The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1906-04-20

cies uttered thousands of years age
have been fulfilled in the past or are
being fulfilled now. Dr. Newman
standing upon the ruins of ancient
Babylon, once said, 81 could take a
competent engineer if 1 had sufficient
resources and reconstruct Babylon
guided only by the prophecies uttered
concerning it long before the first foun-
dation stone was laid" So we find the
Bible not only prophesying events to
come, but also recording those events
after they had happened. Do not the
fulfilled prophecies stamp the Bible as
being of divine authorship?
Then the miracles Of Jesus and the
recorded biographies of Christ How
are you going to get around them
Are you going to regard Christ as a
fraud and an impostor and yet call him
the best of men, as nearly all infidels
and agnostics do? I can understand
how Voltaire could despise and bias
pheme Christ, but do not understand
how Rousseau and Jean Paul Richter
could be so illogical as to represent
Christ at the same time as model for
humanity and yet as a self deceived
fanatic.
A Ridiculous Position.
Are you going to take the ridiculous
and illogical stand which a noted edi-
tor of city newspaper did when he
wrote to lawyer friend of mine a
+I,n4 40
drinks can preach a better temperance
lecture than all the fanatics on earth.
But you cannot make men good by
law. l am not a believer in religion,
so called, but l was convinced long ago
that the ultimate redemption of the
children of men must come through the
incubation in their hearts of the re-
ligion of Jesus Christ. If men make
Christ the model, even though it be a
superstition, as l believe, virtue will
dominate the world of vice and sin
will be minimized. But it must come
through moral suasion and not through
force and compulsion." Now, my
friend, is that your illogical stand?
Are you prepared to assert with your
one breath that Jesus Christ Is the
best of all human beings and then to
assert with your next breath that
Christ is a deceiver. Nay, nay, not
that. AS an intelligent man you
should be ready to say here and now:
mo man could have uttered such
words as did Jesus Christ unless he
was true. And therefore, if Christ is
true Christ is the Son of God" By the
not get away from this conclusion.
The Bible biographies of Christ, by
their internal evidence, prove that
Christs life was divine.
Now, having seen enough of the signs
and wonders of the Bible to prove that
it is of divine authorship, l am ready
to make a confession. 1 am ready to
confess that this holy book is filled
with mysteries. Like blind man, l
bump up against them everywhere.
But because l cannot understand why
God should so love the world that he
gave his only begotten Son that whose
ever believeth ON him should not perish,
but have everlasting life, is that any
reason why should reject that divine
offer of pardon and eternal life? NAY,
nay" again l say. Why all the prom
ses Of God are given to us l cannot
conceive. But those promises are there.
And because they are there l will ac-
cept them and live by them and leave
he explanations for eternity.
But now, believing that God is a low
ng Father and that the Bible is given
% us by divine inspiration, the next
lificult question which confronts us is
his: "Why does a loving Father, who is
such felicity for us on the
,ther side of the grave, allow so much
Misery and suffering and injustice to
lis dear ones on this side of the
,raveY for we all can say with the |
81 have seen the wicked in |
.reat power and spreading himself like
green bay tree" Yes, we have seen
wicked Dives in a palace and good |
lazarus as beggar dying in the gut
religion has in it the promise of the
ife that now is. A proof of the fact we
nay see around us in prosperous. hap
" men, who are leading good Chris
ian lives.
Gladstone's Testimony.
Let me prove this statement by the
of one Of the greatest of
English statesmen of the past century,
Ion. William e. Gladstone, who once
aid: christianity is the religion in
he command of whose professors is
edged a proportion of power far ex-
eeding its superiority of numbers, and
his power is both moral and material.
n the realm of controversy IL can
lardly be said to have a serious an
agonist. Force, secular or physical,
8 accumulated in the hands of Chris
lans in proportion absolutely over
and the accumulation of In
uence is not less remarkable than that
f force. This is not surprising, for all
be elements of influence have their
ONE within the Christian precinct.
he art, the literature, the systematized
ldustry, invention and commerce-in
ne word. the power OF the world-are
lmost wholly Christian. The nations
Christendom are everywhere arbi-
ers of the fate OF nom Christian ma
ons." Where people as a nation have
onored God, there God has always
onored and blessed those people The
lgns Of these blessings everywhere
rove that GOO is locking after and
airing for his own. Now, having seen
ow GOA blesses his own in great mum.
ers, 1 am ready to believe that he is
lessing his own even when he permits
lie heavy hand of trouble to fall upon
lem. l cannot understand always
-hy this trouble comes, but am ready