MR AIKEN AND THE RESURRECTION.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 11741, 19 September 1902, Page 7

MR AIKEN AND THE RESURRECTION.

To the Editor. Sir.—Your Goti-respondent, Mr Ai.tken, states his intention of staking his all, as did Paul of old, on the resurrection of Jesus. Now it may seem to many that to £0 into tjiese matters 'as equivalent! to being led away from the ir.ain question, viz., the introduction of Bibje "readings in tip State schools, but if "we consider that the plea of those who advocate this step is that the Bible contains all truth and morality, it follows that if we, who are opposed to this measure, can disprove this pro-position, then we may consider that we have undermined the position of our op-* ponents, and that we may be entit'fed to call upon them to . surrender and retreat from the position they have taken up. Mr Aitken surprises me when he says that "no event in ancient history is half so well authenticated." I had always imagined it to be largely a mutter of "faith." but your correspondent is not content with this ; he would have it judged from an historical standpoint. Paul said, "And if Christ "be

'not risen, then is our "•"■reaching, vain, and your faith is also vaui." I hope to prove the vanity of this belief, to the satisfaction of all reasonabue minds. What is the testimony for this supposed miracle In the first place, is it singular, to the people, and the time? This, on examination, is found not to be so. Iti a study of the. religions of the world we meet with certain well defined brandies, that are connected with races and l?i>guag«:s of which we have some knowledge. Through ethnological and philological research, the position of Christianity amongst the religions of the world, both in time and importance, has been fixed with a considerable degree of accuracy. By a study of comparative mythology, .anyone may discover the sources of all Chrisitian myths, that o fthe Resurrection included. If, on a thorough examination of these 'myths, we find' poimtis of resemblance so very cloise as to leave little for invention in the new, to tihat. which is so much older, then we are coimpeiiled to come to the conclusion that tihe younger, in point of time, is the -boi-rower.' In fact, a natural development is proved beyond question. Applying this test to the alleged miracle of the Resurrection, as well as i that of the birth of Christ and His life generally, we find there is nothing new ; simply a modification of that which went before. Take the case of the' Vedic, or Hindu story. Here Vishnu, the second person of the Hindu Trinity, moved to pity at the sight >otf man's misery, becomes incarnate under the name of Chris-hna, bom of the Virgin Devaki on the 25th December. (Mark the date, which not only shows the source of the Christian myth, but also a<n older source for the Hindu itself, in the solar connection, as tlhis marks the time when the sun began, once more ta rise higher and! higher in tlhe noonday sky.) His birth was announced by_ a star, and accomjpanied by the singing of Devatas (angeills). He was born in a cave., his mother being on a journey with hisi ioster-fatiher, to pay tribute to the king. The reign,in,g monarch sought.his life, but a spirit warned! his foster-father to fly with tlhe child. The king theneupotn ordered a massacre of all male children born on the night of his birth. (This part of the legend was represented by an immense sculpture, on the roof of the Temple of Elephants, centuries before the birth of Christ). As, Ohrifihiiia grew, lie astonished his teachers by his wisdom, and later on healed the sick and lepers. A woman once poured a vessel of ointment upon his head; he was transfigured before his favourite disciple, Arguna, and finally met his death by crucifixion', and was represented in the temple hanging on_a cross. At his death the sun Was darkened, and spirits filled the air; he descended into Hell, and 'nose 'again, and lasecnded bodily into Heaven. This God was worshipped in India at the time Alexander the Great invaded that country, but the .general outlines of his history were matters of general acceptance about 900 years B.C. Ohrishna was known as the Redeemer Saviour, the Good Shepherd, etc., in fact there Was little or nothing in the history of this religious founder tihat was not attributed to the others. After a few centuries appears Siddartiha, Gautama, or the Buddha (the Enlightened One), who passes through all the same phases, even to walking upon the waters (the Ganges), axd going out for a forty days' faat, etc. Then, at his death were enacted all the circumstances related of Jesus, and this can Fe' tpiwed to. have been generally accepted by the believens in the religion centuries before Christ. This subject is too great to ,go a<n.y further on * these lines, but enough has been "said/ it Js hoped, tia prompt inquiry, a,nd if a goad book is wanted on the subject, cone much better than those mentioned by your correspondent, Arthur Talbot, could be iound. Now, as to tine other side of the question, viz., the evidence for the Resurrection itself. Christ is reported as having prophesied tihat tihe Son of Man (thereby meaning Himself should be delivered to the Gentile to.be scourged diad crucified, and that the "third day He shall rise again." Now, it has been proved, on the evidence of the Bible itself that tihiis prophecy was not fulfilled so far as- the time is concerned. Jesus is reported to have been laid in the siepulchere late on the one nigiht, and yet •t an early hour the next morning He ■» 3 sported to be raised. Moreover, !,(•• promised the Good Thief that he wen. VI be in Paradise on that very nMit, According to Matthew, a guard of Rom-mi soldiers was placed to watch the tomb Ma.tthe.tt- admits that one night elapsed betora the guard was placed there. The story of the Romas. Suldiers falling asleep at their pos*s isl the flimsiest of invent tions, and to say they were bribed to say so is worse, fclr in either case it meant death under the stem military system of Rome to a,ny tidier so doiim. What sort of a bribe might a man ask for liis life and what good might it be when he had the money in hand? It is considered by the best authorities that Christ, who was at most six hours on the ■cross, was not dead, but only unconscious. If this were so, what more reasonable than to suppose that he "come to" and walked away to a. friend's house. This is a better way out of the difficulty than to say that the Roman soldiers, slept; for who that has considered the destruction of Pompeii, and the errible scene enacted, through which stood, firm a* the rock itself, the figure of that Roman sentinel, while every other human being about him rushed frantically away. This us not the tyipe of man that falls asleep at his post. The statement is a libel upon one of the finest disciplined forces/ that ' were ever drilled into order and cohesion. Now, apart from these views, there in that of the testimony of the Gospels as to Christ being seen after the event. It is also mentioned that many others of the dead gat up out of their graves at the time of the crucifixion and walked ab.out but we do not hear what beouihe of them afterwards. Perhaps being unused to such unbooked for exertion they became, weary and retired again -to the recumbent position more usual to them, Authentic 'contemporary histwiains appear "to have passed "this' matter over unnoticed,' aaid the only allusion to Christ—that in "Josephus"—which comes from an unbiassed source," is considered by all the best scholars to be a.n interpolation. The testimony of the four Gospe'is is a mass of contradictions and absurdities. The writers differ as to the time, the manner, and the agency of the discovery. One says two women came; another says three; then Maay Magdalene is reported; as coming alone. "With coie it is yefe dark; another makes it the dawn, etc. With one witness there is one angel, while another says there were two; one sees the angel sitting upon the stone which is rolled away from the tomb, while tihe "other sees two, standing up j and so the jumble continues. Then we are' told that the two Marys heard the news from the angel sitting' outside the sepulchere, but another tells us it was Jesus himself. Then as to the appearances after the Resurrection. First 'it is tihe amgei and afterwards' Jesus who tells them to go into Galilee to meet Him; and they went and met Him, receiving His blessing and worship-

ping Him. In Luke they are commanded not to leave^ Jerusalem., and then they acre visited by Him. In all this confused jumble of evidence Are see the result of tradition emanating from, more or less, ignorant sources, interspersed witth certain portions that bear the impress of> being copied from some much older MSS, as iihown by the able writers of the "En-. cyclopaedia Biblica." It is not until about the year 150 A.D. that we find these Gospels quoted as an authority, on matters Christian, and then only in a very slight degree. Papms, who AA ras Bishop of Hieropolis, in Asia Minoir, and Avho suffered miartyrcflom in the year 164 A.D., considered these writings altogether untrustworthy. He states Jiis preference for oral tradition, find refers to Mark as being a "Boswell" to St. Peter. This evidence of his is diisbiinot'y unfavourable to the Gospel of John; in fact, it Avould lead one to sigraose thal^jt_Avas not then Arritten. In the words "ol S. Laing, in his "Modern Science aud Modern Thought," p. 261, 12th thousand, after thoroughly reviewing the evidence of the origin of the Gospels accordinc to St. John aad that of St. Mark and Matthew, "We have nothing better to rely on than the statement of Papias, which there is do reason to mistrust. The basis of the three synoptic Gospels was probably -i» collection of facts and ■ainecdotetf written down in Greek by Mark ana of discourses Avritten in HebreAV by Matthew. These have been Avorked up subsequently at unknown dates, and by unknoAvn authors, aided possibly by oral traditions." And now what is the result? To my mind, there can be but. one reasonable conclusion, and this is that Jesus Aras a reformer, a man of the people ; one full of hatred of the inequalities aaid injustices under Avhioh a majority of the peopfe laboured. He Avias moreover one of those who attracted unto Himself a considerable following o£ the poor and ignorant. He had imbibed the socialistic, or communistic sentiment® of the Essenians, a sect holding fhese principles, y d these views endeared Him still more to the class of people; amongst whom' He moved. At length He became too bold and Avas arrested, and subsequently either put to death or severely punished.for His •sedition. The result was that His disciples, amd thoste who followed after them, added • little by little-to", the starty of His life, until, drawing1 upon the extensive wardrobe of the East, they habilitated Hjm in the gxrmmls of that mytholoigy which Avas so dear to them and to the multitude whom tOxey /wished to ,attract. .So Aye find the. simple figure of Jesus, the Socialist, elevated, through the influence of the old mythology, and fortified by the ethioa of an older civilisation, able in time to overturn the unpoip*ilar paganism of Rome, which has become too opulent for its day. The followers of the Lowly Nazarene effected the substitution withoutt. th© common peo|pje knoAving much about it, and caring less. And now/- sir, yepur corre-spond'eint—he of the steel-poinitedi weapon—may not find that he has plunged it into a hornet's nest, but i-aUher into the fires of Truth, '■ amd tihat he wffl find tin Avithdrawing it thait his implement of Error-has. lost its temper, and limp and mis-shapen, he must bear it away to the house of Reflection, where, on the anvil of Oommon Sense and Logic, lie must fashion, a new instrument of Thought.—-I aim, etc., OMEGA.