tihxavy of CKe Cheolojical ^tminavy PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY PRESENTED BY Rufus K. LeFevre :.l ia52 APOLOGETICS or A Treatise on Christian Evidences By / EZEKIEL BORING KEPHART, A.M., D.D., LL.D. Bishop of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ Author of " Manual of Church Discipline." DAYTON, OHIO Press of United Brethren Publishing House 1913 Copyright, 1901 By thk U. B. Publishing Houaa Dayton, Ohio All Rights Jieserved PREFACE Some things are true in all religions. Each system seems to have, in a sense, its historical basis. Each sets up its claim of supernatural origin. But, one by one, as they are subjected to a critical analysis, and the severe test of truth is faithfully applied, their claims, which are fundamental, are found to consist in myth, not in fact. Christianity, which is founded on the Old and the New Testaments, is an exception to the above statement. The more severe, the broader, and the more scientific tlie tests which have been applied to Christianity, the more invulnerable has it proved to such attacks. Recognizing the facts set up in the Holy Scriptures, first, that they are a revelation from God, setting forth both the religious and political history of Israel which, under the guidance of God, was in due time to bring forth a Saviour that would redeem the world from sin and death; second, that in the person of Jesus Christ, th^ world's Saviour and Redeemer has actually come, and that the statements made in the Old and the New Testaments concerning the development of Israel and the records re- specting Jesus Christ are historically true — these are some of the claims set forth in the Christian system — the Christian apologist ought to see that his defense of Christianity must be more than simply negative. As a gatisfactory working basis for religious hope and activity he must prove the facts of Christianity beyond a reason- able doubt To do this has been the intent of the author. The historical evidence of Christianity from its origin has 111 vi Contents Chapter X. PAQC The Superiority of Christianity Over Other Religious and Its Intrinsic Wortli a Proof of Its Divine Origin, ..._----- 147 Chapter X^ Some Objections of the Honest Doubter to Christianity Answered, --------- lo/ CONTENTS. Chapter I. A Revelatiou— If,3 Need aud What Is to be Proved, - 7 Chapter II. Authenticity of the Holy Scriptures, - - - - 18 Chapter III. Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, - - - - 45 Chapter IV. Miracles — Their Credibility and Intent, - - - 59 Chapter V. Miracles— Continued, --.----77 Chapter VI. Facts Admitted in Christianity, ----- 99 Chapter VII. The Christ— A Self-Revelation of God to Man, - - 107 Chapter VIII. Prophecy — A Proof of Christianity, - - - . 119 Chapter IX. The Doctrines and Teachings of the Scriptures Accord With the Facts of Human History', - - - 139 iv Preface been abundant, but at the present it is overwhelming. The records of the buried past are telling their story, and adding their wealth of testimony to the truth of the writ- ten Word. Christianity, like many other systems of truth, is not exempt from objections which are difficult to answer. In this volume only a preliminary discussion of a num- ber of the fundamental facts are considered, setting forth briefly the status of Christian evidences at the present time. EzEKiEL B. Kephart. Annvilhj Pa. APOLOGETICS CHAPTER I. A Eevelation — Its Need and What Is to Be Proved. A correct treatise on Christian evidences has to do with facts that are vital to tlie evangelization of the world. On the inherent truths of the Christian system depends its ultimate triumph. To set forth its divine origin, then, as taught in the Old and New Testaments, is the purpose of this treatise. Does the Bible contain a revelation of the divine Mind to man? is a question that thrusts itself upon every investigator of its pages, the Book. Are the motives of Moses and the prophets, and of Christ and his apostles, as contained in the Old and New Testa- ments, really true, and is Christianity supernatural, and are its claims of God ? If, then, the history recorded in the Scriptures, and the statements therein contained relative to revealed religion be worthy of belief, these questions must receive an affirmative answer. It is not the business of the apologist to step aside from his legitimate task to prove the existence of God and the truths of natural religion. That, together with all that belongs to the subject of theism, falls to the lot Limitations of the theologian, and comes more properly under the gu^j^t head of natural theology. These facts, namely, the 7 8 Apologetics No VaUd Objections Against Revelation. God Revealed In Nature. The Special Revelation Is Personal — a Father to His Children. existence of God and his manifest government of the universe, are taken for granted in these pages. 1. There is no valid objection against a revelation of God to man. Man is a compound of material and spiritual substances. The ego, that is, the personality, the rational soul, is spirit, and lives in a material body. Thought is the act of the spirit, not of the body; and wisdom and knowledge are its possessions, and do not in- here in the body. God is a spirit, and a revelation from him as such to man is, after all, but the communication of one spirit with another spirit, one person with another. Man, as a rational spirit, is endowed with a capacity for receiving and storing up knowledge. This he does by coming in contact with the thoughts and ideas communicated to him from without. The earth beneath his feet and the heavens which overshadow him, with all their starry host, are constantly yielding up thoughts and ideas to him and enriching his knowledge by their revelations of truth. True, nature does not speak into human ears with human voice, but she communicates to the conscious soul by "marks of design," which are plainly written in every fiber of her warp and woof, and discloses "the eternal power and Godhead" of her supreme Architect. But God's special revelation to man, the Old and New Testaments, is a personal revelation ; that is, a revelation from one person to another person. It is nothing more than the great Father communicating useful informa- tion to his children; and, too, imparting this informa- tion in his children's own language, a language which they well understand. Surely, there is nothing unrea- A Mevelation 9 sonable in all this, but it is what reason demands from every father who lays claim to have any love for his offspring. This revelation from God, as Father, to man, as his child, implies a making known of the will of the Father to the child, with a view that the child may understand and obey. In this relation will and obedience imply moral obligation. Moral obligation, in turn, implies specific knowledge of what is required from the one mak- ing the requisition to the one at whose hand obedience is required. Nature may speak her ideas in mute forms and in her necessary movements, but will God, who is historic and can but speak clear and definite truth ? The creation of a world may declare "the power and God- head" of its creator, but the historic government of that world alone can reveal his attributes of justice, love, mercy, and goodness. 2. A general history would be an inadequate medium of revelation, for while it may refer to the individual, yet it has to do more especially with the race. The acts of divine providence are too general in their applica- tion to produce conviction, on the one hand, or the rest of "perfect peace" by faith, on the other. But in a very special sense should a revelation to creatures mor- ally depraved and actually willfully sinful be specific- ally historic — "a sacred history within the profane his- tory of a fallen world." The sacred Scriptures claim to be such a history from God, the Father, to his children, of the redemptive act in man's behalf and the mediation of Jesus Christ, to Mft him into conditions of reconciliation with God. 10 Apologetics 3. A special revelation from God to man implies also the gift of information to man additional to that al- ready had by him, and also man's capacity for receiving such special revelation. To deny the possibility of a special revelation would be to claim that God had given to man all the information he was capable of giving and man, capable of receiving, at the very opening of human history — at his creation. This does not accord with the common sense of mankind. Man knows, on the one hand, that he is capable of receiving additional informa- tion, and, on the other, he believes that God is able to give that information. If, for some great and worthy purpose, and to accomplish a noble end, such as the redemption and salvation of a world, additional in- formation was needful to that world, who would be so weak as to acknowledge the need of the added light from heaven, and yet turn and deplore God's lack of ability to give the needed information ? God, the creator of the spirit, understands the consti- tution of man, and knows how he may be enlightened and influenced ; and, having all power, he can, in accord with his own will, adopt means to act upon him. This is no infringement upon God's creature by his Creator. Just "as a man can be influenced intellectually and mor- ally by his fellow-creature without the violation of any law of nature or mind, so he can certainly receive com- munication from his Creator — the Maker of men and all things — without the destruction of the laws of his own constitution or those of the world." 4. In considering the subject of a special revelation, the fact must not be overlooked that, as such, it must A Revelation 11 always be regarded as supplemental to God's first and universal revelation, namely, the light of nature. The facts attesting its divine authority may transcend but not violate the laws of man's nature ; they may be super- natural, immediate, and additional to nature, but never out of accord with, or subversive of its constitution. By a reasonable mind it will scarcely be questioned that God, in giving a special revelation, is capable also of rendering the recipient able to distinguish between what comes from the natural sources of knowledge and gpggjjj what is revealed by special revelation. All who recog- Revelation nize the possibility of a revelation recognize also God' s ^^ ^^^ lAgax ability to so communicate his truths to man that he is ol Nature, without the possibility not to recognize the voice of God who speaks. The skeptical objection against the supernatural in Christianity has at present but little influence on honest investigators and earnest truth-seekers ; and, as the world recedes from the days of David Hume, the influence gradually diminishes. Its syllogistic form is, "That as g^^^^.g testimony is more likely to be false than man's general otjection experience, therefore no miracle can be true." Such rea- ^JJJ^re^* soning would be subversive of all truth, natural as well as supernatural or spiritual. The good sense of man- kind will always reject it as proving too much to be true or relied upon. Skepticism has always failed to recog- nize this fact in respect to the miracles recorded in the Scriptures, namely, that they were both objects of ex- perience and subjects of testimony to the men who then lived where they were performed. 5. While it may be a question of doubt whether the apologist is under obligation to show the necessity of a 12 Apologetics special revelation prior to the consideration of its truths as matters of fact, yet there is scarcely room for reason- able doubt but that such a necessity has, and does now really exist. (1) The condition of religion among pagan races in the past, as well as in the present age, will always be a forceful argument in favor of man's need of special re- vealed truth. While nature's light has been alike free to all, its religious teachings have not been sufficient to lift the world out of its sins into conditions of a true civilization; or, at least, it has never succeeded in doing so. Not only has it been the complaint of the serious pagan that the needed light from heaven to direct man aright in matters of religion and of a future life is want- specisa ^^^' ^^^ ®^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ addition of the Christian revela- Reveiation tion no right-minded person will complain that the world Conduit *" has too much light on the subject of immortality and of Pagans, all that pertains to human duty. To the serious-minded in all ages and of all lands it has been quite apparent "that it is not in man to direct his steps." When philos- ophy and learning had well nigh reached their culmina- tion in the ancient world, the wisest and best of that age is represented as expressing his expectation and need of a teacher qualified to reveal the mind of God to the human race. Said the wise Socrates, "It is necessary to wait till such a personage shall appear to teach them how tbey ought to conduct themselves, both towards God and towards man." He adds: "Oh, when shall that period arrive? And who shall be that teacher? How ardently do I desire to see that man, who he is !" A Mevelation 13 (2) With all that Jesus says in the Gospels about a future life and immortality, and what is necessary upon Need ot the part of man to srain heaven, who that reads his sacred Special ^ o ^ Revelation, message does not wish he had given us a little more light as Shown on the future world — on heaven and the relation the dead ^ *^® 6oq>el8. sustain to the living ? 6. Then, if man needs a special revelation from heaven, and God is able to give the needed light, and man is capable of receiving it, it therefore follows that Some if God is wise, just, and good such a special revelation consWered has been given. The parent who has the ability to pro- vide for the needs of his offspring, and neglects or re- fuses to do so, is not wise, just, and good. The same would be true of the great Father of us all. "But as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." If, then, a special revelation is not out of accord with the wisdom, justice, and goodness of God, and we appre- hend it is not, because men do not agree as to just what it ought to be, or in what it should consist beforehand, that is, before it is given, will not be regarded as a very formidable objection to it by well-balanced minds, and their faith is not likely to be shaken by such objections. The objection that it is not universal, that is, was not given to all men at the same time, and therefore not of God, is without force. In the first place, the objector fails to note the fact that the special revelation which the Bible professes to contain, claims to have been given originally to all men, but "as man refused to retain God, in his knowledge God gave him up to a reprobate mind.'' Moreover, the same objection might, with equal force, 14 Apologetics Claims for Special Revelation Considered. be urged by the ignorantly skeptical against the truths of science, because their light does not shine out of the sky with equal clearness to all men at the same time. Who would regard as a valid objection against the effi- ciency of a medicine the fact that its virtues as such were a recent discovery and not equally known to all, and all equally benefited by it? But the fact that genius is not the gift of all, and the blessings of science are not alike shared by all, is no valid objection against the truths of science or the gift of genius. Nor will objec- tions based upon difference of opinion among men as to what the effect of a special revelation upon mankind would be, or should be, have much weight with the ear- nest inquirer after truth. But if the record of what claims to be a special revela- tion does not contain what it professes, and its effects upon mankind are other than it professes, or the opposite of what it teaches, in whole or in part, then its high claims of a revelation from God may be justly ques- tioned, yea, rejected. But, on the other hand, when its records have been subjected to just criticism, and they are found to contain all they claim, and its effects upon men are in accord with its teachings, and these teach- ings are wise, just, and good, then its claim as a special revelation, to say the least, becomes highly probable, and must have great weight with right reason. 7. If, then, a special revelation has been given to man, it must be contained either in the so-called sacred books among the religions of paganism or in the Bible, which is the sacred book among Christians. But the student who carefully examines either the Vedas of Brara A Revelation 15 or the Koran of Mohammed, or any other of the sacred books of the world's religions, other than the Bible, will be convinced that their claim is without foundation in truth, and in no true sense compares with the grounds of claim upon which the Holy Scriptures rest. Heathenism is old, and its religions are the products of what it claimed them to be, special revelation; but who, in this closing decade of the best century of all ages, as he surveys the religious condition of the whole of paganism at the present hour, could say, in the light of reason, that from its fruits it is entitled to any claims whatever as a revelation from God? With its human sacrifices and its dark orgies for a period of not less than five thousand years, it presents its victims in a condition the most degraded and forlorn possible, except one, and that would be the victims of no religion at all. But it is readily admitted that here and there a bright spot lingers on its dark record, yet these may be traced to points in its history where it came in touch, di- rectly or indirectly, with that Word which God spoke out of heaven to Moses and the prophets, Christ and his apostles, as promulgated by his people. From its open- ing page to the nineteenth century's closing decade its history has been one of sorrow and degradation. Take its statutes, nation by nation, on the subject of morals and the family or home, and, as a rule, they are dark as perdition. By the laws of Lycurgus, chastity was con- demned, and infanticide was sanctioned. Solon, the law- giver of Athens, was no better than Lycurgus, for he legalized adultery. The orgies at the temple of Venus at Corinth were as at Venus of Babylon. The Midian 16 Apologetics woman who had less than five husbands was looked upon by the law with contempt. Under pagan sanction, pagan mothers performed the religious rite of sacrificing their children to Moloch, whose mouths were seven, which led to seven flaming furnaces within. The Persians buried their children alive, according to Herodotus. To Juno's shrine on the height of Hierapolis came pagan mothers in sorrowing crowds and flung their weeping children forth from the mountain's brow to be dashed to pieces on crags below. Should what history records be an as- tonishment, that "the feet of pagan women, hastening in despair, wore smooth the rocks up the rugged sides of the promontories of Taygetus and Tsenarum, from the sum- mits of which they flung themselves down to death in the depths of the Laconian Sea ?" Says Justin, speaking of primitive rites and superstitions, "They immolated men as victims ; and children, whose tender years excited the pity even of enemies, they placed upon their altars, purchasing peace of the gods by the blood of those for whose life the gods were accustomed principally to be implored."^ Diodorus, in speaking of the Carthagenians, consuming their children in honor of Saturn, because they supposed they had offended him by restraining their human sacrifices, says, "Therefore, that they might cor- rect their errors without delay, they immolated in public sacrifice two hundred chosen boys of their principal no- bility."* Like customs and religious rites are practiced even at the present time by the pagan races almost around the world. China, India, Hindustan, and Af- •.TlwUnHlst Lib. 18, chap. 6. 'Did. Sec. Lib. 20. A llevelation 17 rica are living examples of the horrors and superstitions of heathenism. It may be said in truth that no well- informed people henceforth will recognize the sacred books of paganism as of divine authority and worthy of man's recognition as such. Socrates and Plato, as were the sages both of India and China, were bright spots which loomed up on the dark dial of pagan night; but it must not be forgotten that all were younger than Abraham and Moses, and some of them at least, aye, the greatest of them, were born after the death of David, Solomon, and Isaiah. Plato painted his picture of "the good man who was to come," and Socrates expected a legislator who would re- veal the will of Deity to the mind of man, but before either of them was born, Isaiah had written his marvel- ous chapter on the advent and sufferings of our Lord. What access these masters of antiquity had to writings of the Hebrew sages we do not know, but we do know that the queen of the south " came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon," and that Plato acknowledged his acquaintance with Mussel- man, a Jew, from whom, he states, "he and his com- pany," while on their way to Egypt, "received much more information than they were able to impart to the Jew." It is a fact admitted that the God of the Bible, under Solomon the great king, built his temple at Jeru- salem, which served as a mighty Pharos to the pagan world. Then, with our eyes turned to the Bible, we commence to investigate its claims of divine origin. The Bible a CHAPTEE II. 'Authenticity of the Holy Sceiptures. The Bible, of all books, is the most strange, the most wonderful. The dignity of its composition, its age, and the important nature of the subjects treated in its Wonderful pages, all, all are wonderful. It comes not to man teach- °° * ing of God only, nor does it limit its teachings to com- mands, precepts, doctrines, and ordinances, but it abounds, also, in human history, both of individuals and nations; and no other book so faithfully delineates the silent, secret workings of the human soul. The Bible at once introduces its reader to the infinite, car- ries him back through the historic period of the hu- man race, and backward still through the rock-written history of the dead ages to the very dawn of creation, and lays open to him the foundations of religion, mo- rality, and truth. It then carries him forward into the mysterious, unknown future, and unfolds to him a sphere of life where matter obtains not, and, by an inscrutable mystery, the bodies of the redeemed are etherealized into spirit — a realm of higher realities, where the things of sense are but fleeting shadows, and God dwells in the presence of his happy children. The Bible is composed of two testaments, the Old Two and the New, which two constitute the Holy Scriptures, Testaments, ^nd comprise the entire foundation of religious belief 18 Authenticity of the Holy Scriptures 19 of both Jew and Christian. The former is esteemed es- sential by the Jews, but both by the Christians. The Scriptures, then, become a subject of vital im- portance when thus considered, not to the believer only, but to the unbeliever also; for if the Bible be an au- thentic book, too high an estimate cannot be put upon its doctrines and teachings. Are these Scriptures au- thentic ? that is, do "they relate matters of fact as they really happened" ? The discussion of this question will, constitute the subject matter in these pages. Authenticity of the Scriptures. In answering the above question, it is necessary to examine, first, into the reality, the age, and the actions Metiiod and of the leading persons mentioned in the Scriptures, as tha inquiry, the instruments used in giving tliis revelation to the world, and then some of the more important events re- corded. 1. No part of the Scriptures can be traced to the perversions or misapprehensions of the human imagina- tion, nor can its theology be resolved into a mistaken history, a corruption of names, or a puerile allegory. The student who seriously studies the Bible and the religion of its adherents, will find them totally different from the sacred books and religions of the peoples by whom these believers were surrounded. By a succession origin of of revelations a "knowledge of the one true God" was ^^^ ever kept prominently before them. Every intervention of paganism was set aside by some miraculous power. Although human reason in an uncultivated state is ever wont to tire of the abstract and metaphysical notions of 20 Apologetics the divine attributes, yet by these children of the Most High they were always regarded with veneration. He is represented as infinite, eternal, invisible, unchange- able, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, a God who corresponds not to any of "the heathen deities." This venerable volume, under the above title, consisting of sixty-six independent books, purports to have been written by many different authors, extending over a period of fifteen hundred to two thousand years. The Old Testament, which is composed of thirty-nine books, claims to contain the first revelation of God to man, and was the foundation of Jewish institutions. The New Testament claims to contain the last revelation, and these Scriptures, conjointly, constitute the founda- tion of Christian institutions. In a brief treatise like this, it would be impossible to take up in detail the different authors of the books of the Bible and inquire into all the leading events in bib- lical history. Hence, we shall select only the more im- portant. ( 1 ) These records state that Moses was the leader and the lawgiver of the Jews, not less than sixteen hundred years before the Christian era, and the author of their religious institutions; that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Saviour of the world ; that he lived during the reign of Augustus Caesar, having been born in the days of Herod, and was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar. The patient truth-seeker, on investigating this subject, finds ample proof to justify him in believing the above historic facts. Authenticity of the Holy Scriptures 21 (a) For a period of almost four thousand years those best qualified to judge have harmonized in the opinion that Moses was the legislator of the Jews, the author of their religious institutions, and led them out of Egypt. The Jewish church, from its remotest antiquity, has ascribed the Pentateuch to Moses, and to no other hand. The Christian church, from its foundation, with- out a dissenting voice, has recognized it as the work of Scriptures. the Jewish lawgiver. The traditional and national his- tory of the Jews rests upon this ground, and is evi- denced by the beliefs and teachings of that singular peo- ple at the present, as they are scattered among all na- tions upon the face of the earth. Indeed, this is cer- tain, that "the very same principles of historical evi- dence which assure us of the truth of any unquestioned fact of profane history assure us of the truth of this." That the Jews existed as a nation very anciently can- not be denied, and that early in their history they were systematically organized into a government, their own writings abundantly testify. That this work of sys- tematic organization, this leading them out of Egypt, and establishing them as a nation, with laws and a religion, must have been the work of some great, com- manding spirit, a reasonable mind will not doubt. The Jews, in harmony with their historical records, affirm that Moses was this commanding spirit, who not only led them out of Egypt and for forty years through a desert of sand, but also organized them into a nation and engrafted upon them laws and a religion which have kept them a distinct people for more than forty stormy centuries. 22 Apologetics (h) But aside from Jewish records and Christian tes- timony, the most respectable heathen writers witness to the same facts. Josephus, in his first book against Apion, quotes Manetho, of Egypt, as giving an account of the time, the manner, and very many of the principal events that obtained during the sojourn of the Jews in his country. The same author also quotes Cheremon, Apolonius, and Lysimachus as witnessing to the same facts. Justin, a Roman historian, in his abridgement of Trogus Pompeius (Book 36, chapter 2), makes mention of the origin of the Jews from the ten tribci of Israel ; speaks of the "beauty of Moses," and declares him to be the "commander of the Jews who went out of Egypt"; of the "institution of the Sabbath" and the priesthood of Aaron. "The Orphic Verses," supposed to be a thousand years older than our era, teach the worship of one God as com- manded by that law, "which was given by him who was drawn out of the water and received two tables of stone from the hand of God." Trogus Pompeius, a Eoman, and author of a universal history, who lived in the Au- gustinian age, says, according to Justin, "But the Egyp- tians . . . expelled Moses and the diseased from the borders of Egypt." Diodorus Siculus, in his first book, in speaking of those nations which claimed to have received their laws from God, adds, "Among the Jews was Moses, who called God by the name of lao." Tacitus declares that "Moses gave a new form of worship to the Jews and a system of religious ceremonies the reverse of everything known to any age or country." The distinguished Greek Authenticity of the Holy Scriptures i{3 historian and geographer, Strabo, born during the cen- tury before Christ, and who traveled through Greece, Italy, Egypt, and Asia, that he might obtain a correct knowledge of the geography and facts of history of these countries he visited, "gives an account of the laws of Moses as forbidding images and limiting divine worship to one invisible and universal Being."^ Josephus, in his criticisms on Apion, or rather Man- etho, after quoting Manetho, adds, in substance, "Two things are evident from Manetho's account; first, that the Jews came from another country to Egypt; second, that they left Egypt again, and that, nearly a thousand years before the Trojan war." He again quotes Man- etho as saying, "That priest who settled their polity and their laws [the Jews], he was by birth of Heliopolis, and his name was Osarsiph, from Osiris, the god of Heliopo- lis, but he changed his name and called himself Moses." Many more ancient authorities might be cited to es- tablish the existence, the age, and the actions of the Jew- ish lawgiver, but the testimony already adduced makes it clear that Moses was as commonly so regarded among the ancient nations as among the Jews themselves. 2. As to the history of Jesus Christ, the testimony ^f^^^. is even more satisfactory and abundant than that in re- spect to Moses. In the very nature of things, this would be so. The age in which he lived is comparatively mod- ern and peculiarly historic. The age of Greek litera- ture had passed, and Grecian civilization had culmi- nated more than three hundred years before Christ was » Geography 1: 16. 24 Apologetics TsBtimony of tiie Churcli Fatliers. born. The Eoman empire was in its Augustiniau age, with its temple of Janus closed, and at peace with tlie world. It was an age well fitted for thought and rigid investigation; hence the witnesses are many. The four Gospels contain the history of Christ's advent, his so- journ, teaching, death, and resurrection. They def- initely state the age in which these events occurred, and name the then ruling sovereigns of liome and Judea — Caesar Augustus and Herod, Tiberius and Pilate, the two former at his birth, the two latter at his death. (1) To the facts thus recorded in the Gospels, the church which now is, and has ever been from the time of its organization by Christ and his apostles, as history witnesses, bears abundant testimony. The well authenti- cated writings of Barnabas, Clement, Hermas, Polycarp, and Ignatius have reached our day. These men were contemporary with the apostles, and the three first named are mentioned by name in the New Testament, the fourth was a disciple of St. John, and the fifth dis- coursed not unfrequently with the apostles of our Lord. Their writings abound in Scripture quotations to a de- gree that scarcely is there a book in the New Testament not quoted or alluded to by one or the other of these writers. More than two hundred and twenty quotations and allusions to the Scriptures are found in their writ- ings, although but little of their work is now extant. In the second century, at Carthage, lived Tertullian, a learned man, and a writer vigorous in defense of Christianity. Dr. Lardner says of his writings, "There are more and longer quotations of the small volume of the New Testament in this one Christian author than of Authenticity of the Holy Scriptures 25 all the work of Cicero in the writers of every character for several ages." Irenseus and Clement of Alexandria were of this century, and writers in the defense of Chris- tianity. Irenaeus quotes from Ephesians 5 : 30, "For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." Clement writes, "The blessed Paul in the first epistles to the Corinthians says, 'Be not children in un- derstanding.' " Justin Martyr flourished in this cen- tury. He was of heathen parents, and studied in the different schools of the philosophers in his day, but became a convert to Christianity. He also wrote many works in the defense of Cliristianity. He gives his tes- timony to "the genuine and authentic accounts of Jesus Christ and his doctrine," as contained in the four Gos- pels. He also affirms that the Book of Revelation was written by John, "one of the apostles of Christ." In. the third century lived and flourished Origen, about the year 230. He is represented by Jerome as the most dis- tinguished doctor of the church since the apostles, had the Scriptures by heart, and his labors were most abun- dant in studying and explaining them. His writings against Celsus, an Epicurean philosopher, and an enemy to Christianity, are well known to the church. Diony- sius of Alexandria, Victorinus, a bishop of Germany, and Cyprian, a bishop of Carthage, all wrote able de- fenses of the Christian religion, in which they have quoted passages from almost every book in the New Tes- tament. So copious are the quotations of the writers of the second and third centuries, that if the New Testa- ment were lost, a copy of it, complete, might almost be collected from their writings. Apologetics Testimony of Heathen Writers Regarding cnrist. (2) But the enemies of Christ, as well as his friends, give testimony to these historic facts. Tacitus, in his "Annals" (15-44), says: "JSTero put those who com- monly went by the name of Christians to the most ex- quisite tortures. The author of this name was Christ, who was capitally punished in the reign of Tiberius, by Pontius Pilate, the procurator." Suetonius, secretary to Trojan, and the author of the "Lives of the Twelve Caesars," states that "in the time of Claudius, the Jews were making a disturbance at Pome, Christ being their leader." Cerinthus, a Jew and a noted heretic of the first century, is cited by Irenseus as teaching that "Jesus was not born of a virgin, but of Joseph and IMary, and at the time of his baptism the Christ descended from 'that principality which is over air in the form of a dove." Porphyry, an early opponent of the Christian faith, and author of fifteen books against Christianity, wit- nesses for Christ by stating that "after Jesus was wor- shiped, Esculapius and the other gods did no more converse with men." He was well acquainted with the church in his day, and in his writings makes frequent reference not only to the Gospels of ]\Iatthew, Mark, and John, but also to the Acts of the Apostles and the epistle to the Galatians.^ Julian, who succeeded Constanlius to the empire in 361, wrote a work against Christians, in which there is valuable testimony to the history of Christianity, and the authenticity of tiie New Testament. He states that Jesus was born in the reign of Augustus Caesar, at the •Lardner, VoL IV., page 234. Authenticity of the Holy Scriptures 27 time Cyrenius levied a tax on Judea, and assigns the time of the beginning and propagation of Christianity to the reign of Tiberius and Claudius. He quotes Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the Acts of the Apostles as the historical books received by the Chris- tians as of authority, and "the only authentic memoirs of Jesus Christ and his apostles and the doctrine preached by them.'"' While Julian aclcnowledges that Christ and his disciples performed many wonderful works, such as restoring sight to the blind, healing the lame, casting out demons, walking upon the sea, and stilling the waves; and that multitudes of all classes in Greece and Italy, even before John wrote his Gospel, flocked to the standard of the cross, he, nevertheless, strives zealously to diminish not only the number of the converts, but their quality, also. The spirit mani- fested by him throughout his entire treatise against Christianity is one of spite and bitter hatred. Most in- dignantly he mentions Peter and Paul, and in the same spirit he vainly sought to give the lie to the Galilean, by attempting to restore the Jews to Jerusalem. Pliny, the younger, distinguished as an orator, historian, and statesman, born at Como, in A. D. 61 or 62, says that "Christ was worshiped as a god among the Christians; that they would rather suffer death than blaspheme him ; that they received a sacrament, and by it entered into a vow of abstaining from sin and wickedness, conforming to the advice of Paul ; that they had private assemblies of worship, and used to sing together in hymns."^ »Pliny Epist. lib. 10. 28 Apologetics Celsus flourished in the year 176. He was a man of letters, and is regarded as an eminent philosopher among modern skeptics. His arguments against the Christians were labored and able. His testimony cannot be rejected as deficient in antiquity, nor can any one accuse him of a want of zeal to overthrow Cliristianity. A man of his genius, industry, and learning must have known if there were anything spurious in the authorship of the New Testament writings. Origen, in his answer to the arguments of this learned opponent of Christianity, enumerates about eighty pas- sages from the New Testament, or references to them, quoted by Celsus. These quotations evidence that he was acquainted with the Gospels of Luke, Matthew, and John, and also several of the epistles of Paul. He con- cedes throughout his argument that the Christian Scrip- tures were the work of their purported authors, and not a scintillation of suspicion to the contrary is anywhere apparent. In the language of Dr. Doddridge, "Who can forbear adoring the depths of divine wisdom in laying up suoh a firm foundation of our faith in the gospel history, in the writings of one who was so inveterate an enemy to it, and so indefatigable in his attempts to overthrow it ?" One more noted opponent to Christianity we mention in this connection. It is Ilicrocles, the man who set up the reputed miracles of ApoUonius Tyranaeus to off- set the miracles of Christ, which he did not deny. He was a learned man, and Avrote two books against Chris- tianity. He refers to the Gospels and the two epistles and mentions Peter and Paul by name. The testimony Authenticity of the Holy Scriptures 29 of this author clearly establishes three facts : first, that the Scriptures were then in existence; second, that Christianity as an institution then existed; and third, that Christ was its author. Dr. Lardner says of these authors, "They bear a fuller and more valuable testimony to the books of the New Testament, and to the facts of evangelical history, and to the affairs of Christianity than all our other witnesses besides." Dr. Paley adds, in effect, "These witnesses prove that neither Celsus in the second. Porphyry in the third, nor Julian in the fourth century suspected the authenticity of these books, or even insinuated that Christians were mistaken in the authors to whom they ascribed them." And it may be added, can any reason- able mind demand more and stronger proof to the truth of the facts claimed by the Scriptures than that in Ce- rinthus, Celsus, Porphyry, Hierocles, and Julian, all of whom were learned controversialists as well as devout opponents and persecutors of Christians, except Cerin- thus, their testimony extending from the first century to the year 361 of our Lord? 3. Now by examining the catalogues of Josephus and OM Philo, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Septuagint Eegardtd version, we have ample proof that the books of the Old 5*®''** Testament, which we regard as sacred, were so regarded by the Jews long before, and at the time of the advent. (1) Philo, the Jew, according to C. Segford, must have had the same books that we have, for he quotes from almost all of them. But the most satisfactory wit- ness on this point is Josephus. In his criticisms on Apion (1. 8), he says: "For we have not an innumer- Before Gbrlst. WltneM of Jotephns. 30 Apologetics able multitude of books among us, . . . but only twenty-two books, which contain the record of all the past times, which are justly divine. And of them five belong to Moses, which contain his laws and the tradi- tion of the origin of mankind till his death. . . . The prophets who were after Moses WTote down what was done in their time in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for the conduct of business life." Xow, when we take into ac- count that Josephus follows the custom of the Alexan- drian Jews in enumerating his catalogue, we find that his custom is identical with ours; that is, he adds Euth to Judges and Lamentations to Jeremiah. _,^ (2) The Samaritan Pentateuch is so nearly identical Samaritan ^ , *^ Pentateuch, with the Jewish that it is evident the former is a copy of the latter. The Jews and Samaritans have been at enmity from antiquity; both are the descendants of Abraham, and alike claim Closes as their lawgiver and author of the Pentateuch. They have ever watched each other with a jealous eye, and both alike have watched the Christian church; but the Pentateuch with the Clu'is- tian, the Jew, and the Samaritan is the same. Hence, the forceful evidence that no change has been made in this sacred document, at least, since the time the Samari- tans received their copy, either from the ten tribes, whom they succeeded, as an inheritance, or from the priest who came and "dwelt at Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord," (3) The Septuagint version is an important factor in Version a establishing the authenticity of the Old Testament, for witneBB. it is the most important and the oldest complete trans- Authenticity of the Holy Scriptures 31 lation of the Scriptures in any language. This Greek version, especially the five books of Moses, dates not later than two hundred and eighty years before Christ. The other books of the Hebrew canon followed in trans- lation, and the entire version was completed not later than the middle of the second century B. C. This ver- sion, containing the sacred canon of the Jews, as ac- knowledged and used, at least by the Alexandrian Jews, evidences the fact that, for a period of one hundred and fifty years prior to the Advent, the Jewish Scriptures were complete as we have them now. That Ezra, after the exile, collected the sacred books of the Hebrews as now recognized by Jews and Chris- tians, except the books of Malachi and Ezra, is a fact that has scarcely been questioned ; and shortly after the Maccabsean persecution the Old Testament appears as a whole. Also, as Dr. Philip Schaff says in his "Companion to the Greek Testament," page 23, "It is a remarkable fact, not yet sufficiently explained, that the great majority of the citations of the Old Testament in the New, which amount to about 280, are taken from the Septuagint, or at all events agree better with it than with the Hebrew original." The Christian church has always received the Old Testament as authentic, and the first revelation of God to man. To this effect it received the endorsement of Christ and his apostles. More than two hundred quota- tions from the Old Testament are made by the writers of the New, which surely they would not have made had they suspected anything spurious or unauthentic in these Scriptures. 32 Apologetics 4. As to the New Testament : The books which now compose it are the same as those placed in the sacred canon by the church fathers. Besides the many, many quotations by the apostolic fathers and their immediate successors, not less than eleven distinct, formal cata- logues, comprising the present books of the New Testa- ment, were formed, and two of them by the highest coun- cils of the church. These catalogues are now extant. The Assyrian Bible contains the four Gospels, the Acts, fourteen Pauline epistles, the epistles of James, I. Peter, and I. John. This collection is surely not later than the beginning of the third century, and was, at that time, the canon of that part of the church. "The Muratorian Fragment," which dates not later than the last quarter of the second century, includes "the four Gospels, Acts, thirteen epistles of Paul, I. John, II. John, Jude, Kevelation of St. John, and that of Peter."^ It is evident from the preceding statements that at the close of the second century our present New Testa- ment canon was complete, and had been, in a fragmen- tary form, unanimously endorsed by the church, not- withstanding the canonical authority of some of the books had not as yet been settled, and no canon adopted in a universal sense. About the year 315, Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, formed a catalogue of the New Testament Scriptures, in which he mentioned all of our present books.^ •Schaff-Herzog Cyclopedia, K R. K., Page 390. •Lardner, Vol. II., page 368. Authenticity of the Holy Scriptures 33 The council of Laodicea published a catalogue in the year 360, differing from ours in nothing except in the omission of the book of Hevelation.^ Athanasius and Cyril, early in the fourth century, publislied catalogues which agree with our own, save in the omission of the Book of Revelation in the catalogue furnished by Cyril. The council at Carthage, which met in the year 397, composed of forty-four bishops, of which Augustine, bishop of Hippo, was a member, declared, "It is or- dained that nothing beside the canonical Scriptures be read in the church under the name of divine Scriptures ; and the canonical Scriptures are these," etc. The list given is identical with our New Testament books.^ Eufinus, of Aquileia, in "Explication of the Apostles' Creed," says, "It will not be improper to enumerate here the books of the Old and New Testaments, which we find by the monuments of the Fathers to have been de- livered to the churches as inspired by the Holy Spirit." This list of books is identical with ours.* To these might be added the catalogue of Epiphanius, of Gregory Nazianzen, and of Jerome, with many others, but a sufficient number have been introduced to estab- lish the fact that "by the year 397 the canon of the New Testament was established," and- has thus descended to us in a way that we have the assurance that our Scrip- tures are those placed in the sacred canon by the church, fathers. * Lardner, page 414. •Lardner's "Credential Gospel History," Vol. II., page 574 'Lardner, Vol. II., page 574. 3 u Apologetics Documen- tary Evi- dence. Apology of Arlstldes. 5. It is well known that Polycarp was a disciple of St. John, and heard the apostle, and was the instructor of Irenaeus. Irenaeus attributes the four Gospels to the apostles, whom Polycarp knew. His words are : "John relates his original, effectual, and glorious generation from the Father, thus declaring, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' Luke takes up his priestly character. . . . Matthew again relates his generation as a man, saying, *The Book of the generation of Jesus the son of David, the son of Abraham.' Mark, on the other hand, com- mences with the prophetical sjjirit from on high, say- ing, 'The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Esaias, the prophet.' " But, in addition to the evidence already adduced, the discoveries made within the last quarter of the century Just closed, are remarkably accumulative, especially as they relate to the authenticity of the fourth Gospel, about which there has been some question among critics. The documents which are of sj^ecial interest are four, namely : 1. The Apology of Aristides. This was presented to the Emperor Hadrian at Athens in the year 125. The following is an extract from it : "The Christians reckon the beginning of their religion from Jesus Christ, who is named the Son of God Most High ; and it is said that uod came down from heaven, and from a Hebrew virgin took and clad himself with flesh, and in a daughter of man there dwelt the Son of God. This is taught from that gospel which a little while ago was spoken among them as being preached ; wherein if ye also will read, ye Authenticity of the Holy Scriptures 35 will comprehend the power that is upon it. This Jesus, then, was born of the tribe of the Hebrews, and he had twelve disciples, in order that a certain dispensation of his might be fulfilled. He was pierced by the Jews, and be died and was buried; and they say that after three days he rose and ascended to heaven; and then these twelve disciples went forth into the known parts of the world and taught concerning his greatness with all hu- mility and sobriety. And on this account those also who to-day believe in this preaching are called Christians, who are well known."^ This apology, in a brief, terse form, sets forth the teachings of the New Testament Scriptures as we have them now and were held then. (2) The Diatessaron of Tatian. This is a most valuable document, as it was intended to be a harmony of the four Gospels. The book was long lost. It was referred to by Eusebius as a "collection of the Gospels, of^atum!''^ called the Diatessaron." Theodoret says, "Tatian also composed a gospel called the Diatessaron."- The same author says, "I myself found more than two hundred such books (the Diatessaron) held in respect in the churches of our parts."^ The Diatessaron belongs to the early part of the second century, and puts the au- thenticity of the four Gospels to rest in the minds of all reasonable men. This Tatian was a pupil and a disciple of Justin Martyr, who speaks of, and quotes from the "Memoirs of the Apostles," from which, there is not ground for a » Contemporary Review, Vol. LX., page 109. The Apology of Ans- tides, by George F. Stokes. » E. H. 4 ; 29. » Fabulse Hsereticse 1 : 20. 36 Apologetics reasonable doubt, his pupil composed his "Harmony of the Gospels," The Diatessaron now discovered verifies the correctness of these quotations claimed to have been taken from it by so many different authors, and confirms the description also given of it by later commentators. By a critical comparison of this document with the four Gospels, it becomes at once manifest that Tatian's Gos- pels which he had in hand must have been essentially the same as the four we have at the present time. (3) The newly-discovered Syriac Version of the Scrip- tures. This version was discovered in 1892 in the Con- vent of St. Catharine on Mt. Sinai, by Mrs. Lewis and her sister, Mrs. Gibson, and contains the textual varia- tions found in the Curetonian Syriac version, which was brought, among other manuscripts, from the monas- teries in the Nitrian Desert, in Lower Egypt, in 1833. It is conceded that the Curetonian version is a trans- lation older than the Peshito version, which was in gen- eral use in the Syrian church in the second and third centuries. The textual variations in the Curetonian cor- respond, as a rule, to those found in the Diatessaron of Tatian, which, as already stated, was prepared early in the second century. But while this translation accords with the texts of the best and the oldest manuscripts, yet it is most manifest that in some respects it was inten- tionally corrupted to cater to certain heresies. Says Dr. G. F. Wright^ : "The most conspicuous instance of this relates to the miraculous conception of Cbrist which we know to have been denied by Cerinthus at the close of the first century. According to Irenteus," Cerinthus » Scientific Aspects of Christian Evidences, page 230. •IrenKus, Against Heresies, bk 1, chap. 26. Authenticity of the Holy Scriptures 37 represented 'Jesus as having not been born of a virgin, but as being the son of Joseph and Mary according to the ordinary course of human generation, while he nev- ertheless was more righteous, prudent, and wise than other men. Moreover, after his baptism Christ de- scended upon him in the form of a dove from the Su- preme Euler, and that then he proclaimed the unknown Father, and performed miracles.' With these views of Cerinthus concerning the person of Christ the sect called Ebionites are said to have agreed." (4) The Gospel of Peter. This was discovered in a package taken from a Christian tomb in Akhmim, in Up- Gospel o* per Egypt, and published in 1892. It is of much im- portance. This is only a fragment, containing in all about sixteen hundred words. All the modern world knew of it was what the church fathers said about it; but now it comes in as an evidence of the authenticity of the Scriptures, — ^not that it is to be received as a com- plete Gospel written by Peter, but only a fragment or a compilation from the four Gospels and bearing his name; and as an evidence that at the time it was pre- pared the four Gospels were in existence and received by the church. It is a fact, says Norton, "that no apoc- ryphal gospels, real or supposed, are mentioned by any Avriter before the time of Origen, besides Irengeus and Clement, except Serapion quoted by Eusebius." About the close of the second century, Serapion was bishop of Antioch, and wrote a tract concerning the "Gospel of Peter which Eusebius gives in his "Ecclesiastical His- tory," Book IV,, chapter 12. "Another tract was com- posed by Serapion concerning the Gospel according to 38 Apologetics Peter, so called, the object of which was to confute the errors contained in it, on account of some in the church at Ehossus who had been led by this book to adopt het- erodox opinions. From this it may be worth while to quote a few words in which he expresses his opinion con- cerning it. 'We, bretbren,' he writes, 'acknowledge the authority both of Peter and the other apostles, as we do that of Christ; but we reject, with good reason, the writ- ings which falsely bear their names, Avell knowing that such have not been handed down to us. I, indeed, when I was with you, supposed that you were all going on in a right faith; and, not reading through the Gospel un- der the name of Peter which was produced by them (those who were pleased Avith it), I said. If this is all that troubles you, let tlie book be read. But having since learnt from what has been told me that their minds had fallen into some heresy, I hasten to be with you again, brethren, so that you may expect me shortly. Now we, brethren, know that a like heresy was held by Mar- eion, who also contradicted himself, not comprehending what he said, as you may learn from what has been writ- ten to you.^ For we have been able to procure this gos- pel from others who use it, that is, from his followers, who are called Docetse (for the greater part of the opin- ions in question belong to their system), and, having gone through it, we have found it for the most part con- * As this Rentence is unimportant, and as I believe the present text to be corrupt, I have ventured to render it as perhaps it should be amended. Jt now stands thus: "Hjufi? &i, aSf\oi, KaraXafionevoi. OTrot'a? m> alptoeuii 6 MapKiavo^, xai eauTui r)vavTiovTO, nr| I'owi^ & cAaAet, S liaOrjaetrOe ef SiV VfJilv iypd^ri- 'ESvvriOrnj.ev yap Trap aWoiv, k. t. A. I WOUld read the first words as follows: 'II/LLeiv Sk, aieAc^ot, KaTaAa/3of;i6i' on Ofioiai fiv atpcVeut 6 Mop/ciwi' 6? (cai (jauTtt> ^fai-TioilTo, k. t- A. There is also some uncertainty about the precise meaning of the next senten(re; fortunately this uncertaiuity does not extend to auytblng important in the paragraph. Authenticity of the Holy Scriptures 39 formable to the true doctrine of the Saviour; but there are some things exceptionable, which we subjoin for your information.' " This fragment of the original document amply veri- fies the correctness of Serapion's statements. It is a compilation, but by whom we know not, with a coloring and interpolation made, no doubt, in the interest of cer- tain heresies and especially the Docetic. But the real point here is, the author of "Peter's Gospel" used John's Gospel in liis compilation, as well as Matthew's, Mark's, and Luke's, thus showing not only that the fourth Gospel was in existence, but that it was recog- nized by the churches. From the fact that Justin Mar- tyr was well acquainted with this reported Gospel of Peter, it is manifest that it must belong to the first half of the second century. How brief, then, the period between the death of our Lord and the death of his apostles, to the time when the four Gospels were put in the form we now have them, and became the recognized authority of the church. (1) Another ancient record must here be taken into account. This is the Tel-el- Amarna Tablets, discovered Tei-ei in 1887. They are written in cuneiform characters, and number more than two hundred tablets. They belong to the fifteenth century B. C, and consist of a series of letters between Egyptian and Asiatic kings. At this time Israel was yet in Egypt, and these letters throw much light on the political condition and civiliza- tion both of Palestine and Egypt at that period. It is a little strange that they were written, too, in the Baby- lonian language. They come from Byblos, Tyre, Gezer, Amama Tablets. 40 Apologetics and Ashkelon, localities well known to biblical history; and from such persons as Azirn, Shubandi, from the king of Mitonni to Amenophis III., from Alishaya, in Upper ]\Iesopotamia to Amenophis III., and from Bur- raburyash to King Amenophis IV. The representations given in these records are in strict accord with what the Bible states was the real condition of society in those countries at that time. The political, social, and com- mercial activity in western Asia, and the extended in- ternational communications which obtained, according to these ancient records, revolutionize previous modern thought respecting those primitive days. (2) Israel at an early period came in contact with a great people, the Hittites, whose history is shadowed in deep mystery. It was from Ephron, the Hittite, that Testimony. Abraham "purchased the field and the cave" in which he "buried Sarah his wife." In Joshua, we read of "the land of the Hittites," but outside of the Bible the world really knew nothing about this great people until in the last half of the nineteenth century. And even from the Bible all that could be learned of them was, that such a people existed in Palestine in the days of Abraham, and that they were yet in the country when Israel came out of Egypt. But nothing of value could be gathered respecting their history, either from Egyptian, Ar- menian, or Assyrian records. As a result, by not a few critics, all that was said of them in the Pentateuch wa^ swept away as mythical and legendary. But by recent discoveries the flittite empire is brought to light, and all that is stated and implied in the sacred Scriptures respecting them is more than verified. In the records Hittite Authenticity of the Holy Scriptures 41 of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt is found the first mention of the Hittites outside of the Pentateuch. Thothmes III. is said "to have received tribute from 'the land of the Hittites.' " "Tlie Tel-el- Amarna rec- ords, dating from the time of Amenophis III. and IV., of the same dynasty, contain more than thirty refer- ences to these peoples.''^ With these" Hittites, Kameses II. made his famous treaty in the twenty-first year of his reign, which reads, "He shall be my ally; he shall be my friend ; I will be his ally ; I will be his friend ; for- ever." The Hittites are known to have been a literary people, but their language was remarkably different from the languages of the nations by which they were surrounded and with whom they held intercourse. The Tel-el- Amarna tablets locate these people originally in the Taurus Mountains, and perhaps in Cappadocia. Their inscriptions and sculptures thus far discovered, show that their power and influence extended as far west as Lydia, in Asia Minor, and southward to Hamath, and that they were a distinct people from eight hundred to a thousand years. Their inscriptions are peculiar and varied, and at present we know not how to translate them, but some day the Hittite records will tell their story to the modern world as now do the hieroglyphics of Egypt. From all that has been gathered from the monuments thus far, it is quite evident that the Hyksos ruled Egypt when Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph entered that country, and that their dominion there was brought to a close by * The Monuments and the old Testament, chap. 22, page 263. 4:2 Apologetics Thothmes III. and his successors. The author of "The Monuments and the Old Testament" says^ : "In survey- ing the whole sweep of discoveries in the historical line, one may well be amazed at the galaxy of characters now drawn up to view. Beginning back at the fourteenth chapter of Genesis, we find evidences of the existence of the leader, Chedorlaomer, of the great Elamite cam- paign against the cities of the plain. The probabilities of a Hyksos domination in Egypt when Abraham and Joseph reached the Nile land are increasing with each new Egyptian discovery touching this period. The pos- session at Gizeh Museum of the mummy of the Pharaoh of the oppression, Eameses II., and a tablet of the time of Mineptah II., bearing the name, 'Israel,' add great "vividness to the bondage of Israel in Egypt. Portraits of some of the Canaanitish peojjle show us the kind of soldiers that disputed with Joshua the occupation of the Promised Land. Shishak's portrait of his captives from Canaan bears evidence on the face of it of the verity of the Kings' record of that event. The Moabite stone tells us that Mesha, of Moab (II. Kings 3:4), was no less a king than represented by the compiler of Kings. The record of Shalmaneser II. bears testimony to the exist- ence of Ahab, of Pjen-hadad, and Hazael, of Damascus, and of 'Jehu son of Omri.' Tiglath-Pileser III. has left most valuable documents, in which he mentions Azariah (Uzziah) and Ahaz, of Judah, and Menahcm, Pekah, and Hosliea, of Israel, and Rezin, of Damascus. Sargon II. describes his capture of Samaria, and of Ashdod. Sennacherib's records are full of facts regarding his il- » Page 293. Authenticity of the Holy Scriptures 43 lustrious campaign of 701 B. C, where we find Hezekiah mentioned by name, the siege of Lachish pictured on his walls, and the amount of tribute paid the invader. Esar- haddon and Asurbanipal both mention in their list of tributaries Manasseh, of Judah. The overthrow of Nineveh, pictured in Nahum, is attested by a small in- scription of Nabonidus. The policy of Nebuchadnezzar, and his administrative ability, are evident in his own records. The annals of Nabonidus and of Cyrus picture the fall of Babylon and the governmental policy of Cyrus outlined in the Old Testament. Belshazzar is seen to be the son and coregent of Nabonidus, the last Sem- itic king of Babylon. The construction of the palace of Susa is found to correspond in every important respect with the descriptions of the Book of Esther. In brief, we now have several new and corroborative chapters of his- tory as one immediate result of the decipherment of the new documents dug out of the earth within the last half century." It matters but little whether we look to the land of tho Pharaohs, to the wilderness of wanderings, to the plains of Moab, to the ancient city of the great king, to the archives of Nineveh, or to the record of Babylon, the same unequivocal testimony comes from all, to the au- thenticity of the sacred record. And now having somewhat discussed the authenticity of the Scriptures, we close with the words of Bishop Butler : "These observations are, I think, just, and the evidence referred to in them real, though there may be people who will not accept of such imperfect informa- tion from Scripture. Some, too, have not integrity and 44 Apologetics regard enough for the truth to attend to evidence, which keeps the mind in doubt, perhaps perplexity, and which is much of a different sort from what they expected. And it plainly requires a degree of modesty and fair- ness beyond what every one has for a man to say, not to the world, but to himself, that there is a real appear- ance of somewhat of great weight in this matter, though he is not able to thoroughly satisfy himself about it ; but it shall have its influence upon him, in proportion to its appearing reality and weight. It is much easier, and more readily falls in with the negligence, presumption, and willfulness of the generality, to determine at once, with a decisive air, that there is nothing in it. The preju- dices arising from that absolute contempt and scorn with which their evidence is treated in the world, I do not mention. For what, indeed, can be said to persons who are weak enough in their understandings to think this any presumption against it ; or, if they do not, are yet weak enough in their temper to be influenced by such prejudices upon such a subject ?" CHAPTER III. Inspikation of the Holy Scriptures. 1. Having discussed the authenticity of the Scrip- tures somewhat, we now proceed to consider the inspira- tion of their authors. The relation existing between these two topics is such tliat much that has been said on the former is equally applicable to the latter, for the one subject involves the other. The history of the revela- tion of God's will to man shows that the manner of its delivery was not as human reason would have concluded it would be. ( 1 ) Reason would have said, it will be given immedi- ately, not mediately ; not universally, but to individuals ; not partially, but completely; decidedly, not demon- strably ; at once, not progressively. Seldom did God re- veal himself in a like manner to different persons, and scarcely ever twice in the same way to the same person. In Eden, his voice was heard in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8); to Noah he spake by intuition, or inward utterance ; to Abraham by angels, visions, and by a burn- ing lamp ; to Moses by an angel in the burning bush and by lightning and thunder ; to Jacob by a dream — a lad- der was let down from the skies — and by a wrestle with the angel of God; to his chosen people by dreams and by his prophets. (I. Sam. 28: 6.) Then came a cessa- tion of a period of four hundred years, from Malachi 45 Relation of Inspiration to Autben- ticity. Manner in which God Spalie to Man. 46 Apologetics Five Theories of Inspiration. Dictation or Mechanical Theory. Djmanilcal Theory to the Advent, when God, in tlie person of his Son, ap. peared among men to reveal his will complete, and to cpen forever the gates of eternal day by the descent of the Holy Sjjirit. Such has been somewhat of the order in which God made his revelations, and the sixty-six books already mentioned contained record of these revelations. But it is not the purpose in this treatise to give a history of the doctrine of inspiration as it developed in the church, but the student is referred to Schaff and Herzog^ for that information. AYhile the Holy Scriptures themselves lay claim to inspiration, they contain no specific defini- tion of that term, and hence the many theories enter- tained by believers. Xot less than five well-defined the- ories, often modified in a degree, have found adherents in almost every age of the church, Avhich theories may be stated as follows : (a) The dictation or mechanical theor}'', which ob- tained in the early ages of the church, holds that every idea, sentence, word, letter, and even vowel point of the Scriptures had been dictated by the Holy Ghost. At the time of the Eeformation, the human element in the in- spired writings seems to have been more fully recognized, but later, in the Protestant churches, it has been formu- lated into "an accurate theological dogma." (h) The dj'namical theory is the second, and seems to have displaced in a degree the first theory. Tliis holds that the sacred Scriptures were committed to writing under the guidance of, but not dictated by, the Holy Spirit. The writers were free to use their own language « S. & H., Vol. H., page llOL Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures 4:7 and adopt their own style. The truths were revealed, but the language was peculiar to the individuality of the writers. (c) The third theory is that of divine illumination. It dates from the days of the Jewish rabbis, who dis- tinguished between the prophetic spirit, which inspired the law and the prophets, and the Holy Spirit, which enabled man to speak and write such words and sentences of holiness as do not transcend the faculties of men. Its advocates hold to the view of different degrees of inspira- tion just in proportion as the light of the divine Spirit quickened and illuminated the understanding of the sa- cred writers from the highest degree of splendor to the faintest glimmer of light. (d) There is also a fourth theory, which has many able advocates, such as Archdeacon Paley, Dr. Dod- dridge, Van Oosterzee, Baxter, Erasmus, Leclerc, F. W. Farrar, and Dr. Dorner; also, Alford, Calvin, and Theory. Lange. It is usually called the essential theory, as dis- tinguished from the plenary. Its formula is, "The Bible contains the word of God/' but rejects as faulty that other formula, "The Bible is the word of God." The ad- vocates of this theory of inspiration, says Canon Farrar, "confine this inspiration to matters of doctrine, matters of morality, and, above all, to matters of faith." (e) The advocates of the four theories hold to tliis one theory in common, namely, that the Holy Scriptures are divinely inspired and infallible in matters of doc- trine, morality, and faith. They also differ from a fifth theory, called "Ordinary Inspiration," in that they be- lieve it to be "an extraordinary, transcendant operation 48 Apologetics of the Holy Spirit," while the advocates of the ordinary theory hold that in the action of the Holy Spirit, as ex- ercised in the inspiration of the Scriptures, there is no generic distinction from the ordinary operations of that Spirit upon the heart and intellect of true believers in all ages. Other points of diiierence among the above theories might be named, as well as their merits pointed out, but brevity forbids it in this connection. It will be safe, however, to say that while no one of them contains all of the truth on the subject of the inspiration of the Scrip- tures, no one of them is wholly destitute of some truth on Comparison the subject. As Dr. Sprecher has well said, "The true of the conception seems to be that the apostles had the same Theories. ^ ^ '^ kmd and the same degree of assistance in their written as in their oral instructions, and that they were as much required to use their natural powers and to avail them- selves of natural means of information in the former as in the latter; and that they did, on the other hand, as certainly in the former as in the latter, receive aid of any and every kind which might be necessary to give infalli- bility to their written as well as to their oral instruc- tions." 2. Divine inspiration, then, may be defined: The Holy Spirit so moving, influencing , controlling, and us- ing the sacred writers as to make them his mediums through which to give a written revelation of his will to man of the plan of salvation, the ideas communicated heing inspired, true in point of fact, hut the writers be- ing left free to clothe those ideas in their own language, hut so restricted by the Holy Spirit in the use of Ian- Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures 49 guage as not to use words that would misrepresent those ideas. The sacred writers did not "speak as they were dic- tated to, but they 'spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.' " All that can be desired in the sacred narra- tive is certainty, and this we surely have in the Scrip- tures. The Bible is emphatically God's book, divine and infallible as a rule of morals, doctrines, and faith. It is addressed to human beings, human beings were em- ployed as the organs of its communication, and human language as the vehicle of its inspired thoughts; heuce, His book must possess the variety of style and the mode of expression peculiar to the writers whom he inspired to write it, and the age in which they wrote. One thing must be kept ever before the mind, that while the "divine element in the inspired books does not destroy or shut out the human," nevertheless, inspiration is a miracle, and in the language of an eminent divine, "the special mirac- ulous, divine influence in the Bible cannot consistently be denied by any who acknowledge the indestructibility of the Bible, and at the same time believe in a personal God." For "as certainly as the creation of the world was a miracle, so certainly is the Bible the result of a miraculous influence." (1) As to the Old Testament Scriptures. (a) The authors of the Old Testament claim to be inspired. This is manifest in their writings by their oid forms of expression : "The Lord spake by his servant," f i-'stament ^ 1 J ;> Claims or, The word of the Lord came" ; also, by positive dec- inspiration laration, "And he said, Hear now my words" (Num. 12 : 6) ; again, "And the Lord spake unto Moses." Men were 4 60 Apologetics chosen as prophets : "And the Lord came . . . and called . . . Samuel. . . . And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold I will do," etc. (I. Sam. 3: 10, 11.) Also, "Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me. Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms" ( Jer. 1 : 9,10). (b) It is very clear that Christ and his apostles recog- nized the Old Testament as inspired, and regarded it with as much reverence as did the Jews. In all their arguments and disputations, the Jewish Scriptures were Inspiration the court of appeal. Christ said to the Jews, "Search of the Old ^j^g Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal life ; Recognized and they are they which testify of me." "For had ye ^^.^.^^^* believed Moses, ye would have believed me : for he wrote and the ' '' Apostles, of me." Again, "Jesus answered them. Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods ?" He sometimes charged them with being ignorant of the Scriptures, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures." His reply to Satan, when tempted, is very explicit, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Perhaps the most forceful word of our Lord to the point now under consideration was the following, which was uttered after his resur- rection, **These are my words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, how that all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their mind, that they might understand the Scriptures." "Again another scripture saith, They shall Inspiratio7i of the Holy Scriptures 51 look on him whom they pierced." Thus the Christ, from the beginning to the end of his eventful ministry, in the wilderness of temptation, and even on the cross, as he lifted with his pierced hands empires from off their hinges and turned the currents of centuries from their deep-worn channels, ever and anon appealed to the Scriptures in the emphatic words, "Thus it is written," etc. (c) The apostles gave to the Old Testament a similar endorsement. Paul, in his second epistle to Timothy, says, "Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching," etc. This passage does not refer to all of our canonical books, as some have interpreted, but to the books of the Old Testament. St. Peter, in his second epistle, says, "JSi^o prophecy ever came by the will of man : but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost." The epistle to the Hebrews abounds in quota- tions from the Old Testament. "God, having of old times spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son." "Wherefore, even as the Holy Ghost saith. To-day if ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation," etc. "He saith. Behold, the days "come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah," etc. All these quotations from the Hebrews are found in the Book of Psalms, except the last, which is from Jeremiah, and each passage repre- sents God as the speaker, and the same is true of every quotation throughout this epistle. Again, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, we read. 52 Apologetics Jews of Christ's Day Regarded Old Testa- ment as Inspired. The New Testament Claims to be Inspired. "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the pru- dent.'' Indeed, more than two hundred passages from the Old Testament which have been quoted by the au- thors of the New as of divine authority, might be here introduced, but it is not necessary. It may not, however, be amiss to state in this connec- tion, that the Jews in the day of Christ regarded the books of the Old Testament as divinely inspired, not only in respect to their doctrines, but also in everything that pertained to them. Josephus says, "They being only prophets that have written the original and earliest accounts of things, as they learned them from God him- self by inspiration." He adds, "But it is become natural to all Jews to esteem these books to contain divine doc- trines, and to persist in them, and, if occasion be, to bo willing to die for them."^ (2) The inspiration of the New Testament is proved from its own testimony. The sacred writers insist upon and persist in the infallibility of their statements. St. Paul says, "Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom toacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth." In the first epistle to the Thessalonians it is declared that "when ye received from us the word of message, even the word of God, ye accepted it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God." The spirit of prophecy was given to them. In I. Tim- othy we read, "But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith," etc. This divine enduement claimed by the apostle was prom- »Apion, Book I. Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures 53 ised to them by our Lord. His words are, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Com- forter, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive" (John 14: 16, E. v.). This Comforter was to teach them and tes- tify of Christ: '"But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you." "But when the Comforter is come . . . even the Spirit of truth, ... he shall bear witness of me : and ye also bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning." In the sixteenth chapter of John the promise of a full and complete in- spiration is given : "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth : for he shall not speak from himself ; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak : and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come." Jesus, in speak- ing to his disciples of the coming persecution, cautioned them against being over-anxious about what they should say. "For," said he, "it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost." It is manifest from these and many more passages that might be cited, that the promise of inspiration was made by Christ to his disciples, and also that the apostles claimed to be in the possession of the fulfillment of that promise while speaking and writing. 3. It is most manifest, therefore, that each writer of the sacred Scriptures claimed that he was inspired to Each Writer write as he did, and that the communication was from of sacred Scripture God. This, also, was the light in which the church re- claims ceived and has held the Holy Scriptures and their au- inspiration. 54 Apologetics thors. There is a remarkable statement by Justin Mar- tjT respecting the spread of the gospel in his day, and also of the qualification of the men who wrote the Gos- pels, "There is not a nation either of Greek or barbarian, or of any other name, even of those who wander in tribes, and live in tents, amongst whom prayers and thanks- giving are not offered to the Father and Creator of the universe by the name of the crucified Jesus."^ Justin Martyr wrote not more than thirty years after Pliny, and about one hundred and sixty years after the ascension. JrenpBus, a disciple of Polycarp, declares, "The Scrip- tures were dictated by the Spirit of God, and that there- fore it is wickedness to contradict them, and sacrilegious to alter them." He also says, "The gospel was first preached, and afterwards, by the will of God, committed to writing, that it might be for time to come the founda- tion and pillar of our faith." Surely it was the intention of the writers of the Holy Scriptures and of our blessed Lord, also, that the church should receive and regard their sacred writings as having been dictated and rendered infallible by the Holy Spirit. Says Von Oosterzee, "He who will acknowledge in Scrip- ture no higher than a purely human character comes in collision, not only with our Lord's word and that of his witnesses, but also with the Christian consciousness of all ages."^ 4. The nature of its contents and the unity of the hoolc itself are proofs of its inspiration. ( 1 ) As we read the sacred pages of both the Old Testa- 'IMal cutn Tryph. * Dogmatics, page 189. Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures 55 ment and the New, we meet in the writers all the frail- ties and weaknesses of men of like passions with our- selves. Sometimes they are courageous and daring; at other times they betray a pitiable weakness and cow- ardice. AX one time they speak and act like saints; at another foul blots appear upon their character, and we writers of hear the shrill voice of an aged seer ring out the keen, HunTan^ and cutting words, "Thou art the man." But amid all this imperfect, diversity of weakness and strength, it has, in truth, been said of these writers by Canon Farrar, "aSTor has the wid- est learning and the acutest ingenuity of skepticism ever pointed to one complete and demonstrable error of fact or doctrine in the Old and New Testament." The same writer says: "Yet all this infinite diversity is, like the diversity of nature, merged in a yet more marvelous unity. Kings, prophets, warriors, historians, poets, ex- iles, shepherds, gatherers of sycamore fruit, fishermen, tax-gatherers, Ve do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.' Whether we read the pas- sionate pleadings of an afflicted Chaldean noble or the rh3^thmic utterances of a great Mesopotamian sorcerer; whether it be the cynical confession of a sated worldling or the pathetic cry of a guilty and repentant king; whether it be the exultant thanksgiving for some splen- did deliverance or the impassioned denunciation of some intolerable wrong; whether it be the stately music of some gorgeous vision or the brief letter of an aged pris- oner recommending the forgiveness of an unprofitable slave, we feel that in these, there reigns throughout a di- vine coherency, an unbroken unity ; we feel that the long history is also a symbol and a prophecy ; that each writer 56 Apologetics TIlS TiiougM or Ideas of Bible Denote Inspiration. was but the instrument, often the wholly unconscious instrument, of purposes loftier than his own, and the utterer of language often deeper than he liimself could understand ; we feel that in the Old Testament the New is prefigured; in the New the Old is fulfilled. From be- ginning to end we recognize the truth that though God is in all history, never had any nation a history so signifi- cant as that of this nation; none have ever known as these knew, or taught as these teach, the holiness of God and the majesty of man." (2) In this sacred book the student who pursues its pages meets with much that attracts and inspires the thoughtful. In the Old Testament, all that is grand and sublime in the majesty of God as creator and ruler of a vast universe is portrayed. From the opening to the clos- ing sentence of the book the description is ever in keep- ing with the dignity of the subject. The inhabitants of all worlds wait with anxious eye turned to him as the God of providence. Back of the storm and behind the thundering, warring elements he sits, a being of infinite majesty, "not clearing the guilty, but merciful, long-suf- fering, and abundant in goodness and truth." In the New, Christ introduces him as "our Father which art in heaven." He who was once the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob is now the God of the whole human race. What was once the creed of a tribe is now the religion of the world. Sacri- fices, rites, and ceremonies, which, in the Old, typified something better to come, in the New are realized in the image of God, reflected from the human soul, which is the highest ideal of man and the crowning glory of God. Inspiration of the Holy /Scriptures 57 Also, the marvelous purity of its teachings, its lofty ideal on the subject of morals, its clear, faithful delinea- tions of the effects of irreligion and profligacy, the cor- rectness of which is verified by our experience in this life ; also, the many truths which it reveals, not discover- able by reason, such as a future life with rewards and punishments, immortality, the resurrection of the dead, and a future judgment, all of which are of the deepest and most abiding interest to us, and wliich, in their na- ture and tendency, elevate the thoughts and affections of men from things perishing to things spiritual and abid- ing, — all, all carry conviction to man that God speaks to him in this volume of his written word. The Of Jesus Christ, says Goethe, "I esteem the Gospels Faultless to be thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth from Christ set them the reflected sj)lendor of a sublimity proceeding Forth in from the person of Jesus Christ of so divine a kind as Manifests only the divine could ever have manifested upon earth."^ inspiration. '"'How petty," says Eousseau, "are the books of the philosophers, with all their pomp, compared with the Gospels ! Can it be that writings at once so sublime and so simple are the works of mere men? Can he whose life they tell, be of mere men ? Can he whose life they tell be himself no more tlian a mere man? ... What a loftiness in his maxims, what profound wisdom in his words ! AYhat presence of mind, what delicacy and aptness in his replies! What an empire over his pas- sions ! Where is the man, where is the sage, who knows how to act, suffer, and die without weakness and dis- play ? . . . The Jews could never have struck this » Conversations with Ekermann, III., 37L 58 Apologetics tone, or thought of this morality, and the gospel has characteristics of truthfulness so grand, so striking, so perfectly inimitable that their inventors would be even more wonderful than he whom they portray."^ As Jesus Christ is the only perfect, faultless life and the only worthy pattern of all the men who have lived, so the Bible is the only perfect book of all the books writ- ten. The spirit that it breathes is not the spirit of man, but the Spirit of God. It is strictly cosmopolitan in its spirit, and belongs to every age and is adapted to every race of men. It is as broad as the family of mankind, and is as emphatically God's book as the race is God's offspring. »Emiie, i., 4. 109, llJU CHAPTEK IV. Miracles — Their Credibility and Intent. 1. Man is capable of gaining knowledge and arriving at the truth. This he does in two ways : the one by ex- perience, the other by observation, or the experience of others. The former is expensive and slow; the latter quick and cheap. The foolish learn only in the school of experience, but the wise in both. Also, two methods are open to him by which he may arrive at a knowledge of the truth. The one is by the exercise of the human fac- obtaining ulties, observation, intuition, reflection, reason, judg- Knowledge. ment ; the other is by a direct supernatural communica- tion from Heaven, of facts that could not be obtained by any known operation of the human mind. In such a communication or series of communications the sacred Scriptures claim to have originated. Two facts should ever be kept in mind by the Bible student. The one is, the Scriptures claim that the communication was from God. The other is, that they claim man was the recorder of the communication; that is, God communicated the Scriptures, man recorded them, therefore the recording was human, the supernatural communication divine. Now, the authenticity, both of the Old and the New Testament, and their inspiration having been established, the next step to bn taken is the examination of their con- tents. 59 60 Apologetics Old Testament Promises an Am- bassador. Miracles Were Christ's Credentials. Definition of Miracle. The church believes and teaches that the claims set forth in the sacred Scriptures are true and of divine au- thority. In these Scriptures one of the most significant features is, that tliey profess to teach a divinely-revealed religion expressly for the betterment of mankind and the glory of God. This religious system is called Chris- tianity. In the Old Testament, almost from its opening pages to its close, reference is had to an ambassador to be sent from God, who should "redeem Israel." In the New Testament, constant and grand reference is had to Jesus Christ as the Saviour and Teacher, sent from God, of whom "Moses in the law, and the prophets did write," "Jesus the Son of God." In turn, Jesus persist- ently appealed to the miracles he performed as the evi- dence of his divine commission. His miracles, he in- sisted, were his credentials from the court of Heaven of his divine ambassadorship. "The works that I do" was his constant appeal. "Go your M^ay and tell John, . . . the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up." Such were some of his miracles — work of a superhuman character, and altogether outside of the natural course of things, and this also may be said of all the miracles recorded, both in the Old and the New Tes- tament. They are superhuman acts, and are not in- cluded nor accounted for in the natural course of things. 2. A miracle, then, is an event which nature's forces cannot produce, taking place in connection with a person professing to be sent from God, and intended to be the proof of his divine mission. The occurrence is purely supernatural, and must be referred to God, the author Miracles — Their Credibility and Intent 61 of nature. It is an act the like of which has never oc- curred by natural causation, and never will occur by nat- ural causation. An acute thinker says, "A miracle is a fact the like of which has never occurred or ever will occur, but for the same purpose.^' What are the naked facts in the case of miracles? Since the world be- gan it was not known that a deaf man at a word re- ceived his hearing, or that a man actually dead four days and stank, at a word, in a moment, stood up in vigor and activity ; or that a man born blind, by having his eyes anointed with spittle and clay, instantly received his sight; or that, at a word, the tempest was hushed and the sea calmed ; or that, by the stretching of a rod over a mighty river, the waters rolled back and a whole nation passed over dry-shod. These and like events the Scriptures affirm on different occasions and for specific purposes, without precedent, and unparalleled, have taken place, all of which are miraculous. But because a miracle is a supernatural event, it is not to be inferred that the event is something not manifest, a something that cannot be known and apprehended by man. 3. To distinguish between true miracles and a class of occurrences recorded in the Bible, which stand mid- way between the miracles and the ordinary occurrences Miracles of nature is vital; and it is readily admitted that the ^istin- "^ . guished line which separates is not well defined. Owing to a from Ex- failure upon the part of the apologist to make the needed ^raordinary , ^ ^ r o Occurrences distinction, not unfrequently he has put a dangerous of Nature. weapon into the hand of his antagonist. It may be said, in truth, a sparseness of miracles obtains throughout the Scriptures far beyond what men ordinarily would ex- 62 Apologetics pect; and yet they are of a sufficient number to accom- plish the purpose for which they were introduced. The true miracles performed were not to gratify vain curi- osity, nor to secure some selfish interest for the per- former, but only to benefit others. In the marvelous life of Jesus, in his hunger in the wilderness, thirsting at the well of Jacob, in Sychar, pressed by his enemies, betrayed by his friend, scourged, spat upon, and cruci- fied at last, notwithstanding, he was the power behind and above nature, and controlled her forces; and while he could have called to his Father, who would have put more than twelve legions of angels at his disposal, he performed no miracle in his behalf; all were in the interest of others. Now, such occurrences in his life after his resurrection, as appearing in the house with his disciples, "the doors having been shut," and his walk and his talk with the two on their way to Emmaus; also, his appearing to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, as well as some peculiar occurrences which transpired prior to his crucifixion, such as his es- cape from the multitude at Nazareth, and his act of rid- ding the temple of the money-changers, seem to be un- necessarily placed in the category of his miracles. In- deed, it is doubtful, to say the least, if the recorders of these occurrences in their Master's eventful life regarded them as miraculous, but two have often found their place there by false interpretation. Now, there is a class of events which stood midway between the class of oc- currences just mentioned and clear, unquestioned mir- acles, such as the Christ's resurrection, opening the eyes of the blind, the burning bush, and Elijah's calling fire Miracles— l^heir Credibility and Intent 63 out of heaven upon his altar at Mt. Carmel. Such by some are called mediate miracles. In this class of events there is both a miraculous application and adaptation of the forces of nature to them. They are occurrences pro- duced by natural laws supernaturally applied. In this class is included such events as the Noachian deluge, Joseph sold into Egypt, destruction of Sodom and Go- morrah, crossing of the lied Sea by the Israelites, and others recorded both in the Old and the New Testament. Then, with this distinction before the mind relative to the events unequivocally miraculous, and the mediate (i-gflj|,jm_ miracles recorded in the Scriptures, and, holding each of Miraciea in its own category, we proceed to discuss the credibility of miracles in general. We again state in a broader sense what we have already implied in part, namely, that those who are reputed in the Scriptures to have claimed that their commission was from God always appealed to the miracles which they performed as sufficient evidence. Moses did this at the court of Pharaoh, so did Elijah on Mt. Carmel, Christ also did the same thing, and when he commissioned his disciples he promised like power from the Father upon them. It will not be questioned by well informed men but that at, or about the time of the birth of Christ, an ex- pectation widespread obtained that an event of that char- acter was about to occur. That when he arrived at man- hood or about the age of thirty, he drew about him a Expected at small band of men, Jews, and that to them he actually the Time professed to have come from heaven, the spirit world, and that he really and truly was God's ambassador and the 64 Apologetics bearer of important messages from his Father to the world. That to confirm his discipies and others in the belief of liis divine ambassadorsliip, lie gave sight to men who were born blind, and, by a word, raised the dead to life, and other like superhuman acts, and also that he endowed his disciples with a like power. That subse- quently he was crucihed, dead, buried, and that on the third day he rose from the dead. The claim that his discipies set up in the gospel was, that it had brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, and that by his resurrection Christ had abolished death. The claim rested on the belief that he had appeared and talked with a body of men at different times after his resurrection, and men, too, who had not previously be- lieved that the Christ himself was to die and again rise. These men, and especially his disciples, accepted his resurrection as a demonstration of the fact, first, that there is life after death; and, second, that he was the Christ, the Son of the living God — God's ambassador, Discipies man's Saviour. Evidence of I'^ese men who were the eye-witnesses of Jesus before Resiurec- and after his resurrection, believed that he was the first- fruits of a system introduced from heaven among men, which, when perfected, would embrace all earth's sorrow- ing children, who were united to their Master by a living faith in the same glorious immortality that was mani- fested in their risen Lord. Mark the emphasis of Paul on the resurrection of Christ and the importance he at- tached to it. "If Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we wit- tion. Miracles — Their Credibility and Intent 66 nessed of God that he raised up Christ ; whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised : and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins." His resurrection was admitted as a matter of fact, as was also his personal ascension, in the presence of many, up into heaven. These events did not occur in secret, but openly, as the record states that he appeared to as many as five hundred persons at one time, after his res- urrection. But the objector says : "The guardsmen who watched the sepulcher in which the body of Christ was laid said, "His disciples came by niffht and stole him ./ o Resurreo- away while we slept." If they were asleep, how did they tion a Proof know what became of the body in the tomb they were of Chrisfs guarding ? The record says these guardsmen were bribed dorship and to make this false statement. But from the very fact of Life after Deatli of the disciples' belief in the resurrection of their Lord they put it into history, and that history is witli us now ; they braved scorn, insult, derision, hardship, poverty, torture, and death itself that the gospel of their Lord might be preached and the commission he gave to them be carried out. They received it not only as a matter-of- fact demonstration of his ambassadorship from God the Father, but also as a proof conclusive of life after death. And it may be here stated, that unless we allow that Christ rose from the dead the world has no physical proof in favor of immortality, but to admit the fact, a future state becomes more than probable — it becomes possible, an established fact in history. The proofs of revelation are sufficiently strong to pro- 66 Apologetics duce belief, were it not for a supposed presumption which to many minds seems to rest against them; that Presump- jg^ a supposed presumption against miracles, on the Miracles ground that it would not be scientific to admit their pos- as not sibility, on the one hand ; and, on the other, even if they were possible, it would be unphilosophical to admit that they could be proved. This presumption rests on the as- sumption that an event produced not by a natural law would be an action without a cause. This is a miscon- ception, and is the result of holding a false notion rela- tive to natural law. Natural law is God's will exercised in nature, as is manifested in established sequences of natural phenomena. Thus God is the author and cause of all natural law, which is the exertion of his will over nature, primarily to accomplish his own purposes. When a miracle, then, occurs, it is the result of the ex- ertion of the will of God and author of nature to accom- plish a specific purpose, which primarily is his own. Thus miracles are, in this sense, not out of accord with nature, but in accord with her, the same Creator and Judge acting in both, and the Author both of natural and supernatural phenomena. 1. In a miracle, the end to be accomplished is special ; a dead man is to be brought to life, a rod is to become a serpent. It is for a specific purpose, God signing his ambassador's credentials. Pharaoh is to be convinced that Moses is God-sent. Every miracle in the Bible is special, and every purpose is specific, but all tending to the accomplishing of a general, grand purpose, namely, to establish the divine authority of revelation and its religion among men. Miracles — Their Credibility and Intent 67 But, it is said, nature is uniform in all her works, and miracles are out of accord with that uniformity. That is true only in a sense, that is, in so far as human Qiji-ction experience and observation go. But no man who is Based on acquainted with the best science of the closing decade xjnlfonnltT of this best century of the ages would venture to say that nature has always been uniform in the sense the objector uses the term, — that the sun, in the infinite sweep of eternity that is past, always rose and set as it now does, and that the moon and the stars always shone out as they now do; that the first oak-tree sprang from an acorn, which grew on an oak-tree, as acorns now do. The material universe has not been from everlasting time ; science says it had its beginning in time and will end in time, and thus declares creation the miracle of miracles. Man was not always an inhabitant of his pres- ent home — this earth. On this subject science speaks out with no uncertain sound. Geological science shows clearly that our planet was once a molten mass and not capable of sustaining any forms of life. This truth God has recorded in the rock-written history of the dead ages. Man as well as other forms of life had a begin- ning in time. No scientific man will claim that his advent here was in accord with the present order of gen- eration. In the language of modern science, "Our mod- ern knowledge enables us to look back almost with certi- tude to the time when there was nothing but gravitating matter and its potential energy throughout the expanse, . . . and thus forming in time separate solar or stel- lar systems. We have thus reached the beginning as well as the end of the present visible universe, and have G8 Apologetics come to the conclusion that it began in time and will in time come to an end."^ Says the same scientific writer: "Now we believe that an extension of purely scientific logic desires us to receive as quite certain the occurrence of two events which are as incomprehensible as any miracle. These are : the introduction of visible matter and energy and visible living things into the uni- verse. Furthermore, we are led by scientific analogy to regard the agency in virtue of which these two astound- ing events were brought about as an intelligent agency, an agency whose choice of the time for action is deter- mined by considerations similar in their nature to those which influence a human being when he chooses the proper moment for the accomplishment of his purposes." If, then, it be true that science acknowledges an event so stupendous as that of creation, for no Bible miracle is greater and further removed from the natural course of events, how can the objector on scientific grounds ob- ject to the Christian miracles ? Is it not clear that to admit the miracle of creation not only sweeps from the field every form of supposed scientific presumption against miracles, but also removes the discussion regard- ing miracles wholly from the domain of science? And, too, for the very best of reasons, namely, that pure scien- tific logic admits the occurrence of events equally as great and none the less supernatural. 2. There is a principle in nature that seems to be at variance at least with one of nature's laws. Gravita- tion would bind all matter to the earth as with a chain, but life breaks the chain. Life in the lily, in the very * Unseen Universe, page 128. Miracles — Their Credibility and Intent 69 teeth of the law of gravitation, which would draw it to the earth, pushes it up until it throws open its corolla to the bright sunlight, a thing of beauty. Life in the bird bids defiance to gravity, and at pleasure it rises from the earth and swims in the air. In a creature whoso knowledge and experience were limited to bodies with- out life and always in a state of rest, the information that there is a principle of life, and such and such are some of its phenomena, would cause, doubtless, many false presumptions to arise, not only against the prin- ciple itself, but against the phenomena in particular. All these presumptions would spring from his limited experience and rest on his lack of knowledge in each particular case; but experience in the world of activity and observation on the course of nature would soon dis- sipate all his false presumptions. Just so with man relative to miracles ; every supposed presumption against them rests on his limited experience and lack of knowl- edge of facts pertaining to the universe. When St. Paul spoke to the Greeks of the "resurrection of the dead," "some laughed." but not one of the eye-witnesses of the resurrection of Lazarus or the raising of the widow's son either laughed or questioned the reality of the fact; at least, neither friend nor foe recorded anything to the contrary. It is so with all the recorded miracles of the Bible; no ej^e-witness to them, either friend or foe, questioned their reality. True, some attempted to ac- count for them in some way other than by divine power, and thus unwittingly admitted the reality of the events in question. 3. The objection to miracles seems to imply that the 70 Apologetics infinite Father may not change the course of his provi- dence other than man has experienced it to be, for the benefit of his children. Surely, the Almighty Will is not bound either by nature or by fate. We admit that the earthly parent may change his course of government in his family, and he really does, sometimes by giving more, sometimes by withholding knowledge from his offspring. To recognize a like freedom and disposition in the in- finitely wise and infinitely good Father is all that is necessary to admit of miracles. God is not limited in his resources, but keeps his hand on all his works. Man's difficulty seems to lie in the fact that his own knowledge is finite and his experience very limited, and that he is unwilling to concede to God what he knows himself not to possess. The human being who has no knowledge of the growth of vegetation, who has never seen a forest or witnessed the building of a house or the erection of any other building, who has no knowledge of the lumber out of which the house even in which he was born and reared was constructed, or of any other building, or of the manner in which that timber grew and the process by which it was manufactured into lumber and then constructed into a house, — if, I say, such a human being were to be placed in the great forests of the State of Washington, and to comprehend, as he looked upon and marveled at the growth of the forest, that this was one of the steps taken by the Creator of the universe toward erecting a house like to that in which he was born, would it be less a marvel to him than to be told that at a word a blind man had received his sight? Or, again, as he looked upon the Miracles — Their Credibility and Intent 71 woodsman felling the trees, and the lumberman with his great saws ripping the trees into boards, planks, shingles, and scantlings, if he were told that these men were en- gaged in erecting houses and barns and building cities, would there not arise in his mind at every stage in the processes thus far named persumptions against the building of a house ? It is only when the end is attained, the structure complete, that the human mind can trace back, step by step, the different processes that led up to its completion. It will be readily admitted that, even if man had knowledge beforehand that a revelation was to be given him from heaven, he in no wise could determine what the nature of that revelation would be, what would be the degrees of its evidence, whether it would be oral or written, whether it would be communicated from God direct to man or by angels, or by both; or what would be the nature of its evidence, whether it would be ac- companied by miracles or not; or whether it would be given alike to all men at one and the same time; or whether it would be given through a series of years. The truth is, he could conclude nothing definitely be- forehand about it. He might conjecture many things respecting it, but his conjectures would be as likely false as true. But there is one fact in revelation which stands out clear and definite, namely, its similarity to the whole scheme of nature. Nature's great truths are discovered only by those who seek after them, and her deep problems solved only by the patient, faithful inves- tigator. Just so in revelation, doubts are dispelled, and the truth becomes apparent only to the earnest truth- 72 Apologetics seeker in God's Word; for it is a fact that, inasmuch as man is made a partaker of the divine nature, and tliat the ideas that develop in the human reason are, at least in part, copies of the archetype that dwells in the divine mind, he may rise to the apprehension and recog- nition of the immutable and eternal principles of right- eousness, and by communing with that which is divine — the Word of God — he may be inducted into, and made acquainted with the deep things of God. The particular thing in nature is order, the greatest principle is benevolence — the universal adaptation of all things to the happiness of sentient beings, the supply Nature of all wants, the alleviation of all suffering. The Orderly grand harmony and order that obtains in nature is Under Law. ^ '' marvelous, and one of the great lessons which it teaches is, that its Author must be a God of order. One king- dom stands above another — the animal, the vegetable, the mineral. Each has its separate departments, the one not infringing upon the other. The seasons, in order, come and go — spring, summer, autumn, and winter. These, in turn, and in their order, give sec- onds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years. What order, what strange regularity ! And all, too, in the interest of benevolence, happiness, and the allevia- tion of the sufferings and wants of God's creatures. So marvelous is this order, this uniformity, "that the laws of the physical universe are resolvable into numer- ical relations, and therefore capable of being repre- sented by mathematical formulae." This fact was dis- covered and taught by Plato. In the sacred Scriptures a like order obtains, while Miracles — Their Credibility and Intent 73 the same end — benevolence — is kept in view. It opens its pages with the history of creation, the fall of man scriptures ensues, then follows his redemption, and the books close orderly and with his glorification. Step by step in universal order, truth after truth is unfolded, book after book is writ- ten, until the whole ground of human religious need is covered. It not only lays bare the world's great sore and sorrow, but definitely states the cause, and points out the only remedy for its cure. Every line that it contains, either directly or indirectly, was written to meet the wants and alleviate the sorrows of man. Like nature, the particular thing in it is order, the greatest principle in it is benevolence — the universal adapta- tion of all things to the happiness of sentient beings, the supply of all want, the alleviation of all suffering. The sacred Scriptures have a single aim — one end in view, which is never lost sight of; it is never ob- scured, never darkened. There is no turning aside in by-paths, or words used to darken council. But, like The Aim of the rush of a mighty river to the sea, it holds its way Scripture 1 mi • • T 1 • ,. is the Moral steadily to the goal. This single aim, this goal of the perfection Scriptures is the moral elevation and perfection of man. °^ ^*"* "It aims and it tends in all its doctrines, precepts, and promises, to rescue men from the power of moral evil; to unite them to God by filial love, and to one another in the bonds of brotherhood; to inspire them with a philanthropy as meek and unconquerable as that of Christ; and to kindle intense desire, hope, and pursuit of celestial and immortal virtue." This unvarnished, a3''e, this untarnished singleness of design which runs through their religious records is no mean evidence of 74 Apologetics itself that it is superhuman. It is without a parallel in the world's literature. How let the chapter be closed with an illustration; and while it is true that the figures used and the com- parisons drawn do not always meet the case in hand, it is not because there is an intent to deceive on the one hand, or that the case to be illustrated is without truth in point of fact on the other; but, rather, it grows out of human limitations. Suppose that, for untold generations, at a given sea- son of the year, a peculiar class of creatures appeared in our world; that they had the capacity for taking food and drink, and that both were necessary for their sustenance, but that there was no food or drink such as they needed, provided in nature for them; or, sup- pose that food and drink by nature had been provided, but that they had neither instinct nor reason to direct them to the bounties provided by nature, nor did they know how to use it when it was given to them; that they, further, did not know or perceive the difference between land and water, day and night. Now they plunge into the stream and are destroyed, others of them walk over ledges and fall over precipices and are dashed to pieces, while others, again, perish on the plains for want of nourishment. For generations the same strange creatures have been coming, and still they come, only to wander in distress, to famish, and to die. You may turn over every page of written his- tory and you will find no record of such creatures as we have supposed, and then you may go to the records of the rock-written history of the dead ages, and there, Miracles — Their Credibility and Intent 75 too, you will search for them in vain. Nature's God has never brought into being a creature for whose wants he has not made ample provision. *'He feeds the young ravens when they cry.'' Now, let this illustration be applied to man as he really is. Take into account the dignity of his nature and the place he holds among earth's creatures. How much superior he is to the creation by which he is sur- rounded. He alone of earth's creatures is endowed with reason; all below him, with animal sense. Take into account, too, the difference between mere animal sense and the infinite faculties of a being such as man is. Now add to all this, that man, the creature to be com- pared, not only has the capacity to acquire knowledge, but also to cultivate and develop his faculties, reason, memory, and affection, and that he really does this in accord with a natural law of his being, and all, too, without any knowledge whatever of a future life. Now suppose that when he has thus reached his intellectual zenith, with all his aspirations for an endless life in tune to the most exquisite and sound thoughts and feel- ings, amid his joys and his sorrows, his pleasures and his pains, as he stands upon this earth as it rolls in ma- jestic silence through the mighty void, with death and decay all around, and in the presence of an open grave, there comes no voice from beyond the tomb to assure him that he shall live after death — to assure him that death does not end all. This really is man's condition if the Bible is not true ; and would not such a state of human nature be more deplorable, more sad, more mournful, and more out of accord and at war with the divine good- 7$ Apologetics ness than any disaster that could at all befall animal nature? The Author of nature has provided amply for all the physical wants of his creatures, including man. If he has thus made provision for the lower na- ture of man, is it reconcilable with his divine goodness if he has left unprovided man's higher, spiritual na- ture? Man's greatest need to secure his happiness here, and to hold him to a worthy life, is an unmistakable communication from the infinite Father that death does not end all, that the soul is immortal, and how he must live to secure the divine favor. This the Holy Scriptures claim, and Christians believe them to be; and God Almighty's seal to his book is the miracles that were performed by those whom he sent as his am- bassadors to make such a needed and unmistakable communication. CHAPTEE V. Miracles — Continued. Two things at least are now manifest : first, that the Founder of Christianity and his disciples claimed to •», . »w perform miracles, and that the miracles which they Disciples performed were the evidence of their divine commis- ^^gardinK sion; and, second, that the people believed the miracles Miraciest thus wrought to be genuine. Now were the disciples and people deceived or not ? is a very important inquiry. 1. No well informed person will question the intel- ligence of the age in which Jesus was born, nor the general enlightenment that obtained in his native land at the time of his nativity. The age of Greek litera- ture had culminated and was passing, or had passed; was the Latin empire then ruled the world, and Koman lit- i»i*emgen* erature was in its zenith. The books of the Old Testa- ment were complete; all the Apocryphal literature of the Hebrews had already been written, and their wisest doctors and priests then held sway in the Sanhedrim. The world's greatest poets had lived, written, and passed away — Homer, David, Hesiod, -^schylus, Hor- ace, and Virgil. Philosophy had already swept over the entire domain of human thought, and some of the closest thinkers representing any age had already lived, and the world was in the possession of their investiga- tions — Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero, the ora- tor, statesman, and author. 77 78 Apologetics At the time of the advent, the two popular systems of philosophy were the skeptical and the Epicurean. The former turned religion into a jest and denied the possibility of arriving at truth, and placed the mind on a sea of doubt; the latter placed human happiness in ease, which ultimately led to, and taught that wan- ton luxury and a supreme indiiference, both to the pres- ent and the future, secured the highest good. There was another system, the Stoical. This maintained that virtue was the highest good. It certainly had many virtues, and maintained some noble principles; but its cold indifference to human sorrow and suffering, its abnegation of human want, its stern self-reliance, and extravagant exaggerations of its own virtues placed it in strange contrast with, and in opposition to the whole genius of Cliristianity. At this time, also, flourished the Jewish Alexandrian philosophy. It consisted in blending the doctrines of Plato with Jewish theology, and was known as theo- sophic or theologic. All these systems, after so many Aiezan- ages of patient thought and investigation, failed to re- veal God, and resulted only in a heartless skepticism. This result not being satisfactory, men turned their attention to Oriental theosophy and sought there to find a solution of the problem of human destiny. "Chief among the religious systems of the East in prac- tical influence on the Grecian mind was the Jewish theology, as presented in the Hebrew Scriptures, and which, as blended with the lofty idealism of Plato, formed this Jewish-Hellenic school." This system op- posed the divine to the earthly,- contemning the mate- drian Pliilosopby. Miracles 79 rial and sensible, "requiring an ascetic emancipation of the soul from the bondage of sense, and believing in a divine revelation to man in the state of enthusiasm.'^ How far this system of mysticism was removed from the benevolent spirit and moral genius of Christianity is too well known to need naming here. These schools of philosophy, while they could not have given rise to Christianity, nor in any sense have favored its promulgation, were, nevertheless, well adapted to prepare the public mind to investigate the new system of religion and to critically examine the grounds of its claims; and if there were any defects in the proofs which it introduced as evidence, to have exposed them. Civilization and learning, in the ancient world, were then at their zenith, and, while the age of Pericles and Alcibiades had passed when Greece was reduced to a Eoman province, yet Athens was still a great commer- cial center, and the Areopagus the most sacred and reputable court of law in the then known world. This court had then, and has had a world reputation for itg legal research and the impartiality and weight of its decisions. It is an admitted fact that, while the Eo- man sword conquered Greece, Grecian philosophy in turn conquered Rome. Julius Csesar was a pupil of Milo, and Cicero himself was a pupil of both Milo and Philo, the latter of whom was a refugee from Athena at Rome during the civil war. Roman senators as well as other men, not a few, either sent their sons to Greece to be educated or had Greek instructors brought to Rome to educate their families. Now it was in this bright, intellectual age, "the golden age of Rome," that 80 Apologetics Jesus was born. And, too, it was an age "proverbial for its preeminence in literature and the arts." Au- gustus Caesar was on the throne of Rome at the time, the twelfth year of his reign, and about all that civili- zation and learning could achieve for the world, it had the full and unembarrassed opportunity of accomplish- ing during his reign. The student of history who is familiar with the classics of the Augustan age, yes, with all forms of learning in that age of culture, knows well that no other age in human history was so pecul- iarly fitted to find the truth and expose error as was the era of the advent of the Son of Man. Viewing Christianity from this lofty attitude, it oc- cupies a most enviable position. Not in an unlettered, but to an age celebrated by story and immortalized in song, Jesus first announced himself. He sent out his apostles to preach the gospel over classic ground, and established his church in the land of Euclid, Socrates, and Plato, of Demosthenes and Longinus, of Solon, Lycurgus, and Priam, of Homer, ^schylus, and Pin- dar; in the classic lands of the yellow Tiber, where Horace and Virgil, Terence and Varro had sung their liquid measures, and where Livy, Sallust, Cicero, and Atticus lived and wrote, the historic land, whose classic halls had often reechoed to the boisterous Pholloc and the thundering dithyramb. "Countries that had given birth to such men were not likely to shut their eyes upon the gradual encroachment of a religion that counteracted all their previous notions, and that poured contempt upon their altars and their gods.'* Look for a moment at the constellation of great men who lived Miracles 81 during the age Jesus and his apostles lived, or about that time — Seneca, Lucian, Quintus Curtius, the El- der Pliny, Tacitus, Martial, Epictetus, Josephus, Quin- tilian; these are the men under whose eyes, as it were, the gospel was preached and the miracles recorded in the New Testament performed. Hence it will be seen that, while Christ's immediate disciples were not men of great learning, yet they, with their Master, preached his gospel and performed their miracles "in the presence of men and women of cul- ture and learning, who believed not only their preach- ing, but also believed the "mighty works" — the mir- acles — which were wrought by them to be genuine. The best evidence they could give of their belief was just to do what they did — "become his disciples.*' Now, the only reward the Master promised his dis- ciples, and to all who would become his followers, was, in a word, "eternal life." The proof he gave to them of his divine commission was his miracles. They were 60 situated as to know whether his miracles were gen- uine or spurious. If his miracles were spurious, that is, if the proof of his divine commission was spurious. then he was a fraud, and his divine commission was a farce, and his promised reward — eternal life — was a myth. His disciples and those who waited on his min- istry, and were eye-witnesses of his miracles, surely knew whether his miracles were spurious or genuine. If they knew them to be spurious, they also knew he was a deceiver; if they knew he was a deceiver, they also knew his promise of eternal life was a deception, for then it is not his to give. Would a reasonable man 82 Apologetics Apostles had Power to Work Miracles. become the follower of another whom he knew to be a deceiver in hope of receiving a reward such as eternal life, when he, at the same time, knew that the only proof which he gave of his divine commission was a fraud, which divine commission, also, was the only guar- antee that he gave of his ability to bestow eternal life upon his followers? To assume, then, that Jesus was not God's ambassador to earth to reveal the will of the Father to his chil- dren, is to assume that the disciples and recorders of his gospel were the followers of one whom they knew to be a deceiver in hope of receiving the reward of "eter- nal life" which he promised them, which eternal life they also knew existed only in the brain of their Mas- ter; moreover, that they went forth hazarding every- thing to preach a gospel which they knew to be false for the sake of one whom they knew had tried to de- ceive them, and for the sake, also, of a reward which, in so far as their Master was concerned, they knew did not exist. It requires here really more faith to doubt than it does to believe. It was not only Jesus, the recognized founder of Christianity, who claimed to perform miracles, and to whom miraculous power was attributed, but his dis- ciples and apostles made a like claim for themselves, based on the persumption of a miraculous gift having been bestowed upon them by their ]\Iaster in accord with his special promise ;^ and to them also many mir- acles are ascribed. Now, these disciples and apostles surely knew whether they had this miraculous gift or * John 14: 12; Mark 19. Miracles 83 had it not; whether they really healed the sick and raised the dead, whether the man maimed in respect to his limbs actually rose up and walked, and whether their fetters in prison actually fell olf, and the prison door swung open at the approach or touch of the angel. Now, their whole course in all their after life was based on their professed conscious knowledge of the reality of the miraculous gift received from their Master, and then exercised by each for himself on aihicted hu- manity. In all this they were either deceived or not deceived, or they were deceivers. The former was not possible if the latter were true; that is, if they were deceivers, then they led their life of suffering and sor- row at the sacrifice of every earthly advantage and com- fort, in conscious knowledge every moment that their professed miraculous gift, and pretended exercise of it, had no foundation whatever in truth, and that their supposed hope of, and belief in, immortality beyond the grave, based on the promises of Christianity, was a lie — but this is not reasonable, therefore the probabili- ties are that they were not deceived and were possessed of a miraculous gift, and that their claims were true. Also, they exercised this superhuman, miraculous gift in the presence of all the people, and their miracles were all open to inspection, and were critically examined. The both by friends and foes. ofthf*^' 2. The miracles wrought both by Christ and his fol- Miracles lowers were such as to be open at once to inspection open^S^*^ by the senses. They were not sleight-of-hand perform- Criticism ances, not the trick of a juggler; nor did they in any Detection sense partake of that nature. A blind man received his o^ Fraud. 84 Apologetics sight, a multitude was fed with a few loaves and fishes, a dead man was raised to life, a leper was healed — such are some of the miracles recorded in the New Testa- ment. Also, these miracles were performed in the pres- ence of mixed multitudes — men and women of all classes were witnesses of them, the Pharisee, the Sad- ducee, centurions, doctors, lawyers, Komans, Greeks, beggars, publicans, and scribes, yes, all classes were duly represented, so that it was truthfully said, "These things were not done in a corner." 3. Again, the miracles recorded in the Scriptures cover a period of not less than from fifteen hundred to two thousand years. The miracles of the New Testa- ment extend over or cover a period of about seventy or eighty years, which period, too, as already stated, was the most enlightened that belongs to the ancient world. It need not be here stated how rapidly the chances of exposure multiply with the repetition of the same fraud performed or repeated by the same individual. But these miracles were wrought through the series of years mentioned, and in every instance were recognized as genuine. They were performed in the villages, in the towns, in the cities, and in the country places. Some- times Christ, unaccompanied by his disciples, per- formed his miracles in the presence of the multitude, at other times in the presence of some or all of his dis- ciples and apostles. They were not limited in the marv- elous works to special occasions or particular localities, but wherever a great act of mercy was needed, or a great all-important truth of religion was to be established, or God's authority was to be vindicated, they performed Miracles 85 their miracles, and thus accomplished their divine com- mission. 4. IS^or did either Christ or any one of his disciples ever fail in his attempt to perform a miracle. True, while the disciples were yet in the realm of doubt, they failed to cure the epileptic boy. "But Jesus rebuked him, and the demon went out, and the boy was cured from that hour."^ The cures effected were instan- taneous, and were not limited to any one class of dis- eases, but all manner of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits that obtained among the people were cured.^ And they came in crowds to see and to hear and to in- vestigate, that they might know the truth as well as to be healed. 5. It is an admitted fact, not only that the gospel miracles at the immediate time they were wrought were at once subjected to the most rigid criticism, but that every generation in Christendom, from first to last, has subjected them to a like critical examination, and yet they stand untouched and untarnished in the category of Christian evidences. Every tide of human thought that has been hurled against them has been shattered and broken, and the God of destiny has swept them away. These miracles were not only exposed to the most public scrutiny, both of the learned and the illit- erate, the wise and the unwise, but in their very nature they were such that any mind could examine them. They, being performed in the interests of a new re- ligion, and given as its evidence of divine authority, — a religion, too, that declared war against every other Christ and Disciples Never Failed In Performing Miracles. » Matt. 17: 17-19. » Luke 7: 21. 86 Apologetics religion and pronounced them all false, and that to suc- ceed must annihilate all others, — would, in the very na- ture of the case, not only provoke every form of scrutiny and criticism, but also arouse a storm of opposition, both from the civil government and from every form of ecclesiasticism, as well as from paganism. It is also an admitted fact that as miracles multiplied, the storm of opposition increased, until the most bitter persecution was developed, and every miracle wrought was watched and critically investigated, with a view to exposing it. These miracles, also, were published and noised abroad, and the people flocked together to see the per- sons on whom they had been performed, and ques- tioned them, as in the case of Lazarus. Their publica- tion at the very time they were wrought, and their be- ing appealed to as the evidence of the divine commis- sion of those who performed them, and the place of their occurrence, and the naming of the persons who were the recipients of them, afforded every possible op- portunity to the investigator to detect and expose the fraud, if any fraud obtained. The four Gospels and the Acts, according to the New Testament chronology of Zahn, were written in the following order and time : Matthew wrote his Aramaic Gospel in Palestine in 62 ; Mark completed his Gospel while in Eome in the sum- mer of 64 ; Luke wrote his Gospel and the Acts in 75 ; and John completed his Gospel and his Epistles be- tween 80 and 90. Zahn is one of the most conservative New Testament scholars on the continent, and no one will charge him with having set his dates of the Gos- pels too early, while others have assigned a date to Miracles 87 Matthew's Gospel not later than the seventh or eighth year after the death of our Lord; but be this as it may, even if the miracles received their first publication in the Gospels at the dates assigned by Zahn, yet ample opportunity for their examination was afforded, for the witnesses, or at least many of them, must have been yet alive. But it is a fact notorious in the gospel his- tory that from the opening of Christ's ministry to the death of "the beloved disciple," at least, the working of miracles was one of the important factors in all their labors. Their miracles were admitted facts, even if they were attributed to demons. The people flocked to Jesus to be healed. The leper, the blind, the deaf, the afflicted of fever, all came or were brought to him, says the record.^ And then the apostles, in "his name," wrought the wonderful works of God-; and appealed to the people as witnesses of the fact of his miracles. "Ye men of Israel," said Peter, "hear these words : Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of j'ou, as ye yourselves know."^ These appeals must have stung to the heart every enemy of the new faith, and served as an additional incentive to investigation. They Fought investigation, examina- tion, and criticism at the hand of their opponents, and afforded to them every possible opportunity to detect and to ferret out every conceivable clue to imposture and fraud. 6. Now, the Author of Christianity was not a learned man, neither were his disciples. This is a fact >Matt. 8:3, 6, 15, 38. » Acts 3: 16. "Acts 22: 22. 88 Apologetics Jesus and that must be taken into account. "The Jews therefore Disciples marveled, saying [of JesusJ, How knoweth this man lut- and 80 ters, having never learned ?"^ Of his disciples, at least Incapable ^f Peter and John, it was "perceived that they were un- of Imposing IT,. ,, on the learned and ignorant men. ^ Nor were they men of Credulity of wealth and inlluence. Of Jesus it was said, "The foxes theAge. ' have holes, and the birds of the heavens have nests ; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head,"^ and his disciples were fishermen and tax-collectors. On the supposition that Jesus was only a man, and a pretender, how is it conceivable that he and a dozen men of only like qualifications, unlettered Jews with himself, could take their place among the educated and cultured of society in that marvelous age of learning, and establish such a stupendous religious fraud upon the world as Christianity? For it must be admitted that with his pierced hands he has lifted empires from off their hinges, revolutionized both the philosophy and religion of the ages, and turned the current of centuries from their deep-worn channels. Also, it must be borne in mind tliat amid the strifes, persecutions, and intimidations that obtained among the eye-witnesses to the miracles wrought by Jesus and his apostles not one, even, con- fessed that he was deceived or bribed, but always averred the truth of what he had seen and experienced. Judas, who betrayed his Lord, did not deny his mir- acles or charge the Master with deception, but con- fessed that he had betrayed "innocent blood."* No, not one (while some, through the severest torture, aban- doned their faith ) ever professed that he. had been «John7:15. » Acts 4: 13. »Matt.8:20. * Matt. 27:4. Miracles 89 deceived in the works wrought by Christ and his apos- tles. Surely, it would have been an easy matter, and, at the same time, a creditable act, for such persons to have exposed the fraud, if any fraud obtained, in the marvelous works performed. But the records of the age do not furnish a confession from any one who turned away from his Lord that he had been deceived. Surely, those who embraced Christianity were made ac- quainted with its secrets, and if there were any fal- lacies, they knew them, and could have exposed them. This they did not do. In the presence of all the accu- sations that were charged against Jesus, and having listened to the testimony, and after a personal examina- tion of the accused, Pilate said, "I find no fault in him," and even went so far as to wash his hands and aver, "I am innocent of this man's blood." 7. K'ow a word or two more about the real charac- ter of the miracles themselves. It will be readily ad- mitted that they were either true or false. If they were false, as stated elsewhere, the persons who performed The them knew it, and could not have been good men, but ^^ff*****' deceivers, for it is not supposable that by some strange Miracles infatuation they were self-deceived. It is not conceiv- ^A^^Im-- able that a sane man can so deceive himself and the en- imposilUe. tire community as to believe that he has raised a dead man to life, that they are dining with him at the table, for in such a miracle, be it remembered, on the assump- tion that it is a self-deception, three classes must be deceived : first, the miracle performers ; second, the per- son upon whom the miracle is wrought; and, third, the 90 Apologetics eye-witnesses. It is not conceivable that such a speciefi of deception could have obtained through a long period of years, and the deception remain a secret for more than eighteen centuries, and the fraud never either de- tected or exposed. Surely, the miracles of the Scrip- tures, neither in their history nor in their character, accord with the idea that their agents were imposters and were of impure motives. Most truthfully says an able apologist, "But most singularly, contrary to all ex- perience and all law, on the assumption that the mir- acles of Christ and his apostles were fictitious, you dis- cover nothing in them but what is entirely worthy of the majesty, holiness, justice, and goodness of the God by whose power they professed to be wrought." Is it possible for man to conceive of works more in accord with the dignity, the holiness, and the sacred oltice of the Saviour of men and his apostles, and better quali- fied to endorse their high claims than the gospel mir- acles? These men, although betrayed, imprisoned, mocked, spat upon, and put to death, all save perhaps one, yet sustained a dignity, serenity, and grace, and led a life tliat is the marvel of the ages. Such a life is not the life of a deceiver nor of one who was self-deceived. Eut if they were either deceivers or de- ceived, their life, then, is out of accord with laws of nature and the miracle of the ages. Says Origen, the most learned of the church fathers of his day, who wrote a criticism on the works of Cclsus: "Undoubt- edly we do think him to be the Christ and the Son of God, because he healed the lame and the blind; and we are more confirmed in this persuasion by what is Miracles 91 written in the prophecies, 'Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear, and the lame man shall leap as an hart.' But that he also raised the dead ; and that it is not a fiction of those who wrote the Gospels is evident from hence, that, if it had been a fiction, there would have been many re- corded to be raised, and such as had been a long time in their graves. But it not being a fiction, few have been recorded ; for instance, the daughter of the ruler of a synagogue, of whom I do not know why it was said, 'She is not dead, but sleepeth,' expressing something pe- culiar to her, not common to all dead persons : and the only son of a widow, on whom he had compassion, and raised him to life after he bid the bearers of the corpse to stop ; and the third, Lazarus, who had been buried four days." This is a most wonderful testimony, and I know of no appeal more explicit, more positive, and more direct to the Christian miracles than the words just quoted from the eminent father. 8. But the gospel miracles were not false, their ene- mies being the witnesses to their truth. Is it not re- Christ's markable that the Hebrew nation admitted their genu- ^^^^"^ ineness? All admit the Jew's dislike, yea, his bitter that He hatred of Jesus and his apostles; also, his strong love ^^^g* in favor of his own religious institution. Yet not one denial of the reality of any of the miracles of the Gospels is recorded by him, and this amounts to a silent admission of their genuineness. But it is a fact, that the whole Hebrew family was astounded and speechless in the presence of the wonders wrought by him and his disciples, who was to be the light of Israel. Is it also 92 Apologetics not a singular fact that no one, either Jew or Gentile, ever detected, or was supposed or professed or was re- ported to have professed to have detected any imposture or fraud in the gospel miracles? On this feature of that age history is utterly mule, from which but one inference can be drawn, namely, that the recorded mir- acles of the gospel were at that time, both by friend and foe, recognized as facts. Now, these miracles were "not wrought in a corner," as Paul states, but wherever Jesus and his disciples went these miracles were pro- fessed to have been wrought. Had it been untrue, the literature of that age, both Jewish and pagan, would have been crowded with statements of the fraud. But not one line of that kind was written; but, on the con- trary, they were admitted to be facts. The Talmud admits their reality, but vainly attempts to explain them as the work of magic. Celsus, a pagan philos- opher, who lived about the middle of the second cen- tury, and a man of no mean genius, wrote a treatise against the whole scheme of Christianity, in which he admits that Christ WTOUght miracles, and asserts that he had been in Egypt and learned magic art, by which he wrought miracles, "which engaged great multitudes to adhere to him as the Messiali." Hieroclcs also ad- mitted the verity of the Christian miracles, as did Julian, the emperor, who says, "Jesus did nothing worthy of fame, unless any one can suppose the curing the lame and the blind and exorcising demons in the villages of Bethsaida are some of the greatest works."^ The same author admits that Jesus had poAvor over *LardDer, Vol. IV., pp. 332-842. Miracles 93 demons, and that he walked on the surface of the sea. According to Saint Jerome, Porphyry, the most learned and critical of the pagan writers against Christianity, acknowledged the verity of these miracles, but ac- counted for them as the work of magic, as did Celsus. Porphyry recognized that demons were subject to Christ, for he says, "After Jesus was worshiped, Esculapius and the other gods did no more converse with men." Quadratus, a pagan philosopher who be- came a Christian, says, "Those whom our Saviour raised and healed were not only seen while he himself was upon earth, but survived his departure out of the world; nay, some of them were living in our day."^ Hence, not the friends of Christianity only, but also its enemies bore witness to the gospel miracles. And while attempts were made by many to account for them by magic, yet their reality was denied by none. 9. ISTow there is one more fact that must be noted in this connection. During the time that Christ and his apostles were performing their miracles, yes, dur- ing the first century, many who at first were persecutors of the Christians afterwards became converts to the faith they had sought to destroy. And the chief factor persecutors which led up to their conversion was their positive ®' ^ . , ChtlBtlans knowledge and belief of the verity of the miracles re- Become corded in the gospel. Among the converts were Jews, Converts. Greeks, and Eomans. Each had his own peculiar re- ligion, which was the religion of his fathers, and all the bias peculiar to ancestral customs and institutions gath- ered about him. All history, both sacred and profane, « Euseb. Hist. 1-4, c. 3. 94 Apologetics that belongs to that age, is full of the scorn, odium, and hatred that attached to Christianity in that day. The historian seems not to weary of telling of the cruel mockings, the scourgings, and the bitter torture and death to which the Christians of the first century were subject. But in the face of all these obstacles, these men who themselves had been persecutors, broke away from the established institutions of their fathers and embraced the faith which they had despised. Thoy knew before they did this the ridicule to which they would expose themselves and the odium that would attach to such a course. In this they were not deceived, but, possessed of a conviction that these teachers were sent from God, and that their mighty works were Heav- en's seal of approval upon their claims, they embraced the Christian faith and became its martyrs. Had there been but one persecutor who afterwards embraced Chris- tianity, it, perhaps, would be no marvel ; but there were not only scores and hundreds who did so, but numy ten thousands did the same thing. Had these converts been predisposed to favor Christianity, their testimony might not be of much weight in the case, but having been enemies, — persecutors, — their testimony is ponderous, yes, overwhelming. It is generally conceded that men before acting are always prompted by some motive. But in the case of these men, what motive could have prompted them to Embracing , . . . cnrisuanity abandon their persecution and embrace Christianity, ^"•' and thus take the place of the persecuted? It surely Conviction ^ . ^ of the was not personal earthly gain. It could not have been Trutn. worldly honor. It could not have been worldly power. The Motive In Miracles 95 The Author of Christianity promised nothing of this kind to his followers. He told them, on the other hand, "In the world ye shall have tribulation/' "Ye shall persecute [them] from city to city."^ "Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake."^ The conditions to which the Christians of that age were subjected are most vividly set forth in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and in the same epistle the reasons are assigned why they underwent such conditions for the cause of Chris- tianity. "And others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword: they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute, af- flicted, evil entreated (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth."^ Is it reasonable that men would embrace a faith and espouse a cause which were loading to such issues when they knew that they were grounded on error? Such a course is altogether out of accord with human nature. The true motive which prompted these men to change their course in life and in religion is definitely set forth by Saul of Tarsus, who was one of them, in the defense before Agrippa, the king. The fact of the resurrection, and the marvelous manifestation from heaven which ap- peared unto him and his company while on their mission of persecution to Damascus was overwhelm- ingly convincing to him of the verity of Christ's mis- sion and of the whole scheme of Christianity. The lives ^ John 16:33. Matt. 23: 34. * Mark 13: 13; John 10: 33. *Heb. 11: 36-38. 96 Apologetics led by these witnesses are an illustration of the truth of the testimony which they give as the reason for their change in their religious life. Indeed, if such witnesses are not to be believed, where are we to seek for testi- mony in proof of the truth of any case that comes under the senses? Now to recapitulate the arguments adduced in this chapter : 1. The age in which Christ and his apostles lived and wrought their miracles was one of great intellec- tual enlightenment and learning. The civilization, lit- erature, philosophy, and art of the ancient world cul- minated in that age, and the human mind was never better prepared to test the truth of miracles than at that time. 2. The miracles performed were at once open to the inspection of the senses, and their truth could be, and was tested by the witnesses, and the witnesses were from all classes and conditions of men. 3. The Scripture miracles extend over a period from fifteen hundred to two thousand years. The New Tes- tament miracles, over a period of almost one hundred years, or, at least, up to the death of the "beloved dis- ciple." The miracles thus wrought were always recog- nized as genuine, and were not limited to any special locality. 4. Neither Christ nor any one of his disciples ever failed in his attempt to perform a miracle, except as stated on page 85. The cures effected were always in- stantaneous, regardless of the nature of the disease. 5. These miracles were not only subject to the Miracles 97 scrutiny of the eye-witnesses, but they have been open to the inspection and criticism of every generation that has lived since that day. And, too, they, having been performed in the interest of a new religion, attracted special attention, and must have aroused great opposi- tion and elicited the most rigid scrutiny. Also, their publication at the very time they were performed, and being appealed to as a special proof of the performer's divine commission, afforded ample opportunity to de- tect and expose fraud. But they were admitted to be facts. 6. That Christ and his apostles were not learned men is an admitted fact, yet on the supposition that their mir- acles were frauds and that Christianity is a deception, they, by their fraud, have lifted empires from off their hinges, turned the currents of the centuries from their deep-worn channels, and revolutionized the religion? thought of the ages. Of all who embraced Christianity in that day, notwithstanding the persecutions and in- timidations, not one confessed that he had been deceived by the miracles of his Lord, but even averred that what they had seen and heard were matters of fact. 7. The miracles recorded in the Scriptures were either true or false. If they were false, the men who performed them must have been bad men, or they were self-deceived. The life of suffering they lived and the death they died disprove the assumption that they were bad men. On the theory that they were self-deceived, in each case three classes must have been deceived : first, the miracle worker ; second, the recipient of the miracle ; and, third, the eye-witnesses ; that is, Jesus was deceived 7 98 Apologetics when he is said to have raised Lazarus from the dead; second, Lazarus was deceived when he was said to be dead and raised to life ; and, third, all the eye-witnesses were deceived when they thought Lazarus was dead and supposed Jesus raised him to life again. This is not reasonable. Christ and his disciples did not live and act the part of self-deceived men. More than eighteen centuries lie between their day and ours, yet no decep- tion, no fraud, has ever been detected in the gospel mir- acles. 8. But the enemies of Christianity attest the truth of the gospel miracles, also. Not one recorded case from that age comes to us where an enemy of the Chris- tian faith denied the reality of the recorded miracles of Christ and his apostles. But, on the other hand, both Jew and pagan admitted their reality, but attributed them to the work of demons. 9. But this must not be overlooked in this connec- tion, namely, that many who at first were persecutors of the Christians broke away from their persecution and embraced Christianity, and died martyrs to the faith. These converts professed to have been convinced of the truth of Christianity by the miracles wrought by Christ and his disciples and the worthy lives they lived. Surely, their attitude to the Christian faith in all their after life, as contrasted with their life prior to their con- version, renders them very worthy witnesses. CHAPTER VI. Facts Admitted in Christianity. As THE world looks backward, it sees many important milestones set up, marking the route over which the family of mankind has traveled. Some of these stones Admitted mark definite epochs in human history. Christianity *y ^^ is one of these. There is no fact in history better au- thenticated and more completely buttressed about with admitted proofs than are the facts connected with the advent of Jesus of Nazareth and his authorship of Christianity. That Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in Judea, during the reign of Augustus Caesar; that he chose twelve men as his disciples whom he trained for the preaching of the gospel; that neither he nor they were learned men ; that he taught not longer than three years, from place to place in Palestine ; that one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot by name, betrayed him, and that he was condemned by the Jewish Sanhedrim, and put to death by crucifixion under the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was the Eoman procurator at Jerusalem, — all are facts admitted by the well in- formed. Tacitus, who wrote about thirty years after Christ's ascension, says, speaking of the Christians, "They had their denomination from Christus, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was put to death as a criminal by the procurator, Pontius Pilate."^ That John the * Tacitus, Aunals, 15, Cbap. *%. 100 Apologetics Baptist, whose preaching preceded that of Christ, and about whom much is said in the Gospels, was put to death by Herod, the king, is verified by Josephus, the Jew, in the following statement, "Now, some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Bap- tist; for Herod slew him,"^ Influence on ^^ ^ ^^i®^ period after the death of Jesus, his religion Fasanism. had made a profound impression, not only upon the mind of the Jew, whose religion was a pure mono-, theism, but the pagan mind, also, was being powerfully influenced by what he had taught. That he had taught, while living, that he was sent of God to establish a di- vine, everlasting, universal kingdom, of which he, the ^'promised Messiah," was to be the head, was a fact well understood. Not longer than three days after his death, his disciples and the two Marys witnessed that he had risen from the dead, and appeared to them in accord with the promise he had made to them before his death. This alleged resurrection of their Master they published, and proclaimed it abroad, for which they were subjected to the most bitter persecution, cruel tor- ture, and death. Suetonius says, "The Christians were severely punished."^ Pliny the Younger, says, speak- ing of the spread of Christianity and the persecution of the Christians, "Multi omiiis aetatis, omnis ordinis, utrusque sexus etiam vocantur in periculum" ("Many of every rank, and of both sexes, were brought into peril").' The same author was magistrate in Pontus >Antiq. 18, 5-2. «Huet. Nero, Oaud. Cses., Chap. 16. "Plin. Eplet., 97, Mb. 10. JFhcts Admitted in Christianity 101 and Bithynia in 111 A. D., and in his report to the Emperor Trajan, says, "Soliti essent convenere, car- menque Christo quasi Deo dicere" ("They were accus- tomed to assemble, and to sing a hymn to Christ as to God"). "The contagion of this superstition," he con- tinues, "had spread, not into the cities merely, but also into villages and into fields. The temples were deso- late. The most sacred rites for some time were sus- pended. And scarcely any one was found to purchase victims for them."^ Tacitus, who wrote in 64 A. D., speaking of the persecution of Christians by Nero, says : "This pernicious superstition, thus checked for a while, broke out again, and spread not only over Judea, where the evil originated, but through Eome, also, whither everything bad upon earth finds its way, and is prac- ticed. Some who confessed their sect were first seized, and afterwards by their information, vast multitudes were apprehended, who were convicted not so much of the crime of burning Rome as of hatred to mankind. Their sufferings at their execution were aggravated by insult and mockery; for some were disguised in skins of wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs ; some were crucified, and others were wrapt in pitch shirts and set on fire when the day closed, that they might serve as lights to illuminate the night." This author states that Nero "lent his own gardens for these executions," and took part himself in the circensian entertainment, which he instituted for the occasion, "clad in the dress of a charioteer."^ These citations show not only who was the author of Christianity, but also the country in > Pliny, Epistle 97, liber 10. ■ Tacitus, Annals, lib. 16, Chap. 44. 102 Apologetics CliTistlan- ity Changes the Rellglou of the Roman EmplTO. The Beginning of Chris- tianity and the Opposition to its Foondera. which he lived and established the church, as well as its rapid development among the nations. But in spite of all forms of persecution, legal enactments, and threatenings, the religion of the cross moved on and out among the nations. In less than two years from the death of its Founder, it had overrun Judea, and by the close of the first century it had spread over Syria, Meso- potamia, Persia, Lybia, Egypt, Arabia, Armenia, Par- thia, and the whole of Asia Jlinor, and was preached in no small part of Europe. When Jesus and the resurrection was first preached in Eome, the empire was pagan, and her temples were all dedicated to heathen gods. In 313 A. D., Constan- tine, then emperor of Kome, became a convert to Chris- tianity and proclaimed the empire Christian. But even before his day, Arnobius tells us that "the whole world was filled with Christ's doctrine." He also speaks of the "diffusion throughout all countries, of an innumer- able body of Christians in distant provinces, of strange revolutions of opinion of men of great genius; orators, grammarians, rhetoricians, physicians, lawyers, having come over to the institution, and that also in the face of threats, execution, and tortures." The old religions ■which obtained in those countries where and when Chris- tianity came, have been displaced, and now in the clos- ing decade of the nineteenth century Jupiter is without a worshiper, and has not a temple on the face of the whole earth. No fact in history is more obvious than that at the time of the advent the religions of the world were two — Jewish and pagan. Both of these were hostile to Facts Admitted in Christianity 103 Christianity. It not only had to make its way against religious prejudice, but against the intellect and learn- ing, both of Jews and pagans. Christianity threw itself at once across the pathway of both these religions, and with an open, avowed purpose of destroying them and overturning their most sacred and ancient institutions. To accomplish this. Christians organized themselves in- to societies, which they called the church, and under this form of organization a most marvelous development has obtained. Different forms of church polity have been established, — the rites of baptism and the sacra- ment of the Lord's Supper, and the change of the Jew- ish Sabbath to Sunday and its observance, all have been in practice since the days of the apostles. At different periods great church councils have been called to settle disputed theological doctrines, and Churcii learned creeds have been formulated and adopted, which J^ ^^^^ to-day are in force among the churches. On the great influence, problems of the church and her religious institutions so much has been written that the modern world is almost flooded with the literature of religious thought, to a degree that it pervades, directly or indirectly, all modern philosophy, poetry, science of government, his- tory, and art. While these contributions have come largely from the pen of the Christian scholar, yet the power of Christianity has been so forceful as to often influence the pen, not only of the non-Christian author favorably on religious lines, but even the pen of the skeptic as well, for Strauss, Eenan, and IngersoU have said many things good of Jesus. No reasonable man questions but that our modern 104 Apologetics Influence of CHrlstlan- Ity on CiTlllzatlon. Christian- ity Claims to be Divine and Appeals to Miracles as Proof. civilization has been marvelously affected by Chris- tianity. Not only its literature, but its laws and its institutions have, in a sense, been molded by the Christ spirit. This could not well be otherwise, for the kings and the queens and the presidents of our Christian civ- ilization are Christians, at least in name, while many of them are Christians in fact. While it is true that in the name of religion many wicked and atrocious deeds have been done, yet every right-minded person knows they were perpetrated in violation of the plain letter and spirit of the Holy Scriptures. Aye, and the authors themselves of such wicked deeds were well aware that their acts were wholly out of accord with the teachings of Christ and his apostles. Again, we repeat what we have at least impliedly stated elsewhere, that it is an acknowledged historical fact that Christianity offered itself to the world, and was pushed into history, and demanded that it be heard and received upon the pretense of miracles publicly wrought as an evidence to all peoples where the gospel should be preached, of its divine authority; and that it was actually received by multitudes in the age and the identical localities where its miracles were wrought, upon the professed belief of the reality of those mir- acles. In this, including the Jew's religion and their Scriptures, Christianity is distinguished from all other religions. For, surely, no well informed person will claim that Mohammedanism or any other religion, ex- cept the religion of the Holy Scriptures, was received upon the fact of supposed miracles publicly wrought, as the miracles of the Scriptures are reported to have Micts Admitted in Christianity 105 been. Now, it is a known fact that multitudes of Jews and of pagans in different parts of the world where the apostles preached and wrought miracles, forsook the re- ligions of their fathers and embraced Christianity, and thus separated themselves from their friends and ex- posed themselves not only to many inconveniences, but to indignities, as well as, in a word, gave up the world, for that was the condition of discipleship. I ask, is it, therefore, reasonable that they would have done all this had they not positive knowledge of the truth of those miracles upon a knowledge or belief of which they pro- fessed to do it? Surely, the first converts to Chris- tianity must have believed them; that is, their accept- ance of Christianity was an open declaration of their knowledge or belief in the reality of those miracles. And as Bishop Butler has said : "And this their testi- mony is the same kind of evidence for those miracles as if they had put it in writing and these writings had come down to us. It is real evidence, because it is of facts which they had capacity and full opportunity to inform themselves of." For were a fact expressly re- lated by one or more ancient historians, and disputed in after ages, that this fact is acknowledged to have been believed by great numbers of the age in which the his- torian says it was done, would be allowed as an addi- tional proof of such fact, quite distinct from the express testimony of the historian. The credulity of mankind is acknowledged, and the suspicion of mankind ought to be acknowledged, too; and their backwardness even to believe, and, greater still, to practice what makes against their interest. And it must particularly be remem- 106 Apologetics bered that education and prejudice and authority were against Christianity in the age I am speaking of. So that the immediate conversion of such numbers is a real presumption of something more than human in this matter. Now, it is the combination of these admitted facts of primitive Christianity that makes its accumula- tive evidences so complete and overvrhelming. It is fact, not fancy, that the true apologist has always presented, and it is her truths that the opponents of Cliristianity have had to combat, and have vainly attempted to set aside. And, moreover, it is her facts which exhibit how grand a phenomenon Christianity is in the history of the world, and, therefore, the duty of the apologist is to make manifest that the Holy Scriptures give a true ac- count of its origin, for on its truth, not on fiction, on a knowledge of facts, not on human credulity, it must ever stand or fall. CHAPTER VII. The Christ — A Self-Revelation of God to Man. 1. Christianity alone presents the only ideal char- Jesus the acter to the world. It finds this personality in its own perfect li^q author, Jesus, the Nazarene. This Jesus is not a myth- the world ical, but a real character, whose nationality and country g^^g^^ ^®' are well known, and whose birth, life, and death created a new era in the world's history. He is the historic Christ, whose character is not made up of negative vir- tue alone, devoid of culpable traits, but a character which, through the vicissitudes of the centuries, has in- spired the lives of men with a religion of love that is adapted to all men of every age, temperament, and con- dition, a character which is not only the true type of virtue, but inspires the strongest incentive to practice it, and has exercised an influence so profound upon the world "that the simple record of three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and soften man- kind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and ex- hortations of moralists of all ages." Now, how is this character to be explained on the principles of human nature? In the Author of Christianity this peculiarity at once is manifest, that, while all other men, at least in a degree, are formed by the spirit of the age and their environments, in the Christ there is no impression or touch whatever, either of the age in which he lived 107 108 Apologetics Jesus i8 Cosmopoli- tan In his Character. Christ's Life on Earth was Solitary. or his environment, but he seems to have been absolutely over all and above all. The state of society and the tastes and customs of the people of his day are well known, as are also the expectations and hopes of his countrymen; yet, had he been brought up and lived in another world, he could not have been more free and untouched by, or exalted above them. In character, he is absolutely cosmopoli- tan, having nothing temporary or local in it. He stands out among the sons of men like an oasis in a desert, and from the day he was "lifted up," as the centuries have swept by, his fame has steadily increased, and the nations of earth have been so touched by his "drawing" power that now he is the most prominent figure and best known of all earth's children. Among the learned and the illiterate, his history and character are more studied than the history and character of any one member of our race, and more lives have been written of Jesus than of any other man. These lives have been written alike by Christians, skeptics, and Jews. Out of his teach- ings have come more of joy and comfort to the high and the low, the sick and the sorrowing of eartli's children than from all that sages have dreamed and poets sung. He has overturned empires, thrown down the temples of Jupiter, robbed him of his worshipers, and consigned him to the oblivion of the past. We find in Jesus nothing of the spirit of the age in which he lived. His apostles brought that spirit to him, and its strength is made manifest in the slowness with which it submitted, in these men, to the teachings of their Master. Indeed, he was a solitary being, whom The Christ 109 none understood, living for purposes comprehended only by himself, without the sympathy or support of a singio mind. The expectation of the advent of the Messiah was at its zenith among his people, and he claimed to be that person. But he threw himself across the path- way of the current opinions of his countrymen on that subject and resisted them without reserve. A temporal king and a temporal kingdom was the Jew's highest expectation — a leader that would marshal Israel and take vengeance upon her foes, and establish the throne of Davivl forever in Jerusalem. But he declared him- self ;-, mosienger of peace,^ t^ teacher of righteousness,* the Savio-:r cf the Gentiles as well as of the Jews,^ and that his Icingdom was not of this world, but spiritual.* Thus his conception of the kingdom of God and of the Messiah's reign was an offense to his people. Nor did he attempt in any way to disguise his purpose or soften his opposition to their dream of ages, their most cherished hopes, and thus conciliate prejudice and mollify tho effrontery of change from long established religious be- liefs and customs ; but, on the other hand, he showed his utter disdain for such methods, the resort of ambition and imposture. But with a seeming consciousness of the truth of hia cause, the Founder of Christianity adopted methods to accomplish his high mission — methods which would at once secure his hatred and rejection, which are out of accord with the principles of our common human na- ture, and which exonerate him from the possibility of *JoIin 14:27; 16:3. 'Matt. 5: 6. *Matt.l2:21. « John 18:^6. 110 Apologetics Personal Chaxacter- iBtics of the Christ. Eis Ideas Were Different From All Other Men. having been prompted by selfish aims or inspired by either ambition or imposture. 2. Now, let us note some of the personal character- istics of the Christ. The period in which he lived is well known to have been remarkably narrow and big- oted, and his own nation particularly selfish. But Jesus was in nothing more marked than in the vastness of his conceptions. Not the salvation of one nation, but to save a world, was his mission; and yet so bound- less and compassionate was he that not even a sparrow falls to the ground that does not receive his Father's notice.^ All that was vital in ancient Judaism he de- veloped from the creed of a tribe into the religion of a world. All about him was the narrow expectation of the Jew that Messiah would deliver God's ancient peo- ple at the sacrifice of the rest of mankind ; but, contrary to this expectation, he declared himself to be the de- liverer and light of the whole world, and, whether at the cross beneath or at the throne above, that consciousness never forsook him. The conception of one religion for all peoples was his own, and a thing unthought of by either Jcvf or pagan. Said Celsus, "The man who can believe it possible for Greeks and barbarians, in Asia, Europe, Libya, to agree in one code of religious laws must be utterly void of sense."^ The world's sages had never conceived of the possibility of a universal faith; it was above the philosopher's dream, and beyond the ambition of the conqueror's most extravagant imagina- tions. Now, these vast conceptions of Jesus — one religion * Matt. 10: 29. * Geikle, Life and Works of Jesus, p. 10. The Christ 111 for all peoples, the annihilation of all caste, a universal kingdom of righteousness and peace established on the law of love — cannot be reconciled on the principle of his environment. He was a Jew, and the law of environ- ment would be that he would think as a Jew and act as a Jew, but he did not. The first, last, and all-the-time thought of the Jew was, the superiority conferred on him and his people by the religion of Moses and their descent from Abraham. He never tired of saying, "We have Abraham to our father."^ The thought of the Hebrew mind of the age is expressed in the second Book of Esdras, thus : "On our account thou hast created the world. Other nations sprung from Adam, thou hast said, are nothing, and are like spittle, and thou hast likened their multitude to the droppings from a cask. But we are thy people, whom thou hast called thy first- born, thine only begotten, thy well-beloved."^ Also, in the Book of Sifri we read, "A single Israelite is of more worth in the sight of God than all the nations of the world ; every Israelite is of more value before him than ^^^ all the nations who have been or will be." But Jesus, the in direct opposition, declared the universal brotherhood ^^°1^*/m « of man and the Fatherhood of God. Of this the world and tue had never before heard, and was in no sense prepared ^^ ^qq^^""^ to receive it. It was not only an offense to the Hebrew, but to the Greek and the barbarian as well. While the world about him was a bundle of selfishness, the unique charm of his character was a life of absolute imselfish- ness. This life of self-denial he incorporated into his religion, and made it the test of all healthy religious »Matt.S:9. »(6:65>. 112 Apologetics How Account for the Character of Jesus. life. By this supreme standard of religion lie rebuked the asceticism of John in the solitudes of the wilderness and the religious austerities of the hermit in his cell. The church and the world alike had fenced off, as some- thing distinct from common duties of life, the domain of religion, but he pulled down the high wall and sancti- fied the whole sweep of existence. He carried religion into the haunts and homes of both public and private life, and declared it to be "more blessed to give than to receive." Active benevolence, labors to feed the hun- gry and clothe the naked, the recognition of every man as brother, sharing alike their joys and sorrows, dignify- ing every sphere of human activity, no difference how humble, how low, were his to do and teach, all subordi- nated* by a single aim, to the Father's glory. Now, how can these views — exalted views and vast conceptions of Christ — be reconciled with his humble station in life, his general environment? He was the reputed son of a carpenter, of humble education as well as birth, without means, without influence, only a carpenter. Judging from his environment, his knowledge of the world could not have been so very extensive ; his experi- ence had not been such as to have given him vast con- ceptions of a world empire, much less the idea of a spir- itual, universal kingdom and the means to employ for its establishment. All his life training and the circum- stances which ever surrounded him were just the oppo- site of this. Had he been a trained soldier under Ro- man discipline, and had he taken part as such in Rome's conquest of the world, such circumstances might have excited his ambition and broadened his views; but, I The Christ 113 tell you, the carpenter shop is not a place to create a conception of world empire, nor a life training among a class of pessimistic or religiously intolerant Jews cal- culated to inspire a thought of the universal brother- hood of man; neither did living under Eoman domina- tion tend to infuse into the heart the spirit, "Love your enemies." But under circumstances the most adverse to forming a character such as Jesus possessed, he lived and was trained. How can we account for this enigma, the exception in human history ? 3. What always strikes me most in the life and teachings of Jesus is, the cool, calm confidence he had in himself and the ultimate success of the cause which he represented. Says Dr. Channing, "Another striking ^.^ig circumstance in Jesus is the calm confidence with which Confidence of Jfisus In he always looked forward to the accomplishment of his Himself designs." He fully knew the strength of the passions and in hib and powers which were arrayed against him, and was perfectly aware that his life was to be shortened by vio- lence, yet not a word escaped him implying a doubt of the ultimate triumph of his religion. One of the beau- ties of the Gospels and one of the proofs of their gen- uineness is found in our Saviour's indirect and obscure allusions to his approaching sufferings and to the glory which was to follow — allusions showing us the work- ings of a mind thoroughly conscious of being appointed to accomplish infinite good through great calamity. This entire and patient relinquishment of immediate success, this ever-present persuasion that he was to per- ish before his religion would advance, and this calm, un- shaken anticipation of distant triumph, are remarkable 114 Apologetics traits, throwing a tender, solemn grandeur over our Lord, and wholly inexplicable by human principles or by the circumstances in which he was placed."^ 'Tor I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own wiJI, but the will of him tliat sent me."^ He claimed to be a messenger sent from the other side and to know all about that "unknown country." He was the first of all earth's children to set up such a claim. Moses and the prophets, among the Hebrews, Confucius, Buddha, and Zoroaster among the pagans, made no such high pre- tensions. He also set up the standard of infallibility for himself. "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."^ In this he was unlike other teachers. He seldom used argument, but, as a rule, stated facts and usually laid bare to the under- standing of the thoughtful final causes or results. He who goes to Jesus for instruction will be disappointed if he expects to find an exhaustive digest on art, science, or philosophy. This was not his mission. As one has said, "His sphere in religion, the character of God, the principles of the spiritual life, the forgiveness of sins, the discipline of the soul, the life to come." On ail these themes he has said the last word, and swept clear the mist-enshrouded coast of ontology, touched the mo!>t lofty arch of truth, and made plain the soul's way to God. He only of all earth's teachers has laid down the infallible rule on which man can think rightly on re- ligion, a future life, immortality, and how to come to God. The Christ never even hinted that his gospel, his teaching, should be questioned or be a subject of argu- i^hanning'B Works, p. 228. •John 6: 38. •Matt. 24:35. The Christ 115 ment. It was to be believed, received, and obeyed by all who would be blessed by it. It was a series of decla- mations set in the most forceful and winning manner. "Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that believeth on me hath everlasting life."^ "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God."2 Such language is not found on the lips of any other of the world's great teachers. It is peculiar to the man of Calvary, and, coming from his pure lips, it falls on the human ear like the cadence of a sweet song at the close of a bright summer day. On all great questions touching religion, God, and a future life, the world's sages have always spoken with great modesty and caution, aye, often with doubt. "Yes, Plato, thou reasonest well," said old Cato. But even with Plato it was only a matter of opinion, but with Jesus, opinion has developed into personal, conscious knowledge. "I am the living bread which came down out of heaven." Unlike all other men, the Christ made no mistakes. His life and his sayings have been before the world for almost nineteen centuries. They have been subjected to the scrutiny and criticism alike of friend and foe, and their verdict accords with the verdict of Pilate, "I find no fault in him." He always said the right thing at the right time, and in the right way, and to the best possible advantage. He never did a wrong act; it was always done at the right time, and in the right way to meet the conditions which prompted the action. There is no evidence that he ever corrected his statement, re- considered his plan, or changed his acts. He was the »John 6: 35, 51. » John 7: 17. 'John 6: 47. 116 Apologetics faultless man among men, a marvel in the world's his- tory. He stood out a mighty Pharos in the great sea of humanity, unequalled and unapproached and unap- proachable by any of the sons of men. In liim the race finds the perfect man, perfect in life, perfect in knowl- edge, aye, perfect in character — a perfect completion, and utterly unaccounted for by the natural principles of our common humanity. Imperfection is one of th'3 marked features of the world's greatest of men. Jesus is the only exception to this. All men have not been equally defective. Moses had fewer defects than the wise king of Israel, and he illustrated this in his remark- ably eventful life. David was better than Saul, Socrates than Philip of Macedon, and Cicero than j^ero, and the lives they lived are the illustrations of the fact. While the world's teachers, as a rule, in point of theory were good, their lives never measured up to what they taught. This same sad fact is only too true at the pres- ent. In tliis respect, history has repeated itself with every generation of our sorrow-smitten race. To teach the truth is one thing, but to illustrate what the teacher has taught in his own well-regulated life is quite a dif- ferent thing. This Jesus did, so that it makes him a marked man, an exception to all men. He walked through the world in this respect a moral giant among men. The allure- ments of society and the temptations of demons had no effect upon him, and, like a Colossus, he stood among men, "the holiest among the mighty, and the mightiest among the holy." Spinoza calls him "the symbol of divine wisdom," Hegel, "the union of divine and hu- The Christ 117 man," and Dr. Channing says, "The character of Jesus is wholly inexplicable on human principles," and the Word of God calls him "King of kings and Lord of lords." Said De Wette, the most learned and intel- lectual of all the German critics, "This only I know, that there is salvation in no other name than in the name of Jesus Christ, the crucified, and that nothing loftier offers itself to humanity than the God manhood realized in him, and the kingdom of God which he founded — an idea and problem not yet rightly under- stood and incorporated into the life, even of those who in other respects rank as the most zealous and warm- est Christians." At his teachings, paganism is gradu- ally melting away, and uncivilized tribes arc becoming nations under Christian governments. By his magic touch whatever was vital in ancient Judaism was ex- panded from the mere creed of a tribe into a religion for the whole world. He opened up the secrets of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and taught the world to use and appreciate the terms "my Father" and "your Father." "From first to last Jesus is the same, always the same, majestic and simple, in- finitely severe and infinitely gentle. Throughout a life passed under the public eye he never gave occasion to find fault. The prudence of his conduct compels our admiration by its union of force and gentleness. Alike in speech and action, he is enlightened, consistent, and calm. Sublimity is said to be an attribute of divinity. What name, then, shall we give him in whose character were united every element of the sublime?" "He is a mystery indeed to our intellectual and philosophical 118 Apologetics comprehension, but a mystery made manifest as the most glorious fact in history — the blessed mystery of godli- ness, the inexhaustible theme of meditation and praise for all generations/' He is the self-revelation of God to man. CHAPTER VIII. Prophecy — A Proof of Christianity. The evidences of Christianity are, in their nature and tendencies, accumulative. It is the culmination of their accumulated evidences, from miracles, from ad- mitted facts in the Christian system, from the self- revelation of God in Jesus Chrisi, from the marvelous propagation of primitive Christianity, and from proph- ecy, and from other sources which bring the honest doubters about to a conviction of truth in revealed re- ligion. Prophecy is pre-history, and relates wholly to future events. It is the historian recording the fate of a city or of a nation or of an individual, accurately, prophecy before that fate is accomplished. To do this requires Defined, a miracle of knowledge, knowledge such as is not pos- sessed by man in his normal condition, and comes only from God. "For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost."^ David Hume said, "All prophecies are real miracles, and as such only can be admitted as proofs of any revelation."^ It is the fulfillment which makes manifest the miracle in a prophecy, not the mere pre- diction that such an event will come to pass. But when the event comes to pass, as predicted, then God shows his hand in the prophecy, and the miracle of knowledge »1I. Peter 1: 2L • Phil. Essays. 119 120 Apologetics becomes the highest proof of a revelation. By way of illustration: If G-eorge Washington, in the last year of his life, had predicted that in 1898 an American war- ship would be blown up in Havana Harbor, and that Proof of ^^6 same year a war would ensue between the United Prophecy. States and Spain, and that one Admiral Dewey would have command of the American warships in the Pacific, and that he would go to the Philippine Islands, under orders, and there, in Manila Harbor, meet the Span- ish fleet and destroy or capture every vessel; and if he had claimed that God had thus revealed to him the facts stated, and told him to write them in a book, the simple prediction in itself would contain no evidence that God had spoken to George Washington, but the facts which have transpired in 1898 between the United States and Spain, being a literal fulfillment of the supposed pre- diction, would be a proof that his claim to inspiration is vindicated and that God had thus spoken to him. Now, on this wise are the predictions, both in the Old and the New Testament. The men who wrote the pre- dictions contained in the Scriptures claimed that God had commanded them to write, and thus they wrote and pushed their predictions into history ; and, in a manner, too, that they have been before the world and have been read and studied from eighteen to three thousand years. No reasonable man will claim that ample time and op- portunity have not been given to men of the world to investigate and test by legitimate methods the truth or the falsity of the claims set up by the prophets. There is little uniformity in the manner in which they claim to have been impressed or commissioned to report their Prophecy — A Proof of Christianity 121 heiavenly messages. Seldom are any two of them inspired in the same way, and seldom, also, any one of them twice in the same or in like former manner. Sometimes in a vision or dream the revelation was given ; sometimes the voice of God or the voice of his angel was heard by the prophet. At other times God took complete possession of the prophet and used him as his mouthpiece. The books of prophecy in the Old Testament closed three hundred and ninety-seven years before Christ, and in the New Testament more than eighteen hundred years ago. Standing on the vantage ground of the opening year of the twentieth century, it is the privilege of the investigator to scan in the light of history the centuries which lie between him and the age in which the prophets lived and wrote their predictions, and compare the his- tory of these centuries with the prophecies and see if there is, or has been a veritable fulfillment of them. The vast amount of historic evidence acquired, within the past few years, from the monuments and the libraries exhumed from buried cities, right on the sites where the prophets lived and wrote their messages, settles beyond a reasonable doubt, not only the dates of the prophecies, but also the peoples and the cities against which the pre- dictions were uttered. 1. The flash-lights from the excavations now going on in the valleys of the Euphrates and the Tigris make old Nineveh and Babylon new old cities. From these valleys Abraham, the founder of the Hebrew family- nation, was called, and from their peoples and cities God has never withdrawn his scourge of "perpetual deso- lation." Against Nineveh two of his prophets, Nahum FiQfiUinent of Prophecy Regarding Nineveh and Babylon. 122 Apologetics and Zephaniah, uttered their predictions, and Jonah tells us of its vast population and their great wicked- ness. Said Zephaniah, six hundred and thirty or more years before Christ, "And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like the wilder- ness."^ Said Nahum, "But Nineveh hath been from of old like a pool of water." "Nineveh is laid waste ; who will bemoan her?"^ These prophets wrote when Nin- eveh, the capital of the Assyrian kingdom and empire, was in her full splendor. Her destruction came 606 B. C, and so complete was it that Nineveh dropped out of history for more than two thousand years. The site, even, of this great city was lost. The later Greek and Eoman historians knew nothing of Nineveh. Xenophon marched his "10,000" over it 400 B. C. Alexander the Great made it the camping-ground for his mighty host, but was ignorant that Nineveh slept beneath. The critic began to inquire. Where is the site of lost Nineveh ? and the skeptic and doubter responded, "Nowhere; Nineveh is a mytli." To-day, the lost and almost forgotten city is exhumed. The palace of the great Sargon, probably the most magnificent ever erected by the hand of man, covering more than twenty-five acres, has been exca- vated. The great library of Asurbanipal, who was the last of the great kings of Assyria, and a contemporary with Manasseh and Josiah of Judah, with its 30,000 tablets and cylinders, is now before the world, confirm- ing biblical history and throwing light upon that remote age. Thus Babylon, the capital city of the country 'Zeph. 2: la •Nah.2: 8; 2: 7. Prophecy — A Proof of Christianity 123 called Shinar in Genesis, but later Chaldea, stood on the banks of the Euphrates, about 250 miles distant from Nineveh, and was the center of a vast empire. On account of her great wickedness, she, together with her kings, became the subject of many prophecies. Isaiah, 713 B. C, predicted her destruction and perpetual deso- lation. "And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from genera- tion to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there," etc.^ Also, "I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water : and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts." The glory of this once magnificent city, like that of her sister, Nineveh, has passed away forever. Her decline commenced with the conquest of Cyrus. After the death of Alexander the Great, the seat of empire was transferred to Antioch by the Seleucidse, which gave the death blow to the prosperity of Babylon, and her perpetual desolation came. For ages the sur- rounding tribes preyed upon her walls, her temples, and her palaces, until the "beauty of the Chaldeans' excel- lency" has, as Jeremiah said, literally and most em- phatically "become heaps.'" Her walls have been "thrown down," "jackals" hide in her palaces, her land is "a wilderness," "owls dwell there." The natives be- lieve that some infernal genii have their abode there, Usa. 13: 19-22; 14: 23. » Jer. 51: 37, 44; also, 50: 15. 124 Apologetics PropHecles Regaxdlng Egypt Fuimied. and for the wealth of the Indies the "Arab would not pitch his tent," neither the shepherd fold his flock where once mighty Babylon stood. For generations it has been uninhabited. He who now walks through the land knows that the predictions of tlie prophet respect- ing Nineveh and Babylon are literally fuihlled. The light thrown on this subject by the recent discoveries made on the sites of these two great cities, not only shows how minutely the prophecy respecting them has been, and is now being fulfilled, but also how faith- ful the sacred historian was in stating the facts respect- ing these cities, their greatness, the pride of their kings, and the wickedness of their peoples. 2. Egypt for ages was a center of the world's civ- ilization and commerce. This fact is just, as it were, beginning to dawn upon the modern world. The state- ments made and the facts implied by the author of the Pentateuch, as well as by some of the prophets, were laughed out of court by many modern critics; but since the heieroglyphics on Egypt's monuments and the Tel- el-Amarna tablets have spoken, a new era in historical investigation has dawned, and Moses and the prophets have become a new book. This wonder-land, Egypt, became interlinked with Hebrew history, and was u marked land by her prophets. Ezekiel directs his anathemas against this land of the Pharaohs and her cities in a most significant manner. Said he : "I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of the countries that are desolate, . . . and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. ... It shall be the basest JProphecy—A Proof of Christianity 125 of the kingdoms ; neither shall it any more lift itself up above the nations ; and I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations." Again, ''Thus saith the Lord God: I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Noph; and there shall be no more a prince out of the land of Egypt. And 1 will put fear in the land of Egypt. And I will make Pathros desolate, and I will set a fire in Zoan, and I will execute judgments in N o. And I will pour my fury upon Sin, the strong hold of Egypt; and I will cut ofE the multitude of No. And I will set a fire in Egypt; Sin shall be in great anguish, and No shall be broken up: and Noph shall have adversaries in the day-time. The young men of Aven and of Pi-beseth shall fall by the sword: and these cities shall go into captivity. At Tehaphnehes also the day shall withdraw itself, when. I shall break there the yokes of Egypt, and the pride of her power shall cease in her : as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity. Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt : and they shall know that I am the Lord."^ These prophecies were writ- ten when Egypt's political sky was clear and her na- tional prosperity was promising. Her valleys never were more fertile, nor her citizens better clothed and fed. But the eye of the Babylonian from across the seas was jealous of that prosperity, and with an over- whelming army came Chaldea's greatest monarch and broke into smithers the kingdom of the Pharaohs and carried her peoples into captivity, and "scattered them among the countries." Cambyses performed a like feat, »Ezete. 29: 12-15; 30: 13-19. 126 Apologetics Propliecles Regarding Tyre FulfflUed. dashing her cities, temples, and deities to the ground. Alexander the Great next inflicted a crushing blow upon Egypt, and brushed away her ancient civilization and introduced that of the Greek. So complete has been her ruin that if you eliminate about sixty years from the conquest of Nebuchadnezzar, not one native prince has sat upon the throne of Egypt. The cities named by the prophet are a complete and a perpetual desola- tion. I have walked amid the ruins of On and Karnak (Thebes), and looked upon the pyramids and sphinxes of Noph (Memphis), and know that the predictions of the prophet respecting them are now fulfilled. But why this desolation? The valley of the Nile has always been equally fertile, and never more so than at the pres- ent, and yet her most sacred cities and centers of popu- lation have faded to decay, and Egypt is ruled by for- eign lords. For more than twenty-three hundred years there has been "no more a prince out of the land of Egypt." 3. Tyre was a great Phoenician city, which stood on an island in the Mediterranean Sea adjacent to the coast line of Phoenicia. In her glory, and in the days of Ezekiel, she was the pride and mistress of the seas. Of her the prophet predicted: "Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against thee, Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock. She shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea ; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Prophecy — A Proof of Christianity 127 God. . . , And I will make thee a bare rock: thou shalt be a placa for the spreading of nets; thou shalt be built no more ; for I tho Lord have spoken it."^ After a sie£;3 of t\7elvj cr thirteen years, the inhabitants in part having passed cat over the sea to Carthage and elsewhere, the city fell into the hands of Nebuchad- nezzar, 573 B. C. This scourge marked the beginning of the decline of Tyre, and steadily her glory faded, until for ages she has been, and now is a place where the fishermen "spread their nets." On the 19th of February, 1900, 1 passed the little island. Only a hum- ble, insignificant town now occupies the site where once proud Tyre stood. 4. The history of the Hebrew race for the past nine- teen centuries is a standing proof and literal fulfill- ment of the prediction of Moses respecting that people. He told them of their coming rebellion against the God of their fathers, and then threatened them with the judgment that would ensue : "The Lord shall cause The History thee to be smitten before thine enemies: . . . and of the Jews a Fulfill- thou shalt be tossed to and fro amon^- all the kingdoms ment of of the earth." "The Lord shall bring a nation against Prophecy. thee from afar, from the end of llie earth, as the eagle flieth ; a nation whc^e tongue thou shalt not understand ; a nation of fierce countenance," etc. The Eomans * were their conquerors, and are here described. Again, "The Lord shall scatter thee among all peoples, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth. . . . And among these nations . . . shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot: but the Lord shall give »Ezek. 26: 3-5, 14. 128 Apologetics thee there a trembling heart, and failing of e3^es, and pining of soul : and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee ; and thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt have none assurance of they life/'^ This whole chapter is a marvel of prophecy respecting the Jew. With what definiteness the sage of Israel marks the future condi- tion of his people ! "And thou shalt become an aston- ishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all the peoples whither the Lord shall lead thee away."- Israel, for the past two thousand years, has been scattered over the earth. Among the nations she has had, and now has *'no re::t for the sole of her foot." In every country of the world the Jew is now found and ostracized "because he is a Jew." Among the peoples of the earth to-day he is an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word. He has been driven by the edicts of kings, at some time in history, from every country on the eastern continent, and is now a subject of unjust criticism and ostracism in every country of the world. For some reason he is the hated race. Even his features distinguidi him among the other races of men, and, iiotwithstandinr; he may change his name, as he has often done, to g^ !; i id of the race odium, yet his pecall..:* type of features "find him out." The prophet put it well when he said, "And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot." He has been banished and recalled and again banished. At the close of the war by Titus, they were i )lvl and carried into Egypt by ships by the tens of thousands, so that the slave markets were glutted and "no man would buy them." »Deut. 28: 25, 49, 64. » Deut. 28: 87. Prophecy — A Proof of Christianity 12& They were banished from England by Edward I. They were also banished from France by Charles II.; from Prague by the queen of Bohemia ; from Spain by Ferdi- nand and Isabella ; as many as 800,000 Jews were said to have been banished. They purchased refuge in Portugal from John II., and were again banished by Emanuel. In our own day, they have been banished from Poland and from Russia, and on the books of the latter the decree stands, and is in full force. When these ban- ishments ensued in the different countries, the property of the banished, as a rule, was confiscated in the interest of the "crown,'' and the poor Jew was sent out a penni- less wanderer in a strange land.^ But, notwithstanding these peoples have been scattered among the nations and ruled by them, as did Henry III., who "always polled the Jews at every low ebb of his fortunes," yet they have not been consumed "utterly," but exist now as a distinct people, and prosper, too, among all the nations of the earth, for said Jehovah, "And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them : for I am the Lord their God."^ Israel's lamp has never gone out amid "so many wars, battles, and sieges, after so many fires, famines, and pestilences, after so many re- bellions, massacres, and persecutions, after so many years of captivity, slavery, and misery," for Jacob is yet among the nations, an "astonishment, a proverb, and a byword," the same unsolved problem of the modern, as he was of the ancient world, with more than » See Newton on the Prophecies. * Lev. 26:44. 9 130 Apologetics 40,000 of his sons and daughters now settled in and about the sacred city of their fathers. Indeed, so marvel- ous is this prediction of Israel's lawgiver and its ful- fillments, that even to the very letter has it either been, or is now being, fulfilled in the strange history and varied life of this chosen people. There is nothing like it in the annals of any other peoples. It is indeed a fact that even the modern writer and interpreter of this prophecy too often represents, or rather misrep- resents the Jew as the very synonym of avarice, usury, and hard-heartedness, and assigns that as a reason why he is an "astonishment, proverb, and a byword among the nations." But be this as it may, yet by the his- torian, the statesman, the artist, and the theologian he is a marked man. And, indeed, this is more remark- able still when we recognize the fact that the great na- tions among whom Israel is scattered and despised go to the Jew for their Bible, and take one of the sons of this "hated race" and worship him as King of kings and Lord of lords, and hope for salvation alone through his mediation, oftiie 5. The prophet Amos threatened Ammon, Moab, Peoples Philistia, and Edom. These countries were adjacent to Israel a Judea, and were in their highest prosperity when the Fulfillment prophet raised his voice against them, and at the same Prophecy. ^™6 threatened Israel with judgment. The complete ruin of ]\roab and Amon was foretold by Zephaniah, "Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Amon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, and salt- pits, and a perpetual desolation."^ Jeremiah, Ezekiel, >Zeph.2:9. Prophecy — A Proof of Christianity 131 Isaiah, and Obadiah picture, in striking language, the utter destruction of Edom. "And Edom shall become an astonishment. ... As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith the Lord, no man shall dwell there," etc.^ No man can pass over these countries named and visit their ruined cities and not be impressed with the ful- fillment of these predictions. Where are the Amorites, the Edomites, the Canaanites, and the Philistines? They are gone forever. The Moabites, too, have per- ished. Philistia is no more. Many of these cities were for ages commercial centers. Their peoples once dic- tated peace and war to their neighbors at will, but they have forever perished from among the nations, and their Return of once proud cities, like the fabric of a vision, scarcely *^® ^^^^ have left a wreck behind them. The author of "The Monuments and the Old Tes- tament"^ has so well stated God's prophetic promise of his people's return to their own country from Babylon under Cyrus that I will give his words in full: "The significance of the rise of Cyrus is vividly portrayed by the prophetic words to the exiles in Babylon. Words of comfort addressed to the exiles assure them (40 : 1, 2) that their punishment will soon cease. They shall return to their home-land, inhabit it, and rebuild their cities and restore the waste places (44: 26). This shall be accomplished by a deliverer who is already on his way to conquer. 'Who hath raised up one from the east, whom he calleth in righteousness to his foot? he giveth nations before him and maketh him rule over Babylon a FulfiUment of Prophecy. » Jer. 49: 17, 18; Obed. 1; Ezek. 25, 35. « P. 231. 132 Apologetics kings; he giveth them as the dust to his sword, as the driven stubble to his bow. He pursueth them, and passeth on safely; even by a way that he had not gone with his feet. Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Jehovah, the first, and with the last, I am he' (Isa. 41 : 2-4). Again, we find : 'Thus saith Jehovah to his anointed [selected], Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue na- tions before him, and I will loose the loins of kings; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut. . . . For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called thee by thy name : I have surnamed thee though thou hast not known me. I am Jehovah, and there is none else; beside me there is no God: I will gird thee, though thou hast not known me' (45:1, 4, 5). Cyrus is distinctly designated as the agent of Jehovah to conquer the nations. His mis- sion was a providential one, and in no sense because he was a worshiper of Jehovah, for the sake of his serv- ant Jacob. "To deliver the Jews it was necessary that the great Babylon, the pride of her kings, the yoke of her sub- jects, should fall". Numerous prophecies from Jere- miah down had pictured her doom. But the conqueror is not at hand. 'Come down and sit in the dust, vir- gin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. ... Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called The lady of kingdoms.' 'Thou art wearied in the multitude Prophecy— A Proof of Christianity 133 of thy counsels : let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from the things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble ; . . . there shall be none to save thee' (47: 1, 5, 13, 15). Nothing that they can muster shall be able to avert the certain doom of the wicked city. On the eve of its fall, the prophet sees some of its consequences. 'Bel (Merodach) boweth down, Nebo stoopeth; their idols are upon the beasts, and upon the cattle : the things that ye carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but them- selves are gone into captivity* (46:1, 2). The sub- stance of these and other prophecies is, that Babylon must be humiliated, her proud position surrendered, and even her idols become a load for beasts, and not a joy to their own worshipers. This last statement was fulfilled only in the sense that the idols, as contrasted with Jehovah's power, who was bringing this about, would be merely a burden of useless material. For as Cyrus himself claimed, it was under the auspices of the gods that he marched into Babylon. "Having already given (§§213, 214) the contempo- raneous records of the fall of Babylon, let us now con- sider the Jewish return. We have noted (§315) that Cyrus inaugurated a policy of generosity towards his new subjects, that he endeavored to promote in every way their welfare. As a wise statesman, a shrewd poli- tician, and a kind-hearted ruler, he planned methods by which he could better the condition of his peoples. He was ready to espouse their cause almost to the en- 134 Apologetics dangerment of his throne. He revered their gods, and where they had been neglected or desecrated, he was solicitous for their restoration to their former venera- tion. Babylon and all its precincts bore evidences of his spirit in the rebuilding and rededication of many slirines and temples. His own appeals to the gods, and his avowal of their support, reveal Cyrus as a poly- theist of a pronounced type. It was not a matter of monotheism, of a possible Zoroastrianism, that called his attention to the Jews, but other reasons of no mean proportions. (1) In addition to the restoration and rehabilitation of captive and dethroned deities, he says (Cyl. 32) : 'AH of their peoples I gathered together and restored to their own dwelling-places.' This def- initely stated national policy gives us one reason for the royal proclamation (Ezra 1 : 2-4) issued in favor of the Jews. (2) It is altogether probable that Cyrus caught up from some one in Babylonia the mission which had been assigned him by the prophets. 'Cyrus . . . is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure : even saying of Jerusalem, She shall be built ; and to the tem- ple, Thy foundation shall be laid' (Isa. 4-i: 28). (3) Palestine had been a kind of buffer-state from time immemorial between southwestern Asia and Egypt. To occupy and hold that strong fortress, Jerusalem was the first step toward the conquest of the rival power. If Cyrus could conserve that advantage by aiding the Jews to build and hold it, he would be setting up one battle- ment in the face of Egypt's army. For one of his next strokes would be at the rival power on the Nile, "Cyrus issued his proclamation authorizing the re- Prophecy — A Proof of Christianity 135 turn of the Jewish exiles in the first year of his sover- eignty as king of Persia (Ezra 1: 1), 538 B. C. It is entirely reasonable to conjecture that, in accordance with his general principles of government, he issued many similar documents. The copy quoted in Ezra 1 ; 2-4, gives a few only of the specifications originally an- nounced. In subsequent references to the document (3:2-7; 5:13-16; 6:1-5), we discover that elaborate provisions were made for the building of the temple, as well as for the reinauguration of the worship of Jehovah. Cyrus had not overlooked anything that would contribute to the rapid reclamation of this west- ern waste. The proclamation was of such scope as to include the Jews in any part of his realm. The citizens of the empire were also authorized, if they chose, to render assistance to the pilgrims to Palestine. How generally they responded to the royal edict is stated in Ezra 2. This pilgrimage of less than fifty thousand of the faithful to the land of their fathers relieved the administration of Cyrus from the presence, in any part of the realm, of a dissatisfied, disturbing Jewish ele- ment. It also populated and built up a section of his territory which had been overrun and devastated by suc- cessive armies of Assyria and Babylonia. It likewise gave spirit to a people whose national life had been next to blotted out by a succession of well-deserved chastisements and captivities. In this event many of the brightest and most hopeful utterances of the great Testament prophets found their fulfillment and their fruition." Prophecies 6. Marvelous and striking as are the prophecies of Fulfillment the Old Testament, and their fulfillment, nevertheless, 136 Apologetics the predictions of the New Testament are none the less 60. Christ Jesus was not only the Saviour of the world, but also a great prophet. Of him said Moses, "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me."^ From the opening to the close of his ministry, his dis- courses are intersperseu with predictions ; and these pre- dictions were made to serve as a proof of his mission, when the things predicted would come to pass. "Now," said the Master, "I tell you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he."^ He predicted his "suffering," his "death," and his "resurrection." From the heights of Olivet he looked down upon the doomed city and contemplated its sad fate, and said of the temple, "The days will come in which there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown dovoi." "And Jerusalem shall be trodden down . . . until the times of the Gen- tiles be fulfilled."^ No prophecy more terrific is found in the Word of God than those recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as the express utterances of our blessed Lord against the Jews, Jerusalem, and their temple; and the person who is informed of the destruction of the sacred city and the nation by the Romans and all the subsequent history of that city and its people knows that those utterances are to the letter fulfilled. From the destruction of Jerusalem, in 70 A. D., to the pres- ent hour, "Jerusalem has been trodden down of the Gen- >Deut. 18: 15. >Jobn 18: 19. >Luke 21: 6; 21: 21; 19: 41; Matt 24; Mark 13. Prophecy— A Proof of Christianity 137 tiles, and the Jews have been scattered to the ends of the earth." "Famines," "pestilences," "earthquakes," and "wars and rumors of wars" were the current history of events. In the temple stood the statue of Caligula, "wliere it ought not." "Nation rose against nation," "kingdom against kingdom," and the world was a whirl- pool in the clash of arms and civil commotion. Noth- ing equal to it can be found in the annals of nations, in point of famine, cruelty, and death. Mothers ate their own children, and suicide was the order of the day to escape a more wretched death by falling into the hands of the conquering foe. "For," said the Son of man, "then shall be great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever shall be." More than one million perished in the siege, while tens of thousands were sold into slavery- The darkest pictures in human history are the horrors of this siege, described by Josephus, who was an eye- witness. Notwithstanding Titus implored the Jews to save their city by submitting to his conquering host, yet they scorned his mercy and proffered clemency- Contrary to the orders of the conqueror, a firebrand was hurled into the temple, and then, by command of Tituf?, the city was razed to the ground, and its sad history in each passing hour since has been but the fulfillment of the Galilean's prophecies. 7. But the predictions of Paul respecting the "man of sin."^ and John, in Revelation, of the "beast with ten Regarding horns and seven heads,"^ are none the less graphic than **^® "Man ° ^ of Sin" those already noted. Doubtless, Paul and John being Fuiaiie«L »II. Thes. 2; 1-12. "Rev. 13: 1-9. 138 Apologetics familiar with the books of Daniel, drew somewhat from liis vivid imagery. That a great apostacy has taken place in the church of Christ is a matter of history. The facts and the history of the Inquisition under the papacy are the evidences of the apostacy, and not only point to the ten-horned beast, but to the "man of siu'*' as well. "The foundations of popery," says Newton, *'ivere laid indeed in the apostles' days, but the super- structure was raised by degrees, and several ages passed Lefore the building was completed, and the 'man of sin' was revealed in fuU."^ It is a fact well known that when the Roman empire was smitten, shattered, and broken to pieces, the empire of an apostate church, the man of sin, was raised on its ruins. John said, "And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder . . . when they behold the beast, how that he was, and is not, and shall become." The Tioman empire, while pagan, was a pesccuting power, and was the beast. When she was con- verted to Christianity she ceased her persecutions, and was not the beast ; but when she became papal Rome she again became the beast, as her history clearly shows. But whether you take Paul's "man of sin" or John's ten-horned beast, place them alongside the history of tlie church's apostacy, and you have a living picture of the papacy, together with the varied shades of apostacy, no difference Avhen and where it developed in church his- tory. But the "man of sin" is now in his decline, and will ultimately be abolished by the brightness of his coming and the breath of his mouth. • Newton, p. 406. Bible. CHAPTER IX. The Doctbines and Teachings of the Scriptube3 Accord with the Facts of Human History. 1. As stated elsewhere in this treatise, the existence of God is assumed, and the task of proof is left to the theologian. The God of revelation, set forth in the Old and New Testament, is a God unique in character, in- The finitely wise, just, and holy, and possessed of an utter ^^^^ abhorrence of evil, and "that will by no means clear the God of the guilty," yet "keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin."^ Surely, this ex- alted God of the Bible is in strict accord with man's highest conception of the divine Being. No truly well- informed critic has found fault with the Holy Scrip- tures on the ground of the character of its God. Jesus Christ, the God-man, the self -rev elation of God, in the life he lived on earth, set forth in a true light God mani- fest, as he (God) is revealed in the Bible. In him men saw, and now see the real God of revelation. Jesus appealed to Moses and the prophets as witnesses of his Godhood, and put his life before the world as the evi- dence that he, in all respects, measured up to what the Holy Scriptures recorded respecting the infinite and Holy One. 2. The Old Testament opens its pages with the story •Ex.34: 7. 139 140 Apologetics of creation and the dark history of the primitive fam- ilies of mankind. The sad Eden story is briefly but Tbe Fall of pointedly told. The bad life of Cain and the wicked *^*°* career of primitive man is pathetically recorded in the solemn and warning words, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." "And the Lord said. My Spirit shall not strive with man for ever."^ In this straight, clear, declarative style the sacred writers continue to record their inspired communications to the close of the sacred record. Not one word of palliation is found in the holy Book for man's bad and unworthy life; but there is a constant stream of utterances setting forth his de- praved and wicked life; not one exception is recorded in the Book of the whole family of the race, but the Christ. "For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God."* "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is desperately wicked."' "The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."* "There is none righteous, no, not one ; there is none that under- Btandeth, there is none that seeketh after God; they have all turned aside, they are together become un- profitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one: . . . there is no fear of God before their eyes."'* "The heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart."*^ Thus the di- vine Word, like a mighty, rushing river, from the begin- ning to the close of its pages, pours its accusations »Gen. 6: 5; 6: 3. «Rom. 3: 23, »Jer. 17: 9. *Eccl. S: IL • Rom. 3: 10-12, 18. • Eccl. 9: 3. Doctrines and I'eachings 141 against man as a race, and as an individual as well, that he is "evil, and only evil continually." 3. Now, are these charges against man, as set forth in the Holy Scriptures, verified in the history of the race and in the life of each individual of the race? The dark and wicked deeds of men enter into and make up much of the history of every tribe, race, and nation of peoples. To this statement there is not one excep- tion. It is just as true of the civilized as it is of the? uncivilized, of the cultured and the refined, as it is of the savage. The history of war and blood, as it has .^^ History played its role among the tribes, nations, and families of Man of men, is but a record of human sin. The prisons, the ^^,^^1^19 executioner's block, and the gallows are a direct wit- Account ness to the truth of the charges of evil against him re- character corded in the holy Book. This is a fact of wliich the world is not ignorant. The sin of the world has been the theme of the historian and the sorrow of the mor- alist in all the ages. Heathen sages wrote upon the nature of virtue and morality, and urged the obligation, to practice them ; but their own vices demonstrated that they were either ignorant of their true nature or utterly unable to practice what they taught. Even the prac- tices of Socrates were the very opposite in many respects of what he taught. The pagan world's knowledge of sin and conscious- ness of guilt led it into every form of idolatry and de- basing orgies, until their altars smoked with the hot blood of their human sacrifices. On^an occasion when Carthage was to be besieged, says Diodorus, "They im- molated in public sacrifice two hundred chosen boys of 142 Apologetics their principal nobility."* Justin speaks thus, "They immolated men as victims, and children, whose tender years excited the pity even of enemies."^ And while I write, a young man from a pagan land who sits by my side, says, "Yes, my great-grandfather was buried be- tween two living slaves, who should accompany him in the spirit world." When Cortez entered the great temple in the city of Mexico he saw the walls almost covered with human hearts, the warm blood of the poor victims dripping therefrom, a sacrifice to their gods. Turn to what age you will, or to what quarter of the globe you please, you find the sin of man's soul is the source of his sorrow. "The palaces of the Caesars raised their imperial tur- rets to the skies, crowned with matchless magnificence; but within they were stained with every species of im- purity. It is not possible to read the accounts given of these monarchs who held the scepter of the world without pity and indignation. The narration of Sue- tonius alternately elevates and depresses, informs and pollutes the mind of the reader; and if one moment we follow the warrior through his victories and participate in his triumph, the next discovers him to us in his re- tirement, an object of horror and disgust, 'committing all manner of uncleanness with greediness.' "^ You may well imagine the general contagion and reign of vice among the masses and all chisses when even Horace sacrifices his genius to shameless indecency, and the matchless pen of Virgil sullied his pages with wanton impurity. »Dlod. Ub. 20. »JuBt. Hist. Ub. 18: ch. 6. 'Collyer's lectures, p. 40. Doctrines and Teachings 143 4. But while it must be apparent to all right-minded men that, under the reign of the kingdom of God, right- conscious eousness is making headway against sin, yet there is q^?.*?^* enough of vice in the modern world to verify the truths of the Bible in its charge against the race as being sin- ners. The daily record of crime under the world's best civilization and among its most enlightened peoples is indirectly God's daily public witness of the truth of his Word on the subject of sin. Modem wars, mob vio- lence, drunkenness, fraud, and the low brothels of vice, tolerated by the most enlightened Christian nations, to- gether with secret and open sins of the masses, both in public and in private life at the present hour, are a wonderful commentary of the truth of these Scriptures. The Holy Bible recognizes man as a triune being — a trichotomy in him — soul, body, and spirit. As such, the body is the medium between the soul and nature, the spirit its medium of relation to the supernatural. Sensuous experience comes to the soul through this bodily organism, resulting in conscious, definite knowl- edge of material phenomena; spiritual experience of spiritual^ universal, and eternal phenomena-realities, comes to it through its spirit medium. By the former it has sense cognitions ; by the latter, reason cognitions. The one gives knowledge of the creature; the other of the Creator. By the one comes a knowledge of the finite; by the other, of the infinite God. These are the soul's mediums of knowledge of things, whether mate- rial or spiritual, human or divine. Thus constituted, he is capacitated to know the truth — divine truth as well as human. In this light he is recognized in the Word 14A Apologetics of God, and given the assurance by our blessed Lord that "he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God." On this conscious knowledge of the believer Jesus was willing to rest his case. There is nothing wliich a man knows so well as the life he lives. He knows whether he lives a worthy or a double life. He is conscious of the inward impulses of his nature and of his liability to be attracted by, and his inclination to yield to, forbidden wickedness. He is conscious, also, of the fact that too often, contrary to reason, to what he believes to be the Word of God, and to the voice of conscience, knowingly he walks deliber- ately into sin and lives a conscious wicked life; and, when entrapped by justice or lashed by a guilty con- science, as was King Saul, in the bitterness of his soul he cries, "0 wretched man that I am." This conscious- ness of sin, although perhaps not always equally well understood, has kept pace with the ages, and is as broad as the family of mankind. The smoke and incense from every pagan altar, as well as every prayer that has as- cended from human lips, is a witness to the soul's con- scious knowledge of its wickedness and an appeal to Heaven for pardon of man's sins. He who informs him- self in the Holy Scriptures, and especially in its doc- trines of sin in relation to man, then lays the whole history of his race, aye, his own personal life history, alongside them, cannot but be impressed, as was the woman at the well, in her conversation with her Lord, namely, that he has found a book that reveals to him all that he or all that his race ever did ; and a conviction will obtain that the minxi that made the book is the Doctrines and Teachings 145 mind that made both him and his race. There is not a corner or a crevice in the human soul that is not searched and exposed by this wonderful Book; and he who thor- oughly studies its pages is conscious that his sins are not concealed from the mind of its Author.. It teaches not only that man is a sinner, but that he is personally guilty before God on account of his sins. Here, again, man's consciousness comes in as a witness to the truth of the Word. The altars and the sacrifices of the ages are but the evidence and the acknowledgment of the soul's wail and bitter sorrow for conscious guilt. 5. This sacred Book witnesses not alone against man as a sinner. If it did only this, it would be a sad book, indeed, to him, for this he knows, hence it would reveal no new truth to him; it would only confirm him in his conviction of sin. But the Book does not stop here ; it The Bible goes forward and tells him how he may get rid of his 2^®5° o -^ o Pardon and sins and secure pardon for them. Moreover, it tells him peace to how, and gives him the assurance that he shall come *^*'*' into possession of conscious knowledge of pardoned sins and peace with God. "We know that we have passed out of death into life."^ Man's dual nature is such that upon him is ever two classes of wants. His physical nature demands food and raiment. His spirit, to which belongs the intellec- tual and the moral, has its wants. Now, as the experi- ences of life are enlarged and the field of thought is broadened, in the moral nature of man springs up a consciousness of the moral or the immoral quality of his actions. This sense of wrong-doing always produces in »7. John 3: 14. 10 146 Apologetics the actor conditions of unrest. Also, the noblest im- pulses and aspirations of the soul are inadequately met by all things earthly, and at every step in life the wants increase more and more, and the world's utter insutii- ciency to meet them becomes more and more evident. Now, just as the hungry man knows that the food which he takes satisfies his hunger, so also the man who com- plies with the conditions of salvation set forth in the sacred Scriptures, knows that the religion of Christ meets his moral want, and that the sacred Word is a revelation from God. For there is a hidden truth con- tained in the religion of the Cross, which, through faith in the believer, leads him up into conscious knowledge of pardoned sins, peace with God, and that the Word irf truth. "I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it."^ This is the secret of the church's power, and has sustained the martyr at the stake and lifted the impure and profane into the happy condition of holiness and peace. Bearing on this subject, says Luther, "God, therefore, must witness to thee in thy heart that 'this is God's Word.' "^ Also says the same great and good man, in speaking of the witness of the Spirit, "This testimony takes place in this way, namely, that as the Spirit works in us through the Word, we feel and become conscious of his power, and of the agree- ment of our experience with the word or declaration of the gospel." This statement is the experience of every true believer, and witnesseth to the truth of God's Word. « Rev. 2: 17. » Sprecher's Theology, pp. 102-104. CHAPTEE X. The Superiority of Christianity Over Other Be- LIGIONS AND ItS INTRINSIC WORTH A PROOF OF Its Divine Origin. 1. Systems of religion are many. A fiber of gold may run through them all, but tliey are not equally good. Religions, like systems of philosophy and ma- chinery, must be tested by what they do. A system of philosophy that begets dissensions and degrades man, is ReUgions condemned as bad. A piece of machinery, it may be whirThey the farmer's plow, or the carpenter's plane, is judged Do. as to its merit, by the manner in which it does its work; and that is always pronounced the best which does its work the best. Just so with religions ; that is best which gives the highest, the purest, and most per- fect and upright type of civilized man. Christianity has not had an open field on which to fight its battles. At the time of its introduction the whole world was pagan, except Israel, which was but a remnant then. These pagan religions had been in the field long, and their merits well tested, even before the advent, but surely they were not satisfactory. 2. The best systems of paganism are full of defects. Their conceptions of God were remarkably coarse and crude. Even Socrates, who was the purest and wisest of the pagan world, while he believed in a supreme God, w 148 Apologetics Imperfec- tions of Pagan Religions. believed also "in lords many and gods many." As a rule, the god or gods even of the most cultivated of the Gentile nations were clothed with the corrupt and base passions of men, and took delight in human sacrifice. In truth, few of the heathen world did not have, at some time in their historj^, either directly or indirectly, hu- man sacrifices connected with their worship. There are a great want and woe felt in the soul of man that pagan worship has never satisfied. 1 care not whether it be the religion of our ancestors or the religion of the l^gyp- tians, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Chinese, or the Indians, their conceptions of God, his attributes, and their worship were most confused and uuworth}^ and wholly out of accord with enlightened reason. The Persians, followers of their sage, Zoroaster, worshiped the sun, or light, because he brought day and banished the frosts of winter and revivified the dead earth with the bloom of summer. But night brought rest to man, and ought to share in his reverence, hence the moon •worshipers shouted, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." These were but two of the heavenly host, hence they divided the empire of the universe between two antago- nistic deities. A kindred conception also obtained among the pantheistic worshipers of India. Of all the an- cient civilized nations, none were greater than the Egyp- tians, and in religion none were more excessive than they. About the middle of the fifth century B. C, Herodotus visited Egypt. In speaking of their re- ligion, he said, "It was easier to find a god in Egypt than a man," and that they were "religious to excess." Polytheism had set in at an early period in human his- The Superiority of Christianity 149 tory, and in Egypt deification was almost without limit. The same thing was true among the Greeks and the Ko- mans. No sooner had the human mind conceived the counterpart of its imaginary god in nature than fol- lowed Apollo, Hercules, and Diana ; and, in its infatua- tion, every object on earth, in sea, or sky was deified under the names of Jupiter, Saturn, Juno, Neptune, and Venus, until the catalogue was almost infinite. On other subjects they reasoned like philosophers, but on God and religion like fools. The attributes of their deities were, in many respects, monstrous. A veil must cover the principles and vile acts of these pretended deities. The cheek of innocence would blush at the re- cital of the tales of shame in the ear of modesty. All this shame and gross impurity, uncleanness, and the most detestable vices were ascribed by these sons of rea- son and philosophy to the invisible and holy God of the universe. Each of the pagan nations recognized that there was one supreme deity who was chief among all the gods, yet always differed as to which was the chief, hence discord and a lack of harmony obtained among them. 3. No person who has read the unexpurgated clas- sics, and especially the "Satires" of Juvenal, will, for Pagan a moment, question the faithfulness of the keen, incis- f^^^°^^ ive charges of St. Paul in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. As a rule, his picture is everywhere true to pagan life. The pictures on the walls in Pompeii tell a wonderful, but sad story of pagan impurity. There was not a vice included under the name lasciviousness that "was not sanctioned, encouraged, and practiced 150 Apologetics under the holy and venerable name of religion." "The more infamous the rites, the more acceptable were they supposed to be to the Deity." it is difficult to conceive that our ancestors ottered their innocent children as sacrifices to their gods. Yes, our ancestors, the Druids, had an enormous image in which they consumed their victims, and then scattered their ashes over the soil. Not only by burning, but by the most cruel and inhuman methods did they oil'er their human sacrifices, and their dark religious orgies are scarcely paralleled in history by any other race. China numbers about one-fourth of the family of mankind. Confucius is her sage. He was a moralist, and taught much that was good, but he made no pre- tensions to reveal the invisible. Ilis great struggle was to revise the old customs and laws of his ancestors, from which, he claimed, his nation had departed. He was devout and sincere, and some have said that the Golden Eule is found in his teachings. True, he was the author of precepts not without value, both ethical and political; but with him, as with every other ethnic teacher to whom it is ascribed, it is found, if found at all, in a negative form, or in connection with some other precept or prin- ciple from which it may be deduced. But place his teachings side by side with the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, and they fade into confusion. Great as has been his influence in the past, his star is now waning. There are not in his system those elements of expansion essential to keep abreast with an advancing age, and which are found to exist in Christianity. 4. But what did any one or all of these religions ac- The Superiority of Christianity 151 complish for mankind ? In not one instance did they The superi- develop a true civilization. They developed literature, ch*^t^' *^* science, philosophy, and art, hut morality and purity Religion in the individual life and in society, which are essential ^°^q^ to a true and noble civilization, they developed not. sMpers and Their peoples were like the gods they worshiped. True, i^ation^^^' those ages produced men who wrote well, and who re- corded some worthy moral precepts, but the history of those times shows that the private character of those who wrote them was the very opposite of the precepts they gave for others and the principles which they recorded. Among the nations of antiquity, where do you find the highest type of man, and a government where the rights of all are respected ? Not the Assyrian, not the Egyptian, not in India, not in China, nor in Greece, nor in Eome. Each of these has had its government, but not in any one of them have the civil rights of all been respected. Each has had its great men, but not one whose life was without fault. Out of the slave-pens of Egypt, God took the man, Moses, to organize a model government in Israel, in which the rights of all were respected, the model government of antiquity. What nation had a lav^iver like Moses? What people produced a char- acter like Job? Whence came the prophets? Aye, from what race sprang the "faultless Man," Jesus, the Nazarene? Israel was homed midway between the Easb and the West, on the world's great battlefield, and there served, both in her religion and laws, as the lighthouse of Jehovah to illuminate the world. What made Israel the model government of the ancient world? Her re- 152 Apologetics ligion. She had the best religion, and it is religion that determines the status, both of man and his government. This has been true in all ages. It is true now. Keligion, like man, is known by its fruits. In the modern world, where do we find the highest type of man and the best form of government ? is it in China ? in India ? or in Africa? No, but within the belt of nations known as Christian. Here is where man is most highly civilized ; here no altar smokes with human sacrifices; here the rights of man are respected and home is the garden of God. And why ? Because here is the best religion — the Christian religion. These Christian nations and this Christian civilization are the product of Christ's re- ligion which he gave to man. Christianity 5. Christianity, in its breadth and moral purity, dif- Perfect In £gj.g from all other religions in this : it includes every IVEordJS 8J1(1 Adapted to virtue and moral precept belonging to every other re- Meet au the ligion, and is free from every defect, moral or other- Splritual o ^ j ■- Needs of wise, that attaches to all other religions. This is its "*"• triumph. Its morality is pure, vital, intelligible, per- sonal, and adapted to the most humble capacity. It is founded in knowledge, and is not the offspring of igno- rance. Its appeals are to reason and to conscious knowl- edge. Knowledge alone is not religion, but without it, true religion cannot exist. All other religions are more or less clothed in mystery. Their theology is a system of complex, incomprehensible theories, if intelligible at all, only to the philosopher and the priest, while the humble masses are imposed upon with grossest fables as a substitute for religion, of which Buddhism, Mo- hammedanism, and Confucianism are now striking illus- The Superiority of Christianity 153 trations. But Christianity is the consolation alike of the poor and of the rich. The gospel "is no respecter of persons." It has no mysteries, dark to a plain under- standing, and fathomable only by the philosopher; no mysteries but such as are necessarily beyond the limited comprehension of human reason ; therefore, equally mys- terious and obscure to the wise and to the unwise. The fundamental principles and precepts descend to the un- cultivated capacity of the "wayfaring man" as their competent judge. Christianity includes all as guilty before God. "For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." "Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all have sinned."^ So, also, it includes all in its redemptive scheme. The religion of Jesus Christ adapts itself to every want and condi- tion of all men, and it hides the poor under the shadow of its broad wings from every ill and injury of life. One of its most glorious triumphs is, not only that it gives life and cheer as it develops in the soul of the believer, but that its comforts and consolations are abid- ing, even unto death, for in the history of Christianity there is not one case on record or in tradition where a Christian at death regretted that he had lived a disciple of his blessed Lord. Here is its grand victory! It is equally suited to the east, the west, the north, and the south; it alike meets the needs of the Eskimo and the South Sea Islander, Caucasian and African. Each is included in the charge it brings against man, each life lived has justified the charge, and each individual mem- >Bom.3: 23; 5: 12. 154 Apologetics ber of the whole family of mankind is equally interested in the discoveries it makes of "life and immortality brought to light" by its Founder. How different all this from the teachings of paganism. Buddhism ex- horts to renounce the desire of a future life. Karma knows nothing of continued personal identity and im- mortality. Nirvana dissolves conscious identity here- after. Says T. W. Ehys Davids of the Buddhistic re- iigion, "In it we have an ethical system, but no lawgiver, a world without a creator, a salvation without eternal life, and a sense of evil, but no conception of pardon, atonement, reconciliation, or redemption."^ Plato, wise and great in philosophy, plodded his way up the mist- enshrouded coast of ontology to the throne of the In- finite, yet he could give no satisfactory answer how to get rid of evil and become like God. He conceived ig- norance to be the chief source of sin, and philosophy the panacea for all such maladies, but, alas ! he taught that only a few could attain to such knowledge. 6. The schools of the Epicureans and the Stoic phi- Christianity josophers dominated the Eoman Empire in the opening Forth a century of the Christian era, and this empire was, in Perfect .^ sense, tlie then civilized world. It was in the face Ideal and a ' Perfect Ex- of these schools and their teachers and pupils, on the one liand, and the rabbinical schools and their teachers, on the other, tliat Cbristianity was introduced to the world. This also was the age and the world empire in which literature, philosophy, and paganism reached their culmination in the ancient world. Here and then it fought its first battles. It was these Epicureans and « T. W. Rhys Davids, in Non-Chrlstlan Religions, page 13L ample for Life The Superiority of Christianity 155 Stoics with whom St. Paul disputed in Athens. The resurrection of the dead, and iiiuuortaiity were so foreign to their conceptions tliat when he referred to the sub- ject, "some mocked; but others said. We will hear thee concerning this yet again."^ The charge that Paul makes against the Athenians, that "the city was full of idols," is verified by the history of the world in that age. The Epicureans taught a system of morality which made pleasure the highest good and the only true hap- piness of life ; hence all action should be directed to this end. It was strictly materialistic and atheistic. Car- ried out to its last analysis, it gives fruit such as ob- tained in society during the Koman emperors, the En- glish deists, and the French encyclopedists — a beastly debauchery and imbecile stupidity. The Stoic philos- ophy was better, and developed better morals among its disciples. The three greatest were Seneca, the advocate, and greatest literary character of his age, Epictetus, the slave, and Marcus Aurelius, the emperor. These, in many respects, were noble men, but their teachings were for the philosophers, and not for the mass of humanity. The morality they taught was remarkably imperfect, as each for himself well knew and was painfully conscious of the sad fact. As a result, their teachings were pow- erless to rouse the people and to stir the consciences of the profligate and wicked and lead them to a better life. Their system had no well-grounded hope of immortality, and was without a faultless example among its dis- ciples. It swept from the human heart all desire, all passion, all pity ; it had eyes, but no tears ; a heart, but £Aots 17: 32. 156 Apologetics no emotions; it was cold, proud, and haughty, with af- fected insensibility and imaginary wisdom. "A perfect Stoic would be sterile, useless, inhuman." This is not Christianity, that weeps with those that weep, and re- joices with those who rejoice, "in contrast with all the ancient systems of philosophy, Christianity brought for- ward such a conception of God, that the precept to be like him was intelligible, and could be profitably obeyed. It brought forward the truth of a providence of God, extending over all persons and events, a universal care comprehending the least of God's creatures, and causing all things to conspire to promote the well-being of his children. Natural sensibility is not petrified. Natural affections and emotions are left in healthy activity, but trust in the fatherly love and wisdom of God enables the afflicted to be at peace. Moreover, in distinction from all other religions and philosophies, Christianity pro- Tides redemption. That is to say, while it holds up the ideal of perfection, the law of righteousness, it provides, at the same time, effectual means of attaining, through Jesus Christ, to the partial, and, ultimately, to the com- plete realization of it. When the incomparable superiority of the Christian eystem over the other religions of the world and over the highest achievements of philosophy is duly appre- ciated, it appears unreasonable to think that Christianity sprang from the unaided intelligence of the humble, un- lettered Hebrews who were the instruments of publish- ing its truths to the world."^ > Fisher's Manual of Christian Evidences, p. 112. CHAPTER XL Some Objections or the Honest Doubter to Christianity Answered. The sacred Scriptures, Old and New Testaments, claim to be a revelation of facts from God, as Father, to man, as his child. Men are the recorders of this revelation. Each writer tells his own story in his own „^ •' The way, not to demonstrate a proposition, but to state facts. Authors In the mind of the author, and the recorder as well, of ^^ *^® ^ ' Recorders these facts the thought is nowhere hinted that they of Reveia- were to be questioned, disputed, or to be proved, but ^^ simpiy simply accepted and obeyed. And on no other hypothe- sis can the marvelous success of the gospel in the first century better be accounted for than on the fact that the disciples and the first preachers of the gospel acted upon the above principle. They "preached the Word." The age of controversy came later. Doubt assumed a formidable attitude towards the sacred Scriptures. Apologetics were written to dispel the doubt of the hon- est doubter and to bring in higher favor the Word of God. Just as in these Scriptures the existence of God is assumed, not by cogent argument proved, so Moses The Pur- and the prophets, Christ and his apostles, assumed to A^oiosftlcB state as facts what they said and recorded, but tarried is to not to prove them true by argument, claiming that to ^J*/ comply brought conscious knowledge of the truth stated Doubt 1ST 158 Apologetics Wliy Were Not Cbrlst's Credentials so Attested As to Pass Unchal- lenged? to the doer. This fact is too often overlooked or lost sight of, even by the honest doubter, for it ought to be remembered that in religion as in mathematics, there are some things axiomatic. Said Jesus, "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I speak from myself." Just as the best evidence a man can have, whose sense of taste is normal, that the apple is sour is to taste it, so the sacred writers assumed that the highest evidence a man can have that their messages are Heaven-sent is to obey them. But to the honest doubter's objections: "If Christ were really the Son of God, sent to save the world, why were not his credentials so attested that they would pass unchallenged?" the objector 'urges: "Little time is spent in the examination and discussion of the credentials of the representative of one government sent on some mission to another, because they are so clearly and un- equivocally avouched that the above inspection is suffi- cient to satisfy those to whom they are addressed of their genuineness. In other words, they answer per- fectly the purpose for which they were given. The credentials of Christ are still in dispute, although they have been under inspection for almost two thousand years." At first sight, this objection is not without force. But when it is critically examined, and the facts involved duly stated, the criticism breaks down. The cases are not parallel. The political governments of earth have knowledge of the existence of each other, but the kingdom of God, which Jesus came to represent, was a government unknown to men. At least, it was Some Objections 159 then, and now is admitted that he was the only repre- sentative who claimed to have come down from heaven to represent that government in that unknown country. In the second place, his credentials: (1) At his birth, an angel from heaven proclaimed Announced him Heaven's ambassador. "For there is born to you by Angels. this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."^ Also, a star led the "wise men" to the manger in Bethlehem where he was. "And lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was."^ These supernatural occurrences, recorded by the evan- gelist as facts, were believed by all who witnessed them, or, at least, there is no record from that century that they were even questioned. (2) The works which he performed were presented by him as his credentials. "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do them, though ye believe not me, believe the works : that ye may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Fa- ther."^ This, perhaps, had no reference to any one particular class of works, but to all the acts which he performed. Some were natural, others supernatural — Appealed to his miracles. The eleventh chapter of Matthew opens His works As Cre- with the information that "when Jesus had made an aentiials. end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and preach in their cities." To him came John's disciples and asked, "Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another?" Jesus said, "Tell John, . . . the blind receive their sight, and the * Luke 2: 11. 'Matt. 2:9. * John 10: 37, 38. 160 Apologetics lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good tidings preached to them.''^ Now, the cases of Jesus miraculously restoring sight to the blind are recorded as follows: Matt. 9:27-30; 11:5; 12: 2; 21:14; of Bartimreus, 20:30-34; Mark 10:46- 52 ; 8 : 22-25 ; of a man at Bethsaida, a man born blind, John 9 : 1-7. Also, the cases in which he restored persons' hearing, Mark 7 : 37 ; 9 : 25. In which he raised the dead: widow's son, Luke 7: 12-15; Jairus's daugh- ter, Luke 8:49-55; Lazarus, Jolm 11:43, 44. Lepers The Fact of l^ealed by Christ : Matt. 8:3; Mark 1 : 40-42 ; Luke 5 : ciirist's 13; 17 : 12-14. He healed all manner of diseases among Not Ques- ^^^ people in a miraculous way, and cast out demons tioned by from the possessed, and he commanded the winds and poraries. the sea, and they obeyed him.^ The reality of these miracles wrought by Christ were not questioned by the eye-witnesses, but were acknowledge by them as matters of fact. True, some who witnessed attributed them to Satanic agencies: "But some of them said. By Beelze- bub, the prince of the devils, casteth he out devils."* As hinted above, it was not the men who witnessed the miracles performed by Christ who doubted their reality. They recognized them as genuine, but the age of doubt came later, just as doubts respecting other facts in his- tory. We have an illustration in the writings of Shakes- peare. In his day, his authorship of the writings which bore his name was not questioned, but the nineteenth century has produced volumes to disprove his author- ship of those same writings. The same is true of Menes, •Matt. 11: 1. *Matt. 8: 26-31 >Lukell: 16. Some Objections 161 the founder of the first dynasty of united Egypt, and also of King Minos, whose home and capital, according to Greek tradition, was located at Cnosus, on the island of Crete. Skeptical criticism has long since banished both these to the land of myth. But the recent discov- eries at Abydos reveal the fact that "Menes and his successors were living in the full bloom of a civilization which was already old." Also, of King Minos, the dis- coveries of the past year by Mr. A. J. Evans, on the island of Crete, "have proved that the story of his power and civilization, instead of being mythical, really fell short of the truth, and that Cnosus was the chief seat of culture known as 'Mykenean' in the days when the eighteenth dynasty ruled over Egypt." The men who lived in the days of these kings, and were their subjects, had no doubts respecting the real existence of those monarchies and the acts performed by Menes and Minos. But the age of doubt came later, and so increased until doubt ripened into unbelief, and swept them from the domain of history. This is a fact that must not be overlooked, namely, that the men of one age cannot believe for men of succeeding ages. They can record the facts of history, political and religious, of the age in which they live, and, in so far as they are concerned, the matter rests there. It is just so with Jesus of Naz- areth. He came to earth, the ambassador of the king- dom of God ; he presented, as the seal of his ambassador- ship, his miracles, organized that kingdom, pushed his religion into history, and has left it for the ages to dem- onstrate his heavenly mission. Now, it is beyond the power of the human intellect to 11 162 Apologetics The Cre- dentials Christ Presented Were the Highest Conceivable to Human Reason. conceive of any higher proof of Christ's divine mission than the credentials (miracles) and his own personality which he presented. Here two things must be taken into the account : first, as implied in a former statement, the country and kingdom which he came to represent was unknown to the children of earth, except only in so far as they had learned from the Hebrew Scriptures ; second, the message which he brought to man was a message condemning both the then existing governments of earth and the religions of paganism and the religious lives of the people to whom he came. He laid the axe at the root of the tree, paganism and the false religious life of the peoples, and, at the same time, claimed uni- versal sovereignty for the government which he repre- sented, and demanded the annihilation of all of earth's religious systems then existing, and proclaimed the ulti- mate, universal acceptance of his own, and himself as King of kings and Lord of lords. I would, in the spirit of my Lord, ask the honest doubter : If an ambassador from any known government on earth were to present his credentials to the government of Great Britain, and set up claims for his government and make demands such as did Jesus of Nazareth upon the governments of earth, would his credentials be likely to receive higher recognition than Christ's did ? Would not some doubt ? And would not likely more doubters arise as the world would recede from the date of the event? It is said, "The credentials of Christ are still in dispute, although they have been under inspection for almost two thou- sand years." How long would the credentials of the ambassador supposed be "under inspection" by the gov- Some Objections 163 ermnent of Great Britain before she would recognize them? 'Not until England's navy was swept from the seas, and her army dismantled of its broken shields. The recognition of the Christ as Heaven's ambassador is one thing, but surrendering a life of obedience to his demands is quite different. Judging from the course of the world in his day, and now, the latter seems to be the more difficult for man. There are many ten thou- sands of peoples in almost every Christian land who believe Jesus to be the world's Eedeemer and Lord, and that to be saved and not perish they must surrender themselves to him and live a pure and worthy life, yet they do not make that surrender and do not live that pure and worthy life, but live in the daily open viola- tion of what they believe to be God's Word and displeas- ing to Jesus Christ, whose credentials they recognize as from God. All this is a matter of conscious knowl- edge to them. (3) In the personality of Jesus and the life which he lived is great weight of evidence. Christ Jesus is greater than any or all of the works he did, or the marv- elous life he lived. He stands the Colossus, unap- proached and unapproachable among the sons of men. ^cter of He taught that all men should repent, but he repents ^^^^^ ^^^ not. He lays sin at the door of every man of the race, dentiai. but asks, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" His life was spotless. Born amid the degeneracy of his race, and in an age of lust and shame, he lived and wrought in the interest of the degraded and sinful, un- touched and untarnished by the vices of men. No one like him lived before his day, and no one since his day. 164 Apologetics Evidence Siifflclent to Convince AU Wlio Are Willing to Obey. Doubt Does Not Release Man firom Moral Obligation to Obey God and Serve His Fellow- Hen. Account for everything in him and about him on natural principles as far as you can, yet there stands the sinless Christ, the friend of sinners, as he represented himself to be. Now, I believe the evidences of Christianity are so convincing, and especially the personality of Jesus and the miracles which he performed, as recorded in the four Gospels, that any man who will examine them carefully with a view to obeying the teachings of Christ, if convinced they are true, will always attain to a faith or belief sufficient for a working basis, and if he does not, I would say that responsibility for the lack of faith does not obtain in his case, just as a man who is color- blind is not responsible for not being able to distinguish colors. But there is one thing for which he is respon- sible, namely, the life he lives, for it must be remem- bered that Christ requires only the life every man should live, which life is for the highest good of the individual and of society. In his own words, "Love thy neighbour as thyself,"^ and in "all things therefore whatsoever )^e would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them ; for this is the law and the prophets."- This is the very soul of human duty. Also, the prophet puts the gist of what every life should be in the sight of God in these terse words, "He hath shewed thee, man, what is good ; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"^ Every man is morally bound by the laws of society to live such a life as is here described, whether he is an honest doubter or a dishonest doubter; and Christianity demands at his hand no more than the •Mark 12: 81. »Matt. 7: 12. »Mlch.6:8. Some Objections 165 rights of man, and the highest interests of society de- mand of him in the character of the life which he ought to live. The author of nature gives no man beforehand an absolute guarantee that he shall reap a harvest from the seed which he casts into the ground; he only gives him a guarantee amounting to a probability that if he sows he shall reap. This probability is his working basis. But he has a positive assurance that if he does not sow he shall not reap. Now, if he lingers in doubt and does not sow, he must perish for the want of bread. This is the sense of Christ's words, "He that disbelieveth shall be condemned." He who lives a wicked, sinful life has the evidence of condemnation within himself, and he has conscious knowledge, growing out of his own experience, that his bad passions of sin are growing stronger, and that he is gradually sinking into a pit, in so far as he knows, of endless ruin. But it may be, in justice, further stated that imper- fect as are the Christian governments of earth, the man who lives up to the letter of their requirements is, to say Analogy the least, not far from the kingdom of God. It is a °^ *^® _ ' ° Civil Law. fact recognized that their laws and courts of law are based upon the sacred Scriptures. Now, as a rule, the man whose life is out of accord with civil law, which, as stated, is based upon the Word of God; that is, the man who is guilty of theft, murder, adultery, defraud- ing his neighbor, or any other violation of law, is dealt with by the courts and punished according to the laws of the government. Now, these courts do not stop to consider whether the prisoner believed or disbelieved God's law or the civil law, which is based on God's law; 166 Apologetics vhether he was a doubter or a believer, but they simply determine whether his life is, or is not snch as every man's must be to stand acquitted before the law; that is, whether his life is such as the rights of man and the highest interests of society demand of every man, even if there were not a God in the universe, and condemn or justify him accordingly. These civil courts clearly recognize that doubts, honest as they may be, seldom, if ever, are the cause of a man's bad life or a justification of it. They adjudge him guilty on the ground that he had conscious knowledge, that his acts were wrong, and that he had the opportunity and power to have done otherwise had he chosen to do so. Respecting Christ and his credentials as ambassador from the court of heaven to earth, a distinguished judge says: "My own theory in the matter is, that it is not a question of logic any more than the axiom that 'things equal to the same thing are equal to each other' is the subject of mathe- matical demonstration. That Christ lives and is the Saviour of the world is as hard to prove by argument as it would be to prove that the friend whom you may introduce to another is really present and existent. He to whom your friend is introduced knows he exists and is present; his whole consciousness testifies to the fact. That is the highest degree of proof." He further adds : *'It seems to me we are apt to exalt reason above its true place among the faculties of the mind. Reason and intuition, as it seems to me, are, in a sense, antago- nistic faculties, one of which can be developed at the expense of the other. Of the two, intuition, to me, seems to be the higher faculty. For while reason, from the Some Objections 167 same evidence, may lead two men in exactly opposite di- rections, intuition is either silent or will guide to the right unerringly/' Proofs and argument in the field of Christian evi- dences, it is true, have their place, and are of high im- portance, but the vital experience of saving faith is vital deeper and broader than argument, and the fact that ^f^^^^^^ the Christian has conscious knowledge that Christ Jesus jg Above saves him from his sins, and is saving the world, is the Argument, highest possible proof that he came from God and is accomplishing his divine commission. INDEX. Age of Christianity, 77. Alexandrian Philosophy, 78. Ambassador, 60, 82. Apologist, 7, 11. Apostles, 82. Aristides, Apology of, 34. Athanasius, 33. Augustine, 33. Aurelius, 155. Authority of Holy Scriptures, 18. Authenticity of Scripture, 18. Authors of Scripture, 46. Barnabas, 24. Bible, Criticisms of, 14. Divine Origin of, 7. God's Book, 49. Wonders of, 18. See Scripture. Bram, 14. Butler, 43, 105. Canon, New Testament, 32, 33. Celsus, J^. 29, 110. Cerinthus, 26, 29, 36. Channing, 113, 117. Christ, 7. Confidence In Self and His Plans, 113. Did Not Argue, 114. Evidence Sufficient, 164. His Character, 108, 163. His Credentials, 158. His Mission, 114. His Methods, 109. Historic, 107. Independent of His Age, 107. Christ— Continued. Influence of His Teachings, 109k 117. Life of. Solitary, 108. Made No Mistakes, 115. Messenger Sent From God, 114. Not the Product of His Enyiron- ment, 112. Opposed Conceptions of Jews, 109. Revealed Brotherhoodof Man, IIL Self-Revelation of God, 107. Suffering Foretold, 113. Vastness of His Conceptions, 110. Christian Evidences, 7. Christianity- Admitted Facts, 99. Adapted to Man's Need, 152. Displaced Religions in Roman Empire, 102. Gives a Perfect Ideal and Perfect Life, 154. Has the Highest Civilization, 151. Is It Supernatural ? 7. Perfect Morals, 150. Superior to Other Religions, 160. Church Councils, 103. Clement, 24. Constantine, 102. Council of Laodicea, 33. Council of Carthage, 33. Curetonian Version, 36. Cyprian, 25. Cyril, 33. Cyrus, the Great, 131. Diatessaron, 35- Dictation Theory, 48. 169 170 Apologetics Dlodorns, 16, 22, 14L DionysiuB, 25. Dlviue Origin of Bible, 7. Docetse, 38. Doctrines of Scriptures, 139. Concerning Pardon, 145. Concerning Man's Sin and Gailt, 143. Confirmed by History, 141. Regarding Man, 140. Self-Consciousness of Man, 143. The God of, 139. Doubt, 157, 164. Dynamical Theory of Inspiration, 46. Ebionites, 37. Ego, 8. Epicurean Philosophy, 7JJ. Eusebius, 32, 35, 37. Evidences, 7. Existence of God, 7. Ezra Collected Old Testamen* Books, 31. Fatherhood of God, 8. Fathers, Church, 24. Farrar, 47, 55. Fisher, 156. Future Life, 13. Gibson, Mrs., Found Syrian Ver- sion, 36. God, Attributes of, 9, 20. A Spirit, 8. Existence of, 8. Not Bound by Nature or Fate, 70. Goethe, 57. Gospel of Peter, 37. Heathenism, 15. Heresy, 37, 38. Hermes, 24. Herodotus, 148. Hlerocles, 28, 29, 92. Historic Christ, 107. Historic, Revelation, 9. History, Claim of Scriptures, 9. Hittites, 40. Hyksos, 41. Hume, Darid, 11, 119. Ideal Character, 107. Ignatius, 24. Illumination, 47. Immortality, 12, 13. Inspiration of Scriptures, 45. Claims of, 49. Comparison of Theories, 48. Definition, 48. Dictation or Mechanical, 46. Dynamical Theory, 46. Essential Theory, 47. Faultless Life of Christ a Proof, 57. Illumination Theory, 47. Inspiration of Old Testament Recognized, 50. Jews Accepted It, 52. Manner in Which God Spake to Men, 45. Nature of Contents Proves, 64. New Teslament Claims, 52. Old Testament Claims, 49. Ordinary Inspiration, 47. Relation and Authenticity, 45. Writers' Claim, 53. Irseneus, 25, 34, 36, 54. Jerome, 25, 93. Jerusalem, 136. Jesus Christ- Faultless, 58, Methods of, 10, 23. See Christ. Jews- Ancient, 21. Hated Race, 127. Josephus, 22, 23, 29. Julian, 26, 29, 92. Justin, 16, 22. Justin, Martyr, 35, 39, M. Koran, IS. Knowledge, 60. Index 171 Law— Of Life and Gravitation, 66. Not Violated In Revelation, 10. Lardner, 26, 29, 32, 33. Lewis, Mrs., 36. Light of Nature, 12. Lycurgus, IS. Man, 8, 10. Marclon, 38. Miracles- Age of Intelligent, 77. Apostles Worked, 82. Christ's Credentials, 60, 162. Cover Long Period, 84. Credibility and Intent, 69, 63. Definition of, (50. Distinguished from Extraordi- nary Occurrences, 61. Enemies Admitted, 91. Expectation of, 63. Ood Not Bound by Nature or Fate, 70. Illustration of, 74. Mediate, 63. Miracles Done Openly, 83, 89. Objections to, 66, 67, 158. Presumption Against, 66. Science Acknowledges, 68. Eu jject to Criticism, 83. rho Y/itucssesof, 64. .nquc'-tioncd by Contempora- Tiez,lCX Were Disciples Deceived in, 77. Mohammedanism, 15. Morality, 15, 17. Moral Obligation, 9, 164. Moses, 7, 15, 21. Muratorian Fragment, 32. Mussulman, 17. Nabonidus, 43. Nature, 8, 11. New Testament, 7, flS. Norton, 37. Objections, 8, 13, 157. Obligation, Moral, 9, 16i. Old Testament, 7, 49. Ordinary Inspiration, 47. Origin, 25, 28, 37. Orphic Verses, 22 Pagan Nations, 12, 14. Paley, 29. Pentateuch, Author of, 21, 29. Persecutors Become Christians, 9S> Personality, 8, 163. Personal Revelation, 8. Peter, Oospel of, 37. Phllo, 29. Philosophy, 78. Plato, 17, 72. Pliny, 27, 54, lOa Polycarp, 24, 34. Porphyry, 26, 29, 93. Prophecy, 119. Cyrus in, 131-135. Defined, 119. Egypt in, 124. Fulfillment the Test, 130. Historic Evidence of, 121. Nineveh and Babylon in, 121. Proofs of Christianity, 120. Prophets Commanded of God, 120. Prophecies of Christ, 136. Regarding Fate of Jews, 127. Regarding Man of Sin, 137. Regarding Nations Adjacent to Israel, 130. Regarding Tyre, 126. Relation of Jews, 18L Rameses II., 41. Recapitulation, 98. Reason, 45. Reconciliation, 9. Religion, 15, 17. Resurrection, 64. Revelation- Contained in Bible, 7, 8, 14. Historic, 9. Imparts Knowledge to Man, 10. 172 Apologetics Revelation— Continued. Need ot, 7, 12, 13. No Valid Objection Against, 8. Objections Considered, 13, 167. Special— In Harmony with Nature, 10, 11. Personal, 8. Tests of, 14. RuflnuB, 33. Sacrifice, 16, 17. Samaritan Pentateuch, 30i Scbaff, Philip, 31, 32. Scripture- Aim of, 73. Authenticity of, 18. Authors of, 20. Canon, of New Testament, 32. Consists of, 18. Documentary Evidence, 34. Hittite Testimony, 40. History Confirmed, 22, 28. Importance of, 19, 2& Inspiration of, 45. Muratorlan Fragment, 32. Old Testament before Christ, 29. Origin of, 19. Samaritan Pentateuch, 30. Beptuagint, 30. Teachings of, 20. Teaching of Church Father* Con- cerning, 24. Testimony Regarding Christ's, 23. See Bible. Septuagint, 30. Seraplon, 87. Skeptical Philosophy, 71^ Socrates, 12, 17. Solon, 15. Sprecher, 48, 147. Strabo, 23. Suetonius, 26. 100. Supernatural Revelation, IL Syrian Version, 36. Tacitus, 26, 99, 101. Tel-el -Amarna Tablets, 89, 12^ Talmud, 92. Tatian, 35, TertuUian, 24. Testament, Old and New, 7, 18. Testimony of Heathen Writers, 22. Theism, 7. Theodoret, 35. Theology, Natural, 7. Theologian, Duty of, 7. Titus, 137. Uniformity of Nature, 97. Unseen Universe, 68. Veders, 14. Version— Curetonlan, SOL Peshito, 36. Septuagint, 30. Syrlac, 36. Van Oosterzee, 47, 54. Will of God Revealed, H Wright, Dr. U.F.,aab Zahu, 87.