Strivings for the faith Author:John Stuart Mill 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: DIFFICULTIES ON THE SIDE OF UNBELIEF IN ACCOUNTING FOR HISTORICAL 7 CHRISTIANITY. BY THE REV. G. F. MACLEAR, D.D., Head Master of King's College School,... more » and late Assistant Preacher at the Temple Church. chapter{Section 4pfalties on the 0ibe of Unbelief in aaomttino, for historical (Elrastimtiig, 1. HPHE subject on which I have to speak this evening relates to the " Difficulties on the side of Unbelief in accounting for Historical Christianity." 2. I think it will be best, in treating such a subject, to confine myself to one or two points, instead of surveying a large number, which could not be satisfactorily dealt with in the compass of a single lecture. 3. I propose, therefore, to ask you to review certain facts of history, which, as it seems to me, remain and must remain absolutely inexplicable' and unintelligible without the solution Christianity supplies, and I wish to inquire whether the difficulties these facts present do not, except on the supposition that Christianity is true, involve conclusions more miraculous and unaccountable than anything that has ever occurred in the world. 1. In a famous letter, written between A.d. 104 and i to, by the pro-prretor Pliny to the Emperor Trajan, lie mentions that in his province of Pontus and Bithynia certain strange tenets had for some years been spread abroad, in consequence of which the temples of the gods were forsaken, the sacred solemnities intermitted, and the sacrificial victims found very few purchasers. 2. It has been remarked by Paley that no evidence remains, by which it can be proved that the description he gives is to be confined to these provinces, and was unknown in other parts of the Roman Empire. The evidence, indeed, rather points to the contrary, and the words of the pro-prtetor ...« less