The record-union., 1893-04-03
THE RESURRECTION.
Views of Unitarian Clergyman on
the Subject.
An Easter Sermon Decidedly Out o.
the Usual Order - Rev. Mr..
Horner's Address.

The Unitarian Church (Pythian Castle
HalD was beautifully and tastefully dec
grated with flowers yesterday, every
available place for them being filled with
callas, fieurs de lis, marigolds, roses,
poppies, forgetmenots, ,Ietc. The font in
front of the pulpit was bedded in bios
SONS.
The children of the Sunday-school did
the singing, filling the hall with their
sweet young voices. The service was
litergical. In his sermon the Rev. Mr..
Horner said:
We have met together to-day, friends,
TO celebrate, in our own way, the resur-
rectlon of the soul of man to the con-
sclousness of its immortal nature. The
Christian world is filled with joy III
memory of the resurrection of eSuS from
the tomb, but we celebrate higher
thought than that-a nobler conception,
inspired by more spiritual faith. He
who bases his hope of Immortality on the
resurrection of Jesus alone has very little
reason to believe that he shall live again.
If the old conception be true-if Jesus
really and truly was God-His resurrec-
ton proves nothing for man. All
nations have believed that the gods were
immortal, but not all have always be-
lieved that the soul of man is immortal.
What proof is it TO me, a finite creature,
that L shall live again for god to go
through the tragic performance of allow
ing Himself to be killed, buried and
mourned for three days, and then to come
forth from the tomb and go home to
glory, while crowd of spectators gaze on
IN wonder! | tell you, friends, if it could
be proved positively beyond the shadow
OF doubt that Jesus rose from the dead,
sfNfR g.,
unless he was a man in all reality-and
nothing more than man, except in the
quality of His character and the exalted
nature of His mind.
But Jesus marks an epoch in the his
tory of the world, when faith rose above
the temperatures of life and affirmed the
Immortality OF the soul in the face of
doubt and in defiance of physical death,
sending a thrill of joy down through the
ages, until, reaching US, we join the
Christian world to-day in this celebration
OF immortality.
Now, do not understand me to say that
Jesus brought life and Immortality to
light because Of His resurrection. Belief
in Immortality was old in His day, though
not universal. What l do want to say,
and to have you understand, is that in
Jesus-in His nature-there came to life
the consciousness of those soul powers
which enabled Him to identity the idea
of Immortality with the idea of lite-an
Idea which made it possible for Him to
say: Il am the resurrection and the life"
81 and my Father are one" and then live
as though he believed it. All life to Him
was Gods life. His own life was
life in the lily. Identity, unity, was in
everything that pulsed with the vital
energy OF the Infinite.
The only idea of death that Jesus ever
took into serious consideration was what
he considered to be the unawakened con-
dltion OF the soul to the knowledge of its
eternal nature, or relapse into indiffer-
ence to such knowledge.
He spoke of the dead in SIM and
clearly recognized it as his duty to call
them back to life-that is, to the con-
sclouSness of their immortal nature, and.
OF course, to the immortal nature of their
deeds, showing by his own example how
to keep this CONSCIOUSNESS alive by living
for others rather than for self Selfish
ness always shows lack of faith. The
selfish soul, forgetting its immortal
nature, clings to all that it has, and is
greedy for more, as though it was never
to have anything but what 1t could
gather to itself in this short period of
existence. 1t is the unseltish soul that
shows, by its willingness to give even
itself, that it has all of eternity before it
blessedness of life.
1t is not, then, to celebrate the resur-
rection OF the body of Jesus that we have
met to-day; that is of least consequence
to US, but to celebrate what has become
an active belief with us in our own i'm
mortal nature. Nor do we owe this
periodical celebration to Christianity
alone. The very name Easter is pagan.
and means the spring festival, in honor
4 thn .n6l nFS ~
life to the world after the long winters
sleep. The egg" comes from ancient
Egypt as symbol; within it is the life
that bursts forth TO unfold in strength
and beauty. Flowers have always been
used OH such occasions, and are they not
sweet and mute symbols that tell us of
the beauty in the thought that gave them
form and painted their many-hued petals?
Jesus took little children in his arms
and blessed them, as symbols of what
should be the character of those who
compose the kingdom of heaven Beauti-
ful thought Beautiful symbol! That
act of Jesus made childhood sacred to a
world that before had been Indifferent to
the duties imposed by parenthood.
In Greece and Rome the child was an
incumbrance that could be disposed of
without thought OF wrong. 1t was a
common thing to destroy ali that were un-
welcome. True, the doctrine of the mi
raculouS incarnation confirmed the
shame of EYES fall when she ate the for
bidden fruit and made motherhood a
curse rather than joy; but Jesus never
was responsible for what was taught
about his origin. That was the result of
the philosophy of the time, that had to
satisfy it's positions by the aid of miracle
and wonder. Jesus, by blessing the little
ones, turned the thought of humanity
again to the sacredness of all life.
God, our common Father having made
us his means of filling the world with
self. conscious life, has by His own pur-
pose made parenthood the most sacred
office in life. Let US, then, accept the
trust as a joy rather than shame, and
the result of a curse, and let US in the
gratitude OF our hearts bring our children
to'the altar and dedicate them to God and
to his truth forever on this festal day in
loving testimony of our acceptance OF the
trust and of our purpose to bring them
up in the knowledge of God and of His
life and truth.
After the sermon the following children
were christened (the fomula being: 81
dedicate thee to God and to His truth for
ever'D: Harry Ayres Cotton, Wilbur
Jared Cotton, Bernice Winnefred
Cotton, Sumner Starr Wood. Edith Marie
Grant, Fanny Ethel Grant and Edna
Grant. A bunch of flowers was given
each child as symbol of innocence.
THE ART EXHIBITION.