1959-09-19 — Page 8

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1939.

ARE THE GOSPELS NEALLY TRUE? – PART FIVE

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last journey

JERUSALEM: the city

set on a hill. As the car rounded a bend it appeared suddenly far in front, far abovë eye- level, a dome and a tower and a line of roofs in terrible outline against the blue sky.

When the Gospels speak of "going up" from Jericho to Jeru salem, they mean pre- cisely that. The same weary climb was the last journey of Christ with His Apostles.

At the end of li my ear *wung round the eastern side of the walled elty, Into plare full of cybrcases carti and wildly discordant zretiliccture.

The threads

and

What can we maka today of the story of the Resurrection? For nineteen conturies it has been discussed and examined. Now, in the final Instal- ̈ment of his despatches from the Holy Land, the China Mail Investigator gives the result of his on-the-spot inquiries.

By GEOFFREY

The Crucifixion

ASHE

.. should I by a staircase

in the

tomb is empty-as it should until the end of time.

be

For after this particular burial something odd happened. The corpse disappeared. According to the official communique R was stolen According to the Gospels It came to life again.

Our best cluo to this supreme

the riddle is in

aquel. It forces a choice on us. If we deny the Resurrection monstrous a miracle. we in- stantly need an equally 'mon- strous miracle to explain how the Christian religion began.

too

At the time of the Crucifixion, remember, the Disciples were demoralised. Their hoped-for

Messiah had lot them down; He had failed to full the prophe clos of the Old Testament and the sages by the Dead Sea. He had not even resisted arrest. Most of the disciples lit aban- doned, its lost cause

Bethlehem-Church of the Nativity,

1

Church the alleged Crucinxion? Are of the Holy Sepulchre. 11 is the New Testament books them roofed over and shut la.

evidence that selves the only

When I climbed the steps

and this entrance and done to death it over occurred?

myself, I found two altars in

and run with redoubled loyalty

made converts by the thousand, did literally walk out again.. By no means. We have, for the dimness, and a solid-looking away.

vait floor. But the bearded Greek

My eye travelled up the slope Granted example, the Talmud, a

that the Disciples Yo! Poon after the disaster Jewish collection of the rabbis monk in charge politely showed

was were not deceivers, were they of the Mount of Olives, past through which 1 this whole state of affaire teachings. dating from the first me

deceived i Was the report of Gethsemane and the Russian could make out a few square reversed... by something. centarles A.D.

the Resurrection an honest church's barbaric domes, to the Inches of rock, the approximato

Peter,

who had denied his mistake? Patient research has unearth, place of the central crom.

Sceptics have offered distant buildings on top. Some- Manter,

organising his two suggestions to explain how where up there, the ed and brought together a series

lost sight of Him, of bitter references to Jesus and

fellow deserters Into a pasalon- it might have been that knew five of His Disciples.

ately devoted body no bounds to its mission.

It is called Ho-Taluy, the hanged man, and is saļā

A

Kap

A shock

That seemed

to be all. I

מסע

The twelve Apostles who led

But there ure still thhygs you cannal do in a car. It was on foot that I made my way

jo Gethsemane-tranquil, through

have been put to death on walked down the stairs to the and taught the Church made i beautifully kept by the

Passover eve for leading the Tomb. Franciscans, and scarcely aller- ed. it was on foot also that I people astray, plunged into the Old City by Stephen's Gate ani along the Via Dolorosa into the Church of the Holy Sepulchte.

Also there is Tackus, one of the foremost Roman hiatoriaus, who had access to State archives for the perind He Annals con- All round me on the way frm that Christ was pressed the humon mass of by Pilate. Jerusalem-children shrieking,

their

old mont squatting by hookahs, shrill women haggling

Engulfed

executed

The Tomb

perfectly clear what was at the shock, hoart of their world-conquering This part of the ancient hill- faith. It was an absolute con- side still entirely within the viction that Christ had risen church-20 boen cut away from the dead, attogether, over the little cave-populchre.

The better-known idea la that Jesus did not die on the Cross, but revived in the it, came Tomb and

out of flying long enough to inspire

rumours.

all

дл

Disciples

Perception

"He arcended into heaven." Ho passed, as I understand it, Into another plane of exis

al reach tence beyond the is unconvincing human perception. This theory

the Would

Romans, of people, have bungled such In this conviction they gave important execution? up their homes and goods, and hostile From the centre of a rotunda wandered through rises a tall decorative structure, world to eventual martyrdom. and it is through a slot in the bazo of this wedding-cake that

sbd

On the main fact, then, the you duck your way in.

with stallkeepers.

The Church ol the Holy Gospels find support. Sepulchre Is uneasily shared

among several denominationa. It

But while

carried out

round

a

Theories

cannot

My journey completed. I am looking for a way to sum up my

10 hove

Another theory is that Jesus conclusion, Maybe it is Sherlock had an identical twin brother, Holnes who deserves who hurried to Jerusalem when the last word, he heard what was going on, but arrived too late.

be brother and

the

"When you have alliminated the impossible," he told Watson, "that which remains, however improbable, must be the truth." There are many probable the Gospels and A things in fale number of improbable hings. But no one has offered their an alterative account of the

farts which is even possible.

Cut out the impossible rival theories and what remains?

If the Resurrection could be Immediately the inside cancels Their bollef was sincere if explained away so easily, why опе ever produce this the Crucifixion the outside. It is changed from ever a human belief was sincere. did no

challenge by marble, Tho

dispose of is large enough to house not with the stabbing in the side, what I once was only Christ's tomb but also the the whipping, the crown of but the shape has not changed, softened by allowing that the Christians' clairan?

as Along the wall is a narrow strip same sort of thing has happened

No. The Gospels hold place of Ilis execution, the bill thome-was

two or three in other religions. It has not. called Golgotha, "The Skull." described, it was not as artists of floor where

siid. Taking

ground. Thus it puis, so to speak, a huge often portray it, with a towering people can just

There is no parallel in the..

say, stone d over the last scenes,

of Buddha,

After taking in what I could cross on a high hill, well away up the rest of the space is the

No historian has of that eternally Mohammed.

The accains piven in the stressing their connection, draw from Jerusalem. Golgotha was a broad ledge where the body was caac

other described any

occasion damber, I came out ing the threads together.

mere hummock a few yards out- laid.

the Kate, side

and the

(or a church and strolled back to St Gospels remains. That, however Holy when a religious leader

finprobable must be the truth." B the same

for that matter) Stephen's Gate, rebuilding of the wall has long

lost all H since placed it inside, engulfed Sepulchre which the Crusaders political one

fought for, and nothing can falled miserably,

There was no evading the by the city,

alter its simplicity. Therv are, followers, and vanished from the

The prisoner who the same followers issue. reaches pictures on the wall, but I have scene, yet

together again hustled into the city through of them. Christ's promptly came what is left of that tiny suminit no memory

That is as it should be. We cannot finish the story of Christ by studying the Crucifixion alone, because the whole point of the story is that it does not finish there.

Today the visitor

This

OF

empty of the

way

The End

---{London Express Serolce).

The Hour of Devastation

It was a sunny Friday morning. But by noon the

r

sky had darkened. The number one typhoon signal was raised.

In fact it was not one typhoon that threatened to strike the Colony, but three. During the afternoon the No. 2 signal went up at the Observatory.

No one was alarmed.

That night there was a deadly stillness in the air. It was too quiet, the experienced people felt. Their fears were well-founded.

On Saturday morning, August 18, 1923, lgh winds rose. By 0.20 a.m. the fringes of one of the most devastating typhoons ever to strike Hongkong began their deadly work.

First the ferrier, then the tramcars stopped. Screaming winds and driving squatte

the depan lashing

harbour arcas, the Peak and parts of Kowloon. Breakables

Andrew Sloan.

historic Hongkong series on continues his typhoons with the story of the big 1923 storm

Some even were seen to kow- tow in the streets,

on

The

The reserve submarine 10 get onto the waterfront, was anthored off HMB Tamar wind stopped the engine in its when the storm struck Sho tracks. It could not move for- broke her mooring at the buoy, ward.

and the captala ordered his men

to jump clear before the sub

The driver backed Into Des

luck further

sani Ho remained on board Voeux Rond again and tried his down-road. Ho trying in vain to throw a line

reached Bonham Strand · with to shore, as she drifted along: watchers. Anxiously the

the same resulta, share peered through the sheets

But his efforts to re-tie the of rain, as the crew jumped over

So they gave it up as a bad to a miter buoy But no amount of kow board. They caw Mr and Mrs Submarine

bursing Baron re-appear then sink be falled The submarine then be job, drove back to the station, towing and Incense

It low the waves. That was the gan lo ink, mid-way between and walked to the emergency

the Star Ferry Pier and the on foot. lart time they were scen alive.

Ho would plecate this storm,

Victoria Recreation Club.

anything it grow worse.

The qualis resched un- procedented violence marty

Capt. Jowitt was just able to dived off the sinking boat and and see most of his crew jump, when manged to hang onto the mor- ships berna dragging a huge wave smashed over the ker buoy. their anchors, and ond stern turling him into the sca. careened from Kowloon Bay A lifeboat was also torn from to just opposile the Yaumati ita davits and it proved to be a Ferry pler.

life-saver for Capt. Jowitt

"An hour or more and it

broke and BROKE ANCHOR 1008 all over save for the cleaning up, the marvelling movables were swept away be- and the mourning," reflected fore the wind. the S. C. M. Post, describing the events of that memorable morning.

But what an hour!

RELIEF

Just days before the storm,

At the height of the typhoon the chief engineer of the Indo- came a terrible climax in the China Steam Navigation's s shape of a succession of harbour Loong Sang was transferred to tragedies, including the sinking another ship. She lay anchored of the 1,738-ton Loong Sang, in Kowloon Bay without steam to turn her propellers, when the and the reserve zubrnarino LD.

storm struck At least 100 died during the storm, many through their own.

Around

HEROISM

One of the ratings hun HMS He was able to cling to it for Tomer then heroically dived fr some time and that clamber to the foaming sea, and moun- aboard Although it rapidly be tainous waves and managed to come waterlogged, it was kept heul a line to the boy and his efforts resulted in the caving of the officer. afloat by its ballast tanks

CABIN BOY

On shore it was just as bad. Houred collapsed and many White clinging to the boat, the captain en a man floundering bad miraculous capes, in the water nearby. Ho there were others not so ludo. their At the Hongkong Sugar Factory 0.45 am. she bruke premed to him and by

But

Winds of 130 miles an hour, foolhardindes, others trying to anchor in ferce winds and was joint efforts the captain found two girls decided they had to. the greatest ever recorded up save themselves, and mill more driven before the storm along he had removed hila own

do that time, although it was probably greater la places more open than the Obervatory, tore into buildings, ripped down trees and as usual créated chaos of harbour trafe and chipplag.

of the unicky ones.

FIREWOOD

blown, down and emashod

wero

QU

cobin go home at the height of the

storms.

The manager entreated the harbour. She struck at bay.

them not to go, but they went, Been allve least two other ships, and some

were never A half-hour later the wind They guy she was driven onto some view them ashore miles along "uguẩn. rocks and off again, before con- the harbour at Capulmun Pass tinuing into mid-dixxbour,

1

10

There they were given tood and At a big factory, 50 or Typhoon debris makes good

Reaching Central Market it bot dricka Capt. Jowabs man- workers were hiding away from Ge many. of the At that time, wiven a dollar frowood

was obvious to the hundreds go to find a car and make his the storm. They looked up and way to town. Two days later saw cracks beginning to form on was a dollar, damage to ship. Chines knew from experience on shore watching the dramallo he was able to get up and about, the roof. They were all evacuat ping alone was estimated by As the wind rose, treos

acons, that the Long Sang had bit his back was badly Injured ed just before the whole bulld one agent at $700,000.

when he was awept overboard, ing collapsed in a pile of rub were large amounts of wood not much life left in her,

and he was suffering from ex- blé. That it was no worse," was work. As soon as debris hit the the phrase of rellet and thanks ground the Chinese swarmed

The Loong Bang was rapidly pozure. giving that sums up Hongkong's out, broke it up and ran back sinking by the bows, but the wind continued to drive her on most into their homes with til thought after one of the

Nour the Taumall Plar on torrible typhoons in our hlo-

There were a few of the Hongkong, the skipper, Capt. tory," said the S. C. M. fooitsardy locals who tried the F. Jewitt, told

his crew, that Going back to Friday: Up to spine thing near the waterfront, their best chance would be to that moming the Colony had At least '15 people were swept jump-overboard and try to enjoyed four weeks in auecos lato the sea trying to retrievo, make it to shore. sion or ele, unny wediccnde, firewood.

J

and then the barometer, began The storm grew worse and There were seven European. to fall

some Chinese began baɑning in- officers and 50 Chiness, gripin edio and peper, money to men on board,

weoorid (enginent,

On Saturday the Black Cross, placate the evil spiske who Barron, the then the No. 10 typhoon signat, they halleved were causing the and his wife took their copacon.

́and,leapt into the farming HVA was raised just before 1.30 sini #lofa:

Judge the strength of the wind by this event related by * Fire Brigade floor:"

One of Capi, Jowlik's other the stricken oflcers escaped ship in a sitraoulous fashion,

An emergency call was, 're-, As they wire carecuing down the harbour, sa mentioned' celved at Central Fire Station. before, they sirnak A fully-equipped fire engine anchored ship. The velijalen tore out of the station threw the young oklece over as the weather, and firing debris beant, onto the stern of the permitted. They travelled along Oster, ship, Lagokily, De Wan Der Vomix Road far co VERY MERAYU injured, and sincery's,

willie Annds carried bin

fast

When it was over men look- ed back and naturally enough compared it with the great Etorm of 1900.

D

At that Ume the Colony was totally unprepared. It was sudden storm catching any people on the hop. Loss of life was tremendous in 1900, but the strength of the galo, they decided, was unparalleled In the history of Hongkong--and we looking back, add-at least until then."

NEXT WEEK

Death- And Destruction

ANTIE

Guna, 12. kroJuľat

chros paslijeż.

to

below, where he rotated his The engine swung in's right

Turn Into Wing Lok Street