McCOSH IN REPLY TO CARPENTER. 27 



maintain that in religion a sincere mind will discover the truth with 

 or without scientific knowledge. Many believe that John Bunyan saw 

 as far into spiritual matters as even Newton or Locke, and much far- 

 ther than Laplace ever did. Some of the highest statesmen and law- 

 yers in Great Britain imagined that they could get more good from 

 the direct and homely appeals of Moody than from those select dilet- 

 tant meetings in London of savants and litterateurs who have aban- 

 cloned Christianity, and are seeking to catch some higher religion 

 which evanishes as they would lay hold of it. 



Everybody acknowledges that all witnesses are not to be trusted; 

 yet in the common affairs of life, in trials, in history, we do find tes- 

 timony which we implicitly believe. To the great body even of edu- 

 cated men, scientific knowledge depends on the trustworthiness of 

 those who have made the observations and experiments. Notwith- 

 standing all their preconceptions, there are declarations of men of 

 science as to matters of fact which we can trust ; and it would be a 

 violation of their whole nature, in fact it would be a miracle, were they 

 to deceive us. Dr. Carpenter is entitled to credit for having helped 

 to expose the fooleries and the rogueries of spirit-rapping, rope-tying, 

 and of levitation. But he seems to think that it is possible by the 

 same method to undermine the miracles of the Old and New Testa- 

 ments. All who have inquired carefully into the subject see that the 

 testimony in favor of spiritualistic manifestations cannot stand the 

 common tests of evidence. But it has been maintained by many of 

 the greatest and most sagacious minds, and by the highest moral 

 minds which our world has produced, that the testimony in behalf of 

 the essential events of the New Testament cannot be set aside with- 

 out undermining the whole of ancient history. Even at first sight the 

 spiritual seances and performers have no moral prestige in their favor. 

 The products are unworthy of God, and inconsistent with his mode of 

 operation in Nature. We can discover motives enough to induce 

 them to act as they do such as the desire to create wonder with 

 some the hope of getting money. How different with our Lord, wdio, 

 so far from taking advantage of the wonder-loving spirit of the Jews, 

 actually restrained it ! The wonders of the spiritualists are performed 

 in rooms prepared for the purpose or in darkness, whereas the mir- 

 acles of our Lord were performed in open day, in unexpected circum- 

 stances, and before all men. Then the whole teaching of Jesus was 

 totally above and altogether opposed to the spirit of his age and na- 

 tion, and only exposed him and his followers to opprobrium, poverty, 

 and suffering. 



But Dr. Carpenter has discovered that there is no stronger evi- 

 dence in behalf of the events of our Lord's life than we have in favor of 

 the miracles attributed to St. Columba. This is a proof that, amid his 

 multifarious employments, Dr. Carpenter has not carefully surveyed 

 or minutely examined the whole body of Christian evidences. The 



