I am ready to
hear any man living, any man living to-day who will prove to me that the
Christ has never lived and that he is not the Lord of men. I will listen
to any man who is in earnest and who is sincere. I will not listen to
any trifler, caviller, who is merely trying to make a point and to get
ahead of the poor arguments that I can use; but let any fellow-man come
to me with an earnest face, either of puzzled doubt, or of earnest and
convinced unbelief, and say to me, "Are you not wrong?" or "I believe
that you are wrong," and I, of course, will talk to him. Do I want to
believe anything that cannot be proved to be true, anything that my
intelligence shall not receive? Why should I believe it? Shall I trust
myself to the ship merely because I have refused to examine its timbers,
when men tell me that it is unsound? Shall I throw away my truthfulness
simply for the sake of holding what I want, what I choose to call the
truth? It is not because it is safe, it is not because it is pleasant,
it is because it seems to the Christian man to be true, that the
Christian man believes in the presence, the life, the power of Jesus
Christ. Therefore come, let me hear every one of you what you have to
say. Let me see where that upon which my soul rests for its very life
breaks down; but, until I hear, I will go forward, strong in the
assurance of that which takes hold of all my life, convinces my reason,
lays hold of my affections, enlarges my actions, and opens my whole
being to the freedom of the child of God.
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