Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-04-11
THE EASTER and THE EASTER FAITH

III is as impossible to dismiss the resSnrrec
ton of Jesus from the central place among the
christian facts as to dismiss for instance the wal
of independence begun in the colonies in 171s
from the principal place among the facts that
led TO the formation of the United States ot
America. so fay ;ts Altman wisdom can see, but
for the Revolution there would have been nc
articles OF confederation, no constitution and
no original thirteen colonies ont OF which has
grown the mighty nation to which We belong
and similarly but for the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead there would have been ne
Gospels written we never would have heard Of
paul or have any Of bis Epistles there would
have been no Christianity.
when Jesus died upon the cross the eleven
disciples who remained were tiInid, nerreless,
lespairing. They had abandoned all hope, and
had scattered like defeated army, the rem
iIapts Of 1 lQst cause. sBut something occurred
which wroughs marvellous change in those dis.
appointed men. Something occurred which
again reunited them and sent them forth hold
os lions proclaiming everywhere that Jesus
Christ was still alive, that He had been seen by
peter, and then by. the twelve, and then by more
than five hundred men at once and these same
men 1t was who became the founders of what
has since become the worldwide Christian
1hurch So sure we're they of tile fact that their
Lord was alive and that His spirit was leading
hem on that they we're willing later. many of
hem, to lay down their lives for their faith
1t is all very well FOR us Of this day to say
nat our Christianity is based upon the teach.
ings Of Jesus and upon intercourse with Ills
spirit, and does not at all depend upon an empty
tomb nineteen hundred years ago, but il ne
top to ask how we came into possession II
Ihese teachings and where we learned the secret
~ looking to Christ for spiritual guidance We
zee that the whole fabric of our faith is built
upon the report which these same disciples has 9
left us. 1t is not our christianity that is in
Qnestion but theirs. And We maintain that this
would never have existed, never have been heard
Of, and consequently the whole course Of modern
history would have been utterly different, had
they not become convinced, beyond all possihil
ity Of doubt, thst they bad seen and spoken with
Jesus long after his dead body had been taken
down from the cross and laid in Joseph Of Ari
mathea's tomb.
Upon the antheIiticitx Of this Easter fact
rests the certainty Of our Easter faith Tho
message which Easter brings lisa message o.
hope. But it is the risen Christ that inspires
this hope -the Christ which the. Gospels, based
upon the testimony of His disciples, tell us
sbout Because He lives We shall live also. BE
cause His spirit came forth triumphant from
the grave We know that death is not to be d
Permanent state for any Of MS. The life which
ne now live is a continuous life. What Others
before His time but dinlly diseerned, what the
wisest and best of men in every age have de
sired to know, Christ by His teaching and; above
all, by His resurrection; established as a Ger
tainty. Vow is Christ risen from the dead and
become the first fruits Of them that sIept'--tht
first fruits, for His victory was representative
victory, the earnest of a triumph unspeakablt
Tor the whole race. s.
Tomorrow in all Christian lands. in every
country and nation round the world, where
the Easter fact has yet been Taught, people will
gather in small companies and in vast throngs
in humble church or stately cathedral, all alike
proclaiming their. juhilant faithsin the living
reigning Chris, and in the Immortality which Ht
has made real and certain to them. Would any
one undertake to assert that this faith SO deepl,
rooted i'm the minds of men and seemingly so in
dispensable to the happiness and highest devel
opment of mankind, is founded on an eternal
mistake, a myth that originated in the mind OF
some dreamer crntnriessago? Unthinkable! The
Easter faith rests upon the ndisputable Easter
fact. Christianity demands Il risen Christ.
4l,n