p319 [From the French.] * * * The conviction that the same spirit which is at work here is working in France to popularise German unbelief, and that, consequently, it is an organised work of the enemy, has induced me to reply to the English publication which serves as the flag of the infidel party. I am engaged with it at present. The result of my examination has been, not only that the Bible has gained yet greater value in my eyes, but that I am fully convinced of the superficial spirit and falseness of the upholders of infidelity. Their knowledge is nothing but a bringing together of all the objections which are built upon suppositions and reasonings, without foundation. There is a want of conscientious investigation, which strikes one when one makes such oneself. There is nothing historical in their history. It is an unlimited confidence in the power of the human mind in these days (for until now people have always been mistaken), which is truly ridiculous. They think they are able to say that such and such a thing must be so, that such a period must be of such duration, &c.: that must be, or cannot be - never that is. The whole system of Bunsen, their Corypheus, is but a reproduction of Philo, the platonist Jew, with the name of Christ which they have attached to it, more or less, for appearance' sake. They count the long lists of Manetho, the dynasties, and the great number of kings who have governed Egypt, and give them as an evident proof that the world has lasted, or must have lasted, twenty thousand years at least. When the monuments are examined, we find two, four, eight of these kings on one single monument, reigning together, one often subordinate to another. Then, the fact of being free from the grooves of old theology, without having faith, makes unbelievers of them. They knew only that routine; the ice is broken, and, having had nothing but that, nothing at all is left. Truth does not exist. They have seen that the old forms are not tenable, and nothing remains to them. I admit that one has to come out of the old forms, but we ought to bless God that, in place of forms, His grace has given us the truth; we have much to learn, without doubt - more to realise, but a divine certainty with regard to what we possess. What a sweet and peaceful thought!

… They have discovered what brethren, through grace, have discovered before them, that old things are passing away; they note the difference of character of the sacred writers, but they only touch the surface; and all that is of God, all that is connected with His wisdom, His grace, His goodness, they ignore, and are utterly without eyes to see.

London, December 3rd, 1861.

[51186F]