The herald., 1896-04-06

He, with lacerated heart, weeps bitter
| tears by the tomb of his lost friend, Laz
arus, but the next moment he orders death
| to restore its prey. As son of man he has
not where to lay his head. As the son Of
! God. with few loaves and a few fishes, he
feeds a multitude. He calls himself the
son Of man, but at the same time he says
~ and my father are One." See him
| through his passion; follow him to the tri.
bunal, where he is denied, betrayed, ac-
cused and abused by all, a crown of thorns
upon his brow, purple robe to cover his
bruised body, in his hands a reed as scep-
tre of derision, the bloodthrsty multitude
clamoring for his death, the priests and
doctors of the law surrounding and op-
pressing him with accusations. the soldiers
mocking him. This is the man in his ig-
nominy.
Where is now to be found his God-Head?
Wait, impatient man. He. because of his
claim to be zone with the Father" has un-
dergone such humiliation, but to advance
and incontestably prove that same claim
he is to rise the third day from the dead.
He ie risen! Behold, then, his true God
Headship!
But did he rise from the dead? We
are told that possibly he never died. Half
his sufferings might have caused any or
dinary individuals death. They, with a
spear, pierce his heart, from which flow
blood and water. The soldiers do not
break his lexs because they see he 10 al
ready dead. Can we imagine for moment
that his bitter enemies, who brought about
his ignomiuious end. would run chances OF
any kind? They. who 80 persistently de-
manded his death and at last were sue
cessful, would they not, in keeping with
the dictates of common sense, see that
their purpose was an accomplished fact?
Jesus Christ then ia really dead. But il
he risen again? The fact of his resurrec-
ton has been attested by eye-witnesses.
whose interest could in no way be ad-
vanced by any sort of deception. Nay,
more, one of them, doubling his eyes.
thrust his finger into the wounds caused by
nails when suspended on the cross, felt
his side wound, and overwhelmed by such
convincing evidence. he falls on his knees
and adores him as God.
Those eyewitnesses not only saw him,
they conversed with him, touched him,
broke bread with him and that, not only
once, but many times and in different
places on the shore of the sea and on the
would be paramount to throwing wide open
the doors OF the most despairing skepti-
cism. '"''
Could, perchsnce. his disciples have
stolen the body? But to what purpose? If
there was no life in it wouldn't the fraud
be Immediately detected? Could they?
Let us see. Either they believed Christ to
first case they had no need of stealing his
body; in the second alternative, there re-
manned nothing for them to do but give up
the cause of one in whom they no longer
had any faith. Think of the towards that
deserted Christ, even when they did not
know the worst that was to happen, turn
Jig all of a sudden into the most extraor-
dnarily bold heroes, ready to face all kinds
of perils, even death itself. Why, the as
sucption is ridiculous on the face of it.
But suppose SUCH Truly miraculous trans
formation had taken place. was it in their
rover to carry ont their designs?
Have we forgotten that Christ's enc
mics knowing and remembering His
prophecy, had taken the greatest possible
precautions? They had the sepulchre
sealed; guards were appointed to watch
over it. How then were those poor ignor-
ant. despised disciples of the Nazarene to
take possession of the body of their
master? Subsequent events proved con-
clusivey that such was not the case.
When it became known that Christ had
disappeared from the sepulchre the SOL
diers whose duty it WAS to carefully pre-
vent even the possibility of it. gave out that
they we're asleep, and in the meanwhile the
disciples had carried the body away. Yet,
with all the stern discipline of the Roman
army abundantly backed in this particu-
lar case, the guilty soldiers were never
called to account for their criminal neglect
Why? Because they never failed in their
duty; because Christ of his own power
rose from the dead, as he had predicted, in
spite of their watching.
If Jesus Christ is risen he is Goldman. If
Jesus Christ is Goldman, our duty is to be-
leve and to adore him. The arts, genius
and science have done so; all great men
have done SO, and so ought we to do.