Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-03-24
BISHOP O'CONNOR
AT ST. PATR|CK'S.
Celebrates High Mass and
breaches Impressive
Easter Sermon.

Before congregation which filled
st. Patrieks Cathedral the Right
Rev. Bishop John j. o'connor cele-
prated high mass yesterday and
preached the Easter sermon. The
bishop took for his text IF Christ
BE Not Risen from the Dead, Then
Z Is Our Preaching Vain and Your
= Faith Is Vain" l. Corinthians XIV, IA.
Bishop 0'Connor said in part:
Faith, without which &c Is impossible
20 please God, the foundation of our
the resurrection OF Christ from the dead
Inc resurrection is an article of the
ereed, but 1t is something more. 1t is
the Keystone in the arch of faith, the
TEST and tombstone of true aud genuine
faith in all the teachings of Christ. The
reason of this Is that the resurrection of
Christ is the. chief proof of His divinity
as the eternal son of God.
We must have certainty of His di.
vinity to have certainty of the truth OF
His, teachings. divine teacher can
by His own free choice selected this one
miracle of His resurrection as the con-
vincing and eliminating proof of His
divine mission and His personal di-
The force of the argument drawn from
the resurrection to prove the divinity or
8 Christ is derived from this source, name
Z iy, that the resurrection was at once the
fulfiliment of a prophecy and the ac-
complishment of miracle, which neces-
sarily required the direct intervention Of
God, and God could not have interviewed
to confirm and indorse falsehood. For
Christ had appealed in a special manner
to His future resurrection as the proof
! and testimony which GOD would give 70
the truth of His assertion that he was
the Son OF God. When, then 1t was evil
e dent from the fact of the resurrection
that God had INTERVIEWED there could no
longer be any doubt that God had con-
frmed and Endorsed theIclaims of Christ.
As to the fact that Christ did really
rise from the dead, no fact IN history is
more certain. 1t Is attested by the testi-
.mony of the Apostles and disciples VINO VINO
had every opportunity OF knowing whether
or not Christ did really arise from the
dead. They saw Him not once, but many
tines they spoke, with Him, ate and
drank with Him, touched the sacred
wounds of His body They proved their
truthfulness and sincerity as witnesses
by their Willingness to suffer and die
rather than retract their statement that
they had seen and known the risen
Christ.
The Church of Christ has handed down
from generation to generation the testi-
mony of the first Christians to the fact
of the resurrection. The New Testament
which is as reliable an historical docu-
ment as exists in the world, records this
fact of Christs resurrection, and the un-
shaken belief of the whole Christian
world cannot be explained except on the
supposition that the resurrection Is an
historical fact as certain as any historl-
cal fact known to mankind.
Once the facH is admitted the con-
ciusion necessarily follows; this fact sup
poses divine Intervention as it supposes
power over life and death. God being in
hnite, truth could not confirm false
hood. Hence Christ's claim to be the
true and eternal Son of God is Endorsed
by God, the Father. as absolutely true
As the divinity of Christ is the central
dogma OF our holy religion, and as the
resurrection is the chief proof of this
divinity, we can understand the words OF
the Apostle: IF Christ be not risen from
the dead then is our preaching vain and
your faith vain"