The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1898-04-15
Secular Sermon.
EASTER AFTER THOUGHTS.

My text beloved is taken from the
lines of Whittier:
ALIAS tor him who never sees
The stars shine through his cypress trees
Who, hopeless, lays his dead away
Nor looks to see the breaking day
Across the mournful marbles play:
Vino hath not learned, in hours OF faith,
The truth, to flesh and sense unknown,
That lite is ever lord of death,
And love can never lose its own"
1t is thing which rejoices every over
| of mankind to notice the growing senti-
| ment among the people for joyous ceIe-
| bration of the Easter time. Coming as
| it does in the days of the springing grass
| and the first shy blossoms of the season
it suggests to the hearts of many, a res
direction to better things and to holier
purposes, and to nobler lives. Havir q
passed through the glad anniversary,
| there are two or three things which sug-
| gest themselves to US, as we take back
| ward glance at the exercises of the day.
One Of them is the deepening impression
of the resurrection as a fact of history.
History Is food for life and when we
find in it an event which touches mans
hope for the future, we want such fact
to be we'll buttressed by abundant testi-
mony. We have such testimony in the
New Testament. Each one of the stories
of the life Of Jesus Christ has its account
Of the rising again from the dead of this
Leader Of the world. So that, in fact, if
you deny the resurrection, you might as
well deny the whole story of the life of
Jesus. Paul who was the great theolog.
ian of the church has many a word to
say about this historic fact. 1t was the
one thing By which he clinched all his
faith, that Jesus rose from the dead. 1t
is interesting to notice, how, as men
have studied this fact of the resurrection.
their faith has risen triumphant over
doubt and distrust. The aurora dawn of
Easter has driven away the black night
Of their fears. Dr. Arnold Of Rugby in
his testimony on the resurrection de-
clares:'I have been used for many years
to study the history of other times and
to examine and weigh the evidences oil
those who have written about them, and
[ know of no one fact in the history OF
mankind which is proved by better and
fuller evidences of every sort, to the
N nd of the fair enquirer, than, thai
Christ died and rose again from the
dead" Such testimony as that ought
TO be, to our doubling souls, a mighty
breeze blowing US toward heaven.
Another truth from the Easter cele-
bration is the lesson that the resurrec-
tion means life to the world. Because
Christ lives we shall live also. 1t is a
great thing to truly live. There are SO
many who are dead while they live
There are so many who by cherishng
hatred, and anger, and i'll will, narrow
the circumference of their lives. Worry
and bitterness and discomfort cause
many souls to question whether life is
worth living. But all of these things
veX us because we have not entered into
the larger Easter hope found in the life
of Christ. We can bear all these petty
vexations when we realize that the Di-
vine life is part of our life, aud so we
live above the world while IN it. l have
read that once the navigators called the
Cape of Good Hope by the name of Cape
Death. Storms met the sailors there
and dashed their frail boats upon the
rocks. Beyond was great unknown
ocean and they feared to sail the bound
less sea, dreaiing death in it's waters.
But Nasco Da Cana sailed around the
cape and changed its name from Cape
Death to the Cape of Good Hope. Men
once feared the grave. Death and de-
spair were twin brothers. But Christ
passed through the grave and death be-
came the door of hope and the victorious
GROWING. Let the larger Easter mes.
sage make glad our hearts, SIN Him
was life and the life was the light of
men,"