UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
OF"
Mrs. SARAH P. WALS WORTH.
Received October, 1894.
Accessions No. Tb . Class No.
UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,
NEW YORK.
THE ELY LECTURESHIP
ON
(Etritences of
FIRST SERIES.
BY THE REV. ALBERT BARNES,
OF PHILADELPHIA.
LECTURES
ON TEE
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY
IN
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY,
DELIVERED IN THE MERCER STREET CHURCH, NEW YORK,
JANUARY 21 TO FEBRUARY 21, 186T.
ON THE
" ELY FOUNDATION" OF THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
BY ALBERT BARNES,
AT7TIIOE OP
ETC., ETC.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1868.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-seven, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York.
PREFACE
THIS course of Lectures on the Evidences of Chris
tianity in the Nineteenth Century was delivered, by
appointment, as the first course on the foundation es
tablished in the Union Theological Seminary by Mr.
Zebulon Stiles Ely, of New York, in the following
terms :
" The undersigned gives the sum of ten thousand
dollars to the Union Theological Seminary of the city
of New York, to found a lectureship in the same, the
title of which shall be The Elias P. Ely Lectures on
the Evidences of Christianity.
" The course of Lectures given on this foundation
is to comprise any topics that serve to establish the
proposition that Christianity is a religion from God,
or that it is the perfect and final form of religion for
man.
" Among the subjects discussed may be
" The Nature and Need of a Eevelation ;
"The Character and Influence of Christ and his
Apostles ;
" The Authenticity and Credibility of the Scrip
tures : Miracles and Prophecy ;
VI PREFACE.
" The Diffusion and Benefits of Christianity ; and
" The Philosophy of Eeligion in its Kelation to the
Christian System.
" Upon one or more of such subjects a course of
ten public Lectures shall be given at least once in
two or three years. The appointment of the Lecturer
is to be by the concurrent action of the directors and
faculty of said seminary and the undersigned ; and
it shall ordinarily be made two years in advance.
" The interest of the fund is to be devoted to the
payment of the Lecturers and the publication of the
Lectures within a year after the delivery of the same.
The copyright of the volumes thus published is to
be vested in the seminary.
"In case it should seem more advisable, the di
rectors have it at their discretion at times to use the
proceeds of this fund in providing special courses of
lectures or instruction in place of the aforesaid public
lectures for the students of the seminary on the above-
named subjects. ;
" Should there at any time be a surplus of the fund,
the directors are authorized to employ it in the way
of prizes for dissertations by students of the seminary
upon any of the above topics, or of prizes for essays
thereon, open to public competition.
"ZEBULON STILES ELY.
" New York, May 8th, 1865."
CONTENTS.
LECTURE ^ PAGE
I. THE LIMITATIONS OP THE HUMAN MIND ON THE SUB
JECT OF RELIGION 9
II. HISTORICAL EVIDENCE AS AFFECTED BY TIME 41
III. HISTORICAL EVIDENCE AS AFFECTED BY SCIENCE 75
IV. THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY FROM ITS PROPAGA
TION Ill
V. MIRACLES: TH"E EVIDENCE IN THE NINETEENTH CEN
TURY THAT THEY WERE PERFORMED IN THE FlRST.. 151
VI. THE ARGUMENT FOR THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY, IN
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, FROM PROPHECY 194
VII. INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES WITH REFERENCE TO
THE OBJECTIONS MADE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 22G
VIII. THE EVIDENCE OF THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIAN
ITY FROM THE PERSONAL CHARACTER AND THE IN
CARNATION OF CHRIST 272
IX. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AS ADAPTED TO THE WANTS
OF MAN, AS ILLUSTRATED IN THESE EIGHTEEN HuND-
RED YEARS 308
X. THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE WORLD S
PROGRESS IN SCIENCE, CIVILIZATION, AND THE ARTS
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 344
APPENDIX... .. 403
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY,
LECTURE I.
THE LIMITATIONS OF THE HUMAN MIND ON THE SUB
JECT OF RELIGION.
I HAVE been requested to deliver a course of lectures
in this seminary on the " Ely foundation," on the " Evi
dences of Christianity." By the terms of that " Foun
dation" the course is to " comprise any topics that serve
to establish the proposition that Christianity is a relig
ion vfrom God, or that it is the perfect and final form
of religion for man." Among the subjects discussed,
as specified, may be,
" The nature and need of a revelation ;
" The character and influence of Christ and his apos
tles;
" The authenticity and credibility of the Scriptures :
miracles and prophecy ;
" The diffusion and benefits of Christianity ; and
" The philosophy of religion in its relation to the
Christian system."
The course, by the terms of the " Foundation," is to
be comprised in Ten Lectures, and the general subject
which I shall endeavor to illustrate in this course will be
THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY. I have selected this as being in accordance
with the subjects suggested for the general course; as
A2
10 LECTURES ON THE
sufficiently comprehensive to embrace the points which
can be considered in so limited a course ; as suggesting
important inquiries in regard to the present relation of
Christianity to the world; and as leading to the dis
cussion of topics originated or matured in our own age,
and difficulties suggested in this age, which must be
met by those who are, by their office and by the pur
poses of their lives, to be regarded as the public defend
ers of Christianity.
Christianity now exists as among the undisputed
great moral powers or forces in the world. It has a
place among other powerful systems of religion, and
among philosophical systems, deeply affecting the des
tinies of mankind. It Has a history of its own a his
tory extending now through more than eighteen centu
ries, and leaving unmistakable evidence of its exist
ence and its power on the general course of events. It
is a " power" on the earth undeniably exerting a vast
influence on human affairs.
It is very closely connected with liberty, with do
mestic arrangements, with civilization, with literature,
with the arts of life, with manners, customs, and laws,
with the governments of the nations, with the adminis
tration of justice, with the doctrine of human rights,
with prevailing views of morals, with the prospects of
the world in regard to the future, and with the relig
ious hopes of individual men. It was among the things,
even in its feeble beginning, which Tacitus could not
pass over wholly in silence ; one of the things which
demanded all the talent of Mr. Gibbon to explain, and
which now, whatever may be men s individual faith in
it, must enter into every philosophical view*w T hich is
taken of the present condition and prospects of the
world.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 11
In regard to many or most of those things referred
to civilization, literature, arts, manners, customs,
laws, governments, the administration of justice, the
doctrine of human rights, the prevailing views of mor
als, and the hopes of men in regard to the future, it
has either originated them, or it has shown a decided
affinity for them, combining readily with them when
suggested, enlarging their sphere of influence, and seiz
ing upon them for its own promotion and perpetuity in
the world. In this respect it is unlike all other forms
of religion, and has now become so incorporated with
those things, and so identified with them, that it could
not be detached from them without disturbing, if not
destroying, the whole frame-work of modern society.
The Christian religion was fatal to many things that
entered into the notions of civilization, the laws, and
the governments of the ancient world, as it will be to
many of those things as they exist in other lands if it
is propagated among them ; nor could those ancient
things be restored, or those modern things be perpetu
ated, without an entire destruction of the Christian sys
tem.
It is a perfectly fair question for any one to ask,
What is the origin of this system of religion ? and the
question is one which the friends of the system may be
held to answer. Is it of man ? Is it a development or
outgrowth of some former system of religion ? Is it a
necessary result of the progress of the race in civiliza
tion on the same level, in this respect, with the com
forts of domestic life, the blessings of liberty, the useful
arts, the sciences ? Is it a well-executed imposture ?
for such it must be if it is an imposture at all. Is it
the result of delusion and fanaticism ? Is it expressive
of the conscious wants of man, founded on a myth, and
12 LECTURES ON THE
wrought by human wisdom into a system that com
mends itself to enlightened understandings, and to
hearts troubled by sin and sorrow, as being all that
man needs ? Or is it of divine origin, as it claims to be
a true revelation from God ?
The Westminster Review (January, 1866) therefore
is perfectly right in asking the question, " How did
Christianity originate? Did it originate as an out-
coming of a natural order, or by a supernatural inter
ference ?"
The question implies that it had an " origin," that is,
a beginning at some time since man began to exist on
the earth. It is not, as is implied in the question, coe
val with man. There was a time when it did not exist ;
when there was no trace of it on the earth. History,
in each and every ancient nation, so far as those nations
have a history, goes back to a period when Christianity
did not exist. It was not in Egypt, in Assyria, in Bab
ylonia, among the Chaldees, in the Teutonic nations,
among the early inhabitants of the British Isles. Have
the annals of any nation preserved the record of its
origin, so that now, after the lapse of ages, and after it
has been matured in its present form, we can under
stand how it made its beginning in our world? Did
the wants of men suggest it ? Did the friend of men
devise it ? Did the wisdom of God, seeing that it was
needful for man, reveal it ?
It is with a view to furnishing an answer to these
questions that the Course of Lectures on the " Ely
Foundation" in this seminary has been established, and
that the range of topics which I have indicated has
been suggested as limiting the subjects to be discussed
in the Lectures, and specifying the field to be occupied.
The range is a wide one, and it can not be supposed, as
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 13
it was not designed, that the subjects should be ex
hausted in a single course. It is wisely intended that
the course shall be continued from year to year, not by
the same lecturer, but by new lecturers, with fresh
minds and hearts, with new powers, with views taken
from different stand-points, with the results of varied ex
perience and observation, with illustrations drawn fresh
from the experience of pastors in the work of the minis
try, and especially with a designed reference to the wants
of the world, and the state of the public mind outside
the Church, as demanded by the progress of science, by
new difficulties that spring up, by questions that have
not before occurred that may need solution, by new
forms of objection that may be made to the Bible, by
new aspects of philosophy, presenting to the minds of
thinking men new difficulties in regard to the Christian
system.
I have selected as the main topic on which I propose
to address you, leaving ampler fields to those who shall
follow me, The Evidences of the Truth of Christianity
in the Nineteenth Century : at a time when eighteen
hundred years have passed away since the evidence of
its divine origin was first submitted to the world ; when
it has been tried in its applications to the wants of men
during those eighteen hundred eventful years ; now, in
an age remarkable for its advancement, and when evi
dence on all subjects is examined by rules unknown to
the world at the time when the evidences of the divine
origin of the Christian system was first submitted to
mankind, and by an acuteness of investigation far in ad
vance of that age. As Christianity convinced the men
of that generation of its divine origin, it can not be im
proper to inquire whether the evidence that was deem
ed satisfactory then in regard to its origin should be
14 LECTURES ON THE
regarded as satisfactory now. The lapse of eighteen
hundred years may at least suggest the inquiry whether
it had at first any claims to the attention which it re
ceived from mankind.
Under the general topic which I have suggested, I
propose to embrace the following subordinate topics as
comprehended in it : The limitations of the human mind
on the subject of religion ; Historical evidence as af
fected by time ; Historical evidence as affected by sci
ence ; the evidence of Christianity from its propaga
tion, as that evidence exists at present ; Miracles the
evidence in the nineteenth century that they were per
formed in the first ; Prophecy, as that evidence exists
now ; the inspiration of the Scriptures with reference
to the objections made to it at present; the personal
character and the incarnation of Christ ; the religion
itself as adapted to the wants of man, as illustrated
in these eighteen hundred years ; and the relation of
Christianity to the present stage of the world s progress
in science, civilization, and the arts.
I may be allowed, before entering upon the particular
subject before us at this time, to refer to a difficulty
which I very sensibly feel in undertaking this course
at all. It is the supposition which seems to be implied
in such a course that I could do any thing supplement
ary to the instructions which are, in the regular course,
delivered from the Chair of Theology in this seminary.
The proprieties of the place and the occasion would not
allow me to speak, as my feelings would prompt me to,
of him who occupies that chair, and whose time is de
voted, yet in the full vigor of life, to this very inquiry,
among others in his course, and who enjoys advantages
for instructing others in studies of this nature which
can not be expected from one whose time is so much
occupied with the routine of pastoral duties.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 15
There are a few things, however, which I may be al
lowed to say in reference to what seems to be presump
tion in undertaking such a task, and which may be ap
plicable to the very purpose of endowing such a lec
tureship, as well as to my own undertaking, (a) It is
known to all that different views of the same subject
may be taken by different individuals from the points
of observation which they respectively occupy, and
that it may require a comparison of many such views
to obtain a complete idea of any one object or subject.
From how many different points may a landscape, a
waterfall, a mountain, an ancient castle be viewed, each
presenting some different aspect to the painter, each
varied, yet each true, and all entering into the proper
and full conception of the object. On moral and his
torical subjects this is not less true than it is in refer
ence to mountains, to valleys, to waterfalls, to piles of
architectural beauty or grandeur. He makes no as
sumption for himself who surveys from his own point
of observation what has been painted by another from
his. In the position which he occupies, and in the
work of art which he attempts, there is no implied re
flection on another, (b) On the great subjects of relig
ion and morals, one man s reflection, experience, and ob
servation may suggest something of value which may
not have occurred to another. His own mental struc
ture maybe different, his own habits of thought may be
different, his own experience in the world may be differ
ent, his own opportunities of observation may be differ
ent ; and it is no reflection on another one, though en
gaged in the same general purpose, to submit his own
reflections to his fellow-men, (c) It may be true that,
while there are great advantages, on such subjects,
from the fact of being devoted to one great line of
16 LECTURES ON THE
study, as in a chair of theology, and in the ample ac
quaintance which may be derived from such a position
with all that has been written by others, there may be
advantages in the labors of a pastoral life, in frequent
contact with men, in meeting the difficulties in the
minds of those who are inquiring on the subject of per
sonal religion, which may be of not less value in the
cause of truth than the more deliberate and learned in
structions of a theological chair, and which may assist
those who are preparing for the work of the ministry
in meeting the actual difficulties which they are to en
counter in the living world, (d) I may observe farther
that these Lectures are designed and expected, if I un
derstand the purpose of the founder and of the direct
ors of the seminary in making the arrangements for
their delivery, to be less studied, elaborate, scientific,
and philosophical than those which are delivered in
the regular course of instruction in the seminary, and
which are especially prepared for students of theology
as such. It is the purpose in the " Foundation" to form
a new connecting link between the seminary and the
churches, to impart instruction here which will not
only benefit those who are hereafter to be the guides
of the public mind, but also, in union with them, to do
something to diffuse just views on these subjects in the
community, and to aid those who are at present act
ing their parts in the world, as well as those who shall
be the actors in the next generation, (e) And, once
more, I may observe that neither my friend who occu
pies that chair nor myself will so exhaust the subject as
to leave nothing for our successors. In our own place
and generation we shall each find enough to do; in
their generation, those who come after us will find that
there is an ample field for all their talents in the work
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 17
to be done in their time. The Christian " apologists"
of the early centuries, the opposers of Celsus, Porphyry,
and Julian, had enough to do in their day; Grotius,
Leland, and Clarke had enough to do in theirs ; Butler,
Lardner, Paley, and Chalmers in theirs ; in our day a
new field, demanding new powers and new arguments
in answering new objections, is opened to us, and in
time to come, until the period when Christianity shall
triumph over all the earth, the enemies of Christianity
will be careful to give, each in their age, enough for the
public defenders of Christianity to do. We, in our age,
have a work to do ; those who come after us will have
a work to do in theirs.
As introductory to the course which I propose to de
liver, and as an argument on the general subject, it
seems proper to consider the capabilities of the human
mind in reference to the general subject to be consider
ed. If man is capable himself of originating a system
of religion that will be all that is needed to guide him
in the duties of life, to sustain him in its trials, and to
prepare him for the future world, that fact would, of
course, prove a revelation to be unnecessary, and would
at the same time prove that all pretended revelations
are false, since it can not be supposed that God would
give by miracle a special revelation when he had al
ready furnished, in another mode, all that is needful for
man, or that there would be two methods of communi
cating the divine will on the same subject. On other
subjects than religion this principle is every where ob
served. God does not give special revelations on those
subjects which are quite within the range of the hu
man powers, and where there may be a healthful exer
cise of those powers in ascertaining what is true and
18 LECTURES ON THE
what is good. If, for the sake of example, it be admit
ted that God specially instructed Adam in regard to
the appropriate names of the beasts of the field and the
fowls of the air (Gen., ii., 19), or that he, with his own
hands, made for Adam and Eve " coats of skins and
clothed them" (Gen.,iii.,21), or that he taught Noah
how to construct the ark, or that he endowed Bezaleel
and Aholiab with special wisdom in building the tab
ernacle, " to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and
silver, and brass" (Ex., xxxi., 3-6), yet it is certain that
this is not the ordinary method in which he endows
men for the useful or the ornamental arts of life, nor is
this the method on which this subject is referred to in
the Bible. The principle every where assumed in the
Bible, and a principle on which undeniably the whole
Bible is formed, whether that book is a revelation or
not, is that, where men have ample powers to accom
plish what is needful for themselves, there is no special
instruction given by revelation. ~No book is more des
titute of information on the common arts of life, on ag
riculture, music, and the sciences, on political economy
and the forms of government, on the arts of raising
grain, of working metals, of mining, or of cooking food,
on the structure of ships, wagons, roads, or canals, than
the Bible. All these are left to the invention of men,
to be wrought out in the proper employment of their
own powers, with the presumption that man is compe
tent to this ; that he needs no special instruction, ami
that his own good will be best promoted by the exer
cise of his own powers on these subjects.
The principle is, that the Bible does not attempt to
give knowledge on subjects which men may find out
themselves. Agriculture, grafting, planting, architect
ure, fishing, ploughs, hammers, harrows, machinery,
EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANITY. 19
printing, railroads, steam, the telegraph all these in
due time ; all by the skill of man. Man is competent to
these things. There is no need of a revelation. The
world, in its infancy, was not prepared for these things,
and a revelation in regard to them would not have
been understood. It was better to raise up men from
time to time who would strike out great inventions
when the world needed them than to communicate the
knowledge by revelation ; it was better that the hu
man intellect should be sharpened and disciplined by
these discoveries; it was better that men should be
stimulated by the hope of useful inventions ; and it was
better that the knowledge of them should be brought
on the stage when they would fit into human society,
than to anticipate all, and render the human powers
flaccid and useless by a revelation anticipating these
things.
If religion is of the same nature as this ; if man is
equally competent to solve the great questions of relig
ion that pertain to him, then it is plain that religion
would have been left in this manner, and that a revela
tion being unnecessary, none would have been given,
and consequently that all pretended revelations are
false. The enemies of the Bible, therefore, are pursuing
a legitimate line of thought in endeavoring to show
that man has all the powers necessary to ascertain what
is needful to be known of God, and consequently that
the Bible and all other pretended revelations are
false.
In considering now the particular subject before us
the limitations of the human mind on the subject of
religion it will be proper to direct ydlir attention first
to the limitations on the subject from the nature of the
human mind itself, and then the illustrations which
20 LECTUKES ON THE
have been furnished by the results of the experiments
which have been made.
The particular thoughts necessary to be presented
under the first of these topics the limitations on the
subject from the nature of the mind itself are the fol
lowing : those limitations in the faculties of the mind
in respect to the processes of reasoning ; the limitations
in the power of intuition ; and the limitations in the
instruments which man employs in his discoveries, or in
enlarging the scope of his natural vision.
(1.) The powers of mind created mind mind as
found in man seem vast, are vast. It is not necessary
for us, in exalting revelation, or in showing the necessi
ty of revelation, to disparage or underrate those powers.
The developments of mind in the ordinary processes of
society, and in the discoveries which men have made in
the sciences, lifting the whole race to a higher level,
have been amazing. This is especially so when God,
departing from the ordinary course of things, creates a
great intellect as he originally created great mount
ains, or rocks, or oceans, or as he creates great worlds
as illustrations of what he can do ; as showing how he
might have made the race ; as showing, perhaps, how
he does make other races ; as furnishing a higher il
lustration than ordinary of what he himself is, lifting
man, as by a sudden elevation, toward himself. Thus,
in the upheavings of the lands in the old geological
periods, in general the lands upheaved were low plains
or elevated plateaus on a level, or gentle eminences
diversifying the landscape, or here and there loftier
mountains the ranges of the Andes, the Alleghanies,
the Apennines, the Alps, while at great intervals there
stands the lofty Dhavalagiri, the Chimborazo, the So-
rata of Nevada, and Mont Blanc, rising far into loftier
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 21
atmospheres, as a few men, like Newton, stand far
above the ordinary individuals of the race.
There are men a few men of such capacity that
they seem to approach almost all subjects with equal
ease ; men who have by intuition, as Pascal had, what
other men secure by slow processes and by long-con
tinued trial; who begin where other men. leave off;
" many-sided" men, to whom all subjects appear equal
ly easy, and with whom it seems to be a mere matter
of will and choice what particular department they
shall pursue to make themselves immortal.
But, while this appears to be so, the range of subjects
on which any man, however richly endowed, may dis
tinguish and immortalize himself, is very limited, and is
confined within very narrow and very carefully-defined
boundaries. There is, and there has been, no " universal
genius." There is, and there has been, no man whose
capacities are equally adapted to all the subjects of
science and art, of poetry, rhetoric, and eloquence ; of
war, of statesmanship, of invention, and of practical
life, in which they might equally acquire distinction.
Society, indeed, required in its adjustments that within
a limited range the powers of a man might be adapted
perhaps equally adapted to any one of a number of
pursuits ; that in any one of them within that range he
might be successful or might excel. This was neces
sary, in order that at any one time there might be tal
ent enough on the earth for all the necessary objects of
life, and that there might be, within a reasonable range,
the liberty of a choice a concession to human freedom
and responsibility. But the range is a limited one, and
within that a man must make his choice. He must be
a farmer, or a seaman, or a mechanic, or a musician, or a
poet, or a merchant, or a philosopher, or an artist ; he
22 LECTURES ON THE
can not be all. Between perhaps four or five of these
he must make his choice, and within that range he
must determine how his life is to be spent. It is rare
that a man is distinguished in more than one of these
things. Michael Angelo was, indeed, distinguished,
perhaps equally, as a painter, sculptor, and architect ;*
Shakspeare was equally distinguished in comedy, in
farce, and in tragedy ; and there is now one living man
among us a foreignerf who, it is said, has already,
in four separate and distinct departments of science,
achieved in each a reputation, a like distinction in any
one of which would have placed him at the head of
that particular science. This " play" or this variety of
endowment is given to men not only that they may
have a choice, but that there may be at any one time
on the earth talent enough for all that talent is to do
in that one age.
Again, there is a necessary limitation in regard to
the attainments which men may make, as compared
with what remains that is as yet unknown. We all
remember the remark of Newton, "child-like sage;"];
* This idea is expressed on his tomb in the church of Santa
Croce, in Florence. Beneath the monument there are three statues,
personifying Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, and at the base of
the monument an inscription, of which the following is a part :
^ " Michaeli Angelo Bonaratio
E vetusta Simoniorum Familia.
Sculptori, Pictori et Architecto
Fama omnibus notissimo."
t Agassiz.
% "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself
I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and
diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a
prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all
undiscovered before me." Brewster s Life of Newton, pp. 300, 301,
Harper s ed., 1832.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 23
and we remember, too, the sarcastic remarks of Pope
on the discoveries of Newton himself, showing how lit
tle, after all the discoveries made by him, as compared
with the knowledge of higher intelligences, may be,
and what, in this respect, is the general condition of
mankind on the subject of knowledge:
" Superior beings, when of late they saw
A mortal man unfold all nature s law,
Admired such wisdom in an earthly shape,
And showed a Newton as we show an ape."
After all, how limited is the range of human thought
and knowledge ! We are to remember that ordinarily
man is compelled to spend one third of the length of
life in acquiring what has been known before, and put
ting himself in a position to b$gin his own investiga
tions, as if one preparing to explore distant continents
should be compelled to spend one third of his days in
reaching it ; we are to remember that any man is liable
to be cut down at any moment, his career of brilliant
discovery but just begun ; we are to remember that
the faculties of man begin soon to decay, and that the
imbecility of age, if life is lengthened out, is almost like
the imbecility of childhood life ending as it began ;
we are to remember that the active average life of man,
in which he must do all that he is to do, is but little
over twenty years ; and we are to remember, also, that
the range of his inquiries is limited by the fact that
they must be Avithin the scope of his reason, where he
may have instruments to aid him, and where he may
have the light of other ages to guide him. But what
if there are boundless fields wholly beyond that range ;
if there are worlds which he can not penetrate ; if
there is an infinity in God in reference to which he
has no faculties or powers to investigate or understand
26 LECTURES ON THE
or, to make the assertion larger, that it is of the nature
of mind, as such, to do this the mind of God, and of
all minds made in his image. We can not conceive of
God without this power ; we can not doubt that he
could endow created mind with this power as well as
with any other power, making it thus in his own image,
or so that it would represent or express himself; and
we can not limit him in regard to the extent to which
he could endow mind in this as well as in any other re
spect, except that it can not equal his own infinity.
There must be a limit, or all beings thus made would be
gods, and instead of one God, the universe would be full
of gods.
But that God has this power of looking at once into
truth, of understanding its nature, of separating it from
error, without the slow process of reasoning, there can
be no doubt.
(b) That man has this power, to a certain extent, is
apparent from our own consciousness. The belief in
mathematical axioms or first principles is founded on
this. We look at the truth at once without any medi
um or intermediate idea. We could not be assisted in
this by any intermediate idea. We could not be made
to doubt the truth by any objections that could be
urged. That the whole is greater than a part, that the
whole is equal to the sum of all the parts, that if equals
are added to equals the sum will be equal, are points
which do not and can not depend on reasoning, nor
could we reason at all if there were not such points on
which all men agree.
(c) But it is obvious that the range of this must be
very different in different minds ; nor, as has been al
ready intimated, is it possible where, short of infinity,
the limit might be made. To the mass of men the num-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 27
ber of such truths is not large. To some minds truths,
which to others could be learned only as the result of
labored reasoning, are a mere matter of intuition. To
most minds, for example, in studying Euclid, after a
very few statements of that kind which are laid down
as maxims or axioms which all men will assent to, ev
ery successive proposition is believed only as the result
of clear demonstration in some labored process of rea
soning ; to Newton all these propositions were as ax
ioms not demanding any proof, and read as axioms are ;
to Pascal they led on one another by a power of their
own, which he represented, when a boy, on the floor by
lines and bars of his own construction.
(d) As pertaining to religion, as in other matters,
this subject presents itself in two forms : the one is
that of originating truth, or declaring what truth is ;
tho other is that, more common, of judging of truth
when it is presented to the mind ; of determining wheth
er it is truth, and of rejecting it if it does not commend
itself to the mind as true.* The latter is Rationalism,
the former is the claim of Deism; both are comprised
in the term Transcendentalism. Much of this is found
in Plato, more of it in Kant ; much in all Transcendent-
alists and Rationalists ; more by most men in judging
in regard to the evidences of a revealed religion than
they are aware of; much is properly exercised in exam
ining the claims of any religion, true or false. There are
* Thus Wegscheider represents the claims of Eationalists : " They
claim for sound reason the power of deciding upon any religious
doctrine whatsoever, derived from a supposed supernatural revela
tion, and of determining the argument for it, to be made out only ac
cording to the laws of thought and action implanted in reason."
Inst. Theol., 10, quoted in Mansel, Limits of Religious Thought, p.
234, 235.
28 LECTURES ON THE
certain convictions engraven on the human mind in re
gard to truth to which I shall have occasion to advert
in another part of this course,* which must be met by
a pretended revelation, or it can not be received.
There is much in man that contributes to the reception
of a system of truth in a revelation when it is proposed,
and that gives it a power over the soul which nothing
can destroy. It is in a large degree owing to this that
a true religion makes its way in the world, and in a
large degree also it is owing to this that the world is
kept from being imposed on by the pretensions of a
false religion.
(e) When we ask, however, whether this is sufficient
whether this is all that man needs, we are met by
such answers as the following : (l.) There is no agree
ment among those who rely on this as to what is the
true system. From Plato downward to Kant and
Comte, men have speculated on this point, and in re
gard to what is claimed under this system the " true,"
the " absolute," the " infinite" as to what God is, what
man is, or what is the moral system of the universe, it
is impossible to refer to any system on which men have
speculated at all, in respect to which there is a greater
variety of Opinion, or in which more that is incompre
hensible has been proposed to the faith of mankind. It
would be very easy for any one to make extracts from
Hegel and from Kant so far above common apprehen-
hension, so mystical, so difficult of interpretation, so
destitute of apparent meaning, as to turn the whole
matter into ridicule if it should be held seriously that
this was to be the faith and the guide of mankind at
large. Besides, who is to decide which is the true sys
tem ? Or who, holding one system on this theory, has
* In the IXth Lecture.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 29
a right to call in question the truth of the system pre
ferred by another? (2.) But it is to be observed far
ther that there are there must be, truths lying beyond
the range of intuition of man s powers. Only the
infinite can look into and comprehend the infinite.
There were profound depths in the minds of Newton
and Bacon which a child of four years of age could not
fathom which no man could fathom who had not a
mind like theirs. It is a matter of the plainest common
sense likewise that there must be profound depths in
the mind of God which none can fathom who is not the
equal of God. Can the arms of a child wield and gov
ern the world? Can a quart - measure take in that
which would fill the great " tun" at Heidelberg ?
Could Loch Katrine contain all the waters of the
ocean? There must be truths respecting God which
man can not know unless God shall reveal them.
There are things in the mind of the stranger that we
casually meet, though on the same level with ourselves,
which we can not know unless he shall choose to dis
close them. He has the power of hiding them forever
from our knowledge.
(3.) There is one other thought on this point of the
subject. I have adverted to the limitations of the fac
ulties of the mind in the ordinary processes of reason
ing and in the power of intuition. I shall now advert
to the defect in the limitation of the instruments which
man employs in his discoveries, or in enlarging his
scope of natural vision. The point now to be made is,
that the means or instruments which man employs so
successfully in enlarging the range of his natural pow
ers do not disclose or reveal God. Those means or in
struments are, in the first place, limited to their own
particular range of discovery, and can be employed
30 LECTURES ON THE
only in that direction, or can not be employed to aid
man in more than one particular line. The telescope
discloses wonders, but it can not be employed by the
chemist, the metallurgist, the engineer. The tests of
the chemist and his blow-pipe accomplish wonders, but
they can riot be employed in the purposes of astronomy.
The electrical machine accomplishes wonders, but it
can not be. employed to determine the distance and
magnitude of the planets, the height of the atmosphere,
or the cause of the tides. Least of all can any of these
be employed on moral subjects. They can not determ
ine the great questions about God, and the nature of
the human soul, and the destiny of man in distant
woii ds. The astronomer directs his glass to the blue
fields of ether, and brings suns and systems to view
before unknown to man, but he does not see God on
his throne. The electrical machine may be turned for
ever, throwing out a continuous stream of light, but it
does not reveal God, or cast a ray of light on the des
tinies of the human soul. All these are limited to their
proper objects all come short of revealing God.
Such, then, are some of the limitations of the human
mind as suggested by the nature of the case.
We turn to the next general point proposed to be
considered, to the illustrations which have been fur
nished on the subject by the experiment which the
world has been making to answer the great questions
which it must be the province of a revelation to an
swer, if a revelation is given to man.
This need not detain us long, though the subject is
one that might be pursued to much greater length than
the limits of these Lectures will allow.
The general remark to be illustrated is, that the trial
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 31
has been made, and so made that it is not necessary
that it should be repeated.
If a revelation was to be given to man ; if it be as
sumed for a moment that such was the divine purpose,
it would seem to be not an unreasonable expectation
that man himself should be allowed to make the exper
iment to see whether he could do without one ; that is,
whether such a revelation was necessary for man. This
may be presumed to be reasonable, because (a) it would
settle a great question forever, disposing man to re
ceive and believe the revelation if he himself failed, and
(b) it would be in accordance with the ordinary meth
od of the divine arrangements in other things. What
ever man can do, it is, as before remarked, left for him
to do ; and whatever God may do for man, it is com
monly preceded by the effort of man himself in that
direction. Great discoveries in science and art are thus
left for man to accomplish, if they are within his pow
er ; if the ordinary powers of man are insufficient for
them, God creates and brings upon the stage some
great mind, endowed in that direction beyond the or
dinary powers of man, like Bacon or Newton, Watt or
Fulton, Whitney or Morse, elevated above common
men on these subjects as Isaiah or David were above
ordinary men in the knowledge of spiritual things.
The trial on this subject, as it has actually occurred
in the world, has related to two points : to the powers
of man in relation to religion in general, and to those
powers in relation to a " book-revelation."
In regard to the former of these, the powers of man
in relation to religion in general, I remark, first, that
the time allowed to man for the experiment was suffi
ciently long to permit the experiment to be fairly
made. If we assume now that Christianity had its
32 LECTURES ON THE
origin at the time commonly ascribed to it, about
eighteen hundred years ago, then, according to the
common chronology, there were four thousand years
previous in which the experiment was* to be made.
According to Chevalier Bunsen, Lepsius, and others
of that school, there were not far from twenty thou
sand years from the time when man appeared upon
the earth. It could not be denied that, taking either
position, the time was sufficiently long to admit of a
fair trial on this subject in regard to the capability of
the human powers to devise a system of religion ; for,
if man could not devise a system that would meet his
wants in that time, it might be reasonably doubted
whether he could do it at all. It may be added also,
that, on the supposition that vast and eternal interests
were connected in any way with embracing a true sys
tem of religion, it might be difficult to reconcile it with
any just notions of benevolence in the Deity if the
time had been longer, and if those interests were ex
posed to farther peril. Indeed, one great difficulty now
to be explained, on the supposition that the revelation
of a plan of salvation was delayed so long, is to recon
cile that fact with the benevolence of God, leaving,
during that long period, the eternal welfare of so many
millions of souls to be jeoparded by the delay in giving
a revelation to man : a difficulty which has its parallel,
however, in the fact that so many millions were suffer
ed to die of pestilence, of the plague, and of fever, be
fore the healing art was in any way perfected, and
while the substances constituting the materia medica
of the world were actually in existence, but were as
yet undiscovered by man.
The next thing to be observed in regard to this trial
is, that the character of the mind mainly employed in
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 33
in
the experiment was all that could be demanded
such an experiment. If we were asked which of the
classes of mind that have existed on the earth would
be best adapted for original investigations of this na
ture, we should say that the qualifications would be
most likely to be found in the Hindu mind, the Arabic,
the Greek, and the Teutonic. These, indeed, in some re
spects run into each other, and may perhaps be regard
ed as of the same type or class ; but of all the intellects
that God has made in the world, a great question of
this kind could be more safely intrusted to these classes
of mind than to any other.
Now, laying out of view at present all reference to
the others, it may be said that of these classes of mind
the Greek was better adapted to this inquiry than
either of those which have been referred to. That
mind was, in some respects, the best that the world has
seen as if God had created it for the very purpose of
settling forever this great inquiry. For acuteness, for
depth, for accurate analysis, for subtle philosophical dis
tinctions, for fervor, and for enthusiasm being equally
fitted for eloquence, for poetry, and for philosophy
that mind stands pre-eminent among all that God has
made. The Greeks had a language, too, fitted, above
all others spoken among men, for such inquiries a lan
guage in which, the highest conceptions of philosophy
and religion could be. better expressed than in any oth
er, and in which the nicest shades of thought could be
perpetuated the language, in fact, adopted by the au
thors of the New Testament under, as we believe, the
guidance of the Holy Ghost selected from all the lan
guages of the world as best adapted to express the
great ideas of the Christian Revelation.
The Greeks, too, gave themselves to this inquiry,
B2
34 LECTURES ON THE
fully impressed with its importance and its vastness,
as if under the impression themselves that the great
problem had been intrusted to their hands. They
were not insensible to the magnitude of the questions
at issue, and alike in their mental acuteness. in their
language, and in their zeal, they have shown that the
great problem was well intrusted to their hands. If
the question were now asked, To what people of all
lands and ages such a question could be best submit
ted ? there would be but one answer that the question
whether man could originate or discover a religion that
would be fitted for human wants in all ages could be
most appropriately and safely lodged with the Greeks.
The result of the trial is now before the world. The
trial is complete. It is not to be repeated. Whether
Christianity is true or false, it may be assumed now
that a more hopeful trial could not now be entered on ;
it may be assumed that if there is no revelation given
to man, then man, on the subject of religion, must give
himself up to despair.
There is no system of religion that man has devised
that meets the wants of the race ; there is none, unless
it be Christianity, that the race in its progress will care
to perpetuate. None of the religions which man orig
inated before the Christian era, if we except Hinduism
and Buddhism, have now an existence in the world,
and it will not be pretended by those who reject the
Christian revelation that these meet the wants of men,
or that they can be perpetuated in the advancing pe
riods of the world.
All the others have perished perished with the em
pires where they were originated ; perished with the
priesthood to which they gave power; perished with
the temples and altars which time has overthrown
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 35
perished never to be revived. The temples of Baalbec
and Karnak will not be rebuilt ; the altars of Mexico
will not be reconstructed ; the Parthenon will not be
repaired; and the Pantheon will not again welcome
the gods of all nations. These ancient systems of re
ligion were dying out when Christianity appeared, and
would have died at any rate. It is a fine remark of
Augustine that " Christ appeared to the men of a de
crepit, dying world, that while all around them was
fading, they might receive through him a new, youth
ful life."* It was not in the power of Julian, with all
the influence and wealth of the world at his command,
to quicken the old Roman Paganism into life again ; it
was the task of Mr. Gibbon to record the dying out of
the old system, whatever might be his record in regard
to the new.
In particular, it pertains to my argument to remark
that the system of the Greeks, the result of the highest
wisdom of man, has departed forever. That religion
has ceased altogether ; the " elegant mythology" of
the Greeks, as Mr. Gibbon calls it, has passed away.
There is not a vestige of it remaining. There is not
now an altar, even in Athens, where Paul saw so many,
where a heathen god is worshiped ; there is no one
there erected to an " unknown God." Every altar that
stood there in the time of Paul has long since been
overthrown, not to be rebuilt ; the splendid temples on
which his eye rested when he stood on Mars Hill
have disappeared. Even the Parthenon is in ruins,
and there has not been vitality enough to perpetuate
it in its beauty as a work of art ; as a structure for the
worship of Minerva it is to be entered no more forever.
There was nothing in the ancient religion of Greece,
* Neander, Church History, i., 77.
34 LECTURES ON THE
fully impressed with its importance and its vastness,
as if under the impression themselves that the great
problem had been intrusted to their hands. They
were not insensible to the magnitude of the questions
at issue, and alike in their mental acuteness. in their
language, and in their zeal, they have shown that the
great problem was well intrusted to their hands. If
the question were now asked, To what people of all
lands and ages such a question could be best submit
ted ? there would be but one answer that the question
whether man could originate or discover a religion that
would be fitted for human wants in all ages could be
most appropriately and safely lodged with the Greeks.
The result of the trial is now before the world. The
trial is complete. It is not to be repeated. Whether
Christianity is true or false, it may be assumed now
that a more hopeful trial could not now be entered on ;
it may be assumed that if there is no revelation given
to man, then man, on the subject of religion, must give
himself up to despair.
There is no system of religion that man has devised
that meets the wants of the race ; there is none, unless
it be Christianity, that the race in its progress will care
to perpetuate. None of the religions which man orig
inated before the Christian era, if we except Hinduism
and Buddhism, have now an existence in the world,
and it will not be pretended by those who reject the
Christian revelation that these meet the wants of men,
or that they can be perpetuated in the advancing pe
riods of the world.
All the others have perished perished with the em
pires where they were originated ; perished with the
priesthood to which they gave power; perished with
the temples and altars which time has overthrown
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 35
perished never to be revived. The temples of Baalbec
and Karnak will not be rebuilt ; the altars of Mexico
will not be reconstructed ; the Parthenon will not be
repaired; and the Pantheon will not again welcome
the gods of all nations. These ancient systems of re
ligion were dying out when Christianity appeared, and
would have died at any rate. It is a fine remark of
Augustine that " Christ appeared to the men of a de
crepit, dying world, that while all around them was
fading, they might receive through him a new, youth
ful life."* It was not in the power of Julian, with all
the influence and wealth of the world at his command,
to quicken the old Roman Paganism into life again ; it
was the task of Mr. Gibbon to record the dying out of
the old system, whatever might be his record in regard
to the new.
In particular, it pertains to my argument to remark
that the system of the Greeks, the result of the highest
wisdom of man, has departed forever. That religion
has ceased altogether ; the " elegant mythology" of
the Greeks, as Mr. Gibbon calls it, has passed away.
There is not a vestige of it remaining. There is not
now an altar, even in Athens, where Paul saw so many,
where a heathen god is worshiped ; there is no one
there erected to an " unknown God." Every altar that
stood there in the time of Paul has long since been
overthrown, not to be rebuilt ; the splendid temples on
which his eye rested when he stood on Mars Hill
have disappeared. Even the Parthenon is in ruins,
and there has not been vitality enough to perpetuate
it in its beauty as a work of art ; as a structure for the
worship of Minerva it is to be entered no more forever.
There was nothing in the ancient religion of Greece,
* Neander, Church History, i., 77.
36 LECTURES ON THE
or in her philosophy as bearing on religion, that the
world could lay hold of as worth perpetuating, and the
religion of Greece, the highest result of human wisdom
of the speculation of the profoundest and acutest in
tellect of the world has departed ; the ruin of the an
cient religion is universal. Not more entire is the ruin
of kingdoms, dynasties, empires of thrones and pal
aces than is the ruin of temples and altars. All lie in
promiscuous ruin : Karnak, Baalbec, Birs Nimroud in
Babylon ; the splendid temples in Athens and in Cor
inth ; the temples of Jupiter, and Janus, and Apollo all
in Home save the little temple of Ceres and the Pan
theon all are in ruin. No part of the world is now
influenced in the slightest degree by the Egyptian, the
Persian, the Assyrian, the Roman, the Greek religions,
by the religion of the Druids, or of any of the old Teu
tonic or Scythian races.
It would be but carrying out this view to remark
that the world, as left to itself, has made no advances
since. Hinduism indeed survives, but it has made no
progress, and it has not commended itself to man as
the religion which he needs as civilization advances.
Buddhism survives, but it also has made no progress in
character, or in adapting itself to the wants of man,
since it started from India and spread over China.
Nor have men who have rejected Christianity, and re
nounced the ancient Paganism, although they have
shown that they are abreast or ahead of the world in
other things, devised a system of religion that would
meet the wants of man, or that would commend itself
to mankind as worthy to be perpetuated. Mr. Hume
and Mr. Gibbon proposed no new system ; Shaftesbury,
Bolingbroke, Hobbes of Malmesbury, Morgan, proposed
none ; the system of Lord Herbert commended itself
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 37
to but few minds in his own age, and now commends
itself to none. The world has not shown that it is
satisfied with the views of Hegel and Kant, of Strauss,
of Renan, and of Comte. But my present purpose does
not require me to pursue this argument.
It remains only to make a remark on the other thing
suggested in regard to the limitations of the human
nrind that limitation as illustrated in the attempt to
give to man a " book-revelation" to accomplish what
the Bible claims to accomplish. The inquiry is, what,
in the failure of reasoning on the subject, has man pro
duced claiming to be a " book-revelation" from God, or
to supply what reason has not shown itself able to sup-
p!y-
It must be assumed here that those efforts are the
result of the unaided human intellect, for a contrary
supposition, or an admission that they are inspired,
would not, of course, bear on my argument. For the
sake of argument, at least, it may be admitted that they
are the result of unaided human genius. The question
is, whether they meet the wants of man ; whether they
supply what Grecian wisdom could not supply ; wheth
er men will be likely to attempt any thing more with
any prospect of success.
The powers of the human mind have exhausted them
selves in regard to a " book-revelation" in the Sibylline
oracles, the Zendavesta, the Vedas and Shasters, the
Koran, and the Book of Mormon chiefly in the Koran.
It can not be denied that in some of these there is
vast power ; it can not, with reason, be supp osed that
in respect to a pretended revelation these are to be sur
passed, or that these pretended revelations are to be su
perseded, by those of human origin that will better meet
the wants, or that will have higher claims to the faith
38 LECTURES ON THE
of men. Including the Bible now in the number of
books that claim to be a revelation from God, it may be
assumed that, if that is on the same level with respect
to its origin, the human powers have exhausted them
selves, and that the question whether man can devise
what shall be received as a revelation from God is
closed forever, and that the choice of that which shall
guide the race is limited to these. If the Bible is of
divine origin it determines the matter that there is to
be no other, for it claims to be final on the subject, and
man must, therefore, embrace the Sibylline oracles, or
the Zendavesta, or the Shasters, or the Bible, or the
Koran, or the Book of Mormon, or have no revela
tion.
In respect to the question now before us, however,
the Bible is to be put aside, for we are inquiring into
the capacities of the human mind on the subject apart
from the Bible from Christianity.
The question for the infidel is whether he shall em
brace one of the other books referred to, or whether he
shall attempt to originate one of a higher order that
will more perfectly meet the wants of men, or wheth
er he shall reject all claims of pretended revelations
whatever.
The remark which I am now making is, that the pow
ers of the human mind have exhausted themselves in
these efforts, and that it is hopeless now for an impos
tor to produce a " book-revelation," or such a pretend
ed book, that shall be so far in advance of the rest of
the world as to meet the wants of mankind, or that
shall control as many millions of the human race as
these books do or have done, or that shall have the
prospect, as we believe the Bible has, of securing the
ultimate faith of all men.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 39
Take, for example, the best of these books the Ko
ran. What prospect is there now what possibility
that man shall originate a book claiming to have divine
authority, that shall control as many millions of the hu
man race as that book has done, and does now ? For
that book has formed the faith of nations. It has con
trolled armies, and directed wars, and made laws, and
laid the foundations of empires. It has ruled for a thou
sand years some of the most acute, profound, energetic,
active portions of mind that God has made. It controls
now one hundred and sixty millions of minds. How
many are controlled by Lord Herbert, by Bolingbroke,
by Kant, by Hegel, by Comte ? We may not be able,
indeed, to read that book, either in the original language
or in a translation, but we can not but respect it. The
late Mr. Everett said that he had often attempted to
read it, but had been unable to accomplish it ; and all
of us who attempt it, after a few pages or chapters, co
incide with his remark, and lay down the book. But it
is read, and read as the Bible is, by millions too, as giv
ing them law, and forming their faith, and we can not
but respect it. We can not but feel an interest in any
book that has power to hold one hundred and sixty
millions of the human race in subjection, and to mould
the institutions and laws of so large a portion of man
kind. There is more to interest us in that fact than
there was in the power of Alexander, who subdued the
world by arms ; or in the power of the Autocrat of
Russia, who rules by hereditary right ; or in the power
of Napoleon, who held nations in subjection by a most
potent and active will. For, in such cases, there is living
power, and there are vast armies, and there are frown
ing bulwarks, and there are the means of crushing and
destroying men. But the dominion of the Koran is THE
40 LECTURED ON THE
DOMINION OF A BOOK a silent, still, speechless thing
that has no will, no armies, no living energies, no chain-
shot, no cannon, and yet it exerts a power which the
monarch and the conqueror never wields. It lives, too,
when monarchs and conquerors die. It rules advancing
generations, and subdues their wills too. It moulds
their opinions, leads them to temples of worship, and
restrains their passions with a power which monarchs
never wielded. It guides them in life, and is the last
book which they consult, or call to remembrance, on
the bed of death ; and I think it will not be denied that
I am justified in the conclusion that the powers of the
human mind have exhausted themselves in that di
rection ; that no man not even Comte can hope that
it is within the range of his powers to originate a sys
tem that shall exert an influence on mankind as wide
as the Koran, or that, displacing the Bible, and the
Koran, and the Zendavesta, and the Shasters, shall dis
close a system of religion that shall meet the wants of
all mankind.
I infer from these remarks that the powers of man
have exhausted themselves in this direction; that the
human mind is limited on the subject of religion; that
there "are boundaries which it does not pass; that, if
man is to have light to guide him to his Maker, it
must be found, not in the recorded results of human
thinking hitherto ; not in any intuitions to which the
human powers may rise ; not in any books of human
devising claiming to be a revelation, but in a " book-
revelation" that comes direct from God not in the Sib
ylline oracles, or in the Zendavesta, or in the Shasters,
or in the Koran, but in the Bible.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 41
LECTURE II.
HISTOEICAL EVIDENCE AS AFFECTED BY TIME.
HISTORICAL criticism is comparatively a modern sci
ence. For the introduction and establishment of this
science we are undoubtedly mainly indebted to the
Germans, who, to whatever extent they may have car
ried it into Rationalism in theology, or skepticism in
the classics, have unquestionably laid down, among
much that is false, the true principles that are to be
applied to the writings of the ancients.
Mebuhr, in the Preface to his History of Rome, says :
" The History of Rome was treated, during the first two
centuries after the revival of letters, with the same pros
tration of the understanding and judgment to the writ
ten letter that had been handed down, and the same
fearfulness of going beyond it, which prevailed in all
the other branches of knowledge. If any one had pre
tended to examine into the credibility of the ancient
writers, and the value of their testimony, an outcry
would have been raised against such atrocious presump
tion. The object aimed at was, in spite of every thing
like internal evidence, to combine what they related.
At the utmost, one authority was made to give way in
some particular instance to another ; and this was done
as mildly as possible, and without leading to any far
ther results. Here and there, indeed, a man of an inde
pendent mind, like Glareanus, broke through this fence ;
but inevitably a sentence of condemnation was forth
with pronounced against him. Besides, the persons
42 LECTURES ON THE
who did so were not the most learned ; and these bold
attempts were not carried with consistency throughout.
In this department, as in others, men of splendid abili
ties and the most copious learning conformed to the
narrow spirit of their age."
Wolff had, indeed, applied a spirit of unsparing criti
cism to the writings of Homer ; Bentley had continued
the application of these principles ; Glanvil, who has
been termed by a modern critic " the first English wri
ter who had thrown skepticism into a definite form,"*
had applied these principles to the prevailing belief in
his time in sorcery and witchcraft ; Bayle carried them
to almost universal skepticism ; Niebuhr applied them
to the Roman History.
Glanvil, in order to test the historical evidence in re
gard to the miracles of the New Testament, proposed
to make the trial on the belief in witchcraft in his time,
as being contemporary, and as making it peculiarly easy
to test the credibility of the supernatural ; " for," said
he, " things remote or long past are either not believed
or forgotten ; whereas, those being fresh and new, and
attended with all the circumstances of credibility, it
should be expected that they would have most success
upon the obstinacy of unbelievers."!
The general grounds on which this criticism is found
ed are such as the following : That the witnesses for
ancient facts lived in a remote and uncritical age ; that
they were not, when they lived, subjected to a cross-
examination; that they have long since died and can
not now be examined ; that it was for the interest and
attractiveness of their story to relate the marvelous,
since most of their historic productions were recited in
public, and none were allowed to contradict them ; that
* Biographic Universelle. f Lecky, Hist, of Rationalism, i., 133.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 43
there were few contemporary historical documents with
which they could be compared ; that there was a love
of the marvelous, and a prevailing belief in the super
natural, which was to be gratified ; that time has ef
fected changes in the public mind in most or all these
respects ; and that now, in a more critical age, and on
the coolness of calm reflection, and with tests to separ
ate the marvelous from the real, it is proper to apply to
all ancient writings the principles of criticism suggest
ed by the present advanced position of the world.
Time has made changes affecting historical testimony.
All is not now believed that has been believed in for
mer ages nor should it be ; all is not believed that is
recorded nor should it be. The world is less credu
lous than it once was ; it is more disposed to examine
what is proposed for belief; it has advantages which
it once had not for this ; it demands evidence which it
did not once demand ; it applies an unsparing criticism
to what was once accredited as undoubted truth. It
has learned that many false records have come down
to us from the past; that there have been errors in
transcribing ancient documents; that many of those
documents have been corrupted by design, if an object
was to be gained by it if the glory of a nation or a
hero was to be exalted, if the claims of a religion were
to be established, if the interest of a party in the state,
or in philosophy, was to be promoted ; and it has learn
ed that many of the documents which have come down
to us from ancient times are forged documents; that
there have been myths, legends, and fables wrought into
history ; that there have been fancied records of dynas
ties and heroes stretching back an almost illimitable
number of years ; that there have been details of unreal
battles, of imaginary dynasties, and of fancied wonders ;
44 LECTURES ON THE
that there have been apocryphal histories and apocry
phal gospels.
Especially there has been a change on the whole sub
ject of the supernatural. In the early ages of the world
the relation of a supernatural event did nothing to im
pair the general credit of the history, and the record of
such an event was received with as little skepticism as
a statement in regard to the ordinary events of the
world. It does not appear that the statements of Livy
respecting the marvelous events attending the founda
tion of Rome and its early history impaired the gener
al credit of his history, or lessened the public faith in
his statements in regard to things occurring under the
operation of natural causes. It may be presumed, on
the contrary, that such statements of the marvelous
commended his history to a stronger credence, as being
in accordance with the common belief respecting the
foundation of empires, and as indicating the special fa
vor of the gods toward the nation a nation started on
a loftier career, and under better auspices, which could
refer to special divine interpositions in its behalf; which
could prove that even the gods were present when the
foundations of its walls and of its Capitol were laid.
All this has passed away. An unsparing criticism
has swept all those marvels from the early history of
Rome, and in doing this, it demands that all the records
of marvels in the early history of nations should be re
garded as fabulous. To such an extent has the princi
ple been carried, in fact, that the claim that " miracles"
or marvels have occurred in any period of the history
of the world is to be regarded as proof that the entire
history, and all that is dependent on it, is false. Renan,
in his " Life of Jesus" (p. 17), says of the Gospels : " Let
the gospels be in part legendary : that is evident, since
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. . 45
they are full of miracles and the supernatural /" that is,
the fact that " miracles" and the " supernatural" are re
counted there is to be regarded as undoubted proof
that they are in a great degree "legendary" on the
same level with the first portion of the history ofLivy,
or with the early records of Egypt.
So, again, in a passage apparently approved by the
Westminster Review* as a just principle, he says, " It
ia an absolute rule of criticism not to admit into history
any narrative of miraculous incidents. This is not the
result of any metaphysical system; it is simply a fact
of observation. No such facts have ever been establish
ed, and all alleged miracles resolve themselves into illu
sion and imposture. All miracles that may be made
the subject of examination vanish away."
The demand is now a demand which this age is to
consider, for it affects every question about a revelation,
and is vital in its bearings on Christianity that this
shall be regarded as a universal rule in history ; or, that
the claim that a miracle has been wrought shall at once
set aside all the evidences adduced in favor of the truth
of any historic record.
To nothing have the principles of a stern historical
criticism been more rigorously applied than to the books
of the New Testament. All that has been said about
legends, and marvels, and interpolated manuscripts, and
forged documents, and unknown authorships, has been
said about those books. All that has been said about
statements being contradictory to each other, or to in
dependent contemporaneous statements ; about witness
es as incompetent to give testimony, or as not cross-ex
amined, or as long since dead ; about the ability of a
more advanced age of the world to judge of a record
* Quoted in the Westminster Review, Oct., 1866.
46 LECTURES ON THE
that has come down from the mists, and through the
mists, of the past all this has been said of what is af-
lirmed as fact in the New Testament. A more un
sparing criticism has been employed because the events
referred to are of a religious nature ; and a portion of
the scientific and historic world a portion not small
is hastening to the conclusion, as a universal canon of
criticism, that the fact that any pretended history re
cords a " miracle" is full demonstration that the histo
ry is false.
The* question suggested by these criticisms is a, fair
question ; a question which men have a right to ask ; a
question which the believer in miracles may be held to
answer. The value of evidence is affected by time.
One age may be much more competent to examine the
credibility of testimony than another. A subsequent
generation may be much better qualified to examine
such testimony than that in which the event was said
to have occurred. It may be easier to ascertain the
exact truth in regard to an event at a subsequent period
than when it occurred, as the movements and positions
of forces engaged in a battle can be best understood
and explained when the smoke of the battle has cleared
away. Statements apparently contradictory may be
explained and reconciled; different accounts may be
sifted and compared, and the result of all credible tes
timony may be combined in one. It is ever to be re
membered that the historic statement of an event is what
it is reported to be by all who witnessed it, and who have
made a record in regard to it ; not the, statement of an
individual The historic statement in respect to the
decline and fall of the Roman Empire is what it is re
ported to have been by the great multitude of authors
and writers whom Mr. Gibbon had before him in com-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 47
posing his history. His task was to select, compare,
reconcile, arrange, and combine into that one harmoni
ous and magnificent history which he has given to man
kind, all that was credible in that multitude of writers
as bearing on the events of history, not to reproduce
merely the statement of any one of those authors. The
Scripture narrative of an event is what it is reported
to have been by all the sacred writers, and the task of
an expositor of the Bible is to compare, reconcile, ar
range, and combine these also into one harmonious
whole. The real narrative in regard to the life of the
Redeemer is not what it is reported to be by Matthew,
or Mark, or Luke, or John it is the statement of all of
them combined.
It is also a very pertinent question a question which
we may be held to answer in what manner a religion,
urging its claims now on the ground of the evidence on
which Christianity advanced its claims, and on which
it undoubtedly made its way in the world eighteen
hundred years ago, would be met in this age in this
nineteenth century. Would it now, if the same evi
dences of its divine origin were urged, be received as
a religion from God? Would it make its way in the
world in this age as it did then ? Would the evidences
of its miracles be received in this scientific and critical
age as they were in that comparatively uncritical, un
scientific, and credulous age an age when men were
disposed to believe in the marvelous, and when the be
lief in the supernatural interposition of the gods in hu
man affairs was the common belief of men ? Was the
evidence of the miracles ever thus subjected to such
tests as they would be now, or as they ought to have
been ; would they convince men now as they did then ?
If it be admitted that the religion was propagated and
48 LECTURES ON THE
embraced then on evidence that seemed to be satisfac
tory to mankind, would it be embraced, and could it be
propagated now, on the same evidence? Would not
that evidence be subjected to a more rigid and just
scrutiny, and would it not, therefore, be rejected ? If so,
should it not be rejected now?
" Let a thaumaturgist," says Renan,* " present him
self to-morrow with testimony sufficiently important to
merit our attention ; let him announce that he is able,
I will suppose, to raise the dead ; what would be done ?
A commission composed of physiologists, physicians,
chemists, persons experienced in historical criticism,
would be appointed. This commission would choose
the corpse, make it certain that death was real, desig
nate the hall in which the experiment should be made,
and regulate the whole system of precautions necessa
ry to leave no room for doubt. If, under such condi
tions, the resurrection should be performed, a probabil
ity almost equal to certainty would be attained. How
ever, as an experiment ought always to be capable of
being repeated, as one ought to be capable of doing
again what one has done once, and as, in the matter of
miracles, there can be no question of easy or difficult,
the thaumaturgist would be invited to reproduce his
marvelous acts under other circumstances, upon other
bodies, in another medium. If the miracle succeeds
each time, two things would be proven : first, that su
pernatural acts do come to pass in the world; second,
that the power to perform them belongs or is delegated
to certain persons. But who does not see that no mir
acle was ever performed under such conditions; that
always hitherto the thaumaturgist has chosen the sub
ject of the experiment, chosen the means, chosen the
* Life of Jesus, p. 44, 45.
EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANITY. 49
public ; that, moreover, it is, in most cases, the people
themselves who, from the undeniable need which they
feel of seeing in great events and great men something
divine, create the marvelous legends afterward."
It may be added, as illustrating this feeling, that the
world is beginning to demand an altogether different
class of evidences of Christianity from that which satis
fied the generations that preceded us, and although the
authors, some of them at least, who satisfied those gene
rations of the truth of the Bible, have scarcely passed
away, yet that Grotius de Veritate, and Paley s Evi
dences, and Lardner s Credibility, and Chalmers s Evi
dences of Christianity, are beginning to be regarded as
books pertaining to the past books that performed
their work well enough in their own time, but which
are soon to be reckoned with the obsolete defenses of
Christianity in the times of Porphyry, Celsus, and Ju
lian, or in the times of the British deists of the seven
teenth century. Whatever might have been the value
of that evidence, and that mode of argumentation, in a
former age, and however such arguments may have con
vinced the world in former times, it is now held that
we are not at liberty to demand that the same credit
shall be given to the arguments in this age. " Let the
thaumaturgist," Kenan would say, " work over the mir
acle in our times in such a manner as to satisfy an age
far different from that when the miracles were pretend
ed to have been wrought."
It becomes, therefore, very important to inquire
whether, on the alleged facts on which Christianity was
first propagated, and which were regarded eighteen
hundred years ago as sufficient evidence to prove that
the religion was from God, and under which the relig
ion actually spread over the world, it may be commend-
C
50 LECTURES ON THE
ed to mankind now ? Or has time so rectified the judg
ment of mankind on the subject of testimony as to show
that the evidence was valueless then, and should be re
garded as valueless now, and that the religion was in
fact propagated under a delusion ?
This is a fair question. This introduces the subject
of this Lecture. It will be illustrated under two heads :
The general principles on the subject.
The application of those principles to the Christian
testimony.
The general subject to be illustrated is, EVIDENCE AS
AFFECTED BY TlME.
Evidence as bearing on things to be believed which
is its proper province must pertain to subjects as math
ematical, as legal, as scientific, as moral, as historical.
N"o one would pretend that on these subjects precise
ly the same kind of testimony would be demanded ; no
one would maintain that the evidence, to be satisfactory
to the mind, must be precisely the same ; no one would
affirm that all would be equally affected by time, or
that the same rules are to be applied in estimating their
value.
In mathematics, time makes no change in the force
and value of the evidence by which a proposition is es
tablished. If it be granted that shorter methods may
be used, or that new methods of demonstration may be
discovered, as the Algebraic process, or Logarithms, or
Fluxions, or the Differential Calculus, yet these do not
demonstrate that the former evidence was false, or un
reliable as far as it went, or that that for which it was
employed as a demonstration was false. It must be
it can not be otherwise that Euclid believed that in a
right angled triangle the square of the hypothenuse is
equal to the sum of the squares on the two sides, on the
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 51
same evidence on which we believe it, and the proof on
which he relied, as far as it was proof, is as forcible now
as it was then. Time does nothing to affect that evi
dence. It neither confirms nor impairs it. The evi
dence is to us precisely what it was to the human mind
eighteen hundred years ago, and it will be the same to
the end of the world. We believe it not because Eu
clid believed it, or because there is evidence that it was
believed then, or because the truth of the proposition
was propagated on the ground of the evidence then
employed, but because the proof to our minds is precise
ly, neither more nor less, what it was to the first mind
on which the truth of the " forty-seventh" proposition
dawned. The proof can not be added to or diminish
ed ; and that proof will go down to the end of the
world, whatever changes may occur in the laws of crit
icism, or in any advances which may be made in the
capability of judging of evidence. Many new truths
may be discovered and added to this, but time does not
change the faith of mankind in this.
In legal matters, time does not necessarily or materi
ally affect evidence. It affects the manner of arriving
at it ; the question as to what is legal testimony ; the
determination about the credibility of witnesses ; the
question how far interest in the case, or relationship to
the parties, shall affect their credibility ; the mode of
examination, in open court or in secret ; the credit due
to the young, to those of feeble mind, or to those who
may be partially insane ; the competency of witnesses
in general; but the evidence itself is not affected by
time. The evidence that .Titus killed Gaius in the time
of Augustus, and that he was properly convicted and
punished, is not modified by the lapse of eighteen hund
red years, and by all the changes which have occurred
52 LECTURES ON THE
in the world in that time. If the evidence then relied
on established the fact so that, under the laws, Titus
was justly punished, it establishes it now, so that it
ought to go into history, and to be believed in all com
ing time ; to become one of the cases of precedents es
tablishing the principles on which justice is to be ad
ministered in every future age.
In scientific matters, the principles are the same. Tes
timony or evidence is not likely to be affected in any
way on these subjects ; for, in general, we do not be
lieve the facts of science on the evidence of testimony.
Although it is true that the mass of men credit the facts
of science in Astronomy, Geology, Chemistry, and in
the kindred sciences so far as they come before them
at all for belief, on the ground of testimony, yet it is
also true that these great truths and facts can be sub
jected to experiment and observation by any one that
chooses. Galileo testified that there were moons apper
taining to Jupiter. That he did so testify can be easily
established by history ; that there are moons revolving
around the planet is a matter, however, not depending
on the credibility of his testimony, or on the historical
records of that time, but can be verified by any one by
looking through a telescope.
Time sets aside, indeed, many things in science which
were once assuredly believed. But it is not done be
cause the testimony is doubtful; it is because the ob
servations were not accurately made, or because there
were false theories, or because better instruments, and
a more varied and prolonged observation, have shown
exactly what the facts were and are. But time, for
example, has not affected the evidence in regard to
the facts connected with the celebrated "Eclipse of
Thales," on which so much has been written, and which
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 53
has been the subject of so much discussion among as
tronomers neither the fact in regard to the effect of
that eclipse as stated by Herodotus, or the fact that
Thales predicted it. Herodotus says (book i., ch. Ixxiv.)
that there was a war between the Lydians and the
Medes, and that, after various turns of fortune, " in the
sixth year a conflict took place ; and on the battle being
joined, it happened that the day suddenly became night.
And this change," says he, " Thales of Miletus had pre
dicted to them, definitely naming the year in which the
event took place. The Lydians and the Medes, when
they saw day turned into night, ceased from fighting,
and both sides were desirous of peace."*
Time, in regard to this event, has undoubtedly shown
that the theory which Thales held in regard to astron
omy was a false theory; that the prediction implied
no very accurate knowledge of the heavens ; that prob
ably 7^his knowledge on the subject was derived from
the observation of the periodical times when eclipses
occur ; and that probably also all that he predicted was
the year when this eclipse would take place, not the
hour, the day, nor even the month ; but time has not
set aside the evidence in regard to the fact. Thus time
may establish the truth of a scientific event, but not the
cause of it ; the fact may be demonstrated by testimo
ny to the end of the world, but the testimony does
nothing to establish the causes of it. On this point,
however, time may do this : while the testimony as to
the fact is unaffected, it may do much to show what
was, or was not the cause of the event. Time may show
that what was regarded as miraculous and supernatu
ral when it happened, took place in the ordinary oper
ations of nature, and the " dim eclipse" which, at the
* Whewelts History of the Inductive Sciences, vol. i., p. 509.
54 LECTURES ON THE
time of its occurrence, " with fear of change perplexed
monarchs," may take its place among ordinary events,
to be explained in accordance with ordinary and well-
understood laws. The fact existed as recorded ; time
has changed the views of men in regard to the cause,
and reduced it from a marvelous to an ordinary opera
tion of nature. What armies would now be stayed in
battle by an eclipse of the sun ? Of ancient facts now
as reported to us in history, we give credit to the facts
as reported ; we explain them as we choose. The facts
we admit. Here we pause. All in regard to the ex
planation is as much under our control as it was under
the control of those who have reported the facts to us.
In regard to moral subjects to philosophy the same
remark is to be made. We receive the statement that
certain opinions in morals, in philosophy, in religion
were held; we embrace those opinions or not, as we
choose ; we explain and defend them in our own way.
It can not be denied, as a matter of historic verity, that
Plato, in the Gorgias, argues in favor of the immortal
ity of the soul. The fact that he at times seems to hold
this is not to be set aside. But no one of us believes
the doctrine because he thus testified to it, and no one
believes it on the ground of the proof QY evidence which
he adduces in favor of it. Time holds on to the fact
that such opinions were held ; it sets aside, it may be,
all the arguments on which the opinion was held, or
reverses entirely the faith in the doctrine itself. That
the schoolmen held certain opinions we do not doubt ;
that they were defended by great prolixity and by mar
velous subtilty of argument, any one may have evidence
of who chooses to look into the ponderous tomes that
so calmly now repose in dust in the alcoves of our great
libraries, like ancient knights incased in armor in old
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 55
cathedrals ; but who feels bound to believe their opin
ions; who feels bound to make himself acquainted even
with the terms of their logic the weapons with which
they dealt their heavy blows ?
There remains the question as to the bearing of these
remarks on historic records the records of facts per
taining to ancient times. This point will lead to a mat
ter of much interest, and one which specially pertains
to us, the question about the facts in regard to the mir
acles of the New Testament.
It is this kind of evidence which is mainly affected
by time ; this which leads into the whole region of his
torical criticism.
The manner in which this evidence is affected by time,
and the reasons why there is occasion for the modern
science of historical criticism, will be made plain by a
few remarks.
The following things, then, are to be taken into the
account in estimating the value of ancient historical
testimony : (a) The imperfect observation in regard to
the facts that are recorded, (b) The disposition for the
marvelous in the early periods of history, (c) The char
acter of the witnesses for competency, veracity, credi
bility, candor, honesty, freedom from selfish ends, (d)
National vanity ; not a few histories being in fact de
signed to exalt the glory of one nation over its rivals.
(e) The nature of the subject; for on some subjects men
are much more honest and credible than on others.
Such are, or may be, for example, the views which men
have on the subject of religion, that no reliance almost
could be placed on their testimony in regard to the facts
that pertain to it. The narrative would be certain to
be colored by the views entertained on the subject, and
the largest allowance would be necessary in estimating
56 LECTURES ON THE
the value of the historical record. (/) The voluntary
corruption of records for national, private, or party pur
poses, (g) The slow accumulation of errors in the pro
cess of transcription of records small at first, and few
in number, yet unavoidably perpetuated and multi
plied by time. (A) The number of false or apocryphal
histories that may be written for various purposes, as
the long imaginary histories of the dynasties of Egypt
and India, or the apocryphal Gospels.
Time affects all these things ; and the work of histor
ical criticism when the world becomes sensible that
these have accumulated, and that the true should be
separated from the false, becomes a work so vast as to
be properly dignified with the name of science. Noth
ing demands more learning, patience, acuteness, sagac
ity, candor, and impartiality than such a work, and he
who, in history, contributes any thing to separate the
true from the false, and to give the world a correct rec
ord of the past, is to be classed among the benefactors
of mankind.
In looking at these things, and contemplating the
uncertainties and the corruptions of history, it becomes
a question whether any facts pertaining to the past can
be placed on the same level with those which are occur
ring in our own time, and which come under our own
observation, or the observation of our contemporaries ;
or whether all the alleged facts of ancient history are
to be classed among myths and legends; or where, ^
there is true history, the region of legend ends and
that of history begins ; and if legend, myth, and fable
reign at all in the past, what is the extent of the domin
ion ? Does it terminate with the legends of Livy ?
Does it cease with the stories of the interventions of
the gods in battle, and in the foundation of cities and
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 5V
empires ? Or does it embrace also the account of the
Creation and Fall in Genesis ; the record of the deluge ;
of the overthrow of Sodom ; of the wonders of Egypt ;
of the wandering of the Hebrews in the desert ; of the
miracles of Gideon and Samson the records of the
Gospels, and of the acts of the apostles ?
Is there any thing that can be known of the past ?
There is a limit to skepticism in regard to the events
of the past, as there is a limit to skepticism on all sub
jects. Valuable in its place, and valuable as an attri
bute of the human mind, yet there is a boundary which
the Author of that mind has fixed, beyond which it is
not allowed permanently to pass, and the world, sooner
or later, works itself right on this subject, as it does on
all others.
There are facts which historical criticism can not ef
fect, and to which skepticism, even that of the most de
structive nature, can not be applied. There are facts
which Mr. Hume and Mr. Gibbon found in the past, and
which Niebuhr found, and which are never hencefor
ward to be called in question. The question in secular
history is, what is their limit ? The great question in
religion, a question which Strauss, and Renan, and Lep-
sius, and Bishop Colenso, and the authors of the "Es
says and Reviews," and the writers in the Westminster
Review, are endeavoring to help us to solve, is whether
the proper limit will exclude the facts in the Life of
Jesus, and the miracles of the Old and New Testa
ments ?
Let us now inquire for a moment what principles are
to be applied to the solution of the historical question.
The world has settled down into a general view on
the subject as to what is necessary to establish faith in
an Ancient fact, and when those things are found, the
C2
58 LECTURES ON THE
faith of the world is, from the constitution of the human
mind, as firm as it is in well-established contempora
neous events it may be said as firm as when an event
occurs under our own eyes ; for we no more doubt that
Caesar fell by the hands of assassins in the senate-house,
or that Xerxes crossed the Hellespont, or that the Per
sians were defeated at Marathon and Salamis, than that
Washington fought at Trenton, or that Lord Cornwallis
surrendered at Yorktown, or that the tide of rebel in
vasion was turned back at Gettysburg, or that the reb
el General Lee surrendered to General Grant.
Such things occur as entering into history, in such
cases, as the following :
(a) When the witnesses are competent, and have a
proper opportunity of observing the facts; that is,
where the facts are the proper subject of testimony as
facts, or as actual occurrences, and not as matters of
fancy and opinion.
(b) When the witnesses concur in the general state
ment of the fact, though they may vary in the circum
stances or details.
(c) When there is no motive for deception or impos
ture. We do not see, for example, that Tacitus had any
motive for either, and hence almost no part of his nar
rative has ever been called in question.
(d) When the facts recorded are strongly against the
religious faith of the narrator, or when he would wish
that the facts were otherwise. It is this which gives
such value to the statement of Mr. Hume that " England
owes whatever of civil liberty it enjoys to the influence
of the Puritans" a fact which we are morally certain
he would have wished to be otherwise, and which he
would have kept back if he could have done it as an
honest historian ; and this it is, with other things, which
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 59
gives so great value to the " History of the Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire," for many of the facts re
corded by Mr. Gibbon were undoubtedly such as a skep
tic in religion would have wished to have been other
wise ; in respect to many of those stated, Mr. Gibbon
could not but see that the world would regard them
as furnishing proof that the religion was of Divine or
igin ; of many of those stated, therefore, it required all
his great talents to explain them on the supposition
that the religion was false. Yet he recorded them,
without suppressing what was true, or interpolating
what was false, or perverting what had occurred, leav
ing it to himself and to other skeptics to explain them
as they could.
(e) When the facts referred to, and which are said to
have occurred, furnish the most easy and natural expla
nation of the existing state of things, or go into exist
ing events as the cause does into the effect, and are in
dispensable to the solution of what actually exists in
the world. There are, undoubtedly, numerous things
existing in the world in the civilization, the arts, the
laws, the religion for which the alleged facts in history
are the most natural explanation, and which are, in fact,
indispensable to the explanation. The main facts which
are said to have occurred in the life of Mohammed fur
nish the best explanation of the opinions, the laws, the
customs, the religious belief of a hundred and sixty mil
lions of the human family ; nor can those opinions, laws,
and customs be explained except on the supposition
that those facts actually occurred.
(/) When those facts are commemorated, and the
knowledge of them is perpetuated by monuments, coins,
medals, games, festivals, processions, and celebrations
from age to age ; when, without the supposition of those
60 LECTURES ON, THE
facts, all those things would be unmeaning, or would
be wholly inexplicable. The annual observance of the
fourth day of July in this country is founded on the
Declaration of Independence, and can not be explained
except on the belief of the facts as history states them.
The division of the lands in England is founded on the
fact that there was a " Doomsday Book," and that the
lands were apportioned in accordance with that. The
establishment of the Feudal System in England, the
form of the government for ages, the tenure by which
land is held, and the distinction of ranks, is founded-on
the fact that William the Norman was victorious at the
battle of Hastings, and that the country was apportion
ed among his barons; nor can the laws in regard to
real estate in England for eight hundred years be ex
plained except on that supposition. The boundaries of
the old thirteen states of the Union can be explained
only on the supposition, which history states, that char
ters were granted to the colonies by the crown, fixing
those boundaries for there are no natural boundaries
between Massachusetts and New Hampshire ; between
Connecticut and Massachusetts ; between Pennsylvania
and New York ; between Virginia and North Carolina.
The Tower of London can be explained only by a belief
in the great facts of history as recorded in the books.
What mean those standards taken in war, those old
suits of armor, shields, and bows, and battle-axes, but
that the nation once was as history represents it to have
been ? How came they there ? Who invented them ?
Who had power to persuade the nation that all these
had been used in wars and conquests ? And what mean
those blocks, made as if for beheading men, and those
axes, unless it were true that Lord Russell, and Sir Wal
ter Raleigh, and Algernon Sidney were actually behead-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 61
ed ? Who placed them there ? Who has been able to
persuade the nation that they represent bloody reali
ties?
Thus facts come to us about which the world does
not doubt ; reports of ancient things which can not be
explained except on the supposition that the main facts
as alleged by history are true. So the fossil remains
of the earth the coal-beds the extinct remains of races
swept off in times far remote preserved in enduring
rocks, and laid far below the surface of the earth are,
like these old pieces of armor in the Tower of London,
memorials of what the history of our world has been.
The geologist, a laborious and most useful historian, is
performing, by toil and sorrow, what the conductor
through the Tower of London does in explaining the
history of the past.
Things, therefore, may be, and are made true in re
gard to the past. No man has any more doubt that
Caesar was assassinated than he has that Mr. Lincoln
was.
It remains to consider the application of these princi
ples to the particular subject of Christianity the ques
tion whether time has so affected the evidence in regard
to the facts on which Christianity is based as to render
those facts unworthy of belief.
I have already remarked that a more unsparing criti
cism has been applied to the historic records of Chris
tianity than to any other records pertaining to the past.
All that has been alleged against any other history has
been urged against the books of the New Testament ;
all the charges which have been elsewhere alleged of
incompetency on the part of witnesses; of defective ob
servation; of personal interest; of corrupted manu
scripts ; of apocryphal writings ; of inconsistencies and
02 LECTURES ON THE
contradictions; of uncertain authorship; of improbabil
ity in regard to the events ; of mistakes and errors, have
been and are alleged in regard to the Evangelists.
To the ordinary difficulties in regard to ancient rec
ords, there is, in reference to the New Testament, this
additional difficulty, greatly augmented by the change
in the views of the world on the subject of the super
natural and the marvelous, that the narrative requires
us to believe in miracles not merely that Jesus lived,
and taught, and was a good man, and founded Chris
tianity, as Strauss and Renan admit, but that he cast
out devils ; that he healed diseases by a word ; that he
raised the dead ; that he raised himself from the grave
and ascended to heaven as the difficulty of believing
the record of Livy in regard to the foundation of Rome
would be greatly augmented if we were required to be
lieve his legends about Romulus and Remus, or the mir
acle when a yawning chasm appeared in the city threat
ening its very existence, and the closing of the chasm
by the self-sacrifice of the gallant Curtius throwing him
self into it clad in full armor. No one can be required,
it would be said, in this sharp, keen, searching, scientif
ic age, to believe what men readily believed in the fab
ulous periods of history, when the belief in the super
natural prevailed every where ; when eclipses were
portents and prodigies ; when, in ignorance of the laws
of nature, it was believed that the heavenly bodies were
moved by angels; that all atmospheric changes were
effected by angels ; that a special angel was assigned
to every star and every element ; when it was believed
that comets were precursors of calamity, and that a
special comet, ominous of evil, preceded the death of
such men as Caesar or Constantino, or that such a comet
appeared before the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, be-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 63
fore the Peloponnesian War, before the civil wars of
Caesar and Pompey, before the fall of Jerusalem, before
the invasion of Attila, and before the coming of famine
and pestilence.* A more relentless criticism by far has
been applied to the New Testament than was applied
by Wolif to the Iliad, or by Niebuhr to the History of
Rome. And what strange, unhistorical theories are
held in regard to the four Evangelists ! Those Evan
gelists contain indeed fragments of truth. There is
enough of truth in them to account for the origin of
Christianity. But they are without order or arrange
ment. They are of uncertain date or authorship. They
are to be rearranged and reconstructed. The portions
added are to be eliminated; the deficiencies are to be
made up by sagacity ; the improbable parts are to be
discarded; all that is miraculous is to be regarded as
fabulous and legendary. The system of Christianity is
a " myth," having for its basis a very uncertain person
age, of sufficient reality to suggest the mythical actions
ascribed to him, as in Strauss ; or Jesus was a real per
sonage, the real founder of Christianity, a young man
of vast originality, of wonderful genius, slowly made
conscious of his own powers, wrought up to enthusiasm
unexpectedly to himself, to believe that he was to change
and reform the world, and acting on the borders of in
sanity, as in the romance of Renan.
What, then, is to be believed ? What are the princi
ples, as matters of history, which are to guide us ?
Christianity, as we shall see in a subsequent Lecture,
has a history as marked and definite as any other ; an
origin, a development, a progress, an array of facts that
belong to it alone. England has a history : its institu
tions; its judicial arrangements; its trial by jury; its
* Lecky, History of Rationalism, i., 289, 290.
64 LECTURES ON THE
writ of Habeas Corpus ; its government by King, Lords,
and Cc*mmons. Mohammedanism has a history. There
is that which is real which has gone into the religion
of Islam ; which makes it what it is ; ^that without the
knowledge of which its facts can not be explained. So
has Christianity.
The principles which are to be applied to this sub
ject, as connected with the train of thought in this Lec
ture, must now be stated in few w^ords.
(1.) The same principles of historical criticism must be
applied to the books of the New Testament as to other
books : no sharper, no more lax ; no more severe, no
more indulgent. No favor should be shown to them
because they claim to be sacred books ; nor should they
be approached with any prejudice, or any suspicion, on
that account. The question is not what the book is
about / it is whether it is true. It i# possible, in the
nature of things, that a book may record correctly the
account of the healing of a blind man, or the raising of
a man from the dead ; and, if such events have actually
occurred, it is not to be assumed that a correct record
can not be made of them, for such a record is as possi
ble as the record of a battle or a record of travels.
And, on the other hand, it should not be claimed that
such a record, even when it describes the resurrection of
the Redeemer from the grave, laying the foundation of
the hope of immortal life for man, is to be exempt from
the profane hands of criticism, or that a man is guil
ty of presumption, profaneness, or blasphemy who ap
proaches such a record as he does the writings of Livy
or Tacitus. Perhaps it should be said that the very
importance of the subject, and the very sacredness of
the subject, and the vastness of the interests at stake,
should make the search into the genuineness and the
EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 65
accuracy of the narrative more keen and skeptical as
the claim of a title to a peerage or a vast estate would
be examined more carefully than the title to the office
of a justice of the peace or to a few acres of ground; or
as one would examine more carefully the evidence that
a ship was so constructed as to bear him safely across
the ocean, than he would the capability of a skiff to
sport with on a pond.
That there has been a delusion on this subject, on
both sides, there can be no doubt. The facts that the
books of the New Testament are regarded as sacred ;
that they pertain to religion; that faith in them has
been for ages imbedded in the hearts of men ; that the
hopes of men are founded on them ; that the consequen
ces of finding that they are false would be terrible
leaving man without hope darkening the world, dark
enough at any rate, by the gloom of absolute despair
these facts, it can not be denied, have influenced many
in regard to the manner in which they should approach
those books. To them, too, it seems to be an act of pro-
faneness a crucifying again of the Lord of glory to
approach the account of the sufferings, the death, and
the resurrection of the Redeemer with the same rules
with which we approach the account of the plague in
Athens by Thucydides, and to apply the same rules to
the one which we apply to the others. Despite every
effort to the contrary, we can not but have a different
feeling, apart from any thing in the spirit and design
of the men, toward Strauss and Renan, from what we
have toward Wolff and Niebuhr; for we can hardly
help feeling that they have profanely, like Uzzah, touch
ed the ark of God. In the one case, we feel that no
great interests are at stake, whether the narrative is
true or false ; in the other is involved all that is dear
and sacred to the souls of men.
00 LECTURES ON THE
Yet the sacrifice must be made ; the feeling that this
is irreverence and profaneness must be overcome. Ev
ery man has a right to approach the most sacred rec
ords of the Bible with the same severe and stern rules
of criticism with which the love of truth would impel
him to approach any ancient records whatever. Nay,
every man is bound to do it ; for higher interests than
any which are involved in an inquiry into the title to a
peerage or an estate, or any involved in recorded facts
in regard to the rise and fall of empires, are at stake.
It is to be remarked, indeed, that it is not inconsistent
with historical candor that a man should approach the
records of the New Testament with the hope that they
may be found to be true, just as a man may approach
the examination of the evidence that the title to his
farm is good, or of the news which he has received of
the safety of a son that he had supposed was lost at sea,
or as he may look on the evidence that his slandered
wife is chaste, with the hope that the evidence will be
found to be true. It is not, it can not be wrong in me
to desire to find evidence that there is a God and a Sav
ior ; that I am to exist forever ; that a way of redemp
tion has been provided for sinners ; and that there is a
world of glory and purity beyond the grave. Nor is
such a desire incompatible with candr in the examina
tion of the evidence ; for the very greatness of the hope,
and of the interests at stake, should, and" naturally will,
make the mind calm and candid.
(2.) The great facts of Christianity are indisputably
established, and this has been done by the ordinary
methods of historic evidence. Those facts have gone
into history as all other ancient facts have done, and
the history of the world can not be explained or under
stood without admitting their reality. The condition
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. C7
of the world as it is now has grown out of those facts,
and that condition can no more be explained without
the admission of the truth of those facts than the Con
stitution and laws of England can be explained without
admitting the truth that Alfred reigned, or that Wil
liam the Norman conquered at Hastings and divided
the kingdom among his followers, or that from John
great concessions were obtained by his barons at Run-
nymede.
The facts to which I now advert in regard to Chris
tianity as established by evidence are such as the fol
lowing : (a) That it had an origin far within the limits
of well-established history. It has not always been
upon the earth. There have been centuries many cen
turies in the history of the world in which it had no
existence, and when no germ existed from which it could
have been developed. We can go back to the times
of which Berosus, Thucydides, Livy make mention, and
we can be certain that it did not then, either in germ
or in development, exist upon the earth, (b) The time
when it appeared, or when it was originated, is also a
matter of history. The disputed passage in Josephus,
if that is genuine, demonstrates it. The undisputed
passage in Tacitus proves it beyond a question. The
fact that the time of its origin is not made a question
with Celsus, Porphyry, or Julian, confirms this. The
record of Mr. Gibbon puts the matter beyond all doubt.
It was a necessity in his historical purpose that he should
trace the history of Christianity from its origin, and he
has done it. (c) The main facts of the birth, the life,
the character, and the death of the Founder of Chris
tianity are matters of history. Strauss does not deny
the reality of the existence of Jesus, though the things
ascribed to him are " mythical ;" Renan does not deny
68 LECTURES ON THE
his existence, or the main facts of his history, though
he has his own way of telling the story. The whole of
his romance is founded on the admission of the main
facts of his life. Jesus was an historical person. There
is the most marked distinction between him and Mars,
and Apollo, and Minerva ; between him and King Ar
thur, and Lear. The fact of his having lived is as clear
ly established as that of Alexander ; the fact of his death,
and the manner of his death, as that of Caesar, (d) The
fact that Christianity was propagated, or was spread
through the world from small beginnings, is established
by history. Its progress from land to land can be
traced ; the steps of its movement can be marked on a
map from the time of its humble beginning till it mount
ed the throne of the Caesars. Nothing is more definite
and certain in history than the facts about its origin,
and its propagation in the world. Mr. Gibbon has
traced it as clearly and as honestly as he has the career
of his favorite Julian, and the facts have gone into the
undisputed history of nations, (e) History has estab
lished the fact that the religion was propagated on the
ground of the belief in the miracles which were alleged
to have been wrought in attestation of its truth, and
especially on the belief that its Author, having been put
to death on a cross, rose again from the dead. What
ever may be the truth in regard to those miracles, and
the fact of that resurrection, no one can doubt that these
things were put forward ; that the belief of them was
made essential to the reception of the system ; and that
its propagation is to be explained on the ground that
these things were believed to be true ; and that it can
not be explained on any other ground. No one, not
Mr. Gibbon, or Renan, or Strauss, has attempted to ex
plain the fact of the propagation of Christianity on the
EVIDENCES OF CHBISTIANITY. 69
ground that no claim was set up in regard to the res
urrection of Jesus, or on the ground that the claim thus
set up was false. Assuredly the people of the Roman
empire, when they embraced Christianity, did it in the
belief that its Author had been raised from the dead,
and the belief of this was vital to the reception and ex
tension of the system. The religion could not have
been propagated had it not been for this belief, and it
is equally clear that the account of this could not have
been inserted in the narrative respecting the founder
of the system afterward ; that is, if it should be sup
posed that the religion had been propagated without
this belief, it would have been impo ssible to make this
an article of faith afterward. How could it be inserted
in the original records ? How could men be made to
believe that a doctrine never adverted to in the propa
gation of a system had been, in fact, the main thing in
commending it to the world ? (f) Once more : These
points are not affected materially by the questions
whether miracles were wrought, or whether Jesus was
actually raised from the dead. The point which I am
making is, that the religion was propagated on the be
lief of those things, not on the ground of their truth.
How far the fact that the world believed in the reality
of the miracles, and that great multitudes of all classes
abandoned their ancient systems of religion, and em
braced Christianity as true, on that belief, proves that
the miracles were real, is another point which it is prop
er to argue with an infidel in its proper place. But
that is not the point now before us.
(3.) In looking at the question how far the evidence
of ancient facts is affected by time, I adverted, under
the general inquiry, to these circumstances when the
witnesses are competent, and have a proper opportuni-
TO LECTURES ON THE
ty of observing the facts ; when there is no motive for
deception or imposture ; when the facts narrated are
against the religious faith of the narrator; when the
facts referred to furnish the most easy and natural ex
planation of existing things ; stnd when these facts are
commemorated and perpetuated by monuments, coins,
medals, games, festivals, processions, and celebrations ;
that is, when they go into the very structure of society,
and when it is no more easy to detach them from exist
ing things than it was to detach the name of Phidias
from the statue of Minerva without destroying the
image. You can not explain the history of the world
without the supposition that Caesar was put to death
by the hand of assassins.
It remains only to apply this principle, in few words,
to Christianity.
Suppose, then, it were not true that Caesar was put to
death ; suppose that the facts which I have adverted
to in regard to Christianity, in its history, are false;
what follows? What is to be done then? What is
the proper work of the man who does not believe this ?
On the principles now laid down, we have the same
confirmation of the main facts of the history of Chris
tianity which we have of the death of Ca3sar, the life of
Alfred, and the conquest of England by William the
Norman, though on a wider scale, and affecting more
deeply the course of history and the condition of the
world; for, in the existing state of things on the earth,
for one such thing that goes to establish those secular
facts, and to m#ke the supposition of their reality indis
pensable to the explanation of existing things, there are
ten, at least, that go to confirm the truth of the main
facts of the New Testament. Hard is the task of the
skeptic who denies the reality of the death of Caesar
EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITX. 71
in the senate-house, or of the existence of Alfred, or
of the conquest of William the Norman ; harder by
far the task of the skeptic who denies the realities of
the life and death of Jesus. For, in this case, he must
suppose that all history, secular and sacred, has been
corrupted and is unreliable; he must suppose that
Christianity sprang up without any adequate cause,
and at a time unknown ; he must suppose that it made
its way in the world on what was known to be false
hood ; he must suppose that men every where embraced
the system manifestly against their own interests, and
with nothing to satisfy them of its truth ; he must leave
unexplained the conduct of thousands of martyrs, many
of them of no mean name in philosophy and in social
rank ; he must explain how it was that acute and sub
tle enemies, like Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian, did not
make short work of the argument by denying the truth
of the main facts of the Christian history ; he must ex
plain the origin of the numerous monuments in the
world which have been reared on the supposition of the
truth of the great facts of Christian history the ancient
temples whose ruins are scattered every where, the
tombs and inscriptions in the Catacombs at Rome, the
sculptures and paintings which have called forth the
highest efforts of genius in the early and the medieval
ages, and the books that have been written on the sup
position that the religion had the origin ascribed to it
in the New Testament ; he must explain the observance
of the first day of the week in so many lands, and for so
many ages, in commemoration of the belief that Christ
rose from the dead ; he must explain the observance of
the day which is supposed to commemorate the birth
of the Redeemer, as one would have to explain the ob
servance of the birthday of Washington, on the suppo-
72 LECTURES ON THE
sition that Washington was a " myth," and the observ
ance of the fourth day of July on the supposition that
what has been regarded as a history of the American
Revolution was a romance ; he must explain the ordi
nance kept up in memory of his death for nearly two
thousand years on the supposition that the death of
Christ never occurred on the cross at all ; he must ex
plain the honor and the homage done to the cross every
where as a standard in war, as a symbol of faith, as
a charm or an amulet, as an ornament worn by beauty
and piety, as reared on high to mark the place where
God is worshiped, as an emblem of self-sacrifice, of love,
of unsullied purity the cross in itself more ignomini
ous than the guillotine or the gibbet for why should
men do such things with a gibbet if all is imaginary ?
and he must explain all those coins, and medals,
and memorials which crowd palaces, and cabinets, and
churches, and private dwellings, and which are found
beneath decayed and ruined cities, on the supposition
that all these are based on falsehood, and that in all
history there has been nothing to correspond to them
or to suggest them. Can the fossil remains of the Old
World, the ferns in coal-beds, and the forms of fishes
imbedded in the rocks, and the bones of mammoths, and
the skeletons of the Ichthyosaurian and Plesiosaurian
races, be explained on the supposition that such vege
tables, and such land and marine monsters never lived ?
Will the geologist who happens to be an infidel in re
ligion allow us to urge this in regard to those apparent
records of the former history of the world ? Will he
then demand that all in history, in monuments, medals,
tombs, inscriptions, customs, laws, sacred festivals, re
ligious rites, that seem to be founded on the truth of the
great facts of Christianity, shall be explained on the
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 73
supposition that no such facts ever occurred ? that all
this is myth, and fable, and delusion ?
Hard would be the task of the infidel if he were to
undertake this. It was too much for Mr. Gibbon, and
he therefore set himself to the work of showing how,
on the admission of these main facts, the propagation
of the religion could be explained on the supposition
that it had not a divine origin; it was too much for
Strauss, and he therefore set himself to the task of show
ing how, on the supposition that Jesus lived, the system
of Christianity could be made to grow around a few
central truths, representing in imagined action the ideas
of deceivers and impostors ; it was too much for Renan,
who, admitting the main facts in the New Testament,
and attributing to the founder of the system unequaled
genius, and a power of which he became slowly con
scious, accompanied with much self-delusion, attempted
to show how he originated a system designed to over
turn all existing systems, and a system that did accom
plish it. Each and all of these things go to confirm the
position which I have endeavored to establish in this
Lecture, that time does not materially affect the evi
dence of the great facts of history ; that what was prop
erly believed at the time when the events occurred may
be properly believed now ; that if the historic records
were lost, we could reproduce many of the leading
events of the history of the world. In particular, if the
New Testament were destroyed, we could reproduce,
from other sources, the main facts pertaining to the life
and death of the Founder of Christianity, on which the
religion was propagated and received, and the great
features of the system as it was first propounded to the
world.
How far the principles laid down in this Lecture bear
D
74 LECTURES ON THE
on the subject of miracles, and how far it is necessary
to assume the correctness of the records of miraculous
events in the New Testament, to explain the fact that
the religion was propagated in the .world, and has been
continued to the nineteenth century, will be considered
in the application of these principles in the subsequent
Lectures.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 75
LECTURE HI.
HISTORICAL EVIDENCE AS AFFECTED BY SCIENCE.
THE subject of this lecture will be Historical Evidence
as affected by Science, particularly the relation of Sci
ence to Christianity as affecting the evidence of its di
vine origin.
There is a wide-spread apprehension among many of
the friends of Christianity that Science, in its progress,
may set aside the evidence that the Bible is a system
of revealed truth, and that, if the point is not already
reached, it may soon be, when they will be found to be
incompatible with each other, and when it will be im
possible to reconcile them. There is probably more
apprehension on this subject among the true friends of
Christianity than they would like to avow to them
selves or to others, and there is more dissatisfaction
with the attempts which are made to remove the diffi
culties, and to reconcile the two, than they would think
it prudent to admit. There is many a skeptical thought
in a Christian s mind which he would be unwilling to
utter, for he would not be desirous that his friends
should know how much he is perplexed on the subject,
and he would not think it right to expose the faith of
others to the shock which would be felt if they knew
what was passing through his mind. " Oh the tempta
tions," said Dr. Payson, " which have harassed me for
the last three months ! I have met with nothing like
them in books. I dare not mention them to any mor
tal, lest they should trouble him as they have troubled
76 LECTURES ON THE
me ; but should I become an apostate, and write against
religion, it seems to me that I could bring forward ob
jections which would shake the faith of all the Chris
tians in the world. What I marvel at is that the Arch-
deceiver has never been permitted to suggest them to
some of his scribes, and have them published." " My
difficulties," said he in a letter to a friend, " increase
every year. There is one trial which you can not know
experimentally. It is that of being obliged to preach
to others when one doubts of every thing, and can
scarcely believe that there is a God. All the atheisti
cal, deistical, and heretical objections which I meet
with in books, are childish babblings compared with
those which Satan suggests, and which he urges upon
the mind with a force which seems irresistible. Yet I
am often obliged to write sermons, and to preach, when
these objections beat upon me like a whirlwind, and al
most distract me."* Cecil has made a similar remark :
" I have read," said he, " all the most acute and serious
infidel writers, and have been surprised at their pover
ty. The process of my mind has been such on the sub
ject of revelation that I have often thought Satan has
done more for me than for the best of them ; for I have
had, and would have produced, arguments that appear
ed to me far more weighty than any I ever found in
them against revelation, "f In this respect, as in others,
a good man is often in the situation in which the Psalm
ist was, when, in deep perplexity about the justice of
the divine dealings, he said, " If I say I will speak thus,
behold, I should offend against the generation of thy
children." Psa. Ixxiii., 15. He is therefore silent, hop
ing almost against hope, that his apprehensions may not
be well founded, and yet not daring to push the inves-
* Payson s Works, vol. i., p. 379, 380, ed. Portland, 1846.
t Works of Rev. Richard Cecil, vol. iii., p. 110.
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 77
tigation farther himself. He is, in this respect, like the
mariner who fears to examine his ship lest he should
find the wood-work of the bottom eaten through, and
nothing between him and the waters but the thin
sheathing of copper ; or the invalid who fears to have
his lungs examined from the apprehension that the ex
aminer may find there the unmistakable beginnings of
a fatal disease ; or the merchant who fears to examine
his books from the apprehension that he will find him
self to be a bankrupt. The ship, therefore, unexamined,
moves on, the slight cough is borne as well as it can be,
and the man of business tries to be calm under the ap
prehension that, if the truth were known, he would be
found to be not worth a farthing.
There is a secret confident feeling on the part of not
a few men devoted to scientific pursuits that all this is
so, and that these fears in regard to Christianity are
well founded. In not a few things, in his apprehension,
the statements of the Bible and the disclosures of Sci
ence have been demonstrated to be irreconcilable, and
he smiles complacently at the efforts made by the
friends of religion, and especially by~ ministers of the
Gospel, to harmonize them. He feels a confident assur
ance that one difficulty on the subject will succeed
another, and that if a plausible solution of one discrep
ancy is suggested, Science will suggest a dozen where
the points will be irreconcilable. He has that kind of
carelessness, therefore, which a man has in playing a
game of chess when he feels that, though his adversary
may extricate himself out of some small difficulty in the
move, yet the general course of the game is certain, and
he can afford to be calm ; or which the commander of
the armies of the Union might have felt before Rich
mond, when, though there might have been a tempora
ry reverse, yet the great plan of the campaign was de-
78 LECTURES ON THE
veloping itself, and the final overthrow of the enemy
was certain. So, it is to be feared, not a few men feel
about the final overthrow of Christianity by Science,
They do not exult. They do not care to use the lan
guage of triumph. They do not boast of victory : they
smile within, and calmly await the result.
Under these circumstances, it becomes a very import
ant matter to inquire what tendency, if any, there is in
this direction, or what Science has done, or can do, to
render the statements in the Bible incredible. The ex
act point for consideration on the subject may be easily
understood. There are many things, it would be said,
which were not regarded as incredible at an early pe
riod of the world, or which men readily received as
real under the prevailing forms of belief, which Science
ultimately shows to be utterly incredible, and which it
removes from the faith of mankind. By the same pro
cess it may remove all that is marvelous or supernatu
ral, and thus ultimately destroy every vestige of an ar
gument for the divine origin of the religion.
An illustration will make this point plain. There was
nothing, it would be said, in the statements of Livy
about the prodigies which he records at the foundation
of Rome, or in the early periods of the Roman history,
which was contrary to the existing belief at that time,
which the prevailing views of the nature of evidence
rendered unworthy of belief, or which was a departure
from what was expected to be, and what was under
stood to be, the course of affairs on the earth. It was
an age of the supernatural and the marvelous. The
world was prepared to receive these accounts. There
was universal faith in superior beings ; in the fact that
they often interposed directly in the affairs of men ; that
empires were founded, that battles were decided, and
that the world was controlled by these supernatural
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 79
agencies. There were no settled principles of Science
contrary to the belief in prodigies, in sorcery, in divina
tion, in necromancy, in demonology, in the reappear
ance of the dead.
Time has made important changes in regard to these
alleged facts. It has reduced them to legends and
myths, and the historical critic diminishes the number
of things to be believed by mankind by the whole
region of the supernatural. Science has taught what
may be regarded as credible and what as incredible,
and the reader of Roman history no longer feels him
self bound to embrace these early marvels as a part of
the true history of Rome.
The same thing, it is now alleged, has occurred in re
gard to the record of miracles and marvels in the Bible.
In the early history of the world, and at the time, and
in the countries where the books of the Bible were
composed, there was nothing in those miracles and mar
vels which was inconsistent with the prevalent modes of
belief, or with the knowledge of the universe as then un
derstood. Faith in the miraculous and the marvelous
was then the normal state of belief. All that could not
be explained on natural principles and there were as
yet but few things that could be thus explained was
supposed to be the result of supernatural intervention.
Eclipses, comets, meteors, earthquakes, the pestilence,
the storm, and the tempest all these and similar things
were supposed to be the result of direct supernatural
interposition. Demonology, sorcery, astrology, witch
craft, necromancy, furnished all the explanations which
men had of events lying beyond the range of ordinary
experience, and the groves, the waters, the hills, the
valleys became filled with supernatural influences and
beings. When the Bible was composed, it is said,
there was nothing inconsistent with such belief, and
80 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY.
nothing in its statements to shock the general faith of
mankind, or to violate any of the known laws on which
the world is governed. It was not then regarded as
more wonderful than other things were supposed to
be, and, therefore, not incredible, that God should make
man from the dust of the earth ; or that He should form
a woman from the rib of a man; or that a serpent
should speak in human language ; or that an ass should
use human speech ; or that the sun and moon should
be made to stand still in their course that a battle
might be finished ; or that the dead should appear ; or
that the earth should heave, and the sun be darkened,
when the Savior died.
But Science now has gone far to establish the reign
of universal law, to remove these marvels from the
faith of men, to displace the belief in supernatural agen
cies, and to bring all things under the dominion of law ;
and the question occurs whether all those things which
were once regarded as marvelous are not now to be re
duced to the same rank as the marvels in Livy, or are
not to take their place on the same level as the ancient
belief in sorcery, astrology, necromancy, and witchcraft.
So "Rationalism" demands, and so no inconsiderable
part of the scientific world is disposed to assert.
It requires now some boldness in a man who wishes
to stand well in the scientific world to avow his belief
in the events of this kind recorded in the Bible. There
are very many scientific associations before which such
a man would hesitate in an attempt to explain and vin
dicate the first four chapters in Genesis, and in relation
to which he would prefer silence to any distinct utter
ance of his own opinion ; and a minister of the Gospel
in this age encounters a difficulty which would not have
been felt in a more credulous age than he would have
done at a time when such events pervaded all history,
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 81
and when faith in such events entered into the creed
of all men. Some, in this state of things, prefer to be
silent on the whole subject; some wait for more full
developments ; some tremble at the announcement of a
new discovery in Science as if another prop was to be
taken from the faith; some are willing to hide the
naked and ofiensive statements in the Bible under the
garb of allegories and myths ; some are willing to con
cede the fact that there was ignorance on the part of
the sacred writers on those subjects, and they endeavor
to calm down their own apprehensions by the supposi
tion that the sacred writers were not inspired on those
subjects, and were, therefore, as liable to be mistaken
as other men.
The subject has become, therefore, a very important
one to be examined in a consideration of the argument
on the Evidences of Christianity, and any man would
render a valuable service to the Christian world who
could make suggestions that would calm down the
anxieties of the minds of good men, and who could
show that Science has not yet reached a point that
need alarm the friends of the Bible.
The subject, in its highest bearings, is far beyond my
ability, and were that not so, it could not be exhausted
in a single Lecture. But it may be possible to suggest
some thoughts on points on which the friends of Science
and Revelation may have a common understanding, and
which may do something to repress apprehension on
the one hand, and exultation on the other. I approach
this subject as many of those whom I address will in
their subsequent lives under all the disadvantages
produced by the common feeling that a minister of the
Gospel is little qualified to grapple with these diffi
culties ; that his studies lie apart from those which are
D2
82 LECTURES ON THE
pursued in the schools of Science ; that in no one of the
sciences can he be supposed to be as much at home as
he is in his own particular department, or as a scien
tific man is in his ; and perhaps it would be urged with
special force and I certainly feel and admit that con
sideration fully in my own case that a man who re
ceived his education nearly half a century ago, and
then an imperfect one, can not be supposed, in the act
ive pursuits of another profession, to have kept pace
with the advancements of Science in that remarkable
half century, or to be competent to speak to those who
have devoted their lives to those pursuits. All this I
feel and admit ; and yet, on the other hand, it may be
that something has occurred to such a man in his own
reading and profession, as bearing on the subject, which
may not have occurred to one engrossed in another
profession as he has been in his.
I shall, therefore, submit some remarks to you de
signed to illustrate the relation of Science to Christi
anity as affecting, in the nineteenth century, the evi
dence of its truth.
L There must be entire harmony between the proper
deductions of Science and a revelation from God. On
most of the subjects of revelation, indeed, it is to be pre
sumed that the communications made would be such as
not to admit of comparison with what Science teaches,
for it must be presumed that, if a revelation is given at
all, it will be, for the most part, on subjects which lie
beyond the range of man s natural powers, and the
points of actual contact on the high themes of theology
and the disclosures of Science must therefore be few.
In fact, in a revelation from God designed to guide man
in the duties of religion and in a preparation for an
other world which must be the main design of a rev
elation it is to be presumed that the points of contact
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 83
would be mostly incidental. Revelation is not given to
teach geography, geology, anatomy, astronomy, chem
istry, but religion.
Still, it is right to assume and to demand that, where
there are any statements in a book that claims to be a
revelation from God, on the subjects of Science, inciden
tal or otherwise, they must and will be in accordance
with what is disclosed by an accurate investigation of
the works of God. The friends of revelation must ad
mit this; the enemies of revelation may hold them
to it.
This position is self-evident and indisputable except
on a supposition which the friends of Science will not
allow us to make, and which we have no right and no
desire to make, that the Maker of the world, according
to the doctrine of the Manichees, was a different Being
from the Supreme God. In such a case, indeed, under
the dualistic system of Zoroaster and the Manichees, it
would be conceivable that a direct revelation from the
Supreme Being might contain principles not reconcila
ble with the facts which Science would exhibit as de
rived from the actual creation. There is, indeed, an
other supposition which may be adverted to, where the
same result would follow that there is something in
God which is not properly expressed in the works of
creation, in the course of events, or in our moral nature,
but that, when those higher things in God are under
stood, they will reverse many of our conceptions now of
that which is right and that which is wrong ; of that
which is true and that which is false ; of that which is
to be loved and of that which is hated. Such an idea
has been suggested by one of no less authority than
Mansel.
But we can not be at liberty to avail ourselves of
84 LECTURES ON THE
this idea in extricating ourselves from any difficulty
arising from the conflict of revealed religion and Sci
ence, for right is right, and wrong is wrong, every
where, and we can not believe that the Great Creator
has stamped upon the intellect and the conscience of
men a universal lie, so creating them that they are un
der a necessity of believing that to be right which he
knows to be wrong, and which he himself knows they
will ultimately perceive to be wrong, and, therefore,
we are shut up to the necessity of admitting and main
taining that between a true revelation and the fair de
ductions of Science there must be harmony. This idea,
moreover, we urge in all our endeavors to overthrow
the false religions of the heathen, and of this we pur
pose, in our missionary efforts, to make great use in
showing that the books among them which claim to
be a revelation can not be from the true God.
The enemies of the Christian religion may therefore
hold us to this, and may insist on it, that if the state
ments in the Bible are contradictory to the disclosures
of Science, and can not by fair means be shown to be in
harmony with them, the Bible must be given up in its
pretensions to being a revelation from God.
II. A second principle may be stated as indisputable,
that the deductions of Science are to be admitted as
true, wherever they may lead, or on whatever they may
impinge.
This principle, also, is so clear that it is difficult to
make it more plain by any illustration. We are so
made that we must admit this; all our plans, and all
our hopes, are based on this. All that, as friends of
religion, we have a right to demand on the subject is,
that the things which we are to believe, which may or
may not affect religion, shall be true deductions of
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 85
Science. They must not be mere theories ; they must
not be conclusions based on a partial and imperfect ob
servation of the facts in the case ; they must not be
views embraced manifestly with a purpose to destroy
the credit of revelation; they must be points about
which there can be no dispute, and in reference to
which there will be no presumption that time and far
ther observation will set them aside. If the belief of
the forty-seventh proposition of the first book of Euclid
will destroy the faith of mankind in the Bible, be it so.
We can not help it. But it is to be observed, on the
other side, that there have been a thousand things as
sumed to be scientific truths, and which were in con
flict with the statements of revelation, which time, bet
ter instruments, and farther investigation have shown
to be false.
It is to be admitted and expected that Science, in its
progress, will set aside many things existing in the
world pertaining to common matters, and it is not less
to be presumed that it will set aside many things that
have been supposed to be connected with religion, and
that this may at the time shock or shake the faith of
many believers in the Bible, as if all were lost. Thus a
good axe or hoe, made on scientific principles, sets aside
those which may have been long in use ; the printing-
press set aside the apparatus for copying; the power-
loom sets aside the hand-loom ; the spinning-jenny sets
aside the domestic wheel; the reaping machine sets
aside the sickle and the scythe ; the sewing machine
sets aside, to a large extent, the common use of the
needle.
In like manner, books are set aside as valueless ex
cept as records of history. Every new discovery ren
ders the old book of less value, until it becomes worth-
86 LECTURES ON THE
less. Galen and Hippocrates cease to be of value in
medicine ; Mela and Strabo in geography ; and Ptolemy
in astronomy. Thus old machines, old books, Indian
relics, and suits of ancient armor, become fit occupants
of old libraries and of museums the lumber, the debris
of former times. The very fact that a book is " rare"
is prima facie proof that it has been superseded by
something better, and is worthless ; and every writer
on Science, and most of those on any subject in litera
ture, must lay his account with the expectation that in
that very department some man will make a brighter
discovery, or write a better book, that will place what
he has done among the things that the world will
" willingly let die." Scientific men must accept this,
and must toil on in their generation with the feeling
that this is to be the end of their labors.
The same principle is applicable to religion. As in
its own proper department Science makes its way re
gardless of opinions before held, and reputations won,
and glory deemed to be immortal, and garlands that
were supposed to be unfading, and patents secured, and
money invested, and corporations strong and powerful,
so Science will make its way on whatever it .may im
pinge, however it may affect the faith of men, what
ever it may do in disrobing priests and throwing down
altars, and changing temples of worship to other pur
poses, and disturbing established investments, and what
ever ruins it may strew in its path.
The religious part of the world must make up its
mind to accept all the disclosures of true Science, how
ever they may impinge on its articles of faith. If the
facts of Science are hopelessly irreconcilable with the
statements of the Bible, but one result can follow. The
Bible will be abandoned. The truths of Science will
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 87
stand. At first it will be abandoned by the scientific
world, and then it will retain what hold it can be made
to retain on the masses of men as the result of educa
tion, or tradition, or priestly power, or the conscious
want of some religion ; but, sooner or later, though
slowly, it will lose its hold on mankind, as the belief
in necromancy, demonology, sorcery, witchcraft, and
magic, was at first embraced by all men, and then, as
Science advanced, lost their hold on those who were
capable of explaining the phenomena of the world on
scientific principles, retaining still their hold on the
masses, until Science, diffused every where, removes
all faith in sorcery and magic from the world.
III. In forming a correct estimate on this subject,
there are, however, certain things to be taken into the
account, of which the friends of religion have a right to
avail themselves, and to demand that they shall be re
garded as important elements in determining the judg
ment of mankind.
(1.) One of those things is the uncertainty of Science,
at least as bearing on the points at issue between sci
ence and revelation.
It may startle some to hear the expression, " the un
certainty of Science." It may demand some boldness,
and may do not a little to peril a man s reputation, to
use such an expression. We have been so much accus
tomed to the word " exact" as connected with the sci
ences, and have been so taught to believe that a mathe
matical demonstration must be absolutely certain, and
have hence so hastily applied the same idea to all other
demonstrations in Science, that we have learned to con
fine the words "moral" or "probable" as applied to
evidence, to other subjects altogether, and hence it has
come to be understood that an important distinction,
88 LECTURES ON THE
in this respect, is to be made between the evidence of
a scientific proposition and that for a revelation : the
words " exact" and " certain" to be applied exclusively
to the one ; the words " moral" and " probable" only be
longing to the other.
But, on this subject, it is important that such things
as the following should be borne in mind :
(a) When we look at the past in history, what is
more vague and uncertain than the " sciences" as they
have been held among men ? What " science" now is
the same that it was two thousand years ago ? What
has been more shifting, undefined, and unstable than the
" sciences" as they have been actually held ? Let any
man read so common a book as WheweWs " History of
the Inductive Sciences," and instead of rising from the
perusal with the idea that Science is "exact," "cer
tain," and " stable," he will be much more likely to in
stitute a comparison between it and the ever-changing
sands on the shores of the ocean than with the fixed
and everlasting hills.
And again : On what points, outside of the small cir
cle of the mathematical demonstrations, is Science " cer
tain?" What is light? What is matter? What is gal
vanism ? What is gravitation ? What is attraction ?
What is heat ? What is life ? How many are the orig
inal elements of matter ? In what proportions do they
combine, and by what power are they held in combina
tion? How many are the worlds that roll above us?
What is the duration of our own globe ? When, and
how was it formed and moulded ? And what " exact"
changes has it undergone ? Is there any one of these
and numberless kindred points on which the views of
scientific men are settled and " certain ?" Is there any
one on which there are not as many different and shad-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 89
owy opinions as there are on the doctrine of the Trin
ity or Incarnation ? On the one subject of geology so
early as the year 1806, the French Institute counted
more than eighty theories hostile to. Scripture history,
not one of which has stood to the present day. How
many such theories have appeared and vanished since?
(b) And what is the range of scientific knowledge ?
How soon does man get to the extent of his faculties,
and what vast oceans of knowledge lie now unexplored,
as in the time of Newton ? In one sense the knowledge
of man is indeed vast, and all the epithets which we can
use in describing it are deserved. But what does man
know f He sees but a little way around him, and be
yond all is dark. What does he know of the distant
worlds ? What does he know of the sun, or the moon,
or the planets, or the fixed stars, or the comets ? What
is their history ? What their compositions ? What the
character of their inhabitants, if they have any ? What
can he tell about the nearest fixed star? It is not a
knowledge of that star to be able to determine its " par
allax," or to be able to determine that the ray of light
that comes to our eyes from that star, informing us of
its existence, has been traveling twenty thousand years
to give us the information, and that therefore the star
itself may have ceased to exist twenty thousand years
ago. And of the worlds beyond such a star what does
man know ? The truth is, that we have but just opened
our eyes on a universe that in its creation demanded all
the power and the wisdom of an Infinite God. Man
the wisest man the man of farthest grasp the man
who has accumulated most, has but just left his cradle.
But a few days ago he knew not any thing, not even
the name of father or mother. He could neither speak
nor stand. He knew not that a candle would burn his
90 LECTURES ON THE
finger if he put it there. By slow degrees he learned
to creep, and then to walk. He began to utter sounds
which were kindly construed into language. He lisp
ed, and hesitated, and then achieved a great victory by
being able to utter a few simple monosyllables. And
then how soon he thinks that he knows all about the
universe so vast, and the God who made it. Thus a fine
writer, speaking of the sum of Physical Science, says :
"Compared with the comprehensible universe and
with conceivable time, not to speak of infinity and eter
nity, it is the observation of a mere point, the experi
ence of an instant. Are we warranted in founding any
thing upon such data, except that which we are obliged
to found on them, the daily rules and processes neces
sary for the natural life of man ? We call the discov
eries of Science sublime ; and truly. But the sublimity
belongs not to that which they reveal, but to that
which they suggest. And that which they suggest is,
that through this material glory and beauty, of which
we see a little and imagine more, there speaks to us a
Being whose nature is akin to ours, and who has made
our hearts capable of such converse. Astronomy has
its practical uses, without which man s intellect would
hardly rouse itself to those speculations ; but its great
est result is a revelation of immensity pervaded by one
informing mind, and this revelation is made by astron
omy only in the same sense in which the telescope re
veals the stars to the eye of the astronomer. Science
finds no law for the thoughts which, with her aid, are
ministered to man by the starry skies. Science can ex
plain the hues of sunset, but she can not tell from what
urns of pain and pleasure its pensiveness is poured.
These things are felt by all men felt the more in pro
portion as the mind is higher. They are a part of
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 91
human nature ; and why should they not be as sound
a basis for philosophy as any other part ? But if they
are, the solid wall of material law melts away, and
through the whole order of the material world pours
the influence, the personal influence, of a spirit corre
sponding to our own.
" Again, is it true that the fixed or the unvarying is
the last revelation of Science ? These risings in the
scale of created beings, this gradual evolution of plan
etary systems from their centre, do they bespeak mere
creative force ? Do they not rather bespeak something
which, for want of an adequate word, we must call cre
ative effort, corresponding to the effort by which man
raises himself and his estate ? And where effort can be
discovered, does not spirit reign again ?
" A creature whose sphere of vision is a speck, whose
experience is a second, sees the pencil of Raphael mov
ing over the canvas of the Transfiguration ; it sees the
pencil moving over its own speck, during its own sec
ond of existence, in one particular direction, and it con
cludes that the formula expressing that direction is the
secret of the whole."*
(c) Again, it is to be borne in mind that there are
subjects of knowledge, and they may be most moment
ous in their nature, that lie wholly beyond the range
of Physical Science, and must ever lie there. Science
has its sphere ; beyond that sphere it has no instru
ments, no knowledge.
The great subjects of theology are of this character,
and must ever be. The anatomist and the chemist do
not profess to teach theology ; nor do they teach it.
Their investigations throw no light on the doctrine of
the immortality of the soul ; on the questions about a
* Lectures on the Study of History, by Goldwin Smith, pp. 86-88.
92 LECTURES ON THE
future state ; on the inquiry how a sinner may be recon
ciled to God. The electrial machine throws out no light
on those subjects ; the scalpel of the anatomist does not
even disclose the source of life; the glass of the astron
omer does not penetrate far enough into the distant
ether to reveal the throne of God. How far, then,
Science should presume to speak of that which is whol
ly beyond its range, may be a fair question. How far
it should sit in judgment on that which lies wholly
without its sphere, is an equally fair question. Geolo
gy, chemistry, metallurgy, have their sphere wide, no
ble, honorable ; but the atonement, the incarnation, the
Trinity, the fall of man, the work of redemption, per
tain to another sphere, not less wide, noble, honorable.
Each one in its place.* Each one to be honored. Each
one to contribute any thing, every thing it can to the
other, and to the whole ; but each one to be confined
to its proper sphere.
It may yet be seen that there is a " division of labor"
in the departments of human action more wide than is
commonly supposed to be implied in that modern dis
covery of wisdom. Each pin-maker labors in his own
department, and the man who makes the head does not
interfere with him who cuts the wire, or him who sharp
ens the point ; each gun-maker labors in his own depart
ment, and he who makes the stock does not interfere
with him who makes the barrel, or the rod, or the bayo
net, or the hammer to the lock. All work in harmony ;
all contribute to the result, for the work of one fits into
the work of another, as if all were the work of one man.
It is certain that in Science each department will
communicate nothing but that which pertains to itself;
that chemistry is not to be learned in the dissecting-
* Ne sutor supra crcpidam. Plin.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 93
room, of the anatomist, or music by the telescope, or
moral philosophy by the examination of fossils ; and it
is equally certain that none of those sciences will com
municate to man what he needs to know about the im
mortality of the soul ; that the question about the res
urrection of the dead is not to be decided by an exam
ination of the rocks; that the blow-pipe of the chemist,
and the hammer of the geologist, do not reveal to a sin
ner the way of salvation.
(d) Again, the past experience of the world should be
allowed to teach men of science modesty and caution.
It should not be forgotten that there is no opinion so
extravagant and wild that it has not been at some time
embraced by philosophers, by men of science ;* and it
should not be forgotten that a very large part of the
doctrines held in science in past times have been found
by more accurate observation to be absurd, and have
been dropped by the way, and are now numbered and
classified with the huge monsters themselves not less
monstrous the ichthyosaurians and the plethiosauri-
ans of the old geological periods of our world s history.
It is to be remembered, also, that the world has gone
through a long experience on the very subject now be
fore us, the bearing of Science on revelation, and that
not one new discovery has been made in Science which
has not at the time been supposed to impinge on some
doctrine of revealed religion, and which has not caused
momentary alarm to the friends of religion, and mo
mentary triumph to its foes. Yet Christianity has sur
vived them all.f So it may be in regard to the sciences
*
* Nihil tarn absurde potest, quod non dicatur ab aliquo philoso-
pborum. Cicero, de Divinatione, ii., 58.
t See this admirably illustrated in Wiseman s Lectures on Science
and Revealed Religion, ed. Andover, 1837.
94 LECTURES ON THE
as understood now, and to those which remain to be
disclosed in the advancing periods of the world.
(e) One other thing may be adverted to. It may be
that the facts of Science are not as well established as
they are claimed to be. Which of them is, in fact, set
tled ? Which of them is complete and perfect ? Is
geology ? It is, as yet, in the cradle. Is astronomy ?
How little of the universe is surveyed and known. Is
chemistry? What chemist is there who stops where
he is, and supposes that his work is perfect, and that
nothing remains to be known? Is anatomy? What
anatomist lays down his scalpel, and feels that all stim
ulus to future discovery has ended? What book is
there on any of the subjects of Science which can be
safely stereotyped ? What man is there who can feel
assured that his profoundest speculations of this year
will not be classed next year with the almanac which
has had its day ? The young men of each generation
are stimulated to make attainments in Science, because
there are vast fields yet unexplored; the traveler in
unknown lands is cheered because a vast and inviting
field is before him which the foot of man has never
trod, and as he passes on in his obstructed way through
fields of flowers new to the eye of man, and ascends
streams on which man has never glided, and climbs the
mountain-top on which a human being has never before
stood, and looks abroad on rich valleys that still invite
him, he is animated and excited by the fact that all
this is unknown, nor would he thank any one, not even
his Maker, to disclose all this to his view, and to stifle
the ardor derived from the hope of future discoveries.
So many a patient student of the heavens each night,
when most mortal eyes are locked in slumber, is look
ing out from the watch-tower the " observatory" sur-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. * 95
veying the heavens with the hope that some new star
may be seen on which the eye of man has never rested,
that shall solve some discrepancy of Science, or whose
discovery may perchance place his name by the side of
that of LeVerrier.
IY. A very material inquiry therefore meets us here.
It is, What are we to expect on this subject ? What have
we a right to demand in a book submitting itself to us
as a revelation from God ? Suppose the scientific man
entertains for a moment the idea that a " book-revela
tion" could be made, or that God would impart truths
directly by inspiration beyond what man can discover
by his unaided powers, what would he have a right to
demand or expect ? And how far would such a reason
able expectation correspond with what actually occurs
in regard to the Bible ?
It is not difficult to answer these questions.
(1.) We should expect we should feel ourselves au
thorized to demand, in the sense that we could not re
ceive it as a revelation otherwise that the revelation
should not contradict the disclosures of Science, as we
expect that the disclosures made by the telescope will
not contradict those made by the naked eye. The
telescope, under the laws of vision, simply carries the
vision farther, and extends it into regions .beyond the
natural range of the eye. But we anticipate this in
regard to its disclosures, that while it reveals new
worlds, it will reveal them as subject to the same laws
which reign within the scope of our natural vision, and
that we shall not, however vast may be the extent of
our aided vision, or however deep we plunge into the
distant ether, be conducted into the empire of another
God. Such is the fact. The distant worlds, however
far from us, and however vast, are subject to the same
96 LECTURES ON THE
laws of light and motion which are observed on our
own planet; nor even when we have passed our own
solar system, and the nebula to which it belongs, and
contemplate more vast and distant nebulae, that seem
to float as independent systems or universes, wholly sep
arated from ours, do we come into the dominion of an
other Creator and another God.
So we expect of revelation. If God has given two
books to men, the book of nature and the book of grace,
a revelation through his works and an independent
" book"-revelation by his word, we expect, we demand
that they shall be reconcilable with each other. And,
unless this is done, we are so made that we can not re
ceive the latter.
(2.) We should expect that such a revelation would
be confined mainly to the subject of religion. It is true
that in such a revelation the truths of Science might
have been disclosed as well as the truths of religion, for
all this knowledge is in the mind of God, and he might
have revealed a system of botany, or mineralogy, or
anatomy, or chemistry, or astronomy that would have
been perfect. But there were reasons which could easily
be suggested why it was not desirable or wise that this
should be; why the discoveries on these subjects should
be left to ,the investigations of men themselves, and
why they should be developed when the condition of
the world would be such that society would be pre
pared for them, and when the world would appreciate
them. There were reasons why the art of working
metals should to some extent be known in the time of
Tubal-Cain (Gen., iv., 22), but what would have been the
value of a revelation of the use of the steam-engine, of
the art of printing, or of the magnetic telegraph at that
age of the world ? It was wise and best that, when
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 97
the world was prepared by its ordinary developments
to be lifted to a higher level, men of extraordinary
genius should be raised up to strike out the new inven
tions that would be demanded at that period of the
world, for the real progress of the race would be better
accomplished in this way than by a direct revelation
from heaven. It was not for the good of the race, as
I have endeavored to show in a former Lecture, that, on
subjects which properly lie within the range of the hu
man faculties, the knowledge which is needful for man
should be communicated by a direct revelation from
God, and hence what we should anticipate in such a
revelation would be that it would be mainly confined
to the subject of religion. In fact, it has never been
made an objection to the Bible as a professed revela
tion that it does not deal with the subjects of Science,
and does not claim to be an arbiter in its mooted
questions.
(3.) We should expect and demand in a revelation
that if there were incidental allusions or references to
other subjects than the main subject of religion, they
would, be so made as to be in harmony with the infor
mation obtained on those subjects from other sources,
or be susceptible of reconciliation with them. A skep
tic would have a right to demand this ; our own nature,
as we are made, requires it. We act on this principle
in the attempt to propagate our religion, and to set
aside the revelations of other religions, and we regard
it as a sufficient proof that they are false if we can show
that they contradict the statenents of true Science.
(4.) Yet it could not be claimed that there should be
no apparent conflict between the two. We do not go
very far in the pursuit of knowledge on any scientific
subject, on any question of history, on any matter of
E
98 LECTURES ON THE
philosophy, without finding that there is an apparent
conflict between the disclosures made to us and the
things already known or believed ; and I need not say
that a very material part of scientific study consists in
the work of reconciling one Ijhing with another, or in
showing that there is real harmony where there is appa
rent discord. How slow and toilsome has been the proc
ess of reconciling the Copernican theory in regard to the
movements of the heavenly bodies with admitted facts,
or of reconciling the theory with apparent irregulari
ties. And when has a new discovery been made that
did not require a new adjustment ? How long did as
tronomers wait, how deeply were they perplexed, in
regard to certain irregularities in the planet Uranus,
that was supposed to be the most remote in the sys
tem, until Le Verrier and Adams suggested that there
was still another, sunk deeper in the depths of space,
and as yet unknown, whose existence, size, and move
ments might reconcile and harmonize all ?
(5.) Once more. On the subjects pertaining to Sci
ence in such a revelation, we should expect that the
statements made would be in the common language
used by men, and not in technical scientific terms. The
reasons for this are obvious. Such truths could be made
intelligible only by such language, and such language
is used by scientific men themselves, even on subjects
where they have the most accurate definitions. No
greater jargon could be imagined surpassing in appa
rent unintelligibleness and nonsense what occurred at
Babel than would be an attempt to hold conversation
m the technical language of chemistry, of anatomy, or
of medicine, and there is no surer proof of pedantry
than such an attempt. " Language," said Talleyrand,
" is for the purpose of concealing ideas ;" and a revela-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 99
tion in scientific language would accomplish that be
yond even the language of German transcendentalists.
What would be the language of the world if reduced
to scientific terms ? By what cumbersome and unin
telligible technicalities would men describe the rising
or the setting of the sun, or the operations of walking,
and seeing, and hearing, and eating, and cooking ? Who
could understand any thing of a rose if the technical
language of botanists only were used, or of water, air,
or earth, if only the technical language of chemistry
were employed ? In the words of Kepler : " Astronomy
unfolds the causes of natural things ; it professedly in
vestigates optical illusions. Astronomers do not pur
sue this science with the design of uttering language.
We say, with the common people, the planets stand
still or go down; the sun rises and sets. How much
less should we require that the Scriptures of divine
inspiration, setting aside the common modes of speech,
should shape their words according to the model of the
natural sciences, and, by employing a dark and inappro
priate phraseology about things which surpass the com
prehension of those whom it designs to instruct, perplex
the simple people of God, and thus obstruct its own
way toward the attainment of the far more exalted ob
ject at which it aims."*
V. It\ is a very material question now, How far Sci
ence has affected the evidences of the truth of Chris
tianity ; how far it has rendered the proofs of its divine
origin commonly relied on uncertain or doubtful ; how
far, if at all, it has rendered them valueless ?
This is a very large subject too large to be consid
ered in the little time now remaining in this Lecture ;
and as, in some form, it will occur more than once
* Quoted in Lee on Inspiration, p, 370.
100 LECTURES ON THE
again in this course, a few suggestions only need now
be made.
The inquiry pertains to two points : What Science
has removed that was once supposed to be a part of
revelation; and Whether it has affected that which is
a real part of revelation, and which properly belongs
to it.
On the first of these points we now go hand in hand
with the skeptic and the doubter. Science has done
much, and perhaps the progress of civilization more,
in detaching from religion, and, if I may so say, from
the Bible that is, from the Bible as it was formerly in
terpreted much that would now, if it properly pertain
ed to the Bible, be fatal to any claims to a divine ori
gin. The Christian world has been indeed shocked and
alarmed as one after another of these things has been
assailed, for it was supposed that they were essential
to religion ; that they were incorporated in the Bible,
and that they were always to be regarded as essential
points of the Christian faith. The assault on these
things has been suppose d to be an assault made by in
fidelity ; the skepticism produced in regard to them
has been feared to be on the one hand, and claimed to
be on the other, the triumph of skepticism. But Sci
ence, in its progress, has disabused the minds of men on
these subjects, and has thus, in fact, been a helper, and
not a hinderer, in embracing the evidences of Chris
tianity an auxiliary, and not a foe for it has shown
that in receiving the Bible men are not required to em
brace what was once regarded as essential to the faith.
The question which remains for solution, and which is
agitated in this age, is, How far this is to go, and
whether all that is supernatural and miraculous in the
Scriptures is to be given up at the demand of Science,
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 101
in order that religion may commend itself to the faith
of mankind.
The history on this subject is, in fact, the history of
" Rationalism," in the broadest and best sense of that
term. The subject has occupied and is occupying the
attention of minds, partly among Christians and partly
among skeptics, which must be admitted to be abun
dantly competent to grapple with it. Coleridge, among
those that speak our language, perhaps began it ; Sir
David Brewster did much to disabuse the minds of men
on the subject, and to relieve Christianity of a burden,
in his " History of Magic ;" Germany has made it prom
inent in its inquiries ; Dr. Channing and Theodore Par
ker lent their aid to it in their way ; and Buckle and
Lecky, with different aims, have traced elaborately the
course of thought in the history of the world on the
subject.*
The sum is this : In the early periods of the world
all things were full of marvels and wonders ; all things
not understood, and few things were supposed to be
understood, were under the control of the supernatural.
An eclipse was a prodigy, a miracle wrought for some
special purpose ; the plague and pestilence were prodi
gies brought upon men for special purposes ; the gods
constantly appeared acting in human affairs ; the stars,
by a potent influence, presided over the birth and death
of individuals ; the dead reappeared, and it was possi
ble to make a compact with them for good or evil pur
poses ; the groves, the hills, the streams, were full of
dryads, and nymphs, and fauns ; and the belief in charms
* Probably the best and most reliable history on the subject, as it
is certainly the best written, is Lecky s " History of the Kise and Influ
ence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe."
102 LECTURES ON THE
and incantations, in sorcery and witchcraft, was uni
versal.
Time, science, and civilization have scattered most
of these delusions, and have reduced to regular laws
most of what was supposed to belong to the supernat
ural. The naiads, and fauns, and nymphs have disap
peared ; the groves have been unpeopled except in
poetry ; the belief in sorcery and witchcraft has been
banished from the world ; and the belief is cherished,
and the hope entertained by those who have been most
active in disenchanting the world, that aU that has oc
curred, or that does now occur in our world, may be
traced to regular and fixed laws, excluding the super
natural altogether.
It is not difficult to understand what the tendency of
this process is, or what eifect it is likely to have on
large classes of mind in regard to the miraculous and
the supernatural in the Bible. The real question is
whether this shall extend to all the events that have
occurred in our world ; whether all the facts that have
taken place, including those which have occurred in
connection with events claimed to be miraculous, can
be reduced to regular laws ; and whether all which can
not be so reduced shall not at once be regarded as de
lusion and imposture. Science and civilization having
done so much to drive sorcery, and magic, and witch
craft, and astrology, and necromancy, and superstition
from the world, and having gone so far to establish the
reign of regular law, the question is whether the tri
umph is not to be completed, and whether any thing is
to be left for direct divine intervention, and whether
we may not arrive at a point, or have not already
reached it, when rfc may be assumed as a maxim in
Science that any thing claiming to be miraculous is
EVIDENCES OP CHKISTIANITY. 103
at once to be rejected. Strauss reached that conclu
sion : " We may," says he, " summarily reject all mira
cles, prophecies, narratives of angels and demons, and
the like, as simply impossible and irreconcilable with
the known and universal laws which govern the course
of events."* The tendency on this subject no one can
doubt. That tendency has been described at length by
one who can not be supposed to have any wish in that
direction, but who has traced, with the hand of a mas
ter, the process by which the world has reached its pres
ent position in regard to the miraculous and the super
natural. Among other things he says : " Men are pre
pared to admit almost any conceivable concurrence of
natural improbabilities rather than resort to the hy
pothesis of supernatural interference; and this spirit is
exhibited not merely by open skeptics, but by men who
are sincere, though perhaps not very fervent believers
in their church. It is the prevailing characteristic of
that vast body of educated persons whose lives are
chiefly spent in secular pursuits, and who, while they
receive with uninquiring faith the great doctrines of
Catholicism, and duly perform its leading duties, derive
their mental tone and coloring from the general spirit
of their age. If you speak to them on the subject they
will reply with a shrug and a smile." " If we put aside
the clergy and those who are most immediately under
their influence, we find that this habit of mind [among
the Roman Catholics] is the invariable concomitant of
education, and is the especial characteristic of those
persons whose intellectual sympathies are most ex
tended, and who therefore represent most faithfully
the various intellectual influences of their time." "All
history shows that in exact proportion as nations ad-
* Introduction to the Life of Jesus.
104 LECTURES ON THE
vance in civilization, the accounts of miracles taking
place among them become rarer and rarer, until at last
they entirely cease." These facts " show that the re
pugnance of men to believe miraculous narratives is in
direct proportion to the progress of civilization and the
diffusion of knowledge." " The plain fact is, that the
progress of civilization produces invariably a certain
tone and habit of thought which makes men recoil from
miraculous narratives with an instinctive and imme
diate repugnance, as though they were essentially in
credible, independently of any definite arguments, and
in spite of dogmatic teaching." " Generation after
generation, the province of the miraculous has con
tracted, and the circle of skepticism has expanded. Of
the two great divisions of these events, one has com
pletely perished. Witchcraft, and diabolical possession,
and diabolical disease have long since passed into the
region of fables. To disbelieve them was at first the
eccentricity of a few isolated thinkers ; it was then the
distinction of the educated classes in the most advanced
nations ; it is now the common sentiment of all classes
in all countries of Europe. The countless miracles that
were once associated with every relic and with every
village shrine have rapidly and silently disappeared.
Year by year the incredulity became more manifest,
even where the theological profession was unchanged.
Their numbers continually lessened until they at last
almost ceased, and any attempt to revive them has
been treated with a general and undisguised contempt.
The miracles of the fathers are passed over with an in
credulous scorn or with a significant silence. The ra
tionalistic spirit has even attempted to explain away
those which are recorded in Scripture, and it has mate
rially altered their position in the systems of theology.
EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 105
In all countries, in all churches, in all parties, among men
of every variety of character and opinion, we have found
the tendency existing. In each nation its development
has been a measure of intellectual activity, and has
passed in regular course through the different strata of
society. During the last century it has advanced with
a vastly accelerated rapidity ; the old lines of demarca
tion have been every where obscured, and the spirit of
Rationalism has become the great centre to which the
intellect of Europe is manifestly tending. If we trace
the progress of the movement from its origin to the
present day, we find that it has completely altered the
whole aspect and complexion of religion. When it be
gan, Christianity was regarded as a system entirely be
yond the range and scope of human reason ; it was im
pious to question; it was impious to examine;. it was
impious to discriminate. On the other hand, it was vis
ibly instinct with the supernatural. Miracles of every
order and degree of magnitude were flashing forth in
cessantly from all its parts. They excited no skepti
cism and no surprise. The miraculous element pervaded
all literature, explained all difficulties, consecrated all
doctrines. Every unusual phenomenon was immedi
ately referred to a supernatural agency, not because
there was a passion for the improbable, but because
such an explanation seemed far more simple and easy
of belief than the obscure theories of Science. In the
present day Christianity is regarded as a system which
courts the strictest investigation, and which, among
many other functions, was designed to vivify and stim
ulate all the energies of man. The idea of the mirac
ulous, which a superficial observer might have once
deemed its most prominent characteristic, has been
driven from almost all its intrenchments, and now quiv-
E 2
106 LECTURES ON THE
ers faintly and feebly through the mists of eighteen
hundred years."*
The friends of Christianity who still retain their faith
in the miraculous do not deny that Science and civiliza
tion have done much to change the views of the world
in regard to the marvelous, and that they have done
much to disprove what was once held to be taught in
the Bible. At the same time, however, the progress of
a more correct exegesis has shown that many of these
things are not taught in the Bible, and thus religion
has been delivered from a burden which in the present
state of the world it would not have been able to bear ;
for we could not now go before the world with the
defense of witchcraft or sorcery as once held ; or with
the views of Turretin in regard to the creation, as, in
his apprehension, taught in the Scriptures ;f or with
the views of Cosmas, of the sixth century, in regard to
the structure of the universe. {
* Lecky, History of Rationalism, vol. i., p. 160, 161, 162, 194, 195.
t " First," he remarks, " the sun is said in Scripture to move in the
heavens, and to rise and set. The sun is as a bridegroom coming
out of his chambers, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
The sun knoweth his going down. The sun ariseth, and the sun
goeth down. Secondly, The sun, by a miracle, stood still in the
time of Joshua, and by a miracle it went back in the time of Heze-
kiah. Thirdly, The earth is said to be fixed immovably. The
earth also is established, that it can not be moved. Thou hast es
tablished the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day accord
ing to thine ordinances. Fourthly, Neither could birds, which often
fly off through an hour s circuit, be able to return to their nests.
Fifthly, Whatever flies or is suspended in the air ought by this theory
to move from west to east ; but this is proved not to be true, from
birds, arrows shot forth, atoms made manifest in the sun, and down
floating in the atmosphere."
t "According to Cosmas, the world is a flat parallelogram. Its
length, which should be measured from east to west, is the double
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 107
Sow far this is to proceed is now the great question
between the friends and the enemies of the Bible the
one claiming that the miraculous and the supernatural
are not to be abandoned ; the other that nothing shall
be received and believed by men which can not be ex
plained by established and unvarying law. Here is to
be the battle-ground of this generation, and perhaps of
the next; for this warfare men are girding on their
armor ; for this conflict, as much as for any other, the
young men who are preparing for the ministry must be
prepared.
The great questions which now lie open, and which
are, in their relations to Christianity and Science, to be
examined and determined, are substantially these : The
creation of the world whether it was, in fact, created
at all, as stated in the Bible, and in the order affirmed
in the first chapter of Genesis ; the antiquity of the
human race whether man existed upon the earth at
of its breadth, which should be measured from north to south. In
the centre is the earth we inhabit, which is surrounded by the ocean ;
and this again is encircled by another earth, in which men lived be
fore the deluge, and from which Noah was transported in the ark.
To the north of the world is a high conical mountain, around which
the sun and moon continually revolve. When the sun is hid behind
the mountain, it is night ; when it is on one side of the mountain, it
is day. To the edges of the outer earth the sky is glued. It consists
of four high walls rising to a great height, and then meeting in a vast
concave roof, thus forming an immense edifice, of which our world is
the floor. This edifice is divided into two stories by the firmament,
which is placed between the earth and the roof of the sky. A great
ocean is inserted in the side of the firmament remote from the earth.
This is what is signified by the waters that are above the firmament.
The space from these waters to the roof of the sky is allotted to the
blest ; that from the firmament to our earth to the angels, in their
character of ministering spirits." Lecky, History of Rationalism,
vol. i.,p. 277.
108 LECTURES ON THE
a period anterior to that which is fairly implied in the
Bible ; the origin of the race whether the different
types of men upon the earth have a common origin,
and have been derived from a single pair, as is affirmed
in the Bible, or whether men have sprung up in differ
ent centres, either as developed from inferior orders of
creatures, or from independent created " heads" of the
different races, the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the Ethi
opian, the American ; and the whole question of mira
cles whether they are possible ; whether a miracle can
be believed, or whether the laws of nature are so fixed
and unchanging that there never has been, and never
can be, sufficient evidence of the direct interposition of
the divine power to justify the belief that those laws
have ever been set aside.
It remains now to be said that, whatever may be
hereafter, Science has furnished no demonstrations on
these points which should give the friends of relig
ion real cause of alarm. It has not yet been dem
onstrated that the universe was not created, and in
the order described by Moses; it has not yet been
proved that man has been upon the earth for a period
longer than that assigned by a fair interpretation of
the Scripture record; it has not been shown that the
races of men did not descend from a single pair ; and
the point has not yet been established that God has
never interposed, since the creation, by his own direct
power in controlling the condition of the world ; that
the sun and moon did not stand still at the command
of Joshua ; that Christ did not still the tempest by a
word ; that he did not recall Lazarus to life ; that he
did not himself rise from the dead and ascend to
heaven. Science has not yet brought these alleged
facts within its range, nor has it demonstrated that
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 109
these facts could not be proved by proper historical
testimony. These are not settled points in Science, as
Kepler s great laws of motion are, or Newton s law of
gravitation is. When they become such, and not till
then, will there be a real conflict between Science and
the teachings of the Bible. So matters stand on this
subject in this nineteenth century.
The course of events thus far, while it has removed
many imaginary things from the Bible, and relieved us
from much that encumbered and embarrassed the argu
ment for the truth of revelation as it has removed
many imaginary things from the secular history of the
past, and has relieved us from many things that per
plexed and embarrassed us in regard to past events
has, as yet, removed none of the real things affirmed in
the Bible, and which, by just laws of exegesis, we are
bound to maintain, as, on the parallel subject of secu
lar history, it has not aflected, and can not affect, the
real events which belong to history. The future we
can not anticipate. The past, at least, is secure. What
Science is yet to do it is not ours to foresee. How this
matter is to stand in the centuries to come, is, of course,
beyond our positive knowledge. Whether Science can
eliminate miracles as it has done sorcery, and magic,
and necromancy, and astrology from the world, is to
be the inquiry of future ages ; a field of fair conflict
between the friends and the enemies of revelation.
History in its great facts is safe thus far; religion in
its great facts is safe also each with equal confidence
may be safely intrusted to that Great Presiding Spirit
that has preserved both up to the present time. It
will remain, in a subsequent part of this course of Lec
tures it may be demanded of us it can not be evaded
to inquire whether the principles of Science which
110 LECTURES ON THE
have swept away so much once deemed marvelous and
supernatural, will sweep away the claim of all that is
miraculous ; whether, in view of all that it has done, a
miracle can be properly regarded as a historical subject
of belief. That point will be reserved for a special sub
sequent Lecture.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. Ill
LECTURE IV.
THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY FROM ITS PROP
AGATION.
THERE are two forms of religion in the world which
owe their present existence and influence to the fact
that they were at first propagated by direct effort.
They are Christianity and Mohammedism. In this re
spect they stand by themselves. The religion of the
Jews had its origin with their own nation, and grew up
with themselves, and identified itself with all their leg
islative, municipal, and military regulations a growth
among themselves, and not an accretion from surround
ing nations. They indeed sought to make proselytes,
but they never sought or expected to make their relig
ion a universal religion. Moses labored to make the
Jewish people a religious people^ not to convert the sur
rounding nations, and at no period of their history did
the Hebrews ever conceive the idea of converting the
whole world to their faith. It was the religion of the
Jewish nation, not the religion of the world.
The Egyptian religion was limited to the Egyptians,
the Chaldean to the Chaldeans, the Assyrian to the As
syrians. It was a fundamental idea in the ancient Pa
gan religions that every nation had its own gods, and
that those gods were to be respected by other nations.
The Greeks did not go forth to convert the world to
their Jupiter, Juno, or Mars, but were content that all
others should do honor as they chose to their own na
tional gods. In the Pantheon at Rome the idea was
112 LECTURES ON THE
embodied in the very name and conception of the tem
ple, that all the gods of the nations were to be recog
nized, and that all might have a place there provided
they did not disturb or displace those who were rec
ognized as the Roman divinities.
Christianity and Mohammedism, however, each alike
started out on a different idea. They were to be prop
agated. They were to overstep the narrow limits of
the people among whom they had their origin. They
were, wherever they went, to displace other religions.
They were to convert heathen temples to churches or
mosques, or, if this could not be done, they were to dis
robe their priests, and to empty them of worshipers,
and to leave them tenantless. They were to throw
down all altars; stop the effusion of blood in sacrifice
every where; change all laws that recognized the ex
istence of more gods than one ; set up the worship of
one God, and bring the nations of the earth under the
influence of a " book-revelation" the Bible or the Ko
ran. They were both to be diffused by direct effort ;
and the idea of propagation was a fundamental idea in
both the one by the sword, the other by the influence
of truth and love.
They began much alike. Both had their origin in
an individual in whom alone was the germ of the relig
ion was all the religion ; and both those founders of
the respective systems were obscure both poor, both
uneducated, both without powerful alliances or ar
mies. Neither of the religions was a development from
any previous form of religion, or an outgrowth of exist
ing views among men, or of any prevailing form of civ
ilization, and neither of them would have started up
as such an outgrowth or development in Persia in the
time of Cyrus, or in Greece in the age of Pericles, or in
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 113
Home in the time of the Antonines, or of any nation
now, if we can suppose that the existing nations had
their present forms of civilization or art without any
religion. Both had very small beginnings, and weari
some weeks and months, and even years, passed away
before they became so rooted or accumulated such force
as to affect the established institutions, or to excite ap
prehension among the friends of existing systems of re
ligion. The founders of both experienced similar opposi
tion from their own families and friends, and made their
first converts among strangers ; and both were greatly
persecuted. The one, to save his life in infancy, was
borne to a distant land, and was often obliged to resort
to measures derived from his higher nature to save his
life, and at last was put to death on a cross ; the other
was compelled to flee from the place of his birth and
from his home, and to make a distant city the seat and
centre of his efforts to spread his religion. Neither
lived to see much more than the beginning of the diffu
sion of their religion, and the religion of both was
spread with rapidity over extended regions only when
they were no longer upon the earth to direct its diffu
sion in person. Millions of human beings have been
brought under the power of each ; each has lived, since
its origin, through the revolutions of many centuries,
and amid all the advances which the world has made in
science and in art ; each has given laws to nations ; has
founded governments ; has changed long-existing dynas
ties ; has controlled kings on their thrones ; has organ
ized vast armies ; has changed, if not made permanent,
the customs of the world. The banners of each in war
have waved over numberless battle-fields, often when
contending alone with other nations; often when ar
rayed against each other; seldom in union against a
114 LECTURES ON THE
common foe. Both, though often attacked with the ut
most violence, yet survive, and now together more
deeply influence the destiny of the world than all other
forms of religion combined.
Both these religions can not be true ; both can not
have been propagated because they were true. An ar
gument for the divine origin of either from the fact of
its propagation that would be equally applicable to
both would prove nothing, and a very material question
occurs whether there is any such peculiarity in the
manner and fact of the propagation of the one as would
demonstrate its divine origin, which would not be ap
plicable to the other ; or whether the mere propagation
of a system of philosophy or religion, under any circum
stances, proves that it is from God.
Without comparing the evidence in regard to the
two, and reserving the remarks which distinguish and
separate the two, so far as the argument is concerned,
to the closing part of the Lecture, I shall endeavor, as
its main purpose, to set before you the argument for the
divine origin of Christianity as derived from its propa
gation.
This I shall do by illustrating the following points :
I. That the religion was propagated ;
II. That the evidence or facts on which this was done
was sufficient to account for its propagation, or to se
cure its propagation if such evidence existed ; and,
ILL That the fact of the propagation of Christianity,
in the manner in which it occurred, can be explained
only on the supposition that there was such evidence,
and that the religion is from God.
I. The first point, as I have announced it That the
religion was propagated has so far the appearance of
being a truism that you maybe surprised, perhaps, that
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 115
I have so far reflected on your understandings as to sub
mit it as a proposition to be proved or even illustrated.
I mean by it, however, more than may strike you on its
mere announcement.
What I mean by it, and what is to be illustrated in
this argument is, (1.) That it was not a development
from any previous system of religion or from the state
of the world ; and (2.) That it was propagated in the
manner and on the grounds which are stated in the
New Testament.
(1.) It was not a development from any previous sys
tem of religion or from the state of the world.
That there are things existing in society which are
of the proper nature of development from something
previously existing, or which have sprung into being
because the state of the world demanded them, can not
be called in question; and it can not be denied that
progressive civilization seems to follow, in some re
spects, the laws of development in the vegetable king
dom. It would be a curious and not unprofitable in
quiry to ascertain what were the germs of the present
civilizations of the world, and by what laws they have
been unfolded. Society is thus a growth, formed of ac
cretions from without, as plants are, in which the prin
ciple of life in the germ attracts to itself, and moulds
into the appropriate shape, under its own laws of life,
whatever is necessary to its full and perfect form. The
race thus, like the plant, is one, and the progress is stead
ily and indefinitely onward.* It is, in itself, a fair ques
tion whether all existing things in society can be traced
* " Social advancement is as completely under the control of natu
ral law as is bodily growth. The life of an individual is a miniature
of the life of a nation." Dr. Draper, History of the Intellectual De
velopment of Europe. Preface.
116 LECTURES ON THE
to this law of development or progress ; and it is per
fectly fair for any advocate of that theory to endeavor
to show that Christianity, so far as it indicates progress,
comes under that law. So far, in fact, has the principle
now adverted to been carried, that it has been held that
the great minds which have been thrown up from time
to time to meet great emergencies in the world, and to
lift the race to a higher level, have, in fact, been created
by circumstances, and are simply a development of
what may be in the germ of humanity ; as the richest
fruit, under the highest cultivation, is but a fair devel
opment of what is in the germ from which it sprang.
In like manner it has been held, and it is quite material
for infidelity to hold it, that Christianity is but a sim
ple development of a state of things to which the world
in its progress was coming ; itself, in due time, to give
way to some higher development that shall spring out
of an advanced state of society, and that will better
than Christianity then represent the real progress of the
world "Positivism," or some such form of religion.
According to such a theory, in the words of another,
"Christianity arose from a happy confluence of the
Greek and Roman with the Hebrew civilization." The
state of the world demanded a change in religion. The
old religions were dying or dead. The civilization of
the world was in advance of those religions, and they
must die, at any rate. But there were in them ele
ments of religion representing the progress which the
world had made at that time, which might be min
gled with the advanced principles in civilization, and
out of which a new system might spring that would
accompany the world in its progress for many gener
ations, until, it also becoming decayed and effete, and
falling behind some distant age, some higher form of
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 117
religion would arise which would better represent an
advanced period of the world.
Whether this is so is a fair question, and yet it would
appear not to be of difficult solution.
It may be remarked in the outset that Christianity
has not the appearance of being a development. It had
no growth. It was perfect at the commencement as it
came from its Founder, and as it was explained in the
New Testament. It became fixed at once, and it has
not changed. It has no doctrines now which it had not
eighteen hundred years ago ; and it had none then
which it has not now, for it has lost none by the way.
One of our main embarrassments in regard to it, as com
pared with the progress of the world, as we shall see in a
subsequent Lecture, is that it is a fixed religion, not sus
ceptible of change or modification. To that our adver
saries hold us ; from that we can not retreat. The form
of Minerva was not more complete at her birth than
Christianity was, and its form was no more susceptible
of growing beauty than was hers. In proof that these
things were so, I submit the following remarks :
(a) Christianity was not a development of the Pagan
religions. It sprang up in a land remote from those re
ligions ; it has no features in common with them ; it
came, so far as they had life, into immediate and deadly
collision with them. The Egyptian, the Babylonian,
the Persian, the Greek, the Roman mythologies which
of them or what part of them is represented by Chris
tianity ? The temples, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the
morals which of them is represented by Christianity ?
Which of them welcomed its coming which of them
sprang forward to embrace it which of them opened
its temples for it ?
(b) Christianity was not developed from Judaism,
118 LECTURES ON THE
unless it be in the sense, if the comparison be not too
low, in which the chrysalis is " developed" into the but
terfly, and the new insect emerges into a new form of
being, the former life the groveling caterpillar
dying altogether. Judaism died when Christianity
appeared. Unlike the expiring worm, indeed, with the
little life it had, it evinced a deadly antagonism to the
new form the new religion and then it, like that
worm, expired. Its altars were overthrown ; its priests
were disrobed; its temple was razed to the founda
tions ; its sacrifices were rendered unmeaning, and
ceased forever; its political economy was ended; its
people were scattered to the ends of the earth, to be
gathered as a nation no more. We as Christians, in
deed, admit, in our sense of the term, that Christianity
was " developed" in a certain sense from the Jewish re
ligion ; that the one had the same origin as the other ;
that the same life-blood flowed through both ; that the
Messiah of the one was adumbrated by the rites of the
other ; and that the one was, in the purpose of God,
preparatory and introductory to the other. But this
is riot the sense in which the enemies of Christianity
would say that Christianity was developed from Juda
ism; and in the sense in which they use the term it is
in no manner true.
(c) It was not a development from the Greek philoso
phy, or from the Roman philosophy, the echo of the
Greek. That philosophy, in common with other forms
of philosophy, has, indeed, at times greatly influenced
and modified Christianity as it has been held in the
world; but the systems have been kept distinct, and
have never been confounded. With both these before
us now for the records of the Greek and Roman phi
losophy have been, from some cause, almost as carefully
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. H9
preserved as the records of Christianity we are en
abled to make a comparison between what Socrates,
Pythagoras, Zeno, and Plato taught, and what Jesus
taught; and no germ of the latter is to be found in the
former. It is impossible to take the teachings of the
Greeks, and to show how the peculiarities of the Chris
tian system could have grown out of them ; and it is
morally certain that if Christ had not appeared in per
son, and if the world had retained its possession of the
Greek philosophy, such a system as that of Christian
ity would have been forever unknown to men. From
some cause, the Greek philosophy has quite as much
affinity with the religion of the Koran as it has with
the religion of the New Testament ; for it was at Bag
dad, in the time of the Caliphs, that it was preserved,
when a dark night had settled down on Christian Eu
rope ; it was at Bagdad, in the palmy days of the relig
ion of Mohammed, that it was most carefully studied ;
it was from Bagdad, as, in part, the result of the Cru
sades, that it was given again to Europe.
(d) Nor was it a development of the civilization
which the world had attained at the time when it ap
peared. Christianity is not Greek civilization; it is
not Roman ; it is not Egyptian ; it is not Persian ; it is
not Babylonian. In fact, the enemies of Christianity
tell us that it set itself much against the civilization of
the world when it appeared. It enjoined peculiar man
ners, and was austere, cold, dissocial, severe ; it had no
fine arts of its own, and it looked with disdain on the
arts of polished life in Greece and Rome ; it evinced no
affinity for poetry, painting, or statuary, but looked
with distrust on them all ; it attempted no rivalship of
the works of the great Greek masters, but aroused their
hostility by eschewing and avoiding them; its own
0*
U1I7IRSIT
120 LECTURES ON THE
works of art of that early age needful for their public
assemblies, and needful to mark the places where mar
tyrs slept as in the catacombs of Rome, are of the rud
est structure ; and its connection with the arts poetry,
painting, sculpture, architecture was of the slowest
growth, and was the work of late, and not of early
years. Moreover, there has been a deep conviction in
the minds of many of its best friends that the extensive
cultivation of the fine arts is not conducive to the
growth of a pure Christianity, but that such a cultiva
tion is, from some cause, closely connected, in fact, with
a deterioration in doctrine, and with corruption in prac
tical life. Christianity at its beginning was what it
has ever been since. Less by far than any other sys
tem that has influenced mankind has it been the result
of development and growth.
(e) Nor is it true that it is a development of civ
ilization as the world has advanced since its Found
er lived, and that it owes its present form to the
progress of the race. In one breath we are told by
Comte and his followers that it falls behind the age ;
that it is eflete and obsolete ; that the world now, in
its state of civilization, needs a better system, and
that it is the business of philosophy to reveal such a
system ; in the next breath, by Buckle and his friends,
that it is the result of the progressive civilization
of the world, and has grown naturally out of the un-
foldings of the germs of civilized life. " Can a fount
ain send forth at the same place sweet water and bit
ter ? Can the fig-tree bear olive-berries ? either a vine
figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and
fresh."
Neither of these suppositions is true. Christianity
has not outlived its influence on the civilization of the
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 121
world, nor has it obtained its influence because it is a
development of the germs of civilization which the
world in its progress is unfolding.
In one word, Christianity is not a " development"
at all. It was mature and perfect at the beginning.
Few of the great things which influence our world mor
ally or physically are the result of" development." In
the old geological periods, as we are now instructed,
one was in no sense a " development" from the former ;
nor did the old in any form travel over into the new
in an improved and more perfect growth. The old
races were swept off absolutely, and new successive
creations of plants and animals were brought upon the
changed earth. Man at last appeared, not as a devel
opment, but as a new creation. So geology now teaches
us. In the progress of society, of what is the printing-
press a development ? the railroad the magnetic tele
graph ? Of what was the mind of Shakspeare, of Ba
con, of Newton a development ? What was there in
the intellect of John Shakspeare, originally a glover,
and then a skinner and wool-stapler* in Henly Street,
in Strat ford-on- A von, that developed itself into Hamlet,
and Lear, and Macbeth that, in the language of Hugh
Miller, " set such great thoughts bounding through the
world ?" What was there in the obscure and humble
parson, the father of Newton, that " developed" itself
into the science of fluxions, and the discovery of the
great law of gravitation ?
(2.) The facts in regard to the propagation of Chris
tianity are well settled in history.
(a) It had its origin with Jesus of Nazareth. That
fact is as clear as any fact in history ; it is so clear that
no one can doubt it ; it is so clear that it has never been
* Ulrici, Dramatic Art of Shakspeare, p. 70.
F
122 LECTURES ON THE
denied. Jesus of Nazareth was a real historical person
age. What he was, who he was, whence he came, what
was the object of his coming, are other questions ; but
that he lived, that he taught, that he died that he was
born in the time of Augustus Caesar, and died in the
time of Tiberius are points settled by all history. In
fidelity has not ventured to call these things in ques
tion. And the most learned and able forms of skepti
cism have been employed in showing how, these facts
being assumed, the growth and spread of Christianity
can be explained. The Jesus of Strauss is a real histor
ical personage, around whom his disciples and followers
have drawn the myths that have grown up into Chris
tianity as it is ; the Jesus of Renan is a real personage
an uneducated peasant, ignorant of history, of geog
raphy, of literature unacquainted even with the his
tory of the Herods of his own country, and a stranger
to the history of Rome, yet a young man of remarkable
and unparalleled genius, far beyond his own age, or any
age ultimately, as springing from the exertion of his
own unconscious powers, conceiving the idea that he
was the Messiah, and was, in a form before unknown,
to set up the worship of the true God, and to change
the religion of the world ; the Jesus of Gibbon is a real
personage, the influence of whose life and opinions on
the world is to be explained in the best way in which
it can be.
(b) This religion was propagated mainly by very
humble men; by men who were uneducated; by men
for the most part fishermen having no original supe
riority above other fishermen on the shores of the Lake
of Galilee, a rude and uncultivated region, or above
fishermen as they are found now around Cape Cod or
on the Banks of Newfoundland among the last of men
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 123
that would be selected for the work of religious mis
sions, or for founding a religion, or for measuring
strength with the philosophy of the world : men with
out rank, or position, or influence, except as they created
it in the effort to spread the new religion ; men belong
ing to a despised race a race known indeed beyond the
boundaries of their own narrow country, but mostly as
slaves, and characterized by Tacitus as " the enemies of
the human race ;" men belonging to a nation that had
produced nothing in sculpture, in painting, in philoso
phy, in arts, or in arms, to make them known abroad ;
men belonging to a race which heathen poets conde
scended to notice only with contempt.*
(c) The facts in the history of its propagation are as
well settled as any other facts in history so well set
tled as to admit of no skepticism in regard to them.
There were no armies ; there were no military leaders.
The conquests of Christianity were not, certainly until
it ascended the throne of the Ca3sars, the result of
bloody victories. The facts in regard to its propaga
tion have been traced with great learning, impartiality,
and fidelity by Mr. Gibbon, and accord, as stated by
him, with all the other records that have been handed
down to us. They have not been called in question by
Strauss or Renan, and infidelity has not ventured, if it
had any desire to do it, to found its attacks on Chris
tianity on a denial of those facts. It was in Mr. Gib
bon s path to state those facts, and he has done it with
out hesitation, and without an attempt to pervert them.
In fact, he has traced that history in regard to the prop
agation of Christianity as the result of the labors of
humble and unknown men, without influence or arms,
as faithfully and impartially as he has described the
* Credat Judeeus Apella. Horace.
124 LECTURES ON THE
character of the Antonines or Julian, or as he has traced
the history of the spread of the religion of Mohammed.
(d) The religion was propagated on the ground of
miracles; on the affirmation that Christ rose from the
dead ; on the belief of the facts as they are stated in
the New Testament. Whatever may be said about
the truth on any of these points whether, for example,
Christ actually rose from the dead, or whether the hal
lucination of a woman has taught mankind to believe
this, as Kenan alleges : " The strong imagination of
Mary Magdalene," says he, " has enacted a principal
part. Divine power of love ! sacred moments in which
the passion of a hallucinated woman gives to the world
a resurrected God"* yet there can be no doubt that
the religion was, in fact, propagated on the ground of
the belief of the facts stated in the New Testament, and
that if these had not been believed, the religion could
not, and would not have been spread over the world.
The New Testament is full of this, and history is full
of it. Mr. Gibbon did not venture to call this fact in
question, though he has stated it, as it became him to
do with his views of religion, in connection with the
fact, as undoubtedly true also, that for ages the belief
prevailed in the Church that miracles continued to be
wrought, and that " that belief must have conduced very
frequently to the conversion of infidels. "f The only
point which I am now making is, that the religion was
propagated and received in the world on the ground of
the belief that the miracles of the New Testament were
true, and especially on the belief that Christ rose from
the dead.
* Life of Jesus, p. 357.
f See his statement in full in vol. i., p. 264-267, of his History,
Harper s ed., 1829.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 125
II. The second inquiry is, Whether the supposed evi
dence of the divine origin of Christianity, on which it
was propagated, was of such a nature as to account for
the facts in regard to its spread in the world ; to justi
fy men in embracing it ; and to explain the causes of
the great changes which it made. If those evidences
were real, would they explain the facts which followed ;
would they be such as to show that the action of the
world in the case was right and wise ; would it be true
that in subsequent times the race could look upon this
part of its history with complacency and approbation ?
for there is much, very much, in the past history of man
on which we can not thus look, and which, for the hon
or of our nature, the historian of human affairs would
be glad to forget.
It will not be practicable or necessary to dwell long
on this part of the subject. It is, perhaps, the part of
the argument which I am submitting to you which
would be most readily yielded by those who deny the
truth of the Christian religion.
What is to be supposed in the case is this, that the
things which are revealed in the New Testament actu
ally occurred as they are stated there, and that credi
ble proof that they did actually occur was furnished to
mankind so furnished that the world actually received
it as credible proof. Let it be supposed, therefore, that
the things narrated in the New Testament actually took
place, and that the world believed this that Jesus
lived; that he was born and reared in the manner re
lated ; that he taught ; that he proclaimed the doc
trines which are attributed to him ; that he was pure
and holy in his character ; that he answered the de
scription of a long series of ancient predictions in re
gard to the Messiah ; that he healed the sick by mira-
126 LECTURES ON THE
cle ; that he opened the eyes of the blind, and caused
the lame man to leap as an hart ; that he cast out dev
ils ; that he raised the dead ; that he was put to death
on a cross ; that the earth trembled, and that the sun
withdrew his beams when he died ; that he himself rose
from the dead and ascended to heaven let these things
be supposed, and let them be credited by mankind.
The question then is, whether there was any thing in
the actual reception of the system which can not be
explained on this supposition ; any thing that can not
be vindicated and justified as honorable to human na
ture ? Is there any thing in it which the world ought
to desire to forget ? Is there any thing in reference to
the actual changes which Christianity has made in the
affairs of nations which the historian of human affairs
would be at a loss in accounting for? Is there any
thing in the reception of Christianity which would
place the race on the same humiliating ground on which
the past history of the world in regard to sorcery, and
witchcraft, and necromancy, and imposture in general,
has placed it ?
Nowhere would the explanation of things be so easy ;
nowhere would the historian have more occasion to
congratulate himself than in assuming these as facts in
the explanation of the history of the world. How easy
would have been the task of Mr. Gibbon, how much
hard labor would it have saved him, if he had " seen
his way clear" to admit these things to be true !
I may be able, in the proper place, to show, that if the
things attributed to Mohammed in history actually oc
curred, or were real historical events, the changes which
were consequent on the introduction of his religion into
the world are susceptible of easy explanation. I at
tempt no more than this in the remarks now made in
regard to the establishment of Christianity.
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 127
(1.) These things were relied on: that Jesus lived;
that he uttered great truths about God ; that he taught
the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, the resur
rection of the dead, and the final judgment ; that he
wrought miracles in amazing numbers; that he raised
the dead ; that he himself rose from the dead ; that he
ascended to heaven ; that he made an atonement for the
sins of the world. The system never would have been
preached at all if these things had not been believed to
have occurred ; it never would have been embraced if
it had not been believed that they were true. The
world did believe them ; the world acted on the belief.
Mr. Gibbon could not deny this ; no man can now deny
it. The reliance in spreading the Gospel was not on
military power; on philosophy; on superior claims in
science ; on a higher civilization ; on appeals to the pas
sions of men ; on the promise of temporal advantages ;
on necromancy, juggling, fortune-telling, or sorcery ; on
new theories about government and law. All the ac
counts agree in this, that it was not on these things, but
on the belief of the truth of the facts of Christianity as
we have them in the records of the New Testament now.
(2.) The old systems of religion sat loosely on the
world, and the world was, in a certain sense, waiting
for a new religion. This was undoubtedly the case
in Judea, for the power of the Jewish religion was
waning, and the nation was, on principle and in ac
cordance with their prophecies, waiting for an impor
tant change in religion when their Messiah should ap
pear. The same thing was substantially true elsewhere.
There is undoubted truth in a remark which Mr. Gib
bon makes, that the systems of religion prevailing in
the Roman empire were all " regarded by philosophers
as equally false, by statesmen as equally necessary, and
128 LECTURES ON THE
by the mass of the people as equally true." It is also
an undoubted fact, established on the well-known testi
mony of the writers of that age, that there was a gen
eral expectation prevailing that some remarkable per
son would soon appear whose coming would materially
change the condition of the world. Thus Suetonius
(ch. iv.) says : " An ancient and settled persuasion pre
vailed throughout the East that the fates had decreed
some one to proceed out of Judea who should attain
universal empire." Thus Tacitus (Annals, 5, 13), says:
"Many were persuaded that it was contained in the
books of their priests that at that very time the East
should prevail, and that some one should proceed from
Judea, and should possess the dominion." It is not, in
deed, to be maintained that this expectation was uni
versal, nor is it to be affirmed that Paganism or Judaism
had lost their power altogether, for there was still vi
tality enough in both to arouse themselves to desperate
efforts to destroy the new religion when it appeared,
in furious storms of persecution.
Yet, that the power of the religions of the world as
controlling mankind was waning, if not almost extinct,
is the undoubted testimony of history. Mr. Gibbon,
speaking of the influence of the prevailing religions on
the public mind, makes the following, among other re
marks : " We are sufficiently acquainted with the emi
nent persons who nourished in the age of Cicero, and
the first Caesars, with their actions, their characters, and
their motives, to be assured that their conduct in this
life was never regulated by any serious conviction of
the rewards and punishments of a future state" (vol.
i.,p. 260). "The general system of their mythology,"
says he, " was unsupported by any solid proofs ; and the
wisest among the Pagans had already disclaimed its
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 129
usurped authority." Ibid. "The doctrine of a future
state," he adds, " was scarcely considered among the
devout polytheists of Greece and Rome as a fundamen
tal article of faith." Ibid. In connection with these
remarks, and as illustrating the religious state of the
world when Christianity appeared, and as accounting,
in some measure, for its reception by mankind, he makes,
also, the following important observations :
"When Christianity appeared in the world, even
these faint and imperfect impressions" [respecting re
ligion in the prevailing form] " had lost much of their
original power. Human reason, which by its unassisted
strength is incapable of perceiving the mysteries of
faith, had already obtained an easy triumph over the
folly of Paganism ; and when Tertullian or Lactantius
employ their labors in exposing its falsehood and ex
travagance, they are obliged to transcribe the eloquence
of Cicero or the wit of Lucian. The contagion of these
skeptical writings had been diifused far beyond the
number of their readers. The fashion of incredulity
was communicated from the philosopher to the man of
pleasure or business, from the noble to the plebeian, and
from the master to the menial slave who waited at his
table, and who eagerly listened to the freedom of his
conversation. On public occasions the philosophic part
of mankind affected to treat with respect and decency
the religious institutions of their country ; but their se
cret contempt penetrated through the thin- and awk
ward disguise ; and even the people, when they discov
ered that their deities were rejected and derided by
those whose rank or understanding they were accus
tomed to reverence, were filled with doubts and appre
hensions concerning the truth of those doctrines, to
which they had yielded the most implicit belief. The
F2
130 LECTURES ON THE
decline of ancient prejudice exposed a very numerous
portion of human kind to the danger of a painful and
comfortless situation. A state of skepticism and sus
pense may amuse a few inquisitive minds. But the
practice of superstition is so congenial to the multitude,
that if they are forcibly awakened, they still regret the
loss of their pleasing vision. Their love of the marvel
ous and supernatural, their curiosity with regard to fu
ture events, and their strong propensity to extend their
hopes and fears beyond the limits of the visible world,
were the principal causes which favored the establish
ment of polytheism. So urgent on the vulgar is the
necessity of believing, that the fall of any system of
mythology will most probably be succeeded by the in
troduction of some other mode of superstition. Some
deities of a more recent and fashionable cast might
soon have occupied the deserted temples of Jupiter and
Apollo, if, in the decisive moment, the wisdom of Prov
idence [sic] had not interposed a genuine revelation,
fitted to inspire the most rational esteem and convic
tion, while, at the same time, it was adorned with all
that could attract the curiosity, the wonder, and the
veneration of the people. In their actual disposition,
as many were almost disengaged from their artificial
prejudices, but equally susceptible and desirous of a de
vout attachment, an object much less deserving would
have been sufficient to fill the vacant place in their
hearts, and to gratify the uncertain eagerness of their
passions. Those who are inclined to pursue this reflec
tion, instead of viewing with astonishment the rapid
progress of Christianity, will perhaps be surprised that
its success was not still more rapid and still more uni
versal."*
* Decline and Fall, vol. i., p. 280, 281.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 131
(3.) The new system contained statements on points
which men had desired to know, and on which they
despaired of obtaining information from any other
source. We shall see in a subsequent Lecture (Lecture
IX.) that Christianity meets and satisfies original wants
in man wants in his very nature as a religious being,
and wants as a fallen being and that it supplies, in the
great sacrifice which it reveals as made for sin, what
men had been elsewhere seeking in vain. The remark
which I am now making is, that the fact that those
doctrines were promulgated and believed in the early
propagation of Christianity, will go far to explain the
fact that the religion was embraced, or to account for
the success attending the efforts for its dissemination.
Mr. Gibbon has himself shown this with great skill in
reference to the doctrines of the immortality of the soul
and of a future state, for he has made this one of the
five causes which will explain the fact of the propaga
tion of the Christian religion.* The point which I am
now making is, that what was true of those doctrines
is true of other doctrines of Christianity also. It is no
less a fact that they met the wants and aspirations of
men. And as we know that the religion was propa
gated and embraced on the belief of these truths, it fol
lows that if it is assumed that they were true, the fact
would go far to explain the reception of the religion in
the world. The new religion met a conscious want of
men in the failure of polytheism, and was embraced in
part because it met such a want. That there is a
God, one God ; that there is a Savior ; that the soul
is immortal ; that there is a future state ; that the par
don of sin may be obtained, are truths which men had
panted to know, but which had been found in no other
* Decline and Fall, vol. i., p. 259-2G4.
132 LECTURES ON THE
system, and which they had ceased to hope could be
obtained in connection with philosophy or polytheism.
(4.) Men will sooner or later yield to that which
seems to them to have the force of truth, or which they
believe to be true. The foundation of this remark is,
that there is that in the human mind, as we shall see
in another part of this course (Lecture IX.), which cor
responds with truth, or which is designed to secure the
reception and influence of truth in the world, and this
principle or law of our nature will explain the progress
which truth on any subject has made. It is, moreover,
the most cheering thing in regard to the future, for it
makes it certain that truth on all subjects, religion as
well as others, will ultimately be triumphant. It is to be
admitted that there may be that in the mind itself which
will temporarily resist this. There may be the preju
dices of education, of bigotry, of country, of custom, of
party, and of religion the "idols" of the "tribe," of
the " cave," of the " forum," and of the " theatre," as
Lord Bacon calls them* but those prejudices truth
will overcome. There may be laws, customs, and vest
ed interests ; there may be the influence of a priest
hood ; there may be the resistance of a false philoso
phy ; there may be all the power derived from hered
itary rank; there may be all that there is in the pas
sions of men, and the love of ease and indulgence ;
there may be all the power of a gross immorality, sanc
tioned by religion, by custom, and by law ; and there
may be all the power of a state or empire. All this
Christianity encountered ; most of this any new form of
religion, or any new opinion in philosophy, will be likely
to encounter in the world. Truth may seem to begin
* Idola tribus, idola specus, idola fori, idola theatri. Novum Or-
ganum, lib. i., aphor. xxxix.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 133
its way as by beating against adamantine walls. It
may appear to accomplish no more than the ocean does
with its raging billows against rock-bound coasts, or
along the pebbly shore. It makes the attack, and then
retires. If the pebble is removed a little inward, it
will come back again ; if the sand is washed a little, it
at once fills up ; if the solid rocks tremble, they still
stand firm. Truth may seem to be stayed, and to die
out ; but it will not.
"Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again;
The eternal years of God are hers."
Time only is needed for its triumph. In due time it
will be in the ascendant ; and, great as was the oppo
sition which Christianity met when first announced to
the world, yet it did triumph, and the principle now
laid down will account for the fact that it triumphed.
The same principle, also, will account for the fact that
it is kept up in the world ; and the same principle
makes it absolutely certain that it will ultimately pre
vail all over the earth.
(5.) A belief in miracles will convince men of the
truth of a religion which they are wrought to estab
lish, and faith in the miracles of the New Testament
was one of the main grounds on which the system was
embraced. The process of argument by which this is
proved is a very brief one. It is simply that the human
mind is so made that it can not believe that the laws
of nature would be set aside to confirm a falsehood or
to commend an impostor. Whatever may be true in
regard to the converse of this proposition, whether the
human mind is so made that it can believe that the
laws of nature will be set aside to confirm a true sys
tem of religion, or to commend a true embassador from
heaven to the world which is now the great question
134 LECTURES ON THE
in our conflict with scientific infidelity, yet there is a
universal opinion men can not believe otherwise that
God would not, and could not, interpose in this man
ner in behalf of an impostor and a false system of re
ligion. If the dead are raised, and if men believe that
they are raised, then they will believe also that he who
does this is invested with special power by God, and
has a special commission from him, for created power
does not raise the dead.
Mr. Gibbon has been at considerable pains (vol. i., p.
264-267) to illustrate the fact that "supernatural gifts,
even in this life, were ascribed to the Christians above
the rest of mankind," and " must have conduced to
their own comfort, and very frequently to the convic
tion of infidels ;" and he has made it a point to consid
er when these marvelous powers ceased in the Church.
Mr. Lecky, with a different purpose, and with great
ability, has engaged in the inquiry when miracles really
ceased in the Church, and has described the prevailing
state of mind on the subject at the present time (His
tory of Rationalism in Europe, vol. i.,p. 155-202) ; but,
whenever it ceased, no one can doubt, not even Mr.
Gibbon, that the belief that such miracles were wrought
would account for the spread of the Gospel. Indeed,
that, as has been remarked, is one of the main points by
which he accounts for its diffusion in the Roman empire.
I can not but be justified, therefore, in the conclusion
which I draw from these things, that if the miracles as
cribed to the Savior were wrought, this fact will ac
count for the spread of Christianity in the world, and
will justify its reception. Somehow the mind of man
is so made that such a result must follow.
(6.) The belief of the things on which Christianity
was propagated would account for all the facts which
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 135
occurred in the conversion of men ; in their forsaking
sin ; in their yielding to the claims of virtue ; in the
reformations of morals and of life which followed in
the path of the apostles. That men did forsake their
sins, and that they did lead upright and pure lives un
der the influence of this system, is a simple matter of
historic truth which no one would call in question. It
is apparent on the face of the New Testament ; it has
come down to us in sacred history ; it is confirmed by
what occurs now ; and it is established by what, with
some, would be a more decisive authority than all the
rest, that of Mr. Gibbon ; for he would have given a
different representation of the influence of Christianity
on morals if God, while he allowed him to be an infidel
in religion, had not made him faithful as an historian.
Of the five causes on which, according to him, the re
ception of Christianity in the world can be explained
without the necessity of admitting its divine origin, the
purity of its morals is one. It became necessary, there
fore, in such an argument, to show that the early Chris
tians were distinguished for their pure moral character,
and that Christianity, in fact, promoted the reformation
of mankind. This point has been elaborated by him
with consummate skill (vol. i., p. 267-271). If there is
a sneer on his face while he writes, and an underlying
sarcasm as his pen moves so smoothly, it is no more
than we were to expect; but the fact is one which
could not but be stated in an honest account of the De
cline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The use to be
made of it was another question for him, as it is for us ;
but historic verity demanded of Mr. Gibbon that the
statement should be made, as it is made, that "the
primitive Christian demonstrated his faith by his vir
tues" (vol. i., p. 267), and that full credit should be given
136 LECTURES ON THE
to the statement that "when the Christians of Bithynia
were brought before the tribunal of the younger Pliny,
they assured the proconsul that, far from being engaged
in any unlawful conspiracy, they were bound by a sol
emn obligation to abstain from the commission of those
crimes which disturb the private or public peace of so
ciety from theft, robbery, adultery, perjury, and fraud"
(vol. i.,p. 267, 268), and that " the friends of Christian
ity may acknowledge," says he, " without a blush, that
many of the most eminent saints had been before their
baptism the most abandoned sinners" (vol. i., p. 267).
Now, if the system of Christianity is true, such facts
would occur just as it* is stated that they did occur;
that is, it would produce precisely such effects as these,
for its doctrines are designed to produce such effects.
It needs no argument to show that these effects must
follow from such a system of doctrines, and the causes
and effects in such a case would be commensurate with
each other; in other words, the supposition of the truth
of Christianity would account for the facts in its prop
agation.
(7.) In like manner, the supposition of the truth of
the facts in Christianity would, if they were believed,
shake the faith of men in the old systems of religion ; for,
if Christianity was true, these systems were of course
false, and men would perceive it and abandon them:
an event which actually occurred, and which can thus
be satisfactorily explained.
(8.) On the same supposition, also, all the arrange
ments for a priesthood, and for the offering of sacrifices,
alike among the Jews and the heathen, would be seen
to be useless and unnecessary, and would soon lose their
hold on men as was the fact. The Jewish priesthood,
as a priesthood, ceased almost immediately on the in-
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 137
troduction of Christianity ; the altar was overthrown,
the temple was demolished, and Judaism expired. The
same effect followed among the heathen. The fires
ceased to burn on the altars ; the priests were disrobed ;
the temples were closed; the vast fabric of superstition
melted away. This effect undoubtedly followed on the
preaching of Christianity, for it is attested by all his
tory, and it was an effect which must follow if Chris
tianity was true. The supposition that it was true, or
was believed to be true, will account for the effects
which actually followed.
(9.) On the same principle, also, it would follow that
all the laws made for the support of Paganism would
soon become obsolete, and would lose their power, so
that they could not be revived, and so that it would be
come necessary to adjust the laws to the new order of
things. If the religion should lose its hold on the peo
ple ; if the temples and the altars should be forsaken ;
if the priesthood should become powerless ; if the Lares
and the Penates should be treated as useless lumber ;
if the Dies Fasti should cease to attract the people ; if
faith in the gods should cease, then all the laws which
upheld those things would be unmeaning and power
less, and the legislation of the state would be adjusted
to the new religion: an event which actually occurred,
and which is susceptible thus of an easy explanation.
(10.) It would also follow, however, that there would
probably be a conflict between the two systems, and
that, while there was power on the one side and feeble
ness on the other, there would be an attempt to sustain
the one and to destroy the other by power the power
of the state ; for, if Christianity was true, there was
that in it which would not yield to the dictation of
civil power ; and if Paganism was expiring, it would
138 "LECTUKES ON THE
rouse its remaining strength to put down the new sys
tem. This actually occurred, as might have been an
ticipated, and the supposition of the truth of Christian
ity will account for all the persecutions which attend
ed its early propagation.
(11.) And once more: The new religion, if it was
from God, or if it was believed to be from God, would
make martyrs, and the supposition of its truth will
account for all that occurred in the history of martyr
dom. All that is recorded of their patience, calmness,
firmness, tenacity, obduracy, OBSTINACY, if men please,
can be accounted for if it be supposed that the religion
was from God. When Pliny wrote to the Emperor Tra
jan that, having failed in the attempt to secure a recan
tation from the accused Christians, he ordered them to
death, because, whatever might be their general con
duct, he thought that such " inflexible obstinacy" ought
to be punished, he was but recording a fact that must
have occurred on the supposition that Christianity is
true.* The religion required just such sacrifices, and
just such firmness as Pliny described. It would pro
duce just such calmness, firmness, obduracy, obstinacy,
among its true friends. It would make confessors and
martyrs. It would produce just such effects as were
actually produced in tens of thousands of instances in
the attempt to propagate it, and, therefore, the cause is
commensurate with the effect.
* " I have taken," says Pliny to Trajan, "this course with all who
have been brought before me and have been accused as Christians.
Upon their confessing to me that they were, I repeated the question
a second and third time, threatening also to punish them with death.
Such as still persisted I ordered away to be punished ; for it was no
doubt with me, whatever might be the nature of their opinion, that
contumacy and inflexible obstinacy ought to be punished." Lardner s
Works, vii., p. 23, ed. London, 1829.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 139
The supposition of the divine origin of Christianity,
therefore, would furnish an easy and natural solution
of all the recorded facts which occurred in its propaga
tion, alike in regard to the great numbers that em
braced it, the spirit with which it endowed them, and
the changes which it made in the world.
EH. The remaining inquiry is, Whether the propaga
tion of Christianity can be explained on any other sup
position than that it is from God.
This inquiry, to make the argument complete, would
properly resolve itself into two parts : the question
whether the propagation of Christianity could be ex
plained on the supposition that it is nQt from God ; and
the question whether the other system referred to in
the beginning of this Lecture the only one that in this
respect can come in competition with it would not
furnish the same argument as to a divine origin.
Can the propagation of Christianity be explained on
the supposition that it is an imposture ?
The only labored attempt to show this has been by
Mr. Gibbon, and he has exhausted the subject. Noth
ing has been left to be added by succeeding skeptics.
The explanation of the remarkable fects connected with
the subject of Christianity was in Mr. Gibbon s path in
describing the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
He could not avoid it ; and we have no reason to sup
pose that he wished to avoid it ; for when, in the soli
tude of night, in the summer-house of his garden at
Lausanne, he had finished his work, and laid down his
pen, and took several turns in a covered walk of acacias,
meditating on what he had done, there was, perhaps,
no part of the work on which he would look with more
satisfaction than on the chapters (xv., xvi.) in which he
describes " the progress of the Christian religion, and
140 LECTURES ON THE
the sentiments, manners, numbers, and conditions of the
primitive Christians," and " the conduct of the Roman
government toward the Christians." Vol. i., p. 249-
329.*
He could not avoid this inquiry. The spread of
Christianity was too important a fact in the history of
the world, and was too closely connected with the
downfall of the empire to permit him to pass it by ;
and though the same facts might have been recorded
* " It was on the day, or rather night of the 27th of Jnne, 1787,
between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines
of the last page, in a summer-house in my garden. After laying
down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau, or covered walk of
acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and
the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver
orb of the moon was reflected from the waters, and all nature was si
lent. I will not describe the first emotions of joy on the recovery of
my freedom, and perhaps the establishment of my fame," etc. Mis
cellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, Esq., vol. i., p. 170, ed. Dublin,
1796. In illustration of the feelings of satisfaction with which Mr.
Gibbon regarded these two chapters of his History, I may refer to
his remarks in his "Life and Writings" after those chapters had been
attacked by Mr. Davies, of Oxford, by Bishop Watson, by Dr. Priest
ley, Sir David Dalrymple, and Dr. White, of Oxford. As the result
of the whole, he says, "Had I believed that the majority of English
readers were so fondly attached to the name and shadow of Chris
tianity; had I foreseen that the pious, the timid, and the prudent
would feel, or affect to feel, with such exquisite sensibility, I might
perhaps have softened those invidious chapters, which would create
many enemies, and conciliate few friends. But the shaft was shot,
the alarm was sounded, and I could only rejoice that, if the voice of
our priests was clamorous and bitter, their hands were disarmed from
the powers of persecution." "Let me frankly own that I was start
led at the first discharge of ecclesiastical ordnance ; but, as soon as I
found that this empty noise was mischievous only in the intention,
my fear was converted into indignation ; and every feeling of indig
nation or curiosity has long since subsided in pure and placid indif
ference." Mis. Works, vol. i., p. 153, 15G.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 141
with another mode of explaining them, or with no at
tempt to explain them, yet the principles of Mr. Gibbon
would not permit him to suggest the explanation that
it came from God, and a bare statement of the facts as
they occurred, with no explanation, would have made
an impression on mankind which those principles would
lead him to counteract if he could. The diffusion of
Christianity seemed to attest its divine origin. It was
an argument much relied on by Christians. On the
mass of men the manner of its propagation has always
made a deep impression in favor of its divine origin.
That the religion is from God seems to be the most nat
ural, philosophical, and obvious explanation of the facts
in the case. If, therefore, it could be shown that the
propagation of that religion could be accounted for on
the supposition that it is not of God, or by mere natural
causes constantly in operation among men, much might
be done to loosen its hold on the world.
Mr. Gibbon has done his work well. No man could
bring to the task greater learning, more patient indus
try, more impartial historical honesty, or more attract
ive eloquence in thought or in style. No man surpassed
him in the knowledge of the vast lore treasured in an
cient libraries, sacred and secular, that could be made
to bear on the subject ; no man has ever equaled him
in understanding the power of a sneer. The argument,
as he pursued it, is complete. No one will add to it ;
no one will improve it.
The points on which Mr. Gibbon relies in the expla
nation of the " Progress of the Christian Religion" are
five in number : " The inflexible, and, if we may use the
expression, the intolerant zeal of the Christians, derived,
it is true, from the Jewish religion, but purified from
the narrow and unsocial spirit which, instead of invit-
142 LECTURES ON THE
ing, had deterred the Gentiles from embracing the law
of Moses." "The doctrine of a future life, improved by
every additional circumstance which could give weight
and efficacy to that important truth." "The miracu
lous powers ascribed to the primitive Church." " The
pure and austere morals of Christians." " The union
and discipline of the Christian republic, which gradu
ally formed an independent and increasing state in the
heart of the Roman empire."
This is all. But I need not say that the force of
these considerations is not seen by the mere announce
ment of their titles. It could only be seen in view of
the very elaborate and ingenious argument with which
these principles are illustrated.
Of course I could not, in the task assigned me, go
into an examination of this argument, and you would
not thank me for undertaking it. The world under
stands it, as the world understands the argument of
Mr. Hume against miracles, that, however it is to be
met or explained, it is not an argument to be greatly
relied on by infidelity. The progress of Christianity in
the world has not been perceptibly impeded by either ;
and the number of those influenced by either argument
is small, mostly among those in early life, and to a great
extent, if not entirely, those who were skeptics before.
If a personal allusion may be allowed, I may be permit
ted to say that this was precisely the effect nearly fifty
years ago on my own mind.
Some very general remarks on the reasons thus as
signed for the propagation of Christianity may, how
ever, not be unprofitable or improper.
(a) It is now to be admitted it would be conceded
universally that these are all the causes that can be
assigned for the propagation of Christianity on the sup-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 143
position that the religion is on the same level with
Mohammedism, or is false. No one has attempted to
add to this argument ; no one would be likely to at
tempt it. Mr. Gibbon exhausted the subject. It was
to be presumed that he would state all the arguments
which would occur to him, and it is certain that no ar
guments likely to bear on the subject would escape him.
Infidelity can do no more in this argument, and the ar
gument is complete.
" Si Pergama dextra
Defend! possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent."
Mn. ii., 291, 292.
There are no more arguments to be added to these.
Historical research will add no more. German ration
alism will add no more, and the warfare is transferred
to other fields.
(5) It can not be denied that Mr. Gibbon has, in these
statements, rendered an involuntary tribute of great
value to Christianity, and has conceded much that may
be referred to as an actual, though an indirect proof of
its divine origin. It was much that the necessities of
the case, and the claims of honest and impartial history,
should extort from such af man, and in such connec
tions, the concessions made in regard to the system ; it
is much that Christianity had laid the foundation for
such an argument an argument which Mr. Gibbon
could not have urged in explanation of the continued
prevalence of the Greek and Roman mythology in the
world, or in explanation of the propagation of the Mo
hammedan system. It was much that he could refer,
and was constrained to refer, to " the zeal of the early
Christians ;" to " the doctrine of a future life, improved
by every additional circumstance which could give
weight and efficacy to that important truth ;" to " the
144 LECTURES ON THE
pure and austere morals of Christians ;" and this, with
what was implied in the very nature of the argument,
and what is, in fact, conceded, that these things were
not found in the ancient systems of religion ; that pa
ganism human wisdom and philosophy had never
originated these things so as to give permanency to
the ancient systems of religion, or to secure their prop
agation in the world. " The general system of their
mythology," says he (vol. i., p. 260), " was unsupported
by any solid proofs, and the wisest among the Pagans
had already disclaimed its usurped authority. The doc
trine of a future state was scarcely considered, among
the devout polytheists of Greece and Rome, as a funda
mental article of faith." " The first book of the Tusculan
Questions," says he, " and the Treatise De Senectute, and
the Somnium Scipionis, contain, in the -most beautiful
language, every thing that Grecian philosophy or Roman
good sense could possibly suggest on this dark subject ;"
and, as the result, he adds, " The writings of Cicero rep
resent in the most lively colors the ignorance, the er
rors, and the uncertainty of the ancient philosophers
with regard to the immort|lity of the soul" (vol. i.,p.
259).
The impression, in fact, made on the mind of Cicero
himself by the ablest argument that philosophy has
ever furnished for the immortality of the soul that in
the Gorgias is thus expressed in his own language, in
a passage which I shall have occasion to quote again :
" I know not how it is that when I read I assent ; but
when I lay down the book, and begin, by myself, to
think of the immortality of souls, all my assent glides
away."*
* Marcus. Num eloquentiuPlatonem superare possumus? Evolve
diligenter ejus eum librum, qui est de animo : amplius quod desideres,
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 145
It is natural and proper now to ask whence had the
Author of Christianity these views which commended
his religion to the world, securing its propagation, and
displacing all the results of human wisdom ? Whence
sprang these " pure and austere morals," so unlike what
prevailed under the best forms of the Pagan religion,
so superior to any of the systems of philosophers? Let
it be supposed that Christianity is from God, and all
this is plain. What will make it plain on any other
supposition ?
(c) It is to be admitted by us that Mr. Gibbon is right
in the statement of the historical fact that these things
did contribute materially to the spread of Christianity,
for in embracing it men gave their assent to the fact that
these things were so ; they embraced it, among other
reasons, because they believed that these things were so.
They saw in these truths and results such a religion as
man needs ; they saw what was not to be found in any
other system ; they saw, or thought they saw in these
things proof that a religion so pure, a religion that
prompted to such zeal for the good of man, a religion
which revealed the doctrine of immortality, must be
from God. Were they far from truth and nature in
such a supposition ?
(d) In considering the question whether these causes
alone would explain the facts of the propagation of
Christianity, let it now be supposed that the system
was false; that it was based on imposture and delu
sion ; that Jesus never existed, or that he was an en
thusiast, or that he was an impostor, or that his apos-
nihil erit. Auditor. Feci, mehevcule, et quidem saepius : sed nes-
cio quo modo, dum lego, assentior ; cum posui librum, et mecum ipse
de immortalite animorum coepi cogitare, assentio omnis ilia elabitur.
Tusc. Quaest., lib. i., c. ii.
G
146 LECTURES ON THE
ties contrived the system with an intention to impose
on the world ; that no miracles were wrought ; that
Christ was not raised from the dead; that all this oc
curred in the most intellectual age of past time, when
the light of philosophy had just culminated in Greece
and in Rome, and before the long night settled down
on Europe in the Dark Ages ; when of all ages it would
have been most easy to detect an imposture and the
problem then would be, how could such a religion, un
der such apostles, and in such an age, accomplish these
things ? How could it overthrow the ancient systems
of mythology ; set aside the ancient laws ; change long-
established customs ; render meaningless and void the
ancient sacrifices; disrobe an established priesthood;
throw down ancient altars; overcome the corrupt and
evil passions of men ; go into the scenes of domestic
life, and transform all around the fireside : how could
it remove Penates and Lares, and set up a Christian
altar in their place ; lead men to abandon sins long in
dulged, and to call things sinful which before were re
garded as innocent; transform pollution to godly liv
ing, and lift up the degraded to a life of pure devotion
and self-sacrifice, and of such men make martyrs f Yes,
make martyrs, for this it did by tens of thousands the
young, the aged; the rich, the poor; the refined, the
uncultivated ; the master, the slave ; the man who had
been a philosopher, and the tender and delicate female
reared in luxury, and accustomed to the gayety and
the splendors of the court.
This is the problem; and the reasons assigned will
not, do not explain this. The mind is conscious of a
sad vacancy when these facts are before it, and these
reasons are assigned for those facts. It wants more ; it
must have more.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 147
But add now the idea that all this was true that
things were as they are stated in the New Testament
and we have a cause that is commensurate with the ef
fect, that settles all doubts, that makes all things plain.
And shall we now compare this system and these
facts with that other system which infidelity would
make parallel with this, and whose propagation the un
believers would explain on the same principles the
system of Mohammed ?
Well was it, though perhaps he was unconscious of
the reason why it was so, that Mr. Gibbon did not at :
tempt elaborately, as in the case of Christianity, to ex
plain the causes of the rapid diffusion of that system.
Those causes are patent on the face of the system and
on the face of history. Yet Mr. Gibbon has, as in the
case of Christianity, narrated with great exactness and
fidelity the origin, the slow growth at first, the subse
quent triumphs, and the influence of that system, as no
other man has done or could do. But he has not ven
tured to suggest that its propagation might demon
strate that it was of divine origin, for that might have
suggested a stronger argument for the propagation of
the other system ; he has not thought it necessary, as
in the case of Christianity, to attempt an explanation
of the causes of its diffusion, for that explanation, easy,
natural, and satisfactory as it must have been, might
have appeared too much in contrast with the explana
tion of the causes of the spread of Christianity, and, in
thus accounting for the one, might have suggested to
men that there was some sophistry in the explanation
of the other.
But can the spread of Mohammedism be explained
except on the supposition that it is from God ? Has
any historian ever found any difficulty on that subject,
148 LECTUKES ON THE
or even felt himself embarrassed in regard to such an
explanation ? Is it more difficult than the explanation
of the conquests of Caasar or Alexander ? If you add
to the idea of conquest of the triumphs of arms which
you have in the conquests of Caesar and Alexander
the idea that Mohammedism is a religion, and, there
fore, meets one of the wants of mankind ; that it af
firms the doctrine that there is one God, and, therefore,
in this respect, meets the highest wants of men ; that
it makes provision for the indulgence of some of the
most powerful passions that rule in the human soul;
that it makes prominent as an attraction the prom
ise of sensual delights alike in this world and the
world to come ; that it imposes few restraints on the
passions, and those only that are most easily evaded ;
that it falls in, in the main, with the whole course and
tendency of human nature, and blends these indul
gences with religion, and makes them part of the re
ligion itself if these things are before the mind, is
it difficult to explain the spread and the permanen
cy of the system ? How different from a system of
poverty, and humility, and self-denial ; a system with
nothing of military glory ; a system originated not by
one who was a splendid conqueror, but by one who
was poor and despised, and was crucified between mal
efactors ; a system going forth not under the blazonry
of banners of conquest, but as if one should make the
image of the gallows an emblem of his religion for
the cross was then more ignominious than the gal
lows is now ; a system which required a renovated
heart, and the renunciation of the passions, and a pure
life ! How different these two as making an appeal to
mankind ! In the language of another, " The enthusi
asm by which Mohammedism conquered the world was
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 149
mainly a military enthusiasm. Men were drawn to it
at once, and without conditions, by the splendor of the
achievements of its disciples, and it declared an abso
lute war against all the religions it encountered. Its
history, therefore, exhibits nothing of the process of
gradual absorption, persuasion, compromise, and assim
ilation that was exhibited in the dealings of Christian
ity with barbarians." And again : " One of the great
characteristics of the Koran is the extreme care and
skill with which it labors to assist men in realizing
the unseen. Descriptions the most minutely detailed,
and, at the same time, the most vivid, are mingled with
powerful appeals to those sensual passions by which
the imagination in all countries, but especially those in
Avhich Mohammedism has taken root, is most forcibly
influenced."*
When we remember these things, and when we re
member, " as modern criticism has shown from the state
of the Arab mind and character in the period antece
dent to the coming of Mohammed, that the race was
fully prepared for its mission as soon as some principle
should unite in one nationality the struggling and di
vided tribes of the Peninsula," it is not difficult to ex
plain " the rapid expansion of the power of that re
ligion, the brilliant and fugitive bloom of civilization
which embellished the dominion of the Arabs," without
the supposition that it was from God.f
* Lecky, Hist, of Rationalism, i., 235.
t Edinbnrg Review, vol. cxxiv., 1. The literature on this subject,
in order to a full understanding of the causes of the rise and decline
of this extraordinary power, may be found in the following works :
Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chs. 1., li., vol. iii., p.
3GO-460. Mohammed der Prophet, sein Leben und seine Lehre, von
Gustav Weil, Stuttgardt, 1844. Life of Mahomet, and History of Is
lam to the Era of the Hegira, by William Muir, 4 vols., London, 1861.
150 LECTURES ON THE
The Mohammedan religion was in the line of human
nature ; was in accordance with a previous state of the
public mind; was under the guidance of an eminent
military chieftain and his not less illustrious successor ;
was connected with the founding of a mighty empire
it appealed to the most powerful passions of men, and
yet, at the same time, gave to men what they pant for
a god, a religion, a hope of immortality and immortal
ity, in its case, which was of all things most gratifying,
a prolongation forever of the pleasures of sense. How
different from the Christian scheme !
Mohammedism rose, and spread, and nourished as
a religion constructed with eminent ability, and sus
tained by military power, and the love of national
glory; it is decaying and falling as a false religion
must do, not keeping up with the progress and wants
of the world ; Christianity, as we shall see hereafter,
becomes more extended and wide-spread in its power
and influences as the world advances in civilization,
science, and the arts, and is the only system of religion
that has any promise, in itself, of spreading over the
nations, and of enduring to the end of human affairs.
Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammed s, von Adolf Sprenger, 3
vols., Berlin, 1855-18G5.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 151
LECTURE V.
MIRACLES: THE EVIDENCE IN THE NINETEENTH CEN
TURY THAT THEY WERE PERFORMED IN THE FIRST.
I PROPOSE, in this Lecture, to consider the evidence
in favor of the divine origin of Christianity as derived
from miracles. The particular point which I shall have
in view is the evidence as it exists in the nineteenth
century that miracles were performed in the first, or as
the evidence appeals to the men of this generation.
The remarks will have reference to the argument in the
present age of the world, and in view of the objections
which may be urged by those who deny the divine
origin of Christianity as derived from the present state
of science, and from the great changes which have oc
curred in the minds of men on the stability of the laws
of nature now after the lapse of eighteen hundred years
since Christianity was introduced, and on the whole
subject of supernatural interferences and agencies. It
is evident that the state of the argument must be some
what different from what it was when Christianity was
first proclaimed, and that it would have been compara
tively easy to convince men of the reality of such su
pernatural interferences as those on which Christianity
is based at a time when the belief in such interferences
was almost universal. There has been a growing con
fidence, as science has advanced, in the fixedness of the
laws of nature, and it is conceivable that the confidence
in the fixedness and stability of those laws might be
come so strong as to lead men to adopt it as a maxim
" --_--- -. - u- -_L.
15G LECTURES ON THE
such a testimony we assert they have. It is neither
more nor less than their impossibility ; an impossibil
ity to be established on scientific grounds, such as
no reasonable man would reject in any other case
grounds such as those on which we believe that the
earth goes round the sun, or that chemical elements
combine in definite proportions. In this point of view
the argument is altogether of a general character, and
is unaffected by any peculiarities of probability or tes
timony which may distinguish one miraculous narra
tive from another. If the progress of physical or met
aphysical science has shown beyond the possibility of
reasonable doubt that miracles are impossible ; if, as
seems to be the tendency of a recent argument, the as
sertion of a miracle is now known to be as absurd as
the assertion that two and two make five,* it is idle to
attempt a comparison between greater or less degrees
of probability or testimony."!
In this connection, as showing what is the state of
one class of minds on this subject, and perhaps as rep
resenting in fact more than would be willing to avow
it, I may copy a remark and an illustration of Renan
which I have before quoted (Life of Jesus, p. 43, 44,
45) : " None of the miracles," says he, " with which an
cient histories are filled, occurred under scientific condi
tions. Observation, never once contradicted, teaches us
that miracles occur only in periods and countries in
which they are believed in, and before persons disposed
to believe them. No miracle was ever performed be
fore an assembly of men capable of establishing the
miraculous character of an act. Neither men of the
people nor men of the world are competent for that.
Great precautions and a long habit of scientific research
are requisite.
* Essays and Review?, p. 141. t Aids to Faith, p. 10.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 157
" We do not say," he adds, in a passage which I have
quoted before, " miracle is impossible ; we say hitherto
there has been none proved. Let a thaumaturgist pre
sent himself to-morrow with testimony sufficiently im
portant to merit our attention ; let him announce that
he is able, I will suppose, to raise the dead, what would
be done ? A commission composed of physiologists,
physicians, chemists, persons experienced in historical
criticism, would be appointed. This commission would
choose the corpse, make certain that death was real,
designate the hall in which the experiment should be
made, and regulate the whole system of precautions
necessary to leave no room for doubt. If, under such
conditions, the resurrection should be performed, a prob
ability almost equal to certainty would be attained.
However, as an experiment ought always to be capable
of being repeated, as one ought to be capable of doing
again what one has done once, and as in the matter of
miracles there can be no question of easy or difficult,
the thaumaturgist would be invited to reproduce his
marvelous act under other circumstances, upon other
bodies, in another medium. If the miracle succeeds
each time, two things would be proven : first, that su
pernatural acts do come to pass in the world ; second,
the power to perform them belongs or is delegated to
certain persons. But who does not see that no miracle
was ever performed under such conditions ; that always
hitherto the thaumaturgist has chosen the subject of
the experiment, chosen the means, chosen the public ;
that, moreover, it is, in most cases, the people them
selves who, from the undeniable need which they feel of
seeing in great events and in great men something di
vine, create the marvelous legends afterward."
Such are some of the feelings and views which the
156 LECTURES ON THE
such a testimony we assert they have. It is neither
more nor less than their impossibility ; an impossibil
ity to be established on scientific grounds, such as
no reasonable man would reject in any other case
grounds such as those on which we believe that the
earth goes round the sun, or that chemical elements
combine in definite proportions. In this point of view
the argument is altogether of a general character, and
is unaffected by any peculiarities of probability or tes
timony which may distinguish one miraculous narra
tive from another. If the progress of physical or met
aphysical science has shown beyond the possibility of
reasonable doubt that miracles are impossible; if, as
seems to be the tendency of a recent argument, the as
sertion of a miracle is now known to be as absurd as
the assertion that two and two make five,* it is idle to
attempt a comparison between greater or less degrees
of probability or testimony. "f
In this connection, as showing what is the state of
one class of minds on this subject, and perhaps as rep
resenting in fact more than would be willing to avow
it, I may copy a remark and an illustration of Renan
which I have before quoted (Life of Jesus, p. 43, 44,
45) : " None of the miracles," says he, " with which an
cient histories are filled, occurred under scientific condi
tions. Observation, never once contradicted, teaches us
that rniracles occur only in periods and countries in
which they are believed in, and before persons disposed
to believe them. No miracle was ever performed be
fore an assembly of men capable of establishing the
miraculous character of an act. Neither men of the
people nor men of the world are competent for that.
Great precautions and a long habit of scientific research
are requisite.
* Essnys and Review?, p. 141. t Aids to Faith, p. 10.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 157
" We do not say," he adds, in a passage which I have
quoted before, " miracle is impossible ; we say hitherto
there has been none proved. Let a thaumaturgist pre
sent himself to-morrow with testimony sufficiently im
portant to merit our attention ; let him announce that
he is able, I will suppose, to raise the dead, what would
be done ? A commission composed of physiologists,
physicians, chemists, persons experienced in historical
criticism, would be appointed. This commission would
choose the corpse, make certain that death was real,
designate the hall in which the experiment should be
made, and regulate the whole system of precautions
necessary to leave no room for doubt. If, under such
conditions, the resurrection should be performed, a prob
ability almost equal to certainty would be attained.
However, as an experiment ought always to be capable
of being repeated, as one ought to be capable of doing
again what one has done once, and as in the matter of
miracles there can be no question of easy or difficult,
the thaumaturgist would be invited to reproduce his
marvelous act under other circumstances, upon other
bodies, in another medium. If the miracle succeeds
each time, two things would be proven : first, that su
pernatural acts do come to pass in the world ; second,
the power to perform them belongs or is delegated to
certain persons. But who does not see that no miracle
was ever performed under such conditions ; that always
hitherto the thaumaturgist has chosen the subject of
the experiment, chosen the means, chosen the public ;
that, moreover, it is, in most cases, the people them
selves who, from the undeniable need which they feel of
seeing in great events and in great men something di
vine, create the marvelous legends afterward."
Such are some of the feelings and views which the
158 LECTURES ON THE
defenders of miracles are to meet in the nineteenth
century.
It is important, then, to remark here that Christian
ity is founded on a belief of the possibility and the real
ity of miracles, and on the belief that it is possible to
establish the fact that they have occurred by testimony,
as firmly as testimony can establish any other fact
that is, so as to make this the basis of faith and of ac
tion in our highest interests. No one who receives any
thing on the ground of testimony can doubt that Christ
claimed the power of working true miracles, as a proof
that he came from God. " That ye may know that the
Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, I say
unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into
thine house." Luke, v., 24. "If I with the finger of
God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is
come upon you." Luke, xi., 20.
No one can doubt, also, that as Jesus claimed the
power of working miracles, and appealed to them as
proof of his divine mission, so his disciples believed
that he actually did work miracles, and went forth to
propagate his religion on that ground.
Still farther, no one can doubt, as I showed in the
last Lecture, that Christianity was propagated on that
ground, and that the belief that it was sustained by
miraculous or supernatural agency was one of the main
reasons why it was embraced at all, and why it made
so rapid progress in the world.
In like manner, no one can doubt that the apostles
claimed the same power, and that it was, also, on the
belief that they had the power miraculously of speak
ing foreign languages, of healing the sick, and of rais
ing the dead, that they spread the religion abroad
among the nations.
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 159
No man can explain the things referred to in the New
Testament, and claimed to be miracles, on any princi
ples of optical illusion, of jugglery, of deception, of
sleight of hand, of superior knowledge of physical laws,
of an acquaintance with the secret powers of nature.
Many things that were once regarded as miracles may
be thus explained ; many things once reckoned among
the works of " magic," or that were regarded as super
natural, have been explained on principles of science,
by Sir David Brewster, in his work on " Magic ;" many
of the tricks of jugglers, that may be above our power
to explain them, are yet of easy explanation; many
things may be produced in the laboratory of the chem
ist which may seem to be miraculous to the unlearned,
but which are plain to the chemist himself; and many
of the things relied on by impostors as proofs that they
were from God, can be now easily explained. But the
miracles of the New Testament can not thus be explain
ed. Renan has indeed attempted to explain the heal
ing of Peter s wife s mother, and the resurrection of
Lazarus, and the alleged resurrection of Jesus, but the
world will not accept such explanations. If the facts
occurred, they are above the operations of any laws of
nature. If the lame were made to walk ; if the lepers
were cleansed ; if the eyes of the blind were opened ; if
diseases departed by a word; if the dead were restored
to life, these things are above any natural laws, and the
world will hold the whole to be deceit and imposture,
or will believe that they were real miracles, that is,
events where the only antecedent was the will and the
power of God.
Whether Christianity could or could not have been
originally propagated, as it is now to be kept up in the
world, without miraculous agency, might be a fair ques-
160 LECTURES ON THE
tion ; but it is certain that the experiment was not thus
made, and that it was not thus propagated. The infidel
must concede, at least, that it was, in fact, propagated
on the belief that Christ really performed miracles, and
that he himself was actually raised from the dead.
At this stage of the argument, therefore, the follow
ing points of statement and inquiry occur :
(1.) Is a miracle possible, that is, in the form in which
the question must come before us, not, whether, suppos
ing that there is a God a being of almighty power who
has framed and established the laws of nature he could
set aside his laws, and himself work without them, for
no rational man could doubt that ; but whether there
is by fate, or physical necessity, or otherwise, any such
ascertained fixedness and stability of the laws of nature
that it can not be believed that they would ever be set
aside by the introduction of a higher power working
without reference to them ?
(2.) Is it possible to establish the fact if a miracle
has been wrought ? Can there be evidence which will
properly set aside the presumption of the absolute uni
formity of the laws of nature, as derived from experi
ence, or the study of those laws, or from any other
cause, that this has actually been done ? Is it not much
more probable that men have been deceived, or have
been imposed upon, than that those laws have been set
aside for any purpose ? Has not the world been full of
instances where testimony was false; have there been
any corresponding instances or facts in the way in
which the affairs of the world are actually managed,
that might be considered as parallel to this, or that
might be equally regarded as a departure from fixed
and regular laws ?
(3.) Is -the evidence adduced, even if a miracle has
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 161
been wrought, such as the case would require ; such as
the world might demand ; such as would properly sat
isfy a man accustomed to reason on scientific principles ;
such as a geologist or astronomer would admit in re
gard to the condition of the earth in former ages, or the
recorded phenomena of the heavenly bodies ? Is the
evidence such that it ought to convince us ? Does the
strength of the testimony at all correspond with the
unusual and the improbable nature of the fact? May
it not be demanded that the testimony shall be such as
would correspond with the unusual and improbable na
ture of the fact ; that, as there is the strongest presump
tion against the miracle, so the testimony ought to be
not merely that which would establish an ordinary
event, but such as would overcome this presumption
against it ?
(4.) A more material and important question still is,
Whether there is any stronger evidence in favor of mira
cles than there is in favor of witchcraft, of sorcery, of
the reappearance of the dead, of ghosts, of apparitions ?
Is not the evidence in favor of these as strong as any
that can be adduced in favor of miracles ? Have not
these things been matters of universal belief? In what
respects is the evidence in favor of the miracles of the
Bible stronger than that which can be adduced in favor
of witchcraft and sorcery ? Does it differ in nature and
in degree ; and if it differs, is it not in favor of witch
craft and sorcery ? Has not the evidence in favor of
the latter been derived from as competent and credible
witnesses ? Has it not been brought to us from those
who saw the facts alleged? Has it not been subjected
to a close scrutiny in courts of justice to cross-exam
inations to tortures ? Has it not convinced those of
highest legal attainments ; those accustomed to sift tes-
162 LECTURES ON THE
timony; those who understood the true principles of
evidence ? Has not the evidence in favor of witchcraft
and sorcery had, what the evidence in favor of miracles
has not had, the advantage of strict judicial investiga
tion, and been subjected to trial, where evidence should
be, before courts of law ? Have not the most eminent
judges in the most civilized and enlightened courts of
Europe and America admitted the force of such evi
dence, and on the ground of it committed great num
bers of innocent persons to the gallows or to the stake ?
I confess that of all the questions ever asked on the
subject of miracles, this is the most perplexing and the
most difficult to answer. It is rather to be wondered
at that it has not been pressed with more zeal by those
who deny the reality of miracles, and that they have
placed their objections so extensively on other grounds.
From the fact that it is so seldom referred to by skep
tics, it is manifest that it does not strike them as it
strikes me, and that they, from some cause, are not dis
posed to use it as I would, if I had no faith in miracles ;
and perhaps it may savor more of apparent candor than
of wise prudence for a believer in the reality of mira
cles even to make the suggestion.
The argument might be made very strong, and if
there were time to present it here, it might be done in
such a manner that it might seem, at least, to be impos
sible to meet and refute it.
An extract or two from Lecky, in his History of Ra
tionalism in Europe, will show the nature of the diffi
culty and the force of the objection, though the remarks
made by him are in no way designed to support the
cause of infidelity: "For more than fifteen hundred
years it was universally believed that the Bible estab
lished, in the clearest manner, the reality of the crime
EVIDENCES OF CHKISTIANITY. 163
[of witchcraft], and that an amount of evidence, so va
ried and so ample as to preclude the very possibility of
doubt, attested its continuance and its prevalence. The
clergy denounced it with all the emphasis of authority.
The legislators of almost every land enacted laws for
its punishment. Acute judges, whose lives were spent
in sifting evidence, investigated the question on count
less occasions, and condemned the accused. Tens of
thousands of victims perished by the most agonizing
and protracted torments without exciting the faintest
compassion. Nations that were completely separated
by position, by interests, and by character, on this one
question were united. In almost every province of
Germany, but especially in those where clerical influ
ence predominated, the persecution raged with fearful
intensity. Seven thousand victims are said to have
been burned at Treves, six hundred by the single bishop
of Bamberg, and eight hundred in a single year in
the bishopric of Wurtzburg. In France, decrees were
passed on the subject by the Parliaments of Paris, Tou
louse, Bordeaux, Rheims, Rouen, Dijon, and Rennes, and
they were all followed by a harvest of blood. At Tou
louse, the seat of the Inquisition, four hundred persons
perished for sorcery at a single execution, and fifty at
Douay in a single year. Remy, a judge of Nancy,
boasted that he had put to death eight hundred witches
in sixteen years. The executions that took place at
Paris in a few months were, in the emphatic words of
an old writer, almost infinite. The fugitives who es
caped to Spain were there seized and burned by the In
quisition. In Italy a thousand persons were executed
in a single year in the province of Como ; in the other
parts of the country the severity of the inquisitors at
last created an absolute rebellion. In Geneva five hund-
164 LECTURES ON THE
red alleged witches were executed in three months ;
forty-eight were burned at Constance or Ravensburg,
and eighty in the little town of Valery, in Savoy. The
Church of Rome proclaimed in every way that was in
her power the reality and the continued existence of
the crime."
The writer from whom I have made this extract
adds : " It is, I think, difficult to examine the subject
with impartiality, without coming to the conclusion
that the historical evidence establishing the reality of
witchcraft is so vast and so varied that it is impossible
to disbelieve it without what on other subjects we
should deem the most extraordinary rashness. The de
fenders of the belief, who were often men of great and
distinguished talent, maintained that there was no fact
in all history more fully attested, and that to reject it
would be to strike at the root of all historical evidence
of the miraculous. The subject was examined in tens
of thousands of cases, in almost every country of Eu
rope, by tribunals which included the acutest lawyers
and ecclesiastics of the age, on the scene at the time
when the alleged facts had taken place, and with the
assistance of innumerable sworn witnesses. The judges
had no motive whatever to desire the condemnation of
the accused ; and as conviction would be followed by a
fearful death, they had the strongest motives to exer
cise their power with caution and deliberation. In our
day it may be said with confidence that it would be al
together impossible for such an amount of evidence to
accumulate round a conception which had no basis in
fact. If we considered witchcraft probable, a hund
redth part of the evidence we possess would have
placed it beyond the region of doubt. If it were a
natural, but a very improbable fact, our reluctance to
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 165
believe it would have been completely stifled by the
multiplicity of the proofs."*
As materially bearing on the point before us, it would
be important to inquire into the changes which have oc
curred in the world in regard to faith in the miraculous
and the supernatural, and to ask to what this change
tends, or how it bears on the subject of miracles. But
I have not time or ability to do it, and it has been done
in a manner which leaves nothing to be desired by
Lecky.
Successively, by the slow progress of civilization ; by
the advances of science ; by being able by natural laws
to explain what were once regarded as portents and
wonders ; by a gradual cessation of faith in things that
seemed to be established by incontrovertible evidence,
eclipses, and meteors, and famines, and earthquakes,
and comets, have been removed from the regions of
the marvelous, and, in like manner, the faith of man
kind in sorcery, and witchcraft, and magic has, to a
great extent, passed away. If there are remains of
this still lingering in the minds of men, and if new and
strange things have been added to these in our age
not less absurd and irrational than the faith in witch
craft and sorcery, these are not so general as materially
to affect the question before us. It has not yet occur
red, as far as I know, to infidelity to place the subject
of " table-moving" and " spirit-rapping" on a level with
the miracles of the New Testament.
It is a great question now the great question of our
age in regard to religion, and not less important in re
gard to science How far is this skepticism to extend?
What is its proper limit ? Is the principle to become
* See Lecky, History of Rationalism in Europe, vol. i., pp. 28, 34,
36, 37, 38, 39.
166 LECTURES ON THE
so universal as to include all the facts claiming to be
of a supernatural nature which have actually occurred,
or which will occur in our world ? Is it to embrace
the whole region of the miraculous and the supernatu
ral, so as to exclude the idea of any direct agency on the
part of God, any -phenomena any changes the ante
cedents in which are only the divine will and the divine
power ? So it is maintained by Rationalists ; such, too,
is the practical belief of many men whose lives are de
voted to science.
The progress of things, the influences of civilization,
the discoveries of science in regard to physical laws,
have "exorcised" the world, if the expression may be
allowed, in regard to sorcery, witchcraft, magic, necro
mancy, portents and wonders in eclipses, storms, and
earthquakes ; are these to " exorcise" the world in re
gard to mesmerism, spiritualism, spirit-rapping, and
table - moving ; and are they also to " exorcise" it
in regard to the belief that Joshua caused the sun to
" stand still upon Gibeon," and the moon " in the valley
of Ajalon ;" in regard to the stilling of the tempest on
the Sea of Tiberias ; in regard to the healing of the lame
man at the pool of Bethesda ; in regard to the opening
of the eyes of Bartimeus ; in regard to the raising of
Lazarus from the grave ; in regard to the resurrection
of the Redeemer himself?
So say the Rationalist and the skeptic, and here issue
is joined.
We approach, then, this great question in this form;
and my wish is to show you exactly how this matter
lies; what progress is made toward this result; what
there is to show that this result can never be reached,
and that, notwithstanding all this, the believer in the
miracles of the Bible has no cause of alarm as to any
such result.
EVIDENCE S OF CHRISTIANITY. 16 Y
I shall, in the remainder of this Lecture, first make
some preliminary, or, rather, if you will allow the word,
eliminary* remarks, and then show you that this con
clusion has not been reached, and that it is impossible
for men to reach it, leaving in fact in the nineteenth
century the evidence for miracles the same as that of
ordinary well-authenticated facts in history on other
subjects.
(a) The first remark is, that the universal belief in
miracles and the marvelous ; the ease with which such
things are credited by men, the most enlightened as
well as the unenlightened, statesmen, jurists, ecclesi
astics, law-givers, sages Socrates, Coke, Bacon, Hale,
among numberless others shows that a belief in the
supernatural and the marvelous does not shock man
kind ; is not contrary to the laws of the human mind ;
is rather in accordance with some law of our nature
that looks for such interventions, and seeks and expects
to be gratified. It may be added, also, that this proves
that men would naturally expect such an intervention
if a revelation were made to mankind. It is not safe to
argue against a universal law of human nature ; against
deep convictions which have been implanted in the soul
of man, and which seek expression in all ages and among
all people. Such a method of reasoning will be found,
sooner or later, to be fundamentally wrong. We may
assume that our Maker did not constitute our being on
a universal lie, or incorporate into our nature faith in a
universal falsehood. This may be called credulity ; su
perstition ; the fruit of ignorance ; prejudice. The ma
terial fact, however, is that the mind of man is so made /
and that this proves that He who made it designed
so to endow it that it would not be shocked by the
* Eliminating, expelling ; discharging; throwing off. Webster.
168 LECTURES ON THE
marvelous and the supernatural, and that men should
be prepared to welcome the evidence of the truly mi
raculous when it is presented to them. It is to be
presumed, also, that if this is the original and normal
state of the human mind, there would be events under
the divine government which would properly corre
spond with this. The fact that men are made with eyes
adapted to vision is presumptive evidence that there
would be light corresponding with their structure, and
that there would be things to be seen ; the original ca
pacity of mankind for knowledge supposes that there
would be things to be known ; that law of our nature
which demands society presupposes that there would
be other beings with whom friendships could be formed ;
the natural desire of men to know God supposes that
there is a God to be known ; the universal expectation
of miracles supposes that there would be miracles in
which man could believe.
(b) The second remark is, that the question so much
agitated, and so difficult of solution, at what time mira
cles ceased in the Church, and whether they were or
were not continued after the time of the apostles, does
not affect the question whether the miracles of the New
Testament were really performed ; whether, for exam
ple, Jesus turned water into wine, or raised Lazarus
from the grave. If those miracles which were claimed
to be performed in the early Church were false ; if those
claimed to be wrought by the Holy Coat at Treves
were true ; if those wrought by the Emperor Vespasian,
and at the tomb of St. Francis Xavier, on which Mr.
Hume dwells so complacently, were true or were false,
it does not prove that God did not interpose by direct
power in giving a new religion to the world, and in fur
nishing attestations that the great messenger came from
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 169
him. If the Christian fathers worked miracles, it does
not prove that Paul did not ; if those claimed to have
been wrought by the fathers were false, that does not
prove that those which Christ claimed to have wrought
were false also. If there have been false claimants to
the crown of England, that does not prove that the
claim of the present sovereign is unfounded.
(c) A third remark is, that it is assuming more than can
be proved that direct divine interventions in the affairs
of the universe have ceased now altogether, or that there
are no events occurring in which the divine will and the
divine power are the only antecedents. Proof on that
point is obviously beyond the capacity of man. In the
argument of Dr. Clarke on the Being of a God, it was re
marked that, unless man was omnipresent, he could not
possibly demonstrate that there was no God ; for in that
part of space beyond him, and which he could not pene
trate, it was possible that there might be a God. In like
manner we may say that, unless man now is omnipres
ent, and unless he can bring all the events which occur,
seen and unseen, under the explanation of natural laws,
it impossible that some of those events may be perform
ed by the direct agency of God. Moreover, it is im
possible to prove that God has in any way so pledged
or committed himself to abide always by established
and regular laws, and never to put forth his direct pow
er in creation, in the government of worlds, or in their
destruction, that man can assume this as an axiom or
established truth, in relation to the present races of
animals now on the earth, or in relation to any new
races that he may bring upon the stage. At no one
of the old geological periods of our world could it have
been shown that God had " committed" or " pledged"
himself that he would not sweep off the existing races,
II
170 LECTURES ON THE
and that he would create no more ; nor does the fact
of the uniformity of laws, so far as established yet,
constitute any such " committal" on the part of God
that he will not again interpose by his direct power in
the affairs of the universe. It is certain that there are
many things occurring which science has not as yet
been able to reduce to natural and regular laws, great
as is the progress which has been made in that direc
tion ; it is equally certain that but a small part of our
own world land, water, air has been explored ; it is
certain that man knows almost nothing of the manner
in which things are done in distant worlds ; and it is
possible that in that vast region of the unknown there
may be things occurring which are the direct and im
mediate result of the will and the power of God. At
all events, man is not in a condition to pronounce an
opinion on that subject, and he violates one of the rules
of sound philosophy when, from so narrow a basis of
observed facts, he draws a sweeping and universal con
clusion.
(d) A fourth remark is, that it is difficult to see why
the facts in a miracle, if a miracle occurs, are not as sus
ceptible of proof as any other facts. If the sun stood
still at the command of Joshua, the fact was in itself as
susceptible of proof as that the sun seemed to move ;
if a lame man " leaped as an hart," there would be no
more difficulty, one would suppose, in proving that he
leaped than that any other man leaped ; if one who was
sick rose up and carried his couch, there would be no
more difficulty in establishing such a fact in regard to
him than in regard to another man ; and if one who was
dead was alive again, that fact, it would seem, would
be susceptible of easy proof. The testimony of credi
ble witnesses that they had seen such a man as Lazarus
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 171
in ordinary life would not be called in question; how
would the testimony that they saw him after it was
known or affirmed that he was dead vary the nature of
the evidence ? In what respects does the testimony
diifer? What is the testimony when one affirms that
he has seen a certain person? How does that differ
when the testimony pertains to the same person at
another time, even after it was known that he was
dead ? If in the one case the fact can be established,
why may it not in the other ?
The illusion here, to use no harsher term, is in the
supposition as to what is seen m the case. The objector
to miracles supposes that it is necessary to see the miracle
itself, and that, unless this is seen, there can be no prop
er testimony in the case. But no witness could possibly
see two and two make four, in the abstract. No man
pretends that he sees the changes which occur in the
growth of a plant, or in the formation of the animal from
the embryo, or the fowl from the egg. No man pre
tends to see the processes in the changes which occur in
the laboratory of the chemist. In the last case, as sub
stantially in all these cases, what is seen is the appear
ance of certain combinations of the elements of matter
in one form, and then the. appearance of the same ele
ments of matter as they exist in new formations. The
testimony of the chemist as to the existence of the lat
ter would be as credible as his testimony in regard to
the former , and would require no additional confirma
tion. No one would call the testimony in question be
cause he had not seen the process of the transformation,
or because there was a power there, lying back of the
new form assumed, which he could not explain or un
derstand. The facts in the case would in no manner
be affected by this consideration, nor, in examining
172 LECTURES ON THE
such a witness, would that consideration be allowed to
affect the credibility of the testimony. Suppose that
that power were the direct power and will of God as
for aught he knows it may be would that affect the
nature of the testimony of the chemist as to the reality
of the visible change ? And then suppose that he were
called to give testimony as to the fact that a man was
blind, and that a man saw, how does the fact that there
may lie between the two things the power and the will
of God affect the one case more than the other ? There
are difficulties in such a transformation which no one
has been able to explain, but those difficulties in ordi
nary cases would not be allowed to be a bar to the re
ception of the testimony as to the preceding and the
subsequent facts. Lazarus before his death and Laza
rus after his death was precisely the same man ; and it
is difficult to see how the testimony in regard to him,
if exactly the same, should be admitted in the one case
and rejected in the other.
(e) One other remark. It is, that science, so far as it
has gone, has demonstrated that the alleged miracles
of the New Testament, if the facts occurred, can not be
explained by the laws of nature, or that they could not
have been wrought by any physical laws. Very many
things, as we have seen, once deemed supernatural and
miraculous, have been shown to be the production of
the ordinary laws of nature, and have thus been re
moved from the region of the marvelous, and have
taken their places among things well understood as
being in accordance with regular laws. Eclipses, mete
ors, comets, earthquakes, the lightning, the ignusfatuus
things that once alarmed mankind, have thus, to a
great extent, taken their places in the ordinary course
of events. ^Esculapius is no longer worshiped as the
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 173
god of medicine, for it is no longer supposed that there
is any direct and supernatural divine agency in the
healing art ; nor are Ceres or Neptune worshiped as if
supernatural divine power were manifested in the rear
ing of fruits, or in regulating the storm, or in the ebbing
and the flowing of the waters of the sea. The magician
has given way to the chemist working by established
laws. Marvels and wonders, therefore, have been great
ly limited and diminished by placing these events un
der the operation of the regular rules of nature.
Science has not advanced so far, however, as to ex
plain the miracles of the New Testament on any known
principles, as it has in these matters, nor has it made
any approximation to it. Nay, just so far as it has
gone it has demonstrated that those miracles can not be
explained on any principles known, or likely to be known,
to science gravitation, attraction, repulsion, electric
ity, galvanism, or the "healing properties of vegeta
bles or minerals. The chemist does not open the eyes
of the blind by a touch ; he does not heal the sick by
a word ; he does not raise the dead by the blow-pipe
or by galvanism. In the language of Mr. Mansel, " The
advance of physical science tends to strengthen rather
than to, weaken our conviction of the supernatural char
acter of the Christian miracles. In whatever propor
tion our knowledge of physical causation is limited,
and the number of unknown natural agents compara
tively large, in the same proportion is the probability
that some of these unknown causes, acting in some un
known manner, may have given rise to the alleged mar
vels. But this probability diminishes when each newly-
discovered agent, as its properties become known, is
shown to be inadequate to the production of the sup
posed effects, and as the residue of unknown causes,
174 LECTURES ON THE
which might produce them, becomes smaller and small
er. We are told, indeed, that the inevitable progress
of research must, within a longer or shorter period, un
ravel all that seems most marvelous ; * but we may be
permitted to doubt the relevancy of the remark to the
present case, until it has been shown that the advance
of science has in some degree enabled men to perform
the miracles performed by Christ. When the inevitable
progress of research shall have enabled men of modern
times to give sight to the blind with a touch, to still
tempests with a word, to raise the dead to life, to die
themselves, and to rise again, we may allow that the
same causes might possibly have been called into oper
ation ten thousand years earlier, by some great man in
advance of his age. But, until this is done, the unrav
eling of the marvelous in other phenomena only serves
to leave these works in their solitary grandeur, as
wrought by the finger of God, unapproached and unap
proachable by all the knowledge and all the power of
man. The appearance of a comet or the fall of an aero
lite may be reduced by the advance of science from a
supposed supernatural to a natural occurrence ; and this
reduction furnishes a reasonable presumption that other
phenomena of a like character will in time meet with a
like explanation. But the reverse is the case with re
spect to those phenomena which are narrated as pro
duced by personal agency. In proportion as the science
of to-day surpasses that of former generations, so is the
improbability that any man could have done in past
times, by natural means, works which no skill of the
present age is able to imitate, "f
With these general remarks on the subject of mira
cles, I proceed to state what is the form which the ar-
* Essays and Reviews, p. 109. f Aids to Faith, p. 21, 22.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 175
gument assumes in the nineteenth century, or, in the
present age of the world, with all the advances which
have been made in science ; or what points have been
established as bearing on the possibility and the credi
bility of the miracles of the New Testament.
I. The first remark is, that no such universality of
the certain and fixed laws of nature as is claimed by
those who deny the reality of miracles, has been ascer
tained and demonstrated; nor can it be. In other
words, amidst the infinite number and variety of phe
nomena which have occurred in our world, and in other
worlds, and which are now constantly occurring, it has
not been demonstrated, and can not be, that there are
none in respect to which the only antecedent is the di
rect will and power of God. To show that miracles
are not possible, and not credible, it is necessary to do
this. But this can not be done ; for, if there is any thing
made clear by science, it is that the human powers of
observation and comprehension are not vast enough to
establish so universal a proposition. The argument of
Newton in regard to " gravitation" could not reach the
point that there is, and has been nowhere, any matter
that is not moved by another force. The laws of Kep
ler in regard to planetary motions are not so establish
ed in regard to their universality that there may not
be, somewhere in the boundlessness of space, worlds
held in being, and moved by other forces than these.
The remark now made, so obvious, demonstrates that
no one can prove that the uniformity and fixedness of
the laws of nature is so " universal" as to exclude the
possibility of miracles ; for such a demonstration must
take in all events, all worlds, all systems, all beings
angels and God as well as men. Our " experience," of
which so much is made by Mr. Hume, pertains only to
176 LECTURES ON THE
our own world and to men; it takes in nothing be
yond. But, to be complete, the demonstration must
take in all worlds, creatures, systems, ages, and cycles of
ages, and must establish the fact that in all these things
God never does perform, and never has performed, any
act by his own immediate power or will, or that no
world has been called into being, that no creature has
been made, that no event has occurred, where the only
antecedent in the case was the divine power and will.
Obviously this is wholly beyond the power of man to
demonstrate. There have been times in the history
of the universe of which no records have come to us.
How can man demonstrate what has or what has not
been done, then? There are worlds which man has
never seen by the naked eye or by the glass. How can
he demonstrate what has been or has not been done
in those worlds ? There may be beings of whose " ex
perience" man has no knowledge. How can he de
termine how they came into existence, or prove that
among them there are not events produced by the di
rect power of God ? There may be worlds and systems
" nebulce" that are so detached from our system that
we can not demonstrate that the same laws which gov
ern our system control them, or that, in the infinity
of the divine resources, there may not be methods of
controlling those worlds which are unknown here.
How is man to determine that point ? And, moreover,
there may be a spiritual world a world so detached
from all matter, and so wholly independent of matter,
that nothing can be inferred in regard to the laws
which govern it from the laws of Kepler or Newton.
Who can tell how God may act in that spiritual world ?
Who can demonstrate that in that world no event ever
occurs where the sole antecedent is the divine power
and the divine will ?
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 177
As, therefore, no one can prove that there is no God
unless he himself is infinite, and can be present in all
the immensity of space at the same time, since where
he is not there God may be, so it is true that no one
can prove that the laws of nature are so fixed and uni
versal that a miracle is impossible, unless he himself
can take in the whole of the universe, since it may be
true that beyond the sphere of his knowledge there are
events the only antecedent of which are the will and
the power of God.
The observation now made, if well founded, must
meet all that has been said by Mr. Hume in regard to
" experience," so far as that bears on the subject. When
it is said by him that " as a firm and unalterable ex
perience has established these laws, the proof against
a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire
as any argument from experience can possibly be imag-
ined," the word " experience," if it has any meaning,
must refer to experience that embraces the whole sub
ject / that is, in relation to all the events to which the
question of such uniformity would be applicable. But
it is clear that among men there has been no such " ex
perience." There have been, and there are, many events
w^hich lie quite beyond any such range of observation
hitherto made; there are undoubtedly many things
which have not as yet been reduced to any known
laws, and it is yet an open question whether they can
be ; that is, whether the powers of men are adequate
to the inquiry, and whether, if they are thus adequate,
the events are of such a nature that they can be re
duced to regular and fixed laws. In the earlier periods
of the world, as already remarked, there were many
things that passed under the name of " miracles" and
wonders phenomena which there was no way thus of
H2
178 LECTURES ON THE
accounting for whose causes are now familiar to us,
for in the ruder ages of the world they seemed to lie
wholly in the regions of the marvelous. As science ad
vances, the circle of those marvelous works is contract
ed, and a large part of those wonders is reduced to the
dominion of fixed laws. The laboratory of the chemist
now exhibits many a phenomena which in the Middle
Ages would have been classed among the marvelous,
now reduced to the regular operation of law ; and it
can not be doubted that there may be yet in nature
many a secret power that has not yet been made the
subject of scientific observation, or been brought under
the general word " experience. 1 It can not be regarded
as improbable that many of those things will thus be
carefully observed, arranged, and classified, and that
they will be found to be under the control of fixed and
unchanging laws but the world is not yet far enough
advanced to justify the assertion that the " experience"
of mankind extends to all these things. "Not until this
is done, and not until that " experience" shall take in
the whole of the distant material worlds and systems,
and not until that "experience" shall take in also the
whole of the spiritual world, could it be affirmed that
it has been demonstrated by " experience" that there
may not be events the sole antecedent of which is the
will and the power of God. Man can not, therefore, as
yet, prove that miracles are impossible.
II. The second remark in regard to miracles, as a se
quence of what has already been said, is, that the effect
of the progress of true science is to demonstrate that
the hypothesis which refers miracles to unknown nat
ural causes is baseless ; and that if the events occurred,
they were real miracles. The only possible opinions in
regard to the miracles of the New Testament are, that
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 179
they were not performed at all ; or that they were per
formed, as those who wrought them declared, in virtue
of a supernatural power, and in attestation of their own
divine mission ; or that they " are distorted statements
of events reducible to known natural causes." This
last was the solution suggested by Paulus, who pro
posed to explain them on " naturalistic" principles ; it is
adopted substantially by Prof. Baden Powell ;* and it is
the explanation of the causes of many of the events re
ferred to as miracles in the New Testament offered by
Renan. But, as has been already remarked, and the re
mark deserves to be repeated, for it is vital to the whole
question, science makes no approximation to this solu
tion, but its tendency has all been in the opposite direc
tion to separate these events more and more from the
common operations of nature. The " experience" of the
world, in the observation of events, has never gone to
ward the point that there is a secret power in nature to
raise the dead, and if the dead have been raised it has
been where the only antecedent in the case has been
the power and the will of God. " There remains," there
fore, "only the, choice between a deeper faith and a
bolder unbelief; between accepting the sacred narrative
as a true account of miracles actually performed, and
rejecting it as wholly fictitious and incredible."!
The case where it is alleged that one has been raised
from the dead may be referred to as an illustration of
this point. The case supposed is this : First. There
was actual real death. It was not a swoon ; not a dis
ease that for a time produced the appearance of death ;
not suspended animation it was actual death. Such
is supposed in the case of Lazarus, and in the case of
* "On the Study of the Evidences of Christianity."
f Prof. Mansel, Aids to Faith, p. 23.
180 LECTUKES ON THE
Jesus himself. Second. There was a restoration to
real life ; the restoration of the same person ; the
preservation of personal identity. It was not a phan
tasm ; not an appearance ; not a spirit ; not an imma
terial substance that deceived the senses. In the case
of both Lazarus and Jesus, it was a restoration to real
life of the same person. Both are represented as they
were before they died; both are recognized by their
friends ; both eat, walk, talk, have the same sympathies,
friendships, affections as before ; both are cognizable
in all these respects as they were before they died.
Third. Science does not do this ; does not approach it.
There has never been an instance in the " experience"
of the world in which it has been done by natural laws ;
there has never been an instance in which it has been
claimed that it has been thus done; there has never
been an instance in which there has ever been an ap
proach to it. There have been instances of restoration
from suspended animation ; there has been spasmodic
muscular action produced by galvanism; there may
have been a momentary inflation of the lungs ; there
may have been even a smile produced on the counte
nance of the dead the horrible appearance of laughter
in the sardonic grin, but there has been no real life, no
regular heaving of the lungs, no living real smile pro
duced in one who has been actually dead. Thus far the
" experience" of the world on this subject has been as
" uniform" as any experience can be, that science lays
no claim to the power of raising the dead.
m. My third remark in regard to miracles in their
relation to the laws of nature is, that there is a sense
in which those " laws of nature," so fixed and determ
ined, are constantly set aside, or are "violated" by
the action of other " laws of nature," that is, they are
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 181
held absolutely in check so long as those other laws
prevail. When the lightning strikes a tree, "it puts
an end to all the ordinary development of vegetation,"
and seems to be a bare conflict of " force with law."
Yet it is also true that the lightning follows a law of
its own, and that law seems to conflict with law, or
that one law sets another aside, and that there are me-
teorologic laws to which both the lightning and the
vegetation are subject.* The same thing is true when
the wind raises up the waters of the ocean and piles
them in mountains, or w^hen the vapor is upborne and
carried by the clouds over valleys and hills, or when
the dust of the earth is raised up by the whirlwind in
each case suspending, or " violating," for the time, the
law of gravitation, the most " universal" law in nature.
This result is perhaps still more manifest in the princi
ple of life, that mysterious and unknown principle which
seems to have the power, during its continuance, of
" violating" all the laws of nature. By that principle
the chemical elements which enter into the composition
of the oak are detached from their natural connections
as they are found in the air, the earth, and the waters ;
the chemical laws which held them in those connections
are suspended ; they enter, under the principle of life,
into new combinations, constituting now the component
parts of a tree the organic structure, the fibre, the
bark, the branch, the leaf, the fruit and they are held
together by that principle of life by all the power need
ful to lift up the enormous mass from the earth, despite
the law of gravitation, and to keep it steadfast against
the influence of storms and tempests, century after centu
ry, until that principle of life shall loose its grasp and be
come extinct, and then, not before, the chemical laws re-
* Tracts for Priests and People, p. 342.
182 LECTURES ON THE
sume their power, and the old oak returns to gases and
to earths under the resumed operation of those laws.
The same thing is still more strikingly manifest in the
animal structure, under the principle of life. The ele
ments that make up the human body carbon, hydro
gen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, lime, iron, sulphur,
sodium, potassium, magnesium are all detached from
their natural connections in the air, the earth, and the
waters in the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral
world and are formed into an entirely new combina
tion of bone, sinew, nerves, muscle, with a definite size
and shape, moulded and rounded, not by the physical
laws of nature, but in spite of those laws, by a principle
which " violates" them for the time, and holds them as
long as it pleases ; and it is not until life decays, and
this new power ceases, that the natural chemical laws
resume their functions, not now in the form of the liv
ing man, but in the grave, where the human frame is
resolved into its natural elements. The chemical laws
resume their action as soon as life departs, and those
laws continue to act again until every particle that
composed the human frame enters, under those laws,
into new inorganic combinations, or until, under some
new principle of life, vegetable or animal, the process is
arrested midway, and new forms of life appear. All
over the earth, therefore, on the land, in the waters, in
the air, nothing is more common than that what are
called the " fixed and uniform laws of nature," those
laws which Mr. Hume informs us " a firm and unalter
able experience has established," are, in fact, suspended
"violated" held in check and abeyance by this
principle of life, where life is the only antecedent in
the result. That a higher power than life the Life
itself, God may not suspend them ; that that higher
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 183
power may not suspend the laws which regulate life
itsejf, or restore it, has not as yet been established by a
"firm and unalterable experience."
IY. In order to a proper understanding of the sub
ject, it is necessary also to take into consideration the
element of the will, and the power consequent on that,
in reference to the " laws of nature." However fixed and
settled those laws may be, the power of the will in man
is constantly operating to suspend or interrupt them,
that is, constantly producing effects which are not to be
traced to regular and fixed laws, and which would never
be produced by those laws. In other words, the effects
are not produced by the laws of matter, but the laws of
matter are, for a time, as really disturbed as in the case
of a miracle, and fail of striking us as being as remark
able and perplexing only because they are of constant oc
currence. It might be said, indeed, that the will itself
is subject to fixed laws, and that, after all, the effects
are produced by regular and fixed laws ; but it is not
easy to demonstrate that point, and it is not to be as
sumed that this is so, or that in the operations of the
will there is nothing which can not be reduced to fixed
and unvarying laws. At any rate, whatever may be
true on that point, it is not to be assumed that it is any
more true in reference to the human will than it is in
reference to the divine will, and the difficulty in the
one case is, as to the point, the same as in the other.
In either case it is the introduction of a new power,
apart from all force in the mere physical laws of na
ture, which are regarded as so settled and fixed " the
work of an agent wholly independent of those laws,
and who, therefore, neither obeys nor disobeys them."
For the time being, so far as the result is concerned,
the new agent, or the new power, sets aside or sus-
184 LECTURES ON THE
pends the operation of those laws, and the result in the
case is to be traced to the new and independent power.
Whether God has reserved to himself the right to
interfere with the regular laws of matter, as he has
actually conferred it on man, is simply a question
as to a fact, and not at all as to the possibility of the
thing.
When a man, by the exertion of his will, raises his
arm, or walks, or lifts a weight from the ground, he, in
each case, suspends or overcomes, for the time, the law
of gravitation, so far as he produces an effect which is
not to be, and which can n<3t be traced to that law an
effect which that law of gravitation could never in any
circumstances produce, and which all the principles
involved in the law of gravitation combine to pre
vent, and the effect produced is to be accounted for
wholly by a power above and regardless of it the
power of the will ; and in estimating the " experience"
of the world in reference to Mr. Hume s argument, we
are to take that part into the account as an important
and a very common part of the " experience" of man
kind a matter of " experience" quite as common as
that pertaining to the " firm and unalterable experi
ence which has established those laws." When a man
of his own will throws a stone into the air, " the motion
of the stone, as soon as it has left his hand, is determ
ined by a combination of purely natural laws, partly by
the attraction of the earth, partly by the resistance of
the air, partly by the magnitude and direction of the
force by which it was thrown." But by what law came
it to be thrown at all ? By what law of nature a law
"fixed by an unalterable experience" did it happen
that it left its quiet bed on the ground ; that the prin
ciple of inertia was overcome ; that the law of gravita-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 185
tion which held it there, and would have held it there
forever, was interrupted, and that it commenced its
course through the air ? Neither the law of gravita
tion by itself, nor all the laws of nature put together,
would ever have caused it to leave the ground and com
mence that flight through the air ; but all the laws of
" nature" in fact, combined to resist this, as really as
the laws of " nature" combined to resist the raising up
of Lazarus to life, or as the laws of "nature" on the Sea
of Tiberias combined to keep up the storm, and to re
sist the power of Jesus, who commanded the winds and
the waves to be still. It remains yet to be proved, not
asserted, that when God s free will interposes to pro
duce effects which are to be traced to that will alone,
there is a more real violation of the laws of nature than
there is when the human will interposes and produces
changes which are to be traced to that will alone. It
may be further added, that if the will of men does pro
duce such disturbances and interruptions of the laws of
nature, then, so far from its being true, as Mr. Hume says,
that " a firm and unalterable experience has established
those laws," it is true that there is almost nothing that
is more liable to be disturbed, or that nothing is more
common than that there are effects produced which are
not to be traced to those laws, but where the only
known antecedent is will, and the power consequent on
will.
V. A fifth and final remark on the subject is, that the
progress of our world, and, as far as we know, the prog
ress of the universe, has not been under the operation
of regular and fixed " laws." I mean that there are ev
idences of divine interposition apart from the operation
of such laws, and that the results are such as can not
be traced to those laws, but are to be traced to a direct
186 LECTURES ON THE
divine interposition, and that, therefore, miracles are not
in themselves absurd or impossible.
There are two methods in which, subsequent to the
act of creation, the existing state of things on the earth,
and in the universe at large, as far as we know, has
been produced: the one is by development, or the
growth of things under natural laws ; the other is by
the introduction of a new order of things, into which no
former state naturally runs, or which, in no proper sense,
can be the result of any antecedents in nature, but which
must be traced to a mere interposition of power.
That the former that of development exists, no one
can doubt ; and it can not be denied that this is the reg
ular and ordinary course of things ; that is, that there
is something which, in the order of nature, precedes the
effect; which is the cause of it; which measures it;
which contains in embryo all that is produced. Thus
the germ of the acorn is developed into the oak, and the
ovum is developed into the crocodile, the ostrich, and
the barn-yard fowl ; thus the slumbering powers of the
infant are developed into the physical strength, the
poetic genius, or the eloquence of the man. In all such
cases there is nothing produced which is not a fair un
folding of what existed in the germ ; nothing which is
the result of mere power ab extra. The precise limit
of this class of operations in nature has not yet been
fixed. It is well known that attempts have been made
to explain all the phenomena of the universe on this
principle. The author of the " Vestiges of Creation" re
gards this as a sufficient explanation of the origin of
the worlds and systems which compose the universe ;
Dr. Darwin supposes that all the varieties of species on
the earth can be explained on this principle ; and in this
manner it is supposed, as may be true, that new worlds
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 187
are constantly forming, and that the nebulous masses
are now resolving themselves into suns and stars. Per
haps it is not within the range of the human powers to
determine the exact limits of this process, and to do it
is not material for any purpose connected with revealed
religion.
But, while we would concede all that true science
can ask on this point, it is still a fact that this has not
been the sole or the main agency by which our world
exists as it is now. In very many respects it has made
advances has reached higher elevations from age to
age by some new power r , the result of creative and su
pernatural agency, that has come in, over and beyond
any thing that can be regarded as the result of devel
opment. That power lifts the world to a higher level,
and can be best explained on the supposition that it is
by direct divine interposition ; that is, that the antece
dent in the case is the will and the power of God,
whether that be called miracle or not.
(a) The ordinary law is, as is claimed by the Atheist
for the whole, by a gradual accumulation and develop
ment. Men record and preserve the results of past ex
perience. The world gathers up the lessons of the ex
periments that are macle ; the history of failures and
successes; the inventions in the arts and the discov
eries in science ; the issues of the experiments to abridge
labor, to facilitate travel, to promote domestic comfort,
to till the soil, to improve the wild fruits, trees, and
grasses ; in building houses, in machinery, in navigation.
In like manner the world treasures up the wisdom of
sages ; the results of the battles for freedom ; the ex
periments made in government ; the methods of educa
tion ; the rules of prudence that regulate domestic life.
All these enter into civilization, and we now, in this age
188 LECTURES ON THE
and land, are enjoying the avails of all the past wisdom,
all the sacrifices, all the toils and perils, and all the dis
coveries of past ages. Every philosopher has thought
for us ; every legislator has legislated for us ; every
traveler has traveled for us ; every explorer of unknown
lands and seas has done it for us ; every patriot has
fought and bled for us ; every martyr has died for us.
Every one who has stricken out an invention in the arts
has done it for us, and every one who has made a dis
covery in science has done it for us. Faust in the art of
printing; Gioia, of Amalfi, in discovering the properties
of the magnet ; Galileo in constructing the telescope ;
Watt and Fulton in applying steam to the purposes of
manufactures, or to travel by sea and by land ; Frank
lin, who " wrested the lightning from heaven and the
sceptre from tyrants,"* and Morse, who applied the
laws of electro - magnetism to the communication of
thought, did it for us. We recline on beds of down,
and sit down at tables loaded with luxuries, and dwell
in houses of comfort or magnificence, and travel rapidly
and safely over lands and seas, and breathe the pure air
of freedom as the result of the wisdom and toil of all
past ages. The world gathers up the results of the
past, and rises gradually to a higher elevation ; from
that point it does not go backward, for nothing thus
accumulated that is valuable is suffered to be lost.
Society and the world in this respect move slowly ;
for often dark and dreary centuries elapse when the
world seems to make no progress like those slow re
volving ages, and cycles of ages, when the deposits
were made in the waters which now constitute the
rocks, or which, upheaved by some sudden convul
sion, constitute the mountains, and bring the beds of
* Eripuit ccelis fulmcn sccptrumquc tvrannis.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 189
ancient coal, deposited for man, to the surface of the
earth.
(b) There is another method in which the world ad
vances. It is not gradual, but sudden per saltum by
impulse, not by development. It occurs when the af
fairs of the world are to be put on a higher level ; when
the slow process of accumulation, experience, and de
velopment would not meet the wants of the world ;
when the race is to be lifted up suddenly, as the mount
ains were lifted up, or as the bed of the ocean was sud
denly raised to become the abode of races of living
beings. Then God creates some great genius and
brings it upon the earth. Then some great invention
occurs which at once* puts the race on a higher level.
Then some discovery in science is made that affects at
once all the interests of society ; that opens new ave
nues of trade ; that facilitates commerce ; that diffuses
intelligence ; that levels mountains ; that exalts valleys ;
that bridges streams or even oceans; that binds the
nations into one. Then a new level is reached at once,
which in the ordinary course of things would not have
been reached for centuries, if it could have been reached
at all. The world rises at once to a higher plateau, and
moves forward on that, under the slow law of accumu
lation, till the time arrives when, by some new discov
ery or new invention, it rises still higher, never again
to go backward.
The immediate and efficient antecedent in this is
the will and the power of God. It is not by the devel
opment of a germ ; it is not by the cultivation and ex
pansion of that which before existed in embryo. Ge
nius and talent are the creation of God created when
he pleases ; lodged where he pleases ; developed under
such circumstances as he chooses. Be it poetry, elo-
190 LECTURES ON THE
quence, inventive power, skill in the fine or the useful
arts, it is alike the creation of God.
It is creation beginning anew, not development
created, not called into existence by circumstances. So
God made the mind of Plato, of Socrates, of Newton,
of Bacon, of Pascal, of Edwards, of Alfred, Charle
magne, Fulton, Cuvier, Columbus, Washington. The
bringing of such minds upon the earth can be regarded
as in no proper sense the result of such a " firm and un
alterable experience in establishing the laws of nature"
as Mr. Hume speaks of; they are as much the result of
a divine agency as the creation of the world, or as the
healing of the blind man at the Pool of Bethesda.
So, too, the world advanced, as geologists now tell
us, before it was fitted for the abode of man, by a series
of successive creations. One race of beings was swept
away not developed into another. Each order of
monsters had its day, and then passed off the stage to
give place to a higher order. The essential fact on the
subject, which no man who is properly informed will
deny, and which is now stated by geologists as a part
of the teaching of their science, is, that entire races
were swept away, and were succeeded by others which
were in no sense whatever developments of the former
new creations ; new forms of being on the earth crea
tures, or forms of being so distinct that the one could
not have lived at all in the condition in which the earth
then was, and the other was swept away because the
earth had become fitted for a higher order of beings.
The old monsters the Plesiosaurian and Ichthyosau-
rian races have no successors on earth. The races were
swept entirely away, and all that remains of them is
found in the rocks. The fossils of the old geological
periods reveal successive creations, not successive devel-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 191
opments. So man appeared at last, not as a develop
ment of the ourang-outang or monkey, but as a new
creation brought upon the stage by creative power
when the earth had been fitted up for his abode. In
all science there is probably no fact better established
than the one now adverted to, that the races were en
tirely swept off, not developed into new forms or races,
and that a new creation appeared, in no sense a resur
rection from the old, and that, perhaps, in each case,
after an interval of millions of years.
Thus the world advances, also, by some new inven
tion in the arts that can in no proper sense be regarded
as a " development" of a previous order of things, or as
the result of" fixed and certain laws." Such inventions
are often the result, perhaps always, of a suggestion
that comes into the mind, having nothing to do with
any thing that went before, that can be traced by no
law of association to any previous thought in the mind,
and whose origin no system of mental philosophy will
explain. The suggestion which gives birth to the in
vention is retained in the mind while a thousand others
are dismissed ; it is reflected on ; it is conned, matured,
experimented on, until the invention appears before the
world, modifying human affairs, raising the race to a
higher level, lifting it up on a new steppe or plateau,
along which it travels, or by the help of which it rises
higher, until some newer invention, still more brilliant
and important than any which preceded, shall lift the
race to a higher level still, and be the cause of a still
higher advancement. Thus the discoveries of the art
of writing, of printing, of gunpowder ; of the properties
of the magnet, of the telescope, of the microscope, of the
application of steam, of the telegraph, have successively
modified human affairs, and put the condition of the
192 LECTURES ON THE
world on an elevation from which it can never descend
not by " fixed laws ;" not by " development ;" not by
a "firm and unalterable experience," but by a new
power.
In like manner, some new disease sent direct from
God may materially modify human affairs. The " Hack
death" that reigned in Europe, cutting off, as has been
estimated, during the six years of its continuance, twen
ty-five millions, or a fourth part of the inhabitants of
Europe,* depopulating entire districts of country, and
spreading consternation every where in what sense
was that a development, " under the laws of a firm and
unalterable experience," as Mr. Hume would say ? The
small-pox, the cholera to what " laws," thus fixed and
settled by " experience," are they to be traced ? Of what
previous disease were they the development? Nothing
is more certain than that, up to the period of their ap
pearing, the " experience" of the world of the whole
world was against the small-pox and the cholera,
much more than it had been against miraculous and su
pernatural agencies, and, according to the argument
which I am examining, all belief in those diseases is im
possible or absurd.
The cases to which I have thus referred show that
God has not bound or pledged himself to govern the
world always, and in all circumstances, by the fixed
laws of nature ; that he has not withdrawn from the
world and left it to do its work, as a vast machine, by
wheels, and springs, and cogs, and pulleys ; that he has
reserved to himself the right to interfere when he has
important ends to accomplish, by his own free will, in
some manner corresponding to the fact, though far
above it, that we thus, by our will, interfere with those
* Becker s Epidemics of the Middle Ages, p. 29.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 193
laws; that, as there were occasions on which it was
proper that he should interfere by new acts of creative
power in the old geological periods of the world, and
when the present order of things was to be inaugu
rated, so he may now interpose by acts of creation in
the distant parts of the universe by bringing new worlds
into being, and new orders of creatures upon them ; and
that, as there have been occasions when the affairs of the
world were to be raised to a higher elevation by the
creation and endowment of some mind by extraordinary
powers, or by some brilliant discovery in science or in
vention in the arts, so there may have been occasions on
which it was proper to interfere by the introduction of
a new religion upon the earth, and by attesting its ori
gin as from himself by so far putting forth his own
will and power, independent of natural laws, and sus
pending those laws for the time, as to open the eyes of
the blind,- to unstop the ears of the deaf, to cause the
lame man to leap as an hart, and to raise the dead from
their graves.
Such are the facts in regard to miracles, as I under
stand them, and such is the state of the evidence on the
subject in the nineteenth century.
I
194 LECTURES ON THE
LECTURE VI.
THE ARGUMENT FOE THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY, IN
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, FROM PROPHECY.
THE argument for the truth of Christianity or re
vealed religion, as derived from prophecy, is different,
in some very important respects, from the argument as
derived from miracles.
(1.) First. The miracles on which reliance is placed
occurred in past ages in periods now far remote. It
is not claimed by the friends of the Bible that miracles
are now performed to establish its truth. Even in those
portions of the " visible Church" where it is claimed that
miracles are still performed, it is not maintained that
they are performed to confirm the general truths of rev
elation ; to demonstrate that the prophets and apostles
were sent from God ; or to prove that the Christian re
ligion, as distinguished from other religions, is true, but
that they are wrought in favor of some dogma of the
Church ; or in honor of the memory of some particular
saint ; or to show that the church in which such mira
cles occur is the true Church, in contradistinction from
other associations which claim to be parts of the true
Church ; in honor of the faith, or of the priesthood, of
some one branch of the Church of God.
The miracles, however, on which reliance is placed
for the proof of Christianity as such, occurred in a pe
riod now far in the past ; they were witnessed by com
paratively few persons; and the evidence that they
were performed at all comes to us under all the disad-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 195
vantages of testimony transmitted through successive
generations. We ourselves have not been permitted to
witness the performance of a miracle in attestation to
the truth of our religion, nor, when urging the claims
to the divine origin of that religion from miracles, and
seeking to convince our fellow-men of its truth on that
ground, can we appeal to one actually wrought in their
presence or in our own, as furnishing such a demonstra
tion. It was, therefore, not difficult to construct the
plausible argument of Mr, Hume against miracles an
argument so plausible that to this day it has not been
found easy to detect its sophistry. But, whether that
argument was well founded or was a sophism, no such
sophism, and, at any rate, no such argument, can be sug
gested in regard to prophecy. It is a subject which we
can investigate as eye-witnesses ourselves. We have
the prophecy before us in fixed and permanent language,
to be interpreted on principles universally recognized
in the interpretation of language, and where the friends
and the foes of the religion in defense of which they are
adduced are supposed to be equally qualified to under
stand the use of language and the rules of exegesis, and
to have an equal right to apply those rules. The very
words of the prophecy may be carefully studied, and
may be calmly compared with the facts to which it
is claimed they are applicable. It is not like a mira
cle, to be seen at the exact moment of the occurrence
or not at all ; it is not like the word, the look, or the
touch, that restores sight to the blind, or that heals
diseases; it is not like the voice that stills the tem
pest, or that raises the dead, and then is silent for
ever. The witnesses of such scenes, and the actors in
such scenes, pass from the world in a single generation,
nor can we call them on the " stand" again to subject
196 LECTURES ON THE
them to a rigorous " cross-examination." In prophecy,
however, every thing can be examined with all the
calmness required by the principles of the inductive
philosophy. All is before us that there is in the case,
and will remain there as long as we please. The words
of the prophecy and the facts are neither of them evan
escent, and are as fixed as the substances which the
chemist coolly examines in his laboratory, or as the
stars on which the astronomer gazes, night after night,
at his leisure.
(2.) Second. In the argument from prophecy there
can be no doubt about the facts in the case. In the ar
gument from miracles, the main point of the inquiry re
lates to the facts themselves. If the alleged facts are
admitted to have occurred if Lazarus was actually
raised from the dead there would be no difference of
opinion that would embarrass us in regard to the ar
gument ; that is, that it was an event produced by the
immediate power and will of God, irrespective of nat
ural laws. The whole effort of infidelity, therefore,
in regard to a miracle, is to set aside the evidence
that the fact occurred, not to deny the force of the
argument derived from it if the fact is established.
In prophecy, the argument assumes a different form.
Respecting the main facts in the case there can be
no question, and if there w^ere a question, it could be
readily examined and determined. If any man doubts
whether Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed,
he has only to look into Josephus or Gibbon to sat
isfy his mind of the fact. If he doubts whether Baby
lon, Tyre, Petra, or Mneveh are in ruins, he has only
to look into Volney, or Burckhardt, or Maundrell, or
Layard, or to go to the places of their former mag
nificence, and seat himself amidst the ruins of their
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 107
grandeur, and, " book in hand," compare, at his leisure,
their present state with the predictions in the prophets.
He may take his own time for the examination ; he may
look at the ruins fragment by fragment, and compare*,
with the minutest and most patient detail, the facts be
fore him with the statements in the prophets. He may
sit down to the argument with as much coolness as he
would to a mathematical demonstration, and survey the
evidence as calmly as he does that which enters into
the inductive philosophy. In a miracle, a voice spake
loud, solemn, and clear, as when the tempest was hushed
on the Sea of Tiberias, or when Lazarus was raised from
the grave, and then the voice died away. In prophecy,
a voice speaks still from solitary Petra, from ruined
Tyre, from the site of the Temple in Jerusalem, from
the exhumed palaces of Nineveh, from the midst of the
" wild beasts of the desert," and the " doleful creatures,"
and the " owls that dwell" in Babylon, and the " satyrs
that dance there," and the " wild beasts that cry" in its
" desolate houses," and the " dragons in its pleasant
palaces,"* to all generations. From their deep silence ;
from the palaces where once was the sound of the viol
and the harp ; from the forsaken temples, an utterance
is heard still responding to the ancient prophetic warn
ing. We hear the cry of the " bittern" and the " owl"
proclaiming the fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah ;
and the "dance of the satyr" and the " cry of the wild
beasts" invite the world to contemplate the truth of the
ancient predictions.
(3.) Third. There is another point of difference be
tween miracles and prophecy. The proof from the
former was complete in the time of the apostles ; the
proof from the latter is increased and strengthened
* Isaiah, xiii., 21, 22.
198 LECTUKES ON THE
from age to age, and will be augmenting to the end of
the world. It is accumulating with every new fact in
history, and will go forward to meet the incredulity of
all coming times. In this respect these two sources of
evidence bear some resemblance to the demonstration
of God s wisdom and power in the creation of the world,
and in its providential government. The act of crea
tion, grand and awful, when the " morning stars sang
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy," was
an impressive demonstration of his power, a stupendous
miracle that put the question of his omnipotence for
ever to rest, as the stilling of the tempest and the
resurrection of Lazarus did that of the Savior. But
the wisdom of God, and the goodness of God, and the
mercy of God, shine forth from age to age, and the ar
gument is presented fresh and new to each generation.
The evidence is repeated with each revolving year;
with each returning season ; with each opening flower ;
with the running stream; with the dews of the morn
ing and the zephyrs of the evening ; and with the con
version and salvation of each penitent sinner, as the
evidence of the truth of religion from prophecy meets
each coming generation, and will attend the race until
the proclamation " the kingdoms of this world are be
come the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ ; and
he shall reign forever and ever," shall be heard through
out the universe.*
God might have made the human mind might have
made all created minds so as to foresee the future as
well as to remember the past. In the nature of things
there is no more difficulty in the one case than in the
other ; and, at all events, no one can prove that this is
impossible. God s own mind is thus constituted, if it
* Rev., xi., 15.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 199
be proper to apply the words future and past to him ;
and, in creating other minds in the " image" of his own,
it was, and must have been, a matter dependent on his
will and wisdom whether they should be endowed in
the same manner.
Man was made in the " image" of God. In the knowl
edge of the past, or in retaining the memory of the past,
we see clearly that he was, in this respect, made in the
" image" of his Creator. If he had been endowed with
the power of looking into the future, the fact that he
bore the " image" of his Creator would have been still
more apparent and striking. In the purpose to create
him in his " image," it was for God himself to judge how
far that " image," in respect to power, and knowledge,
and wisdom, in treasuring up the memory of the past,
and in anticipating the future, was to be extended.
Obviously there must be a limit in all these things im
measurably this side of his own infinity, whatever might
be the capacity of man for extending this in an indefi
nite approximation in the future toward the infinity of
God. There are lines which approach each other for
ever, but which never meet.
In regard to events lying in the past and in the fu
ture, God chose, in making man, that he should be en
dowed with the power of retaining the one, but with no
power of looking directly into the other ; as he chose, in
regard to power, that that power on the part of man
should extend only to those things which pertain to
natural or physical laws, retaining the power above
those laws of creating or destroying the power of
miracles to himself. This arrangement, among other
results, lays the foundation for furnishing a proof of a
divine revelation, on the one hand by miracles, and on
the other by prophecy the power of setting aside the
200 LECTURES ON THE
ordinary laws of nature at his pleasure in the one case,
and the power, in the other case, of foretelling what man
otherwise could never know.
There were reasons, quite obvious in the main, why
this should be so in respect to past and future events.
On the one hand, in reference to the past, it was of
the highest importance to the well-being of man, if not
to his very existence, to the progress of society, to all
just views of responsibility, to the formation of his own
character, that he should be so endowed as to gather
up and retain the past the past in his own individual
experience ; the past in the progress of society. Char
acter is formed in this way by availing ourselves of our
past attainments and past experience. Responsibility
rests on this, for there could be no just and adequate
views of retribution if all our thoughts, and plans, and
words, and deeds were at once effaced forever, as the
figures and letters that we trace in the sand on the sea
shore are by the next wave. To all just notions of re
sponsibility, our* thoughts, and words, and deeds must
be as if " they were graven with an iron pen and lead
in the rock forever" (Job,xix., 24). Society makes prog
ress in this way by treasuring up the accumulated wis
dom of the past the results of all happy inventions,
of all struggles for freedom, of all improvements in the
arts, and of all the profound sayings of sages and phi
losophers. The present state of the world in civiliza
tion, in science, in the arts, in domestic comforts, in the
enjoyment of liberty, in religion, is the result of the fact
that man is endowed with the faculty of memory.
On the other hand, there would have been equal dis
advantages in thus endowing man in regard to the fu
ture, enabling him to see the future as he can retain
the past. Such an arrangement would have done much
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 201
to stifle effort and to weaken the stimulus to enterprise
and exertion, for much of that effort and that stimulus
depends on the fact that a thing is unknown but may
be known; that a discovery may be made that will
contribute to wealth or fame ; and that the human pow
ers may find employment and pleasure in the discovery.
Thus the young are stimulated to make attainments in
literature and science, because there are vast fields yet
unexplored, and to a noble-minded youth it is all the
better if not a ray of light has been shed upon them ;
nor would such a youth thank any one to stop the
career of noble thought and the path of discovery by
pouring down a flood of light on all those regions, so
that no more should be left for the efforts of honorable
ambition. It was this which animated Columbus when
the prow of his vessel first crossed the line beyond
which a ship had ever sailed, and plunged into unknown
seas. Every wave that was thrown up had a new in
terest and beauty from the fact that its repose had nev
er been disturbed before by the keel of a vessel ; and
when his eye first saw the land, and he prostrated him
self and kissed the earth, his glory was at the highest,
for he saw what in all ages was unknown before. So
we are every where stimulated and animated by the
unknown, by what is before us that may be gained, by
the fields of new thought which man has never ex
plored.* Farther, what a world of sorrow might this
be if we saw the future as we remember the past ! Who
would desire it ? Who would be willing that all that
is to occur to him or to his family during a single year
should be spread out before him on the first day of the
* Avia Pieridum peragro loca, nullius ante
Trita solo ; juvat integros accedere fonteis ;
Atque haurire. Lucretius.
12
202 LECTURES ON THE
year? How many dwellings would such a knowledge
fill with grief ! If, at the beginning of a year, we knew
that a beloved child was to sicken and die ; if the scene
was all spread out before us ; if we saw the exact prog
ress of the disease, and knew the exact hour when it
would terminate fatally, how sad would be our feelings
as we looked on that child ; how sad to us the weeks,
and days, and hours, as the fatal hour drew on ! How
many dwellings in the land would be filled with grief,
and how many would be the sorrows which would be
added to a now wretched world !
God, therefore, while he has so far made us after his
own " image" that we can retain the memory of the
past, has mercifully limited our endowments in the oth
er direction, and hidden the future, in a great measure,
from our view.
Yet, while this is true as a great law, it is to be re
marked, and the purpose of this argument requires es
pecially that it should be before our minds in order
that we may understand exactly what prophecy is, that
there are certain endowments of the hnman mind which
have reference to the future, and it is material so to dis
tinguish them as to show that they do not amount to
the idea, or invade the province of prophecy, or to show
how prophecy is distinguished from those endowments.
The powers of the human mind, inspired or unin
spired, as they are exercised in this world in relation to
the future, must be arranged under the following heads :
Hope, mathematical calculation, sagacity, prophecy.
Hope. This has relation, indeed, to the future, but
not to the knowledge of the future. It predicts noth
ing; it makes nothing certain. Hope, founded on a
probability or possibility in regard to the future, on
the common course of human events, or on special prom-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 203
ises, does much indeed to stimulate men to effort, and
to cheer a dark and suffering world, but it does nothing
to determine the future, except as that future itself is
determined by efforts inspired by hope. It in itself
makes nothing certain. It gilds the future, indeed, with
much that is bright, but with that which is imaginary,
and which is, therefore, much of it a mere illusion. It
makes the world appear brighter than the reality, and
is a benevolent arrangement one of those numerous
things which occur in the world, often underlying other
things, which show that the Creator of the world is a
benevolent Being, and intends, at the same time, to
stimulate human effort, to cheer man in his sad and
dark path, and to keep before him the prospect of a
brighter world than this. It is not, however, a decep
tion. Though it does not always correspond with the
reality, though the anticipation is often brighter than
the result, though youth is cheered and stimulated
more than age is, or than youth would be if it had a
clear view of the reality of things, it is not a designed
illusion, for man is not kept ignorant of the fact that
there may be disappointment, and no promise which
God has made in the arrangements by which hope is
inspired is violated, for all those promises are made
with this condition well understood, and none which he
has absolutely made ever fail. The labor of the hus
bandman may fail; the ship richly freighted may en
counter a storm and sink in the ocean ; health may
fail ; life may be cut off before its plans are developed
and its hopes matured ; the fig-tree may not blossom,
and there may be no fruit in the vines ; the labor of the
olive may fail, and the fields may yield no meat ; the
flock may be cut off from the fold, and there may be
no hind in the stalls (Habakkuk, iii., 17) ; yet still, on
204 LECTURES ON THE
the average, the promises of hope are sufficiently real
to stimulate effort, and to cheer and encourage man;
but it does not enable him to penetrate the dark fu
ture, and to tell what that will be.
Mathematical calculation. Here, such is the stabil
ity of the laws of nature, that the knowledge of the fu
ture, within the sphere of such calculations, is minute
and absolute, provided the present system shall remain,
and provided God shall not interfere by his own direct
will and power to change it. To neither of these points
does it extend. But within its own sphere it is certain,
and is, except prophecy, the most absolute knowledge
which we have of the future.
In this we can not go beyond what the case will jus
tify in our admiration of the endowments of man. The
knowledge thus within the grasp of the human mind
shows perhaps more than any thing else his wonderful
greatness and power. The position of the heavenly
bodies at any time, however remote in the future ; an
eclipse of the sun or moon ; the transit of a star ; the re
turn of a comet after, in a wild, eccentric course, it has
buried itself in the depths of ether, and traversed for
years or centuries those unfathomed regions all these
show the greatness of man ; show the greatness of the
God who made him, and who has made a system so ac
curate in its movements, and so vast and enduring.
Yet all this has a limit, and a limit far far inside of
what prophecy undertakes to do. It is confined to
physical laws. It leaves out the whole element of will
that on which so many of the events of prophecy ac
tually turn the will of princes, of statesmen, of war
riors, of the numberless hosts of human beings engaged
in civil affairs or in battle, whose separate purposes may
enter into the result. It proceeds on the supposition
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 205
that the order of events will not be disturbed by the
divine will a thing of which no astronomer can be
sure. It has little nothing to do with the common af
fairs of life ; with the things which enter into commerce,
arts, discoveries, inventions, improvements, poetry, elo
quence, and song ; with the duration of cities and em
pires; with the great men that may come and play
their part, and then disappear. Who among the gifted
men of our race can foretell these things ?
Sagacity. This is a power of penetrating the future
to a certain extent, given to man for important pur
poses ; a power on which much of the success of the
life of an individual, and much of the prosperity of na
tions may depend. It has every evidence of being a
divine arrangement, for it lies in the direction of ex
alted genius, and can not be the result of mere educa
tion, training, or experience. In a humble form it ex
ists in most minds ; it is quite indispensable to the suc
cessful prosecution of business ; it serves much to dis
tinguish one man from another in the same calling in
life. The success of one merchant above another ; the
success of one banker above another nay, the success
of one farmer above another, may as often be traced to
that sagacity which looks into the future, and antici
pates the changes in the commercial world which will
be likely to occur, as to any other endowment. In its
higher forms, as in cases like those of Burke and Can
ning, it seems almost to approach the region of inspira
tion and prophecy. In its humbler forms, and perhaps
in its higher forms, it is capable of cultivation by expe
rience ; by reading ; by an increased knowledge of the
ordinary course of events ; by a calculation of probabil
ities ; by an acquaintance with the past. The states
man combines his knowledge of the experience of the
world with his own power of penetrating the future ;
206 LECTURES ON THE
the sagacity of the merchant is often almost the mere
result of large and long observation and experience.
In either case, however, it never rises to certainty ;
it is never prophecy. It makes mention of no names ;
it specifies no dates; it enters into no particulars no
details. It draws out the plans of no battles or sieges
on land, and no naval conflicts ; it brings no actors by
name on the stage ; it describes no burning towns, no
wasted fields, no permanent desolations, no future con
dition of cities, states, or empires. Burke s celebrated
prediction of the consequences of a " Regicide Peace" is
of the most general character ; enters into no details ;
anticipates no history in dates and names, and leaves
no impression on the mind of what the details would
be. In one of the most splendid passages in the English
language, Macaulay ventures a suggestion in regard to
the time when London may be a scene of wide desola
tion, and imagines an inhabitant of New Zealand, on
the ruins of London Bridge, sketching the ruins of St.
Paul s. Speaking of the Roman Catholic Church, he
says, in that passage : " She saw the commencement of
all the governments and of all the ecclesiastical estab
lishments that now exist in the world, and we feel no
assurance that she is not destined to see the end of
them all. She was great and respected before the
Saxon had set foot on Britain before the Frank had
passed the Rhine when Grecian eloquence still flour
ished at Antioch when idols were still worshiped in
the Temple of Mecca j and she may still exist in un-
diminished vigor when some traveler from New Zea
land shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand
on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins
of St. Paul s."*
* Review of Ranke s History of the Popes. Miscellanies, vol. iii.,
p. 320, 321.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 20 7
This is splendid writing ; this is eloquence of lan
guage; this is sublime in the description of what might
of what may occur. But it is not prophecy. If he
had said that this will be, it would be prophecy ; and if
he had gone into detail, as Isaiah has done in regard to
a city larger in its area than even modern London, and
concerning which, at the time, there was as little prob
ability that it would be a " vast solitude" as there is
that London will be ; if he had said, as Isaiah does, " It
shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in
from generation to generation ; but wild beasts of the
desert shall lie there ; and their houses shall be full of
doleful creatures ; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs
shall dance there ; and the wild beasts of the islands
shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their
pleasant palaces; I will make it a possession for the
bittern, and pools of water ; and I will sweep it with the
besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts" (Isaiah,
xiii., 20-22 ; xiv., 23), this would have been prophecy.
Except by prophecy by direct inspiration of God
the power of man in regard to the" future is limited by
those things which have now been adverted to. His
desires, indeed, his efforts have not been bounded by
these things, nor has he been satisfied by this arrange
ment; for there is no one thing that he has more
longed for, or for which he has struggled more, than to
penetrate the dark veil which shuts out the future, and
to make his own power in regard to the future corre
spond with his power over the past. By the interpret
ation of dreams ; by consultation of the stars ; by at
tempting to make compacts with the dead to induce
them to disclose the secret which is supposed to be in
their possession ; by mysterious combinations of num
bers ; by oracles ; by torturing nature to make it dis-
208 LECTURES ON THE
close the secret; by somnambulism; by spiritualism;
by the flight of birds ; by inspecting the entrails of an
imals ; by the supposed visitations of the gods, and the
return of the departed to the earth, men have sought to
set aside the great law which God has ordained on this
subject, but in vain. Man reaches distant worlds by
the telescope; he whispers so as to be heard across
continents, sending his thoughts beneath the waves of
the ocean, and over deserts and mountains ; he chron
icles the centuries lying back of all recorded history,
by which the earth was slowly moulded to be the resi
dence of living beings ; he marks with unerring precis
ion the movements of far distant worlds, but not one
thing in the future, even that which is nearest to him,
can he learn ; not one response can he get to all the
modes in which he asks the question, What is to be to
morrow f
Prophecy is the only thing which discloses that, and
to that we now turn with the inquiry whether, to any
extent and for any purpose, God has lifted the veil and
disclosed the future* to man ? If he has, it is a miracle,
like any other miracle. The power to disclose the fu
ture, like the power to create a world or to raise the
dead, is beyond the power of man. The limitation in
the one case is in regard to time; in the other in re
gard to power. In either case, all beyond is of God.
The one is miracle, the other is prophecy.
The following things are essential to prophecy :
First. That the prediction be beyond the power of
man in penetrating the future ; that it be not a vision
of hope ; that it be not the result of a mathematical
calculation ; that it be not within the limits of mere po
litical sagacity. The inspiration of hope is not proph
ecy, for it makes nothing certain. The calculation of
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 209
an eclipse is not prophecy, for it depends on fixed laws.
The suggestions of sagacity are not prophecy, for they
are not fixed and certain ; they give no dates, no names,
no details.
Second. It must be demonstrated that the prediction
was before the event. Every man has a right to re
quire that this shall be put beyond suspicion.
Third. The prediction must be fairly applicable to
the event. It should not refer to one of many things
to which it might be adjusted with equal ease, but to
one thing, and so definite that it can not be adjusted to
another, except as that other may be an unfolding of it.
The prediction of the destruction of Babylon must be
of Babylon, and so expressed that it shall describe that
city in its future ruin, and not Tyre, Nineveh, Petra, Je
rusalem, Rome.
Fourth. The language should be such that it will be
unmistakable. Whether words or symbols are used,
they must be such that by fair, not by forced interpret
ation, the prediction is applicable to the event. The
enemies of revelation have a right to demand this ; its
friends are bound to show that it is so.
But there are some things of equal clearness which
are not to be demanded, and which are essential to a
just view of the subject, but which are not as likely to
be conceded as these would be. It is important that
we have a clear understanding with the enemies of rev
elation in regard to them also.
First. In order to prophecy it is not necessary that
there should be an exact and minute specification of
names, dates, and circumstances. The reasons of this
are obvious : (a) If there were such an exact specifica
tion it would be possible to defeat the prophecy, (b) An
event can be designated with sufficient certainty with-
210 LECTURES ON THE
out such an exact specification of names, dates, and cir
cumstances, (c) A predicted event, that seems obscure
before the event occurs, may become clear when the
event is accomplished. Such may be the clearness of
the event, so entirely may it tally with the prediction,
so plain may become the statements in the prophecy
that seemed to be obscure, and so perfectly may the
facts in the event harmonize apparently contradictory
statements in the prophecy, that, while it would not
have been easy or possible, perhaps, to have made a
statement in detail beforehand of what would be, there
can be no doubt of what was intended in the prophecy.
Thus, for illustration, in the prophecies respecting the
Messiah, there seemed to be two classes of predictions
that were wholly irreconcilable, and that led to wholly
different expectations of what he would be. One class
described him as a man in humble life ; a man of sor
rows ; a man rejected, despised, put to death, buried.
The other class described him as the descendant of
David ; as one who would occupy his throne ; as a
prince and a conqueror ; as triumphant ; as reigning ;
as setting up a perpetual kingdom ; as going forth to
the conquest of the world ; as triumphing over all his
foes ; as successful and glorious in his work. One class
of the prophecies described him as one who had all the
susceptibilities of a man, and who was subject to all the
infirmities of a man ; the other class described him as
the " mighty God," and the " Father of the everlasting
age" (Isa.,ix., 6). The Jews naturally, in carrying out
their ideas of national pride and glory, selected the lat
ter view, and anticipated in their Messiah an illustrious
prince and conqueror one who in his reign would
surpass even the magnificent reigns of David and Sol
omon. They were never able when he appeared, nor
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 211
are they to this day, to blend the two descriptions in
one person. The Christian sees no difficulty in the
subject, for he finds, he thinks, all these things united
in him who, " being in the form of God, thought it not
robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no
reputation, and was made in the likeness of men ; and
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross" (Phil., ii, 6-8).
What is here stated may exist to some extent under
any circumstances, and in the plainest descriptions, from
the nature of the human mind, and from the necessity of
the case. A description of a person that we have not
seen, or an event that we have not witnessed, may be
very obscure before the person is seen or the event oc
curs, but plain enough, and so plain that the correspond
ence can not be mistaken, when the person is seen or
the event occurs. Who ever obtained any correct idea
of Niagara Falls by a description ? Who, say to the
most polished Greek and Roman mind, could have con
veyed by mere description any idea of a printing-press,
of a locomotive engine, of the magnetic telegraph ?
Who could convey to one born blind an idea of the
prismatic colors, or to the deaf an idea of the sounds
of the great organ at Harlaem ?
As I suppose all students do, I had formed an idea of
Rome from the descriptions which I had read in my
early years. I had grown up with the idea until it be
came as definite in my own mind as the lanes, and
roads, and fields, and streams of the quiet country-place
where I was born. I could have drawn out a map of
it, and could have located the Tiber, and the Vatican,
and the Forum, and the Coliseum. When, some years
ago, I was actually there, I had two Romes in my eye
212 LECTUEES ON THE
the Rome of my youth and of all my life, and the
Rome of the reality, and nothing scarcely could have
been more unlike than the two. Yet the Rome of the
reality, in fact, corresponded with all the descriptions
that I had read ; all those accounts were blended and
combined in it ; and the Rome of my youthful imagina
tion gradually gave way to the reality, so that I can
recall it no more. So the anticipations of the Messiah
grew up among the Hebrews. A distinct conception
of him, apparently as drawn by the prophets, was form
ed in the national mind. When the reality appeared,
he was, therefore, not recognized as the Messiah, and
was rejected. To the present day that Messiah of the
youth of the Hebrew people the Messiah of the imag
ination is before the unconverted Hebrew mind. To
the converted Jew to Saul of Tarsus that imaginary
Messiah passed away, and the Messiah of the reality
became fixed in the mind, blending all the ancient de
scriptions in harmony. Paul, I think, refers to this illu
sion and this reality when he says of himself, " Though
we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now hence
forth know we him no more" (2 Cor., v., 16).
Second. In presenting the argument from prophecy,
we may lay out of view the fact that many of the proph
ecies are yet difficult and obscure. Undoubtedly that
may be so, and it is to be admitted that it is so. To a
certain extent, for the reason already stated, all prophe
cies must be in a measure obscure until they are fulfilled,
and, as there may be many which are not yet fulfilled, it
is not to be denied that they may be obscure. But this
fact does not affect those that are clear clear either in
the terms in which they are expressed, or made clear
by the fact that they are fulfilled. They stand on their
own basis, and are to be interpreted as if there were no
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 213
other prophecies, whether real or obscure, true or false.
Moreover, the fact that they are now obscure does not
make it certain that they will always be so, or that even
they may not, at some future time, have a place among
those predictions so clearly fulfilled as to show that
they had their origin in God.
It may be remarked, also, that what is now affirmed
respecting prophecy is also true of the facts respecting
science, or of knowledge of any kind. Many of the real
truths of science are to us, as yet, very obscure, very
dim and shadowy. They seem to be enveloped in a
mist which we can not penetrate. They are not de
fined, even in their outlines, fully and clearly. There
are many doubts, even in the best cultivated minds, in
regard to them. The age of the world, for instance, is
one such point. No one has been able to determine it
by measuring the duration of the various periods which
geology reveals as having succeeded each other, in the
formation of rocks, and soils, and seas, since the creation,
or since the matter of the earth was brought into being.
Indeed, no approximation has been made to this, nor
has any one ventured even to conjecture how long this
has been.* But the obscurity on this point in no wise
affects the clearness and the certainty of the facts which
geology has disclosed in regard to the changes of the
earth. The evidence of each one of these rests entirely
on its own basis, quite independent of the inquiry about
the times which have elapsed since those great changes
commenced. Time, too, and farther inquiry may throw
light on the questions which are still obscure, and they
* "The aetaa/lengths of these ages it is not possible to determine
even approximately. All that geology can claim to do is to prove
the general proposition that Time is long. 1 1 Dana s Text-book of
Geology, p. 244.
214 LECTURES ON THE
may, at some far-distant period in the future, take their
place among the clear and acknowledged truths of sci
ence, as the now obscure prophecies may among those
that are plain.
Third. For a similar reason, we may lay out of view
the question about the interpretation of many of the
prophecies as forced and fanciful. Undoubtedly they
are so, and it is a great abridgment of our task in in
terpreting prophecy that we are not required, in de
fending the divine origin of the predictions of the Bible,
to undertake the defense of those interpretations. For
the vagaries of the human mind ; for the weaknesses of
religionists, however amiable ; for idiosyncracies among
good men ; for fanciful theories in regard to interpreta
tion; for the failure of expectations founded on such
interpretations, prophecy itself is in no wise responsi
ble, any more than science is for the failure of the ex
periments to secure perpetual motion or to construct a
flying machine. The world is quite full of Second Ad
vent literature, much of it already occupying the same
place in our libraries which the ingenious plans for se
curing perpetual motion or constructing flying ma
chines do in the Patent Office, but these no more affect
the reality of prophecy than those abandoned speci
mens of visionary ingenuity and skill do the steam-boat
or the telegraph.
Fourth. For the purpose of the present argument,
also, we may lay out of view the manner in which the
sacred writers themselves quote the prophecies and ap
ply the language of the Old Testament to the events re
corded in the New, under the general form of quota
tion, "tva. 7r\r)p<i)$rj (Matt., i., 22 ; ii, 15 ; iv., 14 ; x:xi., 4 ;
xxvi., 56 ; xxvii., 35 ; Mark, xiv., 29 ; John, xii., 38, et
soape). In saying that these quotations may be laid out
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 215.
of view, it is not admitted that they are on a false prin
ciple, or that they can not be vindicated, but that they
do not affect the real question about prophecy. If it
should be conceded that their manner of making these
quotations could not be vindicated, still the admission
would only affect the question of their own inspiration,
not the main question whether there are prophecies of
whose application there could be no doubt. The sole
inquiry in regard to the passages that come under the
form of quotation included in the words Iva TrXrjpwSrj
" that it might be fulfilled" would be whether this
manner of quotation would be consistent with just
views of inspiration. A solution of the difficulties on
that point, or a failure to solve the difficulties, would in
no way affect the more general inquiry whether there
may not be prophecies which are encumbered with no
difficulties of this nature. They must stand or fall on
their own merit. The question of inspiration may be af
fected by this inquiry, but not the question of prophecy.
Laying these things, therefore, out of view, as in no
way affecting the inquiry before us, I shall now proceed
to make a few remarks on the evidence from prophecy
of the truth of revelation as it appears in the nineteenth
century. Of course the remarks must be few. I can
not go in detail into an examination of the numerous
predictions in the Bible in regard to the future.
The Bible, more than any other book, deals with the
future.
(a) Philosophers and historians rarely venture into
the region of the future, for it is not in their province.
Their field is mainly the past; their range in regard
to the future is limited to reflections and inferences
from the past as to what the future, supposing that
the world is governed by uniform laws, and that the
216 LECTURES ON THE
same causes will produce the same results, may be.
That luxury will corrupt and destroy a nation is one
of those general maxims derived from the experience
of the past, and it may therefore be predicted that
where luxury abounds it will produce the same effect
hereafter which it has done before. But beyond such
general maxims philosophers and historians do not ven
ture to go. Mr. Gibbon deals with the past ; Tacitus
dealt with the past ; Mr. Hume and Lord Macaulay deal
with the past ; and, profound as are the reflections of
these men, especially those of Tacitus, on human affairs,
on human nature as exhibited by the course of events,
and on what may be the destiny of nations or the ad
vances of society hereafter, yet they never venture to
suggest what may be the boundaries of empires in times
to come ; what new forms of dominion may arise ; what
remarkable personages may appear and act their part
on the great theatre of human affairs ; what cities may
be besieged or lands laid waste by war ; what new
towns may be built, or at what periods of time great
and important events may be expected to occur. Men
can calculate eclipses, but they do not venture to fore
tell how events will occur that are dependent on the
human will, or consequent on new discoveries and in
ventions in the sciences and the arts. The Bible, how
ever, deals as much and as freely with the future as
with the past, and the sacred writers do not hesitate any
more to describe what will occur than to record what
has happened. The nearest approach to such predic
tions as occur in the Scriptures, in the ancient classic
writings, is probably found in the " Pollio" of Virgil
(Eel. iv.), bearing, in some respects, a strong resem
blance to some passages in Isaiah ; but it would be
easy to show how far short this comes of prophecy.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 217
(b) False religions do not deal much with the future.
As Mohammed in his public life expressly disclaimed re
liance on miracles as not necessary to the establishment
of his religion, so, in the Koran, he has practically dis
claimed reliance on prophecy as equally unnecessary.
There are no predictions in the Koran corresponding
with those of the Messiah in the Scriptures, or with
those pertaining to Babylon, to Petra, to Tyre, to
Edom, or to Jerusalem. Mohammed, perhaps, had sa
gacity enough to see that the truth of any such predic
tions would soon come to a practical test, for there is
nothing on which men who wish to establish a perma
nent religion, or a permanent fame, will be so slow to
venture as on predictions in regard to the future. The
Bible, therefore, has laid itself open to detection as no
other book has, if it is false, by its pretended disclosures
of the future. Lord Bacon, in his will, said, " For my
name and memory, I leave them to men s charitable
speeches, and to foreign nations, and to the next ages?
The Bible, in all the reproaches cast upon it, has thus
left its vindication to the " next ages" to remotest pe
riods and generations.
The nature of the argument I shall state now in few
words. There is not time to go into detail, nor is it
necessary for my purpose.
First. The sacred books describe things as they now
exist now, in this nineteenth century. The range of
subjects to which this remark is applicable is very
large, but the nature of the argument would be the
same whether we take the whole range of subjects into
the account, or confine our illustrations to a few of them.
As the facts are not such that they could or would be
called in question, it can not be alleged that any advan
tage would be taken, or any unfairness evinced, if we
K
218 LECTURES ON THE
confine our attention to a very few of these things.
We may take, then, as a specimen as a sufficient illus
tration the condition of two celebrated cities in the
past, Babylon and Tyre. The remark which I am now
making is, that now, in the nineteenth century, the con
dition of those cities is what the prophets said it would
be more than two thousand years ago.
Babylon. The prophets said that the following would
be its condition : " And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
the beauty of the Chaldees excellency, shall be as when
God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never
be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from genera
tion to generation ; neither shall the Arabian pitch his
tent there ; neither shall the shepherds make their fold
there ; but wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and
their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls
shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And
wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate
houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces ; and her
time is near to come, and her days shall not be pro
longed" (Isa., xiii., 19-22). "I will also make it a pos
session for the bittern, and pools of water ; and I will
sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord
of hosts" (Isa., xiv., 23).
This is the condition of Babylon now, and has been
for centuries. Every part of this statement can be con
firmed, and has been confirmed by travelers in the East,
and in regard to the facts there are no varying state
ments. My time will not allow me to go into detail in
showing the accuracy of this description ; and it is un
necessary, for there are no differences of statements in
regard to what Babylon is, and has been for centuries.*
* For details on this subject, if any are disposed to pursue it farther,
I may be permitted to refer to my Notes on Isaiah on these passages,
and to Keith on the Prophecies, p. 185-190, 218-235.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 219
Tyre. Of Tyre, the prophets said that the following
would be its condition : " Thus saith the Lord God, Be
hold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many
nations to come against thee, as the sea causeth his
waves to come up ; and they shall destroy the walls of
Tyrus, and break down her towers ; and I will scrape
her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock :
it shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst
of the sea ; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God"
(Ezek., xxvi., 3-5). " I will make thee like the top of a
rock ; thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon ; thou
shalt be built no more, for I the Lord have spoken it,
saith the Lord God" (Ezek., xxvi., 14). "I will make
thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more : though thou
be sought for, yet thou shalt never be found again, saith
the Lord God" (Ezek., xxvi., 21). This is, and has been
the condition of Tyre for many centuries now, as might
be shown by any number of witnesses. " The vicissi
tudes of time, or rather the barbarism of the Greeks of
the lower empire," says Volney, "have accomplished
their prediction. Instead of that ancient commerce,"
says he, " so active and so extensive, Tyre, reduced to
a miserable village, has no other trade than the expor
tation of a few sacks of corn and raw cotton ; nor any
merchant but a single Greek factor, who scarcely
makes sufficient profit to maintain his family." "The
whole village of Tyre," he adds, "contains only fifty or
sixty poor families, who live obscurely on the produce
of their little grounds and a small fishery." Travels,
p. 212. Bruce describes Tyre as a "rock whereon
fishers dry their nets." Of Tyre in its present con
dition, there is no more difference in the description of
travelers than there is in the description of Babylon.
The accordance of the facts with the prophetic state-
220 LECTURES ON THE
ments could be easily established in the most minute
details.
The remarks now made might be extended, with like
accuracy of description, to Nineveh, Edom, Petra, Je
rusalem, to the condition of the Hebrew people, I be
lieve also to the fall of the Roman empire, the estab
lishment of the kingdom of the Messiah, and the rise
and character of the Papal power. But the discussion
would be too extended, and would not add essential
strength to the argument. Let us, therefore, in the
consideration of the argument, confine ourselves to the
two great cities now mentioned, and to the cities with
which they were connected, and which rose from the
same causes, and which by the same causes were made
permanently desolate, as the prophets said they would
be.
Second. What was predicted, and what has occurred,
in regard to the cities to which I have referred as an
illustration of the argument, was, in itself, in a high de
gree improvable. There was no reason why Babylon
should become a scene of utter and permanent desola
tion ; there was none why Tyre should cease to be an
important sea-port, and should become a place on which
the poor fisherman should spread his nets; and there
was no probability that either would occur. A similar
prophecy now, in regard to London or New York,
would have as much probability as the prophecies re
specting Babylon and Tyre had when they were utter
ed ; and strange and improbable as Macaulay s descrip
tion of the inhabitant of New Zealand standing on a
broken arch of London Bridge, amid a scene of wide
desolation, and making a sketch of the ruins of St.
Paul s, seems to us, yet it is no more strange than the
predictions of Isaiah and Ezekiel would have appeared
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 221
to the men of their times in regard to Babylon and Tyre.
Babylon, in its position, its strength, its resources, its
trade, its wealth, its relation to the vast empire of
which it was the capital, and the other empires of the
East with which it was connected, had all the requisites
of a great and permanent city ; Tyre, in its harbor, its
relation to the commerce of Asia, its situation on the
Mediterranean, with no rival harbor on the whole of
the eastern shores of that great sea, and its position be
tween Asia and Europe, through which the commerce
of the East must pass, had all the requisites of a per
manent and rich sea-port ; nor could it be shown that
Liverpool or New York, in relation to the commerce of
the world now, are more favorably situated than Tyre
was then. The great traffic of the East of the world
passed through it, and it must have seemed then that
that traffic would continue to pass through it forever.
Third. The causes of the permanent ruin of these
cities, and of the other cities in the same group Petra,
Tadmor, Baalbec were such as could not then be fore
seen. The foretelling of those causes was wholly be
yond the existing state of knowledge at that age of
the world wholly beyond the range of human sagac
ity.*
The main cause of these great changes, and perhaps
the sole cause of these permanent desolations, was the
discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, and the conse
quent change which that event made in the commerce
of the world. Babylon, and Tyre, and Petra, and Pal-
* In relation to these causes, which there was not time fully to
state in the Lecture, I may be permitted to refer to an article on the
"Ancient Commerce of Western Asia, " in the Biblical Repository for
1840, and reprinted in the volumes entitled "Miscellaneous Essays
and Reviews," published by Ivison andPhinney, 1855, vol. ii., p. 5-60.
222 LECTURES ON THE
myra were indeed in ruins before that event occurred,
but there was nothing in the nature of the case that
prevented their being rebuilt again, until the causes
which had made them great had ceased forever. The
great and rich commerce of the East had been the prize
sought for by all ancient nations, and that commerce
had laid the foundation, or had given importance to the
cities and sea-ports which were in the line of its direc
tion, as that commerce subsequently made Alexandria
and Venice, in a great measure, what they were. The
discovery of the Cape of Good Hope a new passage to
India gave that commerce a new direction forever,
and sealed the truth of the prophecies forever turned
it from Petra, and Palmyra, and Tyre, and Babylon, and
Alexandria, and Venice, as the ocean ships from Asia
to California, and the Pacific Railroad, may yet turn it
away from London and Liverpool. There were no
causes when the prophets spoke that tended to make
Babylon, and Petra, and Tyre what they are, any more
than there were causes which could be foreseen to pro
duce the malaria in the Pontine Marshes, desolating
Rome, or than there will be causes in the future which
could now be foreseen which will make Philadelphia or
London pools of water and the habitation of owls.
Mere political sagacity could never, in Palestine or any
where else, have foreseen the discovery of the Cape of
Good Hope, or the effects of the use of the magnetic
needle, or the changes produced by the railroad and
the steam vessel ; nor could political sagacity have pre
dicted the flowing in of the sand that permanently
blocked up the harbor of Tyre.
Fourth. The prophetic statements to which I have
referred were written before the events occurred. In
respect to some prophecies, as, for example, the predic-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 223
tion of the beginning and the close of the Babylonish
captivity, in which both the prophecy and the event are
now far distant in the past, it may require no small
amount of learning and argument to demonstrate that
the prophecy was written before the event ; in respect
to the events now under consideration, no such study
can be necessary, for it can not be made a matter of
doubt. I believe, indeed, that it can be fully shown by
the sternest literary criticism that the prophecies re
specting Babylon and Tyre were written before the de
cline and fall of those great cities, and when they were,
in fact, in the meridian height of their splendor ; but,
however that may be, there can be no doubt that they
were written before the present time, and, therefore, an
terior to their fulfillment as the fulfillment is now the
fulfillment of absolute and perpetual desolation. If it
could have been foretold by natural sagacity, or by rea
soning on the ordinary course of events, as probable or
even certain, that they would be overthrown by war,
or by time, or by changes in human aifairs, yet how, by
such sagacity, could it have been predicted that they
would be perpetually and permanently desolate f How
could the prominent cause of that perpetual desolation
the changing of the commerce of the world by a new
route to the Indies, of which they at that time never
dreamed have been foreseen ? And how, in any cir
cumstances, could their perpetual desolation have been
predicted ? Do cities never rise again after they have
been destroyed ? Are they never rebuilt after they have
been razed to their foundations by war ? Jerusalem
how often was it rebuilt after it had been laid in ruins !
Rome how often has that been laid waste by fire ; by
invading armies ; by the Goths and Vandals ; by ma
laria ; and yet how often it has been rebuilt again ! Lon-
224 LECTUEES ON THE
don how often has the fire passed over it, and yet it
has risen to augmented wealth and grandeur ! Lisbon,
destroyed by an earthquake how soon did it rise
again ! Why, then, are Babylon, and Tyre, and Petra,
and Tadmor, doomed to perpetual desolation? And
how could it be known that they would be ? But there
they are, now, in this nineteenth century, precisely as
the prophets said they would be piles of ruins ; utter
desolations ; the habitation of dragons, and satyrs, and
owls.
Fifth. It remains, then, in summing up what I have
said, to observe that these things are beyond the range
of the unaided powers of man. They are not a mere
guess, or a vague conjecture of what might be, like Ma-
caulay s remark about the New Zealander; they are
positive affirmations of what would be. They can not
come under the province of hope, for their enemies could
have seen no ground of hope that they would be thus
permanently desolate. They are not the result of math
ematical calculation, as the movements of the heavenly
bodies are, for ruined cities come under no such laws.
The predictions are not the result of political sagacity.
In particularity ; in definiteness ; in minuteness ; in de
tail, they are wholly unlike the predictions of Burke
and Canning, for even Burke, wonderful as his sagacity
was, never ventured on any predictions that would cor
respond in detail with the events following the French
Revolution and the Regicide Peace. They are, there
fore, the result of PROPHECY the effect of a supernatu
ral endowment of man, on a line similar to miracles ; and
a confirmation now, like miracles, of the divine origin
of the book in which they are found.
The following, then, is the argument in this nine
teenth century :
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 225
(a) There are the books containing these prophecies.
They have come down to us from the far-distant past
the most venerable books in the possession of man
kind. Those books do not pass away as their authors
did. They live. They have lived for more than two
thousand years. They will live on to all coming time.
They do not change. Not a word is altered ; not a let
ter is lost. They may be examined with the utmost
patience and leisure of criticism, and the world is in
vited to the examination.
(t>) There are the facts. The East is full of them.
They, too, do not now change. Babylon and Tyre are
what they have been for more than a thousand years,
and they will remain what they are for more than a
thousand years to come, except that the corroding
tooth of time will slowly remove the proofs, as now
found in their remains, that they once existed at all.
They, too, may be examined as leisurely as the books.
Travelers tell us what they are, and they do not vary
in their statements. Any man, if he has any doubt on
the subject, may go and examine those ruins. " I
would," said a countryman of our own, when speaking
of the ruins of a city in the East, " I would that the
skeptic could stand, as I did, among the ruins of this
city, and there open the sacred book, and read the
words of the inspired penman, written when this deso
late place was one of the greatest cities in the world.
I see the scoif arrested, his cheek pale, his lip quivering,
and his heart quaking with fear, as the ancient city cries
out to him, in a voice loud and powerful as one risen
from the dead ; though he would not believe Moses and
the prophets, he believes the handwriting of God him
self in the desolation and* eternal ruin around him."*
* Stephens, Incidents of Travel, etc., vol. ii., p. 76.
K2
226 LECTURES ON THE
LECTURE
INSPIRATION OP THE SCRIPTURES WITH REFERENCE TO
THE OBJECTIONS MADE IN THE NINETEENTH CEN
TURY.
THE subject of this Lecture will be the inspiration of
the Bible as an argument for the divine origin of Chris
tianity, keeping before us, in the discussion, the main
thought which lies at the foundation of these Lectures
the argument as it exists in the nineteenth century.
The point of the inquiry is not what the argument for
the inspiration of the Bible, and the consequent proofs
of the divine origin of the system, would have been
when the canon of the Bible was complete, and it was
first submitted to the world, but what it is now, after
the volume has been before the world for eighteen
hundred years. It has been fairly tried. It may be pre
sumed that all the objections that are ever to be made
to its inspiration have been already made. It may be
assumed that its teachings are understood, and that we
now understand what its influence will be at any time,
in any land, or in relation to any class of men, barbar
ous or civilized, or in its bearing on the morals, the
manners, and the laws of men. It may be assumed,
perhaps, that science will have nothing more formida
ble to oppose to its claims to inspiration than it has
already alleged, and that no discoveries will be made
in the ruins of ancient cities and towns, or in the struc
ture of the earth itself, that will add any new facts to
strengthen the argument against its divine origin.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 227
What, then, is the evidence, in the age in which we
live, that this book was inspired ?
It would not be practicable in a single Lecture, on
such a subject, to enter into details, and it is not my
purpose to attempt it. This one subject itself might
extend beyond the entire limit of this course of Lec
tures, and still be unexhausted ; for the field is ample ;
the difficulties are great ; there are important ques
tions which are not yet settled ; and perhaps, as com
pared with other subjects pertaining to the Bible, there
is no more inviting field on which a student of the sa
cred Scriptures, who would wish to prepare something
that might be the great work of his life, could more
properly employ his talents than in endeavoring to
determine the yet unsettled questions about the in
spiration of the Bible. Into the questions, therefore,
about the modes of inspiration; whether it extends
to the words as well as to the matter ; how far the
sacred writers availed themselves of their own knowl
edge and observation, and the knowledge and histor
ical records in existence when they wrote ; how far,
as inspired men, they are responsible for statements
on other subjects than those pertaining to the im
mediate purpose of inspiration the ordinary facts
of history, or the statements of science ; how far they
were permitted to employ their own powers, and how
this is consistent wth their being inspired ; how the
apparent discrepancies and contradictions in the book
can be reconciled with the idea of inspiration into
these and kindred questions I do not propose largely
to enter. I may be permitted, also, to say, that on
some of these points there are difficulties which have
not yet been met, and which perhaps none of us are
prepared to meet.
228
LECTURES ON THE
I shall, therefore, limit my remarks to considerations
of a very general nature, designed to show that the
Bible can not have been the work of the unaided hu
man powers, but that there are things pertaining to it
which show that it must have come from God, or that
it was inspired. In a parallel case, we might show that
the worlds bear marks of having been made by God,
and that any other theory would be incapable of de
fense, though there may be a thousand difficulties in
our minds in respect to that creation, and a thousand
things which we are not competent to reconcile and
explain.
There are certain characteristics of mind which, how
ever unnatural it may seem at first sight to place them
together, appear to lie in the same line, or to have a re
lation to each other which has not yet been explained ;
where one closely borders on another ; where one may
be mistaken for another ; and where, in describing the
operations of the mind, there may be danger of ascrib
ing that to one which properly belongs to another. I
mention them in the following order : Genius ; Inspira
tion; Insanity.
I mention them in this connection and this order, not
because this order is always found, or because the one
naturally develops itself into the other, or because the
one is to be explained on the same principles as the
other, but because there is a certain resemblance in
them which would not be likely to be found in other
characteristics of the human mind as bearing on the
production of a work of art, or in relation to the devel
opments of the highest forms of thought. The Bible
is the creation of one of these. The word inspiration
is often applied to the works of genius / among the
Greeks, and the ancients generally, the idea of inspira-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 229
tion, as at the oracle at Delphi, was closely connected
with the ravings of insanity.
(1.) Genius. This means "the peculiar structure of
mind which is given by nature to an individual, or that
disposition or bent of mind which is peculiar to every
man, and which qualifies him for a particular employ
ment ; a particular natural talent or aptitude for a par
ticular study or course of life as a genius for history,
poetry, or painting." Webster. Hence it comes to be
applied to superiority of mind, or to uncommon powers
of intellect, particularly the power of invention.
This often seems to rise into inspiration, and, at any
rate, lies along on the borders of inspiration, using that
word now in the largest sense. Our life, if we would
mark it in any case, is made up much of suggestions ab
extra from without. Those suggestions are number
less, and as varied as they are numberless ; they are
flitting and transitory; they come from some unseen
quarter, and are apparently connected with each other
by no laws of association, and by no laws that we can
trace with what we have done or thought before. A
few of them we retain at our pleasure ; the mass we
dismiss at once, as we do dreams. Genius consists, per
haps, not so much in the numbers or the nature of those
suggestions as in the power or the disposition to retain
them and to make a selection from them ; to keep and
combine those that may be the origin of great inven
tions, or that may be developed into some new discov
ery in science that may lay the foundation of a great
tragedy or a great epic. A thousand persons might
have seen the spasmodic action produced in the mus
cles of the leg of a frog when in contact with a com
position of zinc and acid, and never have thought of
it again ; but to Galvani it suggested an idea worth
230 LECTURES ON THE
pursuing. Thousands of persons had seen an apple fall
from a tree, and had thought no more of it ; to Newton,
according to the current tradition, it suggested an in
quiry into the cause of its falling, and led to the discov
ery of the great laws by which the planets are held in
their places and by which the worlds revolve. Thou
sands of persons had seen the operation of steam on a
small scale in lifting the lid of a tea-kettle and had
dismissed it without thought ; to such a mind as that
of Watt it suggested the idea of power, of motion, and
is now changing the industry, the commerce, the civil
ization, and the religion of the world.
Yet who can tell whence these suggestions come into
our minds ? Who is their author ? By what laws do
they come, and by what laws do they go ? And by
what principles did Homer, and Shakspeare, and New
ton retain them, and mould them till their development
had given undying lustre to their memory ?
There are those who suppose that the inspiration of
the Bible is no more than this, and that it is to be ex
plained on the same principle ; not as derived from sug
gestions by the Spirit of God, but as suggestions of the
mind itself, the suggestions of genius. Such persons
and they are many now like Theodore Parker, and
like Renan, do not deny the " inspiration" of the Bible,
but it is inspiration such as there was in Burns or in
Bacon ; in Homer or in Milton ; in Dante or in Michael
Angelo. Shakspeare and Isaiah, Kant and Paul, differ
only in degree.
How closely the idea of genius and inspiration lie on
the same line may be seen from the meaning which the
word genius has acquired. The ancients, in their use
of the word, did not attribute genius to a man s own
mind. It was the good or evil spirit, or demon, which
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 231
was supposed to preside over his destiny in life ; to di
rect his birth and actions ; to be his guard and guide ;
to suggest thoughts to him ; to impart to him wisdom.
Socrates always referred what he had of wisdom that
might be superior to that of other men, not to himself,
but to his " genius" the demon that pertained to him,
that attended on him, that inspired him. The genius
loci of the ancients was the presiding spirit of a place,
the tutelary divinity, hence denoting the pervading
spirit of an institution, a city, a society of men. The
question before us is whether this will explain all that
there was in Isaiah and John.
(2.) Inspiration in the proper sense of the term. Ad
mitting now that there is such a thing, the present ob
ject is to distinguish it from genius how it resembles
it, and how it differs from it.
(a) As we have seen, it resembles it. It is suggestive.
It is ab extra. It is from some unseen quarter. It
comes into the mind by no laws of association witft the
past, often apparently by no laws of association with
the differentials of the suggestion, any more than the
suggestions of genius have, or than dreams have. It
contains great thoughts what Lord Bacon calls " the
seeds of things" to be developed either by the study
of the prophet himself, who is inspired, studying his
own predictions as if they were those of another man,
or, in after times, by events that shall occur, by higher
revelations, or by the studies of uninspired men. Thus,
of the prophets, one himself inspired has said, " Of
which salvation the prophets have inquired and search
ed diligently, searching what, or what manner of time
the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when
it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the
glory that should follow" (1 Peter, i., 11, 12). They
232 LECTURES ON THE
gave themselves to the careful and profound study of
their own prophecies, of the meaning of the words
which had been suggested to them by the Spirit of
God.
(b) Yet inspiration differs from genius. It is in ad
vance of genius ; it is beyond what lies in the range of
genius. We suppose that no development of genius,
no mere enlargement of any man s natural powers, how
ever richly endowed, nothing which comes under the
name of genius, would come up to what is implied in
inspiration. However we may account for the " sug
gestions" which come into our minds, as I have said, al
extra, and especially the " suggestions" which come into
the minds of men of genius, and which constitute the
distinction between them and other men suggestions
on which the progress of the world in science and in
art so- much depends or whether they can be account
ed for or not, yet we suppose that the matter of inspira
tion? the " suggestions" to the mind of the prophet
can be definitely explained. They are not the sugges
tions of genius, but of the Spirit of God, breathing
truths into the soul which would never occur to a hu
man mind, however exalted, and securing, by a direct
and special agency on the soul, the perfect accuracy of
such suggestions. They are as if the Spirit of God
spoke to men. There is a limit to genius. There is a
point beyond which it does not go. It never comes up
to inspiration, as mere human power, however great and
wonderful, never comes up to a miracle. There is a
point where that power stops short of a miracle, and
that is within the power necessary to raise the dead ;
there is a point where genius stops short, and that is
within the limit of inspiration. And yet it is a fair
question, Why may not the genius which accomplished
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 233
what Shakspeare accomplished embrace what Isaiah
did as well as what Shakspeare did ?
(3.) It may have seemed strange, perhaps, that I have
suggested the word insanity as in any way connected
with inspiration ; as having any resemblance to that or
to genius, or as lying in any respect in the same line ;
as if genius and insanity were in any way connected ; as
if men of genius were likely to be insane, as if all the in
sane were remarkable for genius; or as if the prophets
uttered their predictions under the ravings of insanity.
It would take longer than the time will now admit
of, without exhausting the whole time allotted to this
Lecture, fully to explain and justify even the introduc
tion of such a thought to your minds, or to show how
they have been in any way connected or associated in
the minds of men.
Perhaps even now the highest and best delineations
of insanity have been drawn, not by Pritchard and oth
ers who have particularly studied and observed it, but
by one who may almost never have seen an insane per
son, and who had not himself studied the subject,, but
by a man endowed, undoubtedly, with the highest gen
ius that the world has known as drawn in the charac
ter of Lear, Hamlet, Jaques, and in the tender sympa
thy, the knowledge of the disease, and of the proper
mode of treatment of the disease expressed in the char
acters of Ophelia and Cordelia.*
The Savior himself was regarded by his kindred as
insane : " And when his friends heard of it, they went
out to lay hold on him, for they said, He is beside him-
self"t&aTr) (Mark, iii., 21). "Many of them said, He
hath a devil, and is mad" paiverat (John, x., 20).
* See " Shakspeare s Delineations of Insanity, Imbecility, and Sui
cide," by A. 0. Kellogg M.D., p. 1-114.
234 LECTURES ON THE
Paul was regarded as insane. " Festus said, with a
loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself fiairy much
learning doth make thee mad ;" more literally, " much
learning has turned thee to insanity" t p.aviav Trepi-
rpeW (Acts, xxvi., 24). " Whether," says Paul, " we be
beside ourselves" i^iar-q^v as we may seem to many
to be, to be insane " it is to God" in the cause of
God ; that is, what we say as inspired men may seem
to men to be the mere ravings of insanity (2 Cor.,
v., 13).
It is well known to all that among the heathen the
ideas of inspiration and insanity were closely connected.
The opinion which was held by them on the subject is
beautifully stated by Plato : " While the mind sheds its
light around us, pouring into our souls a meridian splen
dor, we, being in possession of ourselves, are not under
a supernatural influence ; but after the sun goes down,
as might be expected, an ecstasy, a divine influence, and
& frenzy falls upon us ; for when the divine light shines,
the human goes down ; but when the former goes down,
the latter rises and comes forth. This," says he, " is
what ordinarily happens in prophecy. Our own mind
retires on the advent of the divine spirit, but after the
latter has departed the former again returns" (quoted
in Bib. Repos., vol. ii., p. 163). Here Plato calls it " an
ecstasy" " a frenzy" bordering close, at least, on in
sanity.
In the common ideas respecting the Pythian oracle,
the conception of insanity, or raving madness, becomes
more distinct. Thus Lucan says : " She madly raves
through the cavern, impelled by another s mind, with
the fillets of the god and the garland of Phoabus shaken
from her erected hair ; she whirls around the void
space of the temple, turning her face in every direc-
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 235
tion ; she scatters the tripods which come in her way,
and is agitated with violent commotion, because sheds
under thy angry influence, O Apollo."*
Virgil has given a similar description of a demonia
cal possession of this kind :
"I feel the god, the rushing god ! she cries
While thus she spoke enlarged her features grew ;
Her color changed, her locks disheveled flew.
The heavenly tumult reigns in every part,
Pants in her breast, and swells her rising heart.
Still spreading to the sight the priestess glowed,
And heaved impatient of the incumbent god ;
Then to her inmost soul by Phoebus fired,
In more than human sounds she spoke inspired. "f
It has been supposed by some that the true prophets
were under an influence of this kind ; that they were
divested of intelligent consciousness, so that they were
ignorant of what they uttered, and that the Spirit of
Inspiration made use of them only as organs, or as un
conscious agents to utter his truth. It is not my pur
pose to go into this inquiry ; but I suppose, in common
with the great mass of those who believe in the Bible,
that, though they did not comprehend the full meaning
of what they uttered (1 Peter,!, 10-12), yet that they
* Bacchatur demens aliena per antrum
Colla ferens, vittasque Dei, Phrebeaque serta
Ercatis discussa comis, per inania templi
Ancipiti cervice rotat, Spargitque vaganti
Obstantes tripodes, magnoque exastuat igne
Iratum te, Phcebe, ferens. Pharsalia, v.
f Ait : Deus, ecce, Deus ! cui talia fanti
Ante fores, subitb non vultus, non color unus,
Nee comptse mansere comas ; sed pectus anhelum,
Et rabie fera corda tument ; majorque videri
Nee mortale sonans ; aiBata est numine quando
Jam propriore Dei. JEn., vi., 46 seq.
236 LECTURES OX THE
bad an intelligent understanding of what they saw or
spoke ; that the prophet had control over his own mind
(1 Cor., xiv., 32) ; that he could speak or not, as he
pleased ; and that in his inspired utterances he acted, as
at other times, as a conscious, voluntary, and intelligent
agent. The true idea, probably, has been expressed by
Lowth : " Inspiration may be regarded, not as suppress
ing or extinguishing for a time the faculties of the hu
man mind, but of purifying, and strengthening, and ele
vating them above what they would otherwise reach."
The reference which I have made to insanity is not at
all because it is believed that that was the condition of
the minds of the prophets, but as illustrating the fact
that it has been supposed that these states of mind lie
much in the same direction, or have points of resern-
blandt not unworthy to be noticed. The bearing of the
remarks on the subject before us is that the Bible, as
a composition, is to be traced as a whole, and in all its
parts, to erne of these three things. The question be
tween the friends of the Bible and other men is to
which of these it is to be attributed.
It will be admitted by all that the Bible is not a
work of ordinary talent of mediocre human powers.
If it is a production of mere genius, it is genius of the
highest order. Every thing about it shows this: its
hold on mankind ; its power to survive attacks ; its per
petuated existence ; its undiminished influence in the ad
vances of civilization and the arts, and in the changes
of human opinion ; its poetry ; its eloquence ; its unity
of purpose; its power of creating interest in the minds
of all classes of men the most humble as well as the
most exalted, and the most exalted as well as the most
humble; the poor man, the rich man; the slave and
slave s master; the man of science, the man of refined
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 237
taste, and the newly-converted savage ; the delicate
female and the hardy warrior. It is a book that can
not be destroyed; a book that does not become old,
and that is not hidden away in the lumber of old li
braries. It keeps its place among living men in ages
when new books abound ; it has its place, in regard to
a living power, not with Strabo, and Galen, and Mela,
and Abelard, and Duns Scotus, but with Milton, and
Shakspeare, and Macaulay, and Burke books that are
" thumbed" and read ; it is a book of influence, and has
more influence on mankind now than Homer, and Plato,
and the Koran, and Shakspeare than Kant, and Locke,
and Bacon altogether. Is it a work of mere genius ?
I said that there are great questions about inspiration
which are yet unsettled. I repeat, on account of its im
portance, and with the hope of stirring up some young
man of this Seminary to the task, the remark that I
have already made, that, in my judgment, there is no
one department of Christian literature to which a
young man could better devote himself, with the hope
of producing something which the " world would not
willingly let die," than the solution of those questions.
They are beyond my range now beyond my learning,
my ability, and I shall not attempt to enter on them.
What is inspiration at all? What is plenary inspira
tion ? Is it suggestion, or superintendence, or control,
or all combined ? In inspiration, how far were the facul
ties of the men themselves employed ? Were they kept
from error on all subjects ? In what sense was what
they wrote on common matters inspired ? To what
extent in the Book is the Spirit of God " responsible"
for the statements made ? And how can the dates, and
the genealogies, and the apparent inconsistencies and
contradictions be reconciled with the proper idea of
238 LECTURES ON THE
inspiration ? These are questions in many of their bear
ings yet to be solved, and happy will be the man who
shall be raised up to solve them.
Perhaps, at this stage of the argument, it might be
said that the question whether the Bible is an inspired
book can not be settled till these questions are determ
ined, for they enter into the very essence of the ques
tion. It may seem to be so, and it might be difficult
to show that it is not so. And yet it is not necessarily
so. A thousand questions may be asked on any subject
without affecting the main question. There may be
questions asked about the Principia of Newton, and the
correctness of his theories about light and colors, and
"fits of easy transmission," and radiations of heat, which
do not affect the question about the work as the work of
a man in intellect at the very head of the race ; there
are many questions about the Iliad, yet unsettled, which
do not affect the question whether the whole work is
the production of one man; whether such a man as
Homer ever lived ; and whether the poem is made up
of independent " rhapsodies" by different authors. The
work is a whole by itself, and is a work of transcendent
genius, however these questions may be settled.
May we not take some such view of the Bible, and
find in that the evidence that it is inspired without
being able as yet to solve all difficulties, as we find in
other books, in a similar manner, the evidences of
genius ?
In regard to the argument now to be submitted to
you, I would be willing to concede that no single one
of the points which I shall suggest would of itself con
stitute a proof of such inspiration. The impression
which I would hope to make would be derived from
all of them combined. The point which I would desire
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 239
to leave for solution when I am through with the argu
ment would be, Whether these things could exist if the
J3ible were not an inspired book ? I shall ask you to
remember that that which may not seem to be strong
in itself may be strong in its position. The braces
which help to sustain a lofty pile of architecture in a
cathedral, or the arch of a bridge, may be feeble in
themselves, yet these, combined and interlaced among
each other, may give strength that shall hold the lofty
structure or the massive bridge against the winds and
the currents forever.
I. The first remark which I make is, that this claim,
whatever it is, relates to a class of men, extending
through a long series of years, constituting a unity in
their productions, and making their productions prop
erly one book. Whatever may be said of the produc
tions of uninspired genius, this can not be said of them,
and this claim could not be set up for them. There is
no sense in which the Iliad, and the Paradise Lost, and
the histories of Herodotus and Gibbon, and the orations
of Demosthenes and Burke, constitute one book.
The Bible is one book not accidentally, or by being
bound together like a pile of old pamphlets which the
lover of pamphlets accumulates and binds up in one
volume, but by an organic unity ; a unity of spirit, de
sign, harmony, purpose ; a unity in the sense of being
separate from all other books ; a unity as distinct as if
it were the production of one man ; a unity as complete
as the Iliad or the Paradise Lost having a plan ; hav
ing a beginning, a middle, and an end a beginning, a
middle, and an end more complete, extending through
more years, and embracing a greater variety of charac
ters and events than any other volume in the world
its beginning the beginning of creation; its middle the
240 LECTURES ON THE
Incarnation and the Atonement ; its end the consumma
tion of the world s affairs.
The volume is made up, indeed, of a large number of
pamphlets, written by different men, in different lan
guages, and at different periods. The writers were of
very different rank and character, from the magnificent
Oriental prince to the shepherd-boy and the fisherman
from the man trained in the best schools of the age,
like Paul, to the man who could say of himself, " I was
no prophet, neither was I a prophet s son ; but I was
an herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit ; and the
Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said
unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel" (Amos,
vii., 14, 15). Some of them, indeed, had all the learning
of their own country, and not a little of that in foreign
lands, and some had none ; some had traveled, but most
of them had not ; some had conversed with sages of
other countries, but most of them had never seen a
philosopher or a sage.
What they wrote constituted substantially all the lit
erature of the nation its poetry ; its learning ; its his
tory ; its eloquence ; its laws. At the time of the com
pletion of the volume it was all that they had. If there
had been other books in existence, as the books of" Na
than the Prophet," and the " Prophecy of Ahijah the
Shilonite," and "the Visions of Iddo the Seer" (2 Chron.,
ix., 29), and " Shemaiah the Prophet" (2 Chron., xii., 15),
they had been absorbed into the volume, or had been
allowed to " drop out," as not pertaining to the design
of the one book that was to constitute the literature of
the nation. If, simultaneously with this, or in the in
terval when one part of the volume the Old Testa
ment was completed, and the other part the New
was commenced, there was any thing that was, from
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 241
any cause, deemed worthy of preservation, it was care
fully separated from the sacred books in the " Apocry
pha ;" if contemporaneously with the New Testament,
or subsequently, any other literature existed, as the
writings of Philo and Josephus, or the Talmud, this also
was carefully separated from, and never confounded
with, the one volume that constituted the peculiar lit
erature of the nation.
There is, there has been no other nation where such
an organic literature has sprung up, the work of many
authors, extending through many years, and yet con
stituting one volume. The religion of China is in a
book written by one man Confucius ; the Koran is
the production of one man ; for any thing that appears,
the Zendavesta had a similar origin. The books of In
dia, indeed the Vedas and the Shasters have, in this
respect, some resemblance to the Bible, but, so far as
appears, they were the productions of a few authors,
and were composed in a brief period.
You can not bind up the literature of any other peo
ple, making one organic volume, as the Bible is bound
up. You can not thus bind up Grecian literature in
one volume. You have Homer, and Hesiod, and Herod
otus, and Thucydides, and Aristotle, and Plato, and
Sophocles, and JEschylus, but they would not, and could
not make one volume, having a beginning, a middle,
and an end. There is no reason why it should begin
thus ; why it should advance thus ; and there is no
catastrophe at its close. It is not one book. They are
many books. There is no unity. They are not the
production of one class of men, except as the Greeks
in general were distinguished from the rest of mankind.
In this view, too, the length of time is to be noticed
during which the composition was going on. The Bi-
L
242 LECTURES ON THE
ble is not the production of one age, so that it could be
considered, as certain groups of writings may be, as the
development of that age ; it is the production of many
ages, and the composition was quietly going on at the
same time in which the most important changes and
revolutions were occurring in the earth. During the
time of its composition kingdoms rose and fell ; great
conquerors founded empires, acquired immortality, and
they and their kingdoms passed away ; new discoveries
were made in science and in art; vast revolutions oc
curred in human affairs. Unaffected by these changes,
the composition of the Bible was quietly going on, and
the men engaged in the work calmly performed their
task, as a man would in a cave, sheltered by rocks,
while storms and tempests howled around him. For a
period of sixteen hundred years from the composition
of the first book the book of Job to the book of Rev
elation, that work was calmly advancing the writers
now appearing in groups, and the work now interrupt
ed by intervals of hundreds of years, till the last dec
laration was uttered, " Surely I come quickly ; amen.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus ;" winding up the volume and
the work. The idea of unity is one that runs through
all that period. The plan is slowly developed. The
plan is finally consummated by one John in Patmos
as unlike as can well be conceived in language, in at
tainments, in style, and manner, the man who at least
sixteen hundred years before put pen to the whole work
in the language, " There was a man in the land of Uz
whose name was Job ;" or, if Genesis was the first book
written, as it is the first in the Bible now, in the lan
guage, " In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth." Meantime they never copied from one an
other. They never seem to have been conscious that
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 243
there was &plan slowly developing itself. They never
mutilated or shaped facts so as to fit in to such a plan ;
they never modified the statement of events so that they
would seem to be a fulfillment of that plan. Moses, and
David, and Isaiah, and Paul, and John are as independ
ent of each other as Hesiod, and Homer, and Plato.
The sacred writers were not a corporation, a company,
a society, to write up a certain system, nor were there
revisers of their writings so to shape and alter them as
to secure unanimity and unity. The "Dunciad" was
written by concert; the "Spectator" was written by
concert ; Pope s Homer was translated by different au
thors under his direction, and united by him in one ; the
German critics sometimes tell us that the Iliad itself
was not written by one Homer, but by many; the
dramas of Beaumont and Fletcher are always in one
volume "Beaumont and Fletcher" apparently joint
productions ; but in the composition of the Bible each
man pursued his own plan, for Moses, and Isaiah, and
Paul were perfectly independent authors.
This is the more remarkable, because a great change
occurred in passing from the Old Testament to the New.
The old system, with all the peculiar laws and institu
tions pertaining to it, was to give way, and a new sys
tem to be introduced Christianity living to be super
induced upon Judaism dying. The difficulty was how,
in a system so unlike, and where one was to expire and
the other to rise into life, the one could be made to ap
pear to run into the other. Is Christianity a develop
ment of Judaism ? Would men under their own guid
ance, and without some higher influence, have developed
the old system the Jewish system the system of the
prophets into Christianity ? Not at all. It would have
been, under such a guidance, Judaism still ; Judaism
244 LECTURES ON THE
refined and expanded, Judaism adapted to the whole
world, but Judaism still. And yet the New Testament
is a development a filling up a completion of the sys
tem of the Old, and the entire Book the Bible is one.
It is susceptible of easy proof that one part is the com
pletion or complement of the other, as the two parts of
a tally, or as " complementary" colors ; not as the Jews
would have done it, but as it was intended it should be.
There is a scheme commenced. There is an anticipa
tion. There is a progress. There is a completion in
the Messiah. There is the unfolding of a plan running
in its statements through many centuries; one writer
in one age stating one thing, and another in another,
as if in one age one artist should have fashioned an arm,
and another a leg ; one a hand, and another a foot ; one
the nose, another the lips, another the chin ; one the
form and size of the head, and another the body ; and
all at last should have been put together in the form of
Minerva or Apollo.
The completion of the plan in the New Testament is
different from what a Jew would have made, but it is
a completion. He would have made the Messiah of the
New Testament a prince, a conqueror, a king ; he would
not have made him a poor man, a despised man, a suf
ferer ; the true completion was that he was indeed a
prince, a king, a conqueror, but that he was at the same
time, and eminently, poor, despised, and a sufferer. But
this accords, in fact, after all, with the Old Testament,
for he was to spring from the decayed family of Jesse and
David ; he was to be despised and rejected of men ; he
was to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
his grave was to be appointed with the wicked, but with
the rich man was he to be in his death, and yet he was
to be a conqueror and a king, with a dominion wider
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 245
than Caesar ever won, and an empire more enduring
than any of the dynasties of kings.
And if this is true, then there is this presumption in
the case, that it was under the guidance of One Mind,
that it is the product of one plan, that it is not the work
of many minds acting independently or in concert, but
that there was one presiding Intellect that guided all
these writers, and adjusted all these parts one to an
other, as much as there must have been if there had
been separate laborers working independently of each
other, and through many centuries, in forming the dif
ferent parts of the Venus de Medici or the Apollo Bel-
videre.
II. The second point will relate to a peculiarity in
books as such, and in respect to which what has occur
red to the Bible considered as a book can be best ex
plained on the supposition that it is an inspired volume.
Books fall away in the progress of society ; they drop
out of notice ; they accomplish their purpose ; they are
not missed. The peculiarity of the Bible on which I
wish to remark, and from which I shall draw this part
of my argument, is, that the Bible is not a book of this
class. It does not drop out of notice ; it has not accom
plished its purpose ; it does not fall away in the prog
ress of events ; it would be missed ; it will not and
could not be spared.
There are three classes of books of the kind that I
now refer to.
There are, first, those which, though they are founded
on truth, yet have no such merit as to make the world
anxious to retain them. They have a local bearing and
a local reputation, but have no claim on the general at
tention of mankind, and no merit that will convey them
down from age to age. The old paths are strewed with
246 LECTURES ON THE
these remains of literature, and advancing generations
have no interest in gathering them up and preserving
them ; and any man that makes a book must lay to his
soul no very " flattering unction" the idea that prob
ably this will be the fate of the book that he makes.
Commonplace books, poetry, novels, travels, biogra
phies, histories, works of science, works on art, are thus
dropped out of view and perish, or are preserved in the
alcoves of a great library, or are among the rarities
which antiquarians gather. The prima facie evidence
in regard to an old book is that it is worthless, because
it is rare ; for if it had been valuable it would have been
reprinted, and would not have been rare.
There are, secondly, those which have been superseded
by better books on the same subject. Of these the
number is already vastly large, and is constantly accu
mulating. Multitudes of books once useful have drop
ped away from the memory of mankind to be recovered
no more books that are gone with the volumes of
Nathan the Prophet and Iddo the Seer (2 Chron., ix.,
29) books that have absolutely perished, while those
that remain of that class go largely to swell the num
ber of volumes on the shelves of our great libraries
books useful as illustrating the history of science and
art, and the development of human affairs books useful
to the antiquarian, but books no longer useful as rep
resenting the real state of human knowledge. Science
is enlarged. What was formerly regarded as science
is no longer such ; and the books of Galen, Hippocrates,
Mela, Roger Bacon, occupy substantially the same place
in science which the works of Abelard and Duns Scotus
may I not add Turretin do in theology. The chem
istry of the Middle Ages, the chemistry of Bagdad, w^as
a different thing from the chemistry of Lavoisier, of
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 247
Priestley, of Black, and of Sir Humphry Davy ; and the
books even of these men are also vanishing fast, and are
taking their places with those that are mainly interest
ing to the antiquarian alone.
There are, thirdly, books that are false in science, in
philosophy, in the facts affirmed, that pass away, of
course, when the truth is discovered. All the works of
Ptolemy, and all the books founded on the Ptolemaic
system of the heavens, ingenious, labored, and profound
as they were, passed away, of course, when the Coper-
nican theory was established; and those books now, like
thousands of others, are of use only as marking the his
tory of science, or as illustrating the powers of the hu
man mind, or as showing, by contrast, the wonderful
wisdom of the Creator in the actual structure of the
universe and the beauty of the Copernican system.
The question now is, Whether the Bible is a book
that belongs to either of these classes ; a book to pass
away with advancing knowledge, and in the progress
of ages ; a book to be dropped ; a book that is to lie
hidden in the alcoves of great libraries ; a book that is
to be of interest and value only to the antiquarian. If
it is not so, then why is not so ?
The Bible is not a book to be dropped and forgotten.
Whatever may be said of it, it is not to occupy the
same place as those books w T hich, from any cause, the
world is " willing to let die." It has held its place in
the world longer than any other book or books, unless
it be true that the writings of Confucius go back to as
remote a period as the composition of the book of Job.
It has passed through innumerable revolutions in gov
ernments, in opinions, in philosophy, in manners, cus
toms, and laws. It has made its way in the world under
all forms of government monarchical, aristocratic, re-
248 LECTURES ON THE
publican, democratic. It has held on its steady course
when Aristotle was in the ascendant and controlled the
mind of Europe, and when he was dethroned, and Plato
rose in the ascendant. It has held its way in the great
change from the Ptolemaic to the Copernican systems
of astronomy, and in all the revolutions which have
been made in science and the arts. Many of those arts
and much of that science it has modified ; many of the
laws which rule among the nations, and no small part
of the customs of social life among the most refined
people, it has originated or shaped; it has seen systems
of government and systems of religion pass away, and
it still lives. The Bible, in the parts then composed, was
among the books that influenced human affairs when
Nineveh stood where its buried ruins now are ; when
Babylon was great and magnificent, where now the
wild beasts of the desert lie down, and satyrs dance,
and owls dwell, and dragons cry (Isa., xiii., 22) ; when
Tyre was the mistress of the seas, now a place where
the fisherman dries his nets ; long before Hesiod and
Homer sang; when uncivilized and savage men wan
dered over the Seven Hills on the Tiber, and when not
a hut stood on the banks of the Thames.
The Bible has survived all attacks, and they have not
been few or unskillful ; and it has now a hold on the
world which it never had before, and the world would
now more unwillingly than ever before " let it die." It
is translated into more languages than any other book ;
it has been transcribed more frequently, and with more
care, than any other book ; it is more frequently printed
than any other book ; it is more embellished with the
highest ornaments of art than any other book; it lies
on more tables in the dwellings of the intelligent and
the refined than any other book. More cultivated minds
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 249
have been employed in defending and illustrating it
than any other book ; more learning has been expended
on it than on any other book ; more keen and sagacious
criticism has been employed on it than perhaps on all
other books put together. More such minds are en
gaged in defending it now than ever were before. More
men are employed in translating it, and more presses
are at work in printing it than ever before. It is doing
more to influence the world than it has done in any for
mer age. It is working its way among the nations of
the earth ; changing customs and laws ; originating in
stitutions of learning and benevolence ; modifying pun
ishments; influencing the treatment of prisoners; break
ing off the shackles of slavery ; and elevating the char
acter and position of woman, as it has never done before.
It is recognized as authority in more colleges and schools
than it has ever been before ; and if there are more at
tacks made on it from scientific sources, it is also true
that more defenders from the same source arise to show
that it is not inconsistent with the best deductions of
science. The simplest and most philosophical way of
explaining all this is, that the book had a higher origin
than man.
III. My third remark will relate to the place which
the Bible has in history, and the point of the remark
will be, that the Bible contains records and statements
on historical subjects which can be best explained also
on the supposition that it is an inspired book.
(1.) The first observation here is, that it is the only
history of the world that traces human affairs up to
their origin. Following back any other history, and en
deavoring to ascertain the origin of things in the early
transactions in our world, we soon come to the region
of fable, of legend, of myth, of night; we reach a point
L 2
250 LECTUEES ON THE
where all anterior in the history is manifestly the work
of the imagination or the invention of national pride.
In Egypt, in India, in China, in the African tribes, in
Mexico and Peru, and to a great extent in Greece, we
soon come into the region of night ; and even of Rome,
who, since the work of Niebuhr, will affirm, notwith
standing the records of Livy, that we have any exact
knowledge of what occurred in its early history ? Be
gin, in your investigation of past events, where profane
history begins, and you are plunged into the midst of a
state of affairs of whose origin you know nothing, and
where the mind wanders in perfect night and can find
no rest. Kingdoms are seen, but no one can tell when
or how they were founded ; cities appear whose origin
no one knows ; heroes are playing their part in the great
and mysterious drama, but no one knows whence they
came or what are their designs ; races of beings are
seen whose origin is unknown, and the past periods of
whose existence upon the earth no one can determine
races formed no one can tell for what purpose or by
what hand. Vast multitudes of beings are suffering
and dying for causes which no one can explain; one
generation in its own journey to the grave treads over
the monuments of extinct generations, and with the me
morials of fearful changes and convulsions in the past
all around it of which no one can give an account. Be
gin your knowledge of the past at the remotest period
to which profane history would conduct you, and you
are in the midst of chaos, and you can not advance a
single step without plunging into deeper night a night
strikingly resembling that described in the oldest book
in the Bible itself, and the oldest book in the world, as
the abode of the dead : " The land of darkness and the
shadow of death ; a land of darkness as darkness itself;
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 251
and of the shadow of death without any order, and
where the light is as darkness" (Job, x., 21, 22).
(2.) The Bible is the only book that explains the ori
gin of things the creation of the earth and the heav
ens the creation of man, and the creation of the vege
tables and animals that people the globe. True science
does not pretend to explain those things ; for, whatever
false science may attempt, true science pauses before it
reaches the point of the creation of matter or the origin
of life. It finds matter, and it finds life, at the begin
ning of all its own investigations ; nor do the labors of
the chemist and of the physiologist go behind those
facts as already existing to tell how they came into be
ing. The Bible does.
(3.) The Bible, so far as secular history becomes in
telligible, and at the point where it becomes intelligi
ble, accords with and explains the existing state of
things. The tenth chapter of Genesis, almost entirely
a dry list of names apparently as dry and unmeaning
as the muster-roll of an army, or as Homer s list of he
roes and ships in the first book of the Iliad contains,
in fact, the only clear and intelligible account of the
peopling of our globe, and the origin of the nations that
now dwell upon the earth. It is a document which
could not have been fabricated any more than one be
forehand could fabricate the names of the soldiers in an
army, and yet it is the only document which we pos
sess that tells how the world was divided and settled.
The nations that dwell in Europe, in Asia, and in Afri
ca can, for the most part, be distinctly traced up in
their origin to the men whose names occur there ; and
without this dry document, all accounts of the peopling
of the globe would be darkness and chaos.
(4.) The Bible explains facts that exist which would
be otherwise inexplicable.
252 LECTURES ON THE
In a state of feeling now extensively prevalent among
scientific men, there are many who would shrink from
avowing their belief in the first four chapters of Gene
sis, and there are many who would desire to turn those
chapters into myth and fable, as containing statements
which no scientific man would literally receive. In a
course of lectures, or even in preaching, it might seem
to the view of many such men to argue more of reck
lessness than of prudence to select those chapters as
the subject of illustration, and there are not a few hav
ing high claims to eminence in science who would turn
away from the statements in those chapters as belong
ing wholly to myths and legends.
Yet in those chapters are contained all that we know,
if we know any thing in regard to the origin of the real
facts that exist in our world. We, who hold to the in
spiration of the Bible, believe that the record in those
chapters will explain the origin of all that now exists
on earth ; we are certain that if that explanation fails,
we shall look in vain elsewhere for any explanation to
history ; to the reasonings of philosophers ; to the geol
ogist ; to the antiquarian ; to the poets.
(a) Those chapters explain the origin of things the
creation of the heavens and the earth. Science does
not explain the creation of the world the origin of the
universe. It has no facts on that subject with which
to deal ; its work commences when the work of crea
tion is done; when matter already has a being, and
when the laws of matter are already established. It
explains the laws by which the elements of matter com
bine or are moved, not how they were made ; it ex
plains the proportion of the sixty or more substances
of which our world is composed ; the laws of the chem
ical elements ; the laws of galvanism, of light, of heat,
of electricity, of life not how they were made.
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 253
(b) The Bible explains the order in which things were
made on the earth. Till the discoveries in the recent
science of geology, the world has been in the dark in re
gard to that order, and the naked statement in the first
chapter of Genesis, appealing, up to that period that
is, for nearly six thousand years to the mere faith of
mankind, has been all that the world has had to rely
on. Two things are remarkable in regard to that state
ment in the first chapter of Genesis, with all that there
is in the chapter still unexplained and mysterious : one
is, that the order of the creation as there stated corre
sponds with singular accuracy with the order as dis
closed by geology ; the other is, that geology now af
firms, from the testimony of the earth itself, that there
were successive creations, as is affirmed in Genesis; in
other words, that one class of animals has not been de
veloped from a previous order of beings. The Bible af
firms thus ; and if there is any one thing now clear in
the developments of geology, it is, that one race was
swept off to make way for another ; and that one suc
ceeded another in a certain order, and that order is the
one found in the Bible; that man was the last in the
series of the creations ; and that there has been, in fact,
no work of creation no new matter formed no new
races of animals or vegetables brought upon the earth
since man appeared. " Thus," says Moses, " the heavens
and the earth were finished, and all the host of them"
(Gen., ii., 1). How did Moses, or whoever was the au
thor of the statement in Genesis, know this f What are
the probabilities that an ancient writer uninspired, un
dertaking to give an account of the creation of the
world, would hit on that order? Where else has it
been done ; where has it been hinted at f
(c) The Bible affirms and explains the fact to which
254 LECTURES ON THE
all true science is tending the unity of the race. That
fact is stated and affirmed ; that fact is the basis of the
doctrine of universal depravity as stated in the Bible ;
that fact is the foundation of all its statements about
the work of redemption ; that fact is the foundation of
all that there is in the Bible in regard to the rights of
man.
But that fact of the unity of the race has been by no
means apparent to men, and is a doctrine the statement
of which in the Bible is most easily explained by the
idea of inspiration, even if it can be explained in any
other way. It is morally certain now that men will
come up to that doctrine in their own investigations;
but it is by no means a doctrine so obvious that it
w r ould be laid at the foundation of a system as a mat
ter of course, or a doctrine in reference to which there
are no scientific difficulties to be removed. The varie
ties of language ; the varieties of complexion ; the forms
of the skull, and the facial angle, and many other things
in the formation and anatomy of the human frame, fa
miliar to those who have devoted their attention to this
subject; the varieties in the four great divisions of the
race the Mongolian, the Caucasian, the Ethiopian, the
American all show how daring and bold, so to speak,
was the doctrine laid at the very foundation of the
whole book, that the races of men are all descended
from one pair ; that " God has made of one blood all the
nations of men, to dwell on all the face of the earth"
(Acts, xvii., 26) ; and that "the whole earth was of one
language and of one speech" (Gen., xi., 1). Yet the
tendency of science now is to demonstrate the unity of
the human race; its tendency also is to demonstrate
the original oneness of language. All the languages
of the earth have been traced with very great clearness
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 255
now to three sources, with the highest probability that
they will yet be traced back to one ; and it has not yet
been demonstrated that the varieties of the human race
in complexion and in anatomical structure are not sus
ceptible of explanation on the supposition that the race
was originally one.
Man, in the mean time, in the Bible, is kept wholly
distinct from all the inferior creation. A line as marked
as any line can be runs through the Bible between man
and all the inferior races. There is no intimation that
one has been developed from the other, or that the one
is to be treated as the other. Man alone is a moral
agent; is subject to law; is responsible. Man is a sin
ner; is redeemed; is immortal. Man is made in the
image of God. He has a soul. He is a wandering child
of God, to be governed by moral law ; to be restrained
by motives ; to be guided by truth ; to be redeemed by
the blood of the atonement ; to live forever with God.
He is not derived or developed from the ourang-outang
or the monkey ; he is, in the Bible, a new creation, as
geology now affirms him to have been.
Whence came these views and thoughts into the
minds of the sacred writers ? How, on subjects so diffi
cult, and on which there was to be such variety in the
opinions of men before these truths were reached by
the slow process of science, did they at once anticipate
all that would be established on the subject in the far-
distant ages, and state at the outset what man would be
led to believe at the last f The simplest explanation of .
this is, that that Eternal Spirit that sees and knows all
truth guided them above the exercise of their own pow
ers to the statement of those truths to which the world
would at last come, but which would be reached by
men in their own investigations only after ages had
passed away.
256 LECTURES ON THE
The time will not allow me to pursue this train of
thought farther, or to apply it to other subjects that lie
equally within its range. A farther application of the
thought would relate to such subjects as the fall of
man, and the fact of universal depravity ; to the place
which man occupies among the creatures of God here
below; to the subject of death especially death in
man ; to the origin of the languages of the earth, and
to the dispersion of the nations. The question in re
gard to all these points would be whether any men
would have been likely to have made the statements in
the Bible unless they were inspired.
IV. The fourth point to which I shall advert in illus
tration of the subject of inspiration will pertain to the
truths communicated in the Bible. The argument in
the case will be, that those truths lie beyond the range
of the unaided human powers.
This remark might be illustrated on a wide scale in
reference to the powers of the human mind as existing
any where, and, in the highest sense of the proposition,
it would be that those truths are beyond the highest
human intellects, or the power of such intellects to orig
inate them, however those powers may be cultivated
beyond the reach and range of philosophy in its purest
and most exalted forms. It might be questionable with
some whether that could be demonstrated, but it is not
necessary to consider that particular point in illustrat
ing the proposition now before us. The real inquiry is
4 whether those truths were beyond the natural powers
of the men actually employed in composing the Bible.
It may be, indeed, that the natural powers of those men
were not inferior to the highest forms of intellect known
elsewhere in philosophy and science ; it may be that
the intellects of Moses, and Isaiah, and David, and Paul
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 257
were by nature equal to the great lawgivers, poets,
reasoners, orators, philosophers of the world, and that,
in themselves, they deserve a place by the side of
Numa, and Lycurgus, and Demosthenes, and Plato, and
Burke ; but still the real question now is whether they,
whatever were their native endowments, were compe
tent, without aid from on high, to disclose the truths
actually found in the Bible. We are to remember, too,
that whatever were the native endowments of Moses,
and Isaiah, and David, and Paul, they were not the only
men employed in writing the Bible. The Bible is not
their work alone. They are not its authors as a whole.
We are to bear in mind who they were associated with,
and then to inquire whether the peasants, and shep
herds, and fishermen that, in fact, wrote a large part of
the Bible, were competent to be associated with them
in the composition of the Bible as a whole whether a
common stone-mason could be associated with Phidias
in the design of the Minerva, or common bricklayers
with Michael Angelo in the structure of St. Peter s, and
in the mosaics that adorn it.
(1.) Who, then, were the men that actually wrote the
Bible?
The Bible came from a land undistinguished for lit
erature ; a land not rich in classical associations ; a land
not distinguished for pushing its discoveries into the
region of science. Chaldea had its observatory, and the
dwellers there early looked out on the stars and gave
them names; Egypt had its temples where the truths
of science, as well as the precepts of religion, were com
mitted to the sacred priesthood ; Greece had academic
groves; but Judea had neither. To such things the
attention of the nation was never turned. We have all
their literature ; all their science ; all their knowledge
258 LECTURES ON THE
of art and all this is in the Bible. Among the ancients
they were regarded as a narrow-minded, a bigoted, a
superstitious people. They did not travel abroad as
Greek philosophers did, to converse with sages in other
lands, nor did they ever seem anxious to obtain any
knowledge except that which was originated in their
own land. Pythagoras and Plato went abroad to con
verse with the -wise of other lands ; Herodotus to learn
the facts of history ; Solon and Lycurgus left their
country to observe the working of the laws in other
countries, and to give sanction to their own; but Moses
left the court of Pharaoh and went into a desert; Isaiah,
Daniel, and David never traveled to gain knowledge,
and though Paul traveled much and far, it was never
to gain knowledge, but to impart it to mankind. The
idea is, that in the various departments of literature
they could not come into competition with the classic
writers of antiquity ; that they made no pretensions to
philosophy; that they were undistinguished in what
the world regards as learning and eloquence ; and, es
pecially, that they had almost no knowledge of science
as understood in the present age. They made no pre
tensions to what now constitutes the science of astron
omy, chemistry, anatomy, mechanics ; and, as compared
with the philosophers of Greece, and the literary and
scientific men of Germany, France, England, and our
own country, the ancient Jew could have no claim to
eminence, nor, in relation to these things, has he trans
mitted any thing that the world thinks worth preserv
ing. It may add to the force of this consideration to
remember that all the eminence of any kind which they
had in ancient times ceased with the sacred writers, and
that with the exception of Josephus andPhilo, after the
destruction of their Temple, they were of all pretended
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 259
literary people the most puerile and trifling. They
wrote no poetry worth preserving or reading; they
produced no orators or historians of any distinction ;
they pushed forward no discoveries in science, and their
writings, as produced in the Talmud, are the most dis?.
tinguished of all compositions for frivolous things and
for childish conceits. The writers of the Bible were
mostly shepherds, peasants, fishermen, with no other
and no better training than are now found in men of
that rank in life.
As an illustration of this point, I may refer particu
larly to the apostle John. He was a fisherman on the
Lake of Tiberias when Jesus first saw him, and called
him to the work of an apostle. We have his Gospel,
and we have his book of "Revelation," and, bearing in
remembrance that he was a fisherman, we are to ask
what would fishermen taken from the banks of the Del
aware, from Marblehead and Gloucester, or from the
Banks of Newfoundland, be likely to produce if called
to compose a book on the subject of John s Gospel, or
the Book of Revelation ? Suppose he were called to
delineate a perfect character ; to represent an incarnate
God living, acting, and speaking with man, and as a
man ; to compose or record from memory discourses of
the profoundest character respecting God ; to describe
future scenes, in the world s great changes, in pictures
and symbols, what would be likely to be the result of
such an effort ? In illustrating this point, in language
better than I can use, I may be permitted here to intro
duce an extract from a discourse by Dr. Dwight : " The
apostle John," says he, " was born in an age when the
philosophy of his country was a mere mass of quib
bling, its religion a compound of pride and bigotry, and
its worship a ceremonious parade. His lineage, his cir-
260 LECTURES ON THE
cumstances, his education, and his employment were
those of a fisherman. On what natural principle can it
be accounted for that, like the sun breaking out of an
evening cloud, this plain man, in these circumstances,
should, at an advanced age, burst upon mankind with a
flood of effulgence and glory? Whence did it arise
that, in purity of precept, discernment of truth, and an
acquaintance with the moral character of man, and the
attributes of his Maker, this peasant leaves Socrates,
Plato, and Cicero out of sight and out of remembrance ?
Do you question the truth of this representation ? The
proof is at hand and complete. There is not a child of
fifteen in this house who, if possessed of the common
education of this land, would not disdain to worship
their gods or to embrace their religion. But Bacon
and Boyle ; Butler and Berkeley ; Newton and Locke ;
Addison and Johnson ; Jones and Horseley, have sub
missively embraced the religion of St. John, and wor
shiped the God whose character he has unfolded. Their
systems have long since gone to the grave of oblivion.
His has been animated with increasing vigor to the
present hour, and will live and flourish through endless
ages. Their writings have not made one man virtuous.
His have peopled heaven with the children of light.
The seventeenth chapter of his gospel, written as it is
with the simplicity of a child, yet in grandeur of con
ception and in splendor of moral excellence triumphs
with inexpressible glory over all the efforts of human
genius, and looks down from heaven on the proudest
labors of infidelity."*
(2.) The class of truths discussed and disclosed by
these men may be referred to as a second illustration
of the evidence of their inspiration. A remark or two,
* Sermons, vol. ii., p. 436, 437.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 261
without attempting now to demonstrate the truth of
the remark, or to illustrate it, is all that the time will
admit.
(a) All that we truly know about God is from the
Bible. I say " know /" I do not say imagine or conjec
ture. What did the Egyptians, the Persians, the Assyr
ians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans know
about God ? What did the ancient inhabitants of Brit
ain, the Druids, the Celts, the Gaelic tribes ? What did
the Goths, the Yandals, the Gauls, the Visigoths, that
came pouring down from the North on the Roman em
pire ? What do the people of China, of India, of Tar
tar y, or the tribes of Africa know ? What do the fol
lowers of Mohammed, except as Mohammed learned it
from the Bible? What has philosophy ever taught
men about God ? What does science teach them now ?
Does the telescope reach his throne ? Does the micro
scope disclose him ? They disclose something, you say ;
and so it may be, or at least they lay the foundation of
reasoning about some things pertaining to God per
haps to his existence ; his greatness ; his power ; his
knowledge. But how about those things which we are
most interested in knowing his moral character; his
mercy ; his justice ; his goodness ; his truth about the
question whether he is worthy of confidence ? How
long in the laboratory will the chemist toil before he
will obtain from earths and alkalies from the crucible
and the blow-pipe an answer to these questions ? Just
as long as his predecessors of the Middle Ages,*the al
chemists, would have toiled to find the philosopher s
stone or the elixir of life.
(b) All that we know about the immortality of the
soul we learn from the Bible. I say here also, all that
we " know" not what we may conjecture and wish for.
262 LECTURES ON THE
Do philosophers disclose that ? Do astronomers ? Do
chemists? Do scientific men, as such, even believe in
the immortality of the soul ? If they do believe it, do
they believe it as the result of their discoveries in sci
ence ? Does the chemist believe it because he has found
the proof of it in his laboratory ? Do mental philoso
phers believe it on the ground of their own reasonings ?
The profoundest argument on this subject in ancient or
modern philosophy is undoubtedly that of Plato in the
" Gorgias." And yet who is convinced by that now ?
Who does not rise from the perusal of that argument
with the conviction painful and sad on his mind that
if this is all, then, indeed, " shadows, clouds, and dark
ness" rest on the whole subject ? You could not con
vince a child in any of our Sunday-schools, from that
argument, that his soul is immortal. Hear Cicero again
on that argument of Plato, in a passage which I have
quoted to you before : " I know not how it is, but when
I read I assent ; but when I lay down the book, and be
gin by myself to reflect on the immortality of the soul,
all that assent glides away."*
(c) All that we know about a plan of salvation is
learned from the Bible, not from philosophy or science.
Science does not disclose such a plan any plan by
which a sinner may be saved. It is not, and it is not
supposed to be, a part of the province of science to re
veal such a plan, and scientific men, as such, are careful
to keep their own province distinct from any such plan,
* Marcus. Quid tibi ergo opera nostra opus est? num eloquentia
Platonem superare possumus? evolve diligenter ejus eum librum, qui
est de animo ; amplius quod desideres, nih.il erit. Auditor. Feri me-
hercule, et quidem saepius, sed nescio quo modo, dum lego, assentior ;
cum posui librum, et mecum ipse de irnmortalitate animorum coepi cogitare,
assensio oitinis ilia elabitur. Cicero, Tusc. Qusest., lib. i, cap. xii.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 263
or the suggestion of any such plan. However much, in
other respects, scientific men may seem to encroach on
the doctrines of the Bible; however the geologist, to
use a phrase derived from the law, but which may be
regarded as quite expressive of the idea, may claim
"concurrent jurisdiction" with the Bible over the sub
jects involved in its department, yet nothing of this
kind is claimed or is manifest in regard to a plan of re
demption for sinners, or a way of saving men. Neither
the astronomer, nor the anatomist, nor the chemist
claims for himself any special knowledge on this sub
ject above other men, nor in the books published in
these departments of science is there any suggestion
about the way in which a sinner may be saved. What
ever may have been claimed by " philosophers," so
called, in ancient times, in regard to this ; whatever
Socrates or Plato may have suggested, yet it is certain
that the writers on mental philosophy of these times do
not regard the matter as coming within the cognizance
of their department of learning, and that, in reference
to a plan of salvation for sinners, we should be as un
successful in our inquiries in Jthe writings of Kant, of
Sir William Hamilton, and of J. Stewart Mill, as we
should in a treatise on Logarithms or Fluxions. It has
somehow occurred to the writers of the Bible to state
such a plan; to make it prominent; to weave it into
the entire structure of the book ; to make it the grand
thing on which the composition of the book turns ; to
make it the idea, in fact, running through the entire
collection of books from Genesis to Revelation, sixty in
number, and composed by perhaps a hundred different
authors an idea that runs through the book as really
as the wrath of Achilles runs through all the books of
the Iliad, or the wrath of Juno through the ^Eniad, or
264 LECTURES ON THE
the fall of man through the Paradise Lost though
these are respectively the production of one man of
one mind.
(cT) All that we know about a future state is from
the Bible. I do not say all that we conjecture or im
agine, but all that we know. Science does not pertain
to that world, nor does it determine any thing on the
question whether there is -to be a future world, or, if
there is, what it is to be. The crucible and the blow
pipe impart no light on that subject ; the telescope has
nothing to reveal in regard to it ; the geologist is labor
ing to determine something in regard to the intermina
ble past, but he has nothing to reveal in regard to the
interminable future. The footprints of birds, and the
fossil bones, and the rocks reveal something in regard
to the past, but they have nothing to say about that
which is to come. Nor can any man carry the deduc
tions of his science natural philosophy, mental philos
ophy, astronomy, chemistry, fluxions a single step be
yond the grave. Nor does any one come back from
that world, if there is such a world, to tell the scientific
man and the philosopher that there is such a world, and
what it is. Apart from the Bible, we are in utter dark
ness a " land of darkness and of the shadow of death ;
a land of darkness as darkness itself; and of the shad
ow of death, without any order, and where the light is
as darkness" (Job, x., 21, 22).
(3.) The truths disclosed in the Bible are up to this
age, and are still in advance of the world. Science has
never come up to them; the progress made in the
world in our own marvelous age has not superseded
them. The Bible has not been dropped by the way, as
the works of Averroes, of Galen, of Roger Bacon have
been ; nor has it found its place in the alcoves of the
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
265
library where lie superseded and forgotten books of
past times. It lives. It has a vitality and an energy
which it never had before in the nineteenth century
as much ahead of the world, in its own departments, as
it was in the time when its great truths were first
preached on Mars Hill by Paul. This remark I shall
have occasion to illustrate in the tenth and concluding
Lecture of this course, and it must now, therefore, be
taken for granted.
(4.) It remains, then, to ask how these men knew
these things; how they were able to propound these
truths, which are to live through all the changes of the
world; to influence permanently and perpetually the
nations of the earth ; to survive while countless gener
ations of men pass away ?
Was it genius that produced the Bible ? How came
these men to be endowed with such a genius ? Why
has not the same thing occurred elsewhere among such
classes of men peasants and fishermen ? Where else
have such classes of men produced such a book ? There
has been ojie Burns, one Bunyan, one Shakspeare per
haps a dozen or a score more of such men of remarkable
genius plowmen, glovers, tinkers; but if all their com
positions were put together, would they make one book ;
would there be one plan ; would there be unity of de
sign ; would there be such power in the volume ; would
the volume commend itself so much to all classes of
men; would it secure so permanent a hold; would it
perpetuate and extend itself so among the nations of
the earth ; would it so meet the wants of man as a sin
ner, as a sufferer, as a dying being, as immortal ?
Did the sacred writers borrow this from others?
From whom ? From the Persian magi ; from Chaldsean
sages; from Egyptian priests? These were the only
M
266 LECTURES ON THE
ones to borrow from at the time when a considerable
part of the book was written, and they have not bor
rowed from them. They had nothing, and they have
transmitted nothing to us which could be regarded as
the original of which the Bible is a copy ; and, what
ever may be said of the Bible, it is an original book.
Is it the production of insanity ? Something like the
ravings of the Pythian priestess or the priest of Apollo ;
something like those great thoughts which a mind like
that of Hamlet could produce, the workings of " melan
cholic madness of a delicate shade, in which the rea
soning faculties, the intellect proper, so far from being
overcome or disordered, may, on the other hand, be ren
dered more active and vigorous ?"* It can not be nec
essary to argue this. Perhaps an apology is necessary
for having alluded to it again.
Is it the result of inspiration ? This is the remaining
solution. This, at least, will account for the facts. This
will explain all. This is the most simple and easy so
lution ; this is what they claim for themselves ; this is
what has commended itself as the best solution of the
facts to the great mass of mankind for these eighteen
hundred years. This is likely to be extensively the
opinion of mankind for generations to come.
That there are difficulties in the view which has now
been submitted to you is not to be denied. That there
are many questions which may be asked in regard to
the inspiration of the Bible, which, if they do not re
main to be asked, remain to be answered, is to be ad
mitted. That there are things in the Bible apparently
inconsistent with the high purpose of a revelation from
God; that there are apparent inconsistencies and con-
* Shakspeare s Delineations of Insanity, etc., by A. 0. Kellogg, M.
/>., p. 36.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 267
tradictions in the book itself; that there are discrepan
cies between its statements and the statements of secu
lar history not determined yet which is right ; that
there are commands not easy to be reconciled with our
notions of justice and morality; that there are state
ments which seem to conflict with many of the disclos
ures of science, no friend of the Bible can deny. That
to solve these questions, and remove these difficulties,
would be the meritorious work of a long life, a field
worthy of the highest talent of any young man desir
ous of rendering the most efficient service possible to
the Church of God, I most firmly believe. That there
is no work on the inspiration of the Bible that meets
all these questions, and removes all these difficulties, so
that it would commend itself to a candid inquirer after
truth as entirely satisfactory, be he infidel or otherwise,
I think any one must admit who has had occasion to
examine what has been written on the subject.
But these admitted facts do not affect the reasoning
in this Lecture, if the reasoning has any value. The
difficulties of science yet unexplained, and that seem,
as many of them do, to lie beyond the compass of the
human mind, do not affect the general course of argu
ment in regard to astronomy, chemistry, geology, anat
omy. The apparent inconsistencies and contradictions
in the movements of the heavenly bodies are not al
lowed to set aside the deductions which seem to be
clearly established. Time does wonders in all sciences.
One after another difficulties are removed ; a thing that
seemed to jar is shown to be, in fact, in harmony ; what
seemed to be irreconcilable with something else is
shown to be, in fact, essential to the very existence, and
to the proper action of that " something else." How
many difficulties, contradictions, discrepancies, thus si-
268 LECTURES ON THE
lently vanish as light advances in the world, and as the
real harmonies of the universe are better understood !
Thousands of hearts, and heads, and hands are thus
successfully toiling in removing the difficulties in na
ture ; intellects not less profound, learning not less ex
tensive, hands not less active, are toiling in like manner,
and with as much prospect of success, in removing the
questions of difficulty in regard to the Bible.
It is said that much of the Bible relates to common
matters ; to trifles ; to things that men could learn
without a revelation ; to things that are of no great
consequence ; to things low and insignificant.
Much of this is so ; and the same is as true of the
world as God made it as it is of the Bible that He has
revealed. Atoms ; molecules ; germs ; infusoria ; worms ;
reptiles; insects made to torment and annoy; centi
pedes ; tarantulas ; vermin why all these things ?
Would the God that revealed the great truths of hu
man redemption " reveal," if revelation it can be called,
so many trivial things in the Bible ? Would the God
that made the sun, the stars, the milky way, the mil
lions the numberless millions of suns that flame in the
far distant realms of spTace, make and care for these
things so trivial ; so annoying ; so noxious ?
It is said that there are discrepancies; inconsisten
cies ; contradictions.
It is so, apparently. Are there none in nature that
science has not yet taught us how to reconcile and har
monize? There was a discrepancy in the movements
of the planet Uranus, lying, as was supposed, on the
outer circle of the planetary worlds. It did not work
well. It did not keep its course. It bent out of its
way. It was not in harmony with the rest ; nor could
astronomers tell why. Le Verrier and Adams simulta-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
269
neously gave their minds to the solution of the diffi
culty, and each suggested that there was another plan
et, as yet unseen by man, far in the region beyond it.
The astronomer at Berlin pointed his telescope to the
spot where they said it would be found, and the har
mony of the planetary system was restored.
Who knows what time may do in removing apparent
inconsistencies and contradictions ? Listen to a remark
of Mr. Hume : " No priestly dogmas ever shocked com
mon sense more than the infinite divisibility of exten
sion, with its consequences."*
It is said that there are things taught, commanded,
and done in the Bible, as the command to Abraham to
offer up his son Isaac, and the command to destroy the
nations of Canaan, which it is difficult to reconcile with
our notions of morality.
This, also, is so ; and the same thing is true of much
that God does in our world, and of much that he per
mits. Who has explained these things ? Who has been
able to show exactly how the things that occur on
earth under the divine administration by the order-
ings of His providence, and by His own hand, are con
sistent with our notions of justice and right ; our views
of morality ; our conceptions of benevolence ? , When
there are any fewer difficulties in the facts in our world
than there are in this respect in the statements of the
Bible, then it will be proper, on this account, to make it
a special objection to the Bible as a work of God ; when
men have succeeded in explaining the difficulties in the
facts as they occur under the divine administration, and
in showing how they are consistent with our notions of
justice, goodness, and morality, then it will remain to
inquire whether possibly the same explanation might
* Philosophical Works, vol. iv., p. 182.
270 LECTURES ON THE
not remove all the difficulties from the same source
pertaining to the word of God. The entrance of sin ;
the sorrows and woes of earth ; the inequalities in the
human condition ; the destruction of the innocent of
women, and old men, and infants by the plague, by pes
tilence, and by famine ; the desolations of war, not less
savage and barbarous than the wars of Canaan ; the
divine vengeance taken on nations through the agency
of the wicked passions of men the love of conquest,
revenge, and ambition O for the coming of some one,
gifted above all mortals hitherto, that shall be able to
explain these things, and to tell how they are consistent
with the character of a just and holy God ; with our
conception of what is right, and of what would be for
the best ; with our notions of benevolence, equity, right
eousness O for some gifted mind to tell how sin, and
woe, and death came into the universe at all ! Till
such an appearing, what better can we do than to sup
pose, in either case, that there may be principles at pres
ent beyond our grasp that may explain the one and the
other ; that the principles which would be applicable to
the one may be applicable to the other ; that the God
of nature may be the God of the Bible.
These things constitute no great difficulty in the
practical affairs of life ; they need constitute no great
difficulty in the practical matters of religion. They do
not prove, in the one case, that the world is not the
workmanship of a pure and holy God; they do not
prove, in the other, that the Bible is not from the same
pure and holy Being.
Have we reached a conclusion on this subject which
will be satisfactory to your minds ? Perhaps I ought
not to venture to affirm what I would hope may be
true. Have we removed all difficulties from the sub-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 271
ject ? Assuredly this has not been done ; nor, in a world
so full of difficulties on kindred subjects, could we hope
that this could be done. But, notwithstanding these
things, it may have been shown that the Bible is a book
whose origin is not to be accounted for by a reference
to human genius ; and that the most simple and philo
sophical explanation of the facts in regard to it is, that
it is given by INSPIRATION OF GOD as the most satis
factory explanation of our world, after all, with all its
difficulties, is, that it is THE CREATION OF GOD,
272 LECTURES ON THE
LECTURE VTII.
THE EVIDENCE OF THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY
FROM THE PERSONAL CHARACTER AND THE INCARNA
TION OF CHRIST.
THE question which, in history, has agitated the
world more perhaps than any other, is .that which was
asked by Pilate, " What shall I do with Jesus which is
called Christ ?" (Matt., xxvii., 22). In history the ques
tion has been, What view shall be taken of his person?
What origin and rank shall be ascribed to him ? What
place shall he have among those whose life and teach
ings have materially affected the condition of the
world? Shall he be regarded as a mere man, "natu
rally as fallible and peccable as other men ?" Shall he
be regarded as a mere man, but, unlike other men in
this respect, that he was absolutely perfect and pure ?
Shall he be regarded as a phantasm, appearing in the
form of humanity, and living, suffering, dying in ap
pearance only ? Shall he be regarded as a being of a
higher order actually descending to the earth, and liv
ing among men an angel ; an archangel ; a loftier being
still, as near to God as a created being can be, sent into
the world to accomplish a great work for men ? Shall
he be regarded as the most highly endowed in genius
of any of our own race ; forming some great plan ; and
accomplishing his work by the mere greatness of his
genius ? Shall we regard him as a mythical being, and
all that has been said of him as embodying only the
conceptions of men forming a system of imposture or
EVIDENCES OP CHEISTIANITY. 273
delusion around him as a nucleus, and arranging the
ideas of that system as if they had been expressed in
his life ? Shall we regard him as God himself in his
own essence incarnate ; or as a person in the essence of
God incarnate ; or as a form of the mere manifestation
of the Deity in our world ? Shall we regard him as
having one nature or two ; one will or two ; as a per
fect man having a " reasonable soul" as well as a body,
united with the divinity ; or shall we regard him as a
man only as he had a bodily form in which God, as such,
performed all the functions of the soul ? Has the world
come to any settled views on these subjects, or is it
likely that it ever will ? Enemies and friends ; sages,
fathers, priests; synods and councils embracing the
learning and piety of the world; good men and bad
men; historians and philosophers; the orthodox and
the heretical, have endeavored for eighteen hundred
years to answer the question which so much perplexed
Pilate, " What shall be done with Jesus ?" Men of pro
found erudition, assuming that there was a real person
age who bore the name, have brought, as Strauss has
done, the vast resources of their learning to the inquiry
whether all else in regard to him could not be explained
on the supposition that his religion is a " myth ;" men
of brilliant imaginations, entering the field of romance,
like Renan, have inquired whether all that occurred in
his life can not be explained on the supposition that he
was a young man of marvelous genius, awaking grad
ually to the consciousness of his own great powers, and
himself deluded with the idea of a universal empire.
The " orthodox" world has believed that his true place
in history can be assigned only on the supposition that
he was the only perfect man that has ever trod the
M2
274 LECTUEES ON THE
earth since the first Adam fell, and that he was the in
carnate Son of God.
Pilate was perplexed. An honest man would have
settled the question at once. The world has been per
plexed. Can we now, after the lapse of eighteen hund
red years, so determine what is to be " done" with him
as to find evidence in his character and claims that he
was sent from God, and that his religion is true ?
The subject of this Lecture, therefore, will be, The
evidence of the divine origin of Christianity from the
personal character and the incarnation of Christ.
As preparing the way for this argument, it may be
proper to refer a little more fully to the nature of the
perplexities which have been felt on the subject, and to
the various answers which have been given to the in
quiry involved in the question of Pilate.
The Gnostics regarded him as an aeon or " emanation"
from God, " the first and brightest emanation of the
Deity, who appeared upon earth to rescue mankind
from various errors, and to reveal a new system of truth
and perfection."* He was, in their apprehension, neither
truly God nor truly man. " Not truly God, because
they held him, though begotten of God, to be yet much
inferior to the Father; nor truly man, because every
thing concrete and corporeal they believed to be in
trinsically and essentially evil ; so that most of them
divested Christ of a material body, and denied him to
have suffered for our sakes what he is recorded to have
endured." He was a phantasm that appeared first on
the banks of the Jordan, and lived, and suffered, and
died in appearance only.f
According to Arius, he is "totally and essentially
* Gibbon, Decline and Fall, i., 256.
t Mosheim, Eccl. Hist., vol. i., p. Ill, 171-181.
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 275
distinct from the Father ; the first and noblest of those
created beings whom God the Father formed out of
nothing, and the instrument which the Father used in
creating the universe, and, therefore, inferior to the
Father both in nature and in dignity."* " Though the
Son of God was united with human nature on the birth
of Jesus, yet that Son of God was a m <r/ja [creation].
He indeed existed long before that birth, but not from
eternity."f
To the Monarchians, or Patripassians, he was the true
God inhabiting the body of Jesus, the divine nature oc
cupying the place and performing the functions of the
human soul " the man Christ was the Son of God, and
to this Son the Father of the universe so joined him
self as to be crucified and endure pangs along with the
Son."J They asserted " the true and proper Deity in
Christ s person, but denied his humanity. The one
single person of the Godhead, the true and absolute
Deity, united himself with a human body, but not with
a rational human soul."
Nestorius and his followers sought to answer the
question by assuming the fact that there were in Christ
two natures, a proper divinity and a proper humanity,
but that they remained distinct and were not united in
one person "in a single self-conscious personality."
" Instead of a blending of the two natures into only one
self, the Nestorian scheme places two selves side by
side, and allows only a moral and sympathetic union
between them. The result is, that the acts of each
nature derive no character from the qualities of the
* Mosheim, Eccl. Hist., vol. i., p. 343.
t Shedd s Christian Doctrine, vol. i., p. 393.
I Mosheim, Eccl. Hist., vol. i., p. 182.
Shedd s Christian Doctrine, vol. i., p. 394.
276 LECTURES ON THE
other."* The problem to be solved was whether all
the statements in the New Testament, and all the acts
of the Redeemer, could be explained on this supposi
tion.
The Eutychian or the Monophysite Christology ex
plained, or tried to explain, the statements in the New
Testament, and the facts in the life of the Redeemer, on
another and an opposite supposition, in answer to the
question " what shall be done with Jesus." That sys
tem asserts the unity of self-consciousness in the person
of Christ, but loses the duality of the two natures. Eu-
tyches taught that in the incarnation the human nature
was transmuted into the divine, so that the resultant
was one person and one nature. For this reason the
Eutychians held that it was accurate and proper to say
that" God suffered.^
Sabellius sought to answer the question by supposing
that there was but one " person" in the divine nature ;
that, according to the different manifestations, as Cre
ator, Redeemer, Sanctifier, that one person was desig
nated by different names, implying a distinction not in
nature, but in the manifestation that there was a " cer
tain energy put forth by the supreme parent, or a cer
tain portion of the divine nature being separated from
it, because united with the Son, or the man Christ ; that
there was but one divine person ; that while there was
a real difference between the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, that difference was neither an essential nor a
personal one ; the divine three were not three distinct
persons, but three portions of the divine nature, all de
pending on God; and that that portion which united
with the man Christ, in order to redeem men, is the
* ShedcPs Christian Doctrine, vol. i., p. 397.
t Hid., vol. i., p. 397.
EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 277
Son," and that by this theory all that there was in the
person and work of Christ can be explained.*
Paul of Samosata and his followers the Paulians
supposed that they could explain the mysteries of the
person of Christ on the theory that the Son and the
Holy Ghost exist in God as reason and the operative
power do in man; that Christ *was born a mere man,
but that the reason or wisdom of the Father descended
into him, and enabled him to teach and to work mira
cles ; and that, on this account, it was proper to say
that Christ was God, though not in the proper sense of
the word.f
Julian, the emperor, greatly perplexed and embar
rassed in regard to Jesus, and the progress which his
religion had made in the empire, attempted to solve all
the mysteries in regard to him by saying that " Jesus,
having persuaded a few among you [Galilseans, as he
contemptuously called the Christians], and those of the
worst of men, has now been celebrated about three
hundred years, having done nothing in his lifetime
worthy of fame tpvov ovfav aicorjQ dtov unless any one
thinks it a very great work to heal lame and blind peo
ple, and exorcise demoniacs in the villages of Bethsaida
and Bethany. "J
Socinus sought an explanation by assuming that
Christ was a mere man, but a good man ; Dr. Priestley
* See Mosheim, Eccl. Hist., vol. i., p. 241, 2. There is some confu
sion in the statement of Mosheim on this subject, and there has been
some doubt whether he has given the correct account of the senti
ments of Sabellius. His views are examined in a long note by Dr.
Murdock. I have endeavored, from the text and the note, to state, as
clearly as possible, what were probably the views of Sabellius.
t Ibid., vol. ii., p. 244.
J Lardner s Works, vol. vii., p. 628, ed. London, 1838.
278 LECTURES ON THE
in the idea that he was a mere man " naturally as falli
ble and peccable as any other man."
Chubb supposed that he could explain all by the fol
lowing statement : " In Christ we have an example of
a quiet and peaceable spirit ; of a becoming modesty
and sobriety ; just, honest, upright, sincere ; and, above
all, of a most gracious and benevolent temper and be
havior. One who did no wrong, no injury to any man;
in whose mouth was no guile ; who went about doing
good, not only by his ministry, but also in curing all
manner of diseases among the people. His life was a
beautiful picture of human nature in its native purity
and simplicity, and showed at once what excellent crea
tures men would be when under the influence and
power of the Gospel which he preached unto them."*
The solution by Rousseau is so well known that it is
necessary only to refer to it. " Is it possible," says he,
" that the sacred personage whose history it [the Bible]
contains should be himself a mere man ? What sweet
ness, what purity in his manner ! What an affecting
gracefulness in his instructions ! What sublimity in his
maxims ! What profound wisdom in his discourses !
What presence of mind, what subtlety, what fitness in
his replies ! How great the command over his pas
sions ! Where is the man, where the philosopher, who
could so live and so die, without weakness and without
ostentation ? The death of Socrates, peacefully philoso
phizing among his friends, appears the most agreeable
that one could wish ; that of Jesus, expiring in agonies,
abused, insulted, and accused by a whole nation, is the
most horrible that one could fear. Socrates, indeed, in
receiving the cup of poison, blessed the weeping execu-
* True Gospel of Jesus Christ, sec. viii., p. 55, 56, quoted by Dr.
Scliaff, Person of Christ, p. 282, 283.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 279
tioner who administered it ; but Jesus, amidst excruci
ating tortures, prayed for his merciless tormentors.
Yes, if the life and death of Socrates were those of a
sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God."*
Strauss assumed that Jesus was a real personage
that there was such a living Teacher, but that the
things ascribed to him are in the main niy thical ; that
is, that certain ideas and conceptions have been made
to have the appearance of a living form and reality by
being represented as in connection with him, or as acted
out in his life. The problem was, assuming that there
was such a real personage, to explain how those ideas
could be represented as embodied in his life, or what
those ideas would be if represented as acted out by a
living man. " This Christ," says he, " as far as he is in
separable from the highest style of religion, is historic
al^ not mythical; is an individual, not a mere symbol.
To the historical person of Christ belongs all in his life
that exhibits his religious perfection, his discourses, his
moral action, and his passion. He remains the highest
model of religion within the reach of our thought, and
no perfect piety is possible without his presence in the
heart. As little as humanity will ever be without re
ligion, as little will it be without Christ ; for to have
religion without Christ would be as absurd as to enjoy
poetry without regard to Homer or Shakspeare."f
Renan takes a different view, and aims to explain his
life on different principles. c I will assume, is the idea
not his exact language the main facts about him,
as stated by the Evangelists, especially in the Fourth
Gospel, to be true, and I will write his life anew that
* Emile ou de 1 Education, lect. iv., quoted at length in Dr.
Schaff s Person of Christ, p. 286-296.
f Quoted by Dr. Schaff, Person of Christ, p. 340, 341.
280 LECTURES ON THE
life as seen especially by a contemplation of the scenes
where he lived and died. I will make that life as at
tractive as possible by all the charms of fancy, romance,
poetry. I will go and visit the place where he was
born, the place where he was trained, the places where
he dwelt, and there, studying his characte-r, inquiring
how it was developed at that time and in those scenes
the influences that bore on his childhood, his youth,
and his riper years the successive ideas which he cher
ished in regard to his own powers, and the unconscious
illusions under which he was brought in regard to him
self, and the plans which he formed under those illu
sions, I will set forth his life as the most beautiful and
attractive that the world has seen. I will see what I
can do with this young man of profound originality
(p. 125) ; of perfect idealism (p. 140) ; who developed
his own powers the more he believed on himself (p.
148); this young man of extraordinary genius, awak
ing slowly to the consciousness of his great powers ;
forming his plans, under an innocent enthusiasm, on
false views, as Columbus and Newton did (p. 138),
but deeply and permanently affecting the world. "Li
the first rank," says he, " of the grand family of the
true sons of God, we must place Jesus. Jesus had no
visions ; God does not speak to him from without ; God
is in him ; he feels that he is with God, and he draws
from his heart what he says of his Father. He lives in
the bosom of God by uninterrupted communication ; he
does not see him, but he understands him without need
of thunder and the burning bush like Moses, of a reveal
ing tempest like Job, of an oracle like the old Greek
sages, of a familiar genius like Socrates, or of an angel
Gabriel like Mohammed. He believes that he is in di
rect communication with God ; he believes himself the
EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 281
Son of God. The highest consciousness of God which
ever existed in the breast of humanity was that of
Jesus." " Christ, for the first time, gave utterance to
the idea upon which shall rest the edifice of the ever
lasting religion. He founded the pure worship of no
age of no clime which shall be that of all lofty souls
to the end of time. If other planets have inhabitants
endowed with reason and morality, their religion can
not be different from that which Jesus proclaimed at
Jacob s well. The words of Jesus were a gleam in a
thick night; it has taken eighteen hundred years for
the eyes of humanity to learn to abide by it. But the
gleam shall become the full day ; and after the passing
through all the circles of error, humanity will return to
these words, as to the immortal expression of its faith
and its hopes." "Repose now in thy glory, noble
founder ! Thy work is finished ; thy divinity is estab
lished. Fear no more to see the edifice of thy labors
fall by any fault. Henceforth, beyond the range of
frailty, thou shalt witness, from the heights of divine
peace, the infinite results of thy acts. For thousands
of years the world will defend thee. Banner of our
contests, thou shalt be the standard about which the
hottest battle will be given. A thousand times more
alive, a thousand times more beloved since thy death
than during thy passage here below, thou shalt become
the corner-stone of humanity so entirely, that to tear
thy name from this would be to rend it from its founda
tions. Complete conqueror of death, take possession
of thy kingdom, whither shall follow thee, by the
royal road which thou hast traced, ages of worshipers."
" Whatever may be the surprises of the future, Jesus
will never be surpassed. His worship will grow young
without ceasing ; his legend will call forth tears without
282 LECTURES ON THE
end ; his sufferings will melt the noblest hearts ; all
ages will proclaim that, among the sons of men, there
is none born greater than Jesus."*
Nothing has been, also, more perplexing in secular
history than the question what place shall be assigned
to Jesus and his religion. Mr. Gibbon, as I have re
marked in a former Lecture, found it indispensable to
dispose of this question, and he gave the best efforts of
his mind to it. The problem with him was how to ac
count for the spread and the power of his religion on
the supposition that it was an imposture and an illu
sion. The course of his history would have flowed
much more freely, and the task of the great historian
would have been greatly lightened, if it had not been
for the difficulties involved in the solution of this
question.
To the world now to Rationalists ; to Socinians ; to
Unitarians ; to skeptics ; to worldly men ; to the West
minster Review ; to philosophers, is there any one sub
ject more difficult than that involved in the question
of Pilate, " What shall be done with Jesus ?" Ages
have passed away since he lived, and now the question
is revived with a power which it has never had before,
and more learning is employed on the question than
there has been, at any former period of the world. At
his birth it was said of him, " Behold, this child is set
for the fall and rising again of many in Israel ; and for
a sign which shall be spoken against ; that the thoughts
of many hearts may be revealed" (Luke, ii., 34, 35). This
was true in his own age ; it is true in history ; it is true
in our own times ; it bids fair to be true to the end of
the world.
The inquiry as it pertains to us in this course of Lec-
* Life of Jesus. New York, 1864, p. 50, 51, 104, 215, 351, 376.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 283
tures, with reference to the argument for the truth of
his religion, especially in the nineteenth century after
his character has been before the world for eighteen
hundred years is, whether that character furnishes ev
idence that he was from God, and that his religion is
divine, or whether all that there was in his character
can be explained on the supposition that his claims
were false, and that his religion is an imposture.
The argument now divides itself into two parts :
that -derived from his personal character, and that de
rived from his incarnation.
I. THAT DERIVED FROM HIS PERSONAL CHARACTER.
(1.) The foundation of this argument is, that the
character of Jesus, as drawn by the Evangelists, is PER
FECT. If that were denied, and as far as it was denied,
the argument would fail.
It might, at this stage of the argument, almost be
assumed that that character is perfect. It has been
admitted by all, or so nearly by all, that as in cer
tain mathematical propositions small fractions may be
left out of the account as not affecting the result, so
here the number of those who have called the perfec
tion of that character in question has been so small,
and the points have been so unimportant, if not inap
preciable or doubtful, that these need not be taken into
the account. The ancients did not call the perfection
of his character in question. Neither Celsus, Porphyry,
nor Julian expressed a doubt on the subject. The ar
gument which they urged was not based on a denial
of the perfection of Jesus ; it was founded on the al
leged fact that the character of others of Socrates,
and of Apollonius of Tyana were not less perfect.
It is only in modern times that the perfection of that
284 LECTURES ON THE
character has been called in question, and the fact that
it has been done, and the manner in which it has been
done, have shocked the Christian world.
Dr. Priestley, indeed, asserted that " Christ was nat
urally as fallible and peccable as any other man," but
he did not venture to suggest that his character, in fact,
was not actually perfect, or that he was in any sense a
sinner, though he would not have been restrained from
doing it if there had been any thing in his conduct or
character to which he could have referred as prooffor
he was not restrained from saying that he had found
defects in the reasoning of the apostle Paul. It was re
served for others to take the additional bold step of
specifying what they regard as defects in the character
of the Saviour. ; i >-.
The " acute and candid" author of the work on " The
Soul" and the " Phases of Faith"* understood very well
that " a perfect type of character is the essence of a
practical religion," and that, if the Christian type was
perfect, it would be hopeless to set up a new religion
beside it. Accordingly, it became necessary to show
that there were imperfections in the character of Christ,
and the imperfections which he specifies are two in
number. The first is the exhibition of indignation
against the hypocritical and soul-murdering tyranny of
the Pharisees ; the second is the absence of mirth, and
of laughter as its natural and genial manifestation. !
This is all.
Strauss also denies the sinlessness of Jesus. This,
however, is done not so much from the specification of
any actual facts, as on the d priori philosophical argu
ment of the impossibility of sinlessness, or the panthe-
* Mr. Newman.
t Lectures on the Study of History, by Goldwin Smith, p. 139, 140.
EVIDENCES OP CHEISTIANITY. 285
istic notion of the inseparableness of sin from all finite
existence. The only exegetical proof that he urges is
the declaration of the Savior (Matt., xix., 17), "There
is none good but one, that is God."*
A French writer F. Pecaut (Le Christ et la Con
science, Paris, 1859) likewise denies the sinlessness of
Jesus. He refers to the following facts as evidences of
imperfection : the conduct of Jesus toward his mother
in his twelfth year ; his rebuke administered to her at
the wedding feast of Cana ; his expulsion of the traffick
ers from the Temple ; his cursing of the unfruitful fig-
tree ; the destruction of the herd of swine ; his bitter
invectives against the Pharisees ; and his own rejection
of the attribute "good" in the dialogue with the rich
youth, f
Such objections as these it would not be difficult to
answer, and it will be assumed here, in accordance with
what may be regarded, with these slight exceptions, as
the universal judgment of mankind, that the character
of the Savior was perfect. If this is admitted, it will
be admitted, also, with exceptions not more numerous,
or that will not more vary the judgment of mankind,
that the character stands alone. It would be as easy
to dispose of the few cases not more than two or
three in number that have been set up as being also
perfect, as Socrates and Apollonius, for example, as it is
to dispose of the specified objections in regard to the
perfection of the Savior. The general judgment of
mankind on the subject of human perfection is un
doubtedly in accordance with the expressed opinion of
Cicero: "In whom truly there shall be absolute per
fection we have not as yet seen ; we have seen no one
perfect ; it has only been expounded by philosophers
* Schaff, Person of Jesus, p. 209. f Ibid.
286 LECTURES ON THE
what such a one would be, if there should be such a
55*
one.
(2.) To see the full bearing on the argument of the
remark now made, it is necessary to keep in mind the
fact that that character has been regarded as equally
perfect in all those eighteen centuries which have
elapsed since his appearing ; among all nations where
he has been made known ; by all ranks and conditions
of society. This is an ordeal through which a charac
ter claimed to be perfect must necessarily pass. It is
not that the character is regarded as perfect in one age,
or among those of a certain rank or condition in life,
but that it commends itself to those of every age and
of every condition, and that when examined in view of
all the phases of opinion which exist among men, and
of all the standards of perfection which are set up, in
reference to what it would be if reproduced in a partic
ular age and among a particular class, it is still found
to be without a flaw. For, abstractly, there are great
varieties of opinion among men about what is perfect
in character ; there are different standards of morality ;
there are different views in philosophy; there are dif
ferent customs and opinions ; there are different things
aimed at in life; there are different attempts to draw
a perfect character. That which would seem to be per
fect in one age, and according to the mode of judging
in that age, might be seen to be very far from being
perfect when men should have more enlarged and cor
rect views of what constitutes perfection; and that
which would come up to the demands of that more ad
vanced age might still show defects in an age still more
* In quo vero erit perfecta sapientia quern adhuc nos quidem vidi
mus neminem ; sed philosophorum sententiis, qualis futurus sit, si
raodo aliquando fucrit, exponitur. Tusc. Quaest., lib. ii., cap. 22.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 287.
advanced, and might fail to meet the general judgment
of mankind as to a claim of absolute sinlessness.
The claim set up for the Savior, and universally con
ceded, with the few exceptions which I have noticed, is
that it commends itself equally to every age ; to every
class of persons ; to the learned and the unlearned ; to
sages, to philosophers, and to those in humble life to
all as absolutely free from sin. On this fact my argu
ment now is based.*
(3.) Assuming now that the character of Christ is
perfect or sinless, it will be proper, in order to see the
force of the argument, to consider the attempts which
have been made to. draw or describe a perfect char
acter.
One of two things is true in regard to the character
of Christ, as exhibited in the New Testament : it was
either real, or it was the work of the Evangelists a
work of fiction.
If it was real, then the question is settled ; for if he
was perfect and sinless, then he was what he claimed to
be, and was the Son of God sent down from heaven
for he undoubtedly claimed this.
If it was the work of the Evangelists, then we have
to show how it was that such plain men as they were,
and very imperfect men themselves, should have been
able to set before the world a perfect imaginary charac
ter ; how four or more men of such rank as they were
* The following works may be referred to on the general sub
ject of the character of the Savior : Dr. Ullmann, Die Sundlosigkeit
Jesu ; Dr. Horace, Bushnell, The Character of Jesus ; John Young,
The Christ of History ; I. P. Lange, Leben Jesu ; Dr. Channing s
Sermon on the Character of Christ, Works, vol. iv., p. 23 ; Lectures
on the Study of History, by Prof. Goldwin Smith, p. 127-167; and
" The Person of Christ," by Dr. Philip Schaff.
288 LECTUKES ON THE
should have combined, in separate narratives, to pro
duce such a character; how, moreover, they should
have done it, not by direct statements, but by placing
this imaginary person in a great variety of situations,
and bringing him into contact with the world for a suc
cession of years, and under every possible temptation
to do wrong ; and how they were able so to describe
him that he never is represented as uttering a senti
ment, or manifesting a feeling, or performing an action,
which is not conformable to the highest standard of
perfection. It will be seen at once that it is a much
more difficult thing for four men to present a perfect
character in such details than it would be for one man
to carry out his own individual conceptions; as it
would be more difficult for four sculptors to produce
the Apollo Belvidere, in the beauty of its form and pro
portions, than it was for the one mind that conceived it
and executed it. Moreover, the difficulty is to be ex
plained how, on the supposition even that Christ actu
ally lived, and was perfect or sinless, such men had the
ability so to draw his character, and so to represent
him, in such a variety of situations, that his character
should commend itself to all ages as absolutely sinless.
The simple fact in the matter, whether the character
was real, or whether it is the creation of the imagina
tion, is that they have done what was never before
done, and what, even with this model -before them, has
never since been done.
The attempts made by men to draw a perfect charac
ter have been of two kinds : from real life ; and from the
imagination real characters, and fictitious characters.
The former attempts have failed, because there have
been no perfect characters, and because it has been the
work of the historian to describe men as they are.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 289
Themselves imperfect men, and portrayed by imper
fect men, they stand before the world as imperfect
men.
The design of fiction, in poetry and romance, is to de
scribe men and women as they are, or human nature
as it is. Such works, so far as they relate to human
conduct, lose all their value when they fail to describe
human nature as it is living men and women acting
their parts on the great theatre of human life. Those
works come nearest to perfection, as works of art, when
they describe human nature most accurately. Shak-
speare does not describe perfect characters ; it may be
doubted whether he ever attempted it, or designed to
describe one. The characters in novels, as the charac
ters in history, are not perfect characters ; and if any
one has attempted to draw such a character, it is easy
at once to see, whatever else it may be, how unlike it is
to the character of Jesus Christ. Where is there a
character, in fiction, that can be held up to all the world
in all ages ; that can represent man in all relations and
circumstances ; that can be a sinless model in conduct
alike toward God and toward men ; that can be a model
for kings and princes, sages and philosophers, the hum
ble, the unlearned, the lowly, the down-trodden in pros
perity and in adversity; in joy and in sorrow; in be
nevolence, in purity, in gentleness, in the love of truth,
in the love of justice ; in childhood, in youth, and in
middle age; under obloquy and reproach; in dealing
with crafty and unprincipled men ; in abandonment and
persecution ; in the severest form of death, and under
all that could shake the firmness of virtue where is
there, where has there been, such a character, in reality
or in fiction, except in the person of Jesus Christ ?
I do not affirm that it has never been attempted. We
N
290 LECTURES ON THE
have seen that there has been, in two or more instances,
a claim set up to perfection of character that would be
a set-off against the claim in favor of Jesus Christ. I
do not deny that writers of fiction have designed to
draw a perfect character, nor that they have supposed
that they have done it just as artists have designed to
present a perfect human form in the Apollo and the Ve
nus de Medici, and perfect beauty in the Madonna. I
do not deny that the attempt has been made where, in
fact, it has most signally failed in the description of
the gods appearing in human form, a fact which we
shall see in another part of this Lecture bears vitally
on the argument before us.
(4.) But let us look a moment at the difficulties which
have attended such an undertaking.
(a) First, then, there has been no living model from
which men could draw in forming such a character;
no one that would be recognized universally as con
stituting such a model.
(b) There has been no agreement among men as to
what would be such a standard of character. The idea
would differ in different ages and among different na
tions. A Hebrew would have set up one standard ; an
Egyptian another ; a Greek another ; a Roman another ;
a Persian another ; an inhabitant of China now has one
ideal standard, a Hindoo another, a New Zealander an
other. A nobleman has one idea, a philosopher another,
a priest another. A Mandarin has one idea, a Brahmin
another, a Turkish mufti another. A Pharisee had one,
a Sadducee another, and one of the sect of the Essenes
another. Antony in Egypt and Benedict in Italy,
founders of the monastic system, one, Ignatius Loyola
and Xavier another. A Catholic priest has one idea, a
Protestant minister of religion another. A peasant of
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 291
Galilee could hardly be supposed to have the same
standard which would be approved in Corinth.
(c) The ideas of morality and manners change in dif
ferent ages. There are very low views of morality in
one age, and very stringent ones in another ; there are
things cultivated in one age which are disregarded in
another ; there are things which in one age are consid
ered to be lofty virtues, which in another age cease to
be considered as virtues at all. In the days of chivalry
and knight-errantry there were things regarded as in
dispensable, as entering into character, which a change
of social customs has rendered at best obsolete ; things,
too, then regarded as lofty virtues, which might now be
considered as, at least, of doubtful morality. The re
mark of Cicero, before referred to (p. 286), may here
be borne in mind when speaking of a character in
which there would be " perfect wisdom" perfecta sapi-
entia he says that such a character had hitherto ex
isted only in the imagination of philosophers : they had
described not what had been, but what would be if such
a character should appear.
(d) There was this special difficulty in the case, also,
that the work was to be done, not by one person, who
could carry out his own conceptions, but by several
persons, either acting in concert, or acting independent
ly of each other. One man Homer, Virgil, Milton,
Shakspeare, can easily carry out his own conceptions,
and secure unity and concinnity in an epic or a trage
dy, however long it may be, or however many charac
ters are introduced. The writer of the epic can place
his hero in a great variety of situations, and still have
before him the same hero, acting in conformity with his
character ; the writer of the drama can place any vari
ety of characters in different situations, and lead them
292 LECTURES ON THE
forth in a great variety of action, and still can so pre
serve his plan, and keep up the identity, that Hamlet,
and Lear, and Othello are always recognized when they
speak. But the case would be much more difficult
and complicated if it were supposed that the Iliad,
the ^Eniad, the Paradise Lost, or Hamlet, were respect
ively the production of a society or combination of
poets. One sculptor can carry out his own concep
tions, and produce symmetry, concinnity, harmony in
his statue ; for the statue is in his mind, and he can
copy it as it is there combined in its proper propor
tions. But suppose a company of artists to have un
dertaken to execute the statue of Minerva or the Apol
lo, it is easy to see how the matter would be compli
cated, and how improbable it would have been that
statues with such beauties of proportion and form
would ever have existed.
In the case of the life of the Savior, if no such being
ever existed, then the difficulty is in seeing how four,
or five, or more persons could combine to form such an
idea, and how they could combine in carrying out the
conception. If he did really exist, then the difficulty
would be to see how four, or five, or more persons could
so write his life, with or without concert, as to produce
separate and independent narratives, and yet preserve
the unity of the idea through the whole.
(e) It is to be borne in mind, also, that the plan was,
as appears, not to represent him as an abstraction, or
not to present the abstract conception of a perfect man,
but to place him in an almost endless variety of situa
tions, and to show how he acted there ; with no com
ment on his conduct with reference to the question
whether it was consistent or not, and manifestly with
no anxiety on that point ; without even saying that he
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 293
was perfect for that was not affirmed by the Evangel
ists themselves, but was reserved for later writers*
but to describe him as acting, leaving the world to
judge from his actions whether he was a perfect being.
Accordingly, he appears before us in all the variety of
circumstances in which a human being can ordinarily
be placed; in such an endless diversity that the char
acter, whatever it was, could not but be developed. He
makes a thousand speeches ; he performs a thousand
actions; he meets with thousands of people; he is
placed in situations of temptation and of provocation ;
he is among friends and among foes; he is with the
wicked and the good ; he is with the sick and the dy
ing ; he addresses great multitudes in public ; he warns
and denounces the wicked, and he pours consolation
into the hearts of those that w^eep in private.
To see the difficulty, and the nature of the argument,
let us return for a moment to the supposition already
suggested. The statue of Minerva ; the Apollo Belvi-
dere ; the Yenus de Medici, and the still more compli
cated Laocoon, are respectively the work of one artist.
One mind formed the conception ; one hand carried out
the conception ; one idea runs through the entire work
as a work of art.
But suppose that any one of these, either the most
simple or the most complicated, were the work of dif
ferent men the production of a society of artists, and
not of an individual, either with or without a common
agreement or understanding. Suppose it be left to one
man to form the head ; to a second the hand ; to a third
the foot ; to a fourth the body, each according to his
different ideas of beauty. Or suppose, in one case, that
it was left to independent workmen to carry out an
* 1 Pet., ii., 22; Heb., vii., 26; ii., 10; v., 9.
294 LECTUEES ON THE
idea of perfection already agreed upon, and to be pro
duced by their joint labors ; suppose, in another case,
that four men should undertake, without a concerted
idea, to form independently, by working on different
parts of the statue, the image of a perfect man.
And yet this would present but a small part of the diffi
culty in drawing such a character as that of the Savior
perfect as a man; perfect and complete as the incar
nate Deity. For there is a block of marble to be mould
ed at will. It is cold ; passive ; subject wholly to the
control of the chisel. It has no will ; no passion ; no
feeling ; no character. It has no complications of fancy,
intellect, affections. You can make it what you please ;
and when any part is made, it remains the same. The
idea rises before you with nothing to disturb you, and
when complete, there it stands as you intended it
should. Here there is will, and feeling, and purpose,
and mind, and heart, and action, all varying, and all
producing endless complications.
(5.) Assuming, then, that it has been done, the ques
tion is, How is this to be accounted for or explained ?
(a) It is not a work of fiction. It bears all the marks
of real life. The life of Christ is not a fiction. Christ
is a real historical personage as real as Caesar or Alex
ander. You can make nothing of history ; of nations ;
of opinions ; of philosophy ; of the world ; of any thing
in the past, if this is denied. All history is connect
ed with that life ; all history, for eighteen hundred
years at least, turns on that life. The fact that he
lived, and founded the Christian religion, is recognized
by Josephus, by Tacitus, by Pliny. It is not denied
by Celsus, by Porphyry, by Julian, as it would have
been if it could have been done. It is not denied by
Mr. Gibbon, but is assumed in his labored argument ev-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 295
ery where. It is not denied by Strauss ; it is not de
nied by Renan.
(b) It is not a work of genius. Genius has never
drawn such a character ; genius has never drawn a per
fect character at all. Besides, his biographers, the fish
ermen of Galilee, were not remarkable for genius, un
less the fact of portraying the life of Chrst proves that
they were. They did nothing else remarkable. They
wrote no poetry. They promulgated no new system
of philosophy. They composed no works of fiction,
unless this "is one. They wrote no dramas to make
them immortal, as Sophocles, Terence, and Eschylus
did. They gave the world no inventions in the arts.
They made no discoveries in science. They suggested
no improvements in architecture ; in ship-building ; in
the implements of agriculture ; even in their own em
ployment in the methods of fishing. They would have
-lived and died unknown all of them forgotten just as
soon as they had died, if it had not been for their life
of Christ. Not a stone would have marked their graves ;
not one of them would have been heard of a hundred
years after their death. Nothing else that they did
would have made a ripple on the great flowing stream
of the world s events. Fishermen are not commonly
immortal.
(c) Moreover, if it were supposed that they under
took, by combination and concert, to engage in such a
work as this, we should certainly not have had this life.
We should either have had a character intensely and
thoroughly Jewish which the character of Jesus is not
with Jewish conceptions ; a narrow, bigoted, Jewish
Messiah ; a prince ; a conqueror ; a deliverer ; a Judas
Maccabaeus ; a restorer of the pomp and pride of the an
cient monarchy, in accordance with the Jewish concep-
296 LECTURES ON THE
tions of the Messiah, or we should have had a biog
raphy full of trifles and small conceits ; of foolish mar
vels; of improbable stories a biography that might
have rivaled the Arabian Nights Entertainments, such
as the writers of the Jewish Talmud would have been
likely to produce. We never should have had the Life
of Jesus of Nazareth as we have it now in the New
Testament.
(d) It is to be remarked, also, that in thus drawing
the perfect character of Christ, the Evangelists, or the
disciples who followed him, did not always themselves
see that his character was perfect, or that he was always
acting in the wisest manner. On that point they often
had doubts ; but they recorded the facts as they occur
red, and time has shown that his conduct was perfect
and wise. Thus, on one occasion, they said to him, when
he proposed to go to Bethany, where Lazarus was,
" Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and go-
est thou thither again ?" (John, xi., 8). On another occa
sion, when he announced to his disciples that he must
go up to Jerusalem and die, it is said, " Then Peter took
him, and began to rebuke him, saying, I2e it far from
thee, Lord / this shall not be done unto thee^ (Matt., xvi.,
22).
The argument which I have thus far, in this Lecture,
submitted to you, relates to the perfect character of
Christ the fact that he had such a character, and that
it has been so drawn by the Evangelists, demonstrating
that he was from God. That he had such a character
proves that he was from God, for he claimed that he
was ; whether his character was real or whether it was
imaginary, it was above the power of such men to draw
and describe it. The supposition that it was real, and
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 297
that they were under a supernatural influence in de
scribing it, explains all.
n. The other form of the argument which I proposed
to submit to you is THAT DERIVED FROM HIS INCAR
NATION.
I have occupied so much of the time on the former
part of the subject, that what remains must now be
presented in few words.
(1.) There has been a general belief or impression
among men that an incarnation of the Deity is possible,
and would occur. This idea or impression has been so
prevalent as to show that somehow the idea does not
shock ,men, or strike them as absurd. At first view it
would seem that it would be likely to do this. So far
exalted must God be above men ; so unlike men must
he be ; so strange would seem to be the fact that two
beings, wholly unlike and distinct, should be combined
in one ; so impossible is it to explain the mode in which
this could be done, that it might be presumed that this
would never occur to the mind as possible ; that, how
ever exalted one being or one class of beings might be
above another, the extremes could be combined in one ;
that the highest intellect in the universe God, could
be united permanently with the lowest man. It is to
be admitted at once that it requires the highest exer
cise of faith to believe that this could be so. Yet some
how the belief that the gods do come down in the forms
of men has been so common that the idea does not
startle or amaze mankind. When, at Lystra, Paul heal
ed a cripple, and the people lifted up their voices and
said of him and Barnabas, " The gods are come down
to us in the likeness of men" (Acts, xiv., 11), they ex
pressed only what has been in accordance with a gen
eral belief. They were not shocked ; they hastened to
N2
298 LECTURES ON THE
bring oxen and garlands, that they might render them
appropriate homage as gods.
This general faith of mankind in the doctrine of an
incarnation of the Deity has been manifested in every
way possible. It has been incorporated into legends,
myths, and fables. It has been embalmed in tradition.
It has been expressed in the highest conceptions of
poetry. It has been made the foundation of epics and
tragedies. It has suggested the noblest conceptions of
sculpture. It has been uttered in the profoundest say
ings of philosophy. It has been laid at the foundation
of most of the religions of the world, for there is scarce
ly one form of religion among men in which some trace
of the conception can not be found.
This universal belief in the doctrine of an incarna
tion of the Deity may be referred to as one among
a thousand arrangements in our nature, and in the
forms of belief among men, shadowing the truth ; pre
paring men to expect and to receive the truth ar
rangements in our nature which can be explained only
on the supposition that there is truth of which this
belief is the shadow, and that there is to be revelation
for which this faith was to prepare the way. It may
be doubted whether the revelation of an incarnation of
God would not have so shocked mankind that it would
at once have been rejected as impossible if the minds
of men had not been prepared for its reception by this
universal faith in an incarnation. At all events, this
universal belief in what would seem so improbable,
proves that the idea is not repugnant to the human
mind. The doctrine of an incarnation of the Deity is
not to be dislodged from the mind of man. It is not to
be driven from it by argument. He does not argue
safely, nor will he argue with permanent success, who
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 299
argues against the universal convictions of men on any
subject. The faith will find a substance corresponding
to it ; the belief is to be satisfied by some revelation in
accordance with it; and .the only question is whether
that is found in Christianity, or whether it is to be in
some form of heathenism already existing, or whether
it remains to be met in some hitherto undeveloped form
of religion.
(2.) The attempt has been made in almost all coun
tries to describe the actions of an incarnate God, or to
tell what he would be. It may be said that the highest
efforts of genius and philosophy have been exhausted on
the attempt. The world has no higher genius to be
employed on any subject than has been employed on
this. Plato went to the utmost limit of his powers in
describing the Trinity of his conception it may be said
to the utmost limit of the powers of man; for who can
bring to the subject a mind more richly endowed than
his? Homer exhausted the powers of poetry in de
scribing the gods as they came down to mingle in the
strifes of battle. The Greeks, in sculpture, accomplish
ed all that, in this respect, the human mind could be
expected to do.
In a previous part of these Lectures I have remarked
that the highest powers of the human mind have been
employed on the subject of religion, in endeavoring to
ascertain the truth about God ; the immortality of the
soul ; the plan of recovery for lost men ; and the reali
ties of the future world. I remarked, in substance, that
it seemed not improper that there should be one na
tional mind created and endowed as if with special ref
erence to such inquiries ; one people with whom the solu
tion of the question whether man could accomplish with
out a revelation all that the race needs, could be safely
300 LECTURES ON THE
intrusted. I remarked that such a mind was found em
inently in the Greek mind, and that the experiment had
been fairly made there. In subtlety; in depth; in
acuteness; in the power of analysis; in keenness of pen
etration ; in metaphysical acuteness ; and in the posses
sion of a language unrivaled in its adaptation to such
inquiries, I remarked that it seemed as if God had pre
pared that mind especially for such inquiries ; that the
question as to what man could do by his unaided pow
ers might be regarded as fairly determined there ; that
the result was a demonstration that man was unequal
to the task of solving those great questions, and that a
revelation was indispensable for the race.
I call your attention now to the fact that God seems
to have, in like manner, created and endowed another
national mind with special reference to the limitations
of the human powers on the subject of an incarnation
of the Deity. I refer to the Hindoo mind.
The human race, in modern times, has been divided
into certain classes, founded on certain " types" or pe
culiarities from the anatomical structure, complexion,
or form, as the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the Ethio
pian, the American "types." A classification not less
remarkable, not bounded by the same limits, might
perhaps be made from the mental characteristics of
men, and it might be found that these are sufficiently
marked to constitute a distinction as real among the
people of the earth. The classes of mind most distin
guished might be arranged in the following order : The
Greek mind ; the Teutonic mind ; the Arabic mind ;
the Hindoo mind unless the order of the last two
should be reversed, and the Hindoo mind be assigned
a place nearer the Greek. In acuteness ; in subtlety ;
in the power of discrimination ; in an adaptation to
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 301
mental and mathematical pursuits ; in poetry, the Hin
doo mind, commonly supposed to belong to the classes
of inferior mind in the world, has its appropriate place,
as . endowed by nature, with the other three classes
which I have mentioned, and has exerted an influence
on mankind perhaps scarcely less limited than the oth
ers that I have specified.
I have said that the Greek mind seemed to have been
created almost with the design to show what the hu
man intellect, unaided, could do in finding out God and
the truths of religion, and, by its failure in the inquiry,
to show the necessity of revelation. In like manner, I
now observe that the Hindoo mind seems to have been
made to show what man could learn by nature about
the Trinity and the Incarnation, or what the doctrine of
the Trinity and the Incarnation would become if in
trusted to such a class of mind. For the Hindoo mind
has been devoted to the inquiry. Its utmost powers
have been exhausted on the subject. The representa
tion of the Trinity and the Incarnation has constituted
the very essence of its theology. The system of relig
ion there is perhaps the most perfect system in the
world of a theoretical religion carried out into minute
details under the power of acute and penetrating
genius.
What that system is, the time would not allow me to
describe, nor would it be necessary. By the labors of
Christian missionaries, it has been made familiar to the
world. For puerility, for extravagance, for absurdity,
no system ever proposed to mankind on the subject of
religion has ever equaled it ; and as the Greek mythol
ogy, " elegant" as it was, showed the limit of the best
type of the human mind on the general subject of relig
ion, so the Hindoo doctrines on the Trinity and the In-
302 LECTURES ON THE
carnation show the limit of the human mind when ex
ercised on the problem what God would be if he should
become incarnate.
As we, therefore, compare the statements in the Gos
pels with the writings of the Greek philosophers on the
general subject of religion, so we may compare the de
tails of the Hindoo theology on the Trinity and the In
carnation with the statements in the New Testament
on the life and character of the incarnate Son of God.
If it had been left to man to select the mind that was
best fitte4 to describe what an incarnate being would
be, it is probable that no one could have been selected
more fitted to the task than the Hindoo mind. The re
sult is before the world.
(3.) What, then, are the difficulties on the subject
which have placed it so far above the unaided human
powers ? I have, in the former part of this Lecture, ad
verted to the difficulties in describing the character of
a perfect man, and to the fact that all efforts to do this,
except the attempt in the Gospels, have failed. I now
advert more particularly to the greater difficulties of
describing the actions of an incarnate being of God in
human form.
(a) In considering this part of the subject, it is prop
er to remark that it is undoubtedly the fact that it was
the design of the writers of the New Testament to de
scribe such a character ; that they had such a character
before their minds in portraying the character of Jesus ;
or that they undertook to write the life of one whom
they regarded as God in human form.
This was, beyond all question, the view of the Evan
gelist John, for he begins his Gospel by saying that " In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 303
flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only-begotten of the Father), full of
grace and truth" (John, i., 1, 14). The difficulty was in
describing the character of one who was believed to be
God, and who was known to be a man.
(b) If there was, as we have seen in the former part
of this Lecture, great and intrinsic difficulties in de
scribing the character of a perfect man, there was, in
the case of the incarnation, this additional difficulty,
which would seem to be almost insuperable, of describ
ing the actions of an incarnate being of one in whom
the divinity and the humanity were united. We know
what a man will do ; how he thinks, speaks, acts. But
how do we know what God will do how Tie will think,
speak, act ? Still more, how do we know how the di
vine and the human could be so blended that the ac
tions of each and of both could be represented as the
actions of one person ? The difficulty was in putting
fit words into the mouth of one regarded as God, and
of describing what he would do as the incarnate divin
ity, and at the same time of describing him as in union
with, or in combination with human feelings, tender
ness, sympathies, compassions one who could weep, as
a man, over a friend sleeping in the grave, and at the
same time, by a word, restore him to life, as God. For
this there was no model no example. None of the de
scriptions of the actions of the gods in the heathen
mythology would do for an example ; none of the de
scriptions in the poets could be the basis for the biog
raphy of a combined human and divine person. If it
was the work of fancy, it was to be mere fancy ; if the
life had been real, there was still the difficulty of de
scribing that life so that the divine and the human
would appear in the proper proportions ; so that in the
304 LECTURES ON THE
one there would be nothing inconsistent with the other ;
so that there would be nothing incongruous, monstrous,
or absurd. The difficulty was that of describing God
and man as one united being ; acting as such ; speaking
as such ; suffering as such ; dying as such the difficul
ty of describing the things pertaining to his divine na
ture as naturally as those pertaining to his human na
ture ; the difficulty of describing this mysterious being
performing a miracle as naturally as he performed any
other action making him, if I may so speak as nat
ural when he stilled the tempest on the sea, or when
he raised Lazarus from the grave, as when he broke
the bread at the last Passover, or when, in words of
sympathy and love, he comforted the weeping sisters
of Lazarus : to preserve the individuality, the separate
consciousness, the expressions of will, of affection, and
of feeling ; to describe the actions of the divinity in
language appropriate, and the actions of the man in
language appropriate ; to describe such a mysterious
being in language as appropriate when raising the dead
as when conversing on ordinary topics of life ; when
stilling a tempest on the Sea of Galilee by a word as
God, and when communing with the two disciples on
the way to Emmaus. Who can describe such a being,
in very varied actions in life, and in a great diversity
of circumstances, and yet do it so that all shall recog
nize its fitness ? How could this be done by unlettered
fishermen ? How could it be done by four or more such
fishermen, not acting in concert, and yet drawing out
the details of such a life in a manner that would be
harmonious, and so that its concinnity would be pre
served ?
(4.) It has not been done elsewhere than in the Gos
pels ; not in the poetry of the Greeks ; not in the in-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 305
carnations of Vishnu. As far as the east is from the
west are all those representations from what must be
the character and the life of an incarnate Deity ; and as
it may be presumed that in the efforts of these two
classes of mind the Greek and the Hindoo, the first
minds of earth the power of man on that subject was
exhausted, it may be affirmed now that it can not be
done. Among the Greeks there was no bad passion of
men that was not represented as developed in their in
carnate deities; among the Hindoos there is nothing
absurd, puerile, monstrous, extravagant, wild, improba
ble, or even wicked, that is not represented in their in
carnations of the Deity.
On the question respecting the ability of man to de
scribe, in a proper manner, the actions of an incarnate
Deity, we are not left to conjecture, for we actually
have two distinct classes of biographers of Jesus both
claiming to describe him as incarnate that of the
Evangelists, and that in the " apocryphal Gospels."
No writings in the world are more unlike each other
than these ; nothing, perhaps, could more clearly dem
onstrate that there has been a supernatural guidance
in portraying the character of Jesus in the Evangelists
than a comparison of the one with the other.
One of those " Gospels" relates to the " infancy of
Jesus," and the attempt has been made, assuming the
fact of his incarnation or his divinity, to describe him
when a boy. Of such an attempt, it has been well re
marked by Dr. Bushnell (Nature and the Supernatural,
p. 280), "If any writer, of almost any age, will under
take to describe not merely a spotless, but a superhu
man or celestial childhood, not having the reality before
him, he must be somewhat more than human himself if
he does not pile togeth^j a mass of clumsy exaggera-
306 LECTURES GIST THE
tions, and draw and overdraw till neither heaven nor
earth can find any verisimilitude in the picture."
" These apocryphal Gospels," it has been well said,
" are. related to the canonical Gospels as a counterfeit
to the genuine coin, or as a revolting caricature to the
inimitable original." According to the representation
in those Gospels, even dumb idols, irrational beasts, and
senseless trees bow in adoration before the infant Je
sus on his journey to Egypt ; and after his return, when
yet a boy of five or seven years, he changes balls of clay
into flying birds for the idle amusement of his play
mates, dries up a stream of water by a mere word,
transforms his companions into goats, raises the dead
to life, makes by miracle a piece of cabinet-work which
his father Joseph could not make, and performs all sorts
of miraculous cures through a magical influence which
proceeds from the very water in which he washed, the
towels which he used, and the bed on which he slept.*
(5.) But that in which men have failed every where
else has been accomplished in the Gospels. No one can
show that, on the supposition that Christ was divine
God as well as man there is in his recorded life, in the
sentiments which fell from his lips, in the actions which
he performed, in the feelings which he manifested, even
one thing inconsistent with such a supposition. That
he was, as described, a perfect man, we have seen. The
life which he lived was that of a perfect man. The
death which he died was that of a perfect man. At the
same time, the sentiments which he uttered were such
as became God those profound truths; those perfect
rules of morality ; those sublime doctrines ; those de-
* The particulars, with ample illustrations, may be seen in Rud.
Hoffman s Leben Jesu nach den Apokryphen, p. 140-236. See Dr.
Schaff s Person of Christ, p. 31-33. ^
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 307
scriptions of God ; those representations of man ; those
representations of the future state the resurrection
the judgment heaven and hell. The miracles which he
wrought were such as God only can perform, and the
language which he used in healing the sick, in opening
the eyes of the blind, in stilling the storm, and in rais
ing the dead, is as simple and appropriate as that which
lie Employed in his ordinary intercourse with his disci
ples and friends. For he is described as uttering those
great truths as naturally and as easily as conversing on
the ordinary topics of life, and the description of his
raising the dead is a description of an act as natural
and easy as the most ordinary action of life. We may
safely challenge any one who denies the fact of the in
carnation to show, on the supposition that there was an
incarnation, what there is in the whole of the four Gos
pels that is inconsistent with such an idea, or that
strikes the mind as incongruous on such a supposition.
And even with this model before us, let it be attempted
again, even by the most cultivated intellect of the
world, to represent an incarnate God, and we should
have a representation of the gods of Greece and Rome,
or the puerilities and absurdities of the Hindoo incarna
tions, or a very imperfect copy of Jesus of Nazareth.
(6.) How, now, is this to be accounted for ? If the
case was real, and if there was a real incarnation in the
person of Christ, and if these illiterate men were in
spired to give a just account of his life, then the whole
matter is explained ; if neither of these were true, then
the mystery remains as yet unsolved, and will remain
unsolved forever.
308 LECTURES ON THE
LECTURE IX.
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AS ADAPTED TO THE WANTS
OF MAN, AS ILLUSTRATED IN THESE EIGHTEEN HND-
RED YEARS.
AFTER the lapse of eighteen hundred years, in which
Christianity has had a fair opportunity, with other re
ligions, to make a trial of what it is, we ought to be
able to show that it meets a want in man, and that the
manner in which it does this is proof of its divine ori
gin. The argument would be the stronger if it could
be shown that other forms of religion have failed to
meet this want, and that they, in this respect, leave the
race as they find it. The direct argument for the di
vine origin of Christianity, as derived from this source,
would be that God has endowed man with certain
wants and necessities as a religious being, and that, in
the failure of all other systems, the system which would
actually meet those wants must have had its origin in
Him who has thus endowed the human soul.
It may be assumed now that the ancient religions of
the world did not meet those wants, and that for this
reason they have been suffered to die out. The He
brew religion did not do this; for, although it has re
mained in the world, and is, in fact, found in almost all
nations, it does not so commend itself to mankind as to
make them desire to revive it, and to rebuild the Tem
ple ; and, but for some purposes which can be best ex
plained on the supposition that the prophecies in the
Bible respecting it are to be fulfilled, it would have
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 309
died out long ago, and would be now reckoned with
the religion of the Egyptians and the Babylonians as
among the things that are past.
The religion of the Chaldseans, of the Egyptians, of
the Assyrians, of the Persians, of the Greeks, of the Ro
mans, did not meet the wants of mankind, and have
been suffered to die. The religion of the Egyptians
was dead, not to be revived again, when Christianity
appeared. The same was true of the religion of Baby
lon and Nineveh. The religion of Zoroaster was dying
away. The religion of the Greeks had lost its power,
and that of the Romans was following in the same line
of decline and extinction. Those religions were becom
ing effete and obsolete; and whether a new religion
should come or not to meet the wants of mankind,
there was nothing that could revive them, and restore
to them their former ascendency. They have now, in
fact, died out, and nothing can revive and restore them.
Julian brought all the power of the empire to bear on
the expressed purpose of restoring paganism, endeavor
ing to reanimate it by incorporating into it, in some
measure, the spirit of Christianity ; for he " beheld with
envy," says Mr. Gibbon, " the wise and humane regula
tions of the Church ; and he very frankly confesses his
intention to deprive the Christians of the applause, as
well as the advantage, which they had acquired by the
exclusive practice of charity and beneficence."* He
failed, and the attempt was decisive and final. No one
of imperial rank has ventured on the experiment since,
and the world has shown no disposition to recall to life
the ancient religions of Egypt, of Babylon, of Nineveh,
of Persia, of Greece, of Rome. Not an idol of the an
cient religions has been restored to its place. Not a
* Decline and Fall, vol. ii., p. 31.
310 LECTURES ON THE
temple of ancient paganism is occupied as a place of
worship. There are no augurs, flamens, priests, or vestal
virgins; there are no restored altars and no sacrifices.
Those priests are disrobed; those altars are destroyed;
those temples, immortal works of art, stand as noble
ruins, to tell what the religion was in its palmy days,
but no one, denizen or foreigner, visits them now to
worship the gods once honored there. The Parthenon
is in ruins ; the Pantheon is a Christian church, in hon
or of the Virgin Mary ; Minerva is no more adored in
the one, and the gods of the nations are no longer set
up in the other. These ancient religions did not meet
the wants of human nature, and they have been suffered
to die away, to be revived no more.
It is a fair question whether Christianity has become,
or ever will become, thus antiquated and obsolete, and
whether, in the advanced period of the world which we
have reached, it shows that it is not adapted to the na
ture of man, and is to die away, to be superseded or not
by some other form of religion ; whether the time has
come, or will soon come, when, whatever it may have
done hitherto, some new system say the "positive
philosophy," shall be substituted in its place. " Chris
tianity, we are told," says Professor Goldwin Smith,
" like other phases of the great onward movement of
humanity, has its place, and that a great place in histo
ry. In its allotted epoch it was progressive in the high
est degree, and immense veneration and gratitude are
due to it on that account ; but, like other phases of the
same movement, it had its appointed term. That term
it has already exceeded. It has already become sta
tionary or retrograde ; it has begun, instead of being the
beneficent instrument, to be the arch-enemy of human
progress. It cumbers the earth ; and the object of all
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 311
honest, scientific, free-thinking men, who are lovers of
their kind, should be to quicken the death-pangs into
which it has manifestly fallen, and remove once for all
this obstruction to the onward movement of the race.
Confusion and distress will probably attend the final
abandonment of the popular religion ; but it is better
at once to encounter them than to keep up any longer
an imposture which is disorganizing and demoralizing
to society, as well as degrading to the mind of man,
Let us at once, by a courageous effort, say farewell to
our old faith, and, by a still more courageous efibrt,
find ourselves a new one."*
In illustrating the argument which I propose to sub
mit to you at this time, it will be proper, in the first
place, to make some inquiries, and to lay down some
principles, in regard to man, considered with reference
to religion, or to the necessities of his nature as demand
ing a religion ; and, in the second place, to consider the
question whether Christianity satisfies the wants of our
nature in this respect ; or, in other words, how far in
eighteen hundred years it has commended itself to man
as meeting those wants, and as thus showing that it is
from God.
The entire argument will be stated in view of the fact
that there has been a practical trial of Christianity on
these points for a period now extending over more than
eighteen hundred years.
I. The first point relates to human nature to man
considered with reference to the necessity of a religion.
It may be assumed that a system of religion claiming
to be from God, in order that it may be received by
man, must be in accordance with the moral nature of
man, and with his innate convictions of what is true
* Lectures on the Study of History, p, 118.
312 LECTURES ON THE
and what is right. In other words, a revelation will
not contradict what our nature has taught us to believe
to be true and right, but such a revelation will be in
the line of such convictions, and will add to them, not
ignore or deny them.
This is a point to which the infidel may hold us. If
the pretended revelation is not of this character, he has
an argument against it which we can not well answer ;
if it has this character, we have an argument for its
truth to which he may find it not less difficult to reply.
(l.) The first point to be considered here is, What is
the " end" of life ? What is man made for ? What, if
the object of his creation were accomplished, or fully
carried out, would be secured, so that we could say that
the purpose or end of life was fully obtained ? These
questions are equivalent to that which, to most of us,
was proposed in our early childhood, as being proper
not only to our age then as entering on life, but as ly
ing at the foundation of every just system of theology,
" What is the chief end of man ?" The framers of our
Westminster Catechism felt that that was the first sub
ject on which it was proper to instruct a child; the
man of mature or advanced years will feel that that is
the great question which is to be before him alike in
the middle and at the end of life.
Can we look into the nature of man, and find an an
swer to this question ?
Men answer it according to their own philosophy;
their propensities ; their pleasure. The Epicurean was
ready with his answer ; the Stoic with his ; the Plato-
nist with his. The votary of the world ; the child of
gayety ; the disciple of mammon ; the aspirant for fame,
each is ready with his. There is something which, being
accomplished, would be to them the "end of life;"
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 313
which would meet, as they suppose, all the aspirations
of their nature, and which, being obtained, would be an
answer to the question. For what purpose were they
made? Why were they endowed with the faculties
which have been conferred upon them ? Why have
such hopes and aspirations been implanted in their
souls ?
To furnish a just answer to the question, let us look
at the following things :
(a) There is such an " end" or object contemplated in
the creation of man. There are so many aspirations ;
so many hopes; so many desires there is, if the ex
pression may be used, so much machinery in the mental
construction of man, that we look for an end or object,
just as we do in the watch or the steam-engine. There
is a stimulus prompting to something, of which the
main-spring in the one, and the steam in the other, and
the arrangements for distributing and directing the
power in both> would be a faint illustration. If there is
no such end or object, all the complexity of wheels and
springs, so nicely adjusted in the one, and all the ar
rangements of boilers and valves in the other, would be
a mere waste. In our moral nature there is much of
this. There is clear proof of design. There is great
skill displayed. There is a very nice adjustment of our
different mental powers to each other. There is no con
fusion. The powers of our nature are never displaced.
There is more in the variety of those powers than in the
most complicated machinery ; there is more skill in the
adjustment. There has been a vast expenditure of wis
dom in our mental constitution. Can we believe that
it has been for naught for no " end" or purpose ?
(b) Whatever that " end" may be, considered as char
acterizing man, it must be common to the race. If the
O
314 LECTURES ON THE
race is one, we shall find it under all the types of hu
manity. If the Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, and
American varieties constitute one race, we shall find
it the same in all ; if these different varieties are dif
ferent races, we shall find some such "end" pertain
ing to each of those races respectively ; if we find that
there is some one end common to all these varieties, it
will be difficult to set aside the argument from that fact
that these varieties are one race, and that the Bible ac
count of the origin of man, as derived from one pair, is
true. The inquiry is, What is the " end" of man ? not
of the brute. There is an " end" or purpose in their cre
ation, but we should not be satisfied on being told that
the end of our creation is the same as theirs. That is
a philosophy not to be recognized in this place as true
philosophy which makes no distinction between man
and the brute.
(c) Whatever that " end" or purpose may be, it must
relate to the future. As far as we have the means of
judging, the brute creation, so far as consciousness is
concerned, if that term may be applied to a brute, acts
only with reference to the present. Brutes make no cal
culations ; they form no plans ; they have no " ends" of
living which extend into that which is to come. There
is nothing in their nature which, being developed, will
find its complement or fulfillment in any thing lying
in the future. The arrangement by which the beaver
builds its dam, and the bee hoards its stores of honey,
and the squirrel gathers nuts and acorns for the winter,
and the bird makes its nest, is an arrangement of in
stinct, not of thought whatever that instinct may be.
However in other respects man may resemble the
brute, yet he differs in this that his plans do pertain
to the future, and that those plans are not the result of
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 315
instinct, but of conscious thought. There is something
in the future in which our happiness lies. It is not in
the present.
(d) That arrangement looks on to a future state.
What I mean is, that there is that in the mental consti
tution of man which looks to a continuance of being be
yond death ; which would not be found in man if he were
not to exist there ; and which can be explained only on
the supposition that he is immortal unless it shall be al
leged that the Maker of man has deceived and beguiled
him by unfounded hopes and fears : that is, unless a
watchmaker had made a watch with no purpose that it
should keep time, or a machinist had made a steam-en
gine with no purpose that it should ever accomplish
any end in the cotton factory, on the railroad, or in the
steam-boat. This arrangement is in the very nature of
man, and it extends to all the results of human conduct.
The plans of men relate to the future. The results of
their actions strike into the future. Those results are
indefinite in regard to the future ; and as it is said that
the circle of the wave made by the pebble may expand
indefinitely over the ocean, or the slightest vibration
of the air by speech may affect the whole atmosphere
of the globe, or any change on the earth s surface, or in
the earth s interior, may affect all the worlds of matter,
so it is certain that human conduct, in its results, will
extend indefinitely into the eternity of the future.
Those results travel over all the changes of this life to
meet us when those changes are passed through, and
will meet us in the world where there is no change.
Nothing interrupts those results. The deeds of youth
travel on to meet the old man bending over the grave ;
the crimes committed in one land travel over continents
and oceans to meet him on the other side of the globe ;
316 LECTURES ON THE
*
the conduct of yesterday comes over the slumberings
of the night, and meets us to-day. Sleep does not in
terrupt that course ; time does not ; distance does not ;
and there is no reason to think that death will, for
death is not an interruption to life and consciousness
no, not so much as a night s sleep.
There is, therefore, some " end" for which man was
made, and that end relates to the future.
(2.) There is a religious want in man that must be
met in a revelation from God. Man is a religious being,
and unless a pretended revelation meets and satisfies
the wants of man as a religious being, it can not be re
ceived as a revelation from God.
This want in man as a religious being exists in two
forms : (a) as essential to his nature, and (b) as a fallen
being.
(a) As man ; as essential to his nature.
This is an original principle of our nature, and is uni
versal. It is not the result of culture ; it is not orig
inated as the world advances from barbarism to civiliza
tion ; it is not detached from society as a relic of bar
barism when the world makes those advances ; it does
not characterize exclusively any one race of men ; it is
not among the things which enter into the formation
of the different " types" of mankind ; it does not serve
in any way to distinguish the Caucasian, the Mongolian,
the Ethiopian, and the American races ; it is not con
nected with the origin of species, or with the develop
ment of species. Every where it exists, from the lowest
form of fetichism to the highest forms of devotion in
which homage is rendered to the one infinite and inde
pendent God.
The desire of knowledge is universal in man ; the de
sire of society, is universal; the desire of happiness is
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 317
universal ; the principle of acting for the future is uni
versal. The existence of will, and imagination, and
memory, and reason is universal in the lowest " types"
of humanity, and in the highest ; in the Ethiopian, the
American, the Mongolian, and the Caucasian races.
The mind of the Caucasian does not differ from the
mind of the Ethiopian in this respect. In neither case
is it the result of culture ; in neither case has it sprung
from the change from barbarism to civilization; in
neither case can it be classed among the " artificial"
wants that have been originated by an advanced state
of society ; in neither case is it detached by progress
in civilization. Nothing has been added in respect to
these qualities of mind by civilization ; nothing has been
dropped as the world has advanced. There never has
been a tribe of men found, in the lowest forms of hu
manity, where these things do not exist; there never
has been such an advance made in civilization that any
new faculty or power has been added to the human
mind. All these are original endowments ; all are the
work of the Creator.
Just so it is in religion. He who forms a theory of
human nature on the supposition that man is not a re
ligious being, and has not a religious want to be sup
plied, forms just such a theory as he would should he
assume that man has not a will, or is not endowed with
memory or with reason. He who attempts to meet the
wants of the world without recognizing the religious
principle, acts just as wisely as he would who should
attempt to meet the wants of society on the supposi
tion that man has no desire of knowledge ; that he has
no social propensities ; that he has no will to be gov
erned ; that he has no rational nature to guide him ;
that he has no passions to be restrained.
318 LECTURES ON THE
That religious want must be met and satisfied in a
pretended revelation. If this is not done, the race will
sooner or later throw the system off as the old sys
tems of Greek and Roman mythology have been thrown
off, as not meeting the wants of man.
(b) There is a religious want in man as a fallen and
sinful being. It is in vain to deny that the race is sin
ful, for all laws proceed on that supposition ; all history
has recorded the fact. Tribunals of justice, prisons,
police arrangements, and the human consciousness, all
proclaim that man is a fallen being.
The remedy for this is somehow to be found in relig
ion. Such is the universal belief of man. The convic
tion of depravity takes this form, and is illustrated by
the religions of the world. There are no religions on
earth for perfectly pure and holy beings ; there are none
which are not founded on the conviction of human de
pravity; there are none which do not make arrange
ments, in some form, for deliverance from sin.
All the religions of the world are religions of sin
ners. With the exception of a few Pharisees, Philoso
phers, and Deists Lord Herbert, the first and the best
of British Deists, is not, however, one of these, for he
made " repentance for sin" one of the ten articles of
universal belief as entering into religion with these
exceptions, all the religions of the world are the relig
ions of sinners. They are religions of sacrifice ; of pen
ance ; of pilgrimages ; of self-inflicted tortures designed
to propitiate the gods, and to secure safety and forgive
ness. Hecatombs of victims have been offered, and
rivers of blood have flowed to make expiation for hu
man guilt.
There is no conviction more nearly universal in our
world than that the nature of man is sinful, and that a
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 319
religion to meet his wants must be a religion that will
propose an expiation for sin, and that will give peace
to a guilty conscience.
This universal conviction may be regarded as the
basis of our argument on this subject, and as final in
the case. It is vain to argue against universal convic
tions of the human mind. It is vain to attempt to set
them aside. He never argues safely who argues against
those universal convictions ; and however specious or
plausible a system of philosophy may be, it will ulti
mately be set aside unless it is founded on those uni
versal convictions.
It may it must be assumed, therefore, that a relig
ion to meet the wants of men must be a religion adapt
ed to sinners, or must be based on the supposition that
there is not only a religious want in man founded in his
original nature, but also in the fact that he is a sinner.
(3.) There are some principles pertaining to these
facts which the friends and the enemies of revelation
must alike admit to be true. They are such as the fol
lowing :
(a) There is such a thing as truth.
Truth may be regarded as comprising two things:
First. Truth as spoken, stated, represented ; that is, as
exhibited by words, by signs, by pictures, by statuary.
In this sense, truth is the representation of things as they
are. A painting, in this sense, is true if it is a proper
representation of a landscape, of a waterfall, of a his
torical scene, or of the human countenance. A drama
or a novel is true if it correctly represents human na
ture, or is a just delineation of the passions of man.
Astronomical truth is a correct representation of the
heavenly bodies ; geological truth, a correct representa
tion of the world before the creation of man, as dis-
320 LECTURES ON THE
closed by rocks and fossils ; historical truth, a correct
representation of events as they have occurred in past
ages; mathematical truth, a correct representation of
facts in regard to number and quantity.
Second. Truth considered as existing in the reality of
things, or in the events and facts which are thus repre
sented, or which lies at the basis of such representation.
In all truth there is not only a representation, but a basis
for the representation, or something on which the repre
sentation is founded, and to which it must conform.
Thus, if the statement is made that two and two make
four, or that all the angles of a triangle are equal to
two right angles, the statement of these facts is truth as
represented; but there is truth as the basis, or as the
foundation of this statement. These facts or realities
remain the same whether there is any representation of
them or not; whether they are known or unknown;
whether the representation of them by words, or signs,
or symbols, is true or false.
(b) There is that in man which responds to truth, or
which is a just ground of appeal in regard to truth. The
mind is so constituted that an impression is made upon
it by truth different from the impression made by error.
It is so made that it may be an element of calculation
in endeavoring to influence others ; that they may be,
and will be, affected by truth if it is fairly brought be
fore their minds ; so made that it is fair to assume that
there will be a uniform result in regard to the same in
dividual, and in regard to different individuals, by the
proper exhibition of truth. Wherever man is found,
civilized or savage ; whatever language he may speak ;
under whatever government he may live ; whatever
laws he may obey, or whatever form of philosophy or
religion he may embrace, so far as truth makes any im-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 321
pression, it is always the same impression, for it always
finds that in the mind which responds to it in precisely
the same way. This fact, not indeed capable of dem
onstration, we always assume as a maxim, or as an ele
mentary thought in our endeavors to influence others.
We have the fullest conviction that to two boys in a
school, the proposition that two and two make four
conveys to them, as boys, precisely the same idea, and
conveys to them now the same idea which it will when
they reach middle life or old age. We can not doubt,
also, that it conveys to those boys the same idea which
it did to Newton in the maturity of his powers, or that,
to an American savage, or to a wandering Bedouin, or
to a New Zealander, it would convey precisely the same
impression. In like manner, also, although we may not
be able to demonstrate it, we have the fullest assurance
that the impression or image conveyed to the mind by
a tree, a landscape, a waterfall, a flower, is the same ;
the same to the individual mind in all its changes ; the
same to all minds, whether civilized or savage. And,
on the same principle, so far as the minds of men are
enlightened to appreciate truth, the same thing occurs
in regard to moral truths. That a parent should love
his child ; that a child should venerate its parent ; that
ingratitude is base ; that treachery is wrong ; that to
do good to others is right all these, and similar propo
sitions, we have every reason to suppose, convey exact
ly the same idea to every mind. We may suppose, in
deed, that it might have been otherwise ; that, for ex
ample, the eyes of men might have been so made that
what to one conveys the idea of white might have con
veyed to others the idea of red ; that men might have
been so made that what to one seems to be a triangle
would seem to another to be a quadrangle ; that what
O2
322 LECTURES ON THE
seems now to be virtuous and honorable to one, might
have seemed dishonorable and wicked to another ; but
it is evident that, in that case, the world could not have
moved on in harmony at all, any more than it could at
the confusion of tongues at Babel. All would have
been disorder ; language would have been useless ; any
communication of ideas from one to another would
have been impossible ; society would have been imprac
ticable ; speech, schools, writing, printing, painting,
statuary, would have been useless, and the world would
have a universal, though temporary Babel, for it would
soon have come to an end.
(c) Truth depends, for its reception by the mind, on
its being perceived as truth.
The mind sees or perceives it to be true. When the
truth referred to is an axiom, it is perceived at once
without any medram ; when it is the result of a demon
stration, the process of the demonstration merely puts
the mind, in reference to the truth demonstrated, in the
same state in which it is, without any such process
as it is in reference to an axiom or self-evident truth.
In illustration of this, it may be remarked that it is
possible to conceive that the power of perceiving truth
as intuitive, or without the aid of reasoning, might ex
ist to almost any extent in created beings, as it exists
in an absolutely unlimited extent in God. We may
suppose that there might be, and that there actually
may be now, created intelligences to whom all that is
now perceived by the highest intellects on earth as the
result of the profoundest analysis may be seen to be
true at a glance, and may be, in fact, to their minds,
maxims or self-evident truths, lying, in their investiga
tions, at the foundation of a vastly higher method of
reasoning than is yet possible to man, and bearing the
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 323
same relation to a system of truth which is not now
conceivable by us, which the maxims of geometry do to
the highest forms of mathematical reasoning known
among men. It is said of Newton that he read the
propositions of Euclid as if they were maxims or self-
evident truths, as being too plain and obvious to need
demonstration. Even the celebrated forty-seventh prop
osition of the first book he did not pause to demon
strate, for he saw at a glance the truth of the proposi
tion, and it can not be doubted that there may be minds
to whom the highest discoveries, even of Newton, would
be perceived at once to be axioms or self-evident truths,
from which they would start off on a higher career of
reasoning than would be possible for any intellect
known to us. Then there is the mind of God, high
above all, to whom all truth is self-evident the mind
of One who sees all truth as we perceive the simplest
maxims of geometry ; who never reasons, but sees and
states things at once as they are.
(d) There is a distinction between right and icrong,
and this distinction is founded in the nature of things.
A thing can not be both right and wrong at the same
time ; or now right and now wrong, as the result of ap
pointment ; or made right or wrong by mere will. An
object can not be black and white at the same time ; or
now white and now black, as the result of appointment;
or made white or black by mere will. That can not be
made right to-day which in precisely the same circum
stances was wrong yesterday, and that can not be
right for one class or order of beings which in precise
ly the same circumstances would be wrong in another.
A lie can not be truth, nor can truth be falsehood ; hon
esty can not be fraud, nor fraud honesty ; love can not
be hatred, nor hatred love ; and as these can not be
324 LECTURES ON THE
transmuted into one another, so by no authority can
they, in precisely the same circumstances, be made obli
gatory in one case and be prohibited in another. No
one can believe that justice in God or man depends on
mere will, or that it would be proper for either to per
form any act which he chose, and call it justice. In like
manner, no one can believe that truth in God or man de
pends on mere will, and that it would be proper for
either to make any statement which he chose and to
call it truth, or that it would be right to call one utter
ance to-day truth, and to call it to-morrow falsehood.
Every man is somehow so made that he can not believe
that the contrary of this would be true, or that, under
any circumstances, it would be proper for even God to
reverse things in such a way that it would be right for
Him to do what he now denounces and condemns as
evil, false, and wrong, or that the mere act of his doing
it would make it right. Every conception which we
can form of the Supreme Being implies that, by His own
eternal nature, he is just, and holy, and true, and good ;
not that he has made himself to be so by an arbitrary
act, or that the contrary would be just, and holy, and
true, and good, if found in Him. Account for it as we
may, we are so constituted that we must believe this,
and can not believe the contrary ; and this fact demon
strates that it was designed by our Maker that it should*
be so.
(e) There is that in man which responds to the distinc
tion of right and wrong.
This proposition is almost too plain to admit of illus
tration. All men instinctively act on it in their treat
ment of others ; all legislators assume it to be true v , all
parents regard it as indisputable in their treatment of
their children; all authors who write on the subject of
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 325
morals take it for granted ; and all preachers of the
Gospel make it the ground of their most solemn ap
peals and most earnest exhortations. To Jews and
Gentiles alike barbarians, Scythians, bond and free,
the apostle Paul could say of his preaching, " by mani
festation of the truth commending ourselves to every
man s conscience in the sight of God" (2 Cor., iv., 2),
nor could we preach at all if we did not assume that
this could be done.
(f) A revelation from God icill not contradict any
truth, on any subject, however that truth may be made
known.
This, too, may be assumed as an axiom, and is too
plain to admit of argument. "All truth is from the
sempiternal source of light divine." One truth can
not contradict another, and God can not contradict in
his word what he has declared in any other way to be
truth.
A revelation w T ill not contradict its own teachings
that is, it will not deny in one place what it affirms in
another ; a revelation will not contradict scientific truth
that is, God will not, in his word, contradict what he
has revealed to men through their own reason or by
his own works ; a revelation will not contradict histor
ical truth that is, God, in his word, will not contradict
what has actually occurred and has been properly re
corded ; a revelation will not contradict moral truth
that is, the word of God will not contradict what has
been clearly made known as right or wrong by the con
stitution of the mind as he has made it. These points
are mere illustrations of what is said in the Bible of
God : "He can not deny himself" (2 Tim., ii., 13). The
infidel has a right to hold us to this proposition when
we urge the claims of a revelation ; the defender of such
326 LECTURES ON THE
a revelation is bound to show that the Bible does not
contradict itself, and that it does not contradict any
truth, from any other source, communicated to man.
(g) A pretended revelation which should contradict
established truth could not be received by mankind.
This, also, is so plain as not to admit of demonstra
tion. Two opposite statements could not both be re
ceived as true. No conceivable evidence in favor of
a revelation could be stronger than the conviction that
two and two make four, or that all the angles of a tri
angle are equal to two right angles. The mind must
believe these things. That mind is not in a sound state
which does not believe them.
In the application of this rule it is implied (l) that,
if faith in a professed revelation be demanded, it is
right to require that all its statements shall be fairly
consistent with the ascertained facts of science ; and (2)
it is equally implied that it is proper to demand, on the
other hand, that if there is any alleged conflict between
the statements of the book and the truths of science,
the facts of science shall be clearly established. It is
right for the friends of revelation, for example, to insist,
if it is alleged that man has been longer on the earth
than the statements in the Bible shall warrant, that the
fact that he has been thus long on the earth shall be
established as a fact, and that it shall not be mere the
ory or conjecture ; that if it be alleged that the Mosaic
statement that all the races of men on the earth are de
scended from one pair is inconsistent with the doctrine
of the separate origin of the races, the fact of such a
separate origin shall be clearly demonstrated ; that if it
is alleged that the disclosures of geology are inconsist
ent with the statements in the book professing to be a
revelation, the facts of geology shall be clearly estab-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 327
lished. The alleged truths of science must be demon
strated; the facts must be ascertained; the contradic
tion must be palpable ; the discrepancy must be so great
that the statements can not, by any fair rules of inter
pretation, be reconciled.
(ti) A revelation on the same line of subjects will, so far
as coincident, carry forward the truth already known,
not contradict it.
The meaning of this rule is this that a revelation
may make disclosures in regard to truth in advance of
what is known from other sources, or may state what
will be seen to be true when the discoveries of science
come up to it, if they ever do ; in other words, that the
disclosures of revelation will be in advance of, and not
contradictory to, the truths otherwise ascertained. Be
tween the two there will be no more discrepancy than
between the actual though imperfect knowledge of a
child and the more matured and perfect knowledge of
the same child when he becomes a man ; than between
the lowest truths of geometry, as comprehended by the
school-boy, and the highest astronomical disclosures of
Newton or Laplace.
An illustration of this point may be derived from the
disclosures of the telescope. Vast as are the revela
tions made by that instrument ; far as it penetrates into
distant worlds ; and much as it has enlarged the bound
aries of human knowledge, all its disclosures are in en
tire harmony with those of the naked eye, and only car
ry forward, on the same line, what was seen by the un
aided process of vision. The telescope never penetrates
regions where the laws of light are different from those
which affect the naked eye. It never discloses facts in
regard to other worlds which are inconsistent with the
doctrine of universal gravitation. It never penetrates
328 " LECTURES ON THE
into the empire of another God ; and could the eye it
self, now so comparatively limited in its range of observ
ation, and to which so much which the telescope re
veals is unknown, be so enlarged in its powers as to
take in all that the telescope reveals, it would see
things just as it does now by its aid.*
These seem to me to be just principles in regard to a
revelation ; principles on which the friends and the en
emies of the Bible may agree.
(4.) I proceed, then, to observe that a revelation from
God a religion which he reveals will, in accordance
with these principles, meet the wants of man ; alike his
religious wants as a creature, and his wants as a sinner.
It may be demanded that satisfactory provision shall
be made for both. If provision is not made for them,
it may be at once rejected ; it will, sooner or later, be
dropped, as the religions of Egypt, of Babylon, and of
Greece have been. Such a revelation must meet and
satisfy the essential religious want in the nature of
man, and it must, at the same time, meet and satisfy his
wants as a sinful and fallen being, and in both commend
itself to him as true. These are by no means the same
thing, as the provision to be made for the wants of a
sick person and a person in health are by no means the
same.
For the former of these there is the demand for a
God to be worshiped ; there is the want of that which
will answer the question " What is the end of life ?" or
* These points seem to me to deserve a more extended illustration
than would have been possible in a single Lecture, and I may be per
mitted, therefore, to refer to a work entitled "Inquiries and Sugges
tions in Regard to the Foundation of Faith in the Word of God,"
published by Parry & McMillan, 1859, from which these remarks have
been abridged, p. 5-36.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 329
why man was made some object worthy of the pow
ers which have been called into being ; there is the ne
cessity of some statement or promise which will meet
the desire of immortality ; there is the need of an affir
mation that there will be a world beyond the grave,
where the soul may forever expand in power and in
knowledge ; there is the need that there shall be a range
of truths and objects that shall correspond with the
greatness of the human soul.
For the latter of these the demand would be for a rev
elation of some system that would in its arrangements
contemplate man as a fellow-being, and meet and sat
isfy his wants as such. Thus, in studying the works of
nature with reference to the question whether the world
has been fitted up so as to meet the wants of man, there
are two distinct questions : the one, Whether there are
arrangements to meet his wants as a creature of God,
considered without reference to the question whether
he is liable to disease ? and the other is, Whether there
are arrangements to meet his wants considered as liable
to disease and as a sufferer? These are by no means
the same questions. The arrangements might have been
complete in regard to the one, while no provision should
have been made for the other. The one is the inquiry
which would have occurred to man when in the Garden
of Eden, and when a stranger to disease ; the other is
an inquiry which could not but occur to him when re
jected from Eden, when driven forth to encounter dis
ease, and when death was in prospect. The former in
quiry might have been easily answered. The first Par
adise, in its arrangement, presented an answer at once.
But what would the man have discerned there which
would have contemplated the latter ? Even if there
were such things there, until he had become a fallen be-
330 LECTURES ON THE
ing, and was brought into circumstances when he need
ed them, they must have passed for things whose use
was unknown.
As a matter of fact, however, there is in nature just
such an arrangement ; an arrangement made in the be
ginning of the creation, and in anticipation of the fact
that man would be subject to disease. It is to be re
marked, also, that, so far as appears, the one is entirely
independent of the other; the one is in no manner
necessary to the other. The world, as a world, might
have been complete without attaching healing proper
ties to plants and minerals ; certainly without creating
things whose only properties of value are healing prop
erties. If mercury could not have been so made as to
have been of value in the arts without also the append
age that it might be a medicine, yet certainly there was
no necessity for creating the Peruvian tree whose only
value is the bark, and the only value of whose bark is
the cure of fevers.
In fact, the arrangement for healing is an entirely in
dependent system, and yet as essential to man as the
arrangements for the supply of his wants in health.
The wonderful process by which a broken bone knits
itself together was in no wise necessary for the making
of a bone ; the process by which a severed vein or arte
ry will plow for itself a new groove, and lay down a
new artery or vein for the blood, was in no wise neces
sary for the making of a vein or artery originally, nor
for the original and healthful purposes of either for ar
teries and veins for conducting the blood from and to
the heart would have been perfect without this arrange
ment ; the creation of the materials of the materia medi-
ca of the healing art was in no wise necessary for the
production of food for man. It is a separate arrange-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 331
merit. The one is not necessary to the other. The one
does not explain the other. The one is of importance
to man every where ; the other is the foundation of a
distinct profession the medical profession.
But the world as it is would not have been complete
without both, any more than a system of religion for
man would have been complete for man alike as a crea
ture adapted to worship, and as a sinner to be redeemed
and saved, without both. A system of arrangements
for man in health would not have met the wants of man
in sickness, and a system which did not contemplate the
latter, and which did not make provision for it, would
not have been adapted to our world as it is. Hence it
was, that in the very structure of the creation, there
was an underlying system in anticipation of the fact
that man would be a sufferer a system doubtless ex
isting in paradise, and a system certainly now extend
ing all over the world for the arrangements for heal
ing diseases are found on all the continents and in all
the islands, and in every land there are men endowed
with peculiar faculties to study nature with this view,
and to apply these remedies to the ever-varying forms
of disease.
Precisely of the same nature, though on a higher
scale, is it true that there was need of an arrangement
which would contemplate man as a sinner, and which
would make provision for his wants as such; and as
the world of nature could not be regarded as adapted
to the wants of man as he is without the arrangements
to alleviate pain and to cure diseases, so the arrange
ments for religion would not have been complete with
out a remedial system for sinners.
II. We come, then, to what must be the main inquiry
on this subject, the question whether Christianity is a
332 LECTURES ON THE
religion which thus meets and satisfies the wants of
man ; or, in other words, how far in eighteen hundred
years it has commended itself to man as meeting those
wants, and as thus showing that it is from God.
(1.) Considered as a religion, it meets the essential
wants of man. We have seen what those wants are as
every where indicated in our world as essential; as
deep-laid in our nature ; as characterizing man. Man
wants a religion. He wants a God. He wants an ob
ject of worship. He wants the hope of another life.
He wants the assurance that the soul is immortal.
Certainly all these are found in Christianity. It is a
"religion" It is nothing else. That is its essential
idea. It is not philosophy ; it is not science ; it is not
a political theory ; it is a religion, and meets the wants
of the soul only in regard to religion. It reveals a God,
an object of worship. In the God of the Bible there is
all that can enter into the mind in the conception of a
God. He is infinite ; he is uncreated ; he is almighty ;
he is the maker of all things; he is a Being whose
agency is every where ; he is the Ruler of the universe ;
he is holy, just, pure, merciful. All that the soul can
demand in the idea of worship surely of adoration,
homage, reverence is to be found in the God of the
Bible. Man wants some just view of what is the prop
er " end" of life. Christianity declares it. It reveals
an " end" of living worthy of the powers with which he
is endowed, for it brings before him, as the main object
of life, the idea of living for eternity. Man wants the
hope of another life. Christianity reveals such a hope,
and sets it before him as that which is in advance of
all others, and which is to crown all. Man wants the
assurance that the soul is immortal. What he can not
find in the argument of Plato ; what he can not find in
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 333
any other religion, he finds here, laid at the foundation
of the whole system, that the soul is to live forever.
(2.) It meets the wants of man as a sinner as a fallen
being. We could not regard it as of value ; we could
not receive it as a religion, if it did not. It meets that
want, (a) It is the main idea in Christianity, running
through the entire system, and, more than any other
feature, constituting its peculiarity, (b) It is a special
and distinct arrangement, as much so as the arrange
ment for healing disease is in the departments of na
ture. There are things in Christianity, entering into
its very nature, which would not have been there, or
which would have had no place, if it had not been sup
posed that man was a sinner, just as there are arrange
ments in nature which would not have been there, or
which would have had no place, if it had not been sup
posed that man would be a sufferer, and the one with
out such a supposition would be as inexplicable as the
other, (c) The system makes ample provision for par
don. It bears on its face the assurance that the ar
rangement is such that any and all may be forgiven. It
excludes no one by the idea that its power can not
reach the case, or that it was not intended for such a
sinner, or that it is exhausted, as no one, under any
form of disease, is shut out from the hope of a cure by
the idea that no medicinal remedies were provided in
the secrets of nature for such a case, or that the medi
cines of the world are exhausted. It excludes no one
by the idea that the sin is so great that it can not be
forgiven, and in the proclamation of amnesty it makes
no exceptions. Human governments often do. In the
times of the American Revolution, Samuel Adams and
John Hancock were excepted by name in the royal
proclamation of amnesty ; in our own great rebellion
334 LECTURES ON THE
large numbers were excepted by proclamation from
the offer of pardon, (d) It contains provisions for par
don that are honorable to God and honorable to man.
Man, even guilty man, could not accept it if it were not
so. A child offending could not wish to be forgiven if
the pardon could not be extended to him without dis
gracing his parent; an offender against human law
must demand that the p ardon in his own case should
not be dishonorable to the government and to his coun
try. So man, even a sinner, could not receive a relig
ion as coming from God if it were essential to the
idea of the religion that God was regardless of truth,
of justice, and of law ; that he had no concern about
his own character ; that his veracity was of no conse
quence ; that his law could be set aside at will ; that it
was his nature to treat virtue and vice, truth and false
hood, rebellion and allegiance, both alike. Who could
put confidence in such a God ? Who could embrace a
religion founded on such assumptions ? Now something
like this does occur, and always occurs in pardon as ex
tended to the guilty under a human government. The
pardon of an offender, justly convicted and there is no
other proper idea of pardon is always a proclamation
that in some cases crime may be committed with im
punity ; that in some cases the law is to be disregarded,
and the decrees of justice to be set aside; that guilty
men may go at large for whose crimes justice has re
ceived no atonement no satisfaction. Pardon in such
a case always does just so much to weaken the strong
arm of the law ; is just so far a proclamation that crime
may be committed with impunity. There is not a gov
ernment in the world that could safely make the proc
lamation of universal forgiveness as it is made in the
Gospel ; that could throw open the doors of all prisons ;
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 335
that could invite all convicts burglars, counterfeiters,
thieves, and murderers, to come out and roam at large
over the land. Who would feel that his house or his
life was safe ? (e) Again : The system of pardon pro
posed in Christianity is honorable to man to those who
have offended. It requires no needless humiliation ; no
mortifying concessions or confessions ; no conformity to
rites and ceremonies that would tend only to debase
and degrade. It might have been otherwise; and we
could not have rejected it with safety if it had been so.
If it had required men to gird themselves with sack
cloth ; to cast dust on their heads ; to sit down in
ashes ; to clothe themselves in habiliments of squalid
poverty ; to put on robes such as they wore who were
condemned by the Inquisition with tongues of fire and
pictured demons ; to go in solemn procession with some
symbol of eternal death as deserved by sin ; to pass thus
through life humbled and degraded, man could not have
proved that this would be wrong ; he could not have
shown that it would not be wise and well to accept of
pardon and life even on these conditions. In the reign
of Edward III. of England (1347), when Calais was be
sieged, Edward required as a condition in surrendering
the city when it could hold out no longer, that " six of
the most considerable citizens should be sent to him, to
be disposed of as he should think proper; that they
should come to his camp carrying the keys of the city
in their hands, bareheaded and barefooted, with ropes
about their necks, and on these conditions he promised
to spare the lives of the remainder."* So, at least for
the sake of illustration, we may conceive that God
might have required all men to appear before him in
some similar manner as a sign of submission and re-
* Hume s History of England, vol. i., p. 577.
336 LECTURES ON THE
pentance, and as a condition of pardon. But he has
done no such thing. There are no degrading and de
basing rites in the Christian religion ; there are no hu
miliations required for the mere sake of humiliation ;
there are no arrangements merely to mortify men.
There are no mummeries ; there are no painful postures
or processions ; there are no requirements like those of
letting the nails grow in the clenched hand till they cut
into the flesh ; fixing the arm in one position till it be
comes rigid; swinging on hooks fastened in the mus
cles ; standing on lofty columns in heat, and cold, and
storm ; or withdrawing to caves and solitudes far from
the haunts of men. All these are the inventions of men
themselves ; they show, perhaps, what men would wil
lingly have submitted to if such degradations had been
required; they show what men regard as the proper
representations and symbols of the evil and degrada
tion of sin. But in the Gospel there are no degrading,
no dishonorable acts required. Let us suppose, for the
sake of illustration, that there had been. The son of an
honorable father is guilty of a crime. He is told that
he may be pardoned if he will perform some dishonor
able act. He is to betray his father, and deliver him
up to death. No, says he, with generous indigna
tion, I do no such thing. I can not purchase life on
any such condition. I am indisputably guilty ; but I
can not add to that guilt a baser crime that I may live.
I will not add meanness, and ingratitude, and filial im
piety to my crime for the sake of saving my life. Wel
come the rack; welcome the thumb-screw; welcome the
gibbet, rather than that I should be guilty of such a
crime ! God requires nothing of this. He asks no self-
inflicted tortures ; no painful pilgrimages ; no renuncia
tion of the dignity that belongs to a man, that he may
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 337
be saved. He asks that he shall repent of sin and for
sake it for it is that which debases and degrades ; he
asks that he shall accept of the offer of mercy on the
terms which he proposes for that is the way in which
we receive all the blessings which come from his hand ;
he asks that he shall lead a pure life, and hereafter keep
his Maker s law.
(3.) The religion is on a line with all that exalts and
adorns the race ; with the solution of the problems
which men are endeavoring to work out in regard to
law, to liberty, to happiness. It attaches itself, by a
natural affinity, to all that ameliorates and civilizes so
ciety ; to all that is stricken out in the progress of the
world that raises men to a higher elevation. There are
religions which hold men as they are ; there are relig
ions which are obstructions to the advancement of the
race; there are religions which are to be removed if
the race shall make progress ; there are religions which
foster vice ; there are religions which debase and de
grade mankind. There was much in the religion of
Greece that tended to encourage vice for " it was not
for every man to go to Corinth"* refined, in many re
spects, as Corinth was; there is every thing in the
Buddhist religion to fix society where it is, and to pre
vent progress; there is much in the Hindoo religion
which must be removed if true science makes advances,
for its religion and its science are identical disclosed
in the same books, and sanctioned by the same author
ity ; there is every thing in the monastic system to hold
men in degradation ; there is much in the Roman Cath
olic system generally that has tended to retard the
progress of mankind. It was not by an accident that
Galileo was imprisoned; it is not by an accident that
338 LECTURES ON THE
the Bible, under that system, is not spread abroad in
vulgar tongues.
I am not ignorant that it has been affirmed that
Christianity has retarded the progress of mankind, nor
are you or I ignorant of the arguments which have been
referred to on this subject.
It is not for me now, and in this place, to attempt to
prove that Christianity has been connected with the
progress of the race. In the fullest blaze of Christian
ity, and at the same time surrounded with the highest
developments of society in intelligence, in literature,
in the sciences, and in the ornamental and useful arts ;
in an age and a country where, under the influence of
Christianity, the comforts of life have been carried to
the highest point hitherto reached ; in a land of free
dom, made free under the best developments of the
Christian religion, it would not become me to pause,
even were there time, to attempt to prove that Chris
tianity is not inimical to the highest development of so
ciety ; that it is on the line of all that adorns and ex
alts the race.
There have been, indeed, other civilizations; there
has been progress in other lands than those where
Christianity has prevailed.
But it is to be remarked that there has been no " sus
tained historical progress" except that which has been
confined to Christian nations. " Where," it may be
asked, " is the brilliant monarchy of Haroun Alras-
chid? How ephemeral was it as compared even with
that old Byzantine empire into whose frame Christian
ity had infused a new life under the very ribs of death ;
a life which the fatal bequest of Roman despotism, ex
tending itself to the Church as well as to the state,
could scarcely quench, and which, through ages of Mo-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 339
hammedan oppression, has smouldered on beneath the
ashes, to burst out again in reviving Greece. Even in
the Moorish communities of Spain, the flower, as they
were, of Mohammedan civilization, internal corruption
had prepared the way for the conquering arms of Fer
dinand and Isabella. Mohammedanism, however, what
ever the degree of progressive energy displayed by it
may have been, was not a separate and independent re
ligion, but a debased offspring of Judaism and Chris
tianity. Turning to the remoter East, we find that its
history has not been a history of progress, but of the
successive descents of conquering races from the more
bracing climate of the North, subjugating the languid
inhabitants of the plains, and founding a succession of
empires, sometimes mighty and gorgeous, but always
barren of nobler fruits, which, when the physical energy
of the conquering race was spent in its turn, at once
fell .into decay. China advanced at an early period to
a certain point of material civilization, but, having
reached that point, she became a by-word of immobil
ity, as Egypt, the ancient China, was in a former day.
The civilization of Mexico is deplored by certain philos
ophers, who seem to think that, had its career not been
cut short by Spanish conquest, it might have attained
to a great height, and confirmed their views of history.
But what reason is there to think that Mexico would
ever have advanced beyond great buildings created by
slave labor, human sacrifices, and abominable vices ?"*
But need I attempt to prove that Christianity is con
nected with the progress of the race ; that it originates
much that is connected with that progress ; that it at
taches itself to all that is connected with progress?
Look at the press. If Christianity did not originate the
* Lectures on the Study of History, by Goldwin Smith, p. 121, 123.
340 LECTURES ON THE
discovery of the art of printing, yet that discovery was
not made in China, where it might have been supposed
it would have been ; where, from time immemorial, they
had the art of printing solid pages from solid blocks of
wood, and where all that was necessary to complete the
art was to saw their blocks into separate letters and
yet Chinese genius was exhausted when it had invented
the block; Chinese stolidity arrested the progress there,
and left the invention to be stricken out, as God intend
ed it should be, in connection with the Christian relig
ion. If, too, the Bible was not the first book that was
printed, it was one of the first ; and it has been, and
is even now, the book most frequently printed since.
Look at a missionary ship. The missionary himself
goes as among the best representatives of Christian
lands, and of the highest form of Christian civiliza
tion trained in Christian civilization, educated in the
best schools, imbued with the best forms of learning, in
structed in science and the arts. We know what he
will take with him to the benighted lands to which he
goes the press, the telescope, the quadrant, the com
pass. We know what he will do when he gets there.
He will set up the press ; he will create a written lan
guage if there be not one existing; he will open a
school ; he will found a college ; he will introduce the
arts of life ; he will preach the Gospel the source of
all that which has transformed Huns, and Vandals, and
Goths, and Saxons, and Celts into the civilized nations
of Europe, and which has made Germany, and France,
and Holland, and England, and Scotland, and our own
land, what they are.*
* For a farther and a more full illustration of the subject, going into
details which the time would not permit in this Lecture, I may refer
to the Lectures on the Study of History, by Coldwin Smith, p. 146-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 341
I have not exhausted this subject. I have scarcely
entered on it.
I might dwell on the argument derived from the fact
that the Gospel does not, like other religions, become
effete, obsolete, and die out ; that it imparts peace and
comfort to the sorrowing and the sad an arrangement
in its very nature based on the idea that man is a suf
ferer; that it gives peace to the troubled conscience
an arrangement also in its very nature based on the
idea that man is a sinner, and that the consciousness of
sin gives a peculiar form of distress to the soul ; and
that it gives peace in the hour of death an arrange
ment also in its very nature based on the idea that man
must die lighting up the dark valley, and taking away
its " sting" from death, and its " victory" from the grave.
But there is one point involving the necessity of so
much illustration that it can not be entered on now, and
yet which is so essential to the argument that it could
not be made complete without it. It is the relation of
Christianity to the present stage of the world s prog
ress in science, civilization, and the arts. That point
will be reserved for the next, the closing Lecture.
Meantime, the inference which I would wish to draw
from the argument presented this evening is, that such
a religion must be from God.
This is an argument which we may use now, but
which the apostles could not have used, and which
could not have been employed by the early " apologists"
for Christianity as it can be now. The experiment as
to the actual adaptation of the scheme to the wants of
man had not then been made. With them it was main
ly theory, and there was as yet no experience to which
156. I may also refer, for general illustrations of the whole subject, to
Lecky on the History of Rationalism in Europe, vol. ii., p. 222- 357.
342 LECTURES ON THE
they could appeal. With all that could be alleged from
miracles, and prophecy, and the character of the Found
er of the system, and the evidence of his resurrection
from the dead and of his ascension to heaven, still it
might be said that its adaptation to the real wants of
man as a creature and a sinner had not then been tried.
Who could tell whether, in the more advanced pe
riods of the world s history; in the changes which
would be made in human affairs ; in the development
of the powers of man in the future ; in the progress in
science and in the arts which the world would make
in future ages, this religion, with all that seemed to
them to be fitted to the wants of man, might not show
itself insufficient to meet those wants, and pass into
forgetfulness, as many systems of philosophy had then
done, and as most of the religions of the world were
then doing ? Who, without the gift of prophecy, could
then tell whether this religion would be found to be
so adapted to the nature of man as to meet him with
what would be needful in these new situations, and still
maintain its position in advance of all that philosophy,
science, and art could do for him ?
We now are in a situation to answer these questions.
Eighteen hundred years have passed away, and they
have been such in the changes occurring in society ; in
the progress of the race; in the developments of the
human powers, that it maybe assumed that if the relig
ion has been found to be adapted to the wants of man
in those eighteen centuries, it will in all the centuries
to come.
The sum of what I have said in this argument is this :
That the system of Christianity is based on a profound-
erview of human nature, and of the wants of man, than
has been taken in any other system of religion, or than
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 343
in any system of philosophy; that the arrangements
which have been disclosed in the system are such as
man would make if he had the wisdom and the power
to make them himself such as he has been struggling
for and panting for in all ages, and all over the world ;
that these arrangements are, for the most part, wholly
beyond the reach of the native powers of man involv
ing the necessity of an atonement for sin which man
could not make ; anticipating the wants of our nature
in every new age of the world, and in every new phase
of society ; keeping up with the world in its progress,
and still in advance of it in the fact that unnumbered
millions of the race, in all situations and ranks, have
found in it an answer to the questions which men so
naturally and properly ask about God and eternal
things ; in the fact that it has given peace in hundreds
of millions of instances to consciences troubled by sin ;
in its influence on society on woman, on slavery, on
domestic comfort, on the arts of life, on liberty, on gov
ernments and laws, on habits, manners, and customs ; in
the fact that it has, from numberless eyes, wiped away
the tears of sorrow, and that it has given support,
peace, triumph in hundreds of millions of cases on the
bed of death. Perhaps I might have made the argu
ment much shorter. I might have staked all on this
one point as I do now A RELIGION THAT WILL PRE
PARE A SINFUL MAN TO DIE, AND THAT WILL GIVE PEACE
ON A DYING BED, MUST BE FROM GOD.
344 LECTURES ON THE
LECTURE X.
THE RELATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE WORLD S PROG
RESS IN SCIENCE, CIVILIZATION, AND THE ARTS IN
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
IT has been remarked that " a system which would
unite in one sublime synthesis all the past forms of hu
man belief, which accepts with triumphant alacrity
each new development of science, having no stereo
typed standard to defend, and which represents the hu
man mind as pursuing on the highest subjects a path
of continual progress toward the fullest and most trans
cendent knowledge of the Deity, can never fail to exer
cise a powerful intellectual attraction."*
There is no doubt that the human mind desires such
a system of religion ; that it is endeavoring, in this age,
in an eminent degree, to find it ; that it will not be sat
isfied without such a system. In other words, it is un
doubtedly true that a system of professedly revealed
truth will not be received permanently by mankind un
less it accords with this desire of the mind ; unless it
welcomes every new discovery in science, and each new
invention in the arts ; and unless it attaches itself to
every thing that goes into the real civilization and
progress of the world. To find, or to found such a sys
tem, is the present effort of Rationalism, and it is a fair
question whether Christianity so meets and satisfies
this demand of the human mind that it will continue to
keep its place as the world makes advances.
* History of Rationalism in Europe, by W. E. H. Lecky, vol. i., p.
182.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 345
The closing Lecture in this course will be designed,
in some measure, to answer this question a question
which the world has a right to ask, and which we are
bound to answer a question on the solution of which
the reception of what is otherwise adduced as evidence
of the divine origin of the Christian religion will in a
very material degree depend. The argument in the
Lecture will be founded on the idea that a system orig
inated long since eighteen hundred years ago which
will meet the condition of all future ages ; which began
ahead of the world, and which keeps itself abreast or
ahead of the world, must be from God. It is capable
of easy demonstration that there is no such system un
less it be Christianity.
It was assumed, of necessity, by Christianity, that it
had truths to disclose of great importance to mankind,
which the race, at the time when it was revealed, had
been unable to discover.* Man had, indeed, made great
progress in science, in civilization, and in art. The best
talent in the world had been employed in investigating
the works of nature, and in inquiring into the relations
of man to the Creator and to another state of being.
When Paul stood on Mars Hill, he was, in respect to all
that contributes to human comfort, and that marks the
progress of the race, almost in a different world from
what one would have been in the rude age of Tubal
Cain, Jabal, and Jubal. A period of four thousand years
had elapsed since the creation, and all that man had ac
cumulated on the subjects of religion, philosophy, and
the arts had culminated in Greece, and was represented
by the objects around him, and by the men that stood
before him. The experiment, continued for so long a
time, and under such circumstances, whether man could
* 1 Cor., i., 2.
P2
34G LECTURES OX THE
find out the knowledge of God and a way of salvation,
might be regarded as having been fairly made. If it
had been submitted to man himself to designate a suffi
cient time to make the experiment, he himself would
admit that four thousand years must be regarded as
ample for the trial ; if it were submitted to him to se
lect the circumstances under which the trial could best
be made, he could hardly imagine, as I have endeavored
to show in a former Lecture, that the trial could have
been better made than in Greece. Yet, after that ex
periment had been thus made, the Gospel claimed to
have truths indispensable to mankind far in advance
of all that man had been able to discover, and which it
was assumed could not be discovered by the unaided
human powers. The fact that it had such truths, and
that it answered questions which had been propounded
by Greek philosophers, but for which no answer had
been found, will not be disputed even by those who en
deavor to explain the Gospel on some other supposition
than that it is a revelation from heaven. It is claimed
to be a fact by all who believe that Christianity is a
revelation from God; it is shown to be a fact by the
progress which the race has made under that new sys
tem as compared with its progress under the influence
of the Grecian philosophy.
Eighteen hundred years have passed away, and dur
ing that period the race, in science, civilization, and the
arts, has made advances far more rapid than in any
eighteen centuries before, or than in all those four
thousand years. The world is, in most important re
spects, a different world from what it was in the days
of Pericles and Plato. The telescope has extended its
boundaries indefinitely in one direction, and the micro
scope in the other. Science is a different thing now
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 347
from what it was then ; civilization is different ; art is
different. Our houses are different ; our domestic ar
rangements are different ; our facilities for passing from
place to place, by land or sea, are different ; our knowl
edge of distant lands and oceans is different; our means
of recording, transmitting, and perpetuating truth are
different ; our knowledge of the substances which com
pose our globe is different; our knowledge of the
world s history before man appeared on it is different ;
our means of cultivating the fields, and of conducting
the operations of commerce, are different. Except in
architecture and sculpture, there is nothing in respect
to which the world is not now immeasurably in ad
vance of what it was in the best days of Greece. A
Greek of the age of Pericles would be lost now in the
arrangements of civilization around him, not less than
one of the age of Tubal Cain would have been if sud
denly translated to Athens. We use no Greek plows
in our fields ; no Greek chariots in our wars or on our
journeys; no Greek implements in preparing our food,
in writing our books, in transmitting intelligence from
place to place ; no Greek weapons of war ; no Greek
ships in battle. We make no use in our schools of
their treatises on natural history, astronomy, medicine,
scarcely in mental philosophy; nor do we copy their
style of domestic architecture, or refer to them for in
struction in the mechanic arts. We are in a different
world from what the ancient Greek was, and it might
be interesting to speculate how long it would take Per
icles or Plato to learn to act, and move, and speak, and
live in our age.
It is a fair question whether, admitting that Chris
tianity was in advance of the world at the time when
it was communicated to men, it still holds the same
348 LECTURES ON THE
relative position? Is it still ahead of the world? Is it
abreast of it ? Or has it fallen in the rear ? Has it
been superseded by the discoveries which men have
made in science ; by the progress of civilization ; by the
advances in the arts ? Has the world reached a point
where it can " get along" without the Gospel ? Have
the powers of the human mind been so developed dur
ing these eighteen hundred years that man can now suc
cessfully grapple with questions which were too difficult
for even the cultivated mind of Greece ; and have the
secrets of nature been so explored that the knowledge
which she has to impart to man, and which eluded the
inquiries in the academy, the porch, or the lyceum, can
now be found in the laboratory or the observatory?
Or, to put the question in a form more favorable to
Christianity, and in a form in which its friends would
demand that it should be put : Has Christianity itself
been an important element in the progress which the
race has made, and are the institutions of the present
time the forms of civilization, the advances in the arts
and the comforts of life, to be traced so far to Christian
ity that it may claim that it has been among the direct
causes in effecting these changes ? If it be assumed or
conceded that this is so, then, also, it may be fairly
asked whether it has not done its work, and may not
now be dispensed with in the farther progress of the
race, and whether it is not now to take its place with
the systems adapted to a ruder age, which passed away
Avhen the results had become incorporated in permanent
institutions, or when they had been superseded by bet
ter systems.
These are questions which would be suggested by
certain forms of skepticism different from those of an
cient times, but Avhich are likely to become the forms
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 349
of unbelief in the coming age. They are not questions
which would have occurred in the times of Celsus, Por
phyry, or Julian; they are not the questions which
Hobbes, and Chubb, and Shaftesbury, and Bolingbroke
would have asked, but they are questions which lie at
the foundation of the whole system of Rationalism at
the present day.
There is another question, also, as suggested by these
remarks, which may be asked from a Christian point of
view. Assuming, as the defender of Christianity must,
that Christianity was ahead of the world at the time
when the revelation was made, and that in its doctrines
it still holds the same relative position, it is a fair ques
tion whether, in respect to its means of perpetuity and
propagation, it still maintains the same relative posi
tion, or whether the apostles had advantages in this re
spect which the Church has not now, or which could
not be employed with success in the present condition
of the world. All history has united in the record of a
very rapid diffusion of the Gospel in the times of the
apostles; it has described the means which were em
ployed, and which were then successful; it has deliv
ered such an unmistakable testimony on the subject
that it required all the powers of Mr. Gibbon to furnish
a philosophical explanation of the fact of its propaga
tion on the supposition that the Gospel is an imposture.
But is it true that the Church in this age, in view of
the present stage of the world in civilization, in science,
and the arts, can engage in propagating the system
under circnmstances as favorable to success as were
those which existed in the times of the apostles ?
These, indeed, are not the same questions, but they
are in the same line, and are alike suggested by the re
lation of Christianity to the present age. It may be
350 LECTURES ON THE
f.
difficult to furnish an answer to both in the same argu
ment, but perhaps the considerations suggested in rela
tion to the one will involve all that is demanded in the
other.
I propose, in the conclusion of these Lectures, to con
sider the question with reference to an argument for
the truth of Christianity, and as a continuation of the
course of thought in the last Lecture on the adapted-
ness of Christianity to the wants of man.
The points necessary to be considered, in order to
a proper elucidation of the subject, are, the fact that
Christianity, from the nature of the case, is a fixed
and unchangeable system, or that it makes no progress
from age to age; the fact that, while Christianity is
thus fixed and stationary, the world does make progress
in science, civilization, and the arts ; the fact that, in
the circumstances of the case, they unavoidably come
into collision with each other ; the inquiry on what sub
jects they are likely to come into collision now as com
pared with former ages ; the present relation of the one
to the other ; and the inquiry how far an argument may
be derived from this view in favor of the divine origin
of the Christian system.
I. The first point is that Christianity, from the nature
of the case, is a fixed and unchanging system. It makes
no progress in the disclosure of doctrines to be be
lieved ; it was perfect as a system of redemption when
the Redeemer died, rose, and ascended to heaven ; it
was complete as a system to be explained and under
stood when the volume of revealed truth was finished
on the island of Patmos. No new facts were to be
added to the record ; no new doctrines were to be re
vealed; no changes were to be made to adjust it to a
future condition of the world; nor were the doctrines
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 351
to be modified to adapt them to new views in science
or philosophy. The system for all time to come is to
be found in the New Testament ; and the system, when
the last record was made there, was precisely what it
will be in the last and most cultivated periods of the
world. The work was ended when that volume was
completed, for man then had all that he ever would
have as constituting the record of Christianity. No
new books were to be added ; no new prophets or apos
tles were to be sent ; no additional work was to be done
to supplement the atonement. Whatever consequences
may follow from this position, the defender of Chris
tianity is bound to maintain it, and, in the utmost
strictness of the expression, the enemy of Christianity
may hold him to it.
It is not necessary to argue this point, for it springs
out of the very nature of the system. It is, moreover,
fairly implied in the New Testament itself. I believe
that the Book of Revelation was the last book of the
New Testament that was written, and that it occupies
its appropriate place as the closing book in the revela
tion of God to mankind ; and that, although the solemn
passage with which that book closes undoubtedly had
immediate reference to the book itself, yet that it is not
improper to regard it as applicable to the entire Bible :
"I testify unto every man that heareth the words of
the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto
these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that
are written in this book : and if any man shall take
away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God
shall take away his part out of the book of life" (Rev.,
xxii., 18, 19).
If this is a true position, the defender of the Christian
system can not, as is done in other systems, avail him-
352 LECTURES ON THE
self of the progress which the world makes to relieve
himself of difficulty, and to adjust the system to new
discoveries and inventions. A system of astronomy, of
chemistry, of anatomy, or of geography, may be adjust
ed from age to age. Erroneous views long entertained
in regard to the circulation of the blood, or the move
ments of the heavenly bodies, or the elementary sub
stances of nature, may be detached from the system,
and the new views made to occupy their place, though
it may require that long-cherished and honored systems
shall be abandoned, and names long regarded with rev
erence shall cease to be among those which influence
mankind. Such has been, in fact, the progress of the
sciences ; nor is there any one science that can now be
regarded as so fixed that it may not be modified or rev
olutionized by new discoveries. If a fact is discovered
that is at variance entirely with a prevailing theory of
astronomy, anatomy, or chemistry, it is not fatal to the
science itself. The system may be at once adjusted to
the new fact, and the change constitute an epoch in the
advance of the science. Not so, however, in regard to
the Bible and to the Christian system. If the world in
its progress discloses facts that are irreconcilable with
the Bible on just principles of interpretation, it is fatal
to its claim as a revelation from God. We can not go
ba^k, as in the case of astronomy, and adjust the his
torical or doctrinal statement in the Bible to the new
discoveries.
It follows from these views (a) that the proper work
of man in regard to Christianity is to ascertain, by a
fair interpretation of language, what the system is,
not what it should be. The work of the Christian the
ologian is to sit down to the New Testament simply as
an interpreter of language, as the learner in science sits
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 353
down to the study of the works of nature, to learn what
nature s, not to determine what it should be ; to ex
plain a world, not to make a world. The principle sug
gested by Lord Bacon in the first maxim of the Novum
Organon* is as applicable to Christianity as it is to
nature, and lies as certainly at the foundation of all just
views of theology as it does of all just views of science.
By the proper study of language, according to the re
ceived laws of exegesis among men, the theologian is to
ascertain what the system is, and, having done that, his
work is ended. (f>) It follows, farther, that the friend
of revelation is not at liberty to modify the system ; to
accommodate it to prevailing theories in philosophy;
or to adjust it to new facts as they shall develop them
selves in the progress of human affairs. No power can
change the system but the power which originated it ;
and the authority to modify it so as to adjust it to hu
man belief, or to facts as they are developed in science,
ha& not been intrusted to mortals. Truth is unaccom
modating and unbending. It will not yield. It can
not be made different at one time from what it is at an
other. The proposition that in a right angled triangle
the square of the hypothenuse is equal to the sum of
the squares on the two sides, is a truth not peculiar to
one age or nation ; nor to be expressed in one language
only ; nor to die away among obsolete maxims in the
advancing periods of fhe world ; nor to be modified or
changed though truths of surpassing magnitude on
other subjects are disclosed to human view; nor to be
treated as a falsehood though there may be theories to
be established that may seem vital to science or to the
* Homo, naturae minister et interpres, tantum facit et intelligit,
quantum de naturae ordine, re vel mente observaverit ; nee amplius
scit, aut potest.
354 LECTURES ON THE
good of mankind. So the Christian theologian is bound
to believe in regard to revealed truth ; so the unbeliev
ing world may require, in regard to each and every por
tion of the revealed truth of God, that he shall hold it
precisely as it is in the Bible.
There are, however, one or two remarks which may
be made, to show that this rule is not quite as rigid, in
its actual application, as it may seem to be. In another
part of this Lecture I shall show that, in fact, the rule
is as rigid and stern in regard to science as it is in re
spect to theology.
It is not to be assumed, then, by the Christian or the
infidel, that we have in fact, in our creeds and in our
interpretation of the Bible, precisely the system which
was revealed. That we have the true record in the
Bible we are to believe, and the infidel may hold us to
that; but that we have the proper interpretation of that
record is not to be assumed as certain. *Christianity
has been transmitted to us from a far-distant age. *It
has come" in contact with all the philosophical systems
in the world. Its outward form has been much mould
ed by philosophy much by its alliance with the state.
The synods and councils which have determined the
creeds of the Church have been, like other assemblies,
composed of imperfect men often of men more under
the influence of philosophy than religion ; often igno
rant of the plainest rules of exegesis ; and often seeking
rather to establish a hierarchy than to promote the
kingdom of Christ. As a matter of fact, we know that
during that long period there is almost no absurdity
of doctrine or interpretation which has not been em
braced by the Church ; almost no error which has not
been sanctioned by synods and councils; almost no
truth the belief of which has not exposed him who held
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 355
it to persecution by the Church itself. Christianity has
thus come down to us through a descent of eighteen
centuries, collecting in its progress whatever of good
or bad there might be that could in any way be made
to adhere to it; adopting as its own the opinions in
mental philosophy, and the doctrines of science, true or
false, which have prevailed in the world ; and uniting
all in its symbols of faith taking the Church at large,
a vast and monstrous conglomeration of original sacred
truth, and of the errors and absurdities which the world
has accumulated in the lapse of ages. It is a ship, not
now just sailing out of port, fresh, and new, and clean,
but one that has sailed afar, and that has collected in
distant seas whatever of barnacles and sea-weed that
could be made to adhere to it. Those barnacles and
that sea-weed must be detached from it if the ship is to
be made to traverse safely distant seas again.
A great part of the work of the Church in modern
times has been to detach from it the errors and corrup
tions which it had accumulated in the long period of its
history. This was, in fact, the main service which Lu
ther rendered to the Church, restoring it in a great
measure to its pristine beauty, purity, and vigor. This
is the service which has been rendered by modern sa
cred criticism ; this is the work to be done by the ef
forts to secure a correct text of the Bible; this the
work to be done by the application of the canons of
criticism to the Word of God.
Luther, indeed, performed a great work ; for Chris
tianity in the Protestant form is a different thing from
what it was as it had been presented to the world for a
thousand years. But we are not to assume that the
work was wholly done by him, or that in the Westmin
ster, the Helvetic, and the Savoy Confessions, in the
356 LECTURES ON THE
Thirty-nine Articles, or in the Heidelberg Catechism,
we have Christianity precisely as its Author designed
to communicate it to mankind. We are not to assume
that all the received views in the Church are true
views, and are in no manner to be modified. We are
not to assume that the texts of Scripture which the
Westminster Assembly affixed to the Larger and Short
er Catechisms are all properly applied, and are to be
held as proof-texts now in order to " soundness in the
faith," or that the doctrines which they are designed
to defend are, in fact, doctrines of the Scripture at all.
We are not to assume that the views held in the
Church, even to our own times, in regard to the past
records of our earth, or the interpretations which, in
defense of those views, the Church has attached to cer
tain statements in the Bible, are therefore correct. It
is not to be held that the past interpretations of the
first chapter of Genesis are necessarily true ; nor are we
to assume that the pastor of the Church in Leyden was
in error when he said that " God had yet many more
truths to break forth out of his holy word."
All this is matter of fair inquiry still ; and when a
new fact is discovered in science that seems to come in
conflict with a statement in the Bible, or when an old
record in Egypt is deciphered, or a new bone is ex
humed in fossil remains, that seems to carry the history
of man back to a remoter period than that assigned by
Usher, we are at perfect liberty to inquire whether the
common interpretation of the Bible, though received
for ages, is the correct interpretation ; whether, as in
the case of astronomy in the time of Galileo, the Church
has not been mistaken in its views on the subject ; and
whether the Bible, by the fair rules of exegesis, may
not be capable of being reconciled with the new discov-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 357
ery in science, or with the new historical fact that has
been disclosed to the world. This "play" therefore,
if I may thus express myself,* is open to the friends
of Christianity, while the statement is still held true
in its most rigid form that, in itself, it is a fixed
and unchangeable system, incapable of progress or
change.
II. While Christianity is thus fixed and unchange
able, the world makes progress in science, civilization,
and the arts. It is bound by no such rigid laws as
those which pertain to an unchangeable system; it
holds no theory in philosophy, and no creed in regard
to the sciences, which may not be modified and adjust
ed to the highest advances which the race can make.
As a matter of fact, the world makes progress. It
drops erroneous systems by the way. It readily incor
porates new facts into the systems of science. The old
Ptolemaic system, not without a struggle, indeed, gives
way to the Copernican system in astronomy, and in the
new system there is no difficulty, without changing its
character, in assigning its place to each new planet that
may be discovered ; to any number of comets, shooting
stars, and asteroids ; to new systems of worlds lying
beyond our own planetary system; or to any number
of nebula? floating in the distant ether that may be now
resolving themselves into worlds. There is nothing,
therefore, like a fixed and unchangeable system that
seems to bind the race in its career of discovery. In
science man seems to be free ; in religion he seems to
be a fettered slave.
While this statement, however, is made in regard to
science, civilization, and the arts, it is important to un
derstand precisely in what sense it is true, in order that
* " The ]>lay of a wheel or piston." Webster.
358 LECTURES ON THE
we may appreciate the manner in which one comes in
collision with the other.
Science, then, in itself, in the highest sense of that
term, is as really fixed and unchangeable as Christian
ity. The business of science is not to create, it is to
discover. The maxim of Lord Bacon, already referred
to, represents man as merely the " minister and inter
preter of nature." The student of nature does not cre
ate the truths in his department any more than the the
ologian does in his ; nor- is he any more at liberty to
change or modify the facts in his department than the
student of the Bible is in his. Moreover, each and all
the sciences, using that word in the largest sense, save
the science of history, were in themselves as perfect and
unchangeable at the beginning of the creation as they
are now, and the struggles, the changes, the errors, the
advances, the stoppages, the modifications recorded in
WhewelPs History of the Inductive Sciences are quite
parallel with the histojy of theological science with
the toils of plodding theologians ; with the delibera
tions of synods and councils ; with the breaking out of
new light here and there, overthrowing old systems and
creeds ; with the struggles, the changes, the errors, the
advances, the stoppages, the modifications in develop
ing the system of Christian theology as it now exists in
its best forms. A treatise on any one of the sciences,
if correctly prepared at the beginning of the world,
would be a correct treatise now, just as a creed that
would have fairly represented Christianity when the
volume of inspiration was finished would be a correct
creed no.w. There are no new truths; no new facts;
no new principles that have been introduced in the one
case any more than in the other. A correct treatise on
astronomy, for example, written when "the morning
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 359
stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for
joy," or when the Chaldsean sages looked out on the
heavens, and mapped the world above us with strange
figures and forms, would be a correct treatise now. The
worlds are the same ; the laws of their movements are
the same ; their magnitudes, distances, periods, and rev
olutions are the same. Kepler did not create the great
laws, the discovery of which has given immortality to
his name ; Galileo did not bring into existence the sat
ellites of Jupiter ; nor did Newton originate the prin
ciple of universal gravitation. So far as known, no
new worlds have been added to the system; so far as
known, no worlds have been certainly destroyed it is
absolutely certain that no modifications have occurred
in the laws by which the system is governed. A trea
tise on anatomy in the time of Galen, if correct then,
would be perfect now. There have been no changes in
the structure of man that would demand a revision or
a modification of the system. Not one new bone has
been added to the human frame ; not one new muscle,
nerve, or tendon has been laid down; not one new
channel has been grooved out for the flowing of the
blood. Had Galen given to the world a true theo
ry in his time of the circulation of the blood, it would
have been as correct now as is the theory of Harvey.
A treatise on chemistry when, under the Caliphate at
Bagdad, the followers of Mohammed were on the point
of such great discoveries, would be a correct treatise
now. No new substances have been added to the sixty
or more of which the universe is composed, nor have
there been any new laws in respect to the proportions
in which they combine, and the chemical changes which
occur in the air, the earth, and the water. The treatises
of Solomon, when " he spake of trees from the cedar-tree
360 LECTUKES ON THE
that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth
out of the wall, and of beasts, and of fowls, and of creep
ing things, and of fishes" (l Kings, iv., 33), if they were
correct treatises then, and stated the true laws in his
time in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, would be
correct representations in natural history now, and, if
they had been preserved, would have rendered needless
the toils of LinnaBus, BufFon, Cuvier, and Agassiz. The
electric fluid, when it glittered and played on the mast
of the ancient mariner, was the same that it is now,
when, arrested and guided, it makes its way over hills
and plains, and along the bed of the ocean, conveying
thought from land to land, and lighting up the world
with intelligence. In like manner, a system of metal
lurgy when Tubal Cain became the " instructor of every
artificer in brass and iron" (Gen., iv., 22), or of music in
the time of Jubal, " the father of all such as handle the
harp and the Organ" (Gen., iv., 21), or of agriculture in
the days of Jabal, " the father of such as dwell in tents,
and have cattle" (Gen., iv., 20), would be a correct sys
tem in each department now. The instructions of the
schools have added nothing to the principles on which
the metals are spread over the earth, nor have they in
creased or diminished the quantity. Mozart and Han
del have added nothing to the laws of the octave, nor
has Liebig introduced one new substance as entering
into scientific agriculture, or modified one on which
success depends.
Yet, in the ordinary sense of the word science, the
world does make progress, and in reference to science
as known, and to theories which are regarded as just
expositions of nature, the world is immeasurably in ad
vance of what it was when the Gospel was revealed to
mankind. All the old treatises on science have passed
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 361
away. They are valuable now only as marking the
progress of the race, and as enabling us to compare the
present with the past. No one feels bound to defend
these ancient expositions of nature as the Christian
feels bound to defend the ancient records of his faith in
the Bible ; no one is charged with heresy in science if
he discards the teachings of the ancients altogether.
The friend of science is free. He is bound by no an
cient exposition of nature ; nor does he hesitate, on the
discovery of a new fact in nature in astronomy, in
anatomy, or in chemistry to lay aside at once all that
in the received systems is inconsistent with that fact,
and to set himself at work to adjust the system to that
new revelation. He does not create the fact, and, there
fore, he does not create the science ; he modifies the
system as received so as to be in accordance with that
fact, and allows it to exert its full influence in forming
the opinions of mankind in all time to come. He dis
covers, he does not make. Columbus discovered Amer
ica, he did not create it, and the fact of its existence was
the same before he discovered it as afterward, and
would have been the same if he had not lived. Adams
and Le Verrier indicated the place of an unknown plan
et in the heavens, they did not create it. Its existence
was the same before they made it known as afterward,
and would have been the same if they had not suggest
ed the fact of its existence to mankind. From the be
ginning of the creation, that distant star had walked its
rounds on perhaps the outer limit of our solar system,
unobserved by men before, but, when disclosed, men
forthwith set themselves to adjust the astronomical
system to the fact that there was such a star, and that
its movements should be allowed to explain and mod
ify existing views.
Q
362 LECTURES ON THE
Thus science advances. Not that it changes. Not
that it has any new facts. Not that new matter is
created, or that new properties are given to the parti
cles that compose it, but that the original great laws
and facts of science, in themselves as fixed and un
changeable as were the truths of the Christian system
when the New Testament was completed, are arranged,
explained, and properly located in the respective sys
tems of science, displacing the errors of the past, and
advancing to that state where " man, the minister and
interpreter of nature," shall have brought the systems
of science, as far as the human powers will permit, into
harmony with the system as it reposed eternally in the
mind of the Creator.
III. Such being the facts in regard to the two sys
tems, it was inevitable that they should come into col
lision, and that they should be liable, at any time, to
cross each other. The nature of that collision must de
pend much on the false views which are at any time
attached to the Christian system as the sailing of the
ship, before referred to, would be much affected by the
barnacles and sea-weed attached to it and by the
views of philosophy and science that prevail at any
time in the world. The work of adjusting the two,
therefore, must vary from age to age, as the nature of
the conflict between the two must vary in different pe
riods of the world. The battle, under a new form, may
be to be refought in each successive generation. The
triumph of Christianity at any one time is by no means
a permanent triumph, or even, in itself, a proof of per
manent triumph at all ; and the apparent triumph, at
any time, of infidelity is by no means a demonstration
of permanent and ultimate victory. Celsus, Porphyry,
and Julian act their part, and disappear; Hobbes,
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 363
Chubb, and Morgan follow, and then vanish from the
stage ; Volney, Gibbon, Hume, attack the system, and
retire from the conflict; Strauss and Renan, Hegel
and Comte, follow after. A host of scientific warriors
rushes on the arena for an attack on the religion that
is fixed and unchangeable, deriving their means of at
tack from a system that is as fixed and unchangeable as
Christianity itself, and the warfare assumes new forms,
and is to be fought with new weapons. Whether these
two systems, equally fixed and unchangeable, are really
in conflict, or will be found ultimately to coincide and
harmonize, is the question which is now before this age,
and which is, perhaps, to be before the world in the de
velopments of future ages. It is too early to determine
with absolute certainty that the two will ultimately
agree. The Christian theologian believes assuredly
that it will be so ; the scientific skeptic is not less con
fident that the prospect of ultimate harmony, if it ever
existed, has now vanished forever.
For my purpose in these Lectures, it is important to
designate, in few words, the varying nature of this con
flict ; for it has not always been the same, nor is it like
ly to be always the same that it is now.
Historically, the conflict may be divided into three
periods : from the time when the Gospel was first
preached to the age when it became permanently es
tablished in the world; the Middle Ages the times
when, amidst much darkness in science, and much error
in religion, the human mind was struggling into light ;
and the present age.
In the first of these periods, the nature of the conflict
was marked and definite, and the conflict, in that form,
is never to be renewed. The systems with which the
Gospel came into conflict have passed away, and are
not to be revived.
364 LECTURES ON THE
That conflict was between Christianity and Judaism
on the one hand, and Christianity and the Greek and
Roman philosophy on the other.
In Judaea, Christianity came into collision with relig
ion alone. The Jews had no literature besides their
sacred books ; they had no science, no philosophy. Be
yond what is in their sacred records they have contrib
uted nothing of value to the progress of mankind, in
war or in peace ; and the collision, therefore, in Judaea
was wholly on the subject of religion. The views
which were then regarded as antagonistic to Christian
ity have ceased to influence the world beyond the small
number that constitutes the remnant of the Hebrew
people, and the conflicts which Christian apostles waged
with the Jewish doctors have ceased forever.
In Greece and Rome the conflict was of a different
nature. It was partly with religion ; partly with priest
ly power ; partly with the state ; partly with philoso
phy. It is only in the latter aspect that the subject de
mands notice now the conflict with philosophy. It
was, in fact, a conflict with "philosophy" not with sci
ence. The Greeks had little science, the Romans less.
It is not too much to say that in respect to the physical
sciences, the most eminent of the Greek philosophers
would not have been qualified fo r admission into the
lowest class of any American college ;* nor have they
contributed any thing that now enters into the instruc
tions in our laboratories or schools. The conflict, there
fore, in Greece, and the same was true in Rome, was
with an acute and subtle metaphysical philosophy. It
was not on questions started in the laboratory or the
observatory, but in the Academy and the Porch. In
Judsea it was substantially about the atonement; in
* Compare Whewelfs History of the Inductive Sciences, vol. i., b. i.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 365
Greece it was the whole question about the elevation
of the race. The Greek philosopher knew of but one
way of reforming mankind, of meeting human ills, of
elevating the race, of obtaining the favor of the gods.
It was by mental culture ; by development ; by instruc
tion ; by conformity to a just standard of morals. Chris
tianity proclaimed that in this way man could neither
be elevated, nor obtain the divine favor, nor be pre
pared for a future world, but that the entire hope of
the race for reformation, elevation, and salvation was
in the doctrine of Christ crucified. That was foolish
ness to the Greek. It was not on the line of his views
in regard to the means of elevating men, and he spurned
and rejected the system.
Those old controversies have passed away. All that
there was in the philosophy of Greece that opposed
Christianity has ceased to influence mankind, and that
philosophy will not be revived. Celsus and Porphyry
have done their work, and they did it well ; and except
as they are exhumed to illustrate the history of the
Church, or are explored by some theological teacher
who regards all wisdom as found among the " fathers,"
the whole has gone into the " extinct controversies" of
the past.
The second of these periods embraced the Middle
Ages ; the times when, amidst much darkness in sci
ence, and much error in religion, the human mind was
struggling into light. The history of this is a history
of nearly all the persecutions under the Papacy. The
peculiarity of this period, so far as there was a collision
between Christianity and science, civilization, and the
arts, was, that the Church adopted certain interpreta
tions of the Scriptures as infallible ; that it regarded
the Bible as making statements on the structure of the
366 LECTURES ON THE
universe, as well as on the plan of salvation, which were
equally to be received as a part of the creed of Chris
tendom, and which were to be defended in the same
manner as any other articles of the creed of the Church;
that it claimed jurisdiction over all the subjects of
knowledge, as it did over the wealth and power of
newly-discovered countries ; and that to doubt the au
thority of the Church on subjects of science was a here
sy of the same nature as to doubt the doctrine of the
Trinity or the Incarnation. Each successive discovery
in science, therefore, brought the Church into contact
with the world, and led to persecution. The collision
was not with Christianity as such, but with Christian
ity as it was embodied in the prevailing interpretation
of the Scriptures, and in the articles of a church claim
ing to be infallible. Thus, in the case of Galileo, his
offense in holding the doctrines of the Copemican sys
tem was not against the Bible, for the Bible, properly
interpreted, has revealed nothing on the subject, but
was against the interpretation put on the Bible by the
Church. The Church had adopted the Ptolemaic sys
tem of astronomy, and to call the truth of that system
in question was, in the judgment of the Church, an at
tack on the Bible itself. Thus, through this long and
gloomy tract of ages, science struggled in dark and ob
scure places, restrained and intimidated by the fear of
a collision with the the Church, as freedom struggled
every where at the same time, restrained and awed by
the fear of the papal power. The one was held in
check as really as the other. Here and there, a solitary
individual, like Roger Bacon, pursued his studies alone.
Each new discovery involved the danger of a conflict
with the Church ; each advance made was imperiled by
the apprehension of impinging on some article of faith.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 367
Nature was explored with the apprehension of a revela
tion there that would be in conflict with the infallible
revelation as interpreted by the Church, and each new
discovery was made by stealth, and with the fear of the
rack or the stake before the eyes. Science emerged into
light and freedom only when those shackles were burst
asunder, and men acted on the idea that science was to
be pursued in an independent manner, and that the ob
servation of the stars, and the examination of the com
ponent elements of matter, were not to be restrained by
any interpretations which had been affixed to the Bible.
The world was slow to learn this. In fact, the lesson
is not yet wholly learned. The investigations of mod
ern astronomy, as in the time of Galileo, have been pur
sued in the face of an extensively prevailing belief that
these disclosures are against the teachings of revela
tion ; and all the investigations of geology have been
made, on the one hand, by a hope that the results would
be found to be in conflict with the Bible, and, on the
other, by a fear that it would be so. Geology and as
tronomy have achieved their triumphs only by setting
aside interpretations of the Bible which have been re
ceived in the Church for ages ; and the inquiries which
are now pursued in regard to the work of creation, the
antiquity of man upon the earth, the origin of the races
of men, are pursued on the one hand with the hope, and
on the other with the fear, that the result will be found
to be in conflict with the teachings of the Bible. It has
been, and is, a slow work for man to learn that his inter
pretation of the Bible is not necessarily the teaching of
the Bible; that to detach a false interpretation from
the Word of God is not necessarily an assault on the
Bible itself, and is not to be regarded as heresy.
We have fallen, in the third period, on other times.
368 LECTURES ON THE
A new era is opened upon the world, and Christianity
and the world now come into collision in a form wholly
different from the collision in the times of the apostles
and in the Middle Ages. The defender of Christianity
has a different work to do from what he had in the time
of Porphyry and Celsus ; in the time of Morgan and
Chubb ; in the time of Volney, Gibbon, and Hume. To
the Church at large ; to the Christian ministry ; and to
those especially whom I am called to address in these
Lectures those preparing for the ministry nothing
can be of greater importance than to understand the
nature of the conflict which is to be before the Church
in the next age. *
A few remarks here seem to be necessary to place
this part of the subject in a proper light :
(1.) It is, as before intimated, always a fair question,
when there is an apparent collision between the Bible
and science, whether the collision is, in fact, between
the scientific truth and the J3ible, or between that truth
and the prevailing and received interpretation of the
Bible. The one is by no means to be assumed as sy
nonymous with the other. To the utmost extent which
the proper laws of interpreting language will allow, the
friend of Christianity is to be permitted to apply those
laws to determine whether the received interpretation
of the Bible is the necessary and the fair one. The
Bible is not, indeed, to be made a " nose of wax," but it
is equally true that the infidel is not to be permitted to
assume that the interpretation which he puts on the
Bible is the true one, or that any interpretation found
in the creeds, or in treatises of theology, is necessarily
the correct one. The whole question about the integ
rity of the text ; about the agreement of manuscripts ;
about the changes in the use of words ; about the mean-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 369
ing of language as modified in any particular country,
among any particular people, or at any particular time,
is a fair and open question a question of simple inter
pretation, as it is in inquiring into the meaning of Ho
mer or Herodotus. To the utmost extent to which the
fair canons of criticism are applicable to any ancient
book, the friend of the Bible may avail himself of those
canons to detach a false interpretation from the Word
of God to remove another barnacle from the ship that
has, in long voyages, vexed many seas. Even if, which
is almost demonstrably impossible, the followers of
Lepsius, Gliddon, Nott, and Bunsen, could establish the
fact that man has been upon the earth for a period
of twenty thousand years, it would still be an open
question whether the Bible, by fair interpretation,
teaches the contrary, and whether the common inter
pretation of the Church, though received for ages, may
not have been founded* on erroneous data in determin
ing what the Bible teaches on the subject, or whether
it teaches any thing. There is, indeed, a limit to this ;
but it is a limit to be determined in the case of the
Bible, as in the case of any other ancient book, by a
proper application of the rules of exegesis.
(2.) The warfare in our time between Christianity
and the world in respect to science, civilization, and the
arts, has changed. The old modes of attacking the
Bible have been abandoned, and the old modes of de
fending it are therefore to be abandoned. On all mat
ters pertaining to the progress of our race there are
many " extinct controversies" old volcanoes that have
been burned out leaving nothing but scoria? and ashes,
and on no subject is this more true than on the subject
of theology. Around those extinct volcanoes men wan
der now safe, but with nothing to relieve the desola-
Q2
370 LECTURES ON THE
tion. Time was when all was commotion there. The
mountain heaved ; the flames belched forth ; the sky
was lurid ; rivers of burning lava flowed in every direc
tion. All was consumed. Nor city, nor hamlet, nor
tree, nor shrub, nor flower, nor spire of grass was
spared ; and perhaps no living thing will ever grow
again on the fatal spot. So with many of the old con
troversies in philosophy ; in science ; in religion. What
could more resemble the scoriae of such an ancient vol
cano than the huge tomes of the schoolmen? What
could more resemble such a volcano in action than the
heat, and fire, and zeal of Thomas Aquinas, and John
Duns Scotus ? What shrub, tree, flower, or living thing
can be culled from those blackened remains ?
It is a material point thus gained when one is gird
ing on the armor to fight the battles of his own age, to
know exactly where he starts, and what is precisely the
nature of the warfare in which he is to engage. It is
much to know what is settled, and what is open still.
That soldier now would spend his time to very little
purpose who should furbish some piece of ancient ar
mor; who should see that his helmet, and his shield,
and his greaves, and his spear were in good condition ;
or who should, as in other days, incase his horse in ar
mor, and move into battle reflecting around him the
rays of the sun. Those ancient suits of armor for horses
and men do well in old baronial halls, for they have an
appropriate place there as memorials of other days and
other men, as old volumes on extinct controversies have
an appropriate place in the alcoves of vast libraries
memorials of the past.
There have been battles in regard to Christianity
in its collision with the world which have been well
fought, and which are not to be renewed in our time,
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 371
or ever onward. Porphyry, in his day, had his field ;
Celsus his; Julian his. In neither case was it science
or sacred criticism. It was the ancient philosophy as
then held, coming into contact with a new religion
with Christianity. Those men did their work well.
They did all that acute philosophers, sustained, in the
case of Julian, by the might of imperial power, could do
to prevent the spread of the new system. That battle
is not to be fought over again. The philosophy which
they held, like the men themselves, has long since passed
away, to be revived on earth no more. So, in his time,
Yolney had his field, and he did his work well. Seated
amidst the " ruins" of ages, and surveying the empires
and systems that have passed away, he inferred that in
the course of events there must be a succession of
" ruins" to the end of time, and that the existing em
pires and systems of philosophy and religion Chris
tianity among the number would be added to the
ruins of the past, and be i*umber.ed among extinct sys
tems. No one could do his work better, than he has
done, and that attempt will not be made again. Thom
as Paine, in his time, had his field, and he did his work
well. "With talents, indeed, eminently fitted to be use
ful when vindicating the "Rights of Men;" with a
power of noble language almost without a parallel for
popular appeal,* but, also, with a still more unequaled
* Chief Justice Marshall says of him (Life of Washington, vol. ii., p.
399) in relation to the causes which led to the Declaration of Inde
pendence, " Many essays appeared in the papers calculated to extend
these opinions; and a pamphlet under the signature of Common
Sense, written by Thomas Paine, an Englishman, who had lately come
over to America, had particular influence. He possessed a style and
manner of saying bold things, singularly well fitted to act on the pub
lic mind, to enlist every feeling with him ; and very often, especially
in times when men were greatly agitated, to seize on the judgment
itself."
372 LECTURES ON THE
acquaintance with the Billingsgate of the English
tongue, and in this surpassed by none, he undertook to
drive the Bible from the world by ribaldry and abuse.
That battle has been fought. Whoever attempts here
after to attack Christianity in that manner, will find
that the work has been already better done than he can
do it himself, and that the great point has been settled
forever that religion is not to be driven from the world
by scorn, ribaldry, and vulgarity. In his day, too, Vol
taire had his field satire, learning, poetry, philosophy.
He did his work well. Who is to surpass him ? Who
is to equal him? Who shall hope to succeed in de
stroying Christianity by such weapons when the great
Frenchman has failed ? What can remain in that line
but to reproduce his criticisms, to republish his philoso
phy, to repeat his sarcasms ? Mr. Hume had his field,
and he has done his work well. By most subtle soph
istry ; by great calmness ; by a spirit of apparent can
dor; by perplexing and involving a subject so as, even
to this day, to exercise the ingenuity of the world to
show where he was wrong, when the great body of men
feel that he was wrong, he attempted to show to prove
that a miracle could not be demonstrated to have
been wrought. Where Thomas Brown and Dugald
Stewart have exhausted their powers to detect the
sophistry, leaving it doubtful whether it has been de
tected, and where many a theologian has attempted to
show that it was sophistry, and yet has left the impres
sion of Mr. Hume s argument more deeply imbedded in
the mind than it was before, it can not be supposed
that that argument will be presented in a more em
barrassing form, or that, as a metaphysical argument
against miracles, it is to gain any new strength in com
ing ages. Mr. Gibbon had Ms field, and well he has
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 373
worked it. His province was history, and his investi
gations led him, as a skeptic, as he probably intended
they should, over the entire period when Christianity,
from the feeblest beginning, made its way over the Ro
man world, and "sat down on the throne of the Ca3-
sars ;" when, during the long and eventful ages of the
decline of the empire, Christianity was seen moulding
society, directing wars, founding empires, modifying
opinions, changing the arts of life, introducing reA 7 olu-
tions into manners, dress, dwellings, schools ; when it
controlled the government and influenced the people;
when it founded monasteries and colleges; when it
poured its embattled legions 0,11 the Holy Land, and
when it had identified itself with all the forms of civil
ization in Europe. It was Mr. Gibbon s task to show,
contrary to the opinion of the Christian world, and the
general judgment of mankind, that all this could be,
and yet the religion not be of God. He did his work
well. He did not leave it to be alleged, even by the
friends of Christianity, that his aim was to falsify his
tory for the sake of skepticism. As a historian he
was among the most true, and honest, and faithful of
men. There is not the slightest evidence that his skep
ticism, bitter as it was, ever led him, in a single in
stance, to pervert or falsify a fact, however much it
might be opposed to his own views on the subject of
religion, or however much ingenuity it might require
to escape, as a skeptic, from the legitimate inferences
from the fact. By unwearied study ; by great learning ;
by an unrivaled command of language ; by patient toil ;
by a comprehensive grasp of his great subject, he has
placed himself at the head of historians, and from the
time of Thucydides down to the present age there has
not been a man more upright, stern, honest, unbending,
3*74 LECTUEES ON THE
in recording the facts of history. Yet, faithful as to his
facts, he traversed the entire field with a sneer on his
countenance, and with a purpose to make the facts as
they existed do all that they could be made to do to
destroy the confidence of mankind in the divine origin
of the Christian religion. No one hereafter, if he at
tempts to do that work at all, will do it so well, and in
that method of destroying faith in the Christian relig
ion no more remains to be accomplished.
IV. These controversies have passed away, and these
methods of attempting to destroy Christianity are fast
ceasing to exert an influence on mankind. The col
lision now between Christianity and the world is sub
stantially a new form of collision ; the attack is from a
new quarter, and with new weapons ; the questions in
volved are deeper than those with which the Church
has heretofore grappled ; the results of the conflict, so
far as we can see, are to be final.
The points on which Christianity is now coming into
collision with the world in its present stage of progress
in science, civilization, and the arts, are principally the
following :
First. The inspiration of the Bible the question
whether a " book-revelation" is possible, and whether,
if possible, the Bible is such a revelation, and is in
fallible.
Second. The antiquity of the human race the ques
tion whether, according to the commonly received
teaching of the Scriptures, man has been upon the
earth about six thousand years, or whether his history
stretches back for a period of ten or twenty thousand
years, or to even a remoter period.
Third. The origin of the race whether the different
types of men upon the earth have had a common ori-
EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 375
gin, and have been derived from a single pair, or
whether, as is maintained in regard to the inferior an
imals, men have sprung up in different centres, either
as developed from inferior orders of beings, or from in
dependent created "heads" of the different varieties
upon the earth the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the
Ethiopian, and the American ; in other words, whether
the varieties in the human family can be reconciled
with the undoubted doctrine of the Bible that the
whole human family is descended from a single pair.
Fourth. The whole question of miracles whether
miracles are possible ; whether a record of a miracle
could be believed ; or whether the laws of nature are
so fixed and unchanging that there never has been, and
never can be, sufficient evidence of the direct interposi
tion of the divine power to justify the belief that any
events have occurred in the history of our globe that
are not traceable to those laws, or that those laws have
ever been set aside.
Whether, in this course of Lectures, any remarks have
been made to throw light on these points, or to assist
those who are to be defenders of the truth in their
studies, it is not for me to express any opinion. The
consideration of these points has, either directly or in
directly, entered largely into these Lectures, and these
points have, in fact, been constantly before my own
mind in preparing them. It can not be assumed now
that they are definitely and forever settled on either
side, so that the discussions on them can be ranked
among the "extinct controversies." They are to be
among the active subjects of controversy and inquiry
in the next age, and, in order that their importance and
their bearing on the whole subject of Christianity may
be perceived a bearing well understood by the ene-
376 LECTURES ON THE
mies of Christianity, a few additional remarks may not
be improper.
For the first of them the inspiration of the Bible.
It is clear that the whole question about a revelation
at all, and about Christianity in particular, depends on
this. Nothing can be plainer than that the Bible
claims to be a supernatural revelation from God ; that
its teachings are above human teachings ; that the real
author of the book is the Holy Ghost speaking through
inspired men ; and that its teachings constitute an in
fallible guide for man. Deny this; deny that it is in
spired in any other sense than Homer, or Ossian, or
Shakspeare were inspired, and it is clear that the book
at once loses its authority, and the system which it con
tains is placed on the same level as the system in the
Koran, the Zendavesta, or the Shasters.
For the second of these the antiquity of man upon
the earth it is plain, also, that the question may as
sume such a form as to involve the whole question of
revealed religion. It may, indeed, be a fair question
whether the Scripture record extends back precisely to
the period of six thousand years, or whether, if it were
demonstrated that man had been upon the earth ten or
even twenty thousand years, the proper interpretation
of the Bible would be found to be consistent with such
a fact ; but, beyond all question, there is a limit, prob
ably much within the twenty thousand years of man s
residence upon the earth, according to the Bible. The
Bible is a history a history of man. It professes to
go up to the beginning the period of his first appear
ance upon the earth. It traces the origin of nations ;
records the dispersions of the race ; accounts for the
origin of languages. In that history of living beings
of man there can be no such long periods of sue-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 377
cessive repose, of slow development, of destruction, of
new creations, and of sweeping off entire races from the
earth, as occur in the mere geological history of the
world, when an interval, unexplained, of a thousand, or
a million of years, is scarcely to be taken into the ac
count. In other words, by no possible propriety, by no
fair rules of interpretation, can the liberty be allowed
in regard to the history of man which is conceded on
all hands to the student of geology in reference to the
transformations on and within the earth before man ap
peared on it. The earth itself, so far as the account in
the Bible goes, may have existed any number of mil
lions of ages ; man, according to the Bible, is a recent
visitant to this world, and the time is not remote in the
past when he was formed by his Creator to occupy a
world made ready for his abode.
For the third of these points the question whether
the human race is derived from a single pair it is man
ifest that the whole question of the truth of revelation
and of redemption turns on this. The Bible records
the creation of a single pair, and no other. It records
the migrations and wanderings of the descendants of
that one pair to all parts of the world, and of no others
(Gen., x.). It treats the race as one. It regards that
one pair as the head of the entire race, and affirms that
the disobedience of that one pair affected all the dwell
ers on the earth as one race not the Caucasian race
only, or the Mongolian, the African, or the American,
but the entire race. "In Adam all die" (l Cor., xv., 22).
" By one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin" (Rom., v., 12). "By one man s disobedience many
ol TroXXot the many were made sinners" (Rom., v.,
19). These expressions comprehend the race; and the
entire doctrine of depravity and of death, according to
378 LECTURES ON THE
the Bible, is identified with the fact that there was a
single pair at the head of the race. The same is the
Scripture doctrine in regard to redemption. The race,
according to that plan, is one one in origin ; one in
apostasy; one in guilt; one in death. The work of
redemption is not Mongolian, or Caucasian, or Ethio
pian, but it pertains to man as man. In redemption, as
in the fall, there is one Head the counterpart of the
other, each acting for the race. " As in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Cor., xv.,
22). " Since by man came death, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead" (1 Cor., xv., 21). "As by one
man s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Rom.,
v., 19). In reference to this point, also, it is certain that
it is indispensable to proper faith in the Bible. By no
fair rules of exegesis ; by no possible torture of lan
guage, can the teachings of the Bible be made consist
ent with the belief that the different " races" of men
upon the earth have each had a separate origin. " God
hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell
on all the face of the earth" (Acts, xvii., 26). This fact is
not only affirmed, but every where implied, and well do
the men who are assailing it understand its bearing on
the question of the reception or rejection of the Bible
in the world.
As to the fourth point the question whether mira
cles are possible, this also is vital to all faith in the
Bible. Mr. Hume understood this, and attempted, by a
most ingenious metaphysical argument, to put the ques
tion about miracles, and faith in the Bible, to rest for
ever. It comes before the Church and the world now
in a different form; not less difficult to be met; more
likely to affect scientific men; more likely to be pop-
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 379
ular. The doctrine that miracles are impossible as held
now is founded on the alleged stability of the laws of
nature. At first, in science, nothing seems more fluctu
ating or unsettled than those laws. The varying sea
sons ; the clouds ; the storms of ocean ; the march of dis
ease ; the wantonness of the lightning s flash ; the play
of the aurora borealis ; the irregularity of the term of
human life ; the movements of comets and meteors, all
these seemed to be independent of any fixed laws, and
these movements were explained in the early periods
of the world, as Comte (Positive Philosophy) has stated,
by the supposition of supernatural agencies. Silently
and gradually, however, these irregularities have been
reduced to order and law, and man has approached,
what Comte regards as the last stage, the Ultima Thule
of science, the Positive philosophy: the point where
no supernatural agency is to be recognized ; where no
events are to be traced to an " unknown metaphysical
cause ;" but where all that is known all that exists
is an antecedent and a sequent, with no real causation,
and, as far as known, no God.* That, apart from such
speculations as those of the Positive philosophy, there
is a tendency in our age to this result, there can be no
doubt. Thus far in the progress of science, the tenden
cy has been, undoubtedly, to find fixed and unchanging
laws prevailing, and the object of science is to ascertain
and apply those laws. The studies of the astronomer
proceed on this supposition; the investigations in the
laboratory; the arts of navigation and agriculture;
even the doctrines of tides, and winds, and storms, pro
ceed on the supposition of the existence of unvarying
* See the elaborate and very able article on "The Positive Philos
ophy of Auguste Comte," by J. S. Mill, Esq., in the Westminster Re
view for April, 1865.
380 LECTURES ON THE
laws. By all, therefore, that there is in such a tenden
cy to universality; by all that is done to reduce that
which in former ages seemed to be irregular to the con
trol of fixed laws ; by all the affirmations which scien
tific men make that the laws of nature are fixed and
unchanging, there is an approximation, consciously or
unconsciously, to the conclusion that miracles have
never occurred ; that all the well-established/acte which
have taken place in the history of our world are reduc
ible to the operation of fixed laws ; and that all the al
leged facts that can not thus be reduced are to be
classed among myths and fables.
And yet it is clear that no man cwi receive the Bible
who does not believe in the exertion of miraculous
power in our world. From the beginning of the book
to the end, it proceeds on the supposition that God has
often interfered in human affairs by his own direct
power ; that there have been cases iimumerable where
all there was in the case was an event, and the will of
God behind it. The reader of the Bible walks in the
midst of signs and wonders. He is in a supernatural
world. He is in the constant presence of Deity God,
in his sovereignty creating the world itself; forming
man upon it ; conversing with man ; giving law in calm
conversation, and amidst thunders and tempests ; res
cuing his people from bondage by his own power ; mak
ing a path for them through the sea; overwhelming
their enemies ; shaking the nations ; sending conquerors
and prophets supernaturally endowed, until the whole
is consummated by the appearance of the God incar
nate giving sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf;
healing all manner of disease, and raising up the dead
himself raised from the grave to life, and borne up to
heaven. Who can believe in Jesus Christ who does
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 381
not believe in miracles? Who can believe that the
Bible has the slightest claim on the faith of mankind if
it is maintained that the laws of nature are so fixed
and unchanging that a miracle is impossible ?
Y. It remains to inquire, in accordance with the main
design of this Lecture, and in the conclusion of the
whole subject, what is the relation of Christianity to
the present stage of the world, in its progress in sci
ence, civilization, and the arts ?
In this part of; the inquiry, it must be assumed, as
was stated in the beginning of this Lecture, that when
the Gospel was announced to mankind it had truths of
great importance to communicate in advance of what
the world then possessed. Assuming this, the inquiry
now before us presents itself in two forms : (l) whether
the Gospel is, in this respect, still in advance of the
world, or whether the world has so come up to it, or
gone ahead of it, as to supersede it ; and (2) whether,
admitting that it is still in advance of the world in its
disclosures, it has kept up with the race in its means of
propagating itself, so as to be able, in this respect, to
maintain its advanced position. These inquiries do not
differ so materially that they can not be pursued to
gether.
(1.) The first material point in this part of the sub
ject is, that while the world has made great progress in
other things, it has made none whatever on the subjects
which constitute the peculiar teachings of Christianity.
In reference to what the Gospel claims as its own, the
world has struck out no light ; has removed no diffi
culty ; has answered none of the questions which, in
past ages, have so perplexed mankind. The effort to
find out a knowledge of God ; to find a medium of ac
cess to him ; to find a method by which the race may
382 LECTURES ON THE
be elevated, and to find evidence of the immortality of
the soul, seems to have exhausted itself in Greece. The
Greek mind, as has been remarked before, was perhaps
better fitted for these inquiries than any other that God
has made ; the Greek taste sought and found gratifica
tion in these inquiries; the Greek language afforded a
better medium for pursuing those inquiries than any
other language which has been spoken among men. If,
of all the tribes of men, we were to select that to which
we should most confidently intrust the question, How
much man by nature can find out about God? we
should unhesitatingly select the Greek mind as best fit
ted to solve the problem.
It is not undervaluing the science of astronomy, of
anatomy, of chemistry, of natural philosophy, of geol
ogy, to say that, to this hour, they have made no dis
closures on those points which so occupied the atten
tion of the ancients, and on which Christianity assumed
that it had truths in advance of all that the world had
known. The astronomer points his glass to the heav
ens; penetrates the deep blue ether; reveals worlds
and systems far beyond the reach of the naked eye ;
discerns nebulae lying behind nebulae in the vast re
gions of unmeasured space, but does he see God ? Does
he look upon his throne ? Does he tell us, however
long or intently he may gaze, whether God is a merci
ful Being ; whether there is a plan of redemption for
the fallen and the lost ; whether there is a way of peace
for a troubled conscience ; whether the soul is immor
tal; whether
"The dread of something after death
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns,"
shall make us
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 383
" Rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of?"
Does he answer these questions so that the mind of
Plato so that the mind of Hamlet would be calm ?
Forever may he look through that tube, and not a ray
of light will visit his soul from those distant worlds
about what man is so anxious to learn, and in respect
to that on which he feels himself so much in the dark.
Who goes to the astronomer to learn how a sinner may
be saved, and how he himself may be prepared to die ?
In the laboratory of the chemist, brilliant as are his dis
coveries, who expects to learn any new truths about
the way of redemption, and about the nature and em
ployments of the soul in the future world ? The earth,
too, is explored to its utmost limits and its utmost
depths, but what has the traveler and the miner, after
these wanderings and diggings, to tell about God ? Is
wisdom found by the miner now any more than it was
in the days of Job ?
" He [the miner] cutteth out rivers among the rocks,
and his eye seeth every precious thing. He bindeth
the floods from overflowing, and the thing that is hid
bringeth he forth to light. But where shall wisdom be
found? And where is the place of understanding?
Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found
in the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in
me ; and the sea saith, It is not with me. It can not be
gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the
price thereof. It can not be valued with the gold of
Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. Whence,
then, cometh wisdom ? and where is the place of under
standing ? seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living,
and kept close from the fowls of the air. Destruction
and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with
384 LECTURES ON THE
our ears. God understandeth the way thereof, and he
knoweth the place thereof" (Job, xxviii., 10-23).
The geologist, too, the man who has learned the his
tory of the earth for some millions of ages, what has he
to disclose that shall supersede the teachings of Chris
tianity? What answer has he found to the questions
which so perplex the human mind about the remedy
for a fallen condition, and a preparation for another
world ?
It may seem to be a reflection on the present age,
and it may require some hardihood to make the asser
tion, to say that, after all, if a man wished to put him
self into a position where, without a revelation, he
would find most that would calm his spirit, and solve
his doubts, and elevate his conceptions of eternal things,
he would go, not into the dissecting-room of the anat
omist ; not into the observatory of the astronomer ; not
into the laboratory of the chemist ; but would visit the
ancient Academy, the Porch, and the Lyceum.
On this subject, then, we claim that the Gospel is as
really in advance of the world as it was when it was
first communicated to men ; that the world has neither
gone beyond it, nor come up to it, nor made its- teach
ings less necessary than they were eighteen hundred
years ago^
(2.) Assuming, then, that the apostles had truths to
communicate to mankind in advance of what the world
then possessed, and that in respect to those truths the
Gospel is as really in advance of the world in its pres
ent stage of progress as it was then, it remains to in
quire whether, in respect to the means which Christian
ity now has for propagating and perpetuating those
truths, it has fallen behind the world, or maintains its
advanced position still ?
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 385
It is ^usual to represent the apostles as endowed with
peculiar and exclusive powers in propagating the truths
of Christianity. It is not uncommon for men to feel
that the Church has lost much by the cessation of their
peculiar endowments in making an aggressive move
ment on idolatry and sin. It is not unnatural to feel
that if the Church could again be clothed with the
power which it had in apostolic times, the conquest of
the world to Christ would be easy and rapid, and it is
conceivable that many a youthful soldier of the cross,
panting for the conversion of the world, and resolving
to devote himself to that great purpose in the work of
the ministry, or in a missionary life, feels a sense of dis
couragement in the fact that he must go forth with few
of the advantages which the apostles had in their work.
It is important to inquire whether this is so.
The relation of the apostles to the w^orld may be re
garded as positive and negative.
(a) Positive. They had three things. First. The
power of speaking the languages of the world; or, at
once, and without study, the power of making their
message known to the people of all lands. This seems
to have been an unlimited power. In the case of a mis
sionary now, the best years of his life are consumed in
efforts, often imperfect efforts, to place himself in the
condition in which the apostles were when they com
menced their work. /Second. They had the power of
working miracles. They healed the sick ; they opened
the eyes of the blind ; they raised the dead. This, too,
seems to have been an unlimited power. Third. They
had the advantage of freshness and novelty in the mes
sage which they proclaimed to the world. Whatever
might be said in other respects in regard to the system
which they preached, it could not be denied that the
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EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 387
apostles had no Christian literature. Beyond the books
of the New Testament and, in the beginning of their
work, not even these were written, and, in the end of
their work, not yet collected into a volume there was
nothing to explain, to illustrate, and to defend their
doctrines ; there was nothing to edify the Church ; there
was nothing to instruct and guide the young. Fifth.
There were no schools, colleges, or seminaries of learn
ing under Christian influence, and designed to train up
a generation for Christ. All the schools that existed
were Jewish or heathen ; nor was there one where a
Christian youth might be instructed in the ways of the
true religion, or that contemplated the training of a
generation for the service of God. Sixth. There was,
as yet, no established organization of believers into
churches, designed to bring a united influence to bear
upon the world. All this was the slow work of time.
It is to be remembered, also, that, whatever were the
advantages of the gift of tongues, and the power of
working miracles, the immediate effect was not the con-
version of sinners. In the life of the Savior himself,
there u no evidence that a single sinner wa converted
by his miracles, nor in the labors of the apostles is there
proof that one was converted by the miracles which
they wrought, or by their power of speaking foreign
languages. This was, indeed, a proof of the divine ori
gin of their religion. The multitude that came to
gether on the day of Pentecost "marveled," were
"amazed," and were "confounded" <rvvi\v$ii (Acts,ii,
6, 7), " because that every man heard them speak in his
own language ;" but the three thousand were converted,
as other men are, by the preaching of Christ crucified.
Miracles converted no one. Thousands saw the mira
cles of the Savior who joined in the cry " Crucify him."
388 LECTURES ON THE
Mere eloquence converted no one. "And my speech
and my preaching was not with enticing words of man s
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and with
power" (1 Cor., xi., 4). "And I, brethren, when I came
unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wis
dom, declaring unto you the testimony of God."
The sole ground of reliance by the apostles for the
conversion of men was the great truth that Christ was
crucified for the sins of the world, accompanied by the
power of the Holy Ghost.* In not a single instance do
they trace the conversion of a sinner to miracles, to the
power of speaking a foreign language, to eloquence. In
each and every instance it is the power of truth as ap
plied by the Holy Ghost.
That power that ground of reliance we have now
as much and as really as the apostles had as much
and as really no less; no more. The truth is un
changed; the power of the Holy Ghost is undimin-
ished ; the promises that He will apply the truth when
properly presented are as full and as fresh now as they
were then. Each minister of the Gospel, in Christian
or in heathen lands, may go to his work as fully under
the influence of this feeling, and as fully armed with
this power, as the apostles ; and as the power from this
source was entirely in advance of what the world pos
sessed in the time of the apostles, so is it equally in ad
vance of the world in the stage of its present progress
in civilization, science, and the arts.
(3.) I refer next in proof that the Gospel has not fall
en behind the world, that it has now the advantage of
the trial made by it during the long period of eighteen
hundred years. Like every other system, it started, of
* Compare Acts, ii., 16-21; x., 44; xi., 16; xvi., 14; 1 Cor.,
iii., 5, 7.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 389
course, without this advantage; like every other sys
tem, it may now avail itself of all that can fairly be de
rived from its history in vindication of its truth, and in
aiding in its diffusion.
It has a history a long, a peculiar, a definite, a very
marked history. It had its origin at a time when the
great empire that had so long ruled the world was
tending to decay; it lived through all the changes
which occurred in its " Decline and Fall" as traced by
Mr. Gibbon ; it has been connected, in many cases close
ly identified, with the origin and growth of the great
kingdoms which now control the world. It has a his
tory as bearing on individuals ; on families ; on nations;
on the course of events. It has a history in regard to
trials ; to conflicts ; to persecutions ; to death. It has
a history*of confessors, saints, and martyrs ; a history in
regard to its influence on domestic life, on education,
on customs and laws. That history is now before the
world, and can not now be changed.
It is true that, in close connection with real Chris
tianity, often so apparently close as to be mistaken for
it, there has been a history of false Christianity a sys
tem of persecution, blood, and fire. The friends of
Christianity are not insensible to that fact; they do
not attempt to conceal it. In nominal connection with
Christianity there have been wars, corruptions, vices,
oppressions, persecutions. But these doings are not
Christianity, nor is Christianity responsible for them.
If, however, a man should strangely say, lost to all
great principles of history and philosophy, that Chris
tianity is responsible for these things, we ask, Why ?
How ? Are these things prescribed and commanded in
the book which embodies the laws and doctrines of the
system the New Testament? Did they characterize
390 LECTURES ON THE
the life of its Great Founder? Were they enjoined by
the teachings of his apostles ? There can be no mis
take on this subject. The nature of the system, as laid
down in the New Testament, can not be misunderstood.
The enemies of religion can tell what the religion re
quires as well as its friends, and often the best judges
of what it demands are those who complain of the in
consistencies of its professed friends, and who hold them
to the observance of a rule which they themselves seem
little inclined to obey.
We know what the effect of Christianity is its effect
on the child, the wife, the man. We know what is its
effect on domestic peace, industry, comfort. We know
what is its effect in elevating woman, under nearly all
other systems sunk in deep degradation. We know
what is its effect on intelligence, industry, and. liberty.
We know what are its affinities / with what it nat
urally combines. We are very imperfectly acquainted
with the elements of matter until we know with what
they will combine, and what will be the result of the
combination. Each of the sixty or more elementary
substances that compose our world has its own proper
ties, and we do not understand the nature of matter
itself until we understand what the properties of those
individual substances are, and with what other sub
stances, and in what proportions, they will combine.
There is the power of attraction and repulsion ; there
are laws of chemical affinity that produce all the forms
of matter, either when united with life or when inor
ganic, which make up our beautiful world. We do not
understand the nature of oxygen or nitrogen ; of phos
phorus, of carbon, or of calcium of any of the metals,
until we know with what they combine, and in what
proportions.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 391
The same is true of systems of morals and religion.
We know not what they are until we know what their
affinities are with what they most naturally combine.
No man is surprised to find Mr. Hume, under the no
tions of religion which he cherished, proclaiming that
"justice is not a natural, but artificial virtue, depending
wholly on the arbitrary institutions of men, and pre
vious to the establishment of civil society not at all in
cumbent ; that moral, intellectual, and corporeal virtue
are all of the same kind ; that adultery must be prac
ticed if men would obtain all the advantages of this
life ; that, if generally practiced, it would soon cease to
be scandalous, and that, if practiced secretly and fre
quently, it would by degrees come to be thought no
crime at all ; that the life of a man is of no greater im
portance than that of an oyster, and as it is admitted
that there is no crime in diverting the Nile or the Dan
ube from their courses, so there can be none in turning
a few ounces of blood from their natural channel, or
that suicide is lawful."* His principles led to such re
sults, and he had the hardihood and the honesty to
avow it. No man is surprised to learn that the horrors
of the French Revolution followed the promulgation of
the doctrines of the French Encyclopaedia. All the
blood shed in the French capital ; all the crimes of the
Revolution, were the regular results of the doctrines de
fended by Voltaire and his fellow-laborers. No man was
surprised at the results reached in " New Harmony."
The seed sown produced its appropriate harvest.
The same principle is applicable to Christianity.
Like the chemical elements in nature, and like the sys
tems of infidel philosophy, it has its proper laws of aifin-
* See the proof that Mr. Hume held these opinions in Magee on
Atonement and Sacrifice, p. 425-429.
392 LECTURES ON THE
ity ; and its nature is not known till those laws are un
derstood. After an experience of eighteen hundred
years, the world has learned what those laws are.
Christianity combines every where with pure morality,
with chaste living, with refined manners, with domestic
peace, with temperance, with industry, with order, with
law, with learning, with liberty. The press, colleges,
sphools, the courtesies of refined life, charity to the poor,
to the needy, and to the outcast, find a natural ally in
Christianity, and, wherever it goes, we know that these
will be found in its train. What it has gained in this
respect is a part of its capital, and is not to be trans
ferred to any other system.
(4.) I refer next, in proof that Christianity has not
fallen behind the world, and as illustrating its relation
to civilization, science, and the arts, to what, for want
of a better name, may be called its radiations. I mean
by that term to denote the influences which have gone
beyond the direct agency of the system, and which have
passed over on other systems, and made them, in a
great measure, what they are. The idea is, that the
condition of the world has been materially modified by
Christianity beyond its direct influence, and that, to un
derstand its exact nature and value, the extent of that
influence should be known.
I have endeavored to show in this Lecture that the
world has made great progress since the Gospel was
first made known ; that it is in many respects a differ
ent world from what it was when Paul stood on Mars
Hill in Athens ; that a Greek of the age of Pericles, if
he should now appear again, would find himself in a
different world from that in which he lived. The re
mark which I am now making is, that this change has
been produced in a very considerable degree by what
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 393
I refer to as the radiations of Christianity ; by those in
fluences which have passed beyond its immediate sphere
in the Church, and which have affected surrounding ob
jects. I refer to those things which make a Christian
nation different from other nations ; to those things de
rived from it which could not now be detached from civ
ilization without destroying the entire fabric.
It is probable that there is not one thing that now
pertains to us in a Christian land, and which we value
as a part of our civilization, which has not been made
in a great manner what it is by the silent and accumu
lating influence of Christianity. The laws under which
we live are different from what they would have been.
The methods of administering justice are different. The
ideas of punishment are different. The securities for
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are different.
The manners and customs of those among whom we
live are different. Our domestic arrangements are dif
ferent. The provisions made for the poor and the
needy ; for the sick and the wounded ; for the blind,
the deaf, and the insane, are different.
Now it is impossible to ascertain how much of this
is due to Christianity, for no man can prove that the
world would not have made progress in these respects
if Christianity had not been revealed. But no man can
deny that a very considerable portion of the comforts
which we enjoy from day to day are to be traced to the
radiating influences of the Gospel. Apart from what
is its religious teaching, and apart from its influence in
saving the soul, the world is different now from what
it would have been if the Christian system had not been
revealed.
We claim all this as belonging to Christianity, and
as indicating its source. And in estimating the rela-
R2
394 LECTURES ON THE
tion of Christianity to the world in its present stage of
progress in science, civilization, and the arts, we ask
that all that it has done in making science, civilization,
and the arts what they are, should be taken into the ac
count; and we hold that the question whether Chris
tianity is still ahead of the world, or whether it is
abreast of the world, or whether it has fallen in the
rear, and can now be dispensed with, can not be determ
ined unless we could detach from the institutions of so
cial and civilized life all that they have derived from
the Christian religion, and survey them as they would
be then.
(5.) I refer, in illustration of the relation of Christian
ity to the present age and to future ages, to what, for
want of a better term, also, I may call the appliances of
Christianity. I refer to the question whether it has
kept its relative position in regard to the means of
propagating and perpetuating itself on the earth.
We have seen, in the previous remarks, that there
was little in this respect in the time of the apostles ;
that Christianity had no press, no literature, no schools,
almost no organization.
In reference to the means which the world now has
of perpetuating and extending what it has secured,
there is a difference as great between the apostolic age
and the present as there is in the things which have
been secured at one period and the other. Whatever
may have been done in regard to ancient literature, to
scientific discoveries, to valuable works of art, to civil
ization, to the means of prosecuting war, as to the ques
tion of perpetuating these things, it is certain that
nothing, in all time to come, will now imperil their ex
istence. Those great discoveries are secured in libra
ries, in public monuments, in the very necessities of
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 395
common life. What now can destroy a great poem, a
valuable historical work, or a treatise on medicine or
astronomy, multiplied as it is by the art of printing ?
What can destroy the printing-press, the compass, the
quadrant, the steam-engine, the magnetic telegraph ?
Society, in striking out these inventions, has made them
self-perpetuating, and has secured the means, in the
things themselves, of their preservation, of their diffu
sion over the earth, and of their transmission to future
times. Has Christianity, in its movements, kept its rel
ative position in this respect also ?
Christianity, more than science, has secured the press.
It early seized upon it as a most important auxiliary ;
it made it tributary to its own great work in diffusing
the doctrines of the Reformation ; it now employs it in
the work of diffusing the truths of revelation in a large
part of the languages spoken on the earth. It takes
the press with it wherever it goes ; it forms no plan for
its own propagation or perpetuity except in connection
with it.
Christianity has a literature of its own, as large, as
important, as powerful on public sentiment as the liter
ature of any other department of thought and action.
One would, perhaps, be surprised, in attempting to re
move what is properly a Christian literature from the
alcoves of a great library, to find how large a part of
the library would be removed by such an attempt ; how
many vacancies would be made on the shelves to see
how much of that literature has been created by Chris
tianity ; how much that once controlled the world has
been removed into a comparatively obscure and unfre
quented part of the library by the changes which have
been made by Christianity in public opinion.
Christianity has done much to control the literature
396 LECTURES ON THE
which it has not directly created, and has made it dif
ferent from what it would otherwise have been. A
large part of the books of history, poetry, philosophy,
and science are different from what they would have
been if they had had their origin in lands remote from
the Christian religion. Even Mr. Hume s History of
England was moulded and modified by the fact that he
wrote of a Christian nation ; Mr. Gibbon s History is
not what it would have been if he had not been called
upon to record the influence of Christianity in remould
ing the nations of Europe during and after the decline
and fall of the Roman empire.
The great names which adorn Christian literature are
quite on a level with those which pertain wholly to the
world. In history, in poetry, in eloquence, in close and
powerful reasoning, the names which Christianity claims
as its own are on a level, at least, with those which are
claimed by the world. In poetry, is there a greater
than John Milton ? In profound reasoning, is there a
greater than Jonathan Edwards? In imagination, is
there one superior to Jeremy Taylor? In eloquence,
has the world any superior to Massillon or Bourdaloue
to Robert Hall or Thomas Chalmers ?
Christianity has surrounded itself with colleges and
schools. It plants them wherever it goes. Taking the
world at large, the colleges are, at least, under a nom
inal Christian influence. Edinburgh, St. Andrew*s, Glas
gow, Cambridge, and Oxford ; Bonn, Heidelburg, Halle,
Gottingen, are, to a great extent, under Christian influ
ence. In our own country there is not one avowedly
infidel college ; nor could such a college be sustained.
There was one founded under the auspices of a great
state, and under the patronage of one that at one time
wielded more influence than any other man in the United
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 397
States, but its own internal peace demanded the influ
ence of religion, and, in this respect, it has taken its
place by the side of the other colleges of the land.
There is not a Legislature in our land that would char
ter an infidel college as such, nor could it live a year if
it were thus chartered.
Christianity has originated a new form of literature
wholly its own ; a literature not known under any an
cient form of mythology ; not known under any form
of modern heathenism ; not known to infidelity ; not
known to philosophy ; and it has, at the same time, orig
inated an institution most effective for applying that
literature, and for securing its own influence over the
young. I allude to the Sabbath-school, and to the lit
erature which has been originated by that institution.
This, if there were nothing else, would show that Chris
tianity, in its efforts to perpetuate and propagate itself,
is quite abreast of the world. The literature of the
Sabbath-school may not be, in respect to quality, all
that could be desired, but it may be doubted whether
there is any other department of literature that is ex
erting as much influence on the destinies of mankind.
Infidelity has no peculiar literature for the young, nor
has it any institution where to inculcate its sentiments
on the young. Mohammedanism and Buddhism have
no peculiar literature for the young, nor have they any
peculiar institution for training up the young in those
views of religion. Science, with great difficulty, pre
pares books for the young, but its literature in astron
omy, botany, chemistry, designed to guide the young,
as compared with the literature of the Sabbath-school,
is meagre in the extreme. The Sabbath-school, and the
Sabbath-school library, stand by themselves. Both ca
pable undoubtedly of great improvement, they are,
398 LECTURES ON THE
nevertheless, exerting a vast power on the coming gen
eration, and it is difficult to see how a religion that has
such an agency as the Sabbath-school could be exterm
inated from the world. One day during each week, of
every month in the year, the children of this nation are
brought directly under Christian instruction, with all
the advantages, in theory at least, of calling into the
service the best talent, the highest intelligence, the
warmest piety, the most devoted zeal, existing in the
churches. Through all the states of the Union, and in
all the territories, by agencies of its own, that literature
is placed in the hands of the young, before other influ
ences are brought to bear on them, to form their opin
ions, to make their hearts pure, to teach them to believe
the Bible, and to love and serve God. Whatever else
the world may do in its progress, we may be certain
that it will not be in advance of this arrangement of
Christianity to diffuse and perpetuate itself upon the
earth.
The argument which has been submitted to you in
this Lecture, as the conclusion of the course, is founded
on the idea that a religion starting in advance of the
world, from such a region, and such a source as that in
which Christianity was originated, and which, through
ages of wonderful progress in civilization, science, and
the arts, still, after the lapse of eighteen hundred years,
maintains that position; a religion which has lived
through all forms of furious and fiery persecution ; a
religion which has originated much of that which now
enters into the ameliorated condition of the world in
customs, manners, laws, and modes of life ; a religion
which, by elective affinity, has attached itself to all that
is good and valuable in human discoveries, and has re
fused a permanent connection with evil; a religion
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 399
which now, in its own means of perpetuity and propa
gation, is still in advance of the world, can be best ex
plained on the supposition that it is what it claims to
be, of divine origin, and that it can not be explained on
any other supposition. The argument is, substantially,
that it must have been founded on a knowledge of the
future which is above the unaided powers of man ; on
the fact that man can not adjust any system to the fu
ture in its varying and uncertain changes ; on the fact
that in all human systems there must be arrangements
for making changes to adapt them to unforeseen devel
opments and the progress of the world as in govern
ments providing for " amendments" to their Constitu
tions, as in our own, or silently submitting to changes
forced upon them by time, as in the British Constitu
tion ; on the fact that in architecture, in the arts, in ag
riculture, in navigation, in all the great departments of
human progress, the things which are adapted to one
age must silently give way in the progress of events
as in naval warfare the Greek triremes would be useless
now, and wooden ships are superseded by iron-clad ves
sels, and in land service the buckler, and the shield, and
the breastplate, and the coat of mail have been laid
aside ; on the fact that no creed originated by man can
be adapted to every coming age of the world and to
every land ; on the fact that the old arrangements for
preserving the memory of past events and the discov
eries in science, by wax, and metal plates, and the sty
lus, become useless when the art of printing is made
known, and are laid aside. Since, of necessity, all these
things pass away, how was it that Christianity was ad
justed, at the outset, to all the possible changes in the
world ; to all the progress which mankind could make
in science, in civilization, and the arts ? The simplest
400 LECTURES ON THE
solution is, that it was originated by an Omniscient
One, and is therefore divine.
Whatever may be thought of this argument, there is
an inference from the whole subject in which all will
agree, and the statement of which is peculiarly appro
priate to this place, and as the closing remark of these
Lectures. It is, that such a religion is to maintain its
position only by keeping abreast or ahead of the world.
The men who are to defend it in this age and in com
ing generations are to be men who are " up to their
age." The arguments by which the philosophy of the
Epicureans and Stoics could be met at Athens do not
constitute all the arguments which are needed now.
The weapons which led to victory in the contests of the
"fathers" with Celsus and Porphyry will not necessa
rily lead to victory now. The methods of the school
men are not all that is needed now. The weapons
which seemed so formidable in past ages might not be
formidable now. Old weapons of war greaves, and
shields, and spears, and catapults, were useful, but there
comes a time when they are laid aside, and find repose
in ancient halls and towers. There is a " living age,"
and it is much for a young man entering on life, and es
pecially in a position where he will be called to defend
Christianity as the main business of his life, to know
that there is such an age, and what it is. Theologians
must deal with living men and with living opinions,
and if they are not prepared for this, they are not pre
pared for the work of their age. The ministry must be
prepared to meet men living men on the question of
the inspiration of the Scriptures, and with arguments
that will commend themselves to those trained in the
principles of profound criticism; on the question about
the antiquity of the race on earth, and with arguments
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 401
not derived from synods and councils ; on the whole
question of miracles, and of a supernatural influence in
the affairs of men. A more deep and subtle Pantheism
in the form of Rationalism or Positivism lies at the
foundation of the sciences of this day, as they are held,
than the great mass of the friends of Christianity are
aware of, and against all this, it may be unconsciously,
the friend of Christianity struggles and contends when
he attempts to impress its truths on the minds of men.
No true friend of Christianity could wish that the min
isters of religion should be less pious, or less imbued
with Biblical learning; but let them go prepared to
meet the world as it is, and not go clad in the armor of
a past generation, only to find that the enemy which
that kind of armor is fitted to subdue has long been
wandering in the land of shades among the knight-er-
rants of the past.
It can not, therefore, but be regarded as a very au
spicious circumstance that in this seminary a movement
should have been commenced, suggested by, and sus
tained by laymen, with a view to this state of things ;
to connect the seminary more with the world around
it ; to "draw to its aid what may be of advantage in this
respect from those engaged in other departments of
learning, and those engaged in the active duties of pas
toral life ; and it is an auspicious circumstance what
those laymen well knew would be the case that such
a movement has the entire concurrence of the pro
fessors of the seminary) and is hailed by them as mate
rially aiding them in their great work. Other things
being equal, that seminary of sacred learning only
which thus feels the contact with the living world will
meet the wants of the coming age ; those institutions
which do not feel this, and which resist such influences,
402 LECTURES ON THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
will exhaust their power in perpetuating a dead ortho
doxy in the Church, and will leave the world around
to the influence of Rationalism, Positivism, and Pan
theism.
APPENDIX,
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE LECTURE ON
MIRACLES LECTURE V.
IN the delivery of these Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity,
there was a very important point which, if not wholly passed over, was
not discussed with the fullness which the nature of the subject de
manded. Of this I was myself deeply sensible when the Lectures
were composed, and of this I presume my hearers were painfully sen
sible at the time when they were delivered. I can not doubt that
there were persons in the audience who would have been desirous of
asking me questions, as I should have been if I had been listening to a
course of Lectures on that subject, and I can not deny that questions
might have been easily proposed which I could not have answered, and
it may have excited some surprise that inquiries which could have been
so easily made, and which would have seemed to be so obviously prop
er, were not more fully considered in the Lectures. These inquiries
might have been made by two classes of persons, and if proposed by
both or by either, they would seem to be such as to have a claim to a
candid answer, (a) It is probable that they may have occurred to the
theological students for whom the Lectures were especially prepared,
and who might feel that they would be likely to encounter the very
difficulties involved in such inquiries in the work of the ministry, and
who might have desired to be furnished with the means of allaying
doubts which perhaps were suggested by the Lectures, and of removing
difficulties which they could easily foresee they would be likely to meet
in their professional life ; and (6) they are inquiries which would have
been made by those who are not believers in the truth of Christianity,
if such were present, and who might have found a secret satisfaction
in the fact that the difficulties were not met, and that the questions
which they would have asked were not solved, and in the belief that
the fact that they were not adverted to was, in their apprehension,
a tacit confession on the part of the lecturer that the difficulties could
not be removed.
These difficulties pertained especially to the subject of miracles the
404 APPENDIX.
subject particularly discussed in the fifth Lecture, though often alluded
to in the other Lectures.
The difficulty would be expressed, in few Avords, in the following
questions : What evidence is there in favor of the miracles of the Bible
stronger than that which can be alleged for witchcraft, necromancy,
sorcery, divination, and demonology ; for the miracles practiced among
the heathen ; for the miracles of the early Christian Church subse
quent to the time of the apostles, and for the miracles of the Roman
Catholic communion ? Since, in the progress of the world ; in the
diffusion of science ; in the advances of civilization ; in the careful ex
amination of historical testimony, the world has been disabused of be
lief in these things, or is tending to universal skepticism in regard to
them, why should not the same result be reached in regard to the al
leged miracles of the Bible, and to all that is claimed there to be su
pernatural? In other words, Avhy should not the principles of Ration
alism, which have been made so effective in relieving the world of su
perstition, and of unfounded claims to the supernatural, be applied to
that which is claimed in the Bible to be supernatural, and the race be
effectually delivered from all that remains that is supposed to be a de
parture from the established laws of nature ?
For the omission in not considering this inquiry there were two
reasons :
One was the difficulty of prosecuting the inquiry in a course of Lec
tures designed to be in their main features of a popular character, in
such a manner as to make it interesting to the audience that was to
be addressed. The course of Lectures, by the terms of the founda
tion, was, indeed, designed mainly to be for the benefit of the students
of the seminary, and the course prescribed was to be on such subjects
as would come before them in their preparation for the ministry, and in
this view the points now adverted to would have been eminently ap
propriate, difficult as it might have been to make the discussion inter
esting in a public Lecture ; but the course was also designed to be, in
some measure, a connecting link between the seminary and the public,
and it was contemplated that the Lectures should be of such a charac
ter as Avould be interesting to a popular audience, and it Avould haA r e
been difficult to present an argument on these points Avhich would be
interesting to such an audience. An argument on the subject, to be
of A-alue, must be somewhat abstruse. Such an argument could not
have been compressed into a single Lecture, and could not haA r e been
appended to the Lecture devoted to the subject of miracles, Avithout
protracting it to a length that Avould haA 7 e A iolated all the rules of
propriety. It might have been difficult, moreover, before such an au r
dience, to present the subject in such a manner us not to create more
APPENDIX. 405
doubts than would have heen allayed, and the subject, therefore, was
passed over in silence.
The other reason for the omission was, that if the questions had
been proposed to me, I should have been constrained to admit that
there were difficulties on the subject which I could not then solve.
In reference to these difficulties I made the following remarks in the
course of the Lecture on Miracles :
"I confess that of all the questions ever asked on the subject of
miracles, this is the most perplexing and the most difficult to answer.
It is rather to be wondered at that it has not been pressed with more
zeal by those who deny the reality of miracles, and that they have
placed their objections so extensively on other grounds. From the
fact that it is so seldom referred to by skeptics, it is manifest that it
does not strike them as it strikes me, and that they, from some cause,
are not disposed to use it as I would, if I had no faith in miracles ; and
perhaps it may savor more of apparent candor than of wise prudence
for a believer in the reality of miracles even to make the suggestion.
" The argument might be made very strong, and if there were time
to present it here, it might be done in such a manner that it might
seem, at least, to be impossible to meet and refute it."*
I might, indeed, have taken refuge from the difficulties adverted to
under the plea that on any subject questions may be asked which can
not, in the present state of human knowledge, and perhaps with the
limited capacities of the human mind, be answered ; that it is no cer
tain evidence of the falseness of an opinion, or the weakness of an ar
gument, that such questions can be asked ; and that if we were to
pause in our investigations of truth at the exact point where a question
might be asked which we could not answer, the range of our inquiries
would be narrowed down to the smallest conceivable dimensions. Such
an answer, however, would not have satisfied an inquirer, and the im
pression could scarcely have been avoided in such an answer that there
was a consciousness that there was something in the question which
could not be answered ; for while it would be admitted by all persons
qualified to judge in such inquiries that questions may be asked on any
subject which no one can answer, it must be admitted that questions
may be asked on most subjects which, if not answered, will be fatal to
an argument. In such a case as that before us, under such circum
stances, the inference would be likely to be drawn that this was one
of those subjects.
The argument on miracles, therefore, would not be complete if, after
having referred so often in the Lecture to this as constituting perhaps
the most important point in the evidences of Christianity in the nine-
* Page 101.
406 APPENDIX.
teenth century, and after having, perhaps, suggested doubts which
might not have occurred to others, I should allow the Lectures to go
forth in a volume, perhaps much beyond the circle of those who heard
them, without an attempt, at least, to solve the difficulty, though in
doing it I may have occasion on some points to avail myself of the
admission that there are difficulties which I can not solve, and that
questions may be asked on this subject, as on any other, which we
might be compelled to admit that we could not answer.
The point of difficulty, and the question to be solved, may be made
apparent by a few remarks :
(a) In a course of Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity in the
Nineteenth Century, it was impossible not to advert to the great chan
ges which have occurred in the opinions of the world on the subject of
the supernatural and the marvelous in the course of eighteen hundred
years in other words, to the progress of "Rationalism" in that long
period. The fact of such a change is apparent on the face of history,
and the progress of " nationalism" becomes a very important part of
history, alike in secular and sacred matters, for the principles of Ra
tionalism have been applied as fearlessly to Grecian records and to
Roman history as to the Bible. Eighteen hundred years ago there
were numerous subjects then supposed to pertain to the region of the
supernatural which are now well understood to be connected with the
operation of the regular laws of nature, as eclipses, meteors, comets,
storms, diseases ; and there were numerous other subjects then sup
posed to be connected with the supernatural, as divination, necroman
cy, witchcraft, and sorcery, which have been detached from the faith
of mankind, and which have taken their place with myths and legends.
So far as the facts in regard to this change of opinion are concerned,
and so far, in the main, as the causes of this change are concerned, the
history has been given to the world in our own time in a work of
great learning, with great attractiveness of style, and with a full ac
quaintance with the subject a work which leaves nothing in regard to
the history of this change to be desired.* It was impossible, in a
course of Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity in the Nineteenth
Century, not to advert to this history, and not to inquire into the bear
ing of this change in the sentiments of mankind on the evidences of
the miraculous and the supernatural in the Bible. The history of this
change I have, therefore, more than once adverted to. The fact of
the change can not be called in question ; its tendency, as relating to
the question of the evidences of revealed religion, is one of the most
important inquiries now before the Church and the world.
* History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe,
by W. E. H. Lecky, M.A., in 2 vols. N. York : D. Appleton and Co., 1866.
APPENDIX. 407
(6) The effect of this change, as related to the subjects discussed
in these Lectures, are such as the following :
1. A great number of things once regarded as matters of true his
tory are now reduced to the place of legends, myths, fables. One has
only to look into Grote s History of Greece, or into Niebuhr s History
of Home, or indeed into any history that professes to trace events in
the past to their origin, to see, if the expression may be allowed, as de
rived from the classic writings, that the "god Terminus" has removed
the point where authentic history commences very far within what was
once regarded as the true boundary, and that the intelligible and reli
able accounts of the affairs of the world have their beginning very far
within what was once regarded as the proper point from which to
reckon the progress of human affairs. It is a very natural inquiry
whether the same process of elimination may not properly be applied
to the Bible, as well as to the Egyptian, Persian, Greek, and Koman
histories.
2. Many things once regarded as supernatural and miraculous, as I
have more than once observed, have been reduced to the operation of
the regular and established laws of nature. Portents, wonders, com
ets, eclipses, meteors, diseases, have been taken out of the region of the
supernatural, and placed under the rules of natural science, and now
constitute subjects of regular instructions in the schools, instead of
being regarded with superstitious dread, or made subjects by which
one class of men can secure an ascendency over another, or by which
the errors and impositions of false religions, under the control of a
priesthood, can be kept up in the world. It is a fair question, and
one which this age is asking, whether the same principles of explana
tion can not be applied to all those cases recorded in the Bible which
have been commonly relied on as miracles.
3. The world has been disabused, so far as sound science has gone,
of its belief in divination, necromancy, demonology, witchcraft, sorcery,
and the region of the supernatural has been narrowed to an extent
which we can not well estimate by the withdrawal of these things from
the causes which affect the progress of human affairs and the destiny
of mankind. It is a question which we can not avoid in contemplat
ing this course of things, whether the wonders of the Bible can not be
reduced to the same class of events, and may not be explained as those
ancient wonders that exerted so much influence on mankind may now
be explained, and take their places with the things that derived their
influence from the fears, the credulity, and the superstitions of the
early ages of the world.
4. There has been a great change on the subject of faith in the
miracles in the early Christian Church subsequent to the time of the
408 APPENDIX.
apostles. If a disbelief in those miracles is not absolutely universal,
yet it may be said that it is rapidly becoming so, and that that result
is morally certain. For a long time the faith in those miracles was
undoubted, and, even among Protestants, the question was not whether
such miracles were actually wrought, but at what time they ceased.
So universal was the belief in those miracles, that even Mr. Locke con
sulted Sir Isaac Newton on the question, not whether such miracles
were wrought, but at what time they ceased. In one of the letters of
Sir Isaac Newton to Mr. Locke there is a somewhat hesitating passage
on this subject: "Miracles," says he, "of good credit continued in
the Church for about two or three hundred years. Gregorius Thau-
maturgus had his name from thence, and was one of the latest who
was eminent for that gift ; but of their number and frequence I am
not able to give you a just account. The history of those ages is very
imperfect." Brewster s Life of Newton, p. 275. The prevalent be
lief on this subject among the Christian "fathers," to which I may
have occasion to advert again, may be learned from St. Augustine,
the ablest and most clear-headed of those fathers, and a man of un
doubted piety. He solemnly asserts that in his own diocese of Hippo,
in the space of two years, no less than seventy miracles had been
wrought by the body of St. Stephen, and that in the neighboring prov
ince of Calama, where the relic had previously been, the number was
incomparably greater. He gives a catalogue of what he deems un
doubted miracles, which he says he had selected from a multitude so
great that volumes would be required to relate them all. In that cat
alogue there are no less than five cases of restoration from the dead.
De Civitat. Dei, lib. xxii., c. 8. See, also, Sermons of Augustine
(Serm. 286, 4) ; and his Confessions. B. ix., vii., p. 1C. Since the
time of Middleton, and his attack on the veracity of the fathers,* the
faith in these early miracles of the Christian Church has to a great
extent died away, and the question is an obvious one why the same
reasoning which has destroyed the faith of mankind in those miracles
should not also be applied to the miracles of the Bible ?
5. The belief in the reality of the Roman Catholic miracles, once so
universal in Europe, and made so extensively the basis in maintaining
that religion in those countries where it is established, and of extend
ing it among the heathen, has, in the more enlightened and scientific
portions of the world, almost wholly passed away. Of course, no such
faith is entertained by any of the Protestant nations. No such faith
is entertained by scientific men as such. To a great extent, also, there
* A Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers which are supposed to have
subsisted in the Christian Church from the Earliest Ages through several suc
cessive Centuries, by Conyers Middleton, D.D. London, 1740.
APPENDIX. 409
is a general incredulity on the subject among the most intelligent and
scientific of the Roman Catholics themselves. On this point, Mr.
Lecky, in remarking on the former belief in the supernatural in Eu
rope, makes the following remarks : " All this has now passed away.
It has passed away, not only in lands where Protestantism is triumph
ant, but also in those where the Roman Catholic faith is still acknowl
edged, and where the medieval saints are still venerated. St. Janu-
arius, it is true, continues to liquefy at Naples, and the pastorals of
French bishops occasionally relate apparitions of the Virgin among
very ignorant and superstitious peasants ; but the implicit, indiscrim-
inating acquiescence with which such narratives were once received
has long since been replaced by a derisive incredulity. Those who
know the tone that is habitually adopted on these subjects by the con
verted in Roman Catholic countries will admit that, so far from being
a subject of triumphant exultation, the very few modern miracles
which are related are every where regarded as a scandal, a stumbling-
block, and a difficulty. Most educated persons speak of them with
undisguised scorn and incredulity ; some attempt to evade or explain
them away by a natural hypothesis ; a very few faintly and apologet
ically defend them. Nor can it be said that what is manifested is
merely a desire for a more minute and accurate examination of the
evidence by which they are supported. On the contrary, it will, I
think, be admitted that these alleged miracles are commonly rejected
with an assurance that is as peremptory and unreasoning as that with
which they would have been once received. Nothing can be more rare
than a serious examination, by those who disbelieve them, of the testi
mony on which they rest. They are repudiated, not because they are
unsupported, but because they are miraculous. Men are prepared to
admit almost any conceivable occurrence of natural improbabilities
rather than resort to the hypothesis of supernatural interferences ; and
this spirit is exhibited not merely by open skeptics, but by men who
are sincere, though perhaps not very fervent believers in their church."
History of Rationalism, vol. i., p. 159, 160.
The general result of this state of things, or the prevalent feeling on
the subject, may be stated in the words of Lecky : " If we put aside
the clergy, and those who are most immediately under their influence,
we find that this habit of mind is the invariable concomitant of educa
tion, and is the especial characteristic of those persons whose intellect
ual sympathies are most extended, and who therefore represent most
faithfully the various intellectual influences of their time." " All his
tory shows that, in exact proportion as nations advance in civilization,
the accounts of miracles taking place among them become rarer and
rarer, until at last they entirely cease." "The plain fact is, that the
s
410 APPENDIX.
progress of civilization produces invariably a certain tone and habit of
thought which makes men recoil from miraculous narratives with an
instinctive and immediate repugnance, as though they were essentially
incredible, independently of any definite arguments, and in spite of
dogmatic teaching." Ibid, p. 161, 162. To what this change may
tend may be illustrated by a remark of the Rev. Frederick Temple,
D.D., Head-master of Rugby School, in a sermon before the Univer
sity of Oxford on "The present relations of Science to religion" a
remark that may, without impropriety, be regarded as expressing the
sentiments or the fears of many in the Church. He says, " The stu
dent of science is learning to look upon fixed laws as universal, and
many of the old arguments which science once supplied to religion are
in consequence rapidly disappearing. How strikingly altered is our
view from that of a few centuries ago is shown by the fact that the
miracles recorded in the Bible, which once were looked on as the bul
warks of the faith, are now felt by very many to be difficulties in their
way ; and commentators endeavor to represent them, not as mere in
terferences with the laws of nature, but as the natural action of still
higher laws belonging to a world whose phenomena are only half re
vealed to us. It is evident that this change in science necessitates a
change in its relation to faith. If law be either almost or altogether
universal, we must look for the finger of God in that law we must ex
pect to find him manifesting his love, his wisdom, his infinity, not in
individual acts of will, but in a perfection of legislation rendering all
individual action needless ; we must find his providence in that perfect
adaptation of all the parts of the machine to one another which shall
have the effect of tender care, though it proceed by an invariable ac
tion." Recent Inquiries in Theology, p. 489.
The great question now, as I stated in the Lecture on Miracles the
great question of our age in regard to religion, and not less important
in regard to science, is, How far this skepticism is to extend? What
is its proper limit ? Is the principle to become so universal as to in
clude all the facts claiming to be of a supernatural nature which have
actually occurred, or which will occur in our world? Is it to embrace
the whole region of the miraculous and the supernatural, so as to ex
clude the idea of any direct agency on the part of God, any phenom
ena any changes the antecedents in which are only the divine will
and the divine power ? So it is maintained by Rationalists ; such, too,
is the practical belief of many men whose lives are devoted to sci
ence.
The progress of things, the influences of civilization, the discoveries
of science in regard to physical laws, have "exorcised" the world, if
the expression may be allowed, in regard to sorcery, witchcraft, magic,
APPENDIX. 411
necromancy, portents and wonders in eclipses, storms, and earth
quakes ; are these to "exorcise" the world in regard to mesmerism,
spiritualism, spirit-rapping, and table-moving; and are they also to
"exorcise" it in regard to the belief that Joshua caused the sun to
"stand still upon Gibeon,"and the moon "in the valley of Ajalon;"
to the stilling of the tempest on the Sea of Tiberias ; to the healing of
the lame man at the pool of Bethesda ; to the opening of the eyes of
Bartimeus ; to the raising of Lazarus from the grave, and to the res
urrection of the Redeemer himself?
The material inquiry is, What stronger historical evidence is there
of the truth of the miracles of the Bible than of the alleged facts re
specting witchcraft, sorcery, divination, and necromancy ; the alleged
marvels in the early history of the world as the prodigies which, ac
cording to Livy, attended the founding of Rome ; the alleged miracles
in the Christian Church after the death of the apostles ; and the al
leged miracles of the mediaeval ages, and of the Catholic Church in
modern times ? May not the same process of explanation by which
the world has been disabused of faith in these things be legitimately
applied to the Bible ? Skeptics and Rationalists claim that it may be
so, and should be so ; the existence of the Christian religion in the
world depends on making out the contrary.
The proper points of inquiry, therefore, in the solution of the ques
tion would be,
I. The causes which have led to the change in the opinions of the
world in regard to the marvelous ; and,
II. The question whether the miracles of the Bible can not be ex
plained in the same manner, and whether they may not also take their
place with the illusions and deceptions of former ages.
These inquiries manifestly cover the whole ground.
I. The causes which have led to these changes in the opinions of
the world in regard to the marvelous.
Those causes are now well understood, and may be referred to in
few words.
(1.) The reduction of events which were supposed to be supernatu
ral to the operation of natural laws. In this solution the facts are, of
course, admitted, and the effects produced by those facts on the minds
of men are admitted also. The explanation is sought in laws that are
now well understood, and that imply nothing that is supernatural.
Thus, as I have before remarked, eclipses, comets, meteors, that were
regarded as marvelous and supernatural in the early periods of the
world, indicating by their appearing the pleasure or the displeasure,
the favor or the wrath of the gods, or heralding important events, are
now reduced to laws that are as regular and as well understood as the
412 APPENDIX.
ordinary laws of nature, and excite no more alarm or apprehension
than the rising or the setting of the sun and the stars.
Very many things are thus withdrawn from the region of the mar
velous, and now take their places in the ordinary course of events.
The world no longer believes that the harvest-fields are under the con
trol of Ceres ; that Neptune rules on the sea ; that ^Eolus controls the
winds ; that Dryads and Fawns preside in the groves ; or that the
healing properties of medicine are to be traced to the god JEsculapius
and the woods, and the groves, and the lakes are deserted ; the
temples of Ceres, and Neptune, and Bacchus, and JEsculapius are
no longer crowded by worshipers, and more substantial and perma
nent honors are rendered to scientific men who have discovered the
laws by which the phenomena are explained than were rendered to
the imaginary divinities.
Science, then, just in proportion as it has made progress in the
world, has contributed to this change of opinion ; has relieved the
world of the fears attendant on superstition ; and has contributed, if
not always to the introduction and establishment of true religion, at
least to the removal of superstition and idolatry. The mythology of
Greece can never be restored ; the Parthenon can never be rebuilt ;
the Pantheon can never be again a temple for heathen gods and hea
then worship.
(2.) The progress of civilization may be referred to as a second
cause of this change. This, indeed, would include, in some measure,
that which has above been adverted to, the progress of science, for
that enters, of course, largely into the progress of civilization. The
point to be now adverted to is that which has been dwelt upon so much
by Lecky, and which springs from the nature of the case, that, up to
a certain period at least, in proportion as society advances in civiliza
tion, the belief in the marvelous disappears, and that the very progress
of civilization tends to prepare the minds of men to disbelieve in the
supernatural altogether, or leads to Rationalism to Rationalism in a
proper use of that word; to "Rationalism," in fact, in the sense in
which that word is commonly employed.
And yet, with all the concessions which should be made on that
point, it would be a fair inquiry how far the mere progress of civiliza
tion would in fact conduct the human mind, or what, in this respect,
would be its legitimate influence on the world. It could not fail to be
noticed in such an inquiry that mere civilization has never destroyed
the love of the marvelous and the belief in the supernatural ; that the
belief of the marvelous and the supernatural prevailed under the high
est forms of civilization in Greece and Rome ; that it prevails in the
most civilized nations of the world at this day ; and that, if one form of
APPENDIX. 413
belief in the supernatural is banished to any extent from the minds of
men by an advanced civilization, another form may take its place not
more reconcilable with the sober and chastened laws of science. It
can not be forgotten that in this age an age which we regard as more
civilized than any past period, certainly as more civilized than the
ages in which a belief in necromancy, divination, and witchcraft pre
vailed, and, in the apprehension of many in this age, more civilized
and advanced than the ages when there was a general faith in mira
cles, there is a wide-spread belief in mesmerism, in spirit-rapping, in
table-turning, and in "spiritualism" in actual converse with, and
communication with, the spirits of departed men, and that this belief
is by no means confined to those who lay no claims to a refined civil
ization, or who are of the most humble walks of life. Scientific men ;
literary men of no mean name judges, physicians, lawyers, and "phi
losophers," are found in the class of those who believe in these marvels ;
and perhaps the very home of this faith may be found in the most en
lightened cities of our own country, in the very vicinity of the most
celebrated seats of learning, or in the most refined walks of life.* Yet,
while these things are so, it can not be doubted that the advancing
civilization of the world has had an important influence in narrowing
the circle of the supernatural and the marvelous, nor that there is a
tendency in such civilization to suggest the inquiry whether a perfect
civilization would not remove all traces of the miraculous and the
marvelous from the world.
(3.) In connection with this, it is to be observed that there has been
a course of events in the world that has tended to disabuse mankind
of unfounded claims to a favored and peculiar acquaintance with the
secrets of nature, to a compact with powerful spiritual beings, to inter
course with the spirits of the departed, and to the special favor of God
bestowed on those who were supposed to be remarkable for their piety
the "saints," and this fact has silently and imperceptibly operated
to lead men to doubt the reality of any direct divine interposition in
human affairs.
(a) The change in the world on the subject of witchcraft has tended
to produce this. Formerly the belief in witchcraft was not less uni
versal than the belief in miracles, and the belief was sustained by what
* It can not be improper to refer to the fact that the inventor of the com
pound blow-pipe in chemistry was a firm believer in mesmerism, spiritual
ism, spirit-rapping, and table-turning, and that he employed no small part of
the leisure which he enjoyed in his later years in lecturing on these subjects ;
in endeavoring to give a scientific form to these disclosures ; and in the me
chanical effort to construct a machine, with an appropriate dial, by which the
presence of the supernatural agency could be indicated somewhat on the
principle of the magnetic telegraph.
414 APPENDIX.
was regarded as the highest possible evidence. Faith in that has, to
a great extent, passed away, and the question which men now ask is
whether the belief in miracles is any better sustained.
(6) The belief in magic was once as universal as the belief in mira
cles, and the facts were supposed to be sustained by irrefragable evi
dence. That belief has also passed away. It has been removed
partly by the application of science to the real explanation of the
facts, and partly by the knowledge that the alleged facts were merely
the results of cunning and imposture, and men, in like manner, ask
the question whether the same solution is not to be applied to the
whole subject of miracles.
(c) Faith in necromancy, sorcery, and divination has passed away.
The world has come to believe that all the facts that were connected
with such claims are to be traced to a hallucination of the mind, or to
well-executed imposture, and they ask whether the same solution may
not be applied to all pretended miracles.
(d) The faith of the world in regard to the reappearance of the
dead, and to the visitation of the gods to earth, has passed away, and
men have learned to ask whether the same result is not to follow in
regard to all the divine manifestations to our world, and to the alleged
resurrection of Lazarus and of Christ.
(e) The belief in the early miracles of the Christian Church subse
quently to the time of the apostles has passed away, and men have
learned to ask significantly what should make a difference between
those miracles and the miracles of the New Testament.
( f) Faith in the miracles of the Roman Catholic Church exists
nowhere outside of that communion, and to a very limited extent,
apart from the priesthood, within, and the world is beginning to ask
why the miracles of the Bible should not share the same fate.
Those who defend the miracles of the Bible, it is said, admit the
fact that the pretended miracles of the Egyptians in the time of
Moses were false ; that the miracles of the early Christian Church
were false ; that the miracles of the Catholic Church are false that,
in fact, men have often been imposed upon in the belief of such won
ders, and they ask why should not the principles which they apply so
unsparingly to these pretended wonders be applied to all claims of
miraculous powers.
(#) There has been, at the same time, a vast decline of priestly
power and influence tending to the same result. The world has come
to believe that alike among the heathen, and in the early Christian
Church, and in the Roman Catholic communion, the belief in mira
cles has been kept up, in a good measure, by the influence and the
arts of the priesthood. Outside of the Catholic Church that belief is
APPENDIX. 415
now universal in regard to the pretended miracles in that Church, and
the belief that the credit of the miracles in the early Church was to
be traced to priestly power has become nearly universal.
Priestly power, as such, is fast dying away in the world alike
among the heathen, in the Roman Catholic portion of the world, in
the Greek Church, and in the Protestant world. In proportion as
science advances, and the world becomes acquainted with the arts
which have so often characterized the priesthood of all religions, the
mere power of a priesthood as such dies away. The power of influ
encing men by forms and ceremonies ; by processions and benedic
tions ; by splendid vestments and pomp ; by the belief that truth
flows only from the lips of an anointed priesthood and grace from their
hands, dies out among men, and they are led to ask, since so much of
religion has undeniably owed its power to the unfounded claims of a
priesthood, whether the whole of it can not be resolved into such a
belief.
It may be true, indeed, that the real influence of ministers of relig
ion is advancing in other forms, and is keeping pace with the progress
of the world, but it is not as priests, or in virtue of any supposed he
reditary holiness, or of any superiority over other men as intrusted
with the power of pardoning sin, or communicating grace, or deliver
ing dogmas to mankind to be received on their authority, but it is as
men who are abreast of their age in intelligence, as entitled to confi
dence from their moral worth, and to respect for their learning.
There is a foundation in the human heart for respect and honor
toward the ministers of religion when they rely for their influence on
these things ; all other respect for them is fast dying away, and with
the decline of that profound reverence for a priesthood that character
izes this age as distinguished from former ages, there has been a cor
responding decline on the Avhole subject of faith in the supernatural
and the marvelous. Men refuse to embrace doctrines and dogmas in
religion on different grounds from those on which they embrace truth
on other subjects, not by a reference to miracles, and signs, and won
ders, but as founded on reason, and as commending itself to their
sober sense of what is right and true.
Perhaps the present state of the world on this subject, as indica
ting an existing state of mind, can not be better described than in the
following passage from the writer to whom I have so often referred :
"Generation after generation the province of the miraculous has
contracted, and the circle of skepticism has expanded. Of the two
great divisions of these events, one has completely perished. Witch
craft, and diabolical possession, and diabolical disease have long since
passed into the region of fables. To disbelieve them was at first the
416 APPENDIX.
eccentricity of a few isolated thinkers ; it was then the distinction of
the educated classes in the most advanced nations ; it is now the com
mon sentiment of all classes in all countries in Europe. The count
less miracles that were once associated with every holy relic and with
every village shrine have rapidly and silently disappeared. Year by
year the incredulity became more manifest, even when the theological
profession was unchanged. Their numbers continually lessened, until
they at last almost ceased, and any attempt to revive them has been
treated with a general and undisguised contempt. The miracles of
the fathers are passed over with an incredulous scorn or with a sig
nificant silence. The rationalistic spirit has even attempted to ex
plain away those Avhich are recorded in Scripture, and it has materi
ally altered their position in the systems of theology. In all countries,
in all churches, in all parties, among men of every variety of character
and opinion, we have found the tendency existing. In each nation
its development has been a measure of intellectual activity, and has
passed in regular course through the different strata of society. Dur
ing the last century it has advanced with a vastly accelerated rapidity ;
the old lines of demarkation have been every where obscured, and the
spirit of Rationalism has become the great centre to which the intel
lect of Europe is manifestly tending. If we trace the progress of the
movement from its origin to the present day, we find that it has com
pletely altered the whole aspect and complexion of religion. When it
began, Christianity was regarded as a system entirely beyond the
range and scope of human reason ; it was impious to question ; it was
impious to examine ; it was impious to discriminate. On the other
hand, it was visibly instinct with the supernatural. Miracles of every
order and degree of magnitude were flashing forth incessantly from all
its parts. They excited no skepticism and no surprise. The miracu
lous element pervaded all literature, explained all difficulties, conse
crated all doctrines. Every unusual phenomenon was immediately
referred to a supernatural agency, not because there was a passion for
the improbable, but because such an explanation seemed far more
simple and easy of belief than the obscure theories of science.
"In the present day, Christianity is regarded as a system which
courts the strictest investigation, and which, among many other func
tions, was designed to vivify and stimulate all the energies of man.
The idea of the miraculous, which a superficial observer might have
once deemed its most prominent characteristic, has been driven from
almost all its intrenchments, and now quivers faintly and feebly
through the mists of eighteen hundred years. *
II. Such, then, being the facts in regard to the change of belief in
* Lecky, History of Rationalism, vol. i., p. 104, 105.
APPENDIX. 41-7
the world on the subject of the marvelous and the supernatural, and
such being the causes by which this change is to be explained, the
inquiry meets us whether the miracles of the Bible can not be ex
plained in the same manner, and whether they may not in like man
ner take their place with the illusions and deceptions of former ages.
It is clear that if they can thus be explained, and if there is no stron
ger historical evidence in their favor than could be adduced for those
things which have been referred to, they will soon, in the estimation
of mankind, take the same place, and faith in the supernatural will
wholly cease among men. Whether they can thus be explained is the
point now to be considered. If they can not thus be explained, then
the evidence commonly relied on for their support will be unaffected
by the changes which have occurred on other subjects, and will remain
in all the force attached to undisputed evidence on other well-attested
historical facts in the past.
(1.) The miracles of the Bible can not be explained by the opera
tion of natural laws, or, in other words, can not be brought within the
range of natural laws. I mean by this, that, if the facts are admitted,
there are no powers of nature known to man that would explain or ac
count for them ; that is, they could not be arranged and classified
under any of the natural sciences. If Lazarus was raised from the
grave ; if Christ rose from the dead ; if the blind were restored to
sight by a word or a touch, there are no laws of science chemistry,
natural philosophy, galvanism, electricity, or magnetism to which such
facts can be shown to belong ; there is no power in connection with
those sciences to produce such effects now ; there are no principles
suggested by those sciences which will explain them.
On this point I made the following remarks in the Lecture on Mira
cles, which it seems necessary to repeat here, in order that a connect
ed view may be taken of the subject :
Science has not advanced so far as to explain the miracles of the
New Testament on any known principles, as it has in these matters,
nor has it made any approximation to it. Nay, just so far as it has
gone it has demonstrated that those miracles can not be explained on
any principles known, or likely to be known, to science gravitation,
attraction, repulsion, electricity, galvanism, or the healing properties
of vegetables or minerals. The chemist does not open the eyes of the
blind by a touch ; he does not heal the sick by a word ; he does not
raise the dead by the blow-pipe or by galvanism. In the language of
Mr. Mansel, "The advance of physical science tends to strengthen
rather than to weaken our conviction of the supernatural character of
the Christian miracles. In whatever proportion our knowledge of
physical causation is limited, and the number of unknown natural
S2
418 APPENDIX.
agents comparatively large, in the same proportion is the probability
that some of these unknown causes, acting in some unknown manner,
may have given rise to the alleged marvels. But this probability di
minishes when each newly-discovered agent, as its properties become
known, is shown to be inadequate to the production of the supposed
effects, and as the residue of unknown causes, which might produce
them, becomes smaller and smaller. We are told, indeed, that the
* inevitable progress of research must, within a longer or shorter pe
riod, unravel all that seems most marvelous ; * but we may be permit
ted to doubt the relevancy of the remark to the present case, until it
has been shown that the advance of science has in some degree en
abled men to perform the miracles performed by Christ. When the
inevitable progress of research shall have enabled men of modern times
to give sight to the blind with a touch, to still tempests with a word,
to raise the dead to life, to die themselves, and to rise again, we may
allow that the same causes might possibly have been called into opera
tion ten thousand years earlier by some great man in advance of his
age. But, until this is done, the unraveling of the marvelous in other
phenomena only serves to leave these works in their solitary grandeur,
as wrought by the finger of God, unapproached and unapproachable
by all the knowledge and all the power of man. The appearance of a
comet or the fall of an aerolite may be reduced by the advance of sci
ence from a supposed supernatural to a natural occurrence, and this
reduction furnishes a reasonable presumption that other phenomena
of a like character will in time meet with a like explanation. But the
reverse is the case with respect to those phenomena which are narrated
as produced by personal agency. In proportion as the science of to
day surpasses that of former generations, so is the improbability that
any man could have done in past times, by natural means, works which
no skill of the present age is able to imitate, "f
In addition to these observations, I would now, for the farther illus
tration of the subject, make the following remarks :
(a) If the miracles of the New Testament were in themselves sus
ceptible of explanation in this manner, it is plain that the authors of
the Bible, or those who wrought the miracles, were not, in fact, so far
in advance of their own age, or that they had no such knowledge of
scientific principles of the laws of nature as to enable them to make
use of this knowledge in working the alleged miracles. There were
events in the Middle Ages, in connection with " magic," which seemed
to the masses of men to be miracles ; which surpassed all their power
of producing or comprehending them ; and which conveyed, design
edly or undesignedly, to the multitudes the impression that those who
* Essays and Reviews, p. 109. t Aids to Faith, p. 21, 22.
APPENDIX. 419
wrought them were in league with higher intelligences, or were en
dowed with supernatural powers. Those events are now susceptible
of an easy and natural explanation, as has been shown amply by Sir
David Brewster in his work on "Magic." Roger Bacon, for exam
ple, was so far in advance of his age in the sciences, that, on the
ground of this, he might readily have obtained a reputation for being
able to work miracles ; and if we were to suppose that Roger Bacon,
or any of his contemporaries, had the knowledge which is now pos
sessed by those skilled in chemistry ; or could have exhibited the won
derful and sudden transformations of matter now exhibited in the la
boratory of the chemist ; or that they had the power of multiplying
copies of books, with the strictest exactness, almost in an instant ; or
that they could have multiplied accurate impressions of the human
countenance, or of hills, and vales, and trees, and animals, by the ac
tion of light ; or that they could have transmitted thought and lan
guage in a moment over hills and vales, across rivers and along the
beds of oceans, it would have been easy for such men to have estab
lished the reputation of being workers of miracles. But, apart from
all other considerations, now, the authors of the Bible had no such
pretensions to knowledge in advance of their age. They were not in a
land distinguished for science. They had received no scientific edu
cation. They had, so far as appears, no scientific genius. They had
nothing which constitutes the "apparatus" of science now. All ac
counts agree in the fact that they were plain, unlettered men ; nor does
any thing which they ever said, or wrote, or did, indicate that they
had any acquaintance whatever with even the very lowest rudiments
of scientific knowledge.
(6) The principles of science can not be so applied as to explain the
miracles of the New Testament. Science makes no approximation to
an explanation.
This remark is especially true in regard to the resurrection of the
dead, and is of special importance, because a single case of resto
ration to life settles the whole question. If Lazarus was raised
from the dead, the Christian religion is from God. Science has
settled the principle so that it is now an admitted axiom among
all scientific men that the production of life is beyond the power
of mere science. Whatever life may be, and whether it will ever
be true that men will be able to explain and define what it is, it is
reduced to a certainty that men, by the application of scientific prin
ciples, can not produce it. No approximation has been made to the
power of causing it to exist where there has not been a germ or an
ovum, or where it does not already exist, though suspended. Animal
cules that seemed to have been dead for ages, and that may be dried
420 APPENDIX.
and pounded, may be made to revive by the application of moisture ;
a grain of wheat that may have been hidden in the folds of an Egyp
tian mummy for three thousand years may be made to grow, but no
power of man can originate life ; none can cause it to exist again when
it has become extinct. Until that is done, it may be regarded as
settled that the miracles of the New Testament can not be explained
by the application of the principles of science. If such a thing is
claimed as possible, we may at least demand that the same thing
should be donfrnow by scientific men ; for assuredly it can not be pre
tended that in true scientific knowledge the apostles were superior to
the scientific men of this generation. If, therefore, it could be shown,
as Eenan supposed, that the healing of Peter s wife s mother could be
explained by some power of mesmerism, yet we have a right, in order
to set aside the evidence for the miracles of the New Testament, to de
mand that there shall be some unmistakable act of raising up the dead
where there is no doubt of the death as in the case of Lazarus and
the Savior ; and, to make the argument complete, that it shall be done
by a word by some command which the scientific man has over the
dead, and the grave, and the invisible world. As it is certain that
men have never done this, and as it is certain that the scientific men
of this age, or of future ages, will not even attempt this, it may be re
garded as settled that the miracles of the New Testament can not be
explained by the application of any principles of science, or can not
be brought under the range of natural laws.
(2.) The miracles of the Bible can not be disposed of in the way in
which the belief in witchcraft, necromancy, and sorcery has been.
The explanation which has been applied to these things, and which
has so entirely modified or revolutionized the faith of mankind on
these subjects, can not be applied to the miracles of the Bible. In
other words, we can not take the explanations ; the course of reason
ing ; the changes produced by civilization, and the results of calm and
sober thinking on these subjects, by which so material a change has
been produced in the faith of mankind in regard to these matters, and
by the application of the same process reach the same results in re
spect to the miracles of the Bible.
This is a very material point in the argument ; for if the reasoning
which has changed the faith of the world in regard to the marvelous
and the supernatural on these subjects is of sufficient force to change
the faith of the world in all that is supernatural, including the mira
cles of the Bible as well as other things, then it is manifest that faith
in miracles will soon occupy the same place as faith in witchcraft, and
necromancy, and sorcery ; and as it is now certain that the faith in
witchcraft, necromancy, and sorcery which was once held in the world
APPENDIX. 421
can not be restored in the present state of civilization, and still less
under the advanced civilization to which the world is tending, so, if
the arguments and explanations which have banished the belief in
witchcraft from the world can be legitimately applied to the miracles
of the Bible, it will follow that the world is tending rapidly and inev
itably to the highest point of Kationalism, where all faith in the super
natural and the marvelous shall cease among men. That this result
is desired by many there can be no doubt ; that it is secretly believed
by many that it will be so there can be as little doubt ; and that the
tendency of the statements on the causes which have led to the chan
ges in the opinions of the world on these subjects, as they are found in
the histories of Rationalism, is to lead to the apprehension that this
will be so, there can be as little doubt. No man can rise up from a
history of Rationalism, and of the changes which have occurred in re
gard to the belief of mankind in the marvelous, without asking the
question whether the legitimate result of all this is not to remove all
faith in the marvelous and the supernatural from the minds of men.
What, then, is witchcraft? What is sorcery, divination, necro
mancy ? By what means has the faith of mankind in these things
been shaken ? Are the same processes of unbelief applicable to the
miracles of the Bible ?
Witchcraft, divination, sorcery, necromancy, though they differ spe
cifically from each other, yet so far partake of the same general na
ture that they can be grouped together, and they so far resemble each
other, and so far depend on the same things, that the same explana
tion in regard to their origin, their prevalence, and their removal from
the faith of mankind will be found applicable to them all. It would
be impossible that one should retain its hold on the faith of mankind
if all the others, or any of the others, should be proved to be a delusion
and an imposture. The question is whether the miracles of the Bible
will share the same destiny.
I have stated the difficulty on this subject in the Lecture on Mira
cles (p. 161-165), and perhaps so stated it as to have led to the in
quiry perhaps a painful inquiry on the minds of some, whether all
that is said there might not also be said about miracles. As there
can be no desire of concealment in a candid inquiry after truth on
any subject, and as it is important to have the difficulty fairly before
the mind, I shall copy here what was said on the subject in the Lec
ture.
A more material and important question still is, Whether there is
any stronger evidence in favor of miracles than there is in favor of
witchcraft, of sorcery, of the reappearance of the dead, of ghosts, of
apparitions ? Is not the evidence in favor of these as strong as any
422 APPENDIX.
that can be adduced in favor of miracles? Have not these things
been matters of universal belief? In what respects is the evidence in
favor of the miracles of the Bible stronger than that which can be ad
duced in favor of witchcraft and sorcery ? Does it differ in nature
and in degree ; and if it differs, is it not in favor of witchcraft and
sorcery ? Has not the evidence in favor of the latter been derived
from as competent and credible witnesses ? Has it not been brought
to us from those who saw the facts alleged ? Has it not been subject
ed to a close scrutiny in courts of justice to cross-examinations to
tortures ? Has It not convinced those of highest legal attainments ;
those accustomed to sift testimony ; those who understood the true
principles of evidence ? Has not the evidence in favor of witchcraft
and sorcery had, what the evidence in favor of miracles has not had,
the advantage of strict judicial investigation, and been subjected to
trial, where evidence should be, before courts of law ? Have not the
most eminent judges in the most civilized and enlightened courts of
Europe and America admitted the force of such evidence, and on the
ground of it committed great numbers of innocent persons to the gal
lows or to the stake ?
An extract or two from Lecky, in his History of Eationalism in
Europe, will show the nature of the difficulty and the force of the ob
jection, though the remarks made by him are in no way designed to
support the cause of infidelity: "Eor more than fifteen hundred
years it was universally believed that the Bible established, in the
clearest manner, the reality of the crime [of witchcraft], and that an
amount of evidence, so varied and so ample as to preclude the very
possibility of doubt, attested its continuance and its prevalence. The
clergy denounced it with all the emphasis of authority. The legisla
tors of almost every land enacted laws for its punishment. Acute
judges, whose lives were spent in sifting evidence, investigated the
question on countless occasions, and condemned the accused. Tens
of thousands of victims perished by the most agonizing and protracted
torments without exciting the faintest compassion. Nations that
were completely separated by position, by interests, and by character,
on this one question were united. In almost every province of Ger
many, but especially in those where clerical influence predominated,
the persecution raged with fearful intensity. Seven thousand victims
are said to have been burned at Treves, six hundred by the single
Bishop of Bamberg, and eight hundred in a single year in the bishop
ric of Wurtzburg. In France, decrees were passed on the subject by
the Parliament of Paris, Toulouse, Bordeaux, liheims, Kouen, Dijon,
and Rennes, and they were all followed by a harvest of blood. At
Toulouse, the seat of the Inquisition, four hundred persons perished
APPENDIX. 423
for sorcery at a single execution, and fifty at Douay in a single year.
Remy, a judge of Nancy, boasted that he had put to death eight hund
red witches in sixteen years. The executions that took place at Paris
in a few months were, in the emphatic words of an old writer, almost
infinite. The fugitives who escaped to Spain were there seized and
burned by the Inquisition. In Italy a thousand persons were execut
ed in a single year in the province of Como ; in the other parts of the
country the severity of the inquisitors at last created an absolute re
bellion. In Geneva five hundred alleged witches were executed in
three months ; forty-eight were burned at Constance or Ravensburg,
and eighty in the little town of Valery, in Savoy. The Church of
Rome proclaimed in every way that was in her power the reality and
the continued existence of the crime. "
The writer from whom I have made this extract adds: "It is, I
think, difficult to examine the subject with impartiality, without com
ing to the conclusion that the historical evidence establishing the real
ity of witchcraft is so vast and so varied that it is impossible to disbe
lieve it without what on other subjects we should deem the most ex
traordinary rashness. The defenders of the belief, who were often
men of great and distinguished talent, maintained that there was no
fact in all history more fully attested, and that to reject it would be to
strike at the root of all historical evidence of the miraculous. The
subject was examined in tens of thousands of cases, in almost every
country of Europe, by tribunals which included the acutest lawyers
and ecclesiastics of the age on the scene at the time when the alleged
facts had taken place, and with the assistance of innumerable sworn
witnesses. The judges had no motive whatever to desire the con
demnation of the accused ; and as conviction would be followed by
a fearful death, they had the strongest motives to exercise their pow
er with caution and deliberation. In our day it may be said with
confidence that it would be altogether impossible for such an amount
of evidence to accumulate round a conception which had no basis in
fact. If we considered witchcraft probable,- a hundredth part of the
evidence we possess would have placed it beyond the region of doubt.
If it were a natural, but a very improbable fact, our reluctance to
believe it would have been completely stifled by the multiplicity of
the proofs."*
In reference to this point, I now submit the following remarks :
(a) Witchcraft, sorcery, divination, necromancy, all depend essen
tially on one idea the idea of a compact with created spirits ; not
with God. The idea is always that of a compact, of an understand
ing, or of an alliance for certain purposes, and the accomplishing of
* See Lefky, History of Rationalism iu Europe, vol. i., p. 28, 34, 30, 87, 38, 39.
424 APPENDIX.
certain things to which the unaided human powers are inadequate,
but which may be quite within the range of the power of such invisi
ble beings. Thus, in necromancy, the foundation of all that is im
plied in it is a desire that desire so natural to man to penetrate the
future. The knowledge necessary for this purpose is not in the power
of the most gifted man among the living,* but it is supposed that it
must be in the possession of the dead of those who now reside in the
invisible world, and that a compact may be made with them by which
that knowledge may be imparted to those who are parties in the agree
ment. Thus, also, in divination, the idea is essentially the same. It
is defined by Webster to be "a foretelling of future events, or discov
ering things secret or obscure, by the aid of superior beings, or by oth
er than human means." "The ancient heathen philosophers," says
he, " divided divination into two kinds, natural and artificial. Natu
ral divination was supposed to be effected by a kind of inspiration or
divine afflatus ; artificial divination was effected by certain rites, ex
periments, or obsservations, as by sacrifices, cakes, flour, wine, "etc.
The main idea was, that there was some aid derived from spirits supe
rior to man with whom this knowledge was, and from whom it could
be obtained by favored persons by compact, or by the performance of
certain rites of homage or honor rendered to them.
The same idea was at the foundation of all that there was in witch
craft a subject in its bearing on the matter before us of much more
importance than either necromancy, divination, or sorcery. Few per
sons, Rationalists or skeptics, would now refer either to necromancy,
divination, or sorcery as having any evidence in their favor which
would seriously affect the evidence in regard to miraculous events ;
the subject of Avitchcraft, however, as we have seen, does materially
affect the whole question of evidence, and particularly the evidence in
regard to supernatural events, since the proof of witchcraft was
brought before courts sitting in judgment on the very cases ; since
that proof was so thoroughly examined by men learned in the law, and
accustomed to sift evidence ; since the alleged facts were supposed to
be established by incontrovertible evidence ; since such trials involved
the question of life or death ; and since so many innocent persons
were actually put to death on the ground of such evidence.
A witch is defined by Webster to be " a woman who, by compact
with the devil, practices sorcery or enchantment." The essential idea
always is that of a compact or agreement with the devil, or with evil
spirits, by whose aid things are done which are beyond the natural
power of those who practiced witchcraft, or which could not be pro-
* For an illustration of this thought I may be permitted to refer to the Lec
ture on Prophecy Lecture VI.
APPENDIX. 425
duced by natural laws, and in which the acts, therefore, are, so far,
miraculous or supernatural. Witchcraft, however, is NEVER associ
ated with the idea of divine help or divine power. It never implies a
compact with God. It is never supposed that what is done is done by
his power. It is always something within the range of beings inferior
to God, but superior to man. It is, in this respect, wholly distin
guished from the idea of a miracle properly so called, where, as we
have seen, the idea is that of an event where the only antecedent is
the will and power of God.
The following things, therefore, enter into the idea of witchcraft,
and in getting rid of witchcraft by the process of Rationalism, the
world has delivered itself from these, and these only: (1.) There is a
compact with some spirit or spirits inferior to God, but superior to
man. (2.) The spirit with which the compact is made is always a
bad, or an evil spirit as we never associate the idea of witchcraft
with a good " demon," or with a holy angel. (3.) The person who is
supposed to make the compact, or who is competent to enter into it,
is commonly believed to be a woman, and usually an old woman. If
there has been a belief in wizards, it has been rare, and the common
idea in such a case is merely that of a juggler, a conjuror, or an en
chanter. (4.) The matter which pertains to witchcraft is usually some
trifling matter; some petty annoyance ; some small injury done to prop
erty ; some disease brought upon cattle ; rarely, if ever, any thing that
terminates in death. It never has respect to a work of beneficence or
mercy ; never is employed in healing diseases ; never is alleged to be
sufficient to give sight to the blind ; never lays claim to the power of
raising the dead. In these respects, also, it is distinguished by broad
lines of demarkation from all proper ideas of a miracle.
() The alleged facts in witchcraft were usually such as could, and
did occur, under the operation of natural causes. All the injuries
done ; all the diseases inflicted ; all the annoyances employed ; all the
calamities that fell upon cattle or upon men ; all the blightings of the
harvest ; all that was involved in the idea of pinching or burning of
palsy, or of withered arms or hands, or a shriveled skin all these are
things which do occur in the world with no necessity of supposing any
intervention of superior beings. Not one of them implies, of neces
sity, the agency of supernatural pOAver ; not one of them, as a fact, lies
beyond the range of explanation from natural causes. They are,
therefore, as facts, wholly without the range of miracles.
(c) The facts in the alleged case of witchcraft are commonly easily
established, and there was no difficulty in proving them in the courts ;
in the matter of miracles the main difficulty is in regard to the facts
themselves whether the sun and moon actually stood still at the com-
426 APPENDIX.
mand of Joshua ; whether the lame man at the pool of Bethesda was
actually healed ; whether Lazarus was actually dead, and was raised
from the dead ; whether the Lord Jesus actually came to life again
after he had been put to death on the cross. But the alleged facts as
pertaining to witchcraft are such as may be easily established that
is, what witches are accused of doing may be matter of clear and defi
nite proof. That a person is afflicted with some form of disease ; that
property is destroyed ; that mischief has occurred in regard to a man s
cattle, or that there may be some form of prevalent disease among
them ; that grain about to ripen may be suddenly blighted in the
field all these may be points of fact that could be easily established,
and about which there need be no doubt.
As an illustration of this point, we may take the case of Richard
III. , as it is stated in history, and as it is represented by Shakspeare.
The scene is described by Mr. Hume (History of England, vol. ii.,
p. 1 74) in the following manner :
"The Duke of Gloucester was capable of committing the most
bloody and treacherous murders with the utmost coolness and in
difference. On taking his place at the council-table, he appeared in
the easiest and most jovial humor imaginable. He seemed to indulge
himself in familiar conversation with the counselors before they
should enter on business ; and, having paid some compliments to
Morton, bishop of Ely, on the good and early strawberries which he
raised in his garden at Holborn, he begged the favor of having a dish
of them, which that prelate immediately dispatched a servant to bring
to him. The Protector then left the council, as if called away by some
other business ; but, soon after returning, with an angry and inflamed
countenance, he asked them what punishment those deserved that had
plotted against his life, who was so nearly related to the king, and was
intrusted with the administration of government ? Hastings replied
that they merited the punishment of traitors. These traitors, cried
the Protector, are the sorceress, my brother s wife, and Jane Shore,
his mistress, with others, their associates: see to what a condition
they have reduced me by their incantations and witchcraft : upon
which he laid bare his arm, all shriveled and decayed. But the coun
selors, who knew that this infirmity had attended him from his birth,
looked on each other with amazement, and above all Lord Hastings,
who, as he had, since Edward s death, engaged in an intrigue with
Jane Shore, was naturally anxious concerning the issue of these extra
ordinary proceedings. Certainly, my lord, said he, if they be guilty
of these crimes they deserve the severest punishment. And do you
reply to me, exclaimed the Protector, with your ifs and your ands ?
You are the chief abettor of that witch Shore ! You are vourself a
APPENDIX. 427
traitor ; and I swear by St. Paul that I will not dine before your head
be brought me. He struck the table with his hand; armed men
rushed in at the signal ; the counselors were thrown into the utmost
consternation ; and one of the guards, as if by accident or mistake,
aimed a blow with a poll-axe at Lord Stanley, who, aware of the dan
ger, slunk under the table ; and though he saved his life, received a
severe wound in the head, in the Protector s presence. Hastings was
seized, was hurried away, and instantly beheaded on a timber-log,
which lay in the court of the Tower."
Shakspeare describes the scene in the following words :
" Gloucester. I pray you all, tell me what they deserve
That do conspire my death with devilish plots
Of damned witchcraft ; and that have prevailed
Upon my body with their hellish charms ?
Hastings. The tender love I bear your grace, my lord,
Makes me most forward in this noble presence
To doom the offenders : Whosoe er they be,
I say, my lord, they have deserved death.
Gloucester. Then be your eyes the witness of their evil,
Look how I am bewitched ; behold mine arm
Is, like a blasted sapling, withered up :
And this is Edward s wife, that monstrous witch,
Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore,
That by their witchcraft thus have marked me."
Richard HI., Act iii., Scene iv.
Now, about \hefact of the withered arm, there could have been no
doubt. The evidence was at hand. No one would call it in question ;
no one would dare to dispute it. That fact could have been proved
before any court of justice as clearly as any of the facts to which Mr.
Lecky refers when he says, "The subject [of witchcraft] was exam
ined in tens of thousands of cases, in almost every country of Europe,
by tribunals which included the acutest lawyers and ecclesiastics of the
age on the scene at the time when the alleged facts had taken place,
and with the assistance of innumerable sworn witnesses."
(c?) The main point, therefore, in witchcraft the point on which
the whole turned, and on which it differed from all the questions con
nected with miracles, was in CONNECTING the accused person with THE
FACT ; in showing that the accused person was the cause of it, or the
author of it. Thus, in the case of the Duke of Gloucester, the point
on which the whole turned was not the fact that the arm of the duke
was dried up, or was shriveled for of that there was no doubt, but it
was whether this had been caused by the wife of Edward and Jane
Shore. That the duke affirmed ; that would have been the point in
a court of justice ; that was the only point that would have any bear
ing on the question of witchcraft. That point the connection of the
428 APPENDIX.
accused persons with the alleged and undoubted facts ivas the point
which was before the courts the point on which so many hundreds
and thousands were condemned to the flames.
And yet how could that point be properly brought before a court of
justice ? What evidence could there be that would bear on it ?
It is evident that, in this circumstance, there was all that was neces
sary for wide-spread illusion, imposture, and wrong ; for the indul
gence of all that there was in a community of suspicion, malignity,
and hatred against particular individuals ; all that could be devised
to keep up the faith of a community in the marvelous ; all that was
needful to feed and satisfy the desire for the belief in invisible influ
ences, and to perpetuate a prevalent superstition. For what was de
manded in the case was not the proof of certain facts that might be
the proper subject of testimony, but the connecting of certain obnox
ious persons with those facts ; and as soon and as far as the popular
idea connected such facts with a certain class of persons as aged fe
males there would be no lack of witnesses to testify to such a con
nection.
It is difficult to account for popular illusions ; for the fact that a
whole community will be affected with such an illusion at the same
time ; that it may influence all classes of persons ; that it will consti
tute the characteristic of a certain period or a certain land ; that it
will, for the time, break down all the ordinary and sober rules of
thinking, and override all that is sacred in truth, and solemn in the
forms of oaths. It would be easy to adduce now, in any court of jus
tice, almost innumerable witnesses, of most respectable character, that
would testify on oath to the alleged facts in regard to table-moving
and spirit-rapping. The Avitnesses of these alleged facts would not by
any means be found altogether or mainly among the humblest ranks,
or the most ignorant in a community, nor among those who have no
proper idea of the solemnity of an oath, or who are ignorant on the
subject of evidence. Judges, lawyers, merchants, professors of chem
istry, clergymen men profoundly learned in the sciences, could be
found in large numbers Avho would testify to the reality of the facts,
and who would do it with no ascertainable intention of imposing on
mankind.
It matters little what is the thing that thus becomes the subject of
popular illusion, and it is to be admitted that if the miracles of the
New Testament could be brought under this idea, it would not be less
difficult to establish their reality than to establish the facts about
witchcraft and spirit-rapping. Macaulay, in his History of England,
refers to an epidemic of that nature which followed the successful
effort of Titus Gates to excite universal alarm in England in regard to
APPENDIX. 429
the plot to murder the king [Charles II.] ; to burn the city of London ;
to revolutionize the kingdom, and to restore it to the dominion of the
Papacy. " Every person," says he, " well read in history must have
observed that depravity has its temporary modes, which come in and
go out like modes of dress and upholstery. It may be doubted
whether, in our country, any man ever before the year 1678 invented
and related on oath a circumstantial history, altogether fictitious, of a
treasonable plot, for the purpose of making himself important by de
stroying men who had given him no provocation. But in the year
1678 this execrable crime became the fashion, and continued to be so
during the twenty years which followed. Preachers designated it as
our peculiar national sin, and prophesied that it would draw on us
some awful national judgment. Legislators proposed new punish
ments of terrible severity for this new atrocity. It was not, however,
found necessary to resort to those punishments. The fashion changed ;
and during the last century and a half there has perhaps not been a
single instance of this particular kind of wickedness."*
Any explanation which will account for a popular illusion or a
prevalent superstition will account for all the phenomena of witch
craft. The power of such an illusion has often been manifested in the
world ; perhaps no one has satisfactorily explained the causes. The
effect of it is easily understood. It is a species of insanity. It indis
poses the mind for calm and sober thought. It gives reality in the
view of the mind to that which is desired. It blunts the moral sense,
and dims the perception of truth, and perverts all just notions of testi
mony. It gives reality in the view of the mind to that which is the
creation of the imagination, and, under the force of the illusion, anni
hilates for the time all the ordinary feelings of kindness and humanity.
It will lead to the endurance of suffering to the spirit of martyrdom
on the part of those who embrace the illusion, and it will make them
regardless of the severest sufferings of those though of the tenderest
years, and of the gentle sex on whom the suspicion falls. To pity
them in their tortures would be a crime ; to aggravate their sufferings
would be a merit. In witchcraft it would be a crime of the highest
nature to pity those who are in league with the devil ; to punish them
is to punish the devil himself, and no amount of suffering could be
beyond his desert.
(e) It is apparent, therefore, that there is a broad line of distinction
between the miracles of the Bible, and witchcraft, necromancy, sorce
ry, and divination, and that the explanation which Avould meet the one
would not affect the other. It is apparent, also, that in the one case
the case of witchcraft, necromancy, and sorcery, there may be a
* History of England, vol. iv., p. 155.
430 APPENDIX.
change in the public mind that will effectually banish all belief in these
things, that will not necessarily, or in fact, affect the public faith in
miracles. That state of the public mind that phenomenon is, in
fact, reached now. The progress of Rationalism has been such for
the past hundred years as almost entirely to banish all belief in witch
craft and necromancy from the world ; it has not been shown that the
change of mind on that subject has in reality affected the faith of man
on the subject of miracles, or that they have, in fact, reasoned from
the one to the other. Indeed, it may be assumed as undoubtedly true
that those who have become skeptical in this age on the subject of
miracles are not conscious to themselves that they have been led to re
ject the evidence for miracles because they have seen reason to reject
the belief in witchcraft, or because the sentiments of the world have
changed on that subject. This fact I adverted to in the Lecture on
Miracles, and I can not but regard it as a remarkable fact. I do not
know that even skeptics in religion, or Eationalists in any form, have
urged this as an objection to the faith in miracles, or have stated it as
a proposition, as indicating their own state of mind on the subject,
that because witchcraft, necromancy, and sorcery are delusions, there
fore the miracles of the Bible and all pretended miracles are false.
The world at large would not see any connection between such prem
ises and such a conclusion. Skeptics themselves would perceive that
the world Avould not admit the force of such reasoning. As a matter
of fact, no such conclusion has been reached from these premises. So
far as appears, the faith of mankind in the miracles of the Bible has
not been affected by the change which has occurred in regard to the
belief in witchcraft, necromancy, and divination. The change advert
ed to, especially in regard to witchcraft, is a change which has occur
red in the Church not less than in the world ; for the belief in witch
craft pervaded the whole Church, Catholic and Protestant alike, two
centuries ago, and the Church, as is often urged by infidels, and as a
matter of fact, was most firm in the belief of witchcraft, and most act
ive in the persecution of those who were supposed to be under its in
fluence (see Lecky, vol. i., p. 28-34), and yet the Church, while it has
changed its belief wholly on that subject, has not changed its faith in
the belief of the miracles of the Bible, and it is certain that infidelity
Avould make no impression on the Church by arguing from the one to
the other.
The reasons of this are now plain. The sphere of witchcraft, nec
romancy, sorcery, and divination, and the sphere of miracles, is wide
ly different. All, indeed, pertain to the supernatural, but they do not
so pertain to it that the one affects the other. The one witchcraft,
necromancy, divination, sorcery is an alliance with inferior spirits ;
APPENDIX. 431
not with God. It is for purposes of mischief; never for good. The
power which it summons, and with which it combines, is an evil a
malignant power. The facts in the case are susceptible of explana
tion from natural causes. The effects on a community can be traced
to a popular illusion. The whole operation the agents employed, the
manner in which they are supposed to effect their marvels, and the
effects themselves, are all beneath the dignity of philosophy, beneath
religion, beneath God, and beneath the rules of sober reasoning. In
reference to the great change produced in the Avorld in our age on the
subject of witchcraft, there is undoubtedly much force in the following
remarks of Lecky, and those remarks may furnish one cause to show
why faith in the miracles of the Bible has not been extensively affect
ed by this change of belief. He says, " If we ask Avhy it is that the
world has rejected what was once so universally and so intensely be
lieved why a narrative of an old Avoman Avho had been seen riding on
a broomstick, or who was proved to have transformed herself into a
wolf, and to have devoured the flocks of her neighbors, is deemed so
entirely incredible, most persons would probably be unable to give a
very definite ansAver to the question. It is not because we have ex
amined the evidence and found it insufficient, for the disbelief always
precedes, Avhen it does not prevent, examination. It is rather because
the idea of absurdity is so strongly attached to such narratives that it
is difficult even to consider them with graA r ity" (vol. i. , p. 34). It will
instantly occur to the mind that no such process of thought can be ap
plied to the healing of the sick, to the restoration of the blind to sight,
or to the raising of the dead.
I infer, therefore, that the process of thought by Avhich the Avorld
has been delivered from faith in Avitchcraft, necromancy, sorcery, and
divination, is not applicable to the miracles of the New Testament,
and that the miracles of the Bible can not be disposed of in the way
in Avhich the belief in Avitchcraft, necromancy, and sorcery has been.
(3.) The third point in the argument relates to the inquiry Avhether
the miracles of the Bible can be disposed of in the manner in which
the miracles alleged to have been wrought in the early Christian
Church after the time of the apostles, and at subsequent periods, can
be. This inquiry Avould also embrace the Roman Catholic miracles
Avhich are claimed to be Avrought in our own times as proofs of the di-
A-ine origin of the Roman Catholic faith, and in defense of the Roman
Catholic Church.
The inquiry is, Avhether what Avould be a proper explanation of the
one Avould also apply to the other ; Avhether, on the supposition that
these claims in regard to the miracles of the Church subsequent to the
times of the apostles are false, the same process of reasoning Avould
432 APPENDIX.
show that the miracles of the Bible are false ? In other words, the in
quiry is, whether, on the supposition that the world will settle down
into a universal skepticism in regard to the miracles alleged to have
been wrought since the time of the apostles, and especially those
claimed to have been wrought in the Roman Catholic Church, as it
probably will, the process of thought by which that conclusion will be
reached will carry with it necessarily a universal skepticism in regard
to the miracles of the Bible ? It is clear that if the same explanation
can be given to the one as to the other, the conclusion will be inevita
ble that they are equally false ; if there is no stronger testimony in the
one case than in the other, on the supposition that the world has been
under a delusion in reference to the facts alleged, then the same con
clusion in regard to both classes of miracles is inevitable. It is a
great question, therefore, whether the present tendency of the world to
Rationalism, as affecting this point, as it undoubtedly exists in the sci
entific world, in the Protestant churches, and even, as we have seen,
in the Roman Catholic communion, is in fact a tendency toward Ra
tionalism or skepticism on the whole subject of miracles, and will lead
to the denial of miracles altogether.
It is not necessary to advert farther to the great change which has
occurred in the world in reference to the miracles which were alleged
to have been wrought in the times subsequent to the apostles. Up to
a recent period, the inquiry in ecclesiastical history has been, not
whether such miraculous powers existed in the Church, but at what
exact point that power ceased. The general impression among Prot
estants has been, that that power ceased when miracles were no longer
necessary for the defense and the diffusion of Christianity. The pre
vailing opinion on the subject has been undoubtedly expressed by Arch
bishop Tillotson : " That on the first planting of the Christian religion
in the world, God was pleased to accompany it with a miraculous pow
er ; but after it was planted that power ceased, and God left it to be
maintained by ordinary ways."*
It would not conduce, to any proper view of the point before us to
state farther the changes which have occurred in the opinions of men
on the subject ; to inquire at what time the power of working miracles
in the Church, if it ever existed, ceased ; or to consider the question
whether such miraculous powers existed or not. The sole inquiry is,
whether the miracles of the Bible can be disposed of in the same way
as the alleged miracles in the Church subsequent to the time of the
apostles ; whether an absolute skepticism in regard to the latter of ne
cessity involves an absolute skepticism in regard to the former ;
whether the two stand or fall together ?
* Sermons, vol. iii., p. 488, ed. 1735.
APPENDIX. 433
On this inquiry I submit the following remarks :
First. If miracles were actually wrought in the primitive Church
subsequent to the time of the apostles, and continue to be wrought
still in the Roman Catholic Church, this would not prove that the
miracles of the Bible were false. That one thing has been done does
not prove that another has not been. Moreover, in such a case and
on such an admission, the possibility of miracles would be established,
and the presumption, therefore, would be that they may have occurred
as recorded in the Bible. Indeed, if they have occurred in such num
bers as it has been claimed that they have done in the Church, then,
so far from its being true, as Mr. Hume alleges, that " a uniform ex
perience has established the stability of the laws of nature," the very
reverse ^>f this has been established. The admission of the fact of
such miracles would destroy the whole argument of Mr. Hume.
Second. If the miracles referred to were not wrought in the primi
tive Church, and if they are not wrought in the Roman Catholic
Church, that does prove that the miracles of the Bible are false. Ob
viously it may be possible to account for the prevalence of a belief in
false miracles, and for well-executed impostures in one case, by ex
planations which would not be applicable to the other. Illusions in
one instance do not prove that illusions extend to every thing ; impos
ture in one case does not prove that it exists in all cases ; that there
are deceivers at one time and in one place does not prove that they
exist at all times and in all places ; the fact that there is counterfeit
coin does not prove that there is no genuine coin ; that there are false
religions in the world does not prove that there is no religion that is
genuine. It is clear that the pretended miracles in the primitive
Church, and in the Roman Catholic communion, should be examined
on their own merits, and be embraced or rejected as the evidence in
the case shall demand. If there is reason to reject them, that fact
does not prove that there may not be reasons why the account of other
miracles should not be embraced as true. No amount of testimony
in regard to the alleged fact that the dead were raised subsequent to
the time of the apostles, whether for or against such claims, could
demonstrate that Lazarus was not raised from the dead ; nor should
Rationalism and skepticism make a hasty stride from one to the
other.
Third. It is possible to account for all that is said to have occurred
in the primitive Church after the time of the apostles, and in the
Roman Catholic Church, without supposing that there were real mira
cles wrought. It might be that tricks and jugglery were practiced ;
it might be that there was collusion and concert in performing the al
leged miracle ; it might be that the witnesses did not say that they saw
T
434 APPENDIX.
the miracles, but that they were reported to have occurred ; it might
be that no record was made at the time, but that the belief grew up in
a subsequent age ; it might be that the alleged miracles were manifestly
wrought to sustain a particular form of religion, or a party in the
Church, or the claims of a priesthood to a divine appointment, or the
truth of a particular doctrine, or to honor a particular saint ; it might
be that there were rival churches, and that the miracles were mani
festly wrought to sustain the one against the other ; it might be that
there was a susceptibility in the public mind, or in the prevalent be
lief of the age, which received such accounts without calling them in
question ; it might be that the belief in the miracles was on the same
ground as the belief in prevalent superstitions as of ghosts, appari
tions, witchcraft, table-turning^ and spirit-rapping; it might.be that
the alleged witnesses were not credible witnesses, and that they were
never subjected to any test or trial which would show that they were
sincere witnesses for truth, and were not impostors. Without affirm
ing now that these things were so, it is affirmed that it is conceivable
that they might be so ; and the world is undoubtedly coming to that
belief in regard to all the pretended miracles in the Eoman Catholic
Church ; all the marvels of the Middle Ages ; and to no small part, at
least, of the alleged miracles of the primitive Church after the time of
the apostles.
Fourth. The philosophical mode of accounting for the alleged mira
cles of the primitive Church after the time of the apostles will not ex
plain the facts in regard to the miracles of the New Testament. This
remark, for the purpose of the argument, and without in any way
affecting injuriously the general conclusion, may be confined to the
alleged miracles in the period immediately succeeding the apostles
for it is there that the strength of the argument must lie. If those
miracles are disposed of there can be no difficulty in regard to those
that follow.
The following facts, then, have been established so as to admit of
little or no doubt in regard to those miracles :
(a) That the "apostolic fathers" as they are commonly called
those who lived in the time of the apostles, and who had, some of
them at least, conversed with the apostles, advance no claim to any
such miraculous powers, and make no affirmation that such miracles,
were wrought by any in their own age who were not apostles. Those
"fathers" embrace Barnabas, Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, and Her-
mas, some of whom survived for half a century after the death of the
last of the apostles.* " Here, then," says Middleton (p. 9), "we have
* For the proof of what is affirmed here and in the remainder of this argu
ment about the alleged miracles in the Church, I refer to the work of Middle-
APPENDIX. 435
an interval of about half a century, the earliest and purest of all Chris
tian antiquity after the days of the apostles, in which we find not the
least reference to any standing power of working miracles, as existed
openly in the Church, for the conviction of unbelievers ; but, on the
contrary, the strongest reason to presume that the extraordinary gifts
of the apostolic age were by this time actually withdrawn."
(6) It is also true that none of the early " fathers" of the Church,
succeeding this time, who declare that the power of working miracles
existed in the Church, "have any where affirmed that either they
themselves, or the apostolic fathers before them, were endowed with
any power of working miracles" (Middleton, p. 21). They affirm, in
deed, that "such powers were actually subsisting in their days, and
were openly exerted in the Church ; that they had often seen the
wonderful effects of them ; and that every body else might see the
same, whenever they pleased," but they do not affirm that they had the
power, or that they had seen the miracles, nor do they specify the
names, the dates, or the persons by whom, or on whom, the miracles
were performed. Origen, speaking of the * miracle of casting out
devils, says that "it was performed by laymen." Mr. Whiston re
marks on this subject that "this gift was wholly appropriated by the
Savior to the meaner sorts of Christians, with an exclusion even of the
clergy, so that after the days of the apostles none of the sacred order
ever pretended to it."*
Something, perhaps, may be learned respecting the character of
those who pretended to work miracles from the uniform statements of
the enemies of Christianity. It is certain that they were always re
garded as pretenders and impostors, and were always charged with the
practice of fraud. Thus Lucian says that "whenever any crafty
juggler, expert in his trade, and who knew how to make a right use
of things, went over to the Christians, he was sure to grow rich imme
diately by making a prey of their simplicity."! In like manner Celsus
represents all the Christian wonder-workers as mere vagabonds and
common cheats, " who rambled about to play tricks at fairs and mark
ets ; not in the circles of the wiser and better sort, for among such
they never ventured to appear, but wherever they observed a set of
raw young fellows, slaves, or fools, there they took care to intrude
themselves and to display their arts."! Cascilius calls them " a lurk
ing nation ; shunning the light ; mute in public ; prating in corners. "
In view of all the statements among the ancients respecting those
ton : A Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers which are supposed to have
subsisted in the Christian Church from the Earliest Ages, by Conyers Middle-
ton, D.D., ed. London, 1749. * Account of the Demoniacs, p. 62.
t De Mort. Pereg., t. ii., p. 5C8. J Orig. Con. Cels., 1. 6, p. 284.
Minuc. Fel., p. 7. Middleton, p. 22, 23.
436 APPENDIX.
who were supposed to work miracles, Middleton makes the following
remarks : "The celebrated gifts of those ages were generally engrossed
and exercised by private Christians, who used to travel about from city
to city to assist the ordinary pastors of the Church and preachers of
the Gospel in the conversion of the pagans, by the extraordinary gifts
with which they were supposed to be endowed by the Spirit of God,
and the miraculous works which they pretended to perform" (p. 24).
In accordance with this view, it is stated that the pretended power
of working miracles was committed, not to those who were intrusted
with the government of the Church not to bishops, martyrs, and the
chief defenders of the Christian cause, but to boys ; to women ; to
private and obscure laymen ; to even those of abandoned moral char
acter :
Nwi 8e Kal dt avaftwi/ evepjeiv 6 Qeos eiwOe.
Chrysostom, t. iii., p. 66.
Ut intelligamus, qusedam miracula etiam sceleratores homines facere, qua-
lia sancti facere non possunt. Angus. Oper., t. i., p. 71.
(c) The character of many of the Christian fathers for credulity
and for the want of veracity is such as to render their testimony on
this point of great doubt and of little value. They undoubtedly
adopted the principle that the Christian religion was true ; that it was
indispensable for the salvation of men ; and that all means were to be
employed to propagate it, to convince men of its truth, and to induce
them to turn from idolatry to the service of the true God. If the re
sult was reached, that result was, in their apprehension, of much more
importance than the means of reaching it. In accordance with this,
it is undoubtedly true that false histories were early forged ; false and
weak interpretations were given to the Scriptures ; false narratives of
events were given to the world until the world became full of the
legends of the saints and martyrs. If it be true that, as historians of
ordinary facts and ordinary events, they report such facts accurately,
it is also true that there were numberless narratives in those eai ly
ages which were based wholly on fiction, and true also that these were
employed in the propagation of religion. Middleton (p. 36-71) has
placed these facts beyond question, and these facts would go far to ex
plain the accounts of the early miracles in the Christian Church.
(rf) It is a very material fact in regard to these pretended miracles,
alike in the early Christian Church, in the Middle Ages, and in the
modern Roman Catholic Church, that the testimony is not usually
given by contemporaries, or those who lived at the time so far as
names and dates are concerned, but by writers of a later age. This is
true alike of the pretended miracles of the early Christian Church, of
the miracles of the heathen as referred to by the enemies of Christian-
APPENDIX. 437
ity, of most of the miracles attributed to the sacred relics of the saints,
and of most of the miracles of the " saints" who have heen " canon
ized" in the Roman Catholic Church. Thus miracles are attributed
to Pythagoras, not by his contemporaries, but by Porphyry and lam-
blichus, who wrote his life three hundred years after his death ; the
prodigies in the History of Rome are recorded, not by persons who
lived at the time, but by Livy, who lived many centuries afterward ;
the miracles ascribed to Apollonius of Tyana, of which so much has
been made by the enemies of Christianity, were not recorded by any
one living at the time, but the belief in them rests solely on the single
assertion of his biographer, Philostratus, who lived a hundred years
after the death of Apollonius ; the accounts of the miracles of Greg
ory, bishop of Neocassarea, called Thaumaturgus from the number and
character of the miracles which he wrought, is found only in the writ
ings of Gregory of Nyssen, who lived a hundred and thirty years after
him ; and a great part of the legendary miracles of the Popish
"saints" depend for their credibility on the certificates presented at
their " canonization," a ceremony which seldom takes place till a cen
tury after their deaths.
A single case will illustrate this point, and show its real force in the
argument. It is that of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the order of
the Jesuits. His life, written by a companion of his, was published
about fifteen years after his death. In that life, the author, so far
from ascribing any miracles to Ignatius, carefully states the reasons
why he was not invested with any such power. That life was repub-
lished fifteen years afterward, with the addition of many circumstan
ces, which were the fruit, the author says, of farther inquiry and of
diligent examination, but still with a total silence about miracles.
When Ignatius had been dead nearly sixty years, the Jesuits, conceiv
ing a wish to have the founder of their order placed in the Roman cal
endar, began, for the first time, to attribute to him the power of work
ing miracles, and specified a large number which could not then be
distinctly disproved, and which there was, in those who governed the
Church, a strong disposition to admit on the slenderest proofs.*
It is clear that these circumstances constitute a broad line of dis
tinction between these alleged miracles and the miracles of the New
Testament, and that, so far as these cases go, the explanation of the
one would in no manner constitute an explanation of the other.
(e) It is material, also, to remark, that a large part of the miracles
alleged to have been wrought in the early Church, and nearly all of
those wrought in the Roman Catholic Church, were wrought, not by
* The authority for these statements is Paley Evidences of Christianity,
Works, ed. 1824, vol. i., p. 182, 183.
438 APPENDIX.
the persons themselves while living, but by their relics, and many of
them hundreds of years after the death of the " saints" themselves.
The Ecclesiastical History of the Middle Ages and of the Romish
Church is full of such wonders, and our own age has been edified
with the accounts of numberless such miracles as were wrought by the
" Holy Coat" at Treves. Even Augustine, the ablest and most clear
headed of the fathers, and a man of undoubted piety, solemnly asserts
that in his own diocese at Hippo, in the space of two years, no less
than seventy miracles had been wrought by the body of St. Stephen,
and that in the neighboring province of Calama, where the relic had
previously been, the number was incomparably greater. He gives a
catalogue of what he deems undoubted miracles, which he says he had
selected from a multitude so great that volumes would be required to
relate them all. In that catalogue we find no less than five cases of
restoration of life to the dead (De Civit. Dei, lib. xxii., c. 8). In his
Confessions (b. ix.,viii., 16) he relates the case of miracles wrought by
the dead bodies of Gervasius and Protasius, which were discovered by
Ambrose of Milan, and which were removed to the Ambrosian Basilica,
particularly the restoring of sight to a blind man who was allowed to
touch the bier with a handkerchief. Of this miracle, and of numerous
others of a similar kind, he says, " Of which so great glory of the mar
tyrs I also was a witness. I was there was at Milan ; I knew the
miracles wrought, God bearing witness to the precious death of his
saints, so that through those miracles that death was precious now
not in the sight of the Lord only, but in the sight of men" (De Civit.
Dei, lib. xxii., c. 8, 32). It is clear that whatever explanation is given
of these miracles, the explanation would not be applicable to the mira
cles of the New Testament.
(/ ) It is farther to be remarked that the testimony on these sub
jects among the fathers, and in subsequent times, involved no sacri
fices ; led to no persecutions ; was not attended with the loss of place
or property, or with peril of life. All that is required in such cases is
what Dr. Paley calls "an otiose assent." They are employed for the
maintenance of doctrines already embraced ; or in defense of a priest
hood already established ; or for the credit of an " order" of religion
ists, like the Jesuits ; or in honor of a particular monastery ; or to
commemorate some particular virtues of a saint, or to attract men to
his shrine. Such things require no sacrifices. They demand no
abandonment of country, of friends, or of home. They lead to no
perils by sea or land. They involve no dangers of persecution. They
are not believed and defended with the apprehension of fearful tor
tures ; of being thrown to wild beasts ; of being scourged or stoned ;
of being burned at the stake, or put to death on a cross. They belong
APPENDIX. 439
to the same class of man-els, in this respect, as the belief in appari
tions, ghosts, table-turning, spirit-rapping. Whether men would suffer
persecution on their account might be a fair question ; it is certain
that they do not.
But it is hardly necessary to advert to the fact that all this is differ
ent from the miracles of the New Testament, and the treatment of the
apostles consequent on their faith in those miracles. Those miracles,
if real, decided the most important questions conceivable in regard to
the destiny of mankind. The belief in them led to an entire change
in the religion of the world. They were not wrought to establish any
existing system of religion, but they led to the overthrow of all the sys
tems of religion that did exist, in all lands, involving all that there was
of property, and position, and influence, and traditionary sacredness in
those religions ; all that there was that was mighty, and sacred, and
venerable in a priesthood ; and all that was held sacred in the laAvs.
The belief in those miracles involved the necessity of parting with
friends ; of encountering the perils of land and ocean ; of meeting with
opposition, contempt, persecution, and death in its most terrific forms ;
of bidding adieu to all that was attractive in this life, and of enduring
all that could be made fearful to human nature while living, and all in
death that could be made terrible.
I infer, therefore, that the explanation which must be given of the
miracles of the early Church after the time of the apostles, of the
miracles of the Middle Ages, and of the miracles of the Eoman Catho
lic Church, is not a philosophical explanation of the miracles of the
Bible.
(4.) The fourth point in the argument relates to the inquiry whether
the miracles of the Bible can be disposed of in the same way as the
miracles alleged to have been wrought among the heathen ; or, more
generally, the miracles which are referred to by those who reject the
claims of the Bible. These may, of course, embrace a part of those
which have already been referred to, but they may properly, so far as
they are appealed to by the rejectors of the Bible, be again noticed
with reference to their direct bearing on the argument.
It would have been wiser undoubtedly for the rejectors of the mira
cles of the Bible to base the argument for their rejection on general
principles and on abstract reasoning, and not to peril their argument
by bringing other miracles into comparison with those of the Bible.
Mr. Hume s celebrated Essay on Miracles would have been stronger
by far if he had omitted all reference to other miracles in comparison
with those in the Bible. It is, therefore, an advantage in the argu
ment for the miracles of the Bible that an attempt has been made to
bring others into comparison with them. If, now, an explanation can
440 APPENDIX.
be given of those alleged miracles which can not be applied to those in
the Bible, or which will not satisfactorily account for them, the argu
ment for the reality of those miracles will remain in all its proper
force.
In such an argument on the part of those who reject the miracles of
the Bible, they who make the appeal have, as Dr. Paley has remarked,
an undoubted right to select their own examples. We may presume
that they would select the strongest instances which the world has
furnished to bring into comparison with the miracles of the Bible, and
all the proprieties of the case will be complied with if, in the argu
ment, the attention is confined to those examples to Avhich they have
referred. The friends of religion can not be supposed to be bound to
furnish, if they could, stronger instances than those which have been
actually selected.
In particular, it may be presumed that Mr. Hume would select those
which, for his purpose, could be best brought into comparison with the
Scripture miracles. Of the rejectors of revelation, few, if any, have
been more acute and learned than he ; none probably have had a larger
acquaintance with history, or could make a better selection of the mi
raculous events on which the argument might be made to rest.
From the wide range of pretended miracles in the world ; from the
almost innumerable cases of such pretensions ; from those marvels
Avhich have been regarded as miracles in the heathen world, in the
early Christian Church after the time of the apostles, in the Middle
Ages, and in the Roman Catholic Church in more modern times, he
has selected three on which he seems willing that the argument shall
rest. They are the following :
I. The cure of a blind and a lame man of Alexandria, by the Em
peror Vespasian, as related by Tacitus ;
II. The restoration of the limb of an attendant in a Spanish church,
as told by Cardinal de Retz ; and,
III. The cures said to have been performed at the tomb of the Abbe
Paris in the early part of the last century.
The circumstances in these cases, and the argument, can be best
expressed in his own words : " One of the best attested miracles in all
profane history is that which Tacitus reports of Vespasian, who cured
a blind man in Alexandria by means of his spittle, and a lame man by
the mere touch of his foot ; in obedience to a vision of the god Sera pis,
who had enjoined them to have recourse to the emperor for these mi
raculous cures. The story may be seen in that fine historian, where
every circumstance seems to add weight to the testimony, and might
be displayed at large with all the force of argument and eloquence, if
any one were now concerned to enforce the evidence of that exploded
APPENDIX. 441
and idolatrous superstition. The gravity, solidity, age, and probity of
so great an emperor, who, through the whole course of his life, con
versed in a familiar manner with his friends and courtiers, and never
affected those extraordinary airs of divinity assumed by Alexander
and Demetrius ; the historian a contemporary writer, noted for can
dor and veracity, and, withal, the greatest and most penetrating gen
ius, perhaps, of all antiquity, and so free from any tendency to cre
dulity that he even lies under the contrary imputation of atheism and
profaneness ; the persons from whose authority he related the miracle,
of established character for judgment and veracity, as we may well
presume eye-witnesses of the fact, and confirming their testimony
after the Flavian family was despoiled of the empire, and could no
longer give any reward as the price of a lie utrumque, qui interfuere,
nunc quoque memorant, postquam nullum mendacio pretium to
Avhich if we add the public nature of the facts as related, it will appear
that no evidence can well be supposed stronger for so gross and so
palpable a falsehood.
"There is also a memorable story related by Cardinal de Retz
which may well deserve our consideration. "When that intriguing
politician fled into Spain to avoid the persecution of his enemies, he
passed through Saragossa, the capital of Aragon, where he was shown
in the cathedral a man who had served seven years as a door-keeper,
and was well known to every body in town that had ever paid his de
votions at that Church. He had been seen for so long a time want
ing a leg, but recovered that limb by the rubbing of holy oil upon the
stump ; and the cardinal assures us that he saw him with two legs.
This miracle was vouched by all the canons of the Church ; and the
whole company in town were appealed to for a confirmation of the
fact, whom the cardinal found, by their zealous devotion, to be thor
ough believers of the miracle. Here the relater was also contemporary
to the supposed prodigy, of an incredulous and libertine character, as
well as of great genius ; the miracle of so singular a nature as could
scarcely admit of a counterfeit, and the witnesses very numerous, and
all of them in a manner spectators of the fact, to which they gave their
testimony. And Avhat adds mightily to the force of the evidence, and
may double our surprise on this occasion, is that the cardinal himself,
who relates the story, seems not to give any credit to it, and conse
quently can not be suspected of any concurrence in the holy fraud.
He considered justly that it was not requisite, in order to reject a fact
of this nature, to be able accurately to disprove the testimony and to
trace its falsehood through all the circumstances of knavery and cre
dulity which produced it. He knew that, as this was commonly alto
gether impossible at any small distance of time and place, so was it
T2
442 APPENDIX.
extremely difficult, even where one was immediately present, by reason
of the bigotry, ignorance, cunning, and roguery of a great part of man
kind. He therefore concluded, like a just reasoner, that such an evi
dence carried falsehood upon the very face of it, and that a miracle
supported by any human testimony was more properly a subject of
derision than of argument.
" There surely was never a greater number of miracles ascribed to
one person than those which were lately said to have been wrought
in France upon the tomb of Abbe Paris, the famous Jansenist, with
whose sanctity the people were so long deluded. The curing of the
sick, giving hearing to the deaf, and sight to the blind, were every
where talked of as usual effects of that holy sepulchre. But, what is
more extraordinary, many of the miracles were immediately proved
upon the spot, before judges of unquestioned integrity, attested by wit
nesses of credit and distinction, in a learned age, and on the most em
inent theatre that is now in the world. Nor is this all ; a relation of
them was published and dispersed every where ; nor were the Jesuits,
though a learned body, supported by the civil magistrate, and determ
ined enemies to those opinions in whose favor the miracles were said
to have been wrought, ever able distinctly to refute or detect them.
Where shall we find such a number of circumstances agreeing to the
corroboration of one fact ? And what have we to oppose to such a
cloud of witnesses but the absolute impossibility or miraculous nature
of the events which they relate ? And this surely, in the eyes of all
reasonable people, will alone be regarded as a sufficient refutation."*
Of the first of these alleged miracles, the account by Tacitus is as
follows :
" One of the common people of Alexandria, known to be diseased in
his eyes, by the admonition of the god Serapis, whom that superstitious
nation worship above all other gods, prostrated himself before the em
peror, earnestly imploring from him a remedy for his blindness, and
entreating that he would deign to anoint with his spittle his cheeks
and the balls of his eyes. Another, diseased in his hand, requested, by
the admonition of the same god, that he might be touched by the foot
of the emperor. Vespasian at first derided and despised their appli
cation ; afterward, when they continued to urge their petitions, he
sometimes appeared to dread the imputation of vanity ; at other times,
by the earnest supplication of the patients, and the persuasion of his
flatterers, to be induced to hope for success. At length he command
ed an inquiry to be made by the physicians whether such a blindness
and debility were vincible by human aid. The report of the physi
cians contained various points ; that in the one the power of vision was
* Essays, vol. ii., p. 115-118.
APPENDIX. 443
not destroyed, but would return if the obstacles were removed ; that
in the other, the diseased joints might be restored if a healing power
were applied ; that it was, perhaps, agreeable to the gods to do this ;
that the emperor was elected by divine assistance ; lastly, that the
credit of the success would be the emperor s, the ridicule of the disap
pointment would fall upon the patients. Vespasian, believing that
every thing was in the power of his fortune, and that nothing was any
longer incredible, while the multitude which stood by eagerly expect
ed the event, with a countenance expressive of joy, executed what he
was desired to do. Immediately the hand was restored to its use, and
light returned to the blind man. They who were present relate both
these cures, even at this time, when there is nothing to be gained by
lying."*
What, now, is the real force of the argument from this alleged mira
cle ? What were the facts in the case ? Was it believed by Mr. Hume ?
Can it properly be brought into comparison with the miracles of the
New Testament ?
It is plain that if the miracles in the case of Vespasian were actually
wrought, this would not prove that the Savior did not restore Barti-
meus to sight, or heal the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda.
There would be no incompatibility between the miracles, for there is
no necessary conflict. Suppose that in one case a miracle was wrought
as a work of benevolence, and in another for the establishment of the
truth of a divine mission, there evidently would be no such conflict be
tween the two as to prove that either was false.
In reference to these alleged miracles of Vespasian, it is to be re
marked (a) that the account by Tacitus was given twenty-seven years
after they were said to have occurred ; (6) that he recorded in Rome
what was said to have occurred in Alexandria ; (c) that he did not
profess to have seen the miracles himself, but wrote from report ; (c?)
that he manifestly did not believe in the reality of the miracles ; (e)
that the whole affair is liable to a strong suspicion that it was the
work of illusion and deception. In other words, all that there was in
the case can be explained on the supposition that there was collusion
between the patients, the physician, and the emperor. This explana
tion is admissible for these reasons : (1.) It was not uncommon, then,
to believe that such miracles could be wrought, just as in later times
in England it was believed that scrofula, or the " king s evil," could be
cured by the touch of the king.t (2.) It would be for the interest and
* Tacit., Hist., lib. iv.
t Charles the Second, in the course of his reign, u touched" near a hundred
thousand persons. In 1682 he performed the rite eight thousand five hundred
times. James the Second, in one of his progresses, touched eight persons in
444 APPENDIX.
credit of the emperor that such a belief should be entertained in regard
to him. (3.) The miracles were achieved in the midst of the emper
or s flatterers and followers ; in a city and among a people devoted to
his interest, and to the worship of the god Serapis ; and where it would
have been treason and blasphemy to have contradicted the fame of the
cure, or to have questioned it. (4.) It is to be observed, also, that the
report of the physicians is just such a report as would be made in a
case in which no external marks of the disease existed, and which,
consequently, was capable of being easily counterfeited, to wit, that in
the one case the organs of vision were not destroyed, and that the
weakness of the second was in the joints. (5.) There is little force in
the remark of Tacitus that they who were present continued even then
to "relate both these cures, when there was nothing to be gained by
lying." The particular point of importance is the state of mind of the
witnesses, and the circumstances at the time, and not whether the
story would be likely to be repeated. It is also of importance to re
mark, that if there was nothing " to be gained by lying," it is a ques
tion of much more moment whether there was any thing to be lost, or
any thing to be suffered by continuing to repeat the story. Would the
witnesses have done it if it would have involved them in trouble and
losses ; if it had subjected them to persecution ; if it had exposed them
to death in most horrid forms? (6.) To make this case parallel,
therefore, with the miracles of the New Testament, all, or nearly all
of these circumstances must be reversed. If these marvelous cures
had been performed in the presence of cavilers and enemies ; if those
who were present were incredulous, and had no previous disposition to
believe such a fact ; if every circumstance was watched with a jealous
eye ; if nothing was to be gained by it at the time or afterward ; if the
case was removed as far as possible from all appearance or possibility
pf collusion ; if they who professed to be witnesses of the transaction,
the choir of the Cathedral of Chester. The reality of these cures the efficacy
of this touch was attested by much stronger evidence than that adduced by
Mr. Hume for the miracles of Vespasian ; than that referred to by the Cardi
nal de Retz ; and than those performed at the tomb of the Abbe Paris.
"Theologians of eminent learning, ability, and virtue gave the sanction of
their authority to this mummery, and medical men of high note believed, or
affected to believe, in the balsamic virtues of the royal hand. We must sup
pose that every surgeon who attended Charles the Second was a man of high
repute for skill ; and more than one of the surgeons who attended Charles
the Second has left us a solemn profession of faith in the king s miraculous
power." William of Orange committed an almost unpardonable offense by
"sneering" at the practice, and refusing to lend his sanction to it. "It is a silly
superstition," said he, when, at the close of Lent, his palace was besieged by a
crowd of the sick. " Give the poor creatures some money, and send them
away." Macaulay, History of England, vol. iii., p. 432-435.
APPENDIX. 445
and who gave circulation to the report on the strength of what they
saw, gave up their former cherished hopes, changed their whole course
of life, abandoned all their plans, and all the opinions in which they
had been trained, and sacrificed their ease and their reputation ; if they
went forth on the ground of this to meet every form of trial, and bore
patiently the most cruel tortures, and met death itself rather than
change their testimony on the subject , and if the belief of such mira
cles actually changed the religions, the customs, and laws of the world,
producing changes that could be traced through eighteen hundred
years, making the world different from what it was, and modifying its
customs and laws, then, and only then, would it be proper to allege
that the miracles of Vespasian were an offset against the miracles of
the New Testament.*
The second case referred to by Mr. Hume is the restoration of the
limb of an attendant in a Spanish church, as told by Cardinal de Retz.
It is evident from the narrative, as given by Mr. Hume, that the
cardinal who relates this story did not himself believe it ; and it is
manifestly adduced by him because the cardinal did not believe it, and
with a design to leave the impression that all miracles should be treat
ed with the same degree of incredulity. Undoubtedly there have been
thousands of pretended miracles in the Roman Catholic Church, as
well as elsewhere, that should be treated in this manner, and that are
precisely parallel with this. The reasoning, however, so far as there
is any reasoning in the case, would not be far from that where, if a
man saw one counterfeit note, he should infer that all notes were
counterfeit, or where, if he met with one case of imposture in a com
munity, he should infer that all the transactions in society were im
posture and delusion. In fact, nothing can be more easy than to ac
count for all that is here said by Cardinal de Retz. The substitution
of an artificial leg would account for all that he says. What he says
is, that the man, " who had served seven years as a door-keeper, and
was well known to every body in town, had been seen for so long a
time wanting a leg, "but that "he saw him with two legs.." He in
deed affirms that he had "recovered that limb by the rubbing of holy
oil upon the stump," and that "this was vouched by all the canons of
the church;" but the only fact to which he bears testimony is, that
, "he saw him with two legs." There was, manifestly, no examina
tion ; there was no comparison of the two : there is even no statement
that he was seen walking ; and every thing that the cardinal saw, and
which is, therefore, the subject of his testimony, could be explained on
the supposition that an artificial leg had been made to supply the place
of the one that had been lost a thing certainly not unusual, and not
* Compare Paley s Evidences of Christianity, Works, vol. i., p. 198-201.
446 APPENDIX.
involving a miracle. It is to be remembered, also, as Dr. Paley has
remarked, that "the ecclesiastics of the place would, it is probable,
favor the story, inasmuch as it advanced the honor of their image and
the church. And if they patronized it, no other person at Saragossa,
in the middle of the last century, would care to dispute it. The story
likewise coincided not less with the wishes and preconceptions of the
people than with the interests of their ecclesiastical rulers, so that
there was prejudice backed by authority, and both operating on ex
treme ignorance, to account for the success of the imposture."*
The only thing, in fact, remarkable about this case is, that a man of
Mr. Hume s acuteness in argument should ever have referred to such
a case as an offset against the miracles of the New Testament the
healing of the blind, the deaf, and the lame by the Savior ; the stilling
of the tempest on the Sea of Tiberias by his command ; and the rais
ing of Lazarus from the grave, and that he should have been willing
to peril the cause of infidelity by an argument so manifestly weak.
The third case referred to by Mr. Hume is derived from the cures
said to have been performed at the tomb of the Abbe Paris.
The argument in the case, as stated by Mr. Hume, rests on these
points : (a) The number of the miracles : There surely never was
a greater number ascribed to one person than those which were lately
said to have been wrought in France upon the tomb of the Abbe
Paris. (b) The fact that these were " every where talked of as usual
effects of that holy sepulchre." (c) The fact that these miracles were
immediately proved to be true : "What is more extraordinary, many
of the miracles were immediately proved upon the spot, before judges
of unquestioned integrity, attested by witnesses of credit and distinc
tion, in a learned age, and on the most eminent theatre that is now in
the world." (d) The fact that the Jesuits, enemies of the Jansenists,
in whose favor the miracles were said to have been wrought, though
a learned body, supported by the civil magistrate, and determined en
emies to those opinions, were never able distinctly to refute or detect
them. "
In regard to this case, and the arguments in favor of these mira
cles, considered with reference to a comparison with those of the New
Testament, the following remarks may be made .
(1.) The number of the miracles said to have been wrought was, in
fact, exceeding small. Mr. Hume says there "never was a greater
number ascribed to one person." That, however, is not true, for a
much larger number has been " ascribed to Jesus of Nazareth. The
number of cures at the tomb of the Abbe Paris, as actually recorded by
historians, was nine only. These were all that the zealous and inde-
* Works, vol. i., p. 202.
APPENDIX. 447
fatigable Montgoron claimed to produce vouchers for, or claimed to
have been proved to have been wrought at the tomb.* These were all
that were pretended to be cured out of the crowds of the infirm and
the sick who came or were brought to the tomb. It is true, indeed,
that another author who has given a record of those miracles, referred
to by Mr. Hume under the title of Recueil des Miracles de 1 Abbe
Paris (Essays, vol. ii., p. 441), has mentioned a much larger number,
but they were miracles wrought, as he says, in the private chambers
of the sick, by virtue of the relics of the Abbe, or by images of the
saint, or by earth brought from under his monument.t As Mr. Hume
confines the argument to miracles wrought at the " tomb," it is proper
to notice those only.
What is particularly remarkable, however, in regard to these alleged
miracles is the small number out of the whole that are claimed to have
been cured. Many thousands of such persons the afflicted in all
forms visited the tomb. Nine only are vouched for as actually
cured. Now there has been no form of pretended miracles, or of de
ception and imposture in medicine, in which a greater proportion have
not been restored to health cured than in this case. Under the ap
plication of mesmerism, or " quack" medicines of any kind, more mar
vels than these have been accomplished more cures effected. Many
more cases of cure probably many more in proportion to the whole
number occurred undoubtedly in the "touch" for the "king s evil"
during the time when faith was exercised in the efficacy of that
" touch ;" that is, there were more cases of cure where, under the influ
ence of the imagination, persons were " touched ;" or where the disease
was imaginary and was thus removed ; or where a restoration to health
had been already commenced under the power of medicine, or the re
cuperating power of nature ; or where, from any cause, a recovery to
health was dated from such a touch. It is impossible to suppose that
this superstition could have been kept up from age to age if such had
not been the case. It is not difficult, in most or all of these cases, to
account for these facts without supposing that the quack medicine
has genuine restoring properties ; that the nostrum is valuable ; that
mesmerism is founded in truth ; or that there was real efficacy in the
"touch" for the "king s evil." Many of these diseases would be
healed by the mere course of nature ; many were nervous complaints,
and would be allayed and removed by a belief in the efficacy of the
medicine ; many would be healed under the influence of the imagina-
* Mons. Montgoron, the reporter of these miracles, was, as Mr. Hume says
(Essays, vol. ii., p. 441), a "counsellor or judge of the Parliament of Paris, a
man of figure and character, who was also a martyr to the cause."
t Dr. Campbell, Examination of Mr. Hume s Essay on Miracles.
448 APPENDIX.
tion ; many would be cases which would not bear a rigid examina
tion, but would be cases where the healing was apparent, and where
there would be seen to be imposture at the foundation.
It is unnecessary to remark how unlike all this is to the miracles of
the Savior. Many thousands of cases came before him. ALL not
the proportion of "nine" to thousands, but all, according to the ac
count in the New Testament, were healed (Matt., v., 24; xii., 15;
xiv., 14; xvii., 15; Luke, xxii., 51. Comp. Acts, iv., 14; v., 16;
xxviii., 8).
(2.) Many of the cases at the tomb of the Abbe Paris were such as
could be cured by natural causes. One of the cures referred to by
Montgoron was that of Don Alphonzo de Palacios, who had lost one
eye, and who was afflicted with an inflammation in the other. The
inflamed eye was cured, but the lost eye was not restored to sight.
Had the lost eye been restored to sight, there could have been no
doubt that a miracle was wrought. An inflamed eye might be re
stored by natural causes. In another case that of Peter Gantior one
of his eyes had been pricked with an awl. It is certainly possible that,
while there was temporary blindness, nature would have restored the
sight. Many of the cases at the tomb were cases of paralytic and drop
sical disorders cases where nature, in numerous instances, produces
temporary if not permanent relief. It does not appear that any one
of the " nine" was a case which could not be accounted for in that
way.
(3.) It was a fact that many of the devotees at the tomb, and some
of those who were asserted to have been cured, had been using medi
cines before, and continued to use them even when there. " That the
Spanish youth had been using all the while a medicine prescribed by
an eminent oculist was proved by the depositions of witnesses ; that
Gantior had begun to receive his sight before he had recourse to the
sepulchre was attested not only by his uncle, but even by himself,
when, as the Archbishop of Sens informs us, he signed a recantation
of what he had formerly advanced."*
(4.) None of the miracles at the tomb were instantaneous. All
that Christ and his apostles wrought were. The blind saw at once ;
the lame man leaped as an hart when told to walk ; the paralytic took
his bed and walked immediately ; the young man of Nain sat up in
stantaneously in the bier ; Lazarus came forth, at the very moment of
the command of the Savior, from the grave. Not so at the tomb of
the Abbe Paris. " All the worshipers at the tomb persisted for days,
several of them for weeks, and some for months successively, daily im
ploring the intercession of the Abbe, before they obtained relief from
* Dr. Campbell, Hume s Essays, vol. ii., p. 588. t Id. Ibid.
APPENDIX. 449
their complaints ; and the relief which they received is, in most cases,
acknowledged to have been gradual, "t
(5.) In view of these facts, and of the strong presumption in the
nature of the case that there might have been collusion and designed
imposture practiced to establish and maintain the credit of the " saint"
and of the tomb, we are prepared to see what is the real force of the
remark which Mr. Hume so exultingly makes in the text of his Essay,
and which he labors to confirm in a note appended to it, that the tes
timony in this case was above suspicion, and that it could not be re
futed. Thus he says, in the Essay, "What is more extraordinary,
many of the miracles were immediately proved upon, the spot, before
judges of unquestioned integrity, attested by witnesses of credit and
distinction, in a learned age, and on the most eminent theatre that is
now in the world. Nor is this all ; a relation of them was published
and dispersed every where ; nor were the Jesuits, though a learned
body, supported by the civil magistrate, and determined enemies to
those opinions in whose favor the miracles were said to have been
wrought, ever able distinctly to refute or detect them."*
Thus he says, also, in a note: "Many of the miracles" [the word
11 many" here means nine] "of the Abbe Paris were proved immedi
ately by witnesses before the officiating or bishop s court at Paris, un
der the eye of Cardinal Noailles, whose character for integrity and ca
pacity was never contested even by his enemies." "No less a man
than the Due de Chatillon, a duke and peer of France, of the highest
rank and family, gives evidence of a miraculous cure, performed on a
servant of his, who had lived several years in his house with a visible
and palpable infirmity." "I shall conclude," says he, " with observ
ing that no clergy are more celebrated for strictness of life and man
ners than the secular clergy of France, particularly the rectors or cures
of Paris, who bear testimony to these impostures."!
The sum of the whole matter in regard to these alleged miracles is
this : We may surely and safely admit all the facts which are alleged
in the case. The facts are these : (a) That great numbers of persons,
afflicted with various kinds of diseases, visited the tomb with the hope
of a cure. (6) That we may suppose that a part or all the cases of
those who are alleged to have been healed were cases of real disease,
or were not feigned, (c) That there was, in a few instances, a real
and permanent restoration to health, (d) That this occurred~at the
tomb of the Abbe Paris, or after visiting that tomb, (e) That the
cases were examined before judges deemed competent to decide such
matters. (./") That the witnesses were credible witnesses, and were,
in many instances, above suspicion. (-7) That it was impossible for
e, vol. ii., p. 11T. t Id. Ibid., p. 242, 244.
450 APPENDIX.
the Jesuits to disprove these facts, and that they were constrained to
admit that these cures were actually wrought.
The material point, however, is not reached and affected by these
admitted facts that all this was done by the saint ; by his tomb ; by
his virtues ; or by God in attestation of his virtues, or in defense of
the party to which he belonged. If the remarks above made furnish
a plausible, or POSSIBLE explanation of the facts in the case of all
that occurred then the case does not amount to a miracle, and, there
fore, whatever else may follow from it, it does not follow that Christ
did not raise Lazarus from the dead, or that he himself did not rise.
And these are all. These are the strongest cases which have been
referred to as parallel to those in the New Testament, and as having
strength sufficient to neutralize the argument for the divine origin of
Christianity as derived from miracles. These are selected from the
wide range of supposed supernatural agencies in the heathen and in
the Christian world : and it may be presumed that the best selection
has been made. The inquiry as to the cases which should be selected
embraced the entire period from the remotest ages to the time of Mr.
Hume himself, and was made by one who was an accomplished histo
rian, and who was, perhaps, as familiar with the facts of history as
any man then living. Nothing new has been added to the argument
since his time ; no more decided cases of miraculous agency have been
referred to ; none have been furnished in heathen lands, or in the
Papal church, that would contribute more strength to the cause of in
fidelity. It may be assumed now that no stronger cases will occur in
future times. If, therefore, these do not neutralize the force of the
testimony in favor of the miracles of the New Testament, then that
testimony remains in its full force.
The conclusion which we have reached is this : If the miracles of
the Bible can not be resolved into facts to be explained by natural
laws ; if they can not be philosophically placed on the same foundation
as witchcraft, divination, sorcery, mesmerism, and spirit-rapping, and
explained in the same manner ; if they can not be disposed of as the
alleged miracles in the Christian Church after the time of the apostles
may be ; and if they are not on a level with the miracles referred to
by skeptics as parallel cases, and are not to be explained in the same
manner, then the argument for the miracles of the Bible which has
been so satisfactory to a large part of the world for eighteen hundred
years is as strong as it can be supposed to have been in the first cen
tury, and the evidence is to be regarded as placed on the same founda
tion as that for well-attested historical facts that have gone into the
history of the world.
It is to be borne in mind that the real facts of history have gone into
APPENDIX. 451
the history of the world, and have made the world what it now is.
Those facts, and the proper influence of those facts, can not now be de
tached from history, or from the present condition of the world. The
facts in regard to the miracles of Christianity, also, have gone into the
history of the world, and can not be detached from it. The civilized
world is what it is now, and the whole world will be what it will be in
coming ages, because Christ was believed to have wrought miracles, and
to have been raised from the dead. Those facts were attested by men
who saw them ; who recorded them ; who had no special interest to
promote by them ; who abandoned all the opinions in which they had
been trained because they believed in them ; who sacrificed all their
prejudices on the ground of that belief; who met reproach and calum
ny, persecution, peril, and death in its most fearful forms, in attesta
tion of the truth of those miracles ; who never wavered in their state
ments , who could never be induced by terrors or by bribes to give
utterance to a doubt about the truth of those events ; and or whom not
one no, not one ever breathed a suspicion that he had been himself
deceived, or that those with whom he was associated had conspired to
deceive the world. In a most intelligent age ; in the very centre of
learning ; among the most cultivated people, and in cities where the
talent and power of the world were concentrated, they bore their tes
timony, and their testimony was believed. The religion was propa
gated on the ground of these miracles. The religions of the world
\vere changed, and a new order of things, sending its influence onward
for eighteen hundred years, was instituted on that ground. Altars
were forsaken; temples were abandonded; priests were disrobed;
laws were changed ; customs of long standing passed away on that
ground. A new spirit was breathed into the literature of the world
on that ground ; and philosophy took a new form on that ground.
Men were changed from vice to virtue on that ground ; and thousands
of martyrs from all ranks of people the rich, the honored, the gay,
the refined on that ground sealed their faith with their blood. The
alleged miracles of Vespasian and those at the tomb of the Abbe
Paris have done nothing literally nothing permanently to affect the
faith, the religion, the hopes, the intelligence, or the morals of man
kind ; the miracles of Christ have changed the world. Myriads of
the human race, among the most intelligent and pure, have believed
that those miracles demonstrated that he came from God ; there is
nothing yet to lead us to doubt that this will be still more prevailingly
the faith of the world in the ages to come, and that perpetuated faith
in those miracles will determine the condition of the..ntions ef the
earth in the winding up of human affairs. A
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