Now, it is important to remember that the actual facts on which these arguments rest are in each case absolutely unique. Once, and only once in the history of the world, have men appeared who asserted that they were actual witnesses of miracles, and who faced all forms of suffering and death solely in consequence of this. Again, once, and only once in the history of the world, has a long series of prophecies, uttered many centuries apart, united in a single Person, in whom they one and all find a complete fulfilment. Yet again, once, and only once in the history of the world, has a Man appeared of faultless moral character, who asserted that He was also God, and who boldly claimed all that this tremendous assertion involved, and submitted to the consequences. While, lastly, once, and only once in the history of the world, has a Religion, most improbable in itself, and without using any force, succeeded in conquering nation after nation.

These, then, are the four chief arguments on the subject, and in every case we have the same choice before us. We must either face the antecedent (or a priori) difficulties in accepting Christianity, or the mental, moral and historical difficulties in rejecting it. There is no neutral ground, no possibility of avoiding both sets of difficulties. But the difficulties on the one side concern what we do not know—God's purpose in creating man—and may be due to our ignorance only. The difficulties on the other side concern what we do know. They are practical, they are derived from experience. We do know that men will not lay down their lives for what they believe to be false, and that the first preachers of Christianity must have known whether it was false or not. We do know that prophecies uttered at random through centuries would not all unite in a single Person. We do know that even moderately good men do not make extravagant claims. And we do know that no natural causes can account for such a religion as Christianity obtaining such a triumph as it did.

The choice, then, seems to lie between what we may call unknown difficulties and known ones. The unknown difficulty of believing that the Eternal God could so love man as to humble Himself even to death to win man's love; and the known difficulty of believing that evidence so vast and so various, so cumulative and so apparently irresistible, could all unite in making a monstrous falsehood appear to be a momentous truth. Between these two sets of difficulties we have to make our choice. But to those who agree with the previous chapters, the choice cannot be doubtful; for however hard it is to believe Christianity, it is, as we have shown, harder still to disbelieve it. This, then, is our final conclusion, that the truth of the Christian religion is extremely probable, because, to put it shortly, though the difficulties of accepting Christianity are great, the difficulties of rejecting it are far greater.

INDEX OF TEXTS.

Genesis.

PAGE
1. [117]
"1[213]
"26[159], [393]
2. [132]
"4[119]
3.22[159], [393]
4.13-17, 26[132]
5.1-2[134]
6.2-4[132]
7.11[126]
"21[132]
7-8. [159]
9.13-14[127]
11.7[393]
12.3[205]
"6[160]
"16[141]
13.7[160]
14.22[213]
18.25[215]
21.33[213]
22. [210]
"17[217]
"18[374]
23.2, 19[142]
25.18[143]
26.4[374]
27.8-13[208]
33.18[142]
35.6[142]
36.31-39[159]
39.1[139]
"9[215]
40.11, 19[140]
"15[156]
41. [140]
"41[393]
43.27-28[143]
"32[139]
46.34[139]
48.3[142]
49.30[142]
50.3[139]

Exodus.

PAGE
1.11[144]
"14[144]
2.3[144]
3.14[405]
4.21[159]
5.12[144]
"23[165]
7.3[159]
"11, 22[182]
"14-25[157]
"19[145]
8.7, 18, 19[182]
"15, 32[210]
9.34[210]
10.1[159]
"3, 7[210]
12.12[146]
"25[153]
"37[171]
13.11[153]
"13[210]
14.4[209]
"21, 22[178]
"30[179]
16.36[160]
17.14[164]
19.5[206]
20.24[161]
21.2, 16[211]
22.29, 30[210]
23.4-5[211]
"9[148]
24.4[164], [165]
25.3-10[148]
"13-18[147]
29.14[154]
34.20[210]
"27[164]

Leviticus.