Christian Thought Monthly: August, 1883 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Christian Thought Monthly: August, 1883

I. To this question we answer: Because it is a simple matter of fact that Christianity first forced these truths effectually upon the world's attention and the world's acceptance by means of its supernatural claims and its supernatural history, and caused them to be largely accepted as principles of'the world's philosophy which now commend themselves to man's reason and shine by their own light. In defending itself, Christianity has been forced to defend these truths on grounds of reason against the attacks of subtle and powerful antagonists, and sharply and still more sharply to define them, under the unsparing scrutiny of keen sighted critics. In these attacks and defences these truths have been brought into every conceivable relation to other truths and theories of science and religion. When the discussions have seemed to be purely theological, they have very often, if not more frequently, turned upon some principle of this under lying philosophy. It does not follow because Christianity has inwrought certain 'truths into the world's philosophy, that it has taught them by authority or enforced them by miracle or testimony. This inference is excluded by the undisputed fact that in its use of miracle and testimony Christianity assumes these principles to be accepted and to be necessary in order to give force or significance to m1racle or history, and that again and again it has rested its cause on grounds of phildsophy alone. Much is said in these days of the hindrance which Christian theology has been to science and philosophy. Much might be said of the stimulus and aid which it has given to both in a moral and intellectual way.

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