COMPANION TO THE BIBLE.

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EVIDENCES OF REVEALED RELIGION.

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CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

I. The Christian religion is not a mere system of ideas, like the philosophy of Plato or Aristotle.  It rests on a basis of historic facts.  The great central fact of the gospel is thus expressed by Jesus himself:  “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 3:16; and by the apostle Paul thus:  “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” 1 Tim. 1:15.  With the appearance of God’s Son in human nature were connected a series of mighty works, a body of divine teachings, the appointment of apostles and the establishment of the visible Christian church; all which are matters of historic record.

Nor is this all.  It is the constant doctrine of Christ and his apostles that he came in accordance with the scriptures of the Old Testament, and that his religion is the fulfilment of the types and prophecies therein contained:  “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:  I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”  Matt. 5:17.  “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning me.”  Luke 24:44.  The facts of the New Testament connect themselves, therefore, immediately with those of the Old, so that the whole series constitutes an indivisible whole.  The Bible is, from beginning to end, the record of a supernatural revelation made by God to men.  As such, it embraces not only supernatural teachings, but supernatural facts also; and the teachings rest on the facts in such a way that both must stand or fall together.

II.  This basis of supernatural facts, then, must be firmly maintained against unbelievers whose grand aim is to destroy the historic foundation of the gospel, at least so far as it contains supernatural manifestations of God to men.  Thus they would rob it of its divine authority, and reduce it to a mere system of human doctrines, like the teachings of Socrates or Confucius, which men are at liberty to receive or reject as they think best.  Could they accomplish this, they would be very willing to eulogize the character of Jesus, and extol the purity and excellence of his precepts.  Indeed, it is the fashion of modern unbelievers, after doing what lies in their power to make the gospel a mass of “cunningly-devised fables” of human origin, to expatiate on the majesty and beauty of the Saviour’s character, the excellence of his moral precepts, and the benign influence of his religion.  But the transcendent glory of our Lord’s character is inseparable from his being what he claimed to be—­the Son of God, coming from God to men with supreme authority; and all the power of his gospel lies in its being received as a message from God.  To make the gospel human, is to annihilate it, and with it the hope of the world.