REV. MR. HARRINGTON’S LECTURE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5654, 14 May 1879, Page 3

REV. MR. HARRINGTON’S LECTURE.

According to announcement, the Rev. Mr. Harrington delivered a lecture at the Bethel, Herbert-street last night. There was a moderate attendance. After singing and devotional exercises, Mr, S. Costall, chairman, introduced the lecturer of the evening. The Rev. Mr. Harrington commenced by taking up the position that Christianity as it exists to-day is a great fact, and for the last three thousand years had been the most startling fact in the world. Coming to the question of what was its origin, Christianity is not, as it is laid down in the New Testament, simply a scheme or doctrine of religion, but no doubt it contains the best religious principles known ; neither is it simply a code of morals, although its ethical system is most perfect. It is a great supernatural system centred in a person whom we call Jesus Christ. He is altogether a different character to any whom we meet in history, and one cannot justly compare him and his teachings, as we have known sceptics endeavor to do, with Socrates, Plato, Buddha, Confucius, and others. The student of these lives will see that such a comparison is altogether *ut of the question, although they are names which are held in a certain amount of veneration in consequence of the mighty thoughts they gave to the world. Between Christianity and all other systems there is a chasm which cannot be bridged ; and it is especially seen in the fact that in it you can draw no line of demarcation between the teacher and his instructions. You may remove Socrates from his ethics, Plato from his philosophy, Buddha from his religion, and Mahomet from his so-called revelation, without in the smallest degree affecting the systems thus severed from their originators. Buddhism and Mahometauism would remain quite as uerfeot as they are, even if Buddha and Mahomet should be proved never to have existed ; just as the writings of Shakspere would he equally valuable if Shak-pere himself were demonstrated to be, as some maintain he really was, a mythical character. The same might be said of Sir Walter Scott, whose works are equally valuable whether they are written by him or not. Take the “ system of induction ” associated with the name of Lord Bacon. What would it matter if it were not his ? the system is still the same. You cannot, however, take this course with Christianity. If you separate Christ from Christianity youdestroy the whole vitality of the thing. All the sceptics agreed in this view, and admitted, to quote Leckie, that the simple record of three short years of active life had done more to regenerate and soften mankind‘than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations of moralists. Two conclusions must therefore be arrived at—l. No man ever laid claim to the powers that Jesus did, nor taught in the same manner; therefore he stands unique in the world. 2. That for 1800 years his teachings and sayings had been opposed and canvassed, yet were more successful than any other system. The various theories that had been held by sceptics in accounting for Christianity were so absurd that they were more difficult of belief than the Gospel history itself. There is (said the lecturer) the astronomical theory of Sir William Drummond, which is held by Volney and Robert Taylor. This theory is, that no his-

torical person as Jesus ever existed, but that he merely represents the sun, like the Krishna of the Hindoos, the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Mithras of the Persians, the Apollo of the Greeks, and the sun god whom our AngloSaxon forefathers worshipped on Sundays. I need not inform you that no pro -f is given in support of this theory, but merely fancies, such as the following :—Christ is said to have had twelve apostles, and to have gone in and out among them ; this they say ‘‘ merely represents the sun going in and out among the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and bringing in their turn the twelve calendar months,” Christ is related

to have died and risen again. This they say “is the sun rising and setting,” and so on. This theory is so absurd that it is altogether unworthy of discussion. The theory of Leison —that Jeans Christ was a conqueror, and gained his followers by physical force—l pa-s by with the same remark. The doctrine of Strauss—that the affair had the same foundation as Homer’s Iliad, is to be rejected because the books of the New Testament are known to have been in existence within fifty years of the date they alluded to, and therefore could not have been invented, or we should have had a record of their invention. Another theory entertained in accounting for Christianity is that held by a German, who in the year 1800 wrote a history, in which he endeavored to prove that the whole of the miracles recorded in the Gospel history were natural things, the accounts being simply exaggerated to a large extent. According to another, the angel of the Lord who announced the birth of Christ was only a man with a lantern, and the “ heavenly host” was a Darby returning home from a drunken carouse singing, “ We won’t go home till morning.” Professor Pouless said the voice heard at Christ’s baptism was thunder, and the light lightning, and a Unitarian named Furness had written a book showing how it was that the dove—said to be a natural bird—settled on the head of Jesus Christ. When he said “ I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is yet day," it simply meant that he had something underhand to do after dark. When he healed the blind man, he put powder among the clay —all the pity was that some of the powder was not left at the present time. When he asked the man with the withered band to hold it forth, he did so for the purpose of making an examination ; and at the pool of Bethesda, when he healed the man who had been there eighteen years, he only acted the part of a policeman, seeing the man was an impostor, and said, “ Take up thy bed and walk,” in the place of our modern—“ Now come, move on, this won’t do, you know ; we know your little game.” But enough of this, for every rhditminded man will see that it would really be more absurd to g wallo wall theseexplauations than it would be to swallow the whole of the miracles recordedinthe Gospels,iftheyhadno foundation whatever. Mr. Harrington quoted Strauss, Leckie, Theodore-Parker, Stuart Mill, Kenan, and others, to show that the more intelligent sceptics had been compelled to speak highly of the spotless character and sublime work of the central figure of the Christian dispensation-; and he then dealt with the arguments of Renan as to want of evidence of the truth of the miracle of the resurrection. Coming to the effects Christianity had produced upon the world, Mr. Harrington pictured in vivid language the condition .of Judaism at the opening of the Christian era, tracing its decline to the present day, when as a system it had practically ceased to exist—and described the condition of the Roman empire at that time, with its wealth and splendour, its vices and moral degradation, its frightful persecution of the Christians, and its final overthrow and annihilation. The lecture concluded thus; The great Roman empire crumbled to pieces before the power of the Gospel. By her arms Rome subdued kingdoms, but the Church, by the preaching of the Cress, subdued Rome herself. Nor oppression, nor exile, nor bloody scaffolds, nor fiery stakes, nor persecution in its most appalling forms, could arrest its triumphant career. She entered the temples of idolatry, smiting down their gods as with an iron mace ; she found her way through the guards of Imperial palaces ; she faced all danger; she overcame all opposition ; and almost before the last of the Apostles was called to his rest, she had made the name of Christ greater than Caesar’s—proclaiming the faith and planting the Cross in every region of the then known world. Wherever Roman commerce sailed, she followed in its wake ; wherever -the Roman eagles flew, she was there, like a dove, bearing the olive branch of peace. Christianity overcame all opposition ; and the last Pagan Emperor, dying a premature death, exclaimed in accents of despair : “ Vicisti GaUlcee.” “ 0 Galilean, thou hast conquered.” What was it but Christianity which taught humility—a virtue despised and scorned before Christ came on the earth. Woman, up to the daybreak of Christianity, had never been more than the machine by which our species were propagated and the sensual desires of men gratified ; but ever since that time she has taken her proper position - man’s equal. Previously a father owned no duty to his children ; but that, too, was rectified by Christ’s corning.- The dignity of labor, too, has mainly been sustained by His teachings. To conclude, in the words of Dr. Farrar, —“The effects of the work of Christ are, even to the unbeliever, nndisputable and historical. It expelled cruelty, it curbed passion, it branded suicide, it punished and repressed an execrable infanticide, it drove the shameless impurities of heathendom into a congenial darkness. There was hardly a class whose wrongs it did not remedy. It rescued the gladiator, it freed the slave, it protected the captive, it nursed the sick, it sheltered the orphan, it elevated the woman, it shrouded as with a halo of innocence the tender years of the child. la every region ■of life its ameliorating influence was felt. It changed pity from a vice into a virtue. It elevated poverty from a curse into a beatitude. It ennobled labor from a vulgarity into a dignity and a duty. It sanctified marriage from little more than a burdensome connection into little less than a blessed- sacrament. It revealed for the first time the angelic beauty of a purity of which men had despaired, and of a meekness at which they had utterly scoffed. It created the very conception of charity, and broadened the limits of its obligation from the narrow circle of a neighborhood to the- widest horizon of the race. And while it thus evolved the idea of humanity as a common brotherhood, even where its tidings were not believed, all over the world wherever its tidings were believed it cleansed the life and elevated the soul of each individual man. And in all lands where it has moulded the characters of its true believers it has created hearts so pure, and lives so peaceful, and homes so sweet, that it might seem as though those angels who had heralded its advent had also whispered to every depressed and despairing sufferer among the sons of men, “ Though ye have lain among the pots yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove that is covered with silver wings and her feathers like gold.” Now. I ask, what other explanation can be given to all this than the one great fact they abundantly prove—the divinity of Christ, and therefore the divine origin of Christianity? In conclusion, listen to what one of the most brilliant sceptics of modern times, Theodore Parker, says on the subject—

Jesus, there is no dearer name than thine. Which time . as blazoned on his mighty scroll; No wreaths, no garlands, ever did entwine So fair a temple or so vast a soul. There every virtue set his triumph seal. Wisdom conjoined with strength and radiant grace, In a sweet copy Heaven to reveal, And stamp perfection on a mortal face. Once on the earth wert Thou before men’s eyes. That did not half Thy beauteous brightness see. E’en as the sonnet does not read the skies,

Nor our weak orbs look through immensity ; Once bn the earth wert Thou a living shrine, Wherein conjointly dwelt the Good, the Lovely, the Divine. A hearty vote of thanks was' passed to the lecturer at the termination of his address.