The Bridge of History Over the Gulf of Time: A Popular View of the Historical Evidence for the Truth of Christianity

Description

I. THE ARCH OF SCIENCE.



What shall we call this Nineteenth Century-the Arch of the Bridge of History on which we now stand? Let us call it the ARCH OF SCIENCE. Science is the boast of our age. There is more science in the world than ever there was. Man has more knowledge of nature, and mastery over its elements and forces, than ever he had before. But all the science there is in the world has not put the Christian religion out of the world. It is known and received by more millions of human beings than ever knew of it or received it before. There are more thousands of buildings for Christian worship in the world than ever: more hundreds of thousands of teachers and preachers of the religion than ever; more millions than ever of the Bible-the book in which the Christian religion is taught.

It is affirmed that there is not now a written language in the world but either the whole Bible, or part of the Bible, is translated into that language. It is said that seventy translations of the Scriptures have been accomplished in our own century, chiefly by Christian missionaries; for I ought to remind you that Christian missionaries do not go abroad to play at being gentlemen. They have often the roughest work to perform; often to initiate civilization. It was the knowledge of that fact that led good old Rowland Hill to say, “a missionary ought to be able to preach a sermon, or make a wheelbarrow.” And Christian missionaries are civilizers still. The great agencies of Christianity at home and abroad engage millions of mankind in one way or another; and unreckonable gold and silver, and immeasurable energies of men, are perpetually being spent in sustaining these agencies.


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