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Judge. It is this threefold relationship of our Lord to us that has to be spoken of in expounding the fourth and three following articles of the Creed.

We are redeemed by the sufferings and death of Christ, and the fourth Article speaks of the time and the manner of the sufferings and death which He endured for our sakes. It was important that the facts on which our redemption depends should be so circumstantially related as to place their truth beyond the reach of doubt. Hence the detailed accounts which we read in the four Evangelists; hence, too, the mention in the Creed of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, who condemned our Lord to death.

The first word in this Article refers to the sorrows, pains, and ignominies which our Lord underwent before being condemned to the cross,-His agony in the garden, His betrayal by Judas, His seizure and ill-treatment by the multitude, His accusation before Annas, Caiphas, Pilate, and Herod, His scourging at the pillar, and crowning with thorns. After unheard-of sufferings and ignominies, the Evangelists teach us that our Lord was condemned to die on the cross. For it was fitting that the salvation of mankind should be purchased on the wood of the cross, that whence death came life might also come, and that he the Prince of darkness, who overcame by the tree, might also by the tree be overcome. For three hours Jesus Christ hung on the cross, and then bowing His head He died, that is, His soul was separated from His body. Finally, as a farther confirmation of the death of our Lord, the Apostles teach us that His body was embalmed and laid in the sepulchre.

Our Lord having become man to save us from the penalty of sin, might have satisfied for us by any of the actions or sufferings of His blessed life; but to procure greater glory to God, to display a more wonderful love of man, and to set us an example of patient suffering, He chose to shed the last drop of His most precious blood. He sacrificed Himself willingly to obtain our ransom: "He was offered," says the prophet, "because He willed it" (Isa. lii. 7). He testifies of Himself: "I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No man taketh it away from

Me: but I lay it down of Myself, and I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again" (St. John x. 17, 18).

He died for all men, and by His death ransomed us from the penalty of sin, and opened for us the gates of heaven. "He is the propitiation," says St. John, "for our sins and not for ours only, but for those of the whole world" (1 John ii. 2). He purchased the means of salvation for all. Those who lived before His coming might be saved by His future merits; those who have since gained heaven have done so through these same merits. But though Christ died for all men, all will not be saved. This satisfaction is a healing balsam whose virtue is infallible, but it must be duly applied to our souls in order to produce its effects. His merits are a never-failing source, from which all may draw the waters of salvation; but those who neglect to profit by the graces which are freely offered unto all, will be lost, in spite of the price which has been paid for their redemption. All have free will, and may shut their eyes against the light which has come into the world, and may refuse to coöperate with the good inspirations which they receive. But Christ having died for all, there is no one to whom sufficient grace to be saved is not given, and consequently no one is lost except by his own fault.

Now

Following the order of the Catechism, it will be in place here to add a few words on the use of the sign of the Cross. We have already seen that we are bound in a special manner to make acts of faith in the Unity and Trinity of God, and in the Incarnation and death of our Lord. we are reminded of these mysteries, and assisted in making these acts of faith, by the use of the sign of the Cross. For when we say "in the name" in the singular number, we indicate the Unity of God; and when we distinctly mention the three several Persons, we profess our faith in the Trinity. At the same time, the form of the Cross, which we make, while we pronounce the words "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," reminds us that Christ became man, and died on the Cross for us.

There are also three other reasons why we make the sign of the Cross. (1) To show that we are Christians, or the followers of a crucified Master. The Cross is called the ensign of the Son of Man, and if we are His soldiers, we must fight under His standard. (2) We make the sign of the Cross to invoke the Divine aid, and to consecrate our actions, especially those of a spiritual character, by offering them to the Blessed Trinity. Hence, Tertullian says of the ancient Christians, "Whenever we move, when we enter and go out, in dressing, in washing, at table, when we retire to rest, during conversation, we impress on our forehead the sign of the Cross." (3) We also make the sign of the Cross to arm ourselves against temptation; for the Cross is the sign of our Lord's victory over the devil and the powers of darkness, and is terrible to the evil spirits.

CHAP. XXII.

Fifth Article: "He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead."

THE fifth Article treats of the descent into hell, and the resurrection of Christ. To understand the precise meaning of the first part of this Article, "He descended into hell," we must explain the different significations attached to the word "hell." 1. It is sometimes used for the grave; but, as we have been already told, in the previous article of our Lord's death and burial, this cannot be the meaning of the word in the present instance. 2. It most commonly means the eternal prison where the fallen angels and lost souls are for ever tormented. 3. It is sometimes used of Purgatory; and, 4, it is used to signify the place of rest and natural happiness, where the souls of the just who died before the coming of Christ were kept in expectation of their redemption and triumphant entry with our Lord into heaven on the day of His ascension. This place or state of existence is generally called Limbo, and is believed by many to be the abode of the infants who, since the coming of our Lord, have died without baptism.

The question then is, Into which of these abodes did the soul of our Lord go after His death? 1. It is certain that He went to Limbo, which by His presence became a paradise. It was of this abode that the words addressed to the good thief were spoken: "This day shalt thou be with Me in paradise" (St. Luke xxiii. 43). 2. It is also considered certain that He descended into Purgatory, to console and enlighten the holy souls, and to tell them of their expected redemption. This would seem to be implied by the words of Ecclesiasticus (xxiv. 45): “I will penetrate to all the lower parts of the earth, and will behold all that sleep, and will enlighten all that hope in the Lord." Some writers, basing their opinion on arguments of fitness, piously believe that our Lord on this occasion liberated all these holy souls; but as we have no evidence on this point in Scripture or tradition, we are obliged to leave it in uncertainty. 3. Bellarmin and other learned writers are of opinion, that besides going down to Purgatory to free the holy souls, our Lord also descended to the hell of the damned, not of course to suffer or to be tormented, but to proclaim His victory over the devil, to confound the obstinacy of the reprobate, and to show them how easily they might have been saved.

"The third day He rose again from the dead." Our Lord might have restored His body to life again immediately after He expired on the cross; but He chose to remain in the tomb till the third day, to prove the reality of His death, and also to fulfil the types and prophecies concerning His resurrection. This great mystery was the crowning event in the life of our Lord. It placed as it were anew the seal of the Divine authority to His teaching, His virtues, and miracles. It took away the humiliation of the cross; for if the ignominies which He endured in His passion and death were great, still greater was the glory and honour with which He was crowned in His resurrection. "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross; for which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name above all names; that in the name of Jesus

every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father" (Philip. ii. 8-11). And as the resurrection gave special glory to God, so likewise is it the sure and solid foundation of our hope, that we too shall one day rise again to a life of blessed immortality: "For if the dead rise not again, neither is Christ risen again; and if Christ is not risen, our faith is vain" (1 Cor. xv. 16, 17). The resurrection of our Lord is the model and exemplar and the pledge of our future resurrection. For as Christ our Head has risen again, it is fitting that we, who are His members, should be associated with Him in the glory of His new life.

So vital are the consequences which depend on the mystery of the resurrection, so important a relation does it occupy in the whole Christian dispensation, that the providence of God ordained that its truth should be brought before men's minds in a most prominent way, to render them inexcusable if they refused to believe. Such an event in its own nature was so new and unlooked for as to challenge the attention of all. But our Lord was not content to leave things to take their natural course, but over and over again during the time of His life, He drew the attention of His hearers in the most marked manner to the prophecy of His resurrection. When His enemies, the Scribes and Pharisees, asked Him for a sign or proof of His mission, He might have referred them to the miracles which He constantly wrought; but, as if these were nothing compared with the crowning miracle of His resurrection, He answered: "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh a sign, and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. For as Jonas was in the whale's belly three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights" (St. Matt. xii. 39, 40). Again: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it up" (St. John ii. 19). And again: "Jesus began to show His disciples that He must suffer many things, and be put to death, and the third day rise again" (St. Matt. xvi. 21).

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