the external or temporal redemption overshadows the spiritual redemption, so far as the present is concerned, while the deliverance from sin and the establishment of God's Kingdom as a spiritual reign of God belongs largely to the future. In the patriarchal period God makes Himself known as the one true God, as distinct from the heathen divinities. He manifests His power and His holiness. His revelation is confined to a single family. With them a covenant is established. To them a promise is given, which clearly, though in very general terins, assures them that through their instrumentality the whole race is to receive the divine revelation and to be visited by the divine grace. In the legal stage a people is chosen, a law of constitution given, institutions religious and political founded, a fuller revelation made of the holiness of God. The idea of the kingdom of God, only partially realized in the Jewish commonwealth, makes its appearance. The institutions of this period are typical, turning men's thoughts to a divine salvation which is only vaguely understood. In this period the promise is reasserted. The Chosen People know that they have been selected to be the channel of God's blessings to mankind. In the prophetic period, as God trains His People in the hard school of suffering, punishing them for their sins and teaching them their dependence upon Him, the hope of the future becomes the prominent element in the revelation. The coming Kingdom of God and the spiritual redemption fill up the prophet's horizon. The advent of the Messiah, the Redeemer and the King of the divine Kingdom, is more and more clearly descried. The redemptive work of the Christ, and especially his atoning work as the vicarious sufferer for the race, begins to appear. A New Covenant of spiritual import, the blessed gift of which is the forgiveness of sins, is promised (Jer. xxxi. 31 seq.). The heathen nations are to be gathered into the Kingdom and made partakers of the divine redemption.

2. And now the New Dispensation dawns. It is in Jesus Christ that the redemptive revelation reaches its consummation. Hitherto God had revealed Himself, so to speak, at second hand, through men and by historical and natural agencies. Now He becomes incarnate in the person of the well-beloved Son. The Word becomes flesh. The only-begotten Son, which was in the bosom of the Father, declares Him (John i. 14, 18). He can say to the perplexed disciple who asks that he may be shown the Father, "Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John xiv. 9). His wondering followers hear him say, "All things have been delivered unto me of my Father; and no one knoweth the Son save the Father; neither doth any know the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him" (Matt. xi. 27). Jesus Christ is the present God. By his teaching and his work he fulfils the Law. He preaches the redemption from sin, the Gospel of grace. He establishes the Kingdom of God in his own person and calls all men unto it. By his death he makes propitiation for sin. By the sending of his Spirit he founds the Christian church and sets in operation the agencies by which the world is to be redeemed and God's kingdom established on earth. Through him life and immortality are brought to light. He gives the assurance of the final triumph of the Kingdom and the overthrow of evil.

The redemptive revelation was completed by Christ's disciples. Men who knew him, who had imbibed his spirit, who had learned the truth from his lips, were filled with the Holy Spirit and enabled to make known the truth which he could not reveal fully and clearly while he was on earth, because it could only be understood and received in the light of his finished work and his entrance into his kingly glory.

With Christ and his disciples the redemptive revela

tion is finished. It has been given in its completeness to mankind and needs only to be appropriated. All that men need to know of God and His ways, in order that they may be delivered from sin and its consequences, and restored to the lost birthright of the sons of God, has been revealed to them. If they will, they may know God as He is and find in Him the supply of all their needs. For this is eternal life that they should know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

One final question: Is there to be any higher revelation of God? In one sense, yes. In the blessedness of heaven, and still more in the final state, we shall know God even as also we are known. Yet it is doubtful whether that should be called a new revelation. Rather will it not be the full appropriation of the present revelation, when every hindrance is removed? Sin will be gone, the spiritual vision will be clarified, and we shall see God in all the perfectness of His redemptive revelation.

III.

THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY

It

IT may seem almost absurd to attempt to present, in a single chapter a subject like this, upon which whole libraries have been written. And certainly the difficulty of doing so with any degree of success is very great. Yet, even at the risk of giving scarcely more than a dry enumeration of the proofs, I shall make the trial. A bird'seye view is unsatisfactory enough, but it has its value. often opens the way for a more careful examination, to which it serves to give intelligent direction. So I hope it will be in our case. If this brief survey of the great field shall lead anyone to a thorough and thoughtful study of the subject, my purpose will have been amply fulfilled. Before passing to the evidences themselves, let me say a word on the nature of the proof. Here, as in the case of the argument for the divine existence, the revelation is itself the proof, in what it is and what it does-its nature and its effects. As there we sought for the different methods of the divine revelation and found in each an argument, so here. Only it is to be observed that here we have to do with a revelation that is more complex and difficult of exhibition, so that it will not be so easy to give an exhaustive and logical presentation of the arguments. A word, also, respecting the point of view from which the evidences are to be presented. We can readily see that the proof will vary in its form according to the class which it is desired to reach. The Christian who seeks to justify to his intellect the faith that long ago carried con

viction to his heart; the honest inquirer respecting the truth that is as yet unverified in his experience; the young man or woman who is making the transition from an inherited to a personal faith; the unbeliever who actively opposes Christianity; the heathen who is entangled in the prepossessions and prejudices of a false religion-these different classes need each to be met with a different handling of the arguments. But there is one stand-point which seems to be central and to furnish a rallying-point for all the others. It is that of the Christian who, already convinced in heart and head of the truth of Christianity, is asked for a reason of the hope that is in him. If he can with rational argument make good his position, if he can clearly show the strong foundations on which his faith. rests, the task is accomplished. He gives to each class the answer which it needs. It is from this point of view that I ask you to consider the subject.

The proof falls, naturally, into two branches:

I. The Experimental Proof.

II. The Confirmatory.

Under the latter head we shall distinguish a number of subordinate arguments.

I. We begin with the proof which is at once the simplest and the most convincing, namely, that from personal experience.

Christianity does not come to men primarily as a system of doctrine demanding the assent of the intellect, but rather as a practical remedy for sin asking the consent of the will to its application. The Gospel offers pardon for sin on the ground of Christ's atoning work, restoration to fellowship and sonship with God, and the grace of the Holy Spirit as the power by which sin may be overcome and holiness attained. The means or instrument by which this blessing is appropriated is faith in Christ-a faith which consists primarily in trust, an act of the will, a giving of one's self in entire submission into the hands of the