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Show V. . ; , j Story of the j Resurrection. ' IT .! J " j Sermon Delivered by Rev. VV. F. Alorrissey in St. Mary's. ' j Salt Lake, on feter Sunday, Proving Christ's Divinity Through His Triumph Over Death. I l 3 My Lord. Very Reverend and Rever- f nid leathers and Dearly Beloved ? Jhethren: "If Christ be not risen from the dead, I vain is our preaching, vain is your faith." (1 Cor. xv. :14). I No other fact has been such a power j in the world as that which we com- 1 niemorate tooay, the resurrection of J. -sus Christ from the dead! In the an- nals f religion and its progress; in the I it cords of faith and its victories; in j the history of morality and its ad- I I liinconipnt: in Hip story of charity and I : its achievements: there has been no l factor so influential. It is bound up j ninst intimately and closely with hu- iniin life. Even those who deny it as a I myth are living today under conditions I which would not exist had not centu- n.-s of Christian people believed iu this I great fact. I The resurrection of Christ is the I fc undation of the Christian faith, be- ;iusc it is the proof supreme of his divinity. Throughout his whole life, in-d. in-d. -d, Christ was the revelation of God I unto man. "God, who at sundry times I and in divers manners spoke in times S past by the prophets, last of all in f t these days hath spoken to us by his j son .whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made t'he I world." The greatness, the beauty, the . : holiness, the majesty, the love, the t t iiifrcy, the Justice of God were mani- ; 5 ferted in the human life and actions of ' I our divine Lord upon earth. When an afflicted woman touched the hem of his garment, and he cured her of her sickness: when the blind man cried out j to him. "Lord, that I may see," and he it ;ve him sight; when a ruler begged that his child might not die, and Jesus infused new vigor and strength; when j ' a sister and again a mother were in I gripf over the loss of a loved one, and I he called the dead back to life: when a 1 thief dying on a cross sought for par- i I lon. and Jesus washed away the guilt 5 i his sin: in these and in many other instances he gave proof fhat he was di-V di-V vine. Hut all these proofs, however, ; i ;ire subordinate to the one grand, tri- j innphal fact, which is the cornerstone of Christianity, and upon which all the rst of the structure depends the re- suriection of Christ from the dead. So could the apostle say: "If Christ be not r j risen from the dead, vain is our ! aching, vain is youv faith." Vain is I our faith, and v.-nn is Christianity, for I ihe criterion, to which its author ap- ; j'e.iirri as me lesi ol i.ne uivimij ui inn I person, of his mission and of his teach- I i: g. has signally failed. When some f w..uld ask him for a sign, a proof of s his claim, he gave the sign of Jonas i ihe prophet: "For as Jonas was in the j whale's belly three days and three ; nights so shall the Son af Man be in i the heart of the earth three days anT thret nights." (Matt, xii, 40). Again, I "destroy," said be, "this temple, and in I Hirer days will raise it up I luit he spoke of the temple of his l-' dy." (John. 2. 4). He. therefore, who lolmiis the rcsutreetion must hold to ? chrisfs divinity, and consequently to his ili vino right to be the guide and i l a her of man. On t'he other hand, I - who denies the resurrection will not I 1'sitate to sacrifice altogether belief in I C e divine prerogatives and the divine t T;.'.-:sion of Jesus Christ. ' t '"aking ihe New Testament, brethren, a w itness, and relying on it for the f i vs.nt, not as the revealed word of j Cei.l. but merely as a historical docu- 1M tit. established by historical criteria, I v must conclude that no fact in the i World's history is more incontestably taldished than the resurrection of ' ! ist. It is a fact which is estab- i hsh-d by proofs and historical evi- ! rf. h es ;i; leariand incontrovertible as t! -e which establish any other fact of s history, that there was, for instance, "e It a man as Caesar. Alexander or i V;.;,oieon it is a fact to which innu- l 'aide witnesses, friendly and un- '": tidly. testify, and whose evidence is " : titm-ly consistent, unshaken and un- i - 'Kahle. i It; the first place, we have the testi- ! ' "v of the apostles and disciples, who I 4 "iid n"t be themselves deceived, who f v "iii not deceive others, and who j .u rl,,t rjpoeive otbers even if they I A' ;il. They gave testimony of the v- sin i-ection before Jews and Gentiles, Hl.'eip ,he high and the low. learned ' 'M illiterate, friends and enemies, and s J' : only now and then, but always and j ' ywheie: they always returned to j 't asserted it as the foundation of I j Christianity: "If Christ be not I !i n again." says 5?t. Paul, "your ';cth is vain, for you are still in your t sins. Therefore, they also who have 11 in Christ have perished." s 'I'h is evidence of the Apostles de- l t' i v s the highest credit for they them- I selves could not. have been deceived. I If. the risen Christ had appeared only to ,,ne or two 0f them, or only to a I f'-w women, then they might have been iee, iVej. but he appeared to all dur- ing the forty days he remained on i "arth. freoue'ntly "had long conversa- i t; .ns w ith them, gave them several in- I Mruotions and commissions, showed j them ,he prints of his wounds, per- mined them to touch him, and sat at j table and ate with them. As St. Paul i I' foits. "he appeared to 500 brethren ( ft once." How could they all be de- 1 rcjved? if they could, it would be by - reason of their credulity, partiality Jin. I blind adherence to Christ; but the apostles were anything but credulous: on the contrary, so incredulous and I liard of heart were they that Christ i Jifterward rebuked and upbraided them i I because "they did not believe those i v. ho had seen him after he was risen." cMark 16:14). Who then could enter- jj tain for a moment the mischievous oi'inion that the apostles might have j been deceived, when they believed and j l ieached th? resurrection of Christ? 1 Again, the apostles would not deceive I f i others. The opinion that they would contradicts their character, for they everywhere exhibited themselves as frank, open, sincere, simple-mkided men: nothing was more foreign to them than dissimulation, ambiguity and falsehood. If we are to suppose that they had conspired to deceive us, some advantage should have accrued to them, for no one tells a lie in such an important matter for nothing. Xow, what advantage did their testimony of the resurrection bring to them? Xot the slightest. This testimony, on the contrary, earned for them onlv hatred, contumely, persecution, sufferings and death. Judge for yourselves would not the apostles have been insane, if, for the mere sake of a lie, they would have chosen a life of tribulation, persecution per-secution and suffering? Where is there a man in the world, or a, body of men, who conspire to tell a deliberate lie with the intention of drawing persecution, perse-cution, suffering and death on themselves? them-selves? The thing is absurd; it contradicts con-tradicts every fibre of reason and sense in the human system. Neither could the apostles deceive others, even if they would. If there was question of some trivial or commonplace com-monplace thing, then indeed, deception might be possible; but when there is question of such a phenomenon as the resurrection 'of a man from the dead. oiu mai, imp, mo unii iuwri, mill men could be deceived with regard to it for any length of time, even for one day, is decidedly absurd. There are other circumstances which place deception decep-tion beyond the shadow of possibility. Where did the apostles proclaim the resurrection of Christ? In some far distant land?? No. In the streets of Jerusalem, itself, Jn the ' land of the Jews, the very theatre of his actions, sufferings and death. Who were the people tQ whfjTi they preached the resurrection res-urrection of Christ? His friends and sympathizers? No. but to his very enemies, the high priests, scribes and Pharisees, and the Jews In gerteral, who had an accurate knowledge of Christ, and knew, in particular, what had occurred oc-curred in the last days of his life. When did they announce the resurrection resurrec-tion of Christ? After the lapse of years and ages, when those fetid memories mem-ories had passed away from the minds of men? No. It was only a few weeks after his death on Pentecost, when the air was yet redolent with the clamor, clam-or, scoffs and blasphemies of his executioners exe-cutioners and malefactors. Yes, on the i very day of Pentecost, fifty days after the resurrection, Peter sallied forth from the "upper chamber of Jerusalem" Jerusa-lem" into the open streets, and preached before the assembled nations his Lord and Master, crucified and risen, and no less than 3.000 people were converted and believed in Christ, the risen God-man. and these, too, the eye-witnesses ot his humiliation and ignominy, sufferings and death. Now, may I ask, were all these 3,000 people, who lived on the very threshold of the I resurrection, dupes and fools, while all our religious scoffers, unbelievers, rationalists ra-tionalists and infidels of today, 1.900 vears later, are wise and reasonable? Which have the strongest evidence and motives of credibility? If the apostles had invented the resurrection of Christ in such times and in such circumstances, circum-stances, would not all Jerusalem have risen against them and branded them forever as the most shameless liars and im posters? But where do we find any evidence of this? Nowhere, not even from their most enveterate enemies, ene-mies, the scribes and Pharisees and the Jewish priesthood. The evidence, therefore, of the apostles in bearing testimony to the resurrection of Christ is absolutely unquestionable and only malice and want of reason could con- If Ave go a step further and raise the cover, what a revelation meets our gaze that not only the apostles, but the very enemies of Christ, give testimony, testi-mony, however unwittingly, to his resurrection. res-urrection. After his burial, the rulers of the Jews came to Pilate, saying: "Sir, we have remembered that this seducer said while he was yet alive: After three days I will rise again. Command, therefore, the sepulcher to be guarded until the third day, lest his .j i.o r,,-r, anri steal him away and sav fb the people, he is risen from the dead." (Matt, xxvii. 63). Accordingly, a guard of soldiers was sent to watch the tomb with instructions and preparations prep-arations regarding every trickery. But in the morning these soldiers came to the high priests, and reported the great miracle which they had witnessed wit-nessed Surely their testimony is deserving de-serving l'of all credit, for the soldiers bad no reason or motive for telling a lie; it certainly must have been very humiliating to them to have to depose de-pose such a testimony, because in doing so they ran the risk of court-martial whhich might have resulted in their instant death. And how did the high priests receive re-ceive this report? Did they contradict contra-dict it. or doubt its accuracy? o; but thev donfirmed it. by giving a bribe, "a large sum of money." to the soldiers, sol-diers, and saying to them: "Say, you, his disciples came by night, and stole him away when we were asleep. And if the governor shall hear of this, we shall persuade him and secure you." (Matt, xxvii, 13). Now, would the high priests have had recourse to such a low and dishonorable means, if they had not firmly believed the resurrection? resurrec-tion? If they could in the least have doubted or denied the account of the soldiers, would they not have reported the case to Pilate and insisted on an investigation and the punishment of the soldiers? Would not this latter course have been far more honorable and far more efficacious for their purpose pur-pose than the bribe? Even the shameless lie of the bribed soldiers that the disciples of Christ,, came and stole his body when tney cx t : fifUfe m: REV. W. F. MORRISSEY. were asleep, gives testimony to the resurrection. res-urrection. If the soldiers were -asleep, how could they know and say that the disciples stole the body? Could they hear or see what occurred whilst they were asleep? How could it be thought possible that of all the sleeping guards, not even one was awakened by thie breaking of the seal, and the rolling back of the heavy stone placed against the door of the sepulchre? Finally, who could believe that those disciples, who were so timid at his passion and death, would, on a sudden, display such undaunted un-daunted courage as to execute so perilous peril-ous a deed as that of stealing the body of Christ in the very face of a Roman garrison armed to the teeth? But, perhaps, as say the rationalists, the disciples bribed the soldiers to allow them to remove the body? This assertion asser-tion is met by an equally serious difficulty. diffi-culty. Where would the disciples, fishermen, fish-ermen, tax-gatherers, the poorest of the land, procure the money or means for such a bribe? Or, what moral influence influ-ence could these despised rebels, who were classed with their Master, enemies en-emies of Caesar, have to prevail upon a thoroughly disciplined garrison to forswear their fealty to duty and thus risk their lives? The thing is ridiculous. ridicu-lous. The further assertion, that the disciples drugged the soldiers, is too absurd to merit a word of refutation. Lastly, we have the testimony of antiquity an-tiquity in favor of the resurrection. The apostles and their successors preached, not only in Jerusalem and Judea, but in the whole world, that Christ died on a cross for the redemption redemp-tion of mankind, and arose again from the dead on the third day. The Jews and Gentiles were convinced of this truth, and believed, and this belief has now existed for well nigh 1,900 years, and is spread over all the earth. How could it be possible for this universal belief in the resurrection of the Lord to rest on an error? Would not its fallacy, falla-cy, if fallacy it had, have long since been exploded? If the Jews and Gentiles Gen-tiles had not been completely convinced of the truth of this mystery, upon which Christianity rested, what could have induced them to embrace Christianity, Chris-tianity, which condemned their vices and established customs, and imposed self-denial, abnegation and mortification mortifica-tion of the flesh as a strict duty, and held out to them in life, not a hope of reward, but contempt, persecution and sufferings of every sort? Vain, indeed, in-deed, would have been the preaching of the apostles and their successors against such odds, if this foundation-stone foundation-stone of Christianity were only a myth, and vain would have been the people's faith which rested on it! A vain preaching preach-ing and a vain faith would have failed long since. Nineteen centuries would not have passed to find that preaching and faith as strong as ever. Had it been a vain preaching it would have been annihilated in the ten great persecutions perse-cutions which the power of mighty Rome concocted for its destruction. Had it been a vain preaching it would have succumbed to the efforts of him who, when dying, was. forced to cry out: "Galilean, thou hast conquered." Had it been a vain preaching it would have been swept from the face of the earth in the avalanche of paganism, that from the north broke through the gates of the empire. Had it been a vain preaching the third, second, yes, the first century would have stood beside be-side its grave. Yet, brethren, in t'he light of these evidences, there are those today who deny the resurrection. Upon theoretical theo-retical grounds they declare its impossibility, impos-sibility, because they hold that miracles mira-cles in general are impossible. It is a question of fact, rather than theory. They would say: "God cannot interfere with the established laws of the universe uni-verse and the decrees of nature." God cannot interfere? What kind of a God? An impotent abstraction of the mind? But God is more than this. He is a reality, a personality. We are free agents, and our freedom is a perfection. If there be a Gcd at all, he must be perfect; he, too, must be free, and his freedom implies the right and the power to make exceptions to his own laws. We can see that loss of faith in the resurrection has brought with it the loss of belief in Jesus Christ, God and man, and is leading to the entire giving up of faith in God and the life to come. What is the cause of thi3? One cause is disbelief in the records of the resurrection, resur-rection, disbelief in the scriptural account. ac-count. Now, I maintain that the only place where belief In the scriptures Is securely retained, and. the only place, therefore, where. the fact of the resurrection resur-rection is safely guarded is with, in the jfold of the Catholic church. She is j the bulwark of the resurrection. She i:" the one living witness of the fact that Christ rose from the dead. Look j around the world today and you will j find no body of people among whom : there is the same respect, the same reverence, for t'he scriptures as among the members of the Catholic church. You will find no other church which holds with the same steadfastness to the sacredness of their character. While among OhrWians outside the Catholic church the principle of "private "pri-vate interpretation" of the scriptures has led men to believe what they like, and has opened the way not only to difficulty, but to doubt, she has stood in calm serenity, and has held to her position po-sition as the teacher of men, the authoritative au-thoritative interpreter of scriptures, appointed by Jesus Christ. While outside out-side of her fold men are gradually coming to look upon the scriptures as any other literature, she has unflinchingly unflinch-ingly declared, them to be supreme over all other writings, to be the inspired truth of God. While, at the best, many will accord them only the credence given to human history, with" its liability lia-bility to prejudice and error, she proclaims pro-claims them to be without error, because be-cause they are a divine record of facts, stamped with the seal of heaven itself. While, among sceptics, the scriptures are considered to be only a legendary legacy of bygone days, she, filled with the consciousness of her identity through the ages, can tell the world today, as she has told it through nineteen nine-teen centuries: "I know that these things are true." And, when, as time goes on, amid those 'who have sacrificed sacri-ficed belief in the divine characters of the scriptures, there shall be lost for them even the regard that is paid to human documents, she will stand, as heretofore, their stanchest. defender. The Catholic church, then, brethren, is the one witness upon earth today of the resurrection. She alone has breasted breast-ed the storms of the centuries. She alone can speak thus to the world: "Before rationalism was, I am; before the Unitarian and the Socinian, I am; before Kenan and Strauss, I am. Nations Na-tions have lived and died, people have risen and fallen; ages have come and gone. I have witnessed their coming and their going. I have rejoiced by the cradle of kingdoms and republics and have wept by their dishonored graves. I have stood firm and unshaken amidst the storms of persecution, the assaults of infidelity, the ravages of licentiousness. licentious-ness. I can carry the mind back to the time when the "smoke of sacrifice rose from the Pantheon and cameleopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre." am-phitheatre." I have witnessed the destruction de-struction of Jerusalem, the downfall of Constantinople, the conquest ot" Rome. I have witnessed the formation of the Christian nations of Europe: 1 have seen tfie savage civilized, the barbarian educated, the wild warrior subdued. I tan link the twentieth century with the first, i have witnessed many or the events recorded in the New Testament. I am the living witness of all Christian ages, and I bear my testimony unto this day that Christ has risen. Today, then, is the day of Christ's triumph, the day of the church's rejoicingthat re-joicingthat church to which has been committed the preaching of that faith founded on the resurrection. On the day of his death, the world rejoiced. Beside the cross, the voice went up: "Bah! thou that destroyest the temple of God and in three days buildest it up again; save thyself: come down from the cross." Even then a word would have brought an army of smiling angels an-gels bearing fiery swords; even then a word would have struck down his persecutors: per-secutors: even then, did hex desire it, that scene of death and defeat could have been changed into a heavenly victory. He could, but he would not. for then he was suffering for a guilt that was not his own. On the morn of the resurrection another voice spoke. When the holy women arrived at the tomb, an angel clothed in white stood before them and cried out: "He is risen: he is not here." "Bah! Save thyself; come down from the cross," shouted the furious rabble, and the triumphant tri-umphant answer coming forth from the tomb, rolls on through the centuries: "He is risen; he is not here." Through the world it echoes: "He is risen, as he said." The apostles preached it and they knew whereof they spoke. "He is risen!" It is confusion to the deniers of Christ's divinity, for well-founded as it is, it cannot reasonably be denied. Heis risen. It is the tocsin. of faith, inspiring that belief without which there is rto salvation. He is risen. It is the promise as well as the hope of our resurrection on the last day. As we thus take a broad general view of the centuries, brethren, we seem to bo standing in the nave of some vast cathedral. Over the distant altar we can see the inscription. "He is risen, as he said." From within this cathedral cathe-dral there issues forth the Christian song of triumph. Within its confines are gathered the hosts of wittiest ;e from all times. ' We hear again the evangelists chanting solemnly Hie simple sim-ple story of Easter morn. We hear the whole body of the apostles taking up the refrain and sounding it unto all their followers. We hear St.P aul reiterating re-iterating the sacred words and proclaiming pro-claiming that there is no Christianity without faith in the resurrection. We hear the witnesses of the first centu-1 I ries, the martyrs, clothed in blood-red, I blood-stained garments, telling how, with their life, they bore testimony to the resurrection of Christ. We hear Athanasius, the saint of the divinity, using the fact of the resurrection against his adversaries: we hear his followers, the defenders of Christianity, smiling in their turn with the unanswerable unan-swerable argument of the resurrection. From each century a song, and all unite in one grand symphony. The mighty anthem goes up; the song of. triumph cleaves the sky: "Resurrexit sicut dircit He has risen as he said." And if by some miraculous power it were given us to look into the court of heaven: if for a moment, on this clay, the eternal gates were lifted, we could hear issuing forth the song of the myriad atr.rels. companions of those who stood within the tomb, the song of heaven's triumph "Resurrexit sicut dixit He has risen as he said." Right, then, is it that the church on earth should on this day. above all others, rejoise. She sings today the triumph tri-umph of her founder; she chants today the glory of the Son of God. Our hearts, j our w ills, our minds, our souls are with i her. The faith which springs up lively within our souls, the fountain of justification: justi-fication: the hope that inspires us in consequence of the great fact we commemorate; com-memorate; the charity toward God and man which is to be found only in the Christian heart; the joy that is the fruit of all these: the joy of sympathy with Jesus Christ, the victor, the conqueror: con-queror: all these are summed up in that cry which our beloved church in her raptures of love repeats again and again: "Ressurrexit sicut dixit He said he would arise, and he has risen." Amen. |