The Irish standard., 1896-04-11


umph of the Son of God The universe
was struck with admiration; the sepui-
cher flew open, and the dead arose and
appeared to many But this is not all;
the soul of Jesus leaves the place Of rest
Of the ancient saints; in an instant it has
gone again into His sacred body. The
blood comes back into His veins, the
wounds are healed, and he rises from
the stone slab on which He rested; He
lays aside the shroud and the garments
of the tomb with which the piety of the
women had clothed His body, and at
the break Of day on Sunday, the first day
of the week, with splendors far eclipsing
the brightness OF the sun, He rises from
the dead. As the light passes through
the clearest crystal His body passed
through the solid rock, and then the an
gel came and rolled away the stone from
the mouth of the sapulcher and sat upon
it. Such is the story, such is the won
der. and the blessing of the risen Jesus.
Yes, Christ is arisen. He is arisen
from the dead We may we'll cry out and
chant our aileIuiahs. for the Lord Omnip-
otent reigncth "Ariser' Do we know
what that means? Or have we ever ask
ed ourselves seriously what IS the res
direction? The resurrection of our lord,
my friends. is nothing more than the
full accomplishment of religion, or the
redemption Of mankind For by the
DEATH OF Christ mankind has been re-
leased from sin and reeonciled to the AL
mighty God; but by the resurrection
Christ opens the way to the realms OF
light, which lie purchased for Us upon
the cross True, these are stupendous
thoughts, and yet our souls are holding
them today They have beent made real
to US through the personal experience Of
Christ, whom VIE love, and they have
h5eIg translated by our eNn instincts and
the prophecies of our own needs. Be
hola, my friends, the resurrection Of
Christ, for, at It's completion, II was at
once the greatest wonder and the great
est blessing Of the world The one in
yincible power of the world conquered
The one inevitable fate of man avoided
Death tasted and then laid aside like a
cup shat the lips would not drink The
most inexorable OF natures laws, as we
call them, broken through, Life and
Divinity claiming their pTe-eminence.
Behold, I say, the most powerful motives
of oar belief lid the Divinity of Jesus
Christ! True, 1T is the one great fact on
which all other arguments for His Cod
head depends. All evidences of His Di-
vinitr stands or falls with the fact of
the resurrection. Who can deny it?
Who would ever dare to doubt it? Did
not Christ Himself tell His disciples that
the son of Man shall be betrayed into
the hands Of men, and they shall Kill
Hin, and after that He is killed, He
shall rise again the third day."
True. Christ Himself, as we see from
Holy Scripture, constantly appears TO
this miracle Of the miracles; therefore,
according to Christ's own teaching, rests
the evidence Of His Godhead and His
Divine Mission. With truth could st.
pp1T say: "If Christ be not risen again,
then is our preaching vain. Yes, | say.
The resurrection is the most manifest and
best established Of all the miracles
worked by our Divine Lord And this
extraordinary certainty it owes, by a
special disposition Of Divine Providence,
10 circumstance which was intended
and well calculated to effect the contrary,
namely to the hatred of the Scribes and
Phaifsees against the person of Jesus
Christ. Their implacable haired against
Him induced them to have recourse to a
measure which shows beyond all doubt
that the bittefest enemies of our Lord
considers His resurrection as the decisive
proof OF His Divinity. This measure
consisted iii placing strong guard 81
! the tomb of our Lord, lest, as they de
cIared to Pilata, the body should be re-
moved secretly. atld the last error should
| l)e verse than the first. Now it becomes
/. absolutely impossible to explain the dis
appearance Of Cqrist's body from the
i fonO otherwise than by the resurrec
7 ton. Lastly, we may add that the ex
iatence. of the Christian religion, il
sgite of every possible obstacle to its eS
tablishment ait its rise and at it's con
tinuance ever after, is fact which. III
L less we admit the truth Of the miracles
+ III Christ and His apostles IN conflrnla
tion of their teaching, battles all explain
/ ation. and, as st. Augustine says, woul9
of itself be the most astounding miraci
I of them all True, We must say His Di
yinity il proven The sentence Of con
demnation Which had been signed an
II pronounced hy Almighty God iii heavel
4 against the whole human race is Dlottet
H out and effacad by His blood upon th
cross.f He has crushed all the power 9
5l Tile enemy under his feet. He has goA
1 upon the lion and adder, He has stoppe
tha lions mouthsfor His people, and ha
Fl bruised the serpent's head.
we have talked thus far only 3
Christ's resurrection. We have nc
spoken of the resurrection of His dis
ciplas. which He makes clear and certai
, by His own But see how He goes or
3T am l4esthat liyeth and Was dead. an
, behold | am alive for eyerInore, and
have the Keys of death and Of hell
Christ then, having experienced dealt
has the Keys of death to open it's nreaI
4 ing, and TO guide the way through IT e
4 those who are to die like Him. Irrt
y Christ Jesus arose from the dead. ~
i for His own glory alone Oh the mantle
J tation Of His divinity, but for our il
al Struction and improvement to sho
{ what we are to do in order TO partakeI
His glorious resurrection or The etern
2 happiness. He has promised us both i
4 Sou and body This is what st. Paul se
i forth. when he says; Since Christ
Y risen from the dead, SO should we al
4 walk in the newness Of life; that is, sin
y Christ is risen from death to life,
n should we also. rise from the death Of 8
" wv the life be grace. This is what 8
!. i fathers and doctors Of the church call
y i spiritual resurrection or arising in spfl
d 10 God. This spiritual resurrection
y Fam tells us, consists In Fpnrging out Z
1t old ieaven Of sin, and seeking the thin
! that are al1eve, not the things that a
( unon the earth Therefore. my fFieny
Il there Is nothing impossible to us now If )
Ii do but enter into the fllness Of our pr
= ifeges, the wondrous power Of our gif
NJ The thing cannot be named in heaven
!. earth within the limits Of truth q
H