We live in an age of discovery, invention, research, and doubt. Scepticism is well nigh
omnipresent in the thinking world. It impregnates the atmosphere. We can no more ignore it than
the ancient Fathers could ignore the Gnostic speculations of their day. Nothing is taken for granted;
nothing believed on mere authority; everything must be supported by adequate proof, everything
explained in its natural growth from the seed to the fruit. Roman Catholics believe in an infallible
oracle in the Vatican; but whatever the oracle may decree, the earth moves and will continue to
move around the sun. Protestants, having safely crossed the Red Sea, cannot go back to the flesh-pots
of the land of bondage, but must look forward to the land of promise. In the night, says a proverb,
all cattle are black, but the daylight reveals the different colors.
Why did Christ not write the New Testament, as Mohammed wrote the Koran? Writing
was not beneath his dignity; he did write once in the sand, though we know not what. God himself
wrote the Ten Commandments on two tables of stone. But Moses broke them to pieces when he
saw that the people of Israel worshipped the golden calf before the thunders from Sinai had ceased
to reverberate in their ears. They might have turned those tables into idols. God buried the great
law-giver out of sight and out of the reach of idolatry. The gospel was still less intended to be a
dumb idol than the law. It is not a killing letter but a life-giving spirit. It is the spirit that quickeneth;
the flesh profiteth nothing; the words of Christ "are spirit and are life." A book written by his own
unerring hand, unless protected by a perpetual miracle, would have been subject to the same changes
and corruptions in the hands of fallible transcribers and printers as the books of his disciples, and
the original autograph would have perished with the brittle papyrus. Nor would it have escaped the
unmerciful assaults of sceptical and infidel critics, and misinterpretations of commentators and
preachers. He himself was crucified by the hierarchy of his own people, whom he came to save.
What better fate could have awaited his book? Of course, it would have risen from the dead, in
spite of the doubts and conjectures and falsehoods of unbelieving men; but the same is true of the
writings of the apostles, though thousands of copies have been burned by heathens and false
Christians. Thomas might put his hand into the wound-prints of his risen Lord; but "Blessed are
they that have not seen and yet have believed."
We must believe in the Holy Spirit who lives and moves in the Church and is the invisible
power behind the written and printed word.
The form in which the authentic records of Christianity have come down to us, with their
variations and difficulties, is a constant stimulus to study and research and calls into exercise all
the intellectual and moral faculties of men. Every one must strive after the best understanding of
the truth with a faithful use of his opportunities and privileges, which are multiplying with every
generation.
The New Testament is a revelation of spiritual and eternal truth to faith, and faith is the
work of the Holy Spirit, though rooted in the deepest wants and aspirations of man. It has to fight
its way through an unbelieving world, and the conflict waxes hotter and hotter as the victory comes
nearer. For the last half century the apostolic writings have been passing through the purgatory of
the most scorching criticism to which a book can be subjected. The opposition is itself a powerful
testimony to their vitality and importance.
There are two kinds of scepticism: one represented by Thomas, honest, earnest, seeking
and at last finding the truth; the other represented by Sadducees and Pontius Pilate, superficial,
worldly, frivolous, indifferent to truth and ending in despair. With the latter "even the gods reason
in vain." When it takes the trouble to assail the Bible, it deals in sneers and ridicule which admitA.D. 1-100.