The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-04-03
The aa1itita aiIu eagle: Tuesday gor.tu april 900

and OF course were copied and re-copaed
/ throughout the ages When vellum or
parchment made OF skins OF beasts came
| into common use in the fourth century,
we get copies that are impertshable. not
| only Of the Scriptures, but Of other WI Z
| ings.''
The speaker then took I'D each gospel
! and showed the pecuiiarities OF each gos-
pei, the people for whom it was written
and how each one reflected the character
of the writer-each one seeing Jesus from
a different standpoint and writing his
| history from his point of view. In minor
| details there were differences in the &C
counts but in the important events OF his
history there is unity OF evidence. This
only certifes to their genuinensss. As
the celebrated Dr. Philip Schan says:
Their discrepancies in details only
heighten the credibility and exclude the
| suspicion of COLLISION and conspiracy. The
genuineness and truthfuiness OF these
books rest on stronger evidence than
that Of any other historical records,
ancient or modern" In the writing OF
them the men were inspired men. The
pen was not inspired and guided except
through the writer, and the human ma
ture of each writer is discernible in each
gospel.
These gospels had already, by the be-
ginning of the fourth century. been car
ried throughout Syria, Arabia, Phoe-
nicia, Persia, Libya, Meopotanio. Asia.
Minor, Egypt, North Africa Greece,
Italy, Pannonia and Spain We know
this by the fact that in 325 Constantine
the Great called the council of Nice, con-
vening the bishops Of all these countries
over which the church had spread. There
were 3ls bishops present. In the Unitei
States there are less than loo bishops
and 100000 members IN the Roman
church. AT the same rate of proportion
there must have been at least 10000. go
Christians at the time the gospels are
claimed to have been written. What WAS
the basis for this great growth?
Suppose for instance that Matthew 5
gospel was fable and Jesus a myth.
Then when we read these sublime teach
ings in the Sermon on the Mount, before
which all the greatest intellscts Of the
ages have bowed in alteration and rever-
ence, we must remember that these are
put into the mouth Of a created charac-
ter by Matthew, the ignorant publican.
Then, too, Matthew, the uneducated, mar
row, prejudiced Jew of the lower strata
Of society, who lived in an age the most
veniaI, heartless selfish unpatriotic the
world ever knew, made the sublime para
bles, these greatest of allegories that
human lips ever spoke. Again in that
.
and religiously jealous people. His idea
of the Messiah was a conquering prince
riding to victory over the fallen hosts of
the Gentle world. Yet among these peo-
pie, surrounded by such influences,
tutored with such ideas, rose I'D one
Matthew, VINO pictured a Messiah who
was the very opposite of such an one;
who as an unselfish human and sympa-
thiZing soul has never been equaled. Or
if not then. then in the fourth century,
that age of decline in ideals, in patriot
ISM 200 years after the destruction of the
Jewish nation, when the corruption and
gloom of the coming night of
the dark ages was overhanging
the world someone in Europe in
vented life of Jesus so lofty, pure and
superior to every other character as to
command the reverence of all ages. Is
this not much more improbable theiry?
A wise man has said: 1t would take
more than Jesus to invent a Jesus
THE writers of the gospels tell their
simple story. That is all. There is a
simplicity and a frankness about their
records utterly different from the false
gospels invented centuries later, which
propose to relate the events and miracles
of the Savior's life from infancy to His
baptism. BY their Stiffness they gave
good example of what the human mind.
unaided, will produce The credibility of
gospels has been acknoledged by eminent
thinkers and writers in all ages, who
have been free from all sectarian bias.
Says Goethe. the most German of all
German poets, and perhaps the deepest
student of character the world ever pro-
duced: Il regard the gospels as thor
oughly genuine; for I see in them a
majesty which is as divine as anything
that ever appeared on the earth Says
Rousseau, the French philosopher: The
gospel history can be no fiction. else the
inventor would be greater than the
hero