The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-04-13
EASTER SERV|CESAT CHURCH OF ADVENT Church Is Packed and Many
 Turned Away MUSICAL PROGRAMME Numbers Are Beautiful-Rev. Barn. well Breaches Appropriate Ser mon on Death Is Swallowed
 Up in Victory"
By CHARLES H. MANDY

The musical programme was of the highest order and was beautifully ren- dered. The choir was augmented by ad- ditional voices and there was an orohes- tra of 12 pieces led by Prof. Calman, in- cluding Mrs Oliver Chalifoux, with tie harp. Among the numbers rendered the most pleasing was Vorich's Christ Our Passover" Other numbers of in- terest was the Ire Deum,' Handefs "Hallelujah Chorus and the offertory. Risen to Reign" The programme was under the direction of the organist and choirmaster, Fred l.. Grambs, who ar parts.
 Rev. Barnwell's Sermon Follows
 The sermon of the rector was as fol- lows:
 "I Corinthians, xv:54. So when this cor ruptib1e shall have put on interruption, and this mortal shall have put on immor- tality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swal- lowed up in victory.
 "There s but one message that I can bring to you this morning: He is not here. He is risen. The heart is the home of 1000 previous hopes. It thrills with an exaltation which is not of this world. It's doubts and it's fears have passed. It rests in the unutterable calmness of God s surpassing peace. Yesterday the world stood broken hearted at the door of the hillside sepulchre. Today it stands re- joicing before an empty tomb In that la IJa ia1 Si,, bpt in, bo He liveth, He liveth unto God
 ''The cross Is behind Him. He has borne it and now lays it down. Gethsemane is forgotten. Its sorrow and its anguish can touch Him nevermore. The shame of sin, and the pain of death have done their worst, and Jesus lives.
 And what it meant to Jesus it means to you and me. In life He led the life that we must lead. His patience. His humility, His service-these were the patterns by which we men must live. And this is hard, because it means self sacrifice. In His passion He led the way for us. His agony in the garden, and His death on the cross must be matched by our own heart-brealS and by the mailing of our dearest sins to the tree. And these are hard, for we are weak. But the very fact that in life and in death we must fol- low Jesus makes our Easter joy reality, for God would not have us follow Him into the grave and remain there while Christ comes forth. If we follow at all, then we follow all the way, and our pains and our crosses will have their Eas- ter morn, and this is no longer hard. The resurrection of Christ tells us that the hope for life beyond which has lived in the breast of man since time began is not a dream, but is the gift that God has sent in answer to the age-long prayer N His children.
 Death No Longer Hopeless Tragedy
 Before the resurrection of Christ, every death was a tragedy. All of the rolling doors of those rock-hewn tombs in the garden where Christ was buried had closed, not only on the bodies of men, but on the hopes and dreams of men as we'll Before the resurrection of Christ, this life seemed all. Beyond was the hades of the Greek, or the sceol of the Jew, dreary abodes of pale spirits. living in memory of the stirring days of their earthly life. Even the Psalmist wrote that in death no man remembereth thee,
 
 But Christ has broken the bars of death, Before, all that our tired eyes could see was the door that opened into the grave. But Christ has revealed to us another gateway that leads from that grave to a nober and fuller life be- yond. The ending of this dream that we call life no longer threatens. What we thought death is but the awakening to a brighter day. Death no longer has dominion over us, but through our Saw four Jesus Christ, is swallowed up in vic- tory.
 But what an enemy death has always been, Hatred of death, and the love of life; nay the very lust for life have al- ways been the ruling passions in the heart of humanity Before the resurrection of Christ this life had been to man the sum of all sweetness and of all joy and power For this life alone, for the grasping of its joys, for the stunning of it's sorrows for these alone man lived. And life was a fearful struggle for existence, because life here was all that men knew, Here on earth was the only cup of joy from which man might drink, and because this life was the only cup, man drank it to the very dregs. For man. death marked the end of conscious existence. No longer the joy of following the wild beast in the chase. No longer the savage ecstasy of battle. No longer the passion swept plains where sands were gleaming red with the blood of brothers slain No more songs and shouts of laughter in license breeding sacred groves. No more the wine-hushed voice of conscience, when it tried to plead for God. All of the hope, and all of the hate, and all of the love, that the an- cient world knew had to do with this present life. and death was the end of them all. Enemies might be overcome by the force of arms. The fields were barren but could be made to yield corn and wine. From the glare of mondays east ern sdn man might flee to cave or valley, but death alone stalked triumphaat the last in fear and trembling every man must yield.
 Still the Child of God
 "But even with al lof this man was still the child of God. Buried away in h'T Neart there was ever the thought that perhaps there was another life. or a more exalted form of this same life, but the hope was dim; the prospect so uncer- tain, that it was of small value when 1t came to molding mans character and life This life. here and now, man knew that he had. The other life, of which his heart was speaking was so shadowy and far away! He could only cling tenacious ly to what he had and knew. And so this life was sinned against. and desecrated and made a thing to be loathed. merely because 1t was the only life man had.