The Gospel for an Age of Doubt Author:Henry Van Dyke Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: m THE UNVEILING OF THE FATHER " He, who from the Father forth was sent, Came the true Light, light to our hearts to bring; The Word of God, —the telling of... more » His thought; The Light of God, — the making visible; The far-transcending glory brought In human form with man to dwell; The dazzling gone — the power not less To show, irradiate, and bless; The gathering of the primal rays divine, Informing Chaos to a pure sunshine ! " —George Macdonald. THE UNVEILING OF THE FATHER In the famous fifteenth chapter of The De- A sceptic's dine and Fall of the Roman Empire, that the spread of painstaking historian and superficial sceptic, Christian- Edward Gibbon, Esq., introduces an account of ;/ the rise and spread of the Christian Religion. He attributes its remarkable triumph over the established religions of the earth to a series of causes which he ironically describes as secondary, and uniformly treats as primary. He exhibits them as in themselves sufficient to explain the peculiarly favourable reception of the Christian faith in the world, and sets aside the question of a possible divine origin as unnecessary. With serene self-satisfaction he traces the rapid growth of the Christian Church to the five following causes: I. The Zeal of the Christians, derived from the Jews, — but purified from that narrow and unsocial spirit which, instead of inviting, had deterred the Gentiles from embracing the law of Moses. II. The Doctrine of a Future Life, improved by every additional circumstance which could give weight and efficacy to that important truth. III. The Miraculous Powers ascribed to the primitive Church. IV. The Pure and Austere Morals of the Christians. V. The Union and Discipline of the Christian Republic, which gradually formed an increasing and independent state in th...« less