He must then have existed as he is portrayed. The concep- tion and execution of such a character by man would, as J. J. Rousseau confesses, be a greater miracle than its existence. If he existed he must have been the divine being he claimed. A miracle of intelligence, he could not have been deceived. A mir- acle of moral perfection, he could not have been an impostor.
17. How is the Christian religion proved to be divine by the spiritucd power of its doctrines, and by the experience of all tclio sincerely put its precepts, provisions, and promises to the test of a practiced tried f
Although man can not by his unassisted powers discover God, yet surely it belongs essentially to his spiritual nature that he can recognize God when he speaks.
1st. The word of God reaches to and proves its power upon such deep and various principles of man's nature that even the unregenerate man recognizes its origin. It is a "fire and a hammer ;" it is a " discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. — Jer. xxiii.. 29: Heb. iv., 12. This profound grasp that the word takes of human nature is in spite of the fact that it degrades human pride, forbids the gratification of lust, and imposes irk- some duties and restraints upon the will. The mass of men are held subject to its power against their will. This is paralleled in no other religion.
2d. All who faithfully put this revelation to the test of prac- tice finds it to be true in the deepest experiences of their souls. (1.) They experience as realities all it sets forth as promises. It does secure the forgiveness of their sins, their communion with God and joy in the Holy Ghost. " Doing his will they know the origin of his doctrines. — John vii., 17. (2.) They are witnesses to others. Men are by nature aliens from God and servants of sin. This revelation pledges itself that it can deliver them, and that none other can. The sum of all human experience upon the point is, that many Christians have been made thereby new and spin-
62 EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
tual men, and that no other system ever produced such an effect. — 2 Cor. iii., 2; 3. Dr. K. J. Breckenridge's Univ. Lecture. (3.) This revelation makes provision also for all human wants. The more a man advances in religious experience the more does he find how infinitely adapted the grace of the gospel is to all pos- sible spiritual exigencies and capacities ; witness regeneration justification, adoption, sanctification, the intercession of the Son, the indwelling of the Spirit, the working together of all events in the spheres of providence and grace for our good, the resurrection of the body, eternal glory. And, as far as our earthly life goes, all these are actually experienced in their truth, their fullness, and their infinite capability of accommodation to every form of char- acter and circumstance.
18. How may the divine origin of Christianity he proved from its effects, as witnessed in the broad phenomena of commu- nities and nations ?
Christianity, when entering very disproportionately into any community, has often been counteracted by. opposing influences acting from without, and often adulterated by the intrusion of foreign elements ; some philosophical, as the new Platonism of the early church, and the Kationalism and Pantheism of the pre- sent day ; some traditional and hierarchical, as the Catholicism of the middle ages. Its sacred name has thus often been sacri- legiously ascribed to religious systems altogether alien to itself. Our argument however is —
1st. That whenever the Christianity of the Bible is allowed free course, to that extent its influence has been wholly bene- ficial.
2d. That this influence has, as an unquestionable historical fact, availed to raise every race in the exact proportion of their Christianity to an otherwise never attained level of intellectual, moral and political advancement. If we compare ancient Greece and Home with England or America ; modern Spain, Italy and Austria with Scotland ; the Waldenses with Koine of the Middle Ages ; the Moravians with the Parisians ; the Sandwich Islands and New Zealand with the gospel, with themselves before its ad- vent, the conclusion is inevitable.
1st. That Bible Christianity alone furnishes a world embrac-
EARLY SUCCESSES. 63
ing civilization, .which adapted to man as man re-connects in one system the scattered branches of the human family.
2d. That only under its light has ever been discovered among men (1), a rational natural theology, or (2), a true philosophy whether physical or psychological.
3d. That under its direct influence, and under its reign alone, have (1), the masses of the people been raised, and general educa- tion diffused, (2), woman been respected and elevated to her true position and influence, and (3), generally religious and civil liberty realized upon a practical conservative basis.