The Yale expositor., 1897-04-23


gardener"
Oh. that IS what helped Joseph
Wedgwood. toillng amid the heat and
the dust OF the potteries. until he could
make for Queen Charlotte the first
royal table service of English manu-
facture. That was what helped James
Watt, scoffed at and caricatured, until
he could put on wheels the thunderbolt
of power which roars by day and night
In every furnace of the locomotive en-
gines OF America. That is what helped
Hugh Miller, tolling amid the quarries
OF Cromarty, until every rock became
TO him a volume of the worlds blog-
raphy, and he found the footsteps OF
the Creator in the old red sandstone.
Oh, the world wants a Christ for the
office. Christ for the kitchen. Christ
for the shop, Christ for the banking
house, Christ for the garden. while
spading and planting and irrigating
the territory. Oh. of course we want
to see Christ at last in royal robe and
bediamoned, celestial equestrian
mounting the white horse. but from
this Easter of 1897 to our last Easter on
earth We most need to see Christ as
Mary Magdalen saw him at the day
break, "supposing him 70 be gar
| deIer"
Another thing which the church and
the world have not noticed in regard
| TO the resurrection OF Christ Is that he
made his first post-mortem appearance
to one who had been the seven-Geviled
Mary Magdalen. One would have sup
posed be would have made his first
posthumous appearance to woman
who had always been illustrious for
goodness. There are sanity women
who have always been sanity. sanity
in girlhood, sanity in infancy, always
sanity. In nearly all our families
there have been sanity aunts. In my
family circle II was aunt Phebe; in
yours sanity aunt Martha or sanity
aunt Ruth. One always sanity. But
not so with the one spoken of in the
text.
While you are not to confound her
with the repugnant courtesah who had
made her long locks do the work of
towel at Christ's footwashing. you are
not to forget that she was exercised OF
seven devils. What a capital OF de-
monology she must have been. What
chorus OF all diabolism. Seven devils
two for the eyes, and two for the
hands, and two for the feet, and one for
the tongue. Seven devils. Yet all
these are extirpated, and now she Is as
good as once she was bad, and Christ
honors her with the first postum
nous appearance? What doth that
mean?
There Is a man en-deviled-devii
of avarice, devil OF pride. devil OF hate,
devil Of Incidence, devil of falsehood,
devil of strong drink, devil of impurl-
ty. God can take them all away, sew
en- or seventy. / rode over the new
cantilever bridge that spans Niagara
bridge 900 feet long, $50 feet Of
chasm from bluff to bluff. l passed
over it without anxiety. Why? Be-
cause twenty-five locomotives and
twenty-five cars laden with gravel had
tested the bridge, thousands of people
standing on the Canadian side, thous-
ands standing on the American side to
applaud the achievement. And how
ever long the train of our immortal in
terests may be We are to remember
that Gods bridge of mercy spanning
the chasm of sin has been fully tested
Ivy the awful tonnage of all the pardoned
sin of all ages, church militant stand
ing on one bank, church triumphant
| ,ta no M
was TO the seven-deviled Mary that
Christ made His first post-mortem ap-
pearance.
There is another thing that the world
and the church have not observed in
regard to this resurrection, and that Is,
Il WIS the morning twilight.
If the chronometef had been invent
ed and Mary had as good a watch as
some of the Marys of our time have
half-past o'clock a. m. Matthew says
IL was in The dawn. Mark says 1t was
at the sunrising; Luke says it was very
early In the morning; John says 1t was
while IL was yet dark. In other words
Il was twilight. That was the O'Clock
at which Mary Magdalen mistoolI Chris;
for the gardener. What does that
mean? 1t means there are shadows
over the grave unified, shadows oil
mystery that are lowering. Mary
stopped down and tried to look to the
other end of the crypt. She gave hys-
teric 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 grave. Oh, IL there
were shadows over the family plot be-
longing to Joseph of Arimathea, is il
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 u.s.
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? A short question, but whole
crucifxion of agony in 1t. why
Shadow on the graves of good men and
women who seemed to die before their