The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1901-03-12

mons preached 10y hlm IN tuIs 'ltEa l".
bHlI was we'll nlcd and Dr Chapman
held the interest and attention of aii
number Of his congregation being moved
to tears.
the text chosen was from the 2th
chapter of John, being the story OF the
conversion OF Thomas, who was an hon
est doubtcr, and refused to believe the
story Of the resurrection until he saw
the nail prints In the Sav.ors hands anu
was allowed to put his fingers INTO ths
wound In His side.
,Thc resurrection OF Christ is the
keystone In the arch Of Christianity
said he "and atuncment Is the founda-
zion stone Upon these are buildcd the
stones of doctrines and all Christian be-
licfs but it all depends upon the founda-
tion. Remove or invalidate either of the
two stones and all the rest falls. II
Christ did not rise again all Christianity
fails Well do the enemies of the Il h.e
know this and they have made the story
of the resurrection their storm center OF
attack; they have hurled their missiles
a, it through the ages. for they know u
they can destroy the keystone the whole
structure Of Christianity must fall
Following this Dr. Chapman spoke at
some length upon the story of the res
direction He said 1t was the hardest of
all things in the Bible for the honest
dOubter to believe, because 1t was, first
OF all unnatural. "All nature Is against
it, sad he. II Is one OF lllt lllubS lllil
can not be grasped by the faith of the
head-it must be by the faith of the
heart. "Al nature is against IT, as l
said. True, there are many things
which the believing person can see in
nature to make SMILES from as to the
resurrection The Alaskan SHOWS, how
they cover all the land in shroud of
white, desolate, cheerless, cold, barren,
not a hope of life-eternal desolation-
and then, my friends, by and by comes
the spring; the snow has melted; 1t dis
appears; green things shoot forth from
the ground; the grass grows; flowers
bloom-all is beautiful! What a perfect
example Of the resurrection, says the
believer in the resurrection Again. the
lchrysalis 1t is upon the ground, brown,
lifeless, no promise of vitality, apparent
" dead--hut watt The warm spring
comes and the sun shines. then the res
direction. Forth from the brown, dead
chrysalis comes the glory OF the resur-
rectiOn and Tits away on the wings or
the butterfly There again the believer
finds beautiful example of the Bible
story-but what of him who doubts? He
win say, Stamp your foot upon the
chrysalis, and what of the butterfly"
All, that's it, my friend it is no evidence
for him. He does not believe. All ma
ture is against it for him. He must have
two and two to make four, and, like
hesltatlng, doubling Thomas, he must
have the tangible evidence OF the senses.
He must see and feel; he must first put
his fingers into the nail prints and into
the wound in the Savior's side before he
Will believe"
The lecturer then, by incident, pointed
out the differences in people and the
consequent difference in willingness and
ability to believe. He said there were
some whose hearts leapt to faith with
out any process of reasoning, but that
others must reach the conclusion
r through logic only. To the latter class
, he said he belonged and that the honest
doubter had his sympathy, for he ha6
himself wandered in the darkness OF
the wilderness OF unbelief for ten years
and that none knew better than himself
3 what 1t was to battle against unbelief
: He also stated the strongest doubter.
Z become the strongest believers, once con
4 WINGED. and quoted Biblical examples ant
incidents of his personal experience.
'"rhe men and women whose lives arr
given here" said he, taking up the Bi
BILE, ARE very much like the men ant
: women of today, though we are not ac
y customed to thinking of tnem in tina
e way. There are many ike doubtlnI
= Thomas. but l think there are more o
, US like John-that very human, natura
man whose life we can so thoroughly un
; derstand. All the disciples are very hu
man, and we can see their lives as WE
read them, but there is none of them sc
4 much like us as John-strong, impulsive
$ earnest, but constantly laundering anG
, falling into confusion. We can under
, stand him. But still there are great
, many like Thomas. They must have
. tangible evidence, and must sec and
feel or they cannot believe. They have
r only the head faith, and can not under
, stand the heart faith. But may we not
be like Thomas again? When he did put
his fingers into the nail prints and into
! the wound in the Saviors side his con
version was complete. and his great
heart went out to Jesus, and he cried
out, oh Lord, My Godr When he had
, | his two and two to make four, his faith
could never be shaken again. and his
faith was infinitely stronger than that
OF the man who took It for granted
when he was told that there was four
without the process OF reasoning IL out"
: DIR. Chapman said that while some
people said that ones faith had much TO
do with ones life. he believed In revers-
ing it-that ones life had much to do
with ones faith, and that as ones char
acter was, so would ones faith be, those
of the 'heart-faith believing without
difficulty, and those of the head-fnith'
having to reason 1t out Again he liken-
ed people to Compositors who by exam
pie We're setting up the gospel of God
for other people. He said that in set
ting up the type for a print OF the Bible,
surely no man would think of leaving out
OF putting IN "a WORD TO make the Bible
other than IL was, yet that people We're
putting into their lives things that God
does not want there, and taking out
what should he left. lie spoke also OF
the indifference OF people in health and
happiness, and how sickness and trouble
may bring revelations, In reference to
the passages which could not be under
stood In the Bible he said. Il once had
au invitation TO visit an uubelieVcr. lie
SAID lac wanted TO show me his Bible. lie
said he had II all marked There were,
he said lots OF uneNplainablc things. and
he called them bones, and said that he
had all the bones marked FOR me when
] came He invited myself and my wife
to dinner but | said We could not come.
because We wanted 90 have something 10
eat when We went TO dinner lie was
on"uduh. and said he guessed he had ~
much io eat ON his table As / was ac-
Ioustum,d Co., I said. Look here. you
sall Ihr nthur day that you care only
l"r bones ana We don't want 10 eat