The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-05-27
NO. 13.

|
she would have found it was about $50
o'clock a. m. Matthew says it was in
| the dawn; Mark SAYS it was at the sun
rising; Luke says IL 'ras very early in
the morning; John >ays it was while
it was yet dark. In other words.
it was twilight. That was the
o'clock at which Mary Mag
dealene mistook Christ for the
| gardener. What does that mean?
1t means there are shadows over the
grave unified, shadows of mystery
that are lowering. Mary stopped down
and tried to look to the other end of
the crypt She gave hysteric outcry.
She could not see to the other end OF
the crypt. Neither can you see to the
other end of the grave of your dead.
Neither can we see to the other end of
our own grave. Oh. if there were
shadows over the family plot belong
ing to Joseph of Arimathea is It
strange that there should be
some shadows over our family
lot? Easter dawn, not Easter noon.
Shadow of unanswered question
Why were they taken away from us?
why were they ever given to us if they
were to be taken SO soon? why were
they taken so suddenly? why could they
not have uttered some farewell words?
| Why? short question, but a whole
cruciixiOn OF agony in it. Why?
Shadow on the graves of good men and
women who seemed to die before their
work was done. Shadow on all the
graves of children because we ask our
selves why SO beautiful craft launched
at all If it was to be wrecked one mile
outside of the harbor? But what did
Mary Magdalene have to do in order to
get more light on that grave. She had
only to wait. After awhile the Easter
sun rolled up, and the whole place was
flooded with light. What have you
and | to do in order to get more light
on our own graves and light upon the
graves of our dear loved ones? Only to
| wait.
Another thing the world and the
church have not Observed; that is.
| Christ's pathentic credentials. How
do you know it was not gardener?
His garments said He was gardener.
The flakes of the upturned earth scat
tered upon His garments said He was
a gardener. How do you know He was
not a gardener? All. Before Easter
had gone by He gave to some of His
| disciples His three credentials He
| showed them His hands and His side.
Three paragraphs written in rigid or
depressed letters. scar in the right
palm, scar in the left palm. scar
amid the ribs-scars scars. That is
the way they knew Him. That is the
way you and will know Him.
| There is one more thing that the
world and the church have not noticed
in this resurrection of Christ, and that
is that Christ from Friday to Sabbath
was lifeless in a hot climate, where
sanitary prudence demanded that
burial take place the same day as death,
and where there was no ice to retard
| dissolution. Yet, after three days
| He comes up so healthful, so robust,
and so rubicund Mary Magdalene takes
| Him for a gardener. Not supposing
| Him to be an invalid from a hospital.
not supposing Him to be corpse from
the tomb, but supposing Him to be the
| gardener. Healthful by the breath of
the upturncd sod, and by a perpetual
life in the sunshine.
After Christ's interment every cellu-
lar tissue broke down, and nerve, and
artery, and brain, were a physiological
wreck, and yet He comes up swarthy,
rubicund and we'll When | see after
such mortuary silence such radiant ap-
pearance, that settles it that what
ever should become of the bodies of
our Christian dead, they are 60
| ing to come up the nerves restrung,
the optic nerve illuminated, the ear
drum a-vibrate, the whole body lifted
up without it's weakness and worldly
uses for which there is no resurrection.
Come, is it not almost time for us to go
out to meet our terminated dead? Can
you not hear the lifting of the rusted
latch?
Oh, the glorious thought. the glo-
rious consolation of this subject when
find Christ coming up without any
of the decorations, for you must re-
member He was lacerated and wound
ed fearfully in the crucitixion coming
up without one. What does that make
me think? That the grave will get
nothing of us except our wounds
and impcrfections. Christ went
into the grave exhausted and
bloOdless. All the currents of His
life had poured out from His
wounds. He had lived life of trouble,
sorrow and privation, and then He died
a lingering death. His entire body
hung on four spikes. No invalid of 20
years suffering ever went into the
grave SO white and ghastly and broken
! down as Christ, and yet here He comes
up SO rubicund and robust she supposed
Him to be the gardener.
Standing this morning round the
shattered masonry of our Lords tomb,
l point you to world without hearse,
without muff1ed drum, without turn-
illus, without catafalque, and with
out a teal. Amid all the cathedrals
of the blessed no longer the Dead
March of Saul, but whole liberetti Of
Hallelujah chorus. Oh, put trumpet tc
: lip and finger to key, and loving fore