The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-24

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 rection> from the dead by our Savior during His brief ninistry..z The country where he Walked was full of sad hearts, broken homes and new-made graves. He spoke to deaths dull ear of only three. Why these three?
 l < Significant Meaning l Every journey, every act. every sentence of Jesus had meaning more significant than casual glance will reveal. His mission to earth was to set up a new kingdom and state, de- fine and illustrate it's laws. Every miracle as well as every parable some how explained some one or more, of the mystical laws of His new kingdom. An oft repeated and significant symbol of sin is death-"the soul that sinneth, it shall die;" You being dead in your sins, hath He quickened :" ''the wages of sin is death;" and other similar sentences represent a sinful soul as dead and regeneration as a resurrection from the dead.y
 -, Selects Three Cases
 r Christ selected three cases of death t@where all the conditions and circum- stances in most peculiar way lent themselves to the illustration of three eonditions of sin above named. It is Surprising to note how thoroughly and comprehensively these three cases cover the field. Let us enter this field for a. brief study. ' We note first that fthey were all alike dead but they were not dead alike. Can one be dead ands another a little deader and still another ideader? No, when one is dead, hef.is dead but there are evidently diff ferent conditions and states of death as will be observed in these three cases. The first case Is that of the little daughter of Jairus, ruler of the Pharisees. Jesus was on the seashore near his home. Jairus had stepped I down to the sea to fall at his feet I and tearfully beseech him to come and heal his child. A messenger from the home immediately followed him who fsaid, Thy daughter is dead, why troublest thoutthe Master any furthery' Jesus, with Peter, James and Johh, l led by the fathef and mother, entered I the family room where they found the little girl who.had just died. She did not look like "a dead child; she was not clothed fof the grave; she looked like little girl lying on mothers bed asleep. This little girl represents the childhood of the world-dead in tres passes and sin. It is difficult for us to realize that the little girls and boys of our home are sinners; they do not look like sinners or act like Esinners, yet according to the, laws of the kingdom of our Lord, when they have passed the age of accountability, the. age when they know what sin is and what the consequences are and wilfully commit sin, they die. They need the touch of the Savior's hand and to hear His voice saying "arise..' The pitiful blunder of the age is that parents do not realize that the children of the home need salvation, need re- I generation. Inathe. case. of this death, father and mother were deeply con cerneds that Jesus should come into I the home, The father sought Him and fell. at His feet and earnestly and humbly implored Him to come.
 | Case Of Young Men
 In the case of the young man, the pathetic statement is made that he is the Sonly son of his mother and she 1 was a widow. His condition of death is notably different from that of the little girl There is no doubt about his death; he looked like a dead man he was dressed like dead man; he was on the bier of death; he was in the hands of his friends, the pail bearers on the way to the grave away out at the gate of the city. with the 1 poors weeping mother following. The neighbors knew: that he was dead and were talking about it; the people of the town knew it. This young man represents that large class of our un. saved people designated as the young men and young womens of our com munity who. are A-dead in tresspasses and sin. They look like sinners dress like sinners; act like sinners. I They are in the hands of their com fpanions and by them are being borne along in the. paths of sin and broken hearted mothers follow weeping in the train. Friends and neighbors recog- 'nize the facts and sympathize. l2 Lazarus, the brother of the orphan sisters, Martha and Mary, is quite a different case. He is not only dead, dressed in the habiliments of death, bound about by grave clothes but is in the grave; not only. dead but de- caying and has become, offensive, to any who might approach. Even the sisters fear lest he offend his best friends who would approach him. The large stone is over the mouth of the graye--big difficulties are in the way of approach. Lazarus represents the old sinners-those who have continued long in sin who are offensive in their moral putrifaction; who have almost insurmountable barriers between them and Christ. The manner of the resur- Erection of these three cases is most | interesting, and informing. rs .v-s Father Takes Iniative
 j, In the case of the little girl, the earnest father takes the iniative at time when Jesus is nearest the home in the hour of anxiety and prayer fearing approaching death. He falls at the Masters feet and pleads for his child. The scene of the resurrec- tion is a model for a modern case of salvation in the home the father and mother, the disciples of Jesus in the family room, earnestly, pleadingly looking to Jesus and waiting for His divine touch and life-giving voice. Jesus takes the little girl by the hand and says in a soft, tender tone, little girlI get up" and she opens her eyes. The whole process is so simple and unosteptatious that we can hardly realize that we have been in the pres ence of death and that resurrection has occurred. If fathers and mothers were awake to the iniative, if at some propitious hour when Jesus is near, they should realize the crisis handf faoI @fhn f,i4sdi and . a,s,ss,.,.sk tk .