who beheld the place, and the manner in which Christ was interred, bought spices and ointments for the purpose of anointing his dead body? Matthew is out of the contest in this matter, for he simply relates that the body was wrapt in a clean linen cloth,-unless this be considered as a third statement. And then who shall decide which is the true and 'inspired' account? The story of the Watch at the grave is related only by Matthew. It is one of the most palpable legends in the Gospels. How could the Sanhedrim obtain the information that Jesus was to rise again after three days? "We remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive," &c. Jesus, according to the evangelical accounts, never spoke plainly of his resurrection in the presence of his enemies; and the figures in which he did speak to his disciples were unintelligible to them. How, then, could the disciples give such information to the members of the Sanhedrim? If the disciples had possessed the information, they would surely have spread it, first, among the other adherents of Christ. But the women who resort to the grave on the morning after the Sabbath, intending to embalm the body, know nothing of the Watch. For, how could they expect to perform their purpose, if they knew the Watch was there? "According to Mark," observes Strauss, "their whole perplexity on their way to the grave turns upon the question, who will roll away the stone for them from the grave;-a clear proof that they knew nothing of the guards, since these either would not have allowed them to remove the stone, however light,-or if they would have allowed this, would also have helped them to roll away a heavier one ;- so that in any case the difficulty as to the weight of the stone would have been superfluous." Every feature in this strange story is full of difficulties. That Pilate should have granted the request of the Jewish magistrates for a Watch, under so foolish a reason, and after his previous conduct, is incredible; that the guards should so easily have been induced to tell a falsehood, at the hazard of the severe punishment which, by the Roman law, followed sleeping on their post, is equally incredible; but the conduct of the Sanhedrim, when the guards, returning from the sepulchre, are related to have affirmed the resurrection of Jesus, is the most incredible of all. "How," asks Strauss, "could the council, many of whose members were Sadducees, receive this as credible? Even the Pharisees in the Sanhedrim, though they held in theory the possibility of a resurrection, would not, with the mean opinion which they entertained of Jesus, be inclined to believe in his resurrection; especially as the assertion in the mouth of the guards sounded just like a falsehood invented to screen a failure in duty. The real Sanhedrists, on hearing such an assertion from the soldiers, would have replied with exasperation: You lie! you have slept and allowed him to be stolen ; but you will have to pay dearly for this, when it comes to be investigated by the procurator.' But instead of this, the Sanhedrists in our gospel bespeak them fair, and entreat them thus: Tell a lie say that you have slept and allowed him to be stolen.' Moreover, they pay them richly for the falsehood, and promise to exculpate them to the procurator. This is evidently spoken entirely on the Christian presupposition of the reality of the resurrection of Jesus; a presupposition, however, which is quite incorrectly attributed to the members of the Sanhedrim. It is also a difficulty, acknowledged even by orthodox expositors, that the Sanhedrim, in a regular assembly, and after a formal consultation, should have resolved to corrupt the soldiers, and put a lie into their mouths. That, in this manner, a college of seventy men should have officially decided on suggesting and rewarding the utterance of a falsehood, is too widely at variance with the decorum, the sense of propriety, inseparable from such an assembly." Matthew's words-" And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews to this day"-seem to point out the cause of the formation of this legend. Some of the Jews charged Christ's disciples with stealing away his dead body, and among the early Christians this legend was formed in self-defence:-'Nay,' it meant, how could we steal it, when you placed a watch at the grave, and sealed the stone?' But the legend cannot have had a wide circulation among the early Christians. It is to be found solely in Matthew: there is no other trace of it to be found, either in the Gospels, the Acts, or any of the Epistles.-Let us now proceed to the account of the Resurrection itself. Resurrection itself! I beg pardon. There is no account of the Resurrection itself. No one is stated to have seen Christ rise from the dead. Even in that wondrous account of Matthew's, which we have just been considering, although the great earthquake' is mentioned; and the descent of the 'angel of the Lord' from heaven, and his rolling back the stone from the door and sitting upon it, is described; and the semblance of his countenance to lightning, and his raiment to the whiteness of snow, is rehearsed; and also the fear and quaking of the keepers, and their becoming as dead men ;--no Jesus is described as coming to life, and coming out of the sepulchre! The 'angel'--tells the women that Jesus is risen. But neither in Matthew, nor anywhere else, is any one stated to have witnessed the Resurrection itself-the actual rising from the dead-of Jesus of Nazareth. I feel compelled to state that I hold this to be a point of great importance, though Strauss-the great analyst I have chiefly followed-does not seize it boldly; nor do some other critics appear to regard it as of much moment. I know not whether this makes the same impression on your minds as on mine; but, to me, the omission of the actual rising of Christ-its being entirely unwitnessed-makes me stagger at the beginning of the examination. So long as I received the orthodox doctrines passively, this was not the case. But now I determine to judge for myself respecting the evidence for this most important of all facts, if it be a fact, and I find that the actual rising was not witnessed,--it looks like a chain without the commencing link, that I am asked to take hold of. I long to live hereafter: I cannot conceal the fervid wish if I desired to conceal it. But, amidst the want of all other positive evidence for a future life, when I am pointed to the Resurrection of Jesus, and find that none was present looking upon that frame which they knew to be his, and beholding it begin to heave with the renewed circulation of the blood and action of the lungs-that none saw him arise-I am thrown back with the question, How, then, could they be sure that they afterwards saw the real Jesus of Nazareth-But to proceed. (To be continued in next number.) SELF KNOWLEDGE.-In searching for the mote that is in thy brother's eye, art thou quite sure that the beam is cast out from thine own? Art thou superior to the way ward prejudices of education--to the mechanical force of custom-to the blind impetuosity of appetite-to the sudden and irregular sallies of imagination to the falso colourings in which passion is wont to decorate or to blacken the objects of desire or of aversion--Parr's Spital Sermon. GROUND FOR TOLERANCE.-Whenever we cease to hate, to despise, and to persecute those who think differently from ourselves, whenever we look on them calmly, we find among them men of pure hearts, and unbiassed judgments, who, reasoning on the same data with ourselves, have arrived at different conclusions on the subject of the spiritual world.-Sismondi. On Saturday, July 6th, 1850, will be published, Price One Penny, (to be continued Weekly, and republished Monthly in Parts,) No. I. of THE HE PRESS; a Family Literary Journal of Amusement and Instruction. "The Press," will contain original contributions in every department of Literature, and Leading Articles on every topic of general interest, by eminent writers, Its price will be as low as the cheapest of the existing cheap publications; and, as a Literary organ, not inferior to the first-class high-priced periodicals of the day. 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The first is from my excellent friend Shorter, who is now Secretary to the Board of Associated Trades, in London. It will shew that he is full of hope and faith in the success of the Associate principle; and throws all his hearty enthusiasm into the effort to rouse working-men to unite for their own regeneration. The second letter touches the Working-man's question on another side. It is necessary for me to say, that this letter of my valued and intelligent friend Kydd, arose out of my handing to him the Leader of September 7th, and discovering to him my discontent with a letter therein of Dr. Smiles. I had learned from several Yorkshire friends to form a high estimate of Dr. S.; but, I must confess, I read his letter in the Leader with sorrow. Dr. S. will do himself no honour by joining those who talk harshly and revilingly of working-men, and mis-state their condition. Working-men themselves are not to be blinded respecting the causes, or the reality, of their own grievances; and what good can be done by attempting to deceive others on a question so momentous ? Neither, if all that Dr. S. alleges were true, would he be likely to produce any good impression on working men by scolding them. They will bear broad truths from one of their own order: but they remember that Dr. S., like all merely professional men, is indebted to the brawny arm and the toiling hand for the bread he eats and the coat he wears,-and that he can have frequent ease and some degree of luxury; while they must toil early and late, and daily renew their toil with wearied frames. The poor have these thoughts ever present in their minds, when a man who is better-off in the world than themselves takes it upon him to lecture them. Dr. S. had better be advised, and not repeat his lecture: working men will bear a repetition of strong truth from Mr. Shorter: he is one of themselves, and his practice agrees with his precepts. THOMAS COOPER. Correspondence. THE POWER OF THE WORKING CLASSES, AND THEIR DUTY IN REFERENCE TO ASSOCIATION. Sir, In the excellent article upon Association entitled, "The only Help for Working Men," which appeared in No. 20 of your Journal, you conclude by advising them to "cast about and try to find the means;" and assert your conviction that when they begin earnestly to hold their committees of ways and means" some mode of starting can be devised. I believe you are quite right; I am fully convinced that the Working Classes possess the means; that they only require sufficient intelligence and determination to achieve that industrial revolution which their condition so inperatively requires. I know that Working Men are poor, but I also know what may be effected by combi nation, and that wealth as well as power may be acquired by Union. I know what may be achieved by what has been accomplished. There is abundance of facts to prove that a large amount of funds may be accumulated by Working Men whenever any considerable number of them are associated for the attainment of a common object. Much may be done by a comparatively small body of Working Men, by means of continuous effort. It only requires that they set earnestly to work about it. I have now before me the "Fifth Annual Report of the United Finsbury Provident Benefit Building Society," a society established in my own immediate neighbourhood, by a few Working Men, to enable each other, by mutual loan, to purchase small Freehold or Leasehold properties, on the excellent plan propounded by Dr. Bowkett. The subscriptions have been only one shilling per week: the number of paying members has never exceeded one hundred and twenty and yet it appears from the Report to which I have adverted, that, after deducting £648 for withdrawals, beside the payment of expenses, they have realised property to the extent of £2,430, without borrowing sixpence, or being indebted pecuniarily to any one! I simply refer to this case, with which I am personally conversant, as an illustration of what I have just advanced. And I would simply ask if Working Men could only be enlightened and made to feel sufficiently interested in their own affairs, in that which most deeply affects their own and their children's welfare, why might not similar machinery be employed to obtain funds for the formation of Working Trades' Associations? Surely there are hundreds, nay, thousands, of the better paid mechanics of London and other large towns, who could well afford to subscribe so small a sum for so noble an enterprise. How many are there who squander more than a shilling every week in low singing-rooms, skittle-grounds, and filthy beer-shops? Let me conjure these men, by all the better feelings of their nature, by all that they hold dear and sacred, to abandon, at once and for ever, practices so degrading and disgraceful to themselves, and injurious to others. Let them be determined to play a better and a nobler part; let them exercise their reason, instead of taking so much pains and being at such expense to destroy it, as though it were an evil thing to be got rid of as soon as possible. Let them think of their less fortunate, ill-paid brethren; of the evils inflicted and the wrongs endured by the poor journeymen tailors, whose miserable condition has been dragged to light, and published to the world by the Commissioner of the Morning Chronicle toiling on in their cheerless and almost foodless cellars, expending health, strength and eyesight, for what? Tocnable the men who buy their labour to carry on their trade in splendid palaces, with plate glass fronts, and otherwise superbly furnished-to amass wealth for Jews, speculators, nigger-driving profit-mongers, traders in flesh and blood, worshippers of God-Mammon, whose souls (if they have any) are bound up with their ledgers; who regard the men and women who labour for them only as so many hands:" that is, so much machinery employed to work out the profit side of the account! Poor victims of the sweater and the slopseller! is there no help for them! And those, too, the slaves of the oven! working almost without intermission, day and night, weck day and Sunday; and who, when their wrongs are brought before the attention of the legislature, meet only with insult and indignity! who are told, in horrible mockery, by pious, free trading, political reformers, that they are stalwart men, who are well able to protect themselves." Nor is this the condition of men only: witness the poor needle women "Mid poverty, rags, and dirt, " And not only of the poor shirtmaker, working her weary and worn finger" from cock-crow till starlight, for a pittance of fourpence halfpenny a day, out of which she has to pay for candles, thread, firing and rent; (food and clothing must surely be too expen |