13. That special pleading is found throughout the book.
14. That whatever information is wanting, as to the exact manner in which the four Gospels were compiled--whatever probability there may be that Matthew's is made up of materials from several other sources, such as the lost "Gospel of the Hebrews," as well as from that apostle's own record of what he heard and was eye-witness of--whatever probability there may be that the Fourth Gospel is only the Apostle John's to the extent of his having furnished the materials, which Grecian, rather than Jewish, pens put into elegant language and artistic form--it is undeniable that if John the son of Zebedee, the apostle, wrote the Apocalypse, as our author proves he did, the fact furnishes the strongest evidence, "clear, direct, and irrefragable," that he knew, being an eye-witness of the events of the Gospel records, the Resurrection of Christ to be no "cunningly devised fable," but the fact of facts, the truth of truths, the miracle of miracles.
15. That the religion of the Bible being spiritual, its truths are best discerned by those whose hearts are open to receive them.
The vast expanse of evangelical Christian evidence, shining around us like the sky on a clear night, has its nebulæ which only faith's telescope can reach; but there are stars and constellations which are so conspicuous that no inquirer after truth can fail to see them. John to the seven Churches, whose angels are seven stars, is as obvious as the Pleiades; Paul and Barnabas, as of old, are Mercurius and Jupiter; Abraham's descendants, still distinct from all other races, in all lands, are prominent as Sirius; Pliny's letter to Trajan is radiant as Arcturus; the martyr-story of the Catacombs and of history is as demonstrative as Mars; while the institution to show forth the Lord's death, by the breaking of bread on the Lord's day, glows like Venus. These, requiring no telescope,
"Confirm the tidings as they roll, And spread the truth from pole to pole."
UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, CHILWORTH AND LONDON.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wave of Scepticism and the Rock of Truth, by Matthew Henry Habershon