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_Question_. Mr. Talmage gives his reason for accepting the New Testament, and says: "You "can trace it right out. Jerome and Eusebius in the "first century, and Origen in the second century, "gave lists of the writers of the New Testament.
"These lists correspond with our list of the writers "of the New Testament, showing that precisely as "we have it, they had it in the third and fourth cen- "turies. Where did they get it? From Irenaeus.
"Where did he get it? From Polycarp. Where did "Polycarp get it? From Saint John, who was a per- "sonal a.s.sociate of Jesus. The line is just as clear "as anything ever was clear." How do you under- stand this matter, and has Mr. Talmage stated the facts?
_Answer_. Let us examine first the witnesses pro- duced by Mr. Talmage. We will also call attention to the great principle laid down by Mr. Talmage for the examination of evidence,--that where a witness is found false in one particular, his entire testimony must be thrown away.
Eusebius was born somewhere about two hundred and seventy years after Christ. After many vicissi- tudes he became, it is said, the friend of Constantine.
He made an oration in which he extolled the virtues
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of this murderer, and had the honor of sitting at the right hand of the man who had shed the blood of his wife and son. In the great controversy with regard to the position that Christ should occupy in the Trinity, he sided with Arius, "and lent himself to the perse- "cution of the orthodox with Athanasius." He in- sisted that Jesus Christ was not the same as G.o.d, and that he was not of equal power and glory. Will Mr. Talmage admit that his witness told the truth in this? "He would not even call the Son co-eternal "with G.o.d."
Eusebius must have been an exceedingly truthful man. He declared that the tracks of Pharaoh"s chariots were in his day visible upon the sh.o.r.es of the Red Sea; that these tracks had been through all the years miraculously preserved from the action of wind and wave, as a supernatural testimony to the fact that G.o.d miraculously overwhelmed Pharaoh and his hosts.
Eusebius also relates that when Joseph and Mary arrived in Eygpt they took up their abode in Hermopolis,
a city of Thebaeus, in which was the superb temple of Serapis. When Joseph and Mary entered the temple, not only the great idol, but all the lesser idols fell down before him.
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"It is believed by the learned Dr. Lardner, that "Eusebius was the one guilty of the forgery in the "pa.s.sage found in Josephus concerning Christ. Un- "blushing falsehoods and literary forgeries of the "vilest character darkened the pages of his historical "writings." (Waites History.)
From the same authority I learn that Eusebius invented an eclipse, and some earthquakes, to agree with the account of the crucifixion. It is also be- lieved that Eusebius quoted from works that never existed, and that he pretended a work had been written by Porphyry, ent.i.tled: "The Philosophy of "Oracles," and then quoted from it for the purpose of proving the truth of the Christian religion.
The fact is, Eusebius was utterly dest.i.tute of truth.
He believed, as many still believe, that he could please G.o.d by the fabrication of lies.
Irenaeus lived somewhere about the end of the second century. "Very little is known of his early "history, and the accounts given in various biogra- "phies are for the most part conjectural." The writings of Irenaeus are known to us princ.i.p.ally through Eusebius, and we know the value of his testimony.
Now, if we are to take the testimony of Irenaeus,
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why not take it? He says that the ministry of Christ lasted for twenty years, and that Christ was fifty years old at the time of his crucifixion. He also insisted that the "Gospel of Paul" was written by Luke, "a "statement made to give sanction to the gospel of "Luke."
Irenaeus insisted that there were four gospels, that there must be, and "he speaks frequently of these "gospels, and argues that they should be four in "number, neither more nor less, because there are "four universal winds, and four quarters of the "world;" and he might have added: because donkeys have four legs.
These facts can be found in "The History of the "Christian Religion to A. D. 200," by Charles B.
Waite,--a book that Mr. Talmage ought to read.
According to Mr. Waite, Irenaeus, in the thirty- third chapter of his fifth book, _Adversus Haereses_, cites from Papias the following sayings of Christ: "The days will come in which vines shall grow "which shall have ten thousand branches, and on "each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each twig "ten thousand shoots, and in each shoot ten thousand "cl.u.s.ters, and in every one of the cl.u.s.ters ten "thousand grapes, and every grape when pressed
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"will give five and twenty metrets of wine." Also that "one thousand million pounds of clear, pure, fine "flour will be produced from one grain of wheat."
Irenaeus adds that "these things were borne witness "to by Papias the hearer of John and the companion "of Polycarp."
Is it possible that the eternal welfare of a human being depends upon believing the testimony of Poly- carp and Irenaeus? Are people to be saved or lost on the reputation of Eusebius? Suppose a man is firmly convinced that Polycarp knew nothing about Saint John, and that Saint John knew nothing about Christ,--what then? Suppose he is convinced that Eusebius is utterly unworthy of credit,--what then?
Must a man believe statements that he has every reason to think are false?
The question arises as to the witnesses named by Mr. Talmage, whether they were competent to decide as to the truth or falsehood of the gospels. We have the right to inquire into their mental traits for the purpose of giving only due weight to what they have said.
Mr. Bronson C. Keeler is the author of a book called: "A Short History of the Bible." I avail myself of a few of the facts he has there collected. I
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find in this book, that Irenaeus, Clement and Origen believed in the fable of the Phoenix, and insisted that G.o.d produced the bird on purpose to prove the probability of the resurrection of the body. Some of the early fathers believed that the hyena changed its s.e.x every year. Others of them gave as a reason why good people should eat only animals with a cloven foot, the fact that righteous people lived not only in this world, but had expectations in the next.
They also believed that insane people were pos- sessed by devils; that angels ate manna; that some angels loved the daughters of men and fell; that the pains of women in childbirth, and the fact that ser- pents crawl on their bellies, were proofs that the account of the fall, as given in Genesis, is true; that the stag renewed its youth by eating poisonous snakes; that eclipses and comets were signs of G.o.d"s anger; that volcanoes were openings into h.e.l.l; that demons blighted apples; that a corpse in a cemetery moved to make room for another corpse to be placed beside it. Clement of Alexandria believed that hail storms, tempests and plagues were caused by demons.
He also believed, with Mr. Talmage, that the events in the life of Abraham were typical and prophetical of arithmetic and astronomy.
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Origen, another of the witnesses of Mr. Talmage, said that the sun, moon and stars were living crea- tures, endowed with reason and free will, and occa- sionally inclined to sin. That they had free will, he proved by quoting from Job; that they were rational creatures, he inferred from the fact that they moved.
The sun, moon and stars, according to him, were "subject to vanity," and he believed that they prayed to G.o.d through his only begotten son.
These intelligent witnesses believed that the blight- ing of vines and fruit trees, and the disease and de- struction that came upon animals and men, were all the work of demons; but that when they had entered into men, the sign of the cross would drive them out.
They derided the idea that the earth is round, and one of them said: "About the antipodes also, one "can neither hear nor speak without laughter. It is "a.s.serted as something serious that we should be- "lieve that there are men who have their feet oppo- "site to ours. The ravings of Anaxagoras are more "tolerable, who said that snow was black."
Concerning these early fathers, Professor Davidson, as quoted by Mr. Keeler, uses the following lan- guage: "Of the three fathers who contributed "most to the growth of the canon, Irenaeus was
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"credulous and blundering; Tertullian pa.s.sionate "and one-sided; and Clement of Alexandria, im- "bued with the treasures of Greek wisdom, was "mainly occupied with ecclesiastical ethics. Their "a.s.sertions show both ignorance and exaggeration."
These early fathers relied upon by Mr. Talmage, quoted from books now regarded as apocryphal-- books that have been thrown away by the church and are no longer considered as of the slightest authority. Upon this subject I again quote Mr.
Keeler: "Clement quoted the "Gospel according to ""the Hebrews," which is now thrown away by the "church; he also quoted from the Sibylline books "and the Pentateuch in the same sentence. Origen "frequently cited the Gospel of the Hebrews. Jerome "did the same, and Clement believed in the "Gospel ""according to the Egyptians." The Shepherd of "Hermas, a book in high repute in the early church, "and one which distinctly claims to have been "inspired, was quoted by Irenaeus as Scripture.
"Clement of Alexandria said it was a divine revela- "tion. Origen said it was divinely inspired, and "quoted it as Holy Scripture at the same time that "he cited the Psalms and Epistles of Paul. Jerome "quoted the "Wisdom of Jesus, the Son of Sirach,"
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"as divine Scripture. Origen quotes the "Wisdom "of Solomon" as the "Word of G.o.d" and "the ""words of Christ himself." Eusebius of Caesarea "cites it as a * Divine Oracle," and St. Chrysostom "used it as Scripture. So Eusebius quotes the "thirteenth chapter of Daniel as Scripture, but as a "matter of fact, Daniel has not a thirteenth chapter,-- "the church has taken it away. Clement spoke of "the writer of the fourth book of Esdras as a prophet; "he thought Baruch as much the word of G.o.d as "any other book, and he quotes it as divine Scripture.
"Clement cites Barnabas as an apostle. Origen "quotes from the Epistle of Barnabas, calls it "Holy " "Scripture," and places it on a level with the Psalms "and the Epistles of Paul; and Clement of Alexan- "dria believed in the "Epistle of Barnabas," and the ""Revelation, of Peter," and wrote comments upon "these holy books."
Nothing can exceed the credulity of the early fathers, unless it may be their ignorance. They be- lieved everything that was miraculous. They believed everything except the truth. Anything that really happened was considered of no importance by them.
They looked for wonders, miracles, and monstrous things, and--generally found them. They revelled
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in the misshapen and the repulsive. They did not think it wrong to swear falsely in a good cause.
They interpolated, forged, and changed the records to suit themselves, for the sake of Christ. They quoted from persons who never wrote. They misrepresented those who had written, and their evidence is abso- lutely worthless. They were ignorant, credulous, mendacious, fanatical, pious, unreasonable, bigoted, hypocritical, and for the most part, insane. Read the book of Revelation, and you will agree with me that nothing that ever emanated from a madhouse can more than equal it for incoherence. Most of the writings of the early fathers are of the same kind.
As to Saint John, the real truth is, that we know nothing certainly of him. We do not know that he ever lived.
We know nothing certainly of Jesus Christ. We know nothing of his infancy, nothing of his youth, and we are not sure that such a person ever existed.
We know nothing of Polycarp. We do not know where he was born, or where, or how he died. We know nothing for certain about Irenaeus. All the names quoted by Mr. Talmage as his witnesses are surrounded by clouds and doubts, by mist and darkness. We only know that many of their