tire Christian religion, with its immortal blessings, stands or falls
upon the honesty of the Savior's witnesses. Martyrdom has been universally
conceded to be an evidence of sincerity; there may be a few exceptions to
this general rule, but even they are not parallel cases. There is a story
of a man who endured with great fortitude all the tortures of the rack,
denying the fact with which he was charged. When he was asked afterwards
how he could hold out against all the tortures, he said: I painted a
gallows on the toe of my shoe, and when the rack stretched me, I looked on
the gallows, and bore the pain to save my life. This man denied a plain
fact under torture, but he did it to save his life.

When criminals persist in denying their crimes they do it with the hope of
saving their lives. Such cases are not parallel. Who ever heard of persons
dying _willingly_ in attestation of a false fact? Can we be made to
believe that any set of rational men could be found who would _willingly
die_ in attestation of the false fact that the President of the United
States is now on the throne of England? The witnesses of Christ died in
attestation of those facts which they say they saw, and heard, and knew,
among which was the great fact of the resurrection of Christ. It was their
privilege to quit their evidence, at any instant, and save their lives,
but they did not do it. Who can account for this strange course of conduct
upon the ground of dishonesty?

If a man reports an uncommon fact that is a plain object of sense, and we
do not believe him, it is because we suspect his honesty and not his
senses. If we are satisfied that the reporter is sincere, of course we
believe. So our case is now in this shape: First, the great facts of the
gospel of Christ addressed themselves, as simple facts, to the senses of
men; second, no witness could affirm those facts honestly unless they took
place; third, the witnesses to those facts gave all the evidences of
sincerity and honesty that are possible. Reputation for truthfulness and
honesty has never rested upon any evidence that is not found in great
abundance in the lives of the witnesses of Christ. It is said that men die
for false opinions: very true, but their sufferings and death,
nevertheless, prove that they were sincere. True philosophy does not
charge men who die for their opinions with dishonesty. Men may be mistaken
in some things, but mistaken men are _not cheats_; are not insincer