University of California.
FROM THE LIBRARY OF
Dr. JOSEPH LeCONTE.
Gift of Mrs. leconte.
No.
THE POSITIVE
Evidences of Christianity.
BY
THE REV. B. W. BOND,
Of the Baltimore Conference, M. E. Church, South.
EDITED BY THOS. 0. SUMMERS, D.D., LL.D.
vTVb r a*
or THE
NIVERSIT
or
IFQRH\±*
&*akriJk, §£etm.:
SOUTHERN METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE.
1880.
(3T//0I
(3 si
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by
B. W. BOND,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
INTEODUOTOET NOTE.
The author of this vigorous treatise is an estimable minis-
ter of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, South. He bears the honored name of Beverly
Waugh, late Bishop in the M. E. Church — a warm and
life-long friend of the Bond connection, in Maryland, to
which the author belongs. It may well be supposed, there-
fore, that he was steeped in Methodism from his birth ; and
if Methodism is " Christianity in earnest," as Dr. Chalmers
says, an earnest defense of Christianity may be expected in
this work. The reader will not be disappointed.
The conception of the book originated in the author's
careful perusal and study of the best works on the Evi-
dences of Christianity — Paley, of course, being prominent.
Encouraged by judicious friends, he prosecuted his investi-
gations, and committed his views to writing, until they were
developed into a well-proportioned treatise of sufficient size,
and, we will add, of due importance, to justify its publica-
tion. We have had the pleasure and profit of its perusal
as it has been passing through the press, and we hesitate
not to say it is an excellent resume of the Evidences of Chris-
tianity, as presented by Paley, Row, and other apologists,
embodying much fresh original matter adapted to the "per-
ilous times " in which we live. Some, perhaps, may think^
that it was hardly necessary to refute for the thousandth
time the argument of Hume against the possibility of prov-
ing a miracle — as, e. g., the resurrection of Christ, on which
the system of Christianity is based — especially as Hume
virtually acknowledged its worthlessness to Campbell, who
graveled him, as he says he "graveled " a Jesuit in the Jesuits'
(3)
4 Introductory Note.
College of La FMche, where lie used his argument to expose
the fiction of popish miracles — " perhaps you may think," he
writes to Campbell, " the sophistry of it savors plainly of the
place of its birth." Indeed, it does! But, contemptible as
it may be thought, and oft-refuted as it has been, it is con-
tinually paraded by unbelievers, and must be continuall i
exposed by those who are set for the defense of the gospel.
The Reverend Doctor Abbott, preaching in Oxford Uni-
versity, makes a fling at Paley's Evidences and Horse Paul-
inse — and with good reason — as, following in the wake of
Hume, he eliminates every thing miraculous from the Gos-
pel History, except a few cases of healing, which he would
say are no more miracles than those wrought at the tomb
of the Abbe Paris — that is, they were the effects of imag-
ination, etc., and not supernatural works at all.
Truly, it behooves us to contend earnestly for the faith,
when it is thus assailed in the foremost Christian university
of the world !
Whatever value may be assigned to the internal evidences
of Christianity — and there is much, and it is fully admitted
by the author of this book — yet he has done a good work
in developing from the present advanced position of the
science of apologetics the historical proofs of the divine
original of our holy religion, demonstrating, as he has done
in this treatise, that we have not followed cunningly-devised
fables, and we are not deceived, nor are we deceiving others,
when we affirm that the religion of Jesus is not of men, but
is from heaven. Every believer in Christ is warranted in
exclaiming, with the utmost confidence —
Hence, and forever, from my heart
I bid my doubts and fears depart ;
And to those hands my soul resign,
Which bear credentials so divine.
Thos. O. Summers.
Nashville, Term., April 18, 1880.
Contents.
PART FIRST.
The Competency and the Credibility of the Evidence.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Necessity of Evidence — Plan of the Work, . 9
CHAPTER II.
The Possibility of Miracles, 13
CHAPTER III
The Competency of the Evidence — I The Com-
jpetency of Evidence in General to Prove
Miracles, 29
i
CHAPTER IV.
The Competency of the Evidence — II Prob-
able Evidence is Sufficient to Prove a Rev-
elation, . 59
(5)
6 Contents.
CHAPTER V.
PAGE
The Authenticity of the Evidence, .... 75
PART SECOND.
The Weight of the Evidence — The Superhuman Facts.
CHAPTER I.
The Superhuman Advent of Christ, . . .111
CHAPTER II.
The Superhuman Character of Christ, . . . 128
CHAPTER III
The Superhuman Teaching of Christ — I Its
Reasonableness, 143
CHAPTER IV.
The Superhuman Teaching of Christ — II. The
Analogy of Nature — III. Its Superiority
Both to Human Reason and Nature, . . 162
CHAPTER V.
The Evidence of Prophecy, 194
Contents. 7
CHAPTER VI.
PAGE
The Evidence of Miracles — I. In General, . 209
CHAPTER VII.
The Evidence of Miracles — II. The Resur-
rection of Christ, 231
CHAPTER VIII.
The Supernatural Results, 254
CHAPTER IX.
The Weight of the Evidence — Recapitulation
and Conclusion, 273
The Positive Evidences of Christianity.
PAET FIRST.
The Competency and the Credibility of the Evidence.
CHAPTER I.
NECESSITY OF EVIDENCE — PLAN OF THE WORK.
The object of the following work is to prove
the divinity of the Christian religion. To do
this, the writer will endeavor to present simply
the positive evidences that exist therefor, and
to show by them that Christianity manifests a
character that is plainly no less than divine.
Confining the discussion strictly to this* one
particular, all examination into kindred ques-
tions, however interesting and closely related,
should be omitted ; but in the determination
of the subject itself, under consideration, no
pains ought to be spared to examine it in all
its parts, and to apply every possible test to
ascertain the truth. Rather, it should be the
grateful duty of a believer to strive to show
how the Christian religion, in every possible
1* (9)
10 Positive Evidences. [p ar t I.
way. — as well in the great facts upon which it
is founded, its own essential nature, its attend-
ant circumstances, as in its actual results upon
the characters and lives of men — exhibits such
supereminent characteristics as prove it to be
divine.
In this effort, however, no attempt should be
made to appeal to any other principles than
those that usually determine the decisions of
men. Christianity does not, and cannot, claim
any exemption from the application of the ordi-
nary tests that are used to ascertain the truth of
things. In matters of religion, no more than in
any other human affairs, is it to be allowed that
questions shall be decided by partiality, preju-
dice, or passion ; but only upon a fair consid-
eration, conducted according to the principles
which are universally acknowledged to consti-
tute the proper test of truth. Only by proving
her claims can Religion have any authority
over us, or be entitled to our reverence. To
her evidences, then, must she first appeal ; and
in so doing, it is manifest, she must submit to
be tried by the ordinary principles of evidence.
Now, those principles are most distinctly and
familiarly asserted and applied in the deter-
mination of trials before our ordinary courts
of law. As used there, they have long been
known and acknowledged as the settled max-
Ch. l.] Competency and Credibility. 11
ims which the wisdom and experience of ages
have agreed to be the just criterion of truth.
To them, accordingly, we shall appeal ; and,
fearing nothing for Christianity in their ap-
plication to her evidences, ask only that the
reader will consent also to abide by their de-
cision, and acquiesce in its result.
The following pages, therefore, will discuss
the Christian Evidences in an order modeled
upon that which is constantly followed in our
legal tribunals. There the examination of the
evidence presented consists of two main parts ;
and the inquiry is made — first, whether the
testimony offered is actual testimony in the
case under consideration — that is, whether it
has any material bearing upon the case, and
whether it is true ; and, secondly, being mate-
rial and true, what is its weight? Accord-
ingly, such is the order followed here. The
work is therefore divided into two Parts. The
Second Part discusses — The Weight of the Ev-
idence in favor of the Divinity of Christianity,
and presents in its proof: (a) The Superhu-
man Facts upon which Christianity is founded,
as displayed in — 1. The Advent of Christ; 2.
The Character of Christ ; 3. His Teachings ;
4. His Prophecies ; 5. His Miracles, (b) Its
Superhuman Results, in the changes it has
wrought in the characters and lives of men,
12 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
and in its wonderful growth, (c) The Com-
bined Weight of these several testimonies to
the one fact of the Divinity of Christianity.
Previous to this, however, we must show
that the evidence thus adduced is — first, such
as is proper to be brought forward in support
of such a position ; and, secondly, that, being
in its nature proper to be adduced, it is also
true. Part First, then, will be occupied with
the discussion of the admissibility and genu-
ineness of the evidence.
At the outset we are met with the objection
that no testimony can be allowed to prove the
supernatural, inasmuch as the occurrence in
this world of any thing that is supernatural,
or miraculous, is impossible in itself, and ab-
surd. A farther objection is also made, that,
even if it were possible, no testimony is com-
petent to establish the miraculous, since our
experience of nature is that it is always the
same, while that of testimony is that it is
sometimes false. We must, then, consider,
first, the possibility of miracles ; then will fol-
low the discussion of the competency of evi-
dence to prove them ; and next, the authentic-
ity of the evidence actually adduced, and its
sufficiency to command our belief in the actual
occurrence of the facts -asserted by it.
Ch. 2.] Competency and Credibility. 13
CHAPTER II.
THE POSSIBILITY OF MIRACLES.
At the outset we are called upon to show that
miracles are possible. The objection is urged
against the divinity of Christianity that all
evidence whatsoever is incompetent to estab-
lish such a claim, inasmuch as it necessarily
involves the occurrence of the miraculous, and
the miraculous is impossible, because the laws
of nature never vary, and cannot be broken.
It is said that all things earthly are linked
together in one chain of physical causes and
effects, in which there are no "breaks," no
"rents," but in which each successive being or
event has been regularly produced by the pre-
ceding being or event, through the operation
of natural laws, and natural laws only, and
that thus there is no room left for miracles.
It is farther claimed that there exist no ener-
gies or forces except physical energies and
forces, and that "matter" and "force" are
the only primary and essential agencies in the
world, and the sources of all the forms of be-
ing. And it is moreover urged that a miracle
would be an interference with, and disturbance
14 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
of, the settled order of the world, and a sus-
pension, breaking, or abrogation of the laws
of nature ; and that thus, admitting even the
existence of a God, who is the Author and
Ruler of nature, he would be, by miracle, de-
parting from his settled plan of procedure, in
a singular and inexplicable way ; that thus he
would be frustrating his own laws ; and final-
ly, that thus he would show either that his
original plans and laws were defective and in-
sufficient for all his purposes, or, that being
sufficient, they have been capriciously, and
without adequate reason, violated by himself,
and that in either case he is presented in an
unworthy aspect.
1. In answering these objections against the
possibility of miracles, let us first notice that
we must expect, in any express and immediate
revelation of God's will, something of the mi-
raculous. Such a revelation in itself is, of
necessity, miraculous; for nowhere in nature
does God speak immediately to man. The
very term, revelation, indicates the declaration
of something unknown by nature — something-
made known supernaturally, or miraculously.
That Christianity, therefore, which claims to
be a revelation from God, should have some-
thing of the miraculous is what we ought to
expect; and the fact is not therefore a priori,
Ch. 2.] Competency and Credibility. 15
and abstractly, an objection to the reasonable-
ness of Christianity, but the contrary. We
must demand of any system that professes to
be by direct revelation from God, that it be
miraculous. Christianity without it would be
unreasonable, and entitled to no credit, as such
a revelation.
Moreover, we must remember that these
objections, if valid, destroy all hope of any
revealed religion whatever. If there can be
no miracle, then there can be no direct revela-
tion from God ; and so man never has had, and
never can have, any sure hope set before him.
All are like the heathen — left merely to the
dim light of nature and the doubtful deduc-
tion of reason; and there never can be any
sufficient light and satisfactory assurance, any
clear hope. It is, then, not in the interests
of Christianity only that it is necessar} r to es-
tablish the possibility of miracles, but also in
those of all revealed religion whatsoever.
Against such objections stands the general
belief of mankind, in all ages, that miracles
are possible. That such is the common belief
of men, appears undeniably from universal
history. No people in any age have been with-
out faith in a supernatural Power, as well as
in the ability of that Power to manifest him-
self supernatural! y to men. To men general-
16 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
ly, it has seemed, as to Rothe, quoted by Van
Oosterzee (Dogmatics, etc.), that since "God
has subjected to man the powers of nature, he
never could have subjected to them himself —
his freedom, his almighty will — and so place
in them a barrier to his own free working."
To the common judgment of mankind, then,
the idea has nothing absurd in it, but is
thought to be agreeable with true reason.
This is certainly a presumption in its favor.
Any opinion in which we find the voices of
the whole human race, of all ages, uniting, is
surely entitled to great weight, if not to be
justly regarded as the expression of the most
certain conclusions attainable by human rea-
son.
In reply, it may be urged that this opinion
of the mass of mankind is denied by some
men of great powers of mind and attainments,
on the authority of science, and that therefore
such a belief cannot be true. To this we re-
ply: First, we should remember that scien-
tific men, however deservedly respected, are
not to be regarded as infallible. They have
made many mistakes, and have changed, and
changed again, many of their theories and de-
ductions, within the memory of even one gen-
eration. The French Academy, one of the
leading bodies of scientific men in the world,
Ch. 2.] Competency and Credibility. 17
rejected, at various times, in the name of sci-
ence (vide Christlieb's "Modern Doubts," etc.),
(1) the use of quinine; (2) vaccination; (3)
lightning-conductors ; (4) the existence of me-
teors ; (5) the steam-engine. Scientific men
are yet fallible in their deductions as to what
is and what is not possible. They are, also,
like other men — liable to be moved by preju-
dice and passion, and are certainly capable,
through their very hostility to Christianity,
whenever they have such a hostility, of arriv-
ing at wrong conclusions respecting matters
affecting our religion. But, secondly, miracles
are not thus denied by all scientific men, nor
by many of the greatest, but, on the contrary —
as we shall see from extracts subsequently
quoted — are asserted by them to have occurred,
as shown by the inevitable deductions of sci-
ence itself. The settled conclusions of science,
then, cannot be said to oppose this universal
conviction of mankind ; nay, her teachings are
claimed to be in harmony therewith. At most,
her expounders are divided — at best, they are
not infallible ; and therefore the presumption
in favor of miracles, arising from the general
consent of men, remains unimpaired, to add its
force to our argument.
2. But to reply more directly to those ob-
jections, it is denied that miracles are so out
18 Positive Evidences. [p ar t I.
of harmony with the laws of nature. Nature
is not a system consisting of the working of
laws admitting of no exception and no interfer-
ence, nor is it of an uninterrupted chain of
physical causes and effects. On the contrary,
there are exceptions and interferences, and
there are "rents" and " breaks" where no
preceding merely physical cause can be shown,
or even conceived, and where therefore we
must conclude that there has been a super-
natural interference — where we can only say,
'" This is the finger of God." For,
(1) The laws of nature — understanding that
phrase in the sense in which it is commonly
employed — are not invariable and without ex-
ception. The fact that water becomes lighter
when frozen, in contradiction to the general
law that liquids become heavier when frozen,
proves there may be exceptions to general
laws, and such as are caused only, so far as
we can see, by the supreme will of the Creator.
We know from this that God has not chosen
to govern the world by one uniform and in-
variable law only. And, if so, it is no more
unreasonable to conclude that he would make
exceptions to such laws for the spiritual and
eternal welfare of men by miracles, than he
would do so for their temporary and bodily
welfare, by causing water to become lighter
or
Ch. 2.] Competency and Credibility. 19
when frozen. And if he saw fit, and was able
to make such an exception permanently for
all time, in the case of some particular sub-
stance, as water, he could do so also in ordain-
ing that such exceptions should likewise hap-
pen, as to all substances, at some particular
time — as e. #., the giving of a revelation.
Moreover, it is not true that the laws of
nature are not interfered with. On the con-
trary, the lower set of laws is continually in-
terfered with by the higher — the mechanical
by the chemical, and the chemical by the vital.
Thus, the force of gravitation is daily over-
come by the force of the rising plant, the-
chemical dissolution of the body by the pow-
ers of life, etc. The heavy iron is lifted by
the magnet — why may not all nature and man
himself, in the presence of God, yield to the
superior force of spiritual power when exerted
upon them? Surely nature herself every-
where teaches the subordination, for beneficent
ends, of the lower laws to the higher; and
surely this, itself a higher law of nature, al-
lows the possibility at least of the subordina-
tion of all nature in miracles, for the highest
interests — the spiritual and eternal welfare —
of men. At any rate, it is certain that we find
that some laws of nature are continually in-
terfered with and overcome. Miracles, then,
20 Positive Evidences. [p art i.
bring no unheard-of disorder into nature.
True, in miracles, the manner of their inter-
ference may be unknown, or be altogether dif-
ferent from that seen in nature ; but the mere
manner in which a thing is done cannot afford
a solid ground of objection against the pos-
sibility of the thing being done. The fact
remains that the laws of nature may be inter-
fered with and overcome even by human pow-
er — it is for the objector to show why they may
not also be interfered with and overcome by
power that is divine.*
(2) There does not exist an uninterrupted
chain of physical causes and effects. There
are " rents" and " breaks," and therefore there
is reason to conclude that there has been su-
pernatural interference in nature. From the
" Unseen Universe," p. 247, a work by Profs.
Stewart and Tait, of England, physicists of
* The absurd unreasonableness of the objection against
miracles is well illustrated by an incident that came under
the writer's notice. A young, new-fledged son of iEscula-
pius, who had imbibed skeptical notions, and had read
Tyndall's prayer-test arguments, was declaiming with evi-
dent great self-satisfaction against the absurdity of pray-
ing for rain, etc. "Science has demonstrated," said he,
" that the falling of rain depends on atmospheric changes
alone. How then can prayer bring rain ? Give me a few
cannon, and Jwill bring it." God is of course feebler than
a scientist !
Ch. 2.] Competency and Credibility. 21
the highest authority, we take the following
extract: "Formidable breaks are brought be-
fore us by science. There is, to begin with,
that formidable phenomenon, the production
in time of the visible universe. Secondly, there
is a break hardly less formidable, the original
production of life ; and there is, thirdly, that
break, recognized by Wallace and his school
of natural history, which seems to have oc-
curred at the first production of man. Greatly
as we are indebted to Darwin, and Huxley, and
those who have prominently advocated the
possibility of the present 'system of things
having been developed by forces and opera-
tions which we see before us, it must be re-
garded by us, and we think it is regarded by
them, as a defect in their system, that these
breaks remain unaccounted for." That the
physical universe must have thus had its be-
ginning in time, is shown also by such other
scientific men of the highest authority as Sir
William Thompson and Clerk Maxwell (vide
Tait's Recent Advances in Physical Science);
and the same is true also of the origin of phys-
ical life, and of the appearance of man on the
earth. It thus appears that there has been
no such uninterrupted "chain" of physical
causes and effects as is alleged, and there is
therefore no argument from this against mira-
22 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
cles to be made in the name of science. Nay,
in thus disclosing to us these " breaks," science
itself teaches us that there have been miracles
of the highest order ; and instead of furnishing
a ground for rejecting the miraculous, it affirms
its existence, and even its necessity, to account
for the world and its phenomena.
(3) Nor is it true that reason forces us to
conclude that there are only physical agencies
at work in the world. What are the laws of
nature? The very existence of law, instead
of chaos, throughout the physical universe,
proves on the most reasonable supposition the
existence of an all-pervading and all-govern-
ing Intelligence. In the smaller affairs of
our every-day life — where we have personal
experience — we regard the signs of order and
rule as the certain marks of a controlling mind.
Must we, in those transcendent matters in
which we have no experience, come to a di-
rectly opposite conclusion, when we see such
signs in their utmost perfection? And what
is force, or energy ? The scientists themselves
tell us that it is distinct from matter. All
that they pretend to say about it is, that it is
the working, powerful agent present in all
changes occurring in matter; but what it is in
itself they can tell nothing, save that it is not
matter. But if it is not matter, can it be any
Ch. 2.] Competency and Credibility. 23
thing else than something that is immaterial
and spiritual ? And may it not consist merely
in the working of God's will on matter just
as our will, in a like incomprehensible way to
us, works upon the matter of our bodies ? Some
of the best scientific men have concluded from
the facts of science that there is an unseen and
spiritual universe. The authors mentioned
above in their remarkable book, " The Unseen
Universe," elaborately argue its necessary ex-
istence from the consideration, among others,
of the scientific " Principle of Continuity,"
" which, since this visible universe must come
to an end, demands a continuance of the uni-
verse still ; and thus we are forced to believe
that there is something beyond that which is
visible " (p. 94). And to the same conclusion
they quote as follows : " The deservedly fa-
mous Dr. Thomas Young has the following-
passage in his lectures on natural philosophy :
'Besides this porosity, there is still room for
the supposition that even the ultimate parti-
cles of matter may be permeable to the causes
of attractions of various kinds, especially if
those causes are immaterial ; nor is there any
thing in the unprejudiced study of physical
philosophy that can induce us to doubt the
existence of immaterial substances — on the
contrary, we see analogies that lead us almost
24 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
directly to such an opinion. The electrical
fluid is supposed to be essentially different
from common matter ; the general medium of
light and heat, according to some, or the prin-
ciple of calorics, according to others, is equally
distinct from it. We see forms of matter, dif-
fering in subtilty and mobility, under the name
of solids, liquids, and gases", above these are
the semi-material existences, which produce
the phenomena of electricity and magnetism,
and either caloric or a universal ether. Higher
still, perhaps, are the causes of gravitation
and the immediate agents in attractions of all
kinds, which exhibit some phenomena appar-
ently still more remote from all that is com-
patible with material bodies. And of these
different orders of beings the more refined and
immaterial appear to pervade freely the gross-
er. It seems therefore natural to believe that
the analogy may be continued still farther,
until it rises into existences absolutely imma-
terial and spiritual. We know not but that
thousands of spiritual worlds may exist un-
seen forever by human eyes ; nor have we any
reason to suppose that even the presence of
matter, in a given spot, necessarily excludes
these existences from it "' (p. 201). And again,
from Prof. Stokes : " Admitting to the full as
highly probable, though not completely de-
Ch. 2.] Competency and Credibility. 25
monstratecl, the applicability to living beings
of the laws which have been ascertained with
reference to dead matter, I feel constrained at
the same time to admit the existence of a
mysterious something lying beyond, a something
mi generis, which I regard, not as balancing
and suspending the ordinary physical laws,
but as working with them, and through them,
to the attainment of a desired end. What this
something, which we call life, may be, is a pro-
found mystery. . . . When from the phe-
nomena of life we pass on to those of mind,
we enter a region still more mysterious. We
can readily imagine that we may here be deal-
ing with phenomena altogether transcending
those of mere life, in some such way as those
of life transcend, as I have endeavored to in-
fer, those of chemistry and molecular attrac-
tions, or as the laws of chemical affinity in
their turn transcend those of mere mechanics.
Science can be expected to do but little to aid
us here, since the instrument of research is
itself the object of investigation. It can but
enlighten us as to the depths of our ignorance,
and lead us to look to a higher aid for that
which most nearly concerns our well-being"
(p. 235). And the authors themselves of u The
Unseen Universe," after an independent and
extended discussion of the matter, say, page
2
26 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
221: "Let us pause for a moment, and con-
sider the position into which science has
brought us. We are led by scientific logic
to an unseen, and by scientific analogy to the
spirituality of this unseen. In fine, our con-
clusion is that the visible universe has been
developed by an intelligence resident in the
unseen."
(4) Farther, these facts show that miracles
are not in disharmony with the history and
constitution of nature, nor destructive of its
order. Adopting again the language of the
authors quoted above (page 21), in reference
to the existence of those "breaks" which un-
deniably appear in nature, we may say : "If
this be true, the discussion regarding miracles
must be removed altogether from the domain
of science, and this for the very good reason
that scientific logic admits the occurrence of
events at least as astounding. The question
is now rather one for the historian and the
moral philosopher to decide." Nay, we may
claim that miracles are in analogy with some
of the ordinary workings of nature. For, first,
science leads us to conclude that the ordinary
laws of nature are the exertions of an unseen
and spiritual power, and miracles are nothing
more ; but, next, we cannot say that the laws of
nature are broken, or abrogated, by miracles, but
Ch. 2.] Competency and Credibility. 27
only that they have been superseded by the
coming in at a certain point of a superior cause,
working not hostilely but superior to them, just
as the law of gravitation is superseded — not
broken, or abrogated — by me, a higher cause,
when I lift a stone from the ground. In fact,
the law, in such cases, continues to operate all
the time ; it is only overcome by the superior
power present. Or else, if this be abrogation,
then are the laws of nature being broken and
abrogated every hour, and are not invariable ;
and consequently there can be no objection to
miracles on that ground.
(5) Miracles, therefore, cause no destruction
of the forces and laws of nature. Rather, in-
tended, as they were in Christianity, for res-
toration, healing, and the bringing in again
of real order and harmony, both physical and
moral, to a world already disturbed by sin,
they work toward the reestablishment of the
laws and forces of the real, original nature,
and tend to secure her primal symmetry and
strength.
(6) Finally, they do not necessarily suppose
any defect in the original plans of God, to sup-
ply which defect they were afterward wrought.
For we have no ground to assume that they
did not form a part of his original plan, and
were not intended from the first to be wrought
28 Positive Evidences. [Part I.
as occasion demanded. Rather the contrary.
They were necessary in his original creations,
in the beginning of the world, of physical life,
and of man; they are equally necessary, as
we have seen, whenever a revelation is to be
given ; and it is not unreasonable to infer that
while their very character as miraculous pre-
cludes them from ever being common occur-
rences, they may be, nevertheless, if indeed
they must not be, God's regular and ordinary
method of working in the world on such extra-
ordinary occasions.
We claim, then, that there appears in nature
no physical or moral reason from which to con-
clude the impossibility of miracles ; and since
there is also no violence done by them to the
divine attributes of truth, wisdom, and love,
but, as we shall hereafter see, they are indeed
most strongly prompted by all those infinite
characteristics of his, we conclude that mira-
cles are possible with God, and that therefore
a revelation may be given of his will.
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility. 29
CHAPTER III.
THE COMPETENCY OF THE EVIDENCE — I. THE
COMPETENCY OF EVIDENCE IN GENERAL TO
PROVE MIRACLES.
Allowing, then, the possibility of miracles,
our next inquiry, in the consideration of the
Admissibility of the Evidence, must be wheth-
er the character of the evidence presented is in
itself such as that it may be admitted to prove
them. This will constitute our examination
into the Competency of the Evidence, and will
divide itself into two branches — viz. : I. The
Competency of Evidence in General to Prove
Miracles. II. The Sufficiency of Probable
Evidence to Prove them. In the present
chapter we will consider the first of these two
subjects.
Christianity, indeed, alone of all religious sys-
tems, offers a recognized body of proof in sup-
port of its claims. None other, whether of the
ancient mythologies or the Mohammedanism,
Buddhism, etc., of the modern heathen, has
ever even pretended to any evidence of its claims
to be a supernatural communication of divine
truth. No such body of proof as the Buddhist
30 • Positive Evidences. [Part I.
Evidences, the Mohammedan Evidences, has
ever been known to literature. But Christian-
ity has always possessed and offered such an ar-
ray of proof; so that the phrase, "The Christian
Evidences," has become a term understood and
familiar to all. Indee'd, Christianity has been
able to make all her advances only through
those evidences. Renouncing alike the power
of the sword and all appeals to passion or to
prejudice ; teaching, on the contrary, as one of
her cardinal principles, the utmost self-sacri-
fice and renunciation of the world, she has con-
stantly appealed, from the beginning, to her
evidences, and sought to convince the reason
of men. It was thus that she won her way —
first, among the Jews ; then gained, through
three hundred years of persecution, gradual
acceptance by the cultivated pagans of Greece
and Rome ; and with her evidences she next
met and conquered the rude and savage bar-
barians, the conquerors of Rome. By them
she has hitherto come off victorious from all
the assaults of skepticism at home ; by them
she has destroyed, or is destroying, every op-
posing system, however gigantic, and is daily
making fresh advances against the ancient and
mighty systems of India and China. The his-
tory of the continual exhibition of those evi-
dences is the record of her continual triumphs.
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility. 31
Subjected during a period of nearly nineteen
hundred years, in the most enlightened na-
tions and ages of the world, to the most varied
and searching criticism, they still remain, not
only undiminished, but immensely enlarged
and strengthened, as each successive age has
added, by its investigations of her proofs, and
by its own test of her merits, fresh witness to
her truth.
This singular exception and superiority of
Christianity to all other religious systems
seems of itself worthy, at once, to separate it
from all others, and raise it above them all in
the estimation of a candid and reflecting mind.
Nay, it is not too much to claim that of itself
it raises a presumption in favor of the divin-
ity of Christianity ; for were it in the power
of human capacity to forge any such well-con-
nected and elaborate evidences, it is reasona-
ble to believe that at least one of the many
founders of false systems, intellectual as they
undoubtedly were, would have done so. That
not one of them has, or that, having done so,
the forged evidences have all been so weak as
to have sunk into total oblivion, is a presump-
tion, at least, that human capacity is not equal
to the forgery of so elaborate, so complete, and
so valid, a body of evidences as that which
Christianity possesses. But if they have not
32 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
been forged, they are genuine, and Christian-
ity is true and divine.
The objection, however, is urged against the
truth and divinity of Christianity, that all evi-
dence whatsoever is incompetent to establish
its claims. .It might be supposed that it would
not have been disputed by any one that it was
capable, somehow, of being proved. But Chris-
tianity has been made to meet in turn every
possible criticism, and accordingly it has been
urged against her, among other objections,
that, admitting even the possibility of mira-
cles, yet no human testimony was sufficient to
prove them, or to establish Christianity, which
necessarily includes miracles. In the words
of Hume, the father of this objection, it is
asserted that "No testimony is sufficient to
establish a miracle, since a miracle being a
violation of the laws of nature, which a firm
and unalterable experience, has established,
the proof against a miracle, from the very
nature of the fact, is- as entire as any argu-
ment from experience can be, whereas our ex-
perience of human veracity, which is the sole
foundation of the evidence of testimony, is far
from being uniform, and can therefore never
preponderate against that exjoerience which
admits of no exception." In refutation of this
we offer the following considerations :
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility. 33
1. His statement of the facts from which he
draws his argument is wholly incorrect. 1st.
As we have already seen, miracles are in no
sense "violations of the laws of nature," any
more than is every interference with the lower
laws by higher powers, which we daily see — as,
e. #., in the overcoming by our wills of the iner-
tia of our bodies, etc. But if these constitute
" violations " of the laws of nature, then are we
continually beholding them, and then our "ex-
perience," instead of establishing the inviola-
bility of the laws of nature, in reality contin-
ually establishes the opposite. Then if the
interference of a higher power with the lower
laws of nature are violations of those laws, no
argument drawn from our experience of the
inviolability of nature can be brought against
miracles ; if they are not violations, then mira-
cles, which consist essentially in such interfer-
ences, are not violations. In either case, the
argument against them falls to the ground.
2d. Our "experience" of the "laws of nature"
is not uniform and without exception ; for that
which we call the "laws of nature" is not the
limited personal knowledge of the natural phe-
nomena around him, and his deductions there-
from, which every man can have, or that any
one man can possibly arrive at, but our ac-
cepted deductions from the collected observa-
34 Positive Evidences. [Part I.
tions of men generally as to all the phenom-
ena of nature possible to be made. Nothing
less than this can be called "the laws of nat-
ure/' It follows that when we speak of the
"experience" of those laws which men have,
we cannot mean merely any and every man's
knowledge of them, but human experience in
general, and that too of the phenomena both of
changes actually occurring under the observ-
er's inspection, and of those things that now,
remaining unchanged, yet exhibit the marks
of past changes ; for the laws of nature are to
be deduced as well from those changes occur-
ring in the past as from those occurring in the
present. Our " experience, ' ' then, of the ' ' laws
of nature" is nothing else than our examina-
tion of all the marks that we can anywhere
possibly find, by ourselves and by other men,
of the mode of operation of those laws, and our
comparison of those marks with our deductions
as to those laws. If we find that those marks,
so far as we can judge, agree with those deduc-
tions, we say that the laws of nature are uni-
form, and the contrary if they are not. Now,
we have seen that science, which is but the
body which we possess of the accepted deduc-
tions of the laws of nature, drawn as far as
possible from universal "experience" — science
itself tells us that there are " breaks " in nature
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility. 35
where there must have been miracles. Our
"experience" then of nature does admit of
"exception" to her laws, and therefore no
argument against miracles can be drawn from
our alleged experience of their unbroken uni-
formity. 3d. But if this view of what we must
mean by our "experience " of the laws of nat-
ure be incorrect, and we must limit that phrase
to signify merely our individual experience,
then it is not correct to say, in regard to the
miracles narrated in the Bible, that they are
contrary to our experience. For, in point of
fact, our experience has never had any trial of
them whatever, and can pronounce upon them
really nothing, either favorable or unfavora-
ble. As Paley says, "The narrative of a fact
can be contrary to experience only when we or
others, being present at the time and place,
perceived that it did not exist ; i. e., when it
is contrary to our own or some one else's ex-
perience of the particular fact alleged. ,, If
then we are to understand the above objection
to mean that those miracles are contrary to our
experience, the statement is plainly incorrect.
2. The facts then, supposed to support this
objection, do not exist as stated by Hume, and
his argument, built on them, cannot be main-
tained. It may, however, be said that the ob-
jection still holds, inasmuch as our experience
36 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
of the uniformity of the laws of nature teaches
us the extreme improbability of miracles, and
consequently the insufficiency of testimony to
support them. This is an a priori objection,
drawn, not from our experience, for we have
actually no experience in the matter, but from
our ideas of what is and what is not improba-
ble; and from those ideas it receives all its
weight. But what may be improbable under
some, and ordinary, circumstances, may become
extremely probable under other and extraordi-
nary circumstances. A man may act in one
manner in the usual circumstances of life, but
entirely different in uncommon occurrences.
He may be content to communicate with dis-
tant friends, in common times, for a long period,
by the slower and ordinary method of a letter
through the post ; but on a great and pressing-
emergency, there may be reason enough for
him to employ the extraordinary means of a
telegraphic dispatch; and, then again, this
having accomplished its purpose, he may re-
lapse into his former more customary mode of
communication. So God may ordinarily com-
municate with man only by means of the works
of nature around us; but a special occasion,
the demands of which the ordinary means are
insufficient to meet, may lead him to commu-
nicate with us for a time, after an unusual and
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility. 37
extraordinary manner. It will be sufficient,
then, to overcome this a priori, or antecedent,
improbability of a divine revelation drawn
from our experience of the uniformity of the
laws of nature, by showing, on other grounds,
its great probability; and thereby, since mira-
cles are not impossible, and since it is a gen-
eral law of nature that the lower laws of
nature, for wise and beneficent purposes, should
suffer interference by higher powers ; and since
there is, for such purposes, an antecedent proba-
bility of a divine revelation, that it is therefore
a priori probable that the usual course of nature
should thus be interrupted, and miracles occur.
That such a revelation is probable, we infer
from the following considerations :
1. The common opinion of men has judged
it to be necessary. "That so many founders
of religions should appeal to a supernatural
revelation shows that nature is thought insuf-
ficient in the general opinion of men," says
Butler; and this view is fully proved by the
acknowledgments of the most eminent think-
ers, skeptics themselves as some of them are,
both of modern and of ancient times. " The
ultimate fruit of all philosophy is the observa-
tion of human weakness and ignorance," says
Hume. " The net results of natural theology,"
asserts Mill (Three Essays, etc.), "are these:
38 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
a Being of great but limited power, how or by
what limited we cannot even conjecture, of
great and perhaps unlimited intelligence, but
perhaps also more limited than his power, who
desires and pays some regard to the happiness
of his creatures, but who seems to have other
motives of action which he cares more for."
And he finds also but little, if any, hope from
the same source for the immortality of the soul.
Such confessions, from the great modern leaders
of skeptical thought, are surely enough to show
the insufficiency of natural reason alone to give
man any sure foundation for his hopes. Surely
a revelation is needed to teach men the truth.*
* " I would disturb no man's faith," says Coleridge ("Aids
to Keflection," p. 179), " in the great articles of the (falsely
so called) religion of nature. But before the man rejects,
and calls on other men to reject, the revelations of the
gospel and the religion of Christendom, I would have him
place himself in the state and under all the privations of
a Simonides, when, in the fortieth day of his meditations,
the sage and philosophic poet abandoned the problem in
despair, only to seriously consider whether a doctrine (i. e.,
of immortality), of the truth of which a Socrates could
obtain no other assurance than what he derived from his
strong wish that it should be true, and which Plato found
a mystery hard to discover, and, when discovered, commu-
nicable only to the fewest of men, can, consistently with
history or common sense, be classed among the articles, the
belief of which is insured to all men by their mere com-
mon sense."
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility. 39
And this was also the conclusion of the
wisest and best of the ancients. " Plato be-
gins his discourse concerning the gods and the
generation of the worlds," says Home, "with
the caution 'not to expect any thing beyond a
likely conjecture concerning these things."
Cicero, with all his vast learning, acuteness,
and industry, found that he was unequal to the
inquiry, and says: "If we had come into the
world in such circumstances as that we could
clearly and distinctly have perceived nature
herself, and have been able in the course of our
lives to follow her true and incorruptible direc-
tions, this alone might have been sufficient ; but
now nature has given us only some small sparks
of right reason, which we so quickly extinguish
with corrupt opinions and evil practices that
the true light of nature nowhere appears"
(Tusc. Quist. 3). And he acknowledges that
" all these things are involved in deep dark-
ness." And again, after enumerating the vari-
ous opinions of philosophers as to the immortal*
ity of the soul, he concludes : " Which of these
opinions is true some god must tell us; which is
most like truth is a hard question" (Id., 1).
"We deny not," he says again, "that some-
thing may be true, but we deny that it can be
perceived so to be, for what have we certain
concerning good and evil ? Nor for this are
40 Positive Evidences. [Part I.
we to be blamed, but nature, which has hidden
the truth in the deep " (De. Nat. Deor. Lib. 1,
n. 10, 11, and Acad. Qu. Lib. 2, n. 66, 120).
JN"ow Cicero, living as he did after the great
philosophers of Greece, and thoroughly versed
in their writings, and being himself a man of
the finest powers of mind, is well entitled to
represent the sum total of the results of those,
the highest, exertions of the human intellect.
Accordingly Gibbon, who will not be regarded
as being misled through any partiality to Chris-
tianity, shows from his writings the vanity of
the speculations of philosophers in these mat-
ters of such profound interest and concern to
men. He says: "The writings of Cicero rep-
resent in the most lively colors the ignorance,
the errors, and the uncertainty of the ancient
philosophers with regard to the immortality
of the soul. When they are desirous of arm-
ing their disciples against the fear of death,
they inculcate as an obvious though melan-
choly position, that the fatal stroke of our dis-
solution releases us from the calamities of life,
and that those can no longer suffer who no
longer exist. Yet there were a few sages of
Greece and Rome who had conceived a more
exalted, and, in some respects, a juster idea
of human nature ; though it must be confessed,
that in the sublime inquiry, their reason had
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility. 41
often been guided by their imagination, and
their imagination had been prompted by their
vanity. When they viewed with complacency
the extent of their own mental powers, . . .
and when they reflected on the desire of fame
which transported them into future ages far
beyond the bounds of death and the grave,
they were unwilling to confound themselves
with the beasts of the field, or to suppose that
a being, for whose dignity they entertained the
most sincere admiration, could be limited to a
spot of earth and to a few years of duration.
With this favorable prepossession, they sum-
moned to their aid the science, or rather the
language, of metaphysics. They soon discov-
ered that as none of the properties of matter
will apply to the operations of the mind, the
human soul must consequently be a substance
distinct from the body — pure, simple, and
spiritual, incapable of dissolution, and suscep-
tible of a much higher degree of virtue and
happiness after the release from its corporeal
prison. From these specious and noble prin-
ciples the philosophers who trod in the foot-
steps of Plato deduced a very unjustifiable
conclusion, since they asserted not only the
future immortality but the past eternity of the
human soul, ... a doctrine thus removed
beyond the senses and the experience of man-
42 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
kind might serve to amuse the leisure of a
philosophic mind; or, in the silence of soli-
tude, it might sometimes impart a ray of
comfort to desponding virtue; but the faint
impression which had been received in the
school was soon obliterated by the commerce
and business of active life. We are sufficient-
ly acquainted with the eminent persons who
flourished in the age of Cicero, and of the first
Caesars, with their actions, their characters,
and their motives, to be assured that their con-
duct in this life was never regulated by any
serious conviction of the rewards or punish-
ments of a future state. At the bar, and in
the senate of Rome, the ablest orators were
not apprehensive of giving offense to their
hearers by exposing that doctrine as an idle
and extravagant opinion, which was rejected
with contempt by every man of a liberal edu-
cation and understanding.
" Since, therefore, the most sublime efforts of
philosophy can extend no farther than feebly
to point out the desire, the hope, or, at most,
the probability, of a future state, there is noth-
ing except a divine revelation that can ascer-
tain the existence, and describe the condition,
of the invisible country which is destined to
receive the souls of men after their separation
from the body."
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility. 43
Thus the testimony of Gibbon himself is in
full support of our position. No words of ours
could add to the force of this conclusion of his,
in which he too not only most strongly asserts
the utterly vain attempts of the highest human
reason, but also remarkably declares, as the
necessary inference therefrom, the absolute
necessity of a divine revelation.
2. This conclusion, Home shows (Introduc-
tion, etc.), is confirmed by the darkness and
confusion existing in general among men as to
the most important doctrines. Plato (vide Lin-
naeus), with many other ancient philosophers,
held the eternity of matter, and Aristotle the
eternity of the present world, both in matter
and form. The Magians believed that there
are two eternal principles — the one good, the
other evil. Brahminism denies the individu-
ality of the human soul, as also many of the
Greek philosophers, together with the modern
pantheists, and teaches that it is a part of God,
and hence that all it does is right, and the
greatest crime nothing but God's act. The
immortality of the soul was considered very
doubtful ; transmigration was taught by some ;
reabsorption into the divine essence is believed
in .by Buddhists; Pliny says "the soul and
body have no more sense after death than be-
fore we were born;" Caesar: "Beyond death
44 Positive Evidences. [Part I.
there is place neither for care nor joy." " The
Hindoos believe in one God — so completely
abstracted, however, in his own essence that
in this state he is emphatically the ' Unknown/
and consequently the object neither of hope
nor fear ; he is even destitute of intelligence,
and remains in a state of profound repose. . .
To him, however, the Hindoos erect no altars.
The objects of their adoration commence with
the triad — Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva — which
represent the almighty powers of Creation,
Preservation, and Destruction. As to the prov-
idence of God, the Epicureans held that 'what
was blessed and immortal gave neither any
trouble to itself nor to others ; ' Aristotle, that
God resides in the celestial sphere, and ob-
serves nothing, and cares for nothing, beyond
himself; Plato, that 'God, fortune, and oppor-
tunity, govern all the affairs of men' (De Legg.,
book 4) ; and polytheism allowed one god to be
against men because another was favorable to
them ; farther, the Spartans, by law, allowed
adultery in certain cases, and Plutarch, in his
Life of Lycurgus, commends it. Plato says,
f He may lie who knows how to do it in a fit
season,' and, with the Stoics, made a Jesuitical
distinction between lying with the lips and in
the mind ; while Menander says, 'A lie is better
than a hurtful truth.'"
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility. 45
3. This need of a divine revelation is farther
shown by the corruptness of the morals which
has always prevailed wherever the Bible has
been unknown, and the utter incapacity of
heathen philosophy or religion to restrain it.
"Do you think," exclaims Cicero, speaking of
the ancient philosophers and their teachings,
"that these things had any influence upon the
men, a few only excepted, who thought, and
wrote, and disputed, about them? Who is
there of all the philosophers whose mind, life,
and manners, were conformable to right rea-
son ? Who ever made his philosophy the law
and rule of his life, and not a mere show of his
wit and parts? Who observed his own in-
structions, and lived in obedience to his own
precepts ? * On the contrary, many of them
were slaves to filthy lusts, many to pride, many
to covetousness" (Tusc. Quist. 2).
But not only was this the case as to the phi-
losophers of Greece and Rome, and their fol-
lowers — the sad helplessness into which the
* Who, indeed, ever did but Jesus Christ ? The whole of
this is a most important witness to his vast superiority to all
others of the wisest of mankind. He taught by far the most
sublime standard of virtue, and yet so perfectly exemplified
it, under the most trying circumstances, in his character and
life, that not one of his many enemies, throughout eighteen
centuries, has ever been able to point out the smallest stain
on his spotless robe of righteousness.
46 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
human family were plunged is even more strik-
ingly shown by the effect of their religious sys-
tems. "For you may imagine," writes Bacon
("Essays on Unity in Religion"), "what kind
of faith theirs was, when the chief doctors and
fathers of their Church were the poets." Ac-
cordingly, as Home again shows (Intro., Yol.
I., Ch. 1, 5), in all the heathen world, in all
ages, there have prevailed not only the greatest
uncertainty, frequent absurdities, and much in-
completeness, but also, in every system, some-
thing mean, selfish, or sensual. Among the
ancient heathens the worship of one God was
unknown. There were deities that presided
over every distinct nation, city, town, grove,
river, and fountain. Temples and fanes were
erected to all the passions, diseases, fears, and
evils, to which mankind were subject. Accord-
ingly these divinities were — some vindictive
and sanguinary; others jealous, wrathful, or
deceitful; most unchaste, adulterous, and in-
cestuous. Thus their rites were often absurd,
licentious, and cruel. Prostitution was system-
atically annexed to various pagan temples, and
in some countries was even made compulsory
upon the females ; and other impurities were
solemnly practiced in their temples and in pub-
lic, at the very thought of which our minds re-
volt. Numbers of men were killed in the bloody
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility. 47
sports instituted in honor of their deities, and
human sacrifices, including tender infants, were
in some countries offered to propitiate them.
"With few exceptions, they never taught the
duty of loving our enemies and forgiving inju-
ries, but that revenge was lawful and commend-
able. Suicide was regarded as the strongest
mark of heroism ; theft was permitted both in
Egypt and Sparta; abortion was allowed by
Aristotle in certain cases, and the exposure of
infants by Plato. Among the Romans, masters
might put their slaves to death at pleasure ; for
the relief of the poor and destitute no provision
was made ; common swearing was committed
by their best moralists — as, e. #., Socrates, Plato,
and Seneca; and the unlawful gratification of
the sensual appetites was openly taught and al-
lowed ; and even in those particulars in which
the best and wisest of their philosophers did
teach good principles, they were forced to com-
plain that they found the understandings of
men so dark and beclouded, their wills so bi-
ased and inclined to evil, their passions so out-
rageous and rebellious — in short, human nat-
ure so strangely corrupted and diseased by
some cause of which they were ignorant, that
they could not effect any great change in the
characters and lives of any considerable num-
ber of men.
48 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
If we turn from ancient to modern heathen-
dom, we see a spectacle no less melancholy.
Among savage tribes the most abject idolatry,
in the worship of the heavenly bodies, animals,
serpents, and dumb idols, everywhere prevail,
as also sorcery and magic ; while polygamy,
divorce, and infanticide, together with the
practice of the grossest vices, are universal.
Among the most enlightened of modern hea-
then nations we find it much the same. In
China all ranks, from the emperor downward,
are full of absurd superstitions, and worship
gods celestial, terrestrial, and subterraneous —
gods of the hills, the valleys, the shop, and the
kitchen. Altars are erected on the hills and in
the groves, and idols are set up at the corners
of the streets, on the sides of the road, on the
banks of canals, and in the boats. Astrology,
divination, and necromancy, everywhere pre-
vail. The worship of dead ancestors is widely
prevalent. In accordance with their religion,
their general character is well known to be
that of fraud, lying, and hypocrisy. Polyga-
my also universally exists, as well as the prac-
tice of exposing infants, thousands of whom die
annually from this cause. In India the poly-
theism of the Hindoos is of the grossest kind,
not fewer than three hundred and thirty mill-
ion deities claiming adoration. Rites the most
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility, 49
impure, penances the most toilsome, almost
innumerable modes of self-torture, the burn-
ing or burying of widows, infanticide, sub-
mersion of the sick and the dying in the
Ganges, self-immolation — these and such
like are the horrid practices of their idolatry.
Nor is the case much different among the
Mohammedans. Fierceness, rapacity, cruel-
ty, polygamy, and falsehood, mark their char-
acter.
Such has ever been and still is the condition
of all nations without Christianity. To such
a state has man ever come without a revela-
tion. It cannot be argued that it was for the
lack of intellectual ability that these nations
fell into such corruptions. Some of them were
most successful in all other intellectual exer-
tions, and have never been surpassed, if ever
equaled, in producing great works of art and
literature, or of achieving distinction in poli-
tics or war. No; it was not because their
intellects were inferior, but only because, at
its best, the mind of man is incapable of form-
ing any adequate system of religion, that Plato
and Aristotle, with all the rest of the Greeks
and Romans, produced such imperfect and in-
sufficient schemes. This truth is still farther
shown by the speculations of modern skeptical
philosophers, who, nevertheless, have enjoyed
3
50 Positive Evidences, [Parti.
the advantages of the knowledge of the truth
revealed to us by the Scriptures. Those spec-
ulations are often contradictory and discordant
among themselves, and no less also with true
reason and common sense. Bolingbroke taught
that all morality was resolvable into self-love,
and that ambition, sensuality, and avarice,
may be lawfully gratified if they may be safely
gratified. Hume maintained that self-denial
and humility are not virtues, but useless and
mischievous ; that adultery must be practiced
if men would obtain all the advantages of life,
and that if it were generally practiced it would
in time cease to be scandalous, and by degrees
be thought to be no crime. Both Voltaire and
Helvetius advocated the most unlimited gratifi-
cation of the sensual appetites ; and Rousseau,
according to his own printed '-Confessions,"
was a debauched profligate, who made his feel-
ings the only standard of right. "All that I
feel to be right is right," he says; " whatever
I feel to be wrong is wrong." And what the
character of the French Revolution was under
the direction of men entertaining similar opin-
ions, let history tell as a witness of what men
form for themselves when left .to themselves.
And it would be with us and our nation as
with Greece and Rome, as with China, and
India, and with infidel France, were we de-
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility. 51
privecl of Christianity ; for we are, by nature,
no better than they. Thus we behold our need
of a revelation from God.
4. Farther, such need must ever continue.
From the very nature of the case man is una-
ble to discover fully, by the light of nature,
what he needs. (1) Vide "Watson's Insti-
tutes." The quality of moral actions must
be presumed to be matter of revelation from
God. Creation implies government, govern-
ment implies law, and law must be given by
revelation. This may be through nature, or
through nature and direct revelation also.
The latter alone is sufficient, since, 1st. There
are many duties not clearly taught by nature
alone. For instance, temperance is not taught,
except it be by the loss of health, etc. ; and
therefore we should suppose that it was not
required of those whose health, etc., is not
injured thereby, and therefore we should have
one rule for one class and another rule for an-
other. And so, likewise, with justice, since
injustice goes often unpunished in this life;
and with benevolence, since nature is full of
rigor. Besides, there is nothing to show us
that it is our duty to worship God, nor that he
may be approached in prayer, nor that there
is a future state of rewards and punishments,
nor, clearly, that man is immortal, nor that
52 Positioe Evidences. [Parti.
there is any pardon for sin. 2d. But even
were nature sufficient, our reason is insuffi-
cient; for, at the best, reason is very imper-
fect. Again, men's reasons greatly differ, and
hence there would be diverse rules. Again,
men are not sufficiently contemplative, nor
sufficiently honest, for such inquiries. And
still farther, if the truth were once found, and
intellectual men appointed to teach it, it would
yet lack the authority of a divine revelation,
and so be powerless. (2) Vide "Wayland's
Moral Science." Conscience is imperfect. 1st.
Unassisted, it does not discover many obliga-
tions man is under, both to God and to his
fellow-man, as is fulty proved by the failures
to do so by the wisest and best of the ancients.
2d. In such as he does discover and acknowl-
edge, man frequently errs as to the mode in
which they are to be discharged, as, for instance,
when he feels, as has often been the case, his
obligations to God, but thinks he may dis-
charge them by offering human sacrifices. 3d.
When both his duty and the manner of dis-
charging them are known, conscience is yet
often too obtuse or too weak, as we all know,
to make men feel them, and impel men to a
discharge of them. We therefore need addi-
tional means of securing both the knowledge
and the enforcement of our duties to those
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility. 53
which conscience, imperfect as we thus see
that it is, can give.
5. In nature, God's revelation of himself
is imperfect, and therefore our knowledge of
what is due him, as well as of his will toward
us, is imperfect. Nature does indeed reveal
his existence, his power and wisdom, and his
established principle of order, but it reveals :
(1) Imperfectly his disposition of benevolence.
(2) And nothing whatever of his character of
holiness, except indeed it may be very imper-
fectly reflected from the moral character of
his creature, man. (3) And if we should ar-
rive at a conception of his holiness, there is
yet no power revealed jn nature by which sin
may be overcome within us. Therefore, both
from the imperfection of the knowledge given
by nature, and from its total lack of moral
power to aid us in carrying that knowledge
into action, nature is insufficient, and a farther
revelation is needed from God, manifesting his
moral and spiritual nature in its perfection,
and possessed of power over the human heart
to frame it for right action. " In fine," we may
well conclude with Paley, " I deem it unneces-
sary to prove that mankind stood in need of a
revelation, because I have met with no serious
person who thinks that even under the Chris-
tian revelation we have too much light."
54 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
From the very nature of the case, then, we
perceive the total inadequacy of nature alone
to suffice for the moral necessities of man, and
we conclude the probability of a farther and
direct revelation for their supply, at the hands
of that wise and benevolent Creator and Pre-
server, who, in nature, has so bounteously and
variously provided for his physical need and
joy. This conclusion, we have seen, is con-
firmed by the general opinion of men, that such
a revelation was necessary, as also by the great-
est thinkers that have lived. It is farther
exhibited in the utter confusion as to the most
important doctrines that has always prevailed
in the absence of such a revelation. And last-
ly, we have seen how much it is demanded by
the dark view of the moral state of the whole
world, in all times, without revelation. We
claim, then, from this survey, that any just
a priori improbability that Hume's objection
may be thought to bring against revelation,
because of the uniformity of the laws of nat-
ure and the improbability of miracle, is more
than counterbalanced by this other, strong,
opposing a priori improbability that this im-
perative need of man should never be supplied
by the great and good God. While we con-
cede such a general uniformity of nature, yet,
remembering that God has not put it out of
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility. 55
his own power to interfere with nature, and
directly control her, and remembering too that
science itself teaches us that several times,
on extraordinary occasions — in creation, in the
production of life, and in the bringing forth
of man — he has so interfered for beneficent
purposes, we must conclude that, for such high
ends as we have pointed out, he would once
more so interfere in our behalf, and work even
miracles to give us a revelation of himself, of
our destiny, and of his will.
6. Hume's objection is thus fallacious in the
incorrectness of its statement of the facts. It
is fallacious too in not recognizing the ante-
cedent probability of a revelation as opposing
the a priori improbability of a miracle. It is,
thirdly, fallacious in its argument itself, in that
it really begs the question in dispute. For,
by saying that "the proof against a miracle
is as entire as any argument from experience
can be," etc., he can surely mean nothing less
than that a miracle is something wholly un-
known to all human experience, and that the
laws of nature have been always uniform. This
is the whole point of his argument. But this
is the very point in dispute. We claim that,
even as it is recorded in the Bible, many thou-
sands, in different countries and ages, and some-
times through a long series of years — from the
56 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites, and
their daily supply of manna for forty years in
the wilderness, to the feeding of the thousands
by Christ, and afterward — miracles were open-
ly witnessed by multitudes of people. If the
Bible account is doubted, or alleged to be false,
that is another and a prior question, which
must be settled by showing, on other (/rounds,
that the evidence for their truth is insufficient,
contradictory, or disproved by other evidence.
But we cannot say the Bible is false, simply
because it tells of the occurrence of miracles,
and miracles are impossible, and then argue
that miracles are impossible, because we are
nowhere credibly told of their occurrence. The
latter is the argument of flume, given with-
out any previous impeachment on extraneous
grounds of the credibility of the Scripture
narrative. His position, then, that miracles
are unknown to human experience, really begs
the very point at issue — a point which, like all
questions of fact, can only be finally settled by
a full and impartial consideration of the tes-
timony for or against, not by abstract reason-
ing of what is and what is not antecedently
probable.
7. Finally, it may be safely claimed, in op-
position to the position taken in the objection,
that there is no miracle so great but that hu-
Ch. 3.] Competency and Credibility, 57
man testimony may establish it. Our minds
are so formed that their assent is absolutely
compelled to be given whenever a certain
amount and kind of evidence have been given.
"The evidence," as Campbell says, "arising
from human testimony, in point of fact, is not
altogether derived from experience, but, on
the contrary, our doubt about testimony arises
from experience. In reality, the constitution
of our nature obliges us to believe the testimony
of thousands of our fellow-men — and these, too,
men of strict integrity, swayed by no motives
of ambition or interest, and governed by the
principles of common sense — of things to which
they were themselves the actual witnesses."
"If twelve men, in short," as Paley shows,
"should testify to the same miraculous fact,
and continue to repeat it, though at the risk of
life, through many years, separate and apart,
in opposition to many keen and watchful op-
ponents, and before various tribunals of justice,
and if their testimony should nevertheless per-
fectly agree, and be corroborated by all the
other witnesses in the case, and by all the at-
tendant circumstances discoverable, it maybe
truly said that the human mind could not re-
sist such testimony."
Whether Christianity has such testimony to
its truth, we will hereafter discuss. We now
3*
58 Positive Evidences. [Part I.
claim that it has been shown that miracles,
and consequently a revelation, may be estab-
lished by human testimony. The objection
which denies it is shown to be without force —
nay, a strong antecedent probability is seen to
exist in its favor ; and we therefore bring this
stage of our inquiry to a close with the affirma-
tion of the Competency of Evidence in general
to prove Miracles, and therefore to establish
the fact of a revelation given of God.
Ch. 4.] Competency and Credibility. 59
CHAPTER IV.
THE COMPETENCY OF THE EVIDENCE — II. PROB-
ABLE EVIDENCE IS SUFFICIENT TO PROVE A
REVELATION.
The next possible objection to the Christian
Evidences is that they consist only of proba-
ble, and not demonstrative, evidence, and are
therefore insufficient. This objection asserts
that, inasmuch as the best human testimony is
liable to error, revelation is not proved there-
by, beyond the possibility of a doubt, and con-
sequently the evidence is inadequate. This
brings us to consider the Competency of the
Evidence in its second point — namely, the Suf-
ficiency of Probable Evidence to Prove a Rev-
elation.
It is sufficient, because it is unreasonable
and absurd to require any greater than prob-
able evidence of the facts of the Christian re-
ligion. Whately has remarked, in his Anno-
tations on Bacon's Essays, that the "craving
for infallibility in religious matters is a fruitful
cause of atheism. Some, because they think
that revelation is not such as it is reasonable
and proper for God to bestow, choose to reject
60 Positive Evidences. [p ar t i.
it, thus claiming for themselves infallibility of
judgment as to what is reasonable and proper,
and judging God; others, because they think
some system of theology — some particular in-
terpretation of the Bible — to be wrong, reject
the Bible itself with the theological system —
as if the possession of a divine revelation in-
sured the presence also of an infallible inter-
preter." In like manner others, as unreason-
ably and absurdly, reject Christianity because
its evidences are probable only, and not de-
monstrative — that is, that it establishes its
facts only beyond a reasonable doubt, but not
beyond all possibility of objection by their own
minds. In opposition to such a notion, we as-
sert that probable evidence is alone applicable
to the case in hand. Demonstrative evidence
is totally inapplicable to the establishment not
only of the facts of Christianity, but to that of
any facts whatever.
1. Demonstrative evidence consists solely in
that evidence which arises from our reasoning
from primary axioms of abstract principles to
other abstract truths. Wholly abstract, there-
fore, and disconnected with any matter of fact,
it is limited in its application entirely to the re-
lations of number and quantity, and capable of
establishing mathematical truth alone. "The
field of demonstration," says Reid (" Intellect-
Ch. 4.] Competency and Credibility. 61
ual Powers of Man "), " is necessary truth ; the
field of probable reasoning is contingent truth
— i. e., not what necessarily must be at all times,
but what is, or was, or shall be. . . . The
strength of probable reasoning, for the most
part, depends not upon any one argument, but
upon many which unite their force, and lead to
the same conclusion. Any one of them by it-
self would be insufficient to convince, but the
whole taken together may have a force that is
irresistible; so that to desire more evidence
would be absurd. Would any man seek new
arguments to prove that there were such per-
sons as King Charles I. and Oliver Cromwell ?
Such evidence may be compared to a rope
made up of many slender filaments twisted
together. The rope has strength more than
sufficient to bear the stress laid upon it, though
no one of the filaments of which it is composed
would be sufficient for it." Such are the prin-
ciples of evidence laid down by Reid the phi-
losopher, in his great work on the human mind,
as the rules that must govern in all our decis-
ions. In addition, we must remember that at
its best the human mind is not infallible, and
therefore all its knowledge whatsoever is liable
to error — that none of its conclusions are ever
really put beyond the possibility of a doubt.
The very fact that evidence is necessary to us
62 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
in order to establish a truth shows that we are
beings of limited powers. (Vide Essay, by
the Hon. W. E. Gladstone, Fortnightly Review,
May, 1879, on "Probability as the Guide of
Conduct."). If we were not, we should be able
to recognize whatever is true immediately,
without the aid of intermediate evidence ; but
if our powers are limited, they are always lia-
ble to make mistake. Not that they will nec-
essarily err. A being of the most limited
powers, while always liable to error, may yet
always hit the truth ; and therefore it is thai
we are still capable of attaining to a real
knowledge of the truth, though we are falli-
ble, and therefore that probable evidence may
form a valid ground for confidence in our con-
clusions. But still there remains the fact that
all our mental faculties are in themselves im-
perfect ; their operations also, and their acts,
are never infallible, and therefore their conclu-
sions are always open to some degree of doubt.
The demand, then, that Christian Evidences
should be free from all doubt is unreasonable
and absurd.
2. But not only are such the conclusions of
abstract reasoning, but these are the principles
that are practically and constantly followed in
trials by our judicial tribunals. Greenleaf, the
standard legal authority on the subject, in his
Ch. 4.] Competency and Credibility. 63
work "On Evidence," in his chapter, in vol. 1,
on the "Nature and Principles of Evidence"
(Italics ours), says: "None but mathematical
truth is susceptible of that high degree of evi-
dence called demonstration which excludes all
possibility of error. Matters of fact are proved
by moral evidence alone ; by which is meant not
only that kind of evidence which is employed
on subjects connected with moral conduct, but
all the evidence which is not obtained either
from intuition or demonstration. In the ordi-
nary affairs of life we do not require demon-
strative evidence, because it is inconsistent
with the nature of the subject, and to insist
upon it would be to be unreasonable and ab-
surd. The most that can be affirmed of such
things is that there is no reasonable doubt con-
cerning them. The true question, therefore, in
trials of fact is not whether it is possible that the
testimony may be false, but whether there is a suffi-
cient probability of its truth — that is, whether the
facts are shown by competent and satisfactory
evidence. Things established by competent
and satisfactory evidence are said to be proved.
. . . It is assumed (i. e., by objectors to this
position) that all that men know is due to per-
ception and reflection. But the knowledge ac-
quired by an individual through his own per-
ception and reflection is but a small part of
64 Positive Evidences.
[Part I.
what he possesses, much of what we are content
to regard and act upon as knowledge having
been acquired through others. Indeed, if ma n
is to believe only upon his own personalexpe-
rience, the world can neither be governed nor
improved, and society must remain in the state
in which it was left by the first generation
of men. The disposition to believe may be
termed instinctive. It is true that, in receiv-
ing the testimony of others, we are much influ-
enced by its accordance with facts previously
known or believed, and this constitutes what
is termed its probability. Statements thus
probable are received upon evidence much
less cogent than we require for the belief of
those which do not accord with our previous
knowledge. Nevertheless, we should beware
of distrusting all others. While unbounded
credulity is the attribute of weak minds, un-
limited skepticism belongs only to those who
make their own knowledge and observation
the exclusive standard of probability. Thus
the King of Siam rejected the testimony of the
Dutch embassador, that in his country water
was sometimes congealed into a solid mass.
Skeptics, inconsistently enough with their own
principles, yet true to the nature of man, con-
tinue to receive a large portion of their knowl-
edge upon testimony not derived from their
Ch. 4.] Competency and Credibility. 65
own experience, but from that of other men,
even when it is at variance with much of their
own personal observation. Thus the testimo-
ny of the historian is received with confidence
in regard to the occurrences of ancient times ;
that of the naturalist and traveler, in regard to
the natural history and civil condition of other
countries ; that of the astronomer, respecting
the heavenly bodies — facts which, upon the
narrow basis of his own 'firm and unalterable
experience,' upon which Mr. Hume so much
relies, he would be bound to reject as wholly
unworthy of belief."
Such are the principles constantly followed,
in decisions made as to matters of fact, in our
courts of justice. They are reasonably to be
taken as rules which, having been settled by
the wisest jurists, through centuries of dis-
cussion, are proper to guide us in the forma-
tion of our opinion as to questions of fact.
Demonstrative evidence is by them utterly
excluded. Demonstrative evidence, then, can-
not be reasonably demanded of the truth of
the facts of the Christian religion. Christian-
ity asks nothing more than that her claims
be subjected to the ordinary tests established
for. the ascertainment of facts. Those who
require that they shall be proved by demon-
strative evidence are unreasonable in the high-
66 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
est extreme, and their demand is wholly ab-
surd.
3. Farther still, science also, in whose name
the demand for demonstrative evidence is
sometimes brought, follows the same princi-
ples; for the truth of the laws of nature
also is dependent on human testimony. The
facts from which those laws are deduced — e. g.,
the observations of astronomy, botany, phys-
ics, etc. — for much the greater part can be
furnished by others only, and not perceived
individually by that one (e. #., Newton) who
deduces from them those laws.
Moreover, since no fact whatever can be
proved to exist by demonstrative evidence
as is a mathematical problem, the facts upon
which science herself, infallible as she is sup-
posed to be, builds her deductions, are also
liable to be mistaken ; for whether obtained
through the use of the microscope, or of chem-
ical experiment, etc., they are obtained only
by observation and experiment, and therefore
are all established by no more than probable
evidence, and liable to be erroneous, and to
lead to erroneous conclusions. The constant
conflict in the testimony of the most scientific
experts, given in judicial cases, proves this.
After having had the best opportunities of ex-
amination, and using the best instruments and
Ch. 4.] Competency and Credibility. * 67
chemicals, and with their professional reputa-
tion at stake, the leading representatives of
their several professions will yet usually come
into court, after examining the same spot of
blood, or the same body, and, instead of testi-
fying alike, two or three will swear positively
that the blood in question is human blood, or
the body contains poison, while as many others
will swear as positively directly to the con-
trary.*
Accordingly Jevous, an acknowledged au-
thority on the subject ("Principles of Science,"
vol. i., pp. 244, 271, et seq.), lays down the fol-
lowing : " I conceive that it is impossible even
to expound the principles and motives of in-
duction, as applied to natural phenomena, in
a sound manner, without resting them upon
the theory of probability. Perfect knowledge
alone can give certainty, and in nature perfect
* Thus in a case cited in 4 American Law Journal, 625,
on a question of forgery of a signature, among other con-
flicts of testimony between men of the highest scientific
authority, in examining whether "under the ink of the
disputed signature the microscope brought to light marks
of tracing," Dr. Charles T. Jackson, a " specialist in this
line of extraordinary skill and reputation, and Prof. Hors-
ford, well known for his accomplishments in the same line,
backed by other experts of distinction," swore positively
that it did, and Profs. Agassiz and Oliver Wendell Holmes
that it did not.
68 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
knowledge would be infinite knowledge, which
is clearly beyond our capacities. We have
therefore to content ourselves with partial
knowledge — knowledge mingled with igno-
rance, and, producing doubt. . . . We can
never recur too often to the truth, that our
knowledge of the laws and future events of the
external world is only probable. . . . What-
ever feeling is actually present to the mind is
certainly known to that mind. If I see blue
sky, I may be quite sure that I do experience
the sensation of blueness. ... In the sec-
ond place, we may haA r e certainty of inference.
The first axioms of Euclid are certainly true,
. . . and whatever truth there is in the
premises I can certainly embody in their di-
rect logical result. . . . But I never can be
quite sure that two colors are exactly alike,
that two magnitudes are exactly.equal, or that
two bodies, whatsoever, are identical, even in
their apparent relations. . . . Inferences
which we draw concerning natural objects are
never certain, except in a hypothetical point
of view."
Science too, then, must rest her whole sys-
tem upon the very same kind of evidence as
supports revelation ; and Christianity, to judge
whose claims she has by some of her followers
been arrogantly claimed to be the supreme
Ch. 4.] Competency and Credibility. 69
arbiter, is bound to confront her, on her own
ground, with equal support of truth. Proba-
ble evidence is, and can be, the only ground
of confidence in each, as it is, and alone can
be, of all our knowledge derived from matters
of fact.
4. The speculative reasoning then of philos-
ophers, the practical administration of justice
in the courts, and the deductive reasonings of
science, thus unite in acknowledging probable
evidence sufficient to decide matters of fact.
We adduce, finally, the course of daily, ordi-
nary life, as showing by the constant conduct
of men their real opinion of its sufficiency to
decide our actions in matters pertaining to this
life, and we claim therefore that it should also
decide in the same way our action in respect
to religion. " Probable evidence, in its very
nature, affords but an imperfect kind of infor-
mation, but to us is the very guide of life,
. . . but being often repeated, will amount
even to moral certainty — as, e. g., the ebb and
flow of the tide. . . . It is thought by some
that if the evidence of revelation appears
doubtful, this itself turns into a positive argu-
ment against it ; . . . [whereas], in questions
of difficulty, if there appears, on the whole, a
greater presumption on one side than on the
other, this determines the question, and lays us
70 Positive Evidences. [p al . t i.
under an absolute obligation to act upon that
presumption. Nay, in questions of great con-
sequence, a reasonable man will act upon pre-
sumptions such as amount to no more than to
show that one side is as credible as another,
as in numberless cases in the common pursuits
of life, where a man would be thought, in a
literal sense, distracted, who would not act,
and with great application too, not only upon
an even chance, but upon much less (e. g.,
where health, fortune, or life, are at stake).
. . . Besides, the evidence of religion not
appearing obvious (i. e., the fact that the evi-
dence of religion may not seem entirely suffi-
cient to them at first sight), may be part of
some men's trial, and give scope for a virtu-
ous exercise or vicious neglect of the under-
standing in examining or not examining into it.
The man who had a right disposition, such as
would lead him to follow the precepts of relig-
ion, if proved to be true, would be led, were
he unconvinced, seriously to consider its evi-
dence. Negligence before conviction is as really
guilty as disobedience afterward. And even
doubtful evidence puts men in a state of pro-
bation. . . . If a man were in doubt whether
his entire temporal blessings did not come
from a certain person, he could not consider
himself in the same situation with regard to
Ch. 4.] Competency and Credibility. 71
such person as if he had no [such] doubt;
but there would be required from him rever-
ence, careful consideration, openness to farther
light and conviction. Doubt as much implies
same evidence as belief a higher degree of it,
and certainty a higher degree still. For,
when we say there is an even chance, there is
more evidence for either side of the question
than there is for the truth of some idea that
has come at random into the mind. But a
disregard of even the lower degrees of evi-
dence in our practice proves unfairness, and,
in religion, corruptness of heart." — Butler's
Analogy.
That probability is thus necessarily the very
guide of life is not a conclusion held by Chris-
tians only, nor has it been used only to estab-
lish the claims of religion. Voltaire, in an
essay upon judicial inquiries, says : "Almost
all of human life turns upon probabilities.
All that is not demonstrated to the eyes, or
recognized as true by those clearly interested
to deny, is at most only probable. . . . Un-
certainty being almost always the lot of man,
you will determine very seldom, if you expect
a demonstration. In the meantime an opinion
must be formed, and it should not be formed
at random. It is then necessary to our feeble
nature, blind, always subject to error, to study
72 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
the probabilities with as much care as we learn
arithmetic and geometry."*
Christianity, therefore, in possessing prob-
able evidence, has, so far as its kind is con-
cerned, all the evidence that we do or can
require in our decisions in all— the most ordi-
nary as well as the gravest — affairs of life. It
has all that is possible to be applied to the
ascertainment of matters of fact, all that is
ever resorted to in such ascertainment in courts
of law, and all that natural science can ever
pretend to have in her acquirements of data
necessary to her deductive conclusions. That
evidence, then, is competent to establish her
claims, and it is unreasonable and absurd to
demand demonstrative evidence, or evidence
concerning which there can be imagined no
possible doubt. The denial of the competency
of probable evidence, in matters of fact, to
* The original is as follows : " Presque toute le vie hu-
mane roule sur des probability. Tout ce qui n'est pas
dSmontre* aux yeux, ou reconnu pour vrai par les parties
evidemment interressees a le nier n'est tout au plus que
probable. . . . L'incertitude etant presque toujours le
partage de rhomrae, vous determineriez treVrarement, si
vous attendiez une demonstration. Cependant il faut pren-
dre un parti ; et il ne faut pas le prendre au hasard. II
est done necessaire a notre nature faible, aveugle, toujours
sujette a l'erreur, d'etudier les probabilites avec autant de
soin, que nous apprenous l'arithmetique et la geom£trie."
Ch. 4.] Competency and Credibility. 73
command our belief, and consequently secure
our obedience, must logically lead to the denial
of the establishment of every fact, and render
human knowledge impossible. Accordingly,
to such a conclusion does Hume, the great ob-
jector to the testimony offered by Christianity,
come. He concludes (" Treatise of Human
Nature," Book I., Part 4, Sec. 1) — first, that
all that is called human knowledge is only
probability ; and, secondly, that this probabil-
ity, when duly examined, evanishes by degrees,
and leaves at last no evidence at all ; so that
in the issue there is no ground to believe any
one proposition rather than its contrary, and
"all those are certainly fools 1 ' who reason, or
believe any thing." To such an extremity of
universal skepticism must the denial of the
competency of probable evidence logically lead,
and actually often does lead, in more cases than
Hume's. But surely such a conclusion as this
is not the highest result of human reason, or
the best for human interests. " He who makes
wisdom," says Augustin (as quoted by Yan
Oosterzee), " consist in abstinence from all as-
sent, makes it merely the confession of igno-
rance, and identifies it with nullity." Our
reason cannot agree with this. We must be-
lieve that knowledge is attainable by man,
and therefore that to the attainment of that
4
74 Positive Evidences. [Part I.
knowledge evidence that is probable is suffi-
cient.
Concluding, then, that the evidence, in all its
aspects, is in its nature wholly competent, we
still have to show, in order to establish its en-
tire admissibility, and, so far as the truth of
the facts is concerned, its worthiness for our
acceptance — leaving their weight to be after-
ward estimated — that the record of those facts,
as contained in the New Testament Scriptures,
is a true account, and is neither forged nor fal-
sified. This topic comprises what is called the
Authenticity of the Evidence, and will form the
subject of the following chapter.
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 75
CHAPTER V.
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE EVIDENCE.
The next question that claims our attention
is that of the trustworthiness, or authenticity,
of the evidence offered. This relates merely
to the truth of the Gospel history, and, with-
out considering their weight, examines only
whether the occurrences related in that his-
tory, and on which Christianity is founded, are
truly related, and actually took place. This
will form the last question in our consideration
of the Admissibility of the Evidence ; and, if
its examination concludes in favor of the truth
of that record — the competency of evidence in
general being already established — we must
admit that the evidence that therein is actu-
ally offered is in itself genuine and trustwor-
thy, and of a nature proper to be used for the
establishment of Christianity. The weight to
which that evidence is entitled, in proving the
divinity of Christianity, is a farther question,
and one that will next engage our attention.
To show that that history is true, we cite ex-
actly the same kind of proofs, but in a much
higher degree, as in establishing the authen-
76 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
ticity of any other ancient writings, and such
as are universally admitted in all other cases
to be sufficient to establish authenticity beyond
all reasonable doubt. These are the concur-
rent testimony of contemporaneous and suc-
ceeding authors ; the difficulty of a forgery, in
the very nature of the case ; the internal marks
of authenticity, in the language of the book, its
style, and its agreement within itself; its agree-
ment with the customs, manners, and history,
of the time and country in which it professes
to have been written ; the character of its au-
thor or authors for truth and accuracy of in-
formation ; the merit of the work itself, in
moral character, worth, and dignity; the fact
of great changes having taken place in the
world's history through the facts they allege
to have occurred; the present existence of
world-wide and powerful institutions — as, e.
g., the Christian Church — alleged to have de-
rived their origin from those facts, and of
whose origin — greatest of earthly institutions,
as they are, and having their beginning, with-
out doubt, in an age and a country highly en-
lightened, and of whose history we have a mi-
nute account — we have no other explanation,
nor even any probable hypothesis. These, and
such like proofs, are held sufficient fully to de-
cide the truth of any alleged facts of past times.
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 77
Yery seldom, if indeed in any single case, do
they all coincide to establish the truth of any
ancient writings whatever, except that of the
Gospel history ; and used separately, as they
are continually, to test the authenticity of other
ancient writings, and combining, as they do, to
attest the validity of the Gospels, we must con-
cede that its truth is proved beyond all reason-
able doubt. To exhibit the force of that proof,
we will present the evidence to show — -first,
that the Gospel account existed at, or at least
immediately after, the time and in the place
when and where its alleged facts occurred; and,
secondly, that thus existing, as it did, where
detection was easy and certain, it could never
have gained acceptance or escaped an expos-
ure, if it had been an imposture, and its alleged
facts had never happened.
1. The Gospel histories were written in the
countries, and very soon after the time, in which
the events they record took place.
(1) We have the external testimony of other
authors living near the same time and place to
this fact. "We receive," writes Home (Intro-
duction, etc.), from whom much of the follow-
ing argument is drawn, "the works of Mat-
thew, Mark, etc., for the same reasons that we
receive those of Xenophon, Caesar, etc., . . .
but in a much stronger degree. For, very dif-
78 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
ferently from the classics, the New Testament
was read over three-quarters of the world,
while other authors were limited to one nation,
or country — were read publicly and often, and
were acknowledged by large societies to be the
writings of apostles and others, as they profess.
An uninterrupted succession of writers, from
the apostolic times down — some friends, some
enemies — either quote from or make allusions
to them. Translations were made in the sec-
ond century, which were greatly multiplied in
the course of one or two centuries, so that forg-
ery became absolutely impossible, unless we
suppose that men of different nations, senti-
ments, languages, and often exceedingly hos-
tile to each other, should all agree in one forg-
ery. But if we are to do this, we may throw
aside all the writings in the world, and reject
human testimony altogether." But it is evi-
dent Jhat, if not genuine, the Gospels must be
forgeries, and forgeries too of later ages, since
a forged history could certainly not be palmed
off upon the age itself of which it gave its false
history. Yet it is equally evident that a forg-
ery in such later age, when it would have had
to have been published at once in various and
widely-separated languages and countries, and,
more still, as the sacred writings which had
been held by them and their fathers, through
Oh. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 79
several generations, to comprise the supreme
rule of their conduct — it is evident that such
an imposition as this would have been impos-
sible.
Moreover, all the marks of forgery are want-
ing. To give us a reasonable ground for sus-
picion, even, that a work is spurious, there
must exist at least one of the following circum-
stances: (1) Doubts entertained from its ap-
pearance in the world as to its genuineness ' y
or (2), denials by immediate friends of the pre-
tended author, who were able to decide upon the
subject; or (3), a long series of years elapsed
after his death, in which the book was un-
known ; or (4), a style different from his other
writings, or different from what might reason-
ably be expected ; or (5), events recorded that
happened later than the time of the pretended
author ; or (6), opinions recorded contrary to
those he was known to hold. But not one of
these can be pretended to hold against the gen-
uineness of the Gospel histories. It is unrea-
sonable and unjust, then, to charge them with
being forgeries of a later date, merely from
self-will, and without any ground of rejection.
On the other hand, we have a succession of
writers, friendly and hostile, quoting and al-
luding to the things recorded in the Gospels,
as well-known facts, running up to the apos-
80 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
tolic age. In the fourth century we have nu-
merous writers, such as Jerome, Eusebius,
Augustin, Athanasius, etc. Ten catalogues
are given, of which six name the books we now
have, and no others ; and, of the other four,
three omit Revelation only, and one, by Phi-
laster, of Brescia, omits Hebrews and Revela-
tion only — both which he, however, expressly
acknowledges in his other works. In the third
century, Origen, Gregory, Cyprian, and other
Christians, various heretical sects, and the Em-
peror Julian the Apostate (an infidel), all bear
their testimony. In the second century we
have Tertullian, of Carthage, first an orthodox,
afterward an heretical, writer ; Clement, of Al-
exandria; Theophilus, of Antioch; Athenag-
oras, of Athens ; Irenseus, of Lyons ; Melito,
of Sardis ; Hegesippus, a converted Jew ; Ta-
tian, Justin Martyr, of Palestine; and Papias,
of Hieropolis — all of whom mention some of
the books, and some nearly all the books, of
the New Testament. And besides these, Mar-
cion, the Sabellians, Arians, Donatists, Nova-
tians, Manicheans, and other heretics, with
Celsus and Porphyry, infidels and bitter ene-
mies of Christianity, all make various allusions
to the New Testament books, and without in-
timating a doubt of their authenticity. And
in the first century, at widely-separated dis-
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 81 .
tances, the following widely -differing writers
do the same, viz. : Barnabas and Clement, the
fellow-laborers of Paul ; Hermas, their contem-
porary (vide Rom. xvi. 14) ; Ignatius, who was
Bishop of Antioch, A.D. 70; Polycarp, of
Smyrna, a disciple of St. John, and who died
about A.D. 166; Cerinthus, a heretic, contem-
porary with St. John, and the Ebionites.
At greater detail Row (Bampton Lectures,
1877) shows the weight of this testimony, as
follows : 1. Irenseus, Clement, and Tertullian,
toward the end of the second century, as clear-
ly recognized the Gospels as of canonical au-
thority as we. 2. Marcion's Gospel, A.D. 140,
was a mutilated copy of Luke's. 3. The Gos-
pels used by the authors above are of very
corrupt text, and therefore must have been
in existence some time. 4. Papias, who died
about A.D. 163, mentions Matthew and Luke.
5. The Apostolic Fathers mention them. Jus-
tin Martyr, who wrote A.D. 145-150, and whose
life therefore brings us back to within eighty
or eighty-five years of the death of Christ, or
about as long as that of Wesley to our own
times, speaks of the Memoirs of the Apostles,
and "the Gospels," which were publicly read
in the Church. 6. Clement, of Rome, Poly-
carp, and Ignatius, whose lives covered even
earlier periods, also refer to the same facts as
4*
82 Positive Evidences. [Part I.
are contained in the Gospels. Now, the refer-
ences in Justin are about two hundred in num-
ber, one hundred and ninety-six of which, for
all practical purposes, are the same as those
recorded in the Gospels. It is certain too that
he used some documents which he designates
as "Gospels." Now, if these were different
from those we have — i. e., as to their author-
ship — then we have merely additional accounts
of our Lord's life and words, and their histor-
ical reality is so much the more assured ; and
the more numerous the documents, the more
is it assured, since the greater the number of
witnesses testifying to the same facts, the more
conclusively are those facts proved. The same
is true also of the earlier Fathers, and proves
that the traditions embodied in the Gospels
must have been accepted by the Church in a
written or oral form during the last twenty
years of the first century, and, also, if there were
then traditions of a different form current, they
were afterward rejected. But Christ was cru-
cified about the thirty-third year of the first
century ; there was then an interval of certain-
ly no more than forty-seven to sixty- seven
years between his death and the first existence
of those accounts. In so short a time it would
not have been possible to forge such legends,
and impose them upon a considerable body of
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 83
men, scattered over so wide an expanse of
country as were the Christian Churches, and
that in the face of the great opposition both
of the Jews and the heathen.
These considerations justly entitle us to
claim that the Gospels, as we have them, ex-
isted very soon after Christ's crucifixion. We
observe farther :
2. The narrative bears indisputable evi-
dence internally that it is genuine. 1st. The
confidence with which the authors narrate their
story shows them to be writers addressing
their contemporaries on matters well known
to each. 2d. Their numerous and -minute
allusions to the manners and customs of the
time and nation, and to the geography of the
country, in which they profess to have lived,
prove their genuineness. Their familiar ac-
quaintance with the religious ceremonies of
the Jews, the prevalence, in their writings, of
words, phrases, and thoughts, derived from
the Old Testament, prove that they were Jews ;
and so as to their continual references to the
ordinary habits of the people, and to the phys-
ical characteristics of the country of Pales-
tine.*
. * Van Lennep, the acknowledged authority on the sub-
ject, says •(" Bible Lands," p. 807) : " These facts furnish
an overwhelming argument for the authenticity of the
84 Positive Evidences. rp art . I.
3d. The language and style in which they
are written prove the same thing beyond con-
troversy. Greek was at that time a sort of
universal language as English is now. Of
course, when used by a nation not Greek, it
almost certainly became intermixed with many
Scriptures. Not" only their topography but the manners
and customs of the people therein depicted give evidence
on every page that the Bible was written in Western Asia,
and by Asiatics, about the time claimed. It could have
been penned nowhere else, and by no other people. So
many minute and, in themselves considered, insignificant
circumstances are woven into the narrative as to make de-
ceit or imposture an utter impossibility. Let an Occidental
take up any Bible narrative, and attempt to reproduce it
in his own words with an equal degree of minuteness, and
before many minutes an Oriental audience would be sure
to show unmistakable signs of mirth, on account of the in-
congruity of some of his details. If he does not, like the
colored preacher, speak of Martha as ' busy frying fritters/
he cannot well avoid, in some other way, showing the dif-
ference which exists between the habits of the West and
those of the East. . . . And when we consider the many
mistakes as to facts contained in the most carefully-written
histories and narratives, and notice, at the same time, the
perfect freedom of the Bible from all such mistakes, though
it is a voluminous and extremely varied compilation, and
many of its writers illiterate men, we cannot avoid the
conclusion that we have in the present case something be-
yond mere authenticity. We see most unmistakable evi-
dence that the authors of the Bible were guided and con-
trolled in their work by the special influence of that Spirit
which alone can never err."
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 85
peculiarities and forms of expression derived
from the language of that nation — just as hap-
pens when a foreigner endeavors to speak
English. Now, the Greek of the New Testa-
ment is not pure Greek, such as a native would
write, but it is intermixed with many pecul-
iarities such as belonged exclusively to the lan-
guages called the East-Aramean (or Hebrew),
and West- Aramean (or Syriac) — the languages
that were spoken, at that time, by the Jeivs in
Palestine. But the total overthrow of Jerusa-
lem by the Romans in the year A.D. 70 — less
than forty years after the crucifixion of Christ
— and the consequent great slaughter and dis-
persion of the Jews, made great changes of all
kinds, and, among others, changed the language
greatly, so that in the succeeding generation,
or sixty or seventy years after Christ, it would
have been almost impossible to write in such
a dialect. Besides, there was no one then who
would have done so. The Jews would not
certainly, and the only sects remaining in Pal-
estine in the second century were Nazarenes
and Ebionites, and they used but one Gospel,
and that a translation in Hebrew. They would
scarcely have forged a whole New Testament,
and that too in Greek. The only reasonable
conclusion is that the New Testament was
written in the first century, and by natives of
86 Positive Evidences. [Part I.
Syria, as they profess. And the same con-
clusion is borne out by the character of the
style in which its books are written. Plain
and unadorned, the style of the Gospels shows
that their authors were such as thev are de-
scribed — plain, unlearned men. In the Epistles
of Paul, on the other hand, the learning dis-
played, the strong but irregular argument —
the learning being that which only an educated
Jew would likely possess, the whole style of
argumentation that which a Jewish convert
confuting his brethren on ground familiar to
both would employ — both give good evidence
that he is really the author. And so in gen-
eral, the characteristics of both language and
thought are those belonging to the persons,
the time, and the occasions, from which they
claim to have derived their origin.
4th. The very numerous circumstances re-
lated in the New Testament, and their agree-
ment with the history of the times, prove its
authenticity. Whoever undertakes to forge
a set of writings, and ascribe them to persons
who lived in another age, exposes himself to
the utmost danger of a discrepancy with the
history and manners of that age. Of all books
there would be none so liable to detection as
the New Testament, were it a forgery. The
scene of action is not confined to a single city,
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 87
but extends to the greatest cities of the Roman
empire ; and continual allusions are made to the
various customs and opinions of the Greeks,
the Romans, and the Jews. If then the New
Testament, after the severest scrutiny, is found
to harmonize perfectly with the history, the
customs, and even the opinions, of the first
century, and if the more minutely we inquire
the more perfect we find the coincidence, we
must conclude that it was beyond the power
of human ability to forge it. Yet such is the
fact. Space cannot here be given to even
mention those numerous coincidences. The
following, however, may be taken as examples
of them, the whole number of which it has
taken volumes to set forth {vide "Paley's
Evidences," and his " Horse Paulinae," and
" Blunt's Undesigned Coincidences "), viz. :
The division of Palestine into the three prin-
cipal provinces of Judea, Samaria, and Gali-
lee ; the existence of two chief religious sects,
the Pharisees and Sadducees, among the Jews
of that period ; the standing of the temple still
in Jerusalem, its visitation by Jews from all
parts of the world, etc. Many of these are
presupposed rather than formally stated — just
as a genuine account would do — and there are
more convincingly still many more minute
and latent coincidences, abounding in the
88 Positive Evidences.
[Part I.
twenty-seven different books of the New Testa-
ment, which only a close and laborious study
brings to light. (Vide Paley and Blunt, as
above.) ~No forgery could so perfectly accom-
plish its work as this ; and when we reflect,
in addition, that those twenty -seven books
were written, as their style undeniably shows,
by several authors, the difficulty of forgery
— simultaneously by several hands — is im-
mensely increased. Add to this the fact that
the most adverse criticism, after the longest
and most searching seeking, has never yet suc-
ceeded in exposing a single discrepancy in the
multitude of their incidental allusions and mi-
nute references to the history, customs, man-
ners, and opinions, of Greeks, Romans, and
Jews, and we must say that a forgery was
wholly impossible. But if the Gospels are not
forgeries, they are genuine, and were written
at the time and place in which they profess to
have been written.
From the latter consideration alone we might
well come to this conclusion; but when we con-
sider with it also the force of all the other
various and independent preceding evidences
which we have cited in support of the same
conclusion, it is not only shown to be probably
true, but morally certain. , The confidence and
familiarity with the circumstances apparent in
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 89
the authors, the tongue in which they write —
impossible to later writers — and the minute
and perfect coincidence of their accounts with
the manners, etc., of the times and countries,
would alone be sufficient to prove the genuine-
ness of the New Testament Scriptures ; but
when we add to all this their mention, and
even quotation, and that without a single de-
nial from any quarter, whether Christian, her-
etic, Jew, or infidel, by writers both friendly
and hostile, extending to within fifty to seven-
ty years, at the least, of Christ, we must con-
clude that the New Testament was in existence
in the countries and at the time that is claimed
for it.
2. It is still necessary, however, to show that
the New Testament is a true account of the
things it relates. Thus far we have shown
only that it must have existed very soon after
the crucifixion of Christ. But this does not
make it at once obvious that it is therefore
true. To prove that it is true will therefore
be our next task, and will occupy the remain-
der of the chapter. We argue this from —
(1) The character of its authors. While the
character of a witness is good and unimpeached,
the presumption is that his testimony is true.
It cannot be doubted that the authors of the
New Testament were in a situation to know
90 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
^concerning the facts they relate. They were
the chief witnesses of some, and principal act-
ors in others, of those facts. Their opportuni-
ties for correct information were therefore the
best possible ; and that they were also honest
and truthful narrators, we also maintain. For
(vide Row, Bampton Lectures, 1877), 1st. Their
moral character, though rigidly tested then,
and closely examined since, has never been
impeached by anyone, even by their bitterest
opponents ; 2d. The plainness and simplicity
of their accounts show them to have been plain,
simple men, unable, if they wished, to frame so
vast, so highly ingenious, and so unrivaled, a
scheme of fraud as this is, if it is an invented
story ; 3d. They had no interests to serve in
doing so, for the New Testament was not cal-
culated in any way to advance their worldly
interests, but enjoins nothing but the utmost
unworldliness and self-sacrifice on all its fol-
lowers, and the promulgation of its principles
actually brought upon them, throughout their
lives, the most extreme miseries.
(2) The character of their accounts them-
selves. 1st. Their whole style of writing about
the most astonishing events — e. g., the raising
of the dead, etc. — is so calm and argumenta-
tive — almost without a trace of emotion — as
shows them to be any thing but enthusiasts,
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 91
and proves them therefore likely neither to be
self-deceived nor desirous of deceiving others.
2d. Their plainness and simplicity in relating
their own errors and faults — e. g., in their for-
saking and denial of Jesus in his hour of great-
est need, as well as in telling unreservedly the
lowliness of the birth and condition of their
Lord, his rejection by his nation, his ignomin-
ious execution on the cross as a malefactor, etc.
— this simple truth and frankness apparent
gives good reason to conclude the truth of the
whole. 3d. Their entire, substantial agree-
ment proves its truth. They evidently write
without any reference to each other. Their
different arrangements of the matters they
relate in common, their relation each of some
facts which the others omit, and their relation
of the same facts, varying as truthful witnesses
looking from diverse stand-points always vary,
but forgers never, prove this. Nevertheless,
they all substantially agree — notably, e. g., in
the traits of character given of Jesus, and in
the exhibition of his words and actions — the
great foundation of Christianity. 4th. They ap-
peal themselves to proofs notorious at the time.
( Vide 1 Cor. i. 4, 5 ; ii. 4, 5 ; v. 3-5 ; xii. ; xiii.
8; xiv. 1-33; 2 Cor. xii. 7-11; Gal. iii. 5; 1
Thess. i. 5.)
(3) There was a general and undisputed be-
92 Positive Evidences. [Part I.
lief in the facts narrated in the Gospels im-
mediately after the death of Christ. The two
Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians, and those
to the Romans and Galatians, are now almost
universally admitted, by even the most skep-
tical scholars, to be genuine and authentic, and
written within twenty- eight years from the
crucifixion of Christ, as also the two to the
Thessalonians, and those to the Philippians
and to Philemon, written A.D. 55 to A.D. 62.
Being letters, they are of a species of docu-
ments now everywhere acknowledged to be of
the very highest authority, and being written
to Churches in which, as their contents show,
there were parties hostile to Paul (vide Corin-
thians, Galatians, etc.), by whom any errone-
ous statement would have been instantly ex-
posed, we may feel sure that all his statements
as to the facts and doctrines believed at that
time are entirely true. Now, we find that
these letters, principally by their incidental
allusions, but also by their direct statements,
assert as undoubted truths all the principal
facts related in the Gospels. 1st. They show
that even then, less than thirty years after
his crucifixion, Christ was generally considered,
both by Paul himself and the whole Church,
to be superhuman and divine; for in those
Epistles it is declared that He is the "Son of
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 93
God," "over all God blessed forever," our fut-
ure Judge ; that he was crucified ; that he was
the object of prayer — the "one Lord" — that
he was "preached;" and that no "other Jesus"
was to be preached, nor "another gospel."
(Vide 1 Cor. i. 1-3, 23, 30, 31; iv. 1-5; viii.;
2 Cor. xi. 3-5; Gal. i. 6-9; Phil. i. 15-18;
Rom. i. 1-4; ix. 3-5; xiv. 4-12.) So in the
Apocalypse, which is also admitted to be gen-
uine, He is made "the Prince of the kings of
the earth," the "First and Last," the Living
One, who "was dead and is alive forevermore,"
and is worshiped in heaven. 2d. Baptism and
the Supper are mentioned by Paul as then ex-
isting, Gal. iii. 27; 1 Cor. xi. 23-25; the res-
urrection, 1 Cor. xv. ; the Lord's teaching re-
ferred to, 1 Cor. vii. 10-12; ix. 13, 14; Christ
is set forth as the great subject of teaching, 2
Cor. iv. 3-6; iii. 18; Phil. iii. 8-10; as also 2
Pet. i. 8; iii. 18; 1 Cor. 23, 24; Eph. iv. 20,
21; 1 Cor. x. 31-33; xi. 1; Rom. xv. 1-3, 5,
6; Eph. iv. 17-21; Heb. ii. 1-4. These and
other such passages prove — (1) that the Church
was then in possession of some accounts of
Christ ; (2) that these were substantially the
same as in our Gospels ; and (3), that Christ,
within thirty years of his death, was the great
Object of their adoration and imitation.
(4)" They brought many others into a like
94 Positive Evidences. [p art i.
firm belief of the things which they related,
who before had even been enemies.
(5) There have universally existed, ever
since those alleged events, certain commem-
orative ordinances, or monuments, of great
celebrity, the observance of which can no more
be accounted for, unless the facts, on which
they are said to have been founded, really
happened, than the observance of the Fourth
of July in the United States, or Guy Fawkes
Day in England. Such are Christian Baptism,
the Lord's Supper, and the change, after
Christ's resurrection, of the observance of the
seventh day as a day of rest to that of the
first — all of which are evidences of Christ's
life, death, and resurrection, as of the Chris-
tian Church generally.
(6) All the testimony that we have from pro-
fane authors attest the same facts. Tacitus
says (Annals, 66) that the Christians "took
their name from one Christ, who, during the
reign of Tiberius, was sentenced under Pilate."
Lucianus (De Morte Peregrini, c. 11, 12, 13)
expressly mentions his crucifixion, and calls
Jesus "the great man who was crucified in
Palestine;" and again, "the crucified sophist
(or wise man), who had been the author of a
new religion." Suetonius mentions (in Clau-
dio, cap. 25) the fact of " the Jews rebelling
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility, 95
in Rome, on the instigation of Christ" — a false
charge, indeed, as alleged against Christ, but
necessarily testifying to the existence of Christ
and his supposed great influence over the Jews.
And Pliny, A.D. 110 (Epist. Plin. x. 97), says
"that the Christians were accustomed to sing
hymns to Christ as to a God." Besides these
Romans, Josephus, the Jewish historian, says
" In those days lived Jesus, a wise man, for he
perpetrated several extraordinary works, and
made many Jews and heathen his followers.
When Pilate had condemned him, on the accu-
sation of our most prominent men, those who
first loved him did not forsake him. And to
this day the sect of Christians, called after his
name, has not died out" (Ant. xviii. 3, 3; cf.
5. 2, xx. 9, 1 ; D. B. J. vi. 5, 4). In the Jewish
Mischna also, and the Gemara (vide Princeton
Review, July, 1878, p. 118), calumnies against
him and his mother, there contained, prove at
least that the accounts of his miraculous con-
ception and immaculate birth were then gen-
erally known. And, besides all these, there
are remains existing of Christian art, monu-
ments, emblematical representations, etc., dat-
ing back to the time of the Antonines, A.D.
138-180, and found in Italy — a long distance,
in those days, from Palestine, where Chris-
tianity first arose — which testify also to the
f
96 Positive Evidences. [Part I.
same facts. And the excavations in Pompeii
have, in our own day, brought to light such
evidences on the walls that still stand of her
ruined houses.*
But Pompeii was destroyed A.D. 79. These
remains, then, show that Christianity, and con-
sequently its doctrines and facts, were known
that early in that distant land. Indeed, the
indisputable fact that the first persecution
against the Christians broke out under Nero,
"in the tenth year of his reign" (vide Gibbon's
"Decline and Fall," etc., ch. ix., sec. 3), proves,
beyond all controversy, that the Christian
Church was then in existence as far even as
Rome, and therefore its doctrines, and the great
facts of Christ's life, death, and resurrection,
upon which those doctrines are founded, were
even then well known there, and believed.
(7) Furthermore, the facts thus presented
make it evident, from the very nature of the
case, that a forged account would have been
impossible. As we have seen, so early as A.D.
64 — only about thirty years after Christ —
* One of these is the remains of scoffing jests against
the Christians, scribbled on the walls, as, for instance, the
words, "{i)gni gaudi (C)hristiance" — "Be glad for there
being fire, O Christians " — intended to mock at those Chris-
tians who were condemned to be burnt at the stake (vide
Row's Bampton Lectures).
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 97
Christianity had reached as far as Rome, and
also had had time to make such progress there
as to excite a persecution against them. But,
as Row mentions, Sir G. C. Lewis, in his work
on the " Credibility of Early Roman History,"
for the purposes of a critical examination into
the authenticity of the early Roman traditions,
has shown that if an account be published
within even eighty or ninety years of the time
in which the facts it professes to relate oc-
curred, it is still within the period of genuine
historical tradition, and capable of having its
authenticity fully tested by the knowledge of
those events, still current among the people.
Thus, the battle of Waterloo, or even the
American Revolution, which was one hundred
years ago, may thus be tested. Many persons
are living who have had the accounts of those
times from their fathers, and some even of those
who took part in them may remain. A popu-
lar knowledge of them thus exists throughout
the countries which they have particularly af-
fected. Now, it would be manifestly impossi-
ble to impose upon the people that such trans-
actions had not then taken place. It would
be equally impossible to persuade people
within such a period that great transactions
had then taken place of which they had never
known personally, nor ever before heard. But
5
98 Positive Evidences. [p ar t i.
when we try so to impose upon the world, only
twenty or thirty years after the alleged facts
are said to have occurred, and persuade peo-
ple that great public events had then occurred,
when they had never even been heard of, suc-
cess is surely impossible. Yet this is what we
must believe as to the history of the Gospels,
if it is a forgery. Its accounts were circulated
certainly as early as twenty to thirty years
after the facts it relates are alleged to have
taken place, and that too in the very country
where they were said to have occurred. Those
accounts state that those facts excited the
greatest public commotions and tumults ; they
recite events of the most remarkable and mi-
raculous character, said to have happened in
the presence of multitudes ; and they are put
forth with an air of the greatest assurance
that those facts were indisputable. Surely, if
it had not been generally known that they had
taken place, those accounts could never have
obtained credence for a single hour. The in-
habitants of Palestine would, on hearing them,
begin to ask, Hoav was it they had never be-
fore heard of this Jesus, who was said to have
traveled, time and again, only twenty years
ago^or less, over all the country, conspicu-
ously presenting himself in all their most
public places', preaching constantly in their
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 99
synagogues to the assembled congregations;
driving out the traders from the temple ; fol-
lowed by thousands about the country ; work-
ing miracles by scores, so that he healed the sick,
made the blind to see, the dumb to talk; and
even raised the dead, and fed the thousands
in the desert ; at last was greeted by the mul-
titudes at their own great Passover -feast at
Jerusalem with hosannas as their Messiah;
afterward apprehended, tried publicly, first by
their own chief tribunal, and then before the
Roman governor ; then executed on the cross,
with the accompaniment of a remarkable dark-
ness over the land, an earthquake, and the rend-
ing of the vail of the temple % Surely, if they had
never before heard of these things, they would
have received such accounts with contempt,
and rejected them at once with scorn.
That they did not do so, but, on the contrary,
in great numbers received and believed them,
to the loss often of property, liberty, and life,
proves that those accounts were known to be
true. If they had not been true, moreover,
both the Jews — who from the first were most
violent enemies of Christianity, and the Ro-
mans, who, as we have seen, soon became their
most cruel persecutors, having together, as
they had, all the power of the government, and
all the means of investigation at their sole
100 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
command — would have been able to detect and
expose this imposture of the poor and despised
Christians, who had no resources of wealth or
power whatever. And they would certainly
have done so, and shown and put on record,
as they could have done, the falseness of those
alleged public and notorious miracles, etc., of
Jesus. That no one of them ever did it at any
time during the three hundred years of the
first period of Christianity, when it was perse-
cuted throughout the Roman empire with the
most dreadful cruelty and bloodshed, proves
that such exposure was impossible, because
there was no such imposture. That the Chris-
tian religion continued to grow through those
three hundred years, till at last it became the
mistress of the empire, proves that men knew
then that its facts were true.
In addition to all this, let us again weigh
such consideration as the following, already
mentioned: Its authors had no worldly mo-
tive to serve by inventing such a false story.
The fact that it was not the established relig-
ion of any nation for three hundred years,
makes it perfectly absurd to suppose it the
offspring of priestcraft or political contrivance.
Indeed, in its very character, teaching as it
does the utmost self-abnegation as the highest
duty of man, it is not adapted to further any
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 101
worldly interests ; and in point of fact, its pro-
mulgation did subject them, through long
years, to the severest sufferings. "If the
apostles were all honest, they were incapable
of such deception; if they were all knaves,
they were unlikely to labor to make men vir-
tuous ; but if some were honest, and some
cheats, the latter could not have so deceived
the former as to matters of fact." — Home. JSTor
would their accounts so wonderfully agree.
(8) Finally, the portraiture of Christ which
we have in the Gospels could never, as Row
shows us (Bampton Lectures, 1877), have been
the creation of any human genius. As we shall
see hereafter, some of the most eminent skep-
tics themselves unite in declaring that He is
unquestionably the grandest Character in his-
tory. Mill, in the last of his posthumous es-
says, says : " It is of no use to say that Christ,
as exhibited in the Gospels, is not historical.
. . . Who among his disciples, or among their
proselytes, was capable of inventing the say-
ings ascribed to Jesus, or of imagining the life
and character revealed in the Gospels ? Cer-
tainly not the fishermen of Galilee, certainly
not St. Paul, and still less the early Christian
writers, in whom nothing was more evident
than that the good which was in them was all
derived, as they all professed that it was, from
102 Positive Evidences. [p ar t I.
a higher source." And so Rousseau asserts
that the inventor of such a story would be "a
more wonderful character than the hero."
"It is a palpable fact that this great charac-
ter, though made up in its delineation of a
vast number of parts, or, in other words, of all
the facts recorded in the Gospels, yet forms
not a mere congeries of materials, but a per-
fect unity ; and no theory can give a philo-
sophical account of this fact except that the
Gospels are, in all their main outlines, truly
historical. That it was of deliberate inven-
tion, and that a character which, as Lecky (a
skeptic) says, has proved to be 'the greatest
incentive to holiness,' is itself the product of
conscious fraud, is so intrinsically incredible
that it has been abandoned even by all the
great leaders of modern unbelief. Nor could
it be the product of self-delusion, or the ag-
glomeration of myths and legends accumulat-
ing in the course of time. Its unquestionable
unity and perfection could never have so orig-
inated. Even as the creation of a single ge-
nius, it has been said by Rousseau to have
been impossible ; but we have here four delin-
eations, each contributing, and all necessary,
to the perfect whole. And if we suppose it the
product of myths, then it was the creation not
only of the persons who originally invented
A Or TMf
( VNfVER
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 103
them, but of as many more as contributed to
them, in whatever degree, and therefore of a
large number. JSTow, these could never have
so agreed unless the Personage they describe
had been a reality ; for never have men been
able to invent a character at once exhibiting —
(1) The most perfect manifestation of benevo-
lence, tempered with holiness; (2) absolute
unselfishness, the contrary never appearing in
a single act or word ; (3) the highest and most
unique self-assertion, united with the most per-
fect humility ; (4) the same ideal of morality,
preserved throughout in all the Gospels ; (5)
in fine, perfect moral perfection, without one
spot. The legendary spirit never invented
any thing of a moral type so elevated as this ;
nor, if it could, would the several succeeding
writers have likely concurred in selecting only
the elevated myths, and neglecting all of a con-
trary character ; nor, if they had, would such
a chastened edition of the legends have so en-
tirely gained acceptance with the popular mind ;
nor, finally, could so exquisite a picture of
moral character ever have been formed by
such a mode of selection and simple juxtapo-
sition, any more than a beautiful picture by a
painter selecting portions of other inferior
works, and merely joining them together.' ,
Now, to all the foregoing testimony apply
104 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
the accepted rules governing our assent to
facts which are sought to be established by-
evidence. "In the second place [i. e n next to
the first general ground of evidence — viz., our
natural confidence in testimony — as referred
to in the preceding chapter], evidence," says
Greenleaf ("Evidence," id. as above), "rests
upon our general experience of the truth of
the statements of men of integrity, having ca-
pacity and opportunity for observation, and
without apparent influence from passion or
interest to pervert the truth. This belief is
strengthened by our previous knowledge of
the narrator's reputation for veracity, by the
absence of conflicting testimony, and by the
presence of that which is corroborating and
cumulative. Again, the third basis of evi-
dence is the known and experienced connection
subsisting between collateral facts or circum-
stances, satisfactorily proved, and the fact in
controversy . . . connections either phys-
ical or moral. In the actual occurrences of hu-
man life nothing is inconsistent. Every event
which actually transpires has its appropriate
relation and place in the vast complications
of circumstances, of which the affairs of men
consist; it owes its origin to those which have
preceded it; it is intimately connected with
all others which occur at the same time and
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 105
place, and often with those of remote regions,
and in its turn gives birth to a thousand others
which succeed. In all this there is a perfect
harmony ; so that it is hardly possible to invent
a story which, if closely compared with all the
actual contemporaneous occurrences, may not
be shown to be false." Take these principles
— which, with that of our natural belief in the
testimony of others, constitute all the basis of
evidence— and how strongly do they singly, and
much more when combined, affirm the truth of
the apostles' testimony. The apostles had " ca-
pacity and opportunity for observation" most
abundant; they had no possible worldly "in-
terest to pervert the truth ; " they have always
had the most unimpeached "reputation for ve-
racity;" there is no "conflicting testimony"
(though the Jews and the Gentile unbelievers,
who have always existed, had the most favor-
able opportunity, first to collect it, and after-
ward, from generation to generation, to pre-
serve it, had there been any, against the hated
Christians); the evidence has much that is
"corroborative and cumulative;" and, final-
ly, all the preceding (as we shall see farther
on), contemporaneous, and succeeding, circum-
stances, are in entire harmony with it. Indeed,
the succeeding history of the world — the suc-
cess of Christianity, and the great changes it
106 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
caused in the nations — cannot otherwise be ex-
plained; and all this occurred too, not in an
age, or among a nation, too remote from intel-
ligence and civilization for us to have any suf-
ficient light by which to judge of their reality,
but in the most enlightened age of ancient
times, and concerning whose transactions we
have the fullest history.
Still more, consider these farther laws of ev-
dence which, in justice, we must always ob-
serve in estimating whether a witness is guilty
of falsehood. " Where a criminal charge is to
be proved by circumstantial evidence [as must
be in convicting the apostles of false witness],
the proof ought to be not only consistent with
the prisoner's guilt, but inconsistent with every
other rational conclusion. This presumption is
so strong, that where the guilt can be estab-
lished only by proving a negative, that nega-
tive must in most cases be proved by the party
alleging the guilt, though the general rule of
law devolves the burden of proof on the party
holding the affirmation" (Greenleaf's "Evi-
dence," Ch. iv., Sees. 34, 35). Again (vide id.),
it is universally admitted that, in proving a
case, it is sufficient to prove it in "substance,"
and that declarations against temporal inter-
ests, dying declarations, preceding confirma-
tory testimony, subjection to cross-examina-
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 107
tion, and admissions from the silence of op-
posers, are all to have great weight toward
establishing a fact. But all these marks the
apostles' testimony had. They all, neverthe-
less, testify in " substance," to say the least,
to the same facts ; and any denial, on any hy-
pothesis, of its truth, instead of being so "con-
sistent with their guilt, and inconsistent with
every other hypothesis," as to overthrow the
presumption of their innocence, has always
actually been found to be consistent with noth-
ing, and inconsistent with all the circumstances
of the time and place.
We must assent to the absolute truth of the
facts recounted in the Gospel histories. And
this, with the preceding chapters, finishes the
first part of our work by establishing the full
admissibility of the evidence presented in those
histories in proof of the divinity of Christian-
ity, and brings us next to consider the weight
of that evidence for that end. That consider-
ation will occupy the Second Part of this work,
to which the reader's sincere attention will
then be invited.
Previous to this, however, we will briefly
show also that we have substantially the same
accounts which those authors originally gave.
This is proved by the collation of the Scripture
citations made by the various authors already
108 Positive Evidences. [p ar t I.
referred to, both friends and opponents, by
the comparison of the versions in the differ-
ent languages, but especially by that of the
many ancient manuscripts existing of the New
Testament. Indeed, the reverence in which
these sacred books were held, the great care
used to keep them uncorrupted, the denun-
ciations made in themselves against all who
should either "add any thing to," or "take any
thing away, from the words written" therein,
would lead us to expect no substantial alter-
ation. And, in point of fact, on comparison
of all those citations, all the various transla-
tions and manuscripts, the latter amounting
to thousands in number, though originally
widely scattered over Europe, Asia, and Afri-
ca, and guarded by extreme care and rever-
ence, as also by the rival jealousies of different
nations and the different sects into which the
Church was early divided, we yet find no sub-
stantial disagreement. In each individual
manuscript, indeed, are to be found mistakes
proceeding from negligence, ignorance, or una-
voidable error in the copyist, who had always
to laboriously transcribe by hand. These
are such as the following, viz. : Sometimes
substituting other words or letters in various
places ; omitting, adding, or transposing words;
incorporating notes and comments found on
Ch. 5.] Competency and Credibility. 109
the margin of the copy before them ; in en-
deavoring to correct supposed errors therein ;
and rarely through manifestly willful corrup-
tion. But all, or nearly all, of these variations
are slight and unimportant, and make no ma-
terial difference in the meaning of the text.
Such are — as in John i, 1, " The Word was in
God," for "with God;" verse 3, "In him is
life," for "was life;" verse 5, "The darkness
comprehended him not," for " it not ; " verse 7,
omitting " That all men might believe through
him ; " verse 9, " That cometh into this world,"
for " the world." Many are even slighter than
these, and cannot be made apparent in trans-
lation. Moreover, they are not all found in
any one manuscript; and thus we can correct
the errors in one by the agreement found as
to that particular part in the great mass of the
other MSS., as well as the other versions and
citations.
On the other hand, the very fact of these
variations existing in the various versions
MSS., and citations, prove conclusively thai
there could have been no agreement to forge
between their authors, and therefore that they
wrote independently of each other. But since
they, nevertheless, substantially agree, we
have in this the very strongest proof, both of
the genuineness and the uncorrupted preser-
110 Positive Evidences. [Parti.
vation of the Scriptures ; and this evidence is
the greater, the larger the number of citations,
versions, and MSS., we have to compare, of
the last of which there are thousands.
PAET SECOKD.
The Weight of the Evidence— The Superhuman Facts.
CHAPTER I.
THE SUPERHUMAN ADVENT OF CHRIST.
We now come to consider the weight of the
evidence in favor of the divinity of Christian-
ity. In doing so, we naturally turn, first, to
those great facts of Christ's history, attested
by the Gospels, which form the indispensable
foundation of Christianity, and which, we al-
lege, are not only true, but superhuman and
divine. Now, fairly and fully to determine
the real origin and character of any action or
event, it is manifestly proper to examine, to
the best of our ability, not only the circum-
stances of its rise, but also its essential nature,
its agreement in principle with other things
known to proceed from the same author from
which it professes to have come, and, lastly,
its practical influence and tendency in the re-
sults that have followed its occurrence in the
world. For instance, if a written document —
(HI)
112 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
a poem, a mathematical paper, or a business
agreement — were presented to us as the work
of some eminent man, if its genuineness were
questioned, we ought to examine, first, wheth-
er its internal character — in language and
sentiment, in mathematical attainments, or in
the business skill evident — is such as it is rea-
sonable to expect from such a poet, mathema-
tician, or business man, as the person whose
production it is asserted to be. But, to test its
genuineness thoroughly, we should not stop
here, but proceed farther to compare the hand-
writing, so far as we were able, with that of
other documents known to be genuine. Far-
ther, we should inquire what verdict other
men, who have investigated the subject, have
given, and, lastly, we should ask whether it
has actually accomplished such results in the
world, as such a document, by such a man,
would reasonably be expected to produce. By
these inquiries we should scarcely fail of de-
tecting the forgery that professed to be a poem
by Shakespeare, a scientific work by Newton,
or an important paper by some great states-
man, as Jefferson or Pitt; and these would
comprise all the questions which could arise
in any discussion of its genuineness. So in
our examination of the Evidences of Christian-
ity. The Christian Religion does not shrink
Ch. 1 ] Weight of the Evidence. 113
from the most thorough investigation; nay,
she courts it, and calls loudly, but often in vain,
for an inquiry into her claims — and that by
the application of all the tests of truth that
are in the nature of the case possible — secure-
ly confident that a candid and thorough in-
spection will find fresh evidence on every side
that she is truly divine. Accordingly, we will
endeavor to consider her claims in all their
aspects, and take up, first, the superhuman
and divine character of the facts presented
in the history of Christ (1. The Superhuman
Facts) ; secondly, the superhuman and divine
character of the results produced in the world
by Christianity (2. The Superhuman Results) ;
and, thirdly, conclude with a recapitulation
and summing up of the whole evidence and
argument, and with an estimation of its weight
in favor of the divinity of the Christian relig-
ion (3. Recapitulation and Conclusion).
First, then, let us consider the superhuman
facts. Under this head are ranged, succes-
sively, the superhuman advent, the character,
the teaching, the prophecies, and the miracles
of Christ. Each of these, it is claimed, proves
beyond a reasonable doubt the divinity of
Christianity ; while all combined, as they are
in the evidence of Christianity, together with
the proof also afforded by the results follow-
114 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
ing, give an irrefutable and convincing evi-
dence of its divine nature.
In offering that evidence, it is assumed that
man is capable of distinguishing what is su-
perhuman and divine. We can reasonably
estimate — from history, from observation, and
from self-consciousness — what is possible to
merely human powers. We can therefore tell
what is superhuman, and thus be capable of
judging of the divine character of any thing
that may be presented to us which claims that
character. Besides, as Van Oosterzee trulv
says (" Dogmatics," p. 124), " If God can give
a revelation, he can also, without doubt, make
it so plainly recognizable as such that he who
receives it will not have the slightest shadow
of doubt on this point." Indeed, it cannot be
easily imagined that God would create us for
his worship, and yet give us no capacity to
recognize his voice ; nor that in our sore need
of a revelation from him, he would leave us
without ability to distinguish that revelation,
or to know the marks of divinity when they
were present. Suffice it to say that the gen-
eral consent of mankind admits the capacity
of human powers to distinguish the divine.
At any rate, they who deny the divinity of
Christianity, do so since such a denial cannot
be made without the implied claim that they
Ch. l.] Weight of the Evidence. 115
can distinguish between what is divine and
what is not. What they claim for themselves
they will probably not deny to others : the
friends of Christianity distinctly claim it for
all ; and therefore we assume that it will not
be disputed by any that man has the capacity
of recognizing the divine ; and we proceed to
present the grounds of such a recognition in
the Evidences of Christianity.
The consideration, then, that will now en-
gage our attention is the superhuman and di-
vine character of the facts of Christ's personal
history ; and under this general head, first, the
coming of Christ into the world. This, we
claim, was in all its circumstances of a char-
acter truly superhuman and divine, and proves
him to be a Divine Person, that took upon
himself also the nature of man. To perceive
this, let us consider —
I. The careful preparation made for the advent
of Christ. The introduction of Christianity
(yideY&n Oosterzee's "Dogmatics," pp. 458-
585) was not fortuitous ; it did not spring up
by chance, and without expectation or design,
but after long and careful preparation.
1st. Its announcement is made continually
throughout the preceding ages — at first, at the
very threshold of the history of fallen man, in
the promise given to Adam, that "the seed
116 Positive Evidences. [p ar t IL
of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head"
(Gen. iii. 15), and repeated in ever clearer terms,
successively, to Abraham, " In thy seed shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed " (Gen.
xxii. 18); to Jacob, "The scepter shall not de-
part from Judah . . . till Shiloh come " (Gen.
xlix. 10) ; to Moses, " The Lord thy God shall
raise up unto thee a Prophet . . . like unto
me " (Deut. xviii. 15) ; and afterward to David,
Isaiah, Malachi, etc., through a period of thou-
sands of years. Abraham and his family, also,
were set apart from all the nations of the earth,
chiefly that there might be "a people prepared
for the Lord; " and so, to prepare them, there
were given for their discipline — (1) Their slav-
ery in Egypt for four hundred years, which,
by its oppressions, put them in opposition to
heathendom, both historically and by cultivat-
ing in their very hearts an abhorrence of it ;
(2) the Mosaic system ; (3) the reigns of the
kings ; (4) the sending of the prophets ; (5)
the coming of the great Forerunner, John the
Baptist.
1. In the Mosaic dispensation, "the law was
their school-master to bring them to Christ,"
exciting in them the notion of sin, and an ab-
horrence of it, through the sacrifices and other
ceremonies enjoined. These also had a pro-
phetic meaning, and prefigured Christ, as did
Ch. l.] Weight of the Evidence. 117
also the whole system of Moses.* Thus con-
trition for sin was cultivated at the same time
with the expectation of redemption among the
Jews, while the miraculous deliverances expe-
rienced from time to time in their history, by
Israel, were intended also to be a revelation to
the heathen world (vide Ex. xv. 14-16 ; Deut.
ii. 25, etc.) of the existence, omnipotence, and
will, of Jehovah. Thus the Mosaic dispensa-
tion made ready both Jews and heathen for the
coming of Christ.
2. So also with the reigns of the kings.
Under them the house of Judah, from which
Christ was to arise, is brought forward in the
sovereignty of David, and first occupies its
leading position, while the existence of the
kingdom itself points to the everlasting king-
dom of the spiritual Israel and its everlasting
King, its glory and dominion to the spiritual
conquests of Christ; the Psalms of its great
monarch David, meantime, minister to the
spiritual elevation of the people, and add strik-
ing prophecies of the coming Messiah (vide Ps.
xvi. ; xxii. ; xl. ; lxix., etc.) ; and the great tem-
ple created by David's son and successor, Sol-
* " The entire Old Testament is one great Prediction, one
great Type, of Him who should come." — Be Wette (quoted
in Van Oosterzee's " Dogmatics "). Cf. whole Epistle to
the Hebrews.
118 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
omon, gives emphasis to all. And when at
last, in the decline of the kingdom, there came,
first the captivity in Babylon, and then the
final fall under the Roman power, there was
cultivated in the people a longing for that De-
liverer who was to come, and for the predicted
restoration and triumph of Israel ; so that we
find in fact, that at the coming of Christ there
were holy men and women actually " waiting
for the Consolation of Israel."
3. The prophets too, arising in a constant
succession, from the time of Samuel to the re-
turn from the captivity, by their work in edu-
cating the people up to Christianity, directly
prepared for the coming of Christ. For this
purpose they dwelt upon the spirituality of
God's law (vide Isa. i. 11-18; lviii. 1, etc.), and
the universality of his kingdom (vide Hos. iii.
4, 5 ; Isa. ii. 2-4, etc.), in contradiction of the
formality and intense exclusiveness generally
prevalent among the Jews, but in perfect con-
formity to the gospel of Christ, both in its de-
mands for inward purity and its extension of
God's mercy to Gentiles as well as Jews. The
prophets also prepared the way, with ever-in-
creasing distinctness, for the acceptance of the
true idea of the Messiah to come — of his char-
acter, his life, and his work. (Cf., in the order
of time in which they were written, Joel ii. 28
Ch. l.] Weight of the Evidence. 119
-33; Mic. v. 1-4; Isa. vii. 4; ix. 1-6; xi. 1-10;
liii. ; Jer. xxxi. 30-34; Dan. ii. 44; vii. 13, 14;
Zech. vi. 12, 13; ix. 9; Hag. ii. 6-9; Mai. iii.
1-4; v. 6.) Thus the prophecies were, for the
contemporaries of the prophets, a source of in-
struction, comfort, and strength ; for the con-
temporaries of the Lord, the touch -stone by
which they could recognize the Christ (vide
John i. 45) ; and for the Christian Church they
remain a great and enduring proof of the di-
vinity of their religion, and the pledge that its
promised salvation also will in the end be fully
realized.
4. Finally, the Forerunner, John, who was
also the greatest of the prophets, was sent pur-
posely to " prepare the way of the Lord." His
character and life are fully attested not only by
the Gospels, but also by Josephus, and cannot
be doubted ; and they were most plainly adapt-
ed to effect among the Jews the work of prepa-
ration for Christ. The manner of his birth, his
unexpected reappearance after his long-contin-
ued silence in the wilderness, and his rigid and
austere manner of life, all must have made a
deep impression upon all who were "waiting
for the Consolation of Israel." His preaching,
in its denunciation of the sins of the people, in
its announcement of Him that " was to come"
and His glory, and, at length, in its directly
120 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
pointing out among the people the " Lamb of
God," opened the way to thousands to receive
Christ; while his baptism of Christ was this
public and formal "manifestation" of him to
Israel ; and afterward, even his premature
death, and his influence after death, helped
on the work of Christ. ( Vide Luke vii. 29, 30 ;
Acts xix. 1-6.)
2d. Within heathendom also the work of
preparation had been going on. 1. God had
already given to the heathen that general rev-
elation which everywhere appears in the works
of nature, the teachings of history, and by the
inward voice of conscience, testifying, as they
do, to the existence of God, his rule, and his
justice. The appearance and labors of such
great men among them as Pythagoras, Socra-
tes, Plato, Seneca, etc., by which the lessons ca-
pable of being drawn forth from those sources
were deduced and disseminated, tended un-
mistakably to bring about not merely a moral
but a truly religious civilization, and thus to
prepare for Christianity. But the diversity
of views which existed among them, their own
uncertainty in the most important matters,
the incompleteness of the best of their sys-
tems, their lack of authority, their inability
to adapt their teachings to the capacity of the
general mass of men, and the small practical
Ch. l.] Weight of the Evidence. 121
effect of those teachings on the lives of even
the philosophers themselves and their few dis-
ciples, all called forth a deep longing for supe-
rior guidance — for light from above, such as it
was evident no philosopher or priest could kin-
dle for the enlightenment of men — and thus
again heathendom was prepared for the recep-
tion of Christ, the " Light of the world ; " and
in remarkable accordance with this, we find the
traces of an expectation of salvation from the
East (cf. Plato, Alcibiades, book 2, and De Re-
pub., II.; the myth of Prometheus; Virgil's
Fourth Eclogue; Tacitus, Ann., 5, 13, etc.).
2. Especially by Israel had God prepared the
Gentile world. Their wonderful national deliv-
erances, widely known as they were to other
nations, and their journeyings (vide Ex. xv.
6 ; Josh. ii. 10 ; ix. 24) ; their exile for seven-
ty years in Babylon (vide Daniel) ; the work
of some of their prophets in foreign countries
(vide 1 Kings xvii. ; 2 Kings v. ; Jonah ; Dan-
iel ; Jer. xxxvii. 7-9 ; xxxix. 15-18, etc.) ; their
dispersion into Egypt, Babylon, Syria, Greece,
and Rome ; above all, their Holy Scriptures,
in the Greek translation especially, scattered
far and wide over the heathen world — all these
had carried the knowledge of the truth through-
out the nations, and had prepared them for the
coming of Christ. 3. The subjection of a great
122 Positive Evidences. [Partn.
part of the world to Rome had broken down
the walls of separation that had existed be-
tween the nations, and thus made it compara-
tively easy to carry the gospel from land to
land. The Greek language, moreover, in which
the Gospels were written, had spread over the
world, and become a kind of universal lan-
guage, and thus again the rapid and universal
spread of the Scriptures was made easy. So
that just at the time when the world, weary
and miserable with the ills of the times and
the helplessness of humanity, instinctively
longed for the Christ, and even looked for the
approach from the East, there coincided with
them the greatest means and facilities for his
coming, and for the propagation of his truth.*
* Thus Van Oosterzee, from whom the above is substan-
tially though not altogether literally quoted. So Westcott
(Introduction, etc., ch. i.), who still more elaborately pre-
sents the same views, in showing how the Jews, by the va-
rious changes in their history, had become fitted to propa-
gate a universal gospel, while simultaneous corresponding
changes in heathendom fitted the heathen nations to receive
it, says : " The several phases of partial and independent
development were now completed. Judaism had now ex-
isted in the face of the most varied nationalities, and had
gained an elasticity of shape without losing its distinctness
of principle. . . . Conquest swept away gradually the
barriers by which the world was divided ; . . . the power
of paganism everywhere gave way; . . . the old tem-
ples were deserted, and the speculations of philosophy had
Ch. L] Weight of the Evidence. 123
The " fullness of time" had come, and Christ
comes "the center of history, the pivot on which
the whole plan of God moves." His greatness,
his indispensability to man becomes apparent,
while the utter failure of all the greatest of
human efforts disposes the nations to embrace
him as their only hope.
II. From all this we argue that the advent
of Christ was supernatural and divine. We
next assert it from the evidence of prophecy.
Prophecy is " a miracle of knowledge, and the
highest evidence that can be given of a reve-
lation from God" (Home). If, then, we can
show that there were prophecies of the coming
of Christ existing long prior to that event, we
must admit that his coming had something
about it that was supernatural and divine.
Such prophecies existed. It is disputed by no
one that the whole of the Old Testament ex-
isted at least as early as B.C. 265, at or before
which time the Greek translation of it, called the
Septuagint, was undoubtedly made. But the
Old Testament, existing thus at least two and a
all led to blank skepticism. . . . But Greece had left a
universal literature and language, Rome had founded a
universal empire. . . . There was a vague presentiment
that a new period was near. . . . And in the East that
hope rested. A missionary nation [the Jews] was [thus]
waiting to be charged with the heavenly commission, and
a world was unconsciously prepared to welcome it."
124 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
half centuries — or as long as the first settle-
ment of the United States to the present time
— before Christ, contains many predictions of
his coming, his character, his life, and his
death. In them are predicted some things
seemingly very unlikely, and in a complicated
and connected series of events. They are,
moreover, predicted not all by a single indi-
vidual, but some by one and some by another
prophet — at long intervals of time and place —
in a comparatively rude and ignorant age and
nation. And they are numerous — so numer-
ous, indeed, that we have not here space to
refer even to all, nor to any at length. The
following, however, may suffice to show the
wonderful nature of these prophecies, fulfilled,
as a comparison of the Gospel history will
show they were, minutely and exactly so many
years afterward. 1. It was predicted (Gen.
xlix. 10) that Christ should come before the
scepter should "depart from Judah," and
(Hag. ii. 6-9 ; Mai. iii. 1) before the destruction
of the second temple. And, accordingly, our
Lord came just when the Romans did utterly
take away the government from the tribe of
Judah ; and he preached in that temple which
about forty years afterward was totally de-
stroyed. 2. It was foretold that he should be
born in the town of Bethlehem, and of the
Ch. l.] Weight of the Evidence. 125
tribe of Judah (Micah v. 2) ; of a virgin (Isa.
vii. 14) ; and of the family of David (Isa. ix.
6, 7 ; xi. 1, 2). 3. Also, that he would be with-
out outward power or influence to attach the
world to himself (Isa. liii. 1-3) ; and " a stone
of stumbling and an offense " (Isa. viii. 14, 15);
yet the chief corner-stone of the Church (Isa.
xxxviii. 16) ; and that upon this rock the Jews
should fall, and be broken to pieces (Isa. viii.
14, 15). Again, that he should preach the
gospel to the poor, instruct the Gentiles, and
heal the blind and the sick (Isa. vi. 9-11 ; xliii.
1, etc.) ; that he should give himself a ransom
for many, be numbered with the transgressors,
be mocked, and scorned, and rejected of men,
yet make his grave with the rich in his death
(Isa. liii.). Moreover, he was not to lie in the
grave, nor see corruption (Ps. xvi. 10); but
to rise again on the third day (Hos. vi. 2; cf.
with Matt. xx. 19, etc.); and to ascend into
heaven, and there reign at his Father's right-
hand with universal dominion (Ps. xvi. 11 ;
lxviii. 18; Isa. ix. 7).
All these were perfectly fulfilled by our
Saviour, and he and his apostles continually
appealed to their fulfillment, before the unbe-
lieving Jews, as the evidence that he was their
promised Messiah. It is evident that if either
no such prophecies had before existed among
126 Positive Evidences. [Part" II.
the Jews, or if the facts of his birth, life, and
death, had at all deviated from these prophe-
cies, the Jews, those bitter enemies of Chris-
tianity, would instantly have exposed the im-
posture, and at once and forever have silenced
its advocates. But they could not, and these
wonderful prophecies remain, with their fulfill-
ment, an unanswerable evidence of the superhu-
man and divine nature of the coming of Christ.
III. His miraculous conception and birth
by a virgin attests it. For this great fact we
have the evidence not only of the prophecy
already cited, and also the testimony of the
writers of the New Testament, but still farther
the personal testimony of Mary and of Christ.
That of Mary was impliedly given, since no
contradiction of it by her appears in the Gos-
pels ; and, doubtless, given expressly also,
since from no one else could the account of the
circumstances of his birth at first have become
known. And Christ did so testify, not only
impliedly, but substantially in express terms,
asserting that he " came down from heaven
. . . to do the will of Him that sent me"
(John vi. 38) ; that he was " the living Bread
which came down from heaven," and asking
the unbelieving Jews, "What and if ye shall
see the Son of man ascend up where he was
before?" (id., vs. 51, 62, etc.). This testimony
Ch. i."j Weight of the Eoidence. 127
is of the greatest weight. In fact, if his birth
was not thus miraculous, then we must be-
lieve, on the other hand — awful conclusion as
it is, and such as few infidels even have ever
ventured to advance — that Mary was both an
impudent, shameless woman, and an author of
falsehoods, and that of the most tremendous
blasphemy; and that Christ was the son of
impurity, and himself an utterer of falsehood
and blasphemy. And yet we are to believe
that Christ, though of such origin, and nur-
tured by such a woman, and himself, speaking
lies, was yet what he is now, as we shall see,
acknowledged by all to have been — the one
Perfect Man of all the earth, upon whose un-
approachable superiority of life and teaching
was founded the Christian Church — incompar-
ably the purest and most powerful agency for
good that has ever appeared. In the utter
impossibility of this, the only alternative, and
in the absence of even the charge of such dar-
ing deceit and impiety, on the testimony of the
Scriptures, of Mary, and of Christ, the com-
mon principles of evidence demand that we
admit the fact as proved. And this fact, to-
gether with those of the prophecies of, and the
preparation made for, the coming of Christ into
the world, prove that that coming was in a man-
ner that was truly supernatural and divine.
128 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
CHAPTER II.
THE SUPERHUMAN CHARACTER OF CHRIST.
We next inquire concerning the moral charac-
ter of Christ, and ask whether it corresponds
to such a claim, and possesses such traits, as
confirm his divine descent. We expect, if a
man claims to be of uncommonly superior ori-
gin, to find evidence of the fact not only from
the external testimonies he may bring us, but
also in the man himself — in his appearance, his
manners, his characteristics of mind and dispo-
sition. Much more is this the case if he who
presents himself before us asserts that he is
sprung from a race of beings superior to men
— an angel, or from a God. If, on examination
of the actions and words narrated of him, we
found the same human imperfections as are
common to man, we should at once decide that
his claim was false. The test is a proper one,
and by it we can rightly decide the falsity of
the pretensions of all the heroes of the pagan
religions (as Hercules, etc.) to divine descent.
The histories given of them show them to pos-
sess the common frailties of humanity, and in
most, if not all, cases to possess also its gross-
Ch. 2.] Weight of the Evidence. 129
est vices. Probably the inventors of their his-
tories would have made them better if they
could ; but it is an old observation, illustrated
by the literature of every country, that human
powers cannot paint a portrait above the hu-
man in beauty of moral character. The stream
cannot rise above its source ; imperfection will
cling to this, as to every other work of human
skill ; without a previous revelation of such a
superhuman being, there will have been no
model from which to draw ; and the authors,
though they be the Homers and Virgils of
imagination and invention, must leave their
heroes marred by many a fault, and even their
heavenly gods and goddesses disfigured with
many an impurity and imperfection. We have
a right, then, to expect, if Christ is divine, that
his character and life shall appear, evidently,
to be above all that is merely human.
On the other hand, we are just as much
bound, in truth and honesty, to acknowledge
his divinity if we do find his character thus
to be superior to all that is human. The one
duty is as clear and obligatory as the other.
If the skeptic has the right to demand, for
the establishment of Christ's divinity, that we
bring forth in proof his possession of a super-
human character, it is surely our right, when
that proof has been produced, to demand un-
6*
130 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
hesitating assent to the fact so established by
its evidence.
What, then, are the characteristic traits of
Christ's moral nature? Are they such as,
marked by the imperfections universal to
mere human nature, show that he too was no
more than man ? Or are they free from all
blemish ? and perfect in nature and in variety
of attributes, do they proclaim One who was
himself perfect — One far removed above mere
imperfect humanity — One who was truly di-
vine? For reply we have the history of his
life, given by four different authors, in the
Gospels of the New Testament Scriptures. In
them his character is simply, but very com-
pletely, delineated. He is presented to us un-
der the most trying circumstances conceivable
— of the most various kinds, and of the greatest
number. The very mission, so unique and so
great, which he undertook, at once exposed him
to the severest scrutiny, and from its very nat-
ure made success to be most difficult to attain.
Claiming to be the long-promised Messiah of
the Jews, he had to fulfill not only the circum-
stances of birth, origin, etc., predicted of the
Messiah's life, but also the various traits of
character foretold of Him that was to come.
Claiming to be perfectly holy, he had to ex-
hibit unspotted sanctity of life. Claiming to
Ch. 2.] Weight of the Evidence. 131
be divine, he had to display superhuman wis-
dom, and power, and goodness. Yet the Gos-
pels exhibit him, for more than three years of
his life, under the most trying circumstances,
wholly unmarred by a single shadow of im-
perfection. Standing in the most diverse and
changing relations with foes and friends, with
relatives and strangers, with the common peo-
ple and the most learned, with Jews and Sa-
maritans, with Greeks, and Romans, and Syr-
ians — in contact with all kinds of life, in the
country, the city, the desert, and upon the sea
— before the populace and before judges, in
peace and in conflict, at rest and at labor, in
sorrow and in joy, at the feast and at the buri-
al, in triumph amid the acclamations of the
multitude as he entered a King into Jerusa-
lem, and on trial for his life before Caiaphas
and before Pilate — ministered to by loving
women, and scourged by the soldier's lash — at
Bethany and upon Calvary : in all these he is
presented to us under almost every conceiv-
able circumstance; and yet, neither when
harassed by enemies, nor when relaxed in the
presence of ministering and adoring friends,
does either his wisdom or his goodness ever
forsake him, or betray the faintest sign of any
imperfection. Neither vanity on one side, nor
bitterness on the other ; neither worldly am-
132 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
bition nor any thirst for revenge ; no taint of
impurity, falsehood, selfishness, or hate, nor,
withal, the least diminution of dignity and re-
spect for self, was ever beheld. In all he stood
alone ; perfect and entire, he towered far above
all that is merely human, and remained un-
touched and unreached by human weakness or
human infirmity. He was divine.
To illustrate this by examples drawn from
his history w r ould occupy more space than can
here be afforded ; to fully show it, it would be
necessary to consider every incident and all
his words and actions, and transcribe, with
comments, the whole of the Gospels. Mani-
festly, nothing like this can be appropriate
here. We can only refer the reader to that
Life generally, and challenge the severest crit-
icism to find one blemish therein. Hitherto
his most acute and bitter enemies have failed
to find one ; but many, as we shall see, have
been forced to testify in his favor. With that
fact before us, we add, as sufficient additional
proof of what we claim, the following evidence :
1. Man never before even imagined such a
character ; nor is it possible to imagine one su-
perior. Neither (cf. Rogers's "Supernatural
Origin of the Bible") in Greek, nor Roman, nor
Jewish, nor any other history or literature, can
there be found the elements of another such
Ch. 2.] Weight of the Evidence. 133
character, real or fictitious. Man never has
painted, and never can paint, another such a
One, by whom the challenge may safely be
given, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?"
In his practical goodness, in his intellectual
greatness, and in his self-abnegation, Christ
surpasses all the ideals of men, as in his work
he has exceeded their greatest heroes in prac-
tical importance to the world. In an age of
unexampled corruption, a moral standard was
erected by One Man — a Jewish peasant, con-
victed and executed as a felon — which has been
ui) approached before and since, and which we
cannot even conceive it possible to be excelled. And
still more remarkable, if possible, this has not
been in vain, but has been ever since, and still
is, the mightiest moral agent for good to be
found among men.
2. His divine character is proved from the
superhuman influence for good that he has
exerted. To quote substantially from Row
(Bampton Lectures, 1877), " Present facts, no
less than the unquestionable facts of history,
prove that Christ stands on an elevation
which, among the sons of men, is solitary and
alone. Our experience of man, extending over
at least three thousand years, with ample op-
portunity of observation, enables us to know
well what is in man, and what man's powers
134 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
can accomplish : if therefore the greatness of
Christ were the result of their activity, it is
clear that during this long interval of time
they must have produced other men at least
approaching his greatness.
"The life of Christianity consists, most re-
markably and absolutely uniquely, in the his-
tory of man — not in a body of moral precepts
or dogmas, a ritual, or a system of philosophy,
but in a personal history. We may take from
Brahmanism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, or
any of the philosophical, political, or social
systems that have ever existed among men,
or from any of the various sects even in the
Christian Church, the personal history of their
founders, and yet they would remain, substan-
tially unaffected, the same as before. But if
from Christianity we take the personal history
of Christ, his life, death, and resurrection, we
take from it its all. No other system has ever
pretended to be founded on a Person, and the
events of that Person's life, instead of a body
of dogmatic statements. But the supreme at-
tractiveness of the Person of the Founder of
Christianity has imparted to the Church the
whole of its vitality. To this fact all history
bears witness. Nor is its testimony less cer-
tain that, of all the influences that have been
exerted in this earth, that of Jesus has been
Ch. 2.] Weight of the Evidence. 135
the most potent. Enumerate all the great
men who have ever existed, whether they be
kings, conquerors, statesmen, poets, philoso-
phers, or men of science, and their influence
for good will be found to be as nothing com-
pared with that which has been exerted by
Jesus Christ.* . . . He who was in outward
form a Galilean peasant, who died a malefac-
tor's death, has founded a spiritual empire
which has endured for eighteen centuries of
time, and which, despite the vaticination of
unbelievers, shows no sign of decrepitude.
Commencing with the smallest beginnings, his
empire now embraces all the progressive races
of men. Those by whom it has not been ac-
cepted are in a state of stagnation and decay.
It is the only one which is adapted to every
state of civilization. It differs from all other
states and communities in that it is founded
neither on force nor self-interest, but on per-
suasion and the supreme attractiveness of the
character of its Founder. The holiest of men
have bowed before him with the supremest
reverence, and have accepted him as a King
* The acknowledgment of Napoleon, on St. Helena, will
here be remembered, when, comparing the littleness of his
own dominion, already past, and those also of Alexander,
Caesar, etc., with the wide extension and durability of that
of Christ, he declared that Christ alone was divine.
136 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
who is entitled to reign by right of inherent
worthiness, and with the greater eagerness in
proportion to their holiness" (pp. 93, 94).
3. We farther adduce the testimony of his
opposers. The one catholic man, the one ideal
of humanity, even his enemies are forced to
praise him. The skeptical historian, Lecky
(" History of Morals," Vol. II., ch. 8), says:
" It was reserved for Christianity to present
to the world an ideal character which, through
all the changes of eighteen centuries, has filled
the hearts of men with an impassioned love,
and has shown itself capable of acting on all
ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions;
has not only been the highest pattern of vir-
tue, but the highest incentive to its practice,
and has exerted so deep an influence that it
may be truly said that the simple record of
three short years of active life has done more
to regenerate and to soften mankind than all
the disquisitions of philosophers, and than all
the exhortations of moralists. This has indeed
been the well-spring of whatever has been
best and purest in the Christian life. Amid
all the sins and failings, amid all the priest-
craft, the persecution, and fanaticism which
have defaced Christianity, it has preserved in
the character and the example of its Founder
an enduring principle of regeneration."
Ch. 2.] Weight of the Evidence. 137
But, argues Row, what other character, real
or ideal, among men, has (1) "for eighteen
centuries filled the hearts of men with an im-
passioned love?" Has Socrates, Zoroaster, or
Mohammed ? or any ideal character, even the
greatest, of Homer, or Virgil, or Shakespeare?
(2) What other has thus "acted on all ages,
nations, and temperaments?" Has Shakes-
peare? Who is impelled to self-sacrifice for
the love of Shakespeare? (3) Or, who else
has " presented the highest pattern of virtue ?"
(4) Or, in himself is " the highest incentive
to its practice?" (5) Or, has ever been "an
enduring principle of regeneration" to his sys-
tem ? Has any heathen ? any apostle even ?
or any Father of the Church? Nay, Christ
alone has been able to accomplish such things.
All others, even the very best, of all ages and
nations together, have not been able to equal
him. Can it be doubted that he is divine ?
Again, " In Christ," says Chubb, an avowed
infidel, "we have an example of a quiet and
peaceable spirit, just, honest, upright, and sin-
cere, and, above all, of a most gracious temper
and behavior — one who did no injury to any
man, in whose mouth there was no guile, who
went about doing good. His life was a beau-
tiful picture of human nature in its native
purity and simplicity, and showed at once
138 Positive Evidences. [Part IT.
what excellent creatures men would be when
under the influence and power of that gospel
which he preached unto them." Again, Rous-
seau exclaims, " What sweetness, what purity
in his manners ! What an affecting graceful-
ness in his delivery ! What sublimity in his
maxims ! What profound wisdom in his dis-
courses! What presence of mind in his re-
plies! How great the command over the
passions ! Where is the man, where is the
philosopher, who could so live and so die with-
out weakness and without ostentation ? . . .
Shall we suppose the evangelic history a mere
fiction? Indeed, my friend, it bears not the
marks of fiction. On the contrary, the history
of Socrates, which nobody presumes to doubt,
is not so well attested as that of Jesus Christ.
Such a supposition, in fact, only shifts the dif-
ficulty without removing it; for it is more
inconceivable that a number of persons should
agree to write such a history than that only
one should furnish the subject of it. The
Jewish authors were incapable of the diction,
and were strangers to the morality, contained
in the gospel, the marks of whose truth are
so striking and inimitable that the inventor
would be a more astonishing character than
the hero." Finally, we add the testimony of
one of the most intellectual of unbelievers,
Ch. 2.] Weight of the Evidence. 139
John Stuart Mill. He says (" Three Essays "),
" It is the Grocl Incarnate more than the God
of the Jews who, being idealized, has taken
so great and salutary a hold on the modern
mind. And whatever else may be taken away
from us by rational criticism, Christ is still
left — a unique figure not more unlike all his
predecessors than all his followers."
Such testimony from witnesses so incapable
of partiality toward Christianity, and so capa-
ble intellectually of correct judgment, could
have been called forth only by the superhuman
and irresistible beauty and grandeur of the
character of Christ. In itself it is a strong-
proof of his divinity, and, together with the
preceding evidences to the same fact, is a suf-
ficient proof. " The forces which energize in
the moral and spiritual world act in conform-
ity with the moral laws no less than those
which dominate in the physical universe do
with physical laws ; and therefore an event in
the moral universe, of the origin of which the
forces energizing in man can give no account,
is a moral miracle." — Bow. We know from uni-
versal history and literature what the " forces
energizing in man" can produce of human
character and human life ; we have seen how
impossible it is for them to produce such an-
other character and life as that of Christ ; and
140 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
we must conclude, therefore, that his appear-
ance upon the stage of human history was "an
event in the moral universe, of the origin of
which the forces energizing in man can give
no account " — " a moral miracle " — and proves
him to be superhuman and divine.
This might be justly thought to be sufficient;
but we farther cite, in connection with this sub-
ject—
4. The testimony of Christ to himself. In
doing this, we violate no rule of evidence. His
enemies being judges, we have found him to
be irreproachably holy, supremely great, and
spotlessly true. His testimony, then, is wor-
thy to be received, and to be fully credited.
Besides, such evidence is now everywhere ad-
mitted. By a late and very proper change in
jurisprudence (cf. Princeton Review, July, 1878,
p. 154, etc.), the testimony of parties in inter-
est is now generally received. The weight of
their testimony is left to be decided according
to each one's credibility, his disinterestedness,
conscientiousness, and intellectual ability; and
this is felt to be right, inasmuch as otherwise
the very parties who alone could know best
about the matter in question, though of the
highest integrity, are excluded.
But it is allowed on all hands, as we have
seen, that Christ, in all the qualities of great-
Ch. 2.] Weight of the Evidence. 141
ness of intellect, perfect uprightness of life,
and purity of heart, is wholly un approached
by any other who has ever lived on earth.
His testimony, then, upon the common princi-
ples of evidence, though given in reference to
himself, his divine origin, and his mission, is
entitled to the very greatest weight. As such
we cite it in support of his divinity, and ask
candid attention to the following, among oth-
ers, of his words and acts :
1. He acquiesced without denial in Nicode-
mus's declaration, that he was "a teacher come
from God" (John iii. 2); 2. He directly de-
clared to the Samaritan woman that he was
"Messias"(Johniv.26); 3. He " made himself
equal with God" (John vi. 35, 38); 4. He as-
serted that he had "come down from heaven"
(John vi. 35, 38) ; 5. That he was the source
of everlasting life to men (John vi. 47-56);
6. He assented to the declaration that he w T as
" Christ the Son of the living God" (John vi.
68, 69); 7. And declared that he "proceedeth
forth, and came from God" (John viii. 42) ; 8.
And that " before Abraham was, I am" (John
viii. 58) ; 9. That "J and my Father are one,"
and "the Father is in me, and I in him "(John
x. 30, 38) ; "As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father" (John x. 15); and "/
give unto them eternal life" (John x. 28); 10.
142 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
He "knew that he was come from God, and
went to God" (John xiii. 3); 11. Commanded
his disciples, "Ye believe in God, believe also
in me" (John xiv. 1) ; 12. Said that "he that
hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John xiv.
9) ; 13. Acknowledged himself to be the "Son
of God" (Luke xxii. 70; cf. also parallel pas-
sages) ; 14. And said to the disciples, "Receive
ye the Holy Ghost" at the same time breathing
upon them, and imparting him to them.
This and such like testimony he repeatedly
gave of himself. Now, either he was willfully
a false witness, or mistaken, or else his testi-
mony was true. If false, then was he the most
awfully perjured and blasphemous man, and
the most injurious to his race of all that have
ever lived; if mistaken, then the most de-
ceived. But we see that even unbelievers ac-
knowledge him to be, far above all comparison,
both the most profound in intellect and the
most holy in life of all men. The only rational
explanation, then, of his testimony — the only
possible solution consistent both with his char-
acter and with all the circumstances of his life
— is that it was true, and that he was really
divine ; and we therefore add this evidence of
his own testimony of himself, to prove what we
claim for him — that in his very character he
also evidently appears to be divine.
Ch. 3.] Weight of the Evidence, 143
CHAPTER III.
THE SUPERHUMAN TEACHING OF CHRIST — I.
ITS REASONABLENESS.
Next we call attention to the teaching of
Christ, as exhibiting, in its unrivaled wisdom,
fullness, and power, a character utterly un-
known to that of any other teacher that has
ever appeared — proving thereby that it is more
than human, and is, as it claims to be, divine.
We have already seen, in the First Part of
this work, how confessedly imperfect and un-
satisfying have been the reasonings of all, even
the greatest of, merely human moralists and
philosophers. In the most striking contrast
stands the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth.
"Never man spake like this man." There is
nowhere any appearance or shadow of folly or
mistake, but always the profoundest wisdom^
There is nowhere any incompleteness or un-
certainty, but in every thing unfathomable
fullness, perfect sufficiency, and the most con-
fident assurance ; and among no people, with
no class of men or women, and under no cir-
cumstances of life, whether of age or youth, of
adversity or prosperity, of barbarism or of the
144 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
highest and most complicated civilization, has
his teaching ever ceased to exercise, through
all the centuries since first it was given to the
world, its wonderful power to elevate and en-
noble the humamheart.
"A hundred years ago a distinguished com-
pany of eminent men was assembled in a draw-
ing-room in Paris. Again, as it was customary
in that circle, Holy Scripture had been the
general drudge; from all sides the sharp and
envenomed arrows of mockery were aimed at
it. At once one of the boldest among these
free-thinkers — the famous Diderot — rose from
his seat, and, to the general amazement of the
company, said: 'All right, gentlemen, all right!
I am ready to declare all of you clever writers
and competent judges, and few in France or
abroad would be able to speak or write better
than you do. But still, notwithstanding all
the evil we have just been saying about this
accursed Book, and which, no doubt, serves it
right, still I think I might defy any of you to
compose an historical tale so ingenious, and at
the same time so sublime, so touching, and fit
to produce such a deep and lasting influence
for centuries to come, as the Gospel relation
of Christ's sufferings and death.' JSTo wonder
an unwonted but most significant silence fol-
lowed." This story — given by Van Oosterzee,
Ch. 3.] Weight of the Evidence. 145
in an article in the Princeton Bevieiv of July,
1878, the truth of which there seems no reason
to doubt — serves to bring out in measurable
relief the superhuman character of the Gos-
pels. For what author has ever written, or
will dare to pretend he could write, any his-
tory rivaling it? But what is beyond human
achievement is superhuman, and therefore we
claim that the gospel is divine.
To j^ove this at large, let us compare the
main teachings of Christianity, first with those
of the leading philosophers both of ancient and
modern times, and next with the known consti-
tution and course of nature, manifested in the
ordinary course of things in the world around
us. In their agreement with both of these, we
shall see their entire reasonableness; in their
analogy to the latter, we shall behold the evi-
dence that the same all-wise and all-powerful
Creator, who is nature's Maker, is also the Au-
thor of Christianity; and in their incompara-
ble superiority to the teachings of both philos-
ophers and nature, we shall see that they are
superhuman and divine.
I. A sufficient view (Part I., Ch. 3) of the
defects and vices of all the schemes of the phi-
losophers has already been shown. No such
imperfections have ever been pointed out in
the teachings of Christ ; and from this single
7
146 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
superiority of being free from the human in-
firmity everywhere else apparent, we might
justly claim that it is divine. But this is still
more strikingly apparent in the superiority it
manifests when compared, not with the defects,
but with the best achievements of their rea-
sonings. To show that it does possess such a
superiority is not difficult, and to do so will be
our duty before leaving this part of our gen-
eral subject. First, however, it is proper to
show that Christianity is in entire agreement
with reason and nature, and therefore consist-
ent with divine wisdom; afterward we shall
consider its superiority to both.
The agreement of the doctrines taught by
Christ with reason is proved by their accord-
ance with the conclusions of the greatest rea-
soners, both ancient and modern, that have
ever lived. To see this distinctly, let us briefly
recall what are the principal truths that were
taught by Christ.
These may be stated to consist in : 1. The
unity of God. 2. The depravity of man. 3.
The immortality of the soul ; together with the
following, given by Coleridge ("Aids to Reflec-
tion, " p. 146), as peculiar to Christianity alone,
viz. : 4. " That a mean of salvation has been
effected and provided for the human race by
the incarnation of the Son of God in the per-
Ch. 3.] Weight of the Evidence. 147
son of Jesus Christ, and that his life on earth,
his sufferings, death, and resurrection, are not
only proofs and manifestations, but likewise
essential and effective parts, of the great re-
demptive act, whereby also the obstacle from
the corruption of our nature is rendered no
longer insurmountable. 5. That the appropri-
ation of this benefit is possible by repentance
and faith, including the aids that render an
effective faith and repentance themselves pos-
sible. 6. That there is a reception (by as many
as shall be heirs of salvation) of a living and
spiritual principle, a seed of life, capable of
surviving this natural life, and of existing in
a divine and immortal state. 7. That there is
an awakening of the spirit in them that truly
believe, and a communion of that spirit thus
awakened with the Holy Spirit. 8. That there
are accompanying and consequent gifts, graces,
comforts, and privileges of the Spirit, which,
acting primarily of the heart and will, cannot
but manifest themselves in suitable works of
love and obedience — that is, in right acts, with
right affections, from right principles. 9. That
these works are the appointed signs and evi-
dences of our faith, and that, under limitation
of the powers, the means, and the opportuni-
ties afforded us individually, they are the rule
and measure by which we are bound and en-
148 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
abled to judge of what spirit we are. 10. That
God beholds us, and will finally judge us with
a merciful consideration of our infirmities, a
gracious acceptance of our sincere though im-
perfect strivings, and a forgiveness of our de-
fects, through the mediation of the man Christ
Jesus, even the Word, that was in the begin-
ning with God, and who, being God, became
[also] man for the redemption of mankind."
1st. That the doctrines of Christianity are
reasonable, appears from their very nature.
"This world [vide Wayland's "Moral Science""
is a universe governed by law ; if by physical
laws, then by moral law also, since the world
of morals has its existence and laws in the
universe as well as the physical world. Their
violation, then, must as certainly be visited
with retribution as that of physical laws, some-
time and somehow. Therefore, since such ret-
ribution often does not happen here, it must
hereafter; therefore there is a future life,«and
that life is retributive." Again, "The obliga-
tion of supreme love to God is reasonable:
1. He is our Creator and Preserver. 2. He
unites within himself every perfection that
can possibly exist. 3. His creative power and
his infinite wisdom have been exerted for the
production of our best good. 4. Therefore he
has the right over us of unlimited possession*
Ch. 3.] Weight of the Evidence. 149
5. And of our highest love and gratitude. 6.
Therefore, since the universe is governed by
law, we can attain happiness only by discharg-
ing those obligations (since the violation of
every law or duty is attended with punish-
ment). 7. Or mutually render each other hap-
py, since to do so it is necessary for all to be
under the control of a supreme Power, and to
fulfill the law of love to each other.
"The duty of prayer also is evident. For,
1. We are powerless, ignorant of the future,
dependent, and miserably sinful. 2. We con-
tinually receive blessings from God, to whom
we should also render continual thanks. 3.
Its exercise is necessary to our well-being here,
since the temper and frame of mind (as peni-
tence, faith, devotion, etc.) it must imply and
exercise is essential to our progress in virtue.
Those of benevolence, of justice, of truth, of
chastity, and of filial obedience, are no less
apparent ; while those also of the Sabbath, of
hearing the word of Grod, of public worship,
etc., are not difficult to be seen."
This reasoning, drawn from a modern mor-
alist, to whose conclusions, however, no one
without the light of revelation ever attained
with any certainty, fullness, or consistency,
shows the reasonableness of Christianity in
the nature of the case itself.
150 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
2d. The agreement of the deductions of some
of the greatest intellects of the human race
with -the doctrines of Christianity show that
the latter are not contrary to reason, but whol-
ly reasonable, and worthy of our acceptance.
From among the many illustrious thinkers
who might be brought forward to prove, by
their writings, this agreement, our space per-
mits hs here to cite only those that are great-
est — Plato and Aristotle among the ancients,
and Descartes, Locke, and Hunt, among the
moderns.
1. Plato teaches (vide Ueberweg's " History
of Philosophy," sections 41 and 43) that " The
highest object of knowledge is the Idea of the
Good. This Idea is supreme, and the cause of
all truth and beauty. Every thing which ex-
ists, and is knowable, has received from God,
who is the Idea of the Good, its existence and
ability to be known, because he knew that it
was better that it should exist than that it
should not exist." He also teaches that the
world must have had a beginning (vide Tim.,
pages 28, 29): "God's goodness is the reason
of the construction of the world, and being
therefore without envy, he planned all things
so that they should be as nearly as possible
like himself." The soul is immortal ; the high-
est good is not pleasure, nor knowledge alone,
Ch. g.] Weight of the Evidence. 151
but the greatest possible likeness to God, as the ab-
solutely good ; and the possession of that good
is happiness. Most striking is the resem-
blance of the picture he draws of the purely
righteous to the character and life of our Lord
(De Repub., 360, 361) : " He has the ring of
G} T ges, that gives invisibility ; he has power to
do all evil with impunity and without reproach,
yet is he righteous still. He may have the
very opposite of this impunity, but unjustly
receive the reputation of unrighteousness, and
with no means of reversing the unjust decision,
yet is he righteous still. He may be made to
endure the severest pains with no prospect of
deliverance, either now or at any other time,
yet is he righteous still. Finally, what may
such a man, in such circumstances, expect from
his fellow-man ? * The righteous man, in this
state, will be scourged, he will suffer dislocat-
ing tortures, he shall be bound with cords, and
finally, after suffering all evils, shall be impaled,
or crucified.' " Compare only these wonderful
utterances of what this master-mind conceived
to be required by true reason with the teach-
ings of the Bible as to the character and attri-
butes of God, the nature of man, and the true
end of life, together with its account of the
actual life of Christ as the ideal man, and how
well satisfied may we be that Christianity,
152 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
both as to its doctrines and as to the facts of
the life upon which it founds its hopes, is en-
tirely consistent with the demands of the high-
est reason.
2. The like truth is shown also by what
Aristotle, the great opponent of Plato's system
in general, deduced as the necessary conclu-
sions of reason (Ueberweg, sees. 48-50) : " In
the sphere of existence we find included that
which is perpetually moved, and that which
both moves and is moved ; there exists there-
fore a third existence, which is always impart-
ing motion, but is itself unmoved. This is
God, the immaterial and eternal Form, the pure
Actuality, in which is no potentiality, the self-
thinking Reason, or absolute Spirit, who, as abso-
lutely perfect, is loved by all, and into the image
of whose perfection all things seek to come. He
occupies the very highest place in the scale of
being, is without parts, is the Good; not a
iinal product of development, but the eternal
prius of all development. The highest good
for man is happiness. This depends on the
rational or virtuous activity of the soul through-
out the whole of its life. The highest among
the virtues is justice, or righteousness. Man's
only worthy activity is honorable and virtuous
activity, and the highest happiness is connect-
ed with the highest virtue." Such are the de-
Ch. 3.] Weight of the Evidence. 153
ductions of these two ancient masters, in per-
fect conformity (except their opposite ideas of
the chief good of man, which, however, is of
small moment, since both make virtue and
happiness inseparable) with each other and
with the truths of revelation. Let us now
turn to the moderns.
3. We first take Descartes, the father of
modern philosophy (Ueberweg, sec. 114) : "He
seeks to demonstrate the existence of God and
the existence of the soul as an independent
entity, separable from the body. . . There
must be a first cause, which is God, and among
the necessary attributes of God belongs the
love of truth. God cannot wish to deceive,"
hence clear and distinct knowledge is attain-
able by man. "God is the absolutely perfect
being. In the conception of God there is con-
tained necessary, perfect, and eternal exist-
ence. Only one substance can be conceived
as plainly needing nothing else in order to its
existence, namely, God, for we plainly perceive
that all others cannot exist without God's as-
sistance. He attributes to matter nothing but
extension and modes of extension, but no in-
ternal states, or forces. Pressure and impul-
sion (coming from God), the sum of which, in
the universe, is invariable, must suffice for the
explanation of all phenomena. The most per-
7*
154 Positive Ecidences. [Part II.
feet of all emotions is intellectual love to God.
Virtue depends on the control of the passions
by wisdom."
4. Of Locke, the great antagonist of, and
founder of the school of philosophy opposed
to, Descartes, it is scarcely necessary to speak
to English readers as a devout believer and
defender of Christianity. He held, it is true,
that the immortality of the soul could not be
demonstrated, by human reason, but was a sub-
ject for revelation only; but he found no con-
tradiction to reason in the doctrine ; while the
existence of God, his essential, original, omni-
present, and eternal being, the cause of all
other things, and the foundation of all moral-
ity, he thought were clearly proved by reason
(vide "Human Understanding"). So also in
his work, " Reasonableness of Christianity,"
he specifically maintains the reasonable nature
of the essential doctrine of the Christian belief
— viz., salvation by faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ — and he continued through life a sin-
cere and consistent professor of that faith.
5. Leibnitz, who, Ueberweg says (sec. 117),
was "the founder of the German philosophy
of the eighteenth century," finds that God ex-
ists, and is u the most perfect Being, than
whom no greater can be conceived. The good
man is he who loves all men, so far as reason
Ch. 3. J Weight of the Evidence. 155
permits, and justice is the virtue which con-
trols this love. Submission to the eternal laws
of the Divine Monarchy is .justice in the uni-
versal sense, in which it includes all virtues in
itself. The particular phenomena of nature
can and must be mechanically explained ; but
the principles of physics and mechanics them-
selves depend on the direction of a Supreme
Intelligence, and can only be explained when
we take into consideration this Intelligence;
therefore, the true principles of physics must
be deduced from the divine perfections. The
soul governs the body, and from its unity and
spirituality he infers its indestructibility and
immortality. God is the primitive Unity, or
the original, simple, and absolute Substance.
He has an adequate knowledge of all things,
since he is the Source of all ; is an omnipresent
Center, and all things are immediately present
to him. God governs nature as its Architect,
the world of spirits as their Monarch ; and be-
tween the kingdoms of nature and grace there
is a predetermined harmony. As to moral
evil, or wrong, God could not remove them
without removing the power of self-determina-
tion, and therewith the possibility of morality
itself; therefore, freedom, not as exemption
from law, but as the power of deciding for
one's self according to known law, belongs to
156 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
the essence of the human spirit. The course
of nature is so ordered by God as in all cases
to accord with the highest interests of the soul ;
and in this consists the harmony between the
kingdoms of nature and grace."
6. Finally, we cite Kant, the illustrious met-
aphysician of Germany, perhaps both the most
comprehensive and profound of all modern phi-
losophers. "Pure reason," he teaches, "de-
mands the doctrines of the freedom of the will,
the immortality of the human soul, and the
existence of God. The moral law requires
holiness — i. e., perfect conformity of the will to
the moral law. But the consciousness of a con-
tinual bent toward transgression, or at least
toward impurity of motive — i. e., toward the
intermixture of imperfect, non-moral motives
of obedience — accompanies the spirit in its best
estate. Virtue is the highest good, happiness
the indispensable condition of the realization
of perfect good." In his work entitled " Re-
ligion Within the Limits of Mere Reason," he
teaches, in its four parts, of — "1. The indwell-
ing of an evil principle, side by side with the
good one, in human nature, or of the radical
evil in human nature ; 2. Of the contest be-
tween the good and evil principles for the con-
trol of man ; 3. Of the victory of the good
principle over the evil one, and of the founda-
Ch. 3.] Weight of the Evidence. 157
tion of a kingdom of God on the earth ; 4. Of
true and false religious service under the rule
of the good principle, or of religion and priest-
craft. There is in human nature a propensity
to reverse the moral order. The good princi-
ple is humanity in its complete moral perfec-
tion (of which happiness is, by the will of the
Supreme Being, the immediate consequence).
Man, thus conceived — and onlv thus is he well-
pleasing to God — may be represented as the
Son of God. In practical faith on this Son of
God, man may hope to become well-pleasing
to God, and so to attain to blessedness ; or, in
other words, that man is not an unworthy ob-
ject of the divine complacency who is conscious
of such a moral disposition that he can believe,
with a well-grounded confidence in himself,
that, if subjected to temptations and sufferings
like those which (in the gospel of Christ) are
made the touch-stone of the ideal of humanity,
he would remain unalterably loyal to that ideal,
faithfully following it as his model, and retain-
ing its likeness."
Such are the conclusions of the protracted
and profound meditations of these intellectual
giants. They cannot, of course, be made to
give evidence as to those doctrines of Chris-
tianity — as, e. #., the incarnation, the suffi-
ciency of the atonement, the resurrection, etc.
158 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
— which from their very nature are necessa-
rily the subject of revelation only. But upon
nearly, if not all, those that are capable of the
deductions of unaided reason — those of the
depravity of human nature, the existence and
nature of God, the obligation of his law, the
nature and the necessity of holiness, the im-
mortality of the soul, the reasonableness of
requiring faith for salvation, etc. — in such as
these, their conclusions, arrived at in some
points by one, in others by another, show the
agreement of Christianity with reason. No
jne, indeed, of those great intellects was ever
xble singly to ascertain all these great truths
without the aid of revelation ; with much that is
good the most eminent of them, unlike Christ,
have mingled much that was unworthy ; and,
at the best, their conclusions fall far short of
the sublimity, the purity, the consistency, and
the certainty, of Bible doctrine. Yet, when
we find the greatest minds of all ages, though
totally differing in their methods and as to
many of their principles, nevertheless sustain-
ing, some one, some another, of the doctrines
of the Bible, we must conclude that Christian-
ity is at least not unreasonable ; and farther,
even as to those doctrines which cannot with-
out revelation be made the subject of reason-
ing, yet, when revealed, there has never been
Ch. 3.] Weight of the Evidence. 159
proved any disagreement between them and
reason. Finally, when we consider how many
of the most distinguished leaders of human
thought, in various fields of knowledge, have
given in their adhesion not only to those doc-
trines in some measure deducible by reason,
but also to those which must be given by rev-
elation alone, our conclusion is still farther
strengthened. Poets like Shakespeare, Mil-
ton, and Tennyson; statesmen like Pitt, and
Gladstone, and Webster, and Calhoun ; mental
philosophers like Sir William Hamilton, Cole-
ridge, and Dugald Stewart; physicists like
Newton and Davy, like Faraday, Agassiz, and
Maury — have fully believed in the truth of
Christianity. It is almost impossible that any
set of principles thus concurred in by so many
of the greatest intellects, looking from such
various stand-points of pursuit and of histor-
ical period, etc., can be unreasonable and ab-
surd. The objection that is sometimes urged,
on the ground of the mysterious nature of
some of the peculiar doctrines of Christianity,
is easily answered. If we are to receive that
religion only that is without mystery, and to
which our reason is adequate, then we must
reject all religion whatsoever. For every re-
ligion must suppose a God ; yet the nature arid
the mode of existence of God is wholly myste-
160 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
rious to us, and lies beyond our reason. Nay,
if we receive nothing but what is fully explain-
able to us, we must reject all sciences and arts,
and, what is more, the notion we have of our
own existence ; for all of these involve princi-
ples not capable of being understood by us.*
* The absurdity of this objection is well shown by the
following illustration, taken from Coleridge : "A sick man,
whose complaint was as obscure as his sufferings were severe
and notorious, was thus addressed by a humane stranger :
* My poor friend, I find you dangerously ill, and on this
account only, and because you have not wherewith to pay
a physician, I have come to you. Kespecting your disease,
indeed, I can tell you nothing that you are capable of
understanding, more than you already know, or can be
taught by reflection on your own experience. But I have
rendered the disease no longer irremediable. I have
brought the remedy with me, and I now offer the means
of immediate relief to you, with the assurance of convales-
cence and a final perfect cure — nothing more being re-
quired on your part but your best endeavors to follow the
prescriptions I shall leave with you. Ask not how such a
disease is possible ; enough for the present that you know
it to be real. I come to cure the disease, not to explain
it."' ("Aids to Keflection," p. 221.) What would be
thought of the patient's objecting to the efficiency of the
remedy because he did not understand its manner of opera-
tion? "But if thou canst not read the mystery of birds,"
says Cyril, " when soaring on high, how wouldest thou read
the Maker of things? Who among men knows even the
names of all wild beasts? or who can accurately classify
their natures? But if we know not even their bare names,
how should we comprehend their Maker?"
Ch. 3.] Weight of the Evidence. 161
Christianity, then, loses nothing in its claim
to be reasonable because in some things it is
mysterious to us. There is nothing in it con-
trary to reason, and that it has much that is
above reason is surely no just ground of objec-
tion to its divine character ; nay, we expect to
find in that which is divine something beyond
the grasp of human powers, and we would
justly at once disbelieve in its divinity did we
not find in it something that was incomprehen-
sible to us.
162 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
CHAPTER IV.
THE SUPERHUMAN TEACHING OF CHRIST — II.
THE ANALOGY OF NATURE — III. ITS SUPERI-
ORITY BOTH TO HUMAN REASON AND NATURE.
II. We are next to show that the principles
of Christianity are in harmony with the well-
known constitution and course of nature about
us. This agreement, it is claimed, is so gen-
eral and remarkable, in the nature as well of
the difficulties as of the things not difficult, con-
tained in each, as to constitute an analogy, or
likeness, and thus to show unmistakably that
both are from the hand of the same author,
even God. The argument following, in proof
of this position, is taken from Butler's cele-
brated work, the "Analogy of Religion" — an
argument which, so far as the author is aware,
no skeptic has ever even ventured to attack,
and which certainly no one has ever attacked
with success. In following it, we find it indi-
cated by nature.
1. That mankind is appointed to live in
a future state. For (1) it is a general law
of nature that all creatures should exist in
various stages of life, under greatly changed
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 163
conditions and states of life. Thu& the life
of a man, from the state of life in the womb
before birth to that of his fully - developed
powers of manhood, passes through various
exceedingly different states and conditions,
equally with that of the butterfly from the
worm to the gay and fully -developed insect.
Therefore, that we are to exist hereafter in a
state as different from this our present state
of existence as this is from our former condi-
tion, is not against, but according to, the anal-
ogy of nature. (2) The possession of our
living powers of action and feeling now is a
presumption that they will still exist hereafter.
Continuance is the law of all being — i. e., of all
those qualities necessary to existence (cf. the
scientific principle of continuity set forth in
" The Unseen Universe "). Therefore, unless
some reason can be shown why death should
destroy them, we must presume that our pow-
ers of action and feeling will continue, in some
state, to exist. But there is no ground to be-
lieve that death will destroy them. The mere
cessation of their exercise does not prove their
destruction, for their exercise is suspended
also in sleep, and in a swoon, yet not destroyed.
The body, as a whole, appears to be in this
respect just like each of its parts — the eye, or
the hand — merely the instrument of the inward
164 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
powers of the mind, and just as any one part
— the eye, or the hand — may perish, and yet
leave those mental powers themselves entirely
unimpaired, so may the whole body perish,
and leave them unimpaired. On the contra-
ry, since it is manifest that our gross body is
not necessary to our intellectual enjoyments ;
since, indeed, it often leaves them wholly un-
impaired, though it is reduced to the extrem-
ity of weakness, and to the verge of death;
there is no ground therefore, in nature, for
believing that the exercise of our faculties is
at all suspended, even by death itself. Death,
on the contrary, may in some sort answer to
our birth, and, like it, put us into a higher
and more enlarged state of life. As death
therefore does not appear likely to destroy us,
it is probable we shall live on, and the next
life may be as natural as the present.
2. Nature teaches us that in that future state
men shall be rewarded good or evil, as they
have been virtuous or vicious here. (1) We
find, in general, that in nature pain follows
vice, and happiness results from virtue; and
moreover, as with intemperance, that such pain
often follows actions which are accompanied
with much present pleasure. (2) That it is
often much greater than the pleasure. (3) Its
delay is no presumption of final impunity. (4)
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 165
After such delay they often come suddenly.
(5) And that too even though men may not
have a distinct and full expectation of them.
(6) Opportunities once neglected may never
be recalled. (7) The consequences of folly
and extravagance are often irretrievable. (8)
Neglect is often attended with consequences
as dreadful as positive misbehavior. (9) Many
such consequences — as, e. g., mortal diseases —
are permanent and irretrievable to him who
incurs them.
The character of the punishment, then, is
analogous to that pronounced against trans-
gressors by the Scriptures. Moreover, these
things are not accidental, but they are things
of every day's experience, and they proceed
from general laws, and very general ones, by
which God governs the world, in the natural
course of his providence. This proves him to
be an intelligent Governor, administering re-
wards and punishments. Moreover, he is a
moral Governor ; for though it is admitted that
the divine government we are under in this
present state, taken alone, and not with what
we claim for the future administration of re-
wards and punishments, is not perfect in degree,
it is yet moral in kind. For, not only is it to
be presumed, since it is shown he does govern
in some way, that he would govern agreeably
166 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
to morality, but a moral government is implied
also: (1) from the fact that human society,
which is but an instrumentality of God, does
actually punish the vicious ; (2) from the fact
that, in the natural course of things, virtue is
rewarded and vice is punished. Therefore, the
good and the bad effects, the satisfaction and
the uneasiness produced, respectively, by vir-
tue and by vice; the disposition of men to
befriend virtue and to discountenance vice;
lastly, the tendency that there is in virtue and
vice to produce their good and bad effects in
a greater degree than they do in fact produce
them, owing to the imperfection of human so-
ciety and human laws — all these are proofs of
there being something moral in nature. For
happy would be the lot of individuals and
whole nations if perfect morality universally
existed.
3. The foregoing considerations, therefore,
are a strong proof, (1) that the Author of
nature is in favor of virtue, and against vice ;
(2) that the distributive justice of the next
world will be the very same in kind, however
different in degree, from that which we now ex-
perience ; (3) that virtue and vice, which are
here actually rewarded and punished imper-
fectly, will be actually rewarded and punished
fully hereafter. Finally, from all these con-
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 167
siderations there arises a presumption that
the moral government established in nature
will be carried on much farther hereafter, and
indeed absolutely completed.
4. Our present life is a probation, under
trial, difficulties, and danger, intended to pre-
pare us, by moral discipline, for another world.
The way to temporal good is a way of labor
and trial, and beset with difficulty and danger,
so that we are accustomed to feel anxious so-
licitude for the young just setting out in life.
Persons may be betrayed into wrong behavior
by surprise, or overcome by other very singu-
lar and extraordinary occasions. And again,
persons who have contracted habits of vice and
folly of any kind, are liable even to go out of
the way to seek opportunities to gratify those
habits. Some have so little consideration that
they will scarce look beyond the present, but
gratify themselves regardless of future conse-
quences ; some are blinded and deceived by
inordinate passions, and some are not blinded,
but forcibly carried away, as it were, by such
passions ; while some shamelessly avow that
their pleasure is the law of their life, to what-
ever vicious excess it may carry them. Now,
to secure worldly success, it is necessary to
practice self-denial, and make the considera-
tions of future interest govern the life, rather
168 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
than the enjoyments of the present. Thus we
see that our difficulties and trials are of simi-
lar character, and have the same effect upon
our behavior and future happiness, in things
of merely worldly concern, as we are taught
they have in religion. And, it may be added,
in the former as well as in the latter, our dan-
gers and difficulties are greatly increased by
the ill-behavior of others, by improper educa-
tion, by bad example, by wrong opinions being
prevalent, and by the deceit and hypocrisy of
those with whom we may be connected in busi-
* ness, etc. Nevertheless, in both it is possible
for us to be prudent and careful : there is no
more required of us than we are able to do ;
and, in any case, we can no more complain of
this, with regard to the Author of nature, than
of his not having given us other advantages
belonging to other orders* of creatures. All
this, then, makes it credible that we are in a
state of trial in our moral as well as in our
natural capacity, notwithstanding these diffi-
culties.
Farther, we are placed in this state of trial
for our moral discipline — our improvement in
virtue and piety — in preparation for another
world. All the reasons for such a state exist-
ing here we may not be able to understand,
but this is the end for which we are placed in
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 169
such a state ; so that just as the beginning of
life is the time for education for mature age
in this world, so is this life an education for
the next world. 1. Our characters and quali-
fications must be suited to the particular kind
of employments and happiness peculiar to the
future world of bliss, for otherwise we should
be incapable of engaging in those employ-
ments, and of enjoying that happiness. 2. We
are so constituted that we are capable of be-
coming qualified for states of life for which
we were once wholly unqualified. We can ac-
quire habits of body and habits of mind. By
accustoming ourselves to any course of action
we get an aptness to go on, a facility, a readi-
ness, and often pleasure, in it. The inclina-
tions which rendered us averse to it grow
weaker, the difficulties in it — not only the
imaginary but the real ones — lessen, and the
contrary principles grow stronger by exercise.
And thus a new character, in several respects,
may be formed. 3. These capacities are neces-
sary to our preparation for mature life, and in-
tended to be used in order to that preparation.
Nature in no respect qualifies us at the begin-
ning of life for this mature state of life, but
leaves man an unformed, unfinished creature,
utterly deficient, and unqualified, both in body
and mind, for tftat mature state of life which
8
170 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
was the end in view in his creation, considering
him as related only to this world. All these
defects are to be supplied by education through
the capacities given him ; and as nature has
given us such capacities, so also she places us
in such a situation throughout infancy, child-
hood, and youth, as is fitted for our acquiring
those qualifications of all sorts of which we
stand in need in mature age. In like manner
the Scriptures represent this life as intended
to educate us morally for the next. And this,
though we could not see in what way it was so,
for neither do children understand how food,
exercise, etc., prepare them for mature age.
But, 4. The present life is well fitted for this
education. For, 1st. Virtue and piety are
necessary qualifications for the future state,
since, according to analogy, that state will be
an active one, under a more immediate moral
government by God, and thus give occasion
for the need of such a character in its mem-
bers. 2d. We need such improvement in our
moral character by discipline. That we are
capable of it, has been already shown; that
we need it, is evident from our being, first,
finite creatures, and therefore imperfect and
deficient; secondly, corrupt creatures, and
therefore needing renovation. Even unfallen
creatures, as angels and Adam, are benefited
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 171
by being raised to a higher and more secure
state of virtue by proper discipline, while for
fallen and depraved men it is absolutely nec-
essary. Now, this world is peculiarly fit to be
such a state of discipline to all who will set
themselves to amendment and improvement.
The existence about us of allurements to what
is wrong, difficulties in the discharge of our
duty, our not being able to act a uniform right
part without some thought and care, the op-
portunities we have for doing wrong — these
snares and temptations to vice compel us to
keep upon our guard, and to practice resolu-
tion and self-denial in order to preserve our
integrity. Thus a more continued and more
intense exercise of virtue is required, and so
the habit of virtue is better formed and fixed.
And the same is true as to the formation of
our habits of passive submission to God, nec-
essary, together with that of active obedience,
to make up an entirely virtuous character, such
as is required for participation in the employ-
ments and the happiness of the next world.
Affliction is the proper discipline for resigna-
tion. Just as we find, then, in this life, that
what we are to be in mature age depends on
what we do in childhood and youth, so we are
to be in the next world just as we do here.
6. Such a system is not inconsistent with
172 Positive Evidences. [p ar t n.
wisdom and goodness. (1) It is quite credible
that God's moral government is a scheme be-
yond our comprehension. The whole scheme
of the material world and its government has
such an astonishing connection of parts, such
reciprocal correspondencies and mutual rela-
tions, that we do not know how necessary the
existence of any one part, however small, may
be to the existence of the whole ; nor are we
competent to judge of it as a whole. Much
more incompetent are we to judge as to the
moral world, from the small part which comes
within our view, in the present life, of the true
relations or importance of all its parts, or of
its character as a whole. Therefore, we are
not competent to say that it is inconsistent
with wisdom or goodness. (2) Besides, we
have no reason to infer, from the existence
of evil, such a conclusion ; for in the natural
world no ends are accomplished without means,
and often desirable ends are brought about by
means which would otherwise be very unde-
sirable. Supposing the moral world to be anal-
ogous to it in this respect, the afflictions we
suffer may be the means by which a greater
preponderance of good will, in the end, be se-
cured. Farther, the natural government of
the world is. carried on by the operation of
general laws, for whiph there may be the wis-
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 173
est reasons, and by which the best ends may
be accomplished. There is no ground for be-
lieving that irregularities could be remedied
or precluded by general laws, while special
interpositions might produce evil, and prevent
good, by encouraging idleness and negligence,
and by making it doubtful what are the gen-
eral and regular rules of life. So Christianity
also is a scheme beyond our comprehension,
itself but a part of a mysterious whole, viz.,
the moral government of the universe by God
— a scheme in which means are used to an end
— a scheme carried on by general laws.
Thus these analogies show us that it is not
at all incredible that, could we but comprehend
the whole, we should find the permission of
disorder in the world consistent with justice
and goodness. Therefore, the fact of its exist-
ence cannot invalidate the proof that we have
of religion. We are only incompetent to judge
in such cases when we are ignorant of the
possibilities of things, and of their present
relations ; and we dare not venture to declare
that the existence of evil is inconsistent with
infinite wisdom, and goodness, and power.
7. We must expect that such a system will
have some things in it incomprehensible to
us. (1) There are innumerable things in the
constitution and government of the universe
174 Positive Evidences. [p ar t n.
which are beyond the natural reach of our
faculties. Those that are open to our view
are doubtless but a point in comparison with
the whole plan of Providence as to things past
as well as future in this world, not to speak
of what is now going on also in the remote
parts of the boundless universe. And even
those things we do see are, in many respects,
beyond our powers of comprehension. But
this is no presumption against their truth
and reality; and therefore there is no pre-
sumption either against the truth of Chris-
tianity because it teaches us some truths which
are incomprehensible to us — as, e. g., the gov-
ernment of the world by Jesus Christ, the
influence of the Holy Spirit upon the hearts
of men, etc.
(2) Since the acknowledged constitution and
course of nature is not what we should expect
beforehand, but apparently in many respects
objectionable, and since we thus know that we
are wholly incompetent to judge of such mat-
ters beforehand, we must conclude that we are
also incompetent, only in a much higher de-
gree, to judge beforehand what Christianity
ought to be. How improbable, e. g., it would
have seemed beforehand that men should be
so much more capable of discovering the
general laws of matter, and the magnitudes,
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 175
paths, and revolutions of the heavenly bodies,
than the causes and cures of diseases, and
many other things in which human life seems
so much more nearly concerned than astrono-
my ; or how improbable that brutes, without
reason, should act through instinct, in many
respects with vastly greater sagacity and fore-
sight than men. Yet such are the facts, and
the short-sightedness of our reason, even in the
commoner matters of this life, is thus fully seen.
(3) Farther still, there is a great resemblance
between the light of nature and the light of
Christianity in this respect. In both, (1) the
common rules of conduct are plain and obvi-
ous; (2) many parts of knowledge require
careful consideration to gain it ; (3) the hin-
derances — viz., indolence, self-satisfaction, our
love of other things, and the weakness of our
minds, etc. — are the same in both; (4) they
are to be increased in the same way, by the
continuance of liberty and the progress of
learning ; and (5) we should expect that Chris-
tianity, being a remedial system, would have
been long delayed, and at last but partially
and imperfectly communicated to mankind as
a whole. For many of the remedies that we
possess for physical diseases were unknown for
ages, are now known to but few, and probably
many are yet entirely unknown.
*
176 Positive Ecidenc.es. [Part II.
We conclude, then, that reason is incompe-
tent to decide against revelation because of
my thing in its moral teachings, as also to
reject its evidences because of the difficulty
of comprehending some of its teachings. Nei-
ther can Christianity be rejected because it is
a complicated scheme, involving a long series
of intricate means to accomplish the recovery
of the world from sin, for such is the natural
course of providence in this world. Through-
out nature its Author appears deliberate in his
operations, accomplishing his ends by slow, suc-
cessive steps — as, for instance, in the changes
of the seasons, the ripening of the fruits of the
earth, etc.
8. We should expect the appointment of a
Mediator between God and man, in the work
of human redemption, by whom the redemp-
tion of the world would be accomplished. (1)
We, and all reasonable creatures, are indebted
for life and all life's blessings, first, for our
being brought into the world, and then for
our preservation and happiness therein to the
mediation and instrumentality of others. (2)
It is supposable that future punishment may
follow wickedness as a natural consequence,
according to general laws established in the
universe, just as evil consequences follow our
transgressions in this world. (3) But we find
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 177
that, in the constitution of nature, all the usual
bad consequences of evil actions do not always
follow, but that sometimes, in various degrees,
they may be prevented, so that we have here
some evidence of compassion in the original
constitution of the world. (4) There seems
no reason to suppose that any thing we could
do would, of itself, prevent them, for we do not
know all the reasons why future punishment
should be inflicted, nor the whole consequences
of vice, nor the manner in which they would
follow if unpre vented. The analogy of nature
gives us positive evidence that when men, by
their folly, bring on themselves temporal in-
jury, disease, and ruin, neither sorrow for the
past, nor amendment for the future, will pre-
vent these consequences. Therefore, if we
misbehave in our higher capacity, we should
not expect that sorrow and amendment would
alone be sufficient to prevent our punishment.
(5) That we are in a state of degradation and
danger, through the fault of our first parents,
is analogous to the whole history of man here,
as when we see children, for instance, daily
brought into a worse state in the world through
the misbehavior of their parents. Being there-
fore in such a fallen state, and being guilty
ourselves of many actual sins besides, and hav-
ing no way of escape, the Scriptures assure us
8*
178 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
that God gave his Son to the world, that who-
soever would believe on him should not perish,
and that his interposition to that end was effect-
ual. (6) In this revelation we should expect
to find much, the reason of which we cannot
know. For instance, it tells us the way in
which Christ so interposed for us — 1st. As a
Prophet, to publish anew the law of God ; 2d.
As a King, to found the Church, and to govern
it by his Spirit ; 3d. As a Priest, to offer him-
self a propitiatory sacrifice, and make atone-
ment for the sins of the world. Now, without
a revelation we should have no means of know-
ing whether or not a Mediator was necessary ;
or, supposing one to be necessary, in what man-
ner he would effect the object for which he had
come. It is therefore highly absurd to object
to the expediency, or usefulness, for instance,
of the sacrificial death of Christ for our re-
demption, because we may not see how it was
conducive to the ends proposed. (7) Such a
revelation of the Innocent One suffering for
the guilty is consistent with the analogy of
nature; for in this life innocent people ordi-
narily suffer for the faults of the guilty ; and
it is often the case, when men, by their follies
and crimes, have been brought into extreme
distress, from which they can be extricated
only by the very great pains and labors of
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 179
others, that the guilty are saved through the
sufferings of the innocent. Besides, the tend-
ency of this method of our redemption is to
vindicate the authority of God's laws, and to
deter his creatures from sin in the most effect-
ual manner; and this consideration alone is
sufficient to justify its reasonableness. Yet
this is probably far from being the whole rea-
son. There may be many reasons of which
we 'know nothing; nor is our ignorance of the
reasons a good ground for denying its reason-
ableness. On the contrary, the analogy of
nature teaches us not to expect so much to
know the reasons of the divine conduct as to
be informed of our duty ; for we know but lit-
tle about the fundamental principles of the
operations of nature, yet we are sufficiently
informed as to the practical effect of those op-
erations upon our lives. So with revelation.
The doctrine of a Mediator relates only to what
w r as done on God's part in the appointment of
a Mediator, and on the Mediator's part in the
execution of the work thus assigned him. Our
duty in regard to that mediation is entirely a
different matter. On this we are fully informed ;
we need not be so informed upon the other.
9. We ought not to expect that Christian-
ity should be clearly proved, or universally
believed. For — 1st. It is often exceedingly
180 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
difficult to determine wherein our temporal in-
terests consist, or to estimate the changes and
accidents which may disappoint our plans, or
to answer objections to a course of action,
which, nevertheless, for good reasons, we feel
warranted in pursuing. 2d. The blessings of
this life — of climate, soil, health, strength, un-
derstanding, and knowledge — are distributed
among men in the most unequal and promis-
cuous manner. 3d. Nor are these facts incon-
sistent with justice, since no more is required
of any man than what might equitably be ex-
pected of him. Nor is it inconsistent with
wisdom and goodness ; for (1) the examina-
tion of the evidence of religion, to those to
whom it does not appear convincing at first,
may be part of their trial, in giving scope for a
virtuous exercise or a vicious neglect of their
understanding, in examining or not examining
it, just as they are in a state of probation as to
their behavior in other and more common af-
fairs. The same disposition which makes a
man obedient to the precepts of religion would
lead him, were he not convinced of its truth,
to consider its evidence. Negligence and in-
attention, before conviction, are as truly guilty
as vicious practice afterward. (2) Even doubt-
ful evidence places us in a state of probation
in so far as that we are bound to consider and
or
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 181
weigh that evidence. Doubt implies some evi-
dence of that which is doubted, just as truly as
belief implies a higher degree of it, and cer-
tainty a higher degree still. Therefore, even
doubt requires of us a reverent and careful con-
sideration, that is open to farther light and
conviction. (3) Difficulties of belief should no
more be complained of than difficulties of prac-
tice ; for, since they give occasion for the exer-
cise of a virtuous disposition, they are of the
same nature as external temptation, and are
adapted for our discipline and improvement in
virtue.
In conclusion, let us consider: 1st. That
these difficulties may be from our own fault —
from our attending less to evidence than to
difficulties, or from considering religion with
levity or carelessness, with passion or with
prejudice. These may hinder evidence from
being laid before us, or prevent it from being
candidly weighed after it has been presented.
2d. That therefore, if some will continue to
disregard and reject Christianity, without a
candid consideration of its evidences, there is
no reason to suppose that they would act oth-
erwise, even though a demonstration of its
truth were given them. 3d. That the guilt of
an immoral life in those who thus obstinately
reject the light of Christianity, without a fair
182 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
examination of its evidences, is greatly aggra-
vated.
Such is the argument drawn from the agree-
ment of Christianity with the acknowledged
constitution and course of nature. Nothing
appears contrary to nature, and there is much
that is in complete and remarkable harmony
therewith. This fact points to the Maker of
nature as the Author of Christianity also ; and,
while its singular analogy with the order of
nature about us attests its reality and truth,
the impress of the same great features and
principles of administration upon both de-
clares that both are the work of the same in-
finite Power and Wisdom, and that the Author
of Christianity also is God.
III. But Christianity excels alike the best
deductions of philosophy and the highest teach-
ings of nature. While it is in agreement with
them, it is also superior, and thus it displays
its divinity. This has already been partially
shown (vide Part I., Ch. 3), and we have seen
how Christ alone has, 1st, set forth the whole
vast range of moral truth ; 2d, has taught with
unvarying wisdom and goodness. In these
and other such striking characteristics is his
superiority to all other teachers shown. In
the nature of the special characteristics of his
teaching this is more apparent still. Rogers
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 183
("Supernatural Origin of the Bible") has
pointed out, among other peculiarities distin-
guishing the teaching contained in the Bible
from that of all other religions and philoso-
phies, deprived of its light, the following par-
ticulars : 1. The propounding of a religion
which aspires to universal dominion, and that
achieved without violence, by moral suasion
alone, notwithstanding that that religion is
contrary to our fallen nature, and often vio-
lated even by its own professed followers. 2.
The full recognition of the right of conscience
in general, and of the principle of universal tol-
eration, found nowhere else, especially never
with a Jew. 3. In broad contrast with all
other systems, its giving no hint of any alli-
ance between religion and political govern-
ment. 4. Similarly, its reticence as to the
future and invisible world, excepting on the
one point as to which they are silent — viz.,
that therein "dwelleth righteousness." 5. Its
teaching of the entire helplessness of man for
good — exemplified in Christ's assertion, " With-
out me ye can do nothing" — while yet it re-
mains most sympathetic with man's sad con-
dition. 6. Its principle, that to conscientious-
ly reduce to practice what we already know
(" He that is disposed to clo the will of God
shall know of the doctrine"), is the surest way
184 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
of advancing in the knowledge of divine truth.
7. That no religious knowledge is of any worth
except as reduced to practice — "faith without
works is dead." 8. Its freedom from minute
casuistry — as, e. g., in the case of "meats,"
" days," etc. 9. Its giving the crowning place
to "charity." 10. Its avoidance of political
and social rocks — as the questions of slavery
and those pertaining to civil government. In
all these it is in the strongest contrast not only
with all philosoph}^ but with human nature
generally, and even with the opinions and
practices, in one point or another, of most of
its followers in succeeding times; for they,
after having been taught, still vainly strove
to reach, in their own instructions, the height
of Christ's divine teaching.
Row also sets forth Christ's superiority, sub-
stantially as follows :
1. Christ's declaration, " I am the light of
the world ; he that followeth me shall not walk
in darkness, but shall have the light of life,"
was a great and bold utterance in view of the
coming tests of the ages of time, but complete-
ly verified on every page of history since, and
by the world to-day. But if so, he far tran-
scends in this all philosophers, or other teach-
ers, that have ever appeared among men, and
therefore he must be superhuman and divine.
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 185
2. No human genius, however exalted, has
ever been able wholly to emancipate himself
from the restraints imposed on him by his
birth, and by the moral and spiritual atmos-
phere in which he was educated. For in-
stance, the teachings of Mohammed, in the
Koran, bear the strongest impress of the
Arab mind, as also that of all others who
have assumed to be the great moral teachers
of mankind. They have always been in some
degree national, or local. Jesus Christ alone
is catholic as humanity. Yet the Jews of his
time were proverbially narrow-minded and ex-
clusive bigots, fanatical and superstitious, and
in such an atmosphere must Jesus and his
disciples have been born and educated. It is
evident that in that atmosphere the highest
moral teaching could not have been evolved
by any natural process ; consequently, if Jew-
ish peasants and fishermen have succeeded in
elaborating a body of doctrine which not only
agrees, so far as it goes, with that of the most
enlightened teachers of the ancient world, but
also succeeded in accomplishing what all of
those masters, after all their efforts, failed ut-
terly to effect, the conclusion, upon every rea-
sonable principle, must be that Christ, the
first Promulgator of this doctrine, was more
than man.
186 Positive Evidences. [Partn.
3. The teaching of Christ is far superior to
that of the philosophers, as well as to the
teachings of mere nature: 1st. In its intense
earnestness and reality, and in its appeal to
every principle — the love of God, the love of
Christ, the feeling of benevolence, self-love,
the perception of moral beauty, the sense of
truth, the love of justice, the appreciation of
the honorable, the sense of self-respect, the
love of approbation, and even the desire for
praise — to all, in short, that acts mightily on
human nature. This is in the most striking
contrast with the philosophers, both ancient
and modern. A large part of their attention
is directed to mere abstract speculation — as,
e. g., concerning the grounds and nature of
moral obligation, in which, as they have de-
termined in favor of one or the other theory,
they have elaborated systems based on partial
principles, and in disregard of some of the
great realities of man's moral constitution, be-
sides being otherwise partial and local. But
the New Testament is catholic as human nat-
ure. 2d. In its entire freedom from all at-
tempts to deal with either political or social
questions, and that too when Christ professed
to be the Founder of a kingdom. The univer-
sal practice of the great philosophers of the
ancient world (cf. Ueberweg's " History of Phi-
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 187
losophy") was precisely the reverse. With
them, in fact, ethics was but a branch of poli-
tics. The political and social legislation in
the religion of Mohammed, also, is well known
as the rock on which it is being hopelessly
shipwrecked. Against Christianity, on the
other hand, it has been charged as a defect in
its principles, that it dwells so little on public
duties and virtues ; but it is evident that in
this it is singularly wise. If Christ had thus
begun his work of regenerating mankind, Chris-
tianity would not have survived the century
which gave it birth. In its avoidance, then,
of this danger we see the evidence of superior
wisdom, and realize that its Author must have
possessed an insight more than human. 3d.
It has founded the religion of humanity. " Ye
shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jeru-
salem, worship the Father ; . . . but the hour
cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth ;
for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a Spirit ; and they that worship him
must worship him in spirit and in truth," said
Jesus to the Samaritan woman (John iv. 20-
24). In thus repudiating at once all that was
national, local, and outward, Jesus founded his
religion, his spirituality, and the spirituality
of true worship. Even Renan says that in this
188 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
utterance he has "forever laid deep the foun-
dation of the religion of universal humanity."
4th. Its all-comprehensive law of duty, declar-
ing man's duty to man: (1) As founded on,
and originating in, his filial relation to God as
the universal Father of all men, and giving
rise thereby to the universal brotherhood of
man. The latter principle was but dimly con-
ceived, at best, by any of the ancients, and then
only as a barren speculation; while also all
modern anti-Christian systems find it impos-
sible to announce any principle (cf., e. g., that
men are the descendants of some primeval sav-
age, or that we should practice self-sacrifice for
others, because it is, on the whole, more expe-
dient, etc.) which can form any effectual basis
upon which it may rest. (2) As measured by
the regard which man feels for himself — "Do
unto others as ye would have them do unto
you," etc. (3) As measured and sanctioned
by the obligation he is under to Jesus Christ.
"Love one another as I have loved you," he
bids us — carrying the law of duty and self-sac-
rifice to its extremest limits, beyond which it is
impossible for human thought to pass, and in-
cluding every social duty which man can owe
to man. 5th. That every mental gift, worldly
possession, or other advantage, which man pos-
sesses, as well as the position in society he oc-
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 189
cupies, is a stewardship intrusted to him by
God, for the right discharge of which he is re-
sponsible. 6th. The relative importance he as-
signs to the milder virtues — as meekness, pity,
and especially humility (vide Sermon on the
Mount), making them predominant, while the
philosophers have ever put highest the polit-
ical or heroic virtues of courage, patriotism,
and ambition. But ever since Christ, it can-
not be doubted that an overwhelming majority
of the wisest and holiest of men have accepted
this teaching as right ; and it is evident that
if those principles had, during the last three
thousand years, occupied the place of the he-
roic virtues in men's estimation, the happiness
of mankind would have increased a thousand-
fold. 7th. Christ viewed his mission as to the
masses of mankind ; the philosophers and the
followers of natural religion, to a small intel-
lectual aristocracy, and "to those of mankind
who have a natural tendency to virtue," as
Plato said — while Christ came not to " call the
righteous, but sinners, to repentance." 8th.
The creation by Christianity of a mighty moral
and spiritual power adequate to effect the re-
generation of mankind. Of the want of this
the ancient philosophers confessed their need,
but never even claimed they had wherewith
to heal the acknowledged moral corruption of
190 Positive Evidences. [Partii.
man (vide Aristotle, " Ethics," book x., ch. 10).
They never even thought of preaching repent-
ance and amendment to the masses of men,
and only a small body of ingenuous youths,
born with a natural tendency toward what is
good and noble, were supposed capable of re-
ceiving their instructions. They could only
appeal to the love of the beautiful and the
good, or to the powerful principle of habit,
and such like springs of action. But what
were these to those who, without any new prin-
ciple of moral life, or powerful conviction, were
already vicious, and already under the domin-
ion of bad habits ? All that could be done for
such persons was to bring upon them the ex-
ternal power of coercion. Hence the political
character of all the ancient, and several of the
modern, systems of ethics.* (Also cf. the doc-
* Consider also the full significance of the following tes-
timonies : " The farther the ages advance in cultivation,
the more can the Bible be used, partly as the foundation,
partly as the means, of education — not, of course, by super-
ficial, but by really wise, men." — Goethe. "I have exam-
ined all, as well as my narrow sphere, my straitened means,
and my busy life, would allow me, and the result is, the
Bible is the best book in the world." — J. Adams. " Peruse
the books of philosophers, with all their pomp and diction —
how meager, how contemptible, are they when compared
with the Scriptures ! The majesty of the Scriptures strikes
me with admiration." — Rousseau. " I have always been
strongly in favor of secular education — in the sense of edu-
Ch. 4.] Weight of the Ecidence. 191
trine of "the survival of the fittest" — the min-
istration of death to the degraded masses of
mankind.)
But Christ created a moral and spiritual
power capable of stirring the hearts of men to
their lowest depths — i. e., faith, which, if we
grant to the skeptic, for the sake of argument,
that such changes are not the product of su-
pernatural power working directly upon the
soul, has actually succeeded in recovering to
holiness a multitude of fallen men, such as no
man can number. He has likewise created the
greatest of Societies — namely, the Christian
Church — in which the subjects of his spiritual
kingdom may be trained to holiness ; for faith
produces a conviction in the innermost spirit of
cation without theology — but I must confess I have been no
less seriously perplexed to know by what practical measures
the religious feeling, which is the essential basis of conduct,
was to be kept up, in the present utterly chaotic state of
opinion on these matters, without the use of the Bible. The
pagan moralists lack life and color, and even the noble
Stoic, Marcus Antoninus, is too high and refined for an or-
dinary child. Take the Bible as a whole, make the severest
deductions which fair criticism can dictate, and there still
remains in this old literature a vast residuum of moral
beauty and grandeur. By the study of what other book
could children be so much humanized? If Bible-reading
is not accompanied by constraint and solemnity, I do not
believe there is any thing in which children take more
pleasure." — Huxley.
192 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
man, respecting the eternal realities of things,
and thus concentrates on the conscience the
whole force of the religious principle in man.
It then presents to him the person of Jesus in
the divine attractiveness of his life and death
— the perfect embodiment of all that is pure,
holy, and lovely, in God or man, as the center
of a new spiritual life; and thus has it re-
stored to holiness multitudes of degraded men,
and has elevated every holy man who has
come under its influence to yet higher degrees
of holiness. But neither philosophy nor the
system of natural religion has had any very
profound convictions ; it professed even to deal
only in probabilities. The philosopher, there-
fore, could not grapple with the conscience.
All he could do was to appeal to cold reason ;
he could awaken no emotion, nor summon any
force capable of overcoming the violence of the
passions. The best he could do was to form
an ideal republic, or a shadowy, abstract sys-
tem of morals — while Christ has created the
Christian Church.
Thus does Christianity show its superiority
to all that has originated from merely human
deduction, or is taught by the light of nature
alone. In its original and unimprovable ex-
cellence ; in its undisguised openness to all the
world ; in its adaptation to every state, dispo-
Cii. 4.] Weight of the Evidence. 193
sition, and capacity, of man ; in its spirituality
of worship, its humbling of men, and its exal-
tation of the Deity ; in its restoration of order
to the world ; its tendency to eradicate all evil
passions from the heart ; its contrariety to the
covetousness and ambition of mankind; its
restoration of the divine image to man, in-
stead, as other religions, of weakly and vi-
ciously affixing the moral image of man on
God, and in its mighty effects — in all alike,
Christianity is far superior to aught else that
has ever appeared in the world, and in its
greatness and glory proclaims itself as no less
than divine.
We next proceed to consider the prophecies
of Christ.
9
194 Positive Evidences. [p ar t II.
CHAPTER V.
THE EVIDENCE OF PROPHECY.
Prophecies, as we have seen, are "miracles
of knowledge," and, consisting in " the decla-
ration of things future beyond the power of
human sagacity to discern or calculate, they
are the highest evidence that can be given of
a revelation from God." Christianity, bearing
not one only but all the marks of divinity that
we can require, and challenging from every
side the closest inspection of her claims, invites
us to behold also this "highest evidence" of
prophecy, and to see that in all her aspects
there is displayed the glory of her divine
origin. In bringing this class of evidences
forward, we are entitled to cite the prophecies
contained in the Old Testament, as well as
those in the New, in support of our position ;
for it is evident to every candid mind that,
whether divine or not, all contained in both
divisions of the Bible forms but one great sys-
tem in successive phases of development, from
the patriarchs to Christ. Whatsoever, therefore,
goes to prove the divinity of any stage of that
development, is evidence of the divinity of the
Ch. 5.] Weight of the Eoidence. 195
organic whole, and of every other stage. If
Judaism was divine, then must Christianity
also — which is but the perfected fruit of Juda-
ism divested at length of its old, hardened, and
burst shell of ritualism — be divine. More-
over, many of the most explicit of the Old
Testament prophecies relate directly and plain-
ly to Christianity, and testify expressly to its
divine origin. From the nature of the case,
too, the argument derived from the fulfillment
of the prophecies contained in the Old Testa-
ment is far fuller than that from the fulfillment
of those in the New. The simple fact that the
latter were delivered so much later than the
former, necessarily causes their fulfillment to
be as yet more incomplete. The larger part
of the latter probably still remain to be ful-
filled, but most of the former have already
completely come to pass. The argument, there-
fore, drawn from the prophecies of the New
Testament, is as yet much more limited than
if it were extended also to those of the Old.
Nevertheless, we will confine ourselves entire-
ly to those delivered by our Lord — merely
asking the reader to bear in mind also those
already cited from the Old Testament — feeling-
confident that a sufficient number even of these
will be found to be true beyond all reasonable
doubt. Keeping in mind, then, how much the
196 Positive Evidences. [p ar t IT.
argument is strengthened by the accomplished
fulfillment of the older prophecies, and reflect-
ing that therefore it is not unreasonable to ex-
pect it to continually gather fresh force from
the future accomplishment of most of the later,
we cite the following plain predictions of Christ,
of whose fulfillment no one can doubt :
1. Christ distinctly foretold his death and
its circumstances. In Matthew it is said:
" From that time forth [or about a year and a
half before his crucifixion ; cf. Lange on Matt,
vi. 13-21 ; ii. 6, etc.] began Jesus to show unto
his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusa-
lem, and suffer many things of the elders, and
chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and
be raised again the third day " (Matt. xvi. 21).
Mark says : "And he began to teach them that
the Son of man must suffer many things, and
be rejected of the elders, and of the chief
priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after
three days rise again " (Mark viii. 31). Luke,
that he said: "The Son of man must suffer
many things, and be rejected of the elders, and
chief priests, and scribes, and be slain, and be
raised the third day " (Luke ix. 22). Here are
three separate and independent testimonies
to the fact that he uttered a prediction of his
sufferings in general, of his rejection by the
chief priests and scribes, that he should die a
Ch. 5.] Weight of the Evidence. 197
violent death, and that on the third day he
should rise again. We have seen how impos-
sible (Part I., Ch. 4) it is that the accounts
of the Gospel were forged. The differences
which otherwise exist between their different
authors, prove that they were not in collusion.
Their substantial agreement, therefore, on the
other hand, shows that their accounts are true.
And the minute mention of the various cir-
cumstances above, of the sufferings, rejection,
death, and resurrection, predicted of Christ by
himself, is a strong mark of his divine mission.
Moreover, he also predicted (Matt. xx. 18, 19)
that he " should be betrayed ; " that the scribes
should " condemn him to death;" that tliey
should "deliver him to the Gentiles;" that
they should do this for the Gentiles (1) "to
mock;" (2) "to scourge;" and (3) "to crucify
him ;" and afterward (Matt. xxvi. 23-25), that
it should be Judas who should betray him;
and still farther (Mark x. 33, 34), that the Gen-
tiles should "spit upon him." Now, all these
were precisely fulfilled. But no merely human
foresight could have foretold such incidental
circumstances. An enthusiast would not have
anticipated his rejection and crucifixion at
all, and an impostor would never have dared
to give, beforehand, so numerous and so mi-
nute tests of the validity of his claims. The
198 Positive Ecidences. [Part II.
conclusion must be that Christ was a Prophet
sent from God, and commissioned for a divine
purpose.
2. This is still more strongly the case with
his predictions of his resurrection. We have
seen in the passages already quoted how dis-
tinctly he foretold it. It will be our task here-
after to show how certainly he did rise again
on the third clay. For the present, it will be
sufficient to direct attention to the irresistible
force of the evidence the fulfillment of this
prophecy gives to the divinity of the mission
of Christ; for however a man might venture
to utter Dredictions as to his death and its cir-
cumstances, and through a wonderful but still
human prescience be able to forecast them,
minutely and correctly, yet never could a mere
man foresee that he should be raised again
from the dead, and that too on the third day.
Yet Christ did so predict it : we think it will
be made evident that thus it accordingly came
to pass ; and, putting aside for the present the
evidence given in the miraculous nature of the
occurrence itself, its prediction alone strongly
proves the divine mission of him who uttered it.
3. We proceed to point out briefly some oth-
ers of his prophecies fulfilled in later times.
Such was that of the destruction of Jerusalem,
with its attendant circumstances. Christ pre-
Ch. 5.] Weight of the Evidence. 199
dieted (Luke xxi. 20-24), "When ye shall see
Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know
that the desolation thereof is nigh ; . . . and
they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and
shall be led away captive into all nations;"
that, speaking of Jerusalem (Luke xix. 43),
" The days shall come upon thee that thine
enemies shall cast a trench round about thee,
and compass thee round, and keep thee in on
every side ; " and that, in respect to the temple
(Matt. xxiv. 2), " The days will come, in the
which there shall not be left here one stone
upon another that shall not be thrown down."
All this came exactly to pass. Beyond all
question (cf. Part L, Ch. 4), the accounts con-
tained in the Gospels were in existence before
that time. No scholar, however skeptical, will
deny this. Yet it is a notorious historical
fact (vide Josephus, De Bello. Jud. Lib. i.-vi.)
that Jerusalem, about forty years afterward,
was thus besieged by Titus, a trench was lit-
erally cast around it, and it was entirely sur-
rounded by the Roman armies; so that it
was really" compassed round, and kept in on
every side." Moreover, when taken, it was
completely "desolated," its inhabitants "fell
by the sword, and were led away captive into
all nations," being sold by thousands as slaves
into the surrounding nations, and the temple
200 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
was utterly and remarkably destroyed, so that
there was not "left one stone upon another
that was not cast down."
4. Still more remarkable is his prediction of
the continued subjugation of Jerusalem follow-
ing its capture. In the same passage of Luke
(xxi. 24) he said, "And Jerusalem shall be
'trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of
the Gentiles be fulfilled." In this prophecy,
following in immediate connection that of the
capture and devastation of Jerusalem, it is im-
plied (1) that, from the time of this capture,
Jerusalem, for a long, indefinite time, should
continue to exist as a city — "trodden down,"
not destroyed; (2) that its condition during
that time should be not that of freedom, but
of subjugation, by "the Gentiles," and that of
the most grievous and humiliating kind —
"trodden down;" (3) and, finally, it is inti-
mated that at last, when "the times of the
Gentiles " should have been fulfilled, it shall
be no longer "trodden down of the Gentiles."
Every one of these particulars, except the last,
predicted, beyond all cavil, at least eighteen
hundred years ago, has been already signally
fulfilled. (1) Jerusalem has never ceased to
exist as a city. While Babylon and Tyre,
Corinth, Ephesus, and many others, that were
overwhelmed by the fire and sword of the Ro-
Ch. 5.] Weight of the Evidence. 201
man, or sunk under the still surer ravages of
time, have risen no more, Jerusalem has ever
remained an inhabited city. Who but Om-
niscience, that could have even foreseen her
terrible devastations, could have also antici-
j)ated her recovery ? (2) Nevertheless, it has
also ever since continued to this day in abject
subjugation to "the Gentiles." After the Ro-
mans, the Persians succeeded to the dominion
over it; from them the Mohammedan invad-
ers of Arabia wrested it ; then the Crusaders ;
again the Arabians, and lastly the Turks, have
successively occupied it unto this day. More-
over, the condition of the Jews in their own
holy city has been more constantly miserable
than perhaps anywhere else in the world.
Even now they are treated with greater cru-
elty and contempt in Jerusalem, by its Turk-
ish conquerors, than are the people of any
other nation, strangers or natives. In A.D.
135 the Romans, after suppressing a revolt
made by the Jews, forbade them, on pain of
death, from even entering the city, and that
prohibition lasted till the time of Constantine,
A.D. 300-337, when it was repealed, but only
so far as that they were allowed to enter it once
a year, to wail over the desolation of "the holy
and beautiful house in which their fathers wor-
shiped God" (vide McClintock and Strong's Cy-
9*
202 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
clopsedia, Art. Jerusalem) ; and ever since, the
Jews have there been under peculiar oppres-
sion. Thus Christ's words have been, through
eighteen hundred years, precisely fulfilled, and
Jerusalem has been "trodden down of the
Gentiles." (3) From the expression used, that
thus it should be "until the times of the Gen-
tiles be fulfilled," it is probably a correct infer-
ence to draw that when those "times" shall
have been accomplished, Jerusalem shall be
no more trodden down, and the Jew no longer
a reproach in the earth, but both shall resume
that independence, prosperity, and greatness
of station among the nations, which they had
before. This, of course, still remains unful-
filled ; but the remarkable fact of the preser-
vation of the Jews as a nation, through the
ages, though "scattered" among all nations,
and "peeled," if it does not directly point to
its accomplishment, at least proves its possi-
bility; while for the first time in so many
centuries it has of late at last seemed capable
of being fulfilled, and we have been hearing
from time to time of the probability, under the
influence of recent great political changes, etc.,
of the Jew once more resuming his dominion
of the land and city of his fathers.
5. Christ prophesied also (Matt. xxiv. 14)
that "this gospel of the kingdom shall be
Ch. 5.] Weight of the Evidence. 203
preached in all the world for a witness unto
all nations." Nothing seemed then more un-
likely to human foresight than this. Judea
itself was but a small and despised country,
and the Jews were everywhere held in detes-
tation. How unlikely that a doctrine origi-
nating among Jews, and preached by Jews,
without either the learning of the Greek or
the power of the Roman to recommend it,
should yet find its way down the remotest ages
of posterity, and throughout all nations ! For
Christ's doctrine was rejected even by the leaders
of the Jewish nation itself and he executed by
them, and his followers persecuted, as also
they afterward were by the whole power of the
Roman Government, in ten great successive
persecutions. How improbable did it seem
that it could at all survive, when its own na-
tion had disowned it, and was striving to
stamp it out of existence ! or, if it might lin-
ger obscurely among the hills and valleys of
Galilee, how unlikely for it to ever spread
abroad, even to the neighboring and kindred
tribes! and how utterly impossible that it
should ever prevail in distant continents, and
among strange and unknown races of men!
And what impostor would have dared to give by
such a declaration such a test for succeeding ages,
by which they might so easily expose and ridicule
204 Positive Evidences. [PartlL
his claims ? Yet, standing where we are to-day,
we behold the preaching of the gospel fast ex-
tending to every land under heaven. Almost
already is the prophecy fulfilled. The next
generation will, without doubt, behold every
nation and tribe, even to the smallest and
most obscure, visited by the missionary of the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
6. Christ also predicted that he should have
an enduring Church. He said (Matt. xvi. 18),
"Upon this rock I will build my Church, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
This too seemed most improbable. When, re-
jected by the Jews themselves, despised by
the wisdom-loving Greeks, and persecuted un-
relentingly by the all-powerful Romans ; when
all of earth that was esteemed wise and power-
ful was to unite in contemning and extirpating
it — it was a bold prophecy to foretell, never-
theless, its perpetual existence. When the
walls of Babylon and Tyre, and the world-
wide empire of Alexander, had already fallen
into the dust before their various enemies, and
the great empires of Persia, Rome, and of the
Saracens, were destined to fall in their turn, it
was most improbable that that of the Peasant
of Galilee should continue, victorious over all
the "gates of hell," to remotest times, and in
remotest nations. Nevertheless, so it has re-
Ch. 5.] Weight of the Evidence. 205
ally been. Christ's Church is stronger to-day
than ever before.
We confidently offer, then, these prophecies
as infallible marks of the divine mission of
Christ, and therefore of the divinity of Chris-
tianity — the result of that mission. They
prove him to have been supernaturally en-
dowed with a knowledge of the future, such
as has never been approached, in the slightest
degree, by any one, however wise, outside of
the prophets of the Bible. The predictions
alleged of the ancient oracles are not worthy
of comparison with them. Home has shown
in his "Introduction" that, in contrast with
the prophecies of the Bible, those of the ora-
cles — 1. Gave no prediction spontaneously, but
only when applied to, and paid for it. 2. Their
obvious end was to satisfy some trivial curios-
ity, or to aid some ambitious man in his de-
signs. 3. They were never given except after
elaborate, prescribed ceremonies, the neglect
or wrong observance of any one of which was
said to vitiate the whole proceeding — thus giv-
ing an easy way of accounting for a failure in
the accomplishment of the thing predicted.
4. The few oracles they at last gave related
merely to some single, disconnected event. 5.
They seldom or ever were of such a nature as
to be in support of morality, purity, justice,
206 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
etc. 6. They were generally ambiguous, and
capable of being interpreted either way, ac-
cording to the event. Thus the famous re-
sponse rendered to Croesus, when he was about
to make war against the Persians, and had in-
quired whether he should succeed. The ora-
cle declared that " he would destroy a great
empire," which Croesus interpreted to mean
that he would destroy the Persians. But after
having been ruined in the war himself, the
oracle interpreted it to mean, that " he should
destroy his own empire." 7. Their oracles
did not extend beyond their own territories,
nor more than a very few years into the future.
8. They were not committed to writing in
books open to public inspection, so that their
truth or falsity might afterward be examined.
9. Nevertheless, notwithstanding all the above
means of escape from detection, the heathen
oracles were frequently found to be unques-
tionably false, and, especially in later times,
came to be held in utter contempt. On the
contrary, the prophecies of Christ — 1. Were
delivered openly. 2. They were not such as
flattered the national vanity, but such as hu-
miliated the Jews, and with the accompani-
ment of the most fearful denunciations against
them for their sins. 3. He gained no riches or
power thereby, but persecution and death. 4.
Ch. 5.] Weight of the Evidence. 207
His prophecies were a part of one great whole
of prophecy, extending in a connected chain
from Moses, and before Moses, down, and
treating as its great subject-matter of the es-
tablishment and prosperity of the kingdom of
Christ among men. 5. They are all in sup-
port of morality and true religion. 6. They
are express and distinct, in many instances, as
to the circumstances of the event predicted.
7. Usually they seemed most improbable at
the time they were uttered. 8. They reached,
in some cases, hundreds, and even thousands,
of years forward, and embraced all nations in
its view. 9. They were committed to writing,
and have always been open to public inspec-
tion. 10. Not one has ever been shown to
be false, while history, as it has during succes-
sive revolutions unfolded its changing pages,
has proclaimed, one by one, at long intervals,
the accomplishment of many of them.
Say what we may, human penetration is un-
equal to this. No man, however skillful and
experienced, can, of his own powers, so fore-
cast the coming future, or ever has predicted,
or shall predict with perfect accuracy, a future
state of things, involving a long, complicated,
and connected series of events, extending over
hundreds of years yet to come. Yet such
are the prophecies of Christ. We confidently
208 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
claim that they therefore bear the unmistaka-
ble impress of Him who " seeth all things from
the beginning ; " and standing, as they do, ut-
terly without a parallel in the records of the
human race, they prove that they, and the
Christian system to which they bear witness,
are superhuman and divine.
Ch. 6.] Weight of the Eoidence. 209
CHAPTER VI.
THE EVIDENCE OF MIRACLES — I. IN GENERAL.
To all the preceding we now add the evidence
of miracles, both as affording its separate tes-
timony, and as confirming the testimony of- all
that has gone before. It is, perhaps, impos-
sible to define a miracle with any certainty,
farther than by describing its visible results
apparent in the person or thing upon which it
has been wrought. To go farther, and attempt
to define the process and means by which it
has been accomplished, is surely always uncer-
tain, and often likely to be positively false.
That which is in its essential nature above the
human cannot, it would seem, with any cer-
tainty, be discovered and known by powers
that are themselves only human. Revelation
may disclose it ; but till revelation does disclose
it, all our attempts are but more or less uncer-
tain speculations. They may indeed happen
to be true speculations, but it appears impos-
sible for us to know certainly whether they are
true or false till it be revealed to us by a supe-
rior Intelligence from on high. At any rate,
since revelation has not told us how a miracle
210 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
is wrought, we shall not attempt to explain it
here. It will be sufficient to say, that by mir-
acles we mean those great works which are
commonly known by that name, related in the
Bible as wrought by those who claimed to be
commissioned from God to deliver his message
to men. These we claim show superhuman
wisdom and power attendant upon those who
wrought them, and prove, whatever may have
been the modus operandi of their performance,
that those persons were indeed the authorized
exponents of a divine message to men. It is
no objection to this conclusion that we know
not by what method this result has been ac-
complished. We may see the marks of divine
power and wisdom in the result before us
without knowing at all by what process it was
done. We perceive, for example, these signs
in the work of creation around us, yet we know
nothing at all how God worked in accomplish-
ing creation ; we know only that in some way
he has put forth his all-wise and all-powerful
hand, and performed the work. In miracles,
also, we may see the manifest tokens of the
same omnipotent and omniscient Power, and
in the same way, without knowing the process
of his working, we may yet surely know and
confess his presence. Nay, even in the accom-
plished works of man's power and skill — as a
Ch. 6.] Weight of the Evidence. 211
watch, a steam-engine, etc. — we may see in the
results before us manifest evidence that there
is a work that is certainly the product of an
intelligence no less than human ; we know that
no brute, however sagacious, could have pro-
duced it ; and yet we may not have the most
distant conception of the process by which it
has been made — how the metals were wrought
from the ore, the parts made and adapted to
each other, etc. And so with a miracle, wrought
by the power of God attendant upon his mes-
sengers, or exercised by himself in the person
of his Son — we may be convinced beyond a
doubt that here there is u the finger of God,"
though we know nothing as to the manner
in which God has wrought. It is, then, not
necessary for us to enter into any explanation
of the mode by which miracles have been
wrought; it is sufficient for us to show that
the miracles of Christ possess characteristics
that are superhuman, and which show that
Christianity therefore is divine.
1. First, let us notice in what manner mira-
cles give evidence that Christianity is divine.
1st. They are in entire harmony with all the
other superhuman characteristics of revelation.
As we have seen, revelation, if given at all,
must necessarily be miraculous. It is reason-
able to expect, moreover, that the miraculous
212 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
should appear not only in the bare utterance
of the revelation; for being uttered, as it is,
by, or under the authority of, a divine power,,
present and exerted in the act of such utter-
ance, we might reasonably expect that that
miraculous power should also appear in the
attendant circumstances, and such changes
occur in the natural world around as in the
ordinary course of things are unknown, and
such as give visible evidence of the presence
and active working of that power. Especially
if it is a divine personage himself that speaks,
would we expect not only that there should
come from him divine truth, but also that there
should break from him divine power, exerted
in great and significant works of superhuman
might, wisdom, and goodness. He who was
of divine descent and divine character, whose
teaching was above that of men, and who
uttered such wondrous prophecies, we might
well expect would also work miracles. The
absence, then, of miracles would be a serious
defect in the full and rounded completeness
of the Christian Evidences. Their presence,
therefore, harmonizes with the whole system,
and adds an additional characteristic to that
body of evidence, which thus, with the testi-
mony also given by the results, at length lacks
no characteristic necessary to prove the divin-
Ch. 6.] Weight of the Evidence. 213
ity of Christianity that we could reasonably
require.
In addition, the miracles are themselves a
revelation in a practical way, and speak most
emphatically of the power, wisdom, and good-
ness, resident in Him by whom, or in whose
name, they are wrought. We know practical-
ly the skill and knowledge that is possessed
by an artist, or a mechanic, by the works which
he produces. So is the power, goodness, etc.,
of Christ revealed by his miracles as well as
by his words. Thus miracles add to and com-
plete revelation, while they attest it. They
fulfill our expectation of a practical display
of the superhuman attributes of the Revealer,
and, in perfect harmony with the superhuman
nature of all his other manifestations, unite
with them in majestically proclaiming him to
be divine.
2d. But miracles are not an evidence mere-
ly of the completeness and the harmony of
revelation within itself. They are, besides,
themselves a separate and positive proof of
the divinity of revelation. By their own su-
perhuman character they convinced the men
to whom revelation was first imparted that it
was divine, and their accomplishment remains
to us a solid and convincing evidence of the
same great fact still. Peter, on the day of
214 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
Pentecost, only fifty clays after Christ's death,
in addressing the unbelieving Jews, and that
in Jerusalem, boldly told them that " Jesus of
Nazareth " had been " approved of God among
you by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which
God did by him in the midst of you, as ye your-
selves also know " (Acts ii. 29). Paul, too, writ-
ing to the backsliding Galatians, some of whom
had begun to deny his apostleship, could also
confidently appeal to his miracles wrought
among them, and say, " Truly the signs of an
apostle were wrought among you in all pa-
tience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds' 1
(2 Cor. xii. 12). And our Lord himself said
of those who had rejected him : " If I had not
done among them the works which none other
man did, they had not had sin ; but now have
they both seen and hated both me and my
Father. But this cometh to pass that the
word might be fulfilled that is written in their
law, They hated me without a cause" (John
xv. 24, 25). From these passages it appears
that the Scriptures themselves represent mir-
acles as signs by which His messengers were
"approved of God" unto men; that without
them those messengers, even Christ himself,
might be rejected without "sin;" but that,
having seen them, their rejecters had thereby
" seen "—in the exhibitions of his omnipotence
Ch. 6.] Weight of the Evidence. 215
in working these miracles — " the Father," and
therefore thenceforward they had no excuse
for their rejection ; they had had all-sufficient
evidence; "they hated me without a cause."
On account, therefore, of this conclusive nat-
ure of the evidence given by miracles, and be-
cause their reality could not then be disputed,
our Lord and his apostles appealed to them in
proof of their divine mission, with evidently
the utmost confidence. Moreover, we find by
the quotation of them made subsequently to
their performance, by the Lord and the apos-
tles, that the miracles remained for after-years
also a standing proof of those claims, and, ac-
cordingly, we here present them as such.
This proof, however, does not arise merely
from their character as "wonders" merely.
The term "miracle," as used in the English
version to denote the supernatural occurrences
recorded in the Scriptures, is liable to mislead.
It is from the Latin miraculum, meaning, sim-
ply, something wonderful, and perhaps it is
generally understood to mean merely a marvel-
ous thing. But the words used in the Bible
to denote the miracles have a much larger
meaning than that, and the words, both in the
Hebrew and Greek, which mean merely "a
wonder," are not those used to denote miracles.
" No doubt all God's works are wonderful ; but
216 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
when the word is applied to his doings in the
Bible, it is his works in nature that are gene-
rally so described. . . . But the word wonder
is not the word in the Hebrew properly appli-
cable to what we mean by miracles, and in the
New Testament our Lord's works are never
called ' miracles ' (Vao/xara) at all. The people
are often said to have ' wondered ' at Christ's
acts; but those acts themselves were not in-
tended simply to produce wonder — they had a
specific purpose, indicated by the term prop-
erly applicable to them, and that term is sign.
This is the sole Hebrew term for what we mean
by miracle; but there are other words applied
to our Lord's doings in the New Testament"
(McClintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia, Art.
Miracles, Vol. VI., p. 310).
These latter words, as the same authority
goes on to show, are terata, dynameis, erga, and
semeia.
1. The first "is a term which approaches
very nearly to our word miracle, and defined
by Liddell and Scott, in their Greek Lexicon,
as a 'sign, wonder, marvel, used of any appear-
ance or event in which men believed that they
could see the finger of God.' But, with that
marvelous accuracy which distinguishes the
language of the Greek Testament, our Lord's
works arc never called terata in the Gospels."
Ch. 6.] Weight of the Evidence. 217
It is used, however, in Acts ii. 19, and Heb.
ii. 4, in reference to our Lord's works, and
elsewhere frequently, to denote the works of
the apostles.
2. Dynameis is the word from which we de-
rive our word dynamics. It is "the most com-
mon term for our Lord's miracles" in the first
three Gospels, and signifies powers — i. e., facul-
ties, or capacities, for doing something. "The
teaching, therefore, of this word, dynameis.
powers, or faculties, is that our Lord's works
were perfectly natural and ordinary to him.
They were his capacities, just as sight and
speech are ours. Now, in a brute animal, ar-
ticulate speech would be a miracle, because it
does not lie within the range of its capacities ;
... it does lie within the compass of our fac-
ulties, and so in us it is no miracle. Similarly,
the healing of the sick, the giving sight to the
blind, the raising of the dead, etc. — things en-
tirely beyond the range of our powers, yet lay
entirely within the compass of our Lord's ca-
pacities, and were in accordance with the laws
of his nature."
3. Erga, the next word, used almost wholly
by John to denote our Lord's miracles, means
works. " This term stands in a very close re-
lation to the preceding word, dynameis, or fac-
ulties. A faculty, when exerted, produces an
10
218 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
ergon, or work. Whatever powers or capaci-
ties we have, whenever we use them, bring
forth a corresponding result. . . . Now, had
our Lord been merely a man, any and every
work beyond the compass of men's powers
would have been a miracle. . . . But the Gos-
pel of John ... is everywhere penetrated
with the conviction that a higher nature was
united in him to his human nature ; . . . and
so here. Our Lord's miracles to him are sim-
ply and absolutely erga, works; but, as we
have seen before, they are also divine works,
1 works of God.' Still, in Christ, according to
John's view, they were perfectly natural. They
were the necessary and direct result of that
divine nature which in him was indissolubly
united with his human nature. The last thing
which the apostle would have thought about
them was that they.#were 'miraculous' — i. e. y
wonderful. That God should give his only-be-
gotten Son to save the world was wonderful.
That such a Being should ordinarily do works
entirely beyond the limits of man's powers did
not seem to John wonderful, and hence the
simple but deeply significant term (works) by
which he characterizes them."
4. Finally, the fourth term, semeia, con-
stantly also used by John, means signs. This
may be regarded as the common generic term
cll# 6> ] Weight of the Evidence. 219
applicable to all the supernatural works nar-
rated in the Scriptures. "This is the sole
Hebrew term for what we mean by miracle.
..." The one proper term for miracle, through-
out the whole Bible, is semeion, a sign" (Mc-
Clintock and Strong). Now, John, in so fre-
quently using this term along with that of
erga, works, does not do so without a very sig-
nificant meaning. "Such works [as we have
considered above] were not wrought without a
purpose ; nor did such a Being come without
having a definite object to justify his manifes-
tation. . . . Now, John points this out in call-
ing our Lord's works semeia, signs." This "tells
us in the plainest language that these works
were tokens calling the attention of men to
what was then happening; and especially is
it used in the Old Testament of some mark,
or signal, confirming a promise, or covenant.
Such a 'sign' God gave to Cain (Gen. iv. 15) ;
... to Noah (Gen. ix. 13) ; ... to Abraham
(Gen. xvii. 11), . . . and to the Jews by the
Sabbath-day (Ex. xxxi. 13 ; Ezek. xx. 12)," in
pledge of his particular promises made to
them, respectively. So also John (John ii. 11)
calls the changing of water into wine at Cana
"this beginning of signs" (not " miracles," as it
is wrongly translated in the English version) ;
and (John iv. 54) the healing of the centurion's
220 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
son as "the second sign," "as being the first
and second indications of Christ's wielding
those powers which belong to God as the Cre-
ator and Author of nature, and which, there-
fore, pledged the God of nature, as the sole
possessor of these powers, to the truth of any
one's teaching who came armed with them."
Therefore it was that the Jews asked for "a
sign " (Matt. xii. 38 ; xvi. 1 ; John ii. 18 ; vi.
30), and some believed " when they saw the
signs which he did " (John ii. 23) ; and Nicode-
mus, the " Pharisee " and " ruler," confessed,
" Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come
from God ; for no man can do these signs that
thou doest except God be with him" (John iii.
2). u Thus John's word shows that our Lord's
works had a definite purpose. They were not
wrought at random, but were intended for a
special object. What this was is easy to tell.
. . . The herald of a divine dispensation must
have proof to offer that he does come from
God, and such proof as pledges the divine at-
tributes to the truth of his teaching. This is
the reason wiry the Old Testament dispensa-
tion was one of signs. On special occasions
justifying the divine interference, and in the
persons of its great teachers, the prophets, su-
pernatural proof was given in two ways. . . .
The divine omniscimce was pledged to the truth
Ch. 6.] Weight of the Evidence. 221
of their words by the prediction of future
events, and his omnipotence by their working
things beyond the ordinary range of nature.
The Old Testament proofs of a revelation were
prophecy and miracle. We can think of no
others, and nothing less would suffice." Ac-
cordingly, Christ, as "the bearer to mankind
of God's final and complete message," not only
delivered prophecies, but wrought works, which
were signs of his divine mission upon earth.
This is the true significance of what we call
"miracles." "They are signs, and wonderful
signs, and such wonderful signs as could not
have been wrought by finite power" (Smith's
Bible Diet., Art. Miracles, Vol. III., p. 1963).
They are therefore proofs, and unmistakable
proofs, of the presence of the power and author-
ity of God attendant upon those who accom-
plished them, and thus they attest the divine
character of the message which they professed
to bring from God to men.
Such is the evidential force of miracles, wher-
ever they may really exist. If, then, we can
show also, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the
accounts of them which we have in the Gospels
are true, and that they were really wrought by
Christ, the conclusion is inevitable that Christ
was truly sent of God, and therefore that his
religion is divine.
222 Positive Eoidences. [Part II.
This proof has- been already, in great meas-
ure, set forth in Part First, in the considera-
tion given there (particularly in Chapter IV.)
of the authenticity of the evidence. The pos-
sibility of miracles, and the competency of
evidence to prove their occurrence, are also
there shown. Our space will not allow us to
restate that proof here. We must at this
point be content with referring the reader
back to it, if he wishes for a full view of all
the argument in the case. Suffice it to say
now, that for the actual occurrence of the mira-
cles related of Christ, we have the concurrent
and uncontradicted testimony of the New Tes-
tament writers, given in such a manner, and
under such circumstances, as that, on every
principle by which any testimony in any case
is held to be valid, their testimony in this
case must be received as true. In addition,
however, to the evidence presented in Part
First in support of this position, and which
the reader is requested to review, at least be-
fore he passes an unfavorable judgment, we
call attention to the considerations following :
1st. The circumstances under which they
were wrought forbade mistake or deception
(write Leslie's "Four Tests," quoted in Watson's
" Institutes/' Part I., Ch. 12). (1) They were
such as men's outward senses could judge of
Oh. 6.] Weight of the Evidence. 223
them. The feeding of the thousands in the
desert from the few loaves and fishes, on two
occasions, by Christ ; his healing of the para-
lytic, of the man born blind, and of various
lepers; his raising of the widow's son from
the dead, and of Lazarus, who had been dead
three days, until his body had become offen-
sive ; greatest of all, his own resurrection and
ascension — these and others were things such
as men could judge of by their senses, and not
like many falsely alleged to be miracles — as,
e. g., that alleged by the papists of the bread
and wine of the communion being changed
into flesh and blood ; for such a change is
wholly imperceptible to any of the senses, but
those (W Christ appealed to the senses for the
evidence of their reality — as it is reasonable
to expect a miracle to do. (2) They were done
publicly, in the face of the world. Many were
wrought before accusers and enemies, and in
the presence of vast numbers of men. In this
they differ from all pretended miracles, which
have usually been performed in private, and
have not been witnessed by any but those di-
rectly concerned in them. (3) In the case of
the miracle of the resurrection of Christ, the
observance of the " first day of the week" as
its memorial, became an institution of the
Christian Church. It is a good proof of the
224 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
reality of an event if we find an institution,
originating in historical times, and of whose
origin no other account can be given, still ex-
isting professedly as a memorial of that event.
Such is the Christian Sabbath (vide Smith's
Bible Dictionary, Art. "The Lord's Day"),
and as such it remains a proof of the resurrec-
tion of our Lord. (4) Its observance was in-
stituted directly after the resurrection (vide
Smith, ib., and cf. Acts ii. 7 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2 ;
Heb. x. 25), when the proof against it, if false,
was easily accessible, and when its observance
would publicly and generally call attention —
among the Jews especially, by the remarkable
change of observance from the seventh to the
first day of the week — to the false miracle al-
leged to have taken place on that day. Yet,
though public notice was thus called to it, and
though refutation would have been (as we shall
see more fully in the next chapter) most easy,
and though the Christians suffered the most
bitter and violent hostility and persecution,
yet the refutation was never given. "You
may challenge all the world to show that
any action is fabulous which has all four of
these marks. The matters of fact — e. g., of
Mohammed, or what is fabled of the heathen
deities — do all want some of them. First, for
Mohammed — he pretended to no miracles, as he
Ch. 6.] Weight of the Evidence. 225
tells us himself in the Koran (c. 6, etc.), and
all those which are told of him do all want the
first two marks; for his pretended journey
to the moon, his night journey to Jerusalem,
and thence to heaven, etc., were not performed
before anybody, nor were they capable of being
perceived by the senses of men. The same is
true of the fables told of the heathen gods — as
of Jupiter's turning himself into a bull, etc.
Nobody ever saw it, and besides, the folly and
unworthiness of such senseless pretended mir-
acles are enough to condemn them. Again,
the public observances — as the Bacchanalia,
and other feasts, etc., instituted in commemo-
ration of their deities — are not pretended to
have begun at the time and place when the
occurrences alleged to have given rise to them
took place, but are acknowledged to have been
first ordained by others in their memory ages
afterward, when imposture was not so easily
detected. And so as to the Romish miracles,
reported to have been wrought by the saints,
etc., since the days of the apostles — they all
want the first marks. And besides, they usu-
ally are only ' such as make fools stare and
wise men suspect ;' and as they begin, so they
end — in vain — in establishing nothing worthy."
— Home. But the miracles of the Bible were
not afraid of the open clay, of scrutiny by en-
10*
226 Positive Evidences. [p ar t n.
emies, and of trial by the senses. They left
also an enduring memorial existing from the
time of their occurrence, they had a wise and
beneficent end, they were worthy of God, and
they established the Christian Church. In all
this they are without parallel in the records
of the human race.
2d. The character of Christ's miracles in its
very nature bears witness to their truth. Not
only were they worthy of God's working, but
we also have such evidence thereof as the fol-
lowing, viz. : (1) Their great number. Very
many are individually mentioned. Many oth-
ers are mentioned only generally and incident-
ally (e. g., as in Matt. viii. 16, where it is said
" they brought unto him many that were pos-
sessed w r ith devils, and he cast out the spirits
with his word, and healed all that were sick,"
etc.). (2) Their greatness. They were such
as could not be feigned, but were such as sat-
isfying the hunger of thousands from a few
loaves and fishes, calming the winds and the
sea, curing the lepers, and raising the dead.
(3) Their simplicity. All were done without
any ostentatious show. And they were done
at a touch, by a word, with the utmost ease.
(4) Their disinterestedness. None were per-
formed for reward ; none ever gained him any
worldly benefit whatever. (5) Their effects in
Ch. 6.] Weight of the Evidence. 227
converting many incredulous persons, and even
some enemies (as, e. #., Paul), to embrace his
doctrine. (6) "They were actually admitted
as facts by the [early] opposers of Christianity.
Celsus, and Hierocles, and Julian the Apos
tate, and the Jewish rabbis in the Talmud —
all of whom wrote and argued bitterly against
Christianity — have yet all left their acknowl-
edgment of the actual occurrence of these
events, accounting for them by magical arts,
which Celsus affirms Christ must have learned
in Egypt" (Johnson's Cyclopaedia, Art. Mira-
cles). (7) Their great variety, which yet,
very remarkably, evidently constituted one or-
ganic whole. This forms a very striking view
of the miracles, and therefore we have reserved
it for the last, that we may give it more in full
by appending an extract from Westcott ("In-
troduction to Gospels," App. E), who, to show
their singular harmony, completeness, and
unity, both in themselves and in the revela-
tion they disclose, gives the following (tenta-
tive) classification:
I. Miracles in Nature. — 1. Miracles of Crea-
tive Power, (a) Christ the Source of joy —
the character of nature changed: the water
made wine (John ii. 1-12). (b) Christ the
Source of subsistence — substance increased:
the bread multiplied (Matt. xiv. 15-21, etc.).
228 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
(c) Christ the Source of strengtn — force con-
trolled : the walking on the water (Matt. xiv.
22-26, etc.). 2. Miracles of Providence, (a)
Of Blessing, a. The founding of the outward
Church : the first miraculous draught of fishes
(Luke v. 1-11) ; b. The Defense of the Church
without: the storm stilled (Matt. viii. 23-27,
etc.) ; c. The Support of the Church from with-
in : the stater in the fish's mouth (Matt. xvii.
24-27) ; d. The Church of the Future : the sec-
ond miraculous draught of fishes (John xxi. 1-
23). (b) Of Judgment: the fig-tree cursed
(Matt. xxi. 19, etc.).
II. Miracles on Man. — 1. Miracles of Per-
sonal Faith, (a) Organic Defects, a. Faith
special : the two blind men in the house (Matt,
ix. 29-31) ; b. Faith absolute : Bartimeus re-
stored (Matt. xx. 29-34, etc.). (b) Chronic
Impurity, a. Open leprosy (Matt. viii. 1-4,
etc.) ; b. Secret : the woman with the issue
(Matt. ix. 20-22). 2. Miracles of Interces-
sion, (a) Organic Defects : the blind, and the
deaf and dumb (Mark viii. 22-26; vii. 31-37).
(b) Mortal Sicknesses, a. Fever : The noble-
man's son healed (John iv. 46-54) ; b. Paraly-
sis : The man borne of four (Matt. ix. 1-8).
3. Miracles of Love, (a) Organic Defect: the
blind man healed (John ix.). (b) Disease, a.
Fever (Matt. viii. 14, 15, etc.); b. Dropsy
Ch. 6.] Weight of the Evidence. 229
(Luke xiv. 1-6); c. The withered hand (Matt,
xii. 9-13) ; d. The impotent man (John v. 1-
17) ; e. The spirit of infirmity (Luke xiii. 10-
17). (c) Death, a. In the death-chamber : a
girl raised (Matt. ix. 18, etc.) ; b. Upon the
bier : a young man raised (Luke vii. 11-1*8) ;
c. From the tomb : a tried friend raised (John
xi.).
III. Miracles Wrought on the Spirit-world. —
1. Miracles of Intercession, (a) Simple inter-
cession : the dumb man possessed by a devil
(Matt. ix. 32-34; xii. 22, etc.). (b) Interces-
sion based on natural ties: a. The Syrophe-
nician's daughter (Matt. xv. 21-28, etc.) ; b.
The lunatic boy (Matt. xvii. 14, etc.). 2. Mir-
acles of Antagonism, (a) In the synagogue :
the unclean spirit cast out (Mark i. 21-28,
etc.). (b) In the tombs: the legion cast out
(Matt. viii. 28-34).
This is totally different from all false mira-
cles. In its completeness and unity it dis-
closes, just as we should expect, the presence
of God supernaturally working in the Person
of Christ at all points, wherever it came into
contact with human life and human circum-
stances, with unity and significance, with good-
ness and power — breaking forth, as we should
expect it, on all occasions, and in all direc-
tions, wherever an occasion demanded its ex-
230 Positive Evidences. [p art n.
ercise, and giving us assurance in itself of its
reality, and of the divine mission of Him whom
it attended.
Thus, then, we assert the divinity of Chris-
tianity by the evidence of the miracles wrought
by Christ. This, as to those miracles in gen-
eral. There is one supereminent miracle, how-
ever, which is also the great corner-stone of
Christian faith — the resurrection of Christ
from the dead. Thus we will consider it in
particular, not only as the "fundamental and
crowning miracle of the gospel," and carrying
with it the fact of its own existence as such
the reality also of all the other miracles,* but
also, in its single evidence, indisputably prov-
ing that Christ was sent of God.
*"In the resurrection," says Westcott, referring to his
classification, given above, "all the forms of miraculous
working are included. The course of nature was controlled,
for there was a great earthquake ; the laws of material exist-
ence were overruled, for when the doors were shut Jesus
came into the midst of his disciples, and when their eyes
were ' opened ' he vanished out of their sight ; the reign of
death was overthrown, for many of the saints came out of
their graves, and went into the holy city ; the powers of the
spiritual world were called forth, for angels watched at the
sepulcher, and ministered to believers. Thus harmonious is
the whole strain of Scripture. 'All things are double over
against another, and God hath made nothing imperfect.' "
Ch. 7.] Weight of the Evidence. 231
CHAPTER VII.
THE EVIDENCE OF MIRACLES — II. THE RESUR-
RECTION OF CHRIST.
The resurrection of Christ is one of the strong-
est proofs that we could ask of the divinity of
Christianity. As such it was constantly cited
by the apostles in proof of their doctrine, on
the first preaching of the gospel. Peter, at Je-
rusalem, upon the day of Pentecost, less than
two months after the resurrection, occupied a
large part of his discourse with showing that,
in fulfillment of prophecy, "this Jesus hath
God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses"
(Acts ii. 32), and that from this, and by his sub-
sequent ascension and exaltation, and shedding
forth the Holy Ghost, " therefore let all the
house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath
made that same Jesus, whom ye have cruci-
fied, both Lord and Christ" (verse 36) ; and
so strong and convincing was this evidence,
even to those who had crucified Christ, that
"when they heard this, they were pricked in
their hearts, and said unto Peter and the rest
of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall
we do ? " (verse 37). This will serve to show
232 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
us the evidential value of miracles in general,
and that of the resurrection of Christ in par-
ticular ; and this value was not a mere tempo-
rary one, and confined to the time and place
in which the resurrection had occurred, nor to
the people who were familiar with the circum-
stances of its occurrence, but we find that Paul
also, some twenty years afterward, at Athens,
among a people as yet entirely unacquainted
with any fact of Christianity, "preached unto
them Jesus and the resurrection." And he
preached it too as the evidence of the truth
and authority of Christianity in calling men to
repentance, saying, "And the times of this ig-
norance God winked at ; but now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent : because he hath
appointed a day in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he
hath ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men in that he hath raised him from the
dead" (Acts xvii. 18, 30, 31). In another
place (1 Cor. xv. 14) he elaborately sets it forth
as a fact of the utmost importance to the as-
surance of our faith, declaring even, "And if
Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain,
and your faith is also vain." Farther citation
would be superfluous. In the Epistles of the
New Testament alone (vide Angus's "Hand-
book," p. 360) there are more than fifty refer-
Ch. 7.] Weight of the Evidence. 233
ences to the resurrection of Christ, showing
that it was considered as of special importance
in the system of Christian doctrine. Its spe-
cial importance as an Evidence fully appears
in the above quotations, and accordingly we
give it here a special prominence among the
miracles as affording peculiar and irrefragable
evidence of the divinity of the religion of
Christ.
1. First we offer, over and above the gene-
ral evidence already given for the truth of the
facts contained in the Gospel narratives, the
following special evidence in proof of the res-
urrection of Christ in particular :
(a) The disciples who gave their testimony
could not have been deceivers in such a case,
and have put forth an invented tale of his
resurrection. 1st. JNo other explanation can
be given of the disappearance of the body of
Jesus. That he died by crucifixion is undoubt-
ed. The testimony of all the writers, even
that of the heathen historian (vide ante, p. 94),
is that he was so put to death. We have there-
fore the same proof of this as we have of any
other fact recorded in Tacitus and those other
writers. We take their statements as that of
reliable historians who took pains to satisfy
themselves, by competent evidence existing
at the time they wrote, that the facts they re-
234 Positioe Evidences. [Part II.
corded were true before they recorded them.
Moreover, the Jews, who still remain the strong
opposers of Christianity, and who at the time
of his alleged resurrection had every means
as well as every motive to expose such a de-
ception, never doubted that he had died as
a malefactor; and, as we shall subsequently
see, in the very nature of the case, his death
must necessarily have really occurred. What
then became of his body ? That it had disap-
peared from the tomb on the third day, not-
withstanding the Jews had placed around it a
guard of Roman soldiers to watch for three
days, within which time they knew Christ
had prophesied he should rise again, is also
undoubted; for, if it were still in the tomb
when the three days' watch had ended, then
the Jews could have easily confounded the
Christians by thus disproving by the soldiers
this alleged fact, when they preached it in
Jerusalem itself but a little more than a month
afterward, and preached it too as being one of
the very corner-stones of the Christian doc-
trine. Manifestly, a Christian Church, under
such circumstances, could never have been
formed in Jerusalem; nor could thus a con-
vert have ever been made of an ardent Jewish
enemy there, as acute and able as Saul of Tar-
sus. Yet it cannot be questioned that a Chris-
Ch. 7.] Weight of the Eoidenee. 235
tian Church was formed in Jerusalem, and
continued to exist there, despite the utmost
persecutions ; and it is certain, also, that Saul
was at length convinced — by the evidence of
this very resurrection — of the truth of the
Christian religion, and became a convert. The
two facts then so minutely and harmoniously
related in the Gospels, of the death of Jesus,
and of the disappearance afterward of his body,
are true. What then became of the body?
The Christians say that Jesus rose from the
dead, and afterward ascended into heaven — the
Jews, that his disciples had come by night, and
stole his body away. These are the only two
explanations offered, and are doubtless the
only two possible to be offered. Since the
dead body of Jesus had disappeared from the
sealed tomb in which it had been placed, de-
spite the soldiers guarding it, it must either
have been stolen away, or he must have risen
from the dead. The evidence shows that we
cannot accept the former, explanation, and that
the latter therefore is the true and only con-
clusion.
1. It is highly improbable, in the nature of
the case, that the former explanation is true.
(1) It is improbable, because the terror under
which the disciples evidently were at the time,
as well as the fewness of their numbers ; the
236 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
fact that they were taken by surprise by the
crucifixion of Jesus taking place so soon after
his triumphant entry into Jerusalem ; the fact
that the mass of the people were against them,
and all the authorities — all this would have
deterred them from even planning such an
attempt against a band of the dreaded Roman
soldiers, and, in all likelihood, would have pre-
vented them from succeeding, if they had made
the attempt. (2) The time and place, and the
other circumstances, were very unfavorable
for the success of such an attempt. The time
was that of the Passover, in which there is
always a full moon ; the city and its suburbs
were unusually crowded with people come up
to attend the Passover ; the sepulcher was just
outside the city walls, and there was a guard
of Roman soldiers, for whom it was death to
sleep upon their post, set around the sepulcher
itself. It was highly improbable, if even they
could succeed in penetrating to the cave, that
they could ever have borne off the body with-
out being seen. (3) But if they had, they
could scarcely have succeeded in disposing of
it in concealment where it would not have been
discovered, either by chance, or by the officers
searching for it. The difficulty of doing so in
criminal cases, even when the crime has been
for some time unknown, and where the crimi-
Ch. 7.] Weight of the Evidence. 237
nal has had the facilities of a lonely neighbor-
hood, and the aid of modern scientific knowl-
edge to help him, is well known. Scarce any
such criminal escapes ultimate detection. A
human body is very difficult to dispose of. But
we are to suppose that these disciples, almost
all of them Galileans, and therefore compara-
tively strangers in Jerusalem, ignorant of all
scientific means of getting rid of the body, and
in a crowded city and neighborhood, could
do what criminals with every opportunity find
it so hard to do, and effectually conceal the
body, though they had been previously suspected of
an intention to commit the theft, and the theft had,
immediately after its commission, been discovered.
(4) But if they had succeeded in doing it, why
were they not at once arrested for the theft?
They continued to stay in the city at least fifty
days afterward, and even boldly preached pub-
licly the resurrection of Jesus, the very doctrine
against which their enemies had taken such
extraordinary precautions. They thus ren-
dered themselves peculiarly obnoxious to the
Jewish authorities, by charging them, in this
way, with basely killing their own Messiah.
By publicly proving the falsity of the alleged
resurrection, on the evidence of the soldiers,
and by their arrest, trial, and conviction, the
priests and scribes could have forever triumph-
238 Positive Evidences. [p art n.
antly destroyed that hated Christian sect — a
sect which they did attempt with all their pow-
er to destroy by the most dreadful persecution.
Yet, though the apostles were more than once
arrested, they were never arrested for this
crime; though other charges were brought
against them before the legal tribunals, this
one never was. But, moreover, if the Jews
neglected this, why did the Romans do so?
They were a people jealous in the extreme for
the dignity of Rome. The disciples, if they
stole the body, had broken the Roman seal
which had been placed upon the stone, and
they thus had committed an indignity and a
crime against the Roman Government. Yet
they were allowed to go free in the city un-
disturbed, and no proceedings whatever were
had against them, by either Jews or Romans.
g (5) Again, it is exceedingly improbable that so
many men, inured to watching in the open air,
should have fallen asleep at once; or if they
did, that with all the noise unavoidably made
in removing the "great stone" which had been
used to stop up the entrance to the tomb, and
in bearing forth the body of a full-grown man
— requiring several men — through the midst
of the soldiers, not erne should have been
aroused and discover the thieves. (6) And
finally, it is most improbable that, if they had
Ch. 7.] Weight of the Evidence. 239
all thus fallen asleep, they could have escaped
punishment. No nation has ever had stricter
discipline than the Romans. It was death for
a soldier to sleep upon his post. Yet we hear
nothing of any punishment awarded them for
their flagrant breach of discipline. It is not
likely that the Roman officers would for any
reason have remitted their punishment ; still
more unlikely is it that the soldiers would have
accused themselves in returning such a report
of their conduct in explanation of the disap-
pearance of the body.
2. But if their account is true, it is certain
that it cannot be known to be true; for, be
it remembered, upon the testimony of these
deniers of the resurrection themselves, there
were no actual witnesses of the theft, except
the thieves themselves. The Jews were not
there ; the soldiers, as it is claimed, were asleep
— if any one but the thieves had beheld it,
they would certainly have arrested them and
aroused the soldiers. Then how can it be
proved that the body was stolen ? If the sol-
diers were asleep when the body left the tomb,
then all that they can truly testify to is, that
when they awoke they found the tomb broken
open and the body gone. But they cannot say
how ; and so, though they had slept, the resur-
rection, so far as that is concerned, might have
240 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
taken place. But if they were awake, why did
they not prevent the theft ?
3. In opposition to this improbable, incon-
sistent, yea, evidently false, account, we have
the only other reasonable explanation — given
directly, clearly, and consistently, by all the
disciples — that after his death they saw him
again, alive; that they talked, ate, and other-
wise associated with him, at intervals, for forty
days ; and that he himself, who was so per-
fectly truthful and holy, assured them again
and again, and gave them bodily proofs of the
truth of his assertion, that he had really risen
from the dead, even as it had been foretold,
and as it "behooved him" to do. (1) In the
Jews' explanation of the disappearance of his
body, we have just seen an instance of the ex-
treme difficulty of forging without detection a
tale consistent with the circumstances and
with itself, even by those possessed of the
greatest advantages of power, learning, etc.
Greenleaf has also pointed out (vide ante, p.
106) the almost impossibility of doing it. But
could the humble disciples, powerless and un-
learned as they were, have been able to forge
a tale about so remarkable a matter as not to
be inconsistent, and therefore open to expos-
ure by enemies, who, being in power, had ev-
ery means of detection at their command, as
Ch. 7.] Weight of the Evidence. 241
they had every motive to prompt them to use
those means ? Yet neither they nor the most
acute minds, during the centuries since, have
ever been able to show the forgery in the least
degree. (2) The disciples, we are told, were
themselves very incredulous, and " slow to be-
lieve "the fact. (3) They had no motive to
utter such a falsehood. There was no fame,
or riches, or power, to be gained in this world
by it, and surely they could expect in the next
nothing but punishment for such a stupendous
and blasphemous falsehood. Only dangers,
persecutions, torture, exile, and death, awaited
them here from preaching the resurrection,
and, if false, eternal ruin after death. Is it
conceivable that any man would be so carried
away by madness as to dare all this in support
of a known, monstrous, and incredible lie ? It
is inconceivable that so many men, through so
many years, with such perfect unanimity, and
under such sufferings, should persist in doing
so. (4) But had they all, nevertheless, so
agreed, it is still improbable that they would
have ventured to publish this forged account,
as the apostles did in Jerusalem, in the very
place, and immediately after the time, in which
the thing thus falsely alleged was said by
them to have taken place. They might have
gone to a distant country and waited many
11
242 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
years, but forgers such as these would scarcely
have dared to utter their forgery in the very
place where their enemies were most numer-
ous and powerful, and where every facility for
exposing and punishing them existed. (5) If
they had madly ventured to take this last im-
probable step, it is impossible to believe that
they could ever have so successfully escaped
detection and exposure. Let it be remembered
that no such exposure was ever made; yet
they repeated their statements over and over
again, sometimes separately, sometimes togeth-
er. They were at various times arrested and
examined before the very highest legal tribu-
nals, both Jewish and Roman, by men trained
to the business of detecting and punishing
crime, and whose imperative official duty it
was to do so; and those authorities had the
greatest motives for punishing them, and
no motive for shielding them. Nevertheless,
there was never found any discrepancy in their
testimony, and there was never any conviction
secured for this crime, nor any punishment
awarded for it. (6) Lastly, the general char-
acter of the apostles forbids us from suspect-
ing them of such a forgery. Their character
has never been impugned. Their whole histo-
ry, as well as the whole tenor of their spirit,
manifested in their writings that remain to us,
Ch. 7.1 Weight of the Evidence. 2-13
show them to be men of the most undoubted
purity, benevolence, and truth. They were
incapable of designedly framing so false and
misleading a story, even had they been able ;
and their united, positive, and life-long testi-
mony to the resurrection of Christ, with no
evidence against it, is entitled to be received as
a true relation of the facts they attest.
Since, then, it is, in the first place, so highly
improbable, in the nature of the case, that the
disciples could have stolen the body of Jesus ;
since, also, if they had, it could not have been
known, but, at the utmost, only suspected ; and
since, too, we have the positive, continued, con-
curring, and uncontradicted testimony of so
many witnesses of the highest character to
the reality of the Lord's resurrection, we must,
in all fairness, believe that Christ was seen by
the apostles after his crucifixion, and that they
were entirely innocent of all forgery in their
testimony to this fact, and of all intention to
deceive.
(b) But neither were they self- deceived.
Modern objectors, seeing the hopelessness of
proving them deceivers, have fallen upon the
theory of self-deception, in the case of the apos-
tles, in order to explain the facts. In answer,
we present the following arguments condensed
from Row ("Christian Evidences," etc.):
244 Positive E cadences. [Part II.
From the Pauline and the other Epistles of
the New Testament it is proved —
1. That it is an unquestionable fact that the
Church which had been for the time dissolved
at the crucifixion was reconstructed on the ba-
sis of the resurrection.
2. That the belief in it originated on the
spot, and within a few days of the crucifixion,
and that the fact was openly proclaimed then
and there as the new foundation on which the
Church was to be erected and the Messiahship
of Jesus to be set up.
3. That all the efforts of Paul and his fel-
low-persecutors failed to discover that this be-
lief was the result of fraud or delusion.
4. That the apostolic body believed that
they had two interviews with Jesus, in which
they saw him alive after his crucifixion.
5. That two of the apostles were persuaded
that they had two private interviews with him.
6. That upward of five hundred brethren
believed that they saw him alive after his cru-
cifixion, when they were assembled in a body.
7. That Paul was persuaded that he had
seen him.
8. That large numbers of believers were
firmly persuaded that, in consequence of his
resurrection, they had become possessed of
certain supernatural gifts and endowments.
Ch. 7.] Weight of the Evidence. 245
9. That the belief in the resurrection acted
as a- mighty power of moral and spiritual re-
generation.
These facts effectually disprove — 1. Every
form of the theory of their mythic or legendary
origin ; 2. That it is impossible that the belief
in the resurrection could have grown up in the
gradual manner in which ordinary fictions do,
at distant times and places ; 3. That until
some other equally rational account, affording
an adequate explanation of all the subsequent
historical facts of the Christian Church, can
be propounded, we are fully entitled to accept
this, the account which the Church has ever
put forward as the true one, and the sole
ground of its existence.
(a) To give such an explanation, the theory
of "visions" has been advanced — viz., that
Christ never rose from the dead, but that some
one or more of his enthusiastic followers fan-
cied they saw him alive, and mistook the cre-
ation of their distempered imaginations for an
actual resurrection, and succeeded in persuad-
ing the other disciples that he was risen from
the dead. These, in turn, also took to seeing
visions of the risen Jesus, and fancying not
only that they had interviews with him, but
that they received his orders to reconstruct
his Church on the basis of his resurrection,
246 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
etc. The attempt was made, succeeded, and
the Church — the greatest of institutions — was
erected on this foundation of baseless delusions
by a few credulous fanatics. But this is im-
possible; for —
1st. The disciples could not have even ex-
pected it. 1. The disciples, immediately after
the crucifixion, were in a state of deepest de-
pression. 2. The idea of resurrection was one
utterly foreign to all ancient thought, so that
however men might have supposed they had
seen spirits, the very thought of a body being
raised from the dead would never have oc-
curred to them. 3. The disciples did not so
understand Jesus when he predicted it, as ap-
pears from the same account which tells of the
prediction. Therefore they were not expect;
ing it, but were filled with the prepossession
and fixed idea of his death and the utter ruin
of his cause; yet, expectancy, prepossession,
and fixed idea, are well established by mental
physiologists as the necessary 'mental states to
enable even enthusiastic and credulous persons
to mistake subjective impressions for external
realities (vide Carpenter's "Mental Physiolo-
gy ") . But since we know that a great change,
nevertheless, occurred in the minds of the dis-
ciples in a few days, contrary to their expecta-
tion ; since, also, the Church was reconstructed
Ch. 7.] Weight of the Ecidence. 247
on new conceptions of the Messiah — i. e.. of a
spiritual and invisible Messiah, instead of one
visible and temporal — we infer that Jesus was
actually raised from the dead.
2d. But suppose that Mary — a woman — did
first fancy she saw him alive, and that she con-
versed with him, and that he promised to meet
her again, and that she fancied that he did
again meet her, so that her delusion did not
vanish ; suppose she had such a series of ideal
visions and conversations — yet how could she
have communicated her delusions to the other
disciples, so that they too would begin to imag-
ine that they saw the Lord, talked, walked, and
ate, with him, and touched him, at various
times and in different places — i. e., not a spirit,
but the veritable flesh and bones of his body
— and that he made engagements for other in-
terviews with them, and kept them ? And this
too in a few days after his crucifixion, and when
his body really lay near by, corrupting in the
grave ? and that therefore they forthwith pro-
ceeded to reconstruct the Church on this foun-
dation, and did greatly succeed in building up
the most wonderful and enduring institution
among men on this airy delusion of their fan-
cies ? and that they all concurred in this same
identical delusion? Even among lunatics a
concurrence in their hallucinations is unknown.
248 Positive Evidences. [p ar t n.
It is asserted, however, that Mohammed suc-
ceeded in erecting his Church on such a basis
of supposed appearances. Now, there is much
to warrant the conclusion that Mohammed was,
in part at least, a conscious impostor ; but the
most that can be said is that he undertook his
thirteen years' mission at Mecca under the
persuasion that he had received a divine com-
mission through the angel. Here note: 1.
That there was no resurrection — an idea not
natural to the human mind — but an angelic
appearance, the idea of which is familiar and
common to enthusiasts ; 2. There is no testi-
mony of the matter but that of himself; 3. It
was not capable of refutation, as that of the
resurrection of a body recently dead would
have been by the production of the body ; 4.
Mohammed, in point of fact, never did found
his Church on such a peaceful basis. It was
only, after thirteen years, when he grasped the
sword that he had any success ; and if he had
continued his endeavor to found his Church by
peaceful means only, the Church of Moham-
med would never have existed.
3d. But suppose all these impossible things,
there yet remains to account for St. Paul's ex-
traordinary delusion, that he too had seen the
risen Lord, talked with him, received direc-
tions as to his future conduct from him, etc.
Ch. 7.] Weight of the Evidence. 249
(vide Acts ix. 1-6, 11 ; 1 Cor. xv., etc.), so that
from a most violent persecutor of the Church
of Christ he suddenly became its most labori-
ous missionary, and devoted his whole after-
life in self-sacrifice to the service of his Mas-
ter. The 27th chapter of Acts, as well as the
preceding chapters, prove, beyond the shadow
of a doubt, that the author of the Acts was a
companion of Paul. Without doubt, he must
have received the account of Paul's conversion
from Paul himself, and therefore, in the cir-
cumstances thus recorded, we have Paul's own
account of the occurrences which led to his
conversion, as he himself believed them. Now,
how came he to believe in such a delusion — he
in whom there could be absolutely no expect-
ancy, and in whom the prepossession and the
fixed idea, that Jesus was a wicked and dan-
gerous Impostor, had previously wrought so
strongly as to impel him to the most violent
persecution — a persecution which he was then
on his way to accomplish? How, we say,
could he, against all his mental prepossessions
and ideas, have so suddenly, completely, and
permanently, fallen under such a "delusion ?
Nay, so much so as to believe himself blind
for three days, and at the end of that time to
feel "as it were scales fall from his eyes," and
immediately and ever after, at the peril of his
11*
250 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
life, unceasingly to labor to build up that cause
which he had formerly tried to destroy — he, a
man of the soundest reason, the acutest men-
tal discrimination, and the highest education
and cultivation?
(b) The only alternative left to unbelief is
the theory that Jesus did not die, but fell into
a state of syncope, which was mistaken for
death, and in that state he was taken down
from the cross, and put into the sepulcher, from
which he gradually recovered, and thus ap-
peared again to his disciples. But — 1. Such
an account never was heard of at the time by
the enemies of our Lord, nor since, till modern
times ; 2. His body was in the custody of the
Romans and Jews ; 3. He had undoubtedly
been greatly exhausted by his agony in the
garden, his loss of rest throughout the pre-
vious night, the excitement of his various
trials, the weariness of prolonged exertion,
lasting from the evening before up to the hour
of his crucifixion, and by his scourging; 4.
After all this, he hung several hours on the
cross, and at length was pierced in the side
by a spgar; 5. Afterward, he was laid for
about thirty -six hours in a cold sepulcher,
bound up with spices, in bandages and wrap-
pings. It is incredible that a man could have
lived through all this; yet, in addition, he
Ch. 7.] Weight of the Evidence. 251
must also have succeeded in freeing himself
from his bandages, in rolling away the stone
from the mouth of the sepulcher, and in reach-
ing the house of some friend in safety, where he
slowly recovered in secret. But, farther, this
supposes — 6. That the disciples who saw him
mistook a slow recovery from extreme exhaus-
tion and painful wounds for a triumphant res-
urrection ; 7. That during his recovery, which
must have taken a long time, and which must
have been. kept a profound secret, the rest of
the disciples still kept together, and did not
give way to discouragement and despair, but,
when at last he was well, were ready, after so
long a time, to accept the belief that he had
risen from the dead ; 8. And that they had
seen him alive a few days after his resurrec-
tion ; 9. And that Paul too, the persecutor,
who, in inflicting his persecutions, must have
heard and disbelieved the story, yet afterward
imagined he had seen him in a flash of light-
ning, which felled him to the earth, and made
him blind for three days; 9. That the apos-
tles believed they had at length seen him leave
the world, and go up to heaven ; 10. That they
forthwith proceeded to reconstruct the Church
on this new conception of an invisible and spir-
itual Messiah; 11. And that they did, on this
delusion, actually rear up the greatest and
252 Positive Evidences. [p ar t II.
best institution that has ever existed among
men.
We conclude that the disciples were neither
deceivers nor self-deceived, but that the resur-
rection of our Lord Jesus Christ is a most
certain fact. As such, it manifests the super-
human and divine character of Christianity,
being itself one of the essential facts upon
which Christianity is built, and from which it
derives its strength.* Moreover, it establishes
* To appreciate this more fully, and also to see the har-
monious unity of the several facts which form the founda-
tion of the Christian religion, and especially to note, how
the fact of the resurrection, followed by the ascension of
our Lord, gives completion, while it imparts fresh life and
meaning, to all the other great facts, let us remember — 1.
That not only did it, as a miracle alone, give proof of the
divine mission of Christ, but also as a miracle in fulfillment
of prophecy. In Ps. xvi. 10 it had been predicted as a sign
of the Messiah — " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell \i. e.,
in the grave] ; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to
see corruption" — and accordingly, Peter, on the day of
Pentecost, to the murderers of Christ, used this with most
convincing effect, as a proof of the Messiahship of Christ.
(Vide Acts ii. 25-31.) 2. It proved his divinity — "De-
clared to be the Son of God with power, ... by the res-
urrection from the dead" (Eom. i. 4). 3. It completed the
work of redemption; for — 1st. It showed that his death
was by way of atonement, and not of necessity, and proved
what Christ had said of himself as the good Shepherd, " I
lay down my life . . . that I might take it again. . . . Nc
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I
Ch. 7.] Weight of the Evidence. 253
the general fact of miracles by Christ, and,
taken with the testimony of the disciples to
the other miracles, proves them also to have
been really wrought.
As such, the miracles display the wisdom,
the power, and the goodness of Christ, and so
constitute an harmonious part of that revela-
tion which he came to give, while also they add
their own witness to all the other testimonies,
to form together an inexpugnable evidence of
the divinity of his religion.
have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it
again" (John x. 15-18). In this, as also in that by his
resurrection, God's acceptance was shown of his sacrifice
on the cross as fully sufficient an atonement for man, we
understand how "he was delivered for our offenses, and
raised again for our justification" (Kom. iv. 25). 2d. It
showed him to be the Conqueror and Destroyer of " him
that had the power of death — that is, the devil." 3d. It
was needful for his ascension, and the fulfillment of his
great offices of Intercessor and High-priest, of sending
forth the Holy Ghost, and of "preparing a place" for his
people. 4. It was the proof, the pattern, and the pledge,
of our own resurrection from the grave. Thus we see the
importance of this great fact to the Christian system, the
perfect correspondence of this fact to all the rest, and the
perfect completeness in the supply it thus furnishes of the
whole. This harmony and perfection is found in no other
system, for no other is the complete revelation of God.
254 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SUPERNATURAL RESULTS.
Finally, we point to the Results of Christian-
ity — the superhuman moral force and power
it has wielded for good in the world — in evi-
dence of its divinity. This is the last crite-
rion that can be applied, and to this final test
of experiment — the crucial touch-stone of mod-
ern science — Christianity, having passed the
ordeal of all other trials of its truth, fears not
to be tried by this last means of determina-
tion, but gladly challenges its examination
also.
This too is a practical test capable of being
applied in every generation and by every man.
It is one, also, that is as really convincing
to-day, to the candid and reflecting mind, as
miracles were in the days of the apostles, and
as sure a token of the presence of divine en-
ergy attending the gospel of Christ. "And
now" (i. e. y in these days), says Augustin, in
his sermon on " The Recovery of Sight to
the Blind," referring to Christ, "he worketh
greater cures, on account of wldcli he disdained
not then to exhibit those lesser ones-
Ch. 8.] Weight of the Evidence. 255
ing the blind, etc. For as the soul is better
than the body, so is the saving health of the
soul better than the health of the body. The
blind body doth not now open its eyes by a
miracle of the Lord, but the blinded heart
openeth its eyes to the word of the Lord.
The mortal corpse doth not now rise again,
but the soul which lay dead in a living body."
Indeed, as Van Oosterzee points out, "This
testimony can be shown in its full force only
when the kingdom of God shall have been
completed. . . . Think of the blessed influ-
ence of Christianity on family life, society, the
State, civilization, art, science, philosophy —
the entire life of man and mankind — and, be-
sides, of all which the history of missions tells
us of the renewing power of the word of truth.
Nor must we forget how a great part of the
most precious of the seed is hidden from the
short-sighted eye, yet is every now and then
revealed in a surprising manner. And then,
after all, ask where we can find a parallel to
what, in all these respects, the history of God's
kingdom proclaims. Still, though a full knowl-
edge of the benefits produced by Christianity
can thus never be known till eternity, we nev-
ertheless know sufficient of its potent influ-
ence for good, both in the past and present,
over savages and philosophers, to show its
256 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
incomparable superiority over all other moral
systems, and such as prove it to be divine."
I. First we appeal to the personal experi-
ence of all that have ever sincerely tried Chris-
tianity. This, we say, is the test of experiment,
boasted by science as the infallible criterion,
without the proof of which no theory is to be
received. But then, on the other hand, no
theory ought to be rejected that does possess
this proof. We therefore cheerfully submit
the claims of our religion to this method of
verification, only demanding that it be faith-
fully used by objectors for themselves if they
will, or if they will not even make trial of it
themselves, that they will at least give a can-
did reception of, and belief in, the testimony
of those who have done so. We ask attention,
therefore, to the following facts :
1. All who have embraced Christianity, in
every age and country, comprising millions of
souls of every race, condition, sex, and age,
have testified that Christianity is true. It is
doubtful whether, of the millions who have
once embraced it, however even they may
have afterward relapsed into wickedness, any
can be produced, either from the history of the
past, or the multitudes of the present, who
voluntarily have said, or will say, that they
have honestly tried Christianity, and found it
Ch. 8.] Weight of the Evidence. 257
to be false. Certain it is that the overwhelm-
ing majority will testify to the contrary, and
declare that they have found it gloriously true.
And the exceptions — if exceptions there be —
may be rationally explained in the same way
as we account for those no less exceptional ex-
perimenters in science who separately differ
from the great body of their brethren as to the
results of some experiment — viz., because of
inaccuracy of observation, the influence of
some particular theory of theirs, etc. Nor
are such rare exceptions to w 7 eigh in our esti-
mation any more in one case than the other.
The vast preponderating testimony of the oth-
er side must be accepted as the only true tes-
timony given by science as to the result of the
experiment in question, and it must be so ac-
cepted also as the real evidence in the matter
of religion.
2. These witnesses (vide Home's ''Intro-
duction ") have testified plainly and strongly;
they have continued their testimony through
life ; they have done so frequently, when there-
by they drew upon themselves disgrace, im-
prisonment, and cruel death; and they have
done so often, when, by renouncing their prin-
ciples, they might have enjoyed much of this
world's fame and fortune. They have there-
fore given the strongest proofs possible of their
258 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
real convictions, and of their belief in the re-
ligion of Jesus Christ.
3. They say that Christianity does for them
what it promises to do ; that Grod does answer
prayer; that the Holy Spirit is given them
through Christ; that their moral natures are
regenerated ; their souls have a joy, and com-
fort, and strength, such as the world knows
not of; they have love for God and man, they
have purity and truth, when before there was
malice and hate, uncleanness and falseness;
that it does support in the hour of trial and
of death, and that it is by far the most precious
possession that they have or can have, and
that they would much rather part with life it-
self than with it.
4. For the reality of this change from their
former state, wrought in them, they affirm
that they have the testimony of their own con-
sciousness, which no one can deny, and that
that consciousness is as clear as that of their
own being, so that they can no more doubt
it than they can their own being. They
point also, confidently, to their changed out-
ward lives, in which those that before were
proud are now humble ; those that were wrath-
ful are now mild ; those that w T ere ambitious,
avaricious, and sensual, selfish and full of hate,
are now unworldly, generous, spiritual, self-
Ch. 8.] Weight of the Evidence. 259
sacrificing, and loving. And for the truth of
this they challenge the testimony of those
around them, of enemies as well as friends.
5. Farther, this change is not only a change
of character from what they themselves were
before — it is a change also from the general
character of the mass of all other men besides,
especially from the general character of the
human race ivherever Christianity has exerted
no influence. So that all the self-sacrificing
efforts made in the world for the elevation and
improvement of the human family — as by re-
formers, missionaries, preachers, etc. — all the
reformatory and charitable institutions of the
world — are almost, if not altogether, without
an exception, the work of Christian charity,
and not that of pagans, Mohammedans, or in-
fidels.
6. These witnesses are of the most diverse
countries and races, and of every age of the
world since Christ. Among them are many
who were at first averse, and even hostile, to
Christianity, and who did their utmost to de-
stroy it — as, e. g., Paul and those converted on
the day of Pentecost, the ancient and modern
heathen, and many of our own day and coun-
try, who were once skeptics, but who afterward
bore witness that they were before in error.
Some of them too are men of the very highest
260 Positive Evidences. [p ar t n.
and best -trained powers of mind that have
ever been known, and that too of every class
of intellect. Philosophers, statesmen, poets,
scientists — a Paul, a Justin, a Bacon, a New-
ton — Leibnitz, Shakespeare, Milton, Faraday,
Agassiz, Maury, and a host of other of the
most illustrious men, join in testifying their
firm belief in Christianity.
Such testimony, continued through so many
centuries, is sufficient to establish, on any rea-
sonable ground of evidence, the truth of any
proposition ; but if, as we have seen is the case
with Christianity, there is, on the other hand,
absolutely no adverse testimony, we must accept it
as true. At any rate, to reject it against this
concurrent positive testimony of those who
have put it to the practical test of trial, on
the ground of any a priori reasoning, not to
speak of prepossession or prejudice, is to the
last degree unscientific and absurd. There is
but one way, under such circumstances, to
disprove it — viz., by making a fair and candid
trial of it personally. To such a test Chris-
tianity continually invites all men, even her
enemies. " Prove me now herewith, saith the
Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the* win-
dows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing,
that there shall not be room enough to receive
it." " Christianity," says Coleridge, " is not a
Ch. 8.] Weight of the Evidence. 261
theory or a speculation, but a life ; not a phi-
losophy of life, but a life, and a living process.
To the inquiry, How is this to be proved? I
answer, Try it. It has been eighteen hundred
years in existence, and has one individual left
a record like the following : I tried it, and it
did not answer? Have you ever met with
any such person in whom you could put full
confidence? Has it been your own experi-
ence ? If neither your own experience nor the
history of almost two thousand years has pre-
sented a single testimony to this purport, and
if you have yourself met with some one in
whom, on any other point, you would place un-
qualified trust, who, on his own experience,
made report to you that he is faithful who
promised, and what he promised he has proved
himself able to perform, is it bigotry if I fear
that the unbelief which prejudges and pre-
vents the experiment with you has its source
elsewhere than in the uncorrupted judgment;
that not the strong, free mind, but the enslaved
will, is the true, original infidel in this in-
stance ? "
II. The wonderful results flowing from the
influence of Christianity are proved also by
the great changes it has manifestly wrought
in the world at large. Convincing as is the
personal testimony of those who have made
262 Positive Evidences. [PartIL
trial of the religion of Christ, we are not con-
fined in our inquiry as to what are its actual
results to their witness alone. The history
also of the past, and the state of the world to-
day, prove beyond controversy the unrivaled
greatness of those results, both in the depth,
the wide extent, and the permanence of the
changes wrought, in proportion to the worldly
means that it used, and in the amount of good
produced by them. In both respects those
results are utterly unapproached in the history
of mankind ; and while thus they indubitably
confirm the testimony of Christians as to their
personal experience of the effects of Christian-
ity upon the lives of men, it also itself shows
that those effects are far above merely human
power, and therefore are divine.
1. The history of the early growth and prog-
ress of Christianity strikingly manifests this.
(1) Under the fiercest persecutions during
the first three hundred years of its history, and
though it used no worldly means whatever,
but constantly taught doctrines of humility,
unworldliness, and unselfishness — doctrines
the most repugnant to human nature — the
Church of Christ, nevertheless, against the
most powerful and hostile systems of religion,
and all the civil and military power of Rome
arrayed against it, grew on, till, from a score
Ch. 8.] Weight of the Evidence. 263
or two of despised Jews, it became at last the
national Church of the vast Roman empire,
then comprising nearly the whole known world,
and containing some one hundred and twenty
million people.
(2) Its promulgators thus "induced multi-
tudes of various nations, Romans, Greeks, and
barbarians, of diverse manners and languages,
to forsake the religion of their ancestors; to
desert ceremonies defended with vigor and au-
thority, sanctified by remote age, and offering
the most alluring gratification of the passions,
to embrace doctrines pure and spiritual, whose
severe discipline nature still opposes and
shrinks from, whose high mysteries the pride
of man prompts him to reject, and whose pro-
fession required them to reject almost every
opinion hitherto held sacred, and exposed them
to fierce and unpitying persecution, even unto
death." Yet did the Church continue might-
ily to increase.
(3) It has since continually increased in
numbers and in influence. The following ta-
ble, taken from a late publication, and purport-
ing to be the work of the historian, Sharon
Turner, is perhaps very nearly correct, and
shows substantially the rate of increase of the
adherents to Christianity, up to the seven-
teenth century — viz. :
264 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
First century 500,000
Second century 2,000,000
Third century 5,000,000
Fourth century 10,000,000
Fifth century 15,000,000
Sixth century 20,000,000
Seventh century 24,000,000
Eighth century 30,000,000
Ninth century 40,000,000
Tenth century 50,000,000
Eleventh century 70,000,000
Twelfth century 80,000,000
Thirteenth century 75,000,000
Fourteenth century 80,000,000
Fifteenth century 100,000,000
Sixteenth century 125,000,000
Since the sixteenth century Christianity has
increased still more marvelously, until now
Johnson's Cyclopaedia (Art. Christianity) gives
the numbers of Christians, in 1872, throughout
the world, at 380,000,000.
It is no slight evidence of its truth, and of
its divinity, that it has through so many cent-
uries not only survived the attack of so many
successive enemies from without, and even the
frequent betrayals of hypocrites and traitors
within, but has steadily expanded under all dis-
advantages, in an irresistible progress through-
out the world. All other systems, at most,
have spread through one race only, or a few
kindred races in blood, or contiguous in local
Ch. 8.] Weight of the Evidence. 265
habitation; all others have become stagnant,
and at last faded away before the light of civ-
ilization. Christianity, in perfect contrast with
them all, has spread with equal ease through
the most diverse and distant races, continues
with ever-increasing energy to subjugate the
nations, and never has appeared so great and
powerful as in the unrivaled light of the civ-
ilization of the present day; so that, while
polytheism was rejected by all the leaders of
thought of ancient Greece and Rome, when
they had become enlightened, Christianity has
still received the homage of the greatest intel-
lects, and in the present generation has com-
manded the assent of such mighty minds as
those of a Humboldt, a Faraday, and an Agas-
siz ; and all this progress, be it remembered,
has been without the use of worldly power or
influence. By missionaries, under the sever-
est deprivations and persecutions, have all her
advances almost altogether been won, and not
by the power of the sword,, or by the use of
w r orldly inducements. All these have opposed
themselves to her; nevertheless, she has tri-
umphed, and still triumphs, over them all.
On the other hand, no other system among
men — no philosophy, no scheme of morals, no
educational system, no religion — has ever, even
when backed by the rewards of this life and
12
266 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
the power of kings, had such general, such per-
manent, and such continued success. Truly,
Christianity is above all that is merely human
— it is divine.
2. This influence of Christianity has exerted
over man a superhuman power for good.
(1) As Christlieb has shown, all our modern
culture is essentially the product of Christian-
ity. Our written language even, through the
influence of the Bible, has been largely affected
and changed by it. Our arts and sciences —
music, painting, sculpture, architecture, and
the modern sciences — took their rise, respect-
ively, from the devotion and from the spirit of
free inquiry developed by Christianity; and
our modern views in relation to marriage and
the family life, our conceptions of right and
order, and our habits of assiduous labor, are
derived from its teachings ; so that it is impos-
sible to rend asunder our culture and the Chris-
tian religion; and therefore, in whatever de-
gree the former is valuable, credit must be
given to the latter for its good influences.
(2) The same author has also pointed out
that a high and permanent civilization can
never be wrought out upon any other princi-
ples than those of Christianity. That princi-
ple, so unknown to all other religions, as it is,
and because it is, also to all the natural im-
Ch. 8.] Weight of the Evidence. 267
pulses of human nature, but which is the fun-
damental principle of Christianity — viz., the
principle of pure benevolence, or love to all,
as opposed to selfishness, alienation, and hate
— must necessarily form the basis of all high
and enduring advancement in human culture.
The following quotation, also taken from a con-
temporary secular journal, well shows this:
"No candid observer will deny that whatever
good there may be in our American civiliza-
tion, it is the product of Christianity. Still
less can he deny that the grand motives which
are working for the elevation and purification
of our society are strictly Christian. The im-
mense energies of the Christian Church, stim-
ulated by the love that shrinks from no obsta-
cle, are all bent toward this great aim of uni-
versal purification. These millions of sermons
and exhortations, which are a constant power
for good; these countless prayers and songs
of praise, on which the heavy-laden lift their
hearts above the temptations and the sorrows
of the world — are all the product of faith in
Jesus Christ. That which gives us protection
by day and night — the dwellings we live in,
the clothes we wear, the institutions of social
order — all these are the direct offspring of
Christianity. All that distinguishes us from
the pagan world, all that makes us what we
268 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
are, and all that stimulates us in the task of
making us better than we are, is Christian. A
belief of Jesus Christ is the very fountain-head
of every thing that is desirable and praise-
worthy in our civilization, and this civilization
is the flower of time. Humanity has reached
its noblest thrift, its grandest altitudes of ex-
cellence, its high-water mark, through the in-
fluence of this faith."
(3) Christianity is the only hope of the pres-
ent heathen world. Just as it was the only
means which rescued the ancient heathens
from the deep abyss of depravity and misery
into which they had sunk, so now, if Christian-
ity is not able to regenerate the present hea-
thens of Asia and Africa, there is no other
power that offers to do it. Those who object
to Christianity would do well to ask them-
selves whether skepticism will rescue the de-
graded millions of India, and China, and bar-
barous Africa ; or, if they have any plan, or
are ready to put in operation any effort, to
save them from the degradations and miseries
of their abject superstitions. If not, and if
Christianity cannot, then the larger part of
the inhabitants of the earth are abandoned to
hopeless despair. Commerce, unattended by
Christianity, cannot do it. Bare commerce,
undertaken, as it is, only for the purposes of
Ch. 8.] Weight of the Evidence. 269
gain, and in many ways ministering to the evil
passions of men — trading in the intoxicating
liquors, the opium, etc., desired by the debased
habits and tastes of savages and half-civilized
nations — bare commerce, exhibiting at best
the lower appetites of men, and too frequently
carried on through wicked men, can do noth-
ing of itself to refine and elevate them. What-
ever is so done must be from the occasional
and incidental association which those hea-
then may meet in commerce with men of su-
perior character and habits, from Christian
lands. But such men are superior to the hea-
then only because they do belong to Christian
nations, and have, to a greater or less extent,
imbibed from the Christian atmosphere in
which they have been nurtured something of
Christian feelings and principles. Even what
good influence, then, that commerce may exert
upon the heathen is traceable to Christianity ;
and thus, again, Christianity is seen to be the
only hope of the present immense world of the
heathen.
(4) But we have the positive evidence of the
wonderful power of Christianity, in modern
times, upon men plunged in the lowest depths
of heathen ignorance and depravity. "Sixty
years ago," says Anderson, in a late essay on
Missions, "there was not a solitary native
270 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
Christian in Polynesia ; now it would be diffi-
cult to find a professed idolater in the islands
of Eastern or Central Polynesia, where Chris-
tian missionaries have been established. The
hideous rites of their forefathers have ceased
to be practiced. Their heathen legends and
war-songs are forgotten ; their cruel and deso-
lating tribal wars, which were rapidly destroy-
ing the population, appear to be at an end.
They are gathered together in peaceful village
communities ; they live under recognized codes
of laws ; they are constructing roads, cultivat-
ing their fertile lands, and engaging in com-
merce. On the return of the Sabbath, a very
large proportion of the population attend the
worship of God, and, in some instances^ more
than half the adult population are recognized
members of Christian Churches. They edu-
cate their children, endeavoring to train them
for usefulness in after-life. They sustain their
native ministers, and send their noblest sons
as missionaries to the heathen lands which lie
farther west. There may not be the culture,
the wealth, the refinement, of the older lands
of Christendom. These things are the slow
growth of ages ; but these lands must no longer
be regarded as a part of heathendom. In God's
faithfulness and mercy, they have been won
from the domains of heathendom, and have
Ch. 8.] Weight of the Evidence. 271
been added to the domains of Christendom.*
Could any power on earth have so changed
those savage islanders except the gospel?
From being cannibals, in a few years they
have established all the forms and institutions
of civilized life. This great change could not
have been effected by any educational process.
To-day there are highly educated men in India,
but they are still heathen. Nana Sahib, one
of the leaders of the Sepoy rebellion, the au-
thor of the Cawnpore massacre, was a well-ed-
ucated man, not only in his own language, but
also in English. His favorite poet was Lord
Byron. Yet he was truly a heathen. ... No
religion refines and purifies as Christianity.
... But the most remarkable results of mis-
sionary labor are in the Fiji Islands. . . .
Thirty years ago they were all cannibals. A
more degraded race of men could not be found ;
but in thirty years they have become a civil-
ized Christian people. . . . Their language has
been mastered, school and religious books writ-
ten, . . . and twenty-two thousand two hun-,
dred are members of the Church; the larger
part of the children are in the Sunday-school;
they have six hundred and sixty-three native
ministers, and more than one thousand school-
teachers teach thirty -six thousand pupils in
* Keport of London Missionary Society for 1866, p. 7.
272 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
their schools." These instances may suffice,
without citing other remarkable instances —
such as that of Madagascar, and other heathen
lands. They are fully sufficient to prove that
in modern times, as well as when in ancient
days the gospel regenerated the heathen na-
tions, Christianity has a power, never other-
wise beheld, to elevate and purify the basest of
mankind — a power superhuman anc^ divine.
Thus the actual results of Christianity, at-
tested both by the personal testimony of those
who have practically tested her divine power,
and by the great and permanent moral changes
for the better apparent throughout her past
history, and occurring also in our own day —
results that no human wisdom or power has
ever been able to effect, but which have, never-
theless, been wrought by Christianity, without
the aid of human power — these also give in-
controvertible evidence to the superiority of
Christianity to all that is human, and assert
that she is no less than divine.
Ch. 9.] Weight of the Evidence. 273
CHAPTER IX.
THE WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE— RECAPITULA-
TION AND CONCLUSION,
In conclusion, let us now sum up the evidence
that has been adduced, and estimate its weight.
The question before us is whether or not Chris-
tianity is superhuman and divine. In its
decision we have seen, first, that a divine rev-
elation is possible; that human testimony is
competent to prove it ; and that the evidence
in this particular case shows that the narrative
of the facts, cited to prove it, must be accepted
as authentic and true. We have next exam-
ined those facts, group by group, and from
them endeavored to show the divinity of Chris-
tianity as displayed alike in the origin and
divine character of its Founder, its own di-
vine teaching, its miraculous attendant cir-
cumstances in both prophecies and miracles,
and its superhuman and divine results. These,
let it be noted, are all evidences of matters of
fact. On the other hand, there is absolutely
no rival system of moral truth that has, or
pretends to have, any evidence whatever, of
such matters of fact, to support its claim.
12*
274 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
There is, then, no positive evidence of any op-
posing system being true. There are onty
some objections against Christianity, and these
are not founded upon any contradictory evi-
dence relating to the facts essential. to Chris-
tianity, but only upon certain a priori specula-
tions, and theories, or alleged facts of physical
science, etc., which, if true, are, at most, but
doubtfully inconsistent themselves with the
great facts of Christianity, and for whose truth
it may confidently be asserted that there is
not a tithe of the evidence that there is for
the truth of the latter — and which, in fine, are
altogether denied by some scientists of great
authority, and maintained by others to be not
inconsistent with Christianity.
But, to perceive the extreme absurdity of
such objections, let us remember that, were
there beyond question a set of facts proved,
which were apparently wholly inconsistent
with Christianity, we still, upon the principles
of science itself, should not be justified there-
fore in rejecting Christianity, if Christianity
also has uncontroverted evidence of its own
to show that its claims are true, for both
may be true. It is not unknown in the histo-
ry of science that two facts, or two sets of facts,
have been proved by equal evidence to exist,
which at first seemed utterly inconsistent with
Ch. 9.] Weight of the Evidence. 275
each other. But the truly scientific course
in such a case was not to reject either, but,
ascribing the difficulty, where it belongs, to
our weakness of reason, etc., to go patiently to
work to discover their real relation and actual
harmony. So we must do in the case of sci-
ence and Christianity. Besides, on what prin-
ciple are we authorized to reject one set of
facts, if supported by proper evidence, in favor
of another set, which also are supported only
by evidence ? If Christianity and science re-
ally do come in conflict, why not reject science
if Christianity possesses sufficient evidence of
its truth ? Whether it has such sufficient evi-
dence is indeed another question, and proper
to be asked ; but if it has, it is not to be then
set aside because it is supposed to conflict with
some other system which is itself established
only because it too has sufficient evidence. In
fine, the whole question is manifestly but a
question of evidence. If there is not sufficient
positive evidence for the establishment of
Christianity, then we must reject it ; if there
is, we must, on scientific principles, admit its
claims, though there even be (which, indeed, in
the judgment of many of the best scientists, is
very far from certain) some other facts undoubt-
edly proved which, to our imperfect minds, seem
to be entirelv inconsistent therewith.
276 Positive Evidences. [Fart II.
The same difficulty continually occurs also
in trials at law. Almost always, in the trial
of causes, there are some circumstances proved
which seem to be contradictory to the decision
rendered. Nevertheless, a decision of some
sort must be made ; and it is properly thought,
in such cases, that the circumstances which
may apparently contradict what seems, upon
the whole, to be the truth of the matter, are
not really contradictory, but only, because of
our want of full information, weakness of rea-
son, etc., incapable of being harmonized by us.
Nay, in the commonest affairs of life — in
those things which are most open to our in-
spection, most familiar to us, and therefore
most likely to be understood — there exists, in
very many cases, this apparent contradiction,
unexplainable by us. Surely this should teach
us humility, and lead us to beware of saying,
in the higher and more difficult things of re-
ligion and science, because, in the judgment
of some, though not of others, there exists an
apparent inconsistency, that therefore Chris-
tianity must be rejected.
Christianity, then, must have its claims de-
cided independently — just as those of science or
any other system are — by the positive evi-
dences it adduces for their establishment.
Accordingly, to those evidences we confidently
Ch. 9.] Weight of the Evidence. 277
appeal, and assert that, upon all the settled
rules of evidence, as quoted in Part First —
rules which are always followed everywhere
else, in common life, in trials at law, and in
the researches of science, for the establish-
ment of matters of fact — those evidences are
overwhelmingly conclusive in its favor. For,
1st. Every kind of evidence possible in the
nature of the case is presented in its favor.
We should indeed demand that a religion pro-
fessing to be divine should give some evidence
of its divinity in — (1) The origin and (2) the
character of its Founder; (3) his teaching;
(4) his prophecies ; (5) his miraculous works ;
(6) and in the actual results accomplished
among men. But we can demand no other
kind of evidence. But Christianity, and no
other religion, has them all. What more can
we ask?
2d. On the other hand, to disbelieve Chris-
tianity, we must believe — (1) That it arose,
not as alleged (though its alleged origin is
uncontradicted by any evidence), but in some
other way, unknown and inconceivable, but
yet sufficient to produce, what Christianity
undoubtedly is, the purest and mightiest moral
system that has ever existed on earth. (2)
That the testimony of Christ and his apostles,
though they are acknowledged to have been
278 Positive Evidences. [p ar t II.
the wisest and best of men, was false, or that
Christ never really existed, and those wonder-
ful books of the Gospels which give an account
of his life — impossible for merely human abil-
ity to produce at all — were forgeries and lies,
and that when there was no worldly advantage
to gain from the lie, but every thing to lose.
(3) That vast numbers of people, including
fierce and watchful enemies as well as friends,
were deceived about frequent and public mira-
cles, or, knowing their falsity, yet remained
silent about them. (4) That the prophecies,
extending through generations for their fulfill-
ment, were but the result of human sagacity
and penetration. (5) Finally, that all Chris-
tians have, in all succeeding ages, been mis-
taken as to their own experience, and have
been miserably deluded, even to the endurance
of torture and. death, sooner than they would
renounce their religion. Surely it requires
more credulity to assent to the asseverations
of infidelity than to believe in Christ.*
* The Unbeliever's Creed. — " 1. I believe there is
no God, but that matter is God, and God is matter, and
that it is no matter whether there is any God or no. 2. I
believe that the world was not made ; that the world made
itself; that it had no beginning, and that it will last for-
ever, world without end. 3. I believe that man is a beast ;
that the soul is the body, and the body is the soul ; and
Ch. 9.} Weight of the Evidence. 279
3d. Finally, the full force of the argument
is to be seen only when we consider not only
the weight of the evidence, which each of the
great facts adduced in support of Christianity
carries, but their cumulative, overpowering
weight when taken together. The improba-
bility of Christianity's being false arises not
merely from the improbability that any one
of these remarkable characteristics should be
found attending a false system, but from the
almost infinite improbability that so many of
those characteristics should so harmoniously
coincide therein. It is a settled point in courts
of law that, in the trial of causes, the decision
should not be reached by the consideration of
any single matter of fact, but by the consider-
ation of all the issues in the case, and what
upon the whole is established by the prepon-
derating evidence. This principle is fully ad-
after death there is neither body nor soul. 4. I believe
that there is no religion ; that natural religion is the only-
religion ; and that all religion is unnatural. 5. I believe
not in Moses ; I believe in the First Philosophy ; I believe
not the Evangelists ; I believe in Chubb, Collins, Hume,
Voltaire, and Tom Paine ; I believe not St. Paul. 6. I
believe not Revelation ; I believe in the Talmud and the
Koran; I believe not the Bible; I believe in Socrates
I believe in Confucius ; I believe in Mohammed ; I believe
not in Christ. 7. Lastly, I believe in all unbelief." —
Home's Introduction, Vol. I., p. 159, Note 4.
280 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
mittecl in the investigations of science also
(vide JevonSs " Principles of Science," I., 239) ;
and the rule which is there laid down to ascer-
tain the probability of any conclusion is, to
multiply together " the fractions expressing
the probabilities of the premises," and the
fraction resulting will express the probability
of the whole taken together. For instance, if
we have five facts concurring to establish a
conclusion, and the probability of each of those
supporting facts is as 5 to 1, or f, the proba-
bility of the conclusion, derived from the con-
currence of those separate five probable facts,
is found by multiplying the fraction \ by itself
five times, amounting to 4^, or as 5625 to 1.
Now, applying this to ascertain the degree of
probability of the divinity of the Scriptures,
w r e get an almost infinite probability. Take,
for example, the first set of facts adduced —
viz., the preparation of the world for Christ's
coming. Even infidels must admit, to account
upon their own theories for the great and rapid
spread of Christianity, that the world was ripe
for his coming. They must also admit, seeing
the utter final failure of all other would-be
reformers, even such as Socrates, Plato, Con-
fucius, or as Voltaire, Rousseau, etc. — whom
some claim to be equal, or even superior, to
Christ — that such an exceedingly favorable
Ch. 9.] Weight of the Evidence. 281
opportunity for reforming mankind but seldom
occurs. We are authorized, then, in asserting
that the improbability of such a concurrence
of favorable circumstances happening to a
merely human teacher, who could have no
power of previously arranging them, is very
great. Adding to this the prophecies that
foretold so minutely the coming of Jesus, the
improbability of the concurrence of a second
such fortunate coincidence is made much
greater, and, since this is the sole case of the
kind in the history of the world, can be ac-
counted as no less than many thousands to
one — let us, however, with extreme reserve
say, as 20 to 1, or ^~. Again, the improbabil-
ity that such a Teacher should far surpass in
character all others of the human race, is
equal, at least, to the whole number of the
human family to one — that is, some hundreds
of thousands of millions to one — but still let
us say this too is but as ^. So, respectively,
as to the superiority of his teaching far sur-
passing all that all others have taught; his
wonderful works, esteemed by all that saw
him as miracles; his predictions, and the
amazing results of his mission — let us estimate
the improbability of each occurring in a mere-
ly human system at the same ratio of &■ (al-
though since, in fact, the whole multitude of
282 Positive Evidences. [Part II.
human systems — much more in number than
20 — from time to time propounded, have
been, without exception, deficient in all these
particulars, this is, without doubt, a ratio
much too small), and multiply. The result is
3200 l 000Q , or it is 32,000,000 times to 1 improb-
able that these characteristics should concur
in any merely human system ; in other words,
it is 32,000,000 times to 1 probable that Chris-
tianity is superhuman and divine. We be-
lieve this is much below the true probability.
But if any one thinks this ratio of $A in each
of the above cases is too great, let him put it
at 5 to 1 — nay, take even 2 to 1 — and still, in
the latter case, we shall have, as the proba-
bility of our conclusion, 32 to 1 — a proportion
which ought to satisfy every candid mind.
We conclude, then, our review with the full
conviction that Christianity, beyond any rea-
sonable doubt, is truly divine.
(Finished Christmas-day, 1879. Laus Deo!)
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
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