The Newtown bee., 1906-05-18

in the crucifixion had a conviction that Jesus was not yet put out of the way. Often has soldier told his com. paniOns that he was to be shot in the days encounter, and often this strange foresight has been proved true, so now friend and foe alike felt an anxious ness concerning Jesus which seemed peculiar. Not peculiar to us now, for
 we see how mOmentOuS was the fact of Christ-and significant everything that happened to him. Not peculiar for God could not let such an occasion as the unjust death of His Son go un- noticed or unrecorded. Violent and fanatic men were to be compelled and those well disposed, but not yet con-
 vinced, were to be assured. All nature was in revolt when Christ was so sbamefully raised aloft: Darkness ed stability, the earth seemed moved to it's foundation, the elements of the sky showed forth the majesty of the infinite as if He angry like Jupiter were blasting men with his thunder bolts. But more than that, God was able to raise the dead, to make a laughing stock a Roman guard, to open the tomb, to reveal to the world, not then, for the world then did not understand, to reveal the authenticat- ed power of His presence and His pur- pose.
 Easter is a significant occasion: It speaks the majesty and the power of God. It tells of His plan of redemp- tion for man, of His ability to vindi- cate this plan, though rejected and scorned by all men. It announces a new era. The old has been done away and nnW m Q noU fO,,n6o finn vuj11 ho begun greater work. The past has been rejected: It rejected God and so in turn and justly God will reject. To be sure the resurrection was more than 8 sordid world could understand yet, and yet still we can understand and we can accept. In His own good time God will show us why so many have been opposed to Him to their own hurt, we shall see the reason of the mystery of election.
 THIS PERFECT LIFE WAS NOT WASTED, for though not accepted at first, it is now the greatest power in the uni- verse. At the crucit tixion Christ was joke to the unbelieving, source of shame to his friends, now after the resurrection, He is the honor of all Christians, the despair of those who do not acknowledge Him. Out of darkness has come light, out Of chaos triumphed. Against the mountain mass of superstition and error, good, like the sunshine, has exerted it's ben eficent influence and as the iceberg at last melts into the sea, so the evil in the world has been and is being con- quered by the good.
 Out of the strong came forth sweet ness, out of death came forth life. Nature shows ius her many wonders. The seed is SOwn and after deStruct- i've process, a reconstruction begins, putrifaction and fermentation, both transitory processes, often violent and unlovely, are the direct and only means of new and better conditions. The homely caterpillar winds itself in his death chamber, but 10! like the resur. rection, he comes forth shortly new being. He has risen from the dead. form. Out of his disgrace and low condition, it has been that in His mercy vindication should follow de- feat, honor lowliness. Out of the CO., coon comes a beautiful butterfly the mystery ot the resurrection. There has taken place a new birth, there has come to pass new expres- sion. Before there was crawling, the form was unattractive, even repul- sive, the limitations many and great, but after the change the etherial re- gions are sphere, the form is glorious, the limitations have been done away. The repulsive caterpillar was always a butterfly in possibility. Jesus was al- ways Christ in tendency! He had been walking the soil like us all, apparently despise him because he was so lowly, but suddenly he rises, he becomes so beautiful that the eye of man may not behold with impunity, he becomes so that admiration takes the place of disgust. Likewise Christian