HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 41, 7 February 1874, Page 13

HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

By the Abbe J. E. Daubas. jk (Translated from the French for the Nkw Zealand Tabli t.) r O, — LXTBIKSIC pKOOFs OF T'l3 GOSPEL jSaBBATIVB — AMJIQUirY OF THE FILuiaUAOE TO JSETHLEnEM. TnE more we study the lctur of the Gospel, the more we disfovtr in it intrinsic proofs of authenticity. Had we no other monument than the sacred text, it would bo sufficient in itself to overt am the efforts of Rationalism, But, parallel with its recitnl, we possess a complete aeries of testimoi ieg which it is imiortanl to make known. The " JPraesepium " of Bcthlehrin, from the first dawn of the Christian ages, a'tructed the pious veneration of the faithful, aud the persecution of Boman pnganiMn. St . Justin had followed the footstep* of the shepherds ; he had gone to visit tho spot where Jesus Christ was born. "At the entrance of Bethlehem," he sayi, "is to be seen a cave ; it was there that Joseph, who had not been able to find a pluce in tho Dicersorium, was forced to tike up his •bode." (1 ) Origen, nearly about the same time, said to the philosopher Celsus: " 1; the prophecy of llicheas, and ita admirable agreement with the Gospel narrative are etill irifcufficiont to conrince the most incredulous ; if a more decisive proof of the reality of the birth of Jesus Christ is wanting, let them bear in mind that at the present day is she.vn, in Buthlehem itself, the cavo where Ho was born, and in that cave the manner where be was wrapped in swaddling clothes. The monuments are there, in perfect conformity with tho Gospel narrative. The fact 13 of public notoriety throughout the country ; it it well established, even among the enemies of our faith, who are unanimous in proclaiming that in this cave was born Jesus, He whom

Christians renerate and adore." (2.) Apart from their exejjetical value,, to which we shall soon have to return, these declarations, raide in the year 200, of the Christian era, carry with them, in a dogmatical point of view, a weight to which we mean eimp'y to call attention here. Every day we hear Protestants censuring ns superstition, idolatry even, *he respect with which the Church surrounds the holy places, and the piety of Catholic pilgrims. It is no rare occurrence, in Palestine, to meet men, who adore Jesus Christ as God, yet who would blush to bare the head, or to prostrate bef >re the Cive of Bethlehem, where the infant Jesus was wrapped iv swaddling clothes, — before the stone of the sepulchre, where the body of Jesus, taken down from tho Cross, was bound in the winding sheet of death. These men pretend to maintain in their purity, the faith and worship of the first ages, impaired they say, by Catholicism. Now in the time of Origen and St. Justin, the Cave of Bethlehem was venerated as we venerate it today. Will they have the hardihood to protest against the piety of the primitive Church, so solemnly attes'ed by illustrious contemporaries ! St. Justin, Origen, and, later on, St. Jerome, were they guilty of idolatry, in venerating the Crib of Bethlehem / No more than are the Catholics of the nineteenth century, proud of following, according to their measure, the great examples of their fathers in tha faith. 7. — Histobtcai Testimonies — Conclusion In order to check the piety of the primitive Christians, who resorted in crowds to the Cave of Bethlehem, the Emperor Adrian, in the year 135, of our era, caused this august monument to be prefanad. By his order, a statue of Adonis wnj erected on the very spot where Jesus had uttered the fiist cries of a new-born child ; and the pagan colonists, transplanted by Boman Caesar, to the soil of Ja.lo.i, assembled to celebrate their impure rites on those same plains which heretofore had resounded with the chants of the Angels. (3.) " This sacrilege," says M. de Vogue, " far from elFicingthe nativity, according to the intention of the pagans, contributed to eon firm tho tradition." (4 ) Oiigen, in the passage übove quoted, rested, in effect, on the testimony of the pagan populations, established half a century before atßcthlehew, to prove beyond a doubt the authenticity of the evangelical tradition (5.) In presence of such undoubted facts, of a significance, clear, precise, irrefragable, it was really needful to speculate on the levitj whish characterises our epoch, and on a lamentable forgetfulness of all religious history, to d»re, without fear of stirring up the popular conscience, to write the incredible affirmation: "Jesus was born at Nazareth, a. small town of Judea, which before his time had no celebrity." The anuals of the world in their ensemble do not present us with a fact more solidly established than is tho fact of the birth of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem. Tho soil itseW, were ull other monuments to fail, would proclaim the veracity of the traditions. And here we may recall a recent discovery, duu to tho accident of a fortuitous circumstance. In 1359, the ruins of a monastery, raised in the time of St. Jerome, and ' St. Paula, were discovered on the site whers the Augel appeared tJ the Shepherds. (6.) So true is it that in out* epoch, harassed us it is by Rationalistic incredulity, the very stones themselves speak, aud. proclaim the authenticity of the G-ospel narrative. An 4 now, turning a-iie our thoughts troni these miserable objections, let us aJoi-o the divine marvels of the crib. Let us say with St. Epiphanius : " the stable of Bethlehem is Heaven coma dovn to earth. Tiits Virgin brings forth, without pain, tho Master ot Heaven and earth. The angelical hierarchies surround tho cradle of tho Word ra\de flesh. Glory to God in the highest Heavens, anil peaco to men of goo I will ! ' (7) "O, miracle! O, prodigy! O, mystery!" cries out St. Augustine; "the order of nature is suspended ; God is born a man ; I a virgin becomes fruitful while preserving her inuancidate virginity : | ineffable alliance of the word ol Otcd with her wlio knows not mau ! | A mother remains a virgin ; maternity iv uo wise impairs the flower of Israel. God — He who is, ani was Creator — now becomes a creature ; iunnen-ity puts ou littleness, to be clusped in our arm* ; eteruul riches becomes poverty ; the invisible becomes visible ; the impalpable becomes palpable ; the immeasurable is measured ; He who is the joy of Heaven aud earth, is laid in the narrow space of a crib !" (8 )