HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 46, 14 March 1874, Page 13

HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

Bj the Abbe J, E. DabbaS. (Translated from the French for the * New Zealand Tablet.') 14. BATIONALISTIC DENIALS. The Magi, coming from the remote East, to adore the dawning royalty of God in a stable ; a star resting over the abode where Mary holds her son in her arms $ the aged Herod trembling on his throne ; Jerusalem Bet in motion by a tephyr, wafting from the extremities of Arabia, the name of the Messiah ; the Jewish Sanhedrim, the Scribes giving an interpretation of the text of Micheas, so clear, precise, and positive, that prophecy assumes the appearance of history ; all these miracles revolt our modern rationalists! If Jesus Christ had been the son of Augustus, it would be deemed nothing extraordinary that the world should be agitated at his birth. But Jesus Christ is the Son of G-od, and men are unwilling to allow that His cradle is surrounded by divine signs. The majesty of Heaven is not to be permitted to choose a court for itself ; rationalists grant this favour ouly to the powers of earth. Acoordingly, with what disdain do they not speak of " legends about Jesus, being the fruit of a great and entirely spontaneous conspiracy, developed around him during his lifetime ! Already, perhaps," say they, " there was current more than one anecdote about his infancy, conceived with the idea of shewing in his biography the accomplishment of the Messianic ideal, or. rather, of the prophecies which the allegorical exegesis of the time referred to the Messiah. At other times, they connected him, from his birth, with celebrated men, such as John the Baptist, Simeon and Anna, two aged persons, who had -been remarkable for great sanctity ; Herod the Grtat 5 some Chaldean astrologers, who, it was said, visited Jerusalem about this time ! " These few lines, of themselves alone, represent, in the rationalistic gospel, the entire narration of the birth of St. John the Baptist, the Annunciation, the divine Nativity at Bethlehem, the Circumcision, the Presentation in the Temple, and the Adoration of the Magi. What ! so many facts — acknowledged and believed universally by our Christian societies— yet expressed in these few words ! A whole series of narrations which converted the world, enlightened and transformed millions of souls, inspired so many geniuses, consoled so many afflictions, and created upon the earth a new art ; modern criticism assumes to itself the right to sum up all these events in a rapid preterition, and conscientiously to suppress them, without discussion or proof, by a vague " perhaps! " It is but too true. And for this reason all science — worthy of the name — has responded to these high-sounding frivolities, by a burst of contempt. But the crowd has greedily taken up these new sophisms. Ah ! for (he duped crowd, thus pitilessly deprived of the bread of the divine Word, the soul is touched with a feeling of ineffable compassion ; it is forced to repeat the touching exclamation of the Saviour : Misereor super turbam ! (2) 15. THE STAB OF THE MAGI EXPECTED BY THE WHOLE WOBLD AT THE EPOCH OF THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHEIBT. The realitios of history prevail over all the paltry quibbles of the sophists. You do not admit that a star shone over the cradle of the King of Heaven. Explain, then, how it was that the pseudoMessiahs who wished at that time to usurp the r6!e of redeeuaers-r chose the hallowed name of "Son of the Star." B trchochebis has no other signification, and we know that the famous Jewish inpostor who, under this title, organised the last Hebrew insurrection against Rome (135), drew all his inspirations from the writings of the Rabbi Akiba. It was then held for certain by the Jews that a star would be the signal of the coming of the Messiah. How often do not the Phariseos demand of Jesus Christ a sign in the heavens to confirm the truth of His mission ? The Talmud of Babylon tells us that about the epoch of the Sawour's birth, " a great number of Geutiles" resorted to Jerusalem to witness the rising of the Star of Jacob (3). Thus the expectation awakened by the prophetic oracles 'had passed beyond the limits of Judea, and taken possession of the world. Explain why Virgil sang, at Rome, the return of Astrea, the celestial Yirgia, precisely at the time when The Star of the evangelical toxt came to guide the Magi of Bethlehem (4) ? Why does the Persian book, entitled 3lagic Oracles, affirm that " at an epoch not far distant a Virgin shall bring forth a Iloly One, whose apparition shall be announced by a star (o) ? Why, in fine, did the Chaldean Sibyl, speaking of the signs that were to precede the coming of a purer religion, announce "a contest of the stars, the triumph of a new star, and the fall of the Sabeism of the Magi ? (6)." The Christians had it not in their power to influence the inspiration of Virgil, the prejudices of the Rabbi Akiba, and of the authors of the Talmud ; the psuedo-Zoroaster, who wrote Magic Oracles. Now, suppose that these traditions, which set the whole world in motion, from east to west, in the latter days of Herod, had not bjen the commcnly received opinion, Mien the Gospel narrative loses its meaning. Let three strangers enter to-day into one of our European Capitals, to speak to U3 of a star, appearing in the remotest part of Asia, and announcing the birth of an infant-king ; their words will cause no sovereign to totter on his throve ; public opinion will still rcnain unmoved, and the three visionaries will go 011 their way without creating the smallest commotion. There must caeds have been exceptional circumstances attending the arrival of the Magi in Jerusalem, io aguate, as it did, the aged flerod, the Sanhedrim, the Scribe 9, und the whole of Jerusalem. But these exceptional circumstances, the Era. ;elUt does not explain to us. Evidently then, the Go3pel was written at a period when the recollection of them was still fresh in the memory of a contemporary generation. Thus, on all sides, bursts forth this luminous authenticity cf the Evangelical text that incredulity would fain cover with a veil of clouds.