The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1895-04-17
Outline Of Sermon Preached by Rev
w. G. SChoppe, Easter Morning,
ApriI H. 1895

JuBJEcr: "An Easter Morning Greeting"
TEXT: Matt. 49, IA: And Johns Disciples
came and took up the body, and buried it, and
went and told Jesus" Also, Matt. 2S, s: "And
they departed quickly from the sepulcher with
fear and great JOY"
Johns disciples mourned his loss for season,
then separated, as might be expected. The dis
ciples of Jesus BEGIN to do the same; but sud-
denly it is arrested, and they stand firmly united.
Their ideas of Christ underwent change They
thought at first that all was lost; now they
Him to be the true Messiah, and the Son of God
who had brought life into the world. His mis-
sion seems no longer temporal, but spiritual.
Again, these disciples underwent moral
transformation. Timid men bad become bold.
Despair was turned to bounding hope; doubt
transformed to active faith. Some force had
entered life. So great was it, that the Jewish
Sabbath passed away, and the Christian Sunday
was made sacred in commemoration. An up
ward current is given to history. Mems lives,
their homes, the whole order of events is gath
cred into and swept along by this new, resistless
movement, that still bears upon the crest of its
advancing wave the hope of the worlds future
| While Johns disciples dispersed, what but the
| resurrection of their Lord could have kept
Christ's disciples together, made them think
more loftily of Him, and given new grandeur to
their characters?
End. These things can only be explained by
the BELIEF of the disciples in Christ's resurrec-
| ton. The Church was FOUNDED on it, against
bitter opposition. OF this belief in the early
| church, there can be no serious question. The
| theory that this story of the resurrection from
| the tomb was legend, that sprang up in the
dawn of the second century and that the early
| disciples only taught the continued SPIRITUAL
life of their Lord, now seems to have possession
of liberal circles. Our first objection is, that
apart from Christ's resurrection, there was no
| clear idea of Immortality in the world of that
| day. The Jewish motive was prospered present
| life. Their dim conception of a hereafter was
corrupted by general under world of shadows.
BUDDHISM teaches at most the loss of personal
consciousness in the great essence of which the
phantom of soul returns. The faith of Egypt
was, RENoUF declares, a land of heavy slumber
| and darkness, where father and mother are not
| recognized; and death absolute is God. PLATO
connected his belief with the pre-existence of
| the soul.
In PERICLEs' famous funeral Grafton he speaks
| of the undying praise of the present; the sepul-
chre of earth in which they had gained name
| but makes no mention of future, awaiting the
bravest and the best.
CICERO refers, eloQuently. to possible future
life; but claims it gives comfort when friends
| have passed away. CESAR, the head of the pub
lie religion, den ed it in the Senate. SENECA
thought the best souls might live till the coming
conf1agration. The noble EPICTATUs saw moth
ing but probable dissolution. Itwas only great
PERHAPS" when admitted The future abode
was gloomy and ioyless; the dead like spectres
bewildered in the dark, turned longingly back
| to the present life.
GIBBoN says of the EMINENT, who lived in the
/
| regulated by any serious conviction of future
| state. The ablest orators were not apprehensive
| of giving offence to their hearers, by exposing
that doctrine as an idle and extravagant opin-
ion, which was rejected with contempt by every
man of liberal education" He also adds: 1.-THE
| ancient Christians were animated by a contempt
| for the present life, and by just confidence of
| Immortality, of which the doubtful and imper-
| feet faith of modern ages cannot give any ade-
quate notion"
In that age of darkness these simple disciples
began their pure, positive declaration of a faith
in the future, that has consoled the ages, and is
the model of our teaching. WHERE did they
get it?
Our End objection is this Epistle of Paul to the
Corinthians, admitted to be genuine by all crit
les. In it, written before the year sixty, he de-
| clares the life from the tomb to be the common
| faith of Christians. He refers to his vision OF
the risen Christ, which was not over six or seven
years after the crucifxion, which leaves no room
| for the theory of legends.
Our THIRD objection is the existence of the
CHRISTIAN CHURCH, This belief was the found
alton of the primitive Church. and it could not
have been produced without it.
3rd. The faith of the disciples in the resurrec
ton could not have been established UNLESS IT
| WERE TRUE. The theory, once advocated, that
it was conscious fraud on the part of the disci
pies, was overthrown by the knowledge of theil
great sacrifice for their faith and the lofty NOR
al tone of the Gospels.
| Many attempts have been made to explain the
truth away, but each theory has had its day
and ceased to be. Unbelief devours its OWL
children. The succession to the throne of ante
| Christian skepticism is won as in barbarous
| tribes, by Staying the reigning sovereign; theil
weapons are turned against each other, and
each new assailant begins by claiming that all
previous assailants were wrong. After the the
| ory of - "Pious Fraud " was exploded, came the
| theory of visions: That the belief was sincere
but that the expectant disciples were deceived
by vision. In the uncertain twilight of the
garden, such phantom might have been crea
ted in the brain of single sobbing woman; but
| the disciples were NOT expectant; and the ap
|
tails varied. Thomas could not have had Wis
ion that he thrust his hand into the print of the
nails; the twelve could not have had vision. as
by the Lake, where Christ gently rebuked Peter
and said, Feed my sheep" Five hundred could
not have had vision at once, and have heard
! the words, broader than all their dreams: "Go
ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel tc
every creature" If SO, at point in their histo
ry these visions would not have suddenly ceased
Such is not the method of visions.
What new explanations may be contrived il
the brain of the skeptic, we cannot tell but the
belief in Immortality is based on that empty
| tomb, and it is safe for US to be independent oi
the rise and fall of opposing theories, and tc
rejoice together on this Easter morning.
| 4th This story has message for US all.
| One by one the flight of years sweeps away the
| human family; the fevered toll of earth will
soon be over with US all. What lies beyond the
vail? We working here till when? PERHAPS
many years; PERHAPS till tomorrow morning
Certainly for very minute of time. If this is
| all, what we do we must finish here. All oul
| desires,our deepest wishes, cannot reach beyond
| What can break the tyranny of the world, and
set the soul of man free? Give man clear faith
in the hereafter, and he walks over the troubles
of life with feet that follow his far-seeing sight
like man that strides with his firm steps and
far-oH sight, and never sees the pebble in the
| path, behind which the crawling insect is block
ed and hindered.
Imagine man who has travelled the world
over. He tarries at little hamlet far behind
the mountains, whose inhabitants know nothing
| of the great world outside. He is not under the
tyranny of their prejudices and petty standards
He has broader horizon; he knows of the re.
gions beyond; he belongs to the great world
| outside the mountains. So is the man set free
who lives in view of the resurrection life, and as
a child of Eternity.
| Since our last Easter morning, what changes
have been wrought! Those who have passed
away will live to us, in proportion as Christ
| lives in US.
| The message of this Easter morning is the
LIVING CHRIST moving in the social life of our
day, consoling and purifying the family life, and
guiding the human race to a broader vision and
a grander service
| Let us linger the words of the prince of
modern preachers, Phillips Brooks: "a living
| Christ! Ever blessed Easter truth! O., that
everything dead and formal might go out of our
creed, out of our life, out of our heart. today.
| HE is ALIYEl Do Won belieye it2 What ara Won