The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-03-26
THE RISEN CHRIST

Easter is one of the great festivals of the Christ
ian year, and takes precedence in the Roman cal
endar of Christmas and Pentacost or Whit
sunday. From apostolic times, down, through the
centuries to our own day, Easter Sunday has al
ways been celebrated with the greatest joy. When
the faith of Europe was an undivided faith, in the
days before northwestern Europe England and
Scotland separated from the center of unity it was
the custom for Christians to address each other on
this Sunday by the salutaton, Christ is risen"
to which the person saluted replied Christ is risen
indeed" or else, "And hath appeared unto Simon
Peter"
The Resurrection of Christ is the most convinc-
ing and glorious proof of His divinity. 1t forms
the foundation for the pillar of faith and is be-
yond all cavilling, the most splendid and signal
evidence of the divinity of Christ Once prove that
the Resurrection of Lord is legend or a myth
and the yhole structure of Christian belief falls and
becomes a pitiable ruin. Atheists, free-thinkers
and infides know this, and have at all times made
their fiercest attacks on this sublime article of
faith. Strauss and Renan, the ablest of the mod
ern enemies of Christianity have exhausted strate-
gy and exploited all controversial tactics in at
tempts to destroy credibility in a Risen Christ
Unable to controvert the proofs of our Re
deemer's appearance in Jerusalem after His death
on the cross Strauss resorts to the forlorn hope of
carrying the Christians defense by denying the
crucifixion. He resorts to the desperate expedi-
ent of an enemy driven to his last stand by pre-
tending that when Christ was taken down from the
cross He was alive, but unconscious, and was re-
stored to consciousness by Joseph of Arimathea
But the death of our Savior was testified to by
tba Of 4le L. I'll
messed the crucfxion and by the other three evan
geists the objection of Strauss is puerility and
undeserving serious consideration.
Renan reluctantly conceeds the reality of the
crucifixion and the death of our Redeemer, but
denies the resurrection. He claims that Mary
Magdalen was deceived by her imagination But no
Christian rests his belief in the Risen Christ on
the single testimony of the Magdalen Many very
man yothers saw Him, spoke with him, touched
His sinless body, and testified that He was the
Christ that crucified, that was buried in the
tomb and had risen from the dead
How comes it that sane man has ever dis
puted the assassination of the Roman Caesar, or
the death by the guilotine of Robespierre Now
the death and resurrection of Christ are historical
facts, supported by evidence as convincing as that
which proes vthe deaths of Caesar and Robespierre
In the face of all history since the days of Herod
no man In his senses may controvert the proofs of
our Lords death. The evidence of His resurrec-
ton from the grave is as cumulative as that for
His crucifixion. His tomb was guarded by sol
diers and the seal of the high priest attached to
the stone closing the sepulchre. The testimony of
these soldiers is record and it has the weight to-
day of legal evidence, We can add nothing to the
overwhelming weight of authority now in possession
of civilized man, nor may any perverted mind how
soever brilliant, furnish one scintilla of disproof
in addition to the objections to the Risen Christ
already formulated Without a Risen Christ there
can be no Christianity; without Christianity there
can be no permanent civilization, and without civil
lization there be no order, no decency, no So
ciety.