Milford chronicle., 1903-04-17

Reading carefully st. Johns account O
the resurrection, you will find that Ma
ry made two visits to the garden wher
Christs body was laid. First she wen
as a woman. Even to this day the wo
men of the east on the first day of tn
week are accustomed to do just tn
same as they did in Christs time FO
six long weeks at early dawn the WON
en- go to the new made graves to weel
there. With my own eyes have seer
them going and heard them with my
ears Just as the sun is peeping owe
the JudRan hills they come forth robeC
in white, with faces covered with Ions
wells, wailing and sobbing as they go
But no sooner did Mary reach the toni
and find it desecrated than she ran ant
told the disciples Peter and John
What then happened? Why, Peter and
John came to the tomb and verified the
statement with their own eyes. Then
they turned and went home, but Mary
/ the loving Mary, would not leave She
1 fingered asking every one she met
practically the one question. Where
have We laid him?" She asked it of the
| two angels; she asked it of the sup
posed gardener; then, as she still con
tinued to linger about the tomb, Jesus
/ revealed himself unto her.
What does the second journey of
Mary to the rifed tomb of Jesus
teach? Simply this If we only go in
/ spirit to the Easter tomb of Christ,
seeking him and staying there, rs Mary
stayed, Christ will reveal himself unto
us lie will reveal himself as he did
to the noted Christian reformer of old,
whose daily and hourly prayer was
this simple sentence: More light. Lord
more light, more light" He will re-
veal himself as he did to Thomas
Chalmers who, after preaching for
many years in his Kilmeny pulpit, sud
denly had new revelation Of the life
of Jesus. from which he was able to
preach his mighty sermon on "The EX-
pulsive Power of New Affection"
He shall reveal himself as he did to
Charles II. SpurgeOn. Not until the
youthful SpurgeOn caught glimpse
the right key, which opened to him the
doors of the treasury of the gospel. He
will reveal himself as he did again and
again to your Christian mother. Never
did a sorrow come to her hearthstOne
but she Immediately fed, like Mary, to
the tomb of her Lord. There she stay
ed; there she sought her Master; there
she prayed until the peace that pass
eth all understanding" came into her
heart. Oh, my dear Christian friends,
why do so many of us go to the tomb
Of Jesus as Peter and John went and
then turn our backs upon the empty
crypt? Why do we not linger as Mary
fingered? More light, Lord, more
light, more light" More light from
thy cross; more light from thy loving
face; more light into our troubled lives.
On this Easter day we cry: More
light! More light"
The risen Lord appeared early In the
morning. Some Bible students inter
pret the words "when it was yet dark"
to mean that the resurrected Christ is
only going to reveal himself to his dis
ciples after long succession of earthly
troubles. They try to magnify the
hopeless grief of the Christian disciples
during the two black nights following
the crucifXiOn to that dumb despair
with which the mother of a criminal
might watch the stern, grim. voiceless,
fOrbidding walls of state penitentiary
within which her son is about to be
electrOcuted for the crime of murder.
once saw such face. l never wish
TO see the like of it again. The mother
hired room overlooking Sing Sing
prison. There she sat hour after hour
watching and waiting Not until this
agOnizing woman had heard that her
boys heart had ceased to beat did she
turn away and bury her crushed life in
a distant city.