The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-04-03
AT ST. MARYsS CHURCH.
Rev. Father Gibbons breaches an In
teresting Easter Sermon.

All the seats in st. Mary's We're filed
long before the service began. and the
large number of those who stood in the
aisles and at the rear of the church
waited patiently.
The decorations of the main altar were
very elaborate The large. rich and mas
Sive golden Candelabra, the bed of lilies
and deep background of palms, the golden
angels over the tabernacle. the artistic
display of American Beauties, together
with the 500 lighted waXen tapers the
golden vestments Of the minister, made
the altar and chancel of st. Mary's most
impressive. Perhaps in no church in the
city is there so rich a display of candel-
abra and vestments. and all these ara
used in the Easter celebration
TIE music was under the direction of
Miss Elsie M. Shave. Birdman's mass
was sung by the full choir with grand eff
feet. The solos by Lewes Shave, Mr..
Weber and Miss Wheeler merit special
mention, and, in all, the music was ex-
cellent.
High mass was CELEBRATED by Rev.
Father Fitzgerald, of ST. Thomas college,
assisted by Fathers Brannan and Glib
bons. The sermon was by Father Glib
! bOnS, the pastor of ST. Mary's on The
Resurrection"
After relating the stody Of the resur-
rection and the various apparitions of
Christ to His apostles, he said that ne
insisted on these apparitions of Christ to
His apostles because he wished to bring
out the true value of the evidence and TO
establish the proof on the testimony and
fncredulity of the apostles. Should it be
asked, Did Christ rise from the dead?
said he, we can point triumphantly to
the eleven apparitions. If diversity of time
be demanded we can reply that he ap-
peared in the morning at the seat of
'Iiher1a2- OF a,,
Thabor and He appeared at evening to the
apostles in the upper chamber room, in
Jerusalem. If diversity of place be re-
CURED. We point to His appearance at the
sepulchre, then on the road to Emmons:
again on Thabor and Olivet He ap-
peared to individuals - to Magdalen. to
Peter. to the two women on the way to
the tomb and to the two disciples: to the
ten and to the eleven disciples, and finally
to 400 men on Mount Olivet. Surely this
Is ample testimony to witness fact, and
the resurrection Is fact
Incredulity is never more weak than
In Its attack on the resurrection Of Christ
After 1900 years not one new historic ar
gument has been adduced. InfideIs are
forced back to rely on the weak hvpotb
esis put forth In the first century by Colse
and Porphyrus, viz: that Christ was not
dead and that the apostles came in the
night and stole his body away
Scientists have patiently studied the ma
ture of Christs death and the intensity of
his suffering; they have numbered the
wounds in the hands and feet and In his
side; they have counted the strokes of the
lash, they have estimated the loss of his
blood In the garden of agony, at the pillar
and at the crucifXion and come to the
conclusion that he certainly was dead.
They have followed carefully the details
or his funeral; measured the sepulchre,
weighed the stone and considered the
number of men it would take to roll II
away from before the door OF the sepul-
chre. They sounded the ground around
Calvary and established the impossibility
OF a subterranean passage; they consid-
cred the possibility OF brides and the ina
bility of the apostles to bride the soldiers
They took into account the triple crime
the crime of base deSertion Of the army
the crime of treason against the Roman
emperor and the crime of Sacrilege for
Jew to touch a dead body; and after
weighing all they accepted with one ac-
cord the evangelist's narrative that "a
soldier came down to Jerusalem and told
the ancients and the people; and they
agreed to pay large sums of money to the
soldiers to say that the apostles came in
the night and stole him away
But setting aside these proofs we can
take another, the testimony Of the apos-
ties. which they sealed with their blood
The apostles were weak and illiterate
men, Those who saw them were aston
ished to find them in the company Of Je-
sus; and their rude speech and manner
seemed to Justify that establishment And
yet these men. devoid Of the world S
wealth. unskilled In the world S
learning, went forth to conquer the world,
and they conquered 1t. They left their
mark on civilization and this mark is
ineffaceable They preached the risen
Christ and they sealed their teaching with
martyrs blood.
The resurrection of Christ renews the
pledge of future resurrection and inspires
men with hope that they may stand in
the blessed presence of their Master