Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1889-10-03

scms ;:sG aeia say that Ahese aye
books were written in a later age i;
but that cannot be, for whenever
they might have been written in
after ages, these NOM morials, religious
services and laws would hayo been
found, being observed and taught to
the Jewish children, and no one
could have persuaded the Jews that
these hooks, purporting tolhaye been
written by Moses and from that
time kept in the ark and read
to them every seven years, were at
the time of such forgery, first writ
Zen, o. t..;a.s that tt!.e:sssi;sss had had
complying with civil and eoclesiasti-
cal laws there laid down with oil its
forms and ceremonies and had been
celebrating unknown events, when
such laws and events were then
first heard Of by them or if the
Jews were not observing these laws
and ceremonies and had not before
heard of them, they could not
have been persuaded that they were
doing so, nor that it was a mere
renewal after a temporary cessation
Of that which they or their immedi-
ate ancestors had observed. Be-
sides, the Jews would never have
tolerated q forgery which states such
disreputable things Of their ances-
tors as Noah's drunkenness, Abra-
HAMS cowardice and falsehood, ia
coh's aeeeitfalness, the envy and
treachery of Joseph's ten brethren,
Judah's incest, and Aaron's calf
worshipped by the whole. perverted
nation. The testimony of the Jews
and Josephus as to the genuineness
of the other Old Testament books
is as strong as to those of Moses, but
the limits of this discourse prevents
even its recapitulation here. Many
authors, friendly and unfricndly to
Christianity, who lived at the time
and very soon after the New Testa-
ment was written, satisfactorily cs.
tablish that its books were written
at the times and by the persons to
whom they are respectively ascribed.
This was never denied until after
the third century. CELSIUS, who
wrote within sixty years Of the apos-
tolio + age, j insists that the Gospels
! were written by those personal
friends and followers of Christ respect
lively who claim to have written
them, but he undertakes. to refute
J the Christians out of their own
books. So with Porphyry, a phi
: losopher of the third century; and SC
with Julian the apostate. Corinthus
the Heretics, the Ebionites and the
, Nazarenes admitted the authenticity
of the Gospels of Mark, Luke and
J John, but discarded them on other
grounds; also admitted that Paul
, wrote truthfully of his personal life
!; and admitted the authenticity of his
epistlcs, but denied that he was an
apostle.
2. We give credit to the undisput-
ed narratives Of facts made by histo-
rians to their cotemporaries, especial
ly such facts as, if untrue, would be
likely to provoke public contradic-
ton. The enemies of Christianity
were bitter, Intelligent and powerful
yet no contradiction of any fact stat.
} ed in the New Testament, except the
/ resurrection of Christ, appears to
, have been made until after the third
; century.
, B. The statements of both the Old
: and New Testaments are corroborat.
ed by the irresistible conclusion that
if good men wrote them they must
be true, and that bad men would
never have written book which
commands all duty, forbids all sins
and condemns their own souls to hel
, for all eternity.
: 4. Further considerations are the
testimony of other writers, of mona
ments, Sc, in other nations, to many
; important facts hereinbefore mon,
toned to establish the authenticit,
Of the Scriptures; the perfect accord
of all the parts of this book, writer
; by about thirty-five different persons
and from time to time, during a pc
riod of sixteen hundred years; the
| perfect nature of God therein por
trayed; the unbending requirement
of holy living; the wise and loving
plan by which believers are clotl.>
with the righteousness Of Christ thu
happy transformations of characte,
in those who receive and obey the
Bible and the fulflllmcnt of prophecy
s. The miracles purporting to have