Disposition of unbelievers to credit accusations against Christians, prejudices against the Jews; character of the Mosaic law, 314 Influence of an early acquaintance with the Bible: what induced the people to receive the law of Moses; fidelity and humility of the PREFACE. THE following work is not a compilation of the evidences of Christianity. It was written with the hope of exciting those who need such research, to read many authors on that subject. A book which does not contain a summary of arguments against infidelity, may provoke an appetite to read volumes where those arguments are found. The evidences of Christianity are not fully contained in any half-score of volumes now existing. The most of those who have written, have aimed at nothing more than an abridgment of this subject, because of its unusual extent. We may present reasons for investigation, and we may persuade others to read, in a shorter space than that which is required to contain a full array of facts in support of revelation. The following pages were written with the design of urging the multitude to become informed concerning the book of books, the Bible. The call for such an attempt-the necessity for it at the present time-we think fairly inferrible from the following facts. FIRST FACT. It is true, that in almost every congregation there are some more or less imbued with infidelity, who do not avow it. They are not confirmed sceptics; but Satan's grand effort to prevent their commencing the work of repentance, or seeking the pardon of sin, is made by suggesting unbelieving doubts. The minister who has been long hoping and looking with unceasing anxiety for their conversion to God, never was thus harassed himself, and does not dream of their real condition. Again, there are countless thousands of the youthful and the uninformed, who are thus kept inactive. Temptations of unbelief cripple or prevent their exertions. Books on this subject are found, for the most part, only in ministers' libraries, and they are scarce there; and, moreover, those found there are not calculated altogether to fit the cases we are now noticing. Those authors aim at cavils the most plausible only, and strike at infidel objections most worthy of answer; whereas the youth thus injured are very often influenced by arguments puerile in the extreme, and so feeble that the better informed would never believe they could be used. SECOND FACT. The adversary of souls would not have young professors and possessors of religion grow in grace. To prevent it, he injects into their minds cold, unbelieving cavils, which embarrass and retard their march. They read on the subject authors that are powerful and unanswerable in the truths they present; but they have no effect on the young inquirers, for they are not sufficiently simplified and extended. They are invincible in the view of those who are familiar with chronology and history, but they suit the educated alone. It has been long true with the author of the following pages, that after trying to speak on the subject, he has been addressed by young persons, who have told him that they rejoiced he had noticed a certain infidel quibble-that it had long harassed them-that they knew it was weak and puerile, but had still been annoyed without having heard the proper answer given. THIRD FACT. Infidelity is now growing and spreading to an extent the blindness of the church does not suspect: pocket volumes of false statements, infidel manuals, painted perversions of history, etc., are spreading profusely; while opposite publications are growing more rare. There are many thousands more in our land now growing up in the darkest unbelief, than is known or suspected by any except those who once themselves fought in that division of Satan's army. FOURTH FACT. Those who read on this subject in the church are few, and Christians are, to a great extent, but poorly qualified to instruct, or to answer the objections of sceptics against their holy religion. It has a bad influence on the youthful spectator who notices a leader in society, a grey-headed professor," unable to answer the cavil of an uninformed mocker. It has a bad influence on a youthful inquirer, who applies for assistance against some sophism of infidelity to one of God's people, and does not receive it. AND MORE. Is not the age of infidelity approaching, along with the time of terrible judgments? In a great part of Catholic Europe, are not large masses of the population almost total atheists? In Great Britain, do not multitudes of the people openly renounce God's holy volume? ls not our own nation walking down the same track? THE CAUSE AND CURE OF INFIDELITY. CHAPTER I. CAUSE OF INFIDELITY. INFIDELITY is produced by two causes, acting conjointly. The primary, or more remote cause, is man's depravity; the second, or approximate cause, is man's want of knowledge. As it regards the first or origi nal cause, man's wicked nature, we can readily see how it would bend his belief towards the side of falsehood. It must incline him to reject the sacred volume, which enjoins every thing that is righteous, selfdenying, pure, and holy. Again, we can easily understand how this first cause of unbelief, man's sinfulness, must tend towards the production of the second cause, his lack of information. It retards his labors in searching after truth; it aids in continuing his want of knowledge; it prevents his activity in search after facts which sustain the truth. As it regards the secondary, or proximate cause, want of knowledge, it sounds strange to speak of the ignorance of the learned. This seeming contradiction will be fully explained after a time. For the present, we must begin with the original cause, man's depravity. |