PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 '«S. 
 
 She//. 
 
 Division . .*Xr< . .?W. .TT. O. V 
 
 Section .>. V^.-JW..I 
 
 Number 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 GOD'S VOUCHERS 
 
 HIS V/RITTEN WORD, 
 
 WITH CRITICAL ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR. FRANKLLV. 
 
 / 
 REV. GEORGE B. CHEEVER, D.D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "LECTURES ON THE PILGRIM's PROGRESS," "VOICES OF NATURE 
 TO THE SOUL," " WINDINGS OF THE RIVER OF LIFE," ETC. 
 
 New York: 
 ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 
 
 gCX) BROADWAY, COR. 20lh STREET. 
 
Copyright 1881, 
 By Anson D. F. Randolph & Company. 
 
PEIIICKTON 
 htC. APai882 
 
 THaOLGGIC&X^ 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The compound title of this volume may need some 
 little explanation. Biograjjliy and history are as day- 
 books and ledgers, mutual vouchers for the truth. 
 The Bible is no exception. In Divine Scripture there 
 are the same checks and counter-checks for our as- 
 surance, balancing, correcting, and interpreting the 
 accounts. State documents and laws are i:»roved by 
 depositions of personal evidence. Biography and 
 history make up the body of all our knowledge of 
 mankind. 
 
 The correlations between the Pentateuch and the 
 Psalms, between the liistoric books and the prophets, 
 between the occasions and beginnings of laws and 
 observances, and the obedience of the people, and 
 the mouldiug, discijsline, and growth of the national 
 character, are a web of demonstrations such as can 
 not be found in the institutions and histories, the 
 
iv Preface. 
 
 literatui-e and life, the geography and local peculiar- 
 ities, or the gloiy and the crunes and sufferings of 
 any other nation on earth. There is nothing else- 
 where aj^proaching it. It is an indisputable, inde- 
 structible tissue of laws, promises, warnings, pre- 
 dictions, fulfilments, events, providences, statutes, 
 customs, social and religious institutions, and super- 
 natural sanctions and awards, interwoven under one 
 divine plan; and the unity is a perfect despotism of 
 significance, from the sunlight of which no part can 
 be withdrawn, and under which every book must be 
 interpreted. 
 
 But we need for such interpretation, in stvidying 
 the Word as well as the works of God, both a tele- 
 scopic and microscopic vision; the telescope to see 
 farther off into immeasurable space and quantity, 
 and the microscope to trace minute relations and 
 connections of the nearest and smallest of God's 
 works and words with the most distant and the 
 largest. For they are aU one, and all have more or 
 less the brightness and express image, the dna.vya6i.ict 
 and A:'^/-'";«r;/,'j, of His glory, by whom and through 
 whom and for whom are all things; so that the whole 
 
Preface, v 
 
 created universe, material and immaterial, and all in- 
 telligences therein, are a Christian universe, with a 
 Chi'istian character and design; and the Law, over 
 all laws, and for aU beings and things, is the law of 
 righteousness in Christ; of whom the whole family 
 in heaven and eaiih are named; neither is there any 
 real progress possible, in theology or in natural science, 
 but only in and under the acknowledgment of the 
 mystery of the Father and of the Son and of the 
 Holy Ghost, in whose name aU nations are to be in- 
 structed and baptized. 
 
 The instruction, the baptism, the infinite mystery, 
 and the results, are indisputable vouchers for God's 
 Word, as beyond aU question //;'.s Word, not man's. 
 Here are faith, doubt, evidence, inspiration, infalli- 
 bility, assui'ance, and eternal life. 
 
 Faith is the oi'igin and justifying ground of hope, 
 which is the result, through prayer, of even the least 
 degree of faith in God's promises. Then hope, exer- 
 cised in prayer through faith, begins to realize God's 
 Word in assurance, by the " Earnest of the Spirit in 
 the heart." But hope imphes doubt; and fear by 
 reason of the eternal consequences depending, is a 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 just and bealtlifui correlative and stimulant of both. 
 Thus, faith and doubt, animated and inspired by 
 hope, -work out the demonstration. Doubt itself be- 
 comes the means and index of investigation; sharp- 
 ens a man's criticism and inquisitiveness, by the very 
 sincerity and anguish of his x>erplexities, seeking the 
 right, the safe, the holy path. An Indian on a trail 
 is but made the keener and more careful in his search, 
 by his uncertainties. 
 
 Faith would cease both its preciousness and its 
 l^raise, as well as its usefulness, if there were no 
 grounds of doubt. Actual sight puts faith behind, not 
 before ; and hope that is seen is not hope, for what a 
 man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we 
 hope for that we see not, then do we with patience 
 wait and labor for it, because of our faith in God, 
 and in His "Word. Inspired and urged by doubt, 
 faith and hope work out the evidence by which the 
 soul rests in God. Faith becomes the siihslanlia of 
 things hoped for (the vnodradii), and brings to light 
 the evidence of thuigs not seen. 
 
 A screw is swifter than an arrow; for its alh', its 
 lever, is resistance. A screw adapted to the air, as 
 
Preface. vli 
 
 an iron propeller to the water, would be swift as the 
 lightning. Knowledge advances and accumulates by- 
 obstacles. Evidence does not come in a straight line 
 of propositions and conclusions, but pom-s in from 
 a multitude of side and interweaving brooks and 
 streams, that themselves have wound their way 
 among mountains and tumbled over precipices. So 
 that an an-ay of evidences may be more truly logi- 
 cal, more absolutely demonstrative, in fragmentary 
 and desultory processes, of experiments, interfer- 
 ences and cross-hghts, duels of incidence and coinci- 
 dence, reflection and refi-action, than by steel links 
 in any one chain. 
 
 The heat of earnest doubt is as the smoking flax, 
 working for flame. God values it, Christ hallows and 
 blesses it. And in its very nature such doubt works 
 by faith and for faith, and lays hold of all things, in- 
 tertwisting atid conquering (as Jacob, the wrestler at 
 midnight,) with obstacles seemingly omnipotent, but 
 whose resistance gives strength; just as an immeas- 
 urable screw in its vast and mighty revolutions might 
 make the ocean and the whole material universe its 
 propelling shaft. Thus God's own love wrestles with 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 Spii'itual sin and death, and brings good out of evil, 
 causing the wi'ath of men and devils to praise Him 
 and restraining the remainder of wrath. God's old 
 mii'acles are kept w^orking new results, just as Aaron's 
 rod that blossomed was laid up in the ark for occasion 
 of new rebellions. 
 
 In Blunt's admii'able volume of "Undesigned Co- 
 incidences," he remarks, in considering the veracity 
 of the Books of Moses, that "the more attentively 
 and scrupulously we examine the Scriptiu'es, the more 
 we shall be convinced that the natural and supernat- 
 ural events recorded in them must stand or fall to- 
 gether. The Spirit of mirojcles possesses the entire body 
 of the Bible, and can not he cast out xoilhout rending in 
 pieces the lohole frame of the hUtory itself, merely con- 
 sidered as a history." * 
 
 Of these historic correlations, the existence of which 
 is itself a proof of the miraculous presence of God, as 
 clear as the shining of the sun, tlic passage in Deut. 
 
 • "Vci-acity of the Books of Moses," Part I. Also, Stilling- 
 fleet's "Origines Sacno," vol. i. b. ii., on Moses and Miracles. 
 Oxford edition, 183C. Also, Havernick, "Introd. Pentateuch " 
 p. 4AG, Edinburgh, 1850. 
 
Preface. ix 
 
 xxxi. 24^27, and the repetition of the same in verses 
 28, 29, 30, are an instance so remarkable, that it might 
 have been set at the head of the argument for a mi- 
 raculous interposition down to the coming of Christ. 
 " Take this book of the law, and put it in the side 
 of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, 
 that it may be there for a ivilness against thee." Thus 
 Moses by the will of the Lord commanded the Le- 
 vites, having previously (Moses and Joshua together), 
 received theu' charge fi*om God, in the tabernacle of 
 the congregation, in the presence of all the people. 
 " Write ye this song for you, and teach it to the chil- 
 dren of Israel. Put it in then- mouths, that this song 
 may be a witness for IVIe against the children of 
 Israel. And it shall come to pass, when many evils 
 and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall 
 TESTIFY against THEM AS A WITNESS; for it shall not be 
 forgotten out of the mouths of theu' seed. Moses 
 therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught 
 it the children of Israel," and gave Joshua God's 
 charge. The song is then recorded, and at the end 
 of its recital it is added, ih(U Moses spake all the icorda 
 of tills song, in the ears of the people, he, and Joshua 
 
X Preface. 
 
 the son of Nuu. And Moses made an end of sj^eak- 
 ing all these words to all Israel. And he said unto 
 them, " Set your hearts unto all the words which I 
 testify' among you this day, which ye shaU command 
 ^•our children to observe to do, all the words of this 
 law. For it is not a vain thing for you, because it is 
 
 YOUR LIFE." 
 
 Your life ; and a witness against yourselves, he- 
 cause it condemns you, and may lead you back to God, 
 ■who alone can forgive and redeem you ! This is 
 God's merciful educational discipline, begun and de- 
 monstrated with the Israehtes, and continued for 
 centuries in the whole course of His providences and 
 proj)hets from Samuel to Malachi; and thence for- 
 ward on the same principles with all mankind, in all 
 kingdoms and nations, to the end of time, even for 
 life eternal, which is the gift offered to all, by the 
 Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and the 
 Morning Star, so long as the Spirit and the Bride 
 say come. The Jews have a life-interest in this, as 
 long as the world stands, which will certainly be till 
 the twelfth chanter of Romans is fulliUed; "and so 
 all Israel shall be saved: for this is my covenant unto 
 
Preface. xi 
 
 them wlien I shall take away theu- sins." The whole 
 New Testament belongs as entu-ely to the Jews as to 
 the Gentiles; from Genesis to the Apocalypse, their 
 Saviom- and ours is the Author and Finisher of Faith 
 in the Blessed Word of God that endureth forever. 
 
 We wonder as we read this record, so sacredly and 
 unalterably preserved in the Hebrew Scriptures for 
 four thousand years unto this day, by what power of 
 assurance, what indwelhng safeguards against fraud, 
 it could have been locked upon a nation's conscience, 
 seeing that it would be for aU ages, an undeniable 
 and self-acknowledged verdict of that conscience 
 against themselves. And we immediately find in the 
 correlations between this song of indictment in the 
 thirty-second chapter, and the blessing that follows 
 in the thu-ty-third, a connection so indestructible be- 
 tween the curses and the blessings of the Almighty, 
 that a penitential acknowledgment of the first was an 
 essential condition of the fulfilment of the last. 
 
 It is not possible to pick this lock, or deny any 
 part of it as a forgery against the people, without 
 converting the whole into an assurance of irreversible 
 destruction. Doubt and fear through consciousness 
 
xii Preface. 
 
 of guilt, balanced by faith and Lojie in God's mercy, 
 make up a compound safety lock, which can not be 
 opened without God's key and combination cipher, 
 except by blowing the safe and the whole building 
 to pieces, with all that do business therein. And thus, 
 faith, fear, and the reason of self-regard, in and through 
 a conscience towards • God, preserved from generation 
 to generation as the central element of a religious 
 education, were the protecting combination of mii-ac- 
 ulous efficacy, in the preservation of these records; 
 over which, through all the wanderings of the chil- 
 dren of Israel, the miracle of a cloud by day and a 
 pillar of fire by night rested; assuring them that the 
 omniscience and omnipotence of Jehovah kept guard; 
 and that a penitential and j)rayerful acknowledgment 
 of God's justice in the song would forever be an in- 
 disputable condition of the jiossibility of God's for- 
 giving and redeeming mercy in the salvation through 
 the promised Messiah and Saviour, who was to be, 
 for all that would believe in Him, The Lord, our 
 RiGirrEOusNEss. 
 
 Take we then as a fit jireface to our argument, the 
 pregnant words of Lord Brooke on the " Uses of 
 
Preface. xiii 
 
 Human Learning," written about the year 1G28, when 
 John Bunyan began his Pilgrim Life, without knowl- 
 edge of any other book than his Bible, and out of 
 the Bible wrote his "Jerusalem Sixxer Saved." 
 
 "And to conclude, whether we would erect 
 
 Ourselves or others by the choice of arts. 
 Our chief endeavor must be to effect 
 
 A sound foundation, not on sandy parts, 
 Of light opinion, self-ness, words of men, 
 But that suee Kock of Truth, God's Wobd, God's pex. 
 
 "And if this wisdom only can be found 
 
 By seeking God, e(;e;i in ihe faith Ue gives; 
 If earth, heaven, sea, stars, creatures, be the bound 
 
 Wherein revealed, His power and wisdom lives; 
 If true obedience be the way to this. 
 And only who grows better, wiser is, — 
 
 "Then let not curious silly flesh conceive 
 Itself more rich, or hapi^y, when it Imows 
 Those words of art, which men (as shells) must cleave. 
 
 Before the life's true wisdom they disclose. 
 Truth is no counsellor to assist the evil; 
 And in his own, who wiser than the Devil? 
 
xiv Preface. 
 
 "For only that man understands indeed, 
 
 And well remembers, wliich he well can do: — 
 The laws live, only where the law doth breed the and 
 
 Obedience to the works it binds us to: — 
 And as the life of wisdom hath expresst. 
 If this you know, then do it, and be blest." 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 INTEODUCTION. 
 The Pillars of Christianity; the History of the Jews, and the 
 Biography of Jesus— Infidelity assails both— Faith in God 
 accepts both— Limits of historic Keality— God's Notes on 
 Genesis— Belief in God the first Exercise of a reasonable 
 Soul— God's Word committed to Writing; never left to 
 Tradition— The Oracles of God committed to the Jews for 
 Keeping; to Christ and His Spirit for Fulfilment, Inter- 
 pretation, and Proof— The Ministry of the Priesthood, 
 and God's Education of Mankind, by Laws and Warnings 
 —The History of the Jews a Demonstration for Mankind 
 in all Ages— God's Arrangement of Means and Gifts of 
 Power for the Spread of saving Truth— God's Volume a 
 Library of Principles for the Life everlasting— The Whole 
 is this, that God is Love— The Conditions of historic Evi- 
 dence—The Inspiration of the Scriptures infallible or 
 null— The educating Ministry of Faith and Prayer— Ex- 
 amples of Neibuhr and Franklin, for Individuals and 
 Nations , ^^^-^ 
 
 I. 
 
 The History of Franklin's Autobiography in the Manuscript 
 —Its diverse Copies, and the Translations of them 1 
 
 II. 
 
 Eecovery and Examination of the missing original Auto- 
 graph, by Mr. Bigelow in 1867 11 
 
 III. 
 
 Alterations and Omissions in the first printed Copy— The 
 Questions of Genuineness— Eight Pages wanting in aU 
 the earliest MS. and printed Copies 17 
 
xvi Contents. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Similar possible Predicaments of the Gospel Manuscripts — 
 Particularly of Mark and John 22 
 
 Y. 
 
 Uncertainties in the Transmission of Manuscripts— Internal 
 Evidence superior to all other 26 
 
 VI. 
 
 Lessons from Franklin's Autobiography as to the Close of 
 Mai'k's Gospel — The Oxiinion and Arguments of Hug 30 
 
 VII. 
 
 Lessons as to John viii. 1-12 — Conjectures of the Critics ... 39 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Opinions of Alford and Lightfoot— Ai'guments of Eusebius, 
 Lardner and Tregelles on Papias — Testimony in Lightfoot's 
 Works (1683) on the same — Authorities for the Integrity 
 of John's Gospel— Sources of the Conjectures to the Con- 
 trary 46 
 
 IX. 
 
 Indisputable Connection of Thought and Congruity of Style 
 — Internal Evidence of Inspiration, and Improbabilities 
 of Forgery 51 
 
 X. 
 
 niustrative Comparison of Franklin's printed Editions with 
 his own discovered Manuscript 61 
 
 XI. 
 
 Autobiography of Moses — Christ and Genesis— Inspiration 
 and Unity of the Pentateuch 71 
 
Contenls, xvii 
 
 XII. 
 
 Eras, Permanence, and Sameness of the Hebrew Language 
 A Shechinah of God's Presence — A Divine Urim and Thum- 
 mim for the Soul 80 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Restlessness of sceptical Sagacity — Franklin on scouring the 
 Anchor — An infallible Inspiration necessary for the Con- 
 veyance of Divine Truth .• 89 
 
 xiy. 
 
 Catalogues and Qualities of our MS. Authorities — Tischen- 
 dorf s Disco veiy — Expedients of the Destructives — Cer- 
 tainties of Eesults 96 
 
 XV. 
 
 Antecedent Probabilities — Bengel and Gaussen on the i>len- 
 ary Infallible Inspiration — Vastuess of Investigations, and 
 Positiveness of the Besults 107 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Franklin's Illustrations of the supposed but mistaken Infalli- 
 bility of the Critics — Letter and Spiiit inseparable 115 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The Sources of true critical Discei-nment and Power — Bengel 
 and his Gnomon — Less and less Doubt with every succes- 
 sive Translation 122 
 
 XVI I r. 
 
 A quieting Uncertainty — The Certainties evolved from the 
 Variations— Internal EWdence Decisive in Cases of Doubt . 128 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Defence of the angelic Hymn (Luke ii. 13, 14) on these 
 Principles 133 
 
xviii Contents. 
 
 XX. 
 
 Defence of the Doxology in our Lord's Prayer by the same 
 Evidence 138 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Scepticism the Work of llisinterpretation and Mistake— In- 
 stanced in the Case of Colenso— No Word for Siate in the 
 Hebrew Language 142 
 
 XXII. 
 
 God's Eight of Prepossession in the himan Mind with His 
 own Truth 154 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 God's Method of a Prepossessing Love, in the human Con- 
 science—The Holy Spirit bearing witness with our Spirit- 
 Conclusions as to the Canon of the New Testament, all his- 
 toric certainty grounded in Christ, and in the Lifallibility 
 of his Words— The Nature and Extent of Divine Inspira- 
 tion taught only by Him— A Divine Revelation inevitable 
 from the Gfoodness of God; consequent hereditaiy Con- 
 viction, of the Divine Inspiration of the Bible. Hence 
 our Lord's Assertion of the Kights of Children, in His 
 knowledge 158 
 
 XXIV & XX Y, 
 
 Method of the Destructive Critics— Denial of the Super- 
 natural 167 
 
 Displacement of the genuine historic Narratives, by imagi- 
 nary "Books of Origins "-Postulate of the Universal 
 Falsehood of any Divine Inspiration — Examples from 
 DeWette, Ewidd, Kuenen and Colenso— Eternal RcBults 
 demonstrate the Necessity of an Infallible Inspiration- 
 Christ's Axiom 167 
 
Contents. xix 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 The Bule and Regulator of our Reason is the Word of God 
 — Our Compass and Chronometer for Time and Eternity — 
 Bishop Butler's Postulate of a Future Life and Retribu- 
 tion — The same in Ecclesiastes— A Book clearing up all 
 DiflSculties by the Announcement of a Divine Judgment 
 in Righteousness 186 
 
 XXYII. 
 
 Faith in God or Man, inevitable — "Which is most reasonable ? 
 — The old Hebrew Oath, for the Confirmation of all truth, 
 AS THE Lord liveth — No such Thing possible as a mere 
 secular horizon — His Attributes inevitably made known 
 to Mankind— Instances from Abraham and Job, to Christ 
 and Paul — The Thoughts of Marcus Aurclius 196 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 The Alignment from the Etemitj' of God to the Certainty of 
 a Divine Revelation — What may be learned from a Lake- 
 picture — The Law of human Intelligence from the Creator 
 through a Reverberation of Eternity in the Soul — The 
 Choice and Meaning of the Words for the Commerce of 
 Thought between Time and Eternity — The Words for Sin, 
 Holiness and Redemjjtion — Archbishop Trench on the 
 SjTionyms of the New Testament— Prof Stnart on the In- 
 spiration of Words in the Divine Quotations 211 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 Settlement of Certainties— What did the old Hebrews believe 
 and know as to Death, Life, Immortality and Heaven? — 
 Testimony of the Psalms, and Proverbs; of Hezekiah and 
 of the Apocrypha— The most spiritual Men in their most 
 spiritual Moments — Literature of the Seventeenth Cen- • 
 tury — Agnosticism tried by the Creed of Abraham, Isaac, 
 Jacob and Joseph— All God's Promises are everlasting 
 Covenants addressed to the Idea of a known eternal Re- 
 sponsibility to God, organic in the human Reason 221 
 
XX Contents. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Forms of Prayer, and God's benevolent Disciplinary Work 
 by means of Them upon the Soul— Prayers of Noah, 
 Abraham, Job, Jacob, Moses, David and Solomon and the 
 prophets, down to Paul — God's Presence in all these Sup- 
 lilications, an illumination in the Soul — "I beseech thee. 
 Show me thy Glory " 234 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 Belying the Word of the Lord a modern as well as ancient 
 Form of Blasphemy and Cruelty— Will a Man rob God?— 
 The Curse pronounced against such Treatment of Divine 
 Truth— Christ Himself involved in this Blasphemy 247 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 The Crucifixion between two Thieves renewed at this Day 
 by intelligent and learned Scoffers — Examples of such 
 Treatment in the "Encyclopedia Britannica"— A Primer 
 of the Creed of Second Hand RationaUsm— The Conse- 
 quences of such stereotyped Scepticism 254 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 Christ's Claims as the only Inspirer and Interpreter of 
 God's Word, and no more Uucertaiuty- Our method is to 
 press the Scriptures as Christ and His Apostles pressed 
 them— The adjuring certainty of Paul— No Supposition 
 admitted by Christ of any po-ssible Uncertainty or Mis- 
 take—Nothing less than a plenary verbal Inspiration 
 demonstrated in Christ's Picasoning 265 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 God's own Vonchers unimpeachable, cumulative and still 
 evolving from Generation to Generation— Bishop Stilling- 
 fleet Canon of exegctical Criticism 271 
 
Contents. xxi 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 John Foster on Christianity and Science — Combination and 
 Concentration of Proofs in the Comparison of Prophets 
 and Historians 281 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 A Divine Eevealcr admitted, that which He reveals must 
 be infallible — The Revelation must be made in Words in- 
 fallible—But the Claim of Infallibility fatal to any Pre- 
 tender—God alone can safely make such a Claim — Only 
 God in Christ demonstrates it 292 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 What God has bestowed, what we have gained, and how to 
 use it...., 297 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 Paul's Instructions and Timothy's Experience — The Word a 
 Spiritual Telegraph — The Education and Training requi- 
 site for the effectual Ministration of Truth — Original Chris- 
 tian Knowledge only by the Indwelling of Chiist in the 
 Heart — Scott's "Force of Truth" — Confession of Christ by 
 the dying Thief 303 
 
INTEODUCTIOK 
 
 One of Frederick's chaplains is said to have rej)Hed 
 to him, when he asked for a brief demonstration of 
 Christianity, " The Jews, your majesty ! " It was a 
 sudden concentration of truth, Hke that of Christ for 
 the woman of Samaria, " We know what we worship, 
 for SALVATION IS OF THE Jews; " and that salvation is the 
 whole of Christianity. The Jews included Moses, and 
 the Prophets, and the Psalms; all tlie Old Testament 
 hterature and demonstration before Christ; and at 
 this day the Jews are the continued miracle of Chris- 
 tianity over the face of the whole earth. Let any man 
 ask sincerely tcho and ichence the Jews are, and he will 
 find " God in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." 
 
 Christianity rests on these two divine pillars: the 
 history of the Jews, and the biograiihy of Jesus. The 
 existence of either is impossible without a sujjernatural 
 origin, and the one demonstrates the other. A destruc- 
 tive criticism assails both the history and biography as 
 a compound of myths and impostures. The history 
 of the JcAvs is a record of God's providence with them, 
 from Adam to the coming of the Saviour of mankind. 
 It is a history of prayer and faith, through God's merci- 
 ful promises, and of human redemption through Christ's 
 appointed and predicted sufferings and death. It is 
 
xxiv hitroditdion. 
 
 thus a lustoiy of the beginnings and growth of all Chris- 
 tian ideas and institutions. 
 
 The heir by entail of all the assumed historic relig- 
 ions in the world might choose out, here and there, 
 a Confucius, a Zoroaster, a Socrates, a Boodh, a Ma- 
 homet. Is there one of these religions that has any 
 si^iritual truth whatever, which was not first in the 
 foretold and accomphshed Christianity of the Word of 
 God? But if we should select from them all every 
 good thing, still, without Chi'ist and Him crucified, 
 we have nothing. If we accept Him, we have all the 
 
 TRUTH THAT IS OF ANY WORTH AS A RELIGION FOR MAN- 
 KIND IN ALL AGES. 
 
 And aU the vocabulary of prehistoric and unknown 
 eras or forms of worship beyond the book of Genesis 
 is but an ignoring of the limitations of true historic 
 reahty, and an attempt to sujjpty a vacuum of uncer- 
 tainty by conjectures. There is no such interval, nor 
 ever has been, of unrecorded truth for our reliance. 
 It is all bridged over by the only absolutely true his- 
 tory in existence, going back to the origin of things, 
 the first existence of earth and man. Beyond that 
 lies the only jDrehistoric reahty, that is, God self-ex- 
 istent, the Creator. There divine history begins, and 
 never ends. Thence the stream flows down ; and myths 
 and fables are the work of those who have not dwelt 
 on that stream, nor known historic realities. 
 
 The Egyj)tians come to our knowledge first of all 
 as a nation,- in that divine history; afterwards, in the 
 pages of Herodotus; then in the monuments discov- 
 ered and deciphered. So xVssyria, Nineveh, Babylon, 
 
Introdtiction. xxv 
 
 and the disinterred cities, mth their stone and baked- 
 brick hbraries are an illustrative commentary as un- 
 deniable as the coal mines and chalk mountains of the 
 globe. And panting Time toils after the Divine Prov- 
 idence with its chronology and its hieroglyphics, not 
 in vaiu, but as the sure Jind patient fulfiller and inter- 
 preter, as well as note-taker of divinel}' prophesied 
 events. And so, all our geological and antiquarian 
 discoveries, the disinterments of the Theban Tombs, 
 and whatever be the mathematics of the Pyramids, are 
 merely God's own notes on Genesis. This is the book, 
 in which Chi"ist Himself planted the jjiUars of His sys- 
 tem of redemption. It is the book in whose written 
 verl)al statements of facts He rested the foundations 
 of the divine government over men; the divine au- 
 thority and meaning of the two governing and mould- 
 ing institutions of human society through the world, 
 — marriage and the Sabbath; the preservation of all 
 purity, intelligence, culture, progress, love to God and 
 man, knowledge and worshiji of God; at the same time, 
 the deadly nature of sin against God, and the need 
 and promise of a Redecmei*. The book, from the di- 
 vine authorship and infaUibility of which Christ dem- 
 onstrated the future hfe as made known of God to 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to Moses through the 
 same divine history; the appeal being from link to link 
 in such wise, that every thought, word, statement, is 
 part of an undeniable unity. 
 
 A book holding \\^ all things in the history of our 
 race in the atmosphere of eternal light and coiv^quences; 
 the fall of man, the assurance of God's interposition 
 for his recovery, the communion of God with succes- 
 
XX vi Introduction. 
 
 sive leaders, fathers, commanders, and teachers of the 
 peoj^le; a communion so definite and known, so abso- 
 lute, eternal, and for all generations, that Christ refers 
 to its human jxirtakers and covenanters, passed into 
 the heavens and now living with God, as examples of 
 the immortality and eternal responsibility of all man- 
 kind ; and accepts and sanctions the references of Moses 
 to that book as God's own references. It is the first 
 book of eternal realities, the seed book of faith in God, 
 the root book of the whole Divme Revelation. A book, 
 the austere simplicity of w^hich stands in such contrast 
 with all other remnants of tradition and history among 
 men, that the deniers of its divine inspii'ation ai'e di'iven 
 to the necessity of tearing it in fragments, and then 
 inteii:>olating and piecing it up with conjectured fables 
 like the m^-thological origins of the races of oriental 
 antiquity, so as to bring it to the same level of human 
 criticism and credibility, rejecting the supernatiu'al and 
 di\ine. 
 
 The prevailing tmbelief is both careless in its meth- 
 ods and reckless of its consequences; two things that 
 work illumtable devastation and iniin. For indeed we 
 are born not only into God's world, with oiu* frame 
 feai'fully and wondei-fuU}' made, in minutest adaptation 
 to the material forces and laws of the world {nafitre's 
 pluck, as Prof. Huxley warns .us of its despotism, and 
 commands us to obey, or talce the inevitable conse- 
 quences, no redemption pos.sible), bvit into God's .sp/r- 
 itual trulh, with mills conformed and adapted to it, breath- 
 ing it, and inspu'ed by it, as the lungs in God's balmy 
 atmosphere. And therefore hdief, not doubt, is the 
 
Introduction. 
 
 xxvu 
 
 very firxf hcnllhful orr/anizuig exercise of tlie human soul. 
 For it is in God's light that we see light, and were born 
 to live by breathing it, not by doubling. All science is 
 God's own truth, and being taught by Him, it is all 
 iipirilaal science in Him ; forever increasing in the knowl- 
 edge of God, its author; making us children of light, 
 and partakers of the inheritance of mints in light, by 
 beheving in Christ, who is "the true light that lighteth 
 every man that cometh into the world." 
 
 " That thy trust may be in Die Lord, I have made known 
 to thee; have I not written to thek, excellent things in 
 counsel and knowledge; that I might m.vke thee know 
 
 THE certainty OF THE WORDS OF TRUTH, that tllOU migllt- 
 
 est answer the icoi'ds of truth to them that send unto 
 thee ? " Prov. xxii. 17-21. " It is a pleasant thing it 
 thou keep them within thee; they shall withal he fitted 
 in thy lipa." Let any man read, along with this pas- 
 sage, the third and the eighth chapter of Proverbs; 
 and he can not doubt the assertion and the knowledge 
 of a verbal inspiration from God, among the people for 
 whose use these divine instructions were given. Job, 
 the Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, occujjy the cen- 
 tre of the Scriptures; — history and prophecy, tempta- 
 tion and faith, i)rayer and jiraise, foresight and ex- 
 l^erience. History tii-st of all grows out of prophecy; 
 then prophecy is fulfilled in history; and both present 
 to faith a mass of internal evidence, the record of 
 which would have been impossible except by divine 
 omniscience. 
 
 What has ever kejjt the world anchored to God, but 
 just this, It is written ? Had there beeai only the evi- 
 
xxviii Introduction. 
 
 dence of traditional liuowledge, which is always tradi- 
 tional uncertainty, there would have been as many 
 rehgions, and of equal authority, as there are idols in 
 polytheism. What is written in the Law? The con- 
 ditions of eternal life are written, to be read and known 
 of all. They were never received by tradition from 
 the Fathers. 
 
 And who are they that have kej)t the written truth, 
 as being in itself the presence and authority of the 
 Hving God? The Jews, generation after generation, 
 often at the cost of martyrdom. A succession of He- 
 brew heroes, who were born with an innate prepos- 
 sessing sense of the divine inspiration and authority of 
 the sacred books, and would preserve them from de- 
 sti-uction and stand by them at the peril of death, not 
 accepting dehverance when the question was between 
 deserting their trust with the word of God, or dying. 
 
 And by whose faithfulness were the words of God 
 proclaimed and made known to them? By a succes- 
 sion, well known, of men of whom the world Avas not 
 Avorthy; such as Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jere- 
 miah, and the prophets. But if these men had not 
 also lorUlen as well as spoken the word of God, of what 
 avail to those who followed after ? And without the 
 same Holy Spirit in their hearts and lips /or urifing 
 down the record of the revelation, there could have 
 been no divine certainty in that. 
 
 Who then can authenticate the xcriling, or make us 
 sure, without possibility of error, of that which is 
 comprehended in the phrase for our guidance, as to 
 the right worship of God, It is written ? Who but the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of Faith ? 
 
Introduction. 
 
 XXIX 
 
 For He came with that manifestation of authority and 
 demonstration of all the truth that was and is and is 
 to come ; Himself the Way, the Truth, the Life, the 
 Word made flesh, and dwelling among us. He came 
 not to render theology an uncertain science, nor to 
 abolish any of its truths, but to perfect and fulfil. 
 The Author and Finisher of Faith did never bequeath 
 a legacy of doubts for the i:)erplexity and quarrelling 
 of all generations, or a case in chanceiy for the sup- 
 port of lawyers to the end of the world. 
 
 Is any thing ever assured to us without a promise 
 in Christ? And is any thing promised to any one in 
 the Scriptures that is not also promised to lis, on the 
 faith of His suiferings and death for all mankind? 
 Therefore we are right in taking the very highest view 
 and sense of all that we can find in a divine revelation 
 for man's good. And whatever we find and experi- 
 ence in our own communion Avith God through Christ, 
 may have been found and known not only by saints 
 before our time, but also before Christ's coming. In 
 some instances it may have been not only communi- 
 cated by the Divine Spirit to souls seeking after God, 
 but inspired also in minds chosen and prepared of 
 God, in order to be recorded by such souls, for all fol- 
 lowing generations. Such were the ministrations of the 
 Holy Spirit to Job in the depths of his distresses, in 
 the disclosure of the Redeemer, "I know that my Re- 
 deemer liveth." 
 
 That was, as it were, the highest rung in the ladder 
 of Jacob's dream rising from earth to heaven. To 
 most men the step where it enters heaven and is fas- 
 tened to that AVithin the vail, is unseen; but if it has 
 
XXX 
 
 Liti'odudion. 
 
 ever been seen hij any one in Hohj Writ, and the Tision 
 recorded, it may be seen by us, by inspiration of the 
 same faith. And we are permitted to accept, as fi'om 
 the Divine Spirit, the highest spiritual interpretation 
 that our personal hopes and aspirations can jDut upon 
 it, as a revelation intended, not for Job and his com- 
 pany onl}', but for all mankind. 
 
 The nineteenth chapter of Job, as well as the 23d 
 and 51st Psalms, and the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, 
 and the fifteenth of I Corinthians, are every one the 
 heir-looms of a believing immortaUty in man. Every 
 man living may apply them fi-eely if he will. "What 
 Cowper said of himself may be said b}' all. 
 
 "But God has breathed upon a worm, 
 
 And sent me from above, 
 Wings such as clothe au angel's form, 
 
 The wings of joy and love. 
 With these to Pisgah's top I fly, 
 
 And there delighted stand. 
 To view, beneath a shining sky, 
 
 The spacious promised land. 
 The Lord of all the vast domain 
 
 Has promised it to me; — 
 The length and breadth of all the plain. 
 
 As far as faith can see." 
 
 The whole Bible, all its promises, as all its warnings, 
 are the inheritance of saints in lig'ht, encompassing the 
 soul with all the safe-guards both of hope and fear. 
 
 Christ not only by His death fulfilled the history and 
 prophecies of the Jewish nation, but by His life demon- 
 strated all those vast ideas of immortality, faith, prayer, 
 providence, never known in any example on earth, till 
 
Introduction. 
 
 XXXI 
 
 the dhnne Hebrew revelation of them from God, for 
 the whole world's guidance; never acted out except by 
 inspired heroes portrayed in the Hebrew Scriptures; 
 never traced or analyzed or taught in any other litera- 
 ture or experience of men outside those Scrijitures. 
 
 " Not by bread alone, but by eveiy word that pro- 
 ceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man live." 
 "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
 heart, mind, soul, and strength, and thy neighbor as 
 thyself." The human mind can conceive no more per- 
 fect concentration of holiness and happiness than is 
 contained in this law; no more absolute expression of 
 infinite benevolence in the Lawgiver. 
 
 In the divine history, the love and mercy of God in 
 His covenant with Abraham were the ground both of 
 the law on Sinai and the successive atoning sacrifices. 
 The i^riesthood and the sacrificial and ceremonial law 
 and system were first and most important, while the 
 law was but the servant of God's hohness to convince 
 the soul of sin. The priest, the altar, and the sacrifice 
 presented the wa}' of forgiveness and the offer of life 
 in God's believed and trusted mercy, and so the law 
 was the apjDointed school-master, to bring sinners to 
 the mercy-seat in prayer. 
 
 By the action of their souls in coming to that mercy- 
 seat were the true seekers after God in the history of 
 Israel tested. And now, the true seeker is he who fol- 
 lows out the truth of God's mercy in Christ. Seekers 
 after God seek truth in God's light, not man's. But 
 seekers after truth, regardless of consequences, God 
 or no God, set up a standard of independence, which 
 
xxxu 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 can not consist with our nature as dependent and 
 trusting children of a heavenly Father. 
 
 The history of the Jews is a compassionate, continu- 
 ous, providential miracle, just as profoundly conserva- 
 tive, and illustrative, as any rock-discoveries by %Yhich 
 we demousti'ate the history of epochs on the globe. 
 The preservation of that history, in such undisputed 
 accuracy, is unexampled, being maintained by a most 
 wonderful combination of evidence, so intenvoven with 
 all that we are most absolutely certain of, and most 
 earnestly desu'ous of jireserving, maintained provi- 
 dentially by the concentration of such hgiits from the 
 whole world's enmity; such interferences and vio- 
 lences from all nations, attempting to destroy the 
 Jews themselves out of existence. 
 
 There is not another nation or family on earth whose 
 connections we can trace back, so accurately and so far; 
 can trace them by the hghts of predictions concerning 
 them, and cross trains of history colliding with them; 
 trace them by ruins of empix'es and cities immortalized 
 in our knowledge mainly by their treatment of them ; 
 trace them through murderous persecutions and bar- 
 barous laws and religious fanaticisms from generation 
 to generation, consecrating their destruction and the 
 hatred of them as an act of piety to God; trace them 
 by their own suicidal curse at the crucifixion cleaving 
 to them: "His blood be on us and on our children"; 
 trace them by that curse fulfilled through all nations, 
 and yet their equally mu-aculous preservation beneath 
 the bearing of its burden, that they may go about with 
 it until it be removed; trace them back to Christ, Him- 
 
Introductio7i. xxxiii 
 
 self a Jew; back to Abraham, he and they the descend- 
 ants of Abraham, the beginning of the circumcised race, 
 separated from all the nations as God's chosen family; 
 traced further back than any race of mankind can be 
 followed, with monuments all the Avay up to the cities 
 of Sodom and Damascus; traced b}' undisputed pre- 
 dictions of designed and long continued providences 
 and disciplinary measiires, from God as their Father; 
 such predictions as those in Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
 up to this day and hour being fulfilled in the sight of 
 all nations. 
 
 God educates the human race by books, legislates 
 by books, makes men learn for life or death by books; 
 and the appeal of the Son of God Himself for justi- 
 fication and certainty, putting an end to aU strife, and 
 sending doubt out of court, is just this. It is wkittex. 
 But what is written is accompanied now by what is en- 
 graven in the rocks, and most surely known and ac- 
 knowledged among men as absolute, indisputable cer- 
 tainties. So that to-day, science and history are only 
 bell-ringers of the chimes that God set i;p six thou- 
 sand years ago. 
 
 The history of the Jews is a running batteiy of God's 
 words and mii'acles; and their existence to-day is a 
 visible miracle, as clearly the counterj^art and seal of 
 the recorded miracles, and the work of the same God, 
 as the correlation between light and the eye, Hghtning 
 and thunder, the pointers and the north star. What 
 God has done, is doing, and has promised to do, with 
 the Jews, can no more be doubted or disregarded in 
 our naviijation as men and nations across the sea of 
 
xxxiv Introduction. 
 
 destiny, than wliat the heavens are telling can be ti'i- 
 flecl with in the sailing of a fleet of ships, soul-freighted, 
 round the globe. And so God's education of all na- 
 tions proceeds from the unerring chart-rficords of Hu 
 vast celestial transactions with one representaiiDe nation. The 
 choice now, of God or Baal, and its everlasting conse- 
 quences, are set before all nations, as distinctly as ever 
 b}' Joshua fifteen hundred years before Christ, or by 
 Elijah nine hundred, but with tenfold assurance of the 
 inevitable jjenalties waiting the eternal demonstration. 
 
 And now we seem to be entering on an experiment 
 whether society, all these advantages from experience 
 of the gospel being given, and all these facilities for 
 its spread, may not get on without them, or by science 
 alone in tlie neglect of them ; rejecting their providen- 
 tial aid, as requiring a belief in God and Christianity, 
 or the adoption and teaching of an opinion of respon- 
 sibility to God, which the State, under God or nature, 
 has no right to assume. And what a dilemma is this ! 
 Compelled by the average of reason for six thousand 
 years, to assume a God, but denying the authority to 
 teach those behefs in Him, which are the sanction of 
 laws, the sti-ength of conscience, and the only sujoport 
 and justification of the State in enforcing its own stat- 
 utes. Certainly, the jjurpose of education is to make 
 out of the child for the man, and out of the man for 
 the world, on which his active i>owers and passions are 
 to operate, all that he can become, of goodness and 
 usefulness and consequent happiness, possessed and 
 imparted. 
 
 But if the tendency of science to exclude a behef 
 
Introduction 
 
 XXXV 
 
 in God advances with the popularization of knowledge, 
 and is fostered in its very pnmers, then the child will 
 one day master Laplace, and shall be a hundred years 
 old in the power of the habit of scepticism, before he 
 is permitted to examine the idea of God in a divine 
 revelation. As the extent of the universe is demonstra- 
 ted to the 3*outhful mind, and at the same time the 
 omnipresent love and providence of God are forbid- 
 den to be taught in any primary school of morals, what 
 balance can there be against the gloom of infinite space, 
 and the power of sui^erstition ? For the imagination 
 will create its own demons, if not taught to trust in a 
 "benevolent God, and to tiee for refuge to the bosom 
 of His love, the secui'ity of His being. 
 
 What mankind thus far have seen and understood 
 is this : namely, from Adam to Moses, about two thou- 
 sand years, the principles of divine law, known by con- 
 science, but disregarded (see Eom. i. 18-23), and the 
 world's habit towards its Maker formed out of such 
 disregard. Then from Moses to Christ, two thousand 
 more, with the law wuittex out, as a schoolmaster, and 
 with exi^erience of the character and consequences of 
 a violation and perversion of the same. Then from 
 Christ ouAvards two thousand more, iviilh knowledrje of 
 the gospel, and the character consequent on the perversion 
 of that; including three hundred years of partial re- 
 covery fi-om such perversion, with accumulated knowl- 
 edge of its experimental power, and great advancement 
 in science under its light. 
 
 Now, if it would take thousands of years to j^repare 
 the materials of such an education of salvation for the 
 
x X X \- i Introduction . 
 
 race, and a generation of men fit in all things to be its 
 teachers, experts in its knowledge and power, these six 
 thousand years may faii'h^ be considered as but the 
 threshold of an entrance of humanity, with all these 
 divine advantages, upon three hundred and sixty-five 
 thousand; multiplying each one of man's days of watch- 
 ing, receiving, and sowing, by a thousand of God's years 
 of harvesting in Christ's kingdom. If there were such 
 a computation of time by days in the creation even of 
 the school-house for man's infancy, how much more in 
 the vast increasing work of redemption for man's ma- 
 jority and heaven? 
 
 And hence the requisite elements of vastness and cer- 
 tainty in the structure of a divine revelation for such a 
 succession of cycles and generations, extending into 
 eternity. For we are manifestly only at the gateway, 
 as of infancy, before a development of divine mercy 
 and human activity that no imagination can fathom. 
 
 And the first thing to be noted is the ceiiainfij of all 
 (7o(f 8 appmJn addressed to reason, faith, and knowl- 
 edge, excluding all grounds of doubt as to God, and 
 the truth and sincerity of His calls and warnings, 
 whatever there may be of difficulty or of incompre- 
 hensibility. It is not a blind faith, but the most self- 
 possessed and clearest vision of the mind that the argu- 
 ment of God addresses, with the command to search 
 and secure its Avhole meaning as for our life. 
 
 What infinite destructive malevolence in that form 
 of philosophy, which gives the lie to all these demon- 
 strations of a system of creative and i)rovidential good- 
 ness and mercy, by the Author of our being, and of 
 
Introduction. 
 
 xxxvii 
 
 all the arrangements of nature \>\ wliich we are pre- 
 served and disciplined for another and a perfect ex- 
 istence of adoring- love ! But above all, to think of 
 reproducing a philosophy of Nature, that, nineteen 
 hundred years after the Lord of nature and of grace 
 has become incarnate for our redemption, seeks to 
 carry us back to the blindness and darkness of pagan- 
 ism, and by practical atheism under the name of evo- 
 lution, would drive God and })rayer out of men's hearts, 
 and if j^ossible out of the world. A philosophy that 
 sets up Natvu'al Selection as the deity of force behind 
 all elements, with the postulate of the impossibility of 
 the God of the Scrijjtures ever creating any thing by 
 His Word, or ever spontaneously interposing in the 
 government of the world in answer to j)rayer ! A phi- 
 losoj^hy that would carry all beings through the world 
 without acknowledgment of God, and out of the world 
 with a character of distrust and denial, that self-ban- 
 ishes the soul fi'om the presence and worship of God 
 for ever. A philosophy that receives nothing from 
 God, thanks God for nothing, expects nothing from 
 Him, and is the very perfection of the creed of the fool 
 even under the light of the Cross, — No God, no Sa- 
 viour, no need of Him, prayer a superstition, death an 
 eternal sleep ! 
 
 The book of Isaiah alone, read understandingly in 
 the schools would be discipline enough, literature 
 enough, science enough, for the building of an in- 
 destructible empire inspiring an unconquerable pa- 
 triotism, a coniidence in realities, a contempt of shams, 
 a detestation of pride and hypocrisy, a transparency 
 
xxxviii hitroductio7i. 
 
 and purity before God, coui-age iu danger, patience in 
 adversity, all the qualities needed in such a world as 
 this. But God has pre2)ared and bestows, by the 
 working of divine thought and providence through 
 three thousand years, the gift of a whole library of 
 such books, with the Hoi}- Spnit as Librarian, cove- 
 nanted to attend every book into the soul, as its Divine 
 Interpreter; God Himself communing with each reader 
 just as separately and attentively as if there had been 
 but one soul in the universe that could read. A library 
 intended for all nations, and speaking to the whole 
 earth to hear the Word of the Lord. 
 
 And God shows in the history of the Jewish j^eople, 
 individually and with personal providence and disci- 
 ]Dline, not only how a soul is born of God, and kept 
 and trained for its immortal heritage, but how a na- 
 tion is born and educated, through God's choice and 
 care of its j^atriarchs, prophets, and warriors; through 
 the power of a divine covenant committed to a whole 
 peoj^le, for vigilance over their own rulers, according 
 to the divine letter which all possess, and which all 
 must teach, generation after generation, to their chil- 
 dren; demonstrating that a nation has a soul, and a 
 continuity and unit}' of life and responsibility to God, 
 imperishable; an obligation of the keei)ing and teach- 
 ing of divine truth, once made known; the same yes- 
 terday, to-day, and for ever, and making the nation 
 the same, through all changes; demonstrating, through 
 the immutabilit}' and constancy of the divine covenant, 
 how to rest .on God out of ruin and despair, how 
 to return to God and a new life in Hun, when torn 
 fi'om Him by theii' OAvn angry jDassions. 
 
Introdzution. 
 
 XX XIX 
 
 Covenanters aU, with a merciful, forgiving Father, 
 who had given them not only the book of the law 
 with all its shuttings up and openings in statutes, judg- 
 ments, types, ceremonies, of eternal and prophetic 
 lights, but instructions for behavior and escape out of 
 their own foreseen and forewarned rebellions, and 
 breakings of the covenant; the hurricane itself fore- 
 told and provided for, lifeboats to flee to, and the 
 methods of their use, taught them ages before the 
 storm; and besides all this, the principles of the cov- 
 enant, and of God's discipline, concentrated in a song 
 to be committed to memory, as an indwelling angel 
 bearing them, or flame of insjiiration whirling them; 
 all the tribes and synagogues receiving, as by law 
 they break into separate orbs in their appointed in- 
 heritance, the same impulse and hfe of motion on their 
 axis and in their orbits; and five hundred years later, 
 after profound and costly experience of God's faith- 
 fulness and their own weakness and guilt, the same 
 covenant and constitution renewed in the sublimest 
 form of pra^'er in that Temple of the Mercy-seat, made 
 for all nations; — a prayer and covenant to which the 
 whole earth was party, teaching all mankind their sin 
 and misery, and the way out of it in God's mercy. 
 
 It is the examj)le of a people, dismasted, ship- 
 wrecked, yet holding in all gales and tempests to the 
 life lines of prayer and the promises of God. Oh 
 Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in Me is thy 
 help ! Taught purity of faith and worshij) in the very 
 crucibles of idolatry, in the anguish of inward remorse 
 and outward tire; rebuilding the walls of their cajiital 
 city, after centuries of dispersion and retributive ruin, 
 
xl Introduction. 
 
 amidst enemies so thick and murderous, that the spear 
 must act in one hand and the trowel in the other; 
 laborers and Avarriors united, all to return as they 
 came, obedient to God, with the arts of edification 
 and defence, the discipline of self-reliance and depend- 
 ence on God, going on together. The example of a 
 people, whose nobles are at once from God and from 
 themselves, whose genealogj' is divine, whose educa- 
 tion is the brooding of their conscious immortality di- 
 recting them to eternal life in Christ, the coming King 
 of Glory; w^hose faith in God made every family an 
 independent princely cii'cle, out of which might come 
 the looked for Messiah and Prince of Life; and 
 whose same faith, corrected and renewed when the 
 veil is taken away by the heart turning to the Lord, 
 shall still hold every family in an eternal union with 
 Him; an assurance by which the whole world is still 
 held, through them, till the time come, when every 
 knee shall bow to Jesus, and every tongue confess to 
 God. 
 
 God's university for truth is an arrangement of 
 power and means for the i^pread of truth; and now, 
 after six thousand years' instruction and expeVience of 
 the world in the common school and academy of God's 
 disciphne, what is needed is the use of all these knoAvl- 
 edges, until the i^pirlt of habitual faith, by the liost of 
 graduates so prepared to be God's instruments in the 
 world's new creation. For the field is the world, and 
 the process thus far has been the survey of the world, 
 and God's preparation of seeds, sowers, and reapers. 
 Olu' own century, just now coming to its close, has 
 
Lttrodtccfion . x 1 i 
 
 been wonderfully marked by tlie seizures and har- 
 nessings of invisible elements, that were waiting in 
 God's market place to be hired; steam power, rail- 
 roads, telegraphs, penny postages, submarine cables, 
 printing-i:)resses from the very thought, almost as 
 swift of action as electric force, and multiplying vol- 
 umes as the motions of light; day and Sabbath schools, 
 newspapers, sciences, jnimers, and catechisms, Bibles 
 translated into all languages, carried free to all races; 
 rapid transits all over the Avorld, and nations brought 
 together; gatherings of all tribes at new Jerusalems, 
 waiting for new Peutecosts; London, containing more 
 Jews than all Palestine, more lloman Catholics than 
 Rome ; New York, containing more Germans than Ber- 
 lin; and a concurrence of Parthians and Modes, Chi- 
 nese, Cretes, Ai'abians, Africans, ready to hear and to 
 speak in their own tongues the wonderfid works of 
 God. 
 
 And the object now of increasing ovir faith by sci- 
 ence is just to teach a surer foresight b^- faith, which 
 is the eye of science, as conscience towards God is of 
 the soul; faith of a world to come, and of what we are 
 to meet there, and how we are to be prepared for it. 
 The experience of what we pass through here was cer- 
 tainly meant to be set as lights at the masthead and 
 the bowsprit, Hashing on the path before us. Tlie 
 operation of laws, principles, elements, in our physical 
 and mental being, with consciousness as the unmis- 
 takable witness, is to teach us to jarepare for that 
 world, into Avhich we shall graduate from this. There 
 certainly is no other possible explanation of the kind 
 of discipline, through which we are now passing. 
 
xlii Litroduction. 
 
 "Well, some may say, Men do not reason in that way. 
 But God reasons for them, and by His word rules in 
 them, and holds them, whether they will or no ; so that 
 even blind men walk in, under, and by this divine 
 light, as a man goes east by the motion of God's orbs, 
 even while he is walking west, or vice versa, hj his 
 own muscles. 
 
 For this volume, this library, is beyond all question, 
 the great repository' of God's educating powers. His 
 Spirit being bound with it, and acting by it. It took 
 such a nation, and the noblest inspired souls in it, 
 through a growi:h of thousands of years, to perfect 
 this library, not finished, till He said, from the cross, 
 It is finished ! and then not till His words from the 
 thi'one of eternity were uttered, "I am Aljiha and 
 Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the 
 last, and what thou seest write in a book, and send it 
 TO the churches." When finished, He threw the whole 
 into the alembic of time, and the crucible of man's 
 furious passions, to demonstrate and test it, by aU 
 the methods and concentrations of angry criticism, 
 and all the triumphs of a believing experience. 
 
 The design of this volume, — this library so con- 
 structed, and thrown through the world, — is just sim- 
 ply this: a presentation to the human soul of that 
 image and essence of infinite goodness, love, mercy, 
 truth, i:)Ower, wisdom, all the fullness of the Godhead 
 manifest in Christ, for the soul's own participation in 
 the divine nature, that we might be complete in Him. 
 
 And it is as absurd to suppose that men can keep 
 and obey this word as individuals, while the nation that 
 they constitute rejects it, and forbids its teaching, as 
 
Introduction. xliii 
 
 that men can walk the surface of this globe, without 
 at the same time the earth, and they themselves with 
 it, going round the sun. 
 
 Now Avlien this infinite work is finished; i^rineij^les, 
 laws, institutions, examples, teachings, warnings, prov- 
 idences, miracles, experiences of reward and retribu- 
 tion for good and evil, and of the inherent power of 
 both good and evil to create and perpetuate such ex- 
 perience, individual and national; both God and man 
 revealed in history, and history illumined by God; 
 man not left to take God at His word merely, of what 
 would happen, but with the knowledge of what has 
 happened; so that the i:)redictions and the experience 
 are at once before us in the same pages, and the 
 remedy for aU evil in a j^resent salvation equally dem- 
 onstrated, and the exact conditions and method for 
 men's availing themselves of it; — when all this work is 
 finished, and an exjjerience of ages is added, demon- 
 strating its truth and power, even up to the conversion 
 and new life of nations, the resurrection of the moral 
 dead; when earth has been subdued b}' science and in- 
 dustry, just as commanded of God in the beginning 
 when He said, " RepknUh Ihe earth, and have dominion 
 over it;" when men have run to and fro from pole to 
 pole, and knowledges and teachers have been increased 
 by ship-loads, and ships by fleets, and the wealth of the 
 world by whole mines minted, and of God's Church 
 itself, by the ver^' action of their principles of fidelity 
 to God and man making them commercial as well as 
 spiritual sovereigns, a royal priesthood, a peculiar peo- 
 ple, for the publication of Gods praises, and the doing 
 
xliv IntrodiLction. 
 
 of His work, b}" the enshrined omnipotence of His word ; 
 then, at this very point the position is attemj^ted, that 
 the use of the word of God, in the education of the 
 conscience, and the introduction of the soul to Christ, 
 is contrarij to the freedom of the con.^cience, and the neces- 
 sary indifference and sovereignty of the State. 
 
 What is this, but the okt j)redicted phenomenon of 
 an arrogated human infaUibihty setting itself in the 
 j)lace of Grod, and by assumed authority over His word 
 dethroning God Himself from the conscience, in for- 
 bidding that word to be studied and obeyed. Take 
 away the jDortrait of Christ, is the voice of modern sec- 
 ularism and the method of political blindness. Take 
 away this divine presentment from the schools, from 
 the vision of the mind; let no child's attention be called 
 to it, no note be taken of it; let a cloud dwell upon it; 
 let it never be set among the models of character or 
 the powers of instniction. It realizes the description 
 given by Paul of the method of disciiDline by the god 
 of this world blinding the minds of those that believe 
 not, lest the light of the glorious gosj^el of Christ, who 
 is the image of God should shine into their hearts. 
 
 When the new creating Photographer has given the 
 light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face 
 of Jesus Christ, given the means and elements for the 
 vision of Christ in His infinite beauty, attractiveness 
 and merciful love to our souls, so that we may look to 
 Him and be saved; and when all things are ready for 
 the children of the whole world, to receive His like- 
 ness into the depths of their being, by beholding Him, 
 there comes between the child's face and the Saviour's, 
 
 V 
 
Introduction. xlv 
 
 by the adroit manipulations of a power behind the 
 scenes, the awful shadow of gloom and doubt, the car- 
 icature of imposture stealing across the camera, for the 
 children to receive an indelible impression from that, 
 instead of the imj)rint of His love who said, " Suffer the 
 little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." 
 Are we bound meekly to submit to such an opera- 
 tion, on the plea that the State can not recognize re- 
 ligious teaching ? Or is it to be regarded in us as in- 
 tolerance and oppression of Uberal consciences, if we 
 will not receive the scientific method, but insist uj)ou 
 our right to the freedom of spiritual truth ? It is a 
 fraud uj^on humanity, the embezzlement and seques- 
 tration of an inheritance of knowledge and life belong- 
 ing to our children, if Christ is called sectarian; if 
 either science or sectarianism or both united, are per- 
 mitted to exclude the knowledge of Christ from the 
 children's studies, from history, from their schools. 
 The voice of God's retributive justice in kind will be 
 this. Because thou hast forgotten my law, I also wiU 
 forget thy children. The wisdom of your wise men 
 shall perish, and the understanding of your prudent 
 men shall be hid. "In the tragedies of Soj^hocles," 
 said Carlyle, speaking to the students in Edinburgh, 
 " In the tragedies of Sophocles, there is a most dis- 
 tinct recognition of the eternal justice of Heaveu,and 
 the unfailing punishment of crime against the laws of 
 God. I believe you will find in all histories that that 
 has been at the head and foundation of them all; and 
 that no nation that did not contemplate this wonder- 
 fvd universe with an awe-stricken and reverential feel- 
 ing that there was a great unknown, omnipotent, and 
 
xhi Introduction. 
 
 all-wise, and all-virtuous Being, superintending all 
 men in it, and all interests in it — no nation ever came 
 to very much, nor did any man either, who forgot that. 
 If a man did forget that, he forgot the most important 
 jiart of his mission in this world." 
 
 Now of what benefit for us are all histories of the 
 past, but as prisms and spectroscopes through which 
 we may see the light of the divine attributes, reveal- 
 ing and proj)hesying the nature and laws of the world 
 to which we are advancing ? 
 
 Of all this we are warned, and for all this the word 
 of Clod is an accumulation of warnings and fulfilments, 
 as well as promises, from generation to generation. 
 
 What is a proverb '? It is first, a pro-dud of im- 
 mortality', produco, a guardian of man's sjiirit for eter- 
 nity. It is a word before, provcrbum, a word of warn- 
 ing, and a divine magnet, a word of prepossession, for 
 instruction of the soul. 
 
 The Hebrew proverbs are the compasses and quad- 
 rants of mankind. They are the gift of God through 
 the working of His Spirit, His truth and men's experi- 
 ence together establishing an irresistible demonstra- 
 tion. They are not the work of single original minds, 
 but distilled through the mind and experience of the 
 common j^eople tlu'ough many generations. At length 
 some penetrating inductive genius, some Solomon, or 
 Bacon, or Shakspeare, gathers them, gives them a rec- 
 oi-d out of tradition, a rescue from the quartz, and sets 
 them as jewels, diamonds, apjiles of gold in baskets of 
 silver. Proverbs show the action of centuries of social 
 and individual life, and the experience of men's discov- 
 ered natures, and tjie inveterate action and I'eaction of 
 
 \ 
 
Introduction, xlvii 
 
 l^rinciples, motives, habits, prejudices: the knowledge 
 of which becomes at length the wisdom of a state undei' 
 God's government. But the proverbs of all nations 
 may be compared together, and none of them show 
 the air of heaven and immortality except those of the 
 Jews in their Hebrew Scriptures. 
 
 Accumulation, expansion, and deeper depths of 
 knowledge therefore, generation after generation, from 
 prophet to prophet, by the Divine Spirit that gave 
 it; — these are the methods of divine science. God 
 chooses the messengers, prepares and disciplines the 
 experts, the conductors, the torch-bearers, and lets 
 them all color the products of their own departments 
 with the originalities, the varieties, of their own behev- 
 ing souls. The result is a mj-riad-lighted and rever- 
 berated certainty. 
 
 And we are not only at hbei*ty, but our only light 
 rule in reading is to get all that we can get out of the 
 Bible, and not as little as we can. 
 
 AVe therefore charge against some of our modern 
 scientijSc teachera that they enthrone a principle in 
 op2>osition to all reason and truth, when they gay that 
 " scepticism is the highest of duties, and that the scien- 
 tific conscience of these latter days consecrates doubt 
 in a high j^lace among our moral obligations." For 
 science and the senses it may, and if there be no con- 
 science towards God, it must; but not if the soul be- 
 lieves in God. 
 
 We have also this chai'ge, namely, that they are in- 
 structing men both to believe and to doubt on insuffi- 
 cient evidence, i?utting the material above thw moral, 
 and quantity above quahty; two of the gra\c3t faults 
 
xlviii Introduction. 
 
 in a world like this, where God has jirovided sufficient 
 assurance for a sj^iritual faith, relying on Him, but 
 where, for the very discipUne of virtue, we must act on 
 probabilities. 
 
 For, prudens qiioestio, said Lord Bacon, not dubilatio, 
 — wise enquiry, not doubt, is half the battle. 
 
 "And sitting by the wayside, blind, 
 He is the nearest to the light 
 Who crieth out most earnestly, 
 Lord, that I may receive my sight ! " 
 
 "Mine own icith usury " is the infinitely just princi- 
 ple in God's administration over men as His stewards, 
 whether of the properties of matter or mind. And so, 
 to him that hath shall be given. This is the rule of a 
 diA'ine revelation. It was, from the beginning, an in- 
 creasing inheritance in God's savings-bank of faith, ac- 
 cording to the beheving receptivity of the soul towards 
 God, and the use made by the heart and in the Ufe, of 
 that which a man hath. If put to usury for God, it 
 grcAV by compound interest, till the possessor became 
 a millionnaire. This plain principle of interpretation 
 is as a north star. 
 
 All this throws the whole race of mankind entii'ely 
 upon God's merciful grace and jiower for every good 
 thing, and creates a witness and demand within the 
 soul for prayer to God. And this jirostration of the race 
 before God, in guilt, heljilessness, and hope, making 
 all mankind "prisonerti of Hojie" not victims of Desijair, 
 is a grand and glorious part of the internal evidence 
 in that vast divine literature, spread over four thou- 
 sand years, through sixty-six books, writteji by men of 
 
hib^odudioii. xlix 
 
 all eras and classes, without collusion or concert, with 
 the same presentation everywhere of God and man, 
 time and eternity, life and immortality, man's guilt and 
 ruin, and God's inexhaustible love and mercy in Christ. 
 The very existence of such a book is demonstration of 
 its supernatural origin. What other seal is needed ? 
 Eternity our only sphere, God our only life, God in 
 Christ our only means of attaining it, but such attain- 
 ment, by God's gift, the design and work of God's love, 
 the object of God's, law, providence, revelation, in na- 
 ture and grace. 
 
 The ministration of all this historic evidence, this 
 nnity and independence of forty centuries, appealing 
 to our iuv/ard consciousness of guilt and moral death, 
 demands, at the same time, our own believing appeal 
 to God's mercy in persevering prayer; without which 
 habit no evidence can possibly become convincing by 
 experience; no knowledge of God, or of spiritual life, 
 or of God's own truth, except by those inward means 
 of grace, described in Gods word, energized by the 
 Spirit of Christ, without the use of which, the letter 
 killeth, and "the language of the Scriptures, in the 
 most faithful translation, and in the purest and plainest 
 English, must nevertheless continue to be a dead lan- 
 guage: a sun-dial by moonlight." This is the testi- 
 mony of Coleridge himself, wrung fi'om his own expe- 
 rience, and removing all previous doubt, by discovery 
 of his own spiritual wants. 
 
 The very fact of a divine revelation, a word from 
 God, is founded on the condition of human nature, as 
 being so depraved as to need regeneration and a Sa- 
 vioui'. Deny the depravity and you consistently deny 
 
1 Introductioji. 
 
 the revelation, and these two thing-s must go together. 
 Denying the depravity, you deny the divine Saviour, 
 the Regenerating Spu'it, the eternal death, ever)- thing 
 that must make up revelation if a revelation were neces- 
 sary. So that the revelation left, after all these sweej)- 
 ing negations, would not be worth the trouble of giving, 
 and would certainly be a very different revelation fi'om 
 that which we have received. 
 
 The sjjiritual dial necessitates, in order to its use, a 
 belief in God, our light, our life. It is nothing with- 
 out Him; we make it a mockery of over own being, 
 without consulting Him. For law and lesson, natural, 
 historical, divine, are providence and discipline, aj>- 
 pointed and administered by a Lawgiver, to the ends 
 of true righteousness, and happmess. All law teaches 
 God, and is a revelation of and from Hun. 
 
 Here the Hebrews were lifted up, hig-h above all 
 other nations, into the breathing of an atmosphere of 
 sph'itual knowledge and experience, that entered into 
 their life's blood, chculatiag through theu' whole sys- 
 tem, political, social, religious. In this atmosjDhere the 
 Hebrew behevers grew and worked; and the eye, the 
 face, the intellect of the nation, the character and com- 
 j)lexion, the habits of thought^ feeling, reasoning, were 
 enlivened with the colors of health, strength, activity. 
 God dealt with them, medicated their fi-ames, educated, 
 taught them, as the fabled oriental physician did his 
 unwilling patient, by the handling of their very crutches, 
 their weapons, their instiaiments of war* and agiiculture, 
 their landed estates and enjoyments, their social feasts 
 and pohtical systems, as well as their ritei^ of worship. 
 
Introduction. li 
 
 The Hebrews were not at any time wanting in na- 
 tive genius, out of whicli might have sprung poets Hke 
 Homer, philosojohers like Plato. Their Apochryjjhal 
 literature, with all its deficiencies and blots, shows this. 
 It contains chapters as admirably written, as profound 
 in thought, as true in philosophy, as the pages of Plato. 
 At the same time the moment we step out fi'om the 
 Hebrew Scriptures of the Law, the Prophets, and the 
 Psalms, we find a very great general and particular 
 deterioration. The seal of a manifest divine inspira- 
 tion and system of truth is not there, but a mixture of 
 fables, and a reliance on human merit, and morals, 
 and the many inventions that men have wrought out 
 for smoothing the way to heaven. 
 
 In the world's common literature there are all the 
 elements of a natural fire; wood, coals, smoke, fiame, 
 air, heat, light, but no divine inspiration. In the He- 
 brew hterature there is God and man together; but 
 over and above all human elements, the infinite breath- 
 ing and life of a divine force; God causing the wrath 
 of man to f>i'aise Him; a perfect holiness, a self-con- 
 scious, self-existent omniscience and omnipotence; a 
 knowledge and control of every human heai't in con- 
 nection with every other heart, and an infinite wisdom, 
 and eternally benevolent purpose and plan. Here is 
 the impress of a governing Creator and God, but no- 
 where else is there any atmosphere of truth that im- 
 mortality could breathe. 
 
 Now if there be a mind absolutely destitute of faith 
 in God; one of those enormous anomalies described in 
 the book of Deuteronomy as examples of the possibility 
 and cause of all evil practices; — "children in whom is no 
 
lii Introduction. 
 
 faith; " — no, not even in the truth, love, and self-exist- 
 ence of their Heavenly Father; to such a mind no 
 revelation of sj^iritual truth is possible. 
 
 In such a mind there could be no belief in miracles, 
 no behef in prophecy, no belief in divine inspiration. 
 Any prediction proved by history to have been true 
 would be rejected as certain!}^ written after the event. 
 And this would be one of the accepted canons of criti- 
 cism, striking death through all the reasonings of life 
 in the Scriptures, and j^repossessing the mind, at the 
 fountains of all literature, with the words of the mur- 
 derer and liar from the beginning. But our Saviour 
 said to the Jews, when He was charging them with 
 this very crime of rejecting as a blasphemer Him whom 
 God hath sanctified and sent into the world, " He that 
 is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them 
 not, because ye are not of God." There can therefore 
 be no uncertaint}^ as to what are the words of God, nor 
 any just doubt as to the meaning of them, for by them 
 God will judge the world. But if a 
 
 " Blind unbelief is sure to err, 
 Aud scan God's work in vivin," 
 
 how much more a cool calculating unbelief, such as that 
 of profoundly learned scholars, armed with a logic that 
 sets at defiance all the reasonings of Christ from God's 
 word, and argues against them from postulates that, 
 according to Jolin's declaration, "make God a liar." 
 
 It is man's word testifying against -God's. Such is 
 Ewald's " Histoiy of the People of Israel " ; the Divine 
 Sun shut out, and God's own sun-dial stiidied by the 
 torch-light of human unbelief and credulitv. A man 
 
Introduction. \\\{ 
 
 who rejects the supernatural iu history, and denies the 
 possibiHty of proj^jhecy, puts himself under bonds to 
 pronounce the Bible a complicated hypocrisy and false- 
 hood, and those who professed to have been inspired 
 of God to write it the greatest of impostors. This 
 charge includes Moses, David, Isaiah, Christ, and the 
 ai:)Ostles. 
 
 The force of this argument of blasphemy is the 
 greater, by the infinitude and eternity of its conse- 
 quences. Inspiration is a fact forerunning all existing 
 manuscripts, and securing, out of' the very variations 
 and uncertainties of them, the certainties of Divine 
 Foreknowledge and prophecy for manfi guidance hij 
 urjrch, according to which Christ Himself has declared 
 that God \auL judc4e the world. Such a known in- 
 fallible inspiration is therefore the very postulate of 
 Christ's own reasoning as the world's Saviour*; even 
 His reasoning with the Jews, who were to be judged 
 righteously by that word concerning Christ, which 
 had been revealed to them for all mankind. — Comjaare 
 John V. 38, 45-47, and viii. 44, 47, and xii. 48, 49, 50, 
 with Kom. i. 25, and ii. 11, 12, 16, and iii. 4, 5, 6. If 
 not infallible, then not divine; and if it can possibly be 
 broken, then not of God. An infallible inspiration is 
 not our suppositioii of what ought to he, but Chi-ist's af- 
 firmation of what mud he, and is, or no divine Scriptures 
 at all. Now the essential element of inspiration, that 
 whit'h belongs to the very possibility of a divine revel- 
 ation, must inevitably determine and rule the method 
 and manner of it. The style, the words, the imagery, 
 as well as the thoughts, aU things indeed, must be sub- 
 servient, must be the siu-e ministers and builders of 
 
liv Introduction. 
 
 the tcmi)le of faith. InfaUible truths could not be put 
 at the disiiosal of fallible critics, to interweave with fa- 
 bles so contrived that every generation may construct 
 for itself a justifying argument of unbehef and blas- 
 phemy. Infallible truths require believing and inspired 
 masters of the language in which they are conveyed. 
 
 Internal evidence, extending over four thousand years 
 and appeahng to the conscience at every step, is om- 
 nipotent. Once perceived in its unity, the most saga- 
 cious scepticism, the most critical jealousy, is powerless 
 against it. It is difficult to supj^ose any cajDacity of 
 belief left in any mind that could reject such a weight 
 of moral evidence, as being the work of an imj^o-stor. 
 There must be j)roved the existence of a supernatural, 
 all-seeing, and all-lcnowing impostor, for the ability to 
 invent and sustain such a fiction. 
 
 The indefatigable microscopic investigation and ac- 
 curacy of modern historic scholars of great learning 
 and acuteness, analyzing and dissipating as unrealities 
 or falsehoods many things that had always been ac- 
 cepted as fixtures of truth, have taught us scei^ticism 
 rightfully, in regard to mere human testimony, and 
 have made doubt a teacher instead of an inquirer. 
 The Tichborne trial, it has been remarked, has done 
 more to weaken Englishmen's faith in the word of pro- 
 fessed experts, and consequently in what are called the 
 facts of history' as recorded even by the actors, and 
 much more in the verdicts of uninformed jurors, than 
 aught that has happened for ages. What is there that 
 can be suj)ported by evidence ? What that can release 
 us from uncertainty and doubt '? Assuredly, in every 
 matter that concerns our eternal welfare, nothing but 
 
Introdiidion. Iv 
 
 the word of God. And therefore there must have 
 been given us such a word, such an infalhble guide. 
 
 The cause of luanv of the mistakes and misjudgments 
 of men in handhng divine truth is found in the want 
 of a just balancing of the two eternal certaiutie.s given 
 to us of God, — a Divine word and a Divine Spirit. 
 There is no certainty on earth without these gifts from 
 heaven in their unity; neither is there any possible ad- 
 justment of forces between them, or right conclusion 
 from them, except by the constant prayerful reference 
 of each to the other, and the incessant, anxious com- 
 parison and testing of one with and by the other. Ex- 
 tremes of every kind — fanaticism and presumption, su- 
 perstition and atheism, — have resulted from exclusive 
 reliance upon either; both together are the source of 
 truth and power. The separation is just as if you 
 halved a pair of scissors, using first one blade, then 
 the other, without the leverage of force from both, or 
 as if you cut a promissory note in two. The Spirit 
 without the word, or the word without the Spirit, can 
 no more replace a divine infallible inspiration of saving 
 efficacy for the soul and for security from error, than 
 a metallic figirred rim, without the magnet, can make 
 a chronometer or compass. 
 
 A man nuxst go to God for every one of God's words, 
 " praying for, and praying hi the Holy Ghost," and 
 thus assured, may build up himself infallibly in " God's 
 most holy faith." But relying on the Avord without 
 the Spu-it, presumption makes it falsehood: — on the 
 Spirit without the word, — it is clouds and wind with- 
 out rain, and the mind is driven about as a balloon 
 amons: them. 
 
Ivi IntrodMction. 
 
 It is the same with science; death from life instead 
 of life from death. Milestones set vip by mistake are 
 permitted to iiile out celestial time; and calciilations 
 fi'om a changing earth nullify celestial certainties. 
 
 Science is becoming- a game of speculations among 
 the infinitudes; and time, space, and eternity are loaded 
 dice for the players. Materialism is a kingdom of phy- 
 sical epics, the paradise of mu-acles by natural selec- 
 tioU;, and science is playing Baron Munchausen among 
 them. Some of the meetings of the British Association 
 itself might be termed, without any gi-eat misnomer, 
 the regatta of the scientific imagination, which faculty 
 does not stand in need of facts in regai'd to the crea- 
 tion, but only to get the book of Genesis and the j^re- 
 possessions of theology out of the way. 
 
 Then comes in that pecuhar scientific faith, which 
 Professors TyndaU and Huxley so marvellously distin- 
 guish as a backward vision of the prepotency of matter 
 with hfe and mind rising out of it. 
 
 From this forlorn atheistic materialism proceed the 
 methods of that destructive criticism of the Scriptures 
 which is now for a season sweeping as an oriental 
 plague across much of our jDopular literature, our lib- 
 eral theology, our jirofessorsliips of science, our ency- 
 clopedias, and even our schools of preparation for the 
 mmistry of the gosi:)el. It is a disastrous bajjtism of 
 doubt, tlu'ough which, even after the glory of the sev- 
 enteenth century of English literature, our age seems 
 to be passing. The j^lague runs from the Hebrew 
 Scriptures to the Greek; and the chips of a philolog- 
 ical erudition are thrown for fuel into the furnaces of 
 unbelief. 
 
Introduction. Ivii 
 
 " Two men of war," says Captain Basil Hall, " one 
 larger than the other, were sailing in company, when 
 the man on the lookont from the larger vessel observed 
 a ship on the horizon, which was not reported by the 
 watch of the smaller, and consequently the smaller 
 watchman got the punishment of cat-o'-nine-tails, for 
 his supposed negligence. The same thing happening 
 again, at length it struck the commander that the 
 mast-head of the fi-igate being much taller than that 
 of the sloop, and the earth being round, the watch on 
 the bigger vessel would of course see farther than on 
 the smaller, it being impossible to see through a sec- 
 tion of the earth's curvature." 
 
 Now the scientific sceptic's intolerance and spiritual 
 ignorance (for, not believing in tha existence of a re- 
 veahng Spirit, he can not have spiritual teaching) would 
 administer the cat-o' -nine-tails of his criticism upon the 
 back of the behever, whose spiritual sight is higher up, 
 on one of his Majesty's frigates, and is moreover sharp- 
 ened and far sighted by exercise, while the sceptic's 
 sense is down on deck or at the mast-head of nothing 
 better than a coal lighter or a pleasure yacht, his ho- 
 rizon and his vision being hmited accordingly. 
 
 By the horizon of his nescience he would limit and 
 condemn the prophetic science and worship of the be- 
 hever, whom God has lifted up by faith to the sweep 
 of an interminable horizon, no longer merely secular, 
 but spiritual and eternal. 
 
 " Thou, who art Life and Light, I sea Thse spread 
 Thy glories through these regious of the dead. 
 I hear Thee call the sleeper: Up ! behold 
 The earth unveiled to thee, the heavens unrolled ! 
 
1 \- 1 i i Introduction . 
 
 On tliy transformed soul celestial light 
 
 Bursts; and the earth transfigured, on thy sight 
 
 Breaks a new sphere ! Ay, stand in glad amaze 
 
 While all its figures, opening on thy gaze, 
 
 Unfold new meanings. Thou shalt understand 
 
 Its mystic hierograph, thy God's own hand ! " — Dana. 
 
 The air, the sky, the stars, are God's truth, the rocks, 
 the shells, the trees, the flowers, the grass. There is 
 not a falsehood, nor an aura of falsehood or doubt in 
 all this breathing world; but only the character and 
 the sign manual of Him who made it. Cowj^er's beau- 
 tiful poetry, and Milton's and Wordsworth's, and the 
 lOtli Psalm and the lOith, are the vision of the mind 
 in the loving sight of God's truth, as we are born into 
 it. But it requires a stronger and more perfectly bal- 
 anced mind to hold a truth with emphasis and power- 
 ful grasp, than it does to hold a doubt, and be pos- 
 sessed ^^•ith it. 
 
 " Sweet is the lore which Nature brings; 
 Our meddling intellect 
 Misshapes the beauteous forms of things; 
 We murder to dissect. 
 
 " Enough of Science and of Art; 
 Close up these barren leaves; 
 Come forth, and bring with you a heart, 
 That watches and receives." 
 
 Wordswoeth's "Tables Turned." 
 
 The notice taken of the Dispositions of " science 
 falsely so called," or of what is sometimes styled mod- 
 ern acienlijic llioughl, is not from any fear that Chris- 
 
Introduction. lix 
 
 tianity will suffer, but (1), that men will suffer by the 
 hiding and perversion of it; (2) because of the fas- 
 cinating intluence of scientific i>pecukition, and its pre- 
 possessive power over the young; (3) because, as is 
 often the case, the positions from which the deniers 
 of the supernatural j^roceed offer admirable opportu- 
 nities to bring up the strength of the Christian evi- 
 dence in a new array. 
 
 We have the advantage of a cross-examination of 
 erroneous theories and arguments. Napoleon some- 
 times in the heat of the conflict, observing the strat- 
 egy of the enemy, changed the combination and mass- 
 ing of his forces so as to gain the victory out of those 
 very movements of his adversaries, which they sup- 
 posed and intended to have been decisive for his de- 
 struction. He always delighted to detect in then* most 
 confident arrangements the point where they them- 
 selves made him conqueror. Modern intidehty, in the 
 vastness and bold assumptions of its subtlest methods, 
 is the occasion of new modes of demonstration, new 
 combinations of old eternal truth, never before seen 
 in such jiowerful sudden fiashing lights, in such ra- 
 diances, as of a corona produced by an attempted 
 eclipse. 
 
 "We are therefore absolutely certain, and we hold that 
 citadel. God has given certainties as the foundation ; 
 and we wiU not make doubt our master-builder, 
 though so advised b}^ some modern scientists. Faith 
 is the life of perfect health, and strong, wise action. 
 Doubt, as a habit, is scrofulous, and some of the no- 
 blest natures have nearly perished by it. 
 
Ix Introduction. 
 
 We could multiply examples, lirofoundly impres- 
 sive and instructive, from England, Germany, France, 
 Switzerland; from before and after the revival of learn- 
 ing and the Reformation. The most conclusive and 
 satisfactory of all instances, is that of the profound 
 and candid German scholar and statesman, Barthold 
 Niebuhi-, born at Copenhagen in 177G, son of the cele- 
 brated traveller Carsten Niebuhr. He inherited the 
 distinguishing characteristics of his father; integrity 
 and truthfulness, the habit of accuracy, admu-ation of 
 the noble and beautiful, zeal for justice, liberty and 
 truth, abhorrence of superficiality and disjDlay. At the 
 age of thirty-one he was master of twenty- languages. 
 He was " one Avho can only exist in the pure mountain 
 ail', who must have freedom for the soul and intellect." 
 His views of " education, as being valuable only so far 
 as it is a true approximation to a spiritual life,"' he car- 
 ried out in the training of his son Marcus. He speaks 
 of "the recognition of Uic incomprehensible, the admis-. 
 sion of which, and the constant reference to it, distin- 
 guish the SKKK in nature from the ordinary learned man, 
 and viust some day throw a new light on all our sciences. 
 Faith without testimony is impossible, and we must 
 look to the succession of historical events for the con- 
 firmation of our faith in the existence and providence 
 of God." 
 
 Lamenting his own -tendency to doubt, and liis want 
 of a childlike faith in the Word of God, Nii'buhr re- 
 cords his determination that his beloved child Marcus 
 shall be protected and preserved from such an unbe- 
 lieving i)rejudicc by the encouragement and fostering 
 of the Jiabit of faith from earliest childhood; by the 
 
Introductioii. Ixi 
 
 discipline of faith as a faculty, begiuuiiif^ in the 
 ground-work of the soul, before external knowledge 
 is possible. All other treatment of the child's mind is 
 only savage cruelty. But the teacliing of God's love by 
 the parent to the child, becomes the sacred germ of a 
 living faith in the love of the Heavenly Father, that by 
 the fostering divine Sj^irit shall be proof against all 
 infidelit}-. What else is wisdom or love, or can be? 
 What but the flinging of the mind, tender and inex- 
 jDex'ienced, out into the wUderness of doubt ? 
 
 " I am thinking a great deal about my son's edu- 
 cation," says Niebuhr: "He sJtaU believe in the letter of 
 the Old and New Testament, and I shall nurture in him, 
 from hu< infancy, a firm faith in all that I have lost, 
 or feel uncertain about." — "Oh that such a faith may 
 one day be my own portion ! " — " When the confusion 
 of ideas and half truths is the greatest, it is exactly 
 at such a time that j^rinciples which have been early 
 implanted and carefully watched over, so as to gain 
 all the strength of prejudice, confer extraordinary 
 power, both over the Avorld within and that without. 
 He who begins his course thus armed, fights with a 
 Aveajion which is wanting to those around him." 
 
 " His heart shall be raised to God, as soon as he is 
 capable of a sentiment; and his childish feelings shall be 
 expressed in jirayers and hi/mns; all the religious prac- 
 tices that have fallen into disuse in our age, shall be 
 a necessity and a law to him." 
 
 "I wish, I strive with all my heart, that he may 
 grow up with //(e most absolute faith in religion; yet so 
 that his faith may not be an outward adhesion, that 
 must fall away from him afterAvards, when his rea- 
 
Ixii Introduction. 
 
 son comes into play ; but that from his earliest years 
 the way may lie prepared for the vnion of failh and 
 reason." If ever there was profound wisdom gained 
 from sad experience, it is here. 
 
 Describing what he considers to be true faith, Nie- 
 l uhr recognizes it as the highest good. " But it 
 would only be possible for me," says he, " to attain 
 it through supernatural communication, or wonders 
 and signs beheld with m}' own eyes. It is one thing 
 to respect, or not to reject, quite another reaUy to be- 
 heve as in one's own existence. Several of my ac- 
 quaintance have a very earnest belief, though of very 
 different shades; there are others who fuUy imagine 
 they possess religion, yet to whom one can scarcely 
 attribute more than a self-delusive assumption of it." 
 
 We know this illustrious scholar as the great icon- 
 oclast of historic dagons, myths, nehuslitans; a man of 
 learning and authority, of critical keenness and sagac- 
 it}^ unrivalled, of sincerity in the pursuit of truth, with 
 power in the detection of falsehood. It was his very 
 experience that the world is so full of Ues, and human 
 testimony so suspicious, as he had proved, by his own 
 researches, that carried him into a habit of doubt, 
 even in the presence of incontestable realities. For 
 this ver}' reason his testimony, over against the scorn 
 of a religious faith by such brilliant teachers as Hux- 
 ley and Tyndall, is priceless and overwhelming. 
 
 The sad reflection of Niebuhr that he himself may 
 have irrecoverably lost the capacity of this faith, from 
 habitual disuse of its exercise, gives a melancholy 
 weight to his jiarental anxiety for the right guiding 
 of his child's mind. Beautifully illustrative is the re- 
 
Introduction. Ixiii 
 
 mark of Ruskin that " childhood often holds a truth 
 with its feeble fiu^^ers, which the grasp of manhood 
 can not retain, which it is the pride of utmost age to 
 recover." And so are Wordsworth's lines, on the soul 
 that risoth with us, our life's star, and the heaven tliat 
 lies about us in our infancy, and the shades of the 
 l^rison-house, closing on the growing boy; 
 
 "At length the man perceives the vision die away, 
 And fade into the light of common day." 
 
 The knowledge of faith and prayer, and a convic- 
 tion of the supernatural reality and worth of such spir- 
 itual habits in the soul, and in Uie life of vafion>< os' u-e/l 
 as indicidauL^ have been wrought even in minds long 
 neglectful of these elements, and in men the most sa- 
 gacious, the most unlikely to be imposed upon by 
 shams and hypocrisies; men of the broadest forecast, 
 the profoundest practical wisdom, and i:)liilosophical 
 analysis, and men who have run the gauntlet both of 
 unbelief and doubt, till the heart has cried out for de- 
 liverance. To the example of the celebrated and 
 learned German histcniau, we add that of Franklin, 
 the not less celebrated American philosopher and 
 statesman. If the records of all nations were ran- 
 sacked, it would be impossible to find instances of 
 minds farther removed from any j^redisposition to 
 credulity, or better secured, by mental habits and the 
 knowledge of mankind, from the domination of impos- 
 ture. The legacies of belief which they have left for 
 their countrymen are possessions for mankind. 
 
 The conclusion in the mind of Niebuhr, as we have 
 
Ixiv Introduction. 
 
 noted from his own letters in regard to liis own chil- 
 dren was, that they should be educated under the full 
 power of the most sacred j^repossessions of divine 
 truth. There should be formed in their minds, so far 
 as a careful education could do it, an anchoring stead- 
 fastness of assurance in God and in Christ, and a 
 jDower of religious faith and reasoning, which he him- 
 self, to his infinite sorrow, had lost, and feared he 
 could never regain. They should thus be kept from 
 that shipwreck and despair, in which he had almost 
 perished. 
 
 To the same conclusion Franklin had come polit- 
 ically in regard to the nation. The people of the Uni- 
 ted States should be educated under the full power of 
 sacred prepossessions. They should believe in God, 
 and in their responsibility to Him as a nation, and in 
 the wisdom of their political constitution, as a chart 
 framed under His guidance in answer to prayer. 
 
 The scene at the congress of representatives in Amer- 
 ica after the War of the Revolution, undertaking what 
 never yet had been accomplished by any nation, 
 namely, to settle beforehand, not the princij^les only, 
 but the written constitution enshrining them, for a 
 j)eople that within one hundred years were to number 
 fifty millions, under the one government of forty Uni- 
 ted States; the scene when Franklin addressed the as- 
 sembly in behalf of the wisdom, necessity, and duty 
 of a national acknowledgment of responsibility to God, 
 and prayer to Him for guidance, is in some respects 
 more impressive than any thing recorded in the an- 
 nals of history. Its painting would be worthy the 
 
Introduction. Ixv 
 
 genius of Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci together. 
 It is somewhat strange that in the history of the Amer- 
 ican Revohition it has had so httle adequate illustra- 
 tion. For never did philosopher or statesman utter the 
 last public expression of his thoughts more impressive- 
 ly, or on a more important and sublime occasion. 
 
 Through an active and observant life, from tlie age 
 of fifteen to that of eighty-four, Franklin's mind trav- 
 elled from the doctrine of necessity and fate to that 
 of God and prayer; the latter conviction having de- 
 livered him from the habit of doubting divine truth to 
 that of doubting himself and human error. When 
 the congress had assembled, in convention, Franklin 
 had reached the age of eighty-one. 
 
 No man in the world had become more celebrated, 
 no man was more admired, no man had received 
 greater adulation. America was better known by 
 Franklin than by all the other actors in our history 
 together. Such men as Edmund Burke and Sir Sam- 
 iiel llomilly in England, and men of all classes and 
 stations in France, from the king and queen down- 
 wards, were admirers of his character and genius. 
 There had been no such example in modern history 
 of unaffected simplicity and modesty amidst such uni- 
 versal tributes of respect, confidence, and love. 
 
 Nevertheless, his long residence in France had 
 impressed multitudes with the belief that he had re- 
 turned to his own country with the opinions of the 
 French revolutionary philosophers full upon him, and 
 a tendency, probably as strong as Jefferson's, towards 
 the practical infidelity of that people. So regarded, 
 Franklin watched the deliberations of the congre-ss 
 
]xvi Introduction. 
 
 many weeks patiently and calmly, taking as yet little 
 part in them, except in the industrious application of 
 his mind to the great problems that were laid before 
 the representatives to solve. And the greatest of these 
 was that presented by Franklin himself; — the obliga- 
 tion of a national religioiis faith in God, and the duty 
 of seeking Him in supplication for His guiding provi- 
 dence and Spirit. 
 
 This was Franklin's religious philosophy, and he 
 would have inspired the whole representative con- 
 gress with it, if he could have done it. But he could 
 not breathe into those whom he addressed the fervor 
 and sincerity of his own convictions. Tlie}^ regarded 
 him with amazement, and listened as the multitude of 
 the Areopagites listened to Paul. 
 
 At a very early period of his pubhc career, we find 
 Franklin issuing proposals for the education of j'outh 
 in Pennsylvania, in which he said, " History will also 
 afford frequent opportunities of showing the neces- 
 sity of a jmhJic reUgion, from its usefulness to the 
 public; the advantage of a religious character among 
 private persons; the mischief of superstition; and the 
 excellency of the Christian religion above all others, 
 ancient or modern." 
 
 In 1748, an association having been formed for the 
 defence of the Province of Pennsylvania, Franklin 
 proposed to the govei'nor and council, " calling in the 
 aid of religion, to promote reformation, and implore 
 the blessing of He.aven on the undertaking. They em- 
 braced the motion, but as it was the first fast ever 
 thought of in the Province, the secretary had no pre- 
 cedent from which to draw the proclamation. My ed- 
 
Introdiidion. Ixvii 
 
 ucation in New England," says Franklin, " where a fast 
 is proclaimed every year, was here of some advantage. 
 I drew it up in the accustomed style; it was trans- 
 lated into German, printed in both languages, and cir- 
 culated through the Province." At this time Frank- 
 lin was thirty-three years of age, and the unbelief of 
 his youth had returned to the behefs of his childhood 
 and of his earliest education. 
 
 From a child Franklin was so fond of reading that 
 aU the little money that came into his hands was al- 
 ways laid out in books. And the very first collection 
 of books he ever made, the very nest egg of his li- 
 brary', was of John Bunyan's works in separate little 
 volumes— a purchase induced by his love of the " Pil- 
 grim's Progress." That and " Plutarch's Lives," with 
 the book of De Foe's called an " Essay on Projects," 
 and another of Dr. Mather's, called "Essays to do 
 Good," gave him, he says, a turn of thinking that had 
 an infiaence on some of the principal future events of 
 his life. It was " his bookish inclination " that deter- 
 mined his father to make him a printer, and he began 
 his journe^'uianship under his brother James at the age 
 of twelve years. At the age of fifteen, " after doubt- 
 ing b}^ turns of several points of principles and morals, 
 as he found them disputed in the different books he 
 read, he began," he says, "to doubt of Revelation it- 
 self, till he became a thorough deist, and at the age 
 of nineteen wrote a pamphlet to prove the doctrine of 
 fate, from the supposed attributes of God. But in 
 1730, at the age of twenty-four, he wrote a pamphlet 
 on the other side of the question, " which began with 
 laying for its foundation this fact, that aluiost all men 
 
Ix^'iii Introduction. 
 
 in all ages and countries have at times made use of 
 i:>rayer." His earlier jDamplilet "ajipeared not near 
 so clever a performance as he once thought it," and 
 his doubts now took the form of self-doubting. He 
 " doubted whether some error had not insinuated it- 
 self unperceived into his argument, so as to infect all 
 that followed, as is common in metaphysical rea- 
 sonings." 
 
 At the age of fifty-eight, in 1764, we find him writ- 
 ing to his daughter Sarah: " Go constantly to church, 
 whoever preaches. The act of devotion in the Com- 
 mon Prayer is your principal business there, and if 
 jDroperly attended to will do more toward amending 
 the heart than sermons generally can do. For they 
 were composed [the prayers] by men of much greater 
 13iety and wisdom than our common composers of 
 sermons can pretend to be; and therefore I wish you 
 w^ould never miss the prayer days. I pray that God's 
 blessing may attend you, which is worth more than a 
 thousand of mine, though they are never wanting." 
 
 From this impressive record we pass on to the age 
 of seventy-eight in 1784. We find Franklin review- 
 ing the course of his own and his early partner, Stra- 
 han's, prosperity, and the causes of the success of the 
 American Eevolution. " But after all, my dear friend, 
 do not imagine that I am vain enough to ascribe our 
 success to any superiority in any of these jjoints. I 
 am too weU acquainted with all the springs and levers 
 of our machine not to see that our human means were 
 unequal to our undertaking; and that, if it had not 
 been for the justice of our cause and the consequent 
 interposition of Providence, in which we had faith, \<q 
 
Introduction. 1 v' k 
 
 must have been ruined. If I bad ever before been an 
 atheist, I should now have been convinced of the being 
 and government of a Deity ! It is He who abases the 
 proud and favors the humble. May we never forget 
 His goodness to us, and may our future conduct man- 
 ifest our gratitude." 
 
 Franklin's motion in the Federal Convention for 
 opening their deliberations with prayer was introduced 
 after four or five weeks spent in confusion of counsels, 
 without progress, without unity, but with perplexed 
 and opposing interests and schemes. It seemed as if 
 only a divine interposition and grace could inspire the 
 members with patriotic confidence and wisdom. 
 
 "In this situation of this assembly," said Franklin, 
 "groping, as it were, in the dark to find political 
 truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when present- 
 ed to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not 
 hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Fa- 
 ther of Lights to illuminate our understandings ? In 
 the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we 
 were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this 
 room for the Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, 
 were heard, and they were graciously answered. All 
 of us who were engaged in the struggle must have 
 observed frequent instances of a superintending Prov- 
 idence in our favor. To that kind Providence we 
 owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on 
 the means of establishing our future national felicity. 
 And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend ? Or 
 do we imagine we no longer need His assistance ? I 
 have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live the 
 more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God 
 
1 x X Litroduction . 
 
 governs in the aliiiirs of men. And if ca sparrow can 
 not fall to the ground without His notice, is it prob- 
 able that an empire can rise Avithout His aid? ^,Ve 
 have been assvired, sir, in the sacred writings, that ' ex- 
 cept the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that 
 build it.' 1 firmly believe this; and I also beheve that 
 without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this po- 
 litical building no better than the builders of Babel; 
 we shall be divided by our little, partial, local inter- 
 ests: our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves 
 shall become a reproach and a byword down to future 
 ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, 
 from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing 
 government by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, 
 war, and conquest. I, therefore, beg leave to move 
 that henceforth prayers, imploring the assistance of 
 Heaven and its blessing on our deliberations, be held 
 in this assembly every morning before we proceed to 
 business, and that one or more of the clergy of this 
 city be requested to officiate in that service." 
 
 The only notice by Dr. Franklin of the result of his 
 motion was that of simple astonishment, thus: "The 
 convention, excejDt three or foui* jDersons, thought 
 prayers unnecessary ! " 
 
 The names of those thi-ee or four persons, support- 
 ing Franklin's motion, would have been an illustrious 
 catalogue of witnesses. It is amazing that their peti- 
 tion for the acknowledgment of our national depend- 
 ence uix)n Grod could have been so utterly disregarded. 
 
 To-day we are verging on the centennial anniversary 
 of the adoption of this constitution; and in less than 
 fiftv years, a hundred and fiftv millions of immortal 
 
Inirodiution . 1 x x i 
 
 beings will be under its rnle, if it please God to spare 
 us as a nation. We may well read and apply Words- 
 worth's sonnet on The Obligations of Civil to Relig- 
 ious Liberty. 
 
 " Ungi-ateful Country, if thou e'er forget 
 The sons who for thy civil rights have bled; 
 How, like a Koman, Sydney bowed his head, 
 And Russel's, milder blood the scaffold wet ! 
 But the.se had fallen for profitless regret, 
 Had not thy holy Church her champions bred, 
 A)id claims from other worlds inspirited 
 The Star of Liberty to rise. I^^or yet, 
 (Grave this within thy heart! ) if spiritual things 
 Be lost through apathy, or scorn, or fear, 
 Shalt thou thy humbler franchises support, 
 Hoicever hardly won or justly dear; 
 What came from Heaven to Heaven by nature clings, 
 And if dissevered thence its course is short." 
 
 It is a gi'eat gain when, in aid of our own investiga- 
 tion, we can bring to the illustration of the Scriptures, 
 not merely the notes and discoveries of profound the- 
 ological inquii-ers, such as Butler, Howe, Edwards, 
 Chalmers, but also the example, experience, and con- 
 clusions of such men as Niebuhr and Franklin. So 
 the witnesses and vouchers for God's Word, and the 
 l^rovidential demonstrations of its truth are multiply- 
 ing, as by compound interest, through eveiy age. 
 
FAITH, DOUBT, AND EVIDENCE. 
 I. 
 
 ADVENTURES OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANK- 
 LIN—ITS COPIES AND TRANSLATIONS. 
 
 Towards the close of tlie year 1789, Dr. Franklin 
 presented to his friend M. le Veillard, then Mayor 
 of Passy in France, a copy of his Autobiography, as 
 far as at that tiane he had written it. His death 
 occurred shortly afterwards, on the 17th April, 
 1790, at the age of eighty-four years and three 
 mouths. All his papers, including the original of 
 that copy which had been given to his friend, 
 passed into possession of his gra}idson, "William 
 Temple Franklin, who engaged to j^repare the life 
 and writings of Franklin, fi-om those materials, for 
 jjublication in London. 
 
 In preparing this work, its editor, Franklin's 
 grandson, gave up to Madame le Veillard, whose 
 husband had j^erished by the guillotine, the orvjinal 
 autograph manuscript of Franklin's life, written with 
 
2 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 Lis own hand, in exchange for that copy of it "which 
 Frankhn had given to his friend. Perhaps the edi- 
 tor may have done this at the request of Madame 
 le Veillard, in order that the printers might use her 
 copy in printing the work, so that FranMin's own 
 autograjih might be preserved untouched, unsoiled. 
 
 Be this as it ma^^ the autograph had gone from 
 the possession of the descendants of Franklin; and 
 at the death of Madame le Veillard the original 
 manviscript passed to her daughter; and at her death 
 in 1834, it passed to her cousin M. de Senai'mont. 
 Then it came into possession of Senai'mont's grand- 
 son, and at length, in 18G7, this gentleman, M. P. 
 de Senai'mont, transferred it to Mr. John Bigelow, 
 then Minister of the United States at Paris. 
 
 This invaluable MS. as it came into IVIi". Bige- 
 low's possession in j^erfect preservation, consisted of 
 two hundred and twenty folio pages, and was half 
 bound in red morocco. A blank margin of half the 
 page's iridth was left on each page, that the writer 
 might have ample room for whatever additions or 
 corrections he might choose to make at a futui'o 
 time. Accordingly, these mai'gins wei*e frequently 
 so occuijied. Every page was in clear and distinct 
 handwriting, but with mamj interlineations and eras- 
 ures. The whole was accompcUiied with a memo- 
 randum written in French and English on the liy- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. j 
 
 leaves, beginning as follows: "The Life of Benjamin 
 Franklin, written by bimself. The only mannscrij^t 
 entirely of his own handwTiting." Then follows a 
 brief mention of the presentation of the copy of 
 this original to M. le Veillard, and of the manner 
 in which that copy came to be exchanged for the origi- 
 nal autograph itself; so that this, "the original and 
 only manuscript" in Fraukhn's handwriting, "came 
 by inheritance into the hands of M. de Senarmont, 
 M. le Veillard's grand-nephew." 
 
 It is stated in the memorandum that Avlien "Wil- 
 liam Temple Franklin, Dr. Franklin's grandson, came 
 to Europe in order to publish the works of his illus- 
 trious grandfather, M. le Veillard having perished on 
 the revolutionary scaffold, the grandson of Franklin 
 requested from Madame le Veillard " the correct and 
 fine copy given by his grandfather, as more conven- 
 ient for the p)t'inter." 
 
 "If I give it to you," answered Madame le VeiUard, 
 "I shall have nothing more of our friend." 
 
 Then answered Dr. Franklin's grandson, "I wiU 
 give you in place of the copy, the original manu- 
 script of my grandfather." And so it came abovit, 
 and is verified. 
 
 It is not stated in this memorandum ivhcn the 
 exchange of manuscwpts was made. But there is 
 a letter from Franklin's gfi'andson to M. le Veil- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 lard, dated, Philadelphia, 22d May, 1790, aBiaouncing 
 Franklin's death, and saying that the original auto- 
 grajDh of the Memoirs was in his grandson's jDosses- 
 sion, and that he should probably go to Europe to 
 pul)lish his grandfather's works. And a few months 
 after this letter was written, we find him in London, 
 preparing, or intending to jirepare, those works for 
 l^nblication. A letter from M. le Veillard to the 
 Journal de Paris, dated at Passy, 21st March, 1791, 
 states that Franklin's grandson "w now in England, 
 occupied with this work, and is expected in France 
 in a few days, to complete it." "We have also let- 
 ters from the grandson to M. le Veillard in 1791 
 and 1792, referring to the intended jiublication, as 
 being in good train, but no suggestion as to any 
 use to be made by the jirinters, of the MS. coi:)y 
 in possession of M. le Veillard. 
 
 Meantime, a French translation of the Autobiog- 
 raphy of Franklin apjDeared in Paris in 1791; and 
 M. le Veillard stated in his note to the Journal de 
 Paris that this jDublication did in fact contain "the 
 commencement of the Memoirs of Dr. Franklin, 
 ahnost enlin'hj conforming to the manuscript which 
 I (M. le Veillard) possess"; but that the translator 
 did never have that manuscript from him (M. le 
 Veillard), and that the translation, wherever he, the 
 translator, might have got the original, was only a 
 
Faith, Dottbt, and Evidence. 
 
 fragment of the Autobiograpliy, ending in tlie year 
 1730, and containing- hardhj a third part of M. le 
 Veillard's copy, which he said itself came down 
 only to 1757, and did not terminate the work, 
 " the remainder of which is in the hands of ]Mr. 
 W. T. Franldin." 
 
 Thus we find that the first publication of any 
 jjortion of Franklin's AutobiogTai^hical Memoirs was 
 in French, and was translated either from the ori"f- 
 inal Eng-Hsh MS., in possession of Franklin's grand- 
 son, or from another copy, which may have been in 
 l^ossession of Mr. Vaughan, as such a copy had 
 been jiromised him by Dr. Franldin, and may have 
 been given him. But the translator gave no ac- 
 count of "the mamier in which the original manu- 
 script of these Memou-s, which are written in the 
 English language, came into my joossession." IMr. 
 Bigelow says that it embraced only the first eighty- 
 seven pages of the manuscript. And the translator 
 of that portion suggests that Franklin may himself 
 have written more of his own histor}', and that, if 
 so, his heirs could not fail to publish it, some day 
 or other, though his family would not be likely "to 
 disclose any other than the most brilliant j)eriod of 
 his life." 
 
 " If my conjecture prove right," said he, " if the 
 Memoii's which they are about to pubhsh under the 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 name of Fraiililiu should be mutilated; if the first 
 part, so essential to readers capable of feeUng and 
 judging, should be suppressed, I shall applaud my- 
 self for having preserved it; and the world will be 
 obliged to me for having enabled them to follow 
 the early developments of the genius, and the first 
 exertions of the subhme and profound mind of a 
 man who afterwards penetrated the mystery of elec- 
 tricity, and discovered the secret measures of des- 
 potism;— who preserved the universe from the rav- 
 ages of thunder, and his native country from the 
 horrors of tyranny." 
 
 There is also a letter from Dr. Price, dated at 
 Hactney, June 19, 1790, written to a gentleman in 
 Philadelphia, remarking on the death, character, and 
 Autobiograi^hical Memoirs of Franklin. The account 
 of his death in April, 1790, had just been received by 
 Dr. Price from this gentleman; and in acknowledg- 
 ing this favor. Dr. Price speaks of the Autobiography 
 as follows: "The account which he has left of his 
 life will show, in a striking example, how a man, 
 by talents, industry, and integrity, may rise from 
 obscurit}'' to the first eminence and consequence in 
 the world; but it brings his history no lower than 
 the 3ear 1757, and I understand that i^lnce he sent 
 over the copy, ichich I have read, he has been able to 
 make no additions to it." 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. y 
 
 The veiy first publication at all, of any portion 
 of Franklin's Autobiography, being this French trans- 
 lation, the first publication in EngJi.-'h was a transla- 
 tion //-ojh this Fi'ench translation, in 1793. Two vei'- 
 sions, Mr. Bigelow states, were published in Loudon, 
 two years after the French pubHcation in Paris, and 
 both versions were translations from the French. 
 The first of these versions was the onJ^j English 
 version printed and extant in America, doirn to 1817, 
 when the edition by Franklin's grandson first made 
 its appearance. 
 
 And this first translation from the French back 
 into English continues to this day to be republished 
 by some of the largest houses, not only in Euroj)e 
 but in America, under the impression that it is both 
 the genuine, original Autobiograjihy of Franldin in 
 his own language, and comj^lete. How many per- 
 sons there are therefore, who have never read one 
 word of Franklin's own writing, in his own inimit- 
 able simplicity, puritj^ and beauty of style and lan- 
 guage, convening his thoughts in a medium as art- 
 less and transparent as the summer air. 
 
 When these translations and retranslations were 
 first made and published, the original MS. in Frank- 
 lin's handwriting was in i:)Ossession exclusively of his 
 grandson. But we know that previous to the year 
 1802 it had passed by exchange into the i^ossession 
 
8 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 of ]\Iadame le Veillard, and by inheritance into the 
 hands of ^I. de Senarmont. We have this land- 
 mark aiwl jiroof in a singularly interestmg record 
 in the diary of Sii' Samuel Romilly, written duiing 
 his visit to France in 1802. The record is given in 
 full by Mr. Bigelow, but "sve prefer to copy it for a 
 reason which will be seen, from the second volume 
 of the Memou-s of the Life of Ronully, edited by his 
 sons, and published by Murray, in London, in 1840. 
 "Sept. 6." Romilly writes, "we went to Passy with 
 Madame Gautier." " Sep. 7. Madame Gautier pro- 
 cured for me the reading of the original MS. of Dr. 
 Franklin's 'life. There are only two coj^ies — this, and 
 one which Dr. F. took with a machine for cojoying 
 letters, and which is in the possession of his gi'and- 
 son. Franklin gave the MS. to M. Viellard, of Passy, 
 who was guillotined dui'ing the revolution. L^pon 
 his death, it came into the hands of liis daughter 
 or granddaughter, Madame VieUard, who is the prc^s- 
 ent possessor of it. It appears evidently to be the 
 first draft written bj' Franklin; for in a great many 
 places, the word originally written is erased with a 
 pen, and a word nearly synonymous is substituted 
 in its place, not over the other, but fju'ther on, so 
 as manifestly to show that the correction was made 
 at the time of the origimxl composition. The MS. 
 contains a great many additions, made upon a very 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. g 
 
 xoide margin; but I did not find that a single pas- 
 sage was anywhere struck out. Part of the work, 
 but not quite ha[f of it, has been translated into French, 
 and from tJie French retranslated into English. The 
 life comes down no lower than to the jcar 1757." 
 
 It is to be noted that in Murray's edition of the 
 Meriioii'S of the Life of Komilly, the name of Dr. 
 Frankhn's friend is given as Viellard instead of Veil- 
 lard, as written by Mr. Bigelow from the French 
 memorandum. It is much as if the word Dolman 
 in French were spelled Oldman in EngHsh, or Dol- 
 buck, Oldbuck. It is worthy of note as an examj^le 
 of the unportance of the greater part of the dif- 
 ferences found in manuscripts, say thu'ty thousand 
 variations in the MSS. of the Scriptures. 
 
 And yet, a letter dropped or added might carry 
 down to aU time the difference between falsehood 
 and truth. Lightfoot remarks upon the career of 
 Gehazi, " Gehazi's covetousness brings upon him Naa- 
 mau's leprosy. The text hath divinely omitted a let- 
 ter in one word, that it might the more brand him 
 with a blot for this his viUany. I will run after 
 Naaman, saith he, and \N-iIl take of him muniah, a 
 blot, instead of inaumah, somewhat." II Kings v. 20, 
 tal-e .someichai of him. It was the case of a wicked 
 man taken in his own mischief, and bound in a 
 life-long exj)3rience to the body of his own death. 
 
10 Faith, Doiibl, and Evidence. 
 
 There are other such records, not in the Hebrew 
 Scriptures only. 
 
 The interest with which Eomilly examined this 
 avitogra^Dh of Franklin may be judged from a rec- 
 ord by Romilly in 1783, on a visit to Paris, of an 
 interview with Franklin, then residing at Passy. It 
 was the first and only time he ever had the happi- 
 ness of conversing with him. He made this visit 
 with his fi'iend John Baynes. "Dr. Franklin," he 
 says, " was ijidulgent enough to converse a good 
 deal with us, whom he observed to be young men 
 very desirous of imj^roving by his conversation. Of 
 all the celebrated persons whom in my life I have 
 chanced to see, Di\ Franklin, both from his appeai'- 
 ance and his conversation, seemed to me the most re- 
 markable. His venerable patriarchal appearance, the 
 simplicity of his manner and language, and the nov- 
 elty of his observations, at least the novelty of them 
 at that time to me, impressed me with an opinion 
 of him, as of one of the most extraordinary men that 
 ever existed. The American Constitutions were then 
 very recentlj' i:)ublished. I remember liis reading ns 
 some passages out of them, and cxjiressing some sur- 
 prise that the French government had jyermitled the x>uh- 
 lication of them in France. They certainly produced 
 a very great sensation at Paris, the efl'ects of which 
 were probably felt man}' years afterward." 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. ii 
 
 II. 
 
 RECOVERY AND EXAMINATION OF THE AUTOGRAril 
 BY MR. BIGELOW. 
 
 It appears from passages in existing letters from 
 Dr. Franklin to his friends ]\I. le Yeillard and ]Mr. 
 Vaughan, that in the year 1789 he had given np all 
 expectation of being able to complete the Memoirs 
 as he had designed, but that he was having a copy of 
 them, as far as he had then icritfen them, prepared for 
 these two gentlemen. To M. le Veillard he saj-s, 
 Sept. 5, 1789, " I have not been able to continue 
 my Memou's, and now I suppose I shall never finish 
 them. Benjamin has made a copy of what is done, for 
 you, which shall be sent by the first safe opportunity." 
 
 To Mr. Vaughan he says, June 3, 1789, referring 
 to his ill health, "I have but little time in which I 
 can write any thing. ]\Iy grandson, however is copy- 
 ing what is done, which will be sent to you for your 
 opinion by the next vessel; and not merely for your 
 opinion, but for your advice." And in another let- 
 ter to Mr. Vaughan, Nov. 2, 1789, he says, "What 
 is already done / now send you. In the meantime 
 I desire and exjDect that you will not suffer any cojw 
 of it, or of any part of it, to be taken for any pur- 
 pose whatever." 
 
J 2 Faith, Donbt, and Evidence. 
 
 In this letter he requests Dr. Price, with Mr. 
 Vaughan, to read, criticall}^ examine, and give their 
 candid opinion, whether to publish or suj^press it. 
 
 In reference to these copies of the Memoirs, here 
 stated as having been in preparation, we have the 
 additional testimony of the Duke de la Rochefou- 
 cault, in 1789, that "the two cojiies of the liistory of 
 Franklin's own life, — one of which was sent by Frank- 
 lin to London, to Dr. Price and Mr. Vaughan, and 
 the other to Monsieiu- le Veillai'd and me (the Duke), 
 reach no further than the year 1757." This is a di- 
 rect affirmation that the two copies, which Fraukhu 
 says in his letters were being prej)ared, and should 
 be sent immediateh'', xoere sent to those for whom 
 they were intended. And certainly the one intended 
 for M. le Veillard and the Duke himself had been 
 not only sent, but received and i-ead by the Duke. 
 And of both the coi>ies he gives the same character- 
 istic, as ending at the year 1757. This leaves scarce- 
 ly a doubt that Mr. Vaughan's copy was in exist- 
 ence in London, as well as M. le Veillard's copy in 
 France, at the same early date. But Sir Samuel 
 Eomilly in 1802 had no knowledge of any other 
 copy except that which was in possession of Frank- 
 lin's grandson; and all his knowledge of that may 
 have been received from Madame Gautier, or Ma- 
 dame le Veillard herself. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. ij 
 
 It is a singular circumstance in the history of this 
 autograj)h that until it came into the hands of Mr. 
 Bigelow, that is, neai-ly one hundi'ed years after it 
 was commenced by FrankHn, and dated at the coun- 
 try seat of the Bishop of St. Asaph's in England, in 
 1771, it had never once been collated with the copy 
 of it in possession of Dr. FrankUn's grandson, nor 
 with the Memoirs printed from that copy, in 1817. 
 Evidently the grandson of Franklin, when he ex- 
 changed the original autograph with M. le Veillard 
 for that copy, had never himself examined it, nor 
 did he ever attempt to verify the copy from which 
 he printed, by comparison with the original, wliich 
 Franklin wrote. He did not know that eight pages 
 existed at the close of Franklin's Autobiography, 
 wliich did not exist in the copy ichich lie used in pub- 
 lishing the Memou-s. Nor was any one else aware 
 of it. Nor did it ever come to light, until the care- 
 fvd. collation and comparison made b}^ Mr. Bigelow 
 between the autograph which he received fi-om M. 
 de Senarmont in 1807 and the edition of the Me- 
 moirs in 1817, prepared in London by WiUiam 
 Temjile Franklin, " the first and only edition that 
 ever purported to have been printed from the man- 
 uscript." But not from the autograj)h. 
 
 "The results of this collation," says Mr. Bigelow, 
 " revealed the curious fact that more than twelve hurt- 
 
14 Faithy Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 dred separate and distinct changes had been made in 
 the text, and what is more remarkable, that the last 
 eight pages of the manuscript, which are second in 
 value to no other eight pages of the work, loere 
 omitted entirely." 
 
 Mr. Bigelow gives us, from the first chapter of 
 the MS., some specimens of these alterations, side 
 by side with the original, showing that they were 
 dehberate, and must have been the result of con- 
 siderable work and contrivance on the part of the 
 editor, substituting the suggestions of his own taste, 
 and jDerhaj^s vanity, instead of the expressions of 
 Franklin's own thought and style. Sometimes whole 
 sentences are altered and reconstructed. 
 
 Mr. Bigelow proposes four questions: 1, By whom 
 the changes were made? 2, How came the eight 
 closing pages to be omitted? 3, Why was the pub- 
 lication defeiTed after the author's death twenty- 
 seven years, from 1790 to 1817 ? and 4, " How haj)- 
 pened it that this posthumous work, which may be 
 read in nearly every written language, and is one 
 of the half-dozen most widely jDopular books ever 
 2orinted, should have filled the book marts of the 
 world for a quarter of a century without having 
 ever been verified by the original manuscript ? " 
 
 A singularly interesting discussion of these points 
 follows, with all the information that Mr. Bigelow 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. i^ 
 
 had beeu able to obtain from a variety of sources, 
 published and iinpuljlished; a most interesting- and 
 important disclosure, suggesting many thoughts, and 
 fruitful in illustrations of the uncertainties that may 
 attend the history of the productions of genius, even 
 when the libraries of the world contain editions of 
 them, besides works innumerable, of minutest exam- 
 ination and history of the periods when they were 
 produced, and the events in which their authors 
 lilayed conspicuous parts in sight of all the nations. 
 Twelve hundred such alterations in a single auto- 
 biographical manuscript ! And the changes of which 
 Mr. Bigclow has presented the instances in the first 
 chapter continued through the whole! This must 
 have been, not indeed a labor of love, but a work 
 of care and thought, such as it was, whatever the 
 motives. This revision and these alterations would 
 not have been made in the original autograph, and 
 seem not to have been attempted, until that auto- 
 graph had been exchanged for Madame le Veillard's 
 copy. Then ensued the work of revision and prep- 
 aration for the printer; and if we could see that 
 copy, we should pi'obably see the erasures, alter- 
 ations, and interpolations, in the handwritmg of 
 Franldiu's grandson; for beyond all doubt these 
 manipulations of the text were liis. And they man- 
 ifest a careless disregard of the sacredness of the 
 
t6 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 bequest, au inappreciation of the truthfulness, art- 
 lessness, and simj)licity of Frankhn's narrative, a 
 want of reverence towards Frankhn's judgment, and 
 a very surj)rising degree of j^resumption and vanity 
 in regard to his own. 
 
 Yet these twelve hundred alterations, if every one 
 of them was seen and commented on, loouJd make 
 no difference in any man's impression of the truthful- 
 ness and reality of Franl-Un's Autobiography, nor in 
 any man's view of his character, nor in any man's 
 oj^inion of his patriotism, or his statesmanship), or 
 his merits as a philosopher, or his excellence as a 
 man, or his great and wise influence in the counsels 
 of his country, or his instrumentality, so calm and 
 unobtrusive, yet so central, and prevailing, in the 
 progress and success of the American Eevolutiou. 
 No man's confidence in the history of that revolu- 
 tion, or in the events recorded as facts, or referred 
 to, or the secret causes of them disclosed in these 
 Memoirs, Avould be shaken, not to say by twelve 
 hundred, bvit by twelve thousand such variations. 
 A man's impression both of Franklin and his coun- 
 try, and of England and the world, is the same sub- 
 stantially whether he has read only the altered man- 
 uscript, printed in a hundred languages, or the 
 autograjih from Franklin's own mind and pen. 
 
 We say, substantially; but in fact, the alterations 
 
 \ 
 
Faith, Doitbt, and Evidence. ly 
 
 carefully considered, would, on comparison with the 
 autograph, of themselves confirm tliat as the original 
 characteristic truth, in all respects. The alterations 
 prove no cOlhi, but the perpetual presence and wit- 
 ness of the original writer, to the end. 
 
 III. 
 
 ALTERATIONS AND OMISSIONS IN THE FIRST PRINTED 
 COPY— THE QUESTION OF GENUINENESS. 
 
 Now these things are instructive and encouraging 
 to the sincere and impartial searcher after truth. 
 They may be of profound interest and importance 
 to the student of sacred criticism and history, in the 
 examination of the narratives of the four gosj)els, as 
 well as of the ejoistles, and also of the books of 
 proi^hecy and history in the Old Testament. The 
 general evidence of individual character, genius, and 
 style is always powerful, and Avorthy of great reli- 
 ance and use in the examination and judgment of 
 jiarticular questions, affirmations, or denials as to 
 l>arts or the whole of works attacked as doubtful. 
 
 Pat the autobiography of a man like Paul in the 
 same category with that of such a man as Franklin, 
 and then suppo33 as many or more manuscrii^ts or 
 
1 8 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 copies, and the one from wliicli the greater part of 
 mankind have received their information and impres- 
 sions, to have been an altered, unrehable copy, the 
 true text meddled with, a false text in some places 
 supplied, and all this running on for several gen- 
 erations, and then unexpectedly the true, genuine, 
 unblotched original manuscri2:)t discovered. There 
 would be no more variation in men's opinions of 
 Paul, or conceptions of his character, or doubts of 
 the reality of the events with which his life was con- 
 nected, or the personages and their character, with 
 whom he was conversant and coworkiug, and in 
 whom he believed; — no more variation or doubt in 
 consequence of the variations of the manuscripts, 
 than now in men's impressions of FrankHn or of the 
 events of which he and his doings and oj^inions were 
 so great a part, or of the men in whom Franklin had 
 confidence. 
 
 Put all the apochryphal manuscripts and tales to- 
 gether, and all the proved variations and alleged 
 discrej)ancies, in gospels or ej)istles, and weigh them 
 against the demonstrations from Paul himself, and 
 those drawn from the coincidences between his life 
 and opinions and the gospel history and teachings, 
 and it is wonderful how exact, full, and overwhelm- 
 ing the correspondence of undeniable truths and au- 
 thenticities; so that the whole imi^ression of our faith 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. ig 
 
 would not be clearer or more confident, if there had 
 been in existence neither varying, nor altered, nor 
 apochryphal ni anuscripts. 
 
 But the most remarkable of all the differences be- 
 tween the original autograph of Franklin and the 
 copies, and the printed editions brought to our 
 knowledge by Mr. Bigelow's investigations, is that 
 of the omission of the eight last pages of the work; 
 not only, as Mr. Bigelow remarks, "second in value 
 to no other eight pages of the Memoirs," but so val- 
 uable, so enlightening, at the same moment, as to 
 the history of the colonial and proprietary laws and 
 methods of government, and of Franldin's own cour- 
 ageous, disinterested, sagacious and generous instru- 
 mentahty in behalf of the Province of Pennsylvania; 
 his arguments and influence with Lord G-ranville, 
 President of the Council, and Lord Mansfield; and 
 his defence of the assembly against the oppressive 
 legislation of the proprietaries; a defence completed 
 and assured by himself giving bonds for the assem- 
 bly, and securing the credit of the province, at a 
 very critical period and emergency, a>< no other person 
 in England or America could have done. JiM this in the 
 same brief, artless, attractive st^de, which throughout 
 the Memoirs is so delightful, making law questions 
 themselves almost as pleasant and plain as personal 
 characters, and producing an effect as of one lying 
 
20 FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 on his oars in a bii'ch canoe on the St. Lawrence in 
 a calm at sunset, and watching the changes of the 
 lovely scenery, gliding by. 
 
 These eight pages, together -v\dth the portion of 
 Franklin's own outline of the topics yet to have 
 been treated, and events recorded, from 1757 to 
 1790, make one reaHze sadly what a loss to the 
 best part of our literature and histor^^ it was, when 
 Franldin was compelled by illness at length to re- 
 linquish all hojDC of completing his work. From 
 the words ".sv';)< to England," we are carried onward 
 through the successive key-notes and signals of 
 whole provinces of interesting and important events, 
 stenograjjhic ciphers or mementoes to be filled out 
 of the thirty years yet remaining of his active life. 
 
 The scenes of his various residences in England 
 and France, of Germany also, his notices of men 
 and manners, and of his own scientific studies, are 
 recorded in such phrases as these, of " The Light- 
 ning Kite — Various Discoveries — My Manner of jiros- 
 ecuting that Study — Stamp Act — My Opposition to it 
 — Examination in Parliament — Rej)utation it gave me 
 — Stoves and Chimney-j)lates — Armonica — M}^ Char- 
 acter — Costs me nothing to be ciril to Inferiors; a good 
 deal to be submissive to Stqxriors — Abuse before the 
 Privy Council — Return to America — Congress — Com- 
 mittee of Safety — Sent to Boston, to the Camjp, to 
 
Fa all, Doubt, and Evidence. 21 
 
 Cauadii, to Lord Howe, to France;" all these bright 
 ghmpses of the chapters of a varied, rich, and most 
 romantic epic of adventure, history, discovery, per- 
 sonal command and creation, reposing unwritten in 
 his mind; bright and distinct realities of providence, 
 character, and genius, through the period of a whole 
 generation, the most profoundly interesting and im- 
 portant in many respects, of the whole history of 
 England, America, and France; — all these syllabuses 
 written out, had he been permitted; what a price- 
 less inheritance to have left in English literature! 
 The absence of it is indeed in some degree made 
 up by the preservation of Franklin's inestimably 
 precious letters, so far as the}' cover the details of 
 this period; but the loss of it is greater than that 
 of any similar effort of genius ever undertaken but 
 not completed, by any writer of tlie English tongue. 
 
 There is no question, nor any possibility of it, as 
 to these eight pages having belonged to Franklin's 
 original autograi)h, and having been written b}' him. 
 
 But now suppose aU this had been the history of 
 a manuscript before the discovery of the art of 
 printing ; suppose in the second or third century 
 this manuscript first found. Suppose all the other 
 manuscripts of the same work to have been beheved 
 older ^than this, there being no record or knowl- 
 edge of the manner in which any of them came 
 
22 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 into existence, only that they were krwown to have 
 been in use, and many coj)ies of them in cii'cvila- 
 tion. And supjiose that in all those cojDies the last 
 eight pages found in the newly-discovered MS. were 
 wanting. In such a case the critical decision would 
 be against the genuineness of those eight jiages. They 
 would have been set down as the work of some 
 ingenious forger, and no argument could have pre- 
 vailed against the evidence of hundreds of sujiposed 
 earlier manuscrij)ts. The j^roofs of the authenticity 
 and genuineness of the real autograph having jier- 
 ished, the evidence of style, thought, and historic 
 congruity Avould go for nothing. 
 
 IV. 
 
 SIMILAR roSSIULE PREDICAMfeNTS OF THE GOSPEL 
 MANUSCRIPTS. 
 
 In these resjDects the instances of Dr. Franklin's 
 autobiography, and that of Mark's gospel present 
 a niost suggestive and illustrative similarity. That 
 which we know to have occurred in the year 1789, 
 may have occurred in the year 59, as well. A man 
 with his hands full of lousiness, and his Hfe, with 
 cares and interruptions, might be severed for weeka 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2j 
 
 or months from the intended continuation of the 
 history of his times; and the record, so far as com- 
 pleted, might be copied and recopied, and the copies 
 circulated, before the work was resumed or could 
 be finished; and so the unfinished copies might re- 
 main, without being completed, even after the work 
 was concluded by the author. In this case, the un- 
 finished copies would be the earliest in time, and 
 might have had access and authority, where the i)er- 
 fected work did not come. But the fact of their not 
 containing the author's conclusion could not be ac- 
 cepted for testimony' that he never wrote a conclu- 
 sion, or that the additions made by him in a later 
 writing were not his. 
 
 Not one of the many coj)ies first known of Frank- 
 lin's ^Memoirs contained the eight additional pages 
 found in the discovered original! How came they 
 to be omitted, when those cojiies wei'e published? 
 Are those co^^ies trustworthy at all? So far as to 
 what they contain, they are; but not as to tchal thcij 
 omit. They are not capable of testimony in regard 
 to the passages wanting in them. Why so ? Because 
 the author of those copies added the eight pages 
 found in his own Autograph Memoii-, in his own 
 handwriting, after aU the other copies had l)cen made, 
 ixowi whicli the work was i)riuted. This is known 
 beyond dispute. 
 
2^ FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence, 
 
 But suppose there were notliing but raanuscrii^t 
 copies in existence, and no proof of the offered auto- 
 graph cojiy having been the original. And suppose 
 a recension of manuscripts ordered or undertaken for 
 an authorized edition. Then certainly the majority 
 of manuscripts, and those known to have been the 
 earliest extant, being found without the eight jjages 
 discovered in the latest, these eight pages would be 
 pronounced spurious, and not to be admitted. 
 
 Now it is as plain in Mark's case as in Dr. Frank- 
 lin's, that the author of the first gosj)el manuscript 
 referred to or known as Mark's, may have dismissed 
 from his hand a copy or copies of his own work up 
 to the 9th verse of the last chapter, closing with the 
 abrupt words, Theij ivere afraid ; having been in some 
 possible wa}', for a season, as suggested by Hug, 
 interrupted there, and the copjist left with that im- 
 perfect record. And from any one of such unfinished 
 coj)ies others may have proceeded. 
 
 But not one of them could give any possible testi- 
 mony that ]\Iark did not himself afterwards complete 
 his own work, or that such completion was not to bo 
 found in his own continued autograph. 
 
 That autograph, or a full copy from it, must have 
 been known to Iren:cus; for all our manuscripts that 
 omit the closing passage arc of much later date than 
 his era. He consequently remains a competent wit- 
 
Faith, Doiihl, and Evidence. 2§ 
 
 ness of wliat was knowu to exist as Mark's gospel iu 
 tlie second century, while tlicy arc incompetent wit- 
 nesses as to the passage which they omit having never 
 been written by Mark. Though there were a thou- 
 sand of them, they could not testify that Mark left 
 his gospel unfinished. A single manuscript or ver- 
 sion of the preceding century, takes precedence of 
 a thousand in the centuries following. 
 
 Now^ as to the manuscripts of the New Testament, 
 it is well known that there is not a single Apostolic 
 Autograph of any gospel or epistle, or part of any, 
 in existence; nor is there any probability that any 
 such treasure will be discovered no more than that 
 the lost tables of stone in the ark of the Covenant will 
 be discovered, or those broken in pieces by Moses, 
 though written with the finger of God. The hiding 
 of these memorials is like the concealment of the body 
 and burial-place of Moses himself; a preservation of 
 the people fi-om becoming idolaters. The jjeople that 
 at the foot of Sinai could break the commandments 
 of G-od, and dance to Baal's music, when God's thun- 
 ders had hardly ceased reverberating, would after- 
 wards have kejjt, as objects of idolatrous worshi}), the 
 granite folios, on which the statutes tlicy had violated 
 were divinely engraven. Impressively does the reti- 
 cence of the Scriptures, the silence of God, declare 
 their divineness. 
 
26 Faith, Doubly and Evidence. 
 
 If the avitogi'aph manuscripts of any of the Evan- 
 gelists bad been pi-eserved, tliey would have become, 
 as the Brazen Sei'pent, objects of worshij), not teach- 
 ei's of faith, but superstition. And the Papal Abso- 
 lutism would have held them with the power of ex- 
 communication, ages earlier than it ruled the world 
 without them. Consider how it kept even the Codex 
 VaticanuSw AVTiat a priceless possession would have 
 been one signature in Paul's handwiiting ! If any 
 church of the time of Constantine, ^ or in the INIiddle 
 Ages, had held the Epistle to Philemon, / Paul have 
 ivriUen it with mine oion hand; I tvill repay it; that 
 church and its bishops would have been the acknowl- 
 edged head of the spuitual and litual hierai'chy. 
 There's a DiNdnity in these aa-rangements of the vis- 
 ible objects of our faith, that more wisely shapes our 
 ends than we can rough-hew them in oiu' reasonings, 
 or imagine a better way. 
 
 Y. 
 
 UNCERTAINTIES IN THE TRANSMISSION OF IVIANU- 
 SCRIPTS— INTERNAL EVIDENCE OVER ALL. 
 
 One of the earliest, most industrious, accurate, and 
 impartiiil of American historiiins, ^Ir. Jared Spai'ks, 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2J 
 
 published iu 1833 a volume of Franklin's letters aucl 
 miscellaneous papers, never before 2^1'inted, and wTit- 
 ten without the remotest thought on the part of 
 theu' author that they would ever be made pubhc. 
 The faithful editor remarks on the little ability of 
 Franklin's grandson, and the little justice as yet 
 done to the subject. "It is moreover to be remem- 
 bered," said he, " with extreme regret, that Franklin's 
 letter l>ool:s, embracing the entire period of his agency 
 in England through almost twenty years, were lost by 
 negligence or treachery of the j^erson to whose care he 
 entrusted them when he went to France." Frank- 
 lin's own reputation suffered in the hands of some 
 of his later associates and contemporaries. Near 
 forty A'cars elapsed from the publication of that vol- 
 ume by Mr. Sparks to the discovery and appear- 
 ance of Franklin's autobiography with Mr. Bigelow's 
 instructive investigations. Here then is the case of 
 the circulation of printed copies of a work for nearly 
 a hundred years, and yet the original copy not exam- 
 ined, for verification of the i)rinted editions. And it was 
 almost as long before the means of verification and 
 correction came to the hands of a writer able, intel- 
 ligent, impartial, and having command of all the ac- 
 cumulated sources of information for a century. 
 
 One might have supposed that the art of jirinting 
 would have set modern historv at a great height of 
 
28 Faitli, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 sui^eriority above the precediug ages for secxuity 
 aud reliableness. But we see that it may also be 
 the means of multijDlying falsehoods and reverbera- 
 tions of them, until it is impossible to come at the 
 truth. It may cause the success and j)erioetuity of 
 an error, that tradition and a few manuscripts alone, 
 as the investigator's only depeiidence, would have 
 jDrevented. The uncertainties and grounds of scep- 
 ticism exist where there is not only printing in jier- 
 fection, but the most unbounded issue, circulation, 
 perusal, and comjiarison of copies and editions. 
 
 In the greatest enlightenment of an age of " un- 
 licensed, that is, free and unfettered jirinting," we 
 see: 1st. The uncertainty that may attend the exist- 
 ence and transmission of the most unquestionably 
 authentic manuscripts the world has ever known. 
 2d. The difficulty of determining which, of a num- 
 ber of copies to be printed from, was the earliest 
 known, and which was reaUy the first, the original 
 of all the others. 3d. In view of existing discov- 
 ered variations, which copy is most correct, or which 
 was cojiied, ^dth the -variations, from the other. And, 
 4th, it is i>lain that in the case of omission of any 
 lioition or portions, ike pas^acje wanlinfj in some copies 
 may never have been in ex-idence at all in the very first 
 copy ever knovm and U!<ed for iwintiny, the first that 
 "was quoted or described or translated. And aU 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2g 
 
 tills time, Avliile cojiies innumerable, and of succes- 
 sive editions and dates, may Lave been j^rinted, mul- 
 tii)lied, and circulated, xnlh that oml-ision, the original 
 and true manuscript may have existed, unknoAvai, 
 unconsulted, contalaiim the omilted ^m-s-so^c, written 
 out plainly, and in full, in the same handwrit- 
 ing as at the beginning. The whole history magni- 
 fies the importance of internal evidence, and illustrates 
 the hazard of dogmatic pronouncements, xchelhcr 
 grounded on priorilg of dates, or exiding variations. 
 
 All oiu- manuscripts of the New Testament are 
 of a later date by centuries than the life of the 
 apostles, eye-witnesses, and actors. Of course they 
 are all copies. In some of them there are omis- 
 sions of important passages contained by other copies; 
 passages that contain as convincing evidence of be- 
 longing to the original autograjih, if that manu- 
 script could suddenly be produced, as the eight 
 Images of Franldin's manuscript omitted in all the 
 printed coj)ies of his work for near a hiindred 
 years. Even if those passages were found in only 
 one or two of the manuscripts, this would go much 
 further to prove that they were coj^ied from some 
 earUer and more authentic manuscrii)t, than that 
 they were forged. There is no adequate reason 
 for the forgery. At any rate, the internal evidence 
 fi'om the passages themselves, taken in connection 
 
JO JFailh, Do2ibi, and Evidence. 
 
 with the fact that the manuscripts in which they are 
 found are as authoritative as any in which they 
 are not found, is sufficient to remove objections. 
 
 YL 
 
 LESSONS FROM FRANKLIN'S AUTOGRAPHY AS TO 
 THE CLOSE OF ^L\RK'S GOSPEL. 
 
 A suggestive and instructive light may he thrown 
 from this omitted passage at the close of the auto- 
 graph in Franldin's Memou's not only ui^on the vexed 
 questions concerning the close of Mark's gospel, but 
 also the opening of the eighth chapter of John's. The 
 questionable passage in Mark, the disputed passage, 
 includes the twelve closing verses of his gospel. 
 "Without these verses the gosjiel is iucomi)lete, and 
 ends so abruj^tly, tliat beyond question it could not 
 so have been left by its author. Yet it was want- 
 ing in the majority of the Greek manuscripts as 
 late as the era of Jerome, a. d. 370, though found 
 in main/ of cqxnl aalhorili/. But the fact is quite de- 
 cisive of its eivrly existence, that Ireuteus, the disci- 
 ple of Polycai'p, and bishoj) of Lyons, a. d. 177, re- 
 fers to it absolutely as a part of ]Mark's gospel, and 
 quotes fi"om it the nineteeutli verse, with the words, 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. j/ 
 
 J/i fine aulem, EmngeUl, ait Marcus, but in the end of 
 the goKpel 3Iark saith. This testimony is conclusive as 
 to the fact that in the carlicd Lnou-n period a manu- 
 script of such weiglit as to be quoted as authority 
 had this lohole chapter, and there is no evidence what- 
 ever of any manuscript being- then in existence with- 
 out it. 
 
 This testimony is presented by Lardner from Irc- 
 nsous as follows: "Wherefore also jMark, the inter- 
 preter and follower of Peter, makes this the begin- 
 ning of his evangelic writing; the beginning of the 
 gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God. And in 
 the end of the gospel Mark says, So then the Lord 
 Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was received up 
 into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." 
 
 This is very convincing: 1st. As giving no intima- 
 tion of there being any other MS. of Mark's gospel 
 then in existence without the whole of what stands 
 as the closing chapter. 2d. As making it quite cer- 
 tain that Irenaeus himself knew not of any supposition 
 of any part of that chapter ever having been wanting. 
 3d. That no one in that age had discovered or im- 
 agined any mark of diliereuce in style or language 
 between the last twelve vei-ses, and the previous fif- 
 teen chapters. 4th. That Irenfeus himself was as 
 sure of the end being Mark's as he was of the 
 beginninfr. 
 
J2 Faith, Doicbi, and Evidence. 
 
 Such a thing as families of iiianuscrii>ts Avere not 
 then known, nor is there for a long time any indi- 
 cation of any ^IS. of ]Mark different in any respect 
 from that in possession of IrenaiHS, or of any church 
 in his age. The Peshito-Sp'iac version has the pas- 
 sage; and against these two authorities no successive 
 accumulation of witnesses can prevail. The passage 
 stands, and none other than Mark ajjpears as its 
 author. 
 
 Gregoiy of Nyssa, in Cappadocia, a. d. 370, says, 
 in his second Homily on the Resurrection, "tliat in 
 the most exact copies, St. Mai'k's gosjiel concluded 
 with these words (ch. xvL 8), Tor they were afi-aid.' 
 But in some copies it was added, verse nine, 'Now 
 when Jesus was risen early, the first day of the 
 -week. He appeared first to Maiy Magdalene'; and 
 the verses following. He proceeds to reconcile these 
 verses with the somewhat diii'ering accounts in Mat- 
 thew, Luke, and John. Mill says, that this Father 
 is the first who has taken any notice of this various 
 reading at the end of Mai'k's gospel." (See Lardner 
 on Gregory Nyssen, AVorks, vol. 4, pj). 2i)5, 298.) 
 
 Compare also the remarks of Hag (section 75, of 
 his Introduction to the New Testament), on the end- 
 ing of Mark's gospel. Jerome says that in some 
 Greek MSS. "there occurred an important various 
 reading after the fourteenth verse, showing that there 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. jj 
 
 xoere not xmntuvj numerous MSS. xohich contained the dia- 
 2n(led jxniion." And Jerome affirms that because the 
 jiassage contained some thing's not easily to be rec- 
 oncih'd Avith the other gospels, therefore it was re- 
 jected. "But the jjreiDOsterous nature," saj's Hug, "of 
 such a termination of Mark, at the eighth verse, Avas 
 joerceiAcd cA'en by the Greeks who did not receive 
 the added Aerses." He proceeds to quote the opin- 
 ion of Griesbach, that it is incredible that Mark 
 could have so abi-uptly finished his gospel; in fact 
 left it unfinished. "How could the conclusion of 
 the book disappear, and the circumstance be imno- 
 ticed? It must have attracted attention. If it hap- 
 pened before copies had been taken, ]\Iark might 
 easil}' have remedied it, and was bound to do so; 
 if it occuiTcd after copies Avere taken, the genuine 
 conclusion must at least have been preserved in 
 some manuscripts, and must it not be the one 
 which Ave noAv liaA-e?" — Hug's Int., 75, p. 471). 
 
 If auA' one desires to know the impression which 
 must have been made by an imfinished coi>y of 
 this gospel, closing AA'ith the recorded terror of the 
 disciples, he has only to ojien the Book of the 
 New Covenant, by Granville Penn, in 1830, "being 
 a critical revision of the text and translation of 
 the English Version of the NeAV Testament, Avith the 
 aid of the most ancient manuscripts, unknown to 
 
J/ FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 the age in whicli that version was last put forth by 
 authority." 
 
 This book was followed by a valuable volume of 
 annotations, learned, critical, and suggestive, in sup- 
 port of the author's own emendations and opinions. 
 His corrections are not always improvements, some- 
 times far otherwise; and what he says of the labors of 
 the learned Scholz for an established true text, may 
 as well be applied to himseK, namely, that " his 
 readers are convinced that some of his decisions 
 have been aUorjellier erroneous; for he can not impart 
 to them that incommunicable momentum, — the hypolhc- 
 sid's x>amon for his own hypolhesis." 
 
 Scholz's edition of the gospels in 1830 was the 
 latest work to wliich Penn could refer. Tischen- 
 dorf's discoveries had not then been made, nor 
 those researches, that for the last forty years, with 
 such prodigious industr}^ and erudition, have been 
 pursued by the army of textual critics working in the 
 same field. And so, Penn supposed that "Scholz's 
 active and laborious gleanings prove that we had 
 already gathered in all the grain tliat has come down 
 to us from Christian Antiquity, and that nothing now 
 remains in the field but the stubble of the harvest." 
 
 But in Scholz's oiiinion the last chapter of Mark's 
 gosjiel was a jmrt of that golden groin, never to be 
 driven away as chafi', or burned as stubble. An abso- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. J5 
 
 lute settlement of the text is j^ossMe, putting it be- 
 yond the reach of conjectural flailsmen, with their 
 new threshing instruments, I have dreamed, I have 
 dreamed. "The i^-ophet that hath a dream, let 
 him tell a di-eam; and he that hath my word, let 
 him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to 
 the wheat? saith the Lord." Jer. xxiii. 28, 29. "He 
 will not ahcaysi be tlu'eshing it, for his God doth in- 
 struct him to discretion, and doth teach him." Is. 
 xxviii. 26, 28. The threshing, and all other processes, 
 are onAj for the puri:>ose of securing genuine "seed 
 for the sower and bread for the eater" unto all 
 generations. 
 
 Dr. Johnson, in the account of his " Journey to the 
 Western Isles of Scotland," makes this pithy remark. 
 " If we know Httle of the ancient Highlanders, let us 
 not fill the vacuUi/ with 0.isian. If we have not 
 searched the Magellanic regions, let us forbear to 
 people them with Patagons. To be ignorant is pain- 
 ful; but it is dangerous to quiet our uneasiness, by 
 the delusive oj^iate of hasty persuasion." 
 
 The men did diligentiy obsei-ve, and did hadihj 
 catch it; so did Ahab, and received sentence accord- 
 ingly. The thoughts of every one that is hasty tend 
 only to want. The sacred proverbs are good for con- 
 sultation in the matter of manuscripts, as in eveiy 
 other business. That which was rejected by some 
 
^6 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 as stubble may be fountl by others fiiH of divine 
 seed. 
 
 From the second century downwards we know that 
 the conclusion of this gospel existed as Mark's. It 
 could not have been admitted as such, in Mark's life- 
 time, without Mark's authorship, as a sui"»plement 
 to what he had left unfinished. And after his death, 
 what forger could haA'e added it in his name, with- 
 out discover^-, even if possessed of the ability of com- 
 posing so artful and j)robable a completion of the 
 narrative ? The authority of an inspiration the same 
 as Mark's would have to be assumed and sustained 
 by the writer. 
 
 And meantime there is no testimony, in manuscript 
 or version or Father of that date, that it was not a con- 
 clusion originally written by ]\Iark. It is impossible 
 to understand what some critics can mean in saying 
 that its transmission has been accompanied by a con- 
 tinuous testimony that it was not a part of Mark's 
 original writing. There is no such testimony trans- 
 mitted or knoAvn; but on the contrai'y the words of 
 Irenajus are an iindisputed record, the earliest in ex- 
 istence in regard to Mark's gosjiel, that it xms received 
 as jNIark's and none other's, even to the end. 
 
 Some manuscripts afterwards omitting it, and cop- 
 ied from age to age, are not " a continuous testi- 
 mony " that it was not ]\Iark's ovujinallij, but only 
 
Faith., Doubt, and Evidence. jj 
 
 that, from whomsoever it originated, it was omitted 
 in some copies, no one can tell when. 
 
 A manuscrijit in possession of Irenssas, containing 
 the section omitted at a later period after his time 
 in other manuscripts, would be equivalent to the 
 production of the autograph of Franklin in posses- 
 sion of M. le Veillard. The only difficulty is how 
 to account for the passage being left out at all in 
 any manuscripts of later date, while it was certainly 
 retained in a succession of the more perfect and 
 authoritative copies downwards through the centu- 
 ries. Dean Alford supposes that the lost leaf of the 
 original gospel a^ Mark lorote it, was torn away, and 
 then the passage was replaced, as a completion of 
 the gospel, soon after the apodolic period. But who 
 excej)ting Mark himself could have replaced it, if it 
 was absolutely lost? And that it was not lost at the 
 time of Irena!us"s reference to it is proved by his 
 quotation from it, an a then known part of Mark's 
 goipel. As to internal evidence against it, there is 
 not any that wiU stand consideration; one might as 
 easily contrive an argument against Franklin's eight 
 last pages on the ground of there being in them a 
 greater proportion of large words and fewer idio- 
 matic exi>ressions than belonged to Franklin's style; 
 or, because the wovds Jlinistj, naurjhly, l>cckoning, and 
 vica voce, occur, and ptocket-inslriictions. Or because 
 
jS Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 the single word Jlimt^y, found in these eight pages, 
 occurs nowhere else in the autobiography. 
 
 There is internal evidence in its favor, besides the 
 necessity of the case; the imjiossibility of a memoir 
 so terse, pithy, and entire as this, having ever been 
 committed to a church, or as we say, given to the 
 public, without a conclusion ; and as it were in 
 the midst of a sentence, in the flight, amazement, 
 and fear of the two Marys and Salome running 
 from the sepulchre. It is not essential for us to 
 know b}' what accident or wilfulness or carelessness 
 the missing verses may have disappeared, may not 
 have been added to some particular coj^y; and then 
 that defective copy may itself have been coi^ied. It 
 is enough, if afterwards the whole manuscript is 
 found, and has been quoted as the gospel of Mark, 
 and a text given from the missing verses as of the 
 same authority with the whole. It is like the case 
 of a river disappearing and running under-ground. 
 It is not necessary for yon to make the under- 
 ground passage in order to prove that it is the 
 same river. You may analyze the water; you may 
 catch the fish; you may dredge the bottom; and 
 because you do not know the convulsion by which 
 nor the time when the river disajjpeared 3'ou are 
 not on that account comi^elled to deny or doubt its 
 personal identity. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. jg 
 
 TIL 
 
 LESSONS AS TO JOIIX viii. 1-12— THE CON'JECTURES 
 OF CRITICS. 
 
 The same may be said of the other questioned 
 passage in John's gosjDel, the opening of the eighth 
 chapter, the wonderful, inestimably precious account 
 of Christ's judgment of the accusers of the woman 
 taken in adultery. If the painting of the Transfig- 
 uration by Raphael were brought in question as to 
 its author, it would be as possible for critics to deny 
 the mai'ks of his genius in it, and to prove that it 
 must have been the work of some other painter, as 
 for a critic of the New Testament to prove that the 
 narrative of the woman was not written by the apos- 
 tle John, but in another style and in different lan- 
 guage from his. Yet as much as this has been 
 asserted of the passage. It has even been conject- 
 ured, by way of accounting for its absence from 
 some manuscripts, as well as its appearance in the 
 received text, that the evangelist John may have 
 incorporated a portion of the cuvvcnt oral Iradition 
 into his narratioe, and that this portion may have 
 been afterwards variouKbj conrclcd from another r/os- 
 pel, and that, heinrj seen in early times to be alien 
 
40 FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 from Johns diction, it may have been inserted at 
 the end of Luke xxi. 
 
 Here the critic, who is none less than Dean Alford, 
 affirms the entire divcr.sitij from the style of narra- 
 tive of our evangehst, and yet supposes him to 
 have adopted a portion of the current oral tradition 
 into Jiis narrative. But the question comes up, from 
 whom did he receive that tradition, and on what 
 evidence, and tvhose style and language except Jiis own 
 could he be supjwsed to have adopted in writing out the 
 incident? Or can it he imagined that John com- 
 posed his gospel from traditionary accounts, con- 
 cerning Christ, instead of relating what he himself 
 knew as an eye-witness, or received by divine inspi- 
 ration ? If inserted at the end of Luke xxi., why 
 is it not there still? How could the removal from 
 Lvike and the insertion in John have been accom- 
 l^lished, consistently with the integrity of either gos- 
 pel as then known ? 
 
 Even if he took a running tradition, of which he 
 is thus supi^osed to have known nothing when he 
 wrote the tirst copy of his own narrative, must 
 he not inevitably have put the tradition into his 
 own habitual form and manner of composition '? If 
 it was a fragnient (f writing, and not a tradition, that 
 he copied out, and inserted into his own gosi)el, then 
 that aujjposes the pre-cxistence of another narra- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 41 
 
 tive, contaiuing iinpoi'tant notices of oixi- Lord's life, 
 with wliicli John had never before been made ac- 
 quainted, nor any one of the evangelists, who are 
 supposed to have written earlier than himself. And 
 yet John says, concerning his own gospel, " ]\[any 
 other signs truly did Jesus, in the presence of His 
 disciples, which are not written in this book; but 
 these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus 
 is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, 
 ye might have hfe through His name." The argu- 
 ment here seems manifestly to be that nothing was 
 written by the disciples of Jesus, from tradition 
 merely, nothing but what was done by Him in 
 their presence, so that they should be eye-ivilnesses, 
 as well as recorders of what they had seen and 
 known. There were many other tilings, John said, 
 that were never written, but these ivcre wriUen, as 
 essential grounds for a confident belief in Christ. 
 " That which was fi'om the beginning, which we 
 have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, 
 which we have looked uj^on, and our hands have 
 handled of the Woi'd of Life; that which we have 
 seen and heard declai'e we unto you, that ye also 
 may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellow- 
 ship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus 
 Christ. And these tilings icrile we unto you, that 
 your joy may be full." — I John i. 1-1. The empha- 
 
^2 Faith, Doiibl, and Evidence. 
 
 sis is marked, and repeated iii all Joliu's composi- 
 tions. "This is the record. These things have / 
 wriUen, that ye may kxow." 
 
 It stands there as John's. This is the declaration 
 to all who find it in the book. Now on a verdict 
 being demanded by the judge he always j^^its the 
 doubt to the favor of the accused, not against him. 
 Sceptics and rationalists, in dealing with the Scrij^jt- 
 ures adoi)t the reverse of this as the rule of their 
 criticism. Charity and mercy being turned out of 
 court, doubt itself is assumed as evidence, and rea- 
 soning from conjecture is resorted to in accounting 
 for the manner in which the accused j^assage got 
 into its authoritative place. 
 
 It stands there as John's. The verdict of cumu- 
 lative belief through many ages, on some good evi- 
 dence, has set it there. It commends itself to the 
 heart, the conscience, the reason, as a self-eviden- 
 cing and exquisite reality in the life and example 
 of Jesus. Had it been proposed to the wit, intelli- 
 gence, and charity of the whole world to continue 
 twelve verses containing internal evidence sufficient 
 to carry the heart and mind of all Christendom, 
 and all generous judges, as certainly divine, nothing 
 could have been offered to compare with this. It 
 could never have been written so early as its first 
 appearance, by any uninspired man. There is no 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. ^j 
 
 motive for it, considerecl as a forgeiy. The wit- 
 nesses for it are many and unimpeacLed. Only its 
 absence from many manuscrii)ts gives opportunity 
 for conjecture that it may possibly not have been 
 of John's own writing. 
 
 Who now shall venture, or by what arguments 
 or evidence, to exclude this passage, thus anathema- 
 tizing it as a forgery? But it must be either that, 
 or divine. If divine, it comes under the protecting 
 sweep of the clause at the end of the New Testa- 
 ment Scriptures, as well as the forewarning clause 
 in the Pentateuch. Add not, diminish not, for the 
 AVord is (xod's. 
 
 If permitted to stand, it must be without a mark 
 of suspicion upon it. Any such indication would 
 be lUcc sending an inmate of Sing Sing into so- 
 ciety, with his prison suit upon him. Let every 
 man beware of this supposed convict. It would 
 thus be an insult upon common sense and rever- 
 ence to put any passage retained in the Scriptures 
 in brackets. It would go far to admit that we can 
 not be sure in regard to any part of Scrijiturc, but 
 that every man must and may receive it on man's 
 authority, not God's. It is not a question of a pos- 
 sible various reading, which may be set in the mar- 
 gin without accusation of the text. But it creates 
 suspicion, and admits within the text the presence 
 
^^ Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 of the detective, as if for the protection of every 
 Christiau reader. 
 
 It must stand fair, if at all, in any received version. 
 Not that there is no farther ai)i)eal, or possible re- 
 hearing of the case, on new discovered evidence. But 
 until such come to light, the character of the witness 
 is good. Who can bring any thing against it ? "Who 
 can imagine any thing? Who can bring any proof 
 of such early tamperiugs with a completed cojDy of 
 any one of the original gospels ? Who can give any 
 reason for such an attempted interpolation ? Or any 
 other example of the introduction of a i)aragraph af- 
 firmed to be so unconnected with the tenor of the 
 narrative, and requiring an omniscient inspiration for 
 its continuance ? 
 
 It has been interrupted with the brief note that 
 every man of Christ's hearers of the preceding dis- 
 cussion went unto his own house, and Jesus unto the 
 Mount of Olives. Then, in the freshness of tlie morn- 
 ing light, He is again in the temple, teaching the 
 people. 
 
 At what point and how shall He renew with tliem 
 the reasoning of the preceding evening, so fuU of 
 interest and imjiortance as to His claims as the INIes- 
 siah, the King of Israel and Saviour of the world, the 
 Intei'preter of the written Law of God, but not now 
 the Accuser, nor the final Judge of men by that law. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. ^5 
 
 but their Advocate and Intercessor before God, the 
 Searcher of all hearts and consciences. 
 
 AYhat providence brought the woman and her ac- 
 cusers into His presence ? And what uninspired mind 
 could possibly have foreseen the course of the investi- 
 gation, or the wisdom and mercy of the Lord Jesus 
 conducting it, and bringing out in so graphic a dis- 
 tinctness the characters and passions of the rulers 
 and the i>coi)le, and His own authority as the light of 
 the world; so that whosoever followed Him should 
 not walk in darkness, but should have the light of 
 life. The characteristic event, and the use the Lord 
 Jesus made of it, could never have been forged; much 
 less inserted in the narrative by any but an eye-wit- 
 ness, and a sympathizer with the heart, and a reader 
 of the mind of Christ. Who would presume to stand 
 in John's place, for such record, in John's life-tinie ? 
 
 Sujiposing it to have bean an interpolation, who 
 could have dared to insert it in an apostolic manu- 
 script ? And if it was not originally found in the text, 
 wliy should this place of all others have been selected 
 for its insertion? 
 
 For Alford affirms an "entire iinconnection " with 
 the context, and "entire diversity" from John's style; 
 and yet afterward shows us "a way out of the enig- 
 ma," that is, that John himf^eJf may have incorporated 
 this disconnected and entirely diverse portion into his 
 
46 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 narrative, in this very place; from which it was after- 
 wards, by some unknown detective of its ahen style, 
 removed, and set in a better supposed connection and 
 chronolog-y in the synoptic narrative, at the end of 
 Luke xxi. 
 
 YIII. 
 
 ALFORD AND LIGHTFOOT— EUSEBIUS AND LARD- 
 NER— FROPOSED TREATMENT BY BRACKETS. 
 
 Prof. Lightfoot, in his Essay on a fresh Revision of 
 the New Testament, "ventures a conjecture," going 
 in some respects beyond Dean Alford's, and sui^jios- 
 ing that both the close of the gospel of Mark, and 
 the opening section of the eighth chapter of John, 
 " were due to that knot of early discij^les who gath- 
 ered about John in Asia Miiior, and must have jire- 
 served more than one tiaie tradition of the Lord's life, 
 and of the earliest days of the Church, of which some 
 at least had been themselves eye-witnesses." 
 
 We ask inevitably whether these suppositions do 
 not tax our credulity beyond what is reasonable; con- 
 jecturing the presence of discijDles gathered around 
 John, at a period after all the gospels are supposed 
 to have been written, possessing traditions of our 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. ^y 
 
 Lord's savings, and life, tnie, aud important enough 
 to liave been inserted in the sacred books, but not 
 found there; and John aud Mark being informed of 
 them for the pm-pos3 of such insertion, and on the 
 gi-ound of this new information, putting those tradi- 
 tions into theu' own wiitings? 
 
 Yet this is the hypothesis of Alford, namely, " that 
 the Evangehst may have incorporated a portion of the 
 current oral tradition into his nai'rative." If this is also 
 the meaning of Prof. Lightfoot, there are some ques- 
 tions, and contradictions in the j^roposed h^-potheses, 
 more impossible of solution than any difficulties en- 
 countered m the gospel narratives. 
 
 For Ave are commended to traditions as being time, 
 in possession of imagined early disciples, concerning 
 whom there is no evidence of any of them having 
 been eye-witnesses — "oral tradilions," as supposed by 
 Alford, adopted by the Evangelist, " and afterwards cor- 
 rected from the gospel of the Hebrews (unknown 
 what it was), or other traditional soiu'ces." And Prof. 
 Lightfoot refers to one of these traditions cOs being 
 that of Papias, a disciple of this school that gathered 
 about St. John, and as being "the account of the 
 woman taken in adultery, kno^vn to have been related by 
 Pajiias." 
 
 Now the whole of what is related by Papias is given 
 by Eusebius as follows: "He relates also another 
 
^(5* Faith, Do2ibt, and Evidence, 
 
 story, of a womau accused of mam^ crimes before the 
 Lord, Avliicli is contained in the gospel according to 
 the HebreAvs." — Larduer on Papias, giving the chap- 
 ter in full from Eusebius, Vol. 2, pp. 119, 124. See 
 also Trcgelles on the Printed Text of the New Testa- 
 ment, 242. 
 
 This is absolutely all the foundation there is for 
 affirming this story to have been that in John's gosi:)el, 
 or for believing that it ever came from any knot of 
 early disciples gathered around John. Even sup^jos- 
 ing that it did, and was really the tradition concern- 
 ing this woman; what then follows? 
 
 Those early disciples, if eye-witnesses, must have 
 lived longer than John himself, if their traditions were 
 put into his gospel after his death, at their sugges- 
 tion. If put into his gosjiel by himself from tradi- 
 tions delivered by them to him, what are we to think 
 of John's own testimony (John xxi. 30, 31), that he 
 himself knew of " many other signs done by Jesus, 
 in the presence of the discijiles, which are nol vrUlcn 
 in this book; but these arc written, that ye maj' be- 
 lieve," etc. And in I John i. 1-4: "That whifiji we 
 have heard, and seen with ovn* eyes;" our mm, and 
 liot another's. And so, II Peter i. Ki: "Eye-wit- 
 nesses of His majest}', and not following cunningly 
 devised fables." Is there anywhere so much as an 
 intimation of any things in any of the gospels hav- 
 
Faith, Doiibty and Evidence. ^g 
 
 ing beeu delivered at second-hand; or put in -oTiting 
 at the mouth of any but those "who from the begin- 
 ning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word ? " 
 Luke i. 2, a% cipx^l^ ccutoTtvai xat vnTjpitat .tov Xoyov. 
 
 Not a hint can be found in the New Testament of 
 the inspired writers receiving their materials from 
 tradition, but many cautions against it, " lest any 
 man sjioil you after the tradition of men." — Col. ii. 8. 
 But in the j^resent case of the supposed knot of dis- 
 ciples, did John receive the tradition fi-om them, or 
 they from him? Did he put it in his go.spel, in their 
 language, or in his own ? If John wrote it, in what- 
 ever style, it was an integral portion of his original 
 gosi^el. Yet Prof. Lightfoot says that evidence ex- 
 ternal and internal is against its being so regarded, 
 though wheucesoever it comes it seems to bear on 
 its face the highest credentials of authentic history. 
 
 But how can that be authentic, which under pre- 
 tence of inspu'ation, is not inspired? Or which be- 
 ing judged in early times to be alien from John's 
 style was afterwards varioiisty corrected and put in 
 another situation? Would any of the apostles have 
 presumed thus to tamper with each other's produc- 
 tions? Or were the critics of the apostolic period 
 such profound judges of the shades of original dic- 
 tion ? Or did the running publishers of those days 
 tidie liberties with the original autographs entrusted 
 
50 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 to their care, such as the grandson of Franklin is 
 proved to have taken, in altering the autobiography 
 of his illustrious ancestor? 
 
 To many minds the evidence both external and in- 
 ternal protects both Mark and John fi'om such con- 
 jectiu'es. The passage in John is found in more than 
 three hundred cnrsive manuscripts. Under Jerome's 
 knowledge, it was in many codices, both Greek and 
 Latin. It is eminently Christ-hke, as Prof. Schaff 
 most truly remaa-ks, and full of comfort to penitent 
 outcasts. It also presents ta-uly the conduct of the 
 scribes and Pharisees in trying Jesus with ensnar- 
 ing questions, but breathes the Saviours spu'it of 
 holy mercy, which condemns the sin and siives the 
 sinner. The internal evidence therefore, and the 
 moral, as well as a good amount of positive critical 
 evidence, is in its favor. So far fi-om there being 
 any authority for having it bracketed or omitted as 
 spurious or doubtful, such a treatment of the text 
 on the pfu't of any committeeship of modern schol- 
 ars would be an intrusion on the rights of Chris- 
 tendom. Any man or church or company of revis- 
 ers that shall attempt to strike out fi'om the Enghsh 
 Bible the tdosing verses of the hxst chapter oi Mark, 
 or the lu'st eleven verses of the eighth chaj^ter of 
 John, may be sure to encounter an intelligent and 
 conscientious opposition. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 5/ 
 
 IX. 
 
 CONNECTION AND CONGRUITY— INTERNAL EVIDENCE 
 
 OF INTEGRITY, AND IMPROBABILITIES 
 
 OF FORGERY. 
 
 The most unlearned Euglish reader maj' judge of 
 the argumeut from the context, as competently and 
 fairly as the profoundest scholar. The indications 
 are sometimes far to seek, and the trains of thought 
 may seem dissevered; but not in the instance be- 
 fore us. 
 
 An absolute disconnection has been affirmed. But 
 there is a solemn nemeds of connection and congruity 
 between this narrative by John (so sui^erhuman in its 
 jilace and power), and the i>receding seventh chapter, 
 that ought carefully to be traced, and is woxihy of 
 profound reflection. 
 
 There had been an earnest, feverish, angiy discus- 
 sion among the common people, the noXXol ku too 
 ox'Xov, and the accusers of Christ, the Pharisees, the 
 officers of the high priest, sent to take Him, and the 
 rulers of the nation. Nicodemus among them had 
 confronted them with their own law, forbidding ad- 
 verse judgment of any one, without fir.st trying him 
 by the required witnesses, and knowing what he had 
 
^2 FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 done, by the evideuce. So the controversy was left, 
 over night. 
 
 In the morning these exasj)erated and disappointed 
 enemies came again to the Temjilc, where Christ had 
 already renewed His teachings, bringing a case to 
 Him for His own judgment, by which they were sure 
 to find occasion for arraigning Him, as against Moses 
 or against Cesar, or both. And if He accepted and 
 exercised the ofl&ce of judge, asserting an authority 
 above that of Moses, as He had done in regard to the 
 Sabbath for all mankind, they would have charged 
 Him with blasphemy, and might have enraged the 
 people against Him. The Law of Moses not only 
 required two or three witnesses, but also directed 
 (Comp. Deut. xix. 15, and xvii. G, 7) that in case of a 
 crime worth}^ to be punished by death, " the hands of 
 the witnesses should be first upon him, to put him 
 to death, and afterward the hands of the people." 
 
 Jesus, stooping down, wrote with His finger, and 
 then rising, said, " He that is without sin among you, 
 let him cast the first stone." 
 
 It was the Searcher of hearts, calling each accuser 
 as if by name, to the duty of an accuser. Not one 
 could utter a syllable. They had brought the woman 
 to Jesus for judgment, not from abhorrence of the sin, 
 or to stone hcv, but out of hatred and accusation of 
 Chi'ist, in the lope of entrapping ILim. He indicted 
 
Faith, Doubt-, and Evidence. ^j 
 
 llwm before Clod, the Law, and tbeii* own conscience. 
 They could not cast even at her not so much as the 
 stone of a word, but stole away, speechless, bowed 
 down with shame, smitten to the heart, while Jesus, 
 again stooping do^\^l, wrote on the ground. 
 
 They had been ghb enough in pressing their ques- 
 tions, confident of triumph, and had insultingly con- 
 tinued asking Hun, even while He was writing. If 
 any one desires an instructive light of illustration on 
 the possible significance of this action of our Lord, 
 let him read the annotations by Lightfoot, Hebrew 
 and Talmudical, on the eighth verse of this chajiter. ' 
 Works, YoL 12, i^p. 315-317. 
 
 "Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath 
 no man condemned thee?" proved thy guilt by his 
 testimony, given according to the law? "She said, 
 No man. Lord. Jesus said unto her. Neither do I 
 condemn thee. Go, and sin no more." The heart- 
 searching tenderness of Clu'ist was the salvation of 
 the sinner, whom the malignity and hypocrisy of the 
 Jews had brought to be destroj-ed. 
 
 How striking the resemblance between these words 
 of our Lord and those adcU'essed to the impotent man 
 whom He had healed at the pool of Bethesda ! " Be- 
 hold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse 
 thing come unto thee." He makes manifest the coun- 
 sels of the hearts, and brings to light the hidden 
 
5-/ FailJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 things of darkness, at a word. Noio, this word is to 
 save the soul; by and by, it will judge all men. Now, 
 it came not to jiuhje the world, but to mm the world. 
 Both the imiDotcnt man and the guilty woman were 
 saved by the Lord's Word now, that they might not 
 be condemned by it hereafter. Judge nothing before 
 the time, until the Lord come. 
 
 Now again Jesus resumes the argument of light, 
 life, and divine authority in Hhnself, in immediate 
 connection with the preceding events and discussions, 
 and in the presence of His own adversaries and ac- 
 cusers. And their points against Him are again in 
 regard to the required witnesses, and judgment to be 
 rendered accordingly, which must be rendered on 
 evidence, and personal knowledge, and not hearsay, 
 nor after the flesh. 
 
 They accused Him of self-assertion without testi- 
 mony, and, so of falsehood. But they had themselves 
 accused the woman, and demanded judgment, xoithout 
 witnesses; being themselves jjaralyzed and driven out 
 of court, speechles.s, by conscience, at the words of 
 Christ. Now Christ says, I judge no man thus. But 
 my judgment is true according to your own law, with 
 which Nicodemiis has abeady answered you, when 
 you were accusing me. I am not alone, but I and 
 the Father that sent me. Here are the two required 
 witnesses. It is written in your Law, that the testi- 
 
Faith, Dottht, and Evidence. 55 
 
 inony of two men is true. Here are two, and one of 
 them is God that sent me, and is with me. Take this 
 testimony, and act upon it. "Which of j'ou convinceth 
 me of sin? And if I sa}' the truth, why do ye not 
 believe me? 
 
 From the thirt^'-seventh verse of the seventh chap- 
 ter to the thirtieth of the eighth, and even through 
 the eighth, there is one and the same flashing of di- 
 vine hght and argument, not interrupted, but rather, 
 occasion given for most wonderful and providential 
 illustration and confirmation, by the malicious, and 
 (as they thought) adroit stratagem of the Ka.ri)yopoiy 
 the accusers of the woman and of Christ. — See the 
 comment of Lightfoot on the ninth verse. 
 
 It is worthy of note that Lightfoot, in considering 
 •why the story of the woman taken in adultery was not 
 in some ancient copies, quotes from Eusebius " two 
 little stories"; first, the passage in regard to Papias, 
 and second the order from Constantine for fifty copies 
 of the Scriptures to be written out in fair parchment 
 for reading in the churches. 
 
 Tischendorf regarded the Sinaitic MS. discovered 
 by him as perhaps one of those very copies. 
 
 Lightfoot says, "If Eusebius ascribed the story of 
 the adulterers to the ti'ifler Papias, or at least to the 
 gospel according to the Hebrews oul}', ic'dhnd doubt 
 he would never insert U in copies transcribed hij ]u'm. 
 
^6 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 Hence jDOSsibly migiit arise tlae omkm)n of it iu some 
 copies, after JSusebiusa lime. It is in copies before his 
 age, etc." — Works, 12, 313. 
 
 This saggestion is no mere conjecture, but an acute 
 inference from comparison of the two passages in 
 Eusebius. It strengthens the argument for the gen- 
 uineness of the disputed text. 
 
 Bengel, in his Gnomon remarks on the clause, "aud 
 miv none hut the looman," iliui "the preposition nXr/v, 
 but, nowhere employed hij John, betrays a gloss un- 
 known to the ancients; the force of whi(;h in-ejjosition 
 John has evei'}"\vhere expressed differently." 
 
 This suggestion, in order to stand fii-m, would re- 
 quire at least three suppositions or assumptions, name- 
 ly: (1) that we know absolutely that John himself did 
 not write this paragraph, for if he did, he "WTote every 
 word of it; (2) that the word itXifv had no other force 
 in Greek usage kno\\'n to John than such as might 
 have been expressed by the other synonymous j^repo- 
 sitions, adverbs, or conjunctive jDai'ticles, which John 
 has emplo3^ed;_(3) that if anywhere John has used a 
 word that can be found nowhere else in his gospel, 
 this would be proof that the jiassage where that word 
 is found was not his own, but a gloss. 
 
 Bengel says of John, "everywhere expressed dif- 
 ferently." 
 
 But now, turning to the Apocalypse, chapiter ii. 25, 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 5/ 
 
 we fiud this very word ■n'kt'ii', as au adverb, tliouf^h 
 Beugel Las said that it is nowhere emplojed by Joliu. 
 The use of it in the Apocalypse can liardly have been 
 overlooked by the critic; and j-et the same reasoning 
 concerning its use in the gospel, apj)lied to the in- 
 stance of it in the Aj^ocalypse, icoidd betray a gloss there 
 likewise, and would consequently mark the verse, if 
 not the context, as not being John's Avritiug. 
 
 INIark has used the same preposition only once in 
 his gospel (Mark xii. 82; there is none other but Him, 
 besides Him). The argument by which the verse in 
 John is supposed to indicate a gloss, would prove 
 with ecjual fcn-ce that the verses 28-34 in the twelfth 
 chapter of Mark are not Mark's own writing, but the 
 work of the glossarian. 
 
 For the argument is the same in both cases. John 
 is said never to have used nX/fv anpvhere else; there- 
 fore he could not have used it here; therefore this 
 pas.sage may not have been John's. On such reason- 
 ing, might not every book of the Scriptures in turn 
 be excluded as possibly a forgery? 
 
 Perhai:)s the word, as found in John viii. 10, should 
 more accurately be rendered notwithstanding, as it 
 frequently is rendered in other places b}' our trans- 
 lators. 
 
 For example, Luke x. 20, "Notwithstanding {nXiiy), 
 in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto 
 
^8 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 you; but rather (Se ndWov), rejoice," etc. So, x. 11, 
 notwithstanding, be jq sure, etc. In Luke xiii. 33, 
 and xviii. 8, it is translated nevertheless, and so in 
 xviii. 42. In Acts viii. 1, it is translated except; xv. 
 28, no greater burden than; xx. 23, save that; in 
 I Corinthians xi. 11, nevertheless; in Eph. v. 23, never- 
 theless; in Philip, i. 18, notwithstanding; iii. 16, neverthe- 
 less; iv. 14, notwithstanding. In Matt. xxvi. G4, never- 
 theless, and 39. 
 
 Now let us read in John viii. 10, " When Jesus had 
 lifted uj) Himself, and saw none, notwithstanding the 
 woman" (that is, although she was still there, while 
 her accusers had fled, leaving Jesus alone, and the 
 woman standing in the midst), "He said unto her," 
 etc. The connection and reasoning gain force and 
 jioint by rendering, as in the passages indicated in 
 Luke and Ephesiaus, vol withstanding. 
 
 There is no occasion for supposing a gloss, but 
 rather confirmation of the whole passage. Bengel 
 himself admitted the supposition of the gloss, only in 
 the three words, notwithstanding the icoman, and be- 
 lieved that the whole questioned passage, in its in- 
 
 ^ tegrity, belonged to John, and was the gift and inspi- 
 
 ^g'ation of the Holy Sj)ii'it. 
 
 -g^nd he says, " The wisdom and power evinced by 
 
 JesuHt? ^^ ^^® history of the adulterers are so great, 
 
 that it n^^ strange that this remarkable jioi-tion of the 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. jp 
 
 gospel history' should at present be regarded by many 
 as uncertain." 
 
 The internal e\ddence overpowered, in Bengel's 
 judgment, the external doubts. 
 
 Of all known causes of the differences to be found 
 in our stores of Scriptvu'e Manuscripts, none are suf- 
 ficient to account for, or to proA'e, large interpolations. 
 If such could be successfully installed as forgeries, 
 and no means left of i:)roving them, it would be con- 
 trary to the divine prt)mises and seals of an infaUible 
 inspiration. 
 
 Scrivener enumerates twenty possible causes of 
 variations in the manuscrij)ts, the last being, "doc- 
 trinal preconcejytions." But a fair example of the 
 harmlessness of the greater part of the variations 
 may be taken from the difference in the order of the 
 same words, before or after, as for example, hy name 
 Ananias, or Ananias by name. — Acts ix. 12. 
 
 The scribes writing fi-om dictation, not from the 
 copy before them, might account for many verbal 
 differences, especijilly in the case of several copj-ing, 
 from one's reading aloud. 
 
 Dr. Vaughan presents Paul's hahii of diclaling, as 
 " sufficient reason for broken constructions, for parti- 
 ciples without verbs, for suspended nominatives, for 
 sudden digressions, for fresh starts." 
 
 "The moi-e copious our stores of the New Testa- 
 
6o FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 ment manuscripts the less our perplexity and doubt 
 as to the purity of the sacred text. We can arrive at 
 almOHl miraculous certainty of its integrity." 
 
 "One great truth is at length admitted on all 
 hands, namely, the almost complete freedom of Holy 
 Scriptui'e from the susj)icion of xvUful corrUjjtion; the 
 absolute identity of the testimony of every known 
 cojDy in res2)ect to doctrine, spirit, and the main drift 
 of every argument and every narrative through the 
 entu'e volume of InsiDiration." 
 
 All these facts and reasonings apply with power to 
 the cases of supposed interpolations in Mark and 
 John. They show the extreme improbability, after 
 such " almost mu'aculous certainty," of the sacred 
 text, knowing the marvellous providential presei'va- 
 tion of such multitudes of manuscripts fi'om corrup- 
 tion, that such massive forgeries of whole narratives 
 should have found a settlement in two of the gospels, 
 in the middle of one, at the end of the other ! Were 
 it possible for revisers to exclude, by conjecture and 
 suspicion, these i^assages from the English Bible, it 
 would be a loss so great, and an unsettlement of cer- 
 tainties so disastrous, that all the benefit of minute 
 iiiipi'(jvements in the tc.r'n.-i irccplm, and its interpre- 
 tation, could hardly compensate the mischief. 
 
Faith, Doubt, ami Evidence. 6i 
 
 X. 
 
 COMPARISON OF FRANKLIN'S PRINTED EDITIONS 
 
 WITH JUS OWN autographic manuscript. 
 
 In the history of the luiimiscripls and i)riuted 
 editions of the Autobiography of Franldin there is 
 room for nearly all the controversies that have been 
 rife concerning the sacred books. The very author- 
 ship of the whole work might have been assailed, 
 on the ground that whereas the printed edition of 
 1817 began, "To William FrankUn, Governor of New 
 Jersey," the autograph begins, "Dear Son"; and the 
 French translation, ''Mon eher fds" The authorship 
 of the Apocalypse has been denied for less satisfac- 
 tory reasons than these, though the best of external 
 evidence suj^poiis it, and it can not be denied that 
 the book opens with the announcement of John as 
 its author. There is no such formal announcement 
 in tlie autograjih of Frankhn; but there is a covert 
 announcement in the uiterpolation at the commence- 
 ment, Avhere the printed edition reads, " To Wilham 
 Franklin, Governor of New Jersey, Dear Son," etc. 
 
 As a fair examjile of the nature and extent of the 
 changes in the text we take the first specuncn on 
 the first page. 
 
62 
 
 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 Feom the Edition of 1817. 
 
 Imagining it may be equally 
 agreeable to yon to \tarn the 
 circumstances of my life, many 
 of wliicli you are unacquainted 
 with, and expecting the enjoy- 
 ment of a fevo iceeks' uninter- 
 rupted leisure I sit down to 
 write them. Besides, there are 
 some other inducements that 
 excite me to this undertaking. 
 From the poverty and obscur- 
 ity in which I was born and 
 in which I passed my earliest 
 years, I have raised myself to 
 a state of affluence and some 
 degree of celebrity in the world. 
 As constant good fortune has ac- 
 companied me even to an ad- 
 vanced period of life, my pos- 
 terity will perhaps be desirous 
 of learning the means which I 
 employed, and which, thanks to 
 Providence, so weU succeeded 
 with me. They may also deem 
 them fit to be imitated, should 
 any of them find thefinselves in 
 similar circumstances. 
 
 Feom the Autograph, Page 1. 
 
 Imagining it may be equally 
 agreeable to j'ou to know the 
 circumstances of my life, many 
 of which you are yet unac- 
 quainted with, and exi^ecting 
 a week's uninterrapted leisure 
 in my present country retirement 
 I sit down to write them for 
 you. 
 
 To which I have besides some 
 other inducements. Having 
 emerged from the poverty and 
 obscuritj' in which I was bom 
 and bred to a state of affluence 
 and some degree of reputation 
 in the v.'orld, and having gone 
 so far through life with a con- 
 siderable share of felicity, the 
 conducing means I made use of, 
 which, with the blessing of God, 
 so well succeeded, my posterity 
 may like to know, as they may 
 find some of them suitable to 
 their own situation, and there- 
 fore fit to be imitated. 
 
 Now to this comi:)arisou we add, for the j)urpose 
 of showing more clearly the alterations which the 
 text had undergone, the same opening paragraph of 
 Franklin's life, as it is found in the London and 
 Glasgow editions of the Autobiography, i)rinted by 
 C. Whittingham at Chiswick in 182-4. 
 
Faithy Doubt, and Evidence. 6j 
 
 "My Dear Son: — I have amused myself with col- 
 lecting some little anecdotes of m}' famUy. You may 
 remember the inquu-ies I made, when you were 
 with me in England, among such of my relations 
 as were then living; and the joui-ney I undertook 
 for that purpose. To be acquainted with the i^ar- 
 ticulars of my parentage and life, many of which 
 are unknown to you, I flatter myself will afford the 
 same pleasure to you as to me. I shall relate them 
 upon paper: it M'ill be an agreeable employment of a 
 week's uninterrupted leisvu'e, which I promise myself 
 during my present retirement m the country. There 
 are also other motives which induce me to the under- 
 taking. From the bosom of poverty and obscurity 
 in which I drew my breath and spent my earhest 
 years, I have raised myself to a state of opidence, 
 and to some degree of celebrity in the world. A 
 constant good fortune has attended me through 
 eveiy period of life to my present advanced age; 
 and my descendants may be desirous of learning 
 what were the means of which I made use and 
 which, thanks to the assisting hand of Providence, 
 have proved so eminently successful. They may also, 
 should they ever be placed in a sunilar situation, 
 derive some advantage from my narrative." 
 
 Frankhn's death was in 1700. In 17'.)1 appeared 
 the French translation of his unfinished Memoirs. In 
 
6jf. Faith, Doicbt, and Evidence. 
 
 1793 that translation was retranslated from French to 
 EngHsh, and, as we have seen, was the only Enghsh 
 version in print until 1817. 
 
 A continuation of the Memoirs was written T)y Dr. 
 Stuber of Philadelphia, " one of the Doctor's inti- 
 mate friends," carr^-ing the biography, with great 
 interest, down to his death; and the whole con- 
 tinued to be published, with a valuable selection 
 from Franklin's Essays, in various editions in Eng- 
 land, even after the i^ubhcation of Frankhn's Life 
 and Works b}^ his grandson. 
 
 An extract from the closing pages (London and 
 Glasgow edition of 1824), and a comparison of it 
 "v\4th the original, are still more curious aud illustra- 
 tive than the same processes with the commencement. 
 
 Edition of 1824, moji the 
 
 Feench. 
 As a neighbor and okl ac- 
 quaintance, I bail kept np a 
 
 Froji the Autograph. 
 A friendly correspondence as 
 neighbors and old acquaint- 
 
 friendly intimac}'^ with the fam- [ ances had continued between 
 
 ily of Miss Read. Her parents 
 had retained an affection for 
 me, from the time of my lodg- 
 ing in their house. I was often 
 
 mo and Mrs. Eead's family, 
 who all had a regard for me 
 from the time of mj' finjt lodg- 
 ing in their house. I was often 
 
 invited thither; thej' consulted i invited there, and consulted in 
 mo about their affair.!, and 1 1 their affairs, wherein I some- 
 had been sometimes service- times was of service. I pitied 
 able to them. I was toaiched j poor Miss Road's unfortunato 
 with the unhappy situation of I situation, who was generally 
 their daughter, who was almost | dejected, seldom chcorful, and 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 (>5 
 
 ahvaj's melancholy, and con- 
 tinimlly seekin;^ c.olitude. I 
 regarded my forgetfulness and 
 incon:jtancy diiring my abode 
 in London, as tlie principal 
 part of her misfortune, though 
 her mother had the candor to 
 attribute the fault to herself 
 rather than to me, because, 
 after having prevented our 
 marriage ijreviously to my 
 departure, she had induced 
 her to maiTy another in my 
 absence. 
 
 Our mutual affection re- 
 vived; but there existed great 
 obstacles to our union. Her 
 marriage was considered, in- 
 deed, as not being valid, the 
 man having, it was said, a 
 fomier wife, still living in 
 England; but of this it was 
 difficult to obtain a proof at 
 so great distance; and sup- 
 posing it to be true, he had 
 left many debts, for the pay- 
 ment of which his successor 
 might be sued. We ventured, 
 nevertheless, in spite of all , 
 these difficulties, and I mar- 
 ried her on the 1st Septem- ' 
 ber, 1730. None of the in- , 
 conveniences we had feared i 
 happened to us. She proved ' 
 to me a good and faithful ', 
 companion, and contributed 
 essentially to the success of | 
 my shoi). We prospered to- ' 
 
 avoided company. I consid- 
 ered my giddiness and incon- 
 stancy when in London as in 
 a great degree the cause of 
 her unhappiness, though the 
 mother was good enough to 
 think the fault more her own 
 than mine, as she had pre- 
 vented our marrj'ing before I 
 went thither, and persuaded 
 the other match in my absence. 
 
 Our mutual afifection was 
 revived, but there were now 
 great objections to our union. 
 The match was indeed looked 
 \\\>OM as invalid, a preceding 
 wife being said to be living 
 in England; but this could 
 not easily be proved, because 
 of the distance; and though 
 there was a report of his 
 death, it was not certain. 
 Then, though it should be 
 true, he had left many debts, 
 which his successor might be 
 called upon to pay. We ven- 
 tured, however, over all these 
 difficulties, and I took her 
 to wife September 1st, 1730. 
 None of the inconveniences 
 happened that we had a^jpre- 
 hended. She proved a good 
 and faithful helpmate, as- 
 sisted me much by attending 
 the shop; we throve together, 
 
66 
 
 FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence, 
 
 gether, and it was our mu- 
 tual study to render each 
 other happy. Thus I correct- 
 ed, as well as I could, this 
 great error of my youth. 
 
 Our club was not at that 
 time established at a tavern. 
 "We held our meetings at the 
 house of Mr. Grace, who ap- 
 jDropriated a room for the pur- 
 pose. Some member observed 
 one day that as our books were 
 frequently quoted in the course 
 of our discussions, it would be 
 convenient to have them col- 
 lected in the room in which 
 we assembled, in order to be 
 consulted upon occasion; and 
 that, by thus forming a com- 
 mon library of our individual 
 collections, each would have 
 the advantage of using the 
 books of all the other mem- 
 bers, which would nearly be 
 the same as if he possessed 
 them all himself. The idea 
 was api^roved, and we accord- 
 ingly brought such books as 
 we thought wo could spare, 
 which were placed at the end of 
 the club-room. They amount- 
 ed not to eo many as we ex- 
 pected; and though we made 
 considerable use of them, yet 
 some inconveniences resulting 
 from want of caro, it was 
 agreed, after about a year, to 
 discontinue the collection; and 
 
 and have ever endeavored to 
 make each other happy. Thus 
 I con-ected that great erratum, 
 as well as I could. 
 
 About this time, our club 
 meeting, not at a tavern, but 
 in a little room of Mr. Grace's, 
 set apart for that purpose, a 
 IjroiDosition was made by me, 
 that since our books were oft- 
 en referred to in our disqui- 
 sitions upon the quexies, it 
 might be convenient to us to 
 have them altogether where 
 we met, that ujjon occasion 
 they might be consulted: and 
 by thus clubbing our books to 
 a common hbraiy, we should, 
 while Ave liked to keep them 
 together, have each of us the 
 advantage of using the books 
 of all the other members, 
 which would be nearly as 
 beneficial as if each owned 
 the whole. It was liked and 
 agreed to, and we filled one 
 end of the room with such 
 books as we could best spare. 
 The number was not so great 
 as we expected; and though 
 they had been of great use, 
 yet some inconveniences oc- 
 curring for want of due care 
 of them, the collection, after 
 about a year, was separated, 
 and each took his books homo 
 again. I drew up the iiroiio- 
 
Faiih, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 67 
 
 each took away such books as 
 belonged to him. 
 
 It was now that I first start- 
 ed the idea of establishing by 
 subscription a public library. 
 I drew Tip the proposals, had 
 them engrossed in form by 
 Brockdcn, the attorney, and 
 my project succeeded, as will 
 be seen in the sequel. 
 
 saLs, got them put into form 
 by our great scrivener, Brock- 
 dcn, and by the help of my 
 friends in the Junto, procured 
 fifty subscriber:^ of forty shill- 
 ings each to begin with, and 
 ten shillings a year for fifty 
 years, the term our company 
 was to continue. We after- 
 wards obtained a charter, tho 
 company being increased to 
 one hundred; this was tho 
 mother of all tho North Amer- 
 ican subscription libraries, now 
 80 numerous. 
 
 Here ends that portion of tlie Autobiography 
 which first appeared in the French language, trans- 
 lated from the EngHsh MS. and then translated back 
 from that French into EngHsh. The editor says 
 "the life of Dr. Franklin, as written by himself, so 
 far as it has yet been communicated to the world, 
 breaks off in this place. We understand that it was 
 continued by him somewhat farther, and we hope 
 that the remainder will, at some future period, be 
 communicated to the public." 
 
 On compai-ison of these extracts the reader can not 
 but remark two particulars; first the greater length 
 and wordiness of the French-l^^nglish memoir; second 
 the manner in which, nevertheless, a considerable de- 
 gree of the simphcity and naturalness of the origi- 
 
6S Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 rial narrative has been maintained. In tlie French 
 it must have been still more exactly a preservation of 
 Franklin's style. It is wonderful that any measure 
 of the original vivacity and ease could have held its 
 freshness, thi-ough such transmutations in languages 
 so diverse. 
 
 The three first laws of internal evidence out of the 
 seven canons described by Scrivener in the sixth 
 chapter of his "Introduction to the Criticism of the 
 New Testament," are illustrated in these extracts, es- 
 pecially the thii-d ride, from Griesbach: "Brevior 
 lectio prffiferenda est verbosiori." The shortest read- 
 ing is to be preferred to the more verbose. It is 
 more likely to be the true, the inspired original. 
 
 The first of these rules, " Proclivi Scriptioni prsestat 
 ardua"; the more difficult to be preferred to the 
 easier, as more likely to be genuine; is not so man- 
 ifest. In the case of Frankhn's MS. it fails, for here 
 the easiest is at once the briefest, and the genuine. 
 In fact, sometimes, the wordy commentator, attempt- 
 ing to make the original plainer, makes the explana- 
 tion more difficult. 
 
 Few thmgs in the history of literature are more 
 curious and interesting than this comparison of dif- 
 ferent copies of the writings of one of the most 
 celebrated men in the world. Few things are more 
 instructive than the variations of style, language, 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 6g 
 
 formation of sentences, shades of tliought and in- 
 ference, characteristics of oj^inion and emotion, even 
 in the space of two or three pages; and especially, 
 as may be seen on a comi:)arison of the last eight 
 pages of the Autobiograj)hy with the first, the differ- 
 ence of manner and words between Franklin's earliest 
 and latest st3'le of composition. Not so much in- 
 deed, as between Burke's Essay on the Sublime and 
 Beautiful, and his Reflections on the French Revo- 
 lution, or even between this last great work and his 
 Letters on a Regicide Peace; but enough to show 
 how widely diflerent the same author's style may 
 be, at different periods of his life, even in the prog- 
 ress of a few years, and with the same opinions; 
 and yet no just ground of argument whatever for 
 denying the same authorship unquestioned in either 
 case. Original genius, like murder, will out, and 
 will demonstrate itself. Tlie Autobiograph}- of Frank- 
 lin might have had a hundred different versions; but 
 this would have made no difference as to the con- 
 viction, the proof, of its being Frauldin's in every 
 part. The grandson might alter it, the translations 
 might disfigure it, but the seals of originality and 
 truth remain the same. 
 
 And thus this work of genius had such vital i^ower, 
 that its essence was difl'used as a present energizing 
 Bpiiit into every translation, so that the most sur- 
 
'JO Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 15rising variations from the original still i^reserved 
 its indisputable tiiith. The quaUties of Franklin's 
 style, like some exquisite natural odors, were retained 
 through every medium, nor could any transcription 
 conceal them, or prevent their fragrance. There was 
 a constraining spirit of delicacy and humor, an orig- 
 inality and sincerity of thought and feeling, an or- 
 ganic law of simphcity and purity, forbidding any 
 such departure from the original mould as would 
 interfere with the conviction of its identity. 
 
 Now the question recurs, if natural idiosyncrasy 
 and artlessness and charm of style j^ossess such in- 
 destructible life and freshness, as to insure the whole 
 world so aljsolutcly against a forgery, against the pos- 
 sibility of it, and against any loss of the original 
 creative genius, how much greater may be the as- 
 surance of the undiminished power of ti'ansmittcd 
 inspired j)roductions for the support of an immortal 
 life? And this is the Word, which by the gosjiel is 
 j)reached unto you, " but not in the words which 
 man's wisdom teacheth, but which the *Holy Ghost 
 teacheth." 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. yi 
 
 XI. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MOSES— CHRIST AND GENESIS- 
 INSPIRATION AND UNITY OF THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 The Autobiography of Moses, being contained in 
 the Pentateuch, the very beginning of all known 
 Hebrew and human literature, the beginning of all 
 the evidences of divine inspiration, it is not wonder- 
 ful that this commencement of God's Book for us, 
 and of our faith in it towards Him, should have had 
 fiery trials to pass through, before it could stand, 
 after four thousand years, as the acknowledged head- 
 spring of all human certainties of faith. 
 
 The attacks against it began with the assertion, 
 that the ai't of writing was unknown among the He- 
 brews of that early period. But one such position 
 after another had to be rehnquished, till Gcsenius 
 admitted that they knew how to write at least two 
 thousand years before the Christian era, and Do 
 "NVctte himself said at length that the art of Avritiug 
 among the Hebrews might properly be assinucd as 
 commencing with IMoses, the author and lawgiver 
 of the Hebrew State. But unless invented among 
 them bv and for them32lvcs, it must have been a 
 
y2 FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 part of their education in Egypt, where indeed they 
 could not have been ignorant of it. 
 
 Havernick, in his account of the progress and va- 
 riety of the attacks upon the Pentateuch (Introd. to 
 the P., pp. 441, 442) refers to the fact that Spinoza 
 regarded Deuteronomy as the book that was jinst 
 composed, and Ezra as the compiler of the whole col- 
 lection. According to De Wette, Genesis and Exodus 
 belonged to the period from Samuel to Jeroboam; Le- 
 viticus and Numbers to the Assyrian captivity; and 
 Deuteronomy to the Babylonian. Voluey maintained 
 that the whole was compiled by Hilkiah, Shaj)han 
 and Jeremiah in comjDany. 
 
 The manifest character of Grenesis, as the neces- 
 sary introduction to the whole of the Scriptures, and 
 the key, without which, the Pentateuch would be a 
 more confounding and impossible riddle than a moun- 
 tain of gold mines, with excavations and streets and 
 the tools and skeletons of the miners, discovered on 
 the shoulders of Mont Blanc, — is denied or ignored 
 by these critics, because, if admitted, it would prove 
 the supernatural unity and significance of the whole 
 Bible. For it contains the Principia, the facts that 
 are axioms and governing guides in the interpreta- 
 tion; the letters and figures of the combination recpii- 
 site for opening the Safe ; the seeds and laws of the 
 spiritual universe that follows; the roots of Proph- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. jj 
 
 ecy; the solution of the riddles of our human nature 
 and exiDerience; the demonstration and justification 
 of the Divine Attributes and government; the Crea- 
 tion, the Fall, the predicted Redemption, the first 
 family, the first sin, the first remorse, the first j^ar- 
 doning mercy, the first faith, preventing despair, the 
 first worshipping altar, the first disclosure of the 
 way of return to God by sacrifice, the typical insti- 
 tutes of instruction in the way of salvation, until the 
 seed of the woman should bruise the Serpent's head. 
 
 Genesis at the beginning accounts for all that fol- 
 lows. Genesis taken away, denied, or charged as 
 a forgery, as the Avork of liars a thousand years 
 later, successive and conspiring, keeping up a i^re- 
 conccrted j)hn of unity in hjing, such as is denied to 
 insjiiration for the truth, as being impossible; Gene- 
 sis undermined, the whole of revelation lies in ruins, 
 from Exodus to the Ajjocalypse. Christ builds His 
 own revelation and divine authority uj^on it, as God's 
 testimony, and quotes from it the divine foundation 
 of human society, God's inviolable marriage law. 
 
 And so in referring to Moses, " Had ye believed 
 Moses, 3'e Avould have believed me, for he wrote of 
 «u?. But if ye believe not Ixis icrilingtf, how shall ye 
 believe my words '? " His WEiTr>fGS. Not one book 
 or passage only, but the whole, as the Jews who 
 were listening to Christ, received them, the whole 
 
7^ FaitJi, Doicbt, and Evidence. 
 
 Pentateuch, of wliicli, if the first book was a forgery, 
 so must be the others, and the testknonies all false 
 concerning Christ, as well as the whole system of 
 Divine Revelation foreteUing Clmst, and founded 
 solely on Genesis o^ God's Worxl. 
 
 Well may the critics, "tugging to and fro," as 
 Samson between the pillai'S of the house of Dagon, 
 strive to overthi'ow Genesis from its place; for the 
 ruin of the whole Scriptures, Old and New, would 
 follow; and Christ as well as Matthew, John and 
 Paul, and all behevers and witnesses before and 
 since, are found ffilse witnesses for God, and with His 
 word have perished, and all preacliing is vain, and 
 faith imj^ossible. 
 
 But Genesis written by Moses, is the very Gospel 
 of Faith in God, and in His system of Mercy through 
 Christ, and the redemption and training of the guilty 
 soul by i>romises fulfilled in Christ. That book is 
 the only solvition of the Decalogue, and the Sabbath, 
 and of the Levitical books of history and of the di- 
 vine statutes, not one of wliich could have been re- 
 ceived or regarded, but by those who knew the di- 
 vineness of the preceding recitcils, and that they 
 themselves were held by them; containing v;ast, in- 
 disputable facts to which these statutes and the whole 
 history were continually making reference; the gene- 
 alogies and clironologies of miiiikind; the confusion 
 
Faith., Doubt, and Evidence. 75 
 
 of languages and dispersion of races; the immortal- 
 ity of man, the origin and consequences of sin against 
 God, the translation of Enoch; the flood upon the 
 world of the ungodly, the preaching and ark-build- 
 ing of Noah, and God's covenant through him for 
 perpetual generations with all mankind; and then 
 the calling of Abraham, and the covenant with him, 
 and the oft-repeated promises of its perpetuity. " In 
 thee and in thy seed shall all families of the earth be 
 blessed." 
 
 The human frame might as well be called Man, 
 without the head and brain, as the Scriptures a di- 
 vine revelation, without Genesis. Most justly does 
 Kurtz, quoted by Lange, remark (History of the Old 
 Covenant, i. j). 46), that "the Pentateuch is the liv- 
 ing foundation, and the necessary presumption of the 
 whole Old Testament history, not less than of the 
 entire Old Testament literature. Both of these, and 
 with them Christendom, as their fruit and comple- 
 tion, would resemble a tree without roots, if the com- 
 position of the Pentateuch were transferred to a later 
 period of Israelitish liistor}-." 
 
 And to any later period than that of Moses, or to 
 any other author, it can not be transferred, without 
 in the first place making Moses himself the primeval 
 forger, and every subsequent assumed or conjectured 
 Writer in his name a double forger, an inventor of 
 
'^6 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 lies, and of the name and inspiration of Moses to 
 account for them and give them currency. 
 
 Including Genesis, the Pentateuch is recognized as 
 Moses' work by all the historians and prophets of the 
 Old Testament; by the Apocryphal writers; by Philo, 
 Josephus, and all the New Testament writers; and 
 expressly and repeatedly by Christ Himself. If then 
 we may put any faith in united, constant, and invari- 
 able ancient testimony, the Pentateuch was written 
 BY HIM. — See Stuart on the Old Testament: Critical 
 History and Defence, p. 49. 
 
 But now come a series of disputes, to this day 
 not ended, among the most learned critics, equal- 
 ly learned on either side, maintaining almost as 
 many eras and authorships for tlie Books of this 
 same Hebrew literature, as there have been cen- 
 turies since Moses was gathered to his fathers. It 
 is asserted to have been "a nameless multiplicity 
 of compositions at three, four, or six different peri- 
 ods" of the Hebrew history; and yet admitted, each 
 time, by the Avhole Jewish nation, prophets, priests 
 and kings, as a genuine work of Moses. Each of 
 these critics is perfectly confident of being in the 
 rif^ht. And each of them claims the power of de- 
 termining with absolute certainty, the true eras of 
 a work admitted to have been the authoritative 
 classic of the Hebrew hmguige for thro 2 thousand 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. '^y 
 
 years; claims this power by virtue of a linguistic in- 
 fallibility of insight, in regard to the difierent qual- 
 ities of style, that must have been truly superhuman, 
 to be able to refer those varying qualities, with such 
 absolute certainty, to the times and cu'cumstances 
 under Avhicli they must have arisen. 
 
 "A^Tiy should I be called upon," exclaims Prof. 
 Stuart, "to believe in the discriminating powers of 
 an Ewald or a Lengerke, when these powers are 
 exercised as they have j)lainly been, in separating 
 WHAT God and Moses and the SA-saouR of the world 
 
 HAVE joined together ? " 
 
 The argument from asserted differences in style is 
 quite unreliable, and is seen to be insufficient even by 
 unlettered judges, when they find the destructive crit- 
 ics that advance it, themselves so easily taken in, as 
 they are known to have been, by the publication of 
 the stoiy of the Amber Witch, by Dr. Eeuihold of 
 Gei-many, professing to be a tale of olden time, and 
 received uni^Hcitly as such, by the same destructive 
 critics, on the ground of their unerring skill in de- 
 tecting unquestionable ancient characteristics. The 
 author of this memorable joke had to resort to the 
 testimony of his own neighbors, proved to have been 
 knowing of the author's undertaking, at the very time 
 of it, in order to maintain the authenticitj' of his 
 own style, against the credulous audacity of these 
 
yS Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 infallible critics, whom tlie ingenuity of his own gen- 
 ius had deceived. There are gaps in the argument 
 of the erudite critics against Moses through which 
 theii' opponents could drive a coach and six of criti- 
 cal, historical, and philological certainties. 
 
 The contradictions of these jirofovindly learned 
 judges and experts are a most instructive phenom- 
 enon in the history of literature. At one time they 
 say, with the confidence of a syllogism, The Hebrew 
 of the Pentateuch and of the later Hebrew books is 
 of the same stamp: but the style of ]Moses could 
 not possibl}^ have been so much like that of the 
 later wi'iters: ergo, the Pentateuch must have been 
 written after the caplidbj. 
 
 Again they insist uj)on a difference so great of styles 
 and words, archaisms and foreign mixtures, in the 
 Pentateuch itself, and between 3Ioses and later authors, 
 that it must have had many autJiorahips, eras, and in- 
 ventors, to constitute what Prof. Stuart justly called 
 such an OUapodrida as they make of it; such a Corpus 
 Auctorum Omnium, descriptively distinguished by each 
 author's peculiarities of style and diction. And they 
 insist upon almost every jDeriod from Joshua to the 
 Maccabees, as probable and proper for the various 
 production of its separate parts. 
 
 The. Aramaisms, found here and there in the He- 
 brow of the Old Testament, may liavj bajun with 
 
Faith, DoiLbt, and Evidence. yg 
 
 the very confusion of tongues, and been in use with 
 Abraham himself, and his relatives and descendants. 
 And certainly the Jegar-sahadutha of Laban in Gen. 
 xxxi. 47, noted in the margin of our translation as 
 Chaldaic, and side by side, the Galeed of Jacob, both 
 signifying the heap of ioUnessc.% show the coexistence 
 of the Aramaic dialect with the Hebrew at that pe- 
 riod. And there are similar indications all along the 
 history, down to the very time when Solomon him- 
 self was forming his own style, and from his acquaint- 
 ance and intercourse with other kingdoms, enrichino- 
 his vocabuhuy. The wonder is that the Aramaic 
 mixtures are so few, so Uttle tinging the surface, or 
 disturbing the deep tide of the Hebrew, generation 
 after generation, for a thousand years. 
 
 If the Canaanites, and other races, by whom the 
 Israehtes were seduced to mingle even with God's 
 worship so many idolatrous abominations, had made 
 the same ini-oads and conquests of corruption in the 
 language as they did in the morals and manners of 
 the people, they would have become such as Nehe- 
 miah found some of them that had married wives 
 of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab, with their children 
 speaking " half in the speech of Ashdod, and unable to 
 speak in the Jews' language, but according to the 
 language of each people "— Neh. xiii. 23, 24. As late 
 as the reign of Hezekiah it is seen (II Kings xviiL 
 
So Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 26) that only the higher class in Jerusalem could 
 understand the Assj'rian language, but the common 
 people could noi The officers of Hezekiah entreated 
 Rabshakeh to make his communications in the lan- 
 guage of his master, and not in Hebrew to the Jews. 
 But the great Ass;)T.'ian scofier and railer immediately 
 jDoured out his billingsgate upon the x^eople in the 
 Jews' lano-uaofe. 
 
 XII. 
 
 ERAS, PERMANENCE, AND SAMENESS OF THE HE- 
 BREW LANGUAGE— A SHECHINAH OF GOD'S PRES- 
 ENCE— URIM AND TIIUMMIM FOR THE SOUL. 
 
 Not till a much later period, not till the Canon of 
 divine inspiration was completed, and the whole ready 
 for translation, was there that rapid disuse of He- 
 brew and introduction of the Sp-iac, which ended in 
 the prevalence of the latter dialect, along with the 
 Greek; the Hebrew having become practically a dead 
 language at the time of Christ, though incorruptibly 
 preserved in the pages of the Old Testament. Those 
 j)ages contained the prophetic and historic inspix'ed 
 demonstrations to which Christ was to make his aj)- 
 peals, and God had kept the original language of 
 His own revelation! unchanged from age to age, 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Eindcncc. 8i 
 
 never permitting the written instrumentalities of His 
 grace, the conveyancers of His thouglits, to be de- 
 graded by adoption of the utterances of idolaters. 
 
 It was a gi'and religious, praA'erful hallcluia tongue, 
 worthy to have been given to Adam and Eve in Eden 
 for communion with God and the angels, as perhaps 
 it ?c"a.s' given; and in the art of writing, worthy of 
 God's own autograph in tables of stone. And God 
 kept the sacred, unsullied verbal purity of this rev- 
 elation for every age, by His inspu'ing Spu'it in the 
 mind, heart, and genius of His prophets from Moses 
 and David down to Isaiah, Habakkuk, and Malachi. 
 "My words, which I have put in thy mouth, and my 
 SpiraT that is ui^on thee, shall not depart out of thy 
 moiath, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of 
 the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from 
 henceforth and forever." — Is. lix. 21. 
 
 The river of their language was God's blessing for 
 the people of Palestine like the Nile for Egyj^t. It 
 was as the dew on Hermon, as the snows and cedars 
 of Lebanon, as the voice of many waters, as the 
 thunder of the whirlwind, as the still small voice en- 
 tering the contrite and adoring soul. The voices of 
 immortality, eternity, the outcries of guilt, hope, and 
 despair poured through it; the trials, miseries, spir- 
 itual anguish and faith of Job; the jorayers of Moses, 
 the man of God; the confessions, supplications and 
 
S2 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 praises of David, Solomon, Asaph, Jonab, Hezekiah, 
 Isaiali, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel; snch measureless 
 heights and depths of contrasted and vet divinely 
 taught spiritual exjoerience, through fifty generations 
 of men seeicing after God, and fiiulinj Ilim, their por- 
 tion, their redemption, their dwelling-jijlace, their life, 
 their refuge forever. "In God will I praise His 
 AYord; in Jehovah will I praise His Word." God 
 Himself was in it, His way in the sea. His path in the 
 great Avaters. It was the river, " the streams whereof 
 shall make glad the City of God, the holy place of 
 the tal)ernacles of the Most High." 
 
 Herder called this language " an abyss of verbs 
 and verbal derivatives, a sea of energetic expressions, 
 agitated and tossing with life and motion." It could 
 put earthquakes and lightnings into single words. 
 Nouns are used as adjectives; every noun looking to 
 the verb as its ancestor, and transmitting the original 
 strength to its derivations; still preserving through 
 aU changes the life and energy of the j^arent stock. 
 Conjunction, pronoun, and verb may form but one 
 word; object, subject, and predicate may be uttered 
 in one. The very tenses were interchangeably a con- 
 centration of past, present, and to come; an image of 
 the Incarnate "Word from the beginning; the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and forever. 
 
 It was a language of bold j^ersonifications and pow- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. Sj 
 
 erfiil metaphors, investing abstract ideas and inani- 
 mate objects with all the vivid attributes of existence. 
 The morning stars are wuh of the dawn; arrows are 
 sons of the bow, or of the quiver; the hills are girded ivilh 
 exultation; the deep ultercth its voice and hftdh up its 
 hands on high; the ark waJls upon, the face of the ivaiers; 
 the blood of Abel cries from the ground; death is the 
 king of terrors, and the shadow of death is on the eyelids; 
 the neck of the war-horse is clothed with thunder. The 
 voice of Jehovah hrcukelh the cedars of Lebanon; the 
 mountains skij) like sons of the unicorn. The i:)illars 
 of heaven itself tremble and are astonished at His re- 
 jjroof. Hell is naked before Him, and destruction 
 hath no covering. He haugeth the earth upon noth- 
 ing. His voice divideth the lightnings. It is God 
 everywhere, and Nature itself worshipping and obe- 
 dient, and vocal with praise. 
 
 The permanent, original, organic structui'e of the 
 language, its subhmity, its jiathos, its simi^licity, 
 strength, conciseness, its searching, penetrating in- 
 ti'oversions, its expressions as earthquakes, its figura- 
 tive power, its fitness at once for rural, peaceful, and 
 teri'ific imagery, the dew and the deluge, the soft 
 descending showers and the great raiu of God's 
 strength, its nervous compactness and at the same 
 time cajDacity of exuberant, gorgeous, fiery and se- 
 raphic eloquence, its proverbial and pai-abohc terse- 
 
84 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 ness and intense concentration of tliouglit and feeling, 
 its cqvial facility for the highest possible grandeur and 
 sweetest and most artless simpHcity whether of po- 
 etry or i:)rose, its lightning flashes, points and dia- 
 monds, its creative spii"ituality, its watchwords of eter- 
 nity and infinitude, all made it the hiding of God's 
 power, a Shechinah of God's presence, the means of 
 fulfilling God's predictions of the people that should 
 dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the na- 
 tions. From childhood it was as a Urim and Thum- 
 mim for the soul's discipline; and for the tribes a 
 divine magnetism, binding them in a mental girdle 
 of intensest hereditai'y nationahty and patriotism, 
 stronger than the rite of their physical lineage. 
 Much every way was the advantage, cliiefly, because 
 that unto them were committed the ok.\cles of God, 
 and the stewardship itself exalted and preserved the 
 nation, even though the nation broke the law; till 
 Christ came, the Light to lighten the Gentiles, and 
 the glory of His people Israel. 
 
 If the preservation of such purity of language, in 
 such combined ruggedness, wealth, and seclusivencss 
 of diction, is suiin-ising, it is not more so than tha 
 amazing unchangeable spiritual and literal correspon- 
 dencies and unities of such a mviltiplicity of Scripture 
 Manuscripts in the j^rogress of so wide a distribu- 
 tion through distant centuries and tongues; but in 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 8^ 
 
 all their testimonies maintaining such indestructible 
 unity as to the attributes and revealed truths of God, 
 and the great doctrines thus known to be essential 
 to the salvation of the sovil. If guardian angels had 
 been stationed at evei\y chapter, no greater unanimity 
 could have been secured, no greater protection from 
 injury. 
 
 Everywhere the Hebrew Word was, as described 
 by Peter, the Word of God, that liveth and abideth 
 forever, Emmanuel, God with us; as described by 
 Paul, the sword of the Spirit, discerning the thoughts 
 and intents of the heart; in its very character and 
 elements separate from sinners, yet laying hold ui)on 
 them with mercy and love; reproving sin, requu'ing 
 holiness, teaching faith, penitence, prayer, submission, 
 confidence in God's promises; the life of love, the 
 beauty of holiness, the exceeding sinfulness of sin; in 
 all things the prophetic incarnation of a Savioiu', and 
 a language for preparing, and afterwards demonstrat- 
 ing, the way of the Lord. 
 
 So was it a sacred speech, given and wi'ought out, 
 on purpose to be translated into all languages, and 
 endowed with a forecasting, foreshortening, forehold- 
 ing and despotic fitness for infusing its own meaning 
 and spirit into whatever dialect. A language that 
 was to wait, in its j^erfection by the Spirit of God, 
 till the Greek tongue should have been prepai-ed for 
 
86 FailJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 the conveyance of its saving truths to all nations. 
 Then came the Septuagiut translation, in that dia- 
 lect of the gospel-Plato; the oldest of all the ver- 
 sions whatever of the Old Testament; and for it, a 
 jjeople using that tongue as their vernacular, to re- 
 ceive and transmit its newly acquired treasui'es aU 
 over the world From David and Solomon back- 
 wards to !Moses, whose Pentateuch was certainly the 
 beginning, and in many respects the perfection of 
 the Hebrew language and literature, there is not a 
 solitary remnant of composition, the elements of 
 which are not on the whole perfectly similar, and 
 equally intelligible to the minds of all who could 
 read their native dialect. There are no intervals of 
 time, or causes sullicient to i^roduce or account for 
 any such changes in the language, or in its gram- 
 matical or verbal forms, as took place in the English 
 language, for example during the period between 
 the eras of AVicklili'e and Chaucer and that of Shak- 
 Bpeare, or between the era of Sir John MandevUle and 
 that of Addison, Goldsmith, Johnson, and Burke. 
 
 There are better arguments for aflirmiiig and l;e- 
 lieving that Burke could not liave been the autlior 
 of the "Letters on a Kegicidc Peace," and of the " Es- 
 say on the Sublime and Beautiful," than there are that 
 Solomon could not have been the auth(n* of pjcclesi- 
 astes, and also of Proverbs and the Canticles. The 
 
Faith, Donbty and Eiidcncc. Sj 
 
 Hebrew language is essentijilly the same in lUl the 
 books known to have been in possession of the He- 
 brews from the time of Moses to the times of David 
 and Sokimon; moi-e identiojU than the EngHsh lan- 
 guage as developed in the pages of Alfi'ed luid Chau- 
 cer, Shjxkspeare and Bacon. Now it hjts been af- 
 firmed that Lord Bacon wrote Sh;\kspeai"e's plavs, but 
 never that Shivkspejwe wrote Loi'd Bacon's " Essays,'* 
 or the " Abridgment of Leixrning." But conceive 
 the arivgiuice of a Fivnch or Itjvliau critic of English 
 literature, wlio should atlirm that because of the many 
 modern words and inticctious, as well as character- 
 istic qujilities of style, it is cleiu" that neither Shak- 
 speare nor Bacon could have written at an earlier 
 period than tliat of Thackeray or Charles Dickens! 
 The truth is that so great and renuuk.ably identical 
 ai'e the forms and qualities of the Hebi*ew tongue 
 and yet so varied the genius of the writei"s of it, that 
 remain to us, that for every criticism and line of 
 argument assigning one period for the authoi"sliip 
 of any one book, we cvnild bring an opposite hy- 
 l>othesis oi cijual pxxibability for another. Such dif- 
 ferent theories have in fact been projx^undcd and 
 ai'gucd as incontrovertible by the most learned 
 critics. 
 
 The tinostions as to w':\o wrote the book oi tbib, 
 and when was it written, luv still disputed, and 
 
SS FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 probably always will be. The array of scholars on 
 either side, from tlie period of Moses down to that 
 of Jeremiah and the captivity, both i:)roves the im- 
 possibility of deciding, and the acknowledged same- 
 ness of the Hebrew language, for more than fifteen 
 hundi-ed j^ears; so that the author of the book may 
 have been any inspired man of genius from the era of 
 the Patriarchs down to that of Malachi. In fact, while 
 a great number of critics contend that the book was 
 written before the time of Moses, many others, with 
 equal positiveness refer it to the time of Solomon, 
 and others to the Chaldee j^eriod, about the time of 
 Jeremiah. Others cut up the book and its con- 
 tents into different periods, and deny altogether the 
 genuineness of some of its most important and in- 
 structive chapters and characters. Thus it is mani- 
 fest that no reliance whatever can be placed yx^on 
 these critical opinions; but the historic reality and 
 truth of the books in question remain unimpeached. 
 
Faith, Doubt y and Evidence. 8g 
 
 XIII. 
 
 RESTLESSNESS OF SCEPTICAL SAGACITY— FRANKLIN 
 ON SCOURING THE ANCHOR— AN INFALLIBLE IN- 
 SPIRATION NECESSARY. 
 
 There seems no end to the restlessness and pride 
 of the sceptical sagacity of modern critics, and its 
 capacity' of supporting" the most frivolous conjectures 
 with an arra}' of arguments and erudition, till quan- 
 tity alone shall supply the place of proof. It is a 
 blessing that this passion for conjectural criticism, 
 and destructive experiments with acids, is applied to 
 so useful a purpose as that which it really and unin- 
 tentionally has accomplished, namely, the testing of 
 the metal and brightening the links of our BibHcal 
 Christian faith. The self-satisfaction and contentment 
 of the workmen in this undertaking remind us of one 
 of FrankUn's anecdotes, scattered with such cun'om 
 felicita-i and exquisite hearty humor through his 
 Memoirs. 
 
 The Indians had burned Gnadenhut, a village set- 
 tled by the Moravians, and Franklin had been ap- 
 pointed mihtary commander to take charge of the 
 north-western frontier of Pennsylvania, mth five hun 
 dred and sixty recruits under his command, whose 
 Cfreat work at first was to build a stockade fort 
 
go Faith, Doubt, and Evidetice. 
 
 against the Indians, mounted with one swi'vel gun, 
 which they fired as soon as fixed, to let the Indians 
 know that they had such pieces; and this business 
 was finished in a week, though it rained so hard 
 every other daj', that the men could not work. 
 
 " This gave me occasion," says Franklin, " to ob- 
 serve that when men are employed, they are best 
 contented; for on the days they worked they were 
 good-natured and cheerful, and, with the conscious- 
 ness of having done a good day's work, they spent 
 tlie evening joUil}'; but on our idle days they were 
 mutinous and quarrelsome, finding fault with their 
 pork, bread, etc., and in continual ih-humor; which 
 put me in mind of a sea captain, whose rule it was 
 to keep his men constantly at work; and when his 
 mate once told him they had done every thing, and 
 there was nothing further to employ them about, 
 ' Oh,' says he, 'make (hem scour the anchor.'" He might 
 have added, 'Tis the biggest thing they have to 
 handle; make them scour it bright. 
 
 The workmen of Satan are scouring the anchor 
 of our faith, and making it every day more mani- 
 fest, though they do not even believe in its existence, 
 nor in that invisible world of retribution according 
 to character, whei'e, within the veil, it is cast, nor 
 friend nor foe can move it. But the chain cable of 
 evidence, by which in this world we lay hold upon 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. gi 
 
 it, is visible tlirougli all the generations of mankind. 
 In our own day, what incredible multitudes of schol- 
 ars are at work upon it, seemingly, with equal con- 
 tentment and dehght; some to break its links, or 
 reduce it to nothing better than a rope of sand. B)it 
 in the end, all are working out the same result of 
 scouring and strengthening, brightening and con- 
 firming the Word of Truth Divine, by which the 
 world of souls is held to God our Saviour. Once 
 men sneered at the iron links, as being all rust; now 
 they are so busy, hammering and filing, that no more 
 rust can possibly gather or remain. 
 
 It is through a vast and complicated moral and 
 spiritual as well as critical filtration, that the gospels 
 and epistles have come down to us in their purity. 
 No documentary evidence in any literature is to be 
 compared for certainty and strength with that of the 
 foundations of the Christian faith. The resvilt of the 
 j)rofoundest scholarship, industry, and scientific skUl, 
 through the investigations of four thousand years, 
 by enemies and friends, has been only a scoiiring of 
 the anchor and strengthening of the hnks of our spir- 
 itual certainties; a purification of seed for the sower 
 and bread for the eater to all gcnerat'ons \ as been 
 accomplished, till between the upper and nether mill- 
 stones of our knowledge and our reasoning, our his- 
 tory and experience, nothing on earth is so perfectly 
 
g2 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 ascertained for the satisfaction of a candid mind ; 
 notliiug of pliilosopb}- or science arrayed beneath the 
 seals of such incontrovertible and irresistible security. 
 The question of an original gospel from which all 
 four di'ew their materials, and which all foui- rehed 
 upon, has been debated, as if it were some appi-oxi- 
 mation to a settlement of certainties. But what cer- 
 tainty is possible A\ithout that of a divine inspu-ation? 
 And that is not possible to decide but by internal, 
 evidence. "SMio ever beheld the invisible restraining 
 or impelling monitor in the mind of Matthew, Mark, 
 Luke, or John, withholding from falsehood, dii'ecting 
 to the selection of facts, guiding the judgment, re- 
 cording the processes of divine reasoning, thought, 
 feehng, purpose, in the mind of Christ, the processes 
 of wonder, astonishment, conviction, faith, repentance, 
 unbelief, or gratitude and love, in the hearts of mul- 
 titudes; the characters of priests and people unveiled, 
 photographed by themselves passing before the divine 
 camera; the succession of witnesses and records of 
 secret jn-ocesses known only to the Omniscient, and 
 incapable of being imagined; the exquisite touches 
 of light upon the dark places of souls koe])ing out 
 of it; such as in that record in Mark ix., "What was 
 it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? 
 And thoy Jn'hl Ih'ir peace, for by the way tliry had dis- 
 jnded asnotvj tlvmselccs icJio sliouhl be IJie gn\y:.'s!." 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence . gj 
 
 Moreover, the record of Chi-ist's conversations 
 and instructions, too precious to be held in tradi- 
 tion merely, too important in their verbal accuracy 
 to be recalled by unaided memoiy, too sacred to 
 be varied, except in words which the Holy Grhost 
 teacheth, and in which the variations would serve 
 to present and transmit the truth more exactly, in 
 aU its Ughts and possible meanings, as God should 
 j)lease; these, and a hundred other things, were re- 
 quisites of divine insjiiration by which alone could 
 any Gospel for the whole of mankind and for all 
 ages, infallible and all-sufficient, be prepared, or any 
 original set before the mind, from which copies could 
 be taken. And so, the claim of inspiration announced 
 in the 2d Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, is just 
 this, ""We have the mind of Christ, that your faith 
 should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the 
 power of God." The mind of Chi'ist for the repro- 
 duction of the truth of Christ, in whom alone is 
 life, and the life is the light of men. " For the things 
 of God knoweth no man, but the Spii'it of God, and 
 we have received, not the spirit of the world, but 
 the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the 
 things that are freely given to us of God, which things 
 also we si:)eak, not in the words which man's wdsdom 
 teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; com- 
 paring spiritual things with spiritual." 
 
g-f Faith, Doubt, and Ejidcii::. 
 
 If any thing is taught here, and to be received, 
 because of its infinite imiioilance, it is the ti'uth of 
 a verbal inspiration; such an inspiration being both 
 argued, as necessaiy to the perfect conveyance of 
 the mind of Chiist, and the full beHef, understand- 
 ing, and interpretation of the same; for which also 
 the same Holy Spirit is given, and is promised to 
 be always imparted in answer to prayer. Here is 
 absolute security for our faith, because the gift of 
 this Spirit is free to all, so that aU may become its 
 possessors and God's witnesses. So that we can not 
 be sufficiently grateful for these immutable mort- 
 gages, given us of God in Christ, on the certainty 
 of our heavenly inheritance, if only we beheve in 
 Him, and pray to God for mercy in His name. And 
 blessed be God, all that men need is thus to believe 
 and pray and act accordingly. 
 
 Now if the Scriptures were not to be relied upon for 
 absolute veracity in things concerning other men, and 
 in the historic settings of providence and events in 
 and through which the predictions concerning Christ 
 had their beginning and reality, how could they be 
 relied upon as notices concerning Him? Coiild the 
 veracity of the Mosaic account concerning Abraham, 
 or concerning Moses himuself be impeached, all their 
 rehabUity would fail as an indisputable reference 
 concerning the Saviour to come. If those Script- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. pj 
 
 ures could not be trusted as authority concerning 
 the creation of man originally in God's image, and 
 his loss of that image by sin, they certainly could 
 not concerning his new creation by gi'ace, and the 
 restoration of that image through the incarnation, 
 sufierings, and death of Christ. The testimony con- 
 cerning Chiist in the Scriptui'es extended over the 
 ■whole range of those Scriptures fi'om Genesis to Mal- 
 achi. Its infaUibiUty was grounded in the fact that 
 all those Scriptui-es were the Word of God. They 
 could not be the "Word of God merel}- in those jDas- 
 sages that Chi-ist selected for exposition, and the 
 word of man and faUible, in the whole coiu'se of 
 providential and historical narrative, any more than 
 the painting of the ti'ansfigui'ation could be rehed 
 upon as Raphael's, if you covdd not beUeve that 
 Raphael designed it, and gave the central figure its 
 relative position. If you accuse tlie writers of mis- 
 takes in other things, you ai'e bound to demonstrate 
 those mistakes, and when you have done this, then 
 it will be in order to weigh them against the testi- 
 mony of Chi'ist, that the books containing those mis- 
 takes and sending them down to postcrit}' as records 
 of truth were the Word of God. "When that demon- 
 stration is given to the world, then and not till then 
 can vou invalidate that testimouv. 
 
p<5 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 CATALOGUES AND QUALITIES OF AUTHORITIES — 
 TISCHENDORF'S DISCOVERY — METHODS OF DE- 
 STRUCTION—CERTAINTIES OF RESULTS. 
 
 Let us glauce now at tlie list of our indisputable 
 autliorities, and theii' remarkable agreement, througli 
 a period beginning with our first knowledge of the 
 creation (through faith understanding that the worlds 
 were framed by the AVord of God), and continuing 
 unabated to the jjresent hour. 
 
 It is the catalogue, undisputed, 1st, of Ancient 
 Manuscripts; 2d, of Ancient Versions, and 3d, Quo- 
 tations from the Scriptures in the books of ancient 
 writers. 
 
 The manuscripts of the New Testament greatly 
 preponderate, both in number and in age. Those of 
 the Old Testament have come down to us from orig- 
 inals wholly in the keej^iug of the Jews, but neither 
 in Hebrew nor Greek do we possess au}' known and 
 acknowledged autographs. 
 
 Three thousand Hebrew and Greek manuscripts in 
 the si:)ace of some four thousand years, are foiind con- 
 curring in their testimony, after the most intense and 
 lynx-eyed examinatioii, with such unanimity, that the 
 
Failh, Doubi, and Evidence. gy 
 
 truths first dimly revealed have been steadily grow- 
 ing in clearness, distinctness, and vastness of scope. 
 The jDrimal nebulne have been discovered as clusters 
 of distinct stars. The gravitation of all these worlds 
 is towards the same centre; the law of theii' unity 
 the same. AjJijaz-ent aberrations have been found 
 hai-monious with the whole. Not a single com- 
 ma, misplacement or vacuum or accident of copy- 
 ing, or intrusion of glosses, contradicts one of the 
 grand truths, or interrupts or renders indistinct or 
 doubtfid theu' congruity or the oneness of their 
 testimony. 
 
 Among these treasures there are only five Greek 
 manuscripts of a date so early as the fourth and 
 sixth centuries. From the fourth to the tenth cen- 
 turies we have one hundred and twenty-seven in uncial 
 characters; that is, written in Greek capital letters. 
 From the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, we have 
 fourteen hundred and fifty-six manuscripts in cursive 
 or running hand of small characters, with capital let- 
 ters only at the beginning of sentences or paragraphs. 
 Greek manuscripts are divided into two classes 
 the earliest being named vncia}, or written with cai:>i- 
 tal letters, unconnected with cacji other, and with 
 no spaces between the words; the latest, cursive, or 
 in running hand letters, with complete punctuation, 
 much as in printed books. The Greek manuscripts 
 
gS Faith, Doubl, and Evidence. 
 
 of the New Testament from the foiu'th century to 
 the tenth were in uncial letters, but from the ninth 
 or tenth century to the invention of printing the 
 cursive letters were employed. 
 
 The term uncial seems to have been derived fi-oro 
 the word uncia, an inch, denoting the size of the 
 letters. After the tenth centxiry many manuscripts 
 bear dates; the earliest dated being a. r>. 949. 
 
 Twelve hiuidred and seventy-seven separate Greek 
 manuscripts of the New Testament are cai-efuUy de- 
 scribed by Scrivener, with an index of the countries 
 and places where they are now deposited. 
 
 Our fii-st word for paper comes from the Nile and 
 the cradle of Moses, Ttdnv/jo?, — Latin, papyrus, — being 
 the name of the Egj-ptian rush or flag, of the liher of 
 which, or the imier fibrous bai-k, came the most com- 
 mon material on which books were written by the 
 Greeks and Romans; whence came the Latin name 
 for a book. Parchment was a much later invention 
 by the King of Pergamus, and was a term apphed 
 to the integuments of sheep or goats, mtvnufitctured 
 into a writing material Brande says that as eaiiy 
 as the beginning of the eighUi centm-y the use of 
 papyrus for writing was almost entu-ely superseded 
 tuty. parclmient, which was in famihar use when the 
 curring in then*'\t was written. No existing MS. of 
 lynx-eyed examinatio". is written on papyrus. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. gg 
 
 The earliest example on vellum it is supposed can 
 not date higher than the middle of the fourth century. 
 
 Towards the end of that century a practice be- 
 came prevalent of dying the vellvim purj)le, and 
 stamping the letters in silver and gold. This in- 
 creased the preciousness and beauty of the volumes, 
 and made a library the greatest of treasures. 
 
 But vellum became so scarce and dear that at an 
 early period of the Christian era the jiractice arose 
 of erasing the old •first writing from the skins em- 
 ployed more anciently, to make room for writing 
 new manuscripts, in the place of the old. Several 
 of the most precious monuments of sacred learning 
 are thus preserved termed codices rescripti or palimp- 
 sesis {7ttx\ijuip>/6ra) erased, and written again. 
 
 The Codex Sinaiticus (fourth century), discovered 
 by Tischendorf, is made of the finest skins of ante- 
 lojDes, the leaves being so large that a smgle animal 
 would furnish only two. 
 
 The Codex Vaticanus, contemporary-, of a beauti- 
 ful vellum, a term sti'ictly applied to the delicate 
 skins of very young cxlves. 
 
 The Codex Alexandrinus (fifth century) equally 
 beaittiful. 
 
 Previous to the tenth centm-y existin ;• manuscripts 
 of the New Testament could be found only by tens; 
 afterwards bv hundreds. The latest dscovered is 
 
100 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 tlie Sinaitic manuserJi^t so providentially found and 
 rescued from destruction by Tiscliendorf at the Con- 
 veiat of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. The monks of 
 that Convent had been accustomed to resort to their 
 library for fuel of light-wood to kindle the fires in 
 their stove. How much precious material may have 
 been destroyed in that way, who can tell ? In a bas- 
 ketful of i^ajDers about to be used for that purpose, 
 lor the comfort of their visitor, Tiscliendorf noticed 
 ft number of vellum leaves, and jjicking- them out for 
 examination, found that they contained portions of 
 the Septuagint Yersion of the Old Testament, forty- 
 three leaves of which he secured. The volume to 
 which they belonged he found was probably as an- 
 cient as the fourth century. But so soon as the 
 monks learned from him this fact, it not only acted 
 as an insurance of the rest of their treasures from 
 destruction by the flames, but they refused to let 
 him have any other of the leaves thus rescued. 
 
 In 1853, he was there again, but could learn noth- 
 ing more about the manuscripts, and abandoned all 
 hope of recovering them till in the year 1859, in the 
 month of February being again at the monastery 
 under authorit}' from the emperor of Russia, a man- 
 uscript was shown to him by the steward, which he 
 immediately found to be that inestimable complete 
 copy of the New Testament afterwai'ds copied by 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. loi 
 
 him, containing three hundred and forty -five and 
 a half leaves of beautiful vellum, one hundred and 
 ninetv-nine leaves containing jiortions of the Sej^tua- 
 gint, and one hundred and forty-seven and a half the 
 whole New Testament, along with the Epistle of Bar- 
 nabas, and part of the Shej^herd of Hermas. The 
 date was supposed to have been the middle of the 
 fourth century. Meanwhile, the original document 
 was presented by the monks to the emperor of Rus- 
 sia. In the year 1882, an edition of three hundred 
 copies was published by the emperor, the czar, in 
 commemoration of the thousandth anniversary of the 
 emphe. This Sinaitic manuscript is suj^jDosed to 
 be one of the fifty copies of Scripture prepared by 
 Eusebius, a. d. 331, by order of Constantine, for the 
 use of the churches and people in Constantinople. 
 
 How vast and dej^lorable must have been the de- 
 struction of these inestimable treasru-es, during the 
 dark ages of Eomish ignorance and superstition, we 
 are enabled to guess from what is related by Boccacio 
 of his own experience about the year 1350. For he 
 says that on asking to see the hbrary of the cele- 
 brated Monastery of Monte Casino, he was shmvn 
 into a dusty, doorless room, where he found many 
 of the valuable MSS. mutilated, and his guide told 
 him, that the monks were in the habit of tearing' 
 leaves from the codices, to turn them into psalters 
 
102 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 for chiklren, or amulets for -women, which they would 
 seU for four or five soldi apiece. 
 
 Besides this method of destruction there was that 
 of the use of veUum or parchment leaves once written 
 ujDon to be covered by new works. Old manuscrijjts 
 thus usurj)ed the j)lace of new, and were called, as 
 above, palimpsests, — leaves written over again. The 
 treatise of Cicero De Rej)ublica was found in the 
 Vatican Liln-ary at Rome as late as 1825, in a manu- 
 scrij^t which had been covered with the writing of a 
 Commentary of St. Augustine on the Psalms. Some 
 fifty years earlier a palimpsest book of Livy was dis- 
 covered in the same way. 
 
 Buchanan (Clnistian Researches, p. 312) says that 
 when he questioned the Jews concerning the old 
 coj)ies of the Scriptures, which had been read in the 
 synagogues from age to age, some told him it was 
 usual to hurxj them, ivlien decayed by lime and use. Oth- 
 ers said that this was not always the case. 
 
 The scarcity of books before the art of j^rinting 
 was so great-, that a single volume was a j^recious 
 treasure. A thousand manuscripts made an exceed- 
 ingl}' large library. A monastery was celebrated that 
 possessed so great a number. Books were chained 
 to the shelves and reading desks in libraries, to be 
 read for an hour or two by readers having this privi- 
 lege in tuiui. A copy of the Bible was at one time 
 
Faith, Dottbty and Evidence. loj 
 
 cliaiued in the cliurches for the use of such persons 
 as could read, and these read it to such as coidd not. 
 
 At Cambridge are deposited two manuscripts of 
 the Peshito Syriac, brought by Buchanan in 1806 
 from the Malabar coast. One of them was thought 
 by some to have been "vsaitten about the seventh 
 centui-y; but Mr. Bensly discovered in it a figure 
 of Joshua in armor, of the time of the crusades, 
 and reduced its date to the eleventh or twelfth. — 
 Scrivener's Int., 280. 
 
 In Buchanan's Christian Researches, 310-315, there 
 is a dcopty interesting account of the Black and White 
 Jews, and their Manuscripts, which Buchanan found, 
 as also printed Hebrew books, almost in eveiy house. 
 The description of his discoveries in Hebrew is as 
 remarkable as Tischendorf's in the New Testament. 
 One of the MSS. procui-ed in Malabar was an old copy 
 of the Books of Moses, written on a roll of soft flexible 
 leather composed of thirty-seven skins sewed togeth- 
 er, dyed red, the whole about forty -eight feet in 
 length, twenty-two inches wide, in some parts worn 
 oiit, and the holes sewed up with pieces of parchment. 
 It had been used in the worship of the Synagogue. 
 This Manuscript was examined in England and com- 
 pared, word for word, letter for letter, with the He- 
 brew edition of Van der Hooght. Only forty petty 
 differences were found, not one making the slightest 
 
104- Faith, Doubi, and Evidence. 
 
 cliauge in the interpretation, being only the presence 
 or absence of an i or v without changing the power of 
 a word. — See Gaussen on Variations. 
 
 Internal evidence sometimes overpowers the strong- 
 est external testimony. The means of detecting a 
 mistake in the date, or a conclusion in regard to it, 
 may be found in the very flourishes of the writing, the 
 ornaments that adorn the page, the texture of the 
 material. How many are the instances of discovered 
 forgeries in wills, by water marks chscerned in the 
 j)aper employed. 
 
 But when we get at the conscience and heart of a 
 manuscript in its thoughts, its meaning, the demon- 
 strations against all lying may be Hke the appeal of 
 Solomon by the sword, to the affections of the real 
 mother, bringing out as in symiDathetic ink before the 
 fire, the inward, invisible, inimitable handwriting of 
 the soul, the true authorship and ownership, the foi-g- 
 ery of Avhich by selfishness, stands convicted in the 
 presence of maternal love. Thus the weight of inter- 
 nal evidence may be sufficient to overbalance that of a 
 hundred manuscripts, confessedly of later origin than 
 the era of the life of the Autogi-aphists, or the ex- 
 istence of any known original copy of the book. 
 Produce your Autograi^hy. Until then the internal 
 evidence is iii a measure supreme. Until then, the 
 evidence of a well authenticated vcr.-iion, such as the 
 
Faith, Djiibt, and Evidence. lo^ 
 
 Pc.iliito, must take precedence in some respects, of 
 the manuscrij)ts of any later date. 
 
 Of the determining ancient authorities nearest to 
 the apostles, Irenoeus and the Peshito Syriac Version 
 stand at the head. These two ways meet in the 
 village -where the colt shall be found for the Lord's 
 triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. So might Light- 
 foot and Fuller jiut the case of our textual witnesses. 
 In all things in which these two agree we shall find a 
 substantial agreement arrived at also by the vast ma- 
 jority and harmony of the witnesses through eighteen 
 centuries. The texts or verbal expressions in which 
 there is any material disagi-eement will be found so 
 few and ununportant that the unity and simplicity 
 of the evidence of more than fifteen hundred manur 
 scripts, become, when put beside the variations in all 
 other remains of ancient literature, wherein accuracy 
 of the text is sought for, a marvel of certainty, a life- 
 boat of truth above a thousand storms and billows. 
 
 The Peshito Version is supposed to have been made 
 in the latter half of the second century. " The jjer- 
 son who made it," says Prof. Stuart, " must have been 
 skilled in the Greek of that day, and therefore in the 
 Greek which is substantially the basis of the New 
 Testament diction, which was then spoken in Pal- 
 estine and Western Asia in general. In such a case 
 we have in the Pesliito a witness for the ancient 
 
io6 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 text, and a help to tlie sense, in one and the same 
 version. 
 
 " Of all the monuments of antiquity now extant, or 
 at least of all yet discovered, I regard the version 
 of the Peshito as the most important in respect to 
 the establishment or verification of the true Greek 
 text. It precedes in age, hy several centuries, any 
 Greek MS. that we now have; it was confessedly 
 made with great skill and ability. ... It has 
 been exempt from all the criticisms and tamj^er- 
 ings of the Alexandrine or any other Western school 
 of criticism. . . It has come down to us from the 
 jDrimitive ages in a channel entirely different from 
 that in which the common Greek text has descended. 
 
 . . It appears from the comj^arison of MSS. so 
 far as this has gone, to have suffered less than is 
 common from the variations made by scribes; and it 
 is therefore a witness above all exception; as to its 
 general testimony for the fidelity and accuracy with 
 which the Greek text has in the main been preserved. 
 No monumeiit of antiquity j)0ssesses therefore more 
 to excite critical interest, or even exegetical, than 
 this. The student who is familiar with it can not 
 well entertain a doubt of the early canonicity of the 
 New Testament books in general, and of the imj)ort- 
 ance which the Christian churches in the primitive 
 a<?es attached to them." 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. loy 
 
 " The Peshito," says Scrivener " has well been 
 called the Queen of Versions of Holy Writ, for it is 
 at once the oldest and one of the most excellent of 
 those whereb}' God's Providence has blessed and 
 edified the Church." "Michaelis declared that he 
 could consult no translation AAT.th so nmcli confi- 
 dence in cases of difficulty and doubt." — Scrivener's 
 Int., p. 280. 
 
 XY. 
 
 ANTECEDENT PROBABILITIES— BENGEL AND GAUSSEN 
 ON THE PLENARY INFALLIBLE INSPIRATION— VAST- 
 NESS OF INVESTIGATIONS AND RESULTS. 
 
 In judging what ought to be the characteristics 
 of a di^•ine revelation, we find ourselves coinciding 
 with what the wi-iters themselves affirm. They ax5- 
 peal to the impossibility of God, the Father of our 
 spirits, and the giver of His Son to die for us, ever 
 teaching error, when the welfare of the soul is His 
 object. As God is true, and hath given His own 
 Spu'it to make known the truth that is in Him, such 
 is our witness; if not, believe us not. 
 
 "If I speak not the worcU of my Father," Christ 
 says, "believe me not. If I do not tlie worls of my 
 Father, beheve me not. He that sent me is true, 
 
io8 Faith, Doubt, a?id Evidence. 
 
 aud I speak to the world those things which I have 
 heard of Him. As the Father hath taught me I 
 speak these things. The word which ye hear is 
 not mine, but the Father's which sent me. And the 
 Holy Ghost, whom the Father wiU send in my name, 
 He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to 
 your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. 
 And if men have kej)t my saying they will keep 
 yours also." 
 
 " I have given unto them the words which thou 
 gavest me. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy 
 Word is truth." 
 
 It is under such divine assurances as these, that 
 the most faithful students of God's Word have pui'- 
 sued their investigations; and the result is divinely 
 satisfying. The seals of God's truth secure both a 
 plenary and verb:il inspiration, in all things neces- 
 sary for the salvation of the soul. 
 
 Well might the pious and conscientious Bengel, 
 whom God employed a hundred and sixty yeai^s 
 since, under the pressure of deep doubt aud anx- 
 iety of soul, exclaim, after long and minute research 
 upon this vital question of the integrity of the origi- 
 nal text, "Be no more affrightefl. God is not the 
 God of the dead, but of the living, and by every 
 word that procosdcth oat of the mouth of God shall 
 man live. Eiit simply tho broad of the Scripture.?, 
 
Fa i til. Doubt, and Evidence. log 
 
 such as you find it; and be not disturbed, if per- 
 chance you find here and there a Httle fragment of 
 the niLllstonc which has fallen into it." 
 
 How can we jn-esent the argument in a manner 
 strong enough for its reality ? Of all modern wi-iters 
 on the subject, Dr. Gaussen, in his admu'able and 
 unanswerable volume on the divine inspiration of 
 the Scriptures, has set it forth with most satisfactory 
 clearness, though since he wrote, a great many pro- 
 foundly learned scholars, Tischendorf with his newly 
 discovered Sinaitic manuscript among them, have 
 added strength and confidence to his reasoning. 
 
 Nature is a divine prophet, first the blade, then 
 the ear, then the fuU corn in the ear. The bud pre- 
 dicts and promises the blossom; the blossom promises 
 the fruit; each fulfilment is but the ground of faith 
 for the next; and aU are demands for patient trust 
 that God will fulfil His own writings, with equal ac- 
 curacy in nature and in grace. Inspiration and 
 connected providence are one and the same divine 
 kingdom; creation, with natural law and providence 
 another; both by the same omnipresent, omnipotent, 
 only-wise, God. The infaUibihty and security of di- 
 vine testimony for us and for all ages, is a miracle 
 of divine providence and grace. 
 
 The oracles of God have been committed for i>res- 
 ervation first to tho Jewish, sDcond to the Christian 
 
no Faith, Doubts and Evidence. 
 
 Church; dividing the whole world of knowledge and 
 history into detachments of i')olice, each keeping 
 watch upon the other, with so many lynx-eyed and 
 jealous inquisitors and hierarchs of sectarian ani- 
 mosities, undertaking to govern the world by in- 
 terpretations resting ultimately upon differences in 
 nianuscrij)ts, that nothing can possibly be conceiyed 
 more sure than the result arrived at, when it is found 
 on the one hand that all the variations of so '\nan\i 
 manmcript.-^ as have been searched out and collated 
 from Sinai to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem to 
 Rome, and in Europe, Asia, and Africa, do not in- 
 vade the essential integrity of am/ one; that none of 
 the varialions in any one either introduce or elimi- 
 nate a single text or j)hrase that disfigures or casts 
 doubt upon the verities established bi/ consent of all; 
 that a keen and conscientious vigilance quite super- 
 natural has been working witli transcribers and mar- 
 ginal annotators ; that copies have been securely 
 traced to theu* p^i'otolypcs, and families of copies and 
 translations to their originals; tiU the preservation of 
 human language itself among all races is not a surer 
 attribute of humanity, than the unity and identity 
 of divine truth, together with its capacity of being 
 rendered with j)ractical exactness in all dialects, is 
 both an attribute and proof of a divine revelation 
 for the immortal soul. 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. iir 
 
 Is not this inexiiressibly beautiful and precious? 
 Does it not meet and justify the thankful, uudoubt- 
 ing confidence, adoration, and love of every believing 
 heart, and every lover of mankind, for such unexam- 
 pled and inimitable seals of all divine truth, essential 
 to the instruction and salvation of the soul? 
 
 This is what the most perfect a priori reasoning 
 would require us to demand and expect as a char- 
 acteristic of divine revelation for all ages and races 
 of mankind. In proportion as we need, in conse- 
 quence of our sinfulness, infallible dii-ections from 
 God as to the method of redemption, recovery from 
 sin, forgiveness and acceptance with God, in that 
 proportion we are entitled to an unUmited assurance 
 that all the words of Go'd to us are true, and j^er- 
 mitted forgeries impossible. The oracles of God shall 
 certainly be with such faithfulness transmitted to us 
 who need thom, that the promise of salvation by them 
 shall be as sure for us, as for past ages, that may in- 
 deed have stood nearer to God in time than we do, 
 but could never have had firmer ground of trust in 
 His mercy and His faithfulness to all generations, 
 than ourselves and all the families of sinners for 
 whom Christ has died. Always, unto us was the 
 gospel preached, as well as unto them, and if the 
 word preached did not profit some, it was not for 
 want of such convincing evidence a3 every rational 
 
112 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 soul was permitted to demanrl, but because of not 
 being mixed with faitli in them that heard it. 
 
 This then is the absolutely safe result which must 
 have been expected from a God faithful to His own 
 covenant of redemption. And truly does Dr. Gausseu 
 affirm, that although " aU the hbraries containing an- 
 cient copies of the sacred books have been called to 
 testify; although the elucidations given by the Fa- 
 thers of aU ages have been studied; although the 
 Arabic, Sp-iac, Latin, Armenian and Ethiopic Ver- 
 sions have been collated; although aU the manu- 
 scripts of all countries and ages fi'om the thu'd to 
 the sixteenth century have been collected and exam- 
 ined a thousand times by innumerable critics, who 
 sought as the recompense and glory of their fa- 
 tiguing vigils, some new text; although the learned 
 men, not satisfied with the libraries of the West, 
 have visited those of Russia, and carried their re- 
 searches even to the convents of Mount Athos, of 
 Asiatic Turkey and of Egypt, for new copies of the 
 sacred text, they have discovered not even a solitary 
 reading which could cast doubt upon any j^assage 
 before considered certain. All the variations leave 
 untouched the essential thoughts of cacli phrase, and 
 affect only points of secondary imjjortance." — See 
 Dr. Gauss3n's Theopneustj, page 90, on the Objec- 
 tions from Variations. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. iij 
 
 The result of these labors upon the Word of God, 
 uudertaken iu many cases by enemies, and designed 
 to overtlu-ow the Christian faith, is "immem^e by Uh 
 nolhinfjne>>H and ahniglilij in Us imjwtence." The varia- 
 tions of the manuscri^jts ai'e of such a nature as to 
 be perpetual assui-ances against fraud and falsehood. 
 Take them at the largest computation of words, syl- 
 lables, jjoints, commas, 120,000, and they do not leave 
 in any right reason the slightest shadow of uncer- 
 tainty as to the truths of which they are the convey- 
 ancers fi'om God; but they reveal a Giver of truth 
 with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turn- 
 ing. They make us thinlc of the divine assurance to 
 Jeremiah, " If ye can break my covenant of the day 
 and of the night, that there should be no more day 
 and night iu their season, then may the covenant of 
 my word be broken, if I have not appointed the or- 
 dinances of heaven and earth." 
 
 This exactness we justly affirm to be of the nature 
 of a mii-acle; as really a mii-acle in the course of the 
 moral world under God's providence, as the exactness 
 of the rising and setting sun without variation of a 
 second of time from the beginning of the creation. 
 
 In literal truth we may say, "Forever, O Lord, 
 thy Word is settled in heaven. Thou hast maguilied 
 thy Word, djove all thy name." 
 
 Take the variations in the gross at thirty thousand, 
 
11^ FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 ascertained by the prodigious labors of learned men 
 for three hundred years upon three thousand manu- 
 scripts, demonstrating the astonishing preservation 
 of the text in its purity, though copied so many 
 thousand times; in Hebrew during thirty-three cen- 
 turies, in Greek during eighteen centuries ; — could 
 any thing be more satisfactory ? The manuscripts of 
 six comedies of Terence, the only copies of his woi'ks 
 preserved to us, but copied a thousand times less 
 frequently than those of the New Testament, con- 
 tain thirty thousand variations. They are of no more 
 weight or importance as diminishing the integrity 
 of the text in either case, than the twelve hundi-ed 
 variations disclosed in the one volume of Franklin's 
 Memoirs, which really are of no importance at all, 
 except as showing the presumption and intrusive- 
 ness of the editor. It is therefore refreshing, after 
 the persistent efforts of unbelieving critics to weaken 
 our confidence in the accuracy of our copies of the 
 sacred text, to return and listen to the sound of 
 Beutley's stupendous sledge-hammer, demolishing at 
 a blow the best constructed of their arguments. 
 
 For this great critic declaimed, in his " Remarks on 
 Free Thinking," "that the real text of the sacred 
 wi'iters does not now, since the originals have been 
 so long lost, lie in any single manuscript or edition, 
 but is dispersed in thcni all. It is competently exact 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. ii^ 
 
 indeed, even in. the worst manuscript now extant; 
 nor is one article of faith or moral precept either 
 perverted or lost in them." 
 
 XVI. 
 
 FRANKLIN'S ILLUSTRATION OF THE INFALLIBILITY 
 OF CRITICS — LETTER AND SPIRIT INSEPARABLE. 
 
 The professed connoisseurs whether in antiquities 
 of art or literature are liable to self-delusions and 
 impostures by their own manufactured lenses of vi- 
 sion and opinion. The mistakes they sometimes com- 
 mit are curiously illustrated ui one of Franklin's let- 
 ters to Baskerville, the celebrated type-founder and 
 printer, whose printing-office was destroyed by the 
 Bu-mingham mob in 1791. Franklia was discours- 
 ing concerning the artists of Bu-mingham, with a 
 gentleman who said that Baskerville would be a 
 means of blinding the eyes of readers, for the 
 strokes of his letters were so thin and narrow as 
 to hurt the eyes, so that he could never read a 
 line of them without pain. "I thought," said Frank- 
 lin, " you were going to complain of the gloss of the 
 paper, which some object to." "No, no," said he, 
 "I have heard that mentioned, but it is not that; it 
 is in the form and cut of the letters themselves; 
 
1 16 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 they have not the height and thickness of stroke, 
 which make the common printing so much more 
 comfortable to the eye." 
 
 "You see," says Franklin, recording this conver- 
 sation to his friend Baskerville, "this gentleman was 
 a connoisseur. In vain I endeavored to support your 
 character against the charge; he knew what he felt, 
 and could see the reason of it, and several other 
 gentlemen among his friends had made the same 
 observations," etc. 
 
 Frankhn being mischievously bent to try the judg- 
 ment of the critic, stepped into his closet, and pro- 
 duced to him a specimen of the printing (as Basker- 
 ville's) brought from Birmingham, which Franklin 
 himself had been examining, and could not for the 
 life of him perceive the disproportion of which he 
 complained, and which Franklin begged he would 
 point out to him. "He readily undertook this," 
 says Franklin, "and Avent over the several founts, 
 showing me ever^^where wliat he thought instances 
 of that disproportion; and declared that he coidd 
 not even then read that specimen, without feeling 
 very dronghj the pain he had mentioned. I spared 
 him' the coiifusion of being told that these xoere the 
 types he had beCfi reading all his life loith so much ease 
 to his eyes; the t^pes his adored Newton was printed 
 with, on which he lias pored not a little; nay, the 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. iij 
 
 very types liis own book is printed with, for he is 
 himself an author, and yet never discovered this 
 painful disproportion in them, till he thought tJiey 
 were yours." 
 
 This anecdote makes one of the most refreshing 
 and instructive and we may add comforting pages 
 in the annals of literatui*e. It is one of the most 
 interesting instances ever known of the possibility 
 of entire self-deception and mistake, through the 
 color-bhndness induced by previous opinion, in a 
 matter capable of absolute demonstration to the 
 senses. 
 
 There is the same room for prejudice and self-de- 
 lusion in the examination of manuscripts, language, 
 and style, as of types, spaces, hah'-proportions ; the 
 same possibility of color-blindness, and incapabil- 
 ity of a just comparison and weighing of evidence, 
 especially Avhere moral conclusions and preconceived 
 opinions are at stake. Even in the consideration of 
 the clearest and most irresistible internal evidence 
 possible to be imagined, the weight of it may be set 
 obstinately aside, and the conclusion made to rest 
 upon a mere majority of manuscripts. But it may 
 be said with truth that one witness, loith the moral in 
 ila favor, outweighs a hundred without it. One moral 
 Xjrohahilli.y even, may be of greater convincing author- 
 ity an:l satisii'^tion than ten oppositions of critical 
 
iiS Faith, Doubt, and Ei'idcnce. 
 
 skill. The keenest experts are sometimes the victims 
 of their own confidence. One log-and-line record, 
 under the compass, is worth a hundred charts filled 
 out with supposed naval cruises, and the outlines of 
 ships and reefs and harbors. 
 
 Prof. Stuart's rule to his students, for the discovery 
 and fast holding of truth, was just this. Throw away 
 the doubtful texts as useless, but hold fast the sure 
 ones, as entering into that within the veil. "Hold 
 fast the form of aound words, which thou hast heard 
 of me, in faith and love, lohich is in Christ Jesus." 
 That was a sailor's knot; the harder pulled uj^on, 
 the more impossible to give way. One unquestion- 
 able j^roof better than twenty doubtful or suspicious. 
 Having found the one, let the others be turned out 
 of court, or take their turn for what they are com- 
 petent to testify. 
 
 This canon of criticism settled satisfactorily in Prof. 
 Stuart's mind the question as to Paul's authorship of 
 the Ei:)istle to the Hebrews. It gave a positive an- 
 swer instead of a negative. The disregard of this 
 canon has filled our Ubraries of theological and bib- 
 lical literature with volumes of vast erudition, the 
 tendency of which is just only to unsettle the mind 
 of the learner, diverting it from cei'tainties to doubts. 
 
 "One of the greatest of modern critics, Schleier- 
 macher," says Dr. Arnold of Rugbv, himself a critic 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. iig 
 
 more profound, " doubted the genuineness of the 
 Epistles to Timothy. It seems to me that they are 
 C.S cerlainly Paul's, as the Epistle to the Romans. The 
 doubt arose from his habit, tchich many Germans have, 
 of taking a one-sided view of such questions, and 
 suffering small objections to prevail, over greater confirma- 
 tions." Now a man whose mind is ruled by such a 
 habit is effectually prevented from the possibility of 
 ever becoming a just judge; a whole nation of such 
 scholars could never produce one truly great ci'itic, 
 by whose verdict as a judge, you could safely hold 
 fast. 
 
 Such treatment of the Word of God is fatal to the 
 supposition of its divinely inspked unity and author- 
 ity. There can be no authoritative canon of belief, — 
 not even God Himself could estabhsh it, for such 
 minds; because the anchor of faith in Christ, the 
 Author and Finisher of Faith, is gone. Or rather, 
 instead of bemg cast in Christ, within the veil, it is 
 tlu'own down into the hold of the ship, to entangle 
 its flukes in the captain's own cargo of small objec- 
 tions. Thus, some men's cardinal doctrine of justifi- 
 cation by faith amounts to just this, and nothing 
 more ; self-salvation by then* own opinions concerning 
 Christ; and not redemption through His blood, as 
 the Way, the Truth, the Life: not His death, ap- 
 pointed and voluntarily borne in infinite love, as the 
 
120 Faith, Doubt, aii.i Evidence. 
 
 proi^itiation for our sins, and not ours only, but the 
 sins of all mankind, believing in Him. 
 
 The letter and the Sjiirit ! Both. Not the letter 
 or the Spirit, Which? If either be fi'om God, both 
 must be ; and when it is known how inevitably a 
 right discernment of the thoughts depends on the 
 use of the moods and tenses, the articles and adverbs, 
 the pronouns and interrogations, of the language, 
 in the words of which, and in no other possible 
 way the meaning (God's meaning), can be conveyed 
 and made known, it becomes an imj^ossibility to de- 
 termine which is most important, the Sjiirit or the 
 Word, and it is presumi^tion to attempt a separation 
 of them, or the disregard of either. It is as impos- 
 sible as it would be to undertake a descent of the 
 rain from heaven upon earth without the droj)s of 
 water, the making small of which, for God's pur- 
 poses of goodness, is adverted to as one of the 
 proofs of that goodness. — Job xxxvi. 27. 
 
 A verbal inspiration, nothing less, may faii'ly be 
 argued from Isa. Iv. 8-11, and the reason for it. 
 " For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither 
 are your ways my ways, saitli the Lord. For as the 
 heavens arc higher than the earth, so are iny wa3'a 
 higher than your ways, and m}' thoughts than your 
 thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and tlie 
 snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 121 
 
 watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and 
 bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread 
 to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth 
 out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, 
 but it shall accomplish that which I please, and j)ros- 
 per in the thing whereto I sent it." 
 
 The author of that admirable book, "The Wise 
 Men and who they were," says most truly, " The Ian- 
 guage of Scriptxire is a Fountain, not a reservoir." 
 The words have a meaning of life impalpable in the 
 lexicon, which is the mere resers'oir, built by human 
 learning, by philology of dead languages, and can 
 guide you to the life only by faithful references to 
 the Fountain, but never by mere definitions cut off 
 from the Infinite Mind. Therefore this writer well 
 says, "In all Scripture there is a divine element of 
 certainty; and for the full understanding of Scripture 
 it is necessary to compare one part of it with another, 
 in a VMii that has no parallel in human wrilinr/s." He 
 has remarked with equal truth that "the historical 
 element being the chief element, so far as form goes, 
 in the Scriptures, there should be the same faith in 
 the precision of their historical teaching, and the per- 
 fection of its relations, that there is in those of purely 
 didactic Scripture." — See "Wise Men," etc., by F. W. 
 Upham, LL.D. 
 
122 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 XYII. 
 
 THE SOURCES OF TRUE CRITICAL DISCERNMENT AND 
 POWER— BENGEL AND HIS GNOMON. 
 
 Now iiiquiiing- what were the soiu*c<?s of such ex- 
 traordinary discemment of the thiuf^s of the Sjphit m 
 men lite Biinyan, Howe, Luther, Bengel, Calvin, we 
 may take fii'st of all their discipliue with this in- 
 fallible Word of God m Cluist. It was the rever- 
 ential, beheving study of the Iettei% with "praying 
 in the Holy Ghost" for the teacliings of the Spu-it. 
 
 And there need be no other discovered soiuce of 
 bhudness, weakness, and cWkuess over a whole gen- 
 eration, than when its students take theu* axioms of 
 interpretation and thch* measui'es of e%idence fi'oni 
 men Avho absolutely disl^eheve and deny the pres- 
 ence and power of the Holy Si>h*it, the divme tiiith 
 and avxthoiity of tlie Sci'iptures, and at len-^.ih the 
 veiy existence of CJhrist the Saviour, as revesded in 
 the Word of God. Rejecting Hira, all ix)ssibihty of 
 divme enliglitcmnent in God's Word for oui- good 
 is excluded. 
 
 Chi-Lst Himself must be the di\ine Interpreter of 
 what He knew and decLu'ed to be the infjiUible wTit- 
 ten Word of Ciu^L Here Ls the soiu-ee of all our 
 certainty and power, over souls and agtiinst sc3pticsw 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 12 j 
 
 "The most important of all controversies," said 
 Bengel, speaking of the mental struggles undergone 
 by him when studying the Bible on his knees, "are 
 those we experience ^-ithin us, of which there is no 
 end till the whole mind has undergone a change, and 
 the whole man has struggled into renovation. AVheu 
 this is done, a host of casuistical scruples disappear 
 at once, and we soon get rid of the remainder." 
 
 But if not, what then? ShaU they shake our 
 confidence? "The deepest difficulties," said Ai-nold, 
 "sitting hard by the most blessed truths, stiU, amidst 
 all the doul)ts and perplexities of om- own hearts, we 
 must seek after the Lord, Avith unabated faith, if so 
 be that we may find Him." But before a confessed 
 and unconquered difficulty, his mmd reposed as 
 quietly as in possession of a discovered truth. 
 "AMiat is that to thee? Follow thou me. And I 
 know Christ to have been so wise and loving to 
 men, that I am sure I may trust His word, and that 
 what was entirely agreeable to His sense of justice 
 and goodness can not, unless through my own defect, 
 be otherwise than agi-eeable to mine." 
 
 Bengel's course for two years at Tubingen com- 
 prised the prescribed studies in exegesis, systematic 
 divinity, Church history, and homiletics, and the read- 
 ing of the best works in aU those branches. He reatl 
 the Hebrew Bible and Greek Testament repeatecUy 
 
12^ Faith, Doiibt, and Evidence. 
 
 through, and along Avith them, several versions. In 
 his tAventieth year he was ordained, and threw him- 
 self into aU the details of jiractical Avork among a 
 common people, preaching, catechising, visiting, and 
 found in these diities "a practical filter for drawing 
 off the mud of his books from the water of life." In 
 1742 the Gnomon appeared, of which Michaelis him- 
 self said that it " exalted the author above all his pred- 
 ecessors in the critical knowledge of the New Tes- 
 tament." "It eA'inces," said another German critic, 
 " the deejDest reverence for the sacred text, and a 
 most j^rofound acquaintance with its contents. "With 
 remarkable simplicity and humility it follows the drift 
 of the inspired meaning, and induces the soul to open 
 itself even to the softest breathings of the Holy Ghost, 
 which pervade the written Avord. Bengel Aveighed 
 every clause, phrase, and word, to the minutest jDar- 
 ticle, and never lost a shade or fibre of thought AA'hich 
 prayerful and painstaking study of the entire sacred 
 text could disclose to him." 
 
 Passing through generation after generation of 
 svich experiments and proofs, the charge of bibli- 
 olatry against faith in Avliat remains undemolished, 
 falls to the ground. There is a Book of God, and 
 Ave have it, as it came from Him, for our guid- 
 ance. Every successive translation of the Scriptures, 
 through the instrumentality of such scholars as have 
 
Fa all, Doubt, and Evideiice. 12^ 
 
 been employed upon it, oiiylit to have less and less 
 of doubt. More of divine certainty it can not liave, 
 than that which God gave to the first transcribers. 
 Being the words of the Saviour of the world for the 
 life of the world, less and less of uncertainty should 
 be the characteristic of every filtration of the Water 
 of Life; and at the same time, depths deeper and 
 deeper, till what was at first no higher than the 
 ankles shall bo a sea to swim in, that none can 
 fathom. "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but 
 my words shall not jiass away." 
 
 The book is our bridge from Time to Eternity. 
 And God is His own Interpreter, as of His own 
 Providence, and He will make it j^lain. Christ in 
 the centre of it, holds all its fixtures, its certainties, 
 in His own person; its chains pass through His heart. 
 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours 
 only, but for the sins of all mankind. The Book 
 then is infallible for the human race, and in all lan- 
 guages. It must be so, or it is insufficient for any. 
 
 On earth, the best constructed bridges have to be 
 tested, and it never can be told to a certainty that 
 a pound's additional weight on this side or the 
 other, or the disturbance of the balance by a foot 
 measure, or the music of a stray fiddler, may not 
 bring down the whole structure; a battixliou of men 
 with artillery, keeping step, might destroy it, after 
 
r26 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 millions have passed over it safely in confasion. 
 But tliis is a bridge over which all the armies anl 
 artiUery of the world may march in unison, with 
 measured tramp. Whirlwinds can not move it; 
 earthquakes will not shake its foundations. And 
 God holds us to the belief of His truth bj^ ring- 
 bolts of spiritual intuition in our own souls. 
 
 But wh}'? Because we know tliat liistory is made 
 uj) of opinion, assertion, supposition, and the'^\v, by 
 men but half informed, and always ? 'ore or les> prej- 
 udiced, but never mspired. These things may well 
 make us suspicious and sceptical iu regard to human 
 testimony; but they only prove the necessity and the 
 worth of that which is absolutely trustworthy, that 
 which is divine. "I receive not testimony from man." 
 Amazing declaration ! All that philosophers and his- 
 torians had written and taught Christ knew; and 
 if there had been one divine voice among tliem all, 
 would He not have referred to it? But He never 
 sjioke of Socrates or Plato, Zoroaster or Aristotle. 
 Nor did He refer men to any testimony or writings 
 on earth, but God's, by His inspiring Spirit. He that 
 Jiath an car lot liim hear what the Spirit saitii unto 
 the Churches. Having commanded us to hear, as 
 for our life, what the Spirit saith, would He leave 
 us in darkness, ignorance, uncertainty, a^ to such 
 utterances ? 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 12"/ 
 
 How can we sufficiently thank God for tlie all- 
 sufficiency and all-attainableness and commonness 
 and Ave might say, cheapness of^this light; for it 
 is what the poor need, and can have without riches, 
 and what the rich equally need, but can not buy. 
 It is only. Come unto me. Not who shall ascend into 
 the heavens, or descend into the depths, or search ba- 
 yond the seas, but who will look unto me, the way, 
 the truth, the life. 
 
 There is no evidence without that same coming to 
 Christ, and beholding and knowing Him. All evi- 
 dence and the utmost perfection of it, without this 
 coming and beholding, is but darkness and condem- 
 nation. This is the condemnation of men, that this 
 light of Christ is come into the world, but not ad- 
 mitted by men, because they loved darkness rather 
 than Hght, because their deeds were evil. The dis- 
 position that rejects, and the guilty consciousness 
 that hides, would be equally sure to falsify. Only 
 a sincere and humble mind can receive condemna- 
 tory truth, and rejoice in it. Only such a mind can 
 reflect it truly, can reproduce its loveliness and 
 purity. 
 
 The reflection of the sky, the banks, the trees, the 
 landscape, in a quiet transparent lake, how beautiful ! 
 But wluMi the lake is agitated, and especially if it be 
 muddy, there is cither no reflection at all, or it is 
 
128 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 broken into a chaos of images giving no imjiression 
 of the beauty. What the mud or other impurities 
 of the w'atcr are to its transparency, preventing the 
 possibility of a just reflection, any habit of sin, any 
 moral impurity in the soul would be to the power of 
 reflection in that. There could be neither reception 
 of the attributes of God, nor reflection of the divine 
 image, by a soul torn with conflicting sinful passions. 
 Does this truth cast us into despair? Self-despair, 
 yes, but only that it may throw us upon Christ. 
 " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy 
 laden, and I will give jou rest. Learn of me, for I 
 am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest 
 unto your souls." 
 
 XYIII. 
 
 HE THAT BELIEVETII NEED NOT MAKE HASTE — A 
 QUIET UNCERTAINTY— INTERNAL EVIDENCE DECI- 
 SIVE IN CASES OF DOUBT. 
 
 When the sea is out, the earth is fringed with 
 shallows and mud-basins; ships can not cross the 
 bars of the harbors, nor enter the inlets. But when 
 the tide is full, all things are full of beauty and glory, 
 and the design of all thmgs is seen. And so with 
 the Spii'it in the heart, taking of the things that are 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. I2g 
 
 Christ's to show them to the soul. No man can see 
 them without this flood of light, this tide of life, im- 
 bathing, purifying, clarifying the perceptive and rea- 
 soning faculties, for the inward beholding and experi- 
 ence of divine things, and of the new bii-th, by which 
 alone the kingdom of God can be seen. That which 
 is born of the flesh is flesh. But the Sj^ii'lt searcheth 
 all things, even the deep things of God. And for this 
 very intuition there is promised and given the unction 
 from the Holy One, by which we know all things. 
 
 Now for a man to undertake the criticism of 
 divine truths, without this light, this inward heav- 
 enly experience, is as if a man blind from his birth 
 should set himself up to be a professor of the chem- 
 istry of the sun's rays, a practical optician for eter- 
 nity, and a scientific commentator on Newton and 
 La Place. 
 
 Bishop Ellicott says, " The critical editor often fails 
 to give a true statement of the actual case." "An 
 exaggerated preference for a single manuscript which 
 Tischendorf has had the good fortune to discover has 
 betrayed him into an ahnost childlike infirmity of 
 critical judgment."' In three difterent editions of his 
 Greek Testament there are pointed out twelve hun- 
 dred and ninety-six variations fi'om himself, by his 
 own successive opinions. 
 
 Granville Penn said very aptly, in the case of a 
 
I JO Fait/i, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 proposed revision, " Trading convoys always regu- 
 late the progress of their fleet by the ability of the 
 slowest sailor, however irksome the delay may be 
 to the imiDatience of the swiftest movers; and that 
 practice manifests the principle that ought to govern 
 in the publication of a Book imparted for the wel- 
 fare of the most simple, as much as for that of the 
 most enhghtened and sagacious." 
 
 The cautions of Bislioj) Ellicott, in his instructive 
 and interesting " Essay on Revision of the English 
 New Testament" are to be regarded, as to any at- 
 tempt to construct, as yet, a new Textus Receptus. 
 " Though we have much critical material, and a fair 
 amount of ci'itical knowledge, we have certainly not 
 yet acquired sufl&cient critical judgment for any body 
 of revisers hopefully to undertake such a work as this. 
 AU such attempts, whether on the part of individuals 
 or general bodies, are indeed at present much to be 
 deprecated as certainly premature, and as naturally 
 tending to delay ultimate progi'ess. We are steadily 
 gravitating to a consent as regards a very consider- 
 able number of passages; let us not interfere with 
 that natural process by trying to anticii)ate what we 
 shall successfully arrive at, if we have but patience 
 and industry." 
 
 There may be yet many more manuscripts discov- 
 ered; it would be strange if there were not. "But 
 
FaiT'. Doubt., and Evidence. ijr 
 
 number akne can not be admitted foi* evidence in 
 true criti ism. If a thousand manuscrij)ts are cop- 
 ied, one from the other, they do not increase the tes- 
 timony of the first." Moreover, by omissions or con- 
 tradictions among themselves, they do not diminish 
 the authority, or invalidate the evidence, of the first. 
 
 "Dr. Johnson," says Boswell, "pointed out a para- 
 graph in the sixty-fifth page of the first volume of 
 Sir Greorge Mackenzie, and told me there was an 
 error in the text, which he bade me try to discover. 
 I was luct)' enough to hit it at once. As the passage 
 is printed it is said, 'The devil answers even in engines' 
 I corrected, 'ever in enir/nia^.' 'Sir,' said Dr. Johnson, 
 'you are a good critic; this would have been a great 
 thing in the text of an ancient author.'" But what 
 an error to occur in a printed book ! And how won- 
 derful that such errors are so infrequent in a thou- 
 sand manuacripU of the Scriptures! We can better 
 afford to wait, than to alter the text, or make it 
 doubtful, even by the most ingenious conjectures, 
 such as this of Johnson's biographer certainly was. 
 
 INIeautime it is comforting to the unlearned reader 
 of the Bible to know by very striking examples how 
 often the most febcitous suppositions leave our Eng- 
 lish text just as good and satisfactory, with just as 
 excellent a sense, whether we take one side or the 
 other of the controversy. 
 
1^2 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 No better example of tliis quieting uncertainty- 
 can be given than that which occurs in Acts xiii. 
 18, where the rendering of our Eughsh Version is 
 as follows: 
 
 "And about the time of forty years suffered he 
 their manners in the wilderness." As it stands, it 
 conveys a rei^roach and rebuke against the generation 
 of their fathers, and an endurance of then- obstinacy 
 by God's long-suffering. But in the margin the trans- 
 lators have noted the Greek word, ttpoifocpuprjdev, 
 perhaps for krftoq)oq)op)]6zv , bore or fed them, as a 
 nurse beareth or feedeth her child; and the refer- 
 ence is to Deut. i. 31, " in the wilderness, where thou 
 hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a 
 man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went." 
 
 The object of the Apostle's argument in the syna- 
 gogue at Antioch is to persuade the Jews of the ful- 
 filment of God's ancient compassion and mercy to 
 them according to His promise in raising up of Da- 
 vid's seed unto Israel, a Saviour, Jesus, even Him 
 whom the rulers of the Jews had slain, but whom 
 God had raised from the dead, and through whom 
 "is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." The 
 object of Moses in Deut. i. 31, is likewise the encour- 
 agement of the people against their fears of the Amo- 
 rites by reminding them how God had borne them and 
 protected them all the way from Egypt, and tcouki 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. ijj 
 
 Htm do it, if the J would trust in Him and obey 
 Him. 
 
 In this j^'T-ssage "we have," says Scrivener, "as 
 nice a balance between conflicting readings (differing 
 only by a single letter), as we find anywhere in the 
 New Testament." — Introduction to Criticism of New 
 Testament, page 537. Bloomfield in his notes on the 
 passage, compares the evidence, so nicely balanced, 
 between rt and 9, and decides as Scrivener does, for 
 cp, mainly by internal testimony, and the use of the 
 word in Deut. i. 31. 
 
 The internal evidence is that which should be de- 
 cisive in every case of doubt as to the external or 
 merely textual. 
 
 But why? Because the external and the textual 
 can be judged by scholarship merely; and the keen- 
 ness of such judgment may be a quaUfication acquii-ed 
 by rote, and by familiarity with many codices of all 
 ages. But the internal can be judged fully only by 
 the Spirit of God, given in answer to prayer, and 
 most efiicacious and enhghtening, just in proportion 
 to the love and reverence of God's Word, habitual 
 for years, and the earnestness and perseverance with 
 which such divine aid and enlightenment have been 
 sought at the mercy-seat in the name of Christ. " In 
 thy light shall we see light." 
 
 The appeal therefore ought to be made to the com- 
 
IJ4 FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 mon conscience of Christendom ; and the verdict 
 ought to be sought in the answer given after a long 
 periud of prayerful consideration. If it were asked 
 how long the jury shall be out, it were not too much 
 to say, Until a generation of scholars trained in famil- 
 iar knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew languages 
 shall have been placed in the jury box and consent-- 
 ed, at least eleven out of twelve. 
 
 Perhajis it may be said. You would in this wa}' 
 never obtain a verdict. But you would at least gain 
 such an accumulation and well known and consid- 
 ered weight of ojiinion, that at length the degree of 
 contrariety would only operate as a confirmation of 
 the truth. And forever the Word of the Lord might 
 be settled on earth as in heaven. 
 
 It would, at any rate, be better to wait long, even 
 through many generations, than cast out from the ac- 
 cejDted text of God's Word any passage that belongs 
 there; or that has in its favor the consent and desire 
 of the spiritual behef of the most j^rayerful Chris- 
 tians in all ages, as being most fuUy consonant with 
 the analogy of faith, and the practical tendency of 
 God's Word. Such a witness of the Spirit is not to 
 be despaii'ed of, if it be diligently sought. 
 
 So it is the internal and textual combined, that 
 make the perfect evidence. But the textual may be 
 studied without the internal or spiritual, and there- 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. ij^ 
 
 fore may leave the student in ignorance and lieliiless- 
 ness. Milton's daughters could read to him Greek 
 and Hebrew accurately, without one scintillation of 
 the meaning. 
 
 The internal, the spiritual, may be perceived with 
 no little ignorance of the textual; and where there is 
 a devout sense of the meaning of the Spii'it, even a 
 translation may be wrought out with very little text- 
 ual erudition or study, that shall be nearer to the 
 divine original by far, than that which wdthout such 
 divine intuition proceeds from the most abundant 
 supply of textual resources and the most learned use 
 of the same. Such is the translation, originally the 
 work of Tyndall; such ours in the present English 
 Bible, the fi'uit of j)rofound piety and sj)iritual at- 
 tainments and sagacity, with sufficient skill and learn- 
 ing for the textual materials then at hand. The mind 
 of the Spirit may be communed Avith, and the glory 
 beheld, with httle or no knowledge other than that 
 of the plainest version, from even the poorest of the 
 extant manuscripts. Paul's characteristic humihty of 
 mind and many prayers and tears are needed. 
 
136 Faii/i, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 DEFENCE OF THE ANGELIC HV.MX ON THESE 
 PRINCIPLES. 
 
 "If there be one case," says Scrivener (Introduc- 
 tion to the Criticism of the New Testament, p. 513), 
 "more prominent than another wherein soHd reason 
 and pure taste revolt against the iron yoke of an- 
 cient authorities, it is that of the angehc hj'mn sung 
 at the Nativity." In the common text and in our 
 EngHsh Bible, he adds, "all is transparently clear," 
 and he sets the beautiful Hebrew hymn in its three 
 lines, metrically, 
 
 "Glory to God in the highest, 
 And on earth peace: 
 (lood will Tiuto men." 
 
 " The blessed words " are indeed f uU of divine proof 
 that as they stand, so were they sung by the angels, 
 so reported by the shepherds, so recorded by the 
 inspiring Spirit of the record in Luke's gospel. 
 
 The change jDroposed from peace on eaiih, which 
 is the universal reign of the Prince of jDcace over 
 our whole lost world, to that of peace on earth /o 
 men of good unll, men of piety, by reading evSoHia'; 
 for eu<Soiaa, is a limitation, or "yoke" put both 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. ijy 
 
 upon words and meaning ; changing salvation as 
 the gift of God to all sinners, into a proclamation 
 of God's good will only to good men. Besides this, 
 "the rhythmical arrangement is utterly marred, and 
 the simple shepherds are sent away with a message, 
 the diction of which no scholar has yet construed 
 to his own mind." 
 
 Alford says that "peace on eaiih for those that 
 will have it," is untenable in Greek as well as in 
 theology; and peace on earth "among men of good 
 pleasure " is unintelligible to most minds. And the 
 reading "among men in whom He is weU pleased" 
 can be arrived at only through some process, wlii(;h 
 would make any phrase bear almost any meaning 
 the translator might like to put upon it." Scrivener 
 defends the hymn in the common text and our trans- 
 lation, by many uncial manuscripts, " and all the cur- 
 sives; by the three extant Sp'iac versions, the Peshito 
 most emphatically; and by the evidence of the Greek 
 Fathei's, supported by all the later manuscripts." 
 
 Here, the internal evidence of congruity with the 
 truths of Gods mercy and grace to the chief of sin- 
 ners on earth, through the incarnation and merits 
 of Christ the Redeemer, and not thi-ough men of 
 good pleasure, or the pleasure of good men, or a 
 good disposition, inviting or claiming God's mercy, 
 seems quite enough to decide the interpretation. It 
 
ij8 FailJi, Doubt, and Evidejice. 
 
 is not only solid reason and pure taste against the 
 yoke of ancient authorities, but it is the analogy of 
 faith, supported, on the whole, by the most ancient 
 authority, which takes the soul of the sinner innne- 
 diately to Christ. Peace to men of good iviJl is not 
 accordant with the presentation, universal elsewhere, 
 of peace to the guUty, the rebellious, the lost by an 
 evil will, the children of wrath, alienated from God 
 and at enmity against Him. These are not men of 
 good will, but all mankind by nature; and if the 
 salutation of the angels was so restricted, Paul him- 
 self, above all other men, could have no j^art in it; 
 the blasjihemer of Christ, the murderer, the perse- 
 cutor of believing souls unto death, through hatred 
 of Christ's name. 
 
 XX. 
 
 DEFENCE OF THE DOXOLOGY IN OUR LORD'S 
 PRAYER BY THE SAME EVIDENCE. 
 
 A similar example of the power of internal evi- 
 dence, by comparison of the whole context with the 
 veiy earliest authorities, is to be found in behalf of 
 the doxology to our Lord's prayer, as it stands in 
 the received text of the Gosjiel according to Matthew. 
 The place of the j)rayer in Matthew is immediately 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. ijg 
 
 after the temjitation in the wilderness, and the re- 
 sults of that temptation, the lessons derived fi'om it 
 are embodied in our Lord's sermon on the mount. 
 
 The experience of the Lord Jesus, in His own con- 
 flict with Satan, is there in that discourse, put into 
 warnings, encouragements, and instructions, for the 
 whole tempted world, and for His disciples to the 
 end of Time; for prayer, for trust in God, for deliv- 
 erance from anxiety and hypocrisy, for singleness and 
 simplicity of service" towards God, for protection from 
 temptation, and from the master of temptation, the 
 groat adversary of souls. Lead us not info tempta- 
 tion, but deliver us from the e\t:l one. 
 
 And in reference to the incredible daring of the 
 tempter, promising all the kingdoms of the icorJd and 
 the glory of them, to such as would serve him, the 
 opening of the Lord's prayer. Thy kingdom come, thy 
 wiij, BE DONE, on earth as in heaven; God only to be 
 worshipped, loved, and served. And then the close, 
 For THINE is the kingdom, the power, .\nd the glory, 
 forever. If you ever need any proof that this dox- 
 ology, which some have attempted to sever from this 
 prayer, was our Lord's own portion of it, look back 
 to His conflict with Hatan, and you will know that this 
 also grew out of the devil's own assault and claim; 
 and was sot by divine inspiration as part of the divine 
 prayer for the piety of all behevera. 
 
1^0 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 Angels came and ministered unto Him. They were 
 again ministering in the Garden of (Tethsemane. The 
 Son of God was seen of angels in the extremities of 
 the sufferings endured for lis, that He might, through 
 death, destroy him that had the power of death, even 
 the devil. 
 
 It is the AulJior and Finisher of faith face to face 
 •with the murderer of souls; sinking the 2:»ilh^rs of the 
 spiritual universe deep in His own sufferings. In the 
 very outset bringing out the awful and eternal reahty 
 of truths which wiU always be denied by com2)ounds 
 of science and sense and sin in this world; even the 
 very existence of a devil, dehghting forever in evil, and 
 the character of sinful men as the children of Satan, 
 and the everlastingness of death and hfe as the issues 
 of obedience or disobedience to God's commands. 
 
 If example or origin of this doxology were needed 
 in the Old Testament, it is found in the glorious con- 
 secrating prayer and blessing pronounced by David 
 before all the congregation, when his gifts were 
 i:)ublicly consecrated to God for the building of the 
 Temple. "Blessed be thou. Lord God of Israel our 
 Father, for ever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the 
 greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the 
 victory, and the majest}^: for all that is in the lieaven 
 and the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, 
 and thou art exalted as head above aU." 
 
Faith, Doubt, a] id Evidence. i^i 
 
 Olsliausen says, " The doxology is wanting in many 
 manuscripts, as shown by Griesbach. But it occurs 
 akeady in the Peshito, where, however, it may he an 
 interpolation." 
 
 It may be; but what shadow of authority is there 
 for such a conjecture? Alford adds the aflfirmation, 
 "that we find absolutely no trace of the doxology in 
 early times, in any family of MSS., or in exjjosition." 
 Yet, in the very next sentence he adds, "llie Peshito 
 has it, but whether it always had, is another question." 
 But ichose is the question, and by what authority? 
 The Peshito Version is a very satisfactory trace, a/> 
 solulely more than a trace of the existence of these 
 Avords, in the very earliest known version of the 
 earliest manuscript ever referred to. 
 
 In the earliest century in which we have any traces 
 of the gospels at all this doxology is known. Bloom- 
 field says "it is supported by the Syriac and some 
 other Oriental versions and by some of the Greek 
 Fathers." "The Sahidic, Ethiopic, Annenian, Gothic, 
 and Gregorian Versions contain it, and nearly all the 
 five hundred cursive manuscripts containing Mat- 
 thew's sixth chapter." Chrysostom comments upon 
 it without the least consciousness that its authen- 
 ticity is doubtful. 
 
 Scrivener remarks that "if it is probable that the 
 doxology was interpolated from the liturgies, it is 
 
1-^2 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 just as i^robable that it was cast out of Matthew's 
 gosjiel to bring it into harmony with Luke's." "The 
 Sjriac and Thebaic Versions bring uj) the existence 
 of the doxology to the second century. Isidore, 
 Chrysostom, and j^erhaps others, attest it for the 
 fourth; and so do nearly all the later documents; 
 so that we may be excused for regarding the in- 
 dictment against the last clause of the Lord's prayer 
 as hitherto inrproven." 
 
 This is a valualile testimony from one of the jn-o- 
 foundest and most accurate of the critics thus far 
 known, F. H. Scrivener, in his Introduction to the 
 Criticism of the New Testament, pp. 496, 497, 2d 
 Edition. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 SCEPTICISM THE WORK OF MISINTERPRETATION AND 
 MISTAKE; INSTANCED IN THE CASE OF COLENSO— 
 NO WORD FOR SLAVE IN THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. 
 
 Dr. S. P. Tregelles, in the i:)reface to his work 
 on the printed text of the New Testament, enumer- 
 ates the classes of scejitics, — accusing, distorting, ar- 
 gumentative, rationalistic, mythic, liberal, Chi-istiau- 
 izing without Christ, and pretenders to a divine 
 teaching without acknowledging an inspiring Holy 
 Sim'it; — "successive, rival, and mutually autagouis- 
 
Faith, Dj!c[)l, and Evidence. i^j 
 
 tic rulers of tlie Olympns of scepticism and infidel- 
 ity;" — in one thing and only one agreeing, tlu'ough 
 all forms of opposition, namely, all of them re-echoing 
 the serpent's first whisper of doubt and Ij^ng, "Yea, 
 HATH God said ? " 
 
 He adds that "Holy Scripture, being our Chart of 
 Redemption through the Saviour's blood, we there- 
 fore are able to estimate the importance of Textual 
 Criticism, by which we know on grounds of ascer- 
 tained certainty, the actual ivords and sentences of that 
 charier, in the terms in which the Holy Ghost gave it.'' 
 
 A verbal inspiration is here rightfvdly presupposed 
 in the terms of a charter of human salvation. This 
 presupposition includes that of an equally sure, ple- 
 nary, and certain inspiration in the Old Testament 
 Scriptures, prophetic, historical, doctrinal. 
 
 Dean Alford affinns, in a note on John xii. 32, 
 "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
 all men unto me," that there is a fine touch of i)alhos, 
 corresponding with the feeling of verse 27, now is 
 my soul troubled, in idv vipooOc^. The Lord Jesus, 
 though knowing all this, yet in the weakness of His 
 humanity p»/.s Himself into tJiis seeming doubt, if it is 
 so to be, as in Matt. xxvi. 42. "All this is missed," 
 continues Alford, "by the shallow and unscholarlike 
 rendering, when; which, I need hardly remind my 
 readoi's, idr can never bear." That is, all this paihos 
 
1^4 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 of uncertainty in regard to tlie verv' manner of our 
 Lord's death, as foreseen by Him, and immediately 
 renaarked uj^on, in Averse 33, "This He said, signify- 
 ing ichat death He should die:" not what death He 
 wigJU die, but, T/jieXXey a7CoOv?}<5H£iy, must die, ought, 
 should, must, therefore certain. 
 
 Now the student of New Testament Greek, turn- 
 ing to Dr. Robinson's Lexicon, for the whole force 
 of this i^article Idr, finds it exhibited thus, besides 
 the classical usage, so well known; namely, as a 
 Hebraism, DX, passing over into a particle of time, 
 referring to an event, certain in itself, but uncer- 
 tain in time, ivhen, whenever; put with the subjunc- 
 tive aorist, and followed by an indicative future. 
 John xii. 32, instanced also in I John iii. 2, "We 
 know that lohen, lay, He shall appear, we shall be 
 like Him." Similarly, III John 10, hxv eX^go, "when 
 I come." Also John xiv. 3, "If I go, and j^repare 
 a place for you;" Idy, "when I go," the present in 
 a future certainty. So, the Sept. Prov. iii. 24, and 
 Isa. xxiv. 13, "Then shalt thou walk in thy Avay 
 safely, and thy foot shall not stumble; rt7it'?i thou 
 liest down, thou shalt not be afi*aid. Be not afraid of 
 sudden fear, when it cometh." — Prov. iii. 24. "When 
 the vintage is done." — Isa. xxiv. 13. 
 
 "And it came to pass, when they had made an 
 end of eating," etc. — Amos vii. 2. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. /^j 
 
 So impossible is it always to determine the thought, 
 or to prevent "mUsing the whole meaning" in the New 
 Testament Greek, excej)t by accurate study of the 
 words, both in Hebrew and Greek. These instances 
 are undeniable; and they show how the genius of the 
 two languages has to be consulted, in order fully to 
 understand even the particles of either; and how even 
 a profound scholar may be betrayed into inaccura- 
 cies, by mere classical deductions, as if they cov- 
 ered the whole ground. 
 
 Perhaps no commentator on the Scrij^tures has 
 more faithfully, or with more accurate industry rep- 
 resented the capacities of the Hebrew and Greek 
 particles than Prof. Stuart in his Commentary on 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 
 Commenting on Hebrews iii. 7, he adds to the 
 instances given above, of the use of idv, when, like 
 the Hebrew qX) ^o which it corresponds, the cases of 
 John vi. 62, and xiii. 20. — See also Bloomfield on the 
 same, iaV for urav. 
 
 And Prof. Stuart has constructed an argument for 
 Paid's authorship of this Epistle, "with a result so 
 plain that it can not be mistaken," by comjiarison 
 of the usage of words in this Epistle wuth that in 
 the first Epistle to the Corinthians, which has never 
 been doubted as the writing of the same Apostle. 
 
 These things do certainly go far to prove the no- 
 
1^6 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 cessity and reality of a verbal inspiiution, if any 
 at all be admitted. Language mvist be used and 
 interpreted according to its national and local hab- 
 its and laws. 
 
 Plainly, all evidence of importance may be so en- 
 tirely dependent on the usage, repetition, or absence, 
 of a particiilai' verbal phraseologj', as to compel the 
 admission of a vei'bal inspu'ation, if infallible resoilts 
 are to be secured. 
 
 Consulting the Sej^tuagint of the Old Testament, 
 we have to go by lead and line in Hebrew and Greek 
 for the meaning of the New. 
 
 It is by neglecting this canon that so many inter- 
 preters have erred in not giving the word 5orAos in 
 the New Testament the benefit of the celestial bap- 
 tism derived from the spirit of freedom in the Old. 
 Hence we have the prodigious anomaly of such ex- 
 pressioiis as the slaves of Christ, apphed to His min- 
 isters of truth, whom He would never permit to 
 be called slaves, but friends; even as the return of 
 the Prodigal Son was not permitted to be announced 
 as the subjection of a chattel or bondsman, but in 
 the penitential prayer, "Make me as one of tliiue 
 hired servants." 
 
 Certauily, if upon the aiiicles and prepositions, 
 moods and tenses of the gTiimmar of a language 
 conclusions have to be built so vitallv aiiec.tui<Tf oui" 
 
Failh, Doubly and Evidence. i^j 
 
 views of the niuuiiers and morals of a people, and 
 the nature of their appointed discipline of character 
 and retribution, a verbal insj)iration Avould seem abso- 
 lutely necessary for the understanding both of God's 
 righteousness and man's responsibility. 
 
 Conybeare and Howson go so far as to say, in Gal. 
 V. 13, " Fe /iflfc been called unlo freedom; ensl.we your- 
 selves one to another." Such a translation of dovXsvEte 
 cotild never have been considered admissible, if the 
 genius of the Hebrew had been consulted and fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 There is no word in the Hebrew language for ><Jave, 
 and this grand fact speaks volumes. It goes far to 
 prove that the Hebrew must have begun with Eden, 
 as the dialect of freedom and of Paradise. The glo- 
 rious necessity and penury of that divine language in 
 this resj)cct (a penury the consequence of wealth) 
 dragged in triumph the Greek words, which human 
 depravity had applied for slavery, and made a show 
 of them openly, having bound them to the service of 
 a universal and Christian freedom. In the work of 
 translation, for want of another pure language that 
 had not been created out of despotism and servility, 
 the Greek words for sercice, though stamped with the 
 superscription of slaver i/, had to be taken as the expo- 
 nents of the noble Hebrew. But the grand old He- 
 brew significance held on and triumphed, being at 
 
148 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 length aclditionally elevated and transfigured by the 
 gospel. 
 
 The Greek was not laid aside, nor unclothed, but 
 clothed uj)on, with the divineness of the HebrcAv; and 
 the words that are thus transfigured must be viewed 
 as reflecting the glory of that Redeemer, whose incar- 
 nation, death, and work of redemj)tion gathered all 
 mankind into one free family. To look at them other- 
 wise, in their iisage in the New Testament, would be 
 as if one of the disciples could have strii:)iied Moses 
 and Elias of their glory, and compelled them to ap- 
 pear in their eartlily and mortal habihments. There 
 is no exaggeration in this. If any man will examine 
 carefully the works of those scholars who have written 
 on the j)rinciples of interpretation as applied to the 
 Greek of the New Testament, he wiU find that though 
 this particular view might not have been in the mind 
 of those writers, yet the demonstration is inevitable 
 from their jorinciples.* 
 
 We have quoted the two preceding paragrajihs 
 
 * See Saalscliutz, "Mosaic System of Laws," Vol. 2, ch. 101, 
 pp. 697-714, Berlin, 1816; Seller, "Biblical Hermeneutics," Part 
 2, Sec. 242; Winer, " Grammar of Idioms of the Greek Language 
 of the N. T.," pp. 34, 31; Planck, "Greek Diction of N. T.;" 
 EoLinson, " Philology of N. T. ;" Tholnck. " Lexicography, N. 
 T.;" "Tittmann on Forced Interpretations;" "Marsh's Lec- 
 tures," p. 3, Loc. 14; Lightfoot, "Works," Vol. 4. p. 31. 
 
Faiih, Doubt, and Evidence. j^g 
 
 from a volume of our OAvn, on " The Guilt of Slaver^', 
 aud the Crime of Slaveholding as Demonstrated from 
 the Hebrew and Greek Scrij^tures " ; published in New 
 Yoi-k in 18G0. But it then had to be published with- 
 out a publisher; for so great was the heat of the con- 
 flict, that no jjublisher could be found willing to un- 
 dertake it. Now that the whirlwind and the storm 
 have passed, the truth against slavery is as clear as 
 the sun at noonday, both in the Bible and in our 
 O'SNTi iioHtical constitution. 
 
 It was a radical misinterpretation and mistake of 
 the Hebrew and its context (preassuming falsely the 
 existence and sanction of chattel slavery), in Ex. xxi. 
 20, 21, that plunged Bishop Colenso and his Zulu 
 hearers into such a sea of doubt, from which he 
 emerged only by denying the historical veracity of 
 the Pentateuch, and proclaiming Exodus an impos- 
 ture, and Moses a forger of God's "Word, who dared 
 affix to the imaginations of his own brain, the asser- 
 tion, r/a/s »a'dh the Lord. So remarkable an instance 
 of this kind of teaching among savages by a mis- 
 sionary, is sadly instructive as to the necessity of 
 being rooted and grounded in the knowledge of lan- 
 guages and history, as well as in the love of Christ 
 that passeth knowledge. 
 
 This treatment of Moses by Colenso followed hard 
 upon that of the whole Pentateuch by Ewald in Ger- 
 
/JO FailJi, Doubl, and Evidence. 
 
 many, and Kuenen in Holland; and their destructive 
 criticism, with that of Renan and Strauss, is now im- 
 itated and repeated, borrowed, and appHed Avith en- 
 dorsements of successive professed exi^erts, not in 
 transitory volumes merely, but in weighty encyclo- 
 j^edias, under the assumption of established science. 
 It is none the less a continued reverberation of 
 theories, conjectures and accusations, without valid 
 reason, and unsupported by facts. 
 
 There is such a thing as hindlng a stone in a 
 sling (Prov. xxvi. 8), fastening, chaining it, as mas- 
 ter of the sling instead of its winged minister, so 
 that it can not shoot, in free and airy flight, as the 
 will and faith of a David against Goliath, for God's 
 cause, but is used as a slung-shot for private assas- 
 sination. So do men imprison the truth in unright- 
 eousness (Rom. i. 18), and professing themselves to 
 be wise become fools. Denying God's inspiration, 
 they say of the divine "Word, " He hath a devil, and is 
 mad; why hear ye Him?" Instead of jDlanting ari'ows 
 in the heart of the King's enemies, to subdue the ])eo- 
 ple under Hiui, they strike at the King Himself and 
 His disciples. Their words are shot as the darts of 
 the Wicked One, ti2)ped with fire, and barbed to work 
 the gangrene of doubt and anguish in tempted souls; 
 — words that cat as doth a canker (II Tim. ii. 17), 
 scorners' words, of fire-brands, arrow.i, and death. 
 
FixitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. i^i 
 
 But men of all parties too often employ the screw, 
 tlie vice, the Procrustes' bed, upon the Scriptures, 
 instead of sincere, fi'ee inquiry, and "the gentleness 
 of Christ." The use of the question became by papal 
 despotism a synonym for the torture of the Inqui- 
 sition. That was diaboHcal. Rationalism takes the 
 veil. A meaning is first imposed iijion the text, and 
 that preassumed meaning is then reasoned from as 
 a postulate. The examples are numerous and start- 
 ling of such a perversion, fossilization, and despot- 
 ism of thought and opinion through the forcing and 
 chain-ganging of words. The marine impressment of 
 landsmen for sailors is a light iniquity compared with 
 this. Alas, men often employ language for knocking 
 down, instead of persuading; and they who split hairs 
 in controversy end with splitting heads. 
 
 But human language, inbreathed and adopted by 
 the Holy Spirit, becomes everywhere an infallible, 
 loving, divine inspiration, human and divine, conse- 
 crated and kept by the same affectionate baptism 
 that is described b}' Paul as " the law of the 
 spirit of life in Christ Jesus, setting us free from 
 the law of sin and death," the ver}- spirit of adop- 
 tion, vloOeoux?, sonship, whereby we cry, Abba, Fa- 
 ther. The words and thoughts of our " Heavenly 
 Father are themselves children of light, full, every- 
 where, of merciful convictions for the conscience. 
 
1^2 Faith, Doubt., and Evidence. 
 
 and heavenly invitations and promises, and win- 
 dows of God's light and love. For all the ivarnings 
 in regard to the reality of an eternal death are* no 
 less the work and certainty of love, than are the 
 assurances of eternal life. And it is this quality of 
 ETERNITY that gives at once its infinite value to the 
 revelation, and the rvde of its just interpretation, and 
 the demonstration of its infaUibihty. All these things 
 meet in the divine personality of Jesus Christ, the 
 Author and Finisher of Faith, the Way, the Truth, 
 the Life, the Resurrection and the Life, Yesterday, 
 To-day, and Forever 
 
 The personal eternity of God, belonging to all 
 His attributes, is to us the Reason of His Revela- 
 tion to mankind by insphation; and the same per- 
 sonality determines our rule for the interpretation of 
 that whole revelation. Divine love, in and for the 
 redemption of sinful men (to seek and save the lost) 
 is God's revealed i-eason; the disclosed fact, method 
 and necessity of that redemption are our rule, com- 
 paring spu-itual tilings with si)ii-itual. The rule is 
 to be determined and applied, in and for the in- 
 terpretation of the words, not as an expedient for a 
 present emergency, but according to the reason and 
 in obedience to that, as covering the whole ground 
 of divine revelation. As an example from human 
 jurisprudence, interpreting laws and applying them, 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidoicc. i^j 
 
 we take our own Constitution, a document of equity 
 and freedom. Every rule in it is to be determined 
 in its application by the reason of life, liberty, and 
 the i:)ur.suit of happiness. 
 
 Most men go by rule of habit, emergency, and ul- 
 timate neeessit}'; feAV by reason. This is the cause 
 for imi)rovements being so few and so gi'adual. With 
 most men the rule is a rut worn so deep that the 
 wheels of life are in it, almost to the hub. 
 
 "When the reason is the RULE, it is the cheapest, 
 simplest, and harmonizes all things. "When the rule 
 is the reason, there can be nothing but conflict and 
 confusion, till the reason becomes suj^reme. 
 
 When all the lines from the circumference of a 
 circle run to the centre, they all run sti'aight, and 
 without crossing. In order that they may run with- 
 out crossing, they must all run to that one jDoint. 
 God in Christ is our Centre; and -sN-ithout Him, and 
 a sulnuissive reference of all things, purposes, and 
 meanings to His known will, we are the offspring 
 of darkness and desj)air. 
 
i^^ Faitli, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 XXII. 
 
 GOD'S RIGHT OF PRErOSSESSION IN THE HUMAN MIND. 
 
 If God is tlie God and Father of the sjiii-its of all 
 flesh, and aU souls are His, it is absolutely certain 
 that He will teach them what is for their good, and 
 nothing that is false or injurious. Plato's natural 
 theology taught as much as that. 
 
 Again, if God is a Father, He will teach His chil- 
 dren nothing in His "Word that is contrary to His 
 teaching in His works; nothing in the new creation 
 contrary to His law in the old; nothing in revealed 
 theology contrary to what we call natural. 
 
 And since His "Word lo man comes after His crea- 
 tion of man, there can be nothing of God's testimony 
 in the Word contradicting what can be proved to 
 have been God's testimony in His works. Science 
 never has discovered, and never can, any thing in 
 God's works contrary' to God's Scriptures. 
 
 But, as the universe of God's works requii-es both a 
 telescopic and microscopic intelligence and investiga- 
 tion, so docs that of His Word, with a fuU faith that 
 both the large and the little are equally from God, 
 and known unto Him ; the letters and words as weU 
 as the sentences. It is right and just in God as our 
 Father to require that His children should believe 
 
Faith, Doiibt, and Evidence. i^^ 
 
 what He speaks for their good. It is not an imi)osi- 
 tion upon man, nor an arbitrary exaction, any more 
 than with the angels, nor any restraint upon the 
 freedom of his reason; but it belongs to the secu- 
 rity and perfection of all reason, it is the very atmos- 
 phere of human reason, the perfect freedom of its 
 exercise, the element of liberty and strength. The 
 gift of a diA'ine revelation being the highest pri\'i- 
 lege and rightful heritage of man; the right to be- 
 lieve in it and act accordingly, from his birth, is his 
 property, his prerogative, his happiness, his duty, his 
 life, as an inteUigent, free, immortal being. 
 
 "Whatever, on fail* and full examination, with prayer 
 to our Heavenly Father for light, possesses sufficient 
 proof to human reason for belief in it as the truth of 
 God for our guidance, has the first and highest claim. 
 It is God's incvilahlc claim of prepossession in the 
 opinions and beliefs of the beings He has framed for 
 their own happiness, to love and trust and worship 
 Him. His revelation of Himself to man, and the 
 capacity and freedom of communion with his ]\Iaker, 
 began with the hour of his creation, and the free- 
 dom of saying, Our Father. And the word Creator 
 comprehends every thing of duty and guidance and 
 blessedness following in a divine revelation. 
 
 Now, inasmuch as the ground of human educa- 
 tion must be preoccupied with something, shall fallen 
 
1^6 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 man write tlie first page, or shall the Saviour of the 
 world ? Which power shall have first possession, — 
 belief or unbelief? For it has come to this, that 
 there can be no middle ground. If j-ou reject the 
 Bible, it is not a serene impartiality, that takes pos- 
 session, but an assumption of the non-divinity, the 
 falsehood, the unrectitude and absolute forgery, of 
 divine truth. It is an accusation, at the very least, 
 of an niegal, unauthorized, squatter sovereignty; and 
 over the threshold of the homestead of the tenant 
 hangs a writ of dispossession and ejection. 
 
 Divine truth is G-od's right of prepossession; but 
 scientific conceit, Rationahsm, the Higher Criticism, 
 so called, and a secular education, make such blessed 
 prepossession an impossibility. For the ver}- being 
 of God is put by this philosophy of sense at the 
 mercy of the creatui'es of His wisdom and power, as 
 requu'ing a personal experience of creation itself, on 
 the ground that otherwise the proof of design is im- 
 possible, and aU evidence of any past communion of 
 God with the human race equally impossible, and all 
 proof of any future existence doubtful, and much 
 ]i: ii;' all assurance of wliat certainties may be be- 
 fore us in that future state. For all these things an 
 anchorage for our souls is necessary in that very cer- 
 tainty, governing all known truth, in which Chi-ist's 
 own existence had its anchorage and its ruling, namely 
 
Fa nil. Doubt, and Evidence. i^j 
 
 an infallible divine revelation, the axiom and grav- 
 itating centre of which for all ages, from God and to 
 God is just this, it is writtex. Making that which 
 Huxley, and a host of imitators have affinned to be 
 bibliolatry, our onl}- security for the worship of God 
 in spirit and in truth, through Him, and His exam- 
 jile, who is the Way, the Truth, the Life. 
 
 The whole of God's revelation must be truth and 
 doctrine, taught by God's authority, from the very 
 beginning. " In the beginning God created the heav- 
 ens and the earth." Pure assertion, but divine in- 
 struction, every word of it, every thought in it; not 
 one iota of proof by human witnesses or science. How 
 could there be? Who was there to see, except it 
 had been the atavistic ghost of Professors Huxley or 
 Tyndall, beholding, out of the prepotency of matter, 
 this fair creation rising. But who created and pre- 
 pared them to behold? The insanity of the demand 
 for proof is equalled only by the moral delirium that 
 denies a Creator, because the creatiu'e could not see 
 and bear witness, as an expert, to the fact of himself 
 coming into existence at the word of an Almighty 
 Being, already visible to an eye and a reasoning 
 mind, itself not yet created! What a concentration 
 of insanities, labelled as science, before which the 
 demonstrations of Christianity must be withdrawn, 
 as wantiusT evidence to the senses ! 
 
/jc? Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 GOD'S METHOD OF A PREPOSSESSING LOVE IN THE 
 HUMAN CONSCIENCE. 
 
 We have said that a prepossession of the con- 
 science by God's truth is God's right as our Crea- 
 tor and Educator, the teacher of our immortality, 
 and of our eternal responsibility to Himself. It is 
 also the wisdom and safety of the creature to be 
 prepossessed by God, and to have His truth grow 
 in us and with us as our life, as its inspiring and 
 guiding, jDrinciple. " Concerning the works of men, 
 by the word of Thy lips, I have kept me from the 
 paths of the Destroyer." This is the rule of thought, 
 feeling and active life projDOunded in that wise and 
 beautiful little gem of George Herbert's jioetry, en- 
 titled "The Elixir": 
 
 "Teach me, my God and King, 
 In all things Thee to see; 
 And what I do in any thing, 
 To do it as for Thee. 
 
 •'Not rudely, as a beast, 
 To run into an action; 
 But still to make Thee i^repossest, 
 And give it Thy perfection." 
 
 It is the characteristic of secularism to run, by 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. i^g 
 
 its veiy axioms, in the matter of education, as far 
 off as possible from God. The secularists are in- 
 defatigable to protect the children from religion as 
 an intruder and despot. Christ is required to de- 
 part out of their coasts, as though the children 
 were a consecrated possession of the god of this 
 world, without the least right of inheritance in the 
 knowledge of another. Sometimes it is as if the ter- 
 ror were on them of being tui-ned by religion into 
 swine. 
 
 God's method is that of prepossessing and pre- 
 venting love. Let Thy tender mercies speedily pre- 
 vent us. Thou preventest' him with the blessings 
 of goodness. This is God's merciful care for oui- 
 immortal natures, forewarning us whom we should 
 fear; also He hath set eternity and the sense of it 
 in their hearts, so fearfully and wonderfully are we 
 made; has sunk the foundations of His everlasting 
 authority in the constitution of the soul, and fas- 
 tened "preventer bolts" for protection of the work- 
 ing of the conscience towards Him. So that, if men 
 but choose to avail themselves of these advantages 
 in the work of education, it is God's mortgage on 
 His own property, made over to the teachers of 
 God's truth, for foreclosure on every generation. 
 
 Such prepossession of the whole being is God's 
 right and man's happiness. Otherwise, the ground 
 
i6o Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 not pre-emjjted and possessed by God's authority 
 will be invaded by Satan, who provides for seven 
 devils, and the last state of that man is worse than 
 the first. He undertook the first scheme of secular 
 education in Eden. 
 
 "Him there they found 
 Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve." 
 
 And now, where God is not, the serjDent is, in 
 heart and mind. And as a man thinketh in his 
 heart, so is he, and such is his development. For 
 the princijiles of heart, mind, character, are there at 
 the foundation, and the whole house of our being is 
 not only raised upon them as a superstructure, but 
 grows out of them with a life and energy derived 
 from them. If we are children of God we are rooted 
 and grounded in Clirist and in His love, and si:)eak- 
 ing the truth in love, we grow up into Him in all 
 things. "We are also buLlded together in Him, in 
 whom all the buildiug, fitly framed together, grow- 
 etli unto a holy teinjile in the Lord, in whom 
 we are builded together for an habitation of God 
 through the Spu'it. All this from the prepossession 
 of God's acre by roots and principles in Christ, by 
 grace and truth in Him from the beginning, from 
 childhood to manhood, in the knowledge of the Son 
 of God. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. i6i 
 
 This is God's divine education in us, with us, for 
 us, that every man may be presented perfect in 
 Christ Jesus, that we be no more children tossed 
 to and fro, as foundlings in Satan's almshouse, and 
 " carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the 
 sleight of men and cunning craftiness," but speak- 
 ing the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all 
 things, which is the head, even Christ, in whom 
 dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily, that 
 we may be complete in Him, being filled by the 
 knowledge of His love with all the fulness of God. 
 These wonderful expressions, and these combinations 
 and commingiings of figures, are but shadows of the 
 glory of that infinitely blissfxil, life-giving education 
 in Christ, which God hath devised for us and put 
 in practice upon us in the powerful attractions of 
 the gospel, having so learned Christ as to be created 
 anew in His image. The Holy Spu-it bearing wit- 
 ness with our spiiit that we are the children of 
 God, the divine consciousness and the human in 
 this regeneration at length becoming one and the 
 same. 
 
 Prevention is better than cure, and prepossession 
 is jjreposition, and if held as firmly as taken, secm'es 
 the victor^'. Prei^osition is power; and preposses- 
 sion in a right way, by the elements of truth, is not 
 only nine-tenths of the law, but, in divine love, is 
 
l62 FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 the "whole law. Let any man take a comioreliensive 
 dictioiiaiy of any language, the English especially, 
 with the references and illustrative quotations, and he 
 can read no more solemn and profoundly instructive 
 pages, even in the most sacred moralists, than he 
 can in tracing the words comjDounded with the gov- 
 erning particles pre and pro. From j)i"e-ftccusation 
 (the very first compound noun occurring in this 
 form, and for the consciousness of guilt how sig- 
 nificant!) down through pre-admonition, precaution, 
 preception, predilection, iDredisjiosition, pre-emption, 
 jore-judication, and so on, to the last of the aljiha- 
 bet, jjresentiment, j)resumi)tion, pretension, preven- 
 tion, jirevision. Forewarned, forearmed. "Preven- 
 ient grace descending," builds lighthouses in our 
 very language for us, foreseeing, foretelling our 
 dangers, our refuges, the reefs, the shoals, the har- 
 bors. Agree with thine adversary quickh', while 
 thou art in the way with him. 
 
 PrejDossession waits on preposition; the last is 
 first, the first follows and holds. So it is with right 
 principles, taking the highest positions and confirmed 
 by habits. In our War of Indej^endence, Ticonder- 
 oga was fortified by the Americans. They had jire- 
 possession. But to have secured that, to have held 
 it against the enemy, there should have been pre- 
 position, higher up, not only of that fort, but of ev- 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. i6j 
 
 erj other higher eminence, from which an enemy, 
 having prepossessed that height, could overlook, 
 overshoot, and dispossess the other. And so the 
 native-born patriots had to move out. It is the 
 warning lesson for a right education, a right begin- 
 ning, a granite foundation. 
 
 There must be jirepossession in some way, and that 
 way ought to be the truth. "When once the truth is 
 discovered, every new soul brought into life ought 
 to be preoccupied with that certainty of truth, and 
 not with doubt or falsehood. The right system of the 
 heavens having been discovered, every child ought to 
 be prepossessed with that knowledge, and not with 
 ignorance or darkness, or the old Ptolemaic system. 
 And so, above all, in religion. The highest fort near- 
 est heaven ought to be taken. And it certainly be- 
 longs to God. To whom else ? If there be a God, 
 thai knowledge ought to be a jorepossession. And 
 if there be a divine revelation, a disclosure and com- 
 mand from God as to our duty and His worship, our 
 life and happiness in Him, that also ought to be a jn-e- 
 posscssion. But if there be a God, the Creator and 
 Father of mankind, there mud ham been a revela- 
 tion; for reason re-afFirms what revelation announces, 
 as a cardinal position for the soul, that " good and 
 upright is the Lord, therefore will He teach sinners 
 in the way." Men could not have lived six thousand 
 
i6jJ. Failli, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 years, or as some of " the scientists " affirm, sixty 
 thousand or a milhon, without God reveahng Himself. 
 
 But from the first moment of God becoming known 
 by divine revelation, there must be that prepossession 
 in the soul by the knowledge of God, and by faith in 
 Him, or the man is no longer a rational creatui'e, but 
 a beast. A rational creature, without a prepossession 
 in behalf of God, is a brute without the excuse of the 
 brute's ignorance. 
 
 There must be opinions that are organic growths 
 and meant to stand and serve like the teeth for the 
 prej)aration of our daily food, like the gastric juice 
 for digestion. Opinions that grind up a multiplicity 
 of facts and thoughts, reducing them to a condition 
 fit for swallowing and assimilation. Of such a na- 
 ture is the inherited cojiviction of the divine inspira- 
 tion of the Bible as the Word of God; a conviction or 
 belief without which the mind is as a ship at sea, dis- 
 masted, rudderless, the sport of winds and waves, the 
 compass useless. "WTienever the south wind blows 
 softly, men are very apt to supj)ose they have ob- 
 tained their purpose, but when neither sun nor stars 
 in many days appear, and the sliij:) can not bear up 
 into the wind, but must be let drive before it, and yo\x 
 can get no observations, nor take reckoning, but are 
 as a cloud carried with a tempest, what is to be done ? 
 This is just the condition of many minds on the 
 
raiiJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 165 
 
 ocean of immortality. They have no compass; they 
 did not take it on board at the beginning of the voy- 
 age ; not a single league of their path has ever been 
 guided by it. 
 
 Now, have the children of the State no right to 
 a compass for their immortality, or, can that safe- 
 guard be justly forbidden in any school? Have the 
 children no rights of such prepossession from God? 
 Are we not guardians for them in this inheritance? 
 " Safer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid 
 them not." Shall the State be permitted to step in 
 between thcna and Christ, to hide His face. His Hght, 
 His truth, from them; to send them forth into the 
 world with every other provision except that one 
 only, which all human experience has taught to be 
 necessary? Shall that one safeguard of character 
 be forbidden, — the conscience towards God, and the 
 knowledge of a Saviour's love ? Can the people 
 convey to the State, as theu* trustees, the power of 
 such an immolation of the children on the altar of 
 Secularism? Is there any right, even in the sin- 
 cerest infidelity, to make such submission of their 
 character, their principles, to the god of this world, 
 for him to write his image and superscription on 
 them? 
 
 " Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and 
 forbid them not," is the central law of God in Christ 
 
i66 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 for tlie education of mankind; and He has given to 
 GUI* States and towns in America the opportunities 
 and advantages of ti'jing this divine experiment on 
 such a scale, and with such security, as no other 
 nation has ever j-ct possessed. The hxw of such edu- 
 cation is as comprehensive and binding as the gold- 
 en law of love. 
 
 Hold a child's mind up to Christ in the arms of 
 faith and prayer, and God, by His Spirit, will pho- 
 tograph the face of Christ uj)on it and within it, 
 and it shall grow in His likeness. A knowledge of 
 the gosj^els wall do this, and it is impossible to teU 
 how little of this light God may bless, or what mid- 
 titudes may have Christ formed within them the hope 
 of glory, even through the apparently insignificant 
 and brief instrumentality of only five minutes' ac- 
 knowledgment of God dail}^ in the reading of the 
 Lord's Prayer, and any one verse or version of 
 Christ's invitations to the soul. But not if you con- 
 ceal the gospel. Not if you shut all knowledge of 
 Christ and prayer out of the school. Not if you 
 prepossess the child's mind with the maxims of this 
 world, and a worldly morality only. Not if you keep 
 the child in ignorance of the very existence and 
 mercy of a Saviour, on the pretence that a single 
 unbelieving conscience has the right to exclude all 
 such knowledge from the school. 
 
Faiik, Doubt, and Evidence. i6y 
 
 XXI7 & xxy. 
 
 METHOD OF THE DESTRUCTIVES. 
 
 Every one of these principles, and even the power 
 of God to make an infallible revelation, is denied by 
 various classes of sceptics; and the very assertion of 
 the duty of belief in God and His Word, and of the 
 wrongfulness of unbelief is affirmed to be a theologi- 
 cal intolerance, an act of bigotry, a persecution of 
 the human mind, and a barrier against the discov- 
 eries of science in the globe, and of tnith in histoiy. 
 This is the argument of Prof. Huxley's frequent 
 consecrations of doubt as a governing scientific prin- 
 ciple, and his sarcasms and contempt of justification 
 by faith as a revealed principle; and in like manner 
 Mr. Eussell Martineau's assertion of Hebrew history, 
 as beginning, because all other histories do, "with 
 mythic Heroes, at a time Avhen the Gods themselves 
 were imagined to people the earth with then- kind." 
 This is the argument of his Translation and com- 
 mendation of "Ewald's History of Israel," namely, 
 tliat as all human histories have theii' begiuniuo- in 
 fables, legends, falsehoods of tradition, therefore, if 
 any thing is caUed or deemed a divine history, it 
 must have begun with the same, and can not be 
 divine. 
 
i68 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 "Hebrew tra-clitiou," says Ewald (vol. i. p. 41), " o)% 
 whatever stage it introduces the Deity, acting and incar- 
 nating itself in history, is alicays mythic on those occa- 
 sions; and it is of no use to deny ihoi in this it ap- 
 proaches the st^'le and nature of heathen mythologies." 
 So, the very foundation of Ewald's History includes a 
 l^rimal denial of God's inspiration of the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. It begins with the arbitraiy dislocation 
 and breaking up of those Scriptures, and then pro- 
 ceeds with conjectures and assumptions of certainty 
 in uninspired imaginary "books of origins," and se- 
 lected fragments and traces of traditions, with guiding 
 analogies adopted from the mythical legends and fab- 
 ulous beginnings of all nations; and so builds ujs a 
 mere human history, that is to take the place of be- 
 lief in the Scri^jtures, their inspiration being first ex- 
 orcised as a falsehood. 
 
 The work of Kvuenen at Leyden, on the " Religion 
 of Israel to the Fall of the Jewish State," is still 
 more destructive, extreme, and sweeping in its in- 
 fidelity, but on the same grounds. The false proph- 
 ets of Judah live over again. First, " they have be- 
 lied the Lord, and said. It is not He." Then, with 
 arra}' of stuj^endous learning, they reason from their 
 own eiTidite myths and ghosts of imaginary books 
 and authors, by which, with assumed dates and tra- 
 ditions, thoy undertake to build up their f^om])OUiid 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. t6g 
 
 reconstructions of a Bible of their own, to be im- 
 posed ui^on men's credulity by their own authority, 
 instead of the Hebrew Scriptures. And so, as of old, 
 " from the prophets of the deceit of then* own hearts 
 they speak a vision not out of the mouth of the Lord; 
 dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor, 
 causing the people to err by their hes and theii* Hght- 
 ness; so that profaneness is gone forth into all the 
 land." 
 
 The description in Jer. xxiii. is of "a horrible thing" ; 
 yet it is renewed to-day in such works as these of 
 Ewald and Kuenen, Colenso and Renan; and it is af- 
 firmed that " the mythical system, as understood and 
 Avieldcd by its chief ma^ler.^, is any thing but destruc- 
 tive of histoiy, and rather viakes a history where before 
 there was none." 
 
 It invents an enormous and demoralizing forgery, 
 continued and connived at through more than a thou- 
 sand years, and then endows that forgerv with a new- 
 creating sanctifying life and power, denied to have 
 over existed in God's truth, or come from heaven. A 
 falsehood is installed as the omnipotent deity of He- 
 brew history, and we are commended to its results 
 in the piety of Josiah, as a proof of the subHme ge- 
 nius of its author ! 
 
 The regeneration of a whole kingdom and peojile, 
 and their being instantly brought back from idolatry 
 
I JO Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 to God's pure woi-sliip, through the efficacy of a 
 forged law-book, by an imknowu author, -without a 
 single proof or authentication, and by a conspivAcy 
 of priests, is a niu-acle, that only Ewald's rational 
 credulity, denying all divine insi^iration, couJd digest. 
 Yet this is the piuified and restored history of Israel. 
 " All exegesis," says Havemick, " which bids such de- 
 fiance to aU the rules of sound hermeneutics, and 
 supposes a concerted scheme of forger)', such as was 
 affirmed by De Wette, Ls indeed undaserving of any 
 fui-ther refutation." — ^See Havemick on the Penta- 
 teuch, Sec. 28-35. And compare Stillingiieet, " Orig- 
 ines Sacrse," Vol. L, Book 2, on the impossibUit}' of a 
 forgery of the Laws of Moses. 
 
 There is no jx)ssibility of a liistoiy of the Jewish 
 people aiid church without the Old Testament Script- 
 urea 
 
 Now then, if we take those Scriptures as history' 
 at all, or the foimdation of history, ive have to build 
 xqxjn ivlicd tl\eij i-ecord, as originating facts and prin- 
 ciples. We can not turn out the living soul, and 
 j)ut in place of it an automaton chess-jilayer of our 
 own const ruction, and call that liistovy. "We can not 
 e.xorcise a divine iaispiration from the chaa'tuiters and 
 their biograpliies, as if the reality were a demon, 
 and the rcx;ox\l of it a fjilsehood, and then proceed 
 to manufactiu'c a liiiitory out of tuu- own supposi- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidejicc. ijT 
 
 tion, conjecture, and sagacity, instead of thai which 
 testifies in the Hebrew ttooks. There is no history to 
 deal with, nor any that can be constructed, without 
 admitting a divine inspiration, and tracing its work. 
 For it is that which has created and preserved the 
 nation, and any treatment of the history Avithout that 
 is unhistorical and false. It is that, and only that, 
 which has produced and maintained all the influ- 
 ence of the nation, and of its history, over other 
 nations, and has connected its history with Chris- 
 tianit}', as the vertebra of the human frame are 
 connected with, and govern, the whole development 
 of the perfect human being, body, soul, and spirit. 
 
 For the history is in the ideas, and the ideas are in 
 the history, its grasping and assimilating life, the very 
 power and method of God's manifestation, and the 
 connection and progress from the beginning, till in 
 Christ " the life is manifested," and in Him the Jew- 
 ish history expands into th? Christian, whose eye wit- 
 nesses and Christ — inspired recorders " bear witness, 
 and show unto us that Eternal Life, which was -with 
 tlie Father, and was manifested unto them." The 
 whole of modern histoiy, from « that era is only a 
 huge myth and mist, except the histoiy of the Jew- 
 ish nation and church be accepted as true, with God 
 in it. If men can make God a liar in His own rev- 
 elation of His own providential and spiritual work, 
 
1^2 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 there is no God, and what men call history, or pre- 
 tend to have accurately filtered out of divine false- 
 hood, is nothing but a compound of atheism and 
 tying. " If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom 
 do your children cast them out ? " By whom do 
 Ewald, Kuenen and Colenso cast out Moses as a 
 devil, and install the dagons of their own invention 
 as deities of their own reconstructed Bible ? 
 
 This treatment of the history of the Jewish church 
 is unhistorical, even supposing the Scrii:)tural records 
 were merely human, and to be dealt with as such. 
 Tor if you deal with these books as mere ordinary 
 uninsi>ired literature, such as the early histories of 
 Greece and Rome, you are bound to note what is 
 actually in them, what they testify in regard to God, 
 and His purposes, interj^ositions, teachings, and dis- 
 cij^line; you are bound to state all this in full, and 
 to show what it really is in the histories; making a 
 people uuder God's supernatural, providential and 
 spiritual training. You are at liberty, indeed, after 
 relating all this, to say as atheists, if you choose, 
 that this was mere fanaticism or suj^erstition, and 
 that God never was .thus present, manifesting Him- 
 self to these Jews, and teaching them and providing 
 for their spiritual as well as temporal needs, and 
 making them a peculiar i)eople by covenant miracles 
 and grace. You are free to blaspheme, if you will. 
 
Faii/i, Doubt, and Evidence. lyj 
 
 But the real history of the peojole is one of God's 
 presence among them, and deahngs with them, and 
 acknowledged sovereignty over them, and of divine 
 ideas and potencies, constituting all their truth, her- 
 oism, and superiority. And to take this history on 
 the princii:)le and premise that it is merely human, 
 not divine, and therefore that the divine in it is 
 falsehood, so that, in order to get at the truth 
 you must, by your own conjectures and theories, 
 without evidence, dej^hlogisticate it of God, immor- 
 tality, and spiritual life, and then present the remain- 
 ing caput moHuum as the accurate result defecated of 
 superstition, just as Wolfe and Niebuhr exorcised 
 the myths and falsehoods of time, superstition and 
 ignorance from antic^ue Greek and Roman poetic 
 and historic remains; — this is as uncritical and un- 
 philosophical as it is irreverent, arrogant, and ir- 
 religious. 
 
 This deracinating, dislocating, ruthless process of 
 confusion and darkness, uj)on God's spiritiial crea- 
 tions for man's eternal life, is well called the Criti- 
 cism of Destructives; though it boasts of being the 
 i:)erfection of keen, discriminating, fearless, reason- 
 ing, as of supematm-ally endowed detectives or ex- 
 perts. The process is that of a Simoom, a whii-lwind 
 of suflbcating flame. The Decalogue is a falsehood, 
 and the Leviticiil Law and ritual a mere buttressing 
 
ijjf. FdilJi, Djiut, aiii Ejidcncc. 
 
 and dragging mechauisni ' in the hands of the "bnl- 
 lock-slaj'ing, fumigating, ignorant servants of the sac- 
 rificial slaughter-house." AU this brutal caricature is 
 put forth as history, and by it the Old Testament 
 is of less worth than the Egyjotian Book of the 
 Dead. The most sacred things become the jest of 
 blasjohemy and scoi'n; the house of prayer a den of 
 thieves; the types of Christ a dictionary of the fe- 
 tisches of cruelty and superstition. 
 
 Instead of being, as in our Lord's interpretation, 
 to the adoring joy of His disciples, the great con- 
 stant prevision, the foreshining light, of the Aton- 
 ing Sacrifice, the presence and mercy beforehand 
 of the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of 
 the world, through which guilty men might be made 
 to feel the burden of sin, and be trained to faith and 
 penitential prayer for pardon, the whole scheme is 
 an elaborate, repulsive, blasj)heming fraud. All the 
 glory disappears, abstracted, as the life fi'om a se- 
 raphic body, so that the remnant becomes a corjDse, 
 and if preserved at all, is only by critical and rhetor- 
 ical embalming, for mechanical j^urposes, but with no 
 spiritual redeeming truth left, or ever intended. 
 
 The master-key of a divine interpretation being 
 tlirown away, our compasses broken up, and the his- 
 tory searched only on the theory of its not being in- 
 s^Dii'ed, the discovery of truth by lecturers on the 
 
Faiih, DoilM, and Evidence. ij^ 
 
 people and tlieir liistoiy, with sucli pre-suppositions, 
 becomes impossible. It is as if, in j)assing- through a 
 wilderness where a family has been lost, or on an ex- 
 j)edition such as sought for Sir John Franklin in the 
 Arctic regions, you began by destro3'ing all the way- 
 marks and rehcs of the wanderers, and obliterating 
 the trails, by which a lost company might be traced 
 and rescued, esj^ecially the crosses, by which j-ou 
 might know that Clu-istiau believers, not pagans or 
 savages, made those marks. So with the painful at- 
 tempt to disenchant the Hebrew Scriptures of their 
 divine types, their ministering angehc Presences, their 
 sui^ernatural proi>itiatory testimonies. The treatment 
 of the history as merely human results necessarily in 
 the expulsion and denial of Christ and His atoning 
 sacrifice; the faith and hope of pardon and justifica- 
 tion in and through Him are abolished instead of 
 death and hell being abolished; and eve nj trace of any 
 divine purpoi<e of redemption through His blood is taken 
 away. Compare all this with such a work of spir- 
 itual truth and glory as that of Edward's "History 
 of Redemption ! " 
 
 Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good 
 we oft might win; how much more when we set them 
 up as the only authoritative and reHable guides. The 
 doubts of Job, and of every earnest seeker after 
 God, are full of eternal light; it is that which in 
 
7/<5 FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 the twilight they are searcliing after; but tliese men's 
 scornful certainties are the blackness of darkness 
 forever. 
 
 A bad workman quarrels with his tools, and himself 
 undertaking to mend them, when he does not know 
 their j^urpose, only spoils them, and his own work 
 with them. 
 
 The gospels themselves are but seeds, diagrams 
 for demonstration, hfe-lines, outlines, signals from 
 Christ, presentations of Himself, to be followed and 
 filled in by a loving, beheving, and therefore apjareci- 
 ative and discerning heai-t, seeking and receiving the 
 Holy Spint's guidance. They are as the buds in 
 spring, not to be understood but by gi'owing into 
 flower and finiit. Set in a believing heai't they dis- 
 close themselves, revealing Clu'ist. It is God shin- 
 ing into the heart to give the light of the knowledge 
 of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Chi-ist. In 
 God's light, we see Hght. 
 
 Set in an unbelieving, insensible, prayerless heart, 
 they wither and die. Not even a shadow, or guess, 
 or type of their fulfilment and final meaning is dis- 
 closed, and so, doubt, denial and despau*, take the 
 l^lace of faith, hoi)e and celestial assurance. If the 
 means given you for working yourselves out of the 
 wilderness of si^eculative doubt be turned into in- 
 struments for the destruction of celestial waymai'ks, 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. lyy 
 
 what can become of the soul! And how miserable 
 the critical work of those who lend thoniselves to this 
 effort ! 
 
 What remains to be reconstructed, or wha« worth 
 reconstructing with all theso certainties thrown away '? 
 How reconstruct a piece of tapestry, when j-ou have 
 not only torn it into fi*agmeuts and cast into the fire 
 the original sketch, with the colored thread repre- 
 senting it, but destroyed the loom? An atoning 
 Saviour denied, an infallible revelation annihilated, 
 all the personalities, laws, ceremonies, promises, fore- 
 telling and t3-pif3'ing Christ, dissolved, as with sul- 
 phuric acid, there is neither basis of fact, nor spir- 
 itual design, nor outline, nor motive. 
 
 Now by what rule shall the reconstruction proceed ? 
 By the letter? They renounce it, as false and of 
 no worth. By the Spirit ? Thej' deny that, deny 
 all inspiration of the letter, and the mind of the 
 Spirit. By the plan of God, or any discovered divine 
 purpose? They reject that, and set down God's 
 transactions with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, as merest 
 myths. By the analogy of Faith, so called, which 
 tlie reasoning and comparing mind discovers from 
 all the materials before it ? The}' deny that as imag- 
 inary or dogmatic. By the interpretation of Christ ? 
 The very purpose of theu' criticism is to contradict 
 that, and prove it false. They will reconstruct by 
 
lyS FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 rejecting Christ's toachiug, and Paul's and Joliu's 
 testimony, and setting up pure assumptions and 
 falsehoods in place of truth. 
 
 They dispute the facts; they deny the ideas. 
 
 "We take the facts, not to prejudge them as fables, 
 but to find their meaning; and we demonstrate the 
 facts by the ideas. The moment we understand the 
 ideas, the facts change from dead or doubtful let- 
 ters to living and quickening elements of divine life. 
 Touched with celestial fire, what were before as mere 
 rolls of chemical ingredients fastened to wheels or 
 sticks, shoot flaming into the heavens, and we read 
 their meaning, and the facts become orbs of light. 
 We have to receive the facts, and try God's appointed 
 experiments with them, in a believing, not a destruc- 
 tive, scorning spirit. A diamond will burn in oxygen. 
 Deny the oxygen, and youi* diamond is more incom- 
 bustible than anthracite coal. The oxygen is your 
 believing and experimenting atmosphere. It is es- 
 sential to the miracle. When Christ says, " Without 
 me ye can do nothing," it is the me of God's Word, 
 and not of rational criticism. Without your faith, I 
 can do nothing. It is the I am as divinely revealed, 
 without whose admitted and beloved presence, no 
 faith is possible, but only darkness, not light. The 
 just shall live by his faith. The facts of revelation, 
 that were as a valley of dry bones with ravening 
 
FailJi, Doubt, and Evidence. lyg 
 
 wolves gnaw-ing at them, stand up an exceeding great 
 army by the Spirit of God breathing through them. 
 
 The history of Israel and the Old Testament Books, 
 appealed to by Christ as God's Word, become, under 
 the manipulation of these scholars, what Carlyle said 
 of one of the brightest periods in English history, 
 mangled and crushed in the same way, "a divine 
 heroi.wi touched icilh Oie mace of death, and so smoth- 
 ered, that no human soul shall henceforth recognize 
 it for a heroism; a dismal labyrinth, where centmies 
 have rotted down, and gone confusedly dumb, under 
 this art of burying heroisms and highest facts in 
 chaos." It is not men, but nightmares that have 
 wi'itten and painted these monstrous caricatures, 
 instead of angels walking with Adam and Eve, and 
 messengers from God, clothed with the rainbows of 
 His promises in the new creating Redeemer of our 
 fallen race. 
 
 In these pretences of a rational reconstruction, 
 there is not recognized, even in idea, the sublime 
 work of God's love in the promise and coming of 
 Christ to bear our sins, — nor any imagination of the 
 divine creation and history of the Jewish Church be- 
 ing to foreshadow and prepare for the Lamb of God 
 who taketh away the sin of the world. 
 
 There is an artificial depression of the true heav- 
 enly horizon below the visible. Celestial truth is 
 
iSo Faiths Doitbt, and Evidence. 
 
 sunk, and the world, -vvitli all its pageantry, set forth 
 shining in sj)lendor. It is the work of machinists, 
 scene-painters and changers, theatrical curtain man- 
 agers, who know nothing of the heavenly meaning 
 of the Great Divine Tragedy, finished with the words, 
 "My God! my God! Why hast thou forsaken me." 
 
 Now suppose such a series of prophecies to have 
 been given, and historical frames, in which they 
 have been set (for without such margins they could 
 never come to us authenticated), and suppose the 
 personage to have appeared, whom they foretold, 
 would it be j^ossible for any nation or j)eople to re- 
 ceive such a messenger, without the authentication 
 of his credentials? But being once so authenticated 
 and received, could any friend of his, or believer in 
 his divine authority, deny his passports, or accuse 
 his documents of forgery, without proving himself 
 an enemy? And especially could he pretend to be 
 a friend, if, on account of some conjecture of an in- 
 terpolation, or supj)Osed discovery of anachronisms, 
 or mistake of dates, or archaisms in language, he 
 should so disparage and discountenance the vouchers, 
 as to make men believe that they had been tampered 
 with by rogues ? 
 
 Suppose you have a portrait by Raphael or Titian. 
 Shall a piece of gilding, broken away from the frame, 
 or a l)it of stucco inserted in the wood, deprive you of 
 
Faith, Doitbi, and Evidence. i8i 
 
 yoiu- evidence ? Suppose the portrait is accompauied 
 by seals of its genuineness, and vouchers from original 
 witnesses, such as you can not reject, without actually 
 rejecting as a fable the real existence of such painters 
 at the era assigned them in history. Shall the conjec- 
 tured interj)olation of a word or words, or chronolog- 
 ical alteration of some i-ecorded events, ^^Test from 
 you the assurance of your proj^erty ? Or, if you have 
 so studied the midisputed works of Raphael and Ti- 
 tian, that you can with utmost confidence decide for 
 yourself, will you permit those paintings to pass from 
 your possession as forgeries, through the criticism of 
 men upon flaws which they have detected in the frames, 
 or the pretended discovery of colors affirmed never to 
 have been in use by painters till long after the time 
 when the works of Raphael and Titian were finished '? 
 Let God be true, but every man a liar ! This very 
 proverb stands for its whole excellenc}^ upon the as- 
 sumption that God has really spoken to mankind, and 
 not only through the laws of nature, but of speech 
 and human thought, conveying the realities and meth- 
 ods of God's attributes and government and laws 
 for our good. xVnd if God has thus spoken, then 
 xohal He has spoken is infallibly true, and may be 
 certainly discerned; for it could not be infaUible 
 for you or me, if we could neither discern its meau- 
 inflr nor its truth. 
 
iS2 Faith, 'Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 But 3'et this infallibility must be enshrined in hu- 
 man words, which being human are' not divine, and 
 can not be, except by God's Si)irit directing them, 
 suggesting them, for the conveyance of absolute 
 truth fi-om Him. If God has no command of lan- 
 guage and can suggest none to mankind, by which 
 He can address or convey the conceptions of immor- 
 tality and eternity to the soul, then He can never 
 commune with His own creatures, nor can there be 
 any responsibility or accountability from them to 
 Him. If eternal results are hanging upon such re- 
 sponsibility, and yet the creatures who are to meet 
 them can not even understand them, or command 
 any terms in which they may be as sure of their 
 reality, as they are of the being of God, what is 
 called a divine revelation would be of no more use 
 to men destitute of the idea of eternity, than a 
 turnip cut into the shape of a watch could be of 
 use to us for the measurement of time and for the 
 guidance of our conduct accordingly. So that to 
 common sense and uncommon, metai^hysically, math- 
 ematically, morally, theologically, in ever}' way an 
 infaUible divine insi^iration is for us an axiom of 
 all reasoning, if we really have a Father in heaven. 
 It is a divine insi^iration or atheism, and to this all 
 the issues must come. 
 
 If we have an infallible inspiration, then God haLh 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. i8j 
 
 made us and will redeem us, trusting in Him. If 
 not, tlicrc is no God, and death is an eternal slee^i. 
 For neither nature nor revelation could ever make 
 real or credible the eternity of matter without souls, 
 or of souls without a Father, or of guilt Avithout 
 disobedience to His known commands, or of pardon 
 for sin without His mercy. And a clear conveyance 
 of the way and the terms of such mercy is abso- 
 lutely essential to human behef in a Heavenly Fa- 
 ther. And therefore Christ says, " No man can come 
 to me, except the Father that hath sent me draw 
 hun." And this divine gravitation is upon every 
 human being, by His Word, and His Spirit, and 
 the constraint of an eternity to come. Both His 
 "Word and His Spii'it may act upon consciences and 
 hearts when we do not see it, and may reveal Christ 
 where we do not know it. But that Chi'ist must 
 be revealed, and infaUibly revealed, in order to sal- 
 vation, is as sure as that God exists, and mamtains 
 a righteous government over His universe. 
 
 " Every spmt that confesseth that Jesus Christ 
 is come in the flesh is of God." To make that 
 confession, the inspiration of the Old Testament 
 Scriptures, Moses and the Law, the Prophets and 
 the Psalms foretelling and describing Christ, is inev- 
 itably presupposed and acknowledged. If not, there 
 is no Christ, nor any need, nor any possibility oi 
 
jS^ FaitJiy Doubt y and Evidence. 
 
 Him, nor any truth or trust iu God. So that here 
 we stand on the way to eternity, with Christ the 
 Author and Finisher of Faioh our Teacher, and with- 
 out Him, atheism and despair. 
 
 And in order to the conquest of the worhl for 
 Christ, the old apologetic style of defence must be 
 abandoned, and the method of aggressive, imflineh- 
 ing, indisputable truth pursued. To this end, every 
 candidate for the ministry ought to be able to say, 
 I can read familiarly not only the Greek Testament, 
 but the Hebrew Bible, and I believe in Christ, as 
 the sole Divine Interpreter of it, the Author and 
 Finisher of Faith, and that ever}^ j^art of Scripture 
 which He received as the truth of God we may and 
 must also receive, or we can not be His disciples, 
 because, if we reject His testimony we accuse Him 
 of falsehood. And the issues between truth and 
 falsehood we know to be eternal. 
 
 On no other ground but of eternity and its con- 
 sequences, could Paul ever ask, Who is sufficient 
 for these things ? for this work of preaching ? For 
 any man is sufficient, whether with Hebrew or Greek, 
 or only Sanscrit or English, if there is no infallible 
 standard given us of discrimination between truth 
 and falsehood. The ministry of Christ is no more 
 • sacred than any other ministry, if by any other souls 
 can be saved. And there need be none at all, if tliere 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. iS 
 
 J 
 
 are no souls to be lost. Any man is sufficient for 
 these things, if all souls are to be saved at any rate. 
 There is no call for a ministry to asseii such truth; 
 for neither could any harm come from its denial, 
 nor any gain from its belief. 
 
 These sceptical conjectui'ers and scalpers in their 
 Avork ujjon the Bible are like the societies of body 
 suatchers whose jDurpose is to get subjects for dis- 
 section. Only there is this gx-eat difference: — the 
 body snatchers j^^foi'tn their icork v]x>n. the dead (hat 
 tJiey may know the better how to cure the licituj; but 
 these dissectors of the Scriptures do their work of 
 cutting and slashing to j^f'oi^e that there is nothing hut 
 dead matter at all; no living soul, no inspiring Si:)irit, 
 all merely human, nothing divine. If it were not for 
 the society preventing cruelty to animals they would 
 as soon cut and slash a living body as a dead one. 
 No reverence for the Maker of the human frame 
 woidd deter them. Rationalism is grounded in ma- 
 terialism. The writings of Moses command no more 
 respect than those of Livy and Herodotus. The 
 criticism upon both is the same; no divine prepos- 
 session is admitted. They burke the lining that they 
 may show then- skill in dissecting them as dead. 
 
i86 JFaith, Doitbt, and Evidence. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 THE RULE AND REGULATOR OF OUR REASON IN 
 THE WORD OF GOD — OUR COMPASS AND CHRO- 
 NOMETER FOR TLME AND ETERNITY. 
 
 " Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I 
 may have Eternal Life? And He said unto him, 
 Wh}^ callest thou Me good? There is none good 
 but One, that is God. But if thou wHt enter into 
 life, keep the commandments; and come, follow Me." 
 Matt. xix. IG, 17, 21. "What is written in the Law? 
 How readest thou ? " 
 
 Only from God to man can we reason rightly, not 
 from man to God. It is clear fi'om these passages 
 that eternal life, not temporal, was the great ques- 
 tion at issue among the intelligent Jews, conversant 
 with the Scriptures, when Christ came to fulfil them. 
 By His own sufferings and death He j^ut it beyond 
 all doubt that all the words of God to man, the 
 creature, take their imj^ort and their coloring for 
 the soul, from the Eternity and Hohness of the Cre- 
 ator and Pi-escrvcr. "The eternal God is th}^ ref- 
 uge, and underneath thee are the Everlasting Arms." 
 Deut. xxxiii. 27, and Psalm xc. 1, 2. "I hft up my 
 hand to heaven and sa^', / live forever.'' — Deut. 
 
Faith, Doiibl, and Evidence. iSj 
 
 xxxii. 40. "As I live, saith the Loud, I have no 
 pleasure iu the death of the wicked, but that the 
 wicked tuni from his way and live. Turn ye, for 
 why will 3'e die?" — Ezek. xxxiii. 11. Life and death 
 take their meaning from God's life and attributes. 
 These are the sanctions of the Divine Law; and thus 
 the song and the blessing of Moses, the blessing and 
 the curse, are derived for all races and generations, 
 from that one word of God's life applied to man's. 
 Forever. 
 
 "I shall begin Avitli this," says Bishop Butler, open- 
 ing his Analogy, " which is the foundation of all our 
 hopes and of all our fears, luhich are of any condder- 
 aiion. I mean a Future Life." Butler was a writer 
 who weighed his words, if ever reasoner did; and in 
 all his reasonings he meant a future exdless Life, 
 and the present, for the future. 
 
 The grave, profound, irresistible solemnity with 
 which his arguments are thus weighted, is the qual- 
 ity that gives his book its power over the soul. If 
 the world to come were not a state of endless des- 
 tinies, determined by our use of this world, things 
 here would be of little moment. A stewardship that 
 ends with this life is small indeed and trifling. There 
 is no such stewardship. Every man lives for Eternity. 
 And this attribute of God's Eternity (God inhabiting 
 Eternity, and all that love Him ever Uving in and 
 
l8S Faith, Doitbt, and Evidence. 
 
 with Him), is that 1)y which alone we can measure 
 Time, or know its vahie. We have to " box this com- 
 pass " on the voyage of life, and we can traverse its 
 magnetisms of Divine intelligence with God only. 
 
 This, and nothing less, can be the reading and 
 meaning of the declaration in the eleventh verse of 
 the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, which, with the im- 
 mediate context, is the key to that wondrous book 
 (as indeed to aU the pages of the Scrij)tures), name- 
 ly, (1) that God hath set Eternity (oJam) in the heart 
 of the sons of men ; (2) so that no man can find out 
 the work that God maketh from the beginning to the 
 end. And (3) whatsoever God doeth it shall be for- 
 ever olam ; (4) nothing can be put to it, nor (5) any 
 thing taken from it; and God doeth it, (G) that men 
 should fear before Him; and God (7) requireth that 
 vhich is pad; for (8) God shall judge the righteous 
 and the wicked; for (9) there is a time there, up there, 
 (10) for everij i^urpose and every icorlc." 
 
 Here are concentrated ten particulars, that God 
 only could reveal, concerning His own Eternity, and 
 man's immortality, their connection and consequences. 
 
 Our English version translates the word olam in 
 the eleventh verse, as the icorld ; out of which transla- 
 tion no interpreter can gather any intelligent mean- 
 ing; but a sceptic could certainly say, If God has set 
 this world in men's hearts, no wonder that they are 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. iSg 
 
 incorrigibly worldly. But the same word (olam) oc- 
 curring in the fourteenth verse, our translators have 
 rendered it justly "Whatsoever God doeth, forever. 
 The eleventh and fourteenth verses must have the 
 same meaning, for any congruity whatever in the 
 reasoning, or any vmderstanding of the jDassage. 
 For, what possible consistent significance can there 
 be in it, unless men know the meaning of forever 
 as defined by God's own existence and law, binding 
 men to an eternal accountableness in all their de- 
 signs and doings before Him? Men's language, in 
 order to reveal God's truth, must, in all things of 
 eternal significance, be defined by God's being and 
 attributes, any measurement of which God alone can 
 teach. 
 
 How otherwise should men fear before Him, except 
 only for this, Avhicli is added; that God requireth that 
 which i.< pa.-<t, and that God will judge the righteous 
 and the wicked for evenj purpose and for ecery ivork. 
 Comj)are the words of Moses, " Even according to thy 
 feai-, so is thy wrath." — Psalm xc. 11. A man must 
 believe this, and act accordingly, for if he does not, 
 there is no returning to this world after death, to 
 coiTect any of his mistakes by the light of an eternal 
 experience ; for if he does not believe in God's learn- 
 ings, who shall bring him to see what shall be after 
 him? There are only these two sources of knowl- 
 
I go Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 edge; sight iu regard to tlie present, and faith in 
 regard to the future; and if any man denies or dis- 
 believes the future, he must walk on in darkness, for 
 it can not possibly be made known to huu in any 
 other way than by revelation from the Omniscient 
 God, Avho was and is and is to come, who inhabilelh 
 elernUy, and knows from eternity to eternity, all 
 things and consequences. 
 
 Therefore the divine assurance of good for man iu 
 this life, looking to that which is to come, but which 
 he has never yet tried, and can not try, till this life 
 is ended, is to rejoice in God, and in Grod's own beau- 
 tiful things, and to do good in this life. That is the 
 travail which God hath given to the sons of men out 
 of His own divine mercy, for theu* good. This is 
 God's infinite benevolence, the blessed theology of 
 the Old as of the New Testament, this sum of God's 
 law of life and happiness revealed to His children, to 
 glorify God and enjoy Him forever; a God keeping 
 covenant and mercy, that all people of the earth may 
 fear ///j??.— Compare I Kings viii. 39-43. This cov- 
 enant-requisition, the beneficent Father hath given, 
 not imposed, nor exacted, but bestowed on man as 
 the most blessed of all possible gifts, the poAver and 
 privilege of doing good now on earth, and so enjoying 
 the good of all his labor forever. I know that there 
 is no profit in workmg but this. And this is God's 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. igi 
 
 gracious and merciful discipline for man, that eveiy 
 man should enjoy the good of all his labor. This is 
 the gift of God. 
 
 This is the very gospel of God in Deuteronomy 
 and Ecclesiastes; the gift of God ui Christ, the loving 
 and blessed yoke of His mercy upon men. Take ]\Iy 
 yoke upon you, and learn of ]\Ie, and enter and pos- 
 sess the heaven on earth of working for God and 
 man by love. There is nothing better than that a 
 man should thus rejoice in his own works. It is his 
 l^ortion, if he will receive it, in faith and love. And 
 God answereth him in the joy of his heaH, with the 
 peace of God that passeth all undei'standing. "It 
 is your life," said Moses, "O people saved by the 
 Lord, to walk in aU His ways, and to love Him." 
 "The just shall Hve by his faith," said Habakkuk; 
 "Faith which worketh by love, and is the fulfilhng 
 of the law," said Paul and Peter and James and 
 John. This is the travail, which God hath given to 
 men, to be exercised thereby. Tliis announcement 
 clears up a thousand difficulties, povu-ing upon them 
 the light of God's love, and revealing the gloiy, even 
 as i:»olarized light discloses the internal magiiificence, 
 the stnic-tural mystery and beauty of crystalhzation. 
 
 And the whole book of Ecclesiastes is a calcula- 
 tion for the settlement of mortal accounts for noth- 
 ing less than Eteniity, and a judgment there. You 
 
ig2 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 might stumble tlii'ough the book in deej) perplexity; 
 but when, at the close, you turn the great conclu- 
 sion, as a calcium or druramond light, or flash of 
 lightning, back over the whole, it is at once plain 
 and grand, gloomy and glorious. It is because eter- 
 nal life, nothing less, depends, that these books of 
 profit and loss, outcries for light, quagmires, strug- 
 gles, paradoxes, parables, sphinxes, Sittings of gigan- 
 tic formless images of conflict to and fro, are given; 
 it is because eternal life, nothing less, depends. 
 
 God alone, who could thus say. All souh are Mine, 
 has the power and right, the benevolence and wis- 
 dom, to iu struct lis as immortal beings, created with 
 eternal resj^onsibilities towards Him. In His light, 
 vxdking in it, we see and know love and light as His 
 whole nature, and how to avail ourselves of these at- 
 tributes. For in Christ (without whom there is no 
 Book of Life, nor Word of God, either Old or New) 
 it is love and light wTestling, all the way, with man's 
 sinfulness, unbelief, and darkness. "Thou hast de- 
 stroyed th}scli, but in Me is thy help." That is the 
 hidorij; and God in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
 Himself, and calling to mankind, "Ketarn unto Me, 
 and be ye reconciled to God, for I have redeemed 
 THEE " (not that thou mai/d hn redcrmed), is the only 
 solution of its continued, unfathomable mysteries. I 
 have found a Ransom for thee. 
 
Faith, DouhL and Evidence. igj 
 
 "By anguish which made pale the sun, 
 I hear Him charge Ilis saints that nono 
 Among His creatures anywhere 
 Blaspheme against Him with despair, 
 However darkly days go on. 
 
 "I knock and cry, Undone, undone! 
 Is there no help, no comfort, none? 
 No gleaning in the wide wheat plains, 
 Where others drive their loaded wains ? 
 My vacant days go on, go on!" 
 
 "Why sayest Chou this, O Israel, my way is hid 
 from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over 
 fi'om my God ? Hast thou not known, hast thou not 
 heard, that the EvERL.vsTiNa God, the Lord, the Cre- 
 ator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is 
 weary?" EcerlasUng; and therefore, trusting in Him, 
 thou and thy way, thy blessedness, everlasting also. 
 
 "This faithful and unchanging God 
 Lays the foundation of our hope 
 In oaths and promises and blood," 
 
 Constant to His covenant of eternal mercy for all 
 soids thai trust in Hint and seek forgiveness fi-om Him. 
 But by the same necessity, the sinful soul that wUl 
 not change its own character, when invited, bani,^ies 
 itiic'f forever, not by God's edict, but against God's 
 
/^-/ Faith, Doubt., and Evidence. 
 
 promise, from God's pi'esence, in which alone is the 
 fountain of life and the possibility of blessednesa 
 
 Everlasting, and therefore Butler, at the close of 
 his Analogy said, as his warning- to an age of scoffers, 
 " If men can go on to vilif}^ or disregard Christianity, 
 which is to talk and act as if they had a demonstra- 
 tion of its falsehood, there is no reason to think they 
 would alter their behavior to any purjjose, though 
 there were a demonstration of its truth." Everlast- 
 ing; and in the poetiy of Cowper (of which Frank- 
 lin was so hearty an admirer) as well as the logic 
 of Butler, millions of earnest tliinkers and enquu'ers 
 have i-ead the answer of Eternal Truth for a doubt- 
 ing conscience. 
 
 "Man, on the dubious waves of EiTor tossed, 
 His sliip half-toiiudered, aud his compass lost. 
 Sees, far as huunm optics may command, 
 A sleeping fog, and fancies it dry land; 
 Spreads all his canvas, every sinew plies; 
 Piints for it, aims at it, enters it, aud dies ! 
 Then farewell all self-satisfying schemes, 
 His well-built sj'stems, philosophic dreams; 
 Deceitful views of fnture bliss, farewell ! 
 He reads his sentence at the flames of helL 
 
 "Hard lot of man — to toil for the reward 
 Of virtue, aud yet lose It ? "WTierefore hard ? 
 He that would win the race must guide bis horse 
 Obedient to the customs of the course; 
 
Faith, Dottbty and Evidence. ig^ 
 
 Else, though unequalled to the goal he flies, 
 A meaner than himself shall gain the prize. 
 Grace leads the right way; if you choose the wrong, 
 Take it, — and perish, — but restrain your tongue. 
 Charge not, with light sufficient, and left free, 
 Your wilful suicide on God's decree." 
 
 "We wander up and down the Scrijitures, and we 
 stumble everj-where ui^on the footsteps, the path- 
 ways, and the thoughts of men as to what they are 
 living for and whither they are going. The book 
 of Job is a chart of men's wanderings and crossings, 
 questionings and disputations; great thinkers, lost 
 sometimes, and striving for indications of the way 
 out; great positivists, doubters, affirmers, despairers, 
 hopers; but the cud, God and Eternity; no doubt 
 of those two realities. And places where the light is 
 so strong and illuminating for all mankind, that the 
 whole book is transfigured, and the wilderness, and 
 darkest labp-iuths are explored as at noonday. 
 
 And the book of Psalms; what a throng of char- 
 acters and opinions wandering there; sometimes as 
 on the shores of Acheron, sometimes in the fields and 
 by the streams of Paradise. But all, even tlirough 
 sin and death and misery and darkness, or in great 
 power and pride of uubehef and sensual enjoyment, 
 all tending jjlainly to the same Eternity and final 
 settlement of accounts. 
 
ig6 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 Here is a traveller crying out, Unless Thy law 
 had been my delight, I had then perished in mine 
 aiBiction. What does he mean? For death is the 
 one certainty that all acknowledge and none can es- 
 cape. But he has escaped. The Lawgiver is his 
 Friend and Father. He certainly was not a mere ma- 
 terialist. He did not take the Law of God as a guide 
 for this world merely, nor for any thing that it prom- 
 ised in this world. This man must perish, anyway, 
 as to this world; he must die; all must die. But in 
 the midst of affliction, the "Word of God kept his soul 
 in confidence of a better world, and he was going 
 to an eternal refuge and rest in God. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 FAITH IN GOD OR MAN, ONE OR THE OTHER— 
 WHICH IS MOST REASONABLE? 
 
 This is the conflict; Materialism against Immortal- 
 ity; Sense and Time against Faith and Eternity. And 
 it is the see-sawing between these ideas, as planks 
 or walking-beams, that governs, or carries into prod- 
 uct the machineiy of all the active forces in our 
 world. The conflict itself proves the tremendous 
 reality of the force. But what a concentration and 
 power of absurdity in the scepticism that afiirms 
 
Fa i til, Doubt, and Evidence. ic^y 
 
 that there is no such force iu reality! That all the 
 buc;iness of. the world, all the activity of its intel- 
 lects, all its machinery of motives and motion, of 
 character and conduct, are carried by a faith, that 
 has no actual correlative or cause, but is mere su- 
 perstition ! 
 
 God's disclosures of His own being, and of the 
 soul's immortahty, go together, and can not be sep- 
 arated; but whatever error veils or distorts the one, 
 does the same to the other. And whatever ministry 
 of providence or grace brightens the one, brightens 
 the other. Habits of sin bury both as in a sepulchre, 
 and shut down the lid over whole nations. Then 
 must come the Lord of glory fi'om heaven, bringing 
 life and immortality to light. 
 
 God's revelation of Himself /ro>?i eternity, as car- 
 ing for sinful man lo eternity, is a greater wonder 
 than any material prodigy that can be imagined; 
 a greater miracle than all others; indeed, the ground- 
 work of all. But a greater iinpossibility would be 
 that of His giving no revelation, or one not infallible, 
 or permitting a forgery by the devil to govern all 
 ages. 
 
 Consider the wonderful form of the oath, as (he 
 Lord licelh, and as thy soul lia'th, and the process 
 of belief and confident knowledge, by which the two 
 asseverations are bound in one; God's eternity, man's 
 
igS FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 immortality. As the Lord livetb, came first; as thy 
 soul livethj next; the dei^endeuce of the second on 
 the first, forever; the Lord, our dwelliug-place iu 
 aU generations. At length the one consciousness in- 
 terwoven with and interj)enetrated by the other, as 
 an element of daily life, the practical magnetism, warn- 
 ing, guiding, iiupelliug, the heart and conduct, along 
 with the consciousness, Thou God seest me ! 
 
 It became at length the common property and 
 use both of jDi'ophets and people; an appeal on the 
 most solemn occasions of life and death. See for 
 this the adjuration of the jDrophet Elisha to Elijah, 
 just before the translation of the latter, "As the 
 Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I wUl not leave 
 thee ! " And then see the same, out of the anguish 
 of the heart of the Shumanite woman, appealing to 
 Elisha. What a divine illumination! What a proof 
 of divine light reaching the depths of all hearts that 
 ever waited in faith on the word of the living God ! 
 What a fore-shining of Him who is the Way, the 
 Truth, the Life, and who said, "Because I live, ye 
 shall live also." 
 
 Consider also the remarkable saying of Abigail 
 to David, " The soul of my Lord shall be bound in 
 the bundle of life with the Lord thy God. As the 
 Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the L;)rd 
 hath withholden thee from blood." For centurijs 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidciicc. icji^ 
 
 we see this form of devoutest and most solemn ad- 
 jui'ation among all classes. Now this intercommun- 
 ion of God's eternity arid man's immortality, and 
 the known responsibility accordingly, are nothing 
 less than a mu'acle of divine light. 
 
 Divine Revelation is the history of a divinely in- 
 structed manhood searching after God, and a rebel- 
 lious darkened unbelieving manhood denying him. 
 Only in the process of this conflict, and out of it, 
 is created and demonstrated the literature of the 
 Bible. It would be more impossible to constnict 
 the Pentateuch or create the Psalms of David, with- 
 out this conflict between God and man, truth and 
 falsehood, eternal love and hatred, or out of minds 
 and hearts not acquainted with it, or that did not 
 believe and know man's immortality and eternal re- 
 sjDonsibility to God, than it would to make nourish- 
 ing bread out of the mummies of Egyptian catacombs. 
 
 But the knowledge and the working of these ele- 
 ments in their infinite reality, consequences, causal 
 forces, known only to God, could be made known to 
 man only by divine communication. 
 
 Man could neither testify nor imagine his own cre- 
 ation in the image of God, nor his own fall, nor God's 
 intervention to save him, or raise him up, nor the 
 promise through the seed of the woman, nor the es- 
 tablished institutes and laws of his redemption. But 
 
200 Fa ilk, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 the facts and Gods interpretation of them going to- 
 gether, man's fall and hereditary sinfulness and re- 
 sponsibiht}', and God's interposing mercy and disci- 
 plinary providence with the race, both demonstrate 
 and are demonstrated by the whole following his- 
 tory. Man may trace the record, as he can trace 
 the river Amazon to its springs and mountains; but 
 could no more invent it than he could create the 
 mountains and the river, or the ocean into which its 
 waters pour. God Himself foreordains and predicts 
 the history hij the very fird i^romUe of redemption; and 
 then follow the processes of fulfilment in and ujdoii 
 mankind; the mai'ch of empii'es and races, Jew and 
 Gentile, made subservient to God's infinite work for 
 eternity, the steps of which God alone coidd reveal 
 and infaUibly record. 
 
 The guUt, ruin and misery of man, incui'able, uni- 
 versal, the whole creation wailing and travailing in 
 bondage, are the oxe demonstration of all ages and 
 nations. The whole development of thought and rea- 
 son, the whole dissection and judgment of man's char- 
 acter, with the foresight of the conduct and conse- 
 quences from it, and the lajong bai'e of causes and 
 results, are God's history of His own work with and 
 upon man as an immortal being. The ^vickedness 
 and immortality of man are the articulations with 
 which the merciful interventions of God, b}- revela- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 201 
 
 tions, mii-acles, warning and redeeming truths, are 
 bound together. Growths and conclusions, traced 
 back to Genesis are as demonstrable morally and 
 therefore absolutely out of that book, as the forty- 
 seventh proposition of Euchd out of the preced- 
 ing propositions and primal axioms, geometrically. 
 There could no more be this history of grace and 
 faith and prayer without God, than there could be 
 God's universe without a Creator or geometry with- 
 out a mmd. If the history were not infinitely true, 
 it would be supernatural lying; more unnatural and 
 impossible for science, reason or imagination to con- 
 ceive and account foi', as a lie, than to believe, as a 
 divine revelation. Given, the depra^dty of man and 
 the mercy of God, mii-acles are as natiu-al, necessary 
 and supernatural as God's own love. 
 
 Now there never has been on earth a reUgion of 
 love that did not ground itself in the immortality 
 of man; never a religion outride the Bible that taught 
 love to the gods, or presented them with qualities 
 that entitled them to love, or attracted love, or called 
 for love ; never the revelation of gods or a God that- 
 aA-ed for love, or made love a necessary condition 
 of acceptance and of hapiiiness. God alone does 
 this, and does it on the ground that He lives for- 
 ever; His eternity is the argument. But of what 
 consequence is the eternity of God, or how c.xn that 
 
202 FaitJi, Doitht, and Evidence. 
 
 "be an argument with any man who is not aware of 
 the immortality of his own being, any one who be- 
 lieves that he himself is to end his spu'itual existence 
 at the dissolution of his animal life ? 
 
 " Set 3'our hearts unto aU the v/ords of this law; 
 for it is not a vain thing for you, because it is tour 
 LIFE, TO LOVE THE LoRD THY GoD, and to keep His 
 commandments that thou mayst live. I have set be- 
 fore you life and death, blessing and cursing; there- 
 fore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may 
 Hve, that thou mayst love the Lord thy God, foii He 
 IS THY life, and the length of thy days." It is demon- 
 strated by Moses and Christ that genuine faith in 
 God and faith in God's Word are one and the same 
 thing, and that the one can not exist without the 
 other. 
 
 The idea of faith in God without a revealed j)rom- 
 ise is an imagination. We do not know that there 
 ever was such a reality; there is never an instance 
 of it recorded or suj^posed in the Scriptures. It 
 seems imi^ossible for any sinfid creature. All the 
 piety of Avhich any account is given in the Word of 
 God, all the elements belonging to faith, are of God's 
 jn-oduction in the soul, b}' drawing it to Himself with 
 words of forgiving love and mercy. A revealed 
 promise has made all the distinction between us 
 and fallen angels. How could it ever be otherwise? 
 
Faith y Doitbt, and Evidence. 20 j 
 
 So that the sentence, with which even Dr. Perowne 
 closed one of his admirable Hulsean Lectures, con- 
 veys a supposition inconsistent with the truth and 
 logic of the divine narrative, when he says that 
 "never can tliere be a sublimer heroism of faith 
 than that which, claiming no promUe of falure recom- 
 jyense, goes down into the mystery of darkness, lean- 
 ing onl}' upon God." There is no such mystery, for 
 a believer m God's "Word to enter into; for "in His 
 hght we see hght," and by that light faith walks. 
 And " the recompense of the reward " promised by 
 God beyond the grave is that to which, according to 
 the divine record, the behevers and heroes of faith, 
 from Abel downward, always had respect. For souls 
 whose customary adjuration was this, " As sure as 
 God liveth, and as thy soul Hveth," there could be 
 no such thing possible as a mere secular horizon. 
 
 Whenever in these Psalms a soul is found crying 
 out after God, and saying, " Whom have I in heaven 
 but Thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire 
 besides Thee," it is certain that such a soul knows 
 a difference between earth and heaven, knows that 
 there is a heaven, and that it is the dwelling-place 
 of God. And this man's exiisrience and the record 
 of it is for aU souls, that ever find themselves affected 
 in like manner, with any such yearnings; an assur- 
 ance from God, as good for them as for the melodi- 
 
20^ Faith, Do?ibi, and Evidence. 
 
 ous soul that has gone bsfore them, that " Thou wilt 
 guide me by Thy couusel, and afterwards receive me 
 to glory." 
 
 But a thousand such seekers after God could never 
 create a Saviour. 
 
 The united heads and hearts of a hundred thou- 
 sand Platos could not constitute a little finger of the 
 wisdom and mercy of Jesus Chiist, though they 
 might go far to constitute a prophetic assurance 
 that God woidd send such a Savioiu", that He must 
 be on His way, and would certainly, in His own 
 time, be manifested from heaven. 
 
 Take for example such expressions as those in the 
 16th, 17th, 49th, 61st, and 73d Psalms, "I have set 
 the Lord always before me. Thou wilt show me the 
 jjath of hfe; at Thy right hand, are pleasui'es for ever- 
 more." Instead of a portion in this life, "I will be- 
 hold Thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied 
 when I awake with Thy hkeness." " God will redeem 
 my soul from the power of the grave, for He will re- 
 ceive me." " I am continually with Thee. Thou shalt 
 guide me Avith Thy counsel, and afterwards receive 
 me to glory. "Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and 
 there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee. 
 ]My flesh and my heart f xileth, but God is the strength 
 of my heart and \n\ portion forcvor." Sot along with 
 theso passages the four groat watch-w :)rds of Job's 
 
Fa ilk. Doubt, and Evidence. 20^ 
 
 piety; those light-bouses of jjatience, faith, submis- 
 sion, humiHty, trust and love, enough for the en- 
 couragement, example and security of the tempted 
 soul through all hurricanes in all ages. They were 
 guides for a celestial life for pagans, for the heathen, 
 as Avell as for the Israelites, proving the existence of 
 true piety outside of that appointed family and race 
 to whom the oracles of God were entrusted for safe- 
 keeinng for aU mankind. 
 
 "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; blessed 
 be the name of the Lord." "Though He slay me, yet 
 will I trust in Him." 
 
 " I have esteemed the words of His mouth more 
 than my necessary food." "O that my words were 
 now written in a book. For I know that my lle- 
 deemer liveth, and though Avorms destroy this bod}', 
 yet in my flesh shall I see God." 
 
 Were these the flashes of an earthly sagacity or a 
 worldly hope, or di-eams of a soul that could dream 
 of Iwinrj a soul only by taking opium ? Were these 
 shafts of intensest lightning from eternit}^ and heaven 
 the contrivance of the priests of an Egyptian or leg- 
 endaiy science ? You might easier believe that Mont 
 Blanc was built by potato-beetles, or the Eddystone 
 light-house raised and lighted by lob.stcrs and jelly- 
 fishes. The meaning of such words is as undeniable 
 as that of the light that lighteth every man tliat com- 
 
2o6 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 etli into the world. It never was withheld or hidden 
 fi'om any age. 
 
 "Where, ever or else, was there given a revelation of 
 God's power, that He may be loved, and of His mercy 
 that He may be feared, and both, that men might 
 trust in God's mercy because thrij have sinned against 
 Him. " There is forgiveness with Thee that Thon 
 mayest be feared. For Thy name's sake, j^ardon mine 
 iniquity /o?- it, is great." "He looketh uj)ou all man- 
 kind, and if any say I have sinned, He will deliver his 
 soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the 
 light, and be lightened with the light of the living." 
 
 The literature of the whole world from Adam to 
 Christ can show no such revelation of truth concern- 
 ing God our Father and Friend as the words of the 
 young prophet Eliliu in the 33d and 3Gth chapters 
 of the book of Job. The insj^iration of the Ahnighty 
 is there. 
 
 But, say the critics, it is too good, too advanced, 
 and perfect for such an antique period. Such knowl- 
 edge, say the learned commentators, concerning God's 
 attributes and providences could not have existed at 
 so early an age. How then could it be found in 
 minds hke Abraham's and Moses' ? But fi-om whom 
 at any age could it have come at all? And having 
 come, we have a right to read in it all that a trusting 
 and lovin": heart can find. We are not shut uv to 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 20^ 
 
 the reading of the Bible through the lenses of super- 
 stition and fear. On the contrary, the Holy Spirit, 
 the Comforter from Christ, is our Interpreter, both 
 of the Law, and of God's promises and providences. 
 God's showings unto Moses, at the beginning of 
 the Priesthood, and m the settlement of its fixtures 
 and meanings, were all in and around this one central 
 orb, the forgiveness of sin. That once revealed and 
 promised, there is no such thing afterwards as dark- 
 ness. " Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and lalce us 
 for Thine inheritance." The forgiveness and acceptance 
 with God were the only blessing worth revealing, worth 
 asking, worth providing for. So utterly and anni- 
 hilatingiy was every tiling else reduced to noth- 
 ingness, without this, that Moses himself prayed, "If 
 Thou wilt j'jardon, all is wxll, for we are Thine; but 
 if not, life is not worth having, and there can be no 
 good. If Thou wilt not pardon Thy people, blot me 
 also out of Th}' book." Forgiveness was not sought 
 for the purchase of present blessings, or of favor in 
 this world, or life here and its enjoyments, but for 
 itself, for the life and love of God, the removal of 
 sin, and a partaking of God's hoHness, God's eternal 
 life. Take us for Thine inheritance! "What could 
 be in any sense God's inheritance, if not for immor- 
 tality, for eternity. God's, as long as God Himself 
 liveth? 
 
2oS FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 But the vast, profound eternal meaning of this 
 phrase is a multitudinous divine radiancy into which 
 we do not and can not enter, tUl we come to the rec- 
 ord of Paul's prayers, which convey us by tlie Holv 
 Sj^irit so far into the eternal world. It was in fact a 
 veiled i^ropliecy of Moses, fulfilled only in Christ's res- 
 lUTection, ascension, and eternal glory, with believers 
 in Him the new created partakers of that glory in the 
 liheness of Christ, according to the passages in Ephe- 
 sians i. 11, 18, and iii. 19, and Philippians iii. 21, and 
 Col. i. 12, and iii. 21, and Acts xxvi. 18, and xx. 32, 
 and I Peter i. 3, 4, and II i. 4, compared with Heb. 
 ix. 15, and Romans viii. 18, 19, 29, 30, and I John 
 iii. 2. The comparative study of these passages re- 
 veals something of " the exceeding and eternal weight 
 of glory " comjDrehended in the phrase (Rom. viii. 17), 
 " children of God, heirs of God, and joint heirs icifh 
 Chri.<f, if so be that we suffer with Him, thai we may 
 he also (jlorijled tof/elJier." Here, from Moses to Paul, 
 are God taking us for His inheritance in Christ, Christ 
 possessing us as " His inheritance in the saints," and 
 we made partakers and inheritors of the same divine 
 nature in and through Christ's sufferings and glory. 
 When Christ, in the walk to Emmaus, began at Moses, 
 it is no presumption to supjjose that even as in these 
 passages we learn it, the interceding and prophetic 
 prayer of Moses was exj)ounded by Him. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2og 
 
 All our duties to Gorl our Saviour are revealed to 
 as in the atmosphere of the knowledge of sin against 
 God, and its eternal consequences, fi-om which Christ 
 came to deliver us. Both are measured by the attri- 
 butes of God, which we begin to understand aright 
 only in Christ, a.nd in His sufferings and death, to 
 save men from everlasting death. All our knowledge 
 of God would be nothing, without the knowledge of 
 His holiness and eternity. None of our responsibil- 
 ities to Him, none of our sins against Hun, can be 
 measured without reference to that, "Against Thee, 
 Thee only, have I sinned." The importance of every 
 thing mortal is its relation to immortality. Some of 
 the thoughts even of the Emi^eror Marcus Aurehus 
 might in this thing teach Christian teachers. "For 
 neither," said he, "wilt thou do any thing well, which 
 pertains to man, nor the contrar}', without at the 
 same time having reference to things divine." And 
 what a rebuke to those who maintain that it is es- 
 sential to the perfection of statesmanshiji to sej^arate 
 the State from things divine. This is a tenet of mod- 
 ern secularisiu, and Christian citizens are advised to 
 believe it, and as jDoHticians to Hve by it. Let them 
 prosper by it, if they can; but of this we are sure, 
 that nothing pertaining to man will ever be done 
 well, Avithout at the same time having reference to 
 God supremely, and in all things. 
 
210 FailJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 There are many religions on earth, but only one 
 redemption, and one true definition of sin, as always 
 committed against God, whatever it be, either in j^ur- 
 pose or effect. And as to its consequences, sin, when 
 it is finished, bringeth forth death. "\Mien is it fin- 
 ished? Never in this world; not in the dying of the 
 body; but the soul that sinneth, it shall die. And 
 ye shall die in your sius, our Lord said, if ye beUeve 
 not in 3Ie; but he that beheveth in Me shall never 
 die. Chi'ist never concealed or abated the end, the 
 I'esult of human behef and action, but always taught 
 men to consider the eternjil consequences, and to act 
 accordingly. To exclude the necessary effect of an 
 action, it has been well remarked, is to take away 
 all meaning from the word action; — in fact to strike 
 duty with blindness. 
 
 Faith in God and an eternal world is as necessary 
 to a true religious experience as the correlation of 
 the eye and the daylight for seeing, or the air and 
 the lungs for breathing. "To them of old Avas the 
 Gospel preached, as well as to us; but the word 
 preached did not profit some of them, not being 
 mixed ivith faith in them that heard it.'' They did 
 not look to (lie end, because their hearts were blinded; 
 and while thus blinded, and permitting themselves 
 to be blinded, they could not. Not because there 
 was no end revealed, but the fog that arose out of 
 
Faith, Doubty a?id Evidence. 211 
 
 their own hearts enveloped also the realities that 
 were before them. They escaped from those reali- 
 ties, as the cuttle fish fi'om its enemies by its own 
 ink, "because they did not like to retain God in their 
 knoidedrje," and therefore God gave them over to a 
 mind void of judgment, d^6Hii.iov voOv; being vain in 
 their imaginations, their foolish heart was darkened, 
 but without excuse. — Rom. i. 20, 21. 
 
 XXYIII. 
 
 THE ARGUMENT FROM ETERNITY TO THE CERTAINTY 
 OF \ VERBAL INSPII^\TION. 
 
 There are not wanting manifest analogies in regard 
 to the reflection and growth of man's organic intuitions 
 as in a Uving receptive mirror, from the image of God 
 in which he was created. This intuition of eternity, 
 this firmament of light and duty, part of the law 
 ■written on men's hearts, would have remained clear, 
 but for sin. "We know our own immortality, not be- 
 cause we see it, but because we see and know the 
 reaUty of all other things icorth knowing, by it. It is 
 the idea, the medium, invisible, that like the atmos- 
 phere, shows us all things in their relation to God and 
 our.-<elces, in their relative impoi-tance. We do laot 
 see the atmosphere in a landscape, any more than 
 
212 FailJi, Doubt y and Evidence. 
 
 we do our own eyes; it is the one tiling that we do 
 not see; but we see all things through that invisible 
 sj)ace of ether, without which nothing could be seen 
 or known; not even light. The idea of our immortal- 
 ity is the one thing that dignifies all our knowledge, 
 and raises us above the brutes to a known relation 
 with the attributes and eternity of God. 
 
 A quiet lake, clear, still, translucent, how beautiful 
 in itself, how suggestive and instructive in its reflec- 
 tion of the heavens ! Stand upon the bank and look 
 down into it, and what do you not see? The re- 
 verberations of infinite space and of eternity are in it, 
 even as God hath set eteknity in men's hearts; and 
 if you could look down into t)ie-nx, in their clear orig- 
 inal depths, you would see the eternity and immor- 
 tality deepest. So, the aii' itself, and its power of 
 endless jjerspective, are there in the lake, as well as 
 the moon and stars in a clear night, or the trees on 
 th3 banks, and the flowers fringing the water. 
 
 Thus the very law of human intelligence from the 
 Creator is in this reverberation of Eternity, and the 
 inseparable connection of all faculties, reasonings, 
 purposes, passions, actions, with it. Thus, the theop- 
 neustic voices from God to man, their meanings in 
 the Scriptures of Life, their combination of infinite 
 sj^iritual glory and solemnity, with mere material cir- 
 cumstance, the verdiu'e, the mountains, meadows, for- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2ij 
 
 ests, are all reflected in the soul, with this air of im- 
 mortality, never (cilhout it. If you say this is not 
 affirmed, not visible, as the trees are in the lake, 
 not stereotyped or mirrored, as the stars are in the 
 ■watei', and therefore not there at all, not even inti- 
 mated, you might as well say that the atmosphere 
 is not reflected, nor the reality of sj^ace, in the lake, 
 although the shadows of the trees are hanging in 
 infinitude, the infinite environment, which is invisible, 
 being as absolute a reality as the branches and the 
 quivering verdure, visible; and so the air and its 
 unseen, endless, immeasurable spaces, and measure- 
 ments or indications of relative unfathomable dis- 
 tances are there. The lake picture utters all this to 
 the soul. 
 
 The lake picture is a reverberation in nature of im- 
 measurable realities in the attributes of God the 
 Creator. Shall there be no such reverberation of 
 Himself in the souls of His intelligent creatures, 
 that they may know Him and love Him as their 
 Father forever? For what then do the heavens de- 
 clare the glory of God, and the firmament shadow 
 forth the iUimitableness of His habitation in Eternity ? 
 The very foundation and measure of our idea of Eter- 
 nity is in God ; and of Eternal Life, a life in and with 
 Him ; and of Eternal Death, a life alienated from Him. 
 
 The words olam in Hebrew and aionios in Greek, 
 
2 1 -J. Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 are therefore to be determined, in all things relating 
 to the future "vvorld, and men's responsibilities and 
 rewards there, by their highed meaning in God and 
 His attributes. As in a cloudy day at sea, we take 
 the sun, the lirst glimjjse we have of him, and with 
 our quadrant bring him to the horizon and then and 
 thus calculate and know our reckoning, oui- position, 
 though before all was uncertain; so with our use of 
 these words, in gaining one sight of God; we bring 
 them down to our latitude and longitude in the eter- 
 nities, bg finding God. And so, there are texts, sen- 
 tences, whole paragraphs of infinite meaning, xcilh 
 those words, as defined by ivhal ice know of God, but va- 
 cant, unmeaning, uncertain, without Him. Deprive 
 the word of its highest meaning, and you take from the 
 whole sentence all its meaning. Its puri^ose of eternal 
 warning and instruction, its light, love, mercy, all at 
 once gone, its usefvilness for immortality as crushed, 
 as when the use of a comj^ass or chronometer or ba- 
 rometer, is nullified by setting wood or worsted or 
 glue or colored water in place of the magnetic needle, 
 or the mainspring and the mercury. 
 
 The words for sin and holiness had a meaning rel- 
 ative to God and His attributes and eternal govern- 
 ment never possessed by the Greek tongue till its 
 baptism in the Hebrew insi)iration. 
 
 The word for redeemer was divine, ineffable, its 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 21^ 
 
 whole meaning never to be fully known, till Christ 
 should be seen npliftecl on the cross, and dying for 
 man's salvation. Yet God was pleased to derive it 
 from the long succession of typical instituted rites 
 and customs appointed in His law for refuge and se- 
 curity against the 'nemesis of an earthly justice, for 
 deliverance from the Avenger of Blood, and for eter- 
 nal projiitiation at the Mercy Seat. So the word 
 arose from the measure of a temporal necessity to 
 be the computation of an infinite immeasurable gift 
 of the divine mercy. So the gi'eat watchwords of 
 our salvation are pure words, di-awn throiigh alem- 
 bics of human experience, as silver tried in a furnace 
 of earth, puritied seven times. They are teaching and 
 reveaUng words, sometimes Koihnoors, mountains of 
 light, angelic schoolmasters under the Divine Spiiit, 
 to bring us to Ckrist. 
 
 If a man would learn the utmost scientific precision 
 in the use of language for conveyance both of physi- 
 cal and spiritual truth, Avhich the hmits of the human 
 mind render it impossible pei'fectly to reveal, let him 
 study the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures in their com- 
 merce of thought between Time and Eternit}'. Let 
 him study Job and Isaiah in the Old Testament, John 
 and Paul in the New. Let him weigh every word, 
 every sentiment, every verb, adjective and infiection, 
 and observe the construction of those open wiudov.'3, 
 
2l6 Faith, DouhL and Evidence. 
 
 through which he makes companionship of infinite ac- 
 curacy and infinite comprehensiveness, the microscopic 
 and telescopic forces that are combined in those lan- 
 guages, for the report of God's thoughts for man's 
 guidance. 
 
 As an heir of immortality he is travelling among 
 the infinites of ojiinion and result, and he has to 
 take his measurements of certainty and exactness 
 accordingly; not with the indefiniteness of science 
 falsely so called, concerning the " silent worship of 
 the unknown and unknowable," or the evolutions "of 
 natural force from a practical eternity." He can not 
 afford such looseness among unknown depths. He 
 can not afford to try those mountain passes without 
 a guide. If materialism were true, a false step either 
 way would be of no consequence. But if there be a 
 spiritual world, and an eternal inheritance in it, in- 
 separable from the soul, according to Avrong or right 
 opinion and character in this world, then the gift of 
 truth now, and the unerring perception of it, are of 
 infinite importance. 
 
 Archbishop Trench in his two works on the " S}mo- 
 nyms of the New Testament," and on "The Authorized 
 Version and its proposed Revision," so full of pro- 
 found and suggestive thought on the inspiration and 
 interpretation of God's Word, says in the latter work, 
 "The more deeply we are persuaded of the inspire- 
 
FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 2iy 
 
 tion of Holy Scripture the more intolerant we shall 
 be of any lets and hindrances to the arriving of a pex'- 
 fect understanding of that which the mouth of God 
 has sj)oken." And in the former, referring to He- 
 brews V. 12, the principles of the doctrine of Christ, 
 the oracles of God, rd (jroixsToc viji apx^in roav Xoyioovj 
 he remarks that "a patient study of these is essen- 
 tial to any secure advances in Christian theology; 
 for here, as everywhere else, disapj)ointment awaits 
 him, who thinks to jM^isess the whole, without Jird 2>os- 
 i^essing the parts, of which the whole is composed." 
 The words are the drotx^ut:, the rudimental elements, 
 the letter, inspired by the Spirit. For thus it is that 
 God hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of 
 the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Je- 
 sus Christ. God shines, and the words mark His 
 sunbeams, and the Spirit is in them and with them. 
 The words are the gnomons of the Divine Dial, that 
 tell by their lines of shadow the shining of the Divine 
 Mind. 
 
 It is only thus through imtiencc, and comfort of the 
 Scriptures, that we have hojie in them, and life in 
 Christ through them. But if we torture them, if we 
 sot a press gang upon them, if we cast them into 
 prison on false accusations, and then comjiel them 
 into a controversial regiment of marines, we only 
 eliminate and imprison ourselves. If any thing on 
 
2i8 Faith., Doubi, and Evidence. 
 
 earth should be as free as aii-, it is God's Word, and 
 its interpretation, in reliance on His own free Spirit, 
 promvied to all in connection ivith the inspired letter, in 
 ansioer to ])rat/er. The things written for us, thou- 
 sands of jears ago, Avere certainly inspired in the 
 writing, in the language, in the thoughts, or they 
 cordd not have been for us, or belonged to us, or 
 of any authority for us. " For, ivliatsocver thinrjs loere 
 ivritten afore time, were wTitten for oru* learning, that 
 we, thvongh jMtience and comfort of the Si-ripdurr^, might 
 have hope." And so, "Jesus Chi-ist was a minister 
 for the truth of God, to confii'ni the promises made unto 
 the Fathers, and that the Gentles may glorify God 
 for HLs mercy." 
 
 God alone linoweth all the meanings and fulfil- 
 ments of His own eternally abiding Word; Avhat was 
 meant by God, not what men may conjecture or 
 translate, accoi'ding to theii' oa\ti oj^iuion. So, when 
 God quotes from Himself, as in the New Testament 
 from the Old, and varies the language of the quotation, 
 the eternal Word is the same; the vaiiation hath 
 in it no shadow of turning or of contradiction; it is 
 but the same light on another face of the diamond. 
 
 Prof. Stuart gives an example of three passages, 
 in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in each of which the 
 same quotation fi'om the Old Testament is given in 
 somewhat different words; but the sen^ is tike same. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2ig 
 
 and he adds, "Z)e minimis non curat lex, say civilians, 
 in construing human laws; and the maxim applies 
 as well to the manner of diction in the Scriptures 
 as in any other book." — On Heb. x. IG. Bat to the 
 Scrijjtures as all divine, and not of man's creating; 
 to the Scriptures as quoted by God-inspired men. 
 
 And therefore, applied to the Scriptures as iu- 
 spu'ed, the maxim becomes, De minimis cnraf, Deus; 
 for God's Spirit chose the variations, and directed 
 the minds that applied the original text in their 
 own quotations. If our Lord could say, " The hairs 
 of your head are all numbered," he could as truly 
 say, The words which ye shall spaak for Me are all 
 numbered, just as He said, "I have given unto them 
 the words which Thou gavest Me," and, "It is not 
 ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that 
 spsaketh in you." God takes as much care of the 
 minutes as of the hours; and if any man asks, Doth 
 God take care for oxen? the apostle answers, "For 
 our sakes, no doubt, this is icriHen." And this rea- 
 soning of Paul (I Cor. ix. 9, 10) is one of the strong 
 incidental proofs of a plenary inspiration, exlcnding 
 to the loorcU; for he distinguishes between what man 
 saith and Avhat God saith, and declares this ques- 
 tioned quotation to be God's. And afterwards, with 
 the same authority he says, 'T/jc things that I urite 
 unto you are the Commandments of the Lord." 
 
220 Faii/i, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 But Low as to errors tliat may creej? in by time, 
 by manuscripts lost or corrui^ted, by cojiyists, or 
 interpolators of sentences or words? "Will they be 
 permitted? or is there an equal a priori certainty of 
 their being prevented or forestalled ? We should 
 certainly conclude that as to any vital error, that 
 might destroy the divine purj^ose of the Book, there 
 is; but in things indifferent, there may be an equally 
 divine carelessness. Error would not be permitted 
 in a divine text, where souls might stumble and 
 fall into perdition by it. A man conveying a cup 
 of cold water may make a false step, and spill a 
 portion; but he can not alter the water. Nor does 
 he change its nature, though he takes it in an earthen 
 vessel. The poorest language on earth may have to 
 be used for the translation; but a translator, desiring 
 to win souls, can not help conveying a knowledge 
 of Jesus and His dying love, sufficient for salvation. 
 It is still the water of life, no mattei* for the patched 
 goat-skin bottles. 
 
 The perfection of a chronometer does not require 
 that it instruct the supercargo to what cities he 
 must carry his freights, nor how he should load his 
 vessel, nor with what merchandize. The perfection 
 of a chart does not necessitate information as to a 
 science of the winds, or the matliematics of astron- 
 omy. But all that goes into the idea of a perfect 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 221 
 
 timepiece and a perfectly safe and accurate map, 
 must be found respectively, m these artides. They 
 must not teach errors of time and place, since either 
 would be the insurance of shipwrecks. Even so, 
 the Scriptures muM teach eternal infaUible spirituaJ frulh, 
 though they do not requii'e an encyclopedia of science, 
 but only an eye single to God's will, and God's prin- 
 ciple of righteousness, through faith in Christ, through 
 Christ, dwelling in the heart by faith. This is the 
 kingdom of God, both within the Scriptures, and 
 within the soul. And every man, coming to Christ, 
 hath both. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF CERTAINTIES— WHAT DID THE OLD 
 HEP.REWS BELIEVE AND KNOW AS TO DEATH AND 
 LIFE, IMMORTALITY AND HEAVEN — TES ITMONY OF 
 THE Al'OCHRYI'HA. 
 
 In the history of a settlement of men's certainties 
 in regard to Divine Inspiration, it is instructive to 
 note the prepossessive, and corrective elements pre- 
 pared against the Deism and Materialism of the eigh- 
 teenth and nineteenth centui-ies, in the growth of the 
 gi-eat body of English Theological and philosoi)hic 
 literature of the seventeenth. For we have, in the 
 compass of some ten or twelve volumes of that Hter- 
 
222 FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 ature, and other books growing- out of it, both na- 
 tive and foreign, such as " Stillingfleet's Origines Sac- 
 I'iB," "Howe's Living Temj^le," "Butler's Analogy," 
 " Pascal's Thoughts," " Haljburtou on Natural and 
 Revealed Eeligion," "Lightfoot's Harmonies of the 
 Old and New Testaments and of the Evangelists," 
 "Archbishop Usher's Reasons for our Faith in God's 
 Word," "Reinhardt's Plan of Christ," "Edward's 
 History of Redemption," "Paley's HorjB Paulinse," 
 "Blunt's Coincidences," "Chalmers' Astronomical Dis- 
 courses," "Robinson's Harmony of the Gosj)els," "Al- 
 exander's Connection and Harmony of the Old and 
 New Testament," "Robinson's Biblical Researches 
 in Palestine," and the now unsej)ulchred books 
 and localities of dead and buried cities in the East; 
 a library of demonstration, with the resurrected 
 vouchers, against all the objections of what is called 
 Modern Thought in oj)position to the books of Di- 
 vine Revelation. Add to these volumes such a work 
 as " D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation," and 
 even a few of the many biographical illustrations of 
 the work of the Divine Spirit with the Divine Scrip- 
 tures in individual souls, such as "Luther on Gala- 
 tions," "Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress," "Latimer's 
 Sermons and Life," and other illustrious examj^les in 
 the martyr literature of England, "Baxter's Saints' 
 Rest," "Doddiidge's Rise and Progress," the "Life 
 
Faith, Doubly and Evidence. 22^ 
 
 of Jolin Newtou," the "Life of Henry Martyn," tlie 
 " Life and Works of the Poet Cowper," " Bunyan's 
 Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners"; and for 
 the masses of mankind the demonstration is as a vast 
 sea-wall or rocky continent, against the ocean, and a 
 succession of lighthouses at the entrance of the 
 harbors. 
 
 The immortal hymn of Cowper on the dying thief 
 confessing Christ, or the one little exquisite poem by 
 Mi's. Browning on CowjDer's grave, or Heni-y Kirke 
 White's "Star of Bethlehem," is worth more to the 
 individual soul, to the German nation, to England, 
 to the human race, than the five octavo volumes of 
 " Ewald's History of Israel," or all the books of Ea- 
 tional learning, criticism, and theory in the world put 
 together. So is Goodwin's " Child of Light walking 
 in Darkness." So is Tojjlady's "Eock of Ages, cleft 
 for me." So are all the true songs of the soul from 
 the beginning of man's j)ilgrimage. And the greater 
 and wider the difference and distance in position, age, 
 and era of these experimental witnesses, the more ab- 
 solute theii* demonstration of the same divine soul- 
 saving truths. "The great principles itpoken out every- 
 xchere in the Old and New Testament " sa3s Coleridge, 
 "resemble the fixed stars, which ajjpear of the same she 
 to the naked as to the armed eye." They need neither 
 telescope nor microscope, but t)uly a believing heart. 
 
22^ FaitJi, DoubL and Evidence. 
 
 The meaning is the more indisixitable because not 
 put mei'ely in metaphysical shape by systematic rea- 
 soners, but in the breath of daily hfe, the life of 
 prayer, by common men Avalking with God, and al- 
 most unconsciously thinking aloud their communion 
 with Hun, their destiny. in His Being, their hopes, 
 fears, confidences, behefs, consecrations, prayers, tow- 
 ards Him and His eternal dwelling-place. What did 
 these antique Hebrews think, this strange old race, 
 this " i^eculiar people," whose whole existence we 
 learn about only frosi the Word of God, and from 
 their relations to Him ? " Spiritual things are spuit- 
 ually discerned; and //? Ddx and all similar enquiries, the 
 thoughts of the most spiritual are to be sought for, and in 
 their most sjnritual moments."* The thoughts of men 
 such as Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Dayid, Eli- 
 jah, Hezekiah, Isaiah, and of those whose life was in- 
 tricately and practically interwoyen with theirs, and 
 in sympathy and feryent communion; of those also 
 who were in strife and confUct eyen unto death; both 
 the sympathy and the battle growing out of opinions 
 towards God and eternity, and the opinions niling or 
 constituting the character and history of the whole 
 nation. 
 
 There can be no truer canon of interiirotation than 
 
 * "Star of our Lord," by Francis W. Upbam, Author of the 
 "Wise lueu and who they were," p. 176. 
 
FailJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 22^ 
 
 this, t)xe mod spu'itual men in their mod spiritual mo- 
 menf.-<, not in seasons of doubt and darkness mereh^ 
 but of celestial light; not what they dreamed of, 
 sleeping, but what they believed, waking, and acted 
 accordingly. This was their revelation from God, not 
 a mere Egyptian Book of the Dead, or of anticipated 
 transmigrations. It was the light of Hezekiah's life, 
 walking before God in truth and with a perfect heart, 
 and weeping sore when the word came to him from 
 God, "Thou shalt die and not live." It Avas the light, 
 the life, the joy, of his recovery from sickness and 
 from death, and of his thanksgiving, " Thou hast loved 
 my ^otil out of the pit, for Thou Jui-d cad all my sina t)e- 
 hind 'Thy back: For the grave can not joraise Thee, 
 death can not celebrate Thee; the}- that go down 
 into the pit can not hope for Thy truth. The living, 
 the hving shall praise Thee, as I do this day; and 
 the father to the children shall make known Thy 
 truth." How profoundly beautiful tlie tliought and 
 its expression that God by His forgiving love had 
 tenderly raised up a despairing soul out of the pit 
 to rejoice in Him and to praise His name forever! 
 The Hebrew alone gives the divine intensity of the 
 work of mercy. "Thou hast loved my soul tip out 
 of the pit." — Is. xxxviii. 17. Even so hath God ever 
 since loved us aU up out of the death of trespasses 
 and sins and raised us up and quickened us in Christ. 
 
226 FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 Now if there be serious questiou at any time as to 
 the meaning of parts of this revelation of death and 
 life, that interpretation is certainly to be sought and 
 l^referred, which brings us nearest to God, which has 
 the most of God in it, and of His goodness, and of 
 His disclosures of the unseen world, not that which 
 can be restricted to this world. Of any two inter- 
 i:)retatious j)ossible, the most exalted and spiritual is 
 likely to be the truest. " Nearer to Thee, nearer, my 
 God, to Thee," is the right i^rinciple of study and 
 thought. 
 
 And then, the highed, not the lowest of our discov- 
 eries is to be adopted, postulated, as our Ught, guide, 
 and encouragement. It is onlj^ thus that we can 
 rightly read either the characters of the friends of 
 God in the Scriptures, or the true range of their 
 thoughts, or the direction and power of their opin- 
 ions, or the meaning even of their prayers. Take 
 the case of Hezekiah, and the endeavor of the critics 
 to extract from his fervent supplications in the dread 
 of dying a demonstration that he had no knowledge, 
 no idea, of immortality. John Bunyan could be 
 proved to have had no such idea, by the same meth- 
 od, if 3^ou start from the expressions of his intervals 
 of gloom, anxiot}^ and terror; whereas, the very dark- 
 ness of his soul under the hidings of God's face was 
 the i^roof that he thoroughly knew and believed the 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 22"/ 
 
 revelation of Eternal Life in God, and longed after it. 
 A man's caj)acity of life, when found near perishing 
 in a snow-storm, is not to bo judged by laying a ther- 
 mometer upon his freezing person. Hezekiah's life 
 of i)iety and prayer, and his intensity of desu-e that 
 his time to seek and to serve and to praise God on 
 earth might be lengthened out, were the signals of 
 his belief of a life to come with God forever. 
 
 John Bunyan, two thousand years later, makes the 
 record that "though God doth visit my soul with 
 never so blessed a discovery of Himself, yet I have 
 found again that such hours have attended me after- 
 wards, that I have been in my s]Dii-it m filled with 
 darkness, that I could not so much as conceive ^vhal 
 tliai God and lohat that comfort was, with which I had 
 been refi-cshed." And again, "I have sometimes seen 
 more in a line of the Bible than I could well tell how 
 to stand under; and yet at another tune the whole 
 Bible hath been to me as dry as a stick; or rather, 
 my heart hath been so dead and dry unto if, that I could 
 not conceive the least dram of refreshment, though I 
 have looked it all over." The experience of yet an- 
 other Great Hkvrt among believers, John Owen, is 
 the same; and to such an education by the Divine 
 Sjjirit with the "Word, we owe such inestimably pre- 
 cious and comforting volumes as " Rutherford's Let- 
 ters," "Caryl on Job," Archbishop Leighton's "Com- 
 
228 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 mentaiy on Peter," "Coles on God's Sovereignty," 
 "Owen on the 130th Psalm," "Flavel on Keei)ing the 
 Heart." 
 
 The critics that look only through the dead and dry 
 heart of their own unbeheving agnosticmn, and denial 
 of the suijernatural, can not find, will not admit that 
 there can be found, in Hezekiah's language (to use 
 Bunyan's own words) the least dram of refreshment 
 or divine light, and so they deny its insjoiration and 
 its meaning altogethei'. Think of critical experts in- 
 forming us that this and that cloud-rift of intelligence 
 and light from heaven could never have existed either 
 in Moses' time or in Hezekiah's; for that the Hebrews 
 did not then even know their own immortahty, or the 
 unity of God ! Think of taking the vei"y anguish and 
 gloom of a sinful conscience in the terror of hell and 
 the grave to prove that they knew nothing of a life 
 beyond the grave ! so that the prayers and gratitude 
 alike of Hezekiah and of David are pressed, dried, 
 and presented with the varnish and smell of the sej)- 
 ulchre, and all the light and life of immortality extin- 
 guished from them. 
 
 And these same critics have not impartiality enough 
 to ask the question. If these men knew nothing of a 
 life after death, and a retribution in Eternit}', why 
 should they fear death, or what could they fear be- 
 yond it, or why blast and corrode their daily expe- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidejice. 22g 
 
 rience of life's pleasures with its terrors? a thing 
 which men even under the clearest revelation of a 
 future state successfully avoid, in an insensibility of 
 the carnal mind which cannibals do not rival. 
 
 Hence, fi-om the history of Abraham we see the un- 
 speakable absurdity of the pretence that the old He- 
 brews learned the immortalit}' of the sord only by the 
 promise and desire expressed by the later prophets 
 for a continued national life; that the habit of hoping 
 for a )udional existence, even before they beeame a nation, 
 could beget in them the concej^tion and behef of an 
 individual existence and respousibihty of the soul. If 
 that Avas the way in which they arrived at it, then 
 manifestly neither Abraham, Isaac, nor Jacob could 
 ever have had it. Yet this is the notion held even by 
 Dean Stanley,* and some other English writers, in 
 imitation of leading German critics. The immortality 
 of the individual soid learned by the intense desh'es 
 of an earthly patriotism ! ! This notion is outdone 
 
 * "The conviction," says Stanley "wljich the proiDhcts en- 
 tertained of the perpetual existence of the nation, prepared Uie 
 icay for iJie conviction of the endless life of the single human 
 being." And he adds the following sentence as aullioriiy, from 
 "Kuenen's Religion of Israel": "In a word, Judaism was now 
 on the road towards the adoption of the hope of a personal im- 
 mortahty." — Hist, of the Jewish Church, 3d series, sect. 4-4, 
 p. 1G7. On ilie road, down as late as Malachi, never known 
 before ! ! 
 
2 JO Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 only by Mr. Darwin's supposition that the human 
 mind learned the idea of God by Natural Selection, 
 imagining the benefit that might be derived from 
 such an idea for common human culture before man 
 was evolved! or by Mr. Lecky when he says that 
 " Christianity fioaled into the Roman Empii-e on the 
 wave of credulity that brought with it the long train of 
 Oriental superstitions and legends." The credulity of a 
 mind that can believe such a system as that of Chris- 
 tianity and the soul's immortality in God to have 
 been a floating island of falsehood, consolidated into 
 a continent of truth by Christ and His apostles, is 
 itseK all but a miracle of uni-cason. 
 
 When God said to Abraham " I am thy shield, and 
 thine exceeding great reVard; walk before Me, and 
 be thou perfect"; and when it was added, "This 
 l^romise is unto thee and to thy seed forever, and in 
 thee shall all families of the earth be blessed; and I 
 will establish my covenant between Me and thee and 
 thy seed after thee in their generations, for an ever- 
 lasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy 
 seed after thee, and I will be their God," — the whole 
 revelation embraced and appealed to a sense of im- 
 mortality and accountabihty in every soul; Me, and 
 thee, and thy seed in their generations, an ecerlading 
 covenant. 
 
 The soul's immortality and blessedness in God was 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidiucc. 231 
 
 not only the highed tiling, but it was tlie onhj thing 
 of any importance, the only thing worth reveahng; 
 and the logic of the covenanting instrument, as well 
 as the infalhble interpreting word of the Lord Jesus, 
 has made it absolutely certain that Abraham under- 
 stood its eternal significance; and also that then as 
 now the principle of God's government over men, its 
 righteousness, was in their known eternal reffponsibilili/ 
 to Him, as the God of the spirits of all flesh, the God 
 of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of all families of 
 the earth. The idea of that responsibihty was or- 
 ganic in the human reason, when God created man 
 in His own image. Compare Ecclesiastes iii., and 
 Ecclesiasticus xvii. 18. 
 
 The evidence of these great truths as an heir-loom 
 in the souls of the old Hebrews is found not merely 
 in the Hteratui-e of theii- prophets, but in that of the 
 Apochrypha (taken from the projihets and historians), 
 in the books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, which 
 refer in almost every chapter to the histories in Gen- 
 esis, and the immortality of the soul as there made 
 known, and the practical lessons of life inculcated 
 from the contrast drawn between the ungodly and 
 the righteous, between the immortahty of righteous- 
 ness, and the falsehood of materiahsm. The second 
 and third chapters of the " Wisdom of Solomon " are 
 a vivid contrast between the songs of Anacrcon and 
 
2J2 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 the hope of the behever in God confronted. "As 
 for the mysteries of God," says the writer, speaking 
 of the heathen nations, " they knew them not, neither 
 hojDed they for the wages of righteousness, nor dis- 
 cerned a reward for blameless souls. For God created 
 man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of His 
 own eternity. Nevertheless, through envy of the devil 
 came death into the world; and they that do lioJd of his 
 side do find it. But the souh of the righteou-i are in the 
 hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them; 
 they are in 2)eace; their hope is fall of immortality. After 
 having been a little chastised they shall be greatly 
 rewarded; for God proved them and found them 
 worthy for Himself. They shall judge the nations 
 and have dominion over the people, and their Lord 
 shall reign forever." See also the references to 
 Enoch's translation, and its lessons (ch. iv. 10), and 
 the sublime descriptions of the divine wisdom (vii. 
 2G-30), and in Ecclesiasticus iv. 11-17, and v. 4-7, 
 and ch. xvi. 17, 18-22. " The trial of all things is in 
 the end." There is not the slightest indication that 
 any of tliese truths or hopes for eternity were ever 
 lighted at the shrines of Plato and Socrates, or the 
 altars of Persian idolatry. 
 
 Passing from ]\Ialachi into the Apochrypha, Ave find 
 the divine seal of inspiration, "And God sj^ake," "and 
 God said," suddenly dropj^ed; the Urim and Thum- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2jj 
 
 mini of the divine presence are wanting; and the 
 whole style and manner of expressions and thoughts, 
 are abruptly changed. There is no more a " Thus 
 saith the Lord," nor even the pretence of it. The 
 contrast is as striking, as convincing, as that between 
 the New Testament and the Apochryphal literature 
 at a later period. 
 
 Yet the books of the Apochrypha refer back con- 
 tinually to the previous insj^ired histories and proph- 
 ecies as the Word of God. And the truths of immor- 
 tality and the resurrection are drawn .so/c/// from those 
 histories, and from no Persian, or Platonic, or Egyp- 
 tian sources of information. 
 
 And yet, to such depths have the oracles of divine 
 truth been overlaid T)y human traditions, expelling 
 their spiritual meaning, that even some historians of 
 the Jewish Church aver that it was from the Persians 
 that the Jews for the first time learned reall}' to pray 
 to Grod without images, having been taught a more 
 spiritual worship like that of the Persians, by dint of 
 having their own Temple dedroyed; which destruction 
 removed from their souls a veil of blindness, and 
 taught them the onmipresence of the deity! The 
 very unity of God, and the system of monotheistic 
 woi'ship, it is maintained by these authorities, came 
 from the contact of the Jews with Cn'us and his 
 court ! " The Persian doctrine of the unitv and in- 
 
2^J. FdiL'i, DoiLbt, and Evidence. 
 
 visibility of the divinity, and of a celestial and in- 
 fernal Lierarcliy," says Stanley, "was substantially 
 the counterjjait to the corresponding elements of the 
 Hebrew faith." "The great innovation of prayer as 
 a siibstUute for sacrifice, thus took root in Jewish wor- 
 ship." "Hannah's devotion in the Temple" is re- 
 ferred to as "the first example of silent jn-ayer." 
 Stanley's Hist. Jewish Church, 3d series, Sect. 44, 
 and pp. 46, 1G7, 208, 159, 206, 375. As if there could 
 have been such a reality as the church of God with- 
 out i^rayer, or a history of such a chiu-ch without the 
 triumjihs of faith through prayer. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 FORMS OF PRAYER, AND GOD'S BENEVOLENT AND 
 PROPHETIC DISCIPLINARY WORK WITH THEM UPON 
 THE SOUL. 
 
 It is wonderful indeed to see how maaiy exjieri- 
 ences of our fallen, sinful, seK-condemned nature are 
 foreseen and provided for in the various forms of 
 prayer scattered as Jacob's ladders, Bethels, or i)atri- 
 archal and apostolic wells of Hving water, or altars 
 of witnesses of God's love, through the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. It is written in the prophets, "They 
 shall be all taught of God. Eccvy man therefore that 
 
Faith, Dj-t'jt, and Evidence. 2j^ 
 
 hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to Mk." 
 "They did all eat the same ."^pirilua! meat, and did all 
 drink the f^ame qnritaal dnnl; for they drank of that 
 spiritual Rock that went with them; and that Rock 
 WAS Cheist." The habit of prayer was always the 
 same habit of hungering and thii-sting after right- 
 eousness, taught to the soul, if ever taught of God 
 at all, out of the deep and painfvd experience of its 
 own sinfulness. 
 
 The prayer of Moses for God's merciful forgive- 
 ness of the sin of idolatry in the people (Ex. xxxii. 
 30) (a prophetic atoning prayer, " Peradventure I 
 shall make an atonement") that they might not for 
 that sin be blotted out of God's Book; the prayer 
 in the desert (Ps. xc), for penetration of the soul 
 with the lesson of our mortality; the prayer of David, 
 the confession of guilt out of a broken heart and con- 
 trite spirit; the prayer for the kingdom of the Mes- 
 siah in the 72d Psalm, prophetic and intercessory for 
 the redemption of all mankind. 
 
 The prayer of Solomon in the Temple at its dedi- 
 cation, as God's House of Prayer for all nations; 
 the prayers of Isaiah through foresight of Him "on 
 whom the Lord hath laid the iniquities of us all"; 
 the prayers of Habakkuk for the revival of God's 
 work; the missionary prayers of the G7th Psalm and 
 many similar in the books of the proj)hets. 
 
2j6 FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 The prayers out of the depths, the prayers from 
 the ends of the earth ^\-heu the heart is ovei'- 
 whelmed, the prayers to brhig to remembrance 
 God's forgiving mercy, the prayers committing the 
 soul to God, the prayers for God's presence and 
 light within the soul while living, the prayers for 
 the Holy Spirit in dying, the prayers against the 
 hiding of God's face from the soul, the prayers for 
 the new creation of the heart, for entire deliver- 
 ance from sin, for meekness and singleness of spirit, 
 for God's heart-searching and cleansing grace, the 
 prayers of souls thu'sting after God, watching and 
 waiting for Him, rejoicing in his forgiving love. 
 
 This spirit of j)rayer is the verj^ breath of Messianic 
 jirophecy and praise. " Thy chariots were salvation." 
 "VVlierever there is prayer there was the I AM, the 
 divine Saviour, there the Holy Spirit the Comforter, 
 and Intercessor, and there the promises in the cove- 
 nant and rainbow prayers begun by Noah, Abraham, 
 Job, and Jacob,* and continued and perfected in the 
 prayers of David, the Son of Jesse, to be set and 
 
 * Dean Stanley says that the words of Jacob (Gen. xlix. 18), 
 "I have waited for Thy salvation, Lord," were "//(« haiWt cry 
 of the tribe of Ban .'" A more signal instance of the frigid, seijul- 
 chral style of the Rationalizing Critics it would be difficult to 
 select, unless it were when Haggai's "Desire of Nations" is con- 
 strued as the passion of glory in silver and gold. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2jj 
 
 fulfilled as an endless example, by the Koot and Oflf- 
 sj^ring of David, He that hath the Key of David, and 
 the keys of Hades and of death; "Thy kingdom come." 
 "Prayer also shall be made for Him continually, and daily 
 shall He be jjraised." — Ps. Ixxii. 15. Renewed also and 
 interpreted, in such a shaft of light and glory, in 
 Is. XXV. 8, 9, concerning His coming, who wiU swal- 
 low up death in victory. 
 
 In order to know how much might have been 
 seen by the lightning at midnight and amidst the 
 storm, we must have been some time in the mid- 
 niglit and the storm ourselves. And we could never 
 forget that which we beheld. What is so engraven 
 on the soul is there forever. So Job exclaimed, be- 
 holding the lightning revelations of God's mercy to 
 his soul amidst the blackness of the darkness of 
 such a night, " Oh that mj' words were now wkitten ! 
 oh that they were printed in a book ! That they 
 were graven with an iron j^en and lead in the rock 
 FOREVER ! For I know that my Redeemer lr^th ! " 
 
 They xoere written, for the generations to come; 
 and the great truths of immortality, the resurrection, 
 and eternal life are there, for whomsoever of aU the 
 millions of our race it may be who desires to find 
 them. And all the prayers of which we have ex- 
 amples are the breathings of hearts exactly such as 
 om- own, pouring forth the desires after God and 
 
2j8 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 His salvation and glory, taught in their own souls 
 by the indwelling and regenerating spirit of God. 
 There is no other Htany in the Word of God, than 
 these yearnings after God's mercy in i^enitential 
 hearts sensible of guilt. And no other key of en- 
 trance and command at God's throne, for the chief 
 of sinners, but this, of Christ's announcement. Be- 
 hold He pra^eth ! 
 
 Hence the argument as to the divine origin and 
 nature of the old practical life of faith in God, in 
 view of His eternity, so irresistibly convincing, in 
 the manifest habit of prayer and sense of the Di- 
 vine Presence indicated by the use of commemo- 
 rative names for places, and for children, connected 
 with God's providential and saving interpositions of 
 mercy and love. Let any student of the Bible and of 
 the undercurrent of God's revelations in it, take the 
 Hebrew Lexicon and Concordance, and trace out 
 the instances of chorographical, memorial, and bap- 
 tismal names of men and places, recalhng to thie 
 mind, eveiy where, God and His salvation; he will 
 find more than three hundred iUustratious of this 
 ingrained reverence and love for the God of Abra- 
 ham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he wiU note, (1) that 
 it was not an appointed formalism; (2) not the name 
 merely, but the spiritual attributes of Jehovah, called 
 to mind; (3) esj)ecially, not merely the omnipresence 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2jg 
 
 of Gocl, but His indicellinr/ jvaence, in and with tbo 
 soul, the secret of His presence, and the experimental 
 knowledge of His ijromises of salvation. He will see 
 that this habit of speech and salutation (as in the man- 
 ner of Boaz), could not possibly have come about, 
 except from a personal fountain of intuition and com- 
 munion with God, as well as the knowledge of His 
 Word, as in the threefold blessing and commemo- 
 ration of God, commanded in His "Word by Moses, 
 in Numbers vi. 22-27. All this was God's teaching 
 by His own Spirit in the heart. Not only "By the 
 "Word of the Lord were these heavens made, but 
 all the host of them bij the Spirit of His mouth.'' The 
 llGth Psalm is an illustrious instance of the heart- 
 felt combination of all these qualities of prayer, out 
 of soul-troubles, even unto death; dehverance, com- 
 memoration, vows of gTatitude, love, and endless con- 
 fidence; promises and payment, with the cup of salva- 
 tion, and the sacrifice of thanksgiving, in the presence of 
 all the jx^ople of God. 
 
 The dedicating prayer of Solomon, a thousand 
 years before Christ, is the glory of the Lord's for- 
 giving love, filling the Temple. The light of this 
 IH'ayer, ascending in the history, floods the whole 
 nation with divine intelligence, and the whole record 
 of events before and after with God's presence, God's 
 love, and the knowledge of it. The historical and 
 
2^0 FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 prophetic Scriptures are all illumiuated and inter- 
 preted by it. 
 
 There is the same governing and exjilaining light 
 that we have seen kindled in the third chapter of 
 Ecclesiastes. It is as a tunnel through the Alj^s, 
 lighted with electricity hke the sunshine, saturating 
 even the hidden gold and quartz veins with demon- 
 stration of a sjDiritual life. There are indeed inter- 
 regnums and revolutions in the spiritual as in the 
 chronological histor}^ 
 
 But where do we get the governing certainties 
 and glories of this spiritual interpretation, and where 
 was the beginning of this highest, brightest, and 
 truest of all mysticisms? It was only in the re- 
 vealed j)resence and omnipresence of Jehovah. With- 
 out the assurance of that, where could there be the 
 belief or the knowledge of the j)ower of jorayer, or 
 the habit of the life of faith accordingly ? " He that 
 Cometh to God must believe (1) that He is, and (2) 
 that He is a rewarder (3) of those who diligently 
 seek Him." There never could have been piety with- 
 out prayer, or faith in God without seeking Him in 
 prayer. " Ye shall seek Me and find Me, when ye 
 shall seek for Me with aU your hearts." 
 
 We caU to mind the supplication of Moses to God, 
 wdien God had threatened to leave the rebellious 
 people to themselves and let them find their own 
 
Faith., Doubt, and Evidence, 2^1 
 
 way, if tliey could, to a land of plenty. " And Moses 
 said. If THi" PRESENCE go not with us, carry us not 
 up hence. I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory." 
 Ex. xxxiii. 15, 18. 
 
 Thy presence! It is a most profound and mag- 
 nificent abstraction, revealing an infinitude of spir- 
 itual hght, even in the comparatively little knowl- 
 edge of God already in possession of the soul. If 
 God's presence were wanting, of what account were 
 all the visions of earthly good ? It was not long 
 life, not the promised land, not houses and vine- 
 yards, nor a throne, nor a kingdom, nor any thing 
 in tliis world, but God only, in them, and with them, 
 and among them! And if not God's gift thus, of 
 Himself, giving Himself, then nothing. 
 
 And what indeed, Avould be a future life, without 
 God's presence? In that, and only thai, is Immortality 
 desirable, or can be jiossessed. Where God is, there 
 is a future existence, there is heaven, there is eternal 
 life. But without that, let us rather drop and be for- 
 gotten. Annihilation were better, than to live on, 
 forsaken of God. 
 
 "And God said. My Presence shall go with thee, 
 and I will give thee rest." Eest in God ! It makes 
 us think of the words of a devout poet — 
 
 " Who wauts the place where God doth dwell 
 Paxtakes already hiilf of hoU." 
 
242 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 If this meant only Palestine, and a quiet possession 
 and home and comfort and contentment there, Moses 
 never reached it, and his prayer was never answered, 
 but he and Aai'on were shut out, forever. 
 
 But it meant what grew into a river and a sea by 
 "Successive revelations fi"om generation to generation 
 "and fi-om prophet to j>rophet, all looking back to 
 this fervent j^rayer and divine promise as their 
 fountain. It meant the 90th Psalm, God our dwell- 
 ing place in all generations fi-om everlasting to 
 everlasting. 
 
 It meant the 3Gth Psalm, " With Tliee is the Foun- 
 tain of Life,'' and the 16th, "In Thy prasenc^ is fulness 
 of joy, and at Thy right hand aa-e pleasures for ever- 
 more." And the 139th, " Whither shall I flee from Thy 
 Presence ? " And the 42d, " His 'p'e^nce, our saloa- 
 tion." And the 51st, "Cast me not away from Thy 
 Presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." 
 
 And so the stream of this revelation grew on, 
 broadened, deepened, till lost in Him in whom be- 
 lieving we are filled with all the fuhiess of God, and 
 from whom by faith receiving the water of life, it be- 
 comes in us a well of water sjDnnging up to everlast- 
 ing life; the life a life divine, and the i>eace and rest 
 the peace of God that passeth all understanding. 
 
 These interjected lights^ these shafts of eternal 
 mercy amidst such depths and tragedies of human 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. ^yj 
 
 guilt and misery, these sudden flashings of divine pur- 
 250se, will, and holy compassionate meaning; cloud- 
 rifts and cleansing hghtnings of heaven through 
 a chaos of sin and woe; lights revealing and con- 
 sonant with the whole atmosphere and law of gravi- 
 tation for the soul towards God; these are the things 
 that lighten the whole earth with His glory. 
 
 His history of our fall, His inter^^ositions to save 
 us from our sins, are demonstrations, the belief and 
 grateful acceptance of which are the beginnings of 
 an 2)ossibility of spiritual life and health; and thence- 
 forward piety is in the confession of guilt, the pra^-er 
 for pardon, the faith in God's forgiving mercy, and 
 the life obedient out of love. "We come to the book 
 of Psalms, in the centre of these orbs of history, law, 
 prophecy and pra^'er, and it is heaven oj^ened, angels 
 ascending and descending, thoughts, aspirations, ac- 
 tivities, celestial forces, a life 0)x earth, that is not of 
 earth, but an inner life of holy desires, praise, wor- 
 ship, reverence, contrition, adoration, joy, supplica- 
 tion and weeping; thoughts of God and man, that 
 could come only from God, and are uttered before 
 Him. And the light of this book irradiates the whole 
 surrounding spiritual universe and explains its m^-s- 
 teries, in the submission of man's reason to God's 
 wisdom and will, and of man's heart to the influences 
 and methods of God's love. It is at once Law and 
 
2^^ Faith, Doiiht, and Evidence. 
 
 Life, Reason and Faith, Logic and Love ; a law-book, 
 and at the same tune a hfe-book, even after violation 
 of the law; a commentary and a song, angels and men 
 studying the same text, rapt in the same praises, but 
 all true piety in men, since the history of the fall 
 setting out with the penitential confession of guilt 
 and the cry for pardon; and one of the sweetest, 
 most grateful and exultant of all psalms beginning 
 with that in which God hath "magnified His Word 
 above all His name," "Bless the Lord O my soul, who 
 FORGivETH ALL THINE INIQUITIES:" God ill Christ, the 
 same yesterday, to-day and forever, inhabiting the 
 contrite heart and inspiring its praises, even as He 
 doth eternity. 
 
 How wonderfully and mercifully educating, in- 
 structing and sanctifying, for imitation, practice and 
 encouragement, the varied forms of intercourse with 
 God thus recorded. "What human being, since our 
 Lord on earth prayed for all souls that through Him 
 would believe in a i)rayer-hearing God but may find 
 some foot-worn path of tearful sui:)phcation, a way 
 that the most sinful soul may successful!}^ take to 
 bring him to God's mercy -seat, accejited thi*ough 
 Christ. "What path from Job downwards that hath 
 not been trodden for the benefit of generations yet 
 to come. And from Adam to our day, never yet an 
 era of human life out of which there hath not ascended 
 
Faith, Doiibf, and Evidence. 24^ 
 
 to God this common universal acknowledgment of His 
 being, providence and grace. 
 
 Some of these prayers are but the stammerings of 
 a child. Yet out of the moutli of babes and sucklings 
 God is always perfecting praise, to still the Enemy 
 and Avenger. If we will but learn the a, h, c, God 
 will soon put our souls into two syllables, and then 
 teach us speedily whole sentences. And in them 
 we find, travelling from Moses to Paul, an introduc- 
 tion to the hidden glories kept secret from the foun- 
 dation of the world, until revealed through Christ's 
 death and resurrection by the Holy Spu'it in the 
 heart. From the 90th Psalm to the second chapter 
 of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians is fifteen hundred 
 years in time, with successive eras of ever increasing 
 illumination. And yet, when we step into the flaming 
 chariot of Paul's prayer, we find that thus only we 
 begin to understand that of Mosas in the wilderness, 
 " I beseech Thee show me Thy glory ! Let Thy work 
 appear unto Thy servants and Thy glory unto theu- 
 children. And let the bsauty of the Lord our God 
 be upon us; and establish Thou the work of our 
 hands up )n us, yea, the work of our hands estab- 
 lish Thou it." Tiie talismanic phra33s of Paul could 
 be given to the mind with foresight of their mean- 
 ing only by the same Divine Spirit that taught Moses; 
 and the Interpreter is never absent from tho inspu-a- 
 
2^6 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 tion, wherever there is a watching, believing, jjraying 
 heart, and Christ conversing with it. 
 
 Now to deny that the Old Hebrews prayed, that 
 they knew how to pray, is to deny that they ever 
 were the i:)eople of God, that they ever possessed one 
 element of piety aecei^table to Him; it is to affirm 
 that they were not so much idolaters as atheists. 
 Yet their habits both in faith and prayer are set 
 forth as our best and safest examples. If a meteor 
 from another world had bur.st upan this, our analytic 
 chemists could tell us Avhat were the organizing ele- 
 ments of that world; and so, fi-om the fragments of 
 the Old Testament suj)plications we can tell the piety 
 that then and there prevailed and that it was a fer- 
 vent, i^rayerful, penitential belief in the same God and 
 Saviour, whom we ourselves believe and trust in the 
 gospels. Pra^'er is the one central element and demon- 
 stration of all spiritual life; and to deny that the old 
 Hebrews knew how to j)ray is to deny that God had 
 ever even been revealed to them. But these jjrayers, 
 and the invitations, commands, and promises to those 
 who seek God according to His revealed Word, are as 
 rivers of the Water of Life, for every thing of soul sus- 
 tenance and communion with God is in them. They 
 trace a sjiiritual life and faith rising in the fountain 
 of God's love, and running through green pastures 
 of purest sympathy \\\i\\ (Jod and good-will to men. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 24.^ 
 
 Now the very beginning and absolute Vou S(o 
 of all just and infallible reasoning is from Christ's 
 words in the New Testament to God's words in the 
 Old. He who is himself the Way, the Truth, the 
 Life, leads, justifies, constrains us, in this reasoning. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 BELYIN(} THE WORD OF THE LORD A MODERN 
 FORM OF BLASPHEMY AND CRUELTY. 
 
 But the natural man ren'tcrth not the things of the 
 Spirit of God, neither can he know them, for they 
 are foolishness unto him. The key-notes of this di- 
 vine revelation touch no melodies in his soul, com- 
 mand no answering strains of belief and symjjathy. 
 There is neither oi)8n vision, nor sympathetic nor 
 creative faith. 
 
 "Earth's crammed with heaven," 
 exclaims Mrs. Browning, 
 
 "And every common bush afire with God: 
 But only he who sees, takes oflf his shoes: 
 The rest sit round it, and — pluck blackberries." 
 
 There are but few that have spirituality of miml 
 enough even to turn aside tliat they may see what 
 nieaneth the heat of tliis great anger, or what the 
 
24S Faith, Doicbt, and Evidence. 
 
 glory of this supernatural fire. Few that ask, where 
 did he get that prajer, that principle, that lightning 
 disclosure from Eternity? Few that say with won- 
 dering Jacob, Siu'ely the Lord is in this jslace, and 
 I knew it not. These "blackben^y critics" tvu-n the 
 whole Word of God into infinite foolishnetis for the 
 natural maxi; and therein claim for themselves, in 
 hehalf of all defrauded men who follow their coun- 
 sels, the curses against the man that removeth his 
 neighbor's landmark, that maketh the blind to wan- 
 der out of the way, that perverteth the judgment of the 
 stranger, fatherless, and Avidow, that putteth a stum- 
 bling-block before the blind. These reckless scholars 
 teaching men that ai-t of '■'belying the Word of tlie Lord," 
 that had come to such perfection even twenty-five 
 hundred years ago, and is renewed now, two thou- 
 sand years after the hght of the gospels, flooding all 
 nations, are tridy " the children of them that liUed 
 tlie prophets. They shut up the kingdom of heaven 
 against men, taking away the kej's thereof, neither 
 entering themselves, nor suffering those that are en- 
 tering to go in." — Matt, xxiii. 13, 31. What wonder 
 at our Lord's terrific denunciations of such hard- 
 ened spiritual unpiety and cruelty ? 
 
 "I heard an angel spoalt last night: 
 From the summits of love a curse is driven 
 As lightning is from the tops of heaven." 
 
Faith, Doitbt, and Evidence. 2^g 
 
 The denying of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testa- 
 ment, the putting out of the hghts there kindled and 
 cloud-pniared by God's mercy for mankind, the dis- 
 tortion and erasure of the traces and seals of Messiah- 
 ship (Emmanuel, God Avith us), the elaborate painful 
 destruction of the drawings, the colors, the pen- 
 strokes and blood-red engravings, just as Avhen skilful 
 manipulators and forgers of wlUs annihilate figures 
 and signatures by chemical jJi'ocesses, and then insert 
 words and meanings of their own; this devastating 
 process, excluding Christ, whose presence was de- 
 clared by Himself to have been the one indwelling 
 life that alone rendered the Old Testament of any 
 value, and made it a fountain of life, the power of 
 healing and salvation for the soul; who but Christ 
 Himself in love to mankind, could describe its wicked- 
 ness? Language can not tell the terrible malignity 
 of such a proceeding. If devils could take the oxygen 
 from our air, the sunshine and its power of sustaining 
 life from God's light, leaving us to grope through the 
 earth in the blackness of darkness, even this would 
 be but a faint image of the blasj^hemy against God, 
 and the cruelty against man, inseparable from such 
 a work. To think of scholars making it the business 
 of their life, the support of their jirofcssorships, the 
 attraction for their students, to prove that there never 
 was a divine Saviour, nor ever a need of Him ! ]\Iak- 
 
2^0 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 ing their living by ruuniug the machiueries of de- 
 struction and death ! It makes one think of the won- 
 derful forbearance of Grod and of Cotta's old argument 
 urged against the doctrine of a divine providence, that 
 such a man as Caius Marius could die in a good old age 
 in the career of his seventh consulship ! Mysterious 
 indeed that God should ever have permitted His 
 Word to be handled by men, the whole aim of whose 
 critical learning is to make Christ Crucified to the 
 Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness ! 
 
 The whole work is worse than Uzziah's attempted 
 intrusion into the very presence chamber of the King 
 of kings. God our Father, Christ our Saviour, the 
 Holy Spirit our Sanctifier, denied, "trampled under 
 foot, put to an open shame." David said, "I will 
 praise Thy name, O God, for Thy loving kindness 
 and Thy truth, for Thou hast magnified Thy Word 
 above all Thy name." But these critics blaspheme 
 this manifestation of God more perversely than any 
 other revelations of His glory; and the utmost learn- 
 ing, earnestness and genius can only exasperate the 
 evil and give countenance to the spiritual jjlague, so 
 that, in the Bible for learners and the Encyclopedia 
 for scholars we find it given free course and glorified. 
 
 "Are ye come out as against a thief with swords 
 and staves for to take Me? I sat daily with you 
 in the Tcmi)le, teaching you, and ye laid no hands 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2^t 
 
 on Me." Do you criticise the Divine Word as a 
 surgeon would the leper? It is as if Abraham had 
 arrested the angels as tramps, and carried them away 
 to the nearest station house. It is as if a living, 
 healthy i:)erson were laid out on the dissecting table, 
 and cut up to demonstrate disease. 
 
 The severity with which Prof. Tayler Lewis has 
 treated this style of criticism can not be regarded as 
 uncharitable by any one who considers the value of 
 the truth and the infinite importance and majesty of 
 its evidence thus by these men distorted and denied. 
 The accusations brought .against the Old Testament 
 writers by these critics destroy all right and reason 
 on their part for referring to any of the prophets as 
 authorities at all, either in supj)ort of their own the- 
 ories, or against what they call traditionary myths. 
 With what prodigious power has Prof. Lewis in his 
 excin'sus on the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis, and his 
 profoundly thoughtful, holy, and learned notes and 
 essays on Job, demonstrated this consequence; the 
 annihilating effect of their own accusations upon 
 themselves. "It is usual," says he, "for this Higher 
 Criticism to speak, or aftect to speak, with great re- 
 spect of the Hebrew prophets as very sincere and 
 honest men, upright, professing a stern morality, in 
 advance of their age, etc. ; but what are they on tliis 
 hypothesis, of the forger}^ of Isaiah's name for ex- 
 
2^2 Faith, Dotibt, and Evidence. 
 
 ample, and the stealing of liis repntation as tlieii' own, 
 bvit base liars, conscious, circumstantial liars, 3'ea, the 
 boldest as well as the most impious of blasphemers ! " 
 
 For it can not be denied that our Saviour Christ 
 Himself is involved in the same blasphemy. And 
 these critics set themselves openly in company with 
 those scribes and Pharisees of the Jews, who came 
 in a body to Pilate, when Christ had been cnicified, 
 saying, " Sir, Ave remember that that Deceiver said, 
 while He was yet alive, after three days I will rise 
 AGAIN." It was their creed of sincere blasphemy, 
 which they intended, with Pilate's co-operation, and 
 by large money given to the soldiers, to have fastened 
 on the world, establishing the story of the resurrec- 
 tion as an ai)ostolic conspiracy and fraud. 
 
 "Wonderful stupidity, amidst all their cunning, that 
 they did not perceive how, for Pilate's satisfaction, 
 and that of all generations after him, ever asking, 
 What is truth? they established for all time, where- 
 ever the gospels . should be preached, this undis- 
 puted fact that Christ, long before His crucifixion, 
 had predicted it, and His descent into the grave, 
 and His resurrection. And wonderful the accord- 
 ance of these words with those of the angels at the 
 empty sepulchre, " He is not here, but is risen. Jie- 
 onemlK'r liow JTc spal-e viilo you, saying, The Son of 
 man must bo delivered into the hands of sinful men 
 
 \ 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2^j 
 
 and be crucified, and the third day rise again." They 
 remembord HU iror<U, and the proofs of their divine- 
 ness; — so did the scribes and Pharisees, reporting 
 them to Pilate, with a profane historic seal set by 
 themselves for all ages, and by enmity securing them. 
 That Deceiver ! It was the inscrii^tion that they 
 would have dictated to Pilate in large letters of Greek 
 and Hebrew and Latin over the cross, Jesus of Naz- 
 areth, THAT Deceiver. It is the title under which the 
 rationalistic criticism of modern scientific thought in- 
 troduces Him to the whole world, to the youthful 
 mind and heart, to the student even of the gospels. 
 If this tide of blasphemy under assumption of historic 
 accuracy and sincere high-minded doubt, could have 
 its wished for way, and passing through our common 
 schools and colleges enter our theological semina- 
 ries, and leave the silt and deposit of such j^reiDOsses- 
 sions for one generation, a hundred years of peniten- 
 tial sorrow could not, except by the grace of God, 
 bring back the common mind to such simplicity and 
 humility of spirit as would tit it to receive in loving 
 faith the image of the Saviour in the New Testament. 
 
2^4 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 THE WORD OF GOD CRUCIFIED BETWEEN TWO THIEVES 
 —CONSEQUENCES OF SUCH SCEPTICISM — MIRACLES 
 OF LYING ADMITTED TO BALANCE THE MIRACLES OF 
 GOD, AND PUT ON THE SAME FOOTING OF SINCER- 
 ITY— TESTIMONIES OF THE 19th AND iiglh PSALMS. 
 
 This treatment of the Son of God, the Personal 
 "Word Incarnate, in the j^rocess of the first crucifix- 
 ion, by the High Priests and rulers of the Jews, is 
 renewed at this day by intelligent scoffers, who have 
 " crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh, and 
 put Him to an open shame"; "who have trodden 
 under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood 
 of the covenant wherewith He was sanctified an un- 
 holy thing." — Heb. vi. x. Even so these scholars set 
 the Word between two thieves; they number it with 
 transgressors ; they accuse it by false witnesses of 
 blasphemy, forgery, sorcery, and lying; they cover it 
 with scorn, they crown it with thorns, they attend 
 every step towards the Cross with revilings. They 
 command their historical recorders to ""Write not, 
 TuE King of the Jews, but that lie said, I am, 
 knowing that He was not. Write that He lied." 
 Then they make the sepulchre sure, having em- 
 balmed the body as a mummy, at Pilate's com- 
 
Faith, Dotcbt, and Evidence. ^55 
 
 mand, sealing the stone and setting a watch. An 
 example of such treatment is to be found in the 
 " Encyclopedia Britannica " in the article on the word 
 Bible. It is a mere I'esame of the speculations and 
 conjectures of infidel critics; a j^rimer of the creed 
 of second-hand rationalism for the use of those who 
 can not read German authorities in the original. Yet 
 there it stands as a professed believer's description 
 of the Christian Scriptures; a caricature of sacred 
 truth as nothing better than anonymous plagiarism ! 
 The spirit of such scepticism is as a malaria con- 
 tracted from the habit of digging drains in poison- 
 ous valleys, or mining for gold in arsenical locaUties. 
 John Bunyan has set Demas, spade in hand, at such 
 grounds, inviting passers-by to come and see and 
 enrich themselves. If we ask Christ to go out of 
 the country as a sorcerer, and search the Scriptures 
 to prove fhem the work of impostors, the devils them- 
 selves will assume the texts, out of which we have 
 endeavored to exorcise the truth of God, and enter- 
 ing into our souls will carry us down steep places 
 into the abyss. There is a formidable jn-ecedent of 
 such retribution in kind. " The}' have belied the 
 Lord, and said, It is not He, neither sluill evil come 
 upon us. Wherefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, 
 Because ye speak this Avord, behold I will make my 
 words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and 
 
2^6 Faith, Do7ibt, and Evidence. 
 
 it shall devour them." — Jer. v. 12, 14. God's mean- 
 ing can be gotten only from Grod's words; and God's 
 words must be accej^ted and believed as His, or both 
 the meaning and the words are denied as a forgery. 
 Although the things recorded in the gospels are 
 such as God's omniscience alone could have certified, 
 yet we find men continually seeking some source of 
 information other than divine, some human witness 
 to rely upon, that may render the divine unnecessary. 
 Strange inconsistency, and unaccountable unwilling- 
 ness to depend on God, our only fovmtain of immu- 
 table and soul-saving truth. "Who could reveal God's 
 thoughts, or Christ's kno\^ledge of them, and of His 
 own mind, but the Spirit of God only ? This is Paxil's 
 argument of an infallible insj^iration both of thoughts 
 and words. It is incontestible. Take for instance, in 
 Matt. xiv. 23, a single example among many such of 
 an incident, the knowledge of which could have been 
 obtained only from the Lord Jesus. Whenever and 
 by whomsoever recorded, it must leave been bij revdatiuu 
 and inspiration from Him; for He only knew, when He 
 had sent the multitudes away, that He Himself went 
 up into a mountain to pray, and that when the even- 
 ing was come He was there alone. The record of 
 these facts was never from tradition, or information 
 T)y any witness, or from au}- one to whom the Lord 
 had told that He went uj) into the mountain to i)ray, 
 
Faith, Dottbt, and Evidence. 2^"/ 
 
 and was there alone; yet it was inspired by the Holy 
 Spirit to be set down in this gospel by Matthew, for 
 the instruction of all mankind in all ages. It was 
 a thing known to not a single human being, for its 
 relation was a part of Christ's hidden life of com- 
 munion with God, revealed by the inspmng Sj^kit. 
 as essential to a full manifestation of Christ in this 
 divine, infallible, perfect testimony of His fulness ; 
 according Avith John's declaration in his gospel, xx. 31. 
 
 Of the same nature is the record in Matt. xxi. 23-27. 
 Tlie reasoning of the chief priests and elders among 
 themselves is supposed by Alford to have been origi- 
 naUij reported b}' Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea, 
 But why resort to such a supposition, when the Holy 
 Spirit nuist have presented these details of truth to 
 the mind of the evangelist as a part of the inspired 
 record of Christ's life, in a fulness and divine certainty 
 such as no human testimony could have commanded 
 or conveyed? 
 
 In the divine Word nothing rests upon conjecture. 
 But outside of it we behold conjectural intermeddlers 
 and interpreters ranging up and down for hundreds 
 of years to find places where they can fix theu' theod- 
 olites, theu' surveying instruments. Nay, from Moses 
 to Malachi they are seeking rest and finding none, 
 but with a constant contradiction and dispute among 
 themselves. 
 
2^8 Faith, Doubly a?td Evidence. 
 
 Now by contrast read II Cor. ii. 17, "For we are 
 not as many, wlio corruj^t the Word of God, but as 
 of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, sjieak 
 we in Christ." Corrupting, -KaitrjXe.vovrf.'i, adulter at iiuj, 
 to make profit by such infecting admixture of the 
 human and uncertain with the divine. Even as the 
 sellers of worthless seed, or of chicory in place of 
 coffee, or of oak-bark instead of Peruvian, or of Dead 
 Sea asphaltum instead of balm of Gilead, plaster of 
 Paris instead of wheaten flour, apples of Sodom in- 
 stead of the Bread of Life. 
 
 But we, m of sincerifi/, eiXiupiva/ai, as of suushining 
 judgment, or criticism in the sunlight, as of God, and 
 in the sight of God, speak we in Christ. 
 
 Speak ice in Chruit. This is very remarkable. It 
 is the closing seal; and for this certainty, beyond 
 which God Himself doth not go, " we have the mind 
 OF Christ. "^ — I Cor. ii. IG. 
 
 Now to meet these imjiugners of the sincerity and 
 truth of God's "Word on their own ground, reasoning 
 fi'om their standpoint of suspicion, is to invite and 
 justify scepticism instead of preventing it. To say 
 that their reasonings and conclusions may possibly 
 be true, is the same as to say that it is possible that 
 falsehood and forgery may be the truth, and that 
 divine truth may be the very falsehood that these 
 sceptical critics protend to demonstrate. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2^g 
 
 But we can not in equity put divine truth and 
 human eiTor on the same footing of antecedent prob- 
 abiUty and sincerity, and say of the most groundless 
 and iiTeverent speculations, All this of course is jjos- 
 sibly correct. It would be as wise to conclude that 
 delirium tremens may possibly be the normal and 
 rational action of the brain, while the calm and tem- 
 perate conclusions of the man in perfect health may 
 be the conditions of drunkenness and insanity. Some 
 men reason as if the believers that the Scriptures are 
 God's infallible Word are to be treated as the luna- 
 tics, and the deniers of God's Word accredited as the 
 only sure prophets and teachers of mankind. But 
 what says the apostle? "Speak we in Christ." 
 
 What Chi-ist Himself declared to be God's Word, 
 we can not set aside as man's forgery. Contrariwise, 
 for the honor of the Word of God, and in obedience 
 to the claim and example of the Lord Jesus in reason- 
 ing fi"om that Word, it is our axiom, our sanity, the 
 postulate of a perfect reason, to receive it as known 
 and settled, and to trust and obe}' God in it. In 
 showing that it is not man's forgery, in demonstra- 
 ting the falsehood of any learned writer's attempt to 
 prove it a mistake, we can not suppose an\i jyossibililij 
 of its being a forgery. Christ never admitted such 
 a supposition; the apostles never did; but on the con- 
 trary postulated the cerlaindj of the Scriptures as being 
 
26o Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 " tvUhout controversy; " a revelation in form and verity 
 as undeniable as the sun, moon and stars; both the 
 written Word and the created heavens as incontro- 
 vertible as the Being of God. The deniers of either 
 are set forth, not as reasoners, to be met with the ad- 
 mission that their theory may possibly be correct, but 
 as fools and hars against both conscience and God. 
 
 In j)roving the truths of astronomy against chance 
 and atheism, men of genuine science can not atlmit 
 that of course the deniers of God and of the creation 
 may possibly be right, and if so, the demonstrations of 
 astronomy must be wrong. But the Word of God is 
 not less absolutely certain than His works. A Divine 
 Christ, and all that follows upon His Divinity, are not 
 less absolute and established than the solar system. 
 We rightfully say that any persons denying the real- 
 ity of the sun, and maintaining that it was from the 
 beginning a delusion, a fraud upon men's senses, got- 
 ten up by lecturers, or grown up out of traditional 
 myths, are so far forth insane, and fit subjects for 
 treatment in a lunatic asylum. 
 
 There are only two visible realities known to the 
 human mind, God's Works and God's Word. The 
 nineteenth Psalm is a demonstration, setting forth, 
 first the Works, second the Word, as equally and in- 
 contestably the known witnesses for God, the Word 
 as weU known as the Works. The quantities and 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 261 
 
 qualities of both parts of the comijarison are infalli- 
 ble. First, the heavens declare, the firmament show- 
 eth forth, day and night sj)eak. Second, the law of 
 the Lord, j)erfect, converting the soul, — testimonies, 
 statutes, commandments, judgments; — no more doubt 
 what they are, and where written, than Avhat the sun 
 is, and where set and seen in his going forth and his 
 circuit. The sun speaks to the same mind, through 
 the senses; the written word speaks to the soul, as in- 
 fallibly, but more profoundh'. The 119th Psalm is an 
 enlargement, analysis and illustration of the 19 th, as 
 the centi'e of a crystal is seen by polarized light. So, 
 the Avritten Word is as a succession of lenses or prisms 
 of continually increasing power, each successive illu- 
 mination at once exj)laining what goes before, and 
 throwing greater light upon the future. 
 
 The 119th Psalm is an eminent example of the na- 
 ture of that prayerful meditation on the Divine Law, 
 which was requu'ed of king, priest, and people, by the 
 Lawgiver, and was announced to be the only way of 
 understanding its meaning, in order to obey God, and 
 attain holiness and ]ife. But if the law itself was only 
 " secular," and contained no revelation of forgiveness 
 through Christ, no foreshowing of His atoning sacri- 
 fice, no revelation of a future life, or of the soul's re- 
 sponsibility to God as everlasting; then the prayers, 
 meditations, and studies demanded were worthless 
 
262 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 chaff, unworthy both of God and man. But the med- 
 itations of which this psahii is such an exquisite ex- 
 ample, wei'e of thoughts and things in that case not 
 required by the law, not at all to be discovered in it, 
 but altogether suj^erior to it; a piety infinitely above 
 that of the law, and profound and heavenly beyond 
 all precedent. 
 
 But this psalm does not refer to any tradition or 
 rule of heart, or of external moraht}', outside the law, 
 nor to any other authority for the conscience towards 
 God. It knows nothing but God's Word, God's writ- 
 ten commandments, as the fountain of wisdom, the 
 guide and protector of the soul. " Blessed are the un- 
 defiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord." 
 
 And these divine experiences, whenever and where- 
 ever we find them, in any age, are God's incontesta- 
 ble vouchers for His w^-itten Word. Wherever there 
 is discovered the love of God and man, there God has 
 been working with His Word and Si:)irit, ujion and in 
 the human soul. There is the knowledge of God's 
 salvation, and the heart hungering and thirsting after 
 God. And wherever there is the seeking of Him by 
 His Word, there is the finding of Him. For eternally 
 " with Thee is the fountain of life, and in Thy light 
 shall we see light." 
 
 The law was ceremonial, ritual, sacrificial, spu'itual, 
 in its fixtures, types, precepts, worship, prayers and 
 
Faithy Doitbty and Evidetice. 26j 
 
 I>raises. It presented the ■way of acceptance vriih. God, 
 through a divine atoning Saviour, by remission of sins, 
 through His blood, by pardoning grace through faith 
 ill God's mercy, sought with the confessions of the 
 penitent soul. 
 
 •'My faith would lay her hand 
 
 On that dear head of thine, 
 
 While like a penitent I stand 
 
 And there confess my sin." 
 
 The language of Watts' exquisite Ip'ic, applied to 
 the types of Christ among the Old Hebrews, and to 
 their knowledge of the sacred everlasting meaning, as 
 taught by the Spirit at the mercy seat, is not exag- 
 gerated. / have xvaifed for Thtj salvation, was no mere 
 figure of speech \>'ith Jacob on his dying bed, nor with 
 Moses in the wilderness; but that salvation was the 
 indwelling light and glory of the Lord, yesterday, to- 
 day, and forever, by the Divine Spirit revealing it. 
 
 "Thy testimonies are wonderful; therefore doth 
 my soul keep them. Thy righteousness is an evei'- 
 lasting righteousness, and Thy law is the truth. The 
 righteousness of Thy testimonies is everlasting; give 
 me understanding, and I shall live. Thy Word is 
 tme from the beginning, and everj' one of Thy right- 
 eous judginents endureth forever. I have longed for 
 Th\i sah'alion, Lord, and Thy law is my dehght." 
 
264 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 These things are true, onhj as they are spiritually- 
 true. The testimonies of the law are not wonderful, 
 if only of this world, but are nugatory, trifling, bur- 
 thensome, if there is no eternal meaning in them. 
 The righteousness is not an eA"erlastiug righteousness, 
 if onh^ of this life. The testimonies did )iol endure 
 forever, if there was no immortality in them, as there 
 certainly was not, nor any immortal meaning, if given 
 to creatui'es Avho had no knowledge of their own im- 
 mortality, nor of any virtue or reward beyond the 
 grave. It was unutterable scorn, iron}', cruelty, if 
 commands were laid on creatures who could by no 
 possibihty understand their meaning, nor ai:)prehend 
 their own resjionsibility in regard to them, nor be 
 made to know and appreciate their solemn weight, 
 any more than men born bhnd could be made to 
 know colors. "Beware that you act always with 
 reference to the red or the violet, or the whole rain- 
 bow, on pain of misery and ruin," would be a di- 
 rection quite as rational to a man born blind, as " Act 
 for another life," would be to men without the knowl- 
 edge of immortality. 
 
 This knowledge was ever an accumulating power 
 of the Divine Revelation, which indeed was nothing 
 without it; no foretold Saviour without it, nor any 
 possibility of foreteUing or typifying Him, or making 
 men feel His worth, or their need of Him. The 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 26^ 
 
 knowledge of guilt by the law, both of duty aud sac- 
 rifice, was always foretelling Christ, from Adam to 
 Abraham, from Abraham to Moses, from Moses to 
 Christ; an accumulation of expei'ience and belief in 
 every successive stage of God's disclosures to man- 
 kind.* 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 BELIEF IN CHRIST DOES AWAY WITH UNCERTAIN- 
 TIES—PAUL'S METHOD WITH THE ROMANS AND 
 GALATIANS— NO APOLOGY FOR THE POSITIVENESS 
 OF THE SCRIPTURES EVER IMAGINED OR ATTEMPT- 
 ED-REFERENCES TO THE WHOLE OF ISAIAH AS 
 BEING ONE AND THE SAME INSPIRED BOOK, BY ONE 
 AND THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 Since Christ has come, aud died for our sins, ac- 
 cording to the Scriptures, and was buried, and rose 
 again, according to the Scriptures, we have done 
 with uncertainties and things that could be shaken. 
 "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words 
 shall not pass awaj'." Matt. xxiv. 35. "What I tell 
 you in darkness that speak ye in light; and what ye 
 
 • See on this subject the admirable and satisfactory reasoning 
 of Dr. W. L. Alexander iu his second and third "Congrega- 
 tional Lectures, on the Doctrine of a Future State in the Old 
 Testament, ajid on the Critciia of Messianic Proijhccy." 
 
266 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 ^spiritually 
 hear in the eax, that preach ye upon the h - 
 
 'onderful, 
 Matt. X. 27. It is therefore the primal 2?>.^ 
 
 . . . , -, % \mx~ 
 
 canon of a just cnticism, that loe accept and prcf^ 
 
 them. 
 Scfij^ures as Ghrhit and His apodles pressed them,\ 
 
 hesitatingly, doubtfully, or apologetically, but ag- 
 gressively, " boldly, as we ought to speak," from God, 
 as God's Word, not man's, I Thess. ii. 13; "bringing 
 into captivity ece)^xj thought to the obedience of Christ." 
 n Cor. X. 5. " Not handhng the Word of God deceit- 
 fully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending our- 
 selves to eveiy man's conscience in the sight of God." 
 II Cor. iv. 2. " All this, for obedience to the faith among 
 all nations, for His (Christ's) name." Rom. i. 5. We 
 KNOW that the Son of God is come, and hath given us 
 an understanding, that we may know Him that is true; 
 and we are in Hun that is time, even in His Son Je- 
 sus Christ. This is the true God akd Eternal Life." 
 I John V. 20. 
 
 With the same awful and adjuring cei-tainty Paul 
 speaks those solemn words to the Galatians, i. 8, 9, 
 11, 12 — " Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach 
 any other gospel unto you than that which we have 
 preached unto you, let liim be acciu'sed. As we said 
 before, so say I now tig-Jiin, If any man preach any 
 other gospel vrnto you than that ye have received, 
 let him be accursed. But I ceiiify you, brethren, that 
 the gospel which was preached of me is not after 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 26J 
 
 man. For I neither received it of men, neither Avas 
 I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Clirist." 
 Nothin- but a known infaUible inspiration could have 
 justified this; nothing less could have constrained the 
 Galatians to admit its truth as indisputable. 
 
 The same is the indestructible logic of Paul in the 
 comparison of Rom. iii. 5, G, and Gen. xviii. 25, Avith 
 Rom. xiv. 10, 11, and Isa. xlv. 23, concerning the 
 certainty, equity, and individuaHty of God's judgment 
 of mankind. Paul quotes Abraham, David, and Isaiah, 
 for the certainty that we shaU all stand before the 
 judgment seat of Christ. So then, adds Paul, after 
 God's oath as given in Isaiah, "«« / /,Yv, milh the 
 Lord;' synonymous with, " I have sworn by myself," 
 —so then, "every one of us shaU give account of him- 
 self to God." The incidental proofs, and coincidental, 
 from Abraham to Christ, of a verbal inspiration, om- 
 niscient, infallible, are decisive. And more notably 
 than any thing else, here is a deduction by Paul 
 fi-om one of the very chapters of Isaiah pronounced 
 by rationalists to have been a forgery; a deduction 
 m God's name, from Isaiah's own ANTiting, in that 
 chapter, as the Lord's own words, of so infinitely 
 important a truth, that it could be known only by 
 God's written revelation. 
 
 Of the same nature is the method of Paul with the 
 objector in Rom. ix. 20, covering the whole Striplures; 
 
268 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 not the shadow of a doubt intimated as to the unde- 
 niable authority and righteous sovereignty of those 
 Scriptures. The j^ostulate assumed by the apostle is 
 this, that the Scriptures are God Himself speaking to 
 mankind. 
 
 "Nay, but man, who art thou that repliest against 
 God ? " This is Paul's argument of absolute, unquali- 
 fied loyalty to God. It is not a resort to avoid argu- 
 ment, or to suj^ply the jDlace of demonstration; nor is 
 it the evasion of a difficulty, as by a fire-escape from a 
 building in flames. But it is submission to the high- 
 est reason; and to this incontestable truth, namely, 
 that God has spoken, and that these written pages of 
 the Old Testament, to which the apostle brings all his 
 own reasonings to be tested and decided, are the ulti- 
 mate and supreme ai:)peal, the very "Word of God, the 
 reasoning of God, not to be gainsayed, nor the abso- 
 lute justice and authority of it questioned. It may 
 be, it mud be, in some respects, inscrutable, but not 
 therefore to be denied. In this single vhaplcr Paul 
 quotes from and refers to Moses, Genesis, Exodus, 
 Psalms, Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, Nahum, Jeremiah and 
 Malachi; a most remarkable, incontrovei'tible concen- 
 tration of Divine testimonies ! 
 
 " Eepliesl against God ! " Observe the underlying 
 granite on which Paul thus rests all things, all the 
 upbuildings of human reasoning. It is this, namely, 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 26g 
 
 that the Scriptures are " God Hbmelf sjyealiiK/," and 
 consequently that men who argue agamst them are 
 disputing- not a doubtful record, but GofV.^ oicn Words. 
 There is no apology imagined or attemjited, no sup- 
 position of a j^ossible uncertainty or mistake ; but 
 there is the affirmation of its being God's Word, along 
 ■with the certainty that it is imj)ossible for God to he. 
 To this impossibility Paul elsewhere refers, in consid- 
 ering the particular jiromises of God, on which the 
 whole i^ossibility of our salvation rests, as for example, 
 in Heb. vi. 12-20. To the same purpose, compare 
 II Peter i. 4, IG, 21, and II Cor. i. 20-22, and ii. 17, 
 and I Cor. ii. 4, 5. All these quotations proceed on 
 the same divine principle as the last, namely, that 
 " your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, 
 but in the power of God." 
 
 The same argument is very strong (the more so 
 for being incidental), contained in Romans xv. 4-21. 
 " For u-Jiat.ioever things were writlea aforetime, were Avrit- 
 ten for our learning, that we, through jMlience and com- 
 fort of the Scrijytures, might have hoj^e." "Now I say 
 that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for 
 
 THE TRUTH OF GoD, to Confirm THE PROMISES MADE UNTO 
 
 THE FATHERS, and that the Gentiles might glorify God 
 for His mercy, as it is written. For this cause I will 
 confess to Thee among the Gentiles and sing unto 
 Thy name " (Ps. xviii. 49). And again He s.uth (Deut. 
 
2^0 Faith, Do2ibt, and Evidence. 
 
 xxxii. 43), aud again (Ps. cxvii. 1), and again, Emim 
 milk (Is. xi. 1, 10). " Now the God of liojoe fill yovi 
 with all jo J and peace in believing, that ye may 
 abound iu hope, through the power of the Holy 
 Ghost." 
 
 This particular bundle of quotations closes, very 
 significantl}', with one from Is. lii. 15, vmder this 
 formiila, Bat a.s it is uiriUen, the formula of God's 
 "Word. Nothing less than a plenary verbal insjiira- 
 tion is demonstrated in this reasoning, so far as such 
 inspiration was requisite for the complete infallible 
 conveyance of all the truth necessary' for the fulfil- 
 ment of God's i^romises in the salvation of the soul. 
 And it is remarkable that here, as elsewhere, Paul 
 quotes equaEy from the earlier and later chapters of 
 Isaiah, as being the same unquestionable Word of 
 God, by the same insj^ired writer. 
 
 We have therefore in our possession, beyond dlxpule, 
 what God has revealed: (a) infallible because it is 
 God's Word; and {b) what God has said can not be 
 contradicted, as if it were fallible; for (c) it is impossi- 
 ble for God to lie. The supposition therefore of this 
 Word not being divinely inspired, not God's Word, and 
 consequentl}' that it may projierl}' be reasoned against 
 as false or mistaken, has two points or qualities of 
 blasphemy. (1) It is accusing God of injustice (why 
 doth he yet lind fault ?) if it be admitted that this is 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2'/i 
 
 the Word of God; (2) of lying, if it be asserted that 
 this is nol His Word. For it is an axiom determined 
 by Christ, and reasoned from by John, " that he that 
 belie veth not the record that God gave of JIU Son, hath 
 made God a liar." The record is known; the man 
 that disputes it disputes God, and he who denies it 
 denies God; not simpl^^ affirms that He is mistaken, 
 but makes Him a liar. 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 GOD'S OWN VOUCHERS UNIMPEACHABLE, CUMULA- 
 TIVE, AND STILL EVOLVING FROM GENERATION 
 TO GENERATION. 
 
 The study of the human eye does not more certain- 
 ly demonstrate an infallible designing and omuiiDotent 
 mind, than the study of the Scriptures an infallible 
 and omniscient inspireu and truth-teller. And God's 
 vouchers for the truth of His Word are among all 
 l^roofs ever addressed to the human reason the most 
 infallible, the most incontrovertible, the most judi- 
 ciously grounded and reasonably accepted, and con- 
 firmed, of all things known in history and science, 
 •whether moral or i)hysical. They are (first of all), 
 prophetic; the undisputed record of jjredidions, out 
 
2^/2 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 of wliicli, and hecaiiae of Avhicli, the events took place 
 that have changed the face and state of the Avhole 
 ■world; theu' fulfilment demonstrating the infallible 
 truth and presence of God through every step of the 
 process. (2), Providential, and successively evolved 
 hy far-off long-working, and sometimes secret or un- 
 noticed causes, that at length come forth in majesty 
 and joower; the successions known and visible, and 
 as important and indivisible, as the knitting of ball- 
 and-socket joints, or the vertebrae in the human anat- 
 omy. (3), Both historical and monumental, as of the 
 work of creation, finished with man created in God's 
 image, and the seventh day blessed and sanctified, as 
 the memorial epoch of God's rest, and the governing 
 day of man's worshij), and as such, set in the Deca- 
 logue. Then (4), the sovereign authority and lord- 
 ship of that day, assumed by the Son of God, on 
 earth and in heaven, as Lord or the Sabc.vth, for 
 the work of man's new creation and redemption. 
 
 Already, that divine authority, and Christ's om- 
 nipotence and omniscience in declaring it, are facts 
 of history, fulfilling His predictions, that could neither 
 have been conceived nor uttered by any mere man, 
 nor sanctioned by the event, but from God. Then 
 (5), historic, prophetic, commemorative, and disci- 
 plinary aU at once, of individual character, and na- 
 tional industry and trust in God, as in the wonderful 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2jj 
 
 jubilee enactments; so that tlie seventh day was a 
 jubilee of rest and freedom for God's jDraise, and 
 the seventh year a jubilee of liberty and love, and the 
 fiftieth 3'ear, a jubilee of jubilees, such as no uniu- 
 spii'ed thought ever could have imagined, and none 
 but a divinely authorized lawgiver would have ever 
 dared to jiromulgate; but in all of which, if the peo- 
 ple would but rest on God, God would renew and 
 perpetuate His miracvdous protection of them in the 
 sight of all nations. Connected with these, and parts 
 of the same system, the personal freedom-enactments, 
 forbidding slavery, and the land-owning policies and 
 laws of estates never to be alienated, with the vast 
 results depending upon the people's faithfulness to 
 them, or disobedience of them. These are shown with 
 great power, in comj)aring Ex. xxi. 2, xxiii. 10, 11, 12. 
 and Deut. xv. 12, with Jer. xxxiv. 13-17, and xxv. 11, 
 and II Chron. xxxvi. 21, and Lev. xxv. 2-22, and xxvi, 
 34, 35, 43. Let all these passag"es be compared with 
 Daniel ix. 2, and let it be considered with what irre- 
 sistible strength of conviction the phrase in Leviticus 
 and Chronicles of "the land enjoying her Sabbaths,"' 
 a phrase illuminated in Babylon like the handwriting 
 on Belshazzar's palace, must have grasj^ed and fired 
 the conscience of the people. For they wept in an- 
 guish beneath the punishment of their sins, by the 
 terrific judgments of God for their disobedience of 
 
2^4- Faith, Doubt, and Evidence: 
 
 His commands, and idolatrous distrust of His pro- 
 tection.* 
 
 If the Jews neglected to keep tlie jubilees com- 
 manded of God, and had so profaned the sacredness 
 both of land and law, to the amount of seventy years, 
 thus denying the authority and righteousness of God's 
 own statutes, and setting an example of contempt and 
 infidelity in the sight of all the surrounding nations, 
 who were always watching the Hebrews with idola- 
 trous hatred and jealousy, God would certainly, ac- 
 cording to His predictions by Moses, punish them ia 
 
 * The personification in Leviticus is that of a hoty woman, 
 consecrated to God's service and glory, hut defrauded of her Sab- 
 baths, and so of her sacred worship and rest. Because of this des- 
 ecration and denial of God, "your land shall be desolate and 
 your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as 
 long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; then 
 shall the land rest, and enjoy her Sabbaths. As long as it lieth 
 desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your Sabbaths when 
 ye dwelt upon it. Therefore, they that are left of you shall pine 
 away in their iniquity in your enemies' laud. The laud also 
 shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her Sabbaths, while she 
 lietli desolate without them : and they shall accept of the punish- 
 ment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my 
 judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes."— Lev. 
 xxvi. ' ' To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jere- 
 miah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as loug as she lay 
 desolate, she kept her Sabbath to fulfil three score and ten years." 
 II Chrou. xxxvi. 21. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2y^ 
 
 kind, and openly, and would make it known as clear 
 as the sun why He did it. The soil illegally, unbe- 
 lievingly and selfislily tilled, without tithes for God 
 and the poor, through seventy' years, and the Sab- 
 baths polluted, and God and the world robbed and 
 defrauded, and idolatry preferred and sanctioned, 
 should be followed b}' a seventy years' desolation and 
 anathema of the land, under a seventy years' trans- 
 portation and captivity of its inhabitants. God woiild 
 give them over to the despotism of " statutes that icere 
 not good ; " idolatrous laws and customs, in the dread- 
 ful experience of which, their own iniquities should 
 make them loiow the difference between God and 
 Moloch. Let any reader compare the first nine chap- 
 ters of Jeremiah, also chapters xxxiv. and xhv., with 
 Ezekiel v. 5-10, and xii. 19, 20, and xx. 23-30, and 
 xxii. 15, 10, 31, and xxxvi. 17-21; and instead of 
 wondering at the severity of God, he wiU adore with 
 gratitude and love, the infinite riches of His patience, 
 long-suffering, and tender mercy, and will take for 
 the hturgy of his own soul, David's 103d Psalm, 
 Hosea's 14th chapter, and Paul's 11th to the Eomans. 
 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God ! 
 O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy 
 help! O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom 
 and knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are His 
 judgments, and His ways past finding out ! 
 
2^6 Faith, Douht, and Evidence. 
 
 "Will ca man rob God? " asks tlie iiro2:)liet Malaclii: 
 "Yet ye have robbed me, even this whole nation." 
 ""If I be a Father, where is mine honor?" Had the 
 Jews kept these institutes without interruption, the 
 miracle of God's protection would have been an irre- 
 sistible demonstration to all nations. "And all na- 
 tions shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delight- 
 some land, saith the Lord of hosts." The irregularity 
 and neglect of these institutes was a robbery not only 
 of God, but of the whole heathen idolatrous world; 
 being defrauded of divine truth, by the disobedience 
 of that royal priesthood, to whom God had intrusted 
 His oracles. Yet our Lord's first sermon in Nazareth 
 (Luke iv. 18, 19), is a i:»roof from Isaiah, of the exist- 
 ence of the jubilees in the era of that jDrophet, and 
 of the complete fulfilment of their spiritual meaning 
 by Christ's Word; "this day is this Scrii^ture fulfilled 
 in your ears." The testimony of Tacitus and Josephus 
 proves also the known reality in their time, of the Sab- 
 batical institutions, enactments and observances.* 
 
 * See "Josephus' Antiquities," book xiv. cb. 10., sec. G. 
 "Cuius Ctesar, Imperator the second time, hath ordained, that 
 all the country of the Jews, excepting Joppa, do pay a tribute 
 yearly for one city of JeniRalem, excepting the Kevcuth, which 
 they call the Sabbatical Year, because iltereln they neither receive 
 the fruits of their trees, nor do they sow thtir land," etc. 
 
 Cjmpare also, "Tacitus' History," book v. sec. 4, 5. "The 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2'j'/ 
 
 Past finding out, and therefore inevitably a progres- 
 sive searching and tli.scovery through eternity, both 
 in God's Word and works, both in theological and 
 what is called natural science. But in neither can 
 there be any possibility of progress, except by faith 
 in God the Creator and Redeemer, and by that divine 
 rule — "In Thy light shall tee see light." — Ps. xxxvi. 9. 
 
 Consider the examples of incalculable minuteness 
 and perfection in God's works, discovered onl}'^ by 
 microscopic research in the organized material uni- 
 verse; such as the predictions in a seed, the discovery 
 
 seventh day is sacred to rest, for on that day their labors ended; 
 and such Is their natural propensity to sloth, that in consequence of it, 
 every seventh year is devoted to repose and sluggish inactivity." It 
 is remarkable that Tacitus notes the Jewish belief in immortality 
 and a state of future rewards and punishments, as similar to that 
 of the Egj'ptians. " With that people they agree in their belief 
 of a future state; they have the same notion of departed spirits, 
 the same solicitude and the same doctrine. With regard to the 
 Deity, their creed is diflferent. The Eg5'ptiaus worship various 
 animals, and also certain symbolical representations, which are 
 the work of man; the Jews acknoicledge one God only, and Him 
 they see in the mind's eye, and Him they adore in contemplation, 
 condemning, as impious idolaters, all who, with perishable ma- 
 terials, wrought into the human form, attempt to give a repre- 
 sentation of the Deity. The God of the Jews is the great gov- 
 erning Mind, that directs and guides the whole fi-ame of nature, 
 eternal, infinite, and neither capable of change, nor subject to 
 decav." 
 
2y8 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 of four hundred lenses in the ej'e of the trilobite, — in 
 that of the common flj-, fourteen thousand, and mul- 
 titudes of instances if possible more wonderful. But 
 the forces, springs, and attachments in the spir- 
 itual universe, binding God's infinite j^lans, pur- 
 jjoses, thoughts, words and works, in an eternal 
 unity, must be immeasurably more marvellous; and 
 they are referred to and exemplified in part, in such 
 psalms as the 78th, those from the 104th to 107th, 
 also the 139th and 147th. And in Isaiah, take the 
 chapters from the 45th to the 55th inclusive, how 
 overwhelming the array of internal evidences, beyond 
 all possibility of human origin, or arrangement, or 
 motive ! God's vouchers are ever and anon unex- 
 pectedly brought into the sunlight by scientific in- 
 vestigations of the globe itself: the testimony of 
 geology to the suijernatural foresight and insj^iration 
 of the first chapter of Genesis, has become an illus- 
 trious example. The deciphered rock and brick li- 
 braries and wall-engravings of the ancient buried 
 cities, Babylon, Nineveh, Thebes, the sepidehres, the 
 temples, are indestructible vouchers for the "Word of 
 God. And it is remarkable that theii" discovery and 
 interpretation should have been reserved, through so 
 many ages of ignorance, to a period of wide-spread 
 information, but also of popular and plausible attack 
 ag-aiust the S3ri;)ta:-e;j, ja^I; wlieu the perfection of 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2'jg 
 
 scientific iustruments, erudition, and sagacity, ad- 
 vancing gradually through so many centuries of ex- 
 periment and conjecture, could be brought to bear 
 ui:)on the prejudices, unbehefs, and miAeliefo of men. 
 
 Bishop Stniingfleet in his " Origines Sacr3," an inex- 
 haustible mine of vast and accurate learning, com- 
 bined with powerful reasoning and deep piety, has 
 laid down, towards the conclusion of his great work, 
 (vol. ii. pp. 521, 524) a canon of exegetical criticism as 
 to the treatment of asserted contradictions in the 
 Scrii^tures, than which nothing can be more just, 
 though instanced by him particularly in chronologi- 
 cal difficulties. He says, "Although the opinions of 
 chronologers are like the cUy docks ivhich seldom agree, 
 yet some come nearer the time of the day than others 
 do; and therefore you ought to examine and comjiare 
 them, before you pronounce so peremi^torily about 
 contradictions in Scriptui'e, which you have no reason 
 to do, till you find that no one h}-j)othesis among them 
 will serve to free the Scrij)ture from contradiction : for 
 otherwiae you do but blame the sun because you can not 
 make the clocks agree." 
 
 In this age of vast missionaiy enterprises and re- 
 sponsibilities, God opens to His sei'vants, as never be- 
 fore, " the treasures of darkness, and the hidden riches 
 of secret places." This is seen in the accumulating 
 develoj^ments of truth both in His Word and His works. 
 
2So Faith, Doiibt, and Evidence. 
 
 But as all genuine progress in science depends, (1), 
 On the sincerit}^ and accuracy of the investigator, in 
 the study of the xmrhs of an achwwiedged Creator, as 
 in the exani})les of Newton, Farada^^, Agassiz; and (2), 
 On the discovery and proof of /ac/s, and the inductions 
 from them, not by conjecture, but demonstration; — so 
 all true progress in theology depends on the earnest, 
 accurate search of God's own Word, ivilh prauerfor His 
 guidance. And he who has the closest communion with 
 God, and the strongest and most absolute faith in Him, 
 and in the unity of His works and Word, will be the 
 most i^rogressive, whether in science or theology, and 
 in both to the same great end, that all men may learn 
 to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. For neither 
 in the works nor in the Word of God is there any pos- 
 sibility of contradiction, or mistake, or falsehood, or 
 any thing but love, truth, and goodness. For God is 
 love, and God is light, and in Him is no darkness at 
 all, neither variableness nor shadow of turning. " For 
 of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: 
 to whom be glorv forever. Amen." 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2S1 
 
 XXXY. 
 
 FOSTER ON CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE — COMBINA- 
 TION AND CONCENTRATION OF PROOFS IN THE 
 COMPARISON OF PROPHETS AND HISTORIANS. 
 
 John Foster was perfectly justified in affirming 
 "Ihat ChnMiamtii stands on a ground so independent 
 of science, thai nothing xoithin the jMssihilify of scien- 
 tific speculation and discovery can essentially affect it."* 
 "A train of miracles, attested in the most authorita- 
 tive manner that is u-ilhin the competence of history ; 
 the evidence of prophecies fulfilled, that the Author of 
 Revelation is the Being xvho sees info futurity ; the 
 manifestation, in revealed religion, of a superhuman 
 knowledge of the nature and condition of man; the adap- 
 tation of the remedial system to that condition; the in- 
 comparable excellence of the Christian morality; the 
 ana'ogy between the icorls of God and what claims to 
 be the Word of God; and the interjxtsitions with, respect 
 to the cause and adherents of religion in the course of 
 the Divine Government on earth: this grand coincidence 
 of verificalions has not left the faith of the disciple of 
 Christianity at the mercy of optics and geometry. He 
 
 * " Review of ' Cbalmer's Astronomical Discourses,' " by Fos- 
 ter, in the "Eclectic." 
 
282 FaitJi, Doubt y and Evidc7tcc. 
 
 may calmly tell science to mind its own affairs, if it 
 rliould presume, xcUh prelenaiomt. to authoridj, to inter- 
 fere wilh His religion. He may content himself thus 
 to repel the arrogance of science, when it intrudes in 
 the spirit of a proud and inimical interference. But if, 
 in a large and enlightened contemplation, it is found 
 that science comes to be in harmony with religion, and 
 even to subserve and magnify it, such tribute and al- 
 liance are by all means to be accepted." 
 
 The same may be said of the biographical sketches 
 in the Old Testament, and especially the record of 
 God's communion with such individuals as Abra- 
 ham, Joseph, Moses, along with events found to have 
 been the corner-stones, causal origins, and contempo- 
 rary sanctions of all historj'.* Then there are the 
 
 * The tricks of credulity in some men's minds are fantastic 
 beyond the descriptions of Shakespeare. We find Prof. Tyndall, 
 in his book on "Fragments of Science," arguing against the 
 miracles recorded in the Okl Testament, as "the credulous 
 prattle of the ancients, which, if it stood alone, were it not lo- 
 cally associated witti words of imperisluMe wisdom, and with ex- 
 amples of moral grandeur unmatched elsewhere in tlie history of the 
 human race, both the miracles and their evidences would have 
 long Lvnce ceased to be the transmitted inheritance of intelli- 
 gent men." 
 
 But who, in those ancient times of ignorance, inspii-ed the 
 imperishable wisdom, and the examples of moral grandeur, and 
 Becured the words and the miracles and their benevolent pur- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 28 j 
 
 iiionuniental, geological, philological, chronological, 
 aud occasional festival proofs ; the handwriting of 
 events that have scored their unobliterable demon- 
 strations in the races, character, and history of all 
 mankind. Sometimes all these signatures of divine 
 truth are inextricably interwoven in a combination, 
 the idea or possibility of which, or the thought that 
 the actors in their day knew of it, or were i:»roducing 
 it, never entered, nor could have entered, the imagina- 
 tion beforehand. The thing is as entirely a discovery 
 of later centuries, as that of the continent of North 
 America, or the existence of coal-mines as a reposi- 
 tory for fuel, or the discovery of steam-iiowei*" for 
 navigation. 
 
 poses and beneficent effects, as tlie transmitted inheritance of 
 the highest intelligence of mankind through all ages ? 
 
 The same "Scientific Imagination" that rejects the reality of 
 a prayer-hearing and miracle-working God, embraces the pos- 
 sible evolution of a mind such as Abraham's, as being the 
 growth of matter from eternity by Natural Selection ! And 
 other minds growing out of Abraham's, till the transmitted 
 inheritance culminates in an example of perfection for the im- 
 itation and salvation of mankind ! A pattern of moral gran- 
 deur, which nevertheless is itself no miracle, but only a pro- 
 iedion of the prattle of the ancients, from an unbelief and scorn 
 otherwise inevitable in the proijress of science. Is it within the 
 limits of possibility for combined credulity and incredulity to 
 go further than this ? 
 
284 Faith., Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 Two of the most remai-kable instances of sncb com- 
 binations may be found, (1) on comparing the prophe- 
 cies of Jeremiah, chaj)s. vii.-xlv, and their indisputable 
 historic corroborations and consequences, downwards 
 thi-ough the captivity, with the prophecies of Ezekiel, 
 and the book of Daniel, chapter ix., with II Chrou. 
 xxxvi. 21, and Neh., chaps, viii., ix. No sceptical criti- 
 cism has ever succeeded, and none ever can, in casting 
 the shadow of a doubt over these demonstrations. 
 
 The second instance is equally imj^regnable, in com- 
 paring Lev. xxiii., Deut. xviii., and Neh. viii. l-t, with 
 the dedication of the Temple by Solomon, and the 
 words of Christ in Matt. xxi. 13. This is the witness 
 of events, institutions, books, \NTiters, predictions, and 
 fulfilments, through a thousand years, running back 
 from 445 before Christ to 1490, the date of the ap- 
 i:)ointment of " the feasts of the Lord," in the wilderness. 
 These feasts were intended to be God's vouchers, " to 
 bring to remembrance"; and the enumeration of them 
 closes with the i^even daijH feast of IxjolM: " That your 
 generations may know that I made the children of 
 Israel to dwell in booths, Avhen I brought them out 
 of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord j-our God. 
 And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the 
 feasts of the Lord." — Lev. xxiii. 43, 44. 
 
 A thousand years after this record we find the chil- 
 dren of Israel returned in Jerusalem from the captiv- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 28^ 
 
 ity, — people, priests, Levites, and Ezra the scribe, with 
 Nehemiah tlie goveruoi", — reading and hearing Ihe hook 
 of the law of Ifoses, which the Lord had commanded to 
 Israel, from the viorning until midday. — Neh. viii. 3. 
 "And on the second day they found written in tho 
 Law which the Lord had commanded by Moses, that 
 the children of Israel should dwell in booths, in the 
 feast of the seventh month." — Neh. viii. 13, 14. Four 
 hundred years later we find Christ in the temple at 
 Jerusalem, restoring it by divine authority to its 
 original spirituality and sacredness. 
 
 Here the whole historic record, minute and undis- 
 puted, is a voucher of the strongest possible kind, 
 interwoven with circumstantial details, impossible to 
 have been forged, which details pres3nt a succession 
 of organic proof engravings, and intersections or 
 imbeddings, as of insects in a mass of amber, or 
 the annual growing rings of forest trees, or water- 
 marks in the construction of the piper on which a 
 will is written, securing the dates from all possibility 
 of forgery. It is a texture of the vouchers of God's 
 providence and grace, combining a whole nation, with 
 their priests, leaders, and scribes, in the celebration 
 of a long interrupted festival, in obedience to the 
 law of God by Moses, promulgated a thousand years 
 previous. 
 
 In connection with and illustrative of this historic 
 
286 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 recital, we take the corresponding passages from 
 Kings, Isaiah, Haggai, Jeremiah xxxi., xxxii., xxxiii., 
 and Ezekiel xx. 10-26. The divine covenant, the 
 violation of it, the consequences of that guilt, and 
 still the Holy Spirit of God not withdrawn, but re- 
 newed, out of divine compassion, to bring the nation 
 and the individual sinner to repentance. Let the 
 reader remember the revealed characteristics of God's 
 long-suffering and mercy from the beginning (for God 
 is love), and so let him read Ps. cxviii. 22, 27, I Kings 
 viii. 43-53, with Isaiah Ivi. 6, 7, and Matt. xxi. 13. The 
 combined testimou}^ of David, Solomon, Isaiah, and 
 Christ, as to the central covenant of God, with the 
 soul in faith and prayer. 
 
 Isaiah lix. 21 — "This is my covenant with them, 
 saith the Lord; My Spirit that is upon thee, and jNIy 
 woKDs which I have j)ut in thy mouth shall not de- 
 i:)art out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy 
 seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, miih 
 the. Lord, from henceforth and forever. 
 
 Haggai ii. 4, 5 — "Be strong, all ye people of the 
 land, saith the Lord; and work, for I am with you, 
 saith the Lord of hosts. According to the loord that 
 I vovenanied with you, when ye came out of Egypt, 
 so my Spirit remaineth among you; fear ye not." Com- 
 pare Ex. xxix. 45, 4G, and Lev. xxvi. 9, 42, 45, 46, 
 and Deut. iv. 31. 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 28^ 
 
 Neh. ix. 13, 14, 20, 30— "Thou spakest with them 
 from heaven; laws, slafAifes, and commandments; — and 
 maclest known unto them Thrj holy Sabbath, and gavest 
 bread from heaven. Thou gavest also Thy good Spirit 
 to indruct them." What conceivable element of a 
 life-giving and sustaining, infallible revelation can be 
 added ? 
 
 Inexhaustible provisions of eternal life; the seed 
 of life, the bread of life, the harvest of Hf e ; seed for 
 the sower and bread for the eater; neither fear nor 
 possibility of famine. Light seen in God's light; life 
 lived in God's life; in Him as the fountain of life, 
 and in His presence as the experience of the fulness 
 of joy. This, nothing less, nothing earthly, is the 
 eternal covenanted inheritance of souls, taking God 
 at His word, and believing in Christ accordingly, 
 and thus securing the indwelling of Christ, filling the 
 soul with all the fulness of God. 
 
 No such array of vouchers was ever known or 
 iniagmed for any transactions or writings on earth. 
 None were ever possible. The whole race of man- 
 kind, with all their powers of intelligence, design and 
 execution concentrated for a thousand years, could no 
 more have produced, or caused to aj^pear, such a tes- 
 timony as that contained in Neh. vii.-x., combined 
 with Ezra ix.-x., and the passages refeiTcd to in 
 Isaiah, Haggai and Ezekiel, than an association of 
 
2S8 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 scientific men could create the universe.* Even as 
 the heavens and the earth are vouchers of God's cre- 
 ative power and glory, and the heavens are still tell- 
 ing, and the days and nights speaking, 
 
 * See on this argument the profoundly illustrative and in- 
 structive commentaries and introductory essays of Prof. Tayler 
 Lewis on Genesis, Ecclesiastes and Job, with his admirable 
 Metrical Translations of the two latter books. No other writer 
 has ever brought the riches of a vast learning and the sagacity 
 and penetration of a searching and comprehensive spiritual logic, 
 taught by the Holy Spirit, to bear with such impressive solem- 
 nity upon the infinite eternal lessons given to mankind in these 
 portions of the Word of God. "It is sometimes admitted," says 
 he, ' ' by the most thoughtful men of science, that the more 
 knowledge we get of nature, and of man as a purely physical 
 being, the greater the doubt, perplexity, and despair in respect 
 to his destiny, unless a higher light than that of the natural and 
 historical is given for our relief. In this respect, the modern 
 physical knowledge has no advantage over the ancient, which it 
 so much despises, but which, in its day, and with its small stock 
 of physical experience, was equally pretentious. Our modern 
 science, with its most sj^lendid achievements, which there is no 
 dispo.sition to underrate, stands speechless and confounded in 
 the presence of the real questions raised in the book of Ecclesi- 
 astes ! AVhat single ray of light has that science shed on any of 
 those great problems of destiny, which are ever present to the 
 anxious thoughtful soul! 'Our science and our litemture !* 
 How is their babble hushed in presence of the grave ! ' And how 
 gi-eat is the darkness that hangs over the problem of the human 
 and the mundane destiny, when illuminated by nothing higher 
 than science and philosophy, cither ancient or modern ! ' " 
 
 \ 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 2Sg 
 
 "Forever singing as tliey sliine 
 The hand that made us is divine ; " 
 
 SO these events, and the record of them, are God's 
 vouchers, impossible to have been constructed or pre- 
 sented but by God. As matter itself is but a divine 
 prism, constructed for created inteUigences, and let- 
 ting in on man's mind through his senses the inter- 
 mediate rays whereby the invisible Creator may be 
 known, so the hajDpening and the record of events 
 from Adam to Christ constitute a divine prismatic 
 revelation of God's redeeming attributes and truths. 
 And when Christ Himself appears, He gathers up and 
 presents in His own person all the divine vouchers, 
 demonstrating and teacliing, by His own personality, 
 as God manifest in the flesh, the word forever settled 
 
 IN HK.\VEX. 
 
 All these truths for all mankind, carry us, by a di- 
 vine necessity, to the great appointed Judgment Day 
 for all, when these books of judgment and of destiny, 
 shall be opened, and the dead shall be judged out of 
 the things written in the books. And the last cer- 
 tamty of that judgment itself is thrown upon this one 
 necessity for the government of God, of having His 
 justice demonstrated to all beings through eternity. 
 " That Thou mightst be justified when Thou speakest, 
 and be clear when Thou judgest." — Compare Ro- 
 mans iii. 4-6. 
 
2go Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 Here then, we liare an aj)proximating- balance be- 
 tween the weight and woiih of the truth as it is 
 learned in Christ, and the denial of it, as against Him. 
 "He that sinneth against Me wi-ongeth his own souL 
 All they that hate Me love death." The jviroi's for 
 this crime ai*e selected by God Himself, as declared in 
 the great prophetic psalm of judgment. "He shall 
 caU to the heavens fi-om above, and to the earth, that 
 He may jvidge His j)eople. Gather My saints tog-ether 
 unto Me;— ^/losff tliai have made a covenant ivith Me bij 
 sacrifice. And the heavens shall declai-e His right- 
 eousness; for God is judge. Himself." — Ps. 1. 4, 5, 6. 
 Comj)are this with Chiist's own words, " He that con- 
 fesseth Me before men, him will I also confess before 
 M}^ Father and the holy angels." The covenant of 
 God by saciifice is in every confession of Chiist before 
 men (he covenant of ranmm and redemption, as in Psalm 
 xlix. 7, 8, and the result of belief in it; the sacrifice of 
 a broken spirit presented by the contrite soul, \fiih. the 
 assurance and joy of God's salvation, upheld by His 
 fi-ee sjnrit, as in Psalm IL 12, 17. These coincidences 
 of the known reality of God's covenant A\ith mankind 
 by sacrifice, and its eternal efficacy.' for salvation, sti-ike 
 in by so many and such complex attachments in the 
 history of a thousand years "v\ith the witness of the 
 consciences of till mankind, and even of theii- idola- 
 trous ceremonies aud superstitions from Egypt down 
 
Faith, Doubt, a?id Evidence. 2gi 
 
 to Rome, that all i^ossibility of forgery or misunder- 
 standing is precluded. The destiny and danger of the 
 soul for eternity are as evident a possession of human 
 thought and knowledge, as in the parables of the 
 Saviour. The Covenant of God in Christ, and the 
 consequences of rejecting it, of not taking refuge in it, 
 are equally indisputable, and make our mad delay and 
 doubt the greatest of our crimes. 
 
 "The solar shadow, as it measures life, 
 Shonltl not each dial strike us as we pass ? 
 Should uot each warning give a strong alarm ? 
 Too soon man's hoiir is up, and we are gone ! 
 Gnomons are useless, when the sun is set; 
 And such our gi-avitation to the wrong, 
 So prone our hearts to whisper what we wish, 
 Our watches still go slower than the sun. 
 And all mankind mistake their time of day." 
 
 Young's " Night Thoughts," B. II. 
 
2g2 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 A DIVINE REVEALER ADMITTED, THAT WHICH HE 
 REVEALS MUST BE INFALLIBLE— THE REVELATION 
 MUST BE IN WORDS AS INFALLIBLE— THE CLAIM OF 
 INFALLIBILITY, FATAl- TO ANY PRETENDER-GOD 
 ALONE CAN SAFELY MAKE SUCH CLAIM— ONLY GOD 
 IN CHRIST DEMONSTRATES IT. 
 
 Some anxious sceptics say, You must not take too 
 high a position as to inspiration; foi' it may yet be 
 found that facts are against you, and in that case, all 
 your Christianity' is gone. Science will yet bore and 
 analyze the globe to the antipodes, and some central 
 monkey may yet be found in the transition state, the 
 very missing work of evolution, pawing the ground, as 
 Milton's imaginary lion, half out, half in; and that will 
 be fatal to our Lord's exposition of Genesis. If mis- 
 take and eri'or arc j^roven you will have to relinquish 
 the claim of an infallible inspiration ; but if not infalli- 
 ble, then not inspired; admit therefore, beforehand, 
 the probability, of error in the inspiration, otherwise 
 we may lose all. 
 
 But an inspired falsehood is impossible. Of wliat 
 use or authority could be such a volume ? No man's 
 certificates in it could be accepted. Did I not sow 
 good seod in mv ground? from whence then hath it 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. zgj 
 
 tares '? An enemy hatli done this ! God Himself has 
 never sown any thing- but truth. 
 
 The argument from the divine attributes, fi-om the 
 character of Christ, and the needs of mankind as a 
 sinful race, whom He came to redeem by truth and 
 love, admits of nothing less than infallibility in His 
 teachings. Any thing opposed to this, or dependent 
 on men's opinions, destroys all possibility of redemp- 
 tion. ''Il> did no sin, neither ivas guile found in His 
 mouth:'— Isa.. liii. 9; and I Peter ii. 22. Are these 
 witnesses destitute of all common sense as well as sin- 
 cerity '? Have they abdicated reason, while appealing 
 to it * A divine revelation, and at the same moment 
 a sjiirit of falsehood, an inspiration breathing guile, 
 and assuming destructive error as divine truth, in de- 
 liberate copartnershii) with the i^assions, prejudices, 
 and purposes of sinful men, are irreconcilable. Dr. 
 Lindsay Alexander justly affirms that, "It is the mere 
 PHKENZY OF INFIDELITY to reject Christ's instructions on 
 the plea that He sacrificed truth to gain the favor of 
 His countrymen. The same spirit that urged the 
 Jews to seek His crucifixion lies at the source of this 
 audacious attempt to malign His character and dis- 
 credit His teachings. It is iuipossible to adopt this 
 theory of accommodation, and still retain any confi- 
 dence in Christ or His ambassadors."* 
 
 • '• ir God sent His Son iuto the world," says Herder, " could 
 Ho not send Him with infallible tokens? Could He not at least 
 
2g4 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 Obviously, the claim of infallibility could bs safely 
 raacle only by tlie Omniscient, and if made by any 
 pretender, the claim itself wovdd ensure the discovery 
 of the falsehood. It would lead inevitably to the 
 sharpest, most critical, most inimical scrutiny', which 
 could never cease, but would be renewed in every 
 generation, by those who long to throw off the yoke 
 of such a claim, and to put the Christian Scriptures 
 on a level with the Zend-Avesta and the Koran. Such 
 is the fire of inimical criticism to which the Word of 
 God is subjected continual!}'. Every generation builds 
 a new furnace with improvements, kindles a new 
 flame, and smelts the "Word of God in new crucibles. 
 If there had been any falsehood in it, or any possi- 
 bility of convincing it of error, any connivance with 
 selfishness and fraud, sentence against it would have 
 been confirmetl long ago. 
 
 giiard Him and His wituesses against adducing evidences which 
 were erroneous ? If we grant the honesty of Christ, and suppose 
 Him to have been misled, even in so much as the adduction of 
 a single pro^jhecy which did not properly relate to Him, but 
 which He cut to suit His own purpose by accommodation, how 
 came God to accredit Him by miracles? — by that greatest of 
 miracles, His resurrection ? Would He build us a trap bridge bo- 
 twerm deceit in interpretation and honesty in conduct ? It would 
 be the most perilous bridge ever built, not for the Jews only, but 
 for all the jvjople in all times, into whose hands the Old Testa- 
 ment and Christianity should come." — Alexander's "Congrega- 
 tional Lectures and Appendix," pps. 201 and 502. 
 
Faith, Donbt, and Evidence. 2g^ 
 
 Just so, if Jesus Christ bad not jDossessed on earth 
 the infinite holiness of the Godhead, if in His haman- 
 ily there had not been the absolute perfection of God 
 manifest in the jlesh, His own challenge, Which of you 
 convinceth Me of sin? would have been fatal to His 
 cause, ensuring an inquest unendurable by any human 
 being. And so, when the Divine Word comes to men 
 with the same triumphant challenge, WJdeh of you con- 
 vinceth Me of error? inasmuch as it comes revealing the 
 wrath of God from heaven against all unrighteousness 
 and ungodliness of men, it ensui-es the reaction and 
 retaliation of justice against itself, if it teaches any 
 thing but truth without error. Inasmuch as it comes 
 revealing an eternal retribution in the wrath to come, 
 and commanding all men to flee from it, and to take 
 refuge in Christ as the only Saviour, it enlists all the 
 Disposition of the love of sin, unbelief and shai-p 
 hatred, by the anger of thwarted idolatry, covetous- 
 ness, ambition, and a sensual selfish will. "We will 
 cast their cords from us, b}' proving that what pre- 
 tends to be divine inspiration is onl}^ the bigotry of 
 human falsehood. We will demonstrate their fabrica- 
 tions, and break their bands asunder, as Samson did 
 the green withes of the Philistines. And this they 
 could easily do if the Bible were in any part woven 
 out of falsehood. A book denouncing all deceit on the 
 pai't of man, as a crime to be visited with endless 
 
2g6 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 penalty, could not escape the same retributive justice 
 due to itself, for the crime of teaching deceit in the name 
 of God. 
 
 Now then the case stands thus: "The wrath of God 
 is revealed in the Word of God against all ungodli- 
 ness and unrighteousness of men, toho hold the truth in 
 unrighteousness.'' Excej^t this be divine inspiration, it 
 is human falsehood and weakness. There is no wield- 
 ing of this sword of the Spirit but by absolute cer- 
 tainty. The truths are such that they must be pro- 
 claimed on God's sole authority, or they have none 
 at all. They can not be revealed or enforced on man's 
 endorsement. An endless penalty can be taught only 
 by God, and taught infallibly. 
 
 Once taught, it is the key to all other teaching, the 
 reason for all other. Once revealed, there follows tJie 
 obligation to proclaim it everywhere, at all hazards, and in 
 full. " That which ye have heard in the ear, proclaim 
 upon the housetops," fearing neither man nor devil. 
 "What had j)reviously been to j^ou but dimly re- 
 vealed, or in the trembling whispers, fears and doubts, 
 half-uttered, of what has been called natural religion, 
 proclaim as the thunder from heaven; Hee from the 
 wrath to come, for the wages of sin is death! 
 
 The reasonings of Christ, the parables, the illustra- 
 tions, hold by this great truth, are grounded in it, 
 spring from it, as conclusions from the premises. 
 
FaitJi, DoiihL and Evidence. 2g'/ 
 
 Take even only the case of the man delivered to the 
 tormentors till he should have paid the iittermost 
 farthing-, compared with the requisition in our Lord's 
 prayer. " So shall My Heavenly Father do also unto 
 you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every man 
 his brother their trespasses." The point is, that there 
 is a continuance of retribution, and the soul that hath 
 committed the trespass hears the retribution, and is con- 
 sciouJy bearing it, coeternal with the trc^paio^. The only 
 escape is in the casting- of the soul b^^ faith ujion the 
 Lord Jesus for the remission of all sin. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 WHAT GOD HAS BESTOWED, WHAT WE HAVE 
 GAINED, AND HOW TO USE \T. 
 
 It would require a combination of the sagacity of 
 minds such as those of Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, 
 Butler, Pascal and Edwards, to set in one volume 
 even an index of the array of irresistible proofs from 
 human experience, from the histoiy of man and of 
 the plan of redemption, and fi-om God's works, 
 animate and inanimate. These proofs, culminating 
 in Christ, and read by His Spirit (which is the gift 
 promised to all through faith and jn-ayer), are such 
 in their vastne oS and power, so mightily prepondera- 
 
2gS Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 ting over all doubt tliat can be presented to shake 
 the convictions of an immortal being, and so filling 
 and satisfying the greatest minds, as to justify the 
 conclusion b}" Dr. Arnold of Rugby that " before a con- 
 fe.-i!ied and unconquerable difficulty in the Christian sys- 
 tem (for he accepted none other), his mind reposed 
 as quietly as in the jiossession of a discovered truth." 
 
 This conclusion is legitimate, fi'om Christ dwelling 
 in the heart by faith, but in no other way than in 
 Him, the Way, the Truth, the Life, and in His divine, 
 infallible, eternal love. Because God has been thus 
 manifest in the flesh, and justified in the Sjiirit, and 
 has thrown back upon the j^ast the light of the Crea- 
 tor's own testimony, and forward over the future the 
 light of His own government of mortal beings for eter- 
 nity; has thrown it for man's guidance and education, 
 in view of his destiny in an eternal world; has thrown 
 it in such absolute certainty for a believing mind, that 
 all apparent contradictions and difiiculties are lost in 
 the brightness of the moral demonstration of God's 
 goodness, truth, and love: therefore we thus confi- 
 dently and forever rest in Him. 
 
 There are plenty of difficulties, perplexities, and 
 things requiring long and vast research, in the do- 
 main of external learning and historical investigation. 
 But the A, B, C, tlie alphabet, the key and command 
 of eternal life are in the meek and lowly heart, at the 
 
Faithy Doubt, and Evidence. 2gg 
 
 use of the liumblest and most illiterate mind; without 
 opportunity of academic or college education, and, 
 without leisure for gymnastic intellectual exercises. 
 In the realm of love, and of the confidence that love 
 produces, all things are clear, and many of infallible 
 intuition, needing neither profound study nor a pierc- 
 ing genius, nor a great library of many tongues, but 
 only an ordinary reason, and a loving and believing 
 heart. 
 
 "The cottage dame that sits at her own door, 
 Pillow aud bobbins all her little store," 
 
 and the Bible all her learning, conquers the brilliant 
 Frenchman, be he Rcnan, or Voltaii-e, or Bajde, with 
 their encyclopedias of knowledge aud logic, wit, sar- 
 casm and facts. 
 
 The logic of the great Russian Poet, Derzhavin, in 
 his sublime ode to the Deity, deflagrates, even in one 
 line, the manufactured diamonds of learned material- 
 ism and doubt — 
 
 "I AM, God; and surely Thou must be!" 
 
 And yet, this logic, this unanswerable, ii-resistible 
 axiom, is just simjily the reason aud lisping intuition 
 of the little child, even the babe and suckling, out of 
 whose mouth God perfects praise, and the Author 
 of Faith completes His own demonstration of Himself. 
 
joo FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 It is the child's soul in God's Temple, and Christ Him- 
 self His own Temple in the soul. 
 
 "I am, O God; and surely Thou must be ! 
 Even from the throne of Thy Divinity, 
 The chain of being is complete in me. 
 In me is matter's last gradation lost, 
 And the next step is spirit, — Deity ! 
 Thy light, Thy love, in their bright plenitude, 
 ThoiT Spirit of my spirit, and my Lord ! " 
 
 Because God will have men to trust in Himself as 
 their Saviour, and rest on His word of promise, and not 
 on any chain of scientific reasoning, as of facts ascer- 
 tained by the senses, but on His "Word in simj)le faith; 
 therefore is the moral and spiritual demonstration so 
 overwhelming, the historical and scientific so open to 
 disjoute. But the moment we have received into the 
 depths of our souls the shadows of the great moun- 
 tains of God's truth, the reflection of their dazzling 
 summits, as in a calm lake the snow-crowned Alps 
 are reverberated, then all the ai'guments of infidels, 
 all the questionings of doubtful minds, are only as 
 light fleeces of cloud would be in a clear day, between 
 our vision and Mont Blanc in Switzerland. 
 
 The argument from Christ in the gospels is more 
 convincing, more overwhelming, more expulsive of 
 the possibility of delusion or mistake, than a range 
 
FaitJi, Doiibf, and Evidence. joi 
 
 of alabaster mountains would be to the sight, reach- 
 ing from earth to heaven. All the objections that 
 have ever been evoked out of the brains or work- 
 shops of scientific philosoi)hcrs, or the encounter of 
 stumbling blocks fit to grind men to powder, go for 
 nothing. Take the Scriptures at every disadvantage, 
 and they can bear any amount of blundering, misin- 
 terpretation, assumption of false i:»remises, obstinate 
 holdings of prejudice, distoiiions, rackings on the 
 wheel; — and yet, the demonstration of Christ in these 
 gospels, as the power of God and the '\\-isdom of God 
 unto salvation, shall no more be obscured or weak- 
 ened, than the sun could be darkened by scattering 
 a vial of pagan incense into the air. 
 
 If we were shut up to the very letter of Genesis, 
 and had no margin of time for our interi)retation, no 
 allowance but just one week of days of twenty-four 
 hours each, it would still be more likely that all the 
 demonstrations of geology were mistaken, than the 
 Bible false; more hkely that all the fossils of the rocks, 
 all the microscopic infusoria, shells, chalk, and coral 
 reefs and mountains, were created just as they are, 
 and in one day, than that Christ was an impostor. 
 
 The argument of religious truth, completed in 
 Christ, is a more conclusive, ii'resistible demonstra- 
 tion, than any argument from science ever possibly 
 can be. It involves no impossibility to suj^pose the 
 
^02 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 world created in one daj^, or fossils created as fossils, 
 or coal beds as coal beds. But it does involve an im- 
 possibility to suppose that Christ was an impostor, 
 because that supposes God Himself a har, and that 
 supposes no G-od. 
 
 There is no God, unless He be a God revealing 
 Himself; no Creator, unless He be a God caring for 
 the good of His creatures; a God protecting and 
 blessing those whom His power and wisdom brought 
 into being. 
 
 If there be God a Creator, there must be God a 
 Revealer, and a revelation from Him; and man must 
 know it. But there is no such revelation, save only 
 in the Word of God. If that be not a revelation from 
 God, men have none, and never had, and never can 
 have. It is attested by aU conceivable seals of ajopeal 
 and proof to human reason. A revelation can not be 
 made to a reasonable creature unless that which is 
 given in the Word of God be it. 
 
Faith, Do2ibi, and Evidence. joj 
 
 XXXYIII. 
 
 PAUL'S INSTRUCTIONS AND TIMOTHY'S EXPERIENCE— 
 THE WORD A SPIRITUAL TELEGRAPH— THE EDU- 
 CATION AND TRAINING REQUISITE FOR THE EF- 
 FECTUAL MINISTRATION OF TRUTH — ORIGINAL 
 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, IN 
 FAITH AND LOVE, BY THE INDWELLING OF CHRIST 
 IN THE HEART— SCOTT'S "FORCE OF TRUTH"— 
 CONFESSION OF CHRIST BY THE DYING THIEF. 
 
 It is recorded of Timothy's education for the min- 
 istry that from a child he had known the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, which were able to make him wise unto salva- 
 tion through faith in Chrid. That unfeigned faith dwelt 
 in him, by the Holy Sjiirit, through the Word of God, 
 and in accordance with it. This is so universally tnae, 
 that the touchstone of a Christian experience always 
 is its dependence upon and accordance loUh the Word of 
 God. The Spirit of God does not come down from 
 God with a new revelation from eternity, nor bring 
 to the soul things from the eternal world not revealed 
 ah-eady in the Scriptures, but shids us up to God's own 
 Word. There is such a reality as Christian experi- 
 ence; we know that; and it comes fi'om the Divine 
 Spu-it, from the power of God, but nei^er apart from 
 the Word of God. This is a testimony of wondrous 
 
jo^ FaitJi, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 power from God Himself as to the divinity of His own 
 Word. It is the enshrinement of the whole revelation 
 that God has been pleased to make, and to that en- 
 shrinement He not only refera the soul, but Himself 
 goes to it as the medium stUl of all His intercourse 
 with the souL Whatever windows are opened in heaven, 
 He opens through His Word; whatever communica- 
 tions are made by the Divine Spirit are made through 
 the Word; and in the work of convincing, disciplin- 
 ing, changing and sanctifying the soul, the sword of 
 the Spirit is the Word of God — See Isaiah Hs. 21, 
 and I Peter i. 23. 
 
 So God always doth and always will discipline us, 
 teaching us our dependence equally upon the Word 
 and the Spirit, and the imj^ossibility of knowing the 
 one without the other, of experiencing the life of 
 the one without the life of the other. The Word of 
 God understood and kept by the Spirit of God in the 
 heart, is the hfe and power of the Christian and the 
 Chuirch. It is the source of individual knowledge and 
 experience in the things of God. It is the fuel and 
 the flame of divine life and love in the soul; and the 
 truth by the Spirit of Love is the only element of 
 j)Ower with which the Church can act ujiou the world; 
 not the truth merely, but the truth by the Spirit. 
 Hence the vast and solemn resiionsibility of the 
 Church to gain and to keep the Spirit of God, that 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. joj 
 
 the truth of God in His love may be kept and appHed 
 by the Spirit. " It is the gift of the grace of God ac- 
 cording to the cffrctaal working of His power." And 
 this is the appHcation of the prayer that God would 
 grant you, according to the riches of His glory to 
 be strengthened with might by His Spirit, etc. — Eph. 
 iii. lG-19. This baptism with the fire of divine truth 
 by the Spirit is the perpetually renewed pentccostal 
 baptism. It fills the Chm-ch with the divine presence, 
 and raises up a ministry of divine efficacy. It carries 
 forward the individual to his work for Christ in great 
 power and glory. 
 
 It guides and governs the man, not the man it. It 
 may lead him into ti-ial, may throw him into conflict 
 with angry enemies, but he shall ride prosperously 
 because of truth, and meekness, and righteousness, 
 and God's right hand shall teach him terrible things, 
 and his arrows shall be shai-j) in the heart of the 
 king's enemies. There may be conflicts which will 
 be very painful; nevertheless, God's living "Word 
 sweeps him on, and he must proclaim it, he can 
 not cease. "I am in derision daily," says Jeremiah, 
 that faithful, perpetual martyr to divine truth ; " every 
 one mocketh me. For since I spake, I cried out. I 
 cried violence and spoil, because the Word of the 
 Lord was made a rei^roach unto me, and a derision 
 daily. Then I said, I wiU not make mention of Him, 
 
jo6 Faith, Doiibt, a?id Evidence. 
 
 nor speak any more in His name. But His Word 
 was in my heart as a burning fire shut uj) in my 
 bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could 
 not stay." When the Word of God thus takes pos- 
 session of a man, thus burns in him, it conquers and 
 impels not only him, but others. 
 
 But there is a great individual labor behind this 
 fire, and requisite for it; it comes never by chance, 
 nor by human learning, nor by the letter merely, 
 but by the Spmt. A man may have the fuel, the 
 letter, before him and all around him, in plainness 
 and abundance, and yet know nothing of the fire, 
 the power. And hence David says, "Mine eyes fad 
 for Thy Word, saying, When wUt Thou comfort me ? " 
 And again, "Take not the word of truth utterlj^ out 
 of my mouth ; hide not Thy commandments from 
 me." Hide them not ? Fail for Thy Word ? Why, 
 the Word was plain before him, very nigh him, in 
 his hand at that verj' moment, and he turned it over 
 as we do now; meditating on it even through the 
 night watches; and yet he exclaims, " Mine eyes fail 
 for thy Word; I see it not, it is gone from me." He 
 means that he can do nothing with it, it is worth 
 nothing to him, except his soul is quickened by it, 
 except he knows it by the Spirit, feeds upon it in 
 its spiritual and eternal meaning, has it hidden and 
 burning in his heart. Then and so, it is God's Word, 
 
Faith, Doitbt, and Evidence. jo/ 
 
 and lie can speak it; but if he loses the Spirit, he 
 loses the Word. He has to pray, " Open Thou my 
 lij^s, and my mouth shall show forth Th}- praise. Up- 
 hold me by Thy free Spirit, tlien will I teach transgres- 
 sors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto 
 Thee. Make me to understand the waj' of Thy pi'e- 
 cepts; .so aliall I talk of Thy won(b-ous works." That 
 is the first and grand element of power, eloquence, 
 and success in the preacher, whether his sjihere be 
 l^ublic or private in that Royal Priesthood, which 
 Peter describes as constituted by the Church. This 
 is the primal, grand, essential requisite, that the 
 Christian disciple ever^n^rhere be able to speak of 
 God and of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, and of 
 heaven and of hell, from the "Word of God, by his 
 OAvn original, deep, powerful exj^erience. Brought 
 down to the Gospel, this is "Ike Spirit of ivisdom and 
 revelation in the knowledge of O/jr/.s/." If the man 
 would be a living preacher, nothing will answer at 
 second hand. Where the Spirit stops, his knowl- 
 edge stops, his power ceases. 
 
 The business of the Christian teacher, therefore, 
 under such resj)onsibility, is to be strong in these two 
 things, — the Wokd of God, and Prayek. A man can 
 receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven; 
 uotliing is an element of life and power, excej)t it bo 
 so received, except he get it fi'om God. It should be 
 
jo8 Faith, Do7cbt, and Evidence. 
 
 our constant daily effort, our great desire and prayer, 
 we will not say, to go no farther in knowledge than we 
 can go in exj)erience, but to have every thing, even the 
 least things in God's "Word, ministered to us by the 
 Spirit. Oh, the greatness and glory of that j^ower! 
 That ministration is glorious; "not with ink merely, 
 but with the Spiiit of the Hving God; not in tables 
 of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart." "We Avant 
 it every step of. the way, that nothing may be of the 
 letter merely, which killeth, but of the spirit that giv- 
 eth life. This is the ministration which the child of 
 God is bound to keej) up, this habitual receiving of the 
 Divine Word from heaven, from the Spirit of God, the 
 Kevealer, the Comforter, the Sanctifiei*. 
 
 The Word of God might not improperly be described 
 as a spiritual telegrai^h, but in every case the message 
 must come direct to the soul, and can not be reported 
 at second hand. The behever, the Christian, in the 
 exercise of faith, looking to God and waiting, must 
 stand himself, watching for the sacred intelligence. 
 Sometimes he stands, or seems to stand, sorrowfully 
 waiting for a message that does not come. Has he 
 given notice to the operator at the other side ? If he 
 has not, then how can he expect an answer ? He must 
 send his message: if he does not, he might stand and 
 watch the telegraph wires or machinery aU day, and it 
 would not move for him, or with an}^ intelligence to 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. jog 
 
 him. Aud just so, the soul, inquiring at God's Word, 
 must breathe forth its prayer after God, must adver- 
 tise God, as it were, that the sinner is there, .waiting 
 for a message, waiting for the Holy Spirit to flash a 
 life and meaning along the wires, to convey the sjoirit- 
 ual intelligence through the letter of the Word. 
 
 Here is a man crjing. Mine eyes fail for Thy Word, 
 sajing, When wilt thou comfort me? Well, if you 
 could stand by him and observe, waiting a little longer, 
 by and by, if you covild hear as he hears, there would 
 be a click, chck, chck, in the machinery, and the pen 
 would be seen dotting and notching its signals, in a 
 language for the soul, which the soul rejoices to find 
 uttered ; the utterance of the Spirit, without which the 
 word, the letter of the word, was as destitute of celes- 
 tial intelligence and comfort, as are the wires of an 
 electric telegraph. 
 
 There is all this difference between knowing by the 
 Spirit and by the letter merel}-, or the natiu-al heart, 
 like that between the telegi-aph and the post. If you 
 live on the line of the telegraph, where there is an of- 
 fice of communication and a knowledge of the signs, 
 you may be in correspondence in a moment, at ever so 
 great a distance; but if you are only on a postroad, 
 then the most important intelligence may be carried 
 to a city a thousand miles further off in sjjace than 
 you are, before it can reach you, and it will have to be 
 
J 10 Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. 
 
 interpreted for you by letter, and brought to you by 
 mail. Just so, the heart in communion with God by 
 the Spirit is an office of heaven's telegraph; the wires 
 ai'e the Word, instinct with the flame of the Spirit that 
 pours divine intelligence into the soul. But to others 
 the same things have to be conveyed by letter from 
 those to whom they have been telegraphed. 
 
 If your favorite commentator has received his un- 
 derstanding of the Scriptures by the Holy Spirit in 
 the heart, attending and interpreting the letter, he is 
 so far to be relied uijon, but no farther. " Stand 
 therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, 
 praying always with all prayer and sui^plication in 
 the Spirit." 
 
 Scott's " Force of Truth " is one of the most in- 
 structive books on this subject ever written. He was 
 himself one of the safest, most practical, useful, and 
 instructive commentators of his day. He says, in one 
 of his letters to Dr. Ryland, " The Lord j^reserve us 
 from ihe pride of learning and ainlities! If we once 
 think ourselves competent to understand the Bible by 
 dint of our own sagacity, and skill in languages and 
 ci'iticism, -Avithout an immediate and continual de- 
 pendence upon the teaching of the Holy Si^ii'it, we 
 are within a few j^aces of some dreadful downfall." 
 
 "When Abraham was on the Mount of Temptation 
 in the trial of his faith, he said, " My son, God Him- 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. jii 
 
 self will provide a Lamb for a burnt-ofifering." Won- 
 derful iDroi^liecy of Christ's coming and death for the 
 sins of all mankind! The whole Gospel was there, 
 and in it Abraham saw Christ's day, and was. glad. 
 Then came Job, with his supernatural faith, " I know 
 that my Kedeemor liveth." Then Moses with the 
 Passover, and the types, predictions, confessions, and 
 instructions of the Ceremonial Law, "Our school- 
 master unto Ch]-ist." Then David and the Messianic, 
 l^enitential and believing Psalms. Then the fifty- 
 third cliapter of Isaiah; "All we like sheep have gone 
 astray: but the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity 
 of us all." Then John the Baptist, greatest of the 
 j)rophets, "Behold the Lamb of God who taketh 
 away the sin of the world ! " 
 
 Thus for ages Jesus was a reahty only to failh, ex- 
 ercised by chastened and childhke men, " taking the 
 cup of salvation, and calling on the name of the 
 Lord," — faith only in God's promises to guilty lost 
 sinners, and in the symbolic utterances of priestly 
 sacrifices, and the ceremonial theology of the Divine 
 Law, with its accompanying mmicles, the Rock, the 
 Cloud, the Fire, the IManna, and the Word fi'om 
 heaven. So, the just shall live by his faitk And 
 that faith in a Saviour to come, illustrated and dem- 
 onstrated by the confidence of the dying thief in a 
 dying, }'et ever-living Saviour, on the cross, the most 
 
J 12 Faiih, Doubt, and Evidence, 
 
 triumi:)liaTit, consoling, supernatural instance, to the 
 praise of the crucified Son of God, since the world 
 began, was as good for every ancient soul, humbly 
 and obediently trusting God, as Paul's, Peter's, Joh»'s, 
 Luther's, Bunyan's, ours. "Hath done nothing amiss" ; 
 that was the whole triumphant creed, against Satan, 
 sin, temptation and despau- (which is the last i^ossible 
 crime of the guilty soul), in the dying thief's confes- 
 sion concerning Christ. 
 
 But the reasoning of this creed was not, Let us 
 therefore imitate His moral perfections, and so be 
 saved by His moral virtues, but, Let us therefore 
 trust in Him alone, to save us just as toe are, Avithout 
 any plea but His merits and His death. There was no 
 time for habits of obedience by imitation of Christ; 
 but there was time for faith in His merey to the ehief 
 of sinners, time to confess Christ, and trust in Him 
 before the sons of men, under the most awful and con- 
 tradictory testimony of guilt and conscience, sense 
 and science, compulsory of despair, that ever shut 
 down ujjon and darkened the death-scene of a soul. 
 Yet against all this, taught by the Holy Spirit, he 
 threw himself upon Christ's mercy, praying that great 
 prayer, while his failing vision could still behold the 
 Holy Lamb of God, his dying Saviour, "Lord, re- 
 member me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom ! " 
 Most wonderful revelation of the whole comfort and 
 
Faith, Doubt, and Evidence. jij 
 
 power of the Gosj^el ! And so, confessing Christ be- 
 fore men, this dying sinner fulfilled the conditions 
 of justification unto life, and ascended with his Ee- 
 deemer into Paradise. And this man's prayer, and 
 the martyr Stephen's crjdng, "Lord Jesus, receive 
 my spirit," are the only death-scenes of believers 
 presented for our instruction in the New Testament. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
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