Similar is the testimony borne by heathen writers such as Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the younger, in regard to Christ. The first-mentioned says that the founder of the Christian religion was condemned to death by Pilate, the Roman governor, during the reign of the emperor Tiberius. Heathen- philosophers, such as Celsus and Porphyrius, who lived in the first and second centuries, did indeed write against Christ and His doctrines, but they never called in question the fact of His existence.
" Rejoice in the Lord," then, my youthful reader! Christ has in very deed lived on earth, and, as the Apostle says: "Christ is our peace.,, Christ alone can unite us to God, to the God who created the heavens and the earth, and in whom, to quote the words of the same apostle, "we live and move and are." And this Christ is now present in the Holy Eucharist, our Emmanuel, of whom the Angelic Doctor sings : Lauda Sion Salvatorem
Sion, lift thy voice and sing:
Praise thy Saviour and thy King,
Praise with hymns thy Shepherd true:
Strive thy best to praise Him well;
Yet doth He all praise excel;
None can ever reach His due.
Jesus! Shepherd of the sheep!
Thy true flock, in safety keep.
Living Bread! Thy life supply;
Strengthen us, or else we die;
fill us with celestial grace.
