The Fair Haven

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We must endeavour, however, to dispense with Strauss's assistance,
and will proceed to inquire what it is that those who deny the Death
of our Lord, call upon us to reject.

I regret to pass so quickly over one great field of evidence which in
justice to myself I must allude to, though I cannot dwell upon it,
for in the outset I declared that I would confine myself to the
historical evidence, and to this only. I refer to spiritual insight;
to the testimony borne by the souls of living persons, who from
personal experience KNOW that their Redeemer liveth, and that though
worms destroy this body, yet in their flesh shall they see God. How
many thousands are there in the world at this moment, who have known
Christ as a personal friend and comforter, and who can testify to the
work which He has wrought upon them! I cannot pass over such
testimony as this in silence. I must assign it a foremost place in
reviewing the reasons for holding that our hope is not in vain, but I
may not dwell upon it, inasmuch as it would carry no weight with
those for whom this work is designed, I mean with those to whom this
precious experience of Christ has not yet been vouchsafed. Such
persons require the external evidence to be made clear to
demonstration before they will trust themselves to listen to the
voices of hope or fear, and it is of no use appealing to the
knowledge and hopes of others without making it clear upon what that
knowledge and those hopes are grounded. Nevertheless, I may be
allowed to point out that those who deny the Death and Resurrection
of our Lord, call upon us to believe that an immense multitude of
most truthful and estimable people are no less deceivers of their own
selves and others, than Mohammedans, Jews and Buddhists are. How
many do we not each of us know to whom Christ is the spiritual meat
and drink of their whole lives. Yet our opponents call upon us to
ignore all this, and to refer the emotions and elation of soul, which
the love of Christ kindles in his true followers, to an inheritance
of delusion and blunder. Truly a melancholy outlook.

Again, let a man travel over England, North, South, East, and West,
and in his whole journey he shall hardly find a single spot from
which he cannot see one or several churches. There is hardly a
hamlet which is not also a centre for the celebration of our
Redemption by the Death and Resurrection of Christ. Not one of these
churches, say the Rationalists, not one of the clergymen who minister
therein, not one single village school in all England, but must be
regarded as a fountain of error, if not of deliberate falsehood.
Look where they may, they cannot escape from the signs of a vital
belief in the Resurrection. All these signs, they will tell us, are
signs of superstition only; it is superstition which they celebrate
and would confirm; they are founded upon fanaticism, or at the best
upon sheer delusion; they poison the fountain heads of moral and
intellectual well-being, by teaching men to set human experience on
the one side, and to refer their conduct to the supposed will of a
personal anthropomorphic God who was actually once a baby--who was
born of one of his own creatures--and who is now locally and
corporeally in Heaven, "of reasonable soul and HUMAN FLESH
subsisting."

Thus do our opponents taunt us, but when we think not only of the
present day, but of the nearly two thousand years during which
Christianity has flourished, not in England only, but over all
Europe, that is to say, over the quarter of the globe which is most
civilised, and whose civilisation is in itself proof both of capacity
to judge and of having judged rightly--what an awful admission do
unbelievers require us to make, when they bid us think that all these
ages and countries have gone astray to the imagining of a vain thing.
All the self-sacrifice of the holiest men for sixty generations, all
the wars that have been waged for the sake of Christ and His truth,
all the money spent upon churches, clergy, monasteries and religious
education, all the blood of martyrs, all the celibacy of priests and
nuns, all the self-denying lives of those who are now ministers of
the Gospel--according to the Rationalist, no part of all this
devotion to the cause of Christ has had any justifiable base on
actual fact. The bare contemplation of such a stupendous
misapplication of self-sacrifice and energy, should be enough to
prevent any one from ever smiling again to whose mind such a
deplorable view was present: we wonder that our opponents do not
shrink back appalled from the contemplation of a picture which they
must regard as containing so much of sin, impudence and folly; yet it
is to the contemplation of such a picture, and to a belief in its
truthfulness to nature, that they would invite us; they cannot even
see a clergyman without saying to themselves, "There goes one whose
trade is the promotion of error; whose whole life is devoted to the
upholding of the untrue." To them the sight of people flocking to a
church must be as painful as it would be to us to see a congregation
of Jews or Mohammedans: they ought to have no happiness in life so
long as they believe that the vast majority of their fellow-
countrymen are so lamentably deluded; yet they would call on us to
join them, and half despise us upon our refusing to do so.

But upon this view also I may not dwell; it would have been easy and
I think not unprofitable, had my aim been different, to have drawn an
ampler picture of the heart-rending amount of falsehood, stupidity,
cruelty and folly which must be referable to a belief in
Christianity, if, as our opponents maintain, there is no solid ground
for believing it; but my present purpose is to prove that there IS
such ground, and having said enough to shew that I do not ignore the
fields of evidence which lie beyond the purpose of my work, I will
return to the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

What, then, let me ask of freethinkers, BECAME OF CHRIST EVENTUALLY?
Several answers may be made to this question, BUT THERE IS NONE BUT
THE ONE GIVEN IN SCRIPTURE WHICH WILL SET IT AT REST. Thus it has
been said that Christ survived the Cross, lingered for a few weeks,
and in the end succumbed to the injuries which He had sustained. On
this there arises the question, did the Apostles know of His death?
And if so, were they likely to mistake the reappearance of a dying
man, so shattered and weak as He must have been, for the glory of an
immortal being? We know that people can idealise a great deal, but
they cannot idealise as much as this. The Apostles cannot have known
of any death of Christ except His Death upon the Cross, and it is not
credible that if He had died from the effects of the Crucifixion the
Apostles should not have been aware of it. No one will pretend that
they were, so it is needless to discuss this theory further.

It has also been said that our Lord, having seen the effect of His
reappearance on the Apostles, considered that further converse with
them would only weaken it; and that He may have therefore thought it
wiser to withdraw Himself finally from them, and to leave His
teaching in their hands, with the certainty that it would never
henceforth be lost sight of; but this view is inconsistent with the
character which even our adversaries themselves assign to our
Saviour. The idea is one which might occur to a theorist sitting in
his study, and enlightened by a knowledge of events, but it would not
suggest itself to a leader in the heat of action.

Another supposition has been that our Lord on recovering
consciousness after He had been left alone in the tomb, or perhaps
even before Joseph had gone, may have been unable to realise to
Himself the nature of the events that had befallen Him, and may have
actually believed that He had been dead, and been miraculously
restored to life; that He may yet have felt a natural fear of again
falling into the hands of His enemies; and partly from this cause,
and partly through awe at the miracle that He supposed had been
worked upon Him, have only shewn Himself to His disciples hurriedly,
in secret, and on rare occasions, spending the greater part of His
time in some one or other of the secret places of resort, in which He
had been wont to live apart from the Apostles before the Crucifixion.

I have known it urged that our Lord never said or even thought that
He had risen from the dead, but shewed Himself alive secretly and
fearfully, and bade His disciples follow Him to Galilee, where He
might, and perhaps did, appear more openly, though still rarely and
with caution; that the rarity and mystery of the reappearances would
add to the impression of a miraculous resurrection which had
instantly presented itself to the minds of the Apostles on seeing
Christ alive; that this impression alone would prevent them from
heeding facts which must have been obvious to any whose minds were
not already unhinged by the knowledge that Christ was alive, and by
the belief that He had been dead; and that they would be blinded by
awe, which awe would be increased by the rarity of the reappearances-
-a rarity that was in reality due, perhaps to fear, perhaps to self-
delusion, perhaps to both, but which was none the less politic for
not having been dictated by policy; finally that the report of
Christ's having been seen alive reached the Chief Priests (or perhaps
Joseph of Arimathaea), and that they determined at all hazards to nip
the coming mischief in the bud; that they therefore watched their
opportunity, and got rid of so probable a cause of disturbance by the
knife of the assassin, or induced Him to depart by threats, which He
did not venture to resist.

But if our Lord was secretly assassinated how could it have happened
that the body should never have been found, and produced, when the
Apostles began declaring publicly that Christ had risen? What could
be easier than to bring it forward and settle the whole matter? It
cannot be doubted that the body must have been looked for when the
Apostles began publishing their story; we saw reason for believing
this when we considered the account of the Resurrection given by St.
Matthew. NOW THOSE THAT HIDE CAN FIND; and if the enemies of Christ
had got rid of Him by foul play, they would know very well where to
lay their hands upon that which would be the death blow to
Christianity. If then Christ did not go away of His own accord, as
feeling that His teaching would be better preserved by His absence,
and if He did not die from wounds received upon the Cross, and if He
was not assassinated secretly, what remains as the most reasonable
view to be taken concerning His disappearance? Surely the one that
WAS taken; the view which commended itself to those who were best
able to judge--namely, THAT HE HAD ASCENDED BODILY INTO HEAVEN AND
WAS SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD THE FATHER.

Where else could He be?

For that He disappeared, and disappeared finally, within six weeks of
the Crucifixion must be considered certain; there is no one who will
be bold enough even to hazard a conjecture that the appearance of
Christ alluded to by St. Paul, as having been vouchsafed to him some
years later, was that of the living Christ, who had chosen upon this
one occasion to depart from the seclusion and secrecy which he had
maintained hitherto. But if Christ was still living on earth, how
was it possible that no human being should have the smallest clue to
His whereabouts? If He was dead how is it that no one should have
produced the body? Such a mysterious and total disappearance, even
in the face of great jeopardy, has never yet been known, and can only
be satisfactorily explained by adopting the belief which has
prevailed for nearly the last two thousand years, and which will
prevail more and more triumphantly so long as the world shall last--
the belief that Christ was restored to the glory which He had shared
with the Father, as soon as ever He had given sufficient proofs of
His being alive to ensure the devotion of His followers.

Before we can reject the supernatural solution of a mystery otherwise
inexplicable, we should have some natural explanation which will meet
the requirements of the case. A confession of ignorance is not
enough here. WE are NOT ignorant; we KNOW that Christ died, inasmuch
as we have the testimony of all the four Evangelists to this effect,
the testimony of the Apostle Paul, and through him that of all the
other Apostles; we have also the certainty that the centurion in
charge of the soldiers at the Crucifixion would not have committed so
grave a breach of discipline as the delivery of the body to Joseph
and Nicodemus, unless he had felt quite sure that life was extinct;
and finally we have the testimony of the Church for sixty
generations, and that of myriads now living, whose experience assures
them that Christ died and rose from the dead; in addition to this
tremendous body of evidence we have also the story of the spear wound
recorded in a Gospel which even our opponents believe to be from a
Johannean source in its later chapters; and though, as has been
already stated, this wound cannot be insisted upon as in itself
sufficient to prove our Lord's death, yet it must assuredly be
allowed its due weight in reviewing the evidence. The unbeliever
cannot surely have considered how shallow are all the arguments which
he can produce, in comparison with those that make against him. He
cannot say that I have not done him justice, and I feel confident
that when he reconsiders the matter in that spirit of humility
without which he cannot hope to be guided to a true conclusion, he
will feel sure that Strauss is right in believing that the death of
our Lord cannot be seriously called in question.

But this being so, the reappearances, which we have seen to be
established by the collapse of the hallucination theory, must be
referred to supernatural or miraculous agency; that is to say, our
Lord died and rose again on the third day, according to the
Scriptures. Whereon His disappearance some six weeks later must be
looked upon very differently from that of any ordinary person. If
our Lord could have been shewn to have been a mere man, who had
escaped death only by a hair's breadth, but still escaped it, perhaps
some one of the theories for His disappearance, or some combination
of them, or some other explanation which has not yet been thought of,
might be held to be sufficient; but in the case of One who died and
rose from the dead, there is no theory which will stand, except the
one which it has been reserved for our own lawless and self-seeking
times to question. Through the light of the Resurrection the
Ascension is clearly seen.

My task is now completed. In an age when Rationalism has become
recognised as the only basis upon which faith can rest securely, I
have established the Christian faith upon a Rationalistic basis.

I have made no concession to Rationalism which did not place all the
vital parts of Christianity in a far stronger position than they were
in before, yet I have. conceded everything which a sincere
Rationalist is likely to desire. I have cleared the ground for
reconciliation. It only remains for the two contending parties to
come forward and occupy it in peace jointly. May it be mine to see
the day when all traces of disagreement have been long obliterated!

To the unbeliever I can say, "Never yet in any work upon the
Christian side have your difficulties been so fully and fairly
stated; never yet has orthodox disingenuousness been so unsparingly
exposed." To the Christian I can say with no less justice, "Never
yet have the true reasons for the discrepancies in the Gospels been
so put forward as to enable us to look these discrepancies boldly in
the face, and to thank God for having graciously allowed them to
exist." I do not say this in any spirit of self-glorification. We
are children of the hour, and creatures of our surroundings. As it
has been given unto us, so will it be required at our hands, and we
are at best unprofitable servants. Nevertheless I cannot refrain
from expressing my gratitude at having been born in an age when
Christianity and Rationalism are not only ceasing to appear
antagonistic to one another, BUT HAVE EACH BECOME ESSENTIAL TO THE
VERY EXISTENCE OF THE OTHER. May the reader feel this no less
strongly than I do, and may he also feel that I have supplied the
missing element which could alone cause them to combine. If he asks
me what element I allude to, I answer Candour. This is the pilot
that has taken us safely into the Fair Haven of universal brotherhood
in Christ.

APPENDIX

I--THE BURIAL

(John xix. 38-42)

And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but
secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take
away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came
therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also
Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a
mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took
they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the
spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where
he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new
sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus
therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was
nigh at hand.

(Luke xxiii. 50-56)

And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a
good man, and a just: (the same had not consented to the counsel and
deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also
himself waited for the kingdom of God. This man went unto Pilate,
and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped it in
linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein
never man before was laid. And that day was the preparation, and the
sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from
Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body
was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and
rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.

(Mark xv. 42-47)

And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that
is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable
counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went
in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate
marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the
centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when
he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he
bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen,
and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled
a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. And Mary Magdalene and Mary
the mother of Joseph beheld where he was laid.

(Matthew xxvii. 57-61)

When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named
Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple. He went to Pilate, and
begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be
delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a
clean linen cloth. And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had
hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the
sepulchre, and departed. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other
Mary, sitting over against the sepulchre.

II--THE GUARD SET UPON THE TOMB (Peculiar to Matthew)

(Matthew xxvii. 62-66)

Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief
priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate. Saying, Sir, we
remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three
days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made
sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal
him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the
last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye
have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went,
and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

III--VISIT OF MARY MAGDALENE, AND OTHERS, TO THE TOMB

(John xx. 1-13)

The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was
yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the
sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the
other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have
taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they
have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple,
and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and the other
disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he
stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went
he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the
sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie. And the napkin, that was
about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped
together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other
disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and
believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise
again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their
own home. But Mary stood without the sepulchre weeping: and as she
wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, And seeth two
angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the
feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her,
Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have
taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.

(Luke xxiv. 1-12)

Now upon the first day of the week very early in the morning, they
came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared,
and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away
from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of
the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed
thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: and
as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they
said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not
here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet
in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands
of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And
they remembered his words, and returned from the sepulchre, and told
all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. It was Mary
Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women
that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. And
their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.
Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he
beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering
in himself at that which was come to pass.

(Mark xvi. 1-8)

And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of
James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and
anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week,
they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said
among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of
the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was
rolled away: for it was very great. And entering into the
sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in
a long white garment; and they were affrighted. And he saith unto
them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was
crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they
laid him. But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he
goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said
unto you. And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre;
for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they anything to any
man; for they were afraid.

(Matthew xxviii. 1-8)

In the end of the sabbath, as it began to draw toward the first day
of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the
sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel
of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone
from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning,
and his raiment white as snow, and for fear of him the keepers did
shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto
the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was
crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see
the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples
that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into
Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. And they
departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did
run to bring his disciples word.

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