The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1898-04-07

ing and buried in the silent sepulchre.
The Jews had sealed the grave, and
Roman soldiers guarded vigilantly
their charge, keeping at bay, all who,
for three full days to come, would
venture to approach the buried body
of the malefactor. Yet the morning
of Easter Sunday had scarcely dawn
ed,nor its sun fringed the eastern hills,
when Christ came forth from the
sealed grave, bright, brilliant and i'm
mortal. The Apostles, during 40 days,
had contemplated their risen Master,
saw Him with their eyes, heard Him
speak and spoke to Him, touched
Him with their living hands, and, at
first unbelieving, yet afterwards con-
WINGED by evidence, devoted their exis-
tence to publishing this great event all
over, sanctioning their testimony by
miracles and sealing it with their very
life-blood. Take away Christ's resur-
rection and His divinity falls flat to
the ground.
Say that Christ did not triumph oyer
the grave, then His life work is a fail
ure. Deny that Jesus Christ really
arose from the dead, then our prospect
; of eternal bliss would be obscure and
our redemption incomplete. "For, if
Christ be not risen again then is your
faith vain, and you are yet in your sins. !"
Great is the power Of man on earth, but
one thing He cannot do, he cannot lift
his dead hand among the grave clothes,
nor bring back the tide of blood to the
pulseless heart that has gone silent to
the touch of death. God alone does
this. Christ, then, by raising Himself
from the dead, proved Himself God.
INDICATED His claim to be divine, put
upon His mission the stamp of Divine
Omnipotence the truth of which Meth
er apostles, friends nor powers can gain
say in all the ages yet to be.
Again, nature herself demands that
man be buried for awhile and after
wards rise again. Just as the grain
which is sown in spring-time first dies
and rots and then gives birth to new
seed, SO this frail flesh, having been en-
, tombed for some time, must certainly
beget new life. In other words, to rise
glorious from the dead, like Christ, of
necessity, we have first to die. The
body, says st. Paul, lis sown in corrup-
ton, it shall rise in interruption; it is
sown in weakness, it shall rise in
power, it is sown natural body, it
shall rise spiritual body"
The other truth made manifest from
the Gospel istory of to-day, is that
Jesus is the model, the pattern-the
perfection of our individual resurrection.
, AS His soul and body were one after He
rose again, SO united also shall our
souls and bodies be on the day Of our
rising from the dead. For by one man
comes death, and by one
manc ONES the resurrection of the dead.
AS in Adam all men die, so also in Jesus
Christ all shall be made to live. AS
t He rose full and perfect man, clothed
| in the garments of Immortality, so
shall we. rise from the dead in the
fullest perfection of human nature, that
is to say, exempt from every possible
> defOrmity. In that new eternal life
there will be neither weakness of child
hood, no decrepitude of old age, never
: trace of sickness nor loss of limb. The
: Almighty Power will make good every
deficiency, and we shall rise again and
in our flesh see God face to face in that
vigorous bloom when youth is lowered
to full maturity. 80, city of God"
, cries out ST. Austin, "what glorious
things are said of Thee. In Thee there
is nothing that is lame, none that is
deformed, but all meet as st. Paul says
into perfect man, and the measure of
the age and the fullness of Christ. >"
The risen bodies of the blessed shall