THE BIBLE ITS OWN WITNESS.

Not long since a Christian was requested to -1-1 name the best book on the "Divine Origin of the Bible." His instant answer was, "The Bible." This is so true it almost justifies the remark of Coleridge that the book most needed is one which will defend Christianity against its defenders. No writer probably has ever undertaken to set forth the claims of the Sacred Scriptures upon the faith and veneration of men, without a humiliating consciousness, not only of his total failure to present them in their full light, but of his own inability to comprehend their breadth and length and depth and height. Or if in a silly conceit of his sufficiency for the task, he has no such consciousness, others are sure to detect his failure for him; for they speedily discover that in comparison with what might have been said and ought to have been said, his brightest arguments are but as the flash of the fire-fly attempting to impart some conception of the sun shining in his strength. Hence the certainty with which every published work on the "Evidences of Christianity "is pronounced by thoughtful and thorough students of the Bible to be unsatisfactory. The reason for this judgment, so uniformly rendered, lies in the vastness of the subject, which is seen only by thoughtful and thorough students. The child looks up at the stars, and imagines that they are very small and within reach of its tiny grasp; but the astronomer walks amid these countless worlds scattered throughout illimitable space, until his spirit is overwhelmed within him. The illiterate rustic ploughs the ground with no knowledge of the earth beneath the fertile soil and the loose stones that are found upon the surface; but to the eye of the geologist the successive strata reveal wondrous secrets, and force him to exclaim, if his sense keeps pace with his science, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God," (Ps. xc. 1, 2). In like manner, precisely in proportion to the infidel's ignorance of the Bible, will be his confidence that it is unworthy of belief; and precisely in proportion to the Christian's acquaintance with the Bible, will be his conviction that none but God could be its author, so that at each step of his investigation he will turn to its defenders, and say in the language the queen of Sheba addressed to Solomon, "Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it; and, behold, the half was not told me," (1 Kings x. 7).

The evidence that the Bible is from God is of the same character that proves the material creation to be from God, and it would be as difficult to convince an intelligent believer that the former is the work of man, as to convince him that the latter is the work of chance, or of the blind laws of nature. But with the former as with the latter, it is impossible to describe all the tokens and demonstrations of a divine authorship that are suggested to the mind, because they are innumerable, and are ever increasing with increasing knowledge and observation. As Bacon says in his Advancement of Learning, "it is an assured truth, and a conclusion of experience, that a little or superficial knowledge of philosophy may incline the mind of man to atheism, but a farther proceeding therein doth bring the mind back again to religion;" and to this it may be added that " a farther proceeding therein doth bring the mind "to a recognition of its own weakness when surrounded by the imposing symbols of Jehovah's presence. It is well known that Sir Isaac Newton, when complimented on his matchless attainments in science, declared he was like a little child picking up a few pebbles on the beach, while the shoreless ocean of truth rolled before him unexplored; and that Sir W. Jones, the most accomplished scholar of his day in England, stated that if he had his life to go over he would study nothing but the Epistles of St. Paul. This may appear extravagant to those who casually read the Bible, but it will not seem strange to any who "search the scriptures," as Jesus commands. At the close of the longest and most laborious scrutiny of these ancient writings, the first of which antedates by a thousand years the period of Homer, who is called "the Father of History," the ablest mind will confess that it was just beginning, as it were, to get a glimpse of their infinite meaning.

It has often occured that men have set about their careful examination with the avowed design of disproving their supernatural origin, and have progressed but a little way before bowing in lowly adoration at the voice of God speaking to them in this marvellous book. It is true that many have perused them without any such result, for, as Henry Rogers says, "the works alone that have been written against them would make a library far greater than all the literature of Greece and Rome, taken many times over;" but still the fact remains to be explained that in the face of the most savage criticism which has subjected them to a severer ordeal than any other, and all other, writings in the world, multitudes of all ages and now of all nations, including among them the strongest intellects, have clung with unyielding tenacity to the belief that they are divinely inspired. If it is so easy, as infidelity constantly asserts, to show that they are unworthy of serious attention, how is it that they have made all this stir, and why is it that millions not only in past centuries, but millions living to-day, the equals, to say the least, in character and culture of unbelievers, have persisted in the assertion that they recognize the imprint of the Creator's hand in the volume that is dearer to them than life? Perhaps the following considerations may help to account for the wide-spread faith that it can not be regarded as the invention of man.

I. It will be admitted by all who believe in the existence of a personal God, that He might, if He chose, have given us a written revelation of Himself and of our duty, as well as a revelation of Himself and of our obligations in the works of nature, and by means of the human reason and conscience. It is not here asserted that He has given a written revelation, or that there is any need of such a revelation; but surely it will not be denied that He who made the mind of man, and endowed him with reason and conscience, could communicate His pleasure and His purposes through the agency of human thoughts and words, if He desired to employ them in this service. Every day and every hour we find men controlling the opinions and shaping the conduct of other men by their thoughts expressed in words spoken or written; and beyond all question, God is able to influence the minds of any number He may select to manifest His will.

II. It will be admitted that we can obtain a much clearer and more simple, and therefore more satisfactory knowledge of Him, and of what we ought to do, by a written revelation, than by the displays of His attributes and perfections on the wide field of the material universe, and in the decisions of our own judgment of right and wrong. Or if this is going too far, it will certainly be conceded that for the great mass of mankind, those who have no capacity and no leisure and no inclination for close observation and profound investigation, it is much easier to arrive at some knowledge of the being and character of God, and of the proper standard of morals, by a written revelation, than by a process of diligent and personal inquiry into natural and mental and moral science. The story told of Thales, one of the seven wise men of Greece, illustrates the truth that we can not by searching find out the Almighty unto perfection, for it is said that after repeated attempts to define God, he confessed he was further from success at the end than at the commencement of his efforts. Plato, speaking of the soul in its relations to eternity, and of the rule of right for its government here, says "The truth is, to determine anything certain about these matters, in the midst of so many doubts and disputations, is the work of God only." Again, he represents Socrates as referring to a much needed reform in morals, and saying, "You may pass the remainder of your days in sleep, or despair of finding out a sufficient expedient for this purpose; if God, in His providence, do not send you some other instruction." Again, he describes the great philosopher as reproving Alcibiades for going to the temple to pray, on the ground of its uselessness, declaring that he must wait for further light before he could learn how to behave towards gods and towards men; and then in answer to the remark of his pupil, "Who will instruct me, for gladly would I see this man, who he is," the sage replied, "He is one who cares for you; but, as Homer represents Minerva taking away the darkness from the eyes of Diomedes, that he might distinguish a god from a man, so it is necessary that he should first take away the darkness from your mind, and then bring near those things, by which you shall know good and evil." If such are the confessions of the wisest men of antiquity who lived beyond the light of Bible teachings, it will scarcely be controverted that for the uneducated and unthoughtful, a written revelation would be of immense service.

So with regard to the questions of right and wrong, good and evil, which Socrates seems to have acknowledged could be determined only by the coming or incarnation of Deity, even Strauss refers to "the arbitrary manner in which the contemporary sophists confounded all moral notions. To them, according to the maxim of Pythagoras, man was the measure of all things: nothing was naturally good or bad, but only by an arbitrary rule of men, to which the individual need not bind himself, but as the authors of those rules established them for their own advantage, it was open to the individual to call good and put in practice whatever was agreeable or useful to himself. The art of justifying such conduct, argumentatively, of shaking the foundation of all existing principles in religion and morals, of * strengthening the weaker cause,' i. e. of making right of wrong, was taught and published by the sophists, but in point of fact all that they did was to put into a methodical form w^hat all the world around them was practising already," (Vol. I. p. 243). That there has been no improvement upon these ancient sophists in recent times, may be inferred from the fact that the most distinguished skeptics, as Lord Bolingbroke and Volney, can discover no obligation to morality outside of self love; that Hobbes finds the sole foundations of right and wrong to exist in the civil law; that Rousseau says "all the morality of our actions lies in the judgment we ourselves form of them "; that the Earl of Shaftesbury declares, '^ All the obligations to be virtuous arise from the advantages of virtue, and disadvantages of vice"; and that other infidel writers, who refuse to recognize the source, the standard, and the sanction of morality, made known in the Bible, uniformly take ground in relation to this vital subject, which unbelievers themselves can see would speedily lead to the entire overthrow of social order.

III. It will be admitted that if God is the Being described by Deists, as infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, delighting to reveal Himself amid the wonders of the material globe, and amid the still greater wonders of the human heart, too merciful to punish His creatures except by the inexorable operation of nature's laws, there is at least a strong probability that He would make Himself and our duty more fully known by a written revelation, in view of the fact that such a revelation must be an unspeakable blessing to multitudes of the ignorant and weak-minded. Let us concede, for the sake of argument, that a few of the highly-educated, and strong-minded, and scientific, can get along very well without such a revelation; yet they will hardly set themselves up as gods to do the thinking for the rest of the world; and will they have no compassion upon the millions of their fellow-men, who have not been favored with their intellectual vigor and literary advantages? Although these gifted ones need nothing more than the heavens to declare the glory of God, and the firmament to. show His handiwork, of which the Psalmist says, "There is no speech, and there are no words: not at all is their voice heard "(Alexander's Translation), will they not permit the voice of God to be heard in articulate utterance, addressing the poor, the downtrodden, the sorrowing, the toiling, that constitute the vast majority of earth's dying population? If He is the God they represent Him to be, and could utter His voice distinctly in the silence or through the discordant notes of nature, so that men may definitely understand Him, He would certainly respond in audible accents to the cry of anguish that comes every moment from many a sinful or stricken soul. If He could utter His voice, and will not, whatever His respect for the stability of nature's laws and for the sufficiency of nature's light, then He is not what they represent Him to be, but a dreadful and unapproachable tyrant, cold and unfeeling as Strauss himself.

IV. It will be admitted that if God has spoken anywhere in a written revelation, it is found in the book commonly called the Bible, or the Sacred Scriptures; for so far as we are concerned, no other book claims to be of supernatural origin. It is taken for granted that no one will meet this statement by reference to the book of Mormon, or the Koran, each of which asserts its supernatural origin, for the argument is addressed only to sensible men; and no sensible man will institute any comparison between these books and the book which challenges our attention, and commands our faith, as the word of God. Both of these books acknowledge the authority of the Bible, and the divine mission of Jesus Christ, asserting for themselves that they contain nothing more than a subsequent revelation from heaven. Those who will take the pains to read them, instead of receiving at second hand what infidels sometimes say in their praise in order to discredit the truth of Christianity, will at once perceive that in many respects they are the plainest plagiarisms from the Scriptures, and that exactly as they depart from the Scriptures to pursue a line of original thinking, they fall to the level of the coarsest superstitions, the lowest errors, and the most brutal vices. It would be an insult to your understanding, therefore, to waste time in proving that they do not deserve serious consideration; but upon the premises already established we may at once proceed to the examination of the book to which they owe whatever merit they possess, and which is emphatically its own witness to its supernatural origin.

First, it presents a code of morals that is altogether unnatural, and hence could not have originated with man. Bruno Bauer, in his "Criticism of the Evangelical Narrative of the Synoptic Gospels," as quoted by Auberlen, says, "In no section of the Gospels, not even the smallest, are there wanting views which violate, offend, and arouse human nature and feeling "(Divine Revelation, p. 74). Be it so, but it only strengthens the force of the argument that the Gospels did not find their source in human nature and feeling. Did human nature and feeling originate such expressions as these, "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. . . . Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment; . . .  but whosoever shall say. Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire; . . .  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time. Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart; . . .  I say unto you. Swear not at all, . . . but let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these, cometh of evil; . . .  Ye have heard that it hath been said. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you. That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said. Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that deepitefully use you, and persecute you." All these remarkable statements are found in a single chapter of the Gospel by Matthew, and well might Bauer say that they "violate, offend, and arouse human nature and feeling." This is shown by the fact that the traditions of the Elders had added to the teachings of the Pentateuch the clause, "hate thine enemy "; for no such words are found in the Old Testament, but they so fully express human nature and feeling that they were subjoined to the command, "love thy neighbor," as if they formed part of the sacred canon. It is still further shown by the fact that men everywhere recognize the truth of the maxim, "Self-defence is the first law of nature," and scout the precept to turn the cheek to be smitten, because, as they assert, it is against nature. Of course it is against nature, and therefore human nature never suggested such precepts, and never imagined the possibility of a meek and unresisting endurance of evil and of wrong to the very last extremity. But the more unnatural the infidels can show the morality of the Bible to be, the more conclusively they prove the supernatural character and origin of the Bible, since the code it contains could not have sprung from the heart of man.

Second, the way of salvation revealed in the Gospels lifts them entirely above the discovery or invention of human nature, as attested in all ages and in all lands, and even in the experience of every awakened sinner who is led to ask the thrilling question, "What must I do to be saved f" If we look back to ancient times, history tells us how universally men sought to propitiate the favor of the gods by bloody sacrifices, and costly offerings, and self-inflicted tortures. If we look at heathen nations now existing, the same disposition to purchase immunity from punishment and suffering by personal effort and endurance is everywhere manifested. If we look at Christendom during the past eighteen centuries, we see what a constant struggle it has required on the part of comparatively a few faithful witnesses to maintain the testimony of Jesus and the Apostles concerning the absolute freeness of redemption. If we look at each inquirer who is aroused to his urgent need of pardon, and directs his prayer to God for mercy, we discover how deeply implanted in human nature is the thought, that eternal life can be attained only as the result and reward of tears and vows and resolutions and our own righteousness. It is doubtful whether, out of the great multitude of real Christians, who are found amid much that is merely nominal, even one when startled by the Spirit of God in the death-sleep of sin, immediately accepted the assurance of forgiveness through the finished work of Christ, instead of thinking about God with distrust and suspicion and fear, and delaying for at least a little while in order to get better before simply believing. Yet all over the New Testament it is written as if with a sunbeam that the sinner wanting to be saved has nothing to do, because all the doing was done when Jesus bowed His head on the cross and rose again for our justification.

Its language is, "This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins," (Matt. xxvi. 28), "The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost," (Luke xix. 10); " For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," (John iii. 16); "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation [or judgment]; but is passed from death unto life," (John v. 24); "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins," (Acts x. 43); "By him all that believe are justitied from all things," (Acts xiii.39); "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," (Acts xvi. 31); "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justitieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness," (Rom. iv. 5); "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord," (Rom. vi. 23); "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus," (Rom. viii. 1); "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law," (Gal. iii. 13); "Accepted in the beloved; in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace," (Eph. i. 6, 7); "But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ," (Eph. ii. 13); "Ye are complete in him," (Col. ii. 10); "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us," (Tit. iii. 5); "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them," (Heb. vii. 25); "Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself," (Heb. ix. 26); "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, . . . but with the precious blood of Christ," (1 Pet. i. 18, 19); "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin," (1 John i. 7); "Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood," (Rev. v. 9); "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely," (Rev. xxii. 17).

Such is a hurried illustration of the teachings of the entire Bible, that in faultless harmony and perfect unity set forth from Genesis to Revelation the way of salvation through a crucified and risen Christ. That it is a way of salvation which offends and arouses human nature and feeling is obvious, because it has been and still is the most difficult thing in the world to prevent the Church itself from lapsing into apostacy upon the single point of justification by faith alone. A large proportion of Paul's Epistles is occupied with his defence of this fundamental point, showing how hard it was in his day for men to receive a doctrine that uprooted at a stroke all the fancied worthiness of their own performances; and it is just as hard for men to receive it now. Then when received, human nature and feeling are prone to run into the opposite error, and to argue that because we are saved by grace we may live like the world, sitting deaf and dumb at the foot of the cross. Along with this fixed aversion to a truth so humbling to the pride of the heart as salvation for nothing, there is as manifest a recoil from the simplicity of worship enjoined in the New Testament and practiced by its writers. Unman nature and feeling are again aroused and offended by the failure to provide for that inherent love of the pomp and pageantry of a gorgeous ritual, which has been exhibited by almost every sect, when the removal of the persecutor's hand, or the increase of numbers and of wealth, gave an opportunity to gratify the innate taste for show. Thus on the one hand legalism, or a slavish bondage to the law for justitication, and on the other hand antinomianism, or a contempt for the law of holiness, on the one hand a relish for display in the worship of God to cultivate, it is affirmed, the aesthetic faculty, and on the other hand, a neglect of assembling together, to none of which the New Testament gives the slightest countenance, indicate the strong and settled tendencies of the heart, even against the recognized authority of Jehovah. How then can we account for it that the writers of the Bible did not yield to that which is natural, but steadfastly maintained a position that has been demonstrated by all history to be altogether unnatural? Surely it is not going too far to say that the only reasonable explanation of the fact, and the only rational understanding of their singular attitude, must be reached in the conclusion that their writings q-re supernatural.

Third, the harmony and unity, already mentioned as prevailing with regard to the way of salvation, ^re found in relation to every other theme common to writers, separated from each other by many centuries, and embracing men of the most dissimilar calling, culture, and rank. Nay, it is only by comparing one with another, and by studying the testimony of one in the light thrown upon it by the teaching of another, that the power and reality of this harmony and unity can be recognized. For example, we see in the opening verse of the Bible, containing the sublime declaration, "In the beginning God created the heaven and earth," that the word "God" is in the plural, without any necessity whatever arising from the structure of the Hebrew language, while it is the subject or nominative of a verb in the singular. In the first chapter, God alone is mentioned apart from any other name or title, while in the second chapter, when man appears upon the scene, the designation is the Lord God. No reason is assigned for what may seem at first unaccountable, but as we advance into the book we learn that there are three persons in the unity of the divine nature, and that the word Lord refers to the coming One by whom man is to be redeemed. So again in the second chapter we read that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;" but when He formed woman, "the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made [or builded] he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; . . .  therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife."

Not a word is said in explanation of the strange scene, but when we read on until we come to Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, written nearly fifteen hundred years later, we read, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause [because we are members of his body and flesh and bones] shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church." Here then at last the mystery of the creation of man and woman in the second chapter of Genesis is cleared up, and we find that the Lord God designed marriage, which is the very basis of society and the State, to be a perpetual illustration, and type, and parable, and reminder, of the eternal and precious union existing between Christ and the Church. There is not a chapter in the Bible that is not linked in some such manner to some other chapter, and indeed to the entire book, constantly exciting the desire of the devout student to unfold to others the beauties that meet his gaze at every step, constantly convincing him that a book so unique and unsearchable is supernatural in its origin, and yet constantly admonishing him of the failure that must attend his effort to communicate the innumerable proofs of its divinity that shine upon every page. The books of Numbers, Leviticus, and even of the Chronicles, that were perhaps once read by the Christian, if read at all, as a perfunctory and profitless service, glow with a new meaning and with a heavenly radiance when brought to the feet of Jesus, who testifies that all the Scriptures bear witness of Himself, (Luke xxiv. 27, 44; John v. 39, 46); for there each writer hastens to cast his crown, and each narrative and song and prophecy does obeisance to the Crucified, only because God's Spirit directs and leads all.

Fourth, the character of God, as portrayed in the Bible, furnishes additional and conclusive evidence that there is nothing in human nature capable of originating such a book. Whether the view it gives of His being and perfections is correct or incorrect, is not now the question. Every one who possesses the slightest acquaintance with the history of mankind will acknowledge that it is a view entirely different from that presented in the various religions of the earth; and this is all that is asserted in the argument. The two prominent facts that arrest our attention in the records of the nations are their polytheism and idolatry, not only among the barbarous and degraded races, but among the most cultivated and refined. Perplexed by the apparent conflicts in the manifestations of the Deity, and confused by the seeming contradictions in the dealings of providence, the uninspired mind could explain the mystery and solve the problem of mortal existence, only on the supposition that there were lords many, and gods many. The heathen saw the sky on one day bright and blue, and the quiet landscape asleep in the sunshine upon the bosom of summer; but on the next day he beheld the heavens black with the wings of the storm, and the beautiful fields wasted by the desolating tread of the hurricane. In the morning he leit his little child laughing and playing at the door; but in the evening on his return home he found it writhing in the ruffian grasp of death, and screaming in its agony. He was therefore driven by these diverse and opposing exhibitions of superhuman power to conclude that there were separate and independent intelligences that presided over the affairs of the world, and very soon, in carrying out the law of induction, he installed a nymph in every grove, and a naiad over every stream, until it is said that in elegant Athens there were thirty thousand divinities recognized, and in their despair of reaching the truth, they at length erected an altar to the unknown god.

How was it possible, then, for the Jewish writers, so far behind the Grecian and Roman sophists in learning and philosophy, to make such announcements as the following: "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually," (Gen. vi. 5); "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect," (Gen. xvii. 1); "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven-image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them," (Ex. xx. 3, 4); "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord," (Deut. vi. 4); "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord; and thou art exalted as head above all," (1 Chron. xxix. 11); "But will God indeed dwell on the earth! Behold the heaven, and heaven of heavens, can not contain thee," (1 Kings viii. 27); "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit"? or whither shall flee from thy presence '? If I ascend up into heaven thou art there; if I make my bed in hell [hades], behold thou art there; if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me, (Ps. cxxxix. 7-10); "Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite," (Ps. cxlvii. 5); "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory, (Isa. vi. 3); "God is a spirit; and they that worship him must worship him iu spirit and in truth," (John iv. 24); "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do," (Heb. iv. 13); "Every good gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," (James i. 17); "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty," (Rev.i.8). Hundreds upon hundreds of similar texts could be easily quoted, equal in sublimity and grandeur of conception, in the ascription to God of infinite holiness and power and wisdom and majesty and truth and goodness and mercy and love and immutability and unity; and the question must be answered, how was it, and why was it, that these writers, many of whom were exceedingly illiterate, made any such just and magnificent discoveries of the divine Being? They inform us in the Old Testament that their countrymen century after century exhibited a proneness to idolatry in the face of their expostulations and warnings, that seemed to be innate and unconquerable, and that at last drove them a peeled and scattered people among the nations of the earth. They inform us in the New Testament that the only worship which is acceptable to God is that of the heart; and yet scarcely had the Apostles fallen asleep, before the mystery of iniquity already working in their day, began to lead multitudes of professing Christians into a departure from spiritual service, and into an approximation to the old idolatry, which shows the inveteracy of man's tendency to a religion foreign to the view presented of God from Genesis to Revelation. In what way, then, were the writers of the scriptures led to form a conception of the Deity abundantly proved to be unnatural, because it has never entered the minds of any other men of any age or race, except so far as borrowed from the Bible? Dr. Mozley has well said in his Bampton Lectures, when speaking of the heathen, "The vulgar believed in many gods, the philosopher believed in a Universal Cause; but neither believed in God. The philosopher only regarded the Universal Cause as the spring of the universal machine, which was necessary to the working of all the parts, but was not thereby raised to a separate order of being from them. . . . Nothing would have astonished him more than, when he had proved in the lecture-hall the existence of a God, to have been told to worship Him. 'Worship whom f he would have exclaimed. 'Worship what?' 'Worship how?' "In the Bible we have the Universal Cause revealed to us as a living and personal God, clothed with attributes that instantly challenge the homage of the loftiest intelligences, demanding worship in direct opposition to universal polytheism and idolatry; and this fact alone is sufficient to establish the supernatural origin of the Scriptures.

Fifth, suggested by the foregoing view of the character of God, it may be well to notice the catholic spirit that breathes through the Gospels and Epistles, the liberty of conscience they secure, and their utter condemnation of all bigotry, sectarianism, and persecution. It is a common and merited taunt of infidelity that Christians are divided into many and opposing factions, and that the pathway of the Church across the centuries is too often marked by the blood of those who were slain for presuming to differ from the decisions of ecclesiastical authority. Even to-day Turkish soldiers may be seen standing with fixed bayonets in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem to prevent so-called Christians who worship at the tomb of Jesus from tearing each other to pieces. But all this, humiliating as it is to every true child of God, only shows that strife and hatred and violence are natural to man, and that the book which gives no countenance to such works of the flesh must be supernatural. No attempt is here made to defend what is called Christianity, but only Christ; no effort is put forth to justify the conduct of His professed followers, but only to vindicate the truth of His word. It is impossible for any unprejudiced believer to look abroad over Christendom without grief and shame and pain. Instead of the extorted admiration of the heathen in early times, "Behold, how these Christians love one another,'^ too often it must be said, "Behold, how these Christians hate one another!" Sectarian jealousies, rivalries, and heart-burnings; ministerial pride, ambition, and self seeking; denominational peculiarities permitted to act as a bar to brotherly fellowship; the religious press frequently prostituted to the ignoble purpose of gratifying personal vindictiveness, or of achieving political triumphs; false doctrine, formality, worldliness abounding in the Church; the pulpit in many instances turned into a rostrum for the display of genius and wit to amuse the crowd, and to hide from them the tremendous realities of eternity; — such, it must be confessed with sorrow, is the spectacle that too commonly meets our gaze. But it is a spectacle as foreign to the New Testament as darkness is to light, as sin is to holiness, as the displeasure of God is to His approval; and hence while it fully reveals the natural disposition of the human heart, it also fully reveals the supernatural origin of the Bible that utters a stern and sweeping denunciation of it all.

Sixth, the indirect and manifold blessings conferred by the Bible upon the world at large, far beyond those derived from all other sources combined, form no weak argument to prove that it could not have been the work of men, least of all of men who for the most part were uneducated, who lived in an obscure country, and who wrote at various intervals commencing more than three thousand years ago, and closing their ministry nearly two thousand years ago. Professor Huxley is the last person from whom one would expect a kind word for the Bible, and yet even he writes, "I have always been strongly in favour of secular education, in tlie sense of education without theology; but I must confess I have been no less seriously perplexed to know by what practical measures the religious feeling, which is the essential basis of conduct, was to be kept up, in the present utterly chaotic state of opinion on these matters, without the Bible. The pagan moralists lack life and color, and even the noble Stoic, Marcus Antoninus, is too high and refined for an ordinary child. Take the Bible as a whole; make the severest deductions which fair criticism can dictate for short-comings and positive errors; eliminate, as a sensible teacher would do, if left to himself, all that it is not desirable for a child to occupy himself with; and there still remains in this old literature a vast residuum of moral beauty and grandeur. And then consider the great historical fact that, for three centuries, this book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history; that it has become the national epic of Britain, and is familiar to noble and simple, from John O' Groat's house to Land's End, as Dante and Tasso were once to the Italians; that it is written in the noblest and purest English, and abounds in exquisite beauties of a merely literary form; and finally that it forbids the veriest hind, who never left his village, to be ignorant of the existence of other countries and other civilizations, and of a great past, stretching back to the furthest limits of the oldest nations in the world. By the study of what other book could the children be so humanized, and made to feel that each figure in that vast historical procession fills, like themselves, but a momentary space in the interval between two eternities; and earns the blessings or the curses of all time, according to its effort to do good and hate evil, even as they also are earning their payment for their work?" (Contemporary Review, Dec. 1870).

It is well said that "this book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history," and it may be added, in the history of every other nation that has known the unspeakable value of an open Bible. Think of its obvious and acknowledged influence upon the progress of human thought and literature. Think of its relation to civil and religious liberty, yet commanding subjection to the powers that be, and dissociating the Christian from all connection with earthly government, except in enjoining obedience. Think of the benefit it has been to woman, breaking the cruel chains that have bound her as the helpless victim of man's lust and tyranny in all heathen lands, and crowning her with tender respect as the mistress of the home and the affections. Think of the matchless wisdom it exhibits in dealing with the perplexing question of slavery, which was too difficult for the statesmen of the nineteenth century to solve without the battle of the warrior with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood, when it did not seize the institution with violent grasp, but inculcated precepts and taught i3rinciples, that could turn every slaveholder into a kind master, and every slave into a freeman, in all but the name, or even into a "brother beloved "of him whom he served. Think of the arrest it lays, as if with the hand of God, upon the wayward impulses of the heart, forbidding with solemn warning of inevitable penalty in this world, and the world to come, the indulgence of vicious, debased and revengeful propensities, that would so manifestly gain the sway but for its mighty check; it is not strange Benjamin Franklin is said to have written to Thomas Paine, when about to publish his Age of Reason, the significant sentence, "Don't unchain the tiger." Think of the constant and earnest encouragement it gives to the pursuit of "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; "and then let the sincere inquirer after truth determine whether it is not its own credible witness to its supernatural origin.

Seventh, personal experience of its power furnishes the most conclusive evidence in behalf of its divinity. Nor will it avail the skeptic to reply, as he is continually doing, that the Chinese, the Hindoos, the Mohammedans, the worshippers of a misshapen fetish in Central Africa, and the savages of the Western Continent, can plead the same experience, for a very low degree of intelligence will convince the most careless observer that the experience of a true Christian is no less unique than the book from which it is derived. It is not an experience of mental culture merely, although the obedient student of the Bible is a far abler and wiser man than he would be without it, but it is a moral change as striking and complete as a new birth, as life from the dead. The description given by Paul of certain Christians in Corinth is true of vast numbers in all lands: "Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God," (1 Cor. vi. 9-11). Has any other religion ever wrought so marvellous a transformation as this, and is not the book supernatural that can turn through simple faith in its testimony the body, that was a foul cage of unclean birds, into a temple of the Holy Ghost*? Yet multitudes would stand forth, if the opportunity were given, to testify under oath that what was true of the Corinthians, in passing from the slime of vice into cleanness and consecration to Christ, is also true of them. Each would say with the man to whom Jesus gave sight, "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see," (John ix. 25). Each would say, "once I perceived no repulsiveness in sin, no attractiveness in holiness, no deformity in myself, no beauty in Christ; but now, God knows, it 18 my most fervent desire to be entirely conformed to His perfect character, and to be rid at once and forever of all that is selfish and sensual and sinful in thought, word, or deed. I recognize the inherent rightfulness and the absolute necessity of the declaration of the Bible, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord, and I can truthfully affirm that the things I formerly hated I love, and the things I formerly loved I hate with utter hatred." Is such testimony as this, borne by myriads, any one of whom would be believed in any court of the world, to go for nothing, and is such experience as this possible on any other theory than the supernatural origin of the Bible?

Especially is the Christian's experience of value as he advances in years, and discovers more and more clearly the profound acquaintance of the Scriptures with the secret emotions of his heart, and a deeper spiritual meaning in every verse, and always loftier heights of glory above which Christ sits enthroned; and still more is it of value when his warfare is accomplished, and his work on earth is finished. Then while sight and hearing and friends and the world and life are failing, he finds what the Bible is to him with its clear, strong assurance, "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms," (Deut. xxxiii 27). "Bring me the Book," said Sir Walter Scott | on his dying bed. "What book?" inquired his I son-in-law. "There is but one book," replied the departing novelist, historian, and poet; and the Bible was placed reverently in his hands. Yes, there is but one book whose light pierces the awful darkness of the grave, and guides the weary spirit of the believer home to the bright land, described in language which Robert Burns said he could never read without weeping, where "God shall Wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away," (Rev. xxi. 4). Contrast these sweet words with the unutterably sad dedication of Stranss's Life of Jesus to the memory of his dead brother, in which he praises his courage and self-possession in refusing to yield, "under circumstances which might have made the steadiest quail and shaken the strongest faith," to the delusion of seeking comfort in the thought of a future world. Contrast them with the melancholy dedication of Renan's Life of Jesus to the memory of his dead sister, in which he invokes her, like the ancient heathen, as his good genius, beseeching her to reveal truth to him; and then say whether the experience of Paul, " having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better," is not infinitely more desirable than the cold speculations or gloomy bravery of infidelity?

Some years ago it was my privilege to meet on the shores of Lake Geneva a young American, who was suffering with spinal disease, that had crippled and pained him from his birth. His pale face, and shrunken limbs, and curved back, gave indication of the agony he had endured, but his soul basked in the sunshine of his Saviour's smile. On one occasion he went for a day's change and recreation to the town of Bex, the terminus at that time of the railroad through the valley, and the place to which many travellers gathered on entering or leaving Italy. He was seated at a table in a large dining room with a number of tourists who had just crossed the Alps, and were waiting for the train, when his attention was called to the loud remarks of a tall, robust, and handsome man; and he soon learned that the remarks were directed with many a shaft of ridicule and wit against the Bible. The skeptic, having finished his dinner, was in the act of withdrawing from the table, when the young American said to him gently, "May I detain you a moment? ""Certainly," was the kind reply, as the stranger glanced at the sickly youth, not knowing what he wanted. "I only wish," said the Christian, with his weak and plaintive voice, "to tell you briefly my history. I was born in the United States of America, and have always been in my body as you see me now, only worse. My father died in my infancy, and there was no one to love me or care for me but my mother. I had no childhood, but when the boys were playing and shouting in the streets, I was lying in a darkened room, moaning with pain. Under God I owe my life from day to day to the unwearied tenderness and watchfulness of that mother, who thought, when I had struggled on to the age of a young man, that a visit to the holy land, I had so longed to see, would interest me, and might possibly benefit my health. We reached Palestine in safety, but there my mother was suddenly seized with fever, and was laid away in the grave, and now I am on my way home to die too. The only joy left me on earth is the hope of meeting my mother again with Jesus, in heaven; would you take that joy from me? "

"No, no," said the infidel, while the tears ran down his face, "I would not. Keep your hope and your joy, and I crave your pardon for having said a word to wound you." "Oh," exclaimed the Christian, "thank God, you cannot deprive me of my comfort, for I know here," he added, as he placed his hand upon his heart, "how precious is Christ, and how true is His word; but to-day you have poisoned the happiness of some of these young men, who have listened to your cruel harangue against the Bible. You are strong, and do not feel your need of God; but they may come very soon to sorrow and disappointment and temptation and death; and you have done all you can to take away their only shelter and support in the hour of need." The powerful man stood for a moment silent and humbled before the pale youth, and then said solemnly, "I was wrong, and deserve your reproof. Never again will I speak in the presence of others as I did to-day," and respectfully taking the hand of the Christian he withdrew. It may be there are young men now present who have been terribly injured by the jest or sneer of some skeptic; or it may be they are weak enough to imagine that it is a proof of superior intelligence to profess infidel sentiments. But the time is drawing near when the sneer, from which you recoiled as from a real danger, will return to curse you; and the sentiments you admire will be like ghosts in the darkness, that will not down at your bidding. Nay, even now, day by day, they are exerting an influence which can not be otherwise than exceedingly disastrous both to your mental and moral constitution. Men have been great, as the world calls it, in spite of their infidelity, but no one was ever great by reason of his infidelity, while thousands have been truly great by their personal devotion to Jesus. Then when we think of the dangers besetting the soul at every step — who can estimate them? "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word," (Ps. cxix. 9).