The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-21
AT The TABERNACLE.
THE USUAL SERVICES HELD
YESTERDAY AFTERNOON.
Elders David Mckenzie and Charles
w. Penrose Were the Speakers
The Evidence of Christianity.

Services We're held in the Tabernacle
at the customary hour The speakers
were Elder David Mckenzie and Stake
Councillor c. w. Penrose.
| Elder Mckenzie in opening, said that
when the Saints met faithfully to wor-
ship the author of their salvation, their
minds were Illuminated by the spirit
of Christ, and that that spirit enlarged
and strengthened the testimony of his
truth.
There is a great volume Of evidence
of Christ and Christianity. The great
negatist, r. Ingersoll himself says that
To the serene man Jesus he gladly gives
the homage os his admiration and his
tears. That is an admission at least
that Christ lived. and that ne was a
great and good man.
Renan and his schoo unite in saying
that The authenticity T Paul's epistles
cannot be disputed.
At the same time they claim that
the four gospels are Of unknown
authorship and in adlity are merely a
collection of ancient myths. The
miracles they explain away by saying
that the narrative of supernatural
things was simply woven in with the
other myths.
The nomentuous question in this
connection is, did Christ rise from the
tomb2 The whole controversy may
/ rest upon this one point. If he was
TesurrecteS. ali the supernatural oc-
currenCes are easily accountable for.
The origin Of this great ecclesiastical
system. Christianity, was in the resur-
rection OF the Christ. The faith and
hope of the Nazarene's followers per-
ished when they saw him on the cross.
Without the doctrine of a risen re-
deemer it is impossible TO believe that
Christianity could have spread as it
has done.
Paul whom the sceptics admit to
have been the author of the epistles
bearing his name. saw Christ and so
+ testified within y years of the cruci-
fixion. He practically tells the Cor
inthisns that if Christ had not risen
Christianity was a deiusion. He took
Il to be an admitted thing that they
believed in the resurrection Have /
not seen Jesus Christi he asked them
on one occasion. He would never have
dared 10 make that assertion had they
not believed in the risen Jesus. None
rose to say, Il defy you 20 prove this
Hundreds who were then living had
seen Christ.
Dnbeiievers combat the testimony of
Scripture on the theory of visions and
mental Authorizations. This is thing
much harder to believe than the living
testimony mat mas come down to us
from the past. Hundreds Of men. i'm
mediately after his death, went into
the world prociaiming that Jesus was
arisen and that in his name was saliva
ton.
Another theory of the sceptics is that
Christ did not die upon the cross
that he merely swooned and was after
wards resuscitatee. This is untenable
Had Jesus been restored in this way
there would have been no foundation
for the belief prevalent among his
followers that there had been a resur-
rection. 1t is idle to dispute the his
torical value of contemporaneous let
ters. Caesars letters are looked upon
as precious and authentic documents
Why should not the letters of Paul be
so viewed2
Joseph Smith himself saw Christ
within the present century. This is
what the Latter-day Saints claim. If
Joseph Smith did not see the Father
and Son then what could be the origin
of Mormonism?
Elder c. w. Penrose spoke briefly.
He referred to the evidences of Nor
monism. quoting the words of Joseph
Smith, in which he says that he and
Sidney Rignon had seen the Father
and the Son.