was the Son of God, that he had been begotten in a super natural way, had supernatura. powers by which he had healed lepers, restored sight to those born blind, caused the deaf to hear, and even raised the dead how very absurd to suppose that they would wind up the story of such a character by stating that a little band of his enemies ex- ecuted him as a felon, while all his friends and disciples, and among them the writers themselves, forsook him and fled in the trying moment ?
The fad that profane history does not agree in some re- spects with these writers should not lead us to regard their records as untrue. Those who do thus conclude should assign and prove some motive on the part of these writers for making false statements. What motives could have prompted them? Could they reasonably have hoped thereby for fortune, or fame, or power, or any earthly advantage? The poverty of Jesus' friends, and the unpopularity of their hero himself with the great religionists of Judea, contradict such a thought ; while the facts that he died as a malefactor, a disturber of the peace, and that he was made of no repu- tation, held forth no hope of enviable fame or earthly ad- vantage to those who should attempt to re-establish his doctrine. On the contrary, if such had been the objeci of those who preached Jesus, would they not speedily have given it tip when they found that it brought disgrace, per- secution, imprisonment, stripes and even death? Reason plainly teaches that men who sacrificed home, reputation, honor and life ; who lived not for present gratification j but whose central aim was to elevate their fellow-men, and who inculcated morals of the highest type, were not only pos- sessed of a motive, but further that their motive must have been pure and their object grandly sublime. Keason further declares that the testimony of such men, afttuted only ly pure and good motives, is worthy of ten times the weight
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