The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-06-01
THE LESSON STORY.
[. The UnrecOgnized Fellow


Traveller,-vs. 1918.
Two of the friends of Jesus mot of the
Twelve), left Jerusalem on the afternoon
of the third day after the cruciixion, and
journeyed afoot toward Emmaus, seven or
eight miles at the southwark.
They had heard startling rumor before
they left Jerusalem. 1t was rumored that
the tomb where Jesus was laid had been
found empty; that angels had declared to
the women that Jesus had risen from the
the dead. Members of their own company
had, however, investigated the rumor.
They had seen the empty tomb indeed,
but no Risen Jesus. The rumor was there
fore. to the minds of these travellers,
proved baseless.
While they walked they conversed to-
gether concerning the events of the week
past, events so remarkable as to make that
Passover week forever memorable. Their
minds were filled with memories of their
recent experience in Jerusalem. They had
trusted in Jesus as Saviour. But he had,
in an utterly inexplainable way, been sud-
denly taken from them. They recalled the
cruelties, and freshened in their minds the
horrors of the crucihxion. Their Redeem
err had been crucifed. Their hopes were
broken; their hearts bereaved. The COM
motion among the Galilean women that
morning, the delusive rumor of Jesus come
to life again, had served only to deepen
hearts harder to bear
Suddenly they became conscious of the
presence of fellow-traveller. In the guise
of wayfaring man he approached from
behind. With the customary freedom of
fellow-wayfarers in the East, he asked
them on what subject they were convers-
ing. There was a mysterious fascination
in this stranger. We who now read this
story, after all these centuries, and know
his identity, may wonder that his fellow
travellers should not know him. But the
altogether wonderful thing would be if
they had known him. They had last seen
him in his emaciation and death-agony on
the cross. This stranger had vigor of
body and power of speech. What asso-
citation could there be between him aad
the one they knew to be dead2
2. An Opener of the Scriptures,
VS.. 1927.
Cleopas, one of the travellers, fully ex
planned to their companion the things
which had transpired in Jerusalem He
gave to the stranger his instant confidence,
even to the extent of confessing to him
that they had cherished the now seemingly
absurd hope that Jesus, the Crucifed, was
the one who was to redeem Israel He
also told of the rumors in the air before he
and his fellow-traveller had left Jerusalem,
and how all, on investigation, had come to
naught.
The stranger gently chided them as be-
ing so slow to believe in the Christ Cruel
fed, after all that the prophets had fore
told of him. And then, with winning
grace, awakening at once an unwonted
warmth in their hearts, he explained to
them from the Scriptures what the minis
try of the true Christ must be. We have
no knowledge of the words in which he
expounded the Scriptures. What treas.
ury of wisdom would those words be, if we
possessed theml For some in our age de-
preciate the elder Scriptures; in this they
surely do not follow the example of that
one who so ravished the hearts of his fell
low-travellers with the testimony of Moses
and the prophets.
What he showed to the wonderful trav-
ellers in the main, must have been the
truth, which the ages since have made
more clear, that he who fulfils the ideal of
the true prophets, must in the nature of
things enter into his glory through suffer
ing. The wayfaring men heard him. and
the lesson he taught them, of selfrenun-
citation, of bearing the burdens of Others,
OF taking on the worlds suffering through
love, was lesson as new to them as it was