CHAPTER VIII

We now come to the last method our plan requires us to discuss. The field of the historico-theistic proof is very wide, and only a few hints can be given of the way in which the theistic argument here may be framed. There are two centres round which this evidence may be marshalled. Both are really historical in their nature. The one takes hold of the all but universal religious sentiment and belief in the existence of the deity or deities, and secks its explanation. The other fixes attention on the march of human history, and asks how its facts can be accounted for. In the former case we have the familiar argument for God’s existence from the consensus gentinm, or as it is sometimes called—the proof from the consensus populorum. In the latter case we have the question of the philosophy of history raised, both in regard to the individual and in regard to the race. To each of these a section may be devoted, though a volume would be required to set forth even the leading facts which come under review here,

In the present practical age historical evidence is regarded of the highest value ; and hence, if Theism and Christianity are capable of clear historical justification on the one hand, and if on the other Theism and Christianity alone furnish the key to understand the phenomena of history aright, we are entitled to lay a good deal of stress on this method of Theism. In both the branches just

indicated we find forcible elements of theistic evidence, (126)

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