Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-04-24
ArvvOAF 40 q r VA SATURDAY APRIL "a 1897

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America That is what helped Hugh
Miller, toiling amid the quarries Of
Cromnrty, until every rock became tC
him IL volume of the worlds biography,
and he found the footsteps of the Gre
ator in the cid red sandstone. Oh, the
world wants Christ for the Office, a
Christ for the kitchen, Christ for the
shop, IL Christ for the banking house, q
Christ for the garden, while spnding
and planting and irrigating tho terri
toryl Oh, of course we want to sec
Christ at last in royal robe and bedia-
mondcd, il celestial equestrian mount.
ing the white horse, but from this East
CIR of 1897 to our last Easter ON earth
we most need to sec Christ as Mary
Magdalcne saw him at tho daybroak,
"supposing him to be gardener. -
His First Appearance.
Another thing which the church and
the world huve not noticed i'll regard to
the resurrection of Christ is that he
made his FIRST postmortem appearance to
one who hnd been the seven devilcd
Mary Magdalcnc. One would have sup
posed ho would have made his first post
humous appearance to woman who
had always been illustrious for goddess.
There IRE sanity women who have al
ways been snintly-saintly i'll 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
" aunt Martha or sanity aunt Ruth.
! Ono always sanity. But not 80 was the
one spoken Of IN the text.
While you are not to confound her
with the rcpcntunt courtesan who had
made her long locks do the work OF
towel at Christ's foot washing, you arc
not to forget that sho was exercised OF
seven devils. What Il capital of demon
ology she must have boenl Whit q cho-
rus of all dinbolisml Seven devils-two
for the eyes and two for tho hands and
two for tho feet and ono for the tongue.
Seven devils; yet all these are extirpnt-
ed, and now she is rs good rs once she
was bad, and Christ honors her with the
first posthulnous appearance. What docs
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 u ut
midnight may strike IL at midnoon; it
means that the grace Of Gcd is seven
times stronger than sin. Mary 1lagdalcne
the seven devilcd became Mary Magda-
lenc the seven angclcd. 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, Mary Many
people having met her under such cir
cumstances would have said: Let me
see, how many devils did you hnvei
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
What terrible piece you were when /
first met you!" The most Of the Chris
tan 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 Magdalenc.
Christ put all puthcs and all rcminis-
cence and all anticipation and all pardon
AID all comfort and all heaven into one
word of four letters, "Mary!" Mark
you, Christ did not appear to come BIZ
bic Elizabeth or Bible Hannah or Bible
Esther or Bible Deborah or Bible Vashti,
but to Mary; rot to a Mary against
whom nothing was said; not 10 Mary
the mother of Jesus; not to Mary the
mother of james; not to Mary the sister
of Lazarus, but to Il seven dcvilod Mary
a Seven Devilcd Man.
There is man seven deviled-deyil
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, I or 10.
l rode over the new cantileyer bridge
that spans Niaeara-a bridge 800 feet
long, 500 feet of chasm from bluff to
bluff. l passed over it without any anx-
iety. Why: Because 90 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
achievement. And however long the
train of our immortal interests may be,
we are to remember that Gods bridge
of mercy spanning the chasm of sin has
been fully tested by the awful tonnage
of all the pardoned sin Of all the ages,
church militant standing OH one bank,
church triumphant standing OIL the 9TH
er bank. Oh, it was to the seven de- led
Mary that Christ made his first post
mortem appearance.
There is another thing that the world
and the church have not observed i'll re-
gard to this resurrection. and that is, 1t
was the morning twilight.
If the chronometer had been invented
and Mary had as good 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 1t
was yet dark In other words, it was
twilight. That was the O'Clock atwhich
J Mary Magdalene mistook Christ for the
gardener What docs that mean? 1t
means there ere shadows over the grave
unlifted-shadows Of mystery that arc
lowering. Mary stopped down and tried
TO look to the other end CT the crypt
She gave hysteric outcry. She could not
see to the other end of the crypt Nei-
Their 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 belonging 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
! a., AJ.o,, o,uov from Og2 WhV