Solar System
[SOLAR SYSTEM]
This idea received considerable encouragement from a certain class of scientific men during the early part of this century. Between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter is a vast space which was supposed to be unoccupied. In the first seven years of this century, three small planets were discovered revolving in orbits midway between Marsand Jupiter. Afterwards many others were discovered until now the number exceeds two hundred. Dr. Olbers, the discoverer of two of them, Pallas and Vesta, finding that their orbits were comparatively near together and sometimes crossed each other, imagined that they were formed by the explosion of a large planet or by a comet coming in contact with a large planet and thus shattering it to pieces. This theory seemed all the more plausible seeing that these minor worlds or "pocket planets," as Herschel styles them, are exceedingly diminutive. So, to use a familiar illustration, he imagined the boiler of a large locomotive had burst and the fragments had all alighted on the track in the shape of hand-cars; much more, that the hand-cars had magnanimously resolved to keep running and do the business of the line. At first sight this theory seemed strengthened by every new discovery. It is true, reflecting men could not help wondering at such a strange event, that would produce beautiful little planets all by accident. They never heard of the blowing up of a palace producing cottages, or the fragments of a steam-ship changing into yawl-boats, nor even the pieces of a wrecked locomotive becoming neat little engines or even respectable hand-cars. However, as the theory removed God out of sight, it was generally accepted by the infidels and freely used by them, to show that the world has no need of a Creator.
Genuine scientists, however, were not long in seeing the absurdity and demonstrating theimpossibility of such a theory. It was found that their orbits did not coincide by more than twenty millions of miles. Again, it has been proven that comets are incapable of greatly affecting a sun or planet. Herschel says, "It is evident that the most unsubstantial clouds which float in the highest region of our atmosphere must be looked upon as dense and massy bodies compared with the filmy texture of a comet."
Thus Reason declares, that the world did not make itself. The soul of man did not make itself. The body of man did not make itself. They must have had an intelligent Creator, who is God. The work is not the workman; the house is not the builder; the watch is not the watchmaker. The maker is always distinct from the thing made and superior to it. You, and I, and the universe have been made; therefore, our Creator is distinct from us, and superior to us.
The consciousness of our ignorance and weakness confirms this fact. The soul of man is not the highest intelligence in the universe. In his present state he has not yet acquired a knowledge of the laws and functions of the body he inhabits, much less the laws that sway the universe. He may know much about what does not concern him; but he feels his weakness where his dearest interests are concerned. He may be able to tell the place of a distant planet a century hence; but he cannot tell where he himself will be next year. He may calculate for years the motion of the tides; but he cannot tell how his own pulse will beat to-morrow,or whether it will beat at all. Ever as his knowledge of the laws of nature increases, his conviction deepens that a wiser head and a stronger hand than his planned and rules the world.
The world's history declares the existence and government of God. History is but the record of men's acts and God's providences, of men's crimes and God's punishments. Once He swept away the human race with a flood of water because the wickedness of man was great upon the earth. Again, He testified His displeasure against the wicked of Sodom and Gomorrah by consuming those cities by fire from heaven, and leaving the Dead Sea to roll its solemn waves of warning to the end of time. No amount of learning or skill, wealth or commerce, power of arms, or extent of territory, has ever secured a wicked nation against the sword of God's justice. Read the black record of the past. Where is the greatness of Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon and Petra? Tyre had ships, colonies and commerce, Rome an empire of half a hemisphere; Greece had philosophy, arts and liberty secured by a confederation of republics, Spain the treasures of the earth's gold and silver? but these did not exempt them from the moral government of God. His laws sway the universe, and link together sin with misery, and crime with punishment, in the brazen fetters of eternal justice. These nations have been hurled down from the pinnacle of their greatness, to dash themselves in pieces against each other in the valley of destruction; and there they lie, wrecks of nations, ruins of empires, naught remaining, save some shivered fragments of former greatness, to show that they once existed and were the enemies of God.
The Dead Sea
[THE DEAD SEA]
CHAPTER V.OUR NEED OF REVELATION.REVELATION PROGRESSIVE—ITS RELATION TO CIVILIZATION—SOLOMON—HIS PROVERBS—NEWMAN'S ABSURDITIES—CARLYLE—PARKER—HEATHEN PHILOSOPHY IMMORAL—ANCIENT ROMAN SONGS—CHARACTER OF HEATHEN DEITIES—RELIGION OF INDIA—COMPTE—BRADLAUGH—CHESTERFIELD—PAINE.
CHAPTER V.OUR NEED OF REVELATION.REVELATION PROGRESSIVE—ITS RELATION TO CIVILIZATION—SOLOMON—HIS PROVERBS—NEWMAN'S ABSURDITIES—CARLYLE—PARKER—HEATHEN PHILOSOPHY IMMORAL—ANCIENT ROMAN SONGS—CHARACTER OF HEATHEN DEITIES—RELIGION OF INDIA—COMPTE—BRADLAUGH—CHESTERFIELD—PAINE.
The philosopher finds only two books in all the world—two divine, original books, viz., theVolume of Nature, and theRevelations of God. All others are mere commentaries upon these two original, divine books. To these pertain all that has been thought, said or written, in all the ages past; and, we might add, all that ever will be written in all the ages to come. That which explains, delineates or illustrates the volume of nature is called Science. That which unfolds to us the attributes of God, our own nature and destiny is revelation. It treats of that which man cannot otherwise perceive; its records are called theScripturesor Books ofInspiration.The volume of nature is written upon the rocks, fields, forests and all the varied forms of animal life, in symbolic characters, which it is the province of science to decipher. The volume of revelation is the impress of the divine will on man's spiritual nature. Thus both are the handwriting of Deity Himself. Science teaches us material laws in relation to time. Revelation instructs not merely in these, but likewise includes spiritual laws and eternal duration. The lessons that man learns from age to age are progressive even as a school boy's. Science and revelation are therefore progressive, though in somewhat different ways. The former advances mainly through the exercise of human reason; the latter through man's more favored circumstances, and the increased divine illumination of his spiritual nature. How vain, how arrogant the babblings of the sectarians who tell us that the book of revelation is forever closed! That man, in this puerile state, has already taken possession of the whole treasure of divine truth! That the human mind with its poor plummet has already sounded the depths of the divine oracles! Still more benighted are they who do not see that there is a divine as well as human element in all our progress, that purity of heart is necessary for the clearest perception even of the truths of science. Thus the nations as well as the individuals who have the highest spiritual light are precisely those who have made the greatest intellectual progress. If we look over a map of the world we find that thosenations which possess the purest religious ideas are precisely those which have made the greatest intellectual, social and political progress. Now religious ideas emanate from God. They are the result of the action of the divine will on the minds of men. Thus the progress of the nations depends upon the revelations of God.
Thousands of years ago, Solomon perceived this fact. He was a man of great learning as well as practical common sense. He understood not merely the science of government, but likewise botany, or the science of plants, from the mighty trees that grew on Mount Lebanon, to the tiny hyssop that grew in crevices of the garden wall: and the natural history of beasts and birds, reptiles and fishes. He was also skilled in literature; he is said to have made "three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five" (see I. Kings, iv chap). Better than all this, in the opinion of many, especially infidels, he made money, and tells us how to make and keep it. Any young man will make hundreds of dollars by reading his Proverbs and acting on them. They would have saved some of us many a thousand. Of course Solomon knew something of the world. He was a wide-awake trader; his ships coasted the shores of Asia and Africa, from Madagascar to Japan; and the overland caravans from India and China drew up in the depots he built for them in the heart of the desert. He knew the well-doing people with whom trade was profitable, and the savages who could only send apes and peacocks (see I. Kings, chap. x). Solomon was a philosopher as well as a trader, and could not help being deeply impressed with the great fact that there was a wide difference between the nations of the earth. Some were enlightened, enterprising, civilized and flourishing; others were naked savages, perpetually at war with each other, living in ignorance, poverty, vice and on the verge of starvation.
Bashan
[GIANT CITIES OF BASHAN, BUILT BY SOLOMON]
Solomon also noticed another fact, that the nations which were favored with the revelations of God, were the civilized, enterprising and comparatively prosperous nations. In Palestine, Chaldea and Mesopotamia, God had revealed His will to certain persons for the benefit of the race. Even Egypt, it is now generally admitted, passed through the era of her greatest prosperity at the time she was in close relationship and communication with the Hebrew Patriarchs, Abraham, Jacob and Joseph, who were the living oracles of God, and whose influence greatly increased for a time her national prosperity. On the other hand the nations that were uninfluenced by the revelations of God, were the idolatrous savages, who were but little above the level of the brutes. Solomon epitomized these great facts in the proverb, "Where there is no vision the people perish, but he that keepeth the law, happy is he" (Proverbs xxix, 18).
"O," says the skeptic, "the world is wiser now than it was in Solomon's days. He lived in the old times of ignorance and superstition, when men attributed everything extraordinary to the gods. But we are too wise now to believe in revelation."
Again, Straus says, "No just notion of philosophy or history is possible which includes a belief of those things that we do not understand." Depth of wisdom indeed! We do not understand how a blade of grass grows, therefore we must deny its existence.
One cannot help being amazed at the cool impudence with which these men take for granted the very point to be proved, and set aside as unworthy of serious examination, the most authentic records of history, simply because they do not coincide with their so-called philosophy; and at the credulity with which their followers swallow these arrogant assertions, as if they were self-evident truths. Let us look at this argument for a moment. Pagan religions have their fables, therefore, the Hebrew and Christian records are fables. In other words, since counterfeit bank bills exist therefore none are genuine.
Skeptics offer no proofs that miracles are impossible. Yet, surely, if they imply a contradiction, that contradiction could be shown. The creation of this world is the most stupendous of all miracles; yet all men admit that this miracle occurred. The experience of man is not the limit of knowledge. Revelation is not impossible because supernatural. The world is as full of supernatural works as of natural. The miracles recorded in the strata of the earth's crust are as great as any recorded in the Bible.
If, as the infidel asserts, religion and superstition are identical, and ignorance is the cause, howhappens it that the most intellectual and progressive nations are those which have the clearest religious ideas? The history of nations universally and unequivocally declares this fact. Even among the so-called Christian nations of Europe and America we find their intellectual culture and general progress in exact proportion to the purity of their respective faiths. While we look in vain, among the heathen nations of Africa to find a single benefactor of the race, or one worthy to be distinguished among the millions of her population in all the countless generations past.
In the face of all this we find a sort of spiritualistic philosophers who tell us that we have no need of communication from God. Newman, in hisPhases of Faith, page157, says, "Miraculous phenomena will never prove the attributes of God if we do not know these things in and of ourselves." Carlyle, in hisPast and Present, page307, exclaims, "Revelations! inspirations! indeed! and thy own mighty transcendent, god-like soul, dost thou not call that a revelation?" Such sort of trash, which passes for profound philosophy, is taught in hundreds of colleges, and is echoed from thousands of pulpits by men who call themselves Christian ministers, but who could not reap their rich salaries if they would openly avow their atheism.
Theodore Parker says, "If a fact depends upon revelation, it is not eternally true, and if it is not eternally true it is no truth at all." Profound philosophy indeed!—as if eternally true, and sufficiently known were just the same thing. To usea familiar illustration, because vaccination would always have prevented the small pox, if it had been known, therefore the world is under no obligation to Jenner for informing us of the fact. Newman adds in another place, "I cannot receive instruction from another being." Again, "Neither God nor man can reveal any religious truths to our minds." Parker says, "On His (God's) word or as His second, be he whom he may, I can accept nothing" (Parker's Discourse page209).
Now we are tempted to ask, who are these wonderful prodigies, so incapable of receiving instruction from anybody? And to our amazement we learn that some forty or fifty years ago, they made their appearance among mankind as little squalling babies, without insight enough to know their own names or who they were, or where they came from, and were actually dependent on an external revelation, from their nurses, for sense enough to find their mothers' breasts. And as they grew a little larger, they learned the art of speaking articulate sounds, by external revelation: viz., hearing and repeating sounds made by others. Further, on a certain day they had a book revelation made to them, in the shape of a ten cent primer, and received their first lessons by the instructions of another. They had not then the least "insight," or "spiritual faculty," or "mighty transcendent soul," by which they could learn all things in and of themselves. Faith in the word of their teachers was absolutely the only means by which they learned to speak, read and write.
But this is not half their indebtedness to external revelation. They admit that a Feejee cannibal has just the same "mighty and transcendent soul" that they themselves have. How, then, does it happen that Newman, Emerson and Parker, and all their followers, who are too proud to be taught of God, are not assembled around a cannibal's oven, smearing their faces with the blood and feasting themselves on the limbs of women and children? Is it not, after all, the revelations of God and the teachings depending thereon that make the whole difference between the civilized American and his Feejee brother?
It is amusing to see how these modern atheists, who reject Moses and the Prophets, as well as Christ and His Apostles, will permit themselves to go into ecstacies over the supposed wisdom of ancient heathen philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. But on examination we find that the teachings of all these philosophers were immoral. The gratification of the sensual appetites was openly taught. "He may steal," says Plato, "who knows how to do it." Oaths are frequent in the writings of Plato and Seneca. Anstippus taught that a wise man had a right to commit adultery. Aristotle vindicated the awful crimes of foeticide and infanticide. Even suicide was defended by Cicero and Seneca as the mark of a hero, and Demosthenes, Cato, Brutus and Cassius carried the means of self-destruction about them, that they might not fall alive into the hands of their enemies.
The laws of the best-regulated heathen states commended or approved of vice. The student of the classics need not be reminded that the songs of Ovid, Horace and Virgil would not be tolerated in the vilest theater of New York or Chicago. The laws of Sparta required theft, and the murder of unhealthy children. The Carthaginian law required human sacrifices; and in ancient Babylon, prostitution was compulsory on every female. Plato, dissatisfied with the laws of his country, wrote out a code of morals and laws which he thought much better. In this heathen Utopia the ideas of home and family were ignored. Marriage was to be unknown; women's rights were to be maintained by having the women trained to war. Children were still to be murdered if convenience called for it. Little boys and girls were to be led to battle at a safe distance, "that the young whelps may early scent carnage and be inured to slaughter." Such were the loftiest ideas of the greatest philosopher of antiquity. After all his speculations and writing, Plato admitted, "We cannot know of ourselves what petition will be pleasing to God, or what worship we should pay to Him; but it is necessary that a lawgiver should be sent from heaven to instruct us. Oh, how greatly do I long to see that man!" He further adds, "This lawgiver must be more than man, that he may teach us things man cannot know by his own nature." Who has not dropped a tear over the dying words of Socrates? "I am going out of the world, and you are to continue in it, but which of us hasthe better part is a secret to every one but God!" Also those memorable words, "We must of necessity wait till some one, who careth for us, shall come and instruct us how we ought to behave toward God and toward man."
Nor is it to be expected that the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and other heathen nations should have an exalted idea of virtue, when we consider the character of the gods they worshiped. The Egyptian deities consisted of bulls and dogs, cats and rats, snakes and crocodiles. When a dog died the whole house went into mourning and fasted till night. A Roman soldier who had accidentally killed a cat was punished with death (see Diodorus Siculus, Book I). The "great, mighty and transcendent soul," as Carlyle terms it, had been degraded so low that there is a picture in one of the pyramids, of an Egyptian king worshiping his own coffin.
The Greeks from their intercourse with the Jews learned some correct religious ideas, especially after the conquest of Palestine by Alexander, and the translation of the scriptures into the Greek language, in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, B. C. 240. Before this period little sense can be found in their religion. Their gods were as detestable as they were numerous. Hesiod tells us they had thirty thousand. Their supreme god, Jupiter, was an adulterer. Mars, a murderer. Mercury, a thief, Bacchus, a drunkard and Venus, a prostitute. To their inferior gods they attributed other crimes too horrible to be mentioned. These godsthey worshiped with ceremonies of lust, drunkenness and bloodshed unfit to be described.
If any one supposes that the condition of the modern heathens is any better than it was in ancient times, let him turn to India, where he will find one hundred and fifty millions of rational beings, possessing, as Theodore Parker says, "all needful spiritual light," who worship three hundred and thirty millions of gods in the form of hills and trees, rivers and rocks, elephants and tigers, monkeys and rats, serpents and crocodiles, and monsters unlike anything in heaven or on earth. The monster idol, Juggernaut, will do as a specimen of all. Around his temple countless multitudes from all parts of India, congregate annually, many of them having measured with their own bodies the whole distance of their weary pilgrimage. Within the temple, the monster idol, with its frightful grim and distorted visage, sits enthroned, amid thousands of massive sculptures, the representative emblem of that cruelty and vice which constitute the very essence of his worship. There in their sacred city of Benares may be seen at all times crowds of religious devotees and mendicants; some remaining all day with their heads on the ground and their feet in the air; some cramming their eyes with mud and their mouths with straw; others with their limbs fastened in unnatural positions, and still others with little pots of fire placed upon their breasts, hoping by these self-inflicted tortures to win the favor of the god. When the day of the high festival arrives, the horrid idol isdragged forth from his temple and mounted on a lofty car in the presence of hundreds of thousands who rend the air with their shouts, "Victory to Juggernaut!" Then the officiating priest commences the ceremonies by a loathsome pantomimic exhibition accompanied by the utterance of obscene and filthy songs, to which the vast multitude at intervals respond, not in the strains of tuneful melody, but in loud yells of approbation. After this the terrible carnage commences; for as the car is dragged through the streets, the more enthusiastic devotees throw themselves beneath the wheels, and are instantly crushed to pieces, the infatuated victims of hellish superstition. On the neighboring hills, the so-called sacred vultures may be seen feasting on these corpses and the bleak and barren sands on the roadside are forever whitened with the skulls and bones of deluded pilgrims, which lie bleaching in the sun (see Duff's India, page222).
Of course, high-toned infidels do not consider themselves as debased as the natives of India. What then is the tendency of their teachings? M. Compte, a leading skeptical writer, tells us, "Childhood should be taught to worship idols, youth to believe in one God, and full grown men (like himself) to adore the resultant of all the forces of the universe,not forgetting their worthy friends the animals" (see Politique Positive, Vol. II.page 60). If this is not the teachings of idolatry, what is it?
Again, we find that the whole school of infidel writers vindicate and apologize for the very worstof crimes. Bradlaugh, the leading atheist of England, declares that, "A man is no more to be blamed for the indulgence of lust or anger, than he is for thirst or drowsiness." Hume, whose arguments are so often used by American infidels, taught that "adultery must be practiced by mankind, if they would obtain all the advantages of life." Lord Chesterfield, another prominent infidel, in his letters to his son (which were designed for publication) instructs him in the art of seduction, as part of a polite education.
Nor is the character of infidels any better than their teachings. Take, for example, Thomas Paine, the author of the Age of Reason, whose birth-day is annually celebrated, and who is held up by infidels as a model for the young. A few extracts from a letter written to him, by his fellow-infidel, and co-worker, William Carver, may not be out of place.
"New Rochelle, December 2nd, 1803."Mr. Thomas Paine."Sir:—I received your letter dated the 25th ult., and after minutely examining its contents, I found that you had taken to the pitiful subterfuge oflyingfor your defense. You say that you paid me four dollars per week for your board and lodging, during the time you were with me, prior to the first of June last; which was the day that I went up, by your order, to take you to New York, from New Rochelle. It is fortunate for me that I have a living witness who saw you give me five guineas, and no more in my shop at your departure at that time. Now you have means, why do you not pay me the remainder? You said you would have given me more, but that you had no more with you at that time. You say, also,that you found your own liquors during the time you boarded with me; but you should have said that you found only a small part of the liquor you drank during your stay with me. That part you purchased of John Fellows and consisted of a demi-john of brandy containing four gallons, and that did not serve you three weeks. This can be proved, and I mean not to say anything that I cannot prove, for I hold truth as a precious jewel. It is a well-known fact, that you drank one quart of brandy per day at my expense, during the different times you boarded with me, besides the demi-john above mentioned, and the last fourteen weeks you were sick. Was not this a sufficient supply for dinner and supper? * * * * *"I have often wondered that a French woman and three children should leave France and all their connections to follow Thomas Paine to America. Suppose I were to go to my native country, England, and take another man's wife, and three children of his and leave my wife and children in this country; what would be the natural conclusion in the minds of the people, but that there was some criminal connection between the woman and myself?"
"New Rochelle, December 2nd, 1803.
Such is the morality of those who denounce the Bible as an immoral book, and blaspheme the God of revelation as too vile to be reverenced or worshiped. Not even the friends of Paine have ever denied the genuineness of this and other letters that clearly reveal his private character. (For full particulars seeDiscussion Between Dr. Berg and Mr. Barker, published by W. S. Young, Philadelphia,1854.)
Once in modern times a nation had the opportunity of showing the world a specimen of an infidel republic. The Bible was publicly burned. Death was declared an eternal sleep; God was declared a fiction, the Sabbath was abolished and religious worship denounced. And what wasthe consequence? Revolution after revolution occurred. Thousands, aye millions, of the sons of France were slain in the wars that ensued. Wave after wave of blood rolled through the guilty streets of Paris, and the people were clothed in mourning from one end of the land to the other. In the Declaration of Independence it is declared that, "Mankind are endowedby their Creatorwith certain inalienable rights." It is well said: the law of God is the only secure basis for the rights of man.
CHAPTER VI.VALIDITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AS SHOWN BY INTERNAL EVIDENCE.INFLUENCE OF THE SCRIPTURES—THEIR AGREEMENT WITH SECULAR HISTORY—COLONY OF PHILIPPI—ANCIENT COIN—CERTAINTY OF BIBLE HISTORY—GIBBON'S TESTIMONY—QUOTATIONS OF CELSUS—MARCION THE APOSTATE—CLASSIFICATION OF NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS—AVOCATIONS OF THE APOSTLES—THEIR MANNER OF PREACHING—THEY CHALLENGED CRITICISM—DENIAL OF MIRACLES, A MODERN INVENTION—SUFFERINGS OF THE APOSTLES—THEY SEALED THEIR TESTIMONY WITH THEIR BLOOD.
CHAPTER VI.VALIDITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AS SHOWN BY INTERNAL EVIDENCE.INFLUENCE OF THE SCRIPTURES—THEIR AGREEMENT WITH SECULAR HISTORY—COLONY OF PHILIPPI—ANCIENT COIN—CERTAINTY OF BIBLE HISTORY—GIBBON'S TESTIMONY—QUOTATIONS OF CELSUS—MARCION THE APOSTATE—CLASSIFICATION OF NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS—AVOCATIONS OF THE APOSTLES—THEIR MANNER OF PREACHING—THEY CHALLENGED CRITICISM—DENIAL OF MIRACLES, A MODERN INVENTION—SUFFERINGS OF THE APOSTLES—THEY SEALED THEIR TESTIMONY WITH THEIR BLOOD.
Faith rests upon facts, superstition on theories. Faith is increased by intelligence, superstition by ignorance, Faith courts investigation for thereby it is strengthened; superstition shuns it as fatal to its existence. Thousands can bear witness to the truth of the words of the Savior, "If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself;" yet surrounded as we are by skeptics and cavilers of every sort, it is well that we should be prepared to ward off the fiery darts of the wicked, to meet them with their own arguments, and as the youthfulDavid did to Goliath in days of old, cut off the boastful atheistic giant's head with his own sword.
In looking over the history of the world, we find that those books, which collectively are called the scriptures, have in all ages, exerted a controlling influence over the destinies of mankind. Their teachings are perused with pleasure by the child, and pondered with patience by the philosopher. Their practical wisdom has guided the judgment of the wisest kings of antiquity and still teach the humblest peasant his duty to his neighbor. Their precious promises have lighted the prophetic eyes of old; they are still chanted by the mother over her cradle, and by the orphan over the tomb. Here, thousands of miles distant from the places where they were first revealed, in a language unknown alike at Cumorah and Jerusalem, they rule as lovingly and as powerfully as in their native soil.
With all these palpable facts in view, let us enquire into the origin of the book which has produced such results. On looking at the Bible we find it composed of a number of separate treatises written by different authors, at various times; some parts fifteen hundred years before the others. We find also, that it treats of the very beginning of the world before man was made and of matters of which we have no other authentic history. Again, we find portions which treat of events connected in a thousand places with the affairs of the Medo-Persian, Macedonian and Roman empires, of which we have several crediblehistories. Now the statements made in these works, so far as they refer to subjects mentioned in the Bible agree with the Biblical record, in every particular. Further, the inscriptions on monuments and ancient coins have often settled mooted questions in history and invariably have been found to agree with the scriptural narrative. For example, we are told in Acts, xiv 12, that Paul went "to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony." "Now," says the infidel, "Greece at that time was a conquered country; and it was contrary to Roman customs to form colonies of Roman citizens in conquered countries. Besides, we have no account by any Roman historian that Philippi was a colony. Hence we may conclude that the New Testament account is incorrect."
Roman Coin
[FACSIMILE OF COIN FOUND AT PHILIPPI]
At first all this seemed plausible, but a few years ago, a scientific association was formed to excavate among the ruins of eastern cities, and, among others, Philippi came in for a share of attention. In excavating around one of the ruins an ancient coin was unearthed, which bore upon its surface the effigy of a Roman emperor, surrounded by the following inscription: "PHILIPPI COLONA, CLAUDIUS IMPERATOR," which signifies in plain English, "Colony of Philippi, Claudius being emperor."
Here, then, we have an ancient Roman coin bearing testimony to the truth of God's word. Further, by means of this coin we see a depth of meaning, in the last five verses of the 16th chapter of Acts, not at first perceptible. We are thus able to perceive, in some degree, the terror of the Philippian magistrates when they learned that Paul and Silas were also Romans.
Day by day as scientific investigation proceeds we hear of additional corroborative evidence. Every year throws some new light on oriental manners and customs, while from the ruins of Nineveh and the sepulchres of Egypt, we receive unlooked-for testimonies to the minute accuracy of the inspired penmen. The objection that the scriptures contain mysteries, or statements which are difficult to be understood, is in reality one of the strongest proofs of their divine source and authority. The words of a teacher are often misunderstood by the pupil, because the pupil's mind is not sufficiently developed to comprehend them. Sometimes, indeed, they are entirely misapprehended for the same reason. So also, it is to be expected that the full import of the divine communications would sometimes transcend the partially-developed intellect of man. The thoughts and methods of infinite wisdom, expressed in the plainest of human words, must sometimes remain inscrutible. After all that can be said in reference to the weakness of the human medium, through which the divine will has been communicated, we find in the scriptures, a wonderful agreement with the development oftruths which have come to man in the progress of the ages. Science has never successfully impeached any statement of the scriptures when rightly interpreted. For example, "in the first chapter of Genesis we find a brief account of the creation of the world. Until modern times, it was the popular opinion that this narrative taught that the earth and heavens were created during an interval of six days of twenty-four hours each and that the work dates back but a few thousand years. These views were entertained when our Bible was translated into English. Since that date, several sciences have sprung into existence which throw a vast amount of light on the history of the creation; and if King James' translators had their work to perform to-day, they would see meanings in Genesis of which the world had not dreamed two hundred years ago; and they would make the translation read a little differently,in order to make it agree more exactly with the original Hebrew." (Winchell's Reconciliations page357).
Have we not here one of the plainest admissions of the total apostasy of the so-called Christian church? Had the translators of the scriptures been in possession of the Holy Spirit, they would have had no difficulty in translating the sentiments dictated by that same Spirit to the seers and prophets in ages past. Then, too, we would have had a translation which would have furnished a key by which to detect the true science from the false. In Genesis we have an account, to which, when rightly understood, the latest indications ofscience admirably conform. This circumstance alone, ought to be strong evidence, even to a skeptic, of its super-human origin. Written ages before the birth of modern sciences, there was the utmost liability for mere human authorship to fall into the most egregious misstatements respecting the phenomena of the natural world; but in point of fact some of its statements were so far in advance of the highest human knowledge in all the ages past, and even the boasted science of the nineteenth century, that we are only just beginning to understand them.
Now, the only way for us to know anything beyond our eyesight, is to examine it, and gather testimony about it. All the blessings of education, civilization, law and liberty have come to us through the channel of abundant, reliable testimony. There is perhaps, not a man living who was present at the battle of Quebec, in the encampment of Valley Forge, or heard Washington deliver his farewell address; yet the fact that these things transpired as they are related, no one will doubt. Few persons now living ever saw Washington, yet no one doubts that he lived. Certainty about the Bible history is just as attainable as certainty about American history. Let us begin at the present and trace the records back to the times in which the New Testament was written. We presume there are few persons as ignorant as an infidel lecturer we once heard, who, when asked, "Who compiled the scriptures?" answered, after some hesitation, "The American Bible Society."
Sometimes infidels tell us that the Emperor Constantine called various councils which compiled the New Testament, in the fourth century. We can scarcely wonder at this statement coming from those who look upon the Catholic church as representing Christianity. Constantine, the man who had murdered two of his sons, and strangled, while in a bath, the wife who had trusted in him, was surely a worthy representative of that church whom the Apostle John stylesthe mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. Still we cannot help asking how it was that this murderer who had made himself obnoxious even in pagan Rome on account of his crimes and his confederates equally wicked, was able to dictate words of such sublime virtue as are everywhere found in the New Testament. The infidel, Gibbon, attempts to explain, and tells us "The austerity, purity and zeal of the first Christians, their good discipline, their belief in the resurrection of the body, and the general judgment, and their persuasion that Christ and His apostles wrought miracles, had made a great many converts." But how came they to have this "belief, purity and zeal?" Just as if we should enquire how the Chicago fire originated, and you should tell us, that it burned very fast because it was very hot. What we want to know is how it happened that frivolous Greeks, licentious Asiatics and warlike Romans at once became pure and adopted the humble life of the early Christians? What implanted the belief of a judgment to come in the minds ofthese heathen scoffers? Gibbon admits that, "Christian churches were sufficiently numerous in the Roman empire, to make it politic for the emperor to profess Christianity, and sufficiently powerful to secure his success." Thus according to the admissions of an infidel writer the Christians were already numerous, and the story of Constantine forming the New Testament, which had been read in churches and believed in for two hundred years, is as absurd as to hear it stated that the saloon keepers, prize-fighters and hoodlums of New York had just assembled in the Large Tabernacle in Salt Lake City to construct the revelations contained in the book of Doctrine and Covenants, which have been already accepted and believed by the Saints, for more than fifty years.
If, on the other hand, we consult any or all of the hundreds of manuscripts mentioned by Mosheim, Neander and Lardner in their ecclesiastical histories we shall find that there were thousands, aye millions, who believed in a teacher sent from God who had appeared in Palestine and taught this religion which they had embraced, and who had performed wonderful miracles such as opening the eyes of the blind, healing lepers and raising the dead. They believed also that this Teacher had been put to death by Pontius Pilate, a Roman governor, had risen again from the dead, had spoken to hundreds of people and gone out and in among them for six weeks after His resurrection, had ascended up to heaven in the sight of numbers of witnesses, and had promised that He wouldcome again in the clouds of heaven to raise the dead and judge every man according to his works. Further, that before He went away he appointed twelve of His intimate companions to teach His religion to the world; that they and their followers did so in spite of persecutions, sufferings and death, with so much success, that immense numbers gave up idolatry and embraced Christianity, braving the fury of the heathen mob, and the vengeance of the Roman law. Afterwards, when persecution had destroyed great numbers, and through apostasy they had lost the divine authority and priesthood we hear of various councils wherein they assembled for the settling of their disputes. These, so far from giving authority to the books of the New Testament, constantly quoted the words of these books and referred to them for proof and authority.
Again, one hundred years before the time of Constantine we find Celsus, a celebrated infidel writer and sensualist, disputing the teachings of the gospel because they interfered with his depraved appetites; and in his writings he quotes freely from the New Testament. So numerous are his quotations that from them alone, the student might gain all the principal facts of the Christian religion. As Paine quotes the New Testament to ridicule it, no man can deny that such a book was in existence at the time he wrote; so the quotations of Celsus are conclusive proofs that the books he referred to were considered authority at the time he wrote. Yet in all his writings, Celsus neveronce casts a doubt on the authority of the scriptures, never questions the gospels as books of history nor denies the miracles recorded in them. It may also be added that the student who will examine the writings of Celsus, will cease to admire the professed wisdom of our modern skeptics. The objections made by Hume, Voltaire, Hobles and Paine are frequently only the arguments of Celsus served up in a modern style.
Going back still another hundred years we come to the times of the notorious apostate, Marcion. Several of the apostles were alive at the time Marcion was born; and his works date back to within twenty years of the latest apostolical writings. Having been cut off from the church, he was greatly enraged and said the worst he could about it. He traveled all the way from Sinope, on the Black Sea, to Rome, through Galatia, Bythynia, Asia-Minor, Greece and Italy, the very countries where the apostles preached, and the churches to which they wrote. He endeavored in many places to wrest the scriptures from their rightful meaning; but nowhere attempted to deny their authority (see Lardner, Vol. ix, page358). Thus in the writings of Celsus and Marcion we have the most indubitable evidence, even the admission of enemies, that these books were in existence and universally received as true, by the early Christians, within twenty years of the time when they were written and by the very churches to which they were addressed. As printing was then unknown, and all important doctrines were written uponparchment, the books of that period presented rather a bulky appearance. Probably for this reason the four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, were commonly joined together in one volume and namedThe Gospel. The Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles to the churches of Thessalonica, Galatia, Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Collosse, the First Epistle of Peter, the First Epistle of John, together with those written to Philemon, Timothy and Titus, comprised a second volume calledThe Apostles. The remaining books of the New Testament, being the last written, usually formed a third volume and were known asApostolical Writings. This arrangement did not injure the meaning but rather benefitted it by showing the relative dates of the various books comprising the New Testament.
It is evident that the gospels were not copied from each other, for they often relate different events, and when they relate the same occurrence, each man relates those parts of it which he saw himself, and which impressed him most. This agreement of independent writers is the more remarkable, as the writers were persons of various degrees of education, of different professions and ranks of life, born in different countries and writing from various places in Italy, Greece, Palestine and Assyria, without any communication with each other. Matthew was a tax collector in the province of Galilee; Mark, a Hebrew citizen of Jerusalem; Luke, a Greek physician of Antioch; James and John owned and sailed a fishing boaton Lake Tiberias; Jude left his home and shop in Galilee in order to preach the gospel; college-bred Paul cast his parchments and popularity aside, carried his sturdy independence in his breast, and his sail needles in his pocket, and dictated epistles and cut out jib sails and awnings in the tent factory of "Aquila, Paul & Co.," at Corinth; several of Paul's letters were written in a dungeon at Rome; the last of Peter's is dated at Babylon; Matthew's gospel was penned at Jerusalem, and John's gospels and epistles were written at Ephesus. The agreement of eight such witnesses, of different pursuits, and so scattered over the world, in relation to the same story is a convincing: proof of its veracity.
The manner in which the Apostles published their testimony to the world, bears every mark of truthfulness. Strong in the consciousness of right, they dared to assert that Jesus had risen from the dead, in the very streets of the city where he was crucified—in the temple, the most public place of resort of the Jews who saw him crucified—and to the teeth of the very men who put him to death. "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hung on a tree. Him that God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins. And we are His witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost which God hath given to them that obey him" (Acts. v, 30). Had Paul been conscious that he was relating falsehood, would he have dared to appeal to the judge, before whom hewas on trial for his life, as one who knew the notoriety of these facts? "For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner" (Acts xxvi, 26).
The boldness of their preaching, however, is little, compared with the boldness of their design, which was nothing less than to convert the world. The heathens never dreamed of such a thing. The Jews were so indignant at the project, that when Paul hinted it to them, they cried, "Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live" (Acts xxii, 22).
It is remarkable, that while in addressing the Saints, the apostles rarely allude to their power of working miracles (fourteen of the epistles make no allusion to apostolic miracles), but dwell on the subject of a holy life. Yet they never hesitate to confront a Simon Magus, or a schismatical church at Corinth, or a persecuting high priest and sanhedrim with this power of the Holy Ghost.
Read the story of the miraculous healing of the poor, lame beggar, who laid at the gate of the temple, as recorded in the third and fourth chapters of Acts. Who ever heard of an impostor standing up before the tribunal of his judges, and pleading his cause in the following manner, "If we this day be examined of the good deed done unto the impotent man, by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christof Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand before you whole." Such an appeal was unanswerable. "Beholding the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it." Nay, they were compelled to acknowledge, "That indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem—we cannot deny it."
The denial of the miracles of the gospel is a modern invention. The Scribes and priests, emperors and philosophers of the first century, who had the best opportunity of proving their falsehood, were unable to do so. Why, then, it may be asked, did they not all become Christians? Because a miracle cannot convert a man against his will. The religion of the gospel is not merely a belief in miracles, but the love of Christ and a life in conformity with His commands.
The labors and sufferings of the apostles themselves furnish strong proof of the facts of gospel history. To preach another king, one Jesus, to the Romans, was to bring down the power of the empire upon them. Nothing could be more absurd in the eyes of Grecian philosophers, than to speak of the resurrection of the body. Nor could any plan be devised more certain to arouse the fury of the pagan priesthood than to denounce that by which they had their wealth. The most degraded wretch who perishes on the scaffold is not more contemptible in our eyes than the crucified Redeemer was to the Jewish and Roman peoples.
What, then, could induce any men in their senses to stem the tide of such opposition if they were manufacturing falsehoods to gain popularity and power. The religion they preached was not adapted to please sensual men; even infidels admit that they preached a pure morality. No provision was made for making money by their preaching. One of their first acts was to cause the church to elect deacons who might manage its money matters, and allow the apostles to give themselves wholly to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts vi, 2-5). Twenty-five years after they could appeal to the world that, "Even to this present hour, we (the apostles), both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place, and labor, working with our hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day" (I. Cor. iv, 11-13).
The New Testament opens with the story of the Savior's birth in a stable, with the manger for his cradle, and one of its last pictures, is that of His venerable apostle chained in a dungeon, and begging his friend to bring his old cloak from Troas, and to do his diligence to come before Winter (II. Tim. iv chap.).
Unpopular and penniless, if the gospel story were not true, how could it have had preachers? When Paul was changed from a persecutor to a disciple, behold the prospect the Savior presents to him, "I will show himhow great things he must suffer for mysake." Paul declares, "The Holy Ghost testifieth that in every city bonds and afflictions abide me. Yet none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course with joy" (Acts xx, 23, 24). In another place he adds, "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day T have been in the deep: in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness" (II. Cor. xi, 24-27).
Man can give no higher proof of his veracity, save to seal his testimony with his blood. This the apostles did. All, except John, suffered martyrdom for the truth of the gospel.