SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 13 April 1935, Page 14 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING

AN EASTER MESSAGE IF CHRIST-BE NOT RISEN. THE STRONG FAITH OF PAUL. "If Christ be not risen !”. -."The Enster Myth t t “But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not' risen; and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching . vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God. because we have testified that He raised up Christ; whom he raised not up if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is Christ not raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.—l. Cor., 15, 13-10. To some these .verses have appeared a most dolorous utterance, and'they have hinted that ill-health, the care of all the churches and . advancing years had depressed the spirits of Paul and darkened his outlook upon life. This is very far from the truth! His natural force was yet unabated, his mind was clear and strong, his .faith was as ardent, as ever.. Actually, he is deliberately weighing the implications of the Saducean and Jewish supposition that Christ had not risen from the dead. “Obviously then,” Paul trenchently, observed, “I have made the colossal error of my life! How unthinking- and futile I must have been ,to turn my back upon my father's faith ; and home; .how thankless and blind to- have abandoned the national religion hallowed of . God through the centuries;- how foolish to have surrendered those hopes and ambitions which assured me Gamaliel s seat and an honoured place in ; the Sanhedrin.' If Christ be not.,risen from the dead .1 have made a' crass and incredibly stupid shipwreck ofmy.lifd and its bright prospects.” . ; .• ' . Yet more:. If ’ Christ; had not. risen, not only had Paul endUred. imprisonments, ; beatings, stonings and grevious sufferings.- oft, vainly; but he: must have been a liar, a hypocrite, or the. pitiful, subject of delusions. Ar,d so also must have been the 11, the 120 and the 500, most of whom were still alive; and indeed all others who declared they had seen and heard Him after his\resurrection ‘ ; . . ’ i Again, if Christ: were not risen from the dead, then Christ Himself in His nature and -claims must stand discredited. We have no -longer God’s seal upon his life and pretensions; we can no longer believe that alleged divine attestation, “This is my beloved Son,’ hear ye him.” The supernatural and miraculous are at once dispelled, the deity of Jesus becomes a matter of speculation and the uniqueness of Christ's life and the efficacy of his death can no longer be credited. If Christ had not risen from the dead Paul’s Gospel—“ Jesus Christ and Him crucified; the power of God unto salvation to every one. that believeth,” was no more than an alluring, fanciful myth. For a dead Jesus is no more valuable than a dead Moses or a dead Socrates. Then truly all his preaching were emptied of its content and robbed of its vital essence; and all those hosts of believers along the great highways of Empire were no more than pitiful dupes of the greatest hoax of the age.. And yet again, if Christ were not risen death '■ and beyond : the grave - still remained the..great enigma.. The terror of the unknown, the heartfelt cry that “Man giveth up-the ghost; bitt where is he” is still -with- us,-,• ’

Assuredly if .Christ be not, risen from the dead we are of' all men most miserable! And if to Paul, upon such a

By the Re*. J. D. McL. WILSON

supposition, the position were intolerable and dreadful in the extreme, how much worse is out situation! He, conceivably, in those simple days, might have been in error, or might have misinterpreted the witnesses of the resurrection; but what of ourselves- who have built our civilisation and moulded our lives upon it? Then, as Paul bluntly observes, our faith with all its affirmations and hopes becomes vain - and foolish. Christianity at once falls from its religious supremacy and becomes no more than an episode of ancient mythology, an interesting story of a pious Nazarene, a tentative system of human, ethics. No longer can we justly rejoice in “the resurrection and the life,” or sing of a “home over there.” Indeed, all. that is left for us is to repeat Clough’s words: Eat drink and die, for we are souls bereaved; Of all the creatures under heaven's wide cope We are most helpless who had once most hope, And most beliefless that had once most believed. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust; As of the unjust, also of the just— Yea of that Just One too! It is the-one sad Gospel that is true— Christ is not risen! But thanks be unto God that out of the mouths of many witnesses and because of the indubitable experience of innumerable saints and martyrs and disciples of the Lord, we believe that “Now is Christ risen from the dead and is become' the first fruits of them that sleep.” To-day we join in spirit the great company of pilgrims who at this very' time are treading the streets of Jerusalem, and the flagged floor of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and saying one to another “ “Christos egeg?retai” (Christ is risen!)

CHRIST IS RISEN! ’ To us the resurrection of Jesus is no "mirage; no doubtful incident of the dim past, but an historic fact of unquestionable certitude, and with living personal attestations, too, which none may doubt. Let us comfort our hearts then with this knowledge that He Who died upon the Cross is alive again for evermore, and is - our Saviour, Lord and strengthener, that- He Who rose victorious o’er the tomb has prepared for us a home beyond the bourne of time, where there are no more tears, of pain, or sin, or death,’ dr any such thing, The Lamb Himself .shall be the glory thereof. Weep not, whatever hath been said, Though He be dead. He is not dead. In the' true creed < He is risen indeed; Christ is yet risen. Christ the Lord is risen to-day, Sons of "men and angels say; Raise your joys and triumphs high; Sing ye heavens, and earth, reply. Love’s redeeming work is done, Fought the fight, the battle won; Lo! our sun’s eclipse is o’er; Lo! He sets in blood no more. Vain the stone, the watch, the seal; I Christ has burst, the gates of hell; Death in vain forbids His rise; Christ- has opened paradise. Lives again our glorious King; Where, a death is now thy sting? Once He died, our souls to save; Where, thy victory, O Grave? Soar we not where Christ has led, Following our exalted Head; Made like Him, like Him we'rise; Ours the cross, the grave, the skies. Hail, the Lord of earth and heaven! Praise to Thee by both be given; Thee we greet triumphant now; Hail, the Resurrection Thou. (C. Wesley).