The apostle John, therefore, had as good evidence, and his testimony is as reliable, as if he had been present when the angel rolled away the stone, and the Lord of life emerged from the tomb. He had every opportunity to be satisfied of the verity of the facts to which he testifies. In bearing this testimony, he sacrificed or endangered all his temporal interests, and had not the least prospect of any earthly advantage or reward. He was steadfast to this testimony, when the fiercest persecutions raged. If he did not seal it with his blood, which was literally true of nearly, if not quite, all the rest of the apostles, we nevertheless have in him an example of unwavering steadfastness in it through all the trying and chequered scenes of a life, continued to quite a century, through persecutions which his brethren, whose course was shorter, escaped; which certainly renders his testimony of no less value. These men unite in telling us how at first they were unbelieving, or wholly ignorant of the meaning of Scripture, and of the Saviour's own predictions on the subject, and were even terrified at the sight of the risen Lord. They show us by what evidence they were convinced of His resurrection ; and being convinced, they never afterwards swerved.

Damascus, as of the same nature as that to His disciples at Jerusalem. And he argues that the appearance to Saul of Tarsus must have been simply and purely a vision, from his own words, Gal. i. 16: It pleased God to reveal His Son in me." But St. Paul does not confound a vision with an actual appearance. His argument, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, for the bodily resurrection of believers, would have no foundation if he had intended to speak of a mental vision, rather than the actual sight of the risen Christ, when he says, "He was seen of James, then of all the apostles, and last of all He was seen of me," etc.

Renan, with less or rather with no attempt whatever at argument, refers to the morbid condition or strong imagination of Mary Magdalene, who had been possessed of seven devils. Divine power of love!" he exclaims, "sacred moments in which the passion of a hallucinated woman gives to the world a resurrected God."

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One and all of them regarded His first appearance to them sceptically, and took pains to satisfy themselves, or made it necessary that Jesus should take pains to satisfy them, that the visible object was no ghostly apparition, but a living man, and that man none other than He who had died on the cross. The disciples doubted now the substantiality, now the identity, of the person who appeared to them. They were therefore not content with seeing Jesus, but at His own request handled Him. One of their number not only handled the body to ascertain that it possessed the incompressibility of matter, but insisted on examining, with sceptical ingenuity, those parts which had been injured with the nails and the spear. The power of imagination and nervous excitement we know can do much. It has often happened to men in an abnormal, excited state, to see, projected into outward space, the creations of a heated brain. But persons in a crazy state like that, subject to hallucination, are not usually cool and rational enough to doubt the reality of what they see; nor is it necessary in their case to take pains to overcome such doubts. What they need, rather, is to be made aware that what they think they see is not a reality: the very reverse of what Christ had to do for the disciples, and did, by solemn

Such is the evidence that St. John the apostle was no mere enthusiast, led astray by an impostor, and deceived by the phantasies of his own excited imagination. He saw the risen Lord, again and again, in company with others, with every advantage of being certified that He was the same Jesus whom he saw expire on the cross. He received the testimony of others who saw Him when he was not present, and in whom he had the best reason to repose the fullest confidence,—that of Peter, of the two disciples going to Emmaus, of James who had been once the unbelieving kinsman of the Lord, his own mother Salome, Mary Magdalene, and other women of Galilee. His confidence in the fact of Christ's resurrection, instead of growing weaker, became stronger as he advanced in age, in knowledge, and experience. His account of it was written when he was far advanced in years. And at a still later period he says: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life . . declare we unto you." 2

When we inquire, more at large, what was the nature of that evidence which convinced him, in opposition to all his Jewish prejudices, against all the passions of corrupt nature, and all the powers of a frowning world, the answer is not difficult. The resurrection of Christ did but crown a life which began in a miracle and was a life of miracles. He had seen Jesus again and again perform works in which there was a sensible departure from the established laws of nature. He had seen effects which could not possibly have been the result of any other cause than the direct interposition of the power of Him who is the author of nature and its laws. There could be no delusion or mistake, for these miracles were palpable facts, addressed to the senses, and many of them were attended by lasting effects. He had seen men raised to sudden health from sickness, or who were born blind seeing, or crippled walking; he had seen the dead, from the couch, from the bier, and from a four days' burial, coming to life, and continuing active for a season (after reviviscence) in the affairs of this world. He saw this power of miracles not pompously displayed, nor exercised for the destruction of enemies or the aggrandisement of friends, but unostentatiously employed for benevolent and holy ends.

There was another form of evidence, to wit, the prophecies respecting Messiah, in the ancient Scriptures, which John could plainly see

assertion that He was no spirit, by inviting them to handle Him, to satisfy themselves of His material substantiality, and by partaking of food in their presence" (The Training of the Twelve, by Bruce, p. 497).

1 John xx.

21 John i. 1-3.

were accomplished in Jesus of Nazareth. These Scriptures were in the custody, as they still are, of the Jews themselves, who for ages had preserved them with the utmost care and reverence. The prophecies they contain were delivered centuries before the birth of Jesus; and nearly three hundred years before that event, the Scriptures containing them had been translated, and widely disseminated in the Greek language, the language of the then literature of the world. They contain distinct predictions of the particular seed, line, and even family, of which Jesus was born. They foretell the place, the time, and circumstances of His advent. They describe His forerunner. They predict in graphic terms the very miracles He performed. They foretell that He would be despised and rejected of men, that He should be slain, should lie in the grave, but should rise again. The fulfilment of these Old Testament prophecies in Jesus of Nazareth was the finger of God pointing directly to Him. They who saw them fulfilled in Jesus could not do otherwise than believe that He was the promised Saviour of the world. He was Himself a prophet. He foretold events so near, some regulated by the caprice of men, and others which depended purely on the will of God, that they who heard them from His lips were the witnesses of their fulfilment. He foretold again and again His own death and resurrection, the conduct of His followers after He should leave them, His ascension to heaven, and the pouring out of the Spirit. He predicted and circumstantially described the destruction of Jerusalem.

But the evidence contained in His doctrine must be added to that derived from miracles and prophecy. John heard words, as they fell warm and glowing from the lips of Jesus, which have excited the admiration for ages of some of the most gifted intellects. He felt the authority which accompanied His teaching-a certain majesty and power which belonged to unmixed truth and perfect goodness. His reason, his conscience, his heart, were addressed by ONE who needed not that any should testify what is in man; who could unfold the most secret feelings; who could so hold up a mirror to his inner nature 3 that he should see even more than he knew to be there before. It was not

1 The most probable date of the completion of the translation of the Scriptures into Greek is about the year B.C. 285, when Ptolemy Lagus and Ptolemy Philadelphus were kings of Egypt. It is called the Septuagint, either because the number of translators supposed to be engaged in it was seventy, or because it was approved by the Jewish Sanhedrin, consisting of seventy-two persons. This version was in common use in the synagogues, and it is from this that the New Testament more frequently quotes than from the Hebrew.

2 Gen. xlix. 10; Isa. xl. 9; xli. 27; Hag. ii. 6-9; Micah v. 2; Mal. iii. 1; iv. 5; Isa. vii. 14; Zech. ix. 9; Isa. xliii. 1-3; xxxv. 5, 6; liii., etc.

3 Matt. xx. 22; Luke ix. 55, etc.