HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 6, 7 June 1873, Page 12

HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

BY THE ABBE J. E. DARRAS.

(Translated from the original French for the New Zealand Tablet.) B.—A PASSAGE FROM ST. ATHANASIUS. The extrinsically miraculous characteristics of the gospel preaching cannot be too strongly insisted upon; our forefathers were well acquainted with these things. This century has learned to forget them. It does not think itself quite sure that Jesus Christ ever raised a dead man to life. Innumerable times have we heard the literary men of our day ask, with an ingenious haughtiness, what essential difference exists between the teaching of Socrates and that of the gospel. Hear St. Athanasius answer them: "Where," he says, "is the sage, the revealer, the human philosopher, whose doctrine has worked the miracle of enlightening the world, from the dungeon of the slave even to the throne of the sovereign, and of leaving the impress of its divinity on the face of human society? If Christ was no more than man, how is it that his doctrine did not give way before the authority cf the pagan divinities? Were there wanting kings and potentates when Jesus came into the world? The Chaldeans had their learned men and their magi; Egypt and India abounded in them. Where ia the king, where is the philosopher, who even in the zenith of his glory, succeeded in rendering his doctrine universal; in snatching the world from the darkness qf,; idolatry? The Greek philosophers have written eloquent pages. Yet, compare the effect of their sublime discourses with the conquests realized by the cross of Jesus Christ. At the death of the philosopher, his doctrine was forgotten; during the lifetime of its author it did not even succeed in triumphing over the attacks and controversies of rival disputants. The Son of God appears—he disdains pompous oratory, he borrows the language of the simple, as he had adopted their]poverty; and, beside his teaching, that of all the philosophers pales. He puts an end to all their systems, he draws to himself the whole universe! Cite for me one philosopher who wrought the conversion of souls, who restored innocence to hearts sullied by debauchery, plucked the sword from the hands of murderers, inspired the most timid dispositions with a superhuman courage? Who has subdued barbarism and transformed the pagan world, if not the belief in Jesus Christ?" 9.—THE GOSPEL IS A PERMANENT MIRACLE. Behold, in reality, the miracle of the gospel. Miracle historic, permanent, visible, palpable. At the time marked out, in the series of ages, for the great advent of the Word made flesh, the tide of humanity was being violently hurried along inte the most brutal excesses of sensuality and abject materialism. Who was it that drove hack those floods of barbarity, voluptuousness and blood? When the torrent rushes headlong from the mountains, sweeping away in its impetuous course embankments laboriously constructed, aged trees, houses, even rocks, were a man to present himself in the midst of the dismayed population, and stretching out his hand, command the bounding waters to flow back towards their source; if the liquid avalanche, docile to his voice, were to stop suddenly, as if suspended above the valley, and taking an inverse direction, were to rush back instead of descending; had you witnessed that surprising scene, could all the sophists th the world prevent you from proclaimingthe miracle? Would it be needful for you to assemble the learned societies, to consult "a commission composed of physiologists, physicians, chemists, and persons skilled in historical criticism?" Ere you had time to reflect on such puerilities, you would be prostrate on bended knees, praising the marvel of the Divine bounty. In truth, that miracle, which might have saved some few cottages in an Alpine valley from destruction, is it to be compared with the* one which on a sudden arrested in its victorious flight the highest pagan civilization that ever existed, and thus saved the entire of humanity? That is not sufficient for you, you say. - "As an experiment ought to bear a series of trials, as what one has done once he ought to be able to do a second time, and as in the miraculous order there can be no question of easy or difficult, the thaumaturgus should be invited to reproduce his marvellous action in other circumstances. If, at each trial the miracle succeeded, two things would be proved; the first, that supernatural coincidences do occur in the world, the

second, that the power of producing them belong, or is delegated to certain persons. Well, the miracle has been reproduced twenty times, forty times, in other circumstances, it has Taeen multiplied m as many nations as have by turns submitted themselves to the action of the Word, made flesh. Why do the sons of the Franks no longer go, as their fathers went, in solemn procession to the Druidical forests to cut down the misletoe bough, and pour out the blood of the vanquished on the stone of Teutates? How is it that the Goths, Alans, Vandals— that deluge of barbarians — were suddenly changed into a beneficent source from which our Christian civilization Had. its rise. Ask who it is that at the present hour wrest* from the hands of the South Sea Islander his blood stained trophies, who teaches the cannibal of Polynesia and of central Africa to respect the flesh and blood of his vanquished enemies. It ia tW Word made flesh, who has accomplished these miracle, who has renewed them, with a visible perpetuity, and who will repeat them even to the consummation of ages ! 10.— MIRACLE OF THE CONVERSION OF THE PAGAN WORLD. After that, what signifies your unbelieving dogmatism? You cay, - with'a supercilious disdain: "It is not in the name of such or such philosophy, but on the part of constant experience that we banish the miraculous from tie pages of history." We answer: The world was pagan, voluptuousness was a goddess, men worshipped her without reluctance ; vengeance was a duty, they found it sweet ; enjoyment was the supreme law, it was freely accepted, the passions were consecrated with altars, incense was not refused to them ; the moat corrupt instincts of the human heart were deified, sacrifice was offered to them without resistance. Suddenly, a few fishermen from Galilee, without learning, without eloquence, without influence, without power, without human prestige, appear in the midst of this world inebriated with sensuality, they say: Let voluptuousness, even to its name, be henceforth banished from amongst you, in the cross of Jesus Christ are all your delights to be found. If .your enemy strike you on the right cheek, turn to him the left ; mortify your body, reduce it to servitude ; blessed are the poor, the humble, the merciful ; blessed the suffering, bleseed the persecuted ! Behold their teaching. And the world, disturbed in its ancient possessions, grows incensed against the importunate voices which aim at wresting its cupidity, its pleasures, its remorseless feastings, its endless orgies, its accommodating divinities, its banquets, ita riotous songs. [By an. oversight, the heading was omitted from the portion of the translation published in our last week's issue.]