conflict, of which God alone knows the mysteries, death was swallowed up of life. "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through Jesus Christ our Lord." "1 Let us often visit this spot; it is not necessary for this end to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem; the entrance into the holy sepulchre opens in the depths of the heart of each one of us. Let us descend into it, to find there the pledges of our adoption, the shreds of the letter of acknowledgment of debt, which bore witness against us, and which the hand of our Heavenly Creditor has torn up; the fragments of the sceptre of Death, which the foot of our Deliverer has broken to pieces; and lastly, the helmet of hope, which His hand has deposited there in order that each believer may go thither to put it on his head. Ah! what good such a visit does to the overwhelmed soul! She returns out of it as John came out of the sepulchre after seeing in it the linen clothes wrapped together, and the napkin folded and laid by in a place by itself. "He saw and believed," he tells us himself; summing up in these two words the deepest experience of his life. Let us believe in the testimony of those who saw, in that which authenticates itself to our hearts as holy, and therefore true, and then we too shall see; we shall behold, even here on earth, the glory of God. 11 Cor. xv. 57. THERE II THE HYPOTHESIS OF VISIONS THERE is one fact, the proclamation of which has renewed the face of the world, founded upon earth the holiest of religions, and given shape to the highest hopes of the noblest portions of humanity. This fact is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After such long-continued and great services done to humanity, this fact might have seemed to have established a claim upon our faith. It is not so, however; the truth of it is now disputed. I do not complain of this. Even the best established claims must pass through opposition before they can become incontrovertible. In attacking the reality of the resurrection, M. Réville evidently had before him the lecture which I lately published on this subject; for he has followed the argument of it point by point. This circumstance gives to the discussion all the advantages of a formal debate, attack, defence, reply, without its inconveniences. You see that I am here speaking only of the second lecture of M. Réville. With regard to the first, perhaps it is my fault; but I have found nothing in it deserving of an answer. |