The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-07-05

/ the Rass OF Christianity. Let me quote only one
tnians' in which ST. Paul attacks this question at
once Now this Eplstle has never been doubted,
and it s mot doubted 70 TINS day i Is Eoe
sus in the year IS OF our In the spring OF that
year and about twenty-five years alter the death
OF Christ. Read the fifteenth chapter, verses 10
III OF that letter, aud you will see that the resur-
rection Of Christ was an event, and not MYTH a;
! the apostolic testimony, let remark
that IN the immense domain OF history
on another ground than historical testimony. me
history OF philosophy has no other proof OF tne
lie and teaching OF Socrates, OF which nobody
doubts, but through the accounts furnished by MS
disciples, such as Plato and Xenophon. The pohti-
cal history OF empires rom Caesar and Charle
magne down to Napoleon is based upon such testi-
monv. ana has no other guarantee OF IT'S trutn
Testimony satisfies us even in sciences whcu we
have not cultivated ourselves ana OF which we ac-
cept the results. None OF us have probably verb
fed the astronomical results gwen US by Professor
Proctor, and yet we believe III tuem. YEA the
everyday transactions OF lie rest upon this foun-
dation, ana the merchant VINO receives q good ac-
count OF commercial house in foreign country
will upon the strength OF this testimony risk his
fortune. All that require Is that the testimony
OF persons TO whom we apply shan ne OF sucn
themselves must be morally worthy Oh confidence
Can We not affirm this OF the apostles? II
their testimony was doubtful now came IL
that they founded Immediately III Jerusalem
church or several thousand worshippersy What
their testimony cheat And from the midst OF
that multitude OF declared enemies TO Jesus and
the apostles not one rises to compel these rama
tics TO keep SILENT not one Is able TO produce the
body OF Christ, which would have been complete
reputation OF their absurd claims. Three thousand
persons In one day believed In this lable, Whicn
bears the imprint OF Iasehood, and threw them
selves at the leet OF the fishermen Of Galilee ASK
ing to be baptizedl The belief IN this imposture
extends over the whole OF Palestine, and pene-
trates into pagan lands, so much so that only
twenty-five years alter the death OF Christ st.
Paul wrote letters 20 numerous and very active
churches, established throughout Asia Minor,
Greece and Italy, and nobody suspects an lmposl-
tion On the contrary, the resurrection Is re-
great persecution which reigned in the year GA
(only thirty years alter the death OF CHRISTI,
against the Christians OF Rome, ana OF
transmitted the :rightlui details, would Itself
alone prove that the preaching OF the resurrection
could not the world with so muca rapidly
and so much power but for the fact OF Its unan-
swerable verify and because the human conscience
possesses that Instinct OF the truth Dy which IL
seized upon the validity the apostolic testimony,
well as because the apostles had by the con-
science OF their contemporaries, been adJudged
upright, honorable sant-llke even, and TO whom
1t was impossible to attach the name OF false wit
nesses Must not every sincere man, who reads
first OF st. Peter and the second OF timothy, pro-
claim that those who have written them are, TO
say the least, honest men?
And from whence comes the faith or the apostlesr
What inspires them with SO much devotedness, so
mucn love for holy cause which Is dearer to
them than life, and for the sake OF which they
accept joyuy the scorn and the hatred OF the
world persecution, Imprisonment and death itselfP
A myth? No, it Is moral impossibllity! al will
be Killed." says Pascal.
know, some say, that they could sincerely be-
leve their Master resuscitated, While His appari-
tons were only the reflex OF their preoccupation;
the effect OF their exaltaton. But can an imagi-
nary being speak. eat drink and be touchedY When
we believe that we see and hear things which only
exist In our imaglnatOns these Illusions take the
shape OF our favorite ideas; but this psychological
condition aid not exist in the case under consider
alton. The disciples had no expectations OF see
ing their Lord alive again; they did not believe
the news when they first heard IT. the women
pVa
went to the tomb to embam the body which had
been laid there. We can easily imagine that we
see and hear that which we most lmpatlently eX-
pect or most ardentiy hope for, but never that OF
which we have not tue remotest thought or idea.
This has been well understood by Baur and
Strauss. the two pr lncipal douoters OF our time,
when they write that the disciples firmly believed
that Jesus had rsen and That they were fully con-
vinced that they had seen the hving Jesus who
had been put TO death STRAUSS, .Leben Jesu, u
1864, pp 259 and 290), and that as far as regards
the iath OF the disciples the resurrection OF Christ
was a firm and mistaken truth (Drei ersten Jahr.
hunderte," second edition, PIP. 80 and 30). What
Baur and Strauss have not been able to MAKE
doubtful must IN reality have been most solldlJ
established.
MY letter is already too long. I close it, there
fore, with the following quotation rom Frenct
sdvont:-"Realiy am not SO easy OF belief as to W
unbelieving"
your very obedient servant L. BOREL,
Pasteur de rEglise Relormee rancaise.
A Question for Dnr>vinian Theorists.
You have lately admitted into your journal some
discussions concerning the philosophy which con
cludes that man was formerly brute and per
haps still earlier, O vegetables and some of you
correspondents assume that these are facts which
though only very lately discovered are now estab
lished beyond all question and universally ad
united by scientific men. On the contrary. VI
have the best testimony to show that the Oar
winian theories have prevailed only IL
Germany, while they are still on thei
trial in England and are wholly rejected ii
France, the country which has taken the lea
IN the departments OF learning most nearly re-
lated to them. The newest scientific enumeration
! however startling, will almost always find mul
ttude ready to accept 1t. But science, in Its SLOW
advance through centuries has been ever cor
recting its own errors and retracting Its 100 hast.
conclusions. Even those of them which seem tt
rest on mathematical demonstration prove mac
curate; and now, after gradually lessening on
estimate of the earth's distance from the sun by
few millions OF miles, we are waiting for tn
coming transit OF Venus TO confirm our lates
judgment OF 1t, and, consequently. OF all the othel
celestial distances OF which We are compelled u
make IL the measure. But when we come T.
theories Which do not admit OF demonstration
but depend for proof merely on comparison AM
analogy, or on chains OF facts IN which thousands
OF links are stI wanting where tens are found Il
their looked-or succession, We may be very sur
that decade or two.oI existence have not bee
sufficient to test them.
From the unity OF plan exhibited in the ANNA
kngdom from the numberless resemDlances il
animal organisms, and the many cases ia whlc
those resemblances occur in regular graduation
and especially from the existence in some animal
OF the mere rudimentS OF parts which are fully dt
veloped ana active in other species, Darwin con
cudes that all organisms have been produced b
''evoluton," IN accordance With those mrthe
principles which he designates by the well know
phrases of natural selection sexual selection
and survival OF the 1ttestn But while the intel
estng and fascinating display OF selected fact
winch he produces would confirm or establish hi
evolution theory II 1t had already some Othe
ground to rest upon, or II there were no other ev
dence connlcting with it, there Is sui a create
mass OF facts which 1t makes no attempC TO e1
PLAIN, and with reference TO which any such a
tempt would seem hopeless.
Many species OF insects, as every one know
have tour wings, oil which the under one on eac
side Joins the upper as sort OF supplement-, whe
, they are extended in flight, but hes closely b'
meath 10 when at rest The movement by whc
this wonderful adaptation takes efect is as quic
as a fash; but by watching q wasp on a frost
, window, making occasional attempts 20 n.y. 1t ca