QUEER RELIGIOUS THEORY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3, 3 January 1903, Page 4 (Supplement)

QUEER RELIGIOUS THEORY.

By a queer ana circuitous route of questionable scientific reasoning, Mirza Quadiani, a native of India, has arrived at the conclusion that Christ was not crucified on jthe cross, but was taken down in a swoon and in due time emigrated to Cashmere, where* his solitary tomb still stands; says the St. Louis "Republican." The unorthodox assertion has roused considerable interest among a certain sect of enthusiastic religious followers in Quadiani's native country, and they have shown an inclination to accept his reasonings as establishing a fact beyond question.

It is the contention of these peculiar believers that there is in the north of India an old tomb called the' tomb of the prince and prophet. They assert that It has existed since the days of Christ, having been erected about 1900 years ago, when a prophet calling himself prince and prophet' entered the country from the West They say, too, that he called himself by the- name of Issa Sahib and Use Asuf. The theory that Some disciple of Christ may have come into Cashmere and breathed his last is denied by these people, who assert that no one save the Lord Himself ever bore the title of prince and prophet.

A thing pointed out as of peculiar Importance is that there are a number ot towns in Oashmfcre which bear the names of towns In Palestine, the sacred abode of Christ. The mysterious tomb referred to, it is contended, is surely in existence, and it is held that the only thing necessary to establish the fact that lit is the burial place of Ohrist is that It be excavated and explored. It is pointed out that immigration did take plaoe from Palestine into Cashmere, and si-jjnl-cance Is attached to the use of the Mtl* Use Asuf, which is literally construed to mean a collector of sheep. This, in turn, is held to be important, for the reason that the main mission of Christ was to gather the ten lost and scattered tribes of Israelites, who were driven over various Eastern countries by Sargon, King of Assyria, and Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, in 721 and 586, 8.C., respectively. The us& of the words Use Asuf, it is claimed, is nothing but another name for Jesus Christ, and these are pointed out as facts 'which no one can afford to ignore.

"It will be remembered," says| one writer for this sect, "that Jesus Christ said in Liuke that no sign but that of Jonah would be shown to the wicked race o fthe day. • So, as Jonah narrowly escaped death from the mouth of the whale, Christ must necessarily have escaped His death, which He did, and fulfilled a prophecy by working a miracle like that of Jonah. If Christ did not do so, we are. compelled to admit that the Lord's prophecy turned out false. / W3ien Ohrist'e bones were .broken, like those of the thieves, and blood gushed from His sides, were not these signs of life?

"When He, after working numerout miracles, got out on the frontier of Gal , lilee, His followers could not recognjM Him, for He was much extenuated in .His body and h<ad grown lean and pa l 6 from His tortures of the cross. Christ showed the wounds of the cross, but they, being rough and superstitious fishermen, were not convinced of the identity of to* Saviour until He allowed them to Jjw their fingers into the prints of the neiU in His hands. This shows that the Lord was not in a spiritual, birt a corpora* state in the truest sense of the wonL This fact falsifies the doctrine of the atonement.

"Prom w2ia.t lias ■'been mentioned It 1* easily proved historically, medically ana philolagically that Christ did not expire , on Calvary Cross, but was taken do*n in a state of swoon, and in due time enu* grated into Cashmere, where Lβ Hl» •OW tary tomb," . .—».;