10 PEEFACE 



The Bible gives us the world's only conception of 

 God; it gives us our only conception of Christ, and 

 it gives us itself as an infallible guide. 



The Bible must be rejected or defended. If it be 

 false, it is the most stupendous impostor the world has 

 ever known; if, on the other hand, it be true, as we 

 believe it is, no book can be compared with it — ^noth- 

 ing in all the writings of men can approach it. 



Chapter III deals with Christ and takes up the vari- 

 ous theories in regard to Him. Was He a fraud? 

 Did He make a claim to power under a delusion ? Or 

 was He what He claimed to be, " The Way, the Truth, 

 and the Life " ? It presents Christ as Son of God and 

 Saviour of the world, and offers in proof of His claim 

 what He said and did and was. Born in a manger, 

 reared in a carpenter shop, and yet, when only about 

 thirty years of age. He gave the world a code of 

 morality the like of which the world had never seen 

 before and has not seen since, preached for a few 

 months, gathered around Him a few disciples, and 

 then was crucified and His disciples scattered, or put 

 to death. Yet, from this beginning, His influence has 

 grown until hundreds of millions have been proud to 

 bear His name and millions have been willing to die 

 rather than surrender their faith in Him. He is the 

 great fact of history and the growing figure of all 

 time. It is easier to believe Him divine than to ex- 

 plain His life. His teachings, and the spread of the 

 religion that bears His Name in any other way. The 

 facts of history so fully support the claims of the Bible, 

 and of the Bible's God and Christ that the burden of 



