34. Q. Among the means which God appointed to disseminate his truth throughout the world, what holds a first and important place? A. The living preacher.
35. Q. What is the agency of God in carrying on the work of redemption and giving efficiency to its operations? A. The Holy Spirit.
36. Q. What is evidence to the world of the divine efficacy and power of the doctrines of the gospel system? A. Its effects in restoring the soul to moral health.
37. Q. The discussion of religious subjects for the past few years, both in Europe and America, has been mainly between what two classes? A. Between those who believe in the divine authority of the Christian religion as a rule of duty, and those who believe in the authority of conscience and reason as the highest guides of man.
38. Q. How does each class receive the Messiah and his teachings? A. One as of God, and the other as of man.
39. Q. In what light and as what means does one view consider a written revelation? A. In the light of the moral wants of man, and as adapted and necessary means in order to human development.
40. Q. What proposition is attempted to be proven in this connection? A. That a written revelation is a demand of man’s moral constitution, without which his moral culture is impossible.
41. Q. What is a first fact connected with this inquiry? A. Man is a cultivating and a cultivable being, and he is the only being created that possesses the double capability to receive and to impart culture.
42. Q. What are three endowments by which men are particularly distinguished from irrational beings? A. Written language, faith and conscience.
43. Q. What fact is fairly settled in reference to man aiding himself by a written language? A. That without aiding himself by a written language man can not ascend even to the first stages of civilization.