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!* MAY 27 1909 
 
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 THE ARGUMENT FOR THE EESURECTION OF 
 JESUS CHRIST. r\ ^ v ^^ , • 
 
 Humanly judging, it was a superhuman undertaking for a few 
 Jews, poor fishermen of Galilee, and Saul of Tarsus, a disinher- 
 ited son and recent convert, to establish the name and gospel of 
 Jesus Christ in the chief cities of the Roman Empire, and so to 
 establish them as to secure their eventual triumph throughout 
 the whole world. 
 
 Here was a new thing upon the earth. There had been noth- 
 ing like it in all previous history. There has been nothing like 
 it in all subsequent history. No mind could deduce the idea of 
 the actual person and career of Christ from the Old Testament 
 Scriptures or from anything else. Those who took these Scrip- 
 tures as the basis of their Messianic expectations, formed a to- 
 tally different conception both of his person and his mission. 
 Some time after his appearance in the world, there was found.to 
 be a marvellous congruity between the Old Testament statements 
 and the living Christ of Galilee. They were the warp and woof 
 of a divine fabric. The promises that ran through the Bible of 
 a seed that should bruise the head of the serpent; of one in 
 whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed ; of a pro- , 
 phet like unto, but superior to, Moses ; of a king, in comparison 
 with whom David and Solomon were as nothing; of a priest be- 
 fore whom Melchizedek would pale — a priest upon a throne ; of 
 a Messiah who should be despised and rejected of his people, and 
 suffer and die as an atoning sacrifice — all this became clear and 
 vivid. But so intermingled and seemingly conflicting were these 
 descriptions, that no Jew, no Gentile, ever had a just conception 
 of the actual, veritable Christ in his mind before his advent, and 
 no god or goddess, no priest, no king, no hero, no teacher, no 
 martyr, no mortal, was ever heard of, that bore resemblance to 
 him. And since his disappearance from the world, all the "false 
 Christs" that arose in Judea, all reformers and propagators of 
 
442 The. Argument for the [July, 
 
 new religions, such as Mahomet, Swedenborg, Irving — all, of 
 whatever country, name, or pretensions — have been so utterly 
 unlike Jesus Christ as never rightfully to be named in compari- 
 son with him. He stands solitary and alone, alike in human 
 history and in human mythology. He was an humble and ob- 
 scure man, who wrought at the bench of a carpenter till he was 
 thirty years of age, wKen he became a public teacher and re- 
 former ; proclaiming the highest morality ever taught on the 
 earth ; enforcing with utmost sanctions and personal example, 
 supreme love to God, and a love to man like that to one's self; a 
 love to the poor and neglected, to enemies and persecutors ; 
 honesty, integrity, and universal righteousness; courtesy, con- 
 tentment, and chastity — all welling up from the secret life of the 
 soul, from a new heart and a holy spirit. He inculcated a no- 
 bility, generosity, and magnanimity of character before unheard 
 of, to be evinced in self-denials, sglf-sacrifices, and consecration 
 to the good of others. And with all his personal humility and 
 unearthly teaching, he boldly and persistently claimed to be the 
 only Son and equal of the Eternal God — omniscient, omnipres- 
 ent, and almighty; profoundly intimate, yea, one with the Father. 
 He announced himself a king, the Kins of kings and Lord of 
 lords, possessing all power, rule, and authority in heaven and on 
 earth. The mightiest and proudest monarch and conqueror 
 never dreamed of royalty so supreme, of dominion so vast and 
 enduring. This strange, unique, before unconceived and incon- 
 ceivable Person, spent three years in his ministry : a ministry 
 filled with words and deeds of surpassing love, a love as incom- 
 prehensible as were either his person or his claims. By his 
 strange and unhuman life he brought upon himself the enmity 
 of priests and rulers and chief men of his people, which culmi- 
 nated in his arrest and trial before Pontius Pilate, followed by an 
 ignominious death, and his burial in the sepulchre of Joseph of 
 Arimathea. 
 
 Such a life, closed by such a death, was utterly unanticipated, 
 and in itself is a dark and insoluble enigma. He had proved 
 himself possessed of ample power to prevent his execution and 
 death, but he did not use it. He calmly, for reasons all-corn- 
 
1881.] Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 443 
 
 rnanding to himself, chose to suffer, to agonise, to die. As he 
 said, "No man taketh ray life from me. I have power to lay it 
 down, and I have power to take it again." 
 
 >■ Now, according to the Scriptures, this enigmatical life and 
 voluntary death of Christ are of the very essence of Christianity ; 
 and yet peculiar and marvellous as w^ere that life and that death, 
 had the career of Christ closed with his burial, there could have 
 been no intelligible Old Testament, no New Testament, no 
 Church, no Christendom, no hope of heaven, no salvation for 
 man. His name would speedily have perished from among men. 
 A dead Christ could not make a living religion. A crucified 
 Christ, mouldering in the tomb, never could have moved and 
 shaken to its centre and revolutionised the Roman Empire, and 
 on the ruins of its idolatry and pagan civilisation built up his- 
 toric Christendom. A dead Christ could awaken neither faith, 
 nor hope, nor zeal, nor sacrifice in his cause. Nothing but dis- 
 appointment, dismay, and despair on the part of his friends, 
 would follow his final destruction. His death would be a death- 
 blow to any religion he might have proclaimed in his life. 
 
 Thus we reach the one conclusive, all-interpreting, all-powerful 
 fact, that Jesus, crucified, dead, and buried, rose from the dead. 
 He came out of the tomb a living, immortal man. A more stu- 
 pendous, transcendent event cannot be conceived, and it is impos* 
 sible to exaggerate its importance. The religion, civilisation, 
 and progress of Europe and America, are founded upon it. It 
 is an event which throws back its radiance upon the death, life, 
 and birth of Christ, upon all the Old Testament types and pro- 
 phecies and promises ; an event which created the New Testa^ 
 raent, and gave vitality to Christian morality and faith and hope ; 
 an event which is more and more changing the face of the world, 
 and is destined to purify and bless the earth with peace, righteous- 
 ness, and all prosperity, and to crown the race with everlasting 
 honor and glory. 
 
 This event formed the staple and substance of apostolic dis- 
 course. It was specifically for their testimony to this fact, that 
 the apostles were selected and trained. "Him God raised up on 
 the third day, and showed him openly ; not to all the people, but 
 
444 TJie Argument for the [July, 
 
 to witnesses chosen of God, even to us." When Judas had 
 hanged himself, Peter declared that one' must be chosen and 
 ordained in his stead, "to be a witness with us of ihe resurrection 
 of the Lord Jesus." The prominence thus given to this event 
 was well and wisely ordered. The condition of the world was 
 such, that, in laying the foundations of Christianity, it became 
 absolutely necessary to insist upon and establish this as a reg- 
 nant, outstanding, incontestable fact. It could not be treated as 
 a subordinate and secondary matter. 
 
 There is abroad in the world a vast amount of thought and 
 speculation whose tendencies and statements are such as to 
 unsettle the' Christian faith by unsettling and upheaving its 
 deepest foundations. It is entrenched in the broad and noble 
 domain of science, and is put forth, enforced, and illustrated by 
 minds of unusual power and culture. It has penetrated and im- 
 pressed large sections of society through books and lectures, 
 magazines and tracts, and newspapers and conversations. In its 
 spirit and tone, it is exceedingly dogmatic and confident, often 
 contemptuous and flippant. Its pretensions are enormous. It 
 aims at nothing less than the overthrow and annihilation of the 
 venerable fabric of Ciiristianity, and to place itself on the very 
 throne of the universe. 
 
 The leaders of the school of thought to which we now refer 
 have one general drift, if not avowed purpose, and that is to get 
 rid of a personal and living ,God, and so of Christianity, by 
 showing that he is wholly unnecessary in the assertion of the 
 stability, unvariableness, unchangcableness, and omnipresence of 
 what they call the laws or order of nature, These are accounted 
 all-sufficient for all things, and, therefore, there is no place for 
 God, or for Jesus Christ, as his only Son and our Redeemer. 
 With them nature is all-inclusive. Anything beyond nature, 
 ar.ything above nature, anything other than nature, is denied as 
 a sheer impossibility. Whether God, in the beginning, created 
 the universe in substance and in germ, and disposed it in its 
 orderly motion ;ind progress, is a question which puzzles and 
 baffles most of these teachers. But the universe once existing 
 atid put into W(ji-king order, they all agree that any interference 
 
1881.] Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 445 
 
 with, any suspension, any alteration, of this order, is inadmissi- 
 ble. Providence and redemption are both excluded ; and the 
 Bible record of miracles and prophecies, of spiritual and eternal 
 and divine revelations, the entire scheme of Christianity, is un- 
 reliable, unhistoric, legendary, and mythological. 
 
 Of course, if this absolute and universal proposition respecting 
 nature and its laws could be established, if these men could prove 
 their doctrine, there would be an end to our religion. If this 
 proposition is true, there cayi be no real exceptions; apparent ex- 
 ceptions are only such in appearance, and must be explained 
 away. We all agree in this. As the Apostle Paul, in an 
 analogous case, argues, if the broad and absolute statement, 
 "there be no resurrection of the dead," is correct, then it follows, 
 inevitably, that Christ is not risen. But in both cases, the gene- 
 ral and the specific, the proof is not yet produced. Such proposi- 
 tions, in their very nature, are incapable of demonstration. If 
 all things, from the beginning of the creation, had continued to 
 this day without interruption or change, this would not prove 
 their inherent and necessary unchangeableness. The shining of 
 a star ten millions of ages would not prove that that star would 
 never cease to shine. If no man, not even Christ, had ever been 
 raised from the dead, this would not prove thf^t no one never 
 would be in all the future. The mind of man is too limited to 
 correct and arrange and pronounce judgment upon all the data 
 requisite to such sweeping and momentous conclusions. And it 
 is sad, inexpressibly sad, to see so many of our writers and 
 speakers, so many of our bright and cultured young men and 
 maidens, taken in the net of this pretentious, dazzling, and fas- 
 cinating sophistry, that thus overrides and ignores the very first 
 principles of logical reasoning. 
 
 Now, as we have seen, we are roundly, emphatically, told that 
 a miracle, the supernatural, is impossible. To make this asser- 
 tion is easy; to buttress the assertion with a great show of learn- 
 ing and plausible statement is very easy ; but actually to prove 
 It is another matter. If we can produce one miracle, a true, 
 veritable, demonstrative, and divine interposition, which is above 
 and other than the order of nature, this finishes and closes the 
 
446 The Argument for the [JtJIA% 
 
 argument against the supernatural. Its foundations are de- 
 stroyed and the superstructure falls and crumbles. There is 
 nothing more to be said in its defence. The confident and 
 proudly asserted proposition ie gone : and we claim the miracles 
 of the Bible, one and all, to be just such divine interpositions. 
 
 In making this broad claim, we are met with the reply, that 
 these miracles, so called, are not properly attested ; that, having 
 been wrought among a very ancient, very ignorant and super- 
 stitious people, incapable of scientific judgment upon them, they 
 are without exception improbable, and that most of them are 
 absurd on their face — in fact, that they are impossible. This is 
 a common answer to the claim we make. It is worked up after 
 this manner: certain of the recorded miracles are selected which, 
 taken by themselves, look very improbable, such as the standing 
 still of the sun and moon in the valley of Ajalon ; the falling of 
 the walls of Jericho at the blast of the rams' horns ; the speak- 
 ing of Balaam's ass; Jonah in the belly of the fish three days 
 and three nights ; the three young Jews in the burning fiery 
 furnace. And we are asked. Are such things credible? Are 
 they not simply ridiculous, if taken for truth ? They can only 
 be creatures of a bold fancy ; exaggerations of a people who 
 deemed themselves the exclusive favorites of heaven ; they are 
 like the myths and legends of unhistoric periods in other nations. 
 And these, being thus disposed of, of course the Book that reports 
 them is discredited as a sober und serious revelation from God, no 
 better than the works of Plutarch, or Zoroaster, or Mohammed. 
 
 .\11 this, which is supplementary to the fundamental scientific 
 position of our adversaries, may be considered very shrewd and 
 smart — a happy way of putting contempt upon the ablest and 
 best minds of the last eighteen centuries. But is this sound 
 leasoning? Is this a fair or honorable method of treating the 
 foundations of that religion, which, with all its perversions and 
 abuses, has been the mightiest power for good in human history? 
 
1881.] Reswrection of Jesus Christ. 447 
 
 The central miracle of the Bible, that which gives meaning, 
 probability, and certainty to all the rest, and to all the teachings 
 of the Book, is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Strauss says 
 *'it forms the central point of the centre, the very heart of Chris- 
 tianity." And he justly appreciates the importance and mag- 
 nituile of his task, when he adds, "Here we stand, at the decisive 
 point where we must either retract all that has gone before, and give 
 up our whole enterprise, or we must pledge ourselves to explain 
 the origin of f\iith in the resurrection of Jesus without a corres- 
 ponding miraculous fiict." The whole life-work of Strauss, 
 he himself confesses, fails, unless he succeeds in disproving this 
 miracle. It is the one, the only, key to the Scriptures, the elue 
 to a labyrinth which else is an utter maze and mystery, the light 
 streaming through all the ages from the creation to the judgment, 
 from Paradise lost to Paradise regained. This was the view of 
 the Apostle Paul. Nothing in all the past, nothing in all the 
 future, was of any value except as "Jesus and the Resurrection" 
 gave it value. If this miracle could not be established, the Bible 
 could not rightly command the obedience of men as the Book of 
 liod. "If the dead rise not," says he, "then is not Christ raised: 
 and if Christ be not raised, our preaching is vain and your faith 
 is vain ; ye are yet in your sins. Then they that are fallen 
 asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope 
 in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." As if he had 
 said — nothino; is, if this is not. Unless He was raised again for 
 our justification, we are still condemned and lost. The whole 
 argument for a divine religion is surrendered by the Apostle, if 
 Christ was not raised from the dead ; and he, with the most un- 
 shaken confidence, with the completest satisfaction of his reason, 
 his judgment, and his heart, hinged everything, for time and 
 for eternity, upon it. It is perfectly evident, that if Christ was 
 raised from the dead, then the proposition that miracles are im- 
 possible is once and for all disproved. And next, all the miracles 
 of the Bible are put upon their proper basis, and their peculiar 
 character ceases to be an objection against them, and as they are 
 .part and parcel of an entire scheme of Divine Revelation, they 
 become not only not difficult, but easy, of credit and acceptance. 
 VOL. XXXII., NO 3. — 4. 
 
448 The Argument for the [July, 
 
 Yea, and more: such an indispensable corner-stone is the resur- 
 rection of Christ, that if, previously, every other miracle of the 
 Bible had been received, the failure to sustain this will cause the 
 entire arch of divine revelation to fall to pieces. 
 
 What then are we to do in order to settle beyond all fair con- 
 troversy, and to justify the faith of Christendom in the funda- 
 mental, all-verifying miracle of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ? 
 How are we to hold and defend against all comers this most stu- 
 pendous, transcendent, supernatural truth of our religion ? 
 
 The thing to be proved is not simply that a man, named and 
 known, tried and condemned, crucified and slain, as Jesus of 
 Nazareth, was raised from the dead. This is all-important, ab- 
 solutely essential; but it by no means concludes the case. For 
 Lazarus, the widow of Nain's son, and others, might be proved 
 to have been raised from the dead, thus demonstrating the inter- 
 vention of divine power, but this would not establish our religion. 
 A mere physical resurrection puts the seal of Divinity on no one. 
 It does not prove the sanctity or the authority of its subject. It 
 gives no validity to his previous sentiments or conduct. What we 
 must establish is not only this, but that this man thus raised was 
 the Lord of Glory, the Prince of Life, the incarnate Son of God, 
 and man's Redeemer. The two are inseparable. Unless Ave can 
 establish in an authoritative and unanswerable manner that the 
 Resurrection of Jesus Christ declared him to be, what he claimed 
 to be, and what the Old Testament Scriptures asserted him to 
 be, God's only and co-equal Son incarnate, we fail in our eftort. 
 This was Peter's argument. They killed the Prince of Life, 
 whom God raised from the dead. We think it will be made clear 
 that without the Resurrection there can be no demonstration of 
 the divinity of Jesus Christ, and without his divinity there can 
 be no sure proof of his resurrection. 
 
 Moreover, the word Resurrection, when applied to Jesus 
 Christ, means immensely more than it does when applied to any 
 other persons alletied to have been raised from the dead. Theirs 
 was a mere revivification or resuH=eetk)n." They were still sub- 
 ject to infirmity and sickness and accident and pain and death. 
 In fact they all died again. The true idea of the scripture doctrine 
 
1881.] Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 449 
 
 of the Resurrection is, that while it is a resurrection of the same 
 body that was dead and buried, it is a resurrection to a new, a 
 deathless, life. As Canon Westcott says : "It is not a restoration 
 to the old life, to its wants, to its special limitations, to its inevitable 
 close, but the revelation of a new life, foreshadowing new powers 
 of action and a new mode of being. It issues not in death, but 
 in the ascension. It is not an extension of an existence w^ith 
 which we are acquainted, but the manifestation of an existence 
 for Avhich we hope. It is not the putting off of the body, but the 
 transfiguration of it." Neither can they die any more, said our 
 Lord. The children of this tuorld die, but the children of the 
 Resurrection are the children of G-od, and therefore, are, like the 
 angels, incapable of death. And so, Christ being raised from 
 the dead, dieth no more. Death can have no more dominion over 
 hira. Hence he is said to be the^rs^ that rose from the dead ; 
 the first fruits of them that slept; the first begotten of the dead ; 
 the first born from the dead. It was a resurrection that put him 
 out of the category of mortality; that gave to his body, proper- 
 ties and qualities such as are described by Paul; making it in- 
 corruptible, glorious, poAverful, spiritual, and immortal. The 
 Resurrection of Christ is so prominent and paramount, so singu- 
 lar and transcendent, that all the other resurrections recorded in 
 Scripture fade out of sight by its side. His is The Resurrection — 
 The Life. This is what is meant when we speak of the Resur- 
 rection of Christ. 
 
 And yet again, the argument is apologetic and not dogmatic. 
 It is intended as a demonstration to the human mind, as such, — 
 to man, not as renewed and illumined by grace, not as depraved 
 and alienated by wicked works, but to man as man, as a rational 
 and moral beino;. Miracles are sif!;ns to them that believe not. 
 And this stupendous, all-including, miracle has, preeminently 
 this adaptation and power. We take the record as we find it, 
 and treat it just as we treat any other record. 
 
 There are two lines of evidence, two factors in the argument, 
 distinct and separate, yet mutually concurrent, and they together 
 constitute a logical and moral demonstration of the hi2;hest con- 
 ceivable order. Neither without the other is conclusive, but 
 welded into one, they are irresistible. 
 
450 The Argument for the [July, 
 
 These are: 1. The Testimony of the Witnesses; and 2. Tho 
 foregoing Scriptures. 
 
 The former of these, in our argument on the subject, -will first 
 be considered. That testimony is positive, manifold, continuous, 
 to the effect that Jesus Christ according to the flesh was raised 
 from the dead. The honesty and integrity of the witnesses are 
 unimpcached. The sincerity and strength of their convictions 
 reached to the endurance of all manner of persecution and of 
 martyrdom. Their competency as witnesses is a fair question of 
 discussion, but on general grounds it must be allowed. And this 
 brings us to the heart of the matter, — just what it was to which 
 they bore witness. It is the popular method and common among 
 preachers and writers to say that they witnessed to the resur- 
 rection of Jesus Christ. But this, while practically correct, is 
 not strictly accurate and does not give the precise facts of the 
 case. Omitting the subject of the harmonistic accounts of the 
 resurrection with their difficulties, let us simply state the nature 
 of the evidence that is given. It is that of the testimony of the 
 human senses — of touch, hearing, and sight, appropriately 
 reported and authenticated. These senses have to do only with 
 sensible things — with the objects handled, heard, and seen. 
 
 That Jesus Christ lived in Palestine, a man among men, is 
 known, just as we know that Alexander, Hannibal, Nero, 
 Socrates, Plato, and Plutarch lived, each a man among men. 
 Their fellow-men saw, heard, handled them ; walked and ate and 
 drank with them ; and competent contemporary writers recorded 
 their lives and deeds. We have not the least difficulty in be- 
 lieving their testimony. The person and life of Jesus Christ 
 were evidenced in precisely the same way ; only the records are 
 fiir more authentic, and can far more easily be sifted, compared, 
 and verified. On this point argument is needless. Those who 
 deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ, admit in that very denial 
 his existence and life before his death. 
 
 That he was crucified, died, and was buried, are facts known 
 just as the fact of the death and burial of any other man is 
 known. The proofs of death and burial are proofs to the senses 
 of men, and they are so sure, so demonstrative, that probably 
 
1881.] Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 451 
 
 not one person out of a hundred million is buried when he is not 
 dead. The evidences of the actual death of Christ are now, by 
 the most extreme critical school, admitted to be full and complete, 
 and by those with whom we are now dealing, no attempt is 
 made to discredit the fact of his death any more than of his life : 
 their whole argument turns upon the impossibility of his resur- 
 rection, anil this because it would be a contradiction, a violation 
 of inviolable laws. Nevertheless as we shall see, this impossible 
 event was possible, and did actually occur: the dead Christ did 
 live again ; the buried Christ did come out of the tomb. 
 
 Now, this fact is known, precisely as the facts of his previous 
 life, death, and burial are known — through the senses of those 
 who bore witness on the subject ; and the records of the evidence 
 are received precisely as the records of the evidence of the 
 existence of any man who lived in the past, are received. 
 
 No one of these witnesses pretends to have seen Christ rise 
 from the dead. No one saw the reanimation of his dead body ; 
 no one saw the first signs of life ; no one saw the process of the 
 transcendent resuscitation and reunion of the soul and body. All 
 this is beyond the range of any testimony that is offered or exists. 
 We perfectly agree with our adversaries when they tell us "that 
 it is not of the nature of human testimony to reach to the super- 
 natural." They cannot urge this more strongly than we do. But 
 their urging it reveals the essential weakness of their position. 
 They are fighting a man of straw. They totally misapprehend 
 the 2^oint of the gospel evidence, the subject-matter of the New 
 Testament attestations. They hold that a demonstration of the 
 inadequacy of testimony to prove the supernatural cause, settles 
 the Avhole question. On the other hand, we hold that it has 
 nothing to do with it. The inscrutable cause of the resurrection 
 is a very different thing from the fact of the resurrection, and it 
 is on this and on this alone that the testimony bears. This, as 
 the most cursory reading of the Evangelists shows, is all they 
 profess to prove. Their testimony relates, simply and only, to 
 the living presence, the actual existence among men, of Jesus 
 Christ subsequently to his crucifixion, death, and burial. And 
 what we affirm is, that on this subject the evidence is of the very 
 
462 The Argument for the [JuLY, 
 
 same kind, just as sufficibnt, just as conclusive, as is tliat of his 
 having been previously a living man and his having died. All 
 the narratives relate to this simple, sensible, most easily demon- 
 strated fact. Clirist was alive again after he had been dead. 
 The miracle — the supernatural, causal agency that effected the 
 resurrection — as we shall see, will take care of itself. Let us 
 illustrate this. 
 
 Suppose that some of the members of a churcii, who had known 
 their pastor for several years, had been absent from the place of 
 their residence during the three weeks previous to a given Sab- 
 bath and had returned on the Saturday night preceding. They 
 occupy their places on the Sabbath morning in the sanctuary. 
 They see the form, the face, the motions, the gestures of their 
 pastor ; they hear and note his familiar tones and accents. His 
 personal, living, real presence, is, to them, a fact beyond all ques- 
 tion. They would take their oaths upon it the next day. No 
 matter what might have happened to him during their absence, 
 the evidence of their eyes and ears would be demonstrative to their 
 minds thathewas there, standingbefore and speaking to them. He 
 might, like Paul, have been caught up to the third heavens dur- 
 ing their absence. He might like Lazarus, or the daughter of 
 Jairus, or Christ, have died; if he stands before them, accredited 
 by their senses a living man, then he so stands, their indubitable, 
 actual, living pastor. Should a thousand persons tell them that 
 during their absence he had been struck dead, and that they had 
 followed him to the tomb, it would not alter their convictions ; 
 they might doubt the declarations, but they Avould not doubt their 
 senses. And if to Christ's contemporaries the very same proof, 
 Avhich thus compels the assurance and confidence that he, whom 
 these parishioners had so well-known, is the very same person 
 who preached on the Sabbath morning named, if that very evi- 
 dence was given to them, only increasingly and from week to 
 week, with additional, tangible, ocular, and audible signs and 
 proofs, then, unless their veracity and competency as human 
 hand and eye and ear witnesses, can be impeached, their testi- 
 mony becomes conclusive, — demonstrative beyond all cavil. 
 
 Many things have been written on the fallibility and unreli- 
 
1881.] Besurrection of Jesus Christ. 4r)3 
 
 ability of the testimony of the senses, and doubtless men have 
 often been deceived, and have only thought they saw and heard 
 and handled the objects they declared existed ; but notwithstand- 
 ing this, the evidence, the normal evidence, of the senses, within 
 their own proper domain, is ordinarily infallible. The correction 
 of mistakes is easy, and on most matters, on matters such as that 
 now before us, there are no mistakes to be corrected. The actual 
 existence of thehouses, streets, trees, the horses, wagons, carriages, 
 the men, women, and children we are conversant with through our 
 senses, is undoubted, indubitable. Dead persons are known to 
 be dead, and living persons are known to be living, and the 
 simple statement of the fact by those with whom they are con- 
 nected, settles the matter in all parts of the world. 
 
 The testimonial narrative of the resurrection of Christ, in his 
 bodily form, is most simple, most natural, most satisfactory. We 
 have not space to recite it. It is very noticeable that no other 
 test than that of the senses — the senses of persons who had known 
 him long and well and were fully qualified to identify him. is 
 suggested. Eye witnesses, ear witnesses, hand witnesses, give 
 their testimony. They saw, heard, and handled the man Christ 
 Jesus, just as they had done for three years previously. They 
 knew him during those forty days through the same senses by 
 which they had known him during those three years. It is, in 
 all the circumstances, utterly absurd to suppose that the man 
 whom they thus recognised, was not the same Jesus they had 
 known before, but a stranger imposing on them with prints of 
 na'ls in his hands and feet, and a spear wound in his side. It is 
 equally absurd tosuppose that they saw and heard and handled, and 
 talked and walked and ate and drank with a ghost, a human 
 shadow, during those six weeks. Had they known nothing of 
 his death and met him afterwards, it would be precisely the 
 same. If some of his disciples had gone to Rome a few months 
 before his crucifixion, and having heard nothing of his death, 
 had returned during the forty days and met him at the Sea of 
 Galilee, would they not be just as good, just as strong, just as 
 reliable witnesses to his person and presence then as they were 
 before ? 
 
454 The Argument for the [July, 
 
 Until the evidence of the common senses of men about things 
 most palpable, most easily discerned and known, about the ex- 
 istence, presence, and speech of living human beings, and about 
 the death and burial of such beings — until this, which lies at the 
 foundation of everything connected with the life of man on earth, 
 is done away with and made of no account, the fact of Christ's 
 resurrection must stand. To deny that Jesus Christ was alive 
 when so many men asserted his being actually present with, 
 visible to, audible by them, is to overturn the foundations of all 
 historical knowledge, and empty the past of all reality. The 
 resurrection itself was not seen; the miracle itself could not be 
 directly attested by the senses. The New Testament does not 
 attempt to do anything more than to produce abundant evidence 
 that Jesus Christ lived, died, and lived again ; and these are ex- 
 ternal, material, sensible facts, each and all of them being veri- 
 fied by the senses of men. As Luke says, "He showed himself 
 alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs, being seen of 
 them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the 
 kingdom of God." This is all and this is enough. The miracle, 
 the interposition of almighty power effecting the stupendous re- 
 sult, arresting and reversing the order of nature, is not the sub- 
 ject of human observation and testimony. This is an inference 
 which the mind spontaneously, instinctively, and irresistibly 
 draws from the facts observed by the senses. The laws of the 
 mind compel the conclusion. We do not reason about it ; we 
 take it by an immediate, instant intuition. Did those women, 
 those disciples, those apostles, those hundreds of his followers, 
 did their eyes see Jesus Christ alive after his death, did their 
 ears hear him, did their hands handle him? If they did, then 
 (j-od must have raised him from the dead. The miracle took 
 place. By what right do men who accept the testimony of the 
 senses to the fact of Christ's life before his crucifixion, turn 
 about and impeach its validity to the fact of his life after 
 his crucifixion? Either there is no evidence that Christ did 
 live on earth at all before his death, or there is just as valid evi- 
 dence that he did live after his death. Either Christ rose from 
 the dead or he never existed on earth. Prove to us that he 
 
1881.] Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 455 
 
 ever lived among men, and we will prove that lie rose from the 
 dead by the same evidence. Deny that he rose from the dead, 
 and we defy any mortal to prove that he ever appeared on the 
 earth. 
 
 Thus far the way is clear; the proof full and decisive; the argu- 
 ment unanswerable, as to the corporeal resurrection of Christ. 
 But now there comes in, what, at first sight, is a disturbing ele- 
 ment. The question which we regarded as settled emerges again, 
 and the competence/ of these human witnesses is brought into 
 doubt. For we find them, in the same breath with their other 
 testimony, witnessing to things pertaining to the risen Christ 
 which hardly come into the category of the ordinary and usually 
 accepted evidence of the senses. As long as that evidence goes 
 to prove Jesus Christ to be precisely the same identical Jesus 
 of flesh and bones and frame and physical properties and 
 qualities he was before his death, it is justly available. But 
 these same witnesses, with equal positiveness and assurance tes- 
 tify to an altogether unusual and utterly unparalleled condition of 
 his humanity, preceding this by the assertion that two spirits, 
 angels from the unseen world, in the form of young men, sat 
 upon the stone at the door of the sepulchre, and spake to the 
 women who first visited the tomb; they tell us that this risen 
 Christ could, and that not by a miraculous energy, but in a way 
 proper and natural to his body, by what Augustine calls "a 
 certain ineffable fiicility of movement," appear and disappear 
 without perceptible motion, could sit at a table and eat and drink 
 and enfjawe in conversation after a walk of several miles, and 
 then suddenly, without a rustle or change of position, vanish out 
 of sight, as by an invisible cap; that he could and did appear 
 airain and again, and without openino; a door or takin<i a visible 
 or audible step, or causing a disciple to change his place, make 
 himself visible, standing in the midst of the room Avhere the 
 eleven disciples were seated, so that on the first occasion, "they 
 were terrified and affrighted and supposed they had seen a spirit ;" 
 they took him for a phantom, a spectre, a shade. And in this 
 most marvellous state of things he verifies himself to them by 
 assuring them, "It is I myself," and making them handle his 
 
456 The Argument for the [July, 
 
 flesh and bones, and ordering a meal to be prepared, cats with 
 them fish and honej. And a week after, by a like apparition of 
 himself to the eleven, he, "the doors again being shut," stands 
 in their niidot and salutes them, and presents to Thomas his 
 pierced iiands and open side, and says, "Reach hither thy finger 
 and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it 
 into my side," than which nothing could be more incredible, if 
 the body of Christ was a sim.ple natural body, such as it was 
 before his death. Who could bear such a movement on his 
 freshly pierced hands and side, the wounds being unhealed, un- 
 dressed, and open ? We read that on a certain occasion "he 
 appeared," ecpavepudr/, phantomised himself, "in another," a 
 different, "form." The account of his appearance at the sea of 
 Galilee seems to be after the same extraordinary manner, so that 
 "none of his disciples durst ask him, Who art thou?" No hint 
 is given of any place where he abode, of any house where he 
 slept, or of his being in any way dependent on food or drink. 
 He comes, no one knows from whence. He goes, no one knows 
 whither. And at last having gone with his disciples to the 
 Mount of Olives, he, Avithout an effort, as by an inherent force, 
 by a gentle motion, rises from the ground, and, contrary to all the 
 known laws of nature, rises and still rises and moves upward till 
 a cloud receives him out of their sight, and he is no more seen 
 on earth by them ; an angel informing them that he had gone 
 into heaven, and Mark declaring that "he sat on the right hand 
 of God." How he knew this he does not say. Such is the ad- 
 ditional strange, astounding testimony of the witnesses to the 
 resurrection of Christ, out of which both ancient and modern 
 criticism has educed a vast amount of difficulties and self contra- 
 dictory explanations. 
 
 Now if these witnesses should have affirmed these things, of 
 Lazarus, for example, or of any mere man, we venture to say 
 that their testimony would not be received. Testimony to the 
 simple and single fact that Lazarus or Christ was alive at any 
 time after his death, is valid testimony ; but testimony affirming 
 the possession by Lazarus or Christ of a body whose properties 
 were superhuman and at the same time human, subject to the 
 
1881.] Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 457 
 
 senses of other men and at the same time independent of them, 
 alike visible or invisible, tangible or intangible, local or illocal, 
 at his will, now here and now there without apparent motion, 
 ascribing, in the language of theology, to the resurrection body 
 of Christ, iuvisibiUtas, illocalitas, impalpabilitas — such testi- 
 mony would be received, not only with great incredulity, but it 
 would go far to undermine their testimony to that which, in its 
 own nature, should command confidence. As we have seen, such 
 a body is the very body the Scripture idea of the resurrection 
 implies and demands; yet the proof of it can hardly be reached 
 in the same way that the fact of his resurrection in the very 
 physical body in which he had lived before he died is reached. 
 
 To illustrate the difficulty now before us : We are sitting here 
 together, say in the city of Chicago in the month of May, 1880. 
 The door is opened — we turn our eyes towards it and see a white 
 man enter and shut it. We watch him. As we look a sudden 
 change passes over him. He becomes a negro. His skin turns 
 black, his hair turns woolly, his nose becomes flat, his lips 
 thick, his chin projecting. He is as clearly, palpably, a full- 
 blooded negro, as he was, just before, a white man. We approach 
 him, we examine him, we speak to him, and our convictions are 
 confirmed. Now we go out and report this. We are honest men, 
 sincere men, with no temptation to falsehood. We assert this 
 transformation as a fact. Would we be believed ? Would others 
 be bound to believe us ? If we told them that we saw a man 
 enter the place and shut the door, and stand before us none 
 would doubt us ; biit when we declare that we saw that man sud- 
 denly change into a perfect negro, even sensible men would hear 
 us with a certain incredulity. There would be a temptation to 
 treat our witness as we treat that of those "spiritualists," who 
 testify to the materialisation in the air of a departed spirit, whom 
 we regard as, when honest, deceived. Our hearers would per- 
 haps be reluctant to concede in our favor the rule of evidence 
 (which is indisputably solid) : that good and sufficient testimony 
 proves any statements whatsoever which are not self-contradic- 
 tory, or absolutely impossible. Hence it would be practically 
 very important that our testimony should have the confirmation 
 
458 The Argument for the [July, 
 
 of admitted predictions. Our supposed instance gives but an im- 
 perfect illustration of the force of the Apostolic testimony to 
 Christ's resurrection ; for ue are not supposed to have died to 
 seal our testimony to the event in Chicago, as the Apostles did. 
 The witnesses to the resurrection sealed their title to be believed, 
 notwithstanding the wonderfulness of the event testified. Still, 
 the scepticism would be not unnatural. Hence the value of pro- 
 phetic confirmation. 
 
 But now — and here we pass to the second line of evidence, viz., 
 the testimony of the foregoing Scriptures — now suppose, that, 
 in connexion with our testimony as to this strange and unprece- 
 dented event, a book should be produced which had been in exist- 
 ence a thousand years; a well known, extensively circulated, 
 often quoted, most valued book; and that in this book it should 
 be found written, that in the year 1880, in the month of May, 
 six persons should meet in a room at a place called Chicago, in a 
 country then undiscovered and unknown, and that while they 
 were together, a man should enter the room, and standing before 
 them would suddenly be changed into a negro. Such a record, 
 the record of such a prophecy, in such detail, would at once 
 change the whole aspect of our testimony. Unless it could be 
 shown that we were dishonest men, making up the story on pur- 
 pose, its truth would be instantly demonstrated to the mind. It 
 would be divinely certified and established. Such a prophecy in 
 such olden time, could not have come by the will of man. Only 
 God could have foreseen and foretold the event. Our testimony 
 would be verified beyond debate. The seal' of God would be 
 upon it. What was difficult of credit on our bare word becomes, 
 not only a fact to be believed, but a fact which must be believed 
 unless we would make God a liar. If this would be so in a 
 simple and single effect like this, then, if we can find a book con- 
 cerning .Jesus Christ, a book written hundreds of years before 
 his advent, and giving in minute detail times and places and cii*- 
 cumsfances as to his birth and ministry and suff"erings and death 
 and burial and resurrection, and giving them in such a way that 
 by no possibility could the Evangelists and Apostles have made 
 up the story of his life and death and resurrection to match the 
 
1881.] Resurrection of Jesus Chi'ist. 459 
 
 foregoing ancient accounts, then our faith in the corresponding 
 events when actually occurring and appropriately witnessed to 
 and attested becomes not only rational and logical, but a religious 
 duty; for that faith would rest not simply on human testimony, 
 but on divine and infallible testimony. The Bible indubitably is 
 such a book, and the Old Testament is justly styled the testi- 
 mony of Jesus. 
 
 The resurrection cf Christ as the only and eternal Son of God 
 incarnate, (and it is only thus that it is worth our concern,) is de- 
 pendent upon the foregoing Scriptures for its authentication and 
 authority. That event, if standing by itself and witnessed to by 
 the evangelists only, would present difficulties: but when com- 
 bined with the Old Testament Scriptures, it becomes luminous 
 and effective and conclusively, divinely, true. Faith in it is faith 
 in God himself; and that which, at first sight, created doubts as 
 to the entire story, becomes itself an absolutely essential part of 
 the stupendous miracle. It is just as important to have proof of 
 the true resurrection character of the body of Jesus, as it is to 
 have proof of the simple fact of his corporeal revivification. It 
 is the miracle of the eternal Son of God incarnate rising by the 
 exceeding greatness of God's power in a body of immortal perma- 
 nence, power, and glory, the pattern and the pledge of the like res- 
 urrection of his people. Consider those words of John: "When 
 he was risen from the dead, his disciples believed the Scriptures." 
 "For as yet they knew not the Scripture that he must rise again 
 from the dead;" and hence the empty towel and the neatly laid 
 clothes and the napkin folded by itself were no proofs to them of 
 his resurrection. Our Lord declares that the Scriptures by them- 
 selves were all sufficient to demonstrate his resurrection. He 
 said to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, fools, and 
 slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken ! 
 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into 
 his glory? And beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, he 
 expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning 
 himself No wonder, that after he vanished out of their si^ht, 
 they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us while 
 he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the 
 
460 The Argument for the [July, 
 
 Scriptures ? And in the evening of that same day when he stood 
 in the midst of the eleven, he toUl them. These are the words 
 which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things 
 must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in 
 the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened 
 he their understanding that they might understand the Scrip- 
 tures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved 
 Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that 
 repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name 
 among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And yc are witnesses 
 of these things — not only witnesses of my resurrection, but of God's 
 foregoing testimony to it. The strength and power of Peter's ser- 
 mon on the day of Pentecost consisted in the proof of the resurrec- 
 tion of Jesus to immortality and so of his divinity and Messiahship, 
 not merely from the testimony of the witnesses, but, fundamen- 
 tally, from the foregoing Scriptures "in which God had showed 
 by the mouth of all the prophets these things," and especially, 
 from the sixteenth Psalm. He closed his argument in these 
 words: "Therefore, David, being a prophet, and knowing that 
 God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins 
 according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his 
 throne ; he, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, 
 that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see cor- 
 ruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are wit- 
 nesses." And so at Cesarea, he said to Cornelius, of Jesus, 
 "whom they slew and hanged on a tree: him God raised up the 
 third day, and showed him openly. To him give all the prophets 
 witness." This was the drift and overwhelming force of Stephen's 
 testimony, bringing the Old Testament Scriptures to bear upon 
 the fact of the risen and ascended Jesus. 
 
 This was the sum and substance of Philip's demonstration, from 
 the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, to the eunuch. This'was Paul's 
 argument at Antioch. "We declare unto you glad tidings, how 
 that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath ful- 
 filled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up 
 Jesus a^ain ; as it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art 
 my Son, this day have I begotten thee." This was his argument 
 
1881.] Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 461 
 
 at Thessalonica. "And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto 
 them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the 
 Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have 
 suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom 
 I preach unto you is Christ." He declared to Agrippa that he 
 said none other things than those which the prophets and Moses 
 did say should come. And at Rome, he expounded and testified 
 the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus both out 
 of the law of Moses and out of the prophets. And in his sublime 
 demonstration of the resurrection of Christ, in the fifteenth chap- 
 ter of I. Corinthians, before he recounts the testimony of the eye- 
 witnesses of the resurrection, he is careful to lay the founda- 
 tion of their faith in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, by 
 which that testimony is made vital and valid. "I declare unto 
 you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received 
 and wherein ye stand ; by which also ye are saved, unless ye 
 have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first of all, 
 that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, 
 according to the Scriptures ; and that he was buried ; and that he 
 rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures." And he 
 sums up this whole doctrine of the foregoing Scriptures, when he 
 says to Timothy, "The Holy Scriptures, which are able to make 
 thee wise unto salvation." 
 
 The subject is endless. It is insisted upon in the Gospels, in 
 the Acts, in the Epistles, and in the Apocalypse. The foregoing 
 Scriptures are the bed-rock of our faith in the testimony of the 
 Evangelists and the Apostles. And it is worthy of note, that our 
 Lord's ministry on earth, his whole life and work, are made largely 
 dependent for their sanctions upon the Scriptures of the Old 
 Testament. How often does he refer to them, quote from them, 
 and establish his claims from their utterances? He proves his 
 mission, his divinity, his incarnation, his authority, by means of 
 them. His miracles, it is true, authenticated his supernal 
 teachings and august demands to those to whom he spoke ; but 
 the foregoing Scriptures attest the validity of his claims, with a 
 clear and shining witness, to all ages and peoples. "That it 
 might be fulfilled," "it is written," and the like, are words which 
 
462 The Argument for the [July, 
 
 illumine the pages of the Evangelists. And we know with what 
 resistless logic he silenced the opposing Jews, and dispelled the 
 illusions of their traditions and misinterpretations, by making 
 those Scriptures testify against them and for himself. Their 
 fundamental error consisted in "not knowing the Scriptures and 
 the power of God." Being what they were, they were the testi- 
 mony of God himself to him ; as he declares, "The Father liira- 
 self which hath sent me hath borne witness of me. And ye have 
 not his tvord abiding in you. Search the Scriptures. They are 
 they which testify of me. Had ye believed Moses, ye would have 
 believed me; for he wrote of rne. But if ye believe not his 
 writings, hoAv shall ye believe my words?" A stronger assertion 
 of our argument could scarcely be made. Such Avas the Old 
 Testament Scripture in its testimony to Christ before his resur- 
 rection. And as the resurrection was the seal, consummation, 
 and crown of his whole life, without which his advent and in- 
 carnation, his miracles and teachings, his sacrifice and death, 
 would have been unavailin<r, so it is preeminently and most 
 luminously witnessed to by that Scripture. This makes our faith 
 in the resurrection of Christ to stand, not in the wisdom, the 
 honesty, the fidelity, of human testimony, but in the omniscience 
 of God; even the words of the Holy Spirit testifying by the 
 prophets, beforehand, of the sufferings of Christ and the glory 
 that should follow. This makes our faith not a human, but a 
 divine, not an historic, but a supernatural, faith. For faith in 
 \\\e supersensible, in the supernatural, the divine, on the unin- 
 spired testimony of finite, falliable, men, cannot be a scientific, 
 much less a religious faith. It cannot be saving. It cannot be 
 acceptable to God. It cannot be binding on the conscience. It 
 is at best a venture, an uncertain and presumptuous venture. 
 Such testimony is too weak a basis to sustain the enormous weight 
 of a divine revelation of spiritual, unseen, eternal things. We 
 must "believe the Lord our God himself, if we would be estab- 
 lished; we must believe his prophets, if we would prosper." If 
 we would believe the Lord Jesus, we must first believe the fore- 
 going Scriptures in their testimony concerning him. That was 
 a weighty word of our Lord, "If I bear witness of myself, my 
 
1881.] Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 463 
 
 witness is not true"; and, "if ye believe not the writings of 
 Moses, how shall ye believe ray words?" This affords an invin- 
 cible demonstration of the supreme, most transcendant, and all- 
 essential miracle of the Bible. "This," as Calvin says, "creates 
 a eonviction which asks not for reasons; a knowledge which ac- 
 cords with the highest reason, namely, knowledge in which the 
 mind rests more firmly and securely than in any reasons ; such, 
 in fine, the conviction which revelation from heaven alone can 
 produce." 
 
 Take from the argument for the resurrection of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ this element, this factor, of the foregoing Scriptures; in 
 other words, take out inspiration, and the testimony of the wit- 
 nesses loses its force. That testimony cannot, by itself, sustain 
 the burden. The divine witness in prophecy must be added. 
 Either without the other fails. Only in the combination of the 
 two is the fact established. And as in the incarnation, in re- 
 generation, and in revelation, so in this fact of the resurrection 
 of Christ, the divine and human are correlated and essential to 
 the argument. It is as impossible to prove the divinity of the 
 historic Christ without the incarnation as it is to prove the resur- 
 rection of the divine Christ without inspiration.^ 
 
 ^ Since the foreffoing paper was written, an article has appeared in the 
 April number of the Presbyterian Review on the subject of inspiration, 
 under the signatures of the Rev. Dr. A. A. Ilodge, of Princeton, and the 
 Rev. Dr. Warfield, of Allegheny, whose fundamental position contravenes 
 the views we have presented. Their article maintains that "the general 
 truth of Christianity and its doctrines must be established before we come 
 to the question of inspiration," i. e., "the fallen condition of man, the 
 fact of a redemptive scheme, the general historical truth of the Scriptures, 
 and the validity and authority of the revelation of God's will which they 
 contain,'' must be proved to be verities befoi'e the question of the inspira- 
 tion of the record, which gives them to mankind, is settled. The doctrines 
 of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, Regeneration, Justifica- 
 tion, Adoption, the Mission and Work of the Holy Spirit, the Resurrection 
 of the Dead, and Eternal Judgment, must first be believed on human decla- 
 rations considered apart from their inspiration. These writers add: "In 
 dealing with sceptics it is not proper to begin with the evidence which 
 immediately establishes inspiration, but we should first establish theism, 
 then the historical credibility of the Scriptures, and then the divine origin 
 VOL. XXXII., NO. 3 — 5. 
 
464 The Argument for the [July, 
 
 To constitute a true resurrection body, it was needful that both 
 the sets of attributes and qualities ascribed to that of Christ should 
 be present; while testimony that Ayould be valid to the one would 
 fail as to the other. The testimony as to Christ's being physically 
 alive after his death is complete so far as it goes, and may be re- 
 garded as independent of inspiration ; it is the testimony of the 
 senses to a sensible object appropriately reported. But the testi- 
 mony of the senses as to his being illocal, invisible, impalpable, 
 immortal, fails to produce that certainty without which a true 
 resurrection body cannot be affirmed. Wherefore, to this super- 
 natural fact the foregoing inspired Scriptures, by their super- 
 natural divine testimony, affords the link wanting in the chain of 
 
 of Christianity. Nor should we ever allow it to be believed that the truth 
 of Christianity depends upon any doctrine of inspiration whatever." 
 (P. R., p. 227.) In like manner, the Rev. Dr. Patton, on paa;e 371 of the 
 same Review, says, ''The apologete may, and sometimes must, defend 
 Christianity as a supernatural and revealed religion, on grounds that do 
 not assume the inspiration of the Scriptures." This apologetift method 
 of establishing Christianity on the basis of the credibility of the penmen 
 of Scripture, considered simply as honest and candid men, has been re- 
 cently maintained by such men as Canon Browne, Dr. Bannerman. and 
 Dr. Cairns, as well as by the writers just named among ourselves. Men 
 more earnest and true to the faith of the Church cannot be found, and it 
 is with utmost diffidence, yet with strong convictions, that we question 
 the soundness of their position. Their intention is most laudable, and 
 wholly in the interest of the truth of God : the effort is to silence scepticism 
 on its own ground. The point we raise, and which we hope will be 
 thoroughly considered in the Church, is, whether more is not lost than is 
 gained by the new method ; whether, in putting inspiration into the back- 
 ground, we do not logically yield the whole matter of an authentic revela- 
 tion of God obligatory on man, and sacrifice the very thing we aim to 
 preserve ? 
 
 If the preceding argument on the resurrection of Christ is correct, then 
 there is no "question of inspiration" to be raised. It demonstrates itself 
 to the mind, just as does the miraculous element in the resurrection of 
 our Lord. It is an immediate and necessary inference, and has all the 
 force of intuitive truth. The difficulties we have urged as to the insuffi- 
 ciency of the testimony of the witnesses, by itself and apart from the 
 foregoing Scriptures, to the' resurrection of Christ, are in principle diflS- 
 culties that pertain to all attempts to establish the supernatural by mere 
 human testimony. A revelation from God may prove itself to the person 
 
1881.] Resurrection cf Jesus Christ. 'J 65 
 
 evidence, and makes that chain golden, binding heaven and earth, 
 time and eternity, God and man, in indissoluble everhisting union. 
 The body in which Christ was raised was the very same indi- 
 vidual, identical body in which he was born and lived and died 
 and was buried. But a marvellous .change passed upon it. It 
 was more than transfigured. It was no longer a terrestial, but a 
 celestial, no longer a natural, but a spiri;;ual, no longer an earthly, 
 but a heavenly, body. New properties and qualities, a new life, 
 a freedom from former limitations and dependence and subjection 
 to natural laws and material conditions, signalised it. It was his 
 own true human body, but it was incorruptible, powerful, spiritual, 
 glorious, and immortal. It was competent by its constitution and 
 transformation, like Moses and Elijah, to dwell, now in the high- 
 est heavens with angelic spirits, and now to stand on Mt. Hermon, 
 subject to the very same laws of gravitation and physical relations, ' 
 as were the three disciples who stood by their side. "The narra- 
 tives," says Steinmeyer. "force us to infer a higher bodily organ- 
 ism, such as was needed by the Risen One in order to dispense 
 the gift of the Spirit. They force us to infer a material body, 
 
 to whom that revelation is made. Inspiration is not in the case. His un- 
 attested declaration, by word of mouth or by writing, of that revelation, 
 can only prove his own belief of its truth. It cannot command our faith 
 in his faith of it. When Moses said to Pharaoh, "Thus saith the Lord," 
 Pharaoh rightly demanded, "Shew a miracle for you," i. e., Give me a 
 divine attestation of your divine authority. 
 
 The genuineness and authenticity of the sacred historical records are 
 by no means equivalent to their credibility. This latter must be settled 
 on other grounds. The whole question of the credibility of the records 
 of alleged supernatural revelations must finally be resolved into super- 
 natural attestations of the same. Apart from inspiration, they are so 
 interwoven and penetrated with the supernatural, the miraculous, the 
 unusual, the marvellous, that even ordinary historical statements must 
 be corroborated by outside evidence to make them credible. 
 
 Drs. Hodge and AVarfield say that inspiration is "fundamental to the 
 adequate interpretation of Scripture." This is true beyond all question. 
 An inadequate interpretation will not satisfy a sceptic or any one else. 
 Scripture is its own interpreter. Otherwise Scripture ceases to be the 
 supreme authority in matters of religion, and reason usurps its place. 
 Strauss clearly saw this, and presented i*; with great force. (See "The 
 Old Faith and the New," London, 1873, pp. 103, 104.)— T. H. S. 
 
4G6 The Argument for the [July, 
 
 such as the Lord could appear to the disciples in. But they con- 
 join both kinds of characteristics so naively, intert\vine them so 
 firmly, and interweave them so closely, that their apparent con- 
 tradictoriness did not occur to the narrators; but in fact there is 
 no contradiction, for it is the same body which appears, and the 
 same which retires into the invisible world." And Lange, in his 
 Life of Christ, says, "He stood before them with a true body, 
 and yet free as a spirit in his bodily movements ; belonging to 
 the otJier world, and yet endued with the powers and qualities of 
 this world ; belonging to this world, and yet possessing the attri- 
 butes of the other, or rather as the perfected King of the great 
 kingdom of God which exists in both worlds;" and we may add, 
 in all worlds. 
 
 Such was the resurrection of Jesus Christ; and such is the 
 nature and value of the evidence by which God establishes it. 
 The two lines of evidence, divine and human, meet and blend and 
 become the sun-like demonstration of the most marvellous event 
 in the history of the universe : an event that proves the divinity 
 of the testimony that described it in the preceding centuries, and 
 so verifies the testimony of the witnesses who declared it when it 
 took place ; an event which makes the incarnation a necessity, 
 and so an indubitable reality ; an event which constitutes the 
 shining orb of humanity, flooding heaven and earth with its radi- 
 ance, illuminating the. distant past and the eternal future. 
 
 In and of itself the argument from the foregoing Scriptures 
 proves nothing till their fulfilment. The issue must confirm it. 
 As our Lord, again and again, says, "I tell you before it come 
 to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye may believe." The 
 authentication, by miracle, of the prophet at the time, is outside 
 of the case in our apologetic argument. But when actually ful- 
 filled, its divinity is established for the ages. The fulfilment 
 verifies and ratifies the prophecy, and the prophecy verifies and 
 ratifies the fulfihnent. The foregoing Scriptures that were de- 
 monstrated in the crucifixion and burial of our Lord gave assur- 
 ance of the foretold resurrection. But that resurrection alone 
 made the demonstration complete that the salvation of God for 
 man is recorded in the Bible ; for, as we have already said, if 
 
1881.] Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 467 
 
 Christ be not raised, our preaching is vain, and your faith is vain; 
 ye are yet in your sins. They also ■which are fallen asleep in 
 Christ are perished ; and we of all men are most miserable. 
 "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first 
 fruits of them that slept." "He was delivered for our offences." 
 "He died for our sins." But "he rose again for our justi- 
 fication," without which resurrection his atonement would have 
 been nugatory and valueless. His resurrection makes his ascen- 
 sion and session at God's right hand, and so his intercession and 
 regnancy in glory, absolute certainties. 
 
 The body of Christ to~day, on the throne of God in heaven, 
 is the very same body which was crucified by Pontius Pilate, dead, 
 and buried. In all the visions of the Apocalypse, it is seen 
 radiant in ineffable glory, but marked with the prints of the nails 
 and the deep wound of the spear. And it is endowed with the 
 same qualities and powers it possessed during the forty days of his 
 resurrection life on earth. By its "resurrection power," it is 
 capable of changing back again so as to be seen and handled by 
 men, even as it was, when, like a phantom, it appeared and stood 
 in the closed room at Jerusalem. The marks of the nails and 
 the spear will be as evident to the sight and the touch as they 
 then were. For by and by, this same Jesus who was taken up 
 from the Mount of Olives on earth to the tiirone of God in 
 heaven, shall so come in like manner as he was seen to go into 
 heaven. Then every eye shall see him and every ear shall hear 
 him, and the senses of men, infallible in their testimony, will 
 re-verify the incarnation and resurrection of the Son of God in a 
 local, visible, palpable form. The Lord himself, the very identi- 
 cal human Jesus, shall descend from heaven with a shout, with 
 the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. Then shall 
 all the tribes of the earth mourn; all kindreds shall wail because 
 of him, and call on the mountains and rocks to fall on them and 
 hide them from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, as they 
 shall look on him whom they despised and rejected. And the 
 believing and ransomed ones shall gaze adoringly upon their 
 King in his beauty, and sing triumphantly the praises of him 
 who washed them in his blood from their sins, and who receives 
 
468 The Argument for the Eesurrection, etc. [JiH^^, 
 
 1 1 -, +i.«;v pirthlv and mortal bodies 
 
 ,.em to himself ^{^^^^iJ^^^Zloo^^ i„covvupt,ble, 
 into the likeness of his own, ,ind tliey lo 
 
 spiritual, powerful, glorious »^ ™-;-^;-.„„„„,,, Son of God 
 Thus the resurrection of '-''"St as tne , .^^^ ^,,4 
 
 i. the key that opens the treasure-house <^^^J ^^^^^, f,,„„ 
 stamps the seal of inspiration upon * ™ '^^r;; \.^,„,^ „f the 
 Genesis to the Apo-lypse even ' ^'-P-^, ^,, ^,,„,,, 
 
 revelatioi. ^'^T ^T^2Z:'on of Jesus. This is not rea- 
 ists and Apostles to the e ^^ ^ ^.^^^^ ^^.^^ ,^ ^^„. 
 
 soning in a circle, but t s the o questions of criti- 
 
 tinent of our whole religion. It f '&''''' J' ^ „„^ „,,es 
 
 cisni, philosophy, and science to *«- ^^^ tli^'fallible, au- 
 
DATE DUE 
 
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 Demco. Inc. 38-293