The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-07-13

like forty-eight hours, and by earthquake
| or a deluge, may be covered with mouI--
! tains of debris, which by ordinary meth
DDS of accumulation would require vast
periods of time. The Bible is conserva-
tive and reasonable, and not in the least
| nonSenSical.
! Q.-Prove, if you can, even the existence
| OF Jesus of Nazareth by indisputabIy
torical evidence. Can you do this? Or. ].
! Answer.-One may as well ask that we
prove that such persons as Hannibal,
Julius Caesar, Socrates or Homer ever
existed. No one could prove that these in
dividuals ever really existed. We bellows
and have faith in the evidence that has
come down to US from the remote past
that these characters actually existed, ard
that they were not fictitious. Human
history is a very uncertain quantity and
scarcely a single incident of any import
ance but has been disputed. Palestine
was very small country-a little, insig-
nificant district in the great Roman EN-
pire-in the days of our Lord Jesus had
but few followers. meek and humple
fishermen. etc, and He had no army and
never fought any battles, but went about
quietly preaching to the people. His min
1stry was confined to the Jews alone. 1t
would have been strange if any one out
side of His followers had deemed it worth
while to chronicle the events and sayings
of His life. This world is large place
and many events of vast Importance oc-
cur in it that are never recorded on the
pages of history. There is a religions
movement in the world at this very tin
whose influence is extending around tie
globe and whose membership numbers
some scores of thousands, but nowhere
in any library nor in the chronicles of
any -present-day historians would you
find a single statement concerning it. Ac-
cording to history this movement does not
exist. Therefore, as some would reason,
it is not a fact!
Q.-How may We differentiate the Lord
Jesus from the sixteen other 'Crucified
Saviors'' of antiquity? Oh. So
Answer-The Scriptures refer to two Of
these false Messiahs by name (Acts V, So,
30, and foretold that many more false
Christs would arise Matthew XIV 49,
value, there is always to be found its
counterfeit, and some of these spurious
inal; so much so that it requires a micro
scopic examination to distinguish the
difference. But not so with the Man
Christ Jesus. All limitations are detected
at a glance; they are so crude
in their life and teachings in comparison
with the perfect Standard. We can do no
celebrated Frenchman, Rosseau, as fol-
lows: How petty are the books of the
philosophers, with all their pomp, COM
pared with the Gospelsl Can it be that
writings at once so sublime and so sim
pie are the work of men? Can He whose
life they tell be Himself no more than u
man? Is there anything in His character
of the enthusiast or the ambitious sec
tary? What sweetness, what purity in
His ways, what touching grace in His
teachingsi What a loftiness in HIS
maxims! What profound wisdom in His
words! What presence of mind, what
deltcacy and aptness in His replies! What
an empire over His passions, Where is
the man, where is the sage, who knows
how to act, to suffer, and to die without
weakness, without display? NY friends
men do not invent like this; and the facts
respecting Socrates. which one doubts,
are not so well attested as about Jesus
Those Jews could never have struck this
TTcFhr of II fG
Gospel has characteristics of truthfulnesg
SO grand, SO striking, perfectly inimfr-
able, that their inventor would be even
tray -