"For myself I still live and doubt. You know I can't believe everything.
There are so many things hard to believe--I can't see them."
So wrote an honest, intelligent young man, who was standing on the verge
of infidelity. Nor is he alone in his doubts. Many persons will not
accept the Bible on account of its mysteries _or miracles_. To doubt
seems to be as natural as to believe. Sir Wm. Hamilton says:
"Philosophers have been unanimous in making doubt the first step in
philosophy." When Paul says, "Prove all things," he tells us doubt a
thing until it is tested. To doubt is not necessarily a fault, but to
continue in doubt is blameworthy. If we are doubtful about a thing it is
our duty as intelligent beings to examine the testimony concerning it,
and so end our doubt. But shall we reject a thing because it is hard to
believe? If the Bible had nothing in it hard to comprehend we would not
be likely to accept it as divine in its origin; because the mind that
comprehends a matter is no more limited, in regard to that matter, than
the mind that conceived it. Consequently, if we could comprehend
everything in the Bible there would be no divinity of infinite
attributes about it to contrast with the limited powers of human nature.
Its miracles are proof of its divine origin.
If you leave the Bible, to what will you go? Are all things hard to
believe in the Bible? Does a man's believing power rest upon flowery
beds of ease in the teaching of infidelity? In the so-called realms of
free-thought is there nothing hard to believe? Will it no more be said
that--
"Not a truth has to art or to science been given,
But brows have ached for it, and souls toiled and striven?"
Rejecting the Bible, you must either accept Deism or Atheism. Deism
admits the existence of a God of infinite power and intelligence. A
Deist need have no trouble in believing a miracle. The question with him
is not, can God work miracles, and thereby reveal himself to man, but
has he done it. Reason teaches us that intelligent design characterizes
every act of God. Which theory ascribes the more intelligence to
God--the Deist's or the Christian's?
It is universally conceded that man has a worshiping nature. This is
evinced by the almost universal idolatry of past ages. Would an act of
wisdom reveal to man the true object of worship? Man has a conscience
which smites him for his wrong doing, and approves him for his well
doing. Would wisdom and love tell him what is right? Or would such
attributes allow him to remain in ignorance of his duties? Man has a
desire for eternal life; would Deity prepare a place of happiness for
him and not reveal the fact to him, that he might better prepare for it,
and enjoy the hope of it? Man has a desire for the knowledge of his
origin, and for a knowledge of the attributes of his God; would an
intelligent being create him with these desires and refuse to gratify
them?
Surely there are some things in Deism hard to believe. Deism allows that
man has in his nature this empty bucket, which is not to be filled
during his stay in this world, _if it shall ever be_! Nor are these all
the hard things which Deists ask me to believe. He wishes me to believe
that the history of the Nazarene is legendary, that he was a fanatical
enthusiast. Some Deists have refused to believe so hard a thing as this.
Yet I am asked to believe, in addition to this, that he, Christ, "has
become," as Renan says, "the corner-stone of humanity so entirely, that
to tear his name from the world would be to rend it to its foundations."
I am asked, also, to believe, with Renan, the prince of Deists, that,
"Whatever may be the surprises of the future, Jesus will never be
surpassed. His worship will grow young without ceasing; his legend will
call forth tears without end; his sufferings will melt the noblest
hearts; all ages will proclaim that among the sons of men there is none
born greater than Jesus." I am asked, with this same Renan, to "place
the person of Jesus on the highest summit of human grandeur." Is it not
hard to believe all this about Jesus, and at the same time believe that
he gave to the world a false religion? Truly there are many things hard
to believe--"_I can't see them!_"
I can not believe that "the passion of an hallucinated woman gave to the
world a resurrected God." I can not believe that his legend was the
fruit of a great, altogether spontaneous conspiracy. A conspiracy
implies conspirators; and I can not believe that the apostles were such
outrageous fools as to make a conspiracy, and work so zealously in it,
and cling so firmly to it, when it promised nothing but stripes,
imprisonments, hunger, nakedness, and death. Neither can I believe that
these unlearned Galilean fishermen had the ability in themselves to
concoct a conspiracy that would, and did, deceive nearly the whole
civilized world. Nor can I believe that an ignorant, deluded Nazarene
founded a religion that has held the attention of the thoughtful of all
ages. He that refuses to believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, along with
the claims of the Bible, has many more and greater difficulties in
accounting for the existence of Christianity. It is here, and its
existence is the greatest miracle man has ever witnessed. To deny its
divinity only increases its wonderfulness. We can not have an effect
without an adequate cause. It is hard to believe that humanity is an
adequate cause of Christianity. For eighteen centuries it has been
living and acting; persecuted by enemies without, and torn and betrayed
by enemies within; oppressed by government, and corrupted by Popes and
priests; shorn of its grandeur and glory by paganism; its spirituality
crippled by stripes and animosities; its fervid love and deep piety
replaced, to a great extent, by policy; its rites and ceremonies changed
by councils; yet, it continues a monumental proof of the divinity of its
glorious founder. Rescued from the wreck of the Dark Ages by Luther and
others, it commends itself more and more to every reflecting mind as the
only living religion of the present and future. Deliver me from the
credulity that believes that such a wonderful soul-redeeming institution
had its origin in the passion of a crazy woman or the conspiracy of a
few ignorant fishermen.