1

\-fer. the founding of ' cl. College in, this Colony"

- iLniBis^Bsy -

Gift of
Mr. Roger S. White, 2nd.
1913.

THE

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY,

WITH AN INTRODUCTION

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD AND THE IMMORTALITY
OF THE SOUL.

EBENEZER DODGE, D.D.,
PRESIDENT OF MADISON UNIVEESITT.

BOSTON :
GOULD -A. IN- D L I N" C O L N ,
59 WASHINGTON STREET.
NEW YOUK: SHELDON AND COMPANY.
CINCINNATI: G. S. BLANCHAF.D & CO.
1869.

Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
GOULD AND LINCOLN,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts,

Rockwell & Rollins, Stebeotypebs and pbinteks.

&0

BARNAS SEARS

Efjts Folutne is ©etrtcatefc,

WITH THE

AFFECTION AXD RESPECT

FORMER PUPIL.

PREFACE.

It is now fifteen years since I commenced to give
lectures on the Evidences of Christianity to the Senior
class of Madison University. These have so grown in
extent as to render it impossible for the student to copy
all of them in the time allotted to the study. This fact
has led me to think of putting them into a permanent
form. A few words with regard to the method and design of
the work may not be out of place. Its governing idea
is, that Christianity is its own witness. The nature of
Christianity, its influence, its relations to Divine Provi
dence and to human progress, and its historical triumphs,
constitute the best evidence of its divine origin. This
method seemed philosophical, since all the great lines of
evidence are wrought into the fabric of our faith, or
touch some of the many aspects of human life and his
tory. It is only the sacred records which need the aid
of strictly external evidence. Here I have limited my
self to an examination of the historical character of the
New Testament. Very many questions of interest and
(v)

VI PREFACE .

of importance are left untouched. These belong, how
ever, to the province of biblical" criticism, rather than to
the field of Christian apology.
This method will, if carried out with a fair degree of
success, help the student to gain a conception of the
Christian religion in its unity and in its totality. I
cannot but regard this object as of the highest moment.
A man is hardly well educated who does not understand
the religion of the civilized world. To this class, more
than to any other, Christianity ought to be presented
freed from the misconceptions of its friends, and from
the perversions of its enemies.
My aim has been to present Christianity as accepted
by the representatives of the Protestant faith. How far
I have done so, does not become me to aflirm. But every
teacher can alter or omit any portion which he may deem
defective in this respect.
I have added an introduction on the existence of God,
and on the immortality of the soul. I have done this
because doubt, at the present day, so often roots itself in
a weak apprehension of the personality of God, and in a
serious misgiving in relation to the conscious life of the
soul hereafter.
It has been my desire to bring the work within rea
sonable limits. It may be that, here and there, I have
been too brief, but I did not wish to preclude the neces
sity of an oral or written lecture by the teacher, or of

PREFACE . VII
an essay by his pupil, nor did I desire to supersede
the practice of a discussion in the recitation-room. Still,
I hope the style is throughout clear and direct.
While I may venture to claim for the work some
degree of superiority over others, as a text-book, I would
yet express my high appreciation of the merits of those
great apologetic works which adorn the English literature.
I take this occasion to acknowledge my obligations to
my colleague, Dr. Arnold, for his valuable aid in examin
ing and correcting the proof-sheets, and for the Index
to the work which he has prepared.
If this volume shall prove of any service to the youth
of my country, and to the ministry of my Lord, I shall
be amply rewarded.
E. DODGE.
HAMILTON, N. T., January 15, 1889.

CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION. I.
PAGE
FBOOF OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, . xni
II.
FBOOF OF THE IMMOBTALITT OF THE SOUL, xxxiv
EVIDENCES.

CHAPTER I.
THE HISTOBICAL CHABACTEB OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT.
SECTION I.— The Internal Evidence  47
SECTION II.— The External Evidence,  62
SECTION III.— The Sceptical Theories,  70
(IX)

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER II.
CHBISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT.

SECTION I. — The Idea of the Supernatural, .... 84
SECTION II. — The Fact of the Supernatural  90
SECTION III. — The Need of the Supernatural  96
SECTION IV.— The Supernatural in Christianity, . . . .104

CHAPTER III.
CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LIFE.
SECTION I. — The Character of the Christian Life, . . .115
SECTION II.— Its Divine Type,  120

CHAPTER IV.
CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE DOCTBINE.
SECTION I. — The Idea of Christian Doctrine, .... 125
SECTION II. — The Doctrinal Aspects of Christianity, . . 131

CHAPTER V.
CHBISTIANITY A DIVINE LAW.
SECTION I.— The Necessity of an Authoritative Standard, . 145
SECTION II. — Christianity the Ideal of Human Life, . . . 150

CONTENTS. XI
CHAPTER VI.
CHBISTIANITY A DIVINE KINGDOM.
SECTION I. — The Idea of a Christian Church  136
SECTION II.— The Value of the Christian Church, . . .174

CHAPTER VII.
CHBISTIANITY A FULFILMENT.
SECTION I.— The Ethnic Preparation  183
SECTION II.— The Jewish Preparation, ...... 192

CHAPTER VIII.
CHBISTIANITY A WOBLD-POWEB.
SECTION I. — Its Adaptation to Humanity,  202
SECTION II.— Its Historical Triumphs,  211
SECTION III.— Christianity a Finality  224

INTRODUCTION.

I. THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
At the outset, two seemingly opposing opinions force
themselves on our attention. They may be stated thus :
The existence of God cannot be proved : the existence of
God need not be proved. These statements are, however,
diverse only in form. They in fact mutually correct and
explain each other. The logical proof isJnadequate with
out a sense of the divine ; and the religious instinct needs
to be met and to be satisfied by the revelations of nature
and of history.
Following the method here suggested, we are, first of
all, to show that man has a religious nature, — that the
soul was made for God. We shall then be prepared to
consider how far his inborn spiritual tendencies and crav
ings have been responded to in the signs and in the sym
bols of an Infinite Living Presence.
The most direct means we have of determining the
original nature and destination of the soul is to appeal
to man's primary consciousness, — to that consciousness
which is remote from whatever is merely individual, local,
or national, but which underlies all human thinking and
feeling. The analysis of that consciousness gives us the sense of
absolute dependence. Here the law of necessity finds

XIV EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
expression. This feeling rises with the dawn of our con
scious life, and grows with our growth. We know that
none of the life-forces which make up our being have their
source in ourselves. We learn, too, that their home is
beyond our reach and our control. This consciousness of
absolute dependence finds expression in the poetry and in
the philosophy of every people, as truly as in the more
common utterances of prayer and of praise. Some form
of worship is natural to man.
In this analysis we find, also, the feeling of supreme
obligation. Here the law of liberty is revealed in our na
ture. This feeling carries with it an authority independent
of all human legislation. It transcends in its imperatives
the demands of passion or of interest. It can neither be
annulled nor outgrown. No education, domestic or scho-
lastic, can efface the idea of the right. All simple axio
matic principles of rectitude are intuitively recognized by
all men, however they may differ when they come to ap
ply them.
Again : our primary consciousness reveals to us another
element ; namely, a love for the good. Its lowest ex
pression is found in our instinctive desire for happiness ;
and its highest manifestation is given in the spiritual long
ings and aspirations of the soul. Limited and defeated
here, we are ever turning, in our best moods, to an invisi
ble world, where we hope to realize the ideal of a perfect
human life ; where fellowship with the transient and the
partial shall give place to a union with the source and
ground of all that is true and good.
We need not carry the analysis further. These facts
of our common consciousness have a profoundly religious
significance. The first points to a power above us, abso-

INTRODUCTION. XV
lute and complete. The second indicates an authority
over us, supreme and perfect. The third points to a goal
before us, final and ultimate. Now the power on which
we depend, and the authority to which we owe allegiance,
and the goal for which we strive, can find their synthesis
only in a living personal God.
All this is apparent from the fact that these springs of
action are the great regnant principles of our lives. They
must then have corresponding realities out of and above
ourselves, else the root of our nature is a lie. And, as
they centre in a self-conscious soul, so the verities which
they indicate must centre in a self-conscious God. Were
this not the case, there would be disharmony within us
and discord without us. Thus, a profound psychology
must involve a true theology. The consciousness of a
finite selfhood must find its counterpart and so its meaning
in the consciousness of an infinite selfhood. The soul is
the enigma and God is the solution.
This general view is confirmed when we look at the
representative men of the race ; for the men who have
varied least from the idea and the law of their species
best reveal human nature. We are not to go to the fore
most men of any special class, — to scholars, poets, or
philosophers, — to learn what that nature is, but to the
great chiefs of humanity. These best embody the ideal
of a truly human character and a truly human life. Now
it will be found that manhood has not suffered by faith in
a personal God. The more truly religious a man is, the
loftier is his general character and the more perfect is his
humanity. We need here only allude to the Child of the
race, whom the doubter and the believer alike admit to
have been the noblest and purest of all that have ever trod

XVI EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
the earth. Now, he was not the head of a class, for
character is before genius and before learning ; nor was he
the mere light of any age, or the mere leader of any peo
ple, but the Saviour and the Guide of the entire race.
But this personage was the representative of humanity,
because he was the most religious of mortals.
Thus, whether we examine our common consciousness,
or read the inner life of the noblest and best of our race,
we come to the same conclusion, that man is a religious
being. The model man is the truly religious man. The
view here presented has not the suspicion of novelty.
Cicero, in his work, " De Natura Deorum," says that the
idea of divinity is innate. ' ' Omnibus enim innatum est
et in animo quasi insculptum, esse Deos." Descartes de
clared that the idea of God could not have been originated
by ourselves, nor have come from without, and so must
have been implanted in our natures by God himself.
This mode of statement is, in many respects, faulty,
and the doctrine of innate ideas is now exploded; but
there underlies this view the undeniable truth that man,
by virtue of his innate susceptibility and inborn spiritual
tendencies, does instinctively turn toward God.
The question then presents itself, is man's nature met
and satisfied, or have we a worshipper without a sanctuary
and without a God ? Can this self-conscious and self-
determining mind find its own infinite counterpart? Is
its cry in the solitude of eternity answered only by a vain
and empty echo ? Must man be thus left forever incom
plete ? It cannot be so. Starting, then, with this assur
ance, we are prepared to examine the usually received
proofs of the divine existence.
Tlie Historical Proof. — The belief in a superhuman

INTRODUCTION. XVII
intelligence is held by all nations. It3 universality can
be accounted for most easily on the supposition that such
a being does in fact exist. But, as there have been very
general beliefs without any foundation at all, the real
value of this proof must rest on the view we have taken
of man as a religious being. His character will then ex
plain and justify his creed. This common belief was
noticed by the ancients. Cicero, who compiled largely
from the Greek philosophers, and so represented the cur
rent opinions among the learned of his times, says, in the
work above alluded to : " Non instituto aliquo aut more,
aut lege sit opinio constituto maneat que, ad unum omnium
firma consentio . . . Esse DeoS." This view of the Ro
man orator and philosopher is now generally aocepted.
It has been objected, however, that travellers have found
tribes without any idea of God whatever. But such sup
posed cases have been very rare. The idea of some super
human authority has maintained itself in the midst of
great degradation and barbarism. The exceptional cases
rest on doubtful testimony. If there are such, they are
found where the moral and social nature has so suffered
that an abnormal development has followed. Such tribes
have no government and no institutions. They herd to
gether and live together like the brutes. Their rational
and moral perceptions have experienced a partial obscura
tion, — for a time even a total eclipse. As the Great
Teacher declared, " If the light within thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness." We are to remember that
the instincts of rational creatures are subject to greater
variations than the instincts of the brutes ; in short, that
they are more 'or less under the law of moral develop
ment. 2*

XVIII EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
But how, it may be asked, shall we account for the
Pantheistic and Polytheistic ideas which prevail so widely
in the Eastern world ? We have classed them together,
because they are logically and historically connected.
Both spring from one and the same root, namely, the es
trangement of man from a personal communion with his
Maker and the substitution of nature in his place. With
the one, the life of the universe is the life of God. All
living forms are only the transient waves of the infinite
sea of existence. The Pantheist has lost all sense of God
as a living person, and substituted instead his conception
of nature as a whole, and deified his own abstraction.
He has exchanged the unity of life for the unity of death.
He has made an idol of his own generalization.
But, with the Polytheist, the various forces and agencies
of the universe are so many veritable deities. In the
place of one personal God, he puts the symbols of the
philosophers and the personifications of the poets, or those
agencies of nature which throng and press him on every
side. The one divine light is thus broken into many
colors by the media of his own selfish hopes and slavish
fears. He, too, must have his idols ; but they must be
brought down to the low level of his thoughts. The Pan
theist sinks the living God in the idea of an unknown,
impersonal force, infinite and eternal ; while the Poly
theist divides the infinitude of God, and loses his personal
unity in the very modes of the divine activity. There is,
then, no real difficulty in these diverse but related types
of thinking. As we have said, we have here an instance
of the fact that man's moral judgments are not as fixed or
as unerring as the instincts of the brutes. Though they
can never be made to affirm that there is no God, yet they

INTRODUCTION. XIX
may greatly misapprehend his character and his relation
to the universe. The difference, then, between the Poly-
theist and the Pantheist is simply that of culture. The
Brahman priest is a Pantheist, while the ignorant devotee
is a Polytheist.
Besides, there is no evidence that the race emerged
from Polytheism into the Monotheistic faith. Miiller, in
his work on the Vedic Literature, says: "There is a
Monotheism that precedes the Polytheism of the Veda;
and even in the invocation of their innumerable gods, the
remembrance of a God, one and infinite, breaks through
the mists of an idolatrous phraseology, like the blue sky
that is hidden by passing clouds." So, also, Creuzer, in
his great work on symbolism and mythology.
The Ordological Proof. — This has always been a
favorite argument with speculative thinkers. Anselm was
the first who gave it a formal statement. We give his
own words: God is " aliquid quo nihil majus cogitari
potest. Id quo majus cogitari nequit, non potest esse in
intellectu solo. Existit ergo procul dubio aliquid, quo
majus cogitari non valet, in intellectu et in re."
We may render this argument into the following syllo
gism. Our idea of the most perfect being is our idea
of God. Necessary existence is an element in our idea
of absolute perfection. Therefore God necessarily exists.
But the conclusion is not warranted by the premises.
The only logical conclusion is this : therefore necessary
existence is an essential element in our idea of God. We
are still in the ideal world. We have only gained this
lofty conception of the Deity, namely, that it belongs to
the very nature of God to be, and not to become. We can
only conclude that if God does exist, he exists in his own

XX EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
right and by virtue of his own nature. We are prepared
to accept Jehovah's designation of himself, "I am that
I am," as the profoundest which has ever been given. But
we cannot infer from the bare conception of such a Being
— though the conception may be complete — his objective
existence. If the idea of a perfect Being were as necessary
to our minds as the notion of self-existence is necessary to
the idea of perfection, then Anselm's argument would be
irresistible. But only that subjective thought or appre
hension whose denial in the light of experience is incon
ceivable carries with it the pledge of the objective reality
of its contents. An ideal conception, which we are free
to form or not, however lofty it may be, can only give us
ideal perfection.
The idea of the infinite is, however, a necessity of hu
man thought. The sense of the infinite rises in strength
and clearness with the growth of the soul. It is, however,
rather a feeling than a complete intellectual perception.
It accompanies every notion of the finite. We may
gather the field of consciousness and bind the harvest in
logical bundles ; but yet there will be gleanings on that
field richer than all our harvestings. Thus, the feeling
of the infinite recurring so often and along so many dif
ferent lines of thought is, however vague it may be, one
of the roots of our idea of God. It compels us to ascribe
the attribute of infinitude to the Being whom our nature
demands, and whom the universe reveals.
The objection does not avail that the idea is purely
negative. This does not accord with our consciousness.
The soul, in expressing its belief in the infinite, makes
its broadest affirmation. It does not simply deny all lim
itations, but affirms the unlimited ground of all that is

INTRODUCTION. XXI
limited. The w<5rd infinite is not, in our vocabulary, a
synonym for the non-existence of the finite. We have
preferred to use the word "sense" rather than the term
"idea" in this connection. For the feeling of the pres
ence of that which is infinite, rather than any definite
conception, seems to belong to all our highest modes of
thought. This proof, then, stripped of all its defects in statement,
is of great value. It completes all the others. It neces
sitates and so justifies us in taking the last step from the
finite to the infinite. It points to a goal to be reached in
all our argumentation on the divine existence, and helps
us to reach that goal. It shows how the mind naturally
and necessarily carries the idea of a God beyond the con
clusions of the logical understanding.
If the last step in any syllogism gives us a cosmical
cause, or an architect of the known universe, we are war
ranted by the very highest law of our thinking to affirm
that that cause or that architect is infinite. This proof
might have been termed the ideological, while the proper
ontological proof would seem to require us to start with
the fact of an existence, limited and phenomenal, and then
infer existence which is infinite and absolute.
Such in fact was the argument of Dr. Samuel Clark.
This proof has been termed the a priori argument. For
though God is not an effect, yet the evidence of his exist
ence may be the result of certain innate, rational tenden
cies. This leads us to
The Cosmological Proof. — We have a series of finite
and dependent objects, of secondary causes and effects.
These can only be accounted for on the supposition of a

XX1I EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
first cause — causa causarum. We are 'necessitated by a
law of our nature to ask whence comes this changing and
circling movement, and what is its gathering and govern
ing centre. Must not all these forces turn
" Through darkness up to God " ?
Waiving for the present the fact that geology seems to
indicate many specific creations (see chap. II. sec. 2),
and so to preclude the idea of a simple evolution of an in
finite series of dependent agencies, let us examine the hy
pothesis. The links in the chain of dependencies may be
made on a colossal scale, and a grand phenomenal process
may be conceived to go on somewhat after the following
manner. Great cycles of creation will succeed each other.
Each will begin with the elemental forces — primary
molecules with their energies — forming in their combi
nation and confluence a moving nebulous mass. This
mass of nebulous matter will by its rotation become a sun
to the bodies which it throws off from its surface. A
solar system is thus formed, balanced by countless sys
tems of a like kind, filling illimitable space and mov
ing through great tracts of time. Each one of these
myriad groups of worlds will in the course of ages reach
its meridian of perfection, with all its forms of beauty and
life, and then return, at the completion of its cycle, to its
original nebulous condition. From out this state a new
movement will commence, and advance by a like process to
a like goal, and so on forever. What is true of one sys
tem will be true of all. But such a number of dependent
series of worlds going on infinitely is simply impossible
without a creating and moving cause. The beginning of
each system, and the balancing of their innumerable cen-

INTROD UCTION. , XXIII
tres as they all sweep through space, point to a supra-
cosmical origin. An eternal Creator best satisfies the
demands of our thinking. His continued presence must
underlie all the continued changes of the universe. That
which absolutely depends on God for its origination must
ultimately depend on him for its continuance. It is
within the sphere of the possible that these several series
alluded to in the above hypothesis may have some un
known physical centre, though it transcends our imagina
tion to conceive of any such centre. Nor do the facts in
the case warrant any such notion; nor, if they did, would
that hypothesis aid us in the solution of the problem.
Besides, we cannot admit that a chain of causes and
effects may be eternal though every link is finite and depend
ent. It is true we can as easily believe in an absolute
endlessness in one direction as in another. We can as
readily accept a timeless regress without an efficient cause,
as a timeless progress without a final cause ; for in truth
we cannot accept either. The endlessness in one direction,
as in the other, is purely relative in its character. The
whole series is of a parenthesis connecting the first cause
with the final cause and identifying the two, and is in the
most absolute sense dependent throughout on the continued
presence of a creative power. Besides, when we affirm the
endless continuance of any one form of life, as, for example,
of the human soul, we have only a relative term of departure.
The link with which we start is itself absolutely dependent.
We have no"t laid hold of even one end of the chain. We
conclude, then, that an absolutely infinite series of finite
and dependent forces and agencies is a simple absurdity.
If it be objected that matter is eternal, and that the
entire series of worlds is only the result of the interaction

XXIV EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
of its inherent forces ; we reply that matter, so far as
we know or can know it, is dependent throughout ; for
we only know it as it addresses the senses or acts on our
organism, or can be made the subject of* experiments. If
we analyze any form of it we never find a forceless entity,
but a change-seeking and change-producing element. It
is something to be accounted for. It is true, thus far we
have not been able to reduce the elements to anything
more simple ; but these very elements are composites of
forces, — minute summaries of attracting and repelling
powers. And wherever we meet with matter, it presents
itself as a combination of affinities and activities, and so
as something demanding explanation. If there is any
thing else in matter, it is utterly unknown to us, and must
be left out of the account both of the believer and of the
doubter. If it be said that matter is a substance without
properties, and so need not be accounted for ; we answer,
then it will account for nothing, and must stand at the
opposite pole of self-existence and be represented by zero,
and so proclaim its absolute dependence.
We shall have* occasion subsequently to treat of the
theory of development here suggested.
It is added, however, that such a Being is as inconceiv
able as an uncaused and eternal universe. It is true they are
both beyond our power of conception. But the reason for
the inconceivableness of the one is the impotence of the human
intellect, while the reason for the inconceivableness of the
other is its repugnance to the human mind ; the one is above
our capacity of comprehension, while the other is contrary to
our reason. We bow our souls before the transcendence of
the one, and repudiate the absurdity of the other. We can
not compass the idea of an eternal God, and we cannot rid

INTRODUCTION. XXV
ourselves of it if we believe in God at all. But the measure
of our comprehension is neither the measure of existence
nor the limit of our faith. "We are often compelled by the
constitution of our souls to believe what we cannot image o
forth in our imagination, or construe to our logical under-
standing ; for faith is in its nature receptive, and not
constructive. But after all, it is still affirmed that the universe is
simply under the reign of law. This mode of speaking
is vague and ambiguous. The literal meaning of the term
law is a command with sanctions. It is the expression of
sovereignty. It has here a metaphorical or figurative sig
nification. It means the action of forces. Now these are
only the administrators of the supreme will, and derive all
their efficiency from the constant presence of that will.
Their mode of acting, then, is but the operation of that
sovereign will, and the constancy of that action is only an
evidence of the immutability of that will, and of the per
fection of its government. It is this permanency in the
forces of nature — this immutability in the will of the
supreme Author — which makes civilization possible. To
say that the universe is under the reign of law is only say
ing that it is under the reign of a supreme Lawgiver.
Finally, it is objected that this proof does not lead us
to a personal God. We answer, it must not be taken
alone, for it rests for its support on the preceding argu
ment, and is to be interpreted in the light of our essential
spiritual cravings and of our abiding practical necessities.
TJie Teleoloc/ieal Proof. — This has attracted the
greatest attention. The literature of our language is ex-
ceedincrlv rich in works treating of this branch of our
subject. The argument is, in truth, exhaustless. It is

XXVI EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
important that we fall into no mere play on words in our
statement. Such is the case when we affirm that the
world bears marks of design, and therefore must have had
a designer. Here design means a designing mind ; and sc
we reason in a circle. Besides, we assume a unity of
purpose, and so beg the conclusion that there is only one
intelligent Architect of the universe.
Care, too, must be taken not to limit to any one sphere
the marks of intelligence. These relate to order, to
beauty, and to utility.
Order pervades nature. The elements crystallize ac
cording to fixed geometrical forms, and combine in definite
numerical proportions. All forms in the plant kingdom
are built up after the idea of the class to which they be
long. Every individual organic structure follows the law
of its kind. Variations are only temporary, and touch
only what is accidental, and merely adjust the creature to
its new surroundings. In the animal kingdom, unity of
plan is never sacrificed. Thus, when an organ ceases to
be of use, its rudiments are still retained, to indicate the
type to which the animal belongs. The structural pattern,
in its chief outlines, is preserved in all the great branches
of animal life, in order to show how species are related to
each other. Thus, the bones of the hand, of the paw, of
the fin, are similar in structure. These homologues in
dicate that the several species to which they belong were
formed according to one generic plan. Here, too, varia
tions are only temporary, and answer special purposes.
The great divisions in the animal economy make up the
entire system of animal life, and mark the generically
distinct and ascending paths in the creative movement.
All this indicates thought of the greatest breadth and

INTRODUCTION. XXVII
farthest reach. The intelligence here revealed is the in
telligence of the scientist ; for order is at the basis of all
science. Beauty, too, is an end in nature. Its presence is all-
pervading. In the shells of the ocean ; in the precious
stones and metals hidden in the mountains ; in the color
and contour of leaf, and of flower, and of fruit ; and in
the statuesque form of the living stalk that supports them
all ; in the gorgeous plumage and in the graceful evolu
tions of many kinds of birds ; in the symmetry of animals,
and in the spiritual features of the human face ; — in all
these we see the evidence of the beautiful. Here, then,
beyond question, we have the intelligence of the artist.
Utility is admitted to be an end, and perhaps the chief
end in creation. We see it in the countless numbers of
special adaptations which front us on every side. Some of
these will be presently noticed. But just here it only
concerns us to mark an additional evidence of intelligence,
— the intelligence of the mechanician.
These three ends generally blend together ; for model,
and symmetry, and contrivance are found in the same
structure. Yet any one of these may be dominant, though
hardly exclusive, as in the crystal, — where order and
beauty seem to take precedence of utility, — or as in an
imals of the primeval world, where beauty gives place
to the law of adaptation : yet even here there <s an ele
ment of the beautiful in the perfect adjustment of life to
its external conditions.
We wish to show that the adaptations of nature are all
adjusted to each other, and that all point towards a unity
of design.The elements of nature enter into the framework of

XXVIII EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
every living structure. In their mechanical combinations
they are the conditions of all life, vegetable as well as
animal. You cannot increase the oxygen of the air with
out inviting a universal conflagration, nor can you dimin
ish it without bringing on a general stagnation. And in
their chemical unions they form solids, or fluids, or gases,
and thus make the different types of life possible.
The inorganic world is the direct support of the plant
kingdom. The vegetable lives on the elements which
play about its leaves or gather at its roots. They are the
materials by which the germ principle builds up its or
ganism, and shapes its stalk, and determines the angle of
its branches, and the outline of its leaf, and the color and
flavor of its fruit. Here the two worlds minister to each
other. The plant gives back at its death what it has re
ceived during its life. In fact, the soil itself advances in
fertility as it becomes the residuum of organic forms.
Nature feeds on her decay.
Again : following the ascending stream of life, we find
that the animal lives on organic matter alone, though the
elements are, as we have said, the condition of all life.
The two kingdoms of nature support each other. Thus,
while the animal takes the oxygen from the atmosphere,
and gives back the carbonic acid, this in turn becomes the
chief food of plants. It is consumed, and decomposed,
and the oxygen returned to the atmosphere for the animal.
By this mutual respiration, in part, at least, the balance
of the elements in the air, so necessary to all the higher
forms of life, is maintained. The microscopic animals of
the earth, air, and water, are the invisible scavengers of
nature, whose office seems to be to devour those decaying
organisms which might breed pestilence and death. They

INTRODUCTION. XXIX
thus prevent particles of matter from passing into element
ary gases, and, by a living appropriation, start them again
on the upward current of life.
All these departments of nature have paved the way
through a series of vast geologic periods for the reign of
man. The earth slowly formed its solid crust, and the
great forests of the ancient world gathered the noxious
gases from the atmosphere, and prepared it for animal
life, and then sank beneath the surface, thus reserving
their treasures for human wants. During this great
transition epoch, animals must gradually appear, else the
atmosphere would lose its balance ; and they must be
adapted to their conditions, and must finally give place
to others more useful to man. The coral insects must
build up the islands of the sea, and lay the foundation of
continents, and protect their shores by solid ramparts.
The secret forces of nature must work in her laboratory,
and prepare for human needs all the precious and all the
useful metals. The internal agencies must lift up the beds
of the ocean, and bring to the light of day its accumu
lated treasures. They must, too, heave up the mountain
ranges, and open the well-springs, and form the various
systems of rivers which now water the earth. These and
other forces must vary the surface of the continents, and
create natural harbors along their shores. Unless in all
these, and a thousand other ways, preparations had been
made for man, he could not have fulfilled his destiny, and
there would have been a fatal break in the higher adjust
ments of nature. All this points to a unity of design.
But the earth, the abode of man, does not move in
space apart from the solar system ; nor is the solar isolated
from the astral systems, or from similar groups of worlds
3*

XXX EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
which make up the great Cosmos. The design here indi
cated must be connected with other purposes unknown to
us, but possibly revealed to other orders of beings ; and
all these relative intentions must issue in one ultimate and
absolute end. That end — that fiual cause — can only
be commensurate with the first cause ; in fact, identical
with it. This is favored by the grand conclusion towards
which all science tends, namely, the doctrine of cosmical
unity. Thus, the great Architect will exhibit his own
ideals, will realize his own thoughts, and will make mani
fest the perfections of his own character.
It is objected that we cannot infer an infinite designer
from a finite system of contrivances. We reply, that when
we have reached one designing mind, adequate to the known
universe, we naturally conclude that that mind is infinite.
This proof is bound up with the ontological and the cos-
mological argument.
The same objection is repeated in another form. It is
said that the designer shows marks of design, and so needs
to be accounted for. But this is mere play at words.
When we have reached the Architect of the universe we can
go no higher. We ascribe at once to him the incommuni
cable attribute of self-existence. The mind rests here. The
legitimacy of the idea of the infinite makes this process
legitimate also. The mind is not driven along an endless
series, in the hopeless search for the absolute, but is led
by a law of its nature to ascribe infinitude to the Architect
of the universe.
It is also objected that this proof leads us only to an Archi
tect, and not to a Creator. But we have already shown
the legitimacy of the idea of the absolute, and we have also
shown that matter always presents itself to us as something

INTRODUCTION. XXXI
that needs to be accounted for. We conclude, then, the
Architect can only be the proper Creator himself.
But it is intimated that these very contrivances result
from forces adjusting themselves to each other. In this
way the light acts on the eye, and the air on the lungs, and
the water on the gills. But the power to modify any ex
isting forms is wholly separate and distinct from the power
to originate them. The power to affect externally a plant
or an animal is certainly something different from the power
to create a plant or an animal. The fact that a creature
can adapt itself to new conditions is only another instance
of the wisdom of its Maker. The variations, however, even
here, have their limit3. One species does not pass into
another ; at least one great branch of the animal kingdom
does not pass over into another and different branch.
Besides, what shall we say when we find that the flower and
the insect seem to be made for each other ? Any process
of essential mutual adjustment would seem to be fatal to the
life of both. The question would return, how did flower and
insect first come into life ? There is no evidence that the
elements can create life, and, even if they could, it would
not eliminate the idea of a Creator. Spontaneous gener
ation, even if it were true, could only be a creational law,
— simply a mode in which God creates the lowest form of
organic life.
Moral Proof — This has been ably elaborated by the
German philosopher, Kant. As presented by him, it is, in
brief, the following: We are made for the highest virtue,
and the highest happiness. Both are desirable, and both at
tainable. Both must lead to one common goal. That goal
can be reached only in another life, and in fellowship with
God.

XXXII EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
This argument has in part been anticipated by our
view of man as a religious being. It rests on the great
facts of human life and human history. These reveal a
moral government, established, though not perfected. To
state the case more specifically, the evidences of a divine
government are found : —
First. In the fact of amoral nature. We are endowed
with a moral sense, and recognize a moral law, and
apprehend ultimate moral principles, and so must cognize
a moral Lawgiver.
Second. In the actual rewards of virtuous living, and
in the actual penalties of a vicious life. These are felt and
seen in our self-approbation on the one hand, and self-
condemnation on the other. We thus recognize ourselves
as the subjects of God's government.
It is further made known in the social advantages of
virtue, and disadvantages of vice. The results of virtuous
acts often seem to be counterbalanced by others of greater
.pretensions and show ; but these are always of a lower
grade, and of temporary worth. Virtue may even bring
along with it special trials, and vice carry along with it
special attractions for a season ; but it will be found that
virtue in the end, and in the whole, will ever secure the
richer blessings of life.
Third. In the fact that human government must pun
ish crime as injurious to society, in order to maintain its
existence. This procedure is essential to its stability.
The government may make a mistake in deciding what is
criminal, but it cannot ignore its own idea of virtue as a
conservative force in society. Let the distinction between
virtue and vice be given up, and no political machinery, or
mere physical force, can save the commonwealth from de-

INTRODUCTION. XXXIII
struction. Thus, every human government rests on and tes
tifies to the invisible moral government of God.
Fourth. In the providential history of the world. The
history of humanity has not yet reached its goal, and just to
this extent this proof must be incomplete. But there are
clear traces of a divine movement in the lives of individuals
and of nations. We find a Providence in the general prog
ress of humanity, in the mission of nations, and even in the
great wars which have afflicted our race.
Fifth. In the tendencies of virtue and of vice to secure
their respective ends — that of reward or of punishment.
The hindrances and delays to these results are artificial, and
so temporary, while the tendencies to them are natural,
and so sure to prevail in the final issue. The expectation
of such a perfect moral government is, then, warranted by
the course of Divine Providence. — See "Immortality
of the Soul."
Each of these proofs of the existence of God, taken by
itself, is incomplete, because it is based on a partial view
of the facts in the case. Each needs to be complemented
by the others. They form together one complete, and, we
think, convincing process of argumentation. If we break
the demonstration, we have at best only great fragments,
inviting our criticism, and awakening our doubts by their
very inadequacy. But when these proofs are all taken
together, and are interpreted by the religious wants and
aspirations of the human soul, they cannot but carry to
every open mind the conviction of the existence of a liv
ing and personal God.

XXXIV EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
II. THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.
If God is personal, the soul is immortal. These two
truths mutually support each other. If God is distinct
from the cosmos, the soul is distinct from any physical or
ganism. If the soul is destined to a spiritual and eternal
world, then that world is constituted by the very presence
of God himself. If there is no personal God, then there
is no place for the continued individual life of the soul
after death. A full belief in either of these truths in
sures a complete conviction of the other.
The doctrine of the immortality of the soul may be
more distinctly grounded on the following considerations.
First. On the Expectation of a Future Life. This is
found everywhere. It has embedded itself in the mythol
ogies of the old world, and wrought itself into the super
stitions of ancient and of modern times. It emerges in
the oriental dogma of transmigration of souls, and it
comes before us in an integral part of the old Platonic
philosophy. It is now the inheritance of the ages, and
the full or partial possession of every earnest soul through
out Christendom.
This expectation, amounting often to a full credence,
varies with the elevation and tone of one's life. The
higher this life is, the stronger is our conscious hold on
the life to come, for the belief has its roots in our spiritual
nature, and not in the intellect alone, or the aesthetic sen
timents merely. Thus a man may possess great culture,
and may be wanting in depth of moral feeling, and so may
lose all faith in immortality. Such was the case with
Julius Caesar, and many other enlightened heathen, before

INTRODUCTION. XXXV
and since his day. A man may give a false direction to
the dominant thought of his mind, and, holding to the im
personality of God, he must make his future life equally
unconscious. In all such cases the distinctive religious
and moral elements in man's nature have been greatly
weakened. The general truth of this view is exhibited on
a broad scale in the ancient faiths of Egypt and China.
The Egyptians, with a moral consciousness more or less
alive, notwithstanding the grossness of their cultus, and
retaining somewhat of the primeval revelation, held more
clearly than any other great heathen community to the
doctrine of a future life. The Chinese, on the other hand,
with his moral sense obscured by a materialistic civiliza
tion, and with hardly any of the traditions of an earlier
and more spiritual faith, had the faintest apprehensions of
a conscious existence in another world.
The belief, then, in an existence beyond the grave is
natural. It does not spring from any fear of death, or
any mere animal love of life, nor is it one of the fruits of
superstition. These doubtless color it, and distort its nor
mal expression, but they do not create it. Such a faith
best harmonizes with all human capacities, and best helps
on to all that is purest and loftiest in human action.
Without it the highest heroism is impossible. No man can
be warranted in making an absolute end of himself for
any cause whatever. For while it is true our duty must
rest on our relation to God, it is yet the relation of a soul,
godlike in its character, and so endless in its life. With
out this belief, martyrdom would be supreme folly.
If, then, this belief be general, and be the mark of
true manhood, it must be natural and so legitimate.
Second. On the Nature of the Soul. We cannot go

XXXVI EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
beneath consciousness, and affirm the unity of the soul's
essence. All we know is that the person is one and in
divisible. Consciousness, if it exists at all, must exist as
a unit. Our selfhood cannot be broken into a number of
self-conscious and self-determining fragments. The assumed
simplicity of the Soul's essence seems inconsistent with the
notion of a seminal and potential existence in the head of the
race. Besides, if it proves anything, it proves too much.
For absolute unity of substance seems to prove the pre-exist-
ence of the soul, as well as its continued life. If death
cannot destroy it, how can birth originate it? On this
supposition the doctrine of metempsychosis is not unnatural.
It is enough for our purposes to accept this unity of con
sciousness. The soul emerges by the very law of its being
in a free, conscious personality. Here, as we shall see, is
the pledge of its immortality. This conscious unity cer
tainly accords with unity of composition, though it does not
demonstrate a simplicity of nature, and so a perpetuity of
being. But mind exhibits qualities very different from any form
of matter whatever, especially from that with which it is
most closely connected. The soul, then, may have a des
tiny very different from that of the body. Thus, mind
cannot be measured, or weighed, or put to any sensible
test. Its manifestations have neither extension, nor form,
nor motion, nor any physical relation whatever ; yet they
are realities of the highest grade and of the highest worth.
The soul, then, may not share in the fortunes of its present
organism. For it does not seem to be identical with it.
It may, under different conditions, form another organism
quite different from the one which it now inhabits. It may
be under the necessity of using some medium of commu-

INTRODUCTION. XXXVII
nicrtion with the universe, suited to its altered surroundings.
Poasibly the Supreme Being alone is without any organism
whatever. All that we need here insist on is, that the
qualities of mind are so different from those of matter, as
to point to a different and higher destiny.
The mind of the brute cannot be resolved into material
elements. If its work is done and its growth finished
here, it returns to the Supreme Will, by a process the re
verse of that by which it first issued from the Divine Voli
tion. The difference between the destiny of. brute intel
ligence and that of the human soul is measured by the
distance between the two spiritual natures ; but neither
follows in the wake of its physical organism.
It cannot be maintained that the mind is the result of
the organism, — a secretion, or function, or electric nerve-
movement, of the brain. For how will you account for
the organism itself? How was the machine made for the
production of thought ? May not organization be the
result of life, instead of life being the result of organiza
tion? Such is the view of Prof. Huxley, in his recent
work on Comparative Anatomy. In his first lecture, on
Classification, referring to the Rhizopodd, he says : " Nor
is there any group of the animal kingdom, which more
admirably illustrates a very well-founded doctrine, and
one which was often advocated by Hunter himself, that
life is tlie cause, and not the consequence, of organiza
tion." But, waiving this point, a process so diverse and so
complicated as human thinking would seem to require a
corresponding qualitative difference in different portions
of the brain. But no such difference appears. That
portion which is in an especial sense the organ of thought

XXXVIII EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
has a general uniform appearance. We have afferent and
efferent nerves : we ought also to have, on this theory,
nerves of thought, — nerves whose function it is to think.
Physiology has disclosed no such fact of science.
Besides, what organization of matter can produce quali
ties so radically unlike material properties as thought, or
feeling, or volition ? It is true, chemical combinations
give us properties widely different from the qualities of
the combining elements ; but they all belong to the same
grade, — all .are material properties. It is only a change
in the forms of matter. Charcoal and diamond are made
up of the same elements, but show different properties ;
but even here everything is material. If mind was only
the sublimate of matter, then volition might be the sub
limate of extension, and thought of color, affection of
weight, etc. This seems hardly possible. But the hy
pothesis itself does not account for all the facts, — indeed,
hardly pretends to account for them. What vibration of
the brain can give us an abstract idea? How do the
vibrations so differ as to furnish now the idea of the beau
tiful, and now the idea of the right ? What one gives us
the idea of the absolute ? What electric movement is it
that constitutes a volition ? and how does this tremor of
the molecules of the brain start a whole series of vibra
tions, so that we have a connected process of reasoning ?
But the difficulties increase as we press the hypothesis.
At best, it can only suggest a possible origin for a chain
of thoughts and feelings and volitions. But conscious
ness is a unity. Hoiu is this chain conscious of itself?
The vibration gives a thought ; but what gives the self in
which the thought inheres ? How is our selfhood to be
accounted for? What nerve-movement within the era-

INTRODUCTION. XXXLX
nium gives the I, — the thinker himself, — the one person
who remains the same through his whole life, amid the
thousand currents and eddies of his varied thinking and
feeling ? Here, then, the materialistic supposition utterly
breaks down. It cannot cross the chasm between the
physical and the spiritual in man.
The death, then, of the physical organism does not
carry with it the death of the soul. It only disconnects
it with this physical world. Its activity is no longer visi
bly present among us ; but this is no reason for conclud
ing that it has ceased to exist, or ceased to be active in
another and higher sphere of life. I^may take on a new
organism from its very surroundings. The soul, then, is
an immaterial personal energy. It seems to be destined
to a spiritual and endless existence.
It is said that the universal alone survives, while the
special must perish. How much truth there may be in
this vague speculative statement, we need not inquire ; but
the consciousness that survives the issue of this life will
be filled, and so formed, by an infinite Living Presence.
The form will be individual, but its contents will be uni
versal. The soul will come face to face with its God, and
will thus enter an eternal life. Then the consciousness
of self will be pervaded and exalted to the consciousness
of God.
Third. On the Analogy of Nature. All creatures
are suited to their conditions and relations in life. They
all realize their destiny. We infer, then, that man, the
crown and glory of creation, must reach his destination.
The analogy cannot fail just where, most of all, we should
• expect it would hold good. But, in this world, man is
above his conditions and relations, and so must be destined

XL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
to transcend them all. He is superior to his physical
state, and to his material connections. They are, indeed,
the media of his acting in and on this world ; but they
are also hindrances to his acting in the world of spirits.
He is now a tenant of both worlds, but his ultimate home
must be the invisible world. Here his higher energies
and susceptibilities are hampered and limited : in truth,
some of them are in an embryonic state, and are awaiting
the new birth into a higher sphere of living.
Besides, man's life is too short for him to begin to
accomplish all he was made to achieve. The period of
his earthly life is straitened by the necessities of his bod
ily organism, — by its waste, by disease, and by death.
The soul, as it advances, finds itself surrounded by the
ruins of its broken resolves and half-finished projects.
The history of humanity shows that there is no assignable
limit to human growth. It thus needs not only a higher
life, but an endless life.
It is objected, however, that the species will be perfect
ed, though the individuals perish. It is said that man
secures his immortality in the perpetuation and advance
ment of his race. In confirmation of this view, and in
answer to the above argument, much is made of the fact
that there are thousands of plants and animals which do
not reach the perfection indicated by their endowments,
but die prematurely. They find their perfection, it is
affirmed, in the kind or class to which they belong. We
need not, in reply, press the startling fact that, even on
this theory, countless thousands of both plants and ani
mals of various orders have been perfectly developed;
while not a single solitary member of our race has ever
reached, or made any noticeable progress towards reach-

INTRODUCTION. XLI
ing, in this life, the manifest goal of his existence. We
may, too, pass by another fact, namely, that the race, in
its present abode, and left to its present condition, must
find a limit to its progress ; and that limit must not be in
its inherent energies, but in its outward means of expan
sion and elevation. It is only a question of time. Wnen
the materials for man's civilization, gathered in the earth,
begin sensibly to diminish, or begin to fail to meet the
increasing demands of the race, then the advancing growth
of humanity wjll be checked, and a period of general
decline must follow. If there is no heaven for man, one
thing is certain, — that this earth, in its present condition,
can never be made by human instrumentality to answer as
a substitute. How, then, can the individual reach his
destiny in the race ?
It is true, that plants and animals live for their kind.
They are samples and specimens of the class to which they
belong. The animal, however, differs from man especially
in this very respect.
Man is more than a mere copy and sample of a common
nature, — more than one of a swarm, or of a flock, or of
a herd. He is an original, — ¦ an individual, independent
power, existing, not alone for the race, but as well for him
self. The animal has impulses, rather than volitions ;
necessities, rather than responsibilities ; liabilities, rather
than duties ; cravings, rather than aspirations ; sense
perceptions and judgments, rather than rational thoughts and
universal ideas. The one has his cries, and the other his
articulate speech. The one is content to use the imple
ments of nature ; the other is master of nature herself.
Man alone makes his artificial instruments, and subordi
nates the forces of nature to his will. In fact, he must do
4*

XLII EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
so in order to be what he was made to be, — a man. Man,
then, is more than an animal : he is a person, and a per
son endowed with an individual stamp of his own, having
his own independent plan of life, and his own separate and
untransferable duties, and his own distinct and individual
destiny. Thus, one man cannot answer for another, as
one animal may for another. Thus, he is not lost in the
race, but exists in and for himself, and so must be viewed
in his own unique greatness as an heir of immortality.
This perfection is thus individual, and cannot conse
quently be found in the species. This individuality will
maintain itself even in the perfection of its symmetry.
Each will have, not a uniform stamp, but its own separate
and distinct mould and make. Its symmetry is thus to
be typical, and not generic and absolute. Every soul is
to grow and to develop, according to the law and the idea
of its own peculiar nature.
If it be said that, after all , death does end man as well
as every other animal ; we answer, our argument remains
untouched. We must still insist that man is more
than an animal. He is even structurally distinct from that
class which seems nearest to him. For his forearms are
not designed for locomotion, as in the case of the apes,
but chiefly as instruments of mind. They are cephalic in
their purpose. The foot, too, is for support merely, and
the great toe has no proper prehensile power, as is the case
with the gorilla. The instances alleged to the contrary show
no structural conformity between the human foot and the
hand of the ape. When Huxley, in his work on "Man's
Place in Nature," calls the hand of the ape "prehen
sile," he simply distinguishes, by this very term, the hand
from the foot. So when he refers to a few instances

INTRODUCTION. XLIII
where the toe has done the work of the thumb, he does not
at all lessen their structural difference.
The Duke of Argyll, in an article published in the "Good
Words," says : " Man's place in nature has long been, and
still is, the grand battle-ground of anatomists and physiol
ogists. But Prof. Huxley confesses that, if in defining
man we are to take into account the phenomena of mind,
there is, between man and those beasts which stand nearest
to him in anatomy, a difference so wide that it cannot be
measured, ' an enormous gulf, a divergence immeasurable,
and practically infinite.' But this last conclusion is
really incompatible with the first. There is an inseparable
connection between the phenomena of mind and the phe
nomena of organization. They must be taken together,
and interpreted together. The structure of every creature
is correlated with the functions which its several parts are
fitted to discharge ; and the moral character, dispositions,
and instincts of the creature are again strictly correlated
with these functions. The mental difference between a
gorilla and a man is the measure of value which nature
has set upon the kind and degree of divergence which sep
arates these two material forms."
Fourth. On the Imperfection of the present Moral
Government of God. The evidence of such a govern
ment having been established in this world has already
been given, and need not be here repeated.
But it is equally clear that that government does not
find its completion in this life. Now, if there is a God,
and if he has established a moral government, he must be
yond all doubt complete it, and that completion can only
be found in a future life.
It seems needless to show that we have in this world

XLIV EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
only tho beginning of such a government. Even Plutarch
felt it, as is soon in his treatise on the delay of God in the
punishment of tho wicked. The Psalmist before him felt
it, in his oft-repeated cry, "How long, OLord?" The
fact of infidelity witnesses to this imperfection. For it is
essential to tho perfection of government that it not only
be perfect, but that it be seen to be so by every one, every
where, and always. The perfection embraces certainly as
much as this. If men are rewarded and punished per
fectly without their knowing it, then the great govern
mental ends of such a procedure, the ends of public law,
are utterly overlooked. Besides, rewards and punishments
that do not enter the consciousness are simply so many for
tunes and misfortunes without any moral sanction what
ever. Thus, then, wo clearly discern the imperfection of
God's present administration of affairs ; and in that great
fact we have an assurance not only of a future lifo, but of
a future life of retribution.
But if it be said that all this proof has boon found in
adequate thoroughly to convinco men of the reality of a
future life, this shows how deeply man needs the super
natural. Christianity must do for him what natural reli
gion, in the nature of tho case, cannot do. It must not
argue the question of immortality, but give the fact of im
mortality in the case of some one transcendent individual
who should fairly represent tho race. (Seo chap. II.,
sec. 3.)
It is not intended to deny the soul's absolute dependence
on God. Its immortality is relative. God alone hath im
mortality absolutely. Man's future existence is tho gift of
God, but an original and permanent gift, and so an endow
ment. Take it away, and an endless growth ceases to be the

INTRODUCTION. XLV
law of our lives ; and with this change would come the loss
of our free moral and rational capacities; for only where
there is endless progress can there be moral freedom. We
should no longer grope after the unknown. The prophetic
elements of our nature would be blotted out. Immortality,
then, is not simply something superadded to the soul, but
its inalienable possession and inheritance.

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

CHAPTEE I.
THE HISTORICAL CHAEACTER OF THE XEW TESTAMENT.
SECTION FIRST.
THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE.
The records of the Christian faith bear the marks of
being the genuine product of apostohc times. The very
idiom in which they are composed is an evidence of this
fact. It was formed by the blending of the Greek, the
Hebrew, and the Christian elements into one living speech.
Now, the origin and character of the language fastens it
to the first century of the Christian era. The Greek
tonone had been widely diffused by the conquests of
Alexander, and had become corrupted in that diffusion, and
corrupted most of all in the city he founded. This com
mon dialect was accepted by the Jews of the dispersion,
and. at a later period, by their countrymen of Palestine.
How it was adapted to their purposes is seen in the Sep-
tua"int version of their sacred books. The language thus
formed lacked the symmetry of the Greek period, but
gained in that vividness of conception peculiar to the
Hebrew mode of thought. The subtle interdependence of
clauses gave way to the more simple Jewish parallelism.
But this speech underwent still another change. The Jew.

48 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
in his conversion, was lifted up into a new field of thought,
and was forced to put a new and profound meaning into all
his old religious words and phrases. Thus the spirit of the
new faith and the distinctive ideas of the new religion en
tered, with all their depth and breadth of significance, into
the Greek forms, and the Hebrew modes of conception.
Now, the absence of the artistic spirit, or of the philo
sophical tendency, as well as the frequent quotations from
the Hebrew original, show that the writings of the New
Testament must have been written, not only in the first
century, but under Palestinian influence. They could
not have been composed at Alexandria. They must have
been written while the Hebrew still retained something
of the freshness of a living tongue. Now, a language is
beyond the reach of imposture ; for it is not the inspiration
of the hour, but the growth of ages. It is not the creation
of any individual genius, but the fullest expression of a
nation's culture.
Besides, these writings, from their very character,
must belong to the creative period in the history of the
church, — to the apostolic age. There is no feeble imita
tion, and no crude eclecticism, which mark a later and de
pendent period. Drawn by the magnetism of a great
presence, the evangelists indulge in no fine writing, but
simply bear witness to the words and deeds of Jesus ; and
the apostles, in familiar letters, unfold the worth and sig-
nificancy of his person and his work. The power and
freshness with which they write, show that they drank at
the fountain-head of Christian truth, and that they were
the foremost men in the grounding of the Christian church.
As we pass from their works to the circle of writings which
immediately follow them, we find ourselves in a far lower
sphere of thought and feeling. Foreign elements have

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 49
mingled in the clear, fresh stream, colored its waters, and
weakened it3 life. The apostolic writings could no more
belong to the second century, than the works of Plato could
have been composed in the age of Plutarch, or any classic
production of original and creative power could have been
conceived or brought to birth in a period of intellectual
feebleness. We need, however, to be more specific. Let us, then,
first examine the tlospels. These bear traces of having
been composed by the men to whom they are ascribed.
The authors must have been either eye-witnesses of the
events they narrate, or else must give us the evidence of di
rect testimony. This is plain, from their intimate acquaint
ance with the details of the Saviour's public life, and their
careful silence on whatever was outside of their knowl
edge, or would merely minister to human curiosity.
Thus the Gospels lack every mark of mere pragmatic his
tories, nor do their authors show themselves versed in the
art of historical composition. They make no estimate of
the influences which went to mould the character of Jesus ;
nor do they mark the successive steps by which he came to
be all he was on his entrance on his public mission. They
even subordinate the order of time to that of moral affinity,
and often group together discourses which were spoken on
different occasions, but which are united by common spirit
ual elements. In a like manner, too, they often depart
from a mere chronological arrangement in their narration
of the events in the life of our Lord. Still the discourses
always grow naturally out of the occasion and incidents of
the narrative. In short, they are not artists, but witnesses,
and their Gospels are only their continued testimony that
the Son of God has in fact appeared in human history.

50 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
Each of the synoptics maintains his distinctive peculiar
ity. Matthew, as a Jew, who had spent most of his life in
Palestine, writes for his countrymen. He naturally pre
sents Christianity as a theocratic kingdom. He is full in
his account of the Saviour's discourses, but brief and
generic in his outlines of events. His work has the
rhythm, too, of the Hebraistic style. Mark, the companion
of the Apostle Peter, whose ardor he seems to have im
bibed naturally, writes for the Gentile converts. As
might have been expected from his associations, he is brief
in the evangelical discourses, but full and graphic in
his narrative. Luke was a Hellenist, and so betrays his
culture and calling in his Gospels. As the companion of
Paul, he exhibits that spirit of universality which charac
terized the Apostle to the Gentiles. He wrote for his
Roman friend Theophilus, and is more complete in
his narrative of events than any of the other evangel
ists. The agreement of these three Gospels is natural. The
synoptics give a portraiture of Jesus after a common type.
That type had been fixed by the historical character of the
apostolic preaching. The events and discourses of our
Lord had been, doubtless, often rehearsed in public
by men personally called to that work by Christ, and
had also been repeated in private in every Christian
family in the empire. Thus an oral Gospel had become
embedded in the minds and hearts of the early disciples.
Now, the synoptics had no wish and no motive to work
over these materials. Each simply selected such elements
as suited his tastes and habits of thought, and the special
purposes he had in view in writing his Gospel.
It was given to John to receive and treasure up the

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 51
deeper discourses of our Lord. This was but an instance
striking, but not exceptional, of the great law of moral
congruity. Like souls only can interpret each other.
John, though separated far from Ilim in whom there was
the fulness of humanity as well as divinity, was yet nearer
to him than any other of the chosen disciples, and so was
naturally the author of the last Gospel. His record thus
becomes the complement of the synoptic narrative.
John writes according to his distinctive character and
distinctive aim. The synoptics had presented Christ
as the Messiah, — the new theocratic king, foretold
by prophets, and accredited by word and deed. He would
present Christ as the Son of God, whose credentials were
given in his own superhuman life and character. Living,
as the apostle did, at Ephesus, amid the currents of religious
speculation, he is led to unfold those profounder sayings of
our Lord, in which he presents himself as at once the full
Revealer and the final Revelation of the Father. The
synoptic representation deals largely with the parables of
our Lord, and his simpler and more ethical discourses, and
so gives mainly a Galilean ministry; while John, who
seeks to report his deeper and more enigmatical words, must
concern himself chiefly with his ministry in Judea, where
the most frequent and fit occasion would be found for their
utterance. Yet the one aspect ever involves the other.
Each account has marked traces of the other. He
who assumed the office of the Messiah in the villages of the
North, is the same as he who unfolded the mysteries of his
own character in the national capital, and amid the memo
rials of the national faith. The conception of Christ was
ever one and the same throughout the early church.
John's more dramatic presentation of the Lord's life is in

52 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
perfect agreement with the more simple narrative of the
other evangelists.
All the four writers, each in his own way, maintain
throughout the attitude of witnesses. They explain none
of the enigmas in the words of Jesus. They never praise
the goodness nor the heroism of his character. They even
expose their own ignorance, and dissensions, and unbelief,
without any palliation, whenever the narrative demands
it at their hands. They indulge in no speculations, and
give themselves up to no moral reflections. Utterly self-
forgetful, they abandon themselves to the one purpose,
namely, to give an honest report of those sayings and
doings of Christ which had mirrored themselves in their
own souls.
We need not stop to consider any of the alleged dis
crepancies. Criticism has so far disposed of them, that
they no more affect the credibility of the New Testament
history, than the worm-holes or soiled pages of an ancient
manuscript affect its genuineness. Who thinks of reject
ing Livy or Polybius as credible histories because they so
widely differ in tracing the march of Hannibal across
the Alps? And are not the testimonies of witnesses re
ceived as true, notwithstanding their many minor and
superficial discrepancies? And are not even the reports of
legal judgments admitted when they cannot be easily rec^
onciled ?
But the historical portion of the New Testament is the
foundation of the entire collection, and its credibility, as a
genuine and authentic production, of the times it represents,
demands a more detailed examination. Every reader of
the Gospels and of the Acts is struck with the numerous
and casual allusions to the history of the times, to the

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 53
geography and to the climate of Palestine, and also to the
manners, the customs, and the institutions of her people.
These allusions are wrought into the very fabric of
the narratives, and are undoubted evidences of the age in
which they originated.
Thus the physical features of the Holy Land are accu
rately noted by the evangelists. We may start from either
of the two centres of our Lord's ministry, — from Galilee
or from Jerusalem, — and we shall find the notices of local
ities verified by the existing outlines of the surface of the
country. We may take our departure from the Northern
Lake. All along its borders are still to be seen the ruins
of the cities where the Saviour wrought his mighty works.
Its eastern shore is still lined by hills from whose deep-cut
ravines the "storm of wind comes down on the lake," as it
did in the days of the apostles. The relative position and
distances of places are correctly given, and still indicate the
general contour of Galilee. Thus the route from Cana to
Capernaum is a continuous descent, justifying the phrase,
"Come down;" and the distance between these places
answers to the notations of time in the Gospel. The
" five and twenty or thirty furlongs " would now, as
in the days of John, place a vessel in the midst of the
Sea of Galilee. On the north and east of this lake there
are now solitudes, as there were when Jesus sought alone
communion with his Father.
Again, leaving the holy city, — the southern centre
of his labors, — we find the surroundings are noticed just
as the existing features of the country demand. The
brook Kedron is but a step from the eastern walls, and
just beyond is Gethsemane, and above the Garden is
Olivet, now, as of old, over against the Mount Moriah.

54 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
The Pool of Siloam is still shown to travellers. The
way "down" to the plains of Jericho, even at the present
day, leads through a desert region, abounding in ravines
and caverns, — the natural homes of thieves and rob
bers, as is intimated in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
As one journeys toward the north, he may meet with
Jacob's well ; and on the edge of the great plain he will
see the very mountain to which the Samaritan woman
pointed when she exclaimed, "Our fathers worshipped in
this mountain." As the traveller journeys on and reaches
Nazareth, he there beholds the identical hill with its over
hanging brow, from whose summit the infuriated rabble
sought to hurl our Lord.
The passing and unstudied allusions to the climate of
Palestine are truthful. The winter is casually identified
with the rainy season in the simple words, "It was
winter, and Jesus walked in Solomon's porch." The indi
cations of fair and foul weather are the same as in the days
of our Saviour. The rain, the flood, the wind, are still
the marks of the winter-storm, as when embodied in the
imagery of Christ.
The products of the country, the grape, the olive, the
fig, the sycamore, the wheat and the tares, testify to the
accuracy of the record. The ancient coins of Judea exhibit
a captive under the palm-tree, and thus show that even
here the evangelic narrative is reliable, though so few
date- trees • are now found in that region. The withered
grass is still "cast into the oven" for fuel, and the plough
even now has but one handle, in exact literal accordance
with the expression, "He that putteth his hand to the
plough," etc. The wild honey is gathered by the present
dwellers from the trees and rocks that abound in the wild

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 55
region near the Dead Sea, and locusts are an article of
food for the poorer people, as well as in the days of John
the Baptist.
The notice of political personages and of civil institu
tions accords with what profane history teaches us. Pales
tine was, at the birth of our Lord, under Herod the
Great, whose two characteristic traits, namely, cruelty and
munificence, are brought out in the Bethlehem massa
cre and in the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple with in
creased splendor. When Joseph and his family returned
from Egypt, the country was found divided among the
sons of Herod. But, on the appearance of John the Bap
tist, Judea had already been reduced to a Roman province
under Pontius Pilate, while Galilee was left under Herod
Antipas. The notice, too, of this prince, answers to his
character. The opposition of John to his infamous mar
riage, and his rebukes "for all the evils he had done,"
led to the execution of the prophet. The narrative thus
not only notes his unscrupulousness and sensuality, but
also reveals the weakness of a despot who values his repu
tation more than his character. In the continuation of
the early history of the church, by Luke, we find Judea
has ceased for a time to be a Roman province. Herod
Agrippa the First now succeeds to the estates of his
grandfather, and the old kingdom of Palestine is restored.
Under a native prince, he soon shows the genuine Hero-
dian spirit in the execution of James, and the imprison
ment of Peter. The manner of his death accords with the
account given by Joseph us. He is smitten by Heaven for
his impiety, in allowing himself to be addressed as a god
by his flatterers. His son, Agrippa the Second, succeeds
to a portion of his father's estate, and Judea is once more

56 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
a Roman province. Now, in all these complicated changes,
so casually noticed by the writers, the historical character
of the narrative is plainly indicated.
There was a singular complication in the civil status of
Palestine, growing out of its anomalous condition as a
Roman province, which none but a Jew and a contem
porary could have alluded to with easy familiarity. Thus,
we find a reference to the occasional exercise of power of
the " Governor of Syria," the chief representative of
Rome in the East, in the taxing under Cyrenius ; to the
divisions between the civil and the ecclesiastical authority,
as seen in the persons of the High Priest and of the Pro
curator ; in the two tribunals ; in the two spheres of juris
diction ; in the two modes of punishment ; and in the two
military forces. This coexistence, it is to be noted, came
to an end before the close of the first century.
The domestic and social manners and usages are fre
quently alluded to in a like incidental manner. Sepul
chres hewn out of a rock, and whitened, still attract the
attention of the traveller. The house-thief must now, as
then, dig through (as the Greek signifies) the clay walls
of the common dwelling. The wise man will now, as then,
build his house on the rock which almost everywhere un
derlies the soil of the country. Two women may be seen
now, as in the days of Christ, grinding at the same mill ;
and sheep and goats pasture together, and are separated
at night by the shepherd. The temple, with its festivals
and rites, the synagogue, with its freer worship, and the
sanhedrim, are all referred to just as we should expect.
In fact, irregularities in the office of the Jewish pontificate
are implied in a remark that ' ' Caiaphas was high priest
that same year."

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 57
All these minute but incidental references wrought into
the gospel narrative fasten the scenes of Christ's life to one
narrow spot on the eastern borders of the Great Sea, and
confine them within the opening years of the apostolic age.
The Acts of the Apostles naturally follows the Gospels.
The Christ of history becomes the Christ of the church.
He who wrought visible wonders before the eyes of the
disciples now works invisibly, but none the less really,
on the souls of men. A new spiritual movement in the
Gentile as well as the Jewish world has been initiated, and
the kingdom of God is thus founded in all the great cities
of the empire.
The narrative gives us varied forms of human life.
The scenes are constantly changing. We pass from Pales
tine to Syria, and thence to Asia Minor, and to Greece,
and finally to Rome. New personages, new customs, and
new institutions are presented or suggested to our view.
Paul is now a violent Jewish partisan, and now a humble
disciple and chosen apostle of Christ ; now a fugitive from
the hate of his countrymen, and now a defender of the
faith before the philosophers at Athens ; now a prisoner
before a Roman magistrate, and now sent across the sea to
stand his trial in the capital of the empire. In all this
diversified narrative, the allusions to places, to persons,
to usages, to the opinions and institutions of the times, are
faithful to history, and yet often so incidentally given as
to preclude all idea of intention on the part of the writer.
The notices of Greek and Roman life and manners are
minutely accurate. Thus Athens is alluded to as the re
sort of strangers, — ¦ a well-known fact in ancient history.
The Athenians, too, are portrayed as religious in their
sentiments, but as sceptical in their belief; as fond of

58 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
novelty, but averse to all exhibitions of moral earnest
ness. They left Paul as soon as he began to speak of a
future judgment. All this accords with the accounts we
have of them from their own writers and historians. The
reference to the tumult at Ephesus • — to its cause and its
incidents — agrees with the ancient coins, and with the
inscriptions still found in the ruins of the ancient city.
It is to be noted that the ancient world could not have
witnessed a mob caused by any outrage on the moral sense.
The public conscience was dead. It was only self-interest
which could have called forth any public outbreak. The
"Great Goddess Diana " was the title given to the heathen
divinity in ancient times, and the name of the "town
clerk " is found in the inscriptions in the neighborhood of
Ephesus. That a large church should have been gathered
at Corinth, and so few been converted at Athens, is what
might have been expected. Intellectual pride is a deadlier
foe to the religion of the cross than even sensual vices.
Everywhere in the Acts we meet with traces of the spirit
and method of Roman administration. We find a tolerant
temper born of indifference ; a sense of justice in insist
ing that the accused and the accuser should be brought
face to face ; a recognition of the privileges of a Roman
citizen, whether acquired by birth or by purchase ; a
right of appeal possessed by the provincials ; the punish
ment of aliens by scourging and by crucifixion. All this
is but a small part of the internal evidence which goes to
demonstrate that the Acts of the Apostles is a historical
work. The Epistles follow the Acts, as they seem to interpret
the historical books. This form of composition renders
imposture or invention quite impossible. Everything in

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 59
the style, in the method, in the spirit, and in the occasion
and object, as well as in the relations of the parties to each
other, and to the age and country in which they live, so
individualizes and localizes the writings, that any forgery
is altogether out of the question. The references to con
temporary persons ; to the germinant errors and parties
of the day;* to the attitude of the various classes of the
Gentile world ; to the private and public relations of
prominent personages ; — all these, taken in unison, give
a moral demonstration that these letters — at least the
longer ones of Paul — are perfectly trustworthy docu
ments. The numerous undesigned coincidences between these
several portions of the New Testament lead to the same
result. Thus the style of Luke in the Gospel is the same
as in the Acts. It is marked by the recurrence of favorite
words, and stamped with idioms peculiar to this evangelist.
In this fact we have the clearest internal evidence of a
common authorship. Thus the word Christ is in the
Gospels and Acts an appellative designating Jesus as the
Anointed, — the Messiah ; while in the Epistles it passes
into a proper name. This accords with the relation in
which these portions of the New-Testament canon stand to
each other. Besides, we have in the Acts the speeches
of Peter, James, and Paul. Now, when we come to com
pare them with the Epistles written by the same men, we
notice a marked, though unstudied agreement, both in the
modes of conception and of expression.
It is instructive, in reference to the specific point we are
now considering, to see how each great character preserves
its distinctive individuality throughout the Gospels, the
Acts, and the Epistles. We may take the Apostle Peter as

60 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
an instance. Thus the evangelists, in all their direct
or casual allusions to him, represent him as the foremost of
the apostles. He heads all the catalogues of the twelve.
He takes the lead in asking and answering questions. It
was on his confession that Christ said, " Thou art Peter ;
on this rock," etc. He alone declines having his feet
washed by his Master. He alone ventures to walk on the
sea, and only sinks when his faith fails him. At the trans
figuration he boldly proposes three tabernacles, " not
knowing what he said." In the garden he draws the
sword and cuts off the ear of the servant of the high priest,
and is again reproved by Christ. He openly denies his
Saviour at his trial ; but, as Jesus turns and looks on him,
he goes out and weeps bitterly. He is the first to enter
the tomb where our Lord was laid. After the resurrec
tion, when Christ thrice put to him the same question, in
allusion to his three denials, notwithstanding his boastful
claim of his superior loyalty, " Lovest thou me more than
these ? " he could, from a grieved and honest heart, say,
' ' Lord, thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love
thee." He is foremost in proposing the election of a suc
cessor to Judas, and in preaching on the day of Pentecost.
He takes the lead in word and deed in grounding the
church. He resists the Judaizers of his day, and announces
that the Gospel was designed equally for Gentile as for
Jew. But yet, true to his character, he vacillates in his
treatment of the Gentile converts, and is rebuked by hi3
brother apostle. He yields not only to this reproof, but, in
noble self-forgetfulness, also to the growing leadership of
the great Apostle to the Gentiles. His Epistles mark their
author as a man of ardent temperament, and of great single
ness and purity of purpose. The disinterestedness of his

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 61
nature reveals itself in the way he speaks of Paul ; for he
not only recognizes the intellectual superiority of the new
convert, but expresses towards him the warmest personal
friendship. In all these notices of Peter, and in all these
indications of his character, we meet with an individual
personality developed according to its own distinctive type,
and brought out on manifold occasions and amid trying
junctures, and yet the same in all its showings. The
Apostle Peter is ever the rash, but honest, the fickle, yet, in
the core of his heart, the loyal disciple, ardently attached
to Jesus, — a noble and magnanimous soul, whose very
failings make us love him all the more.
These coincidences need not, however, be noticed fur
ther, as Paley has given a classical treatise on this subject
in his " Horse Paulinse."
The Apocalypse is the prophetic book of the New Tes
tament, and fitly closes the canon. The claims of John
as its author rest on adequate grounds ; for the author
may well have been a disciple whose quiet, contemplative
nature had been roused from its hidden depths by the
great wrongs of the Neronian persecution, and whose
prophetic sense had been awakened and sustained by an
unshaken faith in the grand triumph of the new religion.
Now, a simple, ardent soul like that of Peter could not
have composed the Revelation. The fire might have
flashed forth, but could not have sustained itself. Nor
could a logical mind like Paul have produced such a
work. He would not have dwelt in such a series of grand
and imposing symbols. Nor could James, with his prac
tical and ethical turn of mind, have written the book.
The writer could only be a man who united a depth of
feeling and a spiritual insight with a creative imagination.

62 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
Such a man was the Apostle John. The eagle was the em
blem with which the ancient church marked his character.
When he wrote the Gospel in the quiet of Ephesus, his
wings were folded ; but when he penned the Apocalypse,
he did it with outstretched pinions, and with a fiery, eagle
glance. It is noteworthy that John desired to destroy the
Samaritan village for refusing to entertain his Master and
the disciples ; and equally so that he received in connec
tion with his brother, at the hand of Christ, the designa
tion of Son of Thunder.
It would be easy to show a progress in the development
of Christian truth as we pass from the Gospels to the Acts,
and from the Acts to the Epistles ; but, as this has already
been implied, it need not be here developed.
May we not, then, conclude that the New Testament
bears on its very face the clearest internal evidence of its
genuineness and authenticity ?

SECTION SECOND.
THE EXTERNAL EVIDENCE.
This is the same in kind as in the case of other ancient
writings, but greater in degree than that which we have for
any other ancient document whatever. It is the same in
kind, because it rests on references and citations found in
later writings. It is greater in degree, for the reason that
we have far more numerous and far more ample allusions
and quotations from our present canonical books in post-
apostolic works than we have from the writings of the
most admired classic author in the remains of his contem
poraries or successors. Besides, we have a special testi-

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 63
mony to the authenticity of the New Testament in its
early versions in the leading languages of the Old World.
This fulness of historical evidence was owing to the
unique character of the sacred canon, and to the peculiar
guardianship to which it was intrusted. Reverence for its
authors, and a profound regard for their narratives and
epistles, led to these multiplied citations and translations.
The church, too, naturally proved a better keeper of au
thoritative documents, than the republic of letters has
ever been of its most valued treasures. Its very continu
ity of life amidst great changes of society, and the neces
sity early felt of having some standard by which to settle
its controversies and form its doctrinal systems, made it
the special guardian of its sacred library and of its sole
law-book. As our purpose is apologetical, and not purely critical,
we shall only note the main points of the evidence.
On the very confines of the second century, we meet
with the beginnings of an Apocryphal literature, which
continues to grow for some three centuries. Separated as
this is from our canonical books by its local circulation, by
the puerility of its contents, and by its want of general
authority, it plainly reveals the lateness of its origin.
The Apocrypha does not, in the main, alter the ground
work of our evangelical narrative, but fills up imagined
gaps in the sacred record, and seeks to adorn with false
ornament the work of the great masters. Its fancies are
only foreign growths, which have rooted themselves on the
surface of the original stalk, and sent forth their weak
and worthless parasitic shoots. They thus indicate a sub-
apostolic period, and bear on their very face the accretions
of an age which had fallen somewhat from the earnest

64 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
spirit of the opening era of the Christian Church. Thus
these Apocryphal Gospels presuppose the original biogra
phies of our Lord.
The Apostolic Fathers belonged to the age which imme
diately followed that of the apostles. They fairly repre
sent the opinions of the entire church of their times, since
they wrote from the chief seats of the Christian faith, —
from Rome, from Ephesus, and from Antioch. They re
fer to the apostles as the only authoritative teachers of
the church, and thus indicate the principles on which
alone a written rule of faith could be formed.
We do not find many express formal citations from the
books of the New Testament, but frequent indirect refer
ences to apostolic preaching. This is just what we should
expect from their position and their surroundings. They
had heard the apostles themselves, or had received with
others the oral Gospel as the common possession of the
church, and so did not need to cite the written record, or
to refer to any well-known apostolic writing.
There are, however, exceptions to this indefinite refer
ence. Thus Clement of Rome, in writing to the Corin
thian Church, reminds them of the fact that Paul had
already written to them. Thus, too, Polycarp reminds
the Philippians of the letter they had received from the
apostle. Barnabas cites from Matthew the very words of
Christ: "Many are called, but few are chosen; " for he
quotes, with the proper formula of citations, "As it is
written." These references, then, to a growing canon, are all that
could be expected in an age when some of the apostles
were still alive, and when their teachings were still fresh
in the memory of the early church. Besides, any more

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 65
express allusions to the apostolic writings before these had
passed from their several local centres would have been
simply impossible. Some time must elapse before copies
could be multiplied and circulated, especially when the
labor of transcribing them was both difficult and expen
sive ; and a still longer time must elapse ere these copies
could be collected in one volume, and be everywhere
received and recognized as canonical.
Justin, a native of Palestine and afterwards a teacher
in Rome, was the first Christian writer after the Apostolic
Fathers who notices such a collection. He had in his pos
session our present Gospels, which he termed the Memo
rabilia of the Apostles. The references are evidently
drawn from his memory, according to the custom of his
day, and according to his purpose as a Christian apologist.
He mentions them as being read in the churches, and at
taches to them an importance equal to that of the sacred
canon of the Jews. He gives us all the main facts in the
life of our Lord, from his nativity to his passion ; and
gives them, too, in such language as argues an acquaint
ance with original and authentic documents.. When we
remember the high character of this witness, his intimate
knowledge of both the Syrian and the Roman Church,
and the fact, too, that he lived and wrote within five
decades of the death of John, his witness is entitled to
great weight.
The testimony of this philosopher and martyr is con
firmed by that of the earliest Christian fathers. Near
the close of the second century, and within three genera
tions after the death of the last of the apostles, Irenseus
of Gaul, Clement of Egypt, and Tertullian of North
Africa, give us the New-Testament canon as we now have
G*

66 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
it, with generally unimportant exceptions. The first of
these fathers is a credible witness, as he claims to have
had a personal acquaintance with Polycarp, the intimate
disciple of John, and of " others who had seen the Lord."
He held that our four Gospels were exclusively entitled to
be considered authoritative. He distinguishes them as
"those which have been handed down to us." The sec
ond of these fathers was the head of the Alexandrian
School, a person of extensive learning and of wide ac
quaintance, and so must be regarded as a representative
man. The third also belongs to the same class, and was
thoroughly versed in all the traditions of the church.
Thus we find that the canon presents itself as nearly com
plete in all the great centres of the empire ; and that, too,
within a century after the close of the apostolic age. We
see that nearly all its most important writings have been
collected, transcribed, and distributed throughout all the
provinces within the circle of the Mediterranean Sea. It
is beyond question, then, that this collection first presents
itself as the heritage of a past age. It thus comes before
us, not as a novelty, or as a fresh product of the times,
but as the creation of the men who founded those churches
which could witness to its authenticity.
The early heretics and pagans strongly corroborate this
testimony of the fathers. These early separatists appeal
to the writings of the apostles as authentic productions.
They often misinterpreted them, and sometimes mutilated
them, but never doubted their authority, except on purely
dogmatic grounds. Thus Irenseus remarks, that "our
Gospels are so firmly established that the heretics them
selves bear witness to them ; and every one starts from
them in his attempts to confirm his own doctrines." The

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 67
Alogi did, indeed, reject the Gospel of John, but from
purely doctrinal reasons, and ascribed it, in the same ar
bitrary way, to Cerinthus. This need not surprise us,
when we remember that the Platonic canon was treated in
the same way. For Pansetius, a Stoic philosopher, re
jected even tho Phsedon as one of Plato's works, simply
because it taught the immortality of the soul. Basilides
of Alexandria, a contemporary of the immediate disciples
of the apostles, referred especially to the Gospel of John.
While he naturally alludes to other documents, he admits
all the leading events of the evangelic record. Another
Gnostic, Valentinus, also removed only by a. generation
from the apostolic age, certainly recognized, among other
books, the Gospel of John. Now, he taught in Rome,
where all the ancient traditions of the church would natu
rally be carried ; and so his testimony is altogether appo
site. Heracleon, the pupil of the latter, wrote a commen
tary on the fourth Gospel, and probably also on Luke.
Marcion, a contemporary of Justin, admitted Luke, and
ten of Paul's Epistles. The reason that he rejected others
was purely arbitrary. He insisted that Paul alone — and
that, too, after he had freed himself from Jewish preju
dices — - was the true representative of Christianity, and so
rejected all writings that had not the stamp of his author
ity. It is to be noted that this Gnostic did not deny the
authenticity of the other books of the New Testament,
but only their authoritative character. It is evident, then,
from the testimony of these heretics, that the most impor
tant of our Gospels was known and widely circulated within
thirty years after the death of its reputed author. We
must, then, conclude that it was written within the life
time of John, and, if so, that it was his composition. We

68 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
can escape this conclusion only by the incredible supposi
tion that the Gnostics originated our fourth Gospel as soon
as the apostle was in his grave, and secured for it, notwith
standing they were everywhere opposed, a speedy and un
questioned recognition as his genuine work throughout the
universal church.
Celsus may be here taken as an exponent of the more
learned pagan opponents of Christianity. He wrote his
bitter invective against Christianity near the middle of
the second century. Now, he declares that he drew his
views of the new religion from the "writings of the dis
ciples of Jesus." He admits that these Gospels and Epis
tles were composed by the persons whose names they bear,
and by those to whom the church generally attribute them.
He only charges them with mistakes and inconsistencies,
and affirms that they borrowed their best opinions from the
philosophers. The weakness of his criticism is apparent,
but that only renders his testimony the more valuable.
Thus heretic and pagan alike bear witness to the authen
ticity of our sacred books.
The last independent but contemporary witnesses to the
historical character of these writings are the early versions
of the New Testament, and the fragment found by the
Italian critic, Muratori. The ancient Syriac translation
called the Peshito — perhaps from the simplicity of its
style, or from its literalness — belonged to the early part
of the second century. It contained no uncanonical work,
and thus shows that the unapostolic writings, however
much they may have been prized by single individuals or
churches, never had any general recognition. This ver
sion gives our present Gospels and the Epistles, with the
exception of the Second and Third of John, Second of

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 69
Peter, and the Apocalypse. The ancient Latin version or
versions date as far back as the close of the second cen
tury, and contain, we may believe, all, or nearly all, of
our present collection. Such is the plain inference from
the references in the Latin fathers. The Muratorian frag
ment, although it is mutilated at the beginning and close,
gives us a catalogue of nearly all our canonical books. It
is in Latin, but rests on a Greek original. It was discov
ered in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, and belongs to
the middle or close of the second century. Thus most, if
no^ all, the apostolic writings must have been everywhere
generally received within the second century, and so must
have originated in the preceding age.
As soon as we leave this period, we find all the books
of our canon recognized by the churches throughout an
cient Christendom. Origen, the scholar of that age, for
mally quotes from them all. In fact, his references are
so numerous that the New Testament could almost be re
produced from his works alone. If, here and there, doubt
still lingered with regard to the authenticity of some of
the books, owing to dogmatic prejudices, or to a lack of
evidence of their apostolic origin, these soon gave place to
a full credence.
From this point the lines of testimony branch out in all
directions, and form a network of evidence too complicated
to be followed, as it is too strong to be broken or weakened
by any sceptical criticism whatever.
As we have intimated, very many interesting questions
have purposely been left untouched; e.g., that of an Ara-
msean or Hebrew original of the Gospel of Matthew, and its
relation to the so-called "Gospel according to the Hebrews."
All such questions belong to the province of criticism.

70 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
Thus, then, long before any council had decided what
books should be received as authoritative, the church held
already as canonical those writings, and those alone, which
had the sanction of apostolic authority. This decision
was the natural and spontaneous expression of the com
mon judgment of Christendom. We only remark in pass
ing, that the historical character of any one of the Gospels,
or any one of the longer Epistles, would give an adequate
historical basis for the Christian religion.
That the New Testament has been transmitted to us in
its essential integrity allows of no doubt whatever. It
was watched over by the church, guarded by opposing
sects, embalmed in diverse languages, and preserved in
several hundred manuscripts more or less perfect, some of
which run back to the fourth or fifth centuries. The dis
crepancies which exist between these manuscripts are, in
deed, very numerous, but, for the most part, absolutely
insignificant, and do not affect in the least the historical
value of the New Testament.

SECTION THIBD.
THE SCEPTICAL THEORIES.
Were the New Testament writings the forgeries of a later
age ? But who could create such an ideal character as that
of Jesus, and draw it out with such naturalness ? Who
could have written the Acts, or have forged all the Epis
tles, with their distinctive styles, their variety of incidents,
and their geographical, historical, and personal allusions ?
Who could have secured the unity of spirit and thought

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 71
which runs through the entire collection? What motive
had they to fabricate them, and palm them off as the pro
ductions of apostolic men? How shall we account for their
perfect success ? Who were these men of genius who stand
out solitary and alone in the field of fiction, and yet are so
unknown to fame ? What place shall we find for them in
the ages following the apostolic period? Did some one
master-mind compose the whole twenty-seven books, or did
some eight men combine to impose on the world ? Such
an hypothesis, in the light of these difficulties and in the
presence of the facts already considered, is absolutely in
credible. A forgery of such a character would be a
greater miracle in literature than any physical wonder
recorded in the Scriptures themselves.
Nor can we vary the theory, and ascribe the collection
to a series of pious frauds, mutually concurring and sup
porting each other. The supposition that all these works,
so various in form, so creative in spirit, and so distinctive
in style, were composed under the cover of a falsehood,
and in the interests of Christianity, is at war with reason
and history. Oral tradition of so wide a compass, and
with so many minute details, could hardly be embodied in
so pure a form in a sub-apostolic age. Still less could the
writings of later and feebler hands be palmed off as the
productions of the apostles. But the Epistles, which pre
suppose the Gospels, and which have the impress of origi
nality and apostolicity wrought into their very structure,
absolutely preclude, in the light of historical criticism,
any such hypothesis.
The idea that the writers were honest but deluded men
is no less absurd. How could they be deceived in regard
to facts coming under their own observation, and supported

72 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
often by the testimony of concurring witnesses ? How,
too, could they be mistaken in reading their own conscious
ness, when the reality and the permanence of the inward
change were verified by a life of heroic self-denial ?
As an example of the first case, — namely, of the real
ity of the fact which appealed to their senses, — we may
take the resurrection of our Lord. Christ appeared some
ten or twelve times, to different persons, and under differ
ent circumstances. Now, the hallucination could not have
been the same to so many different minds, on so many occa
sions, and in so very different places, unless the expecta
tion of the event was so regnant and so exclusive — in
fact, so engrossing — as to mislead the united testimony
of all the leading senses of all the witnesses on every occa
sion. Such a view not only involves inherent difficulties,
but is in plain and flat contradiction to the facts of the
narrative. All the disciples expected to find the body of
their Master still in the sepulchre. All seemed surprised
at the first news of his resurrection, and some would not
believe until they had direct and sensible proof of the
event. The apostles, it is to be remembered, had the evi
dence of the eye, the ear, and the touch, as to the verity
of Christ's bodily presence, and as to the identity of his
person. It will not help the sceptic if, in his inconsist
ency, he resorts, for a moment, to the idea of conscious
deception ; for, if the friends of Jesus, weak as they were,
could remove the body of our Lord, then their self-delusion
would be dissipated, and thus their moral enthusiasm
would soon die out. This subterfuge, too, leaves un
touched the testimony of the senses to the reality of the
risen presence. Besides, such an imposture in such a
cause js simply impossible. Self-denial is not so sweet

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 73
that men will become dishonest for the sake of enjoying
it. The character of the new faith, and the responsibili
ties of its profession, as well as the foreseen fate of its
adherents, preclude this notion. But, on the other hand, if
the enemies of Jesus removed the body, then all they had
to do was to produce the corpse, in order to fix the despair -
of the early disciples, and to consign their cause to a
speedy and irretrievable ruin. The presence and remem
brance of the dishonored body of Christ would have
destroyed utterly and forever all faith in his resurrection.
Jesus, then, did certainly appear to his chosen disciples
and others after his death.
Will it be said that he did not, after all, really die, but
only swooned ? But consider the night of exhaustion, with
its weight of care and sleepless hours, which preceded the
trial ; the failure of the sufferer's strength on the way
to Calvary ; the nailing of his hands and of his feet to
the cross ; his long suspension there, and the deadly
thrust of the Roman soldier. Would not all this have pro
duced death ? Were the hostile Jews mistaken in think
ing him dead? Were the executioners, so accustomed to
judge in such matters, also deceived ? Did Jesus deceive
himself, in imagining that he had died and risen, when he
had only swooned and recovered ; and were his predictions
of his own resurrection a like mistake ? But this des
perate supposition of a swoon is completely set aside by
the fact that Jesus appeared suddenly in full vigor, and
in the full use of all his faculties.
Neither Zeller nor Strauss will tolerate the idea of a
sudden restoration to vigor, after the scenes of the cruci
fixion. Zeller says, "that any one, who, after a long and
exhausting abuse, was crucified, and left on the cross at
7

74 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
least six hours, and then taken down with all the symp
toms of death, — that such an one, after being without food
for two days and a half, and shut up in a sepulchre without
any care, should have revived in virtue of the restorative
power of nature, after about thirty-six hours, and have
been at once in a condition to undertake a pedestrian ex
cursion either to Galilee or to Emmaus, is so exceed
ingly improbable that we are compelled to call for the
most irrefragable proof in order to believe it. . . . Be
sides, a natural revival could not have produced at all in
the disciples the belief which we find them showing in
the sequel." Strauss declares "that a being who had
stolen half dead out of the sepulchre, — who crept about,
weak and ill, wanting medical treatment, and who re
quired bandaging, strengthening, and indulgence, — could
never have given to his disciples the impression that he
was the conqueror over death, — the Prince of Life, —
an impression which lay at the basis of their future min
istry." So the new school of sceptics will not tolerate
their forerunners.
As an example of the second case, of their power to
read their own consciousness, we may take the conversion
of Paul. His consciousness on this point was clear and
full. He makes frequent allusions to it, and gives a de
tailed account of it on three several occasions. We gather
from his own statement that he was fixed in his purpose to
exterminate the rising Christian communities, and that he
had taken for this end a commission from the high priest,
and was about to execute it in the capital of Syria.
There was no faltering in his steps ; he never makes the
slightest allusion to any doubts he had on his way to
Damascus. If he had any misgivings at all, they were

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 10
too slight to have left any impression whatever on his
memory. This inward radical change of mind and heart
was not the result of reflection, but a somewhat sudden
transformation wrought from without and from above ;
for no mere reverie, or dream of an hour, or transient
sentimental relenting in the solitude of his journey, could
culminate in the complete reversal of the entire current
of his opinions, convictions, and purposes. The bitterness
of his hate against the Christians would have fluctuated
ouly with the fervor of his persecuting zeal, and that zeal
would have been as likely to have risen as to have fallen
as he approached his journey's end. His strong national
prejudices, and the public position he had taken, as well
as the commission he had received, could only have served
to fire his young and ardent nature. IIow. then, can we
account for a change so sudden, so thorough, so spiritual,
and so permanent, reversing all the plans of his past life,
except by the miraculous call he claims to have received
on the plains of Damascus ? It cannot, as we have seen,
be explained as the result of a psychological process
wrought by silent communings with his own soul. The
very question, " Who art thou, Lord? " as well as his utter
silence about any such gradual inward change, shows that
there was in fact none. — at least none adequate to produce
such a transformation, and to embody itself in such a won
derful vision. With the noonday splendor in the midst of
which Jesus appeared to him, a sudden light flashed on
his soul, and the apostle received at once his call, and ex
perienced at once his conversion. This wondrous appear
ance could have been no natural phenomenon, which the
apostle subsequently explained as the personal presence
of Christ, and as a judgment on his course of life. It

76 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
carried with itself the evidence of its reality. The im
pression was immediate, and not subsequent to the event ;
its character and purpose were beyond question, confirmed
as it was by the simultaneous vision of Ananias.
We cannot, then, admit for a moment that in these two
great historical events, so central, so fruitful in results,
and so related to each other, the writers could possibly
have been deceived.
The attempt hae been made to take refuge in a myth,
and thus escape the absurdities of the older sceptical the
ories. The general idea of a myth is plain enough. It is the
unconscious creation of an age. The individual who first
begins to embody it only voices the common sentiment of
the community among whom he lives. He is only a
mythographer, and not in any proper sense the creator of
the myth itself; for it is not so much the product of his
genius, as it is the incarnation of the spirit of his times.
Whenever an age thus turns its ideas into facts, it is an
age of mythology, and its varying creations are so many
varying myths.
It does not here concern us whether the myth be sup
posed to be perfect or partial in its character ; whether
it be a pure embodiment of a common thought and feeling
without any historical basis whatever, or only the group
ing of ideal elements about a nucleus of facts ; for if
the mythical element be the constitutive principle in the
Gospels, then their historic character is for our purpose as
truly lost as if this element was the sole factor in the
product. Either view will not materially affect our line of
discussion. But if the historic element is the reigning or
governing principle of the evangelic narrative, then we

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 77
have all that we here claim or need. This last point will,
however, be noticed further in the discussion.
To the hypothesis of a myth *we have the following
objections : —
First. The Gospels do not wear a mythical garb.
Their form and spirit are prosaic rather than poetic. The
narrative is essentially fixed, and not varying and multi
form like the classic stories of the heroes of the Old World.
It claims, too, to be grounded on testimony, and is addressed
to the conscience and reason of men, rather than chiefly
to their aesthetic sentiments and feelings. It has through
out a realistic character. The writers not only appeal to
witnesses, but to older historic documents, and bind their
narrative in a thousand ways to their own generation.
Luke has the historic sense as clearly marked as Tacitus
himself. The evangelic record is not a collection of crude
and grotesque marvels, nor a series of beautiful allegories,
but a clear statement of facts and discourses from the
life of our Lord. Its very omissions, where the myth-form
ing element, if it ha'd existed, would have been most
fruitful, as in the infancy and childhood of Jesus, plainly
reveal its genuine historical character.
Second. No such ideal as that of Jesus was floating
in the Jewish mind at that period, seeking expression and
demanding embodiment. The very reverse was true.
The Jews were expecting a worldly Redeemer, who should
come with pomp and power, and should make Jerusalem
the seat of universal empire. Thus the age stood in open
and sharp antagonism to the apostolic conception of the
person and reign of the Messiah. It could not furnish
materials out of which to form such a character. It could
only give the narrow asceticism of the Essenes, the strict

78 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
legalism of the Pharisees, and the cool scepticism of the
Sadducees, tainted as they may all have been by the
presence of their conquerors, or by the freer manners of
the Jews of the dispersion.
Nor can we find such an ideal cherished among the
simple disciples of Galilee. That these shepherds, living
far from Jerusalem, and destitute of all the culture of
the schools, should form and foster such a lofty, harmo
nious, and extended myth, and should impose it on the
early church, and have it supersede completely and
utterly the facts of history, — that these simple-minded
followers of Jesus should be able to do all this, — to
create an ideal transcending in beauty and power the
conceptions of any age, however creative ; an ideal which
should take the place of the real in the minds of the
apostles, and become the very foundation of the Christian
Church, and embody itself in all their doxologies, hymns,
and symbolic rites, — to suppose that these disciples should
have been able to do all this, is to carry the incredulity
of unbelief to the farthest point of extravagance.
Third. The period of a third of a century is far too
short to create either a pure or an impure myth. It
requires centuries for an age to give expression to its gov
erning ideas. It can only thus embody and express the
reigning sentiments and dogmas of the popular belief.
Now, the character of Jesus, whether ideal or real, must
have been formed and accepted within some thirty years
after his death. This is apparent from the well-known
paragraph in the history of Tacitus. We quote what
bears on the case. " Nero accused a set of men . . .
called Christians. The author of this sect was Christ, who
in the reign of Tiberius suffered death by Pontius Pilate.

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 79
This vile superstition broke out, not only in Judea, the
nest of the mischief, but in the city [Rome]. ... A
vast multitude were condemned, not so much for burning the
city as for enmity to mankind. . . . Some were torn to
pieces ; some were crucified .... some burned to
death, and set up as lights in the night-time." Now,
within the short period indicated by the Roman historian,
the character of Jesus had been formed, and had passed
from the hills of Judea to the metropolis of the world,
and had become the comfort and the support of a vast
multitude. Such was the simple fact. Now, was that
character mythical or historical, ideal or real? If the
former, then all confidence in historical criticism is gone,
and it ceases to be an instrument in the discovery of truth.
But the birth and the growth of so pure and so lofty, so
extended and so fruitful, a myth, in so short a period, are
simply inconceivable.
We may go still further, and safely affirm that the
great supernatural events in the life of Jesus were gener
ally accepted before the conversion of Paul. For there
are no critics of any respectability, or of any school what
ever, but admit the genuineness of the four larger Epistles
of Paul, namely, Romans, the two Corinthians, and Gala-
tians. Now, these letters show clearly that Paul accepted
from the first the fact of a crucified and risen Saviour,
and show, too, that his faith was the common belief of all
the churches. If, then, the Christ of the church was a
myth, that myth must have arisen within eight years from
the death of our Lord. The statement of the view is
the only refutation which it needs.
Fourth. The age was one of general enlightenment,
and so fatal to the origin, growth, and sway of any great

80 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
myth, or series of myths. It was a historical period,
and did not possess that atmosphere in which the creations
of a common fancy come into being and life. It is true,
isolated legends — the offspring of individual minds, and
having a limited range — are quite probable, but not myths.
Nor can we make the Jewish community an exception to
the general character of that period. They were an
educated people. They had their scribes and their schools
and their literature ; their temple worship, their syna
gogues, and their Sanhedrim. They had, too, constant
intercourse with the Greeks and the Romans. The great
caravan routes between Egypt and Syria went through or
touched the borders of their country. The great festivals
dispelled ignorance from even the inhabitants of the rural
districts. In that period Israel was a historic nation, with
great memories and great hopes. The general intelligence
of the apostolic age, then, precludes the rise of any gen
eral myths.
Fifth. The defenders of the mythical theory have
based their view in part on the alleged irreconcilable oppo
sition between the synoptics and John. But, if this is so,
both cannot be mythical narratives. One must be his
torical to justify an assumed contradiction. Now, which
ever one is historical, that one gives us a historical
Christ. The master of Strauss saw this difficulty, and so
rejected his pupil's theory.
The legendary theory has had its advocates, and so
demands a brief consideration. If the historical element
is only incidental, then the narrative is, as a whole, a
fiction, and is to be examined as in the light of the facts
it ignores and the difficulties it creates. These facts and
difficulties we have already considered. If, however, the

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 81
historical element is central, pervading, and controlling,
then it is for the supporter of such a theory to point out
and eliminate the legendary elements. For apologetic
purposes we have all we need. As the narrative is
essentially historic, so we have a real historical personage
in Jesus Christ. Wo only remark, that biblical criticism
will admit of no such legendary excrescences in the sacred
narrative. One thing has been forgotten by some of
these sceptics, that is, that they, too, are bound to be self-
consistent. They cannot at the same time maintain con
tradictory hypotheses. — (See chap. II., sec. 4.)
A recent school of doubt has applied a novel theory of
development to the origin and growth of the New-Testa
ment canon. According to this theory, the Christian
Church contained from the first two opposing parties, —
the Jewish Christian and the Gentile Christian. These
were headed respectively by Peter and Paul. The apos
tles and their adherents wrote from purely polemic mo
tives. Paul begins with his larger Epistles ; and his
adherents at a later day follow him, in order to set forth
the Pauline conception of Christianity ; and some follower
of Peter gives Matthew and other documents of a Pctrine
tendency ; and some unknown genius closes with the Gos
pel of John, in which he endeavors to conciliate both
factions. But no such antagonism existed in the ancient
church. There was an essential agreement among the
apostles. The reading of the Gospels and Epistles can
not make on the unprejudiced mind the impression that the
authors of these works were polemic theologians. Nor
can the New Testament be thus broken up into discon
nected and opposing fragments. The fact, that the great
body of learned critics, as well as of believing men and

82 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
women of all ages, have seen and felt the unity which
pervades the whole collection, is a fact which overrides
the arbitrary judgment of any narrow and isolated school
whatever. It is the case of Baur versus History before
the bar of criticism. Every new trial foreshadows all
the more certainly the ultimate condemnation of the
theory. It is possible to build a pyramid on its apex,
creditable to one's constructive genius; but to make it
stand the shocks of time exceeds all human power. This
hypothesis, though it has little to support it, and so much to
oppose it, yet, by admitting the genuineness of the leading
Pauline Epistles, by the searching and exhaustive criti
cism which its advocates have given to the literature of
the early centuries, has indirectly contributed to the mak
ing more evident the genuineness and authenticity of the
entire New Testament.
There has been an effort to give up the supernatural
and retain the natural in the history of Jesus. But the
miraculous element cannot be eliminated from the Gos
pels or Epistles. Miracles do not form a patchwork on
the surface of the record, nor a beautiful embroidery
which may be easily detached from the main fabric. They
are woven -into that fabric, and give to it its peculiar value.
They often grow out of the events recorded, and naturally
suggest the sayings and discourses of our Lord. Take
them away, and the narrative becomes a disjointed writing,
without order, coherency, or meaning, and the very warrant
for what remains is lost. The presence of the supernatural
is recognized in the apostolic Epistles, and the Church has
for eighteen centuries builded its faith not on what is nat
ural, but on what is supernatural, in the character and
work of Christ.

HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 83
We conclude, then, that none of the sceptical theories
weaken in the least the force of the evidence, external
and internal, for the historical character of the New Tes
tament. In fact, when we find that no other hypothesis
than the one we have defended can account for the origin
and character of these writings, we have a strong evidence
of its historic trustworthiness.

CHAPTEK II.
CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT.
SECTION FIRST.
THE IDEA OF THE SUPERNATURAL.
Natube, as the word denotes, is that which is born,
evolved, developed. A'natural event is, then, any link in
a chain of dependent causes and effects. It is a part of
the established order of creation. It is God's fixed mode
of procedure in the sphere to which it belongs. It thus
indicates and expresses the immanent presence and energy
of the creative power.
The supernatural is the transcendent act of God in the
realm of matter or of mind. It is the effect of an imme
diate divine efficiency, appearing at the beginning of an
ordained order of phenomena, or somewhere along its con
tinuous progress. It indicates and expresses the trans
cendence of the creative power.
The supernatural and the natural are both the effects of
one and the same supreme will. Both make up the one
unchangeable plan and method of the Almighty. Both
are essential to a universe. For the beginning of every
cycle of creation is an instance of the supernatural, and
its continuance is an example of the natural. In the one
case we have the transcendence of God, and in the other
his immanence. Thus there is no change in the ordained
84

CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT. 85
plan of the Almighty. The supernatural is not an after
thought in the divine mind, nor is it a makeshift to
meet some emergency in the divine government. Nature is
not interrupted, but advanced ; not defeated, but crowned
with victory. Thus, when a new species is introduced,
the idea embodied in the larger class to which it belongs
finds a fuller and clearer expression in this new creation.
It is the fulfilment of a prophecy. Thus, too, the intent
of nature, defeated for a time by the lawlessness of sin, is
secured by an intervention foreseen and provided for in the
economy of the divine government. Thus the natural
rests on and culminates in the supernatural. Thus the
plan and method of God is one and unchangeable.
The idea of the supernatural as an intervention in the
order of nature, without being out of place in the economy
of the universe, is analogous to the common experience of
life. There is a subordination in the laws under which we
live. Thus the laws of chemical affinity yield to those of
organic life. They are held in suspense so long as the
vital functions endure, and when these cease the animal
falls under the dominion of these lower laws, and decom
position ensues. Again, the physical yields to the psychi
cal, as when the force of the will transcends for a time the
force of gravity. Each of these agencies is supreme until
a higher one takes the case from under its jurisdiction.
The analogy is striking in this fact, namely, that the one
subordinating force is a personal will, spiritual in its nature,
sovereign in its sphere, and moving from its own centre to
its own moral and rational goal. Thus it is not incredible
that the supreme will may subordinate the forces of the
universe to its own spiritual ends, whenever and wherever
these ends are to be reached by such a subordination. Its
8

86 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
single volitions only yield to its superior, dominant choice.
The divine mind, which manifests itself in a series of con
nected volitions, may centre its power and reveal its tran
scendence in some regnant act of the will, whenever and
wherever the foreseen crisis may arise. The immutability
of God even justifies this view, and thus the idea of the
supernatural is altogether a rational conception.
The miraculous differs from the supernatural as a spe
cies differs from the genus to which it belongs. A miracle
is wrought within the sphere of physical phenomena alone,
and always through the instrumentality of man. Thus the
resurrection of Christ was a supernatural event, while the
raising of Lazarus from the dead was a miraculous oc
currence. Thus, again, the inspiration of the apostle was
supernatural, while the woe he pronounced on Elymas was
miraculous. The wonder-worker appeals to the immediate
power of God to make potential the impotency of his own
agency. How far any event is miraculous depends on how far it
is the sole effect of the immediate efficiency of God.
We are thus able to distinguish our conception of a
' miracle from our notion of a prodigy, or from our idea of
the monstrous. Both of these last are anomalies, but
anomalies to be explained by the established laws of na
ture. One of them is a mere departure from the usual
course of things, and the other is a simple defeat of the
usual ends of nature herself. But yet both fall under the
domain of science, and both are wanting in any express or
implied moral purpose whatever, except that one of them
is the penalty for violating some organic law of our being.
Both, too, are independent of the conscious instrumental
ity of man. Now, the miracle can never be explained by

CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT. 87
science, and must always have some spiritual end in view,
more or less fully apprehended by the wonder-worker.
The idea of the supernatural and the miraculous an
swers at once the objection that a miracle is an impossibil
ity. It is affirmed that the course of nature is unalterable,
and so of course allows of no violation or variation. But,
by the term nature, the objector must mean the one scheme
of the universe, — the one great realm of order and har
mony. But this one scheme may cover, as we have seen,
both the immanence and transcendence of God, — both
his ordinary mode of procedure and his extraordinary acts
of efficiency. Both methods of operation are not only
harmonious, but also invariable. The principles which
govern the divine mind in its interventions are as immuta
ble as those which sway that mind in its ordinary agency.
There is no change in the divine plan, no departure from
the divine order ; for a miracle is a part of the original
system of the universe. Besides, a violation of any law
of nature can take place only when a different effect fol
lows from the same cause, and a different end is proposed
under the same circumstances. But, in the case of the su
pernatural, God himself is the immediate efficient cause. •
Even Huxley, as quoted by the Duke of Argyll, declares
that ' ' to deny the possibility of miracles seems to me quite
as unjustifiable as speculative atheism."
It has also been objected that no testimony can sub
stantiate a miracle. Our experience shows, it is said,
that nature is uniform, and that human testimony is more
or less unreliable. We might reply, this narrows ex
perience, on the one hand, to the observation of the
individual ; on the other hand, it reduces all testimony to
the same level. But, waiving this formal and technical

88 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
reply to Hume, we may place our answer on a broader
basis. If the supernatural is not in itself improbable,
then the testimony of honest and competent witnesses
is altogether adequate to prove a miraculous event. Now,
when we remember that God is a personal being, and so
above nature and not of it, and when we reflect that
there may arise occasions, foreseen and provided for in the
divine plan, on which God will interfere to secure the
great moral ends of his government, there can be no
presumption whatever against the occurrence of the
miraculous ; and so the testimony of competent witnesses
is as valid here as in any ordinary court of justice. The
objection is in fact atheistic.
It is further objected that testimony can only prove the
occurrence of the event, but not the miraculousness of it ;
that it can only give us the fact, but not its cause. But
the witnesses do testify, not to some marvellous occurrence
without any known moral purpose, but to a change ex
ceeding the laws of nature, wrought by man's instru
mentality, and that, too, with some worthy moral end in
view. The wonder-worker refers the change thus wrought
to God himself, and claims it as a proof of his divine
commission. Now, that claim is at once admitted by the
common judgment of mankind. The idea of some un
known law of nature, such, for example, as the law of
resurrection, is everywhere repudiated. To suppose that
the early disciples were acquainted with such a law, and
able to avail themselves of it at pleasure, is to attribute to
them a superhuman knowledge, which they never claim,
— is to attribute to them one form of the miraculous at
the expense of another. Thus, though it be true that
testimony can only vouch directly for the fact, yet, when

CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT. 89
the fact has been substantiated, we are able in most cases
to decide at once whether it is natural or miraculous.
A recent writer has insisted that this last question
ought to be left to a board of learned naturalists. But
it is to be remembered that a miracle is not a scientific fact,
— a fact determined by experiment ; but an obvious historic
fact, addressing the senses of the beholders, and falling
within the range of their ordinary powers of observation.
Its value lies in its direct appeal to the common mind.
If it does not in all fairness carry their judgments, and
satisfy them beyond all honest doubt that it does tran
scend the course of nature, then it has no evidential weight
whatever. But, finally, it has been urged that the apologist makes
the miracle a proof of the doctrine, and then the doctrine
a proof of the miracle, and thus reasons in a circle. We
answer, there is no need at all of this fallacious mode of
treating the subject. The miracle, in its evidential aspect,
accredits the messenger, an^. not directly and immediately
his doctrine ; and the doctrine, in just so far as it com
mends itself to the human reason and the human con
science, has an independent authority, a weight of evi
dence all its own. They are both the credentials of the
teacher claiming to be sent by God; just as the seal
of state and the letter of instructions both accredit the
new minister at a foreign court.
It is here to be noted, that one must judge of any given
cycle of miracles as a whole, and also of the entire system
of doctrines with which it is bound up, in its totality, in
order to appreciate the full force of their united evidence.
The central miracles and the central truths, and not those
nearer the circumference, are to engage our chief atten-

90 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
tion. Any other method of treatment would be unphilo-
sophic in its character, as it would be dangerous in its
results. The process, then, of severing the minor Chris
tian miracles from the grand cycle to which they belong,
and the habit of comparing them with the spurious mir
acles of notorious pretenders, with a view of weakening
the legitimacy of the idea of the supernatural, is in the
highest degree disingenuous. Whatever may be said of the
motives of the sceptics, this method of attack is simply
dishonest. If there are cases, as there doubtless may be, whose
miraculous character is doubtful, they are unimpor
tant as vouchers for the divine mission of the religious
teacher. The uncertainty which thus hangs over their
evidential value is only a part, and a very small part too,
of that general uncertainty which belongs to our pro
bation. We conclude, then, that, notwithstanding all these ob
jections, the supernatural, as revealing the mind of God,
and as giving evidence of that revelation, is in itself by
no means incredible.
We have here considered the supernatural as giving the
proof of a revelation, rather than as containing the sub
stance of the revelation itself. This point will, however,
recur in the closing section of this chapter.

SECTION SECOND.
THE FACT OF THE SUPERNATURAL.
If God is a personal being, a free and sovereign will,
then the idea of the supernatural is, as we have seen, alto-

CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT. 91
gether legitimate. We have here to consider whether the
past testifies to any supernatural agency. Now, the an
cient strata of the earth contain a record of a presence
and a power far transcending all the known forces of
nature. There have been numerous beginnings, possi
bly great catastrophes and as great interventions, in past
geological periods. Thus Dana, in his work on Geology,
says, " At the close of long periods and epochs, there
were nearly universal extinctions followed by creations."
Corbigne, a recent French naturalist, in his treatise on
Paleontology, says. "Twenty-seven times have distinct
creations repeopled all the earth with plants and animals,
following each time some geological disturbance which had
totally destroyed living nature." Professor Hall, an emi
nent living geologist, says, "Of the succession and coming
in of new species we have everywhere the most palpable
evidence." Dr. Hitchcock affirms that "We may set it
down as one of the established facts in Paleontology that
the earth has several times changed its inhabitants — as
many as six times at least — so entirely that, with the
exception of the tertiary and alluvial, not a species is
common to two adjoining groups ; and as many as twenty-
five times have the faunas and floras been so distinct as
to prove their origin equally distinct."
It is not important for our purpose whether these great
changes were sudden or gradual. We may even believe
in a creation by evolution, and affirm a supernatural
growth. For the mode in which the creative energy oper
ates is a matter of speculation. All we need in this con
nection to insist on is, that new living organisms came into
being by a creative process transcending all the force of
nature.

92 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
An attempt has been made to avoid the force of the tes
timony of science, by the hypothesis of a simple develop
ment. On this point let us listen to Agassiz. In his
essay on Classification he says, "Nothing furnishes the
slightest argument in favor of the mutability of the spe
cies. On the contrary, every modern investigation has
only gone to confirm the results first obtained by Cuvier,
that 'species are fixed.'" Dr. Hitchcock remarks, "If
the doctrine of transmutation of species be true, we
ought to find ten thousand intermediate formations." Even
Darwin, of the opposite school, admits that all eminent
paleontologists, Cuvier, Owen, Agassiz, Barrande, Falconer,
Forbes, and our greatest geologists, Lyell,* Murchison,
Sedgewick, etc., have unanimously, often vehemently, main
tained the immutability of species. He freely acknowl
edges the difficulties. which press on his own theory. Thus,
he writes, ' ' To the question why we do not find records
of these vast providential periods, I can give no satisfactory
answer." Professor Huxley, in his address before the
British Association, while favoring a transmutation theory,
-forcibly states the objection. We quote at length: "Much
observation must be made, and much evidence accumulated,
before we can see our way to a theory of transmutation of
species. The only valid, though cardinal, objection to
such a theory is the want of evidence that a change of
the kind inferred really takes place, and so little proof of
it is forthcoming, in spite of the attention which has for
many years been anxiously directed to the subject. The
nearly allied species tantalize, by a certain flexibflity of
type, and by their approach to one another, but they seem
rigidly to abstain from the boundary lines, and the varia-
* In the tenth edition of his " Geology," however, he inclines to the theory
Df Darwin.

CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT. 93
tious that take place seem to have no special reference to
an approximation to those lines, but rather to a certain
power of accommodation to external circumstances, necessary
to a preservation of the species. Between the lowest of
the human species and the highest of the monkey, there is
a gap, the width of which will be estimated differently by
different persons, but so wide that there has never yet been
any doubt to which side any specimen should be referred.
Now, if the one has been transmitted from the other, how
comes it that the series has been broken and the connect
ing link ceased to exist ?
" We may wonder not only that the traces of species in
past time are not forthcoming, but that the species are
not now living. Moreover, we do not know that any con
ceivable conditions operating through any number of years
will bring the gorilla or the chimpanzee one whit nearer
to man. Though artificial selection may do much to mod
ify species, it is rather by producing varieties than by
drawing away very far from the original stock. To the
former there seems to be no limit, but the latter is stopped
by the increasing unproductiveness and the unhealthiness
of the individuals, by their susceptibility to disease, and
by the tendency to revert to the original type. So that
increasing departure requires increasing care, and we do
not know that any amount of care and of time would be
sufficient to produce what might fairly be called a new
species. The bringing about of any marked change by
natural selection is shown to be very hard of proof, and
has opposed to its probability the fact that members of a
species that are most unlike have the greatest tendency to
pair off, and are the most fertile, so that we have, in addi
tion to the ready reversion of modified breeds to the origi
nal stock, a law by which the growth or perpetuation of

94 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
peculiarities is presented, and a constancy given to the
character of species. This law is the more striking, from
its contrast with the law which exists in the pairing of
different species, and in the infertility of hybrids. Within.
a given range, dissimilarity promotes fertility ; beyond
that range it is incompatible with it."
The tendency to variations is constantly met by a ten
dency to reversion. Here, too, actions and reactions are
equal. The greater the departure from the normal type,
the greater is the tendency to return. Even the hand of
man cannot prevent the operation of this great law. The
moment he withdraws his care all the variations begin to
disappear. They are never fundamental in their character.
And any chance variation, springing up by virtue of "nat
ural selection," would be sure to be lost in the very
stream of life to which it belongs. It could no more create
a new species than the casual spray thrown on the banks
of the river could originate a new and rival current. The
great lesson of nature is that the law of constancy subordi
nates the law of change.
Tho Duke of Argyll, in an article already quoted from,
remarks : " It is true that this record, the geological rec
ord, is imperfect. But, as Sir R. Murchison has long since
proved, there are parts of that record which are singularly
complete, and in those parts we have the proofs of creation
without any indications of development. The Silurian
rocks, as regards oceanic life, are perfect, and abound in
the forms they have preserved ; yet there are no fish. The
Devonian age followed tranquilly, and without a break ;
and in the Devonian sea suddenly fish appear, — appear in
shoals, and in forms of the highest and most perfect type.
There is no trace of links or transitional forms between

CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT. 95
the great class of mollusca and the great class of fishes.
There is no reason whatever to suppose that any such
forms, if they had existed, can have been destroyed in
deposits, which have preserved in wonderful perfection the
minutest organism."
It is not, then, science which supports the theory of the
transmutation of species, but speculation. The remark of
Owen, the prince of English naturalists, is worthy of note.
" Observation of the effects of any of the above hypothet
ical transmuting influences in changing any known species
has not been recorded. And past experience of the chance
aims of human fancy, unchecked and unguarded by observed
facts, shows how widely they have ever glanced away from
the golden centre of truth."
Besides, this theory of development, even if it should
be verified by the discoveries of M. Gaudry and others,
not only admits, but necessitates, a beginning. Darwin
says, " I should infer that probably all the organic beings
which have ever lived on this earth have descended from
some one primordial form, into which life was first breathed
by the Creator." Now, this extreme hypothesis requires the
very highest exercise of creative power, since the original
primordial form must contain within itself the germinal ele
ments of all the organisms which have filled the earth, or
shall have filled it at the end of its existence. It must gather
in itself the minimum and the maximum of all living ter
restrial forms. Thus this fancy by which the butterfly
and the elephant are both potentially centred in a common
ancestor, while it distances the divine agency, yet renders
that agency all the more intense and wonderful. It is
valuable as showing that speculation cannot eliminate God
from the universe, but is forced to make the super-

96 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
natural the starting-point and the basis of the natural
itself. Now, there has, no doubt, been a general progress, at
least within and along the line of great plans of organic
structure and life. Thus, in the history of the vertebrata,
we have the reign of fishes, of reptiles, of mammals, and,
lastly, of man. There is an advance, but no purely simple
and natural development. One species does not by a nat
ural process grow out of another, and wholly different,
order of animals. The order of advance is not uniform
and continuous by virtue of inherent forces and outward
circumstances alone, but by progressive steps through a
supernatural agency. How far that agency may avail
itself of established and allied agencies of nature we know
not. That God should thus avail himself of his own
ordained forces is but in harmony with the divine econ
omy. God begins where he left off. New and higher
forms of life, following, however, the general type to which
they belong, are continually showing themselves as we
proceed from the oldest strata to our present existing
organisms. We conclude, then, that science is ever lead
ing us into the presence of the supernatural, and ever
demonstrating that it is an essential part of the economy
of the universe. SECTION THIRD.
THE NEED OP THE SUPERNATURAL.
The supernatural is not merely the regalia of Jehovah,
or the simple credential of his messengers, nor is it the ac
companiment of revelation, but the sum and substance of the
revelation itself. The divine message must be both miracu-

CHRISTIAyiTY A SUPERNATURAL FACT. 97
Ions and prophetic : for only in tliis way could God re-enter
the order of nature or the realm of human history. The
one involves the other, and both reveal the transcendence
of his own creation. The Christian theist must insist
not merely on the possibility, or on the utility, of the su
pernatural, but also on its necessity.
Nature does most certainly reveal a religion of her own.
It is the religion of experience grounded on the dictates
of conscience and of reason. It makes man responsible for
his character, his belief, and his conduct. But it does not
satisfy the aspirations which it awakens, nor does it answer
the inquiries which it calls forth. Man, sinless though
he be, cannot find rest in its teachings.
He must enter within the veil, and so come into the
sensible presence of his Maker; or God must lift that veil,
and present himself before the creature; or, what is far
more probable, the second alternative must be a prelude to
the first.
For, if God should meet us only at the close of this life,
we should then need a prophetic assurance of the fact, in
order to make the day of our departure a day of jubilee,
a season of festive joy. But, even in this case, life could
only become great as we left it. We should expect then
not only a voice from out of the silence of the infinite, but
also a flash from out of its impenetrable darkness. God's
great welcome at the goal of life would thus have been
preceded by many a visit of his love and of his power.
These manifestations would transcend nature, and lay the
foundation of infinite hopes.
No system of instruction, based on nature, and springing
from natural gifts, could supersede the necessity of this
intervention. Man could not rise above his condition.
9

98 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
Science could not enter at all the spiritual world, and
philosophy could only conjecture, Avhere man needed, most
of all, assurance and certitude.
There would be need of other and higher elements.
These could come only from a supernatural source. The
communication, too, must be through objective media.
The revelation must be based on new and transcendent
facts, or the inspired prophet must himself incarnate the
truths he proclaims. In some way the revelation must be
more than verbal, else it will not answer the needs of our
nature. For we are made to apprehend spiritual truths by
sensible symbols, and we can only lay hold of absolutely
new truths by means of new symbols.
It is only the deed-acts of God, and his veritable pres
ence made evident to our senses, that can satisfy the de
mands of man even in a state of innocency. Any higher
instruction, based alone on the course of nature and of
life, would lose its realistic character ; it would be but a
dead nominalism, or at most a sublime idealism having
only an artistic value.
The fact of the incarnation need not address immedi
ately the senses of every man. All that is needed here is
that it should enter permanently into human history, and
that credible evidence of that entrance should reach all
men. The life of Christ must incarnate itself in a new
society, — the Christian church. The new revelation
must be historical.
If it be said that man as a sinless being, in a sinless
world, could have no conscious need of a revelation, —
that his life could move on to his goal, " — we reply that this
very^upposition would show his need of special help in
order to lift his soul up to a higher plane of living. For

CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT. 99
such a life might have the sweetness of innocency, but it
could not have the nobility of high and holy endeavor.
A moral law, resting on the will of Jehovah, must rouse
his moral nature, and turn his spontaneous love of the
good into a free, conscious choice of the right.
The degradation of man, radical and universal as it is,
demands a special divine intervention. His moral and
intellectual vision has been obscured, and he fails to learn
the full lesson which even nature was designed to teach.
Besides, he has taken a new attitude and a new position.
He is now a sinner, as well as a creature of God. He
finds himself entangled in new difficulties, and borne along
to a dread goal by an irresistible current. He can find no
escape. Nature has thrown no light on his prospects.
If she teaches anything, it is utter and blank despair.
Man must have divine help. In his fallen condition he
needs new truths, new springs of action, and a new divine
life. All these can be embodied only in a supernatural
revelation. The history of all the great nations of the world testifies
to the insufficiency of the light of nature. Races have
followed their tendencies. Each has had its peculiar civ
ilization, and has worked at the moral problems of life,
and each has signally failed in practically solving them.
They have given us stray truths, but embedded in great
superstitions. None of them have found out any proper
remedy for human ills. Their loftiest utterances lack the
air of reality and the tone of authority.
The most gifted souls of the Old World do not stand out
to us as discoverers, — hardly as reformers. Without the
power to adjust the relations of man to his Maker, with
out certainty, and often without conviction in their teach-

100 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
ings, and without any grand motives to offer, or any now
life to impart, what could they do for a lost humanity ?
Tho only, solitary exception among tho nations of the
earth has been the Jows. They did not work out tho re
ligion in and by which they lived. Wo see very clearly
that the natural tendency of tho Jewish mind was to
forms of idolatry kindred to those hold by their neighbors.
Their religious ideas and institutions had been given thorn
from without and from above. They were grounded on
revelation. It is not safe to affirm a priori how God would reveal
himself. Reason must follow, and not precede, revelation.
Taking this rule for our guidance, we arc able to see a
wisdom in God's adapting his revelations to different de
grees of natural culture. There was tho need of just that
form of the supernatural which is best suited to tho com
prehension of tho age to which it is addressed. A rude
and sensuous pcoplo must be approached in symbols, natu
ral or supernatural, which they can comprehend.
Our general view of tho need of tho supernatural is
rejected by tho deist, the naturalist, the rationalist, the
pantheist, and tho positivist. Tho attitude of thoso sceptics
towards Christianity is essentially tho same. But their
mode of treating revealed religion is different, and demands
a brief notice.
Tho deist recognizes God both as separate and as sep
arated from the world. God docs not concern himself with
the race either in a natural or supernatural manner.
Tho course of nature and of provideuco moves on without
his presence or agency. Now, this system is shallow in
the extreme, for a universe absolutely dependent on God
for its origin must be equally dependent on him for its

CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT. 101
continuance. In fact, this mode of thinking has become
quite obsolete in the higher schools of doubt.
The naturalist advances a step further, and gives us a
God enclosed in the mechanism of hi3 own law, and mani
fest alone in and by the agencies and forces of nature and
of life. With him the truths gathered by our common
experiences and by our ordinary inductions are jhe sole
truths of religion. Man need3 no more. But the general
consciousness of the race protests against any such theory,
and that protest is its condemnation. For it has far more
authority before the bar of human reason, than the mere
speculation of any human thinker whatever.
The rationalist takes a different standpoint. He makes
the human reason the supreme judge and source of all the
higher truths of religion and of morality. Doubtless rea
son has its rights, but the case is beyond it3 jurisdiction.
It can never accept what i.s repugnant to its clear and
settled and uniform intuitions. But the supernatural is
never a simple abstract proposition, but a transcendent fact
in nature or in life, — a deed-act of God. Tire reason
cannot l>y its own light pronounce on the credibility and
worth of the miraculous facts of Christianity. It can ex
clude only what no one admits. Their credibility must
rest essentially on testimony. The interpretation of these
facts may give us doctrines which loom up above our rea
son. Now, in such cases, the court must declare itself in
competent to pronounce a decision. Any other principle
would exclude the grandest verities from our faith, and
justify the old heathen postulate that man was the measure
of the universe.
It does, as we have before remarked, belong to the hu
man reason to follow revelation, and not precede and pre-
9*

102 BVinKNCKS OF CHRISTIANITY.
determine. It is for hor oithor to solve the probloms of
revelation, or to submit to its mysteries.
The pantheist gives the theory on which both tho nat
uralist and tho rationalist would seek to justify them
selves. It identifies God with I ho growing consoiousnosa
of humanity.
But if our solfhood is an independent verity, it is not
one and tho same with tho selfhood of tiod. If wo aro
porsons distinct and separate, then God must bo froo and
personal also. At least his identity with tho soul is pre
cluded. The senso of personal sovereignly in the Saxon
mind is strongly expressed in the use of tho capital letter
7, when it stands alone, or of that single letter crowned,
whenever it stands among its fellows. It is also to bo
noted that our deepest and most abiding moral convictions,
as well as our loftiest aspirations, aro at war with this
theory; for with it perishes the validity of all our
ideas of sin and of guilt. These beoonio our idlo and su
perstitious fears. In fact, all tho notions wo havo of right
and wrong, of virtuo and vice, aro purely subjective with
out any basis in the eternal order of Providence. Our
longings for a personal communion with God aro only tho
morbid cravings of our diseased souls. All tho truth
there is in tho pantheistic thoory is gathered up in tho
Christian idea of absolute dependence on God.
Tho positivist closos the development of tho anti-su-
pernaturalistic tendency. His position is negative. llo
simply affirms that the supernatural is unknown and un
knowable. IIo doclaros that wo havo to do solely witli
the phenomenal, and that all Spiritual and transcendental
causes are the purest fancies in the world. Now it does
Beom to be a broad and patent fact, that we havo intellectual

CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT. 103
instincts which are not at all met and satisfied by the bare
study of phenomena. It is natural for man to look beyond
what is presented merely to the senses, aided or unaided by
science. His craving after the unknown does not belong
o O
to the immaturity of youth, nor is it due to an ignorant
and unbalanced mind. It is altogether natural and legiti
mate. This positivism itself is ever assuming what it ig
nores. It has on its own principles no right to accept, as
an established doctrine of science, the law of cause and
effect, or a dogma of the immutability of nature. It ought
in all consistency to admit the facts of life and of history,
which are fairly attested by the senses, whether they be
natural or supernatural.
It may be true that we have first a theological age, and
then a metaphysical period, and lastly a scientific epoch.
But this order only shows that the spiritual instincts, being
most central, are first awakened ; and that then the ra
tional habits of the mind are called forth, and that last of
all the more patient and laborious methods of scientific
inquiry come into play. But in this development the
spiritual and rational elements of our nature are never
even partially outgrown except at the expense of our hu
manity. They only take a truer and wider sweep along
the opening paths of science itself. A glance at the dis
coveries of Goethe and Oken is a refutation of the idea
that the scientific spirit has left behind the sphere of met
aphysics ; and the position of theological studies shows
what rich contributions science has already made to her
domain. We might as well affirm that, as art precedes
science in the historical development, therefore it is
to be discarded in the progress of science itself. The
truth is, whatever rests on the native instincts and intui-

104 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
tions of humanity, whether it belongs to the sphere of
aesthetics, or of religion, or of philosophy, must first ap
pear in the progress of society, ere science can claim a
large share of human attention. Any other view is con
trary to reason and to history.
Comte's latest speculations only show how impossible
it is to set aside the claims of religion. He would ignore
the supernatural ; but he must have something to worship,
and so he idealizes humanity, and bows down to the idol
of his own fancy. But it is humanity realized, — human
ity assumed, — the God-man who alone can answer the
cry of the race.
The secularism which prevails in England is only pos
itivism applied to the practical duties of life. If it could
be carried out, we should have at best a Chinese civiliza
tion, void of great hopes or fears or aspirations, and inca
pable of great sacrifices, and sure to end in the grossest
materialism. We may say, then, in conclusion, that the longings of
man pronounced in so many ways and through so long pe
riods, the futility of his efforts to extricate himself from
his condition, and his inherent wants, both as a creature
and as a sinner, all demonstrate the need of the supernat
ural, and so the necessity of a revelation.

SECTION FOURTH.
THE SUPERNATURAL IN CHRISTIANITY.
Natural religion has its support in the common facts of
nature and of life. Revealed religion is grounded on super
natural facts and verities. Thus, as we have shown in the

CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT. 105
last section, all revelation is, and must be, miraculous.
The form which this supernatural element will take on de
pends on the accidents of time, place, and occasion ; while
the supernatural itself is the essential characteristic of all
revelation, — its essence, as well as its evidence. Christi
anity is gathered and centred in the incarnation of the
Son of God. Here are found all its germinal principles
as a life, a doctrine, an ethical law, a kingdom, a fulfil
ment, and a world power. With the reality of this as
sumption of our humanity (an assumption which, since
God is a spiritual being, and not subject to physical meas
urements, is by no means incredible), — with the truth of
this assumption, Christianity stands or falls.
Jesus himself is the miracle of the ages. He enters
permanently into the life of humanity. His presence in
the world is the broadest and the firmest fact in all human
history. The great Messianic period to which we belong
opened with his visible presence — the Christ of the past ;
it has advanced, and is now advancing, underlies invisible
guidance — the Christ of the present; and it is to culminate
with his appearance in glory — the Christ of the future.
He is a unique and complete cycle of the supernat
ural. Take away any one of the great epochs in this
movement, and the entire movement itself loses its inner
harmony, and can have no place in the moral order of the
universe. We have to do, in this chapter, not with the Christ of
heaven, or with the Christ of the church, but with the
Christ of history. Still it is true that they are one and
the same; for he is, as we have already implied, the
central and the permanent miracle in the life of hu
manity.

106 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
All the great events in his earthly career are supernat
ural, — the conception, the resurrection, and the ascension.
No one of them can be given up without impairing the
completeness of that wonderful, unique life. They mutu
ally support each other. Thus we have a supernatural
Christ, or no Christ at all. The common wonders Jesus
wrought are but the effulgence of his glory, • — sparks of
light elicited by his contact with suffering humanity. The
divine power and love flashed forth whenever and wherever
human helplessness or human misery appealed to the
sympathy of the one great Wonder-worker. He could not
but interpose, when disease or death, or any form of human
want or woe, tacitly or expressly claimed his intervention.
In all this he was but acting according to the law of his
nature and the purpose of his mission. Thus every mir
acle was a triumph over the kingdom of evil, from the
first and humblest one at Cana, to the crowning one at the
resurrection. The redemptive character which stamps all these acts of
Jesus, so natural to him, but so supernatural to us, will
appear from the following classification. They may be
grouped under the following heads : —
(1.) His power over the conditions of time and space;
e. g., the cure of the nobleman's absent son.
(2.) His dominion over nature.
(a.) Over the properties of nature ; e. g., turning water
into wine. Here was a qualitative change. The in
crease of the loaves and fishes was a quantitative
change. (b.) Over the laws of nature; e. g., the walking on the
waters of Galilee, and the stilling of the storm.
(3.) His dominion over physical evil ; e.g., supernat-

CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT. 107
ural cures, and the instances of the resurrection of the
dead. (4.) His dominion over psychical evil; e.g., the casting
out of devils.
(5.) His dominion over his own person, over his own
destiny, absolute and complete, in which he shapes that
destiny in the interests of redemption ; e. g., his resurrec
tion and ascension.
The supernatural in Christ, and so in Christianity, shows
itself in his perfect moral character, as well as in his indi
vidual acts. He claims to be sinless, and his followers ad
mit that claim, and rest their hopes upon it. Now, in this
unique self-assertion he cannot be deceived ; for, first, he
had a clear and exalted view of the moral law, the clearest
and most exalted ever given to mortal. In fact, he was
pre-eminently a moral and religious Teacher. All this
tends very strongly to preclude any grave self-deception.
In the second place, he was accustomed to look at the
hidden and inward springs of action. Thus his own con
sciousness could not well have escaped the searching scru
tiny of his own introspection. This, too, would stand in the
way of any self-imposition. In the third place, it was his
wont to give himself up to private prayer and to self-reflec
tion. This, also, would have opened to himself his own
spiritual condition. In the fourth place, he was placed in
the midst of special and varied trials, in which the latent
evils of his own heart — if there were any — would have
been certain to show themselves, at least to himself, if not
to the world. It was this temptation which converted his
sinlessness into positive holiness. The very struggle to
keep the moral law, and to discharge faithfully the high
trust committed to him, would have stirred the fountain of

108 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
evil in his nature, had any such fountain existed. The
testimony of Judas, as well as that of Pilate and of the
apostles, and indeed of men outside of, as well as within,
the church, shows the general impression made by the
character of Jesus on his contemporaries. That impres
sion has been deepened with every succeeding age. Be
sides, does the theory of self-deception accord with the lofti
ness of his mission ; does it harmonize with the grounding
of a church ? Can we construct history on any such hy
pothesis ? Should we not be giving up the supra-natural
for the contra-natural ?
Shall we say, then, that Jesus was a deceiver? Here
we must make our choice between two opposite views.
We must believe that he was either a miracle of goodness,
or a marvel of wickedness ; for, if he was a hypocrite,
his hypocrisy was of the most subtle and insinuating char
acter possible, bearing all the marks and having all the
potency of truth itself. It was, too, a deception in the
highest and holiest sphere of one's life. It was, then, a
false coin, but with all the appearance and weight, and
even value, of the genuine one, and that, too, after having
been used for many centuries, and after having endured
not only the popular tests, but the more scientific ones, by
which the true is distinguished from the false.
On this supposition, what refinement of wickedness there
must have been in the character of Jesus ! He assumed to
be the perfect pattern of holiness, and was received as such
by those who knew him best. He even claimed to dwell
in the bosom of God, and to be one with him in thought
and action ; and yet he was, on this theory, a deceiver.
Besides this, blasphemy clothes itself in the garb of hu
mility. He presents himself, notwithstanding this bound-

CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT. 109
less self-assertion, as the very model of humility, and is en
abled to take on all its moral power and all its sweet, at
tractive beauty. What, then, must we say, if Jesus is not
the Christ of God? Must we not declare him to be the one
great Antichrist of history ? But there is no difficulty
in accepting the other alternative, that Jesus was the one
great transcendent miracle of goodness.
This conclusion accords with the facts in the case. Let
us note some of them in the light of the severest test which
can be applied to any hypothesis, namely, that it not only
shall account for the facts of the case, but that its falsity
in view of those facts shall be inconceivable.
In the first place, we have the origin and development
of the church grounded on a personal relation to its
Founder, — a society struggling to be holy and hoping to
be sanctified, — a kingdom, however divided in doctrine, or
ceremonial, or government, yet agreeing in a personal at
tachment to Jesus as the sinless Messiah, and accepting
his claims not only as a mystery, but as a moral neces
sity. Such was the simple fact in the case. How can it
be accounted for, except on the theory that Jesus is all
that he proclaims himself to be, — the supernatural ground
and source of divine life ?
In the second place, we have a civilization which he has
created, and which thus rightly bears his name, — a civil
ization in which the sentiments of religion and of human
ity are blended together and made unceasingly dominant.
Now, such a civilization necessitates for its starting-point
and source just such a person and character as Jesus pro
claimed himself to be. These two facts would be the
enigma of Providence, — unexplained and inexplicable, —
if Jesus was not the holy Helper and Healer of humanity.
10

110 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
This enigma is still further heightened, when we consider
the calmness and the depth of earnestness with which
Jesus avows his belief in his own freedom from sin. For
this interior calmness, and this freshness and strength of
conviction, ever well up from a profoundly truthful na
ture. The conviction of his own purity had grown with
his consciousness, for it was rooted in his conviction that he
was one with his Father. A wicked man cannot so assert
himself as to become, on account of that very self-assertion,
the great moral attracting and governing power of the cen
turies. Now, there is no middle ground, as Renan imagines.
If Jesus is not absolutely sinless, he is not only sinful,
but falls below the level of our common humanity. If he
was tainted by the least stain of enthusiasm or of hypoc
risy, then that stain is fatal to his character as the ideal
of truth and goodness. Let us look at the case. He
claimed to stand apart from, and above, all others in his
moral character, solitary and alone, and yet he made him
self the sinless among the sinful, the model of humility.
He gave to others the prayer for forgiveness, but he tacitly
assumed that he needed none for himself. Others say
"Our Father," for they belong to the community of sin
ners, while it is for him, standing alone and apart in his
purity, to say "My Father." He everywhere taught or
implied that his sinlessness had come from his oneness
with God, — a oneness which antedated the creation of the
world. He offered forgiveness to others ; he sought none
for himself. He presented himself as the Saviour for a
lost world, while he himself needed no exterior help.
Thus he presented himself as the Representative of God,
the Founder of his kingdom, the Teacher of mankind, their

CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT. Ill
perfect Exemplar, their only Redeemer, and their final
Judge. Yet, with all these unique and transcendent
claims, he added still another, namely, that of personal
humility, and yet he did not destroy the matchless symme
try of his character.
If now, by reason of any defect, however slight, he falls
from the moral elevation he has assumed, — the loftiest
position possible, — if he falls, we affirm, from that alti
tude, he falls with a tremendous momentum. The slight
est inclination of the well-balanced rock on the mountain-
top hurls the entire mass down to the base, and buries it
with an awfully crushing force beneath the soil. The
very height from which Jesus would thus fall but in
creases the final velocity, and our Master sinks away for
ever from our sight ; for he falls burdened with the guilt
of blasphemous assumption, or stained with the follies of a
moral insanity. The condemnation of the high priest is
just, and the cry about the cross, " Crucify him ! " accords
with the highest law of his own people. All his claims to
stand on a plane essentially above that occupied by the
race now rise up to condemn him, and the higher the
claims the greater the condemnation. His religion be
comes a superstition, and his plan to save the world the
delusion of a fanatic, or the scheme of an apostate.
It would not answer to resort at random to both of these
theories, and to make the character of Jesus a blending
of fraud and of folly. Its singular moral unity, notwith
standing its great proportions, its wonderful beauty, and its
amazing power in the world, are fatal to a shift so childish
and so desperate.
Thus, then, we return to the great alternative. Jesus
was super-angelic or super-satanic in his character ; mar-

112 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
vellous beyond expression in goodness, or monstrous be
yond all conception in wickedness. Browning has well
expressed it : —

" If Christ, as thou affirmest, be of man,
Mere man, — the first and best, but nothing more, —
Aceount him for reward of what he was,
Now and forever wretohedest of all;
Call Christ then the illimitable God,
Or lost."

His calling grew out of his character, for vocation and
character ever go together. His mission as Revealer and
Mediator, as the Head of the race and the Founder of a
new humanity, as our great Helper here and as our great
Stay and Hope hereafter, are supernatural features belong
ing to his person and his religion. They are only stated
here, but will be further noticed or involved in the fol
lowing chapters.
It may be asked how, in consistency with this view, shall
we account for his reception by Jew and Gentile ? We
answer, that reception was in perfect accord with their re
spective characters. The pious Hebrew gladly embraced
him as the promised Messiah, while the mass of irreligious
countrymen neglected his claims or rejected him with
scorn. The Roman historians looked upon everything
which seemed to be of a Jewish origin with unmitigated
contempt. They either would not notice Christ and the
new religion at all, or else they treated it as a superstition,
both anti-social in its nature and revolutionary in its ten
dencies. (See the last chapter.) It is worthy of note
that neither in the apostolic period nor in the present cen
tury is Christianity to be forced upon the soul, nor are its

CHRISTIANITY A SUPERNATURAL FACT.

113

evidences to hold the intellect or sway the will in spite
of the dominant alien dispositions of the heart.
We mav remark, before closing this section, that the mir-
acles wrought by the apostles in the name of Jesus con
stitute a part of the supernatural in Christianity. They
were on the one hand vouchers for their divine authority,
and on the other hand flashes of divine energy and love,
— splendors reflected from the central orb of life and truth.
Did the coming of such a personage as Jesus, with such
a purpose, disturb the moral order of the world ? Was it
not in fact a restorative of that order ? Has not his pres
ence in human history tended to vindicate the beauty and
the worth of virtue ? Have not the higher harmonies of
his own person mastered, and are they not destined to
master still more, the disharmonies of our natural life ?
Do we not see that here, as in other periods of the world's
history, the supernatural supplements and keeps in place
the natural, and is in fact the key-note of the universe ?
Christianity is not. then, a speculation, or a system of
opinions, or a mere form of worship with its rites : for then
it might have been the creation of some individual thinker,
and so the natural product of human reason. It is. as we
have seen, a fact at once historical and supernatural. He
that does not receive it because of its real or imaginary
difficulties must take care that he does not embrace greater
difficulties in rejecting it. The sceptic must declare the
evidences null and void ; he must admit that man's religious
nature remains unmet and unsatisfied ; he must take the
church without an adequate founder, and the Scriptures
without an adequate origin , he must accept a civilization
for which he can give no reasonable account whatever; he
must reject all Divine Providence, for without Christ
10*

114

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

there is no key to interpret it. He must, in short, believe
in a history that has no bond of union, and betake himself
to natural religion, powerless though it has ever been
shown to be, or he must, in a reasonless despair, turn
atheist.

CHAPTEE III.
CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LIFE.
SECTION FIRST.
THE CHARACTER OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
Religion, as an inward principle, is the fellowship of
the Creator with the creature. This fellowship is, how
ever, mutual. God enters into the life of the soul, and
the soul receives into itself the life of God. The one
involves the other, for the movement is vital and not
mechanical. This intercommunion is the religion of all
moral and rational intelligences, angelic or human, sinless
or redeemed.
Christianity, as a principle of life, is the re-entrance
of God into humanity. It is thus the reunion of man
with his Maker. It is thus specific in its inward char
acter, as well as in its outward expression ; for it im
plies an estrangement, and presupposes a mediation.
Thus Christianity is more than the free, original aspira
tion of an unfallen nature. It is the renewal of the
friendship between the soul and its God. This renewal is
secured by the entrance and permanent dwelling of the
Son of God in the life of humanity.
The incarnation is, as we have already seen, the essen
tial objective fact of Christianity, while the presence of
God in the individual soul is its fontal subjective principle.
115

116 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
The historical Christ is not lost to the race, but be
comes the Christ of humanity, and pre-eminently of the
church. This spiritual life has its seat in the affections ; for in
religion these are central ; it is life alone which can beget
life. These are awakened by a conscious personal and
friendly relation between ourselves and our God. The
divine life is in reality much more an impartation than an
acquisition. Its earliest manifestations are, and must be,
since man is a fallen creature, repentance and faith.
The one is the negative side of the new life, since it is
an abandonment of self as an independent centre of au
thority, a forsaking of the world as an independent source
of happiness. It is this which finds a place for the con
science, which precludes sentimentalism, and which gives
a realistic character to all one's rising religious convic
tions and persuasions.
The other is the positive side of the new life, since it is
a living appropriation of the realities of the eternal world.
But its highest expression is pure love; for love is the
very soul of faith. Christianity is primarily a supreme
affection. As the Apostle John affirmed, " He that dwell-
eth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." It is
not love for the ritual, which makes one a formalist ; nor
merely for a creed, which makes one a bigot ; nor simply
for a sect, which makes one a partisan ; nor even for an
idea of God, which can only make a sentimentalist or a
mystic. But it is love to a holy, a gracious, and a sover
eign God, which, in the language of Peter, makes one a
partaker of the divine nature. This regnant temper of
the soul penetrates all human capabilities and all human
relations, and pervades all human activities. While its

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LIFE. 117
most direct and exclusive expression is found in the formal
act of worship, either of prayer or of praise, it also shows
itself in fellowship with the divine wherever found. Thus,
a love for one's self, as the image of God, is made legitimate,
as well as the love for one's fellow-creatures, who are cre
ated in the same likeness. Thus, too, this bond of union
strengthens as the creature grows in resemblance to his
Maker. Souls which bear the most of the divine image
awaken our love in the highest degree : while the most
degraded, by the very fact that they still carry the natural
image of God, and so by the possibilities which they still
bear in themselves, awaken our deepest compassion and
sympathy. Even the brutes, as reflections of divine intel
ligence, become the objects of kindness, and nature herself
is looked upon with new and fresh interest, as revealing
the thought and will of God. Everything is looked at in
the light of its relation to God, or in its bearing on the
eternal world. Thus we are brought into contact and har
mony with the humblest of God's creatures, and with the
lowliest of his works, as well as raised up to a full and
free communion with the Author of them all. While the
divine life flows along in as many different channels as
there are marked individualities, it is narrowed and colored
by the constitutional bias, as well as by the education and
peculiar surroundings, of each soul. But yet it has in all
men certain general characteristics more or less fully
developed. We shall find in the church of all ages and
of all nations the common graces of humility, of patience,
of forgiveness, of fortitude, of benevolence, of spiritual
joy, and of heroic self-sacrifice.
This divine life carries with it the assurance of its own
continuance. The soul living on the truths of the spirit-

118 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
ual world cannot but be consoious of its own destiny.
Ilopo is thus an abiding, ossontial ehnnent in the Christian
consoiousnoss. Tho hopo thus acquired on earth has in its
very nature an otornal life. Dissatisfied by reason of his
failures to roach his own ideal, and trembling amid tho
uncertainties of tho prosent, tho Christian yot looks with
suro confidence to tho grand issuos which await his on-
tranco on another life.
But tho divino lifts rovoals itself in right knowledge, as
woll as in right affoctions. In fact, tho two are insepara
ble An essential delect in tho ono involves a radical
want in tho other. Thus suporstition is founded on a
falso knowledge, and is ovor attondod witli inordinate or
malignant affections, from which an impuro enthusiasm or
a fierce fanaticism is suro to spring. Thus low views of
religious truth touch tho soul only on its cinaunferonco,
and nover pierce to its inmost centre, and so fail to awaken
tho spirit of devotion and of self-consecration. This
knowlodgo is soniothing deeper than opinion, sinoo it is tho
richost possession and treasure the soul can havo. It is
not speculative in its character, but a matter of experi
ence ; a knowlodgo tostod, not by analysis or by clearness
of mental conception, but by actual trial. In tho 0110 case
thcro is a sottlod conviction of the truth, and in tho other
only an idlo play of tho reason, or a vain flight of human
fancy. This knowledge is not properly seionlilie in its
character, for it does not require for its attainment tho
culturo and discipline of tho schools. It nood not embody
itself in tho formulas of a theological Hystein. These
formulas aro, however, valuable in marking tho progress of
tho scienco of theology, and in fixing for tho ago the os-
sential verities of religion, and even in advancing the

CnniSTlANITY A DIVINE LIFE. 119
growth of many souls ; but they are not at all essential to
spiritual life. This whole subject will open itself more
fully when we come to consider Christianity as a divine
doctrine. Christianity, as a life, must culminate in right actioM.
This is the flower and the fruit of holy living. Our re
ligion is not a vague and aimless emotion. It is more
than an act of devotion. It does not find full expression
and embodiment even in any form of worship, nor does it
exhaust its power and its beauty in the gorgeous ceremo
nial of tho consecrated temple. Christian thought and
Christian feeling must and will incarnate themselves in
Christian speech and Christian deeds. Divine love is the
generative force and the regulative principle in Christian
character and conduct ; for it is the most pure and the
most evangelic of all internal forces. There may be
springs of action more violent than this, as the many forms
of hate ; or more exhausting, as ambition and avarice ; but
this principle of life is steady and constant, exciting no
direct antagonism and suffering no direct defeats. From
this one spring of life we have the law of submission and
the law of consecration, — all that is sweet or saintly in
suffering, and all that is heroic in achievement. Thus,
tho entire man is moulded after the new and higher type
given by the great Exemplar. Were this not the case, the
religion of Jesus would be a splendid failure. We shall
need to recur to this aspect of Christianity when we
come to consider it as a code of morals — as a divine law.

120 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

SECTION SECOND.
ITS DIVINE TYPE.
This new life bears the stamp of a divine origin. It
is not the outgrowth of a late culture, the blossom and
fragrance of man's latest and best thought, the flowering
out of our common humanity. It is in no sense the
natural fruit of our present civilization. This view would
be an anachronism in history, and a reversal of the re
lations of cause and effect. For the apostles, inferior
though they be in learning, or even in genius, to the fore
most men of the world, yet in purity and in depth of re
ligious life are certainly their equals.
But the life introduced by Christ eighteen centuries ago
is the same as that which he now imparts, and is as
truly above the average life of the present day in moral
beauty and power, as it was above that which marked the
age of the Csesars.
Each succeeding century only opens new channels and
new spheres for the Christian activities, and brings out
into bolder relief some one or more of its principles, and
illustrates in new and fresh ways some of its far-reaching
applications. But yet the culture of no age, in itself con
sidered, can generate this new divine life.
Let us, then, briefly notice the highest forms and styles
of religious life which the soul alone, with all its natural
aids, can call into existence. They all spring from the
same religious instincts and wants of our nature. Man
must worship, and worship his ideal. This religious ten
dency is variously colored and directed by the special

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LIFE. 121
culture of the individual, and by the general culture of
the age in which he lives.
It is shaped in some by the idea of beauty, and by the
desire of personal merit. In this case, religion becomes a
rule of conduct, rather than an inward spring of feeling,
thought, and action. It is narrow and superficial in its
range, and is always, in the case of any conflict, overborne
by human interest and human passion. In strong natures
it leads to asceticism, and in weak souls it degenerates
into formalism. In all, it is cold, and dry, and barren,
and, in short, utterly selfish.
Again, it may be united with aesthetic culture, and then
it takes on a pure and lofty sentimentalism, but without
any power to lighten the sorrows of the soul, or to secure
any self-sacrifice or any noble achievement. It becomes a
mere religious idealism. Men play with the ideas of God
and Christ, and of man, and of human virtue and vice, as
a child plays with its dolls. The grand verities of religion
float in their imaginations, refine their spiritual tastes,
and excite their wonderment, but do not subdue their will,
or engage the conscience, or bind the soul to the law of
practical godliness.
Again, this instinctive religious feeling may be colored
by a contemplative turn of mind. It then assumes the
form of mysticism, and leads to the deification of self.
There is often in the mystic an earnestness and energy of
feeling, which is as deluding as it is imposing; for it is a
species of self-righteousness so subtle as to hide itself from
one's consciousness. In all unchristian systems this prin
ciple generates a self-sufficiency and self-complacency ab
solutely appalling. Mysticism, pure and simple, untrans-
11

122 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
formed by the Christian spirit or the Christian truth, is
the very essence of heathenism.
We may notice another type of natural religious life.
In some cases the human sympathies almost absorb the re
ligious instincts of our being. Here God and man are
made to change places, so that while these religionists are
philanthropic in their creed, they are misanthropic in
their temper. This is inevitable ; for a break with God
always involves a break with man. All genuine and pro
found sympathy with the race must rest on an apprecia
tion of the relations which it holds to God, and must
spring from a cordial fellowship with the divine adminis
tration. Such a religion, if it deserves the name, is thin
and repulsive in the extreme.
These forms of religion are all rooted in self, as much
so as when they passed under the old name of " Pagan,"
or were dignified with the epithet of Stoic and Platonic
philosophy. They are all of human origin and growth.
This is a necessity. The soul cannot go out of or beyond
itself. It cannot rise above its own level, nor can it create
truth, or generate any new spiritual force. No education
or appliances can enable the human mind and heart to
produce any real divine life. The several religious mani
festations noticed above may be variously blended, but in
every case they will always lack that spiritual regenerative
element which belongs alone to the Christian faith. The
Christian life, then, must exist by virtue of a power out of
and above ourselves, by the presence of an indwelling Christ.
It is true the evidence of such a life in its inmost move
ments can be known only to its possessor. He alone has
experienced the radical change which it involves. The
truth of Christianity rests, with him, not on external evi-

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LIFE. 123
dence, or any conscious logical process, but on a simple
experience of its life-giving power. But a man's charac
ter reveals itself to others, and the testimony of good men
as to their own life experience is not without its weight.
This experimental proof, then, is open to any community
among whom Christianity has found a lodgement.
It is true men are liable to be deceived in reading their
own consciousness, and in judging of the changes wrought
in their own characters. But this habit cannot invalidate
the concurring testimony of many thousands, extending as
it does through many centuries. Besides, the hypocrites
and fanatics are sure in the course of time to disclose the
hollowness of their faith ; and when men during a long
period, under many and varied trials, show their sincerity
and sobriety, we cannot place them under either of these
classes, but must admit the testimony of both their charac
ters and their words.
It is often objected that we see everywhere great de
fects in the actual Christian life. Such is undoubtedly
the fact. God does not treat men as automatons, or destroy
their distinctive individualities, or the freedom of their
wills. The wonder is that Christianity is able to do as
well as it does with, the material it has to work on, with
natures so alienated from the life of God. The divine
plan seems to be to give scope in this world for the disci
pline of virtue, and for the evolving and training of the
whole man for a higher and broader life in heaven. We
have its beginning here amid inward fluctuations and
outward conflicts, and its final consummation hereafter.
This growth amid dangers and struggles is just what
Christianity anticipates and provides for.
Besides, one single example of genuine and noble Chris-

124 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
tian life would be enough for our purpose. Just as a soli
tary act of creative power would reveal a personal God,
so a solitary instance of a consecrated human life would
reveal the presence of a supernatural agency. We might
refer to the Apostle Paul, and ask any one to read his life
and study his history, and then explain that life and that
history on any worldly or natural principle if he can.
We might refer to the Christian martyr Stephen, or to any
other one of the thousands who have followed in his foot
steps, and ask one to account for the triumphant death they
died, on any other supposition than that Christianity is
true. A man may die bravely when pride or necessity
forces him to do so, or when the sentiment of duty or the
feeling of patriotism urges him to make the sacrifice. He
may even throw away his life when the tide of passion or
fanaticism sweeps away both his fears and his reason. All
this is quite possible and quite natural. But when a man
dies calmly and peacefully, with a clear and full apprehen
sion of the change of worlds he is to make, and with a
spirit of forgiveness to his enemies, and with a heart rec
onciled to God, then he does in that closing scene of his
life witness to the truth of that religion he has professed.
Such is the character of a Christian martyr. May we not
conclude, then, that Christianity is a divine life, and vindi
cates its claim to be of divine origin ?

CHAPTEK IV.
CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE DOCTRINE.
SECTION FIBST.
THE IDEA OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
A Christian doctrine is a fact of the Christian revela
tion, in its moral value and significance. It is the inter
pretation of some aspect of the person of Christ, or of his
mission and work in the sphere both of nature and of
spirit. It is a deed-act of God, in its religious worth and
bearing and consequences ; something done by him in the
economy of redemption, or wrought by him in the con
sciousness of the individual. All such divine movements
are the agencies of Christ, for he is the Logos — the Re
vealer — everywhere and always.
A doctrine is not a mere opinion, since this lacks all
authority. It is not a speculation, for this is purely sub
jective in its character, and is the property of the phi
losopher, and not of the church. It is more, even, than a
theological statement, since this is the special formula of
the schools, — a dogma dressed in the fashion of the age
which gave it birth. This transient element marks the
period to which it belongs. A Christian doctrine, then, is
a Christian truth, realistic in its character, permanent and
universal in its nature, and authoritative in its claims for
recognition. 11* 125

126 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
The facts, then, of the Christian revelation, which consti
tute the substance of its doctrines, must have a divinely
authorized interpretation. Christ must explain himself, or
must appoint others to speak in his behalf. If he would
save his religion from human alloy, and transmit it in its
essential purity to after ages, and thus make it the final
possession of humanity, he must reveal himself in an es
pecial manner to his chosen disciples. And yet he cannot
do this till he has finished his earthly career, and has spir
itually reappeared in the life of his people.
This was a part of his plan for the recovery of the race.
He promised to be to his apostles, after his death, more
than he was before, — to make his spiritual presence a
source of supernatural light. The apostles were thus to
become the authoritative expounders of his religion. In
harmony with his great promise to guide them into all
truth, we have the initial step and fontal beginning of their
inspiration on the day of Pentecost. Then was touched
the very fountain of their thinking and feeling, and a di
vine impress given to their oral teaching and their writing.
In agreement with both the promise and the fulfilment, we
have their claims to be the chief guides of the race in the
sphere of morals and religion. Now their preaching was
for their day, but their writings for all the centuries.
This simple statement of the case commends itself to the
Christian consciousness. It is consistent throughout ; the
promise, the fact, and the claim, perfectly accord. The
New Testament contains nothing inconsistent with this
general view. Inspiration has to do solely with religion.
If, however, any one should affirm that the sacred records
contain anything which in the mind of the writer had no
bearing on any religious dootrine, then it is for him to

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE DOCTRINE. 127
make out his case. The presumption is, that the Bible is
throughout a religious book.
The student of early Christian history is struck by the
careful reserve in the Gospels, — a reserve all the more
remarkable from the profound interest of the historians.
They seem to be restrained by a higher spirit than their
own. And when he comes to the Epistles, he is equally
impressed with the wonderful creative power and fresh
ness of the writing. He feels a certain realistic air and
tone, which separate them, by a wide interval, from all
the succeeding writers.
We are to bear in mind that these apostolic men
expound the religion of Jesus, not as apprehended by
the intellect alone, in set formulas, but as experienced by
the soul, in the popular language of every-day life. We
are also to remember that divine life and light flow along
the preordained channels of thought and feeling peculiar
to each writer ; and that he remains free in his choice of
materials, and of occasion, free in his methods and in his
diction. We are not here stating any theory of inspira
tion ; that belongs to theological science. We only insist
on the general fact.
Every doctrine, then, must have the sanction of inspi
ration. It is not a deduction of the reason, or a simple
intuition of the soul, but is a truth pronounced by
divine authority. If at any time there should seem to
be a conflict between our moral intuitions and any
Christian doctrine, then we have either misapprehended
the sacred record, or we have dignified our common judg
ments with this higher appellation. Here we are in
danger ; for while we can rely on the simple ultimate prop
ositions which our moral sense gives us, we cannot at all

128 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
be sure we are right when we come to apply these first
truths to individual concrete cases. Complex moral judg
ments are not always infallible, except in perfect natures.
To make the reason the test of truth is to betray no little
ignorance of the many grand speculative failures in the
pursuits of philosophy. Nor are these abstract dogmas,
which the individual reason alone warrants, of any great
value in religion. They lack objective support, and per
manence, and spiritual depth. The torchlight has its uses,
but it can never ripen the harvest. As Christianity, then,
is historical, so it has its records; and as it is crystallized
in the consciousness of Christ and of his apostles, so those
records are infallible.
But the general Christian consciousness, while it is essen
tially one with the apostolic consciousness, must ever grow
in the fulness and richness of its contents. Its essential
elements and its regulative principle are found in the in
spired word ; but its apprehension of the meaning of the
great facts and principles given in revelation becomes
clearer and broader every day. The study of nature,
of life, and of human history, and, above all, of the
various sciences, is presenting the truth in new relations,
and opening for it new and world-wide applications.
Even the wrecks of philosophic systems are yielding rich
contributions to our knowledge of the economy of redemp
tion. Thus, while we are dependent on the authority of
apostolic men, and must accept their writings as the
fixed standard of faith and practice, we have still the
advantage of being able to illustrate their principles in
the advancing light of eighteen centuries. Here there is
room for a genuine Christian development.
All the doctrines of Christianity belong to a super-

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE DOCTRINE. 129
natural religion, and so have in them a supernatural ele
ment. In their inmost essence they transcend the reason.
In short, they are, and must be, mysteries ; for they relate
either to the infinite, or to the meeting and crossing of
the infinite and the finite. The first is an absolute mys
tery ; the second, a relative one. Both are readily distin
guished from an absurdity, which is a simple self-contra
diction. This transcendent element in the doctrines of
our faith is an evidence in their favor ; for a religion per
fectly comprehended is a religion of human origin.
Besides, it is only as mysteries that they satisfy the soul
in its highest moods, — when it is struggling to rise above
the limits of its present life, and yearning for a fellowship
with the unknown. They can be felt where they cannot
be comprehended. To reject them because of their mys-
teriousness is to throw away our richest treasures, and to
ignore the divine side of our natures. Mr. Spencer, in
his First Principles, well remarks : " Positive knowledge
does not, and never can, fill the whole region of possible
thought. . . . Throughout all future time the human
mind may occupy itself, not only with ascertained phe
nomena and their relations, but also with the unascertained
something which phenomena and their relations imply.
Hence, if knowledge cannot monopolize consciousness, —
if it must always continue possible for the mind to dwell
upon that which transcends knowledge, — then there can
never cease to be a place for something of the nature of
religion." Here, then, there is room for faith. She gathers
what reason leaves behind ; for reason is conceptive and
constructive, while faith is simply sensitive and receptive.
The one is an intellection, the other is an affection of the

130 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
soul. Both are modes of mental action equally normal
and legitimate.
All these truths, then, have marked doctrinal notes.
They are realistic, permanent, universal, mysterious, and
authoritative in their character, and they all centre about
the God-man. Thus Christianity, as a divine doctrine, is
redemptive in its nature. Its entire creed is gathered up
and expressed in the symbols of its faith. Here we find
Christ's idea of his own religion, and that idea is voiced
in one word, — redemption.
Christianity, then, is a unity, — a central doctrine on
which all its truths depend. The honest difficulties which
our reason starts are connected with some one or more of
its many sides and aspects. They touch the circumference
and not the centre of our faith. They do not hold against
Christianity as a whole, but only against some presentation,
or some real or supposed application, of some particular
doctrine. Now, astronomers have sought to account for
the spots on the sun; but their success or failure does not
alter the fact that that central orb is still the source of
light and heat to the solar system. No one doubts its ef
fulgence, or questions its right to rule the day. When
Christianity is judged of as a complete doctrinal system, —
is examined in its totality, ¦ — then it is that its divinity
becomes most apparent.
Here it is to be noted that a person may have doubts,
more or less serious and persistent, on some of the essential
as well as on the non-essential points in revealed truth, with
out rejecting Christianity ; for his mind may be illogical ;
or he may still suffer from an early sceptical tendency ;
or his will may not yet be submissive, — for faith is the
synthesis of the intellect and will; or he may be be-

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE DOCTRINE. 131
wildered by the opposing opinions of different evangelical
communities, forgetting the governing fact of their sub
stantial agreement. But if, amid all these sad doubts, he
has a personal attachment to Christ, then he is in the tru
est sense of the word a Christian ; for he must hold to
the central doctrine of redemption. We may add, that a
man may be a sincere believer in Christianity as a whole,
in spite of his misgivings on various isolated points of
Christian truth.
SECTION SECOND.
THE DOCTRINAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY.
Christianity is at least the republication of natural re
ligion in clearer terms, with stronger motives and with
fuller evidence. We are first of all to look at the truths
of nature in the light of this new revelation.
The heart of the race in its moral estrangement has
voiced its yearnings and its needs in Polytheism. The in
tellect of the race in its fall from God has embodied its
demands in Pantheism. The underlying truth in the first
error is the personality of God ; and in the other, is the
nearness of God to his creatures. It was the mission of
Judaism to teach both truths without alloy. The the-
ophanies, the symbolism of the tabernacle and the temple,
the cultus, the teachings of the prophets, and the^uper-
natural providences, all proclaimed that Jehovah was a
personal Being, dwelling in the midst of his people. But
this is treated of more fully in the chapter on Christianity
as a divine fulfilment.
But these truths of natural religion, so covered over by
gross superstition or by idle speculations, and so imper-

132 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
fectly brought home to the minds and hearts of the Jew
ish people, are not only reaffirmed, but clearly articulated,
in the religion of Christ. They are the general interpre
tation of the perpetual miracle and mystery of the In
carnation. The coming of Christ reveals the ascending presence of
God, frees him from the iron mechanism of his own laws,
and presents him as an absolute personality. It casts a
gleam of light, faint but real, on the way in which we are
to think of him. He is alive — alive throughout — alive
absolutely and eternally. There are no latent elements in
his consciousness. He knows himself absolutely, and can
perfectly respond to the cry of his creatures. This abso
lute personality is triune ; for he is not a subject finding
his object out of himself, but his own consciousness is the
living synthesis of both. This tri-personality represents
the divine life in its absolute fulness. Analogy seems to
teach, that simple, bare unity is death, — for it is the form
of consciousness without any content, — and that duality is
only an infinite antagonism ; while the blending of subject
and object in the unity of consciousness, in other words,
trinity alone, is life. God is three in a sense in which he is
not one, and in such a sense as makes him the only living
and absolute personality. This speculative statement is
without any special value, except in just so far as it may
bring iiito relief the grand idea of Christ and his apostles,
that God is not only a personal Being, but that there is an
absolute fulness of personal life in him.
Of the higher views we have of the divine character, so
faintly reflected in nature, we can only here mention
one, — we mean the sympathy of God. The sublimer
the ancient conceptions of his perfections were, the more

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE DOCTRINE. 133
remote and unapproachable did they make his blessed
presence. But the assuming of our nature and the living
of our life is an exhibition of the tenderness of divine love.
God is touched by our woes, and has a fellow-feeling with
the wants and sorrows of humanity. This sympathy is
not secured by the sacrifice of either the purity or the
greatness of his nature. God has moved the throne of his
glory from the great cosmos, and enthroned himself in the
heart of humanity. The divine light and love is not with
drawn from the universe, but here centres as in a burning
and radiant focus. Were not God great, his love could
not be so gentle and so tender and so pure.
Redemption presupposes creation, gives to it a marked
prominence, and clothes it with new moral significance.
This doctrine was nearly lost in the speculations of the
ancient philosophers. Dualism and Pantheism divided their
suffrages. Modern culture has outgrown the first of these
theories ; while the second still holds its sway under the
imposing dogma of evolution. Here Christianity renders
a signal service to natural religion; for it completely
breaks the chain of development, in the person of its
Founder. This is done, not in a past geologic period, but in
human history, and even within historic times. In charac
ter and in influence he had no forerunner and no successor.
On his human side he was a new creation. In him the
order of nature is plainly subordinated to the moral order
of the universe. In this deed-act of God, the question of
creation is settled, and settled against the idea of evolu
tion. We are prepared to accept with a stronger faith the
primal truth of natural religion, that the universe is but
the product of a supreme and sovereign volition. We can
admit the Mosaic account of that cycle of creation, which
12

134 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
made the earth "the Bethlehem of 'the worlds." How
matter or mind, atom or force, was generated, belongs
to the province of speculation, and not to the sphere of
religion. Christianity does not touch such questions,
because it addresses our religious consciousness, and not
our intellects simply and alone. The proposition that the
world was created out of nothing is certainly faulty in
its statement, but involves no absurdity. Oken's famous
algebraic formula shows this, 0 = -|  . The world, aside
from the Will on which it rests, and from which it sprang,
is nothing ; and yet for us it is an endless process of
growth and decay, with its unnumbered powers of attrac
tion and repulsion.
The materialists have sought to revive the old, exploded
idea of " spontaneous generation." The experiments of
Pasteur seem to have settled the case. Their accuracy
was questioned in France, and the Academy appointed a
commission in order to test them. They presented their
report in 1865, in which they close with these words :
" To conclude, the facts observed by M. Pasteur, and con
tested by MM. Ponchet, Joly, Musset, are perfectly
accurate." Had an opposite conclusion been reached, we
should only have discovered another of God's creational
laws, — another of his modes of introducing new forms of
life. Chemists are but discoverers, — never, in the proper
sense of the word, creators; their laboratories rest on the
great laboratory of nature which God has made, and where
he alone works.
It is a favorite idea with many men of science, that all
forces only change their form, while they are in themselves
indestructible. This only shows that the results of divine
agency are never lost, but maintain themselves perpetually.

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE DOCTRINE. 135
This persistence of force is only another name for the abid
ing presence and constant energy of God himself. It may
be admitted that, in the absolute sense of the proposition,
the sum of the forces of the universe has never been,
and can never be, increased or diminished ; for the first
and absolute cause includes in itself the sum of all causes.
Creation itself can add nothing to God, or augment at all
the fulness of his power, the omnipotence of his will.
Such hypotheses are speculative in their character, and so,
perhaps, are the answers. As the one is outside of the
sphere of science, so is the other foreign to the spirit of
religion. Yet the answer, in a speculative point of view,
is altogether adequate.
Redemption is the key also to Providence. It is, in
fact, the crowning instance of God's providential govern
ment. Now, Christianity rejects the doctrine of chance,
for it teaches the immutability of God and the uniformity
of his laws. It rejects also the notion of fate, since it
represents man as made in the image of God, and so
endowed with free will. It always treats him as though
that natural image could never be lost. It addresses him
as a creature swayed by motives, and so under the law of
rationality. It thus recognizes the true factors of moral
life, — freedom and order, liberty and law. These are
essential, for law without freedom would be a dead neces
sity, and freedom without law would be simple license,
pure lawlessness. Thus man is treated as the subject of a
government already established in this world.
It is true that everything is under law, bit law is only
God's mode of acting, his method of- procedure. This
fact does not preclude moral ends, and so does not shut
out all foresight. Thus the forces of nature and of life,

136 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
in their endless combinations and interactions, work out
moral ends in the government of God. It is a divine ar
rangement, and so a divine providence. The providential
element is the more marked, as great moral results are
seen to follow quite independently of any conscious human
agency. This doctrine is presented in Christianity as a comfort
and support, rather than as a guide. It is the «resting-place
of the soul. Such a view of the outward course of events —
events so entangled and so mysterious — can alone satisfy
the cravings and aspirations of the soul ; for if God be
not the God of providence, then he is for us no God at
all. Prophecy is the dream of fanatics, and prayer the
delusion of fools. In spite, then, of all the difficulties which
a narrow observation and a narrower logic may suggest,
yet a moral necessity, confirmed by marking the course of
history through the sweep of centuries, and by noting the
turn of affairs at great junctures in the lives of individ
uals and of nations, — a turn often brought about appar
ently by trifles, — compels us to admit the superintending
care of God in shaping our lives, and in controlling our
destiny. But Christianity is more than a republication of natural
religion ; it is a redemptive agency. Its aim is not to
awaken and to direct the religious instincts of the creature,
nor even barely to reinstate the sinner in the lost favor of
God, but to raise him into a fuller and richer life, and to
make him the best beloved child in the family of God.
The place he is to occupy in the divine favor will far
transcend that which he lost in the great apostasy.
God surmounts the obstacle of human sin and guilt, re-
enters humanity, and so reconciles himself to the race. He

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE DOCTRINE. 137
assumed human nature with the penalty of death upon it ;
and he assumed human life without its sinfulness, and
yet with all the threatening consequences of sin upon it. He
took into his own consciousness all the misery which was
the inheritance of a lost race. This humanity he car
ried through all the great experiences of life, bore it with
him into the curse of death, and raised it up and presented
it in the eternal world, thus faultless, transfigured, recon
ciled to God. In this life and death we have that unique
and transcendent penalty, which fell upon the substitute
for sinners ; for he felt the guilt, the pollution, the folly,
the misery, and the doom of the sinner, as the sinner did
not and could not feel them ; for he was in full sympa
thy with God as well as with man, and so fully alive to
the wretchedness and woe of a lost world. Thus Christ,
though sinless, experienced the sinner's sin. It was in
this new humanity, in this divinely human life, thus
suffering in the place and in behalf of a sinful race, that
God reconciled himself to that race. It was in and by
this substitution that God changed his attitude towards the
world, and was enabled in harmony with his own charac
ter to offer to the guilty free and full pardon, and to in
vite to the fullest and richest participation in his love.
They were only as freely and as gladly to accept the
proffered friendship. A new fellowship was thus to be
established, with richer experiences, sweeter memories, and
grander hopes.
But souls must be individually reconciled to God. A
new life must b,? originated within them, as well as a new
relation established for them. They must be renewed as
well as pardoned. The character must be changed as
well as the person justified. But the great doctrine of a

138 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
new life has already been presented in our previous chapter,
and need not be here further developed.
Here the great mystery of human freedom and of divine
sovereignty forces itself on our attention. It does not be
long exclusively to Christianity. The religion of Christ
did not create it, but accepted it as an ineradicable fact of
life. It has brought it into prominence only by exalting
human life, and clothing it with a new worth and dignity.
Christianity does not deal with these truths as speculative
opinions, for then it would cease to be a religion, and be
come a philosophy. It treats of them just so far as they
relate to our religious consciousness. And here it is clear
and decisive. It makes them the governing elements in
shaping our destiny. It does not aim to reconcile them ;
nor does it absorb one in the other, or magnify one at
the expense of the other, but makes each regnant in its
own sphere; freedom in the province of duty and of re
sponsibility, and sovereignty in the domain of authority
and of dependence. It thus gives to both free play and
full force, without the slightest hesitation or reserve.
Now, the sphere of dependence encloses in a larger con
centric circle the sphere of freedom, so that the primal
factor in the Christian life is the divine agency. Bat the
relation is, as we have elsewhere said, a vital and not a me
chanical one. God elects man, and man elects God, and
the one doe3 not exist as a realized fact without the other.
Naturally and logically considered, God first moves on
the soul ; but in and within that very movement the soul
turns towards God. Thus Christianity deals witii these
questions in the very way to satisfy the religious cravings
of tho soul, and in the only way it could treat them with
out denying its own nature.

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE DOCTRINE. 139
The gospel is the only religion which lifts the veil of
nature, and opens to our hopes or to our fears the realities
of a future life. The common aspirations of man and the
reasonings of philosophers are confirmed, not so much by
any solemn affirmation of a divine messenger, verified
though it bo by miracles, as by tho great fact of tho res
urrection of our Lord. The doctrine of the immortality of
the soul now becomes the doctrine of the resurrection of the
dead. Our present physical bodies are not to bo restored,
for " the mortal is to put on immortality ; " nor is the new
body to be simply a new creation, for it is to have points
of identity with the one we now possess ; nor is it to be,
merely evolved from the dust of the organism laid in the
grave, for the seat of identity must be in the centre of man's
life. The soul is to be the formitive principle of both
bodies, — of the present organism chiefly through its lower
impulses ; of the future one through its higher spiritual
capacities. Just where there are now spiritual features
in the expression of the man, by look, or speech, or
air, or manner, just there, doubtless, are to be found
points of identity between what we are now, and what
we are to become hereafter. The materials of both are
to be drawn from this earth, and so are to be the same.
The future body is termed spiritual, because the spirit —
the soul in its moral and rational capacities and affections —
is to pervade and animate, and to give form to the new organ
ism. Each soul will have its own body, because each will
have its own separate individual character, — a character
which will take on its own separate, individual, bodily form.
Tho new body is thus to be the organ of the soul, in its
new and higher life.
The private individual judgment will begin at once after

140 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
death. It will bo the opening of tho great judgmont-day.
This will culminate in tho final ono at tho end of proba
tion. This public judgment will close tho great day of
account. It is only then that all tho results of human life
will have been gathered ; and it is only in theso rosults
that tho final judgmont can fully enter into the conscious
ness of the creature. Tho agents for effecting this judg
ment will bo found to bo within us, as they aro called
into activity by tho surroundings of an eternal world.
Tho decisions of that day will rest, not on abstract legal
principles, but on moral and spiritual ones. Christ is to
bo the dividing lino, tho point of attraction or of repulsion
to all souls. Everything will depend on tho character of
the relation which each and overy ono will then hold to
him. It is faith, and not obedience, which is to settle
the destiny of tho soul. That faith may bo gathorod into
a formal act of confidence, or may exist only as a perma
nent spirit of trust, waiting for tho Groat Helper, ore it
can assume a distinct and positive form. For all in
Heathendom, as in Christendom, are put in a new relation
by the coming of Christ, and only nood to exorcise as sin
ners a childlike trust and confidonco in God, — in him as
revealed in Christ, or as roflcctcd in nature and in human
ity. It is to be rememborod, that tho measure of our ap
prehension of Christ is not tho moasuro of what ho has
done for us. An objective redemption has boon accom
plished for the race, and oach and every member of it has
been placed on probation ; and tho possibility of salvation is
secured for every soul.
Wo aro now brought before the groat doctrino of future
rewards and future retributions. Christianity does with
out doubt secure a higher heaven or a deeper holl ; for

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE DOCTRINE. 141
they are the certain issues of a reconciliation, or of a
renewed and persistent rebellion. These issues are made
to depend on this present life. There is but one probation,
on which hangs the future weal or woe of every soul. It
is clear that Christianity provides for no second trial ; and
yet Christianity seems to be God's final message to the
race. This doctrine of one probation and one only is sup
ported by tho evident tendency in the human soul to a
moral finality. Character is soon formed and soon crys
tallized. Radical changes are in the natural course of
things precluded ; and a man's moral state becomes settled
and fixed. This is still further confirmed by the analogies
of this life. We find that our present existence finishes a
cycle, — closes a distinctly marked period. This earthly
course of things does not exist after death. There is a
change. The old conditions and modes of living perish.
All earthly pursuits and avocations come to an end. Death
doe3 mo3t certainly make this crisis in our physical condi
tion, and clo3e up forever this one cycle of our lives.
Tho law of change give3 place now to the law of con
stancy. Tho physical crisis in our existence is but the
si^n of a moral crisis in the condition of the soul.
The tendency which now encounters opposing obstacles
— tho tendency towards God or away from him — sud
denly becomes absolute and exclusive in its character;
for the consciousness of God at once fills the soul. The
sonss of his presence is the one characteristic feature of
the eternal life. " Every knee shall bow." Every soul
yields to God either the grateful adoration of it3 affections,
or tho painful homage of its moral convictions. Sin is thus
mastered either in the completeness of its removal or in

142 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
the perfection of its punishment. In the one case it is the
worship of love, in the other the worship of the con
science, — of the conscience that honors the judge and
condemns the criminal.
The rewards and the penalties of the future world can
know no end ; for the religious life i3 not a trade, where
virtuous acts bring their fixed equivalents ; nor is an irre
ligious life a business, where every crime against heaven is
noted in a price-current. These retributions are the natu
ral results of living, — the natural fruits of the final moral
condition of the soul as it passes into eternity ; for it is
not single isolated acts alone, or chiefly, that determine
one's future destiny, but the moral character in its unity,
from which all these acts spring. It is the abiding foun
tain of sinfulness that sends forth the everlasting streams
of death. The like is true of the blessedness of heaven.
It is the continued fruit of a continued divine life. These
rewards and these punishments are also positive, because
they are ordained of God, and are recognized and felt to
be thus ordained in the consciousness of the saved and
of the lost.
Penalty has no more tendency to end the life of sin, or
the sinful condition of the soul, than reward has any
power to end a life of holiness, or a holy state of the soul.
If sin was but an external and superficial habit of the
man, its own consequences might lead to reform ; but as it
is a complete break with God, — a central and fontal aver
sion to his character, — there can be no self-restorative pro
cess by which the sinner self-moved can return to his
Maker. If sin had its seat in the organism, then it might
fall away with the dissolution of the body ; but, as it is
rooted in the affections and in the will, it must survive

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE DOCTRINE. 143
death, and reappear in a more fixed and malignant form.
Death cannot be our saviour, nor can punishment be our
restorer to the love and favor of God. All such natural
istic conceptions are absolutely foreign to the mind of
Christ. There can, then, be no recovery except by the absolute
intervention of God himself. Of this we have no intimation
in the teachings of Christ and of his apostles. The gen
eral drift of the Scriptures is in direct opposition to any
such idea. In fact, a second probation would be more un
favorable than the first. We cannot argue from the di
vine attributes what God must do in such a momentous
case. There are too many unknown elements in the prob
lem, as thus presented, to warrant the conclusion that God
will interpose. He may not be willing to dishonor his
own image in breaking down the freedom of the creature.
The very dignity and worth of man may thus stand in the
way of his future recovery. After the rejection of the
Son of God, no better offer of life, and under no better
conditions, can possibly be made. God's love, too, must
have supreme regard to his character as supremely holy.
The difficulties which may press and sadden our souls on
this awful subject must remain till the light of eternity
shall dispel them. Of one thing we are sure, and in that
we can rest, " the Judge of all the earth will do right."
But we shall make no attempt to look into the future
world. The solemn fact remains, — we are to commence
our eternal life hereafter as redeemed from sin, or as con
firmed in it. And we know that heaven contains all that
is good, actual or possible, for the saved; and that hell em
bodies all that is evil, actual or possible, for the lost. And
we know, too, that the doctrine of restoration is not a doc-

144 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
trine of Christianity. One must rest it, if he can rest it
anywhere, on the secret purpose of God, — a purpose all
unknown to man. The only warrant that can be given for
it is an utterly presumptuous one.
We have, in this discussion, considered only the essen
tial aspects of Christianity as a doctrine. The others are
purposely omitted, as not necessary in bringing out the
proof of its divinity. But if now Christianity is found
to throw light on our destiny, and in some measure to solve
some of the problems of existence, and to give comfort
and support to our weary souls, then we have an additional
evidence of its divine origin and character.

CHAPTEE V.
CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LAW.
SECTION FIBST.
THE NECESSITY OF AN AUTHORITATIVE STANDARD.
Christianity is a law, as well as a life ; an authori
tative rule, as well as an inward spiritual power ; a stand
ard of duty, as well as a spring of action ; the ideal of
moral excellence, as well as the growing realization of the
divine likeness.
These two aspects of Christianity do not stand apart
and opposed. The impulse of divine love is coincident
with the imperative of divine holiness. The Christ with
in our souls is the same as the Christ without us and
above us. Every joy is a duty, and every duty a joy.
The child of God is at the same time the subject of his
government. There may be, somewhere in the universe of God,
spirits whose morality is purely instinctive ; whose con
formity to the Divine Mind is spontaneous and complete ;
whose surroundings are such as not to furnish any natural
test of loyalty. The plan of God may be such as does
not require any positive trial to awaken them to a fuller
self-consciousness, and so to confirm them in virtue, and
thus to lead them through the discipline of probation to a
higher and broader plane of thought and feeling. Such,
13 145

146 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
however, is not the condition in which the human race
finds itself in its present stage of existence.
It may be that hereafter, in the moral history of man,
the very idea of divine authority may merge itself in the
free and joyous sense of divine love, so that he will be
held to his allegiance solely and purely by the attractions
of the divine character, and by the intrinsic blessedness
of the divine service. But such is not the case here and
now. God must, then, reveal himself as our Sovereign as
well as our Father.
The consciousness of an Infinite Personal Presence
arose with the consciousness of self. But this original
possession of our nature shared in the fall of that nature.
The handwriting of God, though not effaced, has been
greatly obscured by the stains and the blots of human sin.
This obscuration is, in several points, marked and strik
ing. We may hero noto some of them as they appear in
the life of our common humanity.
The mo3t sadly painful of them is the fact that the
lawgiver is more or less forgotten in his law. It is not
God who condemns us, but the moral order of the uni
verse. It is no longer a personal being, supreme and
infinite, who punishes the guilty, but only the conscience.
Thus, in the moral government of the world, the minister
usurps the prerogatives of the sovereign. The divine
will is sunk in an impersonal providence. The right,
and the good, and the beautiful, instead of being the eter
nal thoughts and volitions of the divine reason, and so
the norm and the goal of all human living, are only
splendid abstractions, — the creations of the soul, — her
sublimest imaginings, but nothing more. In the physical
world, also, God is lost in his law, and a thousand so-

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LAW. 147
called secondary agencies separate the soul from the pres
ence of its Maker. In this idealism, so cold and so thin,
there is no fixed rule of life, no standard of moral
goodness. Kindred with this, and at bottom one with it, is another
no less fatal defect in man's sense of the divine. The
results of living do not enter the consciousness as the re
wards of obedience, or the penalties of disobedience. The
divine character of law is lost sight of in the very cer
tainty of its operations. The soul takes in nothing more
than the idea of a great, iron-like mechanism, with its
chain of causes and effects, moving on with a relentless,
and often crushing power. Thus the soul does not enter
into any close personal relations with God. But all ex
perience shows how little men care for mere threatened
evils, when these aro not the tokens of the crowning
evil of all, the personal displeasure of an infinite
God. The fact of sin has" made, in another respect, the laws
of nature very inadequate. Her silence or her inarticu
late tones on questions where a response is most needed
and most craved, and her persistent and terrible plain
ness of speech where man most seeks for some way of
escape, — both of these features make natural religion
the revelation of death, the proclamation of despair. It
is true all this is not forced on the soul. Men may school
themselves into indifference, or may delude themselves
with the hope of something better hereafter. It is worthy
of note, however, that in such cases all moral earnestness
was melted away amidst the heat of human ambitions, or
in the intenso pursuit of earthly pleasures. Nothing
but the voice of authority can silence these doubts, dispel

148 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
these fears, or recall souls from the indifference of a
frivolous life.
Besides, God's natural revelation often lacks the need
ful sanctions ; for the results of human character and
conduct are often delayed ; and often, when they do come,
they do not, as we have said, enter the consciousness as
God's appointed rewards or punishments. More than this
may be affirmed ; they never come in their fulness and in
their intensity. Yet these are the proper supports and
guaranties of the divine law. If they are weakened, the
nerve of that law is gone, and its very idea begins to be
dissipated. Positive religious hopes or religious fears
cease to be the springs of action.
That the Old World needed an ideal is plain to even a
casual reader of ancient history. Her ablest minds had
either abandoned the hope of reaching the truth, or had
lost themselves in endless disputes on the nature of vir
tue, and the good of life. No school could claim to be
the living church, and no philosopher could assume to be
an authoritative teacher. Their utterances lacked the
spirit of inspiration and the tone of realism, so that their
writings could never be looked on as the standard of truth
and of duty. They were the chiefs of their respective
schools, but not the leaders of humanity. In fact, the
mind of heathendom was broken into fragments; it had
neither unity, certainty, nor authority.
The great difficulty, however, was not in nature and in
providence, but in their interpreters. The chief reason
why God's signs and symbols were not recognized and
understood, was that man had put up false lights all
along the shores of time. All are left responsible, but
none the less powerless and hopeless; for while the

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LAW. 149
conscience never errs in its simple axiomatic deliverances,
it is ever turned aside by ignorance, or passion, or self-
interest, in applying these first principles to the pursuits
and to the duties of every-day life. The world, then,
needed another light than human reason, and another
guide than human conscience. That reason must be en
lightened, and that conscience quickened, by a law out of
and above themselves.
Christianity, then, must present itself as the one au
thoritative rule, the one objective standard, of all human
duty. Man needs something more than a new life, than
the partial appropriation of even divine truth. The im
pulse of a free life is not the sole constitutive element in
the Christian character. It has to be met and supple
mented by the principle of authority. The convictions
of the soul cannot safely be followed without reference to
an infallible guide. Otherwise, religion would degenerate
into the weakest sentimentalism. The mystic could jus
tify his waste of spiritual energy in midnight vigils and
in useless reveries, and the mere fanatic could pass for a
hero and a saint. Torqucmada was honest in his con
victions, and yet applied the instruments of torture in the
name of Jesus ; and so was Robespierre, and yet he
worked the guillotine in the assumed interests of humanity.
The beauty and the worth of a free, spontaneous obedi
ence cannot be too highly prized. But, before that state
is reached, and long before it is consummated, man must
learn to submit to authority, and to follow the dictates of
simple duty, till perfect love has cast out all fear. That
can never be till the consciousness of self has wholly given
way to the consciousness of God. The child of God even
here is ever falling under the discipline of law ; and the
13*

150 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
lower motives, legitimate or not, must ever operate in a
worldly soul ere the higher and nobler ones can come into
free and full play. SECTION SECOND.
CHRISTIANITY THE IDEAL OF HUMAN LIFE.
Christianity cannot be incorporated in any code of
ethics. The attempt to embrace it in a mere list of
duties, or to mould it into a system of casuistry for all
possible cases of conscience, would be both impossible and
undesirable. Nor can even its leading principles be crys
tallized into abstract formulas ; for the vital element
which gives unity and power to them all is lost in the
very process of separation and reproduction. The fresh
and delicate beauty of the living organism, with all its
quickening fragrance, is completely and forever gone when
spirit and form are thus once forced asunder.
Yet Christianity, as a law, must have an objective ex
istence. The ideal must be real, though it may not be
actual. If this new divine law cannot be given in any
compilation of duties, or expressed in any scientific state
ment, then it must be embodied in some perfect human
character and life. It must be more than any prophetic
utterance, however sublime. It must be more than what can
be given in cold and dead forms of human speech. It
must be incarnated in a living person, who shall represent
our common humanity, and who shall be the model as
well as the magnet for all men in all times.
But more than this is needed. This life must be a
divinely human one, mediatory and redemptive in its
character. It must thus reveal what is peculiar and dis-

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LAW. 151
tinctive in Christianity. It must realize in its very nature
that God and man are reconciled. It will thus give us
not a system of mere natural ethics, where there is only
a development of the moral forces from their normal
centre, but a system of Christian morals, where there is
a spiritual growth from the germ of a new redemptive life ;
where a new and higher type of character becomes the
blossom and bloom of the new redemptive process. Such
a theanthropic life must certainly, on its historic side, be
tied to some one age, and to some one nation, and so must
have its biographer and its interpreter. Yet Jesus is
greater than his teachings or his doings, and so greater
than the evangelic portraiture or tho apostolic delineation;
greater, even, than the church has ever realized in her
thoughts, or formulated in her creeds, or sung in her dox-
ologies and hymns of praise. Thus no age in its highest
representatives will ever go beyond, or come up to, the law
of God, as rewritten and republished in the life of Jesus.
In fact, every epoch in human history has found something
new and fresh and inspiring in his character, suited to its
changed condition and wants. The ages that are farthest
off, and that have the widest sweep, will have their centre
of gravity in Christ.
Tho great value of the New Testament is in the fact
that it gives us the consciousness of Christ. That is pre
served in a fixed and final form, and can be approached by
men of all nations into whoso language the written word
has been translated. We only remark that the Christ-
consciousness is the fulfilment of the prophetic conscious
ness of the Old World. The New Testament is the
guaranty of the worth and dignity of the Old Testament.
If it be objected that this method of revealing the

152 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
divine will still leaves man in the midst of many uncer
tainties, we answer, this is but an inseparable accompa
niment of our moral freedom, and is in full harmony
with the facts of our common probation. Besides, any
painful uncertainty of this kind is itself a part of the pen
alty of human guilt, and in part the discipline of divine
Providence. However, it is sure to grow less and less, as
one seeks for the truth, and submits his will to the ideal he
recognizes. Thus the form in which the Christian law is given us
reveals its divine origin. It is no mere compilation of
commands and prohibitions, but the living exemplar, — the
personal realization of a perfect human virtue. God lives
our life that he may fix the type of a divinely human
character. It is no mere exhibition of the moral abstrac
tions of the philosopher. The ideas of the right, of the
good, and of the beautiful, are, as we have said, living ver
ities, whose seat and whose source is in the bosom of God,
but whose radiance is felt all over the universe, and whose
power is centred in the person of the God-man. Now, this
personage did not emerge as a rare and gifted genius out
of the mass of our common humanity, but came forth of
his own free will from out of the depths of eternity, as
the new head and new pattern of a restored and redeemed
race. The contents, as well as the form in which the new law
is given us, clearly reveal its divinity. It is enough for
our purpose to indicate some of its leading principles, and
some of its general applications.
It begins at the beginning. Religion is made the soul
of morality. God's nature is viewed as the ground of
all virtue, and his will as the rule of all duty. There are

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LAW. 153
no ultimate truths independent of his reason, and there is
no ultimate authority outside of his will. The one primal
personal relation to him makes good all other subordinate
relations which men hold to their fellow-creatures ; for it
sanctions and justifies them, penetrates and ennobles them
all. God's redeeming love to us, and our returning love
to him, make up that mutual fellowship which is to be the
regnant principle of the new life, the first requirement
of the divine law.
This regnant principle determines the relation which a
man holds to himself. It works in full accord with the
normal susceptibilities and impulses of our nature. Self-
love — a love for our true selfhood — is everywhere recog
nized and appealed to as a sacred element in our souls,
and as a legitimate motive power in human life. In this
region move all our natural hopes and natural fears.
These presuppose a love for the good for its own sake, and
are coincident with the purest and loftiest springs of action.
Our appetites, too, and our passions, are to have their
natural gratification. The body is not to be the slave of
the soul any more than its idol or its master. Thus
there is to be a growth for the whole man, and not a sac
rifice of either part of our nature to the other. In this
way alone one secures a free human development, while a
mere code of arbitrary rules could at best only create a
statuesque morality, beautiful it may be, but cold and
rigid in death. Thus the significancy of man, rather than
the worth of the citizen, is always insisted on. He is led
towards his ideal, not by emphasizing his rights, but by urg
ing home his duties ; not by making him either the mere
expectant of another world, or the mere tenant of this
earth, but by making his position amid the glories of the

154 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
future depend solely on his share in the nobilities of the
present. Christianity regulates the family life. It reaffirms the
positive law of marriage. The relation of the sexes is
not left simply to the public conscience, as that may voice
itself in the legislation of the State, but fixed once for all
by a divine enactment. It thus becomes a religious insti
tution as well a3 a civil contract. The separation of the
parties can only be justified by a continued neglect, or by
great cruelty ; while a complete release can only be al
lowed when death interposes, or when the crime of the
husband or of the wife has defeated the very end of the
relation itself. Both polygamy and the law of free divorce
are unchristian ; for the first degrades home-life, and the
second renders it insecure, and destroys its sacredness.
Thus a religious sanction is given to the union of the
sexes. All the guaranties of a divine law are thrown
around the relation to hallow and to ennoble it. Thus one
spot on earth is secured, where the fountains of new affec
tions may be opened, and where the purest and tenderest
sympathies may find their fullest and freest scope. When
the idea of a Christian home is realized, then the aims and
the interests of husband and of wife blend together in the
unity of one wedded life ; then love descends from parents
to their offspring, and ascends in return in equal measure ;
then the father becomes the priest of God, and all the
members of his household daily worshippers about the
family altar ; then the mother becomes the loving com
forter, and heart-friend and guide of her children. Here
piety creates and fosters all the domestic virtues. It is
Christian gentleness, and patience, and forgiveness which

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LAW. 155
make the family the nursery of the church, the bond of
society, and the type of heaven.
Christianity gives the law to the social life. The indi
vidual cannot live alone and yet be a complete man ; nor
can he shut himself up within the narrow circle of his
own dwelling without dwarfing his own nature. He is
born a member of a wider community, and can only attain
to his full stature in free intercourse with his fellows. He
cannot, under the delusive pretext of a more entire conse
cration to God, withdraw from society. God has made us
for each other as well as for himself. He will not in any
exclusive way appropriate all our affections and all our ser
vices, for he is supremely unselfish. He accepts a pure
communion with our fellows as a part of the homage paid
to himself. It is only when we are in the closest fellow
ship with the children of God that we are nearest to the
heart of our common Father. Religion is thus to pervade
and not to absorb our lives. It is to penetrate our affec
tions and our activities, and not to break down any side of
our nature. Thus the old monk always lacked symmetry
of Christian character. In spite of his raptures, his prac
tical piety was often fierce and vindictive. He was the
leader in many a cruel persecution. Thus his ferocious
partisanship not unfrequently took the place of a gentle,
loving, and persistent devotion to Christ ; and his arrogant
assumption of a higher morality passed for the utter re
nunciation of a godless world.
Every man has his providential position in society.
This will change as his surroundings change ; as the laws
of life, or as his own free resolves, may determine. He
must accept that changing lot, whatever it may be. If he
has failed to improve his condition, he has no one to blame

156 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
but himself. It was his privilege and his duty to make
the most of himself, and the most of all his opportunities.
Yet even here all idle regret is opposed to that quiet
heroism which patiently waits and works and conquers.
He is to take special care that his trials are not of his own
creation, — the pure product of his own unrest ; but he
is to see that they are only the real visitations of an
unseen Providence. And while he accepts his appointed
lot, and submits to the discipline of life, he is ever to open
his soul gratefully to every innocent pleasure which may
be given him, and to every nobler joy which may be
breathed upon him from a spiritual world. Christianity
thus requires a man to trust to no chance, and to yield
to no necessity, but to accept the plan of life which God
has mapped out for him.
Every man must have a calling. That vocation is indi
cated by his character, and conditioned by Providence.
The natural gifts, directed and developed by all the oppor
tunities and influences under which one is born and bred,
are to determine that calling. Every one, in the light of
a true self-knowledge, is to choose his proper field of labor.
As he moves in that appointed sphere of life, he be
comes a natural coworker with God ; and as he departs from
it and fails to meet his responsibilities, he can only become
one of the natural but unconscious instruments in the
accomplishment of the divine purpose. These gifts of
nature are the basis of the gifts of grace. Thus Paul
was " called from his mother's womb," and thus the gran
deur of Christ's mission was in accordance with, and mor
ally necessitated by, the grandeur of his character.
The ultimate object of every calling is to educate the
soul ; to bring into use all the energies and endowments

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LAW. 157
of our natures ; to attain to that typical symmetry of char
acter which is the law of every individual life ; — in brief,
to grow into a conformity with God. But the immediate
object of the majority of men must be to accumulate
wealth, as a means of higher culture and of a wider be
nevolence ; for the goods of life are not to be despised,
but to be coveted, gratefully received, and wisely em
ployed. Every abandonment of them is immoral ; for it
makes poverty a virtue, a mere outward condition the sav
ing panacea of life, and encourages personal pride under
the garb of humility. Every one is entitled to the full
avails of his own talent and of his own labor. He may give
what his conscience dictates, but he can never abandon his
rights in property without making war on Providence.
All arbitrary attempts to remodel society so as to secure a
community of goods are both futile and wrong ; for they
are vain efforts to correct the radical defect of selfishness by
balancing one of its forms against another, even annulling
in this process of social reconstruction the sanctity and the
obligations of the family life.
But every pursuit and every profession must be regu
lated by a life in God and a life for God. It is this ruling
principle which is finally to determine whether any busi
ness is a legitimate one or not. It is this which fixes the
morals of trade ; which decides the duties of the employer
and of the employed ; which regulates the relations of capital
to labor ; and, in short, which makes political economy a
part of the system of Christian ethics. Thus this one su
preme and dominating pursuit of life, this regnant aim to
conform one's self to the divinely human life of the Son of
God, is to subordinate and to direct every earthly employ
ment and every human vocation.
U

158 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
But the broader aspects of society — its humanitarian
side — must all come under this Christian principle of
redeeming love. Self-sacrifice is to be the norm of the
new life. It is to show itself in the daily interchange of
thought and of feeling with our neighbors ; in sympathy
with the sad and sorrowing ; in charity to the poor ; in
educating the ignorant ; in reclaiming the vicious ; in en
couraging the reformed ; in sustaining every good man and
every good cause ; in ministering to the sick and to the
dying ; in seeking in every right way to make others bet
ter and wiser than they are ; and, above all, in bringing all
souls back again into the love and fellowship of God. If
any feeling of pride, or any charm of the world, or any
of its entanglements, stand in the way of such a consecra
tion, then they must give place; for to crucify our lower
selves in doing good is the condition of all heroic living.
If sufferings stand in our path, and even if death is in
the clear line of duty, these only bring the cross and the
crown near together, and show the vicarious nature of the
Christian life.
Where the claims of the community are too great to be
met by personal individual action alone, then good men
are to unite to advance every great and good cause. Here
there is room for the best and the most persistent efforts
of all our philanthropic societies. Men must associate to
inaugurate and carry on the various social reforms of the
age in which they live. They must found schools, when
ever the state fails to establish them ; they must erect the
asylum and the hospital for all the unfortunate classes
of our fellow-beings ; and they must scatter the seeds of
light and truth all over the wide world.
No man, however, is to do good by proxy when he can

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LAW. 159
do it directly and personally. There is always a loss to
the individual, just because his individuality is lost in the
society of which he is a member. Yet no great evil can
be adequately met except by associated action.
But the law of duty respects our entire life-work. It
does not require an immediate exhaustion of our strength
in any single effort. It is only on rare occasions, when the
hour of extreme self-sacrifice, or, possibly, of martyrdom,
has come, that this expenditure of life-forces can be de
manded. We are ever to economize and treasure up all
our sources of power in order to use them wisely and well.
There must, then, be rest and diversion. There must be
innocent amusement, and seasons of relaxation and of re
pose. Yet we are never to reverse the divine order, and
make these amusements the very sources of our inmost
life, and change our whole existence into a round of mere
enjoyments. Nor are we to accept such diversions as
have irreligious associations or vicious tendencies.
But one more point needs here to be briefly noticed.
Christianity determines the duties of the citizen. It rec
ognizes the social status of any people, in its several stages
of progress, as providential. It accepts the fact that out of
this race life, or national life, grows a legitimate govern
ment ; also the attendant fact, that every such government
must in its form be more or less provisional or transitory.
Thus Christianity recognizes national revolutions as part
of the order of Providence. But its attitude is not nega
tive, but positive. It does undoubtedly help society, and
so government, towards that ideal state, when the right
of the individual shall be fully recognized, and when the
principles of virtue shall reign in the halls of our legisla
ture as fully as in the family circle.

160 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
The first duty it enjoins is obedience to the civil au
thority. Every man is to submit to the powers that be,
whether their administration is wise and good, or foolish and
vicious. It is only when there is a conflict between his
allegiance to God and his loyalty to the government that
the citizen is to obey the higher law ; for this is the cen
tral duty he owes to both himself and his Maker. When
ever the rights of the conscience are infringed on, then
he is quietly to refuse obedience, and to accept the conse
quences, be they what they may.
But whenever the government fails to answer the very
end for which it was created, so that social order exists in
name but not in reality, then a revolution, even though it
must be a violent one, is inevitable. It is only a question
of time. The necessities of the community demand a radi
cal change. It becomes the duty of every good man to
take part in it, and so to lessen as far as may be the inev
itable evils of an appeal to arms. But even here the end
must be plainly attainable, and that end must be not sim
ply the overthrow of a tyrant or of a bad government, but
the establishment of a good one in its place; for anarchy
is worse than tyranny, and Christianity cannot sanction an
idle waste of human life.
It cannot be doubted that Christianity enjoins patriot
ism ; but it is certain that it subordinates the love of
country to the love of man. Yet, as every great nation has
its mission, so a love on the part of the citizen for the land
of his birth or of his adoption harmonizes with his love of
humanity, and is an imperative Christian duty. It is,
however, a false patriotism, as it is a false principle of po
litical economy, to suppose that the real interests of our
country can be promoted at the expense of any other.

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LAW. 161
Christianity, as well as social science, requires that we
hold to the fraternity of nations and the brotherhood of
man. We may now compare the Christian ideal with that
given in the writings of the stoics. We refer to these
ancient moralists, because they were the best representa
tives of the Old World. They lived through the first cen
turies of the Christian era, and so enjoyed the fruit of the
old culture, and possibly breathed somewhat the rising
Christian atmosphere. Now, we shall find very many no
ble precepts, which seem to accord with those of Christ
and his apostles. But, if they be allowed such an inter
pretation, they show that these moralists had come in con
tact with currents of thought and of feeling higher than
the schools to which they belonged, and foreign to the
spirit of the system which they themselves taught. If,
however, we interpret their loftiest sentiments by the gov
erning idea and tone of their philosophy, we shall con
clude that there was a striking agreement and a striking
contrast, — - an agreement in form and appearance, but a
contrast in spirit and in substance. None of the stoics
made the will of a personal God the rule of duty, and
supreme love to him the spring of all moral living.
Christianity recognizes religion as the very life of mo
rality. They always blend together in the unity of a per
fect human character ; for piety without morality is mere
sentimentalism, and morality without piety is a cold and
dead legalism, rising in some natures to an atheistic deifi
cation of self. Often the disciple of Zeno seems, in de
tached sentences, to approach the same view ; but it is an
approach only in appearance. Let us take an example
14*

162 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
from Epictetus. He affirms that " no man is good with
out God." This sounds apostolic. But he adds, "In
every good man there dwells — what God is uncer
tain." Here the form of statement is polytheistic, and
the idea savors of naturalism or pantheism. The soul is
conceived of as a mode of the devine consciousness. The per
sonality of God is lost in a godless self-worship. The idea
of the constant presence of God was only the notion that
one should ever keep company with his better and diviner
self. The prayer given by this eminent moralist contrasts
strikingly with that propounded by our Lord. "Make
use of me as Thou wilt. ... I refuse nothing which seems
good to Thee." Now mark the opposition in spirit and
temper between the two, as seen in the omission here indi
cated. We give the omitted words : " I am of the same
mind, I am one with Thee." How such arrogance alters
the whole import of the first part of the prayer, and
in what antagonism it stands to the humble petition,
" Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" ! In
fact, the idea of prayer was alien to the stoical system.
Epictetus affirms that "the cry for mercy was pitiful,"
and that " prayer is an attempt to corrupt your judge and
to silence your adviser."
The only providence the stoic believed in, whatever
isolated expressions might show to the contrary, was the
sufficiency of his own reason, and the supremacy of his
own will. He was his own consoler, counsellor, and
guide. All that he submitted to was unimportant in life.
Nothing could move his will or dethrone his reason. He
had no anxiety about himself, or for his family, or for his
friends, or for his country. Nothing which might befall

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LAW. 163
him or them was to give him the slightest trouble. He
was ready to labor for them and to care for them, but not
at the cost of any inward disquiet. As one of the school
said : " It is better that the child should be bad than that
you should be unhappy." Thus Seneca allowed of clem
ency, but denied compassion ; commanded kindness, but for
bade sympathy ; he will wipe away the tears of others, but
shed none himself. Thus there could be no conscious re
lation to a loving Father, no subduing and chastening of
human passions, no real fellow-feeling and sympathy with
others, no great joy, no inspiring hope, no chance for any
thing beautiful in character or divinely heroic in suffer
ing. The stoic, then, knows no providence but what
comes from that universal reason of which he is a part and
a parcel, and he submits only to what he regards as the
veriest accidents of life. Self-assertion is the law of his
existence ; with the Christian it is self-abandonment.
Self-centred and defiant, the stoic learns only the lesson
of repression ; while the Christian finds his self-reliance
guaranteed in his dependence on God, and gladly follows
the leadings of his providence in a life of submission, of
aspiration, and of entire self-consecration.
Paul and Seneca were in Rome at the same time;
both taught the duty of forgiveness of injuries, yet on
what different grounds and in what a different spirit ! The
philosopher insisted on the doctrine, because the wise man
knows that his enemy can only touch the accidents of life.
One's real self is beyond and above the reach of his mal
ice. In fact, there is nothing to be forgiven. Besides, it
is unworthy of a man to resent an injury. He cannot stoop
so low as to be vindictive, or to allow himself to be dis
turbed by what is not of the slightest moment, or of the

164 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
smallest consequence to his true interests. It is for him to
humiliate his enemy by the calmness and coldness of his
neglect and indifference. With the apostle this doctrine
rested on another basis, and breathed another spirit. The
feeling of forgiveness carried with it the sense of sin, and
the sense of reconciliation. It was the restoration of a
lost fellowship. It was grounded on the mutual relations
of men to each other as creatures and as sinners, and their
common dependence on one and the same Saviour. Both
parties must cherish the spirit of forgiveness, as they hoped
to be forgiven by their Lord in heaven. The stoic par
doned in pride, in contempt, and at a distance. The
Christian forgave in love, and in fellowship, and in the
hope of a richer and sweeter union hereafter.
We may instance one more point of comparison, — the
view of the essential equality of all men. The stoic was
constantly proclaiming the fact that all men were "citi
zens of the world." Man partook of the divine nature,
and had a real kinship with God. In the Christian sys
tem this truth was supplemented by others, namely, that
all partook of a common creaturehood, and of a common
sinfulness. The first by itself satisfies human pride, while
the other secured human love and sympathy. The one
harmonized with the fact of a common aspiration, and the
other with the need of a common redemption. The reali
ties of this life have sanctioned the fuller and clearer idea
of the Christian faith.
If there are any systems of morals of a lofty style and
character held by modern sceptics, we are to bear in mind
how largely these very systems have been indebted to
Christian ideas and institutions. They have grown and
bloomed under the light and heat, under the rain and

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE LAW. 165
dews, of a Christian civilization. What is best in them is
the product of a Christian age, and so gives an unwilling
testimony to the loftiness and purity of the Christian re
ligion.

CHAPTEE VI.
CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE KINGDOM.
SECTION FIRST.
THE IDEA OF A CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
Christianity must issue in a religious society. The
church must grow out of Christ ; for it is the person of
Jesus, and not any doctrinal idea, which is fontal and
central in the religion he founded. He came not to
establish a school, but a kingdom, — not to philosophize,
but to redeem, — not to propagate a dogma, but to gather
about himself believers in his person, and subjects to his
will. He came to win souls from out of the mass of hu
manity, and to assimilate to himself and to each other a
Christ-like community.
The religion of Jesus is historical in its character. It
is a revelation for the ages ; a life to be diffused through
humanity ; and a common worship to be rendered by all
men. It can thus fully realize itself only in a divine
kingdom. This new spiritual fellowship with God neces
sitates a new communion of his people, and seeks for a
fixed visible embodiment in the life and history of the
race. The church, then, is not an appendage, or an instrumen
tality, or even an inseparable accompaniment of the Chris
tian religion. It is not a temporary scaffolding for the
1C6

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE KINGDOM. 167
erection of the temple of truth. It is not an establish
ment which our transient needs have forced on the Founder
of the new faith, or which his followers have substituted
in place of the original idea and plan of their Master.
It is not a mere temporary affair ; for even the end of
human* probation marks not the abolition of the church,
but its perfection ; not its dissolution, but its transfigura
tion. It is in its essential features, then, an integral part
of Christianity itself. It is the conscious living presence
of Christ incarnated in the souls of men. The soul and
body of Christianity cannot be separated without the
practical extinction of the Christian religion itself.
It is true every age will stamp itself on the church.
It can furnish, however, only the varying and the transient
elements in its organic life. That life has its source in
Christ, and its continued growth from his abiding pres
ence ; and all its radically distinctive features are but the
impress of his person and of his character, and the memo
rial of his redeeming work, as that is given in the records
of his earliest disciples and of his chosen apostles. The
manners, and habits, and customs, and institutions, and
prevailing ideas of any local community, where any par
ticular organization has been planted, may modify its
worship, and may vary its modes and methods of activity,
but cannot legitimately alter its original and essential
type. The constitutive elements of every complete Christian
church are few and simple. They are the following :
spiritual life derived from Christ ; or, stated in a more con
crete form, souls in living fellowship with Christ and each
other ; symbols to express, on the one hand, the origin and
continuance of that fellowship, and, on the other, the

168 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
great facts in the life of Jesus ; a ministry to administer
those ordinances and to proclaim the truths they embody ;
and a stated and consecrated day of worship, the Chris
tian Sabbath. These are the constituent factors and the
determining principles in the constitution of the church.
They are essential to its perfection. They cannot be
changed or modified or obscured by any rightful author
ity in or out of the society of Jesus. Nothing can be
taken from them or placed on a level with them. All
other church customs or usages are without any positive
divine sanction, as they are without support in the universal
needs and convictions of humanity. They can rest only
on the tastes and judgments of limited classes or nation
alities, and are supported on the ground of traditional
associations, or justified as a matter of expediency. But
whatever be their value, and however large a suffrage
they may command, they can never rise to the authority
and to the dignity of laws in the kingdom of God.
The relative importance of these several factors is
indicated in the order in which we have given them.
Individual souls, coming to a full moral consciousness by
a conscious union with their great Helper, are made the
unit of power in the commonwealth of Christ. Thus
the personal will, spiritual and transcendent in its char
acter, binds and holds together the entire community. It
is coincident with the collective will of the society. Thus
are secured the divine notes of spirituality, unity, and uni
versality. But the Christ of the church — this transcendent per
sonal presence and power — is ever new and ever fresh. It
can never die out. Human interests and subjective ideas,
and all earthly establ shments founded upon these, are

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE KINGDOM. 169
subject to the law of change. Here alone we have both
stability and growth ; stability, because the same eternal
self-consciousness rules and reigns through the entire life
of the church ; growth, because its sources are as mani
fold as our wants, and as exhaustless as eternity itself.
Thus we have the marks of immutability without immo
bility, or the great divine notes of permanency and devel
opment. If families held this fundamental relation, the responsi
bilities of each soul would be transferred to his represen
tative, and the principle of individualism would be merged
into that of nationalism, and the new community founded
by Christ would tend to become a state establishment.
The common life thus created must find a common ex
pression ; must embody itself in some definite, fixed forms.
That life stands related to the great historic verities in
the person and character of Christ. It is only as thus
symbolized that it can rise above the changing manifesta
tions of different ages, and voice the aspirations of a new
humanity. The prayers of the individual and the creeds
of communities may vary with the changes of culture and
of language; but in these symbolic forms and acts we
have one universal worship and one universal faith.
These representative signs point to the deed-act of God
without us, — the objective fact of redemption ; and to the
deed-act of God within us, — the subjective fact of recon
ciliation. They thus have a special worth and significance, .
and they cannot be altered without more or less obscuring
their divine intent and meaning. They thus grow out
of the very heart of our religion, and so lose the appear
ance of arbitrariness. They represent in a natural manner
the mode of origin and the law of growth of the Chris-
15

170 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
tian life. It is not possible for even the imagination to
conceive of any other forms which would express equally
well the distinctive ideas which they were designed to
reveal. Thus Baptism denotes a radical change in the
moral character by union with Christ, — a death to sin,
and a rising to holiness by fellowship with a dying and
living Redeemer. The Lord's Supper naturally follows
the Lord's Baptism, and signifies the continuance of the
new life, by a continued fellowship with a crucified and
risen Saviour. These ordinances help to settle the organi
zation of every Christian society, and give, in fixed forms,
the one unalterable and universal creed of its Founder.
Subordinate to these elements, in the constitution
of the church, is the Christian ministry. Such an order
of office-bearers and teachers did, without doubt, enter
into the plan of Christ, and is thus essential to the per
fection of his commonwealth. It is true all the communi
cants are kings and priests unto God, and the rights of
kingship and of priesthood are of paramount importance.
But yet the kingly graces and priestly gifts greatly vary
in different members, and so mark their several churchly
callings, and their respective spheres of Christian labor.
Now, whenever these higher endowments are marked
and special, they qualify their possessors for the special
work of the Christian ministry. The character deter
mines the vocation. This divine call is sure to come to
the consciousness of the individual, and to awaken within
him a sense of his true destination. It will, in time,
meet with a response in the body of the church, and can
justly claim a formal and authoritative recognition on the
part of the clergy. The ordination is only a public
acknowledgment of a divine vocation. It remains for

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE KINGDOM. 171
each separate community to determine what class of min
isterial gifts best suit its peculiar wants and surroundings.
It belongs to the spiritual office to preach the gospel, to
administer the ordinances, and to recognize those whom
God has called into its ranks. These duties and privi
leges aro naturally co-ordinate, and leave no room for any
other great spiritual duties to be performed by any other
distinctive office. The temporalities of each local com
munity must be assigned to an office local in its character
and in its authority. The apostolate has passed away;
but the pastorate remains. The mission of the first was
extraordinary; for, as inspired teachers, and the authori
tative guides of the universal church, they could have
no successors ; but the office of the second must remain
till the great Master of both apostle and pastor shall
come a second time, at the close of our probation.
The last great distinctive element in a perfect church is
the day of public Christian worship. It is the birthday
of the kingdom of Christ, — the day of the resurrection,
and of redemption. It is destined to become the great
rest day of a new humanity. It is a necessity of the
church, and so an outgrowth of Christianity itself. The
patriarchal dispensation had its day, — the day of crea
tion. But the theophany was abolished by being fulfilled
in the theocracy; and so the Jewish economy enlarged
the idea of the ancient Sabbath. It had its day, — the
day of national deliverance. But these partial and
transitional revelations were, in their essential principles,
gathered up in the new theocracy, — the spiritual, and
universal, and final kingdom, founded by the Son of God.
The Christian church must have its oft-recurring day of
jubilee, — the one fixed season of praise for God's recon-

172 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
c'iliatioh to man, and of prayer for man's reconciliation to
God. It is the great memorial day of Christ's victory over
death, and so the only fit stated occasion when the grand
realities of his redemptive work can be presented to the
world, and when the final issues of this probationary life
can be urged home on the souls of men.
A church without a spiritual membership lacks a
divine life ; without its proper distinctive symbols, a real
objectivity ; without a ministry, a missionary zeal and an
aggressive power ; without a Sabbath, the position of in
fluence and of authority in the world ; and without, as we
have elsewhere intimated, a divine law-book, it lacks
purity and stability of Christian doctrine.
Every society thus organised is a representative of the
divine kingdom, and is responsible to* its great Head and
Founder. It has all the privileges and all the obliga
tions, all the fights' and all the duties, which belong to
the new theocratic empire established by Christ. Neither
antiquity, nor numbers, nor wealth, nor culture, nor real
or _ fancied superior gifts, nor geographical or national
position, can alter the official equality of the churches, or
give to any one of them an ecclesiastical pre-eminence.
These several Christian communities, however numer
ous and however divergent in the points we have just
iioted, are bound together by the closest ties. They all
have "one Lord, one faith, and one baptism." There is
mutual fellowship in all the essentials of a common belief.
Membership in any one church secures the same in every
other. The vote of admission is only a vote of confidence
in the profession of a disciple ; and the letter of dismission
has no value except as the credentials of one's member
ship. The exclusion from any one visible church is an

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE KINGDOM. 173
exclusion from all of them ; for the qualifications for enter
ing the kingdom of God, and the grounds for exclusion,
aro the same, everywhere and always. The organic law
has been fixed, once and forever, by Christ himself.
These several societies, acting separately or collectively,
may create agencies, or found institutions, for the promo
tion of any moral or religious end whatever. But the
dependent bodies hold a less central position in the evan
gelization of the world than the church ; and their relation
to its spiritual Head is less direct and immediate than
that of the society he has founded. Their work, too, is
to be outside of what is distinctive and peculiar in the
church organization. The men who lead them, or fill
their offices, have no ecclesiastical prerogatives whatever.
There is room even for associations, and conventions, and
councils, made up of messengers, or composed of Christian
men voluntarily assembling for Christian purposes. Such
are inevitable, where the power of the church comes in
conflict with the forces of an alien and godless world.
The churches remain then in their integrity, incarnating
the life of their common Lord, mutually dependent on
his invisible presence, and inwardly united by a common
spirit, a common belief, a common worship, and a common
work. This divine idea of a Christian church has been only
partially realized. The plan of Christ has been more or
less departed from by his professed disciples. The princi
ples of his kingdom have been obscured or modified, or
their relative importance has been misapprehended, and
some one has been unduly emphasized and exaggerated at
the expense of the others. In the midst of such antago
nisms, t^ere haye sprung up diverging denominations and

174 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
Opposing sects in Christendom. But these two facts of
modern history loom up before us, and challenge contra
diction : One is, that the points in which the Christian
churches of every name agree are immeasurably more im
portant than the point or points in which they differ.
The other is, that there is a growing unity of spirit
among them, and a growing friendly co-operation in the
work of redeeming a lost world: These two facts indicate
an approach to the ideal of Jesus.
The evidence of this view is to be found, not so much
in written creeds, or in the polemic works of theologians,
as in the freer and often profounder utterances of those
men who may justly be regarded as the representatives of
modern Christianity, — the foremost men of the Christian
pulpit and of the Christian press.

SECTION SECOND.
THE VALUE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
Christianity, viewed as a philosophy, must ever hold
a central place in the history of opinion^ as Jesus is the
profoundest of all religious philosophers.
But if his religion had been only a philosophy, having
its seat alone in the heart and mind of his disciples, it
would have been a splendid failure; for the individual
man is not a tenant of the invisible and ideal world alone,
and so cannot sustain himself in any such isolation. He
cannot walk alone on any such plane of thought and of feel
ing. At such an elevation the air is too cold and too rare,
and all life is too meagre and stunted, for the soul to find a
permanent resting-plaCe. The individual is not great enough

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE KINGDOM. 175
to constitute, in his own separate personality, the church
of God. He needs the sympathy and the support of his
fellows, as truly as of his God. He obtains, in fact, the
one, in a great measure, by means of the other. The
society, in its organized capacity, cannot as easily fall
away from its proper vocatioh, as the separate individuals
which make up its membership ; for whenever and wherev
er it meets, it does so in the presence of grand and ever
lasting realities, and in the consciousness of great memo
ries and great hopes ; and it cannot well absolutely lose
sight of its own lofty ideals. Its very attitude before the
world, and its very worship reacting on its faith, and its
ordained ministry, are conservative and educative in their
nature. Nor can an unbelieving community ever be
saved by the chance influence of the secret disciples of
our Lord. The seeds of life cannot be trusted to the cur
rents and the tides of varying human opinions. The
winds of heaven do indeed carry the life-germs of many a
flower, and scatter them far and wide ; and many a soul is
made to rejoice in their beauty and fragrance. But the
great world, petrified in death, is to be quickened and won
to God by a religion that shall organize itself, and be an
abiding and living memorial of his presence, and be posi
tive and aggressive in its spirit and in its movements.
The plan of Christ looked to something more potent than
the cold and dead categories of rational and moral princi
ples. He founded no academy, and established no republic
of letters, but a spiritual empire, and put its divine origin
to the severest ordeal and to the most practical of all pos
sible tests, — the test of general necessity and utility. If
the church of Christ is Utopian in its character, then its
founder was a dreamer ; but if it is the realization, more

176 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
or less complete, of the reign of God in fallen human
souls, then he is the message and the messenger of heaven.
This will appear when we come to consider Christianity as
a power in human society. But the ground and the pledge
of that power may be given in this connection.
The organization is based on the common origin, the
common nature, and the common destiny of the race. The
bond of association is of the broadest possible kind. There
is no institution or community with which it can be com
pared. Brokers have their boards; merchants their
guilds ; lawyers their inns ; savants their academies ; so
cialists their communities ; masons their lodges ; literary men
their clubs and secret societies ; working men their trades-
unions; and the members of any one race or nation have
their separate state associations ; but humanity has but one
and the same home for all souls. Thus the church is not
for the select few, distinguished by nobility of descent, or
ennobled by talent or learning, or favored by rich natural
endowments of head or heart, or even rendered famous by
great discoveries or by heroic achievements. It is in no
respect and in no direction exclusive and aristocratic in its
character. The church alone is the one universal empire,
— the one kingdom of God on earth, into which all the
members of the human family may enter, and enter in the
same way and on the same footing, and in which they may
find an enduring satisfaction and an inward and permanent
repose. But human nature has lost its original harmonies. Man
in his fall from God has fallen away both from his true
self and from his fellow. The great human sympathies no
longer well up and overflow, and thus bind together all
souls of the most diverse cultures into one common broth-

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE KINGDOM. 177
erhood. Thus the race in its present condition, false to its
true race-life, cannot afford an adequate basis for a holy
catholic church. That church must rest on a humanity,
not restored, for that is impossible, but recreated, — ad
vanced towards a higher and purer ideal, remoulded after
the likeness of its new Head, and gathered into a new and
higher unity under the lead of its new Representative.
The church makes its appeal to what is central in our
nature, — to the religious susceptibilities and capacities of
the human soul. Thus it is not a great communistic associ
ation, where one works from the surface of human life to
wards its centre, and where, too, every form of selfishness
is Sought to be balanced by some counter selfish tendency.
Such a society may for a time secure the results of asso
ciated labor, but it cannot long survive the inherent weak
ness of its very constitution. It sacrifices the spiritual
elements in the nature of man, clouding his conscience, be
littling his aspirations, effacing his finer and more delicate
sensibilities, and taking away the very possibility of a con
secrated and unselfish life. At best it can only be local
and temporary in its character. It can never make itself
universal. All such plans and methods of social regenera
tion are quite foreign and antagonistic to the idea and to
the aims of the kingdom of God. The plan of Christ,
unique and original as it is, is alone adapted to meet the
exigencies of the case.
Nor is the church a general moral reform society. Its
work is deeper and wider than the eradicating of any form
of social evil, or even the uprooting of all the great ills and
wrongs of human history. It begins at the origin of all
human woes, and seeks to restore man to his fellowship
with God, and to make him worthy of that communion.

178 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
In such a renewal, the feeling of a common relationship and
kinship is called into a new and fresh life, and man is thus
reconciled both to himself and to his fellows. Thus Christ
grounds his kingdom on the broad instincts and aspirations
of humanity ; on the grand possibilities which make man
capable of redemption ; on what is fontal in his nature, as
that nature is quickened and raised to a higher plane of
life by the indwelling of the Spirit of God.
The idea of such a regenerated and regenerating society
was not reached by a philosophic investigation into the
essential elements of man's nature ; nor by a careful and
laborious induction of historical data ; nor was it borne to
the author by the advancing opinions of his day. It was
apprehended at once without effort, and without even the
surprise and the glow of joy at a great discovery, and ap
prehended, too, in its fulness and in its grandeur. Placed
by his origin and destiny in the line of the old Hebrew
prophets, and familiar with their theocratic ideas, Jesus real
ized in thought and in act, in his very person and work,
the new kingdom of God. It was his life-thought and life-
deed, growing with the growth of his divinely-human
consciousness. All other founders of religious institutions
have shown that they were but leaders of sects, and that
their creations were but the reflections of the age in which
they lived, without the notes of originality, universality,
perpetuity, and sanctity.
But the plan of a divine society simply presents Jesus
as the first of idealists ; as a genius inspired by the breath
of a better world, and revelling in schemes whose match
less grandeur and goodness made them all the more vis
ionary. Now Christ was a realist, and that, too, in his
highest thought and in his loftiest purpose. He had no

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE KINGDOM. 179
visions ; he did not live in his imaginations, but in the
world of spiritual realities. He brings with him the veri
ties of that world into the actualities of this life. In him
alone they harmonize and make the rhythm of his won-
drously human character. His ideas enter into history
because they are realized in a life which is in no sense a
failure. He will execute his plan because his very living
presence in human consciousness is the ground and pledge
and beginning of that execution.
But he accepts all the issues of his career, as fully as he
recognizes its moral necessity ; and he apprehends all its
difficulties, as clearly as he looks forward to the joy and the
success which are to crown its goal. He does not succumb
to the obstacles which oppose his path by sacrificing his
principles in order to secure a nominal triumph ; nor does
he ignore them by presenting an impracticable scheme of
life. He begins where he finds man, opens to his view the
truths nearest to his wants, and presents the subordinate
motives till the higher springs of action are formed in his
soul. He thus leads man, in the only way in which he can
be led, towards his true destination.
But how shall Christ make his church a living organize
tion ? How can he save it from being a mere dead estab
lishment, to be sustained only by the civil government or
by the necessities of social life, or by the appliances of art,
or by the genius of its leaders, or by the vague longings of
our religious nature, or by that party devotion whose very
intensity serves to hide from the consciousness the utter
selfishness of its character ? Now Christ presents himself
as the source of its life and as the principle of its growth.
It is not the memory of the name and work of Jesus which
is to be the inspiring bond of the new association, but his

180 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
own real presence in the souls of its members. It is
Christ himself, with all the garnered treasures of Calvary,
who is the source of all its vitality. Thus no regenerat
ing power can be evolved from unregenerated natures, and
no spiritual efficiency can be imparted to any outward rite,
by whatever formula it may be accompanied. The symbol
has its place as the memorial of great facts, as the mirror
of great truths, and as the pledge of the glories of a future
and invisible world. It is the truth, whether thus symbol
ized, or crystallized in the form of the inspired word, or
given from the lips of the Christian minister, or brought
home to the soul in the providence of God, which is the
instrumentality that Christ uses in order to attach men
to himself, and to enter into fellowship with his people.
Thus the primary elements in the origin and in the devel
opment of the church are not subordinated to the second
ary and dependent agencies. Education has its place, but
not the first place, in the new life-process, not even under
the most favorable circumstances ; for the child, as the
man, needs renewal, and that renewal can only come of
union with Christ. The ehurch can never take the place
of him from whom it sprang, and whose life it incarnates,
and can never by mere educative means and influences
mould natures, however young and plastic, into the liker
ness of its Lord. He alone can found the new theocracy
by working on and in human souls, through his provi
dence, his institutions, his followers, his word and the
Christian literature it has created, and, above all, by
means of his living ministry.
The church thus founded has penetrated all races and
all nationalities, however diverse they may have been in
character, or culture, or manners, or government. 1% has

CHRISTIANITY A DIVINE KINGDOM. 181
established itself among the most advanced nations of the
world, of whose civilization it is the highest expression
and the chief support. It has entered the great families
of India, and planted itself among the barbarous tribes of
Asia and of Africa. It was able to do this by the simple
and radical principles it embodied and avowed, and by
that unseen spiritual presence of which it was the abid
ing witness. A solitary missionary, gathering two or
three souls about himself, forms the nucleus of the king
dom of God. Then and there is inaugurated a religious
revolution ; and from that event is to be dated the over
throw of the mighty fabrics of heathen superstitions. Thus
heralds of truth and love, with no gift but that of simple
faith in their Master, have by patient working and waiting
. girdled the earth with new Christian communities, and laid
the groundwork for his universal reign.
The imperfections of the existing church of God, the
slowness of its growth, its varying fortunes, and its present
limitations need not raise any misgivings or fears. All
these were anticipated by its Founder. He knew the ma
terial he had to work with, and the character of the work
which needed to be done in and for man, and the mode of
doing it. He designed that the church should be formed
out of a new humanity, and he knew that that humanity
could be only partially conformed in this world to his own
plan and ideal. He recognized the greatness of man's
moral nature. He left unabrogated the laws of human
development. He secured all the coming ages, in which
each nation might work out its own destiny. He made all
virtues acquirements as well as gifts, so that they might
become the real and permanent possessions of the soul.
The difficulties which start up, on the theory of the hu-
16

182 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
man origin of the church, are overwhelming and fatal;
while those which present themselves on the supposition of
its divine origin are superficial and casual in their char
acter. They are but the accompaniments of human free
dom. They are grounded on hindrances which are sure
to yield, in the course of time, to the inherent and irre
pressible tendencies of truth. These obstacles will, in the
lapse of the uncounted ages, be reduced to so many van
ishing points. Still the church is never to be glorified in
the midst of its conflicts on earth, but only at the close of
its struggles, as it enters on its triumphal life in heaven
itself.

CHAPTEE VII.
CHRISTIANITY A FULFILMENT.
SECTION FIBST.
THE ETHNIC PREPARATION.
As Christ was not the creature of his age, but the cre
ator of a new epoch and the leader of all the outpouring
centuries, so his religion was a new creation. It was not
the efflorescence of Judaism, for the old economy was
dying out when Christ appeared. He was not evolved
from the life of the Jewish people, for, though born of
them, he was above them all. His appearance was a fresh
deed-act of God, creative and transcendent in its charac
ter. His religion could not be an amalgam of Judaism
and orientalism; for it had a living unity in the grand
Personage of its Founder, so that it could not consist of
any mosaic, however beautifully or artistically made. It
is true the East had its incarnations, and the West its
apotheoses, but the aspirations and the dreams of both
were purified and realized alone in the central historical
fact of Christianity, — the coming and the reign of the Son
of God in human life. And Judaism itself was only the
prelude and the herald, and in no sense the creator, of the
new Christian faith.
But Christianity has another broad aspect. Christ
appeared in the "fulness of times." His religion must,
183

184 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
then, be not a development, but a fulfilment of prophecy,
— whether that prophecy emerges with increasing clear
ness along the path of the ethnic nations, or whether it
consciously gathers to a head in the Hebrew race.'
The New Testament represents heathendom as a world
forsaken of God. But this abandonment is not an abne
gation of divine control. For there can be no interreg
num in the government of God. His general providence
is extended over all the earth. He reveals himself in the
heathen conscience, and in the bounties of nature, and the
divine call to repentance repeats itself with every setting
sun. Yet God does abandon them, in that he does not
send a prophet to reveal his counsels, or a priest to conse
crate his sanctuary, and to minister at his altar. Thus, in
the language of the apostle, " He suffers all nations to
walk in their own ways." But the light of experience
and of history ever remains to witness to God's watch-
care and love. We must, then, conclude that even Gentil-
ism, in its dim foregleams of the truth, and in its fearful
revelations of its wants and woes, was a providential prep
aration for Christianity. It must be so, since redemption
is the goal of Providence.
This preparation was also ideal in its character. The
Pagan mind embodied its hopes and its fears, even its
profoundest ideas, in symbols and myths. Many of its
divinities were the impersonation of its governing moral
sentiments. Thus Nemesis was the goddess of retribution ;
the Eumenides, the avengers of crime ; Hercules, the em
bodiment of the heroic virtues. The poets gave a fixed
form to their sense of the true and the right in their epics
and dramas. But these fables, with all their drapery of
fancy and with all their truthful sentiments, had no his-

CHRISTIANITY A FULFILMENT. 185
torical basis, and hence could have no permanent hold on
the moral susceptibilities of the people. Their deeper
truths lived chiefly in the imagination, and hardly in the
convictions, of the literary men of the Old World. It is
true there was a progress in breadth and loftiness of view.
We can advance from Homer to the tragedians, from Plato
to Seneca and the Roman stoics, who succeeded him. It
was, however, an advancement in the region of pure
thought, rather than in action, — in letters and criticism,
rather than in noble living. There were dramatists and
historians and satirists, and even moralists, but no re
formers. The spirit of reform only ruffled the surface
of society. The cold idealism of the great masters of
poesy and of philosophy had rendered it well-nigh impos
sible. For it is worthy of note, that, in the very age
when ethical science most fully bloomed, its very prin
ciples most waned in motive power. The old Pagan
moralists indulged in beautiful speculations, but seem not
to have had faith in their own ideals. Cicero argued for
the existence of God ; but God with him was only a neces
sity of thought, and not of life. He does not base virtue
on God's nature or his will. Seneca wrote his eulogy on
poverty, and had his millions out at an exorbitant interest.
He commended a life of abstinence, and lived luxuriously
in his splendid palace. His works were text-books in the
schools of Rome, and abounded in detached moral senti
ments of striking beauty. But his noble words on the
inherent rights of all men, unsupported as they were by
depth of conviction, or by a self-sacrificing life, were
grateful to Roman ears, as only the music of a beautiful
song. This ideal preparation did, however, promote the
general culture and advance the general intelligence.

186 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
The ideas of truth and of goodness were raised to a higher
level. The standard of moral excellence was so elevated
as to comprehend, in a measure, the mission of Him,
who should, in his own person, actually embody a still
higher ideal, and actually realize and make potential in
the world a still loftier virtue.
This preparation was also outward and negative in its
nature. We call it outward, because the Old World did,
in many directions, but rear the scaffolding of Christian
civilization. Greece and Rome had gathered all that was
valuable in the culture of heathendom. The treasures
of science heaped up in the valley of the Euphrates, or
along the banks of the Nile, had not been lost. They
found a repository in the great bilingual empire whieh
encircled the Great Sea. The Greeks bequeathed all her
master-works of philosophy and of art ; and the Romans
handed down to the coming Christian ages her splendid
system of jurisprudence, and her municipal institutions.
The rising Christian states gathered inspiration from the
one and practical wisdom from the other. Thus te ethnic
literature, when it had reached its greatest fulness and
richness, opened a wide path for the entrance of the nSw
faith. The general enlightenment which accompanied and
followed its diffusion made the common people accessible
to the gospel. Such was the view of the early Christian
Fathers. We find, too, in the porticos of the Eastern
church the followers of Pythagoras and of Plato pictured
as those who prepared the way for Christianity. „
The great despotisms of the Oriental world are here left
out of account. They did not prepare the way so much
for the coming of Christ as they did for the diffusion of
his religion at a later period. They saved much from the

CHRISTIANITY A FULFILMENT. 187
great waste and ruin of barbarism, and will, no doubt, here
after add much to a deeper apprehension of Christianity
itself. The gospel will come to them, not with the isolated
miracles of apostles, but with the permanent miracles of
a Christendom of eighteen centuries standing.
This preparation was also negative in its character, for
it was the preparation of hopelessness. It was the ethnic
conviction which must precede the conversion of the
nations. The wail of the world's woes voiced itself in
suppressed murmurs of despair. Heathenism revealed
just those defects and those wants which Christianity sup
plied. It was the proclamation and the verification of the
failure of all human efforts to redeem society from its im
pending doom. Gentilism, by its deification of the forces
of nature and of life, revealed its yearning for a personal
God incarnated in humanity. Its system of idolatry, with
its consecrated symbols, expressed its need of some effect
ual mediation between God and man. And its sacrificial
rites showed how deeply convinced the worshipper was of
tho reigning presence of evil within him and without him,
and how he craved a propitiation which would restore him
to the favor of the Deity. In all this there is an unconscious
prophecy. The mystery of blood veiled under those dark
heathen rites was clearly revealed on Golgotha.
The crisis in the old civilization showed that the ful
ness of times had come. It demanded a special interven
tion. The fate of society depended on the introduction
»of new dominant life-forces, which should impress and
mould this great, heaving, fluid mass of humanity. How
impending and decisive this crisis was, is apparent from
the causes which induced it, and their radical and wide-
sweeping effects. The leading ones must be here noted.

188 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
The very growth of the empire hastened its decline.
The belt of nations which enclosed the Great Sea formed
one great Mediterranean community. Rome was its social
and political centre. She had Romanized all the lower
forms of culture. The empire was one in thought, and
feeling, and interest, as well as in polity. This centrali
zation broke down and wore away the life of the separate
states. The petty tyrannies and partial codes of opposing
nationalities were lost in this consolidation. But with the
nationality the stronger elements of public life also per
ished. The hold on the past was. broken, or made crush-
ingly sad, and all aspirations for the future were gone for
ever. The love of country, so grand in its intensity and
exclusiveness, went down with the loss of independence.
The Roman citizen, himself strong in his patriotism, with a
high sense of his personal worth, lost that sense when he
found the elective franchise so extended as to admit vast
numbers of outsiders to the dignity of citizenship. His
virtue sunk with his self-respect. All the distinctive
traits of the old Roman character were fused and trans
fused in this cosmopolitan culture.
The sudden and enormous increase of wealth still
further sapped the foundations of Roman society. A
large part of this was gained through the legitimate chan
nels of commerce and trade, but by no means all. The
state made its provinces tributary, and its wars the occa
sion of wholesale robbery. Its public functionaries were
extortioners and spendthrifts. Wealth, thus wrongfully*
gained, and selfishly squandered, without any principle
or any high ends to regulate its use, could not but poison
all the veins and arteries of the common life. The old
domestic virtues of the Romans could not resist the tide

CHRISTIANITY A FULFILMENT. 189
of corruption. The number of slaves greatly increased
by war and by purchase, and the curse of slavery burned
itself deeper into the vitals of the commonwealth. Labor
was dishonored. Trade was placed in the hands of the
bondmen. Crowds of paupers were supported in idleness
by the largesses of ambitious demagogues. Luxury per
vaded all the higher classes of society, and bore its legiti
mate fruit. Men and women became effeminate, and re
fused to bear the burdens of children. The old, noble
families died out, or were replenished by the sons of bar
barians. Rome was losing her best blood. Underneath
softness of manner there lurked callousness of heart, a
cruel and often ferocious disposition. Sensuality reigned
everywhere. It was not an excrescence of society, as in
modern life, but it paraded itself in public. Art was
made to foster it, and foreign superstitions gave it a semi-
religious sanction. Images of shame were painted in
private dwellings, and carved on the vases, and elegantly
wrought on the ornaments of the hands and feet. The
low and degrading scenes of the theatre, and amphithea
tre, and circus, drew together, not only the rabble, but the
fashion and the elegance, of Roman society. The famous
watering-places of Italy, Baiae and Puteoli, derived all
their charms from the godless lives of the aristocratic
families of the metropolis. In fact, the courtesans were
the representatives of educated women. The ties of do
mestic life were greatly weakened. Divorce was common.
"Cicero, Pompey, Csesar, Augustus, and his successor, put
away their wives. It was done, too, at pleasure, and
without even the formality of a judicial procedure. The
responsibilities and cares of marriage had become irk
some ; and the emperor had to treat celibacy as a crime

190 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
against the state. Augustus went so far as to sanction
that immoral relation where the " amica " took the place
of the wife. The old society was surfeited with illicit
excesses and dementing vices. Its vital forces were well-
nigh worn out in refined indulgences, or in brutal pleas
ures. Law only restrained the passions, and philosophy
only refined the manners. Beneath a splendid exterior
there was concealed a hopeless decrepitude of body and of
soul. The loss of the ancestral faith precipitated the fall of
the old culture. This grew out of the decline of specula
tive studies, and out of the increase of general intelli
gence. Philosophy had spent its force. It had lost its
fascination for the leading minds of the republic or of
the empire. Its earnestness was gone. Its sublime prob
lems were treated as so many puzzles which might amuse
the intellect, but could not satisfy the soul. Its study
was at best an amusement, or a discipline, and its pursuit
a trade. Rhetoricians dealt out its petrified forms to the
scholars, and strolling pedagogues peddled their small
wares to crowds in the market-place ; and mountebanks and
astrologers were the real teachers of the lower order of
society. The result of all this was scepticism on the one
hand, and superstition on the other. The educated classes
became infidel. They treated the state religion as a
police arrangement, to be accepted and used for what it
was worth. But the moral and religious convictions of
the masses had not absolutely rotted away. They must
worship something. Thus, when they left the gods of
their fathers, they turned with the recklessness of despair
to the foreign shrines. They deified their Hving emperors,
and put them on a level with their old divinities. The

CHRISTIANITY A FULFILMENT. 191
change was demoralizing. The new gods of the East
brought with them their retinue of priests and prophets,
their coarse and sensuous festivals, and their secret and
mystic rites and ceremonies. Thus the shrine vied with
the stage in glorifying vice. The conservative elements
of the ancient faith perished between the infidelity of the
leaders of society, and the new and fierce superstitions
of their followers. Unbelief and credulity are always the
twin offspring of a fast-decaying civilization.
This process of death went on all the more surely and
rapidly, for the reason that the multitude were uncon
scious of its presence. Still, here and there, were vague
expectations of a deliverer, — expectations which betokened
a sense of helplessness. And the more earnest citizens
could not conceal from themselves that society was ap
proaching a dissolution. Tacitus looked on human life
with pity or contempt, and Juvenal is as bitter and sar
castic in his representations, as the Roman historian is
clear and sad and despairing in his delineations. Sen
eca advocated suicide as the only remedy for brave men.
He exclaimed : " Freedom is so near, and yet there are
slaves! " It is evident, as Ritter affirms, in his "History
of Philosophy," "that the Roman nation was ripe for
death." And Branis, in his Introduction to his "Phi
losophy," has well put the case : " The first centuries of
Christianity are nothing but a death and a resurrection, —
a death, as a decay and ending of the old order of things ;
a resurrection, as the bringing in of a new epoch, whose
immanent principle and conscious motive was Christ."
One thing is plain, that the tragic feature in this great
drama was becoming broader and deeper when the final
catastrophe was partially averted and turned aside by the

192 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
coming of the Son of God. Thus the ethnic civilization,
by its fulness and by its emptiness, by its hopelessness
and by its yearnings, by the pressure of its inmost needs
and by its real progress in moral enlightenment, was an
unconscious preparation for the introduction of the Chris
tian religion.
SECTION SECOND.
THE JEWISH PREPARATION.
The Jewish people were a marvellous phenomenon in an
cient history. They were separated from others by broad
and generic differences, — differences which place them
on a higher plane of spiritual life than that occupied by the
foremost of the ethnic races. Inferior to most in culture,
in power, in wealth, in extent of territory, and in trade
and commerce, but in advance of all in the purity of their
faith, and in the spirituality of their worship, and in the
depth and tenderness of their religious feelings, the He
brew race stood out a unique people, and an elect commu
nity among the nations of the earth. A supernatural
element marks their origin and pervades their history.
Judaism was not a variation of the common belief of
the Old World. It was not a reform of any heathen relig
ion, but the contradiction of them all. It did not affiliate
with them, but repudiated all fellowship and contact with
them. Its intolerance isolated the Jews as truly as their
faith ; in fact, the former was the offspring of the latter.
The surrounding nations were the foil of the Hebrew peo
ple, bringing out by their contrasts the singularity of
Jewish institutions and the purity of the Jewish worship ;
for it broke with the naturalism whioh environed it. The

CHRISTIANITY A FULFILMENT. 193
kindred tribes of the North and of the East had their
symbolic representations of the hosts of heaven, and their
gross, sensuous rites and ceremonies. But the Jews never
adopted any of them except in express and direct conflict
with their own established and recognized creed. The old
Egyptian faith was equally alien to that which Moses had
received from Jehovah, and had given to his countrymen.
Its worship was divided between the silent tenants of the
heavens, and the dumb creatures of the earth. The old
Egyptians saw, in the unerring instincts of the animal, the
workings of a superhuman intelligence, and in its very
dumbness they felt the mystery of its silent presence.
Thus divinity seemed nearer to them in the brute than in
man. Judaism was absolutely free from the least taint
of any such mediation. The consciousness of Jehovah
was in direct fellowship with the consciousness of his wor
shipper. The religious belief of Egypt did not stamp
itself in that of Judea, even where we might have expected
such a result. We should have supposed that the doctrine
of immortality would have been placed in the foreground
of the Mosaic economy. Such is not the fact. It was the
meeting of God now, and not the coming into his presence
hereafter, which was the great motive presented by the
lawgiver of Israel. Immediate rewards and punishments,
and not remote ones, were the burden of prophetic utter
ances. These were accepted as the preludes of something
more hereafter. Such a pre-eminence in the very group
of nations to which the Jewish people belonged, points
them out as holding a leading position in the religious his
tory of the world.
But the life of the Hebrews did touch here and there
the life of the adjoining tribes and nations. Its ritual, in
17

194 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
its outward forms, often bears a rude resemblance to those
of Babylon and Egypt. But these resemblances were
only incidental in their character. They did not touch
the centre of faith, or the heart of the inner life of the
Jews. These forms and rites, borrowed from the Gentiles,
and often greatly changed, were, in fact, rebaptized, and
made to take on a new and higher significance. The char
acter of Judaism, on whatever side it is viewed, demands
a supernatural origin, as it points to a divine destination.
We cannot account for this system of religion, and the
modes of thought and habits of feeling it engendered,
except on the supposition that they were the people of
God, educated and set apart by an unseen power, — the
organ of the Divine- Will, and the depositaries of revealed
truth, — a people whose history was both miraculous and
prophetic. However criticism may deal with the Pentateuch, and
the glorious writings of the old Hebrew prophets, one
thing seems certain, and that is, that Judaism was of
God. The divine call and mission of Moses must be
admitted as a settled historical fact, without which the
Mosaic dispensation would ' be the enigma of the Old
World. The rise of heathenism endangered the purity of the
primeval revelations ; and the founding of new nations on
a Polytheistic basis tended to make idolatry universal, and
to banish the worship of the true God from the face of the
earth. One nation must be formed after the divine model,
in order to save the original truths given to man, and to
transmit them in increased measure, and with new applica
tions, to the succeeding ages. They could not be left to
single souls gathered into a free church, for in such a

CHRISTIANITY A FULFILMENT. 195
society the individual was nothing, and freedom was a
chimera. At such a crisis in the world's history a solitary person
age is summoned to found a theocratic state. Borne up
by a sense of destiny, and by a lofty faith in the success
of his mission, the patriarch forsakes his ancestral home
and retires to the hills of Canaan. Here his family is
secluded and trained under the old theophany. At a
later period, their descendants migrate, under the providen
tial guidance of Jehovah, to the rural districts of Egypt.
Here they remain under the severe but salutary discipline
of bondage, till they are in a miraculous manner delivered,
and directed to return to the home of their fathers. At
Sinai, Jehovah gives them his law, and accepts them as
his elect people. They march under his guidance, and
witness in their journeyings fresh miracles of judgment
and of mercy. Thus organized and instructed, they enter
the promised land, — a land both isolated and central,
where, on the one hand, they may be protected from foreign
influences, and where, on the other hand, they may go
forth, at the foreordained hour, as the bearers of positive
revealed truth to the Gentile world.
A theocratic state was thus established. Jehovah be
comes the sole lawgiver of the new commonwealth. He
enters into friendly relations with the children of Israel.
He establishes a central seat of public worship, and mani
fests his special presence in its inmost sanctuary. He thus
contrasts his one tabernacle at Jerusalem with the many
temples of the Polytheistic nations. An order of heredi
tary priests was established, whose ministrations, morning
and evening, and on the great festive occasions, should
keep fresh the memories of the past, and keep alive the

196

EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

consciousness of sin and of redemption. To guard against
the formalism of the priestly order and their ritual, Jeho
vah raised up a succession of prophets, — interpreters of
his mind and guardians of his honor, — both patriots and
preachers of righteousness. A volume of written law was
thus gradually formed, which embodied the will of God
and the history of his people. A theocratic element per
vades the public life and controls the fortunes of the na
tion. Loyalty to Jehovah secures victory, disloyalty
brings defeat and exile. Its whole history was an illus
tration, on the broadest scale, of the supernatural provi
dence of God.
Thus Judaism was not so much an ideal, as a real
preparation for Christianity; for the Mosaic economy
did not grow out of the current modes of thought and of
feeling in the ancestors of Abraham. It was the revival
and enlargement of the primeval faith in the soul of the
patriarch. Here was its new germ and its fresh starting-
point, originating in the deed-act of Jehovah. God
passed in symbols before his vision, and entered creatively
into his consciousness. His faith did not spring from his
fancy, but rested in the facts of his life and history.
Otherwise, he could not have been the founder of the He
brew race. Judaism did not consist simply in the wealth
of religious ideas or the depth of the religious senti
ment prevalent among the masses ; nor even in the higher
conceptions of truth cherished by the more advanced
thinkers of the Jewish community. It was a positive re
ligion. The law, the family of priests, the line of
prophets, the temple service and its significant and splen
did ceremonial, all had a divine origin and sanction, — an
authority far above the endorsement of the people or of

CHRISTIANITY A FULFILMENT. 197
their leaders, — an authority grounded on the re-en
trance of God into the course of nature and into the life of
humanity. Besides, the belief in Jehovah, the recognition
of his unity, personality, and providence, was not a senti
ment grounded on the interpretation of the natural signs
of the divine presence, but a living conviction, created by
the transcendent movement of God in the history of the
people. This belief was not a sentiment which had
clothed itself in a myth, but an inward persuasion, whose
reality was witnessed to by the grand miracles which
marked the epochs in the history of Israel. Thus the
whole Jewish mind was realistic in its tendencies. Na
ture's laws were God's mode of operation ; and every
event in the lives of the individuals was seen in the light
of the divine presence, and every change of fortune in
the life of the nation was marked by some religious festi
val or some sacred rite. In brief, Judaism wa3 not a sys
tem worked out by their great men, but had come to them
from without and from above ; not from the subjectivity
of man, but from the objectivity of God's presence and
agency in the history of the people. Its dogmas had a
historical, but supernatural basis.
This preparation was direct as well as real in its char
acter. The old economy brought men into actual fellow
ship with Jehovah, and was thus the medium of divine
life and light. That life and light was not so clear
and so full as the distinctively Christian life, but it was
essentially the same. The sun was hidden, but the plan
ets still gave forth his reflected light. The dawning of the
morning gave the promise of a noontide splendor. Jeho
vah stood to the pious Hebrew consciousness in a like rela
tion as Christ now stands to the Christian consciousness.
17*

198 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
This appears on comparing the experimental theology of
the Psalms with that of the Epistles. The way of life,
too, indicated in the approaches to the symbolic Presence
over the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies, was a clear
type of the great central principle of the Christian faith,
that "without the shedding of blood there is no remis
sion." Judaism, then, standing midway in the world's history,
with great memories and greater hopes, was prophetic
throughout. There was a conscious incompleteness which
pointed to the future. The aspirations within and the
ritual without demanded something better and greater
than what was realized in the Mosaic economy. Tho very
doctrine of one God for the one race of man foreshadowed
the ultimate spread of the cardinal principles of Judaism.
Its exclusivcness was on the surface ; in its centre and
core it bore the seeds of universality. The Jewish people
in their highest moods of thought were conscious of their
high mission. Their prophets themselves, in clear and
emphatic tones, foretold a new covenant, — a law written
in the hearts of men, — a new theocratic economy, at once
universal and spiritual.
Judaism, then, in its character and in its history, has
the highest evidential value. It is the great historic wit
ness to the truth of Christianity, inferior only to that
given in the person and life of Christ himself. Here crit
icism cannot obscure the prophecy, or throw doubt on its
fulfilment. The one is the firmest fact in ancient history,
and the other is the broadest fact in modern life.
It is not meant to ignore or belittle the striking charac
ter of many prophetic utterances. They need, however,
a fuller discussion- than we can here give to them. The

CHRISTIANITY A FULFILMENT. 199
general character of prophecy claim3 here a passing no
tice. There is a prophetic element in man, now unnaturally
disturbed in the clairvoyant, and now supernaturally ex
alted in the seer. The last was the cass with the prophets
of Israel. They were not the chroniclers of future cvent3,
but the interpreters of the divine purpose, — the expo
nents of the moral order of the universe. They unfold
the features of the kingdom of God, in the light of his
avenging justice, or of his redeeming mercy. Their chief
mission was to console or to warn their own countrymen.
Thu3 their immediate vision was the near future. But as
this future was only a type of the recurring cycles, which
are to fill up the entire historic period, so it was seen in the
light of the grand consummation ; for the energy of hope
brings the outgoings of the present into clo3e contact with
the grand finality. Thus, too. they paint the future in
colors drawn from their surroundings, and in images suo--
ge3ted by the customs and institutions of their age. They
draw this future out of the present, not by the aid of
human insight, but by f lith in the purpose3 of God, and
by virtue of that illumination which placed them far above
the historians and statesmen of the world. Tracing the
footsteps of God in the past, recognizing his presence in
their own times, they saw with the clearness of open
vision his goings forth ki history, and their grand conse
quences. The burden of all their prophecies was the
struggles and the progress and the triumph of the kingdom
of God. A moral and a supernatural element character
ized their proclamations. Here and there may bo met
flashes of prophetic foresight, isolated, but clear and
specific. But these, too, all have a relation to and a bear-

200 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
ing on the one grand promise and the one grand theme, —
the new crowning Messianic period, — the reign of God in
the souls of men.
But this negative and this positive preparation — this
preparation of despair and of hope, the one coming from
the Gentile world, and tho other from the Jewish people,
— must, to be effectual, flow into one channel. Now this
was brought about by the concurrence of three great
changes, political and social, in the Roman Empire.
The first was the gradual, but wide-spread, dispersion
of the Jewish people. Impelled by a loss of nationality,
and by a love of gain, they made their homes in the chief
cities of the empire, establishing synagogues and places of
prayer, and carrying with them the Greek version of their
prophetic writings.
The second was the establishment of one polity and one
general government over the civilized world. Rome was
the seat of authority for this great monarchy. Military
roads extended from her forum to the most distant col
onies. Her population, with its extravagance and its lux
uries, created a vast commerce, and filled the seas and the
rivers with the merchandise of her most remote provinces.
Thus the antagonism of nations was broken, the antipa
thies of races greatly weakened, and the idea of a uni
versal state prepared the way for the grander conception
of a religion which should transcend the limits of nation
ality, and become as wide-spread as the human race. Be
sides, war was driven to the outskirts of the empire, and
general peace left the highways of travel free and open to
all. Thus, the countries bordering on the Great Sea were
opened to the missionary as well as to the trader, to the
preacher of the cross as well as to the soldiers of Caesar.

CHRISTIANITY A FULFILMENT. 201
The third was the diffusion of the Greek tongue. The
armies of Alexander and of his success >rs had carried the
common Greek idioms into the eastern portions of the civil
ized world. They had founded colonies and settled in the
cities, and thus introduced, throughout Asia Minor, Syria,
and Egypt, their native language. Rome herself was
reached by the intercourse of her people with the East,
and also by the fact that her leading man were ambitious
to know the literature of Greece, and to have their sons
educated in some one of her far-famed schools of learn
ing. Thus was the world prepared for Christianity. Had it
appeared earlier, it could not have bsen apprehended, and
would have perished in the warring jealousies of opposing
states. Had it come later, all the treasures of the past
would have been destroyed, instead of being appropriated,
and the ends of Providence would have been defeated.
But Christ came at the appointed time. The Jewish
mind was cherishing the expectation of his coming, and
the pagan mind was groping all unconsciously after him.
God entered humanity, and went forth to meet the one
and find the other. The apostles, wherever they trav
elled, could freely enter the Jewish synagogue, and there
discourse to their countrymen, and to the numerous pros
elytes from the Gentiles ; or they could gather in the forum
and market-place a crowd more or less ready to listen to
the gospel of Christ. Thus Christianity became the ful
filment of the conscious and of the unconscious prophecies
of the Old World.

CHAPTEE VIII.
CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER.
SECTION FIBST.
ITS ADAPTATION TO HUMANITY.
Christianity addresses the religious consciousness. As
a supernatural fact, it is the lifting of the veil of nature, and
the appearance of God in human history ; as a divine life,
it is the return of God to the soul, and his re-enthrone
ment in the affections and in the will of his creature ; as
a divine doctrine, it is the unfolding of the redemptive
agency and process for the recovery of the race, and the
restoration of the individual soul to its God ; as a divine
law, it gives the ideal, towards which man must move, in
order to reach the goal of his hopes and the perfection of
his nature; as a divine kingdom, it grounds the oneness
of the race on a common natural likeness to God, and in
stitutes a profounder community of life, based on a deeper
resemblance to his character ; and, as a fulfilment, it
reveals man's position in the providence of God, and
explains the past, and guarantees the future. It thus
satisfies what is broadest and deepest in humanity, —
man's craving after life, and light, and sympathy.
But man's wants must first be provided for, before his
capabilities and possibilities can be met and satisfied.
These are expressed in the universal and correlative facts
202

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 203
of human sin and human guilt. These are the radical
and permanent characteristics of human nature in its
present state of existence. Christianity seeks to meet these
at the very outset. It does so, not mainly by enlight
enment or reform, still less by any outward re-organiza
tion of society, but by a redemptive mediation. In this
way a new access is opened to God's infinite love, and
the lost communion is renewed, and made deeper and
richer in spiritual experiences. Had Christ been a mere
teacher, he could not have been the one crowning necessity
of the race, nor could his mission have been anything else
than a splendid failure. If man only needed instruction,
then Socrates might have regenerated Athens, and Seneca
might have stayed the corruption of Rome.
But the physical side of our nature is the open theatre,
though not the seat, of human misery. The tidal wave
of sadness flows from our mortality, and the common griefs
of life spring from a sense of our waning strength, and
from the consciousness of the certainty of our doom. The
changes in the home circle wrought by death, the vacan
cies and voids caused by the los3 of dear ones, and the
blighting of hopes and of high ambitions, which its near
prospect occasions, are evils which belong to our very con
dition. He who has exhausted and mastered these evik
of our common humanity can alone become its great helper
and healer. His victory over death is the one convincing
argument for the resurrection of the dead. All others are
robbed of their consoling power by the touch of death.
Nothing that is spiritual in friendship, or that is pure in
human affection, can perish. Here the religion of Jesus
comes to the heart of every man with the comforts and
consolations of a better world. The redemption of the

204 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
whole man gives to the doctrine of a future life a palpable
form and a practical worth all its own. The individual
is saved. The growth of each one follows the law of its
own life. The symmetry is, as we have elsewhere said,
typical, and not ideal. The lines of separation between
souls are not obliterated. The flower and fruit in another
world are as different as the bud and blossom of this life.
Each individuality i3 to be maintained with its symmetry
of type and its treasures of soul experience. Thus, in the
promise and in the procurement of a new and higher life
for both soul and body, Christianity satisfies one of the
most pressing of human necessities.
The only immortality, which filled the cultivated pagan
mind and monopolized its aspirations, was the immortality
of fame. This came from the fact that the moral convic
tions had melted away in refined self-indulgence, and the
yearnings after a better life had perished in the excite
ments of an engrossing ambition. We meet everywhere in
the Latin writers of the Augustan age the " vivit enim
vivetque semper," or one of its parallels in the " est, erit-
que," or the " manet, et semper manebit," or the " viget,
vigebitque." They never dwell on the hope of a reunion.
Even Cicero, with a higher moral consciousness than his
contemporaries, only gives way to a sense of his own loss
in the death of his Tulliola. Neither he, nor the many
friends who wrote letters of sympathy, could conceal the
hollowness of all consolation apart from the hope of a con
scious and happy reunion hereafter. Plutarch, too, could
go no further in his letter to his wife than to speak of the
death of their daughter as "a little blot" in the volume of
their happy life, and add, as a mere sentiment, that the life
of the little one had become divine. The only immortality

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 205
which moved these men was the reverence of after ages.
Still humanity craved something more than this. And
these authors betray at times thoso deeper yearnings which
belong to our common nature.
Christianity does not aim to furnish materials in an im
mediate and direct manner to allay the evils of life. It
could only do this by making self-sacrifice impossible, and
by excluding all heroism from the kingdom of God. It
meets the ills of humanity by moral and spiritual forces.
It instils the principle of faith ; it inculcates the discipline
of sorrow ; it evoke3 on every hand the charities and the
sympathies of the favored ones of Providence ; . and it en
genders and make3 real the hopes of a holier and happier
life hereafter.
If Christianity was adapted to the peculiar wants and
tastes of the cultivated classes alone, then its teachers
would be philosophers, its Bible a speculative treatise, and
its church an academy. As a philosophy, it might have
had a success ; as a religion, it would have been doomed to
a complete failure. Hal it accommodated itself to the
level of the more ignorant of the community, then we
should have had another form of superstition, and Jesus
would have been added to the gods of the Pantheon. But
it adjust3 itself to neither of these halve3 of our humanity,
but is conformed to the permanent and universal capabili
ties of the race. It thus subordinates the intellectual to
the spiritual nature of man. It places wisdom before
knowledge, worship before culture. It reveals to man his
true dignity, reconciles him to himself, and implants in his
soul the principle of a new and higher harmony. In and
by virtue of this very subordination, the human reason
takes a loftier flight than when it moves alone, self-centred
18

206 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
and self-directed; for it transcends the intellect of the
greatest and best, and stimulates the minds of even the low
liest. All are made to breathe the air of its grand myste
ries, and to feel the glow and warmth that come from the
atmosphere of a higher life. Under such an influence, the
intellect cannot be dwarfed or become shallow from mere
self-complacency. Knowledge has a religious aspect and
worth ; and the search for truth is seen to be the law of
growth, and its results are made to be an eternal posses
sion, and the means of an everlasting good.
Christianity does not ignore the aesthetic element in
human nature. While it makes the conscience the regu
lative principle in the sphere of morals, it allows to the
taste its own ample domain. Its attitude is clear and posi
tive. Its central fact and its constitutive principle sug
gest the theory of the beautiful. Beauty is the infinite
incarnating itself in the modes and forms of the finite. It
is the divine embodying itself in the human. The di
vine thought, whether it be the right, the good, or the true,
as it voices itself in life, is ever beautiful. The divine
volition, as it passes into creation and settles down in na
ture, becomes an object of sublimity or of grace, according
to the intensity of its presence and its movement. Beauty,
then, is the ideal as it actualizes itself in nature, and as it
is approached in pure and noble living, or as it is still fur
ther realized in the works of creative genius.
Christianity has ennobled art, and widened the bounda
ries of her empire. It has given to the endless changes
and forms, and even laws, of nature a divine aspect. It
brings out her hidden meaning and secret intent, and so
enables the artist to embody the spirit of beauty in his
own transcendent creations. In fact, landscape-painting,

CHBISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 207
¦whether it be an imitation or an idealization of nature, is
in its highest form the product of Christian art. Chris
tianity furnishes ampler and richer materials for the
painter or the sculptor than can be found in the old mytholo
gies, or in the lives of Pagan nations. Her history is full
of saintly and heroic deeds, and her spirit must ever in
spire the artist with purer and loftier ideals. Thus, while
the Greek temple rested firmly on the soil, as though it
would embody the sentiment of natural religion, the Chris
tian dome and spire seem to belong to the sphere of the
supernatural, and to carry along with them the hopes and
aspirations of the worshipper. Thus, too, while antique
art has had its day in the sensuous but faultless forms of
beauty, and Catholic art its ideal in the Madonna, and in the
wondrous mystic face of the child Jesus, we cannot doubt
that a higher style of Christian art is yet to appear, to wit
ness to the inspiration and the power of a purer faith.
But language is the most wonderful of all human crea
tions ; and the literature of a people is the grandest of all
works of art. for it is the fullest expression of the national
life. Its prose gives us the great deeds of the past or the
present, or the results of pure thought in philosophy and
in science. Its poetry gives us thought and feeling, senti
ment and passion, crystallized in forms of marvellous power
and loveliness. And its works of fiction embody, at the
will of the writer, the historical, the speculative, and the
poetic elements. But yet the literature of any people is
the one monument on which all her men of literary genius
have worked through all the centuries of her life. Chris
tendom, too. has its literature. — the last growing product
of its faith. Now, this is pervaded by a sense of the
divine, and by an increasing reverence for humanity.

208 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
The cosmic element gives place to the theistic. The lit
erature of the modern period is more fully pervaded by
the consciousness of an infinite personal presence than that
of the classic period. The other feature is no less striking.
There is a truer idea of the worth and dignity of man, and
a purer and deeper sympathy with hi3 woes, than is ex
pressed in the writings of the ancients. We have a clear
recognition of the rights of all, and a loving compassion
for the misfortunes of all, instead of the deification of the
few and the scorn of the many, instead of the hopeless
sorrow over man's ills, or that remorseless contempt for
his character, which marked the literature of Greece and
of Rome.
The adaptation of Christianity to the moral necessities
and susceptibilities of the individual soul, has been so often
involved in this and the preceding chapters, that it need
not be here formally presented. As a social and religious
being, too, man needs a leader who shall be one with him
in sympathy, and yet who shall so realize his ideals, and
so exalt his possibilities, as to be forever the great centre
of attraction for humanity. But the grave questions which
here press upon our attention are to be considered in the
last section of this work.
But Christianity does not cherish simply the passive
virtues. Christian life is made to culminate in action.
The will yields to God. Just here the religion of Jesus
does meet a real demand of our nature. It gives us
something to do. Man wishes to live a worthy life. He
cannot do so unless the little events which make up our
daily existence are ennobled. This is done by Christian
ity; for every honest pursuit is dealt with as a divine
calling, and every duty has a divine blessing. A divine

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 209
joy is connected with all right living and doing. Our
responsibilities are enlarged, our cares increased, and our
sympathies rendered broader and purer by our hopes and
beliefs. The law of self-sacrifice opens a noble career to
many great natures. It is only Christianity that affords
any chance for moral heroism, or that can inspire men and
women with unselfish benevolence.
But one point is not to be overlooked. Man is more
than an individual, however gifted, more even than a
person moving from his own centre and regnant in his
own domain. He is also a nature determined by the social
forces beneath him and around him. He is a sharer in
the common life of the society to which he belongs. He
is the heir of all the past. Many of his greatest moral
possessions have fallen to him by inheritance. Christian
ity does not turn aside from its legitimate path to reconcile
the law of liberty with the law*of necessity. Its spirit is
practical, and not speculative. But it recognizes the bond
of blood as well as the bond of virtue. It admits a com
munity of life, and its bearing on the ultimate destiny of
the individual. It adjusts itself to the fact that the race-
life has fallen from its original level, and that it needs
restoration. This must come from without and from
above. It must be the deed-act of God. Christ, then,
recreates our nature, and founds a new humanity. He
restores the lost fellowship on a new and higher basis.
He carries with him our common nature into the spiritual
world, and forms a new gathering centre in the very pres
ence of God. He incarnates the spiritual elements of his
consciousness in the church he has founded, and makes
his own life the source of all the higher life of humanity.
So Christ touches the hidden springs of our social ex-
18*

210 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
istence, as the conscience and the heart, the affection and
the will of the individual man.
All other religions have been the resultant of the co
existence and coworking of the depravities and aspirations
of the people among whom they originated. Thus they
have been only in a very superficial manner adapted even
to their own times ; for they seldom address humanity,
and they never exalt her. The man is lost in the citizen,
and the individual is sunk in the state, or his intrinsic
greatness and worth are sacrificed to the lower side of his
nature. They have been national and local in their char
acter. They must grow on their native soil. If they are
transplanted to a foreign clime, they are sure to die.
Thus Mahomedanism belonged to the East, and could not
maintain itself in Western Europe. Its civilization only
flashed with a brief and unwonted splendor, and then died
out forever. It now exhibits in its recandescence a re
markable spectacle. The Turks have held one of the
fairest portions of Europe for some four centuries, — cen
turies of great progress. They had inherited, or might
have inherited, the culture of their co-religionists.
The soil, the climate, the location, and the natural re
sources of the country, ought to have made Turkey one of
the ruling powers on the continent. But what is the fact
in the case ? All the progress which has been made is
owing to an external pressure and influence, which have
been felt in opposition to the authority of the Koran itself.
She exists to-day by the sufferance of the great powers, —
a sufferance made possible by their mutual jealousies.
But Christianity, unlike all other religions, was designed
for no one nation and adapted to no privileged class, but
suited to all men, wherever found, and so bears on its very

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 211
front the stamp of universality. In brief, it is prophetic
of its own great future, and as a world-power must sway
the centuries. SECTION SECOND.
ITS HISTORICAL TRIUMPHS.
Christianity must, as we have elsewhere shown, organize
itself in a divine society, else its forces are dissipated,
and its power wasted. It must voice itself not only in the
first form of a dead language, but in the living church.
It must have an organism suited to its genius, and to the
sphere of its existence and it3 activity. Every society of
Jesus, organized in his spirit, and after his principles, is
God's great agency for the conquest of tho world. Its
Sabbaths, with their historical and prophetic associations,
its sacred seasons of worship, its memorial and symbolic
rites, its consecrated ministry and membership, make
Christianity the great aggressive and renewing power in
human society. It3 law-book and its church make it a per
manent historical religion, destined, if from God, to roalize
its claims to universal acceptance. We are to test this
power by an appeal to the past and to the present.
It is to be noted, that the mere spread of any religion
is no proof of its divinity. That may depend in part on a
resort to authority and force ; and in part on its adaptation
to the prejudices and passions of the community to whom
it is addressed ; and in part on its real superiority to those
forms of belief which it supersedes. Thus even the mini
mum of truth may acquire, within a narrow circle, and for
a limited time, the maximum of social power and influence.
These principles are illustrated in a great degree in the

212 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
career of Mahometanism in the East, and in the rise and
spread of Mormonism in the West. But when a religion
conquers by its own spiritual agency alone ; when it con
demns at once tho passions of the people, and the creeds of
their leaders, and the policy of the state ; and when, too, it
elevates humanity in all directions, and helps man to become
himself, — then it vindicates its claims to a divine origin.
The obstacles to the spread of Christianity were so
numerous and so deeply rooted in the old Roman society,
that it would have come to a speedy and ignominious end
had it not been supernatural in its origin and character.
To conquer heathenism was not to change a common opin
ion, or to overthrow any civil institutions, but to revolu
tionize and reconstruct the entire social fabric. It was to
subdue prejudices, to originate new modes of thought, to
start new currents of feeling, and to create new springs
of action ; for the heathen worship was embedded in the
national rites and usages, was authorized by the govern
ment, was sanctioned by a rich and varied literature, was
supported by all the allurement of art, was associated
with the greatness and glory of the state, and was thus
wrought into the very life of the people. The entire
community, however divided between the sceptical leader,
and the superstitious mass of their countrymen, were united
in their opposition to Christianity. While the Jew hated
it as an apostasy from the religion of his fathers, the
Gentile scorned it as the offspring of Jewish superstition ;
the philosopher looked down on it as a species of morose
fanaticism, and the entire literary class deplored its spread
as the death of all culture ; the citizens felt that it was a
social pest, the cause of all their calamities ; and the great
body of the people spurned it as a religion without a

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 213
temple and without an altar, and so as atheistic : the
priests despised it as a worship without the sanction of
the state, and without the authority of antiquity; the
magistrate persecuted it as revolutionary and disorganiz
ing in its tendencies. The crowds of brutalized idlers
were ready to wreak their vengeance on the professors of
the new faith as opposed to their vice3 and their amuse
ments ; and the jugglers and artisans, and all the trades
which were f ivored or supported by the idolatrous prac
tices of the age, arrayed themselves in deadly hostility to
the Christian religion. Still, Christianity without any
foreign aid, by reason of its own exhaustless spiritual en
ergy, and in spite of the violence and of the seductions of
government, and in spite, too, of the horror of the stake
and the arena, and of the calumnie3 and sophistries of
pagan apologists, moved steadily on to universal dominion.
The concurring external conditions which favored its
introduction in the Boman Empire only made its recep
tion possible. They showed that the time of its appear
ing was providential, and gave one mark of its divine
origin. But even the deeper causes which favored its
diffusion witness to its truth. These were the general
enlightenment, the growing sentiment of humanity, and the
yearnings and aspirations of nobler souls. Thousands
found their rest only in the rehgion of Jesus. A great
social crisis had come, — when the forces of evil seemed
ready to engulf all that was good ; when the rising tides
of corruption were ready to sweep away the growing
ideals of truth and of goodness. — the crisis which was to
put to a crucial test all the religions of the then civilized
world. Christianity alone stood that test. It beeame the
cement of a new society. But the glory of this new-

214 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
created social life cannot be accredited to the death of
the old civilization. The soil must be prepared, but the
germs of life are in the seeds of truth which a foreign
band has planted.
In three hundred years after Paul had entered the city
of the Caesars the conflict had virtually closed. The in
telligence of the community had been won, and the mass
of the people who thronged the cities accepted the Chris
tian faith. Christianity came forth from sanctuaries un-
consecrated, save as Christian homes, to take possession of
the deserted temples of heathendom. It passed from the
catacombs to the basilicas of Rome, and soon became the
recognized religion of the empire. Its presence was felt,
as a saving power, from the shores of Britain to the des
erts of Africa, from the pillars of Hercules to the plains
of the Euphrates. This wonderful triumph had been
gained, not by the favor of the state, not by the strength
of an organization, not by an accommodation to the passions
and superstitions of the people, but chiefly by the preach
ing of the cross, by the unselfish lives of Christian disci
ples, and by the saintly heroism of confessors and martyrs.
But these causes were secondary in their character, and
derived their real efficiency from the presence of a living
Christ. But Paganism was hardly uprooted ere a new and un
tried conflict awaited the Christian church. The contest
with the civilization of the South was followed by a strug
gle with the barbarism of the North. The wild hordes
from beyond the Danube utterly overthrew the Western
Empire, and even threatened the destruction of the entire
culture of the classic period. Christianity must save it
self in saving society. Had it not been divine, it would

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 215
have gone down, with all the treasures of literature and of
art, in the mighty convulsions of the times. The currents
of barbaric life would have swept it away, and all that the
historic nations had gathered for their successors, had not
the religion of Christ held within itself enduring vital
forces. But these inroads were providential. Christianity
needed fresh material. It found that in the energy and
the endurance of these northern tribes. But it gained
even more than these. Civilization had been saved by the
empire at the expense of liberty. This was restored to
the public life by the Germanic nations. Christianity ap
propriated this essential condition of all progress. It hal
lowed also the old Teutonic devotion to woman, and freed
it, at the same time, from the coarseness which belonged to
the manners of these barbarians. It resumed its missionary
zeal. The monastery was planted in the wilderness, and
became a school of industry and a centre of Christian in
fluence. Here men labored and studied and prayed and
taught. In a thousand ways, legitimate and illegitimate,
Christianity worked at the fountain-head of all the great
states which make up modern Christendom. And it was
able to build up these states, in spite of the errors of
doctrine and of practice which marred both the beauty
and the power of its life.
And here the fact is to be noted that Christianity had
to pass through the ordeal of its own corruptions. All
other religions had died under the process of any radical
reform. Now nothing shows more fully the inherent vi
tality of the religion of Christ than its own restorative
power. The fact that it could exorcise the demoniac spirit
of the hierarchy ; that it could throw off the subtle and
the monstrous errors of the schoolmen ; that it could rid

216 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
itself of the worship of relics and of the idolatrous homage
paid to the Virgin, — • gives a sure promise of it3 ultimate
and complete triumph over all opposing forces. The Ref
ormation, then, of the sixteenth century, carrying with
it the more intelligent half of Christendom, is a historical
proof of the divinity of the Christian religion.
But though Christianity was early corrupted, yet it has
wrought wonders in human society. It has elevated
woman from her condition as a chattel and a drudge, and
made her the companion of man ; it has removed the bru
tal sports which disgraced Rome in the very days of her
glory; and it has abolished serfdom and slavery from
nearly all the civilized states of the world. It has pro
foundly quickened the spirit of humanity, checking the
tyranny of princes, enlarging the privileges of the indi
vidual, mitigating the horrors of war, and founding every
where the hospital and the asylum for the more unfortunate
of our race. In this last respect Christianity is thoroughly
humanitarian in its character. It alone of all religions had
in the very centre of its nature a fountain of charity for, all
men ; for though Nerva introduced into his government a
provision for the children of the poor, and though Trajan
made it an imperial institution, yet all this was a matter of
state policy rather than the dictate of a humane and sym
pathizing spirit. A school for the education of idiots,
and an asylum for the training of the deaf and dumb,
would have been a moral impossibility. The state had no
motive to found such institutions. The very best men
among the millions of heathen who thronged the city of
Rome would have laughed at the idea of organizing a so
ciety for the furtherance of any such charitable object.
It has become the great moral constitutive force in every

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 217
civilized state. It gives a spiritual centre of unity in the
worship it established, and also creates a feeling of commu
nity of life among the nations of the earth. It insists on the
duty of all to labor, and on the right of none to be idle. ' It
maintains that wealth cannot be used for selfish purposes
without endangering the social fabric. It stamps itself on
the legislation of the country and on the administration of
the laws. It stimulates learning and founds schools. It
exalts the language and creates a literature. It condemns
all forms of vice, but opens fountains of charity for all
forms of human misery. It makes loyalty to God the
governing principle of the state as well as of the individual.
But Christianity makes itself felt far outside of the
church, or of the direct influence of its ministrations.
Men who never enter its sanctuaries, and never open its
Bible, and never read its tracts, yet breathe the atmos
phere it has generated. They belong by birth to a
Christianized nation, and share in its common life ; for a
nation in the course of many centuries becomes Christian
by the spiritual transforming life-process which moulds its
character. It does not take this name because its leaders
are Christians, or even because its public documents recog
nize Christian obligations ; but because its common ideals,
its common beliefs, and its common tendencies, are Chris
tian. Thus it is that infidels are indebted to the very reli
gion they reject for all that is purest and noblest in their
writings. And thus, too, those reformers and philanthro
pists who work apart and aloof from every Christian or
ganization, are dependent for success on that sense of duty
and that sentiment of charity which Christianity has in
fused into the veins and arteries of social life. In fact,
the religion of Jesus, that they so ungratefully ignore, had

218 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
so educated their consciences, and so softened their sympa
thies, and so intensified their convictions, as to have given
them all the reformatory power they possess. Christianity
creates currents of thought and feeling which noiselessly
pervade the life of the nation, and save it from its own
natural tendencies to corruption. It generates forces and
reveals their tremendous power only when some gigantic
social wrong necessitates a moral convulsion. It forms a
public conscience, as is seen in the general maxims of mo
rality and in the sentiments of honesty and of honor which
are common to the entire community, even in those ex
cesses which come from an outraged public sentiment, —
a phenomenon quite uncommon in heathendom. It is this
public conscience which moderates the heat of passion, re
strains all forms of self-seeking, and which gives support
and vigor to the authority of the civil law. It gives se
curity to private and public credit, and makes passports
and treaties inviolable. Its lofty religious sentiment hu
manizes society, ameliorates manners, and creates kindly
sympathies and charities in every neighborhood. Christi
anity is the life of every political or civil reform. It favors
such reforms. It demands the best means for securing the
highest ideals. It thus leads the nation along the path of
freedom and of virtue to its own highest goal ; but it
ever subordinates the individual nation to humanity, for it
recognizes the brotherhood of nations as a governing ele
ment in the foreign policy of every political community.
This participation in the life of a Christianized people is
not to be confounded with the conscious fellowship of the
soul with its God.
If it be asked why has not the religion of Jesus made
wider conquests, and why its network of missions has not

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 219
produced even better and richer results than it has, the
answer i3 at hand. It must submit to the law of human
progress. Such is the divine plan. It cannot be spread
at the expense of the destruction of human freedom and the
annihilation of the dignity and worth of human nature.
Ritter, in his " History of Philosophy," strikingly remarks :
"The great influence of Christianity would be less ques
tioned if it had not penetrated so deeply and so widely
into our entire being  We habitually bear about
with us much that is exclusively Christian, which, how
ever, having, as it were, become a second nature, is no
longer looked upon as in any way an influence of Chris
tianity, but is regarded as an ordinary element of man's
character." The extent and character of its triumphs cannot be
ascribed to any other cause. The inadequacy of philoso
phy, or of any form of natural religion, or of any social
reorganization, has already been shown. Now, the two
great forces of social life are industry and intelligence.
Commerce and trade are their direct fruits. But they
fall, and must ever fall, when left to the natural course
of things, under the ruling principle of human nature, —
our common selfishness. These pursuits do most certainly
lift communities out of the narrowness of isolation, and
out of the ferocities of barbarism. They often engender
the habits of honor and honesty, and still more often create
that effeminacy of life which betokens, as it hastens, the
overthrow of the state. The civilization which rests on
such a foundation is always material in its character. The
history of the great commercial states of antiquity veri
fies what we have stated; and the tendency of British
dominion in the East, till Christianity interposed, abun-

220 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
dantly confirms the same position. All that is great in life,
or in art, would be purely impossible in a civilization
founded on industrial pursuits alone. The heroic or
saintly elements in common life, and the splendid achieve
ments in art, have come from a civilization pre-eminently
Christian. It remains to be considered whether Christianity has
triumphed in the field of controversy as well as in the
sphere of life. Has it successfully met the literary
attacks of the different schools of doubt and unbelief?
The history of Christian apologetics would form a work by
itself, and a work, too, of great interest. We can barely
touch a few of the main points in that history.
The pagan apologists denounced the Christian religion
as revolutionary in its character, and unpatriotic in its
spirit. The church fathers, in reply, showed that it was
not violent in its methods, as its process was from within
outward, and not the reverse; but that the individual and
social changes it wrought were necessitated by a higher
ideal, and were themselves the pledges of a firmer and
better government. To the charge that the lower classes,
and even the vicious, were invited to join the new faith, it
was said, Christianity puts all on the same level before
God, and so repels none, but seeks to save even the lowest.
To the calumnies, which were so often reiterated in the
pagan writings, the Christian apologists opposed the purity
of both their faith and their lives, and exposed in re
turn the follies of the popular belief. They insisted on
the need of a revelation, and on the evidential value of
miracles and prophecy, particularly of the latter. In one
respect only both parties agreed in admitting the possi
bility and utility of the supernatural.

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 221
The Neo-Platonists, uniting Greek culture with Oriental
speculation, and unconsciously borrowing much from
Christianity, made a last stand for the old faith. They
sought, by resolving all into allegory and symbol and
myth, to eliminate from Paganism all its grosser features.
But many of the fables would not yield a higher sense,
and the gods lost their hold on the popular heart, when
they lost their concrete significance. In vain they called
up the heroes of their ancestral religion. Apollonius, of
Tyana, could not for a moment take the place of Christ
in the affection and reverence of the people. Neo-Plato-
nism, in attempting to transmute the old religion into a
philosophy, extinguished forever the last signs of its life.
Most of the fathers looked quietly on this self-immola
tion. Eusebius alone made an extended reply, showing
how unreliable was the reputed life of Apollonius, and
how far below the miracles of Christ were the supposed
marvels of his life.
The defenders of Mahometanism admitted the divine
mission of Jesus, but insisted that he was subordinate to
Mahomet himself. They attacked many of the Christian
doctrines, but especially that of the triunity. These at
tacks, however, were weak compared with the counter
attacks which Christian writers made on the sensuous
aspects of the Mahometan religion, and on the claims of its
founder as an inspired and authoritative teacher. They
insisted, too, that there was no prediction of his coming
in the Old Testament or in the New, that his doctrines
were not in harmony with the older revelations, and that
they were not authenticated by miracles.
The Deists admitted the existence of God, but rejected
a supernatural revelation. This they rejected, chiefly on

222 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
the supposed inadequacy of evidence, and needlessness of
its teachings. The answers given to these objections were
full and satisfactory. It was shown, beyond all honest
doubt, that there was a necessity for new life and new
light, with new and higher sanctions ; that the evidence for
the truth of revealed religion was sufficient to make it
obligatory on all men to receive it whenever and wherever
presented ; and that like objections could be made against
the course of nature itself, and the natural religion which
the Deists themselves professed to admit. The result
of this controversy was clear and decided. Deism was
wanting in philosophic depth, since it denied the imma
nence of God in nature and in life, overlooking the prin
ciple that whatever is absolutely dependent on a cause for
its origin must also be dependent on the same cause for
its continuance. It was equally wanting in openness and
fairness, since it magnified the difficulties which touched
only the surface of the question at issue ; and, consciously
or unconsciously, belittled those central evidences which in
such a case must ever be final and decisive. The Deists
were not only worsted in the conflict, but were treated
with pitiless contempt by the sceptics who followed them.
The last foe which entered the lists against the Chris
tian religion was Pantheism. Its attitude was the oppo
site of Deism, since it ignored the transcendence of God.
It thus swept away the objective foundation of all religion.
The answer to the fundamental principle of Pantheism may
be summarily stated thus : It was a monstrous assump
tion, counter to the conviction of the reality of an objec
tive world, of our own independent selfhood, and of the
fact of human sin and guilt. But its two chief aspects
were philosophic rationalism and critical rationalism.

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 223
The first would make Christianity a step and a stage
in the great process of the world's development. But
what step introduced it, and what step will follow and
transcend it? Could there be anything more unhistori-
cal and more unscientific than this assumption ? Christ
was not the creature of any age, still less the child of a
culture eighteen centuries old. He was the creator of a
new epoch, — the beginning of an endless cycle. It is
always easy to assign men to their respective ages ; for,
however great they are, they receive in an untold measure
more than they give. But, in the natural development of
humanity from the heads of the race, no place can be
found for Jesus of Nazareth. He inherits all of human
ity by a supernatural birth, and glorifies it all by a super
natural power. Christ is not evolved from humanity, but
a new humanity is, so to speak, evolved from him.
The second has made the credibility of the sacred records
the chief object of attack. The rationalistic critics have
assumed that all the narratives of miracles were unhis-
torical. This assumption has put them in the attitude of
advocates, of polemics, and not at all of earnest and honest
inquirers after the truth. Thus the force of external
evidence has been made to give way to the necessities of
their theory ; and different, and often antagonistic, shifts
have been resorted to in order to account for the narratives
of the Goapels. Discrepancies have been sought for and
intensified, and the underlying harmonies have been left
all unnoticed. The most violent suppositions have been
resorted to, and the most far-fetched interpretations given
to isolated passages, for the purpose of throwing as much
as possible of the New Testament into the second century
of our era. But these rationalists have been answered by

224 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
men of equal learning and of a sounder philosophy. The
result is that the New Testament stands on a firmer and
broader scientific foundation than ever before. Defeated in
their efforts to take possession of the citadel of our faith,
they seek now to undermine the historical character of the
Pentateuch and other outworks of Christianity. Such
questions, though they have an important apologetic bear
ing, may safely be left to the province of biblical criti
cism. The conflict with Judaism has been intermittent all
through the history of the church. It has hinged in the
main on the interpretation of Messianic prophecies. It
does not belong to our plan to enter into the nature and
results of this struggle. We only remark, that the numer
ous converts from the Jews to Christianity have felt that,
without the historical Christ, Judaism must remain for
ever an unfulfilled prophecy.
In closing this section, we may well ask ourselves if the
past triumphs of Christianity through so many centuries,
against so many foes, in the sphere of life, and in the
field of thought, is not a guaranty of its ultimate and
complete victory as a world-power ? This leads to another
and kindred question : Will Christianity be as trium
phant in the distant future, under all possible circum
stances and contingencies, as it has been in the past?
This opens to us the next and last section of this work.
SECTION THIBD.
CHRISTIANITY A FINALITY.
It is not neco3sary that a religion should be final in
order to be divino. The earliest theophanies were only

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 225
preludes to Judaism ; and Judaism itself was only a prepa
ration for Christianity. But yet the religion introduced by
Moses was perfect, in reference both to its immediate and
to its ultimate design. It was only imperfect when viewed
in a light in which it did not present itself. We can thus
admit its provisional character, and still recognize its
divinity. Christianity might have been an introduction
to a higher economy, and so might still have been from
God. In such a case, however, its nature and its claims
would have been wholly different from what we actually
have in the religion of Jesus.
Bat Christianity doe3 present itself as God's last mes
sage to man. It claims to be the crowning and complete
fulfilment of the past. It foretells no intermediate rev
elation which, in the distant future, is to take its place,
but only its own struggles and it3 own millennial glories.
Its one great promise is the spiritual presence of Christ
till the end of probation; and its one great prophecy is
Christ's personal return, to pronounce by his very presence
the final judgment. The great Me3sianic period, which con
nects the fir3t coming of our Lord with his second appear
ance, is always spoken of as the last grand era in the
history of the race. The ultimate destinies of men in
another world are made to depend on the reception or the
rejection of the Christian religion. The church itself em
bodies the life of Christ, and makes his unombodied influ
ence felt far and near ; and its great symbols are to remain
till the end of the world, and so seem to represent the final
kingdom of God. Christianity, then, in its very nature,
as an economy introduced by the Son of God, and carried
on by his spiritual presence, and destined to be transfig
ured in heaven, itself precludes any further and higher

226 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
dispensations of divine truth. He who admits the truth
of Christianity must admit its finality.
But is the view which Christianity presents of itself
warranted by the facts in the case? Are all the con
ditions, on which it could claim to be the final expression
of the divine will, fulfilled? The question remains to
be answered. This answer is to be found in the following
considerations : The very nature of Christianity deter
mines its destination. It has no internal weakness. It is
not inconsistent, and so self-destructive. It is not incom
plete, so that its inadequacy should reveal itself more and
more. The sources of its life are not found in anything
that is local or national, nor do they depend on any
human organization or appliances ; else, in the course of
centuries, that life might be exhausted. But its centre is
the person and the work of Christ, — the Christ of the
past, of the present, and of the future. This centre
determines all its principles and all its precepts, and so
relates them as to form a living harmonious agency. It .
makes and fills a circle as wide and as advancing as
humanity itself. It brings God to man, and man to God,
and bridges over the chasm between heaven and earth.
This living Person, the centre and substance of Chris
tianity, is the source of an endless life, and the ground of
infinite hopes.
The religion which best meets the essential religious
wants of the race has the best guaranty of its perma
nency. These wants remain the same through all the
ages ; for sin and guilt cannot be outgrown. Evolu
tion only brings out what is in the fontal source. Just
so long, then, as these elements enter into human life,
just so long will there be the need of the religion of re-

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 227
demption. Humanity never will content itself with less
than Christ. And can a greater than he appear, — one
more the child of humanity, as well as the Son of God ?
Will the natural development of the race — for the ob
jector here does not admit the supernatural — ever pro
duce a greater healer and a greater helper for the sinful
and the lost, than the Man of Calvary ?
The test of eighteen centuries is not without its bearing
on the point at issue. Christianity has been tried in the
furnace of persecution, and in the crucible of doubt. It
has stood the misconceptions of friends, and the perver
sions of enemies. Parasitical errors have not eaten up its
vitality, nor have the gros3 inconsistencies of its pro
fessors, nor the open apostasy of some of its leaders, un
dermined its power and influence. It has survived the
controversies of opposing sects, and the bitterness of their
representative champions. It has been called on to meet
tribes and nations of the most diverse culture and institu
tions. The centuries have not left it behind. They have
not even sensibly diminished the moral distance which
originally separated Jesus from his followers. The re
ligion founded by him was never so strong as it is to-day.
It is for the sceptic, then, to show what new danger it will
have to encounter in the future, fatal alike to its claims
and to its power.
But the religion which is to maintain itself hereafter
must be in harmony with all that is true, and in antag
onism with all that is false, in the life and laws and insti
tutions of every people. It must be the common rallying
centre against all forms of error and of injustice, against
all wrongs, whether they be of society, or of the govern
ment, else the best men of the community will Organize

228 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
outside of its pale. It must take this stand by virtue
of its affiliation with all that is noble and pure in human
endeavor. It must inspire all the humanitarian efforts
for the elevation of the race. Christianity, as illustrated
by the life of its Founder, and as interpreted by its noblest
representatives, does, without doubt, meet this condition
of its continued life. All great moral reforms have been
the acknowledged, or unacknowledged, creations of its
spirit. All the great movements in society have resulted
from the conscious, or unconscious, application of principles
enunciated centuries ago by Jesus of Nazareth. All the
elements of progress which have been evolved in the
growth of society, or have been worked out by men of
genius, or have been set free by the decay of systems of
oppression, have been incorporated in the Christian relig
ion. Thus the principles of civil and religious freedom
seized on by Rousseau and Voltaire, and prostituted by
their disciples, in the excesses of the French Revolution,
did, at last, find their real home in the bosom of the
Christian church. They had gone out of their orbit, but
were drawn back again as soon as the attracting power
of Christian ideas made itself felt in society. And
whatever of moral beauty, or of substantial value, can be
found in the works of Newman, or of Parker, or of
Comte, has its natural place in Christianity; for none
of them come up to Jesus in the depth and tenderness of
his sympathy for man, or in the recognition of the grand
possibilities of humanity. Such sceptics have their uses
in the providence of God. They help to bring out in a
bold relief some neglected truth of Christianity, or help to
give a final expression to some unformulated doctrine of
our common faith. In short, the principles of Christian-

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 229
ity are so central, so vital, and so increasingly fruitful,
that they cannot fail in their application to meet the
needs of every generation, and to accept, as the fruit of
its own inspirations, whatever is noble in thought, or
heroic in achievement.
Christianity insures its perpetuity by the ease with
which it affiliates with all the results of scientific research.
It is impossible that the advance in science should ren
der religion superfluous, or in any way annul or weaken
its claim to be of divine origin; for all truth has two
aspects : the scientific, and the religious. The cycles of
phenomena which make up any special science, point to,
and illustrate, a transcendent cause ; for they address
both the intellect and the faith, both the constructive
and the receptive sides of our nature, both the rational
understanding and the religious sensibility. All the
discoveries of science are the disclosures of a supreme in
telligence, — the revelations of infinite wisdom and love.
Progress in pure science alone can never solve the mys
teries of life. The scientist, over whatever field he may
traverse, can never pa33 the boundary which separates the
natural from the supernatural. Thus the physiologist
does at best but follow the telegraphic lines which con
nect the soul with the outward world. He marks their
physical character, their changes, and their uses, and he
notes their signs and signals ; but he never comes face to
face with the invisible, personal agent who receives and
sends the messages. If he is a man of genius he may
follow the border line which divides the physical from
the spiritual, but he cannot go beyond that impassable
limit. The naturalist, too, in his profoundest investiga
tions, only ascends the stream of life, but never reaches
20

230 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
its hidden source, nor doos ho anywhere cross to the oppo
site shore. But the sphero of tho known necessitates
always the sphere of tho unknown; and it belongs to
religion to reveal enough of this to form our faith and to
regulate our life. Science, then, can only bring out more
and more fully the extent of our ignorance, and can only
awaken more thoroughly onr spiritual aspirations, and ex
pose in a clearer light the imperiousness of our needs.
Such is always the case when the facts and truths of
science are allowed to addre33 our religious consciousness.
Every science, then, may be a school-master to load the
soul to it3 God. Soma of tho minor results may lead tho
interpreter to modify tho moaning ho will givo to various
passages of Scripture. Thoy miy even change his opinion
on questions of chronology, or possibly go so far as to
affect his theory of inspiration ; but tho30 effects aro inci
dental, compared with tho general and profound rcligiou3
impression which all tho sciences must mako on candid
and open souls. This is not inconsistent with tho fact
that an exclusive devotion to any ono pursuit tonds to
narrow the vision, nor with tho othor fact that a personal
repugnance to somo of tho aspects of religion will often
mako a man of soione-o ho3tilo to the claim* of tho pure
and simple religion of Josu3. Christianity, then, hails
with joy tho growing enlightenment which advancing
science is sure to creite. Porhap3 no ono natural agency
will do so much for hor in tho coming future as tho
crowning science of all, — social science ; for, as tho
fact3 of life and of history aro classified, and made to
reveal the great laws which control communities and
nations, it will become more and more apparent that the
Christ of history transcends those laws, and that his

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 231
character and influence in the world belong to the region
of the supernatural. In fact, the presence of that super
natural element, blending with the elements' of our com
mon humanity, will always make that science itself more
or le33 incomplete and inadequate.
But if it be said that the religion of the distant future
must be the absolute religion, we answer, though we do
do not like the expression, such is Christianity, — Chris
tianity perfectly comprehended and completely realized in
the life of humanity. There can be no other. There are
no elements in any other sy3tem of belief which need to be
appropriated and utilized. An eclectic religion was possi
ble only in heathendom, where all wa3 on the samo level,
and where all was the outgrowth of the varying union of
our common depravities and of our common aspirations.
But philosophy cannot construct a religion. It cannot do
this, even when moving in the light of Christian faith, and
even when drawing its profounde3t utterances from that
faith. Such a religion would want every essential which
the soul needs. It wants a historical basis. It could
have no objective media, — no deed-acts of God, — no
facts of history of transcendent worth and influence. It
would want a divine life. A religion which does not
bring God into actual contact with the consciousness of his
creature is simply dead. It matters not what form such a
religion would take on, — whether it would be the worship
of genius, or tho worship of humanity, with the canoniza
tion of all her great heroes, — it would utterly fail to satisfy
the cry of humanity, or even to stifle the prolonged wail of
the centuries, which would signalize the extinction of a su
pernatural religion. The race will never be content with
anything le33 than Christ. Such a religion might create

232 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
a school for the few, but it could not erect a church for the
many. But if philosophy cannot pass for religion, can she
dispense with it? Now what has she to offer? Only
broad generalizations and bold speculations. But what
comes of them, singly or blended ? Can they efface the
religious element frbm human nature, and satisfy the crav
ings and yearnings of humanity by an ideal system, how
ever lofty and pure it may be? How idle the expectation!
How empty the dream ! The re-entrance of God into
human nature and human history has given to Christianity
just that realistic character which secures for it an end
less life.
Christianity, then, is to be perpetual. It is ultimate
and final. We are not called on to believe that any one
church organization is to be the final one, or that any one
written creed is to be the fixed and permanent one. The
form of statement is provisional. Still, every lover of the
truth, with any breadth of comprehension, must look with
reverence on the great men of the church who have led
their age in religious opinion, and who have helped their
successors to broader apprehensions. It is only the relig
ion of Christ, as presented by himself and by those who
stood nearest to him and felt mo3t fully the inspirations of
his presence, that can claim to be the last message of God
to the race.
The evidences for the divine origin and character of the
Christian religion are accumulative, and in reality ex-
haustless. They will advance in interest and in value as
the generations of men roll on. Each age will have j ust
that weight of evidence which it can well bear. It could
not be increased without interfering with that" divine plan,
by which God guards the freedom of man, and by which

CHRISTIANITY A WORLD POWER. 233
he puts him in probation in the acceptance or the rejection
of the religion of his Son. One is justified in rejecting
Christianity only when he has demonstrated its falsity ;
only when, in spite of all the evidences, he clearly sees that
it is of human origin. Such are the consequences which
hang on the practical refusal or admission of its claims,
that a slight presumption in its favor should govern the
faith and control the life. But when its falsity is, in the
light of tho facts, vastly more incredible than its truth
can be, then not to receivo it is a crime against our
Maker and our own souls ! And when, again, it is abso
lutely inconceivable that the religion of Jesus should be
false, how can we palliate our guilt in not accepting with
an ADORING AND GRATEFUL HEART ITS PROFFERED
TERMS OF MERCY?

INDEX.

Page
Academy of France, report against
spontaneous generation, . . . .13
Accumulative nature of Chris
tian evidences,  19
Accuracy of the Evangelists in
respect to geography, .... 53
climate,  54
products of Palestine, .... 54
political affairs,  55
domestic and social usages, . . 56
of Acta in notices of Greek and
Roman life and manners, ... 57
of the Epistles. Impossibility of
imposture in this class of writ
ings,  53
Acquisition of property a duty, . 157
Acts of this Apostles, accu
racy of,  57
Adaptations of nature adjusted
to each other,  27
in nature not the result of self-
adjusting forces,  31
Adjustmknt of the vegetable and
animal kingdoms to each other, . 28
JEsthetic element in our nature
not ignored by Christianity, . . 206
Agassiz on transmutation of spe
cies,  92
Ar.OGl rejected the Gospel of John, 67
Analogy of nature points to im
mortality,  39
Ancient Latin versions of the
New Testament testify to the
Canon,  69
Animal Life supported by or
ganic matter,  28
Ansklm's argument for the exist
ence of God inconclusive, ... 19

PAOB
Apocalypse required such a man
as John, for its authorship, , . 61
Apocryphal gospels presuppose
the genuine originals,  63
Apostolical Fathers, their testi
mony to the Canon  64
Argyll, Duke of, on man's place
in nature,  43
on transmutation of species, . . 94
Art ennobled by Christianity, . . 20Q
Artistic spirit absent from the
New Testament writings, ... 48
Associated philanthropy, its place
in Christianity,  158
Atheism the alternative of reject
ing Christianity,  113
Attacks upon Christianity by Pa
gans,  220
Neo-Platonists,  221
Mahometans,  221
Deists,  221
Pantheists,  222
Jews,  224
Augustus sanctioned concubin
age,  190
Authority divine, needed to in
terpret the facts of revelation; . 126
and to expound Christianity, . . 126
divine, promised to the apostles,
and claimed by them,  126
Authority the needful comple
ment of impulse,  149
Basilides h witness for John's
Gospel,  67
Beauty, an end in nature, reveal
ing the intelligence of the artist, 27

236

INDEX.

Beneficence should be direct
and personal, not by proxy, . . 158
Body/, the spiritual, how related to
the physical,  139
Branis on the decay of Roman
civilization,  191
C<esar, Julius, a disbeliever in the
immortality of the soul, .... 34
Calling, each has his appointed, . 156
object of, ultimate and immedi
ate,  156
Cause, first and final, commensu
rate and identical  30
Causes of the decline and corrup
tion of Roman civilization, . . 188
Celsus admitted the authenticity
of the sacred writings, .... 68
Cerintiius, the fourth Gospel at
tributed to him by the Alogi, . . 67
Character of the New Testa
ment writings fixes their date, . 48
Chinese faith in immortality why
weak,  35
Christ the permanent miracle of
human history,  105
sinless,  107
sinless, or the worst of sinners, . 110
reception of by his contempora
ries, how explained,  112
the centre of all Christian doc
trines,  130
Christian ideal of life compared
with the stoic,  161
church an indispensable embodi
ment of Christianity,  166
its essential elements, .... 167
Christianity, or Atheism, no
middle ground,  113
its relation to philanthropic asso
ciations,  158
its relation to civil life, .... 150
" " patriotism, . . . 160
to be judged in its totality, . . .130
a clearer and more effective re
publication of natural religion, . 131
alone reveals the sympathy of
God,  132
Its redemptive agency, how ex
erted,  136

harmonizes human freedom and
divine sovereignty,  138
not a code of ethics, but the real
ized ideal of u. divinely human
life,  150
a redemptive mediation, . . . .203
allays the evils of life by an indi
rect method,  205
not the religion of a class, but of
humanity,  205
recognizes the aesthetic element
in our nature,  206
has ennobled art,  206
has elevated literature, .... 207
does not simply cherish the pas
sive virtues, but culminates in
action,  20S
recognizes and remedies the fall
of the race,  209
regenerates society as well as the
individual,  209
a universal religion,  210
its truth witnessed by the causes
which favored its diffusion, . . . 213
its victory over Roman civiliza
tion,  214
its victory over northern barba
rism,  214
its victory over its own corrup
tions,  215
its relation to humanitarianism, . 216
" " the public con
science, ..*....... 217
its progress, why so slow, . . . 218
Ritter's testimony to its influ
ence,  219
attacks upon it by Pagans, . 220
" " " Neo-Plato-
nists,  221
attacks upon it by Mahometans, . 221
" " " Deists, . . .221
" " " Pantheists, . 222
11 " " Jews, . . .224
a finality,  225
Church, its foundation and growth
unaccountable on the sceptical
theory,  109
an indispensable embodiment of
Christianity,  100
its essential elements  167

INDEX.

237

Church, Its ordinances, .... 169
" ministry,  170
" day of worship,  171
" relation to voluntary associa
tions,  173
its ideal imperfectly realized, . . 173
" value and necessity, .... 174
a universal spiritual empire . . 176
founded on a recreated human
ity,  177
not a communistic association, . 177
" moral reform society, . . 177
idea of, a spontaneous conception
of its Founder,  i;8
not a mere idea, but a realization, 178
u living organization, dependent
on Christ as its life,  179
its temporary imperfections and
limitations anticipated by its
Founder,  181
its universality,  ISO
Churches, equality of, .... 172
fellowship of,  172
Cicero on the existence of God, 16, 17
Civil life regulated by Chris
tianity,  159
Civil authority to be obeyed, with
what limitations,  160
Civilization, modern, presup
poses a real, historical, sinless
Christ,  109
Clarke, Dr. Samuel, his ontologi-
cal argument for the existence of
God,  21
Clement of Alexandria, his testi
mony to the authenticity of the
sacred writings,  05
Climatic allusions in the Gospels,
their truthfulness,  54
Coincidences undesigned in the
different books of the New Testa
ment, their significance, .... 59
Comte, his hypothesis of three
epochs in man's advancement, . 103
obliged to admit the need of
religion  104
Conccbinage, sanctioned by Au
gustus,  190
Conversion of Paul not accounted
for naturally or psychologically, . 74

Corrigne, his testimony to the
supernatural as an induction of
science,  . . 91
Corruption of Roman civiliza
tion, its causes,  187
Cosmological proof of the divine
existence,  21
Creation, presupposed in redemp
tion,  133
Cueuzer makes monotheism more
ancient than polytheism, ... 19

Dana, Prof., his testimony to the
supernatural as an induction of
science,  91
Darwin on transmutation of spe
cies  92
Date of the New Testament writ
ings fixed by their composite dia
lect,  47
their unartistic style, and their
manifest freshness,  48
Day of worship a constitutive ele
ment of the church,  171
Decline of Roman civilization, its
causes,  187
Deistic view of God's relation to
the world,  loo
attacks upon Christianity, ... 19
Delusion not predicable of the
sacred writers,  71
Descartes, his view of the proof
of God's existence,  16
Design, marks of in a designer do
not need to be accounted for, . . 30
Dentin y of man realized not in the
race, but in the individual, ... 40
Development theory of the New
Testament canon untenable, . . 81
theory, scientific objections to it,
" necessitates a beginning, 95
" of Christian doctrine, in
what sense progressive .... 128
Dialect of the Now Testament a
compound of Greek, Hebrew, and
Christian elements,  17
Discrepancies in the Gospels no
valid objection to their genuine
ness,  52

238

INDEX.

Discrepancies in the New Testa
ment manuscripts insignificant, . 70
Doctrine and miracle to be judged
as a whole, and not merely in de
tail,  90
Doctrine defined,  125
Christian, must have the sanction
of inspiration,  127
Christian, in what sense progres
sively developed,  128
Doctrines of Christianity, their
unity,  130
Domestic and social usages accu
rately described by the sacred
writers,  56
Doubts, even on essential points,
do not necessitate the rejection of
Christianity,  130

Early versions of the New Testa
ment witness to its historical
character,  68
Egyptians firm believers in im
mortality, why,  35
Endless nature of future retribu
tions,  142
Epictetus on virtue and on prayer, 162
Equality of all men, stoic and
Christian view of compared, . . 164
of all churches,  172
Ethnic and Jewish preparation
for Christianity, how combined, . 200
Evangelists write as witnesses,
not as critics, nor as moralizers, . 52
Evolution, theory of disproved
by the incarnation,  133
Exceptions to the general belief
in God accounted for,  17
Existence of God, method of
proving it,  13
Expectation of future life, an ar
gument for the immortality of the
soul,  34
the strength of this expectation
proportioned to the elevation of
the moral life,  34
Exposition of Christianity by the
apostles free and popular, rather
than formal and scientific, . . .127

Faith the positive side of the
Christian life,  116
Faith finds its highest expression
in love,  116
Family life regulated by Chris
tianity,  154
Fathers, apostolical, their testi
mony to the canonical Scriptures, 64
Fellowship of individual souls
with Christ, the prime constitu
tive element of the Christian
church,  168
of all churches,  172
Finality of Christianity argued
from its nature,  226
" " adaptation to human
needs,  226
from its past history,  227
" " relation to social prog
ress,  227
from its relation to scientific dis
covery,  229
fromitsbeingtheabsolutereligion, 231
Forces, persistence of, only an
other name for the abiding ener
gy of God,  134
Forgery out of the question in
the case of the sacred writings, . 70
Fraud pious, not admissible in the
case of the New Testament writ
ings,  71
Freedom and sovereignty, how
harmonized in Christianity, . . 138
Generation spontaneous, rejected
by the highest scientific authority, 134
Geographical accuracy of the
Evangelists,  53
God, existence of, how proved, . 13
origin of the idea of,  16
Cicero on the existence of, . . 16,17
existence of, Descartes' method
of proof,  16
existence of, historical proof, . 16
exceptions to the general belief
in, accounted for,  117
the infinite designer and architect
not an effect to be accounted for 30
personality of, an argument for
the immortality of the soul, . , 34

INDEX.

239

God, moral proof of his existence, 31
existence of, Kant's argument, . 31
his personality triune, .... 132
his sympathy revealed only by
Christianity,  132
his personality lost in his law, . 146
Gospels, their common type, . . 49
bear all the marks of truthful
testimony  49
synoptical, specific character of
each,  50
Gospel of Matthew, its specific
character,  .50
of Mark, its specific character, . 60
" Luke, " " . 50
'* John, " " . 50
Gospels, apocryphal, presuppose
the original and authentic, ... 63
Goveunment of God, evidences of, 32
Hall, Professor, on the supernatu
ral as an induction of science, . 91
Harmony between the natural and
the supernatural,  84
Heathendom in what sense aban
doned of God,  184
an ideal preparation for Christian
ity  184
an outward preparation for Chris
tianity,  180
a negative preparation for Chris
tianity,  187
Heracleon wrote a commentary
on John's Gospel,  67
Heretics corroborate the testi
mony to the sacred writings, . . 66
History" testifies to the need of
revelation,  99
Historical proof of the divine
existence,  16
character of the New Testament, 47
Hitchcock on transmutation of
species,  92
on the supernatural as an induc
tion of science,  91
Humanitarian activity tho law of
the Christian life,  15S
Influence of Christianity, . . .210
Hume's argument against miracles
answered,  87

Humility of Christ not inconsist
ent with his high chums, . . .110
Hunter on relation of organism
to life  37
Huxley on relation of organism to
life,  .... 37
admits the possibility of miracles, 87
on transmutation of species, . . 92
Ideal, moral, wanting in the Old
World,  148
of life, stoic compared with Chris
tian,  161
moral of modern scepticism bor
rowed from Christianity, ... 164
of the church imperfectly realized, 173
Ideological distinguished from
ontological,  21
proof of the existence of God, . 19
Immortality of the soul inferred
from the divine personality, . . 34
" " expectation of a future
life,  34
of the soul relative, not absolute, 44
" " not fully established
without the aidof the supernatural, 44
an original and permanent en
dowment of the soul, .... 44
of fame tho pagan aspiration, . 204
Imperfection of moral govern
ment in this world an argument
for immortality,  43
of the church anticipated by its
Founder,  181
Impulse needs to be supplemented
by authority,  149
Indestructibility of force an
other name for the abiding ener
gy of God,  134
Individuality of character faith
fully preserved by the evangelists, 59
exemplified in case of Peter, . . 59
Infidelity a witness to the im
perfection of moral government
here,  44
Infinite, the idea of a necessity of
human thought,  20
the idea of, not merely negative, 20
more a feeling than a concep
tion  20

240

INDEX.

series of finite causes and effects
inconceivable without God, . . 22
Designer legitimately inferred
from finite contrivances, ... 30
Inspiration an indispensable
sanction of Christian doctrine, . 127
Intelligence, marks of in nature
threefold,  26
Interpretation of the facts of
revelation must have a divine
authority,  126
Irenseus, his testimony to the
Canon,  65
Jesus the permanent miracle of
human history,  105
could not be deceived as to his
own sinlessness,  107
could not be a deceiver as to his
own sinlessness,  108
Jewish theocracy, need of, . . . 194
theocracy, origin of,  135
and ethnic preparation for Chris
tianity, how combined, .... 200
attacks upon Christianity, . . . 224
John only could have written the
Apocalypse,  61
his Gospel, its design, etc., . . 50
" " the complement, etc., 51
" " in harmony, etc., . . 51
** " its profounder charac
ter, etc.,  51
Judaism no product of pre-existing
ideas,  194
unaccountable if not of divine
origin,  194
as a preparation for Christianity
real rather than ideal, . . . .196
a direct preparation for Chris
tianity,  197
its prophetic character, .... 198
Judgment begins at death, closes
at the end of the world, .... 139
its decisions spiritual, not legal,
grounded on faith, not on obe
dience  140
its decisions final  141
Justin Martyr, his testimony to
the Gospels,  65

Kant's moral argument for the ex
istence of God,  31

Language of the New Testament
proves its genuineness, .... 47
Latin versions of the New Testa
ment testify to the Canon, ... 69
Law without a lawgiver a delusive
conception,  25
usurps the place of God's person
ality in men's thoughts, .... 146
Legendary theory of the origin
of the Gospels untenable, . . . . 80
Life, Christian, character of, . . 115
spiritual, seated in the affections, 116
" its manifestations, . . 116
divine, eternal in its very nature, 117
" its relation to divine
knowledge,  118
its relation to right action, . . . 119
divine, not » form or result of
human culture,  120
religious, natural types of diverse, 120
divine, manifests itself by its
fruits,  122
Christian, its defects do not dis
prove its reality,  123
Christian, ^ single instance of re
veals the presence of a supernat
ural agency,  t123
shortness of, makes future life
necessary,  • 40
its relation to the physical organ
ism,  37
Limitations of the church antici
pated by its Founder,  181
Literature, influence of Chris
tianity upon,  207
Love, the soul of faith,  116
to God brings us into harmony
with all his creatures,  117
Luke, design and specific character
of his gospel,  50
Mahometans, their attacks on
Christianity,  221
Man a religious being; this proved
by his religious consciousness, . 14
the representative,  15

INDEX.

241

Man, preparation for his advent in
nature  - . . 29
Maucion, a witness to Luke's Gos
pel, and ten of Paul's epistles, . C7
Mark's Gospel, its design and spe
cific character,  50
Martyrdom not justifiable, unless
the soul is immortal,  35
Matter not eternal, but essentially
dependent,  23
Matthew's Gospel, its design and
specific character,  50
Microscopic animals, their use,. . 28
Mind, not the result of organism, . 37
Ministry, a constitutive element
of the church  170
Miracle, distinguished from prod
igy and the monstrous, .... 86
not impossible,  87
logically related to doctrine, . . 89
and doctrine to be judged as a '
¦whole, not merely in detail, . . 80
Miracles may be established by
testimony  87
of Christ classified  106
wrought by the apostles a part of
the supernatural in Christianity, 113
Miraculous element inseparable
from the character and work of
Christ,  82
its nature  86
distinguished from the supernat
ural  86
not to be verified by scientific tests, 89
Monotheism more ancient than
Polytheism,  19
Monstrous, the, distinguished
from the miraculous,  86
Moral proof of the divine exist
ence  31
government, evidences of, . . . 32
ideal of modern scepticism bor
rowed from Christianity, . . . 104
Molality in man not spontaneous
and instinci ive, but consists in loy
alty to duty and obedience to law, 145
Mortality of man one of the chief
sources of his misery  203
Muller on the earlier Monotheism
of the Veda  19

Muratorian fragment on the
canon,  68
Mythical theory of origin of
Christianity untenable  77
Nature of the soul an argument
for its immortality, ... .35
Natural and supernatural, har
mony between them  84
religion distinguished from re
vealed  104
religion only a revelation of de
spair and death,  147
religion, its sanctions too long
delayed and too imperfectly rec
ognized,  148
Nearness of God to his creatures
the underlying truth of Panthe
ism,  131
Neo-Platonists, their attacks on
Christianity  221
New Testament dialect a com
pound of Greek, Hebrew, and
Christian elements,  47
Obedience to civil authority, its
obligation and limits,  160
Obstacles to the spread of Chris
tianity,  212
Ontological distinguished from
ideological  21
proof of the divine existence, . . 19
Ordinances a constitutive ele
ment of the church,  169
Organism the result, not the
cause, of life  37
Origen quotes from all the canon
ical books,  69
Origin of the idea of God, ... 16
of Polytheism  18
" Pantheism  18
Order pervades nature, and re
veals the intelligence of the scien
tist,  26
Owen on transmutation of species, 95
Pagan writers corroborate the
testimony to the Canon, .... 66
attacks on Christianity  220

242

INDEX.

Palestin e , products of, accu
rately reported by the evange
lists,  54
Pan^etius disputed the authen
ticity of Plato's PhEedon, ... 67
Pantheism, its origin,  18
springs from the intellect, . . - 131
its underlying truth is the near
ness of God to his creatures. . .131
PANTHEiSTiCview of God's relation
to the world,  102
attacks upon Christianity, . . . 222
Pastern's experiments in regard
to spontaneous generation, . . . 134
Patriotism, its place in Chris
tianity,  160
Paul's conversion not to be ac
counted for naturally or psycho
logically,  74
Perpetuity of Christianity does
not imply perpetuity of any partic
ular church or creed,  232
Personality of God an argument ..
for the immortality of the soul, . 34
of God the underlying truth of
Polytheism,  131
of God triune,  132
" lost in his law, . . . . 14G
Peshito, its testimony to the
Canon,  68
Peter, his character consistently
portrayed,  59
Piljsdon of Plato, its genuineness
disputed by Pansetius, ... 67
Philanthropic associations, their
place in Christianity, . . . .158
Philanthropy, practical and self-
denying, the law of the Christian
life,  158
Pious fraud not admissible in the
case of the New Testament writ
ings,  71
Plato, authenticity of his Phzedon
disputed by Pansetius,  67
Plutarch recognized the imper
fection of moral government in
this world,  44
Political accuracy of the evange
lists,  55
Polytheism, its origin, .... 18

Polytheism springs from the
heart; its underlying truth, . . 131
Position in life, providential, must
be accepted,  •. . . 155
Positive character of future
awards,  142
Positivism inconsistent, with its
own principles,  103
Positivist view of God's relation
to the world,  102
Preparation for man's advent, . 29
Probation terminates with pres
ent life,  141
its unity confirmed by the analo
gies of nature,  141
Prodigy distinguished from mira
cle,  86
Products of Palestine accurately
reported by the evangelists, . . 54
Prophecy, its general character, . 199
Pr6piietic character of Judaism, 198
Property, acquisition of, a duty, . 157
Providence interpreted by re
demption,  135
no place for in stoic philosophy, . 162
doctrine of, for comfort, rather
than for guidance,  136
Providential position in life
must be accepted  155
Public conscience formed by
Christianity,  217
Punishment not restorative, . . 142
Qualities of mind and matter
essentially different,  36
Rationalist view of God's rela
tion to nature  101
Realistic character of the Epis
tles,  127
Reception of Christ by his con
temporaries, how explained, . . 112
Recreation, its legitimate place
in the Christian life,  159
Redemption the key to Provi
dence,  135
Redemptive agency of Chris
tianity, how exerted,  136
Religion, natural and revealed
distinguished,  104

INDEX.

243

Religion, necessity of, recognized
by Comte  103
natural, confirmed and enforced
by Christianity,  131
natural, only a revelation of de
spair and death,  147
natural, its sanctions too long de
layed, and too imperfectly recog
nized,  148
the soul of morality, . . . 152, 161
Repentance the negative side of
the Christian Life,  116
Representative man, Christ the, 16
Reserve of the evangelists, . . .127
Restoration hereafter not re
vealed in Scripture,  143
Results of living not recognized
as retributions,  147
Resurrection of Christ, no room
for mistake or deception in regard
to the fact,  72
of Christ, the great proof of im
mortality,  139
body, its relations to the present
material body,  139
Retributions of the future world
positive in their nature, and end
less in their duration,  142
Revealed religion distinguished
from natural,  104
Revelation must have a histori
cal basis,  93
would be needful, if man had not
fallen,  98
still more needful in view of
man's sinfulness,  99
character of, not to be judged a
priori,  100
Rites, symbolical, a constitutive
element of the church  109
Bitter on the decay of Roman civ
ilization,  191
on the influence of Christianity, . 219
Roman civilization, causes of its
decline and corruption, .... 187

Selfhood our, In its entireness,
recognized and respected by
Christianity,  153

Seneca on compassion, . . . .163
on forgiveness,  1G3
Seneca and Paul compared in refer
ence to their teaching, . . . .103
advocated suicide,  191
Sense of God's personality lost in
his law,  146
Shortness of human life makes
future life necessary,  40
Sinlessness of Christ, .... 107
Scepticism modern, borrows its
moral ideals from Christianity, . 164
Social life regulated by Chris
tianity,  155
Sovereignty and freedom, how
harmonized by Christianity, . . 138
SPENCER,Herbert, his testimony to
the insufficiency of the natural, . 129
Spontaneous generation, rejected
by the highest scientific authority, 134
Spread of any religion no proof of
its divinity,  211
Stoic ideal of life compared with
Christian,  161
philosophy leaves no room for
Providence,  162
doctrine of human equality differs
from Christian,  164
Strauss rejects the idea that
Christ's apparent death was but a
swoon,  74
Structure of man differs from
that of the gorilla,  42
Supernatural element insepara
ble from the character and work
of Christ,  82
idea of, defined,  84
distinguished from miraculous, . 86
its harmony with the natural, . 84
idea of, in analogy with common
experience,  85
as a fact, apart from Christianity, 90
its occurrence an induction of
science,  91
inseparable from Christianity, . 105 4
works of Christ but natural to him, 106
the, restored, not disturbed, the
order of the world,  113
element in the doctrines of Chris
tianity,  128

244

INDEX.

Sympathy of God revealed only
by Christianity,  132
Tacitus, his testimony to Chris
tianity  78
Teleological proof of the divine
existence  25
Teller rejects the idea that
Christ's apparent death was birt a
swoon  73
Tertullian, his witness to the
Canon of Scripture,  65
Testimony valid evidence of the
miraculous  87
to the supernatural as a. legiti
mate induction of science, ... 91
Theocracy Jewish, need of, . . 194
origin of,  195
Thought, not u, product of the
brain,  37
Transmutation of species cannot
be established,  92
of species, scientific testimony
against it,  92
Truth of Christianity witnessed
by the causes which favored its
diffusion  213
Uncaused Being, an, above our
conception, but not contrary to
our reason,  24

Undesigned coincidences, in the
different books of the New Testa
ment ; their significance, ... 59
Unity of design in nature, ... 29
not to be affirmed of the soul's
essence,  36
of consciousness, a necessary
truth  36
of Christian doctrine  130
Utility, an end in nature, reveal
ing the intelligence of the mech
anician,  27
Universality of the church, in
adaptation and in fact  ISO
Valentinus a witness for John's
Gospel  67
Value of the Christian church, . 174
Variations in nature, tendency
to, counteracted by tendency to
reversion  94
Vegetable life supported by inor
ganic matter  28
Versions early, of the New Testa
ment, bear witness to its h istorical
character,  68
Victory of Christianity over Eo-
man civilization  214
over northern barbarism, . . . 214
over its own corruptions, . . . 215
Voluntary associations, their re
lation to the church,  173

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10

THEOLOGICAL INDEX;
OR,
REFERENCE TO THE PRINCIPAL WORKS IN ALL DEPARTMENTS I»
RELIGIOUS LITERATURE.
ALPHABETICALLY arranged under two thousand heads, and
EMBRACING NEARLY SEVENTY THOUSAND CITATIONS.
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COMMENDATORY NOTICES
FBOM DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS WHO HAVE EXAMINED THE PROOF-SHEETS
OF THIS WORK.
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" In looking over the advance sheets of your Theological Index, I have been
struck with tne amount of labor it must have required, to collect and classify so
many titles of books on theoretical and practical religion, and the kindred topics.
But, it bears no proportion to the labor it will save others. The need of such a
work is more and more felt. Some theologians, as you say in your preface, may
rperhaps wonder at some of your omissions. But the index is not intended for
them so much as for the working clergv, who, in consulting or purchasing books,
need just such a guide, and will be greatly helped by the one you have provided."
From Charles Hodge, D.D., of Princeton TJieological Seminary.
I have examined the sheets of your Theological Index, for which I thank you
The work of Winer on the same general plan is not adapted to American students
as his references are so generally to works not accessible to them;
I have no doubt that your book will be found adapted to meet a want long and
widely felt, and prove useful in a high degree.
From Geo. R, Bliss, D.D., University at Lewisburg, Pa.
Your book will certainly fill a place now entirely unoccupied, and will be indis-
fiensable to all studious clergymen, to libraries, and to scholars generally. You
lave facilitated the labors of a multitude of Christian scholars, through generations
to come. From Prof. Hackett, D.D., Newton TJieological Institution.
I have examined your sheets with much interest. I think well of the plan. The
book will enable those who wish to form a library to select books judiciously, and
afterward to use them with advantage. It is not enough to have books in our pos
session; we need also an index of their contents, at the right moment, to show ue
whether the information we seek is within our reach. Your book supplies that
want. I am sure it will lay very many persons under lasting obligations to youi
industry, skill, and scholarship.
From S. S. Schmuker, D.D., Emeritus Professor of TJieology in the Theological
Seminary of the Lutheran Church, Gettysburg, Pa.
After having examined the several sheets of your Bibliographical Manual or Lex
icon, which you kindly sent me, I take great pleasure in bearing testimony in favor
Df its diversified and decided utility.
This work differs from the more systematic productions of Noesselt and Winer, in
that it does not follow the authors' names, nor give the authors' birth and death, as
well as the offices they sustained. But it makes a selection of several thousand
topics, embracing every important subject on which students may desire informa
tion, and under each of these arranges the authors who discuss that subject.
While, therefore, the work does not furnish as much material to gratify the
curiosity of the critical, it affords a vast amount of information more valuable to
students, pastors, and preachers, because more available for the purposes of profes
sional life. One who has access to but a moderate library will, by the aid of this
work, seldom fail to find important material for his purpose, and I cannot doubt it
will meet a cordial reception from those whose benefit it contemplates.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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