able debauchery? Would the prophets have proclaimed aloud that all her beauty had departed from the daughter of Zion; would they have said of Jerusalem, “Her filthiness is in her skirts, therefore she came down wonderfully. All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem"?

Again, we are told that as the motive which directed the writers of the Old Testament was the desire to aggrandize Israel, so, on the other hand, the design of the New Testament writers was to destroy Israel, and build up another kingdom in its place.

It is true that the disciples of the new dispensation did aim to establish a kingdom, but not upon the ruins of any earthly government. There was a time, long before a word of the New Testament was written, when they dreamed of thrones and secular dominion, and had already begun to dispute among themselves who should hold the highest rank after their Lord had assumed the sceptre; but all those ambitious hopes were soon extinguished. The kingdom which they labored to build up, at the time when the records of the New Testament were written, they had discovered was to be founded in righteousness and

peace, and the only rewards that it had to offer were to be bestowed in another world, and the only crown which the leaders in this kingdom could ever hope to wear on earth was the crown of martyrdom. And can any one believe that these men were actuated by selfish and ambitious motives, when it is so evident that the doctrines which they taught cut directly across the line of public sentiment, and were in their very nature most offensive to the great majority of men.

It is hard to reason dispassionately on a point like this. When men take their lives in their hand, and, sacrificing ease, position, fortune, friends, go forth-as did the great apostle of the Gentiles-to carry to the ends of the earth the good news of salvation; when men break loose from all the prejudices of education, and bid defiance to the slavish fears and superstitions in which they are held, because they feel themselves called to preach a purer and holier faith; and these men are charged with weakness, credulity, vanity, and foolish love of notoriety; we feel it to be an accusation which we cannot condescend to answer. If any one can read the Epistles of St. Paul, and then say that they impress him with the idea of a man feebly endowed, easily imposed

upon, fond of the marvellous; or, on the other hand, of a man, self-seeking, ambitious, anxious for power, and ready to claim supernatural gifts in order to his own aggrandizement; we can only say in rejoinder, that a mind, which is capable of receiving such impressions as these, is, by this token, shown to be incapable of discerning light from darkness.

We sum up our argument in this statement: After a careful scrutiny of the personal character of the sacred writers, of the nature of their compositions, and of the motives by which they must have been actuated, we are forced to believe that they meant to tell the truth, and were competent to distinguish between truth and error; and, inasmuch as they claim to have been the agents through whom God communicated His will to man, the presumption in favor of the validity of this claim is overwhelming.

CHAPTER XIV.

HOW IS THE EXISTENCE OF JUDAISM ΤΟ BE EX

PLAINED?

THE question of Divine revelation is not to be regarded merely as one involving the truth of certain doctrines. If such a revelation has ever been made, it stands as a fact in history; and its marks are to be traced, not simply in the words and letters of a book, but they must have left their impress upon the customs, the institutions, and the structures of the past. Along the pathway of ages we may expect to find visible traces of God's interference, and imperishable monuments, which show that He once walked that road.

Judaism is a fact in history; if it was miraculous in its beginning, it would seem to be hardly less so as it stands before us to-day. Its position in this nineteenth century is altogether peculiar, unique, and, judged by ordinary principles, unaccountable. Scattered and peeled-subjected

as they have been to countless persecutions for eighteen hundred years, without a temple, without a priesthood or sacrifice, without a country and without a home-the Jews remain undiminished in numbers, retaining their ancient worship unchanged, recognizing as of divine authority the same sacred books, practising their old national customs and usages, never absorbed by other religious sects, never conforming to other religious rites-their very physiognomy so marked as to distinguish them from all other peoples, among whom their lot is cast-Jerusalem in the hands of the Moslem, the site of the Temple defiled by the mosque of the infidel, the name of Mohammed shouted every morning and evening on that consecrated height, where the law of Moses was once proclaimed and the songs of David sung-the Jew still turns his face eastward and prays for the rebuilding of the altars that are trodden down.

Judaism is not only a fact in history, but in its leading features it is anomalous and exceptional. Its present aspect is so strange and peculiar, that it would not surprise us to find, in the annals of its earlier days, exceptional and extraordinary incidents.