Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-04-02
GOOD FRIDAY.
~


''Friday has always been my fortunate day"
said Louis NH, when dying. "On Friday
have undertaken assaults and won battles.
should like to die ON Friday.'
Whether the French monarch attached any
large Importance to the sixth day of the week
as that whercon our LORD finished his earthly
life is not known. but on that day the Christ
achieved the most glorious triumph recorded
In history-through death ne vanquished death.
That day fraugEt with such Unreasonable
consequences should have been kept as a sacred
memorial from the earliest Christian centuries,
and called Good Friday" in recognition of
the eternal benefits derived from the sacrifice
of Christ, is altogether fitting. The comment
oration was sometimes known as the Passover
of the CrucifXOn, and the day was observed
rs strict fast. Only pIaintiVG music was sung.
no bells rung, the lights were cNtinguishcd.
In the fourth century, Friday became a re
hgious day, and has remained such to this hour
for large part of Christcndom There is
much appearance of propriety in this custom
Tor Sunday no more surely commentaries the
resurrection of Jesus than Friday His cruel
fxion. TO those who participated in it and
those who witnessed"it, the crucifixion was de-
cisive and final. 1t was impossible for them to
see that through death in this manner Christ
would overthrow His enemies and bestow a
free and full redemption upon all who would
accept His infinite bounty.
When our emancipation died in 1865, our peo
ole still had left their congress, the constitu-
ton and their supreme court. When over the
trembling wires the awful news was flung from
sea to sea, Mr.. Garfield said: "Lincoln is dead
but the government at Washington lives.''
When Moses lay down the mantle of author
ity, the word of the Lord came to Joshua say
ing, Moses my servant is dead, now therefore
Iarise.n So ~.- Ell ......
But when Jesus said at is, Finished it
seemed to the disciples that there was none to
succeed Him. Their sun had fallen out of the
sky, all was darkness, no light but torch, the
rave of their fallen hero must ever be the
shrine of their perpetual grief. = :.
Much attention has been called to the suffer
ing of Jesus on Good Friday, but we must not
lose sight of the fact that it is through His
Messiahship, and not His suffering that Jesus
claims the right of Savious and Lord over the
: TEMPORAL and eternal destinies of mankind.
/ Yet no review of the work of Good Friday
would be- complete without reference to His
suffering ~.
1t is short cycle of intensest suffering which
this day presents to our thought, and it cannot
be reviewed without pain to the deyout believer
ia Jesus Christ, who will remember that the.
sorrows of this dreadful space Of time were
but the highly dramatic epitome of sacrifices
which began with our Lords assumption of
human nature to accomplish mans redemption
rom sin. Into the mystery of that suffering
We cannot look with the expectation of making
It's meaning clear to our reason. 1t must suf-
Zee us to know that Hit became Him from whom
sFe all things and by whom are all things, in
the bringing many sons to glory to make the
captain of their salvation perfect through suf-
fering, = for in no other way could He have
been adapted to the vast mission of winning
the world to God
Salvation through suffering is the central
truth of human history. No philosophy can
obscure it, and no seiencescan explain it away.
Theodore Cuyler said: Il am sick of all this
advanced thought in religion. When thought
advances beyond the cross of Calvary, it goes
over precipice. The story of the cross il
lumines the mind, glorifes the heart, floods the
soul with divine light, and carries civilization
on toward Ged.