The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-04-02
Juaif.iuts Ipfiiclity.

The Church of God in all ages, whether
Jewish or Christian, has had to contend
against iniidelity and scepticism in some form,
but il has nevertheless prospered and outlived
the assaults of many of the ablest thinkers
and doubters OF our race. 1t is not to be sup
pos d that the Bible, which Christians accept
as q revelation from God, will be so accepted
by all men, nor that the doctrines which it
teaches and the moral precepts and spiritual
life which it enforces will be believed or
obeyed by all. Hence the necessity for the
Church at all times to be ready to ''give rea-
son to every man that asketh for the hope that
is in u.s." But the Church has not been
always thus ready, and infdelity has some
times taken it unawares and by its criticisms
and objections gained what seemed to be
victory. This was especially the case in the
last and beginning of the present century, when
such men as Rousseau, Voltaire, Hume, Paine
and others so tore aud rent The sacred oracles
that it seemed to many good Christians as if
the foundations were being thrown down, and
they wondered what the righteous would do.
But they had not to wait long. The very objec-
ti0as raised against the Bible, and against
the systems of reli zion based upon its divinity,
awakened the Christian world to examine and
re-examine the evidecces upon which they
rest, and the result was such an overwhelming
realization of the opponents arguments as to
silence for time, il not forever, the bold and
blatant denunciations of Christianity by this
class Of infdels. Aud even some of those
leaders named nave left records behind
which prove that they wrote, not as they
thought, but as they hoped; or else that, after
they had written against the Word, they had
But infdelity did not die with those men.
1t lives today, as strong and more active than
ever; and because il is apparently meek and
quiet it is the more dangerous. 1t lives now
rather within the Church than outside Of IT,
1t is insinuating rather than outspoken. 1t
comes now as on anxious inquirer after truth,
rather than as a fearless, brazen, unbelieviny
critic, ard we can hardly refuse to answer it.
s'Wbo is the Lord" it asks, shat we should
serve Hima' "Waere is born the King of
the Jews, that we may come and worship Him
also?" And the Christian Church must
declare its knowledge of God, and state the
grounds of It's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The great stumbling block now, however. is
not the existence or personality of the Creator,
or the divinity of the Saviour, but the Mosaic
anxious inquirer after truth, wants to know
how God, being omnipotent, became fatigued
with the work Of creation and had to rest.
Or why He, being able without any exerton
OF power, but merely by the operation of His
will, should be compelled to accomplish
series OF acts Instead OF creating the whole at
once But In these questions our critical in-
quirer tells much more Of the state of his own
mind than he expects. He Is puzzled here by
a word Of four letters, as many others have
-bca. before him aud viii be in the years to
come. Toll and res. are set over against each
other because the one is tho counterpart of
the other. But 1t is well known that rest
does not always succeed labor. Men who
never work at all rest as well as those who
do: and to suppose that they rest because they
are fatgued is hardly reasonable or logical.
There Is rest which comes to men who have
finished their task, aod this is the rest which
the Creator took. "Aud on the seventh day
God cnd,d his work which lie had made; and
work which He had made"
Bat infdelity is troubled, also, about tho
time that God began to work and finished,
and II takes the Mosaic record and treats il as
III it must be detailed history Of creaticca..,
just as Macaulays history Of England or Ban
croft's of tho United States is. There was
-manitestly no such idea in thc writer's mind,
and the record is the barest statement OF
fact which stands patent to all men. The
design Of the divine revelation is expressed
by the Apostle Tt is profitable for
doctrine, for reproos for correctIou.>
for instruction ia righssoasness that tie,
,nan of God may DO perfect, thor.
'onghly furnished (not in astronomy, geology.
chemistry. or any other physical science) but
unto all good works." Nevcrthelas the inycs.
1igaticns OF those sciences agree with the rcyc-
iauon az far as they have gone, though they
nave not yet reached its utmost bound. Moses
states the fact that ''in the beoinnipo God
orea'ed the Heaven and tho Earth" and while
science must acknowledge the fact of creation
i cannot even remotely conjecture when s.,he
beginning was and 1t may multiply its mil
lions by myriads Of years aud yet not be