The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-08
uITuRATURH.
VIEW or NEw BooKs

The resurrection of Lazarus is one OF the
most remarkable events recorded in the New
Testament. Ii is remarkable as a manifesto
ton Of the supreme power of Christ, and for
the silence of the Evangelists concerning the
future career Of the mau thus restored to life
after having lain four days in the grave. We
have given us o simple narrative OF the facts
of the death, burial aud revival of Lazarus,
with glimpse Of the intimate and loving re-
lations of Christ with his family, and then the
event is dismissed as if it was too sacred
subject to be discussed. Here was man
who had been recalled from the sphere of
spirits by Christ himself, and yet for some
inscrutable reason he was not permitted to
make any revelation with regard to what he
had seen and heard in the world beyond the
grave. 1t is useless to suppose that there
was no curiosity upon the subject at the
time of the performance o. the miracle, as
there has been ever since, but after the mar
ratiye of his resurrection Lazarus does not
appear in the sacred record, and he is merely
incidentally mentioned In connection with his
sisters and the other disciples. He took no
prominent part in establishing the Christian
Church, and, except on account of the mira
Gle that was performed upon him, his infiu-
ence in promoting belief in the divinity of
Christ was less than any of the other disciples
mentioned. Indeed we are not even in
formed that he was disciple, and his future
course is as much mystery as his death and
resurrection. Throughout the entire Scrip
lures only the most indefinite hints are given
as to the actual condition of the souls of men
in the land of spirits; no revelations are made
that will give the slightest glimpse of heaven
or hell, and we are simply taught in positive
but general terms that men will be blessed in
the one or cursed in the other as their deeds
may be good or evil while living upon earth.
The mysteries of the future, for reasons that it
is suseless to speculate upon, are hiddenfrom the
eye of the human race, and there is mani
fest improperly in the attempts that are
sometimes made to tear aside the veil that
wise Providence has interposed between the
finite and the infinite. Fools rush in, how
ever, where angels fear to tread, and the
public of late has been treated to a number
Of works presenting theories of heaven which
are chiefly remarkable for their trivialities
and absurdities, and for the reckless disre-
gard for the most sacred things that writer's
of little ability and less judgment only could
indulge in. Such works as ''Gates Ajar," and
others of it's class, are, in our humble opinion,
positively injurious to the cause of true reli-
gion, whatever the intentions of the writers
may be. They disgust one class of readers,
and they cater to depraved and unhealthy
religious taste in others. They excite the
criv,af pf no and 1ulo nv,
descriptions that have no warrant in the
Scriptures, and that proceed only from the
imagination of the writer's; and they are
worse than other forms of sensationalism, in
asmuch as they trespass upon the most sacred
mysteries of religion, and pretend to reveal
what the Almighty has decreed shall be
hidden.
The author of the work before us makes a
specially OF this dangerous and--we are
almost disposed to say blasphemous species
of literature. 'Our Children in Heaven,
and 1.-THE Sexes Here and Hereafter, are the
titles of two of his works published within a
comparatively recent period, in which he
attempts to give description of heaven and
the condition of the souls of men after death.
'In Both Worlds" is an even bolder infringe
ment on the proprieties of religion, for in il
DR.. Holcomb takes up the story of Lazarus,
and undertakes to relate his experiences in
life, DEATH and after resurrection. In a pre-.
fatory chapter the writer pretends to have be.
come possessed of an ancient Greek manu-.
script which turns out to be an autobiography
of Lazarus, and the body of the work is this
narrative presented in what DIR. Holcomb calls
"a dress of the nineteenth century. If we
have any doubts as to the propriety of deal
ing with such subject as this under any cir
cumstances, we have none at all as to the in.
sufferable bad taste in which it is treated in
the work before us. To have such a nara.
tive as that of Lazarus worked up in the sen
sation style of one of Sylvanus Cobbs Leig61
stories is simply shocking to any person
who has a real reverence for sacred things
1t would be perfectly useless for us to gc
through the book and point out the anachro
nisms, the false coloring, and the other artis
tic absurdities that abound on every page, fo
it would not be worth half-a-dozen lines ever
of condemnation, if it we're not a proclamation
of subject the most awe-inspiring. As
specimen, however, we will mention that, O,
page IS, the uncle of Mary, Martha, an,
Lazarus is represented as smoking a hand
somely-ornamented pipe, ''curiously carve
and twisted" DIR. Holcomb being apps
rently oblivious of the fact that smoking wa
not an Oriental custom until after the dis
covery of America, when tobacco was intro
duced to the nations of the Old World. Thi
might be passed by with smile if it was no