Christ when he

He rose to die

ness of God's power, which he wrought in raised him from the dead and set him," etc. no more. He conquered death, which has no more dominion over him. His resurrection was to immortality, to glory, to ineffable dignity and honor.

tỏ

4. The resurrection of Christ establishes the divinity of the Bible. The entire book is the testimony of God concerning him. Moses, David, prophets, apostles-all wrote of him. The Old Testament is full of types, symbols, images, emblems, shadows, forms, ceremonies, prophetic names, places, things, events, declarations-all relating to him. Had he not risen, the Bible would have been to us a book of fables, myths, visions, legends-powerless and meaningless. But being not a dead, but a risen, living, exalted prince and potentate, we have the complete fulfillment and consummation of the Old Testament Scriptures. As Paul affirmed at Antioch, "We declare unto you glad tidings, now that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." * The resurrection of Christ makes it easy to believe— yea, makes it hard not to believe-all that his apostles wrote, since what they wrote was but the reassertion and development of what he himself, the faithful and true Witness, had uttered.

5. The resurrection of Christ makes him a true Saviour. All his miracles, all his teachings, all his sufferings, all his bloodshedding, his death and burial, would have been made void had he not risen. A dead Christ would be a powerless Christ. His dying might have been an atonement, he might have borne our sins in his own body on the tree, but had he remained dead he never could have applied the benefits of his redemption to a single sinner. His resurrection, however, ratifies and renders effectual his redemption. "He was delivered for our offenses, but raised again for our justification." Pardon, acceptance, holiness, and glory are ours by reason of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. "If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." "It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again; who is even at the

* Acts xiii: 32, 33.

right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." By his rising again, he brought life and immortality to light. This event is the one all-essential, bright exposition and illustration of his life, sufferings, and death. It shows that he neither lived nor died, he neither obeyed nor suffered for himself or on his own account. His life of perfect obedience was in order to procure a perfect righteousness for us. His death of agony and shame was the expiation of our guilt. His resurrection by the power of God was an absolution and discharge from all further obligation to obey and suffer on our account; it was an open divine acceptance of his redemption. "By his dying," says Bishop Pearson,*"we know he suffered for sin; by his resurrection we are assured that the sins for which he suffered were not his own. Had no man been a sinner, he had not died; had he been a sinner, he had not risen again; but dying for those sins which we committed, he rose from the dead to show that he had made full satisfaction for them, that we, believing in him, might obtain remission of our sins and justification of our persons."

Moreover, the sending forth of the Holy Spirit, for our conviction and renewal and illumination and sanctification and comfort, was absolutely dependent upon his ascension to heaven, which could not have been accomplished without his

resurrection.

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And then, by his rising he became the Lord, and Author of eternal life; as he said, "I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." Because I live, ye shall live also." "If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you." "Neither can such die any more, for they are like unto the angels, being the children of the resurrection." "For as we have borne the image of the earthly, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly,"—incorruptible, immortal, spiritual, powerful, resplendent as the king himself in his beauty.

Thus our whole salvation in this life and in that which is to come, in our bodies and in our souls, hinges upon the physical fact of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead.

*On the Creed, p. 378; London, 1839.

Truly has it been said, "it is the most important article of the gospel, and the demonstration of all the rest."

6. Just as surely as Christ rose from the dead, just so surely and so literally will there be a universal resurrection, a general judgment, and eternal retributions in heaven and hell. This palpable, incontrovertible, event settles, beyond all cavil, these tremendous futurities. They are rooted in and grow out of it, are inseparable from it, and chained to it by divine decrees and God's absolute veracity. He who admits that Christ was raised from the dead and is not a believing Christian, must stand convicted of intellectual absurdity and moral madness, for Christ raised from the dead, put it beyond all contingency, that he who neglects "the great salvation" is shut up to irretrievable and endless destruction.

Art. IV. OUR INDIANS AND THE DUTY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH TO THEM.

By J. ELLIOT CONDICT, Esq., New York.

THE subject of Indian affairs, ever since the formation of our Government, has been peculiarly perplexing, and beset with many difficulties. Had the Indians been slaves, the "gordian knot" would long ago have been untied; but as free born Americans, whom we could not enslave, and who were unfit for freedom, and to whom we conceded the original ownership of our vast territory, as such they have always presented a question full of anomalies, and demanding the most skillful treatment.

There were no precedents in history to which we could look for guidance; and for a century we have "blundered" along, temporizing with the difficulty, afraid to meet it boldly, and resorting to expedients confessedly weak and unjust to the Indian.

Nearly four hundred treaties have we made with them, and nearly four hundred times have we been the first to break the spirit, and often the letter, of these treaties. Gen. Harney, after many years of familiarity with our western Indians, states,

that in nearly every instance where a treaty has been broken, the white man has been the first to commit the offense.

Those who give but little attention to Indian affairs, take it for granted that the race is doomed to utter extermination, without thinking of the fact, that until they came in contact with white civilization, they were rapidly increasing in numbers. Why have we been so unsuccessful in civilizing the Indian? Is our civilization not adapted to his nature, or has our presentation of civilized life been so faulty and made so unattractive as to drive him away from civilization? It is not difficult to condemn the errors of the past, or to find fault with the plans of the present. A subject so hedged about with danger and trouble is likely to be viewed in different lights, and receive as many plans and suggestions for improvement as character and circumstances might suggest.

In presenting some thoughts on this question, the writer may be permitted to state that they are the result of many years of patient study of the character, language, and habits of the civilized tribes in Indian Territory, as well as of the wilder tribes of Kioways, Comanches, etc., of the Southwest. We regret that the writer of the article in this REVIEW (July, 1875), on this subject, should charge any one with a "repetition of Absalom's craft," who advances views on the Indian Question opposed to the policy of the "Reservation System." The writer referred to is a missionary and teacher among the Nez Percé Indians, in Idaho, and certainly speaks from a standpoint that warrants the closest consideration, and his views demand and should receive the serious and thoughtful attention of the Christian public; but an honest difference of opinion on so important a subject is to be expected. Not only the temporal prosperity, but the spiritual condition of three hundred thousand of our American Indians, nay, the very existence of these Indians, depend on the action of our Government, and the earnest coöperation of the Christian people of our land in this decade. If our Indians are saved from extermination it must be the work of the coming ten years. The "Reservation Policy" has been tried for a century, and one of the arguments most frequently urged in its favor, is the rapid advance in civilization that has been attained by many of the tribes in Indian Territory, its friends claiming that these tribes are civilized as

a result of the Reservation Policy; a proposition from which we entirely dissent.

What is the Reservation Policy?

It is the placing of a tribe of Indians in a country of defined limits, and forbidding the Indians of that tribe from going outside of those limits, and preventing all other people from living among them, unless by special permit. The writer, already referred to, would go even further than this, and "gather the entire Indian population into the Indian Territory, and make it the home of the Indian for all time to come; nay, he would even use "force to persuade them to give up their accustomed haunts."

This policy had its origin in a spirit of covetousness, and by its adoption our fore-fathers the easier secured possession of the Indian lands. The Indians, allured by the promises of the whites, gave up large tracts of land and moved to a Reservation," hoping to be protected in such Reservation "as long as grass grows and water runs." When have the Indians received the protection promised? When could the Government have kept its faith? It was impracticable. The onward march of civilization forced our Government to break its treaties, and a new treaty would be made, of like import, and as full of brilliant promises, only to be broken in its turn. Read the history, as told by the many treaties of the Leni Lenappe, or great tribe of Delaware Indians; the Indians who were our friends in the trying days of our Revolutionary history; "the friends of William Penn; the allies and soldiers of George Washington; the allies and soldiers of General Harrison," the great chief of whom, Hengue Pushees, was gratefully thanked by Washington for his invaluable services, and was made lieutenant-colonel for his courage, daring, and efficiency; read the history of this tribe, and see the effect of placing them upon a "Reservation," and then moving them from one Reservation to another, until to-day there is scarcely a Delaware Indian left to mourn over the sad history of his tribe.

It is interesting to note, that in the very first treaty with the Delawares, it was provided, "that they could form a State, and have a representative in Congress." This was in 1778, when the colonies were weak, and needed the aid of the fighting Delawares; and the Indians were dazzled with the fair and