The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1870-06-01

Here, Rationalism, under guise of zeal fol
the honor of the man Christ Jesus, with itl
relentless criticism, learned, keen and colo
as the breath of the North, sweeps like
tempest over the inspired oracles, eradicat
ing alike from the Pentateuch the awtu
mysteries of Sinai, from the gospels the In
effable wonders of the incarnation, and from
the Acts the supernatural glories which at,
test the exaltation of Jesus to the throne Of
all power. Then, willy Erastianism, under
guise of zeal for catholic unity, clothes the
martyrs of Christ's crown and covenant IN
the skins of wild beasts, and Kisses on the
furious dogs of popular passion.
One fact should, of itself, suggest the
preaching of the gospel as the antidote to
modern in6dehty, viz: that, in all its forms
alike, Jesus Christ is. the central object OF
attack. The storm, though so threatening
around the whole horizon, at once concen'
trates and thickens into darkness around that
sacred Head upon the cross. For what is
the purpose of all the atheistic, pantheistic
and naturalstic speculations alike, but to
ignore Christ? What but the desire to for
get the presence of. Christ can be.the inter-
probation of the dream of the Emersons,
American and British, of Platonic "To-
pan nay, rather of an infinite "Outis'
"nihil" "nobody" that sleeps yonder behind
the star galaxies his eternal sleep, while his
infinite mill grinds out the events of the
ages as they occur? What but the desire
to extinguish the thought of Christ in the
soul inspires the zeal Of Secularism and its
labors to alleviate the ills of the people? or
the zeal of Naturalism in its tender of the
aid of science for the rescue of Moses, and
Jesus, and Paul from the hands of their mar
row and unscientifc worshippers
And so of the controversy concerning the
nature and degree of inspiration-of the
authenticity of the sacred books-of the
criticisms that reject the supernatural is but
another phase of the same great issue wheth'
er Christendom is to have any longer a
Christ or not. For what is the man Christ
Jesus that we should care for him, or that
Christendom should longer want him, if he is
not the true Son of God, Redeemer, Inter
cessor, Prophet, Priest, and King? If heis
but one of ourselves, weak in will, oscillat-
ing in purpose. and not without taint of
selfshness and fraud-if he is nothing but
the raw material for a human hero, out of
which the fancy and genius of some Roman
may mould into form a new Jesus, to meet
the demand of the French nation for new
sensation, or out of which British ethical
theorist may mould to the demand of the
British and American "Greeks" for new
ethical hero-worship, and hold it up, shout
ing "Ecce homo"-then of what use all
these fowery utterances of reverence for him?
Proceeding to remark, that the true work
of the gospel preacher, in view of all this, is
simply to preach the gospel in its plainness
and purity, and not to stand as lawyer
holding brief for Jesus Christ at the bar
of public opinion, or to defend the bride of
Christ, the Church, as though some vagrant
before the Police Court, the preacher made
the following answer to the objection that
the modern gospel preacher had not, as Paul,
the supernatural testimony to his commission.
A divine commission to speak? And that
in this regard the preacher of the Gospel
now lacks the essential element which gave
Paul his success. True, we work no mira
cles to verify our commission, as Paul, in
preaching the Gospel; but we rest our au-
thority on one great standing miracle which
was vet lacking to Paul-the miracle which
comprehends in itself the essence of all the
miracles that attended the commission of
the Apostles. For the very fact of the pre-
sent existence of the Christian Church, still
holding forth the claim of Jesus as Prophet,
Priest and King, and sending US forth to
proclaim His authority, is the miracle of
miracles. Nor can all the skill of Rational
ism, in accounting for the recorded miracles
by natural causes, explain this miracle. Let
them expound to us the phenomenon of an
existing church; let them tell us, if they
can. how, in the famous words of the eccen-
trio and skeptical Richter, Jesus "is the
majestic one, who, being the holiest among
the mighty and the mightiest among the
holy, has, with that pierced hand of His,
lifted the empires off their hinges, has turned
the stream of the centuries out of its chan,
mel and still governs the ages"
What miracle could prove Jesus to be God
the Prophet, if not the fact that to day,
after eighteen huDdred years of conflict and
persecution and suffering, he is not only the
grand central thought of His worshippers,
but also the grand central point upon which,
as has been shown, the thousand phases of
unbelief direct all their logical artillery, and
to which converge all the reasoning and
thoughts of the skepticism of all ages p
Verify, we may well say, if they believe not
the testimony of God on earth, existing
through the wasting and decay and crumb-
ling and vanishing of empires, though in
perpetual conflict with the gates of hell,
through those eighteen hundred centuries,
'they will not believe though one rose from
the dead" If Jesus and his Church is a
mere chimera, why do they not let it alone?
Is the intellect and brain energy of the
world, then throwing itself away either in
defense of, or assault upon a mere chimera? !?
The preacher then proceeded to show the
advantage, on the mere human view of the
question, which the simple preaching of the
great elementary truths of the gospel has,
not only over the appreciation of science by
the preacher, but as against the scientific
skepticism of the age. He argued that the
gospel as exhibited by Paul, though not Sin
excellency of speech" is really science
the science of the supernatural-as fully
meeting the terms of the definition of sci
ence as any Of the sciences in the natural
sphere, physical or metaphysical. That it
rests upon the observation of phenomena
the spiritual phenomena of humanity. That
from such observation it constructs its sys-
tenn of knowledge. That its great aim is to
develop the reign of law, just as in the phys:
ical or metaphysical sciences. He illustrated
how the questions in debate between the