made, by Isaiah, for example, by Daniel, by the Psalmists, or by Moses. They affirm the predictions attributed to these to have been either of later origin, or so essentially indeterminate in their nature that human sagacity might have suggested their veiled outlines, upon the chance of future events responding to them. They shelter themselves behind the fact that even the Messianic predictions, to a spirit so profound, perspicacious, and devout, though also so free, as that of Schleiermacher, seemed to have their chief value in the evidence which they offered of the striving upward of human nature toward Christianity, and of a general Divine design in the Mosaic institutes: and that he, in fact, accepted the prophecies on the authority of the New Testament, instead of basing in any ineasure his sense of that authority upon the predictions. Without following in his steps, it must certainly be conceded that only an argument for which few are competent, a linguistic as well as a historical argument, at once minute and comprehensive, can so set predictions in their indisputable historical place, and show them in their indubitable meanings, that the subsequent facts, in their plain and precise correspondence with these, shall demonstrate them Divine A general course of Prophecy fulfilled-it seems no more to require a mind peculiarly devout to find this in the Bible than it needs such a mind to see the blending stellar brightness of Milky Way constellations: as even the cautious and critical De Wette not only held the Old Testament a great prophecy, a great type, of Him who was to come, but attributed to individuals dis tinct presentiments, by Divine inspiration, of events in the future. But I have often observed that upon a reluctant or doubting mind the argument from specific predictions either makes slight impression, or needs to be preceded by another, more extended han itself, to show the substantial nature of its grounds. Still further: an argument for the special Divine authorship of the religion of the New Testament may be properly derived iron: the evident characteristics of the book itself: the vast extent, and sharp distinctness, of its affirmative propositions; the pureness and reach of its ethical system; especially from the effortless and sovereign perfection of the portrait which it presents of him whom it glorifies as the proper Leader and King of the world, As compared with the final demonstration of experience, the argument thus suggested may also be classed among preliminary and external evidences; yet I confess that to me, with my apprehension of the scheme and the scope of the New Testament, it appears of a positively commanding force, almost making unnecessary any other form of preparatory testimony. If one seriously considers the philosophical, theological, ethi cal structure of this remarkable book,-if he sets it clearly amid its times, and then matches against it the Vedic hymns, the several parts of the Buddhistic canon, or the Sacred Books of China, now made familiar by Dr. Legge,—if he matches against it any system, philosophic or theosophic, which genius has con ceived, and which human patience and fervor have moulded,it seems to me that he hardly can escape a serious, intimate, and enduring conviction that something beyond a peculiar talent, in a young and eager mechanic of Nazareth, was needed to frame it; that the Divine Spirit must be recognized as speaking, through whatever may be attributed to Jesus of intuition and prudence, in this illustrious system. Preeminently, as I said, does the whole exhibition of the Christ in these Scriptures seem to set them apart, in diversity of nature, from all other writings, unillumined by them, of which human minds have shown themselves capable. Such a matchless combination of power with gentleness, of lowliness without abjectness, and supremacy without pride, of a holiness of spirit so native and complete that no penitence is possible, with a sympathy for the sinner so tender and profound that no depth of degradation suffices to repel it: such a unique and incalculable career, of One asserting inherent prerogatives beside which the loftiest imperial claims were as vanishing sparks beneath the unfading splendor of suns, yet accepting a poverty than which the peasant's was less complete; of One able to control all powers of nature by the breath of his lips, yet walking for years in patience and in pain, amid sneering derisions, and fierce oppositions, and the weakness or the covetous treachery of adherents, toward victory by death, and the conquest of the world by what seemed an ignominious subjection to its force:-the truth of this strange, surpassing, and vital picture, seems placed almost beyond dispute by its very existence! Nor does it seem credible that men like the evangelists should have conceived it, and flashed it on immortal pages, without having not only seen it but felt in their own spirits a Divine and transforming influx from it, of wisdom and grace. The splendor which this picture has cast upon history almost certifies us at once of its superterrestrial pureness and height. Yet, no doubt, to fully set forth the argument thus suggested, in its capital force, must involve a patient preceding process of analysis and of synthesis, to show what is the astonishing system of doctrine and precept in the New Testament; and to set it in comparison with other philosophical and ethical schemes. It must imply a searching examination of the ancient documents, in which the lineaments of the Christ are portrayed; the proof of their integrity; the diligent and sufficient exposition of their contents. Without these, men will not be induced to accept the asserted supremacy of the system considered, as one of truth and moral order. They will find what appear to them parallels to it, in other schemes. They will, very likely, attribute to its Founder a genius for religion so special and surpassing that he was able, without sovereign and immanent inspirations from God, to write his name above the stars. They may possibly suspect, indeed, that the advancing culture of the world has imperceptibly transported into Christianity elements of a later grace and renown; has clothed it upon with spiritual meanings, and set it in vast cosmical relations, which were not contemplated by evangelist or apostle, or by him from whom they both had learned. They may even conjecture that the Lord himself has taken a glory from the impassioned Christian imagination of subsequent centuries, instead of imparting, as his disciples have reverently held, all its essential glory to that. It appears to me certain that such doubts will disappear, from the more candid and spiritual minds, as they follow the inquiries which I have indicated; and that they in the end will find the New Testament standing essentially apart from and above all other books, in the doctrines announced, in the maxims of duty, and in the majestic and untroubled sweep of that illumination which it at least professes to cast over Time and Eternity. It speaks with an authority more native and complete than that of any ordi nance of Senates. There is no detail too minute for its scrutiny There is no expanse too wide for its survey. It comes largely from unlettered men: yet on all superlative spiritual themes, most important to man, it speaks in a voice as free and frank, while as lofty in tone, as any voice of angels in the air. In its outreach and majesty, in the intimate and unstudied concinnity of each part, the majestic ultimate coördination of all into a whole which educates the world-in these, as well as in the still unapproximated conjunction of benignity and of lordliness in the character of Him whom it presents for our homage and love— seems radiant evidence that it was not born in the wrenching throes of a human intelligence; that it descended out of heaven, from God. But to furnish the premises for this great argument would be work for a life-time. So this, also, we will pass for the present, with only such general reference to it. I ask myself again then: Is there any form of proof, besides those which I have indicated, besides others which might be cited, but only to be encountered by similar objections-any form of proof whose probative force will be easily and naturally evident to all who are thoughtful, candid, and morally sensitive, and which will at least make it probable to such that Christianity is, in a supreme sense, a religion sent from God to the world? will make it so probable that a reflective and serious person will feel himself under immediate obligation to consider, ponder, study the system, and to make that personal experiment of it which it always appropriately demands? The question is one of controlling importance; and I seem to find an answer to it, an affirmative answer, in considering the indisputable Historical Effects which have followed the introduction of this religion into the world; which follow it to-day, wherever the system, having before been unknown, gets itself established in human acceptance, and assumes control over persons and societies. Of course, as I have fully admitted, much evil, and that of gross kinds, has been connected with its propagation. But this cannot be held, even by its opponents, essential to it, or a necessary fruit of its normal operation. To infer its character from the abuses which men have attached to it would be to repeat the error of those who, according to the fine image of Deutsch, in criticising the Talmud have 'mistaken the gargoyles, the grinning stone caricatures mounting their guard over cathedrals, for the gleaming statues of Saints within.'* Liberty sometimes runs to license, not because it is bad in itself, but because human passion perverts its principle. Philanthropy sometimes makes men crazy, in spirit and action, if not in mind; not because the law of charity is in itself evil, but because the unconquered heart of man makes it an excuse for selfishness or ferocity. If Christianity comes, as in its own contemplation it does, to enlighten and rectify the nature of mankind, its proper effects must be wholly separable, in thought and in fact, from the manifestations of that alien and insolent human temper which it claims at least to have it for its function to restrain and subdue. If we can then so far untwist the tangled threads interlacing with each other in the tissue of history as to extricate what is peculiar to Christianity from what is common to human wickedness or human infirmity, and to show by themselves its special effects, then these, its characteristic products, as realized in the public life of the world, may give us light, on its nature not only, but on its origin and authority over men. "History," it has been justly said, "is no Sphinx. She tells us what kind of teaching has been fruitful in blessing to humanity, and why, and what has been a mere boastful promise or powerless formula."+ Systems of religion springing out of the limited thought of man, and of his individual purpose and plan, are likely to be local rather than general in the range of their influence; to be transient, not secular, in their power over communities; to be even substantially egotistic and sterile, leaving the peoples on which their limited forces are exerted without rich and large progress inspired by them, without consequent wealth and resplendence in their history. It may properly be expected of a religion coming from God that it will be cosmical in its aims, permanent in its power, and that it will put alto. 1874, p. 4. * "Literary Remains," New York ed., |