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termined by their religious' faith. I. have not time to go into this subject now. I refer any one who doubts to the history and the geography of the world. I have no thought that any fairly intelligent person will doubt this fundamental proposition if he will study these two sources. I shall as sume that this proposition-is admitted, that the religion of a nation deter mines all its other interests, that the nation which has a true religious faith will prosper, while a nation which has an evil religious faith will decay and die. This brings us to the foundation of the Christian religion. What is it? Some of those who desire to be ac cepted as authorities on this question in our time are accustomed to say that the Christian religion does not depend upon a book, but depends upon a person. In this erroneous statement there is a sufficient percentage of truth to make it acceptable to persons who do not think carefully, but those who do so think see at once that if the person is revealed by the book; and if we have no authentic and com plete information regarding him which is otherwise derived, then the Chris tian religion does depend upon a book: It seems very strange that any person who has any title whatever to the name of scholar should ever have fail ed to see this great fact, should ever have been willing to sneak as some do respecting this matter, but the truth is obvious and does not require argu ment to one who is competent to form an opinion. We do not know a single fact respecting the life, work, and teaching of Jesus Christ which we do not derive from the Bible. Why then should any man say that the Chris tian religion depends upon Jesus Christ and not upon a book? Of course, ultimate dependence is upon God. He alone can reveal Himself in His true character, and He has done
ber of equally good witnesses equally competent testify in another way, you will necessarily, from the constitution of your mind, believe those who are nearest to the events in place and time ; e. g., if twenty Hebrew scholars who lived in the first century believe that Isaiah is the author of the prophL ecy which bears his name, and twenty equally competent, equally worthy scholars of the nineteenth or twenti eth century do not believe that he wrote the prophecy : which bears his name, you will be compelled, from the constitution of your mind, to believe the scholars who were of the first cen tury to have been correct, and the scholars of the nineteenth to be mis taken. It is obvious that if the He brew scholars of the first century were more competent witnesses than those of the nineteenth, if they drank in as a matter of birth the language which the nineteenth century scholars learned slowly and necessarily imper fectly, if manners and customs which the first century students knew through life long observation while the nineteenth century scholars know them by such testimony as they can get, you have here a difference in com petence as well as a difference in time, and of course, any rational being will be forced to accept the testimony of the first century as against the testi mony of the nineteenth. What Are We to Believe About the Bible? I do not need to speak of the funda mental character of this question. I think I could prove to the satisfac tion of any honest man fairly intelli gent that the religion of a man or a nation is the determining factor in the life of that man or nation. I think it is easy to show that the industrial, commercial, intellectual, social, politi cal institutions of any people are de
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