The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-07-02
THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

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This strong expression is used by St.
Paul in the third chapter of the Epistle
to the Philippians, in that remarkable
experience in which he sets forth on the
one, hand what he had endured in
preaching the Gospel, and ON the other
what he enjoyed and what he aspired to
as the servant OF Christ. His past had
been full of toll and full of suffering;
his future would be full of Joy and glory
in the Kingdom OF Christ. His abiding
prayer was to '.know Him and the pO,ocr
of his resurrection and the fellowship
of His sufferings being made con: orma-
BILE unto His death, if by any means he
might attain unto the resurrection OF
the dead" This is not the only passage
of Scripture in which the idea of power
is brought out in connection with
Christ's resurrection from the dead.
The apostle tells the Romans in tho first
sentences of his epistle TO them that
"Jesus Christ was declared to be the
Son of God with power by the resur-
rection from the dead" Which is
equivalent to saying that His rising thus
from the dead was powerful and con-
vincing demonstration that He was
what in life He had always claimed to
be-the Son of God. And once admit.
ting that He did rise, no proof could
have been more pertinent and more
convincing.
What, then, are we to understand by
these brief words-the "power of His
resurrection" Unquestionably they
are intended to set forth the peculiar
and powerful impressions or effects pro-
duced upon the mind of the writer, and
of his fellow apostles, by the attested
fact that Christ rose from the dead. We
can not for moment look into the his
tory of these apostles, or into their writ
ings in the epistles that bear their
names, without seeing what special
prominence that fact held. 1t was fun
damental to all their preaching, and
fundamental in all their experience
There is no one thing that stands out in
such bold relief in every sermon they
preached, in every line they wrote, in
every argument they made for the truth
of Christianity, as this great and Won
derful fact of the resurrection of Jesus.
With it, and in its defense, they were
ready to stand and did stand against q
world in opposition. When they stood
before the tribunals of Gentle nations,
as did Paul on Mars Hill at Athens, the
burden of their story was "Jesus and
the resurrection" When they stood
before kings and rulers, as did Paul be-
fore the Roman Governor of Palestine
and King Agrippa at Cssarea, the great
argument OF the inspired preacher was:
"Wky should it be thought thing in
credible with you that God should raise
the deadp"
; Manifestly the immediate and mighty
effect of Christ's resurrection on the
minds of His apostles and all His first
disciples was that of absolute assurance
and certainty as to His own divine
character. When He stood before them
alive from the dead, it was the end Of
all theft doubts. From that moment oi
personal vision of Him whom they
had seen die on the cross, now alive and
conversing familiarly with them, ant
even eating with them, until at las
they saw Him arise and ascend to Heav
en-, they could never doubt again. The
historical record is, as given in the Bool
of Acts, and in all the epistles, tha
they never did doubt again--not ,
single man of all their number. Some
of them like Thomas, had been slow +,
believe, both before and after His cruel
fixion. Some had said "We though
this had been He who should have re
deemed Israeli Thomas, the constitu
tional doubter, had declared with stron;
emphasis: Except / see In his hand
the print of the nails. and put my tinge
lntothe print of the nails, and thrus
my hand into His side, l shall not be
lieve." But from the moment the rise
Lord stood before him and invited hin
to test the truth by reaching forth hi
(. fingers and his hand, all doubts wer
ended with him forever. He was nc
only convinced once for all, that thi
was his risen Master, whom he had see
crucifed, but he was henceforth satisfie
like all the Others, that this man Chris
was God. And he at once exclaim:
without further tests: "My Lord an
nv God.n While He was with them |
the aesh, they had all been slow to b
lieye him, slow to recognize him as tn
Messiah and Son of God. But ho'
could any one Of them ever doubt agair
when they now found all His claim
yihdiestsd by His resurrection from th
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