Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-11-15

in these writings accounts of miraculous
events they deal with them from the
outset as discredited documents. This
accounts for the fact that the critics
gave swift judgment against st. Luke in
favor of Strabo's history and what they
supposed was the record given by Dion
Cassius Cocceianus. Now, they have
been found so often in error about mat
tiers of history, may it not DE possible
that their favorite dogma in philosophy,
about the impossibility of miracles, is
error also? What proof can they offer
to support such a dogma? 1t is incapable
of proof and it is open to very many
objections
The living miracle of persistent and
triumphant christianity is always before
us, more wonderful than the raising of
the dead and the resurrection from the
tomb. If the miraculous can not happen,
how comes it to pass that this faith
goes on so VIGOROUSLY its supernatural
way through history? Without the fact of
Christs resurrection there is no way to
account for the presence and power OF
Christianity in the world The Living
Christ is the explanation of the living
Church. Dr. Agar Beet puts the case
strongly in his great "Fernley Lecture"
He says, IF Christ did not rise, a delu-
sion has saved the world. In the days of
was sinking helplessly into social chaos.
Gradually out of chaos we have seen
new life rising, until at last 1t has nearly
overspreau the earth The nations which
have received IL stand today in the front
rank. And to these the most hopeful of
other nations are looking. In the social
life of our own country we see the in
f1uence of Christianity. If \these infiu-
ences were removed. there would be in
Ill. All these results have flowed from
the preaching of men, who but for the
courage inspired by a belief that their
Master had risen from the dead, would
never have dared to preach, or certainly
would not have devoted their lives to the
unwearied proclamation of the Gospel.
Especially are these results due to the
preaching of one (St. Paul. who gave
proof Of the strength and sincerity OF
his belief by forsaking in the monday OF
his life the r1oFderers OF Christ Joining
the company Of his prosecuted followers
Now, If Christ did not actually rise, this
belief was delusion. And it is the most
astounding delusion that ever darkened
the erring mind of man. For not only cid
1T enable its early votaries to set at
naught hardship and peril and death,
but in all succeeding ages it has held
captive many of the mos. intelligent and
cultured men, and now for many cenIu-
ries nearly all the best men. Unques-
tionably it occupies a position without
parallel among the decisions of man
kind. That delusion has saved the world.
........... A plain alternative is before
us. II Christ did not rise, in manner
revealing the presence of power great
er than the known forces of the material
world, and thus proving the business OF
his stupendous claims, a delusion has
turned back the entire current of human
history and saved the world. If so, in the
greatest crisis of the worlds history, de-
fusion has been better than knowledge,
and error better than truth. II we ac-
cept this supposition, we may well be
pardoned If we prefer delusion to knowl-
edge, error to truth"
If the favorite dogma of the ration
aIists be true, viz. that the supernatural
never has occurred and never can occur,
then Christ has not risen from the dead
And If Christ be not risen, all history Is
an inexplicable maze.
These dogmatists and their absurd dog
ma flies in the face of all the history OF
twenty centuries They affirm the i'm
possibility of, that which we know has
already occurred, and they demand that
we shall shut our eyes to the most con-
spicuous facts in order to believe their
unproven and improbable assumption 1t
is amazing that such dogmatic dogmat-
lists should be perpetually damning All
dogmas but their own.