The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 10, 1898, Page 18

24 D\s e slow EVENING GATHERD JAND °rE cLEAR STAR ITS ANCIENT WIiTi LonG Low CADENCES oF DEAR /@%QWITH FAR °FF TREMOR S °F A FURTIER #3F A D THR® THE sILVER MISTS oF Unro T+ HEART oF ALL. AND UPWARD THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 10, 1898 INHER GREY, PATHWAY TR°D._ DEIAY THE 1ARK DECENDING LEFT ITS SONG wiTH GOD Aro Prace @ME LIKE A REVEREN- -TIAL S°UL, WeRLD, TWILIGHT STOLE CURLD. -l A P e s 2 * HE KKK EE R KRR KR ER KR KE R KRR R R R RR g * g : * * * * x Dwight L. Moody, x # Rev. William Rader. * * * * * * %% E RN * Evangelist. ¥ R X XREEREXEXREXER * % KKK R E KX EE KR X ¥R g}\s é\(‘?} * % ¥ B PR R R Y T * * * Rev. S S. Gryor. =* #* Rev. G. E. Locke. * x * 3 * EEE R REERERE R RS FEERFRFXRERRERF Every man and woman who attends Easter services would say to me, “Y Mr. Moody, I believe Jesus e = hrist rose from the dead.” But DWIGHT L. MOODY, | how many would declare so be- R fore the world? Lots of you are | EVANGELIST. nown to the business leeping partners. Si- lent partners are not the kind the Lord is looking for. They're the kind that will be looking for the back doors of heaven. Thes want to go to heaven, but they haven't courage to walk up the front way. We talk these days of heroes. The g test of obstacles of God's work is cow- ardic Men lack courage of conviction. God can’t use cowards. A Christian must be a hero, filled full of bat- tle. Of course the world will cry: “There goes a fa- natic.” People condemn excitement in religion. It is only religious fervor. There is more excitement this day on Wall street than in a church in twelve months. The reconcentrados have more to do with war than you or I —why should we not help them? If we can put ten thousand bushels of corn in Cuba we will be doing well. The least we can do is to pray. ‘We'd better send some money along with our pray- ers. Send it as a pledge of our faith in prayer. There must be law. When law is established penalty is sure to follow. God never attempted to run the universe without law. The penalty for breaking his law is death. Jesus Christ went to the tomb to pay this very penalty for us. God accepted this son as our ransom, but if we continue to sin we pay a penalty. I get drunk—my leg is crushed. It must come off to save my life. God forgave my drunkenness, but he does not give me a new leg. See how a man buys a piece of land. People settle about it and he calls for a hundred times what he gave. He boasts: “T did that; I made myself a millionalre.” There’ll be no hundred per cent made on salvation. It won’t go up in price, but you've got to come down. God knows every heart. Be vou a mother bowed with sorrow—be you the patient wife, the troubled father, the sister, the brother or the loving friend who sends the message to the great white throne—God is never too busy to listen. Your voice is never too weak for his ears. You arn’t such a sinner but God can save you. The impossible {s within his power. Nothing is too great or too small for his lov- ing hand. He reaches down to the lowest depths to save the soul weary with sin’s burden. I like to pray with hard cases; with unbelievers and scoffers. The victory all the greater and proves the greatness of my Master's love. « s e Text, I Cor. xv:35. “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up and with what body do they BT T AR TN ;'unw?" Whatever }l’na,y be the arger message of Easter, this ‘;REV' WILLIAM RADER, |\ cktion raised by the apostle |CONGREGATIO NALIST.| becomes the universal problem ! of the Christian world. Men in- gist in asking about the nature of the resurrection. Im- mortality a generally accepted fact, but the method ot immortality is a pointof controversy. What becomes of our dead? What is the destiny of our mortal bodies and of our immortal spirits? These are questions which press their way through Easter lilies and anthems and ceremonial rejofcings. = When Ct t lived and Paul preached the prevdiling belief was that the body would be raised from the dead. Against this the pagans raiied. They denied the resur- rection of the body. This belief rested upon an old and well-grounded tradition. It was not confined to the He- brews. The Egyptians baptized and enibaimed their dead. Paul teaches that the body is not to be raised: that the resurrection is to be spiritual, not physical, and that out of the decayed organism is to issue a new life, as the new wheat life springs from the dead grain in the earth. Death, to Paul, is evolution; theburstingof the bud into the flower; a step upward and onward. It is de- velopment. Death, to Paul, is not cessation, but the evolution of a life. Longfellow voices it in the words: “There is no death; what seems so is transition.” . e » Topic, “The Greatest Victory of the Ages.” Text, 2. “As in Adam all die,even so inChrist shall e — ~——— all be made alive.” Why mllils'. we die? Why cannot man live | REV: W ACARDNER; like the oak or stand the storms CHRISTIAN CHURCH. | of fifty centuries like the Sphinx L 1 amid the pyramids of Egypt? The Bible says it is because of sin. . The introduction of sin into the®vorld was Satan’'s first victory. He was determined to mar the image of God in man; to bring sorrow, woe and death to the hu- man race. Death was the devil's greatest helper and man’s greatest dread. Thrones, cities and mighty em- pives were destroyed through his agency. He snatched the infant from the arms of loving parents and brought anguish into every home. Just as man was ready to live death dragged him down to the grave. In the dis- tress of its hopeless environment, humanity cried out, “0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” In answer to the cry of his dying children God sent his son to deliver them. The devil called to his aid death and determined to de- stroy the Redeemer. He made several fruitless at- tempts, but at last on the cross he hears the dying groans of his victim, and as the sun is darkened and the earth quakes all of his friends of hell shout “Vic- tory!” But the battle is not ended. Jesus had said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” On the morning of the third day after his death a few timid, weeping women are whispering, “Will he rise?” the wondering angels repeat the question, “Will he rise?” and the scoffing devils in hell hiss, “Will he rise?” Suddenly the earth again quakes, not with sorrow but with victory. The guards about the grave become as dead men. The door of the sepulcher opens and the triumphant king comes forth alive. “Hear, O ye na- tions! Hear, O ye dead! He rose; he rose; he burst the bars ¢f death and triumphed o'er the grave.” s “He is not here; for he is risen, as he said.”—Matt. 6. Angels announced the birth of our Lord; they XXV = also announced that he !:uag risen from the dead as he s: REVSE. b MOODS, he would rise. There were many BAPTIST. witnesses of the resurrection of L Christ. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary saw him alive. He appeared unto Pe- ter; unto the two disciples on the way to Emmaus; unto ten of the disciples; unto the eleven, Thomas be- ing present; then unto five hundred at one time. They did not expect his resurrection. The sight of their eyes compelled belief. Seeing Jesus alive made them joyful and strong. Convinced of his divinity they lived and suffered and died in the faith. Said that great teacher and student of history, Dr. Arnold of Rugby: “I have been used for many years to study the history of other times and to examine and weigh the evidences of those who have written about them; and I know of no one fact in the history of man- kind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort than that Christ died and rose again from the dead.” s, Jacti BLADE °F GRASS A Wiereen Tie V%nm&mr STRAIND TENDER FINGERY FR°M FACH DEWY 3°D. o TRE DEAR CHRIST °F CHRYSALIS & NO°N - AND: DU2K DECENDING LEET TR R R R EEEE S SRS LS * * * * * * KEXRFEEXRX XX E R KL R R R X * * TreAerwL #eoN RESURGENT oF | HE SUN o THE BLUE DUSK °f THE EXALTED DSME, F heAvivie T FL E WHITE WIND — SWERS,°NE BY °NE; g took N LIGHT SLUMBER N HER AILLY HOME LYRE °F LIFC S°ULWITH cea Seecscoecccnosen R HHEREREER®N x* . Rev. Horatio Stebbins. Bishop Thoma * XX RN R XXX XX Kr X RRK LR ET AR R FRF * * * Rev. E. A Woods. * * * R Easter day Is the greatest church festival of the year, and the mystery it commemorates is the foun- = ———————— dation truth of Christianity— THOMAS GRACE, | the grand proof of it all BISHOP On that day, for t}}e' first | time since death came into the _QE,SA(ERAMEANTO-_‘ world, the grim tyrant was conquered and conquered in his own stronghold—the grave. Accustomed to his prey, he had spread his dark wings over the tomb of Christ and claimed even him. His boast, however, was brief, for within that tomb there lay the body of one who had sald by his prophet, “O death, I will be thy déath,” and by an- other prophet he had represented himself as “Free among the dead.” Hence at the dawning of the third day of which he had so often spoken, with power divine he laid aside the shroud and bands and arose glorious and im- mortal, his glorified body passing through the rock of the burial cave as light permeates a clear crystal. Down from heaven came an angel, who rolled back the great stone from the mouth of the cave and showed the world that the Savior's tomb wasemptyon Easter day. “He is risen; he is not here.” The sweetest con- solation which Christianity affords follows from the gospel truth. In the name of the great resurrection—in the name of the God of the living, I greet-you. How is it with us every-day plain warklig';rn]laen in the businessof theworld? Dowe REV. H. STEBBINS, | [°% Jfen wish with a sigh that UNITARIAN. we were better trained whenwe . were young, and that our pow- ers were out in full and joyous action, and that we had treasures of thought and feeling that made us at home with ourselves and the world? Oh, whom you are, or wherever, have you not in thoughtful twilight mood, when memory came home and past experience, heav- enly dove, fluttered gently down to your side—have you not felt with mingled pain and joy how much more you might be than you are, and that your being is, all un- awake, a callow brood of unfledged powers? And does not every man sometimes feel in view of his undevel- oped faculty that he is a great might-have-been? 1 interpret these things tinged, as they may be, Wit a hue of sadness, not as mere retrospect of melan- choly, but as immortal prophecy. O joy, that in our members Is something that doth live! The doctrine, the truth, the fact of our immortality 1s glorious.~ It means for each one of .us a life of end- less progress and power. It means that the fathers who have gone before us live with God, for he is the God of the living. He is not the God of the dead. s s s Text, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”—I Cor. xv:22. The sunshine after the 1ato'rmd does not transfigure the andscape more than the resur- | REV.S. S, CRYOR, rection transfigures the life of l PRESBYTERIAN. man. He is no longer left to —————————— dim intimations of a future life, to splendid guesses and faint analogies, but firm and strong on the basis of incontrovertiblg facts stands the resurrection of Jesus Christ and with it the resurrec: tion of man. The resurrection is thus: 1. The divine solution of the mystery of death. Next to God, death is one of the most infinite of mysteries. For thousands of years it has despoiled God’s fair cre- ation and wrought its ruin on man. That a world so S0 SWEET T° 5To°P &FEEL AROUND B BREATHING [N ; WIND INARTAS °F 5°UND | ToLD SUBTLE MUSIC; fiow THE - | GREAT WORLD,RIFE OF V[OLET, € PRIMROSE ~STREWN. oD! of Sacramento. ER cQeoev—cooe® " *XER K XK HEXEREXFFLEERERR * * * * * Rev. W. H. Moreland. =* * * * * s Grace XX R X R * % X% ¥ EE X E R R R R RS R RS % * * v. W. A dner. : Re A. Gardner. : KEXXRXX XXX XXX X F fair and noble should be smitten with death; that all things beautiful should fade and die, is a mystery that has wrung the heart of man with agony. But death is to be destroyed, and, though it be the last enemy to be conquered, its overthrow will be final and complete. It will not be merely the sl ng of an enemy, but the re- taking of lost possessions. 2. The resurrection is also the divine pledge to his pecple that nothing shall be lost. The vine that in Labrador grows only a few inches, when transplanted to a summer clime shoots forth and bears The present life, too meager for our hopes, too fl ng for our plans, too brief for cur ambitions, shall be com- pleted yonder. 3. The resurrection is a divine balm for the sorrow- ing heart. It tells us that death is but a s and the grave only “a dark lattice letting in eternal day.” It 1t.‘e:lls the believer not to weep as those who havé no ope. R The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is a fact. Jurists and lawyers, who have taken the trouble T to examine the evidence have REV. W. H. MORELAND,| invariably pronounced the ver-. ct that if this fact is not EPISCOPAL. proven it is impossible to prove any fact. The testimony for the resurrection is convincing and overwhelming. It was a miracle, we say, but the continuous existence of the church of Christ based on that fact is a more wonder- ful miracle if the fact itself be disallowed. The resurrection of Christ makes it.certain that there is no break in the continuity of our existence, in passing from the earth life to the intermediate life. It dispels much of the terror with which r death. E. . ch men regard e Subject, ‘Shall our Easter Lord brin, sword?” Text, John xx:19: ‘“Jesus cnmegm?(;asc\enoodr l: T the midst and saith unto them, Peace be with yow.” Christ's words of affectionate greeting to hihs disc]i‘[)les on the first tri- = umphant Easter Sabbath w Peace be with you.” It was the sublime clima‘:of Sl‘: song commenced by the angelic choirs when they an- nounced, “Peace on earth; good will toward men.” This newesf Easter which the world has seen dawns upon the world bringing the same sweet messages of peace, ot. which a radiant cross has been a universal s}'mb_x_)l since _the Sweeping victory of Mount Calvary. Notwithstanding the pugnacious proclivities of mer; and the arbitrament of the sword, steadily has “Peace be unto you” increased. its benign constituency. . s REV. C. E. LOCKE, METHODIST. Christ Jesus is tru G Bl etariiity’ e God and true man—God from man from the time of his inearnation. The divinity of Christ, the only E. H. YOUNAN, son of God, is proved to evi- C.s. P dence by the sacred writings, :gxe{;‘y ll;rom the testimony of - e Father and the Holy Spirit; from his own solemn and oft-repeated asscrli\yn: ‘rmm the statements of his apostles and from his wonderful miracles, foremost of which is the resurrection. From the first years of his preaching Christ proph- esied his Dbetrayal, death and resurrection. “The. Son of man, indeed, goeth; he shall be betrayed and gut to death, but on the third day he shall rise again.” T have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it up again.” This rising from the dead he marked himself as a sign of the Messiah—and this sign was known to the Jews and chief priests.