Omaha daily bee., 1896-04-05

how little Of all that he spoke, are we told!
He interpreted to the two that walked with
him on the way to Emmaus those passages
in the earlier testament which related to
himself. But how little of what he said
has been preserved for us! On the other
hand, when you compare what the witnessed
at first hand, and at second hand-those who
saw him themselves, and those who record
what others have told to them-have TO tell
Of his appearances after his resurrection,
you will find that there are no less than
eleven Of these, each one somehow different
from the other, and each one throwing a
fresh light, not merely upon the fact of the
resurrection, but upon the nature Of that
which was risen.
You find first of all that the old physical
relations of Christ with his earthly COM
panions have ceased and ended forever. If
any one affirms that after the resurrection
Christ assumed his former associations with
his disciples and urges it as a warrant that
we shall do no less with our dead, after their
resurrection and our own, 1t is enough to say
that they have not read, or II they have, have
not taken the trouble to try to understand
the teaching of the New Testament. From
the first moment of that first meeting when
Jesus says to one who loved him with such
Pa ssionate and unalterable devotion, "Touch
me not all the way to the moment when
his human form melted into the clouds, what
ever else may be obscure, this Is plain, that
~ Ob sehSuOuS leilOWSllp, tue Olu DOully
contract, was at an end. On the surface of the
record there Is doubtless more than once
something of apparent contradiction. But
when we go beneath the surface the essential
truth becomes plain. 1t 10 true, for instance,
that at one moment Jesus seems to be i'm
material, a specter, a shadow, a ghost, as we
should say, and the next to become material.
He passes through a shut door and reveals
himself In the midst of his disciples, when
no one has been seen to enter the room-"a
spirit" we say. T9e reaches out his pierced
hands to Thomas and shows to him and all
the rest his wounded slde-'a body" we say.
He joins the two who walked together
toward EmmauS, talks with them, Turns aside
at their invitation TO rest, and eats with
them aud again we say. "a body" But, sit
ting and talking and eating thus, suddenly he
vanishes out of their sight, and then once
mere we say, "a spirit" He comes and goes
He appears and disappears, but he never
stays. "He offers a material test of the
reality OF his presence. He shows that he is
rot bound by the laws Of matter. A seeptic
puts the following dilemma One or another
alternative must be adopted. II Jesus nos
sessed his own body after his resurrection
ana could eat and be handled, he could NOT
vanish, II he vanished, he could not he cor
poreai. But the point Of the revelation Is
nat these two things are reccnciled." Gife
Oh Jesus christ, w. r. Nichol, PIP. 1929
Remember -for 1t is a fact fupda.
mental to the whole discussion.
though ] do not remember having heard n
referred t) remember, that Christ after
his own resurrection is not revealing 10 us
the future conditions and relations OF the
resurrection life. simply because, TO his
disciples, still in the flesh. this was lmpos-
sible. He had risen, but they had not. He had
PASSED on Into the inyesture OF a. risen and
~slorihed humanity, but they were still in the
flesh. Aud so, such touching and eating and
talking as there was, was simply a conces-
sion to those limitations of their earthly and
physical life which made It impossible for |
them as yet to recognize him in any other
way. Every sensible proof that he gives
them with one hand, he almost recalls. as |
1t were. with the other. They are like chill