THE QUIET HOUR.

Mt Benger Mail, 26 April 1933, Page 2

THE QUIET HOUR.

THE EFFECT OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION. (Contributed.) It is worth while to study the ei- ■ feet of the resurrection of Christ j upon some who came into close ! contact with Him, especially at 1 critical moments in His earthly i ca rccr. How interesting, for instance, to study the effect of the accounts of the resurrection of Christ on the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate! That he heard the stories was inevitable. Yet, as Weatherhcad says, we can scarcely imagine that he would have instituted an inquiry. “Officialdom, hearing such a story, smites . . Officialdom may have shrugged its shoulders—dead carpenters do not rise from the dead.” Weatherhcad recalls how official India smiled at the story of Gandhi, who, when he urged on the women of an Indian village to use the spinning 1 wheel, was told that they had none. So Gandhi “directed them to bury two strands of cotton from their saris, and iu the morn- : lug they would dig up a spinning ! wheel.” At til! events, the biter j life of Pilate affords no ground for believing that the Resurrection had any lasting iutluencc upon him; rather we fed that having 1 failed in the supreme crisis when jit his hands Say the issues of life | and death, his great opportunity; had passed by for ever. Of the effect of the Resurrection upon the Jewish leaders who compassed thv destruction of Jesus wo have more definite information. No doubt they felt after His death a sense of triumph and security such as they had never enjoyed since Jesus rose to prominence. Hut this was almost immediately succeeded by a feeling of pro--I’i'und uneasiness when the stories u! the Resurrection reached them. Anyone who reads the story ot tlm days following Pentecost must bo impressed by the miserable failure of their efforts to rebut the Apostolic testimony. Again and again Peter claims that Jesus was raised from the dead, and that ol this amazing event all the apostles wore w it m ssos. Who can stip-po-e that if they eouid have dispruvod the Rosurrt etion they would not have done so? 1 he lust they could do was to spread the unlikely story that “His disciples came by night and stole Him away while the guard slept.” At a later stage they came to the t’lHile conclusion that they should s!raitiy threaten the disciples, and charge them In speak heiicelorth to no man in this name. H is p-'iTeetlv clear that they wetc tillable to bring forward cogent evi-d-ner against the Resurrect ion. Tim re is nothing so lynx-eyed as hat red. and it is in truth one of Hie signal evidences for the Resurj-, etion that no .satisfactory disproof of it was even attempted by ilies,, melt. The fact that they were not moved by it to repent - ai (v and faith is a significant commentary on the words ot our Lord’s parable: “Neither will they In- persuad-d, though one rose from the dead. How vastly different was the ..fleet of the Resurrection on the repentant Denier, Peter! I he days immediately following the death of Jesus must have been tilled tor hull with bitter anguish. For it is natural, when grief is new, to go over the last days and hours that we have spent with our loved ur.rs. The mind dwells in painful fashion upon any duty unperformed, or anv other cause for seli-rc-proach. Peter must have been stung by tlm memory of his iailni-.. iu Gethseinanc “Gould ye not watch with me one hour? -- ot his, forsaking of Jesus -liter an his loud boastings, ot his repeated and shameful denials in the court of Hh' high priest of the loud oaths that burst from his lips, disgracing his Christian profession. Again and again he must _ have s,7n the face of Jesus turned to him, in the very midst of his denial, and that look that seemed to say: “Thou. Peter, art thou a thing of stone, - Which 1 at last must break My heart upon, For -ill God’s charge to His high angels mav Guard My feet better.” When the first nows of the Resurrect ion reached I eler his immediate reaction to il was a feeling of bewilderment and uncertainly. No reader of the gospels will imagine that these men were iu a hurry to believe, without evidence, just what they naturally wished to believe. Once convinced, however, Peter’s heart was tilled with joy, dashed only with the thought of his past failure, As we read the account of his risen .Master’s interview with him and of his restoration, and then of his subsequent witness for Christ, we see that the Resurrection made for Peter all the difl’er(>iiee. Never could he have proved himself the splendid leader of the Christian Church, and tlie bold and convincing advocate of the Christian faith, had it not been for his unshaken faith in the Rest, erection . We must often feel thankful that among the apostles was one sc pessimistic naturally and yet of such wonderful devotion as Thomas. Thomas' was not with tin other apostles when the risen Lord first appeared to them. They were enthusiastic iu their convinced faith iu the Resurrection. But this was a man of stubbornly independent judgment. His words lack delicacy, but they are downright. “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger in the print of the

nails, and thrust my hand into 1 Lis side, 1 will nut believe. ” It is not, perhaps, so easy as st me might imagine to prove identity in a ease such as this. What really convinced Thomas was that v, lien Jesus appeared to the apostles again, himself now included, lie showed his old wonderful and unerring power of reading the hearts of men. The honest doubter is always sure of sympathetic treatment by Jesus of Nazareth and b : . men "f His spirit. It was, perhaps, partly because Thomas realised more than the others what a tremendous tiling the Ki.'Ui reetion was u tine, that he hesitated to believe it. for that very reason, when he was led to accept tin- glorious truth, he gave expression to his faith in words that mark the high water mark in the (iospels: "My Lord and my Loti!” Let anyone who is troubled by intellectual doubts study the evidence for the Resurrection honestly and sincerely. John K. Mott, the famous student and missionary leader, says: "1 shall never forget the dav and never will me life lose the inspiration widen came when, after 1 had spread out on paper the evidence, I came to the position where in my case to be intellectually honest 1 had to concede that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and could sa>, with feeling and conviction, ‘‘My Lord and my dod!”