"REASONS FOR FAITH."
I.TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Stn,—I have read your careful notice of my Reasons of Faith with the attention which it well deserves, and I should have thankfully profited by some, especially by one, of your suggestions, had not, unhappily, the last sheet of a "revised and enlarged" second edition of the book just been printed. In this edition many verbal inaccuracies which sadly disfigured the other have been removed, and, as I hope, the argument is brought out with more clearness, so that some of your strictures will be no longer applicable. Will you, however, let me say, with respect to the work as it has stood hitherto, that even your able criticisms have not convinced me that I have unduly "laid great stress on the trustworthy character of the general historical assumptions, as one may call them, of the New Tes- tament." I dwelt on this historical solidity of the framework of the Gospel narrative, not, as you intimate, as being in itself a "reason of faith," but rather as a help in effectively presenting one of the chief "reasons," that, viz., which we find in the fact that Christ's life and character have been so perfectly set forth by men who were evidently mere instruments in doing what they did, since most certainly they were unconscious of His greatness, and having no special intellectual fitness for the work, they have besides set Him before us in the most difficult method of delineation. That detached acts and words should fall and shape themselves into such a portraiture,—this, and not the historical reality of the scenes in which He is represented as working and teaching, is the "reason" which I have brought forward in the first and second chapters. Nor is it afterwards a mere general correspondence "between the majesty of Christ's character and of His actions" on which I have insisted, but rather, specifically, the fact—not
often if ever before alluded to in this connection—that each of the miracles is part of a harmonious comprehensive whole, which impressively betokened Christ's lordship over nature and man, and the world of spirits. This is one of my chief steps onward to the final conclusion. I cannot think, either, that it is possible to lay too much stress upon the history of the Old Testament ; and your remarks rather establish than disturb me in this conviction, since, in my other books, I have given detailed proofs that the very instances you have brought forward to correct me serve rather for my confirmation. I will not trespass on your space by adding more than an expression of sincere thankfulness that a judgment
which my regular weekly readings of the Spectator give me so much reason to value, has, at all events, been pronounced in favour of the " line " and "scheme of reasoning" in which I have put forth the "evidence," since it was my desire to do this more effectively than had been usual, which led me to employ many years of laborious thought in the production of the small volume on which you have commented with so much ability.—I am,
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