The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1900-05-08
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wrought by Thee without herbs or med
icines, for Il is reported that Thou re-
stareth sight TO the blind and maketh
the lame 10 walk, cleanseth the leper
raiseth the dead, casteth out devils and
unclean spirits and restoreth to health
those tormented with diseases OF lons
continuance. Hearing all this or Thee.
I am fully persuaded Thou art the very
God come down from heaven TO 40 such
miracles. or that Thou. the Son of God,
performeth them.
lines entreatlng Thee TO come, hither
and cure my diseases
Besides. hearing the Jews murmur
against Thee and continue 10 do Thee
mischief, invite Thee to my city,
which is but little one. but beautiful
and sufficient to entertain us both
"Christ's reply is thus translated:
Blessed art thou. believing Me
Whom thou hast not seen. for IL Is
written OF Me: They that have seen Me
shall not believe. the that have not
seen Me shall believe BE saved. but
concerning the matter thou hast WRIT
ten about, with this I acquaint thee.
that all things for which / was sent
hlther must be fulfilled. Then j shall be
taken up and returned TO Him who
sent me; but after My ascension will
send one OF my Disciples that shall
cure thee of thy dlstemper and give life
to all them that are with thee.
II seems preposterous. but 1t is true,
that these letters were taken out OF
Eusebius, where for 100 years they have
been printed, and easily accessible TO
all scholars, and telegraphed to New
grammar as given by Eusebius. He
wrote ''restorest." the Herald makes IL
"restoreth" SO, too, with the words:
"maketh' for "makest,' 'cleanseth'
for "cleansest," "raiseth' for "raisest.'
"casteth" for easiest" etc. The letters
are both forgeries, long known. and AL
ways so declared. Now. why go 10 the
expense OF telegraphing from London
matters which every public, and not
less than twenty-five private Libraries,
here contains? For the Ecclesiastical
History. by Eusebius is in every one OF
them. The Springfield Republican thus
exposes the sham:
"The revival of our dear old friend
Abgarus and the temperance In
print OF his letters to Christ, with its
delightful errors of grammar, and the
response thereto, was something To have
been expected, for 1t is some years since
the story has gone the rounds. But the
mode of its appearance is novel-no-
body could possibly expect TO find II
figuring as cable dispatch, and with
alleged new evidence in it's favor, as
another column shows. The next thing
should be the discovery OF Latin in
scription In the Forum Romanum
bearing the famous description of the
person OF Jesus Christ as written by
Publius L2ntulus for these two pious
legends have been chasing each other
through the newspapers for many
years and neither one has the least
foundation in truth. II is extremely
amusing to read this Bohrmann state
ment which should have been made
April l. instead of April 30. Think OF
two letters like these found carved in
stone over the gateway of the old pal
ace OF the kings OF Ephesus" and in
'Doric Creek Why in Ephesus? Edes-
sa Is a place OF historic Importance,
capital OF the Kingdom of Osrhoene in
ancient Mesopotamia: it was a rich
city. important in the early days of
the Christian church, and. very long
after: the abgars. or Kings. We're
powerful line Of monarchs. and IL any
where there were such carving. II
should have been In Edessa. Ephesus
had no kings i'm Christian times or ever.
and consequently no palace OF the
kings 'Agrippa' and 'Abgarus' have
no possible relation TO each other. The
cable dispatch relates the legend pre-
cisely as the cyclopedias relate It. for
example the Century Cyclopedia OF
Names. word for word, even TO its con-
nection OF the Abgarus legend with the
Veronica legend, two romances orig
inally independent Moreover the let
ters themselves. which the dispatch
says were read by this Prof. Bohrmann,
from the inscription in 'Doric Greek
at Ephesus. and thus must reach us as
a translation from Bohrmanns transla-
ton. very curiously reproduce every err
ror in grammar and every awkward
ness of construction which have char
acterized the newspaper versions OF a
century past--'thou restoreth max
eth 'cleanseth.' 'healeth instead OF
'restorest.' etc. What singular coin
cidence! 1t is a plain and simple fake.
And the dispatch about Prof. George
Robert Milne Murray. whose titles and
offices are correctly copied from Who's
Who is no doubt fake also. The le-
gend. as legend. is very pretty, but
the alleged confirmation of IL is not AT
all pretty"
The News will today, and always,
stand for the judlcious use of the public