Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-04-29
EAST Err.

The Glorious Resurrection Which 1t
CommemOrates-The Doctrine Of I'm
mortality.
1t would be easy to show bya review
of other religions as well rs Christiani-
ty that the essential truth whick gives
consistency and permanence to relig
ious faith is the doctrine of Immortality.
In the Christian system this doctrine
depends upon the event which Easter
Jay commentaries, an event which,
to be fully stated, would require the
iefinition of it given by the late Fred
erick Denison Maurice in his "Theolcg-
ical Essays" as being 1.-THE Resurrection
of the Son of God from Death, the
Grave and He'll" meaning by the last
term the place of waiting and departed
spirits, not of torment.
Eliminate this doctrine and the mi
raculOus event on which it hangs from
Christianity and you leave it frame
work of moral precepts. a story with
pretty incidents, but nevertheless n
skeleton from which the flesh has been
stripped and the heart has been taken
away. To show the possibility of such
a miracle as the resurrection of Christ
is not the business of Christian any
more than it is to explain the process
of creation, in which whether instan-
taneously or by gradual evolution "all
things were made by the word of God"
A Christian may indeed feel some COM
placency when he finds even infidel
writers admitting that the historical
evidence for the resurrection of Jesus
is as good as that for most other events
in which human testimony, and not
physical and material phenomena such
as remain to attest some great earth
quake. is the chief agent of belief. But
with the antecedent likelihood and the
inherent nationality of the resurrection
the Christian is not Immediately
concerned. Putting faith in Christ and
accepting every stage of His life as
revelation of God manifest in the flesh.
he .has logical as well as a moral
reason for accepting the browning fact
of Easter and believing, with the
Church Universal, that, as on this day,
'.DOn,inuS SUrrcrH Sicut dirH," ''the
Lord is risen as He said"
If the Resurrection was fraudulent,
Christ Himself was no better than con-
SciOus impostor, and the ''many infal
lible proofs" of it were ''cunningiy de-
vised fables" and the disciples, in
GLIDING st. Paul, who certainly was re-
moved from the immediate enthusiasm
of the other apostles, were either
knaves or fools. But besides this any
intelligent student of the New Testa-
ment must see that the whole Evangel
hangs upon the risen Saviour, that it
is as the Conqueror of Death. that He
is the author of a religion of hope and
life to the world.
Without the Resurrection of Christ
there can be no Christianity, although
there may be Christian morality, which
does not differ in kind, though it may
in quality. from the morality of Mar
Gus Aurelius or Epictetus. There is no
difference between the self control of
Socrates and the keeping under the
body" of st. Paul, exceptin the motive
and the object of it. But as Paul HIM
self declares If in this life only we
have hope in Christ we are of all men
most miserable"
Between Good Friday and Easter
Day Christianity was preparing that
dawn or breaking of the world which
is implied in the words: ''lt is Christ
that died. yea rather. that is risen
again" If the Gospel stopped with
the death on Good Friday. the life of
Christ would be indeed beautiful and
pathetic story. but Christianity would
not be religion and revelation
spread to-day over the civilized world
and satisfying the highest wants and
aspirations of humanity. Without the
resurrection It would scarcely be an
ameliorative religion, since it would
only show by example that persecu-
ton and death attended the practice of
Its Author and His followers.
But when the Christian Church, fol-
lowing the Gospel story, puts off on
Easter morning the garments of
mourning and heaviness and bursts
out in the rejoicing which music faint
Iy expresses, proclaiming that her
Lord is not Christ but One who lives
forever and has the keys of hell and Of
death, she publishes to the universe the
evangel of redeeming. an ameliorat-
ing and eternal life" giving and
optimistic religion.
The analogy of the spring time
which happens to accompany the
Churchs Easter illustrates this. Christ
in the grave means the power of evil
and of darkness, of cruelty and de-
struction. triumphant, and the gliding
and soothing spirit that said: elf He
be the son of God, let Him come down
from the cross" might say. with added
cvnicism: IF He be Lord of Life, let
Him come forth out of His gravel"
But when He does come forth. He
makes good His every claim to be the
Redeemer and Remover of the world.
His religion is gospel of glad tdings.