The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1883-03-14
THE TESTS OF A TR UE RELL
GION

THE TESTS OF A TR UE RELL
GION.
1t is remarkable, if Christianity is false,
how perfectly the system meets the wants
of humanity.
If it is false, it is very certain that the
true religion, when it appears, will have
to make provision for the following facts
which belong to the case
l. The human race is q race of sinners
The new religion will have to start from
this foundation fact. If man is not
convicted by his own conscience, the his
tory of the world proves it to be fact.
The history of the Jews, of the Greeks,
of the Romans, of the French, the Eng
fish, Spaniards, Italians, Americans, any
people; any copy of the morning paper
proves it,
g. The new religion will have next
to recognise that sinners must be pun
ished; or there can be no Reign of Law.
8. Then it mrst provide substitute
for the sinner, if he is to be saved.
4. No created being can make an ade-
quate atonement. 1t must be the Lamb
of God.
5. The salvation of the sinner canLot
be by his own works.
6. 1t must be by looking to the sui
stitute.
7. The Saviour must not only be a
Divine Saviour, but, as He is to suffer,
He must be also human Saviour.
s. The Saviour must not only pay the
penalty for the sins that have been COM
mitted, and save from death, but he must
keep the loaO, and so open the way to life
9. There must be provision for the
changing of the sinners dispositions, SO
that he shall be morally qualified to COM
pany with holy beings.
1t is curious that the religion gathered
by patient examination from the gospels
and epistles of the New Testament makes
all these provisions; not formally in the
systematic way of philosophy or a the
illogical treatise the writer's, writing
without concert, are no scientific men,
and do not attempt to elaborate any sys-
TEN. 1t is only by collating and COM
pairing that we get at the method. The
evangelists and apostles write almost I'M
consciously; that is to say, they write of
the system as Christ spoke about it as
one speaks of thing perfectly clear to
his own mind, and which he speaks about
rather than undertakes formally to de-
scribe. We have no treatise on Original
Sin, or Regeneration, or the Divinity of
Christ, or the Obedience of Christ, in the
New Testament.
But on examination we have the sys-
tenn there, Just as we can elicit the science
Of botany from study Of nature, or the
science Of chemistry or mineralogy.
We have in the system all that we
have above represented to be necessary
in the true religion Now, how did such
system occur to men like Peter and
John, or to prosecutor like Paul And
if it did occur, how does it happen that
they did not formulate it, but left it like
seed scattered by the wsyside, to germi-
nate by such processes only as nature
might provide?
The TRUE RELIGION, when it comes,
we say, has got to have all these features !;
and it follows, therefore, that if Chris
tianity be false, it is at least, a draught
of what true religion must be.
This creates prinaa tacie presumption
in it's favor; in fact, if it is perfectly pure
in its tone and spirit, and the men who
witnessed to it were pure and upright
men-and much more, if they were holy