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


ssted for their own sakes to examine the
matter most thoroughly. They did not
deceive; their whole life, their death are
our guarantee. II few undertook to de-
ceive, so many would not have been led
into the secret, and some
out of SO many should have revealed
the plot. They could not have deceived if
they had wished to do so. The enemies of
Christ would have detected and exposed
the fraud. The adherents to the new re-
ligion had all means of controlling the svi-
dence, and would not have embraced the
faith at the peril of their lives had they
not found it incontrovertible. Eye wit
nesses of the fact were living when Paul
wrote to the Ephesians, and were yet in the
flesh, at a later date, when Quadratus
penned his apology.
ALI the demands which historical criti
cism can make are here abundantly sup
piled. No other case supplies them SO gen.
erously, for around no other fact did such
momentous questions ever gather, and in
testimony of no other fact did blood flow in
torrents. No other fact has left monu-
ments as this one-its monument is the
Christian religion to-day; it is the civiliza-
ton of the nineteenth century.
The theories advanced by our modern
rationRlists to explain away the resurrec-
ton, offer powerful corroborative evidence
to what we have heretofore said. So weak
are those theories, and SO strikingly are
they in contradiction with the admitted
circumstances of the case. So loud and so
| oft-repeated are the infdel assertions of the
day, that at first hearing we are tempted
to allot them some force. Their force is
in their loudness. few still repeat the
old tale that by some ingenuity the apos-
ties stole and hid the body OF Jesus, and
deceived the world. The German Paulus
has it that the physical life of Jesus did
not become totally extinct, that it was in
some way restored, and that he was thus
able to show himself to his disciples.
Strauss and Renan resort to the vision
theory, according to which the disciples
with their exalted feelings of love and rev.
erence for their Master actually fancied
they had seen him alive, and their illusions
have come down to Us IS the miracle of the
resurrection. How easy was it, IN those
theories, for the Pharisees to disprove the
whole claim of the resurrection! If the
apostles connived at fraud either on their
own part, or on that of Jesus, how could
they haye died even for their own testi-
mony, and how was it that not one of the
800 should have stated the truth! In the
theories of Rensn and Strauss,
the visions not only would
have included passing illusion
as to the person of Christ, but also length
ened conversations, and the Institutions Of
the church and the sacraments; the illu-
sions must be supposed to have fallen
upon the whole throng of apostles and
disciples, and, singuiarly, to have with o1e
single sxception-the ap partition to Paul
ceased with the ascension, ) itself another illu-
sion. And these illusions ard weak de-
ceits should have converted re ths religion
of the cross the Jewish and Pagan world!
The record as We have it iE Srac; there
fore omnipotenoe was manifest on Easter
morning. A miracle, other ration
alists say, is never within the reach of hu-
man ken, because it is supernatural, and as
such beyond our power. The visi5is facts
fall under our senses, and the principle Of
reason that to an effect there is cause
connects those facts with the supernatural.
The same principle shows US above this Wis
ible universe God, supreme, all-powerfnl,
all-wise, all-good. So, when We see Christ
dead, AID see him afterwards living, we
know that omnipotsnce has been at work.
This universe points to God; God was
manifested in ths resurrection; thsse two
truths are most certain, and they give as
our religion.
So far we have judged tbs evidence of
the resurrection according to the canons of
historical criticism. Bat to obtain the
full view of this evidence, we must lift
ourselves to q higher region; for heaven,
no less than earth, is concerned in it.
There is, we say, God above US, all-Pow-
srfHl and all-good. Now, Christ appears
on earth, admitted by all, by Strauss and
Renan, no less than by faithful Christians,
to be the most perfect being who ever was
clothed in human form, the very ideal of
holiness and moral perfection. He an
nounces himself as heavens herald,
breaches doctrine most sublime, and pre-
diets his own resurrection from the grave
as the proof of his mission. On the
strength of this proof, supposed to have
been actually given, the apostles carry his
word to the nations and establish his church
through the world. This church has re-
NAMED even until now, sanctifying, con-
selling, eleyating the millions, gathering
within her pale as she passed down ages
whatever was good, pure, bright in the
world. She professedly claims to be divine
as established by a divine founder, wearing
Gods own royal mantle, and under cover
of it subjugating the world, exacting sscri-
fees of mind, of heart, of life, the very
ideal of divine society, difusing through
the world virtue and holiness as earth had
never before seen or dreamt of, and with
all the scrutinizing examination of friends
and foemen afordIng no positive clue to
human origin. Is the resurrection not
fact? Then Christ and his church are q
huge lie, gigantic fraud, sacrilegious
imposition in Gods name upon mon. If
her origin is not divine, and it is not, if
Christ has not risen, nothing can be sup
posed SO fearful falsehood as the Chris
tian church.
Can the supposition even be made? Is
it possible to mention fraud and lying de-
csit in presence of the ideal SAINT
Christ?-in presence of all the virtues to
which His church has given birth? From
the fruit We must judge of the trse.
Can the supposition be made and God
reign over us? The deepest instinct i'm
planted by Him in our soul is love of truth,
and hsre he would permit an institution in
his name, invested with the attributes of
divine agency, 30 far IS its workings show,
and would allow Us no means of proving the