The Christ Of Paul Part 12

Once more he travels over Galilee, preaching, and healing diseases. On the sh.o.r.es of Tiberias he delivered the parable of the sower, and again went back to his own country. While there he heard of the death of John the Baptist; when he crossed over the sea of Tiberias, and on the east sh.o.r.e fed the mult.i.tude. After events which are fully declared, he and his disciples crossed the sea and went to the land of Gennesaret. From there he departed unto the coast of Tyre and Sidon. He returned unto the sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain and again fed the mult.i.tude.

From here he went unto the coast of Magdala, and from there to Caesarea Philippi, when he made up his mind _at last_ to go to Jerusalem. In the meantime it was not possible for him to have made a visit to the Holy City. He had not even been in Judea. According to John, Christ did not manifest his divine power at Capernaum, but at Cana. This was not a great while before the feast of the Pa.s.sover, for he went from Cana to Capernaum, where he remained "_not many days_" but went to Jerusalem to celebrate. As John and the writers of the first three Gospels have Christ attend the first festival after he began his ministry, it follows, according to John, that Christ at that time had just begun to teach; while, if we believe the other three writers, he had nearly performed his work, and came to Jerusalem to meet his death. The Gospel of John causes Christ to make three distinct visits to Jerusalem: first, soon after the miracle at Cana, the same mentioned by Matthew, Mark and Luke; the second, when he attended a feast of the Jews, which Dr.

Robertson and other learned writers claim was the Pa.s.sover; and a third, when he went to witness the feast of the Tabernacle. _Now, if the first three Gospels are true, then everything stated in the fourth as the works of Christ must have been performed after his death!_ Every day, from the time he set out from Capernaum to teach, to his first and last entrance into Jerusalem, is accounted for in the first three Gospels.

This second visit was not without a special significance.

So strong was the proof in the last half of the second century that John had never been to the western coast of the Mediterranean, that Irenaeus and others of that century dare not a.s.sert that the fourth Gospel was written by him in Asia Minor. On this point the great criminal is silent. But, in the Gospel itself, there is an evident effort made to have it appear that it was written before the fall of Jerusalem. Even the learned Basnage and Lampe were betrayed into this belief, and so were others. Lardner fixes the date in the year 68, Owen 69, and the learned Michaelis in 70. That such men should have fallen into this belief is truly wonderful, for its fallacy is apparent at first view.

This Gospel, as none dispute, was written in reply to the Gnostics, and as none of that sect, as will be shown, was known to be in existence until the second century, it at once disposes of the question.

Chrysostom, Epiphanius, Mills, Fabricius and Bishop Tomline, with others, saw the dilemma, and fixed the date of the Gospel at a later period--some at 97, and others at 98.

That part of this Gospel by which Dr. Lardner and others were misled is as follows: "_Now there is at Jerusalem_, by the sheep-market, a pool which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches."

From the language here used, they conclude that Jerusalem was standing when the Gospel was written, as the present is used instead of the past tense. Few things troubled the Catholics of the second century more than to find a convenient date for John's Gospel. If it was written before the fall of Jerusalem, where there was a sheep market having five porches still standing, it was too early, by many years, for Corinthus and other leading Gnostics. If its date were fixed at the end of the century when John was in Asia Minor, Catholics were met with proof that John never was there. The story of the angel, and the man who had an infirmity for eight-and-thirty years, was a clumsy invention to make way for the deception as to the early date of the Gospel. If there was in fact such a pool as represented, whose medical properties were dependent upon the visitation of an angel, and which had properties to cure all diseases, it was the only one of the kind, or anything like it, ever known to man; its fame would have spread far and wide, and Jewish historians, who delight to dwell upon anything which belongs to their country, would have emphasized a phenomenon like the pool of Bethesda, as proof of divine favor shown to their nation. It excites the anger of commentators, and Doddridge among the rest, that Josephus has failed to notice it; and among the extraordinary motives a.s.signed for his silence is a fear that he "_would disgust his pagan readers_"! The same commentator says: "It is probable that the miracle was not wrought for any length of time, and perhaps ceased on this occasion. This may account for the surprising silence of Josephus in a story which made so much for the honor of his nation. He himself was not born when it happened, and, though he might have heard the report of it, he would, _perhaps (in the modern way), oppose speculation and hypothesis to fact_." Jenks, another commentator, says: "It is true the Jewish historians, who are not sparing in praise of Jerusalem, do none of them mention this pool, for which, perhaps, this is the reason: that it was taken as a presage of the approach of the Messiah, and, _therefore, they who denied him to be come industriously concealed such an indication of his coming_." No one has ever pretended to have found this pool, although pious travelers have found every other spot consecrated by the life and death of Christ. Helena, the mother of Constantine, as early as A. D. 326, made a pilgrimage to the Holy City to discover the places made sacred by scenes in the life of the Saviour; and when human energy and skill failed, she called to her a.s.sistance the aid of the miraculous. But the powers that enabled her to find the true cross, after a waste in the earth of over three hundred years, and detect the place of the Lord's sepulcher, and other sacred spots which Infidel hatred vainly attempted to obliterate, failed to discover the place where the angel of mercy found ground to rest her feet when she descended from heaven, loaded with blessings for the blind, halt and withered.

It is admitted by all writers, and especially Michaelis (vol. iii.

part I, p. 280), that the Gospel of John was written in answer to the Gnostics, and especially Corinthus, who lived in the last years of the first century. It was possible to spin out the life of John to the end of the century, and thus bring him near the time when Corinthus flourished; but it is fatal to the claim, set up by Irenaeus and others, that John was the author of the fourth Gospel, that the quarrels which grew out of the writings of Corinthus failed to attract notice until some time about the middle of the second century. You may look in vain among all the writings of the Fathers and others of the first century to find the name of Corinthus or any of his writings, although we can trace Gnosticism, in its primitive stages, as early as the first years in the second. Still, it a.s.sumed but little importance in its contests with Christianity until some time after the year A. D. 117. Buck says that "_Many persons were infected with the Gnostic heresy in the first century; though the sect did not render itself conspicuous, either for numbers or reputation, before the reign of Adrian, when some writers erroneously date its rise_? There was no call or demand for the fourth Gospel until Christians and Gnostics commenced their quarrels, which was long after John's death, even admitting that he lived to be a hundred years old. There was no help in the emergency which then arose, but to antedate the fourth Gospel, to confound the time when Cerinthus wrote with the time when the spread of his doctrines created discussion among Christians."

CHAPTER XXVII.

The phase a.s.sumed by Christianity in the fourth Gospel demanded a new cla.s.s of miracles from those given in the first three.--A labored effort in this Gospel to sink the humanity of Christ.--His address to Mary.--The temptation in the wilderness ignored, and the last supper between him and his disciples suppressed.--Interview between Christ and the women and men of Samaria.--A labored effort to connect Christ with Moses exposed.

When the incarnation became a leading feature of Christianity, its whole spirit underwent a change from what it was in the first three Gospels.

The miracles which they describe are too tame for the new phase which Christ is made to a.s.sume. None of the five, except one, in the Gospel of John, are mentioned in the first three, for the apparent reason that those in the Synoptics all fall short of upholding the claims set up for Christ in the fourth. The subsidence of the sea at Tiberias, at his command, was some proof that he held control of the wind and waves, but a lucky coincidence might account for part, and ocular deception for the rest. But, in that case, the const.i.tuents of the water were not changed.

Not so with the water at the feast at Cana. The restoration of the widow's son at Nain, and of the daughter of Jairus, might admit of doubt, for the first had not shown signs of decided death, and the latter may have been a case of _coma_--"For the maid is not dead, but sleepeth." (_Matt_. ix. 24.) But in the case of Lazarus there could be no mistake. For four days the seal of death sat upon his brow, and flesh and blood were fast returning to their native dust. Christ, in the first three Gospels, heals diseases and cures the blind; but how much was to be referred to his power as a G.o.d, and how much to the skill of a _Thera-peutae_, might invite discussion. But in the cases of the man who had an infirmity for eight-and-thirty years, and the one born blind, there could be no ground for dispute. The miracles selected proved all that was claimed for Christ in the first part of the Gospel. He was master of the elements, death heard and obeyed his voice, and he held the avenues which led from fife to the grave. The miracle of the loaves and fishes is the only one in the first three Gospels repeated by John, because it proved his power over nature; for if he did not change the elements, as he did at Cana, he multiplied them. We see in this Gospel a studied effort to avoid anything like a human parentage for Christ, as stated in the first three Gospels. The trip to Bethlehem, the birth in the manger, the journey of the wise men from the East, are all omitted.

The name of Mary in this Gospel is studiously kept in the background.

She is barely mentioned twice, once at the feast of Cana: "And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine; Jesus saith unto her, _Woman, what have I to do with thee?_" The true answer intended by the question was--_nothing_. Christ could not be entirely oblivious of earthly ties. He had lived under the same roof with Mary. He had received from her many acts of kindness; and if nature was allowed her empire over the heart; he must have felt for her the affection of a son. For him she had all the feelings of a mother. She followed and stood by him at the cross. As she stood and wept in his sight, the only words of consolation and endearment he could give her were as cold and heartless as a Lapland wind: "_Woman_, behold thy son"!

The word "_woman_" was ever on his lips. When he recommends her, at the last scene, to the care of the disciples, he is studied and guarded in his language: "Then saith he to the disciple, Behold _thy mother_." The scenes at the cross were too solemn to permit the studied purpose of an artful bigot to muzzle the voice of nature. Truth turns away from the story.

The design of this Gospel to keep out of view the carnal nature of Christ, as it appears in the first three Gospels, is marked with Jesuitical cunning. He who was born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of G.o.d, must be so const.i.tuted as to be above the weaknesses and frailties of those who are born of earth. The temptations in the wilderness, which supply the most remarkable scenes in the life of Christ, and, as given in the first three Gospels, proved the power of the Son of G.o.d over the Powers of Darkness, are wholly unnoticed in the Gospel of John. He who was all G.o.d, without a link to connect him with humanity, must be so superior to Satan as to be above his arts of seduction. John will not allow Christ to be tempted, because he was above it; but, in sinking his humanity to favor a dogma, he keeps out of sight the most sublime and G.o.d-like portion of his character--the power to rise above the allurements of wealth, power, and dominion. It was by such things he proved himself a G.o.d. The design of the fourth Gospel is overdone. In making Christ all G.o.d, no chord of sympathy is left between him and man. Even in the last supper, dwelt upon with so much tenderness by Matthew, Mark and Luke, we detect, by the silence of John, the spirit of the Jesuit. He makes no mention of it. Who can mistake the reason of this silence? The tender scenes of this last interview between Christ and his disciples are sacrificed to make way for a senseless and heartless dogma. In the last supper, given in the Synoptics, the bread and wine are mere symbols of the death and sufferings of Christ. It was this symbolic character of the sacrament that the writer of John wished to avoid. As the Lord's supper is with John a real sacrifice, each repet.i.tion is a fresh atonement, and the bread and wine, by a miraculous conversion, are made flesh and blood. There could be no sacrifice of the body of Christ _until death_, and, for that reason, the last supper between him and his disciples before the crucifixion is omitted. This miraculous conversion of the elements has been one of the holy mysteries of the Church for ages past. It has been the bigot's wand. Millions have fallen down before the Host. It led the crusades. The fair fields of Europe and Asia have been whitened by the bones of its victims. In fine, it has been the armory in which fanaticism has forged her most fatal and dangerous weapons. With John, the body of Christ is never dead--the grave cannot hold it; but it exists in a mysterious union with the Church, so that every time the devout believer eats of the bread, or touches the sacred cup to his lips, he partakes of the flesh and drinks the blood of the Son of G.o.d. Such is the dogma which took its rise in the last half of the second century, the offspring of a bitter, heated controversy which demands that reason be strangled to make room for faith. It is the fate of this dogma, as it is of all like it, to be a.s.sociated with others equally false and absurd. It can have no fellows.h.i.+p with truth. Speaking of Christ, John says: "The same was in the beginning with G.o.d. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made." (Chap. i. 2, 3.) Christ says of himself: "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." (Chap. vi. 38.) He was on earth thirty-three years. In what business was this creator of worlds engaged for thirty years of this time? If anything, so far as we can know, it was the business of a carpenter. Did he do his Heavenly Father's business all this time? This is what he says himself he was sent to do. The first proof he gave of the power of a G.o.d, while here, was at Cana. It was here that he first manifested forth his glory, and inspired his disciples with faith. The first three Gospels leave Christ to his humanity to the time the angels took charge of him, and subject him, like other mortals, to human employments. In John, a G.o.d with power to create worlds is bound up in the fate of mortals for thirty years, and only escapes thralldom when the spell is broken at the marriage feast.

Would he, who was with G.o.d in the beginning, whose word was sufficient to create worlds, submit to a fate like this?

The interview between Christ and the woman of Samaria affords abundant evidence of the spurious character of the fourth Gospel, and that the writer was some Greek who was ignorant of the religion of Moses and the Jews.

The temple of Jerusalem being destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, the Samaritans proposed to join the Jews after their captivity in rebuilding it; but the Jews refused the coalition. (_Ezra_ iv. 1-3.) This gave rise to other causes of dispute, until the most inveterate hatred grew up between the two peoples. At length, by permission of Alexander the Great, the Samaritans erected a temple at Mount Gerizim, in opposition to the one at Jerusalem. The same wors.h.i.+p was observed in both cities, and both people avoided the idolatry of surrounding nations. All the followers of Moses in Judea shared alike in the calamities which befell the Jewish people; so all shared a common belief that G.o.d would at some time, by the hand of a deliverer, restore to them all they had lost.

If by the hand of Cyrus the power of the a.s.syrian empire had been torn down, the Temple rebuilt, and the Jews and Samaritans placed back in their homes in Judea; so, if some like calamity should befall them, the same hand would again restore them to liberty and the land of their inheritance. The Jews and Samaritans, though divided on some things, were alike the chosen people of G.o.d, and the promises made to one were made to both. At the time Christ made his appearance in Samaria, the people of that country had settled convictions as to what they might expect from the promises made to them by Jehovah through Moses, their great lawgiver and prophet. These convictions, like the concretion of ages, had solidified, and made up the Jewish and Samaritan character.

Whatever might befall them, they had no expectations of a spiritual deliverer of any kind. They recognized no spiritual bondage growing out of the sins of the first parents, like the believers in Christianity, for Moses taught nothing of the kind. A personal sacrifice, like that of Christ, to save men from the condemnation of a broken law, never entered into the mind of either Jew or Samaritan. Neither was cosmopolitan, and with them a deliverer was a deliverer to the Jews and not the Gentiles.

After Christ had convinced the woman at the well that he was a prophet, by telling her past life, she is made to say: "I know that Messiah cometh which is called Christ; when he is come he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he." It is said that the woman believed; if so, did she understand him? With Christ, he was the Son of G.o.d, equal with the Father; was with him in the beginning, and by him the universe was made--_he was the Creator_. We ask again, did the woman believe in such a Messiah, and did she believe that he who spoke to her, and told her how many husbands she had had, was that august Being? If there is room in the breast of any people for a hope or expectation of such a person as Christ claimed to be, not a shade of either could be found in the hearts of the followers of Moses.

Let a belief in such a Being have made its way into the Jewish mind, and the whole structure, as it was reared by their great leader, would fall like a baseless tower. Strike out the Semitic idea which was thundered from Sinai, and that very thing which cost the Jews ages of persecution would with it be thrown away.

The woman was convinced by the arts of a fortune-teller, some of the Samaritans by what befell the woman, and others, because of what they saw and heard themselves, believed "_that Christ was the Saviour of the world!_" Here we reach a climax: did the Samaritans, in so short a time, renounce Moses and the inst.i.tutions of their fathers? Christ claimed before the Jews that he lived before Abraham. This they could not stand, but took up stones and cast them at him, and, because he preached the end of the Mosaic law, they crucified and put him to death.

There are still some of the descendants of the Samaritans at Naplosa (the ancient Shech-em), at Gaza, Damascus and Cairo, who still retain the faith held by their fathers in the time of Christ--a living protest against the truth of the story of the women and men of Samaria. Let him who wishes to be convinced go among the remnant of this persecuted race, witness their poverty, their sad and careworn faces, the work of centuries of injustice and oppression, and ask them if they believe the story of the woman at the well. They will point you to two thousand years of suffering for their Mosaic faith, enough to "bring tears down Pluto's wan cheeks," and ask you, with a look of scorn, if the ancestors of such a people could ever be apostles.

In talking to the Jews, Christ is made to say: "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" (_John_ v. 46,47.) Christ here undertakes to make the Jews believe that he was the one who had been foreseen and spoken of in ages past, and especially by the great prophet of the Hebrew people. Had any Jew in the time of Moses set up the claim that at some future day there would arise one among his people who would be equal with G.o.d, but who would suffer death at their hands, as a ransom for the salvation not only of the Jews but of the Gentiles, he would have ordered that such a prophet be stoned to death.

By him and the Jews no such Saviour was expected or required. Adam and Eve were the first to break the law, but G.o.d p.r.o.nounced judgment upon them before they left the Garden. The earth was cursed with thorns and thistles, for Adam's sake. By the sweat of his brow he was bound to eat of its fruits in sorrow all his days. Upon Eve were imposed the pains and sufferings of childbirth, and the duty of obedience. All this endured, both were to return to the dust from whence they came. This was all the punishment and all the atonement G.o.d demanded. He asked no more.

With Moses, death was the end of punishment. Those who committed the first sin made their own atonement, and so have all their descendants, in the eyes of Moses and the Jews. "Had ye believed in Moses, ye would have believed in me." Reverse this, and we have the exact truth: If ye believe in Moses, it is impossible to believe in me. How could they?

"Moses wrote of me." What did he write? To connect Christ with prophecy, language of the most indefinite character is selected from all parts of the Hebrew scriptures. "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Christ of the fourth Gospel is not of the seed of the woman.

"_The Word was made flesh?_" and "was not born of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of G.o.d." "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until s.h.i.+loh come." (_Gen_, xlix. 10). The Jews ceased to be an independent people, and the scepter departed from Judah at the time Pompey invaded the country, seized upon the Temple, deposed Aristobulus, the high priest, and put Hyrca.n.u.s in his place. (Josephus, _Wars_, Book I. chap. vii.

sec. 6.) He deprived the Jews of all their conquests, restored the conquered, and placed Syria, together _with Judea_ and the country as far as Egypt and Euphrates, under the command of Scaurus. (Ibid, sec. 7.)

In view of these events, Josephus bitterly laments the results, and says: "_We lost our liberty', and became subject to the Romans_, and were deprived of that country which we had gained by our arms from the Syrians, and were compelled to restore it to the Syrians. Moreover, the Romans exacted of us, in a little time, above ten thousand talents."

(Josephus, _Antiquities_, Book XIV. ch. iv. sec. v.) When did the Jews, after the conquest of Pompey, shake off the yoke of the Romans? Between his conquest and the birth of Christ at least sixty-seven years had intervened. In the meantime Caesar crossed the Rubicon, was a.s.sa.s.sinated in the senate; the empire was distracted by civil wars; Mark Antony and Augustus tried the fortune of battle with Brutus and Ca.s.sius, on the field at Philippi, and the first of the Roman emperors had nearly completed a long reign of four-and-forty years. When Christ was born, the scepter had departed from Judea, and the Jews were a nation of slaves.

s.p.a.ce will not allow us to pursue this subject farther. Throughout the Gospel of John we discover the most studied and labored effort to connect Christ with the religion of Moses, so that it may appear that in himself he is only the response to the many prophesies contained in the Hebrew scriptures. This Gospel is full of instances where the Jews, upon Christ's bare word--and sometimes not even that--gave up everything, and followed him, even to the cross. The day following the baptism, as John stood by the side of the disciples, Jesus walked by, when the Baptist exclaimed: "_Behold the Lamb of G.o.d!_" This was sufficient to induce two of the disciples to follow Christ, and one of them was so carried away that he hunted up his brother, who was Peter, and told him they _had found the Messiah, who was the Christ_. On the next day, Christ went to Galilee, and found Philip, whom he directed to follow him; and soon Philip found Nathaniel, and told him, "We have found him of whom _Moses, in the law, and the prophets, did write_." They had found no such thing. The conversion of Paul formed a new era in religious history. We may well say, that when he left Judaism, he left the twelve disciples behind him, for they could neither climb over or break down the wall of circ.u.mcision which separated the Jews from the Gentiles. Paul quarreled with and then left them, but took along with him enough of the Mosaic faith to keep up a connection between the old and new religion, so that we can trace the features of the child in those of the parent. He carried with him _Monotheism_, but it was qualified in the glare of his vision at Damascus so that, in some sense, Christ was the Son of G.o.d. Here was a clear departure from Moses, for which the Jews always despised him. Then followed Paul's tug with the Greeks. In spite of him, they established a dual government in Heaven. _The Son was equal with the Father_, At this point there should have been an eternal separation between Jewry and Christianity. For nearly two thousand years, the Jews have protested against an alliance, while, on the other side, Christians have striven to maintain it. The two parties, in the meantime, were kept separate by an ocean of blood which flowed between. No bridge could ever span it--no bridge ever can. In conclusion of this branch of the subject, we repeat, that great efforts are made to have it appear in this Gospel that Christ is in harmony with Moses and the prophets, whereas there is scarce a word in it which declares his equality with the Father (and it teaches little else) not met with a denial from Sinai, amid "thunders and lightnings" and "the voice of the trumpet": "_Thou shalt have no other G.o.ds before me?_" Moses is sublime in threats and denunciations against those who depart from the true and _only_ G.o.d.

The men of the second century knew nothing of the spirit of the Mosaic faith, or they never would have stultified themselves by such a work as the fourth Gospel.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The first two chapters of Matthew not in existence during the time of Paul and Apollos.--A compromise was made between their followers at the council at Smyrna, A. D. 107.--The creed of the Church as it existed at that day determined, and how Christ was made manifest.--Catholics of the second century repudiate this creed and abuse Paul.--Further proof that Irenaeus never saw Polycarp.--Injuries inflicted upon the world by the fourth Gospel.

We have shown in another place that not long after Apollos arrived at Corinth he came in collision with Paul on some question which related to Christ. Just what that difference was, it is hard in this age of the world to determine; but it will be sufficient for our purpose at this time to show what it was not. Had it been claimed by Apollos and his followers that Christ was born in the way in which it is stated in Matthew's Gospel, Paul, instead of wasting a whole lifetime in fighting his enemies, would have gone straight to Jerusalem, and proved by living witnesses that there was not a word of truth in this Gospel which related to the supernatural birth of Christ. Paul's troubles with Apollos and his school commenced as early as 57. At that time there were thousands upon thousands who were born about the time Christ was, and were comparatively young men when he was put to death. It was before the fall of Jerusalem, and before any great calamity had befallen the Jewish people. Many of the disciples may have been still living. Peter we know was, for in 64 we find him preaching in Chaldea. Doubtless there were still living, in Nazareth, women who grew up with Mary, and were acquainted with her entire history. The Greeks did not contend, as long as Paul lived, for anything stated in the first two chapters of Matthew on the subject of the birth of Christ; for that reason there is no mention of Mary by Paul in any of his epistles. What, then, was the trouble? With Philo, the Logos was born in Heaven, and from thence he descended to earth. With Paul, Christ was born on the earth, and in this respect did not differ from other mortals. If the Logos was the Son of G.o.d, and came down from heaven, by what instrumentalities did he reach the earth? It was for Apollos to show how this was brought about.

Nothing is more difficult in the history of Christianity than to find out what was Apollos belief as to the way by which the Logos is connected or identified with the man Christ. The story of the descent of the Spirit in the form of a dove, at the Jordan, was not known until a long time after Paul's death. Paul could not disprove it, for during his life no one a.s.serted it. To establish this connection, we gather from Paul that the school of Apollos had some subtle mode of reasoning, the distillation of Greek wisdom and cunning. He never says what it was, but compares it to the subtle sophistry with which the serpent deceived Eve. To the wisdom of the Greeks Paul has nothing to oppose but direct revelations from G.o.d. He sits in opposition to h.e.l.lenic sophistry, his power and wisdom derived from above. When he talks to the Jews, before they will believe what he tells them, they demand that a sign shall be given unto them--something tangible to the senses. But the Greeks required no proof of this kind. Conviction with them as to Christ was wholly dependent upon some device, doubtless an outgrowth of Platonic philosophy. From what is said hereafter, we can venture the belief that with Apollos the Logos was made Christ simply by the providence of G.o.d.

How this providence was exerted to bring about this result, was a proper subject to employ the cunning, the wisdom and sophistry of the Greek school. After Paul's death, and after the fall of Jerusalem, the change from the Logos from on high to the Christ of the earth, simply by the providence of G.o.d and the theory of Apollos, was too indefinite, and the reasoning of the Greeks too weak, to satisfy the minds of men. In the second century, Christianity had worked west, and the Latin element began to make itself felt in the Church, and we shall soon see the means employed by Providence to bring the Logos into the world. We can readily see why, in the disputes between Paul and the Greeks, as they stood in his day, the name of Mary is nowhere mentioned. There was no necessity for it. Ignatius, one of the oldest Fathers of the Church, was Bishop of Antioch in the year 70. When Trajan set out on his expedition against the Parthians, he stopped for a short time in this city. As he had refused to sacrifice to the G.o.ds for the safety of the Emperor, and was outspoken against the pagans, even in the royal presence, Ignatius was condemned, and ordered to be sent to Rome to be devoured by the wild beasts of the amphitheatre. This, as some say, was in A.D. 107; but some writers, with greater plausibility, fix the time as late as 115. We will err on the right side, and adopt the former period. On his way to Rome he stayed some time at Smyrna, where he wrote letters to the churches in Asia, as a kind of legacy, in which he imparts to them a knowledge of the doctrines of the Church, and the foundation on which they were based. No man of his day was better informed on such subjects than Ignatius, and the cruel fate that awaited him on his arrival in Rome was an earnest that in what he said he was sincere. In his letter to the Ephesians he tells how, in the first place, Christ came into the world.

_He was born in the womb of Mary according to the dispensation of Providence, of the seed of David, yet by the Holy Ghost_. Here is a platform to which Paul himself could hardly object. That that which Ignatius declares to be the way in which Christ came into the world was the doctrine of the Church in his day, and for some time after, cannot be questioned. On his way to Rome he stopped at Smyrna, where Polycarp, who was then Bishop at that place, lived, and it was there that Ignatius wrote his letter to the Ephesians. Polycarp stood at his side when the letter was written, and knew its contents, and probably took charge of it, for he himself says: "The Epistles of Ignatius which he wrote unto us and _others_, as many as we have with us, we have sent unto you according to your order, which are subjoined to thy epistle, from which ye may be greatly profited; for they treat of faith and patience, and of all things which portend to edification in our Lord." (_Epistle to Philippians_). On his way to Rome, Ignatius stopped at different places, and everywhere the churches sent their bishops and other messengers to visit and console the venerable Father on his way to the wild beasts; and everywhere he taught Christ as we find it at this day in his letter to the Ephesians. Here we have the doctrines or creed of the Church in the beginning of the second century as to the status of Christ, as it was declared by Polycarp, Ignatius, and all the churches of Asia. That Paul, at this time, was held in great estimation is evident from what Polycarp and others say of him in writing to the churches. Polycarp alone refers to his epistles twenty-six times, and in speaking of him says: "For neither can I, nor any other such as I am, come up to the wisdom of the blessed and renowned Paul, who, being amongst you in the presence of those who then lived, taught with _exactness_ and _soundness_ the word of truth; who in his absence also wrote an epistle to you, unto which, if you diligently look, you may be able to be edified in the faith delivered unto you, which is the mother of us all."

(_Polycarp to the Philippians_, sec. 3). Indeed, Polycarp's letter to the Philippians is made up of quotations from the letter of the great apostle. The bitter feeling which existed between the followers of Paul and Apollos had in a great measure died away at the close of the first century. Whatever difference of opinion there may have been between these two great leaders, it seemed to be merged in the creed of the Church in the days of Polycarp and other teachers of his time. With Paul and these men, Christ was born of woman and of the seed of David; but, with the latter, it was by the Holy Ghost, through the providence of G.o.d. As Paul has nowhere declared how and in what way Christ was the son of G.o.d, but believed him to be such from what he learned in his vision at Damascus and other places, his followers might readily accept the belief declared by Ignatius and all the Fathers in his day. Mutual concessions seem to have been made in the latter part of the first century; and while the followers of Apollos conceded the descent of Christ from David, the friends of Paul could readily admit that he was the Son of G.o.d through the Holy Ghost by the dispensation of G.o.d. The violent animosity against Paul which sprang up afterward in the Church was an outgrowth of the second century. In this century, Paul becomes a liar and a heretic. To make Christ what the men of this century wished to have him appear in their quarrels with the Gnostics and others, it was necessary to a.s.sail the great apostle. To admit that Christ was born in the womb of Mary, of the seed of David, would not admit the claim that he was conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Ghost alone. It was upon this point that Paul had thrown obstructions in the way of men who were engaged in building up a Church controlling exclusively the highway to heaven, and which in time was to govern the world. Here let me ask if the most acute intellect can detect in the doctrines of the Church, as declared by Polycarp and others at the beginning of the second century, the faintest trace of the _incarnation of the fourth Gospel, or the Trinity_, Both of these dogmas, which have convulsed the world for eighteen hundred years, were unborn when the Fathers of all the churches of Asia, at Smyrna, declared what was the faith of the Church.

We have selected this place to settle a question of veracity between the writer and Iraeneus. He says he saw Polycarp. We say he never did. Since the introduction of the Gospels, especially the fourth, great importance has been attached to the fact that Polycarp was a disciple of John, and that Irenaeus had been instructed by the former. Speaking of Irenaeus, Horn, in his introduction, says: "His testimony to the genuineness and authenticity of the New Testament is the most important and valuable, because he was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John."

(Vol. I. 83.) Now Polycarp never mentions John, but speaks of Paul. If he did see John, John _never taught him the doctrine of the incarnation_ as declared in the fourth Gospel. Polycarp _never heard of the incarnation_, and it follows as a matter of course he never taught Irenaeus anything of the kind. _Had he taught the incarnation, he never would have indorsed Paul_. This attempt, on the part of the so-called Bishop of Lyons, to trace the doctrines conceived and written by himself to a disciple, is a stupendous fraud, which has cost the world more misery than all causes of suffering since his day combined. This Gospel has been the means of defeating the mission of Christ on earth--_peace and good-will to all men_. There is not one word in it to encourage virtue or reprove vice--not one for those who sorrow or are afflicted; no charity for any except the woman caught in adultery. Love for one another he entreated of his disciples, but none for the world. The boundless love, the universal charity, which s.h.i.+ne forth in the Sermon on the Mount, and warm the heart, so that there flows from it all that is good in our natures--as the beautiful flowers of the earth are made to spring and bloom under the genial heat of the sun--finds no place in the Gospel of John. What is said and taught in this Gospel, when compared with the teachings on the Mount, are as hollow groans from the cavern of Avernus compared with sweet sounds from the lyre of Orpheus.

It is belief--or d.a.m.nation. "He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of G.o.d." It was this Gospel which gave birth to that bigotry and fanaticism which has brought on the world all the sufferings and misery caused by the Inquisition. It destroyed in the fourth century all the grand and beautiful temples and works of architecture of Asia and Europe. The Pantheon barely escaped.

It applied the torch to the library at Alexandria. It kindled the fires of persecution in every age; and as it came down the centuries, like a blazing comet, it carried with it "pestilence and war." It makes Christ cold and selfish. He cures diseases to exalt himself. A man was deprived of his sight from his birth, without any sin on his part, that he may have an opportunity to make known his power. He thanks G.o.d for answering his prayer for the death of Lazarus, that he might show the world that he was master of the grave. This Gospel makes Christ vain and boastful.

Again and again he a.s.serts that he is the Son of the Father; that the Father had sent him; that he came to save the world, and that the world was to be judged by him: and yet, with all these pretensions, he could find but few that believed him. All important events told of in this Gospel, are unnatural. Some who stood by and saw Lazarus come forth from the tomb with the habiliments of the grave still upon him, as if some great crime had been committed, ran for the police--for to inform the Pharisees was about the same thing. When the Pharisees heard of it, they called together the priests, and held a council, to devise some plan to stop that kind of proceeding. What was the objection to raising a dead man to life? It would give offense to the Romans. Can anyone give a reason why? For this act, which, if true, would fill the heavens and the earth with awe, Christ was compelled to fly to the wilderness. If the scene at the grave of Lazarus, as related, was true, how different would have been the conduct of those who witnessed it. All would have been struck dumb and fallen prostrate at the feet of him who held the keys of life and death. The Pharisees would shake and cower, for fear that at any moment they might be struck dead by a bolt from heaven. There would not have been a dry eye in all Jerusalem. What intelligence did Lazarus bring us from the spirit land? One word from the other world would be worth all this world of ours; but the world has gained nothing from the resurrection of Lazarus. This Gospel takes from G.o.d his omnipotence.

When the Lord of the universe conceived a plan to prove to mankind that Christ was his Son and their Saviour, we must believe that he who made the heavens and the earth, who regulates the stars in their courses, and who said, "Let there be light, and there was light," could not fail in his purpose. But the resurrection of Lazarus was a failure. It accomplished nothing. The tomb of Lazarus at Bethany was in sight from the cross on Calvary.

We have stated that at Smyrna were declared the doctrines of the Christian Church in the year 107, as they were understood and taught by Polycarp, Ignatius, and all the great lights of Asia. And now we shall show what a.s.surances these Fathers gave to the world--why they knew that Christ was truly the Son of G.o.d. This is made manifest by signs in the heavens. Ignatius first declares the belief of the Church on this subject, and proceeds to ask this question: "How was he made manifest to the world?" "A star shone in heaven above all other stars; and its light was inexpressible, and its novelty struck terror. All the rest of the stars, with the sun and moon, were the chorus to this star, that sent forth its light above all. And there was trouble, whence this novelty came so unlike all the others. Hence all the power of magic was dissolved; and every bond of wickedness was destroyed; ignorance was taken away and the old kingdom was abolished: G.o.d made manifest in the form of man, for the renewal of eternal life. Thence began what G.o.d prepared. From thenceforth all things were disturbed, forasmuch as he designed to abolish death." (_Epistle to Ephesians_, sec. 19.) This was the way in which Christ made himself manifest to the world, as taught in all the churches in A.D. 107. The story of the star which led the wise men to Bethlehem was an _afterthought_. At the time Ignatius declared the doctrine of the Church, as to the way by which Christ was brought into the world and how he was made manifest, the Gospel of Matthew had not yet appeared; for, if it had, he would have given the story of the star, and the wise men of the East, rather than that of the sun, moon, and all the stars, for the former was the most probable and most sensible of the two. Why should he give one story which was false and impossible on its face, if he could give another which, if false, was not manifestly absurd. It is quite easy to tell why the story of the stars and moon leaving their orbits to dance attendance to a bright particular star was abandoned. Such a commotion of the heavenly bodies would have put the universe out of joint; and as the star projected its light above all the other stars, and all the other stars and the moon and sun sang chorus to it, the display would have been apparent to all the world. In the year A.D. 107, some few might have been alive who were living at the time the phenomenon is said to have occurred; and if not, then the children of those who lived at the time would have preserved the tradition fresh in their minds, to say nothing of history. But as no one living witnessed the scene enacted in the heavens, and none of their descendants had heard of it, and no historian had recorded it, the men of the day laughed it down. One single star might have been seen by the wise men of the East, and no one else; and if the story was invented, as the wise men were dead before it was told, there was no danger of contradiction. If the Gospel of Matthew was not extant A.D. 107, it is fatal to all the prophecy in the New Testament as to the fall of Jerusalem. In the year A.D. 70, Jerusalem fell. The Roman standards waved over its ruins. The daughters of Israel wept over the ashes of their homes. The holy city was no more, and he who wrote the Gospel of Matthew as it now stands wrote history. How much is the Christianity of the Gospels indebted to the prophecies which foretold the fall of the Jewish capital? In every age and in every country where Christianity found a foothold, they were the corner-stone of the Christian faith.

In the hour of doubt and despair, when the heavens looked black and the earth seemed to be a house of mourning, the Christian could draw consolation from the tears shed by Christ as he wept over the fall of the holy city. But Truth is inexorable. Her triumphant car moves on, though she leaves in her wake the wreck of the brightest hopes, the most cherished creeds, and the most ambitious schemes. So she has done for ages. And her pathway is marked by the overthrow of dogmas by which man vainly undertook to enslave the mind. To-day she is as mighty and powerful as ever.

APPENDIX.

(A.)

Few pa.s.sages from history have given rise to more discussion than the following from Suetonius: "He," meaning the Emperor Claudius, "banished all the Jews, who were continually making disturbance, at the instigation of one Crestus." (_Life of Claudius_, sec. 25.) The original is as follows: "_Judaeos, impulsore Chresto, a.s.sidue tumultuantes, Roma expulit_." Does this order of banishment refer to the Christians? Dr.

Lardner and others think not. All difficulties vanish when we bear in mind, that the Christians then at Rome were Jewish converts from Judea.

The writer knew little about Christians, and knowing them to be Jews, he says all Jews were banished, which included the Jewish converts as well as those who opposed Christianity. All engaged in the riot were included, and none but Jews were. These Jews were constantly making disturbance at the instigation of one Crestus: that is, they were quarrelling about Crestus, which was a continual subject of quarrel among the converted and unconverted Jews everywhere. The writer knew so little about Christ that he failed to get the name correct, or there may have been a mistake on the part of the transcribers.

(B.)

As a proof that the most learned scholars and correct thinkers, when under the influence of an early bias, are liable to the most gross mistakes and delusions, the following writers have given the authority of their names to the belief, that Peter uses the name Babylon in a figurative sense: Grotius, Macknight, Hale, Bishop Tomline, Whitby, and Lardner. But a large majority of writers hold to the literal meaning.

Bishop Pearson, Le Clerk, and Mills think that Peter speaks of Babylon in Egypt. Beza, Erasmus, Drusius, Dr. Cave, Lightfoot, Basnage, Beausobre, Dr. Benson, A. Clarke think that Peter intended Babylon in a.s.syria; Michaelis, that Babylon in Mesopotamia was meant. The frequent use of the word Babylon in the Revelation attributed to St. John, which there stands for Rome, is the princ.i.p.al argument used by those who contend for a figurative sense. This book is the most impious and malignant production among all the forgeries of the second century, and its design can be readily exposed, if it was worth the time to do it.

Christ, whose last words were used in prayer for the forgiveness of his enemies, is made through St. John to pour forth feelings full of hatred against those who disagreed with the writer on matters of doctrine, especially the followers of Paul. He hurls his envenomed shaft at the heart of the great Apostle. It was at Ephesus where the war was warmest between Paul's friends and the followers of the Alexandrian school. To the church at that place, Christ is made to say: "I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and _how thou canst not bear them which are evil_: and thou hast tried them which say they are _Apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars_." (_Revelation_ ii. 2.) Who could use such language but a malignant partisan? Christ, the Son of G.o.d, is made to use the language of a bar-room bully. When will those who profess to be Christians, learn that Christ was all kindness, gentleness, and love.

They admit the authenticity and divine origin of writings that prove the Son of G.o.d was not even a gentleman.