The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-04-03

Easter Day becomes every year the
occasion of a wider and deeper JOY
among religious people: for the in
stinct of the Christian world has fast
ened upon this great festival Of the
Christian yea As the consummate
proof Of immortality. The risen Christ
10 q fact In history. not q demonstra-
ton. and in the risen Christ mmo
tally finds its shining and indestructi-
BILE evidence. But in the larger re-
thought of the time Christ IL
more n more closely to the
whole order Of Gods dealing with man.
1t In seen more and more that his ap-
spearance in the world marks, not the
> defeat of a divine design, but 1t con-
summation; hat He comes, not to
save a remnant, but humanity: that
redemption is not for the elect, but
for society. The great idea of immor-
tally must therefore find its evidence
not only in the temperance Of the Wis
BILE Christ after the crucifxion and the
sepulcher. but also in the total impress
sion which the whole creation makes on
the mind.
But in the resurrection itself lies
the depth of the Easter thought. At
last the repeated prophecies of Christ
were finding their way into the dis
ciples' hearts, and they were beginning
dimiy to perceive the approaching
passion Of their Lord. He has told
them that one Of them SHOULD betray
Him. that all should forsake Him, that
one should deny Him; no wonder their
hearts were troubled: no ond they
were afraid. 1t would seem as IL He
needed support; He who was to go out
and wrestle with the strange anguish
in Gethsemane: He who was to bear
the shame and splitting in the court of
Caiaphas; He who was to hear the re-
wings and the outcries of the very
men whom He loved n had come to
save; He who was to be crucified be-
tween the two thieves. But He did not
ask for comfort-He gave it; and in this
hour when the shadows gathered dark
ly over the hearts Of the disciples, He
uttered these words: Let not your
heart be troubled; neither let ii be
afraid: We have faith in God; la faith
also in Me-"
The accounts of the resurrection Of
Jesus Christ, as given in the four Cos
pels, may here be condensed into q
s%entence: Jesus Christ was sentenced
to death: the priests and Pharisees
were present to a sure that He
should not escape their malice; had
He been X from the cross before
death was assured, the centurion
YOU have paid the penalty of his
neglect WIN MS own lie, ana, nnalIy,
the death of the cruciied was demon
strated before the body was X from
the cross, by the thrust of the spear
into the side. The body was buried In
the tomb on Friday evening. On Sun
day morning the disciples came to the
tomb to find 1t empty; they were in
despair, thinking that the body had
been stolen; nor was their despair
overcome until after repeated appear
ances of the risen Lord to them, sing
ly and in companies. This is the ac-
count. Is it so far consistent with
what we know of Gods way of doing
things as to be inherently credible? If
so, is II sufficiently attested by ade-
quate evidence to be credited? My
answer to both these questions is i'm the
affirmative.
The body returns to earth, the spirit
to God who CAV it. This disembody-
ing of the spirit we call death. There
is at death an end of the body. 1t
knows M resurrection save in grass
and flowers. The resurrection, the
anastasis or outstanding. as the New
Testament calls 1t, is the resurrection
of the spirit. The phrase, resurrection
of the body" never occurs in the New
Testament. But every death is a resur-
rection Of the spirit. The spirit is re-
leased from its confinement, and this
release is death. Death is, in short. not
a cessation of existence, not a break in
existence; it is simply Socrates
declared 1t to be: THE separation of