And now we are told by infidels, in the most complacent language that the gospel is a myth, and that the Old Testament, which holds a relation to the New Testament and all other divine records as the blade holds to the ear, the bud to the flower, is a huge batch of absurdities with no valid claim to our respectful faith. We are told in effect that out of an ingenious lie, out of a cunning delusion, out of a baseless myth, out of a systematized falsehood has sprung all that there is in this life worth living for—the grandest motive of human progress in purity and power! We are, in effect, told that by means of a stupendous cheat, men are trained to goodness, purified of their passions, filled with love to one another, prompted to the highest heroism, inspired to sacrifices of life and fortune for the public good, and are built up into a civilization which is immeasurably superior to all that human nature, assisted merely by human reason and false religion, ever dreamed of!
We are, in effect, told all this; and we now ask reasonable men what they think of it. Who are the credulous men—those who believe in a divine power and personage, out of whose life has flown into humanity those pure principles and elevating and purifying motives—or those who believe that a lie has wrought those marvels?
Of all the credulous idiots that the age has produced, we know of none so pitiable as those who, in the full blaze of such a civilization as ours, soberly talk of the gospel as a myth and its Author as a cheat.
CONCLUSION.
And now, dear reader, if you have diligently read the preceding pages, you can understand how carefully the various objections to our religion have been examined and how thoroughly answered. During the last twenty-five years human intellect has made advances which have astonished even students of science. Scientific positions which were deemed impregnable a generation ago, have been swept away by a storm of new ideas; and the sunshine of examination has melted many an iceberg of prejudice, and dissipated many an intellectual fog. True it is that in advance of us are "Banks of cloud darkly bounding the horizon, and loftier Alps of thought which remain to be scaled." Yet Faith penetrates the vail and sees the glorious land of promise—the inheritance of our race. Even to those who have not faith, the victories of God's truth over the vagaries of men is an earnest of future triumph. When men shall understand what is the true gospel and what is true science then will come not conflict, but the peace of mutual recognition and mutual understanding. Oh, let us be calm, and wait reverently for God to vindicate His own everlasting TRUTH.
"It breaks—it comes—the misty shadows fly;
A rosy radiance gleams upon the sky;
The mountain tops reflect it calm and clear,
the plain is yet in shade but day is near."
Transcriber's Notes:
The Table of Contents was not present in the original edition, but was added by the transcriber for the HTML edition, and reproduced in the text edition for consistency.
Many cases of archaic spelling have been preserved. However, the following have been judged to be errors in printing, and have been corrected as indicated: