The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-04-01
TH0UGHTSDo
HON%
MORALSS0 MANNERS
BIZ A CLERGYMAN.

advent, the other its exit. In so Jar as
this world is concerned, the experience of
mankind is that death is final. That
which the queen says to Hamlet, in the
play, voices the fact:
Thou knowst tits common, all that live
must die, passing through nature to eter-
nifty"
The bible teaches that there have been
some exceptions to this world-embracing
law. In the old testament Enoch passed
from earth to heaven without diving.
Elijah restored to life the dead son of
the Shunammite. In the new testament
Christ raised the daughter of Jairus, re-
animated the widow of Mains son and
called Lazarus back from the grave.
When Jesus gave up the ghost on Calvary
many of the departed reappeared
and went accusingly into Jerusa-
lem. And, finally, on that first
Easter Sunday Jesus came forth from the
"sepulcher that was hewn out of rock,
and made eleven separate and distinct
appearances during an interval of forty
DAYS and convinced those who knew Him
best and loved Him most that it was
indeed Himself. These eye and ear wit
nesses of the resurrection were so abso-
lutely confident of this that they went
every whittier testifying to it, and many
OF them sealed this testifying with their
martyr blood.
Because the resurrection transcends or
binary experience, many doubt it and
some deny. Both doubt and denial in
volve certain absurdities. The absurdity,
for instance, of supposing that the best
men that ever lived were guilty of the
grossest imposition ever practiced, and
the further absurdity of believing that
such men submitted to martyrdom in
order to substantiate their fraud. If it
be said that they might have been hon
estiy mistaken-might have imagined
they saw what they did not see, as old Dr.
johnson believed in ghosts, we reply:
This could not have been true
in the case of Christ, be-.
cause he protested to raise the
dead. He was not a mere spectator, but
the actual doer of the deed. III He did
not raise the dead He was an intentional
deceiver, which is inconsistent with the
universal acknowledgment of His supreme
wisdom and goodness. IT'S easier to be-
ieve that He raised the dead and that He
rose Himself. than it is to believe that He
Of the mighty, and the mightiest Of the
pure" was a vulgar imposter. Between
two difficulties wise man chooses the
least.
For the believer in Christ's divinity
these difficulties do not exist. 'Tis as
easy for God to re-create as to pro-create
Were it not for its commonness birth is as
wonderful as resurrection. Natural laws
are only Gods ordinary ways of doing
things. Why may He nothave extraordi-
nary ways? Can not He who made the
laws of nature vary them, or so play them
sff against one another as to produce new
affects? Otherwise nature would be
more powerful than its Maker-another
absurdity.
To say that God never does vary His
laws Is to beg the question. This is pre-
eisely what the scriptures tell us He does
A miracle is a deviation from the usual
course-another divine way of doing
things. We call it a miracle on that ac-
count. But to God il is no miracle at all,
but only a resort to a law new to us. In
heaven they do not wonder at Christ's res
direction. IT'S His condescension in veil.
ing His divinity in humanity that stirs the
amazement of the skies. The miracle
which perplexes the angels is the incarna-
.ion-the manger-cradle, not the empty
Iepulcher.
Certain thinkers are never tired OF striv-
ing 10 evaporate the supernatural out of
the bible. They might as we'll undertake
q evaporate the oxygen from the air. For
8 oxygen is the vital portion of the atmos-
phere, so the supernatural is the vital
element in the scriptures. Success in
either case would devitalize the resid-
UNI. The bible is literary chef dGurre.
But il is more. 'Tis a divine rev.
citation. As such, the superhuman
element is to be expected. Its absence
would discredit its alleged authorship. If
1t were history, merely, or poetry, or eth
les, what we call the miraculous would be
an impertlnence. But since il is Gods
book, and speaking of Him, telling us
whom He Is, and what, and where, and
throwing a flood of light upon human orr
gin, destiny and immediate duty-super-
Daturalism is demanded. Naturalism is
not sufficient for these things.
A pastor writes as follows anent his best
parishioner: / once had an elder whose
seat was near the door after church, and
who always had a handshake and
kind word for any newcomer who might
drop in. II was his custom TO invite such
TO come again, or to ask strangers if they
would like an introduction to the pastor,
and 20 secure their address with view 10
pastoral visitation. In this way he helped
his minister more and did more TO build
up his church than all the other members
put together.
In the Homiletic Review for March DR..
Arthur I. Pierson appeals to theological
seminaries and colleges 10 establish
chair Of the English bible from among
the most able and successful OF all our
biblical preachers. We need the most
alert and quickening men OF the pulpit
and passionate in chairs OF the English
bible. And to such men no other chair
would be so attractive. Preachers whom
no other call could draw from their be-
loved surroundings would resign all
charms of pastoral life for the sake OF
training new generation of preachers
who would be able to handle the word of
God as whole as foremost lawyer han
dies Blackstone or an accomplished artisan
his tools"
In England and in Canada there are reg
ularlv inc0rnorafad cofFaa houaa corr,