The Historical Proofs of Christianity [pp. 223-247]

THE HISTORICAL PROOFS OF CHERISTIANITY.
be conscious. It may grow out of a habit of seeing things in
a hazy atmdsphere of feeling in which all things are refracted
from the right line. But the apostles, unlike many devotees of
even Christian ages, were truthful. Without this habit of seeing
and relating things as they actually occurred, their writings would
never have exerted that pure influence which has flowed from
them. Because they uttered "words of truth and soberness,"
they make those who sympathize with the spirit of their
writings value truth above all things.
And there is one proof of the truth of the apostles' testimony
which can be appreciated by the unlearned. The character of
Jesus as he is depicted in the Gospels is too unique to be
the result of invention. It is the image of a perfection too
transcendent to be devised by the wit of man. Yet it is perfectly self-consistent and obviously real in all its traits. In Him
the natural and the supernatural, divine authority, and human
feeling, the power which gives life to the dead, and the sympathy which expresses itself in tears, blend in complete accord.
This portrait of Christ in the Gospels is evidently drawn from
the life. It demonstrates the truth of the Gospel history.
GEORGE P. FISHER.
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