78

DEAN MANSEL ON EVIDENCES.

And yet one more remark I will make connected with the subject. Dean Mansel says, in his Bampton Lectures, (p. 238,) "The crying evil of the present day in religious controversy is the neglect or contempt of the external evidences of Christianity. The first steps towards the establishment of a sound religious philosophy must consist in the restoration of those evidences to their true place in the theological system." If we are fully convinced in our own mind of the historical truth of the facts recorded in the New Testament, of the mighty works, and especially of the resurrection from the dead of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, which proclaims Him beyond doubt to be the very Son of God, why should we ever consent to argue the question of our religion or of any question connected with it on a merely philosophical basis? why should we rest upon a mere probability when we have the sure and certain FACTS to rest on? why care for the philosophy of natural religion when we have the sure testimony of God's own revelation? I do not say that we are not to view the Christian religion from various stand-points. Still we should never let go the certain evidence which GOD has given us in the recorded facts of the life, and death, and resurrection of our LORD JESUS CHRIST. For instance, if sceptics question the fact or the mode of the creation of this visible

THE WORDS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE.

79

world, we need no more than to quote the first words of the Bible, "In the beginning GOD created the heaven and the earth," confirmed as they are by our LORD's own declaration respecting "the creation which GOD hath created."1 If others bring forward their intolerable nonsense about man being descended from an ape, we have but to refer to the words of Scripture in which it is declared that GOD created man "in His own image, in the image of GOD created He him.” Or if any deny the resurrection of the dead, we have but to refer to the words of our LORD Himself, "I am the resurrection and the life, saith the LORD; he that believeth in Me though he were dead yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."

What need have we of any further argument, when we have the express word of God Himself?

1 S. Mark xiii. 19.

CHAPTER VIII.

ARGUMENT RESPECTING MAN'S RESPONSIBILITY.-EXTREME CREDULITY OF UNBELIEVERS.-THEIR UNHAPPY STATE.

RESPONSIBILITY for our actions is one of those truths which rest not only on revelation but on the common understanding of mankind. It requires no proof from revelation to teach us that man fearfully and wonderfully made, could not have made himself, nor placed himself upon the earth which he inhabits. He is too complicated a piece of machinery to have come by chance— too weak and feeble to have been his own maker. It manifestly required the intervention of some higher power to have devised and constructed such a being-and to have endowed him with a moral will and power of reason.

But then for what purpose was man created? why did GoD place him in this world? It cannot be supposed that the Great Being who created man had no special object but the exercise of His own ingenuity. He must surely have had some design-some object-in so wondrous a mani

REWARD AND PUNISHMENT.

81

festation of His power and wisdom. What could be the object of God but that man should live to His glory, and use the power which God had given him in His service? Reason itself must teach us that we were placed on this earth, amidst its wonderful environments, that we should serve and glorify the GOD who made us.

Such being, as it is absurd to doubt, the object of man's creation, it is further obvious that GoD would take notice whether the creatures of His hand answered the object of their creation-that He would encourage and reward those who obey His laws, and punish those who disregard them. In fact, we see even in this world many plain evidences of GOD's wrath against sin, in the diseases and suffering which follow evil living-the misery, disgrace, and ruin which are the result of vice, and on the other hand, the peace of mind and general happiness which accompany virtue. No doubt there are exceptions to the rule. We see good people sometimes depressed, and the bad for a while triumphant. The impunity of many great offenders, and the suffering of GOD's saints show us that there must be another world in which the irregularities and imperfections of the present state of things will be corrected, and strict and equal justice awarded. All this, I say, is evident to our common understanding and our sense of right and wrong.

G

82

FUTURE RETRIBUTION

But God has not left the evidence of these momentous truths solely to the dictates of our reason and moral sense. It was reserved for the coming of the SON of GOD in the flesh to make a distinct revelation of a future state of retribution in another world, accompanied by such evidences as could not be gainsaid. When God desired to reveal to man the knowledge of His truth, could He possibly, so far as we can discern, have taken means more clearly to inform, and more effectually to convince him of it-than sending His own beloved SoN into the world, to Whom His most secret counsels were well known, armed with such miraculous powers as attested beyond a doubt that He was a messenger sent from GOD, fulfilling prophecies long before delivered concerning Him, Who, on the ground of this authority, should declare to man the certainty that there would be a resurrection and a judgment; and as a proof of the possibility of a resurrection, should Himself rise from the grave, and should commission the Evangelists and Apostles to write the account of all His deeds and sayings in the Gospel, and go forth and preach the truth which He taught them to all the nations of the earth, and that they again should, by His command, commission others after them, who should, to the end of time, declare to men these great truths, amongst which, one of the chief is, that there