PULPIT MESSAGES

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 155, 28 March 1932, Page 10

PULPIT MESSAGES

Wellington Churches EASTER REFLECTIONS Belief in the Resurrection “Easter is a time when we take stock and take courage,” said the Rev. L. J. Boulton Smith, preaching in the Viviau Street Baptist Church yesterday. His sermon was based on John 21, verses 1 to 14, his subject being “The Fire on the Beach.” “The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the twin pillars upon

which our faith) rests,” he said.: “Remove one of J them and the j whole structure ofj an Evangelical be-t lief topples and i falls into chaos. | The surrender and; outpouring on that! Great Life of Cal-; vary would never have given the! world and gospel

had Jesus not risen from” the dead. Prior to His death—on those occasions when our Lord spoke of His coming end —He always enjoined His disciples to keep silent about the matter. . After the Resurrection He laid upon them the command to tell the story to the world. “Now it is noticeable that between His resurrection, and His ascension, Christ appeared on several occasions and discovered Himself to His disciples. The belief in the Resurrection cannot be demolished by any rationalist attack. Strauss and others have tried to evaporate it by means of their ingenious theories. The resurrection was not the doctrine of a small insignificant coterie: it was the proclamation of a multitude of competent witnesses won to belief, by sheer .weight of evidence. It is the very life of Christian theology and the dynamic of all successful preaching. “This well-known incident of Christ meeting His disciples on the beach after the resurrection carries in it a definite message. There is a democratic touch about it, for it suggests the interest of the risen Christ, in the workers of the world as they toil to earn their daily bread. The stupendous act of rising from the dead, although it sets Christ in a class apart, did not divorce Him from the work-a-day interests of men.

A Great Assurance. “This incident is the token of a great assurance. Thousands of Christians in Easter 1932, against whom life seems to have gathered in fell con-* spiracy, have the knowledge of a helpful presence. In their need it means everything. It may come to them at times with a sense of astonishment' as when these wearied Galileans met Him on the beach with the meal prepared and waiting. “The Resurrection isn’t merely another plank in the platform of the religious philosopher. We affirm —upon . the grounds of a profound experience running over 1900 years—that the Easter message has something for every man. The man who has Christ —be he poor or rich —is immeasurably better for it. In reading the New Testament during Holy Week one. lingers over the ‘old, . old story.’ In moments of wistfulness and longing one feels that there is something there for all. Christ’s death and. resurrection affects all that is dearest and best in life. Because He is risen, we know that Galilee is no beautiful dream. He comes to us still in the cold, bleak times. His death by itself would have been a ‘great fixed gulph’ forever keeping us apart, but the empty tomb assures us of a friendship that can never end. Comfort and Cheer. “In the dreary dawns^ —when wearied with thg apparent futility of life —He meets us with comfort and cheer. In a number of places in the gospels we read, ‘He showed himself to His disciples,’ but that is not all. He is forever doing it. He is carrying forward century by century the victory of the garden. Every tick of the clock witnesses some extension of the resurrection. Every day some fresh person is finding the Living Christ, and every Easter thousands of new voices lilt His praise—‘Christ the Lord is Risen To-day.’ ”

A PARABLE OF LIFE Garden Round Sepulchre The Rev. T. R. Richards, preaching in Wesley Church last evening, took for his text St. John’s Gospel, Ch. 19, verse 41: “Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre.” “There were three tragic events in the life of Christ: the Cross, the garden, and the sepulchre,” said the preacher. “The Cross stood for sacrifice; the garden for beauty, life and hope; the sepulchre for the last milestone in His earthly life. There is ho human life without these three—its care, sunny memories and the end, the closed chapter in the human drama.

“St. John monitions this topographical note,; ‘There was a garden.' He often mentions what may appear as deta i 1. Everything Christ touched He beautified. His grave was in a garden and in consequence every , human grave has been in a garden ever since. He

consecrated this mother earth which has become man’s nursery, his playground, his school-house, his workshop, bis grave, his bed. Shadow and Sunlight. “There are two ways of looking at life. The first view ■ is to see the sepulchre. The second is to see the garden. The first is human—it is the way of pessimism. In these dark days of sorrow and human struggle grief is in danger of clouding joy, and the lean finger of despair points and says, ‘Ah 1 there is a sepulchre in the garden.' “The painful and the pleasant were in close association in the life of Christ: the shadow and the sunlight, the plaudits and the denunciation, the baptism and the glory. The bridal march and the funeral procession move along the same street. The “Hallelujah Chorus” and the "Dead March in Saul” mingle in every life: danger fear.

gloom are abroad and the race of men! go by and say, ‘Ah! the sepulchre.’ “The seconl view is that of the garden—the garden of Christianity round the sepulchre, the garden of hope, happiness, blessedness. The Cross and the sepulchre were only incidents in the garden. The garden is larger-all-inclusive. Our Christian faith embraces all good. When Christ rose from the dead it was dawn in the garden. It has been dawn for the race ever since. “Fairless in ‘The Road Mender’ caught this garden view. Gunnod’s last words were: ‘We shaU soon know all—all is bright.’ When Drummond was passing away he was resting by the window, flooded with sunlight, and he said, ‘How beautiful is this death.’ Tennyson, the poet of Immortality, passed away to the music of his own immortal song, ‘I shall see my Pilot face to face when I have crossed th« bar.’ Look To-night at the Garden. “The garden obliterates the sepulchre. He hath abolished death and brought immortality and life to light. It is the resurrection evening and life has put on her resurrection robes. The garden jis the parable on life. As surely as the Sepulchre of Christ became an empty sepulchre, so surely shall the sepulchre of Christ’s people become an empty sepulchre, and as surely as He rose from the dead and sang a jubilee of victory and immortality over death so surely shall this body come forth from the wardrobe of the grave clothed upon with light and immortality from heaven. Let your last look be at the garden—round the sepulchre.”