lation was made, is obviously
applicable, in many respects, to those who should live in later times,
and also to the original recipients themselves. With regard to evidence
in later times, it may be added that the original believers in the
record, and their followers in each succeeding age, would naturally be
subjected to an examination, as to their truthfulness and intelligence,
and thus a chain of evidence would be continually kept up. The larger,
too, the number, and the more intelligent the character of those who
believed in it, the greater would be the presumption in its favour. If
the record were received generally by any nation, the _onus probandi_
would in that case lie with those who impugned it. The record itself
also would, from time to time, be submitted to such fair rules of
criticism as apply to other documents, the fact however being remembered,
that it professed to be the word of God, and, therefore, that evidence of
its authenticity, rather than of its exact coincidence with human reason,
was to be mainly looked for.

We have now indicated, although very briefly and imperfectly, a few
points for consideration, as to the transmission of a recorded
revelation, and what might constitute sufficient grounds for accepting it
as true; and we trust that what has been said will suffice to show that
there would be no great difficulty in so handing it down, as that it
should convey to the candid inquirer, in each succeeding age, reasonable
evidence of its reality.

It may, however, be argued, that, although such evidence, as has been
indicated, might well convince those who had time and ability to
institute a searching examination, the case is different with regard to
others; and that, as a revelation may be presumed to have a most
important bearing upon the interests of all, there should be some more
easy method by which it may be tested. Now, we are quite prepared to
admit that every one should have sufficient grounds afforded him for
arriving at a decision; but, at the same time, we do not conceive that a
thorough examination of the evidence, made by each person for himself, is
the only, or even principal, method by which a safe conclusion may be
reached. Each individual has commonly some peculiar talent, in the
exercise of which he reaches an excellence, which others, whose abilities
and pursuits are of a different character, do not attain to. The
astronomer works out conclusions, which, those, whose a