The Tupelo journal., 1908-04-10
THE RAISING
OF A
School Lesson for April IL, 1908
Specially Prepared for This Paper

T~IME-January or February, A. d. 30.
One or three months after the last les
son. And two or three months before
Jesus cruciixion.
PLACE.-Bethabara Or. ", Bethany
in Perea. Bethany, a small village on the
Mount of Olives, about two miles from
Jerusalem.
At the feast of the dedication, in De-
eember, Christ had SO plainly assert
ed his deity that the Jews had sought
to stone him for blasphemy; but he
had escaped to Bethabara Bethany
In Perea, the country east of the Jor-
dana town in the north over against
Galilee.
Christ's promise of a resurrection
did not satisfy Martha. 1t was too
general, too vague, too far ahead. She
wanted her brother back-that min
ute. Christ met that longing by one
of the most magnificent of his utter
ances that wondrous sentence
which has carried hope and triumph
to millions of the dying and ~bereaved,
and will do SO while time and NOR
tally endure.'-Geikie.
THE living, breathing friend,
whom you love.
AM-Am now; no vague sometime;
no postponement.
THE RESURRECTION-The power
Of the resurrection, the resurrection
embodied.
AND THE LIFE-to conquer that
grim DEATH which has come so ter
ribly to your home.
HE THAT B~ELIEvETH IN ME-
believing what Martha fastened to
confess, that Christ was Gods Son,
his messenger of love to the world.
THOUGH HE WERE DEAD-as to
his mere body.
YET SHALL HE LIVE-in every
point that constitutes life, having even
a body, and a far better one.
AND WHOSOEVER-yes, though he
were the chief of sinners. ,
LIVETH-with this higher life in
him.
AND BELIEVETH IN ME - "on
me-" says the Revised Version.
SHALL NEVER DIE-No, NEVER:
for. though his body may perish, that
will be but an incident in
his continuing and triumphant LIFE.
Jesus, Our Resurrection and Our
Life. By preserving our lives daily.
through countless unseen. perils that
surround us-perils of the disease
germs floating everywhere; perils
Of earthquake on this thin
earth-crust over hidden fires;
perils Of accident in our complicated
life. "a thousand times, yea, every
perilous moment, God v us from
dying."-Phillips Brooks.
2. BY turning our minds away from
the physical death we must all die at
length, to him and his life. I'VE are
all passing into the likeness of that In
which we believe. A man who wor-
ships money comes to wear the like
ness Of a money-worshiper down to
the tips Of his fingers. The Hindu who
worships Brahma sleeping on the
stars in immovable calm, gets to wear
a fixed expression. Theodore T.
Munger, D. D. So the continual
thought Of Christ, who overlooked
with invincible life, implants that life
within us.
3. By uphclding us in the very
hour of physical death. when a com-
munity of religious women in Paris,
during the fury of the French Revolu-
ton, were condemned to the guillo-
tine, the youngest victims passed to
their execution raising in sereneI
voices the sublime hymn, "Veni Gre
ator." The celestial song did not cease
when they assembled the stairs of the,
scaffold, and the work of butchery
went on. Voice after voice had to
drop from the chorus, as face after
face bent under the * and at length
one voice was heard alone sustaining
the holy strain, even while the bloody
blade fell and sealed the last mar
tyr's testimony."-Bishop Huntington.
4. By awaking is, when we die, into
endless life. THE time will seem no
longer than the four days which
passed before he awakened Lazarus.
We shall have no consciousness of his
tarrying. He comes as in a moment,
to awake US out of sleep."-ThomGs
Arnold, the head of Rugby school.
5. By freeing us from the spiritual
death. from sin. Massillon, the great
French preacher, justly ees in the
dead Lazarus an image of the sin.
ner: Become a mass of worms and
and corruption, he spreads infection
and stencil; and behold the profound
corruption of a soul in habitual sin
A gloomy napkin covers his eyes and
ness of a soul in habitual sin. He
appears in the tomb bound hand and
foot: and behold the melancholy sub
lection of a soul in habitual sim" Free
dom from this dead body" of sin
as Paul called it, is the most difficult
resurrection; but Christ accomplishes
ever this. He ONE into our soul, and
sin must flee. "'Christ in you is the
hope of glory
"Isidore of Potassium thinks that on,
Saviour did not mourn for his friend
Lazarus because he was dead (for he
knew that he was going to raise him
from the dead, but because he was ia
live again, and to come from the ha.
ven where he Vas arrived, back again
into the raves and storms; from a
crown which he had enjoyed, to a new
encounter with his enemies. If thou
dost not believe his Interpretation, vet
dost thou believe the thing? Dcst
thou consider this worlds misery so
great we should rather ween that 90