schemes of men when we are persuaded that they find their commencement in the hearts of the renowned benefactors of their race; when they are suggested by the combined wisdom, benevolence and patriotism of philosophers, statesmen and sages. We then rest assured that such schemes are not the result of hasty, ill-conceived and absurd dreams, but that they are sustained by the abilities and experience of the most eminent of men. But how infinitely exalted above every other paternity is the religion of the Bible! Its author is God; and as he sits upon the throne of the universe, his eternal mind devises and completes the sublime scheme of love and power which is recorded on the sacred page. From that exalted birthplace this religion emanated, and traveling downward from the heights of heaven, it has gone forth to bless and to redeem a fallen world, bearing in its every feature the impress of its sublime original.

The co-operation of nature and providence with the declarations of Scripture, augments the adaptation of this religion to universal diffusion. If the God of the Bible is also the God of nature, the scheme promulgated by the one will be accordant with the movements of the other. Both will be made subservient to the promotion of the same great end. Hence, in examining the history of Christianity, we discover that it has often been furthered and promoted by the divinely ordered assistance of Providence; whereby the events which transpired in the world and the church have been so directed as to promote the success and the triumphs of the truth. The kings of the earth have supposed that their enterprises and edicts have only accorded with their own selfish purposes; but God has often turned their hearts as the rivers of water are turned. The enemies of the Gospel have proudly resisted the will of Heaven; but in the end, God has made the wrath of man

to praise him. Statesmen and heroes have imagined, that in all their schemes of ambition and glory, they have been acting without constraint in the promotion of their own plans and interests; but the ordering of the lot was decided by God. Men have wondered at the termination of conflicts and the revolution of empires; but the Christian has often discerned the secret devices of heaven, whereby all these things have been made to advance, and that often, unconsciously, the great, sovereign and supreme purpose for which they and all things were made-the glory of God and the salvation of men.

success.

God, the author of this religion, is infinitely wise; nor is it possible for any scheme originating in so much wisdom, and sustained by so much intelligence, to fail of eventual This attribute of the Divine mind exhibits itself in the exhaustless resources which it suggests, in the deep acquaintance with the human heart, and the profound knowledge of all things, past, present and future, which is displayed in conducting forward its destinies. If human enterprises often fail, not because they are not wisely originated, or are not based on truth and justice, but because the resources and energies of those who were commissioned to carry forward their completion, were inadequate to the demands of the case, no such danger can beset or impede that religion of which God is not only the author, but the sworn defender and support.

The aid of the Holy Spirit is also directly promised, as the crowning surety and completion of the means which hasten forward the universal extension of Christianity. If that Divine spirit be indeed promised-which no one acquainted with the Bible will deny-it will in itself be sufficiently potent to secure that end. "It is not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit," saith the Lord, that this glorious enterprise is to be achieved. He that planteth is

nothing, he that watereth is nothing, for it is God that giveth the increase. The risen and triumphant Saviour promised his disciples "the comforter, the spirit of truth; he shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine and show it unto you." He shall convince the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment. It is the Spirit of God which shall call the four winds to breathe upon the slain that they may live; and the spirit shall prophesy, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord; and they shall come together, bone to his bone, shall be covered with sinews and with flesh, and shall stand upon their feet, an exceeding great army. But the truths of the Bible are diffused and esteemed throughout the heaven of heavens; shall they not be so also throughout this diminutive world? They are preached by the farechoing voices of angels and archangels in that upper sanctuary, while the sound is confirmed by every twinkling star which sparkles in the diadem of night. Thus, too, these truths are confirmed and preached by every voice in nature around us; all things, animate and inanimate, applaud and approve them; and wherever the hand of God has poured out an ocean, or built up a mountain, or touched even a flower into being, there his preached word will find willing witnesses to establish and enforce it. Thus, indeed, will all things that are in heaven, and on earth, and that are under the earth, be made to contribute to the propagation of that truth of which its Author has himself declared, it shall one day fill the earth as the waters fill the mighty deep.

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CHAPTER X.

THE CONSISTENCY OF THE BIBLE VINDICATED.

THE objection is frequently urged by Modern Infidelity against the Bible, that, by the exercise of considerable ingenuity, it may be made to teach anything. Some show of plausibility in favor of this assertion is adduced from the variety of opinions which prevail among men, which are professedly drawn from the Sacred Volume. When surveying the Christian world, and taking into view the diversity of opinions which is deduced from this one single source; when observing that the most opposite and contradictory systems are based on the Bible; and that the defenders of these discordant systems all alike appeal, with the greatest apparent confidence, to this same authority, and claim its dicta in support of their irreconcilable dogmas; taking all these things into view, an inexperienced observer might be disposed to concede the truth of the objection.

Now if the Bible can be made to teach anything, it can be made to teach nothing at all; or else to teach falsehoods; for truth is one, and cannot be separated. If the Bible, then, can be legitimately made to teach what is contradictory, one portion of its instructions at least must be false; and if so, the Divine origin and authority of the book fall to the ground. But the position that the Bible can be made to teach anything, is absurd, and contradicts itself; for if this be true, we can prove by it that the Bible

is consistent. We can show, by it, if it can prove anything, that it does not prove anything.

This objection is an infidel and blasphemous one. It is often urged by professed free-thinkers; at other times by certain lax Christians, whose Christianity is a miserably stunted abortion, who had in truth far better renounce all claims to religious principles whatever. We hold that the Word of God when properly interpreted, presents one consistent and harmonious whole; that it possesses an identitatem essentialem; that the same substance pervades both the Old and New Testaments; that this substance comprises all that the Bible contains, excepting its mere language, style and arrangement; and that the existence of the various contradictory systems which exist in the world may all be accounted for by appropriate causes, which are entirely independent of the Bible, and for which it is not in the least degree responsible. The objectors now in question assert, that in proportion as any number of men intently study the Bible or any portion of it, in the same degree they will gradually differ in their understandings of it. Mathematical truth, on the contrary, they affirm has this superiority over professed revelation, that the more men study it the more they will harmonize. Thus for instance, a whole college of savans might examine for an age the proposition that the sum of any two sides of a triangle is greater than the third side; or the theorem, the square of the hypothenuse is equal to the squares of the other two sides; and they would never differ in their conceptions of these two truths. But the more men study the Bible, the more variety, difference and discordance will gradually arise in their sentiments. We shall endeavor to account for this difference, and the tendencies or causes which produce it.