Fables of Infidelity and Facts of Faith | Page 4

to the proper authority. But it has not been deemed needful to crowd the pages with references to the works of Christian apologists. The Christian scholar does not need such references; while to those for whose benefit I write, their names carry no authority, and their arguments are generally quite unknown. One great object of my labor will be gained if I shall succeed in awaking the spirit of inquiry among my readers, to such an extent as to load them to a prayerful and patient perusal of several of the works named on the next page. They have heard only one side of the question, and will be surprised at their own ignorance of matters which they ought to have known.
Books on the Evidences are not generally circulated. Ministers perhaps have some volumes in their libraries; but in a hundred houses, it would be hard to find half a dozen containing as many as would give an inquiring youth a fair view of the historical evidences of the truth of the gospel. Nor, where they are to be found, are they generally read. Being deemed heavy reading, the magazine, or the newspaper is preferred. Ministers do not in general devote enough of their time to such sound teaching as will stop the mouths of gainsayers. I have been assured by skeptical gentlemen, who in the early part of their lives had attended church regularly for twenty-two years, that during all that time they had never heard a single discourse on the Evidences. Moreover, the protean forms of Infidelity are so various, and many of its present positions so novel, that books or discourses prepared only twenty years ago miss the mark; and rather expose to the charge of misrepresentation, than produce conviction. New books on Infidelity are needed for every generation.
The lectures expanded into this volume were delivered in Cincinnati, in 1858. Replying to different, and discordant systems of error, whose only bond is opposition to the gospel, they are necessarily somewhat disconnected. No attempt was made to mold them into a suit of royal armor, but merely to select a few smooth pebbles from the brook of truth, which any Christian lad might sling at the giant defiers of the armies of the living God. Having proved acceptable for this purpose, and a steadily increasing demand for repeated editions wearing out the original plates, the author has been requested by British and American publishers to revise the work in the light of the recent discoveries of science. This he has attempted; with what success the reader will judge. Conscious of its many defects, yet grateful to God for the good which he has done to many souls by its instrumentality, the author again commends the book to the Father of Lights, praying him to use it as a mirror to flash such a ray of light into many dark souls as may lead them into the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
SAN FRANCISCO, March 30, 1875.
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The author having been repeatedly asked by inquirers for the names of books on the Evidences of Christianity, subjoins a list of those easily accessible in the West. It is not supposed that any one inquirer will read all these; but it is well to read more than one, since the evidence is cumulative, and it is impossible for any writer to present the whole. Having a list of several works, the inquirer who can not obtain one may be able to procure another. There are many other works on the Evidences on the shelves of all our principal booksellers.
Modern Atheism, by James Buchanan, LL. D.
Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation, by James McCosh, LL. D., and George Dickie, M. D.
Religion and Geology, Edward Hitchcock, LL. D.
The Architecture of the Heavens, J. P. Nichol, LL. D.
The Christian Philosopher, Thomas Dick, LL. D.
Natural Theology, William Paley, D. D.
The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature, Joseph Butler, D. C. L.
The Bridgewater Treatises, Whewell, Chalmers, Kidd, &c.
The Comprehensive Commentary, William Jenks, D. D.
The Cause and Cure of Infidelity, Rev. David Nelson.
A View of the Evidences of Christianity, William Paley, D. D.
The Eclipse of Faith, ascribed to Henry Rogers.
The Restoration of Belief, ascribed to Isaac Taylor.
Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, University of Virginia.
The Divine Authority of the Old and New Testaments Asserted, J. Leland, D. D.
The Bible Commentary.
An Apology for the Bible, in a Series of Letters to Thomas Paine, R. Watson.
A View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion, S. Jenyns.
A Letter to G. West, Esq., on the Conversion of St. Paul, Lord Lyttleton.
Observations on the History and Evidence of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Gilbert West, Esq.
Difficulties of Infidelity, Faber.
Dissertations on the