The Portland daily press., 1879-04-15
EASTER.
THE RESURRECTION AND THE
LIFE.
A Sermon Preached by the Rev. DR..
Hill at the FIrst Parish Church.
TEXT. CORINTHIANS XIV.

lsh Passover, Kept it upon the anniversary OF
the Resurrection, let it fall upon what day of
the week it would. Polycarp declares that he
thus observed it with the Apostle John, while
Auicetus declares on the other hand that he
had Apostolic authority for observing it on the
Sunday after the Passover.
This division of opinion between the churches
of Asia Minor aDd these of Italy as to the
proper day to observe, thus becomes the evil
dence to us that the festival was universally
kept in all parts of the Roman empire even in
the Apostles days.
That the resurrection of Jesus from the dead
is the very foundation stone on which the
whole Christian church is built is acknowl-
edged by the learned even among the oppo-
nents of Christian faith. That is to say,
learned men of our own century, who refuse to
believe that Christ really rose from the dead,
confess that his apostles believed it, and that
nothing but their belief in it could have sus-
tanned them in their labors to establish the
Christian church. DIR. Peabody quotes from
RenaD, Strauss and Baur the most explicit ac-
Acknowledgements that the apostles and early
disciples must have been fully persuaded OF
the real Temperance of Jesus after the
resurrection; that otherwise they could not
have undergone what they underwent.
No wonder that this acknowledgment is
made; the evidence is to any fair-minded read
er overwhelming. Take for example the pas
sage which have read from Paul's letter to
the church at Corinth. This is the earliest
writing in which the Resurrection is mentioned,
I "
ten by Paul, and written but little more than
20 years after the Cruci6xion of Christ. But
Paul here testifes unmistakably not only to
his own faith in the Resurrection, Dut TO the
faith of the other apostles He says that Jesus
appeared to Peter, and to james, and to the
other apostles. In another letter written about
the same time to the churches in Galatia Paul
tells us that he had some years before, pr0ba-
bly, only six or seven years after the cruclhxion
gone to Jerusalem to talk with Peter, and tina.
be then saw James also. When, thereforet
he tells us that Peter and James had seen,
Jesus after his Resurrection, he IN effect tells us
that they had said SO and believed SO, within
six or seven years after the Crucifixion. He
saws also that Christ had shown himself to
above 500 brethren at once, OF whom the great
er part were still liviDg,-as though he, Paul,
had made inquiries as to whom these witnesses
were, and where they were, and had satisfied
himself that there were multtudes OF Wit
nesses, 200 or 800 still living, who affirmed that
they had seen Jesus after his Resurrection.
Let us also notice the manner in which Paul
introduced this testimony, and GROVES it with
his own affirmation that last OF all Christ was
seen by him also. He introduced it not to con-
vince those to whom he was writing, but merely
to remind them of what they already conceded
The whole chapter, indeed, all the writings OF
Paul seem to imply that every Christian reader
of his epistles will be ready 10 concede, that
God bad raised Jesus from the Dead that was
the one fact which stood out prominent in the
faith of the church 10 the apostles dAys;-this
is acknowledged both by those who do and
those who do not believe that the early church
had adequate proof OF the temperance CT
Christ after bis crucifx'on
At one time those who did not believe that
Jesus rose from the dead denied that the very
earliest Christians believed it. 1t was said that
the Resurrection of Christ was legend or a
myth which did not grow up until the second
or third generation of believers. But the
scholarship of Christian believers has
80 clearly proved this to be false, and
80 firmly established the fact of the
early faith of the Christian world in
Jesus Resurrection that as have already said
all unbelievers in the Resurrection Of Christ, OF
any pretence to scholarship now admit that
the earliest church and some of the apostles
themselves, believed, Immediately after the
crucifxiop, that they had seen the crucided
one, reappearing in the same form and With
the same lineaments as before his death upon
the cross. Nay it is conceded by those modern
skeptics that the very existence of the Christian
church of to day and in all the ages, is due to
this delusion, as they suppose 1t, Of the apes
ties. For without that faith in the conquest
of Jesus over death his dispirited scattered
disciples would never have rallied and changed
the faith of the world.
Two theories have been prominently put for
ward to explain the ApostleE' faith, without adj
hitting that it was we'll ifounded One is to
suppose that Jesus was not dead, but only
swooned, and that he revived in the GOODNESS
and quiet OF the tomb. or was conveyed out by
Joseph and revived by medical skill. Against
this suppostion, there are innumerabie objec-
tions, and many of them conclusive. To say
nothing of the moral impossbility of supposing
that the foundations of so pure and purifying a
movement as the preaching of Christs gospel |
were laid thus in conscious deception and lies, |
there is the fact that the death was by pub |
lie execution effected by officers and soldiers of
the Roman government, and not likely there
fore to have been left half done. Moreover
one Of the eyewitnesses to the scene makes the
most solemn observations that Jesus was
dead when the soldiers came to take the body
down; that they therefore did not break his
legs but til at one of the soldiers thrust spear
into his side, and that blood and water flowed
out John asserts this fact with great empha-
sis, because it was to him very important
fact in its literal ful6lment of two sentences of
what he considered Messianic prophecy; name
ly, A bone of him shall not be broken, and,
They shall look on him whom they have
pierced.
But to us Gentiles, at this day, il is of COM
paratively slight Importance whether the events
of ths crnc6xiOn did, or did not, literally full
fiji the apparent predictions of Hebrew writer's.
The emphatic testimony OF John has however
for US great value as additional proof that Je-
sus was actually dead. Had the soldiers had any
suspicion that life was in him they would have
broken legs One of them, 1t seems, however,
had a mind to make assurance doubiy sure and
therefore aimed a thrust uf his spear at Jesus
heart. He probably did not miss his aim, for
JONI dlur us Win ST6db cdTuesbu6SS tudt water
came out with the blood; showing that the spear
had at all events eotered the vital cavities, to
let out come pleuritic, or pericardiac effason,
or some serum from the heart itself
Moreover the intrinsic incredibility of such
feigned resurrection from only seeming death
having left no trace among the enemies of
Christianity of its detection, and of the snbse-
quent death of Jesus by natural death, is
Overwhelmingly against such an hypothesis.
The more usual hypothesis, therefore, among
H. cd h. III wr,kI,
suff1c ent cara to see how completely certain
we are that the Apos ties and first disciples be-
leved that they saw Jesus repeatedly after his
crucihxion is to suppose that they were
the victims Of balucinations, that they
saw visions. Paul, they say. certainly
saw visions, and the book of Act, tells
us of Peter and Aoanias, and Cornelius
and others, who saw visions, and the belief in
the temperance of Jesus must have arisen
from the testimony of those who saw him in,
day visions or in dreams.
This hypothesis is more plausible than the
othar, but it will not b5ar near examinatop
it will not meet the facts which are proved to
US by unimpe achabe testimony. Take the
case of Paul himself, who repeatedly, again
aud again, in the Epistles which are conceded
on all hands to have come from his pen, de-
clares that he has seen Jesus, that Jesus ap-
peared to him last of all, probably year o.
TWO after the crucifxion. He does not say
that be saw him in vision. OF visions he else-
sight of Jesus. A passage in the Galatians
makes it seem to me certain that Paul was ey.
en- accustomed to refer to his eyes blasted with
excess of light, to prove that the appearance of
Jesus to him on the road to Damascus was no
subjective vision, hut an objective reality, 30
dazzling bright that it overpowered the Syrian
noon-dsy sun.
Consider also Paul's testimony concerning
the appearance to others,-to one and another
of the disciples,-we have letters of James,
and of Peter, which prove them to be level.
headed men, capable of distinguishing dream
or vision from reality; then to all the apos-
tles-surely the whole twelve could not have
been subject to visions, epleptic OF other wise;
then to above five hundred men at once. and
if FIVE hundred men subject to visions could
have been found in the infant church thew
surely never would have seen the same vision
at once, at one and the same time. Besides
which, if this growing and hated sect had been
making such capital of series of visions, and
declaring that they were not visions bat were
the temperance of the veritsble body which
had been crucfed at Jerusalem, why did not
the enemies of the church bring forth proof,
or at least attempted proof that the body was
still in the sepulchre?
But when we have thus shown thai the nv