Omaha daily bee., 1896-04-05
Copyright, 1896, by the Author.)

Copyright, 1896, by the Author)
On a day in springtime every year-this
year on April 5-some hundreds of millions
of people all around the world keep a feast
that they call Easter or the Feast of the
Resurrection. What is it that they COM
memorate, and in what is it they thus affirm
their belief? The creeds Of Christendom an
swer that question when, in one form or
another, they rehearse the words, Il believe
In the resurrection of the dead" For what
now, precisely, do those words stand? What
is the fact on which they rest and by which
we may interpret them? That fact Is the
resurrection, on the third day after his death
and burial, Of Jesus Christ and his subse-
quent appearance and temperance from
time to time in human form.
The main incidents in this connection are
familiar enough, and do not need to be re-
peated here. But one of the temperatures
of Jesus after His death and burial, as re-
corded in narratives of varying form, but OF
substantial consistence in the four gospels, Is
given i'm that ascribed to st. John and
throws some side lights upon the whole ques-
tion which are of no little value. This Is
the substance of the incident:
''Slmon Peter saith to them (his fellow
disclples) / go a-fshing. They say unto
him, we also go with thee. They went forth
and entered into a ship immediately; and
that night they caught nothing. But when
the morning was now come, Jesus stood on
the shore.'-St. John. XXI, 3, 4.
Let us now first place this picture in It's
frame of time and place. The time was the
time between the resurrection of Jesus and
His ascension. The place was the shore OF
the sea of Galilee, The 'chief speaker
we all recognize him at once and without
acknowledgements him, I think with that
genuine pleasure with which we encounter a
strong personality with positive and straight
forward characteristics.
Simon Peter saith not, "Will you go a.
fshlng?" nor, Suppose that we go a-hsh-
ing but, ~ 60" 1t is the voice, the act,
of a natural leader-a man VINO knew What
he wanted to do-and did IT. And as sueh
men usually do, he carried his companions
with him. I'VE go with thee. IL is tne
old quality coming to the front, mere. as IL
earlier days. and making user v' ,ne,r
owned. The disciples are without ther
Lord, and In the absence OF their Master
Peter comes to the fore and leads them TO the
task which once had been most constant
and familiar. ~ ,ho
And then. there comes the inquire on me
Understanding there ana yee tnaS hutt
sneaking. and even then unrecosnlzea' put
after a little while passing into the realm
Of their consciousness, their recognition, ana
their homage. .
one more page Is thus turned III a series
NJ steadily ascending appearances or dis
closures which occurred between the res
direction and the ascension or CHRIST, inc
force OF whose meaning the Christian world
has scarcely yet begun to appreciate or even
to recognize.
And yet, for whatever purpose Christ re-
appeared after his resurrection, this, at least,
IS certain, that he did 30 in order that men
might get a clearer vision OF the conditions
Of the life OF the future and OF the nature
of a resurrection body. Collate the pas
sages which speak OF him during what we
are wont to call the great forty days, and
see how pre-eminently they refer to this. He
spoke, We are told, to his disciples "of the
things concerning the Kingdom Of God" But