\5i It is the one inspiring element of Christianity that it throws us in boundless hope upon the future, and forbids us to dwell in the poisonous shadows of the past. A new and better growth is before us, a fresher, a diviner, a more enthusiastic life awaits us. We are to wake up satisfied in the likeness of Christ, the ever young Humanity. Therefore, " forgetting those things which are behind," let us "press forward to the mark of the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus." ^
1 Geoi-e rionrj' Bokor, The Book of the Dead, 147. * Stopford A. Brooke.
PSALM cxviii. 24 409
The women sought the tomb at dawn of day,
And as they went they wept and made their moan:
" His sepulchre is guarded by a stone, And who for us shall roll the stone away ? " But lo ! — an Angel, robed in white array.
Had rent the rock and sat thereon alone.
" Fear not," said he ; " the Lord hath overthrown The power of Death : I show you where He lay." We echo oftentimes that cry of old:
Huge stumbling-blocks confront us whilst we wait And wonder, weeping, who wijl help afford : But as we question sorrowing, behold !
The stone is rolled away, though it is great, And on it sits the Angel of the Lord.^
^2. The resurrection of Christ was to His early followers a call, a call louder than that of the trumpet on Mount Sinai, to newness of life and newness of hope. It called men of old when it was first preached ; it calls men still, now that its remembrance never ceases among us. It calls aloud to newness of life, it calls on the sinner and the careless to arise from the death of sin to the life of righteousness ; it cries aloud, " Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." We know how it made St. Paul cry out, " If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." " In that he died, he died unto sin once : but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." These were the feelings, these were the thoughts, which came into the minds of the first believers in Christ. They felt how much they had to do with the resurrection. It had weaned them from sin; it strengthened them, day by day, in all holiness and love. The resurrection had changed everything to them, and they lived as men to whom this world had become nothing except a place to live in holily, where they might love and serve their brethren, and wait patiently God's will, till their call came to that world and home which was to be for ever. Christ's resurrection calls us also not only to begin a new life, but to go on with it, with renewed zeal and carefulness, if by His grace we have begun it. It reminds us once more how ^ Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, Verses, Wise or Otherwise, 197.
4IO THE DAY WHICH THE LORD MADE
mighty to save, how unwearied to uphold and help, is He whom we have for our Leader and Guide through life. He, if we are trusting Him, is One who has broken the bauds of death, who is in truth the Watcher of our way, and the Director of our steps ; He is One who has endured and conquered — endured all and conquered all — to lend us of His strength, to feed our faintness with His renewed life, to show us of that truth and light which He has won for men. We have only to go to Him for it. We have only to go straight forward in the way of obedience and holiness, and we need not fear that we shall fail.
3. There may still be for each of us many anxieties, many sorrows, many bitter disappointments and griefs in life ; for God does not promise tranquillity, but quite the opposite. Yet in spite of all this there will be joy in God, and peace, and rest, through the abiding union with Him who is " our peace." As we conquer sin we grow in likeness to Jesus Christ ; and as we become like Him we share, through an ever-growing closeness of union, the joy, the peace, and the brightness of the resurrection life. " I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." As children say to themselves, " This is the spring," or " This is the sea," trying to grasp the thought and not let it go ; as travellers in a foreign land say, " This is that great city," or " This is that famous building," knowing it has a long history through centuries, and vexed with themselves that they know so little about it ; so let us say. This is the Day of Days, the Pioyal Day, the Lord's Day. This is the day on which Christ rose from the dead ; the day which brought us salvation. It is a day which has made us greater than we know. It is our Day of Rest, the true Sabbath. We have had enough of weariness, and dreariness, and listlessness, and sorrow, and remorse. We have had enough of this troublesome world. We have had enough of its noise and din. Noise is its best music. But now there is a stillness that speaks. We know how strange the feeling is of perfect silence after continued sound. Such is our blessedness now. Calm and serene days have begun ; and Clirist is heard in them, and His still small voice, because the world speaks not. I^t us only put off the world, and we put on Christ. The receding from one ia an approach to the other.