Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-03-26


had its rise in the days of
on the imperial throne of Rome. 1t was
an age Respondent with historic brilliancy,
it was the great age of letters, an age of
remarkable publicity for all its doings and
sayings. 1t was the golden period of Re-
man letters. Livy and Tacitus wrote his
tory, while Virgil and Horace sang, and
the sounds of Cicero's Grafton yet fingered
around the pillars of the forum. Greece
was yet bathed in the light shed upon it by
Plato, ThucYdides and Demosthenes. The
| Jews had their writer's, too; the authors of
the Macchabees were not long departed,
and Josephus and Philo were soon to ap-
pear on the scene. The armies and pro-
| consuls of Rome were spread from Britain
| to Persia, aud every motion in
| the most remote province was reported IN
Rome. The seas were covered with
vessels; imperial roads knit together
all cities and villages. 1t was nineteenth
century placed in history over 1900 years
ago. We are dealing with no age of myths,
| or fables, or obscure nursery tales of the
beginnings of history. The religion of
the period was Jewish, or pagan. Within
| the narrow borders of Palestine, the Jew
Greece and Rome bowed before the gods
| of Olympus, and if no deep intellectual
credence was accorded to them, the hearts
| of men were chained to their thrones; for
| those gods were the deifcetions of mems
| passions. Paganism was ali powerful.
It was the religion of the state, and Rome's
| legions stood ready to unsheathe the sword
| IN its defense.
Wall in ba nftoautb Of 4ha rai0y1 IF
| Tiberius, Jesus, obscure, unknown, inlet
tered, preached in Judea. He demanded
| the submission of minds and hearts; he
gathered around him fishermen whom he
appointed to carry his words to the extrem-
| tiles of the earth. He was first met with
scorn. The Pharisees and priests of Juda-
| ism became angered, and under the Roman
governor, Plate, he was crucifed, and the
apostles fed in dismay. This his life and
| death. Suddenly, however, the disciples
rallied, and cross in hand-the emblem OF
the dishonored death of their leader-they
proceeded to convert Jew and Pagan. And
they succeeded. Jewish Pharisee,
military centurion, Athenian philosopher,
Roman senator, yield submission.
Within twenty years there are Christians
throughout the known world. Rome be-
ter. All in vain; persecution succeeds per-
secution; the Christians multiply, and after
three centuries the cross marches at the
head of Romes armies, and the Christian
religion is seated with Constantine upon
the throne of the Caesars. This conversion
of the world involved most severe sacrifice.
Becoming disciple of Christ was tearing
ones self rudely from pPst traditions, cher
iSh INT
intellectual submission to the doctrine of
the crucifed, submission of the
heart to his precepts. The moral
precepts which Christianity imposed
demanded constant self-denial. the crucihI-
ion upon the cross of all sinful appetites.
For Christ was inexorable; he would con-
troll the whole man, or refuse all commEni-
cation with him. Becoming a Christian
suggested actual bloody martyrdom. All
the apostles shed their blood-and for
three centuries the year never passed when
in some part of the empire the Christians
were not cast in food to the lions, did not
burn at the stake, or were not ordered to
bow their heads under the executioner's az.
And yet the world became Christian.
There was a motive for this conversion,
a motive adequate in its power to all the
sacrifices which the act of conversion i'm
piled. The motive was the belief in the
resurrection Of Christ. Upon this we are
all agreed, Christians and infdels. The
belief in the resurrection rallied the apos-
ties back to the service Of their master.
Belief in the resurrection was the founda-
ton which they proposed to Jew and Cen
tile for their faith IN Christ. The Office OF
an apostle, in the words Of Peter when be
proposed the election of a successor TO
Judas,we ''to be a witness to the resurrec-
tion." Peters first discourse to the Jews on
Pentecost was: "You have cruciied him
and put him to death, whom
God hath raised up; his sepulchre is with
us to the present day. The fact of the
resurrection Paul announced to Festus and
Agrippa, and to the Areopagites of Athens.
IF Christ is not risen again." he wrote to
the Corinthians, then is our preaching
vain, and your faith is also vain, and we
are found false witnesses of God"
This belief in the resurrection, which
changed the world, is our guarantee that
the facts concerning the resurrection as
we read them to-day were actual occurren-
ces. If ever belief demanded correspond
ing objective reality, this does. We have
witnesses most interested to investigate
well all the facts in the case, before accept
ing the belief; witnesses giving
the most indubitable proofs
of their sincerity, confirming their testimo-
ny with the shedding of their blood. I be-
lieve willingly, said Pascal, the witness who
dies to attest his words. Here we have such
witnesses beyond power of Enumeration;
each Jew or Pagan who became Chris.
tan became a witness, if not to having
seen the facts with his own eyes, to have
examined the testimony given regarding
them, while that testimony was open to i'm
mediate control. The Christian religion,
we must remark, is a religion
of facts, not philosophical elucubration,
or fanciful theory of the mind; it is
what Christ said, and what he did.
The facts in the case, as we read them
today, are the same upon which the early
Christians were asked to form their belief.
Modern Rationalists and infdels grant all
this. We have the Christian contemporary
literature-Gospels and epistles written by
those who declared themselves eyewitness
es; books and epistles not contained in the
Biblical volume, but equally re-
liable as histories written also by
immediate disciples of eye-witnesses
To the facts or nv Christie, 1a Twin O. in the