The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1912-04-05

ference to the virgin birth OF our
Lord, though he certainly knew OF the
prophecy that a Virgin shall con-
ceiye," lisa. 7-14), but what does 1t
matter? 1t is not greater miracle to
be born than to rise triumphant over
death. That Paul assumes the TACT
is evident from this lesson. Literally
he begins by saying, Now | make
known the gospel which | preached
unto you at Corinth, whereby you are
saved and what you must always re
member, that Christ, who came full
filing all that was promised In the
Scripture, died for our sins and rose
again" Paul goes on to tell ex'
plicitly of many who had seen Jesus
after the resurrection and, most I'M
portant of all, how he. himself. had
seen the Christ.
Last Of all he was seen OF me-
also. Though l am least OF all he
saints In that | prosecuted the church,
yet am what l am, and his grace wc1
not bestowed upon me in vain" Paul
was not such a bad man" from the
accepted moral standards Of his time,
yet he felt the truth of what Christ
said, viz. that the essence Of sin is
that they believe not on me-" hence
Paul, once he gave his life to Jesus,
"labored more abundantly;" yet he
says, for fear someone would misun-
derstand him, mot that l did the
work, but God vas with me"
The fact Of the resurrection Of Je-
sus Christ is the best proven fact Of
history. In the first place the dis
ciples themselves did not expect Je-
sus to die John 1884, hence, Of
course, they never even thought Of
the resurrection MARK 800. In the
third place when on that Easter morn
Mary reported the empty tomb and Of
having seen the Lord, the apostles
thought 1t idle talk" duke 24:11).
When the women reported having &C
tually seen him, the men, and how
many men like to take instruction
from a woman, were unConVinCed
and rather doubted those who had
conversed with him on the road to
Emmaus.
Again, when seen by the ten, Thorn
as would not accept the report till
he had seen his hands and his feet.
1t would have been easy for the Jews
to have disproved the story Of the
physical resurrection; all that would
have been needed would be to have
shown the body and said: Here he
is, see these hands and these feet,
the pierced side and SCARED brow, this
Is the body of the young prophet"
Arguments Based on UnbeIlef.
All arguments to convince us that
Jesus did not rise are based upon I'M
belief and the answer Of countless
millions throughout nearly twenty
centuries has been the words Of Pau;
verse 20) but Now is Christ risen
from the dead" To deny is to be lost
in the fog, our preaching vain, and
we have no ground Of faith. See
verses 1914. To accept is to place a
firm foundation underneath u
whole Christian scheme, to set the
seal of authority and purity upon the
life OF him whom all men, Jew and
Gentle alike, say was good, and opens
a vista of hope for all who die In the
Lord.
Paul goes on to show that the res
direction OF Jesus Is the beginning OF
a plan whereby all the human race
who are related to Christ shall like
wise be re%surrected. Even as through
the transgression Of one man sin
came upon the whole human race, in
like manner by the perfect life Of
obedience upon the part Of one man
we may all be made alive,
Paul makes a strong contrast be-
tween the death of the believer and
that of the non.believer. III l fight
with beasts at Ephesus what advan-
tage does that have7 Let us eat and
drink, for tomorrow we die" Not so,
however, with the Christian, hence he
exhorts the Christians to be awake
to righteousness and to sin not.
A suggested outline for the study
Of this subject would be as follows:
I. The Fact.
Unprecedented.
Well established.
According to prophecy.
Christ's GROWING miracle.
II. It's Significance.
Proof of Christ's deity, Rom. IA.
Type of our resurrection. Phil.
3:21.
A victory over tba devil, Heb. 2:
IA, Is.
A fundamental basis Of Christian
fly.
III. Its Application.
He Is our risen, everlasting King.
We shall recognize our dead.
He left US to establish his king.
dom.
Only Friends Saw Him.
For the younger classes this story
of the first Easter is a most fascinat.
ing one, dramatic, tender, inspiring.
For the older pupils we may well dis
How Easter would be .observ-
ed. Have we fully realized that We
are risen with Christi Remember
he showed himself only to his friends.
tn plate nor to the S%anhedrim, |