Omaha daily bee., 1896-04-05

ice OF the resurrection, with a 10Y imper-
feotly Expressed IN the opening flowers Of
spring, and by the exultsnt anthems that rise
beyond the fanfare OF trumpets and are borne
from choir TO choir" We are most miser-
able without this faith aud hope. Take
this away and hope is shattered as easily as
breath shivers the irdescent soap bubble.
But hope Is more than child's plaything
Our vision OF faith and hope has seen de-
liverance from the power OF satan. that we
might receive the forgiveness Of sins, and
entrance into the inheritence among the
sanctifed in the eternal kingdom of God
where through Christ we shall realize our
heirship.
1t means our justification. As Martin
Luther says: "If we desire to be true
Christians it is necessary for us firmly to
establish in our hearts through faith this
article, that Christ, who bore our sins upon
the cross and who died In payment for them,
arose again from the dead for our justihca-
tion. The more firmly we believe this. the
more will our hearts rejoice and be COM
forted For II is impossible not to be glad
when we see Christ alive, pure and beau
tiful being, who before, on account Of our
sins, was wretched and pitiable in death
and In the grave. We are now convinced
that our transgressions are removed and
forever put away" IL means our God has
not sealed the promise of the forgiveness of
sins with lie, nor witnessed to a monu-
mental fraud with a miracle. 1t means
power is given us sufficient to enable us
to walk in newness of life.
The resurrection is not incredible, II we be-
lieve in the Infinite power of God. The
farmer knows except a corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die, 1t abideth alone,
but II 1t die, II bringeth forth much fruit"
So the divine creation of man in the image
of God, lost In the fall, Is fully restored In
the resurrection through the likeness of His
death. 1t Is not an earthly thing but the
quickening OF the divine spirit The lifeless
carbons in the arch lights on our streets as
soon as the current Is turned on nightly
spring into points of light, and as Ezekiel In
the vision of the valley OF dry bones, saw
bone ft to bone. and overlaid with the body, so
from our cemeteries the dead shall come
forth spiritual and immortal. In the Chris
tian sense, as used by monastic writers, Jesus
Christ Is the one true phoenix.
Admit the resurrection of Christ and you
pass from revealed truth to revealed facts.
Acquiesce in this supernatural fact, honestly
believe 1t, and sooner or later the whole of
the fundamental doctrines of faith must be
accepted AS Christlieb says: For the
dogma of the resurrection is the proof of all
other dogmas, the foundation of our Christian
life and hope, the soul Of the entire apos-
tolic preaching, the cornerstone on which
the Christian church is built" Practically
1t involved the surrender of a life of sin to
attain the new aim of life In not living for
self alone, but for him, who died for us and
rose again. 1t takes religion out of cloud
land down to earth to meet mans necessities
and aspirations. Logically it is conclusive
against infidelity and requires assent to the
teachings Of Christ. And last but not least,
it gives us, as 1t did the women the first
Easter morning, visions of angels in the
grave. LUTHER NJ KUHNS
Pastor Grace Lutheran Church.