Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-17

about the look Of them. They lie In oroef,
folded. Why the robbers should have left
them at all is hard question; but how
came it that they not only took them OF,
but 10 carefully folded them? The tomb
has been robbed That is the terrible and
tragic fact But what Q strange ROBBERY
There is mystery about it. And Peter
and John 20 back, asking each other
questions without any answers, and greatly
wondering.
By this time Mary had reached the tomb.
The body is gone. Yes, that is true. But
here at least il the place where he was laid.
Here she must stay. She Is weary with
running and weary with weeping. She
leans against the great stone, beside the
broken seal, bitterly crying. But she will
20 and look again. She looks, and now she
sees angsls There they sit within the
tomb, one at the head and one at the feet,
where the body Of Jesus had lain. Mary
sees them, but she does not fall down in
awe and fear as the other women had done.
She seems to take these angels as a, matter
of course. Her heart is SO full of sorrow
that there Ia scarcely room in 1t even for
the sensation of surprise. A whole sky
full Of angels cannot take her from her
grief The angels say "Why weepest
thou?" and she answers, "Because they
have taken away nv Lord and know not
where they have laid him."
dary's Pitiful Plea for Her Lost.
She turns back, and there stands the
gardener. Here is the man who has charge
Of the garden and the tomb. Perhaps he
can tell He says: "Why weepest thou?
Whom seekest thou?"-so he knows that
she is seeking somebody. He may know
where the sacred body is laid. Perhaps he
has himself taken it away and put 1t in an
other tomb. "Mr." she cries, eff thou hast
borne him hence, tell me where thou hast
laid him, and I will take him awayw
What pitiful cry it isl She does not tel!
the gardener who it Is she wants. "Him, I"
she says, as if everybody must know whom.
And she says that she will take him away.
This poor, weak woman, with nothing strong
about her but devotion and loyalty-give
her the body, and she will take it in her
own hands and carry it away. She will
bear 1t somewhere, this sacred body. She
does not stop to think where.
And then the gardener speaks And
Mary, looking at him in the dim light Of
the Easter dawn and through the mist of
tears, hears a voice she knows, q voice
familiar and dear. t'Maryr' he says; and
she, falling at his feet, cries "Master! My
Master!" It is the risen Christ.
The Manner OF the Message.
like to remember how the risen Christ
manifested Himself first to one who stood
beside an open grave, and that the very first
Easter message, the earliest application of
the Easter truth to human needs, was this
blessed word of consolation.
We look upon the face Of death. Here is
. terrible fact which forces itself upon our
and our reason. This is the
end. Lite has gone out There is not here
The faintest hint that life has been trans
ferred anywhere else. Everything seems
against us. Death is q dreadful fact, and in
he presence of 1t we mourn and weep like
'alem grave yard. The faces Of our dead,
he graves Of our dead shut out Of light.
Beyond the black wall-whst? "I know
lot," answers the agnostic., "No person
las ever come back out of the unseen word
world. No authentic message has been de-
ivered. Through all the centuries, not one
Whisper has broken the silence of the un-
discovered land beyond the grave"
But here is Easter, to set sharp contra
LECTION against that. Christian people keep
o-day with flowers and singing the ami
'ersary of tho time when one did in very
ruth come back to life again out of the
Vorld unseen, bringing an authentic mes
age, breaking with the clear voice of conso-
alton and rejoicing the silence of the
rave.
Tho Meaning OF the Day.
'I know" answers the Christian. IT |
now that death is door and not wall. |
hat great event which we keep in memory |
o-day assures me. know, because Jesus |
'hrist came back out of the grave to tell |
s." 49, /
Away hastens Mary with this wonderful,
his scarcely credible, good news to the
postlex She comes upon them In their
and they lift up their heads and
sten to her story. She says: "Don't think
,ourning and weeping. Yes, He is dead;
e know that. But I have seen Him. He
as risen. He is alive forever more"
But when they have heard her to the end,
own 60 their heads again. The cross has
anceled hope. They believe not. They
imply cannot believe. They see that
cross, and 1t shuts out ALT he
ght of heaven.
BY and by the ten and Mary and the
omen come all together to Thomas. They
ave all seen Him. Doubt for them has
cen translated into perfect faith. "We
ave seen Him." they tell Thomas. eve
ave all seen Him. He Is alive" But
homas sees one sight only--the nail marks
, His hands and the wound Of the spear in
lis side. The crucifxion had imprinted
self upon the heart Of the apostle Thomas.
hose piteous, bleeding wounds; that pain
III death there in the darkness-he could
aink Of nothing else. And yet the time
anne when even Thomas knew. the Easter
ruth.
The Great Truth Proclaimed.
Little by little, that great reality, that
reat revelation, that supreme realization
f the longing Of the race for light has won
IS way into the hearts of men. It began
here in the dusk of the Easter morning,
nd the knowledge of it grew as the glory
f the sun grows out of twilight into noon.
met, as we would want 1t to meet, with
he opposition of doubt. It encountered
.sting. The men who became the preach
rs of the resurrection refused to believe it.
hen they learned the truth. They went
ut and taught it; at first in Jerusalem,
nd then in the country round about
And the tidings spread. and are still
preading. City after city, nation after ma
on have learned that the ideal man did
lore than to live life such as the pro-
,undest philosophers had never dreamed
in all their utopias; did more even than
each such truth as had never before been
,ught by sage or saint-set the gate of
ne grave open, and came back to tell us
nat beyond is light and life forever more.
And that great truth has touched us here.
hat is what the day means with its flowers
nd singing. That is the heart of the ju-
ilation of the Christian Easter.
GEORGE HODGES.
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