537-542 THE C 1875

THE BIBLE TRUE
OR
ARGUMENTS, ARTICLES, PAPERS, EXTRACTS AND MISCELLANEOUS MATTER, FROM VARIOUS SOURCES TO PROVE THAT
THE SCRIPTURES ARE THE AUTHENTIC AND GENUINE RECORDS OF DIVINE REVELATION
AND THE ONLY SOURCE AT PRESENT AVAILABLE TO MAN OF TRUE KNOWLEDGE CONCERNING A FUTURE LIFE, AND THE WAY BY WHICH IT IS TO BE SECURED
“Concerning Thy testimonies, I have known of old that Thou hast founded them for ever. Thy word is true from the beginning.”—(Psalm 119:152, 160.)
“Come hither, and hear the word of the Lord your God.”—(Jos. 3:9.)
“He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully: what is the chaff (dreams) to the wheat?”—(Jer. 23:28.)
“When ye received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God.”—(1 Thess. 2:13).
“The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”—(2 Peter 1:21.)
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in times unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by His Son.”—(Heb. 1:1).
“The sword of the Spirit is the word of God.”—(Eph. 6:17).
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”—(2 Tim. 3:16).
“Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed.”—(Prov. 13:13).
“Their root shall be as rottenness and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.”—(Isaiah 5:24).
Science and Religion
(Concluded from page 492.)
THE following are further extracts from the address recently delivered by the Professor of Astronomy in the University of Oxford, the value of which lies, as was pointed out last month, in the illustration they furnish of scientific opposition to the Darwinian theory of spontaneous evolution; and of scientific identification of the hand of God in the workmanship of the universe:
“According to the latest and most authoritative statement of the new philosophy, it is asserted with considerable confidence:
“1. That the potential of all things terrestrial, including man with all his powers, intellectual and moral, the potential of our very selves, for instance, in this assembly, was originally contained in the atoms of one of those nebulous patches of light, thousands of which are brought within the ken of the modern telescope. How this potential got there, is not stated.
“2. That the present state of things has been brought about, not by the subsequent intervention of any supreme cause or governor of all things, but through the natural interaction of these atoms or atomic forces. Combinations and recombinations throughout unnumbered ages have ensued, and the fittest have survived. Of living organisms the powers have descended by inheritance, have then been modified by their environments, and again the fittest have survived. This, succinctly, is said to be the origin of man by evolution.
“3. It is asserted that throughout nature there are no certain tokens of design; wonderful adaptations are by no means denied, but they are referred to influence of successive environments and natural selection.
“4. This philosophy asserts that if there be an intelligent Author of nature, an absolute Supreme, He is to us unknowable.
“Such, so far as I understand it, are said to be the legitimate philosophical conclusions of the most complete and refined science of the day.
“If this be the ultimate result of the latest combinations of the atoms, and if this be all, then, so far as man is concerned, this ultimate result is, human life without an adequate motive, affections with no object sufficient to fill them, hopes of immortality never to be realised, aspirations after God and godliness never to be attained: thus myriads of myriads of other nebulæ may still be the potentials of delusion, and their outcomes the kingdom of despair.
“Our knowledge of the atomic forces of the universe so far as it at present extends, does not leave us in serious doubt as to their origin; for there is a very strong presumptive evidence drawn from the results of the most modern scientific investigation that they are neither eternal nor the products of evolution. No philosopher of recent times was better acquainted than Sir J. Herschel with the interior mechanism of nature. From his contemplation of the remarkably constant, definite, and restricted, yet various and powerful interactions of these elementary molecules, he was forced to the conviction that they possessed ‘all the characteristics of manufactured articles.’ The expression is memorable, accurate, and graphic; it may become one of the everlasting possessions of mankind. Professor Maxwell, a man whose mind has been trained by the mental discipline of the same noble university arrives at the same conclusion; but as his knowledge has exceeded that of Herschel on this point, so he goes further in the same direction of thought. ‘No theory of evolution,’ he says, ‘can be formed to account for the similarity of the molecules throughout all time, and throughout the whole region of the stellar universe, for evolution necessarily implies continuous change, and the molecule is incapable of growth or decay, of generation or destruction.’—‘None of the processes of nature, since the time when nature began, have produced the slightest difference in the properties of any molecule. On the other hand, the exact equality of each molecule to all others of the same kind, precludes the idea of its being eternal and self-existent. We have reached the utmost limit of our thinking faculties when we admit that because matter cannot be eternal and self-existent, it must have been created.’ ‘These molecules,’ he adds, ‘continue this day as they were created, perfect in number, and measure, and weight, and from the ineffaceable characters impressed on them we may learn that those aspirations after truth in statement and justice in action, which we reckon among our noblest attributes as men, are ours because they are the essential constituents of the image of Him, who in the beginning created not only the heaven and the earth, but the materials of which heaven and earth consist.’ And this, my friends, this is the true outcome of the deepest, the most exact, and the most recent science of our age. A grander utterance has not come from the mind of a philosopher since the days when Newton concluded his Principia by his immortal scholium on the majestic personality of the Creator and Lord of the universe.
“The great modern advance of human knowledge, and especially the wonderful applications of this knowledge to the purposes of the arts of life, have arisen very much from the existence of iron, and coal, and sulphur, and platina, and silica upon our planet. Now tell me, what were the anterior chances, prior to the existence of nature, that when a being like man came, after the lapse of ages, upon our earth, he would have found stored up for him, and for his development in the scale of being, iron and coal, and sulphur, and platina, and silica? To tell me that the co-existence of all these essentially independent existences might be the result of anything short of the intention of a prescient will, the evidence of “preestablished harmony,” would be equivalent to telling me that after placing sufficient letters of the alphabet into a box, there might be dredged out of it the dialogues of Plato, the dramas of Shakspeare, and the Principia of Newton.
“But now comes the inevitable question, which all along may have been perplexing your minds, as I confess it once greatly perplexed my own. How is it that men, endowed with nearly equal capacities, and possessing equal opportunities, should draw such different, not to say such opposite, conclusions, on subjects which, in importance, transcend all others, and beyond all others tax the reason to the utmost, and touch the emotions to the quick?
“I think that one cause of this contrariety of conviction lies in the nature of the evidences. These evidences from the very nature of the case, cannot be mathematical or demonstrative, or scientific; they belong, rather, to that class of evidence which we call probable; to that class, be it observed, upon which alone we determine the conduct of our lives; for, “to us probability is the guide of life.” And although these probable evidences range greatly in degree, and although not any one of them, taken alone and by itself, may be sufficient to command entire consent and enforce an absolute conviction, nevertheless, when taken altogether, they may—they often do—by their consilience from many different and independent sources, furnish the mind with the highest moral certainty of which it is capable.”
Infidelity versus Christianity
(Concluded from page 496.)
The disciples did not see Christ rising truly; but they saw him afterwards, and talked with him many times. During the forty days he remained with them on earth, he gave them many infallible proofs, eating and drinking with them and instructing them regarding the things of his kingdom. At last, he led them out to Mount Olivet, where he ascended before their eyes, till a cloud received him out of their sight. They must have known whether it was their old friend that walked and talked with them. They must have known whether he blessed them before he was parted from them, and whether they saw him rise and ascend while they gazed steadfastly after him; for he led them out, not to some thicket where the view was obstructed, but to a hill well known to the apostles as the scene of many conversations with their Master. From this eminence he ascended before their eyes in broad daylight, thus rendering deception or imposture impossible. He arose slowly, calmly, gradually, in the easiest, gentlest manner, and they were not at a distance but near him; for, “as he lifted up his hands and blessed them, he was parted from them.” Here lay the secret of the apostles’ strength and courage. Luke informs us that they returned from Mount Olivet to Jerusalem with great joy. Being there endued with power from on high, the timid disciples became thenceforth bold as dreadnaught lions. They were now as sure as they were sure of being living men. No conceivable demonstration could be stronger. Dr. T. Chalmers, on this point truly and forcibly says, “We have experience of the fidelity of the eye every moment. It can distinguish between one object and another with the greatest certainty. This you have experienced millions of times. If you are in possession of good health, and the eye free from disease, and if you see again and again one with whom you have been familiar for years; if, in addition to this, you hear the accustomed tones of the voice, communicating instruction in a way peculiar to himself, and such instruction as no other can give; if all this occurs many times, in various circumstances and situations. and if you are conscious all the while that your senses are acting with their wonted accuracy regarding all other objects around you,—it is plain that if your senses are deceiving you only in the case of your friend while true to you in the case of these other objects, some derangement of the physical system has taken place which is wholly inexplicable. And if this be so when it happens in your own individual case, how much more wonderful and inexplicable would it be if two persons, in sound health, should be affected at the same time and in the same way.”
Every honest man of sound mind who reads these statements, must feel the conclusion to be irresistible. What, then, are we to think of the man who can affect to believe that the senses of ten or twelve men in sound health should, at the same moment, and always in regard to the same object, combine to deceive them, while these same senses continued to act with their unwonted regularity and fidelity in reference to every other object? Did such a thing ever happen? Never in this world’s history. Such a thing would be a much greater miracle than the resurrection. And must not the man who can believe such a miracle without evidence, while he denies the truth of the resurrection in spite of its overwhelming evidence, be himself a miracle of unreasoning credulity?
The incredulity of the disciples proves that they could not be imposed on by a mere phantom of the imagination. In common with the rest of their countrymen, they did not and could not believe that he should be crucified. Even after Jesus predicted his death half-a-dozen times, Mark says, “They could not understand that saying.” And being dead, they did not believe that he would rise again. The women, who first went to the sepulchre, carried with them prepared spices to embalm his body; and when they found it not, they were greatly perplexed—having forgot what Jesus so often told them, till reminded by the angel. It is said, “when they told the eleven, and all the rest, their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.” So far from apprehending what had been so often foretold by their Lord, “they questioned one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.” When Jesus appeared to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, they had no faith in the reports they had heard about his resurrection; and when they were convinced, and went and told the rest what had happened, neither believed they them.” And when, immediately after this, Jesus stood in the midst of them, “they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, why are ye troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.” Still they could scarcely believe for joy, and wondered. “And he said, Have ye here any meat? and they gave him a piece of broiled fish and an honeycomb; and he took it and did eat before them.” After all these appearances Thomas, not being with them, expressed his unbelief in strong terms: “Except I shall see in his hands the prints of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” At the end of eight days, when the disciples were assembled together, and Thomas with them, Jesus came to them and granted Thomas his request, when he immediately, in wondering joy, cried out, “My Lord and my God.” Mark our Lord’s reply: it contains a rebuke not only to Thomas but to all who, like him, refuse to be satisfied with ample testimony, unless there be sensible signs superadded. “Thomas, because thou hast seen me thou hast believed; blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Either the disciples were impostors, pretending to see and hear things which they never saw nor heard, in order to deceive the world, or the Scriptures are, in very deed, the Word of God. As to the disciples being impostors, we have only to ask, What end could the apostles gain by attempting to impose on the world? If a dozen of men of unblemished lives, whose honesty had never been impeached, but rather demonstrated by all they have said and done, and against whom nothing has been proved by the most trying ordeals and the most searching investigations; and who, by all the writings they have left on record, give evidence that their great business on earth was to obey God, and turn their fellow-men to His love and service; if a dozen of such men should be brought before judges and courts of judicature, to answer for themselves and their doctrines; if they were then offered their choice of either confessing that they had been guilty of fabricating a falsehood, or of submitting to be tortured and put to a violent and painful death, without hope of mercy; and if they still persisted in declaring that they saw and heard what they professed to see and hear; if they were then taken and examined, one by one, by the most acute and subtle lawyers and judges; and if each still adhered to his statement, not wavering in a single instance; if the terrible threat were at last put into execution; and if when far removed from each other, those simple-minded men submitted to the most horrible tortures and death, still maintaining their innocency and the truth in the face of their merciless tormentors—would not the thought be forced upon the minds of the most sceptical—“Surely these honest men are in downright earnest; surely they would never with their blood seal what they knew to be a lie; they would never surely submit to such horrible tortures to establish a conscious fabrication.”
But this is not all. Many thousands of the most prejudiced Jews believed when they saw the mighty works done by the apostles; and multitudes throughout the towns and villages believed because of the cures wrought upon themselves and their relatives. Now, suppose, if you can, that the apostles were impostors, the question immediately arises, Did they impose upon these thousands? Were they such clever and arch deceivers, that they made all these enemies of Christ believe that they saw things done which were never done, and imagine themselves cured when not a cure was wrought? Was this the reason why from murderers many thousands of Jews and Pagans became worshippers of him whom they had just crucified? Did those born blind merely imagine they had got their eyesight? Did those lame from their mother’s womb, only imagine they were cured? Did the lepers only imagine themselves cleansed, and the dead that they were brought to life? It is said, the multitudes “brought their sick to them, from all quarters, and they healed them all.” Was this all a dream? or were those thousands impostors also? Did the blind, and the lame, and the sick, and the dead, pretend they were cured in order to help the apostles to impose on, and deceive the world? Tens of thousands, along with the apostles, sealed their testimony with their blood, submitting, like them, to the most terrible tortures. Did they do all this to establish what they knew to be a lie? The apostles’ testimony regarding such faithful souls, is this:—“They had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy): they wandered in deserts, and mountains, and dens, and caves of the earth.” Were these men all impostors, declaring that they saw works which they never saw, and experienced cures that were never wrought? and did they endure violent pangs and unheard of privations for no other end but to impose upon mankind?
This very explanation (which reasonable men will dismiss as puerile) proves the real and wonderful character of the works performed by the apostles and their fellow-labourers. Now, what was proved to be fact then, must remain fact to all succeeding generations. In these ancient times there were men as subtle, and as much opposed to Christianity as any now living, and who yet could not meet its plain unlearned advocates, except with the sword, fire, and the halter. It is easy for the shallow glibtongued orators of the present time to talk away at the poor illiterate fishermen, and the weak and despised things by whom God chose to establish His cause, and overturn the idolatrous and impure systems of the world; but the best informed sceptics, and those who have gone deepest into ancient history, are compelled, in spite of their bitter hatred to Christianity, to admit—as does that subtle but learned sceptic, Gibbon—that Christianity owes its extraordinary progress in early times, among both Jews and Pagans, to the settled and general belief, that its first apostles and disciples did many mighty miracles, and did them by the power of God.