The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-05-05
CAN Any REPLY BE MADE2

CAN ANY REPLY BE MADE?
The gospel of Matthew was written in
Palestine. 1t is believed that the gospel
of Luke was written in Cesarea, on the
coast of Palestine-the official residence
of the Herodian kings. The date of their
composition was apparently about the
year A. D. So, or twenty-five years after
the crucifxion of Christ. One of these
writers informs US that he was disciple
of Jesus, and followed him daily for sew
eral years, and that he saw him perform
many miracles. He states that John, the
author of another biography of Christ
and Peter, and James, and Thomas, and
Philip, and the rest of the twelve, with
number of others (men and women), wit
messed the same miraculous acts. The
twelve.apostles all proclaimed these mir
acles throughout all Palestine, and con-
tinued to assert and declare that they
had personally witnessed them, up to
their deaths, most of which were martyr
doms In attestation of the truth of what
they constantly affirmed. The author of
the Acts of the Apostles speaks freely of
miracles performed by the apostles and
others after the death of Christ, and St.
Paul writing to the Corinthian church,
speaks to them of the miracles at that
time performed in the city of Corinth, and
of which they were cognizant, and so in
his epistle to the Galatians
We do not hesitate to receive the tes-
timony of Josephus or Tacitus as to the
events of their day. We accept the state
ments of Josephus with regard to the
siege of Jerusalem by Titus, of all which
he was an eyewitness. There is very
little doubt that the occurrences of that
siege were substantially what Josephus
describes them to have been. Nobody
doubts it. But suppose that for some
reason Josephus had lied in his whole
narrative and represented things entirely
differently from what they actually were
suppose he had stated that Jerusalem re-
PEELED all the attacks Of Titus, and that
the Roman army was defeated, and Titus
himself captured and crucifed outside of
the city walls would this story have
come down to us? It could not haze been
published then and there. Could Jose
plus, after the ploughshare had been run
over the city, and the Jews had been sent
as slaves into all parts of the Roman en-
pire, have published book telling them
and the world that their city had not
been destroyed, that a half million of
them had not persisted, that the survivors
had NOT been carried away captive; that
it was the army Of Titus which had been
cut to pieces, and that that general had
suffered an ignominious death? If Jose
plus had written and published this,
everybody would have contradicted him
There would have been no sense in such
book Such work could only pro-
coed from crazy person.
Now apply this to the narratives of
Matthew and Luke--two Independent
histories of the same occurrences, appear
ing almost simultaneously
They tell the inhabitants of Palestine,
and all whom it may have concerned, that
Jesus on a certain occasion raised up from
the dead young man whose body his
relatives were bearing to the grave in
the city Of Main; that on another occa-
sion when two Of John Baptist's disci-
pies visited him, he cured many of their
in6rmities, and plaques, and of evil
spirits and unto many that were blind
he gave sight that on another occasion,
somewhere near the sea of Galilee he
raised from the dead the daughter Of
Jairus, ruler of the synagogue that on
another occasion, near Capernaum, on the
same sea Of Galilee, he stilled tempest
with single word that on another oc-
casion he fed multitude Of 5000 per
sons on five loaves and two fishes near
the town of Bethsaida in Galilee that on
another occasion, also in Galilee, he fed
1000 persons on seven loaves and few
fishes; that on another occasion, perhaps