Evidence

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

that which makes evident, which enables the mind to see truth. It may be intuitive, i. e., resting on the direct testimony of consciousness, of perception or memory, or on fundamental principles of the human intellect; or it may be demonstrative, i. e., in a strict sense, proofs which establish with certainty as in mathematical science certain conclusions; or it may be probable, under which class are ranked moral evidence, legal evidence, and generally every kind of evidence which, though it may be sufficient to satisfy the mind, is not an absolutely certain and incontrovertible demonstration. In jurisprudence evidence is classified EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY 69 into that which is direct and positive, and that which is presumptive and circumstantial. The former is that which is proved by some writing containing a positive statement of the facts and binding the party whom it affects; or that which is proved by some witness, who has, and avers himself to have, positive knowledge thereof by means of his Whenever the fact is not so senses. directly and positively established, but is deduced from other facts in evidence, it is presumptive and circumstantial only. The following are the leading rules regarding evidence in a court of law: (1) The point in issue is to be proved by the party who asserts the affirmative. But where one person charges another with a culpable omission this rule will not apply, the person who makes the charge being bound to prove it. (2) The best evidence must be given of which the nature of the thing is capable. (3) Hearsay evidence of a fact is not admissible. The principal exceptions to this Death-bed declarations, evirule are: dence in questions of pedigree, public right, custom boundaries, declarations against interest, declarations which accompany the facts or are part of the res gestæ (things done), etc. (4) Insane nt to be persons and idiots are incompetent witnesses. But persons temporarily insane are in their lucid intervals received as witnesses. Children are admissible as witnesses as soon as they have a competent share of understanding and know and feel the nature of an oath and the obligation to speak the truth. EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY may be divided broadly into two great classes, viz., external evidences, or the body of historical testimonies to the Christian revelation; and internal evidences, or arguments drawn from the nature of Christianity itself as exhibited in its teachings and effects, in favor of its divine origin. In the 16th and 17th centuries the influences of the Renaissance and the Reformation gave rise to a spirit of inquiry and criticism which developed English deism as represented by Herbert and Hobbes in the 17th century, and Collins and Bolingbroke in the 18th. The general position of English deism was the acceptance of the belief in the existence of God, and the profession of natural religion along with opposition to the mysteries and special claims of Christianity. It was in confutation of this position that the great English works on the evidences of Christianity of Butler, Berkeley, and Cudworth were written. In France the new spirit of inquiry was represented by Diderot, D'Holbach, and the encyclopædists, who assailed Christianity mainly on the ground that it was founded on imposture and superstition, and maintained by sacerdotal trickery and hypocrisy. No reply of any great value was produced in the French Church, though in the previous age Pascal in his "Thoughts" had brought together some of the profoundest considerations yet offered in favor of revealed religion. The 19th century was distinguished by the strongly rationalistic spirit of its criticism. The works of such writers as Strauss, Bauer and Feuerbach, attempting to eliminate the supernatural and mysterious in the origin of Christianity, were answered by the works of Neander, Ebrard, and Ullmann on the other side. The historical method of investigation, represented alike by the Hegelian school and the Positivists in philosophy, and by the Evolutionists in science, is the basis of the chief attacks of the present time against the supernatural character of Christianity, the tendency of all being to hold that, while be Christianity is the highest and most perfect development to which the religious spirit has yet attained, it differs simply in degree of development from any other religion. Notable among later apologists of Christianity have been Paley (Natural Theology), Chalmers (Natural al Theology), Mansel, Liddon, and others, lecturers of the Bampton Foundation; in Germany Luthardt, Ewald, Baumstark, and others.