. They
were firm as the trunks of oaks to meet the agony and horror of a
violent death when it came; yet they rather shunned than sought to
wear the glorious crown from beneath whose crimson circlet drops
of bloody sweat must drip from a martyr's brows. The number of the
witnesses for the resurrection, the abilities they possessed,
their opportunities for knowing the facts, prove the impossibility
of their being duped, unless we suppose them to have been blind
fanatics. This we have just shown they were not. Would it not,
moreover, be most marvellous if they were such heated fanatics,
all of them, so many men?

But there is one further foothold for the disbeliever in the
historic resurrection of Christ. He may say, "I confess the
witnesses were capable of knowing, and undoubtedly did know, the
truth; but, for some reason, they suppressed it, and proclaimed a
deception." As to this charge, we not only deny the actuality, but
even the possibility, of its truth. The narratives of the
evangelists contain the strongest evidences of their honesty. The
many little unaccountable circumstances they recount, which are so
many difficulties in the way of critical belief, the real and the
apparent inconsistencies, none of these would have been permitted
by fraudulent authors. They are the most natural things in the
world, supposing their writers unsuspiciously honest. They also
frankly confess their own and each others' errors, ignorance,
prejudices, and faults. Would they have done this save from
simple hearted truthfulness? Would a designing knave voluntarily
reveal to a suspicious scrutiny actions and traits naturally
subversive of confidence in him? The conduct of the disciples
under the circumstances, through all the scenes of their after
lives, proves their undivided and earnest honesty. The cause they
had espoused was, if we deny its truth, to the last degree
repulsive in itself and in its concomitants, and they were
surrounded with allurements to desert it. Yet how unyielding,
wonderful, was their disinterested devotedness to it, without
exception! Not one, overcome by terror or bowed by strong anguish,
shrank from his self imposed task and cried out, "I confess!" No;
but when they, and their first followers who knew what they knew,
were laid upon racks and torn, when they were mangled and devoured
alive by wild beasts, when they were manacled fast amidst the
flames till their souls rode forth into heaven in chariots of