Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-04-03

Expressed il ! Ssrmon BY the Rev
D. 4. Cunningham, D. D.

LAP Dco5Q ~ DULL " WY Asps
D. A. Cunningham, D. D.
PASTOR OF THE FIRST PRESBY-
TERRAIN CHURCH-LESSONS
TAUGHT BY THE DEATH AND
TRIUMPHAL RESURRECTION OF
JESUS CHRIST-THE SERVICES
AT THE CATHEDRAL SERMON
TO KNIGHTS TEMPLAR -A
LARGE COLLECTION.
The services at the First Presbyter-
ian church yesterday were of the most
interesting character, and were attend
ed by very large congregation. The
music was an especially pleasing fea-
ture. The sermon by the pastor, the
Rev. DR.. D. A. Cunningham, contained
many, thoughts appropriate to the joy
Gus feast which was being celebrated.
He spoke as follows:
John 1876, II am the life" nineteenth
verse-"Because / live We shall live
also"
These are wonderful words of life,
spoken by Jesus. The prayer to be de-
liyered from sudden death is a natur-
al prayer. The worst feature about
death is it's unexpectedness. Dying is
always sad and appalling TO living men,
but when it is unlocked for it is 0oubly
appalling.
Now it was this upsetting element in
death, this element OF revolution, which
the disciples of Christ suffered special
ly from, when He was taken away. II
is easy to say they might have been
prepared, but that is only very partial
ly true. There were a gOod many
things He had said which should have
prepared them. But there were great
many other things He had said which
naturally had the very opposite erect.
One can almost imagine that when
John was making mental notes OF that
long discourse in the upper room from
which our text is taken-that discourse
which makes such pointed reference to
His approaching death-many OF the
rest were scarcely listening. They
were agitated and restless, preparing
themselves for possible collision with
the authorities, whispering in groups
to one another, not taking it in. OF
course many expression which Christ
uses in the context here, as we can see,
and as they could see afterwards, point
right across the gulf of death to the
regions beyond. But the force of the
words was probably not obvious at
the time. Let us try to get some suit
nj
words.
l. We will look at what they meant
for the disciples. There were Two
things pre- minently which Jesus had
done for the men whom he had gath
cred round Him, and whom He had
taught. He attached them to Himself,
and he had given a new meaning to
life. What Christ says to these men,
who will afterwards understand, but
not now, is: when | disappear from
your view, you will find, after you re-
cover from the first shock, that all the
meaning l gave to life is still resting
on it, and thai, in addition, the light
has passed inward to those darker
spaces which lie just beyond life. That
| should pass into these inner spaces
is essential, if the revealing light is to
burn there as well as here. This tie,
which has united you to me, may be
plunged into that universal solvent;
death may try his fierce chemistry upon
it; it will not give way" So He
tells them in this verse, and right
through this discourse, that death was
to Him merely an episode in the devel-
opment of His human life, and in the
working out of mems salvation; that IL
He went out of life, He did it as a man
leaves room to do something in an
adjoining apartment, leaving the door
open and saying he will return.
And then as to the tie; their moral
and spiritual life hung on His. He
knew that, but they must understand
that the relation would not be dis
turbed at all by His passing beyond the
confines of time They felt that while
He lived, they lived. Well, He would
still live and they would live, too. He
was going to renew His connection with
them, or, rather, to show them that it
was never broken. 1t was His close
connection with the Father that gave
Him such mastery over their hearts.
When He returned to the Father this
mastery would not be interrupted, but
lnt6nS1H6Q. lie renewed II ny appear
ing suddenly again and again in their
midst, and turning their despair into
rejoicing. He renewed it by the con-
sciously felt descent of His Spirit, by
which He was enshrined as a spiritual
presence in their hearts, and far on
how far they must wait to see-He was
going to return in more glorious man
Hesitation of Himself, when they,
cleansed and perfected in body and
spirit, would be still nearer to Him and
still like Him. All this was implied in
Christ's words, and when they realized
their meaning the disciples acquiesced
in the Masters higher wisdom, and
knew that they were gamers and not
losers.
Second-The meaning of these words
for our departed, is worthy of consid-
Grafton. There are times when we
naturally think of our departed. We
do so on the birthdays, for example,
which we used to keep, but which are
now no longer birthdays, but rather
deathdays. We do so at the close OF
the year, or the anniversary of that
hour of anguish when some one more
calm than we rose and said 1T is all
over" while in our hearts an unap-