Page images
PDF
EPUB

and again indulged in. All this was in the name of heaven or hell; and by it all were either reassured or terrified. Thus the people bowed their heads before the priests and soldiers. Even the philosophers themselves, that indomitable race, were seduced by honours and rewards to flatter their love of notoriety. However, before obtaining that powerful union, ancient Rome had been greatly annoyed by the Hebrew oracles which announced the advent of the Messiah for the deliverance of suffering humanity. In order to silence these troublesome oracles, Judea was annexed, its legitimate kings, the Hasmoneans, were deposed, and Cæsar placed Herod the Idumean upon the throne of that unhappy people, the Jews. So that when Jesus Christ was born, not only were the Messianic prophecies mute, but no one dared to raise the terrible question about the Messiah's coming; in proof of which, we read of the stir that the magi created at Jerusalem by simply asking the question, 'Where is He that is born King of the Jews?'"

"A strange question indeed is that of the Jewish Messiah," observed one of the party present. "How is it that the son of a poor Hebrew woman, who could only secure a stable and a manger to be delivered of her child;-how, I say, could that son emerge from such obscurity with His doctrines of kindness and meekness, and excite against Himself such bitter hatred and deadly foes? Upon what principle, I ask, has the Cross of Calvary been erected? I cannot deny these facts, though I have never met with anything like it in history."

Then added our friend, "This question certainly deserves explanation; for Jesus, with his meek and sweet disposition, would never have penetrated the obscurity of His humble birth, if God had not raised up a Man whose sole mission was to point Him out to Israel; and, since it was in the Divine plan that Jesus should be born in social obscurity to confound the wise of this world, and their appreciation of greatness, so was it also expedient that the precursor of the Messiah should be born in the high rank of society, to be the son of a priest, and educated according to his station. John the Baptist distinguished himself by his extraordinary self-denial and exemplary piety; he exiled himself in the desert, and lived after the manner of the prophet Elijah, preaching, with surpassing eloquence, that the kingdom of heaven was nigh; so that all the people flocked to hear him, and were startled by his powerful words of exhortation. The fame of this new Elijah spread far and wide; even King Herod himself esteemed his wise counsels. It was thus, when John the Baptist had acquired for himself the highest honours, that he stripped himself of them, and laid them at the feet of Jesus, and declared that, though He came after him, He was preferred before him, and that he was not worthy to unloose the latchets of his sandals. John the Baptist only succeeded in this testimony to Jesus by disparaging himself, and, at the same time, drawing the attention of the people to

Jesus Christ, the chief object of his mission; so that, after this, nothing remained for him to do but to die. You need only consult Josephus, the Jewish historian, about John the Baptist, as to the high degree of honour which he had attained, in order to convince yourself that what I have advanced is purely historical. It may be easily conceived why the Jewish doctors did, with marked jealousy, acknowledge the popularity of Jesus; but this natural jealousy does not exactly explain the condemnation of Jesus Christ to be crucified. The fact is, Christ's death was a historical necessity. You will soon understand what I mean. When Christ, by His discourses and miracles, produced a conviction in the minds of the people that He was the Messiah predicted by the prophets, the rulers of the nation were filled with fear, and they took counsel together against Him. The reasoning which their national situation suggested to them was this:-They said, 'This Man does many wonderful things; if we let Him go on, all the people will believe in Him, and proclaim Him the Messiah: then what will be the result? The Romans will come down upon us, and destroy our people. We have therefore no other alternative, but to choose between the destruction of our nation or the death of this Man: we therefore judge that it is far better that one man should die, in order that our nation might be saved.' Besides, think only how Pilate's efforts to save Jesus from His persecutors were suddenly interrupted. As soon as he had heard the threat, 'If thou deliver this Man, thou art not Cæsar's friend; for whosoever maketh himself king or Messiah is an enemy to Cæsar,' he denied not this truth; and thus Jesus was judged as if He had been guilty of treason, solely because He was declared to be the Messiah promised by the prophets."

"Sir," said the notary, "I confess that never were these things presented to me in such a light; and, in that case, it was not only the Jews who were guilty of being the authors of Christ's death, but likewise the Romans. Alas! the Jews, like all other people, have doubted God's power; they crouched before that which had the mere appearance of power. Nevertheless, this mighty empire of the Romans fell to pieces before the testimony of Christ's disciples."

"How so?" exclaimed the merchant, who had spoken first of all. "I did not know that the Christians destroyed the Roman empire."

"You seemed to say, sir, that nothing is more powerful in this world than selfishness or pride; consequently, society must be founded upon such bases as would entirely put an end to selfishness and pride, even by employing brute force and religion. Well, then, this fact in question quite overthrows your theory, for there is something more powerful than egotism, namely, the spirit of self-denial, which, in all ages, has characterised the true disciples of Christ; something far more effectual than all the terrors of a mysterious future, even that of Christian truth. The

primitive Christians presented themselves to the world stripped of all selfishness; they were all of one mind and soul; and in every place they held up the Christian truth with all boldness; and, in return for their self-denial, they only experienced persecutions, imprisonments, and martyrdoms. The state religion, which was based upon the ignorance of some, and upon the pride of others, felt struck, as if by an arrow, which went deep into the heart of the king's enemy; then came the downfall of Paganism, which formed the basis of social and political society. I mean the theocracy of Rome, which necessarily involved the fall of the empire. Thence followed the systematic persecutions. Since that time, it has been of little importance to rulers whether the Christians were virtuous. Even the virtuous proved more injurious to them by the principles they propagated. The public safety demanded that they should be sacrificed without mercy; and, like Christ Himself, the Church is doomed to suffer martyrdom. The human evil passions are let loose for the purpose of hastening the annihilation of the Christian Church; but she rapidly spread through the blood of the martyrs, and the moral beauty of the Christian spirit manifested itself with power to the human conscience, which soon felt stricken with horror that the public safety only produced executioners, and so found itself transformed into a universal evil. Thus the precious blood of the Christian martyrs, which watered the earth, established the truth upon the very thrones of the Cæsars. At last, Paganism, being intoxicated with blood, is overcome. The empire is left without foundation, and it must either perish, or proclaim the divine principles of Jesus Christ. Wonderful indeed that He, who had been condemned as a vile criminal, should have been thus proclaimed as the God of the empire, and that the cross, which was considered to be the vilest instrument of punishment, should have become the ensign of the empire, and the standard of Rome! Here are indeed, gentlemen, great facts, which you cannot possibly deny. And, O ye sons of Abraham, who are present, ye need not be ashamed of One of your own nation, who thus conquered Paganism, who changed the face of the earth by the word He and His apostles preached,-of Him who presides over the final settlement of man's destiny. Such were some of the powerful effects which He produced, both by His death and after His death; society was thus restored by Christianity, until the invasion of the barbarians. By means of this invasion, crafty and selfish men gathered up the wrecks of the old society, and gave new life to the new races of men. I mean the hordes who came down from the north, and succeeded in establishing a new theocracy. Did these teachers of religion and the kings of the people know what they were doing in establishing this theocracy? No; certainly not: for they, too, yielded to a historical necessity, and perhaps it was impossible for them to do otherwise. The part they acted was imposed upon them by the sheer force of

events. In a word, it was written; it was to be so. Thus there came to be a new pontiff, and the new pontiff inscribed the name of Christ on his crown; and, after having established himself on his throne, he distributed the thrones to others, and thus pretended to have realised the kingdom of God by making a mere show of it. This also was to be, for it already commenced to be so in the apostolic age. It would be useless, gentlemen, to describe to you the reign of the Popes; their past pretensions are well known to you all, and you are well aware to what degree their power has reached: and, like ancient pagan Rome, they adapted themselves to mankind, and succeeded in enslaving it by an imposing priesthood, by mysterious rites, by a display of spurious marvels, which would be quite needless to enumerate, as you all know them so well.

"But, gentleman, put your hands on your hearts, and allow me to ask, Do you believe that it is possible to bring back humanity, through all the past course of time, to that happy age of the first Christians ?" They all answered, with one voice, in the negative: "No!"

"Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that man instinctively aspires after truth; it is, in fact, his eternal fatherland. You may envelope this truth in thick clouds, cover it with servile ignorance and superstition; you may tell men that you can dispose of heaven and hell by some strange art; you may represent to his enchanted mind the imaginary world which you have created to enslave his thought and conscience, accumulate images upon images, isolate him, disfigure him; you will never extinguish in his soul that love for the truth that possesses him. The small rays of true light will suffice to destroy your work. You say that the utopian politicians and philosophers do not know man, nor understand his pride and selfishness; but allow me to say that you are strangely deceived, if you think it possible that humanity could always be fed with delusions and chimeras. Man does not live by bread alone, but also by the word of God, which is THE TRUTH; and be assured that he will not rest until he has found that nourishment of which he is so much in need. In vain will you create theocracy, infallibility, democracy of all kinds and colours: man, being eager for truth, feels the want of being nourished thereby above all things; but, finding only an empty institution, he will at last doubt all, and finish by believing in nothing. What does, therefore, humanity want, and what will become of it? In other words, where are we going?"

The merchant, who spoke first, rose up, and exclaimed, rather in a mild tone, "Then we must have the Messiah of the Jews to save society and humanity."

The Jews who were present looked at each other with astonishment, and seemed confused with shame at hearing this exclamation.

Thus terminated this interesting conversation, and the party left the table, and went away.

Oh, yes, dear brethren of the house of Israel, we need the Messiah of the prophets to restore all things, to fulfil the promises made to the patriarchs and prophets, and to all other believers who live by faith upon those promises. From henceforth both Jews and Gentiles are called by the same name of the Messiah. Do you not feel that the theology and traditions of men have become stale before the actual state of emancipation? There is no doubt that many among you do sigh after a renewed effusion of the truth, whilst many others reject altogether what the mass of the people call religion, or rather religions; they long with ardent desire for a complete moral and spiritual deliverance; they are as eager in search of truth as they are doubtful of all the religious dogmas they deny, and new apostles are summoned to affirm. All these negations and aspirations are only most convincing demonstrations that a certain truth, which is more or less veiled, is the true spiritual fatherland which the soul seeks for an asylum and rest. Who is to reveal that truth veiled by subtle theology, if it be not thy Messiah, oh Israel?

Oh, thou Messiah of the prophets, reveal thyself! "Lord Jesus, come quickly." Surely it was necessary that it should be proved that the wisdom of man is foolishness with God, to convince the world of sin, and that its power is to be broken; it was necessary that the veritable great and mighty of this world should be thus exposed on the cross as a public spectacle, that the principalities of this world should be thus condemned. All this was accomplished in the great Victim, which was aforetime indicated by the blood sacrifice prescribed by Moses, as ordained by God Himself to be offered up daily; that you were to be dispersed all over the face of the earth, as the prophets have foretold; that the cup of humiliation will in the end be presented to the Gentiles, when their turn will come. And thou, oh Zion, wilt again arise from thy ruins; for thy God has not forgotten the covenant which He made with Abraham His friend, and David the man after His own heart; whilst all the nations will be blessed in Abraham's seed, Abraham's Saviour will bless all nations!

Oh, Israel! behold your Messiah, who cometh on the troubled clouds to make the nations shake and tremble; He will sweep away the mountains and hills, and level the valleys, so that all human pretensions will vanish; and all those who have threatened to destroy Israel shall be destroyed. The Messiah's reign will be preceded by a terrible judgment; then will the knowledge of the Lord cover the earth as the waters cover the seas; and then will there be only one Shepherd of one fold.

Oh, ye that make mention of the Lord, give Him no rest until He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Amen.

« PreviousContinue »