Semi-weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1852-1853, 1852-11-06

Mr.. WEBSTER ON THE EVIDENCES OF CEp,s,,
ANITY. A few evenings since, sitting by his om
freside,s after day of severe labor in the Sur,"
Court, Mr.. Webster introduced the last Sabbo,S.
sermon, and discoursed in animated and olownoai.
quence for hour the great truths of the Gosno
cannot but regard the opinions of such man !,
some sense as public property. This is nv anon
gy for attempting to recall some of those RENAL
which were uttered in the privacy of the domesrI
circle.
Said Mr.. Webster: "Last Sabbath listened
an able and learned discourse upon the evidences
Christianity. The arguments were drawn from ny
phecy, history, with internal evidence. They wa'
stated with logical accuracy and force; but. a,
seemed to me, the clergyman failed to draw for
them the ight conclusion. He came so near ,b
truth that was astonished that he missed it, I,
summing up his arguments, he said the only altern,
tive presented by these evidences is this: Enba
Christianity is true, or it is deusion produced h
an excited imagination Such is not the alteynativ:
said the critic but it is this. The Gospel is eibe
true history, or it is consummate fraud it is eibe
reality or an imposition. Christ was what he mn
fessed to be, or he was an impostor. There is nj
other alternative. His spotless life in his earnest en-
forcement of the truth, his suffering in its defeDcs
forbid us to suppose that he was suffering an lin
sion of heated brain.
Every act of his pure and holy life shows that h
was the author of truth, the advocate of truth III
earnest defender of truth, and the uncompromisin
sufferer for truth. Nov, considering the purity .
his doctrines, the simplicity of his life, and the sub
Unity of his death, is it possible that he would hay
died for Illusion! In all his preaching the Savior
made no popular appeals. His discourses were al
directed to the individual. Christ and his Apostle
sought to impress upon every man the conviction I
he must stand or fall alone-he must live for hmse
and die for himself, and give up his account to tn
omniscient God, as though he were the only Deepen
dent creature in the universe. The Gospel leaves I'd
individual sinner alone with himself and his God
To his own master he stands or falls He has noi
ing to hope from the aid and sympathy of associate
The deluded advocates of new doctrines do not
preach. Christ and his Apostles, had they been d
ceivers, would not have SO preached.
If clergymen in our days would return to the sin
plicity of the Gospel, and preach individual
and less TO the crowd, there would not be so muC
complaint of the decline of true religion. Many
the ministers of the present day take their text c
| St. Paul, and preach from the newspapers. Wit
they do so, prefer to enjoy my own thoughts ratl
than to listen. l want my pastor tic come TO me
the spirit of the Gospel, saying, You are mOrta
your probation is brief; your work must be do
speedily you immortal too. You are hastenl
to the bar of God the Judge standeth before
door, When / am thus admonshed, have no d
position to muse to sleep. ''These topics" 81
| Mr.. Webster, have often occupied my thoughts, a
if had time would write on them myself"
The above remarks are but meagre and impere
abstract. from memory, of one of the most elOque
| sermons to which ever listened.
I Congregational Journal