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STUDIES 
 
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 IN THE 
 
 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 BY 
 
 STEPHEN G. BULFINCH, D.D., 
 
 ATJTHOK OF " MANUAL OF THE EVIDENCES.' 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 WILLIAM V. SPENC-ER, 
 203 Washington Street. 
 
 1869. 
 

 < N V«A 
 
 P 
 
 <\V 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 
 
 WILLIAM V. SPENCER 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 Stereotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry, 
 No. 19 Spring Lane. 
 
TO 
 
 JOHN GOEHAM PALFREY, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 PASTOR, THEOLOGIAN, STATESMAN, HISTORIAN; 
 AND, IN ALL POSITIONS, 
 
 FAITHFUL TO FREEDOM AND TO TRUTH, 
 
 GTfjte Volume 
 IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 
 
 BY 
 
 ONE OF HIS PUPILS. 
 
PBEFACE 
 
 The brief " Manual of the Evidences of Chris- 
 tianity," published in 1866, was intended chiefly as a 
 class-book. In preparing it, however, the author 
 could not have satisfied himself or others, had he acted 
 merely as a compiler. The arguments brought against 
 historical Christianity in our age are very different from 
 those which were formerly urged ; the attitude of its 
 opponents is more respectful, their theories are more 
 ingenious, their pleas more specious, than in former 
 times. Recent investigation has shown new means 
 of defence for the truth, while it compels the candid 
 defender to hesitate before using some that were for- 
 merly employed. In preparing, therefore, a small 
 volume for the use of Academic and Sunday Classes, 
 the author felt it his duty to go over the whole ground, 
 accepting no conclusion and repeating no argument of 
 previous writers without such examination as should 
 convince his own mind that no valid objection lay 
 against it. 
 
 The preparation of the w Manual," therefore, left 
 
 <v) 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 results which could not be compressed within the in- 
 tended volume. During the three years which have 
 since passed, the author has devoted the leisure he could 
 command to further researches in the same direction. 
 With this fresh labor he has combined a revision of 
 former studies, and of articles published from time to 
 time in the " Christian Examiner " and the w Monthly 
 Religious Magazine." He has endeavored to avoid 
 repeating what he had said in the "Manual," except 
 where this was necessary to clearness of expression. To 
 several friends, whose aid has been kindly given to his 
 investigations, he returns his grateful acknowledgments. 
 
 It is but just to himself to state, that this work was 
 far advanced, and the first two or three chapters of it 
 in the printer's hands, before he saw either of the valu- 
 able articles, by Dr. James Freeman Clarke, now pub- 
 lishing in the "Atlantic Monthly Magazine." 
 
 The present work, though connected with the former, 
 may be read independently of it ; nor does it supersede 
 the other for the purpose for which that was designed. 
 The two, however, may most suitably be used in suc- 
 cession ; the w Manual " as giving to the student a 
 general view of the subject, and this book as investi- 
 gating more fully those portions of it which are, at the 
 present time, of most interest and importance. 
 
 S. G. B. 
 
 Cambridge, Mass., May, 1869. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter 
 
 
 Paob 
 
 
 Introduction 
 
 . 1 
 
 I. 
 
 Religions other than Christian 
 
 25 
 
 
 Mohammedanism. . 
 
 . 26 
 
 
 Brahminism. . 
 
 30 
 
 
 Buddhism 
 
 . 33 
 
 
 Confucius 
 
 36 
 
 II. 
 
 Revelation, Primitive and Jewish. 
 
 . 46 
 
 III. 
 
 Greek and Roman Civilization, .... 
 
 59 
 
 IV. 
 
 Apollonius, the Christ of Philosophy. . 
 
 . 73 
 
 V. 
 
 Moral Evidence of Christianity. . . 
 
 86 
 
 
 Argument of Schleiermacher 
 
 . 96 
 
 VI. 
 
 Attempts to alter or improve Christianity. 
 
 101 
 
 VII. 
 
 Mormonism 
 
 . 113 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Babism 
 
 129 
 
 IX. 
 
 Miracles. 
 
 . 141 
 
 
 D. F. Strauss 
 
 . 148 
 
 
 Theodore Parker 
 
 . 154 
 
 
 Ernest Renan 
 
 166 
 
 X. 
 
 Authentication of the Records. 
 
 . 175 
 
 XI. 
 
 Manuscripts, Versions, Coins, Monuments. 
 
 187 
 
 XII. 
 
 The First Three Gospels 
 
 . 198 
 
 XIII. 
 
 The Fourth Gospel. 
 
 207 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Baur's View of the Acts 
 
 . 235 
 
 XV. 
 
 Baur's View of the Epistles 
 
 . 245 
 
 XVI. 
 
 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The Old Testament Prophecies. 
 
 . 266 
 
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 INTEODUCTOEY. 
 
 The Christian religion has been, for eighteen hun- 
 dred years, regarded by its adherents as of supernatural 
 origin, — a revelation from God, communicated by 
 peculiar inspiration, and attested by miracles. Those 
 who denied to it this character have seldom professed to 
 be its followers or its friends. At present the case is 
 different. Christianity, as a supernatural revelation, is 
 the object of attack, — frequent, bold, and ably con- 
 ducted, — on the part of persons who claim the Chris- 
 tian name, and exercise the office of Christian ministers. 
 
 About forty years ago, controversy in New England 
 had scarcely ever touched the authority of revelation. 
 The community at large entertained no doubt of the 
 divine mission and the miraculous credentials of Jesus 
 Christ, however they might be divided respecting his 
 rank in the universe, or the influence of his death. The 
 theological student might indeed meet such doubt ; it 
 came before him in the regular course of his studies ; he 
 1 (l) 
 
2 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 looked over, with little interest, a few of the old Eng- 
 lish Deists, and with more attention examined the argu- 
 ments of Hume ; but the standard replies removed his 
 fears lest the foundations of his faith should be unsound ; 
 and so the subject was dismissed, and the mind turned 
 willingly to themes that were occupying public atten- 
 tion. Very different is the state of opinion and feeling 
 now. The topics that were then chiefly discussed ex- 
 cite but little interest ; not because they are unimportant 
 in themselves, but because the arguments on both sides 
 have been so often and so fully presented. The doubts 
 of the present day relate to the authority of Christianity 
 itself. 
 
 To many, however, these doubts appear of small im- 
 portance. Religion, they say, has its true place in the 
 heart, not in the understanding. Those among us who 
 deny the especial divine mission of Jesus Christ yet own 
 him to be the best of teachers, and ascribe to him an 
 inspiration, superior in degree, though similar in kind, 
 to that which has been shared by all great minds, — by 
 Moses and Socrates, by Homer and Shakspeare. Truth 
 cannot be more true because it comes from the lips of 
 Jesus ; and if we receive the truth with love and obedi- 
 ence, it will matter little whether we admit all the claims 
 that are made for him who brings it. By such argu- 
 ments as these, many who reverence the Savior are 
 deluded into thinking that there is really no important 
 difference between belief in him and rejection of his 
 claims. They do not consider that there may be truths 
 which are not self-evident, but revealed from heaven by 
 an authoritative messenger, and that the veracity and the 
 whole moral character of the Savior are implicated in 
 

 INTRODUCTORY. 3 
 
 the correctness of his assertions respecting his own com- 
 mission. 
 
 We would be far from denying the moral excellence 
 of many who reject supernatural Christianity. None 
 can doubt their sincerity and their courage. They often 
 exhibit in their conduct the influence of the religion 
 whose holy lessons they learned in childhood. But the 
 dangerous influence of the opinions they hold, though 
 thus neutralized in them, will show itself, we fear, in 
 another generation, educated in a Christianity which has 
 been deprived of its authority. Already we find, as 
 might be expected, among those who hold these views, 
 an indifference to public worship and disuse of Christian 
 ordinances. It is intimated too, that, however great 
 the benefits conferred on the world by Jesus, the honor 
 now paid to him interferes with the freedom of the mind 
 and the progress of truth ; and that it were well that 
 his name, like the names of other great teachers of the 
 past, should cease to be prominently brought forward. 
 But in our own view it is the person of Christ, the 
 manifestation of divine holiness and love in his charac- 
 ter, and especially the exhibition of them in his death, 
 which has, more than aught else, subjected to his reli- 
 gion the hearts of mankind. A cold system of philoso- 
 phy can never move the world. To do this, requires an 
 object that can engage our affections. Such an object — 
 a Mediator, an image of the Father's moral perfection — 
 is more than ever necessary to us now, under the ten- 
 dency of modern science to substitute the conception of 
 the laws of nature for the idea of a personal God. We 
 will not enlarge, however, on the serious consequences 
 to public morals which may be anticipated from the prev- 
 
4 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 alence of the opinions to which we refer. If those 
 opinions are true, our fears are vain : let the truth pre- 
 vail, and it will vindicate itself. We object not to the 
 zeal with which such views are advanced by those w T ho 
 sincerely believe them ; but we who regard them as un- 
 true cannot but consider them as also morally dangerous. 
 If God has indeed given us a revelation, it must have 
 been because a revelation was needed ; and the treasure 
 which we thus possess we feel bound to defend, by 
 whatever arguments we can fairly employ, and thus to 
 do our part for its transmission unimpaired to those 
 who shall come after us. 
 
 To understand the present state of the controversy 
 with regard to the claims of Christianity, it is necessary 
 to look into the history of the past. For this purpose 
 we must first extend a glance beyond the Atlantic. 
 
 The country which, for a century past, has taken the 
 lead in philosophical and theological speculation is Ger- 
 many. Her learned men, patient and laborious, ex- 
 amine deeply whatever subject engages thejr attention. 
 The peculiar constitution of the country has produced a 
 singular combination of freedom in opinion with restraint 
 in regard to form. Germany is so tolerant of new 
 opinions that it has little occasion to be tolerant of new 
 sects. A man born a Lutheran remains a Lutheran, 
 in regard to the outward forms of the Church. But 
 so long as he observes these forms, or at least sets up 
 no other in opposition to them, he may believe, preach, 
 and write what he pleases, from the highest Calvinism 
 to the lowest Naturalism. As the whole country is 
 divided into numerous states, each governed by its own 
 prince, if a scholar of eminence is out of favor at one 
 
INTRODUCTORY. . 5 
 
 court or university, he may very probably find employ- 
 ment and honor at another. Hence arises a great 
 variety of opinions, together with the utmost boldness 
 in expressing them. 
 
 The sceptical spirit with regard to the authority of 
 Christianity, which had manifested itself in the English 
 Deists and the French Encyclopedists, made its first 
 marked impression in Germany through the writings of 
 Hermann Samuel Reimarus, Professor of Philosophy in 
 Hamburg. In 1754, three years after the commence- 
 ment of the "Encyclopedic" in France, Reimarus pub- 
 lished a work on "The Principal Truths of Natural 
 Religion." This was followed by the remarkable Es- 
 says, known as the "Wolfenbiittel Fragments." They 
 were written by Reimarus, and circulated in manuscript 
 among his friends ; but coming into the hands of the 
 famous Lessing, at that time Librarian at Wolfenbiittel, 
 he gave them to the world as " Fragments of an Anony- 
 mous Writer" (Fragmente eines Ungenannten), pre- 
 tending that he had found them in the library under 
 his charge. The theory of these Fragments was, that 
 the plan of Jesus was political in its nature, and was 
 defeated by the Jewish authorities ; that his disciples 
 invented the story of his resurrection, and modified his 
 system as circumstances required. The publication of 
 these Fragments, commenced in 1773, created a strong 
 sensation. Among the theologians of Germany who 
 rallied in defence of their religion, two classes soon 
 became marked. The majority adhered to all which 
 they had been accustomed to receive and teach. Others, 
 however, believed that, in order to defend the essential 
 truth of religion, it was necessary to distinguish it, by 
 
6 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 a careful and independent criticism, from all which 
 was justly liable to the attacks of the new infidelity. 
 Hence came the movement to w T hich the name of Ra- 
 tionalism is most distinctly given. It was an attempt 
 to apply the principles of reason to the interpretation of 
 Scripture, — a worthy purpose, for true reason and a 
 true revelation can never contradict each other. If, in 
 the prosecution of that purpose, many were led to aban- 
 don important truth, this result should not render us in- 
 sensible to the aid which biblical criticism has derived 
 from the labors of those eminent theologians by whom 
 it was undertaken. 
 
 Prominent among these were Semler, Michaelis, and 
 Eichhorn. By the last, especially., the attempt was made 
 to explain the Old Testament and some portions of the 
 New on the principle of .mythical interpretation. This 
 is nothing else than the idea, to some extent correct, 
 that the narratives which we meet are to be understood, 
 not as literally true, but as expressing what was believed 
 at the time when they were written. A myth, or 
 mythic story, is a narrative, either conveying truth in the 
 form of fable, or, more usually, conveying some portion 
 of original truth adorned and magnified by the additions 
 it has received from the successive persons who have re- 
 lated it, one to another, until it reached the historian 
 who committed it to writing. The earliest part of the 
 Bible, especially, was thought to possess this character. 
 The story of Adam and Eve, in their temptation, fall, 
 and expulsion from the Garden of Eden, was explained, 
 not unnaturally, to be a mythic or figurative account of 
 the process by which man — whether it be the individual 
 or the race — loses the happiness of innocence. The 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 7 
 
 account of the building of the Tower of Babel, and the 
 consequent dispersion of mankind, was regarded as a myth 
 of a different description, the narrative of a real event, 
 but magnified and adorned with supernatural incidents, 
 from the imagination of successive relaters of the story. 
 
 This mythic system of interpretation was by many 
 writers used in a reverent spirit, and without a denial 
 of the especial divine commission and miraculous works 
 of the Savior. The sceptical tendency, however, which 
 was first indicated and encouraged by the writings of 
 Reimarus, continued to develop itself, and employed 
 against Christianity a method of criticism w T hich was but 
 a bolder application of that which had been used in its 
 explanation and defence. The disposition to undervalue, 
 and ultimately to reject the miracles, derived strength 
 also from the rise of a system of philosophy which sought 
 for the evidence of truth only within the soul. 
 
 This system, the Transcendental, introduced by Im- 
 manuel Kant, presents a subject too vast for more than 
 a superficial view. We can best describe it to the gen- 
 eral reader by saying that it teaches us to look to the 
 instincts of our nature. Bacon and Locke had taught 
 the world to seek truth by looking around ; Kant and 
 his followers sought it by looking within. The disciples 
 of the former busied themselves in collecting evidence, 
 comparing known facts, and reasoning out truth from 
 these ; the latter watched the utterance of the individual 
 consciousness., and deduced thence their philosophy. In- 
 nate ideas, intuitive knowledge, these were the basis of 
 the new system. Kant compared his method to that 
 of Copernicus, who, dissatisfied with the attempts of 
 his predecessors to explain the motions of the heaver Jy 
 
8 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 bodies, sought instead to understand his own, and, in 
 learning that he moved round the sun, found the key to 
 the explanation of all other motion. Thus from the 
 study of the human mind itself did Kant derive the 
 knowledge of the universe. A beautiful instance of this 
 is found in his second great work, the " Investigation of 
 the Practical Reason " (Kritik der praktischen Vernunft) , 
 where, from man's consciousness of a moral law, he 
 proves first the freedom of the will ; then the existence 
 of a moral world, a perfection unattainable in time, and 
 therefore implying and proving eternal life ; and lastly, 
 the existence of the perfect Ruler of this perfect world, the 
 Moral Governor and God of all. Kant's own character 
 was pure and noble, his life of eighty years was rich in 
 works of benevolence, and his death marked by fortitude 
 and submission. "I do not fear death," he said, "for I 
 know how to die. I assure you that if I knew this 
 night was to be my last, I would raise my hands and 
 say, f God be praised !' The case w r ould be far differ- 
 ent if I had ever caused the misery of any of his crea- 
 tures." 
 
 The system introduced by this great philosopher drew 
 attention to a class of truths which had not received suf- 
 ficient regard from previous modern writers. We re- 
 cognize something noble, true, and divine in the thought 
 that the seemingly spontaneous utterance of man's heart 
 is from the source of all truth, — that every human 
 being is in some degree inspired. Yet we cannot but 
 perceive that this conception, if taken too unrestrict- 
 edly, is capable of leading to false and dangerous in- 
 ferences. It is a possible thing to mistake the dictate 
 of passion which ought to be restrained, for that pure 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 9 
 
 impulse which ought to be obeyed ; and he who makes 
 it his rule to "act up to his nature," and look within him 
 for his only guide, may find himself obeying that evil 
 " law of his members " which wars against the w law of 
 his spirit." But the tendency of the Transcendental phi- 
 losophy with which we have now chiefly to do is that 
 which relates to a miraculous revelation. Many, indeed, 
 who hold that philosophy are believers, not only in his- 
 torical Christianity, but in what is called its Orthodox 
 form; but with many others the influence of this sys- 
 tem has produced a different result. To such it has 
 suggested thoughts like these : If truth be innate in the 
 soul, what need is there of a revelation to communicate 
 it? If truth be discernible at first sight, what need of 
 miracles to prove it ? It was the obvious tendency of 
 Transcendentalism to disparage and treat as unimportant 
 all outward evidence. Many of the writers of that 
 school did not so much deny the truth of the Christian 
 miracles as their value for purposes of proof, declaring 
 that the intrinsic beauty and excellence of the religion 
 were proof enough for them, and that miracles could 
 add nothing to the strength of their belief. 
 
 The great thoughts of Kant became the inspiration 
 for a host of writers. The poet Schiller compared him 
 to a single rich man feeding numerous beggars ; to a 
 king whose buildings give employment to an army of 
 laborers. Yet among the successors of Kant were 
 men whose ability and whose fame appear second only 
 to his. Such were Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, in 
 the last of whom philosophy seemed to many to 
 reach its greatest height of sublimity, to others its 
 lowest depth of absurdity. The views of Hegel tended 
 
10 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 towards Pantheism, which confuses the Divine Being 
 with the universe which he created. According to this 
 writer, the Divine Being is everywhere present in na- 
 ture, but comes to consciousness of himself only in man. 
 To us this statement seems incompatible with the infinity 
 of God, and even with his personal existence as dis- 
 tinct from his works. Many of the disciples of this 
 philosopher, however, understood it differently. Some 
 of them were zealous defenders of the orthodox system, 
 and in the idea of God's coming to self-consciousness in 
 man they recognized the Church doctrine of the Divine 
 Incarnation in Christ. Hegel himself regarded his sys- 
 tem as reconciling philosophy with the Christian reli- 
 gion and its established institutions ; and one of his 
 later public addresses was a eulogy on the principles of 
 the Lutheran Church, as embodied in the Augsburg 
 Confession. Very different was the course of Schopen- 
 hauer, another disciple of Kant, whose philosophic wan- 
 derings found their close in the dreary regions of Athe- 
 ism and Pessimism. 
 
 Contemporaneous with Hegel was the celebrated and 
 excellent Schleiermacher, who was born in 1768, and 
 died in 1834. In 1799 he published his "Discourses on 
 Religion, addressed to the Cultivated among its Con- 
 temners." With this work commenced a better day for 
 the religious life of Germany. Schleiermacher recog- 
 nizes, as essential to a true religious philosophy, a per- 
 sonal experience of the need and value of religion. 
 The soul then realizes a consciousness of its own im- 
 mortal nature, and of its dependence upon God. Ther 
 from the same Christian consciousness are developed 
 the great doctrines of the Christian faith, the soul com- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 11 
 
 ing into vital union with the Savior, who, while one 
 with God, is at the same time the ideal of humanity. 
 Thus by the path of the Transcendental Philosophy does 
 this great teacher arrive at the same reverent and loving 
 recognition of the Son of God which thousands of ob- 
 scure disciples have obtained by the simpler testimony 
 of the written word. 
 
 While we must view with respect the learning, ability, 
 and piety of Schleiermacher, we discern even in him the 
 tendency of his philosophical system to weaken the re- 
 gard of its disciples for the outward, and especially for 
 the supernatural, evidence of the gospel. Schleier- 
 macher, indeed, did not reject the miraculous. He ad- 
 mitted the necessity of one miracle, in the introduction 
 of a new element of purity and power into the world in 
 the person of Jesus Christ, the first of the human race 
 to whom was granted a full consciousness of the Divine 
 presence. The great change thus effected he considered 
 as nothing less than a new creation. He admitted, too, 
 that the miraculous element cannot be removed from the 
 Gospels without throwing doubt on the whole connec- 
 tion of their accounts. But from his ground, miracles 
 appear, not as proofs of Christianity, but as incum- 
 brances to it. He, and many German theologians, yielded 
 to the tendency to undervalue outward proof, because 
 they possessed a substitute which they regarded as more 
 valuable. It is unjust, therefore, to denounce Transcen- 
 dentalism indiscriminately as the denial of Christianity ; 
 it is enough to say that it depreciates that species of 
 evidence on which in preceding ages its defenders had 
 chiefly been accustomed to rest its claims. 
 
 The Transcendental system, however, as modified by 
 
12 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Hegel, involved consequences, not admitted indeed by 
 that philosopher, but which, in the fearless logic of 
 Feuerbach, appeared not only as the denial of Chris- 
 tianity, but as avowed Atheism. Others, as Bruno 
 Bauer, denouncing even Feuerbach as inconsistent, 
 found in the depth of Atheism a lower deep. To use 
 the words of an author, himself widely removed from 
 belief in supernatural Christianity, " These writers made 
 it their express employment to daub with abuse, to 
 stamp as by-words, to banish from the actual world as 
 spectres, not religion alone, no ! all ideal powers, what- 
 ever names they might bear, all moral ordinances of the 
 State as of society, all love and inspiration, which 
 raises itself above the miserable first person singular." 
 (Schwarz, "Zur Geschichte der neuesten Theologie," 
 page 228.) 
 
 While writers of this class, to follow the expression 
 of the author just quoted, were placing the gravestone 
 of a great philosophic movement in Berlin, where Kant 
 had made its commencement, and while the more moder- 
 ate school of Schleiermacher still reverenced Christian- 
 ity on the evidence of their own hearts, not denying its 
 miraculous character, but not depending upon it, there 
 were others who entirely rejected the supernatural ele- 
 ment, yet continued to bear the Christian name. There 
 were strong inducements to prevent them from laying it 
 aside. 
 
 They derived their support from the Christian institu- 
 tions of their country, holding places of emolument as 
 pastors and professors of Divinity. And apart from 
 any such personal interest, they might from higher mo- 
 tives seek some middle way between the old belief which 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 13 
 
 they had abandoned and an attitude of hostility to that 
 religion which they saw was the main support of private 
 morals and public order. The problem, then, to be 
 worked out was, how to reconcile a rejection of all that 
 is miraculous in Christianity with the retention of the 
 Christian name. 
 
 Various were the methods adopted to achieve this dif- 
 ficult undertaking. Dr. Paulus, in his "Commentary 
 on the New Testament," and his "Life of Jesus," the 
 latter work published in 1828, attempted to explain 
 every miracle in such a manner as at once to preserve 
 the veracity of the Gospels, and do away with every- 
 thing supernatural. Thus, in Matthew xvii. 27, he 
 represents that Peter was directed to catch a fish and sell 
 it, as the means of procuring the needed money. Other 
 writers brought to the common cause the suggestion that 
 Jesus had some coadjutors, unknown to the apostles and 
 evangelists, and by whose aid he performed these appar- 
 tnt miracles. Others more prudently attempted no ex- 
 planation, contenting themselves with preaching on the 
 moral lessons of the gospel, and passing over in silence, 
 or treating as allegory whatever they did not recognize 
 as fact. At length the mythic theory was brought to 
 its perfection through the labors chiefly of Dr. David 
 Frederick Strauss. 
 
 As the views of this writer have been discussed in 
 our "Manual," and will again come before us in the fol- 
 lowing pages, we will not enlarge upon them here, ex- 
 cept to notice the very curious examination, in the con- 
 cluding sections of Strauss's "Life of Jesus," of the 
 problem recently spoken of, how a clergyman is to 
 reconcile the rejection of the miraculous with the reten- 
 
14 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 tion of the Christian name. It is there pointed out that 
 the gospel story, however false in itself, has a true mean- 
 in of. If it be not true that God was incarnate in the 
 man Jesus, it is true that the Infinite enters into, and 
 manifests itself in the finite. The true Christ, the true 
 Son of God, is not a single man, but all mankind. 
 w Humanity is the union of the two natures, — it is the 
 child of the visible Mother and the invisible Father, Na- 
 ture and Spirit; it is the worker of miracles, in so far 
 as in the course of human history the spirit more com- 
 pletely subjugates nature," and so on. (" Life of Jesus," 
 § 151.) "It is an evidence of an uncultivated mind to 
 denounce as a hypocrite a theologian who preaches, for 
 example, on the resurrection of Christ, since, though he 
 may not believe in the reality of that event as a single 
 sensible fact, he may, nevertheless, hold to be true the 
 representation of the process of spiritual life, which the 
 resurrection of Christ affords." (§ 152.) Strauss, 
 indeed, answers in part this sophistry, which, with all 
 his errors, he was too manly to take as his own guide ; 
 but his production of it, and the lengthened account he 
 gives of the devices by which an unbeliever may recon- 
 cile it to his conscience to retain. his place as a Christian 
 minister, with his cautious avoidance of a decision on 
 the subject, sufficiently indicate that the instances were 
 neither few nor obscure in which such unworthy conduct 
 had been pursued. 
 
 Since the production of his first great work, the M Life 
 of Jesus," the views of Dr. Strauss became modified to 
 some extent by those of another eminent scholar, who 
 had formerly been Strauss's instructor, Dr. Ferdinand 
 Christian Baur, Professor at Tubingen, — views which 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 15 
 
 have been ably supported not only by him, but by many 
 younger writers, who with himself are known as "The 
 Tubingen School." It is the boast of this school to ap- 
 ply to scriptural criticism not the facts alone, but the 
 philosophy, of history. To those who differ from them, 
 they appear sometimes rather to reconstruct history from 
 imagination. The theory of the Tiibingen school may 
 be characterized as that of "Tendency." The books of 
 the New Testament were mostly written, they conceive, 
 not by simple-minded men, keeping in view their pro- 
 fessed object, but by authors who had each his especial 
 purpose to serve, his tendency, to the promotion of which 
 he consciously or unconsciously made his narrative to 
 conform. None can deny to Dr. Baur the praise of vast 
 learning and great acuteness ; but his reasoning some- 
 times reminds the reader of a pyramid standing on its 
 point. The foundation bears no fair proportion to the 
 structure built upon it. Long and circumstantial nar- 
 ratives of the sacred writers are discredited, on account 
 of inferences acutely drawn from a few texts. Thus 
 the statement, given in Galatians ii. 11, of a difference 
 between Peter and Paul in a single instance, is made the 
 chief proof of a total disagreement between those two 
 apostles ; and on such ground the Book of Acts is pro- 
 nounced to be, not authentic history, but a falsified ac- 
 count, which owed its origin to a " reconciling tendency." 
 Two texts in the Apocalypse establish the conclusion 
 that its writer was bitterly opposed to the teaching of 
 Paul ; and Dr. Baur, reversing the decision of antiqui- 
 ty, considers the Apocalypse as having a higher claim 
 to be recognized as the work of John than the Gospel 
 which bears his name. The inference is readily drawn 
 
16 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 that the original apostles — Peter, John, and their com- 
 panions — believed as their Master had taught them ; 
 and the religion, as they received it from him, and com- 
 municated it to others, was a mere form of Judaism, 
 not a system for all mankind. It was Paul, we are told, 
 who, deriving his commission, not from Jesus nor his 
 earlier followers, but from his own fervid genius, whose 
 inspiration he took for the voice of Heaven, received 
 this imperfect and narrow system, freed it from its Jew- 
 ish restrictions, and made it a religion such as all na- 
 tions could receive. But having no acquaintance with 
 the real Jesus, who was simply a Jewish teacher of mo- 
 rality, he substituted for him a fiction of his own, a di- 
 vine being whose chief object in coming into the. world 
 was to die as a sacrifice for its sins. Thus, according 
 to Dr. Baur, grew Christianity. Strange that he should 
 have continued to rank himself among its teachers ! 
 
 Among recent European writers who have followed in 
 the path of Rationalism, we have occasion only to men- 
 tion Eenan and Schenkel. While agreeing with their 
 predecessors in utterly discrediting the miraculous ele- 
 ment in Christianity, these writers exhibit a decided re- 
 action in their warmer appreciation of the character of 
 the Savior, and in their recognition of the delineation 
 of that character in the fourth Gospel. Renan was dis- 
 posed to regard that Gospel as written by John. Schen- 
 kel, while assenting to the teaching of Baur, of its later 
 origin and unhistorical character, still maintains, with 
 singular inconsistency, that its author, an unknown wri- 
 ter of the second century, entered more fully into the 
 spirit of Jesus than the disciples who had sat at his feet, 
 and communicated to the world what they had heard 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 17 
 
 from him. These modifications of the former destruc- 
 tive criticism are significant. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the assailants of super- 
 natural Christianity in Germany have been left in undis- 
 puted possession of the field. The ancient faith of the 
 Church has been illustrated by such names as Tholuck, 
 Neander, Ewald, Dorner, Tischendorf, with many less 
 celebrated ; and the balance of opinion at present is said 
 to incline in favor of the recognition of the Christian 
 Scriptures as authentic, and of Jesus Christ as the di- 
 vinely commissioned Savior of mankind. 
 
 The Transcendental Philosophy first attracted public 
 attention in this country about 1830. The rich treasures 
 of German literature had then become better known 
 than before, and were in this neighborhood received with 
 the more interest from the enthusiasm excited by the 
 personal character and romantic history of Dr. Pollen, 
 an exile from Germany for his liberal opinions on po- 
 litical subjects, and the freedom with which he had ex- 
 pressed them. This excellent man, as gentle as he was 
 brave, after some professional study with Dr. Channing, 
 entered the ministry, and soon became a highly accept- 
 able preacher, though in a language which he had but 
 recently learned. His participation in the anti-slavery 
 effort impaired his popularity ; yet he was about to enter 
 on the duties of a village pastor, when God took him to 
 himself. Dr. Follen was a reverent believer in Chris- 
 tianity, as divinely given and miraculously attested. 
 
 In 1836, the publication here of Carlyle's "Sartor 
 Resartus " presented the quaint but interesting picture 
 of a German student, of great learning, but far re- 
 2 
 
18 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 moved from the habits of common life, first losing him- 
 self in a wilderness of universal doubt, then restored to 
 peace and self-content by fixing his mental eye upon the 
 light within. In 1838, Mr. R. W. Emerson, who had, 
 some years before, resigned his pastoral charge on con- 
 scientious grounds, delivered the annual discourse before 
 the Cambridge Divinity School. It contained expres- 
 sion to which Professor Henry Ware, Jr., of that insti- 
 tution, felt it his duty to reply, in a sermon on K The 
 Personality of the Diety." The controversy was con- 
 tinued by the Rev. George Ripley, of Boston, in support 
 of the Transcendental opinions, and by Professor An- 
 drews Norton in defence of the traditional faith of the 
 Christian Church. The new doctrines attracted the be- 
 lief, and awoke the enthusiasm of a wide circle of the 
 young and ardent, while the novelty of the views pre- 
 sented, and the strangeness of the expressions employed, 
 moved the surprised community sometimes to grave dis- 
 pleasure, and oftener to mirth. Even those who shared 
 the excitement of that time now look back upon it with 
 a smile at the memory of its extravagances ; yet that 
 excitement had its advantages, and expressed its portion 
 of truth. It deserved respect, as does every serious 
 movement of thoughtful minds ; and it contributed to 
 ripen, and prepare for their present usefulness, some of 
 those to whom our community now looks as its ablest 
 and safest guides. 
 
 In May, 1841, Theodore Parker, then minister of the 
 Church at West Roxbury, preached his celebrated ser- 
 mon on " The Transient and Permanent in Christianity ," 
 which brought distinctly before the public the question of 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 19 
 
 the supernatural and authoritative claims of our religion. 
 In following years, the deserved fame of Mr. Parker as 
 a scholar and reformer, won for his views in theology a 
 currency to which in themselves, in our opinion, they 
 have little claim. Among writers now living, we will 
 speak only of the honored pastor of the First Unitarian 
 Church in Philadelphia. The views of Dr. Furness do 
 not imply a rejection of miracles, but a theory respect- 
 ing them which owns their reality as facts, and insists 
 strongly oh the holiness of the Great Teacher who 
 wrought them, and in some sense on his authority. The 
 theory of Dr. Furness, in all its details, will probably 
 be accepted by few ; but the richness of thought and 
 feeling with which it is developed will make for his works 
 a permanent place among the literary treasures of Lib- 
 eral Christianity. 
 
 More recently than Transcendentalism, another sys- 
 tem has arisen, whose point of view is directly opposite. 
 " The Positive Philosophy " appears to be the culmina- 
 tion of a method of thought, to which the researches of 
 modern science had for years been habituating those who 
 engaged in them. Those researches had established 
 more and more the idea of an irreversible order in 
 nature, the supremacy of law, and the infrequency of 
 exceptions to it. Those phenomena which former ages 
 had ascribed to the immediate action of the Deity — the 
 thunder, the earthquake, the comet — were shown to be 
 the results of causes no more divine than the rest of na- 
 ture, and subject to laws as definite and as unchanging 
 as any that are recognized in the most ordinary events. 
 A soulless ball of fire had taken the place of Apollo's 
 
20 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 chariot,* and the magician who could rule the storm 
 was superseded by the almanac-maker. Hence came a 
 disposition to disown all that could not be seen, weighed, 
 and measured, — all, at least, that did not affect the 
 electrometer ; and this disposition, while exerting in 
 thousands its materializing, unspiritual influence, rose 
 in some to the pretensions of a philosophical system. 
 While Transcendentalism looks to the phenomena of 
 consciousness alone as the source of knowledge, the 
 Positivism of Auguste Comte looks to all observed phe- 
 nomena except those of consciousness. It regards as 
 the only proper objects of science those which are cog- 
 nizable by the senses. The system as presented by 
 Comte was Atheism ; for he recognized no God distinct 
 from the generalization of man. Some, however, who 
 are called Positivists, claim to stand on Christian ground, 
 and, expand the system of Comte, to its great improve- 
 ment, but to the loss of its distinguishing characteristics. 
 It would seem to need no proof that a Transcenden- 
 talism which disowns the Positive, and a Positivism 
 which disowns the Transcendental and the spiritual, 
 must be alike partial and deficient. And yet we find 
 advocates of either system, not only rejecting that view 
 which is the complement of their own, but deriving from 
 their aversion to this an objection to the religion of the 
 gospel. The Transcendentalist cannot appreciate favor- 
 
 * " Wo jetzt nur, wie unsre Weisen sagen, 
 Seelenlos ein Feuerball sich dreht, 
 Lenkte damals seinen goldnen Wagen 
 Helios in stiller Majestat." 
 
 Schiller, "Die Goiter Griechenlands" 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 21 
 
 ably the external evidence for Christianity. To him 
 miracles cannot prove, nor testimony support, a system 
 which, to his mind, must stand or fall on its own merits. 
 On the other hand, the Positivist disowns as unscientific 
 all teaching that declares the regular order of nature to 
 have suffered interruption ; nor do his habits of thought 
 aid him to appreciate ideas connected with such unsub- 
 stantial things as faith and holiness and heaven. Would 
 that the advocates of both systems would judge more 
 fairly. Each might look at the evidence most congenial 
 to his own mode of thought ; the material philosopher 
 might recognize the positive evidence of outward facts, 
 and the testimony of martyrs and historians ; and the 
 more spiritual, if he felt that such proof was to him 
 unimportant, might still be willing to accept it as true, 
 connected as it is with a system which harmonizes with 
 his innate sense of truth, and responds to his highest 
 aspirations. That Christianity derives its proof alike 
 from the visible and the invisible worlds, should com- 
 mend it to both schools- of philosophy, instead of draw- 
 ing upon it the opposition of either. 
 
 In order, indeed, to command our full assent, the 
 proof of our religion must be thus complex. The evi- 
 dence of miracle is insufficient, unless it be given in be- 
 half of a system which in its own aspect is worthy of 
 God ; and though this testimony of its intrinsic worth 
 is the most valuable, yet to a large class of minds the 
 evidence of miracle is also necessary to confirm it as a 
 revelation from above. 
 
 Thus have we traced the scepticism with regard to the 
 claims of Christianity which has of late appeared among 
 
22 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 us, to its origin in the speculations of two foreign schools 
 of philosophy, the Transcendental and the Positive, 
 which, opposed to each other in all else, have alike led 
 many of their followers not only to the rejection of 
 Christianity, but to the denial of all religion, and the 
 subversion of the principles of morality. The view we 
 have taken exhibits to us alike the presumption of the 
 human intellect and its weakness. Philosophers have 
 tried to measure the Infinite, and have thought to de- 
 throne the Almighty ; and yet their minds have been too 
 narrow to take in the just claims of the system which 
 supplies the deficiencies of their own. 
 
 The view we have taken reveals to us this fact, impor- 
 tant in its bearing on the argument before us, that the 
 denial of the historical and supernatural claims of Chris- 
 tianity, though among us it may be expressed in meas- 
 ured and reverent language, and by those who have a title 
 to our respect for their learning, sincerity, and moral 
 worth, is not only historically connected with the Deism 
 of former days in France and England, but with sys- 
 tems of philosophy — the Hegelian and the Comtean 
 — which are partial, bewildering, and presumptuous. 
 These systems have, with many of their followers, re- 
 sulted in the denial of God's existence and of man's 
 immortality, unsettling thus the foundations of all vir- 
 tue ; while the more frequent conclusion of the Hegelian 
 speculations has been a cloudy Pantheism, in which 
 God, though his being was recognized, no longer 
 appears as a Person, capable of loving, to whom the 
 human heart can aspire in love, and human need can 
 address itself in prayer with the hope of a benignant 
 answer. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 23 
 
 Let then those who feel inclined to enter the paths of 
 modern Anti-supernaturalism, know to what they tend. 
 It is right to examine fairly, but it is also right to ex- 
 amine with our eyes open ; and so great is the attraction 
 to many minds, of speculations that are presented in the 
 proud names of learning, science, and free inquiry, that 
 we claim no undue advantage for the truth we would 
 defend, when we remind those who would examine its 
 evidences, that the great foreign writers who invite them 
 to deny the divfne mission of the Savior, have rejected 
 also the doctrines of a conscious individual existence in 
 a future state, and of the being of a personal God. 
 
 We have reason to trust that the wretched sophistry 
 by which, according to the representation of Strauss, 
 some German clergymen attempt to satisfy their con- 
 sciences in preaching a religion in which they do not 
 believe, would find few in this country to practise or to 
 defend it. We think that our young theologians are 
 less apt to disguise their own doubts, than to fall into 
 the opposite and nobler error, of making themselves 
 appear more unbelieving than they really are. JS T o one, 
 indeed, ought to be unjust to himself, nor to fill with 
 needless disquiet the minds of a worshipping assembly. 
 But the churches of our land are Christian churches ; 
 and every one who aspires to lead their devotions is un- 
 derstood to be a Christian in his belief. Every honor- 
 able man, before he seeks the office of a pulpit instruc- 
 tor, will satisfy himself of his right to bear that name, 
 not in some comprehensive meaning ingeniously adapted 
 to it, but in the sense it possesses in the common usage 
 of mankind. As every patriot soldier in our late war, 
 
24 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 even before he took the oath, had recognized by his en- 
 listment his allegiance to his country, so they who would 
 bear office in the Christian host, take, by an obvious im- 
 plication which no ingenuity can set aside, the vow of 
 allegiance to its Crucified Leader. 
 
RELIGIONS OTHER THAN CHRISTIAN. 25 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Religions other than Christian. 
 
 The Christian Religion claims to be a revelation from 
 God, especially communicated, and miraculously authen- 
 ticated. In order to judge fairly of the probable valid- 
 ity of this claim, an inquiry is needful into the systems 
 held by nations which are not Christian. If we find 
 that those systems stand on a level with that of the Gos- 
 pel, in the elevation of their idea of God, and the purity 
 and power of their moral influence, we shall naturally 
 infer, either that all are alike divine, or that all are alike 
 human. But if we find in all other systems signs of 
 human imperfection, defective ideas of the Supreme 
 Being, and incomplete views of man's duty, while the 
 religion of the Bible alone presents to us a perfect rule 
 of faith and practice, the difference in the systems will 
 render probable their different origin. It will be evident 
 that those which are thus defective are " of the earth, 
 earthy," while we shall not wonder that the Christian 
 regards the Founder of his religion as the w Lord from 
 heaven." 
 
 Again, if we find in the various religions of unchris- 
 tianized mankind > traces of a purer faith from which they 
 originated, — if, while their own history has been one of 
 uniform deterioration, evincing a tendency in the human 
 mind towards idolatry and general corruption, they all 
 present indications of a period when the human race 
 
26 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 believed in one Almighty God, — we shall naturally in- 
 quire, Whence came that purer faith of the days of old? 
 The observed tendency of mankind to Polytheism for- 
 bids the supposition that men in primitive ages sought 
 out for themselves the sublime truth, from which their 
 successors, whether cultivated or savage, have ever since 
 departed. We shall be led then to the conjecture of a 
 primitive revelation. And if we find the fact of such a 
 revelation taught in the ancient records of that one sys- 
 tem which we have already discovered to be alone true, 
 complete, and worthy of a divine origin, we shall derive 
 hence at once a confirmation of its claims, and an ex- 
 planation of the source whence that portion of truth was 
 derived, which we find blended with the errors of hea- 
 thenism. 
 
 Mohammedanism. 
 
 In this examination of religions other than Christian, 
 we take first that of Mohammed. Except the Jewish 
 system, the Mohammedan is the most nearly connected 
 with the Christian. It resembles it in the acknowledg- 
 ment of One, Supreme, Eternal God, the Ruler of the 
 world, and the Judge of human actions. But this grand 
 truth cannot entitle Mohammedanism to stand in competi- 
 tion with the religion of the Bible, for from that religion it 
 was derived. The Arabian prophet knew something of 
 Christianity, though in a corrupted form. He knew 
 much more of Judaism ; and it was from that religion 
 that the noblest features of his system were borrowed. 
 
 Accustomed as Christians have been to regard Moham- 
 med as an impostor, it is but lately that justice has been 
 done, either to the man or the doctrine which he taught. 
 
RELIGIONS OTHER THAN CHRISTIAN. 27 
 
 The religion of the Koran should be regarded in contrast, 
 not to the Christianity of our age, nor even to that of 
 the seventh century, but to the gross idolatry which ex- 
 isted in Arabia when Mohammed arose. Some tribes 
 worshipped the sun, moon, and stars ; one, near the Per- 
 sian Gulf, had adopted the fire-worship of the neighboring 
 nation ; the goddesses Allat, Menat, and Al-Uzza, were 
 adored, — the last under the form of a tree. All, how- 
 ever, united in a superstitious reverence for the Caaba, or 
 holy house of Mecca, which seems to have been not so 
 much a place for prayer to be offered, as itself the object 
 of fetichistic worship. Fgr this medley of religions, Mo- 
 hammed substituted the belief in one God, the Almighty 
 Sovereign of the Universe. Excited by the opposition he 
 encountered, he represented it as the chief duty of those 
 who would serve this Divine Monarch, to destroy, by force 
 of arms, all forms of idolatry. These, and their followers, 
 were represented as hateful in the sight of God, while 
 the "true believers" were his favored servants. The 
 prophet, and his successors, whether bearing the title of 
 Caliph or Sultan, were delegates of the Most High, and 
 commissioned, therefore, by Him to rule with absolute 
 power. 
 
 From this blending of truth with error, arose the 
 strength and the weakness of Islamism. For a century it 
 was irresistible in its course of conquest. The Moham- 
 medan warrior went forth in the name of God, to do 
 God's work, and under the lead of God's w Commander of 
 the Faithful." But with the cessation of conquest the 
 animating spirit of the system lost much of its strength, 
 while its darker features, bigotry, pride, injustice, des- 
 potism, sensuality, became more and more prominent. 
 
28 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 The manly subjection of the soldier to his chief, and the 
 religious obedience of the believer to his spiritual head, 
 gave place to the relation of slave to despot ; no aristoc- 
 racy of birth, no limitation of constitutional law, filled 
 up the dreary interval between the cottage and the throne, 
 or gave protection to the subject against the oppression 
 of sultan or pasha. On the other hand, where countries 
 or provinces had been conquered, no wise conciliation 
 aimed at the blending of the different races into one. 
 Conversion was the only condition of freedom ; the 
 Christian or Hindoo subject was but a conquered and 
 enslaved enemy. The weakening of the central author- 
 ity and the oppression of the people followed with equal 
 certainty. A striking example of this is given in the 
 history of Servia. The Janissaries of that province 
 had been banished, and their property confiscated by 
 Sultan Selim III., on account of their tyrannical and re- 
 bellious conduct. They leagued themselves with Paswan 
 Oglou, the rebel Pasha of Widin, attacked Servia, and 
 were repulsed by its energetic governor, with a force 
 levied from among its Turkish and Christian inhabitants. 
 But Moslem pride and bigotry were alarmed ; the Mufti 
 declared that it was against the law to drive the faithful 
 from their possessions in favor of the Eayahs. So the 
 Sultan made peace with the rebel Paswan, and readmit- 
 ted the Janissaries into Servia. When afterwards they 
 murdered the faithful governor, and again oppressed the 
 people, the sovereign had nothing to employ against 
 them but empty threats, which excited them to new 
 atrocities, and thus led to the revolution which wrested 
 the province from the Turkish power.* Similar causes 
 * See Ranked " Servia," Chap. VI. 
 
RELIGIONS OTHER THAN CHRISTIAN. 29 
 
 led to similar results, in the Greek Revolution, and re- 
 cently in the insurrection in Crete. Oppression, lust, 
 and faithlessness have given provocation, and thus 
 hastened the fall of a power that merited its fate. Nor 
 were these crimes incidental merely ; they resulted natu- 
 rally from the principles of bigotry, pride, and despotism 
 which are identified with the institutions of the Moham- 
 medan religion. 
 
 While that religion has been thus marked by crime in 
 its relation to the subject, it has appeared in colors as 
 dark in the imperial family. It has been known for 
 centuries that the policy of the Turkish court was to put 
 to death any whose birth might render them rivals 
 to the reigning sovereign. This is referred to by Shake- 
 speare, in whose time an atrocious instance of this im- 
 perial fratricide had taken place.* It may be thought 
 that this was the custom of a darker age ; but shortly 
 after the accession of Mahmoud II., in 1808, in order to 
 secure his throne, the infant son of Mustafa IV. was 
 put to death, and four women of the seraglio also, lest 
 they should give birth to children of royal descent. 
 Such are some of the atrocities of Mohammedanism. 
 
 * " Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear : 
 This is the English, not the Turkish court ; 
 Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds, 
 But Harry Harry." . 
 
 Henry IV., Second Part, Act V. Sc. II. 
 
80 evidences of christianity. 
 
 Brahminism. 
 
 In comparing Christianity with the religion of Hin- 
 dostan, we need not repeat the details which have been 
 so often presented, of the cruelties and impurities of 
 Indian idolatry. It is sufficient to refer to such prac- 
 tices as the exposure of the dying and the hastening 
 of their death on the banks or in the waters of the 
 Ganges ; the burning of widows on the funeral pile of 
 their husbands ; and the condition of those who, shrink- 
 ing from such a fate, drag out a miserable existence of 
 constant mourning and penance ; this too, when mar- 
 riage and widowhood may have commenced when they 
 were yet but children. But it may be replied when 
 these, and the still darker atrocities of impure idolatry, 
 are named, that they are but corruptions introduced into 
 a religion which was originally pure Monotheism. A 
 few words then are needed on this subject. 
 
 It appears from the researches of competent scholars, 
 that Monotheism was the early religion of India. If 
 this was originally held in its pure form, it became at 
 length corrupted into Pantheism. The object of reverence 
 was Brahma (the expanded, the vast). This word in 
 its neuter form, Brahma, or Brahm, denotes the imper- 
 sonal essence from which all nature is self-evolved ; 
 "not an object of worship, but merely of devout con- 
 templation." "As milk changes to curd, and water to 
 ice, so is Brahma variously transformed and diversified, 
 without aid of tools or exterior means of any sort." Of 
 this being, the human soul " is a portion, as a spark in 
 the fire. The relation is not as that of master and ser- 
 
RELIGIONS OTHER THAN CHRISTIAN. 31 
 
 vant, ruler and ruled, but as that of whole and part." * 
 But the mind could not be satisfied with this dreamy 
 system. The same word therefore, in its masculine 
 form, Brahma, denotes a deity who is personal and 
 active, but limited in his sphere to the one work of cre- 
 ating. Again, as men felt the need of a protector as 
 well as a creator, this character was borne by Vishnu, 
 the Preserver. But they saw that, notwithstanding his 
 power, evil, decay, and death existed ; and to account 
 for these, they recognized a third deity in Siva, the De- 
 stroyer. These were the Indian Trimurti, or Trinity; 
 and from these, in their various manifestations and 
 descendants, the countless gods of Hindoo idolatry have 
 proceeded. We find then that as soon as Brahminism 
 took a single step beyond the great idea of God, which 
 it seems to have received from the original revelation, 
 that step was error, and led to more and more of error 
 and corruption. The ancient sacred books of the Hin- 
 doos have been much commended, and placed by some 
 in favorable comparison with the sacred books of Chris- 
 tianity. But as Oriental scholars have more fully ascer- 
 tained the real character of these books, it appears that 
 they are mostly composed of prayers, addressed, not to 
 the One God, but to the firmament, fire, the earth, the 
 air, the sun and moon, and to spirits. Their mythology 
 personifies the objects of nature ; and while they may 
 teach in some passages that these deities are all resolv- 
 able into three, — fire, the air, and the sun, — or even 
 into one, yet the worship of the elements, "the creature, 
 
 * Passages from the £rahma-sutras> translated by Mr, Cole- 
 brooke. 
 
32 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 rather than the Creator," is the general doctrine of the 
 much-praised Vedas. 
 
 While therefore the great error of Mohammedanism 
 was in its recognizing God exclusively as sovereign, 
 that of Brahminism, in its purest form, appears to have 
 been the very opposite. The Hindoo did not own 
 Brahma as sovereign at all, but conceived of him either 
 as synonymous with nature, or as the impersonal source 
 from which nature proceeds, neither controlling its forces 
 nor interested in its well-being. 
 
 Another peculiarity of the Hindoo religion is in the 
 system of caste, and particularly in the high claims of 
 its priestly class. The Brahmins, the hereditary spiritual 
 aristocracy of Hindostan, were anciently the exclusive 
 possessors of knowledge, inviolable in person and prop- 
 erty, and supposed to be possessed of power, by their 
 curse, to inflict pain even on the gods. The Sudra, the 
 member of the lowest caste, was the mere human animal. 
 If he presumed to read the Vedas, he was punishable 
 with death. The superior classes had a higher nature 
 than his. They were "twice born." But beyond even 
 the Kshatriya and the Vaisya, the Brahmin was exalted. 
 He must keep himself and his race pure. It was to be 
 his ambition to rise into identity with God — absorption 
 back into the impersonal Brahma. 
 
 If we find here a resemblance to the Christian doc- 
 trine of regeneration, we remember that in Christianity 
 it is not the accident of descent which makes one man 
 to differ from another ; but that it recognizes in the 
 humblest the image of God, and offers to him its second 
 birth, not as the privilege of a proud caste, but as the 
 gift of God's Spirit to the lowly minded. 
 
religions other than christian. 33 
 
 Buddhism. 
 
 The history of Buddhism in its early period appears to 
 have been briefly the following. As we have already 
 seen, Brahminism was originally a modification of 
 Monotheism, teaching that the One God exists in perfect 
 repose, and that the universe is a succession of emana- 
 tions from him. This doctrine became corrupted, first 
 by the introduction of the Trimurti, Vishnu and Siva 
 being associated with Brahma, and afterwards by innu- 
 merable steps of degradation. The care of this religion 
 was committed to a race of priests, the Brahmins. Side 
 by side with these, — like the prophets, and afterwards 
 the Rabbins of Israel, besides the priests of the race of 
 Aaron, — was a succession of sages ; men whose com- 
 mission to instruct the people was not from family 
 descent, but from the light within them. Buddhism 
 was the protest of these men against the increasing 
 corruption. It aimed to vindicate at once the honor of 
 God and of man. In opposition to the growing idolatry, 
 it proclaimed one supreme and all-embracing Intelli- 
 gence ; such is the meaning of the word Boodh. In 
 opposition to the exclusive pretensions of the Brahmins, 
 it declared that all intelligences, of men and even of 
 animals, were parts of that boundless Mind. Such were 
 the doctrines, — sublime truth blended with error, which 
 Gautama, or Sakya-muni, a devotee of princely rank, 
 and the most eminent of these sages, taught in the 
 groves of Benares, perhaps a thousand years before the 
 Christian era. 
 
 The greatest error of this ancient sage was evidently 
 in retaining the Brahminical conception of God as an 
 3 
 
34 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 inactive and indeed impersonal being, a divine sub- 
 stance, the thinking Mind of the world rather than its 
 animating Soul, and liable to be confounded with the 
 world itself. From this error arose, as we have seen, 
 the idolatry of Brahminism ; from the same cause there 
 came, in the system founded by Sakya-muni, first Pan- 
 theism, then Atheism, and then, to fill the dreary void 
 of a godless universe, the deification of the heavenly 
 bodies, of animals, and of human beings, but above all, 
 of the founder of the religion himself. The infinite 
 Intelligence was forgotten ; a Being alike inactive and 
 inconceivable could not be the object of worship ; but 
 the rule of the world was consigned to a succession of 
 limited intelligences, and Gautama was acknowledged 
 as the Boodh to reign for five thousand years. At the 
 end of that time he is to surrender his office to some 
 other deified mortal, and to attain nirvana, absorption 
 into the infinite. Meantime, while governing the uni- 
 verse, he has his representative on earth ; for his spirit 
 inhabits the bodies of a succession of pontiffs, who, under 
 the name of Dalai Lama (Ocean-like Priest), exercise 
 at once, like the Pope, a wide-spread spiritual control, 
 and a limited temporal sovereignty. The resemblance 
 extends to other features of Romish Christianity, — to 
 the celibacy of the priesthood, the monastic life, and the 
 mendicant order. In one absurdity, Buddhism stands 
 alone. The worshipper in its temples need not repeat a 
 prayer. All that is required is, to turn a wheel or drum 
 on which the prayer is written, which is thus brought to 
 the notice of the Deity. 
 
 In comparing Christianity with this system, we have 
 to admit that our religion also has become 'corrupted. 
 
RELIGIONS OTHER THAN CHRISTIAN. 35 
 
 But the difference is perceivable in this ; that in Bud- 
 dhism, as in Brahminism, we can point to a fundamental 
 error in the system itself. Christianity, like Buddhism, 
 teaches of one God, who is everywhere ; but it teaches 
 also that he is our Creator and our Father. It tells us 
 that man is made in God's image, and is God's child; 
 but it does not tell us that the finite can ascend to share 
 the throne of the Infinite. 
 
 With regard to the position of their founders, and the 
 apparent causes of their success, there is a wide differ- 
 ence between Buddhism and Christianity. Sakya-muni 
 was a philosopher, neither claiming supernatural inspi- 
 ration nor miraculous power, — whatever legends may 
 have gathered around him in the lapse of near three 
 thousand years. His personal character had little to do 
 with his system, except to commend it by the attraction, 
 alike of his honest purpose and of his mistaken asceticism. 
 That he left his wife and children, to give himself to 
 retirement and meditation, may have given him sanctity 
 in the estimation of his countrymen, but in the light of 
 Christianity it appears as an abandonment of duty. The 
 spread of his system is easily accounted for/ It was a 
 reform, undertaken by one who united the influence of 
 princely station, of reputed wisdom and holiness, and 
 probably of eloquence. The chief doctrine he proclaimed 
 was a form of Monotheism, which the popular religion 
 had forgotten, but did not deny. The institution of 
 caste he undermined, rather than controverted. In some 
 Buddhist countries it still exists, though in an enfeebled 
 state. Buddhism thus made extensive progress in India 
 before the persecution arose, which drove it from the 
 country, and rendered its followers an army of mission- 
 
36 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 aries, well prepared to subject to its sway the regions of 
 south-eastern Asia, where probably, at that remote 
 period, there was no well-developed system, either of 
 civilization or religion, to rival its claims and oppose its 
 progress. What a contrast was this to the fierce attacks 
 which Christianity sustained from the moment of its 
 birth ! Its Founder, not born, like Sakya-muni, in a 
 royal station, gathered his adherents among the poor, 
 and gave his life as the penalty for teaching the truth. 
 His followers had to encounter the opposition, first of 
 their own national rulers, and then of the far mightier 
 Roman empire. The doctrine they proclaimed was not 
 an attempt to bring again into notice principles recog- 
 nized by the popular religion. It was the very reverse 
 of the prevalent idolatry, and encumbered by the fact 
 that its author had been crucified, — "to the Jews a 
 stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness." On 
 the other hand it claimed, — what Buddhism in its 
 early years did not claim, — to be a miraculous revela- 
 tion. It did not, like Buddhism, give way before per- 
 secution ; but held its ground and achieved its triumph 
 where it had first been promulgated. Its prevalence, 
 under such circumstances, and in the face of such oppo- 
 sition, is a strong proof of the validity of its title to a 
 divine origin. 
 
 Confucius. 
 
 About five centuries before Christ, and not far from 
 the same interval after Sakya-muni, — though some 
 consider them as nearly contemporaneous, — appeared 
 the philosophic legislator of China. Confucius (Koong- 
 foo-tse) was of high descent by both parents, his father 
 
RELIGIONS OTHER THAN CHRISTIAN. 37 
 
 having been a distinguished officer of the government. 
 This circumstance probably directed his attention to 
 statesmanship, and made the duty of the subject the 
 central point in his system of morals. Like Sakya- 
 muni, he sacrificed domestic duty to ambition, disguised 
 as the desire of usefulness ; for after his wife had borne 
 him a son, he divorced her, in order to give himself 
 entirely to study. His life was spent in an interchange 
 of official station and compelled retirement ; sometimes 
 the minister of princes, and applying his theories to 
 advance the happiness of the people ; at other times 
 obliged to give way to the envy and malignity of his 
 rivals ; perhaps also to their superior practical ability, 
 for the man of theoretic genius is not alwavs the man of 
 business. But whether in power or in retirement, he 
 had around him a band of attached disciples ; and 
 after his death, his memory was honored, and his teach- 
 ing became the acknowledged code of morals of the 
 empire. 
 
 Confucius can hardly be said to have taught a religion. 
 Some have questioned whether he recognized a God. 
 He did however acknowledge a First Cause, or Reason 
 of things, "eternal, infinite, indescribable, indestructible, 
 without limits, omnipotent and omnipresent." The 
 central point of influence of this Cause he supposed to 
 be in the blue firmament (Tien) , and declared it to be 
 the supreme duty of the prince, in the name of his sub- 
 jects, to present offerings to Tien, particularly for obtain- 
 ing a favorable seed-time' and an abundant harvest. 
 Besides this, he ordained the worship of ancestors; the 
 spirits of the good being permitted to visit such places 
 as their descendants might set apart for such memorial 
 
38 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 rites. To these devotional services was added in after 
 times the worship of the philosopher himself, to whose 
 memory a temple is erected in every city, while his 
 numerous descendants are said to be the only hereditary 
 nobility of China. 
 
 The worship of ancestors was in harmony with the 
 ethical system of Confucius, the great idea of which was 
 morality founded on filial reverence. The relation of 
 children to a father illustrates that of subjects to their 
 emperor. A paternal despotism is thus the ideal gov- 
 ernment of Confucius. The duties of mankind appear 
 to be comprised in what with children we should call 
 good behavior. Not attaining to the Christian rule of 
 the regulation of the heart, Confucius gave precepts, 
 often excellent, often trifling, for the regulation of the 
 life. In a word, his system seems the introduction, as 
 a law for mankind, of the morals and the politics of an 
 orderly school-room. In this light, we may readily 
 understand how he attained to the negative form of the 
 w Golden Rule : " K Do nothing to others which you 
 would not be willing that they should do to you." This 
 is the rule of good behavior, the rule of justice. It has 
 been given by other Gentile moralists, and appears in 
 the Talmud as a precept of Rabbi Hillel. But Christ 
 gave the law in its positive form : " Whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." 
 This is the law, not of justice merely, but of all-embrac- 
 ing benevolence. 
 
 The account we have given of the system of Confucius 
 may explain the hold it took and retained upon the 
 regard of the Chinese nation. It was .adapted to their 
 form of government. It gained the favor of princes, 
 
RELIGIONS OTHER THAN CHRISTIAN. 39 
 
 even of the best among them ; for while it sustained 
 their power, it taught them to exercise it as fathers of 
 their people. It endeared itself to the people by the 
 sanction it gave to family order, and family affection 
 among the living, and to that tender feeling which bids 
 us commemorate the dead. But it was hostile to free- 
 dom, fatal to independence of thought and action. Its 
 tendency was to a rigid formalism in outward conduct, 
 with little to call forth the powers of the mind, or to 
 purify and elevate the feelings of the heart. The result 
 we perceive in the fixed and petrified condition of Chi- 
 nese civilization. 
 
 " Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay ! " * 
 
 The system of Confucius is, however, not alone domi- 
 nant in China. The worshippers of Taou (Reason), 
 acknowledging Laou-tse, the teacher of Confucius, as 
 their leader, appear to have been originally speculative 
 and experimental philosophers, as Confucius was a prac- 
 tical moralist. Buddhism was introduced into China in 
 the first century of the Christian era, by an emperor 
 who felt the want of something more distinctly religious 
 than either of these systems. The three sects, follow- 
 ers of Confucius, of Laou-tse, and of Fo or Buddha, 
 seem to dwell together in harmony ; and if there was 
 formerly any violent struggle among them, its remem- 
 brance has faded with the lapse of time. That there 
 have been, however, jealousy, and court intrigue, and 
 crime in connection with this difference of religious 
 opinion, is indicated by the facts that, in 1780, the 
 Grand Lama visited Pekin by invitation of the 
 
 * Tennyson's Locksley Hall. 
 
40 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 emperor, and that he died soon after his arrival there, 
 not without strong suspicions of poison. But it may be 
 that the three systems had the less to cause dissension, 
 as they occupied different portions of the field of human 
 thought. Their doctrines do not appear contradictory 
 to each other, but each of them limited, and all unsatis- 
 factory. Neither of them, nor all combined, can satisfy 
 the wants of the human soul. Their insufficiency, and 
 the power of Christianity to supply it, are well repre- 
 sented in the words of Professor Maurice. 
 
 " If you did hear of a people which had for ages the 
 strongest conviction that the authority of the Father was 
 the one foundation of society, but had never been able 
 to connect this conviction with the acknowledgment of 
 anything mysterious and divine ; of a society which for 
 ages has not been able to prevent a certain body of its 
 subjects from dreaming that there is a mysterious and 
 divine Word or Reason speaking to the wise man, out 
 of which dream, however, no fruits had proceeded but 
 impostures and delusions ; if you were told, that into 
 the heart of this society Buddhism had come, with its 
 strange testimony of a Spirit in the human race, the 
 ordinary manifestations of which are seen in very igno- 
 rant priests, its perfect manifestation often in an infant ; 
 if you heard that these doctrines had never been able to 
 combine, and yet that no one could succeed in banishing 
 the other from an empire in which order and unity are 
 prized as the highest blessings of all ; nay, that expe- 
 rience had proved to reluctant sages that none of these 
 elements of discord could safely be extinguished, that 
 each was in some strange way needful to the permanence 
 of that which it seemed to undermine ; — and if after 
 
RELIGIONS OTHER THAN CHRISTIAN. 41 
 
 this you heard of a faith which assumed that the ground 
 of all things and all men is a Father ; that He has spoken 
 and does speak by his Filial Word to the hearts and 
 spirits of men, so making them wise, and separating 
 them from what is base and vain ; that this Filial Word 
 has been made flesh and dwelt among men, and has 
 given them power to become sons of God ; and that 
 through Him a Spirit is given to dwell with men, to 
 raise up a new spirit in them, to unite them to each 
 other, to make them living portions of a living body ; — 
 if, I say, these two sets of facts were presented to you 
 side by side, would not you feel there was some strange 
 adaptation in the one to the other ; that there was in 
 the last the secret principle and power for which it was 
 evident from the former that China had through cen- 
 turies been asking in vain ? " * 
 
 The systems we have examined, with that of classic 
 mythology, and the Persian belief in the two contending 
 powers of good and evil, and the wild fancies of the 
 Icelandic Edda, all present a contrast to Christianity in 
 many obvious aspects. One alone we shall point out, 
 but that one includes the rest. These systems are all 
 partial, Christianity is universal. The Persian religion 
 takes but a partial view of evil, not discerning that 
 Divine w T isdom uses it as the means of good. The 
 Greek mythology is limited by its realistic character. 
 It is the worship of substantial forms, men and women, 
 only of greater strength and more ethereal frame, dwell- 
 ing in a local habitation. The Hindoo system is 
 
 * The Religions of the World, and their Relations to Christianity. 
 By Frederick Denison Maurice, M. A., &c. Pages 223, 224. 
 
42 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 limited on the si,de of mysticism, acknowledging an 
 all-embracing but impersonal Divine essence, — and, 
 subordinate to this, the personification of the elements 
 and of divine attributes. Buddhism resembles this in 
 its Pantheistic tendency, and recognizes no living and 
 active God beyond a deified mortal ; and the state 
 religion of China is little beyond a state system of mor- 
 als. Even Mohammedanism, derived as it is from the 
 religion of the Bible, has been untrue to its origin in 
 representing God too exclusively as sovereign. In con- 
 trast to these, we find in Christianity the doctrine of 
 One Supreme God, who fills all space, and is incon- 
 ceivable in the greatness of his attributes, but who yet 
 loves the beings he has made ; who exercises over them 
 a just government, yet hears their prayers and merci- 
 fully accepts their penitence ; who, while our Divine 
 Sovereign, is yet our Father in Heaven. As we have 
 seen, in the extract given from Maurice, the various 
 systems prevalent in China, corresponding each to a 
 distinct portion of the religion of Christ, so it is with 
 the other beliefs of mankind. Each of the systems of 
 Paganism has its part ; Christianity has the whole. 
 The object which religion presents is too vast for the 
 human mind, without distinct divine assistance, to con- 
 template in all its aspects. Zoroaster beheld it on one 
 side, Sakya-muni on another, the Greek on a third, and 
 the Arabian on a fourth ; the Son of God alone, " who 
 is in the bosom of the Father," presents to us, in his 
 instructions and in his life, the being who is at once the 
 Persian's Source of Light, the Buddhist's Infinite Es- 
 sence, the majestic Ruler of heaven as beheld by the 
 Greek, and the Sovereign of mankind as contemplated 
 
RELIGIONS OTHER THAN CHRISTIAN. 43 
 
 by Mohammed, while all these conceptions are tran- 
 scended and perfected in that of the Father, who K so 
 loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." 
 
 We have next to remark in relation to the various 
 systems of religion which we have examined, that they 
 all bear traces of an original Monotheism. Nor is it 
 the case with these alone. We need not investigate all 
 the systems of brutal idolatry that have at any time dis- 
 graced humanity. It would seem a waste of time to 
 compare Christianity with these. Yet the rudest Feti- 
 chism which worships stocks and stones, seems the relic 
 of a forgotten doctrine of a universally pervading divine 
 presence, and if universally pervading, necessarily One. 
 The Classic System, amidst its multitude of gods, still 
 subjected all the mythologic family to the sway of Ju- 
 piter, w the Father of gods and men.'' In the Scandi- 
 navian mythology, Odin, the supreme ruler of the 
 existing world, is himself to be destroyed, with all the 
 mythologic family, in the great rebellion of Loke ; but 
 the catastrophe brings before us the mention of a Being 
 far greater. "Then the powerful, the valiant, he who 
 governs all things, comes out from his lofty abode, and 
 renders divine justice."* 
 
 In the religion of the ancient Persians, notwithstand- 
 ing the recognition of Ahriman, the Power of Evil, as 
 the rival of Ormuzd, the traces of original Monotheism 
 are distinct ; for both Ormuzd and Ahriman alike pro- 
 ceed from Zerouane, Time without bounds, — or, in one 
 word, the Infinite. 
 
 We find then, everywhere, traces of an original doctrine 
 
 « 
 
 * Edda, quoted in Butler's Horae Biblicae. 
 
44 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 of One God ; and we find everywhere but in Chris- 
 tianity, and the Jewish and Mohammedan systems which 
 are connected with it, that this doctrine has become cor- 
 rupted. If then the tendency of mankind has been thus 
 generally to Polytheism, whence came that original idea 
 of One God ? Men could not have developed it for 
 themselves ; developed it, too, or generally, so all but 
 universally, when their tendency has manifestly lain in 
 the opposite direction. The inquiry brings us back to 
 the Bible statement of an original revelation, an inter- 
 course of the Divine Being with early patriarchs, preced- 
 ing the Jewish and the Christian dispensations. We 
 might conceive the idea of some superior Being or Be- 
 ings to be intuitive ; but we cannot believe this respect- 
 ing the idea of One God, when the tendency of the 
 human mind was always to turn to the worship of 
 many. 
 
 There was then, we have reason to believe, an original 
 revelation to mankind. This conclusion, to which we 
 thus arrive, from observing its traces in man's subse- 
 quent religious history, is not a priori incredible nor 
 improbable, if a creative act be admitted. For such an 
 act would be in itself miraculous ; that is, it would be 
 an act of the Supreme, out of the common course of 
 nature.* If we believe then in the miracle of man's 
 creation, we may well believe also in that of his instruc- 
 tion. That the Almighty should give to the being he 
 had made, some knowledge of the source from whence 
 he came, and the purpose for which he was designed, 
 is no more than might be naturally expected of creative 
 
 * Manual, § 2, page 4. 
 
RELIGIONS OTHER THAN CHRISTIAN. 45 
 
 goodness. There was then, we more fully conclude, 
 an original revelation. 
 
 From this conclusion, two others of great importance 
 follow. 
 
 First, this result directly confirms the religion of the 
 Bible, because the truth of an original revelation is 
 stated there. Whatever interpretation is put upon the 
 narratives of the book of Genesis, it cannot be questioned 
 that they represent the human race as in its earliest ex- 
 istence, ruled and instructed by its Creator in an especial 
 manner. Nor can it be denied that the patriarchal reli- 
 gion, according to those accounts, was the belief in One 
 God. When we find, therefore, the earliest narratives of 
 the Scriptures coinciding in their representations with 
 what we learn from another source to be the truth, we 
 are encouraged to trust their later testimony as alike 
 true, and to give credit to the claim of especial divine 
 revelation for the religion they communicate. 
 
 Secondly, if the fact of an original revelation is estab- 
 lished, or rendered in any degree probable, then to the 
 same degree, the strongest objection against the super- 
 natural authority of Christianity is removed. For the 
 objection that is most felt in this age is to miracles, regard- 
 ed as an interruption of the common course of nature. 
 But if such an interruption has once taken place, it may 
 occur again. The improbability is, indeed, so far 
 removed, that there comes instead of it an antecedent 
 probability that God, who had once interfered for the 
 guidance of his children, would afford that guidance 
 again, if at any time it should be equally needed. 
 
46 EVIDENCES OF CHBISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Revelation, Primitive and Jewish. 
 
 Shelley, in the notes to his atheistic poem of " Queen 
 Mab," quotes in capitals, as if the question were un- 
 answerable, the following sentence from D'Holbach's 
 * Systeme de la Nature:" "S'il a parle, pourquoi 1'uni- 
 vers n'est-il pas convaincu ? " "If he (God) has spoken, 
 why is not the universe convinced ? " The objection 
 these words convey against revelation is probably felt by 
 many. It might be expressed at length in such terms 
 as these : " If the Creator of the world saw fit to reveal 
 himself to his children, w^ould he not make the commu- 
 nication alike to all, and in such a manner that it could 
 not be misunderstood? Would he not write his com- 
 mands in letters of living light upon the heavens, where 
 all could not but read? Nay, has he not in fact been 
 thus impartial? Does not nature, does not his voice 
 within us, reveal all that we need to know ? And would 
 a wise and just Being choose one obscure nation as the 
 peculiar objects of his care, and depositaries of his 
 revealed will ? " 
 
 If we take the doctrines of natural religion, as they 
 have been given to us by the great writers of ancient or 
 of modern times, we find in them sublime truths, to 
 which our hearts readily yield assent. We learn that 
 all nature testifies to the existence, the eternity, omnip- 
 
REVELATION, PRIMITIVE AND JEWISH. 47 
 
 otence, and other exalted attributes of the Most High ; 
 to the excellence of virtue, and the reality of its great 
 reward in a future life ; and we are on the point of 
 admitting the force of the challenging question, If nature 
 teaches all these truths, what need is there of a revela- 
 tion? 
 
 We hear, too, in these days, much of the teaching of 
 God's Spirit to all mankind. Many who deny the 
 authority of the Jewish and Christian revelations do not 
 hesitate to admit that Moses and Jesus were inspired ; 
 but they claim that every good man is inspired also. In 
 former times, it was the ignorant fanatic, who, unable to 
 read the Bible, declared that he had no need of it, and 
 asserted a personal inspiration for every wild fancy of 
 his own. But now the claim of such inspiration is made 
 by accomplished scholars, and not for themselves alone, 
 but for all mankind. Here, then, is a second source of 
 knowledge, which seems amply sufficient. What need 
 of a miraculous revelation by Moses or by Christ, when 
 nature teaches all that we need to know, and when, 
 besides this, the voice of God is always testifying of his- 
 truth to every human heart ? 
 
 Before, however, we withdraw from the guidance of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, let us inquire how this double 
 leadership of nature and of the Spirit sufficed for man- 
 kind before the birth of our Savior. Had nature, or 
 had any voice within the soul, taught the great doctrines 
 of religion to all men alike ? If so, why were all nations 
 except the Jews sunk in idolatry, paying worship to the 
 host of heaven, to the powers of nature, to their own 
 passions personified, to forms of the animal and even of 
 the vegetable creation, to stocks and stones, to anything 
 
48 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 rather than to the one living and true God ? Why is it 
 that to this day, everywhere, beyond the influence of the 
 Jewish and Christian religions, a similar idolatry pre- 
 vails? Why, in ancient times, did those philosophers 
 who had left the gross superstitions of their countrymen, 
 wander into errors of different kinds, some maintaining 
 that pleasure was the only good, while others turned 
 from it with ascetic scorn ; some ascribing the rule over 
 all things to a fate that controlled the actions of gods 
 and men, and others declaring that there was no God, 
 and that the universe was merely the result of chance ? 
 Why, even at present, in the most enlightened nations, 
 and with all the instruction which Judaism and Chris- 
 tianity have incidentally furnished, do those who are 
 thought to be foremost in wisdom appear to wander in 
 darkness the moment they reject the faith of the gospel, 
 one denying the belief in a future life, another rejecting 
 the being of a God, and others yet, under the pretence 
 of superior purity, setting aside the most common prin- 
 ciples of virtuous conduct ? Is this the boasted teaching 
 of nature, which leads now to superstition, and now to 
 atheism? Was there no occasion that God should speak 
 by Moses, when, in Egypt, then the most enlightened 
 country in the world, the mass of the people worshipped 
 calves, and dogs, and vegetables ; and the priesthood, if 
 better instructed, went on teaching a religion that they 
 knew was a lie ? No. There is, we admit, such a thing 
 as natural religion ; there is a divine voice in every 
 human heart. But that voice must be listened for with 
 reverence ; it does not infallibly teach either the ignorant 
 savage or the self-sufficient sage ; and the teachings of 
 natural religion, plainly as they now commend them- 
 
REVELATION, PRIMITIVE AND JEWISH. 49 
 
 selves to the understanding, were never clearly and 
 fully declared, until they found utterance from inspired 
 lips. 
 
 Man needs, then, a revelation. It is the belief of 
 Christians that this need has been met at three distinct 
 periods of the world's history ; — first, in primitive or 
 patriarchal times ; next, in the communications made to 
 the Israelitish race ; and lastly, in the life and teachings 
 of Jesus Christ. It matters not to our present purpose, 
 that from some points of view, these may appear con- 
 tinuous — the patriarchal shading off into the Jewish, 
 and this into the Christian. This fact, if rightly con- 
 templated, shows the continuity and consistency of the 
 divine dealings ; but the periods remain sufficiently dis- 
 tinct to be separately treated. 
 
 Of the Primitive Revelation, our assurance rests most 
 distinctly on the testimony of Scripture. This informs 
 us of divine communications made to Adam and to 
 Noah, both represented as ancestors of the whole human 
 race ; and whatever allegorical or mythical explanation 
 may be given to these narratives of primitive times, the 
 purpose of the sacred writers is sufficiently clear, to 
 teach that God revealed himself to the fathers of man- 
 kind. We have found a confirmation of this truth while 
 examining the heathen systems of religion ; for their 
 tendency, being everywhere downward, indicates the 
 height of their source. If the efforts of the human 
 mind in India, through ages of comparative civilization, 
 have but corrupted more and more the original Mono- 
 theism, it is not likely that the human mind, unassisted, 
 discovered that Monotheism in the barbarous ages that 
 preceded ; and when we find the testimony of India con- 
 4 
 
50 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 firmed by that of all the heathen world besides, each form 
 of idolatry bearing witness to a purer faith that preceded 
 it, we cannot avoid admitting an original revelation. 
 The bestowment of this, materially affects the charge of 
 partiality which is brought against the religion of the 
 Old Testament. 
 
 The original revelation must have been given to the 
 ancestors of all mankind ; for the traces of it remain in 
 all systems since. And even if the descent of all man- 
 kind from a single pair be denied, it remains certain 
 that the progenitors of the race were few in number, in 
 comparison with the millions of their descendants. In- 
 struction given to these few, then, would be communi- 
 cated to their children. But at any subsequent period, 
 when the earth was generally, inhabited, the idea of a 
 universal revelation becomes more difficult to conceive. 
 Its authentication must be miraculous, whether by an 
 outward voice, or by any other sign, from heaven or 
 on earth. Then, as no nation is to be distinguished 
 above another, each one must have its prophet or its 
 Messiah, and its own series of miracles, to establish his 
 commission. And when the disciples of these various 
 inspired leaders met on the boundaries of their separate 
 realms, a constant miracle would be required to prevent 
 variance and jealousy among those who had heard the 
 divine message from different lips. Again, the wonders 
 wrought by each holy messenger, though they might 
 establish his authority with those who witnessed them, 
 would possess far less weight with others. If all, then, 
 are to have the same advantages, these miraculous signs 
 must be multiplied for the personal instruction of all. 
 And as the memory of them would grow dim with time, 
 
REVELATION, PRIMITIVE AND JEWISH. 51 
 
 the necessity of impartial favor to each generation would 
 require that the miracles should be repeated from age to 
 age. Then if the miracles were not unanswerably con- 
 vincing, their purpose would not be fulfilled ; if they 
 were, faith would be forced, not free ; the voluntary 
 action of the pious will in giving its adhesion to the 
 truth would be forestalled, and only a slavish obedience 
 could be rendered to an overwhelming evidence. Yet 
 that evidence, if it forbade doubt, could not excite deep, 
 reverential interest. Miracles would be matters of too 
 common occurrence for this. Taking place continually, 
 or at stated intervals, they would lose the dignity of 
 divine interpositions. They would become, as it were, 
 a part of the course of nature, only retaining enough of 
 singularity and abruptness seriously to interfere with the 
 confidence of mankind in the stability of nature's laws. 
 That these laws will be regularly maintained, that the 
 order of external things will be the same to-morrow that 
 it was yesterday, is most important to human happiness, 
 and even to human life. It is only thus that we can 
 have assurance that a given course of conduct will pro- 
 duce its proper results, and thus be encouraged to do 
 right, and warned against what is wrong. But if mir- 
 acles were things of every day, all this confidence would 
 be lost. We find this exemplified in reading those 
 works of antique literature, into which supernatural 
 machinery enters largely ; such, for instance, as Tasso's 
 ff Jerusalem Delivered." Surrounded on every side 
 with signs and wonders, here with magic power, and 
 there with divine interpositions, we perceive that the 
 common rules of life are set aside. It is not zeal or 
 valor that can be depended on to win the battle, but the 
 
52 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 might of some magician on the one side, or guardian 
 angel on the other. Thus would it be, to the peril of 
 all consistent judgment, all free choice, and all manly 
 energy, if miracles were rendered common ; and com- 
 mon they must be, if the revelation God has given is to 
 be communicated in the same manner, and with the 
 same advantages for receiving it, to all his children, of 
 every nation, and in every age of the world. 
 
 And such a system, however it might commend itself 
 to the minds of theorizing philosophers, is not conform- 
 able to the divine method of instructing the human race, 
 as we discover that method from the analogy of nature. 
 It is not the plan of Providence to act on the dead level 
 of a measured equality. On the contrary, variety of 
 advantages appears to be the very law of God's dealings 
 with mankind. Scarce two nations are precisely equal 
 with regard to the degree of civilization they have at- 
 tained. The Eastern Hemisphere had been the abode 
 of culture in art and science for thousands of years be- 
 fore our Western World was discovered ; yet, even there, 
 portions, as the interior of Africa, are still in midnight 
 darkness. So, too, it is with the knowledge which nature 
 yields us of the Divine Being. God's power and wisdom 
 are inscribed upon the heavens. The stars as they roll 
 show forth the glory of Him who made them ; and it 
 w^ould seem as if here, indeed, was a revelation that, 
 being open to the eyes of all," was given with perfect 
 impartiality. But how differently is that revelation of 
 God in nature appreciated and understood ! The savage 
 tribes understand it not. They see the glorious arch 
 above glow, night after night, with its innumerable 
 lights ; but they have never been taught to infer from it 
 
REVELATION, PRIMITIVE AND JEWISH. 53 
 
 the existence of a creative spirit ; and if the mighty les- 
 son cannot be entirely unread, yet are their ideas of its 
 meaning inadequate and obscure. The magnificent 
 spectacle is meant for all God's human offspring to profit 
 by at length ; but generations unnumbered have passed, 
 and other generations will pass, before the knowledge 
 of its mysteries shall be conferred alike on all. 
 
 But an objection yet remains. We may give up, it 
 may be said, the idea of a perfect equality in the divine 
 communication of knowledge. If a revelation was to 
 be made, once for all, of course some must be nearer to 
 it, in place or in time, than others. But that God 
 should select one nation, as he is said to have chosen 
 the Jews, should have made them his own peculiar peo- 
 ple, given them laws for their guidance, sent prophets 
 to remonstrate with them when they went astray, pro- 
 tected them in captivity and brought them back to free- 
 dom, while all the other nations, more powerful and 
 more cultivated, were left in the darkness of idolatry, 
 this surely would prove a partiality inconsistent with the 
 justice and benevolence of the divine character. 
 
 Would it prove this, we may ask in return, if it 
 should appear that a revelation of God's will was orig- 
 inally made to all, and that it was only by their own 
 fault that other races lost that inheritance of God's vis- 
 ible favor which Abraham and his descendants retained ? 
 We have seen the proof that there was an original and 
 impartial revelation ; but the world at large forsook the 
 worship of the living and true God. Abraham remained 
 faithful to it ; and he left that faithfulness, as at once a 
 solemn charge and a precious heir-loom to his children. 
 He and his race were not selected arbitrarily, nor other 
 
54 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 tribes arbitrarily excluded ; but, all having been treated 
 alike at first, they who turned to idolatry were only left 
 in the darkness they had chosen, while the faithful pa- 
 triarch was favored with an increase of the light he loved. 
 The selection of Israel, then, appears no longer incon- 
 sistent with justice, or with the usual course of God's 
 providence. It was, in the Divine Being, justice, not 
 partiality, that conferred on faithfulness its appropriate 
 blessing, making the chosen race the depositaries of 
 divine instruction in degrees still higher, and protecting 
 them through the varied course of their national exist- 
 ence, until the time should come for conferring, through 
 their means, on other races also, the blessing which had 
 hitherto been their own. 
 
 Again, the selection of the Jewish race for the recep- 
 tion, development, and extension of religious truth, par- 
 tial as it may seem, is in strict analogy to the actual 
 working of the Almighty's plans, in other departments 
 of the training of mankind. Other nations besides the 
 Hebrews have had their own peculiar tasks and privi- 
 leges. Greece gave to the world the love of beauty, 
 alike in literature and art. Hers were the great master- 
 pieces of epic, dramatic, and lyric poetry; hers the 
 great triumphs of oratory ; hers the development of a 
 nobler grace in sculpture than the colossal but rude 
 images of Egypt had ever possessed ; hers the achieve- 
 ments in architecture that make the ruins of her temples 
 still the admiration of the world. Rome, on the other 
 hand, was the great teacher in the art of ruling. What 
 her poet said of her near two thousand years ago — that 
 the task of Rome was to govern the nations — is true 
 even yet, through the influence of Roman law upon the 
 
BEVELATION, PRIMITIVE AND JEWISH. 55 
 
 institutions of many a land. Thus did God assign to 
 the Jewish race to be the leaders of mankind in religious 
 knowledge and religious feeling. That leadership they 
 hold, unquestionably. Till any other portion of the 
 great family of man can produce hymns as lofty as the 
 Psalms of David, or representations of the Almighty as 
 sublime and as true as the strains of Isaiah, the religious 
 pre-eminence of the Hebrew race must be admitted. It 
 is unquestionable that providentially they were God's 
 chosen instruments for declaring divine truth ; and if 
 providentially, wherefore not also miraculously? 
 
 We find in the selection of the Hebrew race to be 
 the depositaries of sacred truth an analogy still closer 
 to the dealings of Providence. Observing the course of 
 history from the earliest ages, among Gentiles as well as 
 Jews, we find everywhere some persons exercising the 
 priestly office, the instructors of their fellow-men in 
 matters of religion. Often we find especial families or 
 races of men chosen, the Brahmins among the Hindoos, 
 no less than the race of Aaron among the Israelites, to 
 bear testimony before all the people to the existence of 
 something'unseen, but superior to all else. Thus, among 
 the nations of the earth, the Hebrews were the priestly 
 nation. As the individual priest in the community, as 
 the house of Levi among the twelve tribes, as the house 
 of Aaron in the tribe of Levi, so was the nation itself, 
 among all the inhabitants of the earth, deputed to receive 
 the heavenly treasure, and communicate it to all the rest. 
 The Christian revelation, indeed, abolished this distinc- 
 tion. Under it the true priesthood of the earth con- 
 sists not of the descendants of any one tribe or nation, 
 but of the sincere followers of Christ. Thus speaks an 
 
56 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 apostle : " Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priest- 
 hood, a holy nation, a peculiar people."* Our Savior, 
 we are told, " hath made us kings and priests unto God."f 
 But it has been well observed that our Lord, in his lan- 
 guage respecting the new birth, " gathers up the very 
 meaning of the old dispensation, shows us what a truth 
 was involved in every part of it, how every part had 
 been prepared for the full revelation of this truth. His 
 coming was, no doubt, to destroy the barrier between 
 Jew and Gentile, but not till that barrier had been 
 proved to have its justification in the very condition and 
 being of man, in his relation to God and to the world. 
 If there is a flesh in man, by obedience to which he be- 
 comes degraded, sensual, idolatrous, — if he naturally is 
 obedient to this flesh, and can only attain the rights of 
 a spiritual creature when the Lord of all raises him 
 above his nature, above himself, — then we can understand 
 why a whole nation should have been called by its posi- 
 tion in reference to other nations, by its strength and 
 weakness, righteousness and sins, by the experience of 
 all its individual members, to set forth this mighty fact, 
 in which the eternal destinies of mankind must be in- 
 volved." t 
 
 The selection of the Jews as the peculiar people of 
 God was not, then, for their own sake alone. To keep 
 alive on earth the belief in his own existence, in his 
 attributes of unity, spirituality, power, and love, until 
 other branches of the human race should be prepared to 
 receive that belief, was the great purpose which God 
 
 * 1 Peter ii. 9. t Rev. i. 6. 
 
 t Maurice, Religions of the World, and their Relations to Christi- 
 anity. Part II. Lecture II. Page 186. 
 
REVELATION, PRIMITIVE AND JEWISH. 57 
 
 accomplished by the selection of Israel. Abraham, 
 found faithful in a faithless generation, left his idola- 
 trous kindred, that he and his might retain their purity 
 of worship. To him, then, the promise was given, not 
 only of the number and glory of his own descendants, 
 but that in his seed should "all nations of the earth be 
 blessed." For long ages the prediction remained un- 
 fulfilled. If we can imagine a celestial being con tern- 
 plating the earth and its inhabitants through those ages, 
 we may conceive that to him the purpose of Divine 
 Providence may have been deeply mysterious. He 
 would see far and wide through the earth the appalling 
 and impure rites of heathen worship, — here parents 
 sacrificing their children to Moloch, there festivals held 
 in honor of Ashtaroth, the Syrian Venus, accompanied 
 with acts of vile debauchery. In one land alone would 
 he witness the worship of a spiritual God, recognized as 
 the Creator of heaven and earth, a Being whose eyes 
 were too pure to behold iniquity. Over every altar in 
 other realms would he perceive some image ; in one 
 country a human form of matchless grace, in another 
 some grotesque combination of various animals, or a 
 many-headed or many-handed monster ; but at the one 
 altar in Jerusalem would he see neither statue nor paint- 
 ing, for the God that was worshipped there had forbid- 
 den any such degrading representations of his invisible, 
 inconceivable majesty. And what would strike our 
 beholder most with amazement would be, that while in 
 other lands men pursued their course of error with no 
 voice to bid them pause, around that altar at Jerusalem 
 were prophets speaking in the name of God, and by 
 admonitions and warnings restraining the people from 
 
58 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 following the evil example of other nations. Well might 
 the angelic spectator exclaim, "Why is this? Why 
 has the favor of the Almighty thus been granted to a 
 single race ? Why this sacred light given only to Judah, 
 and withheld from every other section of the world ? " 
 " These things," said an apostle, " the angels desire to 
 look into." But how would the doubts of the inquiring 
 spirit be removed, and his anxiety be changed to joy and 
 praise, if it was granted him to perceive that all the 
 privileges bestowed on Judah were intended, in the 
 course of ages, for the advantage of all mankind ; if he 
 witnessed at length the appearance of the Savior, heard 
 from his lips the law of universal love, and saw his dis- 
 ciples going forth to declare the equal privileges of Jew 
 and Gentile ! Yes, in Jesus Christ, " out of Zion went 
 forth the Law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusa- 
 lem." The Old Testament dispensation attained its 
 purpose in the events of the New ; and then, as a plant 
 that has borne its fruit, it faded and died. Less than 
 forty years after the crucifixion of Jesus, the nation that 
 had rejected him sank as a political power, and its stately 
 and time-honored form of worship ceased, never again 
 to be renewed. All that was partial, all that was pre- 
 paratory, came to an end. The universal religion, 
 brought by Jesus Christ, remained and prospered; it 
 conquered the heathenism that, clothed with imperial 
 power, assailed it with all the violence of persecution ; 
 it extended its sway from land to land through the civ- 
 ilized world ; the darkness of barbarism grew light be- 
 fore it; and, strong as in its earliest days, it still goes 
 forth, " conquering and to conquer." 
 
GREEK AND ROMAN CIVILIZATION. 59 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Greek and Roman Civilization. 
 
 We have, in the previous chapters, found cause to 
 believe in an original revelation, communicated by the 
 Creator to his human offspring. We have seen that the 
 belief that he continued to manifest himself to one 
 especial family and nation as he did not to the rest of 
 mankind, involves nothing contrary to his impartial jus- 
 tice. For a continuous revelation to all mankind would 
 have involved a constant succession of miracles, and 
 thus have interfered with man's confidence in the stabil- 
 ity of the laws of nature, with his freedom of choice and 
 action, and with the right development of his character; 
 while there was no partiality, but an action consistent 
 with justice and analogous to the course of Providence 
 elsewhere, in leaving the heathen world to the darkness 
 they had chosen, and conferring on the faithful patri- 
 arch still fuller revelations, thus constituting him and 
 his descendants the priests of mankind, commissioned at 
 length to impart the true religion to the world at large. 
 
 It is the belief of Christians that this commission was 
 fulfilled in Jesus Christ ; that the great purpose for 
 which the Jewish race was set apart, was accomplished 
 when a member of that race, divinely called and quali- 
 fied, proclaimed a religion more spiritual than that of 
 Moses, adapted, not, like that, to a single race, but to 
 universal reception, and when his disciples, obeying his 
 
60 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 commands, went forth "into all the world," to "preach 
 the gospel to every creature." 
 
 But the inquiry recurs with regard to the Christian 
 revelation, which first attracted our attention with re- 
 gard to any revelation at all. Was it necessary? We 
 cannot believe that God would interpose in a remarkable 
 manner without suitable occasion. Did such occasion 
 exist when Jesus came into the world? Philosophers 
 had then lived, the greatest, or at least among the 
 greatest, whom the world has known — Zoroaster, Py- 
 thagoras, Socrates, Plato, Cicero. Great advancement 
 had been made in civilization. Sculpture and painting, 
 poetry and eloquence, the art of war and the arts of 
 pea'ce, had been cultivated with a success which after 
 ages have admired and emulated, but seldom surpassed. 
 Long years of discord had given place to a firm and 
 orderly government. The world was at peace. Laws 
 which, on the whole, were wise and just, were regularly 
 administered. What need was there of a revelation in 
 the reign of Augustus ? 
 
 While, however, we admit what the world had at- 
 tained, let us also observe in what it was deficient. 
 Notoriously, the mass of the people had no correct views 
 of God. The deities they worshipped had all the pas- 
 sions of men, and indulged them in a degree that would 
 have rendered men unendurable by their race. Not to 
 repeat the well-known tales of the lawless violence, the 
 implacable revenge, the shameless impurity of the other 
 gods, Jupiter 'himself, the ruler of all, the best repre- 
 sentation heathenism could offer of the infinite majesty 
 of heaven, was at one moment engaged in some base 
 intrigue, and at another sleeping, regardless, of his im- 
 
GREEK AND ROMAN CIVILIZATION. 61 
 
 perial office, outwitted by the crafty Juno with the ces- 
 tus of Venus.* 
 
 Such were the gods of popular belief. But in the 
 reign of Augustus, the educated classes had no faith in 
 these, nor, definitely, in any God at all. They con- 
 tinued to appear in the temples, and take part in rites 
 which they despised, but w T hich they thought useful as a 
 mode of influencing the people ; for themselves, some 
 thought there were gods, some that there w r as none, 
 and the greater part that probably there might be. 
 
 With regard to the doctrine of a future life, the state 
 of opinion was much the same. The mass of the people 
 believed in Elysium and Tartarus — regions of shadowy 
 existence, differing in degrees of dolefulness ; as the 
 shade of Achilles, the most honored in Elysium, told 
 Ulysses that he would rather be slave to a poor man on 
 earth than reign over all the dead.f Of the educated, 
 some thought it probable that there would be a future 
 life ; but the greater part had not even this approach to 
 faith upon the subject. 
 
 Thus the advance of knowledge and refinement in 
 other respects had failed to introduce correct views with 
 regard to religion. And* the reason is sufficiently ob- 
 vious. The experience and observation of man acquaint 
 him with the world around him, and with the world 
 within. He learns to work upon the materials which 
 nature presents ; to cultivate the earth, to cleave and 
 carve w 7 ood, fuse metals, and quarry stone. His pro- 
 cesses become more skilful and delicate as time advances, 
 
 * Iliad, Book XIV., lines 153-351. 
 t Odyssey, Book XI., lines 487-490. 
 
62 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 and he attains to high excellence in the arts from the 
 guidance of nature and his own intelligence. The mind, 
 too, is open to his survey ; and from the testimony of 
 his own consciousness he can construct noble theories of 
 philosophy. But there is also a world above ; and of 
 the facts connected with that world neither outward 
 nature nor inward consciousness affords him adequate 
 information. A stronger proof of this cannot be needed 
 than the fact already adverted to, that even now, with 
 all the intelligence that eighteen centuries have added to 
 that possessed in the days of Augustus, those philoso- 
 phers who deny the Christian revelation are far from 
 agreement with regard to the most important truths of 
 natural religion. 
 
 And if heathenism, whether assisted or not by the dim 
 traditions of a primitive revelation, had failed to inform 
 man of the truth respecting the object of worship, it had 
 failed also in instructing him how worship should be 
 rendered. Idol feasts, especially of such deities as Ash- 
 teroth and Venus, were marked by the most debasing 
 impurity. The hideous custom of human sacrifices pre- 
 vailed among almost all the nations of antiquity. The 
 two great epic poets represent their heroes, Achilles * 
 and iEneas, as offering such sacrifices at funeral rites ; 
 and the coolness with which the incident is mentioned 
 by Virgil shows that such crime against man and God, 
 if not common in the age of Augustus, was, at least, not 
 regarded with horror, f The custom of human sacrifice 
 
 * Iliad, Book XXIII., line 175. 
 t " Sulraone creatos 
 
 Quatuor hie juvenes, totidem quos educat Ufens, 
 
GHEEK AND ROMAN CIVILIZATION. 63 
 
 was continued, occasionally, as late as the reign of 
 Diocletian, and was therefore abolished only by the 
 triumph of Christianity. 
 
 With regard to the observance of the moral law, it 
 might be thought that here, at least, the instruction of 
 nature would be sufficient. But although the moral 
 sense and conscience of mankind have alwavs borne tes- 
 timony to duty, the history of heathen nations shows 
 that a revelation was needed here also, to give clearer 
 and fuller views of right, and still more, to supply mo- 
 tives of adequate strength for its observance. The age 
 when our Savior appeared exemplifies this the more, as 
 the unparalleled success of the Roman arms had intro- 
 duced the influence of luxury and ambition, to the cor- 
 ruption alike of public and private virtue. Freedom 
 was no more. It was not deserved ; it was not wished 
 for ; it would not have been appreciated nor maintained 
 if it had come. Domestic slavery existed in its most 
 atrocious form ; the very life of the bondman being at 
 the discretion, or rather at the caprice, of his master; 
 as instanced in the well-known incident of the slave who 
 had accidentally broken a crystal vase being ordered to 
 be thrown into the fish pond for his offence. The great 
 public pastime of the Romans was the spectacle of mur- 
 der in the amphitheatres. A form of sensuality that 
 cannot now be named, was practised without shame; 
 
 Viventes rapit ; inferias, quos immolet umbris, 
 Captivoque rogi perfundat sanguine flammas." 
 
 JEneid. Book X. 517-520. 
 
 M Yinxerat et post terga manus, quos mitteret umbris 
 Inferias, caeso sparsuros sanguine flammam." 
 
 XI. 81, 82. 
 
64 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ■ 
 
 and almost without concealment. Nor did the age of 
 Augustus exhibit heathen corruption at its worst ; the 
 course was still downward ; and though Christianity 
 soon began to apply a counteracting influence, yet before 
 that influence could be fully exerted, the world was to 
 see how far human folly and wickedness could go in 
 the reigns and the persons of a Caligula, a Nero, and an 
 Elagabalus. The last, the most disgusting of tyrants, 
 was a priest, a fanatical devotee of the god from whom 
 he derived his name. Heathenism could sink no lower 
 than this. 
 
 It will be urged, however, that although the religion 
 of antiquity was thus deficient, its philosophy was the 
 noblest that the world has seen. No modern name has 
 eclipsed those of Socrates and Plato. And, to select 
 one whose life had ended not long before the Christian 
 era, how few in any period of the world have left a fame 
 to be compared with that of Cicero ! We see in him 
 not only the orator and statesman, employing his un- 
 equalled talents for the punishment of the rapacious 
 Verres, for the defence of the injured and oppressed, to 
 sustain the cause of order against Catiline, and that of 
 liberty against Antony ; but the philosopher, devoting 
 the scanty leisure of a busy life to the preparation of 
 imperishable essays on Duty and Immortality, while the 
 circumstances of his death give him a place among the 
 martyrs of freedom. If the teaching of nature could 
 form such a character, what need of a revelation ? Even 
 allowing that the unrecognized influence of earlier divine 
 teaching had shared in its production, yet since the re- 
 sult was there, what need was there of a new revelation 
 to the age that had seen a Cicero ? 
 
GREEK AND ROMAN CIVILIZATION. 65 
 
 To these questions it may be replied, that we cannot 
 take a single exceptional case, or a few such cases, as a 
 standard of the progress or the power of mankind. To 
 judge of the necessity of a revelation, we need to know, 
 not what the greatest and best among millions could 
 become, but what mankind at large could attain. Yet 
 even these exceptional cases show, by their imperfection, 
 how low must have been the condition of public morality 
 in the midst of which they appeared so brilliant. We 
 have selected this instance of Cicero in good faith, as 
 one of the brightest that antiquity presents. And yet, 
 upon a closer survey of his history, we find the conduct 
 of this great man not only marked by the grossest vanity, 
 and by repeated desertion of his political principles, but 
 in various instances by still graver offences. We find 
 him forsaking her who had been his wife for thirty years, 
 and marrying, almost immediately, a young maiden, 
 whose extensive property had been placed under his 
 charge ; we find him repeatedly guilty of falsehood, and 
 implicated in such acts of violence and rapacity as he 
 had denounced in others with the most indignant elo- 
 quence. We do not, indeed, judge these offences in 
 him by the strict standard of Christian morality. Rather 
 do we look on him, and on other illustrious men of hea- 
 then antiquity, with an admiration like that with which 
 we view feats of dexterity performed by one who is 
 chained or crippled. Our wonder is that so much should 
 be achieved under circumstances so unfavorable. 
 
 And allowing the eminence of the ancient philoso- 
 phers, not only in the theory but in the practice of vir- 
 tue, they could not exert a purifying influence upon the 
 mass of mankind. There needs, for such an influence, 
 5 
 
66 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 something more ardent and more engaging than philoso- 
 phy : more ardent to inspire the efforts of the teacher ; 
 more engaging to win the attention of the people. The 
 philosophers never expected nor attempted to instruct 
 the mass of their countrymen. They left these to the 
 guidance, such as it was, of the national religion, to 
 which they themselves paid outward respect. Among 
 the last words of Socrates was a request to his friend to 
 offer a sacrifice to -ZEsculapius. Such acquiesence in 
 the popular superstition was not the way to effect an 
 extensive reform in faith or morals. And even if the 
 philosophers had undertaken such a task, their instruc- 
 tions were given in a form too abstract to engage general 
 attention, and had no authoritative sanction to enforce 
 them. In Christianity, on the other hand, there was, 
 to arrest the inquirer and to guide the learner, the charm 
 and example of a perfect character ; and the precepts 
 given possessed an authority more than human, as 
 being communicated by one who was the delegate of 
 heaven. 
 
 The failure of philosophy to instruct mankind is 
 evident from an observation of the period between its 
 highest attainments in the age of Plato and the birth 
 of Christ, — a period of about four hundred years. 
 During this time, if ever, the influence of philosophy 
 should have been seen, in improving the morals and the 
 condition of mankind ; yet at the close of this period 
 corruption had greatly increased ; the ancient patriotic 
 spirit of Greece and Rome had departed with the ancient 
 simple manners ; liberty was no more ; and while reli- 
 gion had lost its influence over cultivated minds, the mass 
 of the people were still in blind subjection to heathen 
 
GREEK AND ROMAN CIVILIZATION. 67 
 
 superstition. Philosophy then, as a reforming power 
 in the world, had been tried and found wanting. 
 
 Its insufficiency, too, was confessed by some of its 
 ablest teachers. A few passages from ancient writers 
 may suffice to show how the need of a revelation was 
 felt and acknowledged by those who were best qualified 
 to appreciate what philosophy could accomplish. 
 
 In the "Second Alcibiades " of Plato, Alcibiades is 
 represented as on his way to the temple to offer his 
 devotions, when he meets Socrates. % The philosopher 
 draws from him an acknowledgement of his own igno- 
 rance and that of mankind respecting the true worship, 
 and advises him to wait with patience until he can be 
 instructed. Alcibiades inquires from whom the instruc- 
 tion is to come. Socrates replies, from one who is con- 
 cerned for his good ; but there is now a cloud before 
 his mind, which must be removed before he can see 
 such objects aright. The young man declares his earnest 
 desire to learn, and his readiness to obey any command 
 of this mysterious teacher, if he may thereby become 
 better. Socrates assures him of the willingness of the 
 promised instructor ; and they agree that it is best not 
 to render sacrifices until he shall manifest himself, for 
 which Alcibiades expresses his strong desire. 
 
 The design of Socrates in this dialogue was probably 
 to awaken serious thought ; and the promised Teacher 
 was that Divine Presence of which Socrates was con- 
 scious, and which in his own case he characterized as 
 an attendant "demon" or spirit. However this may 
 have been, the passage contains a striking admission of 
 the ignorance of mankind in general as to the true 
 service of God. 
 
68 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 In the " Apology," Socrates uses the following lan- 
 guage : w You may give over all hopes of amending 
 men's manners for the future, unless God be pleased to 
 send you some other person to instruct you." 
 
 Again, in the " Phaedon," after Socrates has discoursed 
 on immortality, and observed that full knowledge of 
 divine things was not to be attained till the soul was 
 separated from the body, the practical result is given in 
 the answer of Simmias. It is best, then, he says, if 
 w r e cannot by all our study find out the truth, w to take 
 the best and most probable results of human reason, 
 and steer our course by these, unless one could proceed 
 by a clearer and safer way, in a stronger vessel, as by 
 some divine revelation." 
 
 Lord Bolingbroke, who maintains the opposite opin- 
 ion, yet observes, "But it must be admitted that Plato 
 insinuates in many places the want, or the necessity, of 
 a divine revelation to discover the external service God 
 requires, and the expiation for sin, to give stronger 
 assurances of the rewards and punishments that await 
 men in another world, — and to frame a system of the 
 whole order of things, both in this world and the next." * 
 
 Among the sects of Grecian philosophy there is one 
 which claims especial attention from its near approach 
 to Christian morality, and the noble characters of some 
 of its disciples. The Stoics were the followers of Zeno, 
 who lived three hundred years before Christ. The basis 
 of the Stoic system was the idea of living according to 
 nature ; not, however, the nature of the individual, but 
 universal nature. But among all things, while some 
 
 * Bolingbroke's Works, vol. v., page 214. 
 
GREEK AND ROMAN CIVILIZATION. 69 
 
 were bad, and some indifferent, wisdom a^d virtue alone 
 were good. To these, therefore, the life must be con- 
 formed. The truly wise man is represented as perfect 
 and sufficient in himself; pain and evil, which subdue the 
 rest of mankind, are powerless over him ; he feels them, 
 but does not yield to them. While we cannot but recog- 
 nize much that is noble in these thoughts, we perceive 
 at once their deficiencies, in the want of a principle of 
 religious obligation, and of that humility which, recog- 
 nizing human weakness, would have sought and wel- 
 comed the hope of aid from a higher power. These 
 deficiencies are strikingly apparent in the belief and 
 practice of the Stoics with respect to suicide. The wise 
 man, perfect and independent, was, of course, master 
 of his own life ; whether he should retain or leave it, 
 was but a question of convenience ; and though he must 
 never admit that pain had conquered him, yet to prefer 
 death to other means of suffering had in it a boldness 
 which prevented the proud spirit of the Stoic from dis- 
 cerning his own inconsistency. 
 
 Thus Zeno himself, when near a hundred years old, 
 took his own life, because he had broken a joint of his 
 finger by a fall. Perhaps some remainder of superstition 
 mingled with his motives, for he declared he considered 
 the accident a summons from the invisible world. 
 
 The most memorable disciples of the Stoic school 
 were Cato the younger, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. 
 The determination of Cato to destroy himself rather 
 than yield to a conqueror, has been held up to admiration ; 
 yet it was rather a flight from what he dreaded, than a 
 triumph over it. Wise and virtuous as he was, he 
 judged too rashly, if he thought that there was no more 
 
70 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 that he could do for his country ; for none can tell what 
 influence he might have exerted in the stormy times that 
 followed. 
 
 Epictetus was at first a slave, and Stoicism in him 
 was exemplified by the utmost patience under the cruelty 
 of his master. One day, when this man was torturing 
 him by twisting his leg, Epictetus smiled, and quietly 
 said, " You will break it ; " and when it did break, only 
 remarked, "Did not I tell you so?" Possessed of such 
 heroic patience, he appears to have differed from the 
 other Stoics on the subject of suicide. He afterwards 
 obtained his freedom, and was, during a long life, a 
 teacher of philosophy. He left nothing in writing, but 
 his sayings were given to the world by his pupil, Arrian. 
 
 Marcus Aurelius exhibited the virtue of Stoicism in a 
 station the most strongly contrasted to that of Epictetus. 
 Adopted by Antoninus as heir of the empire, he exer- 
 cised over himself that continual watchfulness which 
 enabled him wisely to govern others. A lover of peace, 
 he w T as called to reign at a period of continual warfare ; 
 but triumphed over all his enemies by his energy and 
 wisdom, and secured their future allegiance by his 
 clemency. But for his persecution of the Christians, 
 his memory would be almost without a stain. But that 
 persecution is the less excusable in him from the very 
 greatness of his character in other respects. As an 
 energetic ruler, it cannot be pleaded for him that the 
 cruelties inflicted during a series of years were unknown 
 to him ; as a wise ruler, he should have been raised 
 above superstition and vulgar prejudice ; and as a hu- 
 mane ruler in other departments of his office, his feelings 
 must have shrunk from the crime which mistaken policy 
 
GREEK AND ROMAN CIVILIZATION. 71 
 
 prompted him to commit, and from which his Stoic 
 philosophy had not the power to save him. 
 
 It is probable that the virtue of Aurelius, and even 
 that of Epictetus, owed much to the unsuspected influ- 
 ence of Christian ideas. Epictetus was a slave at Rome 
 not many years after the persecution of the Christians 
 under Nero. In the steadfastness of the martyrs in that 
 persecution, all Rome received a lesson of patience be- 
 yond what Stoicism had ever taught ; and even they who 
 knew not the religious motive of that patience, might 
 be led to admire and imitate its practical exhibition. 
 The difference between Epictetus and the earlier Stoics, 
 respecting suicide, appears to indicate that a new influ- 
 ence had been added to theirs. In the time of Marcus 
 Aurelius, Christian thought must have penetrated society 
 still more deeply ; and the Emperor, who in his "Medi- 
 tations" ascribes all of good that he had attained to 
 the instruction and example of his parents and teachers, 
 may, probably, have omitted one influence which had 
 had its part in making him what he was, and whose 
 blessing he had mistakenly repaid with persecution. 
 
 The number, however, was small, of those whom 
 heathen philosophy, in the elevated form of Stoicism, 
 could lead in the path of virtue. Its principles were too 
 abstract and cold for human nature in general. Men 
 needed the recognition of a heavenly Father, the exam- 
 ple of a perfect Savior. The want of a revelation, often 
 felt and acknowledged by the philosophers, was realized 
 still more deeply by those who had not light like theirs 
 to guide them. And this w r ant was further testified by 
 the eagerness with which the world received that revela- 
 tion when it came. While Epictetus and Aurelius were 
 
72 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 giving forth the best rays of heathen wisdom, already- 
 mingled, perhaps, with a light whose origin they did not 
 recognize, that light was eagerly hailed by ever increas- 
 ing thousands. With the uneducated, heathenism had 
 possession of the ground ; with the educated, philosophy. 
 These were sustained against the intrusion of the new 
 religion by all the power of the state ; a power which 
 was unsparingly exerted in a succession of persecutions. 
 Yet the new system lived and triumphed. The world 
 would not have embraced it had it not felt its need. 
 
APOLLONIUS, THE CHRIST OF PHILOSOPHY. 73 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Apollonius, the Christ of Philosophy. 
 
 The advance of Christianity in the heathen Roman 
 Empire was opposed not only by the force of persecu- 
 tion, and by the arguments of such writers as Celsus 
 and Porphyry. About two hundred years from the 
 birth of Christ, the attempt was made to set up a rival 
 to him, in the interest of heathenism. Such appears to 
 have been the origin of the biography of Apollonius 
 of Tyana, written by Philostratus at the command of 
 the Empress Julia Domna, and purporting to be derived 
 from an ancient document, the narrative of Damis, the 
 companion and friend of Apollonius. 
 
 We have, then, in the life of Apollonius, the best 
 effort of classic cultivation to surpass the narratives of 
 the life of Jesus. The four evangelists had given to 
 the world a portraiture of superhuman excellence ; and 
 a philosopher at the imperial court undertook a similar 
 task. • We shall see how he succeeded. 
 
 In preparing this chapter, we have had before us not 
 only the recent entertaining book of M. Reville,* but that 
 of Dr. Baur on which it is founded, and the work of 
 Philostratus himself. 
 
 The birth of Apollonius is thought to have nearly 
 coincided in date with that of Jesus. His native place, 
 
 * Apollonius of Tyana, the Pagan Christ of the Third Century. 
 By Albert Reville. 
 
74 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Tyana, was a city of Cappadocia in Asia Minor; and 
 he pursued his early studies at Tarsus, not far off, pos- 
 sibly under the same teachers from whom the youthful 
 Saul was receiving the elements of Grecian learning. 
 If we may believe Philostratus, whose account we shall 
 now follow, the birth of the future sage had been foretold 
 to his mother by Proteus, the changeful and prophetic 
 deity, who became incarnate in his person. A flock of 
 swans sang at his birth, as at that of Apollo. In youth 
 he embraced with great zeal the philosophy of Pythag- 
 oras, and became so famous for the beauty of his person 
 and his early wisdom, that his biographer traces to him 
 a proverb of the neighborhood, M Whither run you so 
 fast? Is it to see the young man? " Having observed 
 the five years' silence prescribed to the disciples of Py- 
 thagoras, he set out on his travels. At Nineveh he was 
 joined by Damis, afterwards his biographer. Babylon, 
 which other authorities represent to have been then in 
 desolation, he found to be still a royal capital, with 
 walls a hundred and fifty feet high, and nearly a hun- 
 dred in thickness. In India, he received instruction 
 from divine sages, who dwelt on the summit of a moun- 
 tain, surrounded by mists and miracles. Returning 
 thence, the fame of his wisdom went before him. He 
 converted Ephesus to philosophy and virtue, and restored 
 concord to divided Smyrna. The people of the former 
 city, being afflicted with the plague, sent messengers to 
 Smyrna for Apollonius. He transferred himself to 
 Ephesus in a moment, and drove away the plague by a 
 treatment equally strange and energetic. The evil 
 spirit which occasioned the disease appeared in the form 
 pf £in old beggar. Apollonius directed that this person 
 
APOLLONIUS, THE CHRIST OF PHILOSOPHY. 75 
 
 should be stoned to death in the theatre ; and when the 
 heap of stones was removed, there appeared under it, 
 not the murdered beggar, but a living dog. One might 
 fancy that this story had its foundation in Apollonius 
 having taught the Ephesians to guard their city from 
 the plague by sternly excluding the squalid poverty in 
 whose rags the infection lay concealed. 
 
 Apollonius soon after visited the site of ancient Troy, 
 where he called up the shade of Achilles, and received 
 from him answers to several questions. Achilles, though 
 so long dead, retained his hatred of the Trojans ; so 
 that he warned Apollonius to dismiss from his company 
 one of his disciples, because he was descended from 
 Priam. It is not to the sage's honor that he obeyed 
 this admonition. 
 
 In Corinth, Apollonius opened the eyes of an enam- 
 oured youth to the fact that his bride was an evil spirit ; 
 and caused the marriage feast, with its gold and silver 
 vessels, cup-bearers and cooks, to vanish into air. 
 
 At Athens, a youth irreverently laughing at Apollo- 
 nius's instructions, the sage pronounced him possessed 
 by a demon, and ejected it forthwith, the demon proving 
 his presence by overthrowing a statue. 
 
 More credibly, and highly to his honor, he is related 
 to have censured the gladiatorial combats of the Athe- 
 nians. "He refused going to their assembly when in- 
 vited, saying the place was impure and polluted with 
 blood." With the Pythagoreans generally, he offered 
 only bloodless sacrifices, and abstained from animal food, 
 and even from clothing of whose fabric any animal 
 growth formed a part. 
 
 From Olympia, he wrote to the Ephori of Sparta, 
 
76 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 who had sent him a deputation, and enjoined them to 
 restore the ancient simplicity of manners. The magis- 
 trates, more submissive to good advice than magistrates 
 usually are, complied at once, and were favored with a 
 truly laconic letter of commendation. 
 
 Subsequently, on a visit to Sparta, he heard of a 
 young man who was to be tried on the charge of neg- 
 lecting the affairs of the republic for his own commer- 
 cial pursuits. He visited him, and by rousing his pride 
 of ancestry, and representing to him the ignoble char- 
 acter of mercantile transactions, brought him to tears 
 of repentance. He then obtained his pardon from the 
 Ephori. Besides the improbability of the story, repre- 
 senting the laws of Lycurgus to be in force at Sparta in 
 the corrupt age of Claudius, we have to notice its false 
 morality and ruinous political economy, in condemning 
 useful labor as dishonorable, 
 
 Apollonius soon sifter visited Rome, where Nero had 
 recently ascended the throne, The account of thq. ex- 
 cesses which that Emperor was committing does not 
 agree with the statements of authentic history, according 
 to which, the first five years of his reign were marked 
 by wise government and becoming deportment, under 
 the guidance of Seneca and Burrhus. 
 
 At Rome, Apollonius met the funeral of a young 
 maiden, and commanding the attendants to set down 
 the bier, touched the girl, pronounced a few words over 
 her, and awakened her from her seeming death. While 
 other circumstances of this story seem derived from the 
 miracle at Nain, the doubt expressed by the biographer 
 whether death had actually taken place, reminds us of 
 the Savior's expression in relation to the daughter of 
 
APOLLONIUS, THE CHRIST OF PHILOSOPHY. 77 
 
 Jairus, " The maiden is not dead, but sleepeth." The 
 relations of the girl presented Apollonius with a hundred 
 and fifty thousand drachmas, which he settled on her as 
 a marriage portion. 
 
 We next find him at Cadiz, examining the phenomena 
 of the tides, whose cause he pronounced to be winds, 
 blowing from caverns by the side of the ocean, and 
 drawn in again alternately, like human breath. 
 
 In Spain, Apollonius encouraged the rebellion of 
 Vindex against Nero. Returning eastward to Syracuse, 
 he was informed of a recent prodigy, in the birth of a 
 child with three heads. From this he foretold the ac- 
 cession and transient reigns of three Emperors; soon 
 after verified in the persons of Galba, Otho, and Vi- 
 tellius. 
 
 After many wise instructions given in Greece, Apol- 
 lonius reached Alexandria some time before the arrival 
 of Vespasian in that city. That conqueror sought his 
 advice in regard to the acceptance of the empire ; and 
 yielded to his counsel, not to restore the republic, but 
 to ascend the throne. Apollonius at the same time 
 informed him of the burning of the Capitol at Rome, 
 which had taken place only the day before. 
 
 The Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of 
 souls was exemplified in a lion, which Apollonius saw 
 in Egypt, and declared to be animated by the spirit of 
 the ancient king Amasis. The lion wept while Apol- 
 lonius told his story, and the philosopher comforted him 
 with regal honors. 
 
 Apollonius next visited the Gymnosophists, or un- 
 clothed philosophers of Ethiopia, who received him with 
 respect, commanding a tree to make obeisance to him. 
 
78 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 He held with them a long discussion on the respective 
 merits of the Indian sages and themselves. 
 
 In the reign of Titus, as in that of his father, Apol- 
 lonius was in high favor; but under Domitian, he en- 
 couraged Nerva and others to rebellion against that 
 tyrant. Domitian sent to arrest him, but he anticipated 
 his intention by hastening at once to Rome. After 
 imprisonment and other ill treatment, he was examined 
 before the Emperor. He appeared with dignity, even 
 with haughtiness ; defended himself against the charges 
 brought, but admitted that men called him a god, and 
 declared that every good man was en titled to that appel- 
 lation. 
 
 He explained, however, some words he had used be- 
 fore the statue of Domitian, in a manner that seems 
 more ingenious than truthful. His defence was suc- 
 cessful ; and the Emperor acquitted him of all charges. 
 The philosopher thanked Domitian for this vindication, 
 but blamed him for encouraging informers ; and, quoting 
 a line of Homer, " Thou canst not slay me, for to thee 
 I am not mortal," vanished from his presence. The 
 same day he was seen at Puteoli, a hundred and fifty 
 miles distant. 
 
 The philosopher afterwards visited the cave of Tro- 
 phonius, the son of Apollo, and remained several days 
 in his realms of darkness ; returning afterwards to the 
 surface of the earth, by a passage before untrodden, in 
 Aulis, about fifty miles from Lebadea, where he had 
 disappeared. 
 
 ^ Returning to Ephesus, the philosopher gave instruc- 
 tions to a crowd of admiring disciples.. One day, while 
 thus teaching, he suddenly let his voice fall, as if 
 
APOLLONIUS, THE CHRIST OF PHILOSOPHY. 79 
 
 alarmed, — then resumed his conversation in a lower 
 tone, — then paused entirely. After that, advancing a 
 few steps, he cried out, w Strike the tyrant, strike ! " 
 He stood for some time in silent attention, and then 
 declared to the astonished crowd that Domitian had 
 that instant been slain. The historian, Dion Cassius, 
 who undoubtedly had this story from Philostratus, w 7 ith 
 whom he was a fellow-courtier, improves upon it by 
 making Apollonius utter the very name of the regicide. 
 f Well done, Stephanus ! Courage, Stephanus ! Strike 
 the murderer ! Thou hast struck him, hast wounded 
 him , hast slain him ! " 
 
 At length, at an age of from eighty to upwards of a 
 hundred years, according to different estimates, Apol- 
 lonius passed from earth in some mysterious manner. 
 His tomb, like that of Moses, was not known. One 
 account represents him as having disappeared in the 
 temple of Diana, while virgin voices were heard singing, 
 w Leave the earth, ascend to heaven ! " 
 
 The teaching of Apollonius w r as in accordance with 
 the Pythagorean philosophy, to the truth of which he 
 brought the attestation of the sages of India, and of the 
 demigod Trophonius. That philosophy inculcated per- 
 sonal purity, the restraint of appetite, the contempt of 
 wealth and luxury, and the performance of benevolent 
 actions. One of its most prominent doctrines was the 
 transmigration of souls ; and from this followed the 
 comparative unimportance of the event of death. The 
 Pythagorean might say, if in a lower sense than the 
 Christian, 
 
 " It is not death : what seems so is transition." 
 
80 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Pvthairoras declared that he remembered his former 
 life, when he was Euphorbus, slain at the siege of Troy. 
 The Indian sage Iarchas, whom Apollonius visited, 
 claimed to have been once King Ganges, son of the 
 river of that name. Apollonius himself, more modestly, 
 only asserted that he was once the master of an Egyp- 
 tian merchant ship. 
 
 Many of the sayings ascribed to the Tyanean sage 
 are full of dignity and beauty. In others the arrogance 
 of the sophist is discernible. The following may serve 
 as instances. 
 
 In one of the letters ascribed to him, after a complaint 
 almost identical with that of Jesus, that " a prophet hath 
 no honor in his own country," he adds, "I know well, 
 indeed, how good it is for one to hold the whole earth 
 for his country, and all men for his brothers and friends, 
 since we are all of divine lineage, and come from one 
 Father ; and since there is a universal community of 
 nature, by which every one, wherever and however he 
 may be situated, whether barbarian or Grecian, is still 
 always a man." In this noble language we recognize 
 Christian sentiments ; but we cannot forget that Phi- 
 lostratus lived two centuries after Christ, and when the 
 prominent ideas of Christianity had become known 
 through every class of society. 
 
 In the Apology of Apollonius, intended to have been 
 delivered before Domitian, are these words : w Dost thou 
 ask me to which class I belong, to the rich or the poor? 
 I answer, to the richest of all ; for that I stand in need 
 of nothing, is to me Lydia and the Pactolus." 
 
 After the death of Apollonius, or rather, we should 
 say, after the appearance of his biography by Philostra- 
 
APOLLONIUS, THE CHRIST OF PHILOSOPHY. 81 
 
 tus, divine honors were rendered to him in various 
 places, and especially at Tyana. He is said to have 
 appeared, after his death or ascension, to the dismay 
 and conversion of a young man who denied the immor- 
 tality of the soul ; — a story probably copied from the 
 account of the conversion of St. Paul. Much later, we 
 are told, the Emperor Aurelian beheld the deified phi- 
 losopher, commanding him to spare Tyana, which he 
 had intended to destroy ; but as this was after the book 
 of Philostratus had appeared, it will need no miracle to 
 explain it. The relenting thoughts of the conqueror 
 might well take, in sleep, the form of the acknowledged 
 protector of the condemned city. 
 
 There is an evident resemblance between the wonders 
 ascribed to Apollonius and those recorded of Jesus 
 Christ. The mysterious birth, foretold by Proteus, and 
 heralded by the song of swans, reminds us of the annun- 
 ciation, and of the vision of the shepherds at Bethlehem ; 
 the control over evil spirits, as in the cases of the Ephe- 
 sian beggar, the Athenian youth, and the lamia at 
 Corinth ; the restoration to life of the young maiden 
 at Rome ; the descent into the under world at Leba- 
 dea ; the ascension in the temple of Diana, and the 
 vision afforded afterwards for the conversion of an un- 
 believer, — all these are imitated, designedly or unde- 
 signedly, from the Christian history. His disappearance 
 from the presence of Domitian seems copied from inci- 
 dents, apparently similar, in the life of Jesus ; as 
 when he, "passing through the midst of" his enemies, 
 * went his way," or when, after breaking bread with 
 the two disciples at Emmaus, he w vanished out of their 
 sight." 
 
 6 
 
82 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 The sage of Tyana was, no doubt, a real person, a 
 wandering teacher of the Pythagorean philosophy. He 
 may have been the counsellor of Proconsuls and Em- 
 perors, may have plotted with Vindex and advised 
 Vespasian, though the nearer historians, Tacitus and 
 Suetonius, make no mention of him. But we are safe 
 in asserting, that if he visited India, the Brahmins with 
 whom he conversed did not have the power of floating 
 in the air ; and that the marriage feast at Corinth did 
 not literally vanish at his reproof. 
 
 Let us compare the accounts of his life with those of 
 the Gospels respecting Jesus. Here are two persons, 
 who lived at about the same time, and to both of whom 
 wonderful works are ascribed. The history of the one 
 contains a mass of stories, mythical, if not consciously 
 false. Can we infer from this that the history of the 
 other is liable to the same charge ? 
 
 No ; for in the first place, a wide difference exists be- 
 tween the documentary evidence in the two cases. The 
 authority claimed by Philostratus was that of the manu- 
 script said to have been written by Damis. For the exist- 
 ence of this manuscript we have only the word of Philos- 
 tratus ; for his account was published after the death of the 
 Empress from whom he claims to have received the docu- 
 ment. The story respecting Damis himself is scarcely 
 credible. He is said to have joined Apollonius when 
 the latter was very young, and to have been still his 
 companion, and sent by him on a message from Ephe- 
 sus to Rome, when they both must have been at least 
 eighty years old. There is strong reason, then, to believe, 
 apart from the wonders it relates of Apollonius, that the 
 narrative, if it was the genuine work of Damis, was 
 
APOLLONIUS, THE CHRIST OF PHILOSOPHY. 83 
 
 altered and enlarged by Philostratus in the most reckless 
 manner. 
 
 Compare with this the records of Christianity. The 
 Gospels are four documents instead of one ; they were 
 preserved, not in a single family, but by the whole 
 Christian community ; we have them still in our hands, 
 in the same condition in which thev were known to the 
 early church ; while the original account of Apollonius, 
 said to have been written by his companion, is confessedly 
 lost ; and we have the Gospels authenticated by a suc- 
 cession of witnesses, from the early part of the second 
 century, while there is one witness alone, and that a 
 much later one, for the original biography of Apollonius. 
 
 In the second place, the words and deeds of Jesus 
 were committed, not only to these writings, but to the 
 reverent and conscientious memory of chosen men, his 
 apostles and their associates, who devoted their lives to 
 the work of proclaiming his religion. Even should it 
 be proved that the written records were of later date, 
 there must have been from the first an unwritten gospel 
 in the preaching of the early disciples ; and to this col- 
 lected and generally authentic tradition from the eye- 
 witnesses, the historians must have resorted as their 
 most obvious means of information. Apollonius, on 
 the other hand, founded no permanent school. The 
 Apollonians, if such a sect existed, passed away so soon, 
 and so utterly, that the only trace of their having ever 
 been, is in a doubtful assertion of Philostratus. 
 
 In the thircl place, the stories told of Apollonius show 
 their falsehood by other traits than their miraculous 
 character. The wonders are grotesque, — a speaking 
 tree, a weeping lion, tripods moving of their own accords 
 
84 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 We find also serpents with magic jewels in their heads, 
 vases containing the wind and the rain, and stones which 
 eagles place in their nests as talismans to protect their 
 young from serpents. How do these accounts contrast 
 with the majestic exhibitions of power by the Founder 
 of the Christian faith ; especially when we remember that 
 the biographer of Apollonius had before him the miracles 
 of Christ, to copy, and if possible to excel, in those which 
 he should ascribe to his own sage ! 
 
 Still further, let any one compare the character of the 
 Tyanean philosopher with that of the Man of Nazareth. 
 Apollonius is the perfection of a heathen sage, — cold, 
 commanding, egotistic, urging on mankind the claims 
 of a philosophy, which, with some lofty thoughts, com- 
 bines others that are partial, unnatural, or utterly false. 
 Jesus of Nazareth has the w r arm heart of a gentle hu- 
 man being ; and while he leads his followers in devotion 
 to the Father, he lays down his own life for the good of 
 mankind, leaving to all following ages the divine exam- 
 ple of self-sacrifice. 
 
 In Apollonius, heathen wisdom and classic culture 
 did their best — having the life of Jesus, too, before 
 them — to produce a counterpart to Him who w spake 
 as never man spake." Imperial power and priestly 
 influence joined their aid to establish the reputation of 
 the teacher of Tyana, and to obscure that of the teacher 
 of Nazareth. But the reverent love of mankind turned 
 from the cold and shadowy form of philosophic arro- 
 gance, and chose the "service of Him whose claims were 
 authenticated alike by external proof, and by the beauty 
 and holiness of the message that he brought from God 
 to man. The legendary life of Apollonius faded from 
 
APOLLONIUS, THE CHRIST OP PHILOSOPHY. 85 
 
 the memory of mankind at large, and was left as an 
 object of transient interest to the few who love to search 
 in libraries for what is curious in the records of the past. 
 But the Gospel of Christ, opposed in its progress by- 
 monarch and priest and sophist, speedily won its way to 
 the throne of visible empire, while it established an 
 ever-widening dominion over the minds and hearts of 
 men. 
 
86 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 Moral Evidence of Christianity. 
 
 That the Christian religion is one of surpassing moral 
 excellence and spiritual beauty and elevation, is generally 
 admitted. Its own intrinsic worth presents that evidence 
 which appeals to the heart, and without whose reception 
 by the heart, all other proof must be in vain. The 
 Sermon on the Mount, the Parables, the account of the 
 parting conversation of Jesus with his disciples, and 
 that of the crucifixion, — these are their own best wit- 
 nesses. 
 
 We have, in the preceding "Manual," taken a view 
 of the harmony of Christianity with nature, and its 
 adaptation to the powers and capacities of man ; of its 
 morality, and of the character of its Founder. (Sec- 
 tions 5 to 8.) Without repeating what has there been 
 said, we shall now present a few thoughts in the same 
 connection. 
 
 Christianity claims reception on account of the holi- 
 ness of its precepts. If its opponent points to the evils 
 that have existed in Christian nations, and to those 
 crimes especially that have been wrought in the very 
 name of Christianity, — to the usurpations of the Papal 
 power, the bloodshed of the Crusades, the tyranny of 
 the Inquisition, we have but to turn to the New Testa- 
 ment to perceive that none of these evils and crimes are 
 
. MORAL EVIDENCE OP CHRISTIANITY. 87 
 
 chargeable upon the Gospel. Those evils have existed, 
 those crimes have been committed, not in obedience to 
 the commands of Christ, but in defiance or in ignorance, 
 alike of his precepts and of his spirit. Equally without 
 authority from him has been the institution of the mon- 
 astery and the convent ; for though he commanded his 
 disciples to follow him, it was to a life of active exertion 
 for the good of mankind, not to one of lonely meditation, 
 having the good of the individual for its only object. 
 It is but within the last two centuries that Christians 
 have learned, — if they have even yet fully learned, — 
 that persecution for opinion's sake is as wrong as it is 
 foolish, and that the spirit of their Master requires them 
 to triumph over enmity by gentleness, not by force ; 
 yet the law on these subjects was given eighteen hun- 
 dred years ago, by his sacred lips, when he told his 
 followers not to forbid the action of their fellow-disciple 
 because he walked not with them, and when he rebuked 
 those who would have called down fire upon the Samari- 
 tan village. (Mark ix. 38-40 ; Luke ix. 49-56.) 
 Thus do the very weaknesses and sins of Christ's disci- 
 ples, when compared with the law by which they have 
 professed, to be guided, bear witness to its superhuman 
 excellence. 
 
 The Christian law is that of perfect purity, in thought 
 no less than in word and action ; of impartial justice, of 
 universal love. It reveals to us, as the object of devo- 
 tion, God, not as another name for nature, like Brah* 
 minism and Buddhism in their purest forms, nor only a* 
 a Sovereign, like Mohammedanism ; but as " Our Fathei 
 in heaven." It presents to us, as the object of our 
 love, second only to Him, man, our brother; the hum- 
 
88 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 blest of the race, and the most widely separated from 
 us, being like ourselves a child of the Universal Father. 
 
 Again, the excellence of Christianity appears in the 
 character of its Founder. In Jesus Christ we have the 
 perfect exemplification of the law which he gave. Had 
 the New Testament been but a code of morals, without 
 the light which the character of Jesus sheds upon it, it 
 would not have engaged, as it has, the attention and 
 reverence of mankind. "Love your enemies," is a 
 noble precept; but had it stood alone, men would have 
 disregarded it, as difficult to understand, and impossible 
 to obey. It was the exemplification of the precept by 
 Jesus himself, when on the cross he prayed, "Father, 
 forgive them, for they know not what they do," that 
 made it at once intelligible and impressive.* And so 
 of the whole law which the Savior taught. We know 
 what is meant by the love of God and man, because we 
 see them illustrated in him. We learn from the scene 
 in Gethsemane the spirit in which we should pray, from 
 the scene on Calvary that in which we should suffer. 
 And not only does the life of Jesus thus make clear to 
 us the meaning of his precepts, but showing us the 
 divine beauty of virtue, it engages our emotions of ad- 
 miration, love, and gratitude, to aid in the fulfilment of 
 the duties pointed out. 
 
 We may say more than this. The character of Jesus 
 
 * It is an illustration of the difficulty which the most enlightened 
 Christians find, of rising to the full height of their Master's spirit, 
 that the author of " Ecce Homo," in the same book which contains 
 the beautiful chapter on Forgiveness, endeavors to explain away the 
 prayer of Jesus on the cross, as if he had in mind only the Roman 
 executioners! Ecce Homo, chap, xxi., page 298. 
 
MORAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. 89 
 
 is itself a revelation to mankind of the character of 
 God. Heathenism endeavored to represent that which 
 is divine by earthly emblems, by images made in forms 
 sometimes bestial, sometimes grotesque, sometimes in 
 all the beauty and dignity with which Grecian genius 
 could invest the human figure. Christianity forbids all 
 such representations as unworthy, but it gives us a nobler 
 image of the Deity in an exalted human soul. This 
 alone can rightly represent God to man. For man is 
 made in the image of God, intellectually and morally ; 
 and the highest conception we can form of our Creator 
 is to take what is noblest and holiest in man, and com- 
 bine with it the attribute of infinity. That we may do 
 this more worthily, there has been placed before us a 
 perfect human being. He possessed that perfection by 
 a most intimate union with God. ' " I am in the Father," 
 he said, "and the Father in me." (John xiv. 10.) 
 How that union was attained, Christians have not agreed 
 in conceiving. An interesting view is that of Schleier- 
 macher, who maintains that Christ possessed, by especial 
 divine gift, a consciousness of the presence of God, so 
 entire as to conform his own will in all things to that of 
 the Being whom he felt as dwelling within him ; that 
 he thus was the crowning miracle of creation, the com- 
 pletion of the grand succession of God's works, the 
 Perfect Man.* 
 
 It is in consequence of this union of Christ with God, 
 that believers are able to attain a more devoted rever- 
 
 * See an article on " Schleiermacher and his View of Christ." in 
 the Monthly Religious Magazine for February, 1869, by the author 
 of this volume. 
 
90 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ence, a more tender love, towards the Almighty, since 
 they can contemplate him in Christ. ^ In the purity of 
 Jesus we see imaged to us the holiness of God ; in the 
 Savior's miracles we discern the power and the mercy 
 of Him from whom he came ; above all, in the whole 
 life of Jesus, devoted to the rescue of mankind from 
 sin, and accomplishing that object even by the death of 
 the cross, we have the most vivid representation possible 
 of the infinite love of God to man, and of the strength 
 of his purpose that his human children should become 
 holy. 
 
 In one respect this view of " God in Christ " appears 
 more important in this age than ever before. The 
 refinement of modern ideas, through the progress of 
 science, has done much to weaken our conception of the 
 personality of God ; and there is danger that by the 
 habit of referring the phenomena of nature to mechani- 
 cal and chemical forces, we may cease to recognize the 
 living power of God's will ; and that as by reasoning 
 we conclude that he can have no emotions that imply 
 change and weakness, w r e may be tempted to doubt the 
 efficacy of prayer, and even lose the conviction of God's 
 love, his justice, and his compassion. But we cannot 
 understand the Infinite by contemplating him in one 
 aspect alone. In the boundless deep of his nature, 
 qualities that seem to us opposed may co-exist, as rivers 
 run into the ocean from opposite shores, and find their 
 resting-place sufficient to contain them all. If we would 
 escape from the coldness of Pantheism, it must be by 
 contemplating God as revealed to us in the words of 
 Christ, and as imaged forth to us in his tender and ex- 
 alted character. 
 
MORAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. 91 
 
 Thirdly, the religion of Christ claims our belief, by 
 the power it has evinced to nerve and sustain its martyrs. 
 The first and greatest of these was the Savior himself. 
 The next that died in attestation of his Gospel had learned 
 from him to pray for the forgiveness of his enemies. 
 (Acts vii. 60.) From that time forward, for near three 
 hundred years, Jewish and heathen hatred called the 
 church to sustain a succession of persecutions, endured 
 with constancy and meekness that well illustrated the 
 power of their faith. Men in the feebleness of age, 
 like Polycarp, found strength to be firm to the end ; 
 philosophers like Justin showed that the life of a student 
 had not taken from them the courage to face danger ; and 
 women of gentle nurture, like Perpetua, could withstand 
 the entreaties of a father, and the unconscious pleading 
 of an infant child, alike urging them to save their lives 
 by apostasy. 
 
 The constancy of these martyrs shows the power of 
 the religion by which they were sustained. In the case 
 of the earliest, as of those among the apostles who thus 
 suffered death, and of the evangelists who encountered 
 the danger of it, their constancy gave the most convinc- 
 ing assurance of their faithfulness in the accounts they 
 had given of the life and teaching of Jesus. The testi- 
 mony of the later martyrs has been invalidated by refer- 
 ring to instances in which similar sufferings have been 
 endured with similar constancy, in the defence of error. 
 Thus in those mutual persecutions of Catholic and Prot- 
 estant, which have been the shame of past centuries, 
 the victims cannot all have been martyrs for the truth ; 
 yet there was no difference in the firmness with which 
 they bore their sufferings. Thus Kenan, in his book 
 
92 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 on the Acts, gives an interesting account of the sect of 
 Babists, in Persia, and the persecutions endured by them 
 in our own age. But in all these cases, we may reply, 
 the sufferers not only were sustained by their own ardent 
 faith, but they had before them the example of the early 
 Christian martyrs ; for it is probable that traditions of 
 that example had been preserved, even in Persia. We 
 desire not, however, to strain this argument too far. 
 Let it be enough that it fully proves the sincerity of the 
 early Christians, and the power of their religion to sus- 
 tain them in the extremity of suffering. 
 
 Yet again, Christianity claims reception from us, for 
 the aid it has given in the diffusion of intelligence, the 
 advancement of civilization, the improvement of the con- 
 dition of mankind. The social evils w T hich yet remain 
 are so great that as we look upon them we are apt to 
 feel as if nothing had been gained, and the Gospel, as 
 respects its influence over human society at large, had 
 been a failure. But it is because we see only the pres- 
 ent, that we do not realize its immense superiority to the 
 heathen past. Much also is to be allowed for a coun- 
 teracting jcause, which, but for Christianity, would have 
 carried back the world to utter barbarism. This was 
 the invasion and conquest of the Roman Empire by the 
 wild hordes of northern Europe. Centuries of corrup- 
 tion, with luxury, idolatry, and despotism, had so weak- 
 ened the manhood of the southern regions, that not even 
 the adoption of Christianity could win back for the Em- 
 pire more than a transitory splendor ; and the transfer 
 of the seat of government to the East, left the Western 
 portion the most feebly defended, w r hile it was the most 
 strongly attacked. Thus, in the fifth century, the 
 
MORAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. 93 
 
 Christian Empire of Rome came to an end. The coun- 
 tries that composed it, Italy, France, Spain, and Brit- 
 ain, with some regions to the north and the south of 
 these, were overwhelmed by a flood of barbarism. 
 Science, art, and learning were objects of indifference, 
 if not of scorn, to the fierce invaders ; but in the religion 
 of the nations they had conquered, they found that 
 which could first restrain and then elevate and enlighten 
 them. The Christian priests were the civilizers of the 
 new barbarism. The monastic institutions, which we 
 are apt to regard as monuments alone of folly and indo- 
 lence, were providentially made, first, the retreat of 
 learning and piety before the barbarian sword, and then 
 the central points of missionary effort, to teach the con- 
 quering savages alike the arts of this life, and the holy 
 doctrines connected with the life to come. Yet it was 
 centuries before Europe attained a stage in civilization, 
 corresponding to that which it had lost. The influence 
 of Christianity, then, though ceaselessly at work, has 
 been delayed, for a period of seven hundred years, — 
 from the fifth to the twelfth century, — by its contest 
 with the barbarism of the northern nations. When, at 
 length, civilization prevailed, it was Christianity that 
 had won its battle. 
 
 We may discern the power of the Gospel of Christ 
 in the removal of evil institutions, by a glance at the 
 history of domestic slavery. That hideous system has 
 been overthrown in three successive forms, and ever by 
 the influence of Christian truth. First, in the classic 
 form, the worst of all in one respect, because it gave 
 the master the power of life and death. Some progress 
 had been made, even under the heathen Emperors, in 
 
'94 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 favor of humanity to the bondman ; but it was by edicts 
 of Constantine that the murder of a slave was placed on 
 the same level with that of a freeman, and that the for- 
 cible separation of families was forbidden.* By these 
 and similar laws, and still more by the influence of 
 Christianity on the hearts of individual masters, Roman 
 slavery gradually passed away. Then came the lighter 
 form of feudal villeinage ; to perish in its turn by the 
 advance of a civilization which Christianity guided, and 
 in no small degree by the direct interference of Christian 
 ministers. w When the dying slaveholder," says Mac- 
 aulay, " asked for the sacraments, his spiritual attend- 
 ants regularly adjured him, as he loved his soul, to 
 emancipate his brethren, for whom Christ had died. So 
 successfully had the Church used her formidable ma- 
 chinery, that before the Reformation came, she had 
 enfranchised almost all the bondmen in the kingdom 
 except her own, who, to do her justice, seem to have 
 been very tenderly treated." f 
 
 Last came the American form of slavery. We have 
 seen this pass away before the storm of civil war ; but 
 the war itself would not have taken place but for the 
 increasing opposition to the continuance of the slave 
 system, and the certainty that the power to maintain it 
 against that opposition was gradually passing away. 
 "* And though the church has often been angrily charged 
 with indifference to the cause of freedom, yet the im- 
 pulse of the anti-slavery movement came from Chris- 
 tianity. It was from the principles of the Society of 
 Friends that the foremost champion and the foremost 
 
 * Penny Cyclopcedia, Art, Slavery. 
 t History of England, Chapter I, 
 
MORAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAITY. 95 
 
 poet among the Abolitionists derived their reverence for 
 the rights of man. Christian ministers, Channino: and 
 Pollen, and many others, were among the prominent 
 advocates of the cause ; and if the defenders of the evil 
 institution brought up in its favor some obscure pas- 
 sages, principally from the Old Testament, these were 
 more than counterbalanced by the plain teaching of 
 the Bible, that all men are children of God, destined 
 alike to immortality, and that justice and benevolence 
 are to be shown to all. Thus for the third time, it was 
 Christianity before which slavery gave way. 
 
 It would be interesting to trace the influence of the 
 Gospel in other departments of the progress of civiliza- 
 tion. But the repeated abolition of slavery may serve 
 as a sufficient example. We hope, too, that the subject 
 may be presented to the public with a fulness adapted 
 to its importance, by the' publication of the Lectures 
 delivered recently before the Lowell Institute, on the 
 Debt of the World to Christianity, by our friend the 
 President of Meadville Theological School. 
 
 It is a great error to suppose that Christianity rests 
 alone on outward miracles as evidences of its truth. 
 Besides the characteristics of it which have been named, 
 there are other proofs of its divine excellence which may 
 well be called moral miracles. Its very existence is 
 such a miracle, when viewed in connection with its early 
 history. That a peasant of Galilee, whom his country- 
 men caused to be crucified, should have put down the 
 mighty idolatry of Rome, and established the belief in 
 his teachings as the religion of civilized mankind, is a 
 miracle grander than that he should have raised the 
 
96 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 dead. In the words of Coleridge, w Christendom is the 
 best proof of Christianity." 
 
 Again, at the present day, the moral and spiritual 
 efficacy of Christianity is a constant succession of won- 
 ders. Still does Jesus make the blind to see ; for he 
 opens the mental eye which sin had darkened, that it 
 may discern what is beautiful and glorious in purity, 
 peace, justice, and benevolence. Still does he bid the 
 lame walk ; for he aids the unsteady feet of the wanderer 
 from virtue to re-enter and to pursue her sacred paths. 
 Still does he raise the dead, the morally dead, the "dead 
 in trespasses and sins," to a better life than had been 
 theirs before. Not then alone by visible miracles in 
 the distant past, not by voices speaking alone to one 
 favored nation, but by testimonies ever recurring, and 
 which every willing mind can comprehend, does God 
 accredit to us his sacred messenger. 
 
 Argument of Schleiermacher. 
 
 Those disciples of the Transcendental Philosophy who 
 have retained their Christian faith, have naturally relied 
 rather on arguments of the kind now before us, than on 
 the evidence of miracles. It will be our endeavor, in 
 what remains of this chapter, to point out the path 
 which some of them have pursued, by developing the 
 train of thought upon this subject, as presented in vari- 
 ous portions of Schleiermacher's great work on w Chris- 
 tian Faith," and in the last of his "Discourses on 
 Religion." 
 
 Religious systems, this writer observes, are distin- 
 guished into the Natural and the Positive. Positive 
 
MORAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. 97 
 
 religions are those which claim to have been revealed 
 from some superhuman source ; Natural religion, that 
 which is authenticated by nature alone. This, however, 
 it will be found by universal experience, never exists by 
 itself, as the actual faith of any portion of mankind. It 
 derives its origin from the positive religions of the world ; 
 the process for its attainment being to compare these in 
 their highest forms, — the Christian, the Jewish, and 
 the Mohammedan, — to leave out whatever is peculiar 
 to any one of them, reserving only those great truths in 
 which they all unite. 
 
 It follows from this, that Theism, as Natural reli- 
 gion is sometimes designated, cannot fairly claim to be 
 a rival of Christianity. It is, in fact, only Christianity 
 abridged. What it teaches is true, but it is not truth 
 which philosophers discovered for themselves. The 
 people had it before the philosophers. The part which 
 the latter had in its preparation was not that of devel- 
 opment, but of mere omission. The truth of Christian- 
 ity, then, is acknowledged by its opponents, in regard 
 to much that is of most importance in its teachings, as 
 the Being and the Unity of God, his Fatherly love, his 
 providential care, the future life of man, and his account- 
 ableness for his conduct. And these opponents never 
 would have attained these truths, had they not been 
 contained in those systems of Positive religion, among 
 which Christianity is acknowledged by all to hold the 
 highest place. 
 
 Claiming thus in behalf of Christianity the honor 
 which has been appropriated by Theism, we can, by a 
 chain of argument, prove more distinctly the claims of 
 our religion to the character of a revelation from above. 
 
98 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 In the first place, the position is laid down that a 
 religious community cannot derive its origin from cir- 
 cumstances entirely within the community which preced- 
 ed it. To produce a new effect, there must be a new 
 cause. A system of religion worn into formalism, and 
 from which all living spirit had departed, could not of 
 itself break forth into new life, adopt new T doctrines and 
 forms, and furnish the impulse to a new activity. 
 
 In the origin of all new systems, then, the establish- 
 ment of great religious communities, we must recognize, 
 besides preceding circumstances, the working of an 
 original personality. The new law comes from a new 
 prophet ; or rather, since a new law alone cannot prop- 
 erly be called a new religion, and the office of prophet 
 is not identical with that of religious founder, the new 
 system of faith requires as its producing cause, a per- 
 sonage of high endowments, eminently possessed of the 
 powers of discovering and communicating truth, and of 
 exercising control over his fellow-beings. To the im- 
 pulse which raises up and empowers such a personage, 
 the term inspiration may not improperly be applied. 
 
 Such has been the origin, so far as we can discern, 
 of all great systems of religion. In regard to some 
 forms, their date goes back to such distant periods that 
 their actual history cannot be traced. And some, as 
 the Greek and Roman mythology, present a conglom- 
 eration of different previous systems of faith. But his- 
 tory, so far as we can trace it, agrees with the principle 
 thus reached by transcendental reasoning, that when the 
 minds of great masses of men have been stirred to the 
 adoption of a new religious system, it was because they 
 were under the influence of an inspired leader. 
 
MORAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. 99 
 
 But all such leaders, except one, have shown the 
 limits of their inspiration by admitting into their systems 
 the qualifying influences of space and time. They have 
 been local, national, not universal. Brahminism owns 
 the sacred river and the sacred mountain of Hindostan. 
 Mohammedanism, in its frequent ablutions, marks itself 
 as the religion of a warm climate, and calls its votaries 
 to pilgrimages which would be impossible to those living 
 at a distance from its Arabian birthplace. Judaism is 
 confessedly the system of a single people, and a single 
 small province ; however, its limitation may be justified 
 in view of its being only preliminary to a more full rev- 
 elation. Christianity alone is for all men, everywhere ; 
 adapted equally to the savage and the sage, the Asiatic 
 and the European, not localizing the dwelling of the 
 Almighty in a temple or mountain, nor confining his 
 worship to any form of sacrifice or order of priesthood. 
 The principles it inculcates are the universal ones of 
 truth, purity, justice, and benevolence, with trust and 
 love towards God. In view of this, its essential char- 
 acteristic, Christianity holds of right the position of the 
 universal, the absolute religion. Whatever would other- 
 wise claim the name of revelation, ceases to merit it in the 
 presence of this ; and if the founders of other systems 
 may be said in some degree to be inspired, of Christ it 
 may be truly said that the Father w giveth not the spirit 
 by measure unto him." 
 
 Again, if we look more closely to the great idea of 
 the Christian revelation, we find in it what we can trace 
 only to a source more than human. That idea is of 
 redemption from the power of sin. Our consciousness 
 as human beings tells us of want, deficiency, impurity 
 
100 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 in ourselves ; our consciousness as Christians tells of 
 this want supplied, this deficiency met, this impurity 
 changed to purity, by the influence lof our religion. To 
 what can we trace such thoughts and feelings ? Not to 
 the ordinary powers and influences of human nature ; 
 for what is pure can never be introduced by the inter- 
 course of the impure. " It must be from a source which 
 was pure in itself, — and this sinless source is thus 
 identified with the Founder of Christianity. By the 
 common rule, of reasoning from effect to cause, we 
 trace back the purifying influence of our faith upon our 
 own hearts to the pure and holy Savior. For the work 
 of redemption in which he leads us, no human source is 
 sufficiently exalted ; we must trace it, then, to a divine 
 source, recognizing in him one who possessed that per- 
 fect sinlessness which marked him as the representative 
 of God to man."* 
 
 The thoughts thus presented are in part the same 
 which have been offered in an earlier chapter of this 
 book, respecting the universality of Christ's teachings, 
 and their adaptation to the nature of man. The argu- 
 ment of the illustrious German is but a development of 
 that process of the heart by which one who has been 
 under the dominion of sin recognizes the Gospel as that 
 which has brought him deliverance, and rests his faith 
 on Christ, because he has experienced his worth as a 
 Savior. 
 
 * Schleierraacher, Der Christliche Glaube, and Reden; also 
 Strauss, Life of Jesus. Section 148. 
 
ATTEMPTS TO ALTER OR IMPROVE CHRISTIANITY. 101 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Attempts to Alter or Improve Christianity. 
 
 The force of the moral argument for Christianity has 
 been felt by many minds, which would have been slow 
 to receive the religion on the evidence of miracle. Of 
 this class, probably the greater part have, for the sake of 
 the internal proof, quieted their own doubts with regard 
 to the external. Others, however, have thought that a 
 distinction might be made between Christianity as a 
 moral system, and Christianity as an historical and super- 
 natural religion. The attempt to mark this distinction 
 has been made by two persons, eminent alike for char- 
 acter and station. 
 
 President Jefferson, in those hours which he found, 
 even anions; the cares of state, to hold intercourse with 
 the highest thoughts, prepared an arrangement of the 
 life and teachings of Jesus, leaving out all that was out- 
 wardly miraculous* His biographer says : — 
 
 w The book oftenest chosen for reading for an hour or 
 half an hour before going to bed was a collection of 
 extracts from the Bible. During the year 1803, while 
 Mr. Jefferson was in Washington, 'overwhelmed with 
 other business/ he spent two or three nights, ' after 
 getting through the evening task of reading the letters 
 and papers of the day/* in cutting such passages from 
 the evangelists as he believed emanated directly from 
 
102 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the lips of the Savior, and he arranged them in an 
 octavo volume of forty-six pages. This selection is thus 
 described by him to his revolutionary friend, Charles 
 Thompson, January 9th, 1816. 
 
 " ' I, too, have made a wee little book from the same 
 materials, which I call the Philosophy of Jesus. It is a 
 paradigma of his doctrines, made by cutting the texts 
 out of the book, and arranging them on the pages of a 
 blank book, in a certain order of time or subject. A 
 more beautiful or precious morsel of ethics I have never 
 seen ; it is a document in proof that I am a real Chris- 
 tian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, 
 very different from the Platonists, who call ?ne infidel 
 and themselves Christians and preachers of the Gospel, 
 while they draw ,all their characteristic dogmas from 
 what its author never said nor saw. They have com- 
 pounded from the heathen mysteries a system beyond 
 the comprehension of man, of which the great reformer 
 of the vicious ethics and deism of the Jews, were he to 
 return to earth, would not recognize one feature. If I 
 had time I would add to my little book the Greek, Latin, 
 and French texts, in columns side by side.' 
 
 "It was in the winter of 1816-17, it is believed, that 
 Mr. Jefferson carried out the design last expressed. In 
 a handsome morocco-bound volume, labelled on the 
 back, ? Morals of Jesus,' he placed the parallel texts in 
 four languages." 
 
 "It is remarkable that neither of these collections 
 were known to Mr. Jefferson's grandchildren until after 
 his death. They then learned from a letter addressed 
 to a friend that he was in the habit of reading nightly 
 from them before going to bed." 
 
ATTEMPTS TO ALTER OR IMPROVE CHRISTIANITY. 103 
 
 The above extracts are from Randall's Life of Jefferson, 
 Volume III., pages 451, 452. In the Appendix are 
 given the Tables of Contents of the two volumes. The 
 title of the earlier collection is M The Philosophy of Je- 
 sus of Nazareth, extracted from the account of his life 
 and doctrines as given by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
 John. Being an abridgment of the New Testament for 
 the use of the Indians, unembarrassed with matters of 
 fact or faith beyond the level of their comprehensions." 
 
 There is something deeply interesting in the view thus 
 given, of the President, amid the pressing claims of his 
 office, caring thus for the spiritual elevation of that race 
 which was passing away before the advance of his own ; 
 and seeking the means for their improvement in those 
 Scriptures whose supernatural authority, it is probable, 
 he did not receive. 
 
 More recently, the distinguished East Indian, Ram- 
 mohun Roy, published for the benefit of his countrymen 
 a compilation which he called " The Precepts of Jesus, 
 the Guide to Peace and Happiness." It consisted of 
 the teachings of the Savior, extracted from the four 
 Gospels, but omitting, as far as possible, the connecting 
 narrative. Much interest was excited in England and 
 in this country, by what was confidently regarded as the 
 conversion of a learned and virtuous heathen, to Chris- 
 tianity. Rammohun Roy expressed no disrespect to the 
 historical parts of the Scriptures ; but he thought it un- 
 necessary and useless to present them to his countrymen, 
 conceiving that the miraculous accounts they contained 
 would rather excite prejudice than allay it. Whether 
 Rammohun Roy himself believed fully in Christianity as 
 a divine revelation, is a subject on which opinions have 
 
104 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 differed. His intercourse and apparent sympathy for 
 years were chiefly with Unitarians ; but after his death, 
 he was claimed by some as a convert to the doctrines 
 of the Church of England. He had not, however, 
 openly renounced the Hindoo religion, and embraced 
 the Christian, by receiving baptism, but retained his 
 rank as a Brahmin to the last. 
 
 An opinion respecting Jesus, similar to that expressed 
 by Mr. Jefferson, appears to be entertained by some of 
 the more liberal-minded of the modern Jews. A re- 
 markable book was published at Altona in 1853, enti- 
 tled " History of Rabbi Jeshua, the son of Joseph, the 
 Nazarene, called Jesus Christ " (Geschichte des Rabbi 
 Jeschua ben Joszef hanootzri, genannt Jesus Christus). 
 The author, a Jewish Rationalist, maintains that Jesus, 
 though no worker of miracles, was a wise and good re- 
 former, who suffered by an unjust sentence, in conse- 
 quence of his patriotic and devout endeavors. He 
 claims to be sustained in this opinion by ancient manu- 
 scripts to which he has had access ; but fails to give a 
 distinct and satisfactory account of their antiquity and 
 authority. To the same effect he quotes the language 
 of an older Jewish writer, a Rabbi among the Karaites, 
 a sect of the Jews who own the authority of the Old 
 Testament alone, rejecting the Rabbinical traditions. 
 His words are as follows : M Rabbi Jeshua was, accord- 
 ing to the opinion of the friends of truth, a wise man, 
 pious, righteous, and God-fearing, and shunned what 
 was evil. He gave no command nor discourse which 
 varied from the written divine law, much less in oppo- 
 sition to the teaching of Moses." He goes on to say 
 that different doctrines were introduced afterwards by 
 the followers of Jesus, and especially by Paul, 
 
ATTEMPTS TO ALTER OR IMPROVE CHRISTIANITY. 105 
 
 We shall have occasion hereafter to examine the 
 credibility of this supposition, in connection with the 
 theory of Dr. Baur, which strongly resembles it. The 
 question, too, whether it is possible, with fairness and 
 consistency, to separate the natural and the supernat- 
 ural in the Savior's life and teachings, believing the one 
 and rejecting the other, will best be answered after an 
 examination of the historical record, and of the evidence 
 on which it rests. At present, these various attempts 
 in that direction are introduced for the testimony borne 
 to the surpassing excellence of the Christian religion, by 
 persons who refuse to receive it as a miraculous revela- 
 tion. 
 
 It is observable, too, that the approval thus expressed 
 is not pronounced upon a mere selection from the words 
 of Jesus ; as a modern scholar, searching through the 
 idolatrous prayers of the Vedas, may find here and 
 there a lofty thought ; but Mr. Jefferson and Rammohun 
 Roy took the whole of the Savior's precepts, finding 
 nothing in the Gospels to reject except the miracles. 
 The approval of the Karaite Rabbi is expressed in words 
 not less comprehensive. 
 
 But there are those who argue that however excellent 
 the character of Jesus and his precepts may have been, 
 and however important the moral revolution which he 
 effected in the world, there is no propriety in receiving 
 him or his instructions w as a finality." The Gospel, 
 according to this view, is a thing of the past ; its work 
 was part of that to which all ages have contributed, in 
 building up the civilization of the present. Whether 
 the principles which Jesus taught were original with 
 him or not, and whether he held them with any mixture 
 
106 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 of error, are now, it may be said, questions of small 
 importance. The world has learned what was valuable 
 in the lessons of Jesus : what matters it from whom the 
 instruction came? Galileo discovered that the earth 
 revolves on its axis. We all believe this truth ; but 
 who now reads the writings of Galileo, or cares about 
 the laborious process by which he may have attained 
 the knowledge that is now so familiar ? 
 
 To this we reply, that it is not with the Gospel of 
 Christ as it is with the works of discoveries in natural 
 science. When the principles they have searched out 
 are once made known, the obvious wants of man cause 
 them to be employed. Men need food and clothing ; 
 they desire the comforts of life, and aspire after its lux- 
 uries ; there is no danger then that their knowledge of 
 the ways and means of gaining these objects will be un- 
 used. But the spiritual wants of man are not so press- 
 ing in their claims. It is not enough that men should 
 know what is morally right, in order to secure their 
 doing it. There must be motives, sanctions accompany- 
 ing the law, to insure for it attention and obedience. 
 These motives, these sanctions, are found in Christianity, 
 considered as of divine revelation. If Jesus had arrived 
 at the knowledge of the true principles of virtue by the 
 exercise of unaided human powers, if he had enforced 
 his precepts only by prudential maxims having applica- 
 tion to the present life, then his teachings might have 
 been classed with those of other discoverers. But it is 
 not so. He taught in the name of God. He claimed 
 authority as one whom the Father had sanctified and 
 sent. His words are in the accent of command. They 
 are not to be assented to as good reasoning, but to be 
 
ATTEMPTS TO ALTER OR IMPRROVE CHRISTIANITY. 107 
 
 obeyed as laws. And their authority as laws is sub- 
 stantiated by the sanctions both of reward and punish- 
 ment, and of each of these in the future world as well 
 as in this. Nor are these solemn sanctions, nor is this 
 voice of authority superfluous, in reference to the class 
 of subjects upon which they are employed ; for there are 
 so many temptations to do wrong, so many difficulties 
 in the way of doing right, that even with all the advan- 
 tage we have in being thus taught of God, we are apt 
 continually to wander into evil. We cannot dispense 
 then with this authority, these threatenings, these prom- 
 ises. We need them, as a child needs to be guided, 
 instructed, and restrained. 
 
 In the natural sciences mankind have advanced step 
 by step, each successful laborer being passed and super- 
 seded by his successor. The wonderful and brilliant 
 discovery of one year is in familiar use in the next, and 
 serves as the foundation for discoveries perhaps more 
 wonderful still ; and so the volume which contains its 
 first announcement rests unread on the shelves of old 
 libraries, and the knowledge which at first was so rare 
 and precious, becomes combined yrith the general mass 
 of information possessed by the race. But who has 
 excelled Jesus of Nazareth? What volume of moral 
 instruction has superseded the Gospel ? It is eighteen 
 hundred years since the New Testament was written, and 
 in every other branch of knowledge men have made 
 wonderful advances ; but in the knowledge of God, and 
 of their own duty and destiny, that book is still the 
 manual of the civilized world. Is it asked if men have 
 not gone beyond it ? They have not come up to it. It 
 seems to us sometimes as if they had not learned its first 
 
108 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 lessons. Certainly men in general, in Christian coun- 
 tries, are yet far from understanding, applying, and 
 exemplifying the Sermon on the Mount, the divine dis- 
 course contained in its first few pages. The New Tes- 
 tament is not superseded then. We cannot do without 
 it. -It is not like those books of a philosophy long since 
 thoroughly learned, that we can now lay aside, forget- 
 ting even their authors' names, and retaining only the 
 principles they have taught us. 
 
 An evidence of the excellence of Christianity may be 
 found in the failure of all attempts to improve upon it. We 
 have seen already that some have tried to make a selec- 
 tion from its teachings, and engage the attention of 
 mankind to its moral precepts alone. Others have 
 endeavored to go beyond its instructions, and, as in 
 secular science one author builds his system on that of 
 his predecessor, to construct new religions on the basis 
 of the Gospel. This was very early sought after in the 
 Gnostic and Manichean systems ; the one an endeavor 
 to combine Christianity with principles from the Greek 
 philosophy, the other undertaking to reconcile it with 
 the teachings of Zoroaster. Those attempted improve- 
 ments have passed away, and Christianity remains. 
 
 The Mohammedan system, which we have already 
 considered, may be regarded as another endeavor to 
 improve on the religion of the Bible. But Mohammed 
 knew more of the Old Dispensation than he did of the 
 New. He failed entirely to reach the spiritual elevation 
 of Christianity ; and by a most unhappy mixture of 
 elements in the two religions, each of which was good 
 in its own place, he produced that result of narrow big- 
 otry, pride, and persecution, which we have already con- 
 
ATTEMPTS TO ALTER OR IMPROVE CHRISTIANITY. 109 
 
 templated. The Jewish state being a theocracy, Jehovah 
 being recognized as its sovereign, idolatry was treason, 
 and was punished as such. But Judaism never claimed, 
 and never was intended, to be a universal religion. The 
 Jews were not a proselyting people. Christianity, 
 which is a universal religion, disowns the theocratic 
 principle. Its kingdom is not of this world, and its 
 Founder taught no lessons of intolerance. Mohammed 
 joined together, in unfit alliance, the theocratic principle 
 of the Jews, and the Christian claim to universal diffu- 
 sion. Hence came a religion of aggression and conquest, 
 of pride and aversion to improvement, of intolerance 
 and persecution. Thus Mohammedanism not only failed 
 as an improvement upon Christianity, but by attempting 
 to transcend the local and limited character of Judaism, 
 it stained itself with a blot that Judaism never knew. 
 The gross impurity of the system, its allowance of po- 
 lygamy, its degradation of woman, need but to be men- 
 tioned, to show how far it fell short of the religion it 
 attempted to supersede. 
 
 Of the modern pretended revelation of Mormonism, 
 we shall speak at length, in a separate chapter, the rather 
 that its presence and increase render it a subject of great 
 importance in itself, as well as in its application to our 
 present argument. Two other systems there are, which 
 may be deemed continuations or intended improvements 
 of the Gospel. One is that of the Roman, Catholic 
 church, which, claiming to be still infallibly inspired, 
 adds to the teaching of the Scriptures those of the 
 Fathers, and especially the decisions of Councils, as of 
 equal authority. How has the religion of Jesus Christ 
 been improved in the Romish church? Its doctrines, 
 
110 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 originally simple, have been covered with a burden and a 
 shroud of mystery; its ministers, originally unpretend- 
 ing men, have been exalted into a hierarchy ; its worship 
 has been darkened by a cloud of ceremony, and its moral 
 conduct has been stained by the impurities of a Borgia, 
 the cruelties of the Inquisition, and the massacre of St. 
 Bartholomew. 
 
 An attempt of a different character we may notice 
 in the New Jerusalem, or Swedenborgian church. This 
 adds to Christianity, as understood by others, discoveries 
 or revelations of its own. Swedenborg was a man of 
 singular and varied genius, with a mind enriched by 
 liberal culture in youth, and afterwards by many years 
 of scientific research, and of intercourse with men of 
 the highest rank and intelligence. His advantages for 
 the acquisition of knowledge appear in strong contrast 
 to the youth, the limited education, and the obscure pro- 
 vincial sphere, of Jesus. Swedenborg claimed for him- 
 self especial divine instruction. This claim, however, 
 we have no present occasion to examine ; for we are 
 arguing, not against Swedenborgians, but against unbe- 
 lievers. But whether he had or had not an extraordinary 
 commission from above, we look in vain for any truth 
 of importance which the seer of Sweden added to the 
 Gospel. The position he claimed was only that of its 
 reverent interpreter. That he shed light on some pas- 
 sages of the New Testament may well be conceded. 
 But the Sermon on the Mount remains still unsurpassed 
 for the beauty and holiness of its precepts ; the Lord'a 
 Prayer still unequalled for sublimity and comprehensive- 
 ness of devotional expression. The learned and vener- 
 able sage of Stockholm, with all his great endowments, 
 
ATTEMPTS TO ALTER OR IMPROVE CHRISTIANITY. Ill 
 
 did but illustrate, not supersede or eclipse, the young 
 and uneducated Teacher of Nazareth. 
 
 From the survey we have taken in this and the 
 preceding chapters, we come to the following conclu- 
 sions : — 
 
 That a revelation of the Divine nature and will was 
 needed by mankind ; and that it was needed at the time 
 when Christianity appeared, notwithstanding the great 
 advancement then attained in philosophy, science, and 
 art. 
 
 That the existence of this need, and the adaptation 
 of Christianity to supply it, are proved by the eagerness 
 with which it was received, and the rapidity with which 
 it was extended, notwithstanding the opposition of 
 heathen superstition and of imperial power; while 
 philosophy in vain endeavored to rival it, and some of 
 the noblest philosophers had expressed, in language 
 almost prophetic, the deep want of human nature which 
 their own systems could not supply, and their aspiration 
 for a clearer light. 
 
 That Christianity is not only a good and pure system 
 of morals, but that it, and it alone, is a universal reli- 
 gion. The teachers of Greece, Persia, India, and China 
 have, in the local and temporary limitations of their 
 instructions, the stamp of insufficiency, while the doc- 
 trine of Christ alone possesses the marks of divine 
 perfection, and therefore of divine origin. 
 
 That this is attested to us, among other witnesses, by 
 an interesting class of writers, who, while unconvinced 
 of the supernatural commission of the Savior, have yet 
 turned with admiration to his precepts, acknowledging 
 
112 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 them as the sufficient rule of life, and the "guide to 
 peace and happiness." 
 
 That Christianity was not only necessary in the age 
 when it was given, but is necessary still. Its Founder 
 spoke, not like other teachers, but with divine authority, 
 and his own personal character constitutes, at once the 
 best explanation, and one of the most powerful attrac- 
 tions, of the system which he gave. And unlike the 
 works of uninspired discoverers, which have been super- 
 seded by those of their successors, the Gospel of Christ 
 remains, after eighteen centuries, not only unsurpassed, 
 but unequalled ; the attempts that have been made to 
 build upon it a more advanced religion do but excite our 
 wonder, our indignation, or our pity; attempts to im- 
 prove it, as by the alleged continuance of inspiration in 
 the Romish church, or its alleged recurrence in the 
 Swedenborgian, have either signally failed, or have 
 succeeded only by bringing into clearer view what was 
 in Christianity already ; while minds of the greatest 
 power, such as Luther's, have found the noblest exercise 
 of that power, not in adding anything to the teachings 
 of the Gospel, but in removing the additions which had 
 but obscured its original simplicity and beauty. 
 
MORMONISM. 113 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MORMONISM. 
 
 Between the long-established possessions of the Uni- 
 ted States and those which lie on the coast of the Pacific, 
 extends a vast wilderness, where, till within a few years, 
 the foot of civilized man has rarely penetrated, and 
 where, even yet, travel is difficult, dangerous, and con- 
 fined to a few roads, worn by the steps of that multitude 
 who have been led westward by the attractions of the 
 Land of Gold. Far in that wilderness is a valley, sin- 
 gular in its geographical character, and peopled by sin- 
 gular inhabitants. Lofty mountain ranges gird it, their 
 highest points covered with perpetual snow. Sharp 
 peaks arise, in various fantastic forms. As the traveller 
 reaches an eminence towered over by these heights, and 
 itself eight thousand feet above the level of the sea, he 
 sees before him, beyond the dark fringe of pines, a silver 
 lake, expanding in ocean-like magnificence. Suddenly, 
 — so a traveller has described it,* — he sees his compan- 
 ions fall on their knees ; the air resounds with the min- 
 gled noise of joyful shouts, and prayer, and weeping; 
 as when, in the East, a company of devout pilgrims 
 greet for the first time the blended minarets and domes 
 of Jerusalem. The scene is Oriental in many of its 
 circumstances. That gleaming lake is like the Dead 
 Sea of old Palestine, of bitter waters, wherein no living 
 8 
 
114 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 thing is found. Those devotees approach a city, holy 
 in their view as Jerusalem to the tribes of Israel, for 
 there presides one whom they reverence as a prophet of 
 the Lord. But to one who is with them, but not of 
 them, the thought occurs of another city which stood by 
 the Dead Sea in old time, and he recognizes in the city 
 of the Western Salt Lake not a new Jerusalem, but a 
 second Sodom. 
 
 Pass on beyond the dark pine barrier, and descend 
 the shelving ranges, — the successive boundaries from 
 age to age of the vast inland sea, which has gradually 
 contracted to its present dimensions. Pass on, here by 
 springs of salt, there by fountains of boiling water, and 
 enter the city. It is of vast extent, but thinly peopled, 
 surrounded by fortifications which might resist an at- 
 tack of predatory Indians, but which, commanded by 
 the surrounding eminences, would be slight protection 
 against a civilized assailant. As you proceed, the signs 
 of Oriental and of Western life are strangely mingled. 
 Here are stores, and warehouses, and shops, bearing on 
 their fronts the familiar names that meet us in our 
 New England streets ; there rises the wall of a temple, 
 designed apparently to rival Solomon's in magnificence, 
 but resembling rather some European cathedral. And 
 there again, sight of shame and sign of approaching 
 doom, appear the buildings of a harem, where some 
 man, who has enjoyed from youth the light of civiliza- 
 tion and of the Gospel, keeps *his numerous wives. 
 Over the portico of the lordliest mansion frowns a bronze 
 lion. That, known as the Lion House, is tenanted by 
 seventeen or eighteen of the wives of him who reigns in 
 this strange community with the blended authority of 
 
MORMONISM. 115 
 
 Moses and Solomon, — Brigham Young, M the Lion of 
 the Lord." 
 
 In order to understand this singular commonwealth, 
 it will be necessary for us to go back some years, to 
 trace the course of him who gave the first impulse which 
 resulted in what we now behold. 
 
 Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church 
 and State, was born in Sharon, Vermont, December 23, 
 1805. During his childhood, his parents removed to 
 Palmyra, New York. His education was very limited, 
 his occupation, that of a farmer. The account given 
 by himself, of the manner in w 7 hich he received the sys- 
 tem which he taught, is briefly the following : At the 
 as;e of fourteen or fifteen he was affected with religious 
 feelings, and much disturbed in mind on account of the 
 diversity among the sects of Christians. Tearful that, 
 in making a choice among them, he might be led into 
 error, he withdrew into the woods for the purpose of 
 prayer. Here a horror of great darkness fell upon him, 
 and he fancied himself on the verge of destruction 
 through the malice of some infernal enemy. He ex- 
 erted all his powers to implore deliverance, and suddenly 
 he saw a pillar of light above his head, brighter than 
 the sun, which gradually descended till it rested on him. 
 He now saw two personages, who proved to be no other 
 than the Eternal Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Not to continue the details of this strange, and, to us, 
 revolting narrative, Smith, according to his own ac- 
 count, was informed that the American Indians were a 
 remnant of ancient Israel, but a degenerate remnant, — 
 the relics of a once mighty branch of that sacred stock, 
 which had filled this continent with populous cities, flour- 
 
116 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ishing in arts and arms, until the greater part of them 
 were, for their unworthiness, destroyed; but that the 
 records of their former greatness had been safely depos- 
 ited in the earth. He was directed to the spot where 
 these treasures were preserved ; and, after several visits 
 there, the Book of Mormon, written on plates of gold, 
 in characters which Smith styled w reformed Egyptian," 
 was taken from its long repose, and delivered to the 
 new prophet by angel hands. 
 
 There is a strange mixture of the burlesque with this 
 bold blasphemy. With the plates inscribed in this un- 
 known language was found a singular instrument, through 
 which alone they could be interpreted. This was the 
 Urim and Thummim, mentioned in the Holy Writ as 
 the means by which communications were made from 
 the Divine Guide of the people in ancient times. Much 
 have commentators and people been bewildered to know 
 in what the Urim and Thummim, "lights and perfec- 
 tions," as the words mean, consisted. Smith solved the 
 mystery in a way which no commentator probably had 
 imagined before. They were a pair of spectacles, M two 
 transparent stones, set in the two rims of a bow." This 
 wonderful instrument enabled him who wore it to under- 
 stand the meaning of the otherwise unknown language 
 before him. 
 
 The gold plates found by Smith have not been often 
 seen by other eyes than his. Certificates, however, are 
 produced, from a few persons, mostly members of 
 Smith's own family, and of another by the name of 
 Whitmer, who profess to have seen and handled them. 
 The testimony of Smith's early associates suggests, 
 however, a probable conjecture of their origin. Smith, 
 
MORMONISM. 117 
 
 it appears, was engaged in youth with a set of men who 
 devoted themselves to the business of digging for hidden 
 treasure ; the places where treasure was buried he pre- 
 tended he could find by means of a stone placed in his 
 hat. It is possible that, in some of his digging adven- 
 tures^ he may have lighted on some relics of the past, 
 sufficient to suggest to his own mind, and to pass off 
 upon the minds of others, the fraud which proved so 
 successful. This supposition is confirmed by the actual 
 discovery, in an ancient mound at Kinderhook, New 
 York, of some metal plates inscribed with unknown 
 characters, — the work, it has been supposed, of that 
 former race, more civilized than the Indians, the traces 
 of whose greatness exist in various parts of the continent, 
 but chiefly in Mexico and Central America. 
 
 From his gold plates translated, or from some other 
 source, Smith produced a volume in the English lan- 
 guage, — the Book of Mormon, or Mormon Bible. 
 This work, had it been his own composition, would 
 have given him a claim to be regarded as not only the 
 most daring of religious impostors, but as possessing 
 powers of fictitious composition, which, considering his 
 scanty education, would border on the miraculous. 
 Genius he certainly possessed ; but it did not make 
 him the author or the translator of the Book of Mormon. 
 That strange production was from another source ; and 
 little did its real author imagine the evil use to which 
 his composition would be applied. 
 
 The true origin of the Book of Mormon is sufficient- 
 ly established. In the year 1809, the Rev, Solomon 
 Spalding, a clergyman in the State of New York, who 
 had left his profession from feeble health, failed in that 
 
118 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 business to which he had afterwards given his attention. 
 He now removed to New Salem, in Ohio, and sought to 
 occupy himself by writing, choosing as the object of his 
 undertaking a fictitious tale founded on the Scripture 
 history, and on the theory, which was not original even 
 with him, that the Indians of North America were de- 
 scended from the Israelites of old. The idea of this 
 tale was suggested to him by the numerous mounds and 
 forts in the neighborhood of his new residence, the relics 
 of a former race. He entitled his work, " The Manu- 
 script Found." Mormon and his son Moroni were among 
 his leading characters, as in the publication which Smith 
 professed to have translated from the golden plates. 
 In 1812, the manuscript of this work was deposited 
 with a bookseller named Patterson, of Pittsburg, Penn- 
 sylvania ; but before any arrangement was made for its 
 publication, the author died, and the manuscript re- 
 mained unclaimed in Patterson's possession. The prin- 
 ter lent the manuscript to Sidney Rigdon, a compositor 
 in his office, and at the same time a preacher in the 
 w Christian Connection." Rigdon was much interested 
 in the romance, and repeatedly stated that he had taken 
 a copy of it. He afterwards became associated with 
 Smith, as one of the principal leaders among the Mor- 
 mons. 
 
 In 1839, the widow of Spalding, then residing in 
 Monson, Massachusetts, stated these facts in one of the 
 newspapers of Boston. . She further declared, that a 
 Mormon female preacher, having appointed a meeting 
 at New Salem, where her husband had resided, read and 
 repeated copious extracts from their sacred book. These 
 extracts were immediately recognized by some of those 
 
M0RM0NISM. 119 
 
 present, as part of the work of Mr. Spalding, which 
 they had read or heard in manuscript. Mr. John Spal- 
 ding, the brother of the author, was present at the meet- 
 ing. Recognizing his brother's work, and amazed and 
 afflicted at its perversion to the vile purpose of a religious 
 imposture, he rose, and with tears declared the true 
 origin of the passages which they had heard. He after- 
 wards stated the same on oath ; particularizing that his 
 brother's work gave an account of the journey of a 
 portion of the Israelites from Jerusalem by land and 
 sea, until they arrived in America under the command 
 of Nephi and Lehi, and that it also mentioned the La- 
 manites. This account of the contents of Mr. Spalding's 
 book identifies it with the Book of Mormon. 
 
 Eigdon replied to the statement made by Mr. Spal- 
 ding' s widow, vehemently denying its charge against 
 himself. Little weight can be attached to this denial ; 
 yet it is possible that the manuscript came into the hands 
 of Smith through different means. In 1825, Smith was 
 employed in the neighborhood of Hartwick, New York, 
 where the trunk containing Spalding's manuscripts was 
 deposited. It is stated that after the appearance of the 
 book of Mormon, and its recognition by Spalding's 
 friends, this trunk was examined, and only one manu- 
 script found, being that of an earlier attempt to con- 
 struct a story of the Indians deriving their origin from 
 a colony of the Latins. The other papers had been 
 removed, and the remembered manuscript has never 
 been recovered.* 
 
 * See the testimony in Mormonism, its Leaders and Designs ; 
 by John Hyde, Jr., formerly a Mormon Elder, &c. New York, 
 1857. Chapter XI. See also The Mormons, or Latter Day Saints, 
 
120 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 The Book of Mormon, thus identified as the work of 
 a retired clergyman, is a romance which reflects no little 
 credit on the imagination of its author. We condense 
 it, as far as possible, in the following abstract. 
 
 In the first year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, when 
 the destiny of the nation was darkening towards the 
 calamity of the captivity in Babylon, a devout man, 
 named Lehi, was moved by the warnings of Jeremiah 
 and other prophets, to flee from Jerusalem. He took 
 w 7 ith him his four sons and their wives, and travelled 
 till they came to the great ocean. Here Nephi, the 
 youngest of the sons, by Divine direction, built a vessel, 
 in which the whole company embarked. On the voy- 
 age, the elder brothers mutiny, and bind Nephi ; but as 
 he alone has been instructed from Heaven how to man- 
 age the vessel, they are obliged to reinstate him in the 
 command. At length they reach land, — this Western 
 continent, near two thousand years before its discovery 
 by Columbus. After their arrival, Laman and Lemuel, 
 the elder brothers, again revolt ; and this division be- 
 tween the members of the family becomes perpetuated 
 in their descendants, under the names of Lamanites and 
 Nephites, — the Nephites being generally obedient and 
 virtuous, the Lamanites rebellious and unbelieving. 
 Cities arise, kings reign, and prophets exhort. These 
 prophets are represented as predicting the coming of 
 the Savior ; and in clearer language than that of the 
 prophets of the Old Testament. At length the Savior 
 himself appears- on this continent, after his ascension, 
 
 London, 1852; pages 31-36. Utah and the Mormons, by Benjamin 
 G. Ferris, late Secretary of Utah Territory. New York, 1854:. 
 
MORMONISM. 121 
 
 as recorded in the New Testament. His teaching is 
 described in language copied from the genuine Scriptures. 
 He ascends to heaven, and his Gospel is preached among 
 the Nephites, and, to -some extent, among the Laman- 
 ites. But at length the Nephites " dwindle in unbelief; " 
 the infidels gain the ascendency ; the true believers be- 
 come extinct, and their last prophet, Mormon, consigns 
 to the earth the plates that contain the record of the 
 nation, "to be brought forth in due time by the hand of 
 the Gentiles." 
 
 We need not trace the steps by which, with the charm 
 of this strange romance, and of Smith's bold assertion 
 and commanding mind, the Mormon church was or- 
 ganized and extended ; or chronicle their successive re- 
 movals, from New York to Ohio, and thence to Missouri. 
 The rude justice of our border settlements too often 
 dispenses with the safeguards of law ; and the Mormons 
 were accused of such practices that the feelings p£ the 
 people everywhere were excited against them. Among 
 the charges brought against them was that of anti- 
 slavery ; but if this was true at the time, they soon be- 
 came as faithful believers in the " patriarchal institution " 
 as any of its advocates could desire ; maintaining that 
 the African race was twice doomed, bearing the mark 
 of Cain united with the curse of Ham, through the 
 marriage of the latter with a descendant of the first 
 murderer. 
 
 Another charge was that of a community of wives. 
 This they declared to be a calumny, but the later con- 
 duct of the sect gives reason to believe that there was, 
 even then, some foundation for it. Probably the im- 
 prudent language of some among them, who talked 
 
122 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 of their determination to possess the whole State of 
 Missouri, and suffer none to live near them who were 
 not of their church, created more hostility than any 
 immoralities. However this may have been, the popular 
 rage was aroused. The tale of their expulsion from 
 Missouri fills one of the saddest pages in the strange, 
 sad history of that State. The Mormons say, in a docu- 
 ment published soon after, "Men w T ere shot down like 
 wild beasts, or had their brains dashed ; women were 
 treated with insult, until they died in the hands of their 
 destroyers ; children were killed while pleading for their 
 lives. All entreaties were vain and fruitless ; men, 
 women, and children alike fell victims to the violence 
 and cruelty of these ruffians." 
 
 From Missouri, the Mormons took refuge in Illinois. 
 Here they built a town, to which they gave the name of 
 Nauvoo, from the Hebrew navah^ or, The Beautiful ; 
 established a flourishing community, and built a costly 
 temple. But their evil reputation followed them. As- 
 sertions were made and believed, that the prophet and 
 his chief confederates were guilty of gross impurities, 
 deluding their victims by pretended revelations. An 
 opposition newspaper was commenced in Nauvoo itself, 
 and its first number contained the affidavits of sixteen 
 women, charging such crimes on Smith, Rigdon, and 
 others. The prophet, acting as Mayor of the city, de- 
 stroyed the office and presses of the newspaper, and burnt 
 the papers and furniture. This high-handed act aroused 
 the State. Smith refused to obey a warrant for his 
 arrest. Illinois was in arms, and the Governor took 
 the field in person. At his appeal to them, pledging 
 the honor of the State for their protection, Joseph and 
 
MORjIONISM. 123 
 
 his brother Hiram Smith surrendered themselves, the 
 former saying, " I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, 
 but I am calm as a summer's morning. I have a con- 
 science void of offence, and shall die innocent." Hi3 
 anticipations were verified. On the 26th of June, 1844, 
 the same day on which they had received a visit from 
 the Governor, with renewed promises of protection, a 
 band of nearly two hundred men, with blackened faces, 
 overpowered the small guard at the jail, and murdered 
 the prisoners. The assailants completed their own dis- 
 honor by brutally insulting the body of their victim. 
 
 Thus died Joseph Smith, the Mohammed of the nine- 
 teenth century, if the application of that name to him 
 is not a wrong to the Arabian prophet. For the faith 
 of Mohammed was at least, as we have already seen, a 
 great advance upon the previous idolatry of his coun- 
 trymen ; while the doctrine of the Western deceiver 
 rejects what is highest and purest in the prevalent reli- 
 gion, and degrades its followers to a grovelling mate- 
 rialism, and a worse than Asiatic sensuality. We had 
 once the privilege of hearing Smith address an audience 
 at Washington. He held their attention through a long 
 discourse, defending his tenets, and complaining of the 
 oppressions suffered by his people in Missouri. He 
 was a man of powerful frame, a commanding voice, and 
 a ready flow of language. He said little of his own 
 claims as a prophet, except to deny the charge of having 
 derived the Book of Mormon from Spalding's manu- 
 script ; but labored chiefly to conciliate favor to his sect, 
 as a harmless and industrious people, whose religion 
 differed little from that of other Christians, and who had 
 been subjected to gross and cruel persecution. 
 
124 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Dismayed by the fall of their leader, and the excite- 
 ment in the public mind against themselves, the Mor- 
 mons were not without internal difficulty from the 
 question of succession to the chieftainship of their sect. 
 But all competitors at length gave way to Brigham 
 Young, a man possessing much of the .courage and 
 ability of Smith. This leader saw the necessity of 
 yielding to the storm which had been aroused against 
 them in Illinois, and determined on a retreat to the 
 regions of the remoter West. It is not within the lim- 
 its of our purpose to follow their history further, nor to 
 conjecture how the important questions will be settled 
 that must arise, as the advancing tide of regular emi- 
 gration breaks against the rocky barriers of Utah. 
 Only let the hope and purpose be cherished by all who 
 love the honor of the American and of the Christian name, 
 that there shall be no repetition of such scenes as accom- 
 panied the exile of the Mormons from Missouri and 
 Illinois. 
 
 Having thus briefly sketched the rise of this singular 
 denomination, we have now to remark upon its doc- 
 trines and practices. We have brought it as an argu- 
 ment for the divine origin of Christianity, that all 
 attempts to improve upon it, during the eighteen cen- 
 turies of its existence, have been failures. Christianity 
 has not been superseded ; it has not been improved. 
 If we wish to find it in its best form, we must take it, 
 not with the additions that centuries of learned labor 
 have made to it, but as it was preached in the streets 
 of Jerusalem and the villages of Galilee. And we 
 have now brought forward, for comparison with its 
 
MORMONISM. 125 
 
 original beauty, the latest attempt of human boldness 
 to develop from it a superior system. What do we 
 find that system to be ? 
 
 The first thing that strikes us in it is, that, insensible 
 to the spiritual beauty of the Gospel, it ignores it and 
 goes back to the Jewish Law. The Book of Mormon, 
 we have seen, is founded on the Old Testament. It 
 records the imagined history of Hebrew kings and 
 prophets, who continued to a Hebrew race on this con- 
 tinent the same institutions which David and Solomon, 
 Elijah and Isaiah, administered in ancient Palestine. 
 True, the book makes mention of the coming of the 
 Savior, both as having been foretold, and as actually 
 occurring ; but the admission of this great fact as a 
 theological truth does not materially alter the Jewish 
 aspect of the system. To one at all acquainted with 
 modern Jew r ish literature, the resemblance to it of the 
 Book of Mormon is obvious. There is the strongest 
 similarity betw r een the modes of thought of the real 
 descendants of Abraham, and those of the class who 
 claim so strangely, considering some of their practices, 
 the name of " Latter Day Saints." 
 
 We are far, indeed, from charging on the modern 
 Jews, who faithfully adhere to the religion of their 
 ancestors, those gross corruptions, which, developing 
 continually, have made the Mormon faith synonymous 
 with impiety and impurity. Yet the resemblance of 
 the Jewish and Mormon explanations of Scripture is 
 extremely striking. Those prophecies of the Old Tes- 
 tament which Christians apply in a spiritual manner to 
 the establishment of the kingdom of God in the hearts 
 of men, the Jews interpret literally, to the building up 
 
126 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 of a real, substantial kingdom, a Jerusalem of actual 
 wood and stone. The Mormons interpret the passages 
 in the same way, only with this difference, that their 
 Zion is to be in this Western world, while the real Jews 
 expect their royal city to be rebuilt in its pristine glory 
 on the same spot where David reigned and Solomon 
 consecrated the Temple. Such is the spirit of the 
 Mormon system. It sees in the glorious promises of 
 the Bible assurances of earthly grandeur ; it narrows 
 down every noble figure of the old inspiration to a mere 
 literal rendering. 
 
 w We believe," says one of their forms of confession, 
 "in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restora- 
 tion of the ten tribes, that Zion will be established on 
 the Western continent, that Christ will reign personally 
 on the earth a thousand years, and that the earth will 
 be renewed, and receive its paradisiacal glory." 
 
 " O, ye saints ! " exclaims Orson Pratt, one of their 
 leaders, in a sermon, " O, ye saints, when you sleep in 
 the grave, don't be afraid that your agricultural pur- 
 suits are forever at an end ; don't be fearful that ycu 
 will never more get any landed property ; but if you 
 are saints, be of good cheer, for when you come up in 
 the morning of the resurrection, behold there is a new 
 earth." 
 
 The Mormon faith teaches that the Almighty Being 
 exists in human form, interpreting literally every passage 
 of the Bible which ascribes to him human members or 
 human passions. And this error, which might seem in 
 itself comparatively harmless, is unhesitatingly carried 
 out to results with which we will not defile our pages. 
 Suffice it to say, that in Mormonism, the eternity, spir- 
 
MORMONISM. 127 
 
 ituality and unchangeableness of God are forgotten. 
 He is represented as a Being who began to have exist- 
 ence, and will have an end ; the representations of him 
 fulfilling the words of Scripture, w Thou thoughtest 
 that I was altogether such an one as thyself." 
 
 The allowance of polygamy, the most obviously 
 offensive peculiarity of Mormonism, was not generally 
 proclaimed until after the death of its founder. But 
 Smith cannot be acquitted of sanctioning this evil cus- 
 tom. An indignant protest was made against the 
 charge of such immorality ; but that very protest, 
 coupled with the subsequent open avowal of the prac- 
 tice, shows that it was a legitimate and not remote 
 consequence of the earlier acknowledged principles of 
 the sect. Years ago, Martha Brotherton testified that 
 Smith had endeavored to induce her to marrv Brighaui 
 Young, he having one wife then living ; — that he jus- 
 tified the proposal, and told her that he would take the 
 responsibility in the sight of Heaven. And the testi- 
 mony is not improbable, for polygamy is a natural 
 inference from other Mormon doctrines. Setting the 
 Old Testament above the New, and their own false 
 Testament above both, the allowance of this " patri- 
 archal institution " follows of course. Thus the enor- 
 mity which is now publicly practised in Utah was com- 
 mitted in secret years before, when prudence dictated 
 its concealment. 
 
 Eenan, in his work on w The Apostles," remarks of 
 Mormonism, " Five hundred years hence, learned pro- 
 fessors will seek to prove its divine origin by the mir- 
 acle of its establishment." * Before, however, the 
 
 * Page 299 of the translation. 
 
128 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 growth of the Mormon delusion can fairly be brought 
 into comparison with that of Christianity, a longer time 
 must elapse, and more important conquests be made, 
 than have yet been accomplished by it. The great dif- 
 ference, too, must be kept in view, that while the Gos- 
 pel inculcated a system of strict self-restraint, the im- 
 postor of the West connected his religious doctrines 
 with the interests and the pleasures of the present life. 
 The advantages of a land speculation, and the more than 
 Oriental indulgence of animal passion, were combined 
 with tenets in which something that is called religion is 
 brought down to the understanding of the ignorant and 
 the taste of the depraved. While, then, Christianity is 
 not superseded, nor even improved upon by Mormonism, 
 the success of that system, should it be more fully at- 
 tained than it is at present, will fail to establish its 
 truth. The nineteenth century has not, in the religious 
 system to which it has given birth on this continent, 
 outdone the revelation of the first. 
 
BABISM. 129 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Babism. 
 
 Still more recently than the appearance of the Mor- 
 mon sect in the United States, a form of religious belief 
 has arisen in the opposite quarter of the globe, remark- 
 able alike from the character of its founder, its sudden 
 success, and its tragic extinction, if indeed it can yet be 
 considered as extinguished. To this delusion, reference 
 has already been made, in connection with Kenan's com- 
 parison of the constancy of its martyrs with those of 
 Christianity.* In the inquiry which we are now pur- 
 suing, — whether Christianity has been excelled by any 
 subsequent system, — an examination of Babism naturally 
 finds place. 
 
 Seid Ali Mohammed, or Mirza Ali Mohammed, as he 
 was afterwards called, was born in Persia, about the 
 year 1812. The names given him combined those of 
 the prophet and his son-in-law, Ali, whose, memory is 
 venerated in Persia beyond that of any but the prophet 
 himself; while the titles Seid and Mirza marked him as 
 one of the numerous descendants of Mohammed. He 
 was, however, born in a private and comparatively 
 humble station, and his early education comprised only 
 the most common branches of knowledge. Employed 
 
 * The Apostles, pages 299, 300. 
 
 9 
 
130 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 at first in mercantile pursuits, he forsook them at the 
 age of twenty-three, and betook himself to Kerbela, 
 regarded as a sacred city, from its containing the tomb 
 of the sainted Houssein. Here he remained for five 
 years, in the practice of fasting, prayer, and meditation, 
 and receiving instruction in a system of Mohammedan 
 mysticism, — that of the Sheikhites. 
 
 To understand this system, one must go back to the 
 form of the Mohammedan religion established in Persia. 
 The Persians are of the Sheah sect, distinguished for the 
 reverence in which they hold the memory of Ali, the 
 son-in-law, and one of the successors of Mohammed. 
 With this prince, certain others are associated in pop- 
 ular reverence, ending with Mehdi or Mahdi, the 
 "twelfth Imam," who is expected to return to life and 
 assume the empire of the world.* The reverence paid 
 to these personages resembles that rendered by Roman 
 Catholics to the saints. 
 
 About the beginning of the present century, a teacher 
 named Sheikh Ahmed founded the school of mysticism 
 to which we have referred. He taught that the uni- 
 verse emanated from the Supreme Being, and that all 
 the good were embodiments of his all-pervading spirit. 
 Especially the twelve Imams, the objects of popular 
 reverence, were, according to him, personifications of 
 the divine attributes, Ali standing at the head of all. 
 In this system an inclination towards Pantheism seems 
 
 * A similar superstition among the Druses, with regard to the 
 Caliph Hakem, forms the subject of Browning's " Return of the 
 Druses." The delusion which the poet was depicting from imagina- 
 tion, was at the same time acted out in a more distant land, in larger 
 proportions and with a more tragic termination. 
 
BABISM. 131 
 
 to have been combined, not only with a corrupted Mo- 
 hammedanism, but with the ancient Persian tendency 
 to believe in emanations and incarnations. It may, 
 however, be more favorably regarded, as an attempt 
 to give a more spiritual meaning to the popular super- 
 stition. 
 
 The seat of Sheikh Ahmed's school was at Kerbela ; 
 and there his successor, Sheikh Kazem, taught, when 
 the young Ali Mohammed became his pupil. The doc- 
 trine of the Sheikhites, with which, probably, even 
 thus early, some views of political regeneration w 7 ere 
 connected, had become so popular that in the province 
 of Irak alone it numbered a hundred thousand adherents. 
 The Sheikh appointed naibs, or representatives of him- 
 self, for the various provinces, and thus there existed 
 throughout the kingdom a formidable force, bound to- 
 gether by religious and political association. 
 
 Ali Mohammed soon attracted the attention of his 
 fellow-disciples and of the Sheikh himself, by his pure 
 character, his austerities and devotions, even by his 
 reserve in speech, in connection w T ith the wisdom he 
 displayed when he saw fit to break silence. Sheikh 
 Kazem would never clearly designate who should be his 
 successor. He would say, " He is in the midst of you," 
 w You will seek for him and find him ; " and once, when 
 Ali Mohammed entered the hall, and took his accustomed 
 place near the door, the master suddenly exclaimed, 
 ?? There he is ! " The words were little thought of at 
 the time, but were recalled to memory, when, after 
 Sheikh Kazem's death, the majority of his disciples fixed 
 on Ali Mohammed as their chief. He received, either 
 from an expression of his own, or from that of one of 
 
132 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 his principal adherents, the name of the Gate'of Truth. 
 The word Bab, meaning Gate, thus became his title, 
 and furnished a new designation for his political and 
 religious partisans. 
 
 The doctrines of the Bab appear to have been an ad- 
 vance on those of his predecessor. He taught that the 
 Supreme Being comprised in himself all infinite attri- 
 butes ; that the law of God was to be obeyed in the 
 spirit rather than in the letter ; that nothing which God 
 had made was in itself impure ; and that woman is not 
 the slave of man, but his equal. The first of these doc- 
 trines appears to dethrone the heavenly family of the 
 twelve Imams ; the second went against the lifeless 
 formalities into which a religion is apt to degenerate ; 
 the third was practically applied against the Moham- 
 medan prohibition of wine, while the fourth opposed 
 the custom of divorce at the pleasure 'of the husband, 
 and the whole Oriental system of the seclusion and deg- 
 radation of woman. To these tenets, another was added, 
 more dwelt on in the new Koran than aught else, — 
 that in Ali Mohammed the twelfth Imam had returned 
 to life, and that he and his followers were to rule the 
 world. 
 
 Instead, however, of seeking or priding himself on 
 thesd honors, Ali Mohammed seems to have conducted 
 himself with modesty and with prudence. He was 
 repeatedly arrested, and subjected to examination, once 
 before an assembly of dignitaries, gathered round the 
 heir-apparent of Persia, a youth of seventeen, and 
 nominally governor of the province. Before this court 
 it is said that he appeared with great dignity, making 
 no answer to some questions, but declaring himself to 
 
BABISM. 133 
 
 be the expected Imam. This account, which bears marks 
 of being copied from the examination of Jesus before 
 the Jewish high priest, is the less credible, as such a 
 claim would have led to his immediate condemnation to 
 death. As it was, the Persian government acted towards 
 him at this time with a lenity hardly to be expected in a 
 Mohammedan despotism. For a time he was at large 
 under surveillance, and, when in confinement, was 
 mostly allowed to receive the numerous visitors who 
 sought him. Political events, however, and the rash 
 and criminal action of his followers, brought his singu- 
 lar career to a bloody close. 
 
 Among the proselytes of his religion was a lady of 
 noble birth, called Kourret-oul-Ain — Light of the 
 Eyes. To the great displeasure of her relatives, she 
 threw aside the veil, worn by all women of respectability 
 in the East, and went around the city of Kasvin where 
 she dwelt, organizing a branch of the followers of the 
 Bab. At length one of her relatives, a Moudjtehid or 
 religious officer of the city, having tried all means to 
 win her back, pronounced a solemn anathema against 
 the Bab and his doctrine. Soon after, as he was going 
 to the mosque in the early morning, three of the Babists 
 rushed upon him and put him to death. The murderers 
 were seized and executed, and Kourret-oul-Ain obliged 
 to leave the city. Many of her fellow-believers accom- 
 panied her. At the same time disturbances had com- 
 menced elsewhere. 
 
 At this critical time the Shah of Persia died (Sep- 
 tember 5, 1848). Such an occurrence in a despotism 
 is often the signal for anarchy, and such was now the 
 case. The prime minister, aware of his own unpopu- 
 
134 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 larity, fled to Kerbela, where the tomb of the Imam 
 Hussein afforded an inviolable sanctuary. The heir- 
 apparent was but a youth, and a new ministry had to be 
 formed. Among other disturbances of the public peace, 
 the Babists burst into insurrection. Kourret-oul-Ain, 
 the heroine of Kasvin, entered with her adherents the 
 city of Miami, and proclaimed the doctrine of the Bab. 
 She was joined by some of the inhabitants, but the 
 greater part rose against her, and compelled the insur- 
 gents to leave the city. 
 
 A more important outbreak took place in the province 
 of Mazanderan, on the southern shore of the Caspian 
 Sea. Its leaders were Hadji Mohammed Ali, and 
 Moulla Houssein. The latter, a brave man, whose views 
 were chiefly political, had been influential in securing 
 the spiritual chieftaincy to the Bab, having been first 
 designated for it himself; and he now conceded the 
 superiority in religious matters to his colleague, bending 
 the knee before him, and saluting him as "most high 
 lord." They fortified themselves at a place known as 
 the tomb of Sheikh Tabersi. Here they repulsed, with 
 courage and skill alike remarkable, successive attacks 
 made upon them by the Persian forces. 
 
 Meantime, the government of the young Shah had been 
 organized, and turned its attention to the suppression of 
 the Babist rebellion. Prince Mehdi Kouli Mirza, Gov- 
 ernor of Mazanderan, and a near relative of the sove- 
 reign % with two other princes, laid siege to Sheikh Taber- 
 si, but was driven into disgraceful flight by a sudden sally 
 of the besieged. His camp was set on fire, and the 
 two princes who accompanied him lost their lives. The 
 government bad,, however, the acknowledged head of 
 
BABISM. 135 
 
 the rebellion, the Bab, in its hands; and, with little 
 wisdom, instead of using his influence, or at least con- 
 tinuing to hold him as a hostage, they resolved to put 
 him to death. Four of his principal adherents had the 
 same fate appointed them, unless they would deny their 
 master, denounce him as a hypocrite and impostor, and 
 spit in his face. Three of them yielded to these dis- 
 honorable terms ; among them was Seid Houssein, who 
 had been, according to his own declaration, the aman- 
 uensis of the Bab in writing his new Koran, but who 
 is thought by the author from whom this account is 
 derived, to have composed it himself.* The fourth 
 sliowed a nobler spirit. When the miserable Seid 
 Houssein had cursed his master and offered him the un- 
 manly insult, Agha Mohammed Ali kissed his hands 
 with the most profound respect, and cried aloud to the 
 people with solemn voice, " This is the Gate of the Truth, 
 the Imam of Islam." 
 
 The execution, according to the authority just referred 
 to, was by shooting ; and for this purpose a Christian 
 regiment was employed, lest the religious feelings of 
 Mohammedan soldiers should interfere with the work 
 assigned them. Agha Mohammed Ali, "with a loud 
 and calm voice, repeated fragments of prayers composed 
 by his master. The Bab kept silence. His pale and 
 handsome face, with black beard and small mustaches, 
 his distinguished figure and bearing, his white and deli- 
 cate hands, his clothing simple but exquisitely neat, 
 
 * Bab et les Babis, ou le Soulevement Politique et Religieux en 
 Perse, de 1845 a 1853. Par Mirza Kazem-Beg. Journal Asiatique, 
 6tb series, volumes vii. and viii. The author is Professor and Privy 
 Councillor at St. Petersburg. See vol. vii., p. 61. 
 
136 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 everything finally in his person awoke sympathy and 
 compassion/' The Governor and others addressed the 
 crowd, speaking of the blood that had been shed in 
 various parts of Persia, through the persevering hostility 
 of the Babists, especially of the murder of the holy man 
 at Kazvin, and the enemy still fortified in Mazanderan. 
 The first fire of the soldiers, instead of even wounding 
 the Bab, cut the cords by which he was bound. The 
 prisoner rushed towards the people, and would probably 
 have been rescued under the general impression of a 
 miracle, had the executioners been Mohammedans. But 
 the Christian soldiers ran forward, and showing to the 
 crowd the cord which had been broken, bound their 
 prisoner anew. Agha Mohammed Ali was first put to 
 death ; afterwards, the master whom he had so faithfully- 
 and bravely owned. fe The crowd dispersed in silence, 
 but many bore in their hearts germs of hostility against 
 the government." This scene took place July 19, 1849. 
 At Sheikh Tabersi, Moulla Houssein fell in battle. 
 After many strange experiences, and terrible suffering, 
 Hadji Mohammed Ali made proposals for peace. Prince 
 Mehdi Kouli Mirza, the same who had once so inglori- 
 ously fled, promised liberal terms, and sent a horse, 
 splendidly caparisoned, for the use of the insurgent 
 leader ; but when the latter, with his attendants, entered 
 the camp, they were attacked and overpowered, many 
 slaughtered on the spot, and others more deliberately 
 tortured to death. Hadji Mohammed Ali, and five 
 others, were publicly executed at the capital of the 
 province. Another leader, Moulla Mohammed Ali, 
 who was defending Zengan, was owned as successor of 
 the Bab. 
 
BABISM. 137 
 
 Meantime the war continued in other parts of Persia, 
 but we cannot enter into its details ; the government 
 made efforts at conciliation, but the treachery and cruelty- 
 displayed in Mazanderan had destroyed all faith in their 
 offers ; the strife was desperate, and when the few sur- 
 vivors of the siege of Zengan were brought to the capi- 
 tal, it was said that each of them had cost the kingdom 
 fifteen hundred lives. 
 
 Persecution raged for a time, and then subsided; a 
 year and a half of peace succeeded, but it was interrupt- 
 ed by a new crime. As the Shah was going forth to 
 hunt, he was fired upon by several Babists, and wounded, 
 though not dangerously ; this treasonable act aroused 
 again the vengeance of the government. The Babists 
 
 o o o 
 
 were sought out, not only in the capital, but throughout 
 the kingdom, and put to death, enduring torture with 
 heroic constancy. Kourret-oul-Ain, the heroine of 
 Kasvin, was privately executed. These appalling scenes 
 took place in the autumn of 1852. 
 
 In various respects, the history of Mirza AH Moham- 
 med, surnamed the Bab, presents startling resemblances 
 to that of the Savior. Claiming descent from an ancient 
 prophet king, he was yet, like Jesus, born in a lowly 
 station ; still he was regarded by his followers as the 
 sovereign of his nation and of mankind, whose advent 
 had been long foretold and ardently expected. After 
 leading a life of purity, and uttering words of wisdom, 
 he was put to death, through the hostility of his own 
 government, but by the hands of foreign soldiers ; and, 
 before his execution, he was denied by some of his most 
 prominent followers ; nay, the very form of contumely 
 with which they were compelled to treat him, was the 
 
138 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 same which had been used towards the Savior in the hall 
 of the high priest. 
 
 It is high honor for a teacher of wisdom thus to bear 
 in his own history a resemblance to that of the Redeem- 
 er ; and we would fain believe that Mirza Ali Moham- 
 med was worthy of the distinction. But we cannot for- 
 get that the claim was made for him, that he was " the 
 Gate of Truth, the Imam of Islam," the subject of 
 ancient prophecy, the worker of present miracles, and 
 the destined possessor of universal empire. How far 
 he himself advanced these claims, it is impossible to 
 decide, since the accounts differ widely ; but his acqui- 
 escence in them is implied in his whole history. A 
 public denial of his supposed supernatural commission 
 would not only have conciliated the government and 
 saved his own life, but, by weakening the rebellion, 
 would have saved the lives of thousands more. His 
 silence proved that he accepted the honors rendered him ; 
 his martyrdom proves that he believed them to be his 
 due. That in this belief he was deluded, needs no other 
 evidence than his own death and the extermination of 
 his party. 
 
 He was, then, we judge., not consciously an impostor, 
 but a sincere and amiable, yet deluded believer in his 
 own divine commission. Perhaps there was truth in 
 the account given by some, that as he spent much time 
 in prayer on the roof of his house, exposed to the rays 
 of the sun, and the burning wind of that climate, a dis- 
 ease of the brain had part in his self-deception.* He 
 appears, too, rather as the nominal and imaginary , than 
 
 * Journal Asiatique, yoL vii., page 337. 
 
BABISM. 139 
 
 as the real head of his party. Its governing spirit seems 
 rather to have been Moulla Houssein Bouchroui, the 
 gallant defender of Sheikh Tabersi ; a warrior and poli- 
 tician, who probably believed more in his own good 
 sword than in any prophet. He nominated Ali Mo- 
 hammed to the spiritual chieftainship, reserving to him- 
 self only the title of his naib or vicar, and acting with 
 the utmost energy to extend the sect. Seid Houssein, 
 too, who saved his life by abjuring and insulting his 
 master, is supposed by the authority before us to have 
 been the real author of his Koran. It is possible that 
 thus the quiet and dreamy enthusiast was but a tool in 
 the hands of men of more practical ability, but less 
 purity of character, than himself. 
 
 Even in acknowledging that purity of character, we 
 must remember that Ali Mohammed was, through nearly 
 his whole life after assuming the leadership, either a 
 prisoner, or constantly watched by the servants of the 
 government. He could not take part, personally, in 
 the insurrection of his party. That their outbreak was 
 marked not only by deeds of courage, but by acts of 
 assassination, is a reproach to the religious teaching they 
 had received. We hear of no such deeds in the early 
 history of Christianity. The resemblance between the 
 Persian teacher and the Man of Nazareth would have 
 been more near, had Jesus commanded Peter to draw 
 his sword, instead of directing him to sheathe it, and 
 had he committed the task to Judas to write down his 
 law. 
 
 While we admit, too, the elevation of sentiment ap- 
 parent in some of the doctrines of Babism, we cannot 
 forget that these are derived, by direct descent, from the 
 
140 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Gospel. It is well remarked by our historian, that if 
 Mohammedanism is regarded as a schismatic form of 
 Christianity, Babism may be considered a purified branch 
 of that schism. The constant intercourse, too, of Persia 
 with Christian nations, the existence of large bodies of 
 Christians, especially the Nestorians, within the king- 
 dom, and the mystical philosophy of the Sooffees, de- 
 rived probably from Christianity in a former age, all 
 contributed to prepare the way for that sect, and that 
 instructor, whose brief history adds a chapter of mourn- 
 ful interest to the records of a land once foremost 
 among the nations. 
 
 The enemies of the Babists have ascribed to them, 
 probably with great exaggeration, the preaching of 
 doctrines subversive of morality. While we pay no 
 attention to such charges, we certainly find in the Ori- 
 ental religion of the nineteenth century, as we have 
 found in the American, nothing in character or in doc- 
 trine to supersede the Christian system, or eclipse the 
 glory of its Founder. 
 
MIRACLES. 141 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Miracles* 
 
 In treatises upon the Evidences of Christianity in 
 general, the subject of miracles has held the foremost 
 place. Around this, indeed, the other portions of the 
 argument have centred ; the genuineness and authentici- 
 ty of the documents being objects of attention, chiefly 
 because it is on their testimony that the miracles rest, 
 while, the suiferings of martyrs are brought forward to 
 prove the sincerity of the witnesses to these miraculous 
 accounts, and prophecies with their fulfilment are but 
 miracles in another form. Nay, the moral excellence 
 of Christianity, and the correctness and elevation of its 
 views respecting God and man, are urged not only for 
 their intrinsic worth, or to win love and admiration 
 to the religion, but as moral miracles which could not 
 have existed but for a special divine interposition. 
 Miracle has thus been the very centre, we might almost 
 say the centre and circumference, of Christian Evidences. 
 
 And yet there is at the present day a very general 
 tendency to depreciate miraculous evidence. This ten- 
 dency is not confined to sceptical writers ; but many 
 who receive the miracles as facts, still regard them as 
 of no great importance when viewed as evidence. Thus 
 Schleiermacher argues that the miracles were not the 
 means of converting the Jews in the age of Christ, who 
 
142 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 witnessed them ; still less, therefore, can they be such 
 to us who have to receive them through a long line of 
 successive writers. It would be easy, were it necessary, 
 to name , eminent living theologians, who represent the 
 miracles as unimportant with regard to the proof they 
 afford, or argue that it is inexpedient to adduce them in 
 evidence ; because the tendency of the age, on account 
 of the discoveries of science, is to discredit all statements 
 of that kind. 
 
 We may take it for granted that those who use such 
 language, mean by miracles, only the outward acts re- 
 corded as having been performed by Jesus and other 
 teachers, not including under that name such moral 
 miracles as are to be found in the excellence of Christ's 
 teaching and character, and the providential protection 
 extended over the Jewish religion. Even as thus limited, 
 however, the objection against urging the testimony of 
 miracles suggests various observations. 
 
 In the first place, the miracles cannot be ignored. 
 To say nothing of the Old Testament, the Gospels and 
 Acts are full of them. From the annunciation to the 
 ascension, the life of Jesus is miraculous. If such 
 narratives do not strengthen our faith in the religion, 
 they weaken it; if not proofs of its truth, they are 
 burdens upon it. 
 
 They are burdens, however, that must be borne, if 
 we take the religion as it comes to us. If we make it 
 over again to suit our own taste, by the method of 
 Strauss, Eenan, or any others, we can, indeed, leave 
 out the miracles, but consistency will oblige us to leave 
 out much beside. The* prayer of Jesus on the cross 
 comes to us on similar authority to that which tells us 
 
MIRACLES. 143 
 
 of his resurrection, but in smaller proportion ; for all 
 the Gospels testify to the latter, while Luke alone gives 
 witness to the former. If, then, the miracles are an 
 inseparable part of the narrative, we are not at liberty, 
 if we would be candid and consistent, to put them out 
 of sight, and try to commend Christianity by reasoning 
 which seems to imply that these stories are alike incredi- 
 ble and unimportant. And if God saw fit to authenti- 
 cate the revelation which he gave, by deeds of divine 
 power, we have no right to lower its claims, and suppress 
 part of its credentials, in deference to any prevalent 
 spirit of scientific scepticism. 
 
 Let it be observed, however, that no intelligent advo- 
 cate of miracles maintains that they can prove a religion 
 by themselves alone. The system must also be worthy 
 of such proof. If a religion was proclaimed which 
 taught doctrines or inculcated practices unworthy of 
 God, as, for instance, the custom of human sacrifices, 
 no miraculous evidence ought to make us believe it. 
 We should rather, if all other expedients failed, go back 
 to the refuge of the Pharisees, and say that the miracles 
 were wrought by the prince of the devils ; and the reply 
 which Jesus made, "How can Satan cast out Satan?" 
 would not be applicable to such a case ; for the religion 
 being satanic, the wonders that upheld it might well be 
 satanic too. 
 
 To render a miracle credible, or susceptible of being 
 believed upon evidence, there must be first a sufficient 
 occasion for it. Such is the rule of nature, recognized 
 by Horace in its application to poetry : 
 
 "Nee deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus 
 Incident." Ars Poetica, 1. 191, 192, 
 
 "Let not a God appear, unless the occasion be worthy," 
 
144 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Thus far in the history of the human race, there ap- 
 pears to be but one subject with regard to which miracles 
 are presented, which can be recognized as well authen- 
 ticated. That subject is religion, the purpose of the 
 miracles being to give evidence to communications of 
 God's nature and will to man. And we can easily see 
 that this subject, above all others, presents that character 
 which the rule above stated requires. For the attain- 
 ments of art and science, human research might suffice ; 
 but knowledge with regard to the spiritual world can 
 only be communicated from that world ; and, while thus 
 beyond man's attainment except by revelation, it is of 
 the greatest practical importance to him, as informing 
 him of the ground and obligation of duty, of his con- 
 nection with his Creator, and his destiny beyond the 
 grave. Here, and here alone, since the creation of 
 mankind, appears to be the fit occasion for a divine 
 intervention. 
 
 There are those indeed, who, believing in the mira- 
 cles of Christianity, take a different view respecting them. 
 They hold that the spiritual world is very near us, and 
 that intercourse between its inhabitants and those who 
 are still in the flesh, is not so uncommon as has been 
 stated above. On this view, the miracles recorded in 
 the Bible are but the most distinguished and important 
 instances of a communication between the natural and 
 the spiritual worlds, which, if not constantly, is at least 
 even now occasionally taking place. Such was the 
 universal opinion in past ages. It then displayed itself 
 in the belief in charms and omens, magic and witchcraft. 
 It was a necessary part of this belief, that intercourse 
 with the spiritual world, if sometimes allowable, was in 
 
MIRACLES. 145 
 
 other instances deeply criminal ; hence arose probably 
 many actions of real criminality, in those who endeav- 
 ored to gratify their malignant passions by the aid of 
 demons ; hence, too, originated those horrible cruelties, 
 which not only threw a stain on the early history of 
 New England, but blackened more deeply the records 
 of every country in Europe. The recollection of these 
 awful effects of delusion should render us extremely 
 careful not to admit, without the most convincing evi- 
 dence, the belief in intercourse with the spiritual world 
 as it has been revived in the present age. 
 
 Yet if any should Jbe convinced, not only that the 
 wonders of modern spiritualism are amply attested, but 
 that no natural force, whether known or undiscovered, 
 can possibly have produced them, these wonders may 
 still, we conceive, be reconciled with the rule already 
 given. In conformity to that rule, they would become 
 important if there was ground to consider them the 
 credentials of a new revelation ; and if either now or in 
 future they should be accompanied by statements of 
 faith, whose character indicated a divine source, the 
 signs themselves will command an assent which has not 
 yet been given, however abundant the witnesses to their 
 occurrence. It would then appear that in the present 
 age a communication has been opened anew between the 
 world of matter and the world of spirit ; and for the 
 same great purpose for which it was opened in the days 
 when Christ was on earth, — the authentication of a 
 message from on high. 
 
 This, we have said, appears to have been the only 
 purpose of miraculous interposition since the creation of 
 mankind. That creation itself was a series of miracles, 
 10 
 
146 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Geology affords abundant evidence ; for it shows that 
 after long periods, successive forms of plants, and suc- 
 cessive races of animals appeared for the first time ; nor 
 does it, in the opinion of such naturalists as Professor 
 Agassiz, confirm the w development theory," that animals 
 were formed by gradual change from others, the first 
 animals from plants, and these from inorganic matter. 
 There must, then, have been successive creations ; that 
 is, successive miracles. The last of these, as witnessed 
 by Geology, was the creation of man. In the view of 
 Schleiermacher, the mission of Christ was also a crea- 
 tion, the creation of what the world had not before seen, 
 a perfect man, endowed with a consciousness of the 
 Divine presence, which preserved him from, all sin, and 
 exalted him so highly, that miracle was to him only 
 the natural exertion of his wonderful powers. But this 
 view, however interesting, is not necessary to bring the 
 divine action in revelation into harmony with that in 
 creation. Both show that the Almighty does not leave 
 the laws of nature to operate alone ; that he regards and 
 superintends his works ; and that, regular as is his con- 
 stant operation, he has not precluded himself from 
 occasional more visible manifestation. 
 
 Again, without the miraculous element in Christianity, 
 we should be deprived in a great degree of the evidence 
 it affords of the love of our Heavenly Father. If Jesus 
 derived the instructions he communicated from his own 
 unaided wisdom, if he had no authority but that of a 
 virtuous reformer, and wrought no wonders but those 
 which the powers of nature would enable any one to 
 perform, then we have no message from on high; we 
 lose the proof which that message would have given us, 
 
MIRACLES. 147 
 
 that the Ruler of nature is our Friend • and Father. 
 Prayer to him has not then the encouragement it would 
 derive from the assurance that he is willing to hear us. 
 If nature is governed by inflexible laws alone, then there 
 is truth in that reasoning which tells us that it is in vain 
 to pray, for prayer can have no effect upon the Divine 
 dealings ; but if we know that the Ruler of all once gave 
 back, at the prayer of Jesus, the spirit of Lazarus to 
 the frame it had forsaken, then we know that there is a 
 personal God ; that he hears the prayers of his servants ; 
 and we are encouraged to hope that he will answer them, 
 though not now by miracle, yet by the dealing of his 
 providence. It is the miracles, therefore, that secure us 
 from a cheerless Pantheism, assure us of the presence 
 of a loving Father, and encourage us to pray to him, 
 not as an unnatural and false device for exciting our own 
 feelings, but with the simple faith that he hears our 
 prayers and will answer them. 
 
 Not only, then, do we regard miracle as inseparable 
 from Christianity, but we do not desire to separate it. 
 We count it, not as a burden to the religion, but as an 
 important part of it, not only accrediting the holy Mes- 
 senger, but giving the assurance of paternal interest on 
 the part of Him from whom he came. Miracle has 
 been called the seal of revelation ; it is more ; it is the 
 signature of the Living God, and w T e recognize in it the 
 handwriting of our Father. 
 
 We have now to examine the views with regard to 
 miracle, taken by the most prominent of its recent op- 
 ponents, Strauss, Parker, and Renan. 
 
148 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 D. F. Strauss. 
 
 The explanation given by Dr. Strauss of the manner 
 in which the Gospels came to be written, is the follow- 
 ing : There lived in Judea, eighteen hundred years ago, 
 a man named Jesus, of whom very little authentic in- 
 formation has -reached us. It is probable that he was 
 a virtuous man, who, endeavoring to reform abuses, 
 incurred the displeasure of those in power among his 
 countrymen, was by them delivered up to the Romans, 
 and was crucified. He neither wrought miracles while 
 living, nor rose from the dead. His disciples, however, 
 believed him to have been sent by God, and propagated 
 this belief throughout the civilized world. Stories were 
 told respecting him, and these, as they passed from 
 mouth to mouth, among his wondering disciples, became 
 magnified and multiplied, adorned with supernatural 
 accompaniments, and with marks of superhuman mag- 
 nanimity. One prolific source of these stories was the 
 Old Testament prophecies ; for whatever had there been 
 predicted of a great deliverer to come, the followers of 
 Jesus fancied must have been fulfilled in their master ; 
 and from the thought that it must have been fulfilled, 
 the next step was to. assert that it had been fulfilled. 
 
 From this mass of stories, circulating in the early 
 Christian community, the writers of the first three Gos- 
 pels, who were not, however, the persons whose names 
 they bear, composed their histories, in good faith, believ- 
 ing that the tales they recorded were true. The Gospel 
 ascribed to John, Strauss conceives to have been writ- 
 ten at a later period than the rest, by some disciple who 
 
MIRACLES. 149 
 
 had derived his knowledge of Christianity through the 
 medium of others, from the apostle John, to whom the 
 author intended that it should be ascribed ; that this au- 
 thor had a high reverence for the memory of the apostle, 
 and desired, as far as possible, to exalt him ; that he was, 
 also, deeply imbued with the peculiarities of the Alexan- 
 drian school, which appear not only in his introduction, 
 but in the language ascribed by him to John the Baptist, 
 and to Christ. This writer, according to Dr. Strauss, 
 is much less trustworthy than the other Evangelists ; the 
 conversation with Nicodemus is a philosophical myth, or 
 rather, in plain terms, a fiction, even to the very existence 
 of that person ; the raising of Lazarus equally fictitious ; 
 and the conversations held by our Savior with his apos- 
 tles, as recorded by this writer, deserving of no confidence. 
 Strauss, indeed, modified these views greatly in his third 
 edition ; but the concessions which he then made, fatal 
 as they threatened to be to his own theory, were ex- 
 plicitly recalled in the fourth. 
 
 It will be noticed that this bold theory throws doubt, 
 not upon the miracles alone. Those incidents in the life 
 of Christ which are marked by anything of peculiar mag- 
 nanimity or piety, — whatever appears as the fulfilment 
 of any ancient prophecy, — whatever parable or precept 
 resembles at all what is recorded of other teachers, or 
 what the Jews would naturally expect of their Mes- 
 siah, — all these come under suspicion of being the prod- 
 ucts of that most fertile spirit of invention with which 
 the early Christians, if we are to believe this writer, made 
 for themselves a leader, to account for their own other- 
 wise unaccountable existence. The touching expressions 
 of Jesus on the cross are considered as invented for him 
 
150 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 scarce less than the exhibition of divine power in the rais- 
 ing of Lazarus. Nothing, in fact, remains to us of the 
 Founder of Christianity, from the analysis of this writer, 
 but the shadow of one who was executed by crucifixion, 
 in Judea, and who was, probably, a virtuous teacher and 
 reformer. 
 
 We remark upon this ingenious and daring theory, 
 that it is not the result of impartial examination into the 
 evidence of the New Testament history. It is an effort 
 to reach a conclusion which had been already determined 
 on. Strauss sets out with laying down the principle, 
 derived from his philosophical opinions, that a miraculous 
 revelation is an impossible thing. Ranking confessedly 
 with the " extreme left," or ultra portion of the Hegelian 
 school, Strauss, as a matter of philosophy antecedent to 
 historical investigation, denies the possibility of miracles, 
 and the doctrine of an individual resurrection. w A life, 
 beyond the grave," he says," is the last enemy which 
 speculative criticism has to oppose, and if possible, to 
 vanquish."* "When, in the first place, a solution of 
 the difficulties which I find in the biblical history, satis- 
 factory to myself, is put before me; and when, second- 
 ly, a solution of the philosophical views which I have 
 against the possibility of a miracle, then will I allow my- 
 self to be convinced." " A miraculous operation upon 
 natural objects, or products of art, — as turning w r ater 
 into wine, or multiplication of loaves, — admits of no 
 possible explanation. Even the conception of such a pos- 
 sibility is so far out of the question, that I must lose my 
 senses, before I could receive any thing of the kind." f 
 
 * Christliche Glaubenslebre, ii. 739. 
 
 t Streitschriften, Heft ill. 18, 155. See Dr. Beard's Voices of 
 the Church, pp. 21, 33. 
 
MIRACLES. 151 
 
 To some, probably, the very fact that this author, 
 supposed to be an impartial judge, has decided against 
 the miraculous character of Christianity, may have had 
 influence enough to unsettle their belief. Let such ob- 
 serve that he comes to his task with a foregone con- 
 clusion. Who could be admitted as a juror, with the 
 declaration upon his lips that he must lose his senses 
 before he could believe in the innocence of the prisoner 
 he is to try ? 
 
 In the next place, we have, as will be shown in a 
 subsequent chapter, the evidence of a series of writers, 
 extending back to the very times of the apostles, to the 
 authenticity of the Gospels, as having been written 
 by persons who, as one of them expresses it, "had per- 
 fect understanding of all things, from the very first." 
 (Luke i. 3.) 
 
 Thirdly, these Gospels stand not alone. Strauss 
 himself admits distinctly the testimony of the Acts, and 
 the Epistles, as proving that the apostles believed in 
 the resurrection of their Master, the greatest miracle of 
 Christianity. His admissions here, are in the following 
 words. They are of great importance, as the unwilling 
 testimony of a most competent judge, alike to the au- 
 thority of the documents referred to, and to the belief 
 of the earliest Christians in the resurrection of their 
 Lord. 
 
 "From the Epistles of Paul, and the Acts, it is cer- 
 tain that the apostles themselves had the persuasion, 
 that they had seen the Arisen.'' (Leben Jesu, vol. 
 ii. p. 652, first edition. Translation, vol. iii. p. 365.) 
 
 "For the rest, the passage from the First Epistle 
 to the Corinthians is not hereby weakened, which, un- 
 
152 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 doubtedly genuine, was written about the year 59 after 
 Christ, therefore not thirty years after his resurrection. 
 Upon this information, we must admit, that many mem- 
 bers of the first community, still living at the time of 
 the composition of that Epistle, particularly the apos- 
 tles, were persuaded that they had witnessed appear- 
 ances of the risen Christ." (Ibid., vol. ii. p. 629. 
 Translation, iii. 345.) 
 
 Strauss supposes the apostles self-deceived, through 
 the excited state of their minds. But if we cannot take 
 their own evidence with regard to what themselves had 
 seen, it is hard to say what possible evidence would con- 
 vince us of the fact to which they testify. 
 
 Fourthly, the time that elasped between the person- 
 al ministry of Christ and the writing of the Gospels, is 
 utterly too short to allow such a growth of myths, tra- 
 ditions, or marvellous stories, as this theory requires. 
 Such stories are of slow growth. In the cases which 
 this author quotes as similar, hundreds of years elapsed 
 before the facts of history became clothed with the fairy 
 garb of popular tradition. Yet he would have us believe 
 that in about thirtyyears from the death of Jesus, while 
 many of those who had seen and heard him must have 
 been yet living, the true idea of him had been com- 
 pletely supplanted in the minds of men, by that of a be- 
 ing scarce less different from him in moral than in super- 
 natural greatness. It is seventy years since Washing- 
 ton ceased to breathe. Is his life, — idolized as his mem- 
 ory is amongst us, — is his life so obscured by popular 
 traditions that we cannot depend upon the information 
 we receive concerning it ? 
 
 But in our view the most convincing reply to the 
 
MIRACLES. 153 
 
 fancy of the German theorist is to be drawn from the 
 perfections of our Lord's character, and of the religion 
 which he gave. This subject we have already contem- 
 plated. We have seen how perfect in every moral grace, 
 how far bevond all other instructors of mankind, was 
 the character of him who appeared as the delegate of 
 the Father, and the example of men. The religion, 
 too, which he gave, has stood for ages the test of hostile 
 criticism, and of rivalship with the best efforts of human 
 genius ; yet it is unsurpassed, unvanquished, unequalled. 
 And this holy life, this perfect system, if we are to be- 
 lieve Dr. Strauss, were not even the invention of an 
 artful mind. They grew by chance, — the material fur- 
 nished piecemeal by the popular fancies of Jews and 
 early Christians, — and put together without design or 
 art, yet forming, when combined, the object of admira- 
 tion to the world, the aim of vain endeavor to excel 
 or equal, through centuries of the highest civilization. 
 When we can believe of some noble ship, w T hose pro- 
 portions exhibit the perfection of naval architecture, 
 that it was put together in mere sport by untaught 
 rustics, from driftwood which they had gathered from 
 the banks of a stream, then may we believe that the 
 divine portraiture of the Savior in the Gospels was the 
 combination of unfounded popular fancies, and that his 
 holy law, of purity, humility, peace, and love came 
 from no higher source than the imagination of a sect 
 which sprung up by a strange chance in narrow-minded 
 Galilee, lascivious Corinth, and blood-stained Rome. 
 
154 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 Theodore Parker. 
 
 The memory of this eminent man is held in respect 
 among us, well merited by his great talents, his exten- 
 sive learning, and especially by his services in the cause 
 of freedom. But we have now to examine, not the 
 character of the individual, but the views he expressed 
 on the subject of the Christian miracles ; and we have 
 frequent occasion to guard ourselves against being led 
 into error by the authority of popular names. 
 
 The work of Mr. Parker to which we shall particu- 
 larly refer, is his volume entitled K A Discourse of Mat- 
 ters pertaining to Religion/' This, though written at 
 a comparatively early period of his course, discusses the 
 subject in question more fully than any of his later 
 writings ; and if his opinions were afterwards modified, 
 it was by receding still further from Christianity as 
 commonly held. 
 
 The w Discourse " exhibits great learning and much 
 ingenuity, and in many passages gives evidence of an 
 ability to comprehend and appreciate the beauty of holi- 
 ness, as it is presented in the life and the precepts of 
 Christ. The author delineates the various forms in 
 which, as he conceives, the religious sentiment has 
 developed itself, as Fetichism, Idolatry, Monotheism — 
 following in this the arrangement of Comte. Of these 
 forms the last is the noblest ; and he considers Chris- 
 tianity, as it was proclaimed and exemplified by Jesus 
 himself, as the pure or absolute system of Monotheism. 
 Christianity, therefore, is true ; not on the ground of its 
 alleged miracles, but on its internal evidence. This is, 
 
MIRACLES. 155 
 
 he argues, the proper test, moral truth commending 
 itself to the mind in a way similar to mathematical truth ; 
 miracles, therefore, are superfluous at best, and the evi- 
 dence on which those of Christianity are sustained, he 
 considers essentially defective. 
 
 There is a wide difference between the system of this 
 writer and that of Strauss , with which it is probably 
 often confounded. In reference to Christianity, Mr. 
 Parker begins with establishing the excellence of the 
 preceptive and moral part of Christianity, and thence 
 proceeding to the miracles, pronounces them useless, 
 and not satisfactorily proved. Strauss, on the other 
 hand, commences with the miracles, pronounces them 
 impossible, and proceeds to propose and establish a 
 theory to account for the origin of these remarkable 
 stories. But in dissolving the miracles into thin air, he 
 does not, like Parker, spare the moral and preceptive 
 parts of the Gospels, or the example of Christ. With 
 stern impartiality, and apparently in utter blindness to 
 the grandeur and loveliness of what he sweeps away, 
 he explains, one by one, discourse, parable, prayer, 
 miracle, beneficent action, and patient endurance, into 
 fictions, leaving little more than the fact that a man of 
 Nazareth, named Jesus, lived, taught, and was crucified. 
 The extravagance and impossibility of Strauss's theory 
 is, that he supposes this immense harvest of myths to 
 have grown, from scarce any beginning, into popular 
 belief in the course of a single generation. Apart from 
 this insuperable objection, his system is consistent and 
 perfect, — a masterpiece of skill misapplied, — a tri- 
 umph of intellect, "clear, but O, how cold ! " 
 
 On the other hand, the system of Mr. Parker, warm 
 
156 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 with a feeling recognition of the holiness of the Savior's 
 character and precepts, is by this very recognition ren- 
 dered inconsistent with itself. Rejecting the miracles , 
 he still retains his faith in narratives which are supported 
 by the same external evidence. He retains the super- 
 structure of Christianity while he removes the founda- 
 tion on which it rests. Mr. Parker gives no theory of 
 the miracles ; — hence the apparent strength of his 
 argument, disguising its real weakness. He does not 
 attempt to explain how the historians, on whose veracity 
 he relies for a correct account of Christ's words and 
 natural actions, were so egregiously deceived or deceivers 
 as falsely to ascribe to him supernatural actions. Had 
 any such attempt been made, we may reasonably con- 
 clude that it would not have succeeded better than those 
 of Paulus, Venturini, and others, whose absurdity has 
 been sufficiently proved by the acute and self-consistent 
 logic of Strauss. 
 
 We cannot but notice the manner in which Mr. Parker 
 classes the ancient revelation, given, as we believe, by 
 God through Moses, with the systems of Pagan idolatry. 
 He is fond of such expressions as these : w Every nation, 
 city, or family has its favorite God, — a Zeus, Athena, 
 Juno, Odin, Baal, Jehovah, Osiris, or Melkartha, who is 
 supposed to be partial to the nation which is his r chosen 
 people." t? Neither the Zeus of the Iliad, nor the Elohim 
 of Genesis, nor the Jupiter of the Pharsalia, nor even 
 the Jehovah of the Jewish prophets, is always this" — 
 (the Being of infinite power, wisdom, and love) . " Rom- 
 ulus, .ZEacus, Minos, Moses, receive their laws from 
 God." These passages occur in the section of the fifth 
 chapter, first book, which treats of Polytheism. If the 
 
MIRACLES. 157 
 
 point can be made out that the Jews were Polytheists, 
 let it be proved ; but till we have at least some pretence 
 of proof, let not the monstrous conclusion be coolly 
 taken for granted. 
 
 The fourth chapter of Mr. Parker's third book is 
 entitled " The Authority of Jesus, its Real and Pretended 
 Source." In this chapter he argues, first, that " the only 
 authority of Christianity is its truth," — and that this 
 being self-evident, testimony is altogether superfluous 
 and unnecessary. To such an argument, already re- 
 ferred to, it is, perhaps, enough to reply that it appears 
 to confuse two things different in their nature, — moral 
 and demonstrative reasoning. Mathematical truths, the 
 subjects of demonstration, can acquire no force from 
 testimony, to those whose minds are capable of appre- 
 ciating the description of evidence on which they proper- 
 ly rest. Moral truths are intrinsically different. They 
 admit of degrees in our persuasion of them, according to 
 the considerations which may be urged for and against 
 them ; and among such considerations, that of testimony, 
 whether natural or supernatural, may properly find a place- 
 In his next section, Mr. Parker speaks "of the au- 
 thority derived from the alleged miracles of Jesus." To 
 this authority he objects at the outset that the claim is 
 not peculiar to Christianity, as other religions also claim 
 to be miraculous in their character. To this objection 
 the reply is obvious, Let the other religions prove their 
 miracles, as those of Christianity are proved. For the 
 visions of Mohammed w r e have nothing but his own word. 
 The wonders of Grecian mythology are attested only by 
 the poets, and by traditions whose origin none pretended 
 to verify. So too with the Scandinavian and Oriental 
 
158 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 mythologies. Of the pretended Catholic and Mormonite 
 miracles, some have been fully exposed as deceptions, 
 and all are combined with systems whose internal evi- 
 dence of untruth is too strong to allow them to be prov- 
 able by any miracles. Notwithstanding the assertions 
 to the contrary, with which this section abounds, the 
 miracles of the Bible stand alone, as claiming to rest on 
 appreciable evidence, and in connection with a system of 
 belief, worthy of such support. This last is one of those 
 considerations which Mr. Parker overlooks. He argues 
 about miracles and internal evidence as if to believe the 
 one were to reject the other ; as if it were impossible or 
 inadmissible to unite them, and let them strengthen one 
 another. So far from this being the case, it is admitted 
 by all intelligent advocates of the Christian miracles, 
 that the high character of the system in favor of which 
 they are adduced, is a most important consideration, 
 an indispensable one, indeed, for their own credibility. 
 This important principle is well laid down in an article 
 in the Edinburgh Review, for October, 1847. The 
 author of that article says, in speaking of a test of 
 miracles, "But the rule of rules which approaches as 
 nearly to a test as the nature of the subject seems to 
 allow, is the rule which makes the force of evidence 
 from miracles depend on their conjunction with internal 
 evidence, and on their conspiring with a high and worthy 
 object." " As the main ground of the admissibility of 
 such attestations is the worthiness of the object, — the 
 doctrine, to receive them, its unworthiness will discredit 
 even the most distinctly alleged apparent miracles, and 
 such worthiness or unworthiness depends solely on our 
 moral judgment of the consistency of the doctrine with 
 
MIRACLES. 159 
 
 other acknowledgd truths." In accordance with this 
 view, the writer quotes the sentiments of Johnson, 
 Arnold, Doederlein, Pascal, and Whately. 
 
 The question, What is a miracle? Mr. Parker an- 
 swers with distinctness, and in a manner deserving of 
 particular attention. "A miracle," says he, "is one of 
 three things : 1. It is a transgression of all law which 
 God has made ; or, 2. A transgression of all known 
 laws, but obedience to a law which we may yet discover ; 
 or, 3. A transgression of all law known or knowable 
 by man, but yet in conformity with some law out of our 
 reach." 
 
 Declaring a miracle under the first definition to be 
 impossible, and that what the second definition describes 
 is no miracle at all, he distinctly admits the possibility 
 of the third hypothesis. This admission the Christian 
 may accept with full satisfaction. It corresponds to the 
 character which is most properly assigned to the miracles 
 of Jesus. None can suppose them arbitrary acts, with- 
 out reason, and therefore without law. But how they 
 were wrought, in conformity to what system, we know 
 not, nor is it probable we ever shall know, until we 
 become clothed with immortality. 
 
 He next inquires, Did miracles occur in the case of 
 Christianity? On this question he observes correctly 
 that it is purely historical, to be answered like all other 
 historical questions, by competent testimony. 
 
 We have now come to the verv kernel of the nut — 
 the section in Mr. Parker's book upon which its trust- 
 worthiness depends. If he can convince us that there 
 is not sufficient competent testimony to prove the miracles 
 of the Bible, historical Christianity is overthrown, and 
 
160 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY- 
 
 we must content ourselves with such fragments of the 
 fabric as with our author's assistance we can save from 
 the crumbling mass. If he fails to prove this, and if, 
 on the contrary, the evidence of miracles stands unin- 
 jured by the assault here made upon it, his entire theory 
 falls. If the miracles are actually proved, it is idle to 
 argue that there is no need of them. Such arguments 
 will not prevent us from believing them. 
 
 And what do we find in this all-important section ? 
 An attempt like that of Paulus, to explain the miracles 
 on natural principles? One like that of Strauss, to ac- 
 count for the origin of such stories when no correspond- 
 ing actions had taken place? Nothing of the kind. 
 The witnesses, the very witnesses, to whom Mr. Parker 
 has given the highest praise in declaring that the religious 
 system they have transmitted to us is the absolute, the 
 true religion — these witnesses he now attempts to dis- 
 credit by some cursory observations on their discrepan- 
 cies, and our uncertainty as to their authority. He 
 compares the canonical Gospels with the apocryphal ; a 
 comparison which, as we shall see in another chapter, 
 will, when fairly carried out, increase our faith in the 
 genuine documents, by the strong contrast they, present 
 to those wretched imitations. He admits the very strong 
 evidence which exists from the Epistles as well as the 
 Gospels, for the resurrection ; but enumerating with 
 great exaggeration the circumstances which in his opinion 
 render that miracle incredible, he declares that he can- 
 not believe such facts on such evidence. He leaves 
 unmentioned, however, the strongest of the evidences for 
 the resurrection — the fact that Christ's doctrine, instead 
 of remaining crushed by the death of its promulgator, 
 
MIRACLES. 161 
 
 immediately rose and diffused itself through the world, 
 arming its adherents with the strength of the martyr 
 spirit, and uniting on its banners the name of the resur- 
 rection with that of Jesus. 
 
 Next follows a comparison of the miracles of Christ 
 with those ascribed by monkish historians to St. Ber- 
 nard, — with the wonders of the Salem witchcraft, — 
 with the case of Richard Dugdale, the w Surey Impostor." 
 The miracles of St. Bernard and the Salem wonders, 
 possess, in Mr. Parker's opinion, more evidence than 
 the miracles of Christ. He does not say " better evi- 
 dence," and it seems hardly possible that such can have 
 been the meaning he intended to convey. The compari- 
 sons he suggests are worth following out. 
 
 St. Bernard, of Clairvaux, is known to us through 
 the medium of Church History, as one who wrought 
 wonders by genius, eloquence, courage, and genuine 
 though mistaken piety. He is asserted by monkish 
 historians to have wrought miracles also. The difference 
 between these narrators and those who record the mira- 
 cles of the Savior, is sufficiently obvious. Bernard 
 moved among those who were disposed to receive his 
 actions and his teachings with the greatest reverence ; 
 to look for miracles from him, not to question his powei 
 to perform them : the narrators of his wonders incurred 
 no risk of martyrdom for their attestation, but rather 
 were encouraged to invent miracles by the ideas of their 
 age, to which pious frauds were not unknown. In these, 
 respects the case was entirely different with the miracles 
 of Christ. They were wrought in the midst of jealous 
 enemies ; they were witnessed and recorded by men who 
 must have known that their lives were endangered by 
 11 
 
162 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the testimony they gave. Above all, there could not be 
 in the case of Bernard, that occasion for miracles, that 
 %x dignus Deo vindice nodus, 9 ' which can alone be pre- 
 sented by the great occasion of making a revelation to 
 mankind. 
 
 The miracles ascribed to St. Bernard appear in con- 
 nection witl\his advocacy of the second crusade. When, 
 about the middle of the twelfth century, the Christian 
 kingdom of Jerusalem, established by the victories of 
 Godfrey of Bouillon, was threatened by the Saracens, 
 and the important outpost of Edessa had already fallen, 
 the Christians of the East sent a suppliant embassy for 
 aid to their western brethren. Kings and people were 
 alike excited ; but the most powerful advocate of the 
 new crusade was Bernard, then at the height of his 
 popularity and power. He was one of those persons 
 who seem born to command others. When he entered 
 the monastic life, his influence carried five companions 
 with him ; and after he became abbot, he procured the 
 recognition, by France and England, of Pope Innocent 
 II. over his rival, Anacletus. He refused the archbish- 
 opric of Milan, met and vanquished the celebrated Abe- 
 lard, and, to use the language of Mosheim, his " word 
 was a law," and his "counsels were, regarded by kings 
 and princes as so many orders to which the most re- 
 spectful obedience was due," 
 
 Bernard, in preaching the crusade, visited the cities 
 on the Rhine; and in each, we are told, he restored 
 sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and cured the 
 lame and the sick ; thirty-six miracles are recorded as 
 performed in one day. The disciples who followed him 
 could not help regretting that the tumult wherever he 
 
MIRACLES. 163 
 
 appeared, prevented their seeing several of bis miracles. 
 Philip, Archdeacon of Liege, gives a detailed relation 
 of those which were wrought in the space of a month, 
 appealing to the authority of ten eye-witnesses. There 
 is good reason to believe, therefore, that if not by 
 Divine interposition, yet by the effect of strong excite- 
 ment on the nerves of the sick, some cures were actually 
 wrought. 
 
 But, unfortunately for his fame as a worker of mira- 
 cles, Bernard claimed also the character of a prophet. 
 In the excess of his zeal for what he thought a holy 
 cause, he foretold, in the name of the Most High, a 
 series of splendid triumphs. The effect of such prom- 
 ises, from one so eloquent and so honored, was such 
 that, in his own words, he depopulated cities and prov- 
 inces. Glow in 2: with faith and courage, the strength 
 of Europe came forth to the rescue of the Holy Land. 
 
 The crusade, however, was utterly a failure. Two 
 or three years were spent in constant disaster and suffer- 
 ing ; and then the remnant who survived returned, hav- 
 ing accomplished nothing. There was a general outcry 
 against Bernard, and he could but make the feeble de- 
 fence, that his prediction of success was of course con- 
 ditional, and that it was not fulfilled because of the 
 un worthiness of the crusaders. Notwithstanding this 
 apology, the result of the crusade clearly settles the 
 question as to Bernard's prophetic foresight. As effect- 
 ually, if not as obviously, it settles that relating to 
 his miraculous power ; unless we can believe that the 
 Almighty would impart that power to a mistaken enthu- 
 siast, to enable him to lead thousands of his fellsw-men 
 to destruction. 
 
lGi EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 As to the Salem witchcraft, into a degrading compar- 
 ison with which Mr. Parker brings the miracles of our 
 Lord, did he never read that many of the very persons 
 most implicated in that delusion subsequently acknowl- 
 edged their error ? Could he point in the New Testament 
 history to a recantation on the part of John or of Peter, 
 like that of Chief Justice Sewall? We may, indeed, 
 with good reason consider all the surviving witnesses 
 and agents in those melancholy transactions as uniting 
 in the repentant acknowledgments that were afterwards 
 made by the public voice of New England. The re- 
 marks made on the miracles of St. Bernard are also in 
 part applicable here. The witnesses were sustained by 
 the general public feeling. There may have been some 
 cases in which, through the strong delusion of the pe- 
 riod, the victims admitted their own guilt, and thus 
 insured their own execution ; but the cases were proba- 
 bly far more numerous in which they resolutely main- 
 tained their innocence, even when life might have been 
 saved by pretence of acknowledgment and repentance. 
 But here more strikingly than in the case before men- 
 tioned, the most obvious difference is in the occasion for 
 the miracle. That God should interrupt the common 
 laws of nature to gratify the malevolence of some 
 wicked woman or child, who wished to inflict some 
 petty injury on a neighbor, is a supposition so absurd 
 as to defy all testimony to prove it. That God should, 
 at some few solemn periods in the history of a world, 
 give some miraculous attestation to those truths which 
 are of most importance to man to know, is fo the re- 
 flecting mind more probable than that he should leave 
 his children entirely to the doubtful light of nature. 
 
MIRACLES. 165 
 
 "But now," says Mr. Parker, "admitting in argu- 
 ment that Jesus wrought all the miracles alleged ; that 
 his birth and resurrection were both miraculous ; that 
 he was the only person endowed with such miraculous 
 power, — it does not follow that he shall teach true 
 doctrine." This argument is hardly worth a serious 
 answer. 
 
 The section concludes, and with it the chapter, with a 
 repetition of the argument, that if Christianity be true, 
 its truth is self-apparent, and therefore miracles are 
 unnecessary; fortified by a quotation from Locke, in 
 which, according to our author, that philosopher ad- 
 mitted the worthlessness of miracles. Such, indeed, 
 would be the conclusion derived from a cursory exam- 
 ination of that passage, under the guidance of Mr. 
 Parker's italics : such was not the meaning of Locke. 
 All that is claimed in the passage is, that reason must 
 be the judge of miracles — first, of the nature of the 
 action alleged to be miraculous, and secondly, of the 
 credibility of the doctrine, to maintain which the miracle 
 is said to have been wrought. "The miracles," he says, 
 " are to be judged by the doctrine, not the doctrine by 
 the miracles." To this, as properly understood, every 
 intelligent Christian assents. It is but the expression, 
 in other words, of the rule already quoted from the 
 Edinburgh Review, the rule which makes the force 
 of evidence from miracles depend on their conjunction 
 with internal evidence, and on their conspiring with a 
 high and worthy object. 
 
 It is admitted that miraculous evidence would not be 
 competent to convince us of the truth of an inhuman, 
 degrading, sensual doctrine ; to set up again the bloody 
 
166 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 altar of Moloch, or the licentious rites of Astarte. But 
 is the miraculous evidence, therefore, worthless, which 
 assures us that the holy words of Jesus are not merely 
 the musings of a sage, but the message of God? To 
 
 © © 7 © 
 
 Mr. Parker, it appears those words, recommended by 
 their intrinsic truth, needed no other sanction. To 
 many it is not so. To the mass of mankind it is not, 
 and it never can be, a matter of indifference whether the 
 doctrines of a future life, and of divine providence, have 
 or have not the seal of miracles. Thanks be to God, 
 that the holy seal is plain and clear ; and that every in- 
 vestigation of its authority establishes more firmly the 
 genuineness of the impression it bears from the chan- 
 cery of heaven. 
 
 Eenan. 
 
 Among ^recent writers against the historical truth of 
 
 © © 
 
 the Gospel records, none has attracted so much attention 
 as M. Ernest Renan. His "Life of Jesus" possesses 
 much of the interest of a romance ; and for the reason 
 that he has, like a writer of fiction, derived his narrative 
 in great part from his own imagination. With his live- 
 liness of fancy there is blended, however, a genuine 
 admiration for the character — imperfectly as he appre- 
 ciates it — of the glorious Personage he attempts to 
 describe. This admiration is exhibited in such lan- 
 guage as the following : — 
 
 © © o 
 
 "This confused medley of visions and dreams, this 
 alternation of hopes and deceptions, these aspirations 
 incessantly trampled down by a hateful reality, at length 
 found their interpreter in the incomparable man to whom 
 
MIRACLES. 167 
 
 the universal conscience has decreed the title of Son of 
 God, and that with justice, since he caused religion to 
 take a step in advance, incomparably greater than any- 
 other in the past, and probably than any yet to come." 
 (Close of Chap. I.) 
 
 "Hillel, fifty years before him, had pronounced apho- 
 risms closely analogous to his. By his poverty, endured 
 with humility, by the sweetness of his character, by the 
 opposition which he made to the hypocrites and priests, 
 Hillel w T as the real teacher of Jesus, if w r e may say 
 teacher when speaking of so lofty an originality." 
 (Chap. HI.) 
 
 K In his great soul such a faith (in the power of prayer) 
 produced effects entirely different from those which it 
 produced upon the multitude. With the multitude, 
 faith in the special action of God led to a silly credulity, 
 and to the deceptions of charlatans. To him it gave a 
 deep idea of the familiar relations of man with God, 
 and an exaggerated faith in the might of man : ad- 
 mirable errors, which were the principle of his power." 
 (Chap. III.) 
 
 "Hillel, however, will never be considered the real 
 founder of Christianity. The palm belongs to him who 
 has been mighty in word and in work, who has felt the 
 truth, and, at the price of his blood, has made it tri- 
 umph. Jesus, from this double point of view, is with- 
 out equal. His glory remains complete, and will be 
 renewed forever." (Chap. V., close.) 
 
 "Whatever may be the surprises of the future, Jesus 
 will never be surpassed. His worship will grow young 
 without ceasing ; his legend will call forth tears without 
 end ; his sufferings will melt the noblest hearts ; all 
 
168 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ages will proclaim that among the sons of men there is 
 none born greater than Jesus." (Close of the book.) 
 
 From the regard for the character of Christ which is 
 thus expressed, and the lively fancy which fills up those 
 blanks in the Savior's life, which occur by the surrender 
 of the miraculous element, it has resulted that this book, 
 though in some sense written against Christianity, has 
 in another point of view aided its progress. Persons 
 have read E-enan who could not have been induced to 
 hear or to read the work of a professed defender of the 
 Gospel ; and they have thus seen in the character of 
 Christ traits of divine beauty. Among those who have 
 thus been brought to reverence Jesus, some, we trust, 
 have learned to believe on him as their Savior. 
 
 M. Renan disclaims prejudging the miracles of Chris- 
 tianity. He disclaims denying the possibility of mira- 
 cles. " We do not say," he remarks, " miracles are 
 impossible. We say, there has been hitherto no mira- 
 cle proved." (Introduction, page 44, of Wilbour's trans- 
 lation.) Our methods of investigation, he reminds us, 
 are now scientific. If a miracle were now asserted to 
 have taken place, an inquiry would be made into it by a 
 scientific commission. No such investigation was made, 
 or could be made, in regard to the miracles ascribed to 
 Jesus. 
 
 To this argument it may be replied, in the first place, 
 that the age of Jesus and his apostles was not as differ- 
 ent from our own as is here alleged. Careful investi- 
 gation was not then impossible ; nay, careful and even 
 hostile examination was then actually made. Of this, 
 we find a distinct example in the case of the blind man 
 restored to sight, as described in the ninth chapter of 
 
MIRACLES. 169 
 
 John. The national council of the Jews examined the 
 man, and cross-examined him. They heard other wit- 
 nesses ; they summoned his parents ; they exhorted him 
 to confess a deception. With all their investigation they 
 could gain from the man himself, and from other wit- 
 nesses, no different account, but that he had been blind, 
 and had received from Jesus the gift of sight. 
 
 Their decision against Jesus was not the result of 
 their examination, but of predetermined hostility, occa- 
 sioned by the attitude in which Jesus stood towards 
 themselves, and availing itself, probably, in this instance 
 as in others, of the subterfuge of ascribing the cure to 
 the power of evil spirits. If it be said that we have 
 this narrative only on the authority of a writer, who is 
 thought by many not to have been an eye-witness, or 
 even contemporaneous, w r e reply, that doubt on this 
 subject has only arisen from an unwillingness to receive 
 miraculous narratives ; that the Gospel of John is in 
 fact better authenticated than the works of most other 
 historians of a period equally distant, and that Renan 
 himself admits it to be genuine. As another instance 
 of a miracle investigated by high authority, of hostile 
 disposition, we may take that of the lame man cured at 
 the gate of the Temple (Acts, Chaps. III. and IV.) r 
 and as still another, and more important, that of the 
 resurrection of Jesus from the dead. In this case we 
 have the story told by the Roman guards, — or at least, 
 told of them by the Jews, — a story which the Christian 
 historian never could have invented, since it would make 
 against himself or his cause, while its improbability can 
 be seen at once when we consider the despondency of 
 the disciples after the death of their Master, the high r 
 
170 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 devoted, and truthful spirit which they always exhibited, 
 and the absence of any motive on their part to keep up, 
 after his crucifixion, a deception which could only expose 
 them to persecution. 
 
 Again, while the miracles of Jesus were thus well 
 attested in the age in which they occurred, they were 
 not isolated occurrences, but connected with a system, 
 some of whose elements were of the kind that are not 
 bounded by space and time. To the moral miracles of 
 Christianity we have already paid some attention, in 
 the comparison we have made of it with heathen systems, 
 and with the best efforts of the human mind to surpass 
 it, and set it aside. Other moral wonders we may con- 
 template in the marvellous teaching of the Jewish na- 
 tion, their constant expectation of a Messiah, and their 
 obvious rejection by God's providence, after they had 
 rejected God's appointed Messenger. Such moral mir- 
 acles render probable the introduction of material mira- 
 cles, for they indicate a divine interposition ; they show 
 that the Almighty recognized an object of sufficient 
 importance to direct to its attainment his course of prov- 
 idential government. If then, for the same great object, 
 outward miracles were needed, the same divine purpose 
 would be carried forward by bestowing them. 
 
 We need not enter into the details of M. Renan's 
 survey of the life of Jesus. His general account is 
 that inspired by the teaching of nature, the traditions 
 of his people, and his own wonderful genius ; the young 
 carpenter of Nazareth commenced his work of the re- 
 generation of his country and of mankind in a cheerful 
 spirit; that as opposition rose and increased, he became 
 more stern, perhaps more ambitious, and less true ; that 
 
MIRACLES. 171 
 
 he, in some instances — at least in the raising of Laz- 
 arus — descended to share in deception ; — that when he 
 found all turning against him, and that he could accom- 
 plish his work in no other way but by his death, he 
 prepared himself, with true greatness of soul, for that 
 event, and gave up his life in attestation of the great 
 doctrines he had proclaimed. Contrary to most writers 
 of his class at the present day, R^nan admits the genu- 
 ineness of the Gospel of John. His reasoning on this 
 subject is of importance, and will be considered in our 
 view of the question to which it relates. Admitting 
 this, however, he is obliged to account, in some way, 
 for the story of Lazarus. The mode by which he does 
 this is extraordinary. The family at Bethany, accord- 
 ing to him, became impatient at the long delay of Jesus 
 in asserting his claims. To urge him forward, they de- 
 vised a singular fraud. Lazarus, who had been sick, 
 feigned death, and his sisters mourned for him with all 
 the customary signs of grief. Jesus came, and was in- 
 duced, by their urgency and expressions of firm belief, 
 to make trial of his own power to raise the dead ; and 
 at his word, Lazarus raised himself from his pretended 
 lifelessness. Jesus, if he was afterwards convinced that 
 there had been an imposture, yet allowed the story of 
 his miracle to pass uncontradicted. It is scarcely need- 
 ful to point out the objections to this supposition. It 
 ascribes to the family at Bethany the most contradictory 
 feelings and conduct. They revere Jesus as the wise 
 and holy messenger of God, yet they presume upon his 
 ignorance and folly to play off upon him a most shame- 
 ful deception ; to excite God's Messiah to do God's 
 work, they commit an act of falsehood and impiety. 
 
172 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 He, whom they have so grossly deceived — great and 
 good Reformer as he is — neither takes offence at their 
 presumption, with regard to himself, nor at its violation 
 of the honor due to God, but quietly permits himself to 
 be made a sharer in their crime. 
 
 We have seen in the case of Strauss, that the attempt 
 to reconstruct Christianity, by removing its miracles, 
 arose from the principles of a false philosophy, accord- 
 ing to which miracles were impossible. Thus it is also 
 with Renan, and the fact should be kept in mind by all 
 who are in danger of being led away by his fanciful 
 book. The contrast of Renan's whole mode of thought 
 and style of principle with the strict simplicity and deep 
 religious feeling of the Gospel of Christ, has been well 
 set forth by Dr. Beard, of England, in his "Manual of 
 Christian Evidence." (London, 1868.) For our own 
 purpose, two extracts from Renan's writings will be suf- 
 ficient. The first, by its loose morality, indicates a 
 deficiency in one of the most important conditions for 
 appreciating the character of Jesus, and the other ex- 
 hibits how religiously one can talk who disowns religion ; 
 how a plain question can be answered by shrouding it 
 in a mist of words, and how the existence of God can 
 be denied and his name retained. 
 
 "There are often people, like clergymen, riveted, as 
 it were, to an absolute faith ; but even among them, a 
 noble mind rises to the full extent of the issue. A worthy 
 country priest, through his solitary studies and the sim- 
 *ple purity of his life, comes to a knowledge of the impos- 
 sibilities of literal dogmatism ; and must he, therefore, 
 sadden those whom he formerly consoled, and explain 
 to the simple folk those mental processes which they can- 
 
MIRACLES. 173 
 
 not comprehend? Heaven forbid! There are no two 
 men in the world whose paths of duty are exactly alike. 
 The excellent Bishop Colenso showed an honesty, which 
 the Church, since her origin, has not seen surpassed, in 
 writing out his doubts as they occurred to him. But 
 the humble Catholic priest, surrounded by timid and 
 narrow-minded souls, must be quiet. O, how many 
 close-mouthed tombs about our village churches hide 
 similar poetic reticence and angelic silence ! Do those 
 who speak when duty dictates, equal, after all, in merit 
 those who in secret cherish and restrain the doubts known 
 only to God?" ( w The Apostles : " Carleton's edition, 
 page 51.) 
 
 Perhaps this apology for hypocrisy is ironical. We 
 have heard such language before ; and it is well chosen 
 to weaken the influence of those who defend Christian- 
 ity, by the insinuation that they do not themselves be- 
 lieve it. Our second extract is as follows : — 
 
 ?f To those w r ho, planting themselves on substance, 
 ask me, ' Is he, or is he not, this God of yours?' Ah ! 
 I shall reply, God ! It is he that is, and all the rest 
 but seems to be. Granting even that for us philoso- 
 phers another word might be preferable ; besides the 
 unfitness of abstract words to express clearly enough 
 real existence, there would be an immense inconven- 
 ience in thus cutting ourselves off from the sources of 
 poetry in the past, and in separating ourselves by our 
 speech from the simple who adore so well in their way. 
 The word God, possessing as it does the respect of hu- 
 manity, the word having been long sanctioned by it, and 
 having been employed in the finest poems, to abandon 
 it would be to overturn all the usages of language. Tell 
 
174 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the simple to live a life of aspiration after truth, beauty, 
 moral goodness — the words would convey no meaning 
 to them. Tell them to love God, not to offend God, 
 they will understand you wonderfully. God, Provi- 
 dence, Immortality ! good old words, a little clumsy, 
 perhaps, which philosophy will interpret in finer and 
 finer senses, but which it will never fill the place of to 
 advantage. Under one form or another, God will al- 
 ways be the sum of our supersensual needs, the cate- 
 gory of the ideal, the form, that is, under which we 
 conceive the ideal, as space and time are the categories 
 of bodies, that is to say, the form under which we con- 
 ceive of bodies. In other words, man placed in the 
 presence of beautiful, good, or true things, goes out of 
 himself, and, caught up by a celestial charm, annihilates 
 his pitiful personality, is exalted, is absorbed. What is 
 that, if it be not adoration?" (Essay on Feuerbach 
 and the New Hegelian school, in " Studies in Religious 
 History and Criticism ; " New York : page 340.) 
 
AUTHENTICATION OF THE RECORDS. 175 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Authentication of the Records, 
 
 The accounts we have of the life and teachings of 
 Jesus Christ come to us in the four Gospels ; and, in 
 addition to these, there are other documents, some con- 
 nected with previous ages, and some w T ith the time imme- 
 diately after that of Jesus, the whole constituting that 
 volume so widely known and reverenced as w The Bible." 
 
 Whence does this volume come ? and how do we know 
 anything of the age and authority of its contents ? These 
 are questions that occur to thousands of minds, and in 
 many instances never receive a definite and correct an- 
 swer. How do I know, the inquirer may continue, that 
 the whole collection was not forged, either lately, or in 
 ages of greater darkness than the present ? I have heard 
 that Luther was excited to those studies that made him 
 a reformer, by finding a Latin Bible in the convent 
 library ; but how do I know that Luther did not write 
 it himself? 
 
 This last question may be thought too absurd for any 
 one to ask, since even an intelligent child would soon 
 think of the answer, that the Roman Catholics, who hold 
 Luther in abhorrence, have substantially the same Bible 
 as the Protestants. This answer, obvious as it is, in- 
 volves an important principle, and carries us far back into 
 the past, with sure conviction that the Scriptures we 
 
176 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 reverence existed then. The principle is this, that if 
 two rival sects or parties agree in owning the authority 
 of the same work, and in declaring that it came down 
 to them from before their division, their testimony is to 
 this extent undoubtedly true. If the work had been 
 written by either party after their separation, their rivals 
 never would have accepted it as authority, or give credit 
 to any story of its higher antiquity. 
 
 This first step, then, has carried us back beyond the 
 time of Luther, showing that the Bible has been in ex- 
 istence more than three hundred and fifty years. A 
 second step will take us much further. Ask any one 
 w T ho has travelled in Greece or Russia what sacred books 
 are reverenced in those countries, and he will answer, 
 with surprise at your question, that they have the Bible, 
 the same Scriptures with ourselves, only in their lan- 
 guages instead of ours. The Greek church, to which 
 the inhabitants of those countries belong, ceased to have 
 communion with the Latin or Western church about the 
 year 1050. Our Scriptures then must have come to us 
 from a higher antiquity than the date of this separation. 
 
 The sect of Nestorians became separated from the 
 Greek church about the year 430. They are still in 
 existence ; American missionaries have had friendly in- 
 tercourse with them, and one of their bishops has visited 
 this country. They hold, and have ever held, the same 
 Scriptures with ourselves. Those Scriptures then must 
 have been generally received at the date thus designated ; 
 and to be thus received, as the authoritative books of the 
 religion, they must have come down from a still more 
 ancient period. 
 
 This description of argument can be extended still 
 
AUTHENTICATION OF THE RECORDS. 177 
 
 further back, with regard to the books of the New Tes- 
 tament, as known to have been acknowledged by sects 
 which then divided between them the Christian church. 
 Thus the great Arian controversy, which arose in the 
 year 317, makes it certain that our sacred books were 
 received by all parties in the reign of Constantine the 
 Great, the first Christian emperor. In that reign, Eu- 
 sebius. Bishop of Csesarea, a man of high distinction in 
 church and state, wrote an Ecclesiastical History. The 
 account which he gave of the Scriptures will claim our 
 attention hereafter ; at present, continuing our former 
 method of argument, we find in the controversies, which 
 divided the church before Constantine, proof of the gen- 
 eral reception of the sacred books at a very early period. 
 We may have occasion to follow this proof out more 
 minutely in relation to some particular writings. 
 
 With regard to the Old Testament, we can trace, in 
 the same way, much further back ; for those venerable 
 Scriptures are held in reverence by the Jews, as well as 
 by Christians, and must, therefore, have been received 
 as genuine and authentic before the rise of Christianity. 
 
 To go back still further, w T e are told that in the reign 
 of Josiah, the high-priest found the Book of the Law 
 in the Temple, and that the king read therein, with an 
 emotion, which gives the idea that he then saw the vol- 
 ume for the first time.* From this, some have fancied 
 that Hilkiah, the high-priest, did not find the Book of 
 the Law, but forged it ; that he made up artfully the 
 five books ascribed to Moses, partly it might be, from 
 previously existing documents, but partly also from his 
 
 * 2 Kings xxii. 8-13. 
 
 12 
 
178 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 own imagination. But we know, that in the time of 
 Josiah, there was a rival branch of the Hebrew race, 
 then, indeed, mostly in captivity or exile, but who after- 
 wards reapppeared as the Samaritans — a small remnant 
 of whom is yet in existence. Nothing would have in- 
 duced these people to receive as genuine a volume of 
 the Law, forged by their ancient rivals ; but they al- 
 ways have received as genuine, and as possessing the 
 highest authority, copies of those same early writings 
 ascribed to Moses, that the Jews and ourselves read. 
 This fact shows us that the book found in the davs of 
 Josiah was no forgery of that age, but dated back to a 
 time at least as early as the reign of Solomon — a thou- 
 sand years before the Christian era. 
 
 Such is the testimony afforded by varying sects. Thus, 
 from those divisions which have often been regarded as 
 unmixed evil, has Divine Providence brought an impor- 
 tant argument in defence of revelation. 
 
 But suppose our doubter should inquire, What assur- 
 ance have I that what I have been told is true re- 
 specting ancient sects, controversies, and historians ; 
 respecting even the belief of men at this day in other 
 countries than my own? 
 
 To relieve his doubts, he must be reminded that not 
 only a general reliance on the truth of what is told us 
 is the foundation of all intercourse of man with man ; 
 but that when the testimony is given by common report 
 to statements respecting which thousands must have 
 been informed, and when that evidence is all one way, 
 without being contradicted or questioned by any wit- 
 ness, our very nature compels us to believe it. Thus, 
 the statement that the Russians are of the Greek church, 
 
AUTHENTICATION OF THE RECORDS. 179 
 
 and that they yet receive the same Scriptures with our- 
 selves, is one which, if false, would be set aside by the 
 testimony of thousands. It may be received, therefore, 
 undoubtingly, testified, as it is, by common fame. So 
 even with regard to events in the history of ages past ; 
 if they are such as must have been notorious at the time 
 of their occurrence, and if the testimony respecting them 
 be a]l favorable, they are entitled to our belief. Our 
 reception of them as true may indeed be affected by 
 their own Apparent probability or improbability, by the 
 number of the witnesses, and other considerations ; but 
 it is safe to admit the truth of those statements which 
 have been handed down by universal consent, respecting 
 the characters and conduct of distinguished men. 
 
 There is another branch of the evidence on which we 
 receive, not only the Scriptures, but the literature of 
 ancient times in general ; this consists of references and 
 quotations, by which authors testify to other authors 
 who have preceded them. 
 
 Sometimes this testimony is direct. We take up, for 
 instance, the biography of an eminent writer. The 
 author of the biography gives an account of the works 
 composed by the subject of his memoir. If we take up 
 one of those works, and doubt as to its authorship, we 
 are reminded of this direct testimony of the biographer, 
 and we doubt no longer. Or, instead, let us take in 
 hand a book on some department of science. We find 
 in it quotations from another book on the same subject, 
 giving the author's name as w T ell as repeating his words. 
 We turn to the book which bears the name of the author 
 quoted, and we find the quotation there, on the page to 
 which reference had been made. The genuineness of 
 
180 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 that book, then, is testified by the writer who quoted 
 from it. By thousands of such references, the literature 
 of preceding ages is linked together ; and he who 
 would throw doubt on the general reception of any 
 ancient author, must account for all the quotations of 
 his works from their date to the present time. 
 
 An instance of the difficulty of such a task, is pre- 
 sented by the effort of Father Hardouin, a learned but 
 fanciful writer, two centuries since, to dispute the gen- 
 uineness of many classical writings. While he admitted 
 that Virgil wrote the Georgics, he asserted that the 
 ^Eneid was composed by monks in the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, and falsely ascribed to Virgil. If such an absurd 
 fancy needed argument to disprove it, the references 
 to the ^3Eneid in ancient writers would be sufficient. 
 Omitting Horace and others, who do not specify the 
 poems of Virgil to which they refer, we find the xEneid 
 mentioned by Propertius and Ovid, contemporaries of 
 its author, and by Statius, Juvenal, and Martial in the 
 next century, while Silius, Pliny the Elder, Tacitus, 
 and Quintilian speak of Virgil in a manner which only 
 the existence of the iEneid can explain. To destroy 
 the credit of these witnesses would require the erasure 
 of all references to their works, as well as to the ^Eneid 
 itself, in the writings of subsequent authors. 
 
 Now the evidence to the genuineness of the four Gos- 
 pels from quotations and references in later writings, 
 is of the same character with that which so clearly proves 
 the early existence of the ^Eneid, and its reception as 
 the work of Virgil. Not to dwell needlessly on later 
 writers, there is a vast mass of Christian literature, con- 
 sisting of the works of w the Fathers," as they are styled, 
 
AUTHENTICATION OP THE RECORDS. 181 
 
 — Christian writers, from the first to the sixth century. 
 Am oner these writers, the more recent refer to the more 
 ancient; and most of them refer to the Gospels, and 
 other books of the New Testament, Besides the Fa- 
 thers, there were early writers who w r ere regarded by 
 most as heretical, and heathen writers against Christian- 
 ity. Some works of both these classes remain ; and 
 others, which have perished, have still been quoted in 
 such a manner by those of the Fathers who replied to 
 them, that we can gather from these quotations valuable 
 references to the Scriptures, 
 
 The evidence of these early writers has been often 
 brought forward ; with great fullness in the celebrated 
 work of Lardner, and more briefly by Paley and others. 
 It is condensed in our "Manual" (sections 12 to 15), 
 after careful revision, lest any witness should be brought 
 forward of whose testimony there was reasonable doubt. 
 In dispensing, after such examination, with the evidence 
 of Barnabas, Ignatius, and Hennas, we pronounced no 
 decision against the genuineness of the works ascribed 
 to those writers, but set them aside as still in contro- 
 versy. For our present purpose we will examine three 
 of the earliest witnesses, each in connection with one of 
 the next generation ; taking thus together John the 
 Elder — if not the Apostle — and his pupil Papias, 
 Poly carp and his pupil Irenaeus, and Justin and hia 
 pupil Tatian. 
 
 Papias was bishop of Hierapolis in Asia, early in the 
 second century, — about A.D.. 116, — and quotes as 
 his authority, " John the Presbyter," or Elder. As this 
 term became at length distinctly attached to an order of 
 church officers, many have supposed that it was applied 
 
182 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 to the instructor of Papias to distinguish him from John 
 the Apostle. It is evident, however, that in primitive 
 times the terms bishop or overseer, presbyter, and even 
 apostle, were used much more loosely than in later 
 ages. (See Acts xx. 17, 28 ; xiv. 14.) Peter and John 
 are called Elders (1 Peter v. 1 ; 2 John 1 ; 3 John 
 1), the latter using the name as if it was his customary 
 or favorite designation, in Epistles, which even if their 
 genuineness be questioned, at least mark the use of lan- 
 guage in the early age of Christianity ; and " Elder " 
 would have been the worst possible designation to apply 
 to a writer for the purpose of distinguishing him from 
 the apostle who was near a hundred years old. We 
 can scarcely doubt, therefore, that Papias was a disciple 
 of John the Apostle. Even if otherwise, his teacher 
 was a Christian minister, whose earlier life had been 
 contemporaneous with those evangelists of whom he 
 epoke. His account was as follows : — 
 
 w The Elder said, that Mark, being the interpreter of 
 Peter, carefully wrote down all that he retained in 
 memory of the actions or discourses of Christ ; not, 
 however, in order, for he was not himself a hearer or 
 follower of the Lord ; but afterwards, as I said, a com- 
 panion of Peter, who taught in the manner best suited 
 to the instruction of his hearers, without giving a con- 
 nected narrative of our Lord's discourses. Such being 
 the case, Mark committed no errors in thus writing 
 some things from memory ; for he made it his sola 
 object, not to omit anything which he had heard, and 
 not to state anything falsely." 
 
 Of Matthew, he says, " Matthew wrote the oracles in 
 
AUTHENTICATION OP THE RECORDS. 183 
 
 the Hebrew language, and every one interpreted them 
 as he was able.'' * 
 
 This distinct testimony of Papias is strongly sup- 
 ported by two passages in the Epistles of Peter. In 
 the first Epistle, chapter v. 13, he speaks of Mark 
 affectionately as his son. In the second Epistle, chap- 
 ter i. 15, he says, w Moreover, I will endeavor that ye 
 may be able, after my decease, to have these things al- 
 ways in remembrance ; " — a promise which received its 
 explanation and fulfilment in the Gospel which this 
 beloved companion wrote from his dictation. The 
 "undesigned coincidence" of these passages in three 
 different writings, is a strong proof of the account given 
 by Papias ; and while it also confirms the genuineness 
 of the Epistles of Peter, yet, even if that was denied, 
 it would still prove the very early existence of a belief 
 in the church that Mark stood in an especially near 
 and tender relation to Peter, and that that Apostle at 
 least contemplated the preparation of a Gospel. 
 
 Another hearer of the Apostle John was Poly carp, 
 bishop of Smyrna, respecting whom his disciple Irenaeus 
 bears explicit testimony. K I can tell the place," he 
 says, " in which the blessed Polycarp sat and taught, 
 and how he related his conversation with John and oth- 
 ers who had seen the Lord, and how he related their 
 sayings, and what he had heard concerning the Lord, 
 both concerning his miracles and his doctrine, as he had 
 received them from the eye-witnesses of the word of life ; 
 all which Polycarp related agreeably to the Scriptures." 
 
 In this account of the testimony of this venerable man, 
 
 * Eusebius, Eccl. Hist., Lib. III., ch. 39. See Norton's Gen- 
 uineness of the Gospels, Vol. L, p. 243. 
 
184 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 who, at eighty-six years of age, laid down Lis life as a 
 martyr for Christ, the mention of the miracles is espe- 
 cially worthy of notice, as showing that these wonderful 
 works constituted, in the minds of the apostles and their 
 companions, an inseparable part in the ministry of their 
 Lord. The accounts given by Polycarp from the lips 
 of the apostles are stated also to have been w agreeable 
 to the Scriptures." What Irenseus understood by "the 
 Scriptures," is perfectly clear, so far as relates to the 
 four Gospels, of which he gives a distinct account, with 
 the names of their authors, and the order in which they 
 were written. Besides his testimony respecting his 
 master, we have numerous references to the Gospels in 
 an Epistle by Polycarp himself. (See " Manual," sec- 
 tion 13, pages 42, 44.) 
 
 We have, in the united evidence of Justin Martyr 
 and his disciple Tatian, a testimony similar in character 
 to that just adduced. Justin was, by his education, 
 qualified to discriminate among writings ; and by the 
 early period at which he lived, must have been familiar 
 with the opinions of the apostles and their immediate 
 successors ; while his death as a martyr gives to us the 
 highest assurance of his sincerity. In his writings, still 
 extant, are many quotations apparently from our Gos- 
 pels ; and his account of incidents respecting Jesus, is 
 so ample as to afford nearly a complete life of the Savior, 
 differing but in two unimportant particulars from that 
 given by the evangelists. He does not, however, refer 
 to our Gospels by name, but speaks of them under the 
 general term of Memoirs or Recollections. From this 
 circumstance, some authors have denied that our Gos- 
 pels were known to him. 
 
AUTHENTICATION OF THE RECORDS. 185 
 
 Justin was put to death in or about the year 164. 
 Shortly after his death, his disciple Tatian published an 
 "Address to the Greeks," or Heathen, vindicating the 
 faith for which his master had suffered. Tatian after- 
 wards expressed some opinions, on account of which he 
 has been regarded as a heretic by later, writers. His 
 heresy s^ems to have been, in its origin, merely the 
 respectable one of over-strictness in self-restraint. He 
 is considered as the first of the Encratites, a term which 
 may be literally translated Temperance men. His 
 ascetic views either led him into, or were encouraged by, 
 the Gnostic doctrine of the evil of matter. Tatian com- 
 posed a Diatessaron, or compend of Four Gospels, of 
 which Theodoret, a writer two hundred years later, gives 
 us some information. He found the book in use in his 
 diocese, and removed it, because, he says, Tatian had 
 cut away "the genealogies, and all else which shows 
 that the Lord was born of the race of David according 
 to the flesh." He testifies, however, that the book was 
 in use among Catholic Christians, and gives no hint 
 that the four Gospels which it abridged were any other 
 than those which w T ere generally received. Indeed, his 
 mention of the genealogies which had been cut away, 
 identifies two of them with our Matthew and Luke. 
 
 Eichhorn and others have endeavored to maintain that 
 Tatian's four Gospels were different from ours. Their 
 proof is from a passage in Epiphanius, a writer of the 
 fourth century, who says that some call Tatian's com- 
 pilation w the Gospel according to the Hebrews." As 
 Matthew, it is known, wrote in Hebrew, it is probable 
 that this name may have been given to his Gospel as 
 
186 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 employed by Tatian.* But the evidence is so ample 
 shortly, after, from Irenseus, Origen, Tertullian, and 
 many others, to the general use of our Gospels near the 
 end of the second century, that no reasonable doubt 
 remains of their identity with "the four" which were 
 employed by Tatian. 
 
 We have then this writer, a man whose heresy pro- 
 ceeded from an over-punctilious morality, a man whd 
 had the Christian courage to stand forth for the Gospel 
 over the grave of his martyred instructor, bearing wit- 
 ness for our four Gospels, as the true records of the life 
 of Christ. He was the pupil of Justin, and converted 
 to Christianity by him. From Justin, then, he received 
 his knowledge of the books in use among Christians. 
 If Justin had not known and approved the four Gospels, 
 Tatian would not have used them. If Justin's "Me- 
 moirs " had been a different book, Tatian would have 
 used that also, presenting a harmony of five Gospels 
 instead of four. Justin's profession of Christianity was 
 made about the year 132. Carefully trained in philoso- 
 phy, a native of Palestine, and a student at Alexandria, 
 he must have known what books were held by his new 
 associates to be authentic records of their faith. His 
 authority, then, thus strongly inferred from that of his 
 disciple Tatian, carries our four Gospels far back to- 
 wards the times of the Apostles, 
 
 * For another conjecture, see Norton's Genuineness, Vol. III., 
 p. 279, note. 
 
MANUSCRIPTS, VERSIONS, COINS, MONUMENTS. 187 
 
 CHAPTER XI. • 
 Manuscripts, Versions, Coins, Monuments. 
 
 We have seen, in the last chapter, something of the 
 historical and traditional proof, on* which we receive the 
 sacred writings, and especially those of the New Testa- 
 ment. A proof of a different description is furnished 
 by ancient Manuscripts, and by the early Versions or 
 Translations of the Scriptures. Our belief receives 
 confirmation also from existing relics of the past, whether 
 in the shape of coins, or of more massive monuments. 
 
 Of course, if we possessed the original manuscript of 
 any work, fully certified to be such, its evidence would 
 be of the highest value. This, however, is not the case, 
 either with regard to the books of the New Testament, 
 or to any other writing of that distant age. But there 
 are manuscripts in existence, of the works of antiquity, 
 whether secular or sacred ; manuscripts in great num- 
 bers, and some of them of very early date. 
 
 The art of printing was discovered about the middle 
 of the fifteenth century. Previous to that time copies 
 of books were multiplied by the hand alone. -We should 
 be in error to conclude, however, that they were always 
 excesssively rare. Copying was pursued by numbers 
 as a regular business ; by others as an occupation for 
 leisure time. After the general reception of Christianity, 
 the copying of the Scriptures was undertaken by many 
 
188 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 from religious motives ; and wealthy and even imperial 
 penmen made their manuscripts splendid with coloring 
 and gilding. Still later, the monastic life gave to its 
 votaries an abundance of time, which was employed by 
 numbers of them in preparing copies of the Scriptures, 
 and other religious books, and of the classical authors. 
 
 The writing and deciphering of manuscripts present 
 many particulars worthy of attention. Nothing perhaps 
 is more curious than the restoration of a manuscript 
 which had been partially obliterated to make way for 
 other writing. Parchment, the material most valued 
 for such writing, was of high price, especially in the 
 middle ages, when there were few who understood the 
 method of preparing it. The person then, who desired 
 to copy some work which was then in high esteem, would 
 take an old parchment book, and, erasing in part the 
 letters with which it was covered, would use it as if it 
 were new material. But in process of time, as his 
 writing lost its freshness, that which he had tried to efface 
 would attract attention, — and might, by chemical 
 means, be entirely restored. Such is the history of one 
 of the most valuable manuscripts of the New Testament, 
 the " Codex Ephremi Rescriptus," in which the ancient 
 letters had been ineffectually erased, in order to write 
 upon the same parchment the works of St. Ephrem the 
 Syrian. Such a manuscript is called a Palimpsest, 
 "rubbed again," from the Greek n&hv, again, and ydto, 
 to rub. 
 
 The comparative value of manuscripts of the same 
 work depends, of course, upon their antiquity. The 
 period at which a manuscript was written can be deter- 
 mined from various circumstances. One of these is the 
 
MANUSCRIPTS, VERSIONS, COINS, MONUMENTS. 189 
 
 material, the oldest in existence being some copies of 
 Pentateuch, in Hebrew, on rolls of crimson leather ; 
 most of the manuscripts, however, which are older than 
 the sixth century, are on parchment. The inner bark 
 of some trees, called in Latin Liber, in Greek Biblos, 
 was so commonly used for writing on, that these words 
 came to have, in those languages, the meaning of 
 w book." Especially the fibrous coating of the Egyptian 
 reed, called papyrus, from which the word paper is de- 
 rived, supplied the principal material for books from 
 very early times till the seventh or eighth century, when 
 paper made of cotton began to take its place. 
 
 Another circumstance indicating the a^e of manu- 
 scripts is the method of writing ; the older ones being 
 written upright, — or in the way commonly called 
 w printing with the pen," — and all in capitals, or " uncial 
 letters," without division of words, or marks of punctu- 
 ation or accent. A knowledge of the period when suc- 
 cessive changes began to appear, will, therefore, in most 
 instances, enable the accomplished scholar to decide on 
 the age of the manuscript before him. 
 
 In many instances the copyist has himself dated his 
 manuscript; in others, marginal notes, by a later, but 
 still ancient hand, fix their own date by some allusion 
 to contemporaneous persons or events, and thus show 
 the still older origin of the manuscript they illustrate. 
 
 In these and other ways the age of these interesting 
 relics can, with considerable accuracy, be determined. 
 The number of them known to be in existence is very 
 large, and additions are constantly made to it by dis- 
 coveries in old libraries, and especially in the monasteries 
 x)f the East. In those monasteries, these ancient treas- 
 
190 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ures have been kept for centuries, safer perhaps through 
 the very superstition and ignorance of their guardians, 
 than if they had been freely used by them, or parted 
 with to others. Some, however, have been brought 
 from these hiding-places none too early. In one instance 
 " a learned traveller, mentioned by Mr. Curzon, in in- 
 quiring for manuscripts, was told that there were none 
 in the monastery ; but when he entered the choir, to be 
 present at the service,* he saw a double row of long- 
 bearded holy fathers, shouting the Kyrie eleison, and 
 each of them standing, to save his bare legs from the 
 damp of the marble floor, upon a great folio volume, 
 which had been removed from the conventual library, 
 and applied to purposes of practical utility in the way 
 here mentioned. These volumes, some of them highly 
 valuable, this traveller was allowed to carry away with 
 him, in exchange for some footstools or hassocks, which 
 he presented to the monks." * 
 
 In one of the monasteries in Egypt, Archdeacon Tat- 
 tam found the floor of a vault covered with manuscripts 
 and fragments of books, eight inches deep, which had 
 lain there, apparently, many years. From these he was, 
 able to purchase three hundred and seventeen books, in 
 whole or in part, in Syriac, Aramaic, or Coptic, which, 
 with many similar treasures, are now in the British 
 Museum, f 
 
 In the work from which these facts are derived, it is 
 stated (page 5) "that the integrity of the records of 
 the Christian faith is substantiated by evidence in a ten- 
 fold proportion more various, copious, and conclusive 
 
 * History of the Transmission of Ancient Books, by Isaac Taylor, 
 page 234. 
 
 t Idem., page 250. 
 
MANUSCRIPTS, VERSIONS, COINS, MONUMENTS. 191 
 
 than that which can be adduced in support of any other 
 ancient writings." That this statement is correct with 
 regard to manuscripts will be evident from a comparison 
 elsewhere made. (Pages 180, 181.) Of the history 
 of Herodotus, there are fifteen manuscripts known, of 
 which several are not older than the middle of the fif- 
 teenth century. Of the Greek Testament, in whole or 
 in part, nearly five hundred ancient manuscripts have 
 been examined. If the more recent ones are included, 
 the whole number of manuscripts of the Gospels, or 
 portions of them, was stated some years since at six 
 hundred and seventy. 
 
 With regard to the antiquity of manuscripts, the same 
 author states as follows : — 
 
 "A Virgil, in the Vatican, claims an antiquity as high 
 as the fourth century ; there are a few similar instances ; 
 but generally the existing copies of the classics are at- 
 tributed to periods between the tenth and fifteenth cen- 
 turies. In this respect, the Scriptures are by no means 
 inferior to the classics. There are extant copies of the 
 Pentateuch, which, on no slight grounds, are supposed to 
 have been written in the second or the third century ; and 
 there are copies of the Gospels, belonging to the third 
 or the fourth, and several of the entire New Testament 
 which unquestionably were made before the eighth." 
 
 Nor have these copies been found in one locality alone. 
 Among the most ancient of them, for instance, the 
 Alexandrian manuscript, was from the city in Egypt 
 whose name it bears ; having been brought thence to 
 Constantinople by the patriarch Cyril, who afterwards 
 presented it to Charles I. of England. The Codex 
 Bezae, on the other hand, was said by the reformer 
 
192 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Beza to have been found in the monastery of St. Ire- 
 naeus, at Lyons, in France ; and the recently discovered 
 Sinaitic manuscript was procured by Professor Teschen- 
 dorf, on behalf of the Russian government, from the 
 monastery on Mount Sinai, in Arabia. These instances 
 show the wide diffusion of the sacred writings, rendering 
 it more difficult to conceive how any forged document 
 could have been received into general circulation as a 
 part of holy Scripture. 
 
 We have spoken in the "Manual" (page 52), of the 
 early versions of the New Testament. To illustrate 
 their value, we will take a single instance. Among the 
 manuscripts in the British Museum, of which we have 
 already spoken, rescued by Dr. Tattam from an Egyp- 
 tian vault, Dr. Cureton discovered a copy made in the 
 fifth century, of a translation of the Gospels into Syriac, 
 of still higher antiquity. There is a well known Syriac 
 version, called the Peshito (plain or literal), which has 
 long been considered the oldest ; but this is older still. 
 In various places this version has been altered to 
 make it conform to the Peshito ; the older translation 
 being corrected by that which was more recent, and sup- 
 posed therefore to be more accurate. .Other considera- 
 tions unite in fixing the date of this " Curetonian Syriac 
 version" in the second century. Our four Gospels, 
 therefore, not only existed at that time, but they were 
 then so highly valued that men would undertake the labor 
 of translating them into other languages.* 
 
 The support given to the authority of ancient books 
 
 * Remains of a very ancient Recension of the Four Gospels in 
 Syriac, &c„ by William Cureton, D. D., F. R. S. London, 1858, 
 Preface, pages i., iv., lxvjii. 
 
MANUSCRIPTS, VERSIONS, COINS, MONUMENTS. 193 
 
 by features of nature and monuments of art, deserves 
 more lengthened mention than the plan of this work 
 permits. Of the features of nature, we find that the 
 geography of Palestine agrees with the statements made 
 respecting it in the Bible so fully, as to extort an expres- 
 sion of delighted acquiescence, even from Renan. He 
 says, — 
 
 " The scientific commission for the exploration of an- 
 cient Phoenicia, of which I was the director in 1860 and 
 1861, led me to reside on the frontiers of Galilee, and 
 to traverse it frequently. I have travelled through the 
 evangelical province in every direction ; I have visited 
 Jerusalem, Hebron, and Samaria; scarcely any local- 
 ity 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 harmony 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 thence- 
 forth, 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. * 
 
 Among the monuments of art, we find in the city of 
 Jerusalem remarkable confirmation of what the Old 
 Testament tells us of its history. Mr. Taylor, in the 
 last chapter of the work already quoted, gives a vivid 
 description of the various fortunes of this city, which 
 
 * Life of Jesus. Introduction, page 45. 
 
 13 
 
194 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 has been continuously inhabited for three thousand 
 years ; refers to the accounts in the books of Kings 
 and Chronicles, and still more to the incidental allu- 
 sions in the Prophets, which imply the might of the 
 ancient Jewish empire, and the wealth and luxury of 
 its capital ; and compares with this the results attained 
 by recent excavation in the long-trodden streets of Je- 
 rusalem ; summing up his argument in the following 
 words : — 
 
 f? Here, then, the two portions of an inferential argu- 
 ment come into contact ; and it is just at the basement 
 line of the palaces and the mansions of the ancient Je- 
 rusalem that they do so. The juncture is of this sort : 
 we hold in our hand the various literature of an ancient 
 people ; this literature has traversed the fields of time in 
 those several modes of conveyance to which, in the pre- 
 ceding pages, we have given attention ; it has thus come 
 into our hands safely ; it stands attested in modes so 
 many and so sure, that now to speak of it as if it were 
 questionable, would be a mere prudery and an affecta- 
 tion. Up and down throughout these writings we find 
 incidental notices of the sumptuous style of the upper 
 classes of the people in their modes of living, and in 
 the decoration of their public and private buildings ; at 
 least it is so as to what were the visible parts of such 
 structures. The kings and the nobles of the Hebrew 
 monarchy were men of great wealth ; ample revenues 
 were at their command, and they spent their incomes 
 magnificently. Looking to the documents — the parch- 
 ment rolls — the volumes of the prophets of those ages, 
 such are the inferences we must derive from them. 
 
 w But what objects are those that present themselves 
 
MANUSCRIPTS, VERSIONS, COINS, MONUMENTS. 195 
 
 when, with the pick in hand, we go down to the levels 
 of the ancient Jerusalem? What we there find are 
 courses of highly-wrought masonry, with which, as to 
 the dimensions of the single blocks, and the labor that 
 has been bestowed upon them, nothing can be com- 
 pared, unless it be in Egypt, and at Palmyra. The 
 inference is valid, namely, that the people of this city, 
 — even those whose structures, sacred and domestic, un- 
 derlie the monuments of eight or nine successive empires 
 or kingdoms, — the primeval people must have been 
 wealthy, and far advanced in the arts, and large also 
 in their conceptions, and bold in their enterprises. They 
 were a people great and w r ell civilized, and they were so at 
 a time when, as the Greek historian tells us, the ances- 
 tors of his nation were petty marauders by sea and land, 
 and were feeding upon acorns ! " 
 
 In a similar manner are the Biblical accounts con- 
 firmed by what is known of other ancient cities, — those 
 of Egypt on the one side, with Nineveh and Babylon on 
 the other ; the recent explorations, which have brought 
 to light the palaces, statues, and inscriptions of former 
 days, adding continually new details of agreement to the 
 testimony already afforded by them to the truth of the 
 early Scripture history. Light is shed upon the faith, 
 the patience, the sufferings, and the success of the early 
 disciples by the Catacombs of Rome, — those vast cav- 
 erns beneath the city, from which stone was formerly 
 taken for its buildings, and which were used by the per- 
 secuted Christians as places of assembly, and also as 
 places of burial. The inscriptions they cut in those 
 
 * Transmission of Ancient Documents ; near the end 
 
196 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 rocks, where the remains of their martyrs were depos- 
 ited, still bear witness to the faith that animated them, 
 to the persecutions to which that faith subjected them, 
 and to the patient, loving, and trusting spirit with which 
 those persecutions were endured. 
 
 Not the least curious of the ancient monuments in the 
 illustration they afford are the coins that are found scat- 
 tered far and wide throughout the world. The testi- 
 mony which these bear to the truth of history may be 
 exemplified by one which is before us as we write. It 
 bears on one side a head, with the inscription, "Louis 
 XVI., Roi des Francois," — not, according to the old style 
 of territorial sovereignty, " Roi de France," — with the 
 date 1791. On the other side appears an angel writ- 
 ing on a tablet, with the inscriptions "Regne de la Loi," 
 and "L'An 1 de la Liberte." How strikingly does this 
 confirm what history tells us of that brief period in the 
 French Revolution, when the royal authority, though 
 greatly circumscribed, was still acknowledged ! The 
 Jewish coins extant are of the age of the Maccabees, 
 and chiefly of the time of Simon, the high-priest, about a 
 century and a half before Christ ; they bear emblems 
 of religious service, such as sacrificial cups, censers, 
 and a sprig supposed to represent Aaron's rod. Some 
 remarkable illustrations by ancient coins, of the accu- 
 racy of the book of Acts, are mentioned in the "Man- 
 ual," section 15, page 53. 
 
 But all these sources of illustration yield in impor- 
 tance to that which is given by the influence of the Gos- 
 pel on human society. The institutions of our own age, 
 and, if we have any faith in history, the institutions of 
 ages past, for at least fifteen hundred years, have been 
 
MANUSCRIPTS, VERSIONS, COINS, MONUMENTS. 197 
 
 founded upon Christianity, and testify to their origin. 
 Not only has the cross been emblazoned on banners, but 
 it has been deeply impressed on the minds, the charac- 
 ters, and the customs of princes and of people. The 
 power which even now, in its comparative weakness, is 
 strong enough to delay the progress alike of popular 
 revolution and of scientific advancement, and which, in 
 the middle ages, spread over all Europe a shade at once 
 darkening and protecting, — the power of the Papacy, 
 — different as it is from what enlightened Christianity 
 would sanction, still shows, like a deformed child of 
 giant parentage, the greatness of the source from which 
 it sprung. Civilization cannot indeed be traced to Chris- 
 tianity exclusively ; but those institutions that mark the 
 humanity of modern times, the hospital, the common 
 school, nay, the monastery, w T hich gave protection to 
 the weak and the oppressed in a darker age, — these are 
 the monuments of Christianity. The changes made in 
 the habits and usages of men attest its power : the more 
 lenient treatment of criminals, of prisoners, and of debt- 
 ors ; the softening of the customs of war ; the better 
 appreciation of the poor, and more humane conduct 
 towards them ; and the thrice-won victory over slavery, 
 abolished, as we have already pointed out, in its classi- 
 cal, its feudal, and its American forms, — all these are 
 but portions of the marks impressed deeply on the his- 
 tory and the condition of mankind, of that great blessing 
 which God gave the world, eighteen centuries since, in 
 the coming of the Son of Man. 
 
198 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The First Thkee Gospels, 
 
 In judicial investigation, reliance is justly placed on 
 the account that is supported by the testimony of several 
 persons. One witness may be himself deceived, or may 
 intend to deceive others. With each additional one the 
 probability of such mistake or falsehood is diminished, 
 and that not merely in simple proportion to the number 
 of those who testify. If they are independent of each 
 other, so that they cannot contrive between them what 
 story they shall relate, their agreement upon the same 
 account affords a proof of its truth, much greater than 
 the sum of their separate assertions. 
 
 The absence of concert between witnesses may be 
 proved by various circumstances. If they tell precisely 
 the same story, incident for incident, and word for 
 word, their close agreement, instead of establishing 
 their truth, suggests a suspicion that they have com- 
 bined to deceive ; but if they give substantially the same 
 account, with those slight variations that might be ex- 
 pected to result from different degrees of attention, or 
 different habits of thought, their narrative appears more 
 natural, and is more probably true. 
 
 These remarks on evidence are applicable to the first 
 four books of the New Testament, known as the Gos- 
 pels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The antiq- 
 
THE FIRST THREE GOSPELS. 199 
 
 uity of these records is, as we have already seen, vouched 
 for by a succession of writers, reaching back from our 
 own day to near the very time when they were com- 
 posed. We have, then, for the truth of the things re- 
 corded of our Savior, the evidence, in the first place, of 
 several witnesses, and these witnesses the persons best 
 qualified to give information ; two of them being the 
 Apostles Matthew and John ; and the other two being 
 companions of the Apostles, and deriving from them 
 principally the testimony which they have transmitted. 
 
 Let it be supposed, however, that we knew not who 
 these writers were ; that the account given by Irenrcus, 
 instead of being confirmed by other writers, was -contro- 
 verted by them, or that we possessed only these four 
 Gospels, with no statement at all how they came into 
 existence. Let us apply to the four unknown witnesses, 
 as they would be in that case, the remarks already made 
 respecting the rules of evidence. 
 
 We should, even in that case, have four distinct and 
 independent witnesses, agreeing on a history, in all 
 important particulars, one and the same. They are 
 independent witnesses, for they differ from each other 
 in matters of detail, as people never would differ who 
 had concerted their story. Not one of them has copied 
 his account from the others, for there is not one of them 
 who has not told us some things peculiar to himself. 
 Yet though independent, they harmonize in their ac- 
 counts. The picture of the Savior, presented by them 
 all, is the same ; and it is a representation such as no 
 other writer ever conceived. His meekness, his benefi- 
 cence, his miraculous power, his figurative mode of 
 instruction, his rejection by the Jews, his betrayal, con- 
 
200 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 demnation, death, and resurrection, are essentially the 
 same, in the accounts of all. This story, then, which 
 they combine in telling, must be substantially true. It 
 would be a miracle more incredible than any that they 
 record, that four independent witnesses should each 
 invent a tissue of falsehood, and that all their falsehoods 
 should agree. 
 
 The agreements and differences among the Gospels 
 require, however, an examination somewhat more mi- 
 nute. 
 
 The agreement is greatest among the first three Gos- 
 pels ; which, for this reason, are often designated as the 
 Synoptic Gospels. Much of the account is the same in 
 all the three ; sometimes in the very same words, some- 
 times only a word or two in the sentences of one being 
 different from those of the others. And yet, elsewhere, 
 the three vary greatly. Each, as has been said, tells 
 us some things which the others do not mention. Thus 
 Matthew alone tells of the flight of Joseph and Mary 
 into Egypt, and the massacre of the innocents by Herod ; 
 and alone gives us an extended and consecutive recital 
 of the Sermon on the Mount. Luke alone relates the 
 incidents attending the birth of John the Baptist, the 
 parables of the Prodigal Son, and of the Good Samar- 
 itan, and the display of the Savior's mercy on the cross 
 to the penitent thief; and Mark, the writer of the short- 
 est Gospel, has a number of brief and graphic touches, 
 peculiar to himself. This singular agreement of the 
 three synoptic gospels, in great part blent with differ- 
 ences quite as singular, presents one of the most curious 
 problems for critical ingenuity to explain. They are 
 too unlike to have been copied from each other; yet 
 
THE FIRST THREE GOSPELS. 201 
 
 how else could they, in so many cases, closely resemble 
 each other, not only in sentences, but in paragraphs of 
 considerable length? 
 
 In view of this difficulty, different theories have been 
 adopted, agreeing in this, that one evangelist copied 
 from another ; but it has been hard to determine which 
 was the original. Weisse, in 1838, followed by Wilke 
 and Bruno Bauer, advocated the idea that the others bor- 
 rowed from Mark. Of that short Gospel, only twenty- 
 seven verses are not contained in either Matthew or 
 Luke. It was therefore supposed that the original 
 Mark (Ur-Markus, in German) did not contain these 
 twenty-seven verses, but that they were added after- 
 wards in some copies, while larger additions in others 
 formed the Gospel we call Matthew's, and additions 
 still different gave us that which we call Luke's. Un- 
 fortunately for this theory, however, these verses, 
 though so few, are of that kind that bear most distinctly 
 the stamp of authenticity. Among them are several 
 which contain Hebrew or Syriac words, — "Boanerges" 
 (hi. 17), "Talitha cumi" (v. 41), "Ephphatha" 
 (vii. 34), and "Abba" (xiv. 36). We can easily 
 conceive that one impressed with the dignity of the 
 Savior's bearing, or with the wonders which he wrought, 
 should have the very words he uttered so stamped upon 
 .his memory, that in telling the story afterwards he 
 should repeat them in the original language ; but no 
 one would be likely to retouch a story already plainly 
 told, by adding to it an unintelligible word. Another 
 passage, in relating the cure of a blind man, gives his 
 singular expression, " I see men as trees walking " 
 (viii. 24) ; another repeats the conversation of Jesus 
 
202 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 with the father of the epileptic youth, who seems at first 
 to have doubted the Savior's power, but at length burst 
 forth with the touching words, "Lord, I believe; help 
 thou my unbelief." (ix. 24.) Elsewhere we read the 
 singular incident of the youth who, at the arrest of 
 Jesus, escaped from the soldiers by leaving in their 
 hands the sheet in which he had hastily wrapped him- 
 self, (xiv. 51, 52.) Who can imagine that these 
 vivid touches of nature were later additions? Such 
 additions generally mark themselves by an interruption 
 of the narrative into which they are unskilfully inserted ; 
 but such is not the case here. The "original Mark," 
 then, must have contained these passages ; and if so, it 
 is highly improbable that the other evangelists would 
 have omitted them in copying. 
 
 The theory, therefore, appears untenable that supposes 
 the other synoptical Gospels to be derived in any degree 
 from that of Mark. Even if, however, it were accepted, 
 to the extent necessary to account for the resemblances 
 between the three, we must still recognize the other 
 portions of Matthew and Luke as equally authentic. 
 Their own merit answers for them. The Sermon on 
 the Mount, as told by Matthew, the parables of the 
 Prodigal Son and of the Rich Man and the Beggar, as 
 related by Luke, were no additions from an inferior 
 source, but bear the impress of the great original mind 
 which even those who deny his divine commission must 
 recognize in the Founder of Christianity. 
 
 If the conception of Mark's Gospel as the source of 
 the other two cannot be sustained, still less can there 
 be any probability in a similar conjecture respecting 
 either of the others. If Matthew is thought to have 
 
THE FIRST THREE GOSPELS. 203 
 
 been the original, we have to account for the parables 
 in Luke ; if Luke be preferred, we must find an origin 
 for the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. In either 
 case, Mark presents a difficulty ; for though we may 
 easily conceive of one writing an abridgment of the other 
 Gospels, it cannot be explained how, in such a case, he 
 should have added those touches of nature which have 
 already been mentioned. The Tiibingen school, there- 
 fore, under the lead of Dr. F. C. Baur, have advocated 
 an explanation the farthest possible from that already 
 spoken of. According to them, our Gospels were not 
 the oldest. There was a Gospel of the Hebrews ; an- 
 other, of the Egyptians ; another, of Peter ; and an- 
 other, of the Ebionites or Nazarenes. These probably 
 were much the same. The " Memoirs of the Apostles " 
 (ano[ivri!.iov£-{)[mia) , mentioned by Justin, constituted still 
 another. From one or more of these various sources 
 our evangelists borrowed, Matthew writing first, Luke 
 afterwards, and Mark last. Thus where their accounts 
 are similar, they copied from the same original ; where 
 they differ, they had different authorities. To this it is 
 to be added that the writers, except perhaps Matthew, 
 had each his particular purpose ; — for " Tendency " is 
 the idol of the Tubingen school. Matthew's Gospel 
 was, consciously or unconsciously, in the interest of 
 Peter and the Jewish Christians ; Luke's in that of Paul 
 and his Gentile converts ; while Mark exhibits an 
 endeavor to reconcile differences. 
 
 According to this theory, the Synoptical Gospels are 
 none of them original documents, nor do they come 
 from the immediate age of the Apostles. Why, or how 
 the much more valuable original Gospels should have 
 
204 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 been lost, and their memory have so nearly perished that 
 their existence can only be uncertainly conjectured, we 
 are not informed, nor is it easy to conceive. The names 
 given to these supposed Gospels occur, indeed, in early 
 writers ; but it seems probable that the Gospel of the 
 Hebrews, and that of the Ebionites, were our present 
 Gospel of Matthew, which is known to have been first 
 written in Hebrew ; while the Gospel of Peter was no 
 other than that of Mark, written, as Papias and Ire- 
 na3us inform us, from the instructions of that Apostle. 
 The " Memoirs" mentioned by Justin, we have already 
 seen, by comparing his testimony with that of his pupil 
 Tatian, must have been our present Gospels ; and these 
 also, with perhaps some other attempts at evangelical 
 composition, were those alluded to by Luke in his pref- 
 ace. There was, indeed, a "Gospel according to the 
 Egyptians " in existence towards the end of the second 
 century ; but the fact that it was not then received into 
 the canon presents strong evidence against its claim to 
 original authority. The theory of Baur has been greatly 
 modified by his later followers. Of these, Hilgenfeld 
 admits the date of Matthew's Gospel in its original form 
 (Ur-Matthseus,) between A. D. 50 and 60; and of its 
 revised edition between 70 and 80. Kostlin places our 
 Matthew not far from 70. Mark is dated by Hilgen- 
 feld, from 80 to 100 ; and Luke, by Hilgenfeld and 
 Kostlin, from 100 to 110.* 
 
 The explanation offered by Professor Norton, of the 
 resemblances and differences of the first three Gospels, 
 appears to us still the best ; and we give it as we re- 
 
 * See Schwarz, Zur Geschichte der Neuesten Theologie, pages 
 191, 192. 
 
THE FIRST THREE GOSPELS. 205 
 
 ceived it forty years since from that revered instructor, 
 by whom it was afterwards embodied in his great work 
 on the Genuineness of the Gospels. (Vol. I., Note D., 
 pages c— ccvi.) In the preaching of the Apostles and 
 others to the early church, the incidents of the life of 
 Jesus must have borne a part, prominent beyond any 
 other subject,- and beyond what even that has been in 
 any subsequent age. What the converts chiefly wanted 
 to know of their teachers was, what the Master had done, 
 and taught, and suffered. And this narrative was not 
 only the most interesting in itself, but it was what those 
 early teachers were most competent to tell. They were 
 not philosophers, carefully trained to pronounce disqui- 
 sitions on points of morals ; they were plain men, most 
 natural and most successful in their addresses when 
 they told a plain story, of which their memory and their 
 heart were alike full. Telling this story often, in each 
 other's presence, their accounts of it assumed more and 
 more a similar and a permanent character. When 
 Matthew and Mark and Luke undertook, independently 
 of each other, to record what they knew of the life of 
 Jesus, they had probably no documents before them, 
 but they had strongly impressed on their memories 
 those incidents of their Master's life which they had 
 heard related a thousand times, and the very words in 
 which those incidents had long been customarily told. 
 They took these incidents, they took those very words, 
 from this generally received account among Christians, 
 and each added such further particulars as he had been 
 able to learn. Thus it happened that in so many pas- 
 sages their accounts appear precisely the same, while in 
 
206 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 others each evangelist gives us circumstances which no 
 one else relates. 
 
 On this theory, and even on the supposition that 
 fragmentary notes of our Savior's life and teachings had 
 been used first by one evangelist and afterwards by 
 another, we have still, on the whole, three separate and 
 independent witnesses. Even on the theory of Baur 
 we have as many, only that the original witnesses are 
 lost, and we receive their testimony at second hand. 
 In either case, therefore, we have the life of Jesus, as 
 reported to us by more than one of those who heard his 
 voice, and beheld his wonderful works. To these is 
 to be added the Fourth Gospel, — ascribed by the voice 
 of antiquity, as we believe correctly, to the Apostle 
 John. The ground on which we receive it as his work, 
 will be our next subject of inquiry. 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 207 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Fourth Gospel* 
 
 There are few questions now presented for the ex- 
 amination of theologians, of more pressing interest than 
 that of the authorship of the Fourth Gospel. If that 
 professed account of the life of Jesus was not the work 
 of the Apostle John, but of some unknown writer in 
 the middle of the second century, — if, instead of re- 
 cording facts that actually occurred, and discourses that 
 were actually given, this writer derived his narrative 
 from his own imagination, — and if in all this he had 
 an especial purpose in view, coinciding with a tendency 
 then existing to alter and corrupt the faith which Jesus 
 had introduced, then must we change our ideas of our 
 Master and of his religion in respects far more impor- 
 tant than any that are recognized by the understanding 
 alone. We might consent to part with the sublime 
 declaration of the Golden Proem, identifying the Savior 
 as the incarnate Wisdom of God ; — but what could 
 compensate us for his parting words of love to his disci- 
 ples ? We might give up our belief that he spoke the 
 command, "Lazarus, come forth;" but how could we 
 resign that brief text, "Jesus wept" ? Christianity, with- 
 out the Gospel of St. John, would still be the world's 
 richest treasure; a king, without his crown, is still a 
 king ; but the faithful subject would not part with the 
 
208 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 diadem ; nor would we willingly spare from the glories 
 of our Redeemer the Gospel in which he speaks to us, 
 in the most spiritual, and the most loving tones. 
 
 But this prejudice, if so we are to call it, must not 
 make us refuse to follow the guidance of truth. It 
 will have, however, its legitimate weight, if it only 
 counterbalances other prejudices, — that which influences 
 many minds in favor of novelty, — and that with which, 
 deeply impressed with the depth of German learning, 
 the student imagines that the most daring criticism of 
 Germany must be right in its conclusions. 
 
 In considering the claim of the Fourth Gospel to be 
 the genuine work of the Apostle John, we are struck, 
 in the first place, with the very recent origin of any 
 doubt upon the subject. In the early catalogues, those 
 of Irenaeus, the fragment found by Muratori, and Euse- 
 bius, the book is named among those which were re- 
 ceived without question ; and from those early days to 
 near the present century, no author expressed a doubt 
 upon the subject, those writers of course excepted, who, 
 directly attacking Christianity, threw aspersions indis- 
 criminately upon all its records. Evanson, in 1792, first 
 stated a doubt of the genuineness of the Gospel. He 
 was followed by Bretschneider in 1820. Some w r riters 
 endeavored to show that two different pens were em- 
 ployed upon the book ; but their arguments were fully 
 set at rest by Baur, who pointed out the unity of the 
 book in style and purpose. His theory was, "that the 
 book was written at the earliest about the year 160, in 
 the midst of the Gnostic, Montanistic, and Quartodeci- 
 man controversies ; and that it bad a strong connection 
 with those movements, not roughly rejecting on either 
 
THE FOUUTH GOSPEL. 209 
 
 side, but also not mediating by weak compliance ; but 
 so that all the different currents should appear carried 
 back upon a higher standpoint, and connected in a higher 
 unity. On this account has it found, even from its 
 presentation, the most general assent." 
 
 The tempting, but unreliable character of Dr. Baur's 
 mode of reasoning, may be illustrated by the supposition 
 that some foreign writer should hereafter undertake to 
 write the history of the United States, and finding that 
 misunderstandings had arisen in the present century be- 
 tween the different sections, which resulted at length in 
 civil war, should maintain that the document known as 
 K Washington's Farewell Address " must be a forgery, 
 palmed upon the world by some benevolent deceiver, 
 about the middle of the nineteenth century, for the sake 
 of composing these sectional differences by the influence 
 of a great name. 
 
 Of the high estimate formed by this great writer of 
 the intellectual and spiritual worth of the Gospel which 
 he thus attempts to invalidate, and of the reason which 
 prompted that attempt, he has left a remarkable testi- 
 mony in the following passage : — 
 
 "A Gospel which, since it came forth into the light 
 from the darkness of its origin, has obtained in the 
 Christian consciousness of all centuries such an expres- 
 sive testimony of its genuine evangelical spirit, can lose 
 nothing of its value by all the results of historical criti- 
 cism ; it still remains the only tender and right Gospel 
 (das einzige zarte rechte Evangelium), which stands 
 above all others, and distinguishes itself above them in 
 a peculiar manner. Criticism cannot, indeed, without 
 entangling itself in inextricable self-contradiction, ever 
 14 
 
210 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 admit that it is the work of the Apostle John ; but the 
 creative spirit which produced it from itself is the same, 
 whether the individual who was the subject of this spirit 
 may have been called thus or otherwise." * 
 
 While we receive with pleasure the strong testimony 
 here given to the value of the Fourth Gospel, we can- 
 not but notice the reason assigned for denying to it an 
 apostolic origin. Criticism requires it, in order to avoid 
 a self-contradiction. Knowing what criticism means 
 with Baur, — that it involves speculation, theory, and 
 especially a decision upon writings with reference to 
 their supposed tendency as determining their age and 
 authorship, we perceive that in his judgment the gen- 
 uineness of the Fourth Gospel is rejected, not for want 
 of proof, but from considerations anterior to the discus- 
 sion of its evidence. 
 
 That evidence, so far as it is external, we have already, 
 to some extent, surveyed in our "Manual" (pages 40, 
 41), in the lists of sacred books given by Eusebius, the 
 Muratorian fragment, and Irenseus. The testimony of 
 the last is of especial importance in the present case, as 
 he had been the pupil of a pupil of John. . Poly carp, 
 in instructing Irenseus in the Christian faith, must have 
 referred to his own venerated instructor more frequently 
 than to any other ; and if he had never spoken of John's 
 having written a Gospel, Irenaeus would not afterwards 
 readily have been convinced that such was the case. 
 
 We can, however, go back beyond the time of Ire- 
 naeus. Justin, who suffered martyrdom, A. D. 164, 
 though he does not name this Gospel, nor any other, has 
 such references as assure us of its existence and recep- 
 
 * Baur in Theol. Jahrbiicher, 1844, page 698. 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 211 
 
 tion in his time. He speaks of K the Word having been 
 made flesh ; " represents the Baptist as saying " I am 
 not the Christ ; " and refers, in three instances, to words 
 of Jesus which we find only in the Fourth Gospel.* 
 
 Papias, as we have seen, while vouching for the Gos- 
 pels of Matthew and Mark, makes no mention of the 
 others. We have, however, already seen reason to 
 identify his instructor, " John the Elder," with the Apostle 
 John. We can perceive then, why, in relating what 
 this Elder had told him respecting other Gospels, he 
 should make no mention of John's. That was the 
 Elder's own work, known as such to Papias, and to all 
 the Christians around ; its origin was no longer to be 
 accounted for ; but respecting those which Matthew and 
 Mark had written, the information which Papias treas- 
 ured up and imparted was new and interesting. This 
 state of the case agrees entirely with what is evident 
 from the inspection of the Gospels, as well as from the 
 account of Irenseus, that the other Gospels were known 
 to John, and that his was written in part with. the object 
 of supplying their deficiencies. In the times of Irenaeus, 
 and afterwards, the evidence is abundant, and receives 
 great strength, from the very distant sections of the 
 church which the witnesses represent. Irenseus himself, 
 as we have seen, testifies alike for the East where he 
 was educated, and for the West where he presided in 
 the church. The canon of Muratori gives the opinion 
 of the Italian churches ; its early date is shown by its 
 reference to the Roman bishop, Pius (A.D. 142 to 157), 
 with the words " most recently, in our own times " 
 (nuperrime, temporibus nostris). Tertullian at Car- 
 
 * Norton's Genuineness, &c, Vol. I. p. 232. 
 
212 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 thage, and Clement of Alexandria, and Origen in Egypt, 
 unite to give us the general assurance of the widely- 
 spread church in the beginning of the third century. 
 Origen declares that our four Gospels cf are the only 
 ones received without controversy in the whole church 
 of God which is under heaven." This list of witnesses 
 from Asia Minor, Gaul, Rome, Carthage, and Egypt, 
 is confirmed by the Peshito, and the probably still more 
 ancient Curetonian, Syriac versions.* 
 
 Some other witnesses are deserving of mention. 
 Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, in 196, quotes from the 
 Gospel of John the statement that the apostle whose 
 name it bears w leaned upon the Lord's breast." "Even 
 Hilgenfeld, one of the most forward of the Tiibingen 
 critics, does not longer deny that' the expression is drawn 
 by Polycrates from John xiii. 25." f We shall see 
 hereafter the importance of this testimony. 
 
 Theophilus of Antioch, in his letter to Autolycus, 
 written in 181, designates John as one of the w bearers of 
 the Spirit" (nvevixaioyoQoi), and refers to the beginning 
 of his Gospel. The same author brought out an inter- 
 pretation of the four Gospels, the number specified 
 being a proof that they were those which we possess. 
 
 Omitting the quotations by Athenagoras, about A. D. 
 177, and Apollinaris, Bishop of Hierapolis, about A. D. 
 170, we come to Tatian, the disciple of Justin Martyr, 
 whose verification of the four Gospels has already been 
 mentioned. Of the four, from which he composed his 
 Diatessaron, that of John was one, according to the 
 
 * Riggenbach. Die Zeugnisse far das Evangelium Johannis. 
 t Essays on the Supernatural Origin of Christianity, by Pro- 
 fessor George P. Fisher, of Yale College. 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 213 
 
 express admission of Volkmar, one of the latest defenders 
 of the theory of Baur. In his " Address to the Greeks n 
 also, of earlier date than the Diatessaron (or about A. D. 
 165), Tatian quotes repeatedly from John's Gospel. 
 As we have already pointed out, the connection of this 
 author with his instructor Justin, gives to his use of our 
 present Gospels something of the authority of the pre- 
 ceding generation. 
 
 It may be asked, Were there none who early disputed 
 the authority of the Fourth Gospel ? Candor compels 
 us to admit that there were ; yet, as " the exception 
 proves the rule," the presence of a few obscure oppo- 
 nents renders more distinct the consent of the vast ma- 
 jority of the church. The first notice of any who denied 
 the authority of John's Gospel is by Irenseus. That 
 early Father has the following words, preserved to us 
 only in a Latin translation (3, 11,9): w But others, to 
 frustrate the gift of the Spirit, which, in most recent 
 times, has been poured forth upon the human race ac- 
 cording to the will of the Father, do not admit that 
 form which is according to the Gospel of John, in which 
 the Lord promised to send the Paraclete ; but they re- 
 ject together the Gospel and the prophetic spirit. Un- 
 happy, truly, who indeed choose to be false prophets 
 themselves^ but repel the grace of prophecy from the 
 church ; suffering like those, who, on account of per- 
 sons that come in hypocrisy, abstain themselves also 
 from the communion of the brethren." * Without 
 
 * " Alii vero, ut donum spiritfts frustrentur, quod in novissimis 
 temporibus secundum placitum Patris effusum est in humanum ge- 
 nus, illam speciem non admittunt, quae est secundum Joannis evan- 
 gelium, in qua Paracletum se missurum Dominus promisit. Sed 
 
214 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 pausing to seek an explanation of all the obscurities of 
 this passage, it is sufficient to remark, that the persons 
 mentioned in it appear to have rejected or undervalued 
 John's Gospel, not from doubt respecting its origin, but 
 because of their dislike to something it contained. It 
 was thought to favor some views respecting the Holy 
 Spirit, which they considered fanatical. But notwith- 
 standing their rejection, Irenaeus, who, through his in- 
 structor Polycarp, had the best means of information, 
 and with him the Christian Church in general at his 
 early day, acknowledged with reverence the Gospel ac- 
 cording to St. John. 
 
 Two later writers, Philastrius (Haer. 60) and Epi- 
 phanius (Haer. 51), relate that these persons also re- 
 jected the Apocalypse, ascribing both works to the 
 heretic Cerinthus. Their opinion was prompted by 
 dislike of Montanism. Epiphanius marked them with 
 the name of Alogi, bearing the two meanings of " reject- 
 ers of the Logos " and " unreasonable." * Excepting 
 this obscure sect, there are found no early opponents of 
 this Gospel ; for the fact that the Ebionites used only 
 the Gospel according to the Hebrews, which was prob- 
 ably the same as Matthew's, does not testify against the 
 genuineness of that ascribed to John. The same may 
 be said of the exclusive use of Mark by some of the 
 Docetae, and of a mutilated copy of Luke by Marcion. 
 Various heretical leaders had each his chosen document, 
 
 simul et evangelium et propheticum repellunt spiritum. Infelices 
 vere, qui pseudoprophetse quidem esse volunt, propheticam vero 
 gratiam repellunt ab ecclesia, similia patientes his, qui propter eos, 
 qui in hypocrisi veniunt, etiam a fratrum communione se abstinent." 
 * Riggenbach. 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 215 
 
 preferred apparently for sectarian reasons, but they do 
 not appear to have borne witness against the apostolie 
 origin of the writings which they did not use. Those 
 writings come to us on the testimony, not of any ex- 
 ceptional class, but of the great body of Christian be- 
 lievers throughout the civilized world. 
 
 Turning from the strictly external evidence to that 
 which is internal, we in the first place notice the lan- 
 guage. According to Ewald, a most competent judge, 
 in no writer of the New Testament is there a lan^ua^e 
 that in spirit and in utterance has more the ring of the 
 true Hebrew. The formation of abrupt sentences in- 
 stead of orderly sequence, the frequent omission of con- 
 necting particles, and the prevalence of "and" and 
 " then," answering the Hebrew copulative conjunction, 
 are features of this character. 
 
 The very difference between this Gospel and the other 
 three, which seems an argument against it, furnishes, 
 when more closely examined, proof of its authenticity. 
 It fits in with the Synoptical Gospels, furnishing what 
 they do not give. The repeated visits to Jerusalem, of 
 w r hich John alone makes mention, must have taken 
 place, from their connection with facts stated by the 
 other evangelists, such as the discipleship of Joseph of 
 Arimathea, and the intimacy of the Savior with the 
 family at Bethany. Christ himself, too, uses the words, 
 in his lament over Jerusalem, "How often would I have 
 gathered thy children together" (Matt, xxiii. 37 ; Luke 
 xiii. 34) ; words entirely irrelevant, if he had never 
 visited the city since his childhood. 
 
 In particular narratives, the completion of the accounts 
 from these different sources, by each other, is very die- 
 
216 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 tinctly marked. Among many instances, we take the 
 following : Luke (xxii. 27) records the words of Christ, 
 at his last supper, " I am among you as he that serveth ; " 
 John furnishes the explanation of these words, in the 
 menial office which the Savior had just discharged, — 
 that of washing the disciples' feet. (xiii. 4-12.) From 
 Luke alone it would seem that Pilate acquitted Jesus 
 very strangely, after he had declared himself a king. 
 (xxiii. 1-4.) John supplies the missing link, by telling 
 us that Jesus had explained to Pilate that his kingdom 
 was not of this world, but that he was a teacher of the 
 truth, (xviii. 36, 37.) Sometimes an apparent differ- 
 ence is easily reconciled. Thus, in John i. 44, Beth- 
 saida is called the city of Andrew and Peter, while the 
 Synoptics all speak of Peter's house in Capernaum. 
 (Matt. viii. 5, 14, and parallel passages.) But the 
 mention, in the same connection, of "Peter's wife's 
 mother," suggests the explanation, that the apostle, 
 though a native of Bethsaida, was at home in Caper- 
 naum by reason of his marriage there. But what forger 
 of a later age would have varied from the Synoptics on 
 a point of so little importance ? We may make a sim- 
 ilar observation on all the points of apparent difference. 
 The fourth evangelist, whoever he was, must have 
 known the Synoptical account. His venturing to differ 
 from it so widely in appearance, though we think so 
 little in reality, can only be explained by the uncon- 
 sciousness of truth. 
 
 Critics have tried to convict this writer of ignorance 
 respecting the geography of the Holy Land, because, 
 according to the best established reading, he speaks of 
 Bethany on the Jordan, (i. 28.) In the time of Origen, 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 217 
 
 no such place was known there, and he altered the 
 reading to Bethabara. Both words have the same 
 meaning, that of " crossing-place," — a name equally ap- 
 propriate to a village, whether by a river or on a hill. 
 It is evident that the evangelist well knew the Bethany 
 on the Mount of Olives, (xi. 18.) His mention, then, 
 of the other "crossing place" on the Jordan, was not 
 from ignorance, but from familiar knowledge of the 
 country, and of the names by which places were known 
 in his time. A similar attempt to convict the apostle 
 of error, has been made with regard to the name Sychar 
 (iv. 5) , which he was thought to have substituted, through 
 ignorance, for Shechem ; but the existence of a place of 
 that name in Samaria has been shown, both from men- 
 tion of it in the Talmud, and from modern research in 
 that vicinity.* 
 
 Not much more successful is the- argument founded 
 on the designation of Caiaphas as " high priest that same 
 year" (xi. 49), as if the writer had thought the high 
 priesthood was an elective office. It is known that the 
 Roman authority frequently transferred the dignity from 
 one to another, but not at regular intervals. Caiaphas 
 held the office more than ten years ; the evangelist does 
 not deny this ; he only states that Caiaphas was high 
 priest during that important year of which he writes. 
 
 Another objection is drawn from the manner in which 
 the writer speaks of w the Jews," as if he himself were 
 not one of their number. In some instances he evi- 
 dently uses the word in its narrower application, the 
 
 * Wieseler, Chronol. Synop. der vier Evangelien, p. 256, &c. 
 Lightfoot's Horae Hebraicse, p. 93 ; Rauner's Palastina, third edition, 
 p. 146 ; quoted by Riggenbach. 
 
218 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Jews ( Judsei) being the inhabitants of Judaea, the south- 
 ern province of Palestine, as distinguished from Galilee, 
 (iii. 25 ; vii. 1 ; xi. 8.) It is to be remembered, also 
 that the apostle, when he wrote, had long resided among 
 Gentiles, and had become separated from his own nation 
 by their bitter opposition to the cause to which he was 
 devoted. It is, perhaps, no more singular that he should 
 speak of "the Jews" as if he did not belong to them, 
 than that a citizen of the United. States, who had long 
 since emigrated from France, should speak of "the 
 French " as if he had not been a native of their country. 
 
 To the objection which has been derived from the 
 difference between this Gospel and the others, in regard 
 to the scene, the incidents, and the character of the 
 Savior's ministry, we find a sufficient answer in the 
 testimony of antiquity, that John wrote his Gospel after 
 the other evangelists, and with a knowledge of what 
 they had written ; that he wrote it, therefore, expressly 
 to supply their deficiencies, narrating incidents which 
 they had omitted, and ascending to spiritual heights 
 which they had not reached. Thus, Clement of Alex- 
 andria, about the year 200, writes as follows: "But 
 John, last of all, perceiving that what had reference to 
 -the body in the Gospel of our Savior was sufficiently 
 detailed, and being encouraged by his familiar friends, 
 and urged by the Spirit, wrote a spiritual Gospel." 
 
 The Gospel of John merits the name thus given it. 
 The mind of John appears to have been deeper, more 
 full of lofty thought and tender sentiment, than those of 
 his fellow-disciples. Not improbably he had received 
 superior advantages of early education. In fact, if the 
 tradition respecting his youth is correct, the teaching of 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 219 
 
 Jesus came to him as a part of his education, at that 
 period of life when the heart is more sensitive to all high 
 and pure influences than it is apt afterwards to be. He 
 had hung enraptured on the Savior's words, and pene- 
 trated deep into their meaning, when it had been veiled 
 from others. Few of the miracles does the beloved dis- 
 ciple record, and scarcely any of the parables. The 
 wonderful acts could be seen by all ; the stories, enter- 
 taining and striking, could be set down from memory 
 by more common minds ; but it was left for the friend 
 of Jesus to transmit to us the deep conversation with 
 Nicodemus on the New Birth, the instruction on the 
 spiritual nature of God which Christ uttered to the 
 Samaritan woman, the promise of the Comforter, and 
 the mystic prayer that the disciples should all be one, 
 as Christ himself was one with God. 
 
 The style of the Savior's teaching in John's Gospel, 
 though different from that in the Synoptics, is not more 
 different than may be accounted for by the different 
 characters of mind in the writers. They agree in this, 
 that the style of the Savior was highly figurative, and 
 from- the boldness of the figures he employed, sometimes 
 difficult to be understood by those around him; as 
 when, in the earlier Gospels, he told them to beware of 
 the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and they 
 thought that he spoke literally of the leaven of bread ; 
 and as, in the Gospel of Luke, he told them, "He that 
 hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one," 
 and they in their simplicity showed him two swords, 
 with which they were already provided ; not under- 
 standing his meaning, that they should arm their minds, 
 not their hands, for the conflict that was before them. 
 
220 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Thus, too, in John, the Savior washes the feet of the 
 disciples, and commands them to wash one another's 
 feet ; and some Christians may have thought he was 
 instituting an external rite, instead of giving a precept 
 of humility. 
 
 We have said that John gives hardly any parables ; 
 we might have said, none ; for what are called parables 
 in his Gospel, are not narratives, but comparisons. 
 But the same fertility of fancy is displayed in the com- 
 parisons of the Vine and of the Shepherd, that is shown 
 in the parables of the Sower and of the Prodigal Son. 
 If Luke had been the reporter of the first mentioned 
 illustrations, he would have written, "The kingdom of 
 heaven is likened unto a householder, which had a vine," 
 and so on, instead of directly, W I am the true vine, and 
 my Father is the husbandman." The difference in the 
 style, instead of showing a different origin for the ac- 
 count, proves that the writer was no mere imitator ; — 
 and thus we may say of other differences. A forger, 
 who, a century after the time of Christ, had endeavored 
 to palm a spurious gospel on the world, would have 
 been likely to copy, with servile minuteness, the features 
 of the true. 
 
 The difference between the portraiture of the Savior, 
 as given by the Synoptics and by John, has been beau- 
 tifully illustrated by that which is observable between 
 the representations of Socrates by Xenophon and by 
 Plato.* Xenophon was a man of practical mind, a 
 eoldier and a statesman ; Plato, a philosopher of deep 
 investigation as well as of original genius. Their ac- 
 
 * Bleek, referred to by Prof. Eisher. 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 221 
 
 counts bear the mark of their respective personalities ; 
 yet, combined together, the one supplies the deficiencies 
 of the other. 
 
 One of the arguments against the genuineness of the 
 Fourth Gospel is founded on its language respecting the 
 Logos, the Word, or personified Wisdom of God. (John 
 i. 1—14.) In this, the Tubingen school of critics see 
 traces of Gnosticism — an early heresy, which endeav- 
 ored to refine Christianity by combining it with what then 
 passed for spiritual philosophy. Dating the develop- 
 ment of this system near the middle of the second cen- 
 tury, they assign that as the earliest period when the 
 Fourth Gospel can have been written. For the same 
 reason Dr. Baur denied the genuineness of some of the 
 Epistles of St. Paul. We propose to examine his argu- 
 ment in connection with those Epistles. It is well 
 known, however, that language similar to that used in 
 the Fourth Gospel with regard to " the Word of God," 
 was employed long before the rise of Gnosticism. Philo, 
 a Jewish writer, of Alexandria in Egypt, contemporary 
 with the Savior, makes use of it, and the apocryphal 
 book called the Wisdom of Solomon, whose author also 
 was a Jew of the Alexandrian school, describes the 
 Word as leaping down from heaven out of God's royal 
 throne, and touching heaven while it stood upon the 
 earth, (xviii. 15, 16.) If it be questioned how the 
 ideas of the Alexandrian school became known to the 
 Apostle John, the answer is obvious. John, according 
 to the ancient accounts, wrote his Gospel in his old age. 
 He then resided in the Proconsular Asia, whose great 
 cities, such as Ephesus and Smyrna, carried on constant 
 intercourse with Alexandria, and with every other centre 
 
222 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 of Greek civilization. Can it be wondered at that he 
 should show an acquaintance with philosophic ideas and 
 expressions which had been in use in the Alexandrian 
 school for a hundred years ? 
 
 But the use of the term in the Revelation, which Dr. 
 Baur admits to be the genuine work of John, is in itself 
 a sufficient answer to his objection. Describing the 
 Savior in his exaltation, as going forth to conquer the 
 world, the poet says, "His name is called the Word of 
 God." (Rev. xix. 13.) Dr. Baur passes this over very 
 slightly, with the remark, that the expression is not here 
 used in the true sense of the Logos doctrine. Without 
 inquiring, however, what peculiar shade of thought Dr. 
 Baur regards as the true sense of that doctrine, it is 
 sufficient for us that the expression "the Word of God " 
 is used, and that it is applied to the manifestation of the 
 Almighty in Christ and in his Gospel. This comes very 
 near to the thought in the first chapter of John's Gos- 
 pel. It suggests the conclusion that the two passages 
 are from the same author. Yet should it be denied that 
 the Apocalypse was from the hand of John, it is un- 
 questionably of such early date, that its application of 
 the term Logos to Christ, may well illustrate the similar 
 use of that term in the Fourth Gospel. 
 
 We have next to speak of the objection drawn from 
 the raising of Lazarus, which is represented as a miracle 
 too extraordinary to have been omitted by the other 
 evangelists if it had really taken place. The answer 
 generally given to this is, that when the Synoptics wrote, 
 Lazarus and his sisters were probably still living, and 
 might have been pointed out to persecution by a mention 
 of the connection in. which they had stood with Jesus ; 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 223 
 
 while at the later date of John's Gospel, they had all 
 passed away. We may add, that even were they then 
 living, the Jewish power to injure them was then broken. 
 We would hazard, as a further answer, the following con- 
 jecture : When Jesus reached Bethany, he was on the 
 road to Jerusalem, and only two miles from it. It seems 
 highly probable that on his visit of consolation and 
 relief to his private friends at Bethany, he would prefer 
 to go with but two or three chosen companions, sending 
 the rest of his company forward to the neighboring 
 capital. Among these confidential friends was John, as 
 on other occasions ; and thus he became the only eye- 
 witness among the evangelists, and almost the only one 
 among the apostles, of the wonder that took place. 
 When we add to this that the occurrence, great as it 
 was, was succeeded soon after by the still greater and 
 more startling occurrences of the Savior's trial, death, 
 and resurrection, we may wonder the less that it was 
 omitted by writers who did not witness it themselves. 
 
 But the most important argument against the genuine- 
 ness- of the Fourth Gospel, is that which is founded on 
 its different representation of the time of the last supper 
 from that which is given by the Synoptics. These state 
 unequivocally that Jesus kept the passover with his dis- 
 ciples. The language of the Fourth Gospel seems to 
 imply that the last supper with his friends was before 
 the passover. The thirteenth chapter begins with the 
 words, "Now, before the feast of the passover, when 
 Jesus knew that his hour was come." The disciples 
 interpreted certain words said by Jesus to Judas at the 
 table, to mean, "Buy those things that we have need of 
 against the feast" (xiii. 29), and the next morning 
 
224 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the accusers of Jesus w went not into the judgment hall 
 lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the 
 passover." (xviii. 28.) These expressions prove, it is 
 said, that Jesus partook of his last supper, not on the 
 great feast day, but at least one day before. If this 
 construction be received, there is a contradiction between 
 John and the Synoptics. 
 
 Further, this construction of John's language is 
 strengthened by the expression by which he seems to 
 identify Christ himself with the paschal sacrifice. He 
 quotes and applies to Christ the direction given with 
 regard to that sacrifice, — "a bone of him shall not be 
 broken." (xix. 36.) Christ, then, says Dr. Baur in 
 substance, is represented by the author of the Fourth 
 Gospel as the true paschal lamb ; suffering on the same 
 day when the paschal lamb was slaughtered. He is 
 made to meet his disciples at supper on the day before 
 the passover, in order that he may suffer himself on the 
 day of the passover ; thus fulfilling the type at the very 
 time for which it was appointed. 
 
 Having made a discovery of this "tendency," Dr. 
 Baur proceeds to connect it with the Quartodeciman 
 controversy respecting the time of keeping Easter, in- 
 ferring that the Fourth Gospel was written with reference 
 to that controversy, and to give the Occidental party 
 therein some apparent apostolical authority. Of course 
 this would carry its date down to the period at which 
 that controversy was agitated ; and an earlier period 
 could scarcely be assigned to it than the middle of the 
 second century. 
 
 Further still, the argument against the genuineness 
 of the Gospel is thought to be strengthened by the fact, 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 225 
 
 that while the Occidental Christians might plead the 
 authority of this Gospel for their custom, the Orientals 
 did actually and strongly plead the authority of John 
 himself for theirs. Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, near 
 the close of the second century, declared with the utmost 
 solemnity, that the Asiatic churches, in celebrating 
 Easter on the very day of the Jewish passover, did but 
 observe the custom transmitted them by the venerable 
 Apostle John himself. We have, therefore, concludes 
 Dr. Baur, the personal authority of the Apostle John 
 directly opposed to the view presented in that Gospel 
 which claims to be called by his name. 
 
 With regard to this ingenious argument, we have in 
 the first place to remark, that it proves too much. If 
 we are to believe Dr. Baur, it was in the midst of a 
 controversy which shook the whole Christian church, — 
 a controversy of such importance that Polycarp of 
 Smyrna is said to have gone to Rome to confer with 
 Anicetus on account of it, the apostolical and evangeli- 
 cal authority being thus far entirely on one side, that 
 suddenly the opposite side produced a document, purport- 
 ing to be of the very highest character — a gospel, and 
 the work of an apostle, — of that very apostle too, to 
 whom the other party looked up as their especial patron 
 and founder. To say nothing of the absurdity of sup- 
 posing the glorious Gospel of John to have been written 
 for the sake of an obscure inference from some few verses 
 in it with regard to a point of ceremony, how came it 
 that the fraud was not suspected, nay, was not detected 
 in a moment ? What "would be the emotions of Poly- 
 carp, when, in his conference with Anicetus, he heard for 
 the first time passages quoted from a Gospel purporting 
 15 
 
226 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 to be from his own great master, but of which he had 
 never heard before? Or to come some years lower 
 down, when Polycrates of Ephesus solemnly appealed 
 to his own gray hairs, and to the elders by whom he had 
 been instructed, in reference to the Apostle John's mode 
 of keeping Easter, why had he no word to say against 
 the atrocious fraud which ascribed a recently-written 
 book to that same apostle, in order to bring his testimony 
 on the wrong side? So far from this, Polycrates is, as 
 we have seen already (page 212), one of the witnesses 
 for this very book ! By none of those engaged in this 
 controversy was a word of objection to this Gospel 
 uttered. Irenseus, the disciple of Polycarp, knew of 
 none on the part of his venerable teacher. Eusebius, 
 who described the proceedings of the Council of Nicsea, 
 where this Quartodeciman controversy was finally set- 
 tled, and where the Oriental party must have brought 
 forward their objections, still speaks of the Gospel of 
 John as of unquestioned genuineness, carefully discrimi- 
 nating it, and others with it, from those respecting which 
 any doubt existed. There have been successful literary 
 frauds, but such a fraud as this was never heard of; — 
 to bring in, as the work of a distinguished man, a forged 
 document, contradictory to his practice, and to the opin- 
 ions and practice of the school which he had founded, 
 and to obtain for it universal reception, without the 
 slightest objection on the part of that school. We may 
 reverse the reasoning of Dr. Baur, and say with truth, 
 that the apparent bearing which the Gospel of John has 
 upon the Quartodeciman controversy, is a proof that it 
 cannot have been introduced while that controversy was 
 in agitation. The Orientals, the disciples of John, 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 227 
 
 would not haveTorged a work which made against their 
 principles ; and the Occidentals could not have intro- 
 duced it without a protest from those among whom the 
 apostle had lived and labored, and who must have known 
 that no such work existed from his pen. 
 
 But how, then, it may be asked, can the objection be 
 surmounted, that the book is contradictory to the known 
 practice of St. John, as Polycrates describes it? We 
 answer, that the contradiction is in appearance only. 
 The question between the Eastern and Western churches 
 was, whether they should 'keep as a Christian festival the 
 Jewish passover, or the Sunday that followed it. The 
 Eastern churches kept the passover itself; the Western 
 kept the Sunday after. The reason of this difference is 
 sufficiently obvious, in the fact that the Jewish Chris- 
 tians were more numerous in the East, and naturally 
 continued the observance of the same day to which, as 
 Jews, they had always been accustomed ; while the 
 Western Christians, being principally converts from 
 heathenism, were indifferent to the Jewish custom, but 
 observed the first day of the week following, being the 
 day of the Savior's resurrection. Of course, St. John, 
 being a Jew by birth, was likely to follow the customs 
 of his nation in all matters of indifference ; and the 
 account of Polycrates is therefore undoubtedly true, 
 that he, when the season came round which had witnessed 
 his beloved Master's death and resurrection, observed it 
 especially on that same day that had been observed for 
 more than a thousand years. Is this a proof that the 
 document cannot have come from him which testifies 
 that it was on that day the Savior was crucified ? It is 
 true that Easter, as it became afterwards distinctly fixed 
 
228 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 in the customs of the church as commemorative of the 
 resurrection, would not seem to be suitably observed on 
 that which wajs the day of the crucifixion ; but we should 
 err in ascribing to the Apostle John the finical ritualism 
 of a later age. Had he given a thought to the question 
 whether he should change, in his observance, the day to 
 which he had as a Jew been accustomed, he would prob- 
 ably have answered, that the day of his Lord's death 
 was as full of precious memories to him as the day on 
 which he arose ; and that if those memories were in part 
 mournful, yet the mournfulness had been allayed by the 
 event that followed, while there remained the joy of 
 the great salvation which that death had accomplished. 
 He kept, then, the ancient anniversary, and the whole 
 Oriental church kept it also. They all knew that it 
 could not possibly be the real anniversary of the resur- 
 rection ; that took place on, at least, the third day after- 
 wards ; but they kept it in memory of the season during 
 whose successive days the great sacrifice had been offered, 
 and the great triumph over death achieved. 
 
 But if we have succeeded in disentangling the question 
 before us from the Quartodeciman controversy, the ob- 
 jection still remains that the Fourth Gospel appears to 
 assign a different date to the last supper from that as- 
 signed by the others. The best as well as the sinplest 
 answer to this, appears to be, that John uses the word 
 Passover in a comprehensive sense, including not only 
 the banquet on the lamb, but the whole subsequent week 
 of festivity. This sense of the word is fully authorized 
 by the passage in the book of Deuteronomy (xvi. 1-8), 
 prescribing the feast. <? Thou shalt sacrifice the passover 
 unto the Lord thy God, of the flock and the herd ; " 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 229 
 
 literally, sheep and oxen. "Seven days shalt thou eat 
 unleavened bread therewith," that is, with the passover, 
 that term being thus extended to include the sacrifices, 
 of larger as w 7 ell as smaller animals, through the whole 
 week. When, therefore, the disciples were supposed 
 to be preparing, on the evening of the last supper, what 
 they needed "against the feast," and when, on the next 
 day, the priests guarded against legal defilement, " that 
 they might eat the passover," they had in view, not the 
 paschal supper, but the celebration of the subsequent 
 days. 
 
 We find in this Gospel an attestation of its own 
 authority, of a remarkable character. In the last verse 
 but one it is said, " This is the disciple which testifieth 
 of these things, and wrote these things; and we know 
 that his testimony is true." These words appear to 
 have been added by another hand. In the use of the 
 first and third persons, the writer distinguishes himself 
 from him of whom he speaks. The strong exaggeration 
 too, of the next verse, is unlike anything else in this 
 Gospel, and betrays a different hand. If these two 
 verses, then, were added by another person, and added 
 so early as to be found in all existing copies of the Gos- 
 pel, we have the direct testimony of a contemporary to 
 the fact that this Gospel was written by the beloved 
 disciple. If, on the other hand, these verses w r ere 
 written by the author of the work, they contain such a 
 direct assertion on his part, of his own apostolic author- 
 ity, as can be found in neither of the other Gospels ; 
 an assertion, which, if the work were not genuine, 
 would deprive its publication of all excuse, and present 
 it in the aspect of an unmitigated forgery. Well may 
 
230 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Renan observe, " We have no example in the apostolic 
 world, of a forgery of this kind." * 
 
 While, however, the author, or a contemporary on his 
 behalf, thus claims the place of an apostle, the name is 
 veiled beneath a circumlocution. He calls himself 
 "another disciple" (xviii. 15), and "the disciple whom 
 Jesus loved." (xiii. 23 ; xxi. 7, 20.). This seems only 
 to be accounted for by admitting the genuineness of the 
 work. 
 
 The modern opponents of the authenticity of this 
 Gospel generally admit that its author desired it to pass 
 for the production of the Apostle John. Strauss as- 
 cribes it to some one who had come from a Johannean 
 school ; and Baur conceives that one object of its com- 
 position was, to give the authority of an apostolic name 
 to the Occidental side in the controversy respecting the 
 time of keeping Easter. If, then, the author desired 
 either to do honor to the Apostle John, or to make use 
 of his authority, why should he conceal his name? It 
 w r ere better for either purpose to declare it as openly as 
 possible. He scruples not to tell us that Peter followed 
 his Lord to the high priest's hall of judgment ; why 
 should he veil the name of the disciple who accompanied 
 him? Why, But that he was that disciple himself, and 
 used a circumlocution, either from real modesty or from 
 an affectation of it ? 
 
 Kindred to the last topic named is that of the prom- 
 inence given to this unnamed apostle. This prominence 
 is especially marked in the contrast in which he stands 
 to Peter. Peter, wishing to know whom Jesus meant, 
 
 * Life of Jesus, p. 26. 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 231 
 
 must beckon to the beloved disciple, who reclines next 
 to Jesus ; Peter can only stand at the high priest's 
 door, till the beloved disciple, who has familiar access 
 there, introduces him; at the sepulchre, they rival each 
 other in forwardness, but the palm, on the whole, is 
 awarded to the beloved disciple, who "saw and believed ;'' 
 and finally, in the scene by the lake, though a solemn 
 charge, and the prediction of a martyr's death, are given 
 to Peter, yet the beloved disciple, who had first recog- 
 nized his Lord, is favored with a mysterious prophecy, 
 which seemed to indicate some more exalted destiny. 
 All this cannot be accidental on the part of a forger, 
 who merely wished to avail himself of the authority of 
 the Apostle John. It was either the work of that apos- 
 tle himself, or of some ardent admirer of him, who 
 sought occasions to exalt his glory. 
 
 But is such ardent admiration of a venerable religious 
 teacher consistent with the wholesale falsehood of which 
 this supposed disciple of John was guilty ? And why, 
 we may ask again, should he have suppressed the name 
 of that teacher whom he so idolized ? If, on the other 
 hand, we suppose the Gospel to have been written by 
 John himself, there are various suppositions which ex- 
 plain the prominence thus given to that apostle. We 
 may discern in it the effect of vanity. Peter and John 
 were the most distinguished of the band ; and the aged 
 teacher may have unconsciously dwelt on every little 
 circumstance in which he had the advantage. Such is 
 the view taken by Eenan. Or, we may suppose that the 
 apostle simply told the truth, only that he remembered 
 best those particulars in which he had borne a part. 
 We are more inclined to see here a contest of Christian 
 
232 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 principle with acknowledged temptation, than a dull, 
 impassive faithfulness. The apostle was conscious of 
 a wish to assert his own equality, at least, with him who 
 was even then regarded as the chief of the band. The 
 wish made him dwell, more than another would have 
 done, on minute incidents favorable to his own claims ; 
 but the consciousness of that wish, recognized by a 
 faithful heart, made him veil his name. Thin as the 
 veil was, he meant that it should be an effectual disguise ; 
 but all concealment was at an end, when some loving 
 follower, probably after the apostle's death, added to his 
 manuscript the words, "This is the disciple which testi- 
 fieth of these things, and wrote these things, and we 
 know that his testimony is true." 
 
 The supposition is worth a moment's pause to consider, 
 which regards not these closing words alone, but the 
 whole Gospel, as having been written, not by John 
 himself, but by his immediate hearers, from the accounts 
 which he had repeatedly given them. There are some 
 things which give probability to this theory, especially 
 the manner in which, more than once, the discourses of 
 Jesus pass insensibly into the amplifications of his his- 
 torian. This seems like the style of an extemporaneous 
 speaker, in whose language there are no quotation marks 
 to tell us where he ceases to repeat another's words, and 
 begins to explain them with his own. This theory does 
 not conflict with our reception of the Gospel as that of 
 John. If it came from his disciples, repeating to us 
 his words, it is in fact his. But the probability in its 
 favor is not sufficient to outweigh the uniform tradition 
 of the church ; and the phenomena previously spoken of 
 appear more consistent with the direct authorship of the 
 beloved disciple. 
 
THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 233 
 
 We conclude, then, that the Fourth Gospel is the gen- 
 uine work of the Apostle John. The various objections 
 which have been brought forward, are all susceptible of 
 explanation ; and were they stronger than they are, they 
 would be more than equalled by the difficulties which 
 must attend the opposite theory. If we consider it to 
 have been composed in the middle of the second century, 
 we have to account for the fact of its universal reception, 
 as attested by ample authority at the end of that century. 
 Every difference that exists between this Gospel and the 
 others, would increase the difficulty of imposing the 
 forgery upon the church. It is to us inconceivable that 
 had it thus been introduced, no trace of controversy, or 
 of opposition with regard to it, should remain, save in 
 the obscure heresy of the Alogi. 
 
 But this is not to us the strongest consideration in its 
 favor. The intellectual power, the spiritual insight, the 
 hallowed warmth of love to God and man, which this 
 Gospel manifests, are its strongest, as well as its highest 
 proof. We listen with composure to a critic of Shake- 
 speare, when he tells us that it is doubtful whether that 
 great master wrote Titus Andronicus, or Pericles Prince 
 of Tyre. The critic may be right, for those plays are 
 comparatively inferior productions. But if he tells us 
 that Lear and Hamlet have been wrongly ascribed to 
 him, we answer that they bear the indubitable stamp of 
 Shakespeare's genius. If he who wrote Macbeth did 
 not write these, there were two Shakespeares. The 
 greatest of dramatic poets, whom the whole world beside 
 has not equalled before or since, had his equal in a writer, 
 who yet saw fit to give the credit of his own splendid 
 works to his great rival, and let his own name be for- 
 gotten. Thus, if the Fourth Gospel be not authentic, 
 
234 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 the moral miracle of Christianity is doubled. There 
 were two Christs — two religious teachers, endowed 
 with the highest gifts of intellect and feeling. One 
 gave the Sermon on the Mount and the parable of the 
 Prodigal Son ; the other imagined the conversation at 
 the Well of Sychar, and the holiest words of the Last 
 Supper : but this last glorious teacher threw away the 
 fame that might have been his, by the folly and sin of 
 attributing his own great thoughts to the Savior, whom 
 he alone could equal. Who was he? What author of 
 that age was capable of the wondrous forgery ? No : 
 we recognize in the Fourth Gospel the stamp of Heaven ; 
 in its great subject, God's Messiah ; and in his biographer, 
 the Beloved Disciple. 
 
baur's view of the acts. 235 
 
 CHAPTER XIV, 
 
 Baur's View of the Acts. 
 
 In investigating the claims of the Fourth Gospel to 
 apostolic authority, we have found their chief opponents 
 in "the Tiibingen School," and especially in its master- 
 spirit, the late Dr. Ferdinand Christian Baur. We 
 have now to examine the views of the same author with 
 regard to the Book of Acts and the Epistles of St. 
 Paul. 
 
 The Book of the Acts of the Apostles is among those 
 which the ancient catalogues, as we have seen, record 
 as having been received without question by the early 
 church. It bears, too, very strong internal evidence of 
 its own character, as the work of a companion of the 
 Apostle Paul. (See "Manual," section 19.) Among 
 the testimony afforded to it by the Epistles, we may add 
 to what has been said already, that Luke, its traditional 
 author, is recognized as a companion of Paul in three 
 passages (Col. iv. 14; 2 Tim. iv. 11; Philemon 24), 
 which at least show the belief of the church respecting 
 him at a very early period. The abrupt ending of the 
 Acts, too, with the statement that Paul had dwelt two 
 years at Rome, marks the date of this composition as 
 before the Neronian persecution in A. D. 64. The 
 book ends in a cheerful spirit. The great teacher, 
 whose history it records, is comparatively at liberty, 
 
236 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 preaching the gospel in the capital of the civilized world. 
 Would the writer have closed his biography in this cheer- 
 ful strain, if that period of the church's peaceful growth 
 had already been succeeded by the horrible tortures which 
 the worst of tyrants inflicted on those Christians to 
 whom public prejudice attributed the burning of the 
 city? Above all, would a writer in any subsequent age, 
 giving a fictitious account of the ministry of Paul and 
 other apostles, have failed to embellish his narrative 
 with the story of their death ? If the Book of Acts was 
 written w T ith a "reconciling tendency," should we not 
 find in it the statement which comes to us from early 
 tradition, that Peter and Paul were sufferers together in 
 the persecution under Nero, while words of mutual re- 
 spect and encouragement from the two holy martyrs 
 would show the studied attempt to obliterate all remem- 
 brance of former discord ? 
 
 It is on the supposition of such discord that Dr. 
 Baur's theory is founded. And this supposition itself 
 rests in great part on the passage, Galatians ii. 11—14, 
 where Paul relates his expostulation with Peter, on the 
 inconsistent conduct of the latter towards the Gentile 
 converts. There was, then, this author maintains, a de- 
 cided opposition between these two apostles ; the others 
 of the original apostolic band, especially James and 
 John, taking side with Peter, and opposing the admis- 
 sion of Gentiles into the church unless they first, as far 
 as was possible, became Jews, while Paul appeared as 
 the advocate of a free and spiritual system. Through 
 his efforts it was that Christianity burst its original bonds 
 of narrow Judaism, and became a religion for the civil- 
 ized world. 
 
baur's view of the acts. 237 
 
 The resemblance and the difference are alike notice- 
 able, between this view of Baur's and that of which we 
 have before spoken, as taken by some Jewish writers. 
 The Karaite Rabbi (page 104), like Baur, regards 
 Jesus as an excellent teacher of morals, but entirely on 
 the platform of the Jewish law, while he represents 
 Paul as bringing in other views. But while Baur re- 
 gards this apostle as the great improver of Christianity, 
 the Jew represents him as its great corrupter. For 
 ourselves, if compelled to choose between the two opin- 
 ions, we should assent to that of the German theologian. 
 While, however, we agree with him in according to the 
 Apostle Paul the honor of being the great champion of 
 a free and universal Christianity, we believe that he was 
 not its earliest assertor ; that the doctrine of deliverance 
 from Jewish restrictions was implied, if not expressed, 
 in the teachings of Christ himself (especially in John 
 iv. 21-23) ; that it was proclaimed by Peter (Acts x.), 
 and sanctioned by the assembly of the apostles at Jeru- 
 salem (Acts xi. 18; xv. 23-29). 
 
 These results we gather from the Book of Acts. But 
 Dr. Baur having adopted a different theory, it becomes 
 necessary for him to dispose of that book, by assigning 
 it to a later age, and stating the tendency with which it 
 was written. That tendency he conceives to have been 
 apologetic. It was a defence of the course pursued by 
 Paul, and involved a reconcilement of that course with 
 the conduct and principles of the other apostles. For 
 this purpose, Peter and his companions are represented 
 as more liberal than they really were ; in the passages 
 quoted above, for instance, and in their reception of 
 Paul. (Acts xxi. 20-25.) On the other side, Paul is 
 
238 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 described as showing a greater conformity to the Jewish 
 law than was consistent with his character.* (xvi. 3 ; 
 xviii. 18 ; xxi. 26.) History is thus made to bend to 
 theory ; the clear principle laid down in the Book of 
 Acts, that the Jewish Christians should observe the cus- 
 toms of their nation, but that the Gentiles were not to 
 be required to become Jews (xxi. 20, 25) , is represented 
 as a compromise imagined by a later fabulist, and Paul's 
 own statement, in one of his unquestioned Epistles, that 
 he had pursued a conciliatory course towards all (1 Cor. 
 ix. 19-22), is utterly disregarded. 
 
 We have to remark upon this theory, that it supposes, 
 on the part of the early Christians, an astonishing readi- 
 ness to be deceived. If one should at this day write a 
 life of Dr. Channing, representing him to have been 
 always in accord with the theologians of Andover, it 
 would not find unopposed reception as authentic history. 
 
 Dr. Baur is undoubtedly correct in the opinion, that 
 the powerful mind of Paul saw, more distinctly than 
 the Jewish Christians in general, the universal character 
 of the religion he had adopted, and the necessity of 
 emancipating it from Jewish forms. Nor are the con- 
 troversy that soon arose upon this subject, and the ex- 
 istence of some difference of opinion and conduct, even 
 among the apostles themselves, new discoveries to any 
 who have read with attention the Acts and the Epistle 
 to the Galatians. Dr. Baur's development of this con- 
 troversy, and his comments on its connection with the 
 Epistle just named, and with others, are highly interest- 
 ing and instructive. Especially so is his account of the 
 
 * Baur. Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi, pages 6, 7, 129, &c. 
 
baur's view of the acts. 239 
 
 Epistle to the Romans, in which the Apostle of the 
 Gentiles brought the great question between himself and 
 his opponents before the judgment of the church in 
 Rome ; a church which originated in the number of 
 Jewish converts, who, from various causes, had met 
 together in the capital of the world ; a church which 
 was already assuming metropolitan importance from its 
 strength and position ; a church at once Jewish in its 
 origin, and liberal from its locality, and which was thus 
 well fitted to hear and pass judgment on the mighty 
 plea.* That plea related to the question, Is the Jew 
 superior, and the Gentile inferior ; or are both alike in 
 their spiritual wants, and in the application to both of 
 the salvation brought by Jesus Christ? And on the 
 lecision of this the momentous result depended, whether 
 Christianity should thenceforth be the religion of an 
 inconsiderable Jewish sect, or that of the civilized 
 world. 
 
 Thus far we have assented to the representations of 
 this able writer, and have been well pleased to render 
 him that praise which he deserves, as setting in clearer 
 light views, which, though not unknown before, seem 
 in his pages to possess the beauty of originality. But 
 when he represents the earlier apostles themselves as 
 combining with those who opposed the authority of Paul ; 
 when he dwells upon the incidental reproof to Peter 
 (Gal. ii. 11-14), as a decided breach between the two 
 apostles, a deadly offence that was never forgotten nor 
 forgiven by the Jewish disciples ; when he imagines the 
 
 * Baur. Das Christenthum und die Christliche Kirche der drei 
 ersten Jahrhunderte, pages 62, 63. 
 
240 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 party "of Cephas," and that ?f of Christ," in the Corin- 
 thian church (1 Cor. i. 12) to have been opponents of 
 the apostle, sustained by the authority of his great rival ; 
 when he represents the violence committed against Paul 
 at Jerusalem (Acts xxi. 27) as the act of Jewish Chris- 
 tians, — we must strongly express our dissent. We 
 regard the author as following out his theory to results 
 not only needlessly dishonorable to the early disciples, 
 but contrary to the clear evidence of history. Accord- 
 ing to the representations, in the Book of Acts, of the 
 council at Jerusalem (chap, xv.), and of the reception 
 of Paul at his last visit (xxi. 17-25), the conduct of 
 the primitive Christians presented a most beautiful ex- 
 ample of mutual liberality among persons of different 
 circumstances and habits of thought. 
 
 The account given in the Acts of the acquiescence 
 of the original apostles in the liberty accorded to the 
 Gentile Christians, is confirmed by Paul himself in the 
 very passage which is the principal support of Baur's 
 theory. (Gal. ii. 11-14.) The very cause of the reproof 
 given to Peter at Antioch was, not that he was the 
 champion of the Jewish party, but that he had not cour- 
 age to maintain the liberal stand he had at first taken. 
 This vacillation is as consistent with the weakness which 
 showed itself occasionally in Peter's character, as his 
 supposed personal hostility and official opposition to 
 Paul, on account of that reproof, are inconsistent with 
 his general nobleness and conscientious spirit. That 
 the stricter Jews were uneasy at the conduct of the 
 Gentile converts, and still more at that of some Jewish 
 Christians living among the Gentiles, is evident from 
 the Acts and the Epistles. That persons who came well 
 
baur's view op the acts. 241 
 
 *ecommended from Jerusalem to Corinth, and who were 
 probably worthy men, though narrow-minded and in- 
 ;rusive, were scandalized at the position Paul had taken, 
 md placed themselves in opposition to him, is implied 
 n some of his expressions. (2 Cor. iii. 1.) But that 
 ;hese persons were sent by the other apostles, and es- 
 )ecially by Peter, to watch, oppose, and censure him, 
 m account of his more liberal views, are inferences, in 
 >ur* opinion, not warranted by the expressions of the 
 ipostle, and inconsistent with the best historical inform 
 nation we possess. 
 
 The wildness of Dr. Baur's speculation, when in 
 )ursuit of a " tendency," may be exemplified in his 
 heory respecting Simon, the Samaritan impostor, men- 
 ioned in Acts viii., and known in history as Simon 
 klagus. 
 
 There is an ancient book, the Clementine Homilies, 
 n which Peter and Simon Magus appear as interlocutors. 
 Che book is a sort of religious romance, describing the 
 esearches of Clement, a Roman youth, for the true 
 ystem of religion. This book, written near the end of 
 he second century, has been sometimes confused with 
 he writings of the early Christian Father, Clement of 
 iiome, but has no true connection with that author. 
 3aur maintains that it is written in a strongly Jewish 
 pirit, and supposes that under the name of Simon Ma- 
 jus the writer intends to indicate Paul. That apostle 
 s not, indeed, openly attacked ; but, in the argument 
 >f Peter against Simon Magus, expressions are intro- 
 luced which are plausibly applied to the great teacher 
 )f the Gentiles. From this work, in connection with 
 lis own theory of the division between Paul and Peter, 
 16 
 
242 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 and of the unhistorical character of the Acts, Dr. 
 Baur derives the conclusion that Simon Magus never 
 existed, but that his character was invented as a degra- 
 ding picture of the Apostle Paul ! * Every discordant 
 circumstance is easily brought into harmony when an 
 ingenious theory is to be defended. Simon was a Sa- 
 maritan, Paul a Jew ; but, to remove this objection, we 
 are told that Jewish hate found satisfaction in represent- 
 ing its object as belonging to the apostate race. Simon 
 appears and disappears in the Acts before Paul's conver- 
 sion. True, it is replied ; but the writer, who himself 
 w r as friendly to Paul, arranged it thus for the very pur- 
 pose of preventing that discovery which German sagacity 
 has worked out. The name of Simon, which belonged 
 to the Apostle Peter, would seem strangely chosen to 
 designate his great rival ; but this, too, we are to under- 
 stand, had a deep design, that a false Simon might 
 present the stronger contrast to the true. But the most 
 remarkable instance of ingenuity is yet to be named. 
 How could the Apostle Paul, disinterested and indepen- 
 dent as he always showed himself, be accused of the 
 base attempt at bribery, which perpetuated the name of 
 the Magian in the crime of " simony " ? Hear the reply. 
 Did not Paul, on his last journey to Jerusalem, bring 
 "alms to his nation" (Acts xxiv. 17) which he had 
 collected among the Gentile converts, far and wide? 
 (Rom. xv. 26-31 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 1-4.) And would not 
 Jewish-Christian malice represent this as an endeavor 
 to bribe the brethren at Jerusalem to a recognition of 
 his usurped apostolical authority ? 
 
 * Das Christenthum, p. 91. 
 
baur's view of the acts. 243 
 
 It is all clear then. Simon the Magian is turned into 
 a shadow ; his attempt at bribery was really Paul's noble 
 charity. How it was received, we are left, indeed, in 
 some doubt. According to the account in Acts xxi. 
 17-20, it was received very graciously. We hear noth- 
 ing there of any one replying to the offer, " Thy money 
 perish with thee," as Peter is represented as replying to 
 Simon Magus. But the tradition which did not scruple 
 to alter the offender's name, nation, character, and 
 crime, would find no difficulty in so slight a thing as 
 changing a gracious acceptance into a stern rejection. 
 
 This tradition, wicked as it was in these changes, 
 appears to us, in one respect, singularly merciful. Cal- 
 umny, in general, delights in ascribing to its object 
 things which he did not do ; but calumny, in this in- 
 stance, ascribes what Paul did to an imaginary person : 
 no, not what Paul did, but what his enemies wished to 
 have it believed that he did. We doubt if any one 
 could obtain damages for slander against a person who 
 had told false stories, not about him, but about a non- 
 entity. 
 
 The reason for which the malice of Paul's opponents 
 is supposed to have taken this singular way of express- 
 ing itself, is not less remarkable. They would not name 
 Paul as the object of their slander, because they desired 
 that his memory should utterly perish from the earth,* 
 These slanderers were, indeed, in a difficult position. 
 Their hate to the apostle prompted two inconsistent 
 proceedings, — to treat him with silent contempt, so that 
 his name should be forgotten ; and to blacken his memory 
 
 * Das Christentlmm, p. 105. 
 
244 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 by false charges. The manner in which they solved the 
 difficulty was ingenious. They said nothing against the 
 apostle, but brought their charges against a man of 
 straw ! But, unfortunately for their object, Europe 
 remembered its great teacher in despite of their silence, 
 and their man of straw bore patiently the whole weight 
 of their calumnies for century after century, till the 
 Tubingen school discovered for whom the burden was 
 really intended. 
 
baur's view op the epistles. 245 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Baur's View of the Epistles. 
 
 We have examined, in the two preceding chapters, 
 the opinions of Dr. F. C. Baur with regard to the 
 authorship of the Fourth Gospel and the authenticity 
 of the book of Acts. We propose now to consider his 
 views in relation to some of the Epistles of St. Paul. 
 
 Dr. Baur receives as genuine the most important 
 letters of the great apostle — those to the Romans, 
 Corinthians, and Galatians. In this he adds his tes- 
 timony to that of Strauss, who, in a passage already 
 quoted (page 151), characterizes the First Epistle to the 
 Corinthians as "unquestionably genuine," and declares 
 that it establishes the fact, " that many members of the 
 primitive Church, especially the apostles, were convinced 
 that they had witnessed appearances of the risen Christ." 
 We are accustomed to consider the four evangelists as 
 the historical witnesses of our faith ; but here is a tes- 
 timony to its greatest miracle from another source, not 
 less distinct and authoritative than theirs ; and its genu- 
 ineness is certified by those very writers who have ex- 
 pended the greatest learning and ingenuity to invalidate 
 the statements of the Gospels. 
 
 These Epistles being admitted, there remain, as usu- 
 ally ascribed to St. Paul, the numerous shorter ones, 
 and that to the Hebrews. With regard to the last, 
 
246 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 doubts have been entertained from a very early age. 
 The others, however, have, from the same antiquity, 
 been handed down as genuine. We do not propose to 
 examine the claims of all, but to oonsider the ground 
 on which Dr. Baur rejects the Epistles to the Ephesians 
 and Colossians. 
 
 His discussion of this subject is contained in a vol- 
 ume, the title of which, translated, stands as follows : 
 "Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ : his Life and Ac- 
 tions, his Letters and his Doctrine. Stuttgard : 1845. " 
 The critic admits, in speaking of the Epistle to the 
 Ephesians, that its Pauline origin has never, till re- 
 cently, been questioned ; and a similar admission would 
 undoubtedly be made with respect to Colossians. His 
 argument against them is derived, not from adverse 
 testimony, but from what he considers the indications 
 presented by their contents. 
 
 In the first place, he reasons, from the strong resem- 
 blance between Ephesians and Colossians, against the 
 genuineness of one, if not of both. The former he 
 judges to be an expansion of the latter, or the latter an 
 abridgment of the former. He prefers the first-named 
 hypothesis, because Colossians, though shorter, contains 
 Borne elements additional to what the two Epistles have 
 in common, especially in those local and personal allu- 
 sions which contribute most to the aspect of a genuine 
 "work. Whatever, then, be the origin of Colossians, 
 its sister Epistle is considered to be invalidated. The 
 apostle, with his strong, original mind, would not have 
 written the same thing in substance to two different 
 churches. 
 
 This is a singular argument. In general, if we 
 
baur's view of the epistles. 247 
 
 would defend the genuineness of a book, we consider 
 its resemblance in thought and expression to another 
 work, ascribed to the same author, as something in its 
 favor — unless, indeed, the similarity be that of servile 
 imitation. Of such similarity the pretended Epistle 
 to the Laodiceans is an example. This, which may be 
 found among the Apocrypha of the New Testament, is 
 a mere cento of texts from the genuine writings of St. 
 Paul. Not a trace of originality enlivens the tarnished 
 lustre of its stolen thoughts. How different this from 
 the Epistles now before us ! The fourth and following 
 chapters of Ephesians may be regarded as an amplifi- 
 cation of the third and fourth of Colossians ; but the 
 amplification is from a master-hand. The warning in 
 the fourth chapter, "Be ye angry, and sin not; let not 
 the sun go down upon your wrath," and the description 
 of the Christian's spiritual armor in the sixth chapter, — 
 both of which are found in Ephesians, alone, — bear the 
 same stamp of a great, original, and holy mind as the ex- 
 hortations to parents and children, masters and servants, 
 which are common to the two ; and, if it be thought 
 that Colossians was the copy, from what passage in 
 Ephesians did the copyist derive the bold and beautiful 
 figures in which he prompts to follow Christ in his 
 ascension by seeking all high things — regarding our 
 earthly, sinful life as no more existing, and our true 
 life hidden with Christ in God? (Col. iii. 1-4.) This 
 last thought is indeed truly Pauline, in the same vein 
 with Rom. viii. 10, and 2 Cor., v. 14; yet it is not 
 copied from those passages, but has an original beauty 
 of its own. 
 
 Our critic, however, does not hold that one of these 
 
248 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Epistles is genuine and the other forged, but condemns 
 both together. In so doing, he does not appear to per- 
 ceive that he encounters the very difficulty which he 
 had just urged against the common belief. It is cer- 
 tainly very unlikely that two persons should, without 
 consent, have forged two pretended Epistles so like 
 each other as these ; nor does it seem credible, that, 
 when one had forged Colossians, another counterfeiter 
 should have received this base coinage as true, and 
 given us forgery upon forgery. The only supposition 
 remaining for Dr. Baur is, that the pretended author 
 repeated himself — the supposition which he had already 
 repudiated as applied to St. Paul. It would be, indeed, 
 less probable in the case of a forger than in that of the 
 apostle ; for the latter, writing naturally, would not 
 guard himself against repeating the same thoughts in 
 letters to different persons, while one who was fabri- 
 cating false Epistles would take especial care against 
 whatever might bring his work into suspicion. 
 
 But the great argument of Dr. Baur against the gen- 
 uineness of these two Epistles is drawn from what he 
 considers the indications of Gnosticism which they 
 contain. 
 
 It is difficult for us, in the nineteenth century, to 
 conceive the state of mind, that, in the second century, 
 found its expression in the strange mythology of Gnosti- 
 cism. Perhaps we can imagine it best by remembering, 
 that, although the fables of the old religion had then 
 ceased to be objects of faith to the cultivated classes, 
 they were still objects of admiration. Mr. Lecky, in 
 his recent " History of the Rise and Influence of Ra- 
 tionalism," has well pointed out, how, in Greece and 
 
baur's view of the epistles. 249 
 
 Rome, as subsequently in mediaeval Italy, the aesthetic 
 element took the place of the superstitious, and the 
 forms that had once been worshipped as divine were 
 afterwards scarce less adored as beautiful or majestic. 
 Hence we may conceive how, when cultivated Greeks 
 embraced Christianity, they missed, in the new religion, 
 something which had fascinated their taste, though it 
 had not won their belief. They had nothing of that 
 horror of idolatry which the Old Testament had im- 
 parted to the Jews. Probably, on the other hand, they 
 considered the worship of images the only method by 
 which religion could be rendered acceptable to the un- 
 educated masses. For themselves, they knew, as well 
 as St. Paul, "that an idol is nothing in the world ; " but 
 they had been used to admire the majestic forms en- 
 shrined in the temples, and to allegorize the stories told 
 by the poets. They had formed thus a new mythology 
 for themselves, whose deities were not Jupiter, Minerva, 
 and Venus, but Power, Wisdom, and Beauty; and 
 they thought — or rather, perhaps, without deliber- 
 ately thinking, they felt — that Christianity would be 
 improved by annexing to it a mythology somewhat 
 similar. 
 
 And, indeed, the systems they invented, strange and 
 obscure as they are, are not without something of a 
 poetic charm. They represented the Infinite, in the 
 solemn majesty of his eternal existence, which none 
 shared with him but venerable Silence. From these 
 proceeded Mind, the Only-begotten, and his sister and 
 partner, Truth. With a long succession of beings such 
 as these did Valentine and his fellow-Gnostics people 
 the "Plerorna," the Fulness, the Perfection, One of 
 
250 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 these aeons, named Sophia or Wisdom, endeavoring too 
 ambitiously to comprehend the Infinite, was cast out 
 for a time from thePleroma; and, in her sufferings, 
 relieved by the efforts of the aeon Christ, we find ob- 
 scurely set forth the strugglings of the human spirit, 
 and the divine aid communicated by the Redeemer. 
 One might almost think, that the Gnostics, while uncon- 
 sciously depicting the ill success of their own ambitious 
 theorizing, had uttered a prophecy which was to find 
 its fulfilment in the Hegelian philosophy of Germany. 
 There Wisdom endeavors to comprehend the Infinite, 
 deciding that he w only comes to self-consciousness in 
 man," and, losing itself in a labyrinth of words, wan- 
 ders in darkness, until it finds the light that Christ alone 
 can give. 
 
 Few would imagine, in reading the Epistles to the 
 Ephesians and Colossians, that any ingenuity would see 
 in them marks of the strange, Gnostic system of poly- 
 theistic Christianity. Yet so it is. Dr. Baur discovers 
 such traces in various passages of the two Epistles, but 
 chiefly in the first chapter of Colossians. f By him," 
 the apostle says, "were all things created that are in 
 heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, 
 whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities 
 or powers." In these words the aeons are supposed to 
 be referred to. " For it pleased the Father that in him 
 should all fulness" (the whole Pleroma) "dwell." 
 These verses will sufficiently exemplify the argument 
 which, with great ingenuity, fixes upon expressions 
 found in these Epistles, and used also by the Gnostic 
 writers, and concludes therefrom that these Epistles 
 were written, not by St. Paul, but by some one at a 
 
baur's view of the epistles. 251 
 
 later period, when the Gnostic system had become, to 
 a considerable extent, developed. 
 
 Thus, some thousand years hence, may some student, 
 examining the history of this country with a strong 
 propensity to doubt wherever doubt is possible, question 
 the genuineness of an ancient document that purports to 
 be "Articles of Confederation " among- the thirteen oriri- 
 nal States, — that form of union under which our 
 Revolutionary war was waged, and our independence 
 established. K Confederation ! " he will say ; M Confed- 
 erate States ! — we know well to what period such ex- 
 pressions belong. They date from the civil war of 
 1861-65. The document is evidently spurious. It 
 was forged by some writer on the Southern side in that 
 war, for the purpose of strengthening in the minds of 
 his party the conviction that they were maintaining the 
 principles of their fathers." As it may then be replied, 
 that w Confederation " was an English word in common 
 use before 1861, so may the answer be given to Dr. 
 Baur, that " Pleroma," meaning fulness, was a Greek 
 word in common use long before the strange mythology 
 of the Gnostics was invented. It is a word in common 
 use by St. Paul in those Epistles which Dr. Baur him- 
 self acknowledges to be genuine. (See Rom. xi. 12, 
 25 ; xv. 29. Gal. iv. 4.) 
 
 However the apostle may use terms which were after- 
 wards employed by the Gnostics, the doctrine he lays 
 down is essentially different from theirs. Their system 
 divided the honors which it rendered among a numerous 
 family of aeons : the apostle recognizes but one w image 
 of the invisible God," in whom "it pleased the Father 
 that all fulness should dwell." Before this essential 
 
252 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 difference, — the difference between Christianity and 
 polytheism, — a mere verbal similarity becomes insig- 
 nificant. 
 
 It appears to us that the free employment, in these 
 Epistles, of terms which the Gnostics afterwards appro- 
 priated, is a proof, not against their genuineness, but 
 strongly in its favor. Had these works been written 
 after the development of Gnosticism, they would either 
 have been unquestionably on its side, or have been care- 
 fully guarded against all suspicion of assent to it. Had 
 the writer been favorable to the new sect, we should 
 have had at least its earliest ideas introduced ; such as 
 the fancy that the God of the Jews was not the Supreme 
 God, and the fancy that the seon Christ withdrew from 
 the man Jesus before his crucifixion. Had the writer 
 been unfavorable to Gnosticism, it is not probable that 
 he would have tranquilly used, in familiar senses, words 
 which had become identified with a system of error. 
 So early did Gnosticism appear in the Church, that 
 books written in entire unconsciousness of its existence 
 must have a date assigned them very near the age of 
 the apostles. 
 
 The resemblance of the texts we have quoted, and of 
 other portions of these Epistles, to Gnostic thought and 
 modes of expression, may be accounted for by a differ- 
 ent theory from that of Dr. Baur. The Gnostics may 
 have derived their forms of language from the passages 
 in question, which it is known they quoted in their con- 
 troversial writings. Perhaps, also, the train of thought 
 which at length resulted in Gnosticism had begun to 
 develop itself in the apostle's time, and had influenced 
 the common modes of expression. These he used 
 
baur's view of the epistles. 253 
 
 because they were used by those around him, and had 
 not yet become connected with a system of error. 
 
 The two Epistles we have noticed, and the remaining 
 books of the New Testament, are by no means essen- 
 tial to the evidence of Christianity. They are, however, 
 too valuable to be lost ; too full of holy lessons for us to 
 resign them, without examination, to the claims of a 
 rash and destructive criticism. For the purpose of this 
 work, the specimen now presented, of the arguments 
 brought against them by the modern school of scepti- 
 cism, may be sufficient. 
 
254 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Apocryphal New Testament. 
 
 A new edition of the book bearing this title has 
 recently been published in Boston. It is a reprint of 
 that brought out about half a century since, by Hone, 
 in London, and of which a Boston edition of 1832 is 
 now before us. There are other collections of docu- 
 ments thus entitled, in the ancient languages, from the 
 original one by Fabricius to the recent labors of the 
 German scholars, Thilo and Tischendorf ; and a new 
 edition in English has recently appeared abroad. 
 
 No reasonable objection can be made to the publica- 
 tion of these old writings, either in their original form 
 or translated into English. But the collection made by 
 Hone was accompanied by prefaces and remarks of 
 which the purpose was obvious — to discredit the Chris- 
 tian Scriptures. The idea was suggested that our re- 
 ligion is founded on a mass of legendary accounts ; that 
 of these, some were arbitrarily selected by early church 
 councils or individual leaders, to be preserved with care 
 and honored as the word of God, while the rest, possess- 
 ing equal claims, were rejected, and, as far as possible, 
 put out of sight. Thus speaks the preface to the first 
 edition, reprinted in those which followed : — 
 
 ?t After the writings contained in the New Testament 
 were selected from the numerous Gospels and Epistles 
 
THE APOCRYPHAL NEW TESTAMENT. 255 
 
 then in existence, what became of the books that were 
 rejected by the compilers ? " 
 
 The utter falsity of this view is discernible on a slight 
 inspection of the evidence afforded by ancient Christian 
 writers. This has been presented in this work, and in 
 the K Manual," which preceded it. Many of the Christian 
 writers who enter into this subject lived more than a 
 century before the Council of Nice, at which, this author 
 would have us believe, the " selection " was made. The 
 personal knowledge of several among them would go 
 back a century and a half before that Council. They 
 speak of our present Gospels and other Scriptures as 
 genuine and authentic, and do not thus speak of the 
 documents that are brought forward to compete with 
 them. They speak thus, not referring to any decree of 
 a preceding council, but simply as people mention facts 
 that are well known to themselves and to all around 
 them. 
 
 The late Rev. Dr. Lamson, one of our foremost schol- 
 ars, especially in the department of ecclesiastical history, 
 speaks thus of the edition to which we refer, in an arti- 
 cle in the "Christian Examiner" for March, 1833. 
 
 " The compiler of the Apocryphal Testament, who is 
 evidently hostile to Christianity, designs to convey the 
 impression that the books now composing our New Tes- 
 tament were arbitrarily selected from a mass of writings 
 possessing the same or similar claims to respect. This 
 is the object of the prefatory notices to the several pieces, 
 in constructing which he has drawn largely on Jones 
 ( f New and Full Method of settling the Canonical Au- 
 thority of the New Testament ') , often taking from him 
 whole sentences without acknowledgment. But these are 
 
256 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 so adroitly strung together, with the help of a little 
 coloring, and a dexterous use of the arts of insinuation 
 and suppression, that they can hardly fail to perplex and 
 mislead the unlearned reader. Such disingenuous arti- 
 fice requires to be exposed. We cannot too strongly 
 protest against its use. It is difficult to believe that any 
 real lover of truth can ever resort to it. Such wisdom 
 cometh not from above." 
 
 If the volume was published free from these insidious 
 prefaces and remarks, we should welcome its appearance 
 as an important aid to the evidences of Christianity. 
 Let these old documents be diffused far and wide. Let 
 every candid doubter peruse them, and compare them 
 with the genuine New Testament. We have no fear 
 for the result. 
 
 There are portions of this volume, however, which 
 are not properly included under its title. We receive 
 the New Testament as containing the earliest records 
 of Christian history, and what remains of the writings 
 of its earliest preachers. A collection called The Apoc- 
 ryphal New Testament should comprise, then, only such 
 documents as claim a similar character. But the writ- 
 ings ascribed to the "Apostolical Fathers," — Clement, 
 Ignatius, Polycarp, and Hermas, — whether genuine 
 or not, belong to a later period, and should have no 
 place in such a collection. The letter bearing the name 
 of Barnabas has a higher claim, its reputed author hav- 
 ing been one of the earliest preachers, and being styled 
 an apostle in Acts xiv. 14. This letter has gained in 
 the opinion of scholars since the discovery that it forms 
 a part of the ancient Sinaitic manuscript. But the in- 
 ternal evidence is against it, as has been well stated by 
 
THE APOCRYPHAL NEW TESTAMENT. 257 
 
 Mr. Norton, in the first volume of his work on the 
 w Genuineness of the Gospels." We will glance in suc- 
 cession at those portions of this book which are more 
 properly classed under the title "Apocrypha of the 
 New Testament." 
 
 The first of these is " The Gospel of the Birth of 
 Mary." This, Dr. Lamson tells us, in the article al- 
 ready referred to, is supposed to have been a forgery by 
 Seleucus or Lucius, a disciple of Marcion, in the second 
 century. It is mentioned, by Epiphanius in the fourth 
 century, as "an impudent forgery." It tells us that Jo* 
 achim and his wife Anna, being without offspring, were 
 comforted by angels, and assured of the birth of a holy 
 child. Marv is born to them, and is marked with es- 
 pecial proofs of divine favor. She is at length to be 
 betrothed, and all the unmarried men of the lineage of 
 David are required to present their rods to the high 
 priest, that he may know, by a miraculous sign, who is 
 the predestined bridegroom. The aged Joseph at first 
 withdraws his rod, but, being called on, presents it 
 again, when the holy dove descends and alights upon 
 it. The narrative ends with the birth of Christ. 
 
 The same story is told, with variations, in the second 
 document, — " The Protevangelion," — ascribed to the 
 Apostle James the Less, but really as destitute of au- 
 thority as its predecessor. From this we extract the 
 following account of what Joseph saw when the hour 
 was come for the birth of Jesus. 
 
 "As I was going," said Joseph, "I saw the clouds 
 
 astonished, and the fowls of the air stopping in the 
 
 midst of their flight. And I looked down towards the 
 
 earth, and saw a table spread, and working people sit- 
 
 17 
 
258 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ting around it ; but their hands were upon the table, 
 and they did not move to eat. They who had meat in 
 their mouths did not eat ; they who lifted their hands 
 up to their heads did not draw them back, and they who 
 lifted them up to their mouths did not put anything in ; 
 but all their faces were fixed upwards." The sheep and 
 kids were equally motionless, w and the shepherd lifted 
 up his hand to smite them, and his hand continued up." 
 From this we pass to still greater puerility in w The 
 First Gospel of the Infancy." In Thilo's edition this is 
 given in Arabic, with a Latin translation. It obtained 
 a degree of credit in the East, and appears to have 
 been in the hands of Mohammed and his coadjutors in 
 writing the Koran. It purports to be from " The Book 
 of Joseph the High Priest, called by some Caiaphas " — 
 a personage from whom we should not have expected 
 an attestation of miracles wrought by Christ. The first 
 it records is, that the infant Redeemer spoke in his 
 cradle, saying to his mother, " Mary, I am Jesus, the 
 Son of God, that 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." At the arrival of Joseph in Egypt with the 
 child Jesus, an idol announces, "The Unknown God is 
 come hither, who is truly God," and forthwith falls from 
 its pedestal. Passing over a number of legends, some of 
 them too revolting for our pages, we are told, in chapter 
 seven, of "a young man, who had been bewitched, and 
 turned into a mule, miraculously cured by Christ being 
 put upon his back, and married to the girl who had 
 been cured of leprosy." We have, in chapter eight, 
 the story of the robbers Titus and Dumachus, as told 
 
THE APOCRYPHAL NEW TESTAMENT. 259 
 
 in Longfellow's ef Golden Legend;" in chapter nine, 
 f? two sick children cured by water wherein Christ was 
 washed." In chapter fifteen is the famous miracle of 
 the birds made by Jesus of clay, and gifted with life, 
 with the account of wonders wrought in a dyer's shop. 
 We next hear of his assisting Joseph at his trade of a 
 carpenter; not by ordinary labor, but by miraculously 
 changing the size of articles which Joseph had made 
 too small or too large, especially a throne for the king 
 of Jerusalem. Some stories are added which are not 
 without a certain kind of beauty ; but these are followed 
 by others as inconsistent with the character of Jesus as 
 with justice and humanity. Jesus appears as the tyrant 
 of his playmates, putting to death by his word a boy 
 who had destroyed his fish-pool, and another who had 
 accidentally run against him. He appears next as the 
 assuming teacher of his teachers, of whom one who at- 
 tempted to chastise him has his hand withered, and dies. 
 
 " The Second Gospel of the Infancy," bearing the 
 name of Thomas, contains the repetition of some of 
 these incidents, with* some other miracles of the vindic- 
 tive kind. 
 
 The letters between Jesus and Abgarus, King of 
 Edessa, are better conceived than most of these apoc- 
 ryphal writings ; so well, indeed, that some authors of 
 note have received them as genuine. The prince in- 
 vites the great prophet to his city, which, he says, is 
 indeed small, but neat, and large enough for them both ; 
 and Jesus declines in words of dignity and kindness. 
 Tradition adds that he presented his picture to Abgarus, 
 and sent his disciple Thaddeus to cure him of his lep- 
 rosy. We hear this story of Abgarus first from Euse- 
 
260 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 bins, in the fourth century, who professes to derive it 
 from the public records of Edessa. It is unfortunate 
 for its credit, however, that, if it were true, it would 
 have been of too much importance to remain so long 
 unknown. It would have been a precedent, given by 
 Jesus himself, settling the great question about the re- 
 ception of heathens into the Christian Church, and must 
 have been appealed to in such discussions as those of 
 Acts xi. and xv. 
 
 We come now to " The Gospel of Nicodemus, for- 
 merly called the Acts of Pontius Pilate." This is a 
 romance, which may have been written without the 
 intention of deceiving. It is hard to believe that any 
 one should suppose a tale so utterly at variance with 
 history could deceive any one. According to this ac- 
 count, at the trial of Jesus, numbers of those whom he 
 had miraculously relieved gave evidence in his favor, 
 and the Roman standards bowed before him. After his 
 crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea, who had been impris- 
 oned, is miraculously delivered ; the soldiers and other 
 persons give testimony to the resurrection. The Jewish 
 Council, moved by this, inquire further into the claims 
 they had so decidedly rejected. Charinus and Lenthius, 
 two young men who had risen from the dead, relate to 
 them what had transpired in the spiritual world at the 
 crucifixion. Their narratives, given in writing, agree 
 in every respect ; and after these are completed, the 
 writers vanish. The Jewish priests and rulers, being 
 required by Pilate, search their sacred books, and de- 
 clare their conviction that Jesus, whom they had cruci- 
 fied, "is Jesus Christ the Son of God, and true and 
 Almighty God." This astonishing confession, which 
 
THE APOCRYPHAL NEW TESTAMENT. 261 
 
 the whole history of the Jewish nation since proves never 
 to have been made, closes the "Gospel of Nicodemus," 
 as translated in the book before us. There is attached 
 to it, however, in the Greek copies, as given in Thilo's 
 and Tischendorf s editions, an account of the subsequent 
 fate of Pilate. That magistrate is summoned to Rome, 
 examined before the emperor, and condemned to death 
 for allowing the crucifixion of Christ. He dies peni- 
 tent, however, and his head is received by an angel. 
 Another account, equally authentic, forbids us to rejoice 
 in this eminent convert, but introduces to us another, 
 even more distinguished. According to this, the em- 
 peror in wrath commands Pilate to appear before him. 
 Pilate comes, but has put on the seamless robe of Christ, 
 for which the soldiers had cast lots. Under the charm 
 of this sacred garment the emperor's wrath melts away, 
 and Pilate is twice graciously received ; but the garment 
 being taken from him, the charm is lost, and the em- 
 peror sends him to prison, where the unjust judge takes 
 his own life. It is hard to dispose of the body, on 
 account of the disturbance made by evil spirits wherever 
 it is deposited ; but it is finally left in the wild recesses 
 of the Swiss mountains. Tiberius, in the most edifying 
 manner, professes his faith in the Savior. 
 
 The " Gospel of Nicodemus " is followed by the 
 "Apostles' Creed," respecting which, it is sufficient to 
 repeat, from the book before us, the remark of Arch- 
 bishop Wake : "As it is not likely that, had any such 
 thing as this been done by the apostles, St. Luke would 
 have passed it by, without taking the least notice of.it, 
 so the diversity of creeds in the ancient Church, and 
 that not only in expression, but in some whole articles, 
 
262 EVIDENCES OP CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 too, sufficiently shows that the Creed which we call by 
 that name was not composed by the twelve apostles, 
 much less in the same form in which it now is." 
 
 " The Epistle of Paul to the Laodiceans " is a letter 
 of nineteen verses, made up of sentences collected from 
 the genuine writings of St. Paul. It is evidently found- 
 ed on the verse, Col. iv. 16, where reference is made to 
 such an epistle, now lost. 
 
 The Epistles purporting to have passed between Paul 
 and Seneca are fourteen in number, and are marked by 
 ceremonious politeness and insignificance. Think of 
 Paul's cautioning Seneca not to put himself in danger 
 of the emperor's displeasure by speaking in favor of the 
 Christians (chap, viii.) , and of his regretting that he had 
 to place his own name before Seneca's in the ordinary 
 Roman method of commencing a letter! (Chap, x.) 
 Seneca, on the other hand, while complimenting his 
 f? dearest Paul " on the loftiness and sublimity of his sen- 
 timents, is somewhat uneasy on the subject of his 
 inelegant Latin ! 
 
 "The Acts of Paul and Thecla" is a romantic tale, 
 written evidently after the introduction of the false idea 
 of the merit of celibacy. Thecla, a noble lady of 
 Iconium, whose house was next to that in which Paul 
 preached, hears his exhortations and becomes a convert. 
 She in consequence refuses to marry Thamyris, to whom 
 she is betrothed. She undergoes unheard-of persecu- 
 tions, and is saved by astonishing miracles. Fire will 
 not burn her, nor wild beasts devour her. Released at 
 length, she retires to a desert, where she leads the life 
 of a hermitess. At length, at ninety, she escapes from 
 a danger — not very probable at that age — by the rock 
 
THE APOCRYPHAL NEW TESTAMENT. 263 
 
 opening, and affording her a retreat, closing behind her 
 when she had entered it. 
 
 Such are the Apocrypha of the New Testament. Let 
 any one compare them with the genuine records of our 
 faith, and there needs no argument to prove the differ- 
 ence. A gold coin and a copper counterfeit are not 
 more easily distinguished. Let us apply such compar- 
 ison in some particular instances. 
 
 Among the stories of the w Infancy " select the best ; 
 not the revolting legends of cures wrought with baby- 
 clothes or washing water, nor those of childish anger 
 armed with divine power, but such as that of Jesus 
 changing his playmates into sportive kids, and then re- 
 storing them to their proper forms ; and compare this, 
 pretty as it is in its way, with the single beautiful inci- 
 dent recorded of his childhood by Luke — that, in his 
 eagerness to learn, he staid over-long in the temple, in 
 company with gray-headed teachers of the law. We 
 see at once which is more worthy of the future prophet, 
 and of that God who grants miraculous power only for 
 the greatest and most serious purposes. 
 
 Compare the trial of Jesus before Pilate according 
 to the " Gospel of Nicodemus " with the same trial 
 according to the K Gospel of John." In the one, 
 Pilate confuses himself with Herod (vi. 23), and sen- 
 tences the prisoner in the face of miracles, partly re- 
 ported in evidence, and partly witnessed with his own 
 eyes. In the other, there is no confusion of history, 
 and no testimony is given in favor of the prisoner, save 
 that of his own innocent and glorious aspect. The 
 obscure but suggestive words of Pilate in the genuine 
 Gospel, "What is truth?" are in the false one dilated 
 into a vapid conversation. 
 
264 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 We have already compared the " Epistle to the Lao- 
 diceans" with the "Epistle to the Colossians." The one 
 is borrowed, every sentence of it, from the writings of 
 Paul. The other, strongly as it resembles that to the 
 Ephesians, has yet its own distinctive character. Read 
 the beautiful third chapter, beginning, "If ye, then, be 
 risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, 
 where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God ; " and, 
 if you can, believe with Baur, that " Colossians " is as 
 spurious as "Laodiceans." 
 
 Compare, again, "The Acts of Paul and Thecla" 
 with the "Acts of the Apostles." In the one, the 
 morality is false, the great principle of Christianity 
 being made to consist in a monastic asceticism ; the 
 miracles are of the most overwhelming kind, yet heathen 
 judges and people witness a succession of them before 
 they cease from their persecuting rage. In the other, 
 our dealing is with human beings ; the morality is pure 
 and healthy ; and the miracles which are recorded occur 
 at wide intervals, as signs and encouragements, indeed, 
 but not as public subversions of the order of nature. 
 
 The modern school of scepticism would have us be- 
 lieve that the books of the New Testament were made 
 up of legendary accounts, forged or gathered by persons 
 who knew not what was true and what was false. Our 
 answer is, we have such accounts ; here they are ; be- 
 hold them, and see their emptiness ! If the Fourth 
 Gospel were what you tell us, it would be like the " Gos- 
 pels of the Infancy," or the " Gospel of Nicodemus." 
 If Christianity were what you suppose, its instructions 
 would be as void of all moral worth as its records would 
 be full of silly stories and extravagant miracles. But 
 
THE APOCRYPHAL NEW TESTAMENT. 265 
 
 the early Church committed no such folly as to receive 
 these fictitious accounts as of equal value with the true. 
 Far as we can trace back towards the very earliest 
 period, the Church proclaimed, by the voice of Irenasus, 
 of Origen, and of a host of others, that it received as 
 canonical and authentic, the New Testament, substan- 
 tially as it is now in the hands of every Christian 
 believer. 
 
266 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY, 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 The Old Testament Prophecies. 
 
 We have spoken, in a previous chapter, of the Jew- 
 ish revelation ; and the subject of its connection with the 
 Christian, particularly as regards the prophecies of the 
 Old Testament, has been, to some extent, presented in 
 our "Manual" (sections 29-31.) A few remarks, 
 howeyer, will now be offered. 
 
 In the first place, it is worthy of observation, that 
 the evidence of Christianity is but little embarrassed by 
 those questions which have from time to time arisen with 
 respect to the Old Testament. Repeatedly has it been 
 thought that our religion was in danger from this 
 source. When Galileo asserted the motion of the 
 earth, and when modern geology brought its proof of 
 the existence of this world for ages before the date 
 which Christian scholars had derived from the exami- 
 nation of Scripture, many were alarmed, and many 
 were indignant. There was no cause for indignation, 
 for science must be free ; there was no cause for alarm, 
 for God's truth is safe in his keeping. Indignation and 
 alarm passed away, and Christianity stood firm, though 
 its teachers were obliged to remodel some of their opin- 
 ions. Thus it will be still, to whatever results the care- 
 ful study of nature and of Scripture may lead the man 
 of science and the theologian. 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 267 
 
 We are not of those, therefore, who anticipate any 
 evil, or perceive any cause of angry excitement, from 
 such investigations as those of Bishop Colenso. Rather 
 do we anticipate — and to our own mind the anticipa- 
 tion is already in part fulfilled — that such free inves- 
 tigation will remove difficulties, and cause the truth 
 of divine revelation to appear more gloriously than it 
 ever yet has done. But the theme is too vast for us 
 to enter on, and belongs rather to the department of 
 scriptural criticism than to that to which this book is 
 devoted. 
 
 We have now to speak of the prophecies of the Old 
 Testament which found their fulfilment in the New. 
 We shall not repeat the task, already pursued in the 
 "Manual," of enumerating individual prophecies. In- 
 deed, to us the argument seems much more powerful, 
 derived from the collective prophecy of the Jewish 
 nation. That nation's whole existence, indeed, before 
 Christ, was prophetic, as its existence since its rejection 
 of hirn, has been a standing testimony to the truth of his 
 divine commission, a wonder of many ages, which may 
 at length find its fitting close in some magnificent dis- 
 play of providential mercy, showing that w God hath 
 not cast away his people which he foreknew." 
 
 The subject which particularly claims our attention 
 is the objection brought against the application of the 
 prophecies to Christ, on the ground that his character 
 and office were different from those which had been pre- 
 dicted. The Jews, we are told, expected a temporal 
 monarch ; Jesus bore, instead, the office of a moral 
 and religious teacher : they expected a triumphant 
 prince; he lived in poverty, and died a death of suffer- 
 ing, and, as then considered, of shame. 
 
268 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 It was, undoubtedly, on account of these differences 
 between their expectations and his fulfilment, that the 
 Jewish people rejected Jesus while living, and have 
 persevered in that rejection the rather since the contrast 
 was completed by his death. Yet it is obvious that in 
 this they have preferred a low and literal interpretation 
 of the prophecies to one more exalted. What would 
 have been the deliverance of Judea from the Roman 
 power, compared to the deliverance of the world from 
 ignorance and sin? What the splendor of a Jewish 
 throne to the empire which Jesus has for centuries exer- 
 cised over the human race? That the nation rejected 
 their Messiah, because he came in a character so far 
 beyond their highest anticipations, shows not the cor- 
 rectness, but the inadequacy, of their judgment. It 
 shows also the intellectual and spiritual glory of the 
 Leader, who could rise to thoughts so far superior to 
 those of his people. Many an aspirant has attempted 
 to fulfil the Jewish expectation of an earthly monarch ; 
 but it was Jesus alone who rose above that expectation, 
 avoided those who " would take him by force and make 
 him a king, " and deliberately chose the crown of thorns 
 in preference to a crown of gold, and the kingdom of 
 truth and love rather than one of earthly splendor. 
 
 The prophets had a very imperfect conception of the 
 glories of the Messiah's kingdom ; but the divine pur- 
 poses, to whose accomplish ment they looked forward, 
 were truly fulfilled in Christ and his religion. And the 
 fact that while he applied their predictions to himself, 
 his greatness was of a nature that far transcended the 
 most exalted visions of prophetic inspiration, constitutes 
 to our mind an important proof of the divinity of his 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 2G9 
 
 mission. The more fully it can be shown that the 
 prophets had no conception of a peaceful, spiritual, 
 self-denying Messiah, the greater the glory of the exalted 
 soul that could look beyond their brilliant presentations 
 of an earthly throne, to discern and to claim the true, 
 divinely constituted royalty. 
 
 We believe that the prophets were inspired in a man- 
 ner different from other writers, however great or good. 
 That difference we conceive to have been one, not of 
 degree, but of kind. Had it been of degree merely, 
 Isaiah might have given us sublimer poems than Ho- 
 mer : as it is, he has given us predictions, which have 
 received their fulfilment in Christ. We distinguish, 
 too, between the inspiration of these Hebrew bards and 
 that of other poets, whose anticipations of the future 
 have sometimes been peculiarly happy. An unknown 
 Latin author, claiming the name of Seneca, foretold the 
 discovery of America ; Bishop Berkeley foresaw the 
 greatness of the United States. We recognize in these 
 the great thought, the happy coincidence; but in the 
 Hebrew prophets we recognize the especial divine com- 
 munication. 
 
 Was that communication made to all the prophets, 
 or to a few, or to one only among them? Dr. Palfrey, 
 in his " Lectures on the Jewish Scriptures and Antiqui- 
 ties " (Lectures XIX and XXXIV.) , and his M Relation 
 between Judaism and Christianity," restricts the divine 
 message in the Old Testament times to its earliest por- 
 tion, believing that the idea of the Messiah was given 
 to the world chiefly in those words of Moses (Deut. 
 xviii. 15), "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee 
 a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like 
 
270 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 unto me : unto him ye shall hearken." The later Mes- 
 sianic predictions he conceives to have been echoes of 
 this. But the announcement in Deuteronomy appears 
 too indefinite to be thus singled out ; nor do we know 
 any other that can claim such exclusive honor. It may 
 be that some of the long line of prophets received the 
 great thought from those who went before them ; but, 
 until some mode of distinguishing between direct and 
 secondary prophecies is suggested, we can but consider 
 all as dictated by the same inspiration. 
 
 But that inspiration did not make the prophets ac- 
 quainted with all truth; they were not infallible. If 
 one of them had been, the world would have needed no 
 future guide. If Isaiah had foreseen in its fulness 
 the spiritual teaching of Jesus, Isaiah might have re- 
 vealed it, and the coming of Jesus have been forestalled. 
 The prophets saw but in part — God alone is omniscient. 
 
 What did they see ? We will use that metaphor of 
 sight ; for it is the one which the prophets themselves 
 use to express the method in which the Divine purposes 
 were made known to them. We are told of " the vision 
 of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning 
 Judah and Jerusalem." We may find the metaphor of 
 sight a better guide than that of breath, implied in the 
 word "inspiration." 
 
 In our common, natural vision, the beholder has be- 
 fore him an object, of which he sees some parts more 
 clearly than others. The different parts are not always 
 seen in their right proportions. If it be a prospect, 
 prominent parts are at once recognized, while interven- 
 ing spaces are less subject to observation. Nor can 
 distances be accurately determined. Objects which lie 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 271 
 
 in the same line of vision may naturally be supposed 
 much nearer to each other than they really are. Es- 
 pecially if the remotest object seen be of great dimen- 
 sions, as a mountain, arresting the attention, and 
 shutting out all beyond, its proportions may be mis- 
 taken, and it may be supposed both nearer and smaller 
 than it actually is. 
 
 Thus it was with the "vision" granted to the proph- 
 ets. From time to time, their eyes were open to discern 
 the future. They saw there objects relating to the 
 present interests of their own country and of others ; 
 and beyond, they saw the waving fields, the towering 
 cities, the majestic temples, of a .period of civilization, 
 peace, and happiness, far surpassing anything that 
 they had known. "The mountain of the Lord's house, 
 established on the top of the mountains," closed the 
 view; and there, it seemed, they might discern, far off, 
 a majestic figure, of colossal proportions, that seemed 
 to preside over all below, while the Divine glory hovered 
 above his head. God's wisdom and goodness displayed 
 to them the scene ; their own minds were to interpret it. 
 What name should they give to that happy country but 
 that of their own Israel ? What should that holy city 
 be but their own Jerusalem ? And that glorious per- 
 sonage whom they owned as God's Anointed, God's 
 Messiah, — who should he be but the king, the heir 
 of the old royal line, who should, at that predestined 
 time, be on the throne? What wonder if, while the 
 eye failed to measure distances with correctness, each 
 prophet thought that the Messiah before him was either 
 the prince he served, or the heir that had just been 
 born? if the writer of the seventy-second Psalm iden- 
 
272 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 tified him with Solomon, and Isaiah (chap, ix.) with 
 the young Hezekiah ? 
 
 We believe, then, that the vision of the prophets was 
 not only subjective, but objective, in the general fore- 
 sight of a great and heaven-sent Deliverer. That they 
 called him king when they might have called him 
 prophet or sage, detracts but little from this foresight ; 
 for who but a king, could they suppose, would exercise 
 such power, and confer such blessing ? We may ques- 
 tion, too, whether either of these titles would have fitted 
 the actual position of Jesus Christ as well as that which 
 was employed. "Prophet" would have designated him 
 as a member of the old order, not the founder and pre- 
 siding spirit of a new ; and "sage " would have been 
 the title of a self-constituted teacher, not of one sent 
 by God. That the demand of Jesus for the reverence 
 and obedience of mankind was, in many respects, a 
 personal claim, has been so well illustrated in the recent 
 suggestive volume, " Ecce Homo," and is a fact so famil- 
 iar to every believer's heart, that we need linger no 
 more on the task of excusing the prophets for the as- 
 sertion of his kingly dignity. 
 
 And there were some to whom a nearer vision was 
 granted. We will not enter into the criticism of the 
 famous passage, Isa. lii., liii. ; but one thing is clear — 
 that, whether from this passage or from others, some of 
 the Jews had derived the idea of a suffering Messiah. 
 And this idea in them is the more remarkable, as it was 
 contrary to their general train of thought, their expec- 
 tations and hopes, and as they resorted to a far-sought 
 supposition to explain it. Thus says Strauss (Life of 
 Jesus, Part III., Chap. I., § 112) : — 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES. 273 
 
 w Jewish writings are by no means destitute of pas- 
 sages in which it is distinctly asserted that a Messiah 
 would perish in a violent manner ; but these passages 
 relate, not to the proper Messiah, the offspring of David, 
 but to another, from among the posterity' of Joseph and 
 Ephraim, who was appointed to hold a subordinate posi- 
 tion in relation to the former." 
 
 The Jewish nation, then, guided by its prophets, not 
 only for ages looked forward to an exalted and divinely 
 commissioned Leader, who should establish a universal 
 and everlasting dominion, but it had received the im- 
 pression from the same ancient prophets, that this tri- 
 umph was to be accompanied by suffering and death. 
 Confused by this apparent inconsistency, they strove to 
 reconcile it by supposing two divine messengers, one 
 bearing the character of a conqueror, the other that of 
 a victim. At length One appeared in whom both these 
 anticipations were fulfilled, and in a far loftier, more 
 spiritual manner, than either the nation or the prophets 
 themselves had imagined. When the young Teacher 
 of Nazareth declared the coming of the kingdom of 
 God, the world threatened the natural reward of insane 
 fanaticism — utter and contemptible failure; and the 
 world did w T hat it could to accomplish its threat, for it 
 crucified him. But, notwithstanding this, the prophecy 
 of the old Jewish Church has been fulfilled. That cru- 
 cified Messiah has established a dominion which has 
 lasted eighteen hundred years, has conquered half the 
 world, and is on its course of conquest still. Thus do 
 the prophecy and its fulfilment match into and prove 
 each other. Separate them, and each part appears as 
 a delusion. If Jesus did not fulfil the Messianic proph- 
 18 
 
274 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 ecies, those prophecies were idle dreams. If the proph- 
 ecies did not relate to Jesus, his whole ministry was 
 founded on mistaken presumption. But if a sway- 
 extending over the world is wider than one over Pales- 
 tine, and if a reign over the hearts and lives of men for 
 centuries is as worthy the name of kingdom as the pomp 
 of an earthly prince, then that which Jesus founded was 
 a true sovereignty, and he is the Messiah, the Heaven- 
 anointed King, 
 
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THE 
 
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 18C9. 
 
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 COMTE'S LIFE AND PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 JOHN STUART MILL. 
 
 NATURE AND GOD. 
 
 SCIENCE, NESCIENCE, AND FAITH. 
 
 MANSEL'S LIMITS OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 
 
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 REVELATION, WHAT IT IS NOT, AND WHAT IT IS. 
 
 PERSONAL INFLUENCES ON OUR PRESENT THE- 
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 THEOLOGY IN ITS PRESENT RELATION TO PRO^ 
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 WHEWELL'S MORALITY. 
 
 " SYSTEMATIC MORALITY. 
 
 MORELL'S HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY. 
 SOUL IN NATURE. 
 KINGSLEY'S PHAETON. 
 SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON. 
 
 KINGSLEY'S ALEXANDRIA AND HER SCHOOLS. 
 THEORY OF REASONING. 
 PLATO, HIS PHYSICS AND METAPHYSICS. 
 A PLEA FOR PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES. 
 
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