Page:The kernel and the husk (Abbott, 1886).djvu/242

226 Resurrection. Do you suppose that a "spiritual body" can be touched? Or that St. Paul could have touched the presence that appeared to him when he heard the words, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" Now if the Resurrection of Christ was spiritual and not material, there may have been no suspension at all of the laws of material nature, but simply a real, spiritual fact, manifested to the world according to certain laws by which spiritual facts are manifested to the senses.

But this theory, you will reply, although possibly consistent with the Pauline narrative, is inconsistent with the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection. It certainly is. But it is quite certain—however unprepared you may possibly be for the statement—that the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection, taken altogether, cannot be compared, for weight, with the Pauline evidence. You know that the oldest Gospel (St. Mark xvi. 8) terminates (probably because it was left incomplete) with a vision of angels who speak of the tomb as empty and of Christ as risen; but not a word about Christ's resurrection itself. The next Gospel in chronological order (St. Matthew's) mentions one appearance of Christ to some women, and another to some disciples in Galilee; but as to the last it is said that "some doubted." Not till we come to St. Luke's Gospel do we find detailed appearances of Jesus to disciples in or near Jerusalem, in the course of which Jesus is present at a meal and offers to eat, as evidence that He is no mere spirit. In the last Gospel of all (St. John's) there is added an appeal to the sense of touch; and in an Appendix to that Gospel, Jesus is represented as inviting the disciples to a repast of fish and bread, apparently miraculously supplied and prepared ("they see a fire of coals there and fish laid thereon, and bread," John xxi. 9), which He distributes to the disciples. Afterwards he holds a long discourse with them. Similarly long discourses between