THE QUIET HOUR

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 2 December 1933, Page 2

THE QUIET HOUR

(Contributed for the Hawera Ministers’ Association.)

BY REV. H. CURRAN.

AFTERWARDS “Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while Ho opened to us the Scriptures?” This wicked world had committed its greatest crime. God, in His great love, had sent His well beloved Son. into the world, aim to a privileged people He had come. But tney said: ■‘We will not have this man to reign over us,’’ and they crucified Him, although “Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, and the rulers and the people, said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that- perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined Him before you, have found no fault iri this man touching those things whereof ye_ accuse Him: Nor Herod: For 1 sent you to him, and, 10, nothing worthy of death is done until Him. . . And they cried out- all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas” (Luke 23: 13, 14, 15, 18). After Jesus was dead, Joseph of Aiimathaea. _and Nicodemus took his body, and laid it in the former’s new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock, and they rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre. But “the chief priests and the Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir. we remember that.that- deceiver said, while He was yet* alive. After three days l will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night, and steal Him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall he worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch (guard R.V.) : go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch” (Matt. 27: 62-66). , And so the great stone was sealed.

THE SOLDIERS WERE ON GUARD

They were trying to keep the Son of Gocl in the grave. The faithful women wondered 'who would roll the great stone away. But, while the soldiers watched, “there was a- great earthquake: for the angel of tlie Lord descended from Heaven, and came and rolled hack the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye : He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the’ Lord lay. And go. quickly, and tell His disciples, that He is risen from the dead : and. behold. He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him: 10, I have told you” (Matt. 28: 2-7). Then, we read of those women hastening, to tell the joyful news to the disciples, when Jesus met them, and talked with them, and sent- a message to the sorrowing disciples. MOSES, THE PRiGIPHETS, THE PSALMS. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the Mother of James, and other women, went to_ the disciples with the glad news. “And their words seamed unto them as idle tales, and they believed them not.” But Peter ran to find an empty sepulchre, and saw the grave-clothes, :.nd wondered. Then, we read of that wonderful journey to Emmaus, a place about seven and a-half miles from Jerusalem.

Two of the disciples, sad. at heart, and perplexed, are toiling along the Elmmauis road; and they, are talking of their sad loss, when a third person joins them. It was Jesus Himself. He drew then? out, asked why they were so sad, and what they were spea.kinrr about? Then He opened up the Scriptures) to them. He took Old Testament Scriptures, that spoke of Himself, from the book of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms. He turned to such as the 22nd and the 69th Psalms,, and the 63rd of Isaiah, and many other places, till they said; “Did not bur heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the. Scriptures?” What a journey that Ernmaus 'journey was! One can easily imagine the seven and a-half miles seeming like only half that distance. “And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and He made as though He would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us:, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as He sat at meat with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and brake and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, a,nd they knew Him,, qnd He Vanished out of their sight” (Luke 24: 28-31). We arc not told what became of their tea.. But they retraced thensteps all the way hack to Jerusalem, where thev found the “eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen in deed, and hath appeared to Simon And they told what things were done in the wav, and how He was known to them in' breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said unto them. Peace be unto you” (Luke: 24: 33-36). Tt was “the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst. . . And when He had so said, He shewed unto them His hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the _Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace he unto you: as the Father hath sent Mo, even so I send you” (John 20: 19-21). THE NEW TESTAMENT.

For forty days the Lord Jesus Christ was in and out among His disciples. We read: “I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that He, was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures: And that He was seen of Cephas, 4 then of the twelve: After that. He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once’’ (1 Cor.: 15: 3-6). Finally. Jesus gathered His followers together for a farewell message, “And when He had spoken these things, while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward Heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Yo men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up .'from yon into Heaven, SHALL “/> COME IN LTKF. MANNER as ye have seen Him go into Heaven” (Arts 1: 9-12). ’ Just as Jesus told them that He must die, he buried and rise again, He told them that He -would go up to

Heaven, and come again for us. We have the same Scriptures that He explained to the two> on the Bmmaus road, and we have the New Testament too, in which it ii? plainly written that He will come again. “Therefore he ye also ready: for ip such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh” (Matt. 24 : 44). BEHOLD, I COMB QUICKLY” (Rev. 22; 12)