Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1895-04-18
At the Uniyersalist Church.

| I1e&SoCA uety W Soltl Suui.
AT the UniVersalist Church.
The Easter exercises at the Univer-
salist church were well attended. The
church was deliberately trimmed; the
pulpit being completely covered with
laurel. Ferns, potted plants, and cut
flowers filled the choir railing and the
rostrum. The Easter service of the
church was sung at the morning wor-
ship, the choir enriching the liturgi-
cal part of the exercises with Easter an
thems and solos. The pastor read as the
first lesson the last chapter of the Cos
pei of st. Matthew; and as a second les
son portion of the fifteenth chapter of
| first Corinthians. Remarks We're made
on the second lesson relative to the res
direction of Jesus. Paul writes to the
Corinthian Christians, who, previous to
their conversion to Christianity, had
been Platonists, Epicurians, or Stoics.
These three classes of philosophers rep
resented the religious thought of this
time. The Epicurians and the Stoics
doubted the immortality of the soul.
The thought of some of the Corinthian
Christians had been colored by this
skepticism. Paul writes his letter to
convince them of the great truth that
Christ brought life and immortality to
light. The early church was founded
on this fact. 1t was the one theme of
the Apostolic preachers. They told the
story of the Risen Christ All the New
Testament sermons of which we have
any report relate to the same topic.
Those men saw Christ and conversed
with him after the crucifxion. They
We're sober-minded, practical men; not
Missionaries or fanatics. They were not
given to hallucination. Their belief
that Jesus lived was real conviction.
1t changed respondent, hopeless, dis
Outraged men into heroes, martyrs and
saints. 1t sent them everywhere with
this new image. 1t was the motive by
which churches were founded, and fos-
tered. Paul teaches the real nature of
man. There is natural body and a
spiritual body. The resurrection occurs
when the one is freed from the other.
Every death, therefore, according to
Pauline teaching, is resurrection. The
two events are simultaneous. To die is
to be resurrected; that is rescued from
the physical limitation Of the body.
Resurrection does not occur at some re-
mote period after death. The natural
body decays and returns to the original
elements of which it is composed. 1t is
of the earth, earthly. Man shall never
use it more. He shall not need it, he
does not want it. A corporal resurrec-
ton is repudiated by Paul. 1t is sown
a natural body, says he, but it is raised
not natural body but spiritual body
Through the death of the one comes the
real life of the other. Every death-bed
scene is also resurrection. Every tomb
says to the mourner what the Angel
said to the sorrowing Mary; "He is not
here, He is risen.o The living are not
to be sought amongst the dead. Paul
seeks to prove this by analogy. He
uses this figure of grain of wheat fall
ing into the ground and by decay liber-
ating the life principal it contains and
bringing forth new growth. The old
does not re-appear. Out of the old is
born the new. From death, comes life.
| The spiritual man is born through the
death of the physical man; born that is,
to spiritual state free from finite con-
ditions. This fact is central in Paul's
teachings relative to the resurrection.
1t is blessed truth.
In the evening the annual Easter
concert was given by the members of
the Sunday school assisted by the quar-
tet of the church. Superintendent
George B. Wheeler began the service
after the organ voluntary and the an
them Wonderful Easter Morning. by
reading the service appropriate for the
day. Assistant superintendent E. Z.
Ball read a portion of st. Luke's ac-
count of the Resurrection and prayer
was offered by the school. The concert
was under the general direction of Miss
Nellie Brown, Miss Eta, Labaree, Mrs.
Nora Church and Mrs. Charles Gibson,
who, by their careful work in preparing
the program made it one among the
most successful. Mrs. Charles Labaree