And then, in order to maintain the reality of miracles, it became necessary to prove the infallibility of the record; and so we were taught that, to believe in Jesus Christ, we must first believe in the genuineness and authenticity of the whole New Testament.

"All the theology of England," says Mr.
Pattison,[7] "was devoted to proving the Christian religion credible, in this manner." "The apostles," said Dr.Johnson, "were being tried one a week for the capital crime of forgery." This was the work of the school of Lardner, Paley, and Whately.
But the real question between Christians and unbelievers in Christianity is, not whether our religion is or is not supernatural; not whether Christ's miracles were or not violations of law; nor whether the New Testament, as it stands, is the work of inspired men.

The main question, back of all these, is different, and not dependent on the views we may happen to take of the universality of law.

It is this: Is Christianity, as taught by Jesus, intended by God to be the religion of the human race?
Is it only one among natural religions?
is it to be superseded in its turn by others, or is it the one religion which is to unite all mankind?
"Art thou he that should come, or look we for another ?" This is the question which we ask of Jesus of Nazareth, and the answer to which makes the real problem of apologetic theology.
Now the defenders of Christianity have been so occupied with their special disputes about miracles, about naturalism and supernaturalism, and about the inspiration and infallibility of the apostles, that they have left uncultivated the wide field of inquiry belonging to Comparative Theology.
But it belongs to this science to establish the truth of Christianity by showing that it possesses all the aptitudes which fit it to be the religion of the human race.
This method of establishing Christianity differs from the traditional argument in this: that, while the last undertakes to _prove_ Christianity to be true, this _shows_ it to be true.

For if we can make it appear, by a fair survey of the principal religions of the world, that, while they are ethnic or local, Christianity is catholic or universal; that, while they are defective, possessing some truths and wanting others, Christianity possesses all; and that, while they are stationary, Christianity is progressive; it will not then be necessary to discuss in what sense it is a supernatural religion.