Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/44

26 story of the spread of the gospel, the only "working hypothesis" to explain the facts. The synoptics hear internal marks of being genuine; give a consistent tale to account for the state of things as detailed by Paul and the Book of Acts; and have external testimony accumulating in their favor derived especially from the controversies with the early heretics. Even John's gospel is brought within a hundred years of our Lord's death, almost certainly in the first century, is shown to be as little inconsistent with the synoptics as Plato's Socrates is with Xenophon's Socrates, and breathes an air so superior to that of the Apostolic Fathers, that we see the one to be heaven-descended, the other to be the product of imperfect human nature at a time when the minds of Christians were saturated with divine truth. It is clear that the "expectancy" of accounting for the life of Christ by human causes has not yet been realized. "The Bible," as Beza said, "is an anvil which has worn out many hammers."

Every one knows that all men, scientific and unscientific, are liable to be swayed by prejudice, and Dr. Carpenter has not been able to throw much light on this subject by physiology. Even mathematicians may have their "personal equation." Philosophers, so called, and scientists have fallen under the influence of the idols of Bacon, and not a few other idols which have been set up since his time. Historical investigators, judges, and juries, are all aware of its existence, and should guard against it. We meet with it in our daily intercourse with our fellow-men, and make allowance for it. We see it in the village parties, in political contests, and in the rivalries of rank and trade. To every reality there is a counterfeit; corresponding to every truth there is a false appearance; if there be one Jehovah, there are many idols. Many, when they look to the dust of the conflict, are tempted to conclude that Truth cannot be found. But, notwithstanding all this, Truth can be found and won by those who court her in the right manner and the right spirit. It is to be remembered, however, that while we are required to demand evidence before yielding our conviction, all evidence is not of the same kind. "I receive mathematics," said Goethe, "as the most sublime and useful science as long as they are applied in their proper place; but I cannot commend the misuse of them in matters which do not belong to their sphere, and in which, noble science as they are, they seem to be mere nonsense, as if, forsooth, things only exist when they can be mathematically demonstrated! It would be foolish for a man not to believe in his mistress's love because she could not prove it to him mathematically. She can mathematically prove her dowry, but not her love." Some scientists in our day are insisting that every thing, even in history, morals, and religion, is to be settled by experiment and calculation, and would place all truth under the microscope—subject it to the blowpipe, and express it in statistics—and they do not see that the highest truth escapes in the process. The defenders of religion