Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1869-10-12
The Greatest Miracle of ALI.
THE LIFE OF JESUS: ANIMAL MAGNETISM
AND MIRACLES.

No man ever had so many biographers as
Jesus Christ. Notwithstanding strong
religious prejudice against any other than
the gospel record, every season brings new
compilations of the life of the Redeemer.
Foes and friends are alike compelled TO le
sort to the same sources for the materials
of their story. Four gospels are the mex
haustible fountains of all these streams.
Isaac digged again the wells of water
which the Philistines had stopped after the
death of Abraham. Christian writer's would
have to do similar Office for the gospels,
if they were not altogether too deep to be
stopped by an unbelieying criticism of
hundred hostile biographers of Christ. Is
it not strange that skeptics should become
such admirers of the meek and lowly Je-
sus that they cannot refrain from making
His matchless life another volume? When
Dumas writes an enthusiastic cookery book
we know that it is in his heart. When
Renan writes sentimental biography of
Jesus, do we know as much?
Strauss rejected the supernatural in the
gospels as simply impossible and absurd.
Renan knew that in this, Strauss simply
begged the question, and therefore he rids
himself of the miraculous by declaring it
unhistorical, and therefore utterly imprac-
ticable in the work of true biography
This is criticism With a vengeance. Scien-
tific men are rejoicing in the wonderful
| discoveries made IN regard to the constitu
ton of the sun and stars. Just imagine
them to have begun the study of the solar
spectrum with this principle unalterably
determined, namely, that no lines should
be recognized as having any meaning or
authority that were not to be found in the
spectrum of a farthing candle. This is the
way in which men of genius in Germany
and France have studied the sun of Right
eousness, and have given us poor, ignorant
believers the benefit of their studies in
what they call Lives of Christ"
Burglars must blow up the safe before
they can secure the treasure. So hostile
biographers feel they must shatter the Cos
pels before they can destroy the divine ele-
ment and influence in the life of Jesus
What can exceed the GOODNESS with which
they apply their powder to the empty
holes drilled with bit of imagination =
The last bold genius in this line, writing
the "Jesus of History" says:
"The first gospel may be assured to rep.
resent the traditions, etc. The second
would be founded almost exclusively upor
the first; and the third would be derived
partly from the first two gospels, and part
ly from other sources of information, etc.
The fourth is dismissed altogether by
this erudite biographer, though Renar
himself was more condescending than thi
in his treatment of the aged and beloved
John.
f Now is not this beautiful specimen 0
the wisdom of this world? Matthew "ma,
be assumed" Mark would be founded,
and then again perhaps he would not; Lux
; however, if agreeable, would be derived
e from things in particular and general
1 while John is altogether too decided an
> deep for any attempt at manipulation. 5
) the biographer discourses, and in so doin
e reminds us of the feelings of those Arab
-, whom Davis overheard when he was max
ing his excavations in the neighborhood {
1 ancient Carthage. Their subject was tn
5 harvest This is December" said one {
a these humble followers of the Prophet;
'then comes April and then January" y
h Davis. anxious to enlighten his assistant
# told them that this was not December, br
y January, and that the next month woul
;. be February, and then gave them the otl
g er months in their order. Ali, overwheln
o ed at this extraordinary erudition, replied
q There are men who know every day
: the week, every day and week in the mont
If every month in the year, and by the hea
5, of the Prophet, Ali, you are one of then
K Ba ba! ba ! ba. how vast this knowled.
Y is What fund of learning he possesse
Ie Tabarch Allah (may Allah be blessed
h Verify he and his kind are men. VIII
'e are we? Behaim (asses.")
= Verify he and his kind are men WI
E. know every one of the four gospels, al
l. how each one is derived, or founded,
:" compiled, and what are we in comparis,
with this giant of human learning! If
and his companions ever acquired the +
diments of a common school educatiC
their awe of their employer would ha
sunk to the level of an humble apprec
he ton. We are confident that men in &c
OF eral, and christians in particular, knt
te enough already to keep them from bel
D. overcome with admiration for such exl
billions of scholarship as these vain imagi
atoms in regard to the gospel records.
But, after all, the miracles are the ch
stones of stumbling for these biographe
who attempt to give a history of the XII
and deny the existence of his crown a
kingdom. Never did we realize the extt
of the stumbling they might occasion III
our attention was turned to Dr. Bonavi
Contributions to Christology." We
familiar with the fact that superstition W
degrade, but who will doubt the power
skepticism to stultify, after reading the 81
gestions of the learned doctor quoted W
admiring approval by leading quarterl
According to this hypothesis, Christ wa
powerful gagnetizer. 1t IS then acknO'
edged that this theory will not account
all the miracles, but, after making libe
allowances, it is said that "the insolu
residuums will be very small" This res
is shown by a classification of the mirac
no in Matthew. One class of sixteen
ny claimed as explainable by the magne
MS theory, after making some allowance
ne exaggeration in the record. But four o
OF er classes, inclusive of twenty two miraC
n have to be subject to some other treatmt
ne before they could show any signs of me
mt ing. Glass two, consisting of five miracl
are openly, hopelessly, and utterly cab
doned as unexplainable by animal mag
to tism." Certainly we have no predispt
ton to find anything comical in the d
tructive efforts of modern skepticism.
if any one fails to perceive the absol
absurdity of this hypothesis, in connect
with the classification made in its suppt
he would see nothing ridiculous in the c.
undrum which requires us to throw av
the "daigua" in order to make beauti
town in western New York like the Ia
of Canaan. From this classification
, the miracles Just take away the "daigu