dead were raised to life before the eyes of the whole Jewish people, who cried out in astonishment, "What manner of man is this, for the winds and the sea obey Him?" (Matthew viii. 27). "They feared and glorified God that gave such power to men " (Matthew ix. 8). "And they would come to take Him by force and make Him king" (John vi. 15).

To these miracles of His, Jesus called the attention of St. John the Baptist, when He said to the latter's disciples, "Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen: The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, to the poor the gospel is preached" (Luke vii. 22). On account of these miracles the Lord demands belief in Himself and His divinity. Though you will not believe Me," He says, "believe the works" (John x. 38). Yes, and He even pronounced a solemn adjuration to that effect, that He is the Son of God, for when adjured before the court of the high priest to state whether He was the Son of God He testified solemnly that He was the Son of God and "hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven {Matthew xxvi. 64). For this declaration He was condemned to death. Thus He sealed this doctrine with His death, as He had previously proved it by His works.

He never recalled a word of what He had said. He did not explain away, nor say that He had been misunderstood. What He said He reaffirmed and confirmed till the last moment of His life, and even in that last awful moment He cried out, 66 Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit" (Luke xxiii. 46). Not only during His lifetime did He uphold His divinity, but even after His death on the cross He proved that

only His human nature had died, while His divine nature remained with Him the same, for He rose out of the grave, through which it was necessary for Him to pass in order to triumph over it, and to conquer hell. Then did He not afterward, before the eyes of His disciples, lift Himself up from earth and ascend into heaven, as only a God could do? On the Mount of Olives, where they had seen Him in agony, they were to witness His triumph. Thus did the Saviour, from the time of His conception till the moment of His triumphal resurrection, manifest in His human nature the entire fulness of His divinity.

The Testimony of the Apostles.

The apostles always taught that Christ is the Son of God. What St. Peter professed before the death of his blessed Master, what St. Thomas acknowledged when he said to Jesus, after His resurrection, "My Lord and my God," the same did all the apostles ever afterward proclaim, insisting that He who had been so shamefully derided, abused and slain by the Jews, and in His human nature had been conquered, was God, to whom was given all the power and authority of His eternal Father. They taught expressly that Christ is God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John i. 1). "We saw His glory, the glory as it were of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John i. 14). "We know that the Son of God is come. This is the "God hath

true God, and life eternal" (1 John v. 20). spoken to us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world" (Hebrews i. 2). "The Son of God Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, was not, It is, and It is

not, but, It is, was in Him" (2 Corinthians i. 19). "To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto Him: and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we by Him" (1 Corinthians viii. 6). "I live, now not I: but Christ liveth in me. And that I live now in the flesh: I live in the faith of the Son of God" (Galatians ii. 20). "When the fulness of time was come, God sent His Son" (Galatians iv. 4). "Christ according to the flesh, who is over all things God blessed forever" (Romans ix. 5).

The apostles teach farther that the complete fulness of the Godhead dwelt within the Son of God, that is to say, that He was essentially God. According to His nature He is God, and not merely raised to the Godhead. He is no less God than is the Father, and is wanting in no attribute that the Father possesses and that belongs to divinity. "You are filled in Him, who is the head of all principality and power" (Colossians ii. 10). Here St. Paul reaffirms what Christ in the same words had said of Himself, "I and the Father are one (John x. 30).

Now as the Son of God is distinct from the Father in person only, and not in nature or essence, Jesus Christ is entitled to the same honor, worship, thanksgiving, praise, and glory. This also is taught by the apostles, that to Him is due the worship of all creatures. When the Saviour appeared to Thomas and that disciple fell overpowered at His feet, did not the latter adore his Lord and Master as very God? And when the Lord ascended into heaven "they adoring went back" (Luke xxiv. 52).

It was an act of adoration also when they called upon the name of Jesus Christ for strength to perform their miracles, as when St. Peter cured the lame man, sitting at the gate of the Temple, with these words, "In the

name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise, and walk" (Acts iii. 6). And what the apostles did themselves they required from others. They taught, "In all things God may be honored through Jesus Christ: to whom is glory and empire forever and ever" (1 Peter iv. 11). "In the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth" (Philippians ii. 10).

All the creatures, too, throughout nature, were to unite, in offering adoration to Him to whom the heavenly hosts offer the sacrifice of worship; whom God the Father wishes to see adored by the heavenly hosts, of whom He says, "Let all the angels of God adore Him " (Hebrews i. 6). He, the Saviour, who redeemed us with His blood, and was slain in sacrifice for us, is adored by those who stand nearest to the throne of the Father, singing hymns of triumph: "The four living creatures, and the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints: And they sung a new canticle, saying: The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and benediction" (Apocalypse v. 8-12).

The Testimony of the Catholic Church.

From her very foundation the Catholic Church has taught Christ is true God, and of one essence with the Father. This doctrine she has maintained and defended as the chief and fundamental doctrine of Christianity. The Church Fathers held it as firmly as did the apostles, and the bishops looked upon the doctrine of the divinity of Christ as the bulwark of our holy religion. In the first Church Council that met at Nice, 325 years after Christ, this doctrine was solemnly declared by

three hundred bishops to be the teaching of the universal Church, while the heretic Arius, who presumed to teach that Christ was indeed the most perfect being that ever came from the creating hand of God, but still was only a creature, was excommunicated with abhorrence from the Church. He soon afterward met with a miserable death, which may be considered a chastisement from the hand of God. From that time forward it was inserted in the Creed that Jesus Christ is Our Lord, and in truth the only Lord, for He is God like the Father. The title of Lord belongs to Our Saviour on a twofold ground:

1. Because as God He is Lord and Master of heaven and earth, as is expressly taught in the Bible. "All things were made by Him: and without Him was made nothing that was made (John i. 3); "by whom also He made the world" (Hebrews i. 2).

2. Because, as Redeemer, He purchased us with His blood. For as we "are bought" by Christ "with a great price" (1 Corinthians vi. 20), we are Christians, as St. Paul says; "you are Christ's: and Christ is God's" (1 Corinthians iii. 23).

With His own life He purchased life for us, so that we are His body-servants and He is Lord of our persons. St. Paul styles himself "a servant of Jesus Christ" (Romans i. 1). Thus the Church, when she calls Christ Lord in her Creed, only maintains the doctrine of the apostles, in whose writings Jesus Christ is styled Lord not less than seventy-eight times.

Thus in Jesus is united all that is given to us in help, grace, consolation, and happiness. His name is the epitome of salvation, and hence is no less worthy of honor than the name of God itself. Just as he commits sin who takes the name of God lightly and irreverently, so, too, does he sin who utters the name