11ny, "Betaueo thou hnat touohed me, thou soul. 'fhie does but repe11t the some Mell, b&et believed." The vision alone brought "Blessed are they who saw not ns Thomas the !lpostle b11ck to that high tension or and the other disciples were nt this momP,nt fBith which he, with others, he.d reached on doing, and yet believed." But tho benti- the night of the Pe.eeion (eee oh. xvi. 30- tnde includes the whole future of tho 82, and notes). All the tide of overme.eter- Church. "Whom he.ving not seen, ye love; lng love surged up within him. But the in whom, though now ye see him not, yet be. oon,li lion of multitudes we.e even then Iese lieving, ye rejoice with joy unspeakabl'l and pri vilcgcd thun tho.t of Thomas. It could full of glory." So said St. Peter to the not be o po.rt of the conduct of the kingdom widely scattered Church. The Lorri does not of God the.t ee.ch sepe.rate soul should have sever the link between external facta riad all the elements of conviction which the spiritual principles, and thus propound a o.postles hnd enjoyed, all the vision and nil group of subjective conceptions for a s~ries of tho inspire.tion of the chosen prophets of the objective realities (as Baur o.nd othcra ba,CJ Lord. There may and will come a time nrgecl); but he does pronounce a great be- when " every eye shall eee him" as Thomas nediction on those who co.n rise to faith in saw him, when a.II shall have the function himself through the word which he has and powers, equo.l faculties and opportunity, spoken, and wl1ich his apostles would con- of seeing him. In the Apoce.Iypse the tinue to proclaim without intervention of evangelist, nt the very commencement of physical contact or visible manifestation. his visions, saw for himself all the mystery " If Christ be not risen, then is your faith and the certainty of this crowning victory. vain; ye are yet in yon r sins." These Meanwhile faith upon testimony, faith in words are charged with the grounds of reality through the power of truth, is declared conviction for otl;iere. Instead of the first to be the law of the kingdom, and the disciples being disposed to transform halln- great beatitude which Christ left as his latest cinatione of spiritual manifestation into legacy is,·Bleeaed (are) they who saw not, tangible and visible objective facts, they and believed, Of whom ie he speaking? appear to have been more prone and tempted Clearly not of those who had already re- to transform some utterly indisputable facts ceived the ea.me advantage which Thomas into spiritual phenomena. There were objec- had now enjoyed so tardily! The apostles, tive facts, but every attempt which bas been at first, did not accept the testimony of the made to discredit the Resurrection whilo women, nor the voices and messages of ncl.mitting these facts has utterly broken angels, nor the objective fact of the deserted down. Even if the narratives of the fonr grave. John rebuked himself for not know- Gospels, with their divergent representation, ing that the Christ must rise from the dead, be left out of sight, nothing can be more cer- whether he should have personal ocular tain than that, in the space of a quarter of a evidence of it or not : and he blamed him- century, the Churches of Christ in Antioch, self for not believing thronghont the earthly Corinth, Philippi. Rome, Ephesus, and An- ministry of Christ that •• the Holy One could cyra were existing, and held, without doubt not see corruption." Still, the fact was or question, the objective fact. Pan! (1 Cor. patent, that not until the disciples saw the xv. 1-11) simply recounts, not for the Lord were they glad. Even in their glo.d- first time, bnt as a re8'U/11Uf of long-since- uess there was the mingling of surprise and delivered instruction, the indubitable fact incredulousness. To whom, then, did the of the Resurrection. It was not an incredi- blessedness apply? Surely, first of all to ble thing, even to Agrippa, that God should the multitudes of loving, waiting souls, who raise the dead ; nor need it be so now to were prepared by their reverence and the any one who accepts as trne Christ's account new life given to them, and by the bewilder- of the Father. The creation of tile Church ing rumours of the Easter week, to believe unquestionably turns on the settleJ con vic- iu the Divine necessity of the Resurrection. tion of the first disciples that Jesus rose Christ told the disciples, on their way to from the dead. That conviction cannot be Emme.us, that they were foolish and dull of accounted for independently of the fact. heart in not acoepting all that the prophets Every attempt to explain it apart from the had spoktn. Before the final assurance fact itself has hitherto been wrecked. given by their identification of his Person, he persuaded them to accept his statements, Vera. 80, 81.-(6) The conclusion of th11 and believe in all that he ,oas, including argument of the Gospel. Controversy has the fact of his resuneotion. Whether they prevailed from the days of Chrysostom to should ever have more convincing evidence our own, as to whether these ,erses e.re the or not, they were bound to believe that the suffering Messiah was, in the Vf;ry nature summary and conclusion of the Gospel as a of things, and by Divine necessity, Viotor whole, or ho.ve specit\l reference to the record (Jf deatb, and muRt see the travail of his only of the appearances of Jesw after h~ 480 THE GOSPEL AOOORDING TO ST. JOHN. [on. xx. 1-31,
rernrreofam. Tt ('flnnot be doubted that I\! the diecomfitnre of the deputation from l'-t. ,Tnhn P11me np in oh. xii. the gencr11,l chief priest,s I\Dd eldel'I!; the ooll,ipse of the knching of Christ anil its cft'eot npon tho Roman soldiers ; and all other proofs of pe<>ple, to the termination of his public his BUpreme authority. All these o-muua were not indispensably connected with ministry, l!O st the oloso of this chapter, corresponding .,.,pd:ra. " Before tho dia- before recording the epeci11,l bearing of tho oiplee" suggests a special limitation 11nd r<>surrection-life nnd spiritual power of Christ condition wllich took powerful hold upon on the subsc>qnent condition of the Churoh the mind of the evangelist. We hear in -a nnrrnti,·e of pcculi&r interest in itself, one passage that "he could do no mighty works, be011use of their unbelief." To pre- corresponding with tbo prologue of tho pared minds he co.me with his spiritual entire narrative-he gathers up the general revelations and special euggestious of Bi!?'Tlificance of his Gospol and its relation heavenly origin. John sees the memories to other books. passing before him, which have alreo.dy formed the heritage of the Chnrch, and is , er. 30.--llla.ny other signs therefore did reminded of "many others" which have .resus also in the presenoe of the disciples, never found a chronicler. 1