The Penn's Grove record., 1914-04-03
BEGINNING
Earth's Gloom and Uncertainty
Ended on the Morning of
Easter Day.

IT WAS Easter morning in the gar
i den. Weeping women were wend-
ing their way to the sepulcher to
anoint the body of Jesus. Four evan
gelists tell the story. while it was
yet dark" say John; "As it began to
dawn" says Matthew; "At early
dawn" says Luke; Very early
when the SUI was risen," says Mark.
All spake exact truth.
Who ver marked the boundary line
between darkness and twilight? Who
ever saw the instant when night be-
gan to melt away, and the first glim-
mer of dawn began to steal up the
starlit sky? 1t was dark when the
women started for the sepulcher. 1t
was dawn when they arrived.
1t has been lawn ever since. When
the stone was rolled away the night
of earth's gloom and uncertainty was
forever gone.
AS it began to dawn" Nature was
in harmony with the wondrous event.
Some subtle, silent power began grad
ually to dissipate the blackness Of
night. A faint flush appeared in the
eastern sky; little by little it grew
in brightness; the darkness shrank
away in fear before it's oncoming
splendor. The full day was at hand.
The sun shot it's first ray over the
hilltops and all the world burst into
song.
End of Doubt and Gloom.
Language cannot portray the in
efable glory of the dawn. But the
sunrise of the Easter morn in the
garden paled before the splendor Of
the souls more effulgent day. What
a sunrise was that; what a universal
emancipation; yea, what a resplen-
dent MONDAY, when Christ, the con-
queror of death, brought life and i'm
mortality to light.
To the early disciples this hour was
the end of doubt and gloom and dark
f~orebodings. They now understood
words that had previously had no
meaning. The Fathers house Of
many mansions" became to them real.
The life to come was no longer a
fancy, but a fact. The hopes awak-
ened by Christ's teaching and won
drous career were now among Iife's
most substantial certainties.
The light of that first Easter morn
has e. grown dim. Nay, more, the
passing centuries have only carried
its rising splendor farther up the sky.
The dawn has expanded into the full
ness of MONDAY. In other words,
the thought of immortality has
wrought its vitality into the very fiber
of this modern age. 1t is the motive
power of all our progress, the refiner
and purifier of the worlds best life.
Back of our hope, of our ardor, of our
passion for continued existence, of
our conscious worth, of our eternal
outlook, of all our happy an~ticipations
of the life to come, is the radiant
light of the first Easter morn The
Voice that said Fear not!" to the
astonished and bewildered disciples
in the garden has ever since been
banishing the worlds fear. Into be-
lieving hearts everywhere have come
a great certainty and an abiding joy.
In spite of controversy and doubt and
wonder, and incapacity to fathom the
mysteries of the supernatural, the
heart of mankind has come more and
more to rest upon and rejoice in the
miracles Of Christ's physical resur
rection, with its consequent proof OF
the souls immortality.
Means Spiritual IMMIGRATION.
Easter has become the most spirit
ually invigorating day in the calendar
of the church. 1t brings into clear
light the grounds of its faith and the
certainties of its risen and regener-
ate life. In all its best representatives
today mankind has its eye on the fu-
ture. 1t looks up and IN and of and
far away beyond all material horizons.
Far more than we realize, We live in
the World Unseen. The greater in
cludes the less. "Otherworldliness''
is not the peril Of the present age
Were it not for the spiritual realities
of Easter we would forget our true
inheritance. Eternity has always
been the inspiration Of time. The fu-
ture beckons US with larger incentives
than can be found within the narrow
compass of the present. Our truest
hearts and hopes are there. And this
is why we sing, and press forward SO
eagerly and so confidently in our on
ward way. Every hero and prophet
and saint, every victorious soul,
whether apostle or martyr, who has
fought the good fight, and finished
his course and kept the faith, has
done so In happy anticipations of the
homeland. His inheritance and crown
of righteousness were there.
CAS- it began to dawn" Earth's day
is bright in proportion as it catches
its light from the glory of the first
Easter morn in the garden.-Rev.
Dwight Mallory Pratt, DID.