The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-02-01

beautiful! yet they are born by the hea: of
an hours sun, and when the sun sinks to rest,
they die. God gives them no resurrection.
no answer. Reason has no answer. Six thou
sand years of buried humanity has no answer.
We read all the books of nature and man,
on this subject, and our hearts exclaim, we
want better preof We are not satisfied. But
thank God elife and immortality are brought
to light in the Gospel We will go to the
Bible for the proof we need.
Scripture passages crowd upon US here and
demand reference. We can not use them all.
We need not for few will suffice. Without
referring you to the Bible account of the resur-
rection of the Saints, we ask attention to its
history of Christs resurrection. Turn to St.
John 20, %, and you will see the Bible argu-
ment divided into two branches ..-;-
!. External or evidence of the senses. "Be-
cause thou hast seen me Thomas, thou hast be-
lieved"
2 Internal or evidences of the Spirit
''blessed are they that have not seen, and yet
have believed"
1. The external evidence. Now letus test this
evidence by ordinary rules-rules which we
use in earthly courts of justice. Look at
hear say, or second hand testimony is always
suspicious. We can not, in grave matters,
trust it. Now, if St. John had said that he
heard the story from Thomas, and years after,
when he was growing old and his memory was
falling, penned the account, We might justly
Tohn Rrrt ohr wit oil
the rest of the Apostles were present as eye wit
nesses of the scene, described in twentieth
chap of St. John, and from the twenty seventh
to the thirtieth verse. They all heard Thomas
make the conditions of his faith; they saw him
touch the wounds, and heard him excaim ''my
is one of the few solemn ones in mans life,
which it is impossible to forget. 1t graves it
self on the memory. ST. John, looking at him
as man, and regarding his testimony in that
light alone, couid haze made no mistake. Take
the next witness, Thomas. Try his testimony.
We all know if witness, is very creduous
man, his testimony is worth but little. He
may be honest. He may be good man; but
if he is aptto believe every new story, and en-
brace every new discovery without scrutiny,
however much we may give him credit for sin
cerity, we dare not value his testimony highly.
Here the character of Thomas demands our
scrutiny. He, was not a credulous man. He
dreaded the possibility of delusion. He re-
solved not to believe, even if he should see
Christ. He said the best of men have been
deceived by their eyesight His eyes might
deceive him; at any rate he would not trust
them. Neither would he bell eve the testimo-
ny of his best friends. They might, he thought.
have been deceived themselves. Or, they
might be trihing with him. What a skeptic!
what doubter was Thomas. Thomas would
not be convinced, only by putting lis hands
into the wounds of Christ. He received that
proof; hear him cxclaim "my Lord, and my
God" Try the evidence by another rule. I'm
peached witnesses are good for nothing. What
was the character of John? Spotless. "He
loved a world that hated him" What of
Thomas? IF he had a fault, it was want of
faith. He was too cautious, too rigorous in
exacting proof; but afterwards was true even
unto death. Try again. Was there any self
interest in the witnesses You will fna
answer for John, in his banishment to the Isle
of Patmos You will find an answer for
Thomas, in his lonely pilgrimage to the far
East, and his death in India. This is enough
of the external evidence, for all pratical pur-
poses Who can doubt, or reject such testi
InOny?
2. Now let US look at the internal evidence:
"blessed are they that have not seen, and yet
have believed" "Faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. 'With the heart man believeth unto
righteousness" ''He that believeth on the
Son of God hath the witness in himself"
There are thousands upon thousands of
Christians, who are not learned in the schools
men and women who are not philosophers;
who do not know how TO balance testimony, or
weigh evidence with skill and precision, who
can not frame correct mathematical argument
yet these christians have received the very
resurrection of Christ into their hearts, and are
looking forward with firm, unwavering conf
dence in Christ, who is the ''first fruits to
that blessed morning when their bodies shall
be raised and immortalized. How is this
How is it explained? Why, che that believ-
eth on the Son of God hath the witness IN
himself" This is the internal evidence, and
it is the better, for several reasons. One is,
all can have it. 1t is precisely adapted to the
condition of, not only the learned, but the un-
learned masses. Another is, the most pro-
found truths, are not dependant for discovery
upon mathematical argument. They are felt,
or believed out, by the aid of the Divine Spir.
it. With this admission, the poorest man of
earth and the mvst ignorant of earthly science,
may know more of God, and goodness, and the
souls future, by one act of selfsurrender, by
faith and prayer, than the profoundest student
Of science, or sage ofearth without it. Christ
in the heart, its Savior, is an infallible guide
to knowledge of those truths, which pertain
to our spiritual interests here or our life here