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128 TUIS UNKNOWN LIFE OJ JESUS CHRIST. days were thc jest and scorn of tlic pcoplc, who, brav, ing the danger, came in throngs to worship the great Inartyr. Tlien Pilato ordered the soldiers to raise the body by night, wlien the pilgrimage coased, and to bury it sccrctly in some other place, leaving the first tomb open and unguarıcd so that the people night scc that Jcsus had disappeared. But l'ilatc failed to accomplish this purpose; for the next day, not finding the body of their Master in the sepulcher, the Hebrews who were superstitious and bclicvce in ruiracies, declared that he had arisen from thic clcac. Ilow this lcgend cvcr camc to be so gencrally accepted, we do not know; perhaps it remained latent for a long time and then spread among low people, l'ossibly thc Ecclcsiastical authorities among the Hcbrcws looked upon this innocent belief with indulgence, which gave the oppressed a shadow of revenge against tlicir oppressors. Ilowso('ler this may be, since ilic day wlicn thiy legend of the resurrection of Jesus bccanic known to all, 110 onc has bcen firm enough to point out the impossibility of it.
Concerning the resurrection we must notice that according to the Buddhists the soul of the just unites itself to tlic Eternal Being, while the Evangelists insist rather upon the ascension of the body. It seems to me, nevertheless, that the Evangelists and the Apostles were very wise in giving a plastic description of the resurrection, for otlicrwisc, i.e., if the miracle had been less material, their teachings would not have had, in the Cyes or the people, that livine authority, that character so manifestly divine, which Cliristianity retains cven today, as being the only religion capable of maintaining the people in a condition of sublime enthusiasm, of sostening their savage instincts, and of bringing them nearer the grand and simple nature which God has entrusted, it is said, to that fccble clwars called “man."
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