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do His will? These are questions which come home to the human heart, and touch its deepest interests. But revelation only can give to them a distinct and conclusive answer. Nothing which nature suggests could assure us that everything that affects us is an object of interest to the Eternal God, and that He listens to the feeblest breathings of the heart that turns to Him with reverence, and trust, and love.

But, more especially, the dark mystery of the prevalence of moral evil throughout our world needs, for its solution, much more than Natural Theology can supply. We can, indeed, understand that sin originated in the revolt of the creaturely will against the authority of God; but there are many questions connected with its wide and universal diffusion with which the human mind cannot, of itself, grapple. And when the conscience is oppressed with the sense of personal guilt, the inquiry becomes one of awful interest, Can sin be pardoned, and its penal consequences be arrested? To this question nature returns no satisfactory answer,—none, at least, that can give confidence or even a lively hope to the troubled mind. In this life the consequences of evil actions are often irreversible: no tears of penitence can wash out the stains of guilt, no remorse can undo the effects of wrong and injurious conduct. And had we no disclosure of a Divine scheme of mercy, providing for the upholding of the essential principles of the Divine government, and yet welcoming the return of the sinner who is willing to abandon and confess his sins, a dark and impenetrable cloud must have rested upon the position and prospects of the guilty and polluted. But here the Christian revelation comes in to banish our gloom, and to open to us the path of life. While it pours a flood of light on many other subjects which Natural Theology only imperfectly sets forth, or in reference to which it leaves us in painful suspense, it is especially precious as unfolding to us the mediatorial scheme, and assuring us of the readiness of God to pardon, and sanctify, and save, all who come in penitence and faith to the Incarnate Son.

PART II.

THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION: ITS

GENERAL CHARACTER AND LEADING EVIDENCES.

CHAPTER I.

CHRISTIANITY AN HISTORICAL RELIGION-ITS CREDENTIALS.

CHRI

ITS RELATION TO PREPARATORY SYSTEMS.

YHRISTIANITY is essentially an historical religion. Its truths, its promises, its hopes, all gather round the Person and work of the LORD JESUS CHRIST; its precepts are enforced by His authority; and its institutions rest on His declared will. He claims to be the Anointed of God, the Revealer of the Father, the Lawgiver and Sovereign of the Mediatorial kingdom, and the Arbiter of the eternal destinies of men. He claims to be the INCARNATE SON OF GOD, and the Saviour of mankind. The question, then, which now arises is, How are these lofty claims attested?

The appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ among men, and the great facts of His life, and ministry, and death, and resurrection, are established by the most conclusive historical evidence. It would be more reasonable to doubt that Julius Cæsar ever lived, or that William the Conqueror invaded England and became its sovereign, than that the Lord Jesus lived upon this earth. The former of the persons now referred to largely influenced the destinies of Rome; and the success of the latter has left its impress on all the subsequent history of our country. But the life and death of Jesus have influenced, and to a large extent moulded, the history of our race from the time of His appearance. The facts of His earthly career are recorded in our four Gospels, to which we now appeal simply as historical records, the genuineness and authenticity of which are established by evidence similar to that by which the genuineness of other

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