and the moral and spiritual
renovation, of mankind, but such as to preserve it from all the
innocent, harmless, and unimportant weaknesses, imperfections, and
errors of regenerate and sanctified humanity. He even contended for a
kind or a degree of perfection which many of the most highly esteemed
professors and theologians of orthodox churches had relinquished. He
held to views about the creation and the universality of the deluge,
which orthodox Christian Geologists like Professor Hitchcock of America,
as well as Dr.
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