Perennial Easter

“And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring His disciples word.” — Matthew 28: 3.

To observe Easter or not to observe it? that is the question with many earnest Christians. According to the New Testament, it is a matter of personal liberty. If you command me to observe it, I will not; for you have no authority to command it. You are then like the Galatians of whom Paul wrote: “Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.” If you say, “Thou shalt not observe it,” then I will do it; for you have no right to forbid it. If you forbid it, you have violated the principle laid down by Paul

when he said: “One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it.” I enjoy the observance of Christmas. It was the brightest day in the calendar during my youth; but, if you command me to observe it, I will not. The fact that our ritualistic brethren have little else than flowers and music on Easter, has caused many to swing back to the other extreme, and declare that no notice should be taken of the day. One has as much right to his opinion as the other, only let not either put himself up as authority.

I would urge ritualistic Christians to observe Lent all the year. It is really a happy time with them. They are relieved from the bur- ’ dens of society life. Temperate living is good for all days. The projection of Lent and Easter into every day would make a rounded Christian life; self-denial married to joy. And in the ordinances of the church we see that Jesus intended to project these principles into all the future. The Lord’s Supper gives us the idea of self-sacrifice for others; baptism gives us the joyful resurrection idea. Put these two together, and make them a part of your every-day life.

It is my purpose to analyze the joy of the first Easter, and see if we cannot have it every day. I like the word “seven,” it is so Biblical, and I was gratified to find seven elements in this joy, a sort of rainbow of promise, spanning the Christian life.

I. We have the Joy of Disappointed
Unbelief.

The women come with spices and oil to anoint, perhaps to embalm, the Lord. Instead of a corpse they find a king. Expecting death they find life. Embalming gives place to joyful worship. They are looking for difficulty in rolling the stone away: when they arrive the difficulty is overcome. The stone is away, and an angel upon it. They had a certain kind of faith in Christ. They believed that He was true: they loved Him; but it was unbelief as to His resurrection which led them to come with spices and oil, and to fear that they would not be able to get into the sepulchre. The joy of this disappointed unbelief must have been intense, and it illustrates God’s way of doing. He delights in surprising us; He gives more than we can ask or think.

The Missionary Union once prepared spices and oil for the embalming of the work in Telugu. Now that is the most prosperous mission in the world. Where their unbelief prophesied death there has been abundant life, and the joy of their disappointed unbelief has filled all Christendom.

A member of this church asked prayer the other day for a friend. Within two weeks that friend was converted, greatly to the surprise of the praying member, and in a way that he little dreamed of. He is to-day revelling in the joy of disappointed unbelief. God answered the prayer more quickly and more abundantly than he had anticipated. God delights to fill our lives with glad surprises of grace and power.

II. We have the Joy of Faith Confirmed.

That open sepulchre was the confirmation of every claim which Jesus Christ had made. He claimed that He and the Father are one. “Before Abraham was, I am,” and His resurrection proves it. It is the stamp of Heaven upon His divinity. And as the disciples walk about in the open sepulchre, they see a sign which proves that grave-robbers have not been there. The linen cloth which bound His head is wrapped up carefully and laid aside. He rose from the dead without excitement or confusion. Every doctrine He taught, every miracle He performed, every hop*e He inspired, is confirmed. I know that Jesus rose from the dead better than I know that Hannibal crossed the Alps, that Caesar was assassinated, or that Napoleon invaded Italy. The evidence in favor of it is simply overwhelming; and this irresistible proof is a confirmation of all that Jesus Christ claims. Not only on the Lord’s Day, which is the weekly commemoration of His resurrection, but on every day in the week we may have this confirmation. Nothing

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strengthens faith like meditation upon the resurrection of Christ. It was the theme of the apostles, and it has been the song of poets. It is the rock foundation of the Christian’s hope.

III. We have the Joy of Light from
Heaven.

Not the radiance of the angel’s face, though that was glorious; not the halo about the head of the risen Lord; not the light of sun or of star beaming into the open door of the sepulchre, but the purer light of God’s promise: “Fear not!” And as I trace through the Bible God’s “fear nots” I find in them light for every experience of life. “Thy word is light.” The word spoken by the angel was steadfast: it gave the disciples comfort; but the words spoken by Christ Himself are even sweeter to us than angelic messages. The messenger of the King comes with authority, but the voice of the King Himself we prefer to hear. Every day we may listen to Christ. Every morning may be an Easter morning, made bright by some promise from His Word.

IV. We have the Joy of Beholding
Victory.

There was physical victory. Look at the body of Christ as it is taken from the cross — clotted with blood; eyes glazed in death; hands limp at the side, needing the strength of loving friends to bear it to the sepulchre. Now see him as he walks from the tomb in the full vigor of physical manhood; the marks still upon his body, but every physical power and function restored. I see in this for the Christian the promise and potency of complete victory over all the forces that make for death.

There was political victory. That seal, part of it attached to the rock of the mountain, and a part attached to the stone, none but an angel dare touch. It represented the greatest political power on earth. The Roman eagle at that time swayed the world. But the seal is broken, and Roman soldiers are flying before the Power that broke it. There is coming a time when the “kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ,”

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and it will be through the risen and reigning Lord that this shall be accomplished. And every day let us be cheered with the hope of complete national victory for our Lord Jesus Christ.

There was also moral victory. The forces of evil had for a time prevailed, and the sun of righteousness seemed for a while to have gone down in gloom. Demons of darkness may now dance for joy. The King has been captured. Yes, but within the very walls of death He has demolished every fortress. Every day we may have a joy of anticipated physical, national, and moral victory. Truly that makes life a perennial Easter.

V. We have the Joy of telling our
Joy to Others.

“They did run to bring His disciples word.” We pity the man who has a Christ that only lived, acted, and died. He may admire Him as a hero, honor Him as a martyr, canonize Him as a saint; but he can never have great joy in telling others about Him. It is only those who believe Christ divine, and, therefore, the Saviour from all sin, and with all power in heaven and earth, who can experience ecstasy of heart in proclaiming Him unto others. Have you ever had such Easter joy? If not, determine to have it to-day before the sun goes down. The joy of telling others about the risen Lord is a treasure which every Christian may possess; and just in proportion as we turn every day into that sort of Easter, we are truly happy and useful Christians.

VI. We may have the Joy of the Conscious or the Unconscious Presence of the Risen Lord.

At first Mary did not recognize Him. She thought it was the gardener — just a common man. When she heard Him speak, His familiar voice brought recognition, and she exclaimed, “Rabboni! M as she fell before Him to worship. Often we recognize the Lord as present writh us through the tones of His promise. But there is another scene a little more precious to me than even this. Two men are on their way home from the city, where they have buried their hopes. They saw Him die, and looked upon the stone at the door of the sepulchre with the Roman seal upon it. They expected that “it had been He who should have redeemed Israel.” But He disappointed their expectation, because He had not acted just as they thought He would. They little dreamed that the purpose of redemption would lead Him to be crucified. Strange rumors are in the air about what women saw and angels said; but they get little comfort from that. Sad and depressed, they are on their way home, when a stranger falls in with them, and begins to explain to them the Scriptures, as written by Moses concerning the Messiah. Their hearts burn with a peculiar fervor. They are uplifted in spirit. To have the risen Christ walk with us when we are not conscious of His presence, but at the same time to reveal to us His preciousness, and appear in such a way as to make our hearts burn with love and gratitude, is a joy to be coveted.

This gives us a still larger Christ. “Without Him was not anything made that was made.” He is not only Redeemer but Creator. Nature is unfallen. The birds sing, the streams murmur, the stars shine, the winds whisper the glory of God. All natural principles are obedient to His laws; only man is sinful and rei so Milk and Meat.

bellious. In order, then, to be a true child of nature, you must become a child of grace. I love to read in the open Bible and in the open book of nature of the same almighty, loving God and His Son Jesus Christ. Every flower is His smile of beauty, every star His benediction, every landscape, with its mountains and valleys, a sign of His loving favor. The risen Christ is one “in whom we live, and move, and have our being,’’ and He rules by His laws in the realm of the natural and spiritual world.

“The works of God are fair for naught
Unless we, in the seeing,
See hidden in the thing the thought
That animates its being.

‘’The outward form is not the whole,
But clearly has been moulded
To image forth the inward soul
Which dimly is unfolded.

“The shadow pictured in the lake
By every tree that trembles
Is cast for more than just the sake
Of that which it resembles.

“The dew falls lightly not alone
Because the meadows need it;
It has an errand of its own
To human souls that heed it.

“The stars are lighted in the skies
Not merely for their shining;
But, like the light of loving eyes,
Have meaning worth divining.

“Whoever, at the coarsest sound,
Still listens for the finest,
Shall hear the noisy world go round
To music the divinest.

“Whoever yearns to see aright,
Because his heart is tender,
Will catch a glimpse of heavenly light
In every earthly splendor.

“So since the universe began,
And will be till it’s ended:
May soul of nature, soul of man,
And soul of God be blended.”

Such blending of man’s soul with the soul of unfallen nature and of God is brought about by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; and we enjoy it every day.

VII. We have the Joy of Anticipation.

Jesus said to the women, “Go tell My disciples that they shall see Me in Galilee,” Just when, just where, we do not know. It was simply a promise that they should soon meet

Him. And so the ascended Christ has said to us, “Just as ye have seen Me go up into heaven, so shall ye see Me come again in like manner.” The whole earth is a Galilee waiting the appearing of the Lord. Just when, just where, we do not know, but that He will come in glory is the Christian’s most certain hope. The joy of meeting Him is enhanced by the joy of meeting others wrho are with Him: “For them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him,”

The day after James Russell Lowell’s wife died, sitting in his desolate home, he wrote these words:

“There is a narrow ridge in the graveyard, T would scarce stay a child in his race, But to me and my thought it is wider Than the star-sown vague of space.”

The promise of the coming of the Lord has made narrow this” star-sown vague of space,’* and makes it but a thin veil between us and the objects of our love. It brings us, perhaps, within a few hours of meeting our risen Lord and glorified friends. Then, ah! then, an everlasting Easter!