The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-04-30

by night in every furnace of the loco
motive engines of America. That is
what helped Hugh Miller. toiling amid
the quarries of Cromarty, until every
rock became to him volume
of the worlds biography, and
he found the footsteps of the Creator
in the old red sandstone. Oh, the world
wants Christ for the office, Christ
for the kitchen, a Christ for the shop,
a Christ for the banking house, a Christ
for the garden, while spading and
planting and irrigating the territory.
Oh, of course we want co see Christ at
last in royal robe and bediamonded, a
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 Magdalene saw
Him at the day break, ''supposIng Him
to be gardener"
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-deviled
Mary Magdalene. One would have
supposed He would have made His first
posthumous appearance to a 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 it was sanity Aunt
Phoebe; in yours, sanity 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 repentant courtesan 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 captive Of
demonology she must have been.
What a chorus of all dia-
bolism. 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 extir-
pated, and now she is as 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. 1t
means that the clock that strikes IL at
midnight may strike ID at
midnoon; it means that the grace of
God is seven times stronger than sin.
Mary Magdalene the seven-deviled be-
came Mary Magdalene t84e seven
angeled. 1t means that when the Lord
meets us at last He will not throw up
to us what we have been. All He said
to her was: ''Maryw Many people hav-
ing met her under such circumstances
would have said: Let me see, how
many devils did you have? one, two,
three, four, five, six, seven. What a
terrible piece you were when l first
met YOU" The most of the Christian
women in our day would have
nothing to do with Mary Magdalene
even after her conversion, lest some
how they be compromised. The only
thing 1 have to say against women is
that they have not enough mercy for
Mary Magdalene. Christ put all pathos,
and all reminiscence, and all anticipa-
tion, and all pardon, and all comfort,
and all Heaven into one word of four
ltlICTSs Ih dI yOus I'll NANI
not appear to some Bible Elizabeth, or
Bible Hannah, or Bible Esther, or Bible
Deborah, or Bible Vashti, but to Mary,
not to 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 Laza-
rus, but to a seven-deviled Mary.
There is a man seven-deviled-devi
of avarice, 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, seven 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? Because % locomo-
tives and % cars laden with gravel had
tested the bridge, thousands of people
standing on the Canadian side, thou
sands standing on the American side,
to applaud the achievement. And
however long the train of our immor-
tai interests may be we are to remem-
Der that Gods bridge of mercy span
ming the chasm of sin has been fully
tested by the awful tonnage of all the
pardoned sin of all the ages, church
militant standing on one bank, church
triumphant standing on the other
bank. Oh, it was to the seven-deviled
Mary that Christ made His first post
mortem appearance
There is another thing that the
world and the church have not OBJ
served in regard to this resurrection,
and that is. it was the morning
twilight.
If the chronOmeter had been inven-
ted and Mary had as good a watch as
some of the DIarys of our time have
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 it was very early in
the morning; John says 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 owT. 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?