III. COLLATERAL POINTS AND REMARKS.

Let us survey the ground over which we have passed. In the first place, we clearly demonstrated that there were circumstances connected with the case-circumstances assented to by the Jews as well as by the disciples—which strongly corroborate the direct testimony, and can be satis factorily accounted for on no other hypothesis than the actual resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. These we called circumstantial evidence; they are essential to the argument, and, in-connection with the direct evidence, are possessed of the highest force. In the second place, we took up the direct testimony, and showed that after his known and acknowledged death and burial, he was seen by his disciples and friends, talked with them, walked with them, was handled by them, and wrought miracles in their presence, giving infallible evidence that he had risen from the dead. We clearly pointed out no less than ten distinct occasions of his appearance-making the number of persons by whom he was seen not less than six hundred—several of whom saw him repeatedly, and some of them were in almost constant intercourse with him forty days. The record of these facts was made and published while most of these persons were living, and they were appealed to as witnesses; and from not one of them were the Jews ever able to extort a denial of the facts. How could demonstration be more perfect?

In concluding the argument, we have a few collateral points of too much importance to be neglected:

1. The disciples, who were witnesses, gave the fullest evidence of their entire belief in the resurrection of Christ. The very manner and place in which they proclaimed the fact, must convince us of their sincerity. The fact, also, that

the Christian Sabbath from that time was joyfully observed in commemoration of the event, and that the worship of this holy day is also blended together with those sacred institutions which derive all their significance from the resurrection no less than the crucifixion of our Lord, are also convincing proofs of the certainty of their conviction. But still further, the fact that they devoted their whole lives, amid want and distress, opposition and persecution, scorn and reproach, strifes and imprisonments, and even amid sufferings and death—without hope or prospect of honor or reward from men or upon the earth-in toilsome effort to preach "Jesus and the resurrection" to dying men, must stand as a perpetual monument of the sincerity of their conviction, the purity of their motives, and the indestructibility of their faith.

2. The disciples could not have been deceived with reference to the appearance of Christ.. They had been in daily and intimate intercourse with him for more than six years, and, therefore, knew his bodily appearance, his manner, and his voice too well to be deceived. Infidelity says they were "rude, unlettered persons." But may not the rudest, the most unlettered plebeian distinguish a friend? especially if the separation from him has been but for a few days? Certainly, then, men-"unlettered and ignorant," as they might have been-who could produce the chaste, the beautiful, the classic, the immortal compositions of the New Testament, were not so ignorant but that they could determine whether the man before them, who walked and talked, ate and drank with them, whose person they handled, and whose wounds they felt, was their friend or an impostor. Deception was wholly impossible.

Nor will the theory of illusion, which has often been urged, answer the turn of infidelity. An individual, it is true, may be the subject of illusion; it is possible for men

to be deceived, even in matters where the senses are concerned. Such cases, however, are exceedingly rare, even in single individuals. But that two persons should, at the same time, experience the same illusion concerning the same object, and concerning so many circumstances attending it, is certainly very improbable. Such an instance has never been known. But when you increase the number of witnesses, this theory of illusion becomes still more improbable. Increase the number to eleven, and "the improbability becomes incalculable;" but when you have raised it "to five hundred, it transcends all limits." But when you extend the illusion through many days, and combine in it all the circumstances, words, and acts connected with our Savior's appearance, "the improbability ceases, and is changed into an impossibility." The apostles could not have been deceived. They had all the evidence that Christ was living which they had of the life of each other; and they might as well doubt with reference to each other-Peter concerning Thomas, and John concerning James-as to doubt whether it were really Christ or an illusion. Nay, they had the same evidence that Christ was living which we have that these we are daily conversant with are living beings, and not mere phantoms. To suppose deception possible, in such a case, is to unsettle all the principles of human belief. Moral certainty would become impossible. . One step further in skepticism, and the man would be prepared to doubt whether his own existence was any thing more than a succession of sensations and ideas.

3. The Sanhedrim themselves were evidently convinced of his resurrection. Their conduct can be accounted for on no other supposition. They had heard the report of the guard of sixty men; they had been observant of the subsequent events that had transpired. They had great interest to

vindicate themselves; and if they really believed that the disciples had stolen the body away, they would have demanded an investigation of the affair. But they evidently shrunk from such an investigation, and manifested the greatest solicitude that the evidences of the resurrection of the body should not be discussed publicly, or even brought before the people. Hence, when Peter and John publicly declared in the Temple, that the Prince of life, whom they had killed, God had raised from the dead, and with equal boldness also to the Sanhedrim itself, that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had crucified, God had raised from the dead, the Sanhedrim do not proceed like men who have to do with a shallow and base fabrication, that needs only to be put to the test of truth and fact in order to demolish it, but evidently like men who are conscious of their wrong, and whose only hope is in smothering investigation of the facts and the truth. Like self-convicted men, they have not a word of argument, not an opposing fact; they are willing to release their prisoners if they will only cease to preach the doctrine of a risen Savior, and, in fact, are compelled to release them without even this poor pledge. And, indeed, we find the same council soon compelled again to arrest the apostles for teaching the same obnoxious truths. What do they do now? confront the heresy of the apostles and demolish its falsity? Nothing like it; but with halfappealing, whining tremulousness, they complain, "Ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us." Nor have they any thing except "stripes" with which to reply to the apostles.

In both these instances the Sanhedrim studiously avoided the real question at issue. Every thing was suspended on the fact, whether Christ had really risen from the dead or not. If he was not raised he was an impostor, a blasphemer, and, therefore, worthy of death. The whole ques

tion, whether he was the promised Messiah, now turned upon this point. If he was a blasphemer-and the thing could be easily shown by proving that he had not risenthen the Sanhedrim had done only their duty in condemning him; but, on the other hand, if he was actually the promised Messiah, they were guilty of crucifying the Lord of life and glory. The apostles boldly charged this crime upon them; and the only reply the Sanhedrim have to make to this charge, is to command the disciples not to declare the thing publicly any more. How can this be accounted for, except on the supposition of conscious guilt, and the conviction, or, at least, the apprehension, that the declaration of the apostles had underlying it a broad foundation of truth? The fact was, they had duped others with their lie about the disciples having stolen away the body of Christ; but they themselves were not deceived by it. They knew the report was false.

4. The miracles performed by the apostles in the name of a risen Savior, can be accounted for only by admitting the fact of his resurrection. Not only do they prove his resurrection by convincing witnesses, but corroborate the testimony by displaying the Divine power with which they had been endowed by virtue of his resurrection Not among the least of these miracles, is the miracle of the transformation in their own character. A short time before, they were weak and timid-fearful even to accompany their Lord into Jewry, because the Jews had conspired against him-trembling, affrighted, and forsaking him when arrested by a comparatively contemptible band-the boldest among them frightened into a denial of him, with oaths. and profanity, even by a maid-servant, who only whispers her suspicion. Hardly two months have passed. The same band-though their Lord has been crucified and slain-now boldly walk forth among their enemies; they