The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-04-21
The Worlds Spring of Hope.


The Worlds Spring of Hope.
What an excitement the worlds
keeping of Easter makes! New
clothes, new gardens, new house
cleaning, new decorations, new mu-
sic; streets and churches and holiday
resorts thronged; a high tide of bust
ness; new spirit in the very air.
verify. Easter is no ineonsiderable
factor in the worlds modern life.
Anybody who pauses long enough
in the hustle of Easter activity for any
serious thought is likely to ask him
self what is the real meaning of
Easter, the Christian meaning. Sup
pose we decide that we shall not go
through the great festival without
definitely getting hold of the serious
purport and significance of it all. Let
us seek out the fullest and most au-
thoritative statement of the Easter
MESA ge that is accessible anywhere.
That brings us straight to the pres
ent Sunday school lesson, the noble
fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians
Paul's matchless summary of the
facts and meaning of the Resurrec-
ton. Let me quote it, using one of
the modern tranSlations for its touch
of freshness:
A Famous Argument.
"But let me recall to you, brethren,
the Good News which 1 brought you,
which you accepted, and on which you
are standing through which also you
are obtaining salvation, if you bear in
mind the words in which 1 proclaim it
unless. indeed, your faith has been
unreal from the very first
For 1 repeat to you the all-impor-
tant fact which also I had been
taught that Christ died for our sins in
n 7a
He was buried; that He rose to life
again on the third day in accordance
with the Scriptures, and was seen by
Peter and then by the Twelve. After.
wards He was seen by more than five
hundred brethren at once, most of
whom are still alive, although some of
them have now fallen asleep. After
wards He was seen by James, and
then by all the Apostles. And last of
all, as to one of untimely birth, He
appeared to me also.
For l am the least of the Apostles,
and am not fit to be called an Apostle
because 1 prosecuted the Church Of
God. But what / am 1 am by the
grace of God, and His grace be-
slowed upon me did not prove 1nef-
fectua1 But I laboured more siren
uously than all the rest-yet it was
not 1, but Gods grace working with
me. But whether it is or they, this
| is the way we preach and the way that
you came to believe.
But if Christ is preached as having
risen from the dead, how is it that
some of you say that there is no such
thing as a resurrection of the dead:
If there is no such thing as a resur-
rection of the dead, then Christ him
self has not risen to life And II
Christ has not risen, it follows that
what we preach is a delusion, and that
YOUR faith also is deluSion- Nay
/ of haiflQ discovered
to be bearing false witness against
| God, because we have testified that
God raises Christ to life, whom He
did not raise, if in reality none of the
dead are raised. For if none of the
dead are raised to life, then Christ has
your faith is a vain thing-you are
still in your sins. 1t follows also that
those who have fallen asleep in Christ
have persisted. If in this present life
we have hope resting on Christ, and
nothing more, we are more to be pitied
than all the rest of the world.
But, in reality, Christ has risen
from among the dead, being the first
to do so of those who are asleep. For
seeing that death came through man,
/ rection of the dead. For just as
| through Adam all die, so also through
Christ all will be made alive again.
But this will happen to each in the
right order-Christ having been the
first to rise, and afterwards Christ )
! people rising at His return. Later on,
comes the End, when He is to surren-
der the Kingship to God, the Father,
when He shall. have overthrown all
other government and all other au-
thority and power For He must con-
tinue to be King until God has put all
His enemies under His feet Cps. viii.
6; ex- ID.
THE last enemy that is to be over
thrown is Death; for He will have put
all things in subsection under His feet
u And when He shall have declared that
All things are in subjection,' it will be
the manifest exception of Him who
I has reduced them all to subsection to
Him. But when the whole universe
has been made subject to Him, then
the Son of Himself will also become
subject to Him, who has made the uni