The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-02-20
AT CALVARY BAP1IsT CHURCH.
Ahe aev. DR.. Hahn of Springfield, Mass
Occupied the Pulpit.

new LIE. Hahn of Springfield, Mass
Occupied the Pulpit.
The Rev. DR.. B. D. Hahn of Spring
held, Mass, supplied the pulpit at the
Calvary Baptist church yesterday morn
lng and evening. He preached excel
lent sermons at each service and was
listened to by large audiences. In the
morning the topic was Joseph of
Arlmathea. His text was found in the
twenty seventh chapter of Matthew
and the fifty-seventh and fifty-eighth
verses. They are as follows: when
the even was come there came rich
man of Arimathea named Joseph, who
also himself was Jesus disciple. He
went to PLATE and begged the body of
Jesus. Then PLATE commanded the
body to be delivered" The speaker
said in part:
1T is remarkable that the one figure
which stood out against the background
OF the day of the crucifiXion with reso-
luton and honor is that of an old man,
student of men, with wealth and Gull
ture, with apparently nothing to gain
and everything to lose. The disciples
OF our Lord were safe on account of
their own insignificance, and the women
who watched at the sepulcher engaged
IN ministering were safe because of the
Jewish tenderness toward women. This
old man, therefore, performed an act
OF blind daring. That his act was a
bold one is evident when we consider
that the entire Sanhedrin with the ex-
ception of Nicodemus, We're confessed
enemies of Jesus of Nazareth and
sought His destruction. They knew
that His sway over His people and
theirs was Incompatible, and when they
took counsel to put Jesus of Nazareth
to death Nicodemus absented himself
from the session, but Joseph of Ari-
methea entered his protest. This act
was that of defiance of public sentiment
and of the acknowledged authorities of
the people. Although he sought the
presence of PLATE secretly, as st. John
says, for fear of the Jews he must re-
move the body before sunset in the
presence and with the full knowledge of
the vast body Of zealots present at the
passover His act was blindly perform
ed. AS teacher of the people he de-
filed himself by contact with the dead
body when he should have been in the
temple instructing the young men of
tu6 UdIlOI. lie dCL llSclI WAS dpHol~
emily of no value. Remember that Jo-
eeph of Arimethea did not consider inn
mediate resurrection possible. The pass
ing act Of courtesy to the holy Jesus
was worth more than these costly and
hazardous post-mortem honors. Yet
the man was not content to commit
that body to the hands of his servants
He must perform these offices with
their own hands. According to Jewish
usage, the first born son of Joseph
would have been permitted to occupy
the fathers niche in the family tomb.
The passionate fondness of Joseph for
Christ Is manifested in that he laid him
In his own new tomb. The rabbits
taught that all the just would rise in
the great resurrection near the temple
that is founded at Jerusalem. When
the day of the great resurrection should
come the bodies of the foreign Jews
would be transported underground to
that hallowed place. The immense
wealth and devotion of Joseph enabled
him to secure a sepulcher under the
very walls of the city, one supreme
mausoleum of rabinc devotion, and
that mausoleum, in the blind ardor Of
its owner, was dedicated to the service
Of Jesus of Nazareth.
when that Sunday arrived with
earthquake and CONSERVATION, and the
tomb was opened and the Son of God
raised from the dead, then did Joseph
know for the first time of his blind de-
yOtion to Jesus of Nazareth, and in
that resurrection he received the assur
ance of his personal acceptance with
the Son of God and his own blessed res
direction"