What Easter Owes to Good Friday

        I love Easter, with its tranquil certitude that death is vanquished. Easter! It is a brightness of the soul more beautiful than the brightness of the day, more evident than the sun. I would that I could carry into all hearts filled with shadow, veiled in mourning, a ray of that divine dawn.
       Why, then, do so many Christians fail to catch the vivifying secret of this royal day?
       It is because they do not know what Easter owes to Good Friday. The glory of Easter is not directly accessible to us. To conquer it we must pass through the "via dolorosa." Such is the meaning of the Scripture. Superficial man sees the spirit of God only in the miracle that reads the rock of the tomb into fragments, and he stretches out his hand to grasp the miracle; but his hand remains empty. The Christian soul throughout the ages is not thus deceived. It says, "From the Cross, the Crown."
       Thou tellest me, brother, that thou canst not believe in the Easter message. Thou dost not astonish me beyond measure. Didst thou see the Christ die? And those who, like Him, die for love of others? Hast thou felt the greatness of those vanquished for God, for justice? Hast thou wished to be able to die like them? If these things are unknown to thee, how canst thou discern the Easter message? Thou hast not the eyes to bear the light.

       The crucible of life is terrible. In our nights, in our dungeons, in our supreme struggles, show us not the Risen, but the Crucified One! It is from His dead eyes that the eternal dawn of Easter is kindled. To die as He died, to die with Him, is to spell the unknown Verb of the true life. There is no other school to liberate men from the hideous chains of all their slaveries, and from the most awful of all--their slavery to death. There is no other school that does this but the school of the Cross.

       If, then, thou wouldst bathe thy soul in the victorious brightness of Easter, know this: Easter is the supernatural daylight: Good Friday the night of anguish, from whose bosom the cry arises on the air, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

       But do not misapprehend -- this light comes from that night. There, in the thick darkness, opens the door into the "kingdom that cometh not with observation."

       It is Thou, O Christ! It is Thy spirit which is the Resurrection and the Life! Have pity upon us who are children in faith! Thou Who hast trod the dust of our earth! Thou Who hast passed through our twilights! Thou Who hast lain with us in the tomb, that the tomb might be less dark! Holy Victim of Calvary! Man of Sorrows! May our souls across our humble religious symbols be granted a glimpse of Thine ineffable grandeur.

       Come and tell us words of life, Thou Who art eternal! Sound the awakening in our torpor, in our lassitude! Sound the trumpet of morning through the night of our graves!

       And in this Easter time may all that is divine in us thrill and rise in holy insurrection against death and all its conspirators, and for life and all its alliances. Amen. by Charles Wagner.

 

 Sandi Patty sings "Via Dolorosa"

A nostalgic cross stitch by Helen Grant

       This design by Helen Grant includes: old-fashioned children (the boy with a hoop and girl with bonnet), birds, roses, peacocks, butterfly and cat. Find more patterns by her in the links below.

• The Crisscross Kids Cross Stitch
• Learn more about needlework samplers by young girls
• A Sampler from 1927 by Helen Grant 

        The text on this needle point pattern reads:

"My portion is not large indeed, 
But then how little do I need? 
For Nature's calls are few-
In this the art of living lies:
To want no more than my suffice,
And make that little do. 
wrought by "

Pussy Willow Poem

Illustrated "Pussy Willows" by Cora M V Preble.

The little pussy willows
Upon the small, brown trees
Lie sleeping in their cradles,
Arocking in the breeze.

And every pussy willow,
So fat and round and small,
Is dreaming in the sunshine,
And curled up in a ball.

Such funny little fellows
In fuzzy coats of fur-
I wonder, if I stroked them,
Would pussy willows purr?

An Easter Significance

The Burial Procession from Christian Clip Art Review.

 

        "This is one of the Easter significances of death, that through it, God is transferring our affections, our longings, our hopes, our plans, from earth to heaven-from the testing-place to the dwelling place, from the dark valley of preparation to the shining lights of eternal realization. He weans us over, as it were, from earth to heaven, by taking our loved ones to himself, and leading after them our hearts' desires and our sanctified imaginations and hopes. All the beauties and glories of the apocalyptic vision might make no appeal to us, satisfied as we are with this earth where our loved ones dwell, if God did not endear to us the city which is to be our eternal home by calling some of our cherished ones to dwell there. Then immediately our longings to go out to it, we dream of it, we live so as to be more fit for it." author unknown.

Dani and Lizzy sing "Dancing In The Sky"

"Consider The Lilies" by Ethel Halton

Iris die cut.

Consider The Lilies

Within the rich man's garden
Full many a flower was seen,
With crowns of gold and crimson
On cups of emerald green. 

 

They brought the dead King thither,
And every flower in bloom
Bowed down its head in sorrow
About the Savior's tomb.

 

But see- the white-winged angels
Have rolled the stone away,
And 'mid the flowers only
The white grave cerements lay.

Next day they sought to find them;

Lo! rising where they fell,

Like the white hand of an angel,

Waved there - a lily's bell.

 

So pure, so white, and spotless

It pointed in the air,

As if to tell new comers

That He had risen there.

 

Born of His white robes fallen,

Like white leaves folded up,

They found a scepter gold and small

Within each fragrant cup.

 

And so amid the blossoms

Of the rich man's fragrant bowers

Was born the Easter lily-

The angel of the flowers.

The Resurrection of Christ

 THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.
RT. REV. SAMUEL FALLOWS, D. D.

       TAKE clear the fact of the resurrection of Christ, it will be a fact that chimes with humanity’s unutterable longings, and fits in as the key-stone of the radiant arch of its hopes. Make clear that fact, and then, as the meridian sun brings out in all their boldness the mountains, and in all their beauty, the swarded valleys faintly described in the dim twilight, so will a risen Sun of righteousness bring out these hints, and truths, and ideas, in controlling power over the intellect, and influence over the practical life. Make clear that fact, and one simple-minded Christian believer, full of resurrection power, shall chase a thousand carping rationalists, and two shall put ten thousand to flight. Our faith in God, asks of God—a risen Redeemer.
       St. Paul claims, if Christ be not risen, faith in Him is vain. So interwoven with the very life, and teachings, and death of Christ was the truth of His resurrection, that to deny the latter would be to destroy, root and branch, all faith in Him as Teacher and Savior. He had said, “ Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it again.” After the surpassing glory of the transfiguration, he had commanded, “ Tell the vision to no man until the Son of man be risen from the dead.”
       He must either have been unconsciously deceived, and then he would have shown himself a weak, erring man, and no longer entitled to the claim of a teacher sent from God; or he must have been a willful impostor, and thus have sunk in the mire trodden beneath the feet of indignant, deluded men. If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain; your faith in Him as a Savior is vain. Your Christian consciousness is a nullity, and a He. There has been no atonement Ye are yet in your sins. Life, death, resurrection, all enter into the redeeming work of Christ He was “delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification.” “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” No resurrection, no salvation.
       He asserts of the apostles: “We are found false witnesses.” We, who were fully competent by reason of our numbers, to be believed, for there were the eleven apostles, the two Marys, Cleopas the most of the seventy, and five hundred others beside. Nearly all were living, and ready to testify. Fully competent, as to our powers of judgment and varied experience; fully competent, from the opportunities we have enjoyed of knowing the facts to which we bear witness. We have been with the Savior; we have known him intimately; we have treasured up His words. His image is stamped upon our hearts; we beheld His miracles; we knew he was crucified; we went to the tomb, expecting to find the body there; we saw Him alive again; we saw His pierced hands and wounded side; we heard the familiar voice; we received our high commission; we saw Him ascend into glory.
       We have gained nothing, from an earthly standpoint, but loss of home, of friends, of reputation. We are made the filth and off scouring of the world. We are made a spectacle unto angels and to men. Stripes, bonds, imprisonment are before us. The headsman’s axe glitters in the sun. “To the Hons, to the Hons!” rings in our ears. Covered with pitch, and set on fire, we shall light the streets of Rome by midnight! If in this hope only, we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
       How the apostle, with jubilant utterance, turns away from the loathsome impossibility he has presented.
       “Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.” The irrefutable fact stands forth in all its glorious majesty and infinite sweep of meaning.
       The Gospel records must be torn to tatters, and scattered with the rent sybilline leaves, never more to be gathered. The whole colossal fabric of Christianity must have been built upon an abyss. The head and founder of the Church must have been created by the Church. A man must have been the father of his own ancestors, before this fact can be successfully denied.
       Christ is risen from the dead. His own words have been justified. Christ is risen from the dead, and God has given the seal and sign manual to his Messianic mission. He has declared Him to be the Son of God, with power. Christ is risen from the dead, and an unsetting sun—the new and unfailing center of attraction—has burst forth in glory from the darkness of the tomb. Christ is risen, and we, too, shall rise. Every charnel house is robbed of its terrors. The sting has been plucked from death, and the grave been robbed of its victory. The darkness has forever passed. It is morning.
       In that beautiful city of the dead, Greenwood cemetery, where the precious dust of so many loved ones reposes—that city, on its eminence, graced with flowers, fit resurrection—emblems of life and  loveliness springing from decay, and melodious with the music of birds—that city, overlooking the city of the living below it, and the river and the sea beyond it, contains here and there a broken pedestal, which speaks of plans unrealized, and expectations unfulfilled; of aspirations unsatisfied, and ends unachieved. But on some of them is a hand pointing upward. A risen Christ is the inspiration of the  thought. The upward pointing is the mute and eloquent suggestion, that on the plains of the New Jerusalem, the column of life shall be erected.
       A limited sphere here, a boundless amphitheatre there. Seeming failure here, assured success there. Dead hopes here, living realizations there. Bafflings, disappointments here; unimpeded progress them Home there, rewards there, friends there, Jesus there. Can we doubt the life beyond? “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain, in the Lord.”