The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01Brann, William Cowper
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The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01
Brann, William Cowper
Brann, William Cowper, 1855-1898; Essays; Reformers
former do while Christianity does not voice the religious
sentiment of the Orient, a sentiment which exists regardless
of their Sacred Books, and of which the latter are but
indications. You can no more demonstrate the truth of the
Bible to a Hindu than you can demonstrate the truth of the
Vedas to a Christian, for in either case outward evidence is
wanting and the subject is not en rapport with the new
doctrine. It is not infrequently urged that evidence sufficient
to convince Mr. Gladstone should likewise convince Col.
Ingersoll. And so it doubtless would in a court of law; but in
matters spiritual what may appear "confirmation strong as
proofs of Holy Writ" to the one may seem an absurdity
absolute to the other. Neither had the pleasure of Moses'
acquaintance. All witnesses of his miracles have been
dead so long that their very graves are forgotten. There is
nothing in the accounts, however, violative of Mr.
Gladstone's conception of Deity, hence he finds no difficulty
in accepting them. To Col. Ingersoll, however, there is
something ridiculous in the idea of the Creator of the
Cosmos become a bonfire and holding a private confab
with the stuttering Hebrew. He demands undisputable
evidence, it is not forthcoming, and he brands the
story as a fraud. For the same reason that Mr. Gladstone
accepts the miracles of Moses he accepts Christ as the
Savior; for the same reason that he denies the burning
bush, Col. Ingersoll denies Christ's divinity. The story of a
suffering Savior appeals directly to Mr. Gladstone's heart,
but it gets no further than Col. Ingersoll's head. The one
tries it by his sympathies, the other by the rules of evidence
that obtain in a court of law. In summing up, Col. Ingersoll
might say: It has not been demonstrated to the satisfaction
of this court that Jesus ever claimed to be "the only
begotten Son of God." The testimony to the effect that he
raised the dead, walked upon the waves, came forth from
the grave and ascended bodily into Heaven, appears to be
all hearsay, and by witnesses of unknown credibility. If we
consider the impression made upon his contemporaries, we
find that his miracles and resurrection failed to convince
those best qualified to analyze evidence. He seems to
have been regarded as nothing more than a popular
religious reformer or schismatic. From the New Testament
we learn that he did not found a new faith, but lived and
died in that of his fathers--that it is impossible to follow the
instruction of Jesus without becoming in religion a Jew. As
he was the sixteenth savior the world has crucified, his
tragic death does not prove him divine. As immaculate
conceptions were quite common among the Greeks and
Romans, with whom both he and his immediate following
came much in contact, I incline to the view that he entered
the world in the good old way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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