374 The Fundamentals And Christianity does this by first securing its adherents a title to eternal life through the obedience unto death of Christ, next by making them meet for the inheritance through the indwelling and operation of Christ’s spirit, then by open ing for them the gates of immortality through Christ’s resur rection, and finally by Christ’s coming for them at the end of the age. Now can anything more complete be thought of as a Scheme of Salvation? Is there any part of it that is not ex actly fitted to its place and suited to its end? So far is this from being the case that not a single pin can be removed from the building without bringing down the whole superstructure. Abstract from Christianity the Incarnation, or the Atonement, or the Resurrection, or the Exaltation, or the Future coming, and its framework is shattered. Take away Pardon or Pu rity or Peace or Sonship or Heaven, and its value as a system of religion is gone. But these are not assertions that will hold good of fables and fictions, myths and legends, which might all be tampered with, taken from or added to, without endan gering their worth. Hence, it is fair to argue, that a scheme so admirably adjusted in all its parts, so complete in its pro visions and so exquisitely adapted to its design, could only have emanated from the mind of Him who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working, who is the true God and the Eternal Life. III. A third mark of truthfulness in the Christian system is ITS CONSPICUOUS SUCCESS in effecting the end for which it was designed. Had Christianity been a baseless imagination, or a super stitious legend, is there reason to suppose either that it would have lived so long or that it would have achieved the wonders it has done during the past nineteen centuries— either upon individuals or upon the world at large ? It is true
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