THE MESSIAH OF QADIAN. 



245 



not really dead, but only unconscious through loss of blood. 

 He remained on the cross ouly a few hours and His legs were 

 not broken. Finally, the post-resurrection appearances of 

 Jesus to His disciples were those of the body of a living man 

 and not of a disembodied spirit since He ate and drank with 

 His disciples and allowed them to touch Him. A revival of 

 the " swoon theory " of the Insurrection. It may be mentioned 

 in passing that through his English educated disciples the 

 Mirza QadianI is kept more or less in touch with the sceptical 

 literature on the life of Christ. For example, he is able to 

 refer to the opinions of Professor Schmiedel as found in the 

 Encyclopedia Biblica ; (2) The Marham-i-Isa or " Ointment 

 of Jesus," is referred to as " the first clue to this all-important 

 discovery." According to the Mirza of Qadian, "this ointment 

 is spoken of by Jewish, Christian, Parsee and Muhammadan 

 physicians alike, and over a thousand books on medicine contain 

 a description of it" (Kashf-vl-Ghita, p. 25). 



In the Review of Religions, October, 1903, pp. 394-396, there 

 is a list of thirty -rive medical books, mostly Arabic and Persian, 

 which are declared to contain references to the " Ointment of 

 Jesus." The Mirza's theory is that after three days Jesus 

 recovered from the swoon, and that then His disciples applied 

 this wonderful ointment to His wounds with such success that 

 within the space of forty days He was entirely healed and ready 

 for foreign travel. It is unnecessary to say that we have here 

 the " fraud theory " of the Resurrection, the disciples of Jesus 

 being represented as acquainted with the facts and yet solemnly 

 declaring that Jesus rose from the dead. (3) Jesus' interpreta- 

 tion of "the sign of Jonah the prophet" is regarded by the 

 Mirza of Qadian as a confirmation of the same view. Jesus 

 said : " As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly 

 of the fish ; so shall the Son of man be three days and three 

 nights in the heart of the earth " (Matt, xii, 40). But, says the 

 prophet of Qadian, Jonah entered the belly of the fish alive, 

 remained there alive, and came out alive. So must Jesus have 

 entered the tomb alive, remained there alive, and came out 

 alive, in order to make the analogy complete. (4) " The 

 Spiritual death of Christianity " {Review of Religions, January 

 1903, p. 40), is alleged in support of the same thesis, namely, 

 that Jesus did not die on the cross, and so did not rise from the 

 (hud. He asks : " If Jesus is living, why does not His influence 

 w r ork ? " The obvious answer is that Jesus' " influence " does 

 work, as proved among other things by the Revival in Wales. 



The Mirza's proofs for the secoud part of his thesis, namely, 



