HISTORICAL BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 440, 25 January 1890, Page 4

HISTORICAL BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY.

Auckland, January 20. The Rev. Robert Sommerville delivered a lecture on the above subject in Sb. Peter’s Presbyterian Church, Surrey Hills, taking as the tbXt 1. Cor. xv., 14, “ If Christ be not ri-en then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” The great fact on which Christianity is based is the re-urrec-tion. There is no fact in history better authenticated than that of the re-uriection. Hostile critics admit the genuineness of the narrative, yet seek to destroy the facts. Thi-y say that Paul mistook impressions for facis. When the disciples ot Jesus saw th> ir Master buried they were disconsolate, but when they afterwards saw His resurrection body their hearts burned within them. Extreme criticism rinds this truthiul epistie in circulation within twenty rise years of the death of Christ, it tells us that after the resurrection “He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve; after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater pa b remain unt • this present, bub some are fallen asleep. After that fie was seen of James th nof all the apostles. And last ot all hewasseenof mealso.asonebornout of due time.” This was a great cloud of witnesses. They were eye-witnesses who had se n the marks in His body at different timesand in different circumstances. There could be no collusion, lor the numbers were too great to admit of it. They had much to gain by not accepting ihe truth of this fact but we find them consistently bearing testimony to the truth. Peter was the first witness, and from h m Paul received much of his information. But Paul was intimate with the other apostle*. Half ol the rive hundred witnesses were alive when he wrote. The E r i.-tle to the Gelations is also admitted by the most hostile critics as genuine. It was written a.d. 56. It is based on the accepted truth of the resuirection, and in which occur the words, “ 1 marvel that ye are so soon removed . . . unto mothc Go-pel.” Soin Romans we are told Christ is “declared to bo M e •on of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.” Renan admits that Luke, the companion of Paul, was placed in lavourable circumstances for ascertaining facts, and this one fact has been testified to by him, by Mark, Matthew and John. It is prominent in their writings, and no criticism has been able to up?-et it. And what did this faith do for the Church ? Here was a poor carpenter preaching, healing all diseases, raising the dead, put to death by the Jews on a false charge, dying on the cross, “a stumb ing block to f'e Jews and io the Greeks foolishness.” 'lhe band, however, was increased by thiee thousand at once. Tne ambassador of Christ carried the message of love throughout Pa estine, and it made rapid progress in the neighbouringpartsof the world. Tacitus, Pliny, Suetonius, all hear the most distinct testimony as to the facts relating to Christianity. So Clement, Paul s fellow abourer. Polycarp, Ignatius. Iremeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian, are witnesses to the great facts of the power and spread of Christianity. Tertullian died in a.d. 220, and in the wr tings of the three iatter fathers there are quotations from no less than twenty books of the New Testament. Thus, the resurrection is the great fact on which ihe superstructure of Christianity is built. It is only reasonable to believe ton the evidence adduced, and reason rebels against denying this great fact. What then ? If the”miiacle ot the resurrection is true, then all the other Gospel miracles may be true, and thus we are led to the ine\ itable consequence that Christianity is true. John Stuart Mill admitted that miracles were possible. Belief in miracles implies belief in God. Who having the use of reason would deny the being of God ? If vve reject the rational explanation of the system >f Christianity, what shall we do ? for thus only can these phenomena be satisfactorily explained.