EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. Christianity is the religion growing out of a divine revelation the giving of which, in successive stages, extended from a remote period in the past to about one hundred years after the birth of Jesus Christ. From the beginning of the revelation to the present time it has been engaged in severe con flicts with the mightiest forces, and with whatever immediate outward result, it has maintained its hold on the human mind and has advanced in power. Thus the conflicts themselves become important factors in the strength of the evidences by which the authority of the revelation is upheld. 1. Moses, as a bearer of a part of the revelation, was brought into conflict with the Egyptians and inflicted on them, instrumentally, with out human help, judgments and sufferings, the result of which was the deliverance of the Israelites from bondage, and the memorial of which is the Passover, instituted at the time and observed to this day by the Jews scattered over the world. 2. Moses came also into conflict with the barrenness of the wilderness, in providing for the sustenance of the Israelites, and with their turbulence and rebellion during their sojourn and wan derings there. The memorials of these conflicts are the wilderness itself, the law given there, and the Pentateuch written there. 3. Having traversed the wilderness, Moses, Joshua, and Israel were involved in a conflict with the nations of Canaan, on both sides of the river Jordan, the result of which was the conquest of the laud; and the memo rial of it is the land itself, illustrated by the book of Joshua, which (as has been said) bears a relation to Palestine as conquered by the Israelites, similar to that which dooms day book bears to England as conquered by the Normans. 4. Passing by minor con flicts between the Jews and the nations around them, we take notice of the great expe dition of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, against them, and of its overwhelming defeat; to both which events the harmonious witnesses are the written records of the Jews and the sculptured records of Sennacherib. 5. Nebuchadnezzar, king -of Babylon, deso lated the land of Canaan, destroyed Jerusalem, burned the temple, and carried the Jews captive. The result of this judgment was their deliverance from idolatry, and the memorial of it is the book of Daniel with its splendid prophecies. O. Cyrus, the con queror of Babylon, might also have overwhelmed the Jews, but having been shown the prophecy of Isaiah, written 150 years before, in which he was mentioned by name and his success foretold, his spirit was stirred up to restore them to their own land. The memorials of the restoration were the temple rebuilded at Jerusalem and the synagogues erected throughout the land. 7. Alexander, in his rapid career of conquest, appeared before Jerusalem in anger against the Jews because they placed obstacles in his way. But when he was shown the prophecies of Daniel concerning the king of Grecia who was to conquer Persia, his anger giving way to joy, he treated the Jews kindly and placed many of them in the new cities that he built. Memorials of his change of feel ing towards them were furnished by Jewish synagogues built in the Greek cities and the Jewish Scriptures translated into the Greek tongue. 8. Antiochus the great, one of Alexander's successors, seized Jerusalem and desecrated the temple by offering heathen sacrifices therein, His course awakened the zeal of the Jews and imparted new life and purity to their religion. A memorial of this reformation was furnished by the restora tion of royal government to the Jews. 9. The Romans next obtained entrance into Jerusa lem and established their power over the land. For a time they gave regal and vice-regal authority to Herod and his successors. Afterwards they made Judea a province and con tinued to hold it until, on the revolt of the Jews, they destroyed the city and the temple, and sold the inhabitants as slaves. In the midst of this Roman domination the crown ing event of human history occurred—THE ADVENT OF JESUS CHRIST THE SON OF GOD; and the still-enduring memorials of it are Jerusalem trodden down by the Gentiles and the going forth out of it of Christianity, strictly so called, unaided by physical power, to gain possession of the world. 10. Its first conflict, in this form, was sustained by Jesus himself against the chief forces of the Jews among whom he came. His visible power consisted in a holy and unselfish life, in words of instruction surpassing all that men have ever spoken, and in beneficent works transcending all that have ever wrought. The first result of this conflict was, apparently, his defeat by the Jews, for, aided by the Romans, they accomplished the death of Jesus and his burial in a sealed and guarded tomb. But the conflict was renewed by his followers, who offered themselves as witnesses of his resurrection and produced conviction in the minds of thousands of Jews. while also they aroused hostility in the hearts of many others. As the preaching of "Jesus and the resurrection" spread into other cities and lands, the conflict with Jews was continued, producing, as before, conviction in many minds and also hostility in many hearts. And to this day, Christianity and the Jews are arrayed against each
other in many lands. 11. Its next conflict was with heathenism in union with the state. Proclaimed, almost immediately, as a gospel for the nations, it was opposed by the adherents of all idolatrous religions rallying against it as a common enemy, and by the governing classes, whose jurisdiction in religious matters (as they thought) it usurped. Yet it prevailed from city to city and from land to land. Heathen temples were almost deserted, and the fires of sacrifice on their altars went out. Trophies of the victory were furnished by the acts and writings of the apostles, by the planting and growth of churches, the joyful death of martyrs, the courage of confessors, and the argumentative defenses of learned men. If at the moment of triumph, in the council of Nieces, the presence of the emperor Constantine—assuming, in some sense, to be the head of the assembly—was a fatal mistake, introduced from the heathenism which he had as yet scarcely left, let it not be forgotten that many of the bishops who rose 'to receive him were marked with bodily mutilations or scars, the tokens of their fidelity to Christ. • 12. The next conflict of Christianity was with phi losophy. While it contended only with Jewish and idolatrous rites, philosophers treated it with contempt and easily remained ignorant concerning it. But in its advance it awakened the hostility of Celsus, Porphyry, and others, who attacked it as false and mischievous; and, on the other hand, Justin Martyr, its first great defender among un inspired men, wore a philosopher's robe. From this point forward Christianity continued to be opposed by many in the ranks of philosophers and to be corrupted by the admix ture with it of the philosophic prevalent around it. 13. Christianity con tended, also, with barbarism rude and strong. In the ages that followed the inroad of the northern tribes on Rome this religion was the only power that held them in check, tempering their fierceness and finally subduing them to the obedience of faith. Yet here also, as in its contests with Judaism, paganism, and philosophy, it was itself cor rupted by admixture with the opinions and habits of those who received it. 14. Its next great conflict was with Mohammedanism. The Saracens were overrunning Chris tendom with the sword and the Koran from the east and south, but in the west the bar barians who had become Christians broke their power and poured the forces of Europe upon the Holy Land. And from those times to the present the "eastern question," in some form, has arrayed Christian Europe against Mohammedan rule. 15. The next great conflict was in Christendom itself. The corruptions which had been introduced from they worldly power of Rome, from heathen idolatries, philosophic opinions, and barbarian superstitions, accumulated and grew until Christianity became, in many respects, a baptized heathenism. But from itself, through the teaching of the recovered Scriptures, its own reformation was commenced and was followed by a conflict more extended and severe than any which had been waged against it before. And after more than three centuries and a half this conflict has not ceased. 16. Its next conflict, partly occasioned by the errors of Romanism and greatly aggravated by them, has been with infidelity in various forms. The Italian infidels of the 16th c. wero witnesses against themselves by their hypocrisy and vice; the English infidels of the 17th and 18th centuries were driven back by many earnest writers; the French infidels of the 18th c. hastening on the revolution and greatly increasing its honors, condemned their own religious errors by their political crimes; the German infidels of the 19th c., striving to dissolve Christianity into fable by the power of criticism, have left its foundations as solid as before. 17. The great conflict of Christianity in the present cen tury is with the gigaptic fordes of modern heathenism. Having commenced the work in the closing years of the last century, it has ever since steadily advanced with wiser counsel, more deliberate purpose, more thorough work, more liberal expenditure, and more enlarged success, to the overthrow of all false religions. A system of religion which has been contending so long against all these mighty forces; whose progress can be traced throng-1i 3,800 years, from the point where one man held its revelation as a promise of blessing for all the world, to the present time, in which millions enjoying the blessing themselves are pressing on the fulfillment among all nations—that system of religion must have more than human strength, it must be from God. The evidences by which its divine origin is established are co-extensive with human observation, thought, and history. A portion of them may be classified as follows: