The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1908-04-19
The Worlds
Greatest Hope.

GTGdISSC nope
The origin of Easter Sunday has
been explained times innumerable,
and it is not necessary to go into
that phase of the subject in what we
have to say here. The day is sacred
1y observed throughout the Christian
world because it commentaries the
resurrection of the Saviour on the |
third day after His death on Calvary,
and 1t is so deeply embedded in our |
civilization that it has all the force |
of law, aye more than laws because
DIT is subject to neither amendment
nor repeal. So far as human wisdom
may predict the future. it will be here,
honored and observed throughout
an increasing area of the earth, until
1.-THE long race of man has run Its
course, and the wide heavens are
rolled up like a SCROLL
The day has profound and awful
significance for every thoughtful man
and woman. for whether or not one
admits the divinity of Christ, there
are mighty landmarks standing along
the course of history from His day
to ours, which we cannot avoid see
ing. landmarks intimately associated
with His personality. derived from it.
and pregnant with meaning for every
human being of every race and cline.
In the light of so-called modern
rationalism and the cosmic theory or
the Universe. many hold it absurd
that there should have been any ne
Kessity for the Son of God to come
on earth incarnate in human form and
cruelty suffer and die as the only
way to placate an offended Deity for
the transgression of our first parents
in Eden This fundamental postulate
of Christianity has been riddled ten
thousand times under the pitiless fire
of hostile criticism representing the
deepest, broadcast culture of every age
since Nero slaughtered the Christians
and Paul preached in Athens, but it
stands today in its original integrity,
with strength unimpaired and its dl
vine light streaming with increasing
radiance to the uttermost parts of the
earth
Within the past fifty years since the
evolution theory came to the front
with its lofty pretensions to solve all
problems and destroy all superstitions,
the scientists. the philosophers. and
the higher critics" have literally
massed their fire upon the long bat
tered walls of the Christian citadel,
determined to make an end of it with
out delay as an obstacle TO human en-
lightenment, because it was a super
stition originating IN the childhood of
the human rare, without foundation
i'm fact. and opposed to all the laws of
nature.
But the citadel still stands, i'm
pervious to every shot, and it is the
truth, confirmed by the thought, eXpe-
rience and observation of the whole
world that Christianity today is abso-
lutely ineradicable and so fibered into
our civilization as an Indispensable
element that it would be as idle to
attempt to repeal a law of nature as
TO drive it from the world.
L NO hCOulpdTdDle CIoOlldllIl vi
Christ grows more beautiful, majestic
and Godlike as the years go by, and
while the doubters and scoffers of the
world continue to assail him as bitter
ly, and denounce his divine claims as
fiercely. as did the iron-hearted mot
that ragged and roared about Hin
while He was dying on Calvary, He is
as imperishable in His true essence
now as then. and His doctrines have
an UNNECESSARILY stronger hold upon
the world.
1t is the mystery and miracle of the
ages, and puts to rout every conclu
sion of science that denies the divine
personality of Christ and the mission
He came to fulfill. Why is it? 1t i:
because the problem of life become:
more ominous, awful and terrifying
as evolution and allied sciences throw
their dull CLEANS through the vas
spaces of the Universe without ont
ray of light upon the impenetrabl'
mystery with which we are chief!
commemorative destiny of man ant
the motive for his creation.
1t is because, as our population De
comes more dense and our civilization
more complex. there is growing