TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER FOURTH.-The genuineness of the books of the New Testament. Men doubt everything; the theories of Paulus, Baur, Strauss and Renan; theories as to date; internal evidences; the con- fusion of the history of that period; Prof. Rawlinson's statement; Prof. Haven's statement; names of money; manners and customs; geographical allusions; dialect and language; external evidences; Tacitus, Pliny, Trajan, Hadrian; Christian Fathers;Clement, Poly- carp, Papias, Ignatius; later testimony; testimony of Heretics and xi CHAPTER FIFTH-Genuineness of the Old Testament. Wellhau- sen's theory of the date of the Pentateuch; radical defect of the theory; the art of writing early known; non-use of the Mosaic ritual; differences of legislation in Leviticus and Deuteronomy; allusions in the earlier Prophets to the Pentateuch and the Mosaic ritual; proofs from Egyptian words in the Pentateuch; other traces of contact with Egypt and Assyria; the tribe of Levi without inheritance; journeys in the desert minutely recorded; Samaritans accept the Pentateuch; external testimony to the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch ; proof from the Bible; authorship of the book of Genesis ..Pages, 132-154 CHAPTER SIXTH.-Genuineness of the books of the Old Test- ament continued; Isaiah; reasons given by the critics for the theory of two Isaiahs; external testimony to the integrity of Isaiah; from ecclesiasticus; Josephus; Christ and the Apostles; internal testimony; the writers' standpoint; Palestinian words and imagery; philological argument; criticism of other Old Testament books; the integrity of the book of Daniel; Belshazzar and his feast; Darius the Mede; Daniel and Judith compared; all modern science confirms the truth of the Bible CHAPTER SEVENTH.-Credibility of the books of the New Test- ament. Ability of the writers; honesty of the writers; external testimony; Josephus; proof in the Roman catacombs; Christ's resurrection; Prebendary Row's discussion of the proof from the resurrection; the three possible theories; Renan's theory of visions; remarkable accuracy of the New Testament writers; the New Test- ament and the Buddhist scriptures compared; testimony of the British Scientific Association CHAPTER EIGHTH.-The credibility of the books of the Old lives of the first men, of the deluge, etc.; age of man upon the earth; from monuments; from tradition and history; from pile dwellings, peat bogs, "kitchen middens," and from cave relics; the stone, brass and iron age; diversities of physical type; science and the tenth chapter of Genesis; Hebrew words on the Egyptian monuments; later Bible history confirmed; Northern empire of the Hittites; ruins of Taphanes discovered; testimony of Christ and the Apostles CHAPTER NINTH.-The divine authority of the Bible. The Bible contains a record of God's revelation to man; the writers under divine guidance when recording those revelations; testimony of the Bible; Pres. Bartlett on inspiration; were all parts of the Bible in- spired? Christ used the Bible as if it was all true and the word of God; the apostles likewise; the use of the word, scripture; the use of the phrase, it is written; inspiration of the New Testament; Prof. Kuenen's admission; the remarkable historical accuracy of the Bible a proof of its inspiration; the evidence from prophecy; inspiration the belief of the early fathers of the church; the object. of inspiration; its nature; the difficulties of revelation; the inter- pretation of revelation; science in the Bible; quotations from the Old Testament in the New; Rawlinson on the historical accuracy of the Bible; mistakes of copyists; apparent discrepancies; why was not complete divine guidance given to copyists and translators? the Bible and the Hebrew nation; the unity of the Bible, its influence CHAPTER TENTH.-The formation of the Canon; the Old Test- ament Canon formed gradually; traditions of the Jews and the Tal- mud on the formation of the Canon of the Old Testament; the books of the Apocrypha not used as scripture; formation of the Canon of the New Testament; Eusebius on the Canon of the New Testament; miracles of the apostolic age not continued; Scientific men and the The author takes pleasure in acknowledging the assistance rendered NATURAL THEOLOGY. CHAPTER FIRST. INTRODUCTORY. "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels." [Heb. II. 6.] Let us consider at the very outset of our search for truth, First Truths, or the foundation of all reasoning and knowledge. All knowledge implies a subject knowing, an object known, and the relations between them. Hence the intuitions of self, of things exterior to self, and of the relations between them are at the basis of all knowledge. FIRST-Tests of First Truths. 1. They are self-evident. Knowledge rises in its own defence; "I think, therefore I am." (Descartes.) 2. Necessity. It is impossible to think the opposite; e.g. Space cannot be discontinuous; contradictory propositions cannot both be true at the same time. kind. 3. Universality. Common to all races and ages of man 4. Persistence in spite of all efforts to disprove them. The I. Presentative Intuition. This is immediate and selfevident knowledge of something present to the consciousness. This includes; A. Sense perception, or perception of the external world; B. Self-consciousness, internal perception, which the mind has of itself in its own operations. object known, the subject knowing, and the knowledge are in one and the same act. Man has a knowledge of himself as an individual, of his own identity, and of himself as a rational, free agent. II. Rational Intuition. This is the immediate and selfevident knowledge of a universal truth, or principle. III. Knowledge by representation through the memory of a former intuition. IV. Representative knowledge with rational intuition gives us knowledge through reflection or thought. THIRD-Ultimate Realities known by Intuition. I. Known by presentative intuition. self and non-self, the external world. 1. Concrete being; 2. Modes of existence or being. A. Power, power to act, a cause. B. One and many, individuality and identity, individuality and alterity; number. C. Extension in space. D. Duration in time. E. Limitation and quantity. F. Difference and relation; cause and effect; dependence. II. Known in rational intuition. 1. Abstract truths. A. The true; its contrary, the absurd. B. The right; its contrary, the wrong. C. The perfect and good-, truth, law, perfection; its contrary is the evil, the imperfect. 2. The Absolute, the unconditioned; its contrary is the finite, the conditioned. III. Known by representation; the sum of all previous intuitions. IV. Known by representation, or memory, with rational intuition; an unlimited amount of knowledge ever widening before us. (The above synopsis of the intuitions is condensed from Prof. Harris' Fundamental Basis of Theism.) These intuitions and the knowledge derived through them seem to be on a firm basis, and the great mass of mankind accept their truth as soon as they are presented to them for consideration, and all men act upon them before they are placed formally before them as intuitions. There are, however, various objections made to intuitional knowledge and to all knowledge. I. Some say that the senses, memory and inferences are sometimes mistaken; and hence no knowledge is possible. Reply. This is contrary to the universal consciousness of man. Man is a finite being, yet he is made capable of knowing. In human knowledge, there is a center of knowledge, surrounded by a zone of probability, and outside of of that is a zone of doubt. FIRST TRUTHS; OBJECTIONS. 3 The great mass of man's knowledge persists and remains. true from age to age; for example, the great facts of science and of Christianity. Our feelings, choices and volitions. protest against agnosticism. "Knowing, feeling and willing are distinct, but not separate; distinctness and inseparability must be recognised. Our feelings imply an objective reality; fear, joy, pity, anger, imply an object of fear, joy, etc." "The greater part of human actions are acts of faith based upon a known objective world." Again it may be said that agnosticism implies knowledge. As Pres. McCosh has so well pointed out, if the agnostic says we know nothing; that is either true or false. If it is true, then the agnostic cannot know that we know nothing, and it is useless to argue with him, for he is affirming what he denies; if it is false, then certainly we need not argue with him. II. Herbert Spencer says that we cannot know the absolute, but Spencer, himself, seems to know a great deal about the absolute; he calls it, "The cause, power, or force, of which every phenomenon is a manifestation"; "Some power by which we are acted upon"; Infinite"; "Omnipotent"; "Unchangeable." He calls it self-existent and self-sustaining. The finite cannot fully know the infinite, but even Spencer admits that we know a great deal about it, and it is certainly possible that the absolute may be a Person who can and who does reveal his personality and something of his character to the finite. If he cannot do so, he is not an infinite and absolute being. The infant child knows but very little of the mother who nurses and cares for it, but it can know that its mother is a person and that she loves it, and we may know as much certainly of our Heavenly Father. III. The sensationalist says that we can only know the external world; but we reply that we can only know this by our sentient soul within. IV. Some deny the existence of any soul in man which can know. We do not profess to be able to perfectly demonstrate the existence of the soul, aside from God's revelation of that fact in his word; but we do expect to show that there is evidence of the existence of the soul so strong, that it is far more scientific to believe in its existence than to doubt it. I. The difference in the essence and activities of mind and matter is presumptive evidence of the existence of |