The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1915-03-31

highest, peace and good will to men,
for TO- u Saviouryis born to redeem 9.
/ tall like a sweet benedittion as tn,
Easter chimes send forth their song o
victory, He is risen, He is risen. Ho
sanliah to God in the highest.
IT'S the glorious climax of creations
grand anthem, the completion of the re
demptiye plan and the paramount feature
| In the salvation oi the human race. i
| uShered in the glorious dawn right ar
ter the darkest hour of earths night
that AWFUL hour that saw the son o
long prefigured in the annual celebration
of the killing of the passover lamb. /
| was set aside on the 10th of the montl
Nissan, our April, and kept UP four day:
and killed at even on the 14th, which
| was called the preparation day. Yet
in the face of this plain prophetic type
Protestant has followed Romanist in ac
! cepttng without question the tradition
| WHICH had it's origin somewhere in tht
dark ages. that Christ was crucitied or
| Friday, and all unite in keeping "Goot
| Friday" as a memorial of that sad day.
Many thrust the whole matter out OF
their thoughts by saying, What does
| it matter about the exact date SO lons
as we know the facts?' 1t matters II
this-that the entrance Of Gods Word
brings light His truth discerned al.
ways brings blessing. and If we do no,
discern this truth we miss the precious
| thought given in the type in EX. 12: 3-6
! where the.lan,b Is kept up four days af-
ter being chosen for death, thus making
aSvivid picture of the setting aside of
the true Paschal lamb-Christ-four
days before his crucitixion and also
the great truth that Christ was chosen
From the foundation Of the world" and
kept in purpose four millenial days and
slain at the close of the year OF the
world 1000. The truth takes away an
opportunity of the devil to deceive peo-
pie into thinking the Bible contradicts
itself, and a frequent weapon in the
hands of infidels.
Let us turn to. the Bible and be guild
ed by what we shall find therein on the
subject. Jesus declared positively,
Nath. 70: "a, las Jonah was three days
whale so must be the Son of Man three
days and three nights in the heart of
the earth" This is obviously impos-
sible if the crucitixion took place on Fri
day, even If we adopt a common Jewish
practice of reckoning a part of day
possible hour we could only get three
days without q fragment of time over
the two nights. And Friday would be
the sixth day instead of the fourth, thus
of God. AS Christians 1 am sure you
are ready to join with me in casting
tradition to the winds and saying, Let
God be true"
Now, let us count the days as recorded
in Jno. -: 1-12. There it is recorded
that Jesus came to Bethany six days be-
fore the Passover; then in the twelfth
verse it tells us that on the morrow Give
days before the Passover) a great null
titude went to meet him, waving palm
branches and shouting, "Hosannah;
blessed is he that cometh in the name
of the Lord" This was the Jewish Sab
bath. the 10th of the month, although
we celebrate it as Palm Sunday. 1t was,
as we have said, five days before Pass
over 1t is easy to locate the Passover
ton day on Wednesday, the 14th
II may be well in this connection to
state that the Jews had seven Sab
baths beside that at the week end. and
that the Passover was one of these we
shall find by referring to Lev. 90: q.
The word sabbath means rest day. In
the gospel narratives of the crucifiXion
we have mentioned two Sabbaths and
Two preparation days for these Sab
baths. In Jno. 10: IA it is made plain
that Jesus was crucified on the prepara-
ton day before the Passover--"And 1t
was the preparation of the Passover
about the sixth hour" Also in Matn.
81: so Now on the morrow, which is
to clinch the fact that it was not the
preparation for the weekly Sabbath on
Saturday, as tradition would have it,
turn Ito Jno 10: 81 "Tne Jews there
fore. because it was the preparation,
that the bodies might not remain on the
cross on the Sabbath day Nfor that Sab
bath was an high day. besought PLATE
that their legs might be broken and
they might be taken away Indeed,
THAT Sabbath was a. great day for Is
rael, for it concentrated that dark
night in Egypt when the death angel
passed over the blood-protected Hebrew
slave and took the first-born of all
Egypt, even to the prince in the king s
palace.
On Sabbath Saturday, the / 9th, Jesus
had ridden into Jerusalem on the young
colt. to offer himself as their king, and
was by the rulers rejected and set aside
for death, as the high priest had so re-
Gently prophesied-"It is profitable for
nation die not" AS the true Paschal
lamb Jesus was kept the four following
days, and on Wednesday, the 14th, the
preparation day, killed. He was nailed
to the cross at 3 o'clock that being the
third houE The darkness came at noon,
and he gave up his spirit at 3 O'Clock.
Between that and 6 o'clock Nicodemus
and Joseph asked and secured his body,
prepared spices and wrapped 1t in. and
just as the sun sank from sight placed
his dear form and all their hopes in the
cold tomb.
The Jewish day ended at sunset, con-
sequently the new day began right at
that point and not ut miSnisht. as with
us. So Jesus lay in the tomb all the
night and day of Thursday, all the night
and day of Friday, and all the night
and day of Saturday, the Sabbath: and
rose just at set of sun. exactly three
nights and three days Now let us turn
to the Bible accounts and see il they
tally with this. Math. 2S: I'm the
end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn
toward the first day of the week. came
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to
see the sepulchre" Or as the revision
has 1t. Late on the Sabbath Now
remembering that Saturday ended at
shutdown, we see she came just before
the sun went down. The word dawn
is misleading to us as we use it to refer
only to the light of approaching day;
not so the Greeks $50 Greek scholars
tell u.s. for they. use it to refer to the
rising moon also. This was the time of
full moon at the vernai equinox, so the
moon would rise just at sunset: and the
reference is obviously to the moon light
ushering in the first day of the week
in the evening. as the Jews still observe
However, in Luke %: "a we have, the
same Greek word translated 'drew on,
meaning that it was %he close of
Wednesday and the entering in of the
Passover. In Jno. 20: we have Mary
Magdalene coming alone on the first
day OF the week. while it was yet dark:
and as she stands weeping Jesus APP
pears to her. Now this was splainly lat
er than Math. IS: ], when she came
just as the earthquake took place.
Mark H. 9 is the only seeming con-
tradiction. and very early in the MORN
ing, the first day of the week, they came
TO the sepulchre at the rising oS the
sun" This passage when properly
translated, however, is in perfect har-
,nony with the Others. for the word used
may mean either the rising or the set
ting of the sun: and is so used by He
rodotus. indeed it is claimed by an
eminent scholar to be derived from a
verb meaning to complete. finish, or end: