The weekly Thibodaux sentinel. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 1898-1905, 1902-04-05

God, or one God.commissioned could
speak to silence the angry billows OF
a stormy sea, pour the gladstone Iigh,
of day on the sightIess orb of the
blind, open the ear of the deaf to the
sweet harmony of human sounds,
dover the dumb with the gift ol
speech, nerve with strength and vigor
the palsied limbs Of the helpless cripple
and send back the soul to quicken
into life and energy the frigid mem
bers of an already purifying corpse.
And yet, my brethren, it was not
on the authority of any Of these
miracles, great and stupendous though
they were, that Christ based the divin,
lty of that religion whose precepts be
proposed, and whose dogmas he pro
muIgated. No, He reserved for that
miracle whose every circumstance
would be foretOld and whose accom-
plishment would be avouched for by
testimony so triumphantly unlmpeach
able as to disarm the negations of
unbe!ief in every age of the Church's
chequered career and that miracle
was the miracle of His resurrection
from the dead. "Destroy this temple,
said He to the Jews who had asked
Him ON whose authority He had
driven the money.changers from the
temple, destroy this temple said He
speaking of His body, aud in three
days l will build it up aga.n. Aud
when they did destroy that temple
true to his word, he did build It up
again, for before the day dawnei on
the world after His crucifxiOn, H.
arose glorious and immortal from the
tomb to proclaim to the world tha,
he was he who proclaimed Himself
to be the son of God. 1t was then,
and not till then that He gave to his
disciples that sublime argumen,
which was to silence the unbeIief oi
the atheist aud the scOff of the infide
for all time.
The religion We announce to you Is
divine because its founder il divine
its founder is divine because b.. rs
serted His divinity and proved II b,
His empire over life and death, for o.
HIS own innate power he arose glo
rious aud immortal from the dead
Deny this assertion if you dare, thi
assertion which twenty centuri-s Ol
doubt and cavil and disbelief hav,
failed to enieeb!e, deny this assertion
hut accept at the same time the choice
of two alternatives the one as humiIl
ating as the other, the one wh;cl
leaves you for all time q foe to thu
laws of human testimony, the Othe
robs yon Of every claim to common
sense. R-fuse to give credencc u
the fact of Christ's miraculous resuI
rection from the dead but deny q
the same time il you ever would b
consistent. every fact OF the ages tha
are dead, which rational men L.Os
readily accept, for on the pages o
history luminous as they are with th
records of the days that are gone
there is no chronicled event whic
gathers around it more proofs calct
lated to beget conviction than th
fact of the resurrection Of Chris
The simple ingenious testimony o
those holy and heroic women VIII
first announced it, the cautious hesits
ton and punctilious prudence of th
apostles, the obstancy of the discip'c'
the incredulity of St Thomas, u
fearless assertions of his friends, tn
very actions Of his enemies, all uni
in giving to that miracle a characte
of certainty which the best authent
tcated facts Of history can never hOl
to possess.
Nor will the oft repeated attemI
to explain that mystery away be
any avail. The apostles forsooi
made away with the body Of Chri
the better to impose upon the worl
the fable Of his resurrection. Ah m
brethren, is it not an insult to o;
common sense to ask rs to admit
clumsJ an assertion. How can '
conceive that men so very dull
intellect, so lacking in moral coura.
as we know the apostles to have bee
How can We imagine that they cOu
plot and plan, and carry tO successf
execution 80 bold an undertake.
How can We conceive that those crs
en- cowards who in the very abjecti'
of their terror had fed the pub
} gaze ut the first approach of DANCE
! men who were hudd!ed together in Z
; secrecy of the cenacle while tn
! Lord and their master was bel
! done to death, whose chief had
come a public apos.ate at the vo
! of a girl. How can We i'm .gine,
7 say that they could consent to col
forward and brave the rigors of
D prison cell, the sting of the lash,
!, tor:ures of o violent death to g,
crrd.nce for an imposture VIII
their conscience would have t
! them was reprchenslble alike in
u sight of God aud man, AMI full
3 peril Tor themselves. No my bre
r req, such supposition is an ins