AN EASTER SERMON

Waipa Post, Volume 38, Issue 2286, 28 March 1929, Page 5

AN EASTER SERMON

BY CANON BARNES OF WEST-

MINSTER ABBEY. Easter Day ! The great Festival of Christendom ! The hells are ringing. All around the English countryside there is a sort of shimmer of exultant joy—a sense of spring in the heart responding to Nature's spring. The huds are bursting on the trees; the young, fresh green •is spreading over the fields. The old words come to our minds: "Behold, I make all things new ! " And wherever Christians gather the words have a deeper meaning. " Christ the Lord is risen today. Alleluia ! " Onlookers sometimes say: " A queer yet curiously persistent superstition. A young Jewish carpenter was executed as a criminal, and millions of otherwise fairly sensible people believe that he rose from the dead. Odd; very odd." EIGHTEEN CENTURIES AGO.

Christianity is certainly a most surprising fact of human history. Suppose that, in imagination, we go back eighteen centuries. Britain was an outlying province of the Roman Empire, which stretched from York to the Arabian desert. The empire was admirably organised. A strong army, good roads, highly-developed commerce, a great administrative system, and, too, a chaos of religions. One of those religions was especially disliked. It had spread first along the trade routes of the Eastern Mediterranean. It made converts especially of slaves and artisans. Officials found it a nuisance. These followers of " Christus " refused to worship the emperor. They were steady, patient, hard-working, and obstinate as mules. Of one thing they were sure: their Christ was a greater man, a more God-like man, than the em'peror. It was useless tio tell them that they were unpatriotic. Neither threats nor torture nor death would induce them to take part in the State worship. Rival religious enthusiasts accused them of gross immorality. The populace derided them, and scrawled on the walls pictures of a crucified donkey which they were supposed to worship. One of these ancient drawings still exists. THE SON OF GOD. And what did these Christians say of themselves ? They said that they worshipped a certain Jesus Who was the Son of God. His life had been the life of God on earth so far as human, limitations allowed. He had told them that, if they would try to set up God's Kingdom on they would after death enter God's. Kingdom in Heaven. And they said that their Jesus, Who had been crucified by Pontius Pilate, had risen from the dead as a pledge that God's Kingdom in Heaven did actually exist.

" A wretched, incredible superstition," said the intellectual leaders of the time. " Troublesome fanatics," said the officials. The officials had good reason for their irritation. Household slaves-talked to their mistress and her children; and Christian slaves had a peculiar quality of trustworthiness which led to especial intimacy. So the new religion penetrated to the women and children of the great families. Even when St. Paul lived it had penetrated into Csesar's palace. It spread and lasted. It remains to this day the great inspiration of humanity. Why ? Is the evidence for the Resurrection absolutely beyond challenge ? By no means. The accounts which have come down to us are con-' fused. They reflect the disturbed minds of men who were bewildered by an unexpected and unparalleled event. What is quite clear is that belief in the Resurrection made a band of disheartened fugitives bold with a confidence that nothing could shake. THROUGH THE CENTURIES. " Christ is risen," they said. " The Kingdom of Heaven is a fact. The Lord lives. If we serve Him we shall have eternal life with Him." Throughout the centuries men have wondered and pondered. Was it not possible that, after all, the Christian story was true ? Who was Jesu& of Nazareth ? How did He live ? What did He teach ? The curious thing is that men cannot get away from Jesus. In spite of themselves they come back to His teaching. The churches may clutter up His idealism with all sorts of ingenious theories and elaborate ceremonial; but men who will not say a good word for any church turn to Him. His influence lives and grows. He had the spiritual insight, the moral strength, the social understanding that make Him the supreme leader of humanity. He was not like other men. We should stand up if Shakespears or Wesley or Darwin came into a room where we were seated. If He appeared we shoujd kneel. So men come to believe that He did rise from the dead; that the Kingdom is eternal with its King. It seems natural that the Victor over sin was also the Victor over death. Philosophers explain it by saying that absolute values are eternal. The attributes of God, such as goodnes sand truth, are everlasting with Him. And Jesus the Man, in Whom these attributes appeared in complete perfection and glory, is the ever-living Christ. Difficult words and subtle thoughts are the tools of our philosophers. But the universe is unthinkable if the goodness of Jesus perished on the Cross. THE ETERNAL MESSAGE. And, if Christ lives and _ reigns, Christianity has for humanity the message of eternal hope. Serve God as Christ revealed Him, and you will find that in the many mansions of the Father there is a place for you. Yes, and a place for those you have lost. Before He was forty years old—possibly before He was thirty—the Young Prince of Glory died. He "carried back bright to the Coiner the mintage of man." We cannot do this. But we remember the story of the Prodigal Son, and trust confidently in the lov-: ing kindness of God. The bells are ringing. Listen to

their good news; their gospel. Man is not as the beasts that perish. Jesus lives. The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God. Death is swallowed in victory.