HAND-BOOK OF CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES, PREPARED BY REV. J. D. DAVIS, D. D., PROFESSOR OF REVEALED THEOLOGY IN DOSHISHA, KYOTO. WISDOM IS THE PRINCIPAL THING." THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM." [ PROV. IV. 7; IX 10.] KYOTO: 1889. KD 46206 HARVARD I HAVE WRITTEN UNTO YOU YOUNG MEN BECAUSE YE وو ARE STRONG. [I. JOHN II. 14.] TO THE INTELLIGENT YOUNG MEN AND YOUNG WOMEN OF EMPIRE, THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE PREFACE. EIGHTEEN years ago I left a parish in the United States and came to Japan. Three or four years were mostly spent in trying to master some part of one of the most difficult languages in the world; the last fourteen years have been mostly spent in school work,-teaching among other things, natural and revealed theology. In doing this, I have been thrown in personal contact with some of the brightest minds I ever met. They were Asiatic minds, with ideas and ways of thinking entirely different from my own. Their minds were perfectly free from all theories about most of the subjects which we considered; they took nothing for granted; they cared nothing for common theories, and but little for the consensus of the whole Christian church. We were compelled to go to the foundation of things and build for ourselves, using only so much of the old material as stood the test of a thorough examination in "The light of Asia." I have been asked questions almost every day of which I had never thought before, and these years have been years of the most intense study and thought of my life. I have tried to put myself, so far as possible, into the position of my students, and, disabusing myself of all theories and prepossessions, give myself up to a candid search for truth. My experience convinces me that we have to meet in Japan, not only the materialism of Asia, but the materialism of the West as well; "oppositions of science falsely so called." The evidences of the truth of Christianity need to be presented here with reference to both the oldest and the newest phases of materialism. My apology for publishing this little volume is a triple need which I have felt in my own work. First for a handbook which contains in brief compass, the proofs of the existence of a God, presented with reference to the current materialism of the day, and also the proofs, that Christianity is from God, and that the Bible is the word of God. There are unnumbered books which treat of these subjects, but I have been unable to find any one volume which in any sense fully meets this want. Secondly:-The need of such a presentation of these proofs as is fitted to the inquiring minds of Japan at this time. Men who have never known anything of God, of Christianity, or of the bible, and who have learned more or less of materialistic philosophy, need a somewhat different presentation of these subjects from what men need who have unconsciously accepted these great truths from their childhood. Thirdly-The need of a hand-book, prepared in as simple language as possible, and free from the technical language which is found in most books upon these subjects. While there are many among the intelligent minds of Japan who can grasp the meaning of the most difficult English book, there are a vastly larger number of English students who have difficulty in reading books which are prepared in difficult, technical language. While the writer is aware that his own language in this volume is not above criticism in these respects, and that many technical terms are found in the numerous quotations from other authors which are used in the book, he hopes that he has succeeded to some extent in preparing a hand-book upon these subjects which can be easily understood. The material for these lectures has been studied and thought out in Japan, in the midst of a great pressure of duties, and I have often memorised the substance of a PREFACE. quotation, or copied it, without affixing the name of the author, especially when it was one that my students never had heard of; and this is my apology for the use of many thoughts which have become my own, but which I would gladly credit to others could I recall the source from whence I gleaned them; for the same reason, I have sometimes placed a passage in quotation marks without giving the author's name. Those who have attempted the preparation of such a work with no large reference library at hand and especially one which is the result of many years' study of the subject, in the midst of a press of varied duties, will realise the difficulty to which I allude. I am more conscious of the imperfections of this work than any one else can be; there is in it an abundant opportunity for criticism, especially for that kind which is most common in the literary world. My hope is that, notwithstanding its imperfections and some minor errors which may be found in it, the truth which this little book contains will be a help to some of the inquiring minds of Japan, in the solution of the great problems of time and eternity which are upon us all for solution. Doshisha, Kyoto, 1889. J. D. DAVIS. |