Nothing in these days is taken for granted. In science, philosophy, politics, and religion, the foundations of belief are fearlessly examined, and the facilities for the process are unprecedented. Criticism has new and improved instruments, and they are extensively used—often misused. It concerns us especially to know how far our religious institutions are being affected.

Have devout men, during the three thousand years which history chronicles, been under a delusion in believing that "there is a spirit in man, and the Almighty giveth him understanding"?

Is popular Christianity "wide of the truth, and a disfigurement of the truth," as an eminent writer the other day asserted? Such questions float in our literature and find their way into our homes and our sanctuaries.Although no importance is to be attached to the reckless assertion that the outworks of Evangelical Religion are in danger, and that the very citadel itself is not impregnable, it is undoubtedly true that its modern adversaries—reputable and otherwise—are bold, active, and skilful, and there is need that its defenders should be alert and vigilant. It will not do to rely altogether on the defensive lines and tactics of our predecessors. Each generation has the stronghold entrusted to its care, and new appliances are, from time to time, required to resist novel as well as resuscitated modes of assault.

However certain be the ultimate triumph of His cause whose right it is to reign, the rate of its progress depends upon the faithfulness and heroism of His servants at their various posts of labour and conflict.

To change the figure. The mirror which reflects Divine truth has to be preserved and kept bright by human instrumentality. Superstition, in the murky atmosphere of sacerdotalism, clouds it; by false philosophy it is liable to be dimmed; while crude science or unsound criticism, removing the silver lining to make the glass more transparent, makes it useless. He does well who is able to act as its conservator, and in some measure cleanse the surface, that obscurity may be removed and eternal truth discerned.

I am aware that, as a rule, it is not desirable that hostile literature should be helped into notoriety, and that believers should be troubled with exploded fallacies and disturbed by arguments against the truth as it is in Jesus a hundred times answered.

As Robert Hall justly remarks:—"It is degrading to the dignity of a revelation, established through a succession of ages by indubitable proofs, to be adverting every moment to the hypothesis of its being an imposture, and to be inviting every ignorant sophist to wrangle about the title, when we should be cultivating the possession."

But there are exceptions to every rule, and as I am not addressing a promiscuous audience, but the members of a society whose rule is to discuss all subjects without limitation, I venture to think I am justified in bringing under your notice a recent heterodox book which is so well written as to be likely to mislead if it be not neutralized. And the more so, if I can make the author not only answer himself, but other writers whose anti-Christian arguments are not put forth anonymously, but with the authority of well-known names and much reputation in the world of letters and science.

Let me further premise that the Christian is occupying an exceptional position when he descends to the neutral level of the sceptic to discuss the internal evidences of Evangelical truth. His usual privileged abode is more favourable for the survey than the lower ground, for the light is brighter and the air clearer on the mountain heights where he is wont to contemplate religious matters, than on the plain where faith has no temple, and reason, ignoring Divine influence, operates with the carnal instruments of a negative creed. To appeal to the spiritual discernment of a disbeliever in Divine illumination would be like expecting a man who is not of the mystical craft of the Masonic brotherhood to use the signs (if such there be) of a Freemason. Yet the argument in defence of the reality of Divine revelation is not complete without a reference to that "Spirit of Truth" which Jesus Christ promised to send "to testify of him," and to "bring all things to the remembrance" of those disciples who were to "bear witness, because they had been with him from the beginning."[1]

A good cause may be injured by injudicious and feeble advocacy, but I trust I am not presumptuously meddling with a theme which only an erudite scholar and theologian should deal with. I beg you to bear in mind, however, that if I or others fail in the contest for truth, there still will remain the indubitable proofs of Divine revelation in all their variety and superabundance.

Although the ability, scholarship, and research displayed in this anti-Christian work are considerable, I doubt if it has really much in it that is original. The author has only cleverly reproduced and rearranged the anti-Christian arguments, chiefly German,[2] which are to be found in the library of the British Museum.

The "Examiner" says, in regard to three-fourths of the work, "It is neither more nor less than a digest of recent German speculation on the date and authorship of the Gospels; devoid of originality, and infected with the verbosity and repetition of the authorities on which it is based."In the other notices of the work which have appeared so far, it has, I think, been somewhat over-estimated.

The "Fortnightly Review" writes of it: "It is not too much to say of the two volumes before us that they are by far the most decisive, trenchant, and far-reaching of the direct contributions to theological controversy that have been made in this generation."

The "AthenÆum" says: "The book proceeds from a man of ability, a scholar, and reasoner, who writes like an earnest seeker after truth, and knows well all the German and Dutch books relating to the criticism of the New Testament, as well as the English ones."

The "Westminster Review" asserts that "no more formidable assailant of orthodoxy could well be imagined."

The "Spectator" designates it a "masterly but prejudiced examination of the evidences for the antiquity of the Christian Scriptures."

"The Literary World" says: "This is, beyond all question, an important book. The one grand pervading fault we find with it is its partisanship. The writer plays the part of special pleader against what he calls Ecclesiastical Christianity, and fails to represent what could be said on the other side. It is a partisan production, a piece of clever, ingenious, plausible, special pleading. The author has got up his case with marvellous exclusiveness. He makes it an absolute rule, so far as we perceive, to regard his opponents as having no case at all."

The quarterly reviews, "Edinburgh," "Quarterly," and "British Quarterly," have not yet pronounced an opinion on its merits.

My purpose is to show that the author of this anonymous work has not been successful in accomplishing the two things he has attempted, viz., to prove the incredibility of miracles by—

First, a recast of the often-exploded syllogistic fallacies of Hume; and, secondly, by an elimination of the miraculous from the Gospels; but that he has been successful, without intending it, in showing that Supernatural Religion rests upon substantial contemporary evidence.

The work consists of three parts. The first is upon miracles, treating the subject as an abstract question. The second, upon the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). The third, upon the Fourth Gospel. And there is a summary of the supposed results of the reasoning and the investigation. The inference arrived at is premature, for as the New Testament does not consist only of the four Gospels, but contains other writings of equal importance, the argument is incomplete, and the latter will have to be dealt with before our author can reasonably expect any reader to entertain his anti-miraculous hypothesis. Another volume is promised, but we may safely venture to anticipate that it will prove no more formidable than the other great waves of scepticism which have surged against, but have not undermined, the rock upon which our faith is built.