Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

4 ©lie Orististit gnttex Published Every Thursday at 57% S. Broad Street. Atlanta. Ga. THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS. In a previous article we have shown that acording to the New Tes tament records, Jesus was crucified jou Friday, and buried near sunseton that day, and that he rose from the tomb in the early dawn of the first day of the week—“on the third day.” AVe also proved by incontestible au thority that the Jews were accus tomed to speak of a part of a day as the whole. Jesus was in the tomb “three days,” inasmuch as he entered it on Friday, remained there the whole of Saturday, leaving it on Sunday morning. Indeed we speak after the same manner. You meet a friend, and ask him, “How long have j you been in the city?” He replies, “Three days.” Upon further inqui ry you find ho reached Atlanta on the afternoon of day before yester day. No one misunderstands the answer because just exactly seventy two hours have not elapsed between his arrival and your inquiry. Assuming that our Lord rose on Sunday morning, a question arises as to the order of his recorded ap pearances to his disciples. The evangelists do not profess to give a complete record of all those appear ances. Each pursues in his history an eclectic method, and it is not easy to arrange the several narratives in to a harmonized whole. One com fort is afforded by the difficulty. It forever disposes of the idea that these authors of the four gospels were in collusion in reporting the events of the day of the resurrection. Their histories bear every mark of independent witnesses bearing hon est testimony. They certainly believed that Jesus rose from the dead, and two of the font had personal knowledge of the fact. There is no reason whatever for rejecting testimony such as they give, and which they sealed in their subsequent sufferings, sacrifices and blood. Relying upon that testimony, we can confidently say, as we once heard Dr. Broadus eloquently say, “If we do not know that Jesus rose from the dead, then we do not know 7 any fact of ancient history!” Attempts are still made by men whose theories cannot be otherwise maintained, to set aside the fact of our Lord’s resurrection. “No intel ligent critic,” says Dr. Broadus, “now holds that Jesus did not really die ; or that he died, but his resurrection was a mere imposture on the part of bis disciples.” Those disciples were mentally, morally and socially incap able of successfully perpetrating such an imposture. “The now common theory of unbelieving critics is that it was a vision, or, in some way, an illusion, on their part. These men are not mere disinterested inquirers after truth as they sometimes assert they have to account for Christian ity, as having in it, according to them, nothing supernatural, and yet as a great power in the world; as affording the noblest ethical teach ings, and presenting the unrivaled character of Christ, and as unques tionably based by its propagators on a belief in a risen Saviour. Os course, men so ingenious will make some plausible show of explaining away tho evidence or flinging around the subject some appearance of doubt. The great fact stands.” In the “Gospel of the Resurrec tion,” a splendid work of Canon AA'estcott, we find this eloquent plea: “It has been shown that the resur. rection is not an isolated event in history, but at once the end and the beginning of vast developments of life and thought; that it is the climax of a long series of divine dis pensations which find in it their complement and explanation.” Then after reciting the evidence, he adds : “Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no single historic inci dent better or more variously sup ported than tho resurrection of Christ. Such is the confident con clusion reached by tho most careful and conscientious study of the testi mony. Hosting our faith on ground so solid, it is unwise to allow- the diffl cnlties in the way of a complete har niony of tho several narratives to disturb 4 our confidence. Did we know all the facta, —tho many minor and connecting facts which have not been preserved, owing to the eclectic method pursued by the evangelists, wo coiild doubtless construct a per fectly sirtifactory harmony of all tho accounts. Dr. Edward Robinson gives quite a good summary : The resurrection took place at or before early dawn on the first day of the week; when there w-as an earth quake, and an angel descended and rolled away the stone from the sep ulchre and sat upon it; so that the keepers became as dead men from terror. At early dawn, the same morning, the women who had at tended on Jesus, viz., Mary Magda lene, Mary the mother of James, Joanna, Salome and others, went out with spices to the sepulchre in order further to embalm the Lord’s body. They inquire among themselves who should remove for them the stone which closed the sepulchre. On their arrival they find the stone al ready rolled away. The Lord had risen- The women knowing nothing of all that had taken place, were amazed. They enter the tomb and find not the body of the Lord, and are greatly perplexed. At this time Mary Magdalene, impressed with the idea that the body had been stolen away, leaves the sepulchre and the other w omen, and runs to the city to tell Peter and John. The other w omen remain still in the tomb; and immediately two angels appear, who announce unto them that Jesus has risen from the dead, and give them a charge in his name for the apostles They go out quickly from tlie sepul chre, and proceed in haste to the city to make this known to the dis ciples. On tho way Jesus meets them, permits them to embrace his feet, and renews tho same charge to the apostles. Tho women relate these things to the disciples, but their words seem to them as idle tales, and they believe them not. Meantime Peter and John had run to the sepulchre, and entering in had found it empty. But the or derly arrangement of the grave clothes convinced John that the body had not been removed cither by vio lence or by friends, and the germ of a belief sprung up in his mind that the Lord had risen. Tho two re turned to tho city. Mary Magda lene, who had again follow ed them to the sepulchre, remained standing and weeping before it, and looking in she saw- two angels sitting. Turning around she sees Jesus, who gives to her also a solemn charge for his dis ciples. Tho further sequence of events, consisting chiefly of our Lord’s appearances, present com paratively few- difficulties. The var ious manifestations which the Savior made of himself to his disciples and others, as recorded by the Evange lists and Paul, may accordingly be arranged and enumerated as fol lows: 1. To the women returning from the sepulchre. Reported only by Matthew-. 2. To Mary Magdalene at the sepulchre. By John (and Mark?) 3. To Peter, perhaps early in the afternoon. By Luke and Paul. 4. To the two disciples going to Emmaus, towards evening. By Luke (and Mark?) 5. To tho apostles (except Thom as) assembled at evening. By Mark, Luke, John and Paul. N. B. These five appearances all took place at or near Jerusalem, upon the first day of the week, the same day on which tho Lord arose. 6. To the apostles (Thomas be ing present!, eight days afterwards at Jerusalem. Only by John. 7. To seven of the apostles on the shore of tho lake of Tiberias. Only by John. 8. To tho eleven apostles and to five hundred other brethren on a mountain in Galilee. By Matthew and Paul. 9. To James, probably at Jerus alem. Only by Paul. 10. To the eleven at Jerusalem, immediately before tho ascension. By Luke, in Acts, and by Paul. It may be objected to this ar rangement that it makes Jesus ap pear to Mary Magdalene after he had been seen by the other women. The objection rests upon a misun derstanding of John (21 :14), for he merely puts the appearance to Mary first among the appearances he sel ects to record. Mark (16 ;9) we have seen to be of doubtful authen ticity. Trust.- - When Samson revealed the sccret of his strength to Delilah through trust in her, he lost it. AVe put confidence in our Delilahs, and that way ruin comes to us. Wicked trust in man is as mighty to destroy ns is righteous trust in God to save. As is our trust so are we, —so we reach our desired haven, or drive rudderless and helmless to utter wrecking. Trust is the door through which all good or evil finds entrance to us : the only door of the heart is trust. THE CHRISTIAN INDEX: THURSDAY. OCTOBER 13. 1892. DEATH 0E BENAH. From Paris comes the information that the famous rationalistic author of “Vie de Jesus,” has passed away. Joseph Ernest Renan was one of the great men of France. He w-as emi nent as a philologist and literateur, and had been honored by an election to membesship in the French Acad emy. He was born in 1823, and was destined for the ecciesiastical profession and went to Paris at an early age in order to study. His in dependence of thought did not ac cord with the necessary qualifica tions for the priesthood and he left the seminary in order to be better able to pursue his own course. AYhen only twenty-two years of age he be came famous by the publication of his great w-ork on the “Study of Greek.” But his mind seemed im patient of the restraints of all set tled faith, and in 1848 he began a periodical known as “La Liberte de Penser” (Liberty of thought) in which he gave utterance to views exceedingly distasteful to Christian sentiment. The work by which he is best known to American students in his “Vie de Jesus” (Life of Jesus,) treating the Gospel narrative as lit tle more than a legendary romance. The result was that the author was dismissed from his professorship in the College of France. In 1860, Renan w-as sent by the French Em peror on a tour of scientific investi gation throughout Syria. In the in troduction to his Life of Jesus, he refers to that tour in tho following interesting paragraph : “The scientific mission, having for its object the exploration of ancient Phoenicia, which I directed in 1860 and 1861, led mo to reside on the frontiers of Galilee, and to travel there frequently, I have traversed, in all directions, tho country of the Gospels ; I have visited Jerusalem, Hebron and Samaria : scarcely any important locality of the history of Jesus has escaped me. All that his tory, which at a distance seems to float in the. clouds of an unreal world, took instantly a form, a sol idity, which astonished me. The striking agreement of the texts with the places, tho marvelous har mony of the Gospel ideal with the country which served as a frame work were like a revelation to me. I bad before my eyes a fifth Gospel, torn, but still legible ; and thence forward through tho recitals of Mat thew and Mark, instead of an ab stract being whose existence might have been doubted, I saw living and moving an admirable human figure.” Afthr reading so glowing lan guage, one would hope to find some thing very gratifying concerning those four other Gospels. But, alas, the expectation fails of realization. Renan treats those records of the life of Jesus very strangely, some times accepting and emphasizing their testimony, then dismissing them as “legendary.” He will not listen for a moment to anything “su pernatural.” The very unbelief of the man makes his opinion all the more valuable when he discusses the origin of these very Gospels. He says they “are of great value since they enable us to go back to tho half century which followed the death of Jesus, and in two instances even to eye-witnesses of his actions.’’ Taking up the Gospels separately, he thinks Luke was written by the accredited author, and written be - fore the destruction of Jerusalem, and that Matthew and Mark were penned before Luke. AVe quote: “Upon the whole, I admit as au - thentic the four canonical Gospels. All, in my opinion, date from the first century, and the authors are generally speaking, those to whom they are attributed.” This admission is fatal to Renan's conclusions in his Life of Jesus. He admits too much if he would have the evangelic records discredited. Granted that Matthew and John wrote their Gospels, the conclusion is inevitable that their “record is true.” As they were the immedi ate companions of Jesus, and “eye witnesses,” they knew whereof they wrote. Under the circumstances they could not bo mistaken concern ing the miracles they attribute to Jesus. They were either wilful de ceivers, or good and true men, hon estly testifying to the truth, as they saw and heard it. Not even Renan ventures to charge them with con scious fraud. Their whole career is witness to their sincerity ; and sin cerity, under their peculiar circum stances, and in such a career, is de monstrative of candor and faithful ness to convictions horn of their pos itive knowledge. Thus the very at tempt of this vigorous apostle of unbelieving rationalism to under- mine the Christian faith, serves but to show how immutable is the foun dation upon which that faith rests. It is sad to read the story of the last hours of Renan. The one con trolling feeling in the decisive mo ment was “of the earth earthy. 1 ’ He expressed as his dying wish that he “might be accorded a national fu neral and be buried in the Pantheon!” Os his soul and its future nothing 1 hour hours before his death,he turn ed to his wife and said ; “AVhy are you sad ?” “Because I see you suf fer,” she replied. “Be calmn and resigned,” he responded.” “We un dergo the laws of that nature where of we are a manifestation. We per ish ;we disappear, but heaven and earth remain, and the march of time goes on forever.” Alas, how like the sad word on the lips of the dy ing Lamartine : “Sprinkle me with perfume, cover my body with flow ers, and write over my grave, Death is an eternal sleep !” Not so died one eminent servant of Jesus. From his Roman prison, his dying shout of victorious faith has come down the centuries, singing like a sacred chime : “I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith , henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of right eousness, which the Lord, the right eous judge, will give me at that day ; and not to me only, but also to all those who love his appearing 1” POWER OFMUSIO. WEAKNESS OF SOBS. The case of a stranger who ap peared in the congregation of St. Stephen’s Church, Philadelphia, clad in the garb of a tramp, not long since affords the illustrations. When the organist began to play a soft, sweet melody, the man’s eyes filled with tears, and he buried his face in his hands. During the singing of the first hymn he became unnerved and those near him could hear his short quick breathing and perceive his weeping. When the minister read the com mandment “Honor thy father and mother, etc., and the choir sung the response, no longer able to restrain himself, he broke out into audible sobs, saying, “Would to God I had done so. I would not be where I am now. 1 ’ There was manifested the power of music to awaken memory, melt the heart, bow me proud head, and fill the eyes with penetential tears. The vast congregation was deeply touched by his emotion and made to wonder what story was hidden in that man’s life. Tho story of his life remains hid den. Though the congregation was “deeply touched,” the touch was not deep enough to move a single mem ber of it to approach the man, to take him by the hand, to speak a w ord of sympathy, or to point him to Jesus, the sinner's friend and helper. There was the weakness of sobs. Emotions that do not grow into desires, and culminate in actions, are as evanescent and useless as the rip ples stirred by zephrs upon the sur face of a lake. It is saying to the hungry and the naked, go in peace, be ye clothed and filled, but giving to the sufferers neither food nor clothing. It is looking upon the sorrowing with pitying eye, but speaking no word of comfort, doing no act that gives evidence of or that affords substantial relief. “Deeply touched” themselves, people thus touched, touch nobody else with the tip of their fingers. IB THIS STATEMENT TRUE? “The Literary Digest,” prefaces its brief abstract of a new work by Kaftan, the successor of Domer at Berlin as Professor of Dogmatics, with this statement: “That a restate ment of Christian doctrines in har mony with the trend of modern thought is in the best interest of Christianity, is tho conviction of even the conservative theologians of Germany, their views differing only as to the character and extent of tho innovations to be made. The in spiration of tho scriptures and their absolute inerrancy arc no longer held by a single member of any of the Protestant . Faculties in the Fatherland; and there is not one among them who would bo content with the rehabitation in all particu lars of the orthodox systems of tho seventeenth century. The zeal for tho truth is as groat as ever, and also the love and reverence for the gospel,* but, nevertheless, changes and very important ones, too, in tra ditional theology, are conceded on all hands.” AVe are not in a position to judge as to the truth of w*hat seems to us an extreme and unwarranted state ment. The literature needful for the ascertainment of the facts in the premises we have no means of ob taining ; and we respectfully ask any one whose means of knowdedge are better than our own, whether writ ing at the editors desk or speaking from the professor’s chair, to grant us the benefit of his superior infor mation. Our readers, we doubt not, would be no less thankful for it than ourselves. If the convictions favorable to a restatement of doctrine make so near an approach to unanimity among conservative theologians, we do not understand why there have been such lively discussions over the pro posal to reverse the confession of Faith as have taken place for some time on conferences in religious journals and in pamphlets. A new cAed, one would think, must accom plish itself straightway and as a thing of course, or at least give proof that not the church, but only the emperor, in his characteristic effort to be his own “man of blood and iron,” blocked the way. Neither do we understand why it should be the or thodox party in especial who array de cided opposition- against that propos al; nor why the orthodox leaders, while admitting publicly that differ ences obtain between them, all claim to be in harmony with their confes sion and their church. This, at least, as we remember it, was the statement of Dr. Stuckenberg, of Berlin, less than two years back, and there has scarcely been sufficient space for so great a revolution as would be necessary to warrant the strong language of the “Digest.” When we read the statement, we were struck by what appeared to be its gratuitous character. It was not in anyway necessary to either the import or the interest of the book review to which it was prefixed. The article would have been complete without it, at least, as complete as it is with it. No reason for its intro duction suggested itself to us, except that the editor of the “Digest” felt sympathy with the views ascribed to the German divines, especially on the inspiration and inerrancy of the scriptures, and sought to clothe his personal views with the sanction of their names. And the supposition of such sympathy on his part accords with the feeling which has often thrust itself upon us that the “Di gest,” in fulfilling its function as “a weekly compendium of the contem poraneous thought of the worldly’’ gives too much room to those “trends of modern thought” which are ad verse to orthodox and evangelical views of the universe, its Author and his AVord. Not that it is sceptical, not at all; but that it is “liberal,” as the phrase is; so liberal as to breed in others perchance and pro bably a scepticism which it does not itself feel. At any rate, its influence we conceive would lie more whole some if what agrees with the creeds of the churches were not quite so frequently crowded out of its pages by what dissents from these creeds. OUR DISTRICT ASSOCIATIONS. In “Our Home Field” for Septem ber, Dr. Jones calls attention to “the policy of the Yirginia Baptists to have large and strong Associations, -instead of multiplying small and weak ones.” This has given them only twenty-three District Associa tions to a membership of 92,941* But these Associations, as the Dr' says, “are indeed a power, m the im mense crowds that attend them, the enthusiasm of the people,the admira ble speeches made, the sermons preached,and the hallowed influences which go out from them.” In these Associationsthe topics which call for consideration and action are treated in well-prepared reports by commit tees appointed the previous year; the | order of business properly divides the time between these topics; and their discussion before large throngs “is usually of deep interest and some times thrills every heart and opens every pocket-book.” In Georgia, a somewhat different policy seems to have prevailed. To a membership of 142,493 we have 68 District Associations. The average membership to each Association in Virginia is 4,040, in Georgia 2,095 or only a trifle more than one-half. This raises the question whether there may not have been an undue tendency here to the creation of small Associations ? and, whether our Associations may not have lost in this way something of the moral in fluence and spiritual power which i would have accrued to them as larger bodies? We would like to know what answer is made to this question by such of our brethren as think with the pen. Gladstone once called the Ameri can Constitution “the most admirable conception which ever issued from the human mind. But a writer in one of the Parisian periodicals alleges that this constitution has proved in effective in guarding the liberty it professes to guarantee. Among other instances he quotes the fact that, while the constitution proclaims that no one can be deprived of life or lib erty without process of law, every year the number of persons put to death in the absence of that process by lynching is nearly double that of the persons executed as the result of regular condemnations. That liberty has borne these bitter and poisonous fruits he attributes to the fact that “the virtues which presided over the foundation of the Republic have by degrees disappeared;” and this dis appearance he attributes to “the enormous foreign immigration whieh has corrupted more or less the native worth.” There can be no question of it: public disorder and crime grow from the root of private personal vice and irreligion. We must cultivate in ourselves and train our children to the fear of God, and reverence for law, and a sense of the sanctity of human right, all crowned with “other worldliness” and love for souls “ Righteousness exaltheth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” Prov. 14:34. This is the true politi cal economy. No party platform is complete without this. Nothing without this can save our country and our government. CHRIST IN FRONT. The 21st of October, 1892, the 400th anniversary of the discovery of /America will be celebrated in Chi cago by the formal dedication of the Exposition Grounds. It should be observed every where in America, in some way. It is suggested that as the public schools are peculiarly American insti tutions that they take part in cele brating the day. Also, that pastors of churches observe Oct. 16tb, as a “Columbian Sunday.” It might not be amiss to notice the matter inci dentally, but Christ was a greater man than Columbus, and as Sunday is the Lord’s day let it be observed as a Christian Sunday, and let Christ be kept in the front. There arc already too many occas ions for diminishing the sacredness of the day, by using it for purposes purely secular. There has been of late signs of growth in our State of that Anti- Sect Sect, which calls itself here “the Christian Church,” (a name re pudiated by many of its adherents in other sections as “unscriptural and sectarian,” but which might better be called “Campbellite,” not as a term of reproach but of distinction, because holding, as one of its own advocates expressed it, the views, the teachings, or the system of doc trine, or the body of divinity first promulgated and defended in the United States by the Campbells, Thomas and Alexander, father and son.” The Savannah Press makes this statement of the case : “In the last two years, the Christian Church has made great strides in Georgia and other Southern States. While it is still comparatively a weak body in this section of the country, it has developed a progressive spirit recent ly that is probably destined to send it to the front in the South as it is now in many AVestern States. The membership has been considerably increased in Georgia of late, new churches have been organized, and the outlook is brighter than at any period in the past history of the Church in this State.” That would be a theological revolution quite as great as the political revolution with whose rattling, clanging din, pro and con, the welkin is now rent. If it should ever come to pass, those will know who live to see it; but at this distance of time' the prophecy seems to carry in it very little assurance of fulfillment. Rev. Dr. Burrows, in the “Augus ta Chronicle” proposes “the City of the (.amelias” as a fit name for that city, because as he says, “nowhere docs the Camel ia grow to such per fection, in the open air as with us.” He cites the precedent of Florence, which, for a like reason, is called “the city of* the Lilies.” There is no heresy, we judge, in this propo sition by a Baptist divine to give to one of our cities the name of a flow er to which a Spanish Jesuit gave his name. But if you think there can be any doubt on that point, ask the “Baptist Gleaner" to let you know the certainty of it. A good brother, referring to a certain minister, says: “Dr. O—had a packed house at night. He preaches purely evange lical sermons at night.” Is it to be inferred that the excel lent pastor preaches other than an “evangelical sermon” at the morning service? Really, it is time brethren distinguished between “evangelical” and “evangelistic.” The latter is the word the good brother should have used. Webster thus defines “evangelical:”—(l), As contained in, or relating to, the four Gospels; as, the evangelic history. (2). Belong ing to, agreable or consonant to, or contained in, the gospel, or the truth taught in the New Testament; as, evangelical truth or obedience.(3). Earnest for the truth; fervent or de vout; strict in interpreting Christian doctrine; as, an evangelical, preacher. “Evangelistic” is applied to sermons specially addressed to, and adapted to evangelize or convert, the sinner, such sermons as are particularly designed to convict and decide the unconverted. All sermons are, or ought to be, evangelical; but quite frequently they are not designeded ly or really evangelistic. No class among us furnishes no bler specimens of womanly excel lence than mothers-in-law. They are largely mothers enlightened by ex perience and disciplined by the trials of life to a more patient, self-re nouncing type of character than marked their earlier maternal years, AVomanhood often has its flower and crown in them. AVe read with pleasure, therefore, in the New York Ledger, that a wealthy American woman is establishing in America an asylum for mothers-in-law, which will supply a home to five hundred inmates. Such an institution is ren dered needful by many cases of fam ily ingratitude and neglect; but why should it be located on the oth er side of the ocean ? Christ, the Lamb.—According to Josephus, the lambs slain for sacrifice at the passover amounted, m a sin gle year, to 255,600. And was not the sacrifice of Christ our Passover worthy to be celebrated by these multitudinous repetitions, over and over and over again, of the acts which were at once a prophecy and a type of it ? Could it be too often recalled and set forth in solemn ceremony and sacred sign ? Oh, perfect sacri fice, where one avails for all that bled before it,avails though never one bleeds after it,avails by its own blood and that blood alone for us! The “American Grocer” tells us of two “innocents abroad” who re cently paid 4142 for a luncheon in Nice, one of the items being a bot tle of wine which cost 440. AVhat is worse, a return to America loosed their tongue to boast of this reckless expenditure. “A fool and his mon ey is soon parted” says the proverb ; we presume, because the money is not rightfully the fool’s ; its real owner is the man that honestly earns it and uses it at the dictate of wis dom, charity and goodness. Sorrow.—Naomi, the Pleasant, became the Marah, the Bitter, not be cause the Almighty had dealt bitterly with her, as she alleged, but because she had received his daelings in a spirit of bitterness. It is not trouble and sorrow that sours the soul; it is the murmuring, discontent and rebel ion with which we meet the sorrow and trouble. Ram’s Horn: Before you get in too big of a hurry to get rich sit down for a few minutes and watch a fly that has got stuck fast in honey. Patrolman Julius Zeidler Os the Brooklyn, N. Y., Police Force, gladly testifies to tho merit of Hood*« Sarsaparilla. Ills wife takes It fnr dizziness and Indigestion and it works charmingly. “Tho children also take it with great benefit. It Is without donbt a most excellent thing for That Tired Feel ing. I cheerfully recommend Hood’s Sarsaparilla and Hood’s Pllh to every one who wishes to hare health and comfort.” Get HOOD'S. HOOD’S PILLB cure liver ills, coniUpaUon* MUouanoat. jaundice, and tick beaduebo. ROSE TOBACCO 4 quid, cheap, pleasant ■ H HA OB and absolute cure for Mefu ®■ X Mm TOBACCO HABIT in al.' Kra HR its forms. For proof WO ■ ■■■ BRAZEAL & CO., 2105 * 2107 3d Art.,Birmingham,AO