Tombstone epitaph., 1917-04-08

calmly served and fed them while he
 talked to their white faces,
 "Oh, impossible. incredible, false.
 never tO be believed, myth. lie. dream. a delusion. frenzy or fantasy
 of disappointed. overwrought and fla
 natical brains." Yes, and if you can
 think of any other terms of denial to
 write against il. set il down. And
 when you have said and done it all,
 the plain statement of these men who
 sat there will challenge you to your face to hear them tell you that 1t
 happened, that he was there, that they
 were there, and he whom they had laid
 in that sealed-up grave sat in their
 midst in the same body that they had
 known. and cooked for them and ate and served them as he chatted the while, God be praised for heavens sweet simplicity. that it was not In some awful. Supernal shape. trailing clouds of glory" that he came back to them. but that 1t was in the shape
 of the man whom they had known. had lived with, walked with. talked. slept | ltll Ap 'tA'A' NAANiA eyes he moved and breathed and
 walked and ate and talked, the unmis- takable and now incredible, but still actual being that he was before. Oh, if you will let these things, these truths. even this simple scene, get into your head and your heart-what an 1 amazing Easter this day would be to ' I nnt
 who and what you have been before. 1 if you have never realized the mighty
 meaning of this simple scene, you may ! have known a dead Jesus, but you have never known the risen Savior.
 We have asked who were there? Let
 us take a final moment to ask what else was there? There, in that hour, all the mighty realities of the two worlds were gathered this world and the next, the world that the disciples had known so long and the world of which they were catching faint but
 dazzling, astounding glimpses as they gazed on him; the world that he had been born in, lived in, worked in, died in-and the world that he was living
 in at the time that he ate and talked before their eyes.
 The realities of this world were there. Labor was there-they of the toil-worn hands, calloused by the wet net cords. they of the many a night of fruitless toll, they know what the weariness and uncertainty of labor is as few others know. Hunger was there. the meal that his love prepared to
 meet their famished bodies, doubly
 worn with abstinence and disappoint-
 ment. Death was there. the end of all earth-or why the meal to keep the body going. the labor for ones loved ones, and why the amaZement at seeing
 one over whom the omnipotence of
 death had no power?
 And the realities of the world be yond were there Life was there such life as never soul had dreamed of since Adam covered beneath his sen tence of mortality. The body was
 there; and now we know why 1t is called the 'Apostle's Creed" that says: : "I believe in the resurrection of the body" What other faith, what other
 verdict. what other creed could they have that saw the nail marks in the hands that served them? Love was
 there-incarnate in him, who, though
 already in the life beyond so loved
 them that he could reward their work
 a-day toll and could prepare for them
 the food that was affection's tribute It.
 self. And the Christ was there,
 Language fails. Words can say no
 more. But this-all this-Is the true
 Gospel of Easter day.