Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
ON THE ROCK OF AGES
Gail Hamilton Stands and Criticises
Mrs. Wards Denial of
THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST.
Its Truth Virtually Conceded by ALI
Who Date Letters
AMMO DOMINI---THE YEAR OF OUR LORD.
Christianity Easily and CheapIys Proven, but
Difficult to DisprOVe.

Christianity Easily and CheapIys Proven, but
Difficult to DisprOVe.
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.l
The fact of the Incarnation is not affected
by any philosophy of the Incarnation.
If Jesus Christ had descended from
Joseph and Mary by ordinary generation it
would have no relation whatever to the
truth of the Incarnation. Humanity had
no experience out of which TO evolve any
theory of new order; nothing can be more
narrow than to limit the ways, the modes
by which God shall enter His world, by
which spirit force shall impress itself upon
matter, by which the ever Immanent shall
reveal itself to the finite. We have not to
invent ways in which power would be
likely to manifest itself. We have only to
study the ways in which power has mani
tested itself. We are to study the Incarna-
tion as we find it in the unbroken sequences
of nature, in the long history OF man; as the
old Andover founders put it, anticipating
Mrs., Ward: that infallible Revelation
which God constantly makes of himself in
his works of creation, providence and re-
demption.
Mrs. Ward asserts that the grounds of
Christianity are not philosophical, but lit
erary and historical.
A part of this is true and part false.
The grounds of Christianity are literary and
historical. They are also philosophical.
Ifthey were not philosophical their literary
and historical character would be insignif-
cant.
For the present, however, let US consider
Christianity on its literary and historical
grounds. Let US view it as what Mrs.
Ward says it is, solely "a question of docu-
ments and testimony"
CHRISTIANITY IS TRUE.
The documents and the testimony, says
Mrs. Ward, prove the Christian story false.
To the man who has had the special train
ing required and in whom this training has |
not been nsutralized by any overwhelming
bias of temperament, the Christian story Is
proven false; is demonstrated to rest on |
tissue of mistake.
Considering the number and character of |
the persons who believe the ChriStisn story,
there Is certain infantine naivete about |
this simple wholesale statement which has |
tendency to disguise its crude intellectual |
arrogance. 1t seems incredible that one |
who has 80 much as touched the hem of the |
garment of Oxford culture could walk |
calmly over this yawning logical chasm and |
never know it. It is not necessary to 60 |
deeply into the theme in order to refute Mrs.
Ward. She never goes deeply in. But it
Is easy to show that she is just as wrong as
if she were not superficial.
What is the special training required to
nr0Va the Christian afnru folca0 |
Wards case it took knowledge of Hebrew,
Sanscrit and other oriental languages and
30 years research into the records Of India,
Persia, Egypt, Judea and the Christian era.
1t will readily be seen that demonstration
of the Christian story is inaccessible to the
great mass of humanity. We must take
the falsity of the Christian story on faith
and on good deal more faith than the
Christian story requires. I venture to say
there are not 100 men in America ques-. /
tion if there are 100 men IN England who
have devoted the 30 years of research nee
essary to this demonstration; while there are
hundreds of men, there have been perhaps
hundreds of thousands of men who have
devoted life to the investigation and eluci-
dation of the Christian story.
A POOR MANS CREED.
The Christian story is spread before our
documents and read and judge for himself.
The falsity of Christianity is demonstrated
by documents which the vast majority of
the human race, which the vast majority of
Christendom have never seen, will never
see can never see All the documents that
prove Christianity false have not been able
to secure from the master races of the world
one thousandth part of the scrutiny which
has been lavished on the story Of Christi
anity.
A few, a very few years ago, little book
was discovered, mere treatise of 2, 100
words, and because it related to the first
century after Christ the learned world
sprang upon it with an eagerness that has
already produced a library of comment.
Already it is said the literature of that one
little book, what it teaches, what it con-
firms, the light it throws on dark places has
occupied the most original, the best fur
nished minds of the age. So far from there
being any decline of interest in this cool,
nineteenth century, the literature OF this
late-found leafet already exceeds that on
any of the so-called Apostolic Fathers.
Yet none the less blandly little pale
output of theological chickweed waves the
banner of the Oxford roses, and AYERS that
Christianity is proven false; is demonstrated
to rest on tissue of falsehood.
Considering Christianity as question of
outside of itself what documents
are in its favor? For one thing, everything.
Every book from the printing press, every
newspaper at the breakfast table, every bill
sent from the grocery, every bequest from
the dead, every. contract of the living bears
witness to the Truth Of the Christian story.
GENERAL CONFESSION.
All the letters of affection, all the tele-
grams of business, all the exact details of
legal transaction are founded on the truth
of Christ, and by their very date testify of
His coming-Anno Domini-the year of
our Lord. Nearly 1000 years ago something
happened in the East something which
happened without observation, but which
had persistence and pervasiveness, which
itself into the very framework of
society till out of silence and suffering and
shame it has become the dominant idea OF
the dominant race of the world. Every
man who reads or heeds December 25, 1888,
saint or sinner, Jew or Gentle, Infidel or
Rector, Tractarian or Radical.
The whole structure of the dominant civ
ilization is not only based on but inwrought
with the truth of the Christian story. II by
any means the name and the story OF Jesus
Christ, everything which has come from it
into the life of the world, could suddenly
and completely be burned out of the memo
ry and consciousness and record OF man, So
ciety would be chaos.
We cannot all spend 30 years among Per
sian manuscripts and past ages, but there is
a present European and American fact that
must be met 1t cannot be buried under any
mass of legendary or oriental lore. 1t re-
quires no learning to see that the stamp of I
Christ is on Christendom and that the stamp j
Of Christendom is on the world. A Jewish I
peasant? Believe it who will. It is better !
to believe so much than not to see Christ at
all. 1t is better to touch the hem of His '
beautiful garments than not to recognize In |
any way His benign and benefcent pres
snce. But to me that belief is but the sub
;titution of an unmeaning, unreasonable