The record-union., 1891-04-12

mon as ingress. He is the first born
among many brethren. His resurrection
differs in no wise from every resurrec-
ton, as His death differs in no wise from
every death, except in this, that
His radiant personality is so transcend
ant that in death as in life, He cannot be
hid Thus the Christian hope in death is
altogether of different quality from that
reaction in despair which constitutes the
poor semblance of hope in pagan philoso-
ply, both ancient and modern. The last
enemy to be destroyed is death. But
Christ has already destroyed him."
The Nashville ChrfstSon Advocate
(Meth.) says: 1.-The skepticism of to-day
calls in question the authenticity and
genuineness of the four Gospels, and,
therefore, seeks to destroy the force of all
evidence from that quarter. We do not
hesitate to say that the best and soberest
scholarship of the world repudiates these
negative conclusions. But if the four
Gospels were ruled out of court, we have
still abundant testimony. Not even the
most radical and destructive critics have
ventured to deny that the Epistles to the
Corinthians, the Galatians and the
Romans were actually written in the
form in which we now possess them, by
the Apostle Paul. These are entirely
sufficient for our purpose. From them
we gather two things: first, the affrma-
ton of Paul that he had himself received
sensible manifestation of the risen
Christ, and that by this manifestation the
whole course and tenor of his life had
been revolutionized; secondly, the fact
that at the time of PauPs conversion,
which probably took place from within
from three to five years after the cruci-
fixion, there was an organized and ag-
gressiye church, whose members be-
Geved with the most unquestioning con-
tidence that the man whom they wor-
SHIPPED as Jesus, the Christ, had broken
away from the CHAINS of death, returned
in life and power to the earth, and after
wards assembled in glory to heaven.
Bauer, the keenest, and almost the
coldest of the German critics, freely ad
mits that much. He says: For the belief
of the disciples, the resurrection of Christ
was incontestably certain Elsewhere
he adds, still more explicitly: For the
disciples, the resurrection of Christ was
as certain as any historical fact-what-
ever may have been the medium Of the
persuasion
The Standard (Bapt.) says: "If it be
true that Jesus rose from the dead, in the
manner commemorated, there is no good
reason why all else related of Him, in
His supernatural birth and his wonderful
works, should not also be true. The tes-
timony of the Easter observance becomes
the more important to this end, as we
consider at how early date it must have
begun. Either within the lifetime of
persons who were contemporaries Of
Jesus of Nazareth, or so nearly contem-
pOrarieS as to be such to all intentS and
purposes, this remarkable fact of the
resurrection of Jesus had not only be-
come history, but had come to be mat
ter of public and notorious commemora-
ton. This, too-and this is highly i'm
portant-in the face of hostile pagan crit
icism, in an age peculiarly critical and
incredulOus of everything savoring of
the supernatural. Pagan superstitions
were crumbling on every hand, and the
temples of the gods being abandoned,
just because of that universal scepticism
which had come as the natural reaction
from former credulity and superstition.
Where is the evidence that at the time
when the Easter festival was growing
into universal observance, the amazing
fact to which it bore such conspicuous
testimony was anywhere successfully
challenged?
''These considerations are of the more
importance as we bear in mind what a
prominent feature in the Christian testi-
mony of that age the resurrection of
JESUS was; how boldly it was set forth in
and how, in fact, they in their reasoning
made the truth of the whole Christian
system TO turn upon its reality"
The Rev. William Kirkus says, in the
Standard Of the Cross (P. E.): We are
sometimes asked to believe that the Res
direction was merely 'spiritual;' and we
may well admit that the body of the
risen Lord was a spiritual as distin-
guished from a merely natural body.
But the first lesson of Easter was not that
something had happened in the thoughts
nd @f hn nS,N1ar lN,,t +l,t
something had happened in the personal
experience of Jesus. Much had hap
pened to the disciples. They had been
literal-minded,' now they are beginning
to understand the mysteries of the King
dom of God they had been timid, now
they are unfinchingly brave; they had
striven among themselves which should
be the greatest, now they are ready to
wash one another's feet and to become
the servants of all; they had been mere
Jews, looking for the restoration of the
kingdom to Israel, now they are prepared
to be the founders of a Universal Church,
and to call no man common or unclean.
All this is true, and it is impossible to ex-
aggerate its Importance. We may call
that, if we please, a spiritual resurrec-
ton; rising out of dead works, out of
fear and SelfshnesS and narrowness of
mind, into life hid with Christ in God.
But, marvellous as 1t is, it is not the res
direction of Jesus; it is not a fact in His
experience. Moreover, it cannot be ac-
counted for in the disciples, except by
that objective fact that something had
happened to Jesus, altogether independ-
ent of their own fears and hopes and ne
cessities and responsibilities. What hap
pened to Him was the cause of what hap
pened to them. They were new men
because He was alive again. They were
begotten again unto lively hope by the
-
dead. 1t is easy enough to understand
that the disciples were glad when they
saw the Lord; bat it is quite impossible
TO understand that eleven people, who
had seen their Master and dearest friend
dying a bloody and shameful death,
should within few hours, not to say a
few minutes, become not only glad but
triumphant by seeing nothing at all.
Their new spiritual condition may have
been a natural evolution; but nobody can
evolve an oak out of an acorn by letting
1t lie still on an iron slab; nobody can
evolve new phenomena exactly as they
were. The effect of Christ's resurrection
upon the spiritual life of the disciples was
so great and permanent that though they
may be easily distinguished they cannot
be separated. st. Paul felt this, and the
more he meditated upon it the more he
felt that Christ had possessed him, had
identified His servants life with His
own. This feeling is expressed most
strongly in st. Paurs later Epistles.
Thus, for instance, he says in the EpiStIe
to the E.pheStanS, God being rich in mercy
raised US up with Christ and made US sit
with him in the heavenly places.' 1t is
exactly because the fact of the resur-
rection was so potent force, because it
produced so immediate and permanent
an effect in all who believed it, that the
effect can be plausibly misrepresented as
its own cause. Look at the change in
these people! Is not that resurrection
enough?'"
OF "The Renedicite as an Easter