ON the right bank of the Gave de Pau, in the south-west part of France, stands a little town of about six thousand inhabitants. It lies at the foot of a mountain whose summit is crowned with the ruins of an ancient castle, from which is seen the whole valley through which the river winds and, in the background of the picture, the imposing mass of the Pyrenees.
But not to view the ruins of the castle do the multitudes come that are brought by numerous trains into the little town of Lourdes. It is towards a grotto formed by a fissure in the rock and situated on the edge of the river, that the pilgrims bend their steps soon after their arrival. At the side of this grotto, which is surrounded by an iron railing, there stands on a projecting rock, a statue of the Virgin. Below the rock there is growing a miraculous rose-bush. The statue is draped in a white gown with a blue sash. Within the grotto are seen, hanging against the rocky walls, hands, arms and feet, all formed in wax, and along with these a number of crutches.
On the left of this grotto there rises a spring, the water of which is drawn from taps fixed in a wall built in front of the spring. Beside the cave is a picture of the apparition. But what apparition? Why, that which explains the arrival, in the summer-time, of trains crowded with sick and infirm folk accompanied by their friends, as well as many sound tourists who, attracted by curiosity, are wishing to see the place of the apparition and the cures wrought by the Virgin by means of the sacred waters of Lourdes.
This vision occurred in 1858, and was witnessed by a little peasant girl of thirteen years of age, named Bernadette. The maiden declared that the Virgin had appeared to her as many as eighteen times at the mouth of the grotto. She had been clothed in white with a blue sash over her robe, and directed that a sanctuary should be built for her at this spot which might be used as a place of prayer by the faithful.
Accordingly, a church has been built over the grotto having the miraculous rose-bush. Moreover, a branch of the railway has been added in order to bring to the spot pilgrims wishing to come hither to pray and to seek for healing. A building has also been put up on purpose for bottling the waters of the spring, and sending them in all directions. For the clergy of the district have decided that little Bernadette was really privileged to receive visits from the Virgin Mary in person, and that, consequently, her orders were to be punctually carried out. The question was brought before the Bishop of Tarbes, who, having weighed it, so he said, “in the balances of the sanctuary,” pronounced in favor of the authenticity of the miracle.
We are not able now to ask little Bernadette to give us the reasons that led her to relate these prodigies, for she was induced to enter a convent, and there she died. Neither must we ask the bishops and priests of those parts why, when they want to cure their own maladies, they choose rather the waters of Vichy or of Bagneres than that of the sacred well of Lourdes. But, without asking anything of them, they will tell us that great and prodigious miracles are still worked almost daily upon the sick and infirm who come to drink of the holy spring and to bow down before the white-robed statue with its sash of blue.
It happened on a summer day, some years ago, that one of the great pilgrimages, on the eve of going away, had gathered before the grotto for a last act of worship. The priests who were in the crowd, were making an appeal to all who had been miraculously cured to give their testimony about it. They cried out: “Is there no cripple here who is leaving his crutches behind because he can now walk? Will no blind man be ready to tell us how the Holy Virgin has restored him his sight? Ah, listen friends, there is someone who is going to speak!”
And so, indeed, a young man with a beaming face had climbed up quickly on to the railing of the enclosure. “Friends,” he cried, “a miracle has indeed been worked upon me, and I rejoice to be able to tell you about it. This miracle is still more wonderful than those the reverend father here has been recounting. Friends, it is true that I was blind but that now I see: true too that I was deaf and now I hear; but it is no less true also that once I was dead and now live, and shall live forever. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ I was dead, dead in my trespasses and sins; but I have looked to Jesus, believing that He died for my sins on the cross. And He has kept His holy promise, for when I came to Him, He gave me eternal life—life that I can never lose. He has saved me and healed me!”
Upon this, the priests lifted up their voices in noisy objection, calling out: “Pull him down; he’s a protestant, a heretic!”— and the man who had been brought out of death into life, was quickly dragged down from the railing and hooted by the furious crowd of pilgrims. They were quite willing that the Virgin Mary should give back to the cripples the use of their limbs but not that the God of love and of power should quicken the soul of the one whom His Son had saved by His death.
But dear friends, this great miracle of giving life to the soul by Christ exalted to the right hand of God, is being wrought on all sides around you. Every day the dead are being awakened, the blind are receiving sight, the lame walk; and the hand now writing for you this true story of the miracle of Lourdes, is moved by the power of the Spirit of God Who, in all that believe, works the willing and the doing of God’s good pleasure. Yes, there is working in each one of us, a spirit; either the Spirit of God which is guiding each one of His children, or else that other spirit which worketh in the children of disobedience.
“You talk about the Bible,” said one, jeering at our friend of Lourdes, “but you cannot yourself explain what it says. It is full of words without sense. Come, for instance— ‘the natural man’ and ‘the spiritual man.’ You can’t, I am sure, tell us what that means. What is a natural man and what is a spiritual man. Answer me!”
“The answer is easy,” said the young man. “You are the natural man and I am the spiritual man. You can only see with the eyes of nature, and can only understand with natural intelligence. Thus was it once with me until the Spirit, Who is God, gave me sight and understanding; but from that time I see and know that Jesus is my Saviour.”
May it please God, in His infinite love, to perform this miracle of miracles in some one of the dead ones who may happen to read these lines; and may he arise and give witness alike of the sovereign power, and faithfulness, and truth of God. Has not Christ said: “This is the will of Him that sent Me: that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day”? Are these words true? Go then unto Him and you shall know, and a fresh miracle will prove that the river of everlasting life is still springing from· the once stricken Rock, from Him Who is the source of the waters of life.
(From the French of F.B.)