| Show an eader ora of me L vy BY S J J duncan clarh 11 IID season of the resurrection 1 story etory has come again I throughout the christian world the minds and hearts of wen men are turned to dwell upon a fact which no naturalistic ura listic critic of the gospels has ever succeeded in explaining away aft ay faith may differ over whether the reported resurrection experiences of tile the fol followers lovers of jesus were ft ere objective ve or subjective but history records beyond effective contradiction the compelling and transforming result upon life and character of those experiences whatever doubt may inny be held as to whether the men and women who testified to seeing the iho risen christ looked with the eyes ees of the body upon nn actual physical manifestation of their 31 master aster there con can be no doubt as to tile the certainty of their conviction that ile he whom they hat had seen taken from the cross whose body had bad been laid in josephs tomb survived as a real and living presence in their midst this faith brought together the fright I 1 ened and dejected group of disciples in the spirit of confident rejoicing it carried them through arduous labor and bitter persecution it won bothem to them increasing adherents it triumphed over 0 er every difficulty over all opposition it became the power of thellie elife thell th fe eternal giving new significance to nil all life new meaning to all the lessons they learned from the masters plasters lips we lve may build this faith upon the empty tomb but in fact it had deeper foundation than that it went back behind the tom tomb band and the cress to the lie living christ as they had known him everything that they hail had seen of him and heard of him made it reasonable made it logical made it in a sense inevitable e ile he nid lived in the power of the life eternal it was inconceivable that the beauty thel goodness and the truth which found embodiment in illin him could perish that the personality which they expressed could bo be less than forever enduring the existence of these values inseparable from personality was essential to the understanding of life as anything more than a purposeless po seless tragedy a futile breath in it chaotic and meaningless world to have known jesus was to have known that there la Is a spiritual reality transcends material and the temporal this consciousness had been quickened in the souls of ills followers the jealous hatred ct cf ills foes the brutal cross of roman power the seated sealed tomb these were the evanescent ne scent the illusory means whereby it was stupidly sought to cestr destroy ay tile lie eternal reality of his love 11 ills wisdom ills soaring faith in god and the effort had tolled failed ilow how could it be otherwise ilow how can it ever be otherwise and the meaning of ills life was just this ahat that the reality in the lie life of all men Is the possibility of become becom In ing glike like him of expressing beauty adf and goodness and truth of living now nov and always in the power of the life iffe eternal to him who lias seen this possibility faith in the continuity of life in the persistence of person personality allty eaines nat aurally and will not permit of contradiction to him death Is merely an Inel incident dent not even nn an interruption lt it Is a i step in the process an escape from the slin shadows dows of illusion into the full light of reality it Is robbed of fears and robed in the glory ct cf hope the effect of such sucha a faith and such a hope la Is deenin the story of the early church a story marked by suddenly intensified interest in the supreme importance of human values by the flaming of 0 a splendid spiritual idealism against the background bach ground of a world given ever to the flesh by tile the Imme immediate diat e broadening of sympathies in a race of narrow prejudices to overwhelm r and submerge the file ingrained prejudices of tradition and former religious training by the emphasis upon justice and brotherhood in human relations upon character and unselfish services ale men rf anti and women began to live the life eternal personality was appraised in terms of tile the enduring and the things ot of time and fell bach into theli their proper subordinate places it is a revival of that resurrection faith which the world needs heeds today a bolth in 09 lie reality 0 of the continuing life and the things which belong to it nothing else can save us from the perverted sense of values which curses cursed humanity from the circling pursuit of illusion fram tile he vain struggle agle for that which cannot satisfy the vital message of this ra easter st er season Is the lie call to every man to live in the light and power of the lire life eternal arid the assurance that to every e ry nuin such a life Is possible jesus lived it supremely those who dare to follow where ile he leads may know its acy and when the world accepts ills his leadership it will find both righteousness and peace these treasures it can never find while it gropes amid the shadows of its passing pride and pomp lip I 1 the eatter earter message faster easter that answers human itys deepest longing coat promises fulfillment of its it sweetest hope should d bring each ach one of us a message wit which ch will till give give meaning and beauty to everyday life end and to every duty listen to it it |
