^;>%-o. SMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V // . V c^ .^ V iV N> % V (meaning "COf.' TIIMUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les images suivantes ont 6td reprodultes avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettetd de l'exemplaire film6, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprim6e sont film6s en commenpant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont film6s en commenpant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole --»- signifie "A SUIVRE". le symbole V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc , peuvent Stre filmds d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsoue le document est trop grand pour Stre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 d partir de I'angle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Les Jiagrammes suivanf^ illustrent la m^thode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 S 6 ^)(q\<5)i^^^^/q\6):q^^^g^ "THE ABRAHAllC SACRIFICE J i IN CONNECTION WITH PILATE S QUESTION "WHAT IS TRUTH"? DISCUSSED BV AN ORTHODOX OLD JUDGE AND A SCEPTICAL YOUNG LAWYER. HALIFAX, N. S.: WILLIAM MACNAB, PRINTER, No. lo PRINCE STREET, 1883. E ^'^^)(Q^/*Qy^Q)(gij^^^Q)(Qj^ i t f '>. ^li ^J.'Sfi^Nfi'tj '• !.,,9^'^i^^f.7>t-;--^mtfSS!^^mT 'TH w A nm^i > kl THE ABRAHAilC SACRIFICE, n IN CONNECTION WITH PILAT£S question: i( WHAT IS TRUTH"? DISCUSSFD BY AN ORTHODOX OLD JUDGE % AND SCEPTICAL YOUNG LAWYER. HALIFAX, N. S.: IVILLIAM MACNAB, PRIN TER, No. lo PRINCE STREET, 1883. m The ] ing a s polis, \v Fuiidy. buslij, ti I calmly propelle I proceed; remains from th( already especiall duced ai lightly a debarlcec order to retired t* by an ag painted j xcavatei he whoi eing dir inewy h n interei rom tlioi WHAT IS TRUTH ? " Look you, «ho comes here ? A young man and an old in solemn talk." — Shakesptare, The residence of an old judge, with whom I have heen mak- ing a short sejour, is situate near the beautiful basin of Anna- polis, which is connected l>y a narrow strait with the Bay of Fundy. As the jud^e and I sauntei'ed by the shore of the basin, the waters of which sparkled in the sun's rays, sleeping calmly between the full and the ebb of the tide, we observed, propelled by noiseless pa- on the r you to' who stood i cry noon- iondingly «,vas, Him- self, the only reliahle answer that has ever been given to that question. " Not to speak of the profound wisdom of His doctrine, or of the marvellous ehxiuence of His life, we may rememher, that He declared Himself to he ' the Liirht of the world.' " It is of infinite moment to you and to me to determine each for himself, whether he is truly enlightened by that li<^ht as his accepted pronounced to be provable by hedrt logic, which is Init another form of words to express ' the law written on the heart !' " In the texts of the New Scriptures just quoted, wo have, in effect, divine love appealing to human hearts. Observe how human hearts have responded, and are responding, to that ap- peal. The Psalmist, in prophetic anticipation, most likely, of what I have noticed, exclaimed, ' Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my hcitrt, and my poi'tion for ever.' " It is, undeniably, true, that that same )-esponse has, in every ? of inte hour since the great act was enacted on Calvary, been made by scarce human hearts, so convinced of what they regarded as the ' ines which timable gift,' as neither to demand, nor to need' a mere intellec- tion t( tual assurance of the reality of it. Of that response the heart- j; his obe felt sincerity and the earnestness have been proved in everyaso vie\\ case by the self-denying devotion of a life, and by a faith ii in its the li chanj "A mani xach I but C( was t Hshes influe the St some produ Hei the tn regard where kind ; the po "In that dt " W( in wl : tion % sive, ;' unde ■! on ear ,r of a ti ? with a IV any luaii he shall 'clarctl to : of a sin- 'e of God principle ^ sent, con- m] 'is thf yo would lay expect ) it, is not wavinLC of little chil- 1 by their 'he divine need to be f words to ve have, in 1 serve how '• to that ap- t likely, of ^ heaven but | aesiile thee iXih of myj as, in every) an inay a nature chantre*! from selfishnes.s to love. "An enli'ditened mind, ri«ddlv scrutinizini; the outward manifestations of such a if^fenerated nature, and seeing that Hucli (in effect cannot he ascribed to mere human causes, cannot but consider as threat a inirach! to have been thus operated, as was the feedintf of the five thousand by the few loaves and fishes. It were as rational to ref(!r the last as the first to human intluences. Is it consistent with sound reasoning, then, when the sultject discussed is the evidence of Revelation, to ignore, as some do, a heart-lo^^ic which claims so h'gh an original, and has produced such results ?" Here, interrupting my venerable friend, I said, " Adndtting the truth of what you have urged, I feel, nevertheless, that, in regard to the subject of your remarks, a cultivated intellect, where the heart is untouched, denumds evidence of another kind ; I am, therefore, curious to hear what you have to say on the point of mental conviction, or of evidence strictly such." " In my opinion," he replied, "an honest mind will not nuike that demand in vain." " We have," he continued to say, " in the Hebrew Scriptures, in which (it may be observed by the way) God's communica- tion of His nature and attributes would appear to be progres- sive, beginning with a declaration of eternal self-existence, and, under the Gospel dispensation, ending in a Being, who taught, on earth, as a human impersonation of the Godhead, a narrative of a transaction, in which Jehovah is represented as an actor with a then living man. It expressly points to something future of interest to the whole human race. It is unsatisfactory — scarcely intelligible — where it appears in the history with which it is connected, if it l>e viewed as having a mere r(da- tion to the human subject, or as a mere trial of his faith or of his obedience. Many commentators have acknowledged that, so viewed, they fail to understand it. The narrative appeared in its present connection ages before an event took place to r 8 which it may he, and to which alone of all future recorded events it can he, referred, " If man, with his finite mind, would .solve a question of the source of a revelation purporting to be divine, there are but two grounds of investigation open to him, of which the result can iii strictness be called evidence. " Of one of them — a spiritual communication from without — I have already spoken as ' Logic of tlu; Heart.' To him who.se conduct is con.sciously regulated by its influence, it is, a^ once, a convincing proof of the Gospel, and an assured pledge of his future life and happiness. The second ground is that on which I mainly rely to satisfy your appeal on behalf of the intellect. It formed a subject of our Lord's teaching to the two di.sciples on the way to Ennuau.s. Of that I purpose to speak presently. " I do not .shut wxy eyes to some difficulties that with more or less force, according to the degree of faith or the acuteness of intellect, perplex many minds ; but I maintain that in the narrative and the event to which I refer it there is evidence of a kind and of a cogency that ought to satisfy the most highly trained mind, that the gospel story is of supernatural origin as regards the great central figure of it, and the main incidents of the Greek biographies. Bear in mind that, if that narrative, viewed as I view it. is evidence for the purpose indicated, it is hut a selected portion of a large class of evidence of a kindred nature that conduces to the sairie result. "The 'Chvi.stu.s' of whom Tacitus wrote as crucified under Pilate, is identical with the Christ of the Gospels. " Let any man of intelligence .seek for evidence derived from the old Scriptures read with the Greek documents, that the Jesus of these last was what he is therein represented to have l)een, and that he sufiered as represented. If, considering that his faculties are limited, and that he is conducting in([uiry in a subject which treats of the unseen and the unknown, that in- (piirer finds, that a Hebrew prophet or patriarch did, in any way, 1 marka him, tl person not in eral ti- that pj "I V to the life coi of thes Jesus c after tl I science ;■ things •i suggest " I ol ; low, be: " We of his o ribly sc Jehovul will coi they sh ment, t has spo "We ^said, ' s reason great ix Jn him that the thing tl] pli.shme Bon. W 9 •ecor ded stion of } are but i\e result I itliout — To him I, it is, at' pledge of s that on If of the 3 the two to speak ith more aeuteness at iti the idence of 'st highly origin as 2idents of narrative, ited, it is kindled od under ived from that the d to have i'inle person, and to romarkahle incidents connected with him, that are related in the Greek Scripturos, and to none other person and incidents that are the sul)jects of history — he can- not in such conditions reasonably refuse his assent to the gen- eral truth of those Scriptures, so far as they profess to refer to that particular person. " I will suppose that inciuirer to have dii-ected his attention to th(i Abrahamic sacrifice, and to the incidents of Abraham's life connected therewith, as recorded in Genesis. The narrative I of these was where it is now found ad, — after )laee, and God had de a th<"ii inn;. This I hope to > condition lieni, when band, and ^lind when \v there is volting to st a divine therefore, of the nar- probabk' a uionothe- that couUl lid be made he circum- o;iven iiini such a sac- 11 " Let us now notice the features of the narrative in order to see if this portion of tht; ()ld Scrij)tuies concerns the Jesus Christ of tlie Gieek Scriptures. I use tlie word ' virtual' but once. Where it is to be su[)pHed afterwards will be apparent. When t lie feat a re 8 referred, to aoth together, and they alone, to the )lace of sacrifice. ' Of the peoplr there were none with me.' "The son, thus sacrificed, was tlif previously ajipointed typi; md ehannel 'of blessings t'oi' all tlie nations of the earth.' "The .sacrifice was completed on the third day from that on hich the father leads out the son for the sacrifice. Such is * John .wiii. 12 ; xix. 17. ^€ t IV. -^ of^-eiw^ . V 12 the effect of the words of the narrative. Durintj the inteival and up to the moment wlien tlie .son is unbound, he reinnins under the sentence of death. On the third (hiy the son is re- leased. The place was not 'so far off' (Gen. xxii. 4, 5) that the ass being left, the lant offering ; and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.' " And now, let me put to you this ([uestion : — Looking to his- tory developed .since Abraham's day, has any human being, s' to his- I an being, )se charac- i conduced the Greek le Hebrew mail con- riuHed hy\ fhdt father the nacri- imunicated\ utial as toj a that oii| 1 of all this.1 iiv'- which isl not on the surface of it, how is it to be explained ? I assert that, on that supposition, no reasonable explanation of it can be jjiven. " I nmke this assertion advisedly. The promise declared in the narrative after the act in obedience was not a result or a reward of that act. This is shown by the fact that the narra- tive but repeats the very promise that had been declared be- fore the act. The only new feature is an intimated relation of Isaac to the promise. It had before been filled by Abraham.* "But, bearing in mind the jn-imal prophecy of the seed of the woman, and the negative relation in which Isaac, in regard to physical generation, stood l>oth to Abraham and to Sarah,f if we consider the purpose to liave been a preintimation of the mode in ivhich the promise tvould he performed, then, the trial so severe, in view of the already proved obedience of the tried one, — the .solemnity of the transaction, mai'ked, as it is, by the feature of concurrent action of a father and his son — the par- ticular circumstances, including a special designation of the place of sacrifice, and its remoteness, — the submission of the Son — the eventual provision of the burnt ofi'ering — the particu- lar grouny the noblest instatue that was ever given, of the harmony hctiveen the Old and Neiv 'I'cstatnent T Div. l.eg. V,. vi. s. 5. p. 591. • ; 11 ipposed I bo so luiiuan icessity, )n more eu, may raham's element a lapse the bio- l homily 'ision of (ler coll- ie ferf for — that a ic Greek ^f review h history ntariea ; lated in which is mm saw I the evi- mt I be- [pon the not, in Intled of Lscribed, mting a \e that I )t your It's (lay lortance Ition on given. alleged authority for the words reported in John viii. 56, see- ing I question the genuineness of that gospel. I regard as a myth the narrative in Genesis, while I think the authorship of it cannot be referred to Moses. Moreover, such a disclosure to Abraham of the mode of fulfilment of ' the promise in Isaac' as you suppose, would not have comported with that plan of progressive development of the plan of redemption which the Hebrew Scriptures present." Whereupon the Judge thus rejoined : " Your last objection I have anticipated, and answered by .showing that 'Christ's day* was in fact, revealed to Abraham. My argument so far as it rests on the supposed harmony, is not affected by your hypo- thesis of a myth, nor by a question of authorship of Genesis. I do not apprehend your grounds of objection to the fourth Gospel, as you have not stated them. " As, however, you challenge the fact of the utterance, I must enquire, ' Does the verse referred to truly report the words on which I rely ?' If it does, my argument, so far as it rests on those words, stands for what it is worth. If the re- port be not true, the gospel is spurious. On that point I would observe, that document is the work of one who, from internal evidence, was acquainted with the Hebrew Scriptures, which contain the narrative reviewed. It has a prospective reference to Christ's day so probable, that no reflecting man can read it with the gospels, without perceiving that there may be an in- terrelation between the.e two things. " Now, the object of what Christ is asserted to have uttered was, to convince the Jews that the Patriarch, whose seed they boasted themselves to be, had exulted in having seen his day, and yet the pseudo — John does not make Christ say 'your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it in what is written !' The writer thus exceptionally dealt with his sub- ject relatively to the Old Scriptures, as you will perceive if you refer to the texts of which I shall hand you a minute. * * John ii. 14, 16, 17 ; iii. 14, 15 ; v. 45, 46 ; vi. 44, 45 ; xii. 12-16 ; xii. 37-41. xix. 23-25. 22 " This exceptional negative treatment of the narrative, if the writer was John, would be in harmony with the consciousness of that Apostle, because he knew that for Christ, at the time of the supposed utterance to have referred, in addressing perverse Jews, to a particular prophecy that pointed to his future sacrifice, would have tended to mar the plan of making inter- relation between prediction and event evidence after, hut not before fulfilment. " The exceptional circumstance, indeed, furnishes an argu- ment for the genuineness of the particular gospel. ' Ar.s — celai-e artem' is not shown here, if the verse was written to deceive by relating a fiction. An impostor would not have failed to add an express reference to a narrative so apposite and so obvious. " Your objection while questioning the words, disputes, in effect, the genuineness of the whole dialogue between Christ and the Jews ; and yet that dialogue is natural and truth-like, and not in any respect out of harmony with the synoptic gospels. I conclude then first, that the words were uttered ; second, that they declared what was believed to be true, inas- much as there was an absence of any conceivable bias that could have influenced the utterer to state what was not true ; (you oblige me thus to speak, as if I was dealing with a ques- tion of mere human testimony) third, that the words re- ferred to the occasion reported in Genesis, which alone can give effect to them." Here I observed, "You must prove Christ's resurrection before I can accept your reasoning, founded on what He is re- ported by Luke to have said, after his death, to the two dis- ciples." To which the judge replied thus : " Have you ever considered the nature and the amount of evidence on which man is often constrained to act in the ordinary affairs of life ? It is far below demonstration ; but it is in kind and degree that by which we might, before experience, have expected a divine revelation to be supported, if we consider that as man is constitided, this last could not he to him a subject of demon- stration. Chi the! had fuli I ail cer clan wer^ purpost times, c "Wh what H Revelat epistle < "The race. \ faith by this moi future a , if the msness :ime of i3rverse future r inter- }ut nof 1 argu- — celare eive by to add )bvious. utes, in Christ ith-like, synoptic ittered ; lie, inas- ias that ot true ; a ques- trds re- •an give rectiou e is re- vvo dis- >u ever which of life ? degree ected a tnan is ienion- 23 " There is a philosophical truth involved in these words of Christ, ' If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rise from the dead.' This is as if he had said : ' If man, as God has made him, is not convinced of a fulfilment by what he sees me to be, and hears me declare that I am, of that ivhich Moses and the prophets have written con- ceiving me, he would not be persuaded that I am what I de- clare myself to ibe, by manifested supernatural agency, if that were exercised to convince him.' " We may be sure that no kind of evidence would be by his Creator proposed to man, affecting his moral responsibility, except that which is adapted to his nature. We may well ask, What evidence of a revelation assumed to be divine could humanity demand that it does not possess ? The evidence afford- ed could only be genuine prophecy of a future state of things which could not have been foreseen, but has become a fact in history. Every other conceivable kind of evidence of a divine revelation must consist of facts — not evidence in themselves, — from which certain inferences may or may not be drawn ; whereas, from two indisputable facts, viz : distinct prediction of a supernatural future, and a future occurrence of a state of circumstt^iices exactly harmonizing with the subject of the pre- diction, certain inferences, and those only, can be drawn by a sound and unprejudiced human mind. This may be predicated of the Hebrew Scriptures in relation to what we read in the Greek Scriptures. Miracles, after they have served their first purpose, would, if continuing to be performed in all future times, cease to be miracles in human apprehension. " When Christ declared fulfilled prophecy to be evidence of what He was and what He taught. He implicitly declared that Revelation, in the light of His life, proves itself. The first epistle of Peter conveys the same truth. " The providence of God has given written records to our race. Without the means of establishinj; the irround of our faith by the new Scriptures, read with the old, man would, at this moment, be destitute of all reliable information as to his future after death. All with him would then be mere specula- 24 tion concerning the insoluble, as it is in fact, now, with those who, — declining to accept Christ as God's voice speaking by human lips, and contented with a system of ethics, constructed by themselves, which has no certain — if any — aspect beyond the life that now is ; or with scientific researches into the nature of physical man, — do not choose to avail themselves of the means of evidence of a future state which the Scriptures proffer. Those men live objects of worship in respect of their intellects by their fellow men, and die without giving any sign as to posthumous expectations. But they, happily, are not doomed necessarily to deal with the insoluble, in a matter of such deep interest. "Christ, who 'brought immortality f to light' — progressively developed as the end and the sum of all prophecy — may be read on almost every page of the Hebrew Scriptures, which cover the whole period of the history of man that preceded the dawn, when 'the day spring from on high visited us.' " Take an illustration of this, connected with the particular subject of our discussion, applying what I have already observed in rela,tion to it. " There is in the oath of Jehovah at the close of the occur- rences on the Mount (Gen. xxii. 16-18), and in the subsequent Scriptural references to it, tht^o which indicates, unmistakably, that what we read in the narrative cannot be confined in refer- ence to Abraham and Isaac, nor to them in connection with the Jews, nor to the land of promise. It shows that what is re- lated has a manifest prophetic aspect of a person, in whose advent the whole race of man would be interested. . " The oath, after having been referred to subsequently in Gen- «^sis. Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, is noticed, with an implied reference to Christ, in Micah, and culminates with an express reference in Luke to our Lord, as the object to which it and the promise sanctioned by it pointed. * * The Judge, on request, furnished this note of the references: Gen. xxiv. 7; xxvi. 3 ; 1. 24 ; Exod. vi. 8 ; xxxiii. I ; Nunih. xxxii. Ii ; Deut. 1,8 ; vi. lo ; xxx. 20 ; Mic. vii. 18-20 ; Luke i, 68, 75. .See also Jer. xxxiii. 16. This last identities the land of the oath with \.\\q person of it, — 'The Lord our Righteousness.' t Gr., * Incorruption.' I j lil I ser ' M( I Gh\ con fort « ResJ assul of cc who.< yoTu- to CO and i estab basis. acqua baptis son ; J a filial his dy: proteci as you extract The my ass John ai your ii my inti princip] spects e " Pro Revelat 25 1 those ing by tructed \ i beyond f ito the f jlves of { L-iptures of their -ny sign are not atter of •essively -may be ss, which eded the articular observed le occur- ibsequent itakably, in refer- with the i&t is re- in whose in Gen- Iwith an Iwith an {which it |n, XXIV. 7 ; 10 ; XXX. It identities " We find, indeed, in the oath and the references, a series of links forming a continuity, at the extremes of which are pre- sented Isaac and his great Antitype; the virtual sacrifice on Moriah and the real sucrijice on Calvary ; Abraham's day and Christ's day. " Surely this, extending over a long period of time, and re- corded by the pens of different writers, cannot be regarded as a fortuitous combination of historical atoms ! " When you object want of evidence in relation to the Resurrection, you question Christianity which depends on that assumed fact. Of the testimony necessary to prove it, I can, of course, speak in brief and general terms only. " You pa.ss among men for the son of my late revered friend, whose name you bear, — of him who" is reputed to have been your father ; but my intellect, if it is to be exercised, in order to conviction in that matter which rests entirely on reputation and inference, demands, as you remind me, strict evidence to establish that which, though highly probable, has no certain basis." I rejoined, " My father and mother were your intimate acquaintances ; you were present at their nuptials and at my baptism ; you know that I was always treated by them as their son ; you wrote my father's will, whereby he devised to me, by a filial designation, the estate which I enjoy ; you stood beside his dying bed, and heard him commend me, as his son, to your protection. These circumstances are, it is true, inferential, but as you do not adduce any opposing facts, the evidence of my extraction which the facts furnish is practically conclusive." The old judge replied, ' I marvel that you should challenge my assumed matter of testimony, derived from the Gospels of John and Luke, and yet argue, as you have done, in support of your immediate ancestral descent. Your argument removes my intimated doubts respecting your filial relation, while it, in principle, supports my views on the main question, as it re- spects evidence for Christianity. " Prophecy fulfilled, as a principle of evidence relatively to Revelation, is the essential ground of my argument addressed 26 to you. I regard Genesis xxii. as a prophecy, and John viii. 56, as in efi'ect showing it to be such. The mode and circum- stances of the fulfihiient of it are the subject of our Greek Scriptures. "Of a divine source of those there exists inferential evidence abundantly sufficient to establish it, until it be proved, as it never has been, either that the facts which Christians believe to support the inferences are false, or that the inferences are not warranted by the facts. " The character of Christ, as presented in the fourth Gospel, while not inconsistent with anything we read of Him in the Synoptics, is in respect of purity, simplicity, sublimity and self-sacrificing devotion to the cause of humanity, entirely real. It is not an ideal conception, but a genuine representation. The document throughout bears the stamp of an honest con- viction in the mind of its author, — of the truth of what he wrote. " Christ's last discourse to his disciples could have been writ- ten by no one save by him who had entered into the very heart of Christ. > " The reception, as authentic, of the document by the whole Christian world, before the close of the second century, pre- cludes a possibility of a forgery being accomplished, at any time in that century, without detection and exposure. "The following proof of the authorship of it, which is pre- sented on its surface, is not, I think, subject to any reasonable objection. Verses 30 and 31 of chapter xx, complete what was first written ; the author, in those verses, declaring in effect that what he had professed in the proem to show respecting ' the Word,' had been accomplished by ' the signs of Jesus, done in the presence of the disciples,' which the writer had related. The language of those verses plainly indicates that the writer knew, when he wrote them, that there were other signs, &c., which he had not then told, a7id had not at that time designed to tell. Verse 23 of the last chapter .shows, as clearly, what it was that, as an after thought, suggested the narrative of that \y\ c 01 1 1 i-t \Voj^<^ Sftf /lu vf "o f K/eyS'i 7-y I S Tr^f y^c i\c^W^ »( 7 n:^'(i C^-yvr •/ < o/lu OtI d ve ca rclt Ti John viii. nd circum- our Greek il evidence oved, as it ms believe rences are th Gospel, lim in the niity and iroly real, sentation. mest con- what he •een writ- ery heart ihe whole ury, pre- , at any ti is pre- iasonable hat was in effect ispecting ms, done I related. le writer gns, &c., iesigned what it ! of that ( — 27 'Jeet »f «- cape., ...p.,,,, Afte.- the Church had po^^esso^ m , "«» 31 of chapter XX. the aulw " ''T'"™' ™''"'f-' "t ea^o avvare Hhat a ru„.or ,r,t rSh'" '° '? •''""~^- that that ap,«tle wa, to live unli fV ^ """*'' ""■' ^'-ethren' coi-reet this dangerous erro,- » •, "'^'""^ "^ Christ. To «P'e/n„ttoa„,L„„:p: r;*:'^':''" :?• ■"- '^-oved dl! '->■'*" a ■■•■•-nder.standi'g, derived ?"'' '"" '" '^^'' "»'™'«^d, «: at-on of Christ-, words' r^U'T ^"^ ""'■'■™' "'•«' T'berws, John wrote, „r nos, 1:^ , ,"^''' "' ""^ •'«» of ™ e, .lietated to .selected p' ^n "^th '", f '"*"'' f""^"' '» '■oa. m chapter xxi, up to "^ ■! T':'"'™^ "'' "''-t -e ^ ft was, of course, necessa, v f ^''•, !"*"«« »/ ««< <-«■««. t e narrative; and ho . Ic" : 't ex'"','' '" """" "'" -1»«' "f "' » eireun,.stantial staten n f LP:''™' '" <•» - "^y ".cans Tl>..s constitutes now an appen.lK „ , ,, / " ™' *''« ^•'H""!- ""'".ally connnit to the pel" " ;'" ' """ "- writer would ypeared in what ,«„, ^.^Z " L '■";" *'"'• «» '* '""^ »»< ■f- That the attestation'- 1 t^u:™"'" ^ ''^'^■"" '» «"-' tl.e «ew expressed, since they «, "X^r T'";'?'^'^''^"' -'"' -;;-.tho„t subscription, but vvitl theb 1 , 'T*"'''^ P"''''»'^«' -t^e whole docun,ent as we ha -c it ''""''''"'S" "»' *1><> Church of the last chapter. "' «»«Pting the last verse be'ri:;-:!:,!' " 'rir eS::^™f- r --. -^ .shou,d otherwi.se than with its preset n .-""^ '""'™ manuscript " That a for.rer_even , ««"n<^et,ons. P' »<• that, as sue h:Zu r:"| ,"" '" '"™ "^"^ » «"-«e, .''- 'f -t«I the author to be 1 Z TT'^ '" '"'■^""^ ''- fans of the tin.e, in fact or by inZ • . ?™ ''^' "" «'"- the hypothesi,,, he declar d wha he .n^T,'™''''' '"■'^"-- "" O" publication, be pronounc,ri , ''"'''' "^"""-n »-oui,I ^r^^TT^TTirTr—r^^^^^i^ii::^^ 'o be ■ the r mm 28 7^/.MX//.ytr~y occurrences at the sea.' This is, as I tliink, prohable, as ' the disciple' had been specially mentioned before only in connection with the explanation respecting the rumor, and because the ori- ginal document required no such sanction, it having been al- ready accredited by the Church. If the facts were as supposed, ' th(Mliscipl(; whom Jesus loved,' l)y necessary implication, is identified with the authoi- of the Gospel, as fully as if the ^^^* things' of verse H^ meant the original document together with the appendix. The style of the attestation, reminding of : ■ Joh n IS, — used perhaps tis an exemplar — is not opposed to uiy hypothesis of interpretation. As to who wrote the last verse of the last ehaptei', that is, as it seems to me a question of no importance, as the 30th verse of chap, xx had previously expressed, in substance, all that the redundant verse in question contains. " The harmonious completeness that the whole document, apart from the supplement, presents, in respect of the intro- duction conq)ared with the close, would strongly sway my mind to a belief of the Johannean authorship. " The assumeil author — John, and he alone of all the evan- / gelists — wrote of Christ, in this Gospel, first, that he ivas hound C'^N'Sk.'V''^'^^ 1 before he whi brought to >»! w>- rf»- ; second, that he was made to hear his cross, on the way to the place of crucifixion ; and hoth, without reference to any antece'(}et'y, or genuineness, in relation to the latter. " If you, pursuing a course of reasoning .suggested by your- self, will gathei' and weigh all that history, contemporary and future, sacred and profane, tells us, bearing on what is related in the Christian documents concerning ' the resurrection of our Lord,' including the report of what Christ's followers did and suffered on the faith of the doctrine ; and will consider, also, the historical fact of the influence which the name of Christ has exercised, and is exerc ising, on the opinions, conduct and \/^r^a 'Z./4. C-av- 0-e.. C( til inl tol an I evi ble, as ' the connection ise the ori- g been al- i supposed, lication, is as if the i together iiindinif of )ppose(l to e the last 1 question ^reviously 1 (}uestion locunient, he intro- iway my the evan- as hound made to and. both, that part sking, if lented hj question, ;er. by your- ary and 5 related n of our did and er, also, I Christ uct and .w 29 ■n the to,„b, W.S neve.. p,.„,, :';; .^''j-' f -' it wa., p,„eed to death ., .,„ffieienti/proved 'i Z t"- "•''° '"' ""» Of 16, as of the Gospel, th„t i , ^'''■" *'2-(i6.) and .strong evi.lenee.-lTej': **^'- '•'• "^"•'' '« -'''^ce, <'™'™ee- ""' ""'"t ,t to be conclusive " '^° sceptical intellectimli\t • .i, to eo,„.„e„„ the„,.se,ve: "t "o nlV'r ",'"• ^'^''^i-- ^a" able, and whose love fo. hi" raei? "'"* '"■*"'' '"'"P'-oaeh- who ,,vo..ce„ Ch,.istia„it,. ,v th „ "T r'',>'™"-°"'- '"'t close alliance, in descnhin.. as h . * '"= '""' f"""«l a "ate ability, the powe . Indtt! f f^' '"''' ""'' "•"'> "'n™."- -ntative ,„an, spoke thnto ! l.^'Tr "*' « «-at n-pre- The Hebrew „,„«e which tl.ht the' l' f""'^'' "•■''■™'- to men, had the same excess ot" 1 ? °' "»''' »"'' "-'-onK the nations. SwedenWrini o""™''/™' ''"" " '"^'^ had fo^ ■ng themselves to the Ch Itia f:'',"? ""' ''^'"'' ''>' ""-h- sentnnent which carries innnn erab ' "'f''"' "' '" ""= '"o™! d'vnities in its Uson,.' 7"^,;^"""^'''^^' hun.anities, on our knees to any an<-el who c" u"™ '"*"'"'■"'•' ^^ added, feenery an,, the circun.st'at:' oVt, '1 T '" ''""'™ ^"^ 'he >« certain it ,„„st not be intWo" i l^-'f*'^ ■^o"' ■ ""-t it works of the artist who .sculp u e 'tU , 1' "'7'"'"'^- ><-»■" and writes the moral law.' H ^e we f '" f ">« «""""™t tually great nmn-for such he is . ''':™."''"" ""» '"tellec- he crisis of life, he wouldt up I;"? ' '1 ''™ "*' »''""' - hands of an angel connni.,slnrto -t ■" '° "■"'--' «' 'he The great arti.st who sculnt,., \, ' ".entand write.s the n,omltw ■ i '''l'''"""' °f the «r,na- whelm with sudden des lt1o^ T"-^:'""" P'""^^"'' to over- 3ands of human beingsty ^ "t'e^rib,:" T"' "'"">■' «>""- tho.se the most helpless a„7Lr ^''■"P''"' ""'' a».o„g p.-c.sent.s no argument Iga" Go " ? / ' '° " ^'"■'■^«""' family, because Revelation It ,'7VT "" "*°'« '"""»" 'ove; but if he who does no a cep C In r '°'"''^' ""'' ""'* accept Christianity, could gravely \ y ■Pi ^mr* 30 propose for consolation to a suffbrint,' victim of a calamity so fi'arful, 'the moral sentiment wliich carries Christianities, etc., in its hosom,' — his must, indeed, be an exceptional and ahnor- nial constitution of hmnanity ! The suticrer so appealed to would surely feel the appeal to be a heartless mockery of his suftei'ino;s ! " Miserable comforters then are those who see a God of love in nature only ! " At ' the inevitable hour,' ' the moral sentiment,' so heard in natm-e, may be more comfortable to a philosopher who relies upon it, than evidence a forded hy the Hebrew mase — with her ' love' eidiijhteved and applied In/ Him of whom the distin- gidshed Amfierican speakx with faint praise as ' the good Jesus' — but I will humbly trust, at that hour, to be inspired to rest my faith upon the latter. " The Abrahamic narrative, with its adjuncts, and in the connection in which I have presented it, for all humanity — in- tellectual and untutored — is, as the moral sentiment in nature is not, in its natui-e and according to man's n&tuvG, evideiice for the conscious spirit of man to rely on as to its state and con- dition when it is separated from its earthy tabernacle — inas- much as it "presents to the human mind with precise pointed" ness a' harmony even to minute particulars, — a harmony whose source must he diviiie — between what is related in the 22nd chapter of Genesis, and the consuniination of the scheme of redemption, by the sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth related in the Greek Scriptures. " Regarded in connection with that large class of Hebrew Scriptural testimony of a kindred nature, which conduces to the same result, it is evidence of irresistible force. " Christ declared, before he suffered, ' that when He should be lifted up He would draw all men unto Him.' A partial performance of that promise — and in a large and increasing measure — is a patent fact. An infidel writer of considerable ability asks, flippantly, ' If the Christian's God is to be mea- sured by the miraculous cure, or by the suffering millions ?' I e ill S(l tos ^> 31 iiity so en, etc., almor- 'uled to ' of his of love leaifl in lO relies [uith her distin- d Jesus' [ to rest 1 in the lity — in- n nature dence for and eon- ;le — inas- pointetl" my ivhose Ithe 22nd ■heme of (I in the [Hebrew I luces to should partial fcreasing tderable 1)0 mea- ls?' I J can, in view of what has been promised, and what has been performed, patiently await the assured result of a perfect ful- filment of our Lonl's promise. " While learned men in our day are sedulously and worthily enfj^ajj^ed in studying the dark characters of slabs and cylinders, in the hope of extracting secrets of ancient days, that may serve to illustrate the sacred Scriptures, they do not, pci'haps, apprehend — and, it maj' be, because it lies so near to the sur- face — that confirmation of a Christian's faith that may be read on the page of the old Hebrew story that has been the subject of our discussion. :' " I am persuaded that the conclusion to which that subject, with its connections, rightly apprehended, necessarily leads, presents, to the most highly cultivated mind of man, when tossed on a troubled sea of speculation, as to the whit, the ivkerefove, the whence and the tvhither of the humanity which is identified with its consciousness, an anchorage in the harboi- of the Christian Revelation, at which it may ride in confidence and security." Here the old judge and I — setting a good example to all theo- logical controversialists — exchange cordial valedictions, and, "As fades the glimmering landscape on the sight," retire from the Micmac's grave and seek our respective homes. ADOLESCENS. Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada. *The "Old Judge" might have unexceptionably summed up thus:— " Abraham 'exulted that he should see Christ's day." What it was that he saw, and greatly re- joiced to see in it, is as certain as if it had been expressly revealed to us. It could only have been preinformation ' ■»< »Mid >i |>»iWi»M » -» lW *i«i <»^ 'i * iy tf respecting the mode in which t/ie promise that affcctid the iia/ioiis would be accomplished. Now, this fea- ture is plainly impressed on the transaction related in Cenesis xxii.— read with John viii. 56— viz : a preintimalion to Al)raham that he by whom the promise would he performed, 7c>as to i>e 'the only son' of his father— ' the son whom the father loved;' that he, in compliance with the will of his father, and -with his own consent, was to be the innocent victim of a sacrifice', and that he was to be, after the sacrifice, released from the bonds of death. We shall look in vain for the occasion to which John viii. 56 refers, outside of the Hebrew narrative ; whilst to search for it there Christ has in- structed us! See Luke xxiv. 25-27. W^e find it therein, and we have thus before us evidence that the Great Sacrifice which purchased our Redemption was predetermined, and preintimated to one of our race more than seventeen centuries before it was an event in history. The case presents, not merely a type or a prophecy of that Sacri- fice, wliich the human mind may or may not accept, but a revelation of it made long before it took place, to the consciousness of a representative man, which, logically, must be accepted as such, in view of the n.arrative and the Scriptures referred to. J^xto vVv^f» pi* ''•^« »*X