The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-04-13
DIR. sTANsFIELD's SERMON.
Special Programme Of Music mt Me-

ridian-Street NJ. z. Church.
The Easter services at Meridian-street
NJ. E. Church yesterday morning were
largely attended. The decorations were at
| tractive and there a special pro-
gramme of Easter music at the morning
and evening service. In the evening the
| Easter cantata, From Death to Life" by
]. C. Bartlett, was given. At the morn
| ing service the annual benevolences were
| taken up. These benevolences aggregate
total of s1635.
| DIR. Stansfelds morning sermon was
from the text, Immortality brought to
light by the gospel Timothy. i. 10. He
| said in part:
Easter is the greatest day of all the
| church year because II tells of divine
| triumph over earths worst, the imperish-
| ableness of human goodness and the certain
| explanation of Jesus being in this world
at all is the sad and universal fact of SIM
but ours He lived. He died, He arose, He
assembled for US.
ITO those who have fully appreciated the
| life of Jesus the mystery Is not that He
should ascend back to heaven, His native
place; the mystery is rather that He should
| be here at all. The mystery is God mani
| tested in the fiesh:' and His life is utterly
inexplicable on any other than the New
Testament grounds that He came to seek
| and to save that which was lost 1t is for
US men and our salvation that Jesus Is
| here.
He is In the world, the only sinless one,
| even his enemies being judges, for no one
| has charged Jesus with sin-and yet the
sinless one endures In himself the contra
diction of sinners. He fights with and
overcomes life's severest temptations. He
meets and defeats the arch-enemy of man
the devil; the Sinless One is the IMAM of
| sorrows;' the perfect one goes down unto
| death, even death on the cross, yet he does
| so willingly; there is a supreme voluntari-
ness in 1T all which shows the conscious
ness of a great mission and work. 1t Is
| His hour In the whole life 1t is evil
| dent Jesus is living, suffering. dying, ris-
| ing for Others He touched human life at
| its lowest possible depth. because He was
1 here to save from the depths of sin. This
then, is the meaning of Easter to His own
| church: That Jesus. our redeemer and
| Lord, hath conquered death for u.s.
Thanks be to God, who giveth us the
victory through Duh Lord Jesus Christi
| If we held ourselves strictly to the new
| testament teaching of Easter and the resur-
| rection, should find that 1t was a mes
| sage to the redeemed, and has not posi-
| tive word as to others. Whatever these
| may be from the scriptures inferentially
/ as to those out of Christ, we may not
now have time to consider, but the Easter
4 truth, IL essentially anu pEc-tIllUenJly Tor
| the believer in Jesus. On the great ques-
| ton as to the Immortality of the soul,
| arguments many and forceful have been
| advanced.
| '.First-The instinct for immortality which
| is common to our race. Heaven and the
| future life Is one of the noblest aspirations
| Of the human heart. 1t has possessed all
| races and peoples-even Buddhaists faint
| ly, and the higher the race the more mark
| ed and tenacious the belief The things
| which are are temporal, the things
which are not seen are eternal The un-
seen in human life is the real-thoughts.
| affections, aspirations. hopes-these link
''The materialist may say: We'll, you
| have your day and the world went on be-
| fore you came and will continue after you
| are gone All! but what was in my day?
| Thought, affections. purpose power to love
| and strive. and conquer even sin. This 1t
| Is which lifts man to heights OF immortal
| L have worn out these instruments: 1.
myself, am still active. Victor Hugo ex-
claimed. I have not sold the thousandth
| part of what was in me- Truly our in
stincts hold for future, and
/ Dust thou art to dust returneth"
/ was not spoken Of the soul.
ARGUMENT OF IMMORTALITY.
"Second-There Is strong argument for
immortality from the revealed character of
God. II He be the just and righteous one
that we believe He is His world and all life
| Is essentially moral on moral basis,
and life, as We know II, with It's irregulari-
| ties and anomalies, demands a future. Is
there to be no different destiny for the Sc
Queer and the saint?
Are the tyrant and the tortured to be
alike? Nay, verify! II there be no future
for man we put to intellectual and
moral confusion.
'Third-Arsuments from the capacity of
| the soul powers of man decidedly
strong. A mathematician can determine
the nature of curve from three given
points and surely we make no vain guess
| OF mans future when We affirm from his
moral intuitions. his soul aspirations and
/ his unfinished plans that he belongs to
eternity. We certainly. as did Butler in
his Analogy reach the point OF high
probability: nay. further. do we not reach
the ground OF a moral certainty as to mans
capacity for immortality-that is, the i'm
/ mortablity of the soul?
Our text. however. goes further and at
| firms this probability as a fact Our Lord
Jesus Christ. who hath abolished death and
brought life and immortality to light by
the gospel Christ is He that was dead,
| but Is alive again forevermore. His glory
II not In not knowing death. but In His not