April 1926
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
194
Christians and destroy the early-Church. And he fell to the earth and said, “ Who art Thou, Lord?” And the Lord answered, “ I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. And you know how the vision and the voice changed Saul the per secutor into Paul the marvelous apostle. The Witness of the Church And the Church came into existence on the tact of the resurrection. Fishing was all the disciples could think about while Christ lay dead; but preaching and building up the kingdom of God was their ecstatic vision after they were assured of His resurrection from the dead. When we see believers baptized into the Christian faith, what does that baptism say? It says, Christ died for our sins and He was resurrected and is alive; and in the very ordinances of the Church there is imbedded the fact of the resurrection of Jesus. When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, what does that Supper say? Why it says, He died for us, but He is alive and in Heaven; and we are to observe that Supper until the time of His returning. And Sunday—-what does Sunday say? No Jewish Sab bath for us; but the first day of the week in commemoration of the time when Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And all the World over today it is Easter Sunday. And what does Easter Sunday mean? It means that the con sciousness of the Christian Church is alive to the fact that it is historically true and can experimentally be proven that Christ is alive; that He lives and therefore we celebrate Easter as commemorative of the great gladdening fact that death was not able to hold Christ, but He conquered the grave and He is our risen, glorified Saviour. And I might tell you how an ^ngel from heaven said, “ He id not here; for He is risen, as He said." The Witness of Jesus Himself Now all these are arguments, are proofs; but the greatest proof of the resurrection of Jesus I have not yet mentioned. And I repeat, I never heard it mentioned in my life. Tet is it a stronger proof than any of the others, or all/'of the others. What is it? All the world believes in the integrity of Jesus Christ. All the world over those who deny that He is God are free to assert He is a perfect man— the perfect man of all history. A good man is a truthful man; an untruthful man is not a good man. Here there is> no controversy. Now Jesus Christ said before He died, over and over again, speaking of Himself, “ The third day I will rise again.” And He Himself after the resurrection said, “ Handle me and see that I am alive and risen from the dead." And so the resurrection of Jesus Christ rests upon the honor of God. If He did not rise, then we'tear every crown from His brow and. assert that He was untruthful, and instead of being the One con cerning whom we sing, we have to call Him a hypocrite who said what was not true, and sought ‘to establish a fallacy as a fact. And so I say, all those are proofs, and many I could not stop to mention are facts; but if they all melted into thin air, I know Christ rose from the dead because He said He would and He said He had. And let Christ be true, though all the world lapse into lying. So then we have fact, not fancy, under our feet and as the foundation of our faith when we say, Christ is risen. (Concluded on page 240) “ Bring forth the royal diadem, And crown Him Lord of all,"
The Gilliams Service. New York Alone in its class is the wonderful Sampan Pagoda, to which thousands of pilgrims journey yearly. After leaving the steamer it is necessary to travel fourteen miles through a jungle by butloekcart to reach U. Mountains must be passed over at nfgtft. since the neat during the day proves unbearable. After their long and arduous journey, the pilgrims return to v?e*r homes without having secured the peace which they thus sought to obtain. I do not think Thomas ever touched the palm or ever touched the side of Jesus; but instead he fell on his knees and said, “ My Lord and my God!" After that seven of the disciples were fishing together, and the Lord appeared on the shore preparing for them a meal, making Himself visible to them, talking to them, and convincing them that He was indeed the risen Christ. Five Hundred Disciples Five hundred men were together in one place and He drew near and was seen of every one of the five hundred. And twenty-five years afterward when Paul wrote the Epistle from which I select my text he said this most won derful word; Afterward Christ appeared unto over five hun dred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain, though some have fallen asleep. So twenty-five years after the resurrection of Jesus there were over two hundred and fifty men who at the same time, the same place, and under the same circumstances, had seen the risen Lord. Stephen and Paul Then Stephen was being stoned and he looked up and saw this risen Jesus who had ascended to heaven in full view of the disciples, at the right hand of God. And then one day on another famous road— the road to Damascus— Saul the headstrong was marching along to persecute the
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