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JAN

13040.

DW

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by

FUNK & WAGNALLS,

In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

THE HOMILETIC MONTHLY.

A MAGAZINE

DEVOTED TO THE PUBLICATION OF SERMONS AND OTHER MATTER OF HOMILETIC INTEREST.

VOL. VIII.

-OCTOBER, 1883.

-No. I.

SERMONIC.

LOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF REJECT

ING CHRISTIANITY.

BY J. M. BUCKLEY, D.D., IN THE HANSON
PLACE METHODIST CHURCH, BROOKLYN.
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is
vain; ye are yet in your sins.—1 Cor.

xv: 17.

It is

THERE are, in general, two kinds of doubters: those who wish to doubt, and seek materials to strengthen their unbelief; and those who would be glad to believe, but are perplexed with doubts that they do not cherish. impossible to assist the first of these. Their difficulty is not with the head, but with the heart; and Jesus Himself instructs His followers to pay them no attention, saying: "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." So that whoever, professing to be a Christian, endeavors to convince a person who really does not wish to be convinced, does so without any authority whatever from the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he professes to represent. And, in fact, if we attempt to assist those who wish to believe, those who wish to disbelieve will

often distort, as they can do without the slightest difficulty, what we say to assist honest inquirers, to their own destruction.

There are many Christians who have waves of doubt sweep over their minds, especially when some person who has been supposed to be a man of unquestionable piety is exposed as one capable of the blackest sin and the foulest practices; especially, again, when some person who has seemed to furnish every evidence of the strongest faith begins to waver, and then makes a public recantation or change, and declares that, through his whole life, he had been under a delusion as to his supposed religious experience. It is no proof that a man has not faith that he doubts, though that seems to be a contradiction. The heart may be true to Christ and Christianity, while the head is disturbed. Many persons never doubt, because they never think. Some never doubt because - and this is the best of reasons they have enjoyed deep religious experience, and have been busy in Christian activity. But it would not be logical to say that a man is very good merely because he never doubted, nor that he is not good merely because he

The first several sermons are reported in full; the remainder are given in condensed form. Every care is taken to make these reports correct; yet our readers must not forget that it would be unfair to hold a speaker responsible for what may appear in a condensation, made by another, of his discourse.]

acknowledges that he has been troubled by doubts.

It is my purpose to-night to pursue a line of thought adapted to assist the honest doubter, and to strengthen any Christian who, from time to time, may feel that doubts come-he cannot tell how or whence-which disturb his thoughts and his prayers, and trouble him in his works and in his Bible searchings.

I believe that the Gospel itself is the strongest evidence of its truth. The processes of logic are valuable, and we all employ them; but we are obliged to employ them in defending the Gospel by piecemeal. We have to take up here a point, and there another, and argue either in the way of answering an objection, explaining a difficulty, or substantiating a proof. There is a better way, but it is very difficult: and what I shall endeavor to do to-night is to pursue that more excellent way and make, first myself and then you to see the Gospel exactly as it is, and to hold up before the mind the consequences of assuming this truth on the one hand, or of denying it on the other. And I hope, if I shall succeed in evolving my own thought, that I shall make a symmetrical presentation, which will have, not the kind of force that is produced by a process of argument, but that which results from a moral conviction which bears down upon the heart and conscience, and the understanding at the same time.

The question that I raise is the one of the text, which begins, not with an affirmation, but with a question; and is in, not the indicative, which declares, but the subjunctive, which doubts: "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins." Our question is this: What will inevitably follow from the assumption that the Gospel of Christ is untrue? It cannot be assumed to be partly true and partly false in the supernatural sense. course, it can be assumed to be partly true and partly false in the human sense, just as we say that Gibbon's "History of the Decline and Fall of the

Of

Roman Empire" is partly true and partly false. Probably there is not a book in the world, unless it be a book of pure mathematics, that is not partly true and partly false. But the question I raise is this: if the Gospel be untrue in this sense-that it has not a supernatural origin? If it be answered in the affirmative-that it is untrue in that sense-then, of course, the book that contains the record must be put down by the side of "Appleton's Cyclopædia," or the "Cyclopædia Britannica," or any other book that is offered to the acceptance of men. Please to consider that it is not the truth of particular parts of the Bible that we have before us, but the question whether it be a voice from God to man, a supernatural voice, a voice that did not come in the way of natural cause and effect; a voice that did not come as this sermon comes; not a voice on theology, or history, or politics. Now let us adhere to this, and not flinch. Thousands of persons enjoy benefits without any proper reflection upon their source, and there are many persons who suppose that they are doubters who never yet have had the moral courage, or the intellectual perception, to doubt. They are mistaken with regard to doubt. They do not understand it; for when the doubt would assume a form in which it could be clearly identified, they dismiss it.

1. In the first place, if the Gospel be untrue, does it not follow that God has never, in any supernatural way, spoken to man? Is there any way to avoid that conclusion? Is there any other religion that can be put into competition for a moment with the Gospel as having claims to a supernatural origin? By which I mean, that if you deny the supernatural origin of the Gospel, is it possible for you to admit the supernatural origin of any other religion? I suppose it cannot be necessary to argue that point. Of course, Judaism you would reject, unless you are a Jew, if you reject Christianity; and you cannot accept Mohammedanism, which is a mixture of Judaism, Christianity,

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