The Washington times., 1894-04-01

that any sincere thought coming lrOh ANY
devout and aspiring soul will find its home
Of helpfulness in minds of similar construc-
tive necessities, while to those same minds
our own best thought would be but sound
and noise. So we may safely conclude that
he that wills to preach and teach tine Will OF
God to man is in some way working out 1or
himself and for them the true knowledge Oh
the doctrine"
''The whole question of the person and author
ity of the Lord turns upon the resurrection 10
give up that is to give up everything. III
+ to this we have come: We have lost the living
Christ and have only the dead Jesus
This is the fair, full expression OF the
thought of many sincere minds. III the re-
port of the words of Jesus of Nazareth 1s to
be accredited. he did not bring Immortality,
but II came to bring life and Immortality to
light" Which light but that OF the life. the
nresent consciousness II and my Father are
one.' We may inquire first for a clear DELI
milton of the word ''death. we certainly
cannot admit that the eternal principle of all
things, the Creator and the Ruler, I'm whom
we live and move and have our being" died!
We cannot believe that any part or portion of
Him died for days, hours, or minutes, for
during such time the "all-perfect" would
have been imperfect. The utmost we can say
is. that for certain reasons the 'ever-living
Christ" lived for period of time independ-
ent of the body Of the personality called
Jesus, anu dgdtl EtcuiItu II pun P'SN-
Again. if the everything spirit resumed the
cast-off body, what then became OF the body?
''If the dead rise not, We are of all men the
most miserable
Certain it is that all men. as we see them,
walking. cmbodiments of animal life will die.
it is equally certain that rs such embodiments
Of life they will not rise again.
If the doctrine of the resurrection was re-
ceived by the early church as the Egyptian
received it, wholly n matter of the body. the
embodied personality, is there any good rea-
son why we should adhere to the forms of
speech that grew up around that barbarous
assumption? 1t has become an axiom that
that which is or has been created in time
will certainly perish in time! No enlightened
Christian could to-day cut and carve upon
stone the Inscriptions which at one time
cheered the hearts of men in their hiding
places in the catacombs of old Rome.
"Here sleeps my dear wife, Portia"
"Rest in peace, Brother Carus."
1t is only the worn-out and discarded body
we now place in the tomb. not TO rest
there but to be returned to the elements for
other of Gods creative purposes. That di
vine spark of life which was the individual
we loved. which was before time began, bears
no more direct relation to that tomb than to
any other spot in the vast universe of God.
Wherever il is. we may feel assured 1t is IN
obedience TO its inherent affinities. rs GER
tainly as those aflinities. expressed while in
the body, led that soul TO the embrace OF your
love.
1.-THE purest Easter Joy can come only to those
that risen with Christ, and are seeking those
that are above"
1t is evident the soul speaks al times and
compels the hand to write a fullness OF truth
that could in no way lie deduced from
- f,i+b ,t-tafn oh tksa
mind assents. We have heard much from
our youth up in relation to the ''sec-
ond coming of Christ" While TO
many it means. or seems to mean, the repeti-
ton of an historical event with important con-
sequences for both believers and non-believ-
ers. yet there are certain paradoXical sltua-
tions involved that make this understanding
seem at least crude and material, as for in
stance:
40 am with you always, even unto the end
of the worldI'
Would it not be signal ''second coming"
to the religious thought of Christians
dawning of u true light on the purpose and
mission OF the Christie this true soul of
Jesus of Nazareth, that even as life and i'm
mortality were brought to life in His person.
ality so may that conscious immortality be
brought TO light in every faithful. aspiring
soul where love finds lodgment. and this
second coming be the verification, the
ground for hope OF the faithful believer in
the divine possibilities of soul existence, is
in the life of the elder brother and not in his
death. And
because live, ye may live also"
As the Christ was born to the perfect con-
scIousness of the Gallileean peasant. so He
may be born in every son of man. Then the
kingdom will have come. 1t seems to read
that way when we think of it.
ha Lin yjnrn nj Cod i. within ~
Would not this full consciousness be the ''vic-
tory that swallowed up death?''
While we all wish to believe more and not
less we first of all are compelled to believe
in divine wisdom. justice, mercy. love. Our
own finite comprehension of the ''All Wise
forbids our belief in n plan of His that
faltered or failed of perfectness of fuliillment.
The All Just must in some way, in some time.
grant complete opportunity 10 every human
soul. God is no respecter of persons. and
if .'in Him we live and move and have our
being" then, while conscious life lasts. He
is never far away from any one of u.s." If at
times. under certain conditions, men have
talked with God then it is safe to
say that the Interchangeable" has not
changed. and that man may still talk
with Him: and. If we follow out this line
of thought. we are forced to the con-
clusion that the only hindrance is in man
himself. 1t is possible that men do not
habitually enter into their own inner self.
their closet" and shut the door to listen
devoutly, but rather depend upon book. or
the expounding of book wherein some
good soul tries in some far-of time to tell OF
the mysterious communications he received
while he listened in his closet.
We may find after all that great as are the
mysteries of godiiness. greater yet is the
sublime simplicity, that the law is indeed one,
and is written on the palms of the hands,
the thoughts of the mind. the desires of the
heart, if anywhere, and that there is indeed
nothing melo-dramatic about heaven" but
that it is very simple. and real; that the
thought of man is. at all times. n cause and
also an effect. and is at all times an evidence
of that minds relation to soul and heaven.
1t is well never to forget that while a man
may suddenly 'cease to do evil' he has still
to LEARN TO do WE'LL" and we have no inti-
nation of the full graduation from this divine
school.
must ask you TO reprint this slip from
your Easter paper, rs it seems to voice the
broader hope and trust that radiates from the
New Bible:''
Resurrection is spiritual process. 1t con-
Germs the man, not his body. The death from
which il raises is spiritual also-the antithesis
of life not of existence Resurrection is effected,
whenever experienced by the quickening and
renewing influences of truth and goodness. The
resurrection state is state Of spiritual oneness
with all holy intelligences, and over this,
whether in this world or any other, death mas no
power The world refuses to believe in the
death of its sayiors. 1t persistently sees them
risen and triumphant. The lesson of Easter is
This willowy, little woman. of perhaps IA,