The Irish standard., 1894-03-31
MINNEAPOLIS PAUL. SATURDAY, MARCH

l.
FOR an answer, but instead Of oategori.
cal reply, We hear but the discordant
and dclashing voices Of two schools. He
was really dead on Friday, says, one
|achool and the evidence Of His death is
90 clear that there is no possibility of
Eoverturning it.. The four Evangelists
say with one voice that He gave up the
ghost. Plate being asked for His body
assured himself that Jesus was dead and
mot till he had thie assurance did he
lgive it up. The soldiers who were sent
to break the bones of the three con-
|demned men did not touch Jesus and
they justified their neglect OF the order
ION the plea that He was already dead.
The centurion, as was the custom amoIg
the Romans before handing over the
oorpses of the dead to their friends, gave
the death stroke to make sure OF His
death. He plunged his lance into
Christ's side. The result according to
the old physicians showed conclusively
that Christ was dead. Blood and water,
Indicating complete absence of vitality,
issued from the wound. Those who
loved Him most, His mother, His friends,
His disciples believed Him dead, placed
Him in shroud Of the dead, embalmea
| Him as dead and buried Him in sepul-
|Dhre. Those who hated Him unto death
llelieved Him dead, SO deaa indeed that
wishing to stamp out His doctrine as
E|shey had destroyed HE life they did not
Hesitate to recall to the people His
Eprophecy of rising again, hoping thereby
Eto make Him ridiculous on account OF
its non-fulflment. They did more. They
Ntook precautions against even the ap'
fipearance of it's fuldlment by sealing the
Igreat stone rolled up to the mouth of the
Isepulchre and placing guard around
Iabout it to prevent the body from being
Iatolen. In all 1.-The subsequent events
which so annoyed the Sanhedrin rot one
.of it's members ever dream of ssying
Christ was not dead. They accused His
apostles of having stolen the body, they
accused His disciples Of having bribed
the guards, they never accused them
selves of any lack OF thorouRhness in
their work of revenge unto death.
Christ therefore was dead and M. Renan,
the champion of this side of the ques
tion, quietly goes on to speculate how
long it was before His flesh began to de-
cay. Death therefore, the first element
of the mystery Of the Resurrection, was
certain.
But, says the other school, exact criti-
oism compels us to say that Christ was
alive on the third day after the cruci~
ixion. His reappearance among his
followers cannot with shred OF reason
be ascribed to their hallueination on
this point. Granted that the Saviour
had foretold His reappearance among
them, granted that they evidently wished
such reappearance and found scriptural
| texts foreshadowing it, yet nofsuch hal
tlucination either before Or since has ever
been recorded Of men. The strongest
attachment of wife for husband deceased,
the fondest love of, mother for departed
child has at most made them believe
that they saw the departed ones in spirit
land; never has it filed them with the
conviction that they were alive On earth.
Yet the apostles had this conviction and
neither space Of time, nor cruelty OF per-
lsecution, nor inaiction of death itself
ever made them give it up. It was with
them SO strong, 80 realistic that it be
came equally strong with those who
listened to them and backed as it is by
millions Of Christian adherents, strength
ened by: the lives of innumerably holy
men and women, sanctidsd by the blood
of host of martyrs, it forms the strong,
est proof presumptive OF the actual re-
appearance of Christ in the flesh to His
followers. But we do not rely on mere
presumption in maintaining our side OF
the question, they say. We bring for it
proof positive and irrefcagable by pro-
ducing witnesses Of Christ living, who
were neither deceived nor deceptive.
That these Witnesses we're not deceived
is evident from the number OF witnesses,
the strength Of their prejudices, and the
circumstances Of the apparitions OF
Christ. For Christ did not merely ap-
pear 70 one OF two and they women, and
that once, but. He appeared time and
again to mon and to women, to the un-
lettered Peter, to the learned Paul, to
the eleven together, to the disciples scat
tered. 10 more than five hundred in one
place at one time. These Witnesses
moreover we're not as the other school
represents. most willing 70 be deceived,
but they seemed TO be held in . vise-like4
grip of the strongest pref udice. When
the women returned from the sepulchre
and announced that they had seen the
Lord, their words seemed g the Apostles
as .idle tales md insane rawlings and