Theological Essays Part 11

Jonah was a prophet; so is Dr. c.u.mming, so is Brigham Young; there is no evidence that Jonah followed any other profession. Jonah's profit probably hardly equalled that realised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, but he had money enough to pay his fare "from the presence of the Lord"

to Tars.h.i.+sh. The exact distance of this voyage may be easily calculated by remembering that the Lord is omnipresent, and then measuring from his boundary to Tars.h.i.+sh. The fare may be worked out by the differential calculus after evening prayer.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah; when or how the word came the text does not record, and to any devout mind it is enough to know that it came. The first time in the world's history that the word of the Lord ever came to anybody, may be taken to be when Adam and Eve "heard the voice of the Lord" "walking in the Garden" of Eden "in the cool of the day." Between the time of Adam and Jonah a long period had elapsed; but human nature, having had many prophets, was very wicked. The Lord wanted Jonah to go with a message to Nineveh. Nineveh was apparently a city of three days' journey in size. Allowing twenty miles for each day, this would make the city about 60 miles across, or about 180 miles in circ.u.mference. Some faint idea may be formed of this vast city, by adding together London, Paris, and New York, and then throwing in Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Ma.r.s.eilles, Naples, and Spurgeon's Tabernacle. Jonah knowing that the Lord did not always carry out his threats or perform his promises, did not wish to go to Nineveh, and "rose up to flee to Tars.h.i.+sh from the presence of the Lord." The Tars.h.i.+sh for which Jonah intended his flight was either in Spain or India or elsewhere. I am inclined, after deep reflection and examination of the best authorities, to give the preference to the third-named locality. When Cain went "out of the presence of the Lord," he went into the Land of Nod, but whether Tars.h.i.+sh is in that or some other country there is no evidence to determine. To get to Tars.h.i.+sh, Jonah-instead of going to the port of Tyre, which was the nearest to his reputed dwelling, and by far the most commodious-went to the more distant and less convenient port of Joppa, where he found a s.h.i.+p going to Tars.h.i.+sh; "so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them into Tars.h.i.+sh, from the presence of the Lord." Jonah was, however, very shortsighted. Just as in the old Greek mythology, winds and waves are made warriors for the G.o.ds, so the G.o.d of the Hebrews "sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the s.h.i.+p was like to be broken." Luckily she was not an old leaky vessel, overladen and heavily insured; one which the sanctimonious owners desired to see at the bottom, and which the captain did not care to save. Christianity and civilisation were yet to bring forth that glorious resultant, a pious English s.h.i.+powner, with a newly-painted, but, under the paint, a worn and rusty iron vessel, long abandoned as unfit, but now fresh-named, and so insured that Davy Jones's locker becomes the most welcome haven of refuge. "The mariners were afraid...

and cast forth the wares" into the sea to lighten the s.h.i.+p. But where was Jonah during this noise? Men trampling on deck, hoa.r.s.e and harsh words of command, and the fury of the storm troubled not our prophet.

Sea-sickness, which spares not the most pious, had no effect upon him.

"Jonah was gone down into the sides of the s.h.i.+p, and he lay and was fast asleep." The battering of the waves against the sides disturbed not his devout slumbers; the creaking of the vessel's timbers spoiled not his repose. Despite the pitching and rolling of the vessel Jonah "was fast asleep." Had he been in the comfortable berth of a Cunarder, it would not have been easy to sleep through such a storm. Had he been in the hold of a smaller vessel on the Bay of Biscay, finding himself now with his head lower than his heels, and now with his body playing hide and seek amongst loose articles of cargo, it would have required great absence of mind to prevent waking. Had he only been on an Irish steamer carrying cattle on deck, between Bristol and Cork, with a portion of the bulwarks washed away, and a squad of recruits "who cried every man to his G.o.d," he would have found the calmness of undisturbed slumber difficult. But Jonah was on board the Joppa and Tars.h.i.+sh boat, and he "was fast asleep." As the crew understood the theory of storms, they of course knew that when there is a tempest at sea it is sent by G.o.d, because he is offended by some one on board the vessel. Modern scientists scout this notion, and pretend to track storm waves across the world, and to affix storm signals in order to warn mariners. They actually profess to predict atmospheric changes, and to explain how such changes take place. Church clergymen know how futile science is, and how potent prayers are, for vessels at sea. The men on the Joppa vessel said, "every one to his fellow, Come, and lets us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah." It is always a grave question in sacred metaphysics as to whether G.o.d directed Jonah's lot, and, if yes, whether the casting of lots is a.n.a.logous to playing with loaded dice. The Bishop of Lincoln, who understands how far cremation may render resurrection awkward, is the only divine capable of thoroughly resolving this problem. For ordinary Christians it is enough to know that the lot fell upon Jonah.

Before the crew commenced casting lots to find out Jonah, they had cast lots of their wares overboard, so that when the lot fell on Jonah it was much lighter than it would have been had the lot fallen upon him during his sleep. Still, if not stunned by the lot which fell upon him, he stood convicted as the cause of the tempest:-and the crew "Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou? And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the G.o.d of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you; for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not; for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging." No pen can improve this story; it is so simple, so natural, so child-like.

Every one has heard of casting oil on troubled waters. It stands to reason that a fat prophet would produce the same effect. What a striking ill.u.s.tration of the power of faith it will be when bishops leave their own sees in order to be in readiness to calm an ocean storm. Or if not a bishop, at least a curate; and even a lean curate; for with sea air, a ravenous appet.i.te, and a White Star Line cabin bill of fare of breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, and supper, fatness would soon be arrived at. In the interests of science I should like to see an episcopal prophet occasionally thrown overboard during a storm. The experiment must in any case be advantageous to humanity; should the tempest be stilled, then the ocean would be indeed the broad way, not leading to destruction; should the storm not be conquered, there would even then be promotion in the Church, and happiness to many at the mere cost of one bishop. "Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah."

Jesus says the fish was a whale. A whale would have needed preparation, and the statement has an air of vraisemblance. The fish did swallow Jonah. "Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights."

Poor Jonah! and poor fis.h.!.+ Poor Jonah, for it can scarcely be pleasant, even if you escape suffocation, to be in a fish's belly with too much to drink, and no room to swallow, and your solids either raw or too much done. Poor fis.h.!.+ for even after preparation it must be disagreeable to have one's poor stomach turned into a sort of prayer meeting. Jonah was taken in; but the fish found that taking in a parson was a feat neither easy nor healthy. After Jonah had uttered guttural sounds from inside the fish's belly for three days and three nights, the Lord spake unto the fish, and the fish was sick of Jonah, "and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." Some sceptics urged that a whale could not have swallowed Jonah; but once, at Tod-morden, a Church of England clergyman, who had been curate to the Reverend Charles Kingsley, got rid of this as an objection by a.s.suring us that he should have equally believed the story had it stated that Jonah had swallowed the whale. And then the word of the Lord came to Jonah once more, and this time Jonah obeyed. He was to take G.o.d's message to the citizens of Nineveh. "And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Should Jonah come to London in the present day with a similar message, he would meet scant courtesy from our clergy. A foreigner, and using a strange tongue, he would probably find himself in Colney Hatch or Hanwell. To come to England in the name of Mahomet or Buddha, or Osiris or Jupiter, would have little effect.

But the Ninevites do not seem even to have raised the question that the G.o.d of the Hebrews was not their G.o.d. They listened to Jonah, and "the people of Nineveh believed G.o.d, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his n.o.bles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto G.o.d: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands." The consumption of sackcloth for covering every man and beast must have been rather large, and the Nineveh sackcloth manufacturers must have had enormous stocks on hand to supply the sudden demand. The city article of the _Nineveh Times_, if such a paper existed, would probably have described "sackcloth firm, with a tendency to rise." Man and beast, all dressed in or covered with sackcloth! It would be sometimes difficult to distinguish a Ninevite man from a Ninevite beast, the dress being similar for all. This is a difficulty, however, other nations have shared with the Ninevites. Men and women may sometimes be seen in London dressed in broadcloth and satins, and, though their clothing is distinguishable enough, their conduct is sometimes so beastly that the naked beasts are the more respectable.

Nineveh was frightened, and Nineveh moaned, and Nineveh determined to do wrong no more. "And G.o.d saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and G.o.d repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not." G.o.d, the unchangeable, changed his purpose, and spared the city, which in his infinite wisdom he had doomed. "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry." It was enough to [vex] a saint to be sent to prophesy the destruction of the city in six weeks, and then nothing at all to happen. "And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tars.h.i.+sh."

Jonah did not like to be a discredited prophet, and cried, "Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry?" Jonah, knowing the Lord, was still curious and uncertain as well as angry. He was a prophet and a sceptic. "So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a boot[h], and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord G.o.d prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But G.o.d prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pa.s.s, when the sun did arise, that G.o.d prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And G.o.d said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night: And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?" The Lord seems to have overlooked that Jonah had more pity on himself than the gourd, whose only value to him was as a shade from the sun. Jonah, too, might have reminded the Lord that there were more than 120,000 persons similarly situated at the deluge and at the slaughter of the Midianites, and that the "much cattle" had never theretofore been reckoned in the divine decrees of mercy.

Here ends the new life of Jonah. Of the prophet's childhood we know nothing; of his middle age no more than we have here related; of his old age and death we have nothing to say. It is enough for good Christians to know that "Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." According to Jesus the story of Jonah is as true as Gospel.

WHO WAS JESUS CHRIST?

MANY persons will consider the question one to which the Gospels give a sufficient answer, and that no further inquiry is necessary. But while the general Christian body affirm that Jesus was G.o.d incarnate on earth, the Unitarian Christians, less in numerical strength, but numbering a large proportion of the more intelligent and humane, absolutely deny his divinity; the Jews, of whom he is alleged to have been one, do not believe in him at all; and the enormous majority of the inhabitants of the earth have never accepted the Gospels. Even in the earliest ages of the Christian Church heretics were found, amongst Christians themselves, who denied that Jesus had ever existed in the flesh. Under these circ.u.mstances the most pious should concede that it is well to prosecute the inquiry to the uttermost, that their faith may rest on sure foundations. The history of Jesus Christ is contained in four books or gospels; outside these it cannot be pretended that there is any reliable narrative of his life. We know not with any certainty, and have now no means of knowing, when, where, or by whom these gospels were written.

The name at the head of each gospel affords no clue to the real writer.

Before A.D. 160, no author mentions any Gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and there is no sufficient evidence to identify the Gospels we have with even the writings to which Irenaeus refers towards the close of the second century. The Church has provided us with an author for each Gospel, and some early Fathers have argued that there ought to be four Gospels, because there are four seasons, four princ.i.p.al points to the compa.s.s, and four corners to the earth. Bolder speculators affirm twelve apostles because there are twelve signs of the Zodiac. With regard to the Gospel first in order, divines disagree as to the language in which it was written. Some allege that the original was in Hebrew, others deny that our Greek version has any of the characters of a translation.

We neither know the hour, nor day, nor month, nor year, of Jesus's birth; divines generally agree that he was not born on Christmas Day, and yet on that day the anniversary of his birth is observed. The Oxford Chronology places the matter in no clearer light, and more than thirty learned authorities give a period of over seven years' difference in their reckoning. The place of his birth is also uncertain. The Jews, in the presence of Jesus, reproached him that he ought to have been born at Bethlehem, and he never replied, "I was born there." (John vii, 41, 42, 52.)

Jesus was the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matthew i), from whom his descent is traced through Isaac-born of Sarai (whom the writer of the epistle to Galatians [iv, 24], says was a covenant and not a woman)-and ultimately through Joseph, who was not only not his father, but is not shown to have had any kind of relations.h.i.+p to him, and through whom therefore the genealogy should not be traced. There are two genealogies in the Gospels which contradict each other, and these in part may be collated with the Old Testament genealogy, which differs from both. The genealogy of Matthew is self-contradictory, counts thirteen names as fourteen, and omits the names of three kings. Matthew says Abiud was the son of Zorobabel (i, 13). Luke says Zorobabel's son Was Rhesa (iii, 27). The Old Testament contradicts both, and gives Meshullam and Hananiah and Shelomith, their sister (1 Chron. iii, 19), as the names of Zorobabel's children. The reputed father of Jesus, Joseph, had two fathers, one named Jacob, the other Heli. The divines suggest that Heli was the father of Mary, by reading the word "Mary" in Luke iii, 23, in lieu of "Joseph," and the word "daughter" in lieu of "son," thus correcting the evident blunder made by inspiration. The birth of Jesus was miraculously announced to Mary and to Joseph by visits of an angel, but they so little regarded the miraculous annunciation that they marvelled soon after at much less wonderful things spoken by Simeon. Jesus was the son of G.o.d, or G.o.d manifest in the flesh, and his birth was first discovered by some wise men or astrologers, a cla.s.s described in the Bible as an abomination in G.o.d's sight. These men saw his star in the East, but it did not tell them much, for they were apparently obliged to ask information from Herod the King. Herod in turn inquired of the chief priests and scribes; and it is evident Jeremiah was right if he said, "The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means," for these chief priests either misread the prophets, or misquoted the scripture which is claimed to be a revelation from G.o.d, and invented a false prophecy (Matthew ii, 5, 6, c.f. (Micah v, 2), by omitting a few words from, and adding a few words to, a text until it suited their purpose. The star-after the wise men knew where to go, and no longer required its aid-led and went before them, until it came and stood over where the young child was. This story will be better understood if the reader will walk out some clear night, notice a star, and then try to fix the one house it will be exactly over. The writer of the Third Gospel, silent on the star story, speaks of an angel who tells some shepherds of the miraculous; but this does not appear to have happened in the reign of Herod. After the wise men had left Jesus, an angel warned Joseph to flee with Jesus and Mary into Egypt; and Joseph did fly, and remained there with the young child and his mother until the death of Herod; and this it is alleged was done to fulfil a prophecy. The words (Hosea xi, 1) are not prophetic and have no reference whatever to Jesus. The Jesus of the Third Gospel never went into Egypt at all in his childhood. When Jesus began to be about thirty years of age, he was baptised by John in the River Jordan. John, who knew him, according to the First Gospel, forbade him directly he saw him; but, according to the Fourth Gospel, he knew him not, and had, therefore, no occasion to forbid him. G.o.d is an "invisible spirit," whom no man hath seen (John i, 18), or can see (Exodus x.x.xiii, 20); but the man John saw the spirit of G.o.d descending like a dove. G.o.d is everywhere, but at that time was in heaven, from whence he said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Although John heard this from G.o.d's own mouth, he did not always act as if he believed it, but some time after sent two of his disciples to Jesus to inquire if he were really the Christ (Matthew xi, 2, 3). Immediately after the baptism, Jesus was led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil. Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights, and in those days he did eat nothing. Moses twice fasted that period. Such fasts are nearly miraculous. The modern fasting men, and the Hindoo fasters, only show that under very abnormal conditions, long abstinence from food is possible. Absolutely miraculous events are events which never happened in the past, do not take place in the present, and never will occur in the future. Jesus, it is said, was G.o.d, and by his power as G.o.d fasted.

On the hypothesis of his divinity, it is difficult to understand how he became hungry. When hungry the Devil tempted Jesus by offering him stones, and asking him to make them bread. Stones offered to a hungry man for bread-making hardly afford a probable temptation. Which temptation came next is a matter of doubt. Matthew and Luke relate the story in different order. According to one, the Devil next taketh Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and tempts him to throw himself to the bottom, by quoting Scripture that angels should bear him in their arms.

Jesus either disbelieved this Scripture, or remembered that the Devil, like other pillars of the Church, grossly misquoted to suit his purpose, and the temptation failed. The Devil then took Jesus to an exceeding high mountain, from whence he showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory thereof, in a moment of time. It is urged that this did not include a view of the antipodes, but only referred to the kingdoms then known; even then it must have been a long look from Judea to China.

The mountain must have been very high-much higher than the diameter of the earth. Origen, a learned and pious holy father, suggests that no man in his senses will believe this to have really happened. If Origen had to defend his language before a modern judge of the type of Mr. Justice North, the Christian father would have sore risk of Holloway Gaol. The Devil offered Jesus-who it is declared was one with G.o.d, and therefore omnipotent-all the kingdoms of the world, if he, Jesus the omnipotent G.o.d, would fall down and wors.h.i.+p his own creature the Devil. Some object that if G.o.d is the creator and omnipotent ruler of the world, then the Devil would have no control over the kingdoms of the world, and that the offer could be no temptation, as it was made to Jesus, who was G.o.d omnipotent and all-wise. Such objectors rely on natural reason.

After the temptation Jesus worked many miracles, casting out devils and otherwise doing marvels amongst the inhabitants of Judea, who seem as a body to have been very unbelieving. If a second Jesus of Nazareth were in this heretical age to boast that he possessed the power of casting out devils, he would stand a fair chance of expiating his offence by a three months' imprisonment with hard labor. It is true that the 72nd Canon of the Church of England recognises that ministers can cast out devils, but forbids them to do this unless licensed by the Bishop "under pain of the imputation of imposture or cozenage." Now, if sick men have a little wisdom, the physician is resorted to that he may cure the disease. If men have much wisdom, they study physiology while they have health, in order to prevent sickness. In the time of the early Christians prayer and faith (James v, 14, 15) occupied the position since usurped by medicine and experience. Men who had lost their senses in the time of Christ were regarded as attacked not by disease but by the Devil. In the days of Jesus one spirit would make a man blind, or deaf, or dumb: occasionally a number of devils would get into a man and drive him mad. On one occasion Jesus met either one man (Mark v, 2) or two men (Matt. viii, 28), possessed with devils. The devils knew Jesus, and addressed him by name. Jesus, not so familiar with the imp or imps, inquired the name of the particular devil he was addressing. The answer, given in Latin, would induce a belief, possibly corroborated by the writings of the monks, that devils communicated in that tongue. Jesus wanted to cast out the devils from the man; this they did not contest, but they expressed a decided objection to being cast out of the country.

A compromise was agreed to, and at their own request the devils were transferred to a herd of swine. The swine ran into the sea and were drowned. There is no record of any compensation to the owner.

Jesus fed large mult.i.tudes of people under circ.u.mstances of a most ultra-thaumaturgic character. To the first book of Euclid is prefixed an axiom "that the whole is greater than its part." John Wesley was wise if it be true that he eschewed mathematics lest it should lead him to infidelity. If any man be irreligious enough to accept Euclid's axiom, he will be compelled to reject the miraculous feeding of 5,000 people with five loaves and two small fishes. The original difficulty of the miracle, though not increased, is made hard to the common mind by the a.s.sertion that after the mult.i.tude had been fed, twelve basketsfull of fragments remained.

Jesus is related to have walked on the sea when it was very stormy, and when "the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew." Walking on the water is a great feat even if the sea be calm, but when the waves run high it is still more wonderful.

The miracle of turning water into wine at Cana, in Galilee, is worthy attention, when considering the question, Who was Jesus Christ? Jesus and his disciples had been called to a marriage feast, and when there the company fell short of wine. The mother of Jesus, to whom the Catholics offer wors.h.i.+p, and to whom they pay great adoration, informed Jesus of the deficiency, and was answered, "Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come." His mother seemed to have expected a miracle, yet in the Fourth Gospel the Cana wonder was the beginning of miracle working by Jesus; the apocryphal gospels a.s.sert that Jesus practised miracle working as a child. Jesus having obtained six waterpots full of water, turned them into wine. Teetotallers who cannot believe G.o.d would specially provide means of drunkenness, urge that this wine was not of intoxicating quality, though there is nothing in the text to justify their hypothesis. The curious connexion between the phrase "well drunk," and the time at which the miracle was performed, would rather warrant the supposition that the guests were already in such a state as to render it difficult for them to critically appreciate the new vintage. The moral effects of this miracle are not easily appreciable.

Shortly after this Jesus went to the temple with a scourge of small cords, and drove thereout the cattle dealers and money changers who had a.s.sembled there in the ordinary course of their business. The writer of the Fourth Gospel places this event very early in the public life of Jesus. The writer of the Third Gospel fixes the occurrence much later.

Jesus being hungry went to a fig-tree, to gather figs, though the season of figs was not yet come. Of course there were no figs upon the tree, and Jesus then caused the tree to wither away. This is specially interesting as a problem for a true orthodox trinitarian who will believe-first, that Jesus was G.o.d, who made the tree, and prevented it from bearing figs; second, that G.o.d the all-wise, who is not subject to human pa.s.sions, being hungry, went to the fig-tree, on which he knew there could be no figs, expecting to find some there; third, that G.o.d the all-just then punished the tree, because it did not bear figs in opposition to G.o.d's eternal ordination.

Jesus had a disciple named Peter, who, having much Christian faith, was a great coward and denied his leader in his hour of need. Jesus though previously aware that Peter would be a traitor, yet gave him the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, and told him that whatsoever he bound on earth should be bound in Heaven. Peter was to have denied Jests three times before the c.o.c.k should crow (Matt. xxvi, 34). The c.o.c.k crowed before Peter's second denial (Mark xiv, 68). Commentators urge that the words used do not refer to the crowing of any particular c.o.c.k, but to a special hour of the morning called "c.o.c.k-crow." But if the Gospel be true, the explanation is false. Peter's denial becomes the more extraordinary when we remember that he had seen Moses, Jesus, and Elias talking together, and had heard a voice from a cloud say, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." As Peter could thus deny Jesus after having heard G.o.d vouch his divinity, and Peter not only escapes punishment, but gets the office of gatekeeper to Heaven, how much more should those escape punishment and obtain reward, who only deny because they cannot help it, and who have been left without any corroborative evidence of sight or hearing?

The Jesus of the First Gospel promised that, as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so he (Jesus) would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Yet he was buried on Friday evening, and was out of the grave before Sat.u.r.day night was over. Some say that the Jews reckoned part of a day as a whole one.

The translators have made Jesus perform a curious equestrian feat on his entry into Jerusalem. The text (Matt. xxi, 7) says they "brought the a.s.s and the colt and put on them their clothes and set him thereon." This does not mean that he rode on both at one time; it only says so. On the cross the Jesus of the Four Gospels, who was G.o.d, cried out, "My G.o.d, my G.o.d, why hast thou forsaken me?" G.o.d cannot forsake himself. Jesus was G.o.d himself. Yet G.o.d forsook Jesus, and the latter cried out to know why he was forsaken. Any able divine will explain that of course he knew, and that he was not forsaken. The explanation renders it difficult to believe the dying cry, and the pa.s.sage becomes one of the mysteries of the holy Christian religion, which, unless a man rightly believe, "without doubt he shall perish everlastingly." At the crucifixion of Jesus wonderful miracles took place "The graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the grave after his resurrection and appeared unto many." Which saints were these? They "appeared unto many," but there is not the slightest evidence outside the Bible that anyone ever saw them. Their "bodies" came out of the graves. Do not the bodies of the saints decompose like those of ordinary human beings?

Jesus must have much changed in the grave, for his disciples did not know him when he stood on the sh.o.r.e (John xxi, 4), and Mary, most attached to him, knew him not, but supposed that he was the gardener.

According to the First Gospel, Jesus appeared to two women after his resurrection, and afterwards met eleven of his disciples by appointment on a mountain in Galilee. When was this appointment made? The text on which divines rely is Matt. xxvi, 32; this makes no such appointment.

According to the Second Gospel, he appeared first to one woman, and when she told the disciples they did not believe it. Yet, on pain of indictment now and d.a.m.nation hereafter, we are bound to unhesitatingly accept that which the disciples of Jesus rejected. By the Second Gospel we learn that instead of the eleven going to Galilee after Jesus, he came to them as they sat at meat. In the Third Gospel he first appeared to two of his disciples at Emmaus, and they did not know him until they had been a long time in his company-it was evening before they recognised him. Unfortunately, directly they knew him they did not see him, for as soon as they knew him he vanished out of their sight. He immediately afterwards appeared to the eleven at Jerusalem, and not at Galilee, as stated in the First Gospel. Jesus asked for some meat, and the disciples gave him a portion of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb, and he did eat. Jesus was afterwards taken up into Heaven, a cloud received him, and he was missed. G.o.d is everywhere, and Heaven no more above than below, but it is necessary we should believe that Jesus has ascended into Heaven to sit on the right hand of G.o.d, who is infinite and has no right hand. Was Jesus Christ a man? If limited for our answer to the mere Gospel Jesus-surely not. His whole career is, on any literal reading, simply a series of improbabilities or contradictions. Who was Christ? born of a virgin, and of divine parentage? So too were many of the mythic SunG.o.ds and so was Krishna, whose story, similar in many respects with that of Jesus, was current long prior to the Christian era.

Was Jesus Christ man or myth? His story being fable, is the hero a reality? That a man named Jesus really lived and performed some special actions attracting popular attention, and thus became the centre for a hundred myths may well be true, but beyond this what is there of solid fact?

WHAT DID JESUS TEACH?

THE language in which Jesus taught, has not been preserved to us. Who recorded his actual words, or if any real record ever existed, is all matter of guess. Who translated the words of Jesus into the Greek no one knows. In the compa.s.s of four pamphlets, attributed to four persons, of whose connexion with the Gospels, as we have them, little or nothing whatever can be ascertained, we have what are, by the orthodox, supposed to be the words in which Jesus actually taught. What did he teach?

Manly, self-reliant resistance of wrong, and practice of right? No; the key-stone of his whole teaching may be found in the text: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew v, 3) Is poverty of spirit the chief amongst virtues, that Jesus gives it prime place in his teachings? Is it even a virtue at all? Surely not.

Manliness of spirit, honesty of spirit, fulness of rightful purpose, these are virtues; poverty of spirit is a crime. When men are poor in spirit, then the proud and haughty in spirit oppress them. When men are true in spirit and determined (as true men should be) to resist, and as far as possible, prevent wrong, then is there greater opportunity for present happiness, and, as even Christians ought to admit, no lesser fitness for the enjoyment of further happiness, in some may-be heaven.

Are you poor in spirit, and are you smitten; in such case what did Jesus teach?-"Unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other." (Luke, vi, 29) Surely better to teach that "he who courts oppression shares the crime;" and, if smitten once to take careful measure to prevent a future smiting. Jesus teaches actual invitation of injury. Sh.e.l.ley breathed higher humanity:

"Stand ye calm and resolute, Like a forest close and mute, With folded arms and looks, which are Weapons of an unvanquished war."

There is a wide distinction between pa.s.sive resistance to wrong, and courting further injury at the hands of the wrongdoer.

In the teaching of Jesus, poverty of spirit is enforced to the fullest conceivable extent: "Him that taketh away thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again." (Luke vi, 29, 30) Poverty of person, is the only possible sequence to this extraordinary manifestation of poverty of spirit. Poverty of person is attended with many unpleasantnesses; and Jesus, who knew that poverty would result from his teaching, says, as if he wished to keep the poor content through their lives with poverty, "Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of G.o.d." (Luke vi, 20) "But woe unto you that are rich, for ye have received your consolation." (Luke vi, 24) He pictures one in h.e.l.l, whose only related vice is that in life he was rich; and another in heaven, whose only related virtue is that in life he was poor (Luke xvi, 19-31). He affirms it is more difficult for a rich man to get into heaven, than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (Luke xvii, 25). The only intent of such teaching could be to induce the poor to remain content in this life, with the want and misery of their wretched state in the hope of higher recompense in some future life. Is it good to be content with poverty? Is it not far better to investigate the causes of poverty, with a view to its cure and prevention? The doctrine is most horrid which declares that the poor shall not cease from the face of the earth. Poor in spirit and poor in pocket, with no courage to work for food, or money to purchase it, we might well expect to find the man with empty stomach also who held these doctrines; and what does Jesus teach? "Blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled."

(Luke vi, 21) He does not say when the filling shall take place. The date is evidently postponed until men will have no stomachs to replenish? It is not in this life that the hunger is to be sated. "Woe unto you that are full, for ye shall hunger." (Luke vi, 25) It would but little advantage the hungry man to bless him by filling him, if a curse awaited the completion of his repast. Craven in spirit, with an empty purse and hungry mouth-what next? The man who has not manliness enough to prevent wrong, will probably bemoan his hard fate, and cry bitterly that sore are the misfortunes he endures. And what does Jesus teach?

"Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh." (Luke vi, 21) Is this true, and, if true, when shall the laughter come? "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." (Matthew v, 4) Aye, but when?

Not while they mourn and weep. Weeping for the past is vain: a deluge of tears will not wash away its history. Weeping for the present is worse than vain-it obstructs your sight. In each minute of your life the aforetime future is present born, and you need dry and keen eyes to give it and yourself a safe and happy deliverance. When shall they that mourn be comforted? Are slaves that weep salt tear-drops on their chains comforted in their weeping. Each pearly overflowing as it falls rusts mind, as well as fetter. Ye who are slaves and weep, will never be comforted until you dry your eyes, and nerve your arms, and, in the plenitude of manliness:

"Shake your chains to earth like dew, Which in sleep hath fallen on you."

Jesus teaches that the poor, the hungry, and the wretched shall be blessed? But blessing only comes when they cease to be poor, hungry, and wretched. Contentment under poverty, hunger, and misery is high treason, not to yourself alone, but to your fellows. Slavery spreads quickly wherever humanity is stagnant and content with wrong.

What did Jesus teach? "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

(Matthew xix, 19) But how if thy neighbor will not hear thy doctrine when thou preachest the "glad tidings of great joy" to him? Then forgetting all your love, and with the bitter hatred that a theological disputant alone can manifest, you "shall shake off the dust from your feet," and by so doing make it more tolerable in the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, than for your unfortunate neighbor who has ventured to reject your teaching (Matthew x, 14, 15). It is mockery to speak as if love could really result from the dehumanising and isolating faith required from the disciple of Jesus. Ignatius Loyola in this, at least, was more consistent than his Protestant brethren. "If any man come unto me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke xiv, 26) "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes they shall be of his own household." (Matthew x, 34-36) "Every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life." (Matthew xix, 29) The teaching of Jesus is, in fact, save yourself by yourself. The teaching of humanity should be, to save yourself save your fellow. The human family is a vast chain, each man and woman a link. There is no snapping off one link and preserving for it, isolated from the rest, an entirety of happiness; our joy depends on our brother's also. Jesus teaches that "many are called, but few are chosen;" that the majority will inherit an eternity of misery, while but the minority obtain eternal happiness. And on what is the eternity of bliss to depend? On a truthful course of life? Not so. Jesus puts Father Abraham in Heaven, whose reputation for faith outstrips his character for veracity. The pa.s.sport through Heaven's portals is faith. "He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved, but he that believeth not, shall be d.a.m.ned." (Mark xvi, 16) Are you married? You love your wife? Both die. You from first to last had said, "I believe," much as a well-trained parrot might say it. You had never examined your reasons for your faith; as a true believer should, you distrusted the efficacy of your carnal reason. You said, "I believe in G.o.d and Jesus Christ," because you had been taught to say it, and you would have as glibly said, "I believe in Allah, and in Mahomet his prophet," had your birth-place been a few degrees eastward, and your parents and instructors Turks. You believed in this life, and after death awake in Heaven. Your much-loved wife did not think as you did-she could not. Her organisation, education, and temperament were all different from your own. She disbelieved because she could not believe.

She was a good wife, but she disbelieved. A good and affectionate mother, but she disbelieved. A virtuous and kindly woman, but she disbelieved. And you are to be happy for an eternity in Heaven, with the knowledge that she is writhing in agony in h.e.l.l. If this be true, Sh.e.l.ley was right in declaring that your Christianity:

"Peoples earth with demons, h.e.l.l with men, And heaven with slaves."

It is urged that Jesus is the savior of the world, who brought redemption without let or stint to the whole human race. But what did Jesus teach? "Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritan enter ye not," (Matthew x, 6) were his injunctions to those whom he first sent out to preach. "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel," is his hard answer to the poor Syrophenician woman who entreated succor for her child. Christianity, as first taught by Jesus, was for the Jews alone, it was only when rejected by them, that the world at large had the opportunity of salvation afforded it. "He came unto his own and his own received him not." (John i, 11) Why should the Jews be more G.o.d's own than the Gentiles? Is G.o.d the creator of all? did he create the descendant of Abraham with greater right and privilege than all other men? Then, indeed, is grievous injustice. You had no choice whether to be born Jew or Gentile; yet to the accident of such a birth is attached the first offer of a salvation which, if accepted, shuts out all beside.

The Kingdom of Heaven is a prominent feature in the teachings of Jesus.

Examine the picture drawn by G.o.d incarnate of his own special domain.

'Tis likened to a wedding feast, (Matthew xxii, 2) to which the invited guests coming not, servants were sent out into the highways to gather all they can find-both good and bad. The King, examining his motley array of guests, and finding one without a wedding garment inquired why he came in to the feast without one. The man, whose attendance had been compulsorily enforced, was speechless. And who can wonder? he was a guest from necessity, not choice, he neither chose the fas.h.i.+on of his coming, or that of his attiring. Then comes the King's decree, the command of the all-merciful and loving King of Heaven. "Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnas.h.i.+ng of teeth." Commentators urge that it was the custom to provide wedding garments for all guests, and that this man was punished for his non-acceptance of the customary and ready robe. The text does not warrant this explanation, but gives as moral of the parable, that an invitation to the heavenly feast will not ensure partakal of it, for that "many are called, but few are chosen." What more of the Kingdom of Heaven? "Joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance." (Luke xv, 7) The greater sinner one has been, the better saint he makes, and the more he has sinned, so much the more he loves G.o.d. "To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." (Luke vii, 47) Thus a.s.serting that a life of vice, with its stains washed away by a death-bed repentance, is better than a life of consistent and virtuous conduct? Why should the fatted calf be killed for the prodigal son? (Luke xv, 27) Why should men be taught to make to themselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness? (Luke xvi, 9) These ambiguities, these a.s.sertions of punishment and forgiveness of crime, instead of directions for its prevention and cure, are serious blots on a system alleged to have been inculcated by one for whom his followers claim divinity.

Will you urge the love of Jesus as the redeeming feature of the teaching? Then read the story of the fig tree (Matthew xxi, 18-22; Mark xi, 12-24) withered by the hungry Jesus. The fig tree was, if he were all-powerful G.o.d, made by him; he limited its growth and regulated its development; he prevented it from bearing figs, expected fruit where he had rendered fruit impossible, and in his _infinite love_ was angry that the tree had not upon it that it could not have. What love is expressed in that remarkable speech which follows one of his parables:-"For, I say unto you, that unto every one which hath shall be given, and from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away from him.

_But those, mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither, and slay them before me_." (Luke xix, 26, 27) What love is expressed by that Jesus who, if he were G.o.d, represents himself as saying to the majority of his unfortunate creatures (for it is the few that are chosen):-"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." (Matthew xxv, 41) There is no love in this horrid doctrine of eternal torment. And yet the popular preachers of to-day talk first of the love of G.o.d and then of: