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BASES OF BELIEF:

an examination of
CHRISTIANITY AS A DIVINE REVELATION BY THE LIGHT
OF RECOGNISED FACTS AND PRINCIPLES.

IN FOUR PARTS.

EDWARD MIALL, M.P.
rrt

LONDON :
ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE, AND CO.,
25, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1853.

PREFACE.

In reading or listening to the objections to
Christianity which rest upon purely intellectual
grounds, there are probably thousands who, whilst
unable to furnish a satisfactory reply, have felt the
answer and have kept their faith. So, at least, it
has been with the Author. It has long appeared
to him that belief in the gospel rests ultimately
upon deeper, surer, more incontestable principles
than will admit of being hacked to pieces by the
utmost force of speculative or critical investigation.
The present volume is the result of an effort to
reduce that into palpable shape which heretofore
has been held in solution by most reflective minds
— to make visible what very many have felt to be
present in them, but still without having assumed
any definite form. If he has been successful in
this attempt, then the argument which he has

IV PREFACE.

elaborated will seem so obvious that every reader
will fancy himself familiar with it, and the Writer
will have done nothing more than merely put into
words, and arrange in logical order, thoughts
which all intelligent believers in the Christian
revelation will instantly recognise as their own.
And this, indeed, has been the sole object of his
ambition — to express what is in the mind of nearly
every one, but what, until now, has been left unex
pressed — so that when once enunciated, the propo
sitions, so far from assuming an appearance of
novelty, should rather elicit some such response as
this, at least from men not yet wholly surrendered
to disbelief, " Just so ! that is what I always felt,
although I have not been able to give distinct
utterance to it ! "
This is not, in any sense, a book of Evidences in
support of Christianity, but a book on Evidences
in relation to the question. The object has been
to make out that the proof tendered on behalf of
the gospel is of a kind which true philosophy is
bound to accept. Of late, there has been a mani
fest disposition to pooh-pooh the labours of former

PREFACE.

champions of the faith, as if they were utterly
beside the mark, now that the human mind has
made such wonderful advances in its mode of
examining this and similar subjects. Certainly,
the tone assumed by modern sceptics has not been
that of self-diffidence — and, perhaps, it will be seen
that they who are most forward to take liberties
with the name of philosophy, have been least care
ful to exemplify its spirit. But, be this as it may,
the Author has appealed from speculative dogma
tism, to undeniable facts and universally recognised
principles, with a view to establish some Rules of
Court, in accordance with which credible testimony
should be heard. If he is right, the greater pro
portion of the evidences which have been arbi
trarily rejected, of late, as impertinent, are restored
to their former credit — and the conclusion at which
we arrive is this, that former lines of argument had
become obsolete merely because unsound criteria
of judgment had been adopted.
Nor is the present volume to be regarded by
any as an exposition of Christian doctrine. The
main positions taken up by the Writer, and the

TI PREFACE.
phraseology employed, have been chosen with
reference to this controversy. They represent so
much truth as the argument seemed to call for,
and no more. But it does not follow that he
holds no more. He is not in the habit of con
cealing his conclusions — nor, where occasion does
not call for it, of obtruding his professions. Per
haps, should life, health, and leisure be granted
him, he may hereafter, at some time or other,
submit to such as may be interested in the subject,
what he has been accustomed to regard as the
rationale of Christian truths — the philosophy of
the New Testament doctrines. But this formed
no part of his present purpose — and he would
not destroy the simplicity of his argument, only
to save himself from uncharitable suspicions.
Most of the works in our own language, which
take the sceptical side of this controversy, the
Author has diligently read — many also on his own
side. But having collected his materials, and
sketched out his plan, he abstained from looking
at publications which have since appeared in
defence of Christianity, lest, perchance, he might

PREFACE. Vll
be diverted from his own line. He knows not,
therefore, how far he may have been anticipated
by The Eclipse of Faith, or by Dr. Wardlaw on
Miracles. The first part of the Restoration of
Belief he read with great pleasure, and found in
it some coincidence of thought with his own. But,
on the whole, he has reason to suppose that the
gist of his reasoning is peculiar to the present
work, and that he has not incurred much peril
of being charged with plagiarism.
If this book shall avail to point out to our
intelligent and free-thinking youth, of either sex,
such Bases of Belief as may serve to underly a
genuine sympathy for Christ's gospel, and secure
their minds from doubts, perplexity, and distress,
the Writer's principal object will be answered.
He can scarcely hope for more.
Sydenham Park,
January 26, 1853.

CONTENTS.

PART I.
THE PHENOMENON.

PACK

i 1. Christianity to be treated as a Fact  3
2. Deserving Explanation as well as Criticism .... 4
3. Our Views of its Origin should be affected by Knowledge of its
Phenomena ........ .5
4. General Purport of this Chapter  7
5. Brief Ministry of Jesus  7
6. Followed by an extraordinary Spiritual Revolution . . 8
7. Commencing with the Jews  9
8. Spreading itself among the Gentiles  12
9. Affecting the entire Character of its Converts . . . .16
10. Promoted by the simplest, and apparently most unlikely Means 19
11. Permanent in its Results  21
12. Wielding its Influence most successfully where Intelligence is
most developed  25
13. Sustaining hostile Investigation  28
14. Operating in our own Times as an unparalleled Moral Power . 30
15. Witness its Institutions .  31
16. Its Reformatory and Purifying Effects on Individual Character 35
17. The Consolation and Happiness it still imparts . . . .37
18. Its genial and humanizing Influence over the Spirit of the Age 40
19. Its Promise and Prospects of Universality .... 47
20. Summary View of Christianity as a Phenomenon . . .51

X CONTENTS. PAGE
/ 21. The main Problem it presents is one of Spiritual Dynamics . 55
22. Inseparably associated with an Individual Personal History . 57
23. Offering to the World an Account of its own Origin . . 59
24. Points for Inquiry suggested by the Phenomenon as a whole . 61

PAET II.
THE REVELATION.
1 . Difference between Instruction and Suasion . . . .69
2. This Difference commonly overlooked in regard to Christianity 73
3. Communication of new Religious Ideas not its main Object . 75
4. But to awaken Religious Life  78
5. Need of such a, Revelation argued from the Religiousness of
Man's Nature  84
6. Which Religiousness claims the Government of his whole Being 87
7. The Religious Sentiment presupposes some Provision for its
Development .......... 90
8. This Provision not to be found within the Limits of Man's own
Being ........... 93
9. No sufficient Provision in the Material Universe . . .97
10. Necessary Limitations of a Revelation through Nature . . 104
11. Experience of Mankind as to the Insufficiency alluded to . .112
12. Adaptation of Christianity to the Cravings of the Religious
Sentiment  115
13. Not repugnant to Reason ........ 121
14. Special Advantages secured by this Form of Revelation . 124
15. Summary of the preceding Observations  134
16. Distinctive Characteristic of Christianity as a Revelation . 138
17. Incompleteness and Partiality of its Success considered . . 141
18. Concluding Statement of the Position to which the Argument
has conducted us  154

CONTENTS. XI

PART III.
THE SEAL.
PAGE
1. Connexion between this and the foregoing Part established . 159
2. A Supernatural Seal to Revelation required by the Nature of
the Case  163
3. Miracles must constitute a Part of any complete Manifestation
of God  167
4. No Moral Display of God by Means of a Human Life could be
otherwise authenticated  174
5. Miracles were necessary to the main Purpose of Christianity . 185
6. As an Authentication, Supernaturalism is the most readily un
derstood and appreciated ....... 188
7. Adapted to our Love of the Marvellous  191
8. Universally expected in Connexion with a Revelation . . 195
9. Fitted to awaken Attention, as well as to produce Belief . . 198
10. Incompatibility of Miracles with God's Character considered . 201
11. Difference between a Miracle and a Process of Nature . . 204
12. Natural Antecedents and Sequents connected only by Divine
Ordination  207
13. Law subordinate to Law in the Physical World . . .210
14. The obvious Purposes of Physical Laws complied with, and
furthered, by Miracles  .211
15. The highest Ends of God's Moral Government subserved by
Miracles  221
16. Credibility of Miracles — Mr. Hume's Sophism . . . 226
17. Miracles of Christianity accordant with its Purpose, in Manner
and Kind  245
18. Christian Miracles sustamed by Evidence. The Resurrection oi
Christ  256
19. Summary of the preceding Observations  274
20. Concluding Observations  276

Xll CONTENTS. PART IV.
THE RECORD.
PAGE
1. The Bible a Record of a Revelation . . . . .286
2. Necessity for, and fitness of, some such Record . . . 287
3. Advantages of Position in which a Revelation is placed by a
Record  293
4. Subject Matter of the Record classified  303
5. What Reason may require of a Record in relation to its State
ments of Fact  305
6. Unfair Criticism resorted to by modern Sceptics . . . 320
7. Considerations corroborative of the Authenticity of the Record
suggested by the probable Source of the first three Gospels . 327
8. Distinctions to be attended to in fair historical Criticism . 334
9. General Effect of preceding Observations ..... 348
10. What our Religious Sense may require of a Record in regard to
the Interpretation of Facts  351
11. Religious Insight not to be confounded with Intellectual Pro
cesses  376
12. Concluding Survey of the New Testament as a Record of
Revelation  389
13. Relation of the Old Testament to the New . . . .396
14. Summary Description of the foregoing Bases of Belief . . 409

PART I.
THE PHENOMENON.

CONTENTS.
1. CHRISTIANITY TO BE TREATED AS A FACT. 2. DESERVING
EXPLANATION AS WELL AS CRITICISM. 3. OUR VIEWS OF ITS
ORIGIN SHOULD EE AFFECTED BY KNOWLEDGE OF ITS PHENOMENA.
4. GENERAL PURPORT OF THIS CHAPTER. 5. BRIEF MINISTRY OF
JESUS. 6. FOLLOWED BY AN EXTRAORDINARY SPIRITUAL REVOLU
TION. 7. COMMENCING WITH THE JEWS. 8. SPREADING ITSELF
AMONG THE GENTILES. 9. AFFECTING THE ENTIRE CHARACTER OF
ITS CONVERTS. 10. PROMOTED BY THE SIMPLEST, AND APPA
RENTLY MOST UNLIKELY MEANS. 11. PERMANENT IN ITS RESULTS.
12. WIELDING ITS INFLUENCE MOST SUCCESSFULLY WHERE INTEL
LIGENCE IS MOST DEVELOPED. 13. SUSTAINING HOSTILE INVESTI
GATION. 14. OPERATING IN OUR OWN TIMES AS AN UNPARALLELED
MORAL POWER. 15. WITNESS ITS INSTITUTIONS. 16. ITS REFOR
MATORY AND PURIFYING EFFECTS ON INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER.
17. THE CONSOLATION AND HAPPINESS IT STILL IMPARTS. 18. ITS
GENIAL AND HUMANIZING INFLUENCE OVER THE SPIRIT OF THE
AGE. 19. ITS PROMISE AND PROSPECTS OF UNIVERSALITY. 20. SUM
MARY VIEW OF CHRISTIANITY AS A PHENOMENON. 21. THE MAIN
PROBLEM IT PRESENTS IS ONE OF SPIRITUAL DYNAMICS. 22. IN
SEPARABLY ASSOCIATED WITH AN INDIVIDUAL PERSONAL HISTORY.
23. OFFERING TO THE WORLD AN ACCOUNT OF ITS OWN ORIGIN.
24. POINTS FOR INQUIRY SUGGESTED BY THE PHENOMENON As A
WHOLE.

THE PHENOMENON.

§ 1. CHRISTIANITY TO BE TREATED AS A FACT.
Rather more than eighteen hundred years have
gone by since the world became the subject of that
religious movement which we call Christianity, the
rise, progress, and effects of which constitute the
most striking feature of man's history. Considering
the breadth of surface it covers, in the expanse of
human affairs, the immense force with which it has
told on the formation of character and the course
of events, and the depth to which it has penetrated
into the realms of mind, it presents as strong a
claim to be treated of as a fact, as any of those
physical changes which philosophy is busied in
investigating. All theories of its origin, therefore,
which leave out of account what it has done, and is
still doing, and which imply, if they do not assume,
that it is an idea rather than a power, must needs
be inconclusive and untrustworthy. The deep and
sharp-edged footprints of this spiritual revolution
b 2

4 THE PHENOMENON.
with which history abounds cannot be more reason
ably overlooked in our speculations regarding its
cause and character, than can the entire series of
fossilized remains in our conjectures touching the
formation of the earth.
§ 2. DESERVING EXPLANATION AS WELL AS CRITICISM.
Reason, then, apart altogether from the religious
feelings which may be interested in the subject,
requires that the claim of Christianity to be re
ceived as a revelation of God, should be tested by
a positive as well as negative, a synthetical as
well as analytical, method of treatment. Here is
a phenomenon of which neither the reality nor the
importance can be denied. It is plainly not enough
to cast doubt upon the commonly-received explana
tion of it. This or that rationale may be objected
to as untenable — but the phenomenon itself remains.
Whence did it spring % In what laws of the human
mind did it originate 1 What are the circumstances
which adequately account for its first appearance,
its rapid course, its intense action, its early triumph
over the seat and centre of civilization, and the per
manence of its power down to our own day % Even
if criticism were able to make out, as it confidently
affirms it can, that the documents upon which we
have been accustomed to rely for supplying the
answer to these and similar inquiries, are, in the
main, worthless, written by we know not whom, at

THE PHENOMENON. 5
dates which it is impossible now to fix, and crowded
with tales which prove nothing more than the igno
rance and credulity of the people upon whom they
were first palmed off as veritable history — even if
scepticism had satisfactorily demonstrated that
miracles are incredible, that inspiration is an illu
sion of the fancy, and that a divine interposition, by
means of either, in furtherance of the spiritual well-
being of our race, is as unnecessary as it would be
absurd — it is yet to be borne in mind that the
logical feat would but leave the most marvellous
phenomenon in the history of man wholly un
explained. Philosophy should do something more
than this if it would show itself worthy of its own
name and pretensions. Some effort towards filling
up the void which its own destructive process will
have made in the world's belief may justly be
expected at its hands. Merely to have succeeded
in placing the grandest series of facts affecting
human destiny in a state of isolation from all
assignable causes can hardly be regarded as one
of the highest exercises and triumphs of reason.
§ 3. OUR VIEWS OF ITS ORIGIN SHOULD BE AFFECTED BY KNOW
LEDGE OF ITS PHENOMENA.
All the statements relating to Christianity which
history has handed down to our times may be
ranged into two divisions — those the substantial
accuracy of which it would be sheer folly to im-

THE PHENOMENON.

pugn — and those respecting which doubt may be,
and is, entertained. To place ourselves in a fair
position for passing judgment on the last, it is
obviously necessary to take our stand on the first.
In other matters of inquiry, reasoning proceeds
from the known to the unknown — from what is
certain to what is problematical. Adopting this
method, a thoughtful man, when pressed with the
assertion that such and such things cannot have
been, will collect together, as materials for his con
clusion, such things pertaining to the subject as
must have been, and now are, from which those
affirmed to be incredible are required to be rudely
broken off. Before he settles down into the belief,
for instance, that the power to which Christianity
has usually been attributed did not in fact produce
it, he will deem himself bound to look at the actual
and known phenomena of the case. Because, if
he finds that such phenomena can be reasonably
ascribed to no other cause — that the one to which
they are popularly ascribed is adequate to have
produced them — and that between the cause and
the effects there is an appearance of congruity — it
is obviously proper that he should prosecute his
future inquiries in the light of these very signi
ficant conditions. They are items which cannot
be wisely left out of his calculations. They are
" part and parcel " of the problem he desires to
solve. " Something has occurred," such an one

THE PHENOMENON. 7
may well be expected to consider, " out of which
the whole question regarding the origin of Chris
tianity has arisen — and it is important to the
accuracy of my final judgment that I should ascer
tain in limine what that something is."
§ 4. GENERAL PURPORT OF THIS CHAPTER.
Regarding this as the starting point from which
we are most likely to reach a rational conclusion,
we propose to set aside for the present, as under
attainder, all the historical statements contained in
the New Testament objected to by some as being
in themselves incredible, and by others as resting
upon insufficient evidence. Our present business
will be with the facts which will then remain,
and which all parties are compelled to receive as
indubitable. These facts it will be convenient to
put together in as concise and connected a form
as we are able, and regard them as constituting
a phenomenon in the history of mankind which
cannot be reasonably ignored in any investigation
of the divine claims of Christianity.
§ 5. BRIEF MINISTRY OF JESUS.
From seventy to eighty years before the de
struction of Jerusalem by Titus, one Jesus, a Jew,
appeared to his fellow-countrymen, as a religious
reformer. The period of his public labours was
brief, for while yet young, he was executed as a

8 THE PHENOMENON.
malefactor. The purity of his life is unquestion
able, and his extraordinary insight into spiritual
truth is sufficiently attested by such fragments of
his discourses as have been preserved to us in
the writings of his followers. The topics on
which he was wont to dwell in his addresses to
his disciples and the Jewish people presented no
attraction to their grosser appetites and passions,
no point of fascination to their national or in
tellectual pride. God, the Creator and Father
of all — man, fallen and depraved, but not for
saken — sin, a real and terrible evil — himself, the
expected Christ, a mediator and reconciler — a new
heart of faith, hope, and love — a life of self-
renunciation and holiness — a simple worship of
prayer and praise — a general resurrection from
the dead — a final judgment — an everlasting state
of recompense, " according to the deeds done in
the body" — such were the spiritual truths which
he wielded. These he proclaimed with untiring
zeal, and recommended, no doubt, by a life emi
nently consistent with them. But his personal
success does not appear to have been very re
markable, for it is certain that at his death he
left behind him but a few hundred disciples.
§ 6. FOLLOWED BY AN EXTRAORDINARY SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION.
The life, labours, and death, however, of this
Jew, was the beginning of a religious movement

THE PHENOMENON. 9
which extended itself, with unexampled rapidity,
over the civilized world, and which continues to
be felt down to the present hour. To some of
the more prominent features of this spiritual re
volution, we shall do well to direct cursory atten
tion, inasmuch as they will require to be borne
in mind when we proceed to examine the pre
tensions of Christianity as a revelation of God.
§ 7. COMMENCING WITH THE JEWS.
It commenced among the Jews, whose general
state at that period was anything but that of quick
susceptibility to lofty religious views, or to pure
and catholic principles of faith. It is true, that a
tolerably familiar acquaintance with the writings
of their own prophets, diffused by the stated and
frequent reading of the sacred books in every
synagogue, had awakened a popular expectation
that the Messiah was at hand — but the Messiah
looked for was one whose office and work, whose
career and triumph, were to be political rather than
religious, and adapted to gratify the pride of an
unsocial and exclusive nation, rather than to draw
individual souls into communion with God. The
bulk of the common people in Palestine bowed
to the authority, and submitted to the teaching,
of the religious school called Pharisees, whose
fervour was intense hatred of foreign domination,
whose faith clung to oral traditions, and whose

10 THE PHENOMENON.
worship was a wearisome round of lifeless ritualism.
Under their influence conscience was at once
oppressed and benumbed by multitudinous mani
pulations, and spiritual pride maintained itself un
ruffled in association with gross immorality of life.
Sadduceeism, never greatly in favour with the
vulgar, but occupying many of the high places of
society, extinguished in its adherents all spiritual
tendencies. It was negative, critical, unbelieving,
captious, scornful. Starting with the highest re
ligious pretensions, it had gradually cooled into a
mere residuum of hard and unfeeling utilitarianism.
It Hmited the sphere of human duty and destiny to
the present life. It entertained notions of God's
providential government which dried up the very
sources of the social sympathies. And behind a
veil of submission to the authority of Moses, it
concealed, or thought to conceal, a system of un
mitigated selfishness, rough-hewn into a philosophy.
The Essenes, a small sect of mystics, austere in
their lives, monastic in their habits, and contem
plative in their devotions, exerted no perceptible
reforming influence upon the broad mass of the
Jewish people. The existence of this body was a
protest against the religious indifference of the
times — and its isolation proves that society was in
no haste to welcome a purer or more elevated
embodiment of religious sentiment than that which
constituted the orthodoxy of the day. Ought this

THE PHENOMENON. 11
to excite our wonder ] On the contrary, is it not
precisely what we might have anticipated "? Where
the faith of a people seldom or never glances above
a temporal end, where their morals are debased
and vicious, and where their minds are rude and
uncultivated, it requires the force of a predetermined
purpose, rather than the exercise of a discriminating
reason, to discover a genial soil for the germination
and growth of a highly-spiritualized religious sys
tem. Of all people under the sun, the Jews were
about the least likely to hail a deliverance from
their prejudices and superstitions. A feeling of
nationality twined itself about their theological
belief, and any innovation upon their religion would
be regarded as an assault upon their position as
the favourite people of Heaven. They hugged
their exclusiveness with a passionate tenacity of
embrace. They took their rank among the nations
of the earth as a sacred caste — and to the teaching
which put Jew and Gentile upon an equal footing
in the sight of God, they were much more likely
to listen with loathing than with sympathy. Galilee,
moreover, the place of residence, and the chief
scene of labour, occupied by Jesus, was looked
down upon by the Jews in general as a province
hopelessly incapable of producing any great or good
thing, and the association of its name and reputa
tion with the faith taught by him, could have lent
it no adventitious recommendation to their regard.

12 THE PHENOMENON.
Nevertheless, the extraordinary religious impulse
which followed immediately upon the death of this
spiritual teacher, took its rise in precisely this
quarter, and suddenly spread itself among this
ungenial and untoward people. Here was its
infancy nurtured. In this unlikely region, pure
and sublime ideas of God, noble principles of
human duty, simplicity and spirituality of worship,
and bright hopes of a happy immortality, made
their appearance, and kindled a fire in the heart of
humanity which still continues to burn.
§ 8. SPREADING ITSELF AMONG THE GENTILES.
But the impulse was not limited to the country
in which it originated. As the thunder-cloud
moves in a direction seemingly contrary to the
wind, so the Christian faith sped onwards in the
very teeth of influences best calculated to obstruct
it. The single fact that Judea was its birthplace
would go far to neutralize whatever contagious
power it might else have exerted over the polished
Greek and the haughty Roman. The Gentile
world repaid with liberal interest the contempt in
which it was held by the Jewish people — and not
even in our own day would any novelty of doctrine
originating amongst their now scattered descendants
encounter stronger or more inveterate antipathies,
than were opposed to the reception of Christianity
from so despised a quarter, in the age of Tiberius

THE PHENOMENON. 13
and Nero. This, however, was not the only, nor the
greatest barrier to the progress of the new move
ment in the Roman Empire. The general con
dition of society, both polite and rude, cultivated
and uncultivated, was such as to render its extensive
success to the last degree improbable. The intellect
of the times was in close and unblushing association
with the grossest immorality. Developed to a high
degree in the entire absence of all that was adapted
to awaken and nourish the spiritual nature, it
became rather an instrument of the passions than
a purifier of the heart. It resembled Prince Hal
amongst his boon companions at the Boar's Head,
Eastcheap, rather than Henry the Fifth conducting
with vigour the government of his kingdom. It
was, therefore, for the most part, devoid of insight
into any of the more elevated regions of thought,
and was more apt to analyze than to feel. It had
already torn to shreds, by its acute and laborious
criticism, the mythology which it had received from
past ages — and proud of its freedom, it was ill-
disposed to take upon itself a new and much more
stringent yoke. Philosophy, confident in its own
resources, desired no revelation of the Divine will.
It might be politic to patronize religion as a con
venient restriction upon the turbulent passions
of the vulgar, but what sage of those times ever
dreamt of making it the rule of his private life?
The dogmatic tone of Christianity, its exclusive

14- THE PHENOMENON.
pretensions, and its apparently humble origin,
would be far more likely to shock the pride and
prejudices of the educated, than would its moral
purity and sublime spirituality to elicit admiration
or beget attachment.
But if all reasonable expectation would have
pronounced against the chances of any extensive
triumph of the gospel over the cultivated portion
of society, it might have concluded still more
decisively against its success among the common
people. Here the difficulties to be overcome were
stupendous. A sensuous superstition indulgent to,
and even provocative of, the lowest appetites of
animal nature, overspread " the masses '' like a
foul leprosy, canonized warlike aspirations as the
highest virtue, lent its sanction to some of the most
loathsome crimes, gratified the senses by a series of
gorgeous rites and festivals, and yoked conscience
to pleasures, pursuits, and expectations, in all of
which precedence was given to the inferior over
the superior elements of our common nature.
What plastic power was likely to be exerted by
high spiritual truths upon a people whose public
religious solemnities were drunken and licentious
orgies, whose sports were barbarous and cruel, and
whose highest conception of virtue was courage 1
Granting that there is a religious sense in man,
even in his profoundest depths of abasement, which,
when awakened, can recognise divinity in some of

THE PHENOMENON. 15
its simplest and purest manifestations, it is not less
certain that, ordinarily, something more is requisite
to its recovery from habitual torpor, than the light
emanating from the truth itself. As there are
intellectual glories which cannot be discerned by
the mind's eye of the uncultured, so are there
spiritual influences and forces which, however
powerful in their own nature, cannot penetrate
the conscience and the heart until they have been
laid bare by some other agency. We are accus
tomed, in regard to other matters, to look upon
some degree of natural or acquired susceptibility,
as necessary to the action of external objects upon
the mind — and where this susceptibility has been
impaired by antecedent associations and habits, we
are wont to anticipate a proportionately diminished
result. In relation, however, to the progress of the
religious movement now under notice, at least so
far as the Gentile nations are concerned, the facts
of the case do not respond to the anticipation. On
the one hand we have a highly spiritual instrument
— on the other, materials as gross and unsensitive
as animal indulgence and a debasing superstition
could make them. But, notwithstanding the
apparent want of congruity between the nature
of the force at work, and the material upon which
it operated, the effect produced was absolutely
astounding. Not the ideas, merely, enshrined in
the Christian faith, but the feelings it seeks to

16 THE PHENOMENON.
inspire, the character it aims to mould, and the
course of life to which it prompts, became, in a
very short time, prevalent enough to be appealed
to with some confidence as proof that the religion
was from God.
§ 9. AFFECTING THE ENTIRE CHARACTER OF ITS CONVERTS.
A close and candid study of the history of the
first three centuries of the Christian era, will suffice
to convince every impartial mind that the religious
movement which developed itself during that
period was no superficial thing. It was not a
mere change of opinions, which left untouched
the main springs of conduct. The new faith
grasped the very will of humanity, and controlled
it as with the hand of a god. It was not only
light in the intellect — it was fire in the heart.
It reversed the most natural, the most powerful,
the most permanent motives which sway men's
actions. It tore up deeply-rooted habits. It bore
down the fondest and most inveterate prejudices.
It brought into subjection to itself every appetite,
desire, affection, ambition, by which man is wont
to be governed. In the apostolic writings, several
of which are indisputably genuine, it is impossible
not to discern abundant proof that the whole being
of those whose thoughts they reflect was imbued
with, and assimilated to, the truths they proclaimed.
It is not merely that they held life cheap in com-

THE PHENOMENON. 17
parison of their spiritual convictions, and the
responsibilities they believed to arise out of them
— there are far more delicate and incidental traces
in their letters that the gospel had penetrated
to the innermost centre of their being. One sees
in them a calm sobriety of purpose, an air of
masculine common sense, a keen appreciation of
human relationships, a masterly application of
means to ends, and a perpetual spirit of self-
vigilance, quite incompatible with the notion
that the impulse which stirred them had touched
their passions only. These men, whatever else
they may have been, were no fanatics. Their
very enthusiasm is without flame. Their very
madness has method in it. They do not rave.
They are not given to superlatives. They can
counsel wisely even in regard to little things.
Reason still governs them — if mistaken, yet rea
son still. Whatever, therefore, may be our con
clusion as to the character of their faith, there
can be little question as to the extent of its
influence. It possessed the entire man — it held
under it, not his imagination only, nor his affec
tions, but his judgment. And, more or less, this
characteristic of the religious revolution of the
age, displays itself in multitudinous instances.
Just when its vitality is most abundant, does
it throw off as unsuited to it the common ten
dencies of fanaticism. When most intense, it is

18 THE PHENOMENON.
most practical. The extravagances which subse
quently passed for the highest forms of Christian
duty, found little encouragement in the earliest
and most active age of the Church. On the
contrary, the spirit born of the new faith, laid
vigorous siege to real evils, and busied itself in
planning and carrying into effect substantial good.
It set its face against the sentiments, practices,
and habits which degrade and debase human
nature — formality, will-worship, and bodily service
— falsehood, revenge, licentiousness, intemperance,
covetousness, pride. It enforced industry upon all.
It turned away, horror-stricken or loathing, from
public sports, which served but to brutalize spec
tators. It organized benevolence — made provision
for the poor — befriended the wretched — hastened
to the relief of the suffering — bethought itself of
the captive, the unfortunate, the shipwrecked.
What it did, moreover, in these matters, it did
on system — its charity was rather a purpose than
an impulse. It economized the application of its
sympathies. For a considerable period at least,
its external embodiments had upon them the
stamp of manliness — the appearance of a strong
business instinct. Where such indications as these
are found associated with a zeal which could
readily renounce all earthly prospects, and cheer
fully embrace death in any guise, even the most
terrific, in preference to any compromise which

THE PHENOMENON. 19
might be interpreted into a renunciation of the
faith, there is full evidence that the change to
which such effects are attributable must have
been deep, radical, entire. The whole man must
have been affected to admit of any such manifes
tation as this. Such; however, was the sort of
revolution which after the death of Jesus, and as
the effect of proclaiming his doctrines, passed from
end to end of the Roman empire with marvellous
rapidity. § 10. PROMOTED BY THE SIMPLEST, AND APPARENTLY MOST
UNLIKELY MEANS.
Setting aside all those causes which may be
fairly characterised as supernatural, the means re
sorted to by the early promoters of this spiritual
movement appear strikingly inadequate. They
to whose labours the planting of the first Chris
tian churches is attributed possessed no adven
titious advantages. Poverty, obscurity, illiteracy,
would do nothing to enhance their persuasiveness,
Had they stumbled upon some political purpose
captivating to the fancy of men in any age,
and interwoven it with the truths they pro
claimed as from heaven — had they adapted their
teaching to a prevailing foible of the times or
of the race — had they encouraged expectations
of immediate social amelioration, or worldly ease —
in a word, had they presented any one of those
c 2

20 THE PHENOMENON.
flattering baits at which human nature is prone
to snap with heedless avidity — their success,
although extraordinary, would not have been
wholly inexplicable. Or if, like Mahomet, they
had relied upon rougher appliances, and had con
quered a place for their religious system in the
esteem of men by dint of the sword — while we
might have wondered at their good fortune we
should not have been entirely at a loss to account
for it. But the first followers of Jesus did nothing
of the sort. They pursued a course as opposite
to all these suppositions as can well be con
ceived. What strong passion of human nature
does their system tempt or gratify 1 What
promise did it hold out in the apostolic day of
earthly reward % For three hundred years it
kept itself aloof from all political associations —
and it denounced all methods of advancing its
claims which were not strictly moral as opposed
to physical — honest as opposed to crafty — true as
opposed to fictitious. " The foolishness of preach
ing" is the only force to which scepticism can point
as having been employed to bring about this
marvellous revolution. Certain men, having nothing
extraordinary in themselves, apart from the super
natural, uttered certain truths — and a great part
of the civilized world was thereby " turned upside
down." The main purport of those truths we
know— we can form a shrewd estimate of the

THE PHENOMENON. 21
general qualifications of the men who persisted
in speaking them — and we are warranted in affirm
ing that the power they wielded when measured
by the effects they produced, is without a parallel
in the history of mankind. That other faiths have
taken hold upon as large a number of the human
race — or have spread with something like the
same rapidity, is not denied — but neither the ex
tent nor the rapidity of the success of Christianity
constitutes by itself the singularity of the case.
That which is unique about it is, that without any
thing in the nature of the truths proclaimed, or in
the means resorted to for enforcing them upon
acceptance, which suggests a reasonable explana
tion of the triumph, that triumph, nevertheless,
was so speedy, so wide, so lasting.
§ 11. PERMANENT IN ITS RESULTS.
It is worth observation, moreover, that the
grand spiritual revolution now under review, was
no transient one. Unlike any of those startling
and brilliant phenomena which have occasionally
shot athwart the expanse of human affairs, attract
ing universal, but brief attention, and baffling all
inquiries into their origin, but passing away like
a meteor without leaving any perceptible traces
of their action, Christianity abides to this day. It
is still a force the energy of which no one ob
servant of facts will presume to dispute. Eighteen

22 THE PHENOMENON.
centuries and upwards, comprising more than fifty
generations, have glided past, but the impulse set
in motion by an obscure Jew, in the remote and
despised province of Galilee, has not yet spent its
strength. It excites scarcely less attention now
than when, in the freshness of its might, it laid
the old mythology of Rome prostrate in the dust.
Over a broad extent of the earth's surface, men
continue to exhibit no slight interest in it and its
anticipated triumphs. Many and keen are the
controversies still waged concerning its truths
and institutions. Even now, after so long a
time, a vast proportion of the literature of the
age has a direct relation to it in some one or
other of its aspects. The discussion rife at this
moment as to its divine origin serves to remind
one that neither learning, nor criticism, nor phi
losophy, have been able hitherto effectually to
silence its pretensions, or satisfy the common
sense of mankind that they are fallacious.
And this permanence of Christianity is the more
remarkable when considered in the light of two
or three qualifying facts. Never, perhaps, has a
religious system been so put to the proof as this,
by the misapprehensions, the follies, and the
crimes of its own disciples. Let any one study it
in its authentic documents, or familiarize himself
with the earlier illustrations of its spirit in the
lives of its first teachers and converts, and candour

THE PHENOMENON. 23
will oblige him to admit that its entire aim and
scope were gradually lost sight of by its adherents,
and that it became ultimately perverted to ends
which its own principles and precepts strongly
repudiated. Its simplicity was overlaid — its spiri
tuality merged. Heathenism was grafted upon
the stock of the gospel. It was made to sub
serve the vilest purposes of king-craft. It was
degraded into an accomplice of the most atrocious
monsters that ever figured on the stage of history.
Hardly a villany can be mentioned which has
not been canonized in its name. The world has
groaned under the weight of sufferings inflicted
upon it ostensibly in its own behalf. It has been
too generally exhibited by those who professed to
be vested with its authority, and to dispense its
blessings, as giving its sanction to propositions
which reason rejects, to institutions which expe
rience has proved to be incurably pernicious, and
to conduct which all the moral instincts of our
nature abhor. And yet, singularly enough,, it
never became extinct. Underneath a putrefying
mass of human absurdities and corruptions, it still
lived. Nothing could smother it. Every now and
then, through the darkest ages, it would show itself
here and there in its primitive purity and power.
All along it was garnered up by a few faithful
souls as the seed of a mighty change — was pre
served as the handful of leaven destined to purify

24 THE PHENOMENON.
society of its moral feculence. Long might the
hopes it inspired have seemed to be illusory — but
a day of resuscitation came at last. The Reforma
tion burst forth. That self-same spiritual impulse,
which fifteen hundred years before had traversed
the Roman empire like an electric current, and
which a millennium of perversity and crime could
not wholly stay, once more displayed its amazing
energy in throwing off the accumulated corruptions
which men, whether ignorantly or by design, had
heaped upon it. The same truths first propounded
by the carpenter's son in Judea, enshrined in the
same writings wherein his apostles originally de
veloped and enforced them, exerted, now as then,.
the same talismanic power over the human mind.
True ! the extraordinary fervour of that period has
since subsided, and again the doctrine of Christ has
been overgrown with weeds of rankest quality.
Even to this day Christianity is exposed to grave
imputations by the ambitious, selfish, corrupt and
tyrannical maxims and practices of its professed
exponents and subjects. So that all along, it has
suffered a disadvantage from the conduct of its
ostensible friends, great in proportion to its own
catholicity, purity, and spirituality. It has seldom
had an external embodiment worthy of itself. Its
soiled vesture has never done much to set off its
moral beauty, but very much to conceal and to
defile it. All this has to be taken into account,

THE PHENOMENON. 25
in connexion with the enduring quality .of the
Christian faith. It is remarkable that, regarded
as a religious system, it has not sunk under the
load of follies and atrocities with which its own
disciples have burdened its name and reputation
— more remarkable by far that it should have
lived through the stifling atmosphere of eccle
siastical imposture, than that it should have sur
vived the fiery baptism of persecution. It has
done both.
§ 12. WIELDING ITS INFLUENCE MOST SUCCESSFULLY WHERE
INTELLIGENCE IS MOST DEVELOPED.
There is another consideration deserving of
notice in connexion with the continuity of this
spiritual movement — Its greatest successes have
been achieved over those races of men which are
most distinguished by the activity of their intellect,
and at those epochs in the world's history when
mind has been most awake. We are told, indeed,
that there is nothing singular in the phenomenon
which the permanence of Christianity presents —
and are referred for parallels to Brahminism,
Buddhism, and Mohamedanism, the two former
of which can boast of a much longer period of
existence than that of the religious system founded
by Christ. But the remark is obvious and just
that in the countries over which the aforenamed
forms of superstition and error have prevailed,

26 THE PHENOMENON.
everything remains unchanged, as well as the
religious faith of the people. Their political
institutions, their social habits, their customs,
their very fashions, are as inflexible as their
creed. All are stereotyped, and are handed
down from generation to generation, without the
alteration of a single feature. This general cha
racteristic of Oriental nations renders any com
parison between the longevity of their religious
systems and that of Christianity extremely incon
clusive. The cases present no point of analogy
but the single one of lengthened duration. Now
that is not a feature in the history of the religion
of Jesus, upon which, taken apart, any stress of
argument is made to rest. The simple fact that
it has remained until now is not so remarkable,
as that it should have remained under the circum
stances to which we are about to refer. At
starting, the most rapid and triumphant course
of Christianity was westward. Wherever civiliza
tion was most advanced, it made most way. Where-
ever the intellect of man was most busy, most
prying, and, it may be added, most practical in
its exercises, there this spiritual revolution obtained
its most potent sway. At the present moment, its
governing influence is chiefly exerted upon the
Anglo-Saxon family, whose mental activity and
restless energy are leaving their marks upon the
surface of well-nigh every country under heaven.

THE PHENOMENON. 27
One may note something more curious even than
this. Those nations which most reverently cherish
Christianity as a faith, and are least disposed to
treat it as a speculation — which have been most
ready to yield to it as a power, rather than receive
it as a cold abstraction — are also those nations
specially distinguished by their disposition and
aptitude for turning their conceptions into acts.
It is not among theorists and dreamers that the
gospel met with its most ready reception, or
developed its highest spiritual vitality. The chief
seats of its power have been with men of action,
whose intellects have become sinewy from constant
and healthful exercise. Quite akin to the fore
going facts is the further one, that those epochs
which have been most remarkable for the successes
of the Christian system, have also been those in
which mind has been most actively in motion.
Take the first two centuries of our era, or that
which includes the Reformation, or that which
has elapsed since the labours of Whitefield and
Wesley, and it will be difficult to select another
interval of equal duration in which the power,
the activity, the freedom, or the daring of human
intellect have been so conspicuously displayed.
Other religions may flourish best when mind is
most stagnant. Not so this, at least if we are
to credit the general tenor of its history. When
the thoughts of men have been most astir, it has

28 THE PHENOMENON.
most successfully asserted its mastery over them.
It matters little how we explain this — whether
we conclude intellectual activity to have usually
sprung out of, or conduced to, the progress of
Christianity. In either case, attention is chal
lenged to the fact that its perpetuity has been
maintained under conditions wholly dissimilar
from those which have characterised the con
tinuance of the Oriental systems just now alluded
to. The vis inertice and the vis vitce cannot be
fairly treated as if they were the same.
§ 13. SUSTAINING HOSTILE INVESTIGATION.
It should be borne in mind, further, that the
religious movement under consideration has been
subjected at intervals, throughout its progress, to
severe and hostile investigations. The historical
facts to which its origin has been usually referred
have been sifted with extraordinary care and skill.
The representations of God and man on which it
has proceeded, and of their relationship the one to
the other, have been discussed, contested, and
maintained by the most vigorous and best culti
vated minds. Nothing pertaining to its high and
exclusive pretensions has been allowed to pass
muster unopposed. Criticism has let fly its shafts at
every joint of its harness. Philosophy has sat in
judgment on it, and has not only pronounced its
decisions, but has sustained them also by elaborate

THE PHENOMENON. 29
statements of its reasons. Shrewd common sense
has made its observations on it. Wit has merci
lessly fastened upon its supposed defects. Now
this is not the proper time nor place for saying
whether or not Christianity has borne the ordeal
unscathed. The remark suffices for the present,
that it has won its way to the position it holds
in the face of an intellectual opposition powerful
enough, one may fairly conclude, to have crushed
any fallacy of superstition, however tenaciously
held. It will scarcely be alleged that the Chris
tian faith has yet been put hors de combat by its
assailants, even on the intellectual heights of
society. If great minds have rejected its claims
after due examination, minds equally great have
admitted and affirmed them. It is not, therefore,
owing to the low mental stature of its adherents
that it still continues to govern them. Its sway
is not limited to the uninquiring, nor are its
triumphs achieved over the undisciplined only.
Even at this moment, repeated and powerful as
are the attacks directed against it, it has not been
dislodged from its supremacy over high intelli
gence. The very philosophy which scorns its
authority adopts many of its truths, and searches
for the origin of them in the constitution and laws
of human nature. The stern logic which remorse
lessly hews down its facts, is not uncommonly
attended by a more genial and sympathizing reason

30 THE PHENOMENON.
which spares and cherishes and rejoices in the
spiritual conclusions which those facts are held to
symbolize. Most of those who, in our day, cause
the body of Christ's gospel " to pass through the
fire," claim kinship with its spirit. They repudiate
it in its external process — they admire it in its
internal results. It wrings even from them a
¦testimony to its high character — and as hypocrisy
is regarded as an involuntary homage done to
truth, so modern scepticism may be cited as
honouring Christianity in the very act of re
nouncing it.
§ 14. OPERATING IN OUR OWN TIMES AS AN UNPARALLELED
MORAL POWER.
There yet remains, however, a large class of
results in daily progress amongst us, a bare enu
meration of which will bring out in still stronger
relief the peculiarity of the religious phenomenon
demanding to be accounted for. It is admitted,
indeed, that no spiritual system which either in
the process of its formation, or in its mature ex
pression, fails to satisfy the honest requirements
of reason, can fairly pretend to divine authority —
but it ought not to be forgotten that religion, if
it have any meaning at all, makes its appeal, not
exclusively to the intellect, but to the entire man.
It is consequently to be looked at, not merely as
it may answer the searching inquiries of the under-

THE PHENOMENON. 31
standing, but also in its power over the character,
and in its capacity of yielding happiness. It is
insufficient and unfair to apply to Christianity
those tests only which come under the cognisance
of the purely mental faculties, and to investigate
its pretensions as if it were but a bundle of pro
positions upon which argument is to be heard for
and against. If we would qualify ourselves for
judging it aright, we should acquire some reliable
knowledge not only of what it has done, but of
what it is now doing. Its success or failure as a
moral agency will throw more light upon its
origin and claims, than its ability or inability to
resist the disintegrating force of logic — inasmuch
as its primary purpose is moral, and, in all ques
tions relating to the discharge of its functions in
this regard, a right of appeal lies from the sub
ordinate court of logic, to the supreme court of
reason. § 15. WITNESS ITS INSTITUTIONS.
What, then, are the more obvious proofs of the
continued action and power of the religious move
ment commenced by Jesus of Nazareth, furnished
by the characteristic condition of modern times ?
The first grand peculiarity presenting itself for
notice is the simple but vast apparatus which it
has erected, and which it systematically keeps in
motion for inculcating spiritual truths, for exciting
and exercising spiritual affections, and for implant-

32 THE PHENOMENON.
ing and nourishing in the hearts of men a sense of
spiritual duties. The one day in seven consecrated
to physical rest — the institutions which collect men
together on that day for worship and instruction —
and the appointments which are so well adapted to
stir human thought and emotion in reference to the
purest, and highest, and worthiest objects of life
and effort — may surely be regarded as emphatically
distinctive of the faith attributable to the sacred
Scriptures. Now, let this matter be looked at
considerately, and prejudice apart. To what a Jew
said and did, in Palestine, above eighteen hundred
years ago, we owe the fact that a very considerable
portion of the human family are summoned weekly
from the business and cares of the body, to con
verse with things directly pertaining to God.
Make every abatement you may think reasonable
from the worth of the actual results produced by
this arrangement as at present worked — urge
what you will in proof of its inefficiency, its feeble
ness, its abuse to narrow, and, sometimes, per
nicious ends — still there will remain this broad
fact, as a living and thriving offspring of Chris
tianity — that wherever it prevails, wherever it is
not thoroughly overlaid by priestcraft, and buried
beneath corruptions, a direct and systematic appeal
is made on one day in every week to the superior,
may we not add, the diviner elements of man's
nature ] It may chance that the appeal is terribly

THE PHENOMENON. 33
mismanaged. It may be true that the response
evolved by it is very far indeed from reaching our
ideal of what it might be, and what it should be.
It may even be contended by many, not without
some support from facts, that it is losing much of
its original force, and will, in the course of a few
more generations, become obsolete. But assuredly,
it deserves mention among the still visible results
of the spiritual revolution originated by Jesus
Christ, that institutions are maintained in countless
numbers for periodical action upon men's minds
and consciences — and that millions are every week
brought into contact, more or less intimate, with
truths and teachings more or less elevating, puri
fying, and ennobling. What may have been the
indirect influence of this upon social progress, it is
impossible to calculate. But a sober judgment, we
think, would regard that estimate which ignores or
makes light of it, as the least worthy of implicit
reliance. That in those countries where the day
of rest, and the institution of public worship, and
religious teaching are most conscientiously attended
to, little or nothing of what is prevalent among
them of veneration for the Supreme, of the obe
dience which is due to truth, of the claims upon
their regard of something more worthy of their
nature than pursuits which ever allure but never
satisfy them, of kindly consideration for the well-
being of others— that nothing of all this is due

34 THE PHENOMENON.
to these peculiarly Christian agencies, is a con
clusion so remote from common likelihood as to
indicate that it has not been reached by the
spontaneous exercise of the mental faculties, but
that the mind has been driven upon it by the
force of some violent prejudice. Bold and bald
assertions, contradictory of all the knowledge we
possess of cause and effect, are not stamped by
true philosophy as more trustworthy when levelled
against, than for, the pretensions of Christianity.
That cannot be fairly treated as an extravagant
assumption which, seeing the existence and sys
tematic activity of a vast apparatus of means
adapted to evoke spiritual thought, and to give
exercise to spiritual sympathies, ascribes much
of the religious life which manifests itself in the
presence of these means, to their operation. We
feel ourselves fully warranted, therefore, in putting
the case thus. To the impulse originated by one
Jesus, nearly two thousand years ago, we are
indebted for a system of agencies by which, in
our own day, and among the most active, in
telligent, and enterprising races of man, thoughts
of God and of his moral government, and affections
in some measure correspondent therewith, are
stirred up, and kept alive. Wherever these
agencies are found, there also we find humanity
elevated to a somewhat higher moral and religious
state than elsewhere — more generally conscious of

THE PHENOMENON. 35
a spiritual nature, of its relationship to the Father
of spirits, and of the capabilities and responsibilities
which both involve. No philosophical investi
gation of the phenomenon presented by Chris
tianity will leave this feature of it entirely out of
account.

§ 16. ITS REFORMATORY AND PURIFYING EFFECTS ON INDIVIDUAL
CHARACTER,
This, however, is not all which Christianity, in
its purer forms, is doing to mould society in the
present day. Its power is felt in many ways. In
myriads of instances its truths are restoring con
science to its proper supremacy, reforming vicious
habits, holding in check evil passions, and quick
ening, nourishing, and maturing benevolent im
pulses. Can this be disputed] Be it fanaticism,
or credulity, or whatever else the sceptic may
think fit to designate it, a power does actually
develop itself in our midst, strong enough, in
numberless cases, to give a new direction to
men's thoughts and desires, and to impress their
characters with a new " image and superscrip
tion." If much which exhibits this appearance
of change is spurious, evanescent, or hypocritical,
no one conversant with facts will deny that there
yet remains much also that is real, and permanent.
Men are, even now, brought to a stand in head
long courses of passionate pursuit and enjoyment,
d 2

36 THE PHENOMENON.
by the simple but energetic influence of the gospel
story upon their hearts. They are, down to this
day, wrought upon by that narrative, and the
popular interpretation of it, to achieve a self-
conquest, even in the most unlikely circum
stances, displaying moral heroism in its highest
forms — to renounce the most seductive enticements
— to break off the most cherished friendships — to
rise above natural affections — to extinguish seem
ingly implacable resentments — to face manfully
the hardest trials — to submit unrepiningly to the
bitterest mortifications — to endure with fortitude
and cheerfulness the heaviest afflictions — and to
trample in the dust the loftiest pride. The name
of Christ has talismanic power over them, and
faith in him, and love to him, do, not merely as
a matter of theory, but as a matter of fact, give
them a victory over themselves, and the world.
And wherever this is the case — wherever this
faith and this love become triumphant in the
heart, there the man is the better for it — better
in all the relationships of life — as father, husband,
brother, son, subject, master or servant — better in
all the mental and moral sympathies and activities
which connect him with another life, as a thinking,
as a responsible, as a self-governing, as an aspiring
being. Proofs of this, if honestly sought for in
individual histories, will be discovered in abun
dance. He who has never met with specimens,

THE PHENOMENON. 37
is simply ignorant of their existence and variety
because he will not be at the pains to inquire
into what is passing around him. It is one of
the aspects of the great problem to be solved,
the least likely to come under the notice of
German professors, and French philosophers; nor
has it received from the intellectual sceptics of
our own country the measure of attention which
it undoubtedly merits. Perhaps it is quite as much
owing to the fact that few persons in middle-
class life in England and the United States of
America are not cognisant of several of these
cases of moral transformation, that they are slow
to yield up their faith in Christianity at the
demand of keen logicians, as it is to the educa
tional and social prejudices to which their dog-
gedness of belief is commonly ascribed. The
instances are far too numerous, far too striking,
and far too. frequently occurring to be annihilated
by a dictum of positive philosophy, and it would
be much easier at the present moment to per
suade men that mesmerism and electro-biology
have never exerted any influence upon the phy
sical system of human beings, than to convince
them that Christianity is devoid of an alterative
and highly purifying spiritual power.
§ 17. THE CONSOLATION AND HAPPINESS IT STILL IMPARTS.
And whilst this gospel of Christ manifests down

38 THE PHENOMENON.
to the present day a wondrous power to arrest evil
passions in the name of conscience, and to raise,
refine, and dignify the character, as proved and
illustrated in numbers of instances defying calcu
lation, so it has exhibited, and continues to exhibit,
a competency to bless those who believe in it.
We say nothing now about the worth of this
fact in such an inquiry as the present — but that it
is a fact cannot fairly be disputed. It may, indeed,
be alleged with truth that a great majority of
those who profess the Christian faith derive from
it, so far as may be judged of in their conduct,
no great amount of enjoyment — but it is equally
certain that where the whole soul is yielded up
to its influence, it has proved itself a perennial
and unfailing source of comfort, peace, and hap
piness. In every age, from the very commence
ment of its career, and now, in every country
in which its leading doctrines are known, it has
been, and is, as healing balm to the wounded
conscience. Poverty has forgotten its privations
in the sunshine of its benignity, and has rejoiced
as in the possession of boundless wealth. To
the listless, weary, worn-out devotee of pleasure,
it has given a renovated and much more glorious
consciousness of life. It has lapped the de
sponding in a " peace that passeth understanding."
Through years of sickness it has been as a
sympathizing and cheerful companion, suggesting

THE PHENOMENON. 39
thoughts all radiant of hope, soothing irritation,
charming petulance into submissiveness, and awak
ening, and keeping alive, even to the last, that
feeling which protracted disease and confinement
tend so powerfully to extinguish — an unselfish
interest in the welfare of others. Where death
has been, and with rude hand has rent asunder
tenderest ties, how often has it come like a
ministering angel to the mourner, beguiling sorrow
of its tears, binding up broken hearts, and whisper
ing, in gentlest accents, to the bereaved, a convic
tion that all is well. In the hour of sudden peril
it has imparted calm assurance, and has helped
the timid and the constitutionally feeble to look
destruction in the face undismayed. And in the
chamber of death, when " heart and flesh fail,"
and the departing spirit has bidden its last farewell
to the things of time, has it not been to the dying
as a visitant from the higher realms, come pur
posely to light the way-worn traveller through
the dark passage of the grave, to his everlasting
home'? No poetry in the description of these
things can approach the poetry of the things
themselves. And they are to be met with every
where, and in no scanty variety, by those who
care to look for them. Everywhere, some few
children of Adam may be discovered who have
realized in Christianity its most flattering pro
mises, and who, if questioned as to its power to

40 THE PHENOMENON.
bless, would reply by calling up their personal
experience with glowing and tearful gratitude.
All this may be the effect of honest delusion
—that is not now the question before us. How
soever produced, it is itself a notable reality —
a feature of the phenomenon not to be over
looked — that much, very much, of the higher
and more valuable satisfaction enjoyed in this
world, even in the present day, is directly to be
traced to what was said, and done, and borne,
by Jesus of Nazareth.
§ 18. ITS GENIAL AND HUMANIZING INFLUENCE OVER THE SPIRIT
OF THE AGE.
There is yet another view of the subject de
serving consideration. There are some charac
teristics of modern civilization, especially in those
countries in which it is most advanced, which
are generally regarded, not without reason, as
placing it high above that of ancient times with
which history has made us acquainted. Generally
speaking, they are all tints of one colour — various
developments of the same germinal principle —
namely, good will. One cannot but be sensible
of a certain hardness and want of benevolent
feeling in the civilization of ancient Greece and
Rome. It presents to our view a highly polished
surface, but to the touch of the kindlier sym
pathies of our nature it is cold. Like a face in

THE PHENOMENON. 41
which all the features are comely and exquisitely
chiselled, but which has a repulsive expression,
or, at least, a lack of geniality, so, it will
probably have struck most that there pervades
the social and public life of classic antiquity,
admirably graceful as are the better specimens
of its manners, a sad want of moral warmth —
of that which indicates a play of the affections
around the broader subjects of human interest,
It is not that these subjects are overlooked —
for they are very frequently discussed, and are
occasionally treated of, with marvellous intel
lectual power — but it is that they are seldom
or never taken up as matters of present practical
importance. Search where you will, you will
discover no individual exemplification of active,
self-sacrificing philanthropy of a similar type
to that of our own Howard — no public move
ment for obtaining justice to the oppressed, or
ministering help to the helpless and the outcast,
resembling that which, within our own memory,
abolished first the slave-trade, and subsequently
slavery itself. Intellect did not busy itself with
schemes for the amelioration of human wretch
edness ; and but little was done, or even proposed,
for the well-being and elevation of what we now
call " the masses." In a word, ancient civiliza
tion exhibits little benevolence. It wants ten
derness. It shows none of the healthier moral

42 THE PHENOMENON.
sensibilities. It is not humane — nor can it be
pretended that the most intimate converse with
it through the medium of its literature tends
to elicit or to cultivate our more generous sym
pathies. In this respect, modern civilization differs from,
and greatly excels, the ancient. It is of a higher
order — more genial, more gentle, more prolific of
benefits, more redolent of the heart. Every cen
tury witnesses some progress in this direction.
Our public pursuits — our great national enter
prises — the objects upon which common thought,
interest, and activity, converge — are becoming in
creasingly expressive of good-will rather than of
mere power — of care for others — of a desire to
widen the circle of human enjoyment, and to
extirpate some of the chief " roots of bitterness "
which trouble the peace of mankind. Charity is a
flower, the commonness of which has imparted a
special peculiarity to the Christian era. Man
never so readily, never so systematically, stretched
out his hand to aid or to relieve his fellow-man, as
he has done since the coming of Christ. And,
it is to be observed, that the disposition increases.
There is, at the present moment, a more active and
general exercise of benevolence than at any former
period of the world's history. The time, the
money, and the energy, expended, in one way or
another, sometimes in desultory, sometimes in

THE PHENOMENON. 43
concerted efforts, to do good to those who are
thought to need it, present an aggregate greater,
perhaps, than has been displayed by any preceding
age. It makes no essential difference to the view
we are taking, whether this care for others shows
itself in wise or unwise schemes — in relation to the
body or the soul — in sectarian or in comprehensive
forms — in political or in religious movements. It
is to the fuller development of the sentiment itself,
in whatever fashion it may dress itself, that atten
tion is invited. And this, we submit, constitutes a
marked and growing peculiarity of modern times —
and one, the beneficial tendency and results of
which, cannot well be overrated.
To us it appears indisputable, that we owe this
fuller development of the humane and kindly sym
pathies of our nature to the influence of Chris
tianity. The hypothetical cause and the effect
closely correspond. We have in the facts and doc
trines which are taken to constitute objectively the
religion of Jesus, direct and powerful incentives
to the culture of benignity and disinterestedness.
The life of Him who called himself so pointedly
and systematically the Son of Man, is, throughout,
one beautiful, impressive, and consistent exempli
fication of good-will to men, and the study and
imitation of it, in this view, is frequently and
earnestly urged upon his disciples, both by himself
and by his apostles. All the great truths and

44 THE PHENOMENON.
principles of this spiritual system are calculated to
quicken and foster a feeling of reverence for man,
as man — a disposition to regard him in the
essential attributes of his nature, and the dignity of
his relationships, rather than in the accidents of his
position — and a habit of evincing love to God by
doing good, as opportunity occurs, to all men.
There is, therefore, a natural capability in the
system for producing the effect which we feel
warranted in ascribing to it. Looked at his
torically, moreover, the antecedent and the con
sequent agree in their proportionate relations
the one to the other. When and where the
Christian faith has been least modified by extra
neous, and unauthorized elements, and is in most
obvious accordance with the model of it set forth in
the New Testament, we meet with the most numer
ous traces of this peculiarity alluded to. In those
parts of the world which are least in contact with
Christianity, in any of its forms, the prevailing
type of character in this regard is low, and, what
is more significant, stationary from age to age — in
those which are under the dominion of such forms
of it as are manifestly distorted by priestcraft and
kingcraft, we may see public institutions, the
original object of which was plainly benevolent,
perverted to selfish and mischievous ends. But
in countries in which the predominant religious
faith is most directly and individually derived from

THE PHENOMENON. 45
the Scriptures, this characteristic we have pre
viously described is most prominently displayed.
Take England, for example, the most favourable,
perhaps, but by no means the only specimen, on a
large scale, of the humanizing influence of Chris
tian principles. Is it not obvious that here, at
least, the maxims of the gospel are actively con
tending with the maxims of human selfishness \
Is it not a fact, that almost every conquest effected
in behalf of the wronged and the suffering, almost
every movement undertaken to raise the depressed,
whether physically or mentally — almost every in
stitution reared and maintained to succour the
wretched, to shelter the unfortunate, to reclaim
the erring, to instruct the ignorant — almost every
organized and continuous effort made to abolish
war, to extirpate slavery, to mitigate the severities
of criminal law, and to rescue the degraded from
the vice of intemperance — is it not a fact, that
these things are intimately associated with the
religious faith of the people, spring naturally out
of it, derive additional strength from it, and mainly
rely on it for persuasive arguments 1 It is beside
the mark to tell us that Christianity does not
expressly prohibit this or that form of human
tyranny — that we owe to Norman chivalry the
elevation of woman, and to the ancient Germans
our love of freedom — that slavery still exists in
amicable alliance with this faith, and that men

46 THE PHENOMENON.
are as much given to the indulgence of warlike
passions now, so far at least as they can hope
to gain by them, as ever they were. The answer
is, that the essential spirit of Christian truth is
incompatible with these evils, and that wherever it
is recognised, there will be a protest, more or
less effective, against the continuance of them — a
protest followed up by efforts to remove them.
The relationship which Christianity declares to
subsist between man and God, and, as a corollary,
between man and his fellow, the duties consequent
upon that relationship, and the principles which
animate to their performance, imply a strong con
demnation of the evils referred to. If, therefore, it
were true that in the infancy of this religious
system, its bearing upon then existing social ques
tions was not distinctly perceived, it would yet be
premature and rash to affirm, that the gradual
advance of opinion and feeling in relation to these
subjects which subsequent ages have displayed,
was in no way owing to the Christian faith. That
which quickened and exercised all the more
amiable instincts of our nature, and pointed to
man, as man, as a worthy object of good- will and
kindliness, must needs have contributed, so far as
its influence was felt, to produce the state of moral
sensitiveness which detected wrong in customs
which had been previously allowed, and which
Christianity itself had not specifically denounced.

THE PHENOMENON. 47
At any rate, it is a fact that in our own day
the most active and powerful motives to the
extirpation of war, slavery, and social oppression
in its most concealed forms, are found in the
doctrines and maxims of Christ's gospel, and that
they who make the largest sacrifices with this
view, and who do, and have done, most to brave
public opinion, and to enlighten and purify it,
profess to have been stimulated thereto by a regard
to his will.
§ 19. ITS PROMISE AND PROSPECTS OF UNIVERSALITY.
One other feature of the phenomenon before
us, invites attention, and it is the last to which
we shall make reference. Christianity professes
to aim at an universal spiritual conquest. It ad
dresses itself to the whole race of man. It speaks
with some confidence of subjugating under its
sway all peoples. The kingdom of Christ is to
swallow up all other kingdoms, and to him, as
Lord, every knee is to bow and every tongue
confess. These, undoubtedly, are bold and large
pretensions. They are not, however, belied by
what we may designate the natural capabilities
of the faith. It is constructed, if so we may
speak, upon no local basis. It seeks to come in
contact with man's nature below any of its acci
dental varieties, and makes its appeal to suscepti
bilities which are common to all. Its positive

48 THE PHENOMENON.
institutions are few, simple, easy of avail under
all circumstances, and, while represented as
ministering to life, are nowhere insisted on
as necessary to it. Mercy rather than sacri
fice — love rather than law— spirit rather than
form — here are religious elements equally suitable
in every age, equally adapted to man's condition
in every clime. Here are no meddling, no precise,
no detailed specifications of duty, either in relation
to God, or man, which might render obedience
irksome in some states of society, impossible in
others. The system is sublimely simple— and
throughout, looks to humanity in its primary and
essential attributes and principles. All this, how
ever, it is readily conceded, proves nothing more
than what it may, not what it will, do. The
result to which it conducts us is merely negative,
and the sum of it is this, that there is nothing
in Christianity which should render its universal
sway impossible. But, it will surely be allowed,
in addition, that the likelihoods of the case are
worth observation. This religion is domesticated
among a people already predominant in political
power, in science, arts and commerce, and in
territorial possessions. The more enterprising
spirit, the active intellect, the knowledge which
is power, and the stronger will, are the undeniable
characteristics of that branch of the human family,
which firmly holds as yet the Christian faith.

THE PHENOMENON. 49
They are spreading themselves rapidly over the
vast continent of America. They seek at many
points an entrance into Africa. They will give
a teeming population to the immense plains of
Australasia. They hold under their dominion the
whole of India. They are making their presence
and their power felt on the outskirts of China.
And, it seems certain, that wherever they per
manently establish themselves, they will diffuse
the gospel. The feebleness of Orientalism cannot
permanently withstand the perpetual onset upon
it of a more active mind, and a more commanding
will. Nay, more. Science and commerce are
opening up highways to this restless family
through the very heart of the old world — and
are everywhere multiplying the points of contact
between them and the rest of mankind. Already
their moral influence is extensive beyond calcula
tion. What will it be two or three centuries
hence, when they will probably constitute the
majority in numbers, as they are now the supreme
in power, of the several races of mankind 1 Unless,
therefore, Christianity is pretty early exploded or
superseded, it seems destined, in the natural course
of events, to occupy not long hence a very different
relative position to other religious faiths, compared
with any it has yet done. The intellectual scepticism
of the day, even if founded in reason, will hardly
be able to stay the progress of a system which has

50 THE PHENOMENON.
now so many odds in its favour — and to which
Divine Providence appears, with whatever ulterior
purpose, to have allotted a most promising future.
Logic might almost as well try to retard popu
lation, as to stop the tide of events which bears
the religion of Jesus on its bosom. Whether true
or false, whether God's gift or man's device, it is
certain that the system is now bound up with
probabilities, quite distinct from its own inherent
vitality, which give to its predictions of universal
dominion a very plausible air. It would seem as if
all great providential movements were concurring
to favour its magnificent pretensions — as if all
the vast changes within the ken of a sagacious
foresight fall in and dovetail with the spiritual
future which the gospel of Jesus teaches us to
anticipate — as if nature, and art, and science, and
philosophy, nay ! the very bent and bias of human
selfishness, in this age, were unconsciously exalting
the valleys, making low the hills, and preparing
the way of the Lord — a. highway for our God.
Now, it will be granted, we imagine, that this
feature of the phenomenon under investigation
is singular and striking. It has been very im
perfectly described— but, even as here presented,
it deserves notice, and should engage reflection.
Missions to the heathen can be ridiculed without
incurring the pointed censure of our guides of
opinion. But here the work is planned by a

THE PHENOMENON. 51
higher than man, and will be carried into effect
by a stronger than man, on a scale of grandeur
beyond any we have yet witnessed. An immense
expansion of Christianity has become as certain as
anything future can be. And this, too, without
taking into account any more active development of
its moral power than it has commonly exhibited.
It must be extinguished, or it will spread. It has
become identified with all the great elements of
human progress in modern times — and, even if it
be not what it claims to be, it cannot but go, as
things are, wherever steam goes, wherever civiliza
tion goes, wherever Anglo-Saxon enterprise and
energy go, wherever modern literature goes. This,
too, is something.
§ 20. SUMMARY VIEW OF CHRISTIANITY AS A PHENOMENON.
In as few words as possible, we will attempt
to gather up the foregoing observations, and
bring the phenomenon, in all its principal as
pects, under one view. Quite irrespectively of
any theory on the origin of Christianity, the
following outline of the facts of the case will
give us a pretty accurate notion of the direction
in which our subsequent inquiries may most
fitly proceed.
Outspread before us we have a scene of deep
and painful interest to all who believe in the
spiritual nature, capabilities, and destiny of man.
e 2

52 THE PHENOMENON.
The soul of humanity paralyzed— dim, uncertain,
confused in its apprehensions— impotent in con
science—with scarcely so much pulsation at the
heart as to give assurance that the spark of
life has not gone out— the whole world of man
kind, Jew and GentUe, learned and unlearned,
civilized and barbarous, alike unconscious of, or
indifferent to, its relationship to the Father of
Spirits, and the duties and pleasures identified
with a recognition and appreciation of his glorious
character and perfect will. The worst symptom
of the sad case is a total lack of spiritual energy
— a seeming absence of all motive power ade
quate to insure a healthy discharge of the func
tions of the inner man, and still less to resist the
steady encroachments of disease. The general
tendency of things is from bad to worse —
and the moral malady, even in the view of
its moaning and helpless victim, is becoming
desperate. Just at this gloomy crisis of man's
history, when religious faith, hope, and love are
prostrate, wasted by an apparently incurable
atrophy, Jesus Christ, assuming to be commis
sioned thereto by God himself, spends some three
years in Galilee and Judea, in founding a new
dispensation, and is then put to death as a blas
phemer and a malefactor. What he did, what
he taught, and what he suffered, during those
three brief years, became instantly a spring of

THE PHENOMENON. 53
spiritual life to the world. Dreamy, distorted, '
grotesque notions of God and his purposes, of
man and his destiny, give place to clearer, nobler,
more consistent, more exalted views. Conscience
recovers its sensitiveness, and exerts its all-conquer
ing power. Society feels its heart throb with
new life. There has evidently been infused into
it an element of nervous vitality, to which it
has been long a stranger. The spiritual in man's
nature, obedient to some invisible law, struggles
with the material, and proves its title to supre
macy, and its competence to maintain it. Life
gains upon death. Sensibility, power, enjoyment,
in respect to divine things, to truth, to righteous
ness, to communion with the Highest, widen their
domain, and the limits within which healthy action
goes on are rapidly enlarged. There is resistance
— but to no purpose. A religious life has been
evoked, and cannot be stifled by coarse and violent
methods. Nor scoffs, nor threats, nor sword, nor
fire, nor learning, nor philosophy, can put out that
which, but a few years before, it seemed impossible
to kindle. Rome smiles incredulously at first —
then feels in its own veins the tingle of spiritual
vitality — struggles to expel the strange invasion —
and is itself subdued. Much, perhaps, of what meets
the eye is symptomatic only — but beneath it, and
perceptible to unprejudiced observation, there is a
substantial reality — a faith that can remove moun-

54 THE PHENOMENON.
tains— a full assurance of hope, the hope of immor
tality—a constraining and victorious love. As we
watch the marvellous progress of this novel religious
movement, and mark on every hand the indications
of its power and depth, we naturally ask, by what
means and influences it is promoted. Averting our
attention from everything claiming to be regarded
as miraculous, we have nothing left but the earnest
proclamation by simple-minded men of certain facts
and doctrines of which the departed Jesus was the
centre — no power of law, no influence of rank and
station, no worldly wealth, no flattering bait to the
sensual passions, no political arts or promises
embodying the vain wishes of the vulgar. A few
men agree in testifying to certain marvels which
they cannot but have themselves believed, and give
such additional force to their testimony as sanctity
of life can impart. That is all — literally all. But
the spiritual life which they generated by this
seemingly inadequate instrumentality rapidly in
creases in volume, passes to all the principal seats
of cultured intelligence, possesses, pervades, assi
milates them, and establishes itself in the world as
a permanent power. Gradually, the reaction of
Paganism oppresses it, and a long and dreary winter
of priestcraft drives that life beneath the surface of
hum an affairs, to manifest itself only here and there,
at unfrequent intervals. But scarcely does mind
awake from the slumber and incoherent dreams of

THE PHENOMENON. 55
centuries, than this same life, nurtured by the same
truths, and marked by the same power, as of old,
bursts forth again. It remains, to this day, the
strongest moral element of which we have any
knowledge. Numberless are the instances in which
it grapples with human selfishness and subdues it,
as no other known agency does or can. Countless
are the disquieted and trembling souls which it
soothes to peace, and into the darkness of which it
radiates a " blessed hope." It is modifying for
good the spirit of the times — developing to an ex
tent, surpassing all former precedent, man's interest
in, and care for, his fellow-man — tempering modern
civilization with a genial glow — and bringing into
more healthful and active play the heart's purest
and most disinterested affections. And all present
probabilities point to a future in which its sway
shall be much more extensive — in which it shall
possess the larger part of the world's population,
and by the intelligence, enterprise, and influence
with which it has become associated, undermine
and overthrow all less vital systems of religious faith
and worship.
§ 21. THE MAIN PROBLEM IT PRESENTS IS ONE OF SPIRITUAL
DYNAMICS.
Here, then, we have the rise, growth, permanence, ,
and manifestation of a spiritual power, which will
remain to be accounted for even if scientific criticism *

56 THE PHENOMENON.
i should succeed in erasing the whole of the New
Testament. It sprung up in a manner dissimilar
from any other with which we are acquainted. It
has forced a way for itself to wide dominion, not
unlikely to become universal, under a set of con
ditions peculiarly calculated to test its capabilities.
It is not too much to assume that, on the whole,
the world has gained something by its introduction
and subsequent course — that it has stimulated into
life and activity the religious element of man's
nature, so as no other power has done — so as no
other power of which we are cognisant is competent
to do. It continues to do so — and could we but
conceive it to be wholly withdrawn to-morrow, we
should naturally expect, whatever view we may
entertain of its origin, that there would result an
immense collapse of the religious sentiment, and
that in regard to all that pertains to spiritual culture
and development, society would experience a speedy
and marked retrogression. This power, then, con
stitutes the phenomenon which philosophy is bound
to investigate. Here it is — here is what it has
done — here is what the balance of probabilities
warrants our anticipation that it will do. What
ever may become of the gospels, this spiritual force
is a fact which no logic can disprove. To what are
we to refer it % How may we most satisfactorily
explain it % Wherein consists its singular potency
over the rehgious element of man's constitution %

THE PHENOMENON. 57
Does it come from God, or from man 1 by way of
revelation, or by intuition 1 Is its strength that of
truth, or of error ? If of truth, is it associated in
its origin with an external history upon which we
can substantially rely, or with an accumulation of
fabulous traditions, myths, and fictions ? We
submit that any inquiry into the origin of Chris
tianity which does not recognise it as a stimulant of
spiritual life, and which regards it merely in its
relation to our intellectual faculties, must be, from
the nature of the case, eminently unsatisfactory.
We have to make out, if possible, the natural
history, not of a certain system of opinions, but of
an active spiritual force. Our main business is
with the dynamics of the question.
§ 22. INSEPARABLY ASSOCIATED WITH AN INDIVIDUAL PERSONAL
HISTORY.
Power, however, is not the only special charac
teristic of the phenomenon under review. That
power emanates chiefly from an individual personal
history. So far as the world has been moved by
Jesus Christ, it has been by faith in, not so much
what he said, as what he was, what he did, what he
suffered. All the doctrines of this system have,
from the beginning, been regarded — whether pro
perly or improperly is not now the question — as
springing out of, associated with, and coloured by,
the life of the Nazarene. Strictly speaking, He is

58 THE PHENOMENON.
the spirit of gospel testimony. His relationship to
God — his mission to man — his mediatorial office —
the tenour of his life— the purpose of his death —
the triumph of his resurrection — the unlimited
extent of his authority — these are the ideas, all
personal in their reference, which have mainly
wrought the revolution we have just glanced at.
He, as pictured to us in the gospel narratives, and
illustrated in the apostolic writings, constitutes the
one source of this spiritual power — the main-spring
of the whole movement. The hopes, the fears, the
joys, the sorrows, the sympathies, the resolutions,
of his followers cluster round him as their sole and
sufficient object. Their penitence is elicited by his
trials and agonies. Their peace is peace in him.
About him their tenderest and strongest affections
twine themselves. His word is their law — his love
their motive — his example their stimulus — his sym
pathy their solace. It was his name which inspired
with courage and fortitude " the noble army of
martyrs " — it is the story of his life and death which
still is most effectual to subdue man's heart. The
grand stir which the introduction of Christianity
has produced, is owing far less to its abstract truths,
than to the personal form in which it exhibits them.
Strip them of their historical dress, and although
they remain essentially the same, they are not the
same in the view of human nature, any more than
a monarch, although himself unchanged, is changed

THE PHENOMENON. 59
to his subjects, when divested of all the outward
symbols of his authority. All this, in the eye of
philosophy, may indicate a very low state of spiritual
development. Nevertheless, we cannot, if we would,
get rid of the fact. There it stands out before us,
in boldest relief — and he would be much more
daring than wise who should deny that, so far as
observation and experience have hitherto gone, it is
demonstrable that the chief force of the Christian
faith has resided in its historical and personal
embodiment and expression.
§ 23. OFFERING TO THE WORLD AN ACCOUNT OF ITS
OWN ORIGIN.
And this leads us to the last remark we deem
it necessary to make on Christianity as a pheno
menon. It tells its own story. The question as
to whether the books of the New Testament were
written at the dates usually ascribed to them, and
by the men whose names are identified with them,
however interesting and important in other con
nexions, is quite irrelevant in this. Whether they
were or were not, it is certain that they, sub
stantially as we have them now, have constituted
the leverage by which society has been moved to
the extent we have very imperfectly sketched. To
the image they have impressed on the world's
mind, we owe the world's movement in this matter.
Whatever spiritual life has been awakened by this

60 THE PHENOMENON.
system, or is still kept alive by it, was awakened
and is kept alive by the idea of Jesus as exhibited
by the evangelists, and by the doctrines associated
with his earthly career, as developed by the apo
stolic epistles. If it were true that the history, as
we have it, had been " rounded off by tradition "
previously to the middle of the second century, it
is also true that it has been by the history as so
" rounded," that the general sweep of this revolu
tion has been determined. If all that is miracu
lous in the gospel narratives is but a precipitate
from glowing passions on natural incidents — if all
that is peculiar to, and distinctive of, Christianity
as a religious system is but the happy speculation
of men possessed of a strange delusion — it is yet
unquestionable that those narratives and that
speculation, in the very form in which they have
reached us, have generated the life, and moved to
the action, and effected the moral changes, to
which we have referred. Suppose, for argument's
sake, that the memoirs of Jesus Christ, after having
passed through the alembic of scientific criticism,
are proved to be but a small part facts, and the
greater part fiction, it is yet to be borne in mind
that the efflux of virtue which has brought about
so vast a result in the world's experience, has been
from the adulterated article. Unprejudiced com
mon sense will look at it thus: here is a great
spiritual movement — here, the identical lever bv

THE PHENOMENON. 61
which that movement has been produced — and the
force necessary to the one is the proper measure of
the force supplied by the other.
§ 24. POINTS FOR INQUIRY SUGGESTED BY THE PHENOMENON AS
A WHOLE.
Take, now, this phenomenon, as we have slightly
sketched it, and what are the main inquiries it
suggests 1 An immense number and variety of
facts, strewn abundantly over the surface of history
for nearly nineteen centuries, point to an active,
powerful, and permanent spiritual force, operative
more or less amongst men, throughout that whole
period. That force we know to have been exerted
upon society by the religious ideas presented to us
in the writings constituting the New Testament,
and by the special and peculiar form in which
they have been so presented. But the New
Testament refers us for the origin of that force
to God. It claims to be a revelation of his mind
and will — a showing of himself to mankind for
their advantage — an uncovering of his thoughts
and purposes, as it regards them, in such a light
as may waken up the faculties of their spiritual
nature, and give them meet exercise and enjoy
ment. Now is this claim intellectually inad
missible ] Does it, in itself, and abstractedly.
involve conditions at variance with the constitu
tion of human nature, or unbecoming the character

62 THE PHENOMENON.
of the Supreme 1 Or is the form in which it is
put — the drapery, if we may be allowed the figure,
in which this professedly divine idea approaches
man, to attract his attention, and kindle his hope,
and engage his heart — ill adapted to its purpose,
or out of keeping with the general laws which
govern God's proceedings of an educational and
disciplinary nature 1 Or is the evidence on which
its authority rests, or are the alleged facts which
testify to us that the idea is God's, comes from
him, represents him, and will carry up the soul
of man to him, such as can only be received by
putting a strain upon our reason, suspending or
reversing our usual processes of investigation, or
employing less stringent methods than is common
with us in discriminating the real from the
fictitious] Because, unless we are compelled to
give to these queries an affirmative answer, there
would seem to be no sufficient ground for rejecting
the account which Christianity has given of itself.
If we are at last constrained by intellectual doubts
and difficulties to admit that the main tissue
of the gospel narratives is fictitious, or, at least,
incapable of being proved satisfactorily to our
unbiassed judgment, and wholly untrustworthy as
a manifestation of God to man, then must we
needs adopt the conclusion that, in the course of
God's Providence, and as an important feature
of his moral administration, the most powerful

THE PHENOMENON. 63
spiritual force of which the world has hitherto
had cognizance — that which has done most to
rouse man's spiritual nature to self-consciousness,
and to give most active play to its faculties and
emotions, has been begotten by a mistake — is the
result, not of facts, but of the exaggeration of
facts by a generation of ardent enthusiasts —
and that no display of God by means of his
unquestioned works, by the objects, laws, and
processes of Nature, has been half so successful
in lifting the soul God-ward, and attaching it to
the true, the righteous, the good, the infinite, as
one marvellous story woven by human imagination,
in which the facts are few, and the embellishments
of them make up its main substance and purport.
But even this conclusion will not be without its
doubts and difficulties of an intellectual kind —
will not be free from unaccountable aspects, and
impenetrable mysteries. Such as it is, however,
this is the alternative which the whole phenomenon
presents. Christianity is from God, or from man.
If from God, it is accounted for as a spiritual
power — if from man, wherein consists the secret
of its superior strength? In the one case, there
are intellectual objections to the hypothesis, but if
they can be met, the problem constituted by the
facts is solved. In the other case, the hypothesis
is also beset with intellectual difficulties, which,

64 THE PHENOMENON.
if removed, would leave the same problem un
explained. The following pages will be devoted to the
consideration of the questions above adverted to
as springing out of the phenomenon previously
described. Whether many, if not most, of the
intellectual difficulties felt to the reception of
Christianity as a revelation of God, are not
owing to the selection of a wrong stand-point
from which to survey it — and whether viewed
from the ground to which the preceding observa
tions have conducted us, faith in Christ as "the
image of the invisible God," requires human
reason to be put under constraint, remains to
be seen. The plan we have marked out for
ourselves, however, is rather of a positive than
of a negative character. It will be our aim to
place Christianity in what strikes us as the right
light for a fair consideration of its claims. We
need to ascertain, in the outset, what is its real
mission — inasmuch as if we regard it as having
come amongst us to do what it was not intended
nor needed to do, and wholly overlook its main
purport and intent, no end of objections may
occur to us which would be fatal but that they
do not apply. Our first business, therefore, will
be to come at the object of this professed reve
lation, as set forth in various ways by itself. This

THE PHENOMENON. 65
done, we shall be in the best position for deter
mining whether that object is a necessary and
feasible one — whether Christianity is well adapted
to compass it — and whether, either in the end
proposed, or the means employed, there is any
violation of the established principles on which
God is conducting his moral administration.

PART II.
THE REVELATION.

CONTENTS.
1. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INSTRUCTION AND SUASION. 2. THIS
DIFFERENCE COMMONLY OVERLOOKED IN REGARD TO CHRISTIANITY.
3. COMMUNICATION OF NEW RELIGIOUS IDEAS NOT ITS MAIN OBJECT.
4. BUT TO AWAKEN RELIGIOUS LIFE. 5. NEED OF SUCH A REVE
LATION ARGUED FROM THE RELIGIOUSNESS OF MAN'S NATURE.
6. WHICH RELIGIOUSNESS CLAIMS THE GOVERNMENT OF HIS WHOLE
BEING. 7. THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT PRESUPPOSES SOME PRO
VISION FOR ITS DEVELOPMENT. 8. THIS PROVISION NOT TO BE
FOUND WITHIN THE LIMITS OF MAN'S OWN BEING. 9. NO SUFFI
CIENT PROVISION IN THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE. 10. NECESSARY
LIMITATIONS OF A REVELATION THROUGH NATURE. 11. EXPERI
ENCE OF MANKIND AS TO THE INSUFFICIENCY ALLUDED TO.
12. ADAPTATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE CRAVINGS OF THE RE
LIGIOUS SENTIMENT. 13. NOT REPUGNANT TO REASON. 14. SPECIAL
ADVANTAGES SECURED BY THIS FORM OF REVELATION. 15. SUM
MARY OF THE PRECEDING OBSERVATIONS. 16. DISTINCTIVE
CHARACTERISTIC OF CHRISTIANITY AS A REVELATION. 17. INCOM
PLETENESS AND PARTIALITY OF ITS SUCCESS CONSIDERED. 18. CON
CLUDING STATEMENT OF THE POSITION TO WHICH THE ARGUMENT
HAS CONDUCTED US.

F 2

THE REVELATION.

§ 1. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INSTRUCTION AND SUASION.
When Demosthenes declared the first requisite
of a successful orator to be "action," the second
"action," the third "action," the word he em
ployed, we presume, comprehended in its meaning
a great deal more than mere gesticulation. Judg
ing from his own speeches, he was not a likely
man to " o'erstep the modesty of nature " any
more in the delivery than in the composition of
his harangues; nor do we suppose that he was
at all given to " tear a passion to rags." We
understand his dictum as the expression of a
profound truth — that the chief power of an orator
hes in a natural and appropriate display of his
earnestness, and that he who proposes to take
captive by his eloquence the will of others, must
show the strength and vehemence of his own will.
If, now, we were to criticise his celebrated saying
as though, it were intended to indicate his opinion

70 the revelation.
as to the best mode of conveying instruction to the
mind, rather than of swaying by means of speech
the entire man, we might array against his sup
posed theory a phalanx of sound objections; we
might bring to bear against it many a weighty
argument and much incontestable philosophy ;
and we might seem to onlookers to achieve an
easy and unquestionable triumph in vindication of
the mind's superiority over mere modes and acci
dents in the communication of knowledge — but
we should not have so much as touched the
allegation of the prince of orators. It is one
thing to gain over the understanding to our con
clusions — it is another and a very different thing
to win sympathy for our purposes. The means
and processes necessary to the one are not equally
competent to the other — and in passing judgment
on their congruity, it is of the utmost importance
that we should have first ascertained whether they
are resorted to with a view to enlighten the mind,
or to move the heart.
A father, say, is desirous of instructing his son
in the duties which arise out of his filial relation
ship, his position, and his prospects. In such a
case his communications will assume the shape
of information, and of reasoning built upon it.
He will begin with statements wliich the boy can
readily understand, and to which he will yield an
unhesitating assent. He will endeavour to avail

THE REVELATION. 71
himself of all the intellectual instruments by
which mind usually seeks to reproduce its con
victions in mind — analysis, comparison, illustration,
inference, analogy, and authoritative assertion.
Upon the skilful use of these instruments, rather
than upon any peculiarity of tone, gesture, or
manner, he will depend for best effecting his end.
His object requires that whatever power is brought
to bear upon the youth's mind, should be resident
in, and associated with, the truths to be com
municated. The natural influence he has over
his child as a father, so far from assisting him —
save, perhaps, to secure ready attention — will be
apt to render his task more difficult, by inducing
the lad to take for granted what it is desirable
he should arrive at by a fair logical process. He
will, therefore, rely pretty exclusively on clearness
of statement, aptness of illustration, and force of
argument, rather than on any display of parental
emotion, and his end may be obtained quite as
well, if not better, by letter, than by viva voce
utterances. But if it be his purpose to move
rather than to instruct — if he seeks, not so much
to enlighten as to persuade — if, for instance, he
would elicit trust, or draw out affection, or change
the strong current of the will ; those methods will
be instinctively felt to be the most appropriate,
which best exhibit his inner self, his heart. It
matters not in such case that language is incom-

72 THE REVELATION.
plete and incoherent — that expressions are hyper
bolical, and imagery confused, and assertions made
which appear irreconcileable one with another.
On the contrary, these very defects and infirmities
may conduce to his main object, by indicating the
intensity of his feeling. The real power of the
man will stream along other than those formal
channels cut for him by the intellect. The tones
of the voice will have their witchery. The eye
will speak. The whole countenance will do the
work of interpretation. Every action, every ges
ture, will be suggestive — and, perhaps, a gentle
pressure of the hand, a kiss, a starting tear, a
sudden change of colour, will do the work which
logic might have for ever laboured at in vain. We
have put these two processes into juxtaposition
with the view of reminding the reader how neces
sary it is, in pronouncing an opinion on the con
gruity of a certain order of means, to have before
him a definite idea of the end which they are
employed to attain. In the two foregoing suppo
sitions the purposes are taken to be widely differ
ent, and each obviously calls for a different process.
If, now, we can fancy a critic misfitting the process
in the last case, where suasion is intended, to the
purpose in the first case, which is simple enlighten
ment, and, under the influence of this mistake,
pronouncing judgment on the aptitude of the one
to effect the other, we should not be at all sur-

THE P.EVELATION. 73
prised to hear him remark, with undeniable force,
or cutting severity, on the strange deficiencies,
incoherences, and incompatibilities everywhere
apparent to him. What he said might be very
true — quite unanswerable — but irrelevant to the
case before him — for he would be philosophizing
on the hypothesis that the boy's intellect was ad
dressed, whereas it was mainly his heart.
§ 2. THIS DIFFERENCE COMMONLY OVERLOOKED IN REGARD TO
CHRISTIANITY.
Now, the radical error which we take to under
lie the greater part of the intellectual objections
adduced against Christianity as a revelation of
God, is similar in kind to that above specified. It
is assumed by the sceptical, who, we must admit,
may plead in justification of what they do, the
grounds occupied by enlightened apologists of the
faith, that the gospel is an expedient for the com
munication to mankind of certain religious ideas
otherwise unattainable — a sort of appendix to the
open volume of Nature, in which have been placed
a number of peculiar truths resting for their autho
rity on the divine word, and not deducible by rea
soning from the divine works. Viewed from this
stand-point, Christianity appears to be open to
many and serious objections. Very plausibly, if
not conclusively, it may be argued that these same
religious ideas spring up spontaneously in the

74 THE REVELATION.
human mind when operated upon by external con
ditions of a given, but, by no means, uncommon
character — that the very aptitude of the intellect
to receive and comprehend them proves its advance,
by natural means, to their very borders; for that
what we have not within us the power to discover
by the use of our mental faculties, we have not the
power to understand when communicated — that it
is not in analogy with God's general method of
instructing mankind to make provision for it up to
a certain extent in accordance with the laws which
regulate the acquisition of knowledge, and beyond
that boundary to institute a very different and
altogether exceptional process — and that, in point
of fact, the religious ideas embodied in Christianity
are not peculiar to it ; that one or other of them
will be found in almost every form of religious
faith ; and that the greatest and most cultivated
minds of the heathen world, prior to the appear
ance of Jesus Christ, had announced to the world
substantially the same truths, although, perhaps,
with less authority and fulness. We do not say
that these, and many like objections, cannot be
met and refuted— but we do say, that if Christianity
can be shown to be an expedient, not to impart
new religious ideas, but- to vivify pre-existent ones
—not so much to convey something beyond reach
to the intellect, as to stimulate dormant affections
and subjugate the will— if, in, short, it was intended

THE REVELATION. 75
to approach man's nature, not on its logical, but on
its emotional side — then, all these objections are
irrelevant. The proper answer to them is, that
they do not apply. Good reasons, and unanswer
able, may be given against a man's course, when,
starting from London, he is supposed to be making
his way to Edinburgh through Bristol and Exeter
— but if Edinburgh be not in reality his destina
tion, but the Land's End, the reasons, however
good in themselves, fall to the ground. If it be
true, then, that an erroneous view has been taken
of the direction in which Christianity was meant to
proceed, it will be more pertinent, by far, to point
out that error, than to combat specifically, and on
their own ground, the objections founded upon it.
§ 3. COMMUNICATION OF NEW RELIGIOUS IDEAS NOT ITS MAIN
OBJECT.
If, now, we could succeed in erasing from our
minds, for the time being, all our conceptions de
rived from extraneous sources of the object aimed
at by Christianity, and peruse the documents upon
which that faith rests with a view to ascertain its
drift from them exclusively, we should find very
little indeed to lead us to the conclusion that the
communication to the world of new and otherwise
undiscoverable religious ideas, is its main purport.
No shout of " Eureka," such as both its advocates
and its opponents would have led us to expect, will

76 THE REVELATION.
be heard proceeding from that quarter. The ge
neral tone pervading the New Testament, and,
more or less, the Old also, is not that which indi
cates a consciousness of announcing propositions of
startling novelty, or of solving problems which
must ever have baffled the search of the human
intellect. On the contrary, the Bible seems to
proceed on the assumption that men in general
have possessed the means of acquiring many reli
gious ideas of which they are content to remain in
ignorance, and that if they had been disposed to
avail themselves of the opportunities by which they
are surrounded, they might have attained to very
profitable knowledge both of God and of them
selves. The apostle Paul, for example, when
speaking of " the wrath of God revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteous
ness of men," intimates that they who are exposed
to it are such as " hold the truth in unrighteous
ness " — ¦" because," he proceeds, " that which may
be known of God is manifest in them : for God has
showed it unto them." How1? Not by special
revelation, for it is of the heathen world that he
thus writes, but by means of the book of nature.
" For the invisible things of Him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by
the things that are made — even his eternal power
and Godhead." In truth, so far from challenging
for the gospel an exclusive power of communi-

THE REVELATION. 77
eating correct religious ideas, this apostle appears
to go out of his way on some occasions for the
express purpose of showing that the truths upon
which he insists have been proclaimed by other
men, and might be collected from other premises.
When preaching at Athens, he betrays no jealousy
of pagan philosophy, as if it were necessary, in
order to vindicate the claims of the faith he taught,
to deny or to undervalue all spiritual doctrines not
supernaturally imparted— but in confirmation of
what he is himself advancing, remarks approvingly,
" As certain also of your own poets have said, For
we are also his offspring." And that capability
of knowing which he ascribes to man, in reference
to the being and attributes of God, and our rela
tionship to him, he speaks of unhesitatingly as
competent to decide questions of practical duty —
" For when the Gentiles which have not the law,
do by nature the things contained in the law, these,
having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
which show the work of the law written in their
hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and
their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else
excusing one another." Such declarations as these
are the more noticeable, inasmuch as they appear
on a background in perfect harmony with their
tenour. There is little or nothing in the sacred
writings of Christianity calling attention to the
fact that it is making a discovery of truths which

78 THE REVELATION.
the human mind could never have reached. All
the primary notions of divine things which it em
bodies, it rather takes for granted, than announces
as novelties. There is about it no air of " exclu-
, sive intelligence " — nothing in style or expression
which suggests that the writers felt in general like
men who are communicating secrets to which no
intellect could have pierced its way. For the most
part, they tell their story as men expecting to be
credited because they were familiar with the facts
they narrated; and upon those facts they make
comments, and base doctrines, and found obliga
tions, precisely as men might have done who
thought them pertinent and obvious, but who had
no suspicion that they were unveiling truths which
had been supernaturally disclosed to them.
§ 4. BUT TO AWAKEN RELIGIOUS LIFE.
But, undoubtedly, there is an aspect in which
Christianity assumes an air of exclusive pretension.
Taking it at its own word, its one purpose is to
" give life " — spiritual life. Herein consists its
originality — it comes " to save." No one can study
its records without perceiving that its business is
moral rather than intellectual. The knowledge it
professes to communicate is that which is appro
priated by the affections rather than the under
standing. The religious ideas which it sets before
man are ideas to be comprehended by the heart.

THE revelation. 79
The grand mystery which it unveils is the love of
God — and this can only be recognised and appre
ciated by sympathetic emotions. Its object is not
to increase knowledge, as such — for according to
its own declaration " knowledge puffeth up " — but
to beget and nourish love by that kind of know
ledge which is laid hold of not by the head, but
the heart. Religion is no more a science than
courtship. The former, it is true, must have its
thoughts — its perceptions, reasonings, conclusions
— as well as the latter — but then the specific nature
of them will be emotional. There are two ways in
which one may acquaint himself, or be made ac
quainted, with his fellow-man. He who lectures
on the natural history of humanity — who places
vividly before us the anatomical, physiological, or
psychological laws by which he is governed — is em
ploying one method of adding to our knowledge of
man — and, of course, of any given individual whom
we desire to understand better. But there are
views of himself which that individual alone can
display — nor can we properly be said to know him
until he has showed us something of his heart.
He will not do this — he cannot do it proposition-
ally — but mediately, in a countless variety of ways.
And in doing it, he imparts to us new ideas of him
self — in a word, reveals just that relating to what
he is, and what he is to us, which we are most
deeply interested in knowing. Now, it is in this

80 THE REVELATION.
last sense, and not in the first, that Christianity
offers itself as a revelation of God. This is the
sort of knowledge which it undertakes to commu
nicate — knowledge given by love with a view to
love. And hence, all the methods and instruments
of communication are peculiar to its work. It dis
plays the love of God, not in scientific propositions,
nor logical definitions — not by written lectures on
the Divine nature and perfections, wherein there
are utterances too profound to be attributed to
human reason. Not at all. But it illustrates it
by a series of Providential facts, and above and
beyond all, embodies it in a life — the life of a man,
in all respects " like as we are, but without sin."
And these facts were arranged and ordered, and
this life was lived, and both were recorded in Holy
Writ, that men might become " wise unto salva
tion " — pure as God is pure — that they might turn
to him as to their Father, and love him as he first
loved them. This, if we mistake not, is the light
in which the gospel of Jesus Christ professes to be
a revelation of what could not be otherwise known
of God, and it is in this light that its claims should
be investigated.
At the risk of repeating what has already been
advanced, we will endeavour to set the distinc
tion just pointed out in a yet clearer light — con
fident as we are that a large class of intellectual
objections to Christianity spring from inattention

THE REVELATION. 81
to this peculiarity of it. Take the fundamental
religious ideas pervading the Scriptures— the One
God, eternal, immortal, invisible — man, his crea
ture, dependent on him, and accountable to him —
universal guilt, capable, however, of being removed
by forgiveness — a future state of rewards and
punishments — the efficacy of prayer — the principle
of mediation : — the claim of the Christian faith to
be received as a revelation of God is not based
upon its origination of these ideas. They may, or
they may not, have been introduced to man's mind
by its sole means — that is a question which need
not detain us. Because, if it could be shown that
every one of these primary religious notions lay
within the limits of intellectual speculation, and
may have been discovered, and were, as a matter of
fact, discovered by the ordinary process of inquiry
and reflection, not a step would be gained towards
demonstrating a revelation, such as Christianity
professes to be, altogether superfluous, and, there
fore, unworthy of Supreme wisdom. These consti
tute, as it were, but the raw material of the system
— the simple elements which enter into its compo
sition and structure. It is the special form given
to these which warrants us in regarding Christ's
gospel as the spiritual tuitional agency which the
state of mankind required. Genius may speak to
us through a marble statue, every block used in
which may have been quarried from places within
G

82 THE REVELATION.
easy reach, and by hands other than those of the
artist. But who shall hint that genius has told no
tale by means of statuary, because the substance
wrought by it into exquisite beauty, was dug up
and rough-hewn by common unskilled labour]
Christianity does with the primary religious ideas
to which we have referred, what the artistic mind
does with its blocks of stone — puts them together,
shapes them, makes them exhibit an unity of mean
ing — in one word, brings out to our spiritual facul
ties and emotions, a finished embodiment in human
fact and history, of the divine character, relation
ship, and purpose — and designates it " The image
ofthe invisible God." It is not so much for what
it shows us of the divine, but for the life, energy,
and fulness with which it shows it to our sympa
thies, that it claims to be beyond origination by
human faculties. Its pretensions have been chiefly
canvassed as if falling exclusively under the first of
these conditions — and, hence, a host of reasonable
doubts and difficulties — but they ought in common
fairness to it to be considered as coming under the
last ; and examined into, and pronounced upon,
accordingly. In the observations which follow, it is our
intention to treat of Christianity in accordance
with its own representation of its drift and aim.
True philosophy prescribes this course. The gos
pel is an instrument for effecting some change

THE REVELATION. 83
or other in the world's condition. At any rate,
this is its profession. Now, it seems1 obvious
enough, that our examination of its fitness and
efficiency should be conducted with reference to
what it proposes to do. We are bound to pro
nounce a judgment on it, having a strict relation
to its own pretensions, and to them only. It
claims to be regarded as a manifestation of God.
In what sense, we ask, and we seek the answer
at its own mouth. Well, its reply is neither
ambiguous nor indistinct. Given in its own words
it is — " Glory to God in the highest — peace on.
earth — good-will to men." More specifically, it
is a display of his " grace," his benignity, favour,
love to mankind, in and by Jesus Christ, that
" they might have life " — have it in abundance.
It is a project having love for its main power,
love as its sole end. It is not the completion
of a science, which, prior to its appearance had
advanced as far as the means within reach would
admit of. It is not a written supplement, intended
by a change of method to furnish certain informa
tion concerning invisible realities which could not
be conveyed to the mind of man through the
medium of God's works, lt is not an afterthought
acted upon in consequence of the failure of a
former plan. Something equivalent to this, it
is true, has been frequently insisted upon by
its friendly exponents — but nothing like this, we
g 2

84 THE REVELATION.
will venture to affirm, can be collected from Chris
tianity itself. It needs but a slight study of
the biographical memoirs of its founder, and of
the interpretative epistles of his immediate fol
lowers, to be convinced that its display of God
is almost exclusively moral, with a view to moral
results — in a word, and using terms and figures
not strictly appropriate, but accommodated to our
weakness — it is a revelation of heart to heart in
order to sympathy, and not a communication of
mind to mind in order to knowledge. Was any
such revelation needed'? If so, is Christianity
fitted to answer the purpose, so as no other
existing or conceivable means could have done ]
And again if so, is the entire system framed upon
assumptions which man's intellect is constrained,
in spite of such moral fitness, to set aside as
inadmissible] To the solution of these queries
we now propose to apply ourselves.
§ 5. NEED OF SUCH A REVELATION ARGUED FROM THE RELI
GIOUSNESS OF MAN'S NATURE.
Our first business, then, is to inquire whether
any such moral display of the Deity as the gospel
of Christ professes to make, was called for by
the wants of human nature. Let us look at
that nature in its religious aspect — for man, we
shall do no violence to philosophy in assuming,
is endowed with capabilities and susceptibilities

THE REVELATION. 85
answering, if we may so speak, to religious ideas,
as the eye to light, as the natural instincts to
the objects which gratify them, as the intellect
to abstract truth, as taste to beauty. For the
sake of rendering ourselves intelligible we shall
designate this aptitude, this higher sense, this
primary element of spiritual life, religiousness.
It is a part of man's being. The tendency which
impels him to classify his ideas, and to infer
causes from effects, is not more spontaneous, not
more irrepressible, than that which prompts him
to speculate upon, to commune with, and to
worship, being and power beyond the reach of
the senses, and above the laws of matter. This
endowment may be later than all others in the
order of its developement — but, given the requisite
conditions, it is sure to appear. As there is a stage
in every individual's history in which it is neces
sarily latent, and no sign of it can be detected,
so it is just possible that whole tribes of men
may here and there be found, so closely approach
ing to a merely animal existence, as to exhibit
no evidence whatever of its possession. Such a
fact, however, if such a fact there be, no more proves
the absence from our nature of a spiritual germ, than
want of articulate speech in the infant proves that
it lacks what will hereafter bud into reason. All
our capabilities are governed in their action and

86 THE REVELATION.
manifestation by fixed and suitable laws. Still, it
is to be observed that this religiousness of man
pushes itself into notice quite independently of any
formal tenets of belief. When midnight finds us
wakeful, and its still gloom curtains in our solitude,
and the thinking power is thrown back upon itself,
cut off from its customary means of converse with
the outer world, whence is it that a feeling of
solemnity gradually steals over us, and there rises
up unbidden in our souls a vague consciousness
that we are not alone ] When we sit abroad on a
summer evening, and watch the going down of the
sun behind the tranquil sea, and balmy airs breathe
round us, and fragrant odours regale us, and the
outspread scene before us changes momentarily the
expression of its beauty, how comes it that the love
liness which we can see suggests to us an intelligent
Cause of it whom we cannot see, and prompts us to
bow our hearts in reverence and adoration ? Or
when sudden danger overtakes us, or the tempest
howls above us, or Nature turns towards us one of
those ominous aspects beneath which the courage of
the stoutest falters, what is it that makes us fall into
a suppliant mood, and, in the agony of our fear,
glance for needed succour towards an invisible
power ? This peculiar aptitude and tendency thus
to look beyond the seen, thus to bend in awe before
the impalpable, thus to cling for protection to an

THE REVELATION. 87
unknown potentate, is the basis of subjective religion.
That we have it, is a fact written in every man's
experience. History is full of it.
§ 6. WHICH RELIGIOUSNESS CLAIMS THE GOVERNMENT OF HIS
WHOLE BEING.
The entire class of faculties and sensibilities to
which, for convenience sake, we give the generic
title of religiousness, like artistic taste, may be all
but smothered by neglect, and may be developed
into marvellous strength by culture. But, as it
advances towards maturity, it invariably assumes,
and, to a greater or less extent, exercises, a sway
over the whole domain of human consciousness. It
is born to govern. It mounts the throne in virtue
of its inherent rights, and gives law to all other
powers and passions as holding an inferior position.
It may, indeed, be resisted, rebelled against, deposed
— but it never abdicates — never abnegates its title
to sovereignty in man. And where its life has been
fairly ministered to, and it has succeeded in esta
blishing itself as " one having authority," it rules
with a vigour and a decision all its own. The
tyranny of a master passion is oftentimes violent —
but there are provinces of human nature which no
mere usurpation can subdue. Take avarice, for
example. Indulged, pampered, flattered, into im
patience of all constraint, hke other too successful
satraps, it first repudiates all law for itself, and then

88 THE REVELATION.
exalts its own will into the place of law. As it
becomes accustomed to the use of its " sceptred
sway," it also becomes within certain limits irre
sistible. It can hold all the appetites in check. It
can silence with a word the strongest natural
affections. It can suppress anger under the most
torturing provocations. It can buy off, or forcibly
overcome, the risings of pride. And it can clap
conscience into prison, and practise indignities upon
it until scarcely a spark of life and feehng remains.
But there are higher powers which it can never
subjugate. There will always continue reason to
whisper in its ear that it is but an usurper, whose
time is short, and whom inexorable death will be
reave of all. The Haman of the soul will have a
Mordecai at the gate, and a silent taunt, like a fly
in the ointment of the apothecary, will ever be at
hand to mar the completeness of success, and to
remind the upstart that unlimited dominion will be
grasped at in vain. But no such abatement
characterises the rule of religiousness. Nothing
that stirs within the boundaries of humanity,
however hard the sacrifices that may be required of
it, will hint that the supreme post of authority has
been seized by a parvenu. It, too, may command
with irresistible effect — hopes, fears, appetites,
affections, life, death — but with this difference, that
obedience will be rendered as fealty, not slavery.
Illustrations of the supremacy of religiousness, as of

THE REVELATION. 89
admitted right, over man's entire being, are so
numerous, so various, and so striking, as to render
selection as embarrassing, as it appears to be super
fluous. Nevertheless, and with a view rather to
impression than conviction, we may venture upon
submitting one example for study — that furnished
by John Milton. Here is one in whom all the
attributes of manhood are to be seen in healthy,
robust, and well-proportioned development — lofty
imagination, sturdy logic, and vivacious wit — tender
sensibilities, strong passions, and an indomitable
will. Follow this man through his career, and you
will see him environed by successive sets of circum
stances, which offered, each in its turn, a powerful
temptation to yield himself unreservedly to the
exclusive dominion of every single tendency and
force of his nature. From early youth, however,
his religiousness was sedulously cultured, and,
making all due allowances for occasional outbreaks
of infirmity, it governed all. His aspirations, his
purposes, his plans, his noble self-sacrifices, his
wondrous energy, his judgment — ah were prompted,
guided, regulated, harmonized, by the spiritual
element. It was that which spurred him to early
industry — that which prompted him to keep watch
and ward over youthful passions — that which sent
him home to his country when her strife for liberty
commenced — that which kindled in his bosom an
inextinguishable fire of patriotism — that which per-

90 THE REVELATION.
suaded him to resign in " defence of the people of
England," the sweet light of day for ever— that
which enabled him to bear the loss with unrepining
fortitude— that which strung his harp to minstrelsy,
selected the themes of his sublime music, and in
spired him with the gift of an almost superhuman
msight into the realms of faith. Religiousness
gives the key to his history. Over the whole man,
and he in all respects a powerful man, it swayed its
high and unquestioned authority. And who will
say, that even in this instance, it assumed too high
a place ] or aimed at what transcended its native
qualities and its appropriate sphere] Now, let it
be borne in mind that this is the kind of supremacy
to which religiousness, by an inherent law of its
nature, evermore tends. It is not only an element
in man's complex constitution, but it puts in a
rightful claim to be the dominant element. It can
show just the same title to monarchy in the human
soul, as it does to existence. The finger of God has
written upon it its princely credentials. The blood
of Royalty is in its veins — and it cannot be itself with-
out being authoritative in purpose and demeanour.
5 7. THE RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT PRESUPPOSES SOME PROVISION
FOR ITS DEVELOPMENT.
If the foregoing observations are well warranted,
we shall surely be justified by all analogy in ex
pecting an ample provision in God's arrangements

THE REVELATION. 91
for the sustenance, growth, and enjoyment of this
important and influential element of man's nature.
Not an instinct, not an appetite, not a sensibility,
not a power, is to be discovered in man, for which
there are not correspondent external objects. He
who endowed us with the power of recognising and
appreciating beauty, has also given abundantly the
requisite materials for its exercise and gratification.
If with the great majority of mankind the gift is
suffered to lie dormant for want of culture, or is a
source of far less pleasure than it is capable of being
made, the fact is to be attributed solely to their
negligence in this respect, not to any niggardhness
in the divine economy regarding it. They may
overlook, or throw away their opportunities of
aesthetic cultivation — but there the opportunities
are, notwithstanding, in sufficiency, in profusion, in
superfluity. And it is further to be remarked that
there is ever a special congruity of nature between
the subjective faculty and the objective existence.
For the pure intellect, there are questions of relation
with which the passions cannot intermeddle. For
those affections which are necessary to some im
portant results independently of our own care and
reasoning, there are objects which make their direct
appeal to those affections without troubhng them to
consult the judgment, or to wait the issue of pre
vious calculation. And where the man is to be
addressed both as intelligent and susceptible of

92 THE REVELATION.
attachment, the provision made invariably has
regard to both in their proportionate importance.
We have good reason, therefore, to look for the
operation of this same Providential law in connexion
with man's spiritual nature. His power to perceive
religious ideas, his aptitude to feel religious
emotions, the delight he is capable of taking in
religious exercises, and his tendency to be governed
by the religious element, imply an external embodi
ment, in some form or other, of what will meet his
wants in all these particulars. This highest class of
human attributes will not be less cared for in the
arrangements of Infinite Wisdom, nor, one would
infer, less specifically addressed, than are the lower.
Something there will be in the outer world of fact
answering in kind to the strong yearnings of desire
within. The sort of display which our rehgious
nature instinctively craves, and in the absence of
which it will set up for itself all manner of spurious
substitutes, will be granted in a guise adapted, when
fairly perceived, to yield satisfaction. Such anti
cipations, we contend, cannot be philosophically
objected to. That which they look for is in strict
accordance with all that we know of God's method
of proceeding in other departments of his universal
government, and we are not justified in surmising
that where the weightiest of all human interests
are involved, Divine beneficence will give place to
parsimony.

THE REVELATION. 93
§ 8. THIS PROVISION NOT TO BE FOUND WITHIN THE LIMITS OF
MAN'S OWN BEING.
Opinions, indeed, have been broached of late,
which, so far as we have been able to comprehend
their meaning, we are obliged to interpret into a
conjecture that religiousness carries within itself the
materials of its own life and growth — that the sub
jective and the objective are mysteriously one — and
that the religious ideas which evoke and give play
to the religious sensibilities, are, in some manner,
we know not what, evolved from the hidden depths
of our being. We need hardly waste time on this
singular speculation — but we do hope it is not
intended to pass for profound philosophy. Perhaps,
we shall be forgiven, if we remind those who look
with favour on this hypothesis that the process of
evolution in this case, even if it could, in the
nature of things, be successful, must require a
great deal of previous abstraction, for which not
one man in a million is qualified, and that when
the truth which was supposed to lie enfolded in
our constitution has been seized and brought to
light, strong suspicion may be reasonably excited
that it came from without to where it was found,
and that it has only been recovered from forgetful-
ness, not originated by intuition and reflection.
These felicitous instances of conjectured spontaneity
in the production of religious ideas from the soil of
the human mind, never seem to have occurred

94 THE REVELATION.
under conditions which would have rendered the
dropping into it of a chance seed wholly impossible.
On the contrary, they who deem themselves most
independent, in their spiritual musings, of all
external aids and ministrations, are those also who
have in earlier life taken in a liberal supply of
religious aliment from sources which they may
have forgotten, but which, nevertheless, were, and
still are, on the outside of their own being. The
speculation, therefore, does not offer itself to our
notice with any strong recommendation of internal
probability, and that which it has to say for itself
is very far from being unimpeachable. Now this,
to say the least, is unfortunate in an attempt to
establish a fact utterly unlike, and seemingly at
right angles with, every other fact with which we
are acquainted. Our physical appetites, assuredly,
do not find their material of satisfaction within
themselves. Our senses rely for meet occupation
and reward upon outward objects. Our intellect
does not originate its own conceptions, apart from
appropriate external embodiments of truth. We
do not draw up our ideas of beauty from the
obscure abyss of our own nature. Even the
glorious faculty of insight presupposes objectivity
as a necessary condition of its exercise. For,
intuition must not be confounded with self-pro
duction. It merely sees at a glance latent and
evasive truths which the mind would otherwise

THE REVELATION. 95
have reached by a ratiocinative process. That
which it detects so instantaneously, is not fire in
its own eye, but light emitted by some external
object — hght, however, which it perceives where
other eyes would fail, by a high state of sympa
thetic sensitiveness. Even to religious intuition,
therefore, there must be a revelation through some
medium, in order to knowledge and emotion.
Cases may occur in which the affinity between the
soul and truth is so strong, that wherever the
latter is present, though but in an evanescent
gleam, it will leave upon the former a marvellously
correct and permanent impression of itself — a sort
of photographic image of a spiritual idea — and so
momentary is the process, that one may easily
imagine the picture to have been mysteriously
evolved from within, instead of having been
caught and retained from without. And just as
when standing on the beach, and looking abroad
upon the sea, it is difficult to regard those countless
ripples which sparkle and darken in rapid alterna
tion, as having no light in themselves, but reflecting
only that which they receive, so neither is it easy
to realize the fact that of all the multitudinous and
many-shaded thoughts which are given off by the
mind, not one, strictly speaking, comes out of it as
part of itself, but is only the result of a double
series of causes — unceasing movement on the part
of the soul operating to alter momentarily the

96 THE REVELATION.
incidence of the truth which beams upon it, and to
present to self-consciousness a change of aspect.
But, so far as our knowledge hitherto has con
ducted us, every class of ideas emanating from the
mind of man have their corresponding objects in
the outer world ; or, at least, require in order to
their birth, an impregnation of the innate aptitudes
and spontaneous tendencies of our nature by the
suggestive activity of external existences. Beyond
this limit philosophy must be dismissed for con
jecture, and for want of logical deduction, we must
put up with a bold guess. That guess may be a
happy one, or it may not — it may have hit the
mark, if we could but see it, or it may not. But
certainly, they who choose to resign their judgment,
in so serious a matter, to a known uncertainty, and
especially where all analogy is against them, with
a view to escape the intellectual difficulties sup
posed to be inseparable from Christianity as a
revelation of God, can hardly commend their
example to us on the ground of philosophical
caution. At any rate, we prefer to remain within
the boundaries of fair argumentation — and if
unable, where we are, to solve every perplexity,
we deem it rational, looking at the proposed
alternative, to resolve that we will
 "rather bear those ills we have,

Than fly to others we know not of.'

THE REVELATION. 97
§ 9. NO SUFFICIENT PROVISION IN THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE.
Within the circle of our own being, then, our
search after that meet provision for the nourish
ment of man's religious powers and sensibilities
which the general laws of the Divine economy
warrant us in expecting, cannot terminate satis
factorily. To the intellect God has revealed
himself through the medium of Nature. May he
not have adopted the same system of means
whereby to address the conscience and the heart ]
What need of a Book, when we have lying open
before us the richly iUustrated volume of the
physical universe ] The inquiry is at least a per
tinent one— and as such deserves candid consi
deration. This it will be Our sincere endeavour,
at any rate, to give it — and with a view to the
disposal of the point, we submit the following
suggestions as intimately bearing on it.
It should be noted, we may remark, at the
outset, that religious life is mainly of an emotional
character. That, in human nature, which we have
termed religiousness — that which capacitates man
for pleasurable communion with the Eternal Spirit
— that which craves, in order to its proportional
development, a communication of appropriate
religious ideas — consists far more largely of sensi
bility than of power. It is more emphatically
responsive to love than to light. Knowing is less
H

98 THE REVELATION.
its characteristic exercise than feeling. Perfect
subjective religion is perfect Oneness of will
between man and God — and the will, as every
body must admit, is less influenced by the conclu
sions of the understanding, than by the affections
of the heart. Not that religiousness has no need
of the intellectual faculties— for how but by their
aid can we become cognisant of God or of his
will] But such cognisance, although absolutely
necessary to religious life, is not the life itself.
Goodness, for example, is not the bare perception
of goodness in another, but sympathy with it.
Love is not the detection of loveliness, but a
grateful surrender of our being to it. Adoration
is not a recounting or review of our spiritual ideas,
but an indulgence of the emotions which their
presence excites. Resignation is not a logical
inference that resistance would be fruitless, but a
concurrence in a lesser evil from attachment to a
greater good. It is obviously possible enough
to be at one with the Supreme on most subjects
which make their appeal to the intellect, without
having within us a spark of spiritual life. That
the three angles of a triangle are together equal to
two right angles may be a truth in which the
derived mind may meet the Uncreated Mind,
without any conscious commingling of being. And
so, over the whole expanse of objects by means of
which God has expressed the relationship of one

THE REVELATION. 99
thing to another, proportion, reciprocal action,
cause and effect, and so forth, it is conceivable that
we shall perceive what he perceives, and, to this
extent, be at one with him in knowledge, without
having the smallest complacency in his will, as it
respects ourselves and our destiny. Our religious
ness may be left wholly untouched, and, conse
quently, un awakened by the intellectual coincidence
of our conclusions with his utterances — and towards
him as the infinitely wise, true, righteous, and
good, we may feel and exercise neither admiration,
complacency, hope, love, nor joy. Now it is in
our aptitude to feel these emotions in response to
these ideas, that the earnest and pledge of the
elevation and refinement, and permanent glory, of
our being consists — and He who was pleased to
endow us with this aptitude, may be said, in doing
so, to have committed himself to such a manifesta
tion of his Godhead to it, as would meet and
satisfy the sensibilities he has given. It is not,
therefore, to the cogitative elements only of man's
complex nature, that the general laws of divine
administration authorize us to anticipate a showing
of the Deity, but also, and chiefly, to those sym
pathies, or more correctly, those capabilities of
sympathy, which constitute the substratum of all
religious life.
Now, the inquiry fairly suggests itself, whether
we have in Nature such an adumbration of the
h 2

100 THE REVELATION.
Divine mind and purposes, as the case, as we have
put it above, obviously demands. To the knowing
faculty, and as a book of instruction, the physical
universe, indeed, can hardly be overrated — cannot
be received nor studied with too profound a
gratitude. Its immensity — its endless variety —
its order and regularity— the simplicity of its
means, and the multiplicity of ends attained by
them — its elaborate accuracy of detail — its surpris
ingly exact balance of forces — is it possible to
have a more adequate exemplification of the
intellectual infinitude of the Great Creator ] On
such a theme the temptation is strong to linger
and expatiate — to revisit with our readers, what
ever may be their views of Christianity, the scenes
to which most frequent and profitable resort is
made by contemplative minds — the starry heavens,
the glorious ocean, the sturdy hills, the gay and
laughing plains, the sad and sighing forest, the
lovely garden, the grotesque cavern, and the lone
wilderness— to listen reverently to what, in such
dissimilar, but all impressive, tones, these have to
tell us of Supreme Power and Goodness — and to
pore over this pictorial representation of the
Almighty, until we have attained to some not
unworthy conception of his majesty and perfection.
But there is the less need for this, inasmuch as
they with a view to the lightening of whose
difficulties we have penned these pages, are not

THE REVELATION. 101
usually sparing in their estimate of the teaching
capabilities of the volume of Nature. They point
to this as precisely the revelation which man
requires, and which, if attentively heeded, will
carry up the soul to heaven, as in a chariot of
fire. They are not so far wrong as some who
denounce them evidently imagine. Perhaps, quite
as serious a mistake has been committed by the
advocates of a special revelation, in depreciating,
and almost pouring contempt upon, the tui tional
worth of the physical creation. We do wrong to
enter this solemn temple with covered head, and
to pace its aisles with unconcern or levity, and to
desecrate its sanctity by gibes and taunts, as who
should say, " God is not here." God is here — and
to the worshipper whose heart has been attuned to
sympathy — visibly, audibly. To such an one there
is here also a Sheckinah, and the voice of an
oracle, and the songs of angels, and the coming
down of God to men.
But now, may it not be put with some confidence,
even to those who most highly extol this mirror of
the Deity, whether it has that power to awaken
sensibility, which it undoubtedly has to give play
to it when already awakened ] The great problem
which the condition of mankind submits for
practical solution is, how best to draw out their
affections from things temporary, perishable, and
comparatively unworthy, and to beget in them

102 THE REVELATION.
hopes, fears, desires, attachments, and joys which
shall occupy themselves with objects imperishable,
unchanging, inexhaustible — how to attract them
from the lower sphere of being in which they
would continue to move, up to that higher sphere
in which the more exalted attributes of their
nature may have fit and delighted occupation. In
a painting of Raphael's there is unquestionably an
embodiment of genius capable of eliciting from
the soul of man all the admiration, all the
reverence, all the refined and pleasurable emotions,
which genius can excite by means of art. And
yet no rational person would dream that the wisest
method which could be adopted with a view to
reclaim sensual savageism to nobler pleasures than
those arising from the gratification of animal
instincts would be to place before it the cartoons of
Raphael. The eye which can see the latent spirit
of those immortal works, and the sympathies which
can rejoice in the triumphs of the artist, will be,
the one filmed, the other dormant, in reference to
everything but mere form and colour. To the
great mass of mankind not very dissimilar is Nature
regarded as a revelation of God. If their religious
sensibilities were already awake — if the spiritual
life had already been begotten in them — if their
souls were on the point of detaching themselves
from the low and the trivial interests of the hour,
and were on the earnest look out for objects to

THE REVELATION. 103
gratify their higher instincts, and to nourish their
diviner capabilities — this material universe would,
no doubt, exhibit a fulness and a force of symbolic
significance adequate not only for instructional, but
for emotional improvement and elevation. We
make no question that there have been occasional
instances, and [that there are still, although rare
indeed, in which the Father of Spirits has looked
in upon the human soul through the medium of
Nature, and has won from it an inarticulate
response which, rightly interpreted, would be, " Let
me come to thine arms — let me rest on thy bosom
— let me lose my littleness in thy greatness, and
merge my will in thine !" But the question is, not
what this form of divine revelation may effect in
individual cases of extremely unfrequent and
isolated occurrence, but what is its adaptation to
the wants of the world at large. In no technical
sense, but in the largest import of the term, we
ask, " What is likely to be its regenerating energy
upon the human race ]" What it might do if we
were ready to receive its instructions is not the
question — but what it will do, seeing that we are
not predisposed to listen to its voice. Looking
dispassionately at things as they were prior to the
times of Jesus Christ — nay, even as they now are,
and glancing for a moment at what requires to be
done, have we anything approaching to a reasonable
assurance that the display of the Supreme in his

104 THE REVELATION.
works is competent to achieve the necessary revo
lution ] Or, to put the inquiry still more pointedly
— have we sufficient warrant in reason for believing
that He who endowed us with a religious nature,
and made it the supreme element of our being
and constitution, has provided for its quickening,
development, and gratification, no other embodi
ment of what it needs, but such as we find in the
physical universe ]
§ 10. NECESSARY LIMITATIONS OF A REVELATION THROUGH
NATURE.
We affirm our unhesitating conviction that we
have no such warrant — not in the obvious fitness
of the agency under notice — not in the general
experience of mankind. Between the power and
the emergency there is no exact correspondence —
no nice adaptation of the instrument to its work.
These material objects which, on the hypothesis of
sceptics, have an exclusive commission from God to
address themselves to our spiritual being, begin by
taking firm hold upon our animal instincts and
appetites. When we are most impressible, when
our minds are most inquisitive, and our affections
most readily engaged, the book of Nature exhibits
no aptitude to give prominence to those religious
ideas which are of the highest moment to us. The
sympathies which it is irresistible to awaken, the
desires which it stimulates, the aspirations which it

THE REVELATION. 105
evokes, are such as have no tendency in themselves
to put us into closer contact with the spiritual
world. It is far more successful in persuading us
to love its illustrations for what they are, than for
what they represent. The first we can do without
effort — we cannot help doing it — the second
demands no little ratiocinative exertion. The
delegate eclipses the principal. That which should
lead us to a better home, detains us too contentedly
where it finds us. Are we, then, to blame it as
unworthy of its Author ] Assuredly not ! But we
may surmise most justly that if it is not only unapt
to school us in those sentiments which it is the
prime end of our existence to form and entertain,
but, at least, in our earlier and more docile years,
exerts a powerful influence in precisely the opposite
direction — if it is long before it raises one thought
of God, but ready enough in raising thoughts of
ourselves — if it is more potent to urge us on to
self-indulgence than to goodness, to acquisition than
to impartation, to the enjoyments of sense than
those of spiritual purity, to the pursuit of this life
than to discipline for another, to rest upon itself for
happiness rather than upon its Lord — we may
surmise, we repeat, with some show of reason, that
this cannot be the sole nor the chief provision made
by hi m, to attract humanity from a low position,
and raise it up to blessed and unending communion
with himself. Granted that, as reason strengthens,

106 THE REVELATION.
Nature discourses to us of worthier themes, it must
be also borne in mind that she does not this in the
same resistless manner, nor with the same all-con
quering charm. What she has to make known of
him, she discloses by way, not of direct assertion, if
we may so express ourselves, as of indirect and
unauthoritative inference. We see, we feel, we are
taken captive by her teachings in regard to very
much, if not all, that affects our inferior elements
of being — we have to reason out by slow and
painful steps of logic those of her lessons which are
adapted to give expansion to the superior. The
first we learn of her as the child does of its
mother, when, sitting at her feet, it is instructed in
the use of its playthings, or when looking into her
eyes, it would read an invitation to get up and be
kissed. But the last we spell out of her, as might
that same child, when bidden to put aside its toys,
and con over maxims of virtue from its primer.
Nor can there be a moment's doubt, that this
revelation of divine things to the reasoning faculty
instead of to the instincts, to the deductions and
inferences of the understanding instead of to the
intuitive glance of the affections, and as the end of
a purely intellectual process rather than as the
fruition of a natural desire, is sure to be cold, even
if ever so clear. It is so. The mind which sees
God in the mirror of his creation, and knows
nothing of him as elsewhere displayed, sees but a

THE REVELATION. 107
bare outline, correct, it may be, but not lifelike.
The image is shadowy and vague — an allegorical
representation of a Power, not the portrait of a
Person. There is infinity — there is wisdom — there
is might — there is goodness — but they are all
abstract. We may connect them one with another,
and so get an idea of unity — hut we get at nothing
about which our affections may fling their arms in
gratitude and confidence. Such emotions as are
excited in our bosoms by the contemplation of
Nature, in her great, beneficent, and beautiful
processes, very much resemble in kind the feelings
with which we witness the achievements of the
wonder-working steam-engine. We admire — we
approve — we might almost fancy that we love —
but if questioned, it would be impossible to say
what the dreamy entity is which has this effect
upon us. Mere mechanism, on however grand
a scale, however elaborately contrived, however
exquisitely finished, and however beneficial to
us in its working, can never express to human
hearts, that which human hearts are especially
formed to feel. From it we may learn much, very
much, of its inventor — but nothing which parti
cularly interests our sensibilities. We gain no little
knowledge of Watt from his steam-engine — but it
is his biography which exerts over our affections a
sympathetic power. Now the material universe is
but machinery in action — sublime in the simplicity

108 THE REVELATION.
of its principle, immeasureable in its magnitude,
infinitely intricate in its multiplicity of details,
exquisitely graceful and finished in its processes,
and, beyond all our power of estimate, beneficial in
its results. It can, it should, and it does, teach us
much of its Author, without which we could feel
no just appreciation of his glorious perfection — but,
unless in rare cases of peculiar spiritual sensitive
ness, it cannot move us to love him. Thus shadowed
forth, he comes not within range of our affectionate
sympathies — he answers not to the cravings of our
hearts. We could have formed no adequate con
ception of him apart from this embodiment of his
wisdom, power, and goodness — but alone, and of
itself, it is not the revelation of him in which we
can rest satisfied.
A familiar illustration may help us to see this
matter in a yet clearer light. We shall imagine a
band of paupers placed by the benevolence of some
unknown individual in a spacious mansion, fitted up
in all respects with an evident eye to their comfort.
We shall suppose them so far vested with a pro
prietary right in the building and its surrounding
estate, that they are free to use the whole for their
own accommodation without pecuniary payment.
The yearly repairs and redecorations are done by
servants of the gentleman who has chosen this
method of gratifying a kindly disposition, and
everything necessary to quiet enjoyment which

THE REVELATION. 109
cannot be obtained by labour on the estate, is
regularly supplied by the same unknown hand. It
is obvious that these poor dependent people might
learn much of their benefactor from what he has
done, and is doing for them — and that all traces
of his careful forethought, of his desire to meet
reasonable wishes, of his minute attention to
details, of his skill in expedients, and of his re-
gardlessness of expense in carrying out his designs,
might, if observed, excite towards him a feeling of
respect, admiration, and, perhaps, gratitude. But
if it were his object to gain their hearts — to
develop in them, in order to their own happiness,
a pure and powerful affection for himself capable
of elevating and refining their coarse minds — he
would be obliged to resort to further means. To
their apprehension he is as yet but a vague and
splendid idea, too hke a vision of their dreams, too
impalpable and evasive, to allow of the satisfying
repose of their whole emotional being upon himself.
He has never yet come within the circle of their
sympathies, and there needs a closer contact be
tween him and them to prevail upon them to
quit themselves as the centre of their fondest
passions, and to find that centre in him. But
now suppose him to emerge from his previously
studied concealment, to spend a short interval in
their midst, living as they lived, conversing with
them over their affairs, and displaying towards

110 THE REVELATION.
them a tender and affectionate solicitude — why,
thereafter, the place he would hold in their hearts,
and the emotions he would excite in them, would
be altogether different, not merely in measure, but
in kind, to what they had been before. The per
sonal visit would have been fruitless, without the
previous exhibition of munificence, just as that
munificence would have fallen short of the purpose
without the visit. Each was equally necessary to
the end supposed — the first to store up the mate
rials which the last, like an electric flash, was
needed to fire.
God's revelation of himself to us by means of
the objects and processes of the physical universe,
is not to be regarded in the light of an experiment
which has been tried and failed — but as a pre
liminary educational preparation of our sensi
bilities to fit them for yielding a due response
when afterwards subjected to a closer and directer
appeal. If ever they were to be spoken to in a
language which they could understand, and in
such manner as to ensure their ready and glad
concurrence, it was obviously requisite that they
should be able to identify that address to them
with a Being whose known qualities and excel
lence would give to it its characteristic significance
and force. If it were a part of the Creator's design
to draw nigher to man with a view to engage his
trust and love, it was important that there should

THE REVELATION. HI
already exist some ideas of the Creator, his great
ness, his power, his wisdom, his goodness, in order
to an appreciation of this more intimate approach.
For it is not by the drawing nigh alone that the
character of the emotion which follows will be
formed, but also by the known status and attri
butes of the Being who deigns to vouchsafe his
nearer presence. The effect upon our hearts of
a kindly and disinterested solicitation of our love
by a fellow-being, would be much the same whe
ther it were made by a peasant or a prince, if we
knew nothing of the position of either. But if we
had reason to know that the solicitation really
came from a royal personage — say from Queen
Victoria of England — then would the fulness, the
depth, and the entire peculiarity of our affectionate
response, be modified by our previous knowledge
of the Sovereign. All that we had before learned
of the extent of her dominions, the leading features
of her character, and the influence and resources at
the command of her will, would enter into and
colour the fond attachment to her which her own
unexpected familiarity might excite. Love takes
the hue of the object on which it reposes. The
love of God when kindled will be necessarily con
generous, to use a phrase of the old divines, with
the ideas of God which have possession of our
minds. The book of nature discloses to us a vast
field of knowledge in regard to him, the previous

112 THE REVELATION.
study of which, although, as we have seen, it is
powerless to awaken the emotions which so largely
constitute the religiousness of human nature, is
absolutely requisite to give a suitable tone to those
emotions. If, therefore, it be true, as we are at
tempting to show, that the spiritual sensibihties
with which man has been endowed by the Creator,
and the unsuitableness and incompetency of his
display of himself through nature to call them
forth into active exercise and development, should
lead us to anticipate a further and a closer reve
lation, it does not follow that the last is consequent
upon the failure of the first, but rather that the
first was required in order to the completeness and
power of the last. We are merely conducted over
the estate prior to our being introduced to the
proprietor. § 11. EXPERIENCE OF MANKIND AS TO THE INSUFFICIENCY
ALLUDED TO.
That a further adumbration of himself to man,
different in kind, and much more intimate, much
more nearly assimilated to their emotional apti
tudes, really was necessary in order to oneness of
will between the Creator and his creatures, may be
collected, not only from the nature of the case, but
also from the common experience of mankind.
The order and processes of the physical universe
have never, in point of fact, met and satisfied the

THE REVELATION. 113
cravings of the religious sentiment after a mani
fested God. The belief, wherever it may have
obtained, that beyond and behind these processes,
shrouded in impenetrable mystery, the Great Spirit
who superintends them maintained an independent
and eternal existence, and that in Him centred all
conceivable perfections, never could, and never did,
beget the emotions which could delightedly pour
themselves forth in worship, express themselves in
piety, or raise the human spirit into pleased com
munion with the Supreme. The vagueness was
evermore felt to be too great for sympathy. There
was a perpetual yearning after a distincter per
sonality. All ancient mythology is an exem
plification of this, and illustrates the irresistible
tendency of the religious sentiment to clothe its
ideas in a form adapted to emotional recognition
and converse. Indeed, in every age, and in every
country, we may discover the distinct traces of
effort on the part of humanity, to bring the
Highest within range of the heart's action. And
this effort may properly and philosophically be
regarded as the practical testimony of our con
stitution to the reality and nature of its wants —
inarticulate cries, and unutterable groanings from
the deep bosom of manhood after an embodiment
of the Deity palpable to its strong affections.
What wonder that, only half informed, and swayed
chiefly by the more sensual passions, it crowded

114 THE REVELATION.
Olympus with gods and goddesses representative of
nothing better than human propensities elevated to
superhuman power ] What wonder that the reflex
action of such a theogony upon the nations which
adopted it, should pervert and deaden their spi
ritual sensibihties ] " Like priest, like people," is
only another form of the moral law, " Like God,
like worshippers." Let the most zealous advocate
of the sufficiency of natural revelation point to any
one people on the face of the earth in which,
abandoned wholly to its influence, man's religious
ness has not allegorized, humanized, or even bruti-
fied the powers and processes of Nature to supply
himself with the object of worship. What mattered
it to the mass, anterior to the coming of Christ,
that here and there a man of penetrating insight
should get cognisance, and make proclamation, of
truths relating to the Invisible so far above the
ideas commonly entertained in his own day, as to
suggest the belief that he must have received them
from inspiration] Clear enough it is, that the
light did not enkindle love. Those notions of the
ancient philosophers respecting God and the soul
which are often appealed to as proof that a further
revelation was needless, exerted no moral power
upon the people — very little even upon the wise
men who uttered them. There was evidently
needed a somewhat capable of breathing the
breath of religious life into the dead. Nothing

THE REVELATION. 115
stirred — no pulse was quickened — no heart was
taken captive — no trust was conciliated and en
gaged — by the weightiest and worthiest discoveries
made by human reason in the investigation quoad
sacra of the material universe. They never took
the shape which would constitute them a power
with the rehgious affections. The spiritual life
of humanity seemed to have departed. There was
nothing within reach of men able with authority
to recall it. Adopting with slight modification the
sublime language of the Apostle Paul, we may
truly say, " The whole creation groaned and
travailed in pain until then — waiting for the
adoption." § 12. ADAPTATION OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE CRAVINGS OF THE
RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT.
Into this gloomy and apparently hopeless scene
of spiritual desolation and death, we are now to
witness the introduction of a vivifying force.
Christ appeared, and forthwith there was life.
The phenomena that followed we have already
had under consideration. Now, is there any
such adaptation of the Christian faith to what
we have shown to be the otherwise unappeasable
yearnings of man's religiousness, as will account
for the rapidity, the extent, the permanence, and
the future promise, of the spiritual revolution it
produced] We believe there is. We shall pro-
i 2

116 THE REVELATION.
ceed to point it out — and we shall afterwards
inquire what intellectual objection there is to bar
the conclusion, that He who formed in our hearts
an inextinguishable desire after some manifestation
of himself to our moral and spiritual sympathies
can be none other than the Being who, in Chris
tianity, corresponds in the kind, character, and
purpose of his manifestation, with the scope of that
desire. It will be admitted, we imagine, by all who have
given serious attention to the subject, that the
writings, which together we designate the New
Testament, constitute Jesus of Nazareth the key
stone of the system of faith which is inscribed with
his name. They set him before us not merely as
a spiritual teacher, who possessed a deeper insight
into truths relating to God and the human soul
than any foregoing prophet, but as " God manifest
in the flesh." His life, his miracles, his labours,
his trials, his sufferings, his death, are treated, not
as the setting of his doctrine, but as the very sum
and substance of the truth taught. We are intro
duced to him there not as one who told us what we
did not know before, but as one whose person and
history are the outward form and showing of that
which he came to tell. " He is the way, the truth,
and the life," therein differing essentially from
those who only point it out. He requires of his
disciples not so much that they should credit his

THE REVELATION. 117
sayings, as that they should believe on him. Every
thing in his hands assumes a personal shape —
everything in the hands of those apostles who
professed to interpret him to the world, derives
its significance from its connexion with him per
sonally considered. He is, in some peculiar and
emphatic sense, the Son of God. His death is the
secret of our life. He and his Father are one. To
see him is to see the Father — for he is the image of
the invisible God — " the brightness of his Father's
glory," in whom " dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily." Now, making every allowance
for oriental hyperbolisms, it is sheer vanity to at
tempt an explanation of all this, on the hypothesis
that Jesus Christ looked upon himself, and was
looked upon by his immediate followers, as no
more than an eminent religious teacher. No man,
probably, unencumbered with a philosophy which
he wishes to reconcile with the reputed facts and
doctrines of Holy Writ, would rise from a candid
perusal of the New Testament without confessing
that, whatever human reason may say to it, the
writers of that book plainly intended that men
should look up to Jesus Christ, as the human
expression of the Eternal Spirit. Not, indeed,
that we are bound to take all the theological
dogmatism which has been uttered on this theme,
as warranted by the representations of it in Scrip
ture — but that, unless we are justified in explain-

118 THE REVELATION.
ing away certain phrases as may best suit our pre
conceived notions, and in doing obvious violence to
the drift and spirit of the entire volume, we are
bound to regard the peculiar mission of Chris
tianity, as explained by itself, to be the revelation
of the Divine mind and purpose through the
medium of a human life and history.
If this be a true account of the obvious and ex
plicit purport of the gospel of Christ — and, to say
the least, this account requires us to put no strain
on the tenour of the records— then Christianity
presents itself to us in this wise — It is a translation
of the idea of God into a language intelligible to
the religious sensibihties of man. The works of
creation interpret him to the intellectual powers —
the life of Christ, to the moral sympathies. The
action of physical mechanism supplies the alphabet
in the one case — of moral mechanism, in the other.
Logic is for the understanding — love is for the
heart. And truly, the plan, on the first blush of
it, appears to be well suited to our nature and its
wants. Our rehgious constitution, partaking far
more largely, as we have seen, of the emotional
than of the ratiocinative element, demands, in order
to its full development, an emotional representation
to it of the objects with which it was designed to
be conversant. Can we conceive of this demand
being met in any other way, equally efficacious,
than by the showing them to us in a human form

THE REVELATION. 119
and dress? The abstract truths expressive of
divine excellences are powerless in themselves to
kindle our affections or to govern our will. How
can they be best embodied so as that we may choose
them as our companions for daily converse, our
guardians and our guides for confiding consultation,
our ministering angels in our hours of sorrow, our
heart's portion for time and for eternity ] In what
accents can our sense of guilt — a sense which no
ingenious reasonings of ours can wholly extinguish
— be spoken unto, so as that all gloomy anxieties
shall give place to a quiet and abiding peace of
conscience ] How can those our obligations to the
Author of our being be so presented to our will, as
to secure not only its constrained acquiescence in
their propriety, but its delighted recognition of, and
passionate surrender to, their claims ] If it be the
benign purpose of the Supreme to allure us to that
higher sphere of being, activity, and enjoyment, in
which our noblest capabilities may have full scope
for exercise and satisfaction, how better could he
do it than by putting his truth, his purity, his love,
his will and purpose concerning us, into the shape
of a man's history crowded with passages which
come right home to our inmost and tenderest sym
pathies] What are the chief, the ail-but irresisti
ble, instrumentalities by which heart moves heart ]
How, usually, are strong wills bowed, and violent
prejudices soothed to sleep, and fierce enmities

120 THE REVELATION.
overborne and slain] By the numerous expres
sions and acts in which disinterested kindness will
dress itself — by magnanimous self-sacrifice, by
cheerful exposure to wrong, by meek forbearance
under wrong, by the helping hand when help is
needed, by the silent tear of commiseration when
suffering is endured, by heroic enterprise for others'
benefit, by long and unwearied consistency in pur
suit of benevolent ends. These are charmed agen
cies all the world over. These have ever been
found, and will ever continue to be, " the cords of
love and the bands of a man " the most potent to
draw the wiU of humanity whithersoever he would
who wields them. There is scarcely a depth of
degradation to which we can sink from which these
might not drag us — scarcely an eminence of virtue
within the possibility of man's attainment, to which
these might not lead us on. Well, it is precisely
by this class of agencies that Christianity professes
to reveal to our moral nature the All-wise God,
otherwise invisible to it, or, at best, but " dimly
seen." And hence, the convergence of all the
lines of light in the person of Jesus Christ — hence,
the intensely personal character of the entire sys
tem — hence, the earnest and reiterated direction of
faith, hope, and love, to him, rather than to his
oral utterances. What he discoursed of God is not
referred to as the principal medium by which he
imaged the Deity to man's heart — but rather what

THE REVELATION. 121
he was, what he did, what he suffered — his purity,
his all-comprehensive benevolence, his heroic self-
sacrifice, his tenderness, his meekness. Herein we
are instructed to look for the manifested God — to
attain to the truest understanding of what he is
morally — what are his regards to us — whither he
would lead us — and how deep and moving is his
love to us. Here affection displays itself with a
view to excite affection — the appeal to moral sym
pathy is made by a previous exhibition of moral
sympathy — and in the natural language of human
deeds, struggles, tears, distresses, death, we have
translated to us the else unutterable thoughts, pro-
pensions, and will of the ever-blessed God.
§ 13. NOT REPUGNANT TO REASON.
Such appears to us to be the simple and obvious
scope ofthe Christian fp'th, and such, in substance,
has been the view of it taken by the majority of
those who have responded to it as a revelation of
God. In substance, we say — for although they
might choose to describe it in very different terms,
and unwittingly conceal its moral loveliness behind
a stiff veil of technical theology, it will be found
by any one who will look beneath the surface of
mere words and formulae, that this is the spirit and
essence of their variously modelled creeds — namely,
God in Christ the source of spiritual life to men.
Calmly considered, is there anything shocking to

122 THE REVELATION.
the reason in any such dispensation as we have just
represented the gospel to be] Is it more sur
prising, is it less credible, in the nature of things,
that God should offer himself to our contemplation
through a purely moral medium, than that he
should limit his disclosures to man of what he is,
and what he wills, to a medium almost exclusively
physical ? Are we bound to conclude that He who
has made himself partially visible to us by means
of material laws, cannot effect the end still more
completely by means of a human life ] Nay more !
Is it conceivable that moral sympathies should be
awakened and engaged by any other than a moral
manifestation of the Deity ] The order of Nature,
the regularity of her movements, the unerring cer
tainty of her processes, the variety of her aspects,
and all the other distinctive qualities which may be
predicated of her, are not for their own sakes, nor
merely for the material advantages which God's
creatures of all orders may derive from them.
They have a two-fold mission to perform — imme
diate and remote — for each, while it has something
to do, has some information also to impart to us in
the mode of doing it. In more senses than one is
Earth our mother — in higher senses than in that
commonly received. Out of her we spring and
from her we derive nourishment, but her kind
offices are not confined to these physical results.
She teaches, as well as supports — breathes instruc-

THE REVELATION. 123
tion into the mind, as well as provides subsistence
for the body. Earth is our first governess, and
very aptly fulfils her duties. By progressive lessons
she leads on young intelligence from the simplest
to the sublimest knowledge — ever revealing, yet
ever leaving unrevealed still more than she has
taught. She is herself the embodiment of Infinite
thought — the Eternal mind made visible. No man
objects to such a statement as this, that it is beneath
the Almighty to illustrate his own nature and glory
by means of mere mechanism. But, then, if it be
fitting to instruct mankind by such means, does it
not seem quite as becoming to the Supreme Wis
dom that he should illustrate himself by some
thing higher than mechanism, and intrinsically
nobler than merely material laws and processes]
If God may show himself to our inteUect in a plant
or an animal, in the strata of the earth's crust, or
in the flash of a magnetic current, why not also to
our hearts, in a man's history from the cradle to
the grave] — why not, in the moral conflict of a
man with all the powers of evil with which human
life is environed] The objection felt, after all, is
not the revelation of Deity through humanity — for
the most sceptical will accept the race as a mirror
in which some reflection of the Eternal may be
discerned. But if he may be regarded, without
any jar upon the reason, as choosing to shine
through so confessedly imperfect and impure a

124 THE REVELATION.
moral medium as that presented by the whole
family of man, what is there to which reason need
take exception, in his selecting an individual person,
life, and history, not spoiled by imperfection, not
tainted with impurity, through which to bless us
with the clearest expression of his own divine cha
racter and purpose] We can discern, we confess,
no moral difficulty in the case.
§ 14. SPECIAL ADVANTAGES SECURED BY THIS FORM OF
REVELATION.
But we can see some advantages gained — perhaps
without presuming too far, we may add — some
necessities in man's condition met, by this method
of shadowing forth to him " the unknown God."
The education of that religious sentiment with
which we are endowed, for which all analogy leads
us to infer that adequate provision has been made,
requires that there should be turned towards it, by
whatever fitting expedient, some impressive repre
sentation of the Divine character in its moral aspect
— that is, in its relation to truth, righteousness, sin,
obedience, mercy, government. It is in entire har
mony of will between us and the Supreme in
respect of these ideas, that the repose and satisfac
tion of our higher nature must needs consist, just
as physical health and enjoyment are identified
with a like oneness of will in regard to natural
laws. It is consequently of the utmost importance

THE REVELATION. 125
that we should be furnished with some objective
embodiment of the view taken of these things by
the Divine mind. To say the least, these are sub
jects on which any authorized communication to us
of God's judgment and purposes in relation to
them, made in a shape that shall be vividly intelli
gible, would tend mightily to assist the development
of our spiritual capabilities. But all these ideas
are inseparably associated with action — and by
means of action only can be competently expressed.
As illustrative of our meaning, we call attention to
the methods resorted to by ourselves for clothing
abstractions of a similar kind in a dress suited to
our powers of apprehension. We wish, for instance,
to excite certain emotions in the bosom in con
nexion with ambition, generosity, vindictiveness, or
patience. We wish to place these qualities of
human feeling and conduct in a strong light with a
view to influence the will. We may discourse of
them — but our discourse, to produce any powerful
effect, must be well seasoned with historical exem
plifications. We may represent them in statuary,
in painting, in music — but our representation of
them by these arts, limits the view of them to a
single moment of their active manifestation. We
all feel that the end we desire can only be fully-
compassed by the drama--- in which abstract quali
ties may be made not merely to assume concrete
forms, but pass through all the various conditions

126 THE REVELATION.
of external incident, which will make them pal
pable to us in their very exercise. Now, we sub
mit, that the religious ideas, such as truth, right
eousness, sin, obedience, government, and the like,
require to be exhibited to us by some analogous
method — that the eloquence, the poetry, the sculp
ture, the painting, the music, of the physical world,
are incompetent to express these ideas in their
relation to God, as our moral nature needs them to
be expressed — that we must have them dramatised
to us, or, in other words, shown in connexion with
actual scenes, conflicts, trials, enterprises, defeats,
victories, which will bring fully out to our appre
hension, and to our affections, these several ideas in
their action. The vivifying and educational power
over our spiritual sensibilities of any such repre
sentation would seem to render essential these two
conditions — first, that the series of events and the
life by which the abstract qualities are to be set
forth, should be thoroughly human — and secondly,
that the whole drama, so to speak, should bear
upon it the unmistakeable stamp of the Divine
sanction, and satisfy us that they portray in their
action the mind and will of God. Now, assuming
for a moment that the Christian records are trust
worthy, we contend that the mode in which God is
therein professedly revealed to our religious facul
ties and emotions, fulfils both these conditions, and,
in so far, precisely answers to our moral wants. It

THE REVELATION. 127
puts just those ideas with which we need to become
conversant in order to spiritual life, into the shape
which their very nature, and our constitution, seem
to require that they should be put. It constitutes
an apt, and, in our sober judgment, the only apt
body for the due expression of the spirit whereof
the ideas alluded to are component elements. It is
an exposition of spiritual principles in the dramatic
form, in which, however, the action and the actors
are not mimic, but real.
Let us briefly advert to another advantage
gained, another necessity met, by this mode of
addressing the religious sentiment. We have al
ready said enough to show that mankind needed
not so much a directive as a suasive revelation of
God's will. " For the good that I would I do not
— but the evil that I would not that I do," describes
the common experience of our race — the expe
rience alike of Jew and Gentile.
" Video meliora, proboque,
Deteriora sequor,"
is the well-known and oft-quoted passage of the
Latin poet, expressive of precisely the same truth.
Now it is a special characteristic of the manifesta
tion of God in Christ, as given us in the New Tes
tament, that its leading design is, not so much to
instruct our race in duties, as to supply a motive for
their performance. It is not a lecture on " the

128 THE REVELATION.
life of God in the soul of man," but an influence to
quicken it — begets a sense of obligation rather
than informs it — and undertakes that achievement
without which the best preceptive teaching is use
less, namely, to breathe life into the dead. " Si
vis me flere, flendum est," is the law of moral power
which Christianity exemplifies. It does not argue
the duty of weeping, but it weeps to make us
weep. It is human to win human sympathies.
And truly " we men have a mysterious, a fearful
hold one upon another. When through the ordi
nary means of communication, soul meets soul, it
is wonderful how strength of purpose in the one,
can obtain for itself a perfect mastery over the
other. Those outward signs of earnestness, and
deep emotion, of which the body is capable, how
impossible is it for us to discern them without
being ourselves stirred. Man commending to his
fellow-man a great moral truth, with which his own
soul has become identified, and with which he
would fain identify the souls of others, radiates
persuasiveness from every part of his frame. The
solemn import of his message invests him with an
unwonted air of dignity, and throws upon that
countenance of his, upon which we may have often
looked with utter indifference, a kind of preter
natural majesty. The swell and subsidence of his
muscles with the tide of feeling which ebbs and
flows within him — the heaving of his chest as if

THE REVELATION. 129
panting under the weight of the theme upon which
he discourses — the varying shades of colour that
pass over his face in rapid alternation, vague but
yet visible images of the thoughts which are driving
through the expanse of his soul — the inexplicable
language of those eyes through which his heart
looks mournfully, wistfully, proudly, reproachfully,
wooingly, and, in every instance, is understood —
the tones of that voice, in which every pulsation of
the sympathies is rendered audible, and all the
movements of the inner man disclose themselves
in music — these outward translations of thought,
emotion, and purpose, are never read by man with
out awakening, more or less, his sensibilities, and
leaving, more or less distinctly, some copy of their
meaning upon his mind. A finger-post may answer
for mere guidance — the most arbitrary symbols
may serve the understanding for instruction — but
would you gain over to any truth man's will, man's
heart, man's self, that truth must be introduced
and recommended to him by a visible and intimate
companionship with humanity."* Christianity has
plainly associated with the spiritual truths it would
commend to the heart of mankind the same kind
of magnetic power which is described in the fore
going extract — and, we conclude, for the same
purpose. Its mission is to win the will for God,
* Miall's British Churches, &c. London : Hall, Virtue, and Co.
K

130 THE REVELATION.
and it approaches man under a guise eminently
adapted to accomplish that object. It selects the
incidents of a human history, and the workings of
a human soul, as offering a far fitter sphere for the
display of what it behoves us to know and to feel
respecting the moral bearings of the Divine charac
ter, than that supplied by the objects and processes
of the material universe. And hence its peculiar
power to move. The medium of alleged commu
nication between heaven and earth in this case
being mind, not matter, spirit rather than body, we
get, as the consequence, not outline merely, but
colour — a portrait through all the animate features
of which the Father of Spirits looks into the very
depths of our souls, and awakens fellowship. There
is an obvious advantage, therefore, in this method
of revelation which is exclusively peculiar to itself,
and which unquestionably adapts it to exert just
that kind of influence over man's religious nature
which it must be admitted specially to require.
Lastly, this assumed presentation to us of the
Godhead through humanity, with a view to the
awakening and development of our spiritual capa
bilities, answers well to the circumstances of the
vast majority of mankind, and consists well with
the avowed aim of Christianity to bring under
subjection to itself the entire human family. If,
indeed, we are compelled by the construction of
our minds, and by the arrangements of the Creator

THE REVELATION. 131
made with a view to it, to reason out all our
religious ideas from the premises supplied us by
natural laws and phenomena, the mass of us are
in a hopeless position for the expansion of our
spiritual nature. There is needed in order to
this result a much higher style of preparatory
intellectual culture than ninety-nine in a hundred
ordinarily receive. Such a revelation would be
practically a gospel for philosophers only — scarcely
would it be "glad tidings for the poor." Its very
alphabet, like the Chinese, would demand a more
extensive study than the leisure of this work-a-day
world will allow to many. They who stand most
in need, for time, at least, of the compensating
supports and elevating pleasures yielded by com
munion with God — they who toil hard for a scanty
temporal subsistence, and have within reach but
few means and facilities for the acquisition of
knowledge — they whose souls are so crowded
round by the exacting duties of every day, that
if ever won to religious hope, and trust, and love,
they must be won by a kind of coup de main — cannot
be expected to nourish their spiritual sympathies
with dry abstract truths, or hard logical deductions.
Pictures will suit them much better than spelling-
books. But if it be true, as Shakespeare grandly
says, that " one touch of nature makes the whole
world kin " — if in the heaviest press of business,
and under the worst educational disadvantages,
k 2

132 THE REVELATION.
and with almost no prior intellectual training,
heart can make itself well understood by heart
in that unwritten but most expressive language
to which strong emotions will always prefer to
resort — if even among savages a living exemplifi
cation of a moral principle can make itself not
only intelligible but impressive — surely it is of
no slight moment that those divine communications
to us which so vitally concern our religious well-
being, should be conveyed in a form suited to
the disabilities of the multitude, and should be
flashed rather than filtered into the souls of men. '
It is certainly a recommendation of Christianity,
aspiring as it does to invite the whole race of man
to its arms, that it has couched that invitation in
symbols which our spiritual sensibilities can readily
interpret without any long process of previous
schooling — and that it exhibits all the primary
religious ideas in moving illustrations which the
most unlettered, the least informed, and the wholly
unskilled in ratiocination, may see and ap
preciate. Even intellectually judged of, therefore, the
personal and human display of the ever-blessed
God, which the gospel of Jesus Christ professedly
presents to our religiousness, with a view to
awaken in us spiritual faith, love, and joy, is
capable of vindication. It was needed : for no
other conceivable medium of revelation corresponds

THE REVELATION. 133
with the whole extent of human want — it is open
to no objection which, if valid, does not apply with
even greater force to other media of divine com
munication to man — and it specially meets some
of the necessities of our moral position, thereby
acquiring advantages which any dispensation dif
fering from it in kind would unquestionably lack.
All this, even if admitted, will not, it is true, prove
Christianity to be a revelation of God — nor have
the foregoing observations been thrown together
for any such purpose. But this we have attempted
to establish, and, we hope, to some extent we have
succeeded — that the Christian faith, viewed from
the right stand-point, is not fairly open, as a
manifestation to man of the unseen God, to any
preliminary protest of our reason fatal to its high
and holy claims. There is nothing properly un-
philosophical involved in the idea either of its end,
or its constitutional structure. It exhibits many
aspects of moral fitness. It is quite borne out
by general analogy — and hence, if the old evi
dences in favour of its divine origin which were
wont to pass as sufficient some twenty years back,
have not been destroyed, their pertinence and force
are certainly not set aside by the more subtle and
sweeping conclusion of modern intellectual scep
ticism. But, not to " stretch ourselves beyond our
measure," we shall endeavour to condense the fore
going dissertation into a single paragraph, make on

134 THE REVELATION.
it a general observation or two, and pass on to a
still higher question now awaiting us.
§ 15. SUMMARY OF THE PRECEDING OBSERVATIONS.
It is a fact, then, which will not admit of dis
pute, that man is endowed with a capacity to
entertain religious ideas, and to be swayed by
religious emotions and affections — or, in other
words, that he possesses a nature adapted to
receive the highest order of happiness from the
perception and appreciation of spiritual truth. It
is a fact that wherever this capacity is fairly de
veloped, it assumes, as of right, the post of supre
macy over our whole being, and gives law, and sets
limits, and supplies motives, to all other powers and
passions as subordinate to itself. And it is a fact
that, throughout the Divine dominions, the exist
ence of a capacity always implies some external
provision meet for its exercise, growth, and gratifi
cation. It is fair to conclude that what we have
designated man's religiousness, will offer no ex
ception to the rule — more especially as it is obvi
ously intended to govern him in all the other
aspects of his nature. As there is light, colour,
and form for the eye, objects of beauty for taste,
and exact truth for the pure intellect, so there
must be somewhere embodied such manifestations
of God as may serve to elicit, to occupy, and to
reward, this noblest endowment of humanity. No

THE REVELATION. 1 35
such provision can be discovered within the circle
of man's own being. No sufficient provision is
made for it in the objects and processes of the
physical universe. For, the capacity of which we
speak is mainly emotional, and Nature, which is
mere mechanism, is incompetent to express, with
the requisite precision, fulness, and power, the
moral views of God's being, character, and pur
poses, which the case demands ; and this inade
quacy is proved by the experience of mankind in
every age of the world. That there is a revelation
of God by means of his works, and that it is essen
tial to any suitable apprehension of him, is un
deniable — but that it is complete, and covers the
entire want of man, in regard to his religious
powers and sensibilities, is disproved by both
reason and fact. Analogy, therefore, would lead
us to expect some other display of the Divine mind
and will, and that it should be made through a
medium specially adapting it to that emotional side
of human religiousness, which no adumbration of
himself in material mechanism could closely and
impressively approach. Thus only could the com
plement of revelation be complete — and thus the
two modes of manifestation would place within
reach of man ap ample external provision com
mensurate with the wants of his spiritual being.
Christianity presents itself to us as fulfilling the

136 THE REVELATION.
expectations raised by analogy — as meeting . and
satisfying the demand for which Nature had no
appropriate answer. Its professions and its ob
vious purport precisely hit the want. It seeks
to kindle love by a disclosure of love. It aims
at awakening sympathy, and gaining the will, by
exhibiting the religious ideas in association with
a person, a life, scenes, incidents, deeds, and suffer
ings, eminently fitted to commend them to sym
pathy, and to exercise influence upon the will. It
is a moral medium of a moral manifestation, and
being designed for man, it is itself human. It
approaches us in a guise which our emotional
nature can most readily apprehend, and most
earnestly respond to — and it undertakes to show us
that of God which we most need and desire to
know — his moral relationship to ourselves. Now
if we can identify these professions with fact — if we
can satisfy ourselves that Jesus Christ is, in the
view of a soberly exercised judgment, " the image
of the invisible " — if, in a word, the general result
of Christianity upon the mind and heart harmo
nizes with what we elsewhere gather to become the
Deity to produce — then, we affirm, the special mode
by which Christianity seeks to compass it, so far
from being objectionable to our highest reason is in
perfect keeping with the anticipations which it is
justified in indulging, is congruous with all the

THE REVELATION. 137
analogies of Divine procedure, and cannot, there
fore, on general grounds, be excepted against as
doing violence to man's intellectual conclusions.
We will not press the argument further than this.
But we do say, with some confidence, that the fore
going considerations fairly sweep the field of the
intellectual difficulties preliminary to the discussion
of the question, Whether Christianity as embalmed
in the New Testament writings, is, what it assumes
to be, a showing to us of Deity through humanity,
or whether it is a sort of chance-medley production
of fanaticism, falsehood, and fortune. No man, we
think, has a right to step in and say, that before
the inquiry is undertaken as to the facts, there is a
previous question to be disposed of, as to the phi
losophy which the facts, if received as authentic,
would manifestly involve — at least, no man has a
right to do this until the fallacy of the foregoing
argument has been demonstrated. Take the right
stand-point — that from which the pretensions of
the Christian faith must needs be surveyed, in
order to a rational judgment of its merits — and we
venture to deny that it presents itself under any
such aspect as should preclude further examination
• — and to affirm that a further examination may
reasonably be prosecuted with an intellectual bias,
in favour of, rather than in opposition to, the con
clusion that it comes from God.

138 THE REVELATION.
§ 16. DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTIC OF CHRISTIANITY AS A
REVELATION.
If the foregoing observations are well founded,
there can be no hesitation of belief as to what
constitutes the special and distinctive characteristic
of Christianity as a professed revelation of God.
It is a disclosure of the moral aspect of the Divine
Being, both as to his attributes and his will, so far,
at least, as it can affect man's interests and destiny,
through the medium of a human personage and life.
It has been called a book-revelation — and it is
frequently disparaged as such. It is no such thing
— indeed, nothing, as it appears to us, but a pre
posterously shallow view of the whole subject
could have so egregiously blundered upon this
description of it. With just as much propriety
might the ocean, in which the Creator has glori
ously mirrored his immensity and his power, be
styled a salt water revelation of the Unseen. The
book no more defines the mode of the display in
the one case, than salt water does in the other.
Possibly had any superficial, but over-zealous advo
cate of the Christian faith adopted this method
of depreciating the ocean as the glass of the
Invisible, he would have been severely rebuked,
and very justly too, for a stolid dulness of appre
hension in regard to the spirit of things material,
or, more likely, for that intemperance of affection

THE REVELATION. 139
for a supernatural system which blinds the eyes
of reason to the outspread volume of nature. Is
there not a possibility of fanaticism on the sceptical
side? And may not even acute minds under its
influence, be led into marvellously childish and
silly mistakes] A book-revelation! As if the
supreme Ruler of the universe (such is the implied
sarcasm of the phrase) had no better way of
showing himself to mankind, than getting his
nature and perfections written about under his
own immediate superintendence! But what] Is
all history, then, to be regarded as a mere book
description of mankind] Surely, the great and
the good of our race, from the time of Moses
downwards, have illustrated the high capabilities
of humanity, and its generous or heroic virtues,
in those deeds and trials, in those struggles and
victories, of theirs, for which their names are yet
illustrious in the annals of the world, and will
evermore continue to be so. And because the
record of these acts and sufferings was kept on
parchment for the benefit of all succeeding gene
rations, are we to cast contempt upon history as
but a parchment exhibition of what man is, and
can do ] Should we venture, on any other subject
but Christianity, and in the name of intellectual
philosophy, moreover, to set down as the de
scriptive and discriminating quality of the histori
cal development of humanity, that it is one made

140 THE REVELATION.
by means of paper and print ? And if not, why
is Christianity to be thus misdescribed ] Why is
this slur to be cast on its character, and by men
who pass for the disciples of pure reason] The
New Testament is a book-revelation of God in
the same sense as Carlyle's Speeches and Letters
of Oliver Cromwell is a book-revelation of Puri
tanism — in the same sense as a glass case filled
with ancient manuscripts is a revelation of the
old world to modern times. It is merely the
mechanical contrivance by means of which the
series of facts wherein God is said to have dis
played himself to our spiritual apprehensions and
sensibilities was preserved from oblivion. That
from which we learn God — that in which we
discern him — that in which his love invites and
wins ours — is a life, not a book — such a strangely
original, such a morally impressive, life, and so
radiant of divinity, that even scepticism itself (save
where it is associated with an overgrown and dis
proportionately developed reasoning faculty which
has choked all veneration) is compelled to stand
uncovered in its presence. But we restrain our
selves. Our plan will oblige us to consider at
some length, hereafter, the part assigned to the
mere record, in this assumed manifestation of the
Deity. Meanwhile, however, it behoves the reader
to bear in mind that the special characteristic of
the faith now under examination is that described

THE REVELATION. 141
by its noblest exponent as " God manifest in the
flesh."

§ 17. INCOMPLETENESS AND PARTIALITY OF ITS SUCCESS
CONSIDERED.
The above train of reasoning, it may be more
plausibly objected, however consistent and con
vincing in the shape of theory, is not thoroughly
borne out by the facts of the case. If, as has
been contended for, the gospel of Jesus Christ
is so nicely adapted to the religious nature and
necessities of man — if the shadowing forth of
God's moral character and purposes by means of
a human life and history, presents him so vividly
to the moral emotions of man — ought we not to
have anticipated the speedy, general, and per
manent triumph of the system] Whereas ,its
success, after so many hundred years, is extremely
partial, and but a comparatively small proportion
of our race have been hitherto gained over to
even a nominal recognition of its claims as a
revelation of God.
The objection, we may reply in the first place,
if valid against Christianity, is valid also against
every existing ground of religious faith, but is
particularly strong against that which is said to
be found in the objects and laws of the physical
universe. Nature, which is commended to us as
a sufficient manifestation of God for all the spiritual

142 THE REVELATION.
wants of man, and whose teachings are eloquent
beyond the utmost conceivable power of words,
has not vindicated by her success the claims put
in by her admirers on her behalf. To no great
extent, even now when she is so much more widely
studied, and so much better undersood than
formerly, does she stimulate into development
the religious capabilities of the human family —
nor does it invariably follow that they who are
most conversant with her text, and can read and
translate it most fluently, are, in the same pro
portion, responsive to her spirit. Nay, more !
The objection applies in other directions besides
that of religion. It is certain that ample provision
has been made in the external world for the
quickening, nourishment, exercise, and gratifica
tion, of our intellectual powers and our sense of
beauty, without any corresponding results on the
majority of mankind. But we do not, in such
case, deem it incumbent on us to question either
the fitness or the fulness of that provision, nor to
deny its having been made by the beneficence
of the Creator. Because men do not, in point
of fact, avail themselves of it as they might, and as
it is hoped they one day will, we do not deem our
selves justified in drawing the inference that there
fore it lacks the stamp of Divine authorization.
With the full assent of our reason, we refer the
ungainly fact to some other cause, and resolve it

THE REVELATION. 143
into some more general law of Providential govern
ment. In hke manner, we submit, the incomplete
success as yet of Christianity is not in itself a rea
sonable negation of its pretensions. The objection
aimed at it really strikes a general principle of
Divine administration, and whatever force there is
in it, falls not so much on the gospel of Christ as
a wisely-adapted manifestation of Deity, as on the
arrangements of the great Ruler of the universe,
which permit, in many other instances besides this,
the practical failure, temporary only though it may
be, of the likeliest of means for the education and
elevation of humanity.
There is no ground in reason for expecting that
the general principles on which the administration
of the Supreme in relation to mankind is conducted,
will essentially differ, whether that administration
have respect to their spiritual, or merely intellectual,
physical, or temporal interests. And it is certain
that with regard to the latter, abundant means of
good are placed within men's reach, the use, neglect,
or abuse of which is suspended on their own choice.
Neither is the body nor the mind placed under a
necessity so stringent as to force upon them the
full enjoyment of which each is capable. Much,
after all, is left to the determination of the will,
and it is matter of lamentation, that in the vast
majority of instances, even in these respects, the
will seldom avails itself of the glorious opportuni-

144 THE REVELATION.
ties which come within its range. Rich to profu
sion as is the provision made by the Ruler of the
universe for the instruction and education of the
intellect, and for the healthful gratification of the
senses, it would seem to a superficial view to be for
the most part thrown away, and to result in dead
failure. Men in general do not pay much heed to
their intellectual life — nor do they conform to those
arrangements which would secure to them the
highest amount of health and animal enjoyment.
Whether we are able to account for that principle
of the Divine economy which leaves man's destiny
so much in the power of his own wayward will,
may, perhaps, be doubtful — but it being in obvious
accordance with, or more properly speaking, a part
of, the comprehensive plan of Infinite Wisdom, we
ordinarily accept it as such, without feeling our
selves under any obligation to vindicate it. In
truth, we should as soon think of justifying the
volcano, the storm, the flood, the pestilence, as
being consistent with the character of the Al
mighty, as of arguing that certain principles which
pervade his moral government of man are compa
tible with his perfections. The fact once ascer
tained that such and such is a law of his procedure,
we acquiesce in its propriety even where we cannot
discern more than the faintest glimmer of its mean
ing. Now, in things pertaining to our physical
and mental life, we find that whilst on the one

THE REVELATION. 145
hand there are capabilities almost indefinitely ex
pansive, and, on the other, boundless provision
made for them, there is, nevertheless, a melancholy
amount of waste in both, owing to some perversity
of our disposition — and we anticipate the correc
tion of this evil by means only of a long and very
gradual process of disciplinary experience. The
permission of the evil itself, great as it is, and
patent to all, we resolve into some general law of
the Divine economy, and feel that it is, on the
whole, the wisest and best for us.
But if such a principle regulates all Providential
dealings with us, having for their object the educa
tion of our being, and if, in uniform coincidence
with the operation of that principle, the human
family have not, as such, commonly availed them
selves of the advantages conferred on them by the
benign Creator, and are only slowly advancing to a
recognition of their own interests, and of the faci
lities within reach for promoting them, reason can
not justly object against a professed revelation of
God's moral character to the heart of man, that it
proceeds on the same principle, and is followed by
the like results. Philosophy, we think, should
teach us to expect the same regard to man's free
dom of choice in rehgion as elsewhere, and to
observe, without surprise or offence, the sequence of
a similar class of evils to be mourned. At any
rate, Christianity is in perfect keeping with the.

146 THE REVELATION.
general drift of God's moral rule, both in regard to
its leaving so much within the power of the human
will, and in respect of the treatment it has met
with in consequence. It is suasive, but not irre
sistible — it makes ample provision for spiritual life,
but does not force men to profit by it.* It is ex-

* " Let us next take a cursory glance at the mode in which God's
plan of administration affects the education of this life — the sharpen
ing of its senses — the refinement of its tastes — the gradual ripening
of its capacity to discriminate — the training up of its judgment
from the feebleness and helplessness of infancy, to the robust and
unwavering decision of full manhood. What is it we see ? To the
eye of a novice, all is chaos — truth and error intermingled — good
and evil — wholesome nutriment for the soul, and virulent poison.
And it is worthy of remark that oftentimes underneath the broad,
outspreading, and attractive leaves of what is noxious to the reli
gious life, grow hidden, and, till diligently searched for, unseen,
modest verities of rare virtue in sustaining or reviving it — and that in
the immediate neighbourhood of what is most precious we may com
monly look with certainty for what is most vile. Nothing in this
apparent jumble of contrarieties is labelled. It is only to experience
that external form, colour, or texture, are indicative of the internal
qualities which they enclose. That which works mischief is not
seldom superficially tempting — that which imparts strength, repul
sive. And with what at first sight presents itself as an indescribable
confusion, there is no subsequent arbitrary meddling. The root
which, just turned up from the earth, is about to parch up the
entrails of him seeking sustenance from it, is not plucked from his
fatal grasp by a hand from heaven. The path into which the tra
veller turns in his pursuit of happiness, and which leads to death, is
not barred across by insuperable obstacles, nor are its dangers adver
tised by large-lettered cautions along the road. Many a sentiment
has been nursed in the bosom of the Church with more than a
mother's fondness, which when full grown has turned out an impla
cable foe to her peace. Into this world of differing and even con
flicting elements, where what is true and divine is mingled with so
many false principles, erroneous standards of judgment, deleterious
sentiments, vicious and corrupt imaginations, the soul is bidden to
go forth in search of spiritual aliment, But although God has not
written upon the surface of things, a description of the nature and

THE REVELATION. 147
quisitely adapted to its purpose — but that purpose
is one which the ignorance or perversity of men
may nevertheless frustrate, so far, at least, as each
is individually concerned. And seeing what we do,
uses of each, but has devolved upon the spiritual life itself the duty
of discrimination, he has not left it without sufficient guidance. It
starts in its career with unerring instincts and sensitive sympathies,
which when allowed uninterrupted play, can distinguish in broad
and simple cases between the precious and the vile. These are ren
dered more acute by cultivation — and when promptly obeyed, and
conscientiously trained, impart a power of moral insight which it is
difficult to deceive even by the most specious appearances. Expe
rience gradually follows to correct the mistakes inseparable from
first impressions — and each spiritual sense does its part in modifying
and rendering more exact the conclusions drawn from the testimony
of the others. Like, as in the natural world, all things appear to
the eye of infancy in immediate contact with the visual organ, and
neither distance nor form are indicated by the disposition of light
and shade, until after touch has combined its perceptions with those
of sight, so here, a full and accurate acquaintance with the true must
be the united result of many spiritual exercises — a spontaneous
generalization of the repeated depositions of all. To multiply illus
trations, however, although easy to the writer, might be wearisome
to the reader, and, perhaps, superfluous. Tlie point upon wliich it is
desired to fix attention is, that expertness to ' distinguish things
that differ' is made conditional, by the arrangements of Supreme
Wisdom, chiefly upon the proper use of those powers with which
spiritual life is endowed. The rules of guidance are to be sought,
not in the first utterances of the objects without us, but in the moni
tions of the life within us. Not so much to impart instruction,
which supposes the transmission of knowledge from the object to the
subject, as to nourish intuition, which implies the extraction of
knowledge by the subject from the object, are outward things ar
ranged in relation to the religious life. The character of the climate
is not ordered with a view to the constitution, but the constitution
braced with a view to the climate. How we are environed seems to
be a secondary matter in the Divine judgment, the most elaborate
care being bestowed upon what we possess within us. Our Lord
prayed for his disciples ' not that they might be taken out of the
world, but that they might be kept from the evil thereof.' There is
a close analogy in this respect between God's proceedings and our
own. Observation and experience may have convinced us, how
L 2

148 THE REVELATION.
in every other department of human being and
action, of self-neglect and consequent privation and
misery, in the very midst of the wisest possible
arrangements for inducing self-culture, and thus
raising the quality of our enjoyments, have we any
just ground for concluding that in the department
of religion alone, this melancholy phenomenon will

much nobler, and in the main, how much more successful is the
effort, to fit the child for his sphere, than to construct a sphere for
the child — to train him so that he may go anywhere, rather than to
find or make a somewhere into which he may safely go. In short, if
we are wise in our educational plans, we shall evince our anxiety
very little in shaping exterior circumstances, and very mainly in
inducing and strengthening inward qualities and character. A well-
cultivated heart is a better safeguard against evil than the best regu
lated cloister, and as solitude may be more oppressively realized in
crowded cities than in unpeopled wildernesses, so the divine life may
be fuller of all that makes it what it is in the presence of many
forms of evil than in their studied concealment. ' To the pure all
tilings are pure.'
" ' He that can apprehend,' says John Milton, in his speech for the
liberty of unlicensed printing — ' He that can apprehend and consi
der vice, with all her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain,
and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly better, he is
the true warfaring Christian. I cannot,' he continues, 'praise a
fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised, and unbreathed, that
never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race,
where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and
heat. Assuredly, we bring not innocence into the world, we bring
impurity much rather ; that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by
what is contrary. That virtue, therefore, which is but a youngling
in the contemplation of evil, and knows not the utmost that vice
promises to her followers, is but a blank virtue, not a pure : her
whiteness is but an excremental whiteness ; which was the reason
why our sage and serious poet Spenser (whom I dare be known to
think a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas), describing due tem
perance under the person of Guion, brings him in with his palmer
through the cave of Mammon, and the bower of earthly bliss, that
he might see, and know, and yet abstain.'" — British Churches, Svo,
pp. 2G— 31,

THE REVELATION. 149
be altogether absent] On the contrary, may we
not fairly anticipate that the same waywardness of
man which is so strikingly exemplified in regard to
his inferior but more immediate concerns, should
show itself still more conspicuously in regard to
those which are higher, indeed, but more remote]
We have to bear in mind that, in the established
order of things, the. religious nature is the last to
be developed — that religious ideas, however vividly
presented, never make their appeal to the heart
until it has been strongly pre-occupied — that they
can only gain their proper ascendency by means of
repeated struggles — and that at every step of that
discipline through which the man must pass with a
view to the fulfilment of the highest purpose of his
existence, he is called upon to wrestle with tenden
cies, passions, and motives, which have already
acquired great influence over him, and which can
only be conquered by a very resolute will. Such
being the case, we may reasonably expect that the
most suitable revelation of God will operate to the
elevation of the race but slowly, and that its pro
gressive action will be characterised by striking
vicissitudes. It is to be further considered that such a mani
festation of God as Christianity assumes to be,
appears to have required that human agency
should be largely resorted to in practically carrying
out its gracious designs. The appeal made by it

150 THE REVELATION.
is made to our sympathies— and none is more apt
to attract and engage the sympathies of man than
his own fellow. But then, here as elsewhere,
much is dependent on the fidelity of those who
hold the benefit in trust for the rest of mankind.
Their unfaithfulness to their appointed mission
cannot be rendered impossible without a wide
departure from the principles on which moral
government proceeds. We may wonder at this
suspension of one man's interests on the discharge
by another of his responsibilities — but at any rate,
we must admit that herein Christianity is in full
accordance with the general plan of the Supreme
Ruler. In all other things, health, liberty, mental
and moral culture, social progress and happiness,
the same law obtains. Myriads are oftentimes
affected for good or for evil by the obedience or
disobedience of one man to his convictions — and
if the gospel of Christ had been framed on other
principles, it might well have been objected to
as out of keeping with the known laws of moral
government. It does, at first sight, appear un
accountable, that the truth which is designed to
raise up man to happy communion with the
Creator, and to stimulate into exercise and growth
the most exalted capabilities of his nature, should
be committed, seemingly unprotected, to human
keeping. But, doubtless, there are now working
out, under the influence of laws at present ano-

THE REVELATION. 151
malous to our view, problems of the highest import,
and of almost infinite intricacy, the solution of
which will affect the destiny of our race, both
here and hereafter. If Christianity be indeed
divine, then, for aught we can tell, its surest,
largest, most permanent, most complete triumph
over the family of man, may be best insured by
suffering every mistake which can be made re
specting it, and every absurdity to which it can
be perverted, to take palpable form without other
let or hindrance than that which the limits of
reason may prevent — and any dominant inter
ference for the suppression of human follies,
blunders, and infidelities, in regard to it, might
be but the putting back the final settlement of
some great questions, upon which settlement the
universal spread of truth depends. Every patient
observer of this world's affairs must know that
as various forms of error, by a natural process,
develop themselves and die, so they leave the
general mind of society in a state of enlighten
ment and refinement, which renders a return to
old prejudices and misconceptions absolutely im
possible. So much ground is thus redeemed for
ever from the wastes of human ignorance and
folly — redeemed by the hands of truth ; and every
one will be aware that triumphs like these are
of a two-fold value — they diminish the amount
of evil to be contended with, and they provide

152 THE REVELATION.
a firmer purchase for the power which contends
with it. The incomplete success, therefore, of
Christianity — the early obscuration of its simplicity
— the growth out of it of a tyrannous system of
priestism — and the sad debilitation of its moral
power down to the present day, are by no means
irreconcileable with the conclusion that it is a
revelation of God. These facts are the result
of principles, which, although they pervade the
gospel system, are not peculiar to it — and the
objection urged in bar of its claims on the ground
of these and similar facts, are really nothing less
than a protest against the wisdom of that plan
upon which God is conducting his moral adminis
tration. The foregoing considerations, we think, will go
far to neutralize the force of the objection. But
is there not another side to the question thus
started] If complaint is made of what Chris
tianity has not yet done, should not some account
be taken of what it has accomplished. The train
of remark pursued in the first part of this volume
led us over an extensive body of results indicative
of the agency of a more powerful spiritual
influence than is elsewhere to be met with in
the history of mankind. If the gospel has not
done everything which modern scepticism demands
of a divine revelation, it has yet done much more
than that scepticism can rationally explain. So

THE REVELATION. 153
long as men dealt honestly by it, its triumphs
were rapid and large enough to give full coun
tenance to its pretensions. Certainly, no other
religious system, much less that which is based
on reasoning and nature, can compete with it,
for one moment, in power to beget and sustain
spiritual life. No other system has so proved
its competency to grapple with man's indifference
to things pertaining to God, or to elicit for the
Highest the devout affections of his intelligent
creatures. It has already done for the world a
work which the world needed to be done, and
which, until Christianity came, appeared to be
a hopeless enterprise — it has rendered possible
the exaltation of love to God into the governing
motive of the entire man. It is even now the
source of most of the genuine disinterested love
which displays itself on the stage of human affairs
— and it is gradually but surely throwing off the
hard technicalities in which its professed expo
nents had encased it, and giving promise of again
making itself felt when better understood as a
spiritual power. Let it be credited with its
achievements, as well as debited with its failures.
The latter, perhaps, may be much more reason
ably explained in connexion with the theory
that it is divine, than can the former on the
supposition that it is not.

154 THE REVELATION.
§ 18. CONCLUDING STATEMENT OF THE POSITION TO WHICH THE
ARGUMENT HAS CONDUCTED US.
Here, then, we pause to take a general survey of
the position at which we have arrived. It will be
found accurately marked off, we think, by the
following conclusions : —
1. Indisputable history sets before us an im
mense array of facts, the evident result of a
spiritual force operating upon the minds of men,
which force may be distinctly traced to that
objective faith which is embodied in the New
Testament writings, such, substantially, as we
have them now.
2. On examination of the claims of this objective
faith, or, in one word, Christianity, we find its great
distinctive characteristic to be this — that it pro
fesses to exhibit to the religious capabilities and
sensibihties of man, through the medium of one
man's life and history, the moral character and
purposes of God.
3. Such a revelation of God as Christianity pro
fesses to be, corresponds very closely with the in
stinctive cravings and wants of man's religious
nature, the very existence of which imply a suit
able external provision for their satisfaction.
4. No other suitable provision for these wants
has yet been discovered — the display of God
through the objects and laws of the physical

THE REVELATION. 155
universe falling short, as it must do, in the nature
of things, of the obvious necessity of the case.
5. That, therefore, which Christianity assumes
to supply is precisely what the constitution of
man warrants him in looking for somewhere, and
fits him to receive, appropriate, and enjoy. The
object answers to the subject in like manner as
light, colour, and form, answer to the eye.
6. What Christianity professes to be is counte
nanced by what it has already done, while as to
what it has, as yet, failed to accomplish for huma
nity, it occupies a similar position to that of other
agencies for the education and elevation of our
race, known to be the gifts and arrangements of
God for that purpose.
7. The design and mode of this alleged mani
festation of God having been thus shown to be
congruous with reason, we are bound to proceed
without prejudice to its pretensions, to examine
the positive evidence it may have to proffer in
support of them.
The effect, then, of the whole foregoing argu
ment is this — Facts lead us back to a cause whence
they sprang — that cause presents itself to our
notice as a professedly peculiar manifestation of
the Deity to men. We look at it, and discover
that it marvellously corresponds with what our
nature and position required, in order to the deve
lopment of our being, considered in its religious

156 THE REVELATION.
aspect. So far, then, there is nothing contradictory
of the claims put forward by Christianity, the cause
of these facts, to be accepted as a revelation of God.
If anything, the guise in which it comes is con
firmatory of its pretensions, and may fairly dispose
reason to anticipate that they may be well-founded.
" This is not an unlikely thing," its course of re
flection may run, " to have come from God. Nay,
more, looked at in the hght of man's own nature,
and of the acknowledged and established laws of
the Divine government of him, it appears a very
likely thing." But if God has really sent Chris
tianity into the world to reveal his love to it, he
will have sealed it with some distinctive mark
wherefrom it may be gathered that the revelation
is a revelation of Himself — that the one man's life
which purports to show us Deity through humanity
is an authorized portrait, adapted only to our
powers of vision, of the Unseen God — and that
he who hath seen Jesus Christ hath seen the
Father. Is there any such seal ] What is it ]
Can it be identified as the seal of God ] A reply
to these inquiries will now be attempted.

PAET III.
THE SEAL.

CONTENTS.
1. CONNEXION BETWEEN THIS AND THE FOREGOING PART ESTA
BLISHED. 2. A SUPERNATURAL SEAL TO REVELATION REQUIRED
BY THE NATURE OF THE CASE. 3. MIRACLES MUST CONSTITUTE A
PART OF ANY COMPLETE MANIFESTATION OF GOD. 4. NO MORAL
DISPLAY OF GOD BY MEANS OF A HUMAN LIFE COULD BE OTHER
WISE AUTHENTICATED. 5. MIRACLES WERE NECESSARY TO THE
MAIN PURPOSE OF CHRISTIANITY. 6. AS AN AUTHENTICATION,
SUPERNATURALISM IS THE MOST READILY UNDERSTOOD AND
APPRECIATED. 7. ADAPTED TO OUR LOVE OF THE MARVELLOUS.
8. UNIVERSALLY EXPECTED IN CONNEXION WITH A REVELATION.
9. FITTED TO AWAKEN ATTENTION, AS WELL AS TO PRODUCE
BELIEF. 10. INCOMPATIBILITY OF MIRACLES WITH GOD'S CHA
RACTER CONSIDERED. 11. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MIRACLE AND
A PROCESS OF NATURE. 12. NATURAL ANTECEDENTS AND SEQUENTS
CONNECTED ONLY BY DIVINE ORDINATION. 13. LAW SUBORDINATE
TO LAW IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD. 14. THE OBVIOUS PURPOSES OF
PHYSICAL LAWS COMPLIED WITH, AND FURTHERED, BY MIRACLES.
15. THE HIGHEST ENDS OF GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT SUBSERVED
BY MIRACLES. 16. CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES — MR. HUME'S
SOPHISM. 17. MIRACLES OF CHRISTIANITY ACCORDANT WITH ITS
PURPOSE, IN MANNER AND KIND. 18. CHRISTIAN MIRACLES SUS
TAINED BY EVIDENCE — THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 19. SUM
MARY OF THE PRECEDING OBSERVATIONS. 20. CONCLUDING OB
SERVATIONS.

THE SEA L.

§ 1. CONNEXION BETWEEN THIS AND THE FOREGOING PART
ESTABLISHED.
God, translated to the moral perceptions and sen
sibilities of our nature by means of a human life, is,
ipso dicente, the burden of Christianity. Spiritual
life, or, in other words, living fellowship between
the soul of man and its Creator, is the high object
at which it aims. For this our inmost being, intel
ligently or unconsciously, ever more pants — and
the aspirations which God has breathed into every
bosom, he, we may be sure, has made an adequate
provision to meet and satisfy. That we are so
endowed by his creating hand as to be capable of
perceiving him, adoring him, loving him, trusting
him, is sufficient proof that he has somewhere so
displayed himself, as may best serve to awaken our
perception, and to evoke our adoration, love, and
faith. But those works of his which we see out
spread before us in the physical universe, and
wherein we behold reflected his immensity and

160 THE SEAL.
infinitude, his wisdom, power, and goodness, neces
sary as they are, and ever will be, to illustrate for
us certain aspects of his being and glory, without
some glimpse of which we cannot know him, save
in name, do not satisfy all the deep yearnings of
our Nature, nor so present the Invisible to our
hearts as to give them perfect repose, and to con
vince us that here is the external object in which
the internal capability was designed to find its full
satisfaction. Our moral constitution craves a moral
manifestation of Deity — to know him in his rela
tion to conscience — to see him in those aspects
of his character which will shadow forth to our
souls his purity as well as his power — his mercy
as well as his goodness — his patience, forbearance,
tenderness — and, in general, those bearings of his
character and will in regard to us and our destiny,
the proper response to which consists in filial con
fidence and love. And this want of ours is his
handwriting on our nature, to the effect that such
a revelation of himself may be looked for, and will
be vouchsafed. Christianity comes to us professing
to be God's provision for that want — revealing to
us that of him which Ave need and desire to know,
in a form that may bring him within reach of our
sympathies — love making its appeal to love, but
stiU in inseparable association with truth and
righteousness, through the medium of a human
person and history. We have seen that this

THE SEAL. 161
peculiar mode of Divine manifestation fits our need
— supplies the complement to what has been called
the gospel of Nature — and closely dovetails, if we
may be allowed the phrase, with man's religious
sensibilities. Reason, therefore, has nothing to
object to it as a mode of showing to men the mind
and will of the Supreme. By a human life, such a
revelation may well, and, so far as we can discern,
may best, be made.
This point being settled, our proper business is
to look for some distinctive mark which will autho
rize us in segregating some one individual from the
common family of man, and identifying him as the
medium through which the needed display of God
to our emotional nature has been made. Granted
the propriety, not to say necessity, of the thing to
be done, we are bound also to admit the propriety
of such means as can be proved requisite thereto.
Now there is, unquestionably, a sense in which
every man is a manifestation of his Maker — and
there is a still higher sense in which humanity, in
the comprehensive acceptation of the term, is a
mirror wherein we may see reflected, although but
dimly, the lineaments of the Unseen. But if there
be any truth in our former train of observations,
the human heart desires, and, in order to an all-
commanding spiritual affection, must have, a closer,
more compact, more personal, portraiture of God in
his moral relations to man— owe life which it may
M

162 THE SEAL.
gaze upon with implicit confidence as the embodi
ment of its rightful Sovereign — one history which,
taken throughout, in all its scenes, incidents, deeds,
and sufferings, may be to it, as is the miniature of a
father to his child, that to which it will reveren
tially and fondly turn whenever it would " see
God's face in righteousness." And in proportion
as this unity and individuality of representation is
necessary to the free play of our religious emotions,
just in the same proportion is it also necessary that
the representation itself should exhibit some fea
tures the presence of which shall leave no room for
mistake as to who it is that is thus portrayed. The
human life through which God is revealed must
needs present to us some indisputable radiations of
Deity — some characteristics which shall compel us
to admit that they can be attributed to none other
than to " the King eternal, immortal, and invi
sible," — some phase or other of the Divine which,
as soon as seen, shall satisfy our reason that it is
God who is thus set forth. In other words, the
nature of the case absolutely requires that the facts
of that life should present some special peculiarity
which shall infallibly mark it for what it purports
to be. We must have this, or we may as well have
nothing. If God is ever to draw nigh to us in the
mode already indicated as in exquisite harmony
with our wants, and with his principles of moral
administration, he must so draw nigh as to give us

THE SEAL. 163
full assurance that it is He. Either we can have
no manifestation of him through humanity, or
upon that manifestation there must be sufficient
and decisive evidence that it is really God who
is in our midst. The broad arrow of government
must be distinctly visible upon all our materials of
rehgious knowledge and emotion. And hence the
necessity of Miracles.
§ 2. A SUPERNATURAL SEAL TO REVELATION REQUIRED BY THE
NATURE OF THE CASE.
To the supernaturalism of Christianity, we are
well aware, modern philosophy is strongly opposed.
It seems to be regarded as the main stumbling-
block in the way of rational belief. The severest
processes of criticism have been freely resorted to,
with a view of separating it entirely from the
spiritual truths with which the New Testament
blends it, and plausible reasonings have been
employed to convince us, that when everything
miraculous in the gospel records has evaporated,
not one particle of nutriment which Christianity
supplies to our religious nature will have been
destroyed. We have been reminded again and
again that reason needs no such attestation of
truths which have upon them already the clear
impress of divinity — and that if any further proof
were needed, in addition to that furnished by their
congruity with our own nature, miracles would not
m 2

164 THE SEAL.
supply it. Whatever the belief in them may have
effected in unscientific times, such belief, we are in
formed, is quite unnecessary now. We have a firmer
and a more rational basis upon which to rest our
views of God, and of his will. We need not
" ascend up to heaven," nor " descend into the
abyss," for, " the word is nigh us, even in our
hearts." Where the ordinary will serve, the ex
traordinary is superfluous. It but encumbers and
impedes the faith which it is engaged to promote.
Why not surrender it as a tradition which, whilst
it may have answered a useful purpose, time and
" the progress of the intellect " have rendered
obsolete ] There are deep spiritual verities in
Christianity which, when severed from their pre
sent mythic dress, will command the homage of
the highest reason, and they will be accepted for
their own sake rather than in deference to an
Almighty power with which they have been
hitherto associated. For the evidence supposed
to be supplied by miracles is not homogeneous
with the things to be believed. The question of
man's immortality, for instance, is not so much as
touched by any conceivable manifestation of omni
potence ; and though all the laws of Nature should
be reversed to-morrow, no spiritual dogma would
be rendered more visibly true thereby. It is as
though the Supreme were unable to convince us
without doing violence to his own ordinations — as

THE SEAL. 165
though he designed to dumbfounder the reason in
stead of enlightening it, and force an assent to his
propositions, not by means of their own intrinsic
credibility, but by an exhibition of his boundless
might. Such a proceeding is held to be utterly
unworthy of Infinite Wisdom, and, therefore, the
supernaturalism of Christianity is philosophically
discarded. All this reasoning, and a great deal more which
is closely akin to it, lacks only one thing to make
it convincing — applicability to the case in hand.
Christianity is not chargeable with the mistake of
proffering works of superhuman power as proofs of
doctrinal propositions. If some of the exponents
of Christianity have made the mistake, the error is
theirs, and they should be visited with the penalty
of exposure. The true purpose of miracles, as set
forth in the New Testament, is to attest a mission,
not to support a dogma. More or less, the object
of those who are said to have wrought them, so far
as we can collect it from their own language and
bearing, was to say to the parties whom they ad
dressed, by works instead of words, " God is with us."
But in the case of Jesus of Nazareth, the purpose of
miracles was still more precise, specific, and to the
point. Supernaturalism was a necessary feature of
his work — was " part and parcel " of what he came
to do — gave a meaning to his career which else
would have been unintelligible — and constituted

166 THE SEAL.
for all future ages a requisite part of that manifes
tation of the Deity, upon which faith was to rest,
round which the affections were to revolve, and out
of which was to spring a "joy unutterable and full
of glory." This statement we shall now proceed
to establish.
The person and life of Jesus Christ, as we have
already largely considered, are spoken of, through
out the New Testament, as exhibiting to men the
otherwise unseen God — in such sense, that our
Lord himself declared, " He that hath seen me, hath
seen the Father." Here is the avowed purport of
the Christian faith, and here, if we would judge it
fairly, we must take our stand to survey, and to
catch the significance of its main characteristics.
The means which Christ resorted to must be
judged of in their bearing on his end. That end
we take to have been a worthy one, a necessary
one, called for by the very constitution of our
nature, rendered probable by analogy, and justified
by the known principles of God's moral govern
ment. Christ's hfe, then — what he was, what he
did, what he suffered, what happened to him, and
what he taught — has, according to his own uniform
profession, and according to the whole tenour of
the sacred writings, a significance which no other
life possessed. Truly and thoroughly human in
its texture, it was exclusively divine in its purport.
It was a sort of condensation, into a form cog-

THE SEAL. 167
nisable by our religious sentiment, of that relating
to the Highest which is too essentially spiritual to
be otherwise perceived, realized, and enjoyed, by
creatures such as we. The idea cannot be more
forcibly expressed than by the declaration of the
Apostle Paul, " For in him dwelleth all the fulness
of the Godhead bodily." What the body of man
is to his spirit — its instrument of communication
with the outer world, that the life of Christ is
assumed to be in reference to God — his medium of
moral communication to mankind. He, the Ever
lasting, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, the
self-existent and eternal Spirit — he expresses his
mind, and character, and will, by means of this one
life, and puts himself, so far as this was possible,
into the garb of humanity — or, changing the figure,
gives us a human version of his own Being — his
thoughts, purposes, and propensions — in its relation
to m n.
§ 3. MIRACLES MUST CONSTITUTE A PART OF ANY COMPLETE
MANIFESTATION OF GOD.
Now, we submit, with some confidence, that, on
the hypothesis that it became God thus to convert
the Divine abstract into the human concrete with a
view to meet our emotional wants, he would do it
as completely as the nature of the case would pos
sibly admit of. Through that selected medium
would be poured as much light upon men's hearts

168 THE SEAL.
as it could transmit. The object would be only
limited by the capability of the subject. What
ever a man's life could be made to show of God,
would be shown. The manifestation would be
neither stinted nor partial. We have a right to
conclude thus much from what we may observe of
his proceedings in the natural world. When he
gives, he gives like himself. For all our physical
wants he has furnished a various and profuse
supply. All our intellectual powers, all our tastes,
all our emotions, are provided with the widest
scope for exercise, with countless objects for grati
fication. In respect of these, he has heaped up
riches for us — bestowed them without measure.
No niggard hand is his in meeting the desires of
his creatures. This earth of ours nowhere exhi
bits him as unwilling to impart more than absolute
necessity requires. Every garden, every field, every
stream — mountain, desert, and ocean — the air we
breathe, the sun that shines over our heads, the
changing seasons, the starry firmament — all bear
unceasing testimony to the munificence of his com
municativeness. Through all, and in an incon
ceivable variety of methods, does he impart to us
out of his inexhaustible fulness, and give to us as
much of himself as our capacities can receive.
And this law of his administration we may expect
to prevail in every arrangement designed to shadow
forth himself. If Christianity is from him — if the

THE SEAL. 169
life of Christ is his moral expression of how he
stands, and what he wills, in relation to men, then
may we be fully assured that the expression will be
both adequate and vivid. Nothing will be left out
necessary to the completeness of the representation.
If humanity cannot be made to reflect the eternity,
the boundlessness, and the self-existence of the
Divine nature, that attribute of his which seems to
our apprehensions to be most nearly akin to them,
which most readily suggests them, and which can
be thus embodied or reflected, will surely be dis
played. At all events, we have abundant reason to
conclude that nothing of God which is capable of
being put into a human form of representation,
more especially if in its own nature it is calculated
to shed light upon the rest, will be omitted. God
disclosing himself through whatever medium, may
fairly be expected so to disclose himself as that he
shall be known as God.
Power is one of the attributes of the Almighty
— ability to do according to the decision of his own
will, limited by no external restrictions, subject to
no law but that of his own imposing, stayed by no
impediment which he is incompetent to remove.
Power is the idea which we, in the limited range
of our faculties, primarily associate with Deity.
The child and the savage identify God with the
tempest more readily than with the flower, and
stand in awe before his might when they are

170 THE SEAL.
insensible to his goodness. It is doubtful whether
any conceivable display of himself to men, in their
present state, could be appreciated as such, in
which the element of power was not largely embo
died. It is just possible, indeed, that some minds
should have given such exclusive culture to their
love of beauty, or have fostered their logical faculty
into such disproportionate development, as to be
more alive to the divine in things that present him
to their aesthetic taste, or their power of reasoning,
than in those which illustrate his boundless might.
But this cannot be said of mankind in general.
To them, any manifestation of the Supreme, pre
dominantly moral though it might be, which
should omit his power, be devoid of all radiation
of his omnipotence, or fail to show him as one
having authority over any of the works of his own
hands, would be but nugatory, and obtain no
credit. "Show us what you can do," is the first
impulsive suggestion of our common sense, of our
rational instincts, when challenged to believe that
a man has come from God. Perhaps, in that high
state of civilization to which we look forward,
earthly authority may be accepted, revered, and
submitted to, without need of any of the pomp and
ceremony by which it is now symbolized. The
king may descend from his throne, lay aside for
ever his crown and sceptre, and mingle freely and
unostentatiously with his meanest subjects, without

THE SEAL. 171
endangering their loyalty, or impairing the senti
ment of respect with which they are wont to regard
his office. But, at present, and in the estimation
of the multitude, a king would be no king without
these symbols — and where there were no regalia, it
would be thought, there can be no right to rule.
Much after this sort would be the feeling of men,
aye ! and of the most highly cultured among us
too, if called to contemplate any portraiture of the
Almighty from which his power should have been
excluded. Without this feature, the resemblance
would be generally held to be so incomplete as to
be very questionable. We cannot realize to our
own satisfaction any idea of the Supreme Sove
reign wherein no show of his power displays itself.
Had Jesus Christ, proclaiming himself to be the
Son of God, the Image of the Invisible, pursued
his career through life without once exhibiting, or
offering to exhibit, this, the most striking aspect, to
human appreciation, of the Divine nature, all men
would have concurred in concluding that his pro
fessed mission must be rejected, forasmuch as its
scope had not been adequately filled. One part of
what pertains to God, and that the part which is
least imitable, and can be least successfully pre
tended to, by man, it would have been urged, and
justly, has been left out of the representation alto
gether — namely, his competency to give effect at
pleasure to his own will, all external impediments

172 THE SEAL,
notwithstanding — and how, therefore, it might have
been asked, shall we be assured that the other
parts truly adumbrate him ] The omission, now so
strenuously contended for, would undoubtedly have
proved fatal to the whole scheme.
This will become still further apparent when it
is considered that the life of Christ purports to set
forth not merely the perfections of the Eternal in a
state of repose, if we may thus express it, but in
active exercise with a view to man's well-being. It
is not Divine wisdom only, or goodness, or rectitude,
or love, which that life was meant to exemplify —
for the life of every good man does this in a mea
sure — but it was all these in full action for the
accomplishment of a result in which humanity was
declared to be especially interested. They were all
set forth in connexion with a plan to which men
were invited to give in their hearty adhesion. They
were all illustrated with a view, not to attract a
barren attention, but to secure for God a great
practical result. Their combined hght, turned
directly upon man's conscience and heart, were
meant to induce a willing surrender of both to the
moral claims of his spiritual Sovereign. Benign
as was their aspect, they had also a command to
enforce. It was not enough that they should shine
— they were also to vivify. They had their mis
sion from one will to another — a will which is
above law, to a will under law — and they were to

THE SEAL. 173
bring the two into harmony by subduing the lesser
to the greater, the derived and dependent to the
uncreated and self-existent. They were, in this
case, agents for authority — and the end of their
appearance would be achieved only by taking back
to God man's glad submission to his government.
Here, then, we see a sufficient reason why they
should be associated with Almighty power. A dis
play of that perfection of the Supreme, in alliance
with those others of which we have just spoken,
would give pecuhar meaning and force to their
demand upon man's obedience. The wisdom, the
goodness, the rectitude, the love, which presented
themselves in human guise before man's heart, and
asked an unreserved surrender of it to spiritual
law, would make their appeal all the more surely
for being accompanied by superhuman power.
They would be the more readily regarded as divine
manifestations having the intent signified, if con
nected with somewhat pertaining to him which
could neither be imitated nor forged. The prac
tical aim of Christ's work — that change of affec
tion, of will, of life, which he assumed to seek in
men by an impersonation to them of the Unseen,
rendered it specially necessary that he should not
withhold from them some exemplifications of what,
more than anything else, would convince them that
between him and the Omnipotent there was the
relation that he claimed — some tokens of a visible

174 THE SEAL.
subjection to his will, so far as he might choose to
put it forth, of all external hindrances. Resem
bling God in this, and thus making good his high
pretension just where, if it were not well founded,
he would infallibly have failed, the truthfulness
and reality of his representation in all other re
spects would be readily inferred. And hence,
miracles would constitute a seal to his mission in
perfect harmony with its ulterior purpose, and
having an authoritative force upon a well-ordered
reason.

§ 4. NO MORAL DISPLAY OF GOD BY MEANS OF A HUMAN LIFE
COULD BE OTHERWISE AUTHENTICATED.
We advance a step further. We contend that
apart from some display of omniscience and
Almighty power, such as is given in prophecy
and in miraculous acts, there could have been
no revelation through a human life of any of
the perfections of God, in such a manner as
would enable us to identify them as incon-
testably his. These are the only attributes of
Deity, presentable, at least, through the medium
of a man's history, which may be distinguished
clearly and infallibly from all the semblances
of them which ordinary humanity may pro
duce. The wisdom of a wise man, for instance,
and the wisdom of a man in whom might dwell
" the fulness of the Godhead bodily," differ, to our

THE SEAL. 175
capabilities of perception, in degree only, nor are
there any well-defined limitations, and cognisable
lines of distinction, having regard to which we may
pronounce satisfactorily to our reason — " the wis
dom on this side is human, on the other side is
divine." We cannot say with certainty how far
the mind of man, under the operation of merely
natural laws, is capable of exhibiting this glorious
endowment — what are the limits within which
human imperfection will necessarily confine it —
or to what extent a combination of happy oppor
tunities, a fine organization, and assiduous culture,
might possibly develop it. Besides, wisdom is only
appreciable by wisdom. The more perfect it is,
the less likely it is to obtain the approbation of
folly. It is one of those qualities which can only
be discerned by a spirit in which there is some
thing akin to itself. The majestic proportions of
such an intellect as Lord Bacon's cannot be com
prehended by an unintellectual man — and the
moral fitness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, sup
posing it to be all that it professes to be, requires
in order to a perception of the wisdom which
planned it, some previous cultivation of the mind
and heart. Nor should we forget that being illus
trated to us by a man's history, it necessarily takes
a form predominantly human, and hence is less
likely to suggest its own high origin. Were
Thomas Carlyle to speak to a child in a strain

176 THE SEAL.
of reflection befitting his philosophical eminence,
he would not be understood — and were he, in
order to become intelligible, to translate his
thoughts into childish language, images, and asso
ciations of ideas, his vast intellectual superiority
would be, to a great extent, hidden from the child
addressed, by the very effort of adaptation which
the necessity of the case had required. Now, it
should be borne in mind, that any revelation of
God, as " the only wise God," must be made to
a world not very competent at best to appreciate
the display — and when we take into account the
mental and moral condition of the great mass of
mankind, we shall surely feel ourselves bound to
concede, that it is not by any gleams of divine
wisdom streaming in upon them through a human
medium, that God is likely to be generally re
cognised and welcomed by the children of this
earth. A similar line of observation will apply to all
the moral attributes of God — truth, rectitude,
goodness, and the like. Taken alone, or even in
association one with another, it needs a very nice
discriminating power to determine, in any given
illustration made through humanity, whether what
is exhibited of them comes directly from himself,
or is only indirectly reflected in the manner in
which every good man shows forth the glory of the
Deity. The life of Christ might have been a per-

THE SEAL. 177
fectly faultless embodiment of them all, without
having in it, for the rest of men, any other force
than that of example. We could not have col
lected from them, however lustrously exhibited,
that they were manifestations to us of the Unseen
God— nor would they by themselves have sufficed
to prove a direct appeal of the Divine will made to
ours. The declaration by our Lord himself of his
purpose and mission would, indeed, have been ren
dered the more credible by these qualities of his
character — but in an affair of such unspeakable im
portance, we should reasonably have craved more
decisive confirmation. For, it is conceivable that a
man may be under some mental illusion as to the
main purport of his life, and yet exhibit in mar
vellous perfection these attributes of moral cha
racter — nay, the extraordinary strength with
which they are developed in him, may itself sug
gest to his active imagination a reason and an
end for their existence which have no foundation
in reality. But there are other moral qualities
in the life of Christ which derive their whole
significance from his assumed mission- — which not
only do not bear upon themselves the exclusive
imprint of divinity, but which without some ac
companying attestation lose very much of their
own meaning. Condescension, humility, meek
ness, patience, voluntary subjection to suffering,
and anxious solicitude for the welfare of others,
N

178 THE SEAL.
will operate with a powerful force upon our moral
sympathies, if we are assured that they are an
authorized version, in a human type, of the mode
in which God regards, and will deal with us. But
unless they have upon them this specific meaning —
unless there is clearly written upon them the Divine
name, they instantly sink into the merest common
place. Condescension ceases to be such — humility
loses its principal charm — meekness and gentleness
are robbed of their exquisite pathos — suffering can
no longer be regarded as voluntary — and concern
for the well-being of others becomes transmuted
from a rich consolation to bleeding hearts, and a
soothing assurance to terrified consciences, into an
amiable trait of character wliich, however we may
admire, can constitute no basis for our trust.
Behind all these must be the radical idea of God,
in order to give them due moral power over our
sympathies. Unless it can be fully ascertained
that He is the soul of which these are the coun
tenance — that it is none other than He, who, when
humanly represented, is thus disposed towards men
— there is practically no revelation at all. Every
thing may be divine in reality — but it is not so to
our apprehensions. Nor, indeed, can it become so
without something additional, and much more dis
tinctive. We could only regard the life of Christ
as a very fitting one for the manifestation of God
in the flesh — but we could not confidently receive

THE SEAL. 179
it, as marked off from human life in general, to
answer this high purpose to our souls. Neither his
wisdom, nor those moral attributes of his to which
we have adverted, carry with them to our con
victions any sufficient and decisive confirmation of
his own claim to be received as the only-begotten
Son of God.
Knowledge, it is true, does admit of being so
displayed, as to proclaim its origination in a higher
than a human source. In respect of this feature of
intelhgent being there exists a definite line of
demarcation separating between the merely human
and the necessarily divine. The future is not
known to us. Sagacious conjectures may be pretty
readily distinguished from decided predictions. If
it can be made clear to us that remote events yet
to come are within the cognisance of a human
mind, and that in all their circumstantial details
and surrounding contingencies they have been
described as facts which would certainly occur —
more especially if the time of their occurrence has
been accurately set forth — we have a reasonable
assurance that man is here only an instrument in
conveying to us intimations beyond his natural
ken. Now to God the future is as the past, and
both future and past are as the present — and
certainly, if it pleased him to approach us in the
guise of humanity, in order to make himself the
better known to our religious nature, some few
n 2

180 THE SEAL.
scintillations of this, his foreknowledge, would be
to us a token whereby to distinguish and identify
him. It is true that no immediate purpose would
be subserved thereby, because between the pre
diction and the event there must needs be inter
posed a sufficient breadth of time to take it beyond
the possible range of mere conjecture. Or even if
the manifestation of himself in such mode, and the
leading features of that life wherein he displayed
himself, were themselves the fulfilment of pro
phecy, the proof, although convincing, when fairly
made out, is more complicated, and less readily got
at, than, taking the general condition of mankind
into account, the exigency of the case requires.
Well, it is not unworthy of notice that the life of
Christ purports to be a realization of several
ancient prophecies — nor that he himself is repre
sented, in the memoirs of him which have been
handed down to us, as distinctly foretelling future
events. It is no part of our present business to
verify these pretensions. Let them, by all means,
be tested by appropriate investigation, and allowed
or rejected according to the evidence by which
they are sustained. All that it concerns us to
remark at the present moment is, that these pre
tensions are not superfluous — that in any such
display of God as that which the life of Christ
assumes to be, they may be expected to have place
— that they are in perfect keeping with its avowed

THE SEAL. 181
object — that if not absolutely necessary to it, they
are so consistent with it, that their absence might
have been urged as a presumption against its truth,
and might have afforded ground for the remark
that there was at least one inlet of demonstration
to our minds of which God, in revealing himself
through our nature, had failed to take advantage.
Still, as we just now intimated, foreknowledge,
when offered as a distinctive characteristic of
Deity, and employed to stamp a human life with
an exclusively divine purpose, is too slow in its
effects to answer all the ends desired. It is more
valuable for subsequent corroboration of behef
than for immediately producing it. It attests a
present Deity, but it does so by a process which
men in general find it tedious and difficult to
follow throughout. It is a sort of hieroglyphic,
which, although it stands for a definite and ascer
tainable meaning, can only be deciphered by
the light of considerable previous information. It
is of service — but, alone, it is insufficient for the
practical uses of a busy and spiritually indifferent
world. It might satisfy the inquisitive — it might
let in light upon the already cultivated mind —
but it is but ill-suited to rouse the indolent, to
seize the attention of the pre-occupied, and to
force upon the notice of the stolid and the igno
rant, who constitute, alas ! by far the greater
proportion of mankind, appreciable evidence that

182 THE JSEAL.
God has tabernacled in their midst. Human
want asks something more tangible, more direct,
more forcible, in order to an easy identification
with the Ruler of the Universe of that one life
through which, as we have seen, God can best
draw nigh to our sympathy and affection.
This want nothing but a miraculous display of
power can adequately meet. An individual work
ing in visible subjection to the physical laws of
Nature, may indeed effect astounding results, but
none which surely connect him with an express
moral purpose of his Creator. But a man work
ing at will, quite irrespectively of all natural an
tecedents and sequents, setting them aside and
overruling them at pleasure, exhibits just that
phase of the Supreme which cannot be mistaken
for a mere exaltation of human powers. The
difference between the one action and the other
is a difference not of degree, but of kind. We
instinctively attribute the settled order of Nature
to the will of the Sovereign Creator — we believe
that that order cannot be disturbed, in any given
instance, save in conformity with the will by
which it was established — and from any series of
well-proven facts, if such facts there may be, ex
hibiting results brought about in entire inde
pendence of fixed physical laws, we irresistibly
draw the conclusion, that the power to which
they owe their existence is divine. And it is

THE SEAL. 183
essential to observe, that power exerted at the
instance of man, can only be demonstrated to
be " the power of God " when it is thus inde
pendent of the established order of things. If
put forth in conformity with ascertainable and
ordinary cause and effect, it proves nothing be
yond a knowledge of the laws of Nature, and
skill in applying them. It would not take us
out of the assigned or assignable limits of the
human, and land us within those of the divine.
If, therefore, God was to show himself as God
by means of a man's life and history — if the
manifestation of him, to be complete and to the
purpose, must necessarily exemplify his power —
and if that power, to be rendered capable of
identification with his direct will, must be exerted
otherwise than in conformity with pre-existing
physical laws — then, it is obvious that, granting
the life of Christ to have for its object the re
presentation of Deity through humanity for moral
ends which could not otherwise be attained, the
working of miracles will be a necessary feature
of that life — a feature which being present seals
the whole as divine — a feature which being
absent subjects the whole to reasonable doubt,
and deprives it almost entirely of its practical
moral value. The theory of a revelation by
means of a human life is either philosophically
untenable, or miracles, if fairly attested, are en-

184 THE SEAL.
titled to belief. The former necessitates the
latter. They stand or fall together. Christ's
life is not what it purports to be— God manifest
in the flesh — unless the power of working mira
cles be comprised within it. It could not have
been marked off from human life generally, as a
chosen medium for showing forth the moral
aspects of God's character, and their bearings on
our destiny, by any other practical and cognisable
method, It would have been devoid of any
special religious significance. It would have
brought home no direct appeal on God's behalf
to our spiritual emotions. No influence would
have emanated from it to win man's heart for
his Maker, or open up to him the happiness of
willing subjection to moral government. Christ's
history would have been a mere individualization
of barren generalities — an exemplification of
qualities, not an adumbration of God. But this
is not what our religious nature yearns to pos
sess — this is not what, possessing, will yield it
full satisfaction. To every eye, there must be
encircling, as it were, the head of the God-
revealing man, a glory indicative of the indwelling
Deity — a bright but subdued radiation of the
Almighty — an intelligible symbol of Supreme
rule — a diadem of power matching with the
throne of " the King of kings and Lord of
lords." And this could only be by means of

THE SEAL. 185
prophecy and miracle — chiefly and predominantly
of miracle. If by any other means, what were
they ] Not by wisdom, for we cannot properly
appreciate it — not by truth, or rectitude, or good
ness, for these in man differ nothing in kind
from these in God, but only in degree — much
less by condescension, humility, gentleness, pa
tience, resignation, and the like, for these have
in them so deep a tinge of humanity as to be
startling to our emotions when ascertained from
other attestations to be but suitable versions, in
our own nature, of God's disposition towards us.
By what other means, then, was it possible to
designate Christ's life to our dull apprehension,
as the Image of the Invisible ] What other
divine attributes but those of knowledge and
power could so pass through the medium of a
man's history, as to carry with them infallible
marks of their divinity ] — and in what form
could knowledge and power achieve the needed
result, but in that of prophecy and miracles ]
§ 5. MIRACLES WERE NECESSARY TO THE MAIN PURPOSE OF
CHRISTIANITY.
The purpose of miracles, then, in the life of
Christ, is thoroughly of a piece with its avowed
object. His mission was peculiar. It was not to
show God to men didactically, by means of dis
course, although unquestionably discourse consti-

186 THE SEAL.
tuted one portion of that entire instrumentality by
which he was to make his Father known to the
world — but it was to represent God symbolically,
his own person and history being the symbols, and
in this wise to present him to the affections and
sympathies of our religious nature. A pervading
element of supernaturalism was therefore neces
sary to give completeness, authentication, and sig
nificance, to the symbol employed. It was part of
the revelation, not essentially requisite for its own
sake indeed, but absolutely needed to stamp the
other part as divine, and to impart to it its fulness
of meaning. It attested, not the truth of a doc
trine, but the reality of a fact. It resembled that
lustre of the eye, and that indescribable beaming
of the countenance, which, among men, are attesta
tions, because expressions, of true genius — only, in
this case, the organ was a man's life, and the mind
which shone through it was the mind of God — the
supernaturalism being the expression by which we
identify the present Deity. If this be the true
purpose of the miracles performed by Jesus Christ,
those attributed to his apostles and immediate fol
lowers readily fall into their proper place.
Achieved in his name, they still authenticate his
mission — still serve to mark off his life from human
life in general, as the medium by which God has
condescended to disclose himself, and his love, to
our hearts — still impart significance to what he

THE SEAL. 187
was, and did, and suffered, with a view to quicken
and develop our religious sensibilities. And if this
be, as we contend, the true purpose of miracles, as
interpreted by Christianity itself, then, very much,
if not most, of the argument aimed against them,
as being devoid of the demonstrative power neces
sary to produce a rational belief in religious
dogmas, falls to the ground. They are demonstra
tive of that which they propose to demonstrate.
They do prove that Jesus Christ had authority for
saying, " He that hath seen me, hath seen the
Father." They are veritable flashings forth
through him of the Almighty. They put the seal
of God upon his life — and they warrant our reason,
if our reason can but be .satisfied that they were
performed, in concluding with the centurion,
"Truly this was the Son of God." Once more,
therefore, we say, Granted our need of a revelation
of God to our affections — granted the fitness of a
human life as the medium of such a revelation —
and you grant also the necessity of miracles. The
end comprehends the means — the means tally with
the end. All is homogeneous. We must accept
all, or we must reject all. No miracles, no Chris
tianity. They not only intertwine — they are woof
and warp of the same fabric. The entire system
is unphilosophical — that is, out of keeping with
our nature, and the principles of God's government
— or the supernaturalism of the Gospels is philoso-

188 THE SEAL.
phically tenable. We do not say, at present, that a
single miracle has been proved. That, indeed, is
not our business. But this we say, that no one has
a right to object to them as unnecessary, or as
having no convincing power, unless he has first
proved a manifestation of God to our moral emo
tions by means of human life and action to be
unnecessary to the spiritual life of the world — for
the latter implies the former.
The purpose of Christ's life, then, being regarded
in the New Testament representation of it, super
naturalism becomes an essential feature of it. That
purpose could only have been reached by the aid
of miracles. It was one which would admit of no
other adequate attestation. That of miracles is
adequate. Moreover, it had special advantages of
its own. It served not only to prove the mission
of Christ, but it did so in a manner peculiarly ap
propriate to the exigencies of the occasion. A
word or two on this point may here be usefully
subjoined. § 6. AS AN AUTHENTICATION, SUPERNATURALISM IS THE MOST
READILY UNDERSTOOD AND APPRECIATED.
The work of Jesus Christ being, in our view of
it, God's appeal to the moral affections of mankind,
with a view to quicken and develop in them the
religious life — the highest kind of life of which
their nature is capable — it would seem fitting that

THE SEAL. 189
the proof offered for the purpose of identifying
that appeal with him, should be such as might be
readily understood and appreciated by the least
intellectual. Any lengthened process of reasoning,
if constituted the instrument of belief, would have
limited the benefits of the supposed revelation to a
very narrow minority. By far the greater portion
of men are incapable of estimating evidence the
force of which depends upon a nice logical percep
tion — and the very want of exercise which incapa
citates them for close reasoning, indisposes them
also to attempt it. Had it, therefore, been possible
to authenticate Christ's mission by other and more
elaborate proof than that supplied by miracles,
there would still remain sufficient reason for resort
ing to the latter. They speak to men's convictions
in intelligible and homely language. Their testi
mony requires no translation by the more intellec
tual to make its force felt by rude and uncultivated
minds. Ignorant people, common people, busy
people, can understand and appreciate it. And of
such the world mainly consists. Would you sub
stantiate to their satisfaction a great moral truth,
you must address your evidence to their instinctive
sagacity. Perhaps with exquisite discrimination,
and by a chain of subtle reasoning every link of
which is perfect, you might lead on well-disciplined
minds to a conclusion that where such and such
moral features present themselves, especially in

190 THE SEAL.
relation to such and such a moral purpose, the
Divine sanction of it may be strongly inferred.
But, alas ! for the undisciplined, if any belief iden
tified with their highest interests is made depen
dent upon their being able or willing to follow you.
But show them a series of miracles, and intuitively
they will recognise in them the hand of God. So
it is represented to have been, and very naturally
too, in our Lord's time. When the people wit
nessed any striking display of superhuman power
by Jesus Christ, " straightway," we are told, " they
glorified God." Their unsophisticated minds
worked their way to a conclusion after a fashion
which has been ratified by common sense in all
ages, and which was well put into words by one of
themselves — " Why, herein is a marvellous thing,
that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he
hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God
heareth not sinners: but if any man be a wor
shipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.
Since the world began was it not heard that any
man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.
If this man were not of God he could do nothing."
And this is the kind of proof best suited to the
world's circumstances. It is short and decisive.
The conclusion to be reached lies within view of
the premises. The interval between the one and
the other is but a step, and may be passed without
accompanying misgivings — will be passed by most

THE SEAL. 191
without further hindrance from intervening subtle
ties than a strong man owns to in the gossamer
filaments that cross his garden path. Given, the
actuality of the witnesses, and it will require sore
effort to shake their testimony. Admit miracles
into court, and with most men there will be an end
to the question in support of which their deposi
tions are made.
§ 7. ADAPTED TO OUR LOVE OF THE MARVELLOUS.
But there is another point to which we may call
attention in connexion with this part of our sub
ject. An appetite for the marvellous is natural to
us. It is not acquired by education — it is instinc
tive. It comes not from reflection — it is a law of
our being. Experience may do much to correct it.
Increased knowledge may rectify its earlier blun
ders. It may even be wholly suppressed by a
stronger tendency of our constitution, as may other
passions — but the germ of it is born with us, and
very speedily becomes developed. It may, there
fore, be set down as owing its existence to the
wisdom and will of the Creator. He implanted it
in our bosoms — and if it is to him we are indebted
for it, we have a right to conclude that it was not
given us for nought. It has some proper function
— and in discharging that function it will contri
bute to our well-being. Closely examined, how
ever, we may discover two somewhat remarkable

192 THE SEAL.
conditions affecting the exercise and gratification of
this instinct. The first is, that it does little or
nothing to subserve the purposes of the present
life; and the second, that it strongly craves the
supernatural. An appetite for the marvellous
seems to answer no desirable practical end in rela
tion to our present state of being, exclusively con
sidered. It prompts us to no useful career. It
guides us through no labyrinth. It brings home
to us no useful results. But it often misleads, by
inclining us to anticipate consequences for which
we have not worked, to exaggerate events which it
would be more serviceable to us to contemplate as
they are, and to rush on to remote conclusions
without pausing to examine the steps by which
they are reached. Hence it is usually characterised
as a vulgar passion, and men of education are loth
to plead guilty to it. This mode of regarding it
does not strike us as strictly philosophical. The
instinct cannot be without its appointed use.
Worthless for practical purposes in relation to our
every-day affairs, and perpetually given to mistake,
is it not just possible that we miss its proper object
and sphere ] It appears to have a powerful affinity
with the supernatural. It delights in dreams and
" visions of the night." Fairy land is one of its
favourite haunts. It converses with the ghosts of
the departed. Witches and demons are its fami
liars. It hears voices from heaven. It reads por-

THE SEAL. 193
tents in the clouds. It sees signs in the stars. It
peoples earth, air, and ocean with invisible beings.
And as the clearer light of intellectual day dissi
pates these fancies, it sighs over their departure,
and looks back with envy on the times of childish
ness and ignorance, when these things were surely
believed. Now, underlying all these grotesque
forms in which man's passion for the marvellous
has displayed itself, is it not reasonable to conclude
that there is something worthy of God the giver,
deserving nourishment from man, and capable of
being applied to right glorious ends] Is it for
nothing, or for worse, that we are so strongly borne
on by an impulse from within towards a region
beyond the senses, and on the other side of the
pale of physical laws ] Why should we have been
so constituted as instinctively to project our thoughts
and our belief beyond the limits of the tangible,
and be ever tempted to stray across the border
which divides the known from the unknown, the
natural from the supernatural ] May it not be that
thus God is intimating to us our connexion with
some other system than that which immediately
surrounds us — and is preparing us for some higher
conclusions than those which we can logically rea
son out] May not this strong passion of our
nature be to us a sign and a proof of our kinship
to the spiritual world, and predispose our hearts to
listen to the voice which addresses us from thence ]

194 THE SEAL.
If not, what is its object] And if it be, how is
the passion externally met ] We answer, on the
last hypothesis, which we believe to be the true one,
by the supernatural in revelation. A belief in
miracles modern scepticism is fond of imputing to
man's natural love of the marvellous. Modern
scepticism is right. Between the undeniable in
stinct and the object which gratifies it there is a
close correspondence. What do we conclude from
this ] That miracles are to be received as true ]
No— no more than that, for the same reason, fairies,
witches, ghosts, and hobgoblins are to be regarded
as realities. But we do say this, that a belief in
miracles, the actual performance of which can be
proved only by far other kind of evidence, is so
natural to man, is so cognate with his constitution,
is so apt an exercise of an inborn craving, as to
render them very appropriate agents in furtherance
of a divine revelation in a world like ours. Sup
posing them, as we have done, to be essentially
necessary to the professed purpose of God in the
life of Jesus Christ, it is, assuredly, no light advan
tage that there is a somewhat in man which dis
poses him to accept such evidence. Whether that
somewhat was implanted in him by the Creator to
fit him for receiving the right impression from
supernatural works, we will not take upon us to
determine. But thus much, we apprehend, is
clear — that we have our love of the marvellous

THE SEAL. 195
from God himself — that we are constantly impelled
by that love, which subserves no useful purpose in
regard to our temporal well-being, towards the
supernatural — and that this impulse produces
among mankind a general aptitude to receive a
miraculous attestation — the only sufficient attesta
tion to the reality of any manifestation of God
through man to man, with a view to spiritual life
and enjoyment.
§ 8. UNIVERSALLY EXPECTED IN CONNEXION WITH A REVELATION.
Another important consideration bearing on this
point here opens upon us. All men expect mira
cles in connexion with a revelation of God. All
religions have pretended to them. This fact is
constantly urged in disparagement of the alleged
miracles of Jesus Christ. " You do but proffer
what every false religious system has proffered in
its own behalf from the beginning of time." But
how comes it that every false system has thus relied
upon the miraculous] Why this uniformity of
answer, unless it had been felt that there was in
the minds of men a question which demanded it]
Whence does it happen that everywhere, and in all
ages, humanity has been understood to ask of the
man who professes to speak the mind and will of
God to his fellow-men for their religious guidance
and profit, " What doest thou] What sign show-
est thou then, that we may see and believe thee ]
o 2

196 THE SEAL.
What dost thou work ] " Inasmuch as a profession
of supernatural powers when unsustained by con
scious integrity, requires a great deal of cautious
management in order to secure it against detection,
and, in the event of failure, is likely to be ex
tremely damaging, why has it been so invariably
resorted to by men essaying to found a system of
religious faith and worship ] We answer, because
human nature expects that such essays shall be
made good by miraculous attestations. It would
appear to be a demand springing up from the
depths of man's being, spontaneously, universally.
And here, again, we are warranted by analogy in
looking for somewhat external corresponding with
the internal impulse. The common expectation of
mankind which has led to so many spurious and
counterfeit efforts to meet it, justifies the inference
that, somewhere or other, the reality to which it
points, and for which it is a manifest preparation,
will make its appearance. Hypocrisy is homage
paid to virtue — falsehood to truth — pretence to
reality. There is little philosophy in the haste
which consigns to contempt and disbelief a host of
make-believes, without looking in the neighbour
hood of them for the truth which they are meant
to resemble. The shadow which often falls upon
the path of the traveller may be mistaken for what
it is not — and again and again, after chasing it, he
may reap nothing but disappointment — but it is not

THE SEAL. 197
wholly a cheat put upon his senses — it is projected
by some solid body, somewhere between himself
and the light of heaven, although he see it not.
These vulgar anticipations which have projected,
or caused the projection, of so many pretences to
miraculous power in connexion with a revelation of
God, are " a great fact," notwithstanding the num
berless impostures to which they have given rise,
and they remain to be matched with something
external, after all those impostures have been de
tected and exposed. They are not to be thrown on
the dust-heap of antiquated rubbish along with the
trash with which fanaticism or fraud have sought
to feed them, at least by men who are accustomed
to look beneath the surface of this world's mis
takes for the soil out of which they grow. If it
be asked, how is the false to be distinguished from
the true, or what further reason we have for accept
ing the miracles of Christianity than those of con
fessedly erroneous systems of belief, we answer, No
other than that which results from the application
to them of reasonable tests, and seeing how they
abide the scrutiny. But it does not follow that
because many professions, under such investigation,
turn out to be unfounded, that there cannot be one
capable of being satisfactorily sustained. On the
contrary, where there are many competitors, it may
reasonably be inferred that there is something real
to be competed for, and that the prize will be uiti-

198 THE, SEAL.
mately carried off by one deserving it. This is a
point to be determined by evidence only. But at
least, this is certain — that the universal expectation
of miracles in authentication of a revelation of
God, had put the world in a state of preparedness
to recognise them as such, whenever presented, and
constitutes, therefore, an additional reason why
they should be vouchsafed.
§ 9. FITTED TO AWAKEN ATTENTION, AS WELL AS TO PRODUCE
BELIEF.
Once more, the main obstacle to the progress of
a spiritual revolution in the world, was constituted
by its indifference to religious truth. Prior to the
appearance of Jesus Christ, mankind, both Jew
and Gentile, had sunk into such a condition of
apathy, in regard to things pertaining to God and
conscience, as to need some shock in order to the
recovery of even a moderate degree of feeling. A
mere preacher of righteousness might have found
it difficult to make his voice heard, amid the uni
versal hubbub of the inferior passions, beyond the
limits of his own locality, or the confines of his
own generation. There was not sensitiveness
enough in the mass to transmit a religious impulse
far beyond the spot where it was originally commu
nicated. The slumbering, dreaming patient, re
quired to be roused before the wine of a new life
could be administered. The difficulty to be over-

THE SEAL. 199
come was like that of a man in a turbulent public
meeting, who, if he could but obtain a hearing,
would speedily hush the clamour to rest. The life
of Christ might have been quickly forgotten, had
not a space in the world's eye been cleared for it
by supernaturalism. Not, indeed, that we are jus
tified in assuming on this ground the necessity of
miracles. Doubtless, God could, in perfect har
mony with the laws of our nature, have otherwise
conquered, or prevented, the difficulty. We cannot
reason from our defectiveness of knowledge to a
limitation of his resources, whether of wisdom or
of power. But, looking at New Testament history
as it has reached us, and glancing at it in juxta
position with that supplied from other sources, we
see a very important and requisite end to be gained
by a display of miraculous power in the life of
Christ, and by the hands of his immediate followers,
over and above its efficacy in authenticating his
mission. There cannot be a moment's question
that belief in his and their miracles, whether it
was warranted by facts or was the effect of delu
sion, helped on Christianity mightily in the early
ages of the Church. It was the resurrection of
Christ from the dead to which his apostles testified
with such untiring zeal, such unquenchable courage,
such cheerful self-sacrifice — and it was in this
alleged fact, more than in aught else, that men
recognised the seal of God to his benign mission.

200 THE SEAL.
True ! the men who attended Jesus throughout his
public career, who saw him apprehended, who
mingled with the crowd when he was crucified,
who professed to have beheld him alive after his
passion, and who gave themselves up thenceforth
to every species of insult, persecution, and, at last,
to death, in bearing witness to the fact, may have
been deluded. But, assuredly, their unwavering
faith in that supposed miracle not only nerved them
to heroism, but attracted to their religious teaching
an amount of the world's attention which it would
never otherwise have gained. It was as the great
bell of the universe calling all men to worship and
meditation. The vibration of its tones is audible
even now. A religion without a miracle would
stand small chance of being listened to in this
noisy arena of human strife and struggle. It
argues terribly against human nature that it should
be so — but so, unhappily, it is. Philosophy is
bound to accept facts such as they are, not deduce
inferences from what they ought to be — and the
facts as they are assure us that men in general are
not prepared for a religious faith into which no
supernatural element has been infused. And if
this be so — and if the life of Christ be what it
purports to be — God manifest in the flesh — we see
another pecuhar advantage secured by the attesta
tion of that all-important fact by miracles. Thus,
the demands of the case seem to be met in many

THE SEAL. 201
ways by one and the same arrangement — another
feature of Christianity analogous to God's usual
method of proceeding.
§ 10. INCOMPATIBILITY OF MIRACLES WITH GOD'S CHARACTER
CONSIDERED.
Thus far, then, we presume to think, reason
has nothing to object to this kind of evidence
in authentication of the divine mission of Christ.
It is pertinent — it is necessary — and it is spe
cially adapted to the wants of those to whom it
is addressed. There is, however, a still wider
question involved, a satisfactory settlement of
which is demanded, before these professed wit
nesses for God can be allowed to give testimony.
A point of law must be first argued and decided,
affecting the admissibility of the sort of proof
they offer. A miracle, it is alleged, would re
quire, in order to its production, a departure
from those principles on which 'the Supreme
Ruler is conducting the affairs of the universe,
which principles, having been adopted by Infinite
Wisdom as the rule of his proceedings, cannot
be laid aside without bringing the Divine cha
racter under the imputation of inconstancy. An
afterthought may be admitted in man's ope
rations, because it may result from increased
knowledge — but an afterthought on the part of
God, or acts which must appear to his creatures

202 THE SEAL.
to result from it, would imply an originally
defective view of his own dominions, which can
not be attributed to him without impeaching his
perfection. When he settled the order of the
physical world, he had present to his all-seeing
mind every contingency which could happen
whereby his judgment could be affected — and
the laws he has laid down for its regulation,
must be understood to express his view of the
whole case before him, and his will regarding
it. Any subsequent suspension of, or deviation
from, those laws, therefore, implies the occurrence
of a demand which was not primarily taken into
account, and provided for. But to admit this,
would be to attach imperfection to our notions of
the Supreme Being, and, in effect, to undeify him.
To any such results no appearances, how unac
countable soever, should be permitted to conduct
us. It is one which reason must repudiate as
soon as it is caught sight of, and must pro
test against after this fashion, " Yea, let God
be true, and every man a liar." On this high
ground, it is argued, miracles must be rejected,
whatever the strength of the evidence on which
they rest. They are, in their very nature, incom
patible with right conceptions of the Divine Being
— they are impeachments of the honour of our
highest Sovereign — and, hence, necessary as they
might seem, and useful as, it is supposed, they

THE SEAL. 203
might prove, we are bound, in limine, to refuse
them a hearing.
The principal force of this objection lies in the
vagueness and generality of the ideas which it
expresses. The ideas themselves are true enough,
but their precise point of contact with the case
in hand is not very scientifically made out. In
meeting the objection, we propose adhering to
the plan upon which we have, throughout this
volume, attempted to proceed. We shall not
essay to negative it — but endeavour, by a clear
description of the position against which it is
meant to apply, to show that whatever of really
pertinent truth there is in it tells in favour of,
rather than in opposition to, a miraculous attes
tation of a revealed faith ; and that, in other
respects, it misses the mark. We think this is
to be done by placing before the reader, in the
first instance, an accurate representation of what
a miracle is, and showing wherein the process by
which it is effected differs from the customary
processes of Nature. This done, we shall
examine this difference in its relation to the
ascertained principles on which God rules the
operations of the physical universe, and see how
far it is in harmony with them, and how far dis
crepant. And then, lastly, we shall look upon
the still remaining discrepancy, if there be any,
in the light of those higher and more compre-

204 THE SEAL.
hensive laws by which the All-wise Creator regu
lates the affairs of his moral administration.
And, as we build up this argument into one
consistent whole, we are not without hopes of
showing that God has taken abundantly more
care of his own character, than the foregoing ob
jection, placed side by side with the historical
evidence in support of miracles, would appear, at
first blush, to imply.
§11. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MIRACLE AND A PROCESS OF
NATURE.
Our first business is to compare together two
things — a change produced in conformity with
the established laws of Nature, and a change
produced by miracle — and mark off, as accurately
as we are able, the specific difference between
the two. We shall start with that compassed
by natural means.
God wills an effect — that is, a given change in
a given disposition of matter is to be brought
about in order to make it correspond, for the
time being, and for the purpose had in view,
with his determination respecting it. In the
order of Nature, God's will takes its course to
that effect through an intervening chain of an
tecedents and sequents, more or less extended,
having a greater or smaller number of links, as
the case may be — and it invariably takes this

THE SEAL. 205
course, and no other. We can, perhaps, most
vividly apprehend the idea here presented to us,
in connexion with mechanical motion. Suppose
an object at rest — suppose a reason, operating
somewhere, no matter where, for the removal of
that object to the distance of a yard from where
it stands — the removal, if effected at all, is to be
effected by power emanating, in the first instance,
from the will of the Supreme, and transmitted by
means of various mechanical contrivances to the
object sought to be displaced. For example —
the book upon A.'s table is to be lifted to his
bookshelf, by A. himself. Now let us watch so
much of the process as may be sufficient to illus
trate the point now under notice. Well then,
A.'s will has first of all to be determined by a
preponderating motive — having been determined,
energy of some sort has to be communicated
through various nerves, which energy, for the
purpose here specified, may be regarded as the
steam power of the machine. A pressure of a
given amount is thus brought to bear upon some
portion of the muscular system, and muscular
force having been applied, in conformity with
certain pre-established laws, to the book, it is
forthwith transferred to the position in which A.'s
will had determined to place it. Now what we
wish to fix attention upon in the illustration is
this. Between the original will and the result,

206 THE SEAL.
there is always interposed, in the order of Nature,
a definite succession of what we usually designate
causes and effects, but which, so far as we know,
are nothing more than foreordained antecedents
and sequents, each of which must be in its proper
position in relation to the next, each being the
sequent of some given antecedent, and in turn
becoming the antecedent to a given sequent, until
the last sequent is reached, which is the end that
was to be effected. The first antecedent in the
series is the will of God — not, indeed, in the sense
of desiring or approving of the specific result, but
in the sense of having determined that it shall be
attainable, under all circumstances, and for what
ever moral purpose, through the fixed succession
of antecedents and sequents, previously established
by him. And the physical change which we are
contemplating as having been effected in con
formity with the order of Nature, is merely the
last sequent in the chain along which the will of
God invariably travels, in order to establish an
exact correspondence between the disposition of
matter, in any given instance, and the determina
tion of the Divine mind, as expressed by the laws
of matter.
A miracle differs from a natural event in this—
that between the last sequent and the first ante
cedent, more or less of the chain is dropped —
mostly, the greater part of it — sometimes the

THE SEAL. 207
whole. Thus in the miracles effected by Jesus
Christ, his will becomes the next antecedent to
the last sequent, and the will of God, instead of
passing on through the established succession, as it
would have done by means of natural law, over
leaps, as it were, all the antecedents and sequents
between Christ's determination and the result, and
exhibits the efficient power in the last sequent
only. Here the greater portion of the chain is
dispensed with. But in the resurrection of Jesus
Christ, the entire intervening line of antecedents
and sequents is set aside, and the first antecedent,
the will of God, has for its next and only sequent,
the resuscitation of our Lord's lifeless body. We
believe this to be a true and accurate statement
of the specific difference between a process of
Nature and a miracle. The first antecedent and
the last sequent are the same in both cases — the
only difference being that they are linked together
at a different point. In other words, the efficient
power is the same— the result is the same — but the
intervening mechanism by which the one works
to the other is not the same — in a miracle, very
much of it, and sometimes all, being left out.
§ 12. NATURAL ANTECEDENTS AND SEQUENTS CONNECTED ONLY BY
DIVINE ORDINATION.
Now so far as human research has hitherto ex
tended, it has never been able to make out that

208 THE SEAL.
there is any inherent virtue in any given antecedent
to associate it with its immediate sequent, beyond
the simple ordination of God that the one should
immediately follow the other. In a chain of nine
links, for example, philosophy has never yet suc
ceeded in discovering a reason why the fourth link
should be connected with the fifth, rather than
with the sixth or ninth, beyond the simple fact
that it is so. The practical value of the con
nexion cannot be found in the things connected,
nor in the essential adaptation of the one to the
other, but appears to reside exclusively in the law
which originally put them together. They cannot
be ascertained to have any other natural or neces
sary relation one to another than that subsisting
between one step and another in a given line of
march. Neither produces the other, but each is
on the way to the next, in the order of position
only, which order has been determined by In
finite Wisdom. So that if it had been originally
settled that the will of God, or the efficient power,
should travel to a given physical result by an en
tirely different chain of antecedents and sequents
from that by which it now travels, so as that some
of the existing links should have been transposed,
and some omitted, there is nothing in the essential
nature of the things themselves, at least so far as
we have been able to perceive, to have prohibited
the arrangement. When, therefore, as in a miracle,

THE SEAL. 209
the will of God reaches the last sequent by an
omission of a long succession of what we have been
accustomed to call causes and effects, it violates
nothing, it displaces nothing, it has to overcome
nothing, necessarily pertaining to the things
omitted, save and except the original ordination
which placed them in a certain relative order
between itself and the result. There is no
force set aside, or contradicted — but merely an
alteration of the conditions under which the force
is developed, which conditions are supposed in the
case of a miracle, equally as in that of a natural
event, to be an expression, for the time being, of
the mind of God. If, therefore, there is any
unfitness in a miraculous work, considered as such,
the reason of the unfitness must be sought, not in
the essential nature of things themselves, but in the
Divine nature. The real question mooted by the
preceding strain of observation will then shape itself
somewhat thus — God having pre-ordained condi
tions under which force shall pass from antecedent
to sequent in his material creation, is it inconsistent
with the general principles of that physical system
which he has established, that those conditions
should in any case be varied — and if there is
herein any deviation from those principles, to what
extent does it proceed, and how far is it in keeping
with his character, and with his moral govern
ment] This question we now proceed to discuss.

210 THE SEAL.
§ 13. LAW SUBORDINATE TO LAW IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD.
We start with the obvious remark, that alter
ation in the conditions regulating the passage of
efficient power from antecedent to sequent, is not
per se a departure from the principles on which
the physical universe is governed. One law of
nature is very frequently suspended, superseded,
or counteracted, by another. For example, by the
settled ordination of the Creator, the centrifugal
motion of the earth is the antecedent of which
the sequent, if allowed to follow in due course,
should be the flying off of a stone from the
earth's surface. But it is certain that until fur
ther force be applied, the stone does not fly off.
The conditions on which centrifugal force shall
be followed by a flying off of loose particles from
the surface of a revolving body are not only pre
sent but operative — but, nevertheless, the fore
ordained sequent does not succeed its proper
antecedent — the stone still keeps its place. Why ]
Simply that another set of conditions has been in
troduced — the law of gravitation — the result of
which is the modification of the first set of con
ditions in such wise that the efficient power no
longer passes from antecedent to sequent in the
original line. Mere alteration, therefore, of an
established connexion between antecedent and
sequent, so far from being incompatible with

THE SEAL. 211
God's original plan, is a part of it, and is being
perpetually exemplified in innumerable particulars.
Law is subordinate to law — and one train of causes
and effects is set aside by another. So that we may
advance thus far towards the settlement of the
question we have undertaken to discuss — no alter
ation of the conditions under which efficient power
travels from antecedent to sequent, which is brought
about by the force of another succession of ante
cedents and sequents, is incompatible with God's
plan of regulating the processes of Nature. Other
wise and more popularly stated, the suspension or
counteraction of a law in physics, if only pro
duced by another law in physics, is no deviation
from God's principles of physical government. So
that the objection to miracles is, not that they
exhibit a suspension or counteraction of established
natural laws — but that the suspension or counter
action is not the result of a power operating
through the medium of some higher and dominant
laws in the natural world.

§ 14. THE OBVIOUS PURPOSES OF PHYSICAL LAWS COMPLIED
WITH, AND FURTHERED, BY MIRACLES.
A further step in the argument may be taken on
ground equally firm. The arrangement of the
Divine operations in the physical world into an
invariable succession of antecedents and sequents,
p 2

212 THE SEAL.
popularly designated "the established laws of
Nature," is not an original and inherent necessity,
nor was it made simply for its own sake — at least,
our powers of mind have not yet been able to
detect any sign of it. We can perceive a relation
of this arrangement to our convenience, and to the
education of our intelligence, from which relation
we infer the Divine purpose. We can readily
enough apprehend that life would have been to us,
and, indeed, to all creatures, a very unmeaning
thing, a mere series of unconnected chances, but
for this same uninterrupted constancy of physical
antecedents and sequents — or, perhaps, it will be
more obvious to remark, that upon this uninter
rupted constancy are based all our existing facili
ties, and even possibilities, of development. If the
arteries and veins in which the vis divina, or the
efficient power, perpetually circulates throughout
the material universe were not accurately mapped
out for us, down to their minutest ramifications — or
if, having been once published they were subject to
any shiftings, like some of the quicksands that lie
off our coast — or if any element of uncertainty
had been infused, forbidding us to build our calcu
lations on the conclusion that what has once hap
pened will, under the same circumstances, happen
again, and happen with undeviating uniformity — it
is difficult to imagine how conscious existence
could have expanded at all. Action proceeding

THE SEAL. 213
from within there could have been none. We
could neither have sown nor reaped — erected dwell
ings nor occupied them — we could in no sense have
ministered to the supply of our own wants. All
knowledge, all reasoning, all virtue, would have
lacked a nov area — a sure basis on which to rest. To
us, therefore, to the development of what we are,
a relation to established physical laws is a necessity
— and in this necessity we read their purpose. But
surely, there is something beyond this in the order
of nature — some higher end to be compassed by it.
In the exquisite elaboration of that order — in the
infinite complexity which characterises it — and, if
we may so say, in the long-drawn-out path, and the
multiplicity of differing steps into which it is
divided, by which the will of God passes on to
those every-day results with which we are most
familiar — there is clearly a detailed manifestation
of himself — a step-by-step exposition of his perfec
tions — a progressive series of lessons on the Divine
nature — beautifully adapted to our infantine intel
ligence, and separating into the smallest fragments
the materials of nourishment to be absorbed into
our mental system. Can we err, then, in con
cluding that God's purpose in arranging the plan
of the physical universe was two-fold — to meet the
actual wants of our being, and to embody, in forms
suited to our apprehensions, certain views of him
self] Against neither aspect of this purpose does

214 THE SEAL.
a miracle militate — in regard to neither can it be
justly said to disturb or overrule God's principles
of proceeding, so far as they can be gathered from
the entire system of laws he has himself esta
blished. It cannot be alleged, with the smallest
show of plausibility, that the miracles of Christ
and his apostles, even if accepted as facts, intro
duce any element of uncertainty into those of our
calculations which are founded on the constancy of
nature, or ever did. The feeding of thousands on
five barley loaves and two small fishes had no prac
tical tendency to mislead men as to the ordinary
conditions under which such food is to be produced
or obtained, nor to raise a single doubt as to the
proportion of food ordinarily necessary to the satis
faction of man's appetite. The restoration of the
withered arm, the cleansing of ten lepers, and the
giving of sight to the man born blind, may be be
lieved on historic evidence, without in any degree
disturbing the decisions of physiological or medical
science. These rare exceptions to the constancy of
physical laws, happening, moreover, as they are
supposed to have done, in connexion with a unique
purpose seeming to explain and justify them, do
not in any way unsettle our knowledge of, or ener
vate our confidence in, the rule which they infringe.
The man who admits, and the man who rejects
them, occupy the same intellectual position in
regard to established physical laws. They are not

THE SEAL. 215
less intently, with not less docility, studied, and
relied upon, by the former than by the latter — and
no one in his senses dreams of paying regard to
miracles as a law of knowledge or of life. So far,
then, as the invariableness of antecedent and
sequent is necessary to the guidance of our being
in what pertains to its present accommodation and
evolution, its purpose is left uninterfered with by
any exhibition of God through the medium of
supernatural performances. No contrariety is ap
parent — nor can it be pretended that the ordinary
and the extraordinary are at variance as to the end
aimed at by each respectively. But when we con
sider the other aspect of God's purpose towards us
in the establishment of physical laws, we discern,
not only that it is not counteracted by that of mira
cles, but that the end of both is concurrent, nay !
identical. They are but different methods of
reaching the same result — the showing forth of
God — but different mechanisms through which we
look at the same object — the microscope and the
telescope of the spiritual world ; this, laying bare
to our minds its multiplicity of details ; that, bring
ing nigh to our apprehensions, convictions, and
sympathies what might else have appeared remote.
He who communicates instruction concerning him
self by means of fixed laws, may surely be suitably
conceived of when communicating instruction by
means of rare deviations from those laws — more

216 THE SEAL.
especially if, in the judgment of reason, the chief
end of those laws was to shadow forth his being
and attributes, and if their secondary and subordi
nate end — namely, our guidance through this life,
is in no manner interrupted by his occasional sub
stitution of the one method for the other. The
teacher who ordinarily employs letter-press as a
medium of imparting knowledge to his pupils, can
hardly be said to deviate from the tuitional princi
ples on which he is acting, although sometimes he
should resort to a picture, as being better adapted
to his immediate object. Every one will see that
he is doing the same thing, but by a different pro
cess — and none would think of taking exception to
this alteration of method, on the ground of its
subjecting the teacher to a charge of inconsistency.
The order and processes of the physical world
may be regarded as the publication, in the works of
his hands, of God's mind and intentions in relation
to everything pertaining to himself and to his
government, capable of being thus expressed. In
instituting them, however, and in making this pub
lication, he did not preclude his right to show him
self to his creatures in some other mode, if suitable
to his object. He was under no obligation, either
in wisdom or propriety, to print upon the surface
of his material universe all the patterns according
to which his after proceedings should be shaped —
nor are we warranted in inferring that a certain

THE SEAL. 217
mode of action ascribed to him could not have
constituted part of his original plan, simply because
it has not been expressed by fixed physical laws.
It might have been held in reserve — and it might,
by being held in reserve, serve the same purpose
for which those laws are intended, but in a more
effectual manner. Miracles, it is true, are not
written down in the pubhshed programme of the
Divine government of his natural domain. Had
they been so, they would have thereby lost their
whole significance. They could not have indicated
the presence of the Supreme in express attestation
of a specific moral purpose, but as miracles — they
could not have been at the same time miracles and
ordinances of nature — they could not have been
expressed in the original plan of which the phy
sical universe is the realization, except in the
shape of law to us and to our judgment, and thus
losing their teaching character and aptitude. If
ever they were to be at all, they could only be as
representatives of the hitherto unpublished will of
God in respect of the disposition of matter — for if
found in the book of nature, their very purport,
their only purport, would be destroyed. No one,
therefore, has a right to speak of miracles as an
afterthought of God compared with the plan
which he has imprinted on the page of creation —
nor as a proceeding having to human reason a
necessary seeming of being such. They may be

218 THE SEAL.
more fitly described as insertions made, at particular
junctures of time, in the published programme —
insertions which, though arbitrary to us, and to the
means of knowledge within our reach, are not
arbitrary so far as the will of God is concerned —
and the very arbitrariness of whose occurrence is
precisely the feature of them which speaks the
needed message to our souls.
The whole objection which led the way to these
observations, has arisen from losing sight of the
clear distinction that obtains between principles of
action, and modes of acting. The difference may
be thus illustrated. Let it be supposed that the
education of its subjects is a leading principle of
the government of Great Britain, and that laws
are passed, and monies voted, with a view to give a
practical form to that principle. In general, it
would be correct to affirm of taxes on the materials
of instruction, proved to operate in the way of
restricting the diffusion of knowledge, that they
were departures from the professed principle of
the government in question. But if it could be
made out — a not very probable supposition it must
be admitted — that a penny stamp on newspapers
increases the true educational power at work in
the land, by securing a much higher style of
political tuition, and that it is imposed for that
purpose — the tax which stands in direct opposition
to the school, as a mode of acting, would be in com-

THE SEAL. 219
plete harmony with it considered as giving effect to
a principle of action. The end supposed to be had
in view in both is one and the same — a suitable
education of the people — and whenever the people
shall have arrived at that higher stage of intel
lectual culture at which their own good sense may
be imagined to guarantee a demand for the best
possible order of political literature, and the re
strictive operation of the stamp is counterbalanced
by no advantages not to be otherwise obtained,
then the same principle of action which dictated its
imposition would dictate its removal, and would
furnish the explanation of two opposite modes of
giving utterance to the same purpose. By bearing
steadily in mind this very obvious distinction, a
great many crude opinions on the subject of the
Divine government might have been avoided.
Miracles differ very essentially from the established
laws of Nature, but they argue no change in the
main intent of God's proceedings. Their appear
ance in the world's history at special periods only,
and their absence from all the rest, marks, not an
alteration in the principle of the Divine actions, but
merely an adaptation to circumstances of the Divine
method of acting. Granted, that the uniform con
stancy of physical laws, and the achievement of a
miracle, or, in other words, a deviation from that
constancy, are modes of proceeding in diametrical
opposition to each other, it does not follow that

220 THE SEAL.
they must necessarily result from any variation of
original purpose. They are not more contradictory
the one of the other than tax and no tax. And if
God's purpose be the education and development
of all the faculties and all the sensibilities with
which he has endowed us, his mode of acting will
vary as our need varies, and he will do or not do,
act in conformity with his published law, or depart
from the observance of that law, just as his Infinite
wisdom may see fit. The seeming changes in him
are in reality only changes in the position from
which we view him. The apparently contrary
modes of proceeding result from the action of the
same will upon different materials. The light
which streams in upon us through the stained
window of the cathedral may be here crimson,
and there blue, here shaded, there clear and bright
— but it is the same beam which, passing through
all, gives to all their beauty to our eyes. And so,
in the language of the profoundly philosophic Paul,
" There are diversities of operations, but it is the
same God which worketh all in all."
Miracles, then, are not necessarily departures
from any of the principles upon which God is
known to conduct his government of the physical
universe. So far as yet appears, they may only be
a different mode of arriving at the same end which
reason instructs us to regard as the principal end
contemplated in the institution, and publication of

THE SEAL. 221
all natural laws. And if so, is there any one predo
minant feature in God's moral administration, having
due regard to which, we shall be justified in regard
ing a miraculous attestation of Christ's peculiar
mission to men as not only a necessary part of that
mission, and as contributing a large amount of
moral force towards its success, but also as in per
fect keeping with all that we know of God's in
tentions towards man, and with the high destiny
for which he is obviously training him ] That is to
say, can we discern a purpose of his in relation to
ourselves, the furtherance of which, by supernatural
displays of his Almighty power, would commend to
our reason such deviations from fixed natural laws,
as being, in the largest and fullest sense, worthy of
his exalted and glorious character ] We believe
we can — and we hasten to submit the grounds of
that belief in as concise a compass as possible.
§ 15. THE HIGHEST ENDS OF GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT
SUBSERVED BY MIRACLES.
It will not, we apprehend, be disputed that the
highest conceivable end capable of being contem
plated by God's government of man, is the assimi
lation of the man to God. All who admit the
being of God at all — and with such only have we
any argument — admit likewise that his must be
the most perfect form of being. Hence nothing
can be imagined worthier of him — no outgoings of

222 THE SEAL.
his will, and power, and goodness, towards his intel
ligent creatures, can be supposed to aim at a higher
purpose — than that of raising them, in all respects
in which their natures will allow of it, into a state
of likeness to himself. We are endowed with an
animal nature — and the life of which, as mere
animals, we are the embodiment, places us a step
higher up in the succession of created being, than
that which, like the vegetable world, is lacking in
the attribute of self-consciousness. We are intel
ligent beings — and the powers of thought, re
flection, reasoning, imagination, which distinguish
us from other animals around us, place us some
what nearer than them to Him whose throne is
established over all. But we are more than this.
We have a capacity to perceive and appreciate,
and respond to, other ideas than those merely
which are to be understood — we can also find
satisfaction in those which address themselves to
our approval — such as truth, justice, goodness,
and the like — and this capacity we instinctively
regard as having in it a higher excellence than
the knowing faculty, and as bringing us still
closer to the highest and most perfect form of
being. To associate these ideas with God — to
see in them the reflection of his excellence — to
be consciously in sympathy with him in all that
relates to them — to approve where he approves
— to condemn where he condemns — to be at one

THE SEAL. 223
with him in will touching these things — so at one
with him as that our governing affections shall
repose where his will reposes, and because it re
poses there — is the highest development of our
nature of which we can imagine it capable, inas
much as it is a correspondence of our nature with
that of God, over the broadest surface in relation to
which agreement between them is possible. What
ever there is of God in the works of his hands, or
the movements of his government, or the revelation
by his Providence, of his character and purpose,
apprehended by a sympathizing mind, is spiritual
life. We are made partakers of the Divine nature,
by possessing ourselves of that which is Divine in
his acts and truths. He who recognises God's
wisdom, has within himself the wisdom of God to
the whole extent of that recognition. He who
sympathizes with God's purity, has within himself
the purity of God to the whole extent of that
sympathy. Spiritual life is God in the soul up to
the measure of the soul's present capacity.
This, then, is plainly the highest style of life for
which we have any known adaptation — and the de
velopment of this in us must needs be the highest,
that is, the dominant, end of God's government of
us. All that he does, he does to give maturity to
the germs of being and happiness which he has im
planted in his creatures. His proceedings are, in
all cases, in accordance with his purpose — and his

224 THE SEAL.
purpose is disclosed by the powers he has con
ferred. Man is capable of a spiritual life, and in
that life approaches most closely to his Maker.
Must it not, then, be the principle of God's moral
administration, so far as it respects man, to fulfil
in him the best aptitudes of his nature] And
if so, must not that which is inferior be made to
subserve that which is superior] We might
show, if it were really necessary, that such is
the fact. We might prove that all the arrange
ments of that economy of which man is the
centre, point with unerring consistency to his spi-
ritualization as their end. Falling short of this,
he evidently falls short of what he was designed
for — of what everything around him, if allowed
free scope, is tending to make him. But if this be
the main purport of his existence, it ought to be
steadily kept in view when we are pronouncing
judgment on any actual or assumed proceedings of
God with regard to him. As " the Sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath," so
the order and processes of Nature were established
for him, and not he for them. Mind is higher
than matter — and the laws of matter were laid
down with an exclusive view to the interests of
mind. Whether, therefore, they can ever be
departed from with propriety, is a question which
resolves itself into another — whether the spiritual
life of man can be best promoted thereby. Simple

THE SEAL. 225
adherence to law, when the ends of law cannot be
obtained by it, indicates anything but perfection.
Law is- not its own end — and to make it such is
what amongst men we characterise as pedantry.
The strictest obedience to law, as every sensible
person knows, sometimes consists in its infraction —
and no man is more certainly or more justly charged
with narrow-mindedness, than he who persists in
binding himself to a rule, when the spirit of that
rule is. violated by such persistence. Why, there
fore, are we to regard that as a perfection in God,
which we designate imperfection in a fellow-
creature] Why should not the physical be made
subservient to the spiritual] To us, there would
appear to be no reasonable reply to this inquiry.
The conclusion, therefore, to which we are con
ducted may be thus stated — A revelation of God
to man by means of a human life, necessary, as
we have shown, to the full development of our
spiritual nature, can only be completed and au
thenticated by an infusion into it of the super
natural element, which, besides proving the reve
lation itself, adds largely to its moral power with
the bulk of mankind. So far as we know any
thing of the principles of God's government, we
can discover nothing peremptorily forbidding this
miraculous attestation. On the contrary, we have
good reason to believe that it will be vouchsafed,
inasmuch as the purpose which calls for it is the
Q

226 THE SEAL.
highest purpose of the Supreme in relation to
man, and will, therefore, subordinate to itself
whatever is merely second to it. In one word,
if miracles will subserve our spiritual life, there
is no obvious reason in the principles of the
Divine administration, either in its physical or
moral aspect, why miracles should not be per
formed. § 16. CREDIBILITY OF MIRACLES — MR. HUME'S SOPHISM.
The above objection having been disposed of, we
are confronted with another. Enlightened intel
lect, we are told, still demurs to any acceptance of
a miraculous attestation of Christ's mission. Ad
mitting the necessity of miracles to authenticate a
manifestation of God to our religious nature by
means of a human life — admitting that they are
calculated to impart a peculiar force to that mani
festation — and admitting that they involve no vio
lation of the principles on which God has based
his government of the world, natural or moral — it
yet remains to be considered whether a miracle can
be so sustained by evidence as to render it credible.
Modern scepticism decides that it cannot. The
grounds on which this decision rests were disco
vered by the historian Hume, and are now familiar
to every one who has gone into an" examination, on
either side, of the question at issue. These it will
be convenient summarily to state. Experience, he

THE SEAL. 227
says, is our only guide in reasoning concerning
matters of fact. Variable experience gives rise to
probability only — uniform experience amounts to
proof. " Our belief of any fact from the testimony
of eye-witnesses is derived from no other principle
than our experience of the veracity of human tes
timony. If the fact attested be miraculous, there
arises a contest of two opposite experiences, or
proof against proof. Now a miracle is a violation
of the laws of Nature ; and as a firm and unalter
able experience has established these laws, the
proof against a miracle, from the very nature of
the fact, is as complete as any argument from expe
rience can possibly be imagined ; and if so, it is an
undeniable consequence, that it cannot be sur
mounted by any proof whatever derived from
human testimony.'*
Whether Mr. Hume meant this for a philosophi
cal exposition, or propounded it merely as a logical
puzzle, concerns us but little. That it is the latter
only, can scarcely fail to be the first impression it
makes upon a sober judgment. For, if it be true
that our belief of matters of fact is based on expe
rience alone — and that our experience of the con
stancy of natural laws gives rise to certainty,
whereas our experience of human testimony gives
rise to probability only — it is difficult to account
* Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. i., art. Abridgment.
Q 2

228 THE SEAL.
for the glaring fact that men in all ages have been
so ready to accept the probability against the cer
tainty. They have believed in miracles, notwith
standing their experience of the uniform constancy
of Nature's laws, and they have believed in them on
human testimony notwithstanding their experience
of its variableness. To start therefore with a phi
losophy of belief which is clearly opposed to a full
tide of facts, strikes one as a somewhat daring com
mencement of an intellectual display. Mr. Hume
undertakes to lay down for us the law of rational
belief, either as it is, or as it ought to be. If the
former, where is his induction of facts ] if the
latter, where is his authority ] The usual method
of philosophy is to generalize the facts which fall
under its notice, and then to give to that gene
ralization the name of law. If Mr. Hume had
undertaken to analyze for us the passion of jealousy,
and to lay down the laws by which it is governed,
he would probably have thought it incumbent on
him to collect within view the historical facts which
illustrate the workings of jealousy, and to deduce
his inferences from the facts as they stood. Other
wise, his readers might very justly have objected,
that his theory was representative, not of the thing
as embodied in human experience, but merely of
the thing as conceived of by Mr. Hume's imagina
tion. Why he, or any of his disciples, should be
allowed to handle more unceremoniously and dog-

THE SEAL. 229
matically the laws of human belief — what autho
rity he or they can show for laying down those
laws in the teeth of an overwhelming body of facts
— and how it comes to pass that he and they
should arrogate a sort of exclusive claim to an
intellectual philosophy, for supplying us with a
rationale of the phenomenon of human belief, by
means of the ancient and exploded conjectural
method, in the place of the tentative and inductive
— are questions well worth considering before we
surrender up our common sense to his very inge
nious sophism. That men generally — men of dis
ciplined minds, as well as men of rude and uncul
tured intellect — have been disposed to give credit
to human testimony in favour of miracles, is surely
a fact which ought to be taken into account in any
attempt to deduce the laws which govern human
belief. It does not prove miracles to be true — but
it does prove that men's mode of arriving at a con
clusion respecting them is not, and cannot be, by
balancing a probability against a certainty — it does
prove that whatever philosophers may think ought
to be the process of the mind in forming its beliefs,
that process actually is something very different.
What is common to all classes in their mental ope
rations is, in most cases, set down to the constitu
tion of man's nature. If the great majority of
mankind, learned and unlearned — all, indeed, but
a gifted few who look at everything in this world

230 THE SEAL.
and the next through a syllogistic medium — persist
in listening to testimony in cases in which the
established laws of Nature directly oppose it, it
seems more probable by far that they should be
unconsciously governed by some innate rule of cre
dence, than that a handful of very acute reasoners
should be correct in asserting that they are all
violating the laws of their own being, and stifling
the clearest voice of reason in their souls. At any
rate, they who tell us without qualification that
experience is our only guide in reasoning concern
ing matters of fact — the basis on which they rest
a grave imputation on the rationality of the world's
actual belief — ought to offer us something more
than bare assertion in support of their dictum. Is
it not just possible, seeing the state of facts in
regard to this theory, that the theory itself may be
crude or erroneous ] Ought not a pretended law,
which is so entirely out of joint with its own phe
nomena, to be received, if received at all, with
uncommon caution, and not without searching
inquiry as to what ultimate authority it represents ]
At present, we decide nothing on this point — but
we merely express what probably most men feel in
making their first acquaintance with this celebrated
argument, that the blank opposition in which the
theory stands to facts, gives it an air of unreality,
deprives it of all practical weight, and, as we have
already said, starts a doubt whether it is pro-

THE SEAL. 231
pounded as a philosophical result, or as a logical
puzzle. Mr. Hume's syllogism, which, at first sight, looks
clear as crystal without a single flaw, is, however,
translucent of truth to those minds only which
look through it at one particular angle. Shift the
position ever so little, and instantly it becomes
opaque. As an argument against an imaginary
case it is complete — as an argument against the
miracles of Christianity it is impertinent. He pro
fesses to put in opposite scales, poised by human
reason, two kinds of experience, that he may ascer
tain their comparative weight — that of the con
stancy of Nature, which, being unalterable, gives
rise to certainty — and that of the trustworthiness
of human testimony, which, being variable, gives
rise to probability only — and, as a matter of course,
the latter kicks the beam to the former. But if we
take each of these experiences, and examine them
apart, one by one, we shall find they are neither of
them deposited in the scale in that state which
fairness to the argument absolutely requires. For
example, it is implied, that our knowledge of, and
confidence in, the unchangeableness of physical
laws, is the result of our experience only of the
operation of those laws. But it is no such thing.
The greater, and by far the heavier proportion of
that knowledge, was contributed by human testi
mony — for what can we know of other men's

232 THE SEAL.
experience as to the processes of Nature, but
what they choose to tell us] and what would
be the strength of our assurance in favour of
the invariableness of these processes as against
the veracity of testimony, if we did not add
to what we have ourselves seen, heard, and
felt, that also which we are told all men, in all
parts of the world, and in all ages, have seen,
heard, and felt ] Is it not rather a barefaced trick
to filch from the scale of human testimony so con
siderable an amount of what fairly belongs to it,
and cast it into the scale to which it does not
belong, with a view to depreciate the value of the
one as weighed against the other ] Let it be con
ceded, that our strength of conviction as to the con
stancy of natural laws is immensely augmented by
the consistent testimony of all foregoing ages, and
it will be at once apparent that in the question
of miracles what our reason has to weigh in the
scale against human testimony, is not our own
experience only, but the agreement of a large body
of concurrent testimony with that experience — and
thus the seemingly preponderant weight in the scale
is ascribable not to the actual unchangeableness of
physical laws, as established by our experience in
regard to it, but to our belief in that unchange
ableness derived from the harmony of general
testimony with individual experience. Now let
us examine what Mr. Hume puts into the opposite

THE SEAL. 233
scale. Our experience of human testimony, he
says, which is variable, leads us to probability only.
The proposition is true if you look at it along
one line of vision — Mr. Hume's line — but change
your stand-point and the truth of it disappears.
WThat one man testifies relating to a matter of
fact, our own experience teaches us to estimate
as amounting to no more than probability — he may
be attempting to impose upon us, or he may him
self have been imposed upon. This degree of
uncertainty in one man's testimony to another
comes within the cognisance of every one's expe
rience. But then this is not an accurate de
scription of the relation of Christian miracles to
our belief. It ought to be put thus — The con
current testimony of several witnesses of good
character to a matter of fact appealing to their
bodily senses, which fact, if true, is indicative of
a high moral purpose, and which concurrent testi
mony was consistently adhered to unto death itself,
our experience has taught us to regard as amounting
to probability only. Now, we ask, whose experience
has affirmed the variability of human testimony in
a case like this ] If this concurrent testimony
given to us under such conditions be false, then
we say the falsehood of it is at variance with all
our experience of human testimony. So that the
whole trial amounts to this — In the one scale expe
rience is in agreement with testimony, and hence

234 THE SEAL.
our belief in the constancy of Nature — In the other
scale experience is in agreement with testimony,
and hence our belief in the miracles of Christianity.
So far as experience shapes our belief, it is not a
certainty against a probability that we have to con
sider — but a certainty against a certainty. Does a
change of the processes of the physical world con
tradict our experience of their inviolability ] Not
more, we answer, than the falsehood of testimony
deposed under the above conditions contradicts our
experience of its reliableness. If we are bound to
reject miracles lest the belief based upon expe
rience should be shocked, we are equally bound
not to reject the kind of testimony which we have
in support of Christ's miracles lest the belief based
upon experience should be also shocked. So that
if experience is our only guide of reasoning con
cerning matters of fact, experience in this instance
conducts us to two opposite conclusions. For if
our experience, fortified by general testimony,
knows nothing of variation in the laws of Nature,
so our experience, fortified by general testimony,
knows nothing of variation in the truthfulness of
testimony, such as is given in support of the gospel
narrative. Here is proof against proof, and expe
rience alone is plainly unable to make out which is
the weightier. Were Mr. Hume's premises true,
therefore, the advocates of divine revelation have
as good a right to their conclusion from it as have

THE SEAL. 235
the sceptics to theirs. But they are not true, as
we shall now go on to show. They are prepos
terously erroneous. Human behef as to matters
of fact does not come by experience only — perhaps,
not mainly. Mr. Hume has misstated the laws
of fainrN^mit his purpose. And this is the secret
of his fallacy. He and those who think with him
look straight along a tubular theory, and see some
thing at the end of it which they protest is the
only thing discernible. So it is to those who con
fine themselves to the tube — but to those who
stand by, and avail themselves of all the powers
of mental vision with which God has endowed
them, there are also things on the right hand and
on the left, of which that seen through the tube is
but a part, and which give all its significance and
homogeneousness to that part.
It has already been pointed out by Dr. Campbell,
that our belief in testimony does not arise out of
our experience of its general veracity. Children
who have had no such experience believe most
implicitly that which is told them by others, and if
experience has any hand in their belief, it is to
limit its proportions rather than develop them.
The tendency of the mind to believe is born with
us, not acquired — and knowledge, as it is attained,
serves but to guide it in its course. But when a
statement of facts, involving in them some moral
quality or purpose, is submitted to us for credence,

236 THE SEAL.
our faith in it is governed much more powerfully
by the congruity of that quality or purpose with
our moral sense, than by the testimony by which
the statement is supported. Perhaps, there are few
men whose own history does not furnish some illus
tration of this remark. A. has been tenderly
attached to B., in whose high-souled honour and
integrity of character he has that confidence which
only intimate fellowship can inspire. Circum
stances throw them into different spheres, but
between the two such a correspondence is main
tained, as serves to keep alive the sympathy of one
soul with another. It happens, however, that some
report reaches the ears of A., reflecting the grossest
discredit on his friend. He rejects that report with
indignation as unfounded, and, rather with a view
to vindicate B. from a calumny, than to set at rest
any misgivings of his own, he undertakes to sift
the matter to the bottom. As he proceeds in his
investigation, facts turn up one after another of the
most suspicious aspect, and link after link is added
to the chain of evidence which, in the minds of
dispassionate spectators, clearly connects B. with
the charge imputed to him. His friend, however,
although sorely perplexed, refuses to believe. What
is it that he falls back upon ] Facts are against
him, and so far as his experience goes, such facts
ought to govern his belief. But they do not. He
cannot point out where their inconclusiveness can

THE SEAL. 237
be detected — he cannot discover any other key to
them but that supplied by B.'s guilt. But he feels
certain that there is a mistake somewhere — that
there is an explanation which would otherwise
solve the mystery. His belief takes its stand firmly
upon knowledge of character — and his own moral
instincts assure him that the character he has seen
in his friend never could give birth to an act such
as that which is seemingly proved against him.
Now, whether he be right or wrong in his estimate
of B.'s character, matters not to our present pur
pose — but, given the character, and A.'s belief con
cerning its expression in the imputed act of dis
honour is governed not by experience, but by
moral instinct. This suits not that, he feels rather
than argues, unless his moral sense deals falsely
with him — and the utter absence of congruity
between the moral tone of his friend's mind and
the deed apparently brought home to him, is the
basis upon which his faith in B.'s innocence deli
berately rests, in spite of his experience of the
general dependence which may be placed on cir
cumstantial evidence. Our great dramatist well
understood how faith may be governed, even in
relation to matters of fact, by moral congruities,
when he made Hamlet reply to Horatio's statement
of the reason which had induced him to leave
Wittenberg for Elsinore —

238 THE SEAL.
" I would not have your enemy say so,
Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself — "
and when he represented Imogen, in answer to
Iachimo's slanders on her lord, holding her judg
ment in suspense — " If this be true
(As I have such a heart that both mine ears
Must not in haste abuse), if it be true,
How shall I be revenged ? "
In like manner our belief in miracles will repre
sent not alone our dependence on the veracity of
human testimony, but the response of our reason
to the purpose for which the miracles were pro
fessedly wrought. If that purpose is deemed emi
nently befitting the Creator, and in beautiful
keeping with all that is known of his moral per
fections, so much the readier and the firmer will be
our faith — whereas, if no purpose at all be appa
rent, or none worthy of the power to which the
miracles are ascribed, so much the more difficult is
it for us to believe in them. It is puerile to charge
us with arriving at our conclusions by a process
which logic condemns, when such is the process by
which human belief is shaped in spite of itself.
There is not a sceptic now living who would not
feel justified in arguing against the reality of
mediaeval ecclesiastical miracles, on the ground
either that they had no purpose, or a bad one, and

THE SEAL. 239
in feeling that the argument was valid, and would
have weight with a reasonable mind. But if this
be so, then is it tacitly admitted that congruity of
purpose in supernatural displays of power is an
element, and a proper element, in our belief of
them.* Nor is there here any such logical imper
tinence as arguing in a circle. We do not first
make this the proof of that, and then that of this
— the miracle of the purpose, and then the purpose
of the miracle. We put them together, and we
find them agree in the same conclusion ; and of
that agreement our faith is born. As if an indi
vidual should come to us with a message from a
friend, the purport of which is in perfect keeping
with his character, but still extraordinary enough
to need confirmation. The messenger exhibits a
ring which we know to belong to our friend, and
which, we are sure, would not have been entrusted
to a mere stranger — and looking both at the nature
of the message, and at the token of confirmation,
we believe. The ring would have been an insuffi
cient credential had the message been at variance
with the known character of the man represented
as sending it — the message would have been insuf
ficient, even if consonant with that character, with-

* The author of " The Restoration of Belief" has put this point
with great force — but the point itself, and the illustration of it,
having been in our memoranda previously to the appearance of this
very able work, we do not feel bound to omit them.

240 THE SEAL.
out some sure token in the stranger's hand that it
came from him — but where both meet, the proof is
held to be satisfactory, and belief is instantly
yielded. Our faith, then, in matters of fact, having
a moral significance, does not rest alone upon our
experience of the veracity of human testimony.
Our moral sense, as well as our understanding, is
addressed, and our responsive faith is the combined
result of both.
Mr. Hume has either mistaken or misstated the
origin of human belief. It is a primary, not a
secondary, process of the mind. It is prior to
experience, not a result of it. An act of belief,
like an act of love, springs out of a felt congruity
between an innate tendency, and an external
object. Experience only corrects it — restricts its
exercises — contracts the circle of its flights. We
have an inborn aptitude for the supernatural, just
as we have an inborn aptitude for the moral — and
our faith, in the fresh morning of its life, is un
bounded. Our nursery tales, so full of absurdi
ties and impossibilities, are accepted by our yet
undisciplined minds as veritable histories. So, in
the infancy of nations, earth is always supposed
to teem with supernatural marvels. There is
plainly, therefore, an element of our nature adapt
ing it to acquiesce in the miraculous. In children
and ignorant people, this instinct, like all others,
seeks gratification indiscriminately, and accepts for

THE SEAL. 241
nutriment whatever is externally correspondent
with it, by whomsover, and under whatsoever
circumstances proffered. Experience serves to
guide it — to point out to it all the marks by
which fictitious supernaturalism may be detected —
to winnow the chaff from the grain — but is in no
wise a substitute for it. It no more eradicates the
instinct itself than it destroys the appetite for food
which in early life, and uncorrected by experience,
contentedly preys on garbage. The comparatively
ready assent given to the miracles of Christianity
by the majority of those who have been brought
into acquaintance with the New Testament narra
tives of them, cannot be explained on any other
hypothesis than a correspondence between them
and the fundamental laws of human belief. If
experience be, indeed, the sole basis of our faith,
how is the foregoing fact to be accounted for ]
The philosophy contradicts the phenomenon,
whereas the phenomenon ought to suggest the
philosophy. We prefer a rationale which does less
violence to the laws of our own being. We see, in
the first place, an instinctive tendency to accept
human testimony — we see, in the second place, a
natural aptitude to recognise moral purpose in facts
which embody it, and to make the congruity of
that purpose with our own moral sense an element
in our final judgment of their probability — and we
see, in the last place, an innate disposition for the
n

242 THE SEAL.
supernatural. All these we regard as primary laws
of human nature, with which experience has no
thing to do but to correct in their excesses, and
guide in their operations. And, finally, we see in
the miracles of Christ and his apostles, an objective
whole answering to all three of these natural apti
tudes of humanity — supernaturalism, having a
moral purpose, vouched for by testimony. And
hence, general belief. The miracles may or may
not be true. The testimony may or may not be
trustworthy. The purpose may or may not be con
gruous with our moral sense. The supernaturalism
may or may not be clearly defined and aptly em
bodied. All this will depend upon appropriate and
specific evidence. But the suitableness of the ob
jective in Christian miracles to the subjective in
human nature, places them within the circle of
credibility, and explains how it comes to pass that
they are believed. This category of proofs in sup
port of a divine revelation is shown to be admis
sible. Whether the gospel miracles fall within the
category must be determined by other considera
tions. The famous " balance of probabilities,"
therefore, by which Mr. Hume and some of his
disciples seek to overthrow the possibility of a
miraculous attestation, however pretty and com
plete as a syllogism, is extremely indifferent philo
sophy. Its basis is speculation rather than in
duction. It is a theory irrespective of facts, not

THE SEAL. 243
arising out of them. It can only be accepted on
the supposition that mankind in general in forming
their beliefs have systematically run counter to the
inherent tendencies of their nature — or else that
the Creator has endowed us with one aptitude
which it is the business of experience to annihilate.
Either of these assumptions may be boldly adopted
with a view to a foregone purpose — but they who
adopt either of them forfeit all claim to an exclusive
or superior intellectual philosophy. The whole mis
take has originated in, and is perpetuated by, a con
fused notion that reason and reasoning are the
same thing — that the mind sees no truth but by
means of the logical faculty — and that all the great
interests of life are suspended upon complex pro
cesses of argumentative computation. Such, hap
pily, is not the case — the basis of our knowledge is
more broadly laid in our constitution*— and men
will be found, on inquiry, not to err so much in
the principles on which they reason, as in the
negligent application of those principles to cases
as they arise. Their instincts are true enough.
To substitute the understanding for them — ¦
" Is't not as if this mouth should tear this hand,
For lifting food to it ? "
Let our experience have its proper place, and its
due honour — it is worthy of both — but its proper
place is that of service, not of rule. The soul of
man has capacities before it has experience, and
r 2

244 THE SEAL.
the external world primarily addresses them, not
it. The voices from without may need an inter
preter — but their meaning is for a higher than an
interpreter — for the soul itself. Man readily, may
we not say, spontaneously, believes in the super
natural — it is the proper office of experience to
guide that belief, and teach it, as it does other
instincts, to discriminate between the spurious
and the real. Reasoning may say to a man that
he cannot believe in miracles — reason will say no
such thing, for belief in miracles is but an aspect of
itself. No intellectual objection, then, so far as yet
appears, can justly estop a supernatural attestation
of revealed truth. No good cause can be shown
why the witnesses, if answering to their own pro
fession, should not be produced in court. Their
testimony is needed, and pertinent to the issue —
their mode of utterance is intelligible and decisive.
They are such that God may well and consistently
have employed them for his purpose in Chris
tianity, and that man may rationally, on fair evi
dence, believe them. There remains, therefore,
now, only one other department of the question
requiring consideration in this place. Are t^ie
miracles said to have been wrought by Jesus
Christ in harmony with the assumed purpose of
his mission] He came to shadow forth to our
religious nature the unseen God. Are his super
natural works in moral keeping with what we

THE SEAL. 245
-"know, from other sources, of the Divine character ]
On this head, we shall venture two or three obser
vations, and then summarily state what appears to
us to be the net result of the whole on the con
troversy in hand.
§ 17. MIRACLES OF CHRISTIANITY ACCORDANT WITH ITS PURPOSE,
IN MANNER AND KIND.
Assuming, as we think we are by this time
fairly entitled to do, that miracles constitute a ne
cessary and becoming feature of any manifestation
of God to us through our own nature, we submit
that those recorded as having been wrought by
Jesus Christ are worthy of his character and pur
pose. In more respects than one, their air is that
of divinity. If true, they satisfy not only our
understanding, but our moral taste — and that they
are true, the evidence offered is of the most sub
stantial kind that human testimony could produce.
In the manner of our Lord's miracles there is a
peculiarity which can hardly fail of having struck
every candid and reflective mind. We know not
that we can better indicate our meaning than by
the homely expression — absence of fussiness.
Their air is like that of the great works of God —
subhmely quiet. We speak now, not so much of
the tone of the narratives, as of the characteristics
of the performances themselves therein recorded.
The supernaturalism of the gospels is not a noisy,

246 THE SEAL.
clattering, egotistic thing. It is calm as the falling
of the dew, noiseless as the rising of the sun,
modest and self-subdued as the starry heavens at
midnight. There is a silence in it that awes, and
a gentleness that startles, the soul. It fulfils its
mission without preparation, or pomp, or parade.
There is no bustle — no creaking of machinery — no
well got-up theatrical surprises. The trumpet is
never blown to call the world to witness it. The
occasion usually turns up in the most incidental
way. The deed is done without any preluding
flourishes meant to direct attention to the marvel-
lousness of its character — and, if ever subsequently
alluded to, is alluded to with a view to point a
moral, or to enforce an admonition, not to sustain
or exaggerate the wonder it produced. One sees
nothing in the bearing of the worker of these
miracles which seems to say of himself, " Well
done ! " — no traces of the lingering of his thoughts
upon the feat — no peepings forth of self-satisfaction,
as though it had been possible for him to have
failed. Much as there is of the supernatural in
Christ's life, and unequivocal as it is, one cannot
but feel surprised, if that which is recorded be true,
that there was so little of it, and that little so
retiring in its character. The power which is dis
played speaks significantly of the power which was
suffered to lie latent. After all, and in exquisite
harmony with the entire purport of Christianity,

THE SEAL. 247
the Omnipotent is veiled. His presence is suffi
ciently signalized for the moral purpose it was
needed to effect, but not further. He shows him
self distinctly enough to be apprehended, and yet
but sparingly, as if to prevent the spiritual from
being overshadowed by the physical. Granted the
possession of miraculous powers by man, and this
parsimonious display of them accords better with
the Divine character, than with human anticipations.
" Could great men thunder
As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet ;
But every pelting, petty officer
Would use his heaven for thunder ; nothing but thunder."
In the demeanour of Christ we have precisely the
reverse. The kind of supernaturalism displayed
makes no appeal to the imagination — the measure
of the display goes not a step beyond the need.
Who does not feel tempted, with such materials,
to draw a very different picture ] " Nothing but
thunder," would most likely be our practical rule
in the use of supernaturalism. It would have best
suited our predilections, where miracles were to be
had, to have had nothing but miracles — astounding
miracles — miracles that should have made the
world bow down awe-rapt, and overpowered. The
modest, unobtrusive, calm, and self-possessed super
naturalism of the life of Christ, admirably as it
consists with the every-day manifestations to us of
the Supreme, is anything but what we might have

248 THE SEAL.
expected, if man's fancy or fanaticism had sketched
and coloured the representation. And this view of
the subject ought specially to be noted by those
who ascribe the miraculous in Christ's memoirs to
the after-touches of admiring and adoring followers.
Pious passion does not paint in this severely sober
style. The fervour which would infuse supernatu
ralism where there was none would have infused
more of it, and of a more ostentatious sort. Heated
imaginations could never have been satisfied with
anything, in the way of miracle, short of grotesque
forms, and fiery tints. This is no mere conjecture
of ours to make out a case — it is substantiated by
facts. The second century produced a swarm of
pseudo-histories of Jesus Christ, in which fervid
zeal exhausts all its inventiveness in wonderful
stories designed to fill up the chasms in his life left
by the evangelic narratives. Place the two side by
side for comparison, and the contrast between them
is too great to escape even cursory observation. In
the former you have a supernaturalism charac
terised by almost every form of human imperfec
tion — extravagance, absurdity, ostentation, want of
moral purpose, and, occasionally, infirmity of temper.
Whereas in the gospel records the miraculous is so
toned down as to constitute only a back-ground to
the rehgious, and the moral emotions are more
powerfully addressed than the sense of wonder.
These products of enthusiasm are so saturated with

THE SEAL. 249
the supernatural element as to exclude every other,
and the reader who gives credit to them will rise
from the perusal of them excited and bewildered
by innumerable marvels, but utterly unconscious of
their high purpose. The contrast is suggestive.
It presents us with a specimen of what man's fancy
will do with the miraculous, when stimulated by
religious excitement, and unrestrained by a felt
obhgation of adhering closely to fact — what a
jumble of contrarieties and extravagances it will
produce — and it intimates very distinctly that the
simplicity and modesty which mark the gospel nar
ratives, could only have been preserved from embel
lishments which would have assimilated them in
tone to the pseudo-histories, by a scrupulous vigi
lance over their integrity by the Church. If pious
imagination had been able to " round them off," at
any time during the second century, we may be
certain that they would have exhibited some traces
of the predominant excitement of the age. They
would not have been left to us pervaded as now by
an air of calm composure. Their Doric severity would
have been set off with some touches of the compo
site order. This we think is a legitimate inference.
But whether it be accepted for such, or not, it must
be conceded, that the general character of the
supernaturalism running through the New Testa
ment life of Jesus Christ, is not unworthy of his
professed purpose — and that the port, style, and

250 THE SEAL.
address of these assumed witnesses for God, so far
from belying their pretensions, tend rather to secure
for them a candid and favourable attention.
There is another characteristic of Christ's mira
cles worthy of note. There is a striking corre
spondence between them and the professed object
of his career, in respect of what they were, as well
as of how they were performed. Not only in man
ner, but in kind, are they becoming representatives
of God. They have a moral aspect entirely in
accordance with the tenour of the revelation of
which they are assumed to be the seal. They
exemplify very impressively the gentleness and
benignity of Divine power. They all of them
teach God's sympathy with the suffering, God's
care for the wretched, God's pity for the outcast.
Throughout the life of Christ, wherever super
natural power is brought to bear upon man, it is
invariably in tenderness. The leper, the lunatic,
the maniac, the paralyzed, the deaf and dumb, the
blind, the dying, and the dead — such are the sub
jects selected on whom to display the all-conquer
ing energy of God. When we descend to parti
culars, there are usually to be found associated
with each case circumstances which set off the
benignity expressed by the miracle, so that on the
whole the feature of it which addresses our affec
tions is, if anything, more prominent than that
which awakens our astonishment. The bulk of

v. THE SEAL. 251
that which is recorded of what Jesus Christ did
during his public ministry, consists of supposed
manifestations of Almighty power — and his use of
that power, therefore, must have contributed very
mainly to our general estimate of his character.
Now what is that estimate, we ask ] What has it
uniformly been ] Has it not been such, in all sub
sequent times, as to commend him to man's heart,
as the most touching impersonation of compas
sionate benevolence which the world has ever wit
nessed] Put the two ideas together — unbounded
power, and unparalleled gentleness — a hand that
can do anything, at the service of a heart that can
feel nothing but disinterested kindness. Is not
such an association worthy of God ] But is it not
also unique and novel as compared with man's
ordinary conceptions of what supernaturalism
would be likely to perform ] We will not go the
length of affirming that man's imagination, excited
by religious ideas, could not have hit upon this
combination of might and tenderness — but we
submit with confidence that the seemly and signi
ficant alhance was not likely to have suggested
itself to a Jewish fancy. The theory of Strauss,
that the miracles of Jesus are to be regarded as
ultimate deposits of the mythic tendencies of the
age — a theory which has been treated with more
gravity than its claim to be considered rational in
any way deserves — may be looked at, for a moment,

252 THE SEAL.
in the light of the characteristic we have just now
pointed out. Conscious how brief an interval some
thirty or forty years must be regarded, in which for
a popular excitement, or predisposition, to be origi
nated, diffused, volatilized, condensed, and finally
circulated in the shape of historic facts, without
involving deliberate imposture, Strauss derives the
Jewish idea of a Messiah from Old Testament his
tory and prophecy. What he should be, is the
argument, had been settled in popular anticipation,
for many preceding generations. For some hun
dreds of years the national mind had been slowly
absorbing into it, and becoming saturated with, a
certain Messianic notion — and the ideas concerning
the expected Messiah were in a state of solution at
the time of the appearance of Jesus of Nazareth.
Those ideas had been gained from an exclusive
and overweening study of the Old Testament, and
especially of the prophets. As soon, therefore, as
the personage had appeared, and passed off the
stage, with whom these ideas were believed to be
identified, Jewish notions of what the Messiah was
to be, rapidly crystaUized around the few facts of
our Lord's historic life, and, without intentional
deception on the part of any one, arranged them-
, selves into the New Testament account of what he
is— and hence, a sort of spontaneous and involun
tary expression, in mythical forms, of something
which was held in excess by the Jewish mind, came

THE SEAL. 253
very early to be regarded as veritable history.
Now the worth of this very ingenious theory may
be settled by a single question — Does the supposed
mythical crystallization, as we have it in the life of
Christ, correspond with the Messianic ideas pre
viously held in solution by the Jewish people]
Would minds full of Old Testament notions, or
rather, of notions derived from a perverted inter
pretation of Old Testament history and prophecy,
have ultimately deposited a mythical form resem
bling in any one of its aspects the life of Christ ]
Is it not strange that the unstudied outcome should
be in marked contrast to all that we know to have
been within ] Why, it is notorious that the Jews,
reading their prophets by the interpretative light
kindled by their own national pride, expected a
Messiah the very opposite in all respects to the one
described in the gospel narratives. They looked
for a prince, and a conqueror, armed with Divine
power to smite, overthrow, and subjugate their
foes. If their preconceptions had taken mythic
form, and Old Testament ideas filtering through
the national mind had merely become concrete in
the New — if this alleged miracle is but a repro
duction of one performed by Elisha, and that, of one
performed on Elijah — how comes it that Moses is
consigned to such marked neglect, more especially
as the tone of his supernatural works harmonized
so completely with Jewish conceptions of what

254 THE SEAL.
would be the Messiah's object] Why have we not
fire from heaven to consume opponents, or plagues
to worry them, or, at least, legions of angels to
terrify them ] Can any one really believe that
national religious sentiment in the country and age
of Jesus Christ, was such as, if left to express itself
concerning the Messiah that was to come, would
associate miraculous power exclusively with gentle
ness, and employ it in acts of goodness towards the
ecclesiastically despised, and outcast, and banned]
The theory, like that of Mr. Hume, is not an in
duction of facts, but a conjecture in defiance of
them — and it is a conjecture which not only fails
to establish itself, but in its failure goes some way
towards the confirmation of that which it is de
signed to supplant. It proceeds upon the assump
tion that the miracles of Christ were not the forge
ries of designing impostors. It clears a space for
itself by showing that any naturalistic interpreta
tion of them, once so fashionable in Germany, and
still adopted by some sceptics in this country, is
manifestly untenable, and absurd. It admits, by
implication, that the Jesus Christ of history so cor
responds with the Messiah of Old Testament pro
phecy, that the first is but a mythical deposit of
the last. The entire argument shows that the
Jews might have borrowed the Messiah of the. New
Testament from the hints of him furnished to them
by the Old — and having done this service, it disap-

THE SEAL. 255
pears before the palpable fact, that although the
Christ of the gospels might have been put together
by Jewish minds from the intimations of prophecy,
had Jewish minds expected such a Christ, it is yet
undeniable that they did not so interpret their pro
phets, that they cherished no anticipations of him
in accordance with the evangelic records, and that
if the supernatural features of those narratives are
mythical concretions, they have hardened into
shapes wholly unlike what Jewish national ideas of
the Messiah would spontaneously have taken.
Nor is this all. The display of omnipotence in
exclusive association with compassionate benevo
lence, brought under our notice by the miracles
of Jesus Christ, was as novel an exhibition for
the world in general, as it was foreign to Jewish
preconceptions. History furnishes no other in
stance of a reputed revelation of God having been
thus authenticated. In all other hands but those
of the writers of the gospel memoirs of Christ, the
supernatural has taken some other shape than that
of relief to the suffering. Its prevailing tone has
been less human. Its expressions have been less
genial and kindly. Its teachings have had far less
to do with the tenderer sympathies of our common
nature. In the life of Jesus it puts on a social,
almost a domestic, aspect — and its entire moral
influence allures, rather than terrifies. Now this,
we hesitate not to say, was a version of miraculous

256 THE SEAL.
power quite unexpected to the general run of
human thoughts on this subject. Nowhere else
do we encounter it in this special guise. This may
be a coincidence — but it certainly looks like a
preordination. It strangely tallies with Christ's
avowed object — a manifestation to the world of
God's love to men. And this obvious correspond
ence lends additional probability to the assumption
that the New Testament miracles were witnesses
for God to the reality of our Lord's mission. If
supernaturalism was to be employed at all on this
errand, it could not have put on a more suitable
form. It is worthy alike of the Being represented,
and of the purpose which the distinct suffrage of
that Being was meant to justify.
§ 18. CHRISTIAN MIRACLES SUSTAINED BY EVIDENCE. THE
RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.
We now proceed to the last position we deem it
necessary to make good. We affirm that the kind
and amount of evidence offered in support of the
miracles of Christianity suffice to meet the de
mands of reason, inasmuch as we are involved in
many more, and much greater, difficulties, by the
rejection, than by the admission, of the proof ten
dered to us. And this is the highest kind of moral
demonstration that the subject will admit of.
To prevent confusion, we select a single miracle
for the illustration of this point — to prevent cavil,

THE SEAL. 257
we select that miracle, which, if true, is the most
decisive testimony of God to all the claims of
Jesus Christ, and wliich, if untrue, may be most
easily and triumphantly exposed. We take the
alleged resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and
shall endeavour to point out in regard to it, the
principal features of the evidence by which it is
sustained, and their sufficiency to satisfy all in
tellectual demands.
There can be no reasonable difference of opinion,
we presume, as to the logical effect of this miracle,
if fairly established. We have already seen that if
it became the Supreme to show himself to the
hearts of men through the medium of a human
life, the nature of the case would require that
life to be distinctly marked off from human life
generally, as one consecrated for the supposed
manifestation by God himself. We have also seen
that this could only be effected by the infusion into
it of a supernatural element in connexion with
either knowledge, or power, or both. We have
now to remark that no exertion of miraculous
power by Christ, and during his life, could have
evinced God's sanction of his whole purpose so
completely and satisfactorily, as the exertion of
miraculous power upon him, and after his death.
His career had then been run out — -and a divine
seal put upon it then, was put upon it as an
entirety. Moreover, it included the death of

258 THE SEAL.
Christ as part of the representative process de
signed to shadow forth to men the benign pur
pose, and the benevolent propensions of the
Unseen God. And, lastly, it was a direct act of
the Almighty power, without the intervention of
any other agency, the last sequent being next to
the first antecedent — the revival of Jesus follow
ing next in order to the will of God, thus con
necting the one with the other as closely as
possible. " He that believeth on me," said our
Lord, " believeth not on me, but on him that
sent me. And he that seeth me, seeth him that
sent me. I am come a light into the world,
that whosoever believeth in me should not abide
in darkness." " I am the way, the truth, and
the life : no man cometh unto the Father but by
me. If ye had known me, ye should have known
my Father also." " I and my Father are one."
These are high pretensions to be calmly and
deliberately put forth by man. How may they
be justified] He who uttered these sayings, and
who thus asserted to the world the representative
character of his person and his life, sleeps the last
sleep of mortality, having declared that he should
rise again on the third day. The proof of his
mission is now left exclusively with God himself.
If he spake without warrant, it will soon be seen in
the natural decay of his lifeless remains. If he
was commissioned thus to announce himself, the

THE SEAL. 259
fact may be fully authenticated to rational belief
in all ages. Resurrection, from death implies the
direct intervention of God — -'and a resurrection
which was appealed to before death as the crown
ing proof of divine authorization,' exhibits, as
plainly as any attestation can do, the signature
and seal of the approving Deity. We need not
enlarge on this head — for the common sense of
mankind will recognise on a life, of which the
often avowed object is to reflect the image of the
Invisible, and which is thus given back after death
by a direct exertion of the divine energy, the un-
mistakeable stamp of heaven.
That Jesus Christ was put to death on the cross
as a public malefactor, is a historic fact resting
upon precisely the same kind of evidence as that
Socrates was put to death by a draught of hemlock.
The same reasons which justify our belief in the
last, justify also our belief in the first. True, some
have conjectured that crucifixion, in the case of
Jesus, did not terminate in his death, but produced
merely a temporary suspension of the vital func
tions — that the cold of the sepulchre revived him,
and that the medical skill of his supposed friends
among the Essenes so far restored him as to enable
him to appear to Mary in the garden on the morn
ing of the third day. We shall not stay to ex
amine this modern fabrication, which Strauss has
s 2

260 THE SEAL.
effectually demolished. The genius which could
piece on this clumsy fraud to the life of Jesus
Christ must have been utterly blind to its moral
beauty. Either the entire history must be rejected
as an imposture, or this conjecture must be dis
missed as an unworthy attempt on our credulity.
But we are bound to protest against the too
common practice, never recognised as legitimate
but in connexion with this subject, of setting up
the guesses of modern scepticism against the fairly
authenticated statements of ancient history. And
we may remark further, that the invention, even if
accepted as a substitute for the record, does not
lead us out of difficulty. If Jesus had thus re
covered — if it can be imagined possible that a man
whose life and doctrine were of such an unquestion
ably elevated religious tenour should stoop to so
mean an artifice as to delude his sorrowing dis
ciples, and could contentedly see them go forth to
brave privation, persecution, and death, in the pro
mulgation of his own falsehood — it yet remains to
be settled how, during the remainder of his sup
posed stay on earth, he could contrive to elude
discovery either by friend or foe — and how, since
he must have had several accomplices, the truth
never leaked out, either then, or afterwards, al
though mighty interests were suspended upon it.
Whatever reason, then, may hereafter appear for

THE SEAL. 261
douhting the fact of the resurrection, any doubt as
to the fact of death is not only unsustained by
evidence, but is in the teeth of it.
And now, touching the alleged resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead, we propose to look
at the kind of evidence adduced in confirmation
of the statement. That his immediate followers
did, very soon after his decease, assert, in the most
open and explicit manner, the fact of his resurrec
tion, is as certain as anything past can be. Sup
posing the gospel narratives of that event to have
undergone a process of " rounding off " in sub
sequent times — a purely gratuitous supposition — it
will scarcely be pretended by any who have the
smallest reputation for historical criticism to main
tain, that belief in the event itself originated at
a later period than the date at which the earliest of
these documents was written. The first epistle of
Paul to the Corinthians, and the first general
epistle of Peter, the genuineness of which it wrere a
hopeless attempt to dispute, and which were un
questionably written before the death of Nero, not
merely assert the resurrection of Christ, but are
addressed, the one to a society, and the other to
scattered individuals, whose distinctive religious
tenets were based upon a recognition of this fact.
Now setting aside altogether the testimony of the
evangelists — for no other good reason, however,
than to show the strength of the evidence — we

262 THE SEAL.
gather from epistolary correspondence, extant
during the lifetime of these apostles, that the
resurrection of Christ had been publicly preached
even then long enough to constitute the basis of
several churches in various parts of the world,
some of which had already become numerous.
The very existence of these communities at that
period, carries us back several years, and places us
within a hand's-breadth, as it were, of the time at
which the earthly career of Jesus was said to
have terminated. Do what we will with the
gospels, it cannot be disputed that the companions
and immediate followers of Jesus had, before the
lapse of many years after his death, engraven in
indelible lines upon the surface of society their
own belief that their Lord had risen. It is quite
certain, therefore, that they were the authors of
this report, and that whether the gospels were or
were not written by eye-witnesses, we axe indebted
to eye-witnesses, and not to traditionary exagge
rations, for the declaration that Christ rose from
the dead. Rub off, then, if you will, every in
cident relating to that fact which you may choose
to consider an embellishment of later times, you
do not disturb in the least the evidence which
has come down to us, that the fact itself was
affirmed by the apostles of Jesus, and that its
truth rests directly on their explicit testimony.
In a word, the witnesses upon whose authority

THE SEAL. 263
we rely in this case, were men who enjoyed the
opportunity of founding their own belief, not on
hearsay, but on the evidence of their own senses.
Strauss himself admits this. After having criti
cised away the entire story of Christ's resurrection,
as recorded by the evangelists, he admits that the
apostles entertained a firm belief in the miracle
which his philosophy denies — and, indeed, it is
difficult to conceive how Christianity originated,
or in what manner its rapid and extensive spread
could have been effected, except on the hypothesis
that a belief in the fact of Christ's resurrection
had taken a firm hold upon the minds of his
apostles. It is to be further considered that, in relation
to this alleged fact, we have to do with the be
lief, not of one individual, but of several. No
hypercritical dispute about the authorship of the
several gospels can get rid of this element of the
case. The apostle Paul may be set down as an
enthusiast, but he will hardly be accounted dis
honest, even by the most inveterate scepticism.
His own vision of his Lord may be regarded as
a mere illusion of an over-wrought brain, but
when he sums up the proof of Christ's resurrec
tion to the Corinthian church, he surely states
facts of which he had full cognizance. He de
clares, without any doubt, or circumlocution, that
Christ was seen after his resurrection by above

264 THE SEAL. y,
five hundred brethren at once, most cf whom,
he avers, were still alive at the time of his writing.
Such a statement, in such terms, and from such a
man, implies that he is deposing to what he is
consciously able to verify. He mentions also that
the risen Lord was seen of Peter, of James, and
of all the apostles. So direct an assertion would
never have been made by one who had so good
an opportunity of making himself acquainted with
the facts of the case, during his fifteen days' resi
dence with Peter, but upon authority deemed by
him to be perfectly trustworthy. But this is not
all. Peter's written testimony to the fact of Christ's
resurrection we have in his own undisputed
epistle. John's belief in it, even if it were true
that he did not write the gospel which has been
uniformly ascribed to him, pervades his first
epistle. The letter of James, and also that of
Jude, imply their faith. We have the testimony
of James, the brother of Jesus, in his martyrdom
by Herod. The labours of the other apostles
sufficiently attest their unwavering belief in the
fundamental fact of Christianity. So that although
we have not in our hands the actual depositions of
all these witnesses, we have proof enough that they
believed that Christ had risen from the dead.
And they were sincere believers. Their lives
prove this. Men who took the course which they
pursued consistently till death, must have been

,'« THE SEAL. 265
thoroughly convinced of the truth of what they
affirmed. Whatever may have been the case with
others, it is clear that in their minds there was not
the shadow of a misgiving. They never halt nor
hesitate. Fiery trials do not drive them back upon
any reconsideration of the grounds of their faith.
In all their proclamations of the fact, they speak of
it as undoubted. Before friend and foe they are
alike confident. Not a single recorded expression
of any one of them indicates that they saw any
possibility of their having been mistaken. Through
many long years, and under the pressure of various
persecutions, they hold fast to the same testimony,
which some of them cheerfully seal with their
blood. Now, on the hypothesis that Christ did not
rise, this agreement, strength, and persistency of
belief, is, to say the least of it, extraordinary. His
death staggered all their previous notions of the
Messianic reign. A fancy that he had appeared to
them after death would scarcely have sufficed so to
change the views, hopes, desires, and determina
tions of all of them, as to set them at once upon
a totally different track, and keep them on it, in
spite of all that they had to encounter therein,
up to the very hour of their departure. Terrible
vicissitudes when brought upon us by an illusion
tend to compel a review of the circumstances under
which it was originally embraced — and if here and
there a nature is to be found which clings with

266 THE SEAL.
a tighter tenacity to the hallucination which leads
it into trouble, it is not reasonable to suppose
that a dozen individuals, duped by their own ima
gination, and exposed, in consequence of their easy
credulity, to an after lifetime of difficulties, hazards,
privations, and sufferings, would every one of them
maintain his first faith without further question.
Nor was this an instance in which further question
might not have led at once to the resolution of
all doubts. In the case of other miracles, the
apostles looking back upon them after a period
long enough to sober down their excitement, might
have felt it impossible to institute a rigid re-exami
nation, for the subjects of those rniracles may have
been lost sight of — removed far away, or dead. But
in regard to the resurrection, supposing their belief
in it to have been hastily, although honestly formed,
but really at variance with fact, they must have
known that it was easy enough to set themselves
right. The dead body of Jesus, in such case, must
have remained in the possession of either his
enemies or his friends. If it had been in the
hands of his enemies, it is certain that it would
have been produced to crush at once the pestilent
heresy which undermined the authority and in
fluence of the Jewish hierarchy. If it had been
preserved by his friends, surely it would have been
accessible to them. Strange that no one of them
ever appears to have thought of this decisive test of

THE SEAL. 267
the reality of their dreams or visions ! Marvellous
that no one of the twelve should have suggested
that it were prudent, before committing themselves
to a deadly contest with the ecclesiastical autho
rities at Jerusalem, by asserting the resurrection of
Jesus, to ascertain that his corpse was not where
they had laid it, nor elsewhere within the possible
search of keen-eyed opponents !
Now let the reader attempt to estimate the num
ber of improbabilities he must accept, on the hypo
thesis that the resurrection of Christ did not occur.
Of course, if this miracle were not wrought on the
lifeless body of Christ, neither were any miracles
really wrought by him during his public ministry
— for the intellectual objection to the resurrection,
if valid at all, is vahd against all miracles as such.
The historical result left us, after extracting all
supernaturalism from the life of Jesus, may be thus
summed up. A Jew, endowed with great spiritual
insight, appears amongst his countrymen, and
assumes to be the long-expected Messiah. He suc
ceeds in imbuing the minds of some few poor per
sons with faith in his pretensions, and after attach
ing them to his person, and evidently exciting in
their minds, whether purposely or involuntarily,
the most splendid expectations of the kingdom
which he is about to restore, he manages to provoke
the deadly hostility of the ecclesiastical hierarchy,
and is executed on the cross for blasphemy. Now

268 THE SEAL.
what was there in the career of such a man which
should predispose his few faithful disciples to anti
cipate that he would rise again from the dead]
Certainly not his previous works of Divine power,
for the hypothesis sets them all aside, as either
frauds effected by Christ himself, or as myths which
assumed shape only after his decease. If they
were frauds — but we need not follow out this alter
native. The character of Christ is felt to be so
utterly incompatible with the possibility of his
having stooped to deliberate and reiterated decep
tion with a view to compass his sublimely spiritual
ends, that the most inveterate scepticism rejects the
notion that he could have done so, and prefers the
theory of myths, as far more consonant with reason.
But if the records we have of the mighty works of
Jesus of Nazareth were the concretions of ideas
prevalent among the Jewish people at that age, and
were not originated until some time after his death,
of course they could not have misled his disciples
into foolish and vain anticipations that their Master
would be restored to them even from the jaws of
the sepulchre. Did he, then, during his lifetime,
venture any intelligible prediction that he would
rise again ] Strauss proves by his omnipotent cri
ticism, as satisfactorily as criticism of the kind can
prove anything, that he did not. Well then, we
have a dozen poor, uneducated, uninfluential Jews,
or rather Galileans, wrought into high expectations

THE SEAL. 269
of what was to be the destiny of their Messianic
Lord, suddenly hurled into despondency by his
ignominious death. The subsequent facts of the
case compel us to suppose that something occurred
to them which they one and all interpreted into the
resuscitation of his lifeless body, although that
body must have remained in their possession, or, at
least, within their reach. And this illusion, which
might have been so readily dispelled by a visit to
the tomb — unless, indeed, we suppose that for a
reason not to be divined, artifice was resorted to for
concealing the body for all future time — this illu
sion takes so deep a hold upon their hearts, that
they forget all their previous ideas of what the
reign of Christ was to be, and of what it was to do
for them, and they refine them into a system of
spiritual verities, which forthwith they promulgate
as founded on the resurrection of Jesus, and as de
riving their fulness of meaning from that fact.
The very tone of the men's minds alters — and
having unitedly surrendered their faith to a fiction
of their own fancy, they dismiss all dreams of
earthly greatness, and give themselves up to the
pursuit and diffusion of the most spiritual repre
sentations of God, and the soul, and eternity, of
which the world knows anything. And these men,
having thus marvellously concurred in crediting a
fancy of their own which they could have dispelled
at any moment, and having made that fancy the

270 THE SEAL.
basis of a highly spiritual system of religion, con
tinue till death in the zealous proclamation of what
they had thus spun out of their own mistake, gladly
bearing all persecution, privation, and insult, never
once faltering in their heroic course, and, in the
end, founding that Christianity which has come
down to us as by far the most striking moral phe
nomenon in the history of mankind. Why surely,
they who are driven into such desperate straits as
to be obliged to put up with this tissue of impro
babilities, or to accept even worse, as an explana
tion of the origin of the Christian faith, cannot
have gained anything in the way of satisfaction to
their reason by rejecting the fact to which the
apostles testified. It cannot be pretended that the
difficulty is less to him who denies, than to him
who accepts, the alleged miracle, and, certainly, the
evidence in support of it is far more various and
consistent than that on which its repudiation pro
ceeds. If, indeed, it were true that a miracle were
unnecessary to any spiritual revelation of the Su
preme, or, being necessary, were in direct opposi
tion to the principles of the Divine government,
we could not, under any circumstances, acquiesce
in the truth of the apostolic testimony to the fact
of Christ's resurrection — but even then, we should
be forced to conclude that in the conduct of his
government of man, God had permitted a myste
rious concurrence of events which had made it as

THE SEAL. 271
difficult to human reason, and, indeed, more so, to
disbelieve a fiction dishonouring to his own charac
ter, than to accept it, and draw legitimate, but
false, inferences respecting that character from it.
Not only, however, are the witnesses to this fact
contemporaries of Christ, and professedly eye-wit
nesses — not only have we the testimony of several
of them to their own assured belief — not only is
their character for integrity unimpeachable — not
only do surrounding circumstances militate strongly
against all suspicion that they could have been im
posed upon by their own excited imagination — but
the fact itself was one which scarcely admitted of
the possibility of mistake. It is quite beside the
mark to pretend, as a recent critic has done, that
modern belief in the phenomenon of clairvoyance
is parallel to the belief of the apostles in the fact
of the resurrection. A man of intelligence and
honesty may witness the feats of clairvoyance, and
believe in the reality of the power of second sight
under given circumstances, without laying us under
any obligation to accept his conclusion. Reason,
indeed, bids us receive his deposition as to the facts
he has witnessed, but not necessarily as to the
inference he draws from those facts. What he
saw, and what he heard, we are justified in taking
on his testimony — but the theory on which he
interprets what he saw and heard we are not bound
to admit. Now in the case of the resurrection the

272 THE SEAL,
witnesses do not give evidence in support of an
inference, but merely of a fact. They might not
be competent to prove to us that the resurrection
of Jesus was effected by the immediate power of
God, but they were surely competent to judge
whether it was or was not a resurrection. Their
organs of sight, hearing, and touch, might be relied
on, even if their judgment were at fault. The matter
in relation to which their evidence is adduced was
one to be resolved, not by the understanding, but
by the senses. We believe that evidence, just as
we should believe the assertions of a trustworthy
man as to things which he had seen done in the
name of clairvoyance. We simply substitute their
bodily organs for our own. If we reject their tes
timony, we can only reject it on the ground that
their report is untrue — that their character for
honesty is not reliable. No very nice discrimina
tion is required to distinguish between a corpse and
a hving man. A band of witnesses who assure us
that they have seen, heard, conversed with, and
touched, a fellow-man, and found him to be living,
cannot reasonably be objected to on the ground
that they might have been mistaken. Now take
the several accounts of the resurrection of Christ
furnished by the gospels, which we have hitherto
excluded from consideration, but to the authenticity
of which the only objection urged which does not
cut up all ancient history by the roots, is the eie-

THE SEAL. 273
ment of supernaturalism which pervades them, and
let common sense judge whether, if the facts any
thing resembled what is set down in the record,
there was room left for any delusion of the senses.
We must reverse all our established methods of esti
mating the value of human testimony, before we
can get at the conclusion that the broad fact here
deposed to is a fiction. The man would be laughed
to scorn who should venture to set aside evidence
thus cogent in support of any admitted historical
fact — such, for instance, as the assassination of
Julius Csesar in the Capitol. Upon a basis of
proof far less solid than this we accept all that we
know of ancient history. If our preceding obser
vations are well founded, and there exists no intel
lectual reason for repudiating, as such, a miraculous
attestation of revealed truth, then we are war
ranted in drawing the conclusion that the kind and
amount of evidence on which we build all our
knowledge of the past, is amply sufficient to sus
tain our belief in the resurrection of Jesus from
the dead. Regarding the objection to the miracu
lous element in this case as having been more than
neutralized by our foregoing strain of observation,
we remark that this fundamental fact of Christi
anity is supported by a body of evidence, more
solid, compact, and extensive, than can be found
at the base of any ancient historic statement
whatever. Reason, consequently, must do more
T

274 THE SEAL.
violence to itself by rejecting, than by admit
ting it. § 19. SUMMARY OF THE PRECEDING OBSERVATIONS.
The evidence in support of the crowning miracle
of Christianity having been shown to be amply
sufficient for the demands of reason, it will be
quite unnecessary to proceed further with this part
of our subject. The resurrection of Jesus Christ
distinctly marks off his life from human life in
general, as being what he declared it to be — a
manifestation of God to man with a view to engage
religious faith and obedience. This point being
established, further objections to the supernatural
ism of the life of Jesus are idle. The greater
miracle carries with it the less — and assuredly if
no valid argument can be found to set aside the
former, there remains no firm position from which
to direct an attack against the latter. We are,
therefore, justified in summing up the foregoing
observations, and in bringing this part of our sub
ject to a close. The following are the pro
positions which appear to us to have been made
good. 1. Whatever reason we have in the constitution
of human nature to expect a display of God to our
moral emotions through a moral medium, we have
also for expecting that supernaturalism will consti
tute a prominent feature in that display — inasmuch

THE SEAL. 275
as there is no other conceivable method by which
it can be rendered either complete or authentic.
2. A manifestation of Almighty power in attes
tation of a Divine mission such as that assumed by
Christ to have been entrusted to him, is not only
appropriate and pertinent to the emergency which
requires it, but answers besides several purposes in
connexion with it, of high moral importance.
3. A supernatural seal to a human-life revelation
of the Creator, so far from being any departure
from the principles of his established government,
whether physical or moral, is in entire harmony
with them, and subserves the highest end of man's
existence — that end for which he has been consti
tuted what he is, and which gives significance to all
the conditions by which he is surrounded.
4. Miracles in support of revealed truth may be,
and are, reasonably believed, because when wrought
for the attainment of a worthy spiritual purpose,
they are congruous with those natural and moral
instincts of humanity which appear to have no
suitable external object but in them.
5. The miracles of Christianity are, both in
manner and in kind, in striking unison with its
avowed design — and the general cast of them ren
ders it in the last degree unlikely that the accounts
of them handed down to us in the New Testament,
grew out of a gradual process of embellishment by
early disciples, or are mythical concretions of the

276 THE SEAL.
prevailing Messianic notions of the age in which
they are said to have been wrought.
6. The testimony on which the greatest of Chris
tian miracles — the resurrection of Jesus from the
dead—reposes, is as solid and satisfactory as evi
dence based on human testimony can well be — and
can only be rejected by a palpable disregard of all
the laws by which we test the trustworthiness of
ancient history. § 20. CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS.
If the foregoing propositions have been well sus
tained, the current intellectual objections to the
supernaturalism of the gospels are untenable — and
the sceptics of the present day have gained no ma
terial advance upon their predecessors, at least in
philosophic position. The arguments of that class
of apologists for Christianity, in which the first
place in the order of time may be assigned to
Tertullian, and in logical precision and force to
Dr. Paley, have not yet been bowed out of court.
They have not been neutralized. They are by no
means obsolete. The conclusiveness once believed to
attach to them, attaches to them still. The clouds
of dust which have been raised about them may
have concealed them for a while, but leaves them,
nevertheless, just where they were. The wind
which blows away those clouds, although it adds
nothing to the strength of previously existing proof,

THE SEAL. 277
restores it to visibility. And this is the service it
has been our special aim to perform for the Chris
tian faith. It has been our endeavour to show that
it accords with the highest philosophy — and that as
a mode of revelation, supernaturally authenticated,
it is recommended to our belief by facts and prin
ciples admitted in common by its advocates and
opponents. The deepest truths on which it rests
are those which human reason has long since
recognised as solid and unchangeable. We have
now but one further duty to perform. The mani
festation of God to our rehgious nature by means
of a human person and history miraculously at
tested, unobjectionable in theory, may yet be inde
fensible in fact. As a possibility it may be ad
mitted. As an actuality it may be denied. A
goodly purpose, some may be disposed to concede,
but where is the embodiment of it ] Is it in the
New Testament — a history which falls to pieces
under the action of philosophic criticism] The
answer to this inquiry will constitute the last part
of the present volume. And so we pass on to a
consideration of The Record.

PART IY.
THE RECORD.
CONTENTS.
1. THE BIBLE A RECORD OF A REVELATION. 2. NECESSITY FOR,
AND FITNESS OF, SOME SUCH RECORD. 3. ADVANTAGES OF POSITION
IN WHICH A REVELATION IS PLACED BY A RECORD. 4. SUBJECT-
MATTER OF THE RECORD CLASSIFIED. 5. WHAT REASON MAY RE
QUIRE OF A RECORD IN RELATION TO ITS STATEMENTS OF FACT.
6. UNFAIR CRITICISM RESORTED TO BY MODERN SCEPTICS. 7. CON
SIDERATIONS CORROBORATIVE OF THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE RECORD
SUGGESTED BY THE PROBABLE SOURCE OF THE FIRST THREE
GOSPELS. 8. DISTINCTIONS TO BE ATTENDED TO IN FAIR HISTORICAL
CRITICISM. 9. GENERAL EFFECT OF PRECEDING OBSERVATIONS.
10. WHAT OUR RELIGIOUS SENSE MAY REQUIRE OF A RECORD IN
REGARD TO THE INTERPRETATION OF FACTS. 11. RELIGIOUS IN
SIGHT NOT TO BE CONFOUNDED WITH INTELLECTUAL PROCESSES.
12. CONCLUDING SURVEY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AS A RECORD OF
REVELATION. 13. RELATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT TO THE NEW.
14. SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF THE FOREGOING BASES OF BELIEF..

THE RECORD.

§ 1. THE BIBLE A RECORD OF A REVELATION.
Hitherto we have conducted our argument with
an exclusive reference to the person and life of
Jesus Christ, and have, throughout, considered him
as the revelation of God to man. Such we take to
be the fairest as well as the most convenient
method of proceeding — the fairest, because in
estimating the worth of any pretensions, we are
bound to look at them in the light of their own
explanations and conditions — the most convenient,
because the core of the question having been dis
posed of, all that is extraneous or accidental to
it will fall into its proper place. Christ is the
key-stone of that arch of spiritual knowledge, a
copy of which we have in the scriptures of the Old
and New Testaments. Remove him from the
system, and the whole falls to pieces. Give him
that place in it which he claimed for himself,
and then each part has a special relation to
u

282 THE RECORD.
him, derives its significance from him, and helps
to constitute a symmetrical whole of which he is
the centre. " I am the way, the truth, and the
life — no man cometh unto the Father but by me."
This is the position in the economy of spiritual life
and government which, on his own representation,
he assumed to fill — and all that he said and did
must, in reason, be judged of in its relation to that
position. And it is on this ground, and on this
only, that the main controversy between believers
and unbelievers must be decided. Christ's life is
to us the medium through which God has morally
displayed himself to our religious nature, or it is
nothing — ^say rather, it is a pretence which has
no basis of reality to rest upon. In the firma
ment of divine revelation he is the Sun — and to
wards him all things pertaining to the system
gravitate. Hence, the singleness of our line of
argument — for if we have failed here, we have
failed altogether — if we have succeeded here, we
have succeeded in gaining the key to the central
meaning of revealed truth.
But although in justice to the argument, and for
the more convenient conduct of it, we have thus
isolated the life of Jesus Christ, it is not to be
regarded as so isolated in reality. It is repre
sented in the Bible as connected with a long
foregoing train of providential facts, and with a
subsequent brief passage of apostolic history,

THE RECORD. 283
which, taken together with itself, make up, as it
were, the body of humanity in which the Unseen
has rendered himself visible. That Christ is the
head of that body, and that in him centre all its
threads of vitality, does not militate against the
conclusion that the trunk and limbs have a
necessary part to perform, and that severed from
them, even he would not be, viewed in its practical
effect upon our minds, a perfect manifestation of
the Deity. Just as in a portrait, we require a
back ground in harmony with the main subject,
in order to bring out all its pictorial significance,
and look upon it as an essential part of the picture,
although it has no meaning nor value but in its
relation to the face and figure of the person repre
sented, so that portion of scripture history which
does not form part of the life of Jesus Christ, and
which, separated from it, is almost valueless, may
nevertheless constitute a fitting background to this
human-life delineation of the Supreme, necessary to
the completeness of the picture, and well adapted
to bring out into striking relief its features and
expression. Each is subservient to the other, but
in a very different manner. The accessaries
heighten the charm of the principal — the principal
gives a meaning to the accessaries — but in the final
result, even that meaning is reflected back upon
the chief object, lending to it an additional beauty.
The life of Christ, then, as a manifestation of God,
u 2

284 THE RECORD.
must be taken with its appurtenances — in other
words, with those scriptural statements of historic
fact which preceded and followed his personal and
earthly career. The revelation is through him —
but through him in connexion with a foregoing
and subsequent history — and the whole must be
viewed as the one picture in which human hearts
may best acquaint themselves with the ever-
blessed God. This, as we understand, is the guise
in which objective Christianity offers itself to our
faith — -and it is in this guise that its pretensions
are ultimately to be tested and determined.
Supposing, then, that no such collection of
writings as that which we denominate the Bible,
had ever been given to the world, it would yet be
'true (on the hypothesis that the series of facts
therein recorded actually occurred), that to some
portion of our race, the Creator had shadowed forth
his moral character and designs through the
medium of humanity. The only real difference
between God's manifestation of himself in such a
manner, and that which we profess to have in
the Scriptures, would be a difference of duration.
He who passes before a mirror is as really reflected
by it, as he who sits before a photographic
apparatus — only in the one case the image
vanishes as soon as the man withdraws, in the
other the image is retained. The sacred volume is
but the photograph of those historic facts in which

THE RECORD. 285
God has showed himself to mankind. The reve
lation itself was prior to • the volume — the volume
serves but to give fixity to forms and colours pre
viously exhibited. We are made acquainted with
God morally, by what he has done morally amongst
us — and the simple fact, that what he has thus
done is written down in a book, cannot alter the
essential medium by which we arrive at our ac
quaintance with him. It will hardly be contended,
we imagine, that a person who had learned from
the apostle Peter — say Mark, the son of his wife's
sister — the main story of the life of Christ, and had
listened to Peter's interpretation of its spiritual
significance, knew nothing of Christianity, until
after the publication of the gospels and epistles
which now appear in our New Testament. To his
mind that publication did not necessarily disclose
a single truth with which he was not already
familiar — nor add a single touch to the picture
in which he recognised the Image of the Invisible.
The facts themselves, and a true insight into their
meaning, would be all that he required to put
him into full possession of that spiritual knowledge
which we profess to derive from The Book. This
is so obvious that it appears to verge upon puerility
to make. the assertion. And yet if this be so, the
true function of the book to all succeeding gene
rations of men, is merely to put them into a similar
position with regard to these facts and their signifi-

286 the record.
cance which was occupied by such an one as Mark
before a line of the New Testament was written.
In other words, the Bible is not a revelation, but a
record of one.
§ 2. NECESSITY FOR, AND FITNESS OF, SOME SUCH RECORD.
Something has been written, more has been said,
and very much has been insinuated, to the detri
ment of Christianity, as a Soo/fc-revelation. How
much profound philosophy there is in the sneer, we
shall be able to estimate more accurately as we
proceed. If it was fitting — and we have attempted
to show that it was — for God to seek a response of
our moral emotions, by developing his moral cha
racter and purpose by means of a human life — if it
be true that thus, and thus only, he could draw so
nigh to us as to awaken our spiritual sympathies,
and engage our affections — and if it be a fact that
we are endowed with a religious nature, all the in
stincts of which crave some such external manifes
tation of the Supreme, and which, in the absence
of the genuine, will invent the spurious — then it is
difficult, if not impossible, to imagine how the ad
vantage of any such revelation could be secured to
the world at large, except by means of a written
record. The objection, if it have any force at all,
strikes at any special exhibition of the Divine mind
and will through the medium of man, and is equi
valent to an assertion, that be the felt wants of our

THE RECORD. 287
being what they may, and however becoming to
Infinite intelligence it may be to show himself in
the physical laws and phenomena of the universe,
it is contrary to all reasonable notions of him that
he should be mirrored to our souls by that which
is capable of reflecting a much distincter and more
impressive image of himself — namely, our own
nature. This objection, however, is purely gratui
tous, and cannot be sustained. But if God might
properly and graciously shadow forth his moral
character, relationship, and purpose, by any such
medium, it follows that whatever existing means of
perpetuating the benefit of this manifestation might
be necessary, would also be proper and gracious.
Now, all facts the knowledge of which comes to us
from man, or by him, are necessarily circumscribed
in time and space. The act, the speech, the suffer
ing, the hfe of any of our fellows by which God is
adumbrated, must have a relation both to locality
and duration. The act must have been done, the
speech must have been uttered, the suffering must
have been endured, the life must have been lived,
somewhere, and at some time — and unless a standing
miracle had been ordained, must have had a begin
ning and an end, and a circuit or area within which
alone human cognisance of any one of them was
possible. The providence of God has so arranged
that the sphere of our knowledge should not ne
cessarily be thus limited — and by means of arbi-

288 THE RECORD.
trary symbols fitly put together, we are able to
multiply indefinitely copies of any fact or senti
ment, and thus perpetuate it to all future ages.
Against the efficiency or completeness of this ar
rangement, men may complain as they will. They
might just as modestly, just as reasonably, complain
that the sun does not rise and set twice instead of
once in the twenty-four hours. It is one of the
established conditions of our present lot — a condi
tion affecting the mode in which not only our sup
posed knowledge of God by Christianity is trans
mitted, but also a great portion of that knowledge
of him which is derived from other sources. It is
not merely the believer in Christ, as God manifest
in the flesh, that is indebted to a written record for
the truths which quicken a religious life in his soul.
To a very great extent, the advocates of a religion
of Nature are under similar restrictions and obliga
tions. The facts in which they see the Invisible
are communicated to them for the most part through
books. If science is to teach us the Almighty,
science must condescend to the same instrumentality
which is employed for the dissemination of Chris
tianity. What a vast proportion of the knowledge
which we possess of physical laws has come to us
in this way ! But if this were not the case, does
it become reasonable men to value the truths com
municated to their minds, not by their intrinsic
importance, but by the accidental instrument of

THE RECORD. 289
their communication ] What do we know of man
but by history ] On what ultimate basis do all our
moral speculations rest, but upon that of history ]
How could we have attained to any generalized
and philosophical view of our race, their instincts,
powers, affections, habits, laws, or destiny, but by
means of history ] Is there nothing valuable but
what is recognised by the senses ] And if it be
true that there is latent in every man's nature the
possibilities of all the ideas which can elevate his
soul into communion with the Deity, waiting only
the impulse from without to quicken them into life,
and mature them into actualities, why may not that
impulse be imparted as well by a written fact, as
by one seen, pr heard, or handled ] Positively, we
feel ashamed at, and humbled by, any attempt, ne
cessary as it seems, to discuss the objection aimed
at Christianity as a revelation of God, on the
ground that the facts in which that revelation is
embodied, and the exposition of their spiritual sig
nificance, are handed down to us in a book.
By reason, the worth of things will be valued
according to the aliment they are capable of sup
plying to itself. What is matter, in whatever form
it may appear to man, or what its worth, save as
measured by the ideas and emotions it excites ]
The outspread universe, vast and unbounded as it
is to human apprehension, infinitely varied in its
aspects, beautiful in its order, complicated in its

290 THE RECORD.
mechanism, is glorious to our minds only for the
glorious ideas which our acquaintance with, and
study of, it, kindle in the soul. Wherein is a book
to be contemned in comparison, if it folds up
within itself that which can produce the same ele
vating and ennobling result, and even in a superior
degree ] It is little — but littleness is only a rela
tive quality. It is perishable in its individual form
— but it is capable of being made, by re-impression,
coeval with the globe itself. Aye ! and the sym
bols which are ranged across and adown its pages,
formal as they appear to the organ of vision, and
devoid of beauty, can yet start into life, within
that mysterious microcosm, the soul of man,
thoughts of the Unseen as worthy of him and it,
sentiments as pure, reflections as clear and pro
found, and sensibilities as tender and as deep, as
can any material emblem of spiritual ideas, though
on the most Titanic scale. The depths of man's
nature are oftener sounded — the hidden springs of
those affections which flow directly onward towards
the Eternal are oftener touched and laid open —
and the broad expanse of reason is oftener bathed
in sunlight — by books than by any other means.
The divine, in its loftiest sublimity, in its most
awful and heart-subduing beauty, gleams in upon
human consciousness through other and higher
media than that lent to it by physical mechanism.
The eye is but a small part of man's organism

THE RECORD. 291
compared with his whole body — but its power of
expression exceeds that of all the rest. Magni
tude, form, complexity, force, gravity, motion — all
are to be estimated in their relation to spirit, simply
by what they are able to evoke from it, or engender
in it. Thus also must we appreciate the import
ance of facts having a moral purpose in them.
Things are to us as is the measure of soul of which
they can make us cognisant by their instrumentality.
And it seems probable that man's nature should be
to man's nature an apter, a more flexible, and, as it
were, a more translucent medium of moral ideas,
emanating from the uncreated source, than any
mere material existence, or system of material exist
ence can be. Not all that may be learned of God,
as we have already seen — little or nothing of that
higher knowledge of him which sways the will and
captivates the heart — can be acquired from the
mechanism of the physical universe. Those aspects
of his being and perfections which are best made
known to us by moral action, and of which the
moral action can be best understood and appreciated
when developed by a human life, are higher in their
nature, more ennobling and purifying in their influ
ence, worthier of being displayed by him and of
being contemplated and studied by us, than any
which could be reflected by natural laws and pro
cesses. Whatever, consequently, gives tangibility,
durability, and universality, to this more elevated

292 THE RECORD.
and more delicate medium of spiritual expression,
should be estimated by rational beings, not for what
it may chance to be in itself, but for its adaptation
to great ends. He who sneers at any revelation of
God by means of a book, ought to show that it is
impossible for a book to become the point of con
tact between the soul of man, and an adequate
moral representation of God — and that in pre
serving and embalming, for all men in all ages,
facts illustrative of the Deity, it necessarily loses
the aroma and essential spirit of them, which alone
it is of consequence to retain. Biography, judged
of by this novel canon of sceptical philosophy, is
insipid and profitless as a study, compared with the
observation of the structure and habits of a living
worm — and human heroism, if the series of facts
by which it is displayed are to be met with now
only on the historic page, is less worth the notice
of an inquiring mind than the knowledge which
may be derived from the dissection of a frog's hind
leg, or from the chemical analysis of a parcel of
guano. To all that is asserted or implied by the
objection under present consideration, the reply
seems to us as decisive as we think it may be brief
— first, that moral ideas and sentiments can be
most fitly expressed by moral action — and secondly,
that moral action, to be of force beyond extremely
narrow limits both of time and space, must be pho
tographed by a written record.

THE RECORD. 293
§ 3. ADVANTAGES OF POSITION IN WHICH A REVELATION IS PLACED
BY A RECORD.
But we submit that a calm and unbiassed con
sideration of the whole case will carry us safely
much further than this. Not only is a record of
some sort a necessity, in the case of any exhibition
of God through the medium of humanity, at least
if the world in general is to derive benefit from it,
but it also has peculiar and exclusive advantages of
no slight worth. The first of these is obvious at a
glance. Such truth as God has designed to com
municate respecting himself, his relations to us, and
our duties to him, will be a boon to the race, va
luable in proportion to the ease with which it can
be disseminated in its integrity. The language of
facts is but little dependent for its intelligibility, or
even its impressiveness, on the language of the
tongue — and it matters little to their moral power
what may be the verbal version in which they are
conveyed to the mind, so that the facts themselves
are faithfully described, and truthfully interpreted.
Hence, variety of tongues among men constitutes
but a temporary impediment to the diffusion of re
vealed truth — an impediment easily removed, and
once surmounted is surmounted for all future time.
Nor should it be lost sight of that a revelation thus
enshrined is easy of access to individuals — no trivial
characteristic in a busy world like this. We need
not go far in search of it. No wearisome, expen-

294 THE RECORD.
sive, perilous pilgrimage must be the precursor of
our familiar acquaintance with its beauties. It may
be made a companion through all the chequered
scenes of life. We may commune with it in the
closet. We may converse with it by the wayside.
In the depths of the forest, on the trackless paths
of the ocean, upon the hill-top, in the cheerless
mine, wherever our disposition or our avocation
may summon us, we may still take with us that
treasure, and avail ourselves of all its fulness of
blessings. It may always be kept at hand to re
fresh our spirits in the brief intervals of leisure
snatched from the dusty turmoil and business of
life — and in those long hours of vacancy and inac
tion forced upon us by bodily indisposition, it may
become a resource and a solace tinging with hope
and gladness even the gloom of a sick chamber.
To the man who believes that the mind of his great
and beneficent Creator has been graciously ex
pressed in a series of human facts, it is matter of
thankfulness that the record of those facts — the
outward wrapping of truths inestimably precious —
the continent of a boundless spiritual world — is
within easy reach at any moment of life. This is
one of the high but incidental benefits of a moral re
velation, that the mechanical casket which contains
it, and without which it could neither have been
preserved nor distributed, is so suitable in dimensions
to our daily and individual use. And yet within

THE RECORD. 295
that little space there may be, even the most scep
tical must admit — there is, as the Christian believes,
an inexhaustible fund of knowledge, and store of
whatever may sustain and develop spiritual life,
greater than our utmost need, outstretching far our
widest capacities. The material universe, however
instructive, is but a cumbersome and inaccessible
volume in comparison of this. Moreover, how rea
dily and cheaply is it multiplied ! The seed of
divine life, assuming it to be such, in what other
external form could it have been given us so capable
of indefinite reproduction ] To us it may be, and
is, a perplexing problem, that the arts by which a
written communication of mind to mind may be
struck off by myriads, with but little expense either
of time or labour, were discovered and matured so
late in the world's history — although, as we have
already seen, any objection affecting divine revela
tion, or the means of its promulgation, founded
upon this and kindred facts, impugns the wisdom
of God's providential government. Meanwhile,
thus much is certain — that in the advantages se
cured to mind by scientific discoveries, the record
which transmits to us God's revelation of himself
by his Son, has its full share. If the gospel be
what it purports to be, we, of this age at all events,
and all who come after us, have little reason to
complain that it has been handed down to us in
the shape of a book. Admitting that 'the instru-

296 THE RECORD.
ment is one capable of putting glorious truths re
specting God into contact with the heart, it is
plainly a recommendation of it to us, rather than a
detraction from its merits, that it will admit of
being multiplied to an unlimited extent, without
losing in the process a single particle of its virtue,
and that there attaches to it no essential condition
which would preclude it from being in the posses
sion of every individual on the face of the earth.
The arrangement, surely, might have been other
wise. It is not every blessing desirable for man
which allows of this easy and indefinite reduplica
tion. In our estimation therefore, the fact that a
spiritual revelation embalmed in a record does
admit of being thus multiplied and distributed, is
so far an item to be carried to the credit side of
the balance of advantage or disadvantage attaching
to what has been contemptuously designated " a
book-revelation of God."
There is, however, a further consideration bear
ing on the point now under discussion, which ought
not to be overlooked. It will be admitted, we sup
pose, that it is to our religious sentiment mainly,
any display of God through human nature may be
expected to make its appeal. It is obviously fitting
that if any approach is to be made to us in this
manner, the paramount object of it must be to
quicken in us a spiritual life, and to develop it into
such a goVerning power over life of every other

THE RECORD. 297
kind as its superior intrinsic excellence demands
for it. But if this be so, then it follows that in the
agency employed for this purpose, all that is sub
ordinate and auxiliary only should be so arranged
as to interfere as little as possible with the primary
end to be answered. Every artist who understands
his profession will recognise the abstract propriety,
at least, of this rule. If his picture is designed to
represent some one idea, he will deem it unwise and
unartistical to give prominence to objects which,
instead of guiding the mind of the spectator to that
idea, would arrest and divert the attention from it.
Even supposing the painting itself to be faultless in
this respect, it would still be a mistake to put it
into a frame, the curious, elaborate, or imposing
workmanship of which, might catch and detain the
notice which should rather be concentrated upon
what it encloses. So, regard being had to moral
effect alone, the acted drama is inferior in power to
the written. The bustle of the stage, the scenery,
the costumes, and all the other incidents of thea
trical performance, tend so strongly to excite other
emotions, and to elicit other sympathies, than the
moral, that the main purport is forgotten, or but
imperfectly realized, in the excitement of the more
superficial susceptibilities of our nature. In like
manner, a deep and permanent impression upon our
religious sentiment is most likely to be produced
when those feelings of humanity which lie nearer

298 THE RECORD.
to the surface are not too strongly agitated. The
very noise and pressure of passing events, more
especially if in any way we are personally interested
in them, usefully as they may operate in dispelling
general listlessness, and so preparing us for subse
quent reflection, usually prevent us from noticing
" the still small voice" which issues from their
midst, and which whispers to our conscience the
moral lesson which those events embody. It is not
until after excitement has subsided, and the atmo
sphere which surrounds us has become calm, that
the inner man catches the tones of admonition,
rebuke, or instruction, specially addressed to its
attention. " If they believe not Moses and the
prophets, neither will they believe though one rose
from the dead," seems to us a declaration of the
profoundest philosophy. Where a religious result is
to be reached by means of a circumstantial agency,
that is the most favourable position of affairs, in
which the circumstantial element is least obtrusive,
and the religious most noticeable. It would have
been a valid objection to Christianity, as a revelation
of God to our moral nature, had the historical form
in which it has been presented to our faith been so
permanently vivid in its colouring as to have been
more deeply interesting to us for its incidents, than
for the divine truths they were intended to convey.
So far from later generations having to regret their
distance in point of time from New Testament

THE RECORD. 299
scenes, as if it were a misfortune, we believe that
they have quite as much reason to rejoice in it, as
a superior privilege. For all the purposes of true
spiritual life, the means and appliances within their
reach are better tempered, if so we may express it,
than they would have been found eighteen cen
turies ago. That very intensity of excitement
which was then stirred up by near or passing
events served rather to injure than to assist spiritual
insight into the real import of the gospel ; and it is
a remarkable fact, that most of the heresies which
afterwards grew up and choked the " good seed "
of the word, may be traced up to germs which
existed and were quickened at that very period.
The religion of Christ, viewed too circumstantially
in its objective character, became, almost neces
sarily, disproportionately imaginative, sentimental,
and even physical, in its subjective character.
Events having God in them, took a more forcible
hold upon their minds than God in the events.
The machinery of revelation attracted more notice
than the main purport of it. The consequences
were not long in making themselves felt, and,
in process of time, grew to a magnitude which
threatened fhe very extinction of Christianity as a
spiritual power. The Church wholly misunder
stood her mission, and instead of seeking to evoke
a religious response from the hearts of men, or to
promote the free development of their spiritual

300 THE RECORD.
capabilities, she rapidly degenerated into a vulgar
wrorldly power, relying for an external success upon
craft and force. The Reformation has not wholly
delivered us from this tendency to materialism in
worship and belief — and very slowly, and not with
out frequent relapses, are even Protestants accus
toming themselves to look beyond what is but
external and circumstantial in the religion they
profess, and to set a paramount value upon its
spiritual significance. Towards this happy con
summation, however, aid is given by the pro
vidential arrangement which has subjected an
historical revelation to the necessity of preservation
in a written record. The chief interest attaching
to the events of Christ's life must now, and hence
forth, be predominantly one of a purely religious
character. All that was novel, all that was
marvellous, all that was fascinating to mere sen
timent, or calculated to strike the fancy, has
become so toned down and sobered by lapse of
time, as to have brought out the eternally and
unchangeably divine into strong relief, and
the religious purport of gospel facts may now
secure a large share of the attention wliich was
once but too exclusively engrossed by the facts
themselves. In a word, spiritual truth in the
record is more likely to be recognised and
responded to, than in the actual events the
occurrence of which that record makes known

THE RECORD. 301
to us — and the portraiture of the Supreme in
human colours is all the better fitted to awaken
an appropriate interest in our hearts now that
the colouring matter has become mellowed and
subdued into a simple bygone and written history.
Every form in which Godhead displayed itself to
our moral sympathies is thus preserved entire —
whilst the glare which necessarily overspread the
entire picture, as one of passing or recent occur
rences, and which tended to arrest the mind
rather than to direct it to the proper object, has
passed away for ever, and to the eye of faith there
remains a more spiritually impressive representa
tion than ever of the Invisible God.
Conscious as we are of the extreme imperfection
of- the foregoing attempt to convey to others the
idea which appears definite to our own mind,
we still trust we have so far indicated what we
mean, as to warrant our claiming for a boo k-
revelation, if so the reader still chooses to call it,
a moral advantage peculiar to itself. But be this
as it may, enough has been said to redeem it from
the contempt unthinkingly cast upon it. Plainly,
we are not justified in rejecting Christianity as
unworthy of God because its facts, like all other
historical facts, have been handed down to our
knowledge in a written record. There is no ab
stract reason why such should not have been the
case. They part with nothing whatever of their

302 THE RECORD.
own spiritual meaning, nothing of their dignity,
nothing of their religious power, in this process
of transmission. What they have lost by it to
our imagination, they have more than gained to
our religious sense. Where the forms of truth
have somewhat faded, the spirit of it has become
more perceptible. And just as the hortus siccus
of the botanist may serve his purely scientific
purposes better than an excursion in the fields,
so the historically-preserved events in which God
displays the moral aspects of his character may
be more advantageously submitted to the contem
plation and reflection of the inner man for all the
ends of religious life, than could have been the
same events in their actual occurrence. Thus
much, then, at least, we take to be demonstrable —
and more than this it is not required of us by the
argument that we should establish — namely, that a
human-life manifestation of God, already shown to
be needed and appropriate, involves the necessity
of a record in order to practical and general useful
ness — and that this obvious necessity brings with it
no such disadvantage as might excite a just sus
picion that any mode of appealing to our spiritual
susceptibilities which incurs such necessity, is un
suitable for God to adopt, and unworthy of man to
receive. The ground, therefore, is clear for further
progress. The case is one in which, unless the
whole of our foregoing train of argument is fal-

THE RECORD. 303
lacious, a record of some sort is admissible. It is
not irrational to look for a divine revelation, such
as we have endeavoured to explain it, in a book.
A Scripture religion is not per se an absurdity.
Men are not justified by their reason in rejecting
as a communication from God, that which is first
brought under their notice by a volume penned by
their fellow-men — or if so, the conclusion must
be made good by a much clearer and more con
vincing logic than that which can be packed into a
bold assertion, or a supercilious sneer. Meanwhile,
and until this has been effected, we shall deem
ourselves authorized to proceed with our argu
ment, and, assuming it to have been proved that
a record is not abstractly objectionable, we shall dis
cuss the question whether the Bible, taken as a
whole, can be rationally accepted as a fitting
and trustworthy record of a manifestation of God
to man. § 4. SUBJECT MATTER OF THE RECORD CLASSIFIED.
Dealing, then, as we think ourselves fairly en
titled to do, with the books of the New Testament,
which we regard as the efflorescence, or matured
development, of the entire religious system at
present under discussion, we may classify their
subject-matter into two broad divisions — state
ments of fact, and explanations of the spiritual
bearing of fact. We do not pretend that every

304 THE RECORD.
line, or even every book, contained in the New
Testament canon, will find an appropriate place
under one or other of these heads — but we pre
sume to think that the classification embraces so
large a portion of the volume as to render it
quite unnecessary to the argument that we should
interrupt the course of it by frequent and specific
reference to the small part not included in this
grouping. A passage of history, and its religious
meaning, constitute, in brief, the sum and sub
stance of that singular collection of writings which
has been the basis of faith to so many men, in
so many successive ages. It will be convenient,
with a view to clearness, that we should look at
each of these divisions of the subject-matter
separately — and, on the hypothesis that taken
together they record the mind and will of God
as displayed in the person and life of a man, it
is incumbent on us to ascertain, as precisely as
we are able, the demands of reason in reference
to each, which must be fully met before we can
avail ourselves of them as legitimate foundations
of belief. What do we require of a record such
as this purports to be ] What, as rational and
accountable beings, have we a right, or are we
bound to demand of such an instrument professedly
fashioned with a view to such an object ] As to
the history — the description of what is supposed
to have occurred, or to have been done — how

THE RECORD. 305
shall we satisfy the intellect that it may be
accepted as a substantially accurate account of
realities ] And as to the doctrinal significance
attached to it, and inferences deduced from it,
by what considerations should our religious
sense be determined in embracing or repudiating
it ] These are the general questions we have
to dispose of — having done which the ground
will be cleared for determining the extent of
credit due to the writers of both Testaments.
§ 5. WHAT REASON MAY REQUIRE OF A RECORD IN RELATION TO
ITS STATEMENTS OF FACT.
Our first business will be to get as precise and
angular a notion as possible of the gist of the in
quiry upon which we are now about to enter.
Both advocates and opponents of Christianity appear
to us to have lost themselves, and wasted much
unnecessary argument, in consequence of a too
hasty deviation from the beaten path of the ordi
nary, for the less visible regions of the extraordi
nary. It is far from surprising that such should
have been the case. Men who have realized high
spiritual enjoyment in a cordial belief of revealed
truth, and who have observed its elevating and
purifying influence upon the minds of others — men
who verily believe that the ideas of God and them
selves which have taken such deep hold of their
sympathies, and exert so happy a power over their

306 THE RECORD.
hearts, are truly, and must needs be, divine — men
who cannot but be conscious, gratefully conscious,
that spiritual life has been awakened in them by
knowledge derived in the first instance from the
Holy Scriptures — may well be pardoned for identi
fying results so unspeakably important to them
selves with the direct agency of God, and for
regarding the instrument of producing these results
as wrought and fashioned by his special interven
tion. It would have been difficult to have con
vinced a Jew who had just witnessed the parting
of the waters of the Red Sea under the uplifted
rod of Moses, that the rod itself possessed no spe
cial virtue, but that in material, in properties, in
liabilities, it was just such as any other rod might
be. Assuming it to have been a fact — for the illus
tration's sake — that a vis divina was put forth in
connexion with the rod, and supposing some unbe
liever of that day to have questioned the direct
interference of the Deity at all — it will be obvious
at a glance that discussion between the believing
Jew and his sceptical brother as to whether God
was or was not working, by Moses for the deliver
ance of Israel, could not be logically nor advan
tageously taken upon the narrow and really irrele
vant question — irrelevant, we mean, as to the
pending issue — whether or no the rod by which
the Jewish legislator performed his miracles was
itself divinely fashioned. So in the case before us.

THE RECORD. 307
The true point of dispute between us and unbe
lievers is whether God has been pleased to display
himself to our religious nature in and by the person
and life of Jesus Christ, and whether those aspects
of character which are believed to have been so
displayed are worthy of him, and are eminently
adapted to become the means of spiritual life to
men — and, towards this particular issue, whatever
may be advanced on either side touching the inspi
ration of the record is beside the mark. It is not
needed, in order to show satisfactorily that there is
a divine revelation in the record, to prove that the
record is itself divine. It is not sufficient, with a
view to disprove that revelation, to point out marks
of infirmity on the face of the record such as no
instrument framed by the hand of God could be
rationally expected to exhibit. It strikes us as
peculiarly inconvenient, and strongly calculated to
mislead, to wage controversy mainly upon a ques
tion which, in respect of the real difference between
the parties at issue, is collateral rather than direct.
Not that the question of inspiration is an uninte
resting or unimportant one — nor that unsound
views regarding it are to be looked upon as of no
great practical consequence. What we mean — all
that we would be understood to mean — and what
we shall hereafter attempt to make good, is this —
that the spiritual authority of that revelation of
his character and designs which God has vouch-

308 THE RECORD.
safed to us by Jesus Christ, resides in the facts of
which that life consisted, and not in the written
record of those facts — and that even if it could be
demonstrated that the penmen who have given us
memorials of that life, and of the events which
were preparatory to, and consequent upon, it, were
indebted to no other aid than that supplied by
mental and moral qualifications which any other
writers might possess in common with themselves,
the main strength of Christianity, as a communica
tion to mankind of God's mind and will, would
remain untouched.
We must ask the reader who disputes this posi
tion to consign to momentary oblivion all the ideas
which he has been wont to associate with the New
Testament, considered as a collection of sacred books,
and by an effort of imagination, to place himself —
in Corinth, say — at a period prior to the publication
of any one of them, but still subsequent to the death
of Jesus Christ. We shall assume that the events
of which we have a circumstantial account in the
gospels actually occurred, and that the interpreta
tion put upon them by the apostle Paul is the cor
rect one. We assume these points — but merely
with a view to show the proper relation of the New
Testament to them — or, in other words, of the re
cord to the revelation. Well, on the hypothesis
that Christ's life was a pre-ordained manifestation
of God to men, and that his personal history is a

THE RECORD. 309
human development of the Divine thought and will
regarding them, what quality would have been
absolutely requisite to give authority to an oral
communication of the facts of the case, and of their
spiritual meaning, to one occupying the position in
which the reader has been requested to fancy him
self placed ] Let us see.
A native of Corinth, then, living about the year
a. d. 50, having heard strange rumours respecting
a newly introduced faith, is anxious to investigate
its claims on his reception. Not one of the docu
ments on which dependence is now implicitly placed
by the Christian world has yet made its appearance.
It will scarcely be pretended that this man's posi
tion precludes the possibility of his arriving at a
conclusive and rational result until after the New
Testament penmen shall have given their respective
writings to the world. The first care of our in
quirer would be to ascertain, as fully and as accu
rately as possible, all the facts, a knowledge of
which might be deemed necessary to guide his
judgment. Let us suppose that, after considerable
search, he has succeeded in finding four men who
profess themselves qualified to furnish him with
ample and trustworthy information. What will be
the criterion to which his reason wall compel him
to refer their several statements, in order to deter
mine whether, on a matter of such moment, he may
accept them as a basis of his future religious belief ]

310 THE RECORD.
Would it occur to him to ask whether these wit
nesses and informants, in laying before him their
respective accounts of what they had themselves
seen and heard, or had perhaps received directly
from eye and ear witnesses, were exercising the
ordinary faculties of men, or were prompted, di
rected, and controlled, in the whole of their testi
mony, by a divine afflatus, specially vouchsafed to
them for the purpose] If, moreover, these oral
historians put forth no such pretensions on their own
behalf, is it conceivable that our inquirer's reason
would suggest that he ought to regard them as, at
least, implying as much, and that no examination
of their statements separately, or in comparison one
with the other, ought to satisfy him, which should
not elicit results in perfect harmony with this arbi
trarily adopted standard] If, indeed, the facts
were of a nature rendering it impossible for men to
testify to, or describe them, by the use of their un
assisted intellectual powers, judgment might pro
perly be suspended until evidence of inspiration had
been produced. But although it requires divine
power to give sight to the blind, and to raise the
dead, it cannot be pretended that an accurate ac
count of these miraculous occurrences cannot be
given by eye-witnesses, unless they are prompted
thereto by supernatural influence. There is no
passage, that we remember, in the life of our Lord,
which might not have been freely and precisely

THE RECORD. 311
communicated by one man to another, by the simple
exercise of those ordinary faculties which are usu
ally tasked to produce a trustworthy narrative of
events. Even in regard to the discourses of Jesus,
recorded at such length by the apostle John, after
the lapse, too, of many years, a quick and retentive
memory, aided only by appliances common enough
in all ages, may be supposed to have sufficed for
their accurate preservation, without trespassing
beyond well-known boundaries of probability. In
stances are common enough in our every-day life,
of powers of recollection far exceeding in strength
what would have been required for the production
of John's gospel — and it is surely not beyond the
range of fair conjecture that scenes and sayings
which made so deep an impression on the minds of
Christ's more immediate followers as to have altered
the whole after-current of their lives, would, very
soon after his departure from among them, be com
mitted to writing in order to preservation, and,
perhaps, distribution. Be this as it may, the ima
ginary Corinthian inquirer might have properly
received the substance of the history which has
been handed down to us, in oral communications
differing much, or not differing at all, from those
embalmed for us in a written record, in style, tone,
manner, and drapery, without rendering it necessary
that the individuals to whom he was indebted for
their information, should have been divinely as-

312 THE RECORD.
sisted. As a rational man, his cross-examination
of the witnesses, his comparisons of their testimony,
his critical inquisition on the materials placed
before him (always, however, supposing him to
have been in pursuit only of a conclusion satisfac
tory to his judgment), would have related to their
competency and reliableness as witnesses, not to the
question whether or not their minds were under
direct divine guidance. And if this man could be
thoroughly assured that his informants were placing
facts before him, those facts, assuming them to be
the same in substance as those narrated by the evan
gelists, would have constituted as solid a basis for
his belief in a divine revelation by Jesus Christ, as
any which we possess in the present day. It is
plain, then, that to him, the question of inspiration
would not, and ought not, to have been entertained
and discussed, as fundamental to the question of a
divine revelation. The religious authority over his
conscience of the facts communicated to him, would
lie, not in any previous conviction that the persons
to whom he had been indebted for them were in
spired by the Spirit of God, but in the sufficiency
of the proof put before him, that the witnesses had
told him things which had really occurred.
Now, we submit to the reader, with some confi
dence, that in all that relates to statements of fact,
the written record which we have in the New Tes
tament is fairly open to such tests, with a view to

THE RECORD. 313
the satisfaction of our reason, as might have been
applied to oral testimony, in the case supposed, and
to such only. The criteria of truth, which might
have been properly referred to in the one instance,
are the only criteria to which proper reference can
be made in the other. The spoken testimony, and
the written testimony, are subject to precisely the
same rules. Such guarantees of integrity and com
petency as might have satisfied the mind in the
one case, may satisfy it in the other. Such mis
takes (not touching the heart of the matter borne
witness to), as in oral testimony might have been
held consistent with thorough knowledge of what
was essential in the story, may be so regarded and
treated also in a written record. Such discrepancies
between the statements of the witnessing parties,
as, in the first position, would have been reasonably
looked upon as confirmatory of their independence
of each other, and of their conscientious adherence
to the fact as it appeared to them, may be looked
upon in the same manner, and with a like result, in
the last. All the indications of individual or na
tional peculiarity — all the modes of describing
occurrences true, because well understood, in the
locality of the speaker, but not strictly true in other
places — all the omissions, or redundancies, which
find a reasonable explanation in the special purpose
of each narrator — all matters, in fine, which serve
to stamp individuality on the information imparted,

314 THE RECORD.
and to show that the same objects have been seen
by different persons, but from different, and, per
haps, opposite points of view — all are to be allowed
for, and respected, and held reconcileable with a
truthfulness that may be implicitly relied upon, in
our critical analysis of New Testament history, as
in our supposed inquirer's cross-examination of
living witnesses. To him, evidence that God had
showed himself to man by means of a human life
would present itself, if at all, in the facts of that
life, quite independently of the eccentricities of man
ner, speech, and opinion, exhibited by the narrators
in the communication of those facts. One informant
may have blundered in geography, another may
have been mistaken in an historical reference, a
third may have misquoted or misapplied some pro
phetical allusion, a fourth may have furnished im
portant information never hinted at by his fellow
witnesses, and all may have given ample proof that
their minds were not free from the influence of
traditions vulgarly received in the locality to which
they respectively belonged — but unless these pecu
liarities and infirmities touched their competency to
give information on the material points of their
story, or betrayed a want of integrity, they would
naturally have been dismissed as incidents having
no bearing whatever on the main issue. Taking
together all the statements deposed to by his in
formants, our Corinthian inquirer, willing to believe

THE RECORD. 315
where he found sufficient evidence, would have
rationally required satisfaction on two points — first,
assuming the statements to be substantially correct,
do the facts described carry on the face of them a
moral demonstration that Jesus Christ was, what
he assumed to be, the " way " to the Father — and
if so, secondly, is the testimony sufficient to sustain
the main body of the facts ] Reasonable assurance
on these two points would constitute also a reason
able basis of belief in Christianity as a divine reve
lation. The historical books of the New Testament,
then, stand between us and the life in which God
is alleged to have revealed himself, precisely in the
position which would have been occupied by living
witnesses, had it been our lot to have lived in the
interval between the death of Christ and the dates
at which they were originally published — they an
swer to us the same purpose — they are open to the
same kind of critical examination — and, in case of
their sustaining that examination, they conduct us
to the same legitimate result. Their authority
consists in the nature of the facts, a knowledge of
which they transmit to us, and in the ascertained
integrity and competency of the men who wrote
them. Supposing them to be lucid media through
which to look at the outline of Christ's life — sup
posing that by means of them we really get at
what he did, and said, and suffered, and what
y 2

316 THE RECORD.
several of his followers did, and said, and suffered,
for his sake, after he was parted from them — we are
brought front to front with that body of facts in
which, according to the pretensions of Christianity,
we have a moral revelation of the unseen God. It
is a perfectly fair question whether a man openly
professing the purpose which Jesus Christ professed,
exemplifying his character, doing his works, and
vindicated by a resurrection to which he had pre
viously appealed as the crowning proof of his
mission, should or should not be regarded as setting
forth to man's sympathies the moral aspects of the
Deity. And again, it is a fair question whether
this alleged series of facts be or be not the mere
creation of over-excited fancy. But it is not a
question relevant to the main issue, whether the
record through which we make acquaintance with
those facts is free from blemishes, perfectly imma
terial though they may be, found to attach to every
other record. Our theories, indeed, may require
that such should be the case — our reason, assuredly,
makes no such demand. We place the record in a
false position, and clo it a gross injustice, when we
treat it as if it were the revelation, instead of being
only the window, as it were, through which we look
out and see one. We subject it to a vast amount of
superfluous, and, we may add, unfair criticism and
cavil, by our misapprehension of its true place and
functions. It is as though we persisted in main-

THE RECORD. 317
taining that the glass through which we looked at
the moon is identical with the heavenly body seen
by its aid, and that every speck of defilement on the
surface of the glass pertains, not to the medium of
our vision, but to the object which shines through
it. The strange and mistaken fancy might be of
little consequence to ourselves- — but another, adopt
ing our theory, might shake our faith in the reality
of the object seen by proving that no such appear
ances as are given to it by the glass we use, can,
by any possibility, belong to the moon itself.
The foregoing observations, supposing them to
be well founded, warrant us in affirming that the
fact, if it should turn out to be such, that hostile
criticism hath hitherto failed in shaking the charac
ter of the historical writers of the New Testament,
either in respect of their conscientiousness — of their
meaning to tell the truth' — or in respect of their
competency — of their having within reach the ma
terials of truth, and being qualified to form a cor
rect judgment of it — then criticism, whatever else
it may have done, and whatever minor charges it
may have established against these penmen, has
left untouched the foundations of a rational faith
in Christianity as a revelation of God. The show
ing of God to men, happily, as we venture to think,
is effected by means of something far less liable to
derangement, to misunderstanding, and to the pos
sible accidents of time, which could have been

318 THE RECORD.
guarded against only by a perpetual miracle, than
it would have been had it depended upon any mere
collocation of words, or any dogmatic expression of
belief. The display is made in a glorious life, in
describing the main features of which truthful men
well acquainted with it could not greatly err, what
ever their common liabilities to incidental and tri
vial inaccuracy. Such being the mode of revelation,
the world needs not that it should be looked at
through any more transparent medium than the
conscientious narratives of credible witnesses — and
if the gospels can fairly maintain this character,
the authority of the revelation, and, surely, to a
great extent, its moral power also, will still survive
any conceivable settlement of the controversy as to
how far they are the result of divine inspiration.*
* The Author may, perhaps, be permitted to declare his own un
faltering belief that the writers of New Testament history were
under divine guidance in composing their several memoirs of Christ.
In the selection of their facts, he sees a contribution by independent
minds to one unique and consistent result — a perfect and beautifully
harmonious portraiture of " the man, Christ Jesus." This result he
takes to be a very important one in its bearing upon the spiritual
regeneration of the world, and hence, he is led to ascribe it, not to
accident, but design. That design, however, cannot plausibly be
attributed to biographers who wrote without concert, and whose
united productions bring out so complete a picture that none has
been able to suggest an improving touch. Now he can conceive of a
much less satisfactory use made of the materials within reach of the
evangelists, without impeachment of their integrity or competency —
and he attributes the unity of effect, unconsciously produced by
separate instrumentalities, to the directing influence upon them of
one mind — the mind of the ever-blessed God. But this belief
crosses at no single point the path of argument followed out in the
text.

THE RECORD. 319
The memoirs of a great man do not lose their sug
gestive nor their educational virtue, because written
by a biographer open to much censure — nor can
the life of the divine man be in any danger of fail
ing of its transcendant purpose, because in the
verbal sketches of it traces may, perchance, be dis
coverable that the writers themselves were not in
all things infallible. If we have solid ground upon
which to rest a belief, that Jesus Christ professed,
and acted, and spoke, and suffered, as he is repre
sented to have done in the four gospels — and we
must ascertain this by the application of precisely
the same tests as we bring to bear upon all other
historical works — there exists for us, whatever may
be our speculations on the nature and extent of
Divine assistance vouchsafed to the writers, a bright
mirror in which to see reflected the moral linea
ments of the Deity. Whether this will correspond
with the entire scope of our religious want, is a
question which may admit of further discussion.
But thus much appears to us certain — that the ad
vocates of Christianity as a revelation of God have
done all that can be required of them by the sober
est reason, in vindication of the New Testament as
a record of facts, when they have succeeded in
placing the history upon a level for trustworthiness
with ancient history in general, and in showing
that the writers were as truthful in their purpose,
as conscientious in their statements, and as capable

320 THE RECORD.
of testing the worth of their materials, as any men
of any age, whose historical works have come down
to us. We think much more than this can be done
— but this, we contend, will amply suffice for a
solid basis of reasonable belief.
§ 6. UNFAIR CRITICISM RESORTED TO BY MODERN SCEPTICS.
Sceptical writers of recent times have subjected
the New Testament historians to a process of criti
cism so powerfully destructive in its operation, that,
if universally applied, it would leave the world
without a single shred of history upon which reli
ance could be placed. It is called philosophical —
but, in point of fact, it is almost exclusively dog
matic. It is a solvent which gets rid of impurities,
by getting rid of the substance to which they
attach. It starts with a broad assertion, unsus-
tained by argument, which arbitrarily sets aside as
incredible the main body of almost every impor
tant fact recorded in the gospels. This done, it
sets to work upon the tissue of circumstances by
which each fact is environed — and having detected
fewer or more discrepancies, as the case may be, it
leaves upon the minds of the unwary an impression
that the fact itself has been demolished. A simple
illustration will show the mode in which this criti
cism works. Let the historical subject selected for.
examination by the process be " The Gunpowder
Plot." The first step to be taken is a bold, unqua-

THE RECORD. 321
lified denial of the possibility of so wild a project
having entered into the head of any living man, in
volving, as it did, the certain and horrible death of
the instrument necessary to its successful execution.
The ordinary laws of human nature are here unac
countably reversed — and hence Guy Fawkes can
be regarded by no man who puts any value upon
his reputation for intelligence as a real historical
personage. The event which we now celebrate on
the fifth of November was not an actual occur
rence, and what we find relating to it in the books
of history, is plainly nothing more than a mythic
representation of the great fact of the age — the
providential and signal triumph of Protestantism
over the wiles of Popery. The mind having been
thus shaken in its belief by mere hardihood of
asseveration, and dragged into the suspicion that
the whole story is but an invention, is invited to a
critical examination and close comparison of the
several accounts which have been transmitted to us
of this famous passage in our country's history.
But observe, the temper in which the investigation
is gone into is already one unfavourable to the
truthfulness of the witnesses to be summoned. It
will prove hard, indeed, if in some three or four
independent narratives of the same event, apparent,
and, possibly, real discrepancies of statement cannot
be detected — an omission of some important link
in the chain of events by one writer — a difference

322 THE RECORD.
in the attitude and bearing of the chief conspirator
when discovered, as described by others — some di
versities of statement as to what he said, what was
his purpose, who were his accomplices, the circum
stances of his trial, and the incidents connected
with his execution — in short, a rather formidable
muster of seemingly unaccountable and contra
dictory averments, which cannot be satisfactorily
elucidated, as in the case of viva voce witnesses, by
further questioning, nor reconciled by eliciting an
omitted incident, so potent, in every-day experience,
to explain otherwise inexplicable mysteries. Now
the characteristic vice of this mode of criticism
is this — The substance of the narrative having
been blown upon by a philosophic dogma, and the
historians of the event being afterwards brought
up for cross-examination as witnesses in a cause
already adjudged to condemnation, every sign of
non-agreement, every variation of detail, every
apparent contrariety of statement, and every in
cident not readily explained by the story itself, is
set down as confirmatory of prior suspicions — that
you are not dealing with an actual occurrence,
but with a fiction. Now, try the fairness of this
method by admitting the event as a reality. You
have just the same diversities, perplexities, and
contradictions, to look at — but looking at them
from the substantial truth of the story, they in
stantly assume another meaning. They show how

THE RECORD. 323
possible it is, as we see every day, for men's de
scriptions of the same fact to differ when observed
by them, as it were, at different angles of sight.
They illustrate for us, what we cannot but
have frequently noted in ordinary social inter
course, how strongly the purpose which an indi
vidual has in view, tells upon the course of any
narrative of facts which inclination or duty may
prompt" him to give, and yet without laying him
open to a just charge of untruthfulness. They
prove to us the independence of honest witnesses.
And 'they remind us of our liability to pass a hasty
judgment on apparently irreconcileable statements,
a key to the complete harmony of which is so often
supplied to us by the veriest trifle of subsequently
received information. Now, we affirm, without
hesitation, that philosophical criticism has no right
to practise upon us this double wrong. It is not
justified in putting the gospel writers to this species
of inquisitorial torture. It is not honest in first
declaring a biographer to be a fictionist, and then
labouring to extort a confession from his own lips.
No history could stand the trial. No truth to be
depended upon can be got at by the process. It
is analogous to nothing which, between man and
man, we commonly regard as frank and equitable
dealing. If supernaturalism be a gross absurdity,
by all means, let it be shown to be such on
separate and appropriate grounds. Let this con-

324 THE RECORD.
elusion be fairly established, and we shall need no
elaboration of criticism to crush our faith in the
gospels. But until it is proved, reason does not
bind us to proceed to an investigation of the New
Testament narratives as if it were proved. Until
we have been satisfied on this head, we do not feel
ourselves precluded from admitting evidence which,
in other matters, unless compelled by a foregone
conclusion, we should never feel ourselves war
ranted in rejecting — nor do we consider ourselves
bound to interpret discrepancies affecting only non
essential details of historical events, into proofs
that the writers cannot be describing realities. We
set something down, as we ought to do, to the cha
racter of the men — something, to their opportuni
ties of acquaintance with the scenes and events
which they portray — something, to the impracti
cability of their palming off a series of fictions
upon observant contemporaries — something, to the
ready belief and wide circulation which their works
obtained — something, to the simplicity of their
style — something, to the unaffected candour and
deep sincerity of their tone — something, to the
exquisite moral beauty of the character they have
depicted — something, also, to the sublime spiritual
purpose which gleams through the entire life of
that man whose memoirs they have sketched — and
we are not to be oblivious of all this instantly upon
being told in an authoritative manner that a mira-

THE RECORD. 325
cle is an impossibility ; and, in the moment, and
under the influence, of our forgetfulness, proceed
to rake together all the superficial difficulties, ano
malies, and contrarieties, which an already suspi
cious mind may torture into " confirmation strong
as Holy Writ." Our reason, whatever may be the
case with others, constrains us to examine, as we
have done, separately and apart, the question whe
ther supernaturalism may be a necessary, a becom
ing, and a credible feature of any revelation to man
by man of God's moral character — and having
determined that question in the affirmative, we find
no justification for allowing incredulity to cast a
dark shadow of suspicion over the history in which
we discover a worthy purpose wrought out in con
nexion with an appropriate supernatural display.
On the contrary, we feel ourselves impelled by what
appear to us rational considerations, to take our
-stand upon the preponderant proof in favour of the
fidelity of the New Testament writers, and from
that ground, rather than from a dogmatic position
arbitrarily assumed, to pass in review, for the pur
pose of comparison, their several accounts of their
Master's life and deeds — -to take notice of their
agreements, as well as their differences — to mark
in what respects their separate testimonies induce
conviction, and in what they suggest doubt — to
weigh the substantiality of the one against the tri
viality of the other — to judge of their conflicting

326 THE RECORD.
statements, in their bearing upon the trustworthi
ness of the penmen, according to those rules the
benefit of which we should deem ourselves obliged
to extend to all other historians — and to set down
nothing as necessarily subversive of their credit
which will admit of a probable explanation con
sistent with their honesty. For, be it remembered,
these witnesses, strange as may be the facts to
which they depose, come into court with a charac
ter which no mere criticism can set aside. They
are heralded by events, and are surrounded by
favouring probabilities, which no judgment can do
wisely to overlook. And if they ask only that
measure of respectful treatment which is readily
accorded to profane historians, it cannot surely be
unreasonable that their demand should be complied
with. To this, however, our philosophical critics
stoutly demur. They have already settled that no
testimony can prove a miraculous event — and they
expect others to join with them in regarding every
real or seeming discrepancy as satisfactory evidence
that these men are not to be believed. Now this
is not the manner in which we are wont to act in
courts of justice. Such are not the rules by which
we test evidence in matters arising daily out of the
common relationships of life. This is not the
spirit in which we apply ourselves to ascertain his
toric facts in general. Therefore we hold that con
clusions reached by means of such a process are

THE RECORD. 327
not ordinarily depended upon as valid — and this
being the case, we see no reason why we should
subject the evangelical record to a violence of un
friendly criticism under the tortures of which all
history would be obliged to confess itself a lie, and
then expire.
§ 7. CONSIDERATIONS CORROBORATIVE OF THE AUTHENTICITY OF
THE RECORD SUGGESTED BY THE PROBABLE SOURCE OF THE
FIRST THREE GOSPELS.
When we look at some of the peculiar features
of the record itself, we discover marks upon it,
which, while they strongly corroborate the integrity
of the writers, open up to us also the probable
sources of those diversities and discrepancies of
statement upon which such unfavourable stress has
been laid by modern critics of the philosophical
school. Every one must be struck with the re
markable similarity of the first three gospels —
showing itself sometimes in the selection of the
same occurrences for description, sometimes in the
order in which the occurrences are narrated, and
sometimes in the use, throughout whole passages,
of the selfsame words. Combined, however, with
this similarity, there are not only material differ
ences in all three respects, but there are also upon
the face of each gospel such characteristics as must
satisfy the mind that each writer had access to a
considerable stock of materials common to all ; that

328 THE RECORD,
each also availed himself, to some extent, of infor
mation either not possessed or not used by the other
two ; and that each so far modified what passed
through his hands, as to leave upon his work a
well-defined and cognisable stamp of his own indi
viduality of purpose, style, and manner. Ancient
patristical writers make mention of a gospel by
Matthew, written in Hebrew, and published and
circulated among the churches in Judea at a very
early date. This gospel, it is thought, constituted
the common root out of which eventually sprang
the three which we now possess. But another sug
gestion has been made of late, deserving consider
able attention. During the interval between the
death of Jesus Christ and the publication of the
first gospel, a large number of converts was made,
and not a few churches must have been scattered
over the face of what we now call the Holy Land.
Authentic information respecting the life and
ministry of the Messiah would, of course, be ear
nestly coveted by these Christian societies — indeed,
we can hardly imagine how they could have been
" built up in the faith," save as a solid groundwork
was laid in the communication to them of historic
facts. Upon facts the new religion was based, and,
no doubt, much of the " preaching of the kingdom,"
by the apostles and elders, would partake of a his
torical cast, and be largely intermingled with nar
rative memorials of their risen Lord. Every pas-

THE RECORD. 329
sage of this kind, authenticated by apostolic or
other competent authority, would be carefully
committed to writing, and preserved by the bro
therhood to whom it may have been communicated.
In process of time, there would exist among the
churches of Judea, but in a detached and scattered
shape, written records of most of the remarkable
incidents in the life of Christ — and, probably,
neighbouring churches would freely intercommuni
cate copies of such biographical statements as might
at any time have come into their possession. Thus,
for several years, circulating notes containing de
tached passages of the life of our Lord would con
stitute, as it were, the New Testament of the
churches. The imperfection and danger attaching
to this mode of diffusing historical knowledge
would very soon become apparent — and hence the
necessity of collecting, comparing, authenticating,
and arranging them, and giving them to the
churches in a compact and reliable form. This
seems to have been first done by the apostle Mat
thew, and had the limits of the Christian church
been confined to Syria, no second work of the kind
would probably have been judged necessary. As
circumstances not requiring to be here detailed
rendered it expedient to prepare other compilations,
Mark and Luke severally, and each with the view
of meeting a special want, undertook the work —
the one, it is said, under the supervision of the
z

330 THE RECORD.
apostle Peter— the other, perhaps, guided by the
wise suggestions of the apostle Paul. Both these
writers, as well as Matthew, would find the bulk of
their materials in the circulating historical notes
already alluded to, of each of which it may be
fairly supposed that many copies were in existence.
Now if this conjecture approaches the truth of the
case — and, let it be borne in mind that besides an
swering external probabilities, it is suggested and
corroborated by internal indications — the close re
semblances, and the minor diversities, of these three
gospels are naturally accounted for. Of the most
remarkable incidents of the life of Christ there
would be almost as many copies as there were
separate churches, the greater part of them derived,
it may be, from the same original source, but differ
ing slightly from each other, partly in consequence
of unintentional changes made by the copyists,
partly, perhaps, owing to some touch of emendation
or correction, or explanation, made by some disciple
personally cognisant of the event described. The
materials thus distributed over a pretty wide surface
would be collected by each of our three evange
lists, who would range them in the order, correct
them in the wording, add or take away explanatory
matter, and present them in a foreshortened or ex
tended aspect, as might best serve, according to his
judgment, the interests of truth, and best fall in
with his particular object and plan. It is, of course,

THE RECORD. 331
impossible now to prove that this was the mode in
which these separate memorials were originally
constructed, but it is equally unreasonable to con
tend that a process somewhat resembling this was
not adopted — or, in other words, that there were
not in circulation among the Jewish churches oral
or written accounts of the more prominent facts of
the Messiah's history, long prior to the publication
of the evangelical records, and available, and, in
all likelihood, made use of, in the production of
those works. Now, in connexion with this view of
the origin of the three gospels, Matthew, Mark, and
Luke, we beg the reader's attention to the follow
ing remarks. Very many, if not most, of the won
derful incidents narrated by these penmen, are dis
tinctly associated with a given town, village, or dis
trict, the name of which is set forth. Often, too,
the effect upon the inhabitants of the locality spe
cified produced by a particular miracle, or by a
cluster of supernatural works, is broadly stated,
intimating, to say the least, that a deep and general
sensation had been excited. In the East, and espe
cially at that period, the general seclusion, quiet,
and, we may almost add, torpor, of provincial life,
would constitute an atmosphere in which the me
mory of a striking supernatural occurrence would
keep fresh and green for a long succession of years,
and would be the topic of frequent conversation for
one generation at least. It is fair to suppose, and,
z 2

332 THE RECORD.
in truth, the idea starts up in one's mind with irre
sistible force, that almost the first place to which
any given passage of Christ's history would travel,
whether preserved in an oral tradition, or in the
shape of a written circular note, would be that with
which the passage was identified. Either, then, it
would, or it would not, be verified by the recollec
tions of the neighbourhood. If not verified in the
great majority of instances, how are we to account
for the continuance and growth of churches in the
very districts where pretended facts had turned out
fictions, and how came it that a " sect everywhere
spoken against," and often pursued and persecuted
with malignant fury, wholly escaped the charge of
forging the events on which they founded their
asseverations that Jesus was the Son of God, and
the Saviour of the world ] On the other hand, if
these detached bits of biography did obtain cre
dence in the places with which they are boldly said
to have been originally connected, it could only
have been in consequence of tallying in the main
with the reminiscences of the inhabitants. But
this being so — and we confess that, so far as our
knowledge goes of men's ways and tendencies, and
of the ordinary course of things in our everyday
world, it must have been so, or something very like
it — then it follows, that, within twenty years (as
suming the longest period), a goodly proportion of
the historical statements comprised in the first

THE RECORD. 333
three gospels were authenticated by the public re
collection of the particular neighbourhoods to which
they have been assigned — and thus we have not
only the guarantee of the writer's character for the
general accuracy of his memoirs, but, in addition
to it, the tacit corroboration of the people of each
place in which any miraculous work is said to have
been wrought. We know not how other minds
may be impressed by these considerations, but, for
ourselves, we are bound to profess that we feel an
infinitely greater intellectual difficulty in account
ing for the escape, to this day, from refutation and
demolition, of statements of pretended fact which,
if mere inventions, were exposed to so early an
ordeal, and which could have been so triumphantly
exposed in every locality with which the writers
had rashly connected them, than we do to reconcile
the discrepancies between the several gospels,
dragged to the light by modern criticism, with the
historic fidelity of their respective writers. The
effort required in the first case involves a painful
and intolerable strain upon our common sense. In
the last, every natural probability aids one in the
accomplishment of his task. The first hypothesis
involves a result contradictory of all experience —
the last is sustained by the simple application of
rules universally resorted to in framing a judgment
on history. Far harder does it seem to us to push
aside evangelic facts than to harmonize, or, at

334 THE RECORD.
least, account for, evangelic incompatibilities of
statement.

§ 8. DISTINCTIONS TO BE ATTENDED TO IN FAIR HISTORICAL
CRITICISM.
Modern criticism, however, has not confined its
analytical operations to a detection of disagree
ments between the New Testament biographers.
It has also fastened upon a number of so-called
flaws in the record which, although they do not
touch either the fidelity or the competency of the
writers, and, therefore, derogate in no way from
the authority of revelation, tend greatly to perplex
and stumble unpractised combatants in this con
troversial arena. Now we venture to suggest a
few common-place observations which, perhaps,
may set the minds of others at rest, as they have
certainly done ours. A preliminary remark or two
will serve to give them additional force.
What, then, we may ask, was the world's want
which, on the hypothesis that God has revealed
himself to mankind in his Son, these memorials
of his life were needed to supply ] Surely, a
knowledge of what Christ was, and did, and said,
and endured, in which our religious sympathies
might recognise, and respond to, the moral
character and purpose of the Everlasting Father.
Given, then, a record in which this knowledge
may be surely and readily found, and we have

THE RECORD. 335
no right either to complain of, nor be surprised
at, much less shocked with, any characteristics on
the face of the record which, depreciating in no
degree its material value, nor obstructing in any
manner its important end, may, nevertheless, be
tinged, more or less, with the common hue of
human imperfection. For example, if it should
be found that these faithful witnesses have deli
vered their testimony in not wholly unexception
able Greek — or that in some matters, not touching
their main object (matters, it may be, geographical,
ethnological, or philosophical), they are not en
lightened above the common standard of their
times and station — or that they have adopted
habits whether of thought, of speech, or of action,
which, perfectly innocent in themselves, might yet
be smiled at, as founded in misapprehension, by
such as have profited by the lengthened subsequent
experience of the world, and by the progress of
science — if, in a word, it should appear that the
historic writers of the New Testament were really
men of the age in which they lived, men of the
country in which they were born and educated,
men subject to the then limitations of general
knowledge, men of individual tendencies, tastes,
temperaments, passions, and even prejudices — and
if, in transmitting to distant generations, by means
of their writings, a perfectly accurate historical
portraiture of the Messiah in whom they trusted

336 THE RECORD.
and whom they loved unto death, they must be
admitted to have so far exemplified the above
suppositions as to render the fact cognisable to
every diligent student of their works — wherein is
the world the worse for this, and, in what respect
could our reason have wished it otherwise ] We
protest, we do not see. On the contrary, we feel it
to be an advantage, that the divine light ema
nating from the life of Jesus Christ, should reach
us through an artless, and thoroughly human
medium, and that the record should be such as
will not only allow, but invite our most searching
examination of its every passage with the same
freedom with which we investigate the laws of
Nature, and which will engage us to pause and
ponder, meditate and adore, stirred, awed, or en-
wrapt, rather by divinely significant facts, than by
the verbal dress in which they may chance to show
themselves. It is no misfortune, in our judgment,
but quite the opposite, that " we have this treasure
in earthen vessels " — and, just as children listening
to descriptions of a monarch's court, or of a prince's
power and beneficence, are glad to be reminded by
some homely phrase or accent, by some familiar
tone or gesture, that a mother is the speaker, so, to
us, such traces on the page of evangelic history as
mark the writers for men — honest, faithful, com
petent to their task — but yet, verily and indeed
men — bring their entire narrative much more closely

THE RECORD. 337
home to our sympathies, and set us upon a more
ardent search for the spirit in its several portions,
than would have been the case had it been pos
sible for us to have received precisely the same
story written by the faultless pen of some superior
being. Influenced by the feeling to which we have just
given but a feeble and inadequate expression —
wilhng to test, to the furthest legitimate extent, the
trustworthiness of the witnesses on every point
which is covered by the object for which we are
dependent on their testimony — we can also, without
perilling one jot of our faith, bear to take state
ments at their hands, connected only collaterally
with the purpose they have in view, with precisely
the same freedom to receive or to reject, as in the
case of any other writer. For example, if two
individuals professing to give, from reliable in
formation, the memoirs of some great man's life,
should prefix to their respective biographies a
very different genealogical account of his ancestry,
up to a very remote period, we should discover,
in the fact, no good ground for cherishing the
slightest suspicion either of their fidelity or their
general accuracy. Their real object is to exhibit
the man himself, and a catalogue of his progenitors,
although associated with, cannot be regarded as
essential to, that object. They must, in this in
stance, rely upon information furnished them by

338 THE RECORD.
others, the accuracy of which in every particular it
may be wholly out of their power to verify. It is
possible that, for many imaginable reasons, dif
ferent branches of the same family, where the
line of descent divides into two and afterwards
unites, may choose to trace up their ancestry by
different chains of succession — and it may happen
that each compiler of the memoirs in question has
given that list which came to his hand from family
authority, without being personally committed to
all its details. Upon comparing the two works,
and finding a total want of agreement in a con
siderable portion of the genealogical chain, we
should naturally conclude that the diversity may
have arisen from some difference of principle
observed in the mode of keeping a family register,
and the last thing which would occur to us would
be a misgiving as to the reliableness of the writers
in matters fairly within the scope of their under
taking. Now, it is well known that the evan
gelists Matthew and Luke have given to us
widely differing genealogical accounts of the
ancestry of Jesus, and that Matthew divides his
into three sets of generations, numbering fourteen
each, whereas the individual names enumerated by
him fall short of making up the total amount
required. On this discrepancy and apparent
blunder the critics are amazingly triumphant, and
their comments have no doubt staggered many an

THE RECORD. 339
honest mind. We will not dwell, in reply, upon
the evidence furnished by this obvious and glaring
diversity, that here, at least, there could have been
no collusion. We will not stay to press the in
quiry how it has come to pass that a church
strongly suspected of " rounding off " the gospel
narratives, never attempted a similar freedom for the
purpose of harmonizing statements so obtrusively
diverse. We will not urge the suggestion that if
we could recover the principle on which each of
these tables was framed, we might probably find
that they are' both reconcileable with historic fact.
But we say that, taken at the very worst, this
seeming discrepancy may be ascribed to the same
class of infirmities in the writers, or, rather, of
limited knowledge not essential to their purpose, as
bad Greek, or incorrect philosophy. A perfectly
correct list in detail of Christ's ancestry, is no part
of the human life in which God is believed to have
shown himself to men. There might be, and pro
bably were, immediate reasons of some weight call
ing for the insertion, in each instance, of these
documents in the evangehc narratives — reasons of a
purely temporary and local interest ; but to the
world in general the precision of those hsts, or of
either of them, can be of no importance. Accept
them, and no special advantage is gained — strike
them off, and none is lost. Whether regarded as
embellishments or flaws, they are rather attached

340 THE RECORD
to, than incorporated with, that body of facts in
which God has made himself visible. They stand
accounted for by the humanity of the writers, not
the humanity of the mode of revelation. They
may indicate a necessary finiteness in the recording
instruments — but they involve the total sum of the
matter recorded in no obscurity. Mistake here,
even if proved to be a mistake, no more affects
the question of the writers' trustworthiness — their
main object being considered — than a mistake in
grammar, in logic, or in geography. We come to
the conclusion, then, that a clear distinction should
be drawn by fair criticism between statements of
fact constituting " part and parcel " of that history
in which, according to our view, a revelation of
Deity is made to us, and those which, even if
historically connected, are extraneous to the main
purpose — and of the latter kind, we may reasonably
content ourselves with receiving the current in
formation of the times. We are not bound to
regard such information as infallibly accurate,
any more than we are under obligation to
maintain that the idiom of the New Testament
writers is pure. It suffices in the case of the
information, as in that of the idiom, that no
essential truth is affected by it, either one way
or the other.
There is another distinction needing to be kept
in mind, if we would examine these writings with

THE RECORD. 341
critical justice — a distinction between what belongs
to the manner of telling a story, and between what
pertains to the story itself. In testifying to certain
facts, a man may be received as a perfectly faithful
witness, although in the course of doing so, he
should unconsciously betray some habits of thought
which may be deemed indefensible, or array his
facts in a garb of theoretical opinions from which
others may differ. The habits of thought and the
theoretical opinions belong to him — the fact to
which he testifies, to his reader. So far as con
cerns his capacity of biographer, it is enough that
he gives you a faithful and speaking portraiture of
his subject — and should he also, whilst so engaged,
unwittingly reveal any part of himself, you will, of
course, avoid the error of confounding the one with
the other. Common sense dictates an observance
of the distinction in any judgment we may form of
ordinary history — and we cannot admit that in
dealing with the gospels we are justified in putting
our common-sense in abeyance. For example, it is
alleged against the authority of the evangelists, but
especially against Matthew, that they go out of
their way to instance the fulfilment of some Old
Testament prophecy, occasionally to the extent of
applying passages for this purpose which have no
perceptible connexion with the fact, beyond a
similarity in the sound of words. It is no part
of our present plan to dispute the fairness with

342 THE RECORD.
which these charges are made. We may, per
haps, be permitted to express, in passing, our
doubt whether these writers, in asserting the ful
filment of ancient scripture, customarily meant
by it the occurrence of the precise event at
which the prediction was designed to point, or
whether they intended merely to notice a striking
coincidence between a modern fact and an old
passage, or, as we, in modern times express it,
the " making good " of such and such a saying
by a new practical illustration. Waiving this
doubt, and regarding the custom, whether peculiar
to the apostles or common to the times, as open to
all the severe remarks with which modern criticism
has seen fit to handle it, we cannot forbear observ
ing that it has nothing whatever to do with the
reliableness of the writers for the facts they nar
rate. We are not to suppose that the evangelists
were wholly free from the prevailing habits of their
times — nor that whilst engaged in composing their
respective gospels, those habits were necessarily
suspended. If evidence can be found that they
were given to exaggerate, and to colour their
statements of fact for the purpose of shoring up
their opinions, such evidence would be to the
point, and damnatory to their high reputation.
But in the case before us, it is not a fact of the
history, but an opinion, or theoretic conviction
of the writer of it, that is found fault with by

THE RECORD. 343
the critics — and we must protest against impugn
ing the authority of a divine revelation made
through facts, on the ground of mental errors, if
such they are esteemed, with which the historians
of those facts may be supposed to have been
chargeable — more especially as the last, which
chiefly concern us, are in no way altered, per
verted, or obscured by the first.
But there is yet a much larger sphere in which
this distinction holds good — we mean, in that some
what numerous class of miracles performed by our
Lord upon persons possessed by demons. We
trust we may be allowed, without prejudice to the
argument, to declare our own faith in the fact of
demoniacal possession. We know, indeed, the
contempt to which we expose ourselves among
certain thinkers by this avowal, and we must be
content to bear it as best we may. Perhaps,
moreover, we have no right to complain, for al
though this tenet of our belief is justified to our
own minds by strict philosophy, and may, per
chance, if opportunity favour, be hereafter openly,
and at fitting length, vindicated, it is neither neces
sary, nor suited, to our present object, nor does
it consist with our present engagements, to trouble
the reader with more than the bare result of much
thought upon this question. But although our
conviction is such as we have stated, we maintain
that the opposite conviction is quite compatible

344 THE RECORD.
with a reverential deference to the authority of
revelation, and an unimpaired confidence in the
testimony of the apostles. For, be it borne in
mind, all the visible facts in these cases of pos
session are common to both parties — the difference
being as to the invisible adjunct of the facts. Idiocy,
lunacy, epilepsy, mania, are real evils, even if
demoniacal possession is no better than a fancy —
and when either of them is associated with organic
impediments, such as deafness, or dumbness, or
both, it is not usually held to be curable, at the mere
bidding of man, any more than are other physical
diseases. The tender compassion, the ready bene
volence, and the divine power of Jesus Christ, were
conspicuously and gloriously displayed in healing
the unhappy victims of these physical ills, however
impossible of access their weakened or overthrown
intellects may- have been to malignant spiritual
natures, however conclusively it may be held that
no such natures exist. It will be further admitted,
we presume, that the witnesses of these alleged
cures, even if utterly astray in their thoughts on
possession, were not thereby incapacitated from
describing, with faithful accuracy, the physical
effects which were cognizable by their bodily
senses. They nowhere tell us that they saw the
demon leaving his victim — they nowhere in their
narration of this class of miracles, so far as can be
traced, depart from that strict adherence to truth

THE RECORD. 345
which always characterises them when speaking of
what passed under actual observation. Indeed,
they so closely and conscientiously describe symp
toms of what they took to be the indwelling of a
malignant spirit, that physicians of the present day
are able to identify the cases with different diseased
conditions to which the human frame is now liable.
This would have been utterly impossible had any
license been indulged in by the writers in record
ing tangible facts in each instance. Thus far,
therefore, their testimony is credible, and, to this
extent — no very limited one, we think — these
recorded miracles may be received even by those
who reject the theory of possession, as forming no
mean portion of that entire body of biographical
facts, mirroring to us, by Christ Jesus, the moral
image of the Almighty.
But now, on the hypothesis that the theory of
demoniacal possession is absurd, because philoso
phically untenable, in what respect is the tes
timony of the gospel witnesses depreciated ]
There can be no manner of doubt that they be
lieved in the. theory — as little room is there for
denying that, in this respect, they were not peculiar
in their faith, for their countrymen fully shared it
with them. Say, it was one of the popular fallacies
of the nation and the. age. Be it so — then in
recording, as we have : seen, with scrupulous con
scientiousness certain physical wonders effected by
A A

346 THE RECORD.
the Messiah, they also recorded them in terms
which any historian of those times would have
employed, and wrapped up the physical realities
in an ontological covering, to which both them
selves and their readers attached high importance.
Rend that covering to pieces, and the realities are
left untouched — because these constitute the matter
of the story — that affects only the manner of telling
it. As when one who believes that witches have
power to agitate the elements, describes to you
how, on one memorable night, they did their
worst — hung the firmament with sulphurous
clouds, rent the land with an earthquake, lashed
the sea into fury, tore up trees by the roots, and
swept the vale with an inundation — reason does
not compel you because you disbelieve in witches,
to reject the account of the terrors they are said to
have occasioned, or of the mischiefs they are re
ported to have done. When the " midnight hags "
have been eliminated from the story, the tempest
and its effects remain. The occurrences may have
been as real as the manner of narrating them was
imaginative — and, in the affairs of common life
and history, no intelligent man feels that he is
under the necessity of confounding the one with
the other. So, in the case of the miracles of Christ
on the bodies of persons alleged to have been
possessed, it is a great mistake to suppose that
by demolishing the theory of demoniacal pos-

THE RECORD. 347
session, the entire class of events the record of
which was penned in the conviction that the
theory is true, is by that one stroke got rid of,
and the supernatural acts ascribed to Jesus thereby
greatly reduced in number. The substance of
every story remains. The physical phenomena
described are precisely what they were — neither
modified nor destroyed. All that can be fairly said
to have come to naught under the process of philo
sophic criticism, is the common belief of the age,
which coloured the historian's manner — a belief
which we may share or repudiate, without in either
case affecting our faith in the trustworthiness of his
testimony. Objections of a moral character may be
started against the countenance given by the lan
guage and acts of Christ to what, on this hypothesis,
was but a current superstition, which, of course, those
who deny the reality of possession, but still accept
the miracles, are bound to meet. That, however,
is not our business. What we insist upon is this —
that the facts narrated must be distinguished from
the tenets of faith implied by the manner of the
narrator — and that it verges upon a trick of
sophistry to assume that by disproving the one
you have thereby set aside the other. The reason
ing which may tear to pieces the historian's sup
posed superstitious convictions, leaves his fidelity
as a witness to things seen and heard wholly
untouched, and, in the case under consideration,
A a 2

348 THE RECORD.
as we have already observed, corroborated by in
ternal marks of scrupulous accuracy.
§ 9. GENERAL EFFECT OF PRECEDING OBSERVATIONS.
We have already observed, and, we think, clearly
shown, that the New Testament is not a revelation
of God in the strict sense of that term, but a record
of one, vouchsafed in the facts of a human life.
Whether the Creator could appropriately disclose
to us his moral character, relationship, and purpose,
through one man's history, from birth to death, is
an a priori question requiring to be decided by
abstract intellectual and moral arguments. By
similar means must we arrive at a conclusion, affir
mative or negative, as to whether supernaturalism
may fitly, and must needs, form part of any dis
closure of the Deity made through such a medium.
These two points having been disposed of according
to their assumed merits, the further question re
maining to be considered is mainly, if not exclu
sively, one of facts. Christianity is still operating
upon the world as a spiritual power. It traces up
its existence to the life of Jesus Christ, who pro
fessed to be, in a peculiar sense, the Son of God,
" sent " to make known to men their " Father who
is in heaven." Such a profession we are justified
in regarding as an introduction to us, in the shape
of external fact, of the speculative and abstract con
clusion previously settled upon what appeared to be

THE RECORD. 349
sufficiently solid grounds. We saw in our own
nature certain religious capabilities, susceptibilities,
and irrepressible yearnings — and we saw in a reve
lation of Deity through humanity a congruous
objective provision for their exercise and satisfac
tion. That some man, therefore, should appear in
our midst, claiming to be a representative of the
Supreme, assumed to our reason, thus prepared,
the appearance of a fact in accordance with just
expectations. We proved that such a man, pre
senting himself to us on such a mission, could sub
stantiate his claim no otherwise than by miracles,
and that in such a service miracles are not only not
at variance with, but are themselves a fitting exem
plification of, the known principles of the Divine
government. An immense body of historical facts,
then, which no one can think of impugning, bears
us back to Jesus Christ, who claims to have ap
peared amongst men for the realization of a pur
pose we have seen to be desirable, and who assumes
to make good his claim by an appeal to proof we
have seen to be fitting and necessary. Such being
the case, the record, it is clear, must be treated as
a record of facts likely, in the nature of things,
to have happened at some period of the world's
experience, and certain, from the same cause, to
happen but once. What, then, can we reasonably
demand of the history, but that it should fairly
abide the tests by which we examine all other his-

350 THE RECORD.
tory in relation to singular but not improbable
occurrences ] Now, we make bold to say, that the
evidence adduced in support of the historical trust
worthiness of the writers of the New Testament is
as various, as weighty, as logically impregnable, as
can be collected in favour of any history whatever.
More than this, we contend, is not absolutely re
quired — but more than this is forthcoming at
demand. Sceptical writers, we are aware, ask fur
ther satisfaction on this and the other point at
which the chain of demonstration is alleged to be
interrupted, or barely visible. They dare not make
similar and equivalent demands in any other in
stance. They would not so risk their reputation.
They dare not condemn as fictitious whole passages,
and, for that matter, entire works, of secular annal
ists or biographers, on those grounds of criticism
upon which they so coolly immolate the gospels.
The truth is, supernaturalism is, in their view of it,
undeserving of civil treatment — beyond the pale of
controversial responsibility — and requires to be put
down by any and every weapon of hostility within
the critic's reach. Adjudged beforehand, and by a
dogmatic philosophy, to be a culprit, it is examined
accordingly. Out-of-the-way proofs are demanded
— solemn depositions are set aside — ordinary allow
ances are refused — the common rights of history
are declared null and void — and when, by a free
resort to these violent methods, the verdict on fact

THE RECORD. 351
has been made to square with the dictum of philo
sophy, we are bidden to accept the result as a proof
and an earnest of man's intellectual progress.
Now, we protest against this as unreasonable. If
supernaturalism in theory is to be extinguished, let
it be done by sound theoretical reasoning — if super
naturalism in fact is to be crushed, let it be crushed
by instruments applicable to matters of fact. But
it is certainly too arbitrary first of all to bind it
hand and foot with thongs of a self-settled philoso
phy, and then fling it into the water and bid it swim
where nothing else historical could live. Try this
record as you try others — its statements of fact by
the same ordeal as you usually adopt in reference
to statements of fact — its principles of philosophy
by considerations of philosophy — but let it not be
taken for granted that a mere objection to its prin
ciples in the one case, can justify a departure in
the other from the usual method of trying state
ments of fact. In a word, what reason requires of
a record of revelation, in as far as it is narrative in
its form, is, that it should stand upon a ground of
evidence level, at least, with that of history re
ceived universally and without demur. We assert
that the New Testament record stands much higher.
§ 10. WHAT OUR RELIGIOUS SENSE MAY REQUIRE OF A RECORD
IN REGARD TO THE INTERPRETATION OF FACTS.
The course of argument we have pursued has

352 THE RECORD.
led us step by step to the conclusion that in the
life of Jesus Christ, as recorded by the evangelists,
we have a display of the moral aspects of the
Divine character and will, adapted to the wants of
our religious nature. That embodiment of truth
after which human hearts, in all times, have in
stinctively craved, which brings God within range
of our moral sympathies, and invites a trusting and
affectionate response, is now before us, certified as
such by the authority of reason. " He that hath
seen me," said the Messiah, " hath seen the Father."
We have tested that declaration, and are convinced.
The living book in which we are to read God's
mind in relation to his creature man, lies open to
the inspection of our hearts, as the book of nature
lies open to that of our eyes and intellects. What
more do we want ] What else is needed to com
plete the revelation as an agent of spiritual power ]
But one thing more — a key to its religious signifi
cance. God is in the glittering firmament — in the
foundations of the earth — in the restless ocean — in
the fleecy clouds — in the bright and blazing sun.
He is in all things great, beautiful, and true, upon
which our sight can rest. He is in the laws and
processes of this material universe, and, look where
we will, our souls may see him. Nevertheless, we
feel that in raising up for us men whom he has en
dowed with strong powers of insight into the true
meaning of this most wonderful exhibition, he has

THE RECORD. 353
kindly consulted the necessities of our position, if
not the absolute requirements of our nature. The
waking dream asks an interpreter — and we are
glad to accept such intimations as may guide our
minds to a right comprehension of the unveiled
mystery, with humble thankfulness. God, too, is
in the life of his Son — in his discourses and his
miracles — in his labours and endurance — in his
daily tasks, and in his nightly retreats — in his sub
lime patience, his unwearied benevolence, his touch
ing tenderness— in his tears, his agony, his trial,
his death — in his resurrection from the dead — in
his ascension from the Mount of Olives. This
entire history, so strange, yet so human, so unlike
all other history, yet so consistent with our highest
conceptions of religious fitness, is a vivid adumbra
tion to our hearts of the Great Unseen. Every
part of it is radiant of him — exhibits his character
in forms adapted to our vision — develops the gra
cious purposes of his will. But here, too, we stand
in need of guidance and help to direct our religious
sense to a correct apprehension, a spiritual appre
ciation of the display. Just as on gazing at a pic
ture of Raphael's we should rejoice to have at hand
a companion who had familiarized himself with the
spirit of the great artist, and acquired an insight
into his genius, to furnish us with such brief notices
as might assist us to a comprehension of the pro-
founder ideas expressed by the painting, for want

354 THE RECORD.
of which it would lose very much of its intellectual
meaning — so, with the memoirs of Christ before us,
as the spiritual revelation of God to our religious
sense, we require, in order to adequate instruction
and profit, the promptings and intimations, ' the
comments and outpourings, of some who, gifted
with deep religious insight, and with hearts tem
pered to recognise, and catch, and commune with,
the soul of truth that is in the representation, shall
be qualified to point it out to our duller vision, and
initiate us into the rudiments of this divine mys
tery. What poets are to the natural exhibition of
God in his works, these men will be to the moral
exhibition of God in his Son. That need which
we have of genius in the one case, we have of spi
ritual intuition in the other. The discoveries of
the one, far beyond the ken of most minds, are yet
cognisable by most for what they are as soon as
displayed. The truths descried by the other, beyond
the glimpses of ordinary religious nature, are, ne
vertheless, welcomed as truths of God when once
set forth. Not all men can boast the faculty of
discerning the moods, ideas, moralities, and spirit
of nature — it is God-given. Nor have all men
power to read the high purport of revelation, and
recognise, at a glance, the divine significance of its
facts — it, too, is God-given. But all whose suscep
tibilities to higher than mere utilitarian impressions
are not dormant for want of cultivation, or choked

THE RECORD. 355
by undue developments in other directions, can un
derstand and share the poet's secret when he is
pleased to impart it — and all whose religious con
sciousness is not overshadowed or deadened, can
hear and enjoy the harmonies of truth when its
chords are touched by the hand of a spiritual pro
phet. The multitude of us need interpreters in
every department of knowledge, abundant and rich
as may be the materials within reach. What won
der, then, that in the highest science to which our
powers can soar, we should require not only fault
less illustrations, but also a general exposition of
their main features, their intent, their mutual re
lationship, and their scientific value ] Our want
in this instance tallies with our want in all
similar instances — and all analogy would lead us
to anticipate a provision to meet and satisfy it.
In general terms, we may remark, that a reason
able faith requires in regard to what we may
designate the interpretative portion of the record,
that it shall be found, on examination, to stand
to our religious consciousness in much the same
position as the historical portion does to our in
tellectual judgment. The emotional rather than
the logical element of our nature is here addressed,
and by it chiefly the final verdict must be given.
The religious character of the men whose writings
we are asked to receive, and their relationship to
Him whose system of truth they expound — the

356 THE RECORD.
circumstances which prompted their effusions — the
correspondence of the general views they maintain
with the entire body of facts to which they relate
— and finally, the congruity of their expositions of
the purport of those facts with the instinctive
spiritual wants of our own nature — may, and, we
think, should, constitute ample proof to our re
ligious sense that these writings have upon them
the stamp of divinity, and may be confidently
received, for all the purposes of spiritual life and
sustenance, as the truth of God. To each of these
particulars we shall devote a few rapid sentences —
not, indeed, to prove that the record in this respect
is satisfactory, but to indicate the nature and the
general features of the proof required.
It will hardly be seriously disputed, we imagine,
that moral and spiritual perceptions are very con
siderably affected by moral and spiritual character.
It is surprising, indeed, that doubt should ever have
been entertained on the subject. Surely, as are
a man's affections, so will his perspicacity be in
matters relating chiefly to the affections. In com
mon life we all admit this — our very instincts
compel us so to do. Take, for example, the subject
of family institutions — the duties arising out of
them — the special dangers to which they are
exposed — the virtues they are capable of nourish
ing — the superiority of the enjoyments they yield
— and the importance, even under the most pressing

THE RECORD. 357
temptations, of preserving untainted, even in desire
and thought, the purity of home. Who could
listen, on such a theme, to the dispatiations, or the
suggestions, of a known courtezan] Are there
not, within this sphere, delicate truths which can
only be discerned by pure hearts — sanctities, the
secret beauties of which none but upright wor
shippers can look upon — influences which a mind
inured to sensualism has lost its power to feel —
hopes, fears, joys and sorrows, of which only a
sensitive virtuousness can be cognizant — and
powers over the lower currents of feeling which
spotlessness of character and of reputation alone
can wield] Goodness has the clearest eye for
truth. Genius is but the intuition of fervor. Man
is something better, whatever may be asserted to
the contrary, than a calculating machine, and is
being disciplined for a nobler end than a perpetual
interchange of syllogisms. In the province of
religion, more especially, we ask that guidance
shall be vouchsafed to us by religious faculties
fully awake, and that what is ministered to spiritual
life should be ministered by spiritual life. We
can conceive of as possible a non-compliance with
this demand. We can imagine the exposition of
the religious significance of the gospel, more espe
cially on the hypothesis that it is untrue, having
been undertaken by men of indevout habits and
careless lives — to whose minds the idea of God

358 THE RECORD.
presented itself merely as a topic of intellectual
speculation (a sort of far-off idea, in which they
were not practically interested), whose strong affec
tions were pledged to nearer, more visible, more
immediately realisable objects — in whose character
fear of fanaticism prevailed over every other fear,
and confidence in their mental strength over every
other confidence — clear, cold, unsympathizing, dis
putatious men, keenly enjoying the indulgence of
athletic intellectual habits, but knowing but little
of that more than mother's fondness with which
tender consciences will cling to their faith — proper
and able men to discourse to their fellows on the
properties of matter, and of all that pertains to
exact science, but neither poets in feeling, nor
prophets in belief — qualified neither to interpret
for the soul those sentences of Nature which better
than others they might be able to spell out, nor to
divine and set forth the spiritual meaning of facts
which, even if compelled to admit, they saw but
little reason to admire. Happily, we venture to
judge, our religious sense is exposed to no such
anomaly. Had it been so, could it, in reason, have
been satisfied] But now, looking to the writers
of the New Testament epistles, do we not find in
their rehgious character every guarantee for the
truthfulness of their spiritual insight, which cha
racter can be conceived to give ] The life of
Christ, the image of the Invisible, was the topic of

THE RECORD. 359
which they were to show the momentous bearings.
Well, it is assuring to know that their hearts were
in their work. If ever men might be regarded as
alive to his ideas and purposes, they might. They
had given themselves to him in a spirit of unre
served devotion. They trusted in him with a
cheerful and unfaltering faith. They adhered to
him with " a love passing that of women." That
kingdom which he came to found, of which he
was the head, which " is not of this world," and
which consisteth of " righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost," was all in all to their
minds. In allegiance to its Lord they were con
tent to " suffer the loss of all things," rejoiced to
be counted worthy of reproach, and uncomplain
ingly endured the bitterest persecutions which the
ecclesiastical jealousy of the times could devise.
In them the grand precepts of their Master found
true exemplification. The very wonders he had
performed were remembered chiefly for their
spiritual purport. Though they had loved him
after the flesh, they had learnt to love him so no
more. Their hearts, freed from other cares, and
purified from grosser affections, lay bare to the
impressions which his life and history were shaped
to produce. With him their thoughts, chastened
into reverence, daily and hourly conversed — and
as they communed with him in spirit, they became
assimilated to him in goodness, in gentleness, in

360 THE RECORD.
purity, in piety to God, in charity towards man.
Now, here, we have some warrant for expecting
a deep insight into the purport of his mission, the
soul of his work. They possessed in perfection
that best of interpretative faculties — sympathy
with the Author whose volume of deeds and
sufferings it was given them to explain. The
glow of their own souls lighted them to the truth
embodied in that marvellous story with which, in
one way or another, they had become personally
connected. Love caught the glance of love.
Purity understood the language of purity. Spiri
tualism saw the lighter expressions of spiritualism.
The men and the object of their study were
attuned to each other, and divine harmony was
likely to be the result.
But this natural guarantee for the truth of their
spiritual insight is strengthene'd byr another con
sideration. Most of them had been the companions
of Jesus — all of them had a special commission
from him to found his church — one of them, and
he, certainly, not " the least of the apostles," either
in breadth of view, or in intensity of devotion,
professed to have received instruction directly and
miraculously from the risen and glorified Christ —
and all of them were, from time to time, owned in
their apostolic work by " signs and wonders, and
divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost."
Such was their duty, such their position, and such

THE RECORD. 361
their powers, that we cannot reconcile it with the
principles of God's moral government, that they
should have been permitted to interpret erringly
the great principles of the newly - established
kingdom to our religious sense. Their official
relationship to its Head, the solemnity with which
they had been set apart to their high functions,
the unspeakable importance of laying the founda
tions of so grand a spiritual system in truth —
these and many other considerations authorize us
in concluding that these men would not be left,
by the providence of God, to misconceive and
misrepresent to coming ages the religious signi
ficance of that life by which God had revealed
himself to men. Given, the manifestation of God
by Christ, and the spiritual insight of his apostles
into the meaning of his life, and of the character
istic features and laws of his kingdom, seems to
us to be an inseparable sequence. But, at any
rate, along with the religious character of these
men, the relation in which, by his own appoint
ment, they stood to himself on the one hand, and
to the church on the other, disposes our reason to
accept their exposition of the principles of his
kingdom, as in strictest harmony with his own
mind. Further assurance on this head is produced by
the circumstances under which their epistolary
writings were called forth. In almost every in-
B B

362 THE RECORD.
stance, they exhibit the play of light upon existing
incidents. They are not formal expositions — they
are not systematized comments — they are not
scientific developments of novel principles. They
are more generally earnest and affectionate effusions
of argument, of remonstrance, of caution, of ex
hortation, elicited by actual occurrences, which
touched the responsibility of the writers. Those
occurrences were various, although many of them
were of a similar type — usually an attempt by
others to ritualize the freedom of the gospel.
There was, therefore, an immediate necessity for
pointing out, with more or less fulness, the bearing
of the revelation by Christ upon mistaken efforts
to advance his cause. Now every one knows how
much more advantageously we learn the nature of
great principles of truth when allowed to see them
in their practical bearing in given cases, than when
exhibited to us in their abstract form. The doctrine
to be taught is illustrated by the error to be corrected.
Much of Christ's own teaching was after this sort.
Most of the lessons enunciated by the movements
of Divine Providence are conformed to this pattern.
And it contributes something to our confidence in
apostohc teaching to find that it was rather drawn
out of them by events calculated to awaken their
religious anxiety for others, than volunteered to
display their own acquaintance with the mysteries
of the kingdom, or to indulge an unhealthy

THE RECORD. 363
craving after personal exaltation. The motive in
each case is as satisfactory to our religious sense
as are the capabilities of the penmen. Such
capabilities we can confide in all the more securely
when moved to exertion by such inducements.
All is homogeneous. All appears to be the
legitimate fruit of spiritual life. Everything is in
keeping with the revelation to be interpreted.
Nor can we omit to notice here the tone of the
writers now under consideration. They uniformly
speak in the accent of men conscious of imparting
knowledge, rather than of uttering opinions.
Most modest in their personal claims, even when
defending themselves against wanton assaults upon
their official position, they utter none of the truths
of the gospel " with 'bated breath, and whisper
ing humbleness." They reason, they expatiate,
they use persuasion, they appeal to facts — but
they never hesitate in their statement of conclu
sions. In brief, theirs is certainly the manner of
men entertaining no doubt, troubled by no shadow
of a doubt, that they are speaking the mind of
their Master. Whether they believed themselves
inspired, in the modern understanding of the term,
may admit of a question — but we think there can
be none that they believed themselves to be giving
a thoroughly trustworthy interpretation of the
work and wiU of Christ.
There is another criterion by which our religious
b b 2

364 THE RECORD.
sense may test the reliableness of these writers'
spiritual insight — namely, the correspondence of
the general views they maintain with the entire
body of facts to which they relate. One can
easily imagine, aided by his knowledge of doctrines
which have since obtained extensive authority,
how possible it was for these New Testament
epistolists to have propounded some crude maxim
or erroneous principle, which would have enveloped
in impenetrable darkness one-half at least of the
life of Christ — which would have rendered some
of his discourses unintelligible — made much of
his conduct meaningless, if not contradictory —
and subjected the mind to all the unexpected
balks, surprises, and disappointments, which usually
attend all attempts to reach a conclusion by a
mistaken clue. But if the apostolic epistles
operate upon the mind in just the opposite
direction — if, after patient study of them, one
may read again the life of Christ, as recorded
by the evangelists, with increased satisfaction —
if many expressions of his, heretofore hard to be
understood, acquire a greater lucidity and fulness
of meaning — if most of his actions become radiant
with a new spiritual idea — if the history hangs
together more connectedly as a whole, and the
relation of part to part is more readily discernible
— if the lights and shadows of the picture all
assume to the eye an appropriate place and

THE RECORD. 365
proportion — if some perplexities are cleared up,
and some misapprehensions corrected, and some
novel harmonies are brought out — and if we
detect more clearly, underlying the whole extent
of the facts, one consistent and beneficent purpose,
giving colour, and. warmth, and spiritual impres-
siveness to the entire history — then our religious
consciousness may be fairly satisfied that it has
been furnished with the right key to this treasury
of divine knowledge. Now, we think there can
be no serious difference on this head. Indeed,
so obviously do the epistles shed light upon the
gospels, and so unmistakeably do they bring out
the significance of the facts, that the more
common charge preferred by sceptics is, that the
narrative has been invented, or, at the least,
tampered with, in order to square with the
theological system professedly based upon it.
Having already decided that the evangelical
memoirs of Christ are authentic, we need not
stay to refute that charge. But the fact that
it has been made suffices to establish the corre
spondence between the text of revelation — namely,
the hfe of Jesus — and the spiritual exposition of
it found in the epistolary books of the New
Testament. It is not, however, our present
purpose to prove the point. We are not engaged
in furnishing evidences in support of Christianity,
which has been done to so large an extent by

366 THE RECORD.
other hands. We rather wish to describe the
kind of evidence which reason and our religious
nature may accept with confidence. And, in
pursuance of this design, we affirm that reliance
upon the true spiritual insight of Christ's apostles
into the divine significance of his life, may be
confirmed by the discovery, that their interpreta
tion of the leading principles of his kingdom,
elicited by accidental mischiefs needing correction
in the infant church, lends a fuller and a deeper
meaning to the entire body of facts constituting
the Saviour's history.
Lastly, assuming the facts to contain a divine
revelation, that interpretation of their spiritual
meaning which is found to be congruous with our
religious consciousness may complete our conviction
that we are rightly instructed in the mind of God.
This congruity is, to a great extent, the ultimate
basis of very much, if not most, of the actual belief
existing in the Christian world. Theories of divine
inspiration may be true or not — may be treated as
the foundations upon which the authority of God's
Word reposes, or as human inventions to secure
integrity of doctrine — may be -overrated on the one
hand, and undervalued on the other — but after all,
the steadiest, the surest, the most operative belief in
Christianity, is that which is born of the conviction
that it answers to our need. There are countless
thousands of men who know nothing whatever, and

THE RECORD. 367
are never likely to know anything, of the incessant
controversies waged upon this delicate question,
who, nevertheless, rely with unfaltering confidence
upon the testimony of the witness within themselves
that the gospel, as expounded by the apostles, is
an elevating, purifying, gladdening, spiritualizing
power. They feel that it has succeeded in quicken
ing in their bosoms a new and more glorious life —
that it has set before them a nobler end of hving
— that it has brought them under the power of a
better dominant motive — that it has infused into
them a vigour for self-government such as they
have derived from no other source' — that it has
hushed their consciences to peace — that it has
changed the entire character of their views of God
— that it has intertwined their strongest affections
with imperishable objects — that it has filled, even
to overflowing, a sensible void in their being — that
it has superinduced a willing resignation to all
providential arrangements, however hard to bear —
that it has overcome in them the fear of death,
and endowed them with " a hope full of immor
tality." With this experience in view, you might
as well tell them that God made not the sun nor
the eye that sees it, the earth nor the senses to
which it ministers enjoyment, as to question with
them whether the truths they have found so
adapted to their spiritual wants are essentially
divine. They wait for no settlement of theological

368 THE RECORD.
conflicts touching the mode in which Scripture was
given, to enable them to recognise the authority of
revelation. Its title to reign over them is found in
its power to do so. All the religious instincts of
their nature determine for them the sufficiency of
the New Testament display of God in Christ to
answer their demands. And, in truth, the basis of
their faith is trustworthy — more trustworthy,
perhaps, than any theological dogma, how correct
soever, respecting the inspiration of Scripture.
The latter may be made the substratum of not a
few erroneous convictions. The former seldom
underlies any serious weight of error. Men are
misled easily enough by sophistry, by assumption,
by ecclesiastical authority — but seldom by the testi
mony of their religious consciousness that it has
found a suitable object. " He that doeth the will
of my Father, shall know of the doctrine whether
it be of God or not." Yes ! practical experience
is a safer instructor in this school than theoretic
certainty. As touching theological science, it may
often be wrong — but as touching rehgious truth, it
is for the most part right.
Now we are fully aware that it is precisely on
this very ground that many sceptics justify their
rejection of Christianity. We discover, say they,
no congruity between its doctrines and the instinc
tive yearnings and felt wants of our religious
nature. On the contrary, the teachings of the

THE RECORD. 369
New Testament are so decidedly repugnant to our
better feelings that we cannot possibly accept them
as a revelation of God. Well, this is an objection
which it is impossible to answer until it is more
accurately defined. We require to know, in the
first place, what are the doctrines referred to as
doing violence to our religious sense. We must
ascertain, in the second place, whether they are
fairly to be understood as taught by the New
Testament, or whether they belong only to the
deductions of a speculative theology. We should
find it necessary to learn, in the third place,
whether it is the essence of the repudiated truths,
or only the form of them, that is obnoxious to
religious consciousness. And, in the last place, we
should need to discover, if possible, whether the
result which is attributed to the spiritual instincts
may not more correctly be ascribed to their having
been silenced by reasonings. It may be necessary
for us to give an illustration. The following will,
perhaps, explain our meaning. There is a class of
sceptics who deny that there is any reality answer
ing to the Scripture notion of sin towards God,
and, consequently, of disapprobation and punish
ment of it by God. An alleged revelation which
turns upon this point, is, in their view, a demon
strable absurdity. Now we are not going to argue
the question itself. We will not stay to determine
whether man stands in any moral relation whatever

370 THE RECORD.
to his Maker — nor whether, if he does, any de
liberate conduct of his unbecoming that arrange
ment is in harmony with the will of God, or with
the principles on which he regulates his moral
government — nor whether, if it is, the wilful
departure from moral law is followed by any
moral disadvantage in the experience of the
offender — nor whether, if it is, that moral dis
advantage is, or is not, per se, irremediable. These
questions we leave where they are, as not falling
within the scope of our present undertaking to
settle. It is more to our purpose to remark that a
negative exception cannot be held to disprove a
positive rule. Because some men may be in
stanced who have argued themselves into an
apparent disbelief of sin as a reality, we are no
more obliged to confess that the doctrine of sin is
at variance with religious consciousness, than we
are to allow that bread is not an article of food
suited to human stomachs, because in some morbid
conditions of the body the stomach rejects it.
The simple fact is, that one may as rationally hope
to succeed in convincing men in general that there
is no such thing as natural law, as that there is
no such thing as moral law — and that deviation
from the one will not be visited by inconvenience,
as that wilful infraction of the other will entail
no moral penalty. When we talk of the religious
instincts, we mean those which are common to the

THE RECORD. 871
race — and we say again, that faith in those truths
of revelation which are found to be congruous
with them, rests upon a sufficiently broad and
stable foundation.
The primary truth of the apostle Paul's teach
ing — that the promulgation of which he declares
to be the end of his ministry, is, that " God was
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not
imputing their trespasses unto them," and the prac
tical use he makes of it is, to " beseech men to be
come reconciled unto God." The primary doctrine
of the apostle John is, that " God is love " — and
that "he that loveth not knoweth not God."
These two apostolic positions are resolvable into
one, and they assuredly constitute the essential
principle of Christianity. Say that these doctrines
are rejected — it does not necessarily follow that
their rejection results from their felt incongruity
with the religious sense. There are not wanting
other causes powerful enough in their operation
to produce it. Indisposition to religious questions
or exercises of any kind — mistrust of all conclu
sions which are not reached by a strictly logical
process — misapprehension of the meaning or bear
ing of the proposition so announced — and, in some
cases, violent prejudices engendered in early life
by the uncouth forms in which the truth was
presented — may step before the religious sense,
and prevent it from delivering its own verdict.

372 THE RECORD.
In this case, as in many similar cases relating to
common matters of experience, we are justified
in regarding a negation as of no sensible weight,
as it affects the issue before us, compared with a
positive result. The congruity or incongruity of
the truth with our spiritual nature will appear
more conspicuously in the instances in which it is
received — just as the compatibility of a certain kind
of food with health and nutrition may be best
ascertained from the experience which follows upon
having eaten it. But it is surely matter of noto
riety that the apostolic doctrines quoted above
have been very widely received through many
generations, and that spiritual life has been largely
sustained by them. We do not adduce the fact
to prove that they must be therefore true — we do
not allude to it with any view of showing that
they are necessarily congruous with our religious
instincts — but we do think that it should give
pause to philosophic scepticism before it pro
nounces such dogmas irreconcileable with man's
religious constitution, and therefore inadmissible
as part of the revealed will of God. To make
good any such assertion, it ought to be shown that
the apostolic teaching tends to hinder the develop
ment of a sound religious character — begets
emotions unworthy of our moral relationship to
him — prevents the play of suitable affections —
unfits the soul for purifying intercourse with the

THE RECORD. 373
Deity — narrows the range of our charitable sym
pathies — or, in some other way, damages our
spiritual powers and susceptibilities, which, in the
absence of any such faith, would more freely and
beneficially have expanded themselves. We are
not called upon to say whether or not this can be
shown — but, so far as we are yet informed, this
has not been demonstrated.
Now, clearly foreseeing the probabilities that the
position we have just advanced will be turned
against our own conclusion by those whose un
belief is settled, we regard it, nevertheless, as
tenable, and we feel convinced that it will yield a
firm footing to that much larger class in pursuit
of religious truth — namely, intelligent inquirers,
who are simply desirous of basing their religious
faith upon ground that their unbiassed judgment
can calmly survey and pronounce to be both solid
and sufficient. It is simply useless to reiterate in
their hearing an assertion, true though it may be,
that the writers of the New Testament were in
spired by God ; and that, therefore, their teachings
must be received as infallible. There is, as it
appears to us, a visible pathway to the same point,
along which every step that is taken may be taken
with the eyes of reason wide open, and which,
having been traversed, there will remain no further
impulse to retrace. God disclosing himself to
man's moral sympathies in a human life crowded

374 THE RECORD.
with moral action, is a necessity called for by the
universally felt wants of our religious nature.
God marking off that hfe from human life in
general, by supernatural displays of Almighty
power, is a necessity called for by the character
and end of the revelation we require. The history
of Jesus Christ, with which is identified the
grandest spiritual revolution which the world has
witnessed, presents to us precisely those features
which abstract reasoning concludes to be indispen
sable. All the tests which we are accustomed to
apply for the purpose of ascertaining the trust
worthiness of history, certify the honesty, the
conscientiousness, and the competency of the evan
gelists — and if so, the Jesus whom they portray is
the representative to us of the Unseen God — or,
in his own words, " the way, the truth, and the
life." Of the spiritual purport of his life on earth,
besides what we gather from his own lips, we have
fuller information from the letters of men whom
he appointed to found his spiritual kingdom, and
whose mission he sanctioned by miraculous attes
tations. That they had a true insight into the
significance of his career on earth, we have a right
to anticipate from their appointment to the apo
stolic office, and from the high functions they were
bidden to discharge. Everything in the character
of the men tended to fit them for obtaining this
insight — everything which occurred to elicit from

THE RECORD. 375
them a display of it, commends their motives in
availing themselves of the advantage. In the light
of their epistles, the entire life of Jesus assumes
a deeper and more spiritual meaning — and the sys
tem of religious truth resulting from the body of
facts, as interpreted by the apostles, has exerted,
and continues to exert, upon the minds of those
who receive it reverently and affectionately, a
purifying, ennobling, spiritualizing power. If,
then, we may depend upon the history as true, we
may also depend upon the interpretation put upon
it as a correct exposition of the mind of God in
the revelation he has made of himself through his
Son. It suits the facts on the one hand — it meets
the wants of our religious nature on the other.
We need not discuss, in order to conviction,
whether the evangelists or the writers of the
epistles wrote under the influence of divine in
spiration. That question, suitable enough in its
place, is out of place here. In whichever way
decided, the authority of divine revelation remains.
It resides in the facts justly interpreted by men
whom we have reason to believe rightly compre
hended their purport — and, in those who accept
Christianity, it is confirmed by the experience they
have of its religious power.

376 . THE RECORD.
§ 11. RELIGIOUS INSIGHT NOT TO BE CONFOUNDED WITH
INTELLECTUAL PROCESSES.
Having stated some of the reasons which have
brought us to the conclusion that the writers of
the epistolary portion of the New Testament
were endowed with the power of insight necessary
to a full and correct perception of the religious
significance of the life of Christ, it will be
expedient to consider the nature and extent of
the dependence which may be placed upon it.
If the foregoing observations are pertinent and
just, reason will warrant our confiding implicitly
in the spiritual intuition of the apostles, in regard
to all matters which fall within the legitimate
range of its functions. Their perception of the
divine was as perfect as the need of man required
that it should be — but it does not follow that
the eye which saw God, was able to see all objects
whatsoever with the same distinctness. Let us
illustrate this by what is more within our reach.
There is a quality of conduct which men term
honour. There is also a sense by which that
quality is discerned — in some individuals, highly
cultivated — in others dormant, if not extinct. A
series of transactions — say, a life — may be ima
gined, exhibiting that particular attribute of
character in various phases, and bringing out,
in concrete forms, a complete representation of
the abstract idea. Here, then, we have a body

THE RECORD. 377
of actions instinct with a certain spirit. Not
every one would be equally gifted to perceive
that spirit — to trace it in all its manifold workings
— to comprehend its subtler movements — to pro
nounce infallible judgment on all its appearances.
There would need, in order to this, a close
correspondence between the objective manifesta
tion and the subjective faculty or sense — a perfect
adaptation of the latter to the former. But then,
it is not less certain, that the most exquisite
sensibility to all the modes in which the quality
of honour may address itself to the mind may be
associated with glaring intellectual deficiencies. In
whatever pertains to this single subject, there might
be marvellous penetration, delicate discernment,
keen and unerring discrimination, whilst, in other
matters, there might be in the very same individual
a propensity to blunder in the collection of facts,
and a palpable ignorance of the plainest rules
of logic. If in the attempt to convey to others
his own nice perceptions of the subject he is so
well qualified to expound, he should mistake a
common fallacy for a truth, or get his reasoning
into an inextricable tangle, no intelligent man
would feel that his defects in this regard detracted
a feather's weight from the authority of his
judgment in all that touches questions of honour.
Now, surely, it is reasonable to look at religious
insight with similar discrimination. Its special
c c

378 THE RECORD.
and appropriate object is the divine. In the
apostles, it was a clear intuition and intimate
realization of God in Christ — a ready appre
hension of the spirit and purport of that
wondrous life — an unclouded view of its bearings
upon the world's destiny — and an accurate in
terpretation of the language it addressed to man's
religious nature. It matters nothing to our
present purpose what may be the immediate
cause to which we assign their power of insight
— whether we believe it to have resulted from
the direct action upon their minds of the Spirit
of God, or from that intense fervour which
stimulated into highest activity all the faculties,
and warmed into extraordinary sensibility all the
sympathies of their religious being. It still
remains true that the one element which this
peculiar gift qualified them to discern, to commune
with, and to point out with infallible authority
to others, was the mind and purpose of Deity
in the person, acts, and sufferings of Jesus. Man's
spiritual need craved just that knowledge which
this insight fitted the apostles to impart — and
craved no more. Here faith would be dependent
— but in lower regions than this infallibility
was not required. We are not entitled, then, to
demand that with this spiritual intuition there
shall be associated an entire exemption from
deficiencies in every other respect. In showing

THE RECORD. 379
the application of divine truths and principles,
in meeting prejudices, in brushing aside miscon
ceptions, and in bearing down erroneous con
clusions, the apostles would be under the same
necessity as others of using their intellectual
faculties, and of employing such methods of appeal
from mind to mind as might, in their judgment,
be intelligible and effective. Now, we contend
that imperfection in the management of these
intellectual processes does not reflect a shadow of
discredit on the perfection of their religious insight —
or, in other words, that men may be thoroughly
competent to declare to their fellow men what there
is of God's character, of God's intention, of God's
will, in any special embodiment of them, without
being necessarily beyrond the reach of correction
or criticism in any of the modes of communication
they may deem it expedient to adopt. The stam
mering tongue does not destroy the worth of a
kind message. The heart's love may be truly
declared even in broken metaphors. The spirit
of a law may be lucidly and impressively set
forth, although, in doing it, a man may illustrate
his point by a mistaken allusion, or an exploded
fact. And the mind of the Highest may be un
erringly interpreted for us by those whose figures
of speech are occasionally confused, and whose
chains of argument are not always logically con
clusive. Thus much, we cannot but think, candid
c c 2

380 THE RECORD.
sceptics will feel themselves bound to admit. The
distinction we have attempted to draw between
religious insight and the intellectual processes
necessary to give it utterance, is a real one. An
instance or two in which it should be observed,
will serve, perhaps, to prove that not a little hostile
criticism of the apostolic writings, even where we
are compelled to admit its justice, is quite irrele
vant to the point in debate between those who
believe and those who disbelieve in Christianity as
a revelation. We select two epistles, the canonical authority
of which is disputed — the second epistle to
Timothy, and the general epistle of Jude. We
shall assume, for the purpose of the illustration,
that both have been properly included in the New
Testament. But both exhibit instances in which
the writer adopts and incorporates with his own
matter statements which were merely traditional,
and which appear to have been gleaned from works
of apocryphal authority. Paul gives to the Egyptian
magicians who withstood Moses the names of
J annes and Jambres. Jude alludes to a conten
tion between Michael the archangel and Satan
about the body of Moses, and quotes a prophecy
said to have been uttered by Enoch, and actually
found in a work bearing the patriarch's name.
Now, let it be granted that, in each case, the
apostles were in error — that they mistook for fact

THE RECORD. 381
what had no better foundation than the invention
of a romancist — and that they used certain fictions
of the age, as if they were history. What follows ]
Is their religious insight proved to be at fault]
Not at all. That faculty did not necessarily assist
in determining questions which properly belong to
simple intellectual criticism. If, in making these
allusions, the writers had given an unbecoming
view of God, an erroneous notion of his relation
ship to us, a questionable idea of our duty to him,
or to each other, or any expression of sentiment
whereby our religious consciousness might be misled,
we should have had sufficient reason to distrust the
reliableness of their spiritual intuition. But the
divine gift which enabled Paul to see God's will in
every form in which it was revealed, altered in no
way his capabilities of determining whether the
men who withstood Moses were or were not named
Jannes and Jambres, nor affected his inclination to
believe or disbelieve. It was a question lying quite
out of the sphere of the religious sense, however
preternaturally exalted — and a mistaken belief in
regard to it was no more a proof that Paul was
fallible in his expositions of the mind of God in the
gospel, than if he had taken it for granted, on the
authority of an ill-informed geographer, that Britain,
instead of being an island, was a promontory of the
continent of Europe. Similar reasoning will apply
to the case of the apostle Jude — upon which, how-

382 THE RECORD.
ever, it would be superfluous to detain the reader.
The allusions were no doubt selected for their apti
tude to the strain of remark in which the writers
were indulging — and if instances of the kind found
in the genuine apostolic letters, instead of being, as
they are, occasional and equivocal, had been far
more numerous and decisive, they would have left
the authority of these books, on all matters directly
pertaining to man's religious nature, wholly un
touched. Precisely the same rule of discrimination is appli
cable for separating the spiritual truth intended to
be exhibited from the style of remark or reasoning
employed to bring it home to conviction. The first
is the proper object of religious insight — the last
pertains to an intellectual process. That may be
perfect where this is open to some question. For
instance, in the epistle to the Galatians, Paul
insists upon the dispensation of Christ as one of
grace and freedom — and, amongst other observa
tions, he writes, " For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bondwoman, the other
by a freewoman — but he of the^ bondwoman was
born after the flesh ; but he of the freewoman, by
promise. Which things are an allegory : for these
are the two covenants ; the one from Mount Sinai,
which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For
this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth
to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with

THE RECORD. 383
her children. But Jerusalem which is above is
free, which is the mother of us all." Now here,
passing by unnoticed the incompleteness of the
parallel started by the writer, and, in the eagerness
of discussion, pursued only along one line of it,
until the last stage is attained, we find the apostle
Paul referring to some historic fact in the hfe of
Abraham as an allegorical prefiguration of the
spiritual truths he was then engaged in esta
blishing. Suppose it could be shown that he
availed himself of a method of interpreting Old
Testament Scripture common to the school in
which he had been educated — suppose that such
a method could be proved to be more fanciful than
sound — and suppose, further, that this particular
exemplification of it could be fairly brought under
condemnation on this account — that the alleged
allegory existed only in Paul's mind — and that the
mention of it was attributable rather to an inde
fensible habit contracted at the feet of Gamaliel,
than to the actual typical signification of the history
referred to — suppose all this, which, however, is
gratuitous supposition — our faith in the apostle's
religious insight may still remain unshaken. His
method of argument, intelligible and forcible to
those whom he addressed, as it was evidently so to
himself, even if logically invalid, implied no mis
apprehension in respect of the great and vital
spiritual truth he was occupied in presenting to

384 THE RECORD.
the mind of his readers. On the contrary, the
strength with which that truth took possession of
his soul, and the extent to which it filled it, would
naturally predispose him to see analogies to it in
events the most unlikely to other minds. To him,
thus attuned, those events would sound in unison,
and he would rightly use them for his purpose, in
communicating his ideas to others' minds, whether
they did or did not actually embody the meaning
he attached to them. Allegory or no allegory, the
doctrine imparted is the same. The machinery, so
to speak, employed to display it cannot fairly be
identified with the object it exhibits. The broad
glimpses of revelation which Paul had enjoyed, he
was moved by an imperative sense of duty to dis
close to his fellow-men — and, assuredly, the clear
ness and steadiness of his religious insight may be
fully relied on, without requiring from him, in his
efforts to impart of its fruits to the world, that his
usual habits of thought, argument, and expression,
should be elevated for the occasion to a position of
inteUectual infallibility. The truth is not the less
divine, because the method of announcing, illus
trating, and enforcing it, is human.
There is yet one other and still wider field in
which this discriminative process will be found
applicable, in a general survey of which we are
constrained to ask on both sides the utmost can
dour. We wish to point out a distinction between

THE RECORD. 385
the essential spirit of a revealed doctrine, and the
form in which it may have been presented to
religious faith. Most intelligent and reflecting
readers of the New Testament must have been
struck with the fact that between the mode of
displaying the characteristic truths of the gospel
adopted by the apostle Paul, and that adhered to
by the other sacred writers, there is a very per
ceptible difference. Not merely in phraseology,
but in the cast of ideas, does Paul evince origi
nality and uniqueness. So obvious is the fact, that
several of the doctrines of Christianity are regarded
by those who look no further than the surface, as
exclusively Pauline — and it seems to be taken for
granted that to him alone, under God, the world is
indebted for those views of the scheme of salvation,
the belief of which is absolutely necessary to
genuine subjective religion. Indeed, it would ap
pear, at first sight, as if to the disclosures of spi
ritual truth made by our Lord during the period
of his earthly ministry, and expanded by those
of his apostles who commenced their work imme
diately upon his departure, Paul had supplied the
complement — and that, until after he had written,
the subject matter of divine revelation was still
incomplete. If such were really the case, the
martyr Stephen, when he commended his spirit to
his risen Master, and besought forgiveness for his
murderers, must have been ignorant of some of

386 THE RECORD.
those vital truths which it was reserved for a young
but active participant in his condemnation and
execution, at a subsequent period, to announce to
the world. For several years, too, the Christian
Church, although never more devout, more ener
getic, more united, more self-denying, or more suc
cessful, than during that interval, must have been
destitute of that complete knowledge of the way of
salvation, which was afterwards supplied by the
apostle of the Gentiles. The preaching of Peter,
of James, and of John, would, on this hypothesis,
be wanting in some essential truths until after the
conversion of the apostle Paul. Nevertheless, in
the epistles of the three, written long after what are
designated the Pauline doctrines had been commu
nicated to the Church, the train of thought and
expression which runs through them does not
assume the Pauline hue, nor vary in any respect
from what we may suppose would have been natural
and appropriate had they written them previously
to Saul's journey to Damascus. If, now, startled by
this result, we examine the matter more closely, we
shall find that between these earlier apostles and
Paul himself, there is no single essential idea, no
portion of the subject-matter of revelation, in regard
to which any real difference obtains. That which
Paul taught, Peter and John had taught before him.
The great truths by which he sought to awaken
spiritual life in the hearts of men, were precisely

THE RECORD. 387
the truths which had been wielded by his apostolic
predecessors. The difference between them was
not in what they promulgated, but only in the
external form of promulgation. Paul's position
was peculiar. He was par eminence the apostle of
the Gentiles. It specially concerned him, in the
discharge of the duties of his office, to secure for his
converts an entire freedom from the ritual restraints,
prohibitions, and obligations of Judaism — and to
detach religion from what had been preparatory,
local, and temporary, in its objective embodiment.
Zealously and wisely did he labour in his peculiar
sphere. Sturdily, perseveringly, and in almost every
place, was he opposed by Jews who had accepted
Jesus as the Messiah, but who failed to comprehend
the nature and principles of his spiritual kingdom.
This was the occasion of most of the Pauline
epistles — and, accordingly, the doctrines of the
gospel are presented, in most of this apostle's
writings, in a form adapted to the emergency. Law
was the fixed idea of the Judaizers in connexion
with religion — its perpetuity, its claims, its rewards.
It was this ever-recurring and dominant idea which
Paul had to combat and overturn. He met it and
overthrew it by showing the main principles of
revealed truth in their aspect towards law. Hence,
the forms in which he explains and enforces the
spiritual significance of Christ's life and death are
most of them borrowed from judicial administration.

388 THE RECORD.
The whole scheme of mercy and grace by the Son of
God assumes, in his thoughts, the shape of an extra
ordinary and glorious expedient to rescue from
impending judgment a culprit adjudged to be
guilty — and he argues that " the law of the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has made" such as " walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit," " free from the
law of sin and death." The divine truth underlying
this representation is found in our Lord's teaching,
and in that of the rest of the apostles — namely,
that oneness of will between man and God is the
result, not of our conformity to rules which he has
prescribed, but of our acceptance of favour freely
declared to us in the person and wrork of his own
Son — or, in other words, that love to God is begotten
in our souls by the love of God revealed in Christ.
But the particular form in which the apostle Paul
exhibited that truth is almost peculiar to himself —
and was evidently well adapted to answer the end
he had in view. Now we submit, that this pecu
liarity of form which certain doctrines assumed
under the pen of the apostle, and which was not
only justified, but recommended, by a peculiarity in
his position, should not be treated as if it con
stituted a part of the reality and essence of evan
gelic truth. It is rather a special mode of setting
it forth. Had the circumstances of the early Church
been entirely different, the same spiritual truth
might have been exhibited under another external

THE RECORD. 389
aspect, without in any degree altering or obscuring
its general significance, its divine authority, or its
regenerating power. It has become fashionable, of
late, to draw a distinction between rehgion and theo
logy. There ought to be none. But if it be a fact
that there is, we think it may be thus accounted
for — that religion sustains itself on the spirit of
revealed truth, and that theology is rather based
upon its scriptural modes and forms. God is neces
sarily in the one — not necessarily in the others.
The last are valuable to men only as a way to the
first. This is light — those are only the windows
through which it streams into our souls.
12. CONCLUDING SURVEY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AS A RECORD
OF REVELATION.
We may now gather up, into as concise a form as
possible, the tenour of the observations we have
ventured to throw out bearing upon the last branch
of the subject under discussion. It has been our
object to submit to the reader a connected chain of
remarks intended to show that, notwithstanding the
recent efforts of modern criticism, the New Testa
ment may yet be confidently accepted as a worthy
record of divine revelation. There is neither wit
nor reason in the sarcasms which have been
launched against Christianity on the ground that it
has been enshrined for us, and for mankind gene
rally, within the compass of a small book. The

390 THE RECORD.
divine truths to which it directs the soul are in the
character, acts, and sufferings of a representative
life — a human life exemplifying, as far as human
life can do, the moral phase of the Supreme Being.
In such a history, and in its spiritual meaning, men
may best contemplate those features of God's cha
racter, will, and glory, which are fitted to awaken
their religious emotions, and implant in their hearts,
and bring to maturity, governing rehgious princi
ples. It matters little in relation to this result
whether we look upon this appropriate and affecting
display of the Almighty in the events themselves by
which it was originally made, or in a faithful and
expository record of those events — their spiritual pur
port and power is the same ; or if there be a prepon
derance of advantage secured by either method, it is
found in connexion with that to which the necessity
of the case has subjected our own times. A revela
tion in a record is, perhaps, all things considered,
the most suitable form in which we could receive
it. The New Testament, therefore, is none the less
worthy of our study, in order that we may " ac
quaint ourselves with God, and be at peace," be
cause it offers an inestimable boon to our souls in
the shape of a book. But have we reason to believe
that it answers to its high profession] Is it a
record upon which faith may securely rest ] We
reply, Yes, if the substance of its history, and the
correctness of its interpretation of it, remain unim-

THE RECORD. 391
peached. Modern criticism has assailed both — and
how, then, may reason, be satisfied ] We say, in
relation to its statement of facts, by precisely the
same kind and rules of evidence as intelligent men
require for their satisfaction in any other matter of
history. Will the evangelical biographies stand the
tests which our reason deems amply sufficient to
prove the authenticity of contemporary secular
histories] Take, for instance, the description by
Josephus of the siege of Jerusalem under Titus —
what are the proofs deemed necessary to convince
us that it is a narrative of facts, and not a fiction ]
Turn to the gospels. Apply the same rules, ob
serve the same distinctions, make the same allow
ances, in the one case as in the other. In what
respect does the credit of Josephus stand on higher
ground than that of the New Testament historians ]
True ! they narrate a series of miracles — he records
natural occurrences. But if, in connexion with any
human-life manifestation of God, miracles are neces
sary, advantageous, and in keeping with the known
principles of divine proceeding, as we have at
tempted to show, then a series of miracles accom
panying such a hfe is an antecedent probabihty —
and the writer who records them stands on the
same ground for the judgment of criticism, as the
writer who, portraying no such life, details for our
instruction and amusement events within the ordi
nary course of nature. Well ! let criticism show in

392 THE RECORD,
what respects the secular narrative rests upon a
more solid ground of proof than the sacred. We
listen to no prejudice on the one hand — we ask no
favour on the other. Our reason concludes that
proof sufficient is before it in support of the sub
stantial fidelity and accuracy of Josephus — Our
reason demands at least equal proof in support of
the integrity, competency, and conscientiousness of
the evangelists. Is equal proof within reach ] We
ask the most sceptical of critics. Can it be pre
tended, setting aside the supernaturalism of the
gospels, the credibility of which must be deter
mined on philosophical and abstract grounds, that
the basis on which our faith in their historical
truthfulness rests, is not as broad and deep as
any upon which we build our knowledge of the
past] — is not much broader and deeper] In this
respect, then, the record is all that we require of
it. We receive it on rational evidence, as a
written daguerreotype of divinely significant facts.
Divinely significant — for, surely, if the facts be
true, the mind of God is embodied in them. This
is their own pretension, and this pretension they
sustain by exhibiting to us the credentials of
Almighty power. Well ! can our reason be satis
fied that the mind of God, as developed in these
facts, has been rightly apprehended, and is truly
expressed in the record] What are the grounds
upon which an affirmative decision of this question

THE RECORD. 393
may fairly rest. They comprise the following
propositions: — That He who announced himself
as sent into the world to declare the will of his
Father, selected and expressly appointed certain
individuals to preach that will, as expressed in
his own life and death, attested their mission by
miraculous signs, and gave them immediate and
marvellous success — that, if intense pious fervour,
exclusive cultivation of their own spiritual life,
and an entire surrender of their whole being to
exercises, acts, and endurances, calculated to
elevate, refine, and mature religious consciousness,
do anything to assist man in discerning and com
prehending godly revelations, the lives of the
apostles show them to have been eminently
qualified to discharge the duties of their high
office — that such of their writings as " the Record "
contains, display them as occupied in precisely
that practical work which occasion renders indis
pensable ; correcting mistakes, further illustrating
imperfectly understood truths, pointing out their
bearings upon human duty, shaping them into
earnest appeals to men's religious sympathies,
urging them with a view to " temperance, right
eousness, and godliness," and doing all this in a
tone of personal modesty united with unhesitating
official authority — that the letters they addressed
to the churches, under such circumstances and
for such ends, disclose great spiritual truths, in
D D

394 THE RECORD.
the light of which the entire life of their Master,
as narrated by the evangelists, assumes a consis
tency of purpose, a unity of meaning and moral,
and a self-interpretative power, not otherwise so
distinctly perceptible nor so strikingly appreciable
— and that these grand characteristic truths, which
they thus elicited from the facts, and which are
sustained, illustrated, and vivified by them, are
so far in accordance with our religious nature,
with its felt wants, its incessant cravings, its
capacities, susceptibilities and tendencies, in regard
to things divine, as to have become, in the experi
ence of those who have sympathizingly received
them, a source of spiritual life, peace, purity, and
power, such as can nowhere else be discovered.
These general positions having been substantiated,
we conclude, with the fullest sanction of our reason,
that this record of a divine revelation fulfils all
the demands which can be properly required of
it — faithfully preserves for us the history of that
life in which Deity was imaged to humanity —
fittingly and satisfactorily guides us to its spiritual
import. Criticism can only destroy the New
Testament by killing it in these two vital points.
It must be shown, by such tests as sensible men
feel bound to apply to all history, secular as well
as sacred, that the evangelical biographies are
unsustained by adequate evidence — and it must
be proved that, even if the facts are true, the

THE RECORD. 395
meaning attributed to them by the apostles is
palpably gratuitous and mistaken. But until this
this has been done, critics labour in vain to subvert
this record, as a basis of rational belief, whatever
may be their success in demonstrating that the
historical portion of it is characterised by the
seeming imperfections which attach universally to
the most authentic historical works, or in proving
that, in setting forth the divine significance of
the facts, the writers exhibit those limitations of
intellectual practice and power from which it is
difficult to conceive how any human penmen could
be free, but which do not necessarily impart the
slightest uncertainty to a single spiritual doctrine
they have undertaken to disclose to us. Taking
the New Testament as a whole, we are not disposed
to deny that it bears upon the face of it many
indications that its several writers were not entirely
exempt from mental imperfection — but we contend
that the imperfection which their works exhibit
is perfectly compatible with the communication
to men of infaUible knowledge respecting God,
his moral relations to us, his purposes with regard
to us, and the religious duties which these things
enforce on all who would attain unto eternal
life. And if this be true, the record, equally
with the revelation, satisfies the spiritual need
of man in its fullest extent.
d d 2

396 THE RECORD.
§ 13. RELATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT TO THE NEW.
Regarding the main design of this work as now
completed, we are yet unwilling to close our labours
without briefly adverting to the claims of the Old
Testament upon our faith, and the relation in which
it stands to the New. Possibly it may be felt by
some that could they but disjoin the one from the
other, retain the later dispensation, and cast aside
the earlier, the ground of their faith would be firmer
and more secure. Be this as it may, the task is not
feasible. So manifestly did Christianity grow out
of Judaism, so intimately and inseparably is the
one blended with the other, so evident is it that
the first looks back upon the last, and the last
looks forward to the first, and so explicitly, fre
quently, and solemnly did Jesus and his apostles
appeal to Moses and the prophets in corroboration
of their own teaching, that no scope remains for the
conclusion that the one may be only human, while
the other is divine. They stand or fall together.
Their connexion is as that of the stem and the
flower — of infancy and manhood. They are different
stages of the same revelation. They have a common
root. It is vain, therefore, we think, and childish,
to conceal from ourselves, or attempt to conceal
from others, the fact that objections subversive of
the divine authority of the Old Testament, are also
subversive of that of the New. But it is also fair
and reasonable to insist that the light of the New

THE RECORD. 397
Testament should be allowed to assist us in our
judgment of the Old — and that the latter should
not be examined apart, as if its merits were all
included in itself, but should be candidly treated as
preparatory to the former — rough beginnings of
what was subsequently completed — rudiments not
yet perfectly developed — first steps in the ascent of
humanity, under divine guidance, to those exalted
spiritual truths and principles which, we hope,
will one day sway the hearts of the whole family
of man.
We look upon the education of the human race
as a process quite distinct from, but perfectly ana
logous to, the education of individuals. Mankind,
as such, has a life of its own, in which its several
powers are developed in due order — the sensual,
the intellectual, the moral and spiritual. There is
a common, as well as a personal, experience — and
generation hands to generation the result of its
thought, efforts, struggles, defeats, and victories.
The errors that formely lived and flourished, being
once rooted out, are killed for aU future. time — and
if there be broad belts of humanity's surface on
which they still linger, the clearance which has
been effected on either side of them, renders the
work of extirpation so much the more easy than it
was before. Truths which are now communicable
to the rudest, because backed by the authority of
the more enlightened, were, at one time, when

398 THE RECORD.
devoid of this advantage, not communicable to any.
By very slow degrees has the superiority of moral
over physical power become established — but being
established by that experience towards which age
after age has contributed, many and potent are the
influences now available for the government of
society, which, in days gone-by, no genius could
have evoked. England governs the whole conti
nent of India, at the present day, with a scant
physical power which, at no former period in the
history of the world, would have sufficed to awe
into subjection a hundred millions of men. Is
this phenomenon accounted for by our strategetical
science, by the discipline of our troops, by the
rapidity and certainty of our previous conquests]
Not wholly — not, perhaps, mainly. — It is not the
deadly physical power which we can bring into
the field, but the skill that organized it, the know
ledge that directs it, the intellectual grasp that
can apply it as emergencies arise, which awe the
Oriental swarms into submission. That moral
repute which these things give us in their eye
renders easy what but a few ages ago would have
been impossible — the quiet rule of a dense popula
tion, by no means socially content or happy, by
a military, in the proportion of less than one
man to a thousand. There are multitudes of
things feasible enough now, which have become
feasible only because the race has advanced — and

THE RECORD. 399
each acquisition, intellectual and moral, renders
all future ones more easy and more certain. The
materials which constitute at any given moment
the general stock of man's knowledge, and the
average tone of his sensibilities, determine the
amount and character of what can be successfully
added — and the electric spark of sympathy which
will kindle a whole generation into flaming enthu
siasm, liberated before its time, would simply
flash and disappear without taking effect. Many
were the men who preached the doctrines of the
Reformation before the birth of Luther — men as
able, as zealous, as courageous as he — but who
preached with comparatively small results. The
vast difference between his success and theirs, is
attributable, not to his superiority, as an instru
ment, over them, but to the higher state of pre
paredness in which he found European society.
No grand epoch in this world's history can be
dissociated from what has preceded it. For all
great changes there has been a long previous
course of suitable training. The destiny of man,
under Divine Providence, is evermore forward —
and hence, the adaptation of the means employed
to educate him, must be judged of by their cor
respondence with the stage of human development
at which they were employed.
The person and life of Jesus Christ, judged of
by his own declarations, are emphatically the

400 THE RECORD.
revelation of God to man, suited, as we have
endeavoured to show, to the special wants of our
religious nature, and attested by that kind of
evidence which could alone establish its divine
authority. But if this be true, it may be asked,
what becomes of the Mosaic economy, which also
pretends to be a revelation of the Supreme ] If
man really requires a manifestation of God through
the medium of a human life and history, in order
to an appreciation of the moral perfections, and
a sympathy with the moral designs, of the Most
High, what need of a dispensation extending over
some two thousand years, which presents no such
alleged aptitude to our nature and our position ]
If Christianity be what we have contended for,
what is Judaism] We reply in brief, the Old
Testament economy, ipso dicente, is a showing of
God by means of a theocratic government of a
special people — by the laws, social, political, and
ecclesiastical, under which they were placed — by
the providential events which governed and shaped
their national life — and by the prophetical com
munications which interpreted those events, and
which, from time to time, directed the hopes of the
people to that more glorious future, of which their
own history was but a budding germ. The reve
lation by Christ could not be made, with any
permanently beneficial result, until those ideas
had been elicited, and those religious sensibilities

THE RECORD. 401
awakened, to which it makes its spiritual appeal.
When the Jews came out of Egypt, they were
plainly a barbarous and ferocious people — pagan
in all their sympathies and habits — rude, savage,
and sensual in their tastes. They were a fair
specimen of human nature in its animal type —
and as such it was necessary to deal with them.
Man needed to be taught, in some one branch or
other of the family, that God is one, and that the
earth is his and the fulness thereof — that relation
ship to him implies obligations the fulfilment of
which ensures a blessing, the violation of which
entails a penalty — that He who made the heavens
and the earth is carrying on a moral government —
and that the position of men in relation to that
government is a matter of vast importance to
themselves. Sense of right and wrong in regard
to Him had to be quickened and exercised — the
distinction between purity and impurity had to be
educed — some notion of divine law had to be
impressed and graduaUy deepened — and, in a word,
all those elementary religious sentiments which are
necessary to a perception and realization of spiritual
grace, freedom, and loveliness, had to be born and
nurtured. Let it be borne in mind that the expe
rience of any one member of the race, when
published and authenticated, becomes part of the
experience of the race itself. It is not necessary
that every individual should pass through all the

402 THE RECORD.
training which in some shape will ultimately con
duce to the formation of his mind and character —
because much of it will have been borne for him
by persons who have preceded him in his earthly
career. The power of moral agency is elaborated
by numberless separate processes — and the victory
which one man achieves, yields its fruits to aU
other men who witness or who hear of it. In like
manner, the discipline of the Jewish people was
not for themselves only, but for the whole family
of mankind. What they needed in order to reli
gious development, the whole race needed — what
they attained, the whole race may have the benefit
of. Had Jesus Christ appeared in the days of
Moses his mission would have been futile, for his
message could not have been understood. The
ideas, convictions, and susceptibUities which Judaism
had contributed to the common stock of humanity,
had also put humanity into a position which rendered
it capable of receiving a divine revelation in this
more perfect form. Nay, more! we question
whether if all the records of the Mosaic economy,
and aU the notices of Jewish experience, could be
swept into oblivion, it would be possible for us,
even in the present day, to comprehend the spi
ritual significance of Christianity. At any rate,
we have not the smallest doubt that now, and in
all coming ages, the religious power of Christianity
is, and will be, immensely increased, by the oppor-

THE RECORD. 403
tunities which the Old Testament affords men of
watching the preliminary and preparatory, and
step-by-step manifestations of the Deity, through
his government of the Jewish people. We have
the rough sketch alongside of the finished picture ;
we have all the progressive stages between the
first stroke of the one, and the last touch of the
other. And although the former has been super
seded by the latter, it is puerile to despise it as
having no further use. So do not men of average
intelligence in any other department of valuable
knowledge — so ought they not in this. Far from
regretting that we are compelled to accept the
Old Testament with the New, we rejoice in it —
just as we should esteem a work of scientific
completeness all the more valuable for being
accompanied by the series of progressive dis
coveries, which terminate in the satisfactory and
perfect result.
Doubtless, the mind enlightened, and the con
science educated, by the higher truths and prin
ciples of the gospel, will detect, as did the apostle
Paul, much that is inferior, uncouth, and cumber
some, in the ancient dispensation — representations
of Deity that jar upon our more refined sentiments
— passages of history that strike us as monstrous —
deeds and systems sanctioned which we unequi
vocally condemn — motives appealed to which we
regard as low and trivial. And this will be the

404 THE RECORD.
case, just in proportion as we go back to extreme
antiquity. Well ! but could it have been other
wise ] Is it not just what we should anticipate in
the education of man's nature, from the lowest
stages of animalism up to the highest develop
ment of spirituality ] Is it a fact that the moral
training of our race differs so far from that which
is physical, as that the faculties are able to take
in'at once the highest forms of pleasure which can
be proposed to them ] Is it not wise and bene
ficent to impart truth as men are best able to
receive and assimilate it ] What father does not
act upon this plan ] How silly are the ideas which
he gravely presents to the mind of his child —
silly, we mean, if compared with the absolute
truth of things, instead of being judged of, as they
ought, by their accordance with a childish capa
city. How many communications, untrue in form,
but true in the impression which they make, is he
compelled to resort to ! How inferior the motives
which he is obliged to invoke ! How minute, and,
sometimes, inexplicable, the regulations his most
sagacious affection deems it expedient to lay down
and enforce ! Does the child, when he arrives at
man's estate, recaU these efforts to lay in him the
foundation of an upright character, and implant
in his heart -the seeds of right principles, for the
purpose of heaping ridicule upon them, or of com
plaining that during his boyhood, he was not dealt

THE RECORD. 405
with as a reasonable and independent man ] Very
near akin to this, however, is the style in which
modern phUosophical criticism deals with the
Judaical economy. The Jehovah of Moses is
indignantly rejected as jealous, irascible, cruel,
sanguinary — as governing by fear — as sanctioning
crime — as punishing and rewarding, not in accord
ance with the immutable principles of wrong and
right, but according to arbitrary standards devoid
of any moral worth. And, truly, all this indignation
seems highly virtuous if you measure the patriarchal
and Mosaic representations of God, by the purer,
nobler, lovelier views of the Divine nature and cha
racter which Christianity has diffused through society
— but if you contemplate them in their adaptation
to the people whom they were meant to influence
and educate, disapprobation appears to be mistimed
and superfluous. The question is, could the early
Israelites have received more than was imparted to
them, or could they have appreciated it if presented
in higher forms ] Must it not be conceded, looking
to the record whence these objections are derived,
that the little light of that spiritual dawn, blood-
red, if the sceptic pleases so to designate it, became
stronger and purer as the nation could bear it ]
that in the time of David, it was brighter and stea
dier than in the time of Moses ] more genial and
fuller stiU in the time of Isaiah] Is it not true
that nobler sentiments were gradually, although

406 THE RECORD.
not without many relapses, formed among this
people ] Is it not undeniable that their later pro
phets encouraged wider and worthier views of God
and man ] And must we not, in candour, admit
that, whilst other nations left the Jews infinitely
behind them in intellectual culture and civilization,
the world is nevertheless indebted to this singular
people for all its present ideas of the moral beauty
and spirituality of the Divine character ] Supposing
it to be true that the Old Testament comprises a
varied record of a preparatory revelation, what do
the facts and main features of the case, as therein
set forth, exhibit to a believer in the present day ]
Why this — light from above finding its way to the
mind of man environed with a dense atmosphere
of animalism, and necessarily assuming colours
which belong, not to itself, but to the medium
through which it must needs pass — the wisdom of
God, the purity of God, the beneficence of God,
the one Ruler and Father of mankind, taking to
themselves such forms in the providential guidance
and government of a nation marked off from all
others, as might penetrate, awaken, and exercise
conscience in respect of himself, where such con
science, deeply imbedded in sensualism, ignorance,
and superstition, could not be otherwise got at.
Somehow or other, it is certain, spiritualism, "start
ing at the very lowest conceivable point among this
people, made steady progress — cleared itself gra-

THE RECORD. 407
dually of the grosser forms with which it was first
associated — and ultimately brought up the level of
human kind to an average of religious conviction
and sentiment which rendered possible the presen
tation of divine truth, by Jesus Christ, in the most
spiritual form which our nature can apprehend,
realize, and enjoy.
To adaptation and progress we may add another
characteristic of the Old Testament manifestations
of the Supreme — namely, unity. The several books
of which the record consists — history, poetry, pro
phecy — were written by various hands, at different
times, separated from each other in many instances
by intervals of centuries, and on occasions, and for
special purposes, extremely dissimilar. Now we
do not mean to affirm that a critic, in these days of
philosophical sunshine, forgetting to allow a hair's
breadth of consideration for the variations of mode
and method in the conveyance of spiritual truth
required to adapt it to a nation in its several stages
of religious development, cannot, by minute inves
tigation, detect semblances, at least, of occasional
discrepancy. But we put it with some confidence,
even to the most captious, whether the general
bearing of this entire collection of books is not in
one and the same direction — whether they are not
threaded together by an obvious unity of purpose,
and whether a serious and continuous perusal of
them does not leave upon the mind an intelligible,

408 THE RECORD.
definite, and self-consistent impression. Is it not
possible to pursue a leading idea from Genesis to
Malachi, and would not any observant and reflect
ing man rise up from a study of the whole, with a
strongly excited expectation that something still
better was to come — something towards which his
attention has been repeatedly directed — something
to the success and glory of which aU that he had
been reading was, by its own account, preparatory ]
Standing, then, upon the broad, firm, and, as it
appears to us, easily tenable grounds we have thus
briefly sketched out, we see nothing in the tenour
of the Old Testament inconsistent with the claims
of the New. We feel ourselves bound in reason
to deny the entire series of facts recorded in both
— which we cannot do save by a process which
would destroy all history — or, admitting the sub
stantial accuracy of the facts, to regard them as
embodying a progressive revelation of God, termi
nating, when " the fulness of time was come," in
the vouchsafement to human nature of a perfect
" Image of the Invisible." On a general survey of
the entire case, we cannot discover in it any promi
nent feature irreconcileable with the principles of
our philosophy. We are, indeed, very far from
pretending either ignorance of, or insensibility to,
some perplexities which we cannot disentangle,
some difficulties which we cannot satisfactorily sur
mount. They lie, however, chiefly on the surface

THE RECORD. 409
of things, and are calculated to puzzle far more
than to disturb our faith. But if, yielding to
momentary doubts, we were to surrender our belief,
we should gain no satisfaction to our reason — since
the perplexities, the difficulties, the large assump
tions, the incompatibilities, with which we must be
content to reconcile ourselves on adopting the con
clusion that the Bible as it stands is the result of
hallucination or of fraud, are a hundredfold more
numerous, and inexpressibly more revolting to our
common sense, our moral instincts, and our reli
gious sympathies, than any to which that belief
now exposes us.
¦§ 14. SUMMARY DESCRIPTION OF THE FOREGOING BASES OF
BELIEF.
The intellectual scepticism of the present day
appears to us to be distinguished by two elements
— it is partly speculative and partly critical. No
doubt, it has allotted work to do of which Chris
tianity will hereafter reap the benefit. Neither do
we question that it has taken deep hold of many
sincere, conscientious, and highly cultivated minds,
which command our respect for the freedom and
fearlessness of their inquiries after truth, although
none for the decision at which they have arrived.
In truth, we demur to the appropriateness of the
title which they too often arrogate to themselves,
of rationalists — meaning thereby men who depend
E E

410 THE RECORD.
for their religious convictions upon the authority of
reason. That is not reason, in our sober estimate,
which sets aside an immense body of facts either
by a speculative dogma, or by the utmost ingenuity
of criticism. The highest interests of a man rest,
surely, upon more tangible and solid grounds than
can be undermined by subtle intellectual theories,
or frittered away by acute and learned criticism.
The strong common sense of mankind is usually
more to be relied on than the most plausible inge
nuities of abstract thinkers, save wrhere abstract
thought cheerfully accepts as its basis existing facts.
Now, what is the alternative offered to our reason
in the present controversy] We will suppose
intellectual scepticism to have been successful — to
have disproved the possibility of miracles — to have
demolished the pretensions of a special revelation
— and to have torn to shreds the Scriptures which
profess to have recorded one. Well ! but when
that has been done to the fullest satisfaction of
reason, there will still remain upon its hands some
untoward facts to be got rid of. It will then appear
that, from age to age, human ingenuity contributed,
but without concert, forged materials to a common
stock, and that each successive contribution was
accepted by the nation to whom it was presented,
as divinely authorized. It will appear that upwards
of eighteen hundred years ago there existed a
people exhibiting all the characteristics fairly

THE RECORD. 41 1
ascribable to causes such as those which their ficti
tious history pretended to describe — speaking a lan
guage, cherishing traditions, displaying a national
idiosyncrasy, bound to a ritualism, filled with ex
pectations, just such as we might have anticipated
had the sacred books they watched over with so
much jealousy been truth instead of romance. It
will appear that when the old delusion might well
be supposed to be near its end, ready to be overrun
by the more rational and civilized notions of Rome,
a new pretender sprung up to give a new turn to
superstition — but that disappointing by the spiri
tuality of his views the political wishes of the
people, he was speedily put to death as a malefactor
and blasphemer. It will appear that some few
followers of his got up a still more egregious for
gery than any of the preceding ones, but still
grafted upon them — that, either, all unconsciously
to themselves, they wove a tissue of falsehood which
they managed themselves to believe, and to palm
upon the belief of others — or that, purposely and
with marvellous craft, they invented a tale which
they afterwards laboured hard to promulgate, and
died to verify. And it will appear that out of this
concatenation of successive frauds, sprang the
grandest, the most powerful, the most permanent,
and, even at this very day, the most promising spi
ritual revolution of which the world has been wit
ness — a delineation of the most original and perfect
e e 2

412 THE RECORD.
human character which imagination can conceive
— an exhibition of the purest, most elevated, and
most spiritualizing views of God to which man has
ever yet attained — a morality which, if universally
exemplified, would make earth a paradise — and
principles of heroism which have subsequently pro
duced the chief specimens of virtue, courage, love,
and endurance to which humanity still looks up
with admiring reverence. Is it not perplexing to
our reason, is it not absolutely staggering, that out
of this mass of falsehood should have come this truth
ful result ] Do we see anything resembling it else
where ] Do known analogies throw light upon it ]
Does common experience confirm it] Nay, is it
credible on any of the ordinary grounds of belief]
Nevertheless, this is the alternative which modern
scepticism terms rational. Altogether, the case
presents an amount of inteUectual and moral diffi
culty with which our reason essays in vain to
grapple. Disbelievers in Christianity, we should
find ourselves involved in a thicker and more im
penetrable mystery than any which now envelops
us, and should be compelled to accept more unac
countable conclusions, and on infinitely slenderer
evidence, than any in which we now rejoice. But
this we are certainly not prompted to by our reason.
And if our philosophy had brought us to this pass,
or our critical sagacity had placed us in this
dilemma, we should be strongly tempted to suspect

THE RECORD. 413
that we might be wrong in our philosophy — we
should begin to question whether our criticism was
sagacious, more especially if, after having rejected
the Scripture narratives, we should find ourselves
obliged to throw away all other histories with them.
But, in closing this treatise, we hope we may
venture to submit that neither undisputed facts,
nor recognised principles of philosophy, nor sober
and trustworthy criticism, impose upon us any such
hard alternative as we have just described. The
religious movement which originated at the death
of Jesus, the principal phenomena of which tinge
all subsequent history, and the power of which is
far from spent even to this day, is certainly most
satisfactorily accounted for on the hypothesis that
the impulse was from God. Its rapid spread in
the very teeth of Jewish prejudice and Roman
pride — the entire possession it gained over the
minds of its earliest adherents, and the unanimous
zeal and fidelity with which they were content to
" die daily " in the labour of extending it, and, at
last, to die literally in attestation of their faith —
the extent to which it has softened the ruggedness
of human nature, and quickened a kindlier and
more genial civilization than Egypt, or Greece,
or Rome, ever displayed in their palmiest days — the
amount and quality of spiritual life it has been the
means of begetting and sustaining-— the fact that it
has invariably secured the largest triumphs where

414 THE RECORD.
intellect is best developed and most practical, and
at epochs when mind has been most awake — the
power which it stUl successfully exerts in reforming
character, in stimulating high motives, and in
ministering the purest of pleasures, and the most
effectual of consolations — and the strong probabili
ties in favour of its eventually realizing its own
pretensions, and becoming the one faith of the
human family — these things constitute a moral
phenomenon without parallel in the world's history,
and go far, very far, to sustain the conclusion that,
as it is evidently an important feature in God's
providential designs, so it represents, as it purports
to do, his character and will. So potent a spiritual
force, unless traced up to a divine origin, remains
an inexplicable mystery — the grandest of effects
disconnected from all probable cause. Admit a
revelation, and everything falls into its proper place
— deny it, and the most important body of facts
with which history makes us acquainted is thrown
out of gear — cut off from every assignable likeli
hood to account for it, from every conceivable end
to be accomplished by it. Here, then, we think,
is one solid basis of reasonable faith in Christianity
— what it unquestionably has done, is doing, and
promises to do. Taking in the whole at one view,
no consistent explanation of it can be suggested,
but that it comes from God. This is its own report
of itself — and, assuredly, a wide induction of rele-

THE RECORD. 415
vant facts gives countenance to the truth of that
report. Collected and generalized, they yield us
but one conclusion — and if, on other grounds, we
are compelled to reject that as inadmissible, they
become to us instantly devoid of meaning. Need
we say that those other grounds ought to be strong
indeed, to justify our reason in deciding against so
many concurrent favouring appearances ] And if
no such grounds of justification can be pointed out
to us nor made good, are we not acting a rational
part in accepting, in relation to the undisputed
facts of Christianity, as we do in relation to those
of the physical universe, the theory, suggested by
themselves, which best tallies with and explains
them ] Thus far, it is plain, we apply to a religious
inquiry the same rule as we take for our guidance
in any other. If any departure is made from the
path of sound philosophy, it is not by us who
believe, but by those who commit themselves to
doubt. And why should we not accept the most natural
explanation of these facts as the true one ] What
strain is thereby put upon our reason] What
violence is done to our customary intellectual pro
cesses and habits ] If we ask Christianity what it
professes to be, it replies unequivocally, a showing
of God to men by Jesus Christ. Supposing any
such special revelation to have been superfluous so
far as concerns the natural attributes of the Deity,

416 THE RECORD.
can as much be truly said in respect of his moral
perfections, relations, and purposes] Some exhi
bition of Himself all analogy would lead us to
expect. He has endowed us with a religious
nature. He has given us capabilities of becoming
acquainted with him — moral sympathies, and spi
ritual yearnings and affections which can find full
satisfaction only in a complete oneness of will with
himself. For this subjective aptitude we reason
ably look for an appropriate objective provision.
Certain it is that we find it not in ourselves, nor,
judging from the general principles which appear
to regulate the Divine method of proceeding, should
we anticipate the discovery of it there. Neither
can we meet with it in the physical universe.
Much, no doubt, of God, is displayed in the
mechanism and processes of Nature — but not
specially adapted to awaken moral emotions, or
supply a sufficient resting-place to moral desires.
Matter and motion, however variously modified,
can but ill be made to express spiritual sentiments,
and uniform experience has proved that they never
have succeeded in quickening amongst men a reh
gious life. Now, if God has undeniably revealed
himself by means of matter and motion so far as
the need of our intellect requires, is not the infe
rence warranted that if more suitable means can
be found for a similar disclosure of himself to our
religious sense, which is chiefly emotional, his

THE RECORD. 417
wisdom and his goodness will employ them ] May
we not fairly expect, in this as in all other cases,
a close correspondence and congruity between the
end to be accomplished, and the agency made use
of to achieve it ] If God has shown himself through
a material, why not through a mental and moral
medium, especially when the object to be gained is
wholly of the latter character] A man's life is
surely as fitting a mirror for the reflection to man's
heart of God's moral image, as physical mechanism
— and far more suited to answer the requisite end.
The class of ideas and sentiments with which our
religious nature qualifies us to converse, and out of
which alone it can draw nutriment and satisfaction,
are best displayed in their action and exercise —
and the incidents, the relationships, the duties, the
deeds, and the sufferings of a man, " in all points
like as we are," constitute a far likelier and more
congruous embodiment of the moral character and
purpose of God, at least with a view to the reh
gious education of man, than any other that we
can conceive of. And such seems to have been
the general sense of mankind, often, it is true,
uncouthly and inarticulately expressed, but always
with sufficient distinctness to intimate, that if the
Supreme could, consistently with his own wisdom,
disclose himself through a human medium of
expression, an ever-active craving of our religious
nature would be thereby met. Now this is pre-

418 THE RECORD.
cisely what the revelation by Jesus Christ purports
to be and to do — to quicken in men's hearts a
spiritual life by bringing them into contact with
" God manifest in the flesh." The subjective want
and the objective reality exactly correspond. And
this congruity between what is within us, and tha
which addresses itself to us from without, is another
solid basis of our faith. It is in accordance with
a law which we observe to pervade the entire
universe — for wherever we meet with natural capa
bilities and wants, we may be sure of discovering
also a suitable provision for them. Upon this
principle of the divine economy we think we are
fully entitled to rely — and seeing it strikingly
exemplified in the mission and life of Jesus Christ,
we feel ourselves authorized by reason to conclude
that a strong prima facie case in favour of Chris
tianity, as a revelation of God, has been established.
A worthy end presupposes sufficient means, at
least in all God's doings. If it is fitting that he
should show himself to our religious consciousness
in a human life, it is also fitting that he should
visibly stamp that hfe with incontestable proof of
his purpose. Such a manifestation could be of no
practical advantage to men, unless there were
legible on it some such inscription as this —
" Truly this is the Son of God." Well, then, we
require, in order to such a display of the Creator
as will best suit the spiritual powers and sensi-

THE RECORD. 419
bilities with which he has endowed us, some
distinctive mark certifying to our reason that the
human representation set before us can be a
representation of none other than the Deity him
self. But by what mark could we identify a
portraiture of this sort ] Wisdom will not answer
the purpose, for there is no clear line of distinction
separating the wisdom of God from the wisdom of
man. Nor righteousness, nor justice, nor even
goodness — for besides that the more perfectly they
are exemplified the higher must be our moral taste
to appreciate them, it would be impracticable to
pronounce concerning any of them, when found
embodied in a man's history, how far they were
human, and how far divine. Foreknowledge,
expressed by prophecy, would constitute a seal of
Deity — but yet requiring more time, labour, and
skill, to verify, than would consist with the ordinary
circumstances of a busy world like this. It would
be an authentication of such a revelation as we
need — but standing alone, its practical use would
be insufficient for the emergency. Only super
natural power could so mark off an individual
human life from life in general, as to warrant our
regarding it as an undoubted expression of God's
mind, character, and will. Miracles would do it —
and assist besides, in several ways, to render the
manifestation morally impressive. They offer a
species of evidence readily appreciable by the

420 THE RECORD.
dullest — they fall in with universal expectation in
connexion with a special disclosure of God's wiU
to mankind — they address themselves to our sense
of the marveUous which would seem to have no
worthy object to respond to but the supernatural —
and they serve to awaken men from a state of
spiritual listlessness and indifference. A seal is
wanted which none can mistake — miracles furnish
that seal. Why, then, must we object to them,
in limine ? Do they imply anything at variance
with the general principles of God's administra
tion, physical or moral ] On the contrary, closely
examined, they are found to be in harmony with
both. They answer a similar tuitional end, but of
a special and a higher kind, as that for the attain
ment of which the uniformity of Nature's laws was
originally established — they neither counteract nor
weaken our reliance upon that uniformity — and
they do but exemplify what we see prevalent
throughout the Divine dominions — the physical
mode subservient to the moral — the secondary
subordinated to the supreme. Are they, then, as
contradicting universal experience, incapable of
proof by testimony ] Not so, as facts abundantly
prove. Far more incredible, because wanting any
assignable purpose, would be the fallibUity of
human testimony in relation to a fact like the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, when
corroborated by such various and abundant proof

THE RECORD. 421
as that which is supplied by the foregoing and
succeeding context of that fact. Here, again, we
find a third sure basis of belief. Christianity
proffers us just that kind of attestation in support
of its pretensions, which such a revelation impera
tively demands, and which, assuming it to be
divine, we are warranted in expecting that God
would supply. What preliminary intellectual objec
tion is there to prevent our acceptance of this
evidence ] It is necessary, it is pertinent, it is
sufficient, it is morally impressive, it is in perfect
keeping with the general principles of the Divine
government, and, where supported by trustworthy
testimony, it is capable of inspiring intelligent and
confident belief. Why, then; are we to throw it
aside, as if unworthy of further examination ]
What should induce us to regard that individual
human life which claims to represent to us the
unseen God, as the fiction of impostors or fanatics,
merely because it is segregated from other lives by
a supernaturalism which alone could stamp it as
divine ] Abstractly, and in theory, we contend,
no authoritative or sufficient reason has been
shown. Scepticism, in regard to Christianity,
therefore, up to this point, although it may be
intellectual, is not entitled to be designated rational.
Belief keeps closest to the stated order of things.
Lastly, a revelation like this, presenting the
only satisfactory solution of the various and abun-

422 THE RECORD.
dant phenomena of spiritual power with which
we are familiar, alone adapted to meet the wants
of our religious nature, and authenticated by the
only kind of proof which the peculiar nature of
the case requires, must needs be historical, and
be enshrined in a written record. Does this
necessity destroy its practical worth] On the
contrary, it enhances it. It renders it easy of
access and of diffusion. It preserves all that is
spiritually impressive in it, whilst it divests it of
that exciting glare with which passing events of
a supernatural character are apt to dazzle the
imagination, and divert from its legitimate func
tions the religious sense. Such a record Chris
tianity proffers us in the New Testament. Can
we trust it] What qualities should it exhibit
to secure our trust] How shall we be reasonably
assured that its statements of fact are to be relied
on] How are we assured in the case of other
historical statements] Test the narratives as you
do all others. Weigh the character of the writers.
Mark what credit was given to them in their
own age. Inquire what were the objections, the
denials, the attempted refutations, ventured upon
by their then enemies. Ascertain, if possible,
their opportunities of verifying the facts which
they narrate. Compare their biographies one
with another, or, do as Paley has done, compare
the history of apostolic life with incidental notices

THE RECORD. 423
in apostolic writings. But do not subject these
memorials to a kind of inquisition which no history
on earth could survive. Distinguish, as reason
teaches you to do in all similar investigations,
between the substance and main purport of the
statement made, and the unessential incidents with
which it may chance to be associated — between
the matter-of-fact honesty of the writers, and their
speculative misapprehensions — between the facts
which they record, and the nationality of manner
with which they record them. In short, deal
with them as you would deal with any witnesses
whose characters are beyond suspicion. Is not
all this rational, sober, usual] Why should we,
then, go out of the way to destroy the credit
of this record] And if fair criticism leaves the
bulk of this history unimpeached, have we not
a right to anticipate some sure insight into its
spiritual significance] It is furnished us by men
whose lives and whose office warrant our trusting
in this respect — and whose writings, judged
of by our religious consciousness, impart an
additional luminousness to the life of our Lord,
and develop spiritual truths which the experience
of millions who have lovingly received them, has
declared to be productive of the most elevating,
purifying, invigorating, consoling, spiritualizing
results. This is our last basis of faith. The
record of the revelation makes its appeal to the

424 THE RECORD.
ordinary tribunal, and to customary methods of
investigation, in support of its statement of facts,
and to the judgment of our religious sense,
in support of its interpretation of them. Here,
again, those who believe follow the usual order
of things — those who doubt, resort to exceptional
method. Tried by the common sense of mankind,
the New Testament record, carrying with it also
the Old, maintains all the authority which such
a record needs.
We have done. Our object has been to remove
preliminary objections of a strictly intellectual
character, cherished by many against Christianity
as a revelation of God. Modern scepticism, it has
been said, must be met on grounds more strictly
philosophical than those taken up by former
apologists for the Bible. On those grounds we
have met it. We have laid the entire stress of
our argument upon facts which nobody can dispute,
and on philosophical principles which few wUl
venture to deny. If we have failed, it must be
in our reading of those facts or in the application
of those principles to the case in hand — and,
doubtless, our failure will soon be exposed. But
if we have succeeded, then the controversy is
brought back to where it stood before modern
scepticism changed the issue. The old evidences
which, in days gone by, men of intelligence and
judgment accepted as pertinent and triumphant,

THE RECORD. 425
are neither irrelevant nor destitute of force. Not
to supersede them, but to restore them to their
just authority, have our labours been directed.
We have sought, not so much to supply proof,
as to point out the kind of proof admissible,
and to be regarded as reasonable and satisfactory,
in the settlement of this grave question. We
have essayed to establish the philosophy which
should rule the disputants on both sides. We
trust we have done so with becoming moderation
of temper — as we certainly have with scrupulous
conscientiousness of spirit. Possibly, others will
follow out, with higher ability than any to which
we can pretend, the track of reasoning we have
here essayed to indicate. At all events, we have
passed rapidly along it with assured and increasing
faith at every step — and, albeit there are some
thoughts we have met with in the works of
sceptical writers which have modified views we
had previously entertained — for which we are
not ashamed to tender them our thanks- — we are
bound to confess, and we rejoice in the confession,
that we can calmly smile at the most confident
assaults of intellectual scepticism, so long as we
feel beneath us, firm, sure, and immoveable, what
we presume to designate Bases of Belief.

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