Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-04-23

Miller, toillng amid the quarrles OF
Cromarty, until every rock became TO
him a volume Of the worlds biography,
and he found the footsteps Of the Gre
ator in the old red sandstone. Oh, the
world wants a Christ for the Office,
Christ for the kitchen, Christ for the
shop, a Christ for the banking house,
Christ for the garden, while spading
and planting and irrigating the terri
toryl Oh, of course We want TO see
Christ at last in royal robe and bedia-
monded, a celestial equestrian mount
ing the white horse but from this East
er of 1897 to our last Easter on earth
we most need to see Christ as Mary
saw him at the daybreak,
'supposing him TO be gardener.
His First Appearance.
Another thing which the church and
the world have not noticed in regard TO
the resurrection of Christ is that he
made his first posrmortom appearance to
one who had been the seven deviled
Mary Magdalene One would have sup
posed be would have made his first post
humous appearance to woman who
had always been illustrious for goodness
There are sanity women who have al
ways been saintly-saintly in girlhood,
sanity in infancy, always sanity. In
nearly all our families there have been
sanity aunts. In my family circle it
was sanity aunt Phebe; in yours saint
ly aunt Martha or sanity aunt Ruth.
One always sanity. But not so was the
one spoken Of in the text
While you are not to confound her
with the repcntant courtesan who had
made her long locks do the work Of
towel at Christ's foot washing, you are
not 10 forget that she was exercised Of
seven devils. What "a capital Of demon
ology she must have beenl What a cho-
rus Of all diabolisml Seven devils-two
for the eyes and two for the hands and
two for the ftet and one for the tongue.
seven devils; yet all these are extirpat-
cd, and now she is az good as once she
was bad, and Christ honors her with the
first posthumous appearance. What does
that mean:
Why, it means for worst sinner great
est grace; it means those lowest down
shall come, perhaps, highest up; It
means that the clock that strikes IL at
may strike l2 at midnoon; it
means that the grace Of God is seven
times suongerthan sin. Mary Magdalene
the seven deviled became Mary Msgda-
lene the seven angeled 1t means that
when the Lord meets us at last he will
not throw up 10 US what we have been.
All he said TO her was, Mary Many
people having met her under such cir
cumstances would have said; Let me
see, how many devils did you havel
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
What "a terrible piece you were when
first met youw The most Of the Chris
tian women in our day would have
nothing to do with Mary Magdalene even
after her conversion, lest somehow they
be compromised. The only thing have
to say against women is that they have
not enough mercy for Mary Magdalene.
Christ put all pathos and all reminis-
cence ana all anticipation and all pardon
and all comfort and all heaven into one
word If four letters, Mary" Mark
you, Christ did not appear to some BIZ
bic Elizabeth or Bible Hannah or Bible
Esther or Bible Deborah or Bible Vashti,
but to Mary; not TO a Mary against
whom nothing was said; not to Mary
the mother Of Jesus; not to Mary the
mother Of James; not to Mary the sister
Of Lazarus, but to a seven deviled Mary
A seven DeviIed Man.
There is a man seven deyiled-devil
Of avarico, devil Of pride, devil Of hate,
devil of Incidence, devil Of falsehood,
devil Of strong drink, devil Of impurity.
God can take them all away, 2 or 70.
rode over the new cantilever bridge
that spans Niaeara-a bridge 900 feet
long. $50 feet Of chasm from bluff to
bluff. passed over it without any anx-
iety. Why? Because - locomotives and
% cars laden with gravel had tested the
bridge, thousands Of people standing on
the Canadian side, thousands standing
on the American side to applaud the
achievements And Lcwevcr long the
train of our immortal interests may be,
we are to rcmtmttr that 6cd's bridg'
Of mercy spanning the chasm Of sin has
been fully tested by the awful tcLnag'
Of all the pardoned sin Of all the ages.
church militant standing On one bank.
church triumphant standing On the 9th
er bank. Oh, it was to the seven devileo
Mary that Christ made his fist post
mortem appearance.
There is another thing that the world
and the church have not observed IN re-
gard TO this resurrection. and that is, 1t
was the morning twilight.
If the ohronometer had been invented
and Mary had as good a watch as some
of the Marys Of our time have, she would
have found it was about half past o
O'Clock a. m. Matthew says it was in
the dawn; Mark says it was at the sun
rising: Luke says it was very early IN
the morning; John says it was while it
was vet dark In other words, II was
twilight. That was the O'Clock at which
Mary Magdalene mistook Christ for the
gardener. What does that meang 10
means there are shadows over the grave
unlifted-shadows Of mystery that are
hovering. Mary stopped down and tried
10 look 10 the ether end Of the crypt
She gave hysteric outcry. She could not
see to the other end Of the crypt. Nei-
ther can you see TO the other end Of the
grave Of your dead. Neither can we see
10 the other end Of our own grave. Oh,
if there were shadows over the family
plot belonging to Joseph Of Arimathea,
Is it strange that there should be some
shadows over our family lotf Easter
dawn, not Easter noon.
Shadow of unanswered question: Why
we've they taken away from usf Why
we're .hey ever given to Us If they wer'
70 be taken so soon? Why were they
taken so suddenly? Why could they no
have uttered some farewell words
Why? A short question, but a whole
crucifxion Of agony in it. Why9 Shad
ow OH the graves Of good men and WON