character and miracles. There is abundant evidence of the truth of the Scriptural narrative of the crucifixion, independently of the Scriptures themselves; so that "if the narrative of the Evangelists were now lost, all the material facts connected with that memorable scene might be collected from Pagan historians, and Jewish and other Antichristian writers."

The question naturally presents itself, How far does this fact avail in proving the truth of that system of religion which is contained in the Holy Scriptures? Here several thoughts deserve consideration. Human reason has never been able to satisfy itself with a religion of its own inventing. It has had every opportunity of doing so, which the most learned age, and the finest minds could furnish; and the result of the experiment has been the grossest darkness, the most foolish absurdities, and the greatest corruption of morals. The proof of this observation is in the history of the past. If you look to Egypt, the cradle of science and the arts; if to Greece, whose genius and literature still constitute the acknowledged standard of taste; if to Rome, the garlands of whose philosophers are still green upon its grave; you see that, "the world by wisdom knew not God," and that "professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." If there is a God, infinitely great and good, the Creator and Governor of men, it is reasonable to suppose he would give them a revelation of his will. Men have indeed no right to demand such a revelation, nor may they complain if it is denied. Yet from what they know of God in his works and in his Providence, were it not reasonable to hope for it? We know there was a sort of vague, undefinable impression on the minds of many of the heathen, of some approaching day of light, and that this anticipation became very general as the time for the Messiah's advent drew

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nigh. And dim as these hopes were, they were not in vain. This floating anticipation became settled, and was realized when "in the fulness of time God sent forth his Son," and this vision of a golden age became a present reality when he expired on the Cross. If the narrative of the cross is a true narrative, the religion that is based upon it is the true religion. Its claims rest upon the truth of this narrative. If there was such a person as Jesus of Nazareth-one possessing his unblemished character, imbued with the wisdom expressed in his public and private discourses, working the miracles which he wrought, living the life he led, and dying the death he died—then is Christianity most certainly true. On this basis the apostles themselves rest this sacred structure. "I have delivered unto you, FIRST OF ALL, how that CHRIST DIED for our sins according to the Scriptures." This is the sure 66 corner stone" which is laid in Zion; the Rock on which God builds his church.

Let us look at this thought for a few moments, and inspect some of its bearings. The death of Christ is indubitable witness to the truth of the Old Testament. If this fact is demonstrated, the truth of the Old Testament Scriptures is demonstrated, the Divine mission of Moses and the prophets is confirmed, and the verity of their writings substantiated. To see the force of this remark, we have only to suppose that the crucifixion of Christ had never taken place. In such an event we must give up the Old Testament Scriptures; we must regard them as erroneous, and look upon them as an uninspired volume. A dark and heavy night would rest upon the whole system of religion which they reveal. They would present an inexplicable volume, containing many things above the reach of created wisdom, and at the same time unmeaning prefigurations and false

prophecies. The death of Christ sheds the only light upon them they are capable of receiving, and furnishes the only solution of what must otherwise have remained impenetrably mysterious. They would have remained a sealed book had not "the Lion of the tribe of Judah been worthy to open the book, and loose the seals thereof." The Cross alone solves the mystery of the animal sacrifices of the patriarchal age, and of that bloody economy which God instituted among the Jews. Those ancient oracles are dumb, those ancient altars give no instruction to the world, if they do not teach that God requires duty or suffering, obedience or penalty, a perfect righteousness or a perfect reparation; and the lesson they read no man can understand, if they tell not of pardon from the Cross. The same may be said of the whole system of prophecy contained in the Old Testament. Its great outlines, as well as its wonderfully minute details, all concentrate in the Cross, and are there determined with the most perfect precision. There is the forsaken and reproached One; the unresisting and abused One; the One who was "sold for thirty pieces of silver;" the One against whom "the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers took counsel together;" the One who was (6 cut off not for himself," whose "feet and hands were pierced," and who was "numbered with the transgressors." There is he who was "laughed to scorn;" against whom men "should shoot out the lip and shake the head;" whose garments should be divided between his murderers; who should be forsaken of God; to whom his enemies should give the vinegar and gall; whose bones should remain unbroken, and who should "make his grave with the wicked and the rich in his death." Vast as is the entire system of prophecy-reaching from the fall of man to the consummation of all things-darkly as its oracle some

times spake, and confined as it was to a people from whom the Messiah was to be descended; it is all plain and intelligible when we see it pointing to him who hung on Calvary. In him alone it receives its fulfillment; and it is by their relation to him that a multitude of otherwise unimportant events, of which it speaks, are magnified. Such events multiply and grow upon us the more we become familiar with the sacred writings, each falling in with the great consummation on Calvary, and carrying conviction to the mind, that if the narrative of the Cross is true, Christianity cannot be false. Hence, we find that our Lord and his apostles appeal to the Old Testament in proof of Christianity, and by an induction of so many particulars, and so striking, as to constitute an incontrovertible argument to show that the whole method of salvation by the Cross of Christ was foreseen and foretold under the Old Testament, and that its authors were divinely inspired. And if this be so, the conclusion is equally plain and incontrovertible, that the New Testament Scriptures, in which alone the Old terminate and are fulfilled, are a divine revelation, and that Jesus came, in accordance with the declared counsel of heaven, to do and suffer the will of his Father. And this conclusion is corroborated by the fact, that scattered as were the writers of this ancient volume through the centuries that intervened between Moses and Malachi, they all pursued one great end, and were all under the absorbing influence of this one thought-the redemption of man by the crucified Son of God.

It is far from the design of these pages to furnish even an outline of the evidences in favor of Christianity. It is but to take a transient view of them while standing by the Cross. It is here the Christian loves to view them, and discovers a system of belief of which God is

the Author, and sees doctrines and duties which have upon them the image and superscription of the Deity. The Cross of Christ has an inseparable connection with all that is peculiar in the religion that is revealed from heaven. The Cross and the Bible stand or fall together. You cannot take away the Cross without demolishing the whole structure; while, if the Cross remains, the whole superstructure remains, "built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone." Let this link of the chain be broken, and there is nothing to support the whole; let this be supported, and the whole is supported. The man who reads the Bible nearest the Cross, sees most of its high credentials, and feels most deeply that it contains a system of truth every way worthy of God to reveal. The principles which it unfolds, the religion it inculcates, the method of the divine administration it has introduced, and its wonderful salvation, beheld and contemplated amid the scenes of Gethsemane and Calvary, are fitted to produce the strong, the vivid, permanent impression, that they are too lofty to have been within the reach of human invention-too holy and pure to have originated with so polluted a source-too good to be attributed save to the Father of Lights. Where the heart feels the influence and power of the Cross, it has evidence of the truth of it which nothing else can give; views too clear, and illumined, and transforming, ever to be forgotten, or greatly eclipsed. "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself." The word is sealed to him by the Spirit, who wrote it. His own heart responds to the truth of the Cross. He has felt its teachings to be true within his own soul. To him belongs a deeper Scriptural wisdom than all scholarship can bestow-a wisdom grounded on his perception of the