CHAPTER XX.
LOGICAL RESULTS.
Of these we mention only the following:
First.—Since the proofs of Christ’s Resurrection are incomparably greater than those of any other miracle, and its consequences are beyond conception more glorious, it is the part of wisdom to force the issue upon it. The decisive battle of the world in respect to the miraculous in Christianity is to be fought right here, and all other engagements are mere skirmishes. It is well it is so. Christ’s Resurrection is our Gibraltar. If we cannot hold this position, we cannot hold any. But we do hold it, and with it the whole field of controversy upon the subject. Let any one who doubts or denies the reality of miracles, meet the overwhelming proofs of this the greatest of all miracles. If he cannot do it, he should yield; and it is no dishonor to be vanquished by the truth. If, after examining these proofs, he still imagines that he can overcome them, he is beyond the reach of argument.
Second.—As it is the central fact of Christianity, the keystone in the arch of the Christian Faith, those who reject it have no right to the Christian name. Strauss is so far to be commended that, when by his myths and sophistries he had brought himself to deny the one, he had the manliness not to appropriate the other. And of those of his fellows who still cling to it for its supposed advantages, he sarcastically says: “Reasons they may have, but reason they have none.” Chadwick, Hooykaas, Miln, Savage and others,[1] who talk of their “Church of the Future,” may well follow his example. If they refuse, there is as little sense as piety in a recognition, or quasi recognition, of them as ministers of the Gospel, when at the best they are only popular lecturers to mere social or literary, if not infidel clubs, that choose to be called Churches or Religious Societies. This no doubt is distasteful to those who are looking for the time when all sects shall fraternize on a common level of skepticism and indifference. But if we have any colors we should stand by them. Fidelity to truth and to the Master requires a separation uncompromising and complete from all who deny Him. It is safe to be as tolerant as Jesus and his Apostles. (See John viii. 21; 2 Corinthians vi. 14, 15; Revelation i. 4, 5; 1 Corinthians xv. 16, 17, 18; 1 John ii. 12, 23; 1 Peter i. 3, 4; 2 Peter ii. 1, 2; Revelation ii. 6; Acts v. 30-33; Acts iv. 11, 12.)
Third.—It authenticates his mission and vindicates his claims to the utmost. By it God affixed the seal of his approval, and evermore declares as by a voice from heaven, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him.”
His teachings are no longer opinions to be accepted or rejected as they meet with our approval, but authoritative and final. They are not the speculations of sages and philosophers, either of olden or recent times, to be weighed in the balance of human reason, but everlasting truth to be received and obeyed without doubting or questioning.
Since Christ’s resurrection is assured, Webster well declared,[2] as every man in the exercise of right reason must, “I hold it my duty to believe, not what I can comprehend or account for, but what my Master teaches me.”
By this, of course, it is not intended that we are not to exercise our reason as to the genuineness of the teachings ascribed to him, or their proper meaning, or, in other words, as to textuality, inspiration, translation, and interpretation. In each of these departments there is and will be ample room for the greatest research, and the ripest scholarship. In respect to all these, is doubtless true now, as when spoken by Robinson, that, “The Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of his holy word.”
But when in a teachable spirit, we know what Jesus taught, it is the end of controversy.