To the truthfulness and the authority of the Bible there comes to us the immense aggregate of ever-accumulating testimony of the book, from the best and holiest of peoples. Consider this fact, that the Bible is stronger and greater than ever. Consider, too, that it has withstood the attacks of virulent and scholarly assailants from the days of Porphyry and Celsus, of the Imperial apostate Julian, down to Herbert, Hume and Voltaire, during which period infidels have "overthrown and exploded it" times without number, with the bewildering result that it has steadily increased in power, so that today it would be almost as easy to "pluck the sun out of the heavens," as to root this Bible out of human life.

As illustrative of the rapid and unchecked progress of the Bible in face of opposition, read this prophecy of Voltaire concerning it. "In a century," said he, "the Bible and Christianity will be things of the past." Well, they are, and the biggest things of the past, too, not excepting Voltaire. Prior to his day the whole world had not produced six millions of Bibles. In the single century since his prediction, and that too in this enlightened nineteenth century, two hund red millions of Bibles and portions of scripture have issued from the press, and today eighty Bible societies are scattering the book broadcast among every known nation of mankind. It is written in the Bible that "prophecies shall fail." These are facts which the infidel might spare time to explain if it be in his power, for they afford very strong presumptive proof that the Bible is true.

While on the subject of adversaries to the Bible let us introduce this deep and philosophic truth, and observation made by the translator of M. Frayssinou's "Defence of Christianity;" and let the youth of our land keep it constantly in mind when brought in contact with infidelity, and its acumen and force will be appreciated: "Voltaire's ridicule has ever been more mischievous than his logic, and Bayle's irony more fatal than his deductions. He who is not to be seduced by wit or put to shame by sarcasm, has little to marked superiority of the Bible as compared to these books is amply vindicated in the elevation to which it has raised its natious of adherents. They are the highest races of the world, while the followers of the Koran and the Vedas must be classed among the ignorant and lower races.

fear from either of them." Infidels for a long time have played the roles of wits and caricaturists rather than honest and capable antagonists. Amusing pictures, extravagantly drawn, and highly colored with ridicule and misrepresentation, to say nothing of the grossest impiety, are the weapons they have used, and it is surprising to behold how many are caught within their wily nets by such miserable bait.

In this short treatise we can consider only a few of the leading points in proof of the Bible's divine authority, we shall have to pass on with no further mention, the moral teachings, the miracles and reasonableness of the Bible, to prove its inspiration and conclude with the evidence of prophecy which it contains.

Home's "Introduction" gives the following comprehensive definition of the term prophecy: "Prophecy is a miracle of knowledge, a description or representation of something future, beyond the power of human sagacity to discover or to calculate, and is the highest evidence that can be given of the su pernatural communion with the Deity, and the truth of a revelation from God."

The term prophecy then, implies no such thing as conjectural forecasts, guesses or mere calculations; there can be no uncertainty involved in a genuine prophecy. Prophecy is foreknowledge, knowledge is the perception of the truth, and hence to foreknow is to perceive that which is to be. This gift is the one which man is the least able to attain, in fact, it is only known as coming from a divine source, hence it is to human understanding a miracle. It is a miracle because it is the fulfilling of future events to which "no change of circumstances leads, no train of probabilities points," and is as miraculous as to cure diseases with a word or to call life back into a lifeless body. The latter may be termed miracles of power, and that such things have been performed and are still performed, can be proved by testimony of the highest order; but it is generally questioned and discredited. But with this miracle of prophecy or knowledge there cannot be raised any such doubts; outside witnesses are unnecessary. Prophecy has her own witness, and that is time.

who reads a prophecy and sees the corresponding event is himself a witness of the miracle.

Having said so much for prophecy, let us turn to this wonderful book so rich in prophetic utterances. Prophecies are so numerous in this volume that there is scarce a book which does not glow with the divine gift. The book as a whole reveals to us this enlarged view: In the pathway of the Sun of prophecy it is eternal day. The past is seen and lives forever; the rays of light pierce far into the future, even stretching beyond the borders of time and enter the limitless realms of eternity. Our difficulty shall not be in finding prophecies, but in deciding where to commence. Let us take those which were made concerning the Messiah. They distinctly announced that the Messiah was to come when the government should be utterly lost from Judah. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh come." (Gen. XLIX: 10). All ancient Jews applied this prophecy to the Savior. For a long time now, the tribe of Judah has not been a political body; it has no authority or magistrates of its own; but is dispersed and confounded among the other tribes of Israel; its present condition, therefore, is an evidence that Shiloh, or the Messiah, is already come. And still more striking is the fact that the time of Judah's absolute subjugation to Roman sovereignty is contemporary with the advent of Jesus of Nazareth. We might now follow along the life of the Savior, from Bethlehem to Calvary, by the prophetic light struck centuries before his coming. That Bethlehem should be his birthplace, Micah predicted seven centuries before; and at about the same period Isaiah foretold that he should be born of a virgin, and of the family of David, a particular branch of the tribe of Judah; that in the eye of God he should be the chief corner stone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, and that the Jews should fall upon this rock. For his whole mission, character, atonement, read the fifty third chapter of Isaiah. Thus we might go on indefinitely through all the great events of his life, his agonizing trials, his brutal treatment in "the house of his friends," and his glorious triumph over the grave and the Evil One; all foretold in such marvellous detail that his biographers, in recording, are not more ac

curate than his prophets in predicting. Josephus has not more vividly or minutely related the awful events of the destruction of Jerusalem than Moses, David and our Lord had long foretold them. Considering the Bible then, from the prophetic view alone, let the conceit of higher critics lead them to argue as they please about the dates of the books, their purpose and nature, call the Bible "dream literature" and "fiction," "legend," and "fable" if they please, at any rate it was written long before the time of the Savior. Whence came these predictions if not from above? God alone can be the answer, "for who as I," saith the Lord, "declareth the things that shall be?" No reasonable man can, after an honest investigation (and we think it the essence of presumption for any man to attempt to judge without that investigation) attribute these miracles of knowledge to the astuteness of guesses or mere forecasts of human agencies; for there is in them the superhuman and in that way God has placed before the reflective world an undying testimony of his Omnip

otence.

CHINA AND THE EUROPEAN NATIONS.

BY PROFESSOR JOSEPH M. TANNER, PRESIDENT OF AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, LOGAN, UTAH.

Before the close of 1897 news came to us of the murder of two Roman Catholic missionaries, of Germany, by a Chinese mob. Shortly afterwards the diplomatic world was aroused by the announcement that the German officer in Chinese waters had landed his troops, and that later on Emperor William made a dramatic and somewhat bombastic address to his brother Henry who, by Imperial command, was to take his departure with two men-of-war to reinforce the small German squadron already off the coast of China. The immediate result of this expedition was the demand on the part of Germany and the concession on the part of China of an important harbor at Kiao-Chou.

It does not appear that the Chinese government was in any way responsible for the action of the mob, nor that it was consulted, or that satisfaction was asked before the landing of the troops, and China granted as freely as it was asked the port which the Germans demanded in reparation of the wrong done to its missionaries. Just what the reparation for the death of these missionaries will be no one can tell, and it does not appear to be a matter of much consequence. We are told that the occupation of this port is to be merely a temporary one; but from the experience of other nations we have learned what this means, especially whenever the occupation offers any prolonged advantages whatever to the power in possession. The French have a proverb growing out of their experience with provisional governments in France,