Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1904-05-07
THE PROMISE OF EASTER.
Doctrine of the Resurrection Is Fun
damental in Christian Religion
THE Lord Is Risen"

Christianity is religion of promise,
says the New York Observer 1t invades
this world which is so full of seeds of
death and the evidences of decay, with
the glad tidings of a resurrecting grace,
which, for all who will accept its work.
ing and cooperate with its purposes,
again, just as the seed perishes to live
again in the blossom and the fruit
Christianity brings the promise of a
Quickening for the whole manhood, and
offers the pledge and prophecy of a
nobler life beyond this earthly scene of
toll and suffering and dissolution. No
other religion proposes to do as much
as this for humanity, no other faith has
already accomplished so much in the
moral resurrection Of the race from bar
oarism to civilization. None other Of
the religions of the world ever celebrated
an Easter. The festival Of the resurrec-
ton is peculiar to Christianity, which
was founded by rising Christ
The strange, solemn doctrine of the
resurrection is fundamental in the
Christian system. Christianity was not
originated by mere enthusiast or re-
former who, after a brilliant meteoric
earthly career passed completely under
the power of corruption and decay, leav-
ing behind him only a name and a shad-
owy kind of an influence. The magnifi-
cent development of Christianity in the
world through all the centuries can be
accounted for only on the supposition
that the Christ who taught in Judea and
worked miracles in Galilee has re-
NAMED with His church ever since as a
living power and a guiding Presence
The resurrection from the dead of the
FOUNDER Of Christianity was the premise
and promise of all church history
The life of the church is but the aggre-
gate of the life of the individual mem
bers OF the church, who are Joined in
vital union with the risen Christ The
| grand guarantee of Christianity, ex-
| pressed in the announcement. Because
| 1 live, We shall live also" requires to be
| appropriated and realized in the ex-
perience of every believer. The life of
Jesus authenticates and rounds out into
a ripe fullness the life of each professor
OF His religion. The logic of Easter is
expressed in the joyful formula: "The
| Lord is risen. we too shall rise" Jesus
Christ, in the phrase Of the inspired
| Paul, is termed the first fruits" of them
| that slept BY the Jewish law
| the first growth of fruits and of
grain were consecrated to Jehovah.
4 Jesus is the first glorious illus
1 Cration of the work of a divine
! resurrecting principle, and as surely as
a harvest follows the first fruits SO in
evitably shall they who die in the Lord
| be raised
| 1t has been remarked as a beautiful
coincidence that the day after the pass
| over Sabbath was the day for Offering
the first fruits. and that the same day
was the occasion of Christ's resurrec-
ton. Our Lord rose as the representa-
tive Of redeemed humanity. and not for
| His own sake alone; as the second Adam
He vanquished sin and death; and the
| resurrection which He thus achieved
| for His people means not simply ulti-
mate escape from the grasp of the
grave, but also spiritual emancipation
now and here from the benumbing and
besmirching power of sin. The prom
Use of the resurrection is spiritual even
more than it is physical, and is for this
present earthly round of activity as
| well as for the exhaustless ages of
eternity. The helps and hopes of the
Christian religion are meant to be pres
ent assets of the believers experience
In the soul of every Christian an Easter
hope and a heavenly JOY are all the
while springing up. like clear spring OF
water bubbling forth with inexhaustible
volume and refreshing sweetness.
While therefore il is considered an
propriate, even by those who are not
ritualists, to observe one Sabbath in the
spring as the feast of Easter, when the
churches are decorated with ferns and
flowers, when splendid anthems rever-
berate through the stately sanctuaries
and when all the surroundings wear q
frightened aspect, even a gala appear
ance, 1t should never be forgotten thai
the every Sabbath is properly an Easter
that the true Easter is inward in the
soul, that Jesus Christ is rising con.
stantly in newer forms OF appreciated
beauty in the developing life and con.
sciousness of every sincere follower O,
His. and that the completely gloriou.
contamination of the resurrection prom.
Use, of which foretastes are enjoyed here
below, is to be realized only in the
skies.