Milford chronicle., 1924-04-18

SSSsISH Silence reigned In Josephs
ISVENSN garden, broken only by the
ANAgI mailed sentinels who chat
ted and laughed by the
sealed sepulcher. We do not know
what the disciples did on the Sabbath
day. Probably they spent the day in
close retirement In some upper room.
Their thoughts were nailed to that
Cross on Calvary, and their spirits
were under the heavy pail of that trag-
edy of Good Friday.
We can never understand the utter
misery and desOlatiOn of those hours
between Christ's death and His Resur-
rectiOn. Our faith rests on the cen
turtles; and when we read Of the Cru
cifixiOn we have in mind the glory of
Easter morning. But to the disciples,
all their hopes had been shattered. all
their plans frustrated, and all their
love buried in JOseph's tomb. A resur-
rection did not enter into their
thoughts at all, and therefore their
testimony is the more valuable. True,
they had heard Jesus say that He
would rise again, but they had inter
preted that in a sort of future and
symbolic sense.
Before dawn, the women mentioned
in our text, perhaps with some others,
started for the sepulcher bearing their
spices and ointments with which they
expected to finish the embalming of
the blessed body Of their Lord. A
resurrection had no place In their
thoughts. They came to minister to
the dead, not to greet the living. Their
one great concern was: Who would
help them to roll away the stone which
sealed the tomb, and which was too
great for their united strength? As
they draw near they see that the stone
is rolled away, and so little did they
think of a resurrection, that the open
tomb brought them only perplexlty and
grief.
The Gospels were not written for the |
curious, but for the deYOut. They are |
most silent therefore, where myth and |
legend would be most garrulous. Here |
we are told nothing of the wOndrOus
Resurrection. Did He awake alone?
Or was He attended by the hierarchy
Of heaven? We are told only what
concerns mankind, viz, the sufficient
manifestation of Jesus to His people
Of His Resurrection.
We can reconstruct something Of the
events Of that first Easter morning
from the Gospel accounts. First the
women come and find the tomb empty.
Mary Magdalene Immediately runs
e, ofk |
John about it. They rush out to the
garden Of Joseph, John, the younger
man, taking the lead. The women
have left. Peter enters the tomb and
sees the linen clothes which had Gov
cred the body of Jesus, and there
begins to dawn upon them something
Of the meaning of the words Of Jesus,
I"0n the third day shall rise again"
Mary comes back and Peter and
John have gone, and no one Is there
to explain what has taken place; so
she stands by the sepulcher and pours
out her distress in tears.
Now comes the first revelation of
the risen Christ. MARY" He says, In
the well-knOwn voice of love and ten
derness, and in a moment all her sor-
row is turned into Joy. It is always
20 when the risen Christ comes into
a life. The living Christ is the worlds
great joy-bringer. Without Him, our
thoughts can only be thoughts of
ieath. With Him we enter into the
conception Of the larger life, of which
his is only the outer court.
!,
cry antipOdes Of thought. We have
Ome to look upon them as mutually
Exclusive, but Jesus has taught US
hat out Of life death Is to arise.
The Resurrection Of Jesus ID the
nchOr of our Christian faith. We live ,
d a day when men seek positive a.,
rounds Of thought and action, and the :,
nduring power Of the Resurrection is 4,
OF a sentiment but fact. A senti- ,
tent has its day. Phases of mere =
sellng pass rapidly over the genera
0ns of men, like clouds over our
eads, but the fact Of the Risen Christ -
,mains. In the strength of that GER "
linty Paul went forth to his great =
Visionary labors. In the strength of u
lat, Peter went unafraid to his own y
ucifxiOn. In the strength of that, =.
ie soldiers of Christ in all ages have II II
ood fast in the faith, quit themselves u
ke men, and endured unto the end. Il
The Easter Gospel is the Gospel Of
| comfort. 'If Christ be not risen %
en- is our preaching vain, and your az
ith is also vain So says st. Paul, IL
Id then comes his triumphal shout of +"
rtainty: "But now Is Christ risen III
ON the dead, and become the first ,r
uts of them that sleptl" That is the I'M
,spel of comfort which this world Of arr
rroW and death needs SO much. That ea
the glad and glorious Gospel of TIC
.ster Day. Today we seek, not a nu
ad Christ, but living one and then, 1rC
ny 1t soon be our bliss to see the VI
sen Savior face to face, as did Mary 10
that very first Easter morning. se'
to