be proved—as it cannot—in opposition to the greatest amount of historical evidence ever collected on any similar point, that the Gospels were the fabrication of designing and artful men, that Jesus of Nazareth had never lived, still Christianity would stand firm, and fear no evil. None of the doctrines of that religion would fall to the ground; for, if true, they stand by themselves. But we should lose—oh, irreparable loss!—the example of that character, so beautiful, so divine, that no human genius could have conceived it, as none, after all the progress and refinement of eighteen centuries, seems fully to have comprehended its lustrous life. If Christianity were true, we should still think it was so, not because its record was written by infallible pens, nor because it was lived out by an infallible teacher; but that it is true, like the axioms of geometry, because it is true, and is to be tried by the oracle God places in the breast. If it rest on the personal authority of Jesus alone, then there is no certainty of its truth if he were ever mistaken in the smallest matter, as some Christians have thought he was in predicting his second coming.
These doctrines respecting the Scriptures have often
changed, and are but fleeting. Yet men lay much stress
on them. Some cling to these notions as if they were
Christianity itself. It is about these and similar points
that theological battles are fought from age to age. Men
sometimes use worst the choicest treasure which God
bestows. This is especially true of the use men make of
the Bible. Some men have regarded it as the heathen
their idol, or the savage his fetish. They have
subordinated reason, conscience, and religion to this. Thus
have they lost half the treasure it bears in its bosom.
No doubt the time will come when its true character shall
be felt. Then it will be seen, that, amid all the
contradictions of the Old Testament; its legends, so beautiful
as fictions, so appalling as facts; amid its predictions that
have never been fulfilled; amid the puerile conceptions of
God, which sometimes occur, and the cruel denunciations
that disfigure both Psalm and Prophecy, there is a
reverence for man's nature, a sublime trust in God, and a
depth of piety, rarely felt in these cold northern hearts of
