Circumstantial evidences of Christianity

Preface

The matter contained in the following chapters, taving at first a somewhat different form, was designed to be read to a small group of doubting or unbelieving friends. When the purpose of seeking a larger audience, which should include these, was formed, changes were made in the way of adaptation ; but as a few passages retain traces of the earlier purpose, and of the surroundings of the writer, this slight explanation is made to those whose attention may be called to this fact.

I will also explain a feature of the book which may appear objectionable. No references are made to the Bible by citing chapter and verse, nor to other writings by citing the chapter or page of the book.

Where citations of this kind are made,

4 PREFACE.

while the passage so referred to may present itself clearly to the writer, it forras no part of the argument as it presents itself to the reader, because the passage, usually not entirely familiar, certainly will not in most cases be looked up. Accordingly, what I have desired to use at all I have quoted in full, at the risk of being tedious.

The number and length of the quotations from modern writers will be excused by those who observe that a part of the work undertaken was to show that facts made conspicuous by modern skeptical writers confirm the claim of Jesus to the Messiahship.

DANIEL CAEEY.

KocHELLE, III., Feb. 17, 1881.

Contents

I. A Statement of General Facts, 7

II. A Statement of General Facts — Continued, 42

III. The Purpose of the Old Testament, .... 76

Chapter I. A STATEMENT OF GENERAL FACTS

WHAT view shall we take of the statements made by the New Testament writers in regard to Jesus? This involves the question of the supernatural origin of Christianity.

The existence of the statements involving the supernatural has been accounted for in various ways. In the language of Hume and Paine, the New Testament writers were liars. Later, and perhaps more careful, students of the character of Jesus and the New Testament writers have used more respectful language. Strauss regards the character of Jesus as largely mythical, or as being, to a large extent, a personification of certain religious ideas. Renan finds this view an insufficient explanation of known facts ; and, thougli he modifies the view of Strauss but little, he gives more prominence to what he believes to be credible in the Gospels, and says that at the head of the Christian movement there must have been a man of colossal proportions. But it is his view that, between the death of Jesus and the writing of the books of the New Testament, legends and traditions of the early Church came to be believed, which give to the New Testament its supernatural character. From the title, ^^ Circumstantial Evidences of Christianity,^^ it is probably understood that an effort will be made to present facts which confirm the belief that the statements made by the New Testament writers in regard to Jesus are substantially true. The expression, substantially true, is used, because no effort will be made to show that the New Testament writers were strictly infallible, and incapable of any defect of memory, in the rehearsal of unimportant details ; but the effort will be to confirm the belief that the statements of what purport to be important facts — those which give to the life of Christ its supernatural character — are trustworthy.

The supernatural events in the life of Christ, as a believer views them, are not isolated events, having no rational or logical connection with the rest of the world's history. There was a long train of preceding events, intimately associated with the coming of Christ, leading up to it, and having an important bearing upon the credibility of the statements made in the IsTew Testament in regard to the events of his life. There have been important and well-known results of the life of Christ, having a similar bearing on the credibility of those statements. If both these classes of facts, with others having a bearing on the case, are ignored, we shall perhaps arrive at the aphorism of Hume, " It is contrary to experience that a miracle should occur ; it is not contrary to experience that men should lie,'' with the conclusion to which experience is here supposed to point; but in arriving at this we may miss the truth.

The statements concerning Christ are not statements of a series of flashes of lightning and peals of thunder from a cloudless sky. To use this somewhat worn illustration — the moisture-bearing wind, the sultry air, and the gathering clouds which precede a shower, and the moist condition of the ground, the swollen streams and freshened fields seen after a shower, have been discovered in this case. These facts, which make the events of the life of Christ something quite different from isolated events, may be read from nature, from history, and from the state of things at the present time, as the meteorologist reads the facts in regard to the natural shower from his self-registering apparatus.

The consideration of certain general facts, which incline the mind to' investigate the truth of Christianity, will constitute our introduction to the consideration of facts which have a more immediate bearing on the credibility of the New Testament account of Christ.

If I were thrown by shipwreck, destitute, upon an island which I fully believed to be uninhabited, and the granite peaks or barren sands appeared to confirm this belief, and if, while so situated, a sound were borne across the waste that seemed to be a human voice inviting me to shelter, food, and clothing, I should be prepared to pronounce the sound a delusion. But if we suppose the situation

SO far changed that the island on which I had been thrown was green with thriving vegetation, that I saw in the sand upon the beach the prints of human feet, that I saw, a little inland, the hospitable smoke rising from some domestic fire, and that, while so situated, a sound were borne to me which seemed to be a human voice inviting me to shelter, food, and clothing, my surroundings would already have led me one step towards belief, and I should be eager to learn the truth. In approaching the question of the truth of Christianity, we have a right to that frame of mind which results from the fact that the footprints of the Creator are visible on every hand about us.

The idea of a God appears to be found existing in the mind as the idea of justice is found existing there, apparently innate; but the train of thought by which this idea is strengthened, if it previously existed, or by which it is gained if it did not previously exist, is perhaps nearly that of the following argument :

We may classify the various objects known to us, according to their resemblances, with reference to the fact that they do or do not in their structure manifest thought. We shall then have in one class all unorganized matter; for though the theist does not consider inorganic matter destitute of arrangement, as the stage on which manifestations of a higher order shall appear, the want of organic structure leaves a mass of earth, or stone, or metal, without any manifestation of thought that can be readily discerned.

In the other class will be all objects of the organic world, from the most minute vegetable known to the gigantic trees of California, and from the mote whose organic structure can only be discerned when magnified several millions of diameters to the mammoth and the whale. But the class that has been indicated will contain more. It will contain organized objects, the plan of whose organization originated in the mind of man, from the toy that pleases the infant fancy for a moment and is consumed to the Crystal Palace, with all that artisan and artist can exhibit there ; from the screw whose thread can only be discerned with the help of the microscoj)e to the railroad, with its accompaniment of telegraphs and telephones.

Having made this classification, tlie fact in relation to it which most fully enlists our attention is the completeness of the resemblances on which the classification is made. Very manyi of the thoughts manifesting themselves in objects of art have their counterpart in the thoughts manifesting themselves in objects of nature. Mention of a few will recall the many with which we are familiar. However rapidly a man's hand may move, when busy, his eye continually attends it. At each moment the axis of his eyeball is so directed as to receive light from the point requiring his attention. These movements are effected by muscles attached at the back part of the bony socket of the eye and extending forward to various parts of the eyeball. Among these is one so arranged as to cause an inward and downward movement of the eye when that movement is required. There was not room for this muscle to extend in the direction in which the motion was to be made, and have space to contract and expand, without interfering with other organs. A muscle, however, extending in the same direction as the other muscles attached at the back part of the socket, and neatly packed with them, could, and in reality does, perform this work, by having its tendon pass through a loop and turn at rightangles to the direction in which the muscle extends. There is a suggestive similarity between this arrangement and the various arrangements made with rope and pulley; as when a farmer passes a rope around pulleys fixed at two well-selected points, and places his hay where he wishes to have it, while his horse moves horizontally along the ground.

The brain is protected by a well-made box of hard and tough material ; the fluids of the eye, by a firm and tough material. Hard materials, also, are found wlierever supports and levers are needed, interspersed with elastic yielding material, w^here this is needed, at the joints. These are arrangements like those which suggest themselves to the mind of man when circumstances require them. The dark inner coating of the eye prevents the reflection of stray rays of light which would confuse the image; so does the dark inner surface of a telescope. The crystalline lens refracts rays of light to the extent required; so do the lenses of a telescope.

These manifestations of thought are facts, as much so as the materials in which the thoughts are wrought. They are effects also. The cause of these manifestations of thought in one case is the mind of man, a personal being. The effects are similar. Are the causes similar? Where causes are sought in other cases, like effects are traced to like causes. The cause of a drift of sand and gravel found in the deserted bed of a river is like the cause of a drift of snow. Each is a deposit from a fluid whose motion has been checked by some obstruction, though the fluids are not the same. The existence of such drifts under the lee of obstructions which the current could not remove, lying along the course of what is believed to be the deserted bed of a river, would be received as evidence that causes analagous to those which produce the snowdrift were once active there.

Glaciers, now existing on high mountains and in polar latitudes, as their lower borders advance in Winter to a lower level, and recede in Summer under the increased heat, leave certain effects or traces, which have been carefully studied. The melting of the lower portion of the glacier leaves a dreary waste of stones released from the ice in which they had been imbedded. The advance of the glacier each Winter presses these scattered stones forward and downward toward the lower limit of this advancing and receding movement. In this way an accumulation, or wall, of these stones is formed at the lower limit of the glacier. Somewhat similar accumulations form at the sides of the lower portion of the glacier. Parallel scratches, or marks, are made in the bed rock of the bottom and sides of the valley in Avhich the' glacier is working. These are made by fragments of stone imbedded in the moving ice at the surface w^hich moves over the rock. The parallel marks resemble those made by the teeth of a large stifP harrow drawn across a smooth field. Effects in every respect resembling these, whatever may have been the cause, have been found in nearly all the explored parts of the world, even in regions which now have tropical climates. It is difficult to understand how the whole world could have been so cold as to have permitted the general action of glaciers ; but, against all difficulties, geologists have arrived at a belief in a glacial period during which glaciers existed in nearly all parts of the world. Such is the force of similar effects in leading men to believe in similar causes. The sole ground of belief in a glacial period is the resemblance of certain effects found in various parts of the world to the effects now being produced by glaciers.

The thoughts manifested in nature did not originate in the human mind; but the complete resemblance between these thoughts and those which did originate there intimates an origin in something that works as the human mind works, and is capable of originating thoughts as the human mind is. Analogy is not proof. We do not say that, because very many manifestations of thought originated with personal beings, no thought could manifest itself in any other way ; but a long and uniform experience in tracing like effects to like causes leads us to think this theory greatly more probable than any other.

What we know of the origin of certain organized structures is not more suggestive than what we know of the order in which the various steps in their construction progressed. 2

In every instance the ideal preceded the leal. The house was planned before it was built. A farmer, whose hay and grain have been spoiling in the storms, may for years have been carrying about in his mind a barn, thoroughly finished and well painted from basement to cupola. Perhaps in future it will be so embodied in solid materials that he may use it, and other people may see it. The point important to our illustration is not the length of time an ideal structure may be carried in the mind, but the fact that in the construction of whatever manifests thought the conception in the mind precedes the arranging of the materials in which the thought shall at last be manifested.

There is much discussion as to the priority of matter or mind, and as to the eternity of God's existence, into which we need not enter while merely inquiring whether there are intimations in nature of God's existence. The intimation we receive from the consideration just stated is that a conception of the plans, simple and complex, which we see manifested in the organized structures about us, existed in something analogous to the human mind, when materials, which before existed as unorganized matter only, began to move and arrange themselves so as to form the structures which now manifest thought.

Our knowledge of the human mind and of its mode of existence is imperfect, and our conception of God and his mode of existence is doubtless still more imperfect; but we are conscious of our own thoughts, and know something of the working of the human mind. The intimation received from the complete resemblance between the machinery which has originated with men and that discovered in nature is, that the human mind, however it may exist, is the best type we have of that with which those thoughts originated which are manifested in organized nature, as those of the hand and the eye. To many minds it appears that the power which could originate the thoughts manifested in nature could originate the thoughts which pertain to a revelation; and that the power which could so modify the action of force and the properties of matter — so control the laws of nature — that where, before a certain period, only unorganized matter existed, portions of this matter began so to arrange themselves as to form organized beings, could also so control the laws of nature as to produce all the signs of its superhuman origin that are claimed to have accompanied such a revelation.

The argument based on the thoughts manifested in the material world will be pursued, in connection with objections urged against it, after we have noted the fact that intimations we receive from the material world are seconded by an intimation from the structure of the human mind. There is a religious faculty, of which man alone of the animal world is possessed. In the exercise of this he forms religious conceptions, and performs religious acts. This faculty is accompanied by a moving force, which has impelled men in all ages and in all countries to the performance of religious acts, as the instinct of an animal impels it to those acts which are necessary to its existence. We here find tendrils of the mind, which stretch upward and clasp some God, real or imaginary, and cling to that Being with unyielding persistence. There seems to be implanted in human nature a reminder of God's existence, with an impulse towards his worship. If a theory is recommended by its explaining known facts^ then the theory that there is a God who designed men to be religious is recommended by its being a simple and sufficient explanation of the facts just mentioned in regard to the mind. This intimation of God's existence should be associated with those before mentioned. It should here be stated^ also, that this intimation of God's existence is not derived from some special theory of the mind, but from such manifestations as may be studied without regard to theories.

The chief opposition to the doctrine of God's existence has taken the form of a rival theory, which considers nature sufficient for the production of all that exists, not excepting intelligent and moral beings.

I will state a few reasons for doubting the correctness of this theory :

1. It is built on the development hypothesis, or theory of evolution, which is not yet so established as to be a secure foundation for so important a suj)erstructure. The development hypothesis accords with many facts, and it is received by many Christians; but when it is made the foundation of a theory so important, and yet so cheerless, as that which is here built on it, we incline to examine it more carefully. That the development hypothesis may be used to explain the course of nature, several points must be assumed; and around each of these assumed points there is a dark shading of doubt. Take as an example that part of this hypothesis which supposes men and monkeys to have descended by slightly diverging lines from the same species, a species which has long been extinct. Consider the very great number of animals of high organization that must have existed between that extinct species and man. As a help in forming a conception of that multitude, consider not only the great number of human beings that have existed, but the very slow progress that has been made, if any has been made, towards development into some higher species that is to follow man. History, sculpture, and painting give some idea of man during three thousand years past. Certain human remains are thought to belong to periods much earlier ; and of these some skulls assigned to early periods are of a high order. During the period in which man has existed no such radical change has taken place as would furnish the imagination a clew by which it might forecast^ not the coming man, but the coming species, by whatever name it is to be called. We have no reason to suppose that the progress of development was more rapid in the past. As nature advances by moderate steps, and not by strides, the species which immediately preceded man must have possessed an organization nearly equal to that of man. That species probably existed several thousands of years, and numbered in its successive generations many millions of individuals, as millions of individuals have formed the successive generations of men. The period of this species of animals must have been preceded by that of another species but little inferior, which existed for thousands of years, and numbered its millions of individuals. And so the imagination, without minutely specifying, finds its way back to the species from which both men and monkeys have descended. If these millions of animals of high organization have existed, is it not probable that during the past seventy-five years of search some traces of their existence would have been discovered?

24 CIRCURISTANTIAL EVIDENCES.

Frail animals, with no bony skeleton, left traces of their existence all along the ages of geology; tender plants left their impress on the rocks ; the little rain-drop, falling by its own Aveight, and driven by the wind of some storm which preceded the human age, left its mark on the mud and sand since turned to stone; but these unnumbered millions of beings, possessed of organizations but little below that of man, died and left no trace of their existence that has yet been discovered, though such traces have been diligently sought.

While this dark shading of doubt lingers about the several assumed points of this hypothesis, its stability can not be considered entirely assured. As we step on to it, bearing the timbers of the dark structure to be raised above it, a tremulous movement under the foot sends through the mind a thought of possible moving of quicksands below. Perhaps there is in this foundation something that is not quite solid.

2. The theory that nature is sufficient ignores, or leaves unused, the suggestion furnished by those structures with whose origin we are acquainted. We know that thoughts are continually originated by personal beings. We do not know that a single thought ever originated in any other way. Having been accustomed to ask ourselves, "How shall we reason but from what we know?'^ we must ever doubt the propriety of neglecting so plain a suggestion, while w^e also feel an incompleteness in a theory which purports to account for what is seen in nature, and yet suggests no origin for the thoughts that are manifested in it.

When we stand before the open door of a clock w^e readily trace its movements to the action of gravity on its weights and pendulum, and to the materials of which the clock is made. All these movements are reduced to force and matter. Bat what of the origin of the clock? Our thoughts turn to certain operatives who are making wheels and cords and weights, and who for years have been making wheels and cords and weights like those which existed before. Here we have an account of the clock into which we are looking. Still, our theory of clocks is not complete, and it will not be complete till it contains some thought of an inventor. We stand in the presence of nature to watch its movements, as we stand before the open door of the clock. Its movements are reduced to force and matter. But what of the origin of those structures which manifest thought ? We find that in the presence of vitality, whatever that may be, the laws of nature have power to reproduce those structures which existed before. Under the influence of instinct the bees and spiders of to-day trace out the same plans that were manifested in the combs and w^ebs of antiquity. So under the influence of vitality the thoughts manifested in the structure of animals and plants are reproduced from generation to generation. The living egg of a turkey produces a turkey. The living egg of a hen produces a hen. The living acorn that drops from an oak produces an oak. Here we have an account of the animals and plants within our observation. Still our theory of animals and plants is not complete. We inquire concerning the beginning of this process of hereditary descent, and ask for some adequate source of the thought or plan which we find reproduced from generation to generation along one of these lines. We can not feel that our theory is complete till it contains some thought of an inventor.

Those who are convinced of the soundness of the theory of evolution believe that along these lines of descent changing conditions have so modified the plans of organization that existed ages ago as to produce adaptations which did not then exist. The following questions are suggested for their consideration : " Can those adaptations which have manifested themselves under these changed conditions, and which were not seen in the plan as it existed ages agO; be considered intimations of God^s existence ?" " Were not these adaptations made by change of climate and change of other conditions, rather than by God ?" " Does not the discovery of these modifications destroy the force of those intimations which were received from nature?"

Waiving for the present some doubt as to whether these radical changes have taken place, it will not be best to overlook these inquiries. To my mind the intimations of God^s existence are neither destroyed nor diminished in force. If it is true that any line of hereditary descent has not only passed through many individuals, but througli several related species, then perhaps all we have discovered bearing on the question under consideration is, that the plan according to which this line of descent was at its beginning forecast contains more than it was once supposed to contain. An examination of an animal shows it to be adapted to the mode of life it is leading; but such examination will not assure us that w^e have seen all of the plan of the species of animals to which it belongs. The caterpillar has an arrangement of muscles and other organs adapting it to the life it is leading; and yet the plan which may be traced in the caterpillar is only part of a more complex plan — a single phase of a varying existence. There is as yet no hint of wings; but w^hen wings appear, and an entire adaptation to a new mode of life is seen, we perceive that we had before discovered but part of the plan ; we do not on that account say that no plan at all of this species of animals was forecast. The capability of taking this modification of its organization existed in some invisible way in the worm, and was a part of the plan of its being, as much as the arrangement of organs by which it was enabled to pursue its career as a caterpillar.

If nature is proceeding in its course according to certain preconceived plans, there may be provision in those plans for modifications of the structure, which reappears from generation to generation along some line of hereditary descent. If modifications amounting to adaptations which did not exist before, and amounting to change of species, are facts, the indication here discovered is, not that the course of those reproductions is following - no preconceived plan, but that part of the plan is a degree of flexibility permitting such modifications as will enable this line of descent to continue under changed conditions.

To a limited extent, men give to machines of their making this power of adaptation to changing conditions. I will illustrate this thought by means of machinery with which people in many neighborhoods are quite familiar. Some years ago windmills designed for pumping water were introduced. They were made after a simple but inflexible plan, which did not admit of any modification of form under the varying force of the wind. When the wind blew moderately they did well. When the wind grew violent they were dashed to pieces. Relics may perhaps be fonnd on some farms, which give evidence at once of the former existence of these mills and of the occasional occurrence of winds which did not permit their continued existence. So relics found in the rocks give evidence at once of the former existence of animals and plants, the plan of whose being did not enable them to continue dov-n to the present time, and of the occurrence of those changes of climate and of other conditions which destroyed them. After the mills just referred to had run a short career, or perhaps overlapping the same period to some extent, other windmills appeared, capable of taking certain modifications of form; not the same in every case, but all taking such modifications as would enable them to pass uninjured through the occasional gales. We may suppose one who had been familiar with the earlier mills to have first seen a specimen of these when at a little distance from it, and just as a storm was coming on. Noticing that as the wind rises the mill takes a modification of its form, he says, " I believe the wind does that." Continuing Ms observation^ and noticing that as the wind increases the modification of form increases, he adds, "Yes, I see, the wind does it," And his conjecture is right. The wind does it. We will not suppose him to add, " I am persuaded that the changes in other features which differ from those of the earlier mills were also caused by the wind." Still less willl he say, "In the light of what I now see it appears possible, if not altogether probable, that the wind, and other conditions necessary to the existence of windmills, made the entire thing, tower and all." His thoughts refuse to take that course. It is at once suggested to his mind that some inventor foresaw the occasional gales, and by some arrangement of machinery, which at the distance of this observer can not be seen, gave the mill the degree of flexibility it is seen to possess. If his curiosity is sufficient to send him up the tower he will see an arrangement of slides, pulleys, and chains by which the capability of taking these modifications is secured. He so learns the details ; but his conviction that some provision for these changes had been made by an inventor was comj)lete before.