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MANUAL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 FOR CLASSES AND PRIVATE READING. 
 
 BY 
 
 STEPHEN G. BULFLNCH, D. D. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 "WILLIAM! V. SPENCER, 
 
 203 Washington Street, 
 
 1866. 
 

 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by 
 
 Stephen G. Bulfixch, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 3 3 % 3 
 
 CD 
 
 £35tereoryped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
 
 
 No. 4 Spring Lane. 
 
TO 
 
 ANDREW P. PEABODY, D.D.,LL.D., 
 
 PLU1IMER PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN MORALS _ 
 
 IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 
 
 iOjis SUarfc, 
 
 WHOSE PREPARATION HE HAS ENCOURAGED, 
 
 IS D ED ICA TED, 
 
 IN TOKEN OF RESPECT AND FRIENDSHIP, 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Cambridge, May, 1866. 
 
PKEF ACE. 
 
 It has been thought that, at the present time, when 
 many reject altogether the claims of Christianity, and 
 many who love and reverence it have very indefinite 
 ideas regarding the authority with which it comes to 
 us, a brief statement of the leading evidences of 
 its divine origin might be acceptable and useful, not 
 only to the private inquirer, but as a manual for 
 public seminaries, and advanced classes in Sunday 
 schools. In preparing this little work, the evidences 
 have been carefully reexamined, in the light of recent 
 investigations in natural science and in theology. The 
 book will be found to contain a brief examination of 
 the principal theories that have been advanced, in 
 Germany and elsewhere, for the explanation of the 
 New Testament miracles, and of the doubts which 
 have been suggested with regard to the authenticity 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 of the Gospels. For some further remarks upon this 
 branch of his subject, the author would refer to his arti- 
 cles on the Tubingen school, in the Monthly Religious 
 Magazine for January, February, and May of the 
 present year. He is under obligation to several 
 gentlemen who have furnished facilities for his work, 
 and especially to President Hopkins, of Williams 
 College, for permission to make use of his valuable 
 "Lowell Lectures." From these he has derived im- 
 portant aid, particularly in the part entitled " The 
 Christian System." 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Page 
 
 Section 1. Revelation 1 
 
 " 2. Miracle ' 3 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 
 
 Section 3. Christianity at First View 8 
 
 " 4. Comparison with other Religions, continued 10 
 
 " 5. Christianity in Harmony with Nature 13 
 
 " 6. Christianity adapted to Man 15 
 
 " 7. The Morality of Christianity 17 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Section 8. Character of Jesus 22 
 
 " 9. Position, Claims, and Success of Jesua 25 
 
 " 10. Death and Resurrection of Jesua. . 29 
 
 INSTITUTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Section 11. Proof from Institutions 33 
 
 EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 
 
 I. EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 
 
 Section 12. Third and Fourth Centuries 38 
 
 " 13. First and Second Centuries 41 
 
 u 14. Heretical Writers .......45 
 
 " 15. Jewish and Heathen Writers. Versions. Coins. ... 49 
 
 (vii) 
 
viil CONTENTS. 
 
 II. INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 
 
 Page 
 
 Section 16. Language, Geographical Accuracy, &c. ...... 53 
 
 " 17. Honesty and Consistency. Differences 57 
 
 " 18. Undesigned Coincidences CO 
 
 " 19. Agreement of Luke's Writings with the Epistles. ... 03 
 
 " 20. Writings of the Apostle John 66 
 
 " 21. Apocrypha of the New Testament. ....... 70 
 
 " 22. Result of our Inquiries 75 
 
 MODERN SPECULATIONS. 
 
 Section 23. Theories that suppose the Gospel Narratives correct. . . 79 
 
 " 24. Theories supposing Fraud 82 
 
 " 25. The Mythical Theory 85 
 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 Section 26. General View 91 
 
 « 27. Difficulties 93 
 
 " 28. Evidence, External and Internal 97 
 
 " 29. Old Testament Prophecy 104 
 
 " 30. The Jewish Revelation prophetic of the Christian. . • . 103 
 
 «• 31. Individual Prophecies of the Old Testament 113 
 
 Section 32. New Testament Prophecy, and subsequent History of the 
 
 Jews 119 
 
 " 33. Martyrdoms 123 
 
 " 34. Conclusion. . 129 
 
 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION 133 
 
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Section 1. Revelation. 
 
 The knowledge which men possess with regard to 
 religious subjects, is, generally speaking, traditional; 
 that is, derived from those who went before them. But 
 if we go farther back, and seek for the original sources 
 of religious knowledge, there are only three that occur 
 to us as conceivable. Religious ideas may be innate 
 within the mind ; they may be derived from the con- 
 templation of nature; or they may be received from 
 revelation. 
 
 Our innate ideas, or intuitive convictions, give evi- 
 dence of the distinction between right and wrong-, of the 
 existence of some superior Power, and of our destiny to 
 live hereafter. 
 
 Nature, or the order of God's works, confirms these 
 truths, and assures us of the Unity, Benevolence, and 
 other attributes of our Creator. 
 
 But notwithstanding these means of knowledge, men 
 in various ages have fallen into most dangerous errors 
 
2 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 with regard to religion and morality. They have wor- 
 shipped many gods, instead of one, and have supposed 
 these beings to be limited in power and knowledge, 
 stained with the grossest crimes, and only to be concil- 
 iated by the most degrading and unnatural services. 
 From such errors great corruption and misery have 
 proceeded. 
 
 Among the ancient heathen, morality became en- 
 tirely separated from religion. The customs of society 
 were debased by ferocity and licentiousness : witness 
 the gladiatorial combats, and the open practice of im- 
 purities which cannot now even be named. Human 
 sacrifices were sometimes offered, even in the most pol- 
 ished ages of Greece and Koine, and divine honors were 
 paid to men and women of the most abandoned char- 
 acter. 
 
 Even now, in the most enlightened countries, those 
 who reject Christianity are not agreed respecting some 
 of the most important truths of what is called Natural 
 Eeligion. Some deny the reality of a future life, and 
 some the existence of a personal God. 
 
 Our innate ideas, and the contemplation of nature, 
 are not sufficient, then, to impart the knowledge of re- 
 ligious truth. There appears, therefore, a probability 
 that He who made us would give us further guidance on 
 subjects of such importance. He. created the human 
 race for virtue and happiness ; would he not interpose 
 to rescue them when wandering in sin and misery ? He 
 imparted to them religious capacities and wants ; would 
 he not probably furnish the means for their gratifica- 
 tion ? 
 
 It may be added, that only by revelation could human 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 3 
 
 beings be assured of any personal interest felt in them 
 bv their Creator ; the order of nature testifying only to 
 his care for his creatures generally, or in masses. The 
 ideas of God as hearing prayer, and as being ready to 
 forgive and bless the individual worshipper, though they 
 might be suggested by innate feeling, could be confirmed 
 only by revelation. 
 
 The probability of a revelation having been made is 
 confirmed by the very general belief of mankind that 
 such has been the case; — a belief derived, probably, 
 among heathen nations, from some dim tradition of a 
 primitive divine communication. 
 
 Section 2. Miracle. 
 
 A miracle is an occurrence produced by superhuman 
 power, in a manner different from the common course of 
 nature. 
 
 Revelation, being distinguished from the teaching of 
 nature, is necessarily miraculous. It may or may not 
 be accompanied by outward miracles ; but if it is ex- 
 traordinary, — occurring once only, or at intervals in 
 the history of the world, — it is itself a miracle, by the 
 definition given above. It would be as truly a miracle 
 for God to interfere with the common laws of mind as 
 with those of matter. To deny, then, the possibility of 
 miracle is to deny the possibility that God should ever 
 make a revelation to his creatures. 
 
 It is true that the order of nature is marked by beau- 
 tiful consistency and uniformity ; and no departure from 
 it can be supposed to have taken place, but for the most 
 important reasons. Yet miracles are not incredible, be- 
 cause, — 
 
4 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 1. The power of God to produce them is infinite. 
 
 2. The communication of religious knowledge, in- 
 volving the principles by which life is to be guided, and 
 happiness secured, here and hereafter, is an object of 
 such high importance, that it seems worthy of miracu- 
 lous intervention. 
 
 3. Science testifies that miracles have been performed. 
 The creation was a miracle, or rather a succession of 
 miracles. The world itself bears witness to the action 
 of its Author, at some former time or times, in a man- 
 ner different from his usual action by what are called the 
 laws of nature. Geology teaches that the earth, for a 
 long succession of ages, was in a condition in which life 
 neither did nor could exist. It testifies, also, that dif- 
 ferent forms of vegetable and animal life were produced 
 at successive periods, as the earth was fitted to receive 
 them. In every such production the action of the 
 Almighty was different from the common course of na- 
 ture. That course is to preserve and to propagate ; the 
 action in these instances was to create. These, there- 
 fore, were miracles. 
 
 Some have imagined that the existing variety of ani- 
 mal and vegetable life was the result of gradual devel- 
 opment of complicated forms from those more simple. 
 If this were true, the number of miracles would be less, 
 but the fact of miraculous creation must still be ad- 
 mitted, to account for the existence of those simple 
 forms. 
 
 Even if this theory were maintained to the extrava- 
 gant extent of supposing all forms of life to have spruno- 
 from "monads," or microscopic insects, — these to have 
 been produced by spontaneous generation, — and, finally, 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 5 
 
 the world itself, and the whole solar system, to have re- 
 sulted from a rotatory motion in a mass of " nebulous " 
 or chaotic matter, — still the action of almighty power 
 in giving that first impulse must be recognized as a 
 miracle. All that would be gained by so wild a con- 
 jecture would be to reduce the miracles of creation to 
 one ; and that one, being entirely exceptional, would be 
 more directly contrary to the majestic order and gradual 
 progress which the course of nature exhibits, than would 
 a series of creative touches from the divine hand. 
 
 Miracles, then, have taken place in creation. It is 
 not incredible, therefore, that they have occurred since. 
 If God thus interposed, at successive periods, to bring 
 into being the various forms of vegetable, animal, and 
 human life, he may have interposed, at successive peri- 
 ods since, to communicate his will to his human off- 
 spring. This, as we believe, he did, in the primitive, 
 the Jewish, and the Christian revelations. 
 
 4. 3.1iracles may be consistent with laws of nature 
 unknown to us. 
 
 A bird which has always lived in a forest, and has 
 never seen a human being, finds, on returning to seek 
 its nest at night, that the tree which bore it is prostrate, 
 although there has been no storm. This is a miracle to 
 the bird ; it is out of the course of nature to which the 
 bird has been accustomed. To us it is no miracle ; it is 
 simply that a settler has cut down the tree. The inter- 
 ference, then, of a superior being, or order of beings, 
 with an inferior, may produce a miracle to the latter ; 
 yet it may be perfectly consistent with the laws of the 
 superior being's nature. 
 
 To take another illustration : The sun rises every 
 1* 
 
6 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 clay, the comet becomes visible perhaps once in a thou- 
 sand years ; yet the appearance of the comet is in 
 accordance with the laws of nature as truly as the 
 rising of the sun. So the manifestation, at long in- 
 tervals, of creative power in geologic epochs, or of 
 spiritually renewing and wonder-working power in suc- 
 cessive revelations, may be in conformity to laws as 
 firmlv established and as sublime as that of gravitation. 
 
 It has been contended that all human experience tes- 
 tifies against miracles. Our individual experience can 
 count for very little, from the limited range of our ob- 
 servation ; and the experience of ages past is known to 
 us only by the testimony of those who then lived. Some 
 of these — the sacred writers — expressly declare that 
 miracles took place. Others are silent respecting them ; 
 but no one directly contradicts, from his own knowledge, 
 the assertion of the sacred writers. Here, then, is only 
 testimony against testimony ; nay, testimony which is 
 merely neutral against that which is positive. 
 
 Miracles, however, are confessedly events of very rare 
 occurrence. We know of but two purposes to which 
 they are applied — creation and revelation. The reason 
 is obvious : every other purpose of divine Providence 
 is best accomplished by the common order of the uni- 
 verse, but these two imply miracle in their very nature. 
 To command our belief, miracles must meet the follow- 
 ing conditions : — 
 
 1. They must be, in themselves, worthy of a divine 
 origin. The miracles wrought by the Savior were 
 dignified, and, in general, directly beneficent in their 
 character. 
 
 2. The revelation they are wrought to establish must 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 7 
 
 be worthy of our reception. Xo amount of alleged 
 miraculous evidence could sustain doctrines dishonorable 
 to God, or inconsistent with pure morality. 
 
 3. They must be proved by satisfactory evidence; 
 such, for example, as the testimony of several intelligent 
 eye-witnesses, given independently of each other, and 
 under circumstances which showed that they had neither 
 been bribed nor deluded. 
 
 The Christian religion expressly claims to have been 
 accompanied by miracles. (Mark xvi. 17, 20; John 
 x. 25, 37, 38; Acts ii. 22, 32.) "We cannot consist- 
 ently receive it as true, and yet reject its claims in this 
 important particular. 
 
 Even if Christianity should be received as our o-uide, 
 on account of the self-evident truth of its instructions, 
 still its miracles would not be superfluous. They would 
 mark it as being not a discovery of man, but a revela- 
 tion from God, possessing authority that entitles it to 
 obedience, and expressing the love of the Creator, as a 
 personal message from a father expresses his love to his 
 children. 
 
 The question, however, most suitable for the inquirer 
 into the truth of Christianity, is not whether it was 
 best that God should reveal his will miraculously, but 
 whether he has actually done so. 
 
8 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 
 
 Section 3. Christianity at First View. 
 
 The inquiry now presents itself, Is the Christian re- 
 ligion worthy of the divine origin it claims? Some 
 facts respecting it meet us at the first glance. 
 
 1. It is the religion of the most enlightened portion 
 of the world. Christianity and civilization go together ; 
 and the freest and most advanced countries are those in 
 which this religion is held in its purest form. Where 
 the gospel has prevailed, science and art have flour- 
 ished, and institutions of learning and charity have been 
 maintained, which before its introduction were unknown. 
 
 2. The condition of woman has been more elevated 
 and happy in Christian lands than in others. In 
 Turkey, woman is a prisoner; in India, a slave and 
 a victim. 
 
 3. The greatest men, in intellectual and moral en- 
 dowments, have usually been among the foremost in 
 their acknowledgment of Christianity ; and, generally 
 speaking, the most honest men, the most useful citi- 
 zens, the firmest friends, and the most liberal benefac- 
 tors, have been decided Christians. 
 
 4. The excellence of Christianity has been admitted 
 by many even of those who did not believe in its author- 
 ity ; and those sceptics who have led virtuous lives have 
 generally been those who had been brought up in Chris- 
 tian homes. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 9 
 
 5. While systems of human philosophy have been 
 improved through successive generations after the death 
 of their founders, Christianity stands in its best form as 
 displayed in its original documents. Endeavors to im- 
 prove it have merely resulted in corrupting it ; and 
 attempts to reform it find success only as they bring it 
 back to " the simplicity that is in Christ." 
 
 6. When we look at the religion itself, we perceive 
 that it gives the most exalted ideas of God, — as One, 
 Infinite, and Eternal ; as Holy, Just, and Merciful. 
 
 7. It gives, also, the most correct ideas of man, — 
 as possessed of great capacities and powers, and destined 
 for noble purposes ; but as led away by sin, and needing 
 repentance and amendment. 
 
 8. It gives rational and elevated ideas of human 
 duty, as comprised in self-control, usefulness, and piety. 
 Its morality is not only elevated, but strict, guarding 
 thought as well as action. 
 
 9. It gives a lofty view of man's final destiny, repre- 
 senting him as designed by his Maker for immortal life 
 and happiness. 
 
 10. The Christian religion, and that alone, exhibits 
 a fitness to become universal. Other systems are lim- 
 ited by their peculiarities to the region of their birth. 
 Mohammedanism insists on various ablutions, healthful 
 and agreeable in warm countries, but not adapted to 
 colder regions. Judaism, though divine in its origin, 
 was not designed for universal acceptance until com- 
 pleted by Christianity. It required all males to present 
 themselves three times a year at the Temple, which was 
 the only one permitted to be built. This, and numer- 
 ous other restrictions, marked it as a national religion. 
 
10 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 (Exodus xxiii. 17; Deut. xii. 13, 14.) But Chris- 
 tianity gives the command, "Preach to every creature" 
 (Mark xvi. 15), and its character and institutions are 
 consistent with that command. Christ came to save his 
 people, not from the Roman yoke, which would have 
 been a local and temporary object, but " from their 
 sins," an object of universal character. (Matt. i. 21.) 
 
 Section 4. Comparison with other Eeligions, 
 
 continued. 
 
 The other religions in the world are Judaism, Moham- 
 medanism, Buddhism, Heathenism in its various forms, 
 and Deism. 
 
 Judaism, the religion of the Old Testament, was 
 given as preparatory to Christianity ; is acknowledged 
 by it as of divine origin, and is, to a great extent, in- 
 cluded in it. It is not complete in itself. (Heb. xi. 
 39, 40.) It does not, as distinctly as Christianity, 
 represent the Supreme Being as the impartial Father 
 of all mankind ; does not as strongly impress the obli- 
 gation of some duties, — that of mercy, for instance; 
 and does not as clearly teach the doctrine of a future 
 life. 
 
 The sublimity of the Christian ideas of God is more 
 observable when contrasted with the narrow spirit of 
 the Jews near the period at which Jesus lived. The 
 author of the Second Book of Esdras, in the Apocrypha, 
 apparently a half Christianized Jew, uses the follow- 
 ing language : " Lord, thou madst the world for our 
 sakes. As for the other people, which also come of 
 Adam, thou hast said that they are nothing." (2 Esdras 
 
THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 11 
 
 vi. 55, 56.) Contrast with this the Savior's recog- 
 nition of the brotherhood of all mankind. (Matt. v. 
 43-45 ; Luke x. 27-37 ; John x. 16.) 
 
 Mohammedanism is only a corruption of Judaism 
 and Christianity. With many excellent precepts, de- 
 rived from these, it combines many harsh commands 
 and formal observances. Contrary to the pure and 
 peaceful character of Christianity, it places little re- 
 straint on sensuality, and encourages the stern, warlike, 
 and ambitious spirit, rather than the gentle and for- 
 giving. Its inferiority is the more marked, as, coming 
 later than Christianity, it might have been expected to 
 have improved upon it. 
 
 The corrupted form of Christianity called Mormon- 
 ism strongly resembles Mohammedanism in the particu- 
 lars just mentioned, and affords a striking illustration of 
 the excellence of Christianity, by the miserable failure 
 of the attempt to improve it. 
 
 Buddhism may be properly distinguished from other 
 forms of heathenism, both on account of its extensive 
 prevalence, and as being more properly atheistic than 
 polytheistic. It denies the existence of an eternal God, 
 gives imperfect rules of human duty, and makes the 
 highest happiness consist in the extinction of our per- 
 sonal beino;. 
 
 Heathenism, in all its forms, is full of ideas and prac- 
 tices dishonorable to God and deoradino; to man. 
 
 In ancient heathen nations there were great philoso- 
 phers who rose above their religion and their age, and 
 taught many exalted lessons of virtue ; but the)' did not 
 derive the sanction for it from the hope or fear of a 
 future life. Plato, in one remarkable passage of the 
 
12 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Phaedon, describes Socrates as speaking as a Christian 
 might speak ; but the instance is a solitary one. Gen- 
 erally, the heathen writers speak of the future life in 
 uncertain language, or describe it in an unattractive 
 aspect ; and seldom appeal to considerations connected 
 with it, to enforce the obligations of morality. 
 
 Neither Mohammedanism, Buddhism, nor any form 
 of heathenism, has any claim to rest on the evidence of 
 miracles. Mohammed disclaimed miracles as proofs of 
 his system, telling his followers that the Koran itself 
 was a miracle. There are some miraculous stories told 
 respecting him, as that of his night journey to heaven 
 on the horse Alborak ; but they rest only on his own 
 word, not having been witnessed by any other person. 
 
 The wonders of Brahminism, and those of ancient 
 heathenism, are alleged to have taken place in far dis- 
 tant ages, before the rise of authentic history. They 
 rest on the word of poets, not of historians. 
 
 If Deism be proposed to take the place of Christian- 
 ity, under the more specious name of Theism, or the 
 Religion of Nature, it may be observed that the doc- 
 trines usually supposed to constitute this system are 
 mostly derived from the gospel. The modern Deist, 
 born of Christian parents, and subjected in youth and 
 manhood to the influences of Christian instruction and 
 society, combines the best ideas he has received, and ex- 
 cluding from his spiritual temple the foundation of faith 
 in Christ, calls the beautiful but now baseless structure 
 the Religion of Nature. Men are so accustomed to the 
 thought of God's unity, infinity, and goodness, and to 
 the doctrine of a future life, that they forget how much 
 they are indebted, even for these truths, to the Bible. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. ' 13 
 
 And notwithstanding the advantage of Christ's teaching, 
 those who discard his authority are not agreed with 
 regard to many of the most important subjects, such 
 even as the existence of a personal God as distinct from 
 nature, and the hope of a future life to the individual as 
 distinct from the continued existence of the race to 
 which he belongs. 
 
 Section 5. Christianity in Harmony with 
 
 Nature. 
 
 Among the works of God a degree of harmony may 
 justly be expected, either in resemblance or in adapta- 
 tion to each other. This harmony exists between nature 
 and Christianity. 
 
 Christianity coincides with the highest teachings of 
 natural religion, in the exalted view it gives of the 
 divine nature and attributes. And this harmony is the 
 more apparent as the teachings of nature have been in- 
 terpreted by science, proving the immense extent of cre- 
 ation, and that all portions of it are under the control of 
 the same grand system of laws. These discoveries cor- 
 respond to what the Bible taught long before, of the 
 unity of God, and his unbounded power, wisdom, and 
 love. 
 
 God's moral government, as displayed by Christian- 
 ity, is analogous to his government over outward nature. 
 The power of gravitation acts not only on large bodies, 
 but on small ; not only on masses, but on atoms. So 
 in God's moral government, the laws of right and wrong 
 are applicable to the least of our actions as to the great- 
 est ; and Christ tells us, "Every idle word that men 
 2 
 
14 ♦ EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of 
 judgment." (Matt. xii. 36.) 
 
 Nature and Christianity alike teach most clearly what 
 is of practical importance, leaving theoretical truth for 
 subsequent discovery. Thus natural instinct prompts to 
 use the day for labor and the night for rest ; but men 
 did not discover for ages what it was that produced this 
 interchange of light and darkness. So Christianity 
 teaches the great practical doctrine of a future state ; 
 but how that state will be constituted is not explained. 
 Mohammedanism, on the contrary, enters into a minute, 
 and often an absurd, description of the realms of bliss 
 and of woe. 
 
 The operation of Christianity upon the heart of man, 
 and upon the institutions of society, is generally grad- 
 ual, like the changes produced in nature. "First the 
 blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." 
 (Mark iv. 28.) In its remedial character it is anal- 
 ogous to other remedies, often, like them, requiring of 
 its patients self-restraint and self-denial. 
 
 In its mediatorial character, too, it is analogous to 
 nature. To save another from evil, it is necessary that 
 we take some labor or pain upon ourselves. The sick 
 child is saved by the sleepless care of the mother ; the 
 endangered country by its soldiers, faithful unto death ; 
 the neglected prisoners by the self-sacrifice of the philan- 
 thropist. The death of Christ for our salvation is, then, 
 in harmonv with a universal law. 
 
 The agreement of Christianity with nature has been 
 made use of as an argument against its claims. It is 
 said by some that the teachings of Christ are, in what is 
 most important, only repetitions of moral and religious 
 
THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 15 
 
 lessons that had been oiven before. Efforts have been 
 made to prove this with respect to the Lord's Prayer 
 (Matt. vi. 9) and the Golden Eule. (Matt. vii. 12.) 
 The reply is, that, of course, if the principles taught by 
 Christ were eternal truth, they could not be new; if 
 they were truth of the highest importance, God would 
 not have left the world for ages entirely without them. 
 Many of the teachings of Jesus, therefore, had very 
 probably been anticipated by those before his time. 
 But he came, not so much to declare what was entirely 
 new, as to give the most important religious and moral 
 truth to mankind, in a connected form, free from human 
 error, and with the authoritative sanction of a revela- 
 tion ; and by his example, his death and resurrection, 
 to illustrate the whole system, and make it effectual for 
 the salvation of mankind. 
 
 Section 6. Christianity adapted to Man. 
 
 The harmonv of the Christian religion with the svs- 
 tern of divine government manifested in nature may be 
 further seen in its adaptation to the various powers and 
 capacities of man. 
 
 It is adapted to the intellect and the imagination ; for 
 it presents to the former the loftiest themes of con- 
 templation, and kindles the latter by its representations 
 of beauty and grandeur. Xot to speak at present of 
 the lofty poetry of the Old Testament, it is sufficient to 
 refer to the parables of the Good Samaritan (Luke x.) 
 and the Prodigal Son (Luke xv.) ; to the discourse 
 with the woman of Samaria (John iv.), to the portrait- 
 ure of Charity (1 Cor. xiii.), and the chapter on the 
 
16 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 resurrection (1 Cor. xv.), with the description of the 
 final judgment. (Eev. xx. 11, 12.) 
 
 It is adapted to the conscience and the will ; for it 
 holds before the mind the claims of duty, not on the 
 ground of expediency alone, but on that of God's ap- 
 pointment. It declares the way of virtue to be the way 
 even of earthly happiness, pointing out the rewards 
 which attend it, and ascribing them to the wise provi- 
 dence of God. (Matt. v. ; 1 Tim. iv. 8.) It de- 
 nounces, in his name, corresponding penalties against 
 transgression. (Matt. v. 21-26.) Still more, it assures 
 us that the reward of virtue and the penalty of guilt will 
 be extended beyond this world, teaching us to expect 
 a righteous judgment. (Matt. xxv. ; Rom. ii. 5-10.) 
 By the strictness of its moral requirements, it excites 
 the conscience, alarming us with a view of our condition 
 in the sight of God. (Eom. hi. 19, 20, 23.) Yet it 
 encourages us with the hope of pardon for the past, and 
 divine assistance for the future. (Luke xi. 13 ; xviii. 
 13, 14; 1 Johni. 9.) 
 
 It is adapted to the affections : for it places before us 
 the highest object to which they can be directed — the 
 infinitely good and holy Being, whom it presents to us 
 as "our Father in heaven." (Matt. vi. 9: xxii. 37; 
 1 John iv. 8.) It displays the resemblance of his per- 
 fections in a human form in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 whose self-sacrificino; labors and sufferings for our sake, 
 endured with unexampled patience, dignity, and devo- 
 tion to God, have proved the most effectual means to 
 touch the heart. (John xii. 32 ; Heb. i. 3 ; ii. 10.) 
 And it encourages the domestic and social affections, 
 making love its great principle of action, and enforcing 
 
THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 17 
 
 it by the example of the Savior. (Matt. xxii. 35—40 ; 
 John XT. 12 ; Bom. xiii. 10 ; 1 John iv. 20, 21.) 
 
 Section 7. The Moeaeity oe Cheistiaxttt. 
 
 By its adaptation to the conscience, the affections, 
 and the will, Christianity commends and enforces its 
 moral instructions. TTe have next to observe what is 
 the character of these. 
 
 They comprise, in the first place, the law of right, 
 the great principles of justice, purity, and benevolence. 
 These, which wise men had in part discerned, are more 
 fully given in the Old Testament, but in their perfec- 
 tion only by the Savior. (Exodus xx. : Matt. v. 17, 
 1^ ; Eom. ii. 14.) The various manifestations of God's 
 law. in nature, in the Old Testament and in the Xew, 
 are thus harmonious. 
 
 The Christian law of morality comprises also some 
 rules to which neither heathen wisdom nor Jewish in- 
 spiration had attained. These are sometimes dire 
 given, as the limitation of anger (Matt. v. 21, 22 . 
 and of divor: [att. v. 31 : Mark x. 2-9) : and 
 
 sometimes they are clearly implied : as polygamy and 
 suicide, though nowhere directlv forbidden, are evi- 
 dently contrary, the one to the Christian duty of purity, 
 the other to that of patient and faithful continuance in 
 the service of God. 
 
 The Christian law is distinguished by the restraint 
 which it places upon the propensities and passions. It 
 forbids the ex of malevolent feelings. Eevex.:. 
 
 which among the heathen was regarded as the mark of 
 a noble mind, is prohibited by Chiistianity. (Rom. xii. 
 2* 
 
18 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 19, 20.) Avarice, pride, vanity, and sensuality are 
 alike forbidden. (Luke xii. 15; 1 John ii. 16.) 
 
 At the same time it avoids the extreme into which 
 other systems have fallen, which have attempted to 
 restrain the passions — that of a gloomy asceticism. 
 (Matt. xi. 19 ; 1 Tim. iv. 4.) 
 
 Among the virtues there are some which have at- 
 tracted the admiration of mankind in every age, and 
 which were held in high honor alike by Jews and hea- 
 then at the time of the Savior. Such are active cour- 
 age, friendship, and patriotism. There are others to 
 which less of popular favor has been given, but which 
 are no less important to human happiness, and in them- 
 selves no less worthy. Such are meekness, ^patience, 
 forgiveness. The former class are in accordance with 
 the natural impulses, the latter imply their restraint. 
 An uninspired moralist would have advocated the popu- 
 lar virtues more than the unpopular, because he would 
 have shared the popular feeling. An ambitious leader 
 would have pursued a similar course, because he would 
 have expected thus to gain favor. But Jesus gave his 
 influence for the unpopular virtues, commending a meek, 
 yielding, and peaceable course of conduct, directing us to 
 love our enemies, and to return good for evil — precepts 
 which would appear impracticable if his own example 
 had not illustrated them. (Luke xxiii. 31 ; 1 Peter ii. 
 21-23.) This course showed at once his divine wisdom 
 in enforcing those virtues which most needed commenda- 
 tion, and his superiority to all attempts to gain popular 
 favor, while it renders the success of his religion the 
 more wonderful. (Matt. v. 1-12, 38-48.) 
 
 It has been erroneously argued, even by some defend- 
 
THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 19 
 
 ers of Christianity, that the Savior, in thus doing, dis- 
 countenanced the manly virtues — courage, friendship, 
 and patriotism. But this is going beyond the truth. He 
 did not expressly commend these virtues, because they 
 needed no commendation, being already favorites with 
 the world ; but he inculcated the principles from which 
 they must proceed — reverence for God rather than 
 man, which is the source of true courage; and love, of 
 which friendship and patriotism are only applications. 
 (Matt. xxii. 39 ; Luke xii. 4, 5 ; John xv. 12.) 
 
 Christianity goes deep into the cause of existing evils 
 in society, and thus directs efforts more effectually to 
 their removal. It does not ascribe these evils to the 
 constitution of society, to defective institutions, to defi- 
 ciency of wealth, or superabundance of population, but 
 to sin ; and it comes to free mankind from this evil. 
 Other reformers have endeavored to remove particular 
 forms of suffering and wrong, and have thus often done 
 well, carrying out various portions of the great design 
 of Christianity ; but the gospel itself strikes at the root 
 of all, representing the original evil of all to be man's 
 disobedience to the divine law, and directing its strong- 
 est efforts to remove this. (Matt. xv. 18 ; Luke vi. 
 43.) This is not the ground which a fanatic would have 
 taken ; for honest enthusiasm, excited by the view of 
 visible wrongs, would have attacked them directly ; nor 
 could such ground be taken by an impostor, the loftiest 
 moral truth being discovered by one who himself was 
 utterly untrue. 
 
 This aim of Christianity to remove the evil within, as 
 the great means for the removal of all outward evil, 
 presents an answer to those who defend any form of 
 
20 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 wrong — as slavery, for instance — by asserting that it 
 is not forbidden by Christ ; and also to those who con- 
 sider his omitting to forbid it as furnishing an argument 
 against his system. He did not undertake to specify the 
 various forms of moral evil. He said nothing directly 
 against despotism ; nor did his apostles denounce the 
 bloody gladiatorial combats, the favorite amusement of 
 the heathen around them. But Christ and his disciples 
 alike, aiming to subject the heart to the divine law, in- 
 culcated great principles, the most comprehensive of all 
 being the love of God and man. Every institution and 
 practice inconsistent with these is condemned by Chris- 
 tianity, and either has yielded or must yield to its influ- 
 ence. (Matt. v. 48; vii. 12; xxii. 37-40.) 
 
 It may be said, however, that, excellent as is the 
 morality of the Christian system, its excellence does not 
 oblige us to receive the religion ; for that moral pre- 
 cepts claim to be obeyed for their own evident truth and 
 beauty. If we found a good precept in the Koran, we 
 might adopt it without believing in Mohammed ; so we 
 can use the moral commands of Jesus without belie vino: 
 in his divine commission. To this we reply, — 
 
 1. One who sincerely endeavors to obey the law of 
 Christ for its intrinsic excellence will probably soon be 
 convinced of his superhuman claims. (John vii. 17.) 
 
 2. No merely human wisdom could have originated 
 so holy a system ; or, if it could, those who were pure 
 and exalted enough to invent it must have been supe- 
 rior to deception ; and if the account of its first preach- 
 ers be true, the system is divine. (1 John iv. 14.) 
 
 3. The morality of Christianity is inseparably con- 
 nected with its religious teaching. Its philanthropy 
 
THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM. 21 
 
 proceeds from the love of God ; its courage from the 
 reverence due to him. (Matt. v. 44, 45 ; x. 28.) 
 
 The character of the Savior's teachings is well de- 
 scribed in the following words of Professor Norton : 
 "In the midst of men gross, sensual, uninformed, and 
 unprincipled, his morality is the most pure, correct, and 
 sublime ; his views of duty are the most rational and 
 comprehensive. Not only does he transcend, beyond all 
 comparison, the rulers and teachers of his own nation, 
 but it is the highest praise of the philosophers of ancient 
 times, of Socrates and of Cicero, that their notions of 
 religion and duty have some imperfect resemblance to 
 those of Jesus of Nazareth." (Internal Evidences, pp. 
 308, 309.) 
 
22 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 THE AUTHOR OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Section 8. Character of Jesus. 
 
 We have next to consider the character of the person 
 through whom the revelation was made. In most sys- 
 tems the personal character of the founder is compara- 
 tively of little importance. The works of Plato com- 
 mand admiration from the intellectual greatness they 
 display — not from the moral qualities of the writer. 
 Even the laws of Moses derive their sanction in a very 
 slight degree from the personal character of the great 
 lawgiver. But when a teacher claims the love of his 
 followers, he must display those qualities by which love 
 is won. This claim is made by the Author of Christian- 
 ity. He calls his disciples friends ; he requires them to 
 commemorate him by a personal act of affection. (Matt, 
 xii. 50; xxvi. 26; John xv. 14.) Neither a fanatic 
 nor an impostor would have been likely to do this ; for 
 the feelings of the one would have been exclusively en- 
 gaged on the object of his enthusiasm, and the other 
 would have been without genuine feeling. 
 
 Those who do not receive Christianity as divinely re- 
 vealed have often admitted the moral excellence of the 
 Savior's character. Rousseau declared that K Socrates 
 died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ like a god ; " 
 and Renan declares, " Whatever may be the surprises 
 of the future, Jesus will never be surpassed. His wor- 
 ship will grow young without ceasing ; his legend will 
 
THE AUTHOR OP CHRISTIANITY. 23 
 
 call forth tears without end ; his sufferings will melt the 
 noblest hearts ; all ages will proclaim that among the 
 sons of men there is none born greater than Jesus." 
 
 The character of the Savior, as presented by the 
 evangelists, combines the strength of man with the ten- 
 derness of woman. He is faithful to every duty ; and 
 the virtues of the citizen, the friend, and the son, in- 
 cluding some which his religion has been wrongly sup- 
 posed to depreciate, are all rightly balanced. (See be- 
 fore, p. 19 ; see also Luke xix. 41-44 ; John xiii. 23 ; 
 xix. 27.) He has courage to reprove most sternly, 
 and gentleness to speak forgiveness to the penitent. 
 (Matt, xxiii. 13-36 ; John viii. 11.) While going about 
 doing good, and superior to all narrow prejudices of 
 race or nation, he yet sets a limit to his own action and 
 that of his disciples, lest their efforts should be wasted 
 over too wide a field. (Matt. iv. 23 ; x. 5 ; xv. 24 ; 
 Luke x. 30-37.) Denouncing the hypocrisy of the 
 Pharisees, and preparing for the abrogation of the 
 ceremonial law, he yet pays it respect while it remains 
 in force. (Matt. viii. 4; xxiii. 2.) Forbidding ava- 
 rice, and censuring the faults of the rich and powerful, 
 he teaches the poor and oppressed lessons of patience 
 and faith, and refuses to intermeddle with the distri- 
 bution of property. (Matt. v. ; Luke xii. 14.) He 
 makes claim to the highest dignity, yet simply and un- 
 affectedly ; and without impairing his dignity, he per- 
 forms a menial office when he can thereby teach an 
 important lesson. (John xiii. 1-5.) He calls all men 
 to come to him ; yet, instead of using flattering persua- 
 sions, warns them that they will encounter obloquy and 
 persecution. (Matt. xi. 28 ; Luke xxi. 12-16.) 
 
24 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 But it is as the period of his suffering draws nigh that 
 the beauty of his character most fully appears. The 
 wise and tender counsels to his friends (John xiii.-xvi.), 
 the prayer with his disciples (xvii.), the struggle with 
 himself in Gethsemane (Matt. xxvi. 39), the dignity 
 with which he meets his captors, asking only that his 
 disciples may be spared (John xviii. 4, 8), the patience 
 he shows under the abuse of the Sanhedrim (John xviii. 
 23) , the look that brings repentance to the disciple who 
 has denied him (Luke xxii. 61), the answers and the 
 bearing that almost subdue the pride and policy of the 
 Roman governor (John xviii. 33-38) , — these prepare us 
 for the still higher sublimity of the cross. Here we see 
 him praying for the pardon of his enemies, and urging 
 the only plea that could be available for them (Luke 
 xxiii. 34) ; in his own agony, showing mercy to the 
 penitent thief (43), and love and consideration for his 
 mother (John xix. 26), and with his last breath com- 
 mending his soul to God. (Luke xxiii. 46.) 
 
 If this holiest of all characters did not exist, whence 
 came its delineation? It is one of the highest achieve- 
 ments of art to represent a perfect human form; what, 
 then, must the artist be that could portray a perfect 
 human soul ? Writers of fiction seldom, if ever, create 
 incidents ; they merely vary and combine incidents from 
 real life ; and the occurrences which have been here pre- 
 sented had no prototype except in Jesus himself. The 
 prayer for his murderers has often been imitated by his 
 followers (Acts vii. 60) , but it was first uttered by him- 
 self ; and the more than royal exercise of mercy, from a 
 cross instead of a throne (Luke xxiii. 43), was un- 
 exampled in the history of the world. 
 
THE AUTHOR OF CHRISTIANITY. 25 
 
 This argument is thus strongly presented in a manu- 
 script sermon by the present President of Harvard Col- 
 lege : — 
 
 * What wonderful, what superhuman genius is this, 
 in this obscure Jew Matthew, that he should conceive 
 of the office and work of a Messiah, never having heard 
 of any Messiah except as an expected king and warrior ; 
 that he should draw the picture of one claiming to have 
 come from God, claiming to be the future judge of the 
 quick and the dead, claiming to be living in the bosom 
 of God, — and draw the picture with such majesty and 
 grace that it has commanded the admiration and im- 
 plicit faith of all succeeding ages. In moral and intel- 
 lectual character, Jesus is drawn in such fair and beauti- 
 ful lines in the Gospels, that you can scarce conceive it 
 within the possibilities of human genius to have invented 
 the character. But when you add to this moral worth 
 and intellectual power the claim to divine origin and 
 divine authority, and find these immeasurable claims of 
 Jesus so sweetly blended with humility that the reader 
 detects no incongruity whatever, you have then a por- 
 trait which no human genius ever could, as it seems to 
 me, have invented, and which certainly no human pen- 
 cil could have drawn, had not the original been a living 
 man." 
 
 Section 9. Position, Claims, and Success of 
 
 Jesus. 
 
 The position, the claims, and the success of the 
 
 Savior, taken together, present a proof in favor of his 
 
 religion which may well be called a moral miracle. 
 
 Eighteen centuries since, there was manifested among 
 
 3 
 
26 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 men a new moral power which changed the habits of 
 thinking and acting amonof mankind, and advanced the 
 race in all that was worthy of pursuit far more than all 
 the teachings of philosophy had done. This great spir- 
 itual revolution came from a teacher in the obscure 
 province of Galilee ; humanly speaking, a poor young 
 man, with few advantages, rejected by his own nation, 
 and put to death, at their instance, by the Romans, who 
 ruled them. Yet this poor and suffering teacher has 
 subdued the civilized world. Perceiving this wonder, 
 we easily assent to the outward miracles which accom- 
 panied it : nay, we receive them as necessary to account 
 for this. 
 
 Let us notice his position, in contrast with his claims. 
 Jesus was born in humble circumstances (Matt. xiii. 
 55) ; he possessed no literary advantages (John vii. 
 15), and derived his support, while teaching, from the 
 contributions of friends. (Luke viii. 3.) His cause had 
 not, therefore, the attractions of worldly power, but 
 won its way in despite of an opposition which had on 
 its side the force of wealth, rank, and national favor. 
 (Matt. viii. 20; John vii. 48.) Yet the greatness 
 of his claims is unexampled. He claimed miraculous 
 power (John x. 25) ; he asserted that he always did 
 what was pleasing to God. (John viii. 29.) He allowed 
 himself to be called the Son of David. (Matt. xxi. 
 1(3.) He declared himself the promised Messiah (Matt, 
 xvi. 17 ; John iv. 26) , and that in him the prophecies 
 were fulfilled. (Luke iv. 21 ; xxiv. 27.) He asserted 
 that he was the Son of God (John x. 36), and, in some 
 sense, one with the Father. (John x. 30.) He foretold 
 that he should rise from the dead (Luke xviii. 33), and 
 
THE AUTHOR OF CHRISTIANITY. 27 
 
 declared that he should hereafter judge the world. (Matt. 
 xxv. 31 ; John v. 29.) He announced himself as 
 f * the light of the world" (John viii. 12), "the resur- 
 rection and the life." (John xi. 25.) If he was not 
 divinelv commissioned, he was o'uiltv of the most auda- 
 cious blasphemy, or he was insane. Yet these stupen- 
 dous claims were advanced with calmness, and often 
 implied rather than expressed, as if with a quiet assur- 
 ance of their truth. (Matt. xix. 26.) With these 
 claims he united a plan of spiritual conquest surpassing 
 the wildest dreams of earthly ambition : yet he knew, 
 and foretold, his own approaching fate. (Matt. xx. 
 17-19 : xxi. 38, 39.) But. instead of being discour- 
 aged by this, he foresaw in his death the means for the 
 triumph of his cause. (John xii. 32.) Such confidence 
 would imply, in a merely uninspired man, the wildest 
 self-delusion ; but the dignity of his demeanor, and the 
 practical good sense of his precepts, contradict the sup- 
 position. As to that of imposture, it cannot be enter- 
 tained a moment. 
 
 With this unfavorable position, and these lofty claims, 
 the course pursued by this teacher was the most unlikely 
 to win popular favor. The Jews were at that time 
 divided into three sects — the Pharisees, ^adducees, and 
 Essenes. Jesus denounced the formalism and hypocrisy 
 of the Pharisees : he differed from the unscriptural 
 views and lax morality of the Sadducees (Matt. xxii. 
 23-30) : and did not sanction the asceticism, the celi- 
 bacy, and community of goods of the Essenes. (Matt. 
 xi. 19 : xix. -1, 11 : Luke xii. 13, 14.) The one feel- 
 ing which all had in common — that of national pride — 
 he stirred up against himself. A fanatic would have 
 
28 EVIDENCES OF CHEISTIANITY. 
 
 shared this feeling, an impostor would have made use 
 of it ; he, on the contrary, set morality above cere- 
 monies (Matt, xii. 1—13), associated with publicans 
 (Matt. ix. 10) , commended Samaritans (Luke x. 33 ; 
 xvii. 16-19), and foretold the destruction of the holy 
 city and temple. (Matt. xxiv. 2; xxii. 7.) And, while 
 thus alienating the Jews, he did not seek the aid of 
 the Gentiles. (Matt. xv. 24.) Yet he succeeded in 
 establishing his system as the religion of the civilized 
 world. 
 
 Let the rapidity of its progress be observed. The 
 disciples of Jesus rallied in Jerusalem after their Mas- 
 ter's crucifixion, and in the midst of his enemies. The 
 first day's public preaching is said to have gained three 
 thousand converts. (Acts ii. 41.) Persecution scat- 
 tered them, but only to spread their sentiments more 
 widely. (Acts viii. 1, 4.) At length they provoked 
 a contest with, the idolatry of the age, sustained by all 
 the power of that empire which was then coextensive 
 with the civilized world. Against all that power Chris- 
 tianity prevailed. The Roman empire fell, but its bar- 
 barian conquerors were subdued by the gospel. And 
 now it is extending its outward conquests, it is purify- 
 ing itself from corruptions of human device, and it is 
 manifesting its power in the removal of evil institu- 
 tions and customs. Such have been, and such are, the 
 achievements of a system which its opponents would 
 have us believe is but a collection of doubtful legends 
 respecting a young carpenter of Galilee, and the fisher- 
 men, his associates ! 
 
the author of christianity. 29 
 
 Section 10. Death and Kesuerection of Jesus. 
 
 The death and resurrection of Jesus are events which 
 rest not alone upon the testimony of the New Testament 
 historians. They must have taken place, in order to ac- 
 count for the existence of Christianity at the present time. 
 
 Some of the most important facts of Christianity are 
 of such a character as never would have been invented 
 by a writer friendly to its claims ; besides which, they 
 were in their nature facts of general notoriety. Such 
 are the birth of Jesus in a lowly station, his rejection 
 by his countrymen generally, and his execution as a 
 criminal. 
 
 That Jesus died on the cross, we are assured by the 
 unquestioned tradition, not only of the Christian church, 
 but of its opponents. No heathen or Jewish writer 
 ever denied the fact. This assurance, too, is confirmed 
 by the nature of the case. He who undertakes the 
 course of a reformer, and who exposes the vices of the 
 leading classes, necessarily incurs their hatred. He 
 who, with such a course, combines the claim to a divine 
 commission, must either rule or perish. Unless his 
 claim is allowed, the animosity it excites will be satisfied 
 only by destroying him, as an impostor. The claims of 
 Jesus were rejected by his nation : this we know, for 
 that nation still rejects them. His execution, then, 
 might be inferred as most highly probable, even if we 
 possessed no record of it as a fact. 
 
 It will not, then, be questioned that Jesus was cruci- 
 fied — a mode of execution most painful, and, as then 
 considered, most disgraceful. The triumph of his ene- 
 mies was complete. 
 3* 
 
30 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 How, then, can the present existence of his religion 
 be accounted for? What gave his followers — terrified 
 and scattered as they must have been — courage to 
 assemble again, and confidence in a cause which had 
 been thus signally defeated, so that they commenced and 
 carried forward the bold and active measures that were 
 necessary to make it successful ? 
 
 The resurrection of Jesus alone can answer these 
 questions. This was early proclaimed as the great fact 
 of the religion. Such is the testimony of the book of 
 Acts, which must be admitted to be at least the earliest 
 and best account of the apostles' preaching that we have. 
 (Acts ii. 24, 32; hi. 15; xvii. 31; xxv. 19.) Such 
 has been the unvarying testimony of the church from 
 that time to the present. 
 
 Such is the testimony, among many others, of the 
 First Epistle to the Corinthians (xv. 4, 14, 15, 20, 
 23), respecting which the ablest of modern sceptics 
 makes the followino* remarkable admission : " This con- 
 elusion, however, does not shake the passage in the 
 First Epistle to the Corinthians, which (it being un- 
 doubtedly genuine) was written about the year 59 after 
 Christ, consequently not thirty years after his resurrec- 
 tion. On this authority we must believe that many 
 members of the primitive church, who were yet living 
 at the time when this Epistle was written, — especially 
 the apostles, — were convinced that they had witnessed 
 appearances of the risen Christ." (Strauss's Life of 
 Jesus, Part III. chap. iv. § 138 ; first German edition, 
 § 134.) 
 
 If Jesus was not divinely commissioned, there must 
 have been a follower of his of genius equal to his own. 
 
THE AUTHOR OF CHRISTIANITY. 31 
 
 For the very foundation of Christianity is in the death 
 and resurrection of Christ ; and if he did not rise from 
 the dead, it is impossible that he should build on these 
 himself. Who, then, was it, that, after the death of 
 Jesus, remodelled his teaching, rallied his disciples, and 
 induced them to stand firm, even to the death? What 
 a great man ! and what a madman ! The cross was 
 io'iiominious ; he tried to make men believe a crucified 
 Jew the king of the world ; and he succeeded ! 
 
 The mode by which modern scepticism meets this - 
 argument is twofold. Some have fancied that Jesus did 
 not really die, but was resuscitated by careful treatment. 
 This theory will be examined hereafter ; at present we 
 only remark that it would not explain the resurrection 
 of his religion. If Jesus, after enduring all the pain 
 and shame of crucifixion, had been brought back to con- 
 sciousness by human means, he could not have had 
 either physical strength or mental confidence to resume 
 the task of leadership ; and the depression of his disci- 
 ples would not have been changed to animation and 
 courage by his recovery, if it had not implied a divine 
 interposition. 
 
 On the other hand, Strauss, believing that Jesus 
 actually died on the cross, explains his supposed reap- 
 pearance as an illusion on the part of the disciples, re- 
 sulting from the intensity of their feelings respecting him. 
 But such an illusion — improbable in any case — could 
 only be possible to minds under the strong excitement 
 of restored faith. This explanation, therefore, leaves 
 still unanswered the question how their faith was re- 
 stored. How could they, who knew that their Master 
 was dead, and his cause was prostrate, gain faith enough 
 
32 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 to prompt the strong imagination, not in one mind 
 alone, but in many, that they saw him alive? 
 
 The belief of St. Paul that he had seen the Savior, is 
 accounted for by this writer from an excitable nervous 
 temperament, subject to epileptic attacks, and disposed to 
 see visions. This theory does great injustice to one of the 
 most powerful minds that have ever existed ; and the 
 difficulty of accounting for the excitement that produced 
 the vision, is increased in his case by the fact, that he was 
 not a mourning friend of Jesus, but a determined enemy 
 of his cause. (Strauss's Life of Jesus, for the German 
 People, Book I. 48, 49.) 
 
INSTITUTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. 33 
 
 INSTITUTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Section: 11. Evidence from Institutions. 
 
 We have next to present an argument from the 
 existence of certain institutions connected with our re- 
 ligion. The present bears the impress of the past. 
 We have reasoned, that, as Christianity now exists as 
 the religion of the civilized world, there must have been 
 some adequate cause to produce that prevalence ; so we 
 have now to reason from its institutions to the cause 
 that brought them into being. This proof is indepen- 
 dent of every other, and would continue, even if the Old 
 and New Testaments were lost. As they exist, how- 
 ever, it confirms their statements. 
 
 Institutions preserved among large bodies of men 
 from age to age, afford proof of the reality of those 
 events to commemorate which they were established. 
 We Americans observe the Fourth of Julv to commem- 
 orate the declaration of our national independence. That 
 observance, so long as it is continued, will be a proof 
 that the country was once subject to Great Britain, and 
 that it threw off that subjection. If the whole world 
 should relapse into barbarism, and all historical records 
 should perish, this observance, if it was still kept up, 
 would prove the events on which it was founded. When 
 civilization revived, those who endeavored to restore 
 some knowledge of the past would derive from this 
 institution important testimony. The generation then 
 
34 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 living would assert that they had received this custom 
 from their fathers, and that these in turn had said that 
 they received it from theirs. If any one should assert 
 that the custom might have sprung up in the dark ages 
 that had intervened, the reply would be, that no nation, 
 however ignorant, Could be persuaded to commemorate, 
 as a well-known event in their own history, something 
 which they had never heard of before ; still less to 
 believe, and to teach their children, that this new 
 observance was an old custom which they had received 
 from former generations. The keeping of the day, 
 then, must have arisen from some cause well known at 
 the time, and important enough to warrant such a 
 commemoration ; and as all the people throughout the 
 country had the same tradition that this cause was the 
 declaration of independence of the British government, 
 there could be no question that such a declaration had 
 taken place. 
 
 Apply this to the institutions of the Old Testament. 
 The Passover was the Independence festival of the 
 Jews. (Exodus xii. 3-11 ; John xii. 1.) It is ob- 
 served among them still, wherever they are scattered 
 through the world ; and they all declare that they ob- 
 serve it to commemorate their deliverance from Egyptian 
 bondage by an especial act of divine power. Profane 
 history testifies that they have thus observed it for at 
 least two thousand years ; but, independently of that 
 evidence, the fact of their present observance gives 
 sufficient testimony, not only for that time, but for a 
 much longer period. No one could have persuaded the 
 Hebrews of any generation to adopt a new custom and 
 believe it had been handed down to them by their 
 
INSTITUTIONS OP CHRISTIANITY. 35 
 
 fathers, in commemoration of a great national deliver- 
 ance, when no such deliverance had ever taken place. 
 
 The observance of the Passover by the Jews thus 
 proves beyond question the event with which it is con- 
 nected in their tradition — the deliverance from Egypt. 
 It does not, of course, prove the truth of any particular 
 account of that deliverance ; but, testifying to the fact 
 itself, it strengthens our faith in the general correctness 
 of the history which records it. 
 
 In the same way the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 
 xxiii. 34) proves the wandering of the Israelites in the 
 desert; the Feast of Purim (Esther ix. 20-32), still 
 observed among the Jews, proves that there was a his- 
 torical foundation for the Book of Esther ; and the Sab- 
 bath, the Ten Commandments (Exodus xx.), the dis- 
 tinction between clean and unclean meats (Levit. xi.), 
 and other Jewish institutions, confirm the truth of those 
 scriptures in which their origin is described. 
 
 Still more important to us, as Christians, is the evi- 
 dence afforded by the institutions peculiar to the New 
 Testament — the Christian ministry and worship, the 
 ordinance of baptism, and especially that of the Lord's 
 Supper. We will exemplify the argument in the last- 
 mentioned instance. In nearly all assemblies for Chris- 
 tian worship it is customary at stated intervals to engage 
 in an especial observance, in which bread and wine are 
 partaken, and certain words repeated as having been 
 spoken by the Founder of the religion : " This is my 
 body, which is given for you ; " " This is my blood, of 
 the New Covenant, which is shed for many, for the 
 remission of sins ; " " This do in remembrance of me." 
 (Matt. xxvi. 28; Luke xxii. 19.) These words are 
 
36 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 essentially the same in all churches, and under what- 
 ever variety of forms. Let us suppose that this rite did 
 not now exist, and had never been heard of, — would it 
 be possible for any one, however eminent in power or 
 genius, to induce the Christian world to receive it as 
 an institution they had known from childhood, and as 
 having come down from the first age of Christianity? 
 Such a deception would be impossible now, and equally 
 impossible in any former age. The institution, then, 
 must have come down from the first age of Christianity. 
 
 Now let us observe the meaning of the words repeated 
 in the observance — words as intimately associated with 
 it as an inscription with the monument on which it is 
 engraved. These words imply, first, that the ordinance 
 was established by the Founder of the religion. They 
 are in the first person singular : " This is my body." 
 We have here, then, a memorial from Jesus himself. 
 
 They imply, secondly, that this Teacher foresaw his 
 own violent death, and that his anticipation was ful- 
 filled. Had it not been, the observance would have 
 been a mockery. 
 
 They imply, thirdly, that he had this foresight, while 
 at liberty and at ease, seated at table with his friends. 
 He could, then, have fled from his enemies. Instead, 
 he employed those precious moments in instituting a rite 
 commemorative of the death he was incurring. 
 
 They imply, then, fourthly, his possession of pro- 
 phetic foresight and unshaken courage, his voluntary 
 endurance of a violent death, the affection for his fol- 
 lowers which made him wish to secure their loving 
 remembrance of him, and the confidence in the justice 
 of his cause, which assured him that they would thus 
 remember him. 
 
INSTITUTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. 37 
 
 Lastly, the present existence of this rite shows that 
 these anticipations were fully confirmed ; that the cause 
 of Jesus did prevail, notwithstanding his death ; and that 
 the reverence and affection of his followers have con- 
 tinued to this day. 
 
 This ordinance, then, by itself, presents sufficient 
 proof that the Founder of Christianity endured a volun- 
 tary death for the sake of mankind ; that he displayed, 
 in its anticipation, unequalled dignity, heroic courage, 
 tender friendship, and prophetic foreknowledge. Could 
 these have been the qualities of a weak enthusiast, or of 
 a wicked deceiver? 
 4 
 
38 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 
 I. EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 
 
 Section 12. Third and Fourth Centuries. 
 
 We have already observed, that, among the religions 
 prevalent in the world, that of the Bible alone claims to 
 rest on historical evidence, proving miraculous authenti- 
 cation. 
 
 The life and teachings of Jesus, and the miraculous 
 proofs of his claim to a divine commission, had their 
 date in an age of intelligence and of literary culture ; 
 were testified to by those who witnessed them, recorded 
 in part by these, and in part by their immediate follow- 
 ers. The truth of these accounts was maintained by 
 those who gave them, at the peril of their lives. They 
 were received as true by the community of Christians, 
 who had the best means of knowing whether they were 
 true or not ; and no accounts contradictory to these 
 were thus received. Some legendary additions were 
 afterwards invented, but they were not admitted by the 
 church as genuine ; and they are easily distinguishable 
 from the true accounts, contrasting strongly with them 
 by their indications of weakness, folly, and superstition. 
 
 The records of Christianity are the books of the New 
 Testament, and especially the four Gospels and the Acts 
 of the Apostles. 
 
 To say that a book is genuine, means that it is the 
 
EVIDENCE OP THE RECORD. 39 
 
 production of the person whose name it bears ; to say- 
 that it is authentic, means that the relations which it 
 gives are correct. 
 
 We have reason to believe in the genuineness and 
 authenticity of the New Testament writings, alike from 
 external and internal evidence. We will consider first 
 that which is external — that is, from the testimony 
 given by other writers. 
 
 The four Gospels, and the other books of the New 
 Testament, have the same traditional evidence of their 
 genuineness and authenticity on which we receive other 
 productions of a distant age. They have been given to 
 us, as the work of the writers whose names they bear, 
 by those who went before us ; they accepted them as 
 such from those who went before them ; and so on to 
 the beginning. 
 
 The original manuscripts of the Gospels have prob- 
 ably long since perished. Many manuscripts exist, 
 however, and some of great antiquity. About six hun- 
 dred and seventy Greek manuscripts of the four Gos- 
 pels, or of different ones among them, have been 
 examined, and some of these bear marks of having been 
 written as early as the fifth century. Besides these, 
 there are numerous manuscripts of early versions of the 
 Gospels, in eleven different languages ; and there are 
 others, of the works of the Christian Fathers, or early 
 writers, in which very numerous quotations from the 
 Gospels occur. 
 
 It is generally admitted that the Gospels, as we have 
 them now, were in common use at the end of the second 
 century, or the year 200 from the birth of Christ. It 
 is needless, therefore, to say much of the numerous 
 
40 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 writers who have quoted them since that time. A few, 
 however, may well be mentioned. 
 
 The year of our Lord 312 marks the era of the 
 ascendency of Christianity in the Roman empire, which 
 then included all the south of Europe, the north of 
 Africa, and much of the west of Asia. In that year, 
 Constantine, who favored Christianity, defeated his rival 
 Maxentius, and entered Rome in triumph. Early in 
 his reign, Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, wrote a liistory 
 of Christianity, in which he distinctly names our sacred 
 books, attributing them to the same authors to whom 
 they are now ascribed. He speaks, indeed, of a few 
 of the less important, as having had their authorship 
 doubted, but asserts the unquestioned genuineness of 
 the four Gospels, the Acts, thirteen Epistles of Paul, the 
 First of John, and the First of Peter. The discrimina- 
 tion thus made shows that the early Christians did not 
 receive, with blind credulity, every writing that claimed 
 apostolic origin, and thus furnishes a strong proof in 
 favor of those whose claims they unanimously admitted. 
 The date of Eusebius may be fixed in the year 315. 
 
 Origen, of Alexandria in Egypt, died in 253. He 
 devoted his learning and industry to the exposition of 
 the books of Scripture, as early as 216. He declares that 
 " the four Gospels alone are received without dispute by 
 the whole church of God under heaven." His quota- 
 tions are so numerous that it has been said, "If we 
 had all his w r orks remaining, we should have before us 
 almost the w^hole text of the Bible." 
 
 Early in the same century, Tertullian of Carthage 
 gave equally distinct testimony. It has been observed 
 that there are in his writings alone more and larger 
 
EVIDENCE OP THE RECORD. 41 
 
 quotations from the small volume of the New Testament 
 than there are from the numerous works of Cicero in all 
 the writers of several successive ages. 
 
 Clement of Alexandria, shortly before Tertnllian, 
 gives an account, which he says he had received from 
 presbyters of more ancient times, of the order in which 
 the Gospels were written ; and speaks of them as of 
 the highest authority, distinguishing between them and 
 another narrative, then extant, called " the Gospel 
 according to the Egyptians." 
 
 An ancient fragment, known as " the Muratorian 
 Canon," is identified as having been written about the 
 year 200, by allusions in it to persons then or recently 
 living. It contains a list of books then received as of 
 canonical authority. In this list are mentioned the four 
 Gospels, the Acts, thirteen Epistles of Paul, two of 
 John, that of Jude, and the Apocalypse. The frag- 
 ment derives its name from having been discovered, 
 about a century and a half since, in the Ambrosian 
 library at Milan, by the celebrated antiquarian Mura- 
 tori. 
 
 Section 13. First and Second Centuries. 
 
 Among the writers of the second century we select 
 first Irenseus, bishop of the Christian church at Lyons. 
 He was probably born at Smyrna, about A. D. 180, 
 and died about the end of the century. In his youth, 
 at Smyrna, he had been a disciple of Polycarp, who had 
 himself been a hearer of the apostle John. He had 
 thus the best means of information, while his residence 
 in different parts of the empire must have made him 
 familiar with the opinions of Christians both in the east 
 4 * 
 
42 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 and the west. He expressly relates the origin of the 
 four Gospels. "Matthew," he says, "among the Jews, 
 wrote a Gospel in their own language, while Peter and 
 Paul were preaching the gospel at Rome, and founding 
 a church there. And after their exit, Mark also, the dis- 
 ciple and interpreter of Peter, delivered to us in writing 
 the things that had been preached by Peter ; and Luke, 
 the companion of Paul, put down in a book the Gospel 
 preached by him. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the 
 Lord, who also leaned upon his breast, he likewise pub- 
 lished a Gospel while he dwelt at Ephesus, in Asia." 
 
 Pothmus, the predecessor of Irenreus in the charge of 
 the church at Lyons, was ninety years old about A. D. 
 170, when that church, with their brethren of Yienne, 
 sent a letter to some eastern churches, giving an account 
 of the sufferings of their martyrs. This letter, which 
 still remains, has exact references to the Gospels of Luke 
 and John, and to the Acts. This indicates that the 
 writers had been taught to hold these books in honor 
 by their instructor, who must have known how they 
 were regarded by Christians in his earlier years. 
 
 Justin Martyr was born about A. D. 103, at Xeapolis, 
 in Samaria, — anciently Shechem, — and suffered death 
 for his religion at Rome, about A. D. 165. He has, in 
 his two principal writings, between twenty and thirty 
 distinct quotations from the Gospels and the Acts. He 
 recounts almost the entire history of the Savior, agreeing 
 with the scriptural narrative in all but two instances £ 
 One of these is a sentence ascribed to our Lord, which 
 appears to be incorrectly quoted ; the other, the relation 
 of a circumstance at his baptism, not mentioned by the 
 evangelists, but derived apparently from some other 
 account. 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 43 
 
 Justin refers to the Gospel of John, not by name in- 
 deed, but in three very marked instances ; ascribing the 
 term "Logos," or "Word," to the Savior (John i.), 
 quoting the answer of the Baptist to the emissaries from 
 Jerusalem (John i. 20), and that of the Savior to 
 Xicodemus. (John iii. 3.) These quotations are of 
 great importance, as proving the antiquity of this Gospel,- 
 which has been especially the object of attack by recent 
 writers. It has been contended, however, on the ground 
 of a slight difference in Justin's language from that of 
 our common copies of John's Gospel, that he did not 
 quote from that, but from some other document, now 
 lost. But the very ancient Greek manuscript lately dis- 
 covered at Mount Sinai shows that Justin quoted John's 
 Gospel correctly, and thus proves its existence and re- 
 ceived authority in the middle of the second century. 
 (See Christian Examiner for May, 1866, article on 
 Tischendorf, by Dr. Hedge.) 
 
 The date of Papias is about twenty years before that 
 of Justin, in the earlier part, therefore, of the second 
 century. A fragment of his writing, preserved by 
 Eusebius, tells us that Mark derived his Gospel from the 
 preaching of Peter, and that the Gospel of Matthew was 
 first written in Hebrew. This statement accords with 
 that of Irenaeus, already mentioned. 
 
 Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, respecting whom we 
 have the testimony of his pupil Irenaeus , suffered martyr- 
 dom in the same persecution with Justin ; but, from his 
 great age, his testimony goes farther back. It is stated, 
 that when life was offered him on condition that he would 
 revile Christ, he replied, " Eighty and six years have I 
 served him, and he never did me wrong : how then can 
 
44 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 I revile my King and my Savior ? " Polycarp had been 
 a scholar of the apostle John ; and his pupil Irenaeua 
 records that he used to relate his conversations with 
 John and others who had seen the Savior, " both con- 
 cerning his miracles and his doctrine." An epistle of 
 Polvcarp remains, containing nearly forty allusions to 
 books of the Xew Testament. Among the historical 
 books, his allusions are to passages in Matthew and 
 Luke, and in the Acts. 
 
 Clement, bishop or presiding officer of the church in 
 Rome, is referred to by Paul as his " fellow-laborer," in 
 Philippians iv. 3. An epistle of this companion of the 
 earliest teachers still exists, in which he quotes from the 
 Gospel of Matthew, not naming it indeed, but repeating 
 passages of some length. He quotes, in the same man- 
 ner, from the Epistle to the Romans, the First to the 
 Corinthians, and that to the Hebrews. 
 
 The three witnesses we have named last, with some 
 others, are called the "Apostolical Fathers," as having 
 lived in the times of the apostles, and in personal inter- 
 course with them. This is fully established with regard 
 to Polycarp, and appears to us to be so with regard to 
 Clement. For Papias we have the testimony of Irenceus, 
 in the next generation, who calls him a " hearer of John, 
 and companion of Polycarp." He himself quotes as his 
 instructor " John the Elder ; " but the lanoriaoe of Ire- 
 
 9 O O 
 
 naeus shows that this was no other than John the Evan- 
 gelist. (See 2 John i. ; 3 John i. ; 1 Peter v. 1 ; 
 Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. iii. 39 ; Rawlinson's Bampton 
 Lectures, p. 465.) 
 
 Justin, Polycarp, and Clement of Rome, while giving 
 the testimony which has been described to the facts 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 45 
 
 recorded in the Gospels, do not quote those writings by 
 the names of their authors. Hence, modern ingenuity 
 has imagined that they used other Gospels than those 
 we now possess. On this we remark, — 
 
 1. It is admitted that there were, in the first age, 
 other accounts of the life of Jesus. (Luke i. 1.) They 
 probably were imperfect, or by authors little known, and 
 therefore fell into neglect on the appearance of full ac- 
 counts from the pens of apostles and their companions. 
 
 2. If those accounts had differed, as far as they went, 
 from those we now have, they would have been preserved 
 on account of that very difference. 
 
 3. The references in these early Fathers agree with 
 our present Gospels, sufficiently establishing that these 
 are the same that they used. 
 
 4. Papias distinctly testifies to the authorship of Gos- 
 pels by Matthew and Mark. 
 
 Section 14. Subject continued. Heretical 
 
 Writers. 
 
 The testimony of the ancient Fathers in favor of the 
 historical books of the Xew Testament, and of the 
 greater part of the Epistles, derives additional force 
 from the fact that there were some books which did not 
 receive from them the same strong attestation. This 
 has been observed already, in regard to Eusebius. 
 Among writers before his time, Dionysius of Alex- 
 andria, A. D. 247, expressed doubts concerning the 
 authorship of the book of Revelation. Origen, some- 
 what earlier, questioned that of the Epistle to the He- 
 brews, and the Second of Peter; and Caius, about A. D. 
 
46 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 200, denied that Paul wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 These facts prove that the early Christians did not re- 
 ceive without discrimination whatever writing purported 
 to be of apostolic origin, but that they examined care- 
 fully, and only yielded their assent where the evidence 
 was satisfactory. Notwithstanding the doubts referred 
 to, the vast majority of Christians since have received as 
 genuine the books which had thus been questioned ; how 
 much more reason is there for receiving those more im- 
 portant documents, the Gospels, the Acts, and most of 
 the Epistles, whose claims appear to have been undis- 
 puted from the first ! 
 
 The correctness of the accounts in the Gospels may 
 be strongly inferred from the deep interest which the 
 early Christians took in the life and teachings of their 
 Master. His* personal history was the basis of their 
 instruction. Their teachers were constantly preaching 
 "Jesus Christ, and him crucified," "Jesus and the Res- 
 urrection." (Acts xvii. 18 ; 1 Cor. ii. 2.) " Now, there 
 can be no supposition," says Mr. Norton, "more irra- 
 tional, than that the history of Christ, which was thus 
 promulgated by all his first disciples, and received by all 
 their first converts, was lost before the beginning of 
 the second century, and another history substituted in its 
 place." (Genuineness of the Gospels, vol. iii. p. 312.) 
 
 The ancient writers quoted above are from the main 
 body of Christian believers, generally designated as 
 " Catholic," or " Orthodox." But there were others in 
 the first age of Christianity who have been, justly or 
 unjustly, branded as " heretics." An additional proof 
 of the genuineness and authenticity of the New Testa- 
 ment books is afforded by the concurrence of these in 
 their favor. 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 47 
 
 The earliest among them were the Ebionites, Jewish 
 Christians, who continued to regard their ancient Law as 
 in force, even after the destruction of Jerusalem. They 
 had a Gospel in the Hebrew language ; and comparing 
 this fact with the testimony of Irenaeus and Papias, we 
 have reason to believe it was the Gospel of Matthew. 
 (See pp. 42, 43.) 
 
 Xext to these were the Gnostics, a numerous class, 
 including a varietv of sects. While the Ebionites were 
 Jews, who retained^ their Jewish feelings, the Gnostics 
 were converts from heathenism, who retained the habits 
 of thought which had been familiar to their heathen 
 philosophy. They claimed, as their name implies, supe- 
 rior knowledge, and appear to have formed systems of 
 faith for themselves, by combining what pleased them in 
 Christianity with a refined or allegorical mvtholog;v. 
 They were inclined to reject whatever was Jewish, main- 
 taining even that the God of the Jews was not the 
 Supreme Being. They would, therefore, have been 
 very unlikely to receive books from Jewish sources, 
 unless comino; to them with the strongest attestation of 
 their truth. It is stated, however, by those early writers, 
 from whom we derive our knoweledge of this sect, that 
 Marcion, one of their leaders, A. D. 140, selected from 
 the Gospels that of Luke as the best, and made use of 
 it, omitting the first two or three chapters, for the reason 
 that they were contrary to his views. He did not, it 
 appears, call in question the actions, the miracles, or the 
 apparent sufferings of the Savior : maintaining, however, 
 that these last were only in appearance. 
 
 Heracleon, a Gnostic leader, about A. D. 125, is 
 asserted to have written commentaries upon Luke and 
 
48 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 John. Valentinus, at the same period, shows an ac- 
 quaintance with the ideas and style of John's Gospel, 
 and is asserted by IrenaBus to have made use of it. The 
 Montanists, another sect of very early date, must have 
 derived from this Gospel their idea of the Paraclete 
 (John xiv. 16, 26) ; and the Alogi, who objected to the 
 doctrine of the "Logos" (John i.), prove by their 
 very existence the antiquity of the Gospel to which they 
 objected. (See Christian Examiner, article quoted on 
 page 43.) 
 
 Basilides, A. D. 120, wrote a commentary, but 
 whether upon all the Gospels, or only on some of 
 them, does not appear. He was certainly acquainted 
 with that of Matthew ; and according to the testimony 
 of an ancient work, recently discovered, he quoted also 
 that of John. The work referred to is a treatise on 
 Heresies, ascribed to Hippolytus, bishop of Portus, 
 A. D. 225. 
 
 Thus the life of Christ, as we receive it, had the early 
 acknowledgment of the Gnostic sect, notwithstanding 
 the repugnance of their views to anything from a Jew- 
 ish source. No other work, claiming the title of Gospel, 
 appears to have been in use with them at this early 
 period. The later Gnostics had some books which they 
 called by that name, but they do not appear to have been 
 accounts of the life of Jesus. 
 
 It is asserted by Tertullian, A. D. 220, that the Gnos- 
 tics undertook to prove their doctrines from the New 
 Testament. He objects to their right to do this, on the 
 ground that these Scriptures properly belonged to the reg- 
 ular Christian churches, which could trace the doctrines 
 they held back to the times of the apostles. His argu- 
 
EVIDENCE OP THE RECORD. 49 
 
 ment proves that the churches then existing claimed an 
 uninterrupted connection with the first Christian teach- 
 ers, who lived not more than a century and a half before ; 
 and it proves, too, that the New Testament was acknowl- 
 edged as authority, both by these churches and their 
 opponents. 
 
 :c Without enumerating," says Paley, "the later sects 
 of heretics, so called, who, with few and slight excep- 
 tions, received the same books as their orthodox brethren, 
 we find that the Sethians, the Montanists, the Marco- 
 sians, Hermogenes, Praxeas, and Artemon, all included 
 under that name between the years 150 and 200, 
 received the Scriptures of the New Testament." 
 
 Section 15. Jewish and Heathen Writers. 
 Versions. Coins. 
 
 Various Jewish writers have, at different periods, 
 published works in which testimony was incidentally 
 given with regard to Christianity. 
 
 The Talmuds were composed as early as the second 
 century. They speak of Jesus, and of several of his 
 disciples; of his crucifixion; of his miracles, the reality 
 of which they do not question, but represent them as 
 wrought by magical power. They thus add the testi- 
 mony of their national tradition to the truthfulness of 
 the miraculous accounts in the New Testament. 
 
 Josephus held a command among the Jews in their 
 fatal rebellion, about A. D. 70. In one passage, as it 
 stands in his works, respectful mention is made of Jesus ; 
 and in another, of James, "the brother of Jesus, who is 
 called Christ." These passages, however, are of uncertain 
 5 
 
50 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 genuineness. The evidence of Josephus is of most value 
 in confirming the representations of Jewish history 
 and ideas, presented to us in the Gospels. Thus, to 
 give a few instances, the account he gives of the cruel 
 and suspicious character of the first Herod, and the atro- 
 cities that marked the close of his reign, agrees, in its 
 general features, with that presented in the second chap- 
 ter of Matthew ; his account of Herod Antipas, of 
 Herodias, and of John the Baptist, confirms that of the 
 evangelists. (Matt, xiv.) The sudden death of Herod 
 Agrippa I. agrees, as represented by Josephus, with the 
 account in Acts xii. ; and the moderate character of 
 Herod Agrippa II. , and the fact that he was intrusted 
 with some authority over the Temple, as Josephus de- 
 clares, agree with the history given in Acts xxv., xxvi. ; 
 Josephus, Antiq. xvii. 6 ; xviii. 5 ; xix. 8 ; xx. 8 ; Bell. 
 Jud. II. 16. 
 
 Among heathen writers, the three great opponents of 
 Christianity were Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian. The 
 last, nephew of Constantine, and known as the Em- 
 peror Julian the Apostate, lived at a period so late that 
 his evidence is of minor importance. His allusions and 
 references to the Christian Scriptures are very numerous, 
 and he never questions their genuineness. 
 
 Porphyry, about A. D. 275, wrote a work against 
 Christianity, which the mistaken zeal of subsequent ages 
 has destroyed. What it contained we have to learn from 
 the replies of Christian writers. From these it appears 
 that Porphyry referred to the Gospels and Acts as the 
 only acknowledged histories of Christ and his religion. 
 
 Still more valuable is the evidence of Celsus, a heathen 
 philosopher, who wrote about A. D. 150. His book, 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 51 
 
 like that of Porphyry, is lost ; but much may be learned 
 of its contents from, the reply of Qrigen. He tells us 
 that Celsus used these words : " I could say many things 
 concerning the affairs of Jesus, and those, too, different 
 from those written by the disciples of Jesus ; but I pur- 
 posely omit them." This implies the existence of ac- 
 counts written " by the disciples ; " and it can hardly be 
 believed that if Celsus really possessed any evidence of 
 importance contradictory to theirs, he would have sup- 
 pressed it. 
 
 Elsewhere he accuses the Christians of altering the 
 Gospel, referring in proof to certain readings which were 
 different in different copies. This variation, which im- 
 plied, probably, no evil intent, but only mistakes of 
 transcribers, shows that copies must have been numer- 
 ous, and that a considerable space of time must have 
 passed since the original writing. 
 
 In another place, the Jew whom Celsus introduces 
 closes an argument with the boast, " These things, then, 
 we have alleged to you out of your own writings, not 
 needing any other weapons." 
 
 The particulars to which Celsus refers, by way of 
 objection, are such as are contained in our present Gos- 
 pels. Such are the genealogies in Matthew and Luke ; 
 the precept not to resist evil (Matt. v. 39) ; the 
 woes denounced by Christ (Matt, xxiii. 13—36.) : some 
 of the particulars of his trial and crucifixion ; and the 
 difference in the accounts of the resurrection, given 
 by the evangelists. He refers distinctly to statements 
 which we find only in the Gospel of St. John, of the 
 character of Christ as the "Logos," or divine Word, 
 and of the effusion of blood and water from the wound 
 
52 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 in the Savior's side (John i. ; xix. 34) , thus proving the 
 reception of that Gospel at the early date at which he 
 wrote. That date was less than a hundred years after 
 the earliest of the Gospels claims to have been written. 
 It is evident, from Celsus, that thus early they were 
 acknowledged by Christians, as they are now, to be the 
 authentic records of the life of the Savior. And as the 
 interval of a hundred years is measured by two lives of 
 no extraordinary length, there is reason to believe that 
 the Christians of that age had good grounds for their 
 confidence in these writings. 
 
 Besides the evidence of individual writers, we have, 
 to support the claims of the Christian Scriptures, another 
 testimony of great importance. Versions or translations 
 were made of them at a very early date, the Peshito or 
 ancient Syriac probably in the second century, and many 
 others at periods soon after. These versions confirm the 
 general accuracy of the copies of the New Testament 
 which we possess in the original Greek ; and their exist- 
 ence shows the high regard in which those writings were 
 held, from the fact that the labor of translating them 
 was so early undertaken. A similar argument may be 
 derived from the existence of commentaries, paraphrases, 
 and harmonies of the Gospels, by Origen, and others of 
 the ancient Greek Fathers. 
 
 In some instances, the minute accuracy of accounts in 
 the book of Acts is proved by ancient coins still in 
 existence. One of these, struck at Cyprus, in the 
 days of the magistrate who succeeded Sergius Paulus 
 (Acts xiii 7), shows that he bore the same title, of 
 Proconsul, which the Christian history assigns to his 
 predecessor, Another, of the city of Philippi, pro vet 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 53 
 
 that it was, as described in Acts xvi. 12, " a colony," or a 
 place where a body of Roman soldiers had been settled. 
 In the same manner, four peculiar expressions, used in 
 the account of the disturbance at Ephesus (Acts xix.), 
 are shown by ancient coins, as well as by other testi- 
 mony, to be in accordance with the usage of that city. 
 Its presiding deity was called "the great Goddess 
 Diana ; " the city professed itself her worshipper by the 
 peculiar term vswxogog. (Verse 35.) One magistrate was 
 known as ygaiiuarev;, translated " town clerk " in the 
 same verse; and others were designated as "Asiarchs," 
 or chief of Asia. (Verse 31.) (See Rawlinson's 
 Bampton Lectures, p. 488.) 
 
 H. INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 
 
 Section 16. Language ; Geographical Accu- 
 racy, &c. 
 
 We have next to consider the Internal Evidence of 
 the genuineness and authenticity of the New Testament, 
 and especially of the Gospels. This evidence comes to 
 us from an examination of their contents. 
 
 1. We observe first the language in which they are 
 written. It is that of a peculiar period, and a peculiar 
 class of persons. It is Greek, but not such as we find 
 used by native Greek authors. There are frequent 
 Hebrew idioms in it, showing that the writers were 
 of Jewish orioin. 
 
 o 
 
 Familiar instances of such idioms may be found in the 
 use of " and " for other conjunctions, and the use of 
 "lo," or "behold," as expletive. (Matt. ii. 1, 9, 13, 
 5* 
 
54 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 19. See 1 Sam. xxiii. 1, 3; 1 Kings xiii. 1.) "An- 
 swered" is used redundantly in the expression " answered 
 and said." (Luke ix. 49. See 2 Kings vii. 13.) "Thou 
 sayest " is used as an expression of assent, as it would 
 be in Hebrew, with a particle meaning " thus," or 
 "rightly." (Matt, xxvii. 11. See Exodus x. 29.) 
 The expression, " It is easier for a camel to go through 
 the eye of a needle," is proverbial in the Rabbinical 
 writings ; and they employ the expression " new birth " 
 for a change of personal character, for which it is never 
 used in classical Greek. (John iii. 3. See also John 
 iii. 10. See Marsh's Michaelis, chap. iv. sect. 3.) 
 
 2. The narratives show, throughout, an intimate ac- 
 quaintance with the geography, history, government, 
 customs, and modes of thought and feeling in Palestine 
 and the other countries where the scene is laid. It is 
 very difficult for a writer of fiction to be accurate in 
 these respects ; but the instances are extremely rare in 
 which there is even a seeming inaccuracy regarding them 
 in the writers of the Xew Testament. 
 
 Take, for an example, the fourth chapter of John. 
 The three provinces, Galilee, Samaria, and Judea, are 
 accurately distinguished. (Verses 3 and 4.) This shows 
 the writer to have been familiar with the country of 
 which he is speaking. Even in our time, when books 
 are multiplied by the press, and geography is studied in 
 every school, how many Americans know what county 
 in England lies between Yorkshire and Northumberland ? 
 How many Englishmen know what state lies between 
 Ohio and Illinois? Still farther (verse 5), a city of 
 Samaria is named Sychar — a name sufficiently near to 
 identify it with the ancient Shechem, yet changed as it 
 
EVIDENCE OP THE RECORD. 55 
 
 would probably be by a long lapse of time, aided 
 perhaps by national antipathy, for the word Sychar 
 means "drunkard." (See Isai. xxviii. 1.) Reference 
 is made to " a parcel of ground which Jacob gave to his 
 son Joseph," apparently that spoken of in Gen. xlviii. 
 22. (Compare, also, Gen. xxxiii. 19 ; xxxv. 4, 5.) The 
 city is within sight of a mountain, where the Samaritans 
 worshipped. (Verse 20.) The hereditary jealousy be- 
 tween Jews and Samaritans (verse 9) is consistent with 
 narratives and sentiments in 1 Kings xii., 2 Kings xvii., 
 Xeh. iv., Ecclus. 1. 26 9 and elsewhere. The separation 
 still continues ; a scanty remnant of the Samaritans still 
 worship on Mount Gerizim ; at its foot is Shechem, on 
 the road from Judea to Galilee ; and the well itself is 
 still pointed out to the traveller. 
 
 Renan, an unbeliever in Christianity as a miraculous 
 revelation, bears witness to the astonishing accuracy of 
 the Gospels in their local details. He says, "I have 
 travelled through the evangelical province in every direc- 
 tion ; I have visited Jerusalem, Hebron, and Samaria ; 
 scarcely any locality important in the history of Jesus has 
 escaped me. All this history, which, at a distance, seems 
 floating in the clouds of an unreal world, thus assumed 
 a body, a solidity, which astonished me. The striking 
 accord of the texts and the places, the wonderful har- 
 mony of the evangelical ideal with the landscape which 
 served as its setting, were to me as a revelation. I had 
 before my eyes a fifth gospel, torn but still legible, and 
 thenceforth, through the narratives of Matthew and Mark, 
 instead of an abstract being, which one would say had 
 never existed, I saw a wonderful human form live and 
 move." (Life of Jesus. Introduction.) 
 
56 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Strauss testifies not less distinctly to the perfect ac- 
 curacy of the complicated statement given by Luke 
 (iii. 1, 2) respecting the date of John the Baptist's 
 preaching. (Life of Jesus, § 48 ; first German edition, 
 § 44. Rawlinson's Bampton Lectures, p. 501.) 
 
 The agreement of the New Testament writers, with 
 what is known from other authorities of the history, the 
 customs, and the feelings of the age and people described, 
 is not less striking than their geographical accuracy. 
 We have seen already (p. 50) that their accounts of 
 the Herod family agree minutely with what we learn 
 from Josephus. Not one educated Christian in a hun- 
 dred has a correct knowledge of the complicated rela- 
 tions of that family ; but the sacred historians never 
 confuse one member of it with another. 
 
 Such facts are of the more importance because the 
 Jewish period of Christianity was so short. The Gos- 
 pel soon found its most numerous adherents among the 
 Gentiles ; and after the Jewish war, A. D. 70, national 
 prejudice was deepened on either side, and the remnant 
 of the Jewish Christian church occupied a separate posi- 
 tion, and what was at length regarded as an heretical one. 
 Books from that source would not readily be received 
 among the Gentile Christians, unless from authors pos- 
 sessing the highest claims. The peculiarities of the 
 New Testament show that it was written by Jewish 
 Christians ; but no Jewish Christians, after the first age, 
 could have gained acceptance for their books among the 
 Gentile branch of the church. It must, therefore, have 
 been written in the first age. 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 57 
 
 Section 17. Honesty and Consistency. Dif- 
 ferences. 
 
 3. There are marks of a purpose to tell simply and 
 honestly the truth. Such is the absence of eulogy, or 
 inflated description, indeed of any description whatever, 
 in relation to the person and demeanor of the Savior, or 
 of his prominent followers. The few exceptions, occur- 
 ring mostly in the Gospel of John, are slight, and indi- 
 cate how little of this character is to be found. (See 
 John ii. 24, 25; vii. 46; xiii. 1, 3.) 
 
 Such, too, is the narration, without any attempt at 
 concealment or palliation, of incidents unfavorable to 
 the intelligence or characters of the first disciples ; their 
 slowness to understand their Master ; the earthly nature 
 of their expectations and motives ; the betrayal of him by 
 one, the denial by another, the desertion by all. (Matt, 
 xvi. 7, 8; xix. 27 ; xx. 21, 24; xxvi. 47, 56, 70.) 
 
 The narrative of the Savior's trial before the Sanhe- 
 drim, and subsequently before Pilate, is given without 
 attempt at exaggeration, and represents the examination, 
 unjust as it was, as marked by no slight degree of delib- 
 eration. (Matt. xxvi. 57—68 ; John xviii. 13—28.) 
 
 The mention of the doubts, that existed in some minds 
 with regard to the Savior's claims, would have been sup- 
 pressed by artful partisans. (See Matt, xxviii. 17 ; Mark 
 xvi. 13, 14; John vii. 5.) 
 
 4. There are marks of the deep impression which the 
 Savior's demeanor and words had produced on the minds 
 of those present. 
 
 An illustration of this is afforded in the conduct of the 
 
58 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 disciples on some occasions, mentioned incidentally, with- 
 out any apparent purpose, on the part of the narrator, of 
 exhibiting the greatness of the Savior. (Mark x. 32 ; 
 Luke ix. 45.) 
 
 Words in the language which Jesus spoke are some- 
 times introduced, when the narrative would have been 
 equally clear and correct if only the Greek translation 
 of them had been given. The reason obviously is, that 
 in the instances referred to, the Syriac words were closely 
 connected with some solemn and striking incident, and 
 were thus deeply impressed on the memory of those 
 who heard them, so that their feelings prompted them 
 to repeat those very w r ords. Such an expression is 
 t? Talitha cumi." (Mark v. 41.) Another instance is 
 "Ephphatha." (Mark vii. 34.) This use of language 
 not only shows the faithfulness of the writer, but pre- 
 sents a strong proof of the reality of the miraculous 
 events recorded. (See Furness's Remarks on the Four 
 Gospels, p. 204.) 
 
 5. The characters described are consistent, each with 
 himself, even their apparent inconsistencies exhibiting 
 such faults as were the natural accompaniments of their 
 respective excellences. Thus Peter, at one moment, 
 receives high commendation from his Master for his bold 
 declaration of faith in his Messiahship. (Matt. xvi. 
 16.) Shortly after, the same vehemence of character 
 leads him to incur blame. (Verse 22.) He declares 
 that he never will deny his Lord (xxvi. 33), draws the 
 sword in his defence (John xviii. 10) , but shortly after 
 denies him. (Matt. xxvi. 70.) Similar marks of this 
 excitable but unstable character may be found in Matt, 
 xiv. 28, 30 ; John xiii. 6,9; xxi. 7, 21. 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 59 
 
 6. That the Gospels are from the hands of different 
 authors is proved by the difference of the narratives. 
 That of Mark is much the shortest, yet he gives some 
 particulars more fully than either of the other writers. 
 (See Mark v. 41 ; vii. 34; ix. 23,24.) Matthew and 
 Luke give different, but not necessarily inconsistent, ac- 
 counts of wonderful events attending the Savior's birth. 
 Matthew alone gives the Sermon on the Mount at length 
 (chapters v., vi., vii.), of which Luke presents only a 
 sketch. (Luke vi. 17-49.) Yet Luke is in general the 
 fullest in his narration, and we have from him alone 
 the parables of the Good Samaritan (x. 30) ; of the 
 Prodigal Son (xv. 11), and of the Rich Man and Laza- 
 rus (xvi. 19) ; the incident of the Penitent Thief (xxiii. 
 40), and the walk to Emmaus. (xxiv. 13.) 
 
 The Gospel of John differs from the others still more 
 widely in its narrative, and also in its style of expression 
 and of thought. He relates occurrences which are men- 
 tioned by no other evangelist, as the conversation with 
 x\'icodemus (chap, iii.), and with the Samaritan woman 
 (chap, iv.), and the raising of Lazarus (chap, xi.) ; 
 and he omits much which the others relate. The para- 
 bles of the Savior, as given by the other evangelists, are 
 stories. (See Luke xii. to xvi.) Those given by John 
 are not stories, but comparisons. (See John x. 1-16 ; 
 xv. 1-9.) The whole style of John's Gospel is more 
 abstract than that of the others. It dwells more upon 
 the personal character and dignity of the Savior (see 
 chap. viii. 12-59, and passages referred to above), and 
 rises to loftier heights of spiritual grandeur than the other 
 Gospels. (See iv. 21-24; xi. 25; xvii.) 
 
 But, notwithstanding these differences, the narrative 
 
60 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 in all the Gospels is substantially the same ; the charac- 
 ter of Jesus, and the great facts of his ministry, his 
 betrayal, self-sacrificing death, and resurrection, are the 
 same in all ; the parables in Luke, and the comparisons 
 in John, exhibit the same power of imaginative illustra- 
 tion in the great Teacher ; and the representations given 
 in all, of God's love and of man's duty, are in perfect 
 agreement. 
 
 That there should be differences between the writers, 
 in regard to style of thought and language, is readily 
 accounted for by their different mental constitutions. 
 That there should be differences in the narratives, in 
 points of secondary importance, is only what takes place 
 whenever a series of occurrences is related by different 
 persons. This is well exemplified by Mr. Xorton in the 
 fact that no two Roman historians agree fully in the par- 
 ticulars of the assassination of Julius Cassar. 
 
 Section" 18. Undesigned Coincidences. 
 
 7. Besides the direct agreement in important points, 
 spoken of above, there are numerous coincidences be- 
 tween the accounts, which afford the stronger proof of 
 the faithfulness of the witnesses, from the fact that they 
 are evidently undesigned. As a specimen of this kind, 
 see Luke xxii. 27, where an allusion is made to the 
 Savior's washing the disciples' feet, as recorded by John, 
 chap. xiii. Without this narrative by John, we should 
 not know what the words in Luke meant, " I am among 
 you as he that serveth." On the other hand, John does 
 not tell us the reason of this impressive lesson of 
 humility ; this we learn from Luke (xx. 24) , w There 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 61 
 
 was also a strife among them, which should be accounted 
 the greatest." 
 
 In other instances, where the accounts apparently con- 
 tradict each other, we discover, on examination, that it is 
 only because circumstances omitted by one historian are 
 given by another, perhaps supplying what was needed to 
 explain the narrative of the first. For example, Luke 
 tells us that the Jews brought Jesus before Pilate on a 
 charge of claiming the title of king — a charge involving 
 treason against the existing government ; that Pilate 
 asked Jesus if he was a king ; that he replied in the 
 affirmative ; and that Pilate then said, w I find no fault 
 in this man." Upon this narrative alone, the result to 
 which Pilate came is unaccountable ; it seems the ac- 
 quittal of a prisoner whose only words were an avowal 
 of the truth of the charge against him. (Luke xxiii. 
 1-4.) But we discover from John, that Pilate in the 
 mean time had examined Jesus in private, and learned 
 from him of the spiritual and unworldly nature of the 
 kingdom he claimed. (John xviii. 33-38.) On the other 
 hand, John gives us no explanation of the reason why 
 Pilate asked the prisoner if he was a king. This Luke 
 supplies, by stating that he was accused of claiming that 
 title. Thus the two narratives, instead of contradicting, 
 fit into and explain each other. 
 
 The coincidences among the first three Gospels are 
 very numerous, whole narratives being frequently given 
 in almost the same words. (Compare Matt. ix. 14-17, 
 Mark ii. 18-22, and Luke v. 33-38.) For this reason, 
 some modern writers have practically reduced the number 
 of historians who record the life of Jesus from four to 
 two, maintaining that the first three evangelists, whom 
 
62 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 they class together under the name of Synoptics, were 
 in effect but different copyists from an original document 
 now lost, or different collectors of the same series of 
 traditional accounts. We reply to this, first, that if an 
 orioinal document had existed, so well known and so 
 highly prized that three of the four Gospels were drawn 
 from it, it would have been carefully preserved, and we 
 should find references to it in the Gospels themselves, 
 and in other early Christian writings ; whereas, not only 
 is it not in existence, but not a trace of it remains in 
 ancient record or tradition. That it ever existed at all 
 is but a modern inference. 
 
 Secondly, the supposition that the first three evangel- 
 ists found their materials in the same series of traditional 
 accounts is probably true, with the exception that the 
 accounts were contemporaneous instead of being tradi- 
 tional. Everything relating to the Savior being eagerly 
 heard and constantly repeated, there must have been, 
 current in the primitive churches, an unwritten life of 
 Christ, expressed in words which the sacred historians 
 naturally adopted, except where their separate informa- 
 tion gave them reason for departing from it. (See Nor- 
 ton's Genuineness of the Gospels, vol. i., note D.) 
 
 8. The accounts in the historical books are confirmed 
 by the agreement of the Epistles with them. The most 
 important of these are of unquestionable genuineness, 
 being admitted even by writers who dispute the authority 
 of the Gospels. (See the quotation from Strauss, p. 30.) 
 They have been received as genuine from the first age, 
 and from the nature of the case, forgery would have 
 been nearly impossible without detection ; for they are 
 evidently portions of a correspondence ; letters some- 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 63 
 
 times referring to former letters (2 Cor. vii. 8 ; 2 Thess. 
 ii. 2) ; at other times discussing questions then agitating 
 the church (1 Cor. viii. 1 ; x. 25) ; elsewhere dealing 
 with personal matters, and containing personal saluta- 
 tions. (Rom. xvi ; Philemon.) The accounts they 
 give of Christianity agree, in all important respects, 
 with those of the Gospels and the Acts. 
 
 As instances of this coincidence, we may notice, first, 
 that the resurrection of the Savior is described by all the 
 four Evangelists, and is represented in the Acts as occu- 
 pying a place of the highest importance in the preaching 
 of the apostles. (Acts xvii. 18.) Compare with this the 
 expressions on the same subject in the Epistles. (1 Cor. 
 xv. 12-18 ; Col. ii. 12 ; 1 Thess. i. 10 ; 2 Tim. ii. 8.) 
 
 The account of the institution of the Lord's Supper, 
 given in the Gospels, is confirmed in 1 Cor. xi. 23-26. 
 
 The peculiar character of the apostle Peter, ardent, 
 but subject to sudden changes of purpose, already com- 
 mented on as displayed in the Gospels (see p. 58) , is 
 exhibited alike in an incident narrated in Gal. ii. 11-14. 
 
 Section 19. Agreement of Luke's Writings 
 with the Epistles. 
 
 The agreement between different portions of the Xew 
 Testament is most strikingly observable with regard to 
 the Gospel of Luke and the Acts, when taken in con- 
 nection with the Epistles. These various writings are 
 connected together, and their authenticity established, by 
 a peculiar chain of internal evidence. For distinctness' 
 sake we will designate the links of this chain by Roman 
 numerals. 
 
64 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 I. There are very numerous coincidences between the 
 Acts and the Epistles, which establish the authority of 
 the Acts as a history, and that of the Epistles as genuine 
 letters of the apostle. This evidence has been brought 
 forward in a very convincing manner in the Horse Pau- 
 linas of Dr. Paley. To exemplify it, we select the fol- 
 lowing instances : — 
 
 In Gal. i. 18, the apostle speaks of visiting Jeru- 
 salem the first time after his conversion, and remain- 
 ing only fifteen days. So short a stay in that city, on a 
 visit which must have been alike interesting and im- 
 portant to himself and to the Christians there, seems to 
 require explanation. We find this in Acts ix. 29, and 
 again in Acts xxii. 18, from which we learn that he left 
 hastily, in consequence of designs against him. 
 
 From 1 Thess. iii. 1, 2, 6, it appears that Paul was 
 for a time alone at Athens, having sent Timothy to 
 Thessalonica, and that Timothy joined him afterwards. 
 The history (Acts xvii. 14, 15) agrees with this, except 
 that Timothy is left at Berea, instead of being sent to Thes- 
 salonica. This difference shows that the history and the 
 Epistle were not artfully conformed to each other. In 
 fact there is no real disagreement ; but only the histo- 
 rian, writing briefly, omitted to mention the sending of 
 Timothy to Thessalonica, thus leaving the cause of his 
 absence from Paul unexplained. 
 
 It is implied in 1 Cor. i. 12, and iii. 6, that Apollos 
 preached at Corinth after Paul had left that city. This 
 agrees with what is incidentally expressed in the history. 
 (Acts xviii. 1, 24-28 ; xix. 1.) 
 
 We learn from Rom. xv., that Paul, at a late period 
 of his ministry (see verse 19), intended to go to Jcru- 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 65 
 
 salem (verse 25), to cany to the Christians there a 
 collection made for them by those in Macedonia and 
 Achaia (verses 26, 28), but that he anticipated dan- 
 ger from the opponents of Christianity at Jerusalem. 
 (Verse 31.) The account in Acts agrees with this in 
 every particular. Paul, at a late period of his ministry 
 (chap, xx.), returned from Achaia, or Greece (verse 2), 
 through Macedonia (verse 3), to Syria. He was on his 
 way to Jerusalem (verse 22), with anticipations of dan- 
 ger (verses 22, 23), and on an errand of charity (xxiv. 
 17) ; and his anticipations of danger were fulfilled. 
 
 The above are but a few specimens of the very numer- 
 ous coincidences, often in minute particulars, and obvi- 
 ously undesigned, which prove alike the genuineness of 
 the Epistles and the knowledge and faithfulness of the 
 historian. 
 
 II. The fact that this historian was a companion of 
 the apostle Paul, which might be inferred from the ful- 
 ness and accuracy of his accounts, is established by the 
 manner in which he uses the pronoun we when describing 
 the journeys of the apostle. (Acts xvi. 10, 11, 16; 
 xx. 13, 14; xxvii., xxviii. ) 
 
 III. The abrupt manner in which the book of Acts 
 terminates shows that it was written during the life of 
 Paul, and when he had been about two years a prisoner 
 at Rome. (Acts xxviii. 30, 31.) 
 
 IY. The Gospel of Luke and the Acts were written 
 by the same person. This is proved by the prefaces or 
 introductions to both. (Luke i. 1—4; Acts i. 1.) 
 
 V. The Gospel of Luke was written before the Acts ; 
 that is, as early at least as the second year of Paul's im- 
 prisonment in Eome, or A. D. 62. (Acts i. 1.) 
 6* 
 
6Q EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Thus the Epistles and Acts sustain each other, and 
 the Acts sustains the Gospel ; all proving that this ac- 
 count of the Savior's life was written by a companion of 
 the apostle Paul, not more than about thirty years after 
 the crucifixion. 
 
 Section 20. Writings of the Apostle John. 
 
 A train of argument somewhat similar furnishes proof 
 of the genuineness and authenticity of the writings 
 ascribed to the apostle John. 
 
 I. The writer of the Gospel claims for himself (or. if 
 the passage, John xxi. 24, is from another hand, then 
 some witness, very near the time of writing, claims for 
 him) that he was one of the apostles, and distinguished 
 by the especial love of his Master. 
 
 II. The style of this writer is marked by peculiar 
 expressions, which occur alike in the Gospel and the 
 Epistles, and one of them in a remarkable passage in 
 the Revelation. (Compare John i. 1—4 with 1 John i. 
 1, 2, and Rev. xix. 13. Also John xiii. 34, and 2 
 John, 5 ; John xxi. 24, and 3 John 12.) 
 
 III. If these works were from the same pen, and the 
 writer an apostle, we learn from Rev. i. 1, 4, 9, that he 
 was the apostle John. 
 
 IV. The comment on a supposed prediction of the 
 Savior, in John xxi. 23, indicates that the disciple to 
 whom it applied was yet living, and appears to be from 
 his own pen. 
 
 V. The designation of one of the apostles by the 
 terms "another disciple" (xviii. 15), and "the disciple 
 whom Jesus loved " (xxi. 20) , seems only to be accounted 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 67 
 
 for by the fact that he was himself the writer. It is 
 hard to conceive the motive which any other person 
 would have to suppress the name. 
 
 VI. There is a prominence given to this apostle, in 
 several occurrences, omitted or less minutely narrated in 
 the other Gospels, and in some of which he appears in 
 marked superiority to Peter. (See John xiii. 23 ; xviii. 
 15, 16 ; xix. 26 ; xx. 4, 8 ; xxi. 7, 20-22.) It is dif- 
 ficult to account for this without admitting that this 
 apostle was the author of the Gospel. Renan conjec- 
 tures that a degree of vanity or self-interest influenced his 
 judgment or his recollection. (Life of Jesus, Wilbour's 
 translation, pp. 26, 27, 322, 349.) This would natu- 
 rally exhibit itself, not in false statements, but in the 
 selection of incidents that were most favorable to him- 
 self. This supposition, therefore, while it presents the 
 apostle as liable to human imperfection, does not seriously 
 affect his credibility as an historian. More probably 
 these were instances of faithful simplicity of narra- 
 tion, the facts being known to the writer more fully 
 because he was an actor in them ; but he was 
 himself aware how difficult it would be to write the 
 life of his Master and Friend without making himself 
 prominent, and therefore with studious modesty veiled 
 his own name under circumlocutions. Another theory 
 to account for his prominence in this Gospel is, 
 that it was written, not by John himself, but by his 
 attached disciples, from their remembrance of what he 
 had told them. If so, the Gospel is still, in substance, 
 his testimony. But this theory is less probable, as his 
 disciples, intent on doing him honor, would have made 
 his name conspicuous, instead of concealing it. 
 
68 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Among the arguments which have been urged, espe- 
 cially by writers of what is called " the Tubingen school," 
 against the genuineness of John's Gospel, the most im- 
 portant are, the different representation which it gives of 
 the scene and manner of the Savior's instructions ; its pecu- 
 liar language concerning the Logos, the Word, or per- 
 sonified Wisdom of God ; the remarkable character of its 
 leading miracle, — that of the raising of Lazarus, — which, 
 it is said, could not have been omitted by the other evan- 
 gelists if it had actually taken place ; and a difference be- 
 tween the account of this Gospel and that of the others 
 with regard to the date of the last supper, and conse- 
 quently of the crucifixion. The others represent the last 
 supper as identical with the feast of the passover. (Matt, 
 xxvi. 19 ; Mark xiv. 16 ; Luke xxii. 13.) John appears 
 to place it before that feast. (John xiii. 1 ; xviii. 28.) 
 
 In answer to these arguments we have first to observe, 
 that the difference between the accounts of John and 
 those of the other writers is owing in part to the dif- 
 ferent style of that apostle, and in part to an obvious 
 purpose not to repeat what had been said before. His 
 Gospel appears to be supplementary to the others ; and 
 this, not only in the facts it records, but in its doctrine. 
 The personal attachment of the writer to his Lord led 
 him to record, more fully than the three preceding 
 writers, those discourses in which Jesus asserted' his own 
 dignity (chapters v., vi., x.) ; and his spiritual insight 
 made him appreciate and remember such instructions as 
 those respecting the new birth, and the promise of the 
 Comforter. (Chap, hi., xiv. 16, 26.) 
 
 The exalted and mysterious dignity of the Savior, 
 however, is expressed in Matt. xi. 27 as strongly as in 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 69 
 
 almost any passage in John ; and we find promises of 
 the assistance of the Holy Spirit in such passages as 
 Matt. x. 19, 20; Luke xxiv. 49. 
 
 It is urged by the writers in question, that the lan- 
 guage of this Gospel with regard to the " Word" (in 
 Greek, Logos, John i. 1—14) resembles that in use among 
 those who, under the name of Gnostics, endeavored to 
 combine Christianity with some heathen views which 
 claimed the name of philosophy. Hence they infer that 
 this Gospel was not written until such views had become 
 diffused, fixing its date at about A. D. 150. In reply 
 to this, we may remark, that the doctrine concerning the 
 Logos, the personified Wisdom of God, appears in the 
 writings of Philo, a learned Jew of Alexandria, who 
 was contemporary with the Savior, and whose works had 
 probably found admirers in those populous and cultivated 
 cities of Asia Minor where John ministered. Besides, the 
 title, " The Word of God," is applied to Christ, with high 
 attributes of majesty, in the Apocalypse, which the Tubing- 
 en critics recognize as the genuine work of this apostle. 
 
 The omission by the other evangelists of the narrative 
 respecting Lazarus, has been accounted for by the sup- 
 position that he was yet alive when the earlier evangelists 
 wrote, and that they feared to bring upon him that per- 
 secution of which he had already been in danger. (John 
 xii. 10.) We would suggest another explanation — that 
 none of the disciples but John accompanied the Savior 
 to Bethany, he having sent the others before to Jerusa- 
 lem, while he remained with his chosen friend to visit 
 the afflicted family. 
 
 The apparent difference with regard to the Last Sup- 
 per is explained by the supposition that John used the 
 
70 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 term " Passover," in reference not merely to the obser- 
 vance of the first day, but to that of the whole festival 
 season. (Lev. xxiii. 5, Q.) 
 
 Whatever strength there may be in the arguments 
 alleged, it cannot, in our opinion, compare with that de- 
 rived from the spiritual character of this Gospel. If it 
 is not authentic, the "moral miracle" of Christianity 
 (see p. 25) is doubled. We have, then, not only to 
 account for the wonderful Teacher who gave the Sermon 
 on the Mount and the Parables, but for another mind, 
 of genius and tenderness equal to his, who invented the 
 conversation with Xicodemus (John iii.), that with the 
 Samaritan woman (iv.) , the raising of Lazarus (xi.) , and 
 the parting conversation with the disciples, (xiii.-xvii.) 
 And this man, of glorious intellect and feeling heart, 
 has left no remembrance of his name, no trace of his 
 existence, except this forgery, in which he endeavors to 
 palm off his own thoughts and words as those of Jesus ! 
 Well mav Renan make the admission, " We have no 
 example, in the apostolic world, of a forgery of this 
 kind." (Life of Jesus, p. 26.) 
 
 Section 21. Apocrypha of the New Testament. 
 
 The endeavor has sometimes been made to depreciate 
 the authentic Gospels, by representing them as of the 
 same class with certain other writings, which are known 
 as the "Apocrypha of the New Testament." These 
 works have come down to us from an early period of 
 Christian history, mostly in the Greek, but partly in the 
 Arabic language. Collections of them, in the original 
 languages, with Latin translations, have been published 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 71 
 
 in Germany ; and they have also been translated into 
 English. It will appear, we trust, on examination, that 
 these writings, instead of diminishing, should confirm 
 our confidence in the records of the Christian faith. 
 
 We do not deny that there were other attempts, in the 
 primitive age, to write the history of the Savior, besides 
 those which resulted in our present Gospels. This we 
 infer from the preface of Luke. (i. 1.) These accounts, 
 however honestly designed, were probably from imper- 
 fect information, or unskilfully put together, so that 
 they fell into disuse after the publication of the authentic 
 Gospels. The most important of them was the Gospel 
 according to the Hebrews, if indeed this was not, as 
 there is some reason for believing, the Hebrew original 
 of Matthew's Gospel. This is quoted once by Clement 
 of Alexandria, and twice by Origen. A Gospel accord- 
 ing to the Egyptians is also mentioned ; but Clement of 
 Alexandria, who refers to it, says that he had never seen 
 it ; .yet his residence in Egypt, and his zeal as a scholar, 
 would have made him acquainted with it if it had been 
 considered of much value or authority. Neither of these 
 books is included, or claimed to be included, in the col- 
 lections mentioned above ; nor is either of them, as far 
 as is known to scholars, now in existence. These ex- 
 ceptions, if they can be considered such, hardly invali- 
 date the assertion of Paley, " that, besides our Gospels 
 and the Acts of the Apostles, no Christian history, 
 claiming to be written by an apostle or apostolical man, 
 is quoted within three hundred years after the birth of 
 Christ, by any writer now extant or known ; or, if 
 quoted, is not quoted without marks of censure or 
 rejection." (Evidences of Christianity, Prop. L, chap, 
 ix., sect. 11.) 
 
72 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 The writings called the " Apocrypha of the Xew Tes- 
 tament" are productions of various ages. But the 
 earlier they are dated, the more obvious appears the 
 contrast between their contents and those of the authen- 
 tic Gospels. The character of the narratives may be 
 fairly estimated from the following specimens : — 
 
 " The following accounts we find in the book of Joseph 
 the high priest, called by some Caiaphas. He relates 
 that Jesus spoke even when he was in his cradle, and 
 said to his mother, Mary, * I am Jesus, the Son of God, 
 the "Word, which thou didst bring forth according to the 
 declaration Of the angel Gabriel to thee ; and my Father 
 hath sent me for the salvation of the world.'" (First 
 Infancy, chap. i. verse 1.) 
 
 A boy possessed with devils is cured by the touch of 
 the swaddling clothes of Jesus. rt The devils began to 
 come out of his mouth, and fly away in the shape of 
 crows and serpents." (First Infancy, iv. 15. Chap. xi. 
 of Thilo's edition, Arabic and Latin.) 
 
 The Virgin Mary cures leprosy and other diseases 
 with the water in which the child had been washed. 
 (Chap. vi. and elsewhere.) A young man, who had 
 been changed into a mule, is restored to his proper form 
 by the child being placed upon his back. (Chap, vii.) 
 
 Joseph, being employed to make a throne for Herod, 
 makes it too narrow. Jesus, however, directs him to 
 take hold of it on the one side, while himself drawing it 
 on the other, and it is expanded to the proper size. 
 (Chap.xvi.) 
 
 Another time, Jesus went forth into the street, and 
 a boy running by rushed upon his shoulder ; at which 
 Jesus, being angry, said to him, "Thou shalt go no 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 73 
 
 farther ; " and he instantly fell down dead. The parents 
 complain to Joseph, and say, w Either teach him that he 
 bless, and not curse, or else depart hence with him, for 
 he kills our children." Joseph reproves Jesus, who in- 
 flicts blindness on the parents who had complained of 
 him. (Second Infancy, or Gospel of Thomas, chap. ii. 
 Thilo's edition, iv. and v. of the Greek.) 
 
 In the " Gospel of Xicodemus, or Acts of Pontius 
 Pilate," Carinus and Leucius, sons of Simeon, rise 
 from the dead, and describe to the Council of the 
 Jews the transactions in the world of spirits on occa- 
 sion of the death of Christ, after which they vanish. 
 Their account is told to Pilate, who, Gentile as he is, is 
 represented as entering into the holy place of the Temple. 
 The high priests identify Jesus as the Messiah, by a 
 prophecy " in the first book of the Seventy, where 
 Michael, the archangel, in speaking to the third son of 
 Adam, the first man, foretells that after five thousand 
 five hundred years, Christ, the most beloved Son of God, 
 was to come on earth." (Thilo, ch. xxviii.) Pilate gives 
 an account of these occurrences to the Emperor Tibe- 
 rius, who tries him at Pome for crucifying Christ, and 
 condemns him to be beheaded ; but Pilate being pen- 
 itent, his head is received by an angel. (Thilo, pp. 
 813-816.) 
 
 The absurdity of some of these stories, the incon- 
 sistency of others with the just and loving character of 
 Jesus, and the contradiction presented by the last to well- 
 known facts connected with the Old Testament, with 
 Jewish customs, and with the early history of Chris- 
 tianity, place these narratives in strong contrast to the 
 7 
 
74 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 genuine Gospels. They show us what those Gospels 
 would have been had thev been formed bv the imainna- 
 tion of the writers, instead of deriving their accounts 
 from the statements of eye-witnesses. As to their origin, 
 they appear to have been designed to meet from fancy 
 the desires which manv felt of knowing more respecting 
 the early years of Jesus, of beholding his cause trium- 
 phantly vindicated before Jew and Gentile, and of possess- 
 ing something i n writing from his own hand. This last 
 want is met by a letter purporting to be from Jesus to 
 Abjrarus, kincr of Edessa, who had invited the Savior to 
 reside with him. These writings were not probably com- 
 posed with the definite intention of deceiving. The 
 Gospel of Xicodemus, especially, may be regarded as a 
 romance of sacred history, and, as such, of some literary 
 merit. 
 
 The apocryphal Christian writings which now exist, 
 and those which are lost, so far as anvthino: is known of 
 them, do not contradict, in any important particular, the 
 accounts given in the authentic Gospels. "Where they 
 ditler, it is bv adding to the statements of the evangel- 
 ists, not by giving narratives opposed to theirs, — that 
 indirect opposition excepted, which results, as in the 
 cases oriven above, from the writers' neglect of historic 
 truth, or their inability to understand the gentle and 
 merciful character of Jesus. 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE BECOED. 
 
 Shctkei 22. Resglx of oub _ .utrtks kbspkct- 
 :: - rzz Recoed. 
 
 Z: : ; . then, established by sufficient evidence, that the 
 four Gospels were generally received among Christians 
 as correct histories of their Master, from the earliest 
 age, and that no history inconsistent with theirs was 
 thus received. A similar conclusion may be held with 
 regard to the other books of chief importance in the 
 Xew Testament, if not to all. 
 
 This would be sufficient to entitle these books to be 
 received as the basis of our Christian faith., even if ~c 
 were ignorant of the names of their authors . Fot 
 instance, if we are sure that the fourth Gospel contains 
 a true account, it is of little importance to us whether it 
 was written by the apostle John, by some of his disci- 
 ples, or by othr a 
 
 TTe have also, however, proofs of great strength, that 
 rhfSr b :-:k= -.-erf :.;-e- ~ ::_: :: :Lt t^-- ~ ;-:« .:= ~v.:=e 
 names they bear. (See especially the testimony of Ire- 
 nams. p. 42 : the argument from the connection of the 
 Gospel of Luke with the Acts and the Epistles, p. 64 : 
 and that in relation to the Gospel of John, p. 66.) 
 
 In further evidence of this, we may observe. — 
 
 1. That, having traced these writings back to the 
 apostolic age, there is no reason why we should not be- 
 lieve the general voice of antiquity, which assigns them 
 to certain persons then living, and most likely to be 
 qualified for the task. 
 
 . . That this testimony of antiquity is without excep- 
 tion as far as regards the Gospels and the other books 
 
76 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 of chief importance. We never find manuscripts of the 
 Gospel of Matthew bearing the name of Luke, nor of 
 Luke bearing that of Peter. No ancient writer asserts 
 that the Gospel which now bears the name of John was 
 written by any other than that apostle. If either of the 
 four Gospels is wrongly assigned, it is strange that not 
 the slightest trace should remain of its true author. 
 
 The number of the witnesses is a point of great im- 
 portance. If we had received the account of the life of 
 Jesus from one alone, there might be a suspicion of 
 fraud or delusion ; but it comes to us directly from 
 four evangelists, and is confirmed to us by the agree- 
 ment, expressed or implied, of the other writers of the 
 New Testament. That there should be a combination 
 among so many to deceive, without some one betraying 
 the secret, is highly improbable. 
 
 It may be urged as an objection to the trustworthiness 
 of the Christian records, that the ancient manuscripts, 
 versions, and quotations by the Fathers do not always 
 agree together. There are various readings ; and these, 
 it is admitted, are numbered by thousands. But it is to 
 be remembered, that nearly all of these are of very 
 slight importance. They arose of necessity in ages 
 when the only way of multiplying copies of books was 
 with the pen. Among them all there are very few that 
 possess any doctrinal importance, and none that disturb 
 at all the great facts of the Christian revelation. 
 
 Are these records, then, worthy of our reliance? 
 
 They are, if any human testimony can be. Suppose 
 that we had four memoirs of the campaigns of Wash- 
 ington, two by officers in command under him, and the 
 other two by persons in immediate communication with 
 
EVIDENCE OF THE RECORD. 77 
 
 such officers ; what more authentic account of those 
 campaigns could we desire? 
 
 It is safe to conclude that no objection would be made 
 to the reception of the accounts these books contain, by 
 any person acquainted with the evidence which supports 
 them, but for the miraculous character of their state- 
 ments. But many modern writers, assuming that mira- 
 cles are impossible, refuse their assent to the narratives 
 of the Gospels, in whole or in part, on that account.' 
 
 This is the position of those who in our own age have 
 endeavored to remove the miraculous element from the 
 Christian history. It is a position to which they have 
 been led by the philosophical tendencies of the age, both 
 as connected with the study of outward nature and with 
 metaphysical investigation. 
 
 The researches of physical science have given to those 
 familiar with them a deep conviction of the stability of 
 the laws of nature. The common idea of a miracle, 
 therefore, as an event in which all laws of nature are set 
 aside, has been considered inadmissible ; and it has not 
 always been sufficiently kept in mind that there may be 
 other and higher laws of nature than those with which 
 we are familiar. (See Section 2.) 
 
 In metaphysical philosophy, the German mind has, 
 for a century past, been more active than that of any 
 other nation. In Germany, a system of philosophy has 
 prevailed, known as the Transcendental, and illustrated 
 by the great names of Kant, Fichte, and many others. 
 Of this system it may be sufficient to point out one dis- 
 tinguishing trait — that it looks for proof of truth within, 
 and not without ; to the soul of man, not to the external 
 world. Few will deny the nobleness of the direction 
 
78 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 thus given to investigation ; few perhaps will deny that 
 the defenders of Christianity had hitherto been too lim- 
 ited in their efforts — laboring to prove, almost exclu- 
 sively by outward testimony, that which bore the stamp 
 of heaven in its intrinsic excellence. But the transition 
 is easy from one extreme to its opposite ; and the scholars 
 of Germany, in their homage to the light within, were 
 tempted to turn with disgust from the idea of external 
 proof, of miracle, and even of revelation. 
 
 From these causes, many recent writers, instead of 
 examining whether the miracles are proved, declare or 
 assume, at the outset, that they are incapable of proof. 
 This fact is of importance to observe, for it shows that 
 their theories are not the conclusions of unbiassed minds, 
 from fair and thorough investigation of the record, but 
 ingenious attempts to turn the Gospel accounts from 
 their obvious meaning, or to undermine their authority, 
 in favor of a preconceived idea. Thus, Strauss says, 
 " No just perception of the true nature of history is pos- 
 sible without a perception of the inviolability of the chain 
 of finite causes, and of the impossibility of miracles." 
 (Life of Jesus, § 13, vol. i. p. 64, English translation.) 
 Kenan protests against the charge of " mutilating the 
 facts in the name of theory ; " but he still reaches the 
 conclusion, previous to the examination of the New Tes- 
 tament miracles, " that a supernatural narration cannot 
 be accepted as such." (pp. 43, 45.) 
 
MODERN SPECULATIONS. 79 
 
 MODERN SPECULATIONS. 
 
 Section 23. Theories that suppose the Gospel 
 Narratives correct. 
 
 \Ve will now present a brief view of the principal 
 classes of attempts that have been made to account for, 
 or to remove, the miraculous element in Christianity. 
 
 \Ye have first to name those theories that proceed on 
 the supposition that the Gospel narratives are substan- 
 tially correct. Among these we must class an explana- 
 tion of the miracles which admits them to have taken 
 place as narrated, and receives the testimony they bear 
 to the holiness of Jesus, but seeks to ascertain a law of 
 nature in conformity to which they took place. Such 
 has been the effort of Dr. Furness, in his " Remarks on 
 the Four Gospels," and subsequent works, ascribing 
 many of these wonders to the natural influence of a 
 most holy and majestic being over the minds of those 
 whom he addressed, and, through their minds, over 
 their bodily organs. .He carries this view so far as to 
 conceive that it will explain even the raising of Lazarus, 
 the commanding voice of Jesus being heard in the spirit 
 world. (Remarks, p. 179, 180.) There are, however, 
 well-attested miracles, to which this theory is obviously 
 inapplicable (see Matt. viii. 27 ; xiv. 25 ; xxi. 19 ; 
 John ii. 9) ; and even where it is applied, the effect 
 asserted transcends, not only in degree, but in kind, the 
 natural influence of one mind over another in any case 
 
80 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 within human experience. " Since the world began was 
 it not heard that any man," by the natural power of a 
 virtuous character and a strong faith, " opened the eyes 
 of one that was born blind," much less raised the dead 
 to life. (John ix. 32.) Our dissent from this theory 
 does not prevent us from doing justice to the distin- 
 guished ability, and the reverent and loving spirit, in 
 which it has been advocated. 
 
 Some German writers, known as the "Naturalists," 
 of whom Professor Paulus is the best known, admitting 
 the literal truth of the accounts given by the Evangelists, 
 represent those accounts as describing events in which 
 there was nothing supernatural. To show the character 
 of their explanations a few examples will be sufficient. 
 
 In Matt. xvii. 27, Jesus directs Peter, "Go thou to 
 the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first 
 cometh up ; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou 
 shalt find a piece of money." According to Paulus, the 
 only purpose of opening the fish's mouth was to take 
 out the hook ; and the money was " found " by selling 
 the fish. (Paulus, Life of Jesus, § 136.) 
 
 The raising of Lazarus is thus explained : Jesus, 
 from his knowledge of diseases, is convinced that Laza- 
 rus could not have really died. He therefore goes to the 
 tomb, and causes the stone to be removed ; then, looking 
 into the tomb, he perceives that his impression is correct, 
 for the supposed corpse begins to move. He calls out, 
 therefore, " Lazarus, come forth ! " And the accidental 
 resuscitation of Lazarus has the appearance of being the 
 result of that command. (§ 151.) 
 
 In explanation of the ascension of Jesus, as described 
 Acts i. 9-11, we are told that Jesus, in taking leave of 
 
MODERN SPECULATIONS. 81 
 
 his disciples, removed himself farther from them. Here- 
 upon, a cloud or mist interposed itself between them, 
 and concealed Jesus from their sight — a result which, 
 on the assurance of two unknown men, they regarded as 
 a reception of Jesus into heaven. (§ 215.) 
 
 "In the supposition that the two individuals clothed 
 in white apparel were real men, Paulus only disguises a 
 final and strongly-marked essay of the opinion espoused 
 by Bahrdt and Venturini, that several epochs in the life 
 of Jesus, especially after his crucifixion, were brought 
 about by the agency of secret colleagues. Shall we, 
 with Bahrdt, dream of an Essene lodge into which he 
 retired after the completion of his work? and with 
 Brennecke appeal, in proof that Jesus long continued 
 silently to work for the welfare of mankind, to his ap- 
 pearance for the purpose of the conversion of Paul ? Or 
 shall we, with Paulus, suppose that shortly after the last 
 interview, the body of Jesus sank beneath the injuries it 
 had received?" From such modes of representation, 
 "a sound judgment must turn away with aversion." 
 (Strauss, Life of Jesus, hi., v., § 142; first German 
 edition, § 138.) 
 
 It is only necessary to add to the condemnation so 
 justly passed by Strauss on the conjectures of his prede- 
 cessors, that if Jesus claimed to have raised Lazarus 
 from the dead, when the occurrence was only a fortunate 
 accident, or if he deceived his disciples by the aid of 
 unknown confederates, his conduct was that of a hypo- 
 critical juggler, utterly inconsistent, therefore, with the 
 principles he proclaimed, and with that intellectual and 
 moral power which has left so deep an impression on the 
 history of the world. 
 
82 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Section 24. Theories supposing Fraud. 
 
 Suppositions have been advanced by some writers, 
 more distinctly admitting the idea of fraud, either on the 
 part of Jesus himself or on that of others. 
 
 Renan conceives the character of wonder-worker to 
 have been forced on Jesus by the credulity of those 
 around, rather than willingly assumed (Life of Jesus, 
 pp. 235-239) ; thus excusing his deception at the expense 
 of his firmness and good sense. In one remarkable 
 instance, however, he considers Jesus to have been him- 
 self deceived. The raising of Lazarus is supposed to 
 have been a scene, arranged between Lazarus and his 
 sisters, to delude not only the people, but Jesus himself, 
 with the idea that a miracle was performed ; aud this 
 impious fraud is represented as wrought from enthusiastic 
 love towards the Master upon whom it was practised, 
 (p. 305.) 
 
 It is, however, with regard to the resurrection of the 
 Savior that the boldest and most ingenious speculations 
 have been employed. It was indeed necessary to the 
 opponents of miracle, that, if possible, some natural 
 explanation should be found for this great event ; for, as 
 we have seen already (section 10) , it is sustained by the 
 most ample evidence, and is in fact implied in the very 
 existence of the Christian church. Two ways were sug- 
 gested to account for it. f ' The cultivated intellect of the 
 present day," says Strauss, " has very decidedly stated 
 the following dilemma : either Jesus was not really dead, 
 or he did not really rise again. Rationalism has' princi- 
 pally given its adherence to the former opinion." 
 
MODERN SPECULATIONS. 83 
 
 The death of Jesus, consequently, is explained by 
 many writers as having been merely apparent — a swoon 
 or catalepsy, from which he recovered, and appeared 
 before the disciples as if risen from the dead. In sup- 
 port of this opinion, the fact is urged, that cases have 
 been known in which crucifixion did not produce death ; 
 and reference has been made to an instance mentioned 
 by Josephus, and to tortures voluntarily endured by cer- 
 tain fanatics in France. In all these cases, however, 
 the victims were taken from the cross for the purpose of 
 saving them, and restorative means applied ; so that they 
 would furnish no ground to infer the restoration of Jesus, 
 unless we admit the use of similar means in his case. 
 By whom, then, were these means applied? And on 
 whom is the deception of the world through so many 
 aires to be charged? 
 
 The supposition of Bahrdt is, that "Jesus, seeing no 
 other way of purifying the prevalent Messianic idea from 
 the admixture of material and political hopes, exposed 
 himself to crucifixion, but, in so doing, relied on the 
 possibility of a speedy removal from the cross by early 
 bowing his head, and of being afterwards restored by 
 the medical skill of some among his secret colleagues," — 
 those imagined Essene confederates referred to in a pre- 
 vious extract (p. 81), — "so as to inspirit the people at 
 the same time by the appearance of a resurrection." 
 " Others have ascribed to his disciples a preconceived plan 
 of producing apparent death by means of a potion." 
 (Strauss, Part III., chap. iv. § 140.) Such was the 
 theory of Schuster, who conceived also that the awaking 
 of Jesus was aided, and the stone removed from the 
 mouth of the tomb, by an earthquake and lightning, 
 
84 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 which fortunately occurred at the moment they were 
 needed, (See Strauss, as above.) 
 
 Surpassing even these theories in extravagance, if that 
 be possible, is the suggestion of a writer in the Westmin- 
 ster Review (for Jan., 1858), that the person by whom 
 the crucifixion was prevented from being fatal was Pilate 
 himself! That magistrate, it is said, had shown an 
 earnest desire to save the life of Jesus ; and when he 
 finally yielded to the importunity of the Jews, he re- 
 solved to do secretly what he dared not do openly. He 
 gave private orders, therefore, that the legs of Jesus 
 should not be broken, and that the body should be taken 
 from the cross before life was extinct. It is not explained 
 how one of Pilate's soldiers dared to thrust a spear into 
 the side of the prisoner whom his master meant to save ; 
 nor how that thrust, which entered the pericardium, as 
 appeared from the effusion of water with the blood, 
 failed to produce death. (See John xix. 34, 35, and 
 commentators on the passage.) 
 
 On these strange fancies, we may briefly remark, that 
 the slow recovery which alone would be possible from 
 natural causes, after the linoerino^ torture had almost 
 extinguished life, is not consistent with the accounts 
 given of the Savior's appearance to the women, and to 
 his disciples, and in particular with the circumstances of 
 the walk to Emmaus. (See Luke xxiv. 13-43 ; John 
 xx. 14-17, 19.) 
 
 We must believe too, upon these suppositions, either 
 that Jesus thought he had been really dead when he had 
 not, which is inconsistent with the wisdom which he 
 always showed, or that he was guilty of an atrocious 
 fraud upon his followers, which is inconsistent alike with 
 
MODERN SPECULATIONS. 85 
 
 his instructions and his example. (See Mark xvi. 14 ; 
 Luke xxiv. 26, 46 ; John xx. 27, 29.) 
 
 Renan, taking the other alternative of the dilemma, 
 believes that Jesus actually died on the cross, and 
 ascribes the story of his resurrection principally to " the 
 strong imagination of Mary Magdalene." As two of the 
 Gospels state that her report of the resurrection was at 
 first not credited , and as all agree in mentioning other 
 appearances of the Savior, besides the testimony of Paul 
 to the same effect, we cannot acquiesce in this summary 
 reduction of the number of witnesses. (See Mark xvi. 
 11, Luke xxiv. 11, and the accounts of the resurrection 
 generally; also 1 Cor. xv. 5-8.) 
 
 Section 25. The Mythical Theory. 
 
 Many probably content themselves with distinguishing 
 between the natural and the supernatural narratives in 
 the Gospels ; receiving the former and rejecting the latter, 
 simply on the ground that the former are credible and 
 the latter incredible. 
 
 But this position cannot consistently be held, since 
 both descriptions of narratives rest on the same testi- 
 mony. If that testimony is sufficient, we must receive 
 the miracles ; if the miracles are pronounced false, the 
 testimony of those who record them is discredited, even 
 when they relate events that were not miraculous. If 
 John was competent to testify to the conversation of 
 Jesus with the sisters of Lazarus, which he heard, he 
 was competent to testify to the raising of Lazarus, which 
 he saw. 
 
 Again, in the Gospels, the miraculous and the spir- 
 8 
 
86 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 itual or didactic are often interwoven in such a manner 
 that they cannot properly be separated. For instance, 
 in the narrative just referred to, if we suppose the 
 Savior only to have instructed Martha that her brother 
 should rise again (John xi. 23), and to have declared, 
 " I am the resurrection and the life," without the miracle, 
 we leave the account unfinished, and several sentences 
 of it unexplained. (See verses 6, 11, 23-26, 41, 42.) 
 The touching incidents and instructions after the resur- 
 rection are evident fictions, unless the resurrection had 
 taken place. (See Luke xxiv. ; John xx., xxi.) 
 
 The explanation of Dr. D. F. Strauss, known as the 
 Mythical Theory, was not, however, original with him. 
 It had been applied, by many before his time, to portions 
 alike of the Old Testament and of the New. But by 
 him it was developed into a system, and extended, with 
 cold, unsparing sagacity, to every leading incident in the 
 life of Christ. The idea it expresses is, that the stories 
 respecting Jesus arose without intentional deception on 
 the part of any one, partly from exaggerations of actual 
 occurrences, and partly from supposing things to have 
 really taken place which seemed appropriate to his char- 
 acter, either from the declarations of the prophets, the 
 popular expectation among the Jews, or any other cause. 
 These myths or stories Strauss supposes to have been 
 collected by the Evangelists in good faith, and published 
 by them with the belief that they contained the real his- 
 tory of Jesus. But all that is miraculous being set aside 
 as impossible, and events not miraculous being regarded 
 as mythical, wherever any plausible motive could be 
 assigned for their fabrication, there remains little that 
 can be identified as undoubtedly belonging to Jesus. 
 
MODERN SPECULATIONS. 87 
 
 With regard to this theory, we may observe, — 
 
 1. That it is inconsistent with the evidence presented 
 above ; proving that the Gospels were written by their 
 reputed authors, who were well qualified to declare the 
 truth respecting the history of Jesus. 
 
 2. Fabulous stories are the growth of a very different 
 period from that in which Jesus lived. They arise in the 
 ages of dim tradition, preceding the researches of the 
 historian ; but the period of the Savior was an age of 
 intelligence, and of literary cultivation. 
 
 3. Fabulous stories, under the most favorable circum- 
 stances, are of slow growth. The period allowed by 
 Strauss in his original work, of about thirty years, is alto- 
 gether too short for their production, and even the longer 
 time allowed in his recent volume appears inadequate. 
 
 4. If the supposed myths were founded on Jewish 
 expectations of the Messiah, they would have invested 
 Jesus with some form of temporal royalty. On the con- 
 trary, we see him constantly refusing such distinction. 
 (Luke xii. 14; John vi. 15; xviii. 36.) 
 
 5. The childish stories of the " Gospels of the Infancy," 
 and the unhistorical acknowledgment of Jesus by Jews 
 and Romans in the " Gospel of Nicodemus," show us 
 what our Gospels would have been had they been written 
 as Strauss imagines. 
 
 6. The Savior had companions and followers, or his 
 religion would have perished with him. Did these 
 companions originate these fabulous stories ? This is in- 
 credible, for they were better informed. Did they, then, 
 leave no authentic account of their Master, either in 
 writing or by tradition, so that all Christendom received 
 as true the accounts given by persons entirely unau- 
 thorized ? 
 
88 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 7. It would have been the interest of the enemies of 
 Jesus, no less than of his friends, to detect the error or 
 the fraud that substituted a mythical and miraculous life 
 of him for the truth. They are, however, not merely 
 silent with regard to any error or fraud of the kind, but 
 by explaining his miracles as wrought by magic, they 
 imply an admission of the authenticity of the books that 
 record them. 
 
 8. The Gentile Christians had received their faith from 
 some early followers of Jesus. Would they have after- 
 wards accepted as true an account of their Master's life 
 made up not from actual facts, but from Jewish fancies? 
 
 9. The Christian religion, whether divinely revealed 
 or not, is a sublime and beautiful whole, the representa- 
 tion of a perfect character, and an incomparable system 
 of morals. Was this system, which has been the admi- 
 ration of the world for ages, formed by chance — a mere 
 farrago of idle rumors ? 
 
 10. In his "Life of Jesus for the German People," 
 published in 1864, Dr. Strauss has modified his mythical 
 theory to a considerable extent, in conformity with the 
 views of the " Tubingen School," Dr. F. C. Baur, and 
 others. He now regards the Gospels as having been 
 composed later than he at first admitted ; that of Mat- 
 thew the earliest, Luke before A. D. 135, Mark after- 
 wards, and John about A. D. 150, thus leaving a 
 longer time for the production of mythical stories. He 
 also admits, to some extent, conscious fiction on the part 
 of the writers, at least of the author of the fourth Gos- 
 pel. At the same time he recognizes, more fully than 
 before, something distinct in the person and teaching of 
 Jesus. He regards him as a most pure and holy being, 
 
MODERN SPECULATIONS. 89 
 
 combining the best influences of all the world's previous 
 culture, and excited to noble self-devotion by those pas- 
 sages in the prophets that speak of a suffering Messiah. 
 
 Upon these modifications of his system, and upon the 
 views of the remarkable school on which they are found- 
 ed, it is not necessary, in this brief volume, to say more 
 than has already been observed. (See p. 68.) The genu- 
 ineness and 'authenticity of the Gospels being proved, we 
 have all that is needed. The change of opinion in Dr. 
 Strauss prepares us for further changes ; and we trust 
 that he or his successors may, ere long, be led to 
 acknowledge in Jesus, not only the providential, but the 
 divinely commissioned Leader of mankind. 
 
 The argument against the mythical theory is thus ex- 
 pressed in the same discourse, from winch an extract 
 has already been given (see p. 25) : — 
 
 R The legendary and the mythical history of Greece 
 and Rome cannot be traced up, in written form, to 
 within five hundred years of the time to which the 
 events are ascribed. But here is the history of our 
 Lord, which, if mythical, is the most wonderful of all 
 myths, distinctly traced to four writers, who were living 
 at the time, and who wrote and published their tales 
 during the lifetime of many eye-witnesses of Jesus's min- 
 istry — a history perfectly self-consistent in its details, 
 filled with miracle, and crowning them all with the 
 miracle of a character claiming to be exalted in a 
 degree hitherto unconceived ; claiming to be the Son 
 of God ; claiming to be the future Judge of the 
 world ; the Lord, not only of life and death, but of the 
 living and the dead ; the arbiter of our eternal destiny ; 
 and this claim supported by a character so spotless that 
 8* 
 
90 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 it has commanded the adoring veneration of all men from 
 that day to this. And will any man attempt to persuade 
 me that this wonderful, this unapproachable majesty and 
 beauty, this self-consistent portrait of the Son of God, 
 living and teaching and dying, in Galilee and Judea, 
 was the creation of rumor, and popular fancy, and reli- 
 gious aspiration, created and made a living reality to 
 thousands of believers, during the short space of thirty 
 years intervening between the crucifixion of Jesus and 
 the publication of his biographies ? I should regard the 
 attempt as almost an insult to my understanding. As 
 reasonably might one attempt to persuade me that the 
 strength of will and inflexibility of purpose ascribed to 
 the old hero who occupied the executive chair of our 
 nation thirty years ago was the pure creation of fancy 
 during my own lifetime." 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. 91 
 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 Section 26. General View. 
 
 The New Testament is the foundation of the faith of 
 Christians. The Old Testament is of value to us as 
 containing the records of God's dealings with man, in a 
 revelation preliminary to that by Jesus Christ. It is 
 sustained by the testimony of the New, and yields it 
 support in turn. 
 
 It is sustained by the testimony of the New, because, — 
 
 1. Our Savior and his apostles frequently quote or 
 refer to the Old Testament as of divine authority. (See 
 Matt. xxii. 43 ; xxvi. 24 ; Luke xviii. 31 ; John v. 39.) 
 
 2. The position which Jesus claimed, as the Christ, or 
 the Messiah, was that predicted by the Old Testament 
 prophets. 
 
 The Old Testament sustains the New, — 
 
 1. By direct prophecies, which received their accom- 
 plishment in Christ. 
 
 2. By the proofs which the Old exhibits of divine 
 origin and authority for the religion it makes known, 
 joined to the indications it gives of being imperfect and 
 temporary, and therefore preparatory to a more perma- 
 nent sys.tem. 
 
 The Old Testament presents a system of faith and 
 morals not unworthy of a divine origin. 
 
 1 . Its first principle is the Unity of God ; and this 
 is asserted in marked contrast to the idolatry which 
 
92 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 prevailed throughout the world, and especially in Egypt, 
 the country from which the Israelites came forth. (Gen. 
 i. ; Deut. vi. 4; 1 Chron. xvi. 26.) 
 
 2. In equally strong contrast with Egyptian supersti- 
 tion, which worshipped its divinities under bestial forms, 
 it forbade the use of any visible representation of the 
 Deity. (Ex. xx. 4.) 
 
 3. The very name which it gave to the Supreme, 
 Jehovah, signifies " He is," or " the Self-existent." (See 
 Ex. iii. 15, in the original, where the divine name is 
 evidently the verb of existence in the third person, as in 
 verse 14 it is in the first person.) 
 
 4. The invisible and spiritual nature of God, and his 
 superiority to human wants or changes, are strongly set 
 forth in such passages as Deut. iv. 12-26 ; Ps. 1. 8-13 ; 
 Isaiah i. 10-17 ; Mai. iii. 6. 
 
 5. The moral attributes of God — his justice, mercy, 
 and beneficence — are declared in numerous passages, 
 such as Ex. xxxiv. 6,7; Ps. ciii. His power and wis- 
 dom in creating, and his providence in sustaining the 
 universe, are constantly acknowledged. (See Gen. i. ; 
 Ps. civ.) 
 
 6. The laws given to the Israelites are of consummate 
 wisdom. The Ten Commandments, especially, form a 
 most comprehensive code, which still, after the lapse of 
 thousands of years, and the increased light given by 
 Christianity, retains the admiration and reverence of 
 mankind. (Ex. xx. ; Deut. v. 6-21.) 
 
 7. The laws relating to the treatment by the people 
 of their poorer brethren were most wise and humane. 
 (See Deut. xxiv. 6-22.) And although benevolence 
 towards foreigners was not so strongly inculcated, — the 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. 93 
 
 law of universal brotherhood being the especial glory of 
 the Christian revelation, — yet in some passages the Old 
 Testament makes a near approach to it. (Ex. xxii. 
 21; xxiii. 9.) 
 
 8. Even those defective institutions which, in that 
 early stage of human progress, it was thought best not 
 to prohibit entirely, were placed under restraints which 
 greatly diminished their evils, and prepared the way for 
 their entire removal. Thus it was with divorce (Deut. 
 xxiv. 1—4; Mark x. 4, 5), with private revenge (Num. 
 xxxv. 9-34), and with slavery. (Ex. xxi. 1-6, 16, 20, 
 26, 27.) 
 
 9. In contrast to the surrounding idolatry, the wor- 
 ship of the Hebrews was not marked either with cruelty 
 or impurity ; and their religion was free from the super- 
 stitions connected with charms, incantations, omens, and 
 astrology. 
 
 10. The Old Testament is replete with passages of 
 unrivalled sublimity and beauty, especially when it dwells 
 upon the majesty of God, and the wisdom manifested in 
 his works. (Ps. xxiii., xxix., civ. ; Job xxviii., xxxix. ; 
 Is. ii. 10-22; xl. 21-31; Jer. iv. 23-26.) 
 
 Section 27. Difficulties of the Old Testament. 
 
 Much has been said and written with regard to the 
 obscurities and difficulties of the Old Testament. On 
 this subject we offer these remarks : — 
 
 1. Obscurities and difficulties are to be expected in 
 ancient documents, from the great difference in thought 
 and manner of expression between far distant periods of 
 human development.- 
 
94 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 2. It was customary with ancient writers to relate 
 occurrences in a dramatic manner, giving not merely the 
 result of a conversation, but imagining the very words that 
 
 . might have been used. (See the remarks on the language 
 of Herodotus, in Macaulay's Essay on History.) This 
 peculiarity of ancient writing will explain many passages 
 in the Old Testament, in which the Almighty is repre- 
 sented as speaking, and especially as conversing with 
 human beings. (Gen. i. 3; ii. 16; Ex. xxxii. 7—14.) 
 
 3. In many of the narratives of the Old Testament, 
 the account rests, not on the authority of the sacred his- 
 torian, but on that of some earlier writer, or of tradition. 
 Thus the occurrences recorded in Genesis could not be 
 related by Moses from personal knowledge ; and he, if 
 he was the historian, is therefore not accountable for 
 anything more than a faithful use of the materials he 
 possessed. The account in Joshua x. 12—14 is there 
 spoken of as derived from the Book of Jasher, which 
 was apparently a collection of poems. (Compare 
 2 Sam. i. 18.) 
 
 4. If errors in astronomy, geology, or any other 
 branch of science are discovered, it is to be remembered 
 that the object of a revelation was not to teach men those 
 sciences, but their own relation to their Creator. 
 
 5 . If we find much to condemn in the conduct of per- 
 sons who are yet mentioned with approval in the Old 
 Testament, we must remember that they may have been 
 approved for one quality, though in other respects very 
 deficient. Thus David is spoken of, in 1 Sam. xiii. 
 14, as a " man after God's own heart " in the one respect 
 of faithfulness to the divine commands in the administra- 
 tion of public affairs. 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. 95 
 
 6. In judging such characters, we have also to bear in 
 mind the lower standard of morals in their age, and the 
 temptations to which they were peculiarly exposed. Thus, 
 to recur to the instance just spoken of, David is to be 
 judged, not by the modern and Christian standard, but 
 as compared with men of his time, and subject, like him, 
 to the temptations arising from the possession of despotic 
 power. 
 
 7. If the sentiment of the historian himself appear 
 incorrect, we must remember that good, and even in- 
 spired men, who lived before the time of Christ, had not 
 that full view of duty which he afterwards communi- 
 cated. (Matt. xi. 11.) To suppose that the most 
 gifted of the prophets anticipated all that Christ had to 
 teach would be to make Christ's teaching superfluous. 
 
 8. Even if doubt were cast upon some of the Old Tes- 
 tament books, as regards their genuineness or authen- 
 ticity, such doubt would not seriously affect the claims 
 of the Jewish religion to divine authority, and still less 
 those of Christianity. The great facts would still remain 
 of the Israelites' rescue from Egyptian bondage, and of 
 their maintaining for centuries the worship of the One 
 True God, in a world elsewhere filled with idolatry. 
 
 9. The free investigations of recent critics, while, as 
 has been seen, they do not destroy the evidence on which 
 the Jewish religion rests, sometimes incidentally remove 
 objections against it. (See Colenso, "The Pentateuch 
 and Book of Joshua," Part I. section 172.) 
 
 10. There appears in some writers a disposition to 
 represent the Jewish religion as on a level with the hea- 
 thenism of surrounding nations. Thus the impression is 
 
96 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 given that the Jews regarded Jehovah as the God of 
 their own nation, not the God of all mankind, in con- 
 tradiction to the account in Gen. i., which represents 
 him as the Creator of all, and numerous other passages. 
 (See Deut. xxxii. 8 ; 2 Kings xix. 17-19 ; Ps. xcvi. 5 ; 
 Isa. lxvi. 18—21.) In the same spirit, the attempt has 
 been made, from Gen. xxii., to prove that the religion 
 of the Hebrews sanctioned human sacrifices. As the 
 sacrifice was in that case forbidden, the inference should 
 be precisely the opposite. 
 
 We conclude this section with the following tribute to 
 the excellence of the Hebrew system, by an eminent 
 writer, who did not acknowledge its divine authority : 
 "This must be confessed, that under the guidance of 
 divine Providence, the great and beautiful doctrine of 
 one God seems verv earlv embraced bv the great Jewish 
 lawgiver, incorporated into his national legislation, de- 
 fended with rigorous enactions, and slowlv cdmmuni- 
 cated to the world. At our day it is difficult to under- 
 stand the service rendered to the human race by the 
 niisjhtv soul of Moses, and that a thousand years before 
 Anaxagoras. His name is ploughed into the history of 
 the world. His influence can never die. It must have 
 been a vast soul, endowed with moral and religious 
 genius to a degree extraordinary among men, which at 
 that early age could attempt to found a state on the doc- 
 trine and worship of one God." (Parker's Discourse of 
 Eeligion, p. 59.) 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. 97 
 
 Section 28. Evidence for the Old Testament. 
 
 The books of the Old Testament are sustained, in re- 
 gard to their genuineness and authenticity, by internal and 
 external evidence, as are those of the New Testament. 
 
 I. The external evidence is, — 
 
 1. The testimony of the Jewish nation, by which these 
 books have been for ages acknowledged and valued, 
 as containing the ancient records of their race, and the 
 history of divine communications made to them. 
 
 They have, in fact, been regarded with a veneration, 
 and preserved with a care, which may appear excessive 
 and superstitious ; great attention being paid to the 
 slightest minutiae of spelling and punctuation, the tran- 
 scribers not venturing even to correct obvious errors in 
 these respects, as they supposed that every variation was 
 intended to indicate some mystery. 
 
 2. The Christian Scriptures, even if considered merely 
 as works dating from the early ages of Christianity, 
 prove, by numerous references and quotations, the exist- 
 ence of the Old Testament at that time, and substantially 
 in the same form as at present. 
 
 3. Josephus, a Jewish commander and writer, who 
 was taken prisoner by the Romans about A. D. 68, and 
 afterwards received into favor by them, gives a history 
 of his nation, and other writings, which are founded 
 on the Old Testament, and constantly corroborate its 
 accounts. 
 
 4. Similar testimony is given, though to a less extent, 
 by Philo, a learned Jew of Alexandria, about the time 
 of our Savior. 
 
 9 
 
98 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 5. The Apocryphal books, written mostly by Alexan- 
 drian Jews, shortly before the Christian era, testify, by 
 frequent references and constant implication, to the exist- 
 ence of the Old Testament writings, and their reception 
 as of the highest authority among the nation. 
 
 6. The Samaritans, a race closely allied to the Jews, 
 and still existing, though in very scanty numbers, con- 
 firm the Old Testament accounts by their traditions ; and 
 particularly by their possessing copies of the Pentateuch, 
 or first five books of the Bible, in Hebrew, but written 
 in peculiar characters, different from the common Hebrew 
 letters, and supposed by some to be more ancient. The 
 testimony of the Samaritans is the more valuable, as the 
 jealousy which existed for centuries between them and 
 the Jews would have rendered it impossible for any 
 document of recent origin to be imposed upon them by 
 their neighbors and rivals. 
 
 7. Various testimonies from heathen writers, and from 
 ancient inscriptions, confirm statements of the Old Tes- 
 tament with regard to historical events. This descrip- 
 tion of evidence has been well exhibited in Rawlinson's 
 "Bampton Lectures" (London, 1859), from which the 
 following statements are selected : — 
 
 "Hecatasus of Abdera, Manetho, Lysimachus of Alex- 
 andria, Eupolemus, Tacitus, Juvenal, Longinus, ascribe 
 to Moses the institution of that code of laws by which 
 the Jews were distinguished from other nations ; and the 
 majority distinctly note that he committed his laws to 
 writing." Of these, the first two were contemporary 
 with Alexander the Great, in the fourth century before 
 Christ. Longinus does not mention Moses by name, 
 but as w the legislator of the Jews," quoting Gen. i. 3 
 
THE OLD TESTABIENT. 99 
 
 as an instance of sublimity. (Rawlinson, pp. 43, 
 329-331.) 
 
 In the Bhagavat, an ancient Hindoo poem, the Lord 
 of the universe speaks thus to Satiavrata : " In seven 
 days from the present time, O thou tamer of enemies, 
 the three worlds will be plunged in an ocean of death ; 
 but in the midst of the destroying waves, a large vessel, 
 sent by me for thy use, shall stand before thee. Then 
 shalt thou take all medicinal herbs, all the variety of 
 seeds, and accompanied by seven saints, encircled by 
 pairs of all brute animals, thou shalt enter the spacious 
 ark, and continue in it, secure from the flood, on one 
 immense ocean without light, except the radiance of thy 
 holy companions." (p. 344.) 
 
 A similar account is given by Berosus, the Chaldean 
 historian, of Xisuthrus, in which the incident of the 
 sending forth of birds is related, as in Gen. viii. (p. 63. ) 
 
 Manetho, the Egyptian historian, and Berosus, the 
 Chaldean, present records of the ancient dynasties that 
 were said to have governed their respective countries ; 
 and while they ascend to an antiquity far beyond that 
 recorded in the Bible, this relates alone to a period of 
 fabulous gods and heroes. When they reach the time 
 of legitimate history, their dates correspond nearly with 
 those of the Hebrew Scriptures, (pp. 57—60.) 
 
 Three ancient authors, Moses of Chorene, Procopius, 
 and Suidas, relate that there existed in their times, at 
 Tingis, or Tangiers, in Africa, an ancient inscription, to 
 the effect that the inhabitants were descendants of those 
 fugitives who were driven from the land of Canaan by 
 Joshua, the son of Nun, the plunderer, (pp. 91, 92.) 
 
 Nicolaus of Damascus, the friend of Augustus Caesar, 
 
100 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 gives, from the records of his native city, an account of 
 the war of the ancient king, Hadad, with David, king of 
 Judea, confirming the account in 2 Sam. viii. 5, 6. (p. 95.) 
 
 In 1 Kings xvi. 31, we are told that Ahab "took to 
 wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zido- 
 nians." In the Tyrian history of Menander we are told 
 that Eithobalus, priest of Ashteroth, became king of 
 Tyre by murdering his predecessor, at a time which ex- 
 actly agrees with this statement. We are also told that, 
 during the reign of this prince, a remarkable drought 
 occurred in Phoenicia, which continued for a year. (See 
 1 Kings xvii. 1 ; xviii. 1-5 ; Rawlinson, p. 127.) The 
 priestly office held by Eithobalus, and the crime by which 
 he gained his power, coincide with the blending of idola- 
 trous fanaticism and bloody ambition in his daughter 
 Jezebel and his granddaughter Athaliah. (1 Kings 
 xviii. 4 ; xxi. 5-15 ; 2 Kings viii. 18, 26 ; xi. 1, 18.) 
 
 The scriptural accounts of Pharaoh Necho (2 Kings 
 xxiii. 29-35; Jer. xlvi. 2), and Pharaoh Hophra (Jer. 
 xliv. 30), are confirmed by Manetho and Herodotus, 
 (pp. 148, 149.) 
 
 Events in sacred history are also confirmed in a very 
 interesting manner by the recently deciphered inscrip- 
 tions on the monuments of Egypt, and on those which 
 have been discovered at Nineveh and other Assyrian cities. 
 
 The conquest of Rehoboam by Shishak, king of 
 Egypt (1 Kings xiv. 25, 26), "is found to have been 
 commemorated by Shishak on the outside of the great 
 temple at Karnac ; and here, in a long list of captured 
 towns and districts, which Shishak boasts of having: 
 added to his dominions, occurs the 'Melchi Yudah,' or 
 kingdom of Judah." (pp. 125, 126.) 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. 101 
 
 <f The separate existence of the two kingdoms of Israel 
 and Judah is abundantly confirmed by the Assyrian in- 
 scriptions. Kings of each country occur in the accounts 
 which the great Assyrian monarchs have left us of their 
 conquests, the names being always capable of easy iden- 
 tification with those recorded in Scripture, and occurring 
 in the chronological order which is there given." (p. 125. ) 
 
 The reign of Ben-hadad at Damascus, his military 
 power, and even the peculiar construction of his armies 
 (1 Kings xx. 1, 25), are illustrated by Assyrian in- 
 scriptions, (pp. 130, 407.) On the same monument 
 Hazael appears as successor to Ben-hadad ; and Jehu is 
 mentioned as kino- of Israel at the same date. 
 
 The intervention of Tiglath-Pileser in behalf of Ahaz 
 against the united forces of Syria and Israel (2 Kings 
 xvi. 7) is confirmed in the same manner. The erection 
 by Ahaz of a Syrian, or rather Assyrian, altar at Jeru- 
 salem (verse 10), is explained by the inscriptions, from 
 which it appears that it was customary to require subject 
 nations thus to acknowledge the gods of the conquerors. 
 (p. 136.) 
 
 The subjugation of Hezekiah by Sennacherib (2 Kings 
 xviii. 13) is confirmed by a long inscription, agreeing 
 with the scriptural account in every particular, except 
 that it states the tribute in silver at a higher amount. 
 That in gold is precisely the same — thirty talents. 
 (p. 141.) 
 
 We are told, in 2 Chron. xxiii. 11, that the king of 
 Assyria took Manasseh king of Judah captive, and car- 
 ried him to Babylon. This statement appears strange, 
 as Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and we know 
 Babylon in connection with a later empire. But the 
 9* 
 
102 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 inscriptions show us that Esar-haddon, the monarch in 
 question, and he only of all the Assyrian kings, built a 
 palace at Babylon, and occasionally held his court there. 
 Manasseh is mentioned among his subject princes. 
 (p. 145.) 
 
 The king of Egypt, whose name is given as So in our 
 translation, would, with different vowel-points, which are 
 a comparatively modern addition, be recognized as Sevech. 
 This monarch appears both in Manetho and in the Egyp- 
 tian inscriptions, and his connection with Assyrian history 
 » is confirmed by the discovery of his seal at Koyunjik, in 
 Assyria. (2 Kings xvii. 4. Kawlinson, p. 147.) 
 
 In Daniel v., Belshazzar is named as the last king 
 of Babylon, and as having been slain when the city 
 was taken by the Medes and Persians. This state- 
 ment long appeared to be contrary to that of profane 
 historians, who named Nabonadius as the last king, and 
 declared that he was absent from Babylon at the time of 
 its occupation by the enemy, and that he was afterwards 
 taken prisoner, and treated with generosity. But in 
 1854 the discovery was made, from inscriptions at 
 Mugheir, the ancient "Ur of the Chaldees," that 
 Nabonadius had associated with him in the sovereignty 
 a son whose name corresponds with the account in 
 Daniel, (pp. 168-170.) 
 
 II. The Internal Evidence of the Old Testament is 
 found in the agreement of the statements and references 
 there with what is known from other sources of the his- 
 tory, geography, and antiquities of Palestine and neigh- 
 boring countries ; in coincidences between the books, 
 especially where they are obviously undesigned ; and in 
 the general simple, truthful style of the narrative. For 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. 103 
 
 example, the history of the deliverance from Egypt, and 
 of the wanderings in the wilderness, exhibits a perfect 
 acquaintance on the part of the writer with the geogra- 
 phy of the region where the scene is laid ; so that the 
 route of the Israelites may be readily traced by the trav- 
 eller. The Red Sea, at the point where the Israelites 
 are described to have crossed, is a narrow and shallow 
 sound, where the concurrence of a strong wind and an 
 ebb tide might facilitate such a passage. 
 
 Much of the history is given in two accounts, the 
 books of Chronicles confirming the statements in those 
 of Samuel and Kings. 
 
 There are numerous coincidences between the histori- 
 cal books and the prophecies and psalms. (Compare, 
 fur instance, Judges ix. 53 with 2 Sam. xi. 21 ; Josh, 
 xviii. 1 with Jer. vii. 12 ; 2 Kings hi. 27 with Amos ii. 1.) 
 
 The argument from Institutions, as shown in a previous 
 section (see p. 34), is applicable to the religion of the 
 Old Testament, as well as to that of the New. The 
 Passover, still observed among the Jews, bears witness 
 to the deliverance from Egypt ; and numerous other 
 observances, whether now maintained or not, but well 
 known to have been observed before the destruction of 
 the temple, testify to the truth of those Scriptures which 
 alone explain their origin. (See this argument further 
 developed in Leslie's " Short Method with Deists.") 
 
 It is not necessary, however, in this brief summary, 
 to dwell further on particulars of this nature. To 
 Christians, the great evidence for the authority of the 
 Old Testament is that derived from its connection with 
 the New; and for questions of Old Testament criticism, 
 regarding the authorship of books, or correctness of 
 
104 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 historical accounts, so far as they do not affect the 
 acknowledgment of the Jewish law as of divine origin, 
 Christianity is not responsible. 
 
 Section 29. Old Testament Prophecy. 
 
 An important branch of the Evidences of Christianity 
 is derived from the fulfilment of prophecy. In consid- 
 ering this, we view first the Prophecies of the Old 
 Testament fulfilled in the New. 
 
 Independently of especial predictions, the history of 
 the Jews, with that of their thoughts and feelings, pos- 
 sesses a prophetical character. 
 
 Other nations have fixed their ideal of human exist- 
 ence in the past. The Greeks and Romans held that 
 there had been a golden age, when mankind were pure 
 and happy. The Hebrews shared this view only in 
 reference to the primitive happiness and innocence of the 
 Garden of Eden. When that brief period w r as at an 
 end their imagination turned towards the future. 
 
 All through the Jewish history there appears an antici- 
 pation of a glorious Ruler, to be sent by Heaven, and of a 
 happy and virtuous state. Tins anticipation not only ap- 
 pears in occasional passages, but it became interwoven 
 with the thoughts of the people ; so that about the 
 time of the Christian era, the expectation of such a ruler 
 was general, not only in Judea, but in the surrounding 
 nations. This we have on the authority of the Jewish 
 historian Josephus, and of the Romans Suetonius and 
 Tacitus. (See Josephus, Bell. Jud. vi. 5, § 4; Sueto- 
 nius, Vita Vespasiani, § 4; Tacitus, Hist., § 13. 
 
 This expectation was so strongly fixed in the mind of 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. 105 
 
 the Jewish race, that it remained after their rejection of 
 the claims of Jesus, has survived the disappointments, 
 wanderings, and sufferings of eighteen hundred years, 
 and is still cherished* by their descendants to this day. 
 
 While they looked forward to this personage, whom 
 they called the Messiah, as a conquering king, they also 
 anticipated that he would restore the national purity of 
 worship. 
 
 At the same time, they found passages in their 
 prophetical books inconsistent with the idea of his 
 uninterrupted success — passages intimating a ministry 
 of suffer in o\ Hence some of their writers assert that 
 there will be two Messiahs ; one the son of David, a 
 royal conqueror ; the other the son of Ephraim, a suffer- 
 ing reformer. (See Strauss's Life of Jesus, Part III., 
 ch. i. § 112.) 
 
 Such are the indications of the Old Testament, accord- 
 ing to the interpretation put upon it by the race who 
 received it as divinely communicated. 
 
 At the age of the world when the expectation of a 
 Messiah was most active in the minds of men, a person 
 appeared whose character and history corresponded to 
 this expectation. He is represented to have been a 
 descendant of David. Although not literally a king, he 
 called the community he established a kingdom ; and the 
 term was justified by the greatness of the power his 
 teachings exercised. Although not literally a conqueror, 
 his cause has triumphed over the opposition of monarchs 
 and of nations, and now exerts its control over the civil- 
 ized world. 
 
 The predictions of a suffering Messiah have been ful- 
 filled more literally, for Jesus endured poverty, reproach, 
 
106 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 abandonment, and betrayal, and finally laid down his life 
 in the cause of his religion. 
 
 If it be objected that the character in which Jesus 
 appeared was not that of a triumphant king in which he 
 w T as foretold, and that on this account he was rejected by 
 his own nation, who were best qualified to judge of his 
 claims, we reply, — 
 
 1. That it is essential to the character of prophecy 
 that it should not indicate its accomplishment with per- 
 fect clearness. If it did, the fulfilment would appear to 
 have been brought about by studied effort. 
 
 2. The reasons of the rejection of Jesus by his coun- 
 trymen are apparent. The nation was eager for deliver- 
 ance from the Roman yoke, and looked for the Messiah 
 to lead them to this object. They rejected, therefore, 
 the claims of a peaceful, spiritual Messiah. Joined to 
 their disappointment on this account was the opposition 
 of the ruling classes to all attempts at reform — an oppo- 
 sition greatly embittered by Jesus' bold denunciation of 
 their prevalent vices. 
 
 3. While the Jews were thus prejudiced by their 
 national feelings against the claims of Jesus, they had 
 an answer to the evidence of miracles which would not 
 be sanctioned by the philosophy of our day. It does not 
 appear, either from the New Testament or from the 
 Jewish or heathen writers, that they ever denied the 
 reality of the miracles ; but they asserted that these were 
 wrought by the power of evil spirits. (See Matt. xii. 
 24; Luke xi. 15; John viii. 48.) 
 
 4. The chief reason, named above, for which the Jews 
 rejected the claims of Jesus, is to us a strong proof in 
 favor of those claims. He fulfilled the prophecies in a 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. 107 
 
 higher sense than the prophets themselves probably were 
 able to grasp. His nation, in the worldliness of their 
 views, were disappointed in him; but we, at this dis- 
 tance of time, can perceive their error. The station 
 which the Savior has held, for ages after ages, as spir- 
 itual king of numerous nations, and as the guide of 
 mankind in the path of virtue, — to say nothing of any 
 supremacy he may exercise hereafter in the future life, — 
 is far higher than the glory of a conquering king of 
 Palestine. This thought, of the superiority of his spir- 
 itual dominion to a kingdom like that of David, he sua:- 
 gested in the form of a question, but found no response. 
 (Matt. xxii. 45.) 
 
 5. Yet it is scarce conceivable that a Jew, in that age 
 of formal observances and low morality, should (except 
 by divine revelation) have entertained the idea of fulfil- 
 ling the prophecies in this higher sense ; that he should 
 have believed the predictions, and that he was the person 
 to whom they pointed, yet should have refused to tread 
 the path of military adventure, which all around ex- 
 pected him to tread, incurring thus the danger of a 
 shameful death ; and that by this strange path he should 
 actually have succeeded in his bold aspirations. 
 
 6. It may be further remarked, that the idea being 
 imparted to the prophets, by revelation, of a leader and 
 reformer, divinely sent and consecrated, they would of 
 necessity imagine him to occupy the station which would 
 seem most dignified and most favorable for his task — 
 the station of king and conqueror. 
 
 7. We are taught, by indications in the prophets 
 themselves, that predictions are sometimes conditional, 
 and that their fulfilment may be prevented by the 
 
108 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 unworthiness of those to whom a promise is made ; or 
 by their repentance, if the prophecy be a threat. (See 
 Jer. xviii. 7-10; Jonah iii. 10; iv. 11.) We can con- 
 ceive that if the Jews had accepted Jesus as the Messiah, 
 the prophecies respecting him might have been fulfilled 
 in their lower sense as well as in their higher. The 
 gentle spirit of his religion might have prevented the 
 rebellion which led to their national overthrow ; the 
 gospel might have spread with great rapidity ; and 
 Jesus, without directly interfering with established mon- 
 archies, might have ruled them all. Admitting that the 
 divine promise was to be understood in a strictly literal 
 sense, we see how it might have been fulfilled, had it not 
 been forfeited by the national rejection of Jesus. 
 
 The above argument, from the Jews' expectation of 
 the Messiah, and the fulfilment of it by Jesus, would 
 have force, even if every prophecy now applied to him 
 were proved to have had some other application. For 
 the questions would still occur, How came the Jewish 
 people to anticipate a Messiah? and How, without divine 
 intervention, was this anticipation met by the coming of 
 one who should save and rule not only Israel, but the 
 human race? The expectation and its fulfilment fit into 
 each other as parts of the same whole. 
 
 Section 30. The Jewish Revelation prophetic 
 of the Christian. 
 
 Again, the Jewish revelation is a prophecy of the 
 Christian. 
 
 The Jewish religion possesses, as we have seen 
 (p. 91), strong claims to a divine origin. It teaches 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. 109 
 
 the unity and other attributes of God, which all the 
 surrounding nations denied ; it teaches a much purer 
 morality than theirs ; its documents, which have evi- 
 dently come down from a very high antiquity, and its 
 tradition, confirmed by that of the rival branch, the 
 Samaritans, agree in testifying to ancient divine mani- 
 festations, revealing the truths it teaches. But the 
 Jewish religion alone is incomplete, deficient. Many of 
 its instructions are evidently intended for the tribes to 
 whom it was originally given, not for all mankind. It 
 prescribes a ritual service, to be performed in one place, 
 to which the people were required to resort three times a 
 year (Ex. xxiii. 17), and forbids altars to be erected for 
 sacrifice elsewhere. These and other regulations are 
 evidently national. In some laws, too, the object plainly 
 was, to keep the people apart from other nations. Thus 
 the complicated distinctions between clean and unclean 
 meats, and other rules relating to ceremonial purity, ren- 
 dered it difficult for Jews to live on terms of familiar 
 intercourse with foreigners. (Lev. xi.) By such laws 
 commerce was discouraged, while agriculture was cher- 
 ished by regulations for the tenure of land, which it was 
 made impossible for any family permanently to alienate. 
 (Lev. xxv. 10, 23-34.) 
 
 Even if it were admitted that many or most of these 
 rules were of more recent date than has generally been 
 assigned to them, we have reason to suppose that their 
 spirit was in accordance with the known customs and 
 tendency of the nation. So too if it were admitted that 
 the books ascribed to Moses were of later origin than his 
 time, the general substance of the account they give 
 must still be in accordance with national traditions. No 
 10 
 
110 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 man could. impose upon a people an entirely false account 
 of their own origin, and of the derivation and meaning 
 of all their public observances, for the humblest citizen 
 would be able to contradict him. (See p. 33.) 
 
 Three suppositions may be formed to account for the 
 existence of the Jewish religion. 
 
 I. That it was the growth of human thought. 
 
 II. That it was revealed from above as a system com- 
 plete and permanent. 
 
 III. That it was revealed from above as a system pre- 
 paratory to a fuller revelation. 
 
 1. The first supposition implies the falsehood of all 
 the historical and traditional accounts, so far as they 
 involve anything of miracle. It implies, therefore, that 
 those who taught this system were guilty of imposture 
 on the largest scale. The peculiar purity and nobleness 
 of the system render it difficult to believe this respecting 
 its authors. As we look upon the whole world lying in 
 the darkness of idolatry, and one only nation worshipping 
 the living and true God, we naturally recognize this ex- 
 ception, not as the result of vile fraud and jugglery, but 
 as designed by God to keep alive the remembrance of 
 truth upon the earth. 
 
 2. The second supposition is inconsistent with what 
 we have pointed out as the temporary and limited char- 
 acteristics of the system. It was designed for a single 
 nation ; and, so far from encouraging them to become 
 teachers of the truth to others, it kept them from inter- 
 course with others by jealous restrictions. -It taught the 
 brotherhood of all Israelites, but said little of the broth- 
 erhood of mankind ; and this though it held within 
 itself, in its account of the common origin of man, the 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. Ill 
 
 germ of a more comprehensive liberality. So, though it 
 taught the Unity of God, it announced him as especially 
 the God of Abraham and his descendants. 
 
 3. These limitations of the system show its prepara- 
 tory character. It was from above, but was not the last 
 nor the best gift of Heaven. Its character as a local 
 religion showed that a universal one was yet to come ; 
 its character as a ceremonial system betokened the future 
 approach of one which should be spiritual. 
 
 And Christianity fulfils this promise of its predecessor. 
 It does no dishonor to the Jewish system ; accepts it as 
 divine, so far as it goes ; but goes beyond it, and renders 
 it complete. Without Christianity we could not account 
 for God's giving a system so glorious, yet so imperfect, 
 as Judaism. Without Judaism we could not account for 
 the fact that God withheld from the world, for so many 
 ages, the light of Christianity. 
 
 The period when that light was given, and the circum- 
 stances which accompanied it, indicate, by their appro- 
 priateness," the agency of divine wisdom. It was when 
 the Jewish observances had lost much of their spiritual 
 life, and become debased to formalism and bigotry, and 
 when the heathen systems around had, to a great extent, 
 lost their hold on the faith of the nations that yet out- 
 wardly maintained them. The tribes of the East had 
 been brought together into one political family by the 
 conquests of Alexander the Great, and those of the West 
 by the conquests of the Romans ; while the final ascen- 
 dency of the latter had combined the whole in one great 
 empire, throughout which two languages, — and those 
 nearly related to each other, — the Greek and the Latin, 
 were generally understood. The brilliant period of 
 
112 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 heathen philosophy was past, so that its rivalship to the 
 new religion was little to be dreaded : and the long and 
 bloody civil wars of the Roman empire had been closed 
 by the triumph of Augustus. Then, too, the successive 
 invaders of Palestine had carried thence multitudes of 
 captive Jews, and had settled them in the principal cities 
 of Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy ; so that there was 
 everywhere the material for forming the nucleus of a 
 Christian church. Thus, by divine appointment, the 
 conquests of ambitious men and the pride of philosophy 
 were overruled for the extension of the great blessing 
 that was about to be given to the world. 
 
 If it be objected that these favorable circumstances, 
 instead of proving the care of Providence for the spread 
 of the truth, should rather be regarded as sufficient to 
 account for the spread of an imposture, the reply is easy. 
 These same circumstances, of intellectual light and pro- 
 found peace, while they would favor the diffusion of truth, 
 would be unfavorable to that of falsehood, for they would 
 render its detection easier. The existence of a Jewish 
 community in every city not only gave the Christian 
 teachers the means of obtaining their first hearing, but 
 it gave their opponents also the means of answering 
 them, so far as any answer could be given. Deceit 
 prospers best in darkness, but the light was favorable to 
 Christianity because it was the truth. 
 
 If it still be questioned why this blessing of a true 
 religion was so long withheld from all the world ex- 
 cept Palestine, we reply that both sacred and profane 
 history afford indications of an earlier revelation than 
 that given by Moses ; and from this primitive communi- 
 cation was probably derived much of the spiritual knowl- 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. 113 
 
 edge which the heathens possessed. This knowledge 
 became corrupted by polytheism, and afterwards weak- 
 ened by scepticism ; and then it was that the new and 
 full revelation was bestowed. 
 
 Section 31. Individual Prophecies or the Old 
 
 Testament. 
 
 The prophetic passages of the Old Testament which 
 are adduced in proof of its sacred claims are partly those 
 which had their fulfilment before Christ, and partly those 
 which received their accomplishment in him. 
 
 Of the former class we shall present some instances, 
 in predictions of the desolation of cities and regions 
 which were strong and prosperous at the time when these 
 predictions were made. The fulfilment of these prophe- 
 cies is evident to every one who travels in the East, or 
 who reads the accounts presented by such travellers of 
 the desolation of once populous countries, and the ruin 
 of once proud capitals. Such predictions respecting 
 Nineveh may be found in Nahum i. 9, Zeph. ii. 13, 
 15 ; respecting Moab, in Zeph. ii. 8, 9, Jer. xlviii. 42 ; 
 respecting Philistia, in Zeph. ii. 4. The fate of Edom 
 is foretold in Jer. xlix. 16-18 ; a prophecy the fulfil- 
 ment of which was made evident only recently by the 
 discovery of the ruins of Petra, the rock-built capital of 
 Edom. Respecting Egypt, see Ezek. xxix. 15, xxx. 
 13 ; respecting Tyre, Ezek. xxvi. 4, 5 ; and with regard 
 to Babylon, Is. xiii. 20, 21. 
 
 There are many passages in the Old Testament which 
 have been understood as prophetic of the Savior. In- 
 deed, some theologians have been fond of recognizing 
 10* 
 
114 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 not only the language, but the characters, of the Jewish 
 state, as prefiguring the events of the Xew Dispensa- 
 tion. Thus David, Solomon, and others have been 
 represented as types of Christ. 
 
 We cannot wonder at this, when we examine such a 
 portion of Scripture as the seventy-second psalm. This 
 bears, as its title (of whatever authority the title may 
 be) , " For Solomon ; " and to a great extent it seems 
 applicable to him. But there are verses that cannot be 
 applied to any temporal sovereign with propriety. (See 
 verses 5, 7, 11, 17.) These, therefore, have been sup- 
 posed to refer to the Messiah. The usual explanation 
 has been, that Solomon was a type of Christ, and that 
 some things were said of him in that character which 
 were not true of him as an earthly prince. 
 
 Another view of the subject is the following : The 
 prophetic insight into the future had, of course, its limits. 
 The prophets knew that there was to be a glorious per- 
 sonage, whom they contemplated chiefly under the char- 
 acter of the Messiah, or Anointed, — that is, the King. 
 They knew not, however, generally speaking, in what 
 age he was to appear. Each of them, therefore, while 
 foretelling the glories of some monarch's reign, and 
 indulging the hope that he might be the Messiah, would 
 be led to blend with the nearer prospect the vast but less 
 definite perspective of the future age of glory. Thus 
 traits which belong to the Messiah are blended in the 
 second psalm with an inauguration ode ; in the forty-fifth 
 with a marriage hymn ; in the psalm now before us with 
 a song of congratulation ; in Is. vii., xi., and other pas- 
 sages, with predictions of the times of Hezekiah ; and 
 perhaps in Daniel ix. with what related primarily to 
 the age of the Maccabees. 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. 115 
 
 It will not materially affect the value of prophetical 
 evidence if we adopt a wider or a stricter theory of 
 prophetical foreknowledge. Whether any particular 
 writer was himself inspired to foretell future events, or 
 whether he only gave utterance to the national anticipa- 
 tion, derived from divine communications in ages past, 
 his declarations will alike remain proofs of the Messiah- 
 ship of Jesus, convincing in proportion to the clearness 
 with which the reality answered to the prediction. 
 
 We subjoin some of the most remarkable prophecies, 
 which appear to have received their fulfilment in Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Genesis xxii. 18. "In thy seed shall all the nations 
 of the earth be blessed." The hopes of those rude ages 
 were generally fixed on the conquest of other tribes, not 
 on conferring blessings. The promise that looks to such 
 a privilege betokens a wider foresight than that of an 
 ancient chief. It is finding its fulfilment in the progress 
 of Christianity, and could not possibly find it in any 
 other. 
 
 Psalm xxii. In this psalm the following sentences are 
 most observable. The first words, quoted by the Savior 
 on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou for- 
 saken me?" were probably not, as used by him, an ex- 
 clamation of distrust, but an application of the psalm to 
 himself. Verses 7,8. " All they that see me laugh me 
 to scorn ; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, 
 saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver 
 him; let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." 
 Verse 16. " The assembly of the wicked have enclosed 
 me; they pierced my hands and my feet." Verse 18. 
 "They part my garments among them, and cast lots 
 
116 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 upon my vesture." The coincidence of the sixteenth 
 verse with the sufferings of Christ is the more remark- 
 able as the punishment of crucifixion was unknown 
 among the Jews of the age when the psalm was written. 
 
 Psalm ex. 4. "The Lord hath sworn, and will not 
 repent, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Mel- 
 chizedek," that is, a priest of an entirely different order 
 from that of Aaron — a kingly priest, and one without 
 predecessor or successor in his office, as the expression is 
 explained in Heb. vii. This psalm is not the less a 
 prophecy of the Messiah because it portrays him accord- 
 ing to Jewish ideas as a conquering monarch. If the 
 prophets had understood and declared the full spir- 
 itual glory of the revelation that was to come, there 
 would have been nothing left for that revelation to 
 communicate. 
 
 Isaiah ix. 6. "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son 
 is given : and the government shall be upon his shoulder ; 
 and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, 
 the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of 
 Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace 
 there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and 
 upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with 
 judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. 
 The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." Some 
 of the epithets admit of a different translation ; but 
 the passage still points to a greater monarch than any 
 mere Jewish prince. 
 
 Isaiah xlix. 5,6. " Though Israel be not gathered, yet 
 shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God 
 shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing 
 that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT. 117 
 
 of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel : I will 
 also give thee for a light to the Grentiles, that thou 
 mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth." In 
 this passage the prophet penetrates farther into the future 
 than at other times, and recognizes the Messiah rejected 
 by the Jews, but invested with higher glory as the 
 Redeemer of mankind. (See also chapter lx.) 
 
 Isaiah lii. 13, to liii. 12. This remarkable passage is 
 referred to, as prophetic of the Savior, in Acts viii. 32. 
 The appropriateness of this application is evident in the 
 common version, particularly in the 5th, 6th, and 7th 
 verses. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he 
 was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our 
 peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. 
 All we, like sheep, have gone astray ; we have turned 
 every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on 
 him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he 
 was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth : he is brought 
 as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her 
 shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." Some 
 verses, however, acquire a clearer application in the 
 translation of Dr. Noyes, as verses 8-10 : — 
 
 " By oppression and punishment he was taken away ; 
 And who of that generation would consider, 
 That he was cut off from the land of the living, 
 That for the transgression of my people he was smitten ? 
 His grave was appointed with the wicked, 
 And with the rich man was his sepulchre, 
 Although he had done no injustice, 
 And there was no deceit in his mouth. 
 It pleased Jehovah severely to bruise him ; 
 But since he gave himself a sacrifice for sin, 
 He shall see posterity ; he shall prolong his days, 
 And the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand." 
 
118 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 In this passage we have the ideas of suffering 
 patiently endured for the sake of others ; of condem- 
 nation, execution, and burial ; and, notwithstanding all 
 these, of life continued, usefulness, and glory. 
 
 Micahv. 2. "But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though 
 thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of 
 thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in 
 Israel ; whose goings forth have been from of old, from 
 everlasting." (See Matt. ii. 5, 6.) 
 
 Haggai ii. 7, 9. "I will shake all nations, and the 
 desire of all nations shall come : and I will fill this house 
 with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." :t The glory of 
 this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith 
 the Lord of hosts : and in this place will I give peace, 
 saith the Lord of hosts." 
 
 Malachi iii. i. "Behold, I will send my messenger, 
 and he shall prepare the way before me ; and the Lord, 
 whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even 
 the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in ; 
 behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts." (See 
 Matt. xi. 10.) 
 
 Malachi iv. 5, 6. "Behold, I will send you Elijah 
 the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful 
 day of the Lord ; and he shall turn the heart of the 
 fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to 
 their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a 
 curse." (See Matt. xi. 14.) The last words of the 
 Old dispensation are thus connected with the coming of 
 that prophet who was the herald of the New. 
 
NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECY. 119 
 
 Section 32. New Testament Prophecy, and sub- 
 sequent History of the Jews. 
 
 I. Besides the proof of Christianity from prophecies 
 in the Old Testament, which received their fulfilment in 
 Christ, there is another, from predictions either by Jesns 
 himself or his apostles, which have been fulfilled in subse- 
 quent events. 
 
 The most remarkable class of these is that of the pre- 
 dictions concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the 
 overthrow of the Jewish state. These are found at 
 most length in Matt, xxiv., Mark xiii., Luke xvii. 
 20-37, xxi. Perhaps, however, they may appear in a 
 still more striking form in some passages where they 
 occur incidentally, and which bear so evidently the 
 marks of the Savior's peculiar style, or of strong 
 emotion, that we can hardly imagine them to be from 
 any other source than his own lips. (See Matt, xxiii. 
 37-39; Lukexix. 41-44; xxiii. 28-31.) 
 
 The fulfilment of these prophecies is a matter of un- 
 questionable notoriety. About thirty years after the 
 crucifixion, the Jews rebelled against the Roman power. 
 After a war waged with great ferocity on both sides, their 
 capital was besieged, and suffered every extremity of 
 distress from famine and from internal discord, as well 
 as from the arms of the enemy. It was at length taken 
 by assault, utterly destroyed, and the remnant of the 
 people carried into captivity. 
 
 If it be objected that in some of the passages 
 referred to indications are given of events which have 
 not taken place, as of the visible return of Jesus to 
 
120 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 judgment, and of the end of the world, it is sufficient to 
 answer, — 
 
 1. That many of the expressions are evidently highly 
 figurative, and that the figures employed may allowably 
 be supposed to mean nothing more than the rapid exten- 
 sion of the Christian religion, after the Jewish power, 
 which oppressed it, had been broken down. 
 
 2. That, as the ancient prophets, in their visions, 
 often blended the distant with the near, we need not be 
 surprised to find that even our Savior did not distinctly 
 mark the boundaries of time between the events of the 
 approaching age and the final consummation. 
 
 II. As the Old Testament, in its general bearing, has 
 been shown to be prophetic of the New, by its com- 
 bined excellences and deficiencies, necessitating the 
 coming of the system that was to perfect it, and thus 
 proving its truth, so, apart from any direct prediction 
 of our Savior, the events of his life and death necessi- 
 tated the overthrow of the Jewish state, and his claims 
 are confirmed by that catastrophe which fulfilled this 
 implied prediction. 
 
 The Israelitish state had stood for fifteen hundred 
 years. It had survived repeated conquest and captivity, 
 and seemed as likely to endure, in its humble condition, 
 as any other portion of the immense dominions of Rome. 
 The conquerors were tolerant to national peculiarities of 
 belief, and their power was so extensive that rebellion 
 seemed madness. At this time Jesus appeared. He 
 claimed to be the promised Messiah ; but his claim was 
 rejected, and himself cruelly put to death by the nation 
 he addressed. If he was what he claimed to be, this re- 
 jection of him required the rejection of the nation in its 
 
HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 121 
 
 turn, its loss of whatever peculiar privileges it had en- 
 joyed before. This was due, both to retributive justice, 
 and to the vindication of the Messiah's claims. If the 
 Jewish state had stood uninjured for even a hundred 
 years after the crucifixion of Jesus, the fact would have 
 afforded a strong argument against his claim to a divine 
 commission. 
 
 But the fact was otherwise. The great transgression 
 received its punishment in the signal overthrow of the 
 nation by whom it had been committed. The solemn 
 ritual they boasted to have observed, with few intervals, 
 since the days of Moses, was abolished, and has not, for 
 near eighteen hundred years, been ever restored. In 
 this event a strong providential confirmation was given 
 to the authority of Jesus. We have reason to believe 
 that it was so regarded in the age when it took place, 
 and that no event contributed more to strengthen the 
 faith of Christians, and to commend it to the reception 
 of others, than this public vindication of the Redeemer's 
 cause by that divine Providence that rules the affairs of 
 nations. 
 
 It may be further observed, that the overthrow of the 
 Jewish nation was in exact accordance with the threaten- 
 ings, by their own prophets, of calamities that should 
 come upon them if they neglected the law of God. (See 
 Deut. xxviii.) But they had been extremely tenacious 
 of that law, especially during the period preceding their 
 final overthrow. They had not, therefore, committed 
 the offence against which the penalty was denounced, 
 unless it was in rejecting the claims of Jesus ; and the 
 fate that came upon them is unaccountable, except on 
 that supposition. But if Jesus was such a prophet as 
 11 
 
122 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 was foretold in Deut. xviii. 15, then in rejecting him 
 they transgressed the command, and incurred thereby 
 their own rejection. (See verse 19. Acts hi. 22, 23.) 
 The history of the Jewish race, so remarkable in its 
 previous stages, is not less so since that awful event 
 which appeared to be its ruin. The very fact that it is 
 yet existing seems a miracle ; it is indeed a moral mira- 
 cle, such as we have already pointed out in the existence 
 and power of Christianity in the world. (See p. 25.) 
 Other nations of that early period have passed away. 
 The Romans, formerly so powerful, exist no longer ; the 
 tribes which once inhabited France, Spain, and Northern 
 Africa, have left scarce a trace of their languages or 
 their institutions. The Greeks, indeed, who, though 
 subjected, were never actually driven from their soil, nor 
 incorporated with its conquerors, still exist, and speak 
 their ancient language in an altered form ; but they profess 
 a different religion from that of their ancestors. But 
 the Jews, though their state was utterly overthrown, — 
 though their race, driven from Palestine, was the object 
 of cruel oppression, by Turk and Christian, in the various 
 lands through which they were scattered, — yet exist, 
 cherishing their ancient and peculiar language, and hold- 
 ing in reverence their venerable law. This fact, wonderful 
 in itself, possesses the greater claim on our regard, as 
 connected with predictions, both in the Old and New 
 Testaments, whose fulfilment, in some manner unknown 
 to us, may still, with reverence, be anticipated. The 
 Jewish race is apparently preserved for some high pur- 
 pose ; perhaps that its final conversion to Christianity 
 may establish, in clearer light than ever before, the 
 divine authority of the gospel. (See Ezek. xxxvi. 
 25-38; Hosea iii. 5; Rom. xi» 25, 26.) 
 
MARTYRDOMS. 123 
 
 Section 33. Martyrdoms. 
 
 The evidence afforded, by the patient sufferings of the 
 early Christians, to the truth of their religion, may be 
 regarded in two aspects. 
 
 1. As furnishing proof of the sincerity of its early 
 teachers, and thus of the truth of the accounts they 
 gave. 
 
 2. As showing the excellence of the religion, and its 
 divine authority, by the power it exhibited of sustaining 
 its martyrs, and by the qualities of patience, submission, 
 forgiveness to enemies, and hope of heaven, which it 
 communicated to them. 
 
 I. In both these respects the sufferings of Jesus him- 
 self are first to be considered. 
 
 That these sufferings were endured by him in the 
 manner recorded in the Gospels is confirmed to us by 
 the absence of all evidence to the contrary. If the ene- 
 mies of Jesus could with truth have asserted that he 
 begged for his life, retracted his claims, or exhibited 
 anything unworthy in language or in conduct, they 
 would have eagerly proclaimed it ; and we should at 
 least find traces in the Gospels or Epistles of some con- 
 troversy on the subject. 
 
 We have, then, the facts that the Founder of our reli- 
 gion endured a painful and shameful death, in conse- 
 quence of his claims, and that he bore it with the most 
 heroic fortitude, the meekest resignation, and the most 
 touching exhibition of a forgiving spirit towards those 
 by whose agency he suffered. 
 
 These facts show the sincerity of the sufferer. If he 
 
124 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 had made claims which he knew to be false, he would 
 have endeavored to escape by retracting them ; or, if his 
 own pride or the rage of his enemies had pre vented this, 
 the consciousness of guilt would have impaired his cour- 
 age and composure. His prayer for the forgiveness of 
 his enemies, and his words to the penitent thief (Lukexxiii. 
 43), would, then, have been the most blasphemons hypoc- 
 risy, counterfeiting to perfection the language of heavenly 
 mercy and divine authority ; and his last utterance, at 
 the very point of death, "Father, into thy hands I com- 
 mend my spirit," would have been bold mockery of the 
 God before whom he was to appear. This, when taken 
 in connection with all we know of his character and 
 teachings, is utterly incredible. 
 
 II. The Christian religion derives a confirmation of 
 its truth from the sufferings endured by its early preach- 
 ers ; for those preachers must have known the truth or 
 falsehood of what they proclaimed. For instance, they 
 universally declared that Jesus had risen from the dead, 
 and many of them professed to have seen him after his 
 resurrection. If this was not true, they were gross 
 deceivers. Now, if they persevered in the account they 
 gave, notwithstanding that it brought upon them obloquy, 
 danger, and death, their constancy furnishes strong proof 
 that they were true witnesses. 
 
 Of the fact of their sufferings we have, in the first 
 place, a strong presumption from the nature of the case. 
 They braved the hostility alike of Jews and Gentiles ; 
 of the Jews, by maintaining that the Teacher whom 
 they had caused to be crucified was the Messiah, thus 
 accusing the authorities of the nation of a sacrilegious 
 murder ; and of the Gentiles, by undertaking, in the 
 
MARTYRDOMS. 125 
 
 name of this new Teacher, to subvert the established 
 system of heathenism. If they were not persecuted 
 under these circumstances, human nature must have 
 been different in that age from what it has been at any 
 period before or since. 
 
 We have, next, proof from Scripture history. That 
 tells us that some of these early Christian teachers endured 
 exile (Acts viii. 1), scourging (Acts v. 40; xvi. 23), 
 imprisonment (Acts xii. 4; xxiv. 27), stoning (Acts 
 xiv. 19), and distinctly records the violent death of two 
 of their number (Acts vii. 59, 60; xii. 2), within 
 twelve years from that of their Master. 
 
 We have next the testimony of Jewish and heathen 
 writers. Josephus tells us of the martyrdom of the 
 apostle James the Less. He says that in the inter- 
 val between the death of the procurator Festus and 
 the arrival of his successor, the High Priest Ananus 
 caused James, ff the brother of Jesus, who was called 
 Christ," to be put to death by stoning. It is thought 
 by some that the words we have particularly quoted 
 were added in explanation by some transcriber ; but 
 there appears to be no reason to doubt the identity of 
 the victim, as the account given by Eusebius, from 
 Christian tradition, is nearly the same. (See Josephus, 
 Antiq. xx. 9, § 1.) 
 
 Tacitus, who was born in the reign of Nero, about 
 the middle of the first century, tells us that that Em- 
 peror, in order to turn from himself the suspicion of 
 having set fire to the city of Rome, "laid the guilt, 
 and inflicted the most cruel punishments, upon a set of 
 people who were held in abhorrence for their crimes, 
 and called, by the vulgar, Christians. Great numbers 
 11* 
 
126 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 of these were put to death, with various torture, — some 
 being disguised in the skins of beasts and worried to 
 death by dogs, and others wrapped in pitched shirts, 
 and set on fire at evening, that they might serve as 
 torches to illuminate the night." (Annal. xv. 44.) 
 
 Suetonius, another writer of the same age, speaks of 
 the persecution more briefly, and with equal ignorance 
 of the character of those whom it affected. He says, 
 only, " The Christians were punished — a set of men of a 
 new and mischievous superstition." (Vita Neronis, § 16.) 
 
 The account of Tacitus is confirmed by Juvenal, a 
 contemporaneous poet, and by Martial, who wrote some- 
 what later, both of whom refer to the horrible punish- 
 ment of the pitched garment. 
 
 About seventy years after the resurrection, the younger 
 Pliny (Caius Plinius Secundus), Governor of Bithynia 
 and Pontus, wrote to the Emperor Trajan an account of 
 the prevalence of Christianity in the provinces under his 
 care, and of the measures taken for its suppression. 
 The "superstition," according to him, had seized many 
 of either sex and of every age ; not in the cities only, 
 but through the country, so that the temples of the gods 
 were comparatively deserted. The profession of Chris- 
 tianity was a capital crime, and Pliny, though humanely 
 disposed, had put to death many on account of it ; but 
 accusations continued to come in, many from anonymous 
 sources ; and the magistrate could not discover that the 
 persons accused had been guilty of any criminal prac- 
 tices, except attendance on the rites of their faith. From 
 the best that he could learn, too, these consisted only of 
 prayer and singing, a simple banquet, and an exhortation 
 to each other to avoid bad conduct. He writes, there- 
 
MARTYRDOMS. 127 
 
 fore, to the emperor, for further orders. The reply of 
 Trajan approves his course, and directs him not to en- 
 courage informations, but to punish those who should be 
 convicted and should refuse to retract. (Plin. Epist. 
 x. 97.) 
 
 To turn from the evidence of their enemies to that of 
 the Christians themselves, we have the following" from 
 Clement of Rome, one of the apostolical fathers : " Let 
 us take the examples of our own age. Through zeal and 
 envy, the most faithful and righteous pillars of the 
 church have been persecuted even to the most grievous 
 deaths. Let us set before our eyes the holy apostles. 
 Peter, by unjust envy, underwent, not one or two, but 
 many sufferings ; till at last, being martyred, he went to 
 the place of glory that was due unto him. For the same 
 cause did Paul, in like manner, receive the reward of his 
 patience. Seven times he was in bonds ; he was whipped, 
 was stoned ; he preached both in the east and in the west, 
 leaving behind him the glorious report of his faith ; . . . 
 he at last suffered martyrdom by the command of the 
 governors. . . . To these holy apostles were joined a very 
 great number of others, who, having through envy un- 
 dergone, in like manner, many pains and torments, have 
 left a glorious example to us. For this, not only men, 
 but women, have been persecuted, and, having suffered 
 very grievous and cruel punishments, have finished the 
 course of their faith with firmness." 
 
 Passing over the testimony of intermediate writers, we 
 present an extract from a letter of the church of Smyrna, 
 soon after the martyrdom of Poly carp, the disciple of 
 John, A. D. 166. Besides describing his constancy, they 
 say, " The sufferings of all the other martyrs were 
 
128 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 blessed and generous, which they underwent according 
 to the will of God. . . . And indeed, who can choose 
 but admire the greatness of their minds, and that admi- 
 rable patience and love of their Master which then ap- 
 peared in them? who, when they were so flayed with 
 whipping that the frame and structure of their bodies 
 were laid open to their very inward veins and arteries, 
 nevertheless endured it. In like manner those who were 
 condemned to the beasts, and kept along time in prison, 
 underwent many cruel torments, being forced to lie 
 upon sharp spikes laid under their bodies, and tormented 
 with divers other sorts of punishments ; that so, if it 
 were possible, the tyrant, by the length of their suffer- 
 ings, might have brought them to deny Christ." 
 
 In addition to these testimonies from earlier ages, we 
 have that of numerous writers, both heathen and Chris- 
 tian, establishing the fact that at different periods during 
 the first three centuries, the most violent persecutions 
 raged against the Christians. These were sometimes 
 outbreaks of popular fury, or confined to single prov- 
 inces ; but frequently they were carried on throughout 
 the empire with all the resources of absolute power, and 
 all the rage that might mark the death-struggle of the 
 reigning superstition. Ten such general persecutions 
 have been enumerated, and the victims have been com- 
 puted at not less than three millions. 
 
 A very striking confirmation of these historical state- 
 ments is found in the ancient Christian monuments 
 existing in the catacombs at Rome. These are vast 
 subterranean excavations, which were used by the Chris- 
 tians as places of burial for their dead. Their extent is 
 such that they have been estimated to contain nearly 
 
CONCLUSION. 129 
 
 seven millions of graves, fully confirming the accounts 
 of ancient writers respecting the great number who em- 
 braced Christianity. Among the inscriptions here, the 
 word Martyr, and the palm and other emblems of mar- 
 tyrdom, are of frequent occurrence ; and in some instances 
 the tale of Christian endurance is more fully related. 
 (See Rawlinson's Bampton Lectures, pp. 282-288, 530.) 
 The later of these victims could not, of course, pre- 
 sent in their sufferings such strong confirmation of the 
 truth as the first had done ; for their belief was founded, 
 not on personal knowledge, but on the evidence of others. 
 But they proved their own strong reliance on the good 
 faith of their instructors, respecting whom they had the 
 best means of knowledge ; and these instructors, in turn, 
 testified to the fidelity of those who went before them. 
 The martyrs showed, too, in a most striking manner, the 
 power of their religion to support the soul, and to impart 
 the holiest feelings of submission to God, and of for- 
 giveness and love to man. The prayer of the Savior, 
 pardoning his murderers, found repeated imitation among 
 those who suffered as his disciples. The patience and 
 piety with which the Christians bore their persecutions, 
 won constantly new followers, as those around saw, by 
 such indications, the divine glory of the faith by which 
 they were upheld. 
 
 Section 34. Conclusion. 
 
 We have thus presented, in a brief outline, the argu- 
 ments for the truth of the Christian system. Much 
 learning and ability have been employed, in times past 
 and in our own, in developing the various portions of 
 
130 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 this evidence, and guarding the religion of Jesus, at all 
 points, against the assaults of infidelity. Such labor 
 has been of high importance ; and yet it is not by in- 
 genious arguments that the disciples of Christ have 
 generally been won or secured. It has been by the 
 beauty and holiness of the system, by its adaptation to 
 human nature, and by the power and excellence of the 
 influence it has been seen to exert. We conclude, there- 
 fore, with a few words upon a subject already presented 
 among others — the Efficacy of Christianity. 
 
 This has been proved, in the first place, by the public 
 improvements which the gospel has brought about. 
 That it has not done all that might be desired, is con- 
 fessed. It has not removed sin nor sorrow from the 
 earth; and while man continues a free agent, no means, 
 however powerful, can effect this. But the gospel has 
 done much. It put an end to the cruel games of the 
 lioman amphitheatre, where men were made to slaughter 
 each other for the amusement of the citizens. It re- 
 strained licentiousness, and banished almost from human 
 knowledge some forms of sensuality once freely indulged 
 in. It has softened the conduct of war, established 
 bounds to despotic authority, abolished the cruel and 
 licentious form of slavery which prevailed eighteen hun- 
 dred years ago, triumphed over the slavery of the feudal 
 system, and is now exterminating, throughout the earth, 
 that later form of this evil which till recently prevailed 
 in our own country. It has established hospitals, and 
 encouraged schools and universities. The Greatest and 
 best of reformers have been made such by the Christian 
 religion. The noblest names among the benefactors of 
 humanity are inscribed in its annals. 
 
CONCLUSION. 131 
 
 In more private life, the efficacy of Christianity is 
 witnessed wherever we turn our sight. If we inquire 
 by what power the evil propensities of a neighborhood 
 have been subdued, we find that it was by the coming 
 among; them of some religious teacher. If we hear of a 
 man, formerly reckless and dissolute, brought to a peace- 
 able and sober life, we learn that he has been converted 
 at a camp-meeting, or in some more gradual manner 
 been brought to the love of Christ and his gospel. 
 If we ask the bereaved what has brought them comfort, 
 they answer, the religion of Christ. If we look around, 
 to see what now is civilizing:; the globe, we find it is the 
 gospel in the. hands of Christian missionaries. 
 
 If we look within, and strive to discern with what 
 power or influence our best thoughts and feelings are 
 connected ; by what we have been kept back from wrong 
 or encouraged to right doing ; by what we have been 
 led to repentance, cheered in sorrow, or strengthened 
 for virtuous effort, — we find that, from whatever the im- 
 pulse directly proceeded, it was connected, nearly or 
 remotely, with the precepts and example of Jesus Christ. 
 The enlightening and healing power of the gospel has 
 come to us from the guidance of Christian parents, from 
 the teachings of the Christian pulpit, from the institu- 
 tions, the customs, the habits of thought and feeling of 
 a Christian community. We recognize in the gospel 
 the source of every hallowed influence ; we perceive its 
 result within ourselves, and we know that the medicine 
 must be genuine from its power to heal. 
 
 To him in whose inward experience it is fully realized, 
 this evidence to the truth of Christianity from personal 
 knowledge of its worth is the most powerful of all. It 
 
132 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 is this which retains, in firm allegiance to Christ, thou- 
 sands who have never had it in their power to examine 
 the testimony of antiquity, or to follow the researches 
 of science. They know the truth of the religion because 
 it has been to them individually " the power of God unto 
 salvation." Let the assurance they give us encourage 
 our efforts, and if convinced by the evidences we have 
 surveyed, that Jesus spake the words of God, let us 
 strive, by obedience to his holy law, to crown our specu- 
 lative faith in his gospel by personal experience of its 
 inestimable value. 
 
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 Section I. — 1. Whence is knowledge on religious subjects commonly de- 
 rived ? 2. What original sources can be named ? 3. What do we learn from 
 innate ider.s? 4. What from nature? 5. Why are not these means of knowl- 
 edge sufficient. G. Into what errors have men fallen with regard to the nature 
 of God? 7. What is said of morality among the ancient heathen? 8. What 
 of customs of society? 9. Human sacrifices ? 10. Divine honors ? 11. What 
 is said of those who now reject Christianity? 12. What then seems probable ? 
 13. What instances of God's goodness confirm this probability ? 14. Of what 
 can revelation alone assure us? 1-5. By what is this probability further 
 confirmed ? 
 
 Section II. — 1. What is a miracle ? 2. What must revelation be, and 
 why? 3. What is implied in denying the possibility of miracle? 4. What is 
 said of the uniformity of the laws of nature ? 5. What of the power of God ? 
 6. Why does religion appear worthy of miraculous intervention ? 7. To what 
 miracle or miracles does science testify ? 8. What does Geology teach ? 
 9. Why must the beginnings of vegetable and animal life have been miracu- 
 lous ? 10. How is this conclusion affected, if we admit the theory of gradual de- 
 velopment ? 11. How, if creation be resolved into a single impulse ? 12. What 
 inference can we draw from creation to revelation? 13. How may miracles be 
 consistent with laws of nature? 14. Give the illustration of the bird in the 
 forest. 15. That of the sunrise and the comet. 16. What has been argued 
 from human experience ? 17. To what does our individual experience amount ? 
 18. Is all the testimony of past ages on one side ? 19. On which side is the 
 positive testimony — for miracles, or against them ? 20. To what two purposes 
 are miracles applied ? 21. Why not to others ? 22. What must miracles be, in 
 order to command belief? 23. What must the revelation be which they sus- 
 tain? 24. How must they be proved? 25. What does Christianity claim? 
 20. What passages are referred to? (This question may be asked in all future 
 references to passages of Scripture.) 27. What does consistency require of us ? 
 28. Supposing Christianity received on other grounds, what connection would 
 miracles have with its authority ? 29. How would they prove God's love to 
 man? 30. What is the most suitable question for us to ask ? 
 
 Section III. — 1. What inquiry now meets us? 2. What is said of 
 Christianity and civilization? 3. Of the condition of woman? 4. Charac- 
 ter of Christiana ? 5. Admissions of sceptics ? 6. Endeavors to improve 
 
 12 
 
134 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 Christianity ? 7. What idea does Christianity give of God ? 8. "What of man ? 
 
 9. Of duty? 10. Of man's destiny? 11. For what does it alone exhibit a 
 fitness? 12. What is said of the requirements of Mohammedanism? 13. Of 
 Judaism? 14. How does Christianity differ from them? 15. From what does 
 it propose to save its disciples ? 
 
 Section IV. — 1. What are the other religions in the world ? 2. How was 
 Judaism given ? 3. In what respects is it incomplete ? 4. How is the spirit 
 of Judaism, in some former ages, exemplified in the second book of Esdras ? 
 5. From what is Mohammedanism derived ? 6. What is its character ? 7. What 
 is said of Mormonism. ? 8. Why may Buddhism be distinguished from oth-^r 
 heathen religions ? 9. What are some of its characteristics ? 10. What is 
 said of Heathenism? 11. What is said of ancient philosophers ? 12. Of 
 Plato ? 13. What is said of other religions respecting miracles ? 14. What of 
 Mohammedanism? 15. Brahminism and Heathenism? 16. By what names is 
 Deism sometimes called ? 17. From what are its doctrines in great part de- 
 rived ? 18. What doctrines are doubted by some among those who reject 
 Christianity ? 
 
 Section V. — 1. In what does Christianity coincide with natural religion? 
 2. How has modern science made this clearer ? 3. What resemblance between 
 God's government in nature and in Christianity with regard to small things ? 
 4. What in regard to the practical and the theoretical ? 5. How does Chris- 
 tianity teach concerning a future life ? 6. How does Mohammedanism ? 7. How 
 is Christianity analogous to nature in its operation on the heart, and on socie- 
 ty ? S. How in its remedial character? 9. How in its mediatorial character? 
 
 10. What cases of suffering are analogous to the death of Christ ? 11. How has 
 this agreement with nature been used as an argument against Christianity ? 
 
 12. Why should we not expect all the teachings of Jesus to be new? 13. For 
 what purposes, beyond the teaching of new truth, did he come? 
 
 Section VI. — 1. How otherwise may the harmony of Christianity with 
 nature be seen ? 2. How is it addressed to the intellect? 3. How to the imagi- 
 nation? 4. Give an account of some of the passages referred to. 5. How is 
 Christianity adapted to the conscience and the will ? 0. What is said respect- 
 ing future judgment? 7. What of the excitement of conscience ? 8. Hope of 
 pardon and assistance ? 9. How is it adapted to the affections in the idea it 
 presents of God ? 10. How in that of the Savior? 11. How in regard to the 
 domestic and social affections? (Under each question give the passages 
 referred to.) 
 
 Section VII. — 1. What does the moral law of Christianity embrace? 
 2. How are these principles taught by heathen philosophers, by the Old Testa- 
 ment, and by Christ ? 3. What further rules are given by Christianity, ex- 
 pressly or by implication ? 4. In what respects is Christianity a system of 
 restraint ? 5. What opposite evil does it avoid ? G. What virtues have bpen 
 most popular? 7. What least so? 8. Which would an uninspired teacher 
 have chiefly commended, and why ? 9. Why would an ambitious leader have 
 urged them? 10. Which did Jesus commend? 11. How do his precepts of 
 meekness and forgiveness appear practicable ? 12. What did this course show? 
 
 13. Did he discountenance then the popular class of virtues ? 14. Why did he 
 not directly commend them ? 15. How did he encourage them ? 1G. Give the 
 
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 135 
 
 passages referred to. 17. To what does Christianity ascribe the evils that 
 exist? 18. How have reformers in general directed their efforts? 19. Why 
 have they done right in this ? 20. Why, then, has Christianity done better? 
 
 21. Why would not a fanatic have taken this ground? 22. An impostor? 
 23. How have some defended certain evil institutions ? 24. How has the same 
 fact been used by others ? 25. What furnishes a reply to both arguments ? 
 26. What is said of despotism ? 27. What of the gladiatorial combats ? 28. 
 What principles did Christ lay clown? 29. What institutions and practices are 
 condemned by him? 30. AV hat distinction may be made by objectors between 
 receiving the morality of Christ and receiving his religion? 31. If one sin- 
 cerely obeys his moral precepts, what will probably follow ? 32. What does 
 the holiness of the system prove ? 33. With what is its morality inseparably 
 connected ? 34. Give the substance of the extract from Professor Norton. 
 
 Section Till. — 1. What is said of the personal character of the founder, 
 in most systems ? 2. What claim did Jesus make ? 3. Why would not a 
 fanatic have done thus ? 4. Why would not an impostor ? 5. What has been 
 admitted by many, who did not receive Christianity as divinely revealed ? 
 G. What are the words of Rousseau ? 7. What those of Renan ? 8. What 
 qualities does the Savior's character combine ? 0. What text illustrates his 
 feelings as a citizen ? 10. What as a friend ? 11. What as a son ? 12. What his 
 courage and gentleness ? 13. What his superiority to prejudice, and his wise 
 self-control ? 14. What his regard for the law, while he blamed the Pharisees ? 
 15. What his course respecting the distribution of property? 1G. What his 
 dignity and meekness ? 17. The manner in which he called his followers to 
 him? 18. When does the beauty of his character most appear? 19. What are 
 the instances referred to as preceding his crucifixion ? 20. Those accompa- 
 nying his crucifixion ? 21. What is one of the highest achievements of art? 
 
 22. What is inferred from this ? 23. Can you name any of the incidents here 
 mentioned which the writers could be supposed to have derived from previous 
 narratives? 24. What is said of the prayer for his murderers? 25. What of 
 his words to the penitent thief? 2G. Give the substance of the passage from 
 President Hill. 
 
 Section IX. — 1. From what source may another argument for Christianity 
 be derived ? 2. What is said of the change produced eighteen centuries since ? 
 3. Of the teacher who wrought this change ? 4. How may so great a result, 
 from means apparently so inadequate, be regarded ? 5. What is said of 
 the birth of Jesus? G. Of his education? 7. Of his means of support? 
 8. Of the opposition against him ? 9. Of the greatness of his claims ? 
 10. What power did he claim ? 11. What in regard to his conduct ? 12. What 
 titles and rank in connection with the Jewish nation? 13. What connection 
 with God ? 14. What did he foretell respecting himself? 15. By what other 
 lofty titles did he announce himself? 16. How must he be regarded, if not 
 divinely commissioned? 17. In what manner did he make these claims? 
 18. What plan did he connect with them? 19. What fate did he foretell for 
 himself? 20. How did this knowledge affect him? 21. Why can we not 
 regard him as deluded ? 22. Why not as an impostor ? 23. What is said of the 
 course he pursued? 24. What sects existed among the Jews at that time? 
 25. What did Jesus denounce in the Pharisees ? 26. In what did he differ from 
 the Sadducees ? 27. In what from the Essenes ? 28. What feeling had they all 
 
136 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 in common ? 29. How would a fanatic have done ? 30. How an impostor ? 
 31. How did Jesus ? 32. How respecting- ceremonies ? 33. Respecting the 
 Samaritans ? 34. Respecting the Temple ? 35. What course did he pursue 
 with regard to the Gentiles ? 3G. Yet what was the result ? 37. What is said 
 of the first day's preaching? 38. Effect of persecution? 39. Contest with 
 Roman power? 40. With barbarism ? 41. Of the present prospects of Chris- 
 tianity ? 42. How is this triumphant system considered by modern sceptics ? 
 
 Section X.— 1. For what reason, besides direct evidence, do the death and 
 resurrection of Jesus claim our belief? 2. What is said of some of the facts 
 of Christianity ? 3. What are these ? 4. What is the tradition of the church 
 respecting the death of the Savior? 5. What is that of its opponents? 
 6. What does a reformer incur ? 7. How if he claims a divine commission ? 
 
 8. What, then, is it agreed, did Jesus undergo ? 9. What is said of crucifixion ? 
 
 10. What must have been the state of his followers after his death? 11. If 
 they had remained in this condition, could the religion have prevailed ? 12. What 
 restored their faith and courage, according to their own account ? 13. How was 
 the resurrection of Jesus proclaimed ? 14. What is the testimony of the book of 
 Acts? 15. What that of 1 Corinthians ? 16. What is the admission of Strauss ? 
 17. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, what must one of his followers have 
 been? 18. What, in that case, did this disciple accomplish? 19. How does 
 modern scepticism meet this argument ? 20. What have some fancied ? 
 21. What does this fail to explain? 22. Why? 23. What is the theory of 
 Strauss on this subject? 24. How only would such an illusion be possible? 
 25. In what, then, does this explanation fail ? 20. How does Strauss account 
 for the testimony of St. Paul? 27. How does this consist with the strength of 
 the apostle's mind ? 28. To what further objection is this supposition liable ? 
 
 Section XI. — 1. What has been inferred from the present existence and 
 power of Christianity? 2. What similar argument is now proposed? 3. What 
 is said of this proof, in reference to others ? 4. Of what do institutions afford 
 proof? 5. What does the observance of the Fourth of July prove? 6. How 
 if all records were lost ? 7. Why could not the observance have arisen in in- 
 tervening ages of darkness ? S. From what kind of cause must it have arisen? 
 
 9. What would decide respecting the real cause ? 10. What was the Passover? 
 
 11. Is it still observed? 12. What does if commemorate ? 13. Why could 
 it not have been instituted at any intervening point of time? 14. What 
 does the observance prove? 15. What respecting the history which records 
 that event ? 10. What does the Feast of Tabernacles prove ? 17. What the 
 Feast of Purim ? 18. What other Jewish institutions ? 19. What are named 
 as Xew Testament institutions? 20. Describe the Communion. 21. Why 
 could not this have been introduced in any intervening age ? 22. From what 
 age must it have come down ? 23. What do the words connected with it imply, 
 as to the author of the custom? 24. What must he have foreseen ? 25. Why 
 must his anticipation have been accomplished ? 20. What might he have done ? 
 27. How does this appear? 28. What did he do instead? 29. What qualities 
 does this rite show that he possessed ? 30. What respecting the fulfilment of 
 his expectations for the success of his cause? 31. What, then, does the ordi- 
 nance prove with regard to the character and endowments of the Savior ? (It 
 may be interesting and useful to follow out, in a similar manner, the argument 
 to be derived from the ordinance of Baptism, Matt, xxviii. 19; that from the 
 
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 137 
 
 institution of the ministry, Matt. x. 1 ; 2 Tim.ii. 2; and that from " the Lord's 
 Day," John xx. 19, 26; Acts xx. 7; 1 Cor. xvi. 2; Kev. i. 10.) 
 
 Section XII. — 1. What claim is peculiar to the religion of the Bible? 
 2. "What was the character of the age in which Jesus lived ? 3. By whom were 
 his actions, instructions, and miracles witnessed and recorded? 4. At what risk 
 were the statements of these witnesses made ? 5. By whom were they received 
 as true ? 6. What of contradictory accounts ? 7. What of legendary additions? 
 8. What are the records of Christianity ? 9. When is a book genuine ? 
 10. When is it authentic? 11. Into what classes is the evidence divided? 
 
 12. "What traditional evidence have we for the books of the New Testament? 
 
 13. What is said of the original manuscripts ? 14. How many manuscripts of 
 the Gospels have been examined ? 15. What is the age of some of them ? 
 16. What is said of the manuscripts of ancient versions ? 17. What of the 
 works of the Christian Fathers ? 18. When are the Gospels admitted to have 
 been in common use ? 19. What is the era of the ascendency of Christianity ? 
 20. By what event was this marked? 21. What did the Boman empire then 
 comprise ? 22. Who wrote about this time ? 23. What testimony does he give 
 to the books of the New Testament ? 24. Of what does he speak doubtfully ? 
 25. Of what does he speak as undoubtedly genuine ? 26. What does this dis- 
 crimination show? 27. When did Origeu die ? 28. How early was he engaged 
 in expounding the Scriptures ? 29. What does he testify respecting the Gospels ? 
 30. What is said of his quotations ? 31. What was the period of Tertullian ? 
 32. What is said of the quotations in this writer ? 33. When did Clement of Alex- 
 andria nourish ? 34. Of what does he give an account ? 35. What distinction 
 does he make? 36. What is the Muratorian Canon? 37. What is its date? 
 38. How is this ascertained ? 39. Of what books does it speak as canonical ? 
 40. By whom and when was it discovered ? 
 
 Section XIII. — 1. When did Irenaeus live? 2. Where and from whom 
 did he receive instruction? 3. Where did he afterwards minister? 4. How 
 do these facts affect the value of his evidence ? 5. What account does he give 
 of the origin of the Gospels? 6. What letter was written about A. D. 170? 
 7. To what books does it contain references ? 8. What was then the age of 
 Pothinus, bishop of Lyons? 9. What do these facts indicate? 10. When did 
 Justin live, and why is he called Martyr ? 11. What is said of his quotations ? 
 12. What account does he give of the Savior ? 13. How far does this differ 
 from the Gospels ? 14. In what instances does he refer to the Gospel of John? 
 15. Why are these quotations of especial importance ? 16. How has this evi- 
 dence been met ? 17. How is the objection removed by the recently discovered 
 Sinaitic manuscript ? 18. What is the date of Papias ? 19. By whom is a frag- 
 ment of his writing preserved ? 20. What is his testimony ? 21. With whose 
 does it agree ? 22. Where did Polycarp preside ? 23. When and how did he 
 die ? 24. What was his answer when life was offered him if he would revile 
 Christ? 25. Of whom had he been a scholar? 26. What does Irenaeus record 
 of him ? 27. What allusions does his Epistle contain ? 28. In what books are 
 the passages alluded to ? 29. By whom and where is Clement of Borne named ? 
 30. From what Gospel does Clement quote ? 31. From what Epistles ? 32. Who 
 are generally called the Apostolical Fathers, and why ? 33. Whom does Papias 
 quote as his instructor ? 34. Who does " John the Elder " appear to have been, 
 from the testimony of Irenaeus ? 35. What has been conjectured of the Gospels 
 
 12* 
 
138 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 used by some of these Fathers ? 36. "What appears from Luke i. 1. 37. "Why 
 did these other writings disappear ? 38. What would have been the case 
 if they had contained different accounts ? 39. What shows that they were the 
 same with ours ? 40. What is said finally of the testimony of Papias ? 
 
 Section. XIV. — 1. What fact strengthens the testimony of the Fathers ? 
 2. How is this instanced in Eusebius ? (See p. 40.) 3. When did Dionysius live, 
 and respecting what book did he express doubt? 4. Origen? 5. Caius ? 
 6. What do these facts prove? 7. What has been the general decision since 
 respecting the books then doubted ? 8. What ought our decision to be 
 respecting those which were then undoubted ? 9. From what else can we infer 
 the truth of the Gospels ? 10. What passages show the prominence given to 
 events in the history of Jesus ? 11. What is remarked by Mr. Norton ? 12. To 
 what class do the writers thus far quoted belong ? 13. What other class was 
 there ? 14. Who were the earliest of these ? 15. What were the Ebionites, 
 and their views ? 10. What is said of the Gospel they possessed ? 17. What 
 other class of heretics was there ? 18. From what source were their ideas 
 derived? 19. What does their name imply? 20. How do they seem to have 
 formed their systems ? 21. How were they disposed with regard to anything 
 Jewish ?, 22. About what time did Marcion live ? 23. What was his course with 
 regard to the Gospels ? 24. What did Heracleon write, and when ? 25. What 
 is said of Valentinus in relation to John's Gospel? 26. The Montanists ? 
 27. The Alogi ? 28. When did Basilides live, and what did he write ? 29. With 
 what Gospels was he acquainted ? 30. Had the early Gnostics any other Gospels 
 than ours ? 31. What is said of other books called Gospels among the later 
 Gnostics ? 32. What does Tertullian assert ? 33. How does he argue against 
 their right to do this ? 34. What does this argument prove ? 35. What is said 
 by Paley respecting early sects ? 
 
 Section XV. — 1. To what class of writers do we now turn ? 2. When were 
 the Talmuds composed ? 3. Of what particulars connected with Christianity 
 do they speak? 4. What account do they give of the miracles of Christ? 
 5. Why is their testimony valuable ? 6. Who was Josephus ? 7. What direct 
 references to Christ appear in his works ? S. What is said of these passages ? 
 9. In what is his evidence of most value ? 10. Exemplify this in his account 
 of Herod I. 11. Of Herod Antipas. 12. Agrippa I. 13. Agrippa II. 14. What 
 heathen writers are named? 15. Who was Julian? 16. What is said of his 
 testimony? 17. When did Porphyry write? 18. What is said of his work? 
 19. To what Christian writings did he refer? 20. Who was Celsus ? 21. From 
 what source do we learn respecting his book? 22. What words did he use? 
 23. What is remarked respecting them ? 24. Of what does he accuse the Chris- 
 tians? 25. From what did the various readings probably result? 26. What do 
 they prove ? 27. What other expression of Celsus proves the antiquity of the 
 Christian writings ? 28. What are the particulars to which Celsus refers by 
 way of objection ? 29. What does his language prove? 30. How long was 
 this after the earliest of the Gospels claims to have been written ? 31. To what 
 conclusion does this lead us ? 32. From what other source is evidence derived ? 
 33. When was the ancient Syriac version made ? 34. What do the versions 
 confirm ? 35. What does their existence show ? 36. From what other writings 
 may a similar argument be drawn ? 37. What other source of evidence is 
 mentioned ? 38. What is said of a coin of Cyprus ? 39. Of Philippi ? 40. Of 
 coins of Ephesus ? 
 
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 139 
 
 Section XVI. — 1. What is the Internal Evidence? 2. What is said of 
 the language ? 3. What examples of Hebraisms in the use of " and " ? 4. " Lo," 
 or " behold " ? 5. " Answered " ? 6. In a proverbial expression ? 7. In the 
 expression " New Birth " ? 8. What of the acquaintance of the New Testament 
 writers with certain subjects ? 9. How is it with such accuracy in fictitious 
 writing? 10. What chapter is taken as an example? 11. What is said of the 
 position of the three provinces ? 12. The name of a city ? 13. The parcel of 
 ground ? 14. The mountain ? 15. The Samaritan worship ? 16. Jealousy of Jews 
 and Samaritans ? 17. What passages in Scripture agree with these representa- 
 tions ? 18. What existing facts confirm them ? 19. What is the testimony of 
 Renan ? 20. Of Strauss ? 21. In what besides geography is this accuracy per- 
 ceived ? 22. How is this exemplified in the Herod family ? 23. What makes 
 these facts of more importance ? 24. Where did the Gospel find its most 
 numerous adherents ? 25. What took place after the Jewish war ? 2G. What 
 is said of books from Jewish Christian writers after that time ? 27. How is the 
 argument briefly expressed ? 
 
 Section XVII. — 1. What is the third point in the Internal Evidences? 
 2. What is said of eulogy and personal description ? 3. Exceptions to this 
 remark ? 4. What of unfavorable incidents ? 5. The Savior's trial ? G. Men- 
 tion of doubts ? 7. What is the fourth point spoken of? 8. How illustrated in 
 the disciples' conduct ? 9. How by words in the language spoken by Jesus ? 
 10. How is the use of these words accounted for ? 11. What is the fifth point 
 spoken of? 12. In what character, and how, is this exemplified? 13. What is 
 the sixth point referred to ? 14. By what is Mark characterized ? 15. What is 
 said of Matthew and Luke in their accounts of Christ's birth ? 16. What is 
 said of the Sermon on the Mount? 17. What parables and incidents are given 
 by Luke alone ? 18. What occurrences does John alone relate? 19. How does 
 his manner of relating parables differ from the others ? . 20. What is said of his 
 style ? 21. What examples respecting the dignity of the Savior ? 22. What of 
 spiritual grandeur ? 23. How do the narratives agree ? 24. What is said of 
 differences in thought and language ? 25. What of differences in the narrative ? 
 26. By what historical event is this illustrated ? 
 
 Section XVIII. — 1. What is the seventh point mentioned ? 2. Exemplify 
 this in connection with the Last Supper. 3. What is the case sometimes, when 
 accounts are apparently contradictory ? 4. How is this exemplified ? 5. What 
 was the charge against Jesus, as related by Luke ? 6. The reply of Pilate ? 
 7. Why does this reply seem strange ? 8. What is the explanation, and where 
 found ? 9. What is omitted by John ? 10. How supplied by Luke ? 11. What 
 is said of coincidences among the first three Gospels ? 12. What have some 
 inferred from this ? 13. What name is given by these writers to the first three 
 Evangelists ? 14. What is probable, respecting the original Gospel, had it 
 existed ? 15. What is the fact ? 16. What is, probably, the true explanation ? 
 17. What must have been current in the primitive churches, and therefore the 
 true basis of all the Gospels ? IS. What is the eighth point mentioned ? 
 19. What is said of the genuineness of the Epistles ? 20. Why could they not 
 possibly have been forgeries ? 21. To what subjects do they relate? 22. How 
 do they agree with the Gospels and Acts regarding the resurrection of Christ ? 
 23. Where is the account of the Lord's Supper confirmed ? 24. How is the 
 character of Peter illustrated ? 
 
140 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 Section XIX. — 1. Among what books is the agreement most strikingly 
 discernible ? 2. How is the authority of the Acts and the Epistles established ? 
 3. In what work is this proof developed ? 4. Exemplify the agreement of the 
 accounts in Paul's first visit to Jerusalem. 5. In regard to his visit to Athens, 
 in what do the accounts agree ? 6. In what do they differ ? 7. How is the 
 difference accounted for? 8. What of the preaching of Apollos at Corinth? 
 
 9. What do we learn from Romans of Paul ? s contemplated visit to Jerusalem ? 
 
 10. What from Acts of the same visit ? 11. How do we learn that the histo- 
 rian was a companion of Paul ? 12. What do we learn from the conclusion of 
 the Acts ? 13. How does it appear that the Gospel of Luke and the Acts were 
 by the same author ? H. When was Luke's Gospel written, and how does this 
 appear ? 15. What does this chain of evidence prove respecting the author- 
 ship of this Gospel ? 16. What respecting its date, with reference to the 
 crucifixion ? 
 
 Section XX. — 1. To what other writings may a similar train of argument 
 be applied ? 2. What does the writer of the fourth Gospel claim ? 3. How is 
 this claim affected if the verse which contains it is from another hand ? 4. What 
 is said of his style ? 5. Where do we learn the name of the writer? G. What 
 may be conjectured from the remark in John xxi. 23 ? 7. What from the cir- 
 cumlocutions by which he conceals his name ? 8. What is said of the promi- 
 nence given to this apostle ? 9. How does Renan account for this ? 10. How 
 would such weakness affect his character as an historian? 11. What is the 
 more probable explanation ? 12. What other supposition remains ? 13. If this 
 were true, what would the Gospel still be to us ? 14. Why is this theory less 
 probable? 15. By what writers has the genuineness of this Gospel been 
 especially attacked ? 16. What are the arguments brought against it ? 17. How 
 do we reply to that from the difference of its narrative ? 18. In what respects 
 is John's Gospel supplementary ? 19. How did his personal attachment affect 
 his writing? 20. How his spiritual insight? 21. What is said, however, of 
 the testimony of the other evangelists to the same objects ? 22. Why do these 
 critics consider the idea of the Logos as indicating a later date ? 23. In what 
 early writer does the same idea occur ? 24. What is said of its occurrence in 
 the Apocalypse ? (Rev. xix. 13.) 25. How is the fact accounted for that the 
 other Gospels do not mention the raising of Lazarus ? 26. What other explana- 
 tion is suggested ? 27. How is the apparent difference with regard to the Last 
 Supper explained ? 28. How is the "moral miracle" of Christianity affected 
 if the fourth Gospel is set aside ? 29. If the transactions it records did not 
 take place, what must have been the endowments of its inventor ? 30. How 
 do these endowments render it improbable that he should impose a false 
 Gospel on the world ? 31. That he should leave no trace of his existence 
 except a forgery ? 32. What is the admission of Renan ? 
 
 Section XXI. — 1. What endeavor has been made to depreciate the authen- 
 tic Gospels ? 2. What are the Apocrypha of the New Testament ? 3. What 
 result is here anticipated from their examination? 4. What may be inferred 
 from Luke's preface ? 5. Why did these accounts fall into disuse ? 6. Which 
 seems to have been the most important of them ? 7. With what may it have 
 been identical ? 8. By whom is it quoted ? 9. What other Gospel is men- 
 tioned ? 10. By whom is it mentioned? 11. What was his knowledge of it ? 
 12. What further is said of these books ? 13. What is the assertion of Paley ? 
 
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 141 
 
 14. "What is said of the date of the Apocrypha of the New Testament ? 15. How 
 do they compare with the authentic Gospels ? 16. Who is quoted as authprity in 
 the First Gospel of the Infancy ? 17. How does this agree with what we know 
 of Jewish High Priests, and of Caiaphas in particular ? 18. What wonder is 
 he said to relate ? 19. What titles are given to Mary in the same Gospel ? 
 20. What is the story of the boy possessed with devils? 21. The cures 
 wrought by the Virgin with water ? 22. Transformation of the young man ? 
 
 23. Miracle of the throne ? 24. Fate of the boy who ran against Jesus ? 
 25. Complaint of the parents, and subsequent conduct ascribed to Jesus ? 
 28. What account is given of Cariuus and Leucius ? 27. What is told of Pilate ? 
 28. Acknowledgment of the Jewish Council ? 29. Prophecy they are said to 
 have discovered ? 30. Subsequent action and fate of Pilate ? 31. What remarks 
 are made upon the character of these stories ? 32. From what did they 
 probably originate ? 33. Which of these documents purports to be from the 
 hand of Jesus himself? 34. How may the "Gospel of Nicodemus" be re- 
 garded ? 35. How far are the apocryphal writings inconsistent with the 
 genuine Gospels ? 
 
 . Section XXII. — 1. What appears to be now established respecting the 
 Gospels ? 2. What of other books ? 3. For what would this be sufficient ? 
 4. How exemplified in the fourth Gospel ? 5. What else, however, is proved ? 
 C. What proofs are especially referred to ? 7. What is said of the general 
 voice of antiquity ? 8. Its unanimity ? 9. How exemplified ? 10. Number of 
 the witnesses ? 11. What objection from disagreement of copies ? 12. What 
 is said of the number of various readings ? 13. What of their importance ? 
 
 14. How are they accounted for ? 15. What is said of the claims of these 
 records ? 10. How illustrated in a modern instance ? 17. On what account 
 are they objected to ? 18. By whom is this position taken ? 19. How have they 
 been led to it ? 20. What have scientific researches produced ? 21. Why has 
 this conviction been considered opposed to miracle ? 22. How is the objec- 
 tion answered ? 23. What is said of intellectual philosophy for a century past ? 
 
 24. What system has prevailed in Germany ? 25. By what names illustrated ? 
 20. What is one distinguishing trait of it ? 27. How far is this commendable ? 
 28. When is it carried to an extreme ? 29. What is assumed by some recent 
 writers ? 30. What does this assumption show ? 31. What is the remark of 
 Strauss ? 32. Against what does Renan protest ? 33. Still, what conclusion 
 does he reach, previous to examination ? 
 
 Section. XXIII. — 1. Of what is a view proposed to be given? 2. On 
 what supposition docs the first class of these theories proceed ? 3. What is to 
 be classed among these ? 4. What author has attempted this ? 5. To what 
 does he ascribe many of the Gospel wonders ? 6. To what remarkable miracle 
 is this view applied ? 7. In what manner ? 8. To what miracles, among others, 
 is this theory inapplicable ? 9. Where it is used, to what objection is it liable ? 
 JO. How is the passage, John ix. 32, applied to this theory ? 11. What is said 
 of the manner in which it has been advocated ? 12. What is the representation 
 of the German Naturalists ? 13. Who is the best known among them ? 14. How 
 does Dr. Paulus explain the miracle of the fish and the piece of money ? 
 
 15. How the raising of Lazarus ? 16. How the ascension ? 17. What opinion 
 of previous writers does Strauss perceive implied in this theory of Paulus? 
 18. What was the fancy of Bahrdt ? 19. That of Brennecke ? 20. That of 
 
142 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 Paulug with regard to the fate of Jesus? 21. What opinion does Strauss 
 express respecting them ? 22. "What is said of the conduct ascribed to Jesus 
 by these theories ? 
 
 Section XXIT. — 1. What is the second class of theories ? 2. How does 
 Renau conceive Jesus to have assumed the position of wonder-worker ? 
 3. How would this explanation affect our estimate of him ? 4. In what 
 instance does Kenan suppose Jesus to have been himself deceived? 5. By 
 whom, and for what purpose ? 6. What event has been the subject of the 
 boldest speculations ? 7. For what reason was this ? 8. On what two ideas do 
 the explanations proceed ? 9. How is the death of Jesus explained by some? 
 
 10. What is urged in support of this ? 11. What cases referred to ? 12. How 
 were these persons restored ? 13. What would be required, then, to explain 
 the restoration of Jesus ? 14. What is the supposition of Bahrdt as to the 
 plan of Jesus ? 15. As to the agents in his restoration ? 16. What have others 
 ascribed to his disciples ? 17. What did Schuster suppose ? IS. What is- the 
 theory of a writer in the Westminster Review ? 19. What orders is Pilate sup- 
 posed to have given, and why? 20. What is observed respecting the thrust 
 with a spear ? 21. What respecting the slowness of recovery in such a case ? 
 22. Why cannot we believe that Jesus was mistaken in thinking he had been 
 dead ? 23. Why not that he was deceiving his disciples ? 24. To what does 
 Eenan ascribe the story of the resurrection ? 25. What objection is made to 
 this theory ? 
 
 Section XXV. — 1. What is the ground taken by many? 2. Why cannot 
 this be held consistently ? 3. How is this exemplified in the account of the 
 raising of Lazarus? 4. What is said of the portions being interwoven? 
 5. How exemplified in the same account ? 6. Whatuarne is given to the theory 
 of Dr. Strauss ? 7. How far is it peculiarly his ? 8. How does it suppose the 
 stories respecting Jesus to have arisen ? 9. With what purpose did the evan- 
 gelists collect these myths ? 10. How are the miraculous incidents considered ? 
 
 11. How those not miraculous ? 12. What remains as true respecting Jesus ? 
 13. With what is this theory inconsistent ? 14. How does the Christian era 
 differ from the ages of fable ? 15. What is said of the periods allowed by 
 Strauss for the production of myths ? 10. How would Jewish myths have 
 represented the Messiah ? 17. What do the Apocrypha of the Xew Testament 
 show us ? IS. Why cannot we believe that the myths originated from the 
 companions of Jesus ? 19. Why not, that they left no authentic account ? 
 
 20. Had they left such, could the mythical account have superseded it ? 
 
 21. What would have been the interest of the enemies of Jesus ? 22. What 
 does their explanation of his miracles imply ? 23. What would have prevented 
 the reception of these myths by the Gentile Christians ? 24. What is the 
 Christian religion, apart from the question of its divine origin? 25. From 
 what did it arise, according to this theory ? 2G. What is said of a later work 
 of Dr. Strauss ? 27. What does he here represent to be the date of the Gos- 
 pels ? 28. What respecting intentional fiction ? 29. How does he regard 
 Jesus ? 30. What is said of the legendary history of Greece and Koine ? 
 31. V»"hat of the history of our Lord ? 32. With what miracle is the narrative 
 crowned ? 33. With what supposition is the mythical theory finally compared ? 
 
 Section XXVI. — 1. Why is the Old Testament of value to us ? 2. How- 
 is it sustained by quotations in the New ? 3. How by the position of the 
 
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 143 
 
 Savior ? 4. How does the Old Testament sustain the New by prophecies ? 
 5. By what peculiarities of its character ? G. What system does the Old Testa- 
 ment present ? 7. How does this appear from its first principle ? 8. How in 
 contrast with Egyptian superstition? 9. How by the name it gives to the 
 Supreme? 10. How by representations of his nature ? 11. How by his moral 
 attributes, and his power, wisdom, and providence ? 12. How by the Ten 
 Commandments ? 13. How by laws relating- to the poor ? 14. How by treat- 
 ment of defective institutions ? 15. How by contrast with idolatry ? 1G. How 
 by passages of especial sublimity and beauty ? 17. Give an account of the 23d 
 psalm. (The same of each of the other passages referred to.) 
 
 Section XXVII. — 1. Why are ancient documents liable to be obscure ? 
 2. What was customary with ancient writers ? 3. What passages will this fact 
 explain ? 4. On what authority do some of the narratives rest ? 5. How fir is 
 the compiler of Genesis accountable for what is there related ? G. From what 
 source is Joshua x. 12-14 derived ? 7. What is observed with regard to errors 
 in matters of science ? 8. Censurable conduct of persons who are mentioned 
 with approval? 9. Standard of morals, and peculiar temptations? 10. Sup- 
 posed incorrect sentiments of the sacred historian ? 11. Doubts regarding any 
 particular books ? 12. What facts would remain undisturbed ? 13. What result 
 sometimes appears from free investigation ? 14. What disposition appears in 
 some writers ? 15. What passages, among others, contradict such representa- 
 tions ? 10. What is said of the sacrifice of Isaac ? 17. What is Mr. Parker's 
 tribute to the Hebrew system ? 
 
 Section XXVIII. — 1. By what kinds of evidence is the Old Testament 
 sustained ? 2. Of external evidence, what is the testimony of the Jewish 
 nation ? 3. What is said of the care with which the books have been pre- 
 served ? 4. What do the Christian Scriptures prove, if regarded merely as 
 ancient works ? 5. What is said of Josephus ? G. What of Philo ? 7. What 
 of the Apocryphal books ? 8. The Samaritans ? 9. What of the Samaritan 
 Pentateuch ? 10. What renders their testimony the more valuable ? 11. What 
 other sources of evidence are mentioned ? 12. Name some of the heathen 
 writers who ascribe the Jewish laws to Moses ? 13. When did Heeataeus and 
 Manetho live? 14. What of Longinus? 15. What ancient Hindoo poem is 
 mentioned ? 1G. Give an account of the quotation from it. 17. What similar 
 account is given, and by whom ? 18. What of the records of Berosus and 
 Manetho ? 19. What is related by Moses of Chorene and others ? 20. Who 
 was Nicolaus, and what testimony does he give? 21. How is the marriage of 
 Ahab illustrated ? 22. What particulars in regard to Eithobalus agree with 
 the characters of Jezebel and Athaliah ? 23. What coincidence is there in 
 regard to two of the later Egyptian kings ? 24. By what monuments are 
 events in sacred history illustrated ? 25. Conquest of Rehoboam by Shishak ? 
 20. Kingdoms of Israel and Judah ? 27. Reign of Ben-hadad ? 28. Interven- 
 tion of Tiglath Pileser ? 29. Altar of Ahaz ? 30. Subjugation of Hezeluah ? 
 31. Captivity of Manasseh ? 32. So, or Sevech, king of Egypt ? 33. Why has 
 the account of Belshazzar appeared contrary to history ? 34. How is this 
 explained by a recent discovery ? 35. In what does the internal evidence of tbe 
 Old Testament consist? 3G. What does the history in Exodus exhibit?. 
 37. How is this exemplified in the passage of the Red Sea ? 33. What two 
 accounts corroborate each other ? 39. What other books coincide frequently 
 
144 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 with the historical? 40. What of the argument from institutions? 41. What 
 is the great evidence to us for the Old Testament ? 42. What is said of ques- 
 tions of Old Testament criticism ? 
 
 Section XSIX.-l. From what is an important branch of Christian 
 evidence derived ? 2. What is said of the history of the Jews ? 3. Belief of 
 other nations regarding the golden age ? 4. What of the Hebrew view ? 
 5. What anticipation appears through the Jewish history? G. What of this 
 anticipation at the Christian era? 7. From what writers do we learn this? 
 8. What of this expectation among the Jews since that time ? 0. In what 
 character did the Jews expect the Messiah to appear? 10. What is said 
 oi' passages inconsistent with this idea ?' 11. What did some Jewish writers 
 assert ? 12. What took place at the period when this expectation was strongest ? 
 13. From whom is Jesus represented as descended? 14. What did lie call the 
 community he established ? 15. How was the term justified? 10. How of the 
 predictions of suffering ? 17. What objections are brought agaiust this being 
 regarded as the fulfilment of the national expectation ? IS. What is essential 
 to the character of prophecy ? 19. What were the reasons for the rejection of 
 Jesus? 20. What answer had the Jews to the evidence of miracles ? 21. How 
 does the chief reason of the Jews for rejecting Jesus appear to us ? 22. How 
 does the station which they expected him to assume compare with his real one ? 
 23. In what question did he suggest this thought ? 24. What is said of an un- 
 inspired Jew entertaining this idea? 25. What rejection and choice would it 
 imply ? 2(3. What would be the probability of his thus succeeding ? 27. In what 
 station would the prophets naturally expect the Messiah to appear ? 2S. What 
 appears, from some indications in the prophets, with regard to their predic- 
 tions? 29. What might have taken place if the Jews had accepted Jesus? 
 30. Why is the above argument independent of particular prophecies ? 31. State 
 briefly what the argument is. 
 
 Section XXX. — 1. What claims does the Jewish religion possess ? 
 2. State some of the grounds of these claims. 3. What is there in contrast 
 with these claims ? 4. In what respects does it show its national character ? 
 5. Its purpose to keep the people apart from other nations ? 6. If the Jewish 
 laws were of later date than Moses, what must still be true of them ? 7. If the 
 account of the deliverance from Egypt were of later date, what must still be 
 true respecting it ? 8. For what reason ? 9. What suppositions may be formed 
 to account for the Jewish religion ? 10. What does the first supposition 
 imply? 11. What respecting those who taught it? 12. Why cannot this be 
 believed? 13. What contrast is pointed out between the Jewish nation and 
 others, and what inference drawn ? 14. With what is the second supposition 
 inconsistent ? 15. In what respects ? 16. What of the brotherhood of man- 
 kind ? 17. What of the divine unity and care for all mankind ? 18. What do 
 these limitations show ? 19. What fulfils this promise ? 20. How does it 
 regard the Jewish religion ? 21. What difficulty would meet us without Chris- 
 tianity? 22. What without Judaism ? 23. What is said of the period when the 
 new light was given ? 24. What was the condition of the Jewish system ? 
 25. What of heathen systems ? 23. What of the political changes in the East? 
 27. Of those in the West ? 28. Final ascendency of the Romans ? 29. Heathen 
 philosophy? 30. Close of the civil wars ? 31. Settlement of Jews in various 
 places ? 32. What indications of divine providence do we recognize ? 33. What 
 
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 145 
 
 objection is named ? 34. now is this answered ? 35. How is this exemplified 
 in the existence of Jewish communities ? 36. What question is suggested 
 concerning the long delay of revelation ? 37. Of what do sacred and profane 
 history give intimations ? 33. What was probably derived from this ? 39. How 
 did this early knowledge become corrupted and weakened ? 40. What was sent 
 to supply its place ? 
 
 Section XXXI. — 1. Of what two descriptions are the Old Testament 
 prophecies ? 2. To what do the instances given, of the first description, 
 relate? 3. How is the fulfilment of these evident: 4. What are such predic- 
 tions respecting Nineveh? 5. 3ioab? G. Philistia ? 7. Edom ? 8. When and 
 how did the fulfilment of this prophecy appear? 9. Egypt? 10. Tyre? 
 11. Babylon ? 12. What has been the disposition of some theologians ? 
 13. What psalm is referred to in illustration ? 14. What is its title ? 15. Repeat 
 some verses that are not applicable to any temporal prince. 1G. What has 
 been the usual explanation ? 17. What is said of the prophetic insight into 
 the future ? 18. What was known to the prophets ? 19. Under what char- 
 acter did they conceive of him ? 20. What would they be led to hope in 
 connection with the respective mouarchs of whom they wrote? 21. What 
 prospects would become blended in their description ? 22. How is this exem- 
 plified in Ps. ii. ? 23. In Ps. xlv. ? 24. In Ps. lxxii.? 25. In Is. vii. 14? 
 2G. Perhaps in Dan. ix. ? 27. By what will this evidence not be materially 
 affected? 28. Whatever the source of the prophets' foreknowledge, what will 
 still remain? 29. What prophecy is given from Gen. xxii. 18? 30. How does 
 this differ from the natural aspiration of a rude age? 31. What is said of the 
 first words of Ps. xxii. ? 32. Repeat the other verses quoted. 33. What ren- 
 ders the coincidence of verse lfi more remarkable ? 34. What is the language 
 of Ps. ex. 4 ? 35. How is this explained, and where, in the New Testament ? 
 3G. How is the objection answered that this psalm speaks of a conquering 
 monarch ? 37. Repeat Is. ix. G. 38. What is said of the translation ? 39. What 
 still does the passage indicate? 40. What is said Is. xlix. 5, G? 41. What 
 remark is made upon it ? 42. What chapter is referred to ? 43. Where in the 
 New Testament is the passage in Is. liii. referred to ? 44. Repeat the 5th, 
 Gth, and 7th verses. 45. The 8th, 9th, and 10th, in the version of Dr. Noyes. 
 4G. Repeat Mic. v. 2. 47. Where is this referred to in the New Testament ? 
 4S. What is predicted in Hag. ii. 7, 9 ? 49. In Mai. hi. 1 ? 50. In Mai. iv. 5, G? 
 51. How is this referred to in the New Testament? 52. How are the Old and 
 New Testaments connected ? 
 
 Section XXXII. — 1. What other proof is there from prophecy ? 2. To 
 what do the most remarkable of the New Testament prophecies relate ? 
 3. Where are these found at most length ? 4. Where else do they appear, in a 
 striking form ? 5. What especial marks of genuineness do these passages 
 bear ? 6. Quote the passages referred to. 7. What is said of their fulfilment ? 
 8. Describe the Jewish rebellion, and its result. 9. What objection is named ? 
 
 10. How is this answered by reference to the figurative language employed? 
 
 11. How by comparison with the ancient prophets ? 12. How has the Old Tes- 
 tament been seen to be prophetic of the New ? 13. Hoav do the life and death 
 of Jesus imply the overthrow of the Jewish state ? 14. How long had that 
 state existed ? 15. What had it survived ? 1G. What was its prospect of 
 endurance ? 17. What were the character and power of the Roman dominion ? 
 
 13 
 
146 QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 
 
 18. What treatment did Jesus and his claims receive ? 19. If he was the 
 Messiah, what did this rejection of him render necessary ? 20. To what consid- 
 erations was this clue ? 21. If the Jewish state had stood uninjured, what argu- 
 ment would the fact have afforded ? 22, How did the rejection of Christ 
 receive its punishment i. 23. How was this event regarded when it took place ? 
 
 24. With what was the overthrow of the Jewish nation in accordance ? 
 
 25. What is said of their attachment to their law ? 26. How only can they be 
 considered as having incurred the threatened penalty ? 27. What prophecy in 
 Deuteronomy is referred to.' 28. What reference is made to it in the New 
 Testament? 29. What is said of the Jews since that time? 30. What is their 
 continued existence ? 31. What is said of the Romans ? 32. Other Western 
 nations of that period ? 33. Of the Greeks ? 34. Circumstances which threat- 
 ened the destruction of the Jews? 35. Their present state? 36. What is said 
 of predictions yet unfulfilled? 37. For what purpose, perhaps, are they pre- 
 served ? 38. What are the passages referred to ? 
 
 Section XXXIII. — 1. In how many aspects may the sufferings of the 
 early Christians be regarded ? 2. How do they show the truth of the accounts 
 given? 3. How the excellence of the religion? 4. What qualities did the 
 martyrs display ? 5. Whose sufferings are first to be considered? 6. What 
 confirms the account of these sufferings ? 7. What would the enemies of 
 Jesus have done, if possible ? 8. What facts, then, are established ? 9. What 
 do these show ? 10. If his claims had been false, what would have been his 
 endeavor ? 11. What effect would an evil conscience have had ? 12. What is 
 said of his last utterances, on this supposition? 13. How does such conduct 
 compare with all we know respecting him ? 14. By whose sufferings, besides 
 those of Jesus, is Christianity confirmed ? 15. In what manner ? 16. How 
 illustrated in the resurrection of Jesus? 17. What might be presumed from 
 the nature of the case? 18. How did they offend the Jews? 19. How the 
 Gentiles? 20. What result would probably follow? 21. What instance is 
 mentioned in Scripture of their enduring exile ? 22. Scourging ? 23. Impris- 
 onment ? 24. Stoning? 25. The loss of life ? 26. What martyrdom is related 
 by Josephus ? 27. When and how did this take place ? 28. What words in 
 this account are doubtful ? 29. What appears, even if these words were subse- 
 quently added ? 30. By what writer is the account confirmed? 31. W hen was 
 Tacitus born? 32. What suspicion, does he tell us, fell upon Nero ? 33. Upon 
 whom did he charge the crime, and with what motive ? 34. What account does 
 Tacitus give of the Christians ? 35. What tortures were inflicted on them ? 
 36. What is the account of Suetonius ? 37. What poets refer to the same occur- 
 rences ? 38. To what torture do they particularly allude ? 39. What station 
 did Pliny hold, and when ? 40. To whom did he write respecting the Chris- 
 tians ? 41. What did he say of the spread of Christianity ? 42. What punish- 
 ments had Pliny inflicted ? 43. What of informations ? 44. What had Pliny 
 learned of the conduct of the Christians ? 45. What answer did he receive from 
 the emperor ? 46. Which of the apostles are mentioned by Clement of Home 
 as having suffered death ? 47. Of what other sufferers does he speak ? 48. From 
 what letter is an extract given? 49. What tortures does it commemorate? 
 50. Through what centuries did the persecutions continue ? 51. How did they 
 sometimes occur ? 52. How more extensively ? 53. How many general perse- 
 cutions have been enumerated ? 54. By what monuments are these statements 
 confirmed ? 55. What are the catacombs ? 56. How many graves are they 
 
QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION. 147 
 
 estimated to contain ? 57. What does this prove ? 58. "What marks of martyrdom 
 occur on some of the monuments ? 59. What did the sufferings of these later 
 victims prove? GO. What respecting the power of their religion? 61. What 
 is said of their imitation of the Savior's prayer ? 62. What was the effect of 
 their patience and piety ? 
 
 Section XXXIV. — 1. To what has much attention been devoted ? 2. By 
 wbat have disciples been generally won to Christianity ? 3. How has the 
 efficacy of Christianity been proved, in the first place ? i. Why has it not 
 done all that might be desired ? 5. What ancient evil custom has it abolished? 
 6. What of licentiousness and sensuality? 7. What of war and despotism? 
 8. What account can you give of slavery in ancient times ? 9. Of feudal slavery, 
 and the influence of Christianity in destroying it ? (See Macaulay's History 
 of England, Chap. I. Remarks on the extinction of villcnage.) 10. Of efforts 
 for the removal of modern slavery, and their success ? 11. What valuable 
 institutions has Christianity established? 12. What great Christian philan- 
 thropists and reformers can you name ? 13. How is the efficacy of Christianity 
 displayed in civilizing a rude neighborhood ? 14. How in reclaiming a reckless 
 and dissolute man ? 15. How in giving comfort to the distressed ? 16. How in 
 extending civilization ? 17. How can we perceive its influence within our- 
 selves ? 18. Name the means through which Christianity influences us indi- 
 rectly. 19. What is the most powerful evidence to the individual of the truth 
 of Christianity ? 20. With what suggestion does the book conclude ? 
 
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