promise and prophecy; but
that it never could have made the success in the world that it has _if
it had not been of divine origin, the result of divine revelation_. I
was prepared at this time to look with some favor on the argument drawn
from "promise and prophecy"; but if success was a true test I wondered
if the same argument would not apply with equal force to Buddhism, with
a third more followers than Christianity, or to Mohammedanism with half
as many in a much shorter time.

These arguments could satisfy me no longer, in the light of the new
facts I had learned. But I was not yet ready to give up religion and
Christianity. I began to look for some new basis of interpretation. I
asked myself the questions: May not Christianity be substantially true
after all? Is not man a sinner? And as such does he not need a
Savior? Does not Christianity meet this necessity? Is not the Bible
after all, tho of purely human origin as I now conceived, a valuable
book? May we not yet find much valuable truth in it, tho neither
inspired nor infallible? May not the "great plan of salvation" be true
after all? Is it not of vital importance to know? But if the Bible in
which we find it cannot be relied upon infallibly, _how_ are we to know?

In thus questioning myself I took into consideration my own personal
experiences, those emotional impressions and manifestation which I had
always been taught were the supernatural manifestations of the Holy
Spirit on my life and consciousness. I could not deny them, nor get
away from them. They were real. It was years later before I learned
to interpret them from the scientific standpoint of psychology. I
determined to take a new course--a course I had never taken before. I
had heretofore taken my religion on authority. This authority had now
failed. I determined to apply the test of _reason_, with a firm
conviction that in doing so God would guide me aright. "If any man
will do his will he shall know of the doctrine."

I may say just here that I have never yet met a person who undertook to
defend the "Christian System," or doctrine of sin and salvation, from
the standpoint _of its own intrinsic reasonableness_. The only manner
in which reason has been applied to its defence is, that it is _a
reasonable deduction_ from the _divine revelation_ upon which it is
based; which revelation _must be accepted_ as true without question or
equivocation. To doubt is to be damned. In fa