St. Paul daily globe., 1895-05-20
SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
SAVIOR,S APPEARANCE NOT
REALIZED.
FAITHFUL LOVE NEVER FAILED,
A Mighty Personality SoOthed to
Rest the Disciples when Jesus
Appeared.

He teaches of the triumph of spirit
over matter. This is the whole lesson
of the resurrection of the body. Spirit
is master; the flesh is servant. Life
is supreme Death is humiliated now,
and is to be ait last abolished. All
this is fine and inspiring, but it is by
no means enough TO make the founda-
ton of universal gospel.
In our anxiety to make an argu-
ment that would confound the skep-
tic, we have not sufficiently appre-
hended the spiritual significance of
the appearances of Jesus. The great
point which He sought 10 establish
did not seem to be His Immortality.
but rather the permanence Of His
affection When He appeared among
them in the upper room where the
disciples were crouching behind locked
doors through fear of the Jews, He
did not trouble them by saying, 'See
how wonderful that 1 should come
into this room when the doors are
locked but He did show them tnat
His faithful love was still the same
Months before, when beaten upon by
the storm on Lake Galilee until the
ship well-nigh sank, He had risen
and rebuked the storm. and even now
| He came to this little company swept
about by tumult of fears within and
dangers without, and He was to them
| the same mighty personality He had
| ALWAYS been. for He soothed them to
rest by stretching above them His
GREAT HANDS OF POWER
| and saying peace be unto you.' Let
| those sneer who WILL but let US be glad
| in that fact never yet sufficiently en-
| phasised by the church, that he was
| only seen after the resurrection by
| those who loved Him. The disciples
| on the way to Emmaus only knew that
| their hearts burned within them; Him
| they did not know. And when He ap-
! peared on the shore of Galilee, though
| they all looked at the strange figure
standing there in the early morning,
it was only John, the golden-hearted
whose love taught him to say, 1T is
| the Lord And does not this lead us
to interpret in a new and strong way
! that promise of the Master, 'Lo. ]
am with you always, even unto the end
| of the world" A boy leaves home to
find his fortune, Years after he re-
| turns a bronzed and bearded man. The
neighbors do not recognize him, his
own brothers and sisters do not know
| him, but there is some trick of gait
some glance of the eye, some accent
of the voice. and the mother filings
herself upon his breast and says: Yes
it is my boy" So does the Christ come
| to US in the garden of our grief
/ or on the lake shore of our fruitless
toll, and to those who can recognize
their Lord He says BLESSED are your
eyes, for they see."
| But the resurrection was not sig
| nificent in that it quickened the flesh,
but it was memorable as a resurrec-
ton of the kingdom of God. Could that
man be killed whose words had been
| blessing and whose deeds had been
| the worlds wealth and nature not re-
volt, nor the hurt be healed, then men
could no longer trust the good and
the tooth of cynicism would feed on the
heart of despair. But despite Jewish
priest, Roman judge and Gallo sol
dier, despite all the world powers.
! the triumphant kingdom of God in His
! person
ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
| Immortality may indeed be a fact
| to all, but it's significance is only
| found in the character of the immor-
| tails. Egyptian parchments have been
dug cut of forgotten tombs, but the
only wonder is that any one should
have thought it worth while to have
! preserved them with the mummies of
the Egyptian dead; but the words OF
Socrates, spoken carelessly by the way
side, in the market place or at the
| banquet table, because they were liv-
ing words, have survived all disaster,
have filled the world with books and
the human mind with noble thoughts.
| "Ah," unused the apostle, eff l but
| knew the power of His resurrection,
verify 1 would count all things lost
| for the excellency of the knowledge
OF Christ Jesus, my Lord" He was
not raised from the dead on account of
| the cause for which He died, but He
| was raised because of the divine way
| in which He had been able to live. He
! had yielded himself perfectly to the
| law of love. and in that river of
| power flowing from underneath the
! throne of God He discovered for Him
self and for humanity the fountain
cof perpetual youth
So does our cIear-sighted thinker tell
us that he would know the power of
Christ's resurrection by putting him
self into the fellowship of His suffer-
fngs." This was not the desire for a
stoic's capacity for pain. They were
such sufferings as the soldier gladly
bears for the flag he loves; the en-
durance of the student for the prob
lens he would solve; the compassion
Of the philanthropist for the pains he
would alleviate The apostle thought
If he could understand life as Jesus
did, see life from Saviors point of
view, feel the pains of life in all their
sacred dignity, he, too, might attain
the resurrection of the dead" But the
resurrection to which he aspired was
the resurrection of the soul. This is
the key which unlocks a great many
of his sayings. 1--WE ara
BURIED BY BAPTISM
into death that we also might walk
in the newness of life" We are said
to have been dead in trespasses and
SIM" but out of this low state we are
raised with Jesus Christ The con-
stant appeal of Jesus was to the
spiritual nature of man. He assumed
that all who listened to Him were able
to understand the truth and goodness
which He taught. It was the method
of the prophet and not that of the
I0p;cjaO The reS1Irraotion Of +Ia eor,I
out of the grave of selfshness and of
sin is the great and perpetual miracle
which gives vitality to the gospel
1 like to think of thfs development of
the saint as the highest expression
in this world of the law of evolution.
The saint is the finest and highest
kind of man. He makes bread for the
hungry and he is stoned by the mob.