The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 215

CHARACTER OF NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE thus to prove

all

the events recorded in the gospels

175

and the Acts would be

of the Apostles, then the credibility of these narratives properly established.

And even

this

would remain

would be

far

from

satisfactory.

For the

difficulty

to prove that the epistles contain correct

cations of the revelations received by the apostles.

would be impossible.

It

these revelations; and a

communiSuch proof

would require eye- and ear-witnesses

number

to

of stenographers to report them.

had been possible, then, we concede, there would have been, not mathematical certainty for every expression, yet sufficient

If this if

ground for accepting the general tenor of the epistles. But when the apostles wrote them there was no audible

And when

a voice was heard,

it

case of Paul's revelation on the

voice.

could not be understood, as in the

way

The same may John actually heard a voice, but the hearing and the understanding of the words which it uttered required a peculiar, spiritual operation that was lacking in the people at the same time on the island. to

be said of what occurred on Patmos:

The

Damascus. St.

is, that the revelation of the Holy Spirit granted to was of such a nature that it could not be perceived by others. Hence the impossibility to prove its genuineness by notarial evidence. He that insists upon it ought to know that the Church

fact

the apostles

can not furnish

it,

either for the historical narratives of the gospels,

or for the spiritual contents of the epistles.

Henc» it

is

evident that every effort to prove the truth of the New Testament by external evidence only con-

contents of the

demns

and must result in the absolute rejection of the auHoly Scripture. If a judge of the present day should condemn or acquit an accused person on the ground of the insignificant evidence which satisfies many honest people with reference to the Scripture, what a storm of indignation would it raise The whole list of the so-called evidences as to the credibility of the New Testament writers, that they were competent to judge, willing to itself,

thority of the

!

testify, disinterested, etc.,

proves nothing indeed.

Such externals may suffice when it concerns ordinary events, of which one might say " I believe that it has really happened I have no reason to doubt it; but if to-morrow it should prove not to be so, I will lose nothing by it." But how can such superficial methods be :

applied

when

it

,

concerns the extraordinary events related by the

Holy Scripture, upon the positive certainty

of

which

my own

and

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