so stupendous a miracle occurred in
accordance with his prediction, it would prove that his claims and
doctrine were true, because God is no accomplice in deception.
Such was the case with Jesus as narrated; and thus his
resurrection appears, not as having doctrinal significance and
demonstrative validity in itself, but as a miraculous
authentication of his mission. That is to say, the Christian's
faith in immortality rests not directly on the resurrection of
Christ, but on his teachings, which were confirmed and sealed by
his resurrection. It is true that, even in this modified form,
some persons of dialectical minds will deny all validity to the
argument. What necessary connection is there, they will ask,
between the exhibition of mechanico chemical wonders, physical
feats, however abnormal and inexplicable, and the possession of
infallibility of intellectual insight and moral utterance? If a
man should say, God is falsehood and hatred, and in evidence of
his declaration should make a whole cemetery disembogue its dead
alive, or cause the sun suddenly to sink from its station at noon
and return again, would his wonderful performance prove his
horrible doctrine? Why, or how, then, would a similar feat prove
the opposite doctrine? Plainly, there is not, on rigid logical
principles, any connecting tie or evidencing coherence between a
physical miracle and a moral doctrine.22 We admit the correctness
of this, on philosophical grounds. But the validity of a miracle
as proof of a doctrine rests on the spontaneous assumption that no
man can work a miracle unless God specially delegate him the
power: thereby God becomes the voucher of his envoy. And when a
person claiming to be a messenger from God appears, saying, "The
Father hath commanded me to declare that in the many mansions of
his house there is a blessed life for men after the close of this
life," and when he promises that, in confirmation of his claim,
God will restore him to life after he shall have been three days
dead, and when he returns accordingly triumphant from the
sepulchre, the argument will be unquestioningly received as valid
by the instinctive common sense of all who are convinced of the
facts.

We next pass from the meaning of the resurrection in logic to its
force and working in history. When Jesus hung on the cross, and
the scornful shouts of the multitude murmured in his ears, the
disciples had fled away, disappointed, terror stricken,
despairin