Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

to the funeral of Nain, and especially to the sepulchre and the mount of ascension, and, of consequence, to the glorified and immortal existence of Jesus, as the great distinction of their religion above all the systems of human philosophy. Such is human nature. Such is the quick and etherial capacity of the human soul, of being addressed and taught by God by other means than words. He teaches by things and events, which the soul interprets with the rapidity and certainty of light. It is thus with his own existence. There never was a verbal argument to prove the existence of God, which did not seem, after all, an elaborate mockery, or at best, a superfluous trifling, an attempt to express, in a clumsy proposition of verbal logic, a truth which is read in every leaf and is spoken by every voice in nature, from the purling of the brook to the howling of the storm and the roll of the thunder.

Just so was it in teaching man his duty. He did it most effectually by facts. He sent Jesus in human form to walk the plains of Judea, and tread the rounds of human duty spotless and sinless, subjected him to every species of trial, to exhibit through the whole, unshaken fortitude, unerring wisdom, unconquerable love. Christ himself was a Gospel of duty to man, more intelligible and commanding than all his discourses. Would God teach man his destiny? He suffers this wonderful model of all possible

excellence to expire upon the cross in the presence of multitudes of witnesses, consigns him to the tomb hewn out of the rock, shut in by a stone rolled to the door of the sepulchre, sealed by legal authority, and watched over by a guard of soldiers-then through stone, and seal, and soldiery, raises him from the dead, shows him openly to multitudes, subjects him to the senses of chosen witnesses, and then takes him to heaven in open day and in the presence of his previous friends and disciples.

These are the things which catch the eye of faith as it glances back through the ages to the origin of Christianity, and they speak a language intelligible to those to whom the written word is a sealed book. It was this feature of Christianity, its being founded on a few plain historical facts, and in a manner expressed and embodied in them, which fitted it to live, and reign, and sanctify the soul through those ages of intellectual darkness, which soon settled on the world after the establishment of Christianity. The Gospel was preached to the eyes and hearts of multitudes by painting and sculpture, from whose minds the words of Jesus were shut up in the mute pages of a mysterious book. The infant Saviour, heralded by angels, and honored by the sages of the East, even when abased to the rude usages of a manger, spoke the great fact of the Divine interposition for human salvation. The cross on which he died, became the

cherished symbol of the mercy of God to sinful, erring man; and whether borne on the bosom of beauty, or glittering upon the spires of churches, spoke the same universal language, which had been expressed by every sacrifice from the offering of Abel to the crucifixion of Christ, the need of guilty man of pardon from on high, and the readiness of the Father of men to forgive his repentant offspring. To all, both cultivated and barbarian, once the threshold of nothingness and oblivion, the sepulchre transfigured by the resurrection of Jesus, has become the vestibule of immortality, and the fact that he who was once our teacher here on earth, is now a glorified spirit in the invisible world, bows our hearts before the doctrines which he taught, more than all the demonstrations of human wisdom.

Such is man, and such is the adaptation of the Gospel to his wants. I do not deny, that there may be some spirits of a finer texture, or a more exquisite culture, who do not need these external signatures of God to the truth of Christianity, but who read its divinity in every line and sentiment. But the majority of mankind are not gifted with such acuteness of moral and spiritual discernment. They are obliged to rest on such evidence as satisfied Nicodemus. "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." Or the man that

was restored to sight, having been born blind, "Since

the world began it was not opened the eyes of the blind. of God, he could do nothing."

heard, that any man If this man were not

Having thus examined the credentials of the Teacher, and found them satisfactory, it becomes a matter of the highest moment to ascertain the doctrines which be taught. This becomes a matter of the greater importance, as it is evident at first glance, that every thing in the New Testament is not doctrine. Christ came as a religious teacher, to make known to us on satisfactory authority all that is necessary for us, as religious beings to know, in order to obtain eternal happiness. He came not to anticipate the discoveries of science, or to correct the false opinions which had prevailed in consequence of the want of science, upon the subjects of astronomy, metaphysics, physiology, &c. It was necessary for him to use the current language of the time upon these subjects. Any departure from it would have involved him in vexatious and profitless controversy with his contemporaries, entirely foreign to the purposes of his mission. And if he had thought it necessary to set the world right on every collateral subject before he could teach them religion, the last sun of his ministry would have set before he would have prepared the way for the commencement of his real mission. When therefore, he uses the language of

the age, which implies the truth of certain opinions, in illustration of the truths which he taught, neither he, nor his religion, can justly be made responsible for the truth of those opinions. Hence arises the necessity of drawing a distinction between the doctrines of Christ, and the opinions adverted to in the New Testament. The former are to be received as a part of our faith, the latter as opinions belonging to the time, and are to be received or rejected according to their own intrinsic probability. For instance, in the parable of the sower, Jesus speaks of the rising of the sun. This expression is conformed to the astronomy of the time, which supposed the earth to be placed in the centre, and the sun, moon, and stars to revolve round it. Modern astronomy has discovered that this is not the fact. It is an optical illusion. The sun is stationary, and neither rises nor sets. The earth turns on its axis, and produces that appearance. But was it necessary for Jesus, before he uttered that exquisite parable, so full of truth and beauty, to pause and explain the true nature of the solar system? His audience would have either disputed his assertions, or laughed him to scorn. we then to make it an article of Christian faith, to be forced upon men's consciences, upon the authority of Christ, that the sun actually rises, and that the modern system of astronomy is false, because such an inference may be drawn from the language of Christ?

Are

« ElőzőTovább »