St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-04-14

Inc jackson street NJ. Il. church pulpit
platform was decorated with Gala lilies in
bloom and other flowers in vase. After sew
eral Easter selections by the choir and the
rendering of the 23Oth hymn of the collection,
written by John, Bishop of Damascus, 23O
years ago:
''The day of resurrection;
Earth tell it out abroad;
The passover of gladness;
The passover of God;
From death to life eternal,
From earth into the sky;
Our Christ hath brought us over
With hymns OF victory"
Rev. Dr. w. K. Marshall read the thrilling
account of the resurrection as contained in
the oath chapter of ST Luke and selected the
following passages kTe II John 20; n, % and
30, from which he delivered discourse of
great and unusual interest to the large con-
gregation presents:
''Then saith he to Thomas, reach hither
thy finger, and behDd my hands; and reach
,itlar thy hard, AMI .hfr,st it into my side;
and be not faithless, but believing"
''And Thomas answered and said unto
him, my Lord and my God"
'EJesus saith unto him, Thomas, becau5~
thou hast seen me, thou hast believed;
blessed are they that have not seen, and get
have believed"
The speaker proceeded to show forth the
proof of the resurrection of Christ as set
forth by the presence in the apostolic school
of Thomas, the skeptic, whose peculiar con-
stitution of mind was that he could not be-
lieye from the testimony of others that
Christ had arisen, but must have this
thorough proof to convince him. This skep
ticism was not of his heart, but of his head,
and unlike modern skeptics in this matter
he wanted to believe, while they do not.
Thomas was honest and frank. He didn't
go on the streets with his doubts and say he
knew bette, than that the Lord had risen, but
he disputed boldly his ten brother disciples
over what they had seen in the locked room
at Jerusalem He was cOnvincible by per-
feet proof and not obstinate, and when he
saw as they had seen he believed. This
skepticism on the part of Thomas was eX
cusable and natural, for while the majority
of Christians are heart believers in all the
Scripture truths, others are so constituted in
tellectually that they have to think them all
out, and weigh them point by point before
they can accept them. Peter was
an instance of the heart believer and
Thomas of a heart convinced by in
tellect whose faith when well founded by fact
was immovable The speaker then went on
to cite instances Of great divines whose
minds had been disturbed by doubts of the
future being, but who, like Peter, at last
cried out ooh, Lord! to whom shall We 90
but to thee?" and afterwards died in the
faith, exclaiming, with Thomas, 'My Lord,
my GOd!n
The resurrection Of nature was q resurrec-
ton out of life, for there was life hidden in
the root of the tree, and not in the boil of the
flower when they put .on leaf and blossom in
the spring. All this was emblematical of the
resurrection, but that of Christ was of life from
death, and an incontrovertibe proof of the
SOULS Immortality. If the story of the resur-
rection had been fabrication, it would not
have had such a character as Thomas the
skcptic in it-he would have been left out.
Thomas had no object to perpetuate false tes-
timony in this case, and being slow to believe
what others had seen and accepted, he thus
became an important witness to the truth
John, the beloved disciple, heart believer,
who was present on all the occasions of the
appearance of Jesus to his apostles, between
the time of the resurrection and the ascen-
sion, reduced this testimony to writing over
1,SOO years ago, that we, too, might believe,
for ''blessed are they that have not seen and
vet have believed
The resurrection was the pivotal point of
Christianity and was the first fruits of those
who sleep-a pledge to us that we too shall
rise and our bodies shall be made glorious,
and that although We may go down to the
darkness of the tomb the stone shall be rolled
away by him WHO conquered death, and
Judged in righteousness we shall ascend to